When strong winds and storm clouds forced the players off SuperSport Park late on the fourth day, South Africa were on the verge of winning a Test they had dominated entirely

The Bulletin by George Binoy19-Dec-2010
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Sachin Tendulkar celebrated century No. 50 but India ended the day on the verge of defeat•Associated Press

When strong winds and storm clouds forced the players off SuperSport Park late on the fourth day, South Africa were on the verge of winning a Test they had dominated entirely. That they hadn’t won by an innings already, and would spend the night hoping the foul weather vanishes in time to take two wickets, was because Sachin Tendulkar scored his 50th Test century in trying circumstances and, with MS Dhoni, forged a counterattacking 172-run partnership that took India to within 30 runs of wiping out the monstrous 484-run deficit.South Africa had taken such a significant stride towards victory by scalping four wickets during the first session that it seemed as though their 1-0 series lead would be secure before tea. However, they faced resistance: first from Tendulkar, whose concentration did not waver as his middle-order mates departed meekly, and then from Dhoni, whose belligerent approach brought rewards thanks to a sparsely-populated outfield. South Africa did not take a wicket between lunch and tea. India made 117.Tendulkar and Dhoni continued to blunt a tiring attack during the final session and whittled the deficit below 100. It needed Dale Steyn – supremely fit, aggressive, and pumped up for one last burst – to bowl a bouncer that rose steeply and seamed towards Dhoni, dismissing him for 90 – an innings that began the fightback. Steyn screamed in angry celebration as Dhoni failed to sway out of the way and Mark Boucher dived to his right to catch the edge. India were 449 for 7 and the dream of saving the Test was over. Harbhajan Singh nicked to slip soon after and Tendulkar, watching unbeaten from the other end as Jacques Kallis roared uncharacteristically after taking the catch, knew that he would need substantial help from the weather to help India escape.There was little hope of a jailbreak when Dhoni joined Tendulkar right after lunch with India on 277 for 6, trailing by 207. The desperateness of the situation allowed Dhoni to play aggressively and he did so, driving Lonwabo Tsotsobe past mid-off and through cover in the 79th over of the innings. Seeking a quick end, Smith gave the second new ball to Steyn and Morne Morkel, urging them to take the wicket that would expose India’s tail. It did not happen. Tendulkar was calmness and good judgment personified, while Dhoni attacked, sometimes merely pushing the ball with enviable timing through the off side, sometimes lashing drives and cuts with a high back-lift and fierce follow-through. Both approaches yielded boundaries, and he began to catch up with Tendulkar.Mokel leaked 13 in his second over with the new ball. Tendulkar cut him fiercely, and Dhoni pulled and drove through cover. There were a glut of boundaries in the first hour after lunch, three of which Dhoni took off consecutive deliveries from Kallis, leaving the bowler muttering to himself at the end of the over.Paul Harris got the odd ball to jump, turn and trouble Tendulkar, but he was largely ineffective, considering he was operating on a fourth-day surface. As the deficit decreased, Dhoni tempered his aggression while Tendulkar continued batting resolutely, his cutting and driving off the back foot being the standout features of his innings.Tendulkar resumed after tea on 80, his fluency uninterrupted, and flicked and steered Morkel for boundaries to accelerate towards his milestone. South Africa attempted to delay the century by deploying boundary-riders. Out of the blue, Tendulkar charged Harris, lofting cleanly over mid-off to steam into the nineties. He played the paddle sweep, mis-timed another charge against Harris, and was nearly involved in a disastrous mix-up with Dhoni, before punching Steyn through cover point to become the only batsman with 50 Test centuries.At Old Trafford in 1990, Tendulkar’s first Test hundred was made in adversity and it helped India avoid defeat. His 50th, like his first and so many others, was also an attempt at saving the match. His celebrations were not extravagant because India were still struggling.As the light grew dimmer and the clouds darker, South Africa needed inspiration to end India’s resistance and Steyn provided it. During the spell in which he dismissed Dhoni, Steyn hit speeds of 145kph, smacking Tendulkar on the gloves and thudding a bouncer into his shoulder. He raised South Africa’s intensity levels single-handedly.Before India began to fight, however, they had lost four wickets in quick time, the last of which was Suresh Raina, brittle as ever, hanging his bat outside off stump in the final over before lunch to edge Kallis to slip. His dismissal was the perfect end to the session for South Africa, who had performed with patience. Dravid and the nightwatchman Ishant Sharma had played carefully and their partnership lasted 48 minutes, holding up South Africa. The frustration didn’t last much longer, however, as Steyn had Ishant caught at short leg.During his composed innings, Dravid went past 12,000 Test runs but India needed much more from him than 43. Morkel accounted for him with one that was angled in and then seamed away, and grazed the outside edge of Dravid’s tentative push. Laxman wasn’t comfortable against pace, either, and eventually edged a full ball to gully, giving Tsotsobe his first wicket of the match. At that point, few would have expected South Africa to face the difficulty they did.

