Tag Futebol

Dhoni also hails the performance of seamers despite CSK suffering an early exit

ESPNcricinfo staff12-May-20222:54

Manjrekar: There’s more to Mukesh Choudhary than just swing

Coming into Thursday night’s game against Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, in all their seasons of the IPL, had never been bowled out for below 100 while batting first. All good runs have to come to an end, however, and Super Kings crumbled to 97 all out in conditions at the Wankhede Stadium where the ball swung right through the first 10 overs of their innings.Super Kings lost the match, as expected, with 31 balls remaining, but they still had positives to take out of it, with their new-ball combination of Mukesh Choudhary and Simarjeet Singh bowling their eight overs in one go and reducing Mumbai to 33 for 4 at one stage.Choudhary picked up 3 for 23, all his wickets the product of the left-armer’s traditional mode of inswing to the right-hander and outswing to the left-hander. Simarjeet finished with 1 for 22, finding Rohit Sharma’s outside edge with a good-length ball that left him late.Related

• Sams, Meredith lead rout of Chennai Super Kings

• 'I couldn't take my eyes off Rohit Sharma' – Kumar Kartikeya Singh lives the IPL dream

• Ian Bishop: Kieron Pollard has to reinvent his game

MS Dhoni, the Super Kings captain, was full of praise for his new-ball pairing during his post-match interview with .”Irrespective of how the wicket is, anything below 130 is very difficult to defend, but still, what I asked the bowlers was to show a lot of character, put the opposition under pressure, forget about the result, and I feel both the youngsters, both the fast bowlers, they bowled really well,” he said. “So as far as their contribution is concerned, I feel a game like this really helps them. They start believing in themselves by saying, okay, irrespective of the conditions, whenever we start, we need to have the same kind of attitude, and that’s what is needed in the shortest format.”Super Kings’ hopes for IPL 2022 were dealt a major blow even before the season began, with Deepak Chahar – whom they spent INR 14 crore (USD 1.84 million approx) to reacquire at the auction – picking up a back injury that eventually ruled him out of the competition. The prospect of calling on all three of Chahar, Choudhary and Simarjeet next season is one that enthuses Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming.”I thought the new-ball bowling of Simarjeet and Mukesh was outstanding,” he said at his post-match press conference. “They’ve been developing – Mukesh all the way through the season, so for him to now feel confident enough to bowl a spell like that, and Simarjeet’s only three games in, four games in, so they’ve made real gains, so that’s a positive. So with Deepak Chahar to come back into the side, there’s some good options with the new ball.”9:41

Mute Me: Is Umran Malik ready to play for India?

Fleming was heartened that Choudhary and Simarjeet had delivered their new-ball performances in a difficult situation for Super Kings.”Yeah, I thought it was really impressive,” he said. “We could have folded, but they really gave us an opportunity, and both of them bowled well. Mukesh in particular had the ball really swinging well, and Simarjeet’s got some deceptive pace.”So we’re really positive about that pairing going forward. It was just disappointing that we didn’t have more runs to play with, but out of that, out of the ashes, came those two. So it was a good way to look at it.”Choudhary and Simarjeet are among a line of young Indian fast bowlers who have impressed during this IPL season; Umran Malik, Mohsin Khan, Yash Dayal, Kuldeep Sen and Arshdeep Singh are five other uncapped seamers who have caught the eye.”It’s good to have them,” Dhoni said. “We have gone through periods when we never had real extraordinary bench strength of fast bowlers, and also what happens is, with fast bowlers, they take their time to mature. If you are lucky you get somebody who in six months’ time can feature in all the different formats, whether it’s Test cricket, one-day or T20, and I feel that’s what IPL is doing.”It’s an opportunity for them, and a lot of them, they have become slightly more bold, a bit more courageous which I feel is important in a format like this. They want to take the opposition head-on, and that has been the difference. Yet, you see a few who are not those types, who shy away a bit initially, but as they play more games, they get more and more confident and they are able to execute their plans better.”

