George Dockrell, the Ireland left-arm spinner, has been named the ICC Associate and Affiliate Player of the Year

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Sep-2012George Dockrell, the Ireland left-arm spinner, has been named the ICC Associate and Affiliate Player of the Year. He was chosen ahead of three of his team-mates Paul Stirling, Kevin O’Brien and Ed Joyce, and Afghanistan bowler Dawlat Zadran.Dockrell, 20, was the leading wicket-taker in the voting period – between 4 August 2011 and 6 August 2012 – taking 43 scalps in ODIs, T20Is and the Intercontinental Cup, the ICC’s four-day tournament for top Associate and Affiliate sides. Dockrell plays county cricket for Somerset, captained Ireland recently in the Under-19 World Cup, and took 14 wickets in T20 internationals, the most by any bowler in world cricket during the voting period.”It’s great to win such an award and especially to be following the footsteps of an esteemed group of players like William Porterfield and Ryan ten Doeschate, and only at the age of 20, I feel very honoured,” Dockrell said after receiving the award in Colombo. “It has been a great year of cricket with I-Cup, U-19s and WCL Championship, and now the WT20, and I’ve been learning a lot to take into this tournament.”It’s good to be setting high standards, and hopefully I will keep performing well for Ireland in the future.”Dockrell became the second Irishman to win the prize, after Porterfield in 2009.

What prompted Gautam Gambhir and Kolkata Knight Riders to bat second, under the lights, in South Africa, is unclear. And the plan clearly did not come off

Mohammad Isam13-Oct-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsDaredevils’ pace-attack cut through Knight Riders’ line-up with ease•AFP

What prompted Gautam Gambhir and Kolkata Knight Riders to bat second, under the lights, in South Africa, is unclear. And the plan clearly did not come off; it went horribly wrong on a track that had unreliable bounce, which the Delhi Daredevils’ four-man pace attack used wisely after 60 overs were played out on the pitch. The Knight Riders were not only outplayed by 52 runs, five of their batsmen got struck, including the team’s batting mainstay Jacques Kallis. Their top-order had an outing they’d do well to forget.Out of 168 day-night limited-overs internationals in the country, only 27 teams have won the game after deciding to bat second. At the SuperSport Park, only one team has won in ODI cricket while none have done so in Twenty20 internationals. And against an attack that includes the towering Morne Morkel, the Knight Riders were swimming against the tide willfully. The uneven bounce confused them further and by the time the first ten balls of their innings were done, Daredevils had done enough damage.It started with the captain Gautam Gambhir, when Irfan Pathan removed him for a duck off the third ball, having the left-hander chip one to mid-on. Off his sixth ball, he brought one back into the other opener, Manvinder Bisla, who was trapped leg-before. Irfan had one of those better evenings, when he looked like bringing the ball back whenever he pleased. It got worse for the Knight Riders when Brendon McCullum cut one to Chand at point off Morne Morkel’s first ball, the seventh of the innings, for a duck.Jacques Kallis was the next man to walk off when Morkel rapped him on the fingers of his right hand while trying to fend off an awkward delivery. He had to retire hurt and did not come back to bat, but X-rays revealed that there was no fracture. The very next ball struck the next batsman, Yusuf, on his arm, as he attempted to leave a rising delivery. At the end of the fifth over, he was put out of misery when Daredevil’s first-change bowler Umesh Yadav had him deflect one back at the stumps. By this time the ball started keeping low too. Manoj Tiwary and Rajat Bhatia added 47 for the fifth wicket but it was only a face-saving exercise.Irfan, Morkel and Yadav took two wickets each and Ajit Agarkar got one; except for the left-arm swing bowler, the other three struck the batsmen and kept them pinned on the backfoot.Daredevils too were in trouble when they batted, but the recovery was prompt. The 63-run fourth-wicket stand between Unmukt Chand and Ross Taylor put them in a strong position, especially after a 30-run 17th over from L Balaji.Chand played some attractive shots to start off his innings and survived a chance on 14 at midwicket, where Tiwary dropped a skier. He cracked two sixes and two more boundaries to finish on a 27-ball 40. It ended when he completely missed an off-break from Sunil Narine. The versatile spinner took three wickets while Brett Lee and Kallis bowled well too. But it would be the costly overs from Balaji that they could pinpoint for conceding more than the average score at the venue.Following Daredevils’ resounding win, Pietersen will be off to London to meet with England team director Andy Flower on Sunday. He is likely to be back in time for Daredevils’ second game, on Friday in Durban, against Auckland Aces.

