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A strong all-round performance by Pakistan Under-19s helped them beat Afghanistan Under-19s by 151 runs and qualify for the final of the Under-19 Asia Cup

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Jun-2012
ScorecardThe captains, Javed Ahmadi and Babar Azam, before the start of the semi-final•Peter Lim/Asian Cricket CouncilA strong all-round performance by Pakistan Under-19s helped them beat Afghanistan Under-19s by 151 runs and qualify for the final of the Under-19 Asia Cup, where they will play either India or Sri Lanka on July 1.Pakistan’s opener Sami Aslam, who has been in fine form in the tournament with scores of 121, 82 not out and 47 in earlier matches, scored 77 with ten boundaries. Aslam and captain Babar Azam put on a 69-run opening stand, before Azam was dismissed for 33.Azam’s departure didn’t prove a dampener for Pakistan, as Imam-ul-Haq continued attacking the Afghan bowlers. Haq scored 69, with seven fours, before being bowled by Sharafudin.Umar Waheed, who top-scored for Pakistan with 76 in their last match against Malaysia, carried his form into the semifinal by scoring 77 at over a run a ball. Waheed and Mohammad Nawaz scored 76 runs in the last ten overs to help their side post 296 for 3.Afghanistan faltered at the start of their innings, with Ehsan Adil dismissing by both openers cheaply. Their middle-order showed some resistance, with Mohibullah Paak top scoring 41, with two fours and one six.But Pakistan’s right-arm fast bowler Azizullah kept the pressure on, picking four wickets in his nine-over spell, to help his side dismiss the opposition for 145 and clinch an easy victory.

The fast bowler James Pattinson will not be part of the Australia A tour of England due to an abdominal strain

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Jul-2012The fast bowler James Pattinson will not be part of the Australia A tour of England due to an abdominal strain. Pattinson suffered the problem during the final ODI against England in Manchester earlier this month and has not stayed on with the A side, which begins its tour with a three-day match against Derbyshire on Friday.Pattinson is instead expected to resume bowling next week with Victoria, having returned home to Melbourne following the ODI series. However, he is expected to be fit for the one-day series against Pakistan in the UAE next month, having been named in the squad for that tour after he suffered the injury.The Western Australia fast bowler Nathan Coulter-Nile is set to join the Australia A squad, which had already gained Alister McDermott after he was brought in to replace in the injured Pat Cummins, who suffered a side strain. The tour would have provided a valuable opportunity for Pattinson and Cummins to bowl with the red ball in English conditions ahead of their likely involvement in next year’s Ashes.Instead, the Australia A group will rely on Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Ben Cutting, Jackson Bird, McDermott and Coulter-Nile for their pace requirements. The spin contingent is made up of Nathan Lyon, Jon Holland and Steven Smith. The Australia A series includes four games against county sides and the England Lions over the next three weeks.

The Report by Andrew Fernando17-Aug-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsMushfiqur Rahim powered Nagenahira Nagas’ chase•Ron Gaunt/SPORTZPICS/SLPLAnother stellar bowling performance underpinned a third consecutive victory for Nagenahira Nagas, as they breezed past Basnahira Cricket Dundee’s 146 with six wickets and one over to spare. Shaminda Eranga’s three for 20 from four overs and an economical spell from Sachith Pathirana ensured Cricket Dundee could not launch a sustained surge at any stage, and Mushfiqur Rahim’s cool unbeaten 54 guided the Nagas unfussily to the modest target.Once again Eranga troubled batsmen with seam, on a pitch that retained enough spice to accommodate movement in both directions despite one match already having been played on it earlier in the evening. An away-swinger caught the outside of Dhanushka Gunathilleke’s bat, his drive going to mid off, and Cameron Borgas fell in similar fashion to Eranga much later in the innings. Sachithra Serasinghe’s bottom edge completed Eranga’s haul, but the dot balls amid the breakthroughs were almost as crucial to his side’s cause.Dilshan was forced into reticence once again through early wickets and tight bowling, and his 35 took 31 deliveries. Dimuth Karunaratne and Borgas also got starts, but neither were able to spur the run rate to any great extent as the Nagas continued to get regular breakthroughs.Imran Nazir retured hurt early for the Nagas, after he pulled a muscled playing a pull stroke, but Angelo Mathews and Mushfiqur combined to provide substance to the chase, with a measured third-wicket stand of 57. Both batsmen collected the runs on offer from the spinners, and scored heavily square of the wicket off the seam bowlers, while striking the odd boundary to keep up with the required rate.Mathews’ demise for 30 did not deter Mushfiqur, who found another solid partner in Angelo Perera, and the pair set about closing the game out quickly with a spate of boundaries. A six to Mushfiqur, off the last ball of the penultimate over, took him past fifty and secured the tournament top-spot for the Nagas, who appear to be the form side of the early stages.

