All posts by csb10.top

KwaZulu-Natal went top of the Super Sixes table, thanks to the first-innings bonus points they captured against Western Province. And Maurice Aronstam ground out a nine-and-a-half-hour double-century for Northerns against Boland:Super Sixes – 3rd day:Western Province 311 and 287 for 3 (Bassage 61, Ferreira 100,Prince 75*) lead KwaZulu-Natal 332 by 266 runs
ScorecardA first-innings deficit of 21 was quickly wiped out after Western Province bowled KwaZulu-Natal out for 332 at Newlands. Natal nonetheless collected enough bonus points to go to the top of the table. A far more docile pitch awaited the WP batsmen today, and they put on 287 for 3 before stumps was drawn. Derrin Bassage helped himself to 61, Lloyd Ferreira passed 3000 first-class runs in the course of his hundred, and Ashwell Prince, back from international duties in New Zealand, was left not out on 75. WP are 266 ahead, and we could be in for a close finish tomorrow.Free State 267 and 139 for 3 (Liebenberg 72) lead North West349 (Jacobs 164) by 57 runs
ScorecardDavey Jacobs must know every blade of grass at Potchefstroom’s North West Stadium after spending six hours at the crease for his 164, which helped his side to a lead of 82. Free State, batting for a second time, ended the day on 139 for 3 after Gerry Liebenberg put together a neat 72. Bad light once again brought an early end to proceedings – bad news for Free State, who need a win to stay in touch with the leaders.Shield – 2nd day:Northerns 451 for 7 dec (Aronstam 201*, Groeneveld 4-49) lead Boland 97 for 4 by 354 runs
ScorecardMaurice Aronstam, 23, marked only his second first-class appearance with a masterful double-century as Northerns amassed 451 for 7 at Boland Park. His marathon innings took nine and a half hours, and he hit 19 fours and four sixes. Aronstam and Pierre Joubert (48*) equalled Northerns’ eighth-wicketpartnership record of 131*, set by Neville Alistoun and Trevor Rolfe against Natal B at Berea Park, Pretoria, in 1968-69. With Alfonso Thomas taking three wickets, Boland struggled to 97 for 4 by the close, still 354 behind.Gauteng 34 for 1 v Eastern Province
ScorecardOnly half-an-hour’s play yesterday … and none at all at the Wanderers today as overnight rain and persistent showers forced an abandonment.

Day 2
ScorecardA four-wicket haul by Tushar Saha, the left-arm spinner, helped East Zone bundle out South Zone for 204, in the process gaining a first-innings lead of 109 on the second day at the Wankhede Stadium.East, resuming on their overnight score of 265, added 48 before the seamer NC Aiyappa wrapped up the innings with his third five-wicket haul in first-class cricket. Halhadar Das, who led East’s revival on the first day, fell seven short of his ton, The last-wicket pair of Shib Shankar Paul and Ranadeb Bose took the score from 290 to 313 before Aiyappa accounted for Paul to finish with figures of 5 for 84.South failed to get the partnerships going early on, the maximum being 59 for the fourth wicket between M Vijay and Arjun Yadav. Vijay, who hit eight fours in his 46, was Saha’s first victim, caught by Debasis Mohanty. Yadav fell for 41 to the offspin of Palash Das and at that stage South were struggling at 151 for 5. The lower order failed to build on their starts as Saha pegged away at the wickets and wrapped up the innings for 204, finishing with 4 for 47 in just under 23 overs. East extended their lead to 114 after the openers played out one over before stumps.
ScorecardPankaj Singh grabbed four wickets as Central Zone shot out England Lions for 155 and gained a healthy 115-run first-innings lead. Central, though, lost two wickets in the seven overs they had to face before stumps on the second day in Vadodara.In the morning session, Central, resuming from 238 for 7, could only add 32 runs to their first-innings effort before being bowled out. Alan Richardson, the right-arm medium pacer, took two more wickets to be the Lions’ most successful bowler with four wickets.The Lions’ batting effort got off to a poor start with Joe Denly, winner of the NBC Denis Compton award for four successive years at Kent, falling to Pankaj, who was part of the Indian squad that toured Australia recently, in the first over. Michael Yardy, the Lions’ captain, was Pankaj’s next victim, managing only 5. After some brief resistance, both Michael Carberry and Ed Joyce fell in quick succession to leave the Lions at 66 for 4.Uttar Pradesh’s left-arm spinner Praveen Gupta ably assisted Pankaj as the Lions were unable to put together any partnerships of note, tumbling to 120 for 8. It was thanks to No. 7 Adil Rashid’s 40 that the visitors managed to post their modest score – their innings ending when Sanjib Sanyal struck twice in the same over. Pankaj finished with 4 for 43 while Gupta had returns of 3 for 32 in 23 overs.

