Mashrafe Mortuza made a superb start to his African safari, taking 5 for 29 as the Bangladeshis beat a Zimbabwe Board XI by five wickets in a warm-up match at Harare’s Alexandra Sports Club.Mortuza, the only member of the squad not have played in Zimbabwe before, ripped through the home side after Habibul Bashar had put them in on a green pitch only for them to reach 107 for 2 thanks to half-centuries from Tinashe Hove and Gregory Strydom.Set a modest target of 199, Aftab Ahmed hit a breezy 60 to get the Bangladeshis off to a good start and then Javed Omar and Habibul Bashar pressed home the advantage as they eased to victory with more than four overs to spare.”Mashrafe bowled brilliantly in the match,” team manager Shafiqul Haque Hira told The Daily Star. “He not only exploited the condition but also bowled consistently on the right spot. He certainly enjoyed his bowling and looked to have carried his form he had shown during the practice matches at home.”Zimbabwe and Bangladesh start their five-ODI series at the Harare Sports Club ground on Saturday (July 29).
Ranbir Singh Mahendra, the new BCCI president, emphatically denied being a proxy candidate for Jagmohan Dalmiya and claimed that the election had been conducted as per the rules and regulations of the board.”This point has come up now and then,” Mahendra said when asked about him being propped up by Dalmiya, “As soon as I take over as the president of the board, you will see how I work. My only endeavour would be to seek the co-operation of each and every one.”He said that his political affiliations – he is a member of the ruling Congress party and the son of former Haryana chief minister Bansi Lal–had no bearings on his role as a cricket administrator. “I have been associated with the board for 30 years, and have worked as joint secretary, secretary and then vice-president of the BCCI .I am connected with the parties but my political career hasn’t been connected with this.”He claimed that the bitterness of this election would not spill over to the functioning of the board. “This type of groupism is always there in every election. So you can’t say it is a division in the board. Everybody is working for the BCCI and the game of cricket.”He admitted, however, that the BCCI needed to be more professional. “The time has come for professionalism and the board members will be taking some steps towards that.”Sharad Pawar, the losing candidate, insinuated that the election process had been hijacked by Dalmiya. “He was both the bowler and the umpire. He decided the final result,” Pawar said while ruling out the possibility that he would take the matter to court. “I will be the last person to go to court. We will fight this type of elements and we will see that the board runs democratically. I will give full co-operation to the next president to manage the board.”Pawar accused the Dalmiya camp of deliberately postponing the meeting to buy time. “It was the duty of the BCCI’s outgoing president to complete this election procedure,” Pawar said, “but the meeting was again and again adjourned and without any official communication to Justice Mohan. Knowing fully well that I have got a clear majority, deliberate disturbance was raised and the representative of Maharashtra, DC Agashe, who has been the member [of the Maharashtra Cricket Association] for 20 years, was sent [away] from the meeting place and not allowed to vote.”
