All posts by csb10.top

Danish KaneriaOn comparing his performance here to the effort at Kolkata
The wicket here suited me much more than the Kolkata pitch. I was also suffering because of dehydration at Kolkata and couldn’t get into the right rhythm. Here I found my rhythm early and it worked out well.On whether he had a specific plan for Sourav Ganguly
Nothing was planned for Ganguly. He was dropped of the earlier ball so I thought he would try and come down the track and attack me. I thought he might want to disturb my length and sent down a googly. That’s exactly what happened and he was stumped.On tomorrow
I am confident of giving it my 101% and bowling India out tomorrow. We will surely be trying our best for a win.On the pitch
It has deteriorated day by day. The ball was turning today but it was mainly slow turn. But if a bowler is willing to put in some effort then he can surely get some turn. Considering it will be a fifth-day wicket, it will surely help me. The bowlers haven’t done much in this game so far because of the pitch and also because of some extraordinary innings played. But it depends on the day tomorrow and I am confident of doing well.On the declaration
I think it is a fighting target.On his own performance over the last few months
My confidence has improved after every performance. County cricket definitely helped me because I learnt to bowl on pitches that didn’t suit me.On the key wicket tomorrow
Definitely Rahul Dravid. He is a big player – the Wall as they say – and he is the one batsman who can prevent us from winning. Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag are also very dangerous but Dravid will be the main wicket.VVS Laxman
On the strategy tomorrow
We will definitely go for a win. The start is very important. We have had fantastic starts throughout the series from both Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. The strategy will be based on the start tomorrow.On his innings today
I was disappointed at not reaching a hundred. It was not my usual type of free-flowing innings but I had to adapt to the situation.On batting with the tail
It’s a different experience at No. 5 or 6. One has to adjust to the situation. It’s also important to have confidence in the tailenders’ batting ability. All our tailenders have done well in the recent past and there is a lot of competition in the lower order now. Lakshmipathy Balaji did well at Mohali. Harbhajan Singh and Kumble had a good partnership at Kolkata. And Irfan Pathan has batted well earlier. I just tell them to hang in there.On a few tailenders throwing away their wickets irresponsibly
It is disappointing but the tailenders can also benefit from going for their shots. So it works both ways.Siddhartha Vaidyanathan is on the staff of Cricinfo.

Trevor Bayliss, the New South Wales coach, wants Brett Lee to return from India if he is not picked for the final Test on Wednesday.Lee has not played in a Test since January and Bayliss said it would be better for him to fly home and play for the Blues. “I would have thought there are two or three other young guys over there who could do a decent job running around,” Bayliss told the .New South Wales start their Pura Cup match against Western Australia at the SCG tomorrow and will play New Zealand in a first-class game on November 11.Western Australia will not call for another bowler despite Michael Clark having scans today to determine whether a screw has loosened in his back. Clark, who missed last seasosn with stress fractures of the spine and had a pin inserted into the L4 vertebrae, complained of soreness after fielding in the ING Cup match against New South Wales yesterday.Adam Voges, who scored the fastest century in the competition yesterday with his 62-ball hundred, is likely to be dropped as Scott Meuleman returns from a dislocated shoulder.New South Wales Brad Haddin (c), Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Phil Jaques, Jason Krejza, Greg Mail, Stuart MacGill, Matthew Nicholson, Aaron O’Brien, Matthew Phelps, Dominic Thornely, Damian Wallace.Western Australia Michael Hussey (c), Murray Goodwin, Ryan Campbell, Beau Casson, Kade Harvey, Brad Hogg, Steve Magoffin, Scott Meuleman, Marcus North, Adam Voges, Darren Wates, Shaun Marsh.

South Africa 510 for 9 dec (Hall 163, de Bruyn 83, Kumble 6-131) and 169 for 4 drew with India 466 (Sehwag 164, Gambhir 96)
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