South Africa’s Thami Tsolekile has talked down his non-selection in the Test team, following Makhaya Ntini’s comment about race playing a role in him being consistently overlooked for the wicketkeepers’ role

Firdose Moonda18-Nov-2012Thami Tsolekile has talked down his non-selection in the Test team after being nationally contracted in February. His statements come after former Test bowler Makhaya Ntini implied race played a role in Tsolekile being consistently overlooked for the wicketkeepers’ role despite the retirement of Mark Boucher.Tsolekile was identified as Mark Boucher’s successor even before his injury-enforced retirement in July, but has not played a match because AB de Villiers was tasked with the keepers’ role. While Tsolekile’s omission has been put down to strategy, with South Africa using Boucher’s absence to lengthen their batting line-up, two weeks ago Ntini presented another argument.He said Tsolekile “would have been playing if he was white” and questioned why there is only one black African player in the Test squad, 20 years after South African cricket was unified. But Tsolekile said Ntini may have been reacting out of hurt.”Having played most of my cricket in the township and, with Makhaya, also growing up in the township, obviously he was an icon,” Tsolikile said. “He has done very well over the years. What he said was quite disturbing and I wouldn’t know why he said that.”He was speaking on behalf of himself. Maybe he has got his own reasons for why he said that. The fact is that he is talking from a point [of view] where he wishes to and would love to see more African players playing for the Proteas. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what he meant.”Ntini was the only black African to consistently represent South Africa at international level after readmission in 1991. He is one of only seven black Africans to play for the country in any format. Five of those have played Test cricket but under Gary Kirsten no black African has worn the whites. Since Ntini’s retirement in November 2010 the only black player to take the field has been Lonwabo Tsotsobe – he played just five Test matches but rose to the top of the ODI rankings in the last year.Tsolekile was believed to be the next black African Test player but has yet to make his comeback. Instead of delving into the race politics, though, Tsolekile was softer in his approach: “I feel good that I have been recognised and I’ve spoken to the selectors. I’m happy because I know exactly where I stand. I had a long chat with Gary in England and again in Australia, and I think he made it clear where I stand and I am happy with that.”He did not elaborate on where that is but he believes that he will, eventually, play a Test. “It might take three weeks, three months or a year for me to play another Test match. I don’t know,” he said.De Villiers has shown no signs of giving up the gloves, despite the effects on his back and his batting. He said his body is coping with the extra burden even though he suffers from chronic and recurring back pain, and he feels on the verge of a big score though he has not managed a single half-century since taking over from Boucher.”I got a lot of value out of both my innings [in Brisbane]. I was in in both innings. I felt like I could score a hundred in both innings and I had the energy to do so. It’s a little unfair to look at the stats. I’ve only had seven or eight innings as a wicketkeeper and there’s still a lot to come. It’s got nothing to do with wicketkeeping, or energy levels, or mental fatigue or anything of that sort. I just haven’t been able to push through.”With Duminy being ruled out of the series with a ruptured Achilles’ tendon, Tsolekile – who played three Test matches in 2004 and was quickly replaced after appearing out of his depth – may yet get his chance on the Australia tour. He said that whenever it comes “it will feel like I am making my debut”.

Ricky Ponting has always been a tough cricketer. But his emotional side, for once, came to the surface when he spoke after his final Test for Australia

