All posts by csb10.top

England have named a 15-man squad, to be captained by Kent allrounder Adam Ball, for next month’s ICC U-19 World Cup in Australia. Essex’s wicketkeeper-batsman Ben Foakes will be vice-captain, with the likes of Daniel Bell-Drummond, Aneesh Kapil, Reece Topley and Somerset’s Overton brothers also included.

England squad for U-19 World Cup

Adam Ball (capt – Kent), Ben Foakes (vice capt – Essex), Shozair Ali (Warwickshire), Daniel Bell-Drummond (Kent), Ben Collins (Leicestershire), Alex Davies (Lancashire), Ben Duckett (Northamptonshire), Brett Hutton (Nottinghamshire), Aneesh Kapil (Worcestershire), Tom Knight (Derbyshire), Craig Overton (Somerset), Jamie Overton (Somerset), Reece Topley (Essex) Kishan Velani (Essex) Sam Wood (Nottinghamshire)

England’s first match in the tournament is against the hosts, on August 11, in Group A, which also contains Ireland and Nepal. Ten players in the squad took part in a quadrangular tournament in Australia earlier in the year – also featuring India and New Zealand – where England finished third.”The squad we have put together contains strength in depth and some exciting young talent which we look forward to seeing perform on the world stage in Australia,” England Development Progamme (EDP) head selector David Graveney said. “It was difficult to reduce the squad from our original 30 names to just 15, but we feel we have a good mix of batting and bowling with strong names in reserve in case of any injuries.”Tim Boon, the EDP head coach, said: “The squad contains a great blend of players with first-class experience and those with less experience. We’ve got some great games to look forward to against top class opposition at such a prestigious tournament. We’re looking to giving them an opportunity to impress at this level and hope will we compete strongly throughout the competition.”

The IPL career of Luke Pomersbach, the Royal Challengers Bangalore batsman, has been placed in the balance after he was detained by the Delhi police on Friday and charged with assault on a woman and her fiance. Pomersbach was produced in a Delhi court, where he was granted interim bail, and was also suspended by the IPL franchise for the rest of this tournament.The case was filed by a US national, who alleged that Pomersbach assaulted her and her fiance in their room at the team hotel on Thursday night after the match against Delhi Daredevils.”A US national, staying at Hotel Maurya, was molested by Luke Pomersbach, an Australian player of RCB, when they were partying in her room,” the Delhi police said in a statement. “When her fiancé Sahil intervened he too was boxed by Luke. A case under Sections 354, 323, 454 and 511 IPC [Indian Penal Code] registered at the Chanakyapuri police station.”Vijay Mallya, the owner of Royal Challengers, said the franchise would co-operate fully with the authorities. “Royal Challengers Bangalore regrets the incident involving Luke Pomersbach. We will ensure full co-operation with the concerned authorities so that a fair investigation takes place and the issue is disposed off in accordance with law,” Vijay Mallya said in Delhi. “Pending disposal of this matter Luke Pomersbach will not take the field for the team.”The IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla said the league was “not responsible” for the alleged incident. “There was no official party hosted by the IPL. It’s the behaviour of an individual, let the police handle it. We will wait for the report from the police and then react.”The couple alleging the assault were reportedly injured and have been admitted to a local hospital. Pomersbach, who has not played a game for Royal Challengers this season, was reportedly taken to hospital for a medical test and was later seen with his arm in a sling.By Sharda UgraIt’s been a crazy week for the IPL. A sting operation by a TV channel that led to the suspension of five cricketers was followed by verbal fisticuffs between Shah Rukh Khan and officials of the Mumbai Cricket Association and an IPL player, Luke Pomersbach, being detained by the Delhi police on charges of having assaulted a guest at the team hotel.There is much about the IPL that is worthy of criticism and scrutiny. To believe that the SRK-MCA bust-up and the charges against Pomersbach, though, are the lone by-products of the IPL is to believe in a world where hunger strikes are rational 21st century responses. Yes, had there been no IPL, the skirmish at the Wankhede and Pomersbach’s own indiscretions may never have happened. Yet there are no guarantees either that any of the protagonists in Mumbai and Delhi would not have acted in this manner elsewhere – at another time and in another place.The IPL is not the only sports league in the world offering insane salaries and party lifestyles. European football, the NFL and the NBA, to name a few, are full of stories of the kind the IPL has produced this week. These leagues are decades old but the IPL, into its fifth year, is just beginning to identify its conflict zones. It is what happens when money, power, alcohol and entertainment meet entitlement.The IPL won’t go away because a few hundred people don’t like its cricket or its trappings. It is a part of cricket’s business, the players love it and the public laps it up. The Wankhede ban against Shah Rukh is cricket closing ranks and, similarly, Kirti Azad’s rousing promise in Parliament that he would go on a hunger strike if the IPL were not stopped is empty theatrics. What we must accept is that there could be more such incidents over the next few years of the IPL – what it needs now is for its governors to be mature, proactive and decisive. The IPL is growing up; it needs to be handled, but it can’t be run or dictated to by children.

