England continued their impressive preparations for the World Twenty20 with a 28-run victory against West Indies at Old Trafford

Andrew McGlashan at Old Trafford10-Sep-2012
ScorecardSarah Taylor scored an entertaining 53•Getty Images

England continued their impressive preparations for the World Twenty20 with a 28-run victory against West Indies at Old Trafford – their 19th unbeaten game in a row – having been lifted to a demanding total by a high class innings from Sarah Taylor who made 53 off 37 balls.It was a fantastic innings by Taylor, who struck seven boundaries, and she judged when to increase the tempo perfectly after West Indies’ spinners had made scoring hard work following a brisk opening stand between Charlotte Edwards and Laura Marsh.””We got off to a great start today,” Taylor said. “I was really pleased to find the boundary early and then ran hard with Arran later on. It was another good team performance with everyone contributing and two outstanding catches from Anya and Susie; we pride ourselves on our fielding. We aim to put a marker out in every single game and we’ll be looking to do that in the remaining three matches of this series.”Taylor’s first boundary was an inside-out drive through cover when she used her feet to the slow left-arm of Shanel Daley who had removed England’s openers. She then later broke a sequence of 27 deliveries without a boundary with back-to-back fours off Shemaine Campbelle. The placement of the shots was what stood out, threading the ball past fielders with precision and Taylor was soon expanding her repertoire further with a scoop over short fine-leg. The men playing afterwards would have to go quite some to match the innings.The main stand of the innings came between Taylor and Arran Brindle as the pair added 78 in 10 overs for the third wicket. Brindle was the quieter partner as Taylor dominated the scoring but used her pace between the wickets to keep the scoreboard ticking and pressurise some poor West Indies fielding.However, after Taylor’s departure West Indies did well to deny England any boundaries in the final four overs of the innings although a total of 150 was always going to be a tough ask for a side held to 71 for 8 in the previous match. While one Taylor shines, it is the absence of another – Stafanie – that is making life tough for the visitors.At least the openers, who had both been dismissed for opening-over ducks at Chester-le-Street, gave the innings some foundation with a stand of 35 and were not far from matching England’s pace. The home side were given plenty of chances to make the first breakthrough, spurning three run-out opportunities, one of which cost five runs, before Taylor again showed her prowess comes with gloves as well as bat with a swift stumping to remove Juliana Nero. That gave Danni Wyatt a wicket with her fourth ball and Wyatt struck again in her next over when Tremayne Smartt picked out long-on.West Indies never threatened to get close to the target, although it was far better performance than the first T20, as England’s bowlers chipped away and the highlights of the remainder of the match were a couple of stunning catches. The first was at mid-off by Anya Shrubsole, diving horizontally at mid-off, to remove the dangerous Deandra Dottin as Brindle began with a maiden in the 12th over. Then, in the closing stages of the innings, Susie Rowe avoided a collision as she ran backwards from midwicket. On this evidence, England remain a class above.

Andrew McDonald, the Australia A captain, has said his batting line-up will “be sent in as crash-test dummies” against South Africa’s pace attack ahead of the first Test

