All posts by csb10.top

Punjab 237 for 5 (Sohal 110, Nanda 2-36, Sangwan 2-56) v Delhi
Scorecard
How they were out

On a typically testing day, Delhi’s perseverance and a special century by Punjab’s Sunny Sohal made sure neither team ended with a clear advantage, though a resolute sixth-wicket partnership put Punjab in a position to push for a big first-innings score. Yuvraj Singh endured a six-ball duck, while Ashish Nehra made a satisfactory return to first-class cricket having missed the whole of the previous season.Delhi began their title defence by putting Punjab in on a Roshanara track that usually provides assistance to the pace bowlers in the first hour of the match. Nehra used that assistance, getting the ball to consistently move away from the left-hand opening batsmen. However, luck deserted him for the first seven overs, during which he kept beating both Karan Goel and Ravi Inder Singh. In the third over of the day, Nehra made Ravi Inder play and miss at three successive deliveries. He finally got his breakthrough in the seventh over of the innings, when Ravi Inder played all over a straight and fast delivery.Delhi’s pace bowlers were unfortunate throughout the day: as many as eight catches fell short of the slip cordon. Nehra looked fit enough to bowl 21 overs in the day and, on another day, he could have bowled worse and yet ended with better figures than 21-7-66-1.The day, though, belonged to Sohal, the diminutive 20-year-old right-hand batsman in his second first-class season. He came in ahead of Yuvraj and took complete control of the game. He cover-drove and square-drove with ease, and also dominated the strike. When he came in to bat, in the eighth over, Goel had already scored 15 off 23 balls. By the end of the 25th over, Sohal had reached 35 off 63, while Goel had 32 off 69.An inspirational burst from Pradeep Sangwan pulled Delhi back into the game just before lunch. Sangwan first bowled an accurate short one straight at Goel’s face, who fended it to Virat Kohli at third slip. Then came the most anticipated phase of play for the match: Yuvraj’s batting, which lasted only one over. Yuvraj got a bouncer first up from Sangwan, which he easily ducked under. They were followed up by five accurate deliveries, the last of which he played at with hard hands, and guided to Shikhar Dhawan at first slip.Post lunch, Sohal took control of the game again. He was aggressive, not missing out on any scoring opportunities. He put together two important partnerships with Pankaj Dharmani and Uday Kaul for the fourth and fifth wickets. Of the 47 scored for the fifth wicket, Sohal made 29, while he contributed 33 out of 37 for the fifth wicket. There were no nerves when he neared his first first-class hundred. He moved from 72 to 100 in 28 balls, and reached his century with an aerial flick towards mid-on, where Amit Bhandari’s misfield allowed the ball to go to the boundary.During that phase, Chetanya Nanda kept one end tied up, and Nehra bowled an inspired spell. He went round the wicket to trouble Dharmani with the ones that held their line. During that spell, Nehra bowled five overs and stayed wicketless. Nanda’s accuracy worked, though, when Dharmani went to cut him, but played it on to his stumps for want of room. Soon after reaching his century, Sohal stepped out to Nanda in the fifth over after tea, but couldn’t connect properly. When he got out, he had scored 110 out of Punjab’s 176.After Sohal’s dismissal, it seemed Delhi might fight back, but Kaul and Ankur Kakkar, both left-hand batsmen, batted patiently, while Delhi looked a bit flat. Flamboyance was replaced by solidity, as both batsmen played safely to stumps. Although the two added only 61 in 20.1 overs, Kakkar displayed some aggression by pulling Sangwan for a four and a six in the penultimate over of the day.

How they were out

Ravi Inder Singh b Nehra 2 (17 for 1)
Plays across the line to a Nehra delivery and is beaten for pace. The stumps are splayedKaran Goel c Kohli b Sangwan 37 (80 for2)
Gets a good bouncer from Sangwan, and fends it to Kohli at third slipYuvraj Singh c Dhawan b Sangwan 0 (92 for 3)
Yuvraj half-steers and half-fends a straight delivery from Sangwan to Dhawan at first slipPankaj Dharmani b Nanda 16 (139 for4)
Looks to open the face, but there isn’t enough room, and plays it onSunny Sohal c Sangwan b Nanda 110 (176 for 5)
Steps out and looks to hit Nanda over the infield, but gets too close to the pitch of the ball and holes out to Sangwan at mid-on