Brydon Coverdale at the WACA03-Dec-2012For a moment, Ricky Ponting was a kid again. As he sat in the WACA gym and spoke one last time as a Test cricketer, the emotion finally got the better of him. Ponting, perhaps the toughest competitor of his cricketing generation, fought back tears as he thanked his family for all of their sacrifices. His wife Rianna was there with his daughters Emmy and Matisse. His parents, Graeme and Lorraine, were there too. It was a rare glimpse of the human side of one of sport’s hardest men.To understand Ponting, you have to understand his roots. Australia’s most prolific run scorer was raised in working-class northern Tasmania and when he was nine or ten, he used to ride his BMX all around Launceston and the surrounding areas to watch the Mowbray Cricket Club play. He would sit in the change-rooms, rummage through the players’ bags when they were on the field and try on their gloves, hold their bats. He helped run the scoreboard at the NTCA ground when Tasmania played there, for a few dollars a day.At 11, Ponting was playing third-grade cricket with his father; when he became a first-class player, he financed new club-rooms with his first sponsorship payment. He learnt the value of the baggy green when his uncle Greg Campbell, Lorraine’s brother and also a Mowbray player, played Test cricket briefly in the late 1980s. Ponting now lives in Sydney but has never changed clubs; if he was to play a club match again it would be for Mowbray.Ponting walked off the WACA on Monday afternoon having equalled Steve Waugh’s record of 168 Test appearances. Nobody has been part of more victories than Ponting. He has played 560 international matches in 15 countries around the world, or 24 if the individual nations that make up the West Indies are taken into consideration. As Ponting sat back and for the first time reflected on his 17-year international career, he became emotional when he considered where it all started.”I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the opportunities I was given by them at an early age,” Ponting said of his parents. A cough, as he held back the tears. “It’s getting a bit harder”. Sniff. “The Mowbray Cricket Club, if they see me up here like this at the moment they’ll be all over me. That’s the place I learnt the game and the person I am was moulded from my background and my upbringing. What you’ve seen over 17 years is a result of my early days at the Mowbray Cricket Club. Thanks to the boys back there.”Tough as they make them in Mowbray, there wouldn’t have been a dry eye there either. Ponting still keeps a close eye on his club’s scores. In fact, he keeps a close eye on everything related to the world of cricket. The kid who sat in the change-rooms and listened to the first-grade players tell stories about the match they’d just played still exists. That’s what will make retirement so difficult for Ponting. Cricket has been his life.It is no surprise that he will play on for Tasmania this season, like a junkie being weaned off slowly. From Perth, he will fly to Tasmania to start training for the Hobart Hurricanes. The Big Bash League starts later this week and Ponting will be part of it. Always renowned as a realist, the dreamer in Ponting came through when he considered watching Australia’s next Test, against Sri Lanka in Hobart, and joked about warming up with the Test players and earning a late call-up.”You ask the boys in the dressing room, they reckon I don’t miss a ball that’s bowled anywhere around the world,” he said. “Of course I’ll keep an eye on it because I’ll miss not being out there. I’ll be interested to see who comes in and slots into the No.4 spot and I’ll be interested to see what the bowling attack looks like for Hobart.”The way it works out I’ll probably be down there anyway. I’ve got some training to do for the Hurricanes, leading up to that game, so I’ll probably be in Hobart just before that. Who knows, I might even be around for the first day of the game. If I am, I might even join in the warm-up with the boys and see if there’s just one more chance!”There’s that kid in the change-rooms again. Pick me! Let me play!But for all of his cricket passion, Ponting knew the time was right to walk away from the international game. His scores over the past few weeks have confirmed it. Not that he had given up hope of ending with a match-winning hundred.”I had a bit more of a fairytale ending in my own eyes than what’s happened this week,” Ponting said. Just then, the pipes in the WACA gym began to squeal, almost drowning out his voice. “Still things are going badly for me here as well! It’s been one of those weeks.”Apart from when discussing his family, Ponting was relaxed in retirement. He joked about the standing ovation he had received, and the one given to his nightwatchman Nathan Lyon on the first day. He thanked the media for promoting the game and held no grudges about the criticism levelled on him in recent times. He finished with a brief thought about his legacy.”Hopefully my impact and input on Australian cricket has left something behind. Thank you.”

A wrap of the final day of the ninth round of Ranji Trophy matches in Group A

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Jan-2013
ScorecardAround noon, during their lunch break, Railways came to know Saurashtra had won their match. That meant Railways would not qualify for the knockouts even if they won. Around that time, Sanjay Bangar, one of the most respected domestic workhorses, made up his mind it was time to end his 20-year first-class career.Bangar’s team-mates were stunned at the decision, but they delivered him and Railways a consolatory win. One for the road. Or track, in the case of the team made up for Indian Railways’ employees.Bangar himself took two important wickets, those of opener Arindam Saha and captain Wriddhiman Saha. It went into the final session, though, and towards the end Anureet Singh began Bengal’s final slide with the wicket of Debabrata Das, who scored 44 off 55.
ScorecardRajasthan had taken the lead on the third day, sending Hyderabad into relegation, and day four was pretty academic. However, Vineet Saxena used the day well to sign off the season with an unbeaten 146.
ScorecardAlong with the paucity of quality spinners in India, probably as big an issue could be the inadequacy of domestic batsmen against good spin bowling. Madhya Pradesh provided the latest example of that, losing eight wickets for 45 runs in 22.1 overs to hand the remaining quarter-final spot in Group A to hosts Saurashtra. And it wasn’t even an experienced slow bowler who did the damage. It was 22-year old debutant left-arm spinner Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, bowling with a classical pivot, who ran through MP to finish with six wickets in the innings and nine in the match.Click here for the full report.

ScorecardMumbai aborted a chase of 135 off a minimum of 41 overs and instead settled
for three points for the first innings lead against Gujarat in their last
Ranji Trophy Group A game at the Dr DY Patil Sports Stadium.Click here for the full report.

