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Match facts

Friday, December 2
Start time 1430 (0900 GMT)At a venue that shot MS Dhoni into the limelight in 2005, the Indian batsmen will want to cash in•AFP

Big Picture

As the tour moves to the YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam, the contest between the teams – which seemed rather predictable to begin with – has acquired a more exciting taste following a couple of manic finishes in the lead-up to this game. A draw with the scores level in the third Test and a nail-biting finish in Cuttack, during which Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav provided an insight into the intricacies of human behaviour under pressure, have spiced up a home season characterised by one-sided contests and poor crowds.Visakhapatnam should not worry about poor crowds – it’s only hosted three internationals in six years and it would be an exception if the game doesn’t entertain. A high-scoring venue, teams have gone past 250 in each of the six ODI innings here – twice while chasing successfully. In what could be a battle of the bats at a venue that shot MS Dhoni into the limelight in 2005, the Indian top order will not want to fall victim to the “soft dismissals” that their captain Virender Sehwag criticised them for after the Cuttack game. Even more so for West Indies. They were troubled by India’s seamers in Cuttack, but are now at a venue where the bowlers’ skills and variations have been of limited value in past games.

Form guide

India WWWWW (Most recent first)
West Indies LLWWW

Watch out for…

The decision to rest MS Dhoni has given Parthiv Patel an opportunity to stake his claim for a place in the limited-overs side to Australia, where he toured as the first-choice wicketkeeper in 2003-04. He didn’t have the best home series against England, getting starts but not going beyond 38 in four games. His recent form, though, has been good. He scored centuries in successive games for Gujarat in the Ranji Trophy, and will hope to extend this run into international cricket.Lendl Simmons didn’t play in the Test series against India, left out of the squad after Adrian Barath returned from injury. An attacking batsman upfront, Simmons, while not an automatic pick in the longest format, has been in good touch in the 50-overs version. In 2011, he averages 56.41 in 13 games with seven half-centuries and one ton. He took a while to get going in Cuttack before falling for 19. Will Vizag be different?

Team news

Manoj Tiwary and Ajinkya Rahane are part of the squad but unless there are niggles or injury concerns, India could go in with the same team that won in Cuttack.India (possible) 1 Parthiv Patel (wk), 2 Virender Sehwag (capt), 3 Gautam Gambhir, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 Rohit Sharma, 6 Suresh Raina, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 R Ashwin, 9 R Vinay Kumar, 10 Varun Aaron, 11 Umesh Yadav.Legspinner Anthony Martin had some success against India when they toured West Indies earlier in the year, but will the visitors go in with Sunil Narine for this match? An offspinner, he made a name for himself during the Champions League T20. He dismissed Dhoni and Suresh Raina, and used a variation he calls the “knuckle ball” that takes the ball away from the right hander.West Indies 1 Lendl Simmons, 2 Adrian Barath, 3 Marlon Samuels, 4 Darren Bravo, 5 Danza Hyatt, 6 Kieron Pollard, 7 Denesh Ramdin (wk), 8 Darren Sammy (capt), 9 Andre Russell, 10 Kemar Roach, 11 Sunil Narine/Anthony Martin.

Stats and trivia

• India’s win in Cuttack was only their second by a one-wicket margin in ODIs. The previous instance was in Auckland in 2003, against New Zealand, when Ashish Nehra hit the winning runs.
• Twenty years ago, on December 6, 1991, these two teams were involved in a tie, in Perth.
  

  Quotes

  “There is no excuse for anybody not scoring runs.”
  
  

Group B

Maharashtra surged to a two-day innings-and-six-run win after a shocking collapse from Hyderabad at Uppal. Sixteen wickets fell in the day with Maharashtra first going from 63 for 4 to 184 and Hyderabad then getting skittled for 54 in a batting performance that would have induced memories of their 21 all out at the beginning of last season. Left-arm spinner Akshya Darekar was the chief destroyer, taking an incredible 8 for 20. Darekar had not taken a five-wicket haul in his seven previous first-class games but took two in the same match at Uppal. Only two of Hyderabad’s batsmen reached double figures and there were four ducks in the innings.Hyderabad had only managed 124 in their first innings but started the second day well, taking an early wicket to leave Maharashtra 67 for 5. Darekar then put together a 78-run partnership with Kedar Jadhav to give Maharashtra the first-innings lead. Jadhav was aggressive and hit 62 off just 43 balls including 11 fours. Offspinner Syed Quadri removed the last five of Maharashtra’s batsmen to finish with 5 for 28. Hyderabad had a 60-run deficit to contend with but did not even manage to make Maharashtra bat again.

