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The BCB has failed to begin the hearing of its anti-corruption tribunal within the stipulated time frame of 40 days from the issue of charges against the players accused of fixing during this season’s BPL

Mohammad Isam23-Sep-2013The BCB has failed to begin the hearing of its anti-corruption tribunal within the stipulated time frame of 40 days from the issue of charges against the players accused of fixing during this season’s BPL. The hearing should have begun today but the board has not yet formed the ten-member disciplinary panel, even though two of the accused had served the BCB with legal notices to reverse their provisional suspensions.Dave Richardson, the ICC chief executive, and BCB president Nazmul Hassan had revealed the accusations against nine people on August 13 and Richardson had confirmed the chargesheets were being sent to them on that day. According to the BCB’s anti-corruption code, the hearing should “take place no longer than 40 days after the receipt by the participant of the notice of charge.””We could not complete the formation of the panel because of procedural delay,” BCB’s acting chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury said. “When the formation is completed and starts its work, it will be visible. We are taking steps according to legal advice.”According to Article 5 of the code, after the accused lodge an appeal within 14 days of receipt of the charge, the matter shall be referred to the chairman of the disciplinary committee. He will be appointed by the BCB, who will then appoint ten members of the panel. Three of them have to be retired supreme or district court judges, three socially recognised civilians and four cricket experts. From these ten candidates, the chairman will appoint three members to form the anti-corruption tribunal to hear each case.If a full hearing doesn’t take place within three months of the imposition of the provisional suspension, the accused are “entitled to apply to the chairman of the disciplinary panel (sitting alone) to lift the provisional suspension.”Two days after the joint announcement in Dhaka, the BCB appointed Mahmudul Amin Chowdhury, former chief justice of Bangladesh’s Supreme Court, as the chairman of the disciplinary committee. He had confirmed his acceptance, and while there have been reports of several professors and former Bangladesh cricketers being part of the tribunal, there has been no official announcement.The BCB’s long-standing problem of not being able to deal with more than one matter at time could be the reason for the delay. Most of the employees, particularly the acting chief executive, have been busy preparing for elections. The board is also dealing with the 2014 World Twenty20 and the problem of unfinished venues.Barrister Noorus Sadik, representing Mosharraf Hossain and Mahbubul Alam, who had admitted to being accused of corruption, said he had taken the legal notice to the BCB after the players had appealed within the 14-day period.”We had served the BCB with the legal notice today,” Sadik said. “We are going to the court next week. As it is a civil dispute we will be going to take the case to the sub-judge court. There were procedural mistakes in the whole process. Two cricketers are already playing while [my] clients are imposed with provisional suspension.”Mosharraf was charged with alleged match-fixing in Dhaka Gladiators’ BPL match against Chittagong Kings earlier this year. Mahbubul, his Gladiators team-mate, was accused of fixing the matches against Barisal Burners and Chittagong Kings.

Somerset were left facing a major headache after another batting collapse left them staring a third defeat of the season after just the first day at Horsham.

