All posts by csb10.top

Four local cricket clubs have been heavily penalised by the Southern Electric Premier and Hampshire Leagues for fielding unregistered overseas players in matches this season.Premier League duo Hambledon and Hook & Newnham Basics lost all the points they gained from separate Division 3 matches last month.Hambledon have been docked the 20 points they collected from beating Redlynch & Hale by 51 runs on May 11 as their Australian all-rounder Lee Burns did not possess a Level 1 ECB coaching qualification, required under league rules.Hook & Newnham, already struggling in Division 3, paid a double penalty for twice fielding South African Lloyd Moore, whom they had omitted to register.They were deducted the nine bonus points they gained from consecutive defeats by Purbrook and New Milton.Sarisbury Athletic’s Hampshire League promotion bid has been hit by an 11-point deduction for including unregistered Indian all-rounder Amog Pandit in the May 11 tied County Division 1 match with Calmore Sports.And newly promoted Pylewell Park lost 19 points for omitting to register their overseas player, David Mandy, who helped them beat Crown Taverners on the opening day of the season.All four overseas cricketers are now eligible to play for their respective clubs.

Sri Lanka’s bowlers made limited progress in a rain-interrupted first day of their tour match against Durham at Chester-le-Street. Although Chaminda Vaas claimed two early victims to reduce Durham to 17 for two, the tourists then found wickets hard to come by as the hosts closed on 219 for four.England one-day international Paul Collingwood hit an impressive, unbeaten 103 to show the selectors that he can build an innings in the longer format of the game. Collingwood, 25, was in command from the start, and his first hundred of the season came off 119 balls with 14 fours and two sixes.Gordon Muchall, 19, compiled his maiden first-class 50 as he and Collingwood added 129 for the third wicket. Sri Lanka looked ill at ease in the cold, overcast conditions. In the 52 overs that were possible only Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa looked dangerous with the ball.Vaas, who is sure to be in the tourists’ side for the first Test againstEngland at Lord’s beginning on May 16, bowled Jon Lewis for nine as he played no stroke to a delivery that moved back off the seam to clip his off stump.Vaas then accounted for Pratt for four in the same over, with wicket-keeper Kumar Sangakkara taking a comfortable catch to leave the hosts in trouble.But after Muchall settled, Ishara Amerasinghe and Ruchira Perera struggled to bowl with the venom and accuracy of the opening pair. Spin was introduced in the 25th over in the form of Thilan Samaraweera, but Muchall immediately flicked the ball through midwicket for another boundary.Rain then halted proceedings for just over three hours. On the resumption, Muchall square-cut the first ball to the boundary and another cracking shot through extra cover brought up his half-century, 75 balls with seven fours.Collingwood soon followed to 50 off the same number of deliverieswith nine boundaries, but Muchall then went for 69, caught by Russel Arnold at second slip off Zoysa with the score on 146.Nicky Peng was also caught by Arnold off the same bowler for 17 but Collingwood continued to dominate with a rich array of strokes including two huge sixes off Samaraweera. Ashley Thorpe, making his first-class debut, joined Collingwood and the duo added 24 before bad light brought an early close.

