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A round-up of the interrupted Super Six match between Scotland and Namibia at the World Cup Qualifiers

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Jan-2014Scotland kept themselves in touch near the top of the Super Six table with a 21-run victory over Namibia who remain at the bottom.The match was halted after 12 overs of Namibia’s chase on Sunday due to rain after Scotland had posted 279 for 9 They had made brisk progress through Matt Machan and captain Preston Mommsen as the pair took their third-wicket stand to 82 in 15 overs. Machan was on course for his second ODI hundred but fell for 78 off 61 balls and Mommsen departed five overs later as Scotland threatened to lose their way.However, a stand of 55 between Freddie Coleman and Richie Berrington solidified their position and Berrington added further impetus to the innings with a sprightly 51 although a regular loss of wickets in the later overs meant only 50 runs came in the final nine.Namibia, who were 59 for 2 when the rain came, were given a chance of chasing down the target by a fourth-wicket stand of 80 between Craig Williams (57) and Nicolaas Scholtz but both fell in consecutive overs to Safyaan Sharif who then made it three wickets in three overs when he removed Christi Viljoen. JJ Smit struck three sixes in a 20-ball 38 but Namibia had left themselves too much to do.Machan earned the Man of the Match award. “Hopefully we can build on this win and come back tomorrow against PNG,” he said. “It was slightly tough to play the game over two days, but we actually did it in the summer against Kenya in Scotland, so most of the guys have done it before and it wasn’t too taxing.”Mommsen was thrilled that his side was able to back up its strong batting performance in the field. “Coming back today was a bit difficult, they had a really good partnership together, and we struggled to get a breakthrough. But I think Sharif had a brilliant spell towards the back end, and I think that’s what won us the game.”

Medium-pacer Tawanda Mupariwa put the finishing touches on a bowler-dominated contest in Bulawayo, taking seven wickets in the final innings – twelve in the match – to bowl Matabeleland Tuskers to a 52-run win against Mashonaland Eagles

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Mar-2014Medium-pacer Tawanda Mupariwa put the finishing touches on a bowler-dominated contest in Bulawayo, taking seven wickets in the final innings – twelve in the match – to bowl Matabeleland Tuskers to a 52-run win against Mashonaland Eagles.Chasing a target of 193, what would have been the highest total of the game, Eagles were well placed at 85 for 1, before the crash came. Mupariwa had taken the first wicket, and then he returned to break the 52-run stand between Keith Kondo and Mark Vermeulen. Wickets tumbled thereafter, and Mupariwa finished with 7 for 42 as Eagles were bowled out for 140 in 44 overs. They had lost nine wickets for 55 runs. John Nyumbu took 2 for 19 for Tuskers.The Tuskers had also struggled with the bat after they won the toss. They were dismissed for 143 in 47.1 overs. Opener Nkosana Mpofu scored 57 but no other batsman got past 25. Taurai Muzarabani took 4 for 42 for Eagles, while Nathan Waller and Keith Kulinga took three each.Eagles fared worse in their first innings and were reduced to 64 for 6 at stumps. Sixteen wickets had fallen on the first day. They were dismissed for 82 on the second morning, the entire innings lasting only 34.1 overs. Only three players made it into double figures, with Tinotenda Mutumbodzi’s 26 being the top score. Mupariwa took 5 for 31 and Steve Chimhamhiwa claimed 5 for 41 for Tuskers.Godwill Mamhiyo scored a half-century for Tuskers in their second innings but his 52 was the only significant contribution. Brighton Mugochi took 5 for 32 for Eagles, to dismiss Tuskers for 131 in 61.3 overs. Tuskers were ahead by 192, though, and that proved more than enough thanks to Mupariwa’s efforts.

Defending county champions Durham have signed John Hastings, the Victoria and Australia pace bowler, as their overseas player for the bulk of the 2014 season

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Mar-2014Defending county champions Durham have signed John Hastings, the Victoria and Australia pace bowler, as their overseas player for the bulk of the 2014 season.Hastings, who has played one Test for Australia alongside 11 ODIs and three T20s, will be available once his IPL stint with Chennai Super Kings has concluded in early June.In Victoria’s 2013-14 Sheffield Shield campaign he was their leading wicket-taker with 27 scalps at 25.00 and also made 276 runs at 19.71. In the Big Bash League he claimed 13 wickets in nine matches with an economy rate of 6.15.First team coach Jon Lewis said: “We are excited about the arrival of John, he is skilful with the ball and can also contribute well with the bat. He will be a strong addition with the red and white ball and we look forward to welcoming him to Durham.”Durham are likely to lose Ben Stokes to England duty during the season – once he recovers from the broken wrist he suffered when punching a locker in West Indies – while Graham Onions may feature in the Test side. Hastings will add experience to the seam attack alongside Chris Rushworth, Mark Wood, Usman Arshad and Jamie Harrison although Durham could have played seven Championship matches by the time he arrives.