Wellington 210 for 2 (Fleming 120*) beat Northern Districts 209 for 9 by 8 wickets ScorecardThe margin of victory says it all. Northern Districts, last summer’s State Shield champions, were completely outgunned again at the Basin Reserve today when Wellington, guided by another superb century from Stephen Fleming, had too much class for them. The way in which Northern Districts have fallen from grace this year has been stunning. The almost complete collapse of their top-order batting has let them down in nearly every match.It took another recovery operation by the middleand lower-order batsmen to help the team limp past 200 after Wellington opted to field. Grant Robinson top-scored for Northern Districts with 44, while Mark Gillespie (3 for 39) and Ash Turner (3 for 44) were the most successful bowlers for Wellington. On a good pitch, and with Fleming in the best form of his career, a target of 210 was never going to be much of a bother for Wellington. Fleming and Chris Nevin added 92 for the first wicket, before Nevin was dismissed for a 47-ball 49.Northern Districts tasted only one more success in the field, as Fleming ended up with an unbeaten 120 to take his team to victory. Wellington’s easy win meant that they picked up a bonus point as well, and improved their chances of making it to the semi-final.Auckland 251 for 6 (Barnes 86, Nicol 78) beat Otago 189 by 62 runs ScorecardA 157-run fourth-wicket stand between Rob Nicol and Aaron Barnes was the highlight of Auckland’s easy win against Otago. Nicol and Barnes came together after Auckland had stuttered at the start, losing their first three wickets for just 27. Nicol contributed 78 while Barnes bludgeoned five sixes and six fours in his 86, which came off 95 balls. Kyle Mills then provided the final impetus, smashing 40 from 21 balls in the last few overs. Brad Scott (2 for 49) and Warren McSkimming (1 for 39) were the pick of the bowlers.Otago got off to a poor start, as Craig Cumming was out for a duck. Mohammad Wasim (21) and Chris Gaffaney (35) attempted to hit Otago back into the game but they were dismissed within one run of each other and with them went Otago’s chances of making a match of it. Brooke Walker’s legspin undid the batsmen – he took 3 for 29 off his 10 overs while Mills completed a good day with 2 for 23 off eight overs.Canterbury v Central Districts match abandoned ScorecardThe top-of-the-table match between Canterbury and Central Districts never got started as the drought finally broke in Christchurch with rain forcing the early abandonment of the match.Points tally (one round remaining) Canterbury 28, Central Districts 25, Auckland 21, Wellington 19, Otago 16, Northern Districts 4.
A fiery burst from pacer Jaffar Nazir all but put Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) into the final of the Quaid-i-Azam National Cricket Championship after Faisalabad were forced to follow on at National Stadium here on Tuesday.Jaffar captured six for 31 in an unchanged spell of 17 overs from the University Road End to skittle out Faisalabad for 105 in their first innings on the second day of the four-day tie.Batting a second time with 231 runs in arrears, Faisalabad fared slightly better to reach 75 for three. Asif Hussain was holding the fort with a battling 38.KRL now have to wait until Thursday morning to complete an inevitable victory in this first semi-final after Wednesday’s unexpected rest day because of Kashmir Day.Faisalabad’s woes were further compounded by an injury to Mohammad Salman, normally a wicket-keeper but playing in this game as a batsman, who was unable to bat after requiring four stitches in his right hand.Salman was incapacitated while catching Naeem Akhtar in the slips as KRL added 73 to their overnight score of 263 for six.Wicket-keeper Zulfiqar Jan hammered 37 while putting 30 for the last wicket with Mohammad Asif.Barring any miracle, KRL’s opponents in the Feb 17-21 final, scheduled to be played at National Stadium, will be decided when PIA meet Rawalpindi in the second semifinal at UBL Sports Complex from Thursday.ScoreboardKRL (1st Innings), overnight 263-6):M. Ramzan c Asif b Moazzam 4Saeed Anwar Jr c Wasim b Moazzam 9Intikhab Alam lbw b Nadeem 20Saeed bin Nasir c Zaman b Tauqir 87Misbah-ul-Haq c Zaman b Moazzam 68Ali Naqvi lbw b Farooq 33Yasir