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Saif Zaib’s useful cameo takes game away from Somerset

ECB Reporters Network30-Aug-2020Adam Rossington defied a hand injury as he struck a quickfire half-century to lead Northants Steelbacks to a nine-run win over Somerset at Wantage Road.Rossington was left grimacing in pain for the majority of his 51 from 31 balls after he was pinned on the right hand by Somerset seamer Ollie Sale and required treatment on the field.But the wicketkeeper-batsman, profiting from targeting the leg side, played the match-defining innings and he shared an 81-run stand with captain Josh Cobb.Rossington was then unable to take his place in the field as the hosts held on to defend 171 for six, with 39-year-old allrounder Gareth Berg, making his Northants debut in the Vitality Blast, claiming 2 for 31.Somerset made a bright start to their chase, reaching the end of the six-over Powerplay at 54 for 1, but lost four wickets in the next five overs as Berg’s experience and changes of pace proved invaluable.Berg initially fooled debutant George Bartlett with a slower ball that found his off stump after a 50-run partnership with James Hildreth.
Hildreth played fluently for 34 but picked out Saif Zaib in the deep off Berg before Tom Abell and Eddie Byrom fell cheaply from successive deliveries. Ben Sanderson removed the big-hitting threat of the Overton twins, on his way to 3 for 36, but Roelof van der Merwe kept Somerset’s faint hopes alive with an unbeaten 41 from 25 balls.Van der Merwe shared an unbroken 46-run stand for the ninth wicket with Sale, but with 21 needed from Sanderson’s final over he was left with too much to do.Northants will now await injury news on Rossington, who missed last week’s Bob Willis Trophy match with a right finger injury, as the only misfortune of their otherwise fine start to the Vitality Blast.After an opening-night washout at Gloucestershire the Steelbacks thumped last season’s finalists Worcestershire Rapids by nine wickets on Saturday before casting aside a Somerset side in good spirits following their Bob Willis Trophy form.Paul Stirling, the hero of Northants’ opening win over the Rapids, had picked up where he left off by carving Craig Overton over point for six but was out next ball edging behind as he stepped away to try and replicate the shot. Richard Levi was then unluckily run out backing up when Craig Overton got a finger to a Cobb straight drive.Rossington suffered the blow to the hand early and while he was in visible pain, struck seven fours and a six, before an athletic diving catch from Sale at backward square leg off Max Waller.The impressive Sale was the pick of the Somerset attack and produced another smart piece of fielding off his own bowling when he held a reflex catch to dismiss Cobb, for 42 from 41 balls, just as the home captain looked set to accelerate.Zaib ensured the late hitting with an unbeaten on 28 from 13 balls – including 10 from the final two deliveries – which proved invaluable.

ECB Reporters Network06-May-2019Nottinghamshire 328 for 9 (Patel 136*, Moores 69) beat Northamptonshire (Vasconcelos 74. Keogh, Cobb 63, Wakely 53) by one wicket

