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A round-up of the Ram Slam T20 Challenge matches played on March 2, 2013

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Mar-2013
ScorecardThe Warriors comfortably chased the Dolphins’ target in East London to win by nine wickets. Dolphins won the toss and batted first, but were in serious trouble as they lost both openers for seven runs on the board. Cameron Delport’s cameo of 23 off 14 was cut short when he was caught by Ayabulela Gqamane off Simon Harmer, leaving them at a precarious 38 for 4. The most experienced pair in the squad, Ravi Bopara and Vaughn van Jaarsveld, put on 98 runs for the fifth wicket to revive the innings. Van Jaarsveld top-scored with 58 off 41 balls, as the Dolphins put up 136 for 4 at the completion of their 20 overs.The Warriors started assuredly, with their openers putting on a 73-run stand. Once Christiaan Jonker fell, Colin Ingram came in and helped opener Ashwell Prince maintain the course. They eventually steered the Warriors to victory, achieving the target with 15 balls to spare. Prince finished unbeaten on 70 off 55 balls.
ScorecardThe Knights won a low-scoring thriller against the top-placed Lions at the Wanderers. The Knights were put into bat, but despite the openers getting a start, none of the batsman were able to capitalise, with only Rilee Rossouw (33) and Johan van der Wath (24) passing the 20-run mark. The Dolphins’ bowlers bowled as a unit, with Aaron Phangiso, Imran Tahir and Hardus Viljoen picking up two wickets each. The Knights finished their quota of 20 overs with 125 for 9.The Lions simply couldn’t string substantial partnerships together as they attempted to chase the Knights’ target. Jean Symes top-scored with 46 off 37 balls, but once he was dismissed off the second last ball of the innings, the game was heavily in favour of the Warriors as van der Wath bowled an excellent final over, picking up Temba Bavuma as well. His final over clinched the game for the Knights, who moved to third place in the points table.

Varun Chopra and Will Porterfield both struck centuries to open the new season in fine style for Warwickshire

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Mar-2013
ScorecardVarun Chopra struck his 11th first-class century•PA Photos

The annexing of the Champion County match to the Emirates has marginalised its use as a proper warm-up for the County Championship but Varun Chopra and Will Porterfield will take confidence from a pair of centuries on the official opening day of the new season.The fixture will return to Lord’s in 2014 where a stand of 308 will be trickier to compile than the four-an-over stand Chopra and Porterfield put together for the second wicket this year.Porterfield’s innings, from 240 balls, was his first three-figure effort since joining Warwickshire, taking full advantage of a flat pitch and an attack toiling in temperatures more than 20 degrees warmer than Britain.Chopra had been the first to reach a century, his 11th in first-class cricket, from 165 balls. He went on to score 20 fours and three sixes – the pick of which was lifted over long on from a Peter Trego slower ball.”It was a great start to the season for me,” Chopra said. “The wicket was good and we made the most of winning the toss on a decent deck. Playing under the floodlights and with the pink ball was fine. Having two set batsmen definitely helped, especially during the twilight period, which can be a challenge, but I really enjoyed it out there today.”The treble century stand was by some distance the highest partnership of any wicket for Warwickshire against MCC. It came after Ian Westwood fell without a run on the board. He skied a pull from Trego and was taken at midwicket. But that was the most joy MCC enjoyed as their spin trio of Simon Kerrigan, James Middlebrook and part-time leg-spinner Dawid Malan failed to find any control as runs flowed merrily.Kerrigan eventually broke through when Chopra mistimed an attempted lofted off drive. Porterfield also fell playing in the air, driving loosely on the up to hand third seamer Chris Rushworth a wicket. But it was 102 runs later than it should have been; Rushworth having had Porterfield dropped in the slips on 60.