The Renegades remain stuck at the bottom despite Shaun Marsh’s 87

Andrew McGlashan01-Jan-2021The Melbourne Renegades remained at the bottom of the BBL table as a strong performance from the Sydney Thunder top order took them to a rain-curtailed seven-run victory on the Gold Coast, their fifth in a row to put them at the top of the ladder, on an evening interrupted and ultimately ended by rain.A power-packed start by Alex Hales put the Thunder well ahead of the rate in what looked a demanding chase of 173 after Shaun Marsh’s 87 had anchored the Renegades’ innings either side of the first rain interruption. He fell to one of the catches of the tournament – and certainly the catch of the year so far – from MacKenzie Harvey, but the innings was then kept on course by the cool head of Usman Khawaja.Alex Hales and Usman Khawaja’s attacking knocks secured a win for the Sydney Thunder•Getty Images

Both sides were hampered by a wet ball at stages, but the Renegades needed the game to go the distance having fallen behind on the DLS due to Hales’ onslaught. Despite narrowing the gap somewhat, they were unable to take the wicket that could have made the difference. Captain Aaron Finch gambled by holding his senior seamer Kane Richardson back, as the rain fell with a view to using him in the Power Surge over and the death.Khawaja guiding hand
Khawaja was impressive both on the field and during the rain break. Having been content to watch Hales do his stuff at the other end – he made 5 off 7 balls in their 52-run opening stand that came in four overs – he was then taking charge of the latter part of the chase when the asking rate had nudged back above ten an over following some good work by the spinners. He took consecutive boundaries off Imad Wasim in the tenth over to give the Thunder even more breathing space on the DLS and dispatched Will Sutherland over mid-on moments before the rain got too heavy.Meanwhile, during the first break for rain, Khawaja had given an illuminating interview to the host broadcaster about dealing with the pressures of professional cricket and lessons he has learnt during his lengthy career. There is a long future for him around the game when he does finally put the bat away,Perry’s debut over, Harvey’s worldie
It was a daunting prospect for 20-year-old Mitchell Perry to start his BBL career bowling to an already-set Hales. Sending down a length perfectly in Hales’ arc, he was treated with disdain for five deliveries including two sixes over long-on. Aiming for a wide yorker with the last delivery, he sent down a big full toss outside off stump which again flew off Hales’ bat, but a split second later it was intercepted by a flying Harvey – nephew of former Australia allrounder Ian Harvey – another of the Renegades’ youngsters who is lauded as one of the best fielders in the game.There was a look of giddy astonishment on everyone’s face, not least Perry. On the first day of 2021, it certainly set a high bar in the catch-of-the-year race. However, there were suggestions the delivery should have been checked for a front-foot no-ball.Marsh’s efforts in vain again
For the second game running, a well-constructed innings from Marsh ended on the losing side. His 87 off 48 balls included five sixes – his half-century coming from 29 deliveries – and he was able to find his stride again after the rain break as the Renegades added 67 off the final five overs of the innings. Finch said the team’s plan was to come out very aggressively and he set that tone himself, but at 3 for 58 in the seventh over, it could have gone wrong.Marsh and Mohammad Nabi added 90 in nine overs to propel the innings forward, Nabi overcoming a sluggish start where he was 4 off 14 balls to finish on 33 off 24, but the Renegades’ season is still threatening to go the same way as the last one.

Next year’s edition will be the fourth time Bangladesh women will participate in the T20 World Cup after 2014, 2016 and 2018

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Sep-2019Thailand women made history on Thursday by qualifying for their maiden Women’s T20 World Cup, to be played in Australia next year. They did so with an emphatic eight-wicket win by chasing 68 against Papua New Guinea in Dundee, where Thailand dominated the game with an all-round display that saw a frugal bowling performance, two run-outs and a convincing batting show.Thailand’s feat was achieved in the 18th over with 15 balls to spare when left-handed Nattaya Boochatham flicked a full toss from medium-pacer Ravina Oa to midwicket where a fumble helped the batsmen complete a quick single. As soon as Boochatham and her partner Nannapat Koncharoenkai completed the winning run, their team-mates burst on to the ground, some with arms raised, some running joyously towards the pitch, and eventually all of them huddled around the two unbeaten batsmen. After the necessary handshakes with their opponents and match officials, the entire team came together once again to form a line and thank the crowd with their hands pressed together and a slight bow, before breaking out into wilder celebrations.Thailand’s journey to the 2020 T20 World Cup first saw them winning the seven-team T20 World Cup Asia Region Qualifier at home in February this year, which was part of a 17-match winning streak in T20Is from July 2018 to August 2019 that saw them qualify for the main qualifiers in Scotland. In this tournament, they topped Group B with three wins out of as many matches to set up semi-final clash with PNG. The winners of the two semi-finals were to qualify for the T20 World Cup and Thailand did so along with Bangladesh, who beat Ireland earlier in the day.Thailand’s chase was led by No. 3 Naruemol Chaiwai, who scored 32 runs out of their total of 68. She scored briskly in the two substantial partnerships for Thailand, of 31 and 33. Thailand were only four runs away from the historic moment when Chaiwai lobbed a simple catch to mid-off in the 16th over, before Boochatham scored the winning runs nine balls later. Chaiwai struck two fours whereas her opening partner Nattakan Chantam scored three during her 31-ball 18. PNG used as many as seven bowlers but their total wasn’t big enough to provide a fight.PNG had opted to bat but their battling line-up stuttered to 27 for 4 in the tenth over and then 46 for 6 in the 16th. Only three batsmen, including opener Sibona Jimmy, were able to score in double-digits as their biggest partnership could put together only 16 runs, for the seventh wicket. Kaia Arua’s unbeaten 16 stretched the score past 50 with Chanida Sutthiruang’s medium-pace fetching her two wickets, and two run-outs denting PNG further. Sutthiruang is the tournament’s leading wicket-taker so far with an impressive tally of 12 from four innings, averaging only 3.91 and conceding 3.52 runs per over.In the end, Thailand won their fourth straight match and made history by chasing down a total for the first time in the tournament.ACC

