All posts by csb10.top

Concerned at the manner in which Australia lost the last three one-day internationals in the West Indies, Ricky Ponting has indicated that he won’t take anything for granted in the three-match ODI series against Bangladesh.”That hurt a little bit,” Ponting said of the losses in the West Indies. “I was particularly disappointed with the way we played those last three games and that was one thing we addressed this morning in the team meeting.”We made mistakes in those three games that you haven’t seen this team make for a long time. We didn’t respect the basics of the game and if you don’t do that in one-day cricket it’s going to come back and bite you every time.”We dropped a lot of catches we didn’t have batting partnerships, therewere a lot of misfields, those sort of things. Looking back we felt we’d let ourselves down big time.”Ponting indicated that Bangladesh’s batsmen would find the going difficult in the ODIs. Hannan Sarkar’s half-centuries in both innings of the Cairns Test didn’t go unnoticed, but Ponting reckoned that Sarkar would have to change his style of batting to score runs in the one-dayers.”He played Brett Lee as well as any top-class batsman in the past couple of years. He left anything that was short and if it was fuller he drove it through the covers.”But it won’t be easy to take that into the one-dayers. He played at his own pace in the Test and left a lot of balls – in the shorter version of the game he’ll have to come at us a bit more … if our bowlers can be patient and make them come at us I think we’ll get enough chances through the day."Australia have comprehensively won all three one-day internationals between the two teams, always bowling first and never needing more than 26 overs to overhaul Bangladesh’s total.

Division OneKent v Leicestershire, Canterbury
Scorecard
Paul Nixon added another half-century to his first-innings 113 not out, asKent were reminded of exactly what they will be missing this season.Leicestershire had been set an unlikely target of 387, and were in somestrife at 27 for 3, when Nixon bounced to the middle. But he added 75 forthe fourth wicket with Darren Stevens, before Damien Brandy chipped in witha half-century of his own. Martin Saggers, Alamgir Sheriyar and Amjad Khanall picked up two wickets, but Phil DeFreitas and Jeremy Snape batted out tothe close.Lancashire v Nottinghamshire, Old Trafford
Scorecard
Chris Read, widely touted as Alec Stewart’s successor in England’s one-dayteam, did his chances no harm at all by guiding Nottinghamshire to a draw onthe final day at Old Trafford. Notts were still more than 200 runs adriftwhen Peter Martin (5 for 54) embarked on an inspired spell of seam bowling.But Read dug in for a 91-ball 57, and by the time he was eighth man out,Lancashire’s prospects of an unlikely win had evaporated.Middlesex v Sussex, Lord’s
Scorecard
Middlesex produced the highest score of the match to record a tensethree-wicket win at Lord’s. It was a performance far removed from theirinept first-innings display, and Middlesex’s captain, Andy Strauss, led theway with 83. Ed Joyce and Paul Weekes both made vital contributions as well,but all three fell to Sussex’s James Kirtley, who was the pick of thebowlers with 4 for 87, all lbw. Kirtley took the new ball and dismissedJoyce and Weekes in the same over to set up a tense finish, but Ben Huttonand Simon Cook batted sensibly to inch Middlesex to their first victory inthe top division of the championship.Warwickshire v Essex, Edgbaston
Scorecard
Ashley Giles and Ronnie Irani produced a brace of stunning performances- as captains and players – to transform a soggy mess of a match into athrilling tie. They agreed to forfeit one innings each, after the best partof two days had been lost to rain, which left Essex needing 381 to win.Irani led the way with a rollicking 87, adding 132 for the fifth wicket withAndy Flower, but Giles (5 for 115) matched him every step of the way. Essexstill needed 81 to win when Irani was sixth man out, but sensiblecontributions all down the order ensured the tightest finish imaginable.Division TwoHampshire v Glamorgan, Cardiff
Scorecard
Matthew Maynard continued his majestic start to the season, by convertinghis overnight 63 into his 53rd first-class century. But that was the solehighlight of another drab rain-hit day in Cardiff. After Glamorgan hadreplied well to Hampshire’s impressive 531 for 7 dec, there was no prospectof a result, and play was called off at tea. Wasim Akram grabbed his seventhwicket of the season, but the pick of Hampshire’s attack was Chris Tremlett,who returned figures of 3 for 101.Northamptonshire v Gloucestershire, Wantage Road
Scorecard
Jonty Rhodes cracked a delightful 128 from 131 balls century to giveNorthamptonshire one or two jitters at Wantage Road, but in the end theweather had the final say as the match descended into a battle for bonuspoints. Rhodes cracked 55 runs in just five overs before lunch, before JackRussell and Mark Alleyne secured Gloucestershire secured their full quota ofbatting points with a 72-run stand for the sixth wicket. By the time MartynBall had added two more wickets to his five in the first innings,Gloucestershire had won the day, but not the match.Somerset v Durham, Taunton
Scorecard
Somerset bounced back from the disappointment of last week’s eight-rundefeat against Gloucestershire, cruising to a six-wicket win over Durham.Needing another 119 runs for victory with eight wickets in hand, PeterBowler’s unbeaten 67 ensured there would be no mishap after Steve Harmisonhad removed Jamie Cox in the first over of the day. Bowler added 89 for thethird wicket with James Bryant (51), before Richard Johnson, his confidencesky-high after a maiden first-class century last week, biffed three sixesand a four in seven balls to seal the win.

