After considerable overnight rain and a number of inspections, no play was possible at Allan Border FieldQueensland team: (from)
*SG Law, JP Maher, TJ Dixon, ML Love, A Symonds, GI Foley, +WA Seccombe, AJ Bichel, AC Dale, SA Muller, JH Dawes, MA Anderson.South Australia team: (from)
*DS Lehmann, SA Deitz, DA Fitzgerald, BA Johnson, JM Vaughan, DJ Harris, BE Young, +GA Manou, JN Gillespie, P Wilson, BA Swain, PE McIntyre.
The National Squad is taking the service of two pace bowlers from Bangladesh-A for their net sessions in BKSP and Dhaka. Monir from Surjatarun Club and Tareq Aziz from Dhanmondi Club are practicing with the Bangladesh team without a break.It happened when Mohammed Sharif got himself injured and had to take some days off. The team felt that they are lacking enough pace bowlers for batting practice. So, they went for Monir and Tareq Aziz to help them out.Sharif is still out of the field, therefore, the pace duo is still with the team.Monir’s domestic performance was good enough to get him a call from Bangladesh-A. He captured 22 wickets from 11 matches in Premier Division 2000-2001. A tall and lanky Monir acted as a new ball operator for Surjatarun Club with Ahmed Kamal at the other end. He is going to have a training tour in Australia in October 2001. Wayne Philips, the present coach of Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy of Australia, will guide a five-member team where Monir is the only fast bowler. Two of them are from Bangladesh-A and the rest are members of Under-19.Tareq Aziz could not play that well in the Premier League, yet he was called in for the A-team. Alike Monir he is a pace bowler who used to open for Dhanmondi Club.The practice sessions with the national side is tough but very exciting, they acknowledged." It is really thrilling to have Trevor Chappell just behind when you are bowling in nets. Besides, we are bowling against the best batsmen of the country, which is helping a lot to reveal the weaknesses we have," they said.The 29-member Bangladesh-A team run their practice in BKSP, four days a weak under coach Dipu Roy Chowdhury and Golam Farooq Suru.
ScorecardZafar Ansari worked through Derbyshire’s top order•Getty Images
On a rain-marred first day in which Surrey collected the first of the 15 points they require to guarantee promotion back to the top tier of the County Championship, they found themselves in a better position than their fielding deserved against Derbyshire having dropped five catches – four of them the first 90 minutes of play. Life will not be so forgiving in Division One.It would, however, be churlish to say that Surrey were lucky. With England’s tour of the UAE looming and their spin options worryingly threadbare, left-arm spinner Zafar Ansari delivered a first-day performance to justify the growing voices calling for his inclusion in England’s Test squad, taking 4 for 44.On an excellent pitch that has so far offered seam movement and tacky turn, Ansari took four of the five wickets to fall on a truncated opening day, bowling with impressive control and patience. A belligerent innings by Chesney Hughes who finished unbeaten on 85 ensured that Ansari did not completely ruin Derbyshire’s innings, but having been granted precious lives by Surrey’s fielders they will feel as if they have let an opportunity for better things slip.As an opening batsman who bowls spin in county cricket, comparisons will no doubt be drawn between Ansari and Moeen Ali, and Ansari is keen to extol his role as a bowler as much as a batsman.This season has indeed brought upon a Moeen-style perception shift in which Ansari’s bowling has widely become regarded as his most respected, if not most valuable, asset. While he is averaging just 29 with the bat in first-class cricket this season, he has now bowled more than 400 first-class overs – only Jeetan Patel has bowled more, and taken more first-class wickets: 43.Having