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Adam Hollioake is unsure whether he will continue his cage-fighting career after his professional debut ended in a draw on Saturday

Peter English05-May-2012Adam Hollioake, the former England one-day captain, is unsure whether he will continue his cage-fighting career after his professional debut ended in a draw on Saturday.Hollioake, who played four Tests and 35 ODIs, was buzzing after his three-round mixed martial arts bout in Australia, claiming the high was greater than any moment in his 17-year cricket journey.However, he was left wishing he was fitter after running out of stamina towards the end of the nine-minute contest with Queensland’s Joel Miller.”In hindsight I would have taken a bit longer to prepare for this,” he said. “I made a silly mistake in the first round and that cost me. I won the second round and the third round was a non-event really.”The next combat steps depend on Hollioake’s wife Sherryn, who had a cage-side seat and wasn’t comfortable with the spectacle.”I’ll do what she says,” he said when asked if he’ll fight again.

Bangladesh A beat West Indies A in a thriller of a Twenty20 in Gros Islet

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Nov-2011
ScorecardBangladesh A beat West Indies A in a thriller of a Twenty20 in Gros Islet. Bangladesh were in all sorts of trouble chasing 104 but the lower order stood up and in the end it was the last-wicket pair who took them home with three balls to spare. Jamaican seamer Krishmar Santokie and Trinidadian legspinner Samuel Badree had wrecked Bangladesh’s top order, leaving them 34 for 6 in the eighth over of the chase. Mominul Haque and Farhad Reza began the fightback with a 45-run partnership but a strike each from medium-pacer Dwayne Smith and seamer Carlos Brathwaite put West Indies back on top.At that stage Bangladesh needed 20 to win with two wickets in hand and both Reza and Haque gone. They had four overs to get the runs, though, and No.9 Suhrawadi Shuvo and No. 10 Sohag Gazi took their time to put together a crucial 13-run partnership. The match swung again when Gazi was dismissed by Smith in the penultimate over with seven runs still to get but No. 11 Kamrul Islam Rabbi scored 5 off 4 balls to give Bangladesh A their first win of the tour.West Indies were left to rue not kicking on from the start Smith gave them after they were put in to bat. Smith scored 35 off 33 balls and West Indies had reached 54 for 2 by the 11th over. Nasir Hossain, the 19-year-old offspining allrounder who was recently handed a Test debut, took two wickets in as many balls to curb West Indies’ momentum. Jason Mohammed and Carlos Brathwaite made handy contributions but the rest of the batsmen failed and West Indies stumbled to 103 for 9 in their 20 overs. Hossain finished with 3 for 14.

Paul Collingwood, who was signed up by Rajasthan Royals for IPL 2011, has been ruled out of the tournament with injury

Tariq Engineer06-Apr-2011Rajasthan Royals have signed New Zealand allrounder Jacob Oram as a replacement for the injured Paul Collingwood. Oram has been signed for $250,000, which is what the franchise paid for Collingwood in the player auction in January. IPL rules preclude teams from signing replacement players at a higher value than the player they are replacing.Oram had an excellent World Cup with the ball, taking 12 wickets at an average of 18.41. His standout performance came in New Zealand’s upset victory over South Africa in the quarter-finals. In that game, he took 4 for 39 and pulled off a stunning catch to dismiss Jacques Kallis to earn the Man-of-the-Match award.”He [Oram] fits in that kind of slot like Collingwood, a middle-order batsman who bowls,” a franchise official told ESPNcricinfo. “And he really hits the ball hard. Also his recent performance in the World Cup was fantastic, especially in the quarter-finals against South Africa. It is not the main reason [we picked him], but it helps to have a player in form.”A few days ago Oram told that he was looking forward to a stint in the IPL, though he refused to divulge the name of the franchise he was negotiating with at the time. “I’m only a replacement for an injured guy, which is ironic, but I’m going to look forward to going over there and playing well, and who knows, maybe pick up a gig for next year and my career might just keep going on and on.”Collingwood is set to undergo surgery for a damaged cartilage in his right knee next week, and will not recover in time to participate in the tournament that begins on April 8.