The three day friendly between Somerset and Glamorgan ended in a drawafter Glamorgan challenged Somerset to score 386 in 53 overs onthe final afternoon.The home team had a brief assault on the Glamorgan bowlers, butthey settled for the draw with their score on 260-4 with 8 overs remaining.The highlight of the day for Glamorgan was an aggressive century fromDarren Thomas. The 28 year old all-rounder arrived at the crease afterDavid Hemp had hit an attractive 70, and Thomas was soon into his stridewith some firm drives on both sides of the wicket.Fellow seamers Alex Wharf and David Harrison also played some bold strokesin the April sunshine, but it was Thomas who became Glamorgan`s third centurionof the game, after Jonathan Hughes and Matthew Maynard who both reached threefigures in the Welsh county`s first innings.Soon after reaching his deserved century, Thomas was caught on the mid-wicketboundary by Keith Dutch, and Steve James promptly declared to leave the WestCountry side the task of scoring 386 at seven and a half an over to win the gameon what was an excellent batting wicket.Openers Rob Turner and Matthew Wood began in breezy style, before Turner was magnificentlycaught one-handedly by Steve James off Robert Croft`s bowling. Piran Holloway thenlaunched a few lusty blows of his own, but Somerset lost a couple of important wicketsas Andrew Davies clean bowled Matthew Wood, and then James Bryant holed out trying to hitRobert Croft for a fourth six. Despite a few more blows by Aaron Laraman, Somerseteventually opted for the draw.

There might be some outstanding performances to come on the field to make the World Cup of 2003 memorable for all the right reasons. However, there is every indication at this point to suggest that it is doomed to go down in the history books as the one that fell foul of all the ills of modern sport.There has yet to be a corruption scandal – praise be for that – but the start of the competition has been marred by the political posturing over security in Zimbabwe and Kenya, and now there is a drugs revelation.The Australian Cricket Board has confirmed that Shane Warne has been sent home after failing a drugs test.The leg-spinner has been tested positive for a diuretic – a substance that is often used as a weight-reducing drug. Warne will fly back to Australia immediately to undergo further tests. The initial one was a routine test carried out by the ACB.Warne has been on a fitness campaign for just over a year and his weight has come down steadily so that he looked to be in good shape. He suffered a shoulder injury during the one-day series against England that threatened his participation in the World Cup, but he overcame it well. Despite some soreness, he has been back in action ahead of schedule and was hoping to mark the end of his one-day international career in style.ACB chief executive officer James Sutherland announced the news at a press conference with the words: "I am here today to announce that Shane Warne has expressed his wish to stand down from the Australian World Cup team and will return to Australia today to complete further drug tests and face a hearing under the ACB anti-doping policy."This follows Shane’s advice to us that the Australian Sports Drugs Agency have told him he has tested positive for a diuretic on samples he provided in Sydney last month."Shane notified the ACB yesterday as soon as he received the news and he believes the failed tested is because of a flu reduction medication he took in Sydney last month."The ACB has referred the matter to the ACB anti-doping committee based on our belief that he may have committed an offence under the ACB anti-doping rules. The hearing will take place in Melbourne as soon as possible."There has been a testing programme in Australian cricket since 1998 and all the players have been informed about the intricacies of that policy.Sutherland went on to say, "We commend Shane about his approach, including coming forward as soon as the information was made available."We have advised the ICC of the situation and have applied to the technical committee for approval to replace Shane in the World Cup squad committee."Warne himself commented: "As James has said, I was shocked and absolutely devastated that the test sample indicated a presence of a prohibited substance. It’s not finalised until my B sample."I’m shocked because I have not taken performance enhancing drugs. I did take a fluid tablet before my comeback game in Sydney and didn’t know it contained any banned substance."I have decided to return home in the best interest of the team and address the situation personally which the ACB are supportive of."I want to repeat, I have never taken performance enhancing drugs and am confident it will be cleared up soon."My previous tests have always come back negative. I have spoken to my team-mates and they are supportive."Australian captain Ricky Ponting had to contend with the situation immediately prior to the important match against Pakistan at The Wanderers. He admitted that the news about Warne was not ideal preparation."It’s been a little disappointing for it to happen the way that it has. We just have to get on with things. We’ve got a big game of cricket and we’ve got to keep this completely out of our minds."Sport is littered with cases of players being caught for taking prohibited substances designed to help performance. Equally disturbing is the large number found guilty of taking prohibitive substances that are not designed to enhance performance and taken in all innocence. Nevertheless, if the scourge of drugs is to be eliminated or at least controlled in sport, there has to be a policy of zero tolerance.Shane Warne could well fall into the category of innocent victim of that policy. So far, he has followed the correct procedure and it must be hoped that one of the game’s living legends will not have his career tarnished by these revelations. He might not have always been an angel and, of course, he has yet to be proved guilty in this instance, but there are plenty who have committed worse crimes against the good name of cricket and got away with them.