Scotland captain Richie Berrington admits his side were frustrated at missing out on an opportunity to beat England after their opening fixture of the T20 World Cup was washed out in Barbados.In the first meeting between the two countries in the T20I format, Scotland seized the initiative between rain breaks to set the defending champions a DLS-adjusted target of 109 from 10 overs. Alas, a further shower after their innings had concluded on 90 for no loss proved terminal, with both sides settling for a point in Group B.Having won the toss, Berrington’s decision to bat on an uncertain Kensington Oval pitch was vindicated as openers Michael Jones and George Munsey struck 51 in 6.2 overs before a long break in play. With the match subsequently reduced to 10 overs a side, the pair returned to the middle to add 39 more from their remaining 22 deliveries.”I think we certainly gave ourselves a chance there,” Berrington said, on the prospect of an upset. “It would have been interesting to see how the weather would have affected the pitch because it did look a little bit of uneven bounce, as we expected during the day. I think if we bowled and fielded well, we certainly had an opportunity there.”I think everyone’s frustrated, not being able to get a game in there. Some positives to take, at least. The guys who went out to the middle I thought did a really good job. Now looking ahead, they’ve had some time out there and we can take some things from that. But certainly we’re frustrated we couldn’t get a full game in.”Matthew Mott shared Berrington’s disappointment at being unable to complete the match. However, England’s limited-overs coach had his side as favourites at the halfway stage, given the power hitters within the line-up and the fact Scotland would have had to bowl with a wet ball on a surface that would have skidded on, given the extra moisture.”I think we had all the advantage in that,” Mott said. “I think it was going to be a wet ball, 10 wickets in hand, only 10 overs. I think if we got back out there, I thought it would have been tough on Scotland given the start that they had.”But I thought it was well within our grasp to achieve that. I think the way we’re looking to play, we’d look to be at that mark in a 20-over game. So, yeah, I think we were very confident.”Those who’ve watched a lot of T10 cricket, I think that was certainly an achievable chase and we probably would have had all the things in our favour. It was frustrating not to get back out there, but that’s the way it is.”Related

• England and Scotland grudge match set to break new ground

• From punter to protagonist – Phil Salt returns to Kensington Oval

• Matthew Cross: 'We've got four games, and we've got to win four games'

• Scotland's 90 for 0 in vain as match is abandoned

• Scotland openers make the running before rain frustrates in Barbados

While full of praise for Scotland’s approach to their innings, Mott rued what he felt was a nervy effort from England. Not only were there a handful of fielding errors, but England also missed out on dismissing Munsey for 16 – via a top-edge – after Mark Wood overstepped the front line. The left-hander went on to score 41 not out from 31 balls.”I thought we were a little bit sloppy in the field a couple of times, probably just a bit of nerves at the start of a tournament,” Mott said. “There’s definitely areas we want to improve on, but there was a lot of good stuff in there as well.”It’s something we spoke about at the break, about just tidying up. And I think we did that really well after. I wouldn’t be reading too much into it – it happens in T20. But we’ve already seen how challenging these conditions are going to be and how they can flip so quickly.”Both teams will return to Bridgetown for their next matches. Scotland face Namibia on Thursday while England are back in action on Saturday when they take on Australia in a repeat of the 2010 final at this venue. Mott has urged his team to go full throttle at their Ashes rivals to set their World Cup campaign in motion.”Yeah, we’re looking to do that, definitely,” he said, when asked if he was looking for a statement performance against Australia. “I think we showed that. I think, you know, Mark Wood steaming in their first over, I think it’s exciting. Him and Jofra together is something that we’ve not been able to have for a while.”We were really keen to make a statement there. But you know, equally, I think we bat deep, we’ve got good options around there. We match up really well against Australia, and whatever the result of this game, it was going to be a big game the next one, and we’re really looking forward to it.”

Pakistan have recalled batting allrounder Iftikhar Ahmed for upcoming three-match T20I series in Bangladesh. The selectors have retained 17 of the 18 players part of the ongoing T20 World Cup, with Mohammad Hafeez missing out after he requested to be left out to “allow youngsters opportunities to perform and gain international exposure,” as per a PCB release. The series is set to start in Dhaka from November 19.One of the favourites to make the T20 squad, Iftikhar lost out because the selectors preferred the experience of Shoaib Malik. Iftikhar has had formidable T20 numbers this year: his 654 T20 runs have come at an average of 54.50. He has struck them at 145.98.Together with Iftikhar, Pakistan will have Haider Ali and Khushdil Shah in the middle order. It’s likely the benched players from the World Cup will all be provided an opportunity against Bangladesh, where they have the freedom to pick from 18 members.Hafeez, the second-longest serving Pakistan cricketer currently after Malik, has made way upon his request, but it’s unclear if he has retired from the game altogether. He had originally planned to retire in November last year after the T20 World Cup in Australia, only to reconsider his decision due to the postponement of the tournament.Mohammad Hafeez wants the younger players to gain international exposure•ICC/Getty Images

