All posts by csb10.top

It’s easy to forget Ishant Sharma is just 22. He’s had so many ups and downs already. He’s experienced not just dips in form but long, barren stretches of gloom. On Thursday, he grabbed his 100th Test wicket in his 32nd Test, statistics that surprised some, including himself. “In the last one-and-a-half years I have been struggling with my bowling,” Ishant said. “When I started to play cricket, I didn’t expect to be the fifth-youngest bowler to take 100 wickets.”Ishant’s decline from the heights of spell against Ricky Ponting in Perth is well known. He never had a smooth follow-through to start with, and then began to stutter even further. That was just the beginning of the nightmare. The release gradually turned awry. The wrist that was so firmly behind the seam was finding its way into awkward positions. While at his best, his lithe fingers whipped the ball on to the deck. In his decline, he merely floated the ball across. The left shoulder fell away alarmingly. The head was no longer still. Ishant’s life as a bowler was falling apart in front of his eyes.”Everyone told me there will be ups and downs in any sportsman’s life,” Ishant said. “I have age on my side. I just had to work on my bowling and my fitness. That’s what I did. . (No one was asking about you: what are you doing, where are you?) My family’s support was really helpful at the time.”Only time will tell whether Ishant Sharma is back to his best•AFP

Ishant admitted he hadn’t been listening to his mentors, including Zaheer Khan. “I’d like to thank Zaheer for [his advice on] fitness. He always used to tell me about fitness but I didn’t take him seriously because I didn’t think fitness was that important. Now I have realised it is. If you want to be a fast bowler, you’ve got to be fit.”Why did he lose his pace? Ishant didn’t elaborate, and the press conference didn’t offer enough time for probing, but he said he “maybe tried to copy someone else,” but added, “now I have learned that whatever is my strength, I should stick to it. And be fit.”Ishant also showed signs of maturity when bowling during his six-wicket haul, a departure from the times when the aim was to just bowl quick. His duel with Ramnaresh Sarwan offered sufficient proof. Ishant kept pushing Sarwan back with his short-of-length deliveries before getting one to pitch fuller and cut in and trap him in front.”Now, I think more,” he said. “I have plans against each batsman; where and what you should bowl at different batsmen. I don’t know what was going wrong at that time. Now I am looking to go out there and follow whatever plans we have – visualise and think about what you are going to bowl.”Ishant also had problems bowling different lengths in ODIs. “You have to be clever when you are bowling in Powerplays and in the slog overs. I wasn’t that clever before. Now I am learning [about] my bowling and body. I hope I will come back into ODI side and bowl well whenever my team needs me.”Ishant has had to lead the pace attack in the absence of Zaheer and Munaf Patel, a role he has taken a liking to. “I am enjoying the responsibility. MS [Dhoni] has given me the fields I want. I talk to Harbhajan [Singh] about all my field plans and what I am going to bowl at each batsman.”Only time will tell whether Ishant is back to his best, but he said he is readier than ever, mentally and physically. “I learnt during this IPL that (you should stick to your strengths). I learnt how to recover from tiredness. You travel a lot during the IPL and I learnt more about my body and the importance of training.”It’s slightly surprising that he learnt all that in his fourth IPL, but then sometimes you forget he is just 22.

