All posts by csb10.top

Despite the absence of Sarwan and Dwayne Bravo in the five-match ODI series against Pakistan, Bennett King, the coach of West Indies, was confident of his side coming good. “It’ll test us as a team without two of our key one day performers over the past six to 12 months in Sarwan and Bravo,” he told WindiesCricket.com.Sarwan was ruled out with a minor hairline fracture of the right foot, sustained when he was hit by an Umar Gul yorker during the Karachi Test, while Bravo was released from the squad to return home “to be with persons close to him who are unwell”.Both have been key to West Indies’ recent successes, but King was forced to see the prospects that their absences threw up. “It allows opportunity to others trying to stake their claim for World Cup berth,” he said. “The players coming in [Ian Bradshaw, Marlon Samuels and Dwayne Smith] bring with them freshness and energy after what’s been a long tour for us.”Sarwan is considered one of the leading batters in the one day game and he has proved that over a long period of time and has been a key to our past successes,” King added. “Bravo was adapting to different roles within our side and it’s unfortunate that we can’t build on those but where one door shuts another one opens.”Despite dropping the Tests 0-2, King looked forward to the challenge of the one-day series. “Every game gives us opportunities to move up the rankings of the ICC points table and to build our one day reputation,” he said. “Pakistan presents formidable opponents especially at home, they beat us 3-0 in the West Indies [in 2005] but we feel that we’ve improved since our last meeting both individually and as a team.”

India started off in this tournament as a strong batting team, but it wastheir bowling that bailed them out more than once. Mahendra Singh Dhoni,the winning captain, recognised that it was the bowling that had won themthe cup.”On paper the batting was much stronger,” Dhoni said. “But the way thebowlers bowled was very good, and if you compare the two, our bowling wasmuch more consistent. Though there were a few good individual battingperformances, the bowling was better through the tournament.” That, hesaid, was also a reason why he chose to bat first on most occasions afterwinning the toss. “The idea was to get a decent score and then try todefend it. Our fielding helped too. We effected a run out in almost everygame. When the total is relatively low – only around 150-155 – run outsand good fielding increases the total by 15-20 runs, and we managed to dothat in most of the games.”Dhoni’s captaincy has come in for plenty of praise, but he chose to playit down, instead praising the players for responding to the challenges.”The captain hasn’t done much. The players who have been given theresponsibility have delivered. There was no [top order] batsman who hadn’t scored runs,the fielding had been very good overall. Yuvraj [Singh] has been very good, whileHarbhajan has made a very good comeback. The best part is everything whohas been given the responsibility has delivered. This side is confident,enjoying each other’s success and backing each other.”Dhoni admitted that he was concerned about Misbah-ul-Haq’s late charge,but said he knew they were only a wicket away from wresting the initiativeagain. “We knew they didn’t have wickets in hand. Pressure becomes a veryimportant aspect in big games. Harbhajan Singh was good though he wentfor a few, Joginder [Sharma] was excellent in the last over. But I always thoughtas the game approached the final stages, our chances would increase.”About the decision to bowl Joginder instead of Harbhajan in the finalover, Dhoni said it was prompted by the form on the day. “That was thebest option available. Harbhajan didn’t bowl his last over very well. Ithought if a medium pacer bowls it would be slightly difficult sinceMisbah was timing it very well against Harbhajan, who was also not 100%sure about his yorkers. And Joginder had had a decent spell till in thematch, so I decided to go with him.”

Dhoni admitted that the number of runs they had wasn’t a par score, andpraised Pakistan’s effort in the field. “In Durban it was a lot moredifficult for batting – 170-180 was a very good total there. Here Ithought we should have got 180, as the wicket was not very difficult. Butthe way they bowled was really good. After 12 overs they bowled someexcellent yorkers, so you could hardly score off them.”He also had a special word for Rohit Sharma’s 16-ball 30, which lifted theIndian total to 157. “Rohit’s innings was critical. We looked like getting140, but we ended up getting more than 150. The confidence level went upand with our fielding we increased the target further to 170-175.”Looking back at the tournament, he said the way the team planned thepractice sessions and the periods of rest was critical. “There was atwo-and-a-half month tour to England, so it was tough on the players. Theway we planned this tournament was very important. The practice sessionswere planned such that we were always fresh when we took the field for amatch.”The Indians didn’t practice before the final, despite playing at avenue where they’d played only once before in the tournament.

