Rob Nicol’s hundred and James Fuller’s six wickets see Gloucestershire comfortably beat Netherlands in Amstelveen and keep their CB40 campaign on course

27-Jul-2012
ScorecardNew Zealand batsman Rob Nicol scored a century•Getty Images

Rob Nicol and James Fuller were the stars of the show as Gloucestershire boosted their hopes of making the Clydesdale Bank 40 semi-finals with a comprehensive victory over high-flying Group A rivals Netherlands in Amstelveen.New Zealander Nicol scored a brilliant 133 with seven fours and seven sixes as Gloucestershire ran up an imposing 290 for 6 batting first, with his countryman and opening partner Hamish Marshall contributing 47 while Fuller added a quickfire 40 late on.Fuller, who conceded 38 off one over as Gloucestershire lost their Friends Life t20 quarter-final to Sussex on Tuesday, then shone with the ball, taking 6 for 35 off his six overs as Holland were bowled out for 146 in the 22nd over. A rain interruption had seen Netherlands’s victory target changed to 237 off 28 overs, but they never seriously threatened and ended up losing by 90 runs.Tom Cooper top-scored for the Dutch with 51 but he was part of a major Netherlands collapse which saw the home side lose their last eight wickets for 43 runs in under eight overs.Gloucestershire’s victory sees them join second-placed Netherlands on 11 points in Group A, one point behind leaders Middlesex but with the Westcountry side having played a game less than both their rivals. Lancashire are fourth in the group on 10 points but with two games still in hand on Gloucestershire, who they meet at Old Trafford on Monday.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board has offered annual contracts to 105 first-class cricketers in addition to the 15 national cricketers

