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Mushfiqur Rahim has urged the Bangladesh side to shake off complacency and focus on sweeping the Test series against Zimbabwe 3-0

Mohammad Isam in Chittagong11-Nov-2014The entire Bangladesh team had turned up at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium for what the BCB had said would be an optional training session on the eve of the third Test. Nets were running smoothly near the Bangladesh dressing-room, where fielding coach Richard Halsall was giving catches. Nearly every player with a chance to play in the third Test against Zimbabwe had a bat, while Sohag Gazi, who is undergoing remedial work on his bowling action, was one of the bowlers in the nets. Even Imrul Kayes turned his arm over for a while.A couple of hours later, Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim spelled out exactly where his side stood and how great the feeling of being 2-0 up in a three-match series – a first in Bangladesh’s history – was for him and the rest of the team. He warned against complacency but stated that the advantage and momentum was with the home side, as they sought a 3-0 win.”It is a rare feeling to be 2-0 up before a third Test,” Mushfiqur said. “I can’t remember when it had happened the last time. Of course it is good to feel this way. But the reality is that we are heading into a tougher test than the first two games that we have won. They have been here for three weeks so they have got an idea of our bowling and conditions. Having said that, we would remain confident of playing well and making it a clean sweep.”I don’t think there is any room for complacency, especially having lost so many matches this year already. We have a lot to prove. We don’t play a lot of Tests like other teams, so we have to value each one of them. We don’t usually get the chance to make it 3-0, so we should make it count.”Asked if he had noticed any change in the dressing-room over the last three weeks after ten months of disappointment, Mushfiqur said that the only change has been a better grasp of tight situations and the presence of Shakib Al Hasan, the world’s No 1 Test allrounder.”There hasn’t been too much of a change,” he said. “In the past we didn’t perform in tight situations but now it has happened for us. Things are falling into place for us. Batsmen are getting set and batting for long. Shakib [Al Hasan] is a big plus for us and at the same time, he makes our opponents think.”The sign of a good team is for the form players to carry on for longer and for the others to take every opportunity to perform. This is also our overall goal.”The Bangladesh captain was also quick to point out two areas in which he would like to see improvement: catching and longer innings from the batsmen.”Firstly, we would like our fielding to improve. We have dropped a few catches,” he said. “I think we got away with it because we are playing against Zimbabwe. We have been successful in creating more chances. But batsmen from bigger teams wouldn’t give us more than one chance.”We have to concentrate for longer periods. We have made some small mistakes with the bat, which we should avoid. I would hope the set batsmen in this Test would go on to make a big score.”While it is likely that Bangladesh will go in with two seamers – Shafiul Islam and Rubel Hossain – Mushfiqur didn’t rule out playing with only one seamer as the pitch in Chittagong is slower and offers less bounce than other grounds. He also urged the pacers to provide the early breakthrough.”There isn’t much bounce in the Chittagong wicket. We know it aids the spinners but we haven’t decided on the selection yet. If we do employ the single pacer, we will pick an extra batsman.”In Chittagong, the pace bowlers are not likely to pick up five or seven wickets. They don’t get that many overs to bowl, too. But their initial breakthrough is important, so we have also kept that in mind. I don’t think there will be too many changes from the last match.”Mushfiqur was happy his side had leapfrogged over Zimbabwe in the ICC Test rankings and said the side needed to keep winning in order to send the world a message that Bangladesh could dominate a team.”Ranking is a major factor. It works both ways. It does keep us under pressure because ultimately teams have to win and earn points. Rankings also motivate the players,” he said. “We play less Test cricket than other teams, so winning a series 3-0 is a message which says Bangladesh are dominating a team.”