Sunrisers Hyderabad rode on the power of Dale Steyn’s experience to pick up their second consecutive win, after the game had gone into a Super Over

The Report by Mohammad Isam07-Apr-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Sunrisers Hyderabad won the Super OverVinay Kumar conceded 20 in the Super Over, after limiting Sunrisers to six in the 20th over of the match•BCCI

Sunrisers Hyderabad rode on the power of Dale Steyn’s experience to pick up their second consecutive win, this one over Royal Challengers Bangalore, after the game had gone into Twenty20 cricket’s sudden death – the Super Over. Steyn had to defend 20 runs, thanks to Cameron White’s two blazing hits off Vinay Kumar, and came out on top as Royal Challengers fell five runs short.The teams had fought tooth and nail throughout the forty overs in front of a noisy crowd in Hyderabad. Defending seven, Vinay bowled an impressive 20th over for the second game in a row – conceding only six – but could not repeat the performance in the tiebreaker. He was Virat Kohli’s go-to man after he had defended 10 runs off the last over against Mumbai Indians.The seesaw battle began with Sunrisers staying on top as they restricted the strong Royal Challengers’ batting line-up to 130 for 8 in 20 overs. What would have happened to the Royal Challengers’ innings without Kohli and Moises Henriques was hard to say. The pair contributed 90 to the total.After Chris Gayle fell dramatically to part-timer Hanuma Vihari’s first ball in IPL cricket, and Tillakaratne Dilshan was bowled by Ishant Sharma, Kohli had to resurrect the innings. Karun Nair helped him a little by adding 20 for the third wicket, before Kohli and Henriques put on 43 for the fourth. Kohli then fell to a return catch by Ashish Reddy in the 14th over; he had struck the only six of the innings in his 44-ball 46.Henriques’ 44 came off 40 balls with five boundaries, and his innings held it together for Royal Challengers towards the finish. He was the seventh batsman out, at the start of the final over bowled by Ishant, who finished with 3 for 27. It was a performance in contrast to the night Dale Steyn had, having finished with 1 for 37 in four overs.The Sunrisers’ chase was held together by newcomer Vihari’s unbeaten 44 off 46 balls but he never took the game away from Royal Challengers. He would have expected someone like his captain Kumar Sangakkara to take the lead but the Sri Lankan batsman made just 16. The game boiled down to such a finish because of a 23-run stand for the seventh wicket between Vihari and Ashish Reddy.When Reddy joined Vihari in the 17th over, Sunrisers needed 30 off 23 balls. Vinay, who had just heroically run out Amit Mishra, was smashed for 14 in the 18th over, with Reddy slamming a straight six and a slog-swept four. Murali Kartik had to keep Royal Challengers in the game and he gave away seven runs in the penultimate over before Vinay forced the tie.White and Thisara Perera were Sunrisers’ choice for the Super Over, and they outdid Royal Challengers’ Gayle and Kohli.

A round-up of the final round of matches at the World Cricket League Division 3 in Bermuda

ESPNcricinfo staff06-May-2013Nepal might have had a shaky start to their World Cricket League Division 3 campaign in Bermuda, but they finished on a high, beating Uganda, the group toppers in the round-robin stage, by five wickets in Sunday’s final to snatch the title. A twin success then, with the victory coming a day after they thumped Italy and had other results go in their favour to ensure their passage into the World Cup Qualifiers next year.The final, in Hamilton, was a low-scoring one. Uganda chose to bat and were shaken straightaway, with Nepal’s captain Paras Khadka removing opener Arthur Kyobe for one. They crawled along, and lost their top four cheaply, to be tottering at 39 for 4 by the end of the 22nd over. A series of cameos from the middle order helped get them past the 150-run mark, but they could never quite break the shackles until the last couple of overs, batting out the 50 for 151 for 8. Left-arm medium pacer Basanta Regmi finished with 2 for 24 from his ten, to end as the joint third-highest wicket-taker in the tournament.Nepal’s batsmen were shaky in reply, falling to 30 for 3 in the 11th. But a 77-run stand between opener Pradeep Airee and No. 5 Sharad Vesawkar got them back on track. They lost two more in a hurry when Airee was out to left-arm spinner Henry Ssenyondo for 60, but Vesawkar kept going in the company of Prithu Baskota – who captained Nepal at the Under-19 World Cup last year – to get them over the line. Vesawkar finished unbeaten on 50 and Nepal eventually won comfortably, with over 10 overs to spare.Khadka said he was happy with the way his team kept fighting, despite losing their first two matches in the tournament. “We worked really hard for this. Having lost the first couple of games no one gave us an outright chance but we still believed in ourselves and our ability,” he said. “Everything worked in favour of us and, as they say, fortune favours the brave. I feel glad, we have reached where we always wanted to, and now it is a matter of preparing ourselves for even better.”Expectedly, Uganda captain Davis Arinaitwe, who was named Player of the Series, was disappointed with the loss, but said the team had achieved their main goal: making it to the World Cup Qualifiers. “Ideally, I would have liked to finish the tournament on a high and pick up the final trophy of the whole tournament, and leave this beautiful island as WCL winners. But qualifying for the World Cup Qualifier was our primary objective. When we got here, we first put our sights on trying to qualify for that tournament. So, for us, that is an achievement that we can take back home.”The World Cup Qualifiers will be played in New Zealand in January 2014. Prior to that, there’s the World Twenty20 Qualifier in November in Dubai, and both captains said their teams’ focus would not shift to that tournament. “Before the World Cup Qualifier, we have the World Twenty20 Qualifier and that’s an equally important tournament,” Khadka said. “Preparation-wise, we have to have a strategic plan from now on because it is a big step – one more step and you are in the main global tournament. So we have to think from that perspective.”Arinaitwe said: “We’ll get back home, take a short break, then resume the training as usual as we try to prepare for the World Twenty20 Qualifier.”USA, meanwhile, beat host Bermuda by 30 runs to place third in the division. Their total of 271 was set up by a rapid 97 from opener Steven Talyor – comfortably the tournament’s top-scorer – and an anchoring 72 from Orlando Baker. Offspinner Muhammad Ghous then took four middle-order wickets to ensure Bermuda fell short in the chase.In the fifth-place playoff, Oman beat Italy by five wickets. After Munis Ansari, who topped the tournament’s wickets chart, claimed a four-for – albeit in an expensive spell – to help bowl out Italy for 207, the top and middle order built around a brisk 64 from Zeeshan Siddiqui to take the side to victory with over five overs to spare.