South Africa took the psychological points after the run-fest in the Kanpur Test, which predictably ended in a draw. After keeping the Indians at bay over the first four days, South Africa had the better of the exchanges on the final day as well. First they took six Indian wickets for only 65 runs this morning to bowl them out for 466 and take a first-innings lead of 44. Then the batsmen survived a mini-wobble, ending on 167 for 4, with Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis and Boeta Dippenaar all getting some useful batting practice before the second Test at Kolkata, which starts on Sunday (Nov 28).The result of the match was a foregone conclusion, but the last day’s play wasn’t the boring stalemate that had been anticipated – ten wickets fell in the first two sessions today, after only 13 had fallen on the first four days. Unlike in South Africa’s first innings, when the Indian spinners were completely toothless, they asked plenty of questions of South Africa’s top order today. There was more bounce and turn on offer, and Murali Kartik, especially, settled into an excellent rhythm. His over-the-wicket line in the first innings denied him the opportunity to attack, but here, he bowled from round the wicket, got drift and spin, and ended with excellent figures of 2 for 17 from 14 overs. For India, though, it only meant that their task of deciding on their bowling combination for the Kolkata Test became slightly more difficult.Smith and Andrew Hall, the hero of South Africa’s first innings, put together 67 without many worries, though Smith was extremely lucky to survive a couple of lbw shouts from Anil Kumble. Then the spinners struck. Hall nicked one off Harbhajan Singh, and Dinesh Karthik, who had a poor day behind the stumps, latched on to this one. Kartik then struck in his first over, trapping Martin van Jaarsveld (13) in front with a sharply turning delivery, and then inducing Smith to push a bat-pad catch to short leg (110 for 3). When Jacques Rudolph failed again, following his first-ball duck with just 3 before edging to the keeper, South Africa had slumped to 115 for 4.That was as good as it got for India, though, as Kallis and Dippenaar denied them further success, batting out the entire final session, in the process collecting more valuable practice against the Indian spinners.Earlier, it was the South Africans who enjoyed their time in the field. As on the fourth day, their bowlers bowled a consistent line, but they were helped significantly by the indiscretion of the Indian batsmen. The slide started in the third over of the day. Rahul Dravid added just two to his overnight 52 before reaching out to a widish delivery from Makhaya Ntini and nicking it to the keeper (407 for 5).Karthik, playing only his second Test, had an opportunity to make a mark as a batsman, but he lasted only four balls, shouldering arms to one from Shaun Pollock that nipped back and trapped him right in front. Ntini’s off-stump line proved too good for Kumble, and when VVS Laxman dragged one onto his stumps, India had lost four wickets for 13 in the space of 29 balls, and Ntini suddenly had three in the bag after toiling away without success for two days.Harbhajan and Zaheer Khan stemmed the rot somewhat, adding 36 for the ninth wicket before both fell in quick succession, ending India’s innings just 90 minutes into the morning session.South Africa took the first-innings lead, and by close of play, they had ensured that they would leave Kanpur in a much better frame of mind than when they arrived. Most of the batsmen spent a reasonable amount of time in the middle, and their experiment with Hall as opener met with resounding success – he was later declared Man of the Match. The bowling was a bit of a worry, though, and Robin Peterson may well miss out at Kolkata. But for the moment, Ray Jennings will have every reason to be delighted with the outcome at Kanpur.

Cricket Australia has said that Australia’s tour of Zimbabwe will go ahead as planned. Steve Bernard, the manager of the team, said that the Australians were satisfied with the security arrangements made by the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU), and that it would take “something drastic” to derail the tour now.”There’s no doubt we’re coming, unless something drastic has to happen just before the tour,” Bernard said. “We were coming anyhow but we had to make all the necessary security checks ahead of the tour.”An Australian delegation has spent the last two days inspecting the arrangements in Harare and Bulwayo, the venues for the Tests. Bernard took pains to stress that even this was routine procedure before any tour. “We would want to stress that the pre-checks we are conducting are not only for Zimbabwe but we have had security checks in Sri Lanka and the West Indies, where our teams have played before.”