Sri Lanka may have their best chance of winning a Test series in England for many years

George Dobell12-May-2014Sri Lanka may have their best chance of winning a Test series in England for many years. A schedule more sympathetic to their needs, an opposition in transitional mode and confidence gained from success in Bangladesh has given Sri Lanka an optimism not always shared by some of their predecessors.The English leg of their tour begins on Tuesday. Sri Lanka will take on an Essex side including Alastair Cook in a 50-over game in Chelmsford, with further warm-up matches scheduled against Kent and Sussex ahead of the international fixtures which start in a week.But while Sri Lanka’s record in England is not encouraging – they have not won a Test in England since 2006 and have never won a series of more than one match in the country – circumstances are a bit different this time. On both their 2006 and 2011 tours Sri Lanka played the Test section of the tour ahead of the limited-overs section.This time, however, they will have had a far greater chance to acclimatise to conditions. They will have been in Ireland or England for more than a month before the first Test and will have the opportunity to play their stronger suit – the limited-overs games – ahead of the Test series.They also find an opposition lacking some of the pillars of its success in recent years – the likes of Andy Flower, Graeme Swann, Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott – and having just enjoyed a memorable double-success in Bangladesh, where they followed victory in the Asia Cup by winning the World T20.”We have started training a bit earlier than usual because we know the English conditions are not going to be easy for us,” Angelo Mathews, the Sri Lanka captain, said on Monday. “If we can adapt ourselves as soon as possible, I am pretty sure the team will come good. The conditions and the weather are the main challenge we face.”We are not trying to be complacent against an England team having made all of those decisions. Yes, they might be missing star players like Kevin Pietersen, but they still have enough potential to beat any team on any day, especially playing under English conditions. They will be very hard to beat.”You know what happened in Bangladesh: they beat us quite easily in the sub-continent conditions, so you cannot be complacent and just have to go hard at them.””The confidence levels are very high,” the coach, Marvan Atapattu agreed. “This team comes with confidence and success.”Certainly if the batsmen play as straight as the tour management did when deflecting questions about Paul Farbrace’s departure, they should fare well. Mathews did not believe the suggestion that Farbrace, who resigned the Sri Lankan coaching role to take the assistant coach’s job with England just weeks before the tour, had any team secrets to impart and dismissed the idea that any of his squad resented the decision.”We respect his decision,” Mathews said. “He is a good coach and was part of our success. He was with us for a short period of time, not a very long period of time, but in those few months, he was pretty good. Everyone has his own choices. He has made his choice and we wish him all the very best.”When it comes to an international cricket team, there are no secrets. You have so many videos of all the players, of the support staff as well. We had guys like Ajantha Mendis and Lasith Malinga come into the team, but you cannot really hide them from playing international cricket.”Everyone knows a little bit about the opposition, so I don’t really think he has all the inside information.”But Sri Lanka hope that the appointment of Chris Adams, the former Surrey coach, might provide an insight into England’s players and tactics. Adams joined up with the team on Monday and will spend the rest of the tour with them. Kumar Sangakkara will also join up with the squad on Wednesday or Thursday, having completed his short stint with Durham.”Chris Adams is to give me the information I need to know, about venues and players, during this tour,” Atapattu explained. “We will try to pick his brains to improve our game and lend our support to the players. Yes, we will try to get inside information from him.”Sri Lanka’s record in English conditions probably still leaves them as underdogs going into the Test series. But Peter Moores and Co face a far from straightforward test at the start of England’s new era.

Though he has begun his Test career with two centuries in two matches, Jimmy Neesham was more keen on tasting his first Test victory

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Jun-2014With centuries in his first two Tests, New Zealand allrounder Jimmy Neesham achieved something only done by seven others, but he was more keen on getting to be part of a Test victory.”Very pleasing although in the first Test we had a draw, and in this Test it is looking quite flat, I think the major milestone will be getting that first Test win,” Neesham said after the second day’s play. “Individual stuff is nice, but the reason you play is to win games, so that’s sort of pending at the moment.”West Indies had taken three quick wickets on the second morning in Jamaica but a 201-run stand between Neesham and BJ Watling kept New Zealand ahead. Neesham explained what the approach was when he walked in after those early wickets.”We [Neesham and Watling] just talked about getting started again and get a partnership going and then we knew that from talking to the top order batsmen that if we could get in and face 20-30 balls then scoring would become a bit easier after that. We just talked about getting into good positions and defending strongly and then after that expanding and looking to get runs.”In his two Tests, Neesham has already been part of a massive game-saving stand, and now one that has propelled New Zealand to a position of strength. The rousing start to his Test career is certain to lead to ratcheting expectations, something he felt he could handle.”I think anyone who starts well in their career is going to have to deal with expectations from that point on but I think I have been put in good stead playing fair bit of first-class cricket before coming into the Test match arena, so hopefully I’ll be able to keep my head level and then just move on and look to perform in the next game as well.”

