All posts by h716a5.icu

In-form Durham finished their campaign with a fifth win in six games after beating Sussex by five wickets with a day to spare.

13-Sep-2012
ScorecardMichael Richardson’s half-century saw Durham home•PA PhotosIn-form Durham finished their campaign with a fifth win in six games after beating Sussex by five wickets with a day to spare. Michael Richardson struck 58 and Ben Stokes a quickfire 45 as Durham chased down their victory target of 165 after dismissing Sussex for 180 in their second innings.Despite their superb form at the end of the season, Durham had to settle for a sixth-placed finish in Division One after a miserable start to the campaign which saw them fail to win any of their first 10 matches. Sussex, meanwhile, remain 10 points ahead of them and will hang on to the fourth-place prize money unless Nottinghamshire win tomorrow.Durham skipper Paul Collingwood, who took over the four-day captaincy in mid-season, hailed the spirit in his side: “I couldn’t have asked for anything more in the second half of the season. We were in a dire situation but the players have shown a lot of pride and determination. Every single one of them has made a crucial contribution at some point.”Durham seamer Chris Rushworth took the last four Sussex wickets in the morning to achieve career-best figures for the third time this season, finishing with 5 for 38. Luke Wells failed to add to his overnight 51, falling to the 16th ball of the day when he edged Stokes to Phil Mustard, who claimed his 500th first-class victim. Rushworth did the rest, swinging the ball both ways to claim two lbw verdicts and a gully catch before last man Monty Panesar lobbed a catch to mid-on.Durham needed 165 to win and Mark Stoneman got them off to a fluent start, but Keaton Jennings made only one before fending a steeply-rising ball from Lewis Hatchett to second slip. Hatchett also skidded one through Stoneman’s back-foot defensive shot to bowl him for 24 before Stokes emerged at 34 for 2 and immediately cracked him for three fours.Stokes made 45 off 49 balls before lifting Panesar to long-on, then Richardson took over. He pulled Hatchett for his fifth four to reach 50 off 123 balls just before Dale Benkenstein was bowled by Panesar with 27 needed.The target was down to 15 when Hatchett straightened one off the pitch to have Richardson lbw, but previous captain Mustard easily picked off the remaining runs in partnership with his successor Collingwood.”We had a bit of a chuckle as we came off,” Collingwood said. “Phil has been magnificent and the struggle in the first half of the season was not down to his captaincy. It was a blip and it was a shock to us all, but I think the future is very bright.”

ESPNcricinfo previews the second Twenty20 international between New Zealand and South Africa at Seddon Park