England’s bowling coach David Saker has turned down an offer to become director of cricket at Warwickshire, saying that he still has “unfinished business”.

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Jan-2013David Saker has turned down a chance to become director of cricket at Warwickshire, saying that the prospect of back-to-back Ashes tours in the next year and the 2015 World Cup has left him “unfinished business” with England.Saker first revealed to ESPNcricinfo last month that he was attracted by the role relinquished by Ashley Giles last month after he took over day-to-day coaching duties with England’s one-day sides and Warwickshire were interested enough to pursue the matter.However, exploratory talks over the weekend have not come to fruition, leaving Saker to commit his future to England as he prepared to leave on Thursday with the team for their tours of India and New Zealand over the next three months.He told the : “I had talks with Warwickshire and it was certainly an attractive offer they made. But it has come a little too early for me. I have unfinished business with the England team and I would like to take that through at least until the end of the 2015 World Cup.”Warwickshire’s chairman Norman Gascoigne insisted that a firm offer had not been made. “We contacted David to clarify the situation with him and ask whether he wanted to apply or not. He came back to us and said that the timing was not right for him and that he intended to continue with England. That is as far as it went. I can categorically say that at no stage did we offer him the job.”Saker, lives south of Birmingham and, as a fulltime member of England’s backroom staff, still must withstand the heavy travelling demands that have caused Andy Flower to relinquish day-to-day management of England’s one-day sides to Giles.Since funding his own flight from Australia to be interviewed for the job, he has played a leading role in England’s home and away Ashes wins as well as victory in the Test series in India. He must be due a refund on his original ticket.His emphasis on the psychology and methodology involved in fast bowling, rather than biomechanics, has had a positive effect on England’s fast-bowling attack.His decision to stay with England increases the likelihood that Warwickshire will follow Giles’ initial recommendation and appoint somebody with links to the county.

Afghanistan coach Kabir Khan believes India can lend more influence and funds to help assist his team

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Feb-2013Kabir Khan, the Afghanistan coach, has called for the BCCI to provide more support to Afghanistan cricket, highlighting England’s support for their neighbouring Associate nations.”If you look at England they go out of their way to support the associate cricket nations in their region, which include Holland, Ireland and Scotland,” Kabir told PTI. “They allow their players to play in their county and league system, while giving them valuable assistance through various coaching programmes.”In comparison, South Asia has four Test-playing nations – Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh – [yet despite this] we don’t get the same kind of support, except for Pakistan. India has the influence and money to do a lot for Afghanistan cricket if they wanted. But so far we are still waiting.”There’s a lot of passion for cricket in Afghanistan, and there are good players, but we suffer mainly because we don’t have a domestic cricket structure. We don’t get enough matches in this region.”The Afghanistan team is currently in Lahore for a month-long conditional camp which also includes a series of matches against Pakistan A and several regional sides. The team trained at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore, where they were granted access to all facilities and coaches at hand.Afghanistan will play Scotland next month to play in the ICC league series for a four-day match, two ODIs and a T20 in preparation of next year’s World T20. Khan has already set his sights on the 2015 World Cup, which is to be jointly-held by Australia and New Zealand.”Right now we are focusing on improving our fitness and fielding skills,” Kabir said. “We want to play in the next ODI World Cup and make our presence felt.”

Sri Lanka women won a thriller against the West Indies in the last over of the fourth Twenty20 of the series in Colombo

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Mar-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsSri Lanka women won a thriller against the West Indies in the last over of the fourth Twenty20 of the series in Colombo. Chasing 102, Sri Lanka were 79 for 4 in the 17th over and the match could have gone wither way as they lost two more wickets after that, but the hosts held their nerves to win with three balls to spare.Sri Lanka’s opening partnership was broken in the fifth over when they were scoring at under four per over. Prasadani Weerakkody made 16 of 32 and stitched a 32-run partnership with Nipuni Hansika (17). But Sri Lanka lost both the batsmen at the score of 47 which brought West Indies back. Shashikala Siriwardene and Deepika Rasangika steadied their chances by putting together 32 in 37 balls. Eshani Kaushalya was soon dismissed for nine by Stafanie Taylor but Rasangika made sure Sri Lanka won their first match of the series.Eerlier, West Indies were rattled in the first three overs and were reeling at 18 for 2 after both their openers were dismissed. Only Stafanie Taylor withstood the bowling attack with a 33-ball 40 as Kaushalya and Udeshika Prabodhani ran through the top order and Siriwardene took three wickets. Their highest partnership was of 21 for the fourth wicket and only three players managed to reach double figures.