Goa overcame a hat-trick by Abu Nechim to go ahead by 82 runs in their match against Assam at the Nehru Stadium in Guwhati thanks to an unbeaten century by 20-year-old Reagan Pinto. Nechim’s hat-trick, in the 32nd over of the day, left Goa 85 for 6 in response to Assam’s 195. Nechim got his fifth wicket to make it 101 for 7 and it looked like Assam would take the first-innings lead. But Pinto forged together partnerships with the tail to take Goa to 277 for 8 by stumps. Robin D’Souza, captaining in the absence of the suspended Swapnil Asnodkar, contributed 35 at No. 9 and shared a 95-run partnership with Pinto. No. 10 Amit Yadav then got 38 not out and had added 81 runs with Pinto by stumps. Pinto, who shot to prominence with consecutive centuries last season, now has three hundreds in his last five first-class games.

There was no play on the second day of the match between Jammu & Kashmir and Jharkhand at the Sher-i-Kashmir Stadium in Srinagar due to a wet outfield. Only 11 overs had been possible on the first day in which J&K raced to 59 for 0.

Group A

Andhra Pradesh secured a 61-run first-innings lead against Tripura at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in Vijayawada by bowling Tripura out for 174 on the second day. Tripura then had Andhra 47 for 3 at stumps and will hope to force a collapse. Tripura began the day on 34 for 2 in response to Andhra’s 235. That was soon 50 for 4 as seamer Paidikalva Vijaykumar struck twice. Subhrajit Roy tried holding the innings together and scored 54 off 222 balls. But he could not find anyone to stay at the other end and was eventually the ninth man dismissed. A few contributions from the lower order pushed Tripura to 174 when they were 87 for 7 at one time, but they still conceded the first-innings lead. Andhra came out to face 19 overs, and were soon 15 for 3, but Bodapati Sumanth and Venugopal Rao shared a 32-run unbeaten stand at the end of the day.

Eighteen wickets fell in the day in Dharmasala and Vidarbha were left needing 241 more runs to beat Himachal Pradesh with all ten wickets in hand. It will be a tough task on a pitch where the highest score so far has been 200, by Himachal in their second innings. The hosts’ new-ball pair of Rishi Dhawan and Vikramjeet Malik took nine wickets between them as Vidarbha were bowled out for 142 in response to Himachal’s 195. Vidarbha started the day 40 for 2 and none of their batsmen scored more than 25. Dhawan finished with 5 for 60, his third five-wicket haul in first-class cricket.Then it was the turn of Vidarbha’s new-ball bowlers, Shrikant Wagh and Sandeep Singh, to help themselves to wickets. Sandeep took 5 for 41 to give him nine wickets in the match, as Himachal were bowled out for 200 in 50.1 overs. Their scorecard looked similar to Vidarbha’s with the exception of Sridharan Sriram’s 87 off 101 balls, easily the best individual score of the match. That left Vidarbha chasing 254 and they reached 13 for 0 in the two overs they had to play out before stumps.

Services collapsed from their overnight 198 for 5 to 253 all out at the Nehru Stadium in Kochi. In response Kerala made slow progress, getting to 121 for 4 in 65.2 overs, leaving the match finely balanced. Sarabjit Singh was bowled off the second ball of the morning by Sony Cheruvathur, and captain Yashpal Singh followed followed two overs later in similar fashion. Muzzaffaruddin Khalid and Suraj Yadav added 43 runs for the eighth wicket but then the last three wickets fell for five runs. Kerala crawled in their response. They lost their first wicket in the 34th over but had only scored 54 runs. VA Jagadeesh scored 50 off 160 balls before becoming the second man to be dismissed. At that stage Kerala were 108 for 2 and had a firm base, but two quick wickets fell at the end of the day to bring Services back into the match.