After Rajasthan Royals’ five-wicket loss to Mumbai Indians that ousted them from the race for a playoff spot, team mentor Rahul Dravid said it was disappointing to be on the wrong side of the result

ESPNcricinfo staff26-May-2014In the chaotic denouement of one of the most dramatic IPL matches of the season, Rahul Dravid stood up from his seat in the Rajasthan Royals dugout, pulled off his cap and flicked it into the ground. The emotional display from the Royals mentor, one of cricket’s most stoic figures, perfectly encapsulated the frustration of watching his side let a game and a playoff spot slip away in improbable circumstances.”In terms of emotion, we thought we won the game at one stage,” Dravid said after a gut-wrenching five-wicket loss to Mumbai Indians ended Royals’ season. “Then we still had to bowl a ball and they hit the boundary so you can just imagine the emotions. There was sheer disappointment in their camp, joy in our camp and suddenly a ball later that’s completely reversed. So for sheer emotion and drama, I think this was probably one of the best games of cricket I’ve been involved in. It’s just disappointing that I happened to be on the wrong side of the result.”Mumbai needed to achieve a target of 190 in 14.3 overs to overtake Royals’ net run rate and qualify for the playoffs. They had a brisk start but when Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma was dismissed two balls into the 10th over, with the score 108 for 4, it left the side needing 82 off 31 balls. Dravid said that a couple of decent overs would have ensured that Royals secured a playoff berth. Instead, Mumbai scored 49 off the next 2.4 overs and entered the start of the 13th over requiring a slightly less daunting 33 runs off 15 deliveries. Corey Anderson was motoring away on 75 off 33 balls and eventually finished 95 not out.”At that stage if you bowl a couple of seven, eight-run overs or 10-run overs for that matter, the game quickly goes out of hand,” Dravid said. “But they kept getting that 15, 16-run over. They just stayed in the game. It looked at the stage we got Rohit out, I think after that stage when Rayudu and Anderson batted, there was a period of about 12 to 15 balls where we suddenly gave 50 runs. That was the critical phase of the game where we thought we could’ve maybe bowled a couple of better overs there. The guys have tried their best and it’s just not worked out for us in this tournament.”Dravid said Royals’ death bowling had cost them in all three losses at the end of the season, including two to Mumbai. He deflected away criticism over team selection during that stretch, when a win in any of the last three games would have clinched a playoff spot. When prompted to elaborate, Dravid said the team was battling its share of injures and rejected any notion that they had rested players to get them refreshed for the playoff stage when a spot seemed practically assured for the Royals.”We knew we needed about 16 points to qualify. It’s not that we were trying to say, ‘Oh we’ve already qualified.’ We were not trying to be arrogant at that stage. Even today we made three changes in a must-win game. The last game we made three changes. We tried to play the situation. Ajinkya Rahane was injured in that [first loss to Mumbai]. If you noticed he didn’t field in the game before that. He was carrying an injury. We would have loved to have played him but that is the nature of the situation.”Despite the immediate disappointment of failing to qualify for this year’s playoffs, Dravid was optimistic for the future, saying the young nucleus of the side would only get better over the next two years.”I think there’s a lot of positives from our season as well. It’s the first year and we’ve always been saying that this is the first year of three,” Dravid said. “The performances of people like Sanju [Samson] again, Karun Nair has been exceptional, even people like Ankit Sharma and Rahul Tewatia who played only a couple of games and showed there is a potential for the future. I think Steven Smith playing for us this year showed that he is going to become a force to reckon with in the IPL and in this tournament. So there were a lot of positives from that point of view.”

