All posts by h716a5.icu

Zimbabwe’s Prosper Utseya can resume bowling in international cricket, but he still won’t be allowed to bowl his offbreak

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Dec-2014Zimbabwe’s Prosper Utseya can resume bowling in international cricket, but he still won’t be allowed to bowl his offbreak. Utseya’s slow and medium-paced deliveries were found to be legal by the ICC, but his offspin deliveries were still measured to be above the permissible limit.Utseya, who had gone undergone remedial work after being banned from bowling in October, had identified his offspin and a variety of slow and medium deliveries as the type of deliveries he would be bowling during the ICC retest. All his slower deliveries were measured within the 15-degree level of tolerance permitted under the ICC Regulations for the Review of Bowlers Reported with Suspected Illegal Bowling Actions, but not his offspin deliveries.During matches, the umpires will still be at liberty to report Utseya if they believe he is displaying a suspect action and not reproducing the legal action that was analysed during the retest. To assist in comparing the action used in the lab to the action used in upcoming matches, umpires have been provided with images and video footage of Utseya’s remodeled legal bowling action.

Somerset bounced back to winning ways in the Yorkshire Bank 40 by beating Glamorgan by three wickets with 10 balls to spare.

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Jun-2013
ScorecardPeter Trego’s 72 from 66 balls was a strong start to the chase•Getty ImagesSomerset bounced back to winning ways in the Yorkshire Bank 40 by beating Glamorgan by three wickets with 10 balls to spare.Responding to Glamorgan’s 245 for 9, which included an unbeaten 75 from Ben Wright, the hosts looked well placed as Peter Trego hit 72 and Dean Elgar made 51. But they slipped to 203 for 7 before Craig Meschede and Max Waller both hit career-bests to see Somerset home.After being put into bat, Glamorgan openers Will Bragg and Mark Wallace added 31 before Meschede had Wallace caught by wicketkeeper Barrow. Jamie Overton entered the attack in dramatic fashion with two wickets in his first over. His first delivery had Chris Cooke caught at short midwicket by Elgar and four balls later, Bragg clipped him to Trego at third man. Meschede claimed his second wicket when Jim Allenby edged a wider one which Barrow dived to catch with his right hand.Waller tightened Somerset’s grip on proceedings when Murray Goodwin drove him straight to James Hildreth at short midwicket and the visitors found themselves 97 for five in the 21st over. Marcus North drove Overton to the boundary but on 46 was caught at gully by Hildreth.When Wagg was run out by Waller with a direct hit in the 30th over Glamorgan were on 143 for 7 as Dean Cosker came to the wicket to join Wright. Cosker drove Steve Kirby to the boundary to bring up the 150 soon after which Wright went to his half-century with a boundary to third man off the same bowler.The eighth-wicket partnership was worth 89 when Elgar brought it to an end, Cosker caught at mid-off by Overton for 37. Three balls later Elgar had Michael Hogan caught at long on by Hildreth as Glamorgan ended their innings on 245 for 9, Wright not out 75 from 57 balls.In reply, Marcus Trescothick and Trego added 41 before the Somerset captain was caught at mid-off from the bowling of Wagg for 13. Nick Compton scored four before being caught at first slip trying to cut Simon Jones.Trego went to his 50 with three consecutive fours off Cosker as he and Elgar started to dominate proceedings. Elgar brought up the Somerset 100 with a lofted boundary off Allenby.Trego had moved onto 72 when he was was bowled by North, his third-wicket partnership with Elgar adding 95 runs. Elgar went to his maiden Somerset 50 in the 27th over but one run later was caught at deep mid-wicket by Wright off Cosker.Hildreth was lbw five balls later and Cosker, who took 3 for 41, struck again with the first delivery of his next over when Suppiah was bowled for six.Meschede hit 24 off the 33rd over bowled by Jones, which included two sixes to bring Somerset right back into the game.When Barrow was bowled by Wagg, the young allrounder was joined by Waller and the pair stayed at the wicket together to see Somerset to 246 by which time Meschede was unbeaten on 40, with Waller not out 25.