Martin Bicknell, the Surrey and England fast bowler, has retired. Bicknell, 37, had enjoyed some outings in Surrey’s first team this year, but had always said this was to be his final season and he finally called time on his playing career today, a few weeks earlier than planned. “Physically I was struggling,” he said,”but it just felt like it was the right time.”I’m relieved in a way,” he added, “but also a bit sad. It’s the end of an era.” It certainly is. Bicknell has been with Surrey for the last 28 years, since he joined them at the age of ten. He always wanted to play professional cricket and that dream came true when he was handed his first county contract at the age of 17, following a successful season in the seconds.In all he took 1047 wickets for the county, but he also fashioned something of a batting career for himself, and he’s rightly proud of his 6740 first-class runs. He smiles: “I was almost an allrounder.”He also flirted with the Test stage, although he only had four matches at that level. His debut, in 1993 against Australia, was a most fiery baptism. “I was thinking this is so tough – Allan Border, Steve Waugh, David Boon, all at the height of their careers.” Nevertheless, he had some success, taking four wickets, but injury wrecked his chances of a winter tour.He then waited for a call but that only came a decade later. “I wasn’t selected, it baffled me for a while.” True, he had stiff competition from Andrew Caddick and Darren Gough because he was seen as a new-ball bowler, but Bicknell still finds that perception bemusing. “It’s a bit of a mystery. I was actually most successful on the unresponsive pitches at The Oval.”He just shrugged and got on with being a strikeforce for Surrey, and helped them lift the Championship trophy in 1999, another career highlight. Then came the surprise Test recall in 2003, when he was 34. “I had just gone past my peak,” he admits. “I was very concerned at how I’d get on.” He need not have worried; he took a wicket with his second ball against South Africa at Headingley and then bowled England to victory in the final Test at The Oval.

“I had two very good performances and that left a good feeling for me. I had happy experiences of playing Test cricket.” But should he have played more? “People will look back and think I was a bit unlucky. Obviously it would be nice to have played 60 or 70 Tests, but it’s just one of those things. I was lucky to have played Test cricket at all.”Alan Butcher, the manager of cricket at Surrey, added, “Martin Bicknell is one of the true Surrey greats. He was integral to Surrey’s success during the glory years between 1997-2003, and is one of those cricketers who are truly irreplaceable.”Bicknell may have called time on playing, but he intends to maintain his Surrey links, hopefully getting involved with coaching their juniors. “That would be very enjoyable.” And he will be nurturing more youth as Head of Cricket at Charterhouse School, after four successful months with them.When he’s not involved in cricket, Bicknell enjoys his golf – and he has an impressive handicap of 2. He’s back off to India in February for the World Cup of Golf, where former international cricketers compete for the honours, and he hopes to claim the title this year, after Kapil Dev pipped him in the inaugural competition this year. “It’s a lovely day out,” he says of playing golf. “I love the game. I could play every day.”And as for cricket, though he won’t be playing every day, he will look back on his time with happiness. “I’m not leaving the game with any regrets.”

Five years after being unceremoniously axed from British television, Geoff Boycott has been brought in from the cold by Channel 4 and will join their commentary line-up for next summer’s tours by New Zealand and West Indies.Boycott was ostracised by the British media following a high-profile court case in France in 1998, although he continued to work regularly overseas. In 2002 he was diagnosed as having throat cancer, which he successfully fought, and made a few low-key guest appearances for Channel 4 last summer.Announcing the news, David Kerr, Channel 4’s head of sport, told The Guardian: “Geoff Boycott is one of the great voices of cricket and we are very happy to be bringing him back to the commentary box. He has strong opinions informed by a career playing cricket at the highest level and a unique insight into the game of cricket.”After Geoffrey commentated on the C&G final this summer we had a very positive response from viewers and we wanted to give them the chance to hear his thoughts over the coming summer."Boycott remains one of the most popular media analysts, renowned for his blunt comments.

