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Forty-five days into this most arduous of tours, the Indians secured their maiden victory

Nagraj Gollapudi at Hove25-Aug-2011
Scorecard
Parthiv Patel’s half-century was one among three in India’s successful chase•Getty Images

Forty-five days into this most arduous of tours, the Indians secured their maiden victory. Half-centuries from Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Parthiv Patel and a four-wicket haul from RP Singh helped them to a six-wicket win over a Sussex side missing several of its senior players. Rain breaks revised the target to 235, and the Indians won with 4.1 overs to spare.The win will be a relief to MS Dhoni and Duncan Fletcher, who had run out of reasons trying to explain India’s sudden slump to a demanding media. Today, they were helped by the infusion of some freshness in the squad – the likes of Kohli, Parthiv and Rohit, who weren’t at the receiving end of England’s ruthless domination in the Tests.Dhoni rushed midway through the warm-up routine in the morning for the toss and showed no hesitation asking Sussex to bat under cloudy conditions. By the time the openers, Sachin Tendulkar and Parthiv, walked in to bat for the chase, the County ground was bathed in sunshine. And the pitch was flat.Tendulkar didn’t face the local tearaway Amjad Khan during his stay at all. Instead, he happily dealt with the left-armer Naved Arif who faltered in his lines. Trying for pace Arif pitched short and angled wide off the off stump but Tendulkar instantly upper cut him for four. His best shot came in Arif’s third over, when he played a powerful drive that sliced through a thick off-side field manned by a gully, point, cover, silly mid-off and mid-off. Unfortunately, after having flicked Chris Liddle, who replaced Arif, for another four, Tendulkar tried to clear mid-off but failed and was caught.By then, Parthiv, who was overwhelmed by Amjad’s pace and movement in the early overs – he was forced to replace a broken bat as he tried to dig out a yorker – had gradually started to find his rhythm against the medium-pace duo of Liddle and Kirk Wernars. He played well on both sides against the slower pace and cut Wernars to the point boundary. He reached his half-century with a pull that got him a single, but mis-read the length and spin of Chris Nash’s first delivery, his off bail displaced. If Gautam Gambhir, who did some light jogging with a strained face during the lunch break, fails to take field during the ODI series, Parthiv is a contender and would want to show a more settled technique in tomorrow’s match against Kent.If anybody showed assurance, it was the pair of Kohli and Rohit. Both played with a straight bat and without any fuss. They reached their teens by running hard singles and then cleared the boundaries with ease as Sussex tried to lure them by using spinners at both ends.
Virat looked solid in defence, and when he was offered width by Liddle he pulled him hard for an easy four, his first. He repeated the same stroke with an identical result when Liddle repeated the mistake.Rohit cut one hard between gully and point for his first four against Will Beer, who posed no hurdles for the Indians. When Nash challenged him with flight, he took the offer and cleared the long-off boundary, his team’s first six.In their effort to post a competitive target, the Sussex middle order regrouped after the top order faltered in the morning when play was interrupted by rain on a couple of occasions. The lights came on immediately after the first over as Brighton woke up under a huge blanket of dark cloud and intermittent drizzle. The first stoppage occured after 2.1 overs and play was interrupted again four overs later by a thin drizzle.Luke Wells walked off early, edging to Dhoni off Praveen Kumar. Lou Vincent, the former New Zealand batsman, hit a muscular six, the first of the day, over deep square leg but then played casually against RP’s angled delivery, giving Dhoni his second catch.On resumption, Chris Nash, the Sussex captain, took a fancy to Munaf Patel, hitting couple of straight fours, but seemed desperate to charge every ball and paid the price when he cut RP straight to Kohli at point. After 12 overs Sussex were 58 for 3, but Joe Gatting ensured the hosts didn’t lose the plot so easily.He opened his account with a neat, square-driven four off RP. He then took advantage of the short straight boundaries by lofting Munaf, who had an ordinary day, over mid-off for a one-bounce four. Gatting followed up, slogging Munaf over the deep square leg; the ball bounced off the roof of the marquee tent into the first story of the neighbouring apartment building.The introduction of R Ashwin, though, immediately put doubts in Gatting’s mind as he tried to sweep the offspinner against the spin and was bowled. It was the turn of Matt Machan to take over from Gatting and he played resolutely in the middle overs. His 65-run stand with Ben Brown lent respectability to the Sussex score. Machan was the top-scorer with 56 and Brown was unlucky to miss his own fifty by two runs.But the partnership didn’t hurt the Indians, who enjoyed the better of the battle, as the Sussex batsmen increasingly found it hard to play boldly and take chances.

