A pumped-up MS Dhoni again showed why he’s one of the great finishers in the game to make Chennai Super Kings the only team to reach the semi-finals of each IPL so far

The Bulletin by Siddarth Ravindran18-Apr-2010
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
MS Dhoni showed off his finishing skills again•Indian Premier League

A pumped-up MS Dhoni showed why he’s one of the great finishers in the game, blasting 30 runs in the final two overs to ensure Chennai Super Kings would contest an IPL semi-final for the third season in a row. Chennai’s chances seemed dim after Shaun Marsh’s sparkling innings had powered Kings XI Punjab to a massive total, but meaty innings from Suresh Raina and S Badrinath set the stage for a Dhoni onslaught during a tense finish.Punjab held the edge for most of the match, and going into the last two overs Chennai needed 29, a tough task even with Dhoni and Albie Morkel at the crease. Juan Theron had been a hero the last time the two teams met, but he couldn’t save Punjab in Dharamsala.The penultimate over, by Theron, started with two murderous hits for four from Dhoni, feasting on the length deliveries offered. He looked to repeat on the third ball, but a thick edge flew high and fast to wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara, who managed to get a glove on it. Theron kept it to singles for the rest of the over, leaving Chennai needing 16 off the last.Irfan Pathan had bowled the last six deliveries against Chennai at the MA Chidambaram as well, and he had kept them to nine runs to push that match into a Super Over. This time, though, he didn’t have a tailender like R Ashwin to bowl to; it was Dhoni, channeling the buccaneer spirit with which he made his name.The first delivery was almost a yorker, but Dhoni managed to power it wide of long off for four. The next was a slower one that he top-edged, but it landed short of long off and Chennai were two runs closer. The match was effectively sealed off the third delivery: a monstrous hit over wide long on sent the ball out of the ground, reducing the equation to four off three. Dhoni finished it with another thrash over long on, and the famously cool captain let out a roar and then punched the side of the helmet as the adrenaline flowed and his team-mates raced from the dug-out in joy.Chennai’s pursuit got off to a horror start when Ramesh Powar’s classic offspin bowling, tossing the ball up and keeping the pace down in un-Twenty20 fashion, accounted for the dangerous openers Matthew Hayden and M Vijay.From 26 for 2 in the fifth over, it was Raina who ignited the chase in company of Badrinath, promoted ahead of Dhoni. At least 11 runs came off each of the next six overs as Raina waded into the Punjab attack. The sixes kept raining until he was dismissed in the 10th over with a beautifully-timed hit to sweeper cover, similar to his exit in the previous match against Delhi Daredevils.Badrinath has had plenty of questions asked over his ability in limited-overs matches, and they resurfaced when he went scoreless for six deliveries after Raina’s fall. He broke that spell with a clean hit over long-off and a paddle-scoop over fine leg for four. There were a couple of close lbw calls against Piyush Chawla, but he kept the boundaries coming so that by the time he was stumped for 53 in the 17th over, his strike-rate was touching 150. After he fell, it was all about Dhoni, as Punjab’s inability to fire in yorkers hurt them yet again.Punjab had looked set to close out a forgettable season with a consolation win after they had been sent in. Mahela Jayawardene’s blistering cameo gave them a cracking start, and Sangakkara showed again that you could score at Twenty20 rate using orthodox cricketing strokes.Marsh was content to let the Sri Lankan stars make most of the runs in the first half of the innings, but once Chennai hit back with the big wickets of Sangakkara and Yuvraj Singh in successive overs, he brought out the clean hitting that got him runs by the wagonload in the inaugural season.He and Irfan amassed 99 runs in the last eight overs, and the Marsh blitz started with two sixes and two fours in six deliveries, during which he galloped from 39 to 58. A slog-sweep out of the stadium followed, and he clubbed Bollinger twice over the ropes in the 19th over.Irfan racked up 15 in the final over but that proved pointless in a match which was characteristic of Kings XI Punjab’s season: their batsmen piled on lots of runs but the limp bowling and awful fielding kept Sangakkara’s men at the foot of the table for almost the entire tournament.