Arafat run out 28Naeem Akhtar c Salman b Tauqir 19Zulfiqar Jan c Tauqir b Wasim 37Jaffar Nazir b Tauqir 4Mohammad Asif not out 10EXTRAS (B-4, LB-9, W-1, NB-3) 17TOTAL (all out, 100.5 overs) 336FALL OF WKTS: 7-268, 8-293, 9-306.BOWLING: Nadeem Afzal 23-5-56-1 (1nb); Moazzam Ali 26-3-102-3 (2nb); Tauqir Hussain 22-5-81-3 (1w); Farooq Iqbal 19-8-43-1; Zeeshan Asif 2-0-17-0; Wasim Haider 6.5-1-12-1; Asif Hussain 2-1-12-0.FAISALABAD (1st Innings);Zeeshan Asif lbw b Jaffar 5Hasnain Haider c Zulfiqar b Jaffar 4Asif Hussain lbw b Jaffar 2Mohammad Zaman b Jaffar 9Sami-ul-Haq c Ramzan b Yasir 10Wasim Haider c Zulfiqar b Jaffar 22Tauqir Hussain run out 16Farooq Iqbal c Zulfiqar b Yasir 4Nadeem Afzal not out 15Moazzam Ali b Jaffar 5Mohammad Salman absent injured -EXTRAS (LB-2, W-1, NB-10) 13TOTAL (all out, 33 overs) 105FALL OF WKTS: 1-9, 2-12, 3-17, 4-27, 5-39, 6-72, 7-82, 8-92, 9-105.BOWLING: Jaffar Nazir 17-6-31-6 (1nb); Mohammad Asif 7-3-8-0 (2nb); Yasir Arafat 9-0-64-2 (3nb, 1w).FAISALABAD (2nd Innings, following-on):Zeeshan Asif lbw b Asif 4Hasnain Haider c Zulfiqar b Jaffar 5Asif Hussain not out 38Tauqir Hussain b Saeed Jr 10Sami-ul-Haq not out 4EXTRAS (LB-4, NB-10) 14TOTAL (for three wkts, 28 overs) 75FALL OF WKTS: 1-8, 2-14, 3-69.BOWLING (to-date): Jaffar Nazir 5-1-10-1 (1nb); Mohammad Asif 7-1-13-1 (3nb); Yasir Arafat 8-1-23-1 (2nb); Naeem Akhtar 3-0-18-0 (4nb); Ali Naqvi 4-2-6-0; Saeed Anwar Jr 1-0-1-1
National Cricket Academy XI completed a second trouncing in successivedays of the Combined Zonal Academy team at the RSI Ground in Bangaloreon Wednesday. NCA’s 115 run victory was built around a rollickingcentury by opener Deep Dasgupta, ably supported by lusty efforts fromGnaneswara Rao and Ishan Ganda. In a game that was reduced to 45 oversa side due to overnight rain, NCA piled up 303/5 and then rolled overtheir opponents for 188.NCA skipper Ajay Ratra won the toss and elected to take first strike,opening the batting himself with his fellow stumper Dasgupta. Ratra -playing as a specialist batsman – fell to Mihir Diwakar for 22 butDasgupta and Rao (67) proceeded to compile a 134 run second wicketpartnership. Dasgupta, who was among the probables for the Zimbabwetour, hoisted a 98 ball ton, advancing to 122 off 115 balls, before hebecame spinner Abhishek Sharma’s second victim. A late onslaught fromGanda who belted an unbeaten 66 off just 48 balls saw NCA top the 300run mark. Neither Gautam Gambhir nor Gulzar Inder Singh who put on a204 run opening stand for NCA on Tuesday got to bat. Sharma was by farthe best bowler on view with 3/40 in nine overs.The Combined XI never appeared remotely in the hunt, offering only afew pockets of resistance in the form of opener SM Dholpure’s 57 andAmbati Rayudu’s 43. Stuart Binny smacked three sixes in his 28 beforebeing ninth out and the game meandered to its desultory end shortlyafterwards. Six bowlers shared the wickets for the victors withManinder Singh, SG Yadav, Mulewa Dharmichand and Ishan Ganda scalpingtwo apiece.
Manchester United have a very important decision to make regarding their managerial position.
At this point, we expect that interim manager, and well-known advocate of the gegenpress; Ralf Rangnick, will be moving upstairs to begin his consultancy role.
Going by the latest reports, the race to become Red Devils boss is between managerial heavyweights Erik ten Hag and Mauricio Pochettino, with Luis Enrique said to be concentrating on his job with the Spain National Team.
What’s the word?
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has given his opinion on the apparent front-runner, Erik ten Hag.
Pep worked with the 52-year-old Ajax manager at Bayern Munich and believes there is no doubt that ten Hag would be a success in the Premier League.
When asked about ten Hag, the Spaniard said:
“Are you asking me if Erik ten Hag could be here? Definitely. A lot could be here and I think he could be one of the ones.
“For the way he approaches the game, definitely, definitely.”
Glazers can win back United
City boss, Pep Guardiola, is a fan of ten Hag and his philosophy, describing him as “incredible” whilst praising his Ajax side as a team.
Ten Hag has previously been tipped to takeover Guardiola’s position when he eventually opts to call time on what has so far been a very successful spell at the club.
