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@royal28 | 20 September 09 | |
Australia target historic whitewash England are on the brink of an unwanted piece of history. No team has ever been whitewashed in a seven-match series and the fragile team faces a huge challenge to stave off Australia at Chester-le-Street. The margins have grown bigger throughout the series, reaching embarrassing levels at Trent Bridge when they were hammered by 111 runs on Thursday. Only the greatest optimist would give them a chance of claiming the final game. Australia have moved though the gears impressively during the series with different players performing key roles in each game. Three days ago it was the turn of Tim Paine to make his mark with a maiden international hundred as he proves a more-than-able deputy for Brad Haddin. However, the difference between the sides was highlighted by Ricky Ponting's fielding, as the Australian captain twice pulling off stunning direct hits to remove Matt Prior and Ravi Bopara. This match marks the end of England's longest home international season, which started way back on May 6 against West Indies. There has been the one major success in the summer of regaining the Ashes, but more than a fair share of shockers as well, including a Twenty20 defeat to Netherlands, the two-and-a-half day thrashing at Headingley and now these one-dayers. Victory here would only be the smallest crumb of comfort, but the beleaguered Andrew Strauss would accept anything right now. And the day after this game is finished, both sides fly to South Africa for the Champions Trophy. The season is drawing to a close, but cricket doesn't stop. |
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@royal28 | 6 October 09 | |
Jacques Kallis' first IPL stint in Bangalore didn't go to well, but on his return to the city as part of the second season's runner-ups, he was confident of giving home fans plenty to cheer for. Since losing to Deccan Chargers in a close final this year, Royal Challengers Bangalore regrouped ahead of their Champions League Twenty20 opener on October 8 and Kallis was confident of repeating their success in India. Most of the sides are in the same boat [as far as a lack of preparation], except players in England, who have been playing cricket lately. But I think we have had good net practices and practice matches. I don't think it will be an issue. Bangalore finished second from last in the inaugural IPL in 2008, but surprised many by making the 2009 final. After managing just 199 runs in 11 matches in the first season, Kallis had a good 2009, scoring 361 runs at a strike-rate of 108.73 and pouching six wickets. He said the experience of playing here in 2008 put Bangalore at an advantage over fellow Group C parti nts Otago and Cape Cobras. Experience will play a role, and everyone knows how important allrounders are in Twenty20 cricket. I hope I can contribute both with the bat and ball. The other sides [Otago, Cobras] have not played in Indian conditions so it will obviously be an advantage. We have to make sure that we capitalise on this aspect. I have enjoyed playing in these conditions and it feels good to be back in Bangalore. The home crowd support will play a role and we obviously know the ground, so I think it will be to our advantage. Another allrounder, one much younger and less experienced than Kallis, will play for the first time in India. In a short international career Roelof van der Merwe has earned a reputation as a successful, frugal left-arm spinner and he believed the slow bowlers were vital to this format. Spin has an important role to play in Twenty20 and since the batsmen are always looking to score off you there is a good chance of picking more wickets if you keep a good line, he said. During the second edition of the IPL, we have seen the role spinners can play, especially in the second half of a game. Indian pitches tend to assist spinners, so the role of tweakers will be far more important in the Champions League. van der Merwe has yet to bowl in India but is looking forward to the surfaces. They will suit my kind of bowling. There will be a bit of spin as the game goes on, making it a bit tough for the batsmen to score off you. But the smallish nature of grounds [as they bring the boundaries in] here does not allow any margin for error for bowlers, so that's going to be a challenge to adapt to the conditions pretty quickly. His lead slow-bowling partner in the 2009 IPL was someone who knows a thing or two about spinning it in the subcontinent, and van der Merwe was glad to feed off an Indian legend. Anil Kumble is a great spinner and a very good thinker of the game, he said. It has been my privilege to interact with him and learn the nuances of spin bowling. The way he approaches a match, the way he plans for each rival batsmen...watching him itself is a study class. Another key aspect to van der Merwe's game is fielding off his own bowling. I have been working on it for a while now and as a spinner fielding and catching off your bowling is very important. My natural aggressive streak also adds to it. |
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@royal28 | 6 October 09 | |