The Indian selectors have picked an injured player to represent Rest of India in the Irani Cup, and left out another on fitness grounds after having originally selected him. The state association of the player who’s been left out claims he is fit. The concerned players are Delhi and Mumbai Indians left-arm seamer Pawan Suyal and Jharkhand and Deccan Chargers batsman Ishank Jaggi.On September 23 the Champions League Twenty20 technical committee allowed Mumbai Indians to field five foreign payers because of an unprecedented count of injuries in the squad. One of the injured players was Suyal. A day after the Champions league made the announcement through a release that went to media houses around the world, the BCCI selected Suyal, and also mis-spelt his name as B Suval, for the Irani Cup. Suyal confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that he underwent a knee surgery two-and-a-half months ago and was aiming at a return in December.However, a hurried corrigendum from BCCI only corrected the spelling. It also mentioned that the selectors had just discovered that Jaggi was injured and would be replaced by Karnataka’s C Gautam. Later in the day the Jharkhand Cricket Association (JCA) told that Jaggi was fit and was part of Jharkhand’s Ranji Trophy preparatory camp.”As far as Pawan Suyal is concerned, we didn’t know about his injury,” the new BCCI secretary and convenor of selectors Sanjay Jagdale told the . “We have the main players on our database but we are not aware of injuries to every single first-class cricketer in the country.” R Vinay Kumar, the Karnataka seamer, has replaced Suyal in the squad.Jaggi found support from his state association. The JCA claimed that Jaggi, who had suffered a knee injury during the fourth edition of the IPL while playing for Deccan Chargers, was back to full fitness and training with the state team. “As far as the JCA is concerned, I can tell you that he is fit and presently is even taking part in our Ranji camp,” JCA secretary Rajesh Verma told the . “We consulted BCCI’s authorised doctor Anant Joshi a month ago and he had told us that Ishank did not require any surgery.”They should have conducted his fitness test if they wanted to pick him for Irani Cup. Jaggi was never called to Bangalore [to the National Cricket Academy] for a test. There is no point in dropping a player when you have not conducted any test.”When asked about Jaggi, Jagdale said: “In Ishank Jaggi’s case we went by the National Cricket Academy (NCA) physio’s report, which had suggested a surgery but now we will see what can be done.”According to JCA, Jaggi had approached the NCA after his injury, and was advised by the BCCI physio Nitin Patel to undergo surgery in England. Verma further told the paper that Patel failed to acquire an appointment with orthopedic surgeon Andrew Wallace in London whereupon Jaggi was asked by Deccan Chargers and the JCA to meet Joshi.This fiasco comes days after the BCCI announced a new Under-19 captain for the upcoming quadrangular only to later discover that his date of birth in the BCCI records didn’t match the one on his passport.

Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Dwayne Bravo do not feature in the West Indies Test and ODI squads for the upcoming tour of Bangladesh. Wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin has been recalled to both squads, while offspinner Shane Shillingford, who underwent remedial work on an action that was deemed illegal last year, has made the Test side.Gayle has not played for West Indies since the 2011 World Cup, following a breakdown in his relationship with the West Indies board. He chose to participate in the IPL in April, after being left out of a training camp ahead of the home series against Pakistan. In a hard-hitting interview with KLAS Sports, he had questioned his treatment by members of the board, including chief executive Ernest Hilaire, and the coach Ottis Gibson, after he picked up an injury during the World Cup.Since then, Gayle had a series of discussions with the board, including a one-on-one with Hilaire on August 23. Though the discussion was reported to be “frank and excellent”, Gayle recently revealed that the stalemate was set to continue since he had refused to apologise to Gibson for statements made during the radio interview.”The outstanding matter relating to Chris Gayle’s availability and selection remains unresolved,” the board’s release read. “The WICB management will submit a report to the board of directors after which a conclusive statement will be made.”Bravo was not picked though he was considered for selection, while Sarwan was left out due to injury. Sarwan had been recalled for the home series against Pakistan and India, and looked in good touch during the India ODIs. He struggled in the Test series that followed, though, and missed the final match. Shivnarine Chanderpaul retained his spot in the Test side following a match-saving effort in the Basseterre Test.Ramdin’s return meant there was no place for Carlton Baugh in the ODI set-up, though Baugh was included in the Test side. Openers Kieran Powell and Kraigg Brathwaite, who made their Test debuts in the home season, also found places in the touring party, while Barbados allrounder Carlos Brathwaite got a maiden call-up to the ODI side.The tour begins on October 7 with the first of two warm-up matches, followed by a solitary Twenty20, three ODIs and two Tests. Darren Sammy will continue to lead the side.ODI and T20 squad: Darren Sammy (capt), Adrian Barath, Devendra Bishoo, Carlos Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Danza Hyatt, Anthony Martin, Kieron Pollard, Kieran Powell, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Lendl SimmonsTest squad: Darren Sammy (capt), Adrian Barath, Carlton Baugh (wk), Devendra Bishoo, Kraigg Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Fidel Edwards, Kirk Edwards, Kieran Powell, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Marlon Samuels, Shane Shillingford.