Sunrisers Hyderabad needed to win this game in Ranchi to avoid elimination and David Warner’s punishing innings secured the two points that took his team to fifth place

The Report by George Binoy22-May-2014
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details6:04

Guha: Warner has evolved into a flexible batsman

Sunrisers Hyderabad needed to win this game in Ranchi to avoid elimination and David Warner’s punishing innings secured the two points that took his team to fifth place in the league. Chennai Super Kings’ third successive defeat weakened their hold on second place, and narrowed the gap between them and the other contenders, Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals.While Super Kings relied on three batsmen to achieve a formidable total, Sunrisers needed only one to gun it down. By the time Warner was done, the game was all but won, and Shikhar Dhawan saw Sunrisers through to the finish with an unbeaten half-century that was the ideal foil to his aggressive opening partner.Everything seemed to fall in place for Sunrisers at the start of the chase. Warner, who had scored 59 in his previous innings, began in high gear and received generous helpings of loose deliveries from Mohit Sharma and R Ashwin. He got the lion’s share of the strike too, with Dhawan playing only 11 balls in the Powerplay, and powered Sunrisers to 64 in six overs.With the pitch offering no movement for the seamers, Mohit gave Warner several opportunities to free his arms and paid the price by watching the ball disappear between point and cover. Unlike the previous game in Ranchi, there was no turn tonight, and Warner was able to hit Ashwin down the ground without risk. The serious acceleration came in the sixth over, from John Hastings on season debut, when Warner collected five boundaries in the Vs behind and in front of the wicket to pass fifty off 25 deliveries.The other Super Kings spinners – Ravindra Jadeja and Pawan Negi – were also punished by Warner and by the time he dragged Hastings on for 90 off 45 balls, Sunrisers needed only 70 off 52 balls.Having contributed only 22 to the opening stand of 116, Dhawan now took over, finding the leg-side boundary with regularity against the spinners to get to 50 off 40 balls. Though Sunrisers lost three wickets in 13 balls towards the end, the asking rate was entirely under control, and Dhawan ensured the job was done.Given how rough the game was on the bowlers, the period between the seventh and 14th overs in the Super Kings innings was an understated yet defining period of play. Dwayne Smith had set off at cracking speed and Super Kings had scored 60 in the Powerplay, but the next eight overs yielded only 40 runs for two wickets, as MS Dhoni and David Hussey bided their time. Hussey was on 15 off 19 balls and Dhoni on 11 from 19 when they decided to accelerate, but perhaps they could have done more with the time they took to consolidate a powerful start.Once they flicked the switch, though, Hussey and Dhoni were unstoppable. They targeted the gentle seam of Irfan Pathan and Darren Sammy, and the speed of Dale Steyn, alike. Five of the last six overs went for ten or more, and Dhoni saved his best for the end. He was striking at less than a run a ball at the start of the 20th over, but deposited Steyn’s first ball over the midwicket boundary. Another six and a brace of fours followed as Dhoni took 24 off the final over – no batsman has scored more in a Steyn over in Twenty20 cricket.However, while Super Kings may have left their surge too late on a placid surface, Warner wasted no time at all and won the game.

Despite a ball-tampering row that cast a shadow over the Galle Test, Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews laid the blame for the team’s heavy defeat at their own doorstep

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Galle20-Jul-2014Among the gleanings from Galle is evidence that Angelo Mathews is an evolving captain. This may be as true on the field, as it is off it. On the recent tour of England, Mathews had stirred up a minor controversy when he suggested to a Sinhala media outlet that the official suspicion over Sachithra Sennayake’s action had something to do with his potency against England.But in Galle, when the opponents were found to be scuffing up the ball in order to achieve an unfair advantage, Mathews was more reticent in his criticism, weighing each phrase carefully before committing to it.The back of Sri Lanka’s first innings had been broken by a reverse-swinging burst from Dale Steyn, but Mathews avoided incendiary language. “It is unfortunate if someone tampers with the ball and they get the better out of it,” he said. “It’s unfortunate for the opposition. It shouldn’t happen and umpires need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”Mathews stopped short of using the word “cheated” when asked if he and his team felt that way, after the defeat. But he did suggest a connection with what Philander had done to the ball, and the way it behaved afterwards.”It’s not within the laws and you can’t really tamper the ball. But they did it to try and make the ball reverse. It did.”Mathews did, however, concur with what seemed obvious both on television, and live at the ground: South Africa and Steyn achieved considerably more reverse-swing on the third session on day three, after Philander had tampered with that ball, than they achieved on day five, at a similar stage of the innings.This is despite the fact that pitches generally become more abrasive as the game wears on, particularly when no rain has fallen on them – as was the case between the third afternoon and the fifth day in Galle. Mathews was at the crease on both the third evening – during Steyn’s spell – and on the fifth day, when the ball was at a similar age to the ball that was reverse-swinging appreciably on day three.”No. There was not as much reverse today as on the third afternoon, to be honest. With the wind the ball comes in, but the third afternoon it was reversing quite a lot.”After day four’s play, South Africa coach Russell Domingo had said “other sides are better at [ball tampering] than we are”, but both coach Marvan Atapattu and captain Mathews said Sri Lanka “don’t do it”.But despite the controversy, Mathews laid the blame for the defeat at his own team’s doorstep. “In this Test only Sangakkara made runs. We have seven batters in the side and to expect one man to deliver all the time is wrong. We have to bat well against the world no.2 ranked Test team, whether you play at home or away.”Even on this slow track, it was their fast bowlers who took wickets. Where we lost the Test was the failure of our batsmen to score runs on the first innings. If we had got another 100 runs in the first innings, we had a good chance of winning this Test.”