ScorecardRikki Clarke’s innings set up Warwickshire winning position•Getty Images

Warwickshire may still be feeling the disappointment of missing out on the title on the final day of last season, but they held their nerve for the second week running to claim a five-wicket victory over Lancashire to establish themselves among the early division one pacesetters.A nervous run-chase against Somerset last week, which was only secured after Jeetan Patel hit 43 off 36 balls to make amends for a batting collapse, was followed by Warwickshire just about reaching their victory target of 70 under great pressure from Simon Kerrigan and Gary Keedy, Lancashire’s pair of left-arm spinners.Yet for all the frayed nerves on the players’ balcony inside Aigburth’s Victorian pavilion, Ashley Giles wore a big grin and rated it as “the best Warwickshire victory” since he returned as director of cricket in 2008. That it was achieved against Lancashire, who won the championship on that dramatic final afternoon last September, was barely noticed.The victory opened up a 40-point lead between Warwickshire and Lancashire, who have now suffered defeats in the opening two games of a season for the first time since 1965. It is early in the summer still, but supporters are already raising fears they may follow in the footsteps of Yorkshire (2002) and Nottinghamshire (2006) and suffer relegation as defending champions.In a dominant position ever since the 234-run eighth wicket stand between Darren Maddy and Rikki Clarke on Saturday afternoon, there were slight concerns on the final morning when rain delayed the start until shortly before lunch and removed 21 overs from the day’s allocation. It only served to hasten Warwickshire’s determination to secure the victory quickly and they wrapped up Lancashire’s last six wickets in 24 overs.Keith Barker’s increased responsibility in the absence of injured seamers Boyd Rankin and Chris Woakes has allowed him to flourish and he made the early inroads once Gary Keedy, Lancashire’s nightwatchman, had swept Patel’s off-spin to mid-wicket. The extra bounce he extracted from the River End removed Luke Procter for a duck via his glove while Ian Bell ended Gareth Cross’ dangerous cameo of 20 with a superb diving catch at short mid-wicket.Re-signed for Warwickshire primarily as a bowler, Patel came into his own and enjoyed an intense tussle with Ashwell Prince, Lancashire’s South African overseas player. Gaining considerable turn and bounce from the worn Aigburth wicket, he teased out Glen Chapple and Kerrigan to catches close to the wicket to complete his third five-wicket haul in five championship matches for Warwickshire.The key wicket was the dismissal of Prince, who had battled for over two hours for his half-century, but attempted to sweep a fuller ball on leg stump and was bowled around his legs, leaving Warwickshire what looked a modest target.Chapple gave Kerrigan the Pavilion End from the start and he claimed two early wickets, including Bell caught at short extra cover driving on the up. Keedy, brought on from the River End after Chapple had an unsuccessful three-over spell with the new ball, claimed further wickets in successive overs.Tension really started to increase once Darren Maddy, batting with an injured finger, edged Kerrigan to Stephen Moore at second slip to leave Warwickshire still needing 18 runs with five wickets down. Will Porterfield retained his composure to score an unbeaten 22 and the victory was completed with Tim Ambrose cutting Keedy for four.”We can definitely see areas where we can improve,” conceded Chapple, Lancashire’s captain. “Warwickshire are a title-chasing team and although we are under par there is no far for us to go before we are turning sides over.”This year we have started slowly, but a couple of wins and we can get ourselves back in the hunt. It is important to address what isn’t quite right at the moment, but it is not far off.”We have had a good chat and we know where we need to go. It is a brand new season, being champions is irrelevant, we have said that from the word go. It is up to us to perform.”

