All posts by csb10.top

Eight is enough
Mitchell Johnson began the day with seven wickets and a rare opportunity to collect nine out of ten. When his bouncer accounted for Dale Steyn the chance to record Australia’s best Test innings analysis became tantalisingly close. Arthur Mailey’s 9 for 121 against England at the MCG in 1920-21 was the only time an Australian had grabbed nine in a Test innings. When Mark Boucher top-edged a skier the 88-year-old record looked set to go, but neither Brad Haddin running back with the gloves nor Brett Lee at fine leg could quite reach the ball. Peter Siddle eventually got the final breakthrough and Johnson’s 8 for 61 left him eighth on Australia’s all-time list.The case for a replay
A week after Billy Bowden gave the best possible advertisement for the referral system with a howler to give Paul Collingwood out caught off his pad in Chennai, Aleem Dar provided another compelling case for the introduction of more technology to help umpires. In the New Zealand-West Indies series the players have the right to refer an umpire’s decision to the TV official and Matthew Hayden would certainly have used the privilege had it been on offer in Perth. Hayden had spent 39 minutes labouring to 4 when he was given out caught and bowled after the ball lobbed off his pad and back to Dale Steyn. The umpire felt Hayden had hit it but there was nearly enough room to park a small vehicle between bat and ball. If the ICC’s elite panel has a Christmas party, Bowden and Dar can compare notes and perhaps eye exam results.Mission aborted
Paul Harris copped a few jeers from the crowd on the opening day when he repeatedly aborted his run-up, once because he swallowed a fly but several other times for no apparent reason. There were questions over whether it was the strong wind but Harris said that was not the case – after all, having grown up with the howling gales at Fish Hoek on the Cape Peninsula, the Fremantle Doctor seemed like a gentle breeze by comparison. In any case, there were no insects or zephyrs to blame when Harris couldn’t complete the run-up for his first ball on the third day. The WACA crowd remembered and a gentle jeer encouraged him to get his approach right for the next delivery.Bend it, stretch it
Back spasms have troubled Ricky Ponting in the past couple of years so there were some concerned faces in the Australian dressing room when Ponting seemed to be having similar problems during his innings of 32. He was squared up by a Jacques Kallis delivery that raced off the edge for four and immediately afterwards he was bending over to touch his toes, then thrusting his hands in the air and twisting from side to side. The physio Alex Kountouris hurried out at the end of the over but the news was good – Ponting’s back was not the problem. He had complained of soreness across his stomach and it turned out that he had a mild abdominal strain, although he was not in danger of missing any of the match or the Boxing Day Test.

Kevin Pietersen has said that he was forced to resign as England captain by the ECB and had not been given any explanation as to why he was asked to stand down. He said he was informed of the ECB’s decision while he was on holiday by a brief phone call from Hugh Morris, the managing director of England cricket, and that a subsequent email from the board confirmed the end of his tenure as captain.”He [Morris] said they [ECB] had had an emergency board meeting and they had accepted my resignation,” he told the . “I said: ‘Excuse me?!’ They said: ‘We’ve accepted your resignation.’ I said on what basis has it been accepted? They had no answer. Next, I received an email from the ECB saying: ‘Your resignation is of immediate effect’.”The crisis started when Pietersen informed the ECB on New Year’s Eve that he could not take the team forward if Peter Moores remained the coach. Before heading out on his African holiday, he had sent a mail detailing his strategies for England’s upcoming series, against West Indies, and also for the Ashes.Moores was sacked the day Pietersen was asked to step down as captain but Pietersen was initially unaware of that. He said he was even more puzzled at losing his job after Moores was removed. “I was surprised because after that phone call I thought Moores was still in the job, with them taking my resignation because of the strategy I had drawn up and my conclusion. So when they got rid of Moores I did ask the question — but got absolutely nothing.”Pietersen had been captain for only five months, taking over last August after Michael Vaughan’s tearful resignation. He said it was crushing to lose the job but stressed that he would have no trouble playing under new captain Andrew Strauss. “The ECB asked me about my availability and I was like ‘excuse me?’ I thought it was a threat against me but I said I will be 100% committed to winning games of cricket for England.”He said all his actions were taken in the interests on England cricket and felt he had “unfinished business” as captain. “But right now, I feel it is right for me to go back and just play – to do something that I totally, totally love, which is scoring runs and more runs for England.”Media reports have suggested that several senior members of the side, including Andrew Flintoff, were unhappy with his methods but Pietersen denied any rift with them. “I’ve got zero problem with walking back into that dressing- room. I can look anybody in the eye.”My relationship with Freddie was great and towards the end I sat down with him and I said: ‘Mate, this is what is going on.’ I explained about the meetings I’d had with the management over the situation with the coach. We had a good chat and Freddie’s parting words were: ‘You cannot leave as England captain.'”Pietersen also said that Flintoff and three other senior members of the side – Strauss, Steve Harmison, and Paul Collingwood – to whom he had spoken about his difficulties with Moores had all asked him to stay on as captain. “And they all – 100%, I promise you categorically – said to me: ‘Do not leave, please, as England captain’,'” he said. “That’s not to say they wanted Peter Moores sacked.”He was distressed at being portrayed as “the most hated man in cricket” by the media after plunging England cricket into turmoil by asking for the coach’s removal, but was gratified by the “loads of messages of support from within and from outside the game”.