The BCCI will get a chance to hear the audio recordings of three key depositions made to the Mudgal committee’s probe into IPL corruption allegations

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Apr-2014The BCCI will get a chance to hear the audio recordings of three key depositions – by its president N Srinivasan, CSK captain MS Dhoni and IPL chief operating officer Sundar Raman – made to the Mudgal committee’s probe into IPL corruption allegations. The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked for the tapes to be submitted to the court registrar.The tapes were sought by the BCCI’s counsel CA Sundaram as proof of the Mudgal committee’s findings with regard to what Srinivasan, Dhoni and Raman had said about Gurunath Meiyappan’s role in the Chennai Super Kings franchise. Gurunath, who is Srinivasan’s son-in-law, was arrested by Mumbai police during the 2013 IPL season and charged with cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy, which included passing on information that compromised his team. The tapes will heard by Amit Sibal and Rohini Musa, counsels nominated by the BCCI, in the presence of the Secretary General of the Court, who will be responsible for transcribing the tapes.The two-man bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice A K Patnaik and FM Ibrahim Kalifullah asked Sundaram for an assurance that the content of the tapes would not be leaked to the media. The counsel was warned that if the information did get out, he would be held in contempt. The court said cricket would be “blackened” in the country, if any portion of the tapes’ content was released.The Mudgal commission was set up in October 2013 and submitted its report on February 10, 2014 after interviewing 52 people. Along with the report, both parties were given 4000 pages of annexures that did not have the recordings of the 52 depositions. The recordings were meant to help in accurate tabling of every deposition.Gopal Subramaniam, who represented the Mudgal panel in court, said the committee had stopped audio recordings because of a suspicion that they were being made available to outsiders without the committee’s permission. The depositions had been recorded between November 5, 2013 and January 6, 2014 on equipment organised and facilitated by the BCCI. Subramaniam said the recordings were of poor quality, and not the high-quality audio that had been promised to the panel by the BCCI.All the recordings of depositions were meant to be given to the panel and then deleted from the system immediately. It is understood that may not have been the case with all the depositions. Subramaniam said several cricketers had appeared before the panel “with utmost confidentiality,” and those recordings could not be handed over to any outside party because it would “hurt the credibility of the commission”.

Pubudu Dassanayake will continue as Nepal coach for another year, after the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) announced it would extend his contract