After having been ignored for the World Cup, Ishant Sharma is itching to get back in to India’s limited-overs side, and is looking forward to making an impact in the IPL to launch his comeback

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Apr-2011After having been ignored from the Indian limited-overs’ side in recent times, Ishant Sharma is looking forward to making an impact in the IPL to launch his comeback. “Cricket is my passion and the hunger to be part of the best possible action is natural,” Ishant was quoted in the website of Deccan Chargers, who he will represent in the IPL this year. “There comes a time in every sportsperson’s life when one has to prove to oneself. I am probably going through that phase and would like to challenge myself in the upcoming IPL to win back my place in the Indian side.”Though he has been a regular member of the Test team, Ishant has not played an ODI since August 2009 and has proved to be expensive in the format, losing out to the likes of Praveen Kumar, Sreesanth and Munaf Patel. But Ishant has taken the setbacks in his stride.”Being in and out of sides is part and parcel of a sportsperson’s life and I’d like to take it on the chin,” he said. “I am just trying to forget the past and start afresh. Right now, the focus is on IPL and I want to give it my 100%. I will do my best for Hyderabad.”Despite having a Twenty20 economy rate close to eight runs an over, Ishant feels that the format is as much a challenge for the batsmen as it is for the bowlers. “You’ve got to go with your instincts, believe in your strong points and bowl to your strength rather than think about the batsmen’s plus points.”I have worked on and added variations to my bowling armoury and will hopefully execute them to good effect in the IPL. The slower ones, the yorkers are all key deliveries in this format and you have to use them judiciously. You’ve got to change your line and length constantly and plan every ball.”The margin of error for a fast bowler is minimal but I feel the key is to keep it simple. One has to be on top of the game and not complicate things. Zaheer Khan’s approach at the recently concluded World Cup is a case in point.”Deccan play their first game against Rajasthan Royals in Hyderabad on April 9.

Australia’s captain, Michael Clarke, hopes he will have some input into who replaces Tim Nielsen as the team’s coach

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Sep-2011Australia’s captain, Michael Clarke, hopes he will have some input into who replaces Tim Nielsen as the team’s coach. Clarke arrived back home in Sydney on Wednesday night after leading Australia to a 1-0 Test series victory in Sri Lanka, where Nielsen finished the tour by announcing his decision to step down from the coaching role.That means Australia will have an interim coach for next month’s tour of South Africa – probably one of the assistants, Steve Rixon or Justin Langer – while the search goes on for a full-time replacement. Clarke is believed to have a very high regard for his former New South Wales coach, Rixon, and while he did not name any preferred names, he said he hoped his opinions would be considered as Cricket Australia looked for their new man.”I hope I will [have some input],” Clarke said. “I have a really good relationship with James Sutherland, the CEO, and I’m pretty sure it is important the captain and coach have a strong bond. I would imagine I would have some sort of impact and I’ll be communicating with James over however long, to try and work out who they think the best person for the role is.”There’s a lot of successful coaches around the world, and I think the priority, as the review has made very clear, is they are going to try and get the best person for the job. I think Tim Nielsen has done an amazing job for Australia. He’s been fantastic for me, not only as a captain, but as a player and he’s certainly going to be missed.”Leading candidates to replace Nielsen will include Rixon, who has a successful track record having coached New Zealand as well as New South Wales, and Mickey Arthur, the former South Africa mentor. Arthur is preparing for his second season as coach of Western Australia.Nielsen’s resignation came after the release of the Argus review, which recommended a more wide-ranging brief for the head coach. Whoever gets the new job will not only guide the national team, he will also direct the coaching style that will filter down to state and academy level, and with Clarke will be one of Australia’s five-man selection panel.