Sixteen wickets fell on a dramatic day at the Brit Oval where Gloucestershire finished 190 runs ahead of Surrey with three-second innings wickets in hand in their County Championship Division Two clash

05-May-2010

ScorecardSixteen wickets fell on a dramatic day at the Brit Oval where Gloucestershire finished 190 runs ahead of Surrey with three-second innings wickets in hand in their County Championship Division Two clash.Surrey, who started the day at 56 for 1, 173 runs behind, lost nightwatchman Chris Tremlett to the fourth ball from Gemaal Hussain but Arun Harinath and Mark Ramprakash put on 43 in 10 overs before the wickets began to tumble.Ramprakash lost his middle stump pushing forward to Jon Lewis and Harinath, who had been dropped at second slip off Hussain on his way to 51 off 89 balls with eight fours, was caught behind off James Franklin.Rory Hamilton-Brown lost his off stump padding up to his fifth ball from Steve Kirby, who then removed Usman Afzaal’s middle and off stumps as he tried to drive. Chris Schofield and Stuart Meaker were caught behind in successive overs from Lewis and to complete a miserable morning for Surrey Iftikhar Anjum was run out trying to complete a third run in the last over before lunch.Seven wickets had gone down for 42 runs in 16 overs before Jade Dernbach joined Steven Davies in a last-wicket stand of 37 which trimmed Gloucestershire’s lead to 51. Chris Dent and Jonathan Batty extended that by 37 but then the Surrey seamers began to hit back. Meaker claimed Dent leg before and Dernbach had Hamish Marshall caught behind off a lifter.Alex Gidman, the Gloucestershire captain, tried to regain the initiative by hitting four fours and a six in his 24 but he was then leg before playing across the line against Iftikhar. Gloucestershire had lost two wickets in two balls when Batty, desperate to do well against the county that released him last season, was leg before to Chris Tremlett and worse was to come when Meaker, the South Africa-born seamer playing in only his 10th first-class match, took three for two in 14 balls.He had Chris Taylor leg, before, Steven Snell caught behind first ball and Lewis also caught behind to have Gloucestershire reeling at 139 for 7 when bad light stopped play. Meaker had taken four for 29 in 11.2 overs, the best haul of his brief career, and given Surrey the chance to claim their first championship victory of the season and only their second in three years

Chirayu Amin, the interim IPL chairman, has said he was part of a consortium that bid unsuccessfully for a Pune franchise earlier this year

Cricinfo staff04-Jun-2010Chirayu Amin, the interim IPL chairman, has said he was part of a consortium that bid unsuccessfully for a Pune franchise earlier this year and also said he had kept the BCCI president informed of his role in the auction. Also included in the group as a technical partner was the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA), whose president said it was only involved in the bid to try and increase the usage of a stadium being built in Pune.The news comes on a day when ICC president elect Sharad Pawar, his wife and daughter were revealed to have a stake in a company that was allegedly a member of the bidding consortium. Pawar is a senior minister in the federal government and his daughter an MP; both have come under severe criticism through the day for not revealing their stake in the company when the controversy first broke in April.The controversy surrounds the potential for conflict of interest; it has already claimed the job of Pawar’s former cabinet colleague Shashi Tharoor, and questions have been raised over the dual roles of the BCCI secretary N Srinivasan, whose company India Cements owns the Chennai Super Kings franchise.Amin’s statement came in response to a statement by Lalit Modi, the suspended IPL chairman, that Amin had been involved in an attempt to acquire a new IPL franchise. Amin, who was appointed interim chairman on Modi’s suspension, said he would not have invested without the Indian board’s permission had he been successful at the auction.”I was approached by a group of businessmen to join them in the consortium to bid for the Pune franchise,” Amin said. “I agreed to invest upto 10% from one of our associate companies.”Before participating in the bid I wrote a letter to Manohar in this regard and also stated in my letter that further clearance would be taken from BCCI before investing in case the bid was successful. There was therefore total transparency at every step.”The consortium was headed by Aniruddha Deshpande, managing director of City Corporation, a company in which Pawar, his wife, and his daughter Supriya Sule together have a 16% stake. “We received letters of interest from quite a few prospective investors and Glycodin [one of Amin’s companies] was one of them,” Deshpande told Cricinfo. “The letters were merely to ascertain if the investor would be serious in case the bid was successful.”One of the entities that had sent a letter of interest to Deshpande was the MCA. Ajay Shirke, the MCA’s president, explained its involvement in the bid: “We wanted a team for Pune at any cost because we are building a modern stadium which has a huge capital outlay,” he said. “The utilisation of the stadium on a sustainable basis would improve if we had an IPL team .”Mr Deshpande approached us to utilise the MCA stadium which would also help him reduce the costs. We were willing to give it to anyone as long as the person won the bid. In the letter to the City Corporation, we said that the letter was being issued on a non-exclusive basis.”