Ireland captain William Porterfield is confident his side repeat the 2007 heroics and progress from the group stages of the World Cup

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Feb-2011Ireland captain William Porterfield is confident his side can repeat the 2007 heroics and progress from the group stages of the World Cup.England, South Africa, co-hosts India and the West Indies are favourites to qualify from Group B but captain Porterfield backs his side to spring a surprise.”I think we have a great chance of getting out of our group,” he said.
“We’ll be pretty well prepared come our first match group match (against Bangladesh) on 25 February.”Ireland faced a similarly unlikely task in their maiden World Cup four years ago before recording a memorable win on St Patrick’s Day over Pakistan to reach the Super Eights.Porterfield was part of that side and, on the eve of his team’s first warm-up game, against New Zealand in Nagpur, believes his team can do it again.”The top four out of seven get there [to the quarter-finals] and then there is the knockout stage where anything can happen. Obviously, we’ll be looking to get used to the conditions, but we were out in India before Christmas and we’ve already been together a couple of weeks.”Porterfield, who recently signed for Warwickshire after playing County cricket with Gloucestershire, ranks the current squad as better than the one which delivered the shock success in 2007.Jeremy Bray and Dave Langford-Smith have retired, while star-batsman Eoin Morgan transferred his allegiance to England, but the 2011 squad includes young talents such as Paul Stirling and George Dockrell and is boosted by the return of Ed Joyce, who played for England in the 2007 tournament.13 of the 15-man squad are professional players, significantly more than the largely amateur squad of 2007. Seven have county deals and while six more are contracted by Cricket Ireland, meaning only Nigel Jones and Andrew White hold day jobs.”That has been a big strength of the last couple of years,” added Porterfield.
“We have been able to improve our games by playing day in, day out. The professional set-up is where we’ve really moved on. We have got players who can fit any occasion we come up against and I think we have a well-balanced squad going into this tournament.”

Kevin Pietersen has denied reports that he could quit one-day cricket after this month’s World Cup

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Feb-2011Kevin Pietersen has denied reports that he could quit one-day cricket after this month’s World Cup.The said, on Friday, Pietersen wants to retire from one-dayers because he wants to spend more time with his family but Pietersen wrote on Twitter: “Just to set the record straight … I have NO intention of retiring from ODI’s after the World Cup!!”Pietersen, 30, has played 110 one-dayers so far, and has been in poor form in the format over the past two years. He has managed only one half-century in that time, and his average has tumbled from around 50 to 41.37.He has been a vocal critic of England’s hectic schedule. England fly out to Bangladesh on Saturday for the World Cup, just four days after returning from a three-month tour of Australia. “Our schedule is ridiculous going into this World Cup. It has been for England teams for a very long time, and that’s probably why England have not done well in World Cups,” he had said towards the end of the one-day series against Australia, which England lost 6-1.