India head into the second Test in Nottingham with much hanging over them: they trail England 0-1, their main strike bowler is battling to return from injury and their batting is looking to get into the groove. The one blessing is that captain MS Dhoni has defied widespread apprehension and cold calculation to escape the trip-wires of the over-rate in Tests through the somewhat open-ended ICC rules that depend on “many factors on the ground” and the interpretation of those factors.A transgression at Lord’s would have been Dhoni’s third in a calendar year and would have led to an automatic suspension from the next Test.At the end of England’s innings at Lord’s, India were found to be two overs short; that was the calculation of three independent sets of scorers, two of whom were present at the ground. A similar calculation by the official Lord’s scorer would have meant Gautam Gambhir captaining the side at Trent Bridge. After the match, Dhoni said that he had been informed by the match referee that India had done well on the over-rate and he was in the clear.ESPNcricinfo contacted the ICC and asked whether it was possible that the official scorers had taken a particular situation or event into account before arriving at their calculation that had India well within the rate required and if there were unconventional factors other than innings breaks, fall of wickets or inadvertent delays that had been worked into the calculation.An official spokesperson said that the calculation for over-rates depended on “many factors on the ground on the day and the interpretations of those factors. These are always left in the hands of the match officials as they have a better grasp of the mitigating issues. The calculation is made over the course of both innings and the regulations provide that in calculating the over-rate, allowances must be given for, inter alia, all time lost due to circumstances beyond the control of the fielding team.”When asked whether India had been reminded of their over-rate at any point during the Lord’s game, the ICC spokesperson said, “What we can say is that players are regularly reminded of the laws and regulations regarding time wasting and over-rates and they are always requested to be more proactive in improving the pace of play.”An official present at Lord’s said that umpires could give due licence to captains depending on local circumstances. At Lord’s, for example, new batsmen sometimes take more than two minutes to settle down. “You have to come down a flight of stairs and then walk through the Long Room and past the members into the stands. At times the batsmen take more time to settle down and can delay the play by doing various sorts of things.”The official stated that both teams were on par in terms of over-rates, though India may have been a minute faster, and that the official times varied across all the three Lord’s “time-keepers” – the field umpires, the match referee and the official scorers.The best way to complete the required number of overs, the official said, would require the change between overs to be around 10 seconds, which can save up to 16 minutes in a day. Protracted celebrations of wickets followed by a fielding change after the new batsman had got ready to play also led to more time being wasted.

Match facts August 12, Harare Sports Club
Start time 0930 (0730GMT 1300IST)Tamim Iqbal will be looking to back up his strong words with aggressive batting in the one-day series against Zimbabwe•Getty Images

The Big Picture

After the heroics in Harare on Monday, when Zimbabwe won an intriguing Test match against Bangladesh, cricket returns to the format the two teams play most often. An ODI series between them is not a rare thing and the players know each other so well that most of them see each other as colleagues, not opponents. In the last two years, they have played three five-match series against each other, with Bangladesh winning all three; two at home, one away.Their dominance over Zimbabwe may suggest that Bangladesh are firm favourites on the eve this series, but the tables have turned a little. Zimbabwe are the darlings of the cricket world after winning their comeback Test and will want to maintain their status with a convincing performance in the ODIs. Their most recent showing in the fifty-over format, at the 2011 World Cup, was disappointing. They registered just one win over minnows Kenya and their five defeats meant that any outside chance they had of making it to the quarter-finals quickly disappeared.They haven’t played an ODI since March, and with all the focus on their Test return, they will have to adjust quickly to this version of the game. With exciting players like batsman Forster Mutizwa and seamers Brian Vitori and Tendai Chatara coming through the franchise system, Zimbabwe have a lot of talent to show off and there would be no better time to do so than now, at the start of a summer that will see them also host Pakistan and New Zealand.Bangladesh were widely expected to progress to the quarter-finals of the World Cup, but defeats to India, West Indies and South Africa undid the hard work they put into their wins over Ireland, England and Netherlands. In the only series they have played in the aftermath of their World Cup exit, Australia made a mockery of them, showing that the gap between Bangladesh and some of the other teams still exists.With talk of disharmony in the camp, general regression and Shakib Al Hasan’s captaincy under scrutiny, Bangladesh will be looking to let their on-field efforts answer the questions that are swirling around them. Stuart Law’s tenure as coach didn’t start in the best way but this is also an opportunity for him to stamp his style on the team.

