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Kane Williamson lauded the “world-class” hitting of Martin Guptill and Colin Munro, as the New Zealand record for fastest T20 fifty fell twice in the same innings, at Eden Park

Andrew Fidel Fernando at Eden Park10-Jan-20160:37

‘Pleased to go big on international stage’ – Munro

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson has lauded the “world-class” hitting of Martin Guptill and Colin Munro, as the New Zealand record for fastest T20 international fifty fell twice in the same innings, at Eden Park. Guptill first reached fifty off 19 balls, beating his own New Zealand record by four deliveries.Even that innings was slow in comparison to Munro’s rampage, in which he made 50 from 14 deliveries – reaching the milestone with a six that also ended the match. Between them, the batsmen cleared Eden Park’s small boundaries 12 times, and blasted seven fours. Williamson made an unbeaten 32 from 21 balls at the other end, largely content to turn over the strike. New Zealand gunned down Sri Lankas 142 for 8 inside 10 overs.”I don’t think I was in the batting highlights,” Williamson said. “Honestly, it was incredible. I thought it was going to be bit of a scrap. They put up a total that could have been tricky, if they took early wickets. Not sure what these two had for breakfast, but it was unbelievable to watch. Guppy [Guptill] has been doing it all summer, and to see Munners [Munro] helping was pretty special. It was world-class hitting which we’ll only encourage these boys to keep going.”Munro – whose fifty is the second fastest globally, behind only Yuvraj Singh’s 12-ball effort against England in the 2007 World Cup – said it was pleasing to translate domestic T20 form into rapid international runs. He had been the top-scorer in New Zealand’s domestic T20 tournament, in which he struck 366 runs at a strike rate of 175.96.Having arrived at the crease with the score on 89 for 1 in the seventh over, Munro said he set his sights on closing out the game. “I just wanted try be there at the end,” he said. “Role I’ve been given, especially when chasing these smaller targets, is: ‘Don’t leave it up to someone else’. On that surface, it might have been bit harder to start on. I just think it was on Kane and I to see it through to the end.”Munro said it had been particularly pleasing to play two contrasting innings in the series. He had begun more sedately in his 26-ball 36 in Mount Maunganui. In that innings, he had been only 16 from his first 14 balls, also batting with Williamson on that occasion.”The innings I played at Mount Maunganui was a lot more mature than I’ve played in past where I probably would have thrown my wicket away, to be fair,” he said. “I batted with Kane there and he said it was a slow wicket, and to take my time until the ball was in my zone. Then it was good to come here today, and go in with lot wickets in hand, just play with freedom and try to show I can generate a strike rate batting at no. 3.”This series was an audition of sorts for Munro, who will be hoping for a place in New Zealand’s World T20 squad, to be named next month. Williamson suggested New Zealand were closer to nailing down their tournament personnel after the 2-0 victory.”In T20 you do need to use your squad,” Williamson said. “We’re trying to pick the best 15 for the moment, and give every player freedom to go out and express themselves. You want to pick match-winners, and that’s what we’ve tried to do.”

On a dry surface in a dusty Ranchi ground, India’s top order moved into customary home form, and their bowlers exposed a fragile Sri Lanka top order to win by 69 runs

Andrew Fidel Fernando12-Feb-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:49