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Mar-2014Pubudu Dassanayake will continue as Nepal coach for another year, after the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) announced it would extend his contract. The extension follows a string of encouraging results for the national team, the most recent of which was their victory over Afghanistan at the World Twenty20. Dassanayake, a former Sri Lanka Test cricketer, has coached Nepal since September 2011.”Dassanayake has done so many good things for Nepali cricket and there was no one to go against his extension,” CAN president Tanka Angbuhang told . “With him, Nepali cricket could go a long way. If good results come under him, there will be extension a longer period for him.”The decision had come after a long meeting of the CAN executive committee on Monday, and the new contract includes a pay-hike for Dassanayake, as well as the promise of improved facilities. “Since the coach is leaving for Canada shortly, we first agreed to the period of extension,” CAN general secretary Ashok Nath Pyakurel said. “Rest of the things including the financial part can be done after he returns from Canada.”Dassanayake said he had set his sights on making Nepal the top Associate team. “I will come up with certain plans because this is the time when Nepali cricket needs to gain the momentum. We need to have a good domestic structure and proper age-group cricket so that we can be above Ireland and Afghanistan in the men’s and women’s cricket.”Nepal had won two of their three matches at the World Twenty20 and narrowly missed qualification to the Super 10s, with Bangladesh going through on net run rate. Their captain Paras Khadka was pleased Dassanayake received another turn, but felt the decision should have been an easy one for the board. 
”The whole of Nepal applauded his effort,” Khadka told . “If it was not for his vision and dedication, we couldn’t have come this far, “It was very disappointing that his contract was renewed at the last moment.”

Sunrisers Hyderabad have retained India batsman Shikhar Dhawan and South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn ahead of the IPL 2014 auction. They will have two right-to-match cards available to them at the auction, on February 12

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Jan-2014Sunrisers Hyderabad have retained India batsman Shikhar Dhawan and South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn ahead of the IPL 2014 auction. They will have two right-to-match cards available to them at the auction, on February 12.Dhawan’s profile shot up in 2013, when he established himself in the Indian team across all formats. It began with the fastest century by a Test debutant, against Australia in Mohali, and he followed that up with a Man-of-the-Series performance in the Champions Trophy. He was also elevated to the captaincy of Sunrisers during the Champions League of the 2013 season, and was one of the few marquee Indian names in the squad.Steyn has been the world’s leading fast bowlers for several years, and had turned in several match-turning performances last season. He was signed for $1.2m in the 2011 auction, and would have expected similar, or perhaps better, returns in this auction.Sunrisers coach Tom Moody tweeted: “Great news at @SunRisers we’ve retained Shikhar Dhawan & @DaleSteyn62 for #IPL2014 – Still have 2 ” right to match cards” for auction day!”After the specified amounts for the two players retained – Rs 125 million for player one and Rs 95 million for player two – are deducted from their salary cap of Rs 600 million (approx. US$ 9.6 million), Sunrisers will be left with Rs 380 million to spend at the auction. This season, each squad must include no less than 16 and no more than 27 players, with a maximum of nine overseas players.The amount deducted from the auction purse is not necessarily the IPL fee agreed to between the franchise and the retained player.

Kusal Mendis’ 103 and a tight bowling performance helped Sri Lanka Under-19s rout Australia Under-19s by 95 runs in the first Youth ODI in Colombo

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Feb-2014
ScorecardKusal Mendis’ 103 and a tight bowling performance helped Sri Lanka Under-19s rout Australia Under-19s by 95 runs in the first Youth ODI in Colombo.Set 263 to chase in 50 overs, Australia lost wickets in clusters to end well short. After a brisk opening stand of 23 in three overs, Australia lost their next three wickets in five overs and added just five runs to their tally. From 28 for 3, a fourth-wicket partnership of 23 between Ben McDermott and Damian Mortimer promised recovery, but left-arm pacer Harsha Rajapaksha took three wickets in two overs to leave the side at 57 for 6 in the 18th over.Cameron Valente tried to shepherd the rest of the line-up with an 68-ball 47 but Sri Lanka’s bowlers stifled the visitors and dismissed them for 167. Rajapaksha finished with figures of 3 for 21 in eight overs, while Lakshan Jayasinghe and AK Tyronne picked up two wickets each. Minod Bhanuka, the Sri Lankan wicketkeeper, also had a good outing, contributing to six dismissals.Earlier, Mendis anchored the Sri Lanka innings, adding useful partnerships with the middle order to help the side reach 262 for 8. His best stand came with Rajapaksha as the pair added 75 for the sixth wicket in nearly 10 overs to boost Sri Lanka’s score. Both batsmen fell in the 43rd over but a few hits from Anuk Fernando and Binura Fernando pushed the score past 250.