already played in the UAE earlier this season for the MCC alongside Alastair Cook, and made his international debut in Ireland in May, he will no doubt be close to the national selectors’ thoughts as they convene before the UAE.After the start of play was delayed by light rain, Ansari toiled away diligently at the Pavilion End under dark and moody skies for 21 overs during two sessions, demonstrating impressive control and patience.Having won the toss and chosen to bat beneath heavy clouds Derbyshire will have been as surprised as they will have been pleased that after an hour of play both openers remained at the crease. Indeed, around the one-hour mark three consecutive overs induced three edges through to the slips — one which fell just short and two that were put down; both, rather remarkably by former international wicketkeepers Kumar Sangakkara and Steven Davies. Two further catches would be also spilled.Ansari’s introduction brought with it a wicket as Billy Godleman, seeking to continue an impressive run of form, was bowled between bat and pad looking to force the ball through the leg side.It was some time before Ansari would bowl again, 18 overs in fact, and rather appropriately it was not until he returned that Surrey found another breakthrough. When Ansari removed opener Ben Slater for a hard-fought 42, trapped lbw to end a gritty partnership with Hughes, it began an uninterrupted spell of 17 overs for Ansari that reaped 3 for 28. The other two wickets to fall were Wayne Madsen, caught and bowled and Wes Durston, also lbw.As the light and rain closed in there was just enough time for Tom Curran to prize out Harvey Hosein before play was halted for the day.Although the pitch offered turn what was conspicuous about Ansari’s bowling was that it was inconspicuous. He did not turn it square, or get it to drift or bounce wickedly, it was straightforward, controlled spin bowling. A career economy rate of 3.12 suggests such pressure is consistently applied.Only Hughes, typically a colourful stroke-maker, demonstrated the application required on a pitch that has certainly not been easy to bat on. He did unfurl a couple of trademark cover drives but it was his restraint that illuminated where the rest of Derbyshire’s batsmen went wrong on a day in which good things came to those who waited.
Vanka Pratap in the process of giving Hyderabad the upper hand with atimely century, put to shade a good bowling performance by Keralaseamer Tinu Yohannan (6 for 177). Such was the dominance of Hyderabadthat they declared at 489 for 9 well into the second day of theirSouth Zone Ranji Trophy match at the Nuclear Fuel Complex Ground atHyderabad on Thursday. Kerala at stumps were tottering at 69 for 4.Resuming where he left off the previous evening, Vanka Pratap (128)went on to complete his century after a 317 minute stay at the crease.His overnight partner Vinay Kumar (71) was not far behind, reachinghis half century off 85 balls. After forging a 146 run fourth wicketstand with Vanka Pratap, Vinay departed caught by Ananthapadmanabhanoff Ramprakash. Then Vanka Pratap fell leg before to Yohannan afteradding 45 run for the fifth wicket with PR Satwalkar. Stumper MSrinivas joined Satwalkar and put on 56 runs for the sixth wicket.After the fall of Satwalkar, the Hyderabad innings folded up with theaddition of 41 runs. In reply Kerala made a circumspect start with theopeners V Girilal (22) and MP Sorab (24) adding 48 runs. But disasterstruck Kerala when former Indian spinner Venkatapathy Raju wasintroduced into the attack. Raju drew first blood for Hyderabad in the18th over when he trapped Girilal in front. Two balls later he sentback Sorab in much the similar manner. Kerala’s woes were not to endthere as Raju in his very next over picked up the wicket of S Shankar(0) caught by Vinay Kumar. Kanwaljit Singh joined in the act and inhis very first over trapped Sunil Oasis (6) leg before.
