Andrew Strauss, the England opener, made 39 on his debut for Northern Districts in New Zealand’s State Shield competition on Sunday and announced he felt “invigorated”, but his breezy innings couldn’t prevent his side sliding to another defeat.Strauss announced his decision to join Northern Districts in December, after he was dropped by England for their tour of Sri Lanka. He was subsequently recalled to the Test side for their forthcoming tour of New Zealand, and could also feature in England’s one-day set-up.”This is almost like a fresh start for me, and there is nothing better than coming into a Test series feeling motivated, fresh, comfortable with your game,” he told BBC radio’s . “That final ingredient – being mentally switched on – is the only thing that holds most players back. I feel really refreshed and invigorated after having three months away. I’m really excited about 2008, hopeful it’s going to be a big year for English cricket and myself.”Batting first, Northern Districts got off to a confident start with Strauss reaching 39 from as many balls. After cracking eight fours, he was bowled by Bradley Scott to prompt a mid-order slump in which Northern Districts lost 5 for 32.Set 225, Otago were ushered to victory by another Englishman, Alex Gidman, the England A captain, who made 54 from 78, before Neil Broom took them home with a bristling 42-ball fifty.England’s tour of New Zealand gets underway with a tour match against Canterbury on February 2, preceding two Twenty20 Internationals and five one-dayers. The first Test in Hamilton begins on March 5.
Batsmen Ian Billcliff and Geoff Barnett, both based in New Zealand, have been named in Canada’s 15-man World Cup squad. Barnett plays first-class cricket in New Zealand and had not been available for Canada during the winter for contractual reasons.Thirteen of the squad from the World Cricket League series in Kenya are retained, the two unlucky players being Don Maxwell and Sandeep Jyoti. Both are allrounders.Ashish Bagai, whose batting has flowered over the winter in South Africa and Kenya, is named as vice-captain behind skipper John Davison. Bagai was named Player of the Tournament for the World Cricket League and captained Canada to a win over Uganda in a warm-up match in Nairobi.Andy Pick, the national coach believes it is “a fairly well balanced squad.”. He felt “deeply sorry for Maxi (Don Maxwell). The makeup of the squad was likely to dictate that two players who were in Kenya would miss out. I believe this is a reflection on the strength of Canadian cricket that there are 17 or 18 players who could expect to be very close to the (World Cup) squad.”We will have to work hard in the field in order not to give up 20-30 runs (that the better teams prevent). We will practice and work on it.”Pick hoped for at least one win “in our four appearances against Test playing nations (in the lead-up and first round of the World Cup). If you can win one of those in the group match, as well as beating Kenya, that must be our target.” He does not dream of Canada winning the World Cup, but “if we get everything right on a given day against England or New Zealand, we could win. The realistic target must be to get through to the second round.”In parallel with wishes for a win over a Test-playing side, Pick said “I hope we can carry on with the progress made over the last three months.” Canada went to South Africa in November with a 13-player squad that included nobody with an individual score of 50 runs in an ODI match. The 50-barrier was broken.In Kenya, Davison returned as captain – he already had a century and a couple of fifties to his name in ODI cricket, mostly from the 2003 World Cup. Bagai scored two centuries and there were the first two century partnerships for Canada in ODI matches. The 300-run barrier was crossed in a win over Ireland, the current European champions.This is the third time that Canada has made it to the Cricket World Cup.Canada squad John Davison (capt), Qaiser Ali, Ashish Bagai, Geoff Barnett, Umar Bhatti, Ian Billcliff, Desmond Chumney, George Codrington, Austin Codrington, Anderson Cummins, Sunil Dhaniram, Ashif Mulla, Henry Osinde, Abdool Samad, Kevin Sandher.