ESPNcricinfo staff22-May-2013
ScorecardSomerset had no answer for Steve Magoffin•Getty ImagesSomerset were left nursing a major headache after another batting collapse saw them staring at a third defeat of the season after just the first day at Horsham. Having dominated champions Warwickshire at Taunton at the end of April, they now resemble relegation candidates rather than title challengers.Director of cricket Dave Nosworthy admitted Somerset have an issue after his side were routed for just 76 by Steve Magoffin’s career-best 8 for 20. They lasted only 23.4 overs as Magoffin ran through them, including a blast of five wickets in 13 balls.”There are no excuses we didn’t get it right,” Nosworthy told “We won the toss and chose to bat but it didn’t work for us.”I think the lads are all very disappointed, you train as hard as you do and try your best but at the end of the day you have got to be responsible for your own innings and get out there and perform, which nobody has managed to do for us today.”Nor have many managed to perform at all this season. A poor show with the bat in the opening match at Durham seemed to be an aberration for Somerset as they found form at The Oval and then racked up over 400 against a much-vaunted Warwickshire attack. But a slip at Headingley, where a draw was declared with Somerset 61 for 6 in their second innings, became a harsh reality after a thumping defeat at home to Middlesex.Their batting order is ageing, inexperienced or out of form. They have been reliant on 37-year-old Marcus Trescothick and overseas player Alviro Petersen. Here, Petersen failed and Trescothick’s 20 was one of only three double-figure scores.Somerset can also not turn to their bowling attack for much comfort. The first three into the attack here, Peter Trego, Steve Kirby and Alfonso Thomas, have a combined age of 102. Together with Jamie Overton and Jack Leach – two youngsters whose development is essential for the club – they shipped 298 runs at over four an over to close day one 222 behind.They had envisaged progress at a similar rate themselves with the bat but had no answer for Magoffin who bowled 11 overs unchanged to produce the best performance by a Sussex bowler since Mushtaq Ahmed took 9 for 48 when the county clinched the Championship title against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in 2006.He started by bowling Arul Suppiah through the gate – Suppiah’s sixth single figure score in eight innings this season – then a touch of inswing proved too much for Petersen. But the real damage was done after James Hildreth was caught low down at slip in the 12th over.From 42 for 3, Somerset subsided to 43 for 7, with Magoffin taking three wickets in four balls in the 14th over. Trescothick was caught behind playing away from his body before Trego and Thomas fell in successive deliveries.Somerset’s last three wickets put on 33 to avoid total ignominy but there was no stopping Magoffin. After Jack Leach was caught behind, Magoffin bowled top scorer Jos Buttler for 22 to pick up his eighth wicket and record the best bowling performance at Horsham since Northamptonshire’s Vince Broderick took 9 for 35 in 1948.Chris Jordan took the other two wickets and Sussex openers Chris Nash and Luke Wells were soon putting conditions into perspective with a stand of 83.Thomas dragged Somerset back into contention when Nash, captaining Sussex on his home ground in the absence of Ed Joyce, played on before Joe Gatting edged his second ball to second slip.A typically fiery burst from Kirby was rewarded with the wicket of Wells while Mike Yardy, who hit three successive balls from Kirby to the boundary, squandered a good start when he was bowled by Peter Trego at the start of a new spell.But Sussex regained control in a fifth wicket stand of 85 between Rory Hamilton-Brown and Matt Machan before the latter was run out by Leach’s direct hit from midwicket.Somerset fought back after tea by taking five wickets, including Hamilton-Brown – whose 77 included 11 fours and two sixes and was his highest score since returning to the county before he became one of four victims for Thomas.Despite the clatter of wickets, ECB pitch inspector David Capel said he was perfectly happy with the surface.

James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia chief executive, has spoken for the first time about the “homework” fiasco that enveloped the national team on a horrid tour of India, stating his displeasure at how the squad’s discipline broke down