By the numbers – Yuvraj’s maiden T20I duck

On a dry surface in a dusty Ranchi ground, India’s top order moved into customary home form, and their bowlers exposed a fragile Sri Lanka top order. Shikhar Dhawan was bruiser-in-prime, unleashing an early shellacking that brought him 51, and set the team on course to a big total. They reached 196 for 6, thanks to helpful hands from the top five, which today included a pinch-hitting Hardik Pandya. That total was 69 too many for Sri Lanka.Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina and Pandya all got to at least 25 – Pandya the quickest of the lot, striking two sixes and a four in his 12-ball 27. On a pitch with little pace and minimal seam movement, the pacers that had delivered Sri Lanka’s Pune win, were expensive. Even Sri Lanka’s first T20 international hat-trick – to Thisara Perera – barely made a difference, coming as it did in the penultimate over. Dinesh Chandimal will perhaps rue having chosen to bowl first. The track looked a good one for batting, and Sri Lanka have lately been a modest chasing side.R Ashwin had troubled Sri Lanka’s batsmen even on the Pune green top, and MS Dhoni savvily had him open the bowling here. Ashwin removed a returning Tillakaratne Dilshan second ball, and the chase never really recovered from that. Soon they were 3 for 16, Ashish Nehra claiming two early scalps. Chandimal and Chamara Kapugedara then embarked on a recovery that was far too slow to give the visitors any real chance of victory, and wickets tumbled late in the middle overs, as the required rate crept up through the teens. Ashwin finished with 3 for 14 from his four overs.Rajitha had begun his second T20 much worse than his first, spraying the first ball wide for Rohit Sharma to crash behind point, and the bowler’s evening did not improve much from there. Dhawan cracked four offside fours off his next over – the fourth of the match – to send the innings into overdrive, having already picked up legside sixes off Thisara and Sachithra Senanayake. Dhawan hit four more boundaries before the end of the Powerplay, as he clobbered spin and seam square of the wicket, largely on the legside. After six overs, India had sped to 70 – Dhawan’s share of that score 48 off 21.He got to 50 off his 22nd delivery, but departed soon after, nicking a throat-high Dushmantha Chameera ball to the keeper. That wicket bought Sri Lanka brief respite. They bowled five overs for 30, before the runs began to flow again.Chameera claimed Rohit’s scalp in the 14th over, with an athletic return catch, and Senanayake removed Rahane soon after, but India’s final push began when Pandya arrived at the crease a few places higher than he would normally bat. After two sighters he began his assault. Rajitha was struck to the midwicket boundary, before consecutive Senanayake deliveries were lifted high over deep midwicket.Raina added his own finishing blows to the closing surge, taking particular liking to Chameera, whose figures he ruined. Having sent down his first two overs for 10 runs, Chameera saw his third disappear for 18. His last also went for 10. In between Perera took a low-key hat-trick, having Pandya, Raina and Yuvraj Singh hole out to low full tosses. His figures were dramatically improved as a result. He finished with 3 for 33 from three overs.Dilshan was stumped over-reaching off the first ball he faced. Seekkuge Prasanna was sent up the order to provide some early impetus, but lacked the technique to deal with the new ball, and chewed up four balls for one run. Danushka Gunathilaka amplified Sri Lanka’s problems at the top of the order with another poor score.Kapugedara and Chandimal’s 49-ball fourth-wicket partnership yielded only 52 runs. By the time they had departed, off successive Jadeja deliveries in the 12th over, the required rate had climbed to more than 14.5, and the chase was kaput. Dasun Shanaka and Milinda Siriwardana struck some late sixes, doing good to at least their own batting confidence, if nothing much for the team cause.

The Mumbai Cricket Association has decided to file an intervention application before the Supreme Court to highlight the “difficulties and inconsistencies” in the Lodha Committee’s report, making it potentially the first member unit of the BCCI to seek cl

Arun Venugopal22-Feb-2016The Mumbai Cricket Association has decided to file an intervention application before the Supreme Court to highlight the “difficulties and inconsistencies” in the Lodha Committee’s report, making it potentially the first member unit of the BCCI to seek clarity on the committee’s recommendations. According to an MCA official, the key concerns highlighted in the application are the age limit of 70 for the office bearers, the cooling off period between terms in office, and bringing state associations under the purview of the RTI.Should the recommendations be accepted in their present form, it will become untenable for the incumbent president, Sharad Pawar, who is well over 70, to continue in office. MCA vice-president Ashish Shelar said the association was seeking advice from the Supreme Court on the implementation of the recommendations. “There is no objection. There are some difficulties about implementing [the recommendations] which we will point out to the court,” Shelar told ESPNcricinfo.”Right now the existence of MCA itself is in question [because of the one-state, one-vote recommendation], we will ask the guidance from the court on how to deal with it. We are doing that [pointing out that MCA is the oldest body in the state].”It has also emerged that many other member units, including the KSCA, TNCA and the Cricket Club of India, are likely to follow suit and file similar applications in the coming days. An official of the CCI, which according to the Lodha report has “no cause” to be treated as a Full Member, said after the SGM on Friday that it was contemplating an intervention application. “Our contributions to the BCCI over the years have been significant,” he said. “We will present our arguments to the Supreme Court.”The TNCA, it is learnt, is likely to be among the last few associations to make the intervention plea. “We are going to wait for associations like Mumbai and Maharashtra to make the first move,” a TNCA source said. “Because of the whole CSK episode we don’t want to be seen by the court to be in the forefront in opposing [the recommendations].”Meanwhile, the BCCI is expected to file its affidavit – one that will point out the “anomalies and difficulties” encountered in implementing the recommendations – in the next few days. According to a source privy to the goings on at the SGM on Friday, the BCCI was required to submit the affidavit “around February 25 or 26,” about a week before the deadline of March 3 that the Supreme Court had given for the BCCI to inform if it could implement the Lodha report.The source also said that the BCCI had encouraged its member units to file intervention applications to the Supreme Court, as each member had specific concerns that needed to be raised individually. BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur had in fact said after the SGM that the board could not stop the state associations from filing pleas to the Supreme Court.In an oral submission before the Supreme court on January 25, the Cricket Association of Bihar, the original petitioner, had sought a full implementation of the Lodha report.The BCCI’s legal counsel said the board found certain anomalies in the report and needed more time to further review the recommendations. Justice TS Thakur dismissed the request for any extension, and said the court was going to accept the Lodha report completely and implement it if the BCCI did not inform the court before the March 3 deadline.The Lodha committee, appointed by the Supreme Court in January 2015, recommended a complete overhaul of Indian cricket. Its report covered every aspect of the game with special focus on the BCCI’s administrative and governance structures and the issue of transparency.