Bangladesh sealed their berth for the T20 World Cup, with a four-wicket win against Ireland in the first semi-final of the Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifiers in Dundee. Next year’s edition will be the fourth time Bangladesh women will participate in the T20 World Cup after 2014, 2016 and 2018.Bangladesh chased down their target of 86 with nine balls to spare after bowling out Ireland for 85 in 20 overs. Ireland couldn’t build much on their decision to bat as their top three batsmen scored only eight runs in all. Jahanara Alam, Nahida Akter and Salma Khatun made the early strikes. Captain Laura Delany steered the innings after they were reduced to 44 for 5. Delany’s innings of 25 and her partnership of 30 for the sixth wicket with the experienced Eimear Richardson, who struck a quick 25 off 17, helped Ireland along but legspinner Fahima Khatun dismissed both of them within the space of three balls in the 18th over. From 75 for 7, Ireland managed another ten runs in the last two overs as Fahima struck again to finish with 3 for 18.Bangladesh were also led by their No. 4, Sanjida Islam, whose unbeaten 32 off 37 balls saw them home. They were given a scare when they were 30 for 4 in the ninth over before Sanjida and Ritu Moni stitched together a stand of 38 runs for the fifth wicket. Bangladesh lost two wickets to run-outs from there but Sanjida sealed their win.

From dropped catches to blinders, from 2 for 2 to completing a record chase; Pakistan were at their most mercurial, but they had a match-winner with an appetite for the big occasion

Liam Brickhill08-Jul-2018″Muscled” is a term that might be applied quite liberally to Australia’s approach to T20 batting. They huff and puff and heave and swing at the ball as if they mean to rip the leather clean off it. Slightly built and a shade under six feet tall, Fakhar Zaman doesn’t have the hardware to follow the same method. Pakistan’s free-wheeling opener’s game instead marries hand and eye and has made him the leading run-scorer in T20I cricket this year, with 516 runs in 13 innings capped by a career-best 91 when it really mattered against Australia in the tri-series final.”I think nowadays he’s in the best form of his life,” reckoned Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed. “The way he’s batted throughout the series has been good for us and good for his career. If he keeps playing like this, he’s only going up and up.”It’s not just how Fakhar’s been scoring his runs, but also when. His century in the Champions Trophy final last year is an obvious case in point for big match temperament, and his innings in the tri-series final will only enhance that reputation.”Yes, he’s definitely [a big-match player],” said Sarfraz. “He performs in big games, consistently. Like the Champions Trophy, in the final, he got that hundred. In New Zealand, he scored a fifty and then a 40-odd (in successive T20Is, to help Pakistan come from 1-0 down to win the three-match series). He’s a big-game player and he’s getting better day by day.”His innings against Australia was all the more remarkable considering the early strife Pakistan were in. Flummoxed by Glenn Maxwell in the first over, they were 2 for 2 needing almost 10 an over pretty much as soon as their innings began. That’s a position most other teams would be unable to rise from, but an hour later Pakistan’s fans at the ground (and a few hundred turned up to support them) were singing “” and “” as their team improbably, inexplicably romped home. Pakistan can drop Aaron Finch first ball, concede 10 an over for the first 10 overs and then surge back into the game with eight wickets in the next 10. They can be 2 for 2, and then complete a record run chase with five balls to spare. It’s become an obvious cliche, but Pakistan remain an absorbingly mercurial team.”We know they’re an emotional team, and they’re a highly skilled team,” Australia captain Finch said. “When they’re on, they’re incredibly good. We let them back into the game with bat and ball today. We had a chance to get up around that 200 mark and almost put the game to bed after that start with the ball. To chase 10 or 11 an over for 18 or 19 overs is incredibly hard. So if we’d had a few more runs, if we’d squeezed a little more with the ball early on and made them take risks. They didn’t have to take too many risks to get boundaries early on.”Fakhar’s batting wasn’t entirely risk free, but his aggressive strokes came in a calculated manner. In that regard, he’s not entirely dissimilar to his current batting coach Grant Flower, who came close to mastering the delicate risk/reward balance with his own batting, particularly towards the end of his career. Flower and Fakhar have certainly spent enough time together in the nets. Flower has been Pakistan’s batting coach for four years now, which is enough time for the famously committed former Zimbabwe batsman to have sent down tens of thousands of throwdowns.”He works really hard with the boys,” Sarfraz said of Flower. “He’s worked very hard for the last four years. He’s always in the nets.” Whatever he’s doing, it’s working for Fakhar, who has also looked to learn from the old heads around him in the playing XI.”In the start in T20 cricket I was hitting every ball in my striking zone, and after playing eight to 10 games I sat with some senior players like Shoaib Malik and Sarfraz Ahmed, and spoke about my gameplans with them,” Fakhar had said after Pakistan’s previous match. “I realised that I could play proper cricket shots and be successful, and that’s what I’ve been doing recently.”Fakhar has certainly made an impression on the Australians. Finch called him “a thorn in our side” earlier this week, today adding: “We’ve all seen the form that Fakhar has been in. We saw with Shoaib Malik there, towards the end, if you have a batter who’s in, they can control the game, they control the strike.”Capped by Fakhar’s career-best 91 and Malik’s masterclass, Pakistan had veered between ordinary to extraordinary all morning. Shadab Khan dropped a sitter at point and then pulled off a one-handed blinder at mid-off. Hasan Ali’s massive, ballooning no-ball didn’t even bounce before it landed in Sarfraz’ gloves, leaving Pakistan’s captain – finally – lost for words. Two balls later, Hasan shattered Ashton Agar’s stumps, brilliance and farce bookending the over.Whether it’s letting the opposition sprint to 95 for 0, or slipping to 2 for 2 at the start of a record chase, Pakistan are the sort of team who get themselves into these situations. But they’re also the sort of team that can get themselves out of them. “You can’t take anything for granted against the number one team in the world,” said Finch. “Or any international team.” But especially if that team is Pakistan.