Relegation-threatened Yorkshire stubbornly refused to buckle under pressurefrom County Championship title contenders Warwickshire at Edgbaston

Jon Culley at Edgbaston02-Sep-2011
Scorecard
Yorkshire may still be relegated one year after finishing only 11 points short of winning the County Championship but they are at least promising to make a fight of it. They closed day three with a lead of 282 after an unbroken partnership worth 149 between Gary Ballance and Adil Rashid swung the game potentially in their favour.It will leave stand-in captain Joe Sayers needing to make the right decision over when to declare but after the success his bowlers enjoyed with the second new ball in Warwickshire’s first innings he will at least do so with reasonable confidence that they can take 10 wickets, although with the obstacle of Shivnarine Chanderpaul in the home side’s armoury and not a lot in the pitch, much will depend on striking early blows.Ballance, in his fourth season with Yorkshire but a regular in the Championship side only this year, is eight runs away from his maiden century in the competition after a fine season in which he has passed 50 nine times. No century will have been better deserved.Although the Warwickshire bowlers have enjoyed better days, and certainly needed some inspiration once the ball had lost its hardness, neither Ballance nor Rashid offered a chance, the latter having completed his third half-century of the season. Given that they have no Jacques Rudolph nor Andrew Gale available, both of whom looked key to their avoiding the drop, Yorkshire can at least congratulate themselves on a plucky effort.Yet they know that nothing less than a win here will do, with only one match to follow. Worcestershire’s victory over Lancashire, while opening up the race for the title and ensuring that Warwickshire will want to chase runs as eagerly as Yorkshire pursue wickets, leaves Yorkshire 17 points from safety as things stand. Warwickshire overnight are level with Lancashire but with Durham threatening to overtake both. It promises to be an intriguing final day.In a fascinating third day, Yorkshire had been on top at lunch, leading by five runs and with all second innings wickets intact. But well though Joe Root and Anthony McGrath played in the afternoon, Warwickshire fought back strongly, with their on-loan pace bowler Chris Wright to the fore, and the content remained in the balance at tea.The first over of the middle session was particularly damaging for the relegation contenders, who lost Sayers to its third ball and Adam Lyth to the sixth as Wright, who had taken seven wickets against Yorkshire on his Warwickshire debut last week, gave his temporary employers more food for thought as they weigh up next season’s plans.The 26-year-old, tall and quick, is surplus to Essex’s requirements, having previously had three years at Middlesex without making a huge impression. Perhaps he is a late developer. Here he has proved a handful in several spells, particularly in the second innings.He had Sayers caught at slip pushing forward and did for Lyth in three deliveries, greeting the left-hander with a short ball that pinged off his helmet for four, keeping him on the back foot with his next one and then bowling a full one that pinned him leg before.The impressively composed, technically proficient Root, who looks on the evidence of his first full season to have a fine future, was joined by McGrath and the pair reclaimed the initiative for a while, adding 50 in a little under 15 overs. But after Chris Woakes, in what thus far had been one of his less impressive matches, had failed to make an impact, the young left-arm spinner, Chris Metters, found a gap in Root’s defences, trapping the opener with an arm ball as he played for turn.Metters took some punishment as McGrath and the naturally aggressive Jonny Bairstow tried to hit him out of the attack, Bairstow’s second scoring shot sailing over his head for six. But Jim Troughton stuck with the youngster and was rewarded when Bairstow made an ambitious attempt to clear the midwicket boundary and succeeded only in finding the man on the rope.McGrath completed only his second half-century of a poor, injury-hit season and had looked generally in good order, even though he gave a difficult chance to second slip off Keith Barker on 35, a rare miss by Rikki Clarke, whose four catches in the first innings took his tally to 35 for the season, which is a record for an outfield player since the Championship split into two divisions. The all-time record stands at 38.But when Wright returned at the pavilion end he was quick to claim a third victim and significantly it was McGrath, leg before playing back to one that kept a little low. As Yorkshire went to tea at 177 for 5, a lead of 140, Warwickshire just had the edge.The morning, though, had belonged to Yorkshire, who still had work to do at the resumption, even after the two blows struck by Ryan Sidebottom late on Thursday evening, the most important of which saw Chanderpaul depart for 110, had brought the day to a close with the scores level.There was potential still in Warwickshire’s talented lower order to establish a decent lead but the Yorkshire bowlers continued to use the new ball to good effect and would have been highly satisfied to collect full bowling bonus points and restrict the home side to an advantage of just 37. Indeed, after Sidebottom had given Yorkshire another major boost when Tim Ambrose sliced a drive to gully for 62, it took the visitors only a little over 10 more overs to finish the innings.Moin Ashraf, the 19-year-old quick bowler whose opportunities have been limited this season, produced a fine lifting delivery that had Woakes taken behind the stumps and then benefited from Barker aiming a swish at pretty poor one and getting himself caught behind down the leg side.Warwickshire by now had at least claimed the third batting point to draw level with Lancashire at the top of the table but ran out of batsmen when Clarke played across the line trying to whip Ajmal Shahzad through midwicket and was leg before. The second new ball had thus taken six wickets in the space of 16 overs for 46. Sidebottom, who took his last three in 18 deliveries, collected his second five-wicket haul since rejoining Yorkshire.Reaching lunch with the arrears cancelled and no losses to Warwickshire’s first probings with the new ball came as a further bonus. And while the afternoon was edged by the home side, the way the evening unfolded has set things up nicely for an exciting conclusion.

