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Josh Richards and Dominic Hendricks scored centuries for the Lions as they chased down a record total

Firdose Moonda26-Nov-2020Results Summary The defending champions, the Lions, registered their first win of this season’s competition by chasing down a record total against the Knights at the Wanderers. Their 336 for 6 beats the previous best, 310 for 8 by Australia in the 2011/12 season, and finished off a remarkable comeback for the hosts, who were behind by 98 runs in the first innings.The Knights were kept to 300 in their first innings, thanks largely to Sisanda Magala’s 6 for 60 and held together by half-centuries from Grant Mokoena and Migael Pretorius, who then took 4 for 40 against his former franchise. The Lions never quite got their reply going and went from 47 for 5 to 202 all out. That gave the Knights a perfect platform to bat the Lions out of the match and when they stretched the lead to 283, with six wickets in hand they may have thought they were on track. But the Knights lost 6 for 44 and set the Lions 334 to win.Centuries from openers Josh Richards and Dominic Hendricks, who shared a stand of 256, took the Lions to the brink and the middle order finished off. Despite the victory, the Lions remain more than 20 points behind the Knights in Pool B.Also on the Highveld, the Warriors chased 218 to beat the Titans at SuperSport Park, to earn their first win of the competition and deny Aiden Markram victory despite his twin centuries in the match.After six Covid-19 related absences from the first two rounds, the Warriors were back to full strength for this fixture and the difference in morale and performance showed. They bowled the Titans out for 320 and then piled on 392 in their own first innings.By the time the Titans erased the 72-run deficit, three of their top four were dismissed and they had to rely on Markram and the middle order to set the Warriors a competitive target. Only one batsmen other than Markram got past 30, and the Warriors were required to chase 218. They made tricky work of it, but won by three wickets to close the gap between themselves and the Titans to less than 18 points in Pool A.The Cobras lie at the bottom of the pool and are the only team not to have won a match after the first three rounds. They held on for the draw against the Dolphins in Durban after failing to bowl the Dolphins out in either innings and being set 295 runs to win. The Dolphins declared their first innings closed on 389 for 8, built on a century from Khaya Zondo. In reply, Tony de Zorzi top-scored for the Cobras with 58 as they were dismissed for 312, 77 runs behind.Fifties from the Dolphins top three and a scoring rate of 4.34 runs to the over saw them declare again on 217 for 4 on the final day, setting up a thrilling last two sessions. They had 62 overs at the Cobras, who needed to score at close to five runs an over to win. The Dolphins might have fancied their chances when they had the Cobras 66 for 3, but Pieter Malan and Aviwe Mgijma dug in, and though both of them were eventually dismissed, the Dolphins could not nip out the last four wickets. The Dolphins are also at the bottom of their pool, Pool B, but are less than 10 points behind the Lions. On the National Radar Markram’s return to form could not have come at a better time, with the Test series against Sri Lanka a month away and decisions to be made about both the opening spot and the captaincy. He scored 149 and 121, almost 45% of the Titans total runs in the match, and sits in second place on the overall run charts. Less encouraging were the performances of Dean Elgar (20 and 6) and Theunis de Bruyn, who bagged a pair. While both Elgar and de Bruyn have centuries to their names in the tournament so far, Elgar has gone to add to half-centuries to that but de Bruyn’s three ducks and a 13 may see him slip down the order of preference.Also of interest is two-time Test cap Senuran Muthusamy’s performance for the Dolphins. He was promoted to opening the batting and scored 79 and 56 while also eight wickets in the match (four in each innings) with his left-arm spin. Muthusamy now sits in joint fifth place
on the wicket-charts and though South Africa are not short of left-arm slow bowlers, having an all-round option is always handy. Top Performers Though Markram has all but secured the Test opening spot, Sarel Erwee continues to impress and remains the leading run-scorer. Erwee registered a third score of 50-plus in his third match, with 56 in the second innings to help the Dolphins set up their victory push. No.3 batsmen Keegan Petersen also scored 56 while in the first innings Zondo’s hundred will be noted with interest, especially after his struggles for form since being on the fringes of the national side.Other batsmen who showed signs of strong form are Dominic Hendricks, who scored a second century in successive matches, Richards, whose hundred was his first at franchise level and Sinethemba Qeshile of the Warriors, who scored 97.With Tabraiz Shamsi on international duty, the Knights’ Pretorius is now the leading bowler with 16 wickets to his name. Warriors’ left-armer Marco Jansen is in joint-fourth place and took seven wickets against the Titans while exciting young quick Lifa Ntanzi, claimed 3 for 51 in the first innings for the Dolphins against the Cobras.

