All posts by csb10.top

Sussex were in trouble at the end of the second day closing at 112 forfive in reply to Glamorgan’s mammoth first innings total of 718 forthree declared. Sussex made a poor start losing their first wicketsinside the first five overs for 11 runs. There was a brief revivalwith a stand of 66 between Chris Adams and Richard Montgomerie (23)before the latter was out caught behind by Maynard of Dean Cosker.Sussex lost a further two wickets when Robert Croft took a brilliantcatch at first slip to dismiss Will House and Robin Martin-Jenkinsfell to a reckless hook shot. But Adams, playing a lone hand, made ahalf century for Sussex and remained unbeaten on 55 at close of play.Earlier Glamorgan’s Steve James made an unbeaten 309, the first triplehundred by a Glamorgan batsman and erased the 61-year-old record heldby Emrys Davies (287) against Gloucestershire at Newport in 1939. Histriple century was made of 440 balls in 602 minutes which included 41hits to the fence. His lone chance was on 285. There were a fewmilestones during the course of the innings. First, James helped theWelsh county to post a record total of 718 – the county’s highest inthe championship since they were admitted in 1921. And when Jamescompleted his 200, he also became the first batsman to score fivedouble hundreds for the county.James shared a few partnerships during the course of his unbeateninnings of character and concentration. He shared a record firstwicket partnership of 374 with Mathew Elliot (177), then a secondwicket partnership of 123 with Mike Powell (64), a stand of 134 withMathew Maynard (67, three 4s, five 6s) for the third wicket andfinally an unbeaten 87-run partnership with Dale for the fourthwicket.At the end of the day, talking to the media, a relaxed and satisfiedJames said “It was a great honour to pass the best Glamorgan scoreever made. I did not think about it when I continued my innings thismorning. I treated every ball on its merits and did not think aboutthe milestones because the next ball could have got me.”James added “I was only tense when I reached 287 (set by the lateDavies) and was pleased to get that single to pass his score. But thenI never thought too much about reaching 300 until it came along. I nowfeel very tired but very relieved.”

Victoria 271 and 6 for 184 (White 48*) defeated Western Australia 142 and 312 by four wickets
Scorecard

Victoria recovered from the danger of losing two early wickets and narrowly missed a thunderstorm to secure a first-up victory over Western Australia at the WACA. Resuming on 4 for 86, the Bushrangers suffered a horror start when David Hussey hit the first ball of the day for four and top-edged the second, an attempted pull off Brad Williams, to the wicketkeeper Ryan Campbell.Nick Jewell fell shortly after to Brett Dorey, but Cameron White, who made 48, and Jon Moss steered their side to safety with a 71-run stand that finished moments before a heavy shower hit the ground. Moss, the Man of the Match due to his eight wickets and first-innings 58, attempted to thrash a four from the first three balls of the final over and eventually struck a two to finish on 25.”I was probably the most nervous for the whole match when ‘Mossy’ played and missed those first three balls,” White, the Victoria captain, told . “I just knew it was the last over.” Victoria claimed six points for the outright victory and White said it was “a nice way to start the season”.Mike Hussey, the brother of David and the Western Australia captain, was disappointed with the result but pleased the side had a chance to win on the final day. “We know we need to improve,” he said, “but I know we can.”