Prompted about this, Pep said that he would endorse him to City’s director of football Txiki Begiristain as he said “I will say it to Txiki now.”
With Pep’s endorsement for his fellow mass-possession advocate, the reported 87.9% of the United fanbase who want the club’s board to appoint the 52-year-old will be ecstatic.
A mere 12.1% of supporters want Pochettino and thus, if the Glazers end up picking the Dutchman, they could win back the Old Trafford faithful and also guarantee a much rosier future.
After all, the Argentine has already struggled with the big egos of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe at PSG and considering the number of stars in the United side, it wouldn’t bode well.
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Whilst this endorsement from one of the most successful managers of all time is wholeheartedly positive, it’s an act that may panic United fans with Guardiola well into the final 18-months of his contract and potentially due to call-time on his Manchester City career in 2023.
The Red Devils faithful will surely want the club to act now, before noisy neighbours Manchester City hijack the deal in what would be an incredibly astute move and ultimate act of one-upmanship from the Citizens.
Taking away a head coach from the jaws of their City rivals would surely go down well with fans and everyone associated with the red side of Manchester. It really does feel like there are only cons to hiring the 52-year-old. Pep does think he’s incredible, after all.
In other news – Man Utd now plot bid to sign £31.5m dynamo, he’s ever better than Rashford – opinion
ScorecardJesse Ryder whittled out Glamorgan•Getty Images
Jesse Ryder’s career-best figures put Essex in firm control against Glamorgan at Chelmsford, snapping the visitors’ excellent run of recent form with the bat.Ryder, the New Zealander, picked up 6 for 47 in 15 overs as Glamorgan were bowled out for 162, the first time this season they had failed to get a batting point in a completed innings. Essex were left with a first innings lead of 117 on a day when 46 overs were lost through rain or bad light and they added another 78 runs before the close.In overcast conditions, Ryder used a combination of seam and swing to undermine the visitors’ innings after they had resumed on 40 for 3 and he beat the bat so often that he could have reaped a greater harvest.Ryder claimed the first five wickets of the innings to fall with only 59 on the board and at that stage, Glamorgan were in danger of being asked to follow-on after replying to an Essex total of 279. But they steered clear of having to do so largely through the efforts of Colin Ingram, Mark Wallace and David Lloyd.Ingram adopted a positive approach while gathering 43 from 56 balls with the help of five fours and a six while Wallace’s 21 included five boundaries. Both were eventually dismissed by paceman David Masters who trapped Wallace leg before wicket before he bowled Ingram for 43. Lloyd hit out boldly while making an unbeaten 20 that included a six and three fours.Masters finished with 3 for 53 while Napier picked-up the remaining wicket when Michael Hogan was bowled off his pads to bring Glamorgan’s replay to an end in the 41st over.With Jaik Mickleburgh suffering from back spasms, Liam Dawson, on-loan from Hampshire, was promoted to open the innings with Nick Browne and the pair never looked in any real trouble as they pressed home Essex’s advantage. They defied a succession of bowling changes while raising the fifty stand with some fine strokes on either side of the wicket and they put together the highest partnership of the match so far.They were still together when bad light brought play to an end with the total on 78 without loss. Browne was within eight runs of his half-century while Dawson will resume on 30.Essex have certainly put themselves in a healthy position to inflict upon promotion-chasing Glamorgan their first defeat of the summer, one that would be a blow to their hopes of reaching Division One. But the real winner could yet prove the weather with outbursts of rain, some prolonged, forecast over the next couple of days.All-rounder Liam Dawson admitted that his Essex side are in a good position. “To go into day three almost 200 runs ahead with twn wickets left is a position that you want to be in. I think there is enough in that wicket if you bowl well over a period of time to take wickets. The longer the game goes on and the more runs we get on the board, the more we put the pressure on Glamorgan. When we come to bowl against them again, whether it is late tomorrow or the start of day four, there is plenty in that wicket to encourage us.”Glamorgan head coach Toby Radford added: “It was a disappointing day for us, I thought that Ryder bowled exceptionally well, used the conditions overhead and got a lot from the pitch, swung it and nipped it both ways. I was still disappointed though that we couldn’t get closer to the Essex first innings score and then we failed to take any wickets this evening. So we are under pressure and have to play well over these last two days.”