England’s centurion, Matt Prior, has said that his team still fancied their chances of sealing the series against Sri Lanka with a game to spare, despite enduring a tough time in the field on the second day at Lord’s. Thanks to an unbeaten century from Tillakaratne Dilshan, Sri Lanka closed the second day on 231 for 1, a feisty response to their total of 82 all out in the second innings in Cardiff.”We’re an honest enough team to know that we didn’t bowl and field as well as we can do, as well as we have done,” said Prior at the close. “Things don’t always go perfectly to plan in Test cricket. But the thing I know about this team and its character is that we’ll come back tomorrow even harder, even better prepared and even more ready and willing to hit the mark again.”The day started well enough for England, with Prior converting his overnight 73 into an impressive 126 from 131 balls, his second Test century at the ground, and his fifth in 42 Tests overall. His performance helped lift England from a precarious 201 for 5 to an imposing 486 all out, although by the close, Dilshan’s first century as Sri Lanka captain had redressed the balance significantly.Asked whether England had expected too little from Sri Lanka in the aftermath of their Cardiff disaster, Prior denied that was the case. “You can’t expect to bowl a team out in 25 overs every time you walk out,” he said. “I think we just need to go back to basics, take stock of what’s happened today – and I’m sure you’ll see an improved bowling and fielding performance tomorrow.”We walked off after our first innings very, very pleased with the score we got. But then Tillakaratne Dilshan came in and played a very good innings, showing great intent on a pretty docile wicket.”Matt Prior’s fifth Test hundred drew him level with the great Alan Knott•PA Photos

England’s attack had a menacing look to it at the start of the Test, with Chris Tremlett, Steven Finn and Stuart Broad all registering between 6’6″ and 6’8″. However, the lofty approach lacked subtlety on a benign wicket, with Finn in particular struggling for line and length. England severely missed the lateral movement that the injured James Anderson could have provided.”You are always going to feel like you’re missing a guy like Jimmy Anderson, because he’s the best swing bowler in the world,” said Prior. “He’s absolute class, and you always want him in your team.”But Finny has come in and is a fantastic bowler in his own right. You saw how many wickets he took in the Ashes and in his short career so far. The line-up as it stands, three big guys and Swanny, is a world-class bowling outfit. We know that, and we back them 100%.”With that in mind, Prior reiterated his faith in his team-mates. “This team keeps surprising itself, keeps pulling things out even when it’s looking ominous,” he said. “To get that score on the board, when we’ve been 20-odd for 3, is a fantastic effort in the first place.”We are not in a bad position and still have a 250-lead. If we do bowl and field well tomorrow, there’s no reason why we can’t get a good first-innings lead. If we bat well again, we’re holding all the cards in this Test match.”On a personal note, Prior’s fifth Test hundred drew him level with Alan Knott, arguably the greatest wicketkeeper-batsman in England’s history, and it was a fact of which he was keenly aware. “It’s something I’m very, very proud of,” he said. “I do keep track of records of other England wicketkeepers from the past, so it’s a nice milestone.The bulk of his runs on the final day came in a 108-run stand for the seventh wicket with Stuart Broad. However, the manner in which he reached three figures was not the most convincing, as four consecutive edges, including a drop at slip by Mahela Jayawardene, carried him from 86 to 99, before a clip to midwicket secured his name on the honour’s board.”The plan is always to take a little moment to get yourself in, but it didn’t really happen … we went from first gear to sixth, which always happens with Broady,” he said. “But in a situation like that, if you’re feeling good you almost just have to go with the flow and ride your luck a little bit – and obviously I was very fortunate through the 90s.”I just thought ‘it’s my day’. Mahela Jayawardene is one of best, if not the best, slip fielders I’ve ever seen, so when he drops you you know you’re on a good thing. You need a bit of luck every now and then, and I had my fair share.”

Cape Town will host two Test matches in the South African summer, CSA announced on Friday. The 2011-12 season sees South Africa play host to Australia and Sri Lanka. Australia will play only two Tests, one in Cape Town and one in Johannesburg, instead of the usual three, two Twenty20 internationals and three ODIs in a shortened tour in October and November.Sri Lanka, who have not visited South Africa since 2002, will play three Tests and five ODIs over December and January with the Christmas and New Year’s Tests remaining at their traditional homes of Durban and Cape Town.”Unfortunately time constraints prevent us from playing more than two Tests against Australia this time around,” CSA chief executive Gerald Majola said. “The aim is to play a four-match Test series when Australia next tour in February and March of 2014. This will make up for the extra Test not being played on this year’s tour.”Despite the culling of a Test from the series, Majola said that “Test cricket remains in our view the ultimate pinnacle of the game.” South Africa were thought to have reduced the number of Tests because of their domestic teams’ participation in the Champions League T20, but on Wednesday, Tony Irish, chief executive of the South African Cricketers’ Association confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that the CLT20 was “not a point of discussion” when the fixtures were confirmed.The ODIs against Sri Lanka will be spread over the country’s smaller venues with Paarl, East London, Bloemfontein and Kimberley all hosting a match. The series will culminate in Johannesburg on January 22, before South Africa head to New Zealand.South Africa were toying with the idea of hosting West Indies for an ODI series in late January but the fixtures were not compulsory according to the current Future Tours Programme that runs to completion in April 2012. That series looks unlikely given the schedule.