Samit Patel’s masterful century saw Nottinghamshire chase 326 to beat Northamptonshire by just one wicket at Wantage Road. In so doing, they sealed top spot in the North Group and secured a home semi-final in the Royal London One-Day Cup.At 116 for 5 in the 25th over, Notts were slipping to defeat but Patel made a career-best unbeaten 136 to bring the Outlaws home with three balls to spare in front of a bumper Bank Holiday crowd.Fifty-nine more runs were needed from 30 balls when Patel stepped down the pitch to punch Josh Cobb over his head for four, before cutting Nathan Buck past point for his 10th boundary to go to his eighth List A century.He cut Ben Sanderson just past the wicketkeeper for another boundary and punched the same bowler over his head. Another edge, trying to cut Buck, flew over the wicketkeeper again to leave 12 needed from the final over. Patel then heaved Sanderson over square leg for six, drove a boundary past point and lifted the winning runs over the same fielder.Tom Moores also played an important part in the comeback, sharing 111 with Patel for the sixth wicket. With 139 needed in 15 overs, Moores heaved Ian Holland for consecutive sixes over long-on in making 69 from 55 balls before swinging Sanderson to deep midwicket.Before that partnership, Notts looked destined for the play-offs as the top-order all failed. Alex Hales, on his comeback after his suspension for a second failed drugs test, crashed several cuts either side of point but in attempting to guide Luke Procter to third man, chopped into his own stumps for 36 and left Notts 74 for 4 in the 15th over.That was after Sanderson had nipped a delivery through Joe Clarke to take out his off stump for 7 in the second over. Chris Nash then clipped Buck to short midwicket before, next ball, Ben Duckett – back at his former home, having made his England comeback in Cardiff on Sunday – tried to turn his first ball to leg and got a leading edge that looped to midwicket.But Patel’s tremendous innings ensured Notts are now just one win away from a return to Lord’s, earning a home semi-final back at Trent Bridge on Sunday.For most of the day, Northants looked like claiming an impressive consolation victory. Four players went past fifty after they won the toss but none converted their position into an innings of real damage and they were left short of power in the final overs.Patel claimed two of the half-centurions as Cobb lifted him to long-off for 63 – his third fifty in the competition. He and Ricardo Vasconcelos made steady progress for the second wicket in a stand of 117 in 19.5 overs.Vasconcelos pulled James Pattinson and swept Patel among his four boundaries in his 60-ball fifty and generally worked the bowling around with good purpose. But, trying to reverse-sweep Patel, he was lbw for 74 and walked off with several meaty slaps of bat on pad, all too aware of his error.From 160 for 3 in the 31st over, Rob Keogh and Alex Wakely picked the innings up, injecting urgency in adding 96 in 12.2 overs.Wakely was first to his fifty – his third of the tournament – in 38 balls with four fours and a lofted drive for six against Matt Carter’s off-spin. But he chipped a Pattinson slower ball to deep-midwicket for 53. And Keogh made a run-a-ball fifty before carving Jake Ball to deep cover to fall for 71.Afterwards, Wakely was phlegmatic about another performance that proved not quite good enough in the final analysis.”This has been the theme all year really, playing some good cricket but not quite being good enough to win enough games,” he said. “We weren’t at our best with the ball but that was one of the best knocks you’ll see from Samit.”For a long time I thought, ‘take one wicket and we’ve won’ but one batsman can win you a game and Samit just played beautifully.”Patel said: “I was due for a score and needed a score really, just to put to rest a few people who might have been thinking I was past it – but I’m back.”I think in this day and age you can score 100 from the last 10 overs and all through that was my target, ideally with wickets in hand.”I thought Tom [Moores] took it to them and there was a shift in momentum when he was going. His was a great knock and he’ll learn a lot from that.”I always had faith and every one of us in that dressing room had the belief that we can knock those runs off, regardless of what situation we were in and we did it and can look forward to Sunday now.”

Half-centuries from Heinrich Klaasen and JP Duminy helped South Africa chase down 189 with eight balls remaining

The Report by Karthik Krishnaswamy21-Feb-20182:31

Cullinan: Duminy stood up and played a captain’s innings

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsWhile much else has gone against them through the limited-overs leg of this tussle against India, rain has been South Africa’s friend, and Heinrich Klaasen a rare bright spark in a struggling batting line-up. Their only win of the ODI series featured rain and a destructive innings from Klaasen, and on Wednesday in Centurion, both ingredients were present in a series-levelling six-wicket win in the second T20I.Klaasen smacked 69 off 30 balls to give a chase of 189 the impetus it needed, and JP Duminy batted through to the end to finish unbeaten on 64 off 40, ending the game with a pair of sixes off Jaydev Unadkat in the 19th over of the innings.BCCI