Pakistan captain Younis Khan has said he is enjoying leading the side despite the semi-final loss in the ICC Champions Trophy and insisted it had not affected his own performance on the field. I'm enjoying cricket, Younis said after reaching Karachi. In fact all the boys are enjoying playing under my captaincy and that's a good thing. Younis was first made captain in 2005 in the absence of Inzamam-ul-Haq but announced his resignation for the 2006 Champions Trophy, only to reverse it the next day and lead Pakistan to a first-round exit in the tournament. He was favourite to take over the captaincy following Pakistan's poor show in the 2007 World Cup but he turned it down, citing mental strain as the reason. However in January 2009, the board approached him again following a disastrous home series against Sri Lanka. This time Younis accepted and led Pakistan to a World Twenty20 title in England. Younis said the Champions Trophy exit was bitterly disappointing as he had wanted to gift his country the trophy that had been shifted from Pakistan to South Africa because of security concerns. He said there were many reasons for the team's defeat to New Zealand, including his dropped catch, missed run-outs and poor umpiring but that finishing in the top four was a positive sign. I will regret dropping it for the rest of my life, Younis said. Maybe the result could have been different had I not dropped that catch. Allrounder Shahid Afridi felt luck had deserted Pakistan in the game against New Zealand but also said that they had made poor use of the Powerplays in the match. They scored only 35 in their batting Powerplay after taking it only in the 45th over and conceded 55 when New Zealand took theirs. |
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@royal28 | 6 October 09 | |
Delhi Daredevils are set to include Glenn McGrath in their Champions League Twenty20 squad as a replacement for Daniel Vettori. The New Zealand captain had to pull out of the ICC Champions Trophy final against Australia on Monday with a hamstring injury he had aggravated during the semi-final clash against Pakistan. McGrath has already been alerted and is expected to arrive in Delhi on Wednesday pending the organisers' approval. Delhi Daredevils' chief operating officer Amrit Mathur said two names, including McGrath's, had been sent to the tournament's technical committee. The second, Yogesh Nagar, was a replacement for England allrounder Paul Collingwood, who returned home after the Champions Trophy with a strain. We have sought the approval from the organisers to replace the injured players and have given the names of McGrath and Nagar, who were part of the original squad of 20, Mathur told Cricinfo. Delhi have lost three overseas players in less than a week - South African batsman AB de Villers was the first to pull out due to a back injury, followed by Collingwood and now Vettori. Collingwood's non-parti tion was confirmed through a press release from the ECB's medical team today. The scan revealed a grade-two tear and Paul has been withdrawn from the forthcoming Champions League in India in which he was due to play for Delhi Daredevils, the release said. McGrath's return could be interesting given his absence from competitive cricket since the semi-final of the inaugural IPL in May 2008. Though he was part of the Delhi squad in the second IPL in South Africa, the team management was wary of playing him because of fitness concerns. Peeved at being ignored, the former Australian fast bowler had even spoken about not returning for the third IPL season next year, a comment he claimed he never made. |
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@royal28 | 6 October 09 | |
Against the backdrop of the players dispute threatening to tear apart West Indies cricket, Trinidad & Tobago captain Daren Ganga said the team has a leading role to play in representing the entire region on the world stage and bringing smiles back to the Caribbean. Ganga stressed that the ongoing contracts row was not a distraction for the side that landed in India to compete in the Champions League Twenty20. It would be good for the entire Caribbean if we win this competition, he said in Bangalore. Like we saw in the Stanford Super Series, when West Indies beat England, there is a lot to be gained. Hopefully we can have a positive effect on West Indian cricket. We're not just representing T&T, but the entire West Indian public and cricketing fraternity know that we're here representing them as well. This is virtually a West Indian team representing the entire region. As much as we want to do well for T&T, we have a bigger role in terms of representing the entire West Indies. Several meetings between the West Indies Cricket Board and the West Indies Players' Association have failed to break the impasse, though now with the mediation of the Caribbean community (CARICOM), talks are due to restart. Ganga chose not to comment too much on that fiasco, but echoed Dwayne Bravo's comments about the ongoing impasse. It [the contracts row] is something that has been playing on the minds of all West Indian cricketers, but a lot of people are getting involved, such as the CARICOM governments and stakeholders in West Indies cricket, trying to resolve the situation. We as players know that the issue is not going to help us as a nation and we are optimistic that soon a full-strength West Indies will be competing at the international level once more. Despite the fiasco I still think West Indies cricket is strong. It has been an ongoing issue but we are focusing on this tournament as we have for the last couple months. A lot of players are frustrated by what has been happening at the international level, but we in Trinidad & Tobago have been focusing really hard on this competition and