CSA have appointed retired Judge Bernard M Ngeope as head of their Anti-Corruption and Security Unit

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Mar-2016Cricket South Africa has appointed a former Judge to head its Anti-Corruption and Security Unit. Retired Judge Bernard M Ngoepe has accepted the role of independent non-executive chairperson with immediate effect.”This position is similar to that of Sir Ronnie Flanagan, who heads the ICC’s ACSU. It includes being the lead person responsible for providing strategic guidance to both the Board of CSA and to the (Anti-Corruption and Security) Unit in the execution of its duties and responsibilities,” Haroon Lorgat, CSA CEO, said.Ngoepe’s most pressing task will be to tackle the ongoing match-fixing investigation. Former ICC head of legal David Becker, who successfully prosecuted Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir and has also acted as a legal advisor to CSA, is heading the investigation. He is assisted by CSA’s anti-corruption officer Louis Cole and an anti-corruption officer at the ICC, Arri de Beer. All three men will now report to Judge Ngoepe.In January, CSA banned Gulam Bodi for 20 years for contriving or attempting to fix matches during the 2015-16 Ram Slam tournament but since then, no further information has been made public. Alviro Petersen admitted to reporting approaches but denied any involvement.ESPNcricinfo understands at least two former Test cricketers and one other international player are among those who have been questioned and at least one them has admitted to failing to report an approach. The player met with CSA’s ACSU in the second half of January and has yet to find out the outcome of his case.

A fine cocktail of experience and youth delivered Delhi Daredevils their first victory of the season, against Kings XI Punjab at the Feroz Shah Kotla

The Report by Deivarayan Muthu15-Apr-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAmit Mishra claimed figures of 3-0-11-4 on his 100th IPL match•BCCI