The IPL governing council has appointed a three-member commission comprising two former high court judges and BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale to look into the complaints against India Cements, Gurunath Meiyappan, and Jaipur IPL Pvt Ltd

ESPNcricinfo staff28-May-2013The IPL governing council has appointed a three-member commission comprising two former high court judges and BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale to look into the complaints against India Cements, the owners of the Chennai Super Kings, Gurunath Meiyappan, the Super Kings official arrested on charges of betting, and Jaipur IPL Pvt Ltd, the owners of Rajasthan Royals.The two judges are Justice T Jayaram Chouta, a former judge of the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu High Courts, and Justice R Balasubramanian, former judge of the Tamil Nadu High Court.”The Commission will be initiating the adjudication proceedings at the earliest,” the BCCI said in a release.The composition of the commission is different to what BCCI president N Srinivasan had announced in Kolkata, where he said it would be formed by two BCCI officials and one independent member. This commission, Srinivasan said, would be responsible for investigating and deciding whether his son-in-law Gurunath was an owner of the Super Kings franchise.The commission will also conduct an inquiry into the owners of the Rajasthan Royals franchise, three of whose players – Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan – were arrested on allegations of spot-fixing.

England’s players are united in feeling that Nottinghamshire have made an error in refusing to allow the Barmy Army trumpeter, Billy Cooper, to play his instrument at Trent Bridge, according to Graeme Swann.