Scorecard

Shaun Tait produced a brilliant spell of vicious swing bowling before his batting colleagues got South Australia home with one ball to spare at Adelaide Oval. Chasing 262, the Redbacks needed 11 from the final Mark Cameron over and Cameron Borgas put them in the box seat with a six over midwicket from the first delivery.Borgas holed out to long on next ball for 39 but Mark Cleary and Aaron O’Brien steered the home team to victory in an innings that had been strongly set up by the openers Michael Klinger, who made 79, and Daniel Harris (56). Both men fell to the accurate and impressive Aaron Bird, who found reverse swing to finish with a career best 4 for 48 that gave the Blues a sniff.Bird also picked off South Australia’s star recruit Younis Khan, whose first appearance for the Redbacks ended when an inswinging yorker rattled his stumps when he had 3. Bird had also trapped Callum Ferguson, whose 46 helped South Australia to a seemingly unbeatable position at 1 for 176.But it was Tait who had set up the triumph with two almost unplayable spells of very fast bowling that bookended the New South Wales innings. Tait struck in the first over when Phillip Hughes edged behind and quickly added the debutant Usman Khawaja, who bravely tried to hook and was brilliantly snared one-handed by the jumping O’Brien at square leg.When Tait was rested, South Australia were far less threatening. Dominic Thornely and Peter Forrest (57) built a handy total, with help from an aggressive Moises Henriques, who made 41. Dan Cullen and Cleary leaked runs as the Blues’ confidence grew but Tait’s late spell was vital in restricting the target.He returned to trap Thornely lbw for 82 with a toe-crushing inswinging yorker and added Grant Lambert, who backed away and bizarrely offered no shot to a full toss on middle stump. Another yorker accounted for Nathan Hauritz and Tait’s 5 for 27 earned him the Man-of-the-Match title, set up the victory and was a worrying omen for any other domestic or international batsmen who will face him this season.

New South Wales have called on the fast bowlers Aaron Bird and Burt Cockley after their attack took a couple of injury hits ahead of the FR Cup game against Queensland in Cairns on Saturday. The Blues have named a 12-man squad that does not feature Moises Henriques or Mark Cameron, both of whom had been expected to play.The destructive Cameron, who was part of the Australia A tour of India last month, has struggled to get over an ankle injury he picked up during the Blues’ recent Sheffield Shield game in Perth. Henriques, the promising allrounder who spent time with Australia’s squad in Darwin in September, has battled a side injury in the past few weeks and remains unable to bowl.It could mean a possible one-day debut for Cockley, the right-arm fast-medium bowler who played his sole first-class match late last summer. Bird had been chosen in the squad for the opening FR Cup match of the season but was left out of the starting line-up.The Blues began their campaign with a tight victory against Western Australia last week. They will be taking on a Queensland outfit that features the Australia one-day players Andrew Symonds and James Hopes, but lost to Tasmania at the Gabba on Wednesday.FR Cup squad Phillip Hughes, Peter Forrest, Daniel Smith (wk), Dominic Thornely (capt), Steven Smith, David Warner, Steve O’Keefe, Grant Lambert, Nathan Hauritz, Nathan Bracken, Aaron Bird, Burt Cockley.

The build-up to Australia’s upcoming tour of India has received another fillip after Sachin Tendulkar said that the rivalry between the two teams surpassed that between India and Pakistan because of the “competitiveness” that has characterised India-Australia encounters since 2001.”We have gone to Australia and beaten them. We have been able to surprise them and that’s what the Australian public likes: competition and high standards of play,” Tendulkar told reporters in Mumbai. “They love to see challenges and competitiveness.”Over the last seven years, 11 out 15 India-Australia Tests have had results with Australia holding a 6-5 advantage. India have won two Tests in Australia, while no other team has won a single Test since the Ashes game in Sydney in 2002.”I think it [India v Australia] has become bigger largely because of the competitiveness. All the series, from 2001 onwards, have been keenly fought and have been very close ones.”Expecting the series in October to be no different, Tendulkar promised hard but fair cricket from India, and felt Australia would reciprocate.Ricky Ponting will lead a relatively inexperienced team – none of his bowlers have played a Test in India – but Tendulkar said their squad, which is a blend of experienced batsmen and new-comers with extensive first-class experience, would challenge India.Tendulkar will begin the series 77 runs short of surpassing Brian Lara’s record of 11,953 runs to become the highest run-getter in Tests. He was tipped to break it during the recent series in Sri Lanka but managed to score only 95 in three Tests. Tendulkar, however, chose to play down the approaching landmark.”I don’t think too much about records,” he said. “I want to enjoy my game. If players focus on their performance, records automatically fall into place. I focus on playing the game well. If it [the record] comes in doing so I will be happy.”