Firdose Moonda in Sydney01-Nov-2012Andrew McDonald, the Australia A captain, has said his batting line-up will “be sent in as crash-test dummies” against South Africa’s pace attack ahead of the first Test. The South Africans are likely to field their Test XI in the three-day warm up at the SCG and McDonald does not seem to think Australia A are being tasked with softening up the opposition’s bowlers, who are being talked about as the best in the world.”It’s a nice attack, isn’t it? It’s an attack you’d want at your disposal,” McDonald said. “But the Australians have got a good attack as well this summer. So it’s going to be a battle of the pace quartets or however they shape up. It’s going to be a red-hot series.”We’ve been sent in first as crash-test dummies. We haven’t had tour games like this for a while. It’s a great inclusion in the Australian summer: to have the next best side in Australia take on the side that’s the best in the world. It’s a great opportunity for us and a good opportunity for the South Africans to find a little bit of form. Hopefully we can put up a good contest.”McDonald’s take on the practice match is markedly different to the way the South African A side saw their role exactly a year ago when they hosted Australia in Potchefstroom. They were presented with a pitch that the groundsman later apologised for – a snake pit with awkward bounce which proved difficult to bat on.The four-day match lasted only three days and even though Australia won, the South Africans felt they had struck some telling blows by limiting the amount of time Australian batsmen had at the crease. But McDonald thinks playing those kinds of mind games are pointless because the visitors will not regard the fixture as anything more than training.”It’s just another step in their preparations,” he said. “The first psychological blow will be the first session of the first Test and anything leading into that will be just be lip service. They will be looking to get a solid hit-out because it’s their last competitive game before the Test match.”His approach would appear to be more traditional and in the spirit of practice games, which is the norm when teams tour. Contrastingly, South Africa A decided to be hostile last year and were quietly smirking when Australia were bowled out for 47 in the first Test in Cape Town. That may not have all been their doing, though.Early-season pitches at Newlands (where a November Test had last been played more than 100 years ago) also had their impact and South Africa will find themselves in similar unfamiliarity. The first Test is in Brisbane and South Africa have not played a Test there since readmission. For that reason, and a few others like the lack of first-class cricket for most of the South African squad, the tour match will be a serious affair.McDonald shares the views that, “a competitive game puts a good edge on your preparations for the series”. Although his team will not be unwelcoming, McDonald gave an assurance there would be an aggressive element to the fixture. “Every game you try to win it and we’re going to try to move in the direction to make sure the game gets to a result,” he said.South Africa’s XI points to the same thing. In the interests of match time, they are likely to field the same team that will turn out in Brisbane next week. Jacques Kallis, their only concern, has recovered from flu and is available for selection. If he sits out, it will be only because “he has not had a break from cricket since England,” Mohammed Moosajee, the team manager explained. Kallis and Morne Morkel both played in England, at the World T20 and at the Champions League and will need to be assessed before it is decided if they will play.Australia A have only named 11 players so their team is already decided. Some of them, most notably Phillip Hughes, Steven Smith and Moises Henriques, will want to use the match as an opportunity to catch the national selectors’ eyes. McDonald is another player who could seek to do that, although he is not overly optimistic about his chances.”Playing in the A side is a step in the right direction [for a national recall]. To captain is also a nice feather in the cap,” he said. “But if the Australian team is successful and they get off to a good start, there probably won’t be too many spots this summer and we’re hoping that’s the case.”McDonald has played four Test matches, all against South Africa in 2009, and he said in the event he is reselected, he will be ready. “You want to improve every year and I am a better player than last time I stepped out in Australian colours,” he said. “I’ll be more prepared than I was last time, having had that little bit of experience before. I think that given the opportunity, I’d be able to take up a role there.”

Karnataka’s two leading fast bowlers, R Vinay Kumar and Abhimanyu Mithun, will miss their next Ranji game with minor injuries

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Nov-2012Karnataka’s two leading fast bowlers, Vinay Kumar and Abhimanyu Mithun, will miss their next Ranji game with minor injuries. They are being rested as a precautionary measure. Vinay is also the captain of the side. Allrounder Stuart Binny will lead the side in his absence, and young batsman Manish Pandey will be the vice-captain.This news is a dampener for Karnataka after they fought hard to come back with three points, chasing 539 for a first-innings lead on a rank turner against arch rivals Tamil Nadu in Chennai. J Abhiram, the chairman of Karnataka selectors, said the injuries were not too serious, and were expected to heal in time for the next match. Mithun has a side strain, and Vinay has a hamstring problem. “These are just grade-one injuries,” Abhiram told ESPNcricinfo. “But we don’t want to risk them so soon and make them worse, which could keep them out for a longer period.”The two join Ajit Agarkar, Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel, Sreesanth and RP Singh as fast bowlers who have already had injury troubles this Ranji season. Munaf, Sreesanth and RP were injured even before the season began.Starting with the India A match against the touring English, Vinay has played first-class cricket on 11 of the last 14 days. The numbers are eight out of 11 for Mithun. The precautionary resting is similar to Ajit Agarkar’s case, who picked up a niggle in his calf, and said he would have been fit for the next game had he got a five-day break as opposed to the three days the Ranji schedule provides between matches.SL Akshay, who has played four first-class matches before, and uncapped HS Sharath and K Gowtham were called up as replacements. Karnataka’s next match is in Uttar Pradesh on November 17, where they take on a side coached by one of their own, Venkatesh Prasad. Karnataka have registered four points in their first two games.