Two of India’s promising young quick bowlers, Jaidev Unadkat and Umesh Yadav, will join the national team in Sri Lanka as net bowlers

Cricinfo staff11-Jul-2010Two of India’s promising young quick bowlers, Jaidev Unadkat and Umesh Yadav, will join the national team in Sri Lanka as net bowlers.It has been a heady rise for 18-year-old Unadkat, who caught the eye with a 13-wicket haul on first-class debut against West Indies A in Leicester during India A’s tour last month. He was one of the India’s better performers in the Under-19 World Cup earlier this year and followed up with satisfactory outings for Saurashtra in the domestic one-day tournament, which helped him land an IPL contract with Kolkata Knight Riders.Yadav, 22, is a slightly more seasoned performer, having had two solid seasons with Vidarbha. He also has some taste of international cricket, recently touring Zimbabwe with the second-string Indian side led by Suresh Raina. It was a bit of a rough initiation for Yadav, as he managed only one wicket in three ODIs. The breakthrough to the Indian team came on the back of an IPL season, during which he impressed with his pace while playing for Delhi Daredevils.Unadkat flew to Sri Lanka from England on Saturday along with his India A team-mates, Abhimanyu Mithun and Wriddhiman Saha, who are part of the Test side. Yadav was expected to link up with the senior team on Sunday.

Malcolm Speed, the former ICC chief executive, has slammed the boards that have blocked John Howard’s nomination as the next ICC vice-president.

Cricinfo staff30-Jun-2010Malcolm Speed, the former ICC chief executive, has slammed the boards that have blocked John Howard’s nomination as the next ICC vice-president. During the ICC annual meeting in Singapore it was confirmed that Howard didn’t have enough support, while Australia and New Zealand have been asked to nominate another candidateSpeed, who was CEO from 2001 until 2008, was scathing in his assessment of what had taken place to undermine Howard’s nomination, which itself was the subject of a compromise between Australia and New Zealand. He said those who didn’t want Howard in the role are politically motivated.”Howard has been rejected because his appointment would provide ICC with strong leadership that would thwart the ambitions of several current administrators to downgrade and devalue the role of the ICC,” Speed wrote in the .”Howard would have stood in their path. The role requires strength of character – a leader, diplomat, statesman and politician. The ICC board is as political as any political party. The countries that voted him down want a compliant figurehead who will do their bidding.”Speed added that Australia and New Zealand have previously accepted nominations despite reservations. He said that they should decline to make another candidate available and instead pass the role onto Pakistan and Bangladesh, who are next in line on the rotation system, then refuse to vote themselves.”In the meantime, they should be banging the table and making their displeasure widely known,” wrote Speed.Speed also questioned whether ICC president-elect Sharad Pawar would have time for cricket in the midst of his political career. “Sharad Pawar, is the Minister for Agriculture in the Indian government – a serious full-time job, feeding 1.2 billion people. He is a good and fair man but he will be working part-time as ICC president and, take it from me, he knows little about cricket administration.”I was present at several ICC board meetings he attended. ICC meetings generally last two days. Pawar attended for one hour and was then replaced by one of the Board of Control for Cricket in India apparatchiks. They were concerned that he was too busy and would be too reasonable,” wrote Speed.Cricket Australia’s chairman Jack Clarke and his New Zealand Cricket counterpart Alan Isaac said in a joint statement they were “deeply disappointed” after supplying “the best possible candidate”. “We jointly nominated Mr Howard as he possesses significant leadership and administrative skills,” they said. “We believe cricket needs to continue to seek excellence and dispassionate independence in the game’s global governance.”We were delighted that the most senior world figure ever considered for this role agreed to accept the nomination. We remain convinced it is reasonable for his nomination to be supported by the ICC executive board and we are deeply disappointed by the position taken.”