Daniel Vettori is in doubt for New Zealand’s match against Australia due to his recurring Achilles tendon injury

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Jun-2013Daniel Vettori is an unsure starter for New Zealand’s match against Australia due to his long-standing Achilles tendon injury. New Zealand papers reported that Vettori had received a saline injection during the game against Sri Lanka on Sunday, his first ODI match in two years, as he struggled on the field with pain. While the injury has not completely flared up, benching Vettori would be more of a precautionary measure, to keep him available for the rest of Champions Trophy.New Zealand captain, Brendon McCullum said the team would assess Vettori’s fitness situation, and take a decision depending on the conditions at Edgbaston. “We want to keep assessing Dan, knowing how valuable he is to our set up and knowing the wicket will be similar to what we found today against Sri Lanka in Cardiff [on Sunday],” McCullum told . “That’s where the assessment at Edgbaston is important. If it doesn’t have the same grip and stop that we’ve seen [in Cardiff] then we’ve got to weigh up the risk of playing him, knowing others could fill the void.”Vettori, who missed the Test and ODI series against England, had consulted a specialist in London during the ODI series. Against Sri Lanka on Sunday, he took a wicket in his first over and bowled six overs for 16 runs. He also took a catch, running backwards to dismiss Thisara Perera but hobbled through the rest of the Sri Lankan innings in obvious discomfort.

A round-up of the quarter-final matches from the Vijay Hazare Trophy

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Feb-2013
ScorecardDelhi crushed Gujarat in Visakhapatnam to enter the quarter-final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, first rolling them for 126 and then knocking off the meagre target with over 21 overs to spare. Seamer Sumit Narwal triggered the Gujarat collapse, removing both openers after they had strung together a partnership of 40. Narwal went on to five wickets in an economical seven-over spell, and received support from new-ball bowler Parvinder Awana and Rajat Bhatia as Gujarat went on to score just 86 more runs in 25 overs after the opening stand was broken. Delhi lost opener Dhruv Shorey early in the chase, but the rest of the top order contributed cameos as they cruised home. Gautam Gambhir finished unbeaten on 44, the top-scorer in the game.
ScorecardKerala put on a dominating show with the bat, to ease past Punjab by 46 runs, and secure their place in the final four. Punjab chose to bowl, and made a decent start, reducing Kerala to 51 for 2 in the tenth over. However, one of the openers, VA Jagadeesh, hung in there and went on to make a career-best 119, that set a firm platform. Sachin Baby, batting at No. 6, launched from that platform, scoring a maiden List A century. He finished unbeaten on 104 runs from 70 balls to take Kerala to 320. For Punjab, Gurkeerat almost played a similar role to that of Jagadeesh, but was run out on 99 to dent Punjab’s chances. Their hopes took another big blow when Yuvraj Singh was out to Prasanth Parameswaran for a golden duck. Mandeep Singh kept them going with a steady 81, but they still fell well short, bowled out in the 48th over.

Shikhar Dhawan is likely to miss at least the opening match for Sunrisers Hyderabad, as he recovers from his hand injury sustained while fielding during the recent Mohali Test against Australia

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Mar-2013Shikhar Dhawan is likely to miss at least the opening match for Sunrisers Hyderabad, as he recovers from his hand injury sustained while fielding during the recent Mohali Test against Australia. Dhawan fractured his left hand and was ruled out for six weeks, keeping him out of the fourth Test in Delhi. Sunrisers play their first game on April 5 against Pune Warriors.”Shikhar Dhawan at this stage will not be available for the first game. We are obviously working closely with the BCCI and the medical team with regard to his progress,” Sunrisers coach Tom Moody said before the team’s first official training session in Hyderabad.”We are hoping that within a couple of weeks he will be available to join the team.”Dhawan had made history in Mohali, his 187 being the fastest by a debutant in Tests. His knock opened India’s chances for pushing for a win in a high-scoring game, despite the opening day being washed out. He hurt his hand on the fourth day of the Test but wasn’t required to bat during the second innings.Dhawan was the leading run-scorer for Deccan Chargers – as it was previously known before the ownership changed – in the 2012 season, scoring 569 runs with five fifties. He was one of the few positives in what was a forgettable campaign for the team, which finished second from last.

