All posts by h79snht.top

All four matches of the round, which ended on October 9, were affected by rain

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Oct-2017

Tier-1Khulna Division and Rangpur Division played out a tame draw in a rain-affected match in Rajshahi.Batting first, Khulna were bowled out for 218 runs with Anamul Haque and Nahidul Islam hitting half-centuries. Ariful Haque and Suhrawadi Shuvo took four wickets each.Jahid Javed’s century then became the foundation of Rangpur’s 317 for 9 in 80.4 overs. He struck 14 fours and two sixes in his 115 off 217 balls. Dhiman Ghosh chipped in with 69 off 68 balls.Trailing by 99 runs, Khulna batted out 33 overs on the final day to finish on 141 for 1 before the umpires called off play at 1.50pm due to rain. Mahedi Hasan was unbeaten on 88 with 15 fours.Rain interruptions on the third and fourth days also limited the match between Barisal Division and Dhaka Division to a draw in Khulna.Dhaka were bowled out for 250 in the first innings. Rony Talukdar (68) and Mohammad Sharif (58) struck fifties while Salman Hossain took four wickets.Barisal took a 49-run lead in the first innings with Nuruzzaman (68), Sohag Gazi (73) and Shamsul Islam (56 not out) hitting half-centuries in their total of 299 runs in 102 overs. Shuvagata Hom took four wickets.When play was called off at 1.30pm due to rain, Dhaka were 110 for 3 in their second innings.Tier-2Rain wiped out the first day’s play in the match between Rajshahi Division and Sylhet Division, after which only 212.3 overs were possible in the rest of the drawn match.Pace bowler Delwar Hossain took 4 for 72 as Sylhet were bowled out for 221 runs in the first innings. Abul Hasan made 60 off 96 balls with eight fours and a six.Mizanur Rahman’s 143 anchored Rajshahi as they made 370 for 7 in reply. Mizanur hit 24 fours and a six in his innings that spanned little over four hours. Junaid Siddique contributed 89 runs, while Sylhet pace bowler Abu Jayed took four wickets.Imtiaz Hossain then struck 108 off 160 balls including 14 fours and four sixes as Sylhet finished their second innings on 151for 2The match between Chittagong Division and Dhaka Metropolis was also drawn but of the four games, it lasted the longest on the final day in Chittagong.Dhaka Metro declared their first innings on 369 for 9, with Mehrab Hossain jnr missing out on a century by six runs. His 94 included seven fours and a six. Mohammad Ashraful (66) and Asif Ahmed (64 not out) also made fifties while offspinner Iftekhar Sajjad took 5 for 91.Chittagong were bowled out for 261 runs in 131.1 overs. Sazzadul Haque and No 10 Wahidul Alam hit fifties as a late order rally helped Chittagong recover from 144 for 6. Ashraful took three wickets for 65 runs.Shamsur Rahman then blazed five sixes and eight fours in his 67-ball 102 that put Dhaka Metro in further control as they declared on 165 for 3 in 21 overs, setting Chittagong 274. However, with the day’s start pushed to 2.10pm neither side had a realistic shot at a win.Still, Dhaka Metro took six wickets in the 49 overs as Chittagong scored 97 runs. Nihaduzzaman and Shykat Ali took two wickets each.

Somerset moved into third place in the NatWest T20 Blast South Group with a 14-run victory over Hampshire in front of a 6,000-plus crowd at Taunton

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Jul-2017Lewis Gregory gave Somerset a powerful start•Getty Images