Australia captain says 2015 World Cup “quite aggressive on the field, mainly from us” but this time around it’s “great spirit” on display from the teams

Andrew Miller at Lord's28-Jun-2019Aaron Finch, Australia’s captain, believes that his team’s reformed attitude in the field has been a factor in a World Cup that has been notable for the spirit between the teams.In beating England last week on the same strip that will be used for tomorrow’s showdown against New Zealand, Finch’s Australians became the first team to book a place in next month’s semi-finals.And looking back on the 2015 event in Australia, when they beat the same opponents to secure the World Cup for a record fifth time, Finch admitted that the tone of that tournament on that occasion had been significantly more aggressive, “mainly from us”.But, in the wake of the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal – and the bans for three of their players including the then captain and vice-captain Steven Smith and David Warner – Australia have gone out of their way to present a new, more friendly, attitude. So far at this World Cup, a softer approach has not impacted on their hard attitude in the big moments, and Finch is happy to revel in the wider benefits.”I think it has been a great spirit out on the field, regardless of results,” Finch said. “You see a lot of smiles on people’s faces, which is a good sign that the game’s in really good hands at the moment, and that it is being played in the right spirit.”I’m not sure if it’s been a conscious effort from individual countries, but it certainly felt like a really, really good tournament.”Australia and New Zealand have been involved in two of the stand-out moments of sporting behaviour in the tournament so far – firstly when Virat Kohli appealed to India’s fans at The Oval to stop booing Smith and Warner – an intervention that led to a mid-pitch handshake with Smith shortly afterwards – and then at Old Trafford last week, when New Zealand’s players queued up to console Carlos Brathwaite, after his stunning century had come so close to sealing victory for West Indies.”It’s tough to compare different times [but] I know the last one was quite an aggressive World Cup on the field, mainly from us,” Finch said. “We were quite aggressive in our approach and how we went about things.”But it’s been great. This one has been absolutely brilliant, and I think what’s been really pleasing as well, [comes when] you look around the stands, regardless of who is playing.”In the past, if the home team is not playing, there could be some really empty stands, but this has been unbelievable. They have been packed-out venues and really quality cricket, so people are definitely getting their value for money, too.”Kane Williamson, New Zealand’s captain, echoed the sentiments about the crowd, and looked forward to sampling a different vibe at Lord’s from the one that he has been used to on his previous visits.”The atmospheres have varied a lot,” he said. “Pakistan was very loud. Bangladesh, very loud. India, we didn’t even play and they were very loud [chuckles].”Usually you come to Lord’s, there’s sort of a quiet murmur when you play England, but I guess playing Australia it might be a little bit different when you have Kiwis and Australians filling out the seats. It will be a really good atmosphere, whatever it is, but I know for a fact that both teams are just looking forward to getting into the cricket.”Australia, for once, might not have anticipated going into tomorrow’s contest as favourites, having struggled throughout 2018, including a 5-0 series defeat against England. But order has been restored with their comprehensive displays in the crunch moments of this event, and Finch said his side was ready once again to embrace the role of tournament front-runners.”Oh, I think that any time you have pressure on you, it’s because the expectations high, because of what you have done in the recent history,” he said.”So you can never shy away from that, and you can look at it either way. You can look at it as a burden, and only you can stuff it up, but I think at the end of the day, when you’re talking about [being favourites] and things like that, you also have to appreciate the amount of work that goes in behind the scenes from the coaches and everyone to get to that position.”Whether it’s us, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Bangladesh, I think the expectation for everyone is all the same; that you turn up and that you can win the World Cup. So if it did happen, it would be a huge achievement for the country.”Despite their damaging defeat against Australia, England remain in the running to win their first World Cup, in spite of Jonny Bairstow’s belief that his team’s critics are “waiting for them to fail”. And while Finch said that he hadn’t seen anything quite that explicit in the media, his own team’s recent brushes with the opinion columns had persuaded them to ban newspapers in the team environment.”I haven’t seen anything written [about England],” he said. “I’ve watched a TV, a bit of Sky News and things like that that, but in terms of papers, we don’t have them around our team room.”We have made a conscious effort of that over the tournament, and that was basically on the back of coming over here. We knew that there would be some stuff written and there would be some opinions had when we first landed in the country.”So we just wanted to take as much white noise as we could away from our focus. It is quite hard to comment on it because I honestly haven’t seen much of it.”But it’s about getting away from the game and make sure you’re refreshing as much as you can,” he added, joking that he had been spending a lot of time on the golf course until his wife arrived in the country, and now shopping is his primary pastime.”Overall, it’s about making sure that if there’s half a day, that you take that for yourself and do everything that you can to clear your mind.”For me, that’s cafes and golf. For Usman [Khawaja], that’s shopping. A few of us play golf. Steve Smith is still walking around his room with a cricket bat in his hand. It’s just totally different for everyone, but just mentally refreshing every chance you get is so important.”

