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In the absence of the injured Jerome Taylor, and with Kemar Roach struggling to shake off an ankle problem, Ravi Rampaul has become the likely spearhead for West Indies’ pace attack

Cricinfo staff09-Jun-2010In the absence of the injured Jerome Taylor, and with Kemar Roach struggling to shake off an ankle problem, Ravi Rampaul has become the likely spearhead for West Indies’ pace attack in the first Test against South Africa. Rampaul made his international debut seven years ago but has played in only three Tests so far, and was looking forward to his first Test in the West Indies, more so since it was at his home ground, Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad.”Playing a Test match in front the home crowd and knowing that my family will be right here…it is a very special feeling for me,” he said, “I hope the crowd comes out to give me support and push me in the Test match.”West Indies are winless in the series so far, having lost both Twenty20s and being blanked 5-0 in the one-dayers by Graeme Smith’s side. Rampaul, however, sought inspiration from West Indies’ recent home Test record – including a series victory over England last year and a hard-fought series against Australia in 2008. “Our home record in Tests is good so far and the team is really pumped up for this Test series.”The coach Ottis Gibson also struck a similarly positive note. “We want to come out and show that we are progressing, we are learning and some of the senior guys that did not perform in the one-day series will want to come out and make amends,” Gibson said, referring to the lacklustre performance of the side’s most experienced batsmen, Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.The Test team wears a different look to the one that competed in the limited-overs leg with the likes of Brendan Nash, Shane Shillingford and Nelon Pascal joining the squad. “We have a few new faces in the squad and we will obviously try to move on from the one-day series as quickly as possible,” Gibson said. “And even though we lost that series the mood has always been that we are building towards something and the mood in the camp is pretty good so far.”

Yorkshire have not won a Roses match, remarkably, since 2002 but are in a strong position to correct that shortcoming after dominating the first and last sessions on day two

Jon Culley at Old Trafford29-Jun-2010

ScorecardYorkshire have not won a Roses match, remarkably, since 2002 but are in a strong position to correct that shortcoming after dominating the first and last sessions on day two here, where Adil Rashid offered further evidence that his self-confidence is beginning to flow back after a difficult few months.Rashid has always been a bowler in need of regular reassurance and the dismal way in which he was handled by England during the winter has been seen – not only by his own county – as damaging to his morale. Being dropped from the tour to Bangladesh and overlooked for the World Twenty20 seemed to a good few independent judges to be precisely what the young legspinner did not need, particularly after largely being left to carry the drinks with England in South Africa.A winning contribution to a Roses match would only be good for his self-esteem, and after he and the teenage offspinner Azeem Rafiq shared six wickets between them – five in the final session – there was reason to believe that Yorkshire’s eight-year wait for a victory over the old enemy might be about to end, although a bad weather forecast for Thursday is less encouraging.Rashid’s form has been returning in the last month, particularly in the shortest form of the game. In the Friends Provident t20, he is the country’s leading wicket-taker with 20 wickets so far, five more than his nearest pursuer among the slower bowlers, and the skill and intelligence with which he bowled here blunted Lancashire’s hopes of mounting a substantial reply to Yorkshire’s 447.They were 94 without loss and 101 for 1 at tea but were comprehensively hauled back in the last session.Until then, against Yorkshire’s seam attack – lacking Ajmal Shahzad and Tim Bresnan but disappointingly wayward nonetheless – openers Paul Horton and Stephen Moore had looked comfortable, putting together Lancashire’s best opening stand of the season by some distance.But, bowling unchanged for 19 overs at the Statham End in his first spell, Rashid stifled their progress by conceding only 38 runs and, for good measure, claimed the first three wickets, increasing his haul in first-class Roses matches to 31 in eight games. He has taken five in an innings on three occasions.Each of his successes this time demonstrated a different skill, from the caught-and-bowled chance he snapped up when Moore parried back at him from high on the bat, through Horton’s leg-before dismissal to a ball that went straight on, to the turn and bounce that accounted for Mark Chilton, via an edge to slip.The spell altered the complexion of the contest after Lancashire had given themselves some hope that closing on Yorkshire’s 447 – a total allowed to swell rather negligently by Lancashire in the morning – might not be beyond them.Horton, who averages 73.37 in Roses matches, had taken the score to 101 for 1 with a boundary just before tea and completed his fifth half-century in seven matches against Yorkshire just afterwards.But his departure for 63 at 131 for 2 was followed swiftly by Chilton at 143 and when Azeem Rafiq, the 19-year-old offspinner, took revenge for a big six struck by Steven Croft by having the allrounder caught at slip next ball, Lancashire were beginning to wobble.That wobble turned into a bit of a crisis, however. With half a dozen overs left in the day, what they needed most was to reach the close without further damage, especially after allowing Yorkshire to add 68 more runs in the morning before they could take the last two wickets, missing out on a bowling bonus point too.Instead, Simon Katich, on his Championship debut against a county he represented four times in 2002, was snapped up bat and pad by Adam Lyth off Rafiq, who secured his third wicket by bowling nightwatchman Simon Kerrigan between bat and pad for a duck. Lancashire are still 111 short of avoiding the follow-on.