Inzamam-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s former captain and newly-appointed batting consultant, has advised his batsmen to be ‘aggressive’ against India

Umar Farooq15-Dec-2012Inzamam-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s former captain and newly-appointed batting consultant, has advised his batsmen to be ‘aggressive’ against India. The team that handles pressure better, he said, could control how the matches go in the upcoming limited-overs series’.Pakistan are preparing for the India series with a conditioning camp at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, and Inzamam will spend the week with the batsmen to assist them. Since his retirement in 2007, Inzamam had not been associated with Pakistan cricket in any form, running a business instead; this is the first in five years that he has taken up a role with the team.”My job will be to pass on my playing experience to the players, rather than working on batsmen’s techniques,” Inzamam told reporters at the end of the day’s training. “I will be discussing with them how to chase, how to set a target and what’s required while batting.”Pakistan will kick-off their tour of India with a two-match T20 series, followed by three ODIs. Inzamam, who led Pakistan in 22 ODIs against India and has a win-loss ratio of 12-10, said Pakistan have plenty of matchwinners in the squad but they need ‘collective’ effort.”Pakistan have a lot of players who could individually win matches for us, it’s a good sign,” he said. “But cricket is a team game, we lack in collective effort from the batsmen. Our bowling is very strong and we have to have confidence in ourselves. We have to make up our minds that we can win.”Playing in Indian conditions isn’t different; we have been winning [there] and can win again. It’s only about pressure and how to handle it. What we need is to play aggressively and whoever copes with it [pressure] well, will play better.”Pakistan have played 16 completed ODIs in 2012, losing four out of eight while chasing and failing to defend their target on six instances out of eight. Batting first this year, they have crossed the 200-run mark seven times, winning only twice. When chasing a target of more than 200, they have won only on one occasion out of five.”It’s not a new problem, it’s been going on for a long time now,” Inzamam said of their batting issues, citing the lack of quality cricket in Pakistan, which has been a no-go zone for major international cricket teams. “For the last two years we have not played a lot of cricket and the batsmen are lacking in temperament due to T20 cricket.”Flaws in our players are down to us not playing on a regular basis. If we start playing 10-12 Test matches every year, you will obviously see an improvement in our batting. As more we play cricket, the more players will learn from it.”Inzamam said it will be important for the players to put aside distractions in India and focus on the cricket: “Against India, one should be focused on the game instead of other activities. We have to focus on our game and don’t worry about what others are doing. If we keep focus on ourselves, we will perform better.”India will play with passion, so must Pakistan. I think the way this Pakistan team lines-up, we can put pressure on India. But they’re a big team too and could make a comeback [after faltering in the Test series against England], so we have to focus ourselves.”

Ross Taylor has said he was surprised by the timing of his losing the New Zealand captaincy but not by the decision itself, declaring he felt he never had the support of the coach Mike Hesson

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Dec-2012Ross Taylor has said he was surprised by the timing of his losing the New Zealand captaincy but not by the decision itself, declaring he felt he never had the support of the coach Mike Hesson. Taylor, who on Friday was replaced as leader by Brendon McCullum, was told after the ODI series in Sri Lanka that there would be a change of captaincy after the end of the Sri Lanka tour.On Friday, Hesson stressed that what he meant at that meeting, which was also attended by assistant coach Bob Carter and team manager Mike Sandle, was that there would be a change to the limited-overs captaincy, not the Test leadership. However, Taylor said he had been told his captaincy was not good enough and it felt clear to him that Hesson and the team management did not want him in charge at all.”They told me I wasn’t good enough as a captain, wasn’t good enough for this team,” Taylor told the . “To hear I wasn’t good enough was disappointing. It was interesting … I was offered the Test captaincy a couple of weeks [after the Sri Lanka meeting], when it was clear to me from conversations, they didn’t want me at all.”Taylor said he was not surprised by the course of events after Hesson took over from John Wright as head coach in July. “It wasn’t huge shock,” Taylor said. “Hesson never supported me through the whole time I’d been captain, but I was surprised by the timing.”Since taking on the captaincy full-time last year, Taylor led New Zealand to four Test wins from 13 matches, including rare victories in Australia and Sri Lanka, two wins from eight ODIs, and four victories from nine Twenty20 internationals. He conceded that he was still developing as a captain but said he had learnt a lot under Wright’s coaching.”I know I had areas to work on,” Taylor said. “I was far from the finished product, but I lacked a lot of support from the management in a lot of areas, which was disappointing. Under Wrighty I was learning a lot; under Hesson, the relationship was pretty poor. I didn’t think he supported me in that role.”After declining the Test captaincy this week, Taylor declared that he offered his full support to his replacement McCullum, but intended to take a break from the game. Taylor said he did not believe he could put in a complete effort under the circumstances and would return when the time was right.”It’s still fresh and raw,” Taylor said. “It’s been a pretty difficult five months for me. It’s a chance to get away from it, spend some time with the family and have a Christmas. I don’t believe I can give 100% to the game at this time. Cricket is my life and my passion. I love the game and I love playing for my country. But taking a break is the right thing for me right now.”