In the absence of their star allrounder Kamau Leverock, Bermuda collapsed from a strong position and never recovered

The Report by Peter Della Penna29-Apr-2018Peter Della Penna

Freddie Klokker’s unbeaten 108, coming on the back of left-arm spinner Bashir Shah’s excellent spell, propelled Denmark to an eight-wicket win over Bermuda in their WCL Division Four clash at the Royal Selangor Club.However, perhaps the day’s bigger news came at the start, when Bermuda left out star allrounder Kamau Leverock. The move came less than 24 hours after his expletive-laden public tirade at the team’s final training session at Kinrara Oval, before the start of the tournament.Bermuda had a solid opening stand without Leverock, after being sent in at the toss, as Okera Bascome fired away to 63 off 41 balls in an 81-run partnership with captain Terryn Fray.But by the end of the day, Leverock’s absence was telling, as Bermuda collapsed from 134 for 1 to 155 for 7. Though the top three each made solid contributions, only one other batsman made double figures subsequently. Shah crippled Bermuda with 3 for 17 in 10 overs, whereafter Charles Trott tried to resuscitate the innings with 36 off 45 balls at No. 8. Bermuda were eventually bowled out for 209 in the 48th over.Klokker opened the chase and stayed till the end, striking eight fours and a six. He shared an 89-run opening partnership with Zameer Khan (38 off 56 balls) before an unbroken 115-run stand with the new captain Hamid Shah (48 not out off 59 balls) took Denmark across the line with 49 balls to spare.

Sandeep Sharma has said he likes to stick to his plans and does not worry too much about leaking runs in the death overs