It’s the new wave of the international game, so we might as well get used to it. Those who measure the quality of a cricketer by his performances over the long haul, and have grown to tolerate one-dayers as a necessary evil, will probably look scornfully upon the two Twenty20 Internationals between the West Indies and England.Just as the 50 over version was ridiculed in its fledgling years as “pyjama cricket” with its coloured clothing and other gimmicks, so too has the 20 overs-per-side hybrid been dismissed as a glorified whipping session, where the subtleties and complexities of the real thing are abandoned in the quest to clear the boundary ropes almost every delivery to the accompaniment of ear drum-puncturing noise from the resident DJ.Given their stubborn refusal to accept those ODI innovations in the immediate aftermath of Kerry Packer’s revolutionary World Series Cricket, it is more than a little ironic that this latest consumer-friendly variety has really taken off in England, as evidenced by the overwhelming popularity of the domestic version since it was introduced to a very receptive audience four years ago.They were not the first to experiment with an even shorter form of one-day cricket, but it is fair to say that its instant success convinced the ICC of the need to get in on the action, seeing as almost every match, whether domestic or international, is played in front of capacity crowds that are representative of every strata of society, from hardcore party animals to whole families enjoying an evening’s entertainment.And that’s essentially what it is: entertainment. Not a complex series of sub-plots and individual skirmishes, all unfolding over time in a duel that has almost as many twists, turns and changes of pace as the most complex scandal-laced soap opera.In an era when those who have extra money can’t enjoy the luxury of much spare time, Twenty20 fills the breach almost perfectly.
Most people were more preoccupied with the staggering sums of money shovelled out than the quality of the cricket played, but Allen Stanford’s ground-breaking Caribbean version of the frenetic spectacle proved such a hit last August in Antigua that, just for a moment, we almost believed his baseless boast that “West Indies cricket is back on track!” just after Narsingh Deonarine smashed a six off the penultimate ball of the final to give Guyana a pulsating victory over Trinidad and Tobago.It’s all about instant gratification, so there’s no point griping about it lacking the depth of the longer contest. That is not to say, of course, that any fool can dash to the nearest phone booth and be transformed Clark Kent-style into a Twenty20 superhero.Indeed, there is enough evidence to suggest that the concentrated demands of this extremely abbreviated style have contributed to even sharper fielding, while batsmen exposed to it on a regular basis are now more inclined to attack much earlier and with more clinical efficiency in both Tests and one-dayers.Still, it doesn’t appeal to all players, despite the financial rewards. Two years ago, Brian Lara commented that he didn’t enjoy having to swing for the hills almost from the word go when rain reduced an ODI against South Africa at the Queen’s Park Oval effectively to a Twenty20 affair.A number of Australia’s senior players, including skipper Ricky Ponting and 2007 World Cup final hero Adam Gilchrist, have cautioned against exposing younger players too much to a form of the game that could see them developing habits inimical to ensuring the country’s continued dominance at Test level.Still, Twenty20 has well and truly claimed its place in the cricketing world with the ICC approving the inaugural World Cup in South Africa in September. It is unlikely, however, given the increasing complaints about squeezing more matches into an already congested international schedule, that Twenty20 will enjoy the unfettered growth of its 50-over relation.Of course, as with anything else, it takes some getting used to, and Sunday’s 84-run humiliation at the hands of Derbyshire is not an encouraging sign for Chris Gayle’s reconstituted side. Hopefully, the final warm-up against the PCA Masters at Arundel would have proven more encouraging ahead of their first clash with Paul Collingwood’s England at The Oval in London.In their only Twenty20 International before the upcoming matches, the West Indies lost out in a tie-breaking bowl-out in Auckland at the start of their New Zealand tour in February of last year. It was an entertaining experience with a thrilling finale, but apart from the fact that it marked the farewell of allrounder Chris Cairns to international cricket, hardly anything else is worth remembering.But that’s Twenty20 for you: gratification without any real meaning, much like life in the 21st century. It is very much a game for the times.