All Today’s Yesterdays – September 11 down the yearsSeptember 10 | September 121911
One of the great figures in world cricket was born. Lala Amarnath’s century on debut, against England in 1933-34, was India’s first in Test cricket. A dashing batsman and versatile bowler, he twice took five wickets in an innings in the 1946 series in England – ten years after being sent home from a shambolic tour of the same country. He captained India to victory in their first official series against Pakistan (1952-53) – and his Test career lasted 19 years to the day. His sons Mohinder and Surinder also played for India.1985
One of Sri Lanka’s greatest days. The match at Colombo’s Sara Stadium was their 14th in Test cricket – and their first win. Thanks to Rumesh Ratnayake’s 5 for 49 and Amal Silva’s five dismissals, India were all out for 198 and lost by 149 runs. A draw in the next Test gave Sri Lanka a series for the first time.1999
Another big one for Sri Lanka, this time at Kandy. Led by new captain Sanath Jayasuriya, they beat Australia in a Test match for the first time, at the 11th attempt. Once the visitors had been dismissed for only 140 on an uneven pitch, Sri Lanka won comfortably by six wickets.1912
West Indies’ youngest Test cricketer was born. When he made his debut, against England at Bridgetown, Derek Sealy was only 17 years 122 days old, the youngest Test cricketer from outside the subcontinent. A strong attacking batsman, he made 58 in his debut innings and went on to score 92 and 91 in different Tests against the same country in 1934-35. He didn’t do so well away from home, averaging only 10.00 in Australia in 1930-31 and 23.75 in England in 1939.1999
A new member joins a relatively exclusive club. Tasmanian batsman Jamie Cox scored a double-century and a century in the same first-class match, making 216 and 129 not out for Somerset v Hampshire at Southampton. On what the Wisden Almanack described as “a perfect batting wicket”, he was dropped twice in the first innings but “his second was chanceless”.1995
Much better known as an opening batsman who scored 205 at Old Trafford in 1992, Aamir Sohail was an occasional slow left-arm bowler who did the trick on this occasion. His 4 for 54 helped dismiss Sri Lanka for 233 at Peshawar and win the first Test by 40 runs.1849
A long-lived great-grandfather was born today. When William Henry Cooper died in 1939, he was 89 years old. He liked to take his time with other things too: when he played first-class cricket for the first time, he was already 27. In the first of his two Tests, against England at Melbourne in 1881-82, he bowled 98.2 overs in the match, finishing with 9 for 200. His main claim to fame is ancestral: the only player whose great-grandson was also a Test cricketer. Paul Sheahan played his first Test for Australia in 1967-68.Other birthdays
1874 Charles Prince (South Africa)
1907 Oscar da Costa (West Indies)
1976 Murali Kartik (India)

Cricket South Africa will continue to be consistent in its stance regarding tours to and from Zimbabwe, Gerald Majola, their chief executive officer, said in a statement on Tuesday.”We view tours to and from Zimbabwe as cricketing matters,” said Majola, when asked to comment on reports that the New Zealand government was putting pressure on the ICC to suspend the Zimbabwe Cricket Union because its links to Robert Mugabe’s regime. We will continue to meet our obligations to the ICC and the ZCU in this regard. We have always been consistent in this. I have just returned from a meeting of the ICC’s chief executives, and the matter of any possible suspension was not even raised. In fact, all the countries, including New Zealand, who are due to tour Zimbabwe reaffirmed their commitments.”Cricket South Africa is also at the forefront of developing Africa into a major cricketing continent,” concluded Majola, “and this includes assisting in the progress of Zimbabwean cricket. We will continue on this path.”It is being reported that South Africa have agreed to play three ODIs in Zimbabwe on July 30, 31 and August 3.

In a much closer game in Centurion the Titans managed to clinch a tense two-run win over the Eagles with the match going down to the final over, with the Eagles needing 13 runs to win. Having been set a target of 227, the Eagles were well on the way to a win to extend their lead at the top of the table. An opening partnership of 140 between Loots Bosman (63) and Jonathan Beukus (88) was broken with consecutive wickets to Dale Steyn. A mini-collapse followed from which the Eagles simply never recovered from. Earlier, Titans had posted a total of 226 thanks mainly to a 79 off 73 balls from the hard hitting Gerald Dros, this after Pierre de Bruyn has steadied the top of the innings scoring 50.In a low scoring match at Port Elizabeth the Warriors won their firstmatch of the series with a convincing 39-run victory over a depleted CapeCobras. The Cobras could only manage 135 after the Warriors, who won the toss, had scrambled to 176 for 7 in their 45 overs. Man of the match Carl Bradfield batted through the Warriors innings to score 86 valuable runs. Rory Kleinveldt was the mostsuccessful Cobras bowler taking 3 for 38 in his nine overs while MarioOlivier, although expensive in his 5.5 overs, took 5 for 53 for the Warriors.At the Wanderers in Johannesburg the Lions, after scoring a massive 302 for 6 in their innings, outplayed the Dolphins by restricting themto 252 for 7 to win by 50 runs. Sent in to bat first, the Dolphins bowlers took a pounding as first Adam Bacher (66) and Stephen Cook (93) put on 142 for the first wicket for the Lions, and then Neil McKenzie smashed the ball around the Bull Ring scoring 87 from just 64 balls. Hehit seven boundaries and three sixes on a batsman friendly pitch. Withthe Dolphins losing three early wickets they were always against theclock. Ahmed Amla (59), Duncan Brown (53) and Russell Symcox (50 notout) did try to keep the Dolphins in the game but were unable to get intouch with the run rate.