As ripostes go, England’s response to their embarrassment at Bristol on Saturday was emphatic and to-the-point

Andrew Miller at Edgbaston12-Jul-2010As ripostes go, England’s response to their embarrassment at Bristol on Saturday was emphatic and to-the-point. A hefty total of 347 for 7, twin hundreds in an innings for the first time since 2007, and a record second-wicket stand of 250 all added up to the sort of thumping finale that was needed at the end of a puzzling eight-match campaign.In the past fortnight, England overturned the mighty Australians with some of their best limited-overs cricket for a generation, only to lose their focus so badly in the middle few matches that they ended up surrendering their 100% record against the minnows of Bangladesh. It was a string of results that indicated that England are capable of becoming a formidable unit, but at the same time, it provided a salient reminder that they are a long way short of being the finished article just yet.”We all felt we had a point to prove after what happened in Bristol, so we wanted to finish the series on a high and play like we had done recently,” said Andrew Strauss, who led from the front with a career-best 154, much as he had done after another memorable English embarrassment – their 51-all-out debacle in Sabina Park two winters ago. “Certainly I felt we let ourselves down a bit, and I was very keen we came back strong in this game. It was a satisfying day and it was nice to win the series.”Everyone felt disappointed about what had happened,” he added. “But it was also about learning lessons and moving on and not dwelling on it, because though it was a poor performance, I truly believe it was an aberration. It’s not something we’ve been doing too much lately. There are no excuses on our part, but we’ve got to strive to eradicate it.”While there is little point in reading too much into a match that never came close to being a contest, England did nevertheless finish the series with a few interesting permutations to consider in their one-day line-up. Though they went through the Australia series with the same 11 players, the clamour for selection has intensified since the Bangladeshis came back into town.First it was Ian Bell, whose nerveless 84 not out steered England clear of trouble at Trent Bridge; now, with his foot injury pushing him to the sidelines, Jonathan Trott and Ravi Bopara have both re-emerged as contenders, alongside the spirited Ajmal Shahzad, whose aggressive efforts with the ball were everything that James Anderson’s limp contributions had failed to be in six of the previous seven matches.Though Strauss insisted that Anderson had been omitted as a matter of squad policy, rather than through any lack of form, he was unstinting in his praise for Shahzad, who might have claimed more than two wickets had it not been for a slight hamstring niggle. “I’m really impressed,” he said. “He looks like a wicket-taking bowler, he brings the stumps into play, and it’s a shame he picked up that injury today. He’s another guy who’s desperate to prove himself.”Things have clouded over a little because these guys have come in and done so well,” he added. “But it’s great having a lot of guys competing for places. The likes of Belly, Trotty, Ravi and Ajmal are all saying this shouldn’t be a closed shop, and moving forward, we need a squad of players because we can’t just rely on the same eleven. We are going to need a squad at the World Cup, and it’s a good thing we’ve got a lot of guys saying: ‘I’m ready to be picked, I’m dying to be picked’. We’re in a much better position at the end of the series than the start of it.”