As South Africa’s senior team closed in on victory at Lord’s the second XI secured a first victory on their tour of Ireland

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Aug-2012
ScorecardAs South Africa’s senior team closed in on a win at Lord’s that would secure them the No. 1 Test ranking, the second XI secured a first victory on their tour of Ireland with a rain-affected 68-run win in the first one-day game.Farhaan Behardien was the mainstay of the South Africa A innings with 88 off 85 balls, his highest one-day score, while Justin Ontong made 60 in a total of 255 for 9. The chase proved well out of reach for the Ireland XI as they lost three of their top five batsmen for ducks before rain brought an early end to the match.The home side had made a promising start by reducing South Africa A to 86 for 4 in the 22nd over when Dean Elgar was caught behind off Kevin O’Brien. However, Ontong and Behardien added 95 for the fifth wicket to form the backbone of the innings.Ontong had struck two sixes in his 66-ball stay when he fell to Peter Connell but Dane Vilas, the wicketkeeper, offered useful support in a stand of 34 with Behardien who played out the innings as the lower order fell away a little. Trent Johnston finished with 3 for 33 from his 10 overs.Wayne Parnell, who was outstanding in the four-day game, struck in his first over of the chase to immediately set the Ireland XI back. James Shannon played positively for his 33 off 35 balls but when he departed to Ryan McLaren three wickets fell with the score on 48.Andrew Poynter and John Anderson resisted for an 11-over stand but the required rate was rising and the South Africans chipped away, including a scalp for Behardien to cap his day, before the game decided was when the weather closed in.

Matthew Hayden scored 380 on the second day at Perth, surpassing Brian Lara’s Test record of 375, as Australia finally declared on 735 for 6

Lynn McConnell07-Sep-2012Close, 2nd day
Scorecard

Matthew Hayden: in a class of his own © Getty

Matthew Hayden once said the stimulation he received from hitting a cricket ball – and hitting it well – would never wane. Zimbabwe found that out the hard way today as Hayden put every other Test match batting record in the shade en route to an unforgettable 380. The day revolved around his remarkable achievement to such an extent that it was almost forgotten that Australia amassed 735 for 6, the highest total in 126 years of cricket on Australian soil, before taking pity on Zimbabwe’s bowlers.To their credit, Zimbabwe made a brave fist of it in the final session, reaching 61 before Jason Gillespie blasted a ball through Dion Ebrahim’s defence to bowl him for 29. By stumps, there were 79 for one wicket, still a small ocean short of the 536 needed to avoid the follow-on.But whatever be your perspective, this was Hayden’s day, as he once again revealed the hunger of the late starter. Not only did he surpass the 375 scored by Brian Lara against England at Antigua in 1993-94, but he became only the second Australian to score a triple century on home soil – something beyond even a certain Donald George Bradman. His energy levels never ebbed, and 400 was a distinct possibility – especially after Steve Waugh decided to let the batsmen come back out after tea – when he pulled a ball from Trevor Gripper to backward square leg, where Stuart Carlisle took a low tumbling catch.The record was just reward for a batsman who has been the outstanding performer of the 21st century, and with four Tests still to play in the calendar year, Hayden finds himself well within reach of 1000 runs – he has 837 after this epic – in a year for the third successive time.