Somerset moved into third place in the NatWest T20 Blast South Group with a 14-run victory over Hampshire in front of a 6,000-plus crowd at Taunton.Opener Lewis Gregory led the way after the hosts had won the toss, smacking 43 off 20 balls, with nine fours, in a total of 204 for 9. Jim Allenby contributed 37, while Gareth Berg claimed 3 for 35.In reply, Hampshire were bowled out for 190, Lewis McManus top-scoring with 34. Tim Groenewald was the pick of the home attack with 2 for 28 from his four overs.Somerset made a whirlwind start to their innings thanks to some sweet timing from openers Gregory and Steve Davies and some woeful Hampshire bowling that saw the second over from Kyle Abbott feature two over-stepping no-balls and cost 25.By the end of the fourth over Gregory and Davies had taken the score to 61, the former being dropped on 24 by Berg off Brad Wheal, a tough chance, with the skied ball arriving over his shoulder.It was a relief for Hampshire when James Vince produced a good catch above his head at mid-on to dismiss Davies for 32, made from just 13 balls, Shahid Afridi the successful bowler.Man-of-the-match Gregory holed out to deep midwicket off Berg, having looked in prime form and by the end of the six-over Powerplay Somerset had raced to 83 for 2.Allenby took time to play himself in before producing some cracking shots. Peter Trego fell cheaply, but James Hildreth ensured there was no let-up for the bowlers with a breezy 25 off 18 deliveries.Allenby drove a catch to extra cover off Berg, but Michael Leask hit Wheal for six and two more maximums in the same over by Roelof van der Merwe, including a ramp shot, had Somerset on course for 220.But the 18th over saw van der Merwe run out and Abbott strike twice to dismiss Leask and Groenewald, forcing last pair Craig Overton and Max Waller to exercise caution.Hampshire replied positively despite losing Rilee Rossouw to only the eighth ball of their innings, bowled by Overton, whose opening over still coast 14.Vince cracked 33 off 15 balls, with seven fours, before being bowled by a full ball from Gregory. But George Bailey quickly followed, a victim for Groenewald, who put an early brake on the scoring rate.Carberry was dropped on 2 by Hildreth at short fine-leg off Overton as Hampshire ended the Powerplay on 51 for 3. He and Sean Ervine added 49 in good time before the latter was bowled by van der Merwe for 19 attempting a scoop shot.Carberry had progressed to 30 and was looking dangerous when run out by Groenewald in a mix-up with Lewis McManus over a second run. At 93 for 5 in the 11th over, the visitors were in trouble.McManus lofted successive sixes off van der Merwe in the 13th over, but the next saw Waller beat Afridi’s defensive shot and bowl him for 18.When McManus was caught by Allenby at extra cover off a skier to give Waller his second wicket, Hampshire were left needing 53 off four overs, with only three wickets in hand.Despite the best efforts of Berg (31 off 21 balls), they were always falling short and when he was run out the innings ended with three balls remaining.

Meticulous and clinical, the Adelaide Strikers turned a precarious position against the Sydney Thunder into a 25-run win to reach the top of the Big Bash League table

The Report by Tim Wigmore07-Jan-2018Adelaide Strikers 7 for 158 (Ingram 48, Carey 34, Fawad 3-31) beat Sydney Thunder 9 for 133 (Nesser 3-29, Siddle 2-13, Rashid 2-21) by 25 runsMeticulous and clinical, the Adelaide Strikers turned a precarious position against the Sydney Thunder into a 25-run win to reach the top of the Big Bash League table.Yet again, the Strikers’ success was underpinned by Rashid Khan, the outstanding player in the tournament so far. In five matches, he has recorded figures of 2-22, 2-22, 2-19, 2-18 and now 2-21, bowling with control and penetration that has allowed the Strikers to triumph when batting first, while their opponents favour chasing. To boot, he even heaved a couple of sixes in the final over of Adelaide’s innings.The margin of the Strikers’ victory defied their struggles for much of the night. Colin Ingram’s six-ridden 48 hauled them to 158 for 7; then, with the Thunder on 42 for no loss after five overs, Peter Siddle delivered a crucial maiden before combining with Rashid to throttle the home team. Even Ben Rohrer’s three late sixes were not enough to give the Thunder real hope of avenging their defeat at the Adelaide Oval before Christmas.Adelaide steady as she goesThe Strikers are unusual in their penchant for batting first when they win the toss – something they have done more than the other seven teams combined this BBL season. It is a reflection of how, with a strong bowling attack that includes Rashid, who is especially proficient in the second innings, they feel comfortable defending totals. Travis Head won the toss, batted first and won against the Sydney Thunder at Adelaide a fortnight ago, and aimed to do the same on Sunday evening. Perhaps the scorching heat in Sydney – it was the hottest day in the city for 80 years – played a role too, making it attractive for the Strikers to field when it was cooler later in the night. The Strikers began their innings smoothly enough, just a little slowly: after eight overs, they had only lost one wicket, yet had a run rate of under seven.Getty Images