A quiet, but welcome and overdue, revolution is occurring in the lower levels of cricket in New Zealand as a potentially debilitating problem is being weeded out.It has taken a $1.5 million budget but it is shaping as the most realistic attempt yet to attack a long-smouldering problem in the game.It’s all to do with player recruitment and retention at what has become known as the “grassroots” level of the game.As recreation opportunities grew, and the numbers of male teachers in primary schools declined during the 1970s-1990s all sport suffered an inertia which reduced participation and left potential players missing out on a chance to play many team sports, let alone cricket.When New Zealand Cricket underwent the Hood Review in 1995, one of the key areas for attention was in the club and schools area. It has taken time for an effective policy to be formulated but NZC national development manager Alec Astle and his staff have put in place a programme which, as boys and girls mature, should result in a much-needed revitalisation of the base of the game in New Zealand.Already the signs are encouraging. The first area of attention was primary schooling and so well has the system worked, that the intended second part of the project, the troublesome secondary school area, has had to be leap-frogged in favour of attending to the needs of cricket clubs.If that hadn’t been done, the clubs would not have been equipped to handle the expected upsurge of numbers in a few years as the players exposed at primary school come through the system.The most obvious example of the growth of the game in schools has been in the annual participation rates for the MILO Cup and Shield primary school tournaments for boys’ and girls’ respectively. In 2000 the numbers of entries were 240. In 2001 it rose to 249, then in 2002 to 257 and this summer to 301.Until this year, the finals of the tournaments have been a North v South Island contest played in Palmerston North. But the numbers have been divided into four zones this year, three in the North Island and the fourth covering all the South Island, and the four winners in both boys’ and girls’ competitions, will now travel to a finals weekend.Another level of incentive has also been added as the result of a sponsorship agreement reached with the New Zealand Community Trust (NZCT) which is not only taking over as sponsor of the national secondary schoolgirls’ tournament, but also sponsoring a national Year 9 (or third form) tournament for boys which will be played over a full summer, not broken into a calendar year as happens with the boys’ Gillette Cup and the girls’ NZCT tournament.The Year 9 event can be played out over the summer because those secondary school pupils are not so affected by end of year examination requirements. The final of the tournament will be played in national summer tournament week towards the end of March, possibly in Taupo.The country’s six major associations are going to play a much greater role in the organisation of all the children’s tournaments as part of the drive to have the associations operate the cricket business occurring within their boundaries.Each of the majors appointed a cricket development manager for their region and he worked with a team of cricket development officers to deliver the initiatives into the primary levels of cricket.When the national discussions were held in 2000 about the game in secondary schools, clubs and districts, community cricket initiatives were introduced under the headings of School Support and Club Assist. Working in these areas are community cricket co-ordinators who work with a cluster of clubs and secondary schools to identify areas needing improvement and the plans to follow up targeted changes.The co-ordinators then assist in implementation of the desired strategies, placing less time pressure on the club officers and schools. Metropolitan clubs and district associations ran trials in five of the six major associations in 2001-02 and as a result of their success the programme was expanded into other metropolitan clubs and districts.There is no set formula. Each major association has been able to bend the strategy to suit their own situation.Auckland used the ‘Club is the Hub’ system where clubs are funded and club managers have the job of delivering the requirements.Wellington and Otago are using a central structure with the co-ordinators working for the association to oversee a specific number of clubs and schools.Northern Districts, Central Districts and Canterbury have appointed co-ordinators to work with clubs or districts. Some of these positions have been developed further by funding arrangements with the clubs or associations to encompass wider areas of coaching and development.Monthly checks are part of the administration process across the country to ensure all are achieving specified targets.The community cricket initiatives have been taken up by 17 of the 24 district cricket associations, by 22 metropolitan clubs, 14 in Wellington, five in Christchurch and three in Dunedin. Auckland have four clubs involved in their ‘Club is the Hub’ programme while other clubs are working on Sportsville studies and one club will soon enter into a funding partnership with a rugby club.These opportunities have provided employment for 32 community co-ordinators, 19 of whom are full-time.While there are still areas of need and much more that needs to be done, the effort to at least attack the problem and get some altered thinking in place has proved beneficial.Important benefits that have been realised include clubs now functioning over 12 months of the year, the revitalisation of long suffering volunteers who now have time to devote to things other than administrative work, a greater profile for cricket in far-flung communities and probably, most importantly, a point of contact when problems arise, allowing a much speedier, and often less hassled, resolution of problems.Cricket is on the move from the area of its greatest resource – if it can be maintained it could prove to be the most significant happening in New Zealand cricket in modern history.

Close South Africa 398 for 1 (Gibbs 179, Smith 178*) v England
ScorecardEngland’s cricketers have always been prone to choking on their own hubris, but today’s debacle at Edgbaston was astonishing even by their extreme standards. Herschelle Gibbs and Graeme Smith – out of form, and in Smith’s case, out on a limb as captain – put their problems behind them to score a pair of magnificent centuries. In the process, they became the first opening partnership to pass 300 twice in Tests.

