All posts by csb10.top

Dale Steyn has moved from Cape Cobras to Titans, where he first started his first-class career in 2003-04, ahead of the upcoming South African domestic season. Steyn is on a comeback trail since being sidelined due to a shoulder injury last November, during the first Test against Australia in Perth, and is on “last leg of rehabilitation” according to South Africa’s team doctor Mohammed Moosajee.Steyn also said he was “two or three weeks away from playing my first game.””It was an easy decision for me,” Steyn, who spent seven years at Cobras, told the Titans website about his move. “The luxury of playing for South Africa is that you get to nominate which franchise you want to play for. The Titans laid down the platform for where I am now.”I think the most important thing that I learnt at the Titans were the basics and it is something I still go back to every time I play international cricket. It was a great place to start playing cricket and it’s going to be a great place to go back to.”I played some of my best cricket at SuperSport Park. When you go into that change room and you look at those honours boards, you’ll see my name a couple of times on the five-wicket haul list. I walk in there and I feel at home. I am really looking forward to going back.”While it isn’t clear yet if he will be fully fit in time for South Africa’s next Test assignment, a two-match series at home against Bangladesh starting September 28, Steyn was confident of returning to the field soon.Steyn was particularly excited about linking up with his former South Africa team-mate Mark Boucher, who is now the Titans head coach. “It is going to be fantastic working with him again,” Steyn said. “As a player I looked up to him. He knows me so well, he knows me as a person and also knows about my bowling action, so I am looking forward to that, especially after this long delay with the broken shoulder.”

ScorecardShaun Marsh made a fine Yorkshire debut [file picture]•BCCI

Adam Lyth and Shaun Marsh posted half-centuries as Yorkshire got their NatWest T20 Blast campaign off to a flyer with a record-breaking 48-run win over Nottinghamshire at Headingley.The Vikings amassed 227 for five, their highest ever T20 score, with opener Lyth hitting 82 off 50 balls and Australian debutant Marsh adding 60 not out off 37.They shared 83 inside nine overs for the third wicket before Alex Hales smacked 47 off 26 balls to raise Notts hopes early on in their chase.But they had too much to do after he departed at 55 for 2 in the seventh and finished with 179 for 8.For Yorkshire, who face Derbyshire at Chesterfield tomorrow, the crowd of 10,037 was also their highest ever outside a Roses clash.Lyth and Marsh underpinned Yorkshire’s innings after winning the toss and were further boosted by David Willey (25 off 13), Jack Leaning (17 off seven) and Peter Handscomb (21 off seven).The first time the Vikings run-rate dropped below 10 came in the ninth over, with Samit Patel getting Willey caught at long-on with his second ball.Lyth pulled the second legitimate ball of the match for six off Luke Wood, but that was over the long boundary towards the East Stand side of Headingley.

‘We were sloppy’ – Gurney

Harry Gurney, Notts pace bowler:“It was lost in the first half. They got far too many runs. There was a very short boundary, but whenever you are chasing 230, you are struggling more often than not. We were sloppy with the ball.”

The majority of the hosts’ eleven sixes went to the short Western Terrace boundary, and Notts could not get any control.Lyth hit New Zealand leg-spinner Ish Sodhi over long-on to bring up his fifty in style off 32 balls before later falling as one of three wickets to Harry Gurney, skying a catch behind.Marsh was happy to get his fellow left-hander on strike early on before opening his shoulders. He reached his fifty off 43.Leaning hit Steven Mullaney for back-to-back sixes in the 17th over before Handscomb did likewise off Luke Fletcher in the 19th.Yorkshire scored 52 runs off their last three overs.Notts got their chase off to a healthy start thanks to two sixes for Hales in first three overs, including one straight off England team-mate Willey.The Outlaws had reached 32 without loss in the fourth by the time Hales was dropped on 30 at deep square by Azeem Rafiq off captain Tim Bresnan, who had Michael Lumb caught at mid-off later in the over – 33 for one.Hales scored 42 of the first 50 runs, brought up in the sixth over.Rafiq atoned for his earlier error with his first ball, in the seventh over, by getting Hales caught at deep mid-wicket, leaving Notts at 55 for two.Adil Rashid bowled Samit Patel and Rafiq struck again in the eleventh, getting Rikki Wessels caught and bowled as Notts fell to 84 for four in the eleventh. And they could not recover.They reached 15 overs at 126 for four, still needing 102.Rafiq finished with two for 38 and Rashid one for 22 from their four-over spells, while Steve Patterson added two late wickets.