Buddhadev Bhattacharjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, has labelled Jagmohan Dalmiya’s re-election as Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president as a “victory of evil over good”. Bhattacharjee, who had backed Dalmiya’s prime opposer Prasun Mukherjee, the police commissioner of Kolkata, has vowed to remove Dalmiya in the interest of cricket.”So far [as] I’m concerned I’ll not compromise with this man,” he told reporters. “The battle will continue. I want him to leave this post. I want him to leave the organization. So long [as] he is there in the CAB the future of cricket in Bengal is doomed. He has many interests … vested interests … all interests other than cricket. Unless he leaves, it will further deteriorate.”Bhattacharjee had publicly opposed Dalmiya’s campaign for the top spot well before the election date but his words had little effect on the result. Dalmiya went ahead and filed his nomination and won the highly politicised election late Sunday.Bhattacharjee backed his anti-Dalmiya campaign again and emphatically stated that this was not a battle between two individuals. “It’s a fight between good and evil forces. Evil has triumphed this time. It happens at times,” he said. “Whatever I said, I said consciously. In normal circumstances one does not take such a stand. But there are times when it is a crime not to intervene when such interventions are necessary. I said this in the interest of Bengal cricket, the cricketers and to save the Eden Gardens which has become a condemned stadium. And accordingly I had requested Sports Minister Subhas Chakraborty to persuade Dalmiya to stay away.”Bhattacharjee also felt that there were plenty in West Bengal who were apprehensive of the CAB’s management. “Cricketers, both former and current, and also budding ones, do not like it,” he said. “Some well-meaning persons wanted to bring about a change in the CAB. But unfortunately they were defeated.”However, veteran CPI(M) leader Jyoti Basu on Monday disapproved of Bhattacharjee’s statements, asserting that Dalmiya had triumphed through democratic means. “I don’t know what he has said. We will discuss it in the party,” Basu said when his comment was sought. When it was pointed out that Bhattacharjee had described Mr. Dalmiya as an “evil force,” Basu said the CAB president had won the election in a democratic way.Chakraborty, who openly sided with Dalmiya despite Bhattacharjee’s request, summed up Dalmiya’s win as a victory for democracy. “I congratulated Dalmiya on his re-election and Prasun Mukherjee whose defeat proved that political interference in cricket was wrong,” he said. “It will be a bit of an embarrassment to the chief minister as his nominee Kolkata Police Comissioner Prasun Mukherjee could not win.”Bhattacharjee refrained from comment on Chakraborty’s stance during the controversial election.
Michael Vaughan has recovered from his groin strain and will play against Australia at Edgbaston in the eighth match of the NatWest Series. Vaughan, who was forced to sit out of the last two matches, will be seeking to reimpose England’s authority at a time when Australia are showing signs of galvanising after their shaky start to the tour.Both sides are guaranteed a place in Saturday’s final thanks to their victories over Bangladesh at the weekend, so this match has become a high-profile dress rehearsal. Australia have the momentum at present, having won their day-night encounter with England at Chester-le-Street, although it is unlikely that England will choose to field first if they win the toss today – which was the mistake that Marcus Trescothick made last time around.Australia have made a solitary change to their side. Michael Clarke has recovered from his back injury and reclaims his place ahead of Shane Watson, with Mike Hussey slipping down the order to No. 7. Meanwhile, England’s Ian Bell and Jon Lewis have been released to play in the Twenty20 match between Warwickshire and Gloucestershire at Bristol this evening.England 1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Andrew Strauss, 3 Michael Vaughan (capt), 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Andrew Flintoff, 6 Paul Collingwood, 7 Geraint Jones (wk), 8 Ashley Giles, 9 Simon Jones, 10 Darren Gough, 11 Steve HarmisonAustralia 1 Matthew Hayden, 2 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Damien Martyn, 5 Michael Clarke, 6 Andrew Symonds, 7 Mike Hussey, 8 Brad Hogg, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Jason Gillespie, 11 Glenn McGrath.