Having started their campaign with victory in a game they had no business winning, Mumbai Indians nearly accomplished the opposite before pipping a blundering Trindad & Tobago off the last ball

The Report by Nitin Sundar26-Sep-2011
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsRavi Rampaul was Man of the Match, but his team-mates made too many errors•Associated Press

Having started their campaign with victory in a game they had no business winning, Mumbai Indians nearly accomplished the exact opposite before pipping a blundering Trindad & Tobago off the last ball. In a game where neither team managed to reach 100, T&T made too many errors to back up their spirit. The mistake that sealed it came after Mumbai Indians’ top-scorer Ambati Rayudu was run out off the penultimate ball of the match, leaving last man Yuzvendra Chahal needing two off the final delivery. In a move that flew in the face of logic, T&T chose to give the single and play for the tie, unmindful of the fact that they would have had to face Lasith Malinga if the Super Over eventuated.Daren Ganga pushed the field back, Sherwin Ganga sent down a low full toss on Chahal’s pads, and the batsman was inventive enough to nudge softly towards deep midwicket. Chahal charged back for the second, the throw from the deep wasn’t accurate, but Denesh Ramdin had enough time to break the stumps after collecting it. Ramdin, however, chose to under-arm from a couple of yards away and missed to the glee of the predominantly Mumbai Indians-biased crowd.When Mumbai Indians came out needing a paltry 99 for victory, talk was that they would go for a big win and boost their net run-rate. Ravi Rampaul and T&T’s army of unconventional spinners had completely different ideas, though. Samuel Badree had Aiden Blizzard top-edging a slider, before Rampaul dismantled the top order with clever lengths delivered at lively pace. T Suman got a leading edge, James Franklin got an outside edge, and Andrew Symonds inner-edged a yorker onto his stumps – the last two off successive balls to leave the chase in disarray.Kieron Pollard survived the hat-trick ball, but T&T kept attacking their once team-mate. Sunil Narine got the prize wicket with a flat offbreak that Pollard bottom-edged onto his pads en route to his stumps to make it 33 for 5. R Sathish and Rayudu concentrated on survival until Rayudu found release with two boundaries off Kevon Cooper. Sathish looked completely out of place, though, and whipped straight to midwicket to leave his side 65 for 6. Harbhajan Singh put the pressure right back with a lashed six, before he was run out in the 18th over while looking to keep Rayudu on strike. T&T’s fielding began to lose its edge, with a number of school-boy errors in the end overs, including Jason Mohammad’s mis-field at long-off that gave Malinga four. Rampaul, however, evened the game once again with a superb 19th over that left Mumbai Indians needing 11 off Sherwin Ganga’s last.Rayudu got a single off the first ball, before Sherwin sent down a friendly full toss off the second. Malinga clattered it straight down the ground, past a leaping effort from Mohammad, for a pressure-releasing six. A single was followed by Malinga’s run-out, backing up too far when Rayudu smashed a full ball straight to the bowler. That made it 3 required off 2, before Rayudu fell attempting an impossible second. And then Daren Ganga blinked, Ramdin missed, and Mumbai were home.T&T’s misery ended with a run-out that was fumbled, but it began earlier in the evening with one that should never have been. They were coasting at 41 for 1 in the fifth over, when Lendl Simmons, returning for a straightforward second, chugged into his crease without grounding his bat. His entire body was over the line, but the front foot was in the air and the back foot on the crease, with no portion of it inside, when the stumps were broken.Until that moment of laziness, T&T’s innings featured all that was good about Caribbean batting. There were flamboyant shots from Adrian Barath in the opening over, audacious pick-up strokes from Simmons, whose approach was unchanged after Barath’s exit, and a couple of emphatic blows from Darren Bravo. But once Simmons handed Mumbai Indians an opening, Harbhajan barged through with attacking bowling and perceptive field placements – he operated with slip and silly point at one point.The middle order did not have the technique to counterattack. Harbhajan enticed Denesh Ramdin into miscuing a sweep right back at him, before nailing Bravo with a yorker. He wound up his spell with Sherwin Ganga’s wicket – a patent slider that pinned him on the back foot. Malinga did his business at the other end, and T&T lost wickets too quickly to last their full quota. They were bowled out with as many as 22 balls left to go in the innings, and in the end that cost them the game.

