Australia rode on Lisa Keightley’s allround performance to romp home to a comfortable eight-wicket victory in the fourth one-dayer at Vapi. Keightley followed up her 3 for 17 with a fine 80 as Australia won with more than five overs to spare. After suffering a setback in their previous game in Mumbai, Australia came back strongly and now lead the seven-match series 3-1.The Australian bowlers justified their decision to field first by keeping India down to 170. Jaya Sharma made a patient 43 but most of the batsmen struggled against Keightley’s medium pace.Chasing 171, Australia got off to a solid start with Keightley and Belinda Clark negotiating the first 15 overs. Clark was dismissed for 23, bowled by Jhulan Goswami, but Karen Rolton made a steady half-century and added 96 for the second wicket with Keightley and took them past the finish line.
Duncan Fletcher has agreed a new contract that will make him England’s longest-serving coach, and will formally put pen to paper in the next few days.Fletcher’s current deal runs out at the end of the 2004 English season, and there has been considerable media speculation over his future, with suggestions that he was considering a return to county cricket. But after a few weeks relaxing in Cape Town, Fletcher has decided to commit himself further to the England cause.The England & Wales Cricket Board had been pushing for him to sign a deal which would have kept him in the job until the end of the 2007 World Cup, but Fletcher, who is 55, was reluctant to commit that far ahead. Instead the compromise of an open-ended arrangement was agreed.”We believe that the new arrangement removes the scope for distractingannual speculation,” said John Carr, the ECB’s director of cricket. “The decision to move Duncan from a fixed-term contract to a staff contractdemonstrates the board’s own commitment to him and his own commitment to theEngland cause.”Fletcher replaced David Lloyd as England coach in 1999, after successful spells with Western Province and Glamorgan. Apart from two series defeats against Australia, he is widely considered to have done a good job and the news of the new contract will be a boost to England at the start of a hectic year of international cricket.
It’s great to see the Bangladesh side here in New Zealand. The main reason it’s great is that the game at international level is growing.And that can only be good for the International Cricket Council’s plan to aggressively globalise cricket.Bangladesh has some 130 million people living in the country so it will only be a few years I’m sure until they produce some attacking stroke makers and wily spinners that we see from their neighbours India and Pakistan.Every nation has to begin somewhere so the results in this early stage of their development are not important, it is the exposure to top level cricket in as many countries that they can play in that should be the focus.This exposure will make the current crop of players better cricketers who in turn put back effort in the system to make the young players of tomorrow better cricketers.This Test will be important for us also as personally I need to get more overs under my belt after my long lay-off.I have read some people saying was I injured in Perth and why didn’t I bowl my quota of overs?I always wanted to bowl but it is Flem’s [captain Stephen Fleming] decision who will bowl.During that Test series my rhythm was not quite there even though I was trying like anything.During the last Test, Flem chose Shane Bond and Chris Martin to bowl ahead of me because he believed they were the best to do that job at that given time.This is what a team is all about, and this team is one of the best I have ever been involved in.It will be great to see Bond get a bag of wickets under his belt this series to get confidence at this level and to see Lou Vincent continue his great start.The amount of rain that Hamilton has experienced prior to the Test tomorrow has been enormous. This has meant the preparation of the wicket has been delayed so I am not really sure what the pitch will do.This has been traditionally the best cricket wicket in New Zealand but may be a little slower than normal.I read somewhere recently that this is the first time in 40 Tests that the CLEAR Black Caps have played back-to-back Tests with the same team.Now that is amazing!These situations were brought about mainly through injury and the odd selection change but when I heard that I couldn’t believe it.Any successful sports team or individual strives for consistency so when each time you take the field, to have the same people performing makes things easier for the captain as he can get his patterns sorted out.Let’s hope we can string a few more together!
Once the combination of morning rain with heavy clay soil and poor drainage forced play to be abandoned for the day shortly before the sun came outat the Oval, a curious event for a ground at which a new sprinkler systemwas fitted over the winter. As a result entertainment was limited for thosenot keen on watching the pigeons and ducks on the outfield.Supporters of the home side can take comfort in the knowledge that last summer when only two days worth of cricket were possible an under strength side defeated Kent, and three are expected to be possible this year, on the other hand, from more recent evidence (Surrey have scored a paltry 559 for the loss of 44 wickets in three four day matches since they scored 585 at Lord’s last year) some might be glad to have survived a day without being bowled out! At home, in what should be warm, partially clouded conditions Surrey will expect to get their show on the road again this summer against a Kent side lacking either McCague or Headley.Whether this is the case or not it will be a nice rarity for there to be afull day of weekend county championship cricket at the Oval, last summersseries of one sided contests and Wednesday starts denied many the chanceto see any of this form of the game.