If England do return to India to play the two Tests, it appears quite possible that some of the squad will chose to remain at home, leaving the selectors to make some hasty reshuffling. However, Michael Vaughan, who was in Bangalore with the England High Performance team at the time of the attacks in Mumbai, has warned that doing so might not be straightforward.”All the lads will be desperate to play cricket for their country, but they will want to have their safety guaranteed and the trouble with this sort of attack is that safety cannot be guaranteed, even if they are given presidential security,” Vaughan told the Sunday Telegraph.”We have a duty to go and play cricket if it is safe to do so, but if the players have fear, they can’t go out there and perform. There are a lot of young players in this England squad who are new to this sort of thing. Can they focus and concentrate on cricket so soon afterwards? Any slightly negative mentality and they will get found out.”If the Middlesex players had been involved … if they had checked into the Taj hotel 24 hours earlier … and if some of their guys had been held hostage, would this Test series be going ahead? Almost certainly not.”As for Vaughan himself, he said he would “find it very difficult to go back, having been there and watched the scenes on TV – scenes of gunmen shooting people and corpses being dragged out of a hotel where the England team were staying a fortnight ago and where they were due to be staying in just over a fortnight”.And he warned that even if the tour was to resume, it would “become like a military camp”.”Above all, there has to be a period of mourning, and I think that less than a fortnight is not long enough.”

Kris Srikkanth, the chairman of the national selection panel, has backed Rahul Dravid to come out of his prolonged form slump. Dravid has only two half-centuries in his previous 17 knocks but Srikkanth said Dravid was “just one innings away from regaining form”.”If you look at this series (the Tests against Australia), he made a match-saving half-century in the first innings in Bangalore and looked good during his 39 in Mohali,” Srikkanth told the . “It’s unfortunate that he could not build on starts.”With the retirements of the experienced Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble, India are going through a transitional phase and Srikkanth was pleased with the performances of Amit Mishra and M Vijay, the two players handed their Test debuts during the series.Mishra finished with 14 wickets in three Tests, and his seven wickets in Mohali was instrumental in India’s win. “Mishra is a genuine legspinner who is not afraid to flight the ball,” he said. “As he gains in experience, he will develop greater variety.”Vijay, who was drafted in as an opener after Gautam Gambhir was banned for the final Test in Nagpur, played a couple of confident knocks to provide India solid starts. “Vijay is a correct batsman who can adapt to both forms of the game. He adds value with his fielding.”India have moved into the second spot after the success against Australia and Srikkanth said the next target was to take over the No. 1 ranking.