Fawad pulls them backLegspinners have been the most successful type of bowlers in this season of the Big Bash. And for all the attention on the overseas stars – Rashid, Shadab Khan and Yasir Shah – Fawad Ahmed has been almost as effective. In the ninth over of the Strikers innings, he changed the complexion of the game by snaring both set batsmen. First, Travis Head spliced a shot to long-on. Then, after striking a couple of slog-swept boundaries – the second was caught on the long-on boundary, but Kurtis Patterson was touching the rope while initially taking the catch – Alex Carey was flummoxed by a googly and clean bowled. Fawad cleaned up Jonathan Wells with a delivery that went straight on in his final over, to end with 3 for 31 and take his BBL season haul to eight wickets at 18.50 apiece, to go with an economy rate of 6.16. In all, the Thunder delivered 12 overs of spin, with Chris Green taking 1 for 22 from his allocation.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Ingram’s late dashAt 4 for 104 with one ball of the 16th over left, the Strikers weren’t going anywhere quickly. Then, Colin Ingram did as overseas batsmen are supposed to do. With beautiful timing, he creamed three sixes – a heave over long-on from Arjun Nair, a crisp strike over long-off off Green, and a pull over square leg off Gurinder Sandhu – to haul Adelaide into a position from which they could amass a working total. As Ingram walked off, slashing a full and wide delivery from Sandhu to the keeper, the suspicion remained that the total would not be quite enough. But Rashid harrumphed two sixes in the final three balls of the Strikers innings to shore them up to 7 for 158; 54 of those runs having come off the final 25 balls.Thunder’s flying startAt 32 without loss in four overs, the Thunder appeared to be cruising towards their target. Head entrusted Rashid to bowl the fifth over, but Patterson scythed two fours through the covers to leave the home team requiring only 117 from 15 overs with ten wickets still in hand. It should have been a cruise.The squeezeThe Strikers’ comeback began with that rarest of T20 commodities: the maiden. Siddle produced six deliveries of subtle variation and immaculate precision to Jos Buttler. In the following over, Rashid’s googly had Buttler clean bowled, and suddenly the Thunder were stifled. In four overs together, Siddle and Rashid conceded only 13 runs – the prelude to a stretch of 42 balls without a boundary. In the process, as if sleepwalking, the Thunder’s position of overwhelming domination first became uncertain, and then increasingly precarious. Both Patterson and Shane Watson scored at a strike-rate of well under 100.The endgameBy the time Watson was out, heaving a catch to long-on, the Thunder needed 84 from only 41 balls, though they still had seven wickets in hand. Yet, once again, Rashid proved far too good – and even caught Green at long-on to effectively seal the Strikers’ victory. Rohrer struck some admirable blows late, but it always seemed futile.

Aaron Finch’s 124 ended in vain as Australia lost 5 for 77 in their last 14 overs and eventually the match by five wickets

The Report by Karthik Krishnaswamy24-Sep-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:20

Agarkar: India did everything right in Indore

Between January 2013 and the start of this series, India-Australia ODIs had produced an average first-innings score of 321. The first two ODIs bucked that high-scoring trend, with India defending 281 and then 252, but a belter of a pitch in Indore seemed set to catalyse a return to the old order. Coming back from a calf injury, Aaron Finch scored his eighth ODI hundred and put on 154 for the second wicket with Steven Smith to project visions of 350 into Australia’s minds.But thanks to their wristspinners, and then their two expert death bowlers, India kept them to 293 for 6, taking five wickets and only conceding 77 in the last 14 overs. Australia didn’t get a sniff thereafter, as seventies of varying moods and tempos from Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane at the top of the order and Hardik Pandya at No. 4 led India to a series-clinching victory by five wickets, with 13 balls remaining. It was their ninth ODI win in a row, equalling their best ever sequence.Happy I got to bat for so long – Pandya

