All posts by csb10.top

Mitchell Starc is unlikely to play in Australia’s home Ashes campaign after being diagnosed with a stress fracture in his lower back. Starc flew home from the ongoing limited-overs series in England due to back soreness and scans have shown that his injury will rule him out for “a prolonged period”, almost certainly meaning that he will be unavailable for at least the start of the Ashes, if not the whole series.Australia have already suffered similar injury blows in their fast-bowling ranks with James Pattinson sent home from the Ashes tour of England and Pat Cummins ruled out of the coming home summer, both with stress fractures of the lower back. Starc, 23, was Australia’s third leading wicket taker during the unsuccessful Ashes campaign in England with 11 wickets at 32.45, and he would have been a likely starter for the first Test at the Gabba.”Mitch Starc had scans following his arrival back to Australia and they have shown an early stage low back stress fracture,” Justin Paolini, Cricket Australia’s chief medical officer, said. “His management plan will be determined in the coming days but he is expected to be unavailable for a prolonged period.”Pat Howard, CA’s general manager of team performance, said it was disappointing that Starc had succumbed to a stress fracture but that young fast bowlers were particularly susceptible to such injuries. In releasing the details of Starc’s injury, CA stressed that few fast bowlers in Australia’s history had bowled as many deliveries in Test cricket as Starc and Pattinson by the age of 23.Mitchell Starc played three of the five Tests in England•PA Photos

“Historically, we’ve rarely seen three such promising young fast bowlers come through at the same time and all of a similar age so when they get injured of course that will be disappointing,” Howard said. “We’re doing our best to minimise longer term injuries, but we are also realistic that such injuries are possible.”Looking at a comparison of some of Australia’s best quicks at the age of 23, Pattinson and Starc are second and third on the list behind Craig McDermott in terms of performance. What that tells us is we have a greater reliance on younger fast bowlers at international level than ever before and we’re getting the most we can out of these talented young players, who are all coming through into international cricket together.”However, there was some good news for Australia, with Jackson Bird cleared of any major injury concerns after he flew home from the Ashes tour early due to back soreness. Bird, who played only the fourth Test in Durham and collected two wickets, is expected to be available for the start of the home Ashes if required.”Jackson returned home from the tour of England with some lower back soreness,” Paolini said. “We have ruled out a major injury but will review scans in two weeks to confirm this. We expect that he will be available during the Ashes.”

ScorecardChris Jordan put in another eye-catching spell following his ODI debut last week•Getty Images

James Anyon claimed only the sixth five-wicket haul of his career and Luke Wright hit an unbeaten 74 as Sussex gained the upper hand on the first day of their match against champions Durham at Hove.Anyon took 5 for 44, including four wickets for 19 in his second spell, as Durham were dismissed for 164 in 52 overs after winning the toss, with their last seven wickets falling for 56. Sussex were reduced to 90 for 5 at one stage before Wright led a counter-attack to take them to 186 for 5 at stumps, a lead of 22.A win for Sussex should secure third place and they are also chasing their first Championship win at Hove since last August so they had plenty of incentive to avenge the heavy defeat they suffered to Durham three weeks ago.A pitch offering good bounce and seam movement gave them further encouragement but Durham were in a decent position at 107 for 3 shortly after lunch when Jordan triggered a collapse by claiming wickets in successive overs.Having been named in the Performance Squad on Monday a week after making his England one-day debut, Jordan bowled with sustained hostility to have top scorer Scott Borthwick caught at third slip fending off a bouncer after he had reached 1,000 Championship runs for the season.Matt Prior then dived full-length after parrying the ball at slip to remove Will Smith, who is making his last appearance for the county. The third wicket of his spell came when Ben Stokes slashed to point shortly after the ball had been changed. Jordan had earlier claimed opener Keaton Jennings on his way to figures of 4 for 50 which took him to 56 Championship wickets for the season.Anyon had Mark Stoneman, who also passed 1,000 Championship runs, caught behind in his second over but he was more productive after lunch when he reaped the rewards for bowling a fuller length.At one stage he took three wickets in six balls with Phil Mustard edging an off-cutter to slip, Michael Richardson lbw playing across a straight one and Usman Arshad losing his off stump before Anyon claimed his fifth victim when skipper Paul Collingwood holed out to deep midwicket.Durham were the last side to win a Championship game at Hove when batting first more than two years ago and the country’s leading wicket-taker, Graham Onions, improved their chances of repeating that by picking up two wickets in his first two overs. Chris Nash was lbw to the third ball of the innings with one that kept a shade low and Michael Yardy played down the wrong line.Skipper Ed Joyce batted purposefully, dominating a third-wicket stand of 58 with Luke Wells to which his partner contributed just a single. But when Arshad replaced Onions he induced Joyce to play on and then picked up Prior’s prime scalp when he edged behind. Wells’ vigil ended when he got a thin edge to Stokes’ outswinger to leave Sussex 90 for 5.But Wright and Ben Brown responded impressively. Onions conceded 33 runs in his second spell of just three overs with Wright hitting him over midwicket for six on his way to a 38-ball half-century. He was badly dropped at deep extra cover on 57 by Stoneman and closed unbeaten on 74 from 60 balls with 13 fours.