Virender Sehwag, as economical with words as with his technique, is not looking for any excuses after his side lost 15 wickets in 124.3 overs

Sidharth Monga in Galle21-Jul-2010Virender Sehwag, as economical with words as with his technique, is not looking for any excuses after his side lost 15 wickets in 124.3 overs and is still 63 runs behind Sri Lanka’s first-innings total, with a full day’s play to go. He said they were aware that their shot selection wasn’t good, that they were now hoping for rain to go with the best efforts of VVS Laxman and MS Dhoni.”Fantastic that we are getting a result even after losing one day’s play,” Sehwag said. “But it is bad for the Indian side. We are on the losing side unless VVS Laxman can play [well] tomorrow, and we are hopeful that after lunch or before tea, rain will come and the match gets washed out as a draw.”Asked about his shot to get out in the first innings, an attempted cut to a delivery that would have otherwise been called wide, with three fielders deep in the off side, Sehwag said: “That’s my scoring shot. If you look at the 7000 runs that I have scored, more than 3000 runs have come through the cut shot. In coming matches too, I will play the same shot. Sometimes you get out, sometimes you score runs. Almost every time, I score runs with the cut shot.”But aren’t India in the position because several batsmen played ill-advised shots? “Everybody is aware of that, but you can’t control certain things,” Sehwag said. “Sometimes you play that shot and you get away with that, sometimes you get out. That’s Test cricket where everybody has played enough matches. They are experienced. It happens in cricket.”Sehwag conceded the pitch hadn’t deteriorated enough to justify the scores and that it was “still a good track to bat on” which made him confident that India could still save the Test. “If you look at the last Test match that we played against South Africa, MS and VVS scored hundred-plus and remained not out and batted really well,” he said. “So they can do that. Laxman and Dravid did that against Australia in 2001, so we have the hope. Still we have one more pair of batsmen, they will go tomorrow and try and their best.”

A round-up of the first round of games at the European Women’s World Cup Qualifiers in Ireland

Cricinfo staff10-Aug-2010
Scorecard
Caroline Salomons’ first century for Netherlands launched her team’s run in the European Women’s World Cup Qualifiers in stunning fashion as they chased down the ECB Development XI’s competitive 244 with more than three overs to spare.Having won the toss, the Dutch must have wondered about the wisdom of asking their opponents to bat first when the ECB side rattled along at almost five runs an over despite being bowled out just short of a full 50 overs. But Salomons, with excellent support from Helmien Rambaldo and Marijn Nijman, completely dominated the bowling, reaching her century at better than a-run-a-ball as she struck the match-winning boundary off Deanna Cooper in the 47th over.The ECB innings got off to a stuttering start, Marloes Braat grabbing two wickets in her opening spell while Mariska Kornett and Esther Lanser picked up a wicket apiece to reduce the ECB XI to 34 for 4. But Fran Wilson and Beth MacGregor’s fifth-wicket stand changed the complexion of the game completely as they put together a highly entertaining partnership of 122 before Wilson was dismissed for 76, made in just 85 balls and including 12 boundaries.MacGregor continued on with good support from the lower order before she was ninth out, in the final over, for 89. She had struck eight boundaries in her 109.The Dutch innings began quietly but soon started to pick up pace through some good stroke play and intelligent running between the wickets. Violet Warrenburg fell at 26, followed by Caroline de Groot at 46. At this stage Salomons entered the scene to partner Rambaldo and the two added 107 in even time as they took total control of the game.Rambaldo eventually fell to Westbury for 44 but this didn’t stem the flow of the Dutch innings as Nijman then joined Salomons and immediately set about the bowling, making a quick-fire 34. By the time she was well caught by a diving Hannah Phelps, only four more runs were required and it was appropriate that Salomons should bring up her hundred and win the match with her ninth boundary. Her century had taken just 98 balls.”The pitch was quite slow so every ball was a challenge,” said MacGregor. “I was happy with the way I paced my innings, we did well to recover to 244 after a low total looked on the cards. Unfortunately we weren’t able to defend our total but we have learnt a lot from today, particularly the way we need to bowl and field here in our next two games.”