Matthew Hayden walks off after his record-breaking innings © Getty

The straight drive proved a reliable, and punishing, weapon throughout his innings. There were also flashing cuts and disdainful pulls aplenty. With the attack enfeebled to such an extent that they appeared to be on some mediocre auto-pilot, Hayden was also more inclined to loft the ball straight. He ended his innings having struck 11 sixes, one short of equalling Wasim Akram’s world record.Hayden’s inexorable progress past successive milestones meant that Adam Gilchrist’s truly remarkable cameo – if you can call a century that – was relegated to the shade. He finished with 113 not out – his ninth Test century – perhaps the only time in the history of the game that an 84-ball hundred has had to play second fiddle. Gilchrist did manage some crumbs of comfort from the record-breaking table, as both batsmen made over a hundred runs between lunch and tea.Hayden, who had also scored a century between tea and stumps yesterday, joined Walter Hammond – who achieved the feat against New Zealand at Auckland in 1932-33 – as the only man to do that twice in the same innings.Sean Ervine may have achieved his career-best figures with four wickets, but they came at a cost of 146 runs. Gripper, who dropped Hayden at midwicket, when he offered his only chance at 335, finished with 2 for 142, as five bowlers went for over 100 runs.The only thing that Zimbabwe managed to do right was to deny Steve Waugh the unique honour of having scored a hundred at each of Australia’s contemporary Test grounds. Waugh had been untroubled on his way to 78, but Sean Ervine got one to catch the inside edge and rebound high into the air off the pad, following up well enough to snaffle a difficult chance.The rest of the day was all about one man’s tryst with history. Hayden has often professed to a fondness for fly-fishing, and today, the bait he used snared the biggest fish of them all. Goodbye Brian Lara, hello Matthew Hayden – king of the batting mountain.

Shane Warne has clarified his comments regarding a Test comeback, declaring that he is “not even considering” such a move in the lead-up to next year’s Ashes

Brydon Coverdale06-Dec-2012Shane Warne has clarified his comments regarding a Test comeback, declaring that he is “not even considering” such a move in the lead-up to next year’s Ashes. Earlier this week, Warne said he had been frustrated with the way Australia’s bowlers had let down their captain Michael Clarke during the loss to South Africa in Perth, and if Clarke asked him to make a comeback he was confident he would be able to play to Test standard.Warne, 43, would have to make such a return through club cricket for St Kilda and Sheffield Shield cricket for Victoria, but he said on Thursday that was not on his radar. Warne, the captain of the Melbourne Stars, was promoting Friday night’s Big Bash League season opener between the Stars and the Melbourne Renegades, and he said he had spoken to Clarke during the week to clear up any confusion.”I spoke to Pup on a few different matters. That’s all been pretty cleared up about all that sort of stuff,” Warne said. “I’m not asking Michael Clarke. My quotes were all about if you ask me could I do it, I have no doubt that I could. But it’s a big commitment. There’s grade cricket, there’s state cricket, you have to go through that process and hopefully get selected.”For me it’s nothing that I’m even considering. I’m bowling as good as I possibly have for the last five or six years. At this stage right now if you ask me do I want to make a comeback? No. I’m concentrating on the Big Bash.”Warne also dismissed the idea that he could consider playing club or state cricket after the BBL, and said that his commentary duties would keep him busy. “At this stage with my calendar I’ve got the first Test of Australia vs India for ESPN in India [in February],” Warne said. “So at this stage there’ll be no grade cricket.”

