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Shane Watson, the Australia opening batsmen, is likely to make a comeback for the second ODI against South Africa in Port Elizabeth on Sunday

Firdose Moonda22-Oct-2011Shane Watson, the Australia opening batsmen, is likely to make a comeback for the second ODI against South Africa in Port Elizabeth on Sunday. Watson sustained a hip injury before the second Twenty20 match last week and missed out on that game in Johannesburg and the first one-day international on Wednesday. He was not seriously hurt though, and was left out of the starting XI as a precaution, for fear of aggravating the niggle ahead of the Test series.”I’m confident with how Shane trained yesterday and that he’ll be fine to go,” Michael Clarke, Australia captain said. Shaun Marsh, Australia’s other injured player, took part in a session for the first time on Saturday since picking up a shoulder injury after playing in the first T20 in Cape Town ten days ago. Clarke said team management would give the pair “as long as possible” to see whether they are fit for Sunday’s match and will only announce their starting XI at the eleventh hour.If both Watson and Marsh are deemed fit, Australia will have four men capable of opening the batting and Clarke will have some decisions to make. David Warner, who was in ominous form at the Champions League T20 for New South Wales, but has only amassed 20 runs from three innings on this tour, and Ricky Ponting, who scored 63 in the first ODI, opened the batting on Wednesday. “It’s not a bad problem to have,” Clarke said. “We will wait and see what happens with Shaun today and with Shane. We’ll see how he pulls up and we will work out what the best XI is in these conditions. We need to make sure we assess them correctly.”St George’s Park’s much slower pitch, with lower bounce, will be vastly different to the pacy wicket the two sides played on in Centurion. A westerly wind is predicted, which should bring in moisture from the sea and offer something to the bowlers and although the pitch is likely to be flat, run-scoring can be more difficult here.That will not come as good news to former South African captain Graeme Smith, who has been under fire for his lack of form. Smith managed just four runs in the last ODI, which were overthrows and has looked increasingly uncomfortable at the crease. Clarke said Australia are not taking his lean patch for granted and they expect the Smith that stood up to them in the 2008-9 series to be back soon. “There’s certainly going to be a time in this series when Graeme will make run. He is a good player and his statistics certainly show that.”Clarke also sympathised with Smith, saying his public pasting is somewhat unwarranted. “He has been a very good captain and a very good player so I don’t know why he copped so much criticism,” he said. “In regards to playing against him, I respect him.”With Australia’s two left-arm pace bowlers, Doug Bollinger and Mitchell Johnson, things are not set to get any easier for Smith, who has been hesitant against left-armers. Clarke thinks it’s not necessarily the arm the bowler uses, but the ability to swing the ball that is causing Smith problems. “Anytime the ball is swinging, whether you are right or left-handed, it’s tough batting,” he said. I think that was the case the other night, there was a bit of rain in the air and our bowlers did a very good job in good bowling conditions.”Australia’s attack is earning them high praise, with the blend of old hands and young talent proving successful. “We’ve got a couple left-handers and if the ball is swinging, they play a big part in bowling to left-handers, swinging the ball away. And, it’s no different with [Pat] Cummins or [James] Pattinson to right-handers, they take the ball away from the right-hander so it’s a good place to be with our fast bowlers at the moment.”Cummins has claimed the bulk of the spotlight, with his evident maturity at his young age constantly pointed out as exceptional. He was included in Australia’s Test squad at the expense of Pattinson, who was included in the squad for the tour of Sri Lanka. Pattinson has faded a little but Clarke is convinced that he will make an appearance again soon. “He is a young guy and he is trying to improve every time he walks into the nets,” he said. “I’m confident you will see more of him, whether it’s in this series or in the Australian summer. He has got an opportunity to perform for Victoria while we are playing the Tests. I wouldn’t be surprised if you see him playing in these one-dayers either.”The Port Elizabeth pitch may not be the place for Pattinson but the venue of the third ODI, Durban, may give him his chance. By then, Australia hope to have wrapped up the series and Clarke said even if they have, they will go for the kill and look to sweep South Africa. For now, their focus is on the second ODI and they have a reason other than a trophy to want to emerge victorious. Wicketkeeper, Brad Haddin, turns 34 on Sunday and Clarke said, “I’d love nothing more than to win the series for him to celebrate his birthday.”