West Indies’ top order produced a commanding performance on an extended second day to take an 89-run lead in the Trinidad Test

The Report by Devashish Fuloria17-Jun-2014
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsDarren Bravo’s sixth Test century was his first in the West Indies•WICBWest Indies’ top order produced a commanding performance on an extended second day to take an 89-run lead in the Trinidad Test. Kraigg Brathwaite and Darren Bravo didn’t let the hour-long rain break affect their concentration and partnered to put up 182 for the fourth wicket to take the team well past New Zealand’s score. The bedrock of West Indies’ response was a composed Brathwaite, who went on to complete his maiden Test century, while Bravo, with his first Test hundred in the West Indies, was the driving force.New Zealand’s bowlers strove but the Queen’s Park Oval pitch was at its best from a batting perspective. There was occasional lateral movement for the seamers and some inconsistent bounce for the spinners, but not to an extent to cause many alarms. It still required application from the batsmen, though.Brathwaite had been guilty of not being able to carry on the last four times he had gone past fifty. Today, however, he concentrated hard, using the classical Test approach of grinding the opposition and went past his previous best of 68. Boundaries were not his preferred mode of scoring – five, four and four came in the three sessions – so it was fitting that a single in the 68th over took him to his century – the first by any batsman in Port-of-Spain in five years.New Zealand tried to play on Brathwaite’s patience by sticking to a line outside off, inviting the drives. Brathwaite, though, stayed a step ahead and only pushed at the deliveries when either the length was too full or short enough. Only five of his 13 boundaries came through the off side, three of which were through gully.Throughout the innings, he kept one end watertight, scoring consistently at a strike rate of around 50 – his half-century came off 100 balls and the hundred in 199 balls – but fell to a tired push back to Trent Boult towards the end of the day. He made 129 off 258 balls.Bravo’s penchant for flashy strokes kept the bowlers interested. He was lured into tentative pokes by away-going deliveries from Boult and was drawn into false strokes against spin. But when the ball hit the middle, didn’t it look pretty? Bravo’s innings had started with a brace of on-drives against Ish Sodhi. Twice, Tim Southee was punched on the up through covers. Then a length delivery from Mark Craig was nonchalantly flayed over mid-off, landing just short of the boundary. These were manufactured shots, in line with Bravo’s flair.As the bowlers tired out and New Zealand waited for the new ball, Bravo grew in comfort and unfurled the big shots. Sodhi, the legspinner, was lofted for sixes thrice in nine balls. In between, when Sodhi dropped it short, Bravo was quick to rock back and punch it through cover. He moved into the 90s with a crisp cover drive off Jimmy Neesham in the 71st over, then completed his sixth Test century in the next with a push through off.Eighty-two runs came in 18 overs after tea. In the 19th – the last over before the new ball became available – Bravo attempted a big hit against the spin of Kane Williamson, but spliced it to long-off. Bravo was palpably disappointed on his dismissal at a crucial stage. West Indies lost Brathwaite nine overs later but Shivnarine Chanderpaul saw them through the tricky period.The tone of West Indies’ innings was set by a 93-run stand between Kirk Edwards and Brathwaite in the first session.New Zealand would have hoped to see more of the swing their seamers extracted during the mini-session at the end of the first day. The conditions, though, had become slightly better for batting. Edwards wasn’t shy of coming forward to deliveries that were pitched up. His first boundary – a straight drive through mid-off off a full Boult delivery – signalled West Indies’ approach in the session.That positivity was reinforced the moment Craig, New Zealand’s best bowler in the first Test, was introduced. Edwards planted his front foot out at the first sign of flight and launched the offspinner over long-on.The early counter forced Craig to switch ends and move to a round-the-stumps line, negating some of the advantage he may have held after the first game. The introduction of Neesham after the first drinks break only hastened the flow of runs.The first eight overs in the second hour brought 55 for West Indies as boundaries were found with ease: Neesham’s wide deliveries were smashed convincingly by Edwards while Brathwaite took a liking to Craig’s spin, using the slog twice in the 25th over to catch up with Edwards. Edwards remained severe on the flighted deliveries, hoicking Craig for two more sixes, the last one bringing up his seventh Test half-century, from 55 balls. Edwards, though, fell soon after for 55 in Sodhi’s first over. New Zealand had to wait for almost 49 overs for the next breakthrough.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar, India’s top bowler in the ongoing Test series against England with 11 wickets, has said his good form with the bat has been a major factor in helping him perform well with the ball