*Anirudh Singh grafts centuryHyderabad, building a good second-innings total, set Kerala a steeptarget of 327 in their Ranji Trophy league match at Cochin on Tuesday.Resuming at 124/2, Hyderabad’s batsmen did not allow a slide similarto their first innings. With Anirudh Singh playing the anchor role, anumber of small innings contributed to their final total of 334/9declared. Singh made 124 off 231 balls, with 16 fours, falling only asthe eighth wicket. For Kerala, Suresh Kumar took four for 115.Playing out 6.2 overs before stumps, Kerala reached 10 for no loss,with openers V Girilal and MP Sorab unbeaten on seven and onerespectively.*Vijay Bharadwaj wrests Tamil Nadu initiative awayTamil Nadu, looking to build a large first-innings total and then bowlKarnataka out quickly, were thwarted by Vijay Bharadwaj in their RanjiTrophy league match at Bangalore on Tuesday.The visitors’ innings ended on 468, with Robin Singh (58) and AshishKapoor (44) making quick runs and boosting their side’s overnightscore. For Karnataka, Mansur Ali Khan Ludi picked 5-81, including adeadly spell of 6.5-0-19-4.Karnataka started badly, losing both openers for just 16 runs.Barrington Rowland, the first-innings centurion, and Bharadwaj thencame together for a 202-run stand for the third wicket. Rowland made69 off 150 balls and was dismissed with the score on 218.The day ended with Karnataka on 233/3 and Bharadwaj unbeaten on 125off 160 balls, with 22 fours. He was accompanied by Thilak Naidu oneight.*Goa in dire straitsAndhra Pradesh had Goa against the wall at the end of Day Three oftheir Ranji Trophy league match at Vijayawada on Tuesday.Already in a position of strength when they resumed at 184/1, AndhraPradesh made a consistent string of scores all the way down theirbatting order. Skipper MSK Prasad made 96 off 233 balls before beingdismissed with the score on 221. Thereafter, IG Srinivas (52) and RVCPrasad (62) took the attack to the Goa bowling.Declaring at 373/9, Andhra Pradesh then blasted away Goa’s top order.Six wickets had fallen by the close of play, but the scoreboard readonly 57. RVC Prasad returned particularly fine figures of 7-4-8-3, andGoa were facing the spectre of an innings defeat on Day Four.