Warwickshire have signed Sanath Jayasuriya to play in next year’s Twenty20 Cup.Jayasuriya, 38, retired from Test cricket earlier this month but will continue to play ODI and Twenty20 games for Sri Lanka.”Sanath has vast experience in all forms of cricket but especially the one-day format,” said Ashley Giles, the county’s director of cricket. “He’ll be a great man for the younger members of our squad to learn from and his knowledge of the game will be crucial in the Twenty20 format of the game. I’m looking forward to working with him next summer.”Jayasuriya played in the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa earlier this year, beginning the tournament in his typically blazing fashion with half-centuries against Kenya and New Zealand before a string of poor scores. He was dismissed for a duck in his most recent international, against Australia.

Adam Gilchrist has hinted that his retirement might be further away than he originally planned and says there is “a good chance” this year’s Boxing Day Test will not be his last. Gilchrist, 36, was mentally and physically fatigued at the same time last season during the Ashes campaign and at that stage he felt the end of his career was beckoning.”This time last year I probably would have thought this one would be my last but I’m really enjoying it now and I don’t know,” Gilchrist told the . “It might be but there’s a good chance it won’t be as well, so I’m not looking for any swansong or farewell. I’m just playing it as I go along and really enjoying it as well.”Gilchrist needs only five dismissals to pass Ian Healy’s Australian record of 395 victims and 14 dismissals would push him past Mark Boucher’s world mark of 403. Gilchrist has 391 victims from 92 Tests – Healy took 119 games to reach his total and Boucher has played 106 matches.”Just as it’s inevitable I’ll get to Heals’ Australian record, even if I was to go past and catch Boucher, he’s about four years younger than me so it will be inevitable that he’ll end up finishing his career with the world record,” Gilchrist said in the . “It’s something you don’t focus on too much.”During the Boxing Day Test Gilchrist will wear pink wicketkeeping gloves to raise money for the cancer cause the McGrath Foundation. Gilchrist’s sponsors will donate $18,000 per dismissal he claims in the Melbourne match.