Daniel Brettig15-May-2013James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia chief executive, has spoken for the first time about the “homework” fiasco that enveloped the national team on a horrid tour of India, stating his displeasure at how the squad’s discipline broke down to the point that four players including then vice-captain Shane Watson were suspended from a Test match.At the time of the suspensions, which also ruled James Pattinson, Usman Khawaja and Mitchell Johnson out of contention for the third Test of the series in Mohali in March, Sutherland was overseas and conspicuous by his absence from CA’s public response to the episode, leaving the team performance manager Pat Howard to field questions. However Sutherland told ESPNcricinfo that he had since gained a deep understanding of the issues at play, and stressed to team management that such a scenario could not be allowed to unfold again.”My starting point with all of that is personally I’m disappointed we got to that stage,” Sutherland said. “I now have a pretty in-depth understanding of where and how it got to there and I’m still disappointed that it happened in the circumstances when it got to there and how it got to there.”I’m supportive of the decisions that were made at the time and I’m a really firm believer in the fact that those decisions will ultimately stand us in good stead as we build to sustained performance at the highest level. I think it’s pretty well understood internally what I think about it, and the need for us to ensure those things are dealt with better before they ever get to that stage.”While Sutherland was hesitant to attribute the suspensions and their prelude to any one major factor, he conceded that communication within the team had broken down, leaving players unaware of how badly the team’s captain Michael Clarke, coach Mickey Arthur and team manager Gavin Dovey felt that standards had slipped. It was an area the absence of the retired Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey was keenly felt.”It would be dangerous to narrow it down to one or two things,” Sutherland said. “It was a culmination of a whole lot of things, and to pinpoint it as being communication of people not necessarily understanding where they were … yes that is one of the reasons no doubt. But there’s a whole lot of others as well I think.”Issues of leadership and character within Australian cricket had been on Sutherland’s mind well before the events of India, and he would like to see greater emphasis placed on the education of young players so that their responsibilities to teammates and the game as a whole are better understood, alongside their burgeoning skills as batsmen and bowlers.”Clearly we want to be building or developing the best players and part of that is developing players who are not only capable in a cricketing sense,” Sutherland said. “They are strong of character, they’re highly resilient, they’re able to adapt, and they have all of these character traits. To some extent you’re born with those and to some extent they’re circumstantial according to your environment and also they can be developed.”That’s part of our challenge as a sport in developing our best talent is to do that even better in this day and age, understanding the variability of cricket today, the need to adapt and the need to be resilient, to get through tough conditions in a foreign country you might never have visited before. All of those things are part of character.”That comes back to our point about sending more younger players away for longer periods to learn what it’s like to try to fight through a six-week tour when you can’t make a run and fight your way through it. Phil Hughes in India, it wasn’t great to see him early on in the tour, but the way he fought through that tour of India I thought was fantastic, just the sort of stuff we want to see from our players when they’re down.”Sutherland said plans were in the works to extend CA’s remit to educate players at an earlier age, the better to prepare them for a game that is now split across three formats and a wide variety of attitudes and career paths, from the Baggy Green ideal now co-opted by the Commonwealth Bank as the new major sponsor of the Test team, to the individualism and money upfront mentality of the IPL, BBL and other Twenty20 leagues.”One of the things we will want to do over the next couple of years is identify and work with that talent at an even younger age than we have in the past,” Sutherland said. “We’ve tended to let the cream rise to the top in recent times, but perhaps we need to nurture those high potential players a little bit earlier, and develop their other character beyond their cricket abilities and prepare them for what’s next.”It’s not a lesson out of India, it’s something we’ve been talking about for quite some time, certainly I’ve been speaking to Pat Howard about it ever since he started [in 2011]. We’ve been talking about nurturing our young, talented teenagers a little bit earlier than we have in the past. Some other sports do that very well and I’d like to see cricket doing a lot more of that in the next little while.”

Dhaka Gladiators will play with a Chris Gayle-sized hole in their line-up for the final when they take on Chittagong Kings in Mirpur