George Dobell and David Hopps08-Jul-2013England’s players’ plea to Nottinghamshire to lift the ban on the Barmy Army trumpeter, Billy Cooper, in the first Investec Test at Trent Bridge, appears to have fallen on deaf ears after the club reiterated their stance.The vocal support of many England players, led by home town star Graeme Swann, had encouraged hopes that the county might yet relax its stance at the eleventh hour. Swann said he spoke for the England team in saying that it was “a real shame” that his home club would not allow Cooper – nicknamed Billy the Trumpet – to play as the England side consider him “the unspoken 12th man.”However, Lisa Pursehouse, the Nottinghamshire chief executive, said there will be no change in policy. “I think there’s been some hugely emotive language around this whole issue but the truth is, this is nothing new,” she told TalkSport. “Although I’ve only been chief executive for a year, I’ve been at Trent Bridge for almost ten years and the ground regulation was in place then.”Billy knows that this is not personal to him – we had exactly the same conversation in 2005. We just don’t let musical instruments into Trent Bridge. Billy’s not banned and he knows that, but it’s about the musical instrument. Billy’s been here before and he’ll sit and watch the cricket at Trent Bridge and I’m sure he’ll enjoy it.”However, the feeling among England’s players has been strong enough for ECB officials to broach the matter unofficially with Nottinghamshire to see if a compromise can be reached ahead of the start of the Ashes series.Swann said: “The players are all in favour of Billy blowing his trumpet wherever we are. He is the unspoken 12th man for us when we are on tour and in big series at home, so I think it’s a real shame he’s not allowed to play here.”Nottinghamshire have long contended that their blanket ban on musical instruments is stated on match tickets and, that being so, they could face requests for refunds from supporters who object to Cooper’s playlist.The ECB, however, is thought to have some sympathy with Cooper’s commitment to England’s cause – as well as respect for his professional playing ability.Compromises so far floated include Cooper playing from the balcony of the Trent Bridge Inn behind the ground, something which Nottinghamshire could not control, or even an official guest spot during an interval. Neither solution would recapture the feeling for England players that he plays when they most value it, during good times or bad.As a Nottinghamshire player, Swann might have been expected to have an influence on the decision. But he admitted that he had tried to persuade the authorities to no avail.”I know all the team are behind Billy the Trumpet,” Swann said. “The Barmy Army are a massive part of the English team. Nottingham have their rules as Lord’s do. It’s a shame in this day and age they can’t bend them for such a big event but so be it, it’s not my decision.”We don’t make the rules, we have just got to go out there and play our cricket now it’s been decided it’s not the right thing to do and I think that’s real shame. I have tried to have my say but I have been batted down.”A poll carried out by ESPNcricinfo on the County Cricket Live blog attracted more than 500 votes with only 15% opposing Cooper being allowed to play his trumpet at Trent Bridge.Nottinghamshire have also pointed out that Cooper was also been refused permission to play his trumpet at the 2005 Ashes Test when England secured victory on their way to regaining the Ashes. Since then, though, his presence has become a more recognisable part of England’s Test scene, at home and abroad.Pursehouse said: “There are lots of people that enjoy watching cricket without musical instruments. If you want to go to a ground where there’s drums and trumpets and big crowds you’re able to do that. There are other venues that offer that. At Trent Bridge we offer something different and that doesn’t make it wrong. It’s just different and people have always had a good time.”We’ve got a great atmosphere at Trent Bridge. We’re not stuffy or boring or any of those things and our feedback on the customer experience is fantastic and people do enjoy coming to Trent Bridge to watch the games. We’re an intimate ground, and the atmosphere is all created by the cricket.”The club aims to identify more with the traditional Test atmosphere at Lord’s in contrast to other Test grounds such as Edgbaston and Old Trafford and believes that this policy is justified by ticket sales. The match is sold out for all five days.This story was updated on July 9 with Lisa Pursehouse’s comments

Mosaddek Hossain and Abu Haider are two of the more experienced Under-19 faces in the Bangladesh U-19 squad that will play a triangular series against Pakistan and hosts England next month

Mohammad Isam23-Jul-2013

Bangladesh Under-19 squad

Joyraj Sheik, Sadman Islam, Najmul Hossain, Munim Shahriar, Mosaddek Hossain, Mehedy Hasan (capt), Rahatul Ferdous, Mohammad Saifuddin, Jashimuddin (wk), Abu Sayeem (wk), Abu Haider Rony, Mustafizur Rahman, Mehedi Hasan, Rifat Pradhan, Jubair Hossain

Mosaddek Hossain and Abu Haider are two of the more experienced Under-19 faces in the Bangladesh U-19 squad that will play a triangular series against Pakistan and hosts England next month. The rest of the squad comprises players that have been drafted in after the U-19 World Cup in Australia last year.Batting allrounder Mehedy Hasan will lead the team*. He takes over from Mosaddek, who led the side when it took on the Sri Lanka U-19s in April, when they drew the two Youth Tests and lost the one-day series 2-3.Left-arm pace bowler Haider took nine wickets in an ACC Cup match against Qatar U-19s last year, but was wicketless in the two matches of the World Cup in Australia. He is the only player with first-class experience in the team, while wicketkeeper Jashimuddin played a single BPL match for Sylhet Royals this season.”This is a well-trained squad of players, and we hope they perform well in England,” Nazmul Abedin, the acting national manager of BCB’s game development, said. “It will be an interesting time for them and I hope they do well. Of them, Mehedy Hasan is a promising batting allrounder and Mosaddek Hossain has been doing well too. Legspinner Jubair Ahmed did well against the Sri Lanka U-19s recently.”The junior-team selectors have included two left-arm quicks in Mustafizur Rahman and Mehedi Hasan, while Rifat Pradhan is the other seamer alongside Haider.Richard McInnes, the National Cricket Academy’s head coach, will coach the team in England, with Zafrul Ehsan as his assistant.The tri-nation tournament begins on August 5, with Bangladesh taking on Pakistan in Loughborough.*12.32GMT This news has been updated with the announcement of the team’s captain

