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Injured India batsman Manoj Tiwary has been replaced in the India squad for the Twenty20s against England by Ambati Rayudu

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Dec-2012

Injured India batsman Manoj Tiwary has been replaced in the India squad for the Twenty20s against England by Ambati Rayudu. Tiwary’s injury was diagnosed as a side strain. He had picked up the injury, which will keep him out of action for six weeks, during a Ranji Trophy game on Sunday, while batting in Bengal’s first innings against Saurashtra.Rayudu, who has played for Baroda in the Ranji Trophy since the 2010-11 season, has had a prolific run this year, with scores of 64, 85, 10, 54, 1, 131 and 58 in his previous five games. A bit-hitting middle-order batsman, Rayudu did not have too much success on his last Twenty20 assignment: October’s Champions League T20, where he played for Mumbai Indians. But in IPL 2012, he was Mumbai Indians second-highest scorer behind Rohit Sharma, with 333 runs from 15 innings at a strike-rate of 132.14. He is yet to debut for India across formats.For Tiwary, who captains Bengal in the Ranji Trophy, this is a second setback in quick succession – he had suffered a wrist problem earlier in the season. When fit, he had shown some good form, scoring 191 against Gujarat, and also making 93 against England for the Board President’s XI last month.India play two Twenty20s against England, on December 20 and 22, and that is followed up by limited-overs series’ against Pakistan running into the first week of January. Later in January, England return for a one-day series.

Thirteen young South African cricketers nominated by the national board will take part in a nine-day training session in Bangalore to prepare for their domestic season, which starts next month. The squad – comprising six batsmen, six spinners and a fast bowler – will to be coached by former India spinner Sunil Joshi, among others.One of the focus areas is developing a generation of black batsmen – South Africa have never had a black African batsman. “We identified some of the most talented black African batsmen in an attempt to further develop their skill set,” CSA’s General Manager Corrie van Zyl said.Another target, he said, was to help spinners develop, and to allow batsmen to learn playing spin on spin-friendly pitches.Former South Africa spinner Nicky Boje will accompany the squad in the absence of Paul Adams, who resigned as CSA’s spin consultant to take up coaching responsibilities for the domestic team Cape Cobras in June.”[Boje] is a fantastic person to mentor our next generation of spinners and we look forward to calling upon his expertise to ensure proper development of our spin bowlers,” van Zyl said.The squad:Spinners: Dane Piedt (Cape Cobras), Siya Simetu (Cape Cobras), Eddie Leie (Highveld Lions), Simon Harmer (Warriors), Shaun Von Berg (Titans), and Tabraiz Shamsi (Dolphins)Fast bowler: Ayavuya Myoli (Border)Batsmen: Khaya Zondo (Dolphins), Omphile Ramela (Highveld Lions), Grant Mokoena (Highveld Lions), Tumelo Bodibe (Titans), Mangeliso Mosehle (Titans), and Luthando Mnyanda (South Western Districts)

ESPNcricinfo previews the IPL match between Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Daredevils in Chennai

The Preview by Devashish Fuloria11-May-2012Match factsSaturday, May 12, Chennai
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)Super Kings need to give Albie Morkel more time in the middle•AFPBig PictureWith Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders comfortably placed at the top of the points table, there’s a crowd in the middle vying for the two other knockout places. The last three days have, in fact, seen three different teams at fourth spot. A win for Chennai Super Kings can take them into the top four ahead of another tricky match away to Kolkata.Super Kings made heavy weather of a relatively simple chase against Rajasthan Royals on Thursday, only to be rescued by Albie Morkel and S Anirudha. In fact their batting has failed to reprise its form of previous seasons and that is reflected quite clearly in the struggles of Suresh Raina. MS Dhoni, who has changed the batting order frequently, has himself been a slow scorer. Their most impactful batsman, Albie Morkel, has faced only 59 deliveries and follows Ravindra Jadeja in the order; his team probably needs to give him more time in the middle.Daredevils, on the other hand, are in cruise control. On the same day that Super Kings almost fluffed their chase against Royals, Daredevils’ David Warner and Naman Ojha made a mockery of a seemingly tall target in Hyderabad. Warner filled Kevin Pietersen’s boots by slamming a century in his second game this season and Ojha’s class allayed doubts about the quality of Daredevils’ Indian batting. Virender Sehwag has had two low scores after five consecutive fifties and he would aim to close the gap with Chris Gayle in the race for the orange cap. He would also want to settle score with Ben Hilfenhaus, who got him three times during the Tests on the tour of Australia.Form guide (most recent first, completed games)
Chennai Super Kings: WLWLL
Delhi Daredevils: WLWWWPlayers to watch Albie Morkel hasn’t had many chances with the bat but has twice turned a match on its head. He did it first against Royal Challengers and then against Royals. The last time he played against his brother Morne, he faced only three balls. This time, can he disturb Morne’s rhythm?David Warner announced his arrival this season with his second IPL century,109 off 54 balls. With Sehwag also in good form, Super Kings’ spinners have a tough task at hand.Stats and trivia In the previous match between these two sides this season, in Delhi, Super Kings imploded to 110 – their lowest total of 2012. David Warner scored 82 runs in boundaries in his innings against Deccan Chargers, which is the highest this season. Suresh Raina’s strike-rate in the IPL before the start of this season was 140.32. This season it has dropped to 127.43. MS Dhoni has hit 59 sixes in his IPL career – but only four this season.Quotes”Leaving it too late is not something we do intentionally, our top six need to perform.”