Rain wasn’t necessarily a help to South Africa in the ODI win in Johannesburg – 202 in 28 overs was surely a more difficult chase than 290 in 50 – but it dulled the threat of India’s wristspinners; Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav struggled to grip an often wet ball and went for a combined 119 in 11.3 overs. Now Chahal, playing as the lone specialist spinner, endured another difficult night, going for 64 – the most by an India bowler in a T20I – in his four overs.A steady drizzle backdropped the early part of South Africa’s chase of 189. It never grew heavy enough to halt play, but it was persistent, and ensured Duckworth-Lewis calculations were always at the back of both teams’ minds. This was probably what prompted South Africa to promote Klaasen to No. 4, sending him in at a time when they needed 151 in 90 balls.South Africa were also nine runs behind the Duckworth-Lewis par score at that stage, for two wickets down, and Klaasen swiftly began to rectify that situation, pulling Unadkat for two sixes in the sixth over, and launching Chahal for another over long-on in the eighth over. That took care of the par score, and staying in touch with it meant South Africa’s chase was also on track.At the end of the 10th over, South Africa’s run rate was just under nine an over, and their required rate just over ten. Klaasen brought the two numbers into close proximity off the first ball of the eleventh over, lofting Chahal over extra-cover for six, and followed up three balls later with the shot of the match, a switch-hit six over point. By that stage Klaasen had hit five sixes and just one four.Worse was to follow for Chahal; his third over went for 23, with Klaasen hitting him for 6, 6 and 4 and then turning the strike over to Duminy, who promptly slog-swept him for another six. Klaasen fell at the start of the next over, swinging too early at an Unadkat offcutter to edge behind, and David Miller followed in the next over, miscuing a short ball from Hardik Pandya, giving India the glimpse of a way back into the game. They didn’t grab it, however, missing two chances in the 16th over, bowled by Chahal; MS Dhoni missed a leg-side stumping to reprieve Duminy on 40, and then Chahal himself dropped a return catch to let off Farhaan Behardien.As they did in the first T20I, India batted with a sense of abandon not usually seen in their T20 game after being sent in to bat. They began with a maiden, but that had more to do with Chris Morris’ new-ball swing than with Shikhar Dhawan’s intent – he swung rustically at a couple of balls in that scoreless first over. Junior Dala took out Rohit Sharma with his first ball, an inducker, but thereafter the runs began to flow, with South Africa’s quicks once again lapsing into bowling too short and Dhawan and Suresh Raina cashing in. Twenty came off the third over, Morris’ second, before Dhawan picked out mid-on off a full-toss from Duminy in the fifth over. Then Dala’s extra bounce sent Virat Kohli back for a rare low score, in an over that ended up as a wicket-maiden, and India were 45 for 3 after six.Raina and Manish Pandey rebuilt slowly at first, not finding the boundary once in the first 19 balls of their partnership, before Pandey’s leg-side hitting earned 19 off Tabraiz Shamsi in the 10th over. Raina’s dismissal in the 11th brought Dhoni to the crease, and he showed his intentions quite early, stepping out and hitting JT Smuts for a straight six off only the seventh ball he faced. Dhoni and Pandey would go on to add an unbroken 98 off 56 balls, 55 of those runs coming off the last five overs of India’s innings.South Africa fed Pandey’s naturally bottom-handed game with bowling that was often too short or too straight, and his eventual 48-ball 79 not out would contain 55 leg-side runs and only 24 through the off side. Dhoni clattered three fours and two sixes in the last two overs, the pick of them a flat, back-foot slap over the cover boundary off Dane Paterson, to finish with 52 not out off 28 balls. It was only his second T20I half-century, in his 88th match, and on another day could have ended up winning India the match.

Sri Lanka’s bowling coach Champaka Ramanayake is pleased with the way Lahiru Kumar has embellished his natural ability to bowl quickly with control and accuracy