England captain Eoin Morgan has played down injury concerns around Ben Stokes, after the allrounder left the field for a few overs due to a sore left knee and bowled only two overs in the first ODI against South Africa in Headingley.Morgan stated that Stokes did not have any significant signs of injury and said that he had opted not to bowl him once he came back on the field as a precautionary measure.”When he came back onto the field he had the green light to bowl,” Morgan said. “I felt bowling him again wasn’t worth the risk. He doesn’t even have swelling – there are no significant signs of an injury – but we can assess that over the next couple of days. He did the right thing to go out and get it checked. A knee can be quite a significant injury if it does happen.”Stokes came into the attack in the 18th over, with South Africa well placed at 97 for 1 in a chase of 340 and was in some discomfort at the end of the over. He had a chat with the team physio by the edge of the boundary between overs and left the field after his second over. He then returned in the 26th over, after South Africa had lost Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis quickly.Ultimately, England did not need Stokes’ services as a bowler, as they defended 339 with considerable ease, winning by 72 runs. Amla, who top-scored for the visitors with 73, felt his side suffered as none of the batsmen went on to make a century to anchor their steep chase. He was fulsome in his praise for Morgan and Moeen Ali, who had slammed an unbeaten 77 off 51 balls to lead England surge in the slog overs.”In any ODI, if somebody gets to a hundred, it will propel you to a good total, specially if you bat lower down the order,” Amla said. “You get guys batting at 4 and 5 coming late in the game and getting a hundred, that’s why Morgan’s innings was a game-changer. Moeen’s 70-odd also allowed England to get 20-30 runs more than what we expected.”Morgan lauded Moeen’s composure at the crease as the pair added 117 runs for the sixth wicket in 81 balls, and England went on to plunder 102 runs in their last 10 overs.”Batting at No. 7 is one of the hardest jobs going because you don’t know whether to shoot or not,” Morgan said. “He was very calm and composed in what he did, gave himself some time at the crease and was able to take the game to South Africa at the end.”Morgan’s 107 against South Africa on Wednesday was his third ODI hundred in 2017, taking his tally to 491 from nine innings with an average of 54.55. He is in the most consistent form of his England career.”I feel in good form. I felt like this against Ireland, I felt like this in India, I felt like this in the Big Bash,” he said. “I have never gone through a stage this long where I have been able to keep it up. I’m not sure what it is down to. Maybe a bit of experience.”

Asanka Gurusinha has conceded his first tour as Sri Lanka’s cricket manager has been disappointing. Though Sri Lanka had had a rough outing in South Africa, they were expected to win home series against Bangladesh, an opponent they had more-or-less consistently dominated. However, like the Tests and ODIs, the T20s have also now been shared 1-1.”It’s not ideal for us,” Gurusinha said. “We should have won all three series. It’s not good enough to say that we have drawn all three series, as we were playing at home. We expected to win the series.”That the final match of the tour was lost was partly thanks to a top-order failure. Chasing 177, Sri Lanka virtually batted themselves out of the match in the Powerplay, by the end of which they were 47 for 5. Four out of Sri Lanka’s top six batsmen failed to make it out of single figures – two were out for ducks.”For me the batting was very disappointing,” Gurusinha said. “It was nothing to do with the wicket, but something went wrong somewhere. It’s very difficult to give answers. This is one of the best wickets in the country. We need our top five batsmen to fire. If we don’t get runs there, it’s going to be a problem.”Having largely fielded well in the second ODI and first T20, the fielding errors that had plagued Sri Lanka for much of the past two years returned in this match. Shakib Al Hasan was dropped twice in the space of three balls – on 4 and 12, before he went on to consolidate Bangladesh’s fast start with 38 – the highest score of the visitors’ innings.Gurusinha said he and chief selector Sanath Jayasuriya were in agreement that only players who fielded well could be eligible for places in Sri Lanka’s squad for the Champions Trophy, which will be named by April 25. The provincial one-day tournament, which is set to begin this week, may serve as an audition for Champions Trophy spots.”We have already put some plans for the players when it comes to fielding,” Gurusinha said. “The chief selector, the trainer and myself are looking at certain things. We believe if players are fitter, they will field, bat and bowl better. There was a clear message from the chief selector and myself: we are not going to select players simply because they have scored heavily in domestic cricket. They need to achieve certain standards in fielding, and fitness has to be at a certain standard as well.”When you are playing three or four games at higher intensity level, that’s where players struggle. When the provincial tournament finishes, we will start training from 2nd of May. We have to select the Champions Trophy side by 25th of April. So from 2nd of May we have time till 17th of May before we go, and we will have training sessions in which we’ll be specifically working on fielding.”Perhaps Sri Lanka’s best performer in the T20s was Lasith Malinga, who took five wickets in the two matches, and claimed his first T20 hat-trick in the penultimate over of Bangladesh’s innings on Thursday. Though he has played the T20s, he has not yet made a return to ODI cricket following a major ankle injury last year. Gurusinha hoped Malinga would be fit enough to pick in the Champions Trophy squad.”Malinga has taken so many hat-tricks and he is a legend – his knowledge of cricket is unbelievable. He is a top performer. He hasn’t played lot of cricket in the last ten to 12 months, and playing T20s and 50 overs are totally different. We will watch him closely at the IPL. He has got about 15 to 20 games if he plays all the games. The best thing is that he wants to go to England with us for the Champions Trophy. I am hoping he will do it, but as he has to bowl 10 overs and field 50 – that’s where he’s a little worried.”