Gloucestershire missed out on promotion from the second division of the County Championship, despite an exciting three-wicket victory over Nottinghamshire at Bristol.Mark Alleyne’s side were hoping to add promotion to their unprecedented one-day treble this season, but were undone by events elsewhere.Glamorgan secured enough bonus points from their draw with Middlesex at Cardiff to take one of the two remaining promotion places, while Essex secured the other with a run chase win over Warwickshire at Chelmsford.Even so, Gloucestershire can look take satisfaction from their championship campaign. Six wins and fourth place was a considerable improvement on last year, when they finished bottom.With Nottinghamshire also in the hunt for promotion, both captains were keen to set up a contrived finish on the final day.Play was delayed for an hour by a damp outfield and Nottinghamshire were handed a first innings advantage of 143 when Gloucestershire declared on their overnight 73-1.Nottinghamshire then raced to 104-3 in 18.5 overs before captain Jason Gallian declared their second innings shortly after lunch to leave the home side needing 248 for victory in a minimum of 59 overs.Usman Afzaal passed 1,000 first-class runs for the season during his innings of 36, which ended with a superb, one-handed catch by Ben Gannon at square leg off Jon Lewis.Guy Welton and Mark Bowen, in his final first-class innings before retirement, also fell victim to Lewis, whose 3-50 lifted his tally of wickets for the season to 72 – second only to Worcesterhsire’s Glenn McGrath.Dominic Hewson and Kim Barnett got the Gloucestershire run chase off to a good start with a stand of 42 in nine overs before Hewson was bowled by Bowen for 18.Bowen then had Barnett caught behind by Chris Read for 28, while Ian Harvey was caught down the legside by Read off David Lucas for ten.When Matt Windows was brilliantly taken by Bowen at mid-on off Lucas for 38, the game was neatly poised at 138-4 in the 33rd over.But Jack Russell then swung it Gloucestershire’s way with a fine 53 from 94 balls before he was caught by Read off Paul Franks.Left-arm spinner Richard Stemp had already taken the wickets of Jeremy Snape and Alleyne by then, but there was no denying Gloucestershire their victory.Chris Taylor was joined by Lewis and the pair shared an unbroken eighth wicket stand of 36 in six overs, as Gloucestershire got home with nine balls to spare.Taylor finished with three boundaries in his 51-ball innings of 38 not out, while Lewis was unbeaten on 16.

Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Sami has been ruled out of the forthcoming home series against Bangladesh with an ankle injury. Sami twisted his ankle playing for Kent and is expected to be out of action for up to six weeks.”Sami will be returning home soon to start treatment on his injury," explained Samiul Hasan, a spokesman for the Pakistan Cricket Board. "Although his contract [with Kent] was until August 10, he was available for the Bangladesh series.”Sami’s absence further weakens the side, with Shoaib Akhtar already haven been given permission to miss the series to enable him to fulfill his county commitments with Durham. However, even an inexperienced Pakistan should have few problems in overcoming Bangladesh.

Harbhajan Singh has been banned for the remainder of the current IPL season for his altercation with Sreesanth at the end of Mumbai Indians’ match against Kings XI Punjab on Friday. The ban is for 11 matches, including last Sunday’s game, extendable to 13 if Mumbai progress to the semi-final and final.Sreesanth was let off with a warning after video evidence showed Harbhajan slapped him without any provocation. The duo embraced at the end of the hearing after Harbhajan offered an apology in front of the cameras. Harbhajan will not be appealing against the ban.”The referee studied video tapes of the incident and found the assault by Harbhajan was totally unprovoked. The footage exactly showed that Harbhajan went down the line, wishing all the players, shaking hands with a few players,” said Lalit Modi, the commissioner of the IPL who is also a vice-president of the BCCI. “Sreesanth was the third player that he met. Instead of shaking his hand he actually slapped him and continued down the line, shaking hands with the other players.”Farokh Engineer, the former Indian wicketkeeper who was the match referee, fined Harbhajan 100% of his match fee for Friday’s game. He will now be paid only for the first two matches of the IPL.Lalchand Rajput, the coach of the Mumbai side, has also been found guilty of a level 2 offence and fined 50% of his match fee. “Rajput was right behind Harbhajan when the incident took place,” said Modi. “He didn’t take any step to restrain him. He has been fined 50% of his match fee.”The ban on Harbhajan comes as a jolt for Mumbai, who have lost all four games so far in the tournament. “We don’t have a say in matter as far as the ban is concerned,” said Tushar Pania, head of corporate communications at Reliance Industries Limited, who paid US$111.9 million for the Mumbai franchise. “But it does have an impact on the team now especially considering Sachin Tendulkar is injured.”Harbhajan also faces separate action from the Indian board, which has asked him to explain, “as a contracted player”, his role in the incident which came to light after Sreesanth broke down in front of the cameras.Niranjan Shah, the BCCI secretary, said on Monday that Sudhir Nanavati, a lawyer, has been appointed to conduct a “preliminary inquiry” and submit a report “within 15 days” to Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president, who will refer the findings to the board’s disciplinary committee for possible action.Shah also confirmed that Harbhajan had replied to the board’s show-cause notice. “He has given his reply, but I cannot reveal its contents.”