Michael Clarke will delay making a decision on whether to take part in the second version of the IPL next April until his hectic schedule becomes clearer. Clarke is one of the few big-name Australian players who haven’t signed with a franchise and Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, has spoken of his desire to have the batsman included.However, Australia are currently at the start of a crammed 15-month campaign and Clarke also wants to squeeze in his wedding to the model Lara Bingle. “It’s important for me, especially now, just to focus on performing here [during the Test series],” he said. “If I’m not performing here, I’m back at state cricket or club cricket for Western Suburbs. Then I won’t have to worry about IPL – I might have to worry about ICL!”Clarke said everyone in India was asking if he would take part in the high profile and official Twenty20 tournament. “I’ll definitely play at some stage,” he said, “it’s just about when.”I saw Lalit Modi at a function in Jaipur and I said I’m very keen to play in the IPL, it’s just about the right time. I certainly won’t be saying no this year, I’ll just be assessing as I go.”Clarke missed the opening tournament to take a break from the game and spend time with his father, who has cancer. He then arrived late to the West Indies tour because Bingle’s father died.”Looking at both our schedules, I don’t think IPL will have any affect on the wedding,” he said. “It won’t be in autumn. I think she wants the middle of summer, when I’ve got a few Tests on.”

Ahead of Ireland’s clash against Namibia – the Intercontinental Cup leaders – their captain, William Porterfield, has welcomed back a number of key players and is ready for the challenge of trying to lead his team into the final.As it stands, Namibia are odds-on to make it to the final, with 102 points – six ahead of Kenya who are in second place. Ireland are down in fourth position on 72 points but, crucially, have a game in hand; if they secure the maximum 40 points from the last two matches (they face Kenya later this month), they’ll be through to the final.It is a tall ask, but Porterfield remains confident his side have what it takes. “We have pretty much a full-strength squad, which is a great boost for us,” he said. “There is great variation in our batting and bowling. We are fortunate to have a number of left-handers in the batting line-up. No-one enjoys bowling to a right-left partnership so that is certainly an advantage for us.”Also, our bowling attack has variation. It’s good to have big Boyd [Rankin] back. He has been playing well for Warwickshire lately and he always offers something different. His extra height gives him more bounce and that could be crucial on the good batting track in Namibia.”Having Trent [Johnston] back in the squad is good news for us – it’s a real boost to the strength of the squad given what he can do with both bat and ball. He enjoys the four-day format and his experience will be invaluable to me as captain. I’ve learned a lot about the four-day game playing for Gloucestershire but I will also be drawing on Trent’s experience as well as others in the team.”With the likes of Kyle McCallan, Andrew White and Kevin O’Brien, there will be no shortage of experience for Porterfield to lean on, though there are also a number of new faces keen to demonstrate their potential, not least the talented trio of Gary Wilson, Andrew Poynter and Phil Eaglestone.For all their confidence, however, Ireland are facing the tournament’s in-form team who are unbeaten in their six matches.”Namibia are a good side. They haven’t lost a game in this year’s cup and it won’t be easy to win. But if we just concentrate on doing what we do well and play to the best of our ability, the result should look after itself,” said Porterfield. “This is a must-win game for us. Then we have to go to Nairobi and beat Kenya as well. To win the Intercontinental Cup for the third time in a row would be massive for us. We know what it feels like to win and we are hungry for more success.”This is a big year ahead for us. Apart from the Intercontinental Cup, we will play some ODIs in Nairobi against Kenya and Zimbabwe and then in 2009 we have the World Cup Qualifier and the ICC World Twenty20 so there will be plenty of opportunities for us.”Play gets underway on Friday in Windhoek.

Mark Butcher has said that Surrey’s relegation, which is almost certain to be confirmed at The Oval in the next day or so, is not something that will be mourned by many outside the club.”We have never been a club people particularly loved,” Butcher said in an exclusive interview with the Daily Express. “It all stems from way back when someone in the offices said that we were like Manchester United. It perpetuated the moneyed, arrogant, southern so-and-so thing and, to be honest, in the period when we were winning a lot of trophies we were more than happy to play up to that.”Surrey have been criticised for an over reliance on their old players, and Butcher admitted that when they were relegated in 2006 they missed a chance to rebuild. “We were so desperate to go back up that the old guys who got us chucked down all played, and the younger blokes spent another year not getting any experience.”He remains confident that mistake will not be repeated and said that relegation this time would do the side good. “Everybody goes through a time when they have to take the pills, rebuild and go again and without a shadow of a doubt it is probably a year overdue for us.”Butcher, 36, had a good start to the season but a knee injury kept him out of the side since the end of May. He will know by the end of the month if he needs a third operation.With his father, Alan, rumoured to be on his way out as coach, there is also speculation that Butcher, who has one year remaining on his contract, may be jettisoned as captain.