Pakistan, by virtue of a resolute 155-run opening partnership, and some sloppy work from West Indies, assumed control of the Bridgetown Test

The Report by Danyal Rasool01-May-2017
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details2:02

‘We were very sloppy between lunch and tea’ – Estwick

There was no knockout punch today, more gradual asphyxiation. As genuine moments of excitement and drama came few and far between, Pakistan, quietly and ruthlessly, wrapped the West Indies in a bear-hug and slowly squeezed the life out of them. There was some exceptionally generous bowling – Ahmed Shehzad made 70, having been gifted three lives – but Pakistan were efficient enough to capitalise on those mistakes, and end day two in a commanding position.West Indies eventually perked up halfway into final session, taking three wickets for six runs to send Azhar Ali and Misbah-ul-Haq back into their shell. But with an opening batsman not out on 81, alongside a captain who loves a firefight, there was a lot of work left to do for Jason Holder’s men.For now, though, they can be relieved they were even able to take wickets. Devendra Bishoo extracted an outside edge from Shehzad to have him caught at slip with the score at 155. The Pakistan batsman had enjoyed a charmed life; he had a catch dropped as early as the third over, and was dismissed twice off deliveries that turned out to be no-balls. Shannon Gabriel was the first culprit, Roston Chase was the other. Shehzad made the most of it, but the question of whether he has returned to form is very much up for debate. He went through periods in his innings where run-scoring almost screeched to a halt; at one point, he made three off 59 balls.West Indies were buoyant when they followed up Shehzad’s wicket with those of Babar Azam and Younis Khan, the heir-apparent and the master. You would have to search far and wide to find a Younis dismissal off a poorer delivery than the one that felled him for a duck in Bridgetown. Bishoo bowled a classic long hop, and the batsman gave it the whack it was begging for, only he picked out short midwicket. Azhar and Misbah then went into power down mode, scoring 11 runs off their 58-ball partnership, ensuring there was no further damage.The day had begun with a couple of West Indian wickets that were mirror images of each other. Holder attempted leave when a shot should have been played, and Chase attempted a shot when the ball was better off being left. But the effect of their dismissals was the same; it wrenched all the momentum the home side had built up over a painstaking 132-run partnership, putting them back to the place they are so dreadfully familiar with: square one.Ahmed Shehzad enjoyed three lives. He was dropped on three, lbw to a no-ball on 21 and stumped off another no-ball on 32•AFP

