Category Uncategorized

The Tasmanian Cricket Association would like to advise that prior to the commencement of the Pura Cup match at Bellerive against the Southern Redbacks, two late changes were forced upon the team.Adam Griffith and Xavier Doherty were both withdrawn from the playing eleven.Griffith has a calf strain and was ruled out following a fitness test on the morning of the match. Cascade Tasmanian Tigers Coach, Brian McFadyen said, "Adam has been experiencing calf soreness in the lead up to this match and unfortunately had to withdraw when he was still experiencing considerable discomfort in his calf."Doherty was ruled out after lacerating his left knee joint on the medial side, requiring 12 sutures, in an accident during a regulation warm-up exercise on the morning of the match.Scott Kremerskothen has been recalled after being omitted earlier in the week.

* Pakistan plans tight security for Indian cricket team’s visitTight security will be in place when the Indian cricket team travel toPakistan for an ice breaking Test match in September, Pakistan CricketBoard (PCB) chief Lieutenant General Tauqir Zia said in Karachi onSunday.”We have planned special tight security during the Lahore Test inSeptember this year,” Zia told reporters, adding that he hoped theBoard of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) would be given the allclear by the Indian government for the visit. India is scheduled toplay their first Test in Pakistan for 12 years when they feature in anAsian Test Championship match from September 12-16.When India played their last Test series in Pakistan in 1989-90, areligious party activist attacked then-Indian captain KrishnamachariSrikanth during the Karachi Test. Srikkanth though was unscathed assecurity personnel arrested the attacker.* Baroda, Mumbai to play triangular series in KenyaRanji Trophy champions Baroda and former champions Mumbai will play atriangular limited overs cricket tournament in Kenya, with the hostteam being the third team, from September 10 to 24.The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) joint secretary Mayank Khandwalatold PTI in Mumbai on Monday that the Mumbai team will play Baroda andKenya three times each in the league phase. The final is slated forSeptember 24. Mumbai will also play a three-day match against Kenya.Kenya had invited Mumbai last year as well but the tour was cancelleddue to non-availability of star batsman Sachin Tendulkar, who was busywith the Indian team’s conditioning camp for the International CricketCouncil’s (ICC) Mini WorldCup.* Manoj Prabhakar’s remand extendedA court in Bhawali has extended judicial remand of the former Indiancricketer Manoj Prabhakar till August 3 in the chit fund case, policesaid in Dehra Dun on Sunday. The judicial magistrate Devraj Prasadissued orders to this effect after visiting the private nursing homein Haldwani, where Prabhakar has been admitted to enquire about hiscondition on Saturday evening, the assistant director general ofpolice Anil Raturi told PTI in Dehra Dun.Prabhakar was admitted to the hospital on July 3 following suspectedbrain stroke and doctors attending on him have stated his condition tobe stable.

On a pitch tailor made for their quartet of spin bowlers, Tamil Union look set to spring a surprise in the first semi final of the Premier Limited Overs tournament at Premadasa International Stadium tonight. They have bowled out the tournament favorites, Colts Cricket Club, for a meager 174 in 48.4 overs.Tamil Union have one of the strongest spin attacks in the land. Led by the irrepressible Mutiah Muralitharan, who picked up five wickets for 15 runs in 9.4 overs, the spin bowlers took nine of the wickets to fall. The Colts batsmen struggled to play them on a slow paced pitch that spun extravagantly.Colts CC had won the toss and begun confidently, despite the loss of Romesh Kaluwitharan for just six runs in the sixth over of the innings. Chaminda Mendis and Kulatunga compiled 67 runs for the second wicket and Colts CC looked set for another impressive total.However, Upul Chandana turned to Mutiah Muralitharan in the 16th over of the innings and in partnership with left arm spinner, Niroshan Bandaratilake, he turned the course the course of the match. Colts CC lost four wickets for just six runs and slumped to 92 for five.Kulatunga had played some sparkling shots including a brace of boundaries in Ranga Dias’s first and last over. However, he was less assured against the spinners, and started the slide when he charged down the wicket to Muralitharan and was caught at cover. He had scored 35 from 52 deliveries.Sajith Fernando walked to the crease in confident fashion but was caught in the very next over as he top edged a sweep. Then, Chaminda Mendis, who had scored a solid 35 from 69 balls, was clean bowled by Muralitharan four balls later. In the same over Sujith Janaka looked unlucky to have been adjudged caught behind.Were it not for Chaminda Vaas (18) and Eric Upashantha (34), who added 45 runs for the seventh wicket, Colts would not have even surpassed 150. The pair batted patiently and sensibly. Aware of the responsibility that now lay on their shoulders, they eschewed risks and concentrated on picking up singles.Just when they looked like they were on the verge of grasping the initiative back, Chaminda Vaas tried to pull sweep Upul Chandana and was brilliantly caught by a tumbling Brijesh Jeganathanan on the mid wicket boundary.The skipper wasted no time in recalling his premier bowler and Muralitharan just proved too good for the Colts lower order. They lunged and prodded as best they could but were eventually bowled out for a total that looks too small.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