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Johannesburg09-Jan-2017Of young players that have emerged for Sri Lanka over the past few months, perhaps none has been as surprising as the coming forth of Lahiru Kumara.He had had an excellent run in the Under-19 team, but when Test selection came for a tour of Zimbabwe, he merely appeared a placeholder quick until the more experienced bowlers returned from injury. Then, in his first match in South Africa – and third overall – Kumara collected the best-ever figures for a Sri Lanka fast bowler in the country, and also became the second-youngest Sri Lankan to claim a five-wicket haul.Coaches and selectors are enthused by how quickly he has come on, and how much he may yet improve. He needs to work on his control, bowling coach Champaka Ramanayake said, but what Kumara has always had is pace. He was clocked at nearly 145kph at Newlands.”He’s bowling 140kph plus, you know? He’ll bowl 150 very soon,” said Ramanayake. “He’s just 19-plus and he’s learning. To get six wickets here against one of the best teams – he bowled some brilliant balls. If he can get more consistency with that length, he can be a very good bowler.”The pace has come from genetics, so he’s always had that. But if he keeps improving general fitness, strengthening and conditioning work, he will get there. Especially when you’re at 23 or 24, your body becomes fully matured. That’s the time they’ll bowl fast.”Kumara had been in Sri Lanka’s age-group teams for at least four years, touring Malaysia with the Under-15 side, before graduating to the Under-19 team in 2014, aged 17. His breakthrough series had been in England last year, where he claimed 11 for 134 in a Youth Test in Northampton.”At the age of 15 he had been identified, but when the Under-19 tours came, he was really highlighted,” Ramanayake said. “He always had the pace, but he was a bit short and wild. Young fast bowlers tend to be like that through that period. But then we worked with him on hitting that length, and he has a natural ability to bowl good inswingers. The length was short, but we’ve worked on that. Now he’s much better.”The inswing had seen Kumara put a ball through Hashim Amla’s defence in the first innings at Newlands, but later that same innings, he also got balls to leave the right-hander off the seam, after having angled it into the stumps.”Now he’s working on the away-seamer as well. Because he bowls wide of the crease, sometimes he bowls that away one, which is very difficult because of the angle. He’s always had a good short ball. I’m not worried about pace. I want him to bowl more on the right spot. He’s fast, so if he hits that length it’s on to the batsman quickly. No time for them. You can see that he’s improving.”Sri Lanka’s fast-bowling stocks are regularly ravaged by injury, however, and avoiding long layoffs is among the many challenges that Kumara now faces. This series is being played without Dhammika Prasad, who had been Sri Lanka’s best seam bowler in 2015, but has not played a Test since October of that year due to recurring shoulder trouble. Suranga Lakmal, Nuwan Pradeep and Dushmantha Chameera – who are on the tour – had also been sidelined for months, at different times last year.”When you have a youngster you have to manage him,” Ramanayake said. “You never know – anytime you can get a stress fractures and all. We have to look after him. Fitness-wise, he’s still raw and we’ll have to build him up slowly.”With Kumara’s emergence, Sri Lanka now have two quicks who may potentially operate in the high 145-150kph range. Chameera, who suffered a stress fracture in May last year, had previously bowled as fast as 149kph on a tour of New Zealand. He was a long way from his best on his Test return at Port Elizabeth, but Ramanayake is confident the pace will return in time.”Dushy had a stress fracture and after a stress fracture you are always not sure about giving 100%. He was one of our best bowlers before he got injured, and he’ll come back definitely. I’m not sure whether he’s playing this Johannesburg Test or not, but in the future, if we have two bowlers who can bowl at 145kph-plus, any side will be very happy. A little bit more bowling will help him.”

Table-toppers Ireland, who have 40 points from their first two matches, will take on Papua New Guinea in the third round of the Intercontinental Cup

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Dec-2015

Fixtures

Intercontinental Cup
Hong Kong v Scotland, Mission Road, January 21-24
UAE v Netherlands, Abu Dhabi, January 21-24
PNG v Ireland, Townsville, January 31-February 3
Afghanistan v Namibia, TBC, April 10-13
World Cricket League
Hong Kong v Scotland, Mission Road, January 26 and 28
UAE v Netherlands, Abu Dhabi, January 27 and 29
Nepal v Namibia, Kathmandu (subject to infrastructure/security assessment), April 16 and 18
PNG v Kenya, TBC, April/May

Table-toppers Ireland, who have 40 points from their first two matches, will take on Papua New Guinea in the third round of the Intercontinental Cup. Their match will be held in Townsville from January 31 to February 3. PNG, who have one win and a loss from their first two games, are currently fifth on 20 points.Netherlands, in second place on 26 points, will travel to Abu Dhabi to take on beleaguered UAE, who are rock bottom with two defeats from two games. Afghanistan, in third place with 21 points, have a long wait ahead of them before their next Intercontinental Cup fixture, against Namibia from April 10 to 13.In the 50-over World Cricket League, meanwhile, four teams are tied on top of the table with six points each from four matches. Two of those four teams, Hong Kong and Scotland, will face off twice against each other, at Mission Road on January 26 and 28. Nepal and Namibia, meanwhile, have a chance of climbing out of the bottom half of the table when they face each other in Kathmandu on April 16 and 18.