A breezy partnership between Alzarri Joseph and Bishoo ensured the West Indies made it past 300 but the optimism with which they had begun the day had long since evaporated. Mohammad Abbas – the most successful bowler today – got rid of Bishoo soon after. Yasir Shah cleaned up Joseph next over, and West Indies found themselves shot out for 312.The Pakistan openers then consolidated their position of strength, although the cricket they played to get there fell some way short of attractive. Azhar and Shehzad combined for a century partnership, buying themselves precious time after coming in for sharp criticism for their lack of runs in the first Test. Some of their watchfulness was down to disciplined bowling from the West Indian quicks, although it was noteworthy that the sustained pressure never really felt like spilling over into a wicket.The hosts could have done better to exploit a rapidly wearing pitch. There were balls that Azhar and Shehzad had to dig out from ankle-height, while the footmarks outside the off stump gave wings to the offbreaks pitching into them. The abrasiveness of the surface impacted the ball too, scuffing it up so badly that it had to be changed twice. Even so, Pakistan found ways to hang on, and though it wasn’t always pretty, it certainly was pretty effective.

Keaton Jennings became the third Durham batsmen to make two hundreds in the same match and set Durham on course for victory against Somerset

Paul Edwards at Chester-le-Street11-Apr-2016
ScorecardKeaton Jennings became the third Durham batsmen to score two hundreds in the same match•PA Photos

The second day of this match dawned cool and heavily clouded, conditions which were unlikely to buck up Somerset skipper Chris Rogers as he made his way down to breakfast. Still 226 runs in arrears and with both openers having been dismissed on Sunday evening, Rogers knew that his batsmen would have to resist the many skills of Chris Rushworth and Graham Onions if they were to achieve parity on first innings. That task is generally difficult enough, even without the hindrance of seamers’ gloom.So it must have been devilishly irritating to Somerset’s skipper that his team were bowled out for 179, thus conceding a 77-run lead as much because of their own carelessness and misjudgements as the bowlers’ excellence. Also galling, perhaps, was that Somerset subsided as conditions for batting rapidly improved, albeit that the morning shadows were pale, evanescent things when set beside Sunday’s sharp images.Some Somerset bats might have been playing shots at shadows on Monday morning and
by close of play the home side’s lead had been extended to 300 with Keaton Jennings having become the third Durham batsman after Dean Jones and Paul Collingwood to score two hundreds in a first-class match. Jennings, who is newly qualified to play for England but hardly likely to do so very soon, reached his century off 163 balls with a drive through midwicket off Roelof van der Merwe three overs before play ended. It is a remarkable achievement for a player who was dropped for the last six games of the 2015 Championship season having scored just 473 in 20 innings.In contrast to his batting on Sunday, Jennings batted with considerable freedom on the second afternoon of his game. He helped Mark Stoneman put on 74 for the first wicket in just less than 13 overs as Somerset’s new-ball attack fell apart. Jennings then reined in his more aggressive instincts a little as he lost three partners in 49 balls but Collingwood was with him when he reached his century in 38 fewer balls than he had needed on Sunday. The pair’s unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 72 in only 14 overs firmly reminded everyone at a floodlit Riverside where the balance of this match lay.More significantly than any personal achievement, Jennings gives a side a few were tipping for relegation a wonderful chance of beginning their campaign with a victory. By the same reasoning it seems clear at the midpoint of this game that unless Rogers and his batsmen outdo Leonidas and the Greeks in the First Test at Thermopylae, Somerset will begin their season with a defeat. Rogers’ men may, of course, be saved by the weather but they would be deceiving themselves if they thought that a draw currently represented parity.Yet for the first 40 minutes of the day, Rogers and Hildreth had resisted Rushworth and Onions very stoutly, adding 43 runs to the total and only rarely being defeated. Whenever Rogers drove unwisely or played and missed, he jerked his head back in savage self-reproof and took a penitential walk to square leg. Hildreth looked in even less trouble until, as he seems annoyingly prone to do in the thirties, he edged a catch to the slips, Ryan Pringle pouching the chance off Onions. Jim Allenby’s first ball was straight and on a good length; it needed to be hit, not to be played with a hopeful half-stride forward, the pad doing most of the work and the bat alongside, as if in comradely solidarity. The latter, though, was what Allenby attempted and Rob Bailey sent him on his way. 79 for 5.A quarter of an hour later two more wickets fell to consecutive deliveries and the second of them probably marked a pivotal moment in this game. First van der Merwe drove wildly at Onions but only inside edged the ball to Michael Richardson. Then Peter Trego cover-drove his first ball straight to Mark Stoneman in the ring and called Rogers for a single. Stoneman’s throw took out the middle stump with Rogers still stretching for the crease. The Somerset skipper departed for 23 with a glance at his former partner; perhaps he was speculating as to the nature of life on planet Trego. 85 for 7.The rest of the innings sought to staunch a deep wound with sticking plasters. Trego, hardly in the manner of a sinner seeking atonement, made 45 off 57 balls and added 66 for the eighth wicket with Lewis Gregory. But 20-year-old Brydon Carse marked his Championship debut by dismissing two of the last three batsmen and Durham’s 77-run lead already seemed substantial in the context of the game.