Round-up of the second day’s play in the fifth round of matches of the Faysal Bank Pentangular Cup

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Mar-2011Fawad Alam scored 174 not out off 176 balls to give Sind the advantage against Federal Areas at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, helping them finish the second day 321 runs ahead with two wickets in hand. Alam’s knock led Sind to a score of 359 for 8 after Federal Areas had managed a 38-run first-innings lead.Sind, who had been bowled out for 202 on the first day, were in trouble early in their innings, finding themselves 16 for 2. When Alam came in, the score was 74 for 3. He hit 12 boundaries and two sixes in his unbeaten innings, and was given company by his captain Khalid Latif, who scored 94 off 103 balls. Sind kept up the first day’s trend of scoring quickly, maintaining a run-rate of 4.78 runs an over. After Latif was out, there was not much support for Alam until the No. 10 Anwar Ali came in and added 138 runs with him. Anwar finished the day unbeaten on 39.Federal Areas had started the day at 216 for 7 with Hammad Azam batting on 60. Azam could only add another 10 to his score, and Federal Areas folded for 240, with Mohammad Sami taking two more wickets on Thursday to finish with 6 for 67 in the innings.

A team batting effort helped Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province go past Punjab’s first-innings score of 354, and finish with a 65-run first innings lead on the second day at the Lahore City Cricket Association Ground. There were no centurions in Khyber’s 419, but half-centuries from Rafatullah Mohmand, Adnan Raees and Akbar Badshah were supported by other contributions, with only three players in the line-up failing to get to double figures. Rafatullah got 59 and shared a 107-run opening partnership with Waqar Orakzai, who scored 43. Raees was the innings’ top scorer with 86 off 101 balls, and Badshah got 72.The tail wagged as well, with Khalid Usman getting 45 at No. 8. Khyber scored at 5.14 runs per over in their innings, which meant Punjab, who added just 14 runs to their overnight score of 340 for 9 in the morning, were already back in to bat by the end of the day. Their openers played out an over to finish 8 for 0.

Wes Durston inspired Derbyshire to a 52-run defeat of Yorkshire with one over remaining in the Clydesdale Bank 40 League encounter at Headingley

02-May-2011
ScorecardWes Durston inspired Derbyshire to a 52-run defeat of Yorkshire with one over remaining in the Clydesdale Bank 40 League encounter at Headingley. It left Yorkshire still seeking their first win in the competition in what has been a generally depressing start to the season, while their opponents claimed a second victory in as many days over the Bank Holiday period.Derbyshire owed a great deal to Durston, who contributed 95 to his side’s competitive 245 for eight and then helped to contain Yorkshire to 193 with 3 wickets for 25 runs. Captain Andrew Gale and Adam Lyth started out promisingly for Yorkshire but after they had added 35 in seven overs Lyth fell to a great two-handed catch by Garry Park flinging himself to his right at point.Joe Root joined Gale in a profitable stand in which Gale used his feet well to drive Tim Groenewald for a big six but accurate bowling and keen fielding never allowed the pair to take control, despite Gale completing his half-century from 62 balls.They added 90 in 18 overs before Root attempted a reverse sweep at too full a ball from Durston and was lbw for 45 and further pressure was applied on Yorkshire when Jonathan Bairstow drove Chesney Hughes straight into the hands of Wayne Madsen at long-off.But it was the departure of Gale, for 74, which really spelled the end for his team after he had faced 86 balls and struck four fours and two sixes, Durston scooping up a low return catch which television replays confirmed had carried to the bowler. Madsen flung up an outstretched left hand to send back Gerard Brophy and bring Durston another wicket and Yorkshire caved in completely as Steffan Jones chipped in with three quick wicketsWinning the toss, Derbyshire lost their left-handed openers, Usman Khawaja and Hughes, just when they appeared to be settling in nicely, but they made a solid recovery through two splendid knocks from Durston and Madden.After taking a careful look at the bowling, Durston soon blossomed, going on to hit two sixes off leg-spinner Adil Rashid. He was only denied his century by a breathtaking catch at short third-man by Ajmal Shahzad who flung himself to his right to hold on one-handed to a fierce cut which would otherwise have brought four runs. Durston departed for 95 from 99 balls with seven fours to go alongside his sixes and his two previous knocks in the competition this season had brought him scores of 64 and 70.He added 65 for the fourth wicket with Madsen, whose straight drive at David Wainwright rolled on to and over the roof of the football stand, and it was the final over of the innings before he was stumped down the leg-side by Brophy off Rashid for a classy 66 from 41 deliveries with five fours and two sixes.Ryan Sidebottom and Rashid each emerged with two wickets but the best analysis was returned by Richard Pyrah who claimed 3 for 41 off his eight overs.