On his bowling…
I was just trying to bowl fast offcutters. And it actually nipped, it actually gripped the pitch and moved. I got to know that when I bowled a slower ball earlier. The wicket was too dry and I had to do something different. Can’t just bowl seam up and get whacked. So I just assessed the conditions pretty well and that’s why eventually I got the wicket.
Did he feel pressure after Kohli fell?
I don’t think so. I was batting on 40 or something and the equation was also a run-a-ball so it was time to play and take the game deep, and then obviously the boundary balls will always be there because the runs were not much. We had Mahi bhai [MS Dhoni] in the back end, we bat pretty deep so it was just a matter of spending time on the pitch, taking singles and we all knew that if we keep doing the right things, taking singles, we would eventually win.
Batting at No. 4…
It does not make any difference where I bat. Rather than seeing this as a challenge, I see this as an opportunity to do something nice for the team. When I was told I was going to go out to bat next, I was happy. This is the first time I’ve played so many balls, so it was great.
On bowling with Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah…
We keep talking to each other and discussing what the wicket is doing, and what kind of deliveries we should be bowling. They are outstanding – they bowl equally well at the start and at the death. It’s amazing to have guys like that. It gives me confidence to go all out and express myself.

Rohit gave the chase its early fillip with an innings of gasp-inducing strokeplay. There were four sixes in his 62-ball 71, three of them off the quicks: a full one from Nathan Coulter-Nile lofted flat and straight, a bouncer from Pat Cummins hooked into the roof of the stands behind square leg, and a short ball from Kane Richardson – a reaction to seeing the batsman jump out of his crease – muscled in the same direction and out of the stadium. With his partner in such form, Rahane simply slotted into his slipstream, giving him as much of the strike as he could, and helping himself whenever the bowlers dropped short or angled down the leg side. The two added 139 in 130 balls.Both openers fell in the space of 12 balls, and it was Pandya, rather than the incumbent Manish Pandey, who walked in at No. 4. India needed 147 from 159 balls at that point, which called for stickability rather than the ball-striking Pandya is known for. And so he proceeded to play an innings befitting the situation. He gave Ashton Agar early warning of the lengths he wasn’t supposed to bowl, hitting the first balls of successive overs from the left-arm spinner over the long-on boundary, but otherwise simply looked to turn the strike over and build a partnership with Virat Kohli. He showed plenty of poise against the seamers, showing a full face to anything threatening the stumps, and it was Kohli, eventually, who got out playing a big shot at the end of a third-wicket stand of 56.That wicket was immediately followed by that of Kedar Jadhav, who top-edged a slash off the fourth ball he faced. With India needing 88 off 88 at that point, Australia had the smallest of openings, but Pandya and Pandey closed the door with a fifth-wicket stand of 78 off 63 balls. In the end, 294 was simply not a challenging-enough target, and both captains suggested at the post-match presentation that this was a 330-340 pitch.Hardik Pandya made his second fifty of the series•BCCI

Australia were looking at a score in that region when they were 206 for 1 after 36 overs. At that point, Kuldeep Yadav had seemed the unlikeliest bowler to turn the match around. Finch had just hit his third six off the left-arm wristspinner, a miscued loft that might have been caught at long-off on a bigger ground. Apart from that one shot, Finch had picked Kuldeep’s variations better than pretty much any Australian batsman in this series, and looked utterly in control against him. Kuldeep’s figures at that point read 7-0-55-0.And yet – perhaps reckoning that his part-timers were unlikely to do any better on this surface – Kohli persisted with Kuldeep, and he struck in his next over, Finch picking out deep midwicket with a slog-sweep.India suddenly looked transformed. Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah kept Glenn Maxwell in check with their changes of pace, and then Yuzvendra Chahal, returning to the attack in the 41st over, dangled his legbreaks wide of off stump, inviting the batsmen to reach out and hit him against the turn. The 3.1 overs following Finch’s dismissal only produced 12 runs, and Smith, jumping out to the returning Kuldeep in the 42nd over, failed to reach the pitch of a wrong’un and holed out to long-off.Maxwell followed next ball, leaving his crease too early and giving Chahal the opportunity to slip another wide legbreak past his edge. Dhoni completed his 100th ODI stumping for India, and Chahal had dismissed Maxwell for the third time in three innings. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Bumrah took over thereafter, and Australia only scored 38 off their last six overs.Having won the toss for the first time in the series, Smith opted to bat, and his openers were steady rather than spectacular against some controlled new-ball bowling from Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah. They recognised there was little margin for error on this pitch, and strove hard not to give the batsmen width. Both bowled largely back of a length to Finch, denying him his favourite shots through the V.The openers saw out that period, and Warner was just beginning to look dangerous, having hit Chahal for a straight six, when Pandya bowled him with an offcutter than slid past his outside edge. Pandya did an important job through the middle overs with his cutters, cross-seam deliveries and quicker bouncers, and showed Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah the way to bowl when they eventually returned to close out the innings.The two wristspinners, however, were able to exert far less control on Finch and Smith. Having bided his time against the new ball, Finch now took full toll whenever the spinners landed in his arc. In all, he would hit five sixes, all of them down the ground. He also preyed on the spinners’ anxiety to not pitch it too full, and rocked back on a couple of occasions to muscle pulls off balls that were only slightly short.At the other end, Smith worked the ball cleverly into leg-side gaps, the pick of his shots a pick-up flick against the turn off Chahal, made possible by his dancing footwork down the track. Two-thirds of the way into Australia’s innings, the second-wicket pair looked unstoppable. It only took one little opening, however, for India to expose their batting frailties once more.