Kusal Mendis said the prospect of raising his average from the low 30s, and the goal of being among the world’s best batsmen, provided motivation to hit a big score on the first day in Galle.Like many in the Sri Lanka top order, Mendis endured an awful tour of South Africa in which he struck only one Test fifty and averaged 23.00 across six innings. That series was preceded by a lean run in Zimbabwe, where he averaged 19.75.His first Test knock at home in six months brought more luck. He edged his first ball to the wicketkeeper but was reprieved when the bowler was shown to have overstepped on review. From there, he played a largely chanceless innings and, thanks to being 166 not out at the close, his average has risen to 37.70. It will not drop below 35 even if he gets out first ball on day two.”When I played Australia at home, I had an average of about 42, but then it deteriorated little by little,” Mendis said. “People told me it’s hard to push it back above 30 if it goes below that. After I failed in South Africa, I wanted to get it back above 35, and you need a big innings to do that. People told me that when you get set, make sure you hit a big innings. I want to be among the best ten batsmen in the world, and to get my average to 40 or 45 eventually.”The return to form was not down to a specific technical change, Mendis said, though perhaps the early reprieve did help. In previous innings, Mendis has been out driving loosely, but following that first shot, he was largely watchful through the first session. Only later in the day did he adopt the positive approach that is more familiar to his game.”I practised hard after Zimbabwe and South Africa,” he said. “The coaches, senior players and captains all told me that I can handle this level – they didn’t put much pressure on me despite my failures. I corrected my backlift a bit after watching previous videos, but there weren’t any major changes. Those little things I tried to change.”I must have played a bad shot to get out first ball, but I was keen to stay there for the team after that.”Mendis’ 196-run partnership with Asela Gunaratne was instrumental to Sri Lanka’s strong position in the match. The two had come together with the score on 92 for 3, and batted with freedom over 43 overs to transform the game’s outlook.”Asela’s in really good form after doing well in the Australia series. I had a feeling he’d get a good score, given the way he was playing. When he was at the other end, it became easier for me as well. At one time, he batted well at the other end and took the pressure off me when I was feeling a bit tired. Unfortunately he got out towards the end of the day. It was easy to bat with him.”While Galle can often be a spin-bowling paradise, so far this surface has been as lifeless as any seen at the venue over the past three years. The previous Test here, against Australia, ended in two-and-a-half days, though Mendis was also impressive in that game, top-scoring with 86.”Last year when we played Australia here, the ball really turned,” Mendis said. “This time it’s easier for the batsmen, and it won’t be a big difference tomorrow – maybe late in the day the ball will spin a bit more. The wicket does seem hard though, so it’s hard to predict what will happen.”

ScorecardJoe Clarke was in good touch for MCC•Getty Images

Joe Clarke put an unproductive England Lions tour of Sri Lanka behind him when he made 89 as the MCC struck 332 all out on the opening day of the Champion County clash against Middlesex in Abu Dhabi.Clarke struck 11 fours to guide MCC past 300 at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium before he fell lbw to the Middlesex fast-medium bowler James Harris. Harris also removed Tom Alsop for a sixth-ball duck and Liam Plunkett as MCC were dismissed shortly before the close.He gained support from another England Lions batsman who had an in-and-out Lions tour, Ben Duckett, who played with his usual enterprise in making 69 from 88 balls before falling lbw toMiddlesex’s off-spinner Ravi Patel.Three good wickets for Patel, who also removed MCC captain Alex Lees and Lewis Gregory, was encouraging for Patel who, at 25, will be anxious to make good the early promise that won him England Lions honours.