Jack Kyle, Past President of the CCA for 15 years and currently 1st VP-Finance, successfully underwent surgery Monday in Vancouver.We wish Jack a speedy recovery, good health and long life.Wthout doubt, the Canadian Cricket Community owes Jack a tremendous thank you for outstanding dedication and commitment to the fostering and promotion of the growth and development of Canadian Cricket.Jack is expected to spend four more days in hopsital, but he is alrady talking about and preparing for the next challenges.Best regards from the Canadian cricket community.

Steve Waugh was in belligerent mood when he came to answer questions at the end of an eventful first Test match against India. Much of his ire was directed against the local media which had skewered him in the wake of the first innings run-out involving Damien Martyn, though he also reserved praise for Sourav Ganguly and India, who made sure that what was expected to be a foregone conclusion finished up as a “50-50 Test match”. On who got more out of this Test: We both did. Our plan today was to take the four wickets, bat with some purpose, and then put them in for 20 overs. We batted really well on the first day, lost it a bit from there. But then, I though India batted pretty well.On whether Australia had underestimated India: They have some very talented players. And we know we’ll have to play quality cricket to win the series. This won’t be a one-sided contest, it’ll be a very competitive series. It’s going to take exceptional performances to win it.The positives for Australia: Today was a positive day for all of us. We wanted to finish strongly.Sourav Ganguly’s innings: He hit the ball very cleanly, made his runs very fast with a lot of boundaries. We’ve got to find a way to stop those boundaries. It was a gutsy knock considering the situation.The Australian bowling: Jason [Gillespie] and MacGill bowled well, and Nathan Bracken did well in patches. Bicks [Andy Bichel] gave it everything. I have no complaints. You can’t have a great day everyday.On whether India’s confidence have been boosted: Well, we had the tougher of the conditions when we batted. I’d have liked to have had a go at them when the pitch was green and seaming around. But like I said, I think both teams will go to Adelaide expecting a good contest.The Marytn run-out/sacrifice: I thought some of what I read about that was way over the top. It was a mix-up, these things happen in cricket. If you read the papers the next day, you’d think I’d committed a criminal act. Both of us were at fault, there was a mix-up, simple as that. There as a lot of finger-pointing, a lot of innuendo, and that’s not right. Let’s have some fair dinkum.On whether the emotional nature of his farewell tour could distract Australia ahead of the next three Tests: It’s not about me playing three Tests. It’s about Australia and India, and what should be three very competitive games.