The Preview by Mohammad Isam18-Feb-2013 Match FactsFebruary 19, 2013
Start time 1800 (1200 GMT)The lack of runs from Ravi Bopara is a problem that needs to be solved by Chittagong Kings on the big day•Chittagong KingsBig PictureDhaka Gladiators will play with a Chris Gayle-sized hole in their line-up for the final. But credit to the make-up of their team. They take on Chittagong Kings, against whom they first lost a match before winning one. It is shaping up to be a close contest as the Kings have picked up momentum at the right time, but the Gladiators are a side heavy on Twenty20 specialists.The Gladiators have had a solid campaign so far, much of it due to their squad that was the best on paper before the tournament started and remains so, through the 13 matches. Mohammad Ashraful, Shakib Al Hasan, Anamul Haque and Darren Stevens have led with the bat while Alfonso Thomas’ Twenty20 experience has been vital with the ball, picking up 17 wickets. Shakib and fellow left-arm spinner Mosharraf Hossain have taken the bulk of the wickets together and their combined eight overs will again be important.Kings’ strength is in their bowling, especially left-arm spin. Enamul Haque jnr has taken 18 wickets and his four overs will most likely be played out quietly by the rampant Gladiators. The batting will be propped up by Ryan ten Doeschate who has played several vital knocks, but the lack of runs from Ravi Bopara is a problem that needs to be solved on the big day. Form guide(Most recent first, completed matches)
Dhaka Gladiators WWLWW
Chittagong Kings WWLWL In the spotlight After Gayle’s departure, Shakib Al Hasan will again be the most important player in the Gladiators’ line-up. Shakib has had a quiet tournament so far, though there have been the odd contributions. He will bat at No. 3 and the four overs of left-arm spin will hold the key for the defending champions in the final.Enamul Haque jnr has been the vital performer for Chittagong Kings even on bad days. Apart from the wickets, he offers control in a bowling attack that is slowly shaping up at the right time of the tournament. Team newsSince Luke Wright is in New Zealand and Chris Gayle returned after one match, Ashraful is likely to open and Josh Cobb could make it to the playing eleven of the Gladiators.Dhaka Gladiators (probable): 1 Tillekaratne Dilshan, 2 Mohammad Ashraful, 3 Shakib Al Hasan, 4 Anamul Haque (wk), 5 Darren Stevens, 6 Kieron Pollard, 7 Josh Cobb, 8 Mashrafe Bin Mortaza (capt), 9 Alfonso Thomas, 10 Mosharraf Hossain, 11 Saqlain SajibThe same line-up is likely for the Kings as they have won two games on the trot with this eleven.Chittagong Kings (probable): 1 Naeem Islam, 2 Jason Roy, 3 Ravi Bopara, 4 Nurul Hasan (wk), 5 Ryan ten Doeschate, 6 Mahmudullah, 7 Kevon Cooper, 8 Jacob Oram, 9 Ariful Haque, 10 Taskin Ahmed, 11 Enamul Haque jnr Stats and triviaThe war of the wicket-takers will be a sideshow in the final. Thomas has 19 wickets while Enamul is on 18 wickets. Quotes”We have to play our best cricket because there’s no second chance. I am confident of the team, because we have done very well throughout the competition.”
“There are no favourites in a Twenty20 match, but Dhaka Gladiators are a good side.”

Varun Chopra and Ian Westwood provided the platform for Warwickshire to pick up a batting bonus in an otherwise frustrating draw

Jon Culley at Edgbaston13-Apr-2013
ScorecardIan Westwood helped Warwickshire put on another century opening stand with Varun Chopra•PA PhotosIn five months’ time, this match will almost certainly be nothing but a distant, watery memory, with little bearing on anything that happened in between. Yet Warwickshire were unable to avoid some sense of frustration. Not only were they denied the chance to take full advantage of what may be the weakest opponent they will face in defence of their title, picking up a paltry four bonus points, they had also to swallow the news that Sussex, Durham and Middlesex had picked their way through the gloom and the puddles to register first-round wins.”It is frustrasting,” the Warwickshire captain, Jim Troughton said. “Looking at the state of the game, we knew that their score was under par and that after the start our openers gave us we would back ourselves to bat big and have another go at them. But there is a long season ahead of us and if we keep playing solid cricket the points will take care of themselves.”You’d like to start with a win but you can’t do it if you can’t get on the field. I feel sorry for Gary [Barwell], the groundsman. He had to get the ark out last year and he’s needed a snowplough this time.”At least there was encouragement to draw, not least in the increasing reliability of the opening batsmen, Varun Chopra and Ian Westwood, who compiled their sixth century partnership in their last 12 matches together.”They have become so important,” Troughton said. “Early season it is commonplace to see three or four wickets down before lunch. The ball is going to nibble, as it has done in the other games in this round. So if you’ve got a partnership at the top of the order, with the consistency they have together, and with the batting we have to follow, you have the chance to put big totals on the board.”Chops and Westy know each other’s games really well and they are a left-hand, right-hand combination, which is good. Age-wise they have a lot of growth left in them as a partnership. I still think Westy is improving and Chops seems to go away every winter and come back a better player.”He’s got 1,000 runs two years in a row and if he keeps playing as he is he will be knocking on the door for England. While he is playing for Warwickshire he is challenging himself to keep improving.”Westy and myself were perhaps the two players whose form hit a consistent vein in the second half of last season and it is good for us that he and Chops seem to be continuing where they left off.”Their progress to 139 on the last day here, before Westwood sliced a drive to backward point off Tim Groenewald, served to reinforce Derbyshire’s coach Karl Krikken’s point of view that Division One will be an unforgiving environment for his Division Two title-winners.”In both divisions you aim to make as few mistakes as possible because mistakes get punished,” he said. “Last season we didn’t make many mistakes but in this game we have been a bit lacking in some areas and we just have to up it a little bit next time.”Groenewald’s breakthrough gave him the honour of taking the first Division One wicket by a Derbyshire player since Kevin Dean against Somerset in September 2000. It sparked a Warwickshire collapse of sorts, as the champions sought to up the tempo. William Porterfield drove Wes Durston’s offspin straight to short extra-cover, Chopra edged behind as Chesney Hughes gave his left-arm spin a dusting down, then Troughton, advancing down the wicket, was stumped after reaching for his shot as Durston bowled wide of the stumps. A boundary from Laurie Evans snatched a first batting point just before lunch — then rain intervened for the final time.