“We are in a good space at the moment. We messed up a little bit in the last game. We must stay at the top and we want to finish in the top place.”

Dirk Nannes, the Australia fast bowler, will return to Surrey for their Friends Life t20 campaign this season. Nannes, who is the leading wicket-taker in Twenty20 cricket, will join Murali Kartik as the overseas players at The Oval.Nannes, a Twenty20 Cup winner alongside Kartik with Middlesex in 2008, took 19 wickets at 20.05 for Surrey in the Friends Life t20 in 2011. Altogether, he has taken 169 T20 wickets, earning caps for both Netherlands and Australia.”As we saw last season in the shortest form of the game, Dirk is still one of the most consistently dangerous and economical bowlers on the world scene,” Surrey team director Chris Adams said. “He did a fantastic job for us and I can speak for the whole club when I say we are delighted to welcome him back for another spell.”Nannes, who is based in the UK, will be contracted for Surrey’s ten group games in the Friends Life t20 South Division, with a provision to stay on for the knockout stages if the county qualifies.

يرى لاعب وسط الفريق الأول لكرة القدم بنادي ريال مدريد، لوكا مودريتش، أن قصته لم تنته بعد مع زميله، لوكا مودريتش، في المباريات رغم وجود العديد من اللاعبين الشباب المميزين.

وبدأت الصحافة الإسبانية تتحدث منذ الموسم الماضي عن مدى إمكانية استمرار كروس ومودريتش معًا في خط الوسط في المباريات بعد انضمام إدوارد كامافينجا وأوريلين تشواميني.

ونجح كروس في حصد لقبه السادس في بطولة كأس العالم للأندية يوم، السبت الماضي، بعد الفوز على الهلال السعودي مع ريال مدريد بنتيجة 5-3.

اقرأ أيضًا | بنزيما: لتصبح هدافًا ليس من الضروري أن تلعب جيدًا.. وهنري أسطورة

وتحدث الألماني عن الأمر خلال حواره مع برنامج “شيرينجيتو” الإسباني، وقال: “ليس لدي أدنى شك في أننا ما زلنا قادرين على اللعب معًا، عندما لا يحدث ذلك، تشعر بالفارق”.

وتابع: “يكون أداء ريال مدريد مختلفا في وسط الملعب، ربما نفوز بالمباراة، لكن سيكون هناك شكل مختلف للفريق”.

وأضاف في النهاية: “نحن ندرك جيدًا أن هناك لاعبين آخرين موجودين ويستحقون أيضًا المشاركة ولكننا ما زلنا هنا (مازحًا)”.