Rilee Rossouw has been called up to the South Africa Test squad as a replacement batsman after Quinton de Kock was ruled out of the series with an ankle ligament tear.Rossouw, 25, has not played any cricket since December 12 and is nursing a finger injury, which indicates Temba Bavuma, the Lions No. 3, could make his debut in Port Elizabeth.Rossouw, who has played nine ODIs and three T20s for South Africa, did not play in the recently completed first-class fixture for the Knights against the Titans and was ruled out of their next match, starting on December 27 as well. On Monday, Knights’ coach Sarel Cilliers said: “Rilee is still struggling with that finger of his, so under the medical committee’s advice we’re not going to play him in the two Sunfoil Series games so that he can try and get ready for the West Indies T20 series.”Despite that, Rossouw has been called up to the national squad, following for both remaining Tests against West Indies following seasons of bubbling under the surface. Rossouw boasts a first-class average of 44.83 and was eighth on last season’s first-class competition run-scorers’ list. He has only played one first-class game this summer but enjoyed a successful late winter tour of Australia, where he scored a double-century for South Africa A in an unofficial Test against Australia A.He shared in a stand of 343 with Bavuma, who scored 162 in the game and will likely play ahead of Rossouw if South Africa opt for a batsman to play in de Kock’s place. Their other option would be to go into the game with only six specialist batsmen and play their full complement of bowlers which includes four frontline seamers and a spinner. Robin Peterson, the only slower-bowler in the squad, missed out in the first Test at Centurion as South Africa opted to go all-pace but on what is expected to be a slower track at St George’s Park, they may turn to him.What is more certain is that AB de Villiers will be asked to keep wicket for the rest of the Test series, even though he carries a chronic back problem. With no other gloveman in the squad, South Africa have no choice but to task de Villiers’ with the job, although they may relieve him of the duties for the limited-overs’ matches, especially as the World Cup draws nearer.With de Villiers’ fitness in mind, South Africa may make use of Morne van Wyk in the T20s and ODIs against West Indies, especially because the vastly experienced gloveman can also open the batting as de Kock did. Van Wyk is currently the one-day cup’s second-highest run-scorer with 353 runs from five innings, including two centuries. He was part of the 2011 World Cup squad and led the Dolphins at the Champions League T20, so he also has big tournament experience, should he be needed at the World Cup, if de Kock does not recover in time.If de Villiers can cope with the keeping duties in the shorter formats, then South Africa will only need a replacement opener for de Kock. Richard Levi would be the frontrunner for the spot after a strong showing in the domestic 20-over competition where he was the leading run-scorer. Henry Davids, who was second, could also be considered, along with third-placed Reeza Hendricks. Alternatively, South Africa may look at the one-day cup statistics where Andrew Puttick tops the charts.
The chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, Lord MacLaurin, has added his voice in support of the two men in charge of the Ashes tourists.MacLaurin, who retires from his post next year, believes Nasser Hussain and Duncan Fletcher represent England’s best chance of fighting back against Australia after two crushing Test defeats.”I think in Nasser and Duncan Fletcher we have a very good management team,” MacLaurin insisted. “It is just ridiculous (to suggest otherwise).”MacLaurin backed the original selection policy for the tour, adding that the warm-up schedule once the squad arrived in Australia may have had more to do with England’s problems.”We certainly have our best players out there. But I think it is fair enough to say we have played some pretty strange matches to start with, two days here and three days there,” he told Sky Sports News. “If we had had two or three four-day matches before we started the Test matches it would have been better.”MacLaurin insisted that should Hussain decided to stand down as England’s captain – perhaps after this winter’s World Cup – it would be detrimental toEngland’s prospects.”I think that would be very sad,” he said, calling on followers of English cricket to get behind their team.”Are we supporting it [English cricket]?” he asked. “Do we want to see it through this difficult period? Or are we going to hound out the best people?”
ScorecardGrim batting characterised Nottinghamshire’s determined efforts to build a match-winning total against Yorkshire. Bilal Shafayat and Mark Wagh both dropped anchor. on a pitch they couldn’t quite trust, for dogged fifties as the home team batted again after leading by 52. Until then, swing bowling again had played a significant part.Early on, the only real question appeared to be whether Yorkshire were capable of reaching three figures, so clueless were they against the morning swing. Their own bowlers had been able to do little with the conditions yesterday, and they were indeed fortunate that Darren Pattinson was not playing and in his regular county form. As it was, Charlie Shreck cut his run-up and pace, finding prodigious swing at times, and the visitors’ lower order were for the most part totally out of their depth.Matthew Hoggard (1) was the first to go, caught at third slip off Andre Adams, who was also finding movement, and his single was the only run for 18 minutes before Adil Rashid hit Adams for four to midwicket. Gerard Brophy, Hoggard’s overnight partner, took more than half an hour altogether to open his account but, despite their care, neither of these batsmen thrived, both falling lbw to Shreck just short of double figures.As time went on, the ball