The Preview by George Binoy18-Feb-2012Match factsFebruary 19, Hamilton
Start time 1900 (0600 GMT)
Martin Guptill was central to New Zealand’s victory in Wellington•Getty ImagesBig PictureNew Zealand had won seven international matches in a row before the first Twenty20 against South Africa. Their success began with the celebrated Test win in Hobart, and continued through the home series against Zimbabwe, whom they did not merely beat, but pulverised. Yet, New Zealand had to prove their form was real and not inflated by a succession of matches against relatively weak opposition. They had to reproduce it against South Africa.And they did. Brendon McCullum’s side had a near-perfect performance in Wellington. Their bowlers did not let South Africa’s batsmen find rhythm, and their batsmen did not let South Africa’s bowlers settle. The intensity of New Zealand’s fielding was jaw dropping too, and their athleticism produced breakthroughs at times when South Africa were trying to kick on. It is hard to imagine how New Zealand can substantially improve on that performance. They were that good. The challenge for them will be to maintain such high standards when South Africa raise their game.Because South Africa can raise their game, substantially. None of their capable batsmen were any good at the Westpac Stadium. Justin Ontong devastated Kane Williamson for four balls and JP Dunimy was steady not spectacular, but 147 was below-par on a flat pitch with short boundaries. It allowed New Zealand to chase at their own pace. South Africa’s bowlers also allowed New Zealand to chase at their own pace. Wickets were far between and the fact that the target was reached with four balls to spare flattered them.South Africa can certainly improve, and the chances are they will to some extent at Seddon Park. If they do, are New Zealand strong enough to produce a similar game? Can they be more intense than they were in Wellington? Form Guide (most recent first)New Zealand WWWWW
South Africa LWLLWPlayers to watch … In the absence of Jacques Kallis, Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers are South Africa’s best players of spin. They were dismissed cheaply by terrific fielding efforts in the first game and the rest of the batsmen, apart from Justin Ontong, struggled for fluency against the slow bowlers. How well South Africa tackle New Zealand’s spinners will depend on how long Amla and de Villiers bat.If Martin Guptill scores a fifty at Seddon Park, he will be the fifth batsman to make seven consecutive international half-centuries. His 78 off 55 balls in Wellington, which included a 127-metre six that hit the roof, ensured New Zealand were never in danger during the chase. Before he won the game off his bat, though, Guptill had produced two moments of magic in the field to dismiss Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers. He is easily among the world’s best fielders at present.Team news Allrounder Jacob Oram did not play the first Twenty20 because of a calf injury sustained during the third ODI against Zimbabwe. On the eve of the Wellington game, Brendon McCullum had hoped Oram would be fit to play in Hamilton. If that is the case, Oram could return in place of Colin de Grandhomme. New Zealand are likely to leave Michael Bates and Andrew Ellis on the bench once again.New Zealand (probable): 1 Rob Nicol, 2 Martin Guptill, 3 Brendon McCullum (capt & wk), 4 Kane Williamson, 5 Colin de Grandhomme/Jacob Oram, 6 James Franklin, 7 Nathan McCullum, 8 Doug Bracewell, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Kyle Mills, 11 Ronnie Hira.South Africa left out spinner Robin Peterson, and fast bowlers Wayne Parnell and Marchant de Lange from the first game. While it was the batsmen that contributed most to the defeat, the visitors don’t have any replacements to call upon in that department. They are unlikely to make a change after one defeat, though if they do, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, who conceded 28 in three overs, could make way for Parnell.South Africa (probable): 1 Hashim Amla, 2 Richard Levi, 3 Colin Ingram, 4 AB de Villiers (capt & wk), 5 JP Duminy, 6 Justin Ontong, 7 Albie Morkel, 8 Johan Botha, 9 Morne Morkel, 10 Lonwabo Tsotsobe/Wayne Parnell, 11 Rusty Theron.Stats and Trivia New Zealand have not lost a Twenty20 international at Seddon Park. They have beaten West Indies, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Zimbabwe, with the narrowest margin of victory being five wickets.A total of 402 runs was scored in the previous Twenty20 at this venue – between New Zealand and Zimbabwe – less than a week ago.Brendon McCullum has two half-centuries in three innings at Seddon Park, and a total of 153 runs at a strike-rate of 180. His brother, Nathan, has six wickets in nine overs, and an economy-rate of 5.11.Quotes”It was a huge game for us. Everyone in the country was probably wondering if we could carry on the form from the Zimbabwe series against a higher quality opposition.”
“I feel I made a few mistakes [with field settings] so I take a lot of responsibility for what happened.”

Worcestershire are bracing themselves for flooding at New Road after heavy rain forced the abandonment of their Championship match against Nottinghamshire