While Zimbabwe consolidated well against the moving new ball, they couldn’t push on later in the innings, something their captain hopes to change

Liam Brickhill in Harare25-Jul-2013Zimbabwean top-order collapses have been as ubiquitous as the kombis (mini-vans) on the local roads in the last decade. During that time, on average, the score usually hasn’t yet reached 30 by the time the first wicket falls. The loss of early wickets has clearly been identified as a problem area by the coaching department, and in that regard Sikandar Raza and Vusi Sibanda’s effort in the first ODI was pretty impressive.But Zimbabwe will never be able to set the sorts of totals that allow them to compete in one-day cricket with such a defensive mindset, and especially not against a batting side as strong as India. What is needed is a balance between attack and defence, and with limited opportunities to strike this balance in match situations, Zimbabwe have to learn on the job.To that end, captain Brendan Taylor has suggested that his side’s batsmen will be more proactive in the second one-day on Friday. The hosts’ opening batsmen defied India’s seamers for almost 22 overs in testing conditions in the first match, but struggled to score quickly and Zimbabwe’s eventual score failed to challenge India’s strong batting line-up.”We need to have that positive approach with our batting because that can only lead to being competitive and winning against better sides,” said Taylor. “Our main goal [on Wednesday] was to keep wickets in hand. Watching in the changing room we felt the ball was doing a great deal and the batters consolidated pretty nicely but it was just too risky to go after them. Tomorrow we might have to change that because batting first, 230 or 240 is not going to be enough.”Much has been made of the importance of the toss in this series, and Zimbabwe will be hoping that Virat Kohli calls incorrectly and they won’t have to bat first thing in the morning when the ball is nipping around. “Unfortunately it could boil down to the toss, but that’s not to take anything away from the way the Indians outplayed us. I think they showed why they are one of the top teams in the world. But they made it extremely difficult for us in the morning and the wicket did flatten out in the afternoon which made it tough for our bowlers.”Whether they bat first or second, Zimbabwe will still have to deal with legspinner Amit Mishra’s wily variations. Mishra removed both Vusi Sibanda and Hamilton Masakadza with unpicked googlies, and also got rid of top-scorer Sikandar Raza to finish as the most successful bowler with 3 for 43. “All the guys are saying they’ve read [Mishra’s googly], but it doesn’t look like they have,” added Taylor. “We’ve faced him before, and I think that first game was a bit of nerves.”Zimbabwe’s own spinners couldn’t match Mishra’s efforts. Prosper Utseya was gifted the wickets of Kohli and Suresh Raina once the match was as good as won, and Tino Mutombodzi was dispatched for an exorbitant 65 runs in 7.5 wicketless overs. The Zimbabweans may consider bringing in a fourth seamer, with left-arm quick Brian Vitori having been left out of the first game. “There’s a discussion about a fourth seamer but to be honest we haven’t even announced the side yet,” explained Taylor. “I think we’ll know first thing in the morning, but maybe a fourth seamer instead of a spinner because they play their spin pretty well.”Zimbabwe will have learnt that Kohli plays both spin and seam very well, and without the firepower to blast him out Taylor admitted that his side’s best chance of removing the Indian captain could be to maintain their own discipline and hope that he makes an error. “When the wicket’s flat it seems nearly impossible [to get Kohli out]. He’s a class player and he’s done it against the best teams in the world, but we just need to keep it simple to him and hopefully try and frustrate him and let him make his own mistakes.”Zimbabwe trained for several hours on the eve of the second match, with Raza turning up early for some one-on-one practice with Grant Flower. It’s clear that they want very badly to succeed, and it’s hard to overstate just how crucial success in this series and the ones against Pakistan and Sri Lanka is.”The importance of the next two or three months is huge and that’s what we keep discussing,” said Taylor. “It’s up to us players to try to contribute to getting the public back in and getting sponsors back in so it’s a big time for us and a couple of good results against the best side in the world can only do us some good.”