India captain MS Dhoni has said the decision to send Virat Kohli in in place of Shikhar Dhawan on the fourth morning was a late one, which resulted in “unrest” in the dressing room

Sidharth Monga at the Gabba20-Dec-20145:23

Match Point – ‘If the nets are no good, don’t bat in them’

The fourth day’s play at the Gabba began with India 26 behind and with nine wickets in hand, and with talk how these Indian batsmen were different: they would not get into a grim battle for a draw and roll over and die; they were going to go for the runs and set some sort of target for Australia.But even before they could get to attempting that, India were in turmoil. Two of their main batsmen injured themselves because of what they believed to be poor net pitches, and they did not even realise until five minutes before start of play that overnight batsman Shikhar Dhawan was not fit to bat immediately.So unimpressed were India with the practice facilities that they issued an official statement stating how the groundstaff had not paid heed to their requests for fresher pitches. Suddenly, all the simmering tension boiled over.ESPNcricinfo understands India are not happy that there is no gym at the Gabba. The only facility present at the stadium belongs to the Brisbane Lions, the AFL team that shares the stadium with cricket. When the Indians wanted to use the gym, the Lions were training at the facility, and turned down their request. More discontent surfaced with two of the players having to step out of the stadium to find vegetarian food on the third day of the Test.However, MS Dhoni conceded that India could have handled the early-morning crisis. The team knew that Dhawan had been hit on the hand, but realised he was not fit to bat only five minutes before 10am. “We went to practise, and the wicket wasn’t good for it,” Dhoni said. “A few of the batsmen batted, and Shikhar got hit and left. After that I had padded up and went in. He was a bit uncomfortable, but he didn’t react as to he won’t go out to bat. He came back to the dressing room, and Duncan [Fletcher] and I were there, and the by the time I finished my batting I too found the wicket to be a bit uneven.”We also came back early, but by the time we came back it was quite close to the start of play. And there we saw Shikhar wasn’t really 100% fit to go in to bat. It was quite late, and we could only give maybe five-10 minutes’ notice to Virat that he would go in to bat. That’s one area, which we could have handled a bit better, but it’s something that we will have to take it in our stride. We thought he [Dhawan] took a blow, but he was good enough to bat but he was not. As you saw he went into bat late.”That kind of a scenario, there is a bit of unrest in the dressing room. The calmness of the dressing room goes for a toss. It was a bit late to verbally resolve the problem. What was really needed was some kind of a partnership, 20-25 minutes batting and things would have been normal. But that didn’t happen. That was the area we lacked, and we couldn’t really capitalise on.”In hindsight, you could probably see Kohli did not really look settled. He, too, had taken a blow on the left forearm. He played 10 balls before playing Mitchell Johnson on. India went from 1 for 71 to 5 for 87, a collapse they never really recovered from, despite a brave half-century from Dhawan and spirited bowling in defence of just 127. Dhawan decided to bat on without going for scans, “playing through pain” at No. 8, and crossed 50 for the first time in six Tests, adding 55 to his overnight 26.Although Dhoni made more diplomatic comments at the post-match press conference, the statement released by India in the first session was strong. It said: “The Indian team has been asking for the fresh net practice wickets several times for last two days, which have not been provided. Instead of that, they [curators] have asked [us] to practice on worn-out wickets, which have uneven bounce. Because of that, two of our batsmen got injured today morning. One of the two batsmen, Shikar Dhawan, had a right wrist injury. Because of that he was unable to bat in the morning. He is being examined by our physio, and will assess his fitness in some time.”Dhoni was more sedate in his comments after the match. Asked about the overall facilities at the Gabba, Dhoni said, “It can improve. I don’t really want to create a controversy, but it can certainly improve.”ESPNcricinfo understands that such a request was indeed made to the groundsmen at the Gabba, but the Indian team was told those new pitches were being saved for future matches. The fresh practice pitches are being prepared on a specific time-frame, which means they will not be ready for use until a Brisbane Heat training session on December 23. India have not lodged an official complaint with Cricket Australia on the matter, though.The Gabba groundstaff was bemused and surprised at not just the complaint, but also that the request was made in the first place. Curator Kevin Mitchell jr prepares the practice wickets for a full week of training, with the intention that they wear in a similar style to the pitch used for the match. Ryan Harris, who missed selection due to injury for this Test, batted on the same practice surface on the fourth morning, facing fast bowler Ben Cutting, and reported no problems with the conditions. Harris even joked that he had no bruises because he used his bat.”The practice wickets are fine,” Mitchell said. “They wear just like a match pitch does and reflect what is happening in the middle. We have never had a complaint from another touring team.”Australia captain Steven Smith was on the side of the ground where Australia have not lost since 1988. “None of our players had any problems with those wickets, to be honest,” Smith said. “I think they’re very good practice wickets. They emulate pretty much what you get out in the middle. That’s what you want at your playing ground and I don’t think any of our players had any problems with them whatsoever.”