A round-up of matches in the Zimbabwe domestic T20 competition

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Jan-2013A half-century from Sikandar Raza led Mashonaland Eagles to a 42-run win against Mid West Rhinos in Harare. Eagles made a swift start after they were sent in, with their openers adding 59 before Chamu Chibhabha was dismissed in 6.4 overs. Raza, however, went on to hold one end up, keeling the innings steady by making 62 off 56 balls. He was dismissed only in the 18th over and Eagles ended on 149 for 6. Michael Chinouya and Neville Madziva took two wickets each for Rhinos.Rhinos’ chase never got going as wickets fell in two clumps. They went from 33 for 1 to 65 for 6, and then from 101 for 6 to 103 for 9 at the end of their innings. Peter Moor top scored with 30. Eagles used eight bowlers and Ray Price took 1 for 8 in his four overs.Rain allowed only eight overs in the game between Southern Rocks and Matabeleland Tuskers in Bulawayo. Rocks made 50 for 1 before the match had to be abandoned.

The Indian selectors are unlikely to make sweeping changes to the squad that played the final Test against England, for the Australia series

Amol Karhadkar09-Feb-2013India’s selectors could have finally run out of patience with the established Test opening combination. ESPNcricinfo understands* that at least two selectors want Wasim Jaffer in the squad for the Australia Tests, “most probably” replacing Gautam Gambhir.The Sandeep Patil-headed selection panel will meet on Sunday to pick the squad for, most probably, the first two Tests against Australia. The panel is likely to retain most of the other batsmen who featured in the 15 for the Nagpur Test against England but the faltering openers will be under the scanner.With M Vijay hitting a century in the Irani Cup and Jaffer having plundered 915 runs from 12
innings this season, the growing feeling among the selectors is that both Vijay and Jaffer “deserve to be in the squad”. While Vijay was the reserve opener during the Test series against England, Jaffer last played for India almost five years ago.Despite increasing doubts over Virender Sehwag and Gambhir’s place in the side, a couple of selectors also feel the Delhi pair deserves to be given “one final chance”. Though Sehwag, who pulled out of the Irani Cup tie with a stomach upset, scored a century in the opening Test against England in Ahmedabad, he lost his place in the ODI side soon after.Gambhir’s drought of centuries has extended over three years, and he has averaged just over 30 since then. If the pro-Jaffer selectors manage to convince the rest of their colleagues, the casualty will “most probably” be Gambhir.While Ajinkya Rahane set to be retained as the reserve batsmen, Ravindra Jadeja, who made a surprising debut at No. 6 in the Nagpur Test, could make way for either Suresh Raina or Rohit Sharma.In the spin department, R Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha are assured of leading the attack. It will again be a toss-up between Piyush Chawla, who played the last Test against England, and Harbhajan Singh for the reserve spinner’s slot.Although Harbhajan is on the verge of leading Rest of India to the Irani title, his performance with the ball hasn’t been compelling in the domestic season. His lack of “big-wicket hauls” may go against him though his outstanding record at home against Australia could prove “too difficult to ignore” for the selectors.With Zaheer Khan, Umesh Yadav and Irfan Pathan recovering from injuries, the selectors will have a tough task of finding their replacements; they may have to rely on the second string of pace bowlers. Though Ishant Sharma’s ankle pain recurred recently, he is expected to be available for the Test series.The contenders for the remaining two fast bowlers’ slots will include Sreesanth, who has recovered from multiple toe surgeries, Madhya Pradesh’s Ishwar Pandey, the highest wicket-taker in the Ranji Trophy season, Shami Ahmed and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, both of whom have impressed on their limited-overs’ debuts against England and Pakistan. Ashok Dinda and Parvinder Awana, both of whom were in the squad for the Nagpur Test, are “out of reckoning”.The selectors had dropped Zaheer, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan after losing the third Test against England.MS Dhoni and coach Duncan Fletcher are unlikely to attend the meeting, to be held at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai, and it is “almost unlikely” that the selectors will discuss replacing Dhoni as captain.Likely squad: MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir/ Wasim
Jaffer, M Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya
Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja/ Suresh Raina/ Rohit Sharma, R Ashwin, Pragyan
Ojha, Harbhajan Singh/ Piyush Chawla, Ishant Sharma, Sreesanth/ Shami
Ahmed, Ishwar Pandey/ Bhuvneshwar Kumar.February 9, 7.45pm GMT This story has been updated with information about the openers