MS Dhoni, the India captain, has said India still need to improve in the bowling department after their 5-0 series victory over England at home

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Oct-2011MS Dhoni, the India captain, has said India still need to improve in the bowling department after their 5-0 series victory over England at home. He expressed concern at the fact that India’s seamers did not complete their allocated ten overs in many of the matches because they had given away too many runs. Both Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron impressed with their pace during the series but Dhoni said control was as important as bowling quick.”Of course it’s a great series win,” he said after the fifth ODI in Kolkata. “But our fast bowlers could not bowl 10 overs in many of the matches and we have to realise that’s where we have to get better. It’s good to have guys bowling quick but they also need to be able to keep the runs down and not give away a boundary an over.”Even though we’ve won at home, we need to realise that when we go abroad there may not be as much turn for our spinners and so we will not be able to win if our fast bowlers don’t bowl well. In other countries our part-timers may not be as effective as they are here.”The series win comes just a month after India were thumped in both the Tests and one-dayers in England. Dhoni said the criticism his side received after that tour did not worry him as he knew Indians were passionate about cricket and bound to react to a loss.”It happens: you are appreciated when you do well and that should be taken with an open heart. I was not too worried about criticism. We know cricket is big in India. It’s a part of our life.”India went into the ODI series against England with several senior players missing through injury, and Dhoni said while the influx of young players helped sharpen the fielding, the seniors were still needed. “It’s difficult to replace the seniors talent-wise. But these youngsters have clicked as a unit. They are slightly better fielders. They may save 8-10 runs which matter in ODIs. They have reacted in the right way and been patient in waiting for opportunities to turn things their way. But we really can’t really replace Sachin [Tendulkar], [Virender] Sehwag and Yuvraj [Singh].”Dhoni was named Man of the Series after scoring 212 runs without being dismissed in the five games. He said that he would not be moving up the order, though, since he had adjusted his game to batting in the middle order. “The format of the game has changed. Now, with the Powerplays split, the situations are different. We have to be good at the slog overs and rotate strike as well. I have changed my style of batting. At No. 3 you can be flamboyant but at 5 and 6 you have to be careful.”India will play a Twenty20 international against England in Kolkata on October 29 and the organisers will be hoping for a larger crowd after disappointing turnouts over the one-dayers. An overdose of cricket and the absence of some star players were the reasons Dhoni pointed out for the empty rows in the stands at Eden Gardens. “We have played a lot of cricket in India: the World Cup, IPL and then the Champions League T20 were held here. Big stars like Sachin were missing from this series. This is also one of the biggest stadia in India so it’s not easy to get a jam-packed crowd every time.”

Steadfast centuries from Abhishek Nayar and Rohit Sharma and a belligerent knock from Suryakumar Yadav brought Mumbai within 91 of Rajasthan’s first innings score

The Reoprt by Nagraj Gollapudi in Mumbai12-Nov-2011
Scorecard
Abhishek Nayar holds the key on the final day•Fotocorp