Three local coaches are in contention to become the next national coach as the board cut the field of applicants down to five candidates, Sri Lanka Cricket has said. Each of the shortlisted candidates will be interviewed in the coming weeks by the committee appointed to nominate the head coach, and their decision will then be put forward to the executive committee for ratification.”A report compiled by the committee appointed to nominate the national head coach was tabled at the executive committee meeting,” an SLC release said. “As recommended by the committee, the executive committee requested them to conduct the interviews for the shortlisted candidates.”The board had initially received 11 applications for the role, but SLC then attempted to woo other candidates which it believed would be well-suited to the job. Former India coach Greg Chappell and former Australia coach Tim Nielsen both fielded inquiries from SLC, but did not pursue the role, citing family reasons.Current coach Graham Ford also cited family reasons for his decision not to extend his contract, which expires after Sri Lanka’s away Test series against Pakistan in January.Earlier in the week, chief selector Sanath Jayasuriya, who also sits on the coach-selection committee, told ESPNcricinfo the board’s ideal candidate would effectively extend the systems and long-term strategies implemented during Ford’s tenure, rather than seek a fresh start. Assistant coach Marvan Atapattu and fielding coach Ruwan Kalpage have worked with Sri Lanka team throughout Ford’s term, and at least one of them is expected to be among the shortlisted applicants.Sri Lanka has not had a long-term local coach since Roy Dias finished his tenure with the side after the 1999 World Cup.

Shane Watson has called for a greater sense of scheduling balance in the Australian summer, arguing the game down under will suffer if it continues to push the Twenty20 Big Bash League at the expense of the increasingly marginalised Sheffield Shield and domestic limited-overs competitions.No Australian cricketer has gained more from T20 than Watson, who may never have returned to Test cricket without his resurgence for the Rajasthan Royals in the inaugural edition of the IPL. But after being elected to the executive of the Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) in place of the resigning Simon Katich, Watson stressed that Cricket Australia should carefully consider their recent headlong pursuit of the shortest format, which has squeezed the first-class and 50-over tournaments to the fringes of the season.The ACA are currently preparing a State of the Game Report to be tabled before CA in December, and it is expected to propose a tighter version of the BBL to be played in a less disruptive timeslot than the current window across the prime December-January phase of the season. Watson told ESPNcricinfo that a better schedule, more equitable to all forms of the game, needed to be found.”We’re getting a lot of information at the moment from all the players and the past players and working with Cricket Australia to be able to try and get the best balance,” Watson said. “I know the balance really seems to have shifted towards Twenty20 cricket and the BBL – I’ve certainly played a lot of T20 around the world, but there’s also a balance you can get that doesn’t take away from the Sheffield Shield and the Ryobi Cup.”The BBL is obviously a money-earner and people love watching it, but you’ve got to find the balance so it’s not all in one direction geared to one competition. That balance needs to be found, and that’s where the players need to have a good voice, but they’re on the ground and know what’s working and not working to continue their development as cricketers, and also the development of the game.”There’s no doubt T20 has brought different sponsors and different people to the game of cricket who wouldn’t normally have been coming through the gates. But it’s finding that balance so we’re able to develop all-round cricketers who can play hopefully all formats, so it’s not young kids coming in and just being tailored to T20 cricket, it’s being tailored so you’ve got the foundation to be able to adapt to any form of cricket you do play.”Also casting an eye over how Australian cricket can rejuvenate its batting stocks after a generation of decline, Watson echoed the words of his batting mentor Ricky Ponting by insisting that the CA talent pathway, and domestic competitions from grade cricket up to the Shield, needed to be strengthened by ensuring the best coaches were in place at developmental stages.”It’s as simple as developing the talent we’ve got in Australia and getting the best out of them,” Watson said. “We need to have the coaches there to get the best out of the talent we’ve got – we’ve always got a lot of extremely talented cricketers coming through and that’s always been one of the big strengths of Australian cricket. We need to work on developing what we’ve got, making sure the right coaches are in the right places, to grow the love and passion for the game, but also the talent and skill they have. Give them a good grounding so that when they move up they have a really sound foundation.”Watson’s elevation to the ACA executive committee, a group including Michael Hussey, George Bailey, Marcus North, Neil Maxwell an Lisa Sthalekar, confirmed the high regard in which he is held by many of his peers. Positions on the committee are voted on by all domestic and international players.”To think that I’ve got enough votes to be voted onto the ACA executive certainly does mean a lot to me,” Watson said. “It’s nice to know people think I’ve got the right type of personality and the right type of experience to be able to give a lot to continuing to develop the game. It’s something I’ve been very much thinking about and talking to [the chief executive] Paul Marsh about for the last couple of years and it’s come up now because Simon Katich has stepped down.”One of the big roles I’ll play is to have input into what’s needed, whether it’s at grassroots level, grade cricket, first-class cricket or even the Australian team and the academy. There’s a number of things in the development area I think they can improve. That’s what we’re about, the input we can have to try to grow cricket from the grassroots up, so once a few of us older guys have moved on and stopped playing there’s a lot of really good, young, talented guys coming through.”