Mohammad Isam28-Aug-2012The Bangladesh Cricket Board has, for the first time, offered central contracts to 105 players from outside the national team, taking a major step towards decentralisation of the game from its present Dhaka-centric structure. The decision is aimed at increasing competition in the NCL, long called a “picnic tournament” because of the lack of seriousness among players preferring the Dhaka club circuit.The list includes cricketers from each of the eight designated regions of the country – Barisal, Khulna, Rajshahi, Chittagong, Sylhet, Rangpur, Dhaka and Dhaka Metropolis – that take part in the NCL.Cricketers with more than 11 years of first-class experience will be paid Tk 25,000 (approx $300) per month under Catergory A. Players with 6-10 years of experience will receive Tk 20,000 (approx $240) per month in Category B and Tk 15,000 (approx $180) per month in Category C for players who have played for 1-5 years.
The 2012-13 domestic season will begin in the second week of October, but the contracts will be effective on January 1, 2013. These salaries will be in addition to the match fees that the players will continue to receive.The BCB chief AHM Mustafa Kamal made the announcement at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur during a function attended by BCB directors, national selectors and some first-class players, who were handed the contracts.”This is just the beginning. We have given the players the contracts and soon we will be able to put in place the infrastructure across the country,” Kamal told ESPNcricinfo.Hannan Sarkar, who has played 17 Tests, 20 ODIs and 92 first-class games, spoke on behalf of the players and talked about the need for such a system.”We have waited a long time for such an initiative. We always wanted to be under the BCB’s contracts. We thank them on behalf of the players,” Sarkar said. “Every player now will want to be under the BCB’s contract. This is a big recognition for a professional cricketer. The competition that I felt as a salaried national cricketer will be replicated at the first-class level.””This is the start of a journey, so for those who are going to be enrolled in the future, it will be much better for them. And I also think the careers will be longer from now on,” he said.Former national captain Habibul Bashar, who is now a national selector, underlined the importance of this contract to the players. “From my personal experience, I have often seen that it is hard to motivate players in first-class cricket. We have talked about the lack of professionalism in this format, but from now on, I hope this question will never arise,” Bashar said.”The standard will be higher because everyone will be serious from this point onwards. I think this step will take Bangladesh cricket a long way ahead,” he said.First-class cricket began in Bangladesh in 1999 with the six divisional sides taking part in the NCL, which is now in its thirteenth season, and it is the only first-class competition in the country.List of cricketersCategory A (playing experience of 11 years and above): Tk 25,000 ($300) per month.Category B (playing experience between 6-10 years): Tk 20,000 ($ 240) per month.Category C (playing experience between 1-5 years): Tk 15,000 ($180) per month.Barisal: Shahin Hossain (category A); Syed Rasel, Nasiruddin Faruque, Shahfaq Al Zabir, Monir Hossain, Abul Bashar, Iftekhar Nayeem and Shahriar Nafees (category B); Ishraq Sonet; Tariqul Islam, Fazle Mahmud, Kamrul Islam Rabbi, Bikash Sharma, Mohammad Sajib and Sohag Gazi (category C).Chittagong: Nafees Iqbal and Faisal Hossain (category A); Aftab Ahmed, Gazi Salahuddin, Yasin Arafat, Kazi Kamrul Islam, Raihanuddin Arafat and Rezaul Karim (category B); Sadid Hossain, Mahbubul Karim, Mominul Haque, Iqbal Hossain Rony and Noor Hossain (category C); Tamim Iqbal and Nazimuddin (central contracts).Dhaka: Imran Ahmed (category A); Mahbubul Alam, Hannan Sarkar, Mohammad Sharif, Anwar Hossain, Mosharraf Hossain, Uttam Sarkar, Raqibul Hasan and Shahadat Hossain (category B); Nazmul Hossain Milon, Rony Talukder, Saikat Ali, Taibur Rahman, Nazmul Islam (category C); Shuvagata Hom (central contract).Dhaka Metro: Mohammad Ashraful, Tareq Aziz Khan, Arafat Sunny, Arafat Salahuddin, Nadif Chowdhury, Mehrab Hossain Jr, Talha Jubair, Shamsur Rahman, Marshall Ayub, Arman Hossain and Sharifullah (category B); Asif Ahmed and Tasamul Haque (category C); Elias Sunny and Mahmudullah (central contracts).Khulna: Tushar Imran (category A); Nazmus Sadat, Sahagir Hossain, Ziaur Rahman and Nizamuddin (category B); Dolar Mahmud, Taposh Ghosh, Murad Khan, Mithun Ali, Anamul Haque (category C); Mashrafee Bin Mortaza, Shakib Al Hasan, Abdur Razzak, Imrul Kayes and Rubel Hossain (central contracts).Rajshahi: Anisur Rahman (category A); Mohammad Shahjada, Farhad Hossain, Junaid Siddique, Farhad Reza, Saqlain Sajib and Delwar Hossain (category B); Jubair Ahmed, Mizanur Rahman, Sabbir Rahman, Mukhtar Ali, Sanjamul Islam (category C); Mushfiqur Rahim, Jahurul Islam and Shafiul Islam (central contracts).Rangpur: Naeem Islam, Dhiman Ghosh, Sajidul Islam and Sohrawardi Shuvo (category B); Ariful Haque, Shuvashish Roy, Mahmudul Hasan, Tariq Ahmed, Tanveer Haider, Alauddin Babu, Saymon Ahmed, Naeem Islam Jr, AR Rahman Rony and Liton Das (category C); Nasir Hossain (central contract).Sylhet: Rajin Saleh and Imtiaz Hossain (category A); Ezaz Ahmed, Tapash Baisya, Alok Kapali, Enamul Haque Jr, Nabil Samad, Golam Rahman, Golam Mabud and Robiul Islam (category B); Abul Hasan, Sayem Alam, Abu Jayed and Shaker Ahmed (category C).

MS Dhoni asked New Zealand to bat as the expected rains stayed away in Chennai for the second Twenty20 international after the first one was washed out in Visakhapatnam

The Report by Abhishek Purohit11-Sep-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsJames Franklin held his nerves in the last over to ensure a New Zealand win•Associated Press

A solitary Twenty20 it was, but it featured multiple narratives, an emotional return for Yuvraj Singh and his fans, an anti-climax for India and an incredible comeback from New Zealand. After Brendon McCullum had punched a furious 91, Virat Kohli counter-punched with a majestic 70, leaving India with 49 to get off 42 deliveries with seven wickets remaining.That is when the Chennai pitch started to behave more like a typical Chennai pitch; the ball had come on nicely till then. MS Dhoni and Yuvraj struggled to get the ball off the square, James Franklin and Jacob Oram took all pace off the ball to make it harder, and the asking-rate surged suddenly. Dhoni, having promoted himself ahead of Manoj Tiwary and Rohit Sharma, ended unbeaten on a perplexing 22 off 23 deliveries, failing to find any timing on his swipes and slogs and reduced to nudging singles on the leg side.With 20 needed off the last eight deliveries, Yuvraj managed to heave Oram over deep midwicket for six. With 12 needed off the last five, Dhoni managed to pull Franklin to deep square leg for four. With six needed off three, Yuvraj heaved and was bowled for 34 off 26.There was still time for one final narrative. Enter Rohit, under pressure for his lack of form, with six still needed. He tried gamely, swinging both the remaining deliveries for a couple of runs each, but India had to pay for tapering off after Kohli’s dismissal in the 14th over.