Steadfast centuries from Abhishek Nayar and Rohit Sharma and a belligerent knock from Suryakumar Yadav brought Mumbai within 91 of Rajasthan’s first innings score on the penultimate day of an interesting contest at the Brabourne Stadium.With the pair of Iqbal Abdulla and Ramesh Powar, specialists in lower-order rescue acts, and Nayar – who did not return from the tea interval due to severe body cramps, but was confident about batting tomorrow – remaining, Mumbai are on an equal footing with their opponents to gain the three points for the first-innings lead.Rajasthan captain Hrishikesh Kanitkar had put in a sweeper cover from the first over since Rohit had scored freely in front of point on the second day. Rohit displayed the required patience, even though Pankaj Singh, the best bowler in the match, tested him to the hilt. Pankaj consistently attacked Rohit’s off stump, bowling lengths that the batsman was not entirely comfortable with. The first hour in the morning was littered with spirited appeals from Pankaj and Co. but Rohit managed to survive. He also attacked the bowlers at the other end, to make sure the scoring-rate was inching forward.As Rohit entered the 90s, Kanitkar played another interesting card by replacing Pankaj, who had bowled a six-over spell, with Gajendra Singh, the left-arm spinner. On 94, Rohit lunged too far forward against a delivery that spun away before taking an edge. Aakash Chopra, at first slip, dived to his right but could only get his fingertips to the ball before it sailed past.Eventually, a steer to deep point fetched Rohit the two runs required to get to his second century in the first two Ranji matches of the season. Three balls later, he tried to hit over mid-off and ended up watching Vineet Saxena complete a fine catch.Suryakumar was within touching distance of his maiden first-class century when he hit the self-destruct button. This is his third Ranji Trophy match, having made his debut last season, and he has a fifty in each one. Today was his best chance to reach three figures.He started with a hard cut for two before consecutive straight fours over the bowler’s head got him into double figures, and then finished the over by slog-sweeping Gajendra. Off his 17th delivery, he charged Gajendra again to hit his first six, a powerful drive high over the sight screen. In one Chahar over, he collected three consecutive boundaries in the arc between third man and deep point, expertly beating the fielders.In just 20 minutes, Yadav was on 49 as he paddle-swept legspinner Vivek Yadav for an easy four. His half-century had come off 31 balls and included nine fours and one six. Rajasthan’s bowling was in a mess, there were plenty of misfields too, and the 100-odd crowd, mostly kids, enjoyed themselves.Mumbai piled on 187 in the first session off 37 overs. The way Suryakumar was dominating the opposition, Mumbai fancied their chances of taking a lead by stumps. However, Suryakumar’s my-way-is-the-only-way approach came back to haunt him eventually.Kanitkar asked his spinners to bowl wide outside off stump, hoping the inexperienced Suryakumar would go for the slog. Which is what Suryakumar did, living dangerously on a few occasions before another attempted paddle-sweep took the top edge and sailed into the hands of Robin Bist at short fine-leg. In the first round, Suryakumar had missed his maiden century by 12 runs. Today, by 13.Mumbai seemed to have lost the momentum but Nayar played Mr Sensible to revive them. Nayar had missed the first-round clash against Railways due to a wrist injury but came in here for Prashant Naik, who picked up an injury last week. The selectors wanted Nayar to bat at No. 3 but he was understandably reluctant, having usually batted lower in the order.Nayar’s new job could have lasted only a few minutes on Saturday. When on ten, both he and Rohit found themselves stranded mid-pitch after Rohit had called for a run, but Nayar survived. There were more goof-ups like that late on Saturday, but as the minutes ticked by Nayar found his voice and his poise. He scored most of his runs in cuts and sweeps that found empty pockets in the field as the bowlers decided to attack Rohit.The biggest difference between Nayar and the pair of Rohit and Yadav was that the southpaw played more responsibly. He did not fancy hitting every ball. He left many balls alone, churned out singles and did not show any unnecessary urge to go broke like his two team-mates.An easy pull got him to 98 and then he flicked Chahar off his hips and screamed desperately “two, two, two, two” to Suryakumar. As soon as he finished the second, he looked heavenwards for a few seconds, then acknowledged the few faithful at Brabourne. He even thumped his heart with his helmet. It was a moment to be proud and Nayar was not shy. Except, the job still remains half done.

Andrew Strauss has insisted he has no qualms over the squad Pakistan have selected for the Tests in UAE