Yuvraj Singh has made a comeback to India’s limited-overs squad for the Twenty20 and first three ODIs of the home series against Australia

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Sep-2013

India squad for T20 and first three ODIs

MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Vinay Kumar, Amit Mishra, Ambati Rayudu, Mohammed Shami, Jaydev Unadkat
Out from Champions Trophy: Umesh Yadav, Dinesh Karthik, M Vijay, Irfan Pathan
In from Champions Trophy: Yuvraj Singh, Ambati Rayudu, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammed Shami

Yuvraj Singh has made a comeback to India’s limited-overs squad for the Twenty20 and first three ODIs of the home series against Australia. There were four changes made to India’s last first-choice ODI squad, the one that won the Champions Trophy in England. Yuvraj replaced opener M Vijay, Dinesh Karthik lost out to his Mumbai Indians team-mate Ambati Rayudu, the injured Irfan Pathan made way for Mohammed Shami, and Jaydev Unadkat’s left-arm seam was preferred to Umesh Yadav’s erratic-at-times pace.”I am happy the selectors have reposed faith in me. Now, I have to deliver,” Yuvraj told , after news of his selection broke. “My footwork and timing are alright. The bat swing is in order as well. That is why I got runs against the West Indies and New Zealand A teams. That gave me confidence. Now, I have to capitalise on the opportunity.”Yuvraj’s last ODI was against England in Dharamsala in January 2013. He was dropped from the squad for the Champions Trophy and did not feature in the Zimbabwe series either, when India had rested several first-choice players. However, following a fitness programme in France, he has shown a return to top form in List A cricket. He was the leading run-getter for India A in the limited-overs series against the touring West Indies A, with 224 runs from three matches, including one hundred and a fifty at an average of 74.66. He also scored a half-century for India Blue in the Challenger Trophy, a domestic 50-overs tournament.A fit Yuvraj is seen as a bigger asset than Karthik. Karthik had a decent run in England and in Zimbabwe, but he failed to reach 50 in the tri-series in the West Indies. In effect, Karthik has lost out to Rayudu, who scored 101 runs off 163 balls at an average of 50.5 against Zimbabwe.Two other changes from the Champions Trophy squad mostly explain themselves. Vijay struggled in the West Indies, and Irfan is injured. Yadav, though, remains a curious case. He cannot have been considered unfit because he played the Challenger Trophy last week. He cannot have been rested because he is just coming out of a break. The selectors have either begun to look at him as a Test-only prospect or it was his performance in the Champions Trophy that has got him the axe: four wickets and an economy rate of 5.55 in a mostly low-scoring tournament. His economy rate in the West Indies tri-series hovered around the same mark. His career economy rate also stands at over six, and an average of 41.58 doesn’t do him any favours.The seam-bowling replacements, Shami and Unadkat, played all the five ODIs in Zimbabwe, and have been retained. Mohit, who played two of them and was Man of the Match in the first of them, was expected to replace Vinay Kumar, but the Karnataka quick has retained his place. Vinay went at 6.03 in the recently concluded Challenger Trophy, although he did pick up eight wickets in three matches.Batsmen Karthik, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, seamer Mohit and spinner Parvez Rasool missed out from the team that played Zimbabwe.

ESPNcricinfo’s preview of the third ODI between Pakistan and Australia in Sharjah

The Preview by Brydon Coverdale03-Sep-2012

Match facts

Saeed Ajmal has taken 7 for 62 from 20 overs so far in this series•AFP

September 3-4, 2012
Start time 1800 (1400 GMT)

Big Picture

Pakistan and Australia return to Sharjah for the third one-day international, which has become the series decider after Australia took the first match and Pakistan won the second. For Pakistan, this is a chance to end a decade-long era without a one-day series win over Australia. Last time they beat Australia was in 2002 and it was also the last time Pakistan came back from losing the first match in a three-game series to win. They will rely heavily on Saeed Ajmal, who has caused real problems for Australia’s batsmen in the first two games and has taken seven of the 15 wickets collected by Pakistan bowlers so far, at the remarkable average of 8.85. The Australians will consider attacking Ajmal more in this game, but if they continue to misread his doosra it may make little difference.Australia need more runs from their openers, Matthew Wade and David Warner, and they might be keen to take a more aggressive approach after Warner took 19 balls to get off the mark in the second game. They also need to work out the best make-up of their attack should Mitchell Starc be ruled out due to injury after he left the field late in the second match. Choosing a frontline spinner, Xavier Doherty, would not be a bad option, although if they end up bowling second and find the conditions as dewy as they were on Friday in Abu Dhabi, it might not matter. Both matches have been won by the team chasing and Michael Clarke is unlikely to make the mistake of batting first again should he win the toss.