Sri Lanka batting coach Marvan Atapattu was confident the team would put behind their dismal batting performance against New Zealand in Cardiff and bounce back in the remaining two Champions Trophy group matches

Sa'adi Thawfeeq in England12-Jun-2013Marvan Atapattu, Sri Lanka’s batting coach, is confident the team would put behind their dismal batting performance against New Zealand in Cardiff and bounce back in the remaining two Champions Trophy group matches against England and Australia.”True, we had a bad batting innings the other day,” Atapattu said. “The spirit was high and the boys were fighting, and we almost got through. But unfortunately, it didn’t happen for more than one reason.”Within the team, everyone wants to win. It’s about experience. Given the reputation of some of these guys, they want to win these two games badly. Nobody would like those reputations to be tarnished playing in England, especially.”Sri Lanka meet England at the Oval on June 13 and Australia at the same venue on June 17. They need to win both games to have a chance of qualifying for the semi-finals.Against New Zealand in Cardiff last Sunday, Sri Lanka’s batting collapsed for 138 and they lost by a narrow one-wicket margin. Atapattu, a former captain and top-order batsman, summed up the team’s batting performance by saying that the batsmen needed to bring their experience into play in such situations.”We have the experience, but putting that to work is something. We have spoken about it. [From] time to time, it will happen. Hopefully we will read situations better and think 50-over cricket and bat 300 balls of the innings.”Looking at the total we got, it wasn’t satisfactory. We could have read the situation from the middle. We could have adjusted to settling down to a much lesser target, when you are looking at 230-240 at the fall of the second wicket. Then, the way the wicket behaved and the way we approached it, things went wrong for us.”He regretted the fact that Sri Lanka did not play out their full quota of 50 overs. Atapattu also said that the team had played seven batsmen against New Zealand so that they could set a suitable target but the batting order did not add substantial partnerships.”That’s really disappointing – not batting 50 overs. It’s mandatory we use the full quota of 300 balls. Not to have used it is something that we really regret as a group,” Atapattu said. “We don’t want to go back to the bowlers and expect them to do something. It’s up to the batsmen to take on the responsibility and not expect something from the tail. Everybody has been given a role. Our batsmen will not get a flying start every day. But by playing seven batsmen, we have the cushioning of one extra batsman to get to the target we wanted. We needed to have two partnerships going to get to the total we required.”According to Atapattu, the key to succeeding in English conditions was all about spending time in the middle. “It’s all about spending a little more time to get into a rhythm. As you go along and as you get a rhythm scoring runs will be a lot easier,” he said. “The basic principle of one-day cricket is that you get your best batsmen to bat early in the innings so that you give them ample time and face more balls. But in different conditions, against different oppositions, those options could vary and there are times when you need to be flexible. We are open to it. It is not something where we say, ‘No, this is our batting order.'”Given that context, he said the team had considered pushing some of the younger batsmen up the order but had decided on sticking to a settled batting line-up for this tournament.
“It’s something that we have spoken about, but that’s something that we decided to stick with for this tournament and we don’t want that to be a disturbing factor. We would like to see them batting at their positions and doing their best. If they come up trumps the other side of the coin is that the team will do well,” he said.He also admitted that the youngsters in the side needed to be pushed to perform, and it was the job of the coaches and senior players to instill a sense of professionalism in them.
“I reckon we, as coaches, become facilitators in front of senior players, and, in the meantime, be pushy with some of these youngsters,” Atapattu said. “At one point, they will realise what’s good for them and what’s not. Our system is such, compared to places like England, Australia or South Africa where you see professionalism setting in very early. For us, it won’t happen. We need to understand that and push these youngsters. Sticking to the basics is important to being a good batsman. If you have a good foundation, from there, you can modify your game to reach any level.”The former Sri Lanka captain also said that the amount of cricket played throughout the year didn’t allow players adequate time to prepare and practice. “Those days have gone. You get plenty of cricket nowadays; all sorts of formats come in. It won’t be ideal, but these guys are professionals compared to our times or 10 years ago. This is where professionalism comes into the equation,” he said.