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Apr-2017Kings XI Punjab’s Sandeep Sharma has been backing his strength to swing the new ball to achieve success against top batsmen in the IPL. Sandeep, who opens the bowling for Kings XI, said after their eight-wicket win against Royal Challengers Bangalore that his thinking is to stick to his plans and not worry about getting hit.”I am backing my strength which is to swing the ball,” Sandeep told . “I have discussed and worked with Virender Sehwag regarding field placements. He has helped me and talked to me about what the placements should be with the new ball, since only two fielders are allowed outside the circle, and how to use them effectively. I am doing that, and so far it has been working well.”I had spoken about my plans in the team meeting as well as with Viru paaji. The thing is most batsmen struggle against swing; so he told me to back my strength which is swinging the ball.”Sandeep opened the bowling with Axar Patel on Monday and bowled a stifling first spell of 3-0-7-1 during which he dismissed Vishnu Vinod for 7. Once Axar dismissed Shane Watson in the first over, AB de Villiers was the only batsman to collect a boundary in Sandeep’s opening spell in which the medium-pacer bowled 14 dot balls. Sandeep revealed how they had planned for Watson’s wicket and said getting some backing from the team management helped him.”I was to bowl my heart out and not think about getting hit,” he said. “Also, I was told never to think about losing my place in the side or being asked to sit out [if I went for runs]. Viru paaji backs [his players] a lot.”We had our plans. Watson doesn’t play too well against left-arm spinners; so [Glenn] Maxwell thought that we could give the first over to Axar and it was good that he got us the wicket.”Kings XI included four frontline pace-bowling options against Royal Challengers with an additional option of allrounder Marcus Stoinis. Even though they restricted the flow of runs by reducing Royal Challengers to 22 for 3 in the early overs, de Villiers’ return to the side with an unbeaten 89 off 46 balls helped them post 148 for 4. De Villiers struck sixes in each of the last five overs and was particularly harsh against Sandeep in the 19th over, scoring 18 from the five balls he faced.”I am not too worried about the death overs; even today the way I bowled, I was executing what I was thinking and planning,” Sandeep said. “AB de Villiers is one of the best batsmen in the world and he even hit some of my good balls. It’s okay. I am executing what I am thinking about. On a different day, against a different batsman, things might be different.”We had made our plans for him. We tried to execute our plans, but he scored against us. He is one of my favourite batsmen, so I am happy for him also.”Sandeep has taken three wickets so far in two matches, conceding 59 runs in his eight overs at an economy rate of 7.37, the best among the Kings XI pacers who have played both their matches.

A match-shaping 146 by the talented teenager Matt Renshaw put Queensland in a strong position over South Australia after day one of the Sheffield Shield match at Adelaide Oval

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Feb-2016
ScorecardMatt Renshaw struck his second first-class century on the trot and both have been big – 170 v NSW followed by 146 v SA•Getty Images

A match-shaping 146 by the talented teenager Matt Renshaw put Queensland in a strong position over South Australia after day one of the Sheffield Shield match at Adelaide Oval.In a fixture that features two members of the Australian Test squad for New Zealand in Joe Burns and Chadd Sayers, neither man was able to have a major impact on proceedings. Burns reached 35 in partnership with 19-year old Renshaw before he was bowled by the left-arm spin of Tom Andrews. Further partnerships ensued between Renshaw and Chris Lynn, then Sam Heazlett capitalised on the platform he was given by spanking 75 from a mere 83 deliveries.Renshaw himself as many as seven sixes in his second consecutive first-class hundred, having compiled 170 for the Bulls against New South Wales at Mackay before the Big Bash League break. He was ultimately dismissed by Joe Mennie with the second new ball, edging through to wicketkeeper Tim Ludeman.Sayers, meanwhile, was taken for 76 runs from his 22 overs for the sole consolation of Lynn’s wicket. Mennie and Andrews claimed two wickets apiece.

Munir Hussain, the legend of Urdu cricket commentary in Pakistan, has died aged 83 of a cardiac arrest in Karachi

Umar Farooq29-Jul-2013Munir Hussain, one of the pioneers of Urdu cricket commentary in Pakistan, has died aged 83 of a cardiac arrest in Karachi. A former right-arm seamer, he played a single first-class match for Kalat District in 1969-70, taking two wickets against Quetta in the Quaid-e-Azam trophy.Born in November 1929, Hussain had earned many accolades during his distinguished commentary career spanning several decades. He was presented the Best Urdu Commentator of the Decade Award (1985-95), the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation, and the PCB’s World Cup Legends Award presented on the 10th anniversary celebrations of Pakistan’s victory in the 1992 World Cup.He was also the founder of the first Urdu cricket magazine . He also wrote a popular weekly column in the Urdu daily for years, and had commentated on the game on television and radio in the 1970s.”Munir , a journalist and broadcaster of renown from the early 1970s, had a fan following of his own,” Najam Sethi, the PCB’s acting chairman, said. “He was an informed, easygoing and affable personality; his death will be widely mourned by the journalist and broadcast community as well as the cricketing fraternity across the country.”