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Jan-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsChittagong Kings registered first points in this season’s BPL after they pulled off an unlikely win over Barisal Burners by 21 runs. Defending a small total, the Chittagong bowlers, led by Enamul Haque jnr who took two crucial wickets in an economical spell, kept Barisal under pressure throughout .The left-arm spinner took the crucial wicket of Brad Hodge when theBarisal captain appeared set to take his side home. But theAustralian was stumped for 34, and it triggered a collapse that saw themrestricted to 108 for 9 in 20 overs. The other left-arm spinner,Arafat Sunny, and medium-pacer Kevon Cooper also took two wickets each.Chittagong’s total appeared not good enough on a wicket that offered little to the bowlers. Naeem Islam and Ravi Bopara added 52 for the first wicket but were separated in the eighth over. It opened the gate for other Chittagong big-hitters to come in but they too couldn’t do much to boost the run-rate. Ryan ten Doeschate made 23 while Jacob Oram managed 18.For Barisal, Kabir Ali, Azhar Mahmood and Shafiul Islam took two wickets each, and kept things tight as Chittagong didn’t manage a single hit for six during their 20 overs.

Sri Lanka opener Dimuth Karunaratne said his side would target a lead in excess of 150 when they resume their second innings 87 runs ahead and with three wickets in hand, in Sydney on the fourth day

Andrew Fernando at the SCG05-Jan-2013Sri Lanka opener Dimuth Karunaratne said his side would target a lead in excess of 150 when they resume their second innings 87 runs ahead and with three wickets in hand, in Sydney on the fourth day. Sri Lanka had moved to within eight runs of wiping Australia’s first-innings lead when they lost their second wicket, but five more batsmen fell in the third session to leave the visitors poorly placed.Though the SCG pitch remained well-suited to batting, Karunaratne hoped Sri Lanka’s spinners could defend a modest total, as the match approached a result. Dinesh Chandimal remained unbeaten on 22 at stumps on day three, with Rangana Herath for company.”We did hard work in the first and second session, but we lost the last session which was very disappointing,” Karunaratne said. “Chandimal is at the wicket, so he can do something tomorrow. If he puts some runs on the board, like 150-175, there is a chance to do something on this track.”The wicket is turning a lot now and Australia are batting in the fourth innings. There’s something on the wicket. I think Rangana Herath and Tillakaratne Dilshan can do something for us.”Karunaratne also defended Thilan Samaraweera’s shot selection, after Samaraweera had advanced down the pitch and aimed a slog over midwicket off Nathan Lyon, off the third ball he faced. The swipe produced a top edge that was taken at mid-off, leaving Sri Lanka four wickets down, being only 20 runs ahead.”The things he is used to doing haven’t been successful for him in the last two or three innings. He tried to do something different. He tried to attack and get some runs, spread the field and then he could play his normal game. There are different plans for different players. He had a different gameplan and he tried it, but he was unlucky. I think in the next series he will come to the fore again.”We haven’t had much luck, and it’s been a disappointing series for all of us. We didn’t bat well in the whole series, except when Tillakaratne Dilshan got a hundred in the first Test and Lahiru Thirimanne batted well in the first innings here.”Sri Lanka had played Nathan Lyon aggressively throughout the Test, and Karunaratne said that that had been their plan, as most Sri Lanka batsmen felt more comfortable against spin bowling. Lyon picked up Samaraweera’s wicket, but was expensive at 4.84 runs an over, and was hit for three aerial fours in an over by Angelo Mathews despite the visitors’ dire match situation.”The Aussie fast bowlers are doing really well in the three sessions, and they do the basics right with line and length and set the field well. If we have a chance to get some runs, it’s against the offspinner through mid-on and midwicket when those fielders are in the circle. Mathews is a good player to hit some big shots. Thilan also tried to do the same thing.”