VRV Singh got his second five-for of the match as West Zone batsmen played one injudicious shot after the other, and despite a middle-order resistance they were bowled out in two sessions to set North Zone an easy 166 to get, with two days and a session to go. North Zone ended the third day with 92 more to get and seven wickets in hand.The first over of the day set the tone, when Sahil Kukreja played a loose drive to the first delivery that was not pitched on legs, and edged it through to Uday Kaul, the wicketkeeper. North did not look to capitalise on the early breakthrough as VRV continued to spray the ball around, and Vikramjeet Malik – although getting the inswing going – had problems with no-balls.Wasim Jaffer and Ajinkya Rahane got a partnership going, and scored at a fairly good pace. But after overs of innocuous bowling, Ashok Thakur got one to land on a length and dip in towards Jaffer, who looked to play without any feet movement, and presented a gap between bat and pad. Parthiv Patel soon got his second awkward lifter of the match, which he jabbed to first slip. Cheteshwar Pujara completed his pair by going for an expansive drive to an inswinger, leaving his stumps vulnerable. In 5.4 overs, 56 for 1 became 70 for 4, with a lead of just fours runs.A brief partnership between Rahane, who was impressive once again in his innings of 43, and Yusuf Pathan was ended by a harsh call from AV Jayaprakash. Rahane was hit on the thigh pad by one from VRV that cut in but was going over the top of the stumps. With half the side out for a lead of just 42, two Baroda players – Rakesh Solanki and Pathan – counterattacked, exposing the North bowlers. Pathan, who had already got off to a quick start by the time Rahane got out (21 off 17 balls), took the attack to the next level and turned the attention away from Solanki. Soon the field spread out, Amit Mishra was brought on, and defensive bowling became the call of the hour.Pathan still managed to find gaps, whipping through mid-on, thrashing through covers, edging over slips, late-cutting through third man, sweeping through square leg, and lofting over the infield. Mishra, who had been swept for two fours by Pathan, finally got the breakthrough: bowling from round the stumps, he tossed one up, and Pathan backed his sweep, only to top-edge to short fine leg. Pathan ended up scoring 61 out of the 97 runs scored by West since his arrival at the crease. His 59-run partnership with Solanki in 10.4 overs made sure the game would not end on the third day itself.The North bowlers became lackadaisical once again and Solanki and Rakesh Dhurv took advantage. For more than 19 overs, they could only create one half-chance – a caught-and-bowled for Mishra – and a regulation chance for Kaul in Rajat Bhatia’s first over, which he duly dropped. Dhurv had scored 31 by then, but North got a breakthrough when Solanki uppercut VRV straight to third man. The tail folded easily, the last four wickets falling for nine runs. Three cheap dismissals gave VRV his second first-class ten-wicket haul. He now has 18 wickets from two Duleep Trophy matches.Chasing 166, North got off to a solid start just like in the first innings, and it seemed they would come close to rattling off the required runs today itself. But as had happened in the first innings, the fall of Aakash Chopra led to more wickets. Chopra got a dodgy lbw verdict, and Karan Goel followed after, ending what has been a horrible match for him, with a poke to an away-going delivery, just like he had in the first innings. He managed to get a run this time, though. When Mithun Manhas edged Trivedi to second slip, North had lost three wickets for 12 runs, and at that moment West Zone had a chance to sneak back.Shikhar Dhawan, meanwhile, had got off to a brisk start, having scored 25 off 27 balls out of the team score of 40. With his captain back in the pavilion, Dhawan adjusted to the situation, taking on the responsibility even as Yashpal Singh looked extremely edgy. Dhawan cut down on his shots without slowing down much, but there was a clear change in his attitude, suggesting he wanted to be there till the end. His scoring before the collapse had been attractive and imperious, but following it, he became more solid. He was also offered a reprieve when Sandeep Jobanputra, who bowled a testing spell of inswing bowling, dropped Dhawan off his own bowling: Dhawan was 27 then, and North had only got to 47.By the end of the day, Dhawan had added 17 more, ensured there were no more setbacks, and North were about one session of sensible batting short of a second successive Duleep Trophy triumph.