In the end it felt somewhat ridiculous to face MS Dhoni. To sit in front of a proud man, who went 10 matches without a win, in three different formats, during the last two months in England. To ask questions of a man who had seen incredibly ten of his players get injured including two – Praveen Kumar and Munaf Patel – on the eve of, and during the final match of the series? What could he really say that had not been said before? Yet within six months after becoming World Champions, India have slid to No. 5 five in the ICC ODI rankings. And so Dhoni faced the media scrutiny for one last time on a tour that he admitted he would forget.”I have never seen so many injuries in the last five years. To lose nine to eleven players in one series is something I can never forget,” Dhoni said at the post-match conference. Praveen, his best bowler on the tour, had picked an ankle injury while playing football on Thursday afternoon. And about 24 hours later Munaf, India’s senior-most bowler in the game, slipped on the wet outfield, badly injuring his ankle. India started the summer with Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma leading their bowling attack. They finished it with relying on part-timers like Virat Kohli being forced to fill their boots.Unfortunately for the Indian bowlers, despite having a good score to defend, they were handicapped by the combined forces of an incessant mild drizzle, and dew which made it difficult to grip the ball. At the time Munaf got injured, the game still hung in balance with England needing a further 139 runs from the remaining 17 overs. “Munaf got injured and we had to bowl his remaining four overs by someone else. Virat bowled well but his last over was expensive. We lost five tosses and we bowled second in nearly the same conditions, which were wet and that made it tough for our spinners,” Dhoni said.Unlike England who had the luxury of playing five specialist fast bowlers across the summer and blooding young talent like Jade Dernbach, in addition to possessing a formidable group of allrounders, Dhoni was forced to manage resources that depleted after every match. The frailty of his bowling attack only added pressure on the batting order, which featured just three of the players from the World Cup team.”We had a tough series and lost quite badly. Being a team sport you need to do well in all three departments and you can’t really carry the team for a consistent period of time just on one department. Playing with three bowlers in these conditions was tough to manoeuvre,” Dhoni said.Yet all is not lost. The most heartening facet about the youngsters, some who were called up at short notice and forced to play hours after landing in England, was their positive attitude and openness. “They are up for a fight,” Dhoni said. “Each time they turn up on a field, whether for a practice session or a game, they want to give their best, they love challenges and that makes it interesting for me. You do not have to motivate them. You can then put in that effort in some other areas. We lost a few games due to the weather not [being] on our side, luck not [being on our] side, but it is not about thinking too much about things not in our control. Am glad to see the team has reacted in a similar fashion.”Scenes like this were commonplace for India right through the England tour•Associated Press

Kohli is a good example of this grit and determination of the new generation of Indian players, who are hungry and willing to work hard despite all the easy riches that have come their way through the IPL. Today Kohli, often criticised in the past for his temperament and a loud lifestyle outside cricket, showed the maturity to stand up and deliver when it mattered for his team. It was a matter of pride for him, and India, that he was the solitary centurion on both sides in the one-day series. Many times during the summer, England’s players have highlighted the advantages of a happy dressing room. Despites various setbacks the Indians have shown willingness to learn from, and, contribute to the success of their teammates. They also have been fortunate to be led by an individual who believes in keeping things simple, and does not get swayed by the swinging fortunes of victory and defeat.For 66 days Dhoni’s captaincy came under the most severe scrutiny. England had beaten India on the field and in the mind. There was never a moment in the series when England appeared within reach. Yet Dhoni kept going even as his most trusted generals and lieutenants started falling one after the other. In the end he finished as the Man of the Series in the five-match ODI series. It was the fifth time in his career he had earned this honour, the only difference this being it was the first time it had come in defeat.On Friday Dhoni was asked if the series would have taken a different course for the Indians, who fly back home early Saturday morning empty-handed, if they had cashed in on the openings that came their way during England’s first innings in the first two Tests at Lord’s and then Trent Bridge. “What is important is what you did exactly when the opportunity came your way,” Dhoni said. “I have always believed it is not about sulking as to what could have been done. It is more often about what actually went wrong.”

Sri Lankan cricket authorities face formal sanction for Galle’s dustbowl first Test pitch after it was officially rated “poor” by the ICC match referee Chris Broad