ESPNcricinfo previews the second T20I between India and England in Mumbai

The Preview by Siddhartha Talya21-Dec-2012Match factsDecember 22, 2012
Start time 1900 (1330 GMT)Alex Hales batted impressively in Pune•BCCIBig PictureOne-off or two-match Twenty20 series are usually lacking in context, and that’s even more the case on this England tour which is taking place a couple of months after the premier, global T20 tournament has ended. But, for a side beaten in a home Test series for the first time in eight years, the positives have been few, and the limited-overs games offer an opportunity to push for more. There were encouraging signs for India in Pune; they fielded with intensity and Yuvraj Singh returned to his match-winning ways.Described as a side in transition in Tests, India looked much more at home in the shorter format as opposed to England, under a stand-in captain and a new-look team. Alex Hales stood out for England with his display of clean striking at the top of the order – he’s one of three Nottinghamshire players from the first T20, each of whom have been told by their county that they will not be allowed to the play in the IPL next season.Form guide(Most recent first)
India: WWWLW
England LLWLL
In the spotlightAjinkya Rahane has been made to wait for a Test debut but has been impressive in the shorter formats. He pulled off a couple of cleanly-struck straight sixes in the first game and looked good for more before he mistimed one to mid-on. Often talked up as a future member of the Indian Test top order, Rahane’s opportunities in the international arena have been very limited, just four so far this year.Samit Patel has had more chances but hasn’t had the best of years. He lost his place in the Test XI this series, though chipped in with a quick 24 in the first T20 international in Pune. He’s got another T20 game to finish 2012 on a brighter note.Team newsJonny Bairstow has left the squad and flown back to England for “family reasons”. Jade Dernbach was expensive in his three-over spell in Pune and England could consider giving Middlesex seamer James Harris a go in his place.England (possible): 1 Michael Lumb, 2 Alex Hales, 3 Luke Wright, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Samit Patel, 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Tim Bresnan, 8 James Tredwell, 9 Stuart Meaker, 10 Danny Briggs, 11 James Harris.Should India wish to make a change, they have Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the Uttar Pradesh seamer, or Abhimanyu Mithun, on the bench.India (possible): 1 Gautam Gambhir, 2 Ajinkya Rahane 3, Virat Kohli, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Suresh Raina, 6 MS Dhoni (capt and wk), 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar/Parvinder Awana/Abhimanyu Mithun, 10 Piyush Chawla, 11 Ashok Dinda.Stats and trivia India’s win over England in Pune was their second-best against a non-‘minnow’ team in terms of balls to spare; they had won with 15 balls to spare against Pakistan in the World Twenty20. Yuvraj Singh’s effort was the 16th instance of a player scoring 30 or more and picking up three or more wickets in the same game. He’s done it twice. Quotes”I felt each and every bowler, apart from Yuvraj, bowled at least one bad over in the game. But I’m overall very happy with the performance.”

“We got off to a great start. Alex Hales played tremendously well along with Luke Wright but in that middle period we failed to kick on and score. That positivity wasn’t there in our batting and we lacked about 15 or 20.”

On what was the first full day’s play in Jamshedpur, Punjab held the upper hand in all three sessions to put them on course to taking the advantage against the hosts Jharkhand

Amol Karhadkar in Jamshedpur08-Jan-2013
ScorecardFile photo – Jiwanjot Singh was in sight of another big score, batting on 77•ESPNcricinfo LtdOn what was the first full day’s play in Jamshedpur, Punjab held the upper hand in all three sessions to put them on course to taking the advantage against the hosts Jharkhand.Riding on four-wicket hauls by the seamer Siddarth Kaul and legspinner Sarabjit Ladda , the Group A toppers first restricted Jharkhand to a first-innings total of 401. The opener Jiwanjot Singh then continued his dream debut season with an unbeaten fifty, adding two vital partnerships to help Punjab end the day at 150 for 1.As the teams reached the stadium in the morning, they were in for a surprise with the sun shining brightly for the first time in the game. With no fog around, the game started as per schedule. Jharkhand would have hoped for their overnight centurion Ishank Jaggi to continue their march towards a big first-innings total along with Sunny Gupta.However, the Punjab pace duo of Kaul and Manpreet Gony bowled a nagging line to deprive Jaggi and Gupta easy singles. With runs hard to come by at the start of the day, it was easier for Ladda and Harbhajan Singh to take over from the pacers. They maintained the pressure, and a wicket eventually came in the 13th over of the day.Ladda decided to change the angle and bowl round the wicket to Jaggi, who edged one that pitched just outside the leg stump to Mandeep Singh at first slip. With the score at 340 for 7, Punjab looked to wind up the Jharkhand innings quickly.But they had to toil for another hour before tasting success. Gupta and Shahbaz Nadeem survived several edges and leg-before appeals and with lunch around the corner, it seemed as if they would comfortably take Jharkhand towards 450. However, just before the interval, Ladda got Nadeem to scoop one to Jiwanjot at short leg. The Jharkhand innings lasted just two overs after lunch as Kaul sent Shankar Rao’s middle stump for a walk off the third ball after resumption. Last man Ajay Yadav then ran himself out in the next over, shortly after Jharkhand passed the 400 mark.With the visitors in the hunt of a 400-plus total, a good start was required. Jiwanjot, who came into the game with 785 runs under his belt, and Ravi Inder Singh did just that, with their right and left-hand combination not allowing the Jharkhand new-ball bowlers settle into a rhythm. Once spin was introduced as early as the 11th over, in the form of captain Nadeem, the Punjab duo negotiated him well and kept the scoreboard moving, without indulging in any outrageous drives or over-ambitious flicks or cuts.The first error they committed cost them. Ravi Inder got a ball from Nadeem that pitched on the rough created by the bowlers’ foot marks and nicked it to the slips, where Manish Vardhan took a diving catch.But Taruwar Kohli, who played the stroke of the day off his first ball – a straight drive that raced to the fence – then curbed his natural instincts in the last session to make matters easier for Jiwanjot. Jiwanjot has built a reputation of converting his starts into big hundreds. If he lives up to it on the penultimate day, then Punjab could well be in a celebratory mood by the end of Wednesday’s play.