Sunderland boss Steve Bruce has cooled any talk of a move for Tottenham star Niko Kranjcar Sky Sports reports.
It’s been suggested that the Croatian was on Bruce’s hit list after he recently confirmed his admiration for the midfielder.
His agent Adrian Aljai suggested earlier this week that a deal between the two clubs could be imminent but the Black Cats boss has poured cold water on that.
“I don’t know where that’s come from.” Bruce told Sky Sports.
“As I have said repeatedly now for a couple of weeks, I am very, very pleased with what we have done and if we don’t do another thing, I will be delighted with what we have done.
He added: “I don’t know where the Kranjcar thing came from. I have seen quotes from his agent – certainly, I have not spoken to Kranjcar’s agent, so I don’t really know where that has come from.”
Bruce has bolstered his squad extensively this summer with 10 new faces moving to the Stadium of Light and it now seems Kranjcar won’t be making the move North.
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He is surplus to requirements at White Hart Lane after starting just two Premier League games last season.
Manager Harry Redknapp is looking to raise funds for new recruits meaning the Croatians time in North London looks numbered.
Arsenal have now suffered an injury blow, with an important player, who Mikel Arteta recently called “tremendous”, set for a prolonged spell on the sidelines.
Gunners struggling on the injury front
The Gunners remain top of the Premier League table, but the sheer number of injuries they’ve had to deal with could hamper their ambitions of winning the title, with the likes of Bukayo Saka, Vikor Gyokeres, Kai Havertz and William Saliba already spending time on the treatment table this season.
When asked whether overtraining is the explanation for why so many players have been injured, however, Arteta said: “No, because we don’t have time to train.
“Today we’ve done 20 minutes, so surely it’s not because we over-trained the players.
“But obviously when you are missing players, you are loading other players and there is a consequence to that, and it’s a really dangerous circle.”
The manager may need to work out the root cause of the issue sooner rather than later, considering another important player recently sustained an injury, namely Ben White, with the defender being withdrawn in the first half in the 2-1 victory against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
There has now been a new update on White’s injury, with a report from The Sun revealing he will be sidelined for at least one month, having sustained a hamstring injury in the narrow victory against the Old Gold.
With Cristhian Mosquera already out due to an ankle problem, and Gabriel still not returning to training after suffering a thigh issue, the latest news is a real blow for Arteta, heading into a busy period, with four games penciled in before 2026.
The £50m defender has struggled with persistent injury problems since last season, and the latest issue means Jurrien Timber is set to be given the nod at right-back against Everton on Saturday.
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The Gunners are closely monitoring a Real Madrid ace.
1 ByDominic Lund Arteta will be frustrated to lose "tremendous" White
The Gunners have already had to make do without Saliba and Gabriel at times this season, which will have been disappointing for Arteta, considering the duo are regarded as two of the best defenders in the Premier League.
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White perhaps isn’t quite at that level, having spent the majority of the current campaign on the bench, but the Arsenal boss recently suggested he was starting to show glimpses of his former self, saying: “I’m very happy that we have him back in the best version of himself as well. And we’re going to need him because he’s a tremendous player.”
The Englishman was particularly impressive in the 2-0 victory against Brentford, assisting Mikel Merino’s opening goal and making six tackles in the 2-0 victory.
The 28-year-old is a great asset to Arteta due to his versatility, with the former Brighton man able to slot in at right-back and centre-back, so it is incredibly frustrating to lose him heading into the busy festive period.