Daniel Brettig in Kandy03-Sep-2011Sri Lankan cricket authorities face formal sanction for Galle’s dustbowl first Test pitch after it was officially rated “poor” by the ICC match referee Chris Broad. SLC must provide a written response to his report within 14 days.A hefty fine and “a directive for corrective action” will be the result if the ICC does not deem their explanation sufficient. The pitch was the cause of much conjecture in the lead-up to the match, but by its conclusion both sides agreed it had been far too dry and offered exceedingly rare extremes of spin and variable bounce.”The ICC’s General Manager – Cricket, Dave Richardson, and the ICC’s chief match referee Ranjan Madugalle will now consider all the evidence,” the ICC said in a statement, “including studying video footage of the match and submissions from the host Member Board, before reaching their decision in due course.”Ricky Ponting equated the Galle pitch to the infamous Mumbai surface of 2004 while Michael Clarke said “day one felt like day five” after Australia wrapped up a 125-run victory in the first Test.The Australians’ pride in victory was made more so by the state of the surface, which can be described as a desert in the middle of an oasis. Galle is lashed by frequent rain and the outfield is verdant green, but the pitch prepared for the Test, ostensibly to aid Sri Lanka’s spin bowlers, was tinder dry. Even Tillkaratne Dilshan, Sri Lanka’s captain, expressed surprise at the pitch.When gusts of wind swept across the ground on day four, some officials wondered whether they might take the whole of the pitch with them.Having celebrated his 100th win in Test matches, becoming the first man to achieve the feat, Ponting said he had only seen one other pitch of similar quality in his career. That match, the fourth Test between India and Australia at Wankhede Stadium in 2004, was completed in little more than two days after the first was all but lost to rain.”Yeah [I can remember] one, we had one in Mumbai on which we had to chase 100 in the fourth innings and it was about halfway through the second day and we couldn’t get them,” Ponting said. “I think we all knew when we saw the wicket two days out from the start of this game we knew it was going to be like this.”It was very loose two days out and we couldn’t see how it was going to get any better. So it was a great toss to win and a good first innings total for us and that set the game up.”Clarke, who made an important 60 in the second innings to ensure the fourth innings target would be out of Sri Lanka’s reach, was similarly wide-eyed about the surface, and conceded the toss had gone a long way towards deciding the match.”If you speak to all the batters that’s definitely one of the toughest wickets I’ve had to bat on in a Test match and that was on day one,” Clarke said. “Day one felt like day five of a Test match, so to scratch out 270-odd were crucial runs, we thought that was a pretty good score.”It’s really hard, I hate to see a Test match result determined by the toss, I hate to see any game of cricket determined by the toss, but that was one of the toughest wickets I’ve played Test cricket on. No doubt it was prepared for spin bowling, but I think it might’ve backfired as well.”Dilshan had commented on match eve that the pitch would start to turn after tea on the first day, but it was doing plenty from the first morning, when Rangana Herath’s first ball jumped and turned to kiss the edge of Shane Watson’s bat. If anything the pitch’s venom dissipated a little on days three and four, allowing Mahela Jayawardene and Angelo Mathews add 142 to delay Australia’s win.”This is a challenging wicket,” Dilshan said. “We know when you come to Galle this is a slow wicket, this is a very challenging wicket for Test cricket, but we’ve managed to get the highest fourth innings runs today. It is challenging, not easy.”Normally the Galle track is very dry. We expect a turning and slow wicket in Galle but the thing is this started turning first day, so it was a little bit drier but we expect Galle to be similar to this as we’ve played previous.”Clarke praised the efforts of Michael Hussey, who was named Man of the Match for his 95 in the first innings, when the rest of the batsmen were struggling.”His 95 is worth at least 150 on that wicket, and put us in a great position to win the Test, so I’m thrilled,” Clarke said. “We executed our plans really well. As a batting group we would’ve liked someone to go on and make a hundred, especially in the first innings we found that all of us got a start.”If Huss had a couple of partners I’m sure he would’ve got a hundred, but that’s one thing as a batting unit we can work on. Our bowling unit did a really good job as a group, hitting good areas, we knew on that wicket we were going to get a little bit of inconsistent bounce so we had to be at the stumps as much as we could, and our fielding was fantastic, our energy in the field was the standard we want to see.”

Scorecard
South Africa A beat Bangladesh A by a comfortable 60-run margin at Willowmoore Park, Benoni, to take the five-match series 3-1. The win was fashioned by a blistering, unbeaten 141 by Heino Kuhn.Asked to field, Bangladesh prised out the South Africa openers early on, leaving them 40 for 2 in 8.1 overs. But a steady 136-run stand between wicketkeeper Kuhn and captain Dean Elgar followed, laying a solid base for a big total. Kuhn cut loose after getting to a century off 110 balls, tonking his last 41 runs off just 16 deliveries. He was given adequate support in the late charge that took South Africa to 320, with Vaughn van Jaarsveld getting a 40-ball fifty and Ryan Bailey clearing the ropes a couple of times in a cameo to finish 22 not out off 9.Bangladesh’s chase was steered by a solid 124-run partnership for the second wicket between Junaid Siddique and Saghir Hossain. But once run-outs claimed the pair – Siddique went four short of a ton and Saghir fell soon after completing his fifty – South Africa took control of the innings, picking up wickets at regular intervals. The bowlers shared the wickets around, but Craig Alexander was the pick of the lot with three middle order wickets.

John Buchanan could take up a place on New Zealand’s selection panel as part of his new role as the country’s director of cricket