Sourav Ganguly may give up the Pune Warriors captaincy after this season and take up a mentoring role in 2013, franchise owner Subroto Roy has said. Ganguly, 39, has been in indifferent form this season and his team is second last in the IPL.Roy said Ganguly had originally been interested in a role as mentor this year as well, before changing his mind. “Sourav will be the mentor next season,” Roy told news channel NDTV. “We rather pushed him to play in IPL 5 as he is such a fantastic captain.”Warriors have three matches remaining this season but are already out of the playoff race, having lost nine out of 13 matches. Roy suggested Ganguly, who has scored 261 runs at a sluggish strike-rate of 100.77 this year, would rest for the remainder of the season. “Sourav wants to give youngsters a chance in the last games,” he said. Ganguly has led Warriors in all 13 of their matches this season.Franchise sources, however, told ESPNcricinfo that Ganguly would not miss all three remaining matches, but might opt out of one or two of them. They said a final decision on Ganguly taking over as mentor of the franchise would only be taken after the season.

Essex returned to profit in 2011, but they have warned that trying times lie ahead. The club declared a profit of £333,368 for the year ending 31 December 2011, compared to a loss of £22,585 for the same period in 2010.Despite a disappointing year on the pitch – they struggled on their return to Division Two of the Championship, finishing 7th, and failed to progress beyond the group stages of either of the limited-overs competitions – Essex were rewarded, along with most other counties, with a large ECB payment for ensuring their ground has been developed to the required standards.However, Essex say they are more reliant upon gate income from their home Friends Life t20 matches than any other county and fear that this year’s reduction from eight home games to five will hit them hard. They are also investing an extra £100,000 into the squad this season in order to improve their on-field fortunes.”Our significant profit of £333,000 reflects a small operating profit of £13,000 supplemented by £300,000 of exceptional income from the ECB,” the club’s treasurer, Keith Brown, said. “The exceptional income is in respect of maintaining our ground to a specific standard and has been set aside to meet anticipated expenditure in the future.”We maintained our contribution from membership but match income was down. Our income from one-day games is 89% of gate income. Our reliance on Twenty20 income is greater than any other county and with the reduction in home games from eight to five in 2012 this represents a real challenge to our income.Nigel Hilliard, the club’s chairman said: “Last year’s failure in all competitions was especially disappointing as we appeared, on paper at least, to have an excellent squad. Unfortunately our performances on grass were not impressive and while we continue to be victims of our own success by producing players for England and the IPL, members have been used to better performances.”The club’s main aspiration is to still be successful in the county championship. We do accept that our present group of players are more suited to the shorter formats of the game and it was therefore disappointing that last year results went against us in the limited-over matches as well as the Championship.”