Smart stats

• New Zealand’s win is the seventh by a margin of one run in Twenty20 internationals. New Zealand had beaten Pakistan in Barbados in 2010 by the same margin.

• New Zealand have won the most Twenty20 matches against India (4). They are also the only top team never to lose a single match against India.

• Brendon McCullum’s 91 is the second-highest score in an Twenty20 international against India. The previous record for a New Zealand batsman (69) was also held by McCullum. McCullum has three fifties in four innings against India.

• McCullum, who is the highest run-getter in Twenty20 matches, also holds the record for the most fifty-plus scores (10).

• India’s score of 166 is their third-highest in a losing cause (in chases). The highest is 186 against Sri Lanka in Nagpur in 2009.

• The number of wickets lost by India (4) is the fewest in an unsuccessful chase (minimum 15 overs in the innings).

• MS Dhoni has three20-plus innings at a strike rate less than 100. Two of those are against New Zealand. On each of these occasions, India have gone on to lose the game.

India’s defeat was the last thing on the Chennai crowd’s mind when Kohli, opening in place of the injured Virender Sehwag, was raining boundaries on New Zealand during his 15th fifty-plus international score this year. Wide deliveries were swatted away with disdain, length deliveries were willed into gaps with confident pushes, spinners were lofted inside-out over extra cover, fast bowlers were charged at and hammered down the ground.Kohli’s assault and his 60-run second-wicket stand with Suresh Raina allowed Yuvraj to ease into his comeback knock. The crowd erupted when Yuvraj thick-edged Adam Milne past slip for his first boundary and swung Daniel Vettori over deep midwicket for his first six. In between, he was let-off when McCullum and Kyle Mills collided trying to take a top-edged pull off Milne.It was Franklin who began the turnaround when he had Kohli lofting his second delivery to wide long-off. New Zealand also had McCullum to thank, for lifting them from 2 for 2 with a calculated 91 that highlighted his importance to his side, especially in Twenty20s. McCullum had support from Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor, but he was almost single-handedly responsible for New Zealand reaching a competitive score with a knock that began watchfully, and then exploded into a frenzy of powerful hits over extra cover, down the ground and over midwicket.McCullum often begins a Test innings with a charge down the track and it was probably the two early wickets that made him play with some caution initially. Rob Nicol and Martin Guptill came out swinging but were bowled by incoming deliveries from Zaheer Khan and Irfan Pathan.McCullum broke free in the fifth over, flicking and cutting Zaheer for boundaries. L Balaji, making his T20I debut and playing his first game for India since February 2009, was inside-edged past short fine leg and sliced over point for boundaries in the next over.Williamson, a calm man under pressure usually, ensured he gave the strike to McCullum, who was now in control enough to ward off his usual self-destructing tendencies.Sweeps, reverse-sweeps and scoops were kept away. The one time he tried a reverse-sweep, on 38, he got away with a close lbw shout against R Ashwin, with the umpire ruling there was an inside edge when replays indicated there wasn’t any. McCullum’s one good innings during the Test series against India was ended when the umpire did not spot an inside edge. It was his turn to benefit today.McCullum went after Ashwin, lofting him over extra cover for boundaries and down the ground for sixes. Ashwin, the lone spinner playing ahead of the recalled Harbhajan Singh, went for 34 in three overs.McCullum was only nine short of what would have been his second T20I hundred when he was eventually bowled after missing a sweep off a slow cutter from Irfan in the 17th over. Taylor and Oram were around to take New Zealand to a respectable score.India rode on Kohli’s brilliance in the chase, bottled up for a while after he fell, and when they tried to catch up, it was too late.

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.”