He had recently ducked a retirement question, saying he would “decide what to do” after the T20 World Cup. On their part, however, the PCB made it clear that Hafeez had discussed his unavailability for the current tour with chief selector Muhammad Wasim.Ramiz Raja, the current PCB chairman, was one of the high-profile voices to ask Hafeez and fellow veteran Malik to “retire gracefully”. The PCB is keen on rebuilding the side after a slew of resignations, including that of former head coach Misbah-ul-Haq and bowling coach Waqar Younis less than a month before the World Cup.Saqlain Mushtaq is currently the head coach on an interim basis, with new full-time coaching staff yet to be finalised. Mathew Hayden’s short-term gig as batting coach is set to end after the ongoing T20 World Cup, while Vernon Philander will extend his stay for the three T20Is and the first Test in Bangladesh.The Pakistan team will fly out to Dhaka from UAE and enter into the another bio-secure bubble formed in Dhaka. The three-match T20I series will be followed by two Tests in Chattogram (November 26-30) and Dhaka (December 4-8). The squad for the Test series will be announced by November 15.Pakistan squad: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali , Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicketkeeper), Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shahnawaz Dahani, Shoaib Malik, Usman Qadir

Qualifying heartbreaks have been a recurring theme for Scotland at big events in the recent past. It happened at the 2016 T20 World Cup, it happened at the 2019 World Cup Qualifiers. But they turned it around in style on Thursday, not allowing a similar theme to recur at the 2021 T20 World Cup.They have now won three in three to make it to the Super 12s in the most emphatic fashion by beating Oman, whose off day with the bat made this a one-way traffic. Scotland now top Group B, and are bunched alongside India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Afghanistan and one of Namibia or Ireland in the next round.

Watch highlights on ESPN+

If you are in the USA, watch the Oman vs Scotland highlights on ESPN+ here in English, and here in Hindi

Scotland strike early
Pressure can do strange things. Jatinder Singh, who smashed the ball with abandon in the first two games to make 73* and 40, was run out trying to steal a single to mid-on, off the second ball of the match. Once Aqib Ilyas, his opening partner, turned his back on him, Jatinder had nowhere to go. In the second over, Safyaan Sharif benefited from hitting the hard length as Kashyap Prajapati was rushed into a pull he was in no position to play as he skewed a simple catch to mid-off. At 13 for 2 in the third over, it was a nightmare of a start for Oman.Ilyas counters before holing out
Trying to make amends for the run-out gaffe, Ilyas began by flicking Brad Wheal over fine leg off the fifth ball of the match and continued to take the attack to the other bowlers. He picked boundaries off the pads and straight down the ground, accounting for 29 of Oman’s 37 runs in the powerplay. It wasn’t all blemish free for Scotland, though. First, Chris Greaves overran the ball to concede a boundary to a slog sweep in the ninth over off Ilyas. Two balls later, Wheal mistimed his jump at short fine leg to reprieve Ilyas on 36. But even before Scotland began to wonder if it had cost them, Ilyas would pick out long-off to give Michael Leask a wicket off his third delivery, in the 10th over.Zeeshan rides his luck
Maqsood began slowly and tried to rebuild the innings by nudging the ball into the gaps. His first sign of going big, however, nearly resulted in a wicket as he mistimed a Greaves full toss to deep square leg in the 14th over, only to find out it was a waist-high no-ball. He had another reprieve in the next over when Sharif, the bowler, and Coetzer, running to his left from cover, briefly froze in trying to catch a skier. By the time Coetzer attempted the catch, he was late, and the catch was grassed.Coetzer then had three full stumps in view to effect a direct hit at the bowler’s end but missed that as well. On 14 then, he kept the runs ticking to score 34, even as wickets continued to fall around him that meant Oman didn’t get the finishing kick. Eventually, Maqsood would hole out to sweeper cover to give Josh Davey his second wicket. Oman were bowled out of the last ball of their innings for 122.Munsey, Coetzer begin wellGeorge Munsey came out playing shots: cutting short balls, reverse sweeping tossed up deliveries and punching the hard length through cover. And in trying to play one shot too many, he was out pulling one straight to deep square leg in the fifth over. The pulsating start allowed Coetzer to settle in, but once Oman struck, he stepped up to end the powerplay with a stunning inside-out hit into the stands over deep cover. In the next over, he biffed a short ball into the hospitality area over deep midwicket. The rush of shots had a deflating effect on Oman as Scotland had raced away to 58 for 1 in seven overs.Then came a bit of a slowdown after Coetzer’s fall, and just as Oman were beginning to claw back through their spinners, their fielding let them down. The in-form Richie Berrington sliced a slog to point off Maqsood’s left-arm spin, as Ilyas misjudged a catch by rushing in a tad early. It would have been 82 for 3 then, but Berrington broke the shackles soon after by launching two massive sixes downtown in the next over. Scotland moved past 100, the asking rate came down to below four an over and Oman were to soon be deflated. Berrington hammered the final nail for Oman by muscling a six over deep midwicket as Scotland added a famous chapter to their cricket history.