Michael Clarke will use the lessons learned from his previous captains when he leads Australia against Bangladesh in his first full series in the top job. Clarke’s major duties start in Darwin on Saturday, when he steps in for the injured Ricky Ponting, and while he has thought of his predecessors, he also intends to follow his own instincts in the three matches.”I’ve always played my cricket my own way and that’s certainly the way I want to lead the team,” Clarke, who guided the side during two one-day games in the West Indies, told the Sun-Herald. “I think I can do that, along with the help and advice of those who’ve come before me.”I plan to be a captain who leads in the same style that I play. I feel that I’m an attacking and positive sort of player. I love the challenge of a hard-fought game of cricket. I like being the one who is responsible for making the right or wrong decision.”Clarke, who is now 27, has played under some of Australia’s most successful leaders and he has thought of them when working out his own outlook. “There are strengths in each of the captains I’ve played under,” he said. “I’ve had Waugh, Ponting, Warne – a lot of good captains, even at grade level. But the key thing I’ve learnt from a number of them has been to always be your own person.”You need to back yourself 100% and always believe in yourself. You need to back your instinct. If you feel like you want to make a change or something, you have to back your own judgment and ability. That’s certainly one of Punter’s strengths and it’s a strength of pretty much all the captains I’ve played under.”However, Clarke said he was prepared to go his own way. “The last thing I want to do is be like someone else,” he said. Clarke’s leadership record is currently unblemished after victories in two Twenty20 encounters and success in both the one-day games in the West Indies in July.

Jamie Cox, the former Tasmania captain, will continue as a national selector despite his appointment as South Australia’s high performance manager. Cox was confirmed as Rod Marsh’s successor by the South Australian Cricket Association (SACA) on Saturday.Currently a group sport manager at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, Cox will move to Adelaide at the end of September. “I will be [staying on as a selector] at this stage”, Cox told the . “They look to be complementary roles that both require watching a lot of cricket and I may as well be doing that based in Adelaide as based in Canberra.”However, questions might be asked about Cox’s continuation as selector since Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of the panel, is also involved with South Australia as a board member. The shuffling of selectors Hilditch, Cox, David Boon and Merv Hughes to watch as many domestic games as possible may be hampered, so will the rotation for overseas tours.”Quite possibly [there will be obstacles to keeping both jobs], there will be some times when I need to be back here at the Adelaide Oval and we’ll need to manage that over the season, plus the issue of having two selectors based in Adelaide,” Cox said. The likes of Marsh, Greg Chappell, Wayne Phillips, Andrew Sincock and Jamie Siddons haven’t had the best of times while on coaching assignments with South Australia, but Cox is nonetheless confident.”Yes it is [a big job], but I don’t know … I think South Australia have made some positive moves. The squad they’ve set-up for this season looks quite strong,” Cox said. South Australia last won a first-class competition in 1995-96, and they haven’t made it to a final since then, nor won any limited-overs titles.”I know a lot of people are expecting there to be pain, and but I don’t know if there has to be – there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be aiming to be successful side and winning trophies over the next few years.”To “plug the gap” between age-level teams to grade and then state and national levels is a goal Cox highlighted. South Australia’s under-17 and under-19 teams have performed consistently well even as their senior side has faltered. “I will be having a look at everything,” Cox said. “This role goes right down to the grass roots, all the steps along the pathway to the state side and then the national side and if there are gaps in that pathway I want to work to plug them.”