swung a little less, though Mark Ealham was still able to get some sharp movement. Rana Naved slapped an uppish drive to the cover boundary to take the score past 100, to the relief of his team; he managed two similar bold strokes in succession off Shreck in the next over before being bowled through the gate by another big winger for 18. His partnership of 20 with the solid Tim Bresnan was at this point the second-best of the innings.Bresnan was in fact streets ahead of his team-mates and remains capable of becoming a genuine all-rounder. He rarely appeared in trouble, though he played himself in with great care, and he found good support from last man Deon Kruis, with whom he batted up to lunch. So capable did Bresnan look that even when he was scarcely into double figures, Notts succumbed to the modern stupidity of putting seven fielders on the boundary to gift him singles in an effort to get at Kruis, instead of actually trying to get him out.The pair was still together at lunch, however, with their stand now worth 46, though with the first ball afterwards Ealham deceived Bresnan (32) with another swinging ball and trapped him lbw. Kruis was unbeaten with a noble 17, and Yorkshire’s deficit was 52: quite sizable in the context of the match, but considerably less than had seemed likely. Shreck took 5 for 58, the underused Ealham 3 for 17.The afternoon session was rather tedious, as the home side treated it as a war of attrition as they attempted to build an unassailable lead. The Yorkshire bowlers found some swing and there were frequent appeals, one of which found Matt Wood eventually lbw to Hoggard for 14. There was some criticism of Hoggard’s omission from the Headingley Test team, but on recent evidence Hoggard is doing an adequate job in county cricket, but is not in Test-match form yet. He may well come again and should never be written off.Shafayat, a makeshift opener replacing Will Jefferson – dropped, but finding some form with 74 for the seconds today – played laboriously but determinedly to hold the fort. He opened out somewhat after tea, snicking Bresnan for four past slip to reach 50 off 125 balls. The team 100 came up in the 43rd over. Shafayat eventually fell for 62, in unusual fashion: he straight-drove Hoggard powerfully, the bowler could only parry the chest-high hit, but Naved, racing over from mid-on, managed to take a fine diving catch behind the umpire. The stand realized 103, and soon afterwards Hoggard left the field with an injured hand.Wagh took nearly 100 minutes to move from 27 at tea to his 50, which took him 122 balls. Towards the close the scoring rate picked up and the home side finished the day with a clear advantage. Most unusually, the two sides had completed their 96 overs for the day by 6pm, so no extra time was required.
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It was the levelheaded approach of Ramnaresh Sarwan that helpedthe West Indies to a thrilling win at Jamshedpur. I mustcongratulate the tourists team for the resilience they haveshown. After losing the first two Test matches, they have shown apositive approach to their game, and that has patently manifesteditself in a marked improvement in their fielding standards.The signs of improvement started showing even during the KolkataTest, and there is a very definite air of positive confidence totheir body language now. After the Jamshedpur one-dayer, the teamwill now be boosted even more by the performances of their toporder batsmen like Wavell Hinds and Marlon Samuels. And eventhough the experienced Carl Hooper may have failed, Sarwanrefused to throw away his wicket and, ignoring the mountingpressure, sealed a scintillating win.For India, promoting Ajit Agarkar to number three must be ratedas a big gamble. Fortunately for the team management, the gamblepaid off. Agarkar played very well for his 95 runs, and it wasgood to see him involved in two big partnerships, with VVS Laxmanand then with Rahul Dravid.Mohammad Kaif played yet another brilliant cameo towards the end.Surely India have now found their own version of Michael Bevan, alate-order player who can hit up quick runs, consolidate whenneeded, and pace a one-day chase well. Kaif has shown glimpses ofall three skills, and the first of the three helped India to tatotal of 283 – a good score, especially in the absence of aninjured Sachin Tendulkar.But Agarkar’s success with the bat may pose a few problems. WithKaif then coming in at number eight, the batting line-up looksrather over-crowded, and when Tendulkar returns, either Agarkarwill have to move back to his slot in the tail or one of theregular batsmen will have to make way.
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Then again, going by their display at Jamshedpur, the surfeit ofriches in the batting department is the least of India’s worriesin one-day cricket. The fact that they failed to defend a scoreof 283, on a placid Indian pitch, must be a worrying factor forthe team management. As the tour progresses, the West Indians arealso getting used to Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh; notably,Samuels, Hinds and Sarwan are finding their feet against bothspinners. The pitch was a touch on the slower side and shouldhave helped Kumble and Harbhajan, yet both were completelyoutplayed.Virender Sehwag was the onlybowler to create an impact on the West Indies. I thought hebowled intelligently and was crucial in the Windies almostchoking towards the end. It is this lack of depth in the Indianbowling that causes worry.The two teams look very evenly matched at the moment, and theremaining games of this one-day series might continue in the samepattern. It is the change in batting fortunes of the West Indiesthat has made all the difference, and the likes of Sarwan,Samuels and Hinds have the right attitude towards the game. Ifthey can concentrate on the job a touch harder and score heavily,the West Indies might give this experienced Indian team a realscare.