ScorecardAfter seven consecutive defeats, the Sylhet Royals finally opened their account in the BPL, albeit a bit late in the day. They turned in a fine all-round performance, beating Duronto Rajshahi by nine wickets thanks to the Pakistan duo of Sohail Tanvir and Kamran Akmal, who starred with ball and bat respectively.The Rajshahi batsmen looked out of sorts, with the exception of Shahzaib Hasan who scored 54. Tanvir, who dismissed Junaid Siddique, playing onto his stumps, later nipped out two wickets in two balls to leave Rajshahi struggling to mount a competitive score. He could have had a five-wicket haul, had it not been for Alok Kapali’s dropped catch at long-on. Tanvir was supported by the right-arm seamer Abul Hasan, who took 3 for 30.The Sylhet openers, Akmal and Peter Trego, put the chase on course with a stand of 52. Akmal hit three sixes in his unbeaten 72, off 51 balls and ensured Sylhet crossed the finish line with more than three overs to spare.

ScorecardFile photo: Malcolm Waller and Regis Chakabva got good batting practice with half-centuries•AFP

The Zimbabwe batsmen gave a good account of themselves on the second day at Harry Barker Reserve, taking a 56-run lead. The tourists were carried by half-centuries by Tatenda Taibu, Malcolm Waller and Regis Chakabva, who remained unbeaten on 87 with the No.11 Ray Price for company.Resuming on 38, the Zimbabweans lost the early wicket of Tino Mawoyo for 26. There was further trouble for them as they lost Foster Mutizwa and Hamilton Masakadza in quick succession. At 55 for 3, Taibu and Waller weathered the storm with a stand of 119 for the fourth wicket. Neil Wagner, the left-arm fast bowler, removed them both, as well as Elton Chigumbura first ball to leave the tourists in need of another recovery at 186 for 6.Both Taibu and Waller spent valuable time at the crease, hitting 11 and eight fours respectively. The tail rallied around Chakabva as he went on the attack, hitting 12 fours and two sixes. Shingirai Masakadza put on 46 for the ninth wicket with Chakabva, before Price helped add 72, off 83 balls, for the final wicket to frustrate the hosts. Chakabva was slow to begin with but later dictated terms with his aggression.Wagner picked up three wickets but was a tad expensive, going at 4.52 runs per over. Andy McKay and Chris Martin picked up two wickets each. Daniel Vettori, however, bowlerd just six overs.

‘Cautious over curious’ has usually been the approach of the South African selectors. Instead of being dynamic and open-minded they have traditionally acted in a risk averse manner, until now.With the possibility of a series win over Sri Lanka looming tantalisingly, South Africa have made two major changes to the make-up of their squad. One is forced: Hashim Amla is awaiting the birth of his first child and has asked for paternal leave. The other had been made by choice: Jacques Kallis has been rested. If South Africa also opt to leave Dale Steyn out of the starting XI to give the Test sensation Vernon Philander a run, they will be playing without three of their biggest match-winners.It’s a telling sign that the changes have come early in the AB de Villiers era. In just two matches de Villiers has shown a penchant for creativity and what he likes to call “flair”. In the first game, big-hitting Albie Morkel was brought up the order. In the second, JP Duminy was promoted to No. 4 and was also the first spinner to be used on the night, even though Robin Peterson was waiting in the wings. Winning has made his task easier but de Villiers has slipped into his three-pronged role of captain, wicket-keeper and top-order batsman, with enviable ease.”So far, juggling the responsibilities hasn’t been that bad,” he said. “I feel very comfortable in the role. Gary [Kirsten] has taken a lot of the pressure off me and helps me with the decisions off the field so that I can go out and enjoy myself.”Fun and de Villiers go together like Bloemfontein and heat but unlike the host city of the third ODI, de Villiers can choose when to go from easy-going to serious. He wants to lead with an element of entertainment but he has not forgotten the magnitude of the task in front of him. South Africa will clinch the series if they win on Tuesday and that is far more important to de Villiers than showing off his expressive captaincy and penchant for experimentation. “It’s important for us to win this series. That comes first,” he said. “It’s also one of those series though where we want to try some combinations. Luckily, it’s not unknown boys that have come in.”Alviro Petersen, Colin Ingram and Vernon Philander have come into the squad and the first two are almost certain to play in the top three. The possibility of Philander making an appearance is not guaranteed, because of South Africa’s embarrassment of riches with the ball.Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Morne Morkel have both excelled as the opening pair, Dale Steyn has provided the second wave of attack, Albie Morkel has had limited but fairly competent opportunity, Peterson and Duminy have carried the slow-bowling responsibilities, while Johan Botha has not even played. “We have a lot of options in the bowling and it’s nice for me to play around with. Hopefully I will use them wisely.” de Villiers said.South Africa’s bowlers can expect another tough outing on a flat, hard deck in Bloemfontein. “I am expecting it to be a high-scoring game,” de Villiers said. “Hopefully there’s a bit more bounce. When we’ve bowled a few overs, we’ll try and adapt as quickly as possible.”De Villiers said that if the team bats first, they will rely heavily on management for advice on what a suitable total will be. “We’ll play the first 10 overs and then come up with a total that we think is good. It’s always important to communicate and get information from the field and send it back to the change room to then discuss what a good total to get, is.”Sri Lanka will also look to the surface to provide some assistance for their batsmen, who improved massively after being bowled out for 43 in the first match. They put on 236 in the second game, but found themselves short on runs as South Africa reached the target with eight balls to spare. Their captain, Tillakaratne Dilshan, is due a contribution having not scored a run in the series so far and de Villiers said South Africa know how dangerous he can be. “If he gets it right on the day, he’s going to score a few runs so hopefully we get it right and dismiss him early on.”The visitors can’t feel too good about themselves knowing that is against them that South Africa gave chosen to enter the brave, new world of experimentation and may even fancy their chances. It probably won’t make them feel any better but de Villiers has braced for a backlash as well. “They are world-class players and we’re expecting them to fire pretty soon.”