New Zealand Under-19 pulled off a close last-ball, one-wicket win, their first of the series, against Australia Under-19 in the third Youth ODI between the two teams

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Apr-2013
ScorecardNew Zealand pulled off a close last-ball, one-wicket win, their first of the series, against Australia in the third Youth ODI between the two teams. The third ODI was a dead rubber as Australia had already taken a winning lead of 2-0 in the three-match series.Batting first, Australia began well as the openers put on 71 runs. Kelvin Smith scored his second half-century of the tour, hitting 52 off 76 balls. However, offspinner Dane Watson effected a breakthrough to dismiss Jaron Morgan for 36. Sean Willis and Jake Doran fell in quick succession to leave Australia at 126 for 4. The rest of the batsmen struggled to put together partnerships and it took a brisk knock of 39 from Cameron Valente to push their score to 220 for 8. Watson finished with figures of 4 for 31, while Kyle Jamieson and Arana Noema-Barnett took two wickets apiece.In reply, New Zealand were shaky at 19 for 2 before a 90-run partnership between opener Rakitha Weerasundara and Ken McClure revived the chase. Weerasundara then added 71 runs with Leo Carter to take New Zealand to 180 for 3 in the 41st over. Australia clawed back into the match as Ben Ashkenazi dismissed Weerasundara and Valente, then got wickets off two successive deliveries. Valente took another two wickets in his next over as New Zealand stumbled to 8 for 198. A run-out in the last over almost gave Australia a 3-0 scoreline, but Noema-Barnett hung on to ensure New Zealand scampered home off the final ball.

Jamie Overton’s four wickets against Middlesex brought hope to Somerset supporters that their talented yet unfulfilled side will be replenished

David Hopps at Taunton15-May-2013
ScorecardNeil Dexter closed the day with an unbeaten half-century•Getty Images

Somerset supporters concerned that their talented yet unfulfilled team is growing old together can take heart from days like this: the young ‘uns are coming. Foremost among the new breed is Jamie Overton whose career-best 4 for 65 challenged Middlesex’s visions of supremacy at the Tractor Ground.It is not really the Tractor Ground, of course, but “County Ground” is always so unimaginative (its only saving grace is that it is not named after an airline) and it sounded like the Tractor Ground shortly after lunch when Tractor himself – arguably Somerset’s most famous fan and ill-advisedly unprotected against the unseasonable chill – was on full revs, bellowing for all he was worth for Alfonso Thomas to slow Middlesex’s progress.Thomas failed, largely because Joe Denly, whose first 10 scoring shots were boundaries, reached 40 by a mixture of good fortune, easy pickings and a decent shot or two. But what the Great Alfonso could not deliver, the Young Pretender did, finding the outside edge to take three of the first four Middlesex wickets to fall. Toby Roland-Jones made up the foursome with two for grabs on the morrow.The Middlesex wickets that matter are those of the openers, Sam Robson and Chris Rogers. Neither particularly catch the eye, but they have an adhesive quality which is at the heart of Middlesex’s championship challenge and which makes up for a flaky middle order. Overton removed then both, at which point five more wickets tumbled for 66 in 18 overs before Neil Dexter summoned a necessary response with an unbeaten 73. Rogers’s Australian late coming this summer might not set the Ashes alive but England will value his wicket as much as most. Like many squat batsmen he can look frustratingly immovable.Overton, still only 19, and still routinely confused by all but the most committed Somerset observer with his equally promising twin brother, Craig, bowled at a fair lick in his 21 overs. The first thing that strikes you about him is his robust appearance for one so young; he may need it at Taunton which is not exactly a fast bowler’s dream. Somerset’s skipper Marcus Trescothick put Middlesex in on a green pitch, but Rogers and Robson dealt with what limited threat there was.
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Somerset recovered in the afternoon session with three wickets in as many overs. Rogers, who had not been as solid as his young fellow Australian, Robson, nicked Overton to wicketkeeper Jos Buttler. The next over saw the left-arm spinner Jack Leach bowl Denly shouldering arms and then Overton struck again when Dawid Malan was snapped up by Trescothick in the slips off Overton.Leach, like Overton a promise of good things to come, bowled with good control and finished the day with three wickets as James Hildreth snapped up John Simpson at short-leg off Leach and Gareth Berg swept a catch to Peter Trego at mid wicket.”Nailed on draw and you don’t get many points for a draw,” muttered one Somerset sage soon after lunch as Middlesex prospered. He will doubtless return with a more optimistic slant on things for the second day. At Taunton, 293 for 8 at the end of the first day suggests that stalemate should be avoided and it is Somerset who have the edge.