Virat Kohli, the Royal Challengers Bangalore batter and current captain, is set to become the first player in IPL history to feature in 200 matches for a single franchise, when his team takes on Kolkata Knight Riders in Abu Dhabi on Monday night.Kohli, who has been with Royal Challengers ever since the inception of the tournament in 2008, has batted in 191 innings, scoring 6076 runs at an average of 37.97 and strike rate of 130.41. He has struck five centuries and 40 fifties during that time, helping Royal Challengers reach the IPL finals in 2009, 2011 and 2016.Kohli is set to reach the 200-match landmark a day after he announced that he would be stepping down as Royal Challengers’ captain at the end of the season, though he pledged to be with the franchise “until my retirement from the game of cricket”.Related

• Kohli to step down as RCB captain after IPL 2021

• Well-drilled Royal Challengers Bangalore look to reprise first leg's form

• Was it Kohli's own decision to give up India's T20I captaincy?

Kohli is ahead by a decent distance for most matches played at a single franchise; MS Dhoni is second on the list with 182 matches for the Chennai Super Kings, while his team-mate Suresh Raina is third, having played 172 matches. Overall, Kohli, at 199, is fifth on the list of most IPL matches played, behind Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, and Raina.Kohli first led the side in 2011, during a league match against the Rajasthan Royals, but became the team’s full-time captain only in 2013.His standout season came in 2016, as Kohli ended as the league’s top run-getter, scoring 973 runs from 16 matches, including four tons and seven half-centuries.”Congratulations, Virat . Reaching 200 matches is an outstanding achievement, and shows loyalty and commitment,” Mike Hesson, Royal Challengers’ head coach, said in a message to Kohli posted by the team’s social media on Twitter. “I’m immensely proud. You always play for the team, and are selfless in the way you operate. You are always encouraging and have created a great atmosphere. I love your enthusiasm and willingness to compete and win games for us.”Sanjay Bangar, Royal Challengers’ batting consultant, also praised Kohli for sticking with the franchise throughout the IPL, when he could have easily been tempted to move to another team.”More than the number of games, he has shown various qualities by being with Royal Challengers,” Bangar said. “As he continued to conquer various frontiers across the globe, he might have had opportunities to move to other franchises. But he stuck with us. In today’s fast-food generation, he set out to give a lesson for the youngsters who want to change teams very quickly. I’m so glad that he continues to play with the same zeal and enthusiasm that he had as a youngster, even today. We hope to see him continue playing for Royal Challengers for at least 350-400 games.”