Shoaib Akhtar, Moin Khan and Abdul Razzaq will appear before a medical commission at the National Cricket Academy on Wednesday morning (April 28). The five-member medical panel began its inquiry on Sunday to review the fitness of the key players, like Umar Gul, who were involved in the series against India. The commission, headed by Dr Abdul Wajid, who is an orthopaedic surgeon of the Aga Khan University, was appointed by the PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan.According to a PCB official, Moin and Razzaq will be interviewed by the commission and during the process the doctor’s panal will also examine the MIR reports of the injured players.Shoaib, who was in Mumbai for the last week to shoot a commercial, is scheduled to return today and has informed the PCB that he would be available from Tuesday.The dates when the commission will meet Mohammad Sami and Shabbir Ahmed are yet to be announced. Both players are currently playing in the English domestic championship. An official said that the commission will now consider the medical reports of the two players in their absence.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Partisan fans at the Feroz Shah Kotla were treated to a cracker of a match as the Chennai Super Kings pulled off a dramatic last-ball win, sneaking past Delhi Daredevils’ total of 187 for 5 by four wickets. Chennai’s chase veered from the authoritative to the bumbling but they kept their nerves and put an end to their three-game losing streak, thanks largely to some fearless hitting right through the order.Chennai recovered somewhat to restrict the hosts to under 200 after Gautam Gambhir and Shikhar Dhawan added a record third-wicket partnership of 121 and that, in hindsight, proved critical before a thrilling chase helped them get back to their winning ways.Chennai were given a 62-run start inside seven overs with S Vidyut, promoted to open in place of Parthiv Patel, batting purposefully. Both Glenn McGrath and Mohammad Asif were unusually off-key in their first overs and Vidyut handled the short and full deliveries admirably, stepping out to meet the ball. Asif’s first over went for 15, with Vidyut taking two fours and Stephen Fleming playing a gorgeous cover drive, and the sixth over, bowled by Yo Mahesh, cost 20 with both openers clubbing the width.Vidyut fell for 40 from 23 balls, attempting another pull but Fleming, finding rhythm after three poor innings, kept the momentum with Chennai. Initially a watchful spectator with Vidyut cashing in on some short-pitched stuff, he played some eye-catching square-drives and cuts. Shoaib Malik bowled a poor line and Fleming kept McGrath busy at square leg with powerful sweeps.With Mahendra Singh Dhoni keeping the ball along the grass, Fleming went for his shots except that a flat hard drive found AB de Villiers at cover. Suresh Raina steered a simple catch to backward point four balls later and Chennai failed to score a boundary for 16 deliveries. Albie Morkel made up with 25 off a Virender Sehwag over, swung into motion by three consecutive sixes, but the bowler had his revenge of sorts with a direct hit from mid-on sent Morkel running on his way to the pavilion.Dhoni threatened to seal the deal with a sensible hand but Yo Mahesh returned to snap up two wickets in the 19th over – one down to a stunning catch from de Villiers, running in from long-on – and that left Chennai with 15 to get off six balls. Sehwag gave the task to Malik and it proved a disaster. Manpreet Gony slogged the first ball over midwicket for six, a wide followed, easing the pressure further, and a thick edge past the wicketkeeper sent the crowd into silence. A single to mid-on set the stage for S Badrinath, who tied the scores with a chip over the covers for two, and won it with another over mid-on.The afternoon began with two of Delhi’s most reliable top-order batsmen welcoming Dhoni’s decision to field first – for the first time in the tournament – with a record 121-run stand in 12.4 overs after early trouble. Sehwag flickered with whips off the pads and a ramrod-straight drive before a crushing yorker from Gony breached his defence. Morkel, sharing the new ball in Makhaya Ntini’s absence, produced a pearl to clean up de Villiers first ball to make it 46 for 2 in the sixth over.Gambhir bottom-edged Muttiah Muralitharan’s first delivery narrowly past off stump and between Dhoni’s legs for four and was offered a freaky slice of luck a couple balls later when Murali’s flick back onto the stumps dislodged the bails a fraction too late. Loosening his shoulders after that last reprieve, Gambhir nudged to fine leg, flicked over midwicket, and flat-batted through the covers.A massive six over mid-on raised Gambhir’s fourth IPL half-century from 35 balls and earned him back the orange cap from Sehwag, and he proceeded to drill three consecutive fours in the 15th over to jack the run rate up near nine. He fell trying to steer one past backward point, for a 49-ball 80, and Dhawan fell shortly afterwards for a 46-ball 59 in the penultimate over. Delhi’s decision to bring in Manoj Tiwary over Rajat Bhatia cost them a fifth bowler, and that hurt them plenty.