England’s dominance in this series, taken somewhat for granted as they coasted to a 2-0 lead with a nine-wicket win in the second Test at Edgbaston, is nowhere near as absolute as it might have once appeared

Andrew Miller at Lord's25-Aug-2010Whether last week’s result at The Oval was attributable to poor batting from England or outstanding bowling from Pakistan – and the truth invariably lies somewhere in between – it is a fact nonetheless that England’s dominance in this series, taken somewhat for granted as they coasted to a 2-0 lead with a nine-wicket win in the second Test at Edgbaston, is nowhere near as absolute as it might have once appeared. In fact, as the series finale looms at an overcast (and therefore swing-friendly) Lord’s, it might even be described as precarious.Thanks to an ever-diminishing series of team totals, which have drifted downwards from a decent 354 in the first Test at Trent Bridge to an insubstantial 222 at The Oval, the focus has fallen on England’s batsmen to a degree not seen since they crashed to 102 all out at Headingley in the penultimate Test against Australia last summer. Then, of course, they battled back from a series-squaring innings defeat to claim the Ashes one match later with a hefty victory at The Oval, and all was forgiven. The challenge now, in England’s final Test before the squad to tour Down Under is finalised, is to re-harness those powers of bouncebackability.”It certainly wasn’t the worst game we’ve had since I took charge,” said England’s captain, Andrew Strauss. “We’ve had some poor performances in the past, but we lost the game and that was disappointing because we should have been better than that. There are lessons to be learnt from The Oval and there’s a pretty strong determination within the group to prove that that was a one-off and that we’re better than we showed [in that match]. That’s a pretty good state of mind to have, because generally, when we’ve had that state of mind, we’ve done well.”England, to be fair, have long had a pretty healthy record in that regard. It wasn’t until the penultimate year of Michael Vaughan’s reign, against India in 2007, that he relinquished his record of following every Test defeat with a victory at the next attempt, and while Andrew Strauss hasn’t quite attained those standards, he’s nevertheless started pretty healthily with a draw and two victories following his three previous defeats as England captain.However, given that England bowled Pakistan out for 80 and 72 in the first two Tests at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston, last week’s defeat has to rate as the most unexpected yet of Strauss’s captaincy career – even ahead of the infamous 51 all out in Sabina Park 18 months ago, for the speed of that second-innings capitulation was at least in keeping with the pervading mood of crisis that had gripped the England squad since the falling-out between Kevin Pietersen and Peter Moores. The Oval reversal, on the other hand, has awakened issues that had been allowed to pass unnoticed during a misleadingly comfortable run of six Test wins in a row – and need to be addressed rather urgently.”We haven’t batted brilliantly, but it’s hard to score 500 on a pitch that’s doing a lot,” said Strauss. “There was less excuse at The Oval because that was a pretty good batting wicket, but when you as a side are scoring 200 on a pitch where the opposition are being bowled out for 80, you’ve done a reasonably good job. It would be wrong to bury our heads in the sand and say everything is fine, but I’m very satisfied with the batting group generally. The key is to make sure that if you do lose a wicket, the next guy that comes in establishes himself at the crease and doesn’t allow the opposition to build some strong momentum.”For Strauss himself, there’s an extra pressure looming in this match, partly as a result of Alastair Cook’s success in quelling the calls for his head by reaching a personally invaluable century in that Oval defeat, and partly as a consequence of Strauss’s own struggle for form this summer. As was the case against India in 2007, when he was dropped from the team following a prolonged slump, he’s been dismissed by a left-arm seamer in five innings out of six – with Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz filling the roles of Zaheer Khan and RP Singh respectively. And while Kevin Pietersen has attracted attention for his run of 25 innings without a century, Strauss is also in need of a significant score – since making 161 against Australia on this ground in July 2009, he’s gone 22 innings without reaching three figures.”It’s one of those things,” said Strauss. “If you start looking for too many reasons for things, then you’re not concentrating on what you need to do, which is to go out and play. I’m reasonably happy with how my batting is going, because I’ve made some useful contributions but not got to three figures. A lot of the pressure that comes on a batsman comes from outside the group, but Lord’s is a wicket I generally play well on, and I’m confident things will go my way.”If ever there was a venue designed to quell the jitters of England’s malfunctioning top-order, it is Lord’s, where a place on the famous dressing-room honours board manages – for the batsmen at least – to be both a thrilling accolade and somewhat passé. Both Strauss and Pietersen have made four centuries at the ground, with Pietersen’s 152 against South Africa in 2008 leading to his memorable declaration that he had “never felt so loved”, and of the current top seven, only Eoin Morgan has yet to make his mark. Admittedly, he’s only played at the ground on one occasion, against Bangladesh earlier this summer, but that was also Jonathan Trott’s Lord’s debut, and he marked the occasion with a career-best 226.For Pakistan, however, the allure of playing at Lord’s will be heightened by the memories and lessons learned during their defeat against Australia earlier in the summer. Although the eventual 150-run margin looks emphatic on paper, the reality was of another nip-and-tuck contest in which ball dominated bat until the latter stages of Australia’s second innings, when the sun shone sufficiently to allow the last two wickets to add a vital 126 runs. Pakistan’s captain, Salman Butt, who made 63 and 92 in the match, believes his team will be stronger for the experience.”Now we know the slopes and from where the wind comes,” he said. “Not more than the English team, but still I think if we can play to our potential, we can beat them and level the series, and that would be the most wonderful thing. To come from 2-0 down to level the series would help and boost their confidence for the rest of their futures, and in difficult times in the future they will have something very good to remember – even when they are older and telling young people what can happen.”