ESPNcricinfo previews the IPL game between Delhi Daredevils and Deccan Chargers in Delhi

The Preview by Devashish Fuloria18-Apr-2012

Match facts

Thursday, April 19, Delhi
Start time 1600 (1030 GMT)Daredevils are riding high on their success train•Hindustan Times

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Delhi Daredevils’ stocks in the tournament have risen higher after their bowlers masterminded a seven-wicket win over Mumbai Indians. While other teams have been busy putting up and chasing down totals in excess of 160, Daredevils’ hustling pace has razed three strong batting line-ups to scores below 110. The only game that they lost was to Royal Challengers Bangalore, partially due to the inexperience of their middle order and partially, due to the guile of Muttiah Muralitharan who took three wickets. However, that batting order has been beefed up since then. With the influx of Ross Taylor in the last game, their batting looks as intimidating as their bowling. Daredevils will need to be careful though, as their batting firepower hasn’t been tested yet. In all four games, they have batted second after their bowlers had done the job.Deccan Chargers on the other hand have lost three games in a row – the last two slipped through their fingers. Although such defeats can be disheartening, Kumar Sangakkara could take positives out from the fact that their relatively inexperienced team has had their chances. They have just missed that one last push. Dale Steyn and Amit Mishra will both need to fire in tandem and their fielding needs to inspire.Daredevils test is as hard as it gets for Chargers. It could be a daunting challenge, but it could also kindle the fire inside the big names among Chargers’ ranks. Both teams will hope to win the toss and avoid fielding first in the sun. However, sun or no sun, Daredevils bowlers should be a handful.

Players to watch

Umesh Yadav has been cranking up the pace in every game and has proven to be a difficult bowler to hit. In his last match, he took out Kieron Pollard and Dinesh Karthik, beating both batsmen for pace. Such was his accuracy that he didn’t give away a single boundary in his four-over spell.Chargers replaced a struggling Cameron White with JP Duminy and his 26-ball 58 pushed the team to 196, which had looked improbable. Duminy, who hit five sixes in his innings, can also hold an innings together if required.

2011 head-to-head

Daredevils played Chargers twice in 2011. They lost their home game by 16 runs while a Sehwag century helped them win the second by four wickets in Hyderabad.

Stats and trivia

• Sehwag’s 32 against Mumbai Indians came in 36 balls. In all Twenty20 innings where he has scored more than 20, this was his slowest innings.
• This year, the three most economical spells (four overs) have been bowled by Yadav (2-11), Dale Steyn (3-12) and Irfan Pathan (1-12).
• Chargers have played the Daredevils nine times in IPL. They have won four and lost five of these games. However, in Delhi, the record is 2-1 in favour of Chargers.
  

  Quotes

  “We would work more on the fielding. We were working on it earlier too but now we would stress on it a bit more.”

  “He gave me a call and was worried for my injury. But he is now happy seeing me back in action.”
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The continuous crush of high-profile cricket combined with the heat and humidity of the subcontinent seems to have taken its toll on England, with a string of players picking up fitness problems

Siddarth Ravindran in Chennai 16-Mar-2011″This is a good time to play England, they have been on the road a long time, in order to stay on in India they have to win,” West Indies captain Darren Sammy said on Wednesday, before joking, “Maybe some of them want to go home to their families, you never know.”Much has been made of the England team having spent only four days at home since late October when they departed to Australia for a dominant Ashes campaign. The continuous crush of high-profile cricket combined with the heat and humidity of the subcontinent seems to have taken its toll on the squad, with a string of players picking up fitness problems.The fast bowler Ajmal Shahzad is the latest casualty, missing Wednesday’s practice session at the MA Chidambaram Stadium after falling ill. It is still unclear whether he will recover in time for the must-win match against West Indies on Thursday. “We are not sure at this stage whether that will affect Shahzad’s chances of being selected for tomorrow,” England captain Andrew Strauss said. Shahzad had taken three wickets in the match against Bangladesh in Chittagong on Friday, and his possible absence increases the chances of James Anderson retaining his place in the XI.There was better news for England regarding two other key players who were struggling with their fitness, with Strauss and offspinner Graeme Swann both recovering from the stomach bug that preventing them from training on Tuesday. “I’m feeling very well, I was a bit laid low day before night and yesterday morning,” Strauss said. “Swann is also recovering well, should be practising today, don’t know if he is quite as buoyant as I am, very confident that he’ll be fine for tomorrow.”Chris Tremlett could join Tim Bresnan in the England side if Ajmal Shahzad’s illness doesn’t clear•Getty Images