The resumption of international cricket in Pakistan could be the by-product of a deal between the PCB and its Bangladesh counterpart over choosing the next ICC vice-president

Umar Farooq and Mohammad Isam23-Nov-2011The resumption of international cricket in Pakistan, which stopped after the attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore in March 2009, could be the by-product of a deal between the PCB and its Bangladesh counterpart over choosing the next ICC vice-president. The nomination rests with the two countries and Pakistan are reportedly ready to concede its right for an expected tour by Bangladesh in 2012.The deal, however, is being explained in official circles as the conclusion of a gentleman’s agreement that resulted in Pakistan’s Ehsan Mani becoming the ICC president in 2003.The ICC executive board, at its meeting in October, had asked the PCB and BCB to nominate a candidate for the vice-presidency for the 2012-14 term, in keeping with the rotational system. The nomination has to be firmed up by December 31, the ICC will discuss it in January and the appointment will be effective in June. The two board chiefs, Zaka Ashraf of the PCB and the BCB’s Mustafa Kamal, have already held one – reportedly inconclusive – meeting in Dubai. They are due to meet again in Dhaka on the sidelines of Pakistan’s tour in December.For Pakistan, the benefits are clear: they are keen for international cricket to return to the country and Ashraf, barely a month into his job, has set that as his primary target – even at the cost of what will lead to the top job in international cricket. To that end, he has repaired relations with Bangladesh to an extent, from the frosty ties under his predecessor Ijaz Butt. The ties were strained after cancelled junior cricket tours to Pakistan and by Bangladesh not supporting Pakistan over the staging of matches during the 2011 World Cup.On the face of it the deal is a formality. When, in 2003, the two boards agreed on Mani’s candidature for the president’s post, it was on the understanding that the next cycle would go Bangladesh’s way. Even the mooted tour is not expected to be a problem; Bangladesh don’t have any problems with travel to Pakistan – the national football team went there earlier this year for a World Cup qualifier – and the series is part of the ICC future tours programme, scheduled for April 2012.Pakistan, however, has reportedly sought written assurance from Bangladesh that it will not backtrack from the understanding.The bigger issue, however, seems to be a lack of clarity in Bangladesh. The BCB hasn’t discussed it, nor has Kamal spoken to his directors about his meeting with Ashraf. BCB officials say they are wary of commenting since the decision will be taken at the highest political levels. Nor is there any unanimity on candidates for ICC vice-president, with several hats in the ring.Kamal leads the way and seems to have his sights firmly on the job. A political appointment, like all his predecessors, he’s also a Minister of Parliament (MP) and reasonably in favour with the top bosses of the ruling Awami League. Kamal’s closest contender seems to be Saber Hossain Chowdhury, the former BCB president. Chowdhury, also an MP, has immense credibility as a cricket administrator – he ushered Bangladesh into Test cricket after overseeing their ICC Trophy win and securing their ODI status, and also brought in Gordon Greenidge as coach. However, his political clout has waned in recent times; he was once a close aide of the Prime Minister’s but has been kept away from a ministerial role.Also doing the rounds are the names of two Pakistanis – Mani, and former captain Majid Khan. Mani told ESPNcricinfo he had been contacted by officials from Bangladesh but it is believed the PCB has made no serious attempt to make contact with either; despite their strong CVs they remain long shots.”I have no interest in seeking the post for a second time,” Mani told ESPNcricinfo. “There are other very good people in Bangladesh and Pakistan and I am sure that if the right person is selected he would be a credit to both the countries.”The important thing is that the two boards should ensure that their nominee has the right qualification and standing in the game and will act in the best interests of the game.”