A fine cocktail of experience and youth delivered Delhi Daredevils their first victory of the season. The old boys – legspinner Amit Mishra, featuring in his 100th IPL match, and captain Zaheer Khan – led the way with the ball, smothering Kings XI Punjab to 111 for 9. Then the youngsters took over as Quinton de Kock and Sanju Samson put on a 91-run partnership to seal Daredevils’ first points of the season.While Zaheer gave his team the early spark after choosing to bowl on what he called a “slow surface,” Mishra pierced through Kings XI’s top and middle order with dip, turn, and sometimes, even a lack of turn. Mishra had Shaun Marsh stumped with his first ball, then dismissed David Miller and Glenn Maxwell in his second over to break the opposition’s spine. Three of Kings XI’s heaviest scoring batsmen were dismissed in the space of 16 balls, leaving the score at 52 for 4 in the ninth over.Mishra was supported by Zaheer, who placed a slip, and at times a short leg, to capitalise on the nervous batsmen. Daredevils built on the double-strike and did not concede a boundary between the ninth and 14th overs. It was during this phase that Mishra rattled Manan Vohra’s leg stump with a wrong’ un to claim his fourth wicket in three overs. Kings XI were reeling at 59 for 5 in the 11th, but Zaheer did not call on Mishra to bowl any further.Kings XI’s struggles were not restricted to spin though. Zaheer, who had conceded he had “tried too much” in the first match against Kolkata Knight Riders, found swing right away. His first delivery moved back in and had the extra bounce to rap M Vijay on the thigh pad. That meant the balls that went on with the angle across the right-hander became more effective. Zaheer teased the outside edge regularly in his first spell but he had to wait till his second for a reward. In the 18th over, bowling a mix of slower balls, Zaheer had Mohit Sharma caught at mid-off.Chris Morris did his part as well, bowling yorkers in the slog overs and hustling the opposition with his pace. Offspinner Jayant Yadav strung four quiet overs together, benefitting by the Kings XI lower order not knowing whether to attack or defend.Kings XI made life easier for Daredevils in the chase. De Kock was reprieved twice – Vijay dropped him at deep square leg on 7 before Wriddhiman Saha botched a stumping chance on 22. De Kock, who was rather subdued in the Powerplay, hit rhythm when he cracked three fours off Axar Patel in the eighth over.Samson came out at No. 3, after Shreyas Iyer was adjudged caught behind despite Snicko picking up nothing, and took nine balls to get off the mark, via a risky pick-up shot off seamer Sandeep Sharma. He was 9 off 18 balls when he charged out to Pardeep Sahu’s legspin and launched a full toss over the long-on boundary. Samson then welcomed Maxwell with successive fours, while de Kock raised his half-century off 38 balls. Axar bowled Samson for 33 in the 13th over, but de Kock and Pawan Negi took Daredevils home comfortably.

On the eve of the match against Kolkata Knight Riders, Rising Pune Supergiants coach Stephen Fleming describe his side’s situation as “unusual” and “uncertain”

Nagraj Gollapudi13-May-2016″What we are not doing is winning cricket.””We don’t have the nucleus of players who have played together.””We’re using up all those free lives.””I was pretty angry with the way things went today so my morale needs a bit of boost.”These statements from Stephen Fleming, coach of Rising Pune Supergiants, underline his thoughts on the side’s downward spiral in their first IPL. The pain of defeat is one thing, but having to face the same questions at different venues over the past month might have been just as difficult for the former New Zealand captainAt one point Fleming was angry, but then he realised neither he nor MS Dhoni, the Supergiants captain, could do anything more than ask their players to simply compete.Four of the first-choice overseas players returned home injured within the first three weeks of the tournament. Last week Tamil Nadu legspinner M Ashwin was declared unfit due to a side strain. Add to that the absence of a home base, after the Bombay High Court moved matches scheduled for May out of Maharashtra. Home games are not just about the comfort factor, but familiarity with conditions and crowd support are often advantages for teams in the race for the playoffs.On the eve of the match against Kolkata Knight Riders, Fleming called Supergiants’ position “unusual” and “uncertain”.”We just couldn’t quite get across the line,” he said. “That little bit of confidence, being able to be a bit settled. Those would have been nice things to have. But, look, (that is) not to be. We can only talk about what could have been. It is unusual. It is disappointing for all concerned. We just haven’t been able to win the key moments. We have taken all top teams to the last over, last ball. We have just come up short. Not down and out, but just disappointed that we couldn’t turn things our way.”A loss to Knight Riders would erase Supergiants’ remote mathematical chance of a playoff spot and once things move into the post-mortem stage, Dhoni’s leadership is bound to be scrutinised. His relations with lead spinner R Ashwin, who has struggled for form, is already a talking point this season, given that the offspinner has not bowled his full quota in five out of eleven matches.At Chennai Super Kings, Ashwin was one of the biggest weapons for Dhoni, and could be brought on at any stage of the innings. When Ashwin failed, Dhoni could rely on other match-winners like Suresh Raina, Dwayne Bravo, and Brendon McCullum in 2014 and 2015. Those three players are now the core of the second new IPL franchise, Gujarat Lions.According Fleming, Dhoni has always led settled units, both at India and Super Kings. With Supergiants, on the other hand, he has had to deal with depleted resources and a new set of players who need to time to bond.”When you are a captain who is looking to get everything out of your team, you push very hard. That is not something MS has had to do a lot,” Fleming said. “He has had a very settled Indian side. He had a very settled Chennai Super Kings side. So this has been a good challenge in some ways that we have enjoyed, but again we are disappointed that we haven’t been able to get the results we would have liked.”That his team was still competitive was down to the bench strength and that was a positive, Fleming said.”We have been able to compete and we have good bench strength. Whilst we didn’t get across the line, the performances and the competitiveness of the team stay the same. That is a positive. That is something we are looking to take forward to next year. A few tweaks here and there and a little bit of fortune, then, may be, we are a team on top of the table and not bottom.”