Jon Culley at New Road29-Apr-2012
ScorecardNew Road could once again find itself under water due to the recent heavy rainfall•PA PhotosWorcestershire are bracing themselves for flooding at New Road after heavy rain forced the abandonment of their Championship match against Nottinghamshire.Umpires Michael Gough and Nick Cook decided soon after 9am that torrential overnight rain on top of an already wet outfield would make play impossible but the loss of the last day of a match heading for a draw may be the least of the club’s worries.The Environment Agency has flood alerts in place for the nearby Severn and Teme rivers and a spokesman said: “The Environment Agency is closely monitoring the forecast and rainfall, particularly in Worcestershire, as the river levels are already higher than normal in the rivers Severn, Teme and Avon.”Worcestershire chief executive David Leatherdale admitted he had his fingers crossed with rain forecast to continue through much of Sunday. “The river levels have risen considerably overnight and we are concerned about the effects that today’s rain will have,” he said. “There is nothing we can do apart from wait, unfortunately.”Contingency plans are in place to move fixtures to Kidderminster should the worst happen. The next scheduled first-team cricket at New Road is the Clydesdale Bank 40 match against Netherlands on May 7, followed two days later by a four-day match against Surrey, in which England’s Kevin Pietersen is due to make his only Championship appearance of the season.Worcestershire had to switch the final two matches of the 2008 season to Kidderminster after floods in September, although that was a minor inconvenience compared with the previous summer, when no cricket was possible on the ground from mid-June onwards, costing the club around £1 million in clean-up costs and lost revenue, largely from the loss of lucrative Twenty20 fixtures.New Road has a history of winter floods but the 2007 flood was the first to cause fixtures to be moved since 1969. The following year’s repetition had a direct bearing on the decision to demolish the ground’s historic Victorian pavilion and replace it with the glass-fronted Graeme Hick pavilion, built on stilts one metre higher than the 100-year highest water level.”It means that the pavilion can continue to be used for commercial activity but there is nothing we can do to prevent the field flooding if the worst happens,” Leatherdale said. “We would try to get the ground ready again as quickly as possible but how long that takes would depend on how badly it floods. A few inches in the car parks would be one thing, the ground under several feet of water quite another matter.”The 2007 flood left a quarter of an inch of silt covering the entire playing surface, which had to be reseeded in its entirety. No cricket was played until the following April.

Ian Bell thinks the India series is his chance to start making amends for what has been a lacklustre one-day career so far

Andrew Miller05-Sep-2011Now that they have achieved one of their stated goals – that of becoming the No. 1 team in Test cricket – England’s next challenge is to emulate that achievement in the one-day arena. But if one batsman epitomises the problem of translating such success across formats, it is Ian Bell, whose silken batting in Tests has been one of the major reasons for England’s recent rise, but whose role in the shortened versions of the game remains up in the air.Bell has played in just seven of England’s 38 Twenty20s (and did not feature in last week’s one-off at Old Trafford), while his one-day career includes two World Cup campaigns but just one century in 103 appearances. That solitary score came on India’s last tour of England in 2007 – at the Rose Bowl, no less – when he and Alastair Cook added 178 for the second wicket in a comprehensive victory. However, an overall average of 34.48, and a strike-rate of 72.69, provide damning evidence of his shortcomings to date.The current India series, in Bell’s opinion, is a chance to start making amends. Kevin Pietersen’s absence has created a vacancy at No. 4 which, he believes, will suit his accumulative style much better than was the case earlier in the season, when he was inked in at No. 6 against Sri Lanka, with a licence to play his shots, but made 81 runs from 117 balls all told.”I was desperate to give it a good go, but I didn’t feel I had done it as well as I possibly could have done,” he admitted. “The majority of the time I [was going] in with 15 overs to go and had to work on scoring boundaries from ball one. I’m not the kind of guy who is going to hit the ball into a few rows back, and I have to go over extra cover, or whatever, and use the skills that I have and find boundaries that way.”Part of the problem for England at present is that they have too many players who need to build up a head of steam – such as Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott, who are bankers in the top three – and too few who are capable of raising the run-rate from a standing start. In the right conditions Craig Kieswetter can do just that, although he has struggled with the moving ball, while Ben Stokes hasn’t yet had a chance to strut his stuff.Only Eoin Morgan has the proven versatility to cope with all situations than arise in 50-over cricket, but given the fluency of his Test run-making, Bell ought to be capable of making the necessary adjustments. “I try to learn off Morgs in how he plays the spinners and scores boundaries off the front and back foot,” he said. “I want to be a cricketer improving all the time in one-dayers and Test cricket so you have to learn and be open to new things. The game is going forward all the time and you have to stay with it.”His stated preference, however, is to be allowed the time to “go through the gears”, as he puts it. “I can still hit sixes. I can do it against spinners in Test matches so I can do it in a ODI, but if you are coming in late, you actually [have to be] able to clear your leg, which is not something I grew up doing,” he said. “I grew up trying to get a nice cover-drive and play Test cricket, whereas young lads now grow up looking at Twenty20 and hitting the ball, and that becomes a lot easier to them to do that, rather than someone who grew up looking to play Test cricket.”That is where the likes of Stokes, Alex Hales and Jos Buttler – all of whom have turned professional since the advent of Twenty20 cricket – have the change to steal a march on their elder colleagues. “You can see the skills they come in with now,” said Bell. “They have more skills than batters ten years ago would have. The little sweeps with fine-leg up, to clearing your leg is, I guess, just what modern cricketers grow up with. We are working on it and I’m desperate to improve in my one-day cricket because that’s what you are going to have to do – that’s the way it’s going.”That need to get down and dirty is something that Bell has been actively practising since the end of the Test campaign, but ultimately, he wants to be able to stick to what he knows best. As Mahela Jayawardene has demonstrated throughout a brilliant one-day career, there is a place for graceful shot-making in the shorter form of the game. All that matters is the speed at which the scoreboard ticks over, not the speed at which the ball sails to the boundary.”Speaking to Goochy, there are different ways to score runs,” he said. “You can pick the ball over midwicket or you can lift it over extra cover. There are a lot of shots. There is no point me trying to become something I’m not. I have to play to my strengths. I have to pick the gap like I do in Test cricket.”We’re all trying to score at a run a ball. Andy Flower pushes us hard to score at a run a ball. With the spinners on, we want to score off every ball bowled and push down the number of dot balls in the innings. That would be a perfect day, but you’re not going to have every day like that. A goal of ours in the middle overs is to score off as many balls as possible. If we can achieve that, we’ll score more runs and be a better one-day side.”Despite 10 series wins in their last 12 bilateral campaigns, England’s ODI team is still very much a work in progress. However, Bell is excited about their prospects in the coming months and years, and believes that Jade Dernbach’s emergence has added an extra dimension to their bowling.”We’re trying everything we can to improve,” he said. “Watching the Twenty20 the other day, it looks like we’ve got some players who can really bowl well at the back end, and when we go to India, the reverse-swinging ball and slower balls become so important. It looks like we’ve got an attack which can do that, which is a massive improvement already.”We’re targeting to become one of the better fielding teams in the world,” he added. “We’re desperate to do it. As with Tests, the group is hungry for improvement and success. If we keep that, I’m hoping it will be exactly the same as in Tests.”