Brad Haddin was named New South Wales’ Player of the Year at the state’s awards night on Friday, winning the Steve Waugh Medal. Haddin was also the Blues’ limited-overs Player of the Year, while Simon Katich took the honours in the Pura Cup.Haddin was the star of New South Wales’ Ford Ranger Cup campaign, slamming 406 runs at 67.66 with an impressive strike-rate of 104.10. His efforts earned him a national call-up for the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy series in New Zealand and a place in Australia’s 15-man World Cup squad.He also had a solid Pura Cup season, making 669 runs at 55.75, and the Blues missed his middle-order scoring and leadership in the final against Tasmania. Haddin, who is in Antigua at the World Cup, said winning the Steve Waugh Medal was a great honour.”I’ve been working extremely hard over a number of seasons, striving to be consistent behind the stumps and with the bat,” he said. “To be recognised in this way is something special.”Katich, the Blues’ Pura Cup Player of the Year, topped their first-class averages with 711 runs at 64.63 from his seven games. He missed the first few matches while on national duty but made the best of his return to state ranks with two centuries – including an unbeaten 205 – and three fifties.David Warner, who made his one-day debut during the season, was named as the Blues’ Rising Star. Lisa Sthalekar, who captained the New South Wales Breakers to the Women’s National Cricket League title, was the Breakers’ Player of the Year.

Scorecard
Gallery

Queensland’s two-year Pura Cup revenge is almost complete as they batted and battered Victoria into submission, boredom and a certain second place at the Gabba. With their 6 for 900 declared , the Bulls reached the state’s highest score and the 11th biggest in first-class history.Shane Watson’s 201 and Clinton Perren’s 173 continued the gorging and the pair shared a state-record partnership of 329 for the fourth wicket, which ended only when Watson retired hurt with cramp. Jimmy Maher, who started the demolition with 223 and needs only a draw to gain the trophy, promised to “bat and bat and bat” and the declaration was ignored as the Bulls charged through scores rarely reached.Victoria hammered 710 over three days at the MCG on the way to winning the 2003-04 final, but Maher’s side made that total look like a small one as they tortured their opponents for 242 overs. Queensland’s previous best score was 687 against New South Wales at Brisbane’s Exhibition Ground in 1930-31.Watson stayed long enough to pick up his second first-class double-century – and his maiden one for Queensland – in an innings of 342 balls with 23 fours and a six. Perren was more attacking towards the end of his display, blasting five sixes and ten fours, as they took the score from 3 for 531 to 860 before Andy Bichel replaced Watson.Bichel was promoted in the hope of getting a season double of 50 wickets and 500 runs, but he made only 3 and was followed by James Hopes and Perren as Dirk Nannes doubled Victoria’s wicket tally and finished with 3 for 150. The declaration eventually came when Chris Hartley and Daniel Doran pushed to 900.”It was almost surreal,” Maher told . “Guys were looking today and seeing it tick over to 750, 800, 850. It’s amazing, 900. We could have easily have gone on to get a thousand, really. It was tempting but we wanted to have a bit of a crack at them tonight. It’s a phenomenal day. One I think we’ll remember for a long, long time.”The moods of the visitors were already Lake-Eyre low as they started their second innings 556 behind, but they were drained further by the loss of the openers Jason Arnberger and Lloyd Mash. Mitchell Johnson, one of two Queensland players who didn’t bat, picked up both wickets as Victoria went to stumps at 2 for 38.