PTI20-Jul-2014Bhuvneshwar Kumar, India’s top bowler in the ongoing Test series against England with 11 wickets, has said his good form with the bat has been a major factor in helping him perform well with the ball. Bhuvneshwar, who struck two half-centuries in the drawn opening Test in Nottingham, picked up six wickets in the second Test at Lord’s to be the pick of the Indian bowlers.”If you think like a batsman, you have an upper-hand over the man you’re bowling to,” Bhuvneshwar told . “All the runs that I have scored here have played a huge role in the way I have bowled. Having batted there for long hours, I know where the batsman will find it difficult to play the ball.”I can anticipate what is going on in his mind and plan the next ball accordingly. The runs also give you confidence, which gets transformed into courage of conviction when you come on to bowl,” he said.Bhuvneshwar said it felt good to make his mark with the ball at Lord’s. “Luckily it has turned out like that. I am happy I was able to keep that little tradition going. It will be good to see my name up on the honours board with my two state mates, RP Singh and Praveen Kumar,” he said referring to the two other Indians who picked up five-wicket hauls on their Lord’s debut.Bhuvneshwar said his bowling style is similar to Praveen, who handed him useful tips ahead of the tour. He said, “…he [Praveen] just told me, ‘you know what you have to do’. He was very helpful in terms of giving me information about the different groundsand their peculiarities. For instance, of Lord’s he told me about the slope.”He said you’ll feel a bit awkward at times bowling there but be mentally prepared. Honestly, when you look at the ground, you can see the slope but once you start bowling, you don’t feel much difference. It’s not as peculiar as people have made it out to be,” he added.Asked about his equation with skipper MS Dhoni, Bhuvneshwar heaped praise on the captain, saying that he gave him a free run when it came to setting up fields.”MS has always been a bowler’s captain. Even in my debut match he told me, ‘set your own fields and make your own plans. If I feel the need to change anything, I will tell you’. Since then it has worked that way and he is very open to suggestions if I want something different from what he does,” he said.”We discuss the plans and strategies and that has helped us build good understanding between us. So far my plan in this series has been to get the batsman out behind him. For that you have to bowl a tight line and length. At times MS also stands up to me. That’s for when the batsman is trying to get forward to cut the swing.”If the keeper is standing up, in the fear of getting stumped, the batsman will not try to walk down the wicket to negate the swing. We have figured out when to use that ploy and against which batsmen. Sometimes, he moves back and forth in a single over. That is the kind of planning that I do with MS,” he added.Speaking about his experience of bowling on the Trent Bridge track in the opening Test, Bhuvneshwar said the pitch was quite similar to the ones in India.”The conditions and the wicket at Trent Bridge were very similar to those in India. But the difference was that in India, because the ball starts to turn very early, the spinners do most of the bowling and my role is much different,” he said.”I mostly bowl with the new ball while it is swinging and get some wickets upfront. Here I have bowled a lot of overs and have had a role to play throughout the day.”

After their surprise Test defeat against India, England will be looking to bounce back at the start of the one-day series

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Aug-2014After their surprise Test defeat against India, England will be looking to bounce back at the start of the Royal London one-day series while the results of the matches will also count towards the newly formed Women’s Championship that will determine World Cup qualification.

Ankit Bawne’s ninth first-class century and a run-a-ball 73 from Yusuf Pathan steered West Zone to a 43-run lead against East Zone on the second day at the Bansi Lal Stadium

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Oct-2014
ScorecardFile photo – Ankit Bawne’s century contained eight fours and two sixes•ESPNcricinfo LtdAnkit Bawne’s ninth first-class century and a run-a-ball 73 from Yusuf Pathan steered West Zone to a 43-run lead against East Zone on the second day at the Bansi Lal Stadium. Bawne scored 105 and was eighth out, lbw to the Tripura medium-pacer Rana Dutta, immediately after West Zone had gone past East Zone’s first-innings total of 278. Dutta then dismissed Akshay Darekar to bring up his fourth first-class five-wicket haul, but the last-wicket pair of Dhawal Kulkarni and Shardul Thakur proved hard to dislodge, and they carried on batting till stumps, having stretched their partnership to an unbroken 30.West Zone, having started the day on 10 for 0, had lost three wickets – including that of their captain Cheteshwar Pujara -in 11.1 overs and were 40 for 3 when Bawne walked in. That quickly became 47 for 4 when Dutta bowled the opener Vijay Zol. Bawne and Suryakumar Yadav then began the process of steering West Zone out of trouble, adding 74 for the fifth wicket before Dutta struck again to have Suryakumar caught and bowled for 31.That partnership came at a fairly brisk 3.60 runs per over, and the arrival of Yusuf upped the scoring rate even more. Yusuf struck 10 fours and two sixes in his 73-ball 73, and added 124 with Bawne in 136 balls before he became Dutta’s fourth victim. East Zone could have had Yusuf out much earlier, and could have had West Zone 148 for 6, but Manoj Tiwary dropped him off Ashok Dinda when he had only scored 8.