Back in October, the New Zealand touring team was hosted for a tour match at Blacktown Oval to Sydney’s west – if “hosted” is the right word. The ground staff had been unable to grow grass after the football season, leaving a pitch of rolled mud that was at first a road before growing progressively more treacherous.Fearing injuries to their batsmen before the first Test, New Zealand pressed successfully for the match to be abandoned, and made a speedy exit to Brisbane. The absurdity of the episode was only enhanced by the fact that Cricket Australia had scheduled a Sheffield Shield match to be held at New Zealand Cricket’s high performance centre in Lincoln by way of preparation for the return trip, and that the centre’s curator was at Blacktown that week discussing facilities with Cricket NSW.Four months on, and there will be no “get square” on the outskirts of Christchurch. The pitch for the Shield fixture between NSW and Western Australia will not suffer for lack of grass coverage, and nor will it force an early abandonment. The flexibility of New Zealand to allow an event without precedent in cricket history – a domestic match played on the shores of an imminent Test match opponent – is rare in an age of administrators protecting hometown results, and may yet have other flow-on benefits for the nation across the Tasman.The concept was first discussed as New Zealand and Australia pieced together a new bilateral agreement in the afterglow of last year’s World Cup. Cricket Australia argued there was insufficient time amid a looming World Twenty20 for the originally scheduled three Tests and a warm-up match, and New Zealand countered that a revival of the dormant Chappell-Hadlee ODI series would be advantageous. The Sheffield Shield match was tossed up as a compromise for cricketers not part of the 50-over series.”The scheduling is a significant jigsaw puzzle at the best of times,” CA head of operations Sean Cary told ESPNcricinfo. “But with the lead-up to the World Twenty20 and Australia needing to play India at home, New Zealand in New Zealand, South Africa away before the T20 World Cup, we had to jockey between the three countries to alter the FTP slightly to fit everything in.”The New Zealand tour match came about because we’d changed the original schedule for a three-Test tour to two Tests with ODIs in a shorter space of time. That meant we didn’t really have enough time to play a fully-fledged tour match before the Test series, so in part of the negotiations around additional matches for the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy series we floated with NZC the idea of playing a Shield match in New Zealand in lieu of the tour match.”We chose a NSW home match v WA because a large proportion of the current Test squad comes from those two states.”As it has turned out, only Peter Nevill, Nathan Lyon and Adam Voges will be taking part among members of the Test side, while Joe Burns, Jackson Bird, James Pattinson, Peter Sidle and Chadd Sayers must be content with a Shield match for Queensland on the eastern seaboard. The likes of Steven Smith, David Warner, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh and Usman Khawaja are part of the ODI series.Even so, the fixture is providing a chance for further cross-pollination between the administrations of the two countries. “Essentially its a NSW home match, so they operationally take their structure from Sydney to Christchurch,” Cary said. “NZC have supported in that they are match managing the contest. There are some little bits and pieces to fine tune like online scoring and that side of it, we need to do a bit of work ourselves with NZC to make sure everything looks and feels as if it’s being played in Australia … but essentially it’s a NSW home game.The pitch in Blacktown, where New Zealand’s tour game was abandoned on their tour of Australia•Getty Images
“NZC are responsible for the wicket. In our pre-tour visit I met the curator, I went out to the ground, he showed me which wicket is being used, it’s right in the centre of the block. They’ve not played any cricket on it this summer until that Shield match so it’s going to be in pristine condition, and the curators these days have a lot of pride in their work. They’ll produce as best quality wicket they possibly can.”As for the Blacktown episode, Cary said there was a strong degree of understanding among the New Zealand ground staff for the problems faced at by those responsible for the ground at the time. He also conceded it had been CA’s error to have the tour game played in Sydney rather than in Brisbane, where Allan Border Field sat unused at the same time the Blacktown match was called off.”There’ll be no tit-for-tat there,” Cary said. “We’re first to acknowledge unfortunately we didn’t make the right decision in terms of venue selection for that Blacktown game. We apologised profusely and gave the best possible solution for New Zealand after that. Funnily enough the curator at Lincoln was actually at Blacktown at that time because they’d been invited over to see what NSW had done with their indoor centre and training set-up and providing their own information.”He saw the situation and was very much feeling sorry for the curator because he knew he didn’t have much to play with in terms of a four-day wicket. They were sharing knowledge about the indoor nets for all seasons that New Zealand cricket are starting to prepare, and they were sharing that knowledge with Cricket NSW.”What is clear about this fixture and its lead-up is that relationships are building between the two countries that may be useful in future. The concept of New Zealand-based Big Bash League teams has been touted in recent times, and such a possibility will be more realistic for all the information sharing that has gone on over the past year or so.”Because of the relationship the curators built up through the World Cup being hosted in both countries, we had the New Zealand curator group here and our curator group went to New Zealand over the two years leading into the World Cup,” Cary said. “They’ve built relationships, they share knowledge and everyone gets along well.”From a high performance perspective it gives guys opportunities to get a taste for international cricket, they travel to another country, they have to go through all the rigmarole of customs and getting acclimatised and all those things. So it helps our developing cricketers, and also shows we can share knowledge and experience in an operational sense and hopefully learn from each other and be better at putting on cricket in our respective countries.”Lincoln’s quiet surrounds will feel a long way from the hustle and bustle of the BBL, but it will also be very distant from those chaotic scenes at Blacktown. New Zealand’s generosity to Australia in this case should not be forgotten.