Eldine Baptiste has stepped down as Kenya’s coach two months before his current contract expires. The news was not unexpected following Kenya’s wretched performance at the World Cup where a string of poor displays on the field were accompanied by reports of rows off it.Baptiste’s departure comes in the wake of the performance review being conducted by Cricket Kenya after the country lost all of their six World Cup league games and finished bottom of their group. Tom Sears, CK’s chief executive, said that as part of the review, the coach’s position had also come under scrutiny.”Both Cricket Kenya and Eldine Baptiste have decided that there is a need for change. I would like to commend Eldine for his professionalism and honesty during the review process,” Sears said. “We will now conduct an extensive recruitment process to find a new national coach and will be inviting applications from both within Kenya and overseas. It is vital we find the right person to take us forward and this is a crucial appointment.”Sears explained there would be far-reaching changes at every level of the game in Kenya as the review process would assess each operational area. “We expect to make public the full findings of the review in mid-May once we have consulted with the ICC. We have to use this opportunity to change for the better and fulfil the undoubted potential of cricket in Kenya.”Baptiste took over as Kenya coach in September 2009 after coaching stints in South Africa and the West Indies. But he was unable to turn round a team in long-term decline and despite bullish assurances, little seems to have changed in the last 19 months.

The 14-man squads for all six teams competing in the World Cricket League Division Seven tournament have been named. Nigeria, Japan, Norway, Germany, Kuwait and Botswana will take part in the competition, which is being hosted in Botswana in May.The competition, which runs from May 1 to 8, will be played on three grounds in Gaborone – the two Botswana Cricket Association Ovals and Lobatse Cricket Ground. Three matches will be held per day, one at each ground, with rest days on May 3 and 6. The top two sides from the Division Seven tournament will be promoted to Division Six.Botswana: Akrum Chand (capt), Karabo Modise, Omar Ali, Tshepo Mhozya, Mosa Gaolekwe, Segolame Ramatu, Karabo Motlhanka, Waseem Tajbhay, Aslam Chand, Denzil Sequeira, James Moses, Faisal Rana Rasheed, Abdul Patel, Noor AhmadGermany: Asif Khan (capt), Rana Javed Iqbal, Rajeev Vohra, Ehsaan Latif, Farooq Ahmed, Srinivas Satyanarayana, Milan Fernando, Kashif Halder, Rishi Pillal, Shakeel Hassan, Tarun Rawat, Andre Leslie, Ashwin Prakash, Khalid ButtJapan: Masaomi Kobayashi (capt), Munir Ahmed, Gavin Beath, Tatsuro Chino, Patrick Giles-Jones, Takuro Hagihara, Ko Irie, Prashant Kale, Raheel Kano, Naoki Miyaji, Naotsune Miyaji, Satoshi Nakano, Kazuyuki Ogawa, Tomoki OtaKuwait: Hisham Mirza (capt), Saud Qamar, Azmatullah Nazeer, Abdullah Akhudzada, Mohammad Murad, Muhammad Akhudzada, Haroon Shahid, Mohammed Naseer, Saad Khalid, Irfan Bhatti, Sabtain Raza, Jagath Rosantha, Midhun Varma Pakalapati, Abid MushtaqNorway: Damien Shortis (capt), Iram Dawood, Suhail Iftikhar, Sheraz Khalid, Babar Shahzad, Usman M.Saeed, Ehtsam Ul Haq, Shahid Ahmad, Muhammad Shabbaz Butt, Shahid Mahmood, Muhammad Waseem Gill, Adeel Ibrar, Gulfam Butt, Umran ShahzaNigeria: Endurance Ofem (capt), Adenkule Adegbola, Ademola Onikoyi, Saheed Akolade, Olalekan Awolowo, Olajide Bejide, Joshua Ogunlola, Akabogu Okwudili, Segun Olayinka, Temitope Olayinka, Oluseye Olympio, Femi Oduyebo, Ramit Gill, Sean Philips