Even the Indian women would not have imagined that England would succumb so meekly in this five-match women’s one-day international series. At the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium in Hyderabad, India took an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series, thereby closing the door on England. A thumping 113-run win settled the issue, with India outplaying England in every department of the game.England won the toss, but little else for the rest of the day, and put India in to bat on a flat track. Early in the day, there was palpable movement in the air for England’s seamers, but the Indians were upto the task. Jaya Sharma (9), back at the top of the order, was the first to go, and Anju Jain (8) followed her to the pavilion. At this stage, India were in a spot of bother at 31/2. Skipper Anjum Chopra, however, steadied the ship; her innings was not pretty, and far from her best, but it served its purpose.Not attempting anything fancy, Chopra saw off the accurate medium-pace of Lucy Pearson. The left-arm seamer ended with an impressive first spell of 7-2-10-1. Having done all the hard work, however, Chopra was unable to make a big score and fell on 12 (50 balls).The fall of Chopra’s wicket brought Mithali Raj and Mamatha Maben together. A 52-run partnership for the fourth wicket ensued, with Maben and Mithali playing sensibly throughout. Knocking the ball into the gaps and collecting singles for the best part of their partnership, the pair did not miss out when the loose ball was on offer. Mithali, usually a free-stroking bat, was not at her best, but managed 38 (71 balls, 4 fours) before falling to the spin of Clare Connor.In the presence of Arundhati Kirkire, who played some innovative cricket, Maben brought up her half century. The Bangalore all-rounder, who last played for India way back in 1993, when the team travelled to England for the World Cup, had been unable to find a place in the Indian team until this series. Maben also suffered a serious setback in 2000, when she dislocated her shoulder on the opening day of the CricInfo Rani Jhansi Trophy. The domestic season of 2001, however, saw her stage a strong comeback, scoring consistently throughout the year. Making a half-century in just the third game after her comeback, she has justified her selection, something that took eight long years to happen. Maben remained unbeaten on 56 (86 balls, 5 fours).Kirkire’s almost run-a-ball 34 (4 fours) ended in the last ball of the Indian innings. The Maben-Kirkire pair had added 75 for the fifth wicket and taken India to 191 in 50 overs.Attempting to chase a challenging target, England never appeared to be in the running. Caroline Atkins and Arran Thompson made 21 apiece, but no other batsman looked at all comfortable out in the middle. The Indian seamers kept a tight line from the very outset, cutting out England’s chances of getting a flying start. The loss of wickets at regular intervals continued to be a problem that dogged England. With no partnerships materialising, the visitors were soon at sea, with the score reading 70/9 after 37 overs. It was only a matter of time before the last wicket fell, on 78, bringing the match to a close.For the Indians, seamer Sunita Singh sparked off the collapse, ending on 10-3-9-2. The Western Railways seamer will be especially happy with her effort given that the wicket was so good for batting. Singh was well supported by the off-spin of Nooshin al-Khader (2/24). Towards the end of the innings Mithali Raj, brought on to bowl her very slow floaters, turned out to be the surprise package, scalping three wickets for four runs off 4.3 overs.After the match was over, Mithali, delighted to receive the Woman of the Match award, had this to say. “It feels great to do well in my home ground, in front of all those who have supported me. When I came in to bat, we had lost both openers and the captain, so I needed bat sensibly. As vice-captain, it was my duty to take the team out of the situation it was in, and that is what I did,” she said.Chopra was less restrained and began by congratulating her players for the series win. “Mithali and Mamatha batted really brilliantly to get us into such a good position. Don’t forget Arundhati Kirkire’s knock; that too came at just the right time,” she began. The skipper went on to add, “It was a planned batting effort. We wanted Mithali to bat out the full 50 overs, while players at the other end took the initiative. When we came on to bowl, things were a bit tight initially, but Sunita and Nooshin gave us the breakthroughs and things became much easier,” she said of the comprehensive victory.Clare Connor, utterly disappointed at the result, began by saying, “We didn’t expect to be beaten so easily. But there is a fair bit of the tour to go yet. We will now be focussing on the Test, where we can regain some pride by putting in a good showing.” The England captain went on to spell out some of the areas that let the team down. “We really did not build any partnerships, and that is something you have to do in any form of the game to succeed. We also lacked the freedom to play shots, something we hope to sort out soon.”Judging by her remarks, as well as the showings thus far on the tour, England clearly have a few things to sort out before the one-off Test at Lucknow.

A week ago the KwaZulu-Natal Dolphins travel to Centurion in defence of the Discovery Health Challenge, leaving empty handed, they returned on Sunday (22nd) to take sweet revenge on Northern Titans by beating the hosts by six wickets in a fourth round Standard Bank Cup clash.Set a stiff target of 247 in the 45 over allocation, Ahmed Amla and Shaun Pollock made short work of the Titans attack labouring in the glorious sunshine. A 144-run partnership between the youthful Amla and the more matured Pollock laid the foundation to a very impressive victory.Amla scored a run-a-ball 90, his highest in limited overs, smashing seven fours and clearing the boundary on a further four occasions. What should have been his maiden limited overs hundred ended when caught in the outfield off the bowling of another veteran Steve Elworthy.Pollock, not called on to bowl, had come in at number three and showed his class by stroking and timing his way to 72 off 77 balls, including five fours and a six off Pierre Joubert,.before he was caught at the wicket.Lance Klusener (35*) and Hamish Amla (31*) took Natal to the six-wicket win with eight balls to spare.The Dolphins had won the toss and on a fairly flat, hard and bouncy pitch elected to bowl first.Three cheep wickets brought Neil McKenzie and Gerald Dross together who put on a 111-run partnership. McKenzie, not as fluent as he has been, scored a hard working 65 off 91 balls on a pitch that came on but generated a fair bit of bounce.Dross, once getting to grips with the pace of the pitch, scored his fourth, but first hundred of the season, going to the three figure mark in 93 balls when he was run out. He powerfully scored eight boundaries and four sixes taking 44 runs off 23 balls faced from Lance Klusener.A flurry at the end of the innings from Kruger van Wyk (29*) and Elworthy (14*) saw Northerns reach a good 246/6.