Form guide (Complete matches, most recent first)

Pakistan WLLLW
Australia LWLLL

Watch out for

Saeed Ajmal has taken 7 for 62 in the series so far and is far and were in not for his fine work on Friday, the Australians could well have posted a much heftier total. His variations leave the Australians muddled, and after they chose to be cautious with him in the first two games they might be considering a different approach this time. “He’s a fantastic bowler. But we have to change our game plan,” David Hussey said on Sunday. “We’re defending him a little bit and to our peril. Maybe the best form of defence is attacking him. We’ve seen the Sri Lankans play him, we’ve seen the Indians play him, and we might think that’s the better route to go.”There is no question that Australia have found a dynamic and useful one-day player in Glenn Maxwell, but his challenge is to finish the series by displaying his all-round talents. He made 38 from 38 in the first game and a brisk 28 from 27 in the second game, which featured two mighty sixes. Both were impressive short-burst innings for an ODI No.7. But he is yet to take a wicket and by offering a little more with the ball he could help himself stay ahead of Steven Smith in the minds of the selectors.

Team news

Shahid Afridi missed the second match due to back soreness but is believed to be fit for the third game and a straight swap with Abdur Rehman seems the most likely scenario.Pakistan (possible) 1 Mohammad Hafeez, 2 Nasir Jamshed, 3 Azhar Ali, 4 Asad Shafiq, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), 6 Umar Akmal, 7 Kamran Akmal (wk), 8 Shahid Afridi, 9 Sohail Tanvir, 10 Saeed Ajmal, 11 Junaid KhanMitchell Starc left the field late in the second ODI with what was later revealed to a problem with his side/chest and if he doesn’t play, the Australians can bring in the uncapped Alister McDermott or one of the spinners, Xavier Doherty or Steven Smith, as his replacement. Doherty would appear the most likely candidate given the conditions and the lack a frontline spinner in their line-up in the first two games.Australia (possible) 1 Matthew Wade (wk), 2 David Warner, 3 Michael Clarke (capt), 4 Michael Hussey, 5 David Hussey, 6 George Bailey, 7 Glenn Maxwell, 8 Daniel Christian, 9 Mitchell Johnson, 10 Mitchell Starc/Xavier Doherty, 11 James Pattinson

Pitch and conditions

After the extremely dewy conditions in Abu Dhabi on Friday, the teams return to Sharjah for this third match. In the first two matches of the series it was the chasing team that emerged triumphant, so don’t expect the captains to rush into a decision to bat first at the toss.

Stats and trivia

• Should Pakistan win the third match it will be their first ODI series victory against Australia in ten years, since they took the honours in a winter series played in Australia that included two matches under the roof of Melbourne’s Docklands stadium
• In the past 12 months, only Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga has taken more ODI wickets than Saeed Ajmal’s 44 at an average of 20.38
• In the same period, Australia’s leading ODI wicket takers have been Xavier Doherty, Clint McKay and Brett Lee – none of whom has played a match in this series
  

  Quotes

  “We played really well and we fought really well in the first game in Sharjah so we can take some confidence into that.”

Essex overcame a disastrous start to their innings on a day dominated by bowlers to gain the upper hand in their Division Two battle against Derbyshire at Chelmsford