Virender Sehwag might miss India’s final group game against West Indies on Sunday because of a knee problem. Sehwag’s knee has been bothering him since the start of the World Cup, but his current worry is the result of swelling caused by an allergic reaction to a pain-killing injection he took after the match against South Africa.”Viru [Sehwag] has got an allergic reaction in his right knee, so we will take that call [about whether to play him] either in the evening or on the morning of the game,” MS Dhoni said at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Saturday.If Sehwag is unable to take the field, Gautam Gambhir will most likely open the innings with Sachin Tendulkar.The game doesn’t have a lot riding on it as Bangladesh’s defeat to South Africa today means India and England are already through to the quarter-finals and barring a catastrophic defeat, West Indies can afford to lose tomorrow’s game and still join them on the basis of a better net run-rate than Bangladesh.

The ICC has published on its website an edited and encrypted 102-page version of the final determination of the independent tribunal that handed out its verdict on February 5 after the spot-fixing hearings in Doha. However, in light of the Crown Prosecution Service’s recent decision to pursue criminal charges against the three banned players – Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif – the judgement will not be available to readers in England and Wales.To others, the version available online is in a read-only format and will be available for a period of only seven days.”It is the ICC’s intention to be as transparent an organisation as is feasible and to publish all its reports and findings for the benefit of stakeholders,” ICC chief Haroon Lorgat said. “Publishing the full written determination of the tribunal is clearly in the best interest of cricket.” The tribunal, too, had recommended a full disclosure However, their hands have been forced by legal considerations.The determination came with a clear warning, prohibiting the publication or dissemination of the determination within England and Wales. It also laid out that any attempt to access it from within England and Wales would be deemed unlawful, and could invite legal action.

New Zealand coach John Wright has hinted at splitting the one-day opening combination of Brendon McCullum and Jesse Ryder for the series against Pakistan, as his side seeks to end a 11-match losing streak in the format. Wright hopes to use the six games against Pakistan to zero in on the right line-up for the World Cup, which begins on February 19.”They [McCullum and Ryder] may not be at the top of the order,” Wright told . “There may be only one of them at the top of the order. We really need to look at the way we have been playing and to consider where we have our firepower, particularly our impact batsmen. There is the opportunity to start with the Powerplay, and then who plays where when we get to the next Powerplay. We will have a look at that and make the decisions.”It’s something we just have to consider carefully. Dan [Daniel Vettori] will have some strong views on it and you look at the batting line-up, and if we can get players in form, and get our order right, then we should be able to do the job.”McCullum and Ryder formed one of New Zealand’s most successful opening pairs, and Wright said the decision to move one of them lower down would be to beef up a misfiring middle order. “The one thing about New Zealand one-day sides is that they always appear to be at their strongest when you had great batting depth around Nos. 5, 6, 7, 8,” Wright said. “When you played against New Zealand they were just a hard side to break down. We will be looking to bat as deep and with as much quality as we can around those areas.”Martin Guptill, who opened in the second Test in Wellington when Tim McIntosh was dropped, is likely to take the role in the one-dayers, if New Zealand decide to make the change. “Obviously the development of Martin Guptill has been a huge plus for us,” Wright said. “He has played incredibly well in the Twenty20 series and he worked ever so hard in the Test series, and he looks ever so promising.”Despite the 1-0 defeat in the Test series, Wright was encouraged by New Zealand’s show in the second Test when they stretched Pakistan for a hard-fought draw. “I was pleased with the improvement and quality of our play in Wellington. It was disappointing not to get a win, if we had broken that partnership [between Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan] we probably would have. I suppose we have got to learn to play sessions and we had a terrible session in Hamilton that cost us the series.”