Nick Compton’s good week continued when he was named the NatWest PCA Player of the Year

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Sep-2012Nick Compton’s good week continued when he was named the NatWest PCA Player of the Year while Joe Root, who was also called into the Test squad for the tour to India, was named the Young Player of the Year.Compton scored 1494 first-class runs for Somerset during the 2012 season and Root was close to a thousand including a career-best 222 against Hampshire.The overall England player of the year went to Ian Bell while Alastair Cook took the one-day award, a mark of his rise in the format, and Stuart Broad was named Test player.Back on the domestic scene, Warwickshire’s dominance of the County Championship was highlight by five of their players being included in the team of the year. Varun Chopra and Bell were part of the batting line-up while Jeetan Patel, Keith Barker and Chris Wright all made the bowling line-up. NatWest PCA Player of the Year Nick Compton (Somerset)
NatWest PCA Young Player of the Year Joe Root (Yorkshire)
ECB Special Award Bill Gordon
England FTI MVP of the summer Ian Bell
Friends Life t20 Player of the Year Dimitri Mascarenhas (Hampshire)
Clydesdale Bank 40 Player of the Year Phil Mustard (Durham)
NatWest ODI Player of the Summer Alastair Cook
Investec Test Player of the Summer Stuart Broad
Sky Sports Sixes League Winner Gary Ballance (Yorkshire)
FTI Team of the Year Varun Chopra (Warwickshire), Chris Nash (Sussex), Ian Bell (Warwickshire & England), Steven Croft (Lancashire), Darren Stevens (Kent), Peter Trego (Somerset), Phil Mustard (Durham), Jeetan Patel (Warwickshire), Keith Barker (Warwickshire), Chris Wright (Warwickshire), Graham Onions (Durham)

Pakistan came within one wicket of compensating for a calamitous batting performance in the Under-19 World Cup quarter-final against India. Their captain Babar Azam said the narrow loss was very disappointing

George Binoy in Townsville20-Aug-2012Pakistan came within one wicket of compensating for a calamitous batting performance in the Under-19 World Cup quarter-final against India. They will now begin the contest for fifth place by playing West Indies on August 22.Having travelled north from Brisbane to Townsville, Pakistan were playing at the Tony Ireland Stadium for the first time. It had rained in the early hours of Monday and the skies were overcast. Yet, unlike most sides when playing strong bowling attacks at this venue, Pakistan chose to bat after winning the toss.The first hour has often yielded several wickets. England were 61 for 4 against Australia, and India were 50 for 4 against West Indies. Pakistan were 0 for 2 in the first over today.”We’ve been batting well [in the World Cup], so we’d thought we’d bat first, make 250,” Babar Azam, the Pakistan captain, said when asked why he did not choose to bowl. “But that did not happen, early on the boys played some bad shots and we got out for a low score – we made 136.”The first two wickets weren’t to bad balls or bad shots though. Sandeep Sharma’s swing from leg to off stump made the left-handers Sami Aslam and Iman-ul-Haq play and edge to second slip. The duty of stablising the innings was left to Azam.”When two wickets fell, I just decided to play carefully and try and take the team towards 250,” he said. “But I couldn’t do it, when I got to 50 I played a loose shot and got out.”Having seen off the more potent threats from India’s seamers, Azam had just brought up his half-century when he chipped an offbreak from Baba Aparajith straight to Unmukt Chand at midwicket, the softest of shots.”We thought if we made 150-160 we could beat India, we had that much confidence in our bowling,” Azam said. “Our score was too low, but we still managed to take it until the final overs.”Defending 137, Azam’s confidence in his bowlers was not misplaced. The first wicket to fall – Chand for a duck – was via a spectacular catch on the backward point boundary and every fielder and substitute ran towards Ehsan Adil to congratulate him. Two edges were caught in quick succession. After five overs Pakistan had India at 8 for 3.”In the first five overs we dismissed three batsmen. I thought we could make a comeback,” Azam said. “There was a partnership and at the time we thought the game was slipping. But again the boys came back and we tried really hard.”India recovered through a partnership between Aparajith and Vijay Zol, but just when an Indian win seemed an inevitability, Pakistan claimed 4 for 7 to reduce India to 127 for 9. The next seven overs were fraught with tension as India’s last pair successfully toiled towards the target. “When the boys came back, and nine batsmen were out, we thought we could win the match,” Azam said. “The bowlers gave 100% but it didn’t happen. Sandeep Sharma and Harmeet Singh played really well.”We’re very disappointed. We had confidence against India, having played them in the Asia Cup – one match was tied and the other we won. When seven runs were remaining, we thought we could get the last wicket and win. When two runs were remaining, everyone was a bit down. A lot of us were very tense out there.”