hopefully you will see the rewards. Ganga gave credit to Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire and cricket entrepreneur who sponsored the Stanford Twenty20 tournament in the Caribbean as well as the one-off fixture between England and Stanford Superstars. Stanford is facing charges of fraud totalling US 7 billion and the WICB has not been paid the US3.5 million fee owed to it from the Stanford 20/20 for 20 tournament last November, but Ganga felt Caribbean cricket had gained from Stanford's investment. Apart from the monetary purses and the cash prizes for each player, what Allen Stanford did is he contributed financially to each territorial board and by extension each Caribbean nation, he said. You had a lot of financial aid being given to structures, to facilities and to equipment. Our cricket is better enhanced with his input and we're reaping the rewards of his investment. Ganga also said it was evident to all that there was talent coming through the ranks after the Stanford era, brief though it was. A lot of players, just look at Kieron Pollard have come through after such Twenty20 tournaments, so there are a lot of positives coming out of it [the Stanford Series]. A lot of players can go on to play international cricket from regional cricket. This is T&T's second opportunity playing outside the regional competitions, after they featured in the Stanford Super Series last year. They beat Middles*x and lost to England by 1 run, so from a team point of view, Ganga said, the standard of play must remain high. We've got a nice blend of players who've played international cricket and those who've been knocking on the door, so we're ready for this tournament. We started our preparation in July and have been very thorough. You are going to see some very exciting cricket from Trinidad & Tobago. |
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@royal28 | 9 October 09 | |
Duminy's 99 outdoes Bangalore At this venue in 2008, Brendon McCullum slammed the most famous Twenty20 century to knock the stuffing out of Royal Challengers Bangalore. On another starry South Indian night, against the hosts again, JP Duminy struck the most awesome 99 you will see in this format to take the Cape Cobras to a thrilling last-over victory. And so a new chapter in the rapidly growing Twenty20 format has begun. After a gala opening ceremony reminiscent of the opening night of the first IPL, the two teams treated a capacity Chinnaswamy Stadium to a superb exhibition of Twenty20 overs. Anil Kumble had no hesitation in batting first on a good batting track and 20 action-packed overs later the Cobras had their task cut out, after Robin Uthappa and Ross Taylor starred in a powerful batting display. But Duminy thumped five sixes and eight fours in as clinical and perfect a display of shotmaking as you could hope to see, and his partnership of 61 with Ryan Canning transformed the game after Bangalore had grabbed three early wickets in defence of 180. The Cobras were in real strife early on with the bat, as Herschelle Gibbs edged Praveen Kumar behind in the first over, and captain Andrew Puttick followed suit with a leading edge to point. Henry Davids played a couple of handsome strokes but when Virat Kohli took an easy catch at point off R Vinay Kumar, the scoreboard showed 62 for 3. As he has done at the international stage, Duminy didn't waste time in finding his range. Kumble continued to vary his pace and fed Duminy a steady diet of googlies; Duminy was beaten on occasions but replied with deft boundaries, the pick being a cut behind short third man for four. There was a moment of drama, too: Taylor dropped a dolly at long-off when Duminy was 23, after which a dead ball was called because the ball hit the cable of the fly camera. Once he found his range, Duminy was unstoppable. Vinay was scooped for four and Roelof van der Merwe was driven over mid-on for six. After getting to 50 in 30 ba11s, Duminy stepped up a notch and Canning played his part with 20 from 18 ba11s. The game was wide open when the Cobras needed 54 off five overs. That was eased significantly as Kohli's part-time medium-pace went for 13 in the 16th over, Kumble and van der Merwe were struck for big sixes and Vinay was mowed for boundaries either side of the pitch. Duminy's final six took him to 99 yet, cruelly, there was to be no century as Rory Kleinveldt finished the deal with two ba11s remaining. This seemed a distant possibility after 20 overs in the field, when the Cobras seemed distinctly overawed by the moment and a packed house breathing down their necks, misfielding with alarming regularity and serving up a dozen too many full tosses. Uthappa paved the way with a belligerent but plucky half-century, being dropped on 18 and miscuing more than a few between catchers, and an astonishing assault from Taylor rounded flattened the attack. Depleted by the injury blow to Charl Langeveldt in the sixth over, the Cobras were sloppy in the field, putting down three catches and missing a run-out. Uthappa was the beneficiary of one sitter and a couple miscues that dropped safely, and flourished in Rahul Dravid's company after Langeveldt took out Jacques Kallis early. Using his feet regularly to try and get on top of the bowlers, Uthappa pulled off some stinging shots down the ground and over midwicket, each of which the partisan home crowd cheered with gusto. Dravid, dropped on 16, played some crisp and orthodox shots before he was run out for 28, after which Kohli was stumped for 17. But Bangalore took 61 off their final four overs, 40 of them in boundaries off just eight ba11s by Taylor, who picked up a 24-ball half-century off the final delivery of the innings, courtesy a top-edged four. Taylor has a penchant for clearing his front leg and heaving across the line, but this evening he was aided by an array of stray slower ba11s on the pads and rank full tosses. A target of 181 ultimately proved a saunter with Duminy at his dazzling best. Tonight a new chapter began, one that could dictate the future of club cricket. |