The Kenya Cricket Association is planning to initiate a women’s cricket league, and has said that it is currently training women in preparation for the league.Sharad Ghai, the board chairman, said that 40 women were undergoing intensive training at the Simba Union Club to have them match-ready. The progressive step is seen as an attempt to raise awareness and participation in the game in Kenya and is in line with the ICC’s stated goal of helping Kenya rise in the international cricketing hierarchy.

Tino Best zipped through Marcus Trescothick’s defences with a ripper in his second over at Lord’s today, and followed up with an appropriate sendoff. He gestured at the back of his shirt and pointed to the fact that he was the "Best" in the business. Now there may be bowlers around the world who can replicate that delivery, but how many of them can enact the same celebration? Well, looking back over the years there’s quite a handy XI of cricketers who could have used their names to good effect.Imagine David Boon pointing to his surname every time a fielder grassed a chance, or David Hookes turning around after heaving one over midwicket. Unfortunately for Mark Butcher, his Headingley heroics against Australia came in a Test match, otherwise Adam Gilchrist and co. might have had a constant reminder of his name … and his trade that day.Sanjay Bangar, for all his dour defensive mindset, has a mighty name to live up to, while Paul Wiseman would definitely be expected to come up with some shrewd field changes and crafty spin variations. Bruce French could have easily exasperated bowlers all around the world with his streaky cut, and then driven them to despair by pointing to his back. But French has some competition when it comes to the wicketkeeping slot – Kiran More runs him close.And how can we leave out the original Close fielder? Brian Close could have repeated this shirt-tapping act many times in a day – when the ball just missed the edge of the bat, at the end of the day’s play, or even when boasting of his ability at short leg. Dwayne Bravo doesn’t need to do too much congratulating – just a reminder of his surname would do, although it was England who were applauding his none-for-80 bowling today – but Brad Hogg will have to realise that there is some merit in rotating the strike.Sadly for the grand old doctor, WG Grace, he played in an era when names were restricted to the scoreboard, and couldn’t turn around after every beautiful cover-drive.My Aptly Named XI
1 David Boon, 2 WG Grace, 3 Mark Butcher, 4 Brian Close, 5 David Hookes, 6 Dwayne Bravo, 7 Sanjay Bangar, 8 Bruce French, 9 Brad Hogg, 10 Paul Wiseman, 11 Tino Best.

Pakistan’s legendary allrounder, Imran Khan, has backed England’s decision not to play a Test in Karachi during their tour of the country this winter.Imran, who captained Pakistan to World Cup glory in 1992 before retiring to enter into politics, told AFP that the decision was justified, given Karachi’s recent history of violence.”Until and unless the law-and-order situation is restored such things will happen,” said Imran. “When England’s security team was in Karachi the city mayor was quoted in newspapers as saying that next month’s local elections next month would cause bloodshed, and everyone took notice of it.”You can’t blame the Pakistan Cricket Board,” Imran added, “because in such a situation if they press for a Test in Karachi the whole tour might get jeopardised.” However cricket officials in Karachi vowed to protest the decision and hit out at the PCB for failing to argue the case for the country’s largest city.”England’s refusal to play a Test in Karachi is disappointing and we would protest over it,” Karachi City Cricket Association secretary Sirajul Islam Bukhari told AFP. “The PCB has failed to plead the case of Karachi.”Karachi is a safe place and in a population of 15 million one or two incidents are common. Colombo in Sri Lanka staged international matches when there was unrest, so why not Karachi?”Bukhari added that Karachi staged the 1996 World Cup successfully even though there was a curfew in some parts of the city. The three Tests proposed for the tour are now likely to take place in Lahore, Faisalabad and Multan while Lahore will also stage two one-day internationals.England have agreed to play one one-day international in Karachi, and will decide in ten days’ time whether to play a second game as well. Two British security experts spent last week assessing security at various grounds in Pakistan, and two senior English cricket officials visited this week.Karachi has been rocked by a series of deadly shootings as well as a suicide bombing at a mosque and the burning-down of a KFC restaurant earlier this year. In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Australia and West Indies have refused to play in Pakistan because of security fears. Karachi has been rejected as a Test venue by South Africa and India since a bomb blast outside New Zealand’s team hotel in May 2002, which killed 14 people including 11 French naval engineers.