ESPNcricinfo previews the Champions League match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders in Bangalore

The Preview by Nikita Bastian28-Sep-2011Match factsSeptember 29, Bangalore
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)Will Yusuf Pathan flex his muscles against Royal Challengers?•AFPBig PictureRoyal Challengers Bangalore lost a close match to the Warriors in the tournament opener and, if they are to make the semi-finals without net run-rates and other favourable results coming into the equation, a win here is a must. Their task has become tougher, with AB de Villiers ruled out of the tournament with a broken finger, fractured during practice on the match eve. Despite the extra pressure to win and de Villiers’ absence, they go in as favourites against the underperforming Kolkata Knight Riders.The Knight Riders’ semi-final chances already seem bleak. They have lost consecutive games, and compounding their problems is a poor net run-rate of -0.624. To progress, they would have to produce two convincing wins – here and on October 1 against Warriors – and then hope for the results of other Group B games to go their way.The Royal Challengers were on top at several stages in their opener, but let the game slip each time. If their batsmen get starts, like most of the top order did against Warriors, they will need to drive the advantage home better. If the bowlers manage to knock over most of the opposition’s batting, they will need to finish them off without allowing the sort of partnership Ashwell Prince and Johan Botha produced in that game.The Knight Riders’ batting has faltered repeatedly, even after Gautam Gambhir’s return. Batting first, they managed a total of just over a run-a-ball against Auckland in the qualifier, and looked on course for another poor score against Somerset in the main draw until a late Yusuf Pathan blitz. While chasing, the top order has failed, leaving the like of Ryan ten Doeschate with too much to do at back end of the innings. They have problems on the bowling front as well. The spin trio of Iqbal Abdulla, Yusuf Pathan and Shakib Al Hasan haven’t had the impact they had in IPL 2011.Watch out for …Ryan ten Doeschate has looked the best of the Knight Riders’ fielders and batsmen so far. They must play him higher up the order, possibly at No. 3, to make better use of his ability.Daniel Vettori has the second-best economy rate in Twenty20 cricket (200 overs minimum) and bowled a typically effective spell against Warriors – 2 for 26 off four overs. If would be interesting to see how he fares against the big-hitting Yusuf and ten Doeschate.Team newsTillakaratne Dilshan is likely to replace the injured AB de Villiers in the Royal Challengers’ XI, and could be asked to keep wicket. Their other wicketkeeping option is Arun Karthik, who, if used, would probably come in for Mohammad Kaif. Current form dictates the Knight Riders should strengthen their batting. Brad Haddin might get a look-in, in place of Shakib Al Hasan.Stats and trivia Rajat Bhatia, surprisingly, has been the Knight Riders’ most effective bowler, conceding 6.20 runs per over, while averaging 20.00 The Knight Riders’ biggest win ever came against the Royal Challengers – a 140-run win in the IPL curtain-raiser. However, both teams are virtually unrecognisable from that matchQuotes”When you have to win against a good opposition, you need to click as a team. The batting and bowling have to complement each other. We have not done that in the competition.”