The BCB has sold various sponsorship rights for $14 million for four years to Aamby Valley, an affiliate of Sahara India Parivar, and Axiom Technologies

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Jun-2012The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has sold various sponsorship rights for $14 million for four years to Aamby Valley, an affiliate of Sahara India Parivar, and Axiom Technologies. It is the biggest sponsorship deal in Bangladesh cricket.Sahara’s winning bid ended Grameenphone’s eight-year association between 2003 and 2011 as Bangladesh’s sponsors. They bid approximately $9.4 million, substantially more than the $ 3.4 million from Grameenphone and $4 million from Robi, another telecom company. Sahara won branding rights for the national team and the national cricket academy, and title sponsorship and in-stadia sponsorship for 2012-13, among other rights.Apart from the national team sponsorship, Sahara was the only company to bid for the sponsorship rights of the academy at a price of $130,000 per year.Axiom was awarded title sponsorship and in-stadia sponsorship for 2014 and 2015, and beverage and ticketing rights from 2012 to 2015.

The absence of several senior players during the tour of the West Indies provides an ideal platform for fringe players to show what they can do on the international stage, Suresh Raina has said

ESPNcricinfo staff31-May-2011The absence of several senior players for the upcoming tour of the West Indies provides an ideal platform for fringe players to shine on the international stage, Suresh Raina, India’s captain for the limited-overs leg of the Caribbean tour, has said.”It’s a great opportunity for the youngsters who have done well in domestic cricket,” Raina told the media ahead of the team’s departure for the West Indies. “I am happy with the side, as we have some very good batsmen in Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, S Badrinath and Shikhar Dhawan, all of whom have done well in first-class cricket.”Raina, has led a similarly second-string Indian side in the past, for a tri-series Zimbabwe in May-June 2010, though India performed poorly on that tour, losing both matches against the hosts and one against Sri Lanka.This time, India are without the services of Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Zaheer Khan, who have all been rested, in addition to the ill Yuvraj Singh, and the injured duo of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir for the lone Twenty20 and the five ODIs that follow. MS Dhoni will take over the captaincy from Raina for the Tests, and Zaheer will return, but the other seniors will miss the Test leg as well.Raina said he has learnt a lot about the art of captaincy from Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid and Dhoni, and was prepared for the challenge.”West Indies have players like Gayle missing, but it will be a challenge for us,” Raina said. “There’s always pressure and we have done well under pressure. It’s for us as players to execute the plans of the coach well. We have to play our natural game.”The tour will be the first assignment for India’s newly-appointed coach Duncan Fletcher, who said he was a supporter of the rotation policy. “While I was in England [Fletcher coached England between 1999 and 2007], I started the rotation policy resting senior guys,” Fletcher said. “I was heavily criticised by the English authorities. It’s important to do that considering the heavy schedule. We need to look into the matter as we go into the future.”He said he looked forward to working with the youngsters, but cautioned against complacency. ” Any team playing at home is difficult to beat. We should not be complacent. There is a lot of talent in India and my job is to prepare these youngsters.”Yes, we would like to beat England in England and Australia in Australia. But the first job is the tour of the West Indies. It’s very important not to look too far down the road. India have a plan to stay at the top. The young players have the potential and this tour will show the depth of talent we have.”He also said that the club versus country debate is something that just has to be dealt with. “That’s the way it is in modern day sports. We have to ensure that all the players are fit enough.”India’s tour of the West Indies kicks off with a T20 game on Friday in Port of Spain.