Victoria claimed a first outright victory of the season by 55 runs as Tasmania fell a mere 16 balls short of salvaging a draw on the final day of the Sheffield Shield match in Hobart

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Nov-2011
ScorecardJames Pattinson plucked the last three wickets as Victoria won with 16 balls to spare•Getty Images

Victoria claimed a first outright victory of the season by 55 runs as Tasmania fell a mere 16 balls short of salvaging a draw on the final day of the Sheffield Shield match in Hobart.Chasing 318 to win, the Tigers were bowled out for 262, last summer’s Shield winners suffering a third consecutive outright defeat to start their title defence.James Pattinson, Jayde Herrick and the off spinner Glenn Maxwell nabbed three wickets each for the Bushrangers, Pattinson nipping out the last three with the second new ball as the clock ticked near to stumps.The Tigers’ final day defiance had been led by the opening batsman Steven Cazzulino, playing in place of the injured Mark Cosgrove. His front elbow was prominent in a fighting innings, but wickets fell regularly at the other end.Ed Cowan snicked an off break to slip, Nick Kruger was lbw on the back foot, and George Bailey and Evan Gulbis were both undone by full, curving Herrick deliveries.Allrounders James Faulkner and Luke Butterworth gave the Tigers a slim chance of victory in the final session, before the final four wickets went down swifty.Matthew Wade, the Bushrangers’ gloveman, was named man of the match for his two important innings, while the Tasmanian captain George Bailey was reprimanded for showing dissent towards the umpires’ decision to decline an appeal against David Hussey on day three.

Mushtaq Ahmed, England’s spin bowling coach, has played down the home advantage Pakistan will enjoy during the series against England in the UAE

Umar Farooq16-Dec-2011Mushtaq Ahmed, England’s spin bowling coach, has played down the home advantage Pakistan will enjoy during the series against England in the UAE, saying his team has grown used to playing on pitches that are slower than the ones at home. England and Pakistan will play three Tests, four ODIs and three Twenty20 internationals in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in January and February 2012.Pakistan have been hosting their home games in the UAE after the terror attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore in 2009 forced the suspension of international tours to the country. They have played two Test series there since then, drawing against South Africa and beating Sri Lanka. Mushtaq, however, said England would not struggle against Pakistan’s spinners on the pitches in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.”England batsmen have learned to play spin bowling. They can manage spin with good control,” Mushtaq told ESPNcricinfo. “We won a World Twenty20 in the West Indies where conditions are similar. At the end, it all depends on individual players, they have to understand and learn the things to survive. And they are very hard workers.”Pakistan no doubt has improved a lot and rankings sometime don’t reflect your standing. And England has been in top form over the last two to three years. So I expect it would be a good quality series.”Spinners have played a significant role in Pakistan’s performances in 2011 and they are likely to hit England with a strong attack: Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman and Mohammad Hafeez in the Tests, as well as Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik in the limited-overs matches. England may play just one spinner, Graeme Swann, in the Tests, but Mushtaq didn’t think the mismatch in slow-bowling resources was a problem.”I understand the pitches in the UAE are slow and Pakistan will obviously use their home advantage. We have Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Chris Tremlett – all of them can bowl 90 mph. I don’t think wickets do matter these days when you have quick bowlers who can bowl with muscle.”Swann’s back-up on the UAE tour is left-arm spinner Monty Panesar, whose last Test was the Ashes opener in Cardiff in 2009. It remains to be seen whether England will alter the combination – three fast bowlers, one spinner – that helped them beat India 4-0 at home to accommodate a second slow bowler in the UAE.”He [Panesar] has been a match-winning bowler and is still a good prospect,” Mushtaq said. “His performance for Sussex brought him back to contention as he took 60 to 70 wickets in the domestic season, which is a lot for a spinner. He is the sort of left-arm spinner who bowls his orthodox delivery with force.”England open their tour with two warm-up games, the first of which begins on January 7, ahead of the Tests.