Kane Williamson lamented a New Zealand batting display which did not adjust to a challenging pitch at Eden Park in the deciding ODI. For the second time in the series they were bowled out well inside the 50 overs, and though Williamson said conditions were difficult he believed the batsman could have been smarter.South Africa did not find it easy, either, until the target came into view and the chase was finished in a hurry. AB de Villiers said he would have been concerned with a chase of much over 200 and had targeted working through New Zealand for 150 after nabbing their big names early.Martin Guptill fell in the fifth over and by the end of the 16th, Williamson and Ross Taylor had also departed, the captain to a run-out after a poor call from Dean Brownlie.  There had only been six lower completed first innings at the ground, the most recent of those being 141 by Sri Lanka in 2004.”It was far from easy, but that’s when fight needs to be shown to get a competitive score,” Williamson said. “A lot of the time at Eden Park it’s hard to know what a good score is. So that’s where that assessment needs to take place and build those partnerships. We couldn’t do that today. South Africa bowled well and made it very tough.”As he had in Wellington, Williamson referenced the difficulty of rotating the strike on a drop-in wicket where the ball does not run easily over the square. That was particularly evident against Imran Tahir who bowled his ten overs for a stifling 14 runs – the thriftiest ten-over spell by a spinner in New Zealand – as he benefited from batsmen hemmed in by the early pressure.”It is tough to rotate the strike out there and when you are under pressure and lose wickets that is something you look to do to bring some momentum back and that wasn’t happening,” Williamson said. “You need to appreciate that at Eden Park and look to skin it another way. Perhaps our batting smarts weren’t quite where we needed to be.”We lost a number of wickets around Imran which made it difficult. We needed two guys to stick there for a death phase so we had wickets in hand so we could go harder.”Although New Zealand set a solid total in Christchurch and had the Guptill-inspired chase in Hamilton, this series has raised questions about areas of the top order, notably Guptill’s opening partner and how they shuffle the middle order to accommodate the allrounders and wicketkeeper.However, despite this hefty defeat which ended their unbeaten home record in ODI series dating back to 2014, Williamson believed it had been another season of solid white-ball results, with victories over Bangladesh and Australia.”We would have loved to have won the series, but there’s been some really, really good cricket played against some highly-ranked opposition. We’ve had a tough summer of one-day cricket,” he said. “There have been some steps of improvement, new guys have come in and done well and that’s all important moving forward. You want to breed that depth so guys can come in and make the difference. We’ve seen good signs of that.”New Zealand’s next one-day cricket is a triangular series in Ireland in May, also involving Bangladesh, before the Champions Trophy. New Zealand’s IPL-bound players, who include Williamson, Guptill, Trent Boult and Tim Southee, will be allowed to skip that series if their franchises are still in the tournament. Batsmen George Worker, Tom Bruce and Henry Nicholls will be in contention to fill in for the absentees, along with Seth Rance, Hamish Bennett and Scott Kuggeleijn with the ball.

ScorecardShaiman Anwar steered UAE home with his seventh ODI half-century•Peter Della Penna

Imran Haider, the legspinner, took four wickets in his second ODI to help United Arab Emirates record a six-wicket win over Hong Kong in their tri-series fixture in Dubai on Thursday. UAE got to their target of 175 in 38.1 overs to finish the series on top of the points table.Hong Kong were put in to bat and lost wickets in clumps, tottering at one stage at 85 for 5. Nizakat Khan, the No. 4 batsman, held the lower order together in making a 111-ball 93 including seven fours and three sixes. Nizakat’s 67-run stand for the eighth wicket with Ehsan Nawaz, who made 11, was the highest of the innings which folded in the penultimate over.Haider removed Babar Hayat, the Hong Kong captain, and Shahid Wasif for ducks. At one stage, he had three wickets in as many overs; he eventually finished with 4 for 25 off his 10 overs to take his wickets tally to seven in two matches.UAE started solidly courtesy a 76-run opening stand between Rohan Mustafa and Mohammed Qasim, before losing three quick wickets – two of which were picked up by Ehsan Khan, the offspinner. Shaiman Anwar then took charge to make a half-century to take UAE to within 27 runs of victory before giving Ehsan his third wicket. Muhammad Usman (20 not out) and Mohammad Naveed (9 not out) then saw the chase through.