Pakistan coach Dav Whatmore has affirmed the promise of batsmen Sharjeel Khan and Sohaib Maqsood ahead of the second ODI against Sri Lanka. Sharjeel stroked a run-a-ball 61 in Sharjah to set Pakistan’s commanding total in motion, before Maqsood consolidated his team’s advantage alongside Mohammad Hafeez in the middle overs, hitting 73 from 68.They were impressive hands from Sharjeel, on debut, and Maqsood, in his sixth ODI, and although Whatmore was careful not to overstate their potential, he lauded their hunger, as well as their intent at the crease.”It was a very good innings by Maqsood. He’s somebody that’s shown the selectors and myself that he wants to play,” Whatmore said. “When you lose eight to ten kilos in a relatively short space of time, that’s a big effort. Just on that alone I reckon it was worth selecting him. He’s rewarded us with some terrific performances.”Sharjeel debuted yesterday, but in my pre-match talk at the ground, I completely forgot it was his debut because I got the feeling he’s been around so much recently in the T20s. We eventually all congratulated him and he showed the sort of potential that he has. I’m not going to say he’s going to be a great player, but he’s got the potential to be a very good contributor. I’m pleased with that.”Sohaib Maqsood happens to tell me Sharjeel is his childhood friend. During Sharjeel’s innings, Maqsood sat next to me and gave some useful predictions about this kid. They were both very true – on the money. It’s good that each of these guys know each other’s games.”Whatmore also praised Hafeez for his 122, which held the Pakistan’s innings together. Hafeez struggled for batting form in home and away series against South Africa, and had not crossed 35 in his eight previous ODI innings.”Hafeez was really keen yesterday to get back amongst the runs,” Whatmore said. “He’s been a very good contributor in some ways. He had a lean patch against South Africa and was very keen to get back into runs – you might have seen his celebration after the hundred. To me, Hafeez is an automatic selection because he is a multi-dimensional player – the sort we need more of in Pakistan.”Whatmore said the option of batting Hafeez lower down his customary No. 3 had been brought up within the team but he expressed confidence that Hafeez could contribute from anywhere in the side.”There has been some discussion about dropping him down the order, particularly when he wasn’t getting runs against South Africa, which was a disappointment for him, more than anything else. But he knows what I think and I speak to him directly. I think he’s got many, many more years to serve the country and whether he does it successfully at number three or whether he does it successfully lower in the order is something somebody else will have to agree on, because I finish in the next few weeks. He’s certainly a valuable player for Pakistan.”