James Taylor has admitted that his England Lions side is struggling to score on Asian pitches

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Jan-2012James Taylor, captain of the England Lions side beaten in Bangladesh, has admitted that his squad has shown the same frailties as the England senior side struggling against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates – a lack of runs on Asian pitches.England Lions had the consolation of a comfortable 32-run win against Bangladesh A in the first of two Twenty20 contests in Mirpur on Sunday, but whatever the outcome of the Twenty20 series they will head to Sri Lanka smarting over a 3-2 defeat in the ODIs. Taylor himself, who was regarded as the likeliest stand-by for the England side, should injuries strike them in the Middle East, has also yet to make a convincing case for promotion.”Throughout the series, the batsmen haven’t quite performed as they’d have liked,” Taylor said. “We did a little bit better today. Bowlers have generally bowled well and we’ve fielded well as a unit. We just haven’t fired with the bat yet. But I’m sure that’ll come in Sri Lanka.”The quality is good over here but the wickets couldn’t be more different from England. It is all a new experience for us. It’s been a tough tour but playing here at a young age will definitely help us in the future.”Bangladesh have changed their personnel so much that after six matches even the England Lions captain sounds no closer to learning the names of his opponents. “I don’t know the individual names,” he conceded, “but the slow left-arm bowlers have bowled considerably well. Different personnel coming in every match makes it hard to plan. They’ve got some talented players in Bangladesh that’s for sure.”

George Bailey has defended Australia’s decision to tinker with their winning side as they begin to narrow their focus towards the World Twenty20 in September

Brydon Coverdale03-Feb-2012George Bailey has defended Australia’s decision to tinker with their winning side as they begin to narrow their focus towards the World Twenty20 in September. Australia enjoyed a comfortable win in the first T20 in Sydney on Wednesday but they were outfielded by India at the MCG on Friday, which allowed MS Dhoni’s men to draw the series 1-1.Australia were dismissed for 131 having chosen to bat, and their disappointing effort came with Matthew Wade, who had opened and made 72 in the first game, batting down the order at No.6. He still contributed with 32 and his opening replacement Aaron Finch top-scored with 36, but Shaun Marsh at first drop failed to score and the batting was weakened with the allrounders Daniel Christian and James Faulkner left out.But Bailey believes the two games have provided Australia with a valuable opportunity to assess their T20 stocks in a year when the world title is up for grabs. Australia will play two T20s in the West Indies in March but unless games are scheduled with Pakistan in the UAE during a limited-overs tour that might take place in August, they will be Australia’s only outings before the World T20 in September in Sri Lanka.”One of the things we wanted to get out of the week was trying a few different people in different spots,” Bailey said. “Going forward Wadey is going to have opportunities at the top and in the middle. Even tonight I thought it was really pleasing that he showed he can achieve it in both areas. That just gives us another option at different times. As much as trying to win, this week was as much about trying to find out what different people can do in different situations.”We’ve also got some players out, Shane Watson, Mike Hussey, Pat Cummins. At some stage we have to knuckle down not only the guys that you want but also the areas, the roles you want them to play. While it was a great opportunity this week to try some people and try them in different areas and at different times with the bat and the ball, at some stage we have to start honing in. I thought this week worked really well in terms of having a look at some different people.”I think we’ve got a pretty good mix. I think we’ve got some great young allrounders, also with Watson out of the team we have another good allrounder there. I think one of our strengths is going to be our versatility when we’re full strength, come World Cup time.”While the batsmen struggled in the second game, especially against the nimble fielding of an energised India, Bailey said he was comfortable with the way his side had performed with bat and ball in the two games. The bowlers in particular kept creating opportunities and the fact that India had only two balls to spare when the winning runs came showed that Australia never gave the game away.”It’s one of those tough ones where we want to be attacking and keep trying to take wickets but we know we also can’t give plenty of gaps where they can tick the scoreboard along,” Bailey said. “It would have been nice to keep them winless before the one-day series but full credit to them, they outplayed us tonight, no doubt about that. It’s disappointing that we lost tonight and India have got their first win, but it’s probably a little bit surprising it’s taken this long into a tour for India to get their first win up.”Some members of the Australian side will now join the one-day squad for the triangular series with India and Sri Lanka, while others will head back to their home states for domestic cricket. Wherever they are, Bailey hopes his men can at least keep the World T20 in the back of their minds.”We’ve let guys know that everything that you’re doing now with a T20 focus is starting to gear up towards that, whether that’s with the bat or the ball, or your fitness or your fielding,” he said. “While it’s going to be hard as a group to do that [in the coming weeks], individually we’ll still be focusing.”