Karen Rolton is on target to be the second player in the history of the Women’s National Cricket League (WNCL) to score 4000 runs. Rolton, the Australian captain, needs just 18 runs to reach the milestone first achieved by former captain Belinda Clark.Rolton will lead the South Australia Scorpions on their away trip to Sydney next week, which will feature a practice match v ACT, prior to the WNCL matches against New South Wales.Two new players join the squad: fast bowler Leanne Davis, and Tegan McPharlin, the middle-order batsman. Both players have been chosen following strong grade/district performances.England’s Jenny Gunn, who plays grade cricket in Sydney, will also play for the Scorpions for the second successive year.
New South Wales have recalled Doug Bollinger and Moises Henriques for their must-win Ford Ranger Cup match against Tasmania at Sydney’s Telstra Stadium on Wednesday. The Blues, who have lost their last three one-day games, are in fourth place on the table but with only two matches remaining they would need a remarkable stroke of luck to reach the final.Matthew Nicholson was left out of the side to take on Tasmania but the other change was a forced one with Nathan Bracken unavailable due to his commitments with the Australia team. Greg Mail, the opening batsman, has found his way back into the Pura Cup squad to take on the Tigers at the SCG starting on Saturday.Mail, who has taken Aaron O’Brien’s place in the 12-man line-up, began the first-class season poorly with 97 runs from six innings before thrusting his name back in front of the selectors with 374 runs in Sydney grade cricket within eight days. The Blues are also struggling in the four-day competition, sitting fifth on the table with only two wins from six games.Pura Cup squad Phil Jaques, Ed Cowan, Greg Mail, Simon Katich (capt), Dominic Thornely, Brad Haddin (wk), Grant Lambert, Beau Casson, Matthew Nicholson, Doug Bollinger, Stuart MacGill, Mark Cameron.FR Cup squad Phil Jaques, Ed Cowan, Simon Katich (capt), Brad Haddin (wk), Daniel Christian, Dominic Thornely, Aaron O’Brien, David Warner, Moises Henriques, Nathan Hauritz, Scott Coyte, Doug Bollinger.
ScorecardJust like the full England side, the under-19s are finding life on the subcontinent tough this winter. After being whitewashed in the five-match series against a BCB High Perfomance Side, their poor start to the triangular tournament got poorer with a second defeat, this time to Sri Lanka.Angelo Mathews was the star for Sri Lanka, smashing 70 not out from 74 balls to boost their total to 225 after Dimuth Karunaratne and Sameera de Zoysa put on 54 for the first wicket to set a solid platform.Rory Hamilton-Brown fared the best for England’s bowlers, taking 3 for 44 and playing a part in causing a mid-innings wobble and give Sri Lanka the jitters at 156 for 8. But Mathews stood firm to help lift the score with two fruitful stands with Muthumudalige Pushpakumara and Rajeeva Weerasinghe which yielded 69 runs.England lost early wickets which set them on the backfoot from the off. Varun Chopra stood firm to add a quick 34 from as many balls, but when he fell to Hans Fernando and Woodman went for 40, the momentum fell away from the innings (83 for 3). There was no way back for England and when they lost three quick wickets for six runs late on – Weerasinghe struck twice and there was a run out – the writing was on the wall (180 for 8).They folded not long after, with Ben Wright left stranded on 40 not out, as Sri Lanka recorded victory by 13 runs.