Scorecard
Ireland began the qualifying competition in Stirling with a comfortable five-wicket victory over Scotland. Despite Kari Anderson’s unbeaten 86, Scotland could only muster 160 for 4 after being put in by Ireland captain Heather Whelan. Eimear Richardson’s 66 then guided Ireland’s run chase as they passed the target with more than 13 overs to spare.Scotland got off to a very slow start against accurate bowling by the Whelans, Heather and Jill. Catherine Smaill was soon trapped in front of her stumps by Heather and then two wickets fell in quick succession to reduce Scotland to 31 for 3 after 17 overs.However, it was to be a long time before Ireland had any further success as the remainder of the Scottish innings belonged to skipper Anderson, who made an unbeaten 86 from 148 balls. Her partnership with Kathryn White began slowly but gradually gained in momentum as they put on 103 before White was bowled for 39 by Jill Whelan in the 46th over.Ireland lost their first wicket at 15 when Laura Delany was bowled by Leigh Kasperek. Isobel Joyce joined Richardson and they advanced the total to 36 in the 12th over before Joyce was caught by Tams. When the third wicket, that of Jill Whelan, fell at 62 in the 16th over the match seemed to be well-poised.However, Richardson had other ideas and she began to score freely all round the wicket. By the time she was dismissed in the 34th over she had passed a well-paced half-century and her side was within 12 runs of victory.

In two weeks, Canada host Bermuda in the ICC’s Intercontinental Cup, with a place in the semi-finals awaiting them if they win

Wisden Cricinfo staff07-Sep-2010

In two weeks, Canada host Bermuda in the ICC’s Intercontinental Cup, with a place in the semi-finals awaiting them if they win. But the venue for the match in Toronto remains undecided, with the initial choice – the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club – ruled out after the Canadian board (CCA) failed to reach an agreement with the ground authorities.The search for an alternative has been frantic and frustrating, with alternative venues not being sufficiently prepared for such a major game. The only venue remotely in with a chance of being ready is at Sunnybrook, but a cursory inspection over the weekend revealed that there was bare soil on the mottled wicket intended for the match. Furthermore, the surface is far from flat, and it is almost inconceivable that there is enough time before the tie – which is scheduled to start on August 13 – to put things right. The facilities at the club are also basic.The TCSCC is clearly the major ground, having hosted the Sahara Cups in the 1990s, and the one assumed by outsiders to be the natural choice. But the CCA refused to agree to the financial demands of the owners, starting the desperate hunt for an alternative. According to a senior official of the TCSCC, the CCA only formally approached them on July 26, less than three weeks before the match, even though the TCSCC had been asking for clarification of the board’s intentions since April.The main problem facing the CCA is that the match has to be played on grass, and the bulk of matches in Canada are on artificial or matting wickets. Experience of preparing and maintaining grass pitches is limited, and by refusing the TCSCC terms so late in the day, the board has painted itself into a corner.It stands accused of poor management of the whole venture. Aside from the farrago surrounding the venue, with less than a fortnight before the game it was impossible to find out information about the fund-raising banquet intended to coincide with the match.This is the board’s chance to put Canadian cricket on the map and show the international community that it has what it takes to be taken seriously. It is looking set to do just the opposite.