Toby Radford, the West Indies assistant coach, has denied that the confidence levels of the hosts’ young batsmen are taking a battering ahead of a tour of England, in the wake of the top order struggling once again on day two in Dominica

Daniel Brettig at Windsor Park25-Apr-2012Toby Radford, the West Indies assistant coach, has denied that the confidence levels of the hosts’ young batsmen are taking a battering ahead of a tour of England, in the wake of the top order struggling once again on day two in Dominica. Chief among several areas of concern for West Indies is 19-year-old opener Kraigg Brathwaite, who after starting the series with a fighting half-century in Barbados has since made three consecutive ducks.Following Brathwaite’s dismissal at Windsor Park, Adrian Barath and Kieran Powell formed the foundations of a useful stand, but once Barath went the rest fell away alarmingly, leaving Shivnarine Cahnderpaul to mount the best salvage operation he could against an Australia attack that has slowly gained a measure over their opponents across three Tests. Radford, however, argued that the series had been a difficult one for batsmen of both teams.”I think it [this series] is difficult for both sides. I was happy with how we dealt with the new ball today. I thought Barath was good, I thought Powell was good,” he said. “Having got a really good start against the new ball, suddenly spin did the damage. We’ve had other games where we’ve struggled against the new ball, we’ve talked a lot about it.”How to play [Ben] Hilfenhaus, the fact he sets you up bowling away and then there’s the big inswinger… We’ve looked at that, thought we played that really well today and then on comes an offspinner, lots of turn and bounce, and he does the damage. These are young guys, talented guys, who I think will have good careers and we’ve got to be patient with them. They’re learning and they’ll learn around people like Shiv at the other end. It’s not suicide for us. You learn, you come back and are stronger. Hopefully we can go to England and then perform there.”As for Brathwaite, Radford said he and head coach Ottis Gibson would seek to remind the teenager of the character and ability he had shown in his first innings of the series. Brathwaite’s ability to hang in there at the crease is a critical element of the batting line-up West Indies are seeking to build, as they sorely need batsmen capable of soaking up time and overs in the manner of the 37-year-old Chanderpaul.”You chat with him [Brathwaite]. You talk with him. You practice with him whenever you can and you remind him how good a player he is,” Radford said. “He played very well in Barbados in that first innings. Today he got out in a similar fashion to how he got out in the second innings in Barbados, just hanging the bat a little bit, but again you back him. He’s a good player. He’s a young player. Our job as coaches is to keep his confidence high and work on any little issues as they come along. You’ve got to back your young players.”Of greater concern to Radford is the way in which Australia’s tail has repeatedly wagged. While the captain Darren Sammy had pointed to Michael Hussey as the major source of these rear-guards, in Dominica it was Matthew Wade shepherding the lower order, though Mitchell Starc and Ben Hilfenhaus also played a few handsome strokes of their own in building a final tally of 328.”We’ve regularly got out top quality players. [Shane] Watson, [Ricky] Ponting, [Michael] Clarke. Hussey’s been fantastic all the way through, didn’t get any in this game, but they bat very deep,” Radford said. “Guys come in at No. 9, 10 or 11 and can hold an end up. Last week it was Pattinson, today others take on that mantle. Starc played really well, he got 35 as a guy coming in lower down.”I think if we can take anything away [from this match], it’s important that we bat in the same way with the same brains, the same technique. We’re always looking to develop, we’re always looking to analyse and learn – that’s always my message when we have bad days, that you come in tomorrow and say ‘right, how we going to have a better one’. We must keep learning. I think we’re a side who’ve done well over the last few weeks, we’ve fought well. This happens to be a bad day and we’ve got to come back with a better one tomorrow, simple as that.”Radford said the West Indies bowlers had been reminded of the importance of bowling at the tail in the same manner they had stalked Australia’s top order, but admitted that fatigue after day one in the field under Roseau’s sapping tropical sun may have been a factor in a flat display on the second morning.”The message was we must bowl at those guys – Starc and Wade – as if they were Hussey and top order batters. We’ve got to bowl the same way. We can’t think they’re just going to fall over because we know Australians don’t just fall over,” he said. “Don’t think because they’re No. 9, 10 and 11 they’re just going to give their wickets away, it just doesn’t happen like that. I certainly think fatigue [played a part]. We had a long day in the field yesterday.”Six hours in that heat, I think, took a bit out of the seamers and it’s the physical toll [that affected them]. Someone like Kemar Roach, who has been absolutely magnificent and is a world class bowler, he’s starting to get a bit fatigued. He’s bowled all summer in this series and I think it was hard for him this morning to just dig that bit deeper again. You’re expecting a lot [of a bowler], to do it day in and day out in these temperatures.”