Hampshire Hawks lost out by a narrow margin to the Essex Eagles in the Twenty20 competition, as gloom descended over the Rose Bowl.John Crawley pulled out injured just before the start of the match, with Lawrence Prittipaul taking his place in the side. Wasim Akram taking over the roll of captain won the toss and invited the Eagles to bat.Man of the Match Zimbabwean Andy Flower dominated the early scoring hitting 8 fours and a six in his 44 ball stay, he found good support lower down the order from Mark Pettini, but the 155 did not seem a winnable total in their allocation. Wasim AKram was the pick of the bowlers taking 2-19 in his four over spell.James Hamblin fell for 22 with the score on 26, but Derek Kenway and Simon Katich put together 77 runs at a run a ball. Hampshire was always chasing the game, and despite only losing 3 wickets, struggled to catch up with some tight bowling.Requiring 12 to win off the last over, Wasim Akram and Katich could only muster 7 off Dakin, to send the visitors home happy, and the sizable Hampshire crowd sad.

Rangiora has provided a match for milestones with two more players achieving significant personal bests in the State Championship game between Canterbury and Wellington.Yesterday it was Wade Cornelius who took seven wickets in an innings for the best performance of his five-game career and today it was his Canterbury team-mate Aaron Redmond who achieved his maiden first-class century after six times previously having gone past 50.And Wellington debut bowler Ash Turner picked up a five wicket bag when taking five for 66, including the scalp of Redmond, in Canterbury’s second innings.Redmond’s performance was highly creditable as he shared a Canterbury sixth wicket stand against all teams of 209 runs with Chris Harris, and allowed Canterbury to set Wellington a target of 410 to win with a minimum of 127 overs.Redmond, the son of former New Zealand opener Rodney Redmond who now coaches South Perth, is a graduate of the New Zealand Cricket Academy and last year toured England with New Zealand A. It was on that tour that he scored his previous highest score of 92 at Hove against Sussex.Today’s effort was an important statement by Redmond given the amount of pressure on among the Canterbury side for places. A squad of 13 has been named and after some disappointments last summer, Redmond was keen to make the most of his chances.”It was a case of digging in and being solid. We wanted to grind Wellington into the ground,” he said after finally being dismissed for 101 just after the tea break.Batting with Harris had been a boost because he was always talking with Redmond and was the sort of batsman who enjoyed keeping everyone on their toes.Getting his first century this year had always been a goal and to have it out of the way in the first game was a boost.”I had goal I wanted to achieve and once I was over 50 I definitely wanted to be able to go on and make a century.”I’ll have to re-assess things now,” he said of the goals he set for the year.But today was always going to be a chance to reach the century once he got himself in.”Once I got over 20 I was never going to let it go,” he said.And there will be a phone call home to Perth tonight, although he expects his father will already be aware of the news as he follows the cricket on the Internet through CricInfo.”The first question he’ll ask me is why I got out on 101,” he said.But once out he was already thinking about the job ahead for Canterbury of bowling Wellington out for less than the 410 target they face.And with that sort of target there was more than a fair chance that leg-spinner Redmond’s contribution to the game is not yet finished.

Yorkshire stalwart Geoff Boycott could switch his allegiance to Lancashire as the Red Rose county seeks to find a replacement for coach Bobby Simpson.The Australian announced this week that he did not want an extension to his two-year contract and would leave at the end of the season.Now Lancashire have put forward the name of Boycott in their search for success.Chairman Jack Simmons said the club needed a change of direction afterunsuccessful seasons with overseas coaches Dav Whatmore and Simpson.Simmons said: “We will consider a new strategy which could involve a directorof cricket who would bring in specialist coaches when he sees fit.”For instance, I think it would be good to have people of the calibre ofGeoff Boycott or Graham Gooch or Mike Gatting coming in, if only for briefspells to help out.”Boycott now mainly works in the media but earlier this year he was engaged by Pakistan to coach players in their national academy and to pass on tips to the Pakistan side preparing to fly out to New Zealand.He was paid £30,000 for 15 days’ work in the country.Lancashire, who have not won the Championship outright since 1934, have had six coaches in the past ten years, though the likes of Whatmore and David Lloyd have gone on to high-profile international posts.