England bowling prospect Jamie Porter survived a serious bout of the yips to help Essex keep Leicestershire firmly in check at Chelmsford.

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Jun-2016
ScorecardJamie Porter followed four false starts with a wicket•Getty Images

England bowling prospect Jamie Porter survived a serious bout of the yips to help Essex keep Leicestershire firmly in check at Chelmsford.Porter pulled out in his delivery stride four times in a row as he attempted to bowl the third ball of his fifth over.Even when he did release the ball at the fifth attempt, the final steps to the crease were short and stuttering. Two balls later, however, he rapped Paul Horton on the pads and had the opener lbw for 19. The 23-year-old’s celebration was akin to Stuart Pearce exorcising his demons after netting a penalty in the shoot-out against Spain at Euro 96.Porter was helped through his nightmare by words of encouragement from veteran seamer David Masters standing at mid-on. He bowled a sixth over in his opening spell before returning later, claiming a second wicket, and finishing with figures of 2 for 61.Masters said: “There is not a lot you can say when someone runs in and they don’t know what to do, and he’s run in three or four times. He said to me, ‘Hod, I don’t know what’s happening’. I said, ‘Just relax, chill’.”He had a hard day today and that is part of cricket and part of the learning experience. It’s not all about running in and knocking people over – he’s had a lot of that. He’s been getting lots of wickets and bowling really well. He will learn from that.”But taking the wicket was perfect for him – he said he’d had it planned all the time!”I haven’t had anything like that in my career, so it’s sometimes hard to understand. It’s a little bit of a mental block sometimes, worrying about things. But he overcame it out there and I take my hat off because that is quite hard to do. He could quite easily have chucked the towel in.”There are a lot of people who have had it, but he is a strong lad, a strong character, and he’ll be fine. He had a bad day. He bowled a lot of no-balls and he struggled. But we all have days when we struggle. It’s a good learning curve for him; it’ll be good for him going forward.”Porter had been mentioned in dispatches as a future England bowler when he followed a memorable first season in the county game – when he took 50 wickets – by adding 28 more in his first six Specsavers County Championship matches this summer.But it was the tight and parsimonious bowling of Masters and Ravi Bopara that prevented Leicestershire racing away and overhauling Essex’s first-innings total. Both bowlers claimed three wickets, Masters for just 33 runs from 19 overs, Bopara for 43 in 21 overs.From the high point of 128 for 1, Leicestershire lost their last nine wickets for 115 runs in 43 overs. That they got within 25 runs of Essex’s total was thanks to a 135-ball 74 by opener Angus Robson. His third half-century of the season included 10 fours.Porter’s had been the last Essex wicket to fall at the start of the day’s play. Clint McKay sent two of his stumps flying with the 17th ball of the morning to finish with figures of 4 for 47 and Essex all out for 268.After the departure of Horton, Angus Robson and Neil Dexter put on 88 for the second wicket in 25.2 overs without due alarm and with some crisp hitting.Dexter was first to go for 33 from 72 balls when Matt Quinn ripped out his off stump soon after lunch. Robson was fourth man out when he top-edged Masters to James Foster.In between Leicestershire captain Mark Cosgrove had become the first of three victims for Tom Westley at second slip, steering the ball straight into his hands as if giving him pre-match catching practiceAadil Ali wafted outside off stump to give Westley a second catch, and Ned Eckersley completed the trio as Westley fell backwards to give Masters his third wicket.Mark Pettini, making his first appearance at Chelmsford since moving to the Midlands last year, batted pleasantly for 80 balls, six fours and 36 runs before he fell lbw to Bopara.Five runs later, Bopara accounted for Ben Raine, caught behind. McKay then scooped Porter to Dan Lawrence at point, which is where Rob Taylor perished soon after, to wrap up the Leicestershire innings.Essex lost Nick Browne in negotiating 11 tricky overs at the end, bowled by McKay for 8. But Jaik Mickleburgh and nightwatchman Quinn saw them through to the close.