It’s a delicious irony that it was India’s bowling attack, cast aside as the weaker of the two line-ups before the series, that set up the series-clinching win and Rahul Dravid readily recognised this critical aspect. Further, India didn’t play specialist spinner in all three games that they won and Dravid spoke about the mix of youth and experience that had done the trick.”We are working on a few things behind the scenes and we have worked very hard after the Test series,” he said at the post-match press conference. “We have set good fields to certain players. But all credit to our bowlers for bowling as well as they have on these flat wickets. This win has been set up by the bowlers.”The emergence of Rudra Pratap Singh, Dravid admitted, was one of the big positives on this tour and he continued his rise by snapping up his third Man-of-the-Match award in just ten games. “He did well in Faisalabad and now here he has done it again,” Dravid continued. “He is developing well, learning very quickly, works very hard and he is a good young bowler. We have also had the experience of Zaheer Khan and Irfan Pathan and that combination of our attack has been very good.”There wasn’t so much confusion about the toss this time. We were confident in our abilities to chase a total and our thinking was we could chase today. Our bowlers bowled a very good line and length and we took good catches. It was a good wicket for batting so to get them out that low is special. The wicket didn’t play such a big role. There was a little help in the morning but like I said our bowlers bowled a very good line and length.”Dravid also hinted that there might be a few changes to the team for the dead rubber at Karachi, adding that it was another step in their constant journey. “We want to win at Karachi because that is part of our development as a team,” he continued. “Karachi is an opportunity to continue that process of development. We’ve had positive results over the last 15 games and the win should give us some breathing space. We’ll see in Karachi about changes to the team. A lot of our guys have played a lot of cricket recently and we will assess the situation accordingly when we get there.”
Charl Langeveldt seems certain to miss the remainder of the Test series against England after breaking a bone in his left hand, although he will be able to play in the remainder of the Cape Town Test.Langeveldt was struck on the hand while trying to avoid a bouncer from Andrew Flintoff. Although he continued his innings, he was clearly in some distress and he remained in the dressing-room as England’s innings started while the medical team assessed his injury. He later took the field after a pain-killing injection and with his hand in a splint.A subsequent X-ray revealed that Langeveldt had suffered a displaced fracture of the fifth metacarpal, which almost certainly rules him out of the rest of the Test series and might mean that he will not play again this season.
All Today’s Yesterdays – November 13 down the yearsNovember 12 | November 141995 Another Gabba masterclass from Shane Warne helped Australia rout Pakistan by an innings and 126 runs in the first Test at Brisbane. A year earlier he had taken 11 for 110 against England, and 11 for 77 here gave him 30 wickets in three Brisbane Tests at an average of 10.40. Australia bossed the game from the start. Steve Waugh’s 112 helped them to 463, and in reply Pakistan fell apart for 97, with Warne taking 7 for 23. After they were asked to follow on, Aamir Sohail laced 99, but there was no escape for Pakistan. The nail in the coffin came when Salim Malik, who had been recently accused of attempted bribery by Shane Warne, fell to him for a fourth-ball duck. The Wisden Almanack said that Warne was “cast in the role of avenging angel”.1858 Birth of the only Greek scholar to captain Australia. Percy “Greatheart” McDonnell was a brilliant attacking batsman whose outstanding footwork and hand-eye co-ordination helped him excel on wet wickets. His best innings probably came in the third Test against England at Sydney in 1881-82. McDonnell made 147, adding 199 with Charles Bannerman, who made 70. The rest of the batsmen mustered only 29 between them. He died in Brisbane in 1896 after a long illness, aged only 37.1996 Waqar Younis sliced through the New Zealand top order to give Pakistan a four-wicket victory in the one-dayer at Sharjah. Waqar took 6 for 44 and at one point New Zealand were 60 for 6. They recovered to 192 thanks to a seventh-wicket partnership of 117 between Adam Parore (78) and Lee Germon (52). But despite a late flurry of wickets, Pakistan were never in danger of losing after Saeed Anwar slammed 54 off 37 balls. Whereas New Zealand only managed six fours in their entire innings, Pakistan hit five sixes as well as 11 fours.1951 Australia came out on top in a fascinating battle against Alf Valentine and Sonny Ramadhin at Brisbane. They won the first Test by three wickets, scraping to a victory target of 236 in a low-scoring game. Ramadhin and Valentine bowled 129.7 of 150.4 overs, a whopping 86%. They gave the Aussies all sorts of problems – the only batsman to reach 50 was Ray Lindwall, who had fortune on his side as he swung savagely in the first innings, but they squeezed home thanks to an unbeaten 45 from Graeme Hole.1906 Charles Gregory cracked a mighty 383 for New South Wales against Queensland at Brisbane, the 12th-highest score in first-class history. At the time it was an Australian record. The Wisden Almanack described it as “a record in Australia in good-class cricket”, but said “his play was disfigured by three chances”.1990 In the third one-dayer at Multan, Gordon