Jack Clarke, Cricket Australia’s chairman, will be more cautious in his dealings with India following its role in dismissing John Howard as the ICC’s vice-presidential candidate in Singapore

Peter English30-Jun-2010Jack Clarke, Cricket Australia’s chairman, will be more cautious in his dealings with India following its role in dismissing John Howard as the ICC’s vice-presidential candidate in Singapore. Australia has developed an increasingly strong relationship with the BCCI, including developing the Champions League Twenty20, but the board was part of the group that blocked Howard’s passage.A frustrated Clarke said India wasn’t the only country to oppose the joint recommendation of Australia and New Zealand at the meetings in Singapore over the past two days. However, the decision by the ICC’s board to request another candidate has altered the environment.”You hope it doesn’t affect your relationship but it obviously puts a block there for a while and makes you wary, I suppose,” he said. “But we have to deal with all the member countries of the ICC … We’ll have a board meeting in October and there’s no point not rolling up.”Zimbabwe and South Africa were the original opponents to Howard’s nomination, raising their protests outside an ICC meeting in Dubai in April, but a group of six members signed a letter on Tuesday night expressing their desire to veto the recommendation. The list didn’t include Zimbabwe, but India’s strength allowed them to bring Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh on board, highlighting a return to the days when the Asian and African countries voted en-masse.Despite seeing Howard “knocked off” by the alliance, Clarke refused to say the enormous power of the bloc was unhealthy for the future of the game. “In any business model where a company has 75% of the income it is not an ideal model, but that’s not India’s fault they do that,” he said. “With distributions that go to all the countries, [India] earn it and distribute it evenly among nine of the Test-playing countries and the Associates.”It is a powerful bloc, it’s a reality of life. But you’ve also got to remember that until 1992 Australia and England had a power of veto [in ICC meetings].”There is a strong feeling that if India had supported Howard he would have had no problems in becoming the deputy to Sharad Pawar, the incoming ICC president. “I can’t speculate about that,” Clarke said. “I’ve been on the board for 18 months, been to seven meetings, I think the bloc vote that was once there before my time doesn’t exist at the same level.”A BCCI source told AFP there was “nothing personal against Howard”. “But we do accept the argument that only a man with previous experience in cricket administration should head the ICC. Howard was not involved with Cricket Australia at any time.”

Meanwhile, Chris Silverwood has declared an interest in becoming the county’s new head coach

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Aug-2024Jonny Bairstow will play his first match of the season for Yorkshire this week when the County Championship returns following a six-week break.Bairstow has only played two first-class games for his home county since the end of the 2020 season due to his England and IPL commitments. He is yet to feature for Yorkshire in any format this season, having taken a short break from the game between the T20 World Cup and the start of the Hundred, where he represented Welsh Fire.But he will return for Thursday’s fixture against Sussex at Scarborough, with Yorkshire sitting just outside of the two promotion places in Division Two. They are four points behind second-placed Middlesex heading into the final five games of the season, and can close the 27-point gap on leaders Sussex this week.Bairstow made 123 runs in seven innings for Welsh Fire this season•Getty Images

Bairstow lost his place in England’s Test team after failing to reach 40 on their tour to India this year, and appears unlikely to feature in their T20I and ODI series against Australia in September. He declared at the start of the Hundred that “all I want to do is play for England”, but was short of runs for Welsh Fire, with 123 runs and a single half-century across seven innings.”I spoke to Jonny, and he still has ambitions of getting back into the England team,” Ottis Gibson, Yorkshire’s head coach, said last week. “When he was coming back from his injury last year, our medical team and coaches – everybody associated with the club – helped him get back into the England fold.”If it’s that we need to do that again with him, give him some love and get him into a position where he puts good performances in, everybody benefits from that. Jonny Bairstow is a serious cricketer anyway, but when he has a point to prove, he’s even more dangerous. Hopefully, we can take advantage of that.”Related

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Yorkshire confirmed on Monday that Bairstow is available to play at Scarborough after a shoulder niggle, but his availability for the final four games of the season has not yet been confirmed. They will be without their captain Shan Masood this week, who is with Pakistan’s Test squad ahead of their series against Bangladesh.The club announced earlier this month that Gibson will leave his job at the end of the season, and are also in the process of recruiting a new director of cricket, having advertised for the role earlier in the summer.Chris Silverwood, who recently left his job as Sri Lanka coach, has declared his interest in the head coach vacancy: “I haven’t spoken to anybody as yet,” he told talkSPORT. “Would it interest me? Absolutely, it’s my old county and I have a great love for Yorkshire.”