ScorecardFile photo – Shaiman Anwar struck 78 to rescue his team from a poor start before rain washed away nearly three days of the Intercontinental Cup match•AFP

Only 66 overs were possible in a rain-affected Intercontinental Cup match between UAE and Scotland that was eventually called off as a draw in Ayr. The teams were awarded seven points each at the end of the game, and UAE registered their first points of the competition.UAE scored 212 runs after being put in to bat, losing five wickets in their innings. Only seven overs were possible on the second day, after 59 were bowled on the opening day. The last two days of the match were abandoned without a ball being bowled.UAE overcame a poor start – they were 33 for 3 in the 10th over – through fifties from Shaiman Anwar and Rameez Shahzad. The pair added 123 runs for the fifth wicket before Anwar was dismissed for 78 off 129 balls. His innings included nine fours. Rameez carried on and was unbeaten on 74 when rain interrupted proceedings on the second day. He hit eight fours and two sixes in his 140-ball vigil.The wickets were split between pacers Alasdair Evans and Josh Davey, who took two apiece, and left-arm spinner Mark Watt, who had figures of 1 for 26.

South Africa captain AB de Villiers has expressed his disappointment at the “soft dismissals” from his batsmen that let Australia back into the contest in the fourth match of the tri-series in St Kitts. Chasing 289 for victory South Africa appeared to be cruising at the 25-over mark, when they had 137 for 1, but the innings fizzled out and they were dismissed for 252 in the 48th over.All of the top five batsmen made starts but none made it past the 60s. Hashim Amla drove straight to cover for 60, Faf du Plessis sliced one to point for 63, de Villiers was bowled when Josh Hazlewood found some reverse swing and JP Duminy pulled Adam Zampa tamely to deep midwicket, leaving too much work for South Africa’s long tail.”Lots of our dismissals were soft dismissals tonight, including my own,” de Villiers said. “Those things are bad decisions at the wrong time. It’s not really something you can work on. It’s just something we have to fix in the next game with a better mindset … The wicket played pretty well throughout the game. We’ve got no excuse, we just didn’t bat well enough.”With the ball reversing, Australia had little trouble running through the South African lower order, collecting the last seven wickets for 42 runs in 10 overs. It was a tame end for South Africa after they enjoyed a 105-run stand between Amla and du Plessis. Playing his first game back from a finger injury, du Plessis was pleased with his touch but not with how he departed.”We pretty much controlled the game in that second innings for about 80% of the time, with myself and Hashim and then myself and AB,” du Plessis said. “To be honest, I thought that when myself and AB were batting it was pretty much in our hands. We felt in control.”Obviously we knew Australia had to get wickets to get back in the game and they did that with some good bowling from Starcy at the tail-enders there. But I think we can point the finger straight back at ourselves – some pretty poor shots to give them wickets to get them back in the game.”Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Adam Zampa each picked up three wickets, but the difference in the match was the 109 scored by David Warner earlier in the day. He was the only man from either team who really capitalised on a start, and du Plessis said if one of South Africa’s set batsmen had stayed in until the end, the result would have been different.”It’s one guy saying ‘I’m going to win the game today’ and putting his hand up,” du Plessis said. “If you look at the best players in the world, it’s guys that can do that more consistently, someone like Virat Kohli at the moment who is winning a lot of games of cricket for his country. Today we had three batsmen – myself, Hashim and AB – who could have done that.”It was notable, though, that the South African bowlers found virtually no reverse swing but Starc and Hazlewood got the ball to move just enough later in the day, enticing a few mistakes from South Africa’s batsmen. Zampa also kept his head towards the end of the match and finished with 3 for 52 from his 10 overs.”It’s always hard to start against a ball that’s reversing when you’ve got someone like Mitchell Starc or Josh Hazlewood coming in at you,” Australia’s captain Steven Smith said. “I thought those guys did a terrific job when the ball started to go. I think we got five wickets in six overs at one point and that obviously turned the game.”[Zampa] was good. I put him under a bit of pressure at the end there as well. I bowled him a few overs where they could have hit a few to these small straight boundaries. But he held his nerve nicely. He changed his pace, mixed it up, bowled some googlies and he’s come a long way.”