Bermuda are their worst enemies, and unless they drastically alter their approach to the game, their future at the highest level appears limited at best. That is the damning verdict of their West Indian coach, Gus Logie, as Bermuda were swept aside in the tri-series against Canada and West Indies.”At the end of the day if we don’t learn from our mistakes we are not going to grow and whatever growth we do have will always come to nothing if we continue to make the same mistakes over and over,” Logie told . “If we want to compete and win at this level we can’t afford to make the same mistakes such as getting out the same way over and over, which tells me that we are not assessing situations as well as we could. There are areas where we feel players still need to put in more effort into their own game and understand it is a team game and not an individual game.”Whatever the team requires they must be prepared to do that, that’s what being a mature individual is all about.”I think we are maturing, but doing so very slowly. I believe if our guys put a bit more planning and commitment into their cricket they will succeed. But at the end of the day we still have certain things to work on and players must be willing to work because it’s not just going to happen by saying it – you have to put in the work.”Bermuda have lost both their matches in the tri-series, Canada beating them by 25 runs before West Indies breezed past without so much as breaking sweat. It is not all depressing news, however. The one bright spot has been the performances of their 18-year-old batsman, Chris Douglas, who outshone his more experienced team-mates with back-to-back cultured fifties.”Chris showed the amount of talent, courage and will to succeed at this level while in the bowling department young Kelly (Stefan) held his own and continues to be a force to be reckoned with at this level,” Logie said.So impressive was Douglas that he has drawn favourable praise from Ramnaresh Sarwan, the West Indies captain.”Generally I thought he played very well and was very patient which is a good sign to see and hopefully he can go onto to do better things for Bermuda,” Sarwan said. “I thought he picked the bowlers and waited on the right balls to hit where he knew he was strong.”But for all the encouragement that an 18-year-old has brought to Bermuda’s fledgling fortunes, Logie laments the performance of his more experienced troops.”The experienced players didn’t put their hands up and perform as they could ¿ and they knew who they are,” he said. “We had young and inexperienced players performing at a level beyond their maturity and then players that have been involved at this level for a number of years who didn’t produce when it really mattered.”

Scorecard

Despite a delay of fifteen days, Durham romped to an easy win in their postponed quarter-final, beating Glamorgan by 44 runs to book the last place in Saturday’s Twenty20 Finals Day. Glamorgan, replacing Yorkshire as Durham’s opponents when the club fielded an illegible player two weeks ago, were the lesser side on paper and on the day.The average Twenty20 score at Chester-le-Street this season is 118, yet Durham surpassed this with 51 from Will Smith and some fine lower-order hitting from Gareth Breese and Shaun Pollock. Defending 164 still required a tidy bowling performance, however, but Durham were up to the task. Liam Plunkett picked up 3 for 16 while Steve Harmison reminded the England selectors of his priceless pace value.Unlike Durham, Glamorgan lacked middle- and lower-order ballast. Both sides suffered top-order slides, losing four wickets, but Durham’s bowlers maintained a disciplined line to restrict the boundary count and send the required rate rocketing above 11-per-over. Durham’s defence began in perfect fashion for Plunkett, bowling Richard Grant through the gate with a fine off-cutter with the first ball of the innings. David Hemp creamed him for four in the same over, but once Plunkett rediscovered his line, Hemp was lured into a fishy drive outside off.At the other end, Shaun Pollock was keeping things tidy and kept Mike Powell tied down with his mixture of cutters and changes of pace. Frustrated, Powell tried to carve Plunkett through extra cover but found Smith – Durham’s saviour with the bat – who dived forward to take a fine catch. When Tom Maynard was run-out by Harmison’s deft piece of footwork, Glamorgan were 54 for 4 and limping.All was not lost, however. Jamie Dalrymple cracked four fours in his 34, while Mark Wallace took the attack to Gareth Breese, threading three fours off one over. But the double-change by Dale Benkenstein to bring on Paul Collingwood and Harmison paid dividends. Dalrymple fell to a neat off-cutter from Collingwood and Harmison, who bowled near to (and occasionally in excess of) 90mph, bowled Wallace with a wonderfully disguised slower-ball. Glamorgan’s tail kept the rate just within check, but continued to lose wickets at crucial stages, as Durham kept maintained the pressure.Good though Durham’s bowlers were, their batsmen deserve just as much praise. 56 were smashed from the last four overs by Pollock (20 from 12) and Breese (20 from 9), and they capitalised on a fine rescue-act by Smith whose 51 contained six elegant boundaries. Smith’s stabilising influence came at a useful time, too, since Durham had lost four internationals with just 49 on the board – including the prized wicket of Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Smith, however, capitalised on the form he showed in his double hundred against Surrey, taking the attack to Glamorgan with a six and a four over midwicket off Hemp. Though he fell shortly after reaching his 37-ball fifty, he had at least laid the foundation for Durham’s powerful lower-order to go ballistic. And they duly did.Durham have waited a long while for this match, but their concentration never wavered from the goal today. They now face Middlesex in the second semi-final at The Rose Bowl on Saturday, and their potent bowling unit is looking in pristine shape.