Western Australia completed a stirring comeback victory over Tasmania on the final morning of the Sheffield Shield match at the WACA ground

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Feb-2013
Scorecard
Western Australia completed a stirring comeback victory over Tasmania on the final morning of the Sheffield Shield match at the WACA ground.The Warriors needed only a further six runs to win and they were polished off by the No. 10 Burt Cockley, playing his first Shield match for his adopted state after moving from New South Wales.Ashton Agar was at the other end, his unbeaten 71 pivotal to WA’s win after being bowled out for a mere 97 in the first innings.WA’s win keeps the within sight of the Shield leaders with two rounds remaining, but the Tigers’ bid to make a third consecutive final is now faltering.

Netherlands maintained their position at second place with a narrow one-wicket win over Namibia

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Apr-2013
ScorecardNetherlands’ last men hung on to secure a one-wicket victory over Namibia in Windhoek. Chasing 237, Netherlands were 22 for 1 before Wesley Barresi and Stephan Myburgh put on an 83-run stand for the second wicket. Daan van Bunge’s 60 helped further the cause once Barresi was dismissed for 58. Craig Williams picked up three crucial wickets for Namibia, those of Myburgh, Barresi and Tom Cooper, to halt the scoring midway through the innings. Netherlands slipped to 178 for 7 as the seemingly par target looked more difficult that it should have been. Mudassar Bukhari added 14, and Timm van der Gugten scored an unbeaten 11, as Netherlands’ last pair crossed the line with two overs to go.Namibia had been asked to bat and started with a century stand between openers Xander Pitchers and Raymond van Schoor. The pair put on 104 before Pitchers was run out by Myburgh. The next few batsmen did not contribute much to the cause, as they fell for single scores, but van Schoor continued to bat on. At 151 for 5 Netherlands smelled a chance of routing Namibia for a paltry score. It wasn’t until Nicolaas Scholtz came in that the pair could put together a healthy partnership of 85 runs. Scholtz scored an aggressive unbeaten 51 off 45 balls, while van Schoor made an unbeaten dogged 93. Namibia finished on 236 for 5 at the end of their 50 overs, Peter Borren was the pick of the Netherlands bowlers with 2 for 34.

Sussex have lost Australian John Hastings, from the Friends Life T20 tournament this season, because of an ankle operation.

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Mar-2013Sussex have lost John Hastings, the Australian overseas player signed for the Friends Life T20 tournament this season, because he is about to undergo surgery on an ankle injury.Hastings will undergo surgery in Melbourne next week to remove bone spurs on his left ankle. He will now focus on rehabilitation ahead of the 2013-14 season with the Victoria.A quality replacement will be difficult to find for Sussex – although the difficulty of attracting high-class players could be even more difficult next season when the counties revert to T20 on Friday nights for much of the summer.”There’s never a good time to get it done, but it’s pretty disappointing,” Hastings said. “I was in quite a bit of pain during the last three months of the season and it wasn’t allowing me to deliver my skillset like I would like.”Hastings was determined to see out the season, having missed the 2011/12 Victoria season because of shoulder surgery – and that has cost Sussex dear.He seemed an astute Sussex signing as he took 27 wickets at 24.51 including career-best figures of 5-30 and 7-87 against Western Australia in the Sheffield Shield this season, as well as scoring useful runs in the lower middle-order. He also finished third on the RYOBI One-Day Cup wicket-takers’ list with 15 at 25.46 and averaged 44 with the bat.Mark Robinson, Sussex’s professional cricket manager, said: “Obviously the news is really disappointing and it is a shame that Sussex supporters will not get to see John in action this season. We wish him a speedy recovery from his surgery and our attention now turns to finding a suitable replacement.”