Ireland continued their powerful run in this tournament, cruising past Netherlands with 20 deliveries to spare in the preliminary final

The Report by Gerard Siggins in Dubai23-Mar-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsKevin O’Brien’s all-round performance earned him the Man-of-the-Match award•ICC/Ian Jacobs

Ireland continued their powerful run in this tournament, cruising past Netherlands with 20 deliveries to spare in the preliminary final. Ireland will now meet Namibia for the prize of a place in the ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka in September. It was another efficient team performance by Ireland, who have now won their last eight encounters with Netherlands.Just a year ago, Kevin O’Brien was a star of the 50-over World Cup, and he is now coming into form here with both bat and ball. He arrived at this event expecting only to bowl in extremis, but has now taken nine wickets in 14 overs. “Since John Mooney and Alex Cusack have gone home injured I’ve been required more than I expected,” O’Brien said. “I’ve been lucky because this pitch is a bit slower which suited me.”With some early life in the pitch, it was a good toss to win for Ireland, and they again struck early to remove the Netherlands openers. Michael Swart moved back to pull Boyd Rankin and was bowled, while Stephan Myburgh went to a stunning catch by Ireland captain William Porterfield off Trent Johnston. Porterfield ran 20 metres back from behind point and leaned backward to take it close to his chest.Alexei Kervezee and Tom Cooper steadied the Dutch barge, and the period after the Powerplay was their most productive. From 18 for 2 in five overs, the pair took the score to 72 for 2 in 12 when Cooper made a fatal blunder. Facing O’Brien’s first delivery, he spun around to reverse-sweep but missed the ball and was given out leg-before.At that stage a target of 140-plus was on, but the middle order fell away badly. Wesley Barresi pottered around to make 6 off 16 balls, while Kervezee also struggled to accelerate. The Worcestershire player reached his fifty off 42 balls, but his side were still short of three figures with three overs left. A mix-up led to Barresi’s merciful release, but wicketkeeper Gary Wilson was furious that George Dockrell had not thrown the ball to his end where Kervezee was also stranded. The left-arm spinner atoned two balls later by holding a sharp return-catch to dismiss Kervezee for 56.Peter Borren hit only the second four since the ninth over, but Ireland’s stranglehold was never released and a total of 114 for 7 was far below par.The Irish opening batsmen have twice chased totals in this tournament without requiring help from the rest of the order. The way they started suggested that a third ten-wicket win was on the cards, but with the score on 41 off 4.2 overs, Porterfield got under Pieter Seelar’s second ball and was held just inside the rope at long-on. Paul Stirling was dropped next ball by Timm van der Gugten at mid-off.Before the game there was a ceremony to mark Stirling’s 100th cap. It is a measure of how much cricket Ireland now play that the 21-year-old has also missed 41 games since his debut four years ago. He seemed all set to mark the occasion with a fifty, but was trapped in front by Swart, who then induced Wilson to steer the next ball to slip. They were the last two balls of his spell, so there was to be no chance of a hat-trick.They were also the last two wickets his team would take, as Ed Joyce settled in to play a support role with O’Brien hitting six after six to take the Man-of-the-Match award. He hit three maximums in a contribution of 30 to a stand of 42.Porterfield paid tribute to Rankin and Johnston. “The way they kept the Dutch batsmen quiet in the first six overs won us the game,” he said.The Netherlands captain, Borren, put the blame for defeat at the door of his batsmen. “The partnership between Alexei and Tom put us in a position to make 140-145 which we would have been comfortable to defend, but we just didn’t give them enough support. Full credit to Ireland though, they’re a very good cricket team and on today’s performance they deserve to go through.”Edited by Abhishek Purohit