While it’s not quite all doom and gloom yet, Royal Challengers Bangalore are not far from the point of no-return on the league table. One win in five games leaves them with the prospect of having to win at least seven of the remaining nine games – five of which are away – to have a chance of securing a play-off berth. And the lack of balance when it comes to the selection of overseas players is giving coach Daniel Vettori sleepless nights.After watching a match “snatched from under their nose” by Mumbai Indians – who recovered from 7 for 4 to chase down 143 – the team management strengthened their bowling by leaving out Chris Gayle for Shane Watson against Rising Pune Supergiant on Sunday. In addition, Adam Milne was brought in for his first game of the season at the expense of Tymal Mills. As a result, the batting order was shuffled around for the third time in as many matches, and the slow surface exposed Royal Challengers’ struggles. They lost to Rising Pune by 27 runs.”The thing is, in the IPL we’re constantly searching for the right balance,” Vettori said. “In the Mumbai game, we were down a bowler. Shane has been such a successful allrounder in T20 cricket for a long period of time. So we made the decision to back Shane because of his all-round contribution.”It’s tough for everyone in T20 cricket. A lot of domestic players have had to step in and perform after missing a few games or not being in their best form. We know Chris Gayle is a very good performer and we know if he can get on a roll than we can utilise Chris in a positive manner. At this stage we are just trying to find the right balance.”Vettori attributed the frequent changes in selection to being caught a little off guard by the kind of surfaces they’ve encountered at home, but insisted that wasn’t an excuse to cover their shortcomings. “It’s probably a case of dealing with a kind of wicket that we haven’t played on before,” he said. “It’s obviously slightly slower. We are used to wickets that make it a lot easier for batsmen to hit the ball for six, hit the ball for four, to catch up with a few dot balls.”Chasing 162 against Rising Pune, Royal Challengers did not hit a single four and struck only one six between the fourth and 15th overs. The inability to adjust, Vettori felt, added to the pressure. “We are probably creating pressure on ourselves through dot balls, striking at below 100,” he said. “Trying to catch that up in the back end on a slow wicket is incredibly difficult. I think in a lot of ways we need to be more proactive.”I think the wickets are not batting-friendly, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good T20 wicket. It’s been exciting for the bowlers. All three games have been pretty entertaining and I think we have showed that we can compete on this wicket. It is different, we just need to adapt like we did in the Delhi game.”Without mincing words, Vettori was also clear about the problems with their batting. “We saw what the likes of KL (Rahul), Sachin Baby, all those roles players from last year performed,” he said. “The expectation is on AB and Virat to excel, but we need the likes of Mandeep (Singh), Kedhar (Jadhav), Shane (Watson) and Stuart Binny to complement their performances. We haven’t made it easy on Mandeep by chopping and changing the line-up. We are trying to find the right combination. Once we find the right combination we can get on a roll.”I won’t say drastic changes are required. We back the quality of our performance on our day and we know that we haven’t had enough of those when we need consistent performances across the board. We have had little pockets of it. Aravind was exceptional today, Milne in his first game for RCB in a long time did a great job. We need more of those performances, we can’t rely on one or two people and that’s why we did so well last year. We need more performances from more people.”

The ECB is looking into the possibility of using artificial pitches in its proposed new T20 competition.Keen to ensure the best-possible surfaces (for batsmen, anyway) for a competition seen as vital in attracting a new audience to the game, the ECB recently held a meeting with county groundsmen where the idea was discussed. ESPNcricinfo understands that Chris Wood, the ECB’s Pitch Consultant, has been charged with researching how to introduce such surfaces ahead of the launch of the competition in 2020.There are significant pros and cons to the use of such pitches. While it would likely result in a certain homogenisation of conditions and provide even less opportunity for bowlers to extract anything from surfaces, it would also enable grounds to provide the centre-wicket pitches required by broadcasters multiple times without concerns about deterioration. Artificial surfaces might also be considered to provide uniformity of conditions for both teams, which a turf surface will not always offer.Drop-in surfaces have also been considered but are not thought to be cost effective or provide quite the same uniformity of performance.While long-term lovers of cricket may have reservations about artificial surfaces, the ECB’s mantra over the new competition is that it is not designed to appeal to those already watching the game: it is designed to appeal to the vast potential audience that is currently immune to its charms. The ECB feels that providing such good-paced surfaces will help create the high-scoring, boundary-filled cricket it believes will attract that new audience. It might also minimise delays after poor weather.To that end, Wood is looking into the best options and cost implications of laying such pitches close to the middle of squares in all first-class grounds.It is a move that will do nothing to address the increasing imbalance between bat and ball and might rob the game of the sort of low-scoring thrillers that made the 1983 World Cup final, the 2015 World Cup match between New Zealand and Australia and the 2003 World Cup match between Australia and England – among many others – so memorable. But subtlety appears to be one the likely victims of the T20 revolution.