Form guide (most recent first)

Zimbabwe WLLLL
Bangladesh LLLLW

In the spotlight

A year ago, Chris Mpofu was tossed about like a ragdoll by South Africa’s batsmen but instead of demoralising him, his experience served as the watershed moment of his career. He realised that to compete at international level he would have to work on various aspects of his game, particularly accuracy. He has improved massively since then but has only had a few matches to display his progress. With Vitori and Kyle Jarvis stealing the show in the Test, Mpofu’s role did not attract much attention, but, as the senior seamer he will have a big role to play both as a role model and a containing bowler.After Tamim Iqbal’s inflammatory comments in the Test match, in which he described Brian Vitori and Kyle Jarvis as “ordinary” and “nothing special,” the pressure is on the feisty Bangladesh batsman to live up to his big talk. He didn’t have to face the Zimbabwean pair after making his comments, because he had already got out to a loose shot after a rollicking start, so this will be the first opportunity for them to exact revenge. If Tamim wants his statements to stick, he will have to bat with some kind of aggression in the ODI series.

Team news

Brendan Taylor will return to the opening berth and will partner Hamilton Masakadza at the top. Forster Mutizwa, who was considered unlucky to miss out on the Test match after his performance in the warm-up, is likely to slot into the middle order. Brian Vitori is in line for an ODI debut, after his fine showing in the Test match. Prosper Utseya will be brought in to aid the spin department, meaning Keegan Meth may have to wait a little longer to make an appearance in this series.Zimbabwe (probable): 1 Brendan Taylor (capt), 2 Hamilton Masakadza, 3 Vusi Sibanda, 4 Craig Ervine, 5 Tatenda Taibu (wk), 6 Forster Mutizwa, 7 Elton Chigumbura, 8 Prosper Utseya, 9 Ray Price, 10 Brian Vitori, 11 Chris Mpofu.Junaid Siddique, who was not included in the one-off Test, should find his way back into the playing XI for the ODIs. Mohammad Ashraful, who showed some form in that Test, is also likely to play after missing out on the series against Australia, and Nasir Hossain, the 19-year-old offspinner, could make his debut.Bangladesh (probable): 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Imrul Kayes, 3 Junaid Siddique, 4 Shahriar Nafees, 5 Mohammad Ashraful, 6 Shakib Al Hasan (capt), 7 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 8 Abdur Razzak, 9 Shafiul Islam, 10 Rubel Hossain, 11 Nasir Hossain Pitch and conditions
The deck is said to be as flat as the road outside and is expected to have nothing in it for the quicks – even less than it had during the Test match, where bowling was hard work. But, as that fixture showed, with consistent lines and lengths, even a pitch that was good for batting could be used to the seamers’ advantage. The bounce is expected to be consistent and with the slow nature of the track, both captains should employ a lot of spin.

Stats and trivia

• Zimbabwe and Bangladesh have played each other 31 times in the last five years, with Bangladesh winning 23 of those encounters. Overall, they have clashed 51 times, with 28 victories going the way of Bangladesh and 23 wins to Zimbabwe.
• Shahriar Nafees’s batting average against Zimbabwe is 62.41, almost double his overall average of 33.34. Three of his four hundreds came against them, including his highest score of 123.
• Ray Price’s best bowling figures of 4 for 22 came against Bangladesh in January 2009. His highest score with the bat, 46, was also achieved against Bangladesh in August that same year.

Quotes

We are expecting them to come out fighting in the ODI series. They rely so much on spin so we expect to face 30 overs of spin.
In any series, the first one-day is always very important. If we can win the first game, the momentum will be with us.
Shakib al Hasan wants Bangladesh to start positively