Jamie Siddons, the former Bangladesh coach who is now in charge of Wellington, has questioned whether coaching standards in New Zealand are up to providing players, particularly batsmen, for the national side who can cope in alien conditions

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Nov-2013Jamie Siddons, the former Bangladesh coach who is now in charge of Wellington, has questioned whether coaching standards in New Zealand are up to providing players, particularly batsmen, for the national side who can cope in alien conditions. After New Zealand suffered a second ODI whitewash against Bangladesh, Siddons suggested that the team’s overall skill levels were not high enough.Siddons was in charge of Bangladesh when New Zealand lost 4-0 on tour in 2010 and he said that little seemed to have changed when it came to playing on foreign pitches. Having been involved in New Zealand’s domestic set-up for more than two years, he pinpointed “the coaching … the technical side of things”, as well as saying that soporific surfaces at home were part of the problem, with batsmen only comfortable when “it’s not swinging and it’s not spinning”.”It looked pretty similar,” Siddons said of New Zealand’s efforts, three years after their last visit to Bangladesh. “The conditions are a bit foreign to the boys, not that they turned a lot, just slower pace and facing some reasonable spinners with a bit of variation.””I don’t think [Bangladesh] were clearly better. I think they utilise their conditions pretty well and we weren’t prepared for it or good enough to handle it.”Despite some encouraging results under the captaincy of Brendon McCullum – New Zealand beat England and South Africa in away ODI series earlier this year and drew with England in the home Tests – a fragility in the batting has been a repeated motif. Even when they managed to pass 300 in the third match against Bangladesh, their opponents overhauled the target with four wickets and four balls in hand.”We need to practice tougher. We need to have wickets that turn, practice how to face faster bowling and swing bowling,” Siddons said. “As soon as it’s tough your batsmen are vulnerable and it’s the coaching, it’s the technical side of things, it’s the mindset. It’s certainly not mental.”I hear a lot of people say it’s mental problems with the players, but everyone’s trying. These guys don’t get out because of mental mistakes, it’s the skill levels. It’s hard work on the road. Those guys will come back here and it’s flat and it’s not swinging and it’s not spinning and they’ll be okay. But as soon as you go away and you’re under pressure again against something you haven’t practised against, then you’ll have problems.”Despite being generally competitive in one-day cricket, New Zealand were dismissed for 45 in the Cape Town Test at the start of 2013 and then 68 at Lord’s in May. They also only managed to scrape past Sri Lanka’s total of 138 in Cardiff during the Champions Trophy, a tournament which they exited at the group stage.Siddons, who amassed 11,587 first-class runs and was capped once by Australia during his playing career before going on to be his country’s batting coach, acknowledged that it was difficult for Mike Hesson and his New Zealand staff to make technical corrections while on tour. The problems arose further down the system, he said.”It’s near-impossible – they’re supposed to be ready when they get there. Supposed to be,” he said. “Under our system I’m supposed to have these guys ready and they ask me about my guys and I tell them the truth. I say he’s not ready, he’s not going to be successful, wait, give him time, he’s got this problem, he’s got that problem.”They [New Zealand’s coaches] can get them up and talk about plans and stuff, but if they haven’t got that ability to run down the wicket, they can’t run down the wicket. If they don’t have the sweep shot before they get there, they’re not going to develop one.”

Fluent fifties from openers Ahmed Shehzad and Shan Masood, and No. 3 batsman Azhar Ali helped Pakistan A reach 230 for 4 at the end of the first day against the South Africans