ScorecardRajasthan captain Hrishikesh Kanitkar carved out a patient 67•K Sivaraman

Vineet Saxena remained unconquered for the second successive day as he notched his career-best score and became the 21st batsman to score a double-century in a Ranji Trophy final, breaking the drought after fourteen years. The last man to accomplish such a feat was Rahul Dravid, playing for Karnataka in 1997-98 season against Uttar Pradesh. Saxena’s marathon 12-hour effort helped Rajasthan to take a commanding position from where they can now dictate the outcome in the remaining three days.Considering that the run rate hovered around the two-per-over mark, critics are likely to question Rajasthan’s conservative approach on what has been an unthreatening pitch, which has remained a flat baking bed in the Chennai heat.Saxena silenced the opposition with his patience. His presence became more significant as the day progressed after Rajasthan had endured a tough morning session, when only 51 runs came in 36 overs for the loss of one wicket. Saxena lost his overnight partner Aakash Chopra, who paid the price for his defensiveness in the morning. Chopra began the day 14 short of his century, but struggled to catch a rhythm, managing only eight runs from 34 deliveries before losing his wicket.Only 15 runs were scored after the first hour, with the first boundary arriving after 63 deliveries. Probably that fact was weighing on Chopra’s mind when he reacted, a bit slowly, to a straighter delivery from the left-arm spinner Aushik Srinivas. The ball pitched on off and middle stump and rushed to catch Chopra plumb in front of the wicket. Finally after 105 overs, Tamil Nadu had their first wicket.The stagnating run rate, along with the suffocating fields, only increased the pressure on the batsmen. Hrishikesh Kanitkar, the new man, was beaten off successive deliveries by Srinivas half an hour before lunch: the first ball turned into his pads and hit him in line with the stump but the big stride forward saved the Rajasthan captain. Srinivas turned the next ball away with his arm and missed the outside edge marginally.Both Saxena and Kanitkar returned more positive post lunch. Kanitkar cut Yo Mahesh in front of square and then swept Srinivas when he persisted by attacking his leg stump. Saxena, who had been completely subdued for the entire morning session, pushed a firm drive, against the offspinner Sunny Gupta, through the thick off-side field to get to 150 and pass his previous first-class best of 143.Saxena brought up the first six of the match, over long-on, by giving Gupta the charge. Understandably anxious, Saxena spent a little while before getting to his double-century: trying to push a fuller delivery from Yo Mahesh to third man, the bottom edge travelled past the gully for a four. It was an incredible achievement in the art of grafting.Saxena could only thank the opposition bowlers for making life easy for him. The pitch, no doubt, was of little assistance but L Balaji had encountered many such surfaces in the past. Balaji, the Tamil Nadu captain and the bowling leader, had to use his cutters to make an impact. Sadly for the hosts, Balaji was wayward, as was the pair of Yo Mahesh and Kaushik, who offered more width when the need was to be accurate.Not that the slow bowlers did any better. In fact, it was a true test of patience for the 18-year-old Srinivas, who bowled the most number of overs in an innings in his three-year career. Unlike on Thursday, when he was darting the ball, today Srinivas offered more flight and also got the ball to jump from the widening cracks and the rough.But the absence of a plan, as well as an attacking field hurt the spinners. A good example was when Srinivas changed ends to make use of the rough outside Saxena’s leg stump at the Pavilion end. However, his first mistake was to pitch marginally outside the leg stump when a better line would have been to stick to middle and leg. Balaji then failed to crowd the batsman with a short leg and a leg slip to support his bowler’s lines. It only allowed Saxena to breathe easy.Earlier, Gupta, who had failed to get any sort of grip on the batsmen, had moved the slip to leg slip against Saxena. But instead of bowling on the middle stump, he pitched on the rough outside the leg stump, making it easier for the batsmen to play the sweep. The Tamil Nadu bowlers were clearly lost between trying to attack and squeezing the run rate.There was a cry of relief from Gupta when, immediately after the tea break, he floated a loopy off break to Kanitkar, who lazily tried to play it away from the body. The edge was picked nicely by Dinesh Karthik, to log his 250th victim in first-class cricket. There was not much joy for the hosts for the second day running.