Afghanistan gave West Indies a hint of the struggle that could be in store for them in their bid to reach the 2019 World Cup, after battling back from the brink of a crushing defeat

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Feb-2018Afghanistan 163 for 9 (Gulbadin 48, Shenwari 42) beat West Indies 110 (Dawlat 4-26) by 23 runs (DLS)
ScorecardGulbadin Naib appeals for a runout after deflecting a drive onto the stumps•ICC

Afghanistan gave West Indies a hint of the struggle that could be in store for them in their bid to reach the 2019 World Cup, after battling back from the brink of a crushing defeat to pull off a remarkable victory in their warm-up encounter in Harare, ahead of next week’s ICC World Cup Qualifiers.The two teams are among the favourites to claim the final two spots for next year’s tournament in England, but for West Indies, two-time world champions in 1975 and 1979, failure to progress would be a particularly ignominious moment in their history.And the manner in which they capitulated in this contest, first with ball and then bat, will have given them few reasons for optimism going into their opening fixture against UAE next week, even though they have welcomed back into their ranks the likes of Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels, who played key roles in their triumphs at the World T20 in 2012 and 2016.After winning the toss and choosing to field first, West Indies appeared to have the contest in their pocket after reducing Afghanistan to 71 for 8 in 23 overs. Without their captain, Asghar Stanikzai, who has been hospitalised with appendicitis, Afghanistan appeared rudderless as the left-arm seamer, Sheldon Cottrell, set the tone with two wickets in the first five overs of the match.But Afghanistan’s spirit is redoubtable at the best of times, and when Samiullah Shenwari and Gulbadin Naib came together in a ninth-wicket stand of 91 in 11.5 overs, Afghanistan found themselves back in the contest.With bad weather reducing the match to a 35-over affair, West Indies lost Gayle and Shai Hope early as they chased a revised total of 140, but Evin Lewis and Marlon Samuels appeared to have steadied the pursuit with a stand of 44.However, Sharafuddin Ashraf bagged Lewis and Jason Mohammed for a duck in the space of four balls to leave West Indies teetering on 80 for 4, and when Shapoor Zadran added Samuels for 34 three overs later, the writing was on the wall.Dawlat Zadran returned to rip through the tail with final figures of 4 for 26, which included a hat-trick that saw the end of Shimron Hetmyer (caught at gully by Najibullah Zadran), Rovman Powell (caught by Mohammad Shahzad) and Carlos Brathwaite (lbw) off successive deliveries of his fifth over. Captain Rashid Khan – the newly crowned No.1 bowler in ODI and T20I cricket – subsequently sniped out the final two West Indies wickets with his legspin.

Retaining young players is key to club’s revival, says chief executive, Rob Andrew