Brydon Coverdale19-Apr-2011John Buchanan could take up a place on New Zealand’s selection panel as part of his new role as the country’s director of cricket. Buchanan was appointed on Friday to take control of the high-performance sector of New Zealand Cricket and immediate tasks in his wide-ranging brief include overseeing the appointment of a new captain and selectors.The existing three-man panel of Lance Cairns, Mark Greatbatch and chairman Glenn Turner come off contract at the end of the month, and one option would be to make the coach John Wright a selector. However, Buchanan is also considering whether he, as the man with ultimate responsibility for the high-performance programme, should be on the panel himself.”That’s something that I’m tossing around at the moment,” Buchanan told ESPNcricinfo. “There’s every chance, but in the next couple of months it’s going to be very important to listen to a whole range of people and get their views and work out some of the logistics and practicalities of what I do. Certainly it’s an option at the moment.”Buchanan’s four-year deal officially begins next month and he will need to hit the ground running, with the choice of Daniel Vettori’s successor as captain being another key decision. But regardless of who gets the job, Buchanan does not want the captain to be overburdened, as often appeared to be the case with Vettori.”The two front-runners are Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum,” Buchanan said. “John Wright is going to be pretty critical to that decision, because ultimately the captain and coach are going to have to work very closely together. His advice and his thoughts will be pretty important in terms of making a final decision.”One of the things we’d like to be able to achieve is to create greater leadership capacity in any side that New Zealand puts on the field – whether they’re given a formal title as captain or vice-captain should be almost irrelevant. Individual players should be able to step up, and that means making good decisions more consistently than what they have done currently. That’s one of the targets we’ll be trying to put in place.”That sort of accountability among players, coaches and support staff is likely to be a major plank of Buchanan’s strategy for stretching New Zealand to reach new heights. And although he hopes to leave the day-to-day business of coaching to Wright, he has not entirely ruled out the possibility of having a more active role when New Zealand head to Australia in November for a Test series.”Ideally I’ll be hands-off,” he said. “John Wright is the coach, and we’ll have a captain in place and he’ll have his support staff. Ultimately they need to be accountable for their performances. Hopefully we’re pretty close by that stage with that group of people that I won’t have too much of a role at all. But if not, then I’ll be around.”I see it as having to be a very close partnership [with Wright]. He coaches the pointy end of the high-performance program. If the Black Caps are not performing then it means we’re not doing things the right way. He and I need to work closely together and I’m very confident we can do that.”It will be important for the two men to work out the demarcation between their roles, especially given Buchanan’s history as a head coach. During his eight years at the helm of Australia, Buchanan helped the side win three World Cups and a record 16 consecutive Test matches, but he had at his disposal champion players like Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Adam Gilchrist.Getting the same results from New Zealand might be an unrealistic goal, but Buchanan is looking forward to the challenge of driving the team to punch above its weight. And he believes that merely by creating the director of cricket position, NZC has shown itself to be one of the most forward-thinking organisations in world cricket.”I think it’s a role that’s long overdue in cricket, and whether I got the position or didn’t get the position, I applauded the step that New Zealand have taken,” he said. “They’re a little bit disadvantaged in the way of resources, so they have to be much smarter with what they do have, a little bit more innovative and creative about how they use what they have got.”

Celtic’s title party at Parkhead was delayed as they were held to a 1-1 draw by their rivals in the Premiership on Sunday.

Ange Postecoglou’s men were wasteful in front of goal as they missed numerous opportunities to take the game away from the opposition.

Jota gave the Hoops the lead as he snuck in ahead of Borna Barisic at the back post to tuck in a cross from Daizen Maeda, but they failed to build on their advantage.

Maeda went on to miss two glorious chances to make it 2-0 and Jota also spurned a good opening as he sent a header flying over the bar.

They were then punished for their lack of a clinical edge as Fashion Sakala rifled in an equaliser for Rangers with a terrific strike past Joe Hart.

Whilst the likes of Jota, Carl Starfelt and Callum McGregor impressed for the home side, there were some poor performers for Celtic. One player who was a passenger throughout the game was Japan international Kyogo Furuhashi.

The attacker, who only recently returned from injury, was nowhere near good enough as he struggled to make a positive impact for the Hoops on and off the ball.

Out of possession, he was a lightweight. As per SofaScore, he lost four of his six individual duels and made just one tackle, whilst failing to make a single clearance, interception or block. Of course, he was not expected to be winning the ball back consistently from the number nine position but he did not put himself about enough to cut out Rangers attacks.

His weak play off the ball was coupled with his lack of involvement on it. Via SofaScore, he had fewer touches (15) than Joe Hart (52) and completed just four passes in 61 minutes – one every 15 minutes, roughly, of game time. He came off with a pass success rate of 40% and he also failed to register a single key pass or shot on target, showing that he made virtually no impact at the top end of the pitch.

These dreadful statistics show that he was a passenger for Postecoglou, who was right to take him off on the hour mark, and Kyogo will surely be disappointed with his own display.

Hopefully, he will be able to shake off this display and have a strong end to the season so that he can head into the summer on a high.

AND in other news, Ange must axe “catastrophic” & “unbelievable” disaster duo, they’re rinsing Celtic…