The USA Cricket Association has named a 30-man squad for the forthcoming ICC Trophy but, as with most things connected with US cricket at the moment, the announcement immediately started a battle over who exactly had the right to pick the side.The old USACA board, led by the president Gladstone Dainty, chose the squad – and at the same time named the same management team which had overseen the USA’s participation in the Champions Trophy in England last September – but the alternative new board, backed by the Council of League Presidents, is believed to be about to tell the ICC that the side is not representative of the best players in the country. It is expected that a request will be made that the ICC does not recognise the selections until the ongoing disputes over who actually runs US cricket are resolved.Critics were quick to point out that the side contains many of the players who were condemned for their performances in the Champions Trophy. That team was also labelled as a virtual Dad’s Army, given the average age of the players. Another surprise is the inclusion of Imran Awan, the player who returned home early from the tournament in circumstances which have never been fully explained.

Ricky Ponting has stressed that a patient approach against Sri Lanka’s slow bowlers, and an aggressive one against their batsmen hold the key to Australia’s chances of success when the one-day series starts off at Dambulla on Friday.The Australians expect a full hand of spinners to be in opposition, and had a meeting to discuss ways of combating Muttiah Muralitharan on Wednesday night. "We haven’t played him too badly in the past," Ponting said. “It’s been the other blokes, the part-timers, who have caused us more problems than him."In the past, Australia have paid for their eagerness to attack the part-time slow bowlers introduced early in the innings. “We’ve realised these bowlers have come on and it’s been a chance for us to get after them early but we’ve actually got out," he said. “That’s one area we’ve addressed and we’ll address it again before tomorrow’s game. One thing you don’t want to do is go too hard and lose too many wickets and put pressure on the middle order against their spinners."”The game plan … is to keep wickets in hand for as long as we can against their spinners and be a bit more patient through the middle of our innings. You know that on these grounds whatever you sacrifice through the middle you can pick up at the end of the innings with wickets in hand.”Such a wait-and-watch approach would be adopted by the bowlers though. They have been given license to target the Sri Lankan batsmen with short balls aimed at the rib-cage. Sanath Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka’s most potent one-day threat, has already suffered a broken arm and a broken finger in his tussles with Australia, and Ponting said that he could expect more on the same in the days to come.”That will still be a plan of ours for sure, especially with the new ball. There’s no doubt we’ll be testing them out that way. I think with someone like him it (short-pitched bowling) certainly is a bit of weakness. We want to bowl it short near the body – they don’t like that too much, the same with the Indian players."”That’s our biggest challenge: to identify weaknesses in opposition batsmen and be able to bowl accordingly. And that’s what we didn’t do well enough in Australia early on this summer, although we it well in the end. It’s important we do that straight away in this series.”On the team selection front, Australia will be forced to leave out either Michael Bevan or Simon Katich. Michael Clarke’s slow left-arm spin, and inventive batting have made him a near certainty for the middle order, and it has been suggested that Katich being a more regular bowler might tilt the scales in his favour.”The good thing about our side at the moment is that we’ve got a few guys we can rely on to bowl some pretty good part-time spin," said Ponting. "Symonds and Clarke do a pretty good job and I don’t think there’s any more pressure on Bevo’s spot for that reason.”

• Craig McMillan (NZ) needs 36 runs to complete 3,000 ODI runs
• Lou Vincent (NZ) needs 4 runs to complete 1,000 ODI runs
• Marvan Atapattu (SL) needs 36 runs to complete 6,000 ODI runs
• Nathan Astle (NZ) needs 8 wickets to join the 100 ODI-wicket club
• Chris Harris (NZ) needs 7 wickets to join the 200 ODI-wicket club
• Aravinda De Silva (SL) needs 3 wickets to join the 100 ODI-wicket club
• Aravinda De Silva (SL) needs 203 runs to complete his 1000 World Cup runs
• SP Fleming (NZ) needs 99 runs to complete his 500 World Cup runs
• Chris Harris (NZ) needs 185 runs to complete his 500 World Cup runs
• Sanath Jayasuriya (SL) needs 123 runs to complete his 500 World Cup runs

Somerset Under 13’s were beaten by the narrowest of margins when they took on Dorset at Sherborne School last Sunday.Batting first Somerset were all out for 93 in 39.1 overs, with Ben Rudge top scoring with 19, James Fear made 12 and Harry Livingstone being unbeaten on 14.In a thrilling finish, with the last pair at the wicket Dorset hit the winning run with just two balls to spare.Left arm seamer Ben Rudge completed a good afternoon by having the impressive figures of 8 overs 1 maiden 3wickets for 12 runs.