Their magnificent stand of 338, completed in less than 75 overs, utterly dominated the opening day of the first npower Test. By the time Gibbs holed out to Mark Butcher on the midwicket boundary, he had flailed 29 fours and a vast six off Darren Gough, and was unrecognisable from the shambling, shuffling figure who mustered 17 runs in four innings against England in the NatWest Series.Gibbs eased through the gears throughout the day, and for the last part of his innings he was at his jack-in-the-box best. He enjoyed some luck, and was dropped three times in the day, but when at his best, the audacity of his strokeplay more than compensates for his occasional looseness. He was dropped by Anderson on 94 – a sharp return chance – but responded by belting consecutive fours to bring up his hundred, and by the time he had raced past 150 shortly after tea, all his early tour uncertainties had been banished, seemingly for good.In the eyes of many pundits, Smith has not yet done enough to warrant a regular place in the side, let alone hold the captaincy. But today, he demonstrated that his will is made of granite. By the close he was still there, unbeaten on 178, and his authority was stamped clean across the match, the series, and most importantly, his team.Less flamboyant than Gibbs, but no less effective, Smith had taken his time to gauge the pace of the pitch in a tentative morning session. But once he had established that it held no demons, there was no stopping him. His innings was studded with compact drives and well-timed clips, and he reached his hundred by lofting Giles back over his head for four.For Nasser Hussain, returning to the England captaincy for the first time since early June, it has been a sobering day. If the pre-match hype was to be believed, his mere presence should have been enough to send Smith, a mere whippersnapper at 22, cowering into the corner. Instead, his dream-team new-ball partnership of James Anderson and Gough had the whiffiest of off-days, and despite the tenacity of Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison, the only bowling highlight was to be found in Giles’s sexy new hairstyle.

Flintoff, who hadn’t played a Test since the Headingley match last August, was the best of a subdued attack. Pitching the ball up half a yard more than is his customary length, he induced a thick edge from Smith that fell short of Butcher at second slip, before seaming one past the inside of the bat and through to Alec Stewart.Harmison bowled with pace, hostility and impressive control, but continued his unfortunate habit of inflicting injury on his own team-mates. Marcus Trescothick was forced to leave the field with a fracture in his right index finger, after failing to gather an awkward ball at slip.If this had been the first day of an Ashes series, it would have an utterly depressing premonition of doom. Given that it is not, England’s players will hardly know whether to laugh it off, or cry themselves to sleep.Click here for the Wisden VerdictEngland 1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Michael Vaughan, 3 Mark Butcher, 4 Nasser Hussain (capt), 5 Anthony McGrath, 6 Alec Stewart (wk), 7 Andrew Flintoff, 8 Ashley Giles, 9 Darren Gough, 10 James Anderson, 11 Steve Harmison.South Africa 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Herschelle Gibbs, 3 Gary Kirsten, 4 Jacques Rudolph, 5 Boeta Dippenaar, 6 Mark Boucher (wk), 7 Shaun Pollock, 8 Robin Peterson, 9 Charl Willoughby, 10 Makhaya Ntini, 11 Dewald Pretorious.

Leewards fast bowler Adam Sanford has been called into the West Indies squad as a replacement for Omari Banks, who had to pull out of the tour with a back injury. Sanford made the last of his seven Test appearances in 2002 against New Zealand.Banks had a cortisone injection to counter inflammation in his lower back last week, but after no improvement, the team doctors advised him to rest the injury for the next three months.Banks is the third player to return home with injury. Jerome Taylor was the first casualty, also with a bad back, and Marlon Samuels will miss the tour with a knee injury.The first Test starts on December 12 at Johannesburg.

The Kenyan legspinner, Collins Obuya, has been signed by Warwickshire as oneof their overseas players this season. Obuya, 21, a star of the World Cupduring Kenya’s astonishing march to the semi-finals, picked up 13 wickets inthe tournament at an average of 28.76, including 5 for 24 in the victoryover Sri Lanka at Nairobi.”The players are very excited about Collins’s introduction to the squad,”said Michael Powell, the Warwickshire captain. “He was impressive in theWorld Cup and is proving to be an exciting prospect. His bowling should add an extra dimension to our attack and we have also been struck by his athleticism in the field.”Obuya, 21, is likely to play his first game against Cardiff Universityon May 14 and will be available throughout the season, subject tointernational duty. He joins another star of the World Cup, New’s Zealand’sfast bowler Shane Bond, after Warwickshire’s approaches to Anil Kumble andBrad Hogg were turned down.”This is a thrilling time for me to be playing for such a famous club,” saidObuya, who until recently sold tomatoes to supplement his meagre salary. “Iam looking forward to it and hope that I can produce the form and successthat I managed during the World Cup in Africa.”