“Unless you have someone like Malinga in the side you can never rely on anyone bowling the death overs, you can’t pre-plan it.”

The England fast bowler Tim Bresnan has been fined 7.5% of his match fee by the ICC for showing dissent towards an umpire during Thursday’s third ODI against India in Mohali

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Oct-2011The England fast bowler Tim Bresnan has been fined 7.5% of his match fee by the ICC for showing dissent towards an umpire during Thursday’s third ODI against India in Mohali.Bresnan was deemed to have committed a Level 1 breach of the ICC Code of Conduct at the end of the 18th over of India’s innings, when he snatched his cap from umpire Sudhir Asnani after finishing his fifth over.Bresnan pleaded not guilty to the charge, which led to a hearing at the end of the match attended by the player, the umpires, England coach Andy Flower and England team manager Phil Neale.”The umpires deserve the utmost respect not only because they do a difficult job in the middle but also because millions of budding and aspiring cricketers watch every move of the players,” said Roshan Mahanama, the ICC match referee.”This makes all the international cricketers more responsible and accountable for their actions, particularly in their dealings with the umpires in various match situations.”Bresnan’s action came during an ill-tempered performance from England, who failed to defend a total of 298 for 4 and so lost the match by five wickets and the series 3-0 with two games to play.”A bit of chit-chat is fine, that makes the game interesting,” noted India’s captain, MS Dhoni. “You don’t always want a friendly series, as long as things don’t get too personal but I think they should change the plan for the next two games.”

South Group leaders Sussex Sharks slumped to a last-ball Friends Life t20 defeat against Glamorgan Dragons at Cardiff

23-Jun-2011
ScorecardSouth Group leaders Sussex Sharks slumped to a last-ball Friends Life t20 defeat against Glamorgan Dragons at Cardiff.The Sharks were set 138 to win and at 78 without loss off 11 overs looked well set to seal their sixth win in eight games. But Glamorgan, who surprisingly gave part-time spinner Gareth Rees the second over from which 16 runs came, fought back to take four key wickets, including Ben Brown (42 off 38 balls) bowled by Simon Jones and Sussex captain Murray Goodwin bowled by Dean Cosker, attempting a reverse sweep.With six overs remaining Sussex, who were without Luke Wright and Matt Prior, were left with 45 to get, but gradually Glamorgan, especially through Jim Allenby and Graham Wagg, started turning the screw on a slow Cardiff wicket.Luke Wells went bowled by a Wagg yorker leaving Sussex needing 19 from the final 12 balls. Opener Chris Nash, who made an unbeaten 64, and Rana Naved were left with 13 from the last six balls, which turned out to be five from the final ball.Nash looked as if he might have hit a boundary from Wagg’s final ball of the match, which would have tied the match, but a good piece of fielding from skipper Alviro Petersen on the boundary restricted the Sharks to just two.The narrow two-run victory has re-ignited Glamorgan’s hopes of reaching the last eight. After winning the toss the Dragons were restricted to 137 for 3 in their 20 overs on a sluggish pitch, and in a bid to negate the big-hitting Mark Cosgrove the Sharks opened with both spinners with mixed results.The first over from Ollie Rayner produced just the one run but the next from Monty Panesar disappeared for 16, including a six over long-on from Cosgrove. But that was a rare expensive over from the Sussex attack which included Pakistan paceman Umar Gul for the first time.Panesar had some revenge when he bowled Cosgrove in the eighth over, but in his next Rees struck the former England slow left-armer for two fours. Glamorgan’s innings was given some real impetus with two sixes from Petersen off an over from Rayner before Gul trapped Rees leg before.Sussex were boosted that they had Gul and Naved to bowl the last five overs between them with Glamorgan struggling to deal with yorker deliveries and reverse swing. Only 33 runs came in those five overs including the wicket of Petersen who holed out at long on but in the end Glamorgan’s total proved just enough.