Rishi Dhawan lasted just four balls in the morning and with his dismissal, any hopes Himachal Pradesh had for getting a positive result came to an end

The Report by Nagraj Gollapudi in Kannur08-Dec-2013
ScorecardPadmanabhan Prasanth and Vinoop Manoharan helped Kerala defend 196•ESPNcricinfo LtdRishi Dhawan lasted just four balls in the morning and with his dismissal, any hopes Himachal Pradesh had for getting a positive result came to an end. Kerala’s spin twins, Vinoop Manoharan and Padmanabhan Prasanth, wrapped up the tail to help Kerala secure an important victory and stay in contention to qualify for the knockouts.Dhawan had remained resolute during an eventful final session on the second day, after Himachal had thrown away a solid start from their openers. From 48 for no loss, Himachal’s batsmen were defeated by a fast-wearing surface, good spin bowling, and some terrible shot selection. In 11 minutes, the visitors had slid to 60 for 6.But Dhawan, in the company of Sangram Singh, who had been pushed to the lower order after opening in the first innings, reinvigorated hopes that had virtually vanished after the middle-order collapse. Even then, the challenge of chasing 196 on a turning pitch with a lot of bounce was too big and Sangram got out towards end of the day. The onus was on Dhawan but Prasanth Padmanabhan, the left-arm spinner who had bagged a career-best 7 for 55 to help Kerala gain a vital 40-run lead, accounted for the Himachal captain for the second time in the match. Dhawan had attempted a slog sweep against the turn in the first innings and was trapped plumb. Today, Padmanabhan changed his strategy a little bit.Former India wicketkeeper Chandrakant Pandit, who was recently appointed director of the cricket academy at the Kerala Cricket Association, had pointed out to Padmanabhan that one of the reasons he had failed to beat Dhawan was because he had been bowling a flatter trajectory on the second day. Keeping that in mind, Padmanabhan practiced bowling slow in the nets to give the ball more flight. His efforts paid off, as Dhawan lunged forward to defend a ball that dipped and turned away after pitching. The bounce helped take an edge and AV Jagadeesh gladly accepted the catch at slips.Himachal’s resistance ended quickly after that as Padmanabhan trapped Vishal Bhatia lbw to end with match figures of 9 for 106.Despite the loss, Himachal should be confident about qualifying for the knockouts because they are on the top of Group C with 23 points after six matches. Kerala have a home game against Maharashtra starting on December 14, followed by two away encounters. With six points from today’s win, Kerala are joint second along with J&K, but they need at least one more outright victory to seal their qualification.

Yuvraj Singh had asked the BCCI not to consider him for selection for the ODI series against West Indies because he has been recovering from an “illness that threatened his career”

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Nov-2011Yuvraj Singh, the India allrounder, had asked the BCCI not to consider him for selection for the ODI series against West Indies because he has been recovering from what his family has called an “illness that threatened his career,” caused by an “abnormal tumour” on his lung. The tumour has been found, after tests, to be non-malignant.According to a statement released by his mother, Shabnam Singh, Yuvraj had been troubled by bouts of coughing and vomitting during the 2011 World Cup but had ignored the problem during the tournament, “assuming it was due to stress.”When the problem persisted after the World Cup, Yuvraj sought medical advice and tests revealed “a golf-ball sized” growth on his left lung, the statement said. Initial reports had suggested that Yuvraj “had what in medical terms is called an abnormal tumor called lymphoma. The danger was, we were told, that it could be malignant.”Early medical treatment and therapy led to Yuvraj feeling better than he did during the World Cup and he “was eager to resume his India duties.” However, after returning from the tour of England due to a finger injury sustained during the Nottingham Test, Yuvraj went through several rounds of tests, scans and a recent biopsy in order to ascertain the exact nature of the tumour. “Further reports have indicated that the tumour is non-malignant and non-threatening and can be treated through proper medication and therapy. In medical terms, Yuvraj is now in a much better state and on his way to a full recovery.”Yuvraj had informed the BCCI president N Srinivasan of the findings and wanted to regain his fitness. It was why he had “sought some more time … and asked not to be considered for selection in the one-dayers versus West Indies.”In the statement Yuvraj’s mother said he “did not want to rush things, wants to be 100% fit before resuming his cricket for India and has started working hard on both his fitness and his cricket. He is already preparing himself to play the one-day series in Australia.”Yuvraj was not included in the Test squad for the tour of Australia.