Rangana Herath will miss the five-match ODI series against Pakistan in the UAE due to personal reasons, Sri Lanka Cricket has said. Herath had remained in Sri Lanka after having been rested for the Twenty20s, but was picked in the one-day squad and had planned to travel to UAE this week. He will now only join the Sri Lanka team ahead of the Test series, which begins on December 31.Ajantha Mendis, who is currently with the Twenty20 squad, will remain in the UAE as Herath’s replacement for the ODIs.Herath will be the second Sri Lanka player to miss the limited-overs matches for personal reasons, with Mahela Jayawardene also having ruled himself out of the Twenty20s and one-dayers, after having become a father early in the month.The teams play their first ODI on December 18, in Sharjah. Three Tests are scheduled to follow the one-dayers.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Kane Williamson scored his second fifty of the series•Getty Images

New Zealand pushed India off the No. 1 position in ODIs with another clinical performance although India’s middle order demanded that their bowlers stay at it till the end. Largely, though, the match followed the first ODI’s script. Jesse Ryder went bang bang for too brief a while, Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor scored fifties to set up a final assault, Corey Anderson nearly blasted the fastest ODI fifty too, India had a big chase at hand and were kept alive by Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni but New Zealand kept producing timely wickets to pull India back every time they brought some semblance of parity to the chase.There was supreme synergy in New Zealand’s innings, cut down to 42 overs because of rain that arrived in the 34th over. When Martin Guptill took his time at the top, Jesse Ryder smacked 20 off 11, making sure New Zealand were under no pressure when the ball started gripping for spinners on a slow surface. Guptill overcame the slow start, and added 89 with Williamson in 15.3 overs. Williamson and Taylor then nicely set it up for big hitting, and when the rain arrived New Zealand had lost only two wickets, which meant they would get a big boost when the target would be readjusted. And then Anderson and Taylor went berserk in a 74-run partnership in 4.4 overs. During that period that proved to be the difference in the end, Anderson scored 44 off 17, holing out when he went for the fifty off the 17th, and Taylor took 26 off 11.That brutal hitting was in direct contrast to the delightful batting of Williamson, who played the most difficult shot to play on a slow pitch, the back-foot drive on the up, with ease. He didn’t play shots that left mouths agape, but found all the small gaps on the field. When he was set for a century – he was in the last game too – the rain arrived, and with only 8.4 overs to go on the comeback he perished trying to charge at Ravindra Jadeja in order to go over extra cover.This wasn’t exactly bad news for New Zealand. Williamson had batted superbly without violence, but now was some time for violence. And violence there was when Anderson and Taylor set themselves up to clear the short boundaries. Anderson hit a six over long-on, and two each over long-off and midwicket; Taylor preferred the gaps, hitting only seven fours and no sixes. India pulled New Zealand back with only 23 in the last 3.2 overs, but like in the first ODI it turned out to be too little and too late.Especially with the way the opening exchange went after India had been asked to chase 297 in 42 overs. Kyle Mills, playing in the absence of Adam Milne, and Mitchell McClenaghan were spot on at the top of India’s innings. They bowled with skill and accuracy, and with no loose balls available India had crawled to 21 for 0 with two reprieves when Tim Southee showed up in the eighth over. By now Shikhar Dhawan had become desperate and was bowled to an ugly swipe. In Southee’s next, Rohit Sharma finally managed to get out, and the asking rate had already crossed eight.Kohli, though, seemed to be playing on a different plane from the moment he on-drove Southee past mid-on for four. This was an uncharacteristic innings, though. Usually Kohli manages to keep the risks to the minimum even when going at the kind of high strike rates he does. Here, with his team-mates stuck at the other ends and the asking rate shooting through the roof, he had to play lower-percentage cricket, premeditate a little, but somehow the shots kept coming off. In presence of Ajinkya Rahane, Kohli turned the lost match into a fight, but that man McClenaghan came back again to dismiss Rahane with a sharp bouncer.Dhoni promoted himself with 170 required in 18.2 overs, but soon saw Kohli get out to his aggression. Suresh Raina and Dhoni kept the chase going, but Brendon McCullum kept attacking, bowling out his main bowlers one by one. It paid dividends when Mills got Raina in his ninth over when most captains would have been worried about the fifth bowler’s three overs remaining out of the last six and the asking rate within the batsmen’s reach. The final blow, though, came with Anderson’s offcutter getting Dhoni to sky a catch with 40 required off 17.Further rain made sure India played only 41.3 overs in the chase, but by that time they had been well and truly beaten.