Andrew Miller at Hove14-Nov-2017Rob Andrew, the Sussex chief executive, says that the club will not be rushed into appointing a new head coach in the wake of Mark Davis’s departure last month, adding that the priority in the close season has been to firm up the contracts of the players whom the management believe can restore the club to its recent glories.Andrew, who took up the reins at Hove in January after a decade at the Rugby Football Union, oversaw a difficult first season, in which Sussex failed to secure a return to the top flight of the County Championship, while slipping out at the group stages of both the NatWest T20 Blast and the Royal London One-Day Cup.That sense of under-achievement was compounded late last month when two club stalwarts left in quick succession – Chris Nash, the veteran batsman, who accepted a three-year deal at Nottinghamshire, and Davis, whose 16-year association with Hove extended way beyond his two years as coach.The twin departures represented a further distancing of the current Sussex squad from the great team of the early 2000s, which won the first Championship title in the club’s history in 2003, then added two more pennants in 2006 and 2007. Andrew, however, was unapologetic about the new direction of travel.”There’s been some changes happening, but that’s the nature of sport,” Andrew told ESPNcricinfo. “I’ve really enjoyed the year. I’ve enjoyed getting to understand the club, and we’ve got a very, very clear direction of where we are going and the next few years will genuinely be very exciting.”It was pretty clear when I looked into the job that the club had maybe been treading water a little, probably for the last two or three years really, with short-term signings – some have worked, some haven’t. But it takes time to rebuild a side, especially when you’ve been on a very successful period.”With that in mind, Andrew would not be drawn on the possible contenders for the role of head coach. Two of the club’s most notable ex-players – the title-winning captain, Chris Adams, and the former England wicketkeeper, Matt Prior – have both been linked with a return to Hove, but beyond insisting that interest in the coaching vacancy had been high, the CEO remained tight-lipped.”I’m not going to get dragged into speculation, but we will make the right appointment as head coach,” he said. “We are not in any great hurry, there’s no timeline on it because it’s a big decision that we’ve got to get right. The club hasn’t really had that many coaching changes if you look back at how long Mark was here [initially as 2nd XI coach], and Mark Robinson before that.”Behind the scenes, Sussex have been identifying the players that they believe will form the core of the team in the future. Luke Wells recently committed to another two years, as did Chris Jordan, while Luke Wright and George Garton – their hugely talented left-arm quick who was last week called up to reinforce England’s Ashes squad – have both extended their contracts until the end of 2020.”He’s very talented, very young, and still very inexperienced,” Andrew said of Garton. “We’ve all got to be a bit careful not to get too carried away.”We have got some very talented young players – George is one of them, Jofra Archer is one of the first names I came across when we first joined, Stuart Whittingham, Abe Sakande … these are very talented young bowlers coming through the system.”But we also need experience around the place, we need our experienced players to step up and with the signing of Stiaan van Zyl and David Wiese, there were signs last season that they were getting used to the club. Luke Wells was the second-highest run-scorer in the country, but we need to be more consistent.”In the longer term, however, Sussex’s hopes for a full-blown regeneration may be hampered by the looming upheaval in English domestic cricket – namely the launch of the new-team T20 competition in 2020.The details of the tournament remain to be thrashed out, but despite Hove’s history as county pioneers – in 1999, they became the first English club to install permanent floodlights – the size of the venue means that they face being overlooked when it comes to the allocation of these new marquee fixtures.”It’s something I’ve tried to get my head round since I started,” Andrew said. “It’s been the big talking point. We are now into the nuts and bolts, the nitty-gritty of what is it going to look like and what impact is it going to have on counties – who will be a host, and who won’t.”From my perspective, I hope it won’t have a negative impact on Sussex, because the whole premise of the new competition is that all 18 counties benefit, and share in the rewards. We all need it to be successful. And we don’t need a split between Test-match and non-Test match grounds.”I’m confident that a club like Sussex can be successful in all formats, just look at what Essex did in the County Championship this year.”As for whether Sussex need to consider finding a new home for a new era of county cricket, Andrew insisted this was highly unlikely, without ruling out the possibility entirely.”I haven’t been here long enough to really understand the politics of the club, but I think it would be very, very unusual if we were to consider moving from here,” he said.”I think we need to improve the ground and that’s something we need to look at, but this is a fantastic county ground. We can be successful from here, we can retain our best young players, which is what we’ve done in the last month, and we’ve proven that.”Cricket’s got into too much debt because of the push to get more and more Test grounds,” he added. “There is possibly going to be less Test cricket but more Test grounds, so us going and building another one is probably not a clever idea.”