A round-up of the action from the final day of the Emerging Players Tournament

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Aug-2011A battling century from captain Ryan Carters helped Australian Institute of Sport force a draw against India Emerging Players at Endeavour Park No.2 in Townsville. However, India finished on top in the points table, thereby capping a successful series for them – they were also victorious in the Twenty20 tournament that preceded the three-day games.Australia ended the second day at 93 for 2, still 236 runs adrift of India. Carters, who was unbeaten overnight on 56, continued to look solid. He and Glenn Maxwell had added 65 before stumps on day two, and they carried on the good work on the final day, adding a further 55 before Maxwell was dismissed for 73. Any hopes that India might have had of causing a collapse were dented as Tim Armstrong joined his captain and the duo put on 87 for the fourth wicket. Carters was finally dismissed for 115, but Armstrong (75) featured in handy partnerships for the fifth and sixth wickets to deny India a win, as Australia ended the day on 328 for 7.Reeza Hendricks completed his double-century and Richard Levi reached a century but South Africa Emerging Players were not left with enough time to bowl New Zealand A out at Endeavour Park in Townsville. South Africa’s only hope of notching up their first win of the three-day leg of the tournament was to score quickly on the final day and then hope for a New Zealand collapse. But Hendricks and Levi took their time, and South Africa used up 54.2 overs in the day to get 177 runs, which put them 169 runs ahead. New Zealand lost two wickets in the 34 overs they had to bat.Hendricks’ 218 was his second double-century of the tournament and his 566-run aggregate earned him the Batsman-of-the-Tournament as well as the Player-of the-Tournament awards. India’s Iqbal Abdulla was named Bowler of the Tournament for his nine wickets.

Australia have rested the senior trio of Ricky Ponting, Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson for the one-dayers against India later this month

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Oct-2010Australia have rested the senior trio of Ricky Ponting, Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson for the one-dayers against India later this month. In Ponting’s absence, Michael Clarke will lead a side that includes South Australia batsman Callum Ferguson, who has made a comeback after a year on the sidelines due to a knee injury.Injuries to Shaun Tait and Ryan Harris mean Doug Bollinger will spearhead an inexperienced fast bowling unit that includes Clint McKay (12 matches), and the uncapped pair of Mitchell Starc and James Pattinson.Queensland’s James Hopes and New South Wales’ Steve Smith will vie for the allrounder’s spot, and big-hitting opening batsman David Warner makes a return to the one-day squad. There was no place for either wicketkeeper Brad Haddin or fast bowler Peter Siddle, both of whom are recovering from injuries and the selectors felt it was too premature to risk them in international cricket.”Ricky faces a very demanding domestic summer on his return to Australia,” Andrew Hilditch, Australia’s chief selector, said, “and will have no other opportunity for a break from the start of the domestic season until after the much-awaited World Cup.”Hilditch gave similar explanations for leaving out Watson and Johnson. “It is essential to the balance of our side that Shane can open the batting and play the all-round role. we have decided the best way of ensuring he can play this role is for him to miss the one-day component of this series,” he said. “Mitchell is now the leader of our bowling attack, and with numerous injuries to our fast bowling stocks at present, it is essential we manage his workload so he can get through the domestic summer and the ICC Cricket World Cup.”The three-ODI series is from October 17-24.Squad: Michael Clarke (capt), Cameron White, Doug Bollinger, Callum Ferguson, Nathan Hauritz, James Hopes, Mike Hussey, Shaun Marsh, Clint McKay, Tim Paine (wk), James Pattinson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner

Tom Westley and Jaik Mickleburgh put together Essex’s first opening century partnership of the season against Leicestershire at Chelmsford to finish on 161 without loss

01-Aug-2012
ScorecardTom Westley and Jaik Mickleburgh put together Essex’s first century opening partnership of the season as they reached the close of a rain-affected opening day in their Division Two match against Leicestershire at Chelmsford on 161 without loss.Only 57 overs were possible, with the afternoon session limited to 8.3 overs. Mickleburgh, appearing in only his third Championship match of the season, was first to his half-century, reaching that landmark with an on-driven six at the expense of left-arm spinner Claude Henderson.In the bowler’s next over, Westley swept the ball to the square-leg boundary rope to take the total into three figures, and soon after collected a single that took his own contribution to 50.At that stage, he had faced 126 deliveries and struck half-a-dozen boundaries but he was a little fortunate immediately afterwards when an attempted pull fell just short of diving wicket-keeper Paul Dixey.Westley once again showed his liking for the Leicestershire attack having recorded 81 – his highest Championship score of the season thus far – when the teams met earlier in the campaign at Grace Road.With another 39 overs lost to the weather, Essex have now lost 1,576 overs in the County Championship so far this season. Twelve days have been completely washed out.

Tottenham Hotspur have been dealt an injury blow ahead of their Premier League clash with Liverpool on Saturday night.

What’s the latest?

Speaking in his pre-match press conference (via football.london), Antonio Conte confirmed that Sergio Reguilon, who missed the win over Leicester City last weekend due to a groin injury, is once again unavailable for selection this evening.

The 52-year-old went on to state that, with just two weeks remaining in the current Premier League campaign, the left-back may well be ruled out for the rest of the season as a result of his latest knock.

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Regarding the current condition of the 25-year-old, Conte said: “Sergio Reguilon is not available. He hasn’t had a training session with us. Honestly, I don’t know, it’s only two weeks until the end of the season and I’m not sure if he’ll be back.”

Conte will be fuming

While it is true that Reguilon has not enjoyed the best campaign of his career, the fact that the Spain international could be set to miss the remainder of the season due to injury is nevertheless sure to have left Conte fuming.

Indeed, although the full-back has often left a lot to be desired from his performances in 2021/22, he has still been a solid option for the Italian over his 25 Premier League appearances this term. The £25.2m-rated defender has scored two goals, provided three assists and created five big chances for his team-mates, along with taking 0.8 shots, making 1.2 key passes and completing 0.8 dribbles per game.

The £53k-per-week Spaniard has also been sturdy at the back, helping his side to keep six clean sheets, in addition to making 1.2 interceptions, 1.6 tackles and 1.6 clearances and winning 4.6 duels (at a success rate of 52%) per match.

These returns have seen the former Real Madrid starlet average a SofaScore match rating of 6.92, ranking him as Spurs’ 12th-best performer in the English top flight.

As such, with the top four race looking as if it will go down to the wire, and Conte’s other left wing-back option Ryan Sessegnon having suffered numerous injuries of his own this season, the fact that Reguilon is unavailable for a fixture as important as the trip to Liverpool tonight – and potentially the remainder of the campaign – is undoubtedly a huge blow for the 52-year-old and his team.

Indeed, with Tottenham very much in need of a result at Anfield – and in their further three league outings – if they are to have any hope of securing Champions League football next season, Conte will need as many of his first-team regulars fit and firing as possible in order to give themselves the best chance of sealing a top-four spot.

AND in other news – “Expect to see”: Eccleshare drops £145m Spurs summer claim, supporters will be buzzing