Khaled Mahmud has left the international cricket scene a bitter man after finding himself surplus to requirements in his very own team.Mahmud led Bangladesh in three Test series, after being appointed as captain last April. But he realised that the door to Test cricket was shut forever after losing his job to Habibul Bashar, and his place in the 16-member tour party bound for Zimbabwe.”I believe this is the right time to say goodbye to international cricket,” said an emotional Mahmud. “It is not only because I’ve been dropped from the Test squad, but also to avoid further embarrassment. I love this game very much. But I have placed self-respect above everything throughout my career.”Mahmud announced his retirement as soon as the squad had been revealed, although his mind had been made up for some time, after sensing something was not quite right in the behaviour of his team-mates.”I was not getting enough chances to bat in the nets and also I noticed that the bowlers were acting funny whenever it was my turn,” said Mahmud. “This is not the way to behave with a captain who should always command the respect of his team-mates. And if this trend continues, Bangladesh will never get a good captain in the future.””I admit that I have shortcomings. But tell me how many consistent performers are there in the team right now? I have failed in the home series against England but it is unfair to pass judgment on one player when everybody should be sharing the blame.”Mahmud made his one-day debut in 1998 but had to wait until November 2001 to play Test cricket. His finest hour came at Northampton in the 1999 World Cup, when he bowled Bangladesh to that famous victory over Pakistan.

Mashonaland 277 and 448 for 4 dec (Taylor 166, Rogers 97) beat Midlands 194 and 343 (Maregwede 107, Utseya 88, Cremer 6-147) by 188 runs
ScorecardMashonaland completed a convincing 188-run victory over Midlands at Kwekwe Sports Club at the start of the extra half-hour on the third day of four. They set Midlands a near impossible target of 532 and bowled them out for 343. The highlight of the day, though, was a brilliant century by the Midlands captain Alester Maregwede, the second of his career.Mashonaland batted on for an hour in the morning, before declaring at 448 for 4 with Tatenda Taibu on 76 and Elton Chigumbura dashing 64 off 46 balls. Maregwede came in at 32 for 2 and immediately set about the bowling, taking a particular liking to the legspinner Graeme Cremer, whom he identified as the most dangerous bowler on a pitch which was still good, but was taking some turn. Maregwede raced to his fifty off 35 balls and then his hundred off 88, before finally driving a catch to mid-on. His 107 contained 12 fours and four sixes, all of them powerful straight hits.Midlands continued to fight, with Craig Ervine hitting 67 and the allrounder Prosper Utseya 89, before he fell to a freakish catch at short leg. Cremer took the last wicket and finished with figures of 6 for 147.

The Stanford 20/20 tournament, which has fuelled a wave of excitement in Antigua over the past two weeks, should be spread across the Caribbean next year. That suggestion is coming from Andy Roberts, one of 14 West Indian legends acting as ambassadors for the lucrative tournament.Roberts, chairman of the competition’s technical committee, endorsed a bigger tournament to make it possible for teams to play more matches. “This is the first time. Nobody knew how successful it was going to be. We may look at a different format next year,” he told The Nation. “One format I would like to see is that you don’t play all the games in Antigua. You take the 20/20 to the Caribbean and then you can come back to Antigua for the semi-finals and final. If you’re taking it to the wider Caribbean, then you might be able to play on a round-robin basis instead of a knockout. We would like to get more of the West Indies involved.”The tournament, created and financed by Texan billionaire Allen Stanford who is pumping US$28 million into the competition, started on July 11 with 19 teams vying for a top prize of US$1 million in a single elimination knockout format. Ever since Stanford launched the tournament last October, there were several observers questioning how the competition would benefit the development of the game in the region.Another of the tournament’s legends, Gordon Greenidge, was not surprised by the initial lack of endorsement. “We in the Caribbean don’t warm to something new very easily. We tend to wait and see what has happened,” Greenidge said. “Before we see what is happening, we tend to criticise it without giving it a chance to work. I am not really surprised. [But] a lot of people have taken this on board and see it as something that can benefit West Indies cricket even though it is the one-day version of the game.”Former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd was also of the view that this form of the game was growing on fans around the region. “A lot of people never like change. The world has changed. Cricket is evolving,” said Lloyd, another of the tournament legends. “We have to move along. It’s a different type of cricket. It’s just like when 40-overs came in. People didn’t like it either. Like everything new, there are going to be one or two doubters, but I’m sure we’re winning.”While the popularity of the 20/20 version of the game is growing globally, the common feeling is that it will not reach the stage where it will rival the traditional 50-over game.”I don’t see it replacing, but complementing the 50-over game,” Greenidge said. “It is offering an opportunity. Most of the time it is played in the evening and under lights where you are trying to bring back the viewers to cricket and in so doing, you are offering a chance that the fans can bring the small kids and so on.”