Dimuth Karunaratne continued his good form with Sri Lanka A, making a half-century, but Pakistan A struck regularly to share honours on a truncated opening day’s play in the first unofficial Test in Galle

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Sep-2010
Scorecard
Dimuth Karunaratne, the Sinhalese Sports Club batsman, continued his good form with Sri Lanka A, making a half-century, but Pakistan A struck regularly to share honours on a truncated opening day in the first unofficial Test in Galle.Put into bat, Sri Lanka lost Lahiru Thirimanne early when he was trapped leg before by left-arm medium-pacer Junaid Khan. Dinesh Chandimal was soon caught behind off fast bowler Mohammad Talha – who played a Test for Pakistan against Sri Lanka in 2009 – to leave Sri Lanka in trouble at 45 for 2. However, Karunaratne and captain Kaushal Silva steadied the innings with a 54-run third wicket stand. Karunaratne made 51 off 84 deliveries before he was dismissed with the score on 99.Karunatratne has been among the runs of late, scoring 244 runs at an average of 81.33 in the two unofficial Tests against South Africa A. He was also the second-highest run-scorer for Sri Lanka A in the recent A-team triangular series after Tharanga Paranavitana.Only thirty overs were possible in the day with Sri Lanka finishing on 105 for 3.

ESPNcricinfo understands that the possibility of suspending Butt from his role as an ICC director – for his extraordinary outburst against the ECB and the ICC – has “crossed the minds” of officials