South Africa stand on the cusp of their most successful period under Graeme Smith, who was keen to finish the summer on a winning note

Firdose Moonda in Centurion21-Feb-2013The last time Graeme Smith captained South Africa in a dead rubber, the team had just won a series in Australia. Little else mattered but Smith batted with a broken hand to try to stave off defeat in the third Test even though it had no bearing on the bigger picture.One of the most marked differences between the current South African side and the one of 2008-9 is that closing the deal at the earliest opportunity is more important to this lot. “We’ve been through some growth periods. Certain things didn’t work then as they are now,” Smith said. “Systems in the team are running a lot better and some processes are a lot more professional. We’ve taken that step that we were searching for.”The focus on being more clinical has paid off. South Africa stand on the cusp of their most successful period under Smith. Never before under Smith’s captaincy have South Africa won all the Test matches in a home summer as they could with victory in Centurion. Never before have they won five in a row as they have now and never before have they been as determined to keep the intensity up.”Being mentally sharp is going to the challenge but I think we will be,” Smith said. “The energy at training was good and we would love to finish our summer of Test cricket on a positive note.”A whitewash will be nothing more than a show of dominance but it is important in establishing themselves as ruthless, especially since South Africa disappear from the Test circuit after this match. Attention will fall on India’s series against Australia and the Ashes and the No.1 ranked side in the world will have to wait until October before they play again.The break in the schedule may rob South Africa of the chance to play at their peak but that is something no-one can control. They would have featured sooner had the July-August tour to Sri Lanka not been turned into a limited-overs only affair and Smith did not show too much disappointment at that. “We would love to have carried on the momentum we’ve started and to keep playing and playing well but when you’ve played for a long time you deal with things as they come.”Smith was even able to spot a positive in the long break before facing Pakistan in UAE in October. South Africa will use the Centurion Test to study their opposition closely in preparation for their return clash. “When we start playing again later in the year there won’t be any time to find our feet again. Hopefully the confidence will be as strong as it is now. The squad is performing well as a group. We’ve got some highly skilled players. Hopefully we can pick up from that.”Growing that legacy is the immediate goal and winning in Centurion will go some way to realising that. It is also the chance for Smith to notch up another achievement. Should South Africa emerge victorious, Smith will have his 50th victory as Test captain, something no other leader has achieved. At Newlands he overtook Allan Border as the captain with the most Test victories and at the Wanderers, he became the only person to captain a team 100 times in Test cricket.The accolades are so regular, Smith doesn’t have the words to describe what they mean to him anymore, except to say he wants to keep going. “I’m running out of things to say. I am looking forward to that number growing even more. It’s a great achievement for me and the guys that I have played with.Hopefully when I reflect back on this one day I can say that as a team we did ourselves proud and not that we left ourselves short. I will be extremely proud to saying I could take South Africa to No.1 in the world and that we could stay there.”

VB Chandrasekhar, the former India opener, has been axed as Tamil Nadu coach less than a year after taking charge

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Mar-2013VB Chandrasekhar, the former India opener, has been axed as Tamil Nadu coach less than a year after taking charge. Chandrasekhar took over in July, but a disappointing run of results has led to his sacking.Tamil Nadu are traditionally one of the stronger sides on the domestic circuit, but finished seventh in their group in the league phase of the Ranji Trophy and failed to progress from the zonal stage of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Tamil Nadu still have one tournament before the season closes, the Syed Mustaq Ali Twenty20 competition.This was Chandrasekhar’s first stint as coach of a state side. He played most of his cricket with Tamil Nadu and scored 4999 runs from 81 first-class matches in a 13-year career which ended in 1998. He has also served on the national and state selection panels.