BK Garudachar, India’s oldest first-class cricketer, who represented Mysore (as Karnataka was called till 1974), United Province and Bombay, died in Bangalore on Friday aged 99

Arun Venugopal26-Feb-2016BK Garudachar, India’s oldest living first-class cricketer, who represented Mysore (as Karnataka was called till 1974), United Province and Bombay, died in Bangalore on Friday aged 99.A right-hand batsman and a leg-break bowler, Garudachar scored 1126 runs at an average of 29.63 from 27 matches in first-class cricket between 1935 and 1946. Born on January 13, 1917 in Chikamagalur, Karnataka, Garudachar graduated in engineering from the Benares University, and started playing for Mysore before turning out for United Province and Bombay in the 1940s.As a bowler, Garudachar finished his career with exactly 100 wickets, which included seven five-fors and three ten-wicket match hauls. His solitary century came against the Holkar team in the 1946 Ranji Trophy semi-final. That 164 held a pride of place for Garudachar, who captained Mysore against a side led by CK Nayudu. That match against Holkar also turned out to be Garudachar’s farewell tofirst-class cricket.”We never knew the kind of leather hunt we were in for. Holkar played for two-and-a-half days and destroyed our attack to score 912 for 8 declared,” Garudachar told journalist ES Ramachandran in the 1980s, during an interview. “Six of the first eight Holkar batsmen scored centuries with Mushtaq Ali who rarely ever failed, being caught and bowled for 2!”I felt, if we had run all the way to Bangalore we would have reached earlier than the time we took running around the field fetching the ballfrom the boundary.”Former India and Karnataka batsman GR Viswanath called Garudachar’s death a sad day for Karnataka cricket. “[It is] very unfortunate that he couldn’t complete his century there and I could make out that he wanted to live a 100 years,” Viswanath told ESPNcricinfo.”I have never watched him play, but whenever I met former cricketers they used to mention his name. He was a very versatile cricketer and everyone felt he should have played for the country. I have met him quite a few times and listening to him you could make out his knowledge about the game.”Viswanath said he always made it a point to listen to the anecdotes that Garudachar would recount: “He himself would tell: ‘Vishu, I used to bowl fast-ish offspinners but in between I used to bowl the googly and the batsman would think it was a leg break. They used to play for a leg break and it used to go in. I got quite a few wickets like that.’ It used to amaze me because you always hear about googly bowlers being legspinners but it was strange to see an offspinner bowling a googly.”Whenever I have met him he was very jovial. I used to go and sit next to him because I wanted to hear stories of cricket from his era. He used to say how my batting style was similar to [former Mysore batsman] CJ Ramdev. When people of that stature say such things it will be with you throughout.”Former India offspinner Erapalli Prasanna felt Garudachar’s contributions did not receive enough credit. “He has done a lot of yeoman service for the Mysore State Cricket Association when he was playing,” Prasanna told ESPNcricinfo. “In spite of his achievements and his contributions, he was very simple and straightforward. The only time I have met him was in one of the KSCA functions when he was given some award. At that point of time I congratulated him even though the appreciation was not in direct proportion to the contribution that he had done for the state.”

Craig Overton looks set to make his debut in place of Jake Ball in the day-night Test at Adelaide

George Dobell at Adelaide01-Dec-2017Craig Overton appears to be winning the selection race ahead of the day-night Test in Adelaide, and looks set to make his debut in place of Jake Ball in the England side.While the final decision will be left to Joe Root, the England captain, both Overton and Ball were named in a 12-man squad on the eve of the second Test.Overton, the 23-year-old Somerset seamer, has impressed in the nets over recent days and had an extended batting session against short-pitched bowling in training on Friday evening.Ball had something of a mixed experience in Brisbane. While he took a key wicket early in Australia’s first innings – that of David Warner – he was also the most expensive bowler, conceding 4.27 runs per over.By contrast, James Anderson and Stuart Broad both conceded fewer than two runs an over in Australia’s first innings while Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali conceded 2.79 and 2.46 per over respectively. With one of England’s tactics being to frustrate Australia’s batsmen into errors, Ball’s relative costliness was an issue.He could consider himself unfortunate if he misses out, though. Few batsmen are dropped after one modest game and Ball was, at times, asked to deliver spells of sustained short-pitched deliveries which resulted in a few more boundary opportunities for the batsmen.He also found himself bowling on a pitch offering him little. The surface in Adelaide, while certainly far from the seamers’ paradise some suggest, might offer bowlers just a little more assistance. Certainly it looks likely to be quicker while a combination of the pink ball and the use of floodlights might ask a few more questions of the batsmen.Overton might also strengthen the tail a little. While he has had a horrid run of form on the tour so far – he has been dismissed for a duck in all three of his innings to date – he has a first-class century behind him and retains ambitions to develop into a true all-rounder. The England management have stressed, however, that the respective batting merits of the pair is not relevant to the selection decision and they aim simply to pick the bowler they think will prove most effective.Having not played international cricket, Overton might well face something of a baptism of fire if he is picked. While most Ashes Tests offer an intense atmosphere – a full house is expected on Saturday – this one could be more tense than usual due to a deteriorating relationship between the sides. While there may be a certain amount of pantomime-style playing to the crowd about some incidents, there are also a couple of players on either side who appear to genuinely dislike one another.Meanwhile Moeen Ali came through his first spell of bowling since the Brisbane Test without any serious issues. Moeen sustained a deep cut on his spinning finger in Brisbane which compromised his performance and threatened his ability to bowl in Adelaide. While a chunk of the blistered skin did come off after a brief bowl in the nets on Friday night, he reported no pain or serious inconvenience and confirmed his ability to bowl as required in the Test.It was noticeable, however, that Root had a longer bowl than usual and may use himself to lessen the burden on Moeen.