Osman Samiuddin and Nagraj Gollapudi28-Sep-2010Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman, has arrived in the UK on a visit that comes amid growing tension between the two national cricket boards, and with the ICC watching developments closely. ESPNcricinfo understands that the possibility of suspending Butt from his role as an ICC director – for his extraordinary outburst against the ECB and the ICC – has “crossed the minds” of officials, but such an extreme step will be averted if the boards of England and Pakistan achieve some sort of rapprochement; a meeting between the board heads is expected on Wednesday.In any case, there is a possibility that the matter might feature at the next ICC meeting, in Dubai, from October 12-13. At that meeting, Butt was reportedly aiming to table his own resolution calling for Lorgat’s removal.Butt has been on the warpath with the ICC and ECB since the spot-fixing scandal broke late last month. He is unhappy with the ICC’s provisional suspension of three Pakistan players, arguing that a separate police investigation should have been allowed to reach its conclusion before any such action was taken. Last week, an enraged Butt launched a series of extraordinary public attacks on the England side, the ECB and the ICC; this, the morning after what ESPNcricinfo understands to have been an amicable dinner meeting between Butt and Lorgat in Dubai.Butt is expected to meet with Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, to try and resolve the issue. “Sometime today [Wednesday] Ijaz Butt and Giles Clarke will engage in an attempt to resolve those misunderstandings or issues levelled against the ECB,” Lorgat told . “We would always encourage our members to be in the best harmony as possible and it’s important for us they have good relations. Both are directors of the ICC so they have a larger responsibility to the game and I would hope they would come to a good and settled position.”The outburst prompted top ICC officials to give more than a passing thought to suspending Butt as ICC director – all board heads of full member countries automatically hold this post in the ICC. The suspension would be for a breach of the post’s own, separate code of ethics, which require individual directors to take a broader, more global view of the game; in this code, for example, casting allegations against a fellow member, such as Butt did against England, constitutes a breach. It is believed that there might be several cases over the last two years where Butt has breached this code.Much will depend on how the PCB’s spat with the ECB plays out. “Those [thoughts of suspending an ICC director] are things that are exercising ICC minds,” a source told ESPNcricinfo. “They’d rather wait to see what transpires between ECB and PCB. The ECB have made it clear they want to take some action so there is no point the ICC getting involved in what could be a legal case. The ICC does have a code of ethics and it has crossed their minds but there might be no need to take this action if there is a legal action against Butt. If he does apologise, the ICC have to see what to do because if he has apologized then what can you do? Nobody has come forward and made any noise of suspension yet but that doesn’t mean nobody will do that. Someone might have something to say at the next board meeting.”Butt claimed “there was loud and clear talk in bookie circles of English players taking enormous amounts of money” in the Oval ODI, after which the ECB sent a letter to Butt asking for a full apology. Unless one is made, says the ECB, legal action will be taken against Butt. Reports suggest that Butt is unwilling to apologise. Last week there were discussions (but no decisions were made) in the PCB’s corridors of power over the possibility of initiating a tit-for-tat legal action against Jonathon Trott as counter; the batsman had nearly come to blows with fast bowler Wahab Riaz in nets before the fourth ODI at Lord’s after an altercation. Butt’s trip to the UK – with the board’s legal advisor Taffazul Rizvi – raises the possibility that he might engage in efforts to reconcile with the ECB.Every ICC director is obligated, under the ethics code, to report or refer what they believe to have been a breach of the code to the ICC ethics officer. Any motion for suspension will require a two-thirds majority vote from directors to be implemented. The signs are not good for the PCB, for the tiff with the ECB is indicative of an administration that has made few friends in two years; only last year the Asian bloc was upset over clumsy attempts by the PCB to have the 2011 World Cup moved away from the subcontinent; the relationship with the BCCI is dependent on political ties, which are not good; the PCB was one of the boards not in favour of Australia and New Zealand’s nomination of John Howard for the role of ICC vice-president. It also remains with the ambit of powers of the ICC president or the ethics officer to suspend a director if a breach has occurred.Relations between the PCB and ICC itself, meanwhile, have been tense almost from the day Butt took over as chairman in October 2008. In one of his very first press conferences in Lahore, Butt annoyed the ICC when he publicly revealed information from confidential meetings ICC directors had on the IPL and ICL.Since then, matters have become more acute. The most serious clash came over the 2011 World Cup last March; Pakistan was removed as one of the venues from the tournament after the terror attacks on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore and a generally unstable security situation in the country. The PCB threatened to take the ICC to court over the decision, though eventually a compromise was agreed upon. The spot-fixing scandal has stretched ties to breaking point.Butt’s suspension, though, would not mean suspending the PCB as a full member or harming Pakistan in any way. The suspension would apply only to Butt and prevent him from attending ICC meetings. In such cases, the ICC is likely to ask the PCB to appoint a replacement.