The spot-fixing trial will be held on October 4, the Southwark Crown Court in London ruled on Friday

ESPNcricinfo staff20-May-2011The spot-fixing trial will be held from October 4, the Southwark Crown Court in London ruled on Friday. The decision was made during a hearing into corruption charges against Pakistani players Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, and the player-agent Mazhar Majeed, who were all named in the spot-fixing investigation.Strangely, none of the four attended the hearing, though Amir and Asif were in London. Butt had already been excused from being present.The players and the agent are facing charges of conspiracy to cheat, and conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments, following the Lord’s Test last August in which they allegedly conspired to bowl pre-determined no-balls. The four appeared at a hearing – at the City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court – on March 17, which set the date and jurisdiction for this hearing and were granted unconditional bail at the time; Majeed was told to surrender his passport.Accepting corrupt payments is an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906 and carries a maximum sentence of seven years’ imprisonment and an unlimited fine. Cheating is an offence under Section 42 of the Gambling Act 2005, carrying a maximum sentence of two years’ imprisonment and an unlimited fine.The foursome was charged after being questioned by Scotland Yard detectives over the alleged scandal in the Test at Lord’s last August, following accusations by the tabloid newspaper. The players have already been banned by the ICC, which held a separate inquiry, for periods ranging from five to ten years. All three have, however, already filed appeals against their bans at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland.

Yorkshire gained their first victory of the season in the Friends Life t20 North Group but it was desperately close as they overcame Worcestershire by just two runs at Headingley

09-Jun-2011
ScorecardYorkshire gained their first victory of the season in the Friends Life t20 North Group but it was a desperately close run thing as they overcame Worcestershire by just two runs at Headingley. But it was just the tonic they needed ahead of Friday night’s Roses clash at Old Trafford.Defending a total of 152 for 7, Yorkshire were well served by Man of the Match Richard Pyrah who captured 4 for 21 and Adil Rashid who claimed 3 for 19 off his four overs. But the real star performance came from Worcestershire’s Gareth Andrew who followed up his 3 for 30 return by smashing an unbeaten 60 off 24 deliveries with five fours and four sixes.With Rashid and Pyrah each collecting two wickets in an over, Worcestershire slumped to 67 for 5 before Andrew set about the bowling, striking David Wainwright for two big sixes and a four in one over and hammering Steve Patterson for four and six to take his side into three figures.James Cameron helped him add 59 in five overs for the sixth wicket before falling in another double-wicket over from Pyrah but Andrew refused to give up the fight and Ryan Sidebottom had to bowl the final over with 12 wanted.Shaaiq Choudhry drove his first ball for three and when Andrew could only run a bye off the fifth his partner needed a boundary to win it for Worcestershire but he failed to make contact and the pair could only scamper another bye.Most of Yorkshire’s batsmen had earlier managed modest contributions but none was able to go on to make a good score with several of them getting out to indifferent strokes.As so often has been the case this season, Andrew Gale got the innings off to a cracking start in an opening stand of 40 in 28 balls with Jonny Bairstow, the Yorkshire captain smacking five boundaries in his 29 off 15 deliveries before miscuing Shakib al Hasan to Damien Wright running in from mid-on.A powerful off-drive by Adam Lyth at the expense of Jack Shantry raised the 50 inside six overs but when Choudhry came on the left-hander drove his second ball straight to Moeen Ali at deep mid-on.Bairstow was lbw swinging at Ali for 24 from 27 balls and Anthony McGrath just appeared to have got into his stride when he tamely played Andrew’s third ball to Shantry at midwicket, making it 99 for 4.The slide continued as Gary Ballance flicked a ball from Andrew into Ben Scott’s gloves and the seamer picked up his third wicket by getting Gerard Brophy to hole out to Daryl Mitchell.Shakib went full stretch to pluck a left-handed return catch from Pyrah out of the air and it was only some effective hitting by Sidebottom in the final over from Andrew that gave Yorkshire a total they were so narrowly able to defend.