The first attendance figures are coming in for American ProCricket, and so far they look fairly promising.According to figures compiled by stadium managers, the first match attracted 475 people, the second drew 800 people, the third attracted 1,200 people, and the fourth had 2,100 people.The figures were compiled after days of controversy between supporters and detractors of ProCricket. The numbers include all attendees, including officials and non-paying guests.The steadily rising trend suggests that ProCricket may be catching on. It could eventually be operating on a self-sustaining basis by the end of the season, but that remains to be seen.

Billy Bowden, the ICC’s elite panel umpire, finds little favour with Australian and South African Test players following some controversial decisions in the recent Test series, according to Mike Coward, noted cricket writer.The fractious nature of the third Test at Sydney only served to emphasise that international cricket had a serious problem, Coward wrote in . “Its [Australia and South Africa’s] elite players are losing confidence in the competence of Test match umpires,” he said. “It is obvious Australian and South African players no longer trust the judgment of New Zealand umpire Billy Bowden and his Pakistani counterpart Aleem Dar. Even the most conscientious and self-disciplined players are finding it increasingly difficult to mask their frustration.”Coward ascribed the reporting of Mickey Arthur, South Africa’s coach, Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee to the level of frustration at the umpiring during the series. Bowden and Dar made some poor decisions in the match and the players’ reactions to them have been heated. On Thursday afternoon, the on-field duo ruled that the Sydney Cricket Ground pitch was unfit for play despite many observers maintaining that play could have started at least an hour earlier.Coward also noted an absence of respect between the players and officials, urging the ICC to act swiftly on the problem. “From afar it has seemed this respect has been absent for much of this match,” he said. “If there is no respect and rapport, there can be no faith and no trust. No sport can withstand a fundamental breakdown in the relationship between the combatants and their adjudicators.”Coward suggested the ICC revisit the system of neutral umpires, saying the best officials were missing out on marquee games because of the policy. “The burning issue in the game is not that of neutrality but of competence and for the sake of the peace of mind of the players and the general welfare of the game, the issue must go back to the table.”Writing in the , Peter Roebuck, the former Somerset captain, said that the essential difference between “unprepared and unprotected umpires” was blurring. He was also critical of Chris Broad , the ICC match referee, for not intervening when tempers flared during the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne. Broad has prevented the umpires from commenting.Ian Healy, now a commentator for Channel Nine, believed umpires should be able to call on video replays, while captains could also ask for a replay for a limited number of occasions. “I would like to see each side have two, maybe three appeals, to an umpire … per match,” he has been quoted as saying by the .

Iqbal Qasim, the former Pakistan left-arm spinner and current national selector, was admitted to hospital over the holidays in Pakistan, following a heart attack.Qasim was admitted on Sunday, but family sources told a newspaper that he was now in stable condition after an angioplasty. “Iqbal is making a steady recovery and is held in the hospital because of chest infection.”Qasim played the last of his 50 Tests in 1988-89, against Australia, eventually ending with 171 wickets. He remains the most successful of Pakistan’s left-arm spinners though missed out on a number of Tests in his career as Abdul Qadir’s legspin was generally favoured.He has since retirement worked in several coaching positions and is currently employed as head of sports for National Bank of Pakistan. He has been serving on the national selection committee, headed by Wasim Bari, for the past four years along with Ehteshamuddin.

Duncan Fletcher has been granted British citizenship after 15 years of trying after Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, stepped in to review his application. All it took was an Ashes series victory, although the Home Office are saying it is just a “happy coincidence” that it occured the day after England’s 2-1 series triumph.The cries for Fletcher to be given a British passport had grown increasingly vocal during the summer as England got closer and closer to regaining the Ashes. However, his application was rejected because he spends more than three months of the year outside the UK.Fletcher, 56, qualifies for British citizenship as both his parents and all four grandparents were born in the UK. But he had been caught out by the small print which says those applying must have lived in Britain for five years, with no more than 450 days outside of the county, including 90 within the past year.But Home Office sources confirmed that it was discovered at least half of his time outside the UK was spent touring overseas with England. A spokesman said: “It is right to say the home secretary used his discretionary powers and it was decided Mr Fletcher deserved to be granted citizenship.” Fletcher must now attend a citizenship ceremony to confirm his new status.