Shashikala Siriwardene, who returns as captain of the Sri Lankan team for the ICC Women’s Cricket Challenge, has said she’s keen to begin her second leadership stint on winning note

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Oct-2010Shashikala Siriwardene, who returns as captain of the Sri Lankan team for the ICC Women’s Cricket Challenge, has said she’s keen to begin her second leadership stint on winning note. The tournament, featuring teams ranked between five and ten in a series of one-day and Twenty20 matches, will be held in Potchefstroom in South Africa between October 6th and 16th.Siriwardene, a 25-year-old allrounder who has played 46 ODIs, was captain from 2005 to 2009, before she was demoted and then dropped from the team for last year’s ICC World Twenty20. “My job is to prove that I can take my team forward and improve the rankings,” she said. “We can be on par with the best four teams in the world.”She will take over as captain from 31-year-old Chamani Seneviratna, who has been on the international circuit since 1997. “She is a very senior player and has been in the team since women’s cricket started in Sri Lanka,” Siriwardene said. “We have a good relationship and is still in the squad. She is also advising and telling me what needs to be done. Together we will take the team forward.”Sri Lanka have played only two one-dayers in the past 18 months, and the upcoming tournament provides them much-needed matches. “This will be a good exposure trip for us because we play teams like Pakistan often but not other sides like Netherlands and Ireland,” she said. “It is a huge opportunity for us to show Sri Lanka and the world that we belong at this level.”Sri Lanka will play a one-dayer against each of the five other teams in the competition – South Africa, Netherlands, West Indies, Pakistan and Ireland – in seven days starting October 6. They are grouped with Ireland and Pakistan for the Twenty20s that follow.

Michael Hussey secured his Test spot with a much-needed century and Mitchell Johnson found some bowling menace as Western Australia dominated Victoria

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Nov-2010Victoria 141 & 0 for 43 need 407 runs to beat Western Australia 368 & 3 for 222 dec (Hussey 118, Robinson 62)

ScorecardMichael Hussey showed aggressive intent during a hugely important innings•Getty Images

Michael Hussey secured his Test spot with a much-needed century and Mitchell Johnson found some bowling menace as Western Australia dominated Victoria at the MCG. The innings was Hussey’s last chance to prove to the selectors he was worthy of a spot and he followed his first-innings 0 with a smooth 118 that took the Warriors to 3 for 222 declared.Johnson, who scored 121 on day two, had already ensured a quick end to Victoria’s innings by racing to an impressive 5 for 35 off 14 overs as the hosts finished at 9 for 141 due to Andrew McDonald’s broken hand. The fourth-ball loss of Michael Swart brought Hussey in and he started in an attacking mood.The free approach paid off and he brought up his century with a top edge over the wicketkeeper Matthew Wade. He was mostly assured throughout and played some strong drives, cuts and pulls to shake off his early-season problems.There were 15 fours and two sixes in his display, which lasted 160 balls and ended when he hooked to deep square leg. Wes Robinson was run out for 62 before tea while Marcus North was unbeaten on 23 when he declared, setting Victoria 450.At stumps they were 0 for 42, with Michael Hill on 21 and Rob Quiney on 20. Quiney’s 54 was the stand-out performance in the first bat but the innings ended in a hurry. Johnson gained 4 for 5 in his final five overs, with the last five batsmen falling for 15.