Praveen Kumar, the India fast bowler, expressed his disappointment at not being bought during the IPL auction, stating the tournament would have helped his chances of a comeback. The pace bowler last played for India in the Asia Cup in March 2012 but said he was aiming to play the 2015 World Cup.Since his exclusion from the Indian team, Praveen has struggled with fitness and disciplinary issues. He couldn’t play a full domestic first-class season in 2012-13 due to injury and his comeback was marred by a suspension, earned by an angry outburst against a player during a Corporate Trophy match in February 2013. He returned to play a few List A games and the 2013 IPL season but injuries kept him out of the 2013-14 Ranji Trophy. The bowler said he would go back to domestic cricket to try and fight his way back into the India side for the World Cup.”Frankly, I didn’t expect to go unsold. I have done well at all levels, be it IPL, Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Deodhar Trophy or international cricket,” Praveen told . “It’s just that my shoulder injury took a long time to heal.”IPL is a great tournament and it would have given me the opportunity to make a comeback. I was disappointed, but I am prepared to work hard again. I reached this level by working hard and that’s what I need to do again.”I will go back to the domestic circuit, prove myself again and make a comeback. Last time I missed out playing the World Cup narrowly. There’s still time left for the World Cup and I am keen to be a part of the squad.”Praveen, who was a part of Royal Challengers Bangalore from 2008 to 2010 before a move to Kings XI Punjab in 2011, said he had recovered fully from the shoulder injury he had suffered during last year’s IPL.”The shoulder is in good shape now. I don’t have any pain and have been bowling well,” he said. “People said I could have opted for surgery a bit earlier, but I followed the advice of the experts at the National Cricket Academy and got it done when they told me to go for it.”When asked if fitness concerns prompted franchises to avoid buying him, Praveen said he could only prove he was “still useful”. “I don’t know. Only they can answer,” he said. “Getting selected in any team is not in my hand. What I can do is to work hard again and prove that I am still useful.”I was keen to play Ranji Trophy this season. I have always enjoyed playing first-class cricket. It gives an opportunity to bowl long spells but unfortunately my surgery happened during the season.”

Ashley Giles has called for a change of attitude towards the doosra throughout English cricket to help improve the national side’s ability to play spin bowling.England have struggled against unorthodox spin bowling for some time. They lost 3-0 to Pakistan in the UAE at the start of 2012 largely due to their inability to combat the offspin and doosra bowling of Saeed Ajmal, while in the limited-overs series against West Indies, England have looked consistently uncomfortable against the unorthodox Sunil Narine.Giles even questioned whether Narine’s career would have been destroyed before it got underway in English cricket. Asked whether a young bowler such as Narine, developing in England, would be “snuffed out” even before he progressed to club cricket, he replied: “Quite possibly.”Part of the problem is the lack of exposure county players have to such bowlers in their development years. Not only have counties tended to be penalised for preparing pitches that benefit spin bowlers – Hampshire were docked points for such a surface in 2011 – but many coaches and umpires in English cricket still view the doosra with great suspicion, contending that it cannot be bowled legally.While most of the world has embraced the change in regulation from the ICC that allows 15 degrees of tolerance in a bowling action, in England such unorthodoxy is often viewed as ‘chucking’ and is stamped out at an early age.As a result, few unorthodox spinners make it to the professional game in England. And, judging by the example of Maurice Holmes, they are soon drummed out of it even if they do. Holmes, an offspin and doosra bowler, was signed to the Warwickshire staff by Giles when he was director of cricket at the club. But despite clearing tests on a couple of occasions, the ECB eventually concluded that his doosra was delivered illegally and he was squeezed out of the professional game.Now Giles, England’s limited-overs coach, has called upon English cricket to have a more open mind towards both pitches and bowling actions if they are to improve their record on the international stage.”We’ve got to be careful not to try and kill off some of our great talent,” Giles said in Barbados ahead of the third T20I against West Indies. “I’m not sure that too many mystery spinners come through our system anyway, but maybe that’s because we don’t necessarily develop it. It’s something we certainly need to look at. It’s been an ongoing thing for 10-15 years.”But what we do know is that it’s very difficult to play against and we need the skills to be able to combat mystery spin. It doesn’t matter whether it is legspin or an offspinner who spins it both ways. We need to be able to deal with these situations. Otherwise we’re trying to up-skill people heading into world tournaments and that’s just too late.””We need to make sure that, when guys come into this environment, they have the skills to deal with spin and spin that goes both ways. A bit of that is playing on wickets that do turn. I actually believe wickets are spinning more and more in England. They’re getting drier and drier, which is maybe down to our new drainage systems.”But it’s definitely a case that, when they come into this environment, we shouldn’t be teaching them new skills at that level. They should have some of that stuff ingrained, and then we fine tune it.”While Moeen Ali, a new member of the England limited-overs squad, can bowl the doosra – he was taught to do so by his friend Saeed Ajmal – he recently told ESPNcricinfo that he did not deliver one such delivery in the 2013 county season. It may well be that he feared the consequences had he done so.It leaves England facing an uphill task in the World T20 tournament, where spin is expected to play a major role.”I can only work with what I have here,” Giles said. “And keep pushing forward with this team to try to do as well as we can in Bangladesh.”