The warm-up matches have been done and won but India are among to few teams to start the tournament against an opposition that possesses the wherewithal to knock them over

Sambit Bal in Mirpur18-Feb-2011On the morning of the final day of the Adelaide Test of the 2003-04 series, when a tricky chase lay between India and their second Test win on Australian soil, I arrived at the ground early, sneaked on to the field where the team was playing a game of volleyball, crept up to John Wright, the India coach whom I regarded as a friend, and whispered this question.”So John, what’s this volleyball thing about, a couple of hours before one of the most important days of Test cricket of their lives?”Wright gave me the look of astonishment. His eyes narrowed as he considered his response. I can’t reproduce his words here, but I had hardly expected the spray that came my way.I bumped into him in the elevator a couple of days later, and he smiled. “I don’t bother you when you are working, do I?” he said, saving me the bother of asking. “Sometimes, the best way to prepare for a big day is to take your mind off it.”I remembered this as I watched the Indian team kick around a football in the Shere Bangla stadium, where they will open their World Cup campaign against Bangladesh on Saturday. MS Dhoni had just emerged from the pre-match press conference, where he had to respond to the same question phrased in different words and in different languages: was his team feeling the pressure? “I would have told you the exact figure,” he said at one point, “if I had a machine to measure the pressure.”Indian players hardly need to be reminded about what is expected off them. “What to do,” Dhoni said in response to another question, “there is pressure if you win, there is pressure if you lose.” But out there on the turf, playing a game of football before the serious business of nets, they were like eager boys showing off their skills without feeling the obligation to perform.Bangladesh are hardly pushovers in one-day cricket, and certainly not in their own conditions when their bowlers are as good as any in the world. But India, massive favourites in this World Cup and on whom rest not only the hopes of their fans rest but also the commercial success of the tournament, are expected to win against a team that knocked them out of the last World Cup, leading the format of the tournament to be redesigned.The warm-up matches have been done and won but India are among to few teams to start the tournament against an opposition that possesses the wherewithal to knock them over. There is a precedent of a team losing the first match and going on to win the World Cup, but losing to Bangladesh would bring back the memories and the questions that India wouldn’t want to revisit.Yusuf Pathan’s heroics in South Africa have made him a certainty, but will Suresh Raina play?•AFP”We haven’t even thought about it,” Dhoni said when asked whether the 2007 defeat was playing on their minds, “because we don’t want to repeat what happened in 2007.” Seven of those who featured in that match are likely to be in the playing XI tomorrow, and four of them will form the top order that malfunctioned in Trinidad. The biggest difference between then and now, Dhoni pointed out, is that “we are in a much better frame of mind.”If India have any worries it is over the form of their quick bowlers. Ashish Nehra, who has been India’s most consistent bowler in the format and was expected to fire in yorkers during the batting Powerplay, has been both erratic and down on pace in the warm-up matches. Munaf Patel, who was impressive in South Africa, has looked easy fodder on flatter pitches. Zaheer Khan, who sat out the warm-up games but bowled in the nets today, is certain to play and is expected to carry the attack. Nehra will perhaps be pencilled in to the share the new ball, but the nature of the pitch here makes two specialist spinners a real possibility.”It’s certainly an option we will consider,” Dhoni said. Piyush Chawla was a rank outsider before the squad was selected but lends variety, can bat a bit and is a better fielder, all of which gives him a better chance of making the XI ahead of R Ashwin.An equally big decision would be over the sixth batsman. By no means was Yusuf Pathan a certain starter before the one-dayers in South Africa but he will be impossible to leave out after his near match-winning hundred in Cape Town and his offspin lends a handy four-over option too.But it’s Virat Kohli’s form that provides Dhoni with his happiest headache. He was India’s most impressive batsman in difficult conditions in South Africa, but he would come in at the expense of Suresh Raina, who has been a fixture in the ODI squad and a vital part of Dhoni’s strategy of consuming the fifth bowler’s quota.Whatever combination they pick, though, India’s strategy will be based on a simple plan. Give their bowlers plenty to defend if they bat first. Or expect to chase down big totals. They bat big and they bat deep, and for the first time in a long time, they have all their best players to choose from. The countdown for the cup that counts begins tomorrow.