A battling century by Neil McKenzie held up Worcestershire’s Alan Richardson-inspired victory charge at New Road but Hampshire are still in danger of being cut off at the foot of Division One in the County Championship

20-Jun-2011
Scorecard
A battling century by Neil McKenzie held up Worcestershire’s Alan Richardson-inspired victory charge at New Road but Hampshire are still in danger of being cut off at the foot of Division One in the County Championship. With the 36-year-old Richardson taking 9 for 114 in the match, the south coast visitors followed on 164 runs behind after folding for 239 and edged into a slender lead of 105 when reaching 269 for 9.Having opened the season with six consecutive defeats, fast-improving Worcestershire can now aim to wrap up a second successive win which would put them 36 points clear of Hampshire.
McKenzie’s resistance may only have delayed the inevitable. After a sketchy start, the South African-born batsman went on to make 106 from 221 balls and put on 143 with Nic Pothas, who completed his second half-century of the match before falling for 72.The ever-willing Richardson got Worcestershire back on track when Pothas edged the first delivery after tea to second slip, and after an interlude of spin, with two wickets for Shakib Al Hasan, the strike bowler was back with the new ball. In his second over he finally broke McKenzie’s resolve, an lbw decision ending the 39th hundred of his career, but the last pair, James Tomlinson and Imran Tahir, survived until the close.Hampshire’s batting generally lacked confidence or conviction and the theory that they would benefit from a winning run in Twenty20 cricket was blown apart. Straight away they were back to where they left the Championship in a heavy defeat by Lancashire in their last match.Worcestershire, in contrast, are perhaps exceeding expectations, and once Hampshire’s fragility had been exposed, largely through the efforts of Richardson, they were relentless in driving home their advantage. From James Vince’s departure in the first innings to his second dismissal on the third morning, Hampshire lost 10 wickets for 69, the scale of the collapse underlining why they are the only side without a Championship win this season.Resuming at 232 for 7, they lasted for only 25 minutes as Richardson and Bangladesh spinner Shakib mopped up the tail for the addition of seven runs. More worrying for Hampshire was the way the top order imploded in the second innings.Liam Dawson avoided a ‘pair’ with an edged four through the slips but Richardson saw off the openers in his first five overs – Jimmy Adams taken at second slip and Dawson by wicketkeeper Ben Scott. Jack Shantry may lack Richardson’s zip but the young left-armer bowled a good line and backed up the senior seamer by removing Michael Lumb and Vince with catches in the slips by Vikram Solanki and Daryl Mitchell.

Gamini Goonesena, a former Sri Lanka captain and allrounder who also played for Cambridge University and Nottinghamshire, has died at the age of 80 in Canberra