Elsewhere, Keenan Vaz and Amogh Desai steadied Goa after Bengal’s Ashok Dinda struck to pick three wickets on the day

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Nov-2017

Anmolpreet Singh’s unbeaten 252 propeled Punjab to 645 for 6 dec in Amritsar. This is Anmolpreet’s second double-century this season, his previous being his career-best 267 against Chhattisgarh in Raipur earlier this month. In reply, Services were off to a shaky start as they finished the day on 130 for 4.After a 99-run partnership with Shubman Gill (129 off 142 balls), 19-year-old Anmolpreet struck two century partnerships on the day – 146 runs with Gurkeerat Singh Mann and 125 runs with Abhishek Gupta – to take Punjab past 500 before lunch. He also stitched an 87-run stand with No. 7 Taruwar Kohli to push Punjab’s total past 600.Services, however, endured a top-order wobble as they lost their top three batsmen within 12 overs for 33 runs. It was the 72-run stand between the captain Rahul Singh and Nakul Verma for the fourth wicket that saved them from further trouble.Amogh Desai (53*) and Keenan Vaz (40*) steadied Goa after Ashok Dinda’s three-for rattled their line-up as they finished on 191 for 5 against Bengal on the second day in Kolkata.Resuming from their first day score of 305 for 5, Bengal lost their overnight batsman Writtick Chatterjee in the day’s fourth over. In the 96th over, medium pacer Heramb Parab struck back-to-back to remove Boddupalli Amit and Kanishk Seth. In the subsequent over, Lakshay Garg dismissed the overnight centurion Anustup Majumdar (119 off 208 balls), to finish with a four-for. Within the next three overs, Bengal were bowled out for 379.In reply, Goa were off to a decent start and were 115 for 3 at tea, after which Dinda effected a couple of wickets, leaving them reeling at 130 for 5. It was Desai and Vaz who sparked the resistance to add a 61-run partnership for the sixth wicket.The captain Faiz Fazal (125*) and Sanjay Ramaswamy (104*) struck a 237-run opening partnership to give Vidarbha the upper hand against Himachal Pradesh on the second day in Nagpur. The pair had earlier made the highest opening stand in the team’s history, heaping 259 runs in the match against Bengal in the previous round.Starting the day from their overnight score of 287 for 6, Himachal Pradesh surrendered within the first 18 overs for 353 on the day as Rajneesh Gurbani picked three wickets to finish with a six-for. In reply, Vidarbha saw a strong start, with Fazal and Ramaswamy bringing up their 150-run partnership shortly before tea, as Himachal bowlers found no respite.

تقدم فريق ريال مدريد بهدف في مباراته الجارية حاليًا أمام إشبيلية، في إطار منافسات بطولة الدوري الأسباني، موسم 2024/25.

ويستضيف ملعب “سانتياجو برنابيو” مباراة الفريقين في الجولة الثامنة عشر من الليجا (لمتابعة اللقاء من هنا).

ونجح ريال مدريد في تسجيل هدف التقدم في الدقيقة العاشرة من عمر الشوط الأول، وذلك عن طريق النجم كيليان مبابي.

جاء الهدف بعدما سدد كيليان مبابي الكرة بطريقة صاروخية مبهرة، من خارج منطقة الـ18، لتهز شباك الضيوف. هدف مبابي العالمي في مباراة ريال مدريد وإشبيلية