Sussex veteran Murray Goodwin hit his fourth County Championship hundred of the summer as the visitors reached 312 for 6 on day one against Nottinghamshire

12-Sep-2011
Scorecard
Sussex veteran Murray Goodwin hit his fourth County Championship hundred of the summer as the visitors reached 312 for 6 on day one against Nottinghamshire. The 38-year-old hit 14 fours from 241 balls and shared in century partnerships with Ed Joyce (63) and 20-year-old Matt Machan, who struck an accomplished 71 on his championship debut.Goodwin had reached 117 not out at the close in the sixth century of his career against Nottinghamshire, in what had so far been a chanceless innings. Seamer Charlie Shreck, making his farewell appearance for Nottinghamshire having agreed to move to Kent at the end of the season, picked up two wickets, while Andre Adams claimed 3 for 79 to bring his haul for the campaign to 65.With both sides safe from relegation and out of the title reckoning, there was a distinct end-of-season feel to some of the early play, as bowlers and batsmen struggled to contend with a strong, blustery cross-wind. Shreck made the breakthrough in the ninth over of the day when Chris Nash was lbw to a full inswinging delivery, while Adams removed Joe Gatting’s off-stump in the next over.Joyce and Goodwin profited from several half-volleys to drive through the covers as they reached lunch without further alarm. There was minor controversy soon after the interval when Joyce refused to walk having apparently edged Adams to Alex Hales at first slip when on 49, with umpires Tim Robinson and Rob Bailey conferring before giving the batsman the benefit of the doubt.Adams did get his man eight overs later with a sharp low catch by Steven Mullaney at second slip, Joyce having hit eight boundaries from 134 balls. Sussex captain Mike Yardy survived a big lbw shout first ball and went on to make 29, falling just before tea by edging Luke Fletcher to Chris Read.Youngster Machan had been given the ideal opportunity in which to make his maiden championship appearance and batted with confidence, coming down the track to spinner Graeme White and punching several neat boundaries through the off side. Having dominated a fifth-wicket partnership of 114 in 30 overs with Goodwin, the left-handed Machan eventually fell to the new ball as Adams leapt high at third slip for a catch off Shreck.Ben Brown was then unfortunate to play on to Adams, the ball trickling onto the stumps after the right-hander had tried to play a short ball off his ribs.

The third one-dayer between Afghanistan and Pakistan A, has been moved from Abbottabad to the country’s capital Islamabad

ESPNcricinfo staff19-May-2011The third one-dayer between Afghanistan and Pakistan A, has been moved from Abbottabad to the country’s capital Islamabad. Abbottabad, a regular venue for first-class matches in Pakistan, attained international significance on May 2, following a US military operation in the town that culminated in the killing of Osama bin Laden.”The itinerary has been revised and now the Abbottabad match will be played in Islamabad on May 25,” the Pakistan Cricket Board said in a release. No official reason was given for the decision which was taken at a meeting on Thursday between PCB chairman Ijaz Butt and interior minister Rehman Malik. The rescheduled match will now be the series opener, and will be followed by games in Rawalpindi and Faisalabad, on May 27 and 29 respectively.Afghanistan are set to become the first international team to tour Pakistan since militants attacked the Sri Lankan team in Lahore in March 2009. The Afghan side, coached by former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif, will arrive in Islamabad on May 24. Afghanistan has made rapid strides in international cricket, progressing in 2009 from ICC Division Five to Division One and securing one-day status the same year. They also won the ICC Intercontinental Cup in 2010, and qualified for the 2010 World Twenty20 in the West Indies.