It was a happy homecoming for Andrew Strauss, as he celebrated his first Test in the land of his birth with an unbeaten 120, to give England the upper hand at the close of the second day’s play at Port Elizabeth. But afterwards he remained as phlegmatic about his achievement as he had been at the crease.Strauss has now scored centuries in his debut Test against three consecutive countries, following on from his efforts at Lord’s last summer, against New Zealand and West Indies, but laughed off the significance of his feat. “You can go on about those sort of stats all day long,” he shrugged. “Obviously I’m delighted I’ve done it, but I won’t be putting it up on the wall or anything like that! They’ve all been pretty similar really. In each case it’s been important to knuckle down and get runs early in the series, and fortunately it has happened.”It certainly didn’t feel any different being back in South Africa,” added Strauss, before confirming that no, he didn’t receive any jibes out in the middle, and no, he wouldn’t have understood the South Africans if they had chosen to address him in Afrikaans. “I have a few flashes of memory of my time in Johannesburg,” he said, “but I was so young when we left.”Strauss is now something of a lucky charm for England. He has yet to taste anything but victory in seven consecutive games, and on today’s evidence an eighth consecutive win is on the cards. “So much could yet happen,” he cautioned. “There’s been plenty of ebb and flow in this game, and it’s important we knuckle down tomorrow, see off the new ball when it comes, and make this innings count, as the wicket is only going to deteriorate.”There is already a hint of turn on offer, as Graeme Smith demonstrated in a brief spell before the close, and Strauss was hopeful that Ashley Giles would come into play as the game progressed. “That gives us confidence as we’re the only side with a specialist spinner,” he said. “The new ball skidded through for the first 15 overs, but after that it started to sit up a bit more. It’s a wicket to be patient on – you have to wait for the bowlers to come to you.”England had to face a tricky four overs before lunch, and a more jittery side might have had visions of Potchefstroom, where they collapsed to 3 for 3 in a similar space of time. But Strauss had no such fears. “We’ve got that defeat out of our minds,” he said. “It was a disappointment, but right from moment we lost that game we trained hard, practised hard, and mentally we were pretty good going into the first day yesterday.”England’s minds were certainly switched on to the task by the sight of Shaun Pollock bearing down on them. “Pollock is almost like a bowling machine,” said Strauss. “He’s always bang on the spot every time, which makes it hard for batsmen. He’s up there with the top bowlers in the world so we were kept on our toes. The wicket doesn’t really suit him, but he’s quality – you can’t take him lightly at all.”The bowlers out here tend to wait for us to come to them,” added Strauss. “So it is a case of playing it patiently. If we want to win game, then it’s crucial we build on today’s start and apply pressure on South Africa. It was the way we played all last summer, and we’ll try to do that again tomorrow.”

Although his performance was later overshadowed by Andrew Strauss’s efforts, Boeta Dippenaar’s third Test century – his first against England – was a huge achievement for a player who has been under intense pressure in the middle of South Africa’s unsettled batting line-up. With challenges for places coming from all angles, Dippenaar was a contented man at the close of play, as he contemplated a moment that might just change his career.”It really does mean a lot to me,” said Dippenaar. “There’s been lot of pressure on me in terms of positions, so to put in that sort of performance against a quality attack like England’s, is something special. Players like Hashim Amla have been pushing hard, so you know you have got limited opportunities to make your mark.”Dippenaar has bobbed up and down the batting order in recent seasons, but his new coach, Ray Jennings, is keen for him to stay in one place for the time being. “Ray wants me to keep on batting at No. 5 in the middle order,” he explained. “He’s adamant that I should stay still, which is comforting because I have fluctuated from time to time. It allows me to get a game-plan going for my specific role, and grow in that role.”Test hundreds are precious beasts, but Dippenaar claimed not to have suffered unduly in the nervous nineties. “I just took it ball by ball,” he explained. “Our game-plan at the start of play was to get to 350, and I knew that I needed to score at least 45 or 50 of those runs. My personal scores didn’t stick in the mind so much, so that took the pressure off.”As for what the future holds, Dippenaar was cautiously optimistic. “I like to think it’s a step in the right direction [towards a permanent place in the side]. There’s a lot of cricket still to be played, but it’s given me a huge amount of confidence for the rest of series. I think I’ve gone a long way towards making that No. 5 spot my own.”For much of the morning, Dippenaar was aided and abetted by the wicketkeeper Thami Tsolelike, a controversial selection ahead of the veteran Mark Boucher. He played a steadfast support role, and afterwards Dippenaar was keen to play up his performance. “Thami is a very very good cricketer,” he said. “Sometimes his selection has been overshadowed by political issues, but he showed today he can hold his own.”We probably finished up around 70-80 runs short, because we really needed to get to 400,” admitted Dippenaar – although he wasn’t giving up the fight. “We’re up against it a bit, but tomorrow we’ll come out fighting hard to turn it around.”