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Luke Ronchi is used to his batting making headlines in Australian domestic cricket but in his first outings at international level it has been his glovework that has drawn praise. After the first-choice wicketkeeper Brad Haddin flew home to recuperate from a broken finger following the first ODI Ronchi was guaranteed four games and has impressed in the initial two.Haddin has been told he does not need surgery on the finger and it should be fully healed in two to three weeks, meaning he will be fit for Australia’s three ODIs against Bangladesh in Darwin starting in late August. Ronchi is well aware that however he performs in the Caribbean, Haddin will remain the No. 1 for some time.”Hads is that good of a player and he hasn’t done anything wrong, so I don’t think there’s any way I’m going to push him out of the spot at all,” Ronchi told . “It’s just a case for me to play as well as I can when I do play, and if that happens to lead onto more and better things, then hopefully that does happen, but at the moment it’s more of a replacement position.”A destructive opening batsman in Western Australia’s limited-overs setup, Ronchi has not yet had a chance to bat in his first two ODIs. He is the owner of the fastest hundred in Australia’s domestic one-day history and he showed a glimpse of that talent with a dynamic 36 in the Twenty20 international against West Indies in Barbados.In the 50-over format his work behind the stumps has been excellent and he began his career with a sharp caught-behind first ball before following with three terrific dismissals in his second game. A diving catch was followed by a slick take to an edge off Andrew Symonds’ offspin, but perhaps best of all was a brilliant stumping when he was standing up to Nathan Bracken.The efforts drew praise from the captain Ricky Ponting, who said: “I thought his job behind the stumps in game three was outstanding. We haven’t had the chance to see him with the bat yet, but hopefully in the next couple of games we’ll get to see that.”The small crowds in the Caribbean and lack of intense media attention might have made his job easier in his first appearances for his country. Ronchi said it had also helped having just come from a stint with Mumbai in the Indian Premier League.”The big thing out of all of it was the fact I’ve gone from playing in front of 40 or 50,000 people screaming in India to here, where the crowds aren’t massive, so you’re actually a whole lot more relaxed,” Ronchi said. “The first three to four weeks of the IPL was out of this world. I’d never seen anything like it before in a game of cricket.”The first game I played, I’ve walked out to bat and the crowd was so loud, you just couldn’t hear anything. And I was shaking as the bowler was running in for the first ball, it was just the most amazing thing.”
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Rahul Dravid will play for Karnataka in the Buchi Babu All-India invitation tournament to be held in Chennai from September 2 to 19. The tournament, Tamil Nadu Cricket Association’s curtain-raiser to 2008-09, will enter its 99th year this season.It is likely the Buchi Babu tournament, which consists of three-day games, will see more national players this year since the postponement of the Champions Trophy has left a gap in the international calendar. Also, the Indian board wanted its top players to play in key domestic tournaments and participate in a preparatory camp ahead of the four-Test series against Australia starting in Bangalore on October 9.C Raghu, the offspinning allrounder, who scored 359 and picked up nine wickets from seven Ranji matches last season, will lead the Karnataka side in the tournament that will also include an Andhra Cricket Association side captained by Gnaneswara Rao.Karnataka squad Rahul Dravid, KB Pawan (wk), CB Karthik, V Cheluvaraj, Deepak Chougule, Amit Verma, Sunil Raju, Udit Patel, Ryan Ninan, NC Aiyappa, KP Appanna, S Aravind, Raju Bhatkal, Devraj Patil, Akshay.Andhra Cricket Association Gnaneswara Rao, AG Pradeep, Prasad Reddy, V Manoj Sai, DR Chowdary, Dasi Prabhu Kiran, ASK Varma, Bodapati Sumanth, Sameer Ali Khan, M Dinesh Kumar, P Vijay Kumar, D Kalyankrishna, GV Sharath Babu, YL Kishore, M Suresh, K Ravi Shankar.