Sa'adi Thawfeeq02-Aug-2011Gamini Goonesena, the former Sri Lanka captain and allrounder who also played for Cambridge University and Nottinghamshire, has died at the age of 80 in Canberra.Goonesena played for Sri Lanka in the country’s pre-Test era and captained them against India in the unofficial Test played at the P Sara Oval in 1956. He captured 7 for 69 with his legspin and top-scored for his side with 48 in the drawn game.In a career spanning 194 first-class matches, Goonesena scored 5751 runs at an average of 21.53 and captured 674 wickets at 24.37. He also held 108 catches.Goonesena studied at the Royal College, Colombo, and played in the annual Royal-Thomian encounter. Following his retirement from competitive cricket, he was appointed Sri Lanka’s representative at the ICC and subsequently managed the Test side on a tour of India in 1982. He also worked as a Test commentator before retiring in 2004 and settling down in Australia.Goonesena is best remembered for his contribution as an an allrounder for Cambridge University, a team he represented between 1954 and 1957. He became the first Asian to captain the university in 1957 and scored 211 against arch-rivals Oxford at Lord’s – it remains the highest score by a Cambridge player in the annual university fixture. He also took four wickets for 40 in the second innings to beat Oxford by an innings and 86 runs.Goonesena played for Nottinghamshire from 1953 to 1964 and also in seven consecutive games for Gentlemen v Players between 1954 and 1958, a record for an overseas player.Goonesena first represented Ceylon (later Sri Lanka) against Pakistan in 1950 and went on to play for international sides led by Joe Lister and EW Swanton and toured the West Indies twice. He also played for New South Wales in the Sheffield Shield between 1961 and 1964, while employed with the Ceylon Tea Board in Australia.Bertie Wijesinghe, the oldest living Sri Lanka cricketer who played with Goonesena, said, “It’s a pity that Gamini was lost to Sri Lanka cricket and could not spend time at home to coach and inspire the younger generation with his vast knowledge of the game.”I’ve never known a cricketer apart from the late FC de Saram who was so clean about the game. He was an outstanding bowler and his record at Cambridge speaks for itself.”Chandra Sandrasagara, a close associate of Goonesena who played district cricket with him said, “Richie Benaud the former Australian captain and famed legspinner would always inquire about Gamini whenever I met him. Gamini was the back-up spin bowler to Benaud in the New South Wales side whenever Benaud was away on Test duty.”

Chief selector Kris Srikkanth has blamed India’s collective batting failure for their poor performances, and said it had nothing to do with fatigue or poor preparation in the lead-up to the series

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Aug-2011Kris Srikkanth, India’s chief selector, has blamed the collective batting failure for series defeat in England, and said the loss had nothing to do with fatigue or poor preparation.”If you see the FTP, all countries are playing cricket 365 days a year whether England or Australia,” Srikkanth said. “It is not the Indians only. The fact is that cricket is being played the whole year in whatever format – Test, ODI or Twenty20. So I don’t think that it is the fatigue factor for the performance in England.”However in the last 12 months India have played more Tests than any other team and more one-day games than anyone except Pakistan. In addition to 14 Tests and 29 ODIs over the past year, India’s players also took part in the gruelling IPL, which began within a week of the World Cup final.In the first three Tests this series, India have not managed to post a total in excess of 300, and Rahul Dravid is the only batsman to have averaged more than 40. Srikkanth said the batting had failed to perform as a unit. “The batting did not click for us. In the Indian side, if batting clicks everything clicks. We also did not do well in bowling and fielding. England bowling attack is ideally suited for the conditions.”It is a fact that our top five batsmen have not clicked in the series so far. But the same bunch of cricketers have been doing well during the last couple of years. The same combination had defeated South Africa in South Africa. It our bad luck that in this particular tour nothing has clicked for us.”India had England struggling at 124 for 8 in the first innings at Trent Bridge, but a ninth-wicket 74-run partnership between Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann played a crucial role in England getting to 221. Srikkanth said India’s failure to capitalise on the opportunity was one of the key turning points in the series. “It is a question of mental toughness and our cricketers are mentally very tough … [but] at 124 for 8, if you look at it psychologically … psychologically there we lost the battle,” he told .The BCCI has been criticised by former cricketers for its failure to prioritise Test cricket, but Srikkanth defended the Indian board. “Let us not indulge in the blame game – on the players or the administrators or the BCCI. Nobody is to be blamed and it’s not the time for that. It is just that we are going through a bad phase.”England have replaced India at the top of the Test rankings, but while Srikkanth was confident India would be able to bounce back, he said it was time to rebuild the team. “We have to learn from the series in England, look into what went wrong. We also have to identify and support new talent when the time comes,” he said.”We all have to put our heads together and plan for the future,” Srikkanth told the . “We have to start the process all over again without complaining. We have to try our various combinations to get the best team like we did before the World Cup. We even dropped Yuvraj Singh, who came back strongly into the ODI team and left a huge impact on the tournament. We want to do similar things now.”