Firdose Moonda in Sharjah09-Oct-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo – Ahmed Shehzad made his case for the second opener’s spot with a fluent fifty•ESPNcricinfo LtdSouth Africa’s bowlers will hope the surface they toiled on in Sharjah will not resemble the pitches on which they will play the two-Test series. Although a few deliveries kept low, the conditions assisted neither spinners nor the seamers and it was nothing but a grind for the tourists.The South Africans took the field with ice jackets and cooling necklaces. Dale Steyn wore the former while the other was passed between players at intervals throughout the afternoon, to combat the 37-degree heat and high humidity. They also rotated stints in the field with all players allowed a break for a period of time.Pakistan A got some value out of the day, doing what captain Umar Amin wanted by batting it out to “give South Africa something to think about” and allowing openers Ahmed Shehzad and Shan Masood, as well as the national No.3 Azhar Ali, to bring up half-centuries.Shehzad’s may be the most important because it would allowed him to announce himself as the prime candidate to partner Khurram Manzoor in the first Test next week. Pakistan have yet to pick another opener after dropping Mohammad Hafeez and will likely select someone from the A side. Shehzad, who is uncapped in the longest format and is just 21 years old, showed he may be the man for the job.He was expressive against the spinners and fluent against the South African seamers, all four of whom bowled within themselves to avoid tiring out. Shehzad was particularly strong through the off side and on the drive, and was dismissed due to a lack of temperament rather than being outfoxed.With Robin Peterson keeping things tight, Shehzad tried to loft him over a strategically placed short mid-wicket but offered the fielder a simple chance. That was the South Africans only wicket of the middle session with the focus being on lines and accuracy.Steyn bowled below pace, Morkel found some bounce and was the only one of the trio to take a wicket when Faisal Iqbal was caught at slip, but it was Vernon Philander who looked the most threatening. His accurate line outside the off stump proved as successful, not in wicket-taking but in problem-causing terms, as it has elsewhere in the world. The bowlers operated in short spells through the afternoon and allowed the spinners to dominate proceedings later on.Tahir was expensive, especially in his first spell. Too many variations and a bouquet of full tosses threatened to derail the legspinner, especially with Shehzad and then Azhar using their feet well.Masood’s half-century was well-paced and he chose to retire after reaching the landmark. Azhar’s fifty was more eye-catching; he was patient upfront, with just 12 runs from his first 33 balls, but grew in confidence later on.His retirement allowed captain Umar Amin a stint at the crease. With a place in the senior side at stake, Amin showed his ability to hold fort as the day drew to a close. The captains had agreed to enforce declarations after the 100-over mark and with 22 overs left in the Pakistan A innings, South African captain Graeme Smith will have a last chance to bat before the first Test.

Fast bowler Chanaka Welegedara has been ruled out of the Champions Trophy due to the foot injury he picked up during a practice match last week, and Sri Lanka Cricket has replaced him with seam-bowling allrounder Dilhara Lokuhettige

ESPNcricinfo staff22-May-2013Sri Lankan fast bowler Chanaka Welegedara is unlikely to travel to England for the Champions Trophy, after failing to recover sufficiently from an ankle injury he sustained on May 18. Welegedara failed a fitness test on Wednesday morning, and Sri Lanka Cricket have since named seam bowler Dilhara Lokuhettige as a replacement. The selection was cleared by the sports minister, but has not yet been approved by the ICC.Lokuhettige, 32, played eight ODIs for Sri Lanka in 2005, and two Twenty20 internationals in 2008. He has six ODI wickets at 36.83. He has largely been picked on his form in the recently concluded List A tri-series in Pallekele, where he was the joint highest wicket-taker: nine scalps at an average of 17.66. If approved, he will be one of four pace specialists on tour, with Lasith Malinga, Shaminda Eranga and Nuwan Kulasekara also traveling. Allrounders Thisara Perera and Angelo Mathews are part of the squad as well.”SLC have written to the ICC Event Technical Committee regarding this replacement,” an SLC statement said. “The replacement of a player requires the approval of the Event Technical Committee before the replacement player can be officially added to the squad.”Welegedara had picked up the injury during the penultimate match of the tri-series, which he left, in pain, during his third over. His chances of traveling to England had looked promising on Tuesday after scans revealed no breaks or fractures, but inflammation persisted and he was unable to put sufficient weight on his landing foot.Welegedara, also 32, was the leader of Sri Lanka’s Test pace attack, but has been plagued by injury in the last 12 months, in which he only completed one Test match. He strained his groin playing England in March last year, before tearing a shoulder muscle before the Pakistan series in July. He recovered in time to travel to Australia at the end of the year, but tore a hamstring early in the second Test in Melbourne, and has not played any international cricket since. Largely regarded a Test specialist, Welegedara has not played limited-overs international cricket since June 2010.The Sri Lanka squad leaves for England in the early hours of Monday morning.