Their most consistent batsman of the tournament, Jonathan Trott, had also been a member of their sick list earlier this week before recovering from a fever. These concerns are in addition to losing influential players Stuart Broad and Kevin Pietersen to injuries. Pietersen’s tweet outlining the bright side to his injury added to the claims of homesickness. “Well, as frustrated as I am to be missing the rest of the World Cup & IPL, I’ll be at home with my family & friends, I haven’t been home properly since 29 Oct.,” he had written after being ruled out of the tournament.Strauss, though, was adamant the time way from home and the amount of cricket England have played over the past six months were not affecting their performance. “We have been on the road for a long time, but fatigue is the last thing on our mind,” he said. “Potentially we have got four more games to play before a nice, long break.”The illnesses were common for teams touring the subcontinent, he said. “It’s happened to a lot of the sides in this tournament, that guys go down. It’s par for the course in this part of the world, we try and take all the precautions, but these things can strike at any stage.”He said the motivation of keeping the campaign for a first World Cup alive was motivation enough for his side. “We know what the prize there is. We are determined to make the most of the opportunity and take that prize,” he said. “Fatigue is not an issue for us at the moment, and it won’t be until right at the end of the tournament.”The end of the tournament could come as early as Thursday, giving Strauss’ team two extra weeks of rest at home, unless they round off their league phase with a win against West Indies and results out of their control go their way.

It’s hardly the most flamboyant clash given the two basement dwellers are pitted against each other, but this is an opportunity for the teams to get their campaign on track

The Preview by Jamie Alter23-Mar-2010

Match facts

Wednesday, March 24
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)Yusuf Pathan hasn’t performed since his century, Shane Warne hasn’t performed at all•Associated Press

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It’s hardly the most flamboyant clash given the two basement dwellers are pitted against each other, but this is an opportunity for the teams to get their campaign on track. Kings XI Punjab are tied with Rajasthan Royals on two points, separated only by a minor difference in net run rate, with both picking up their maiden wins after three defeats. Rajasthan earned their first points with a disciplined fielding and bowling effort against an insipid Kolkata Knight Riders, and Punjab held their nerve to force a tie against Chennai Super Kings and then clinched the Super Over.Punjab’s IPL campaign has been hampered by the absence of their Australian players, either injured or unavailable, and the poor form of captains former and present, Yuvraj Singh and Kumar Sangakkara. The batting has not been imposing, the bowling toothless. But on a steamy Chennai night that turned from deplorable to delirious, their bowlers managed to convert a modest total into a mountain and procure a tense win in the Super Over. Now, with the arrivals of Brett Lee and Shaun Marsh, Punjab have another reason to believe they’ve turned the corner. Critics will argue that one win won’t cure Punjab’s frailties but it has given them a much-needed shot of enthusiasm, which Sangakkara and Yuvraj hoped would mark a change in their fortunes.Rajasthan have also been hurt by the absence of Shane Watson and injuries that ruled out Graeme Smith and Dimitri Mascarenhas. As a result, their batting has been poor and the bowling lacks the zing that a player of Watson’s ability brings, especially since Shaun Tait’s radar needs drastic fine-tuning. Worse, the middle order has not responded as a unit; their only win was put into motion by Abhishek Jhunjhunwala’s 45 and a debut innings from Adam Voges. Shane Warne has been an utter flop with the ball and his tinkering with the bowling attack – he’s opened with five different bowlers in four games – hasn’t yielded desired results. Warne has vocally and tactically shown a lot of faith in Yusuf Pathan, opening with his offspin successfully in the win over Kolkata, but the time has come for the likes of Michael Lumb, Tait, Munaf Patel and Naman Ojha to perform.