There hasn’t been much wrong with Matt Prior’s batting on this tour, it’s just that his best work hasn’t been required yet. Alastair Cook is in the form of his life, Andrew Strauss is leading by example, Kevin Pietersen was a matchwinner in Adelaide, Jonathan Trott loves batting against Australia and Ian Bell is in career-best touch. Paul Collingwood is the only one in the top six yet to fire.And so, the man at No. 7 has been almost irrelevant. He hadn’t made a half-century on the trip until the tour match against Victoria – he hadn’t had to. And while this outing doesn’t count towards the Ashes, England are desperate to go through the trip without losing a match, and Prior’s unbeaten 102 ensured that record stay intact as a rainy draw was secured against a local attack that proved more threatening than could have been expected.”It was just nice to get in the middle and have an opportunity to bat for a while, try and build an innings and get through a tricky patch as well,” Prior said. “For me personally, it was perfect preparation for next week. I was delighted to get the hundred but more important was the time in the middle and getting back into the rhythm of building an innings.”If we carry on playing the brand of cricket we have been, there’s certainly no reason why we can’t go through the tour unbeaten. You go on any tour, you want to be unbeaten, whether it be an Ashes tour or anywhere else. If we could manage to do that, it would be a fantastic feat, but it’s something we’re certainly targeting.”That approach meant that a game that featured three declarations, as the captains tried to create a result, was reduced to a dull draw after England’s top order faltered to be 4 for 55 shortly before lunch. The promotion of Tim Bresnan ahead of Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell notwithstanding, England weren’t about to throw away their winning touch.”Going in to lunch we were adamant we weren’t losing this game,” Prior said. “Winning is a habit and it’s a habit that you want to protect. If we had have lost today, I think we would have been very disappointed people. You can’t take for granted being on a good run and you have to sometimes dig in and make sure you continue that run.”One of the main aims England took in to the match was to establish which of their backup fast bowlers will replace the injured Stuart Broad for the third Test in Perth, but Bresnan, Chris Tremlett and Ajmal Shahzad took only one wicket between them. Tremlett remains the favourite to join the Test side, but Prior said it was not fair to compare their work on a slow drop-in pitch at the MCG to the quicker, bouncier surface they would be confronted with at the WACA.”This was not an easy wicket to get the batsman out,” he said. “I don’t think any bowler was going to charge in and take a whole load. All three of them bowled beautifully, held up ends, didn’t let the batters score at a rate, and all did a very good job on a wicket that wasn’t helpful at all. They’ve all put their hands up.”So has Prior, who batted at No. 4 to give him time at the crease. Should Australia’s bowlers find the magic solution to running through England’s top order, they’ll be met by the sight of an in-form No. 7 striding to the wicket, and their work will be far from done.

ScorecardMichael Hogan bowled Western Australia into a commanding position on a rain-affected third day at the Gabba, where Queensland followed on after being bundled out for 150. In their second innings, the Bulls were 1 for 23 with Ryan Broad on 18 and Craig Philipson on 1, still trailing by 158 runs and hoping for more of the wet weather that has hampered the clash to save them from defeat.They began the morning at 1 for 72, with a realistic chance of taking the lead, but early strikes to Hogan and Brett Dorey changed that. Wade Townsend top scored with 47 but the Bulls lost 7 for 48 before lunch, in a session that was disrupted by rain, and the bad weather continued for most of the day, with play unable to restart for five hours.Hogan finished with 4 for 53, and was well supported by Dorey (3 for 39) and Ryan Duffield, who collected 3 for 40 and then had Townsend trapped lbw 4 for early in Queensland’s second innings. Michael Beer flew to Perth on Sunday to join Australia’s Test squad and was replaced in the Western Australia side by Aaron Heal, who wasn’t needed as the fast men did all the damage.