ScorecardFile photo: Iftikhar Ahmed, who last played for Pakistan in August 2016, followed a century with three wickets•PCB

Unbeaten centuries from Gauhar Ali and Iftikhar Ahmed crushed Karachi Whites and gave Peshawar the Regional One Day Cup at the National Stadium in Karachi. They joined hands at 45 for 2 in the 12th over and propelled Peshawar to 321 with an unbroken 276-run stand – the highest for any wicket this season.Facing a steep target, Karachi lost their openers within five overs, and although the middle order mounted a fight, they slumped to 197 all out. Iftikhar followed his career-best 131 not out with bowling figures of 3 for 12 in four overs. Gauhar and Iftikhar shared the Man-of-the-Match award.Having been sent in, Peshawar lost Musadiq Ahmed for 1 in the fifth over. Israrullah, who struck an unbeaten 153 against Karachi Blues in the semi-finals, fell in the 12th over. Gauhar and Iftikhar then took the side past 100 in the 23rd over. Soon after, both batsmen brought up their half-centuries, but it was Gauhar who reached three figures first, in the 41st over. Iftikhar got there four overs later as Peshawar seemed set for a hefty score. They kicked into a higher gear in the last five overs, taking 59 runs. Gauhar ended with 19 fours and one six, while Iftikhar ended with 13 fours and one six.Karachi Whites used as many as seven bowlers but they could not find a way past Gauhar and Iftikhar.That their openers departed early only accentuated their woes. Akbar-ur-Rehman, the Karachi captain, and Saad Ali added 59 for the third wicket, before Akbar was run-out for a 48-ball 45. Anwar Ali gave them hope by hitting a 46-ball fifty, but was bowled by Sajid Khan off the next ball.From 160 for 4 in the 31st over, Karachi were ultimately dismissed in 39.5 overs. Sajid and Taj Wali claimed two wickets each to complement Iftikhar’s part-time offbreaks.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAhmed Shehzad made an impression upon return from a stint with Comilla Victorians in the BPL, striking 104 off 137 balls•AFP

Habib Bank Limited (HBL) were on the verge of a stunning come-from-behind win in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy after conceding a first-innings lead against Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) at the National Stadium in Karachi.HBL, who recovered from 21 for 6 in the first innings to post 236, made WAPDA toil for 122.5 overs in the second innings. Their top three made centuries in the team’s 485 for 1 declared. Imam-ul-Haq, nephew of Inzamam-ul-Haq, top scored with 200 not out, while Fakhar Zaman and Ahmed Shehzad made 170 and 104 not out respectively.Set an improbable target of 444, WAPDA ended the penultimate day on 83 for 2, with Salman Butt (38) and Mohammad Saad (20) at the crease. Usman Khan, the left-arm seamer, picked up both wickets to fall.Having eclipsed Asadullah Butt and Mujahit Jamshed’s 16-year record for the highest opening stand (252) for HBL, Imam and Zaman, who resumed on 264 for 0, added 39 more before Zulfiqar Babar broke through. Ahmed Shehzad, returning to the first-class format after a stint with Comilla Victorians in the Bangladesh Premier League, then made a mark, hitting five fours in his 137-ball 104 before Abdur Rehman declared.WAPDA will need Butt, their captain to come good with support from the middle order if they are to win the tournament, having taken the first-innings honours.