The Bombay High Court has granted Kings XI Punjab an interim stay on its expulsion from the IPL but said the franchise would have to satisfy certain conditions, including retaining the shareholding pattern and paying the BCCI a security for player fees

Nagraj Gollapudi08-Dec-2010The Bombay High Court has granted Kings XI Punjab an interim stay on its expulsion from the IPL but said the franchise will have to satisfy certain conditions, including retaining its shareholding pattern, fulfilling pending player payments and paying the BCCI guarantee money in case the final judgement goes against them. The court also rejected Punjab’s request to defer the date for submission of the list of players they would like to retain for the fourth edition of the league, the deadline for which expires today. Punjab have until midnight to finalise their list.After listening to both parties over the last two days, Judge SJ Vajifdar said that “prima facie” Punjab had a strong case against the expulsion and the “interim injunction” was only just. But his verdict carried many riders, the most important being that the franchise cannot change its shareholding pattern and the control should rest in the hands of the four main owners: Ness Wadia, Preity Zinta, Mohit Burman and Karan Paul. The court said that these four needed to hold not less than 51% of the shares in KPH Dream Cricket Pvt. Ltd – the rights-holding company of the franchise – until the final judgement. Punjab’s owners refrained from commenting on the issue before they received the court order in hand tomorrow.In the interim, Punjab will have to submit various guarantees to the court and the BCCI. The first is clearing the pending payments to its players over the last two years, an amount running up to Rs.35 crore ($7.77 million). And now, since the franchise is free to re-enter the IPL arena, the court has asked it to commit an amount of $18 million for the next two years (at the rate of $9 million per year) as guarantee money for player payments in case the franchise participates in the league.”When they [Punjab] sign up players, their contracts are for two years,” CA Sundaram, BCCI’s lawyer in the case explained. “And in case they lose the arbitration the players’ contract must be honoured. Hence the bank guarantee for of $18 million which is two years’ contract money for players.”The other important condition the court asked Punjab to fulfill was to pay the BCCI $3.5 million per year for a period of two years, as security towards any damage incurred by the board in case the final verdict went against Punjab later on.”For the time being they have been permitted to participate but on very stringent conditions where they have to furnish various assurances and papers,” Sundaram said. “Importantly all these are only pending the final decision in the arbitration proceedings as an ad interim measure.”When asked whether BCCI had considered challenging the verdict in a higher court, Sundaram said the decision would be made when the order is in hand.Wednesday’s news will be seen as another blow to the IPL, whose 2011 tournament has been put increasingly at risk by a succession of court cases. While the Rajasthan and Punjab franchises were embroiled in courtroom battles, a third (Kochi) barely made it over the line. As a result of the controversies, the player auction for the season has been delayed by several months.In October the BCCI had terminated Punjab, holding the franchise guilty for violating the franchise agreement on three counts, the biggest offence being that the ownership had changed twice in the first three years of the league, something that went unreported to the Indian board.The franchise moved court last month seeking redressal for the cancellation of its IPL contract. Its petition contended that the termination was a “deliberate and calculated” move to ensure a new and more lucrative re-bidding process. Both parties then decided to opt for the arbitration process, but that too got embroiled in controversy when the arbitrator, Justice BN Srikrishna, recused himself after admitting to the BCCI that he had been legal counsel for the Wadia Group, part owners of Punjab, for many years.At that point the issue seemed to be snowballing into another protracted battle, just like the one Rajasthan Royals had got involved in with the BCCI. But Punjab rushed to the High Court for help and have now found new crutches to lean on before building their case in front of the arbitrator.The confusion over the eventual number of teams that will be involved next season affects every component of the world’s most lucrative domestic league: its teams/ franchises, its players and its very structure.

Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis, the most resolute of South Africans, manned the frontline and three consecutive half-century partnerships ensured the hosts edged ahead in the fight for the series

The Bulletin by George Binoy02-Jan-2011
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Jacques Kallis battled through testing phases to score a valuable half-century for South Africa•AFP

South Africa’s batsmen were tested severely by seam and swing on a stop-start day dominated by drizzle, murky light and a Table Mountain shrouded in cloud. By the time Newlands was bathed in glorious evening sunshine, though, the home team had lost only four wickets and had denied India the rewards that appeared imminent during the morning and afternoon. Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis, the most resolute of South Africans, manned the frontline and three consecutive half-century partnerships ensured the hosts edged ahead in the fight for the series.The weather, the pitch and the Indian seamers examined South Africa’s batting skills after MS Dhoni won his first toss in the New Year, having lost all but one of his previous 14. There were two rain interruptions and the natural light had to be supplemented by artificial ones, which required the batsmen’s concentration to be at its peak. The pitch offered the bowlers assistance throughout, forcing the batsmen to be alert to the one that would suddenly jag back in, or seam sharply away. They edged plenty, but most flew into gaps in the field.South Africa’s innings had come to a standstill after they lost their openers – Graeme Smith shortly before the first rain interruption and Alviro Petersen soon after. It sparked to life during the period between the second rain break and tea, with Amla playing the protagonist.Amla had batted with discipline, leaving majority of the deliveries outside off stump, especially when Zaheer Khan seamed them across him from over the wicket. Zaheer also went around the stumps and caused problems, beating Amla with a blockhole delivery outside off, inducing an inside edge past the stumps and a leading edge that lobbed dangerously towards cover – all in one over.The pitch at Newlands wasn’t as quick or bouncy as the one at Kingsmead, where batsmen could leave the ball on length. India’s bowlers had not attempted a single bouncer when bad light and rain stopped play for a second time, with South Africa 61 for 2 after the 21st over. It was not that sort of pitch.It was a pitch on which the bowlers needed to bowl fuller, and the Indians did. It was a pitch on which the batsmen needed to be made to drive, and the South Africans did. Kallis had driven Sreesanth with power through cover just before the rain, but Amla took charge after the second resumption.He drove the first ball after the break from Zaheer through point, the next wide of mid-on, where Sachin Tendulkar dived over the ball, and another between midwicket and mid-on – all for boundaries. Sreesanth also urged Amla to drive by delivering swinging half-volleys outside off, two of which disappeared across the moist turf towards the cover boundary. In 4.1 overs after the second drizzle, South Africa had scored 30.Sreesanth then tried a different line of attack, placing men at long leg and deep square and bouncing Amla, who hooked the first for six to reach 50 off 69 balls. Amla continued to attack, but not all his shots came off. He edged Sreesanth twice, first over gully and then wide of second slip. Zaheer also produced two crackers that pitched straight and seamed across the outside edge of Amla’s forward pushes. On 59, Amla pulled Sreesanth again, but this time he spliced the short ball to Cheteshwar Pujara on the deep-square boundary. It was the only wicket that India took during the second session and it ended a partnership of 72.Kallis had been quiet during Amla’s burst but he assumed leadership of the resistance with AB de Villiers for company. Kallis had shouldered arms to his second delivery, from Ishant, and had been hit high on the thigh. He was later struck on the body while pulling, and he was batting with a wrist bruised during his dismissal at Kingsmead.He faced a difficult over from Ishant right after tea, getting beaten by deliveries that straightened from a good length just outside off stump. He responded to that by flicking the bowler confidently through midwicket, growing his partnership with de Villiers, who had to tailor his free-scoring game to the conditions.Harbhajan Singh was bowling economically, and the fast bowlers were always threatening to strike. Sreesanth did, inducing the edge from de Villiers with a perfect outswinger, snipping the stand at 58. Sreesanth also had an lbw shout against Kallis, on 54, but his appeal wasn’t convincing even though replays indicated the ball would have hit the top of leg stump.A noticeable aspect was the lack of aggression from India’s bowlers today, compared to their performance in Durban, and they were slower in pace too. And once the sun came out, and the seamers tired, survival became relatively easier. Kallis was assured towards the end of the day, Prince was edgy at the start of his innings and they also added 68 runs to make Smith the happier captain at stumps.