Greenidge became the sixth batsman to make 5000 one-day runs, but his crawling 110-ball 35 was partly responsible for West Indies’ defeat. Pakistan made 168 for 9 from their 50 overs, with Imran Khan making an unbeaten 46, but West Indies were strangely subdued in their reply. They hit only seven fours in a total of 137 for 7 and were beaten by 31 runs. It gave Pakistan a clean sweep – only the second time West Indies had lost a one-day series 3-0. The first was against England, Monte Lynch and all, in 1988.1998 The Champions Trophy final at Sharjah turned into one of the bigger mismatches in one-day history. Zimbabwe only managed 196 for 9 thanks to an eighth-wicket partnership of 58 between Paul Strang and Eddo Brandes, and Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar flashed India to victory with exactly 20 overs to spare. Tendulkar gave a regal display, carting 124 off only 92 balls, with 12 fours and six sixes. It was his 21st one-day ton.Other birthdays 1901 James Neblett (West Indies) 1940 Jack Birkenshaw (England) 1944 Ken Shuttleworth (England)
With the start of the West Indies first-class season just two weeks away, the West Indies Cricket Board will be conducting two match referee seminars in the coming weeks.”The WICB is making an attempt to upgrade the knowledge and skills of all the regional match referees prior to the start of our domestic season, so that things will flow smoothly,” said Michael Hall, chief operations officer of the WICB.The first of the two seminars will be for match referees from Jamaica, Leeward Islands, St. Lucia and Dominica will take place at the Cortsland Hotel in St. John’s, Antigua, on Sunday, January 13th.The second seminar is scheduled for Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, and will involve participants from Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, Guyana, Grenada and St. Vincent & the Grenadines.Neither a date nor a venue for the second seminar has been finalised, but it will be completed prior to the opening day of this year’s Busta Cricket Series that begins on January 25.Jackie Hendriks, the former Jamaica captain and West Indies wicketkeeper/batsman, who is now an International Cricket Council match referee, will conduct the two seminars.Some of the topics with which Hendriks will deal are the ICC Playing Conditions, new rules and regulations and the role of the match referee.
There was plenty of joy for members of the Oil and Natural GasCommission XI in the second day of their match against All IndiaAssociated Banks XI in the Buchi Babu Invitation Tournament 2000.Driven forward by a classy knock of 157 from skipper Gautham Vadhera,ONGC notched up a mammoth 484/5 declared.Supporting his skipper well, Rizwan Shamshad slammed 114 in a strokefilled display of aggressive batsmanship. Shamshad was particularlysevere on the spinners. His knock however, was made more valuable byVadhera’s patient knock.Although the new ball was taken first thing in the morning, themediumpacers delivered just 4 overs before the ball was handed back tothe spinners.In what must be an unusual situation, All India Associated Banks XIemployed their third stumper of the match in the form of CP Sahu.Mithun Minhas gave Sahu the pleasure of being on the scoreboard as hewas stumped off Panchasara.Shortly before drinks, Vadhera decided that he had enough runs on theboard and called it quits at 484/5. Responding to this huge score, AllIndia Associated Banks were in trouble immediately. Delhi mediumpacerAmit Bhandari struck twin blows, removing the openers Sahu and DanielManohar with just 37 on the board. Devendra Bundela saved All IndiaAssociated Banks from further embarrassment as he shored up one end.Making 103 including 16 boundaries, pushed the score forward. PankajDharmani played a speedy knock, bringing up his half century with 10boundaries to his name. After slamming a majestic six over mid wicketoff spinner Rahul Sanghvi, he succumbed for 64.At the fall of Dharmani’s wicket, the scoring rate dropped once more.Shortly after making his hundred, Bundela fell, with the score on 214.Karnataka stumper Tilak Naidu (26) and KN Ramesh 4) saw All IndiaAssociated Banks safely through to stumps at 223/4.
It will be interesting to see which players Glasgow Rangers look to move on from when the January transfer window opens in less than two weeks.
Clinton Nsiala felt like a player who was primed for a move away from Ibrox, as he had not played a single minute in any competition before their clash with Hibernian, but he won 100% of his duels in 30 minutes off the bench on Monday, per Sofascore.
It now remains to be seen whether or not the former AC Milan central defender will get more opportunities to impress Danny Rohl in the Scottish Premiership, or if he will be moved on next month.
One player who does look likely to move on from the Scottish giants in January, despite there being no current rumours around his future at the club,
Why Rabbi Matondo could leave Rangers in January
The Wales international returned to training with the Gers in the middle of November and the Daily Record suggested that he could be given a chance under Rohl, having been injured for the duration of Russell Martin’s tenure.
However, one month later, Matondo has yet to play a single minute or even make a single matchday squad for Rangers in the 2025/26 campaign, per Transfermarkt, which shows that he is firmly out of the first-team picture.
Since joining from Schalke in the summer of 2022, the Welsh attacker has scored eight goals and provided 11 assists in 67 appearances for the Light Blues, per Transfermarkt, which is a decent, but unremarkable, return in the final third.