24-Aug-2011
Scorecard
Essex overcame a disastrous start to their innings on a day dominated by bowlers to gain the upper hand in their Division Two battle against Derbyshire at Chelmsford. After the visitors were bowled out for 132, Essex replied with 173 for 7 but not before they had lost both openers for only one run.A horrendous mix-up ended with Tom Westley run out by half the length of the pitch, whilst Billy Godleman was bowled by Tim Groenewald without offering a stroke. When Owais Shah was caught at slip off Tony Palladino with the total on 20, there were doubts about Essex gaining a first-innings lead.But Jaik Mickleburgh and Adam Wheater, with 34 and 31 respectively, were to tip the balance in Essex’s favour with positive strokeplay, while James Foster hit a brisk 25 before he was caught at slip immediately after the visitors’ total had been passed.Before and after Foster’s dismissal, Ryan ten Doeschate rode his luck with several edges to reach a 55-ball half-century, getting to 54 by the close and helping to point the way to a very useful lead despite the loss of Graham Napier, who was bowled for 11 by Palladino with two overs left in the day.Derbyshire were placed firmly on the back foot by David Masters as Foster’s decision to insert his opponents reaped rapid dividends. In an opening spell of eight overs, the country’s leading wicket-taker claimed three victims at a personal cost of 16, while 17-year-old Reece Topley accounted for debutant Matt Lineker for a duck.Masters took full advantage of the swing conditions, starting with the wicket of Martin Guptill when the bowler found the edge to have the opening batsman caught by Ten Doeschate in the slip cordon. Then in his seventh over, Masters struck with successive deliveries to take his season’s Championship tally to 78.Chesney Hughes was trapped lbw while Dan Redfern was undone by a delivery that again found the edge while leaving him late to provide Shah with a comfortable catch. That left the visitors in serious trouble at 28 for 4. Wes Durston and Greg Smith steadied things by carrying the score to 69 before the latter was snapped up by Westley in the slips to give Topley his second success.Durston was by far the pick of the Derbyshire batsmen, catching the eye with several fine drives among his eight boundaries while making 48. He was finally undone when Maurice Chambers found extra lift to have him caught behind and his departure with the total on 104 signalled a swift further decline in the innings.Of those that followed him, only Ross Whiteley reached double figures and he was last out when he hoisted Chambers to long off. Chambers ended with 3 for 34, Masters 3 for 28, Topley 2 for 35 and Napier 2 for 33.

VVS Laxman has said his century was a very important innings and that he has learnt to ignore the critics who question his place in the side

Sidharth Monga at the P Sara Oval07-Aug-2010VVS Laxman has spent almost all his career as the most disposable member of the team. He has one bad Test, and the knives come out. Fans and critics alike find Laxman’s the easiest place to question. Thankfully, his team-mates and the selectors know his worth. Easily India’s best batsman on bad or testing pitches, he rescued India once again, following his fifty in the first innings with a match-winning, series-levelling, flawless century on a tense final day.”I have had it [people questioning my place in the side] since the start of the career,” Laxman said, laughing. “I have started dealing with them much better. But what matters really is how the team feels about you. And there is no doubt that the team members feel how important my contribution to the team is. I really don’t think [about] what the people are thinking outside the dressing room.”Initially it was tough to play with that insecurity feeling. Sometimes I imagined that if [I had been] given a free hand, I would have probably got much more runs. But after the first four-five years of international cricket I started dealing with it much better and now these things don’t really bother me. I have played more that 100 Test matches, which very few in India do.”

Sachin Tendulkar on Laxman

“Laxman played well in both innings. The context becomes even more important since it was the decisive Test. Even if it was a draw, we would have lost the series but the manner in which he helped us level the series, it was phenomenal. The kind of innings he played in both knocks was remarkable. I have seen Laxman bat for many years and I have seen plenty of such knocks. He has scored on difficult tracks and helped India win. Just like the spectators enjoy it, I also enjoy his batting.”

Laxman has rescued India before, in more challenging conditions too, but he rated this as an important knock. “This innings stands out because of the situation we were in not only in this Test but also in the series,” he said. “The way we came back and won the Test. The partnership between me and Sachin [Tendulkar] changed the momentum of the game. Very satisfying feeling. More importantly feels good for the team because we really worked hard during the entire tour.”Laxman had not only two good spinners and Lasith Malinga to contend with, but also the pain that the back spasms that he developed while fielding during the fourth day brought him. He got treatment on the field, took painkillers, but the medicines have limitations. They don’t kick in immediately. He just had to forget about that pain.”It was painful,” Laxman admitted. “I stared my innings well, but during the partnership I had a lot of discomfort and the spasms didn’t allow me to move freely. Once I was into my 30s it became very painful.”It was difficult [the decision to ask for a runner]. You don’t want to create confusion and also not break the rhythm. If you see, Sachin got out once I took the runner. But I was in such pain that I thought that the best decision in team’s interest was to have a runner instead of just giving away the wicket due to pain.”It was an extra sweet feeling because at the same venue two years ago, Laxman fought pain from an injured ankle, scored a valiant 61 not out with the tail, but it proved to be agonisingly inadequate in the third innings of that match. He spoke more about playing in pain in this match.”During the game I took a couple of painkillers,” Laxman said. “Nitin [Patel, team physio] came and gave me a quick treatment. But I don’t know how much the pills helped as it takes 30-40 minutes before the painkillers start to show their effects. But the situation and the importance of the game, sometimes supersedes your pain. Sometimes you just focus on the process and goal in hand and it takes you over the pain barrier.”