Faf du Plessis, South Africa’s captain, is prepared to risk being suspended for the World T20 final if it means overseeing victory against India. Du Plessis has twice been penalised for South Africa’s slow over-rates in the tournament and was banned for their final group game against England, but said he would prioritise winning their semi-final above his own availability.Du Plessis was not fit enough to lead in South Africa’s opening World T20 game against Sri Lanka, with AB de Villiers captaining in his stead. He returned to take the reins for wins against New Zealand and Netherlands, both games resulting in close finishes, and on each occasion South Africa were deemed to have been two overs short.”I’ll always be on the side of looking at the situation in front of you now,” du Plessis said when asked whether he would try to ensure South Africa kept time better. “You can’t be playing or making decisions like it’s in the future.”When it comes to crunch time it’s important that you take your time and make sure you and the bowler are very clear in your decision making, I feel that’s the best way to go. With the conditions here maybe favouring spin a bit more, we can get some more overs out of JP and that will also make sure the over rate is a bit quicker.”In Chittagong, South Africa relied largely on their pace attack and Imran Tahir, although JP Duminy was also called upon. The dew caused problems for maintaining the over rate at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury and Sri Lanka’s Dinesh Chandimal was suspended for the same offence during the Super 10 stage.Du Plessis’ stance contrasts with a strategy employed by Sri Lanka at the last World T20, when Kumar Sangakkara assumed official captaincy duties in place of Mahela Jayawardene, who could have faced a suspension, for their final Super 8 match against England.Tahir and Duminy are likely to be South Africa’s main slow-bowling options against India, with du Plessis referring to their “best eleven”. However, with the Mirpur surface likely to offer greater purchase for spinners, Aaron Phangiso could come into contention. Du Plessis indicated the women’s semi-final between South Africa and England played beforehand would inform their thinking.”That decision we’ll make tomorrow,” du Plessis said. “We’ve decided that because there’s a game before us, the ladies are playing, so we’ll assess how the wicket is playing. If there’s excessive spin, we’ll definitely look at that option and if it’s a good wicket we’ll pick our best eleven.”The difference between the surfaces in Chittagong and Dhaka has been a talking point during the tournament, with South Africa and Sri Lanka, the qualifiers from Group 1, having to make a swift adjustment to the new conditions. India’s spinners have taken a stranglehold on the opposition during four comprehensive wins and although du Plessis did not want to overplay the advantage, he conceded South Africa would be underdogs again – a status further enhanced by their dismal record in knockout competition.”It’s a huge thing,” du Plessis said. “Obviously the wicket has been playing completely different to Chittagong, we’ve played all our games there and India have played all their games here, so from a conditions point of view they’re much more used to it than we are. We’ve put in some hard practice on really abrasive surfaces, making sure that we almost over practice, with the ball spinning too much, so we get used to the spin. I think the wicket won’t be that bad, I think it’s been playing quite decently. I watched the game the other night and it looked like a good cricket wicket.”