Team talk

The arrival of Lee and Marsh is immense for Punjab. As a precaution Punjab tested Lee in a practice match today and a final call on him and Marsh, who has also been sidelined by injury, will be taken before the game. If they are passed fit, expect the Aussie pair to slot right in at the top of the batting and bowling line-ups.Rajasthan might not want to tinker with the unit that secured a maiden victory, despite how disappointing Hampshire’s Lumb has been. He scored a duck in the last game but should continue at the top of the order in place of the absent Smith, until Watson arrives next month.

Previously…

Rajasthan won the first game played between these two sides in 2008, by six wickets, before Punjab hit back with a 41-run win. When they came up against each other in South Africa, Punjab beat Rajasthan by 27 runs before losing the second game by 78 runs.

In the spotlight

Yusuf Pathan: Yusuf has failed to get going since that 37-ball century in the first match. He can’t obviously be expected to score centuries each time he walks to the middle but, being Rajasthan’s main match-winner, he’s got to take stock of where his batting’s at. Yusuf has been exposed by the short ball in his last three innings.Piyush Chawla: The man – yes, he really is, so can the TV commentators stop referring to him as a youngster? – singled out by Sangakkara as “outstanding” needs to do something, anything. Chawla has taken two wickets in four games at an average of 52.00 and an economy-rate of 7.42. His variations have been limited, the batsmen haven’t been kept guessing, and the legbreak isn’t being crafted well enough.

Prime numbers

• Punjab have been the most successful batting side in the last five overs of a game. In four macthes they have scored 203 runs off 120 balls, losing 11 wickets. In that same period, Rajasthan have scored 173 while losing more wickets than any other team, 14.
• Rajasthan have conceded the least number of sixes in the last five overs, just three in four games.
• In six innings played by Swapnil Asnodkar, Naman Ojha and Paras Dogra – three of Rajasthan’s young Indian talents – they have scored a combined total of 157 runs at an average of 26.16.

The chatter

“Why would he return if he’s not fit? He’s raring to go. Good days are back.”
“The IPL is a bit [more] relaxed than ODIs or Tests and it will be easy for me after the injury.”

Kian and Michael Blignaut, twins and sons of former Zimbabwe allrounder Andy Blignaut, also feature in the squad

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Dec-2025Simbarashe Mudzengerere has been named the captain of Zimbabwe’s 15-member squad for the men’s Under-19 World Cup, which takes place from January 15 to February 6.Mudzengerere, a right-hand batter and medium pacer, has captained the Under-19 national side since making his debut for them against Ireland, in Harare, on April 10 this year. He bowled a tidy spell of 1 for 28, before returning to make 37 from the middle order in a successful chase.Their squad also features Kian and Michael Blignaut, who are twins and the sons of former Zimbabwe allrounder Andy Blignaut.The U-19 coach, Elton Chigumbura, said: “We are going in with a winning mindset. This group can compete with, and beat, the best teams. Success will come from executing our processes, staying disciplined and sticking to our roles. If we do that consistently, we give ourselves a real chance to go all the way.”Zimbabwe are co-hosts of the tournament, alongside Namibia. Harare Sports Club and Takashinga Cricket Club in Bulwayo, and the Queens Sports Club in Harare, will be hosting matches played in the country. On the pressures of playing at familiar venues, Chigumbura said: “Playing at home is an advantage – we understand the conditions and we will have great support behind us.”The tournament features four groups, consisting of four teams each, with each side facing the three others as part of their group stage fixtures. Zimbabwe have been placed in Group C: they will be playing Scotland on 15 January, England on 18 January, and Pakistan on 22 January. After a Super Sixes stage, the top four teams then face off in the semi-finals on February 3 and 4, before the winners play in the final at Harare on February 6.Zimbabwe begin their preparation with warm-up matches against United States of America on January 10, followed by New Zealand at Masvingo Sports Club on January 12.Zimbabwe squad for U-19 World CupSimbarashe Mudzengerere (c), Kian Blignaut, Michael Blignaut, Leeroy Chiwaula, Tatenda Chimugoro, Brendon Senzere, Nathaniel Hlabangana, Takudzwa Makoni, Panashe Mazai, Webster Madhidhi, Shelton Mazvitorera, Kupakwashe Muradzi, Brandon Ndiweni, Dhruv Patel, Benny Zuze