Peshawar completed their seventh win in eight games this season, an innings-and-ten-runs hammering of Karachi Whites at the National Stadium in Karachi. Resuming their second innings at 43 for 1, still 156 runs adrift of Peshawar’s first-innings effort, Karachi had no answers to Sajjad Ahmed’s offbreaks. Behram Khan (64) was the only batsman to come to terms with the challenge before Sajjad’s return of 5 for 61 bowled out Karachi for 189 – 52 runs short of what they managed in the first dig, and ten short of making Peshawar bat again. The result gave Peshawar nine points, keeping them at the joint top spot along with Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited.Lahore Shalimar outlasted Multan by three wickets at the Multan Cricket Stadium in a low-scoring potboiler that swung one way and another. Resuming their second innings at 40 for 2 – 176 short of victory – Lahore were made to scrap every inch of the way by the Multan attack, led by Mohammad Zahid (3 for 65). Asif Yousuf scored a half-century from No.3, but it needed 40s from Khalid Bashir and Adnan Raza to haul their side towards safety from a precarious 126 for 4. Still, at 199 for 7, it was anybody’s game, but wicketkeeper Anayat Saeed took Shalimar home with an unbeaten 18 off 19 balls.Khurram Shehzad’s century and Usman Arshad’s 76 combined to give Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) a fluent seven-wicket win against Quetta at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. Seamer Asad Ali set up the win with a burst of wickets early on the final day that reduced Quetta from their overnight 201 for 6 to 226 all out. Asad finished with a six-for, leaving his side with 195 to win the match. A sprightly new-ball spell from Arun Lal left SNGPL tottering at 19 for 3, before Arshad and Shehzad got together. The pair scored their runs at a fast clip, with Shehzad in particular fairly energetic, as he hammered 15 fours and a six off 111 balls. The winning runs came in the 47th over, putting SNGPL atop the table, alongside Peshawar.