At least there’s no danger now of peaking too soon in the countdown to the World Cup.A run of seven losses in the last nine one-day internationals – sealed by the 160-run mauling at the hands of the apparently-resurgent Indians in Vadodara – has severely dented a lot of the bravado and confident expectations of home team glory come April 28 at the new Kensington Oval.In keeping with the wildly fluctuating moods of fans in the region, and indeed many passionate followers of the game around the globe, the side that was being hailed three months ago as a genuine chance to lift the World Cup on home soil is now being rubbished at every turn. That volatility is the same in the considerably larger theatre of Indian cricket, where there seemed a genuine sense of hopelessness following the tour of South Africa. Yet, judging by the bubbling enthusiasm in the glow of the 3-1 series win over West Indies, the general impression is that everything is now back on track.Just as Brian Lara’s freakish run out dismissal at the non-striker’s end typified the decline in West Indian fortunes, Sachin Tendulkar’s blazing assault on the way to a 41st ODI hundred has given new life to millions of fans on the subcontinent who fluctuate from misery to merriment depending on the form of their hero.Not surprisingly, the emotive responses from Kolkata to Kingston are excessive. Indeed, the degree to which both sets of fans and media indulge in triumphalist celebrations at the faintest hint of success merely guarantees that the weeping and wailing will be equally extreme when things go wrong.

It’s the same everywhere. England’s indulgent glorifying at reclaiming the Ashes in September 2005 has been counter-balanced by the vitriol generated by a disastrous tour of Australia. The Australians, for their part, are now being accused of going over the top in trumpeting revenge over the old enemy mere months after pulling out the long knives for Ricky Ponting and company. So it has been, so it will be. And so you just try to pick sense from nonsense and seek, as objectively as possible, to assess strengths, weaknesses and the way forward in the six weeks leading up to the opening World Cup match against Pakistan at Sabina Park.A team that could annihilate South Africa in the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy, defeat Australia twice in consecutive tournaments and get the better of India in six of eight matches before this latest series doesn’t just transform into a collection of bumbling incompetents overnight, even if it may appear that way.If the capitulation two days ago suggests that all is lost, keep in mind that a combined 34 runs was the difference between victory and defeat in the first two matches, while a late stumble in the successful run-chase in the penultimate fixture only took some of the gloss off the pursuit. This is not a question so much of ability as focus, hence the infuriating inconsistency. We’ve been waiting 12 years now for that to change. Expecting a wholesale transformation in less than two months is a bit on the unrealistic side of the equation, even with the revered Clive Lloyd now back as team manager (the official title of Team Co-ordinator is just a waste of four extra letters and a hyphen to say the same thing).We essentially have to make the most with what we’ve got, and let us not pretend that there is not the proven performance to keep the flames of hope from being extinguished completely.

In Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Lara and Marlon Samuels, the West Indies have a top five to match any team in the world, not merely on the basis of potential or exaggerated expectations, but runs, and in the case of Gayle and Samuels, decent bowling spells as well. Denesh Ramdin may seem to be under pressure, but that is of his own making. It’s not as if he hasn’t already excelled at the very highest level, so the challenge is his-no-one else’s-to return to his best and stay there for the foreseeable future. The previous two sentences also apply precisely to Dwayne Bravo, so just replace “wicketkeeper-batsman” with “all-rounder” because I’m running out of space.On the bowling side, apart from the options provided by Bravo, Gayle, Samuels and even Sarwan, opening bowlers Ian Bradshaw and Jerome Taylor showed throughout much of 2006 that they can be relied upon to keep even the most rampant opponents in check more often than not. One or two wayward spells here and there can’t change that reality.That’s nine players. Make it ten if Dwayne Smith is retained for his useful bowling and brilliant all-round fielding only, because relying on anything from his batting is like expecting every World Cup venue to be 100% ready by the time the first ball is bowled. On this basis, only one spot remains to complete an 11, with a further four to finalise a 15-man squad. That is enough to guarantee all sorts of emotive speculation over the next few days, enough for the uninitiated to feel that the sky is falling on West Indian cricket.Maybe it will, but then again, there is the chance that it won’t. It is that chance that keeps us celebrating, agonising and coming back for more.