Decent but unremarkable ultimately sums up his time on the pitch with the Gers, and his lack of minutes this season suggests that he may not get a chance to change that narrative before a potential move in January.
The Rangers player who could be the next Rabbi Matondo
Unfortunately, there is another Rangers forward, signed in the summer, who may be on his way to becoming the new Matondo at Ibrox this season.
Chalkboard
Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.
The Light Blues signed Djeidi Gassama from Sheffield Wednesday for £2.2m in the summer transfer window, but he has failed to convince after a bright start to life in Glasgow.
He scored four goals in six Champions League qualifiers, per Transfermarkt, at the start of his career with the club, and looked set to be a big start at Ibrox.
However, the French forward has only produced two goals and one assist in 24 appearances in every other competition combined this season, per Transfermarkt, which shows that his European form was nothing more than a flash in the pan.
Earlier this month, writer and Rangers fan Kai Watson claimed that Gassama is offering “absolutely no output recently”, and it is hard to disagree with that assessment.
The 22-year-old flop has produced one goal and no assists in his last 13 appearances in all competitions, per Sofascore, with no goals or assists in his last seven outings on the wing for the Scottish giants.
Remarkably, Matondo even contributed more at the top end of the pitch in the Premiership in his six appearances for Philippe Clement last season before being sent out on loan to Hannover for the second half of the campaign.
Premiership
Gassama (25/26)
Matondo (24/25)
Appearances
16
6
Goals
1
2
Big chances missed
3
3
Big chances created
2
2
Assists
1
2
Successful dribbles per game
2.1
1.3
Stats via Sofascore
As you can see in the table above, the Wales international was directly involved in four goals in six matches last term, whilst Gassama has mustered up only two goal contributions in 16 league games so far.
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These statistics illustrate how underwhelming the former Sheffield Wednesday man has been in the final third since his impressive start to life at Rangers in the Champions League qualifiers, as he has been even less impressive than Matondo at Premiership level.
That is why he is in danger of his overall career at Rangers following Matondo’s, as he could end up being another average winger who fails to establish himself as a real star at Ibrox.
Unless Gassama can turn his form around and prove that he can deliver goals and assists on a consistent basis in the Premiership, the Frenchman may also find himself in Matondo’s current position in the future, as a player who is not in the first-team plans and may have to look for a transfer away from Ibrox.
Rangers star was a huge flop under Martin, now he's a bigger hit than Miovski
This Glasgow Rangers star who struggled under Russell Martin now looks like a bigger hit than Bojan Miovski.
Pakistan’s hopes of restricting India on the second day suffered a significant blow as Shoaib Akhtar, their leading strike-bowler, will be allowed to bowl only after spending 205 minutes on the field. He took the field at the start of the second day and, if he doesn’t go off, will be allowed to bowl at 1.38 pm.Shoaib, who was suffering from back pain, bowled only ten overs on the first day before leaving the field for the final time after the 32nd over, shortly after lunch. He was taken to hospital for an MRI scan after suffering back pain during the first day of the final Test against India in Bangalore. The scan revealed no injury but he was experiencing muscle spasms.In the absence of Shoaib and with Yasir Arafat, Mohammad Sami and Danish Kaneria tiring, Younis had to resort to part-timers to help finish day’s overs. He brought himself on to bowl and also used Yasir Hameed and Salman Butt in tandem. They bowled 12 overs in all and conceded 50 runs as Yuvraj Singh and Sourav Ganguly accumulated runs with ease against a toothless attack.According to the laws of the game, if a player is absent from the field for 15 minutes or longer, he shall not be permitted to bowl until “he has been on the field for at least that length of playing time for which he was absent.”
New Zealand’s constantly changing squad will welcome Scott Styris when they arrive in Melbourne on Wednesday. Styris joins Kyle Mills, Jacob Oram and Lou Vincent as late additions to the squad following recoveries from injury and the retirement of Nathan Astle.Styris, the allrounder, has been troubled by back problems since the Champions Trophy in October and he also picked up a calf injury. However, he has proved his fitness on the domestic scene and will now attempt to show he is ready for a spot at the World Cup.”Scott needs to be reacquainted with the squad systems, which have moved on significantly since he was last in the team,â Lindsay Crocker, the New Zealand Cricket general manager, said. “It is also an opportunity for him to get back on to the international stage and the extra pressures that it brings.âHamish Marshall has been dropped from the squad and will return to New Zealand on Wednesday. He played only one match against Australia and was dismissed third ball for zero.