Nick Compton needs another 67 runs in what seems likely to be a maximum of two innings to become the first batsman since Graeme Hick 24 years ago to reach 1,000 first-class runs in English cricket before the end of May.

23-May-2012
ScorecardNick Compton probably has two innings in which to make 67 runs to become the first batsman for 24 years to reach 1,000 runs before the end of May•Getty ImagesNick Compton needs another 67 runs in what seems likely to be a maximum of two innings to become the first batsman since Graeme Hick 24 years ago to reach 1,000 first-class runs in English cricket before the end of May.Compton scored 64 in 121 balls for Somerset at Taunton before he pulled a short ball from Durham’s slow left-armer Ian Blackwell to Callum Thorp, who leapt to take the catch above his head at mid wicket.Peter Trego enjoyed a good day with ball and bat as Somerset ran up 357 for 8 on the second day of an evenly-balanced contest. He took his Championship wicket tally for the season to 26 by helping to clean up the Durham tail as they were bowled out for 384 from an overnight 353 for eight. Then he hit his first half-century of the season, sharing a seventh-wicket stand of 99 with 18-year-old Craig Overton, who hit 50 off 54 balls, before finishing unbeaten on 67.Blackwell (three for 74) and Jamie Harrison, who marked his Championship debut with three for 88, were the pick of the Durham attack. But, as on the first day, batting errors were chiefly responsible for the wickets that fell in more unbroken sunshine.Harrison (15) and Liam Plunkett (24) played positively at the start of the day before falling to Trego and Alfonso Thomas respectively as Durham added 31 to their total.Somerset suffered a poor start in reply as Harrison pinned Arul Suppiah lbw for four, but Alex Barrow and Compton were both unbeaten on 25 at lunch with the score 66 for one. Barrow nicked a leg-side catch to wicketkeeper Phil Mustard off a rusty-looking Steve Harmison without adding to his score after the interval.But Hildreth came in to blaze three fours off his first four deliveries and looked in supreme form. He made 53 from 39 balls with 10 fours and a six when he missed an attempted pull off Harrison and losing his leg stump. By then Somerset were 138 for 3, with Compton well set.Jos Buttler gave his wicket away with a flashing cut off Blackwell before he had scored, Mustard taking a routine catch, and when Kieswetter fell lbw to Thorp for 42 Somerset were in trouble at 209 for 6.Overton showed no nerves in bludgeoning 10 fours in his maiden Championship half-century, sharing an entertaining stand with Trego which put their team back in the game. By the close Somerset were 27 runs behind, with Trego having reined himself back responsibly. He had faced 112 balls and hit six fours and a six.

A round-up of the third day of the fourth round of Pentangular Cup matches

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Feb-2012The contest between Baluchistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province (KPP) finally began after two rained-out days at the Arbab Niaz Stadium in Peshawar. After KPP were inserted, Yasir Hameed scored a fluent 150, while Adnan Raees hit an unbeaten fifty to help KPP along to 265 for 4 at stumps, with one day to play. Baluchistan’s Ahmed Raza did most of the damage, picking up three wickets with his left-arm spin.At the Sind v Federal Areas match at the Rawalpindi Stadium, it was another wet day with no play possible.