ScorecardAt the end of the teams’ first innings of this match, any of the several hundred spectators could be excused for giving a hollow laugh at any suggestion that Nottinghamshire, who started the game at the top of the Division One table, might finish as County Champions. Their innings, against bowling that was no more than average in quality, was reminiscent of the march of the lemmings, as one batsman after another perished to strokes they doubtless now feel ashamed of.So Surrey are well on course for their first Championship victory of the season, though even they may concede their rolling of Notts for 218 in their first innings was due more to a dismal batting performance than to any outstanding performance of their own. Only when they had put the home side in a second time did they really start to show the vibrancy and self-belief of a winning team. And for a while the Notts second-wicket pair showed enough fight to arouse hopes of a real battle on the final day.Surrey did not begin the day auspiciously: 356 for 7 overnight, they lost Chris Jordan to the fourth ball without addition. Darren Pattison got the ball to lift and the result was a comfortable catch to first slip.They still had batting – of sorts – to come, though, and it was entertaining. Saqlain Mushtaq and Jade Dernbach both applied ‘block and slog’ tactics, with basic defence being supplemented by moments of extreme violence. Saqlain soon hit Pattinson for six over long-on, and ran to 50 off 66 balls before driving a return catch to the bowler.Last man Pedro Collins, who has been a total nonentity with the bat for Surrey this season, excelled himself today with 6 runs off 14 balls, which allowed Dernbach off successive deliveries to step back and deposit Graeme Swann over the wide long-on boundary with two terrific yahoos. He finished unbeaten on 16; Surrey reached 403, the highest by any team at Trent Bridge this season, and the only bowler who would take any pleasure in his figures was Pattinson with 5 for 72.The overall verdict on both the Nottinghamshire batting and the Surrey bowling might be: strong on entertainment but ultimately weak in discipline. The Surrey bowling is more renowned for pace than accuracy, and this enabled Will Jefferson to get off to a flier, mainly at the expense of the erratic Dernbach. He flirted unwisely at some deliveries outside the off stump, but raced to 31 off the first 21 balls he faced. Finally, groping forward again, he was caught at the wicket off Matt Nicholson for 42 off 39 balls; 60 for 1. He was Nicholson’s 400th first-class victim.The score at lunch was 64 for 1, but the second ball after the break accounted for Mark Wagh (3), caught at second slip off one from Nicholson that bounced. Notts continued to push along aggressively at more than four an over, with even Matt Wood, who had started quite solidly, starting to open up. But both he and Adam Voges, for 38 and 33 respectively, were caught down the leg side off misdirected balls from the fortunate Dernbach; Voges had already been dropped in the slips off Nicholson when 24. When Chris Read (5) shouldered arms and was bowled by Chris Jordan, Nottinghamshire were 146 for 5.Most of the batsmen thus far had given their wickets away, and this trend continued as, just before tea, Samit Patel culpably took a wild heave at part-time off-spinner Matthew Spriegel and skied a catch for Jonathan Batty to collect in the region of point – his fourth of the innings. Mark Ealham (12) was perhaps unlucky, bowled behind his legs by Nicholson. But, with the follow-on becoming an increasing threat, the shots of Swann (33), holing out on the leg boundary off Saqlain just after having swept him riskily for six, and Andre Adams, skying the same bowler to extra cover, were even more culpable.The innings closed for 218, with most of the dismissals brought about by an apparent suicide pact. Collins, the most consistent of the pace bowlers, failed to take a wicket; the main beneficiaries of the home team’s largesse were the more erratic Dernbach (2 wickets) and Nicholson(3), and the wily Saqlain (also 3). Surrey, after starting the match bottom of the division, may have felt the confusion of a mediocre gambler finding himself with a full house, but managed to convey successfully their wish to indulge in a follow-on.Christmas was still not over, as with only a leg-bye on the board Jefferson was bowled by Dernbach via the inside edge. Suddenly Surrey were bowling with real purpose and self-belief; similarly Nottinghamshire had lost their cavalier abandon and were looking nervously over their shoulders to find their backs to the wall.Strangely, there followed the best cricket of the match so far. Wood and Wagh decided to knuckle down and fight it out; Collins, Dernbach and Jordan produced some superb bowling of genuine pace and hostility, and with greater accuracy too. At last we had the sight of two teams rising to the challenge, giving no quarter and engaging in a tense battle for supremacy and pride. It was only spoilt, for Nottinghamshire, in the penultimate over when Wagh tried to leg-glance Collins and was taken by the keeper for 19; 46 for 2.Some intriguing questions should be answered on the final day. Will Nottinghamshire drag themselves out of the pit they dug for themselves and force an honourable draw? Will Surrey be able to seize the day and record their first Championship win of the season? And when these are answered, what effect will this match have on the future progress of the two sides this season? This may well prove to be one of the most significant matches of the 2008 Championship.