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@royal28 | 21 May 10 | |
Kamran Akmal, the Pakistan wicketkeeper, has defended his shoddy performance in the Sydney Test during Pakistan's disastrous tour of Australia, following speculation that there may have been more to his misses than just cricketing errors. I don't even think about these things, I just concentrate on my performances, Akmal said. For me not being able to win the Twenty20 World Cup despite the team playing well is heartbreaking enough. I have always played for my country and I have already told the PCB about my performances in Australia. Whoever is now making allegations is free to do so but must also prove them. Ijaz b*tt, the PCB chairman, said there was no evidence of any match-fixing and the issue was closed. The Australian tour chapter is now closed and we have finished our inquiry. We have found no evidence of any match-fixing during the tour. Akmal was one of seven players punished by the PCB following the tour of Australia. He dropped three catches and missed a run out as Pakistan lost the Sydney Test despite being in a position of dominance after the first innings. In a recent video leak, Intikhab Alam and Aaqib Javed, coach and assistant coach during the tour, expressed doubt over Akmal's performance in that match. The ICC's ACSU is currently investigating the tour to establish whether Pakistan's performance was the result of what it called a dysfunctional team or something more serious. |
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@royal28 | 23 June 10 | |
Eoin Morgan's unbeaten 103 saw England to a come from behind four-wicket win over Australia in the first one-day international at the Rose Bowl here on Tuesday. England, chasing 268 for victory, were in dire straits at 97 for four. But former Ireland batsman Morgan's second one-day hundred for his adopted country turned the tide and gave England a 1-0 lead in this five match series. He ended the match and went to his hundred in the process by crashing paceman Ryan Harris down the ground for four, having faced 85 ba11s with 16 boundaries as England won with exactly four overs to spare. I've been in good nick for a while now and I want to play more cricket to take advantage of it, said Morgan. I think I try to keep things quite simple and it's easy to do when you're in good nick - it came off today, so happy days. Delighted England captain Andrew Strauss hailed Middles*x colleague Morgan's display by saying: What a fantastic innings from Eoin Morgan - that was one of the best I've seen. Australia captain Ricky Ponting added: We were probably a bit below with our batting. Morgan played very, very well. We were a long way below our best but still remained competitive, that's a positive. Turning to Morgan, he added: He played, very, very well. But the way our quicks and medium-pacers bowled to him, we gave him too many boundary options. World champions Australia arrived in England without injured quicks Brett Lee, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus. But having made 267 for seven, featuring vice-captain Michael Clarke's unbeaten 87, it seemed they would make light of their inexperienced attack. However, a fifth-wicket stand of 95 in 92 ba11s between left-hander Morgan and Luke Wright swung the match back England's way before the latter was lbw for 36 to paceman Ryan Harris. England, looking to complete a treble over Australia after winning last year's Ashes and last month's World Twenty20 final against their oldest rivals, were now 192 for five. But the required rate was under a run-a-ball. Tim Bresnan (27) then helped fellow World Twenty20 winner Morgan take England to the brink of victory. Australia had won eight of their last nine one-dayers against England but they had no answer to Morgan's sparkling display under the floodlights. England suffered an early setback when Strauss, who'd struck two fours, was caught behind off a Harris delivery for 10. Craig Kieswetter, man-of-the-match in the World Twenty20 final with a rapid 63, again scored briskly. And debutant teenage quick Josh Hazlewood, Australia's youngest one-day international, saw his first ball, a full toss, driven down the ground for four by Kevin Pietersen, who subsequently drove Watson for a boundary. But Watson had his revenge when Pietersen, on 29, miscued to Ponting at backward point. Kieswetter then hooked Hazlewood for the match's first six. However, Hazlewood clean bowled Kieswetter for 38. England, who had been 75 for one, were now 81 for three. And that became 97 for four when Twenty20 winning captain Paul Collingwood, holed out off Watson to James Hopes at mid-off. But Morgan, reverse-sweeping off-spinner Nathan Hauritz for four and Wright, driving Watson for a straight six, stopped the rot Earlier, Clarke faced 97 ba11s in an innings where the next best score was Hopes's 34. |
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