Andrew McGlashan at Heathrow02-Jan-2012Andrew Strauss has insisted he has no qualms over the squad Pakistan have selected for the Tests in UAE despite links to the spot-fixing trial which led to Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif and Salman Butt being handed jail sentences.Three further players whose names were mentioned during the trial at Southwark Crown Court – left-arm quick Wahab Riaz, opening batsman Imran Farhat and middle-order player Umar Akmal – are part of Pakistan’s 16-man squad for the three Tests in Dubai and Abu Dhabi which start on January 17. No charges were brought against any of those players.Strauss has previously spoken about needing to move on from the controversy which began at Lord’s in 2010, when the now defunct exposed the spot-fixing scam involving deliberate no-balls, and he again talked about a fresh start as the England squad prepared to fly out from Heathrow.”It’s their obligation and duty to pick the best side they think is available to them,” Strauss said. “I think the spot-fixing stuff is something we are desperately keen to move on from. I don’t think there’s any good that can come from churning it all up again and it’s time to just concentrate on the cricket. We will play whichever XI is selected.”Even before spot-fixing the history of contests between these two teams was littered with controversy including the abandoned Test at The Oval in 2006 and the infamous altercation between Mike Gatting and umpire Shakoor Rana in 1987. Strauss, though, is very keen to ensure that the next couple of months don’t add another reason to remember the occasion for the wrong reasons.”This perception that there are always issues between Pakistan and England, we should see this as an opportunity to eradicate that,” he said. “There’s no reason why that should be the case. If we approach it in the right spirit then that should be good for relations between the two teams and world cricket in general.”Pakistan are playing a lot of good cricket and that’s going to be the challenge for us to overcome them, on the field. What’s happened before is water under the bridge and I hope both sides can play in the right spirit and produce an entertaining and exciting Test match series.”Pakistan’s recent form has included Test victories against Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and while that trio doesn’t represent the toughest challenge in the game it is the consistency of a notoriously unpredictable team that caught the eye in the second half of 2011.They have compensated for the absence of Amir and Asif with the emergence of Junaid Khan, a left-arm quick who faces a fitness Test to see whether he’ll be available to play against England, while Aizaz Cheema was a releative late-comer to international cricket at the age of 31. Throw in the skills of Saeed Ajmal, currently the world’s leading spinner, and they remain a potent attack.”They are probably one of the form teams in world cricket at the moment. I think their bowling attack has been pretty impressive,” Strauss said.” They seem to have a production line of good quality bowlers and Saeed Ajmal in particular has done well in those conditions. They have got a good balance to their side and they are playing some good, sort of smart cricket at the moment.”There is also the advantage of having played a considerable amount of cricket in UAE which is now their home away from home, although Strauss wasn’t too concerned about the unknown quantity of what England will encounter.”The conditions aren’t tremendously foreign they are sub-continental definitely,” he said. “I suppose it’s fairly attritional cricket and that’s what you need to get used to doing in those sort of conditions. Taking 20 wickets is going to be the key and I’m very thankful that we go out there with a well-balanced bowling attack that has challenged teams continuously over the last couple of years. I’m sure they will continue to do that.”Strauss said that England are likely to select three of the five quick bowlers in the tour party when the Test series begins which, coupled with the likelihood of them retaining six specialist batsmen and Matt Prior at No. 7, means Monty Panesar will need to wait a bit longer to resume his Test career.England’s two warm-up matches, the first against an Associates and Affiliates XI starting on Saturday, will give Chris Tremlett and Steven Finn a chance to push their claims for a recall but they face a tough task to break up the attack that completed the 4-0 whitewash against India. For whichever bowlers do play, it will be a tough few weeks.

Tasmania were thwarted in their push for an outright Sheffield Shield victory over New South Wales in Canberra thanks to a determined ninth-wicket stand

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Dec-2011
Scorecard
Tasmania were thwarted in their push for an outright Sheffield Shield victory over New South Wales in Canberra thanks to a determined stand between the injured Blues captain Ben Rohrer and the young bowler Josh Lalor.Rohrer, batting at No. 10 due to a side strain suffered earlier in the match, joined Lalor at the wicket with more than 20 overs still to be bowled, but the duo blunted the Tigers’ attack to avoid defeat. Rohrer cracked the last three deliveries of the match to the boundary to remain unbeaten on 49. Lalor made 29 as the Blues finished on 8 for 292.After Ed Cowan and Steven Cazzulino had rattled up a lead of 400 on day three, the Tigers had worked their way through the Blues’ batting, held up mainly by a typically doughty contribution from Simon Katich.The left-arm spinner Xavier Doherty nabbed the important early wickets of the openers Phil Jaques and Nic Maddinson, before Jackson Bird maintained an eye-catching start to his first-class career with a trio of wickets in the middle.

Wellington completed an eight-wicket win against Northern Districts in a rain-marred, bottom-of-the-table HRV Cup match in Mount Maunganui

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Jan-2012
ScorecardWellington completed an eight-wicket win against Northern Districts in a rain-marred, bottom-of-the-table HRV Cup match in Mount Maunganui.Northern Districts chose to bat and got to 82 for 4 in 11.3 overs, before Wellington’s chase began. Their innings didn’t ever really get going, with rain interrupting thrice, before a fourth shower ended it. Nothern Districts knocked over two wickets early in the chase, defending a revised target of 90 from 11 overs, before an unbroken half-century stand between Michael Pollard and James Franklin got them home with four balls to spare.