All posts by csb10.top

England compled a convincing win over Sri Lanka in the Under-19 `Test’at Trent Bridge with a day and an innings to spare thanks in the mainto Kabir Ali’s accurate seam bowling.Kabir was backed up by slow left-armer Monty Panesar, who collectedthree wickets as the Sri Lankans collapsed for 184 in their secondinnings.Jehan Mubarak, who top-scored on the first day, was again the main rungetter with 44.But after he was fifth out, the Sri Lankan tail added just 47 moreruns before England won by an innings and 22 runs.Resuming on 325 for five and a big lead of 114, England’s Kadeer Ali,who had steadied the innings superbly the previous day, fell soonafter the start to a juggling catch at slip having made 59. Hisovernight partner Peter Trego, continued however with the sameaggressive strokeplay that had brought him a half century the previousevening.After hitting 13 fours and a six, Trego seemed headed for a centurybut he was bowled attempting to cut a ball from spinner RanilDhammika. But by now England were 180 runs in front and Kabir hit abreezy 28 before the innings ended on 417, a lead of 206.In the second innings, Sri Lanka raced to 25 before Kabir uprootedopener Ian Daniels’ off-stump in his third over. The 19-year-old thendismissed the other opener, Nimesh Perera, caught at backward pointand Sri Lanka were 42 for two.The third and fourth wickets also fell before 100 had been registeredbut the batsmen continued to adopt aggressive tactics.Panesar then removed three left-handers, all to edges caught at slipor by the wicketkeeper and at 156 for eight it was just a matter ofhow long it would take England to seal the win.

Zee Telefilms are almost certain to reject the Bombay High Court’s proposal to submit fresh bids for India’s cricket rights. Both Zee and ESPN-Star Sports – who went to court in protest against the granting of the rights to Zee – have been given time till Tuesday to decide whether they want to table new bids.According to a report on indiantelevision.com, it appears that Zee will inform the court on Tuesday of the strength of their original bid. ESPN-Star had questioned the eligibility of Zee’s bid, citing their lack of experience in cricket telecasting, and a two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice DS Bhandari and Justice DY Chandrachud will preside over the matter.According to the report, Zee is unlikely to enter into equity collaboration with a foreign partner, ruling out the chance of a joint venture with AOL Time Warner for the sports channel which is set to be launched on Octiber 2.The much-anticipated Test series against Australia starts on October 6, and the Board of Control for Cricket in India will want the rights dispute resolved well before that. The High Court had proposed that fresh sealed bids be submitted with the Registrar General of the High Court on Wednesday, with the understanding that the rights would be given to the highest bidder. Further, there would be no scope for appeal afterwards.Zee has already made an initial payment of $20million to the BCCI.

When you win there can often be different kinds of emotion.When we beat Australia in the first VB Series game in Melbourne in the beginning of this period of 15 successive one-day matches there was pure euphoria. Beating South Africa in Brisbane was disbelief and huge joy at a surprising victory.When we won the game on Tuesday night the feeling was relief.Sure there was happiness at what we had achieved but we all knew that the season would be judged on what happened in Dunedin.Wrongly or rightly this happens in sport often.Just ask the All Blacks in last year’s Tri-Nations.If they had won that game in Sydney and not lost it in the last second, would there have been as big a public examination resulting in pressure for the coach to stand down?If we had lost on Tuesday night what would have been the headlines?As it is we won the series and have achieved a satisfactory outcome. But are there things that we need to address even though we have won?Yes there are.Too often we win games through an individual performance. While this may sound strange, to be a complete side capable of winning next year’s World Cup we need to put more performances together as a unit, to get everyone chipping in with their efforts.Then we will still have brilliant individual efforts to win games but hopefully in between these times we can lift our winning percentages with team performances.Before the game in Dunedin, the batters focused their efforts into batting, real batting. Not the traditional hitting over the top stuff normally reserved for the one-day game. No balls were hit in the air at net practice and batsmanship was the goal.This was personified in the match by Craig McMillan. He got in and then played a great supporting role to Nathan Astle.And what an innings from Nathan!He loves playing in Dunedin and after getting a few dodgy decisions in two of the one-dayers, the English felt the full brunt of his talent.Nath is a bloke who doesn’t say too much and prefers to let his batting do the talking. I have played a lot of cricket with him and the innings the other night was just awesome and right up there with his best.The game itself revealed to the English that they have areas to work on.One of them is off-the-field where last week Andy Caddick stated that this English team was better man for man than us and that they would win the series.Now, he may have been trying to get some confidence back in his side by saying these things but to do it publicly can often backfire on you.Maybe he should just focus on getting in the England team first.Now to the Test series and to the whites! I am really looking forward to this series as I think we are playing very good Test cricket.It will be important for the guys to get back into Test mode but having a week or so off, and a game before the Test, will definitely help.

There was a stark contrast between the shot selection of Damien Martyn as opposed to Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. This can partly be attributed to the sea of difference between the bowling of the two sides – one woefully profligate and the other manfully disciplined. The slowness of the pitch as the match wore on was also one of the factors, but the contrast was definitely glaring.Damien Martyn scored 31% of his runs (31 off 100) in the V between long-on and long-off, while Tendulkar and Dravid hardly drove down the ground with the full face of the bat. Tendulkar scored only 14.7% of his runs (10 off 68) in this region while the corresponding figure for Dravid was 13.6% (8 off 59). The figures become even more baffling when one considers that the Australian seamers hardly pitched it short and stuck to a straight line throughout their spells. Tendulkar exhibited some artistic touch with some delectable glides and swipes, but this ultimately led to his dismissal.

Zaheer Khan’s early spell reminded one of the World Cup final, when he was dismantled by a rampaging unit. He bowled 45 balls out which of 15 drifted down leg side. On a pitch that demanded a stump-to-stump spell he should learn a few lessons from young Nathan Bracken, whose swing and control left most batsmen clueless. In a spell of 4 for 29 Bracken bowled only 3 balls on the middle and leg stump and of his 61 balls, 44 zeroed in outside the off stump. His length too was immaculate and 52 out of his 61 balls were pitched on a good length, 7 were pitched up and only 1 was short – a statistic that would have made Glenn Mcgrath proud.

Andrew Flintoff has been declared fit to bowl in the fourth Test match against South Africa which starts at Johannesburg tomorrow.Flintoff tore a muscle in his left side during England’s defeat at Cape Town last week, and while initial fears that he would be ruled out of the tour proved unfounded, there were serious concerns that he wouldn’t be able to bowl.But after bowling 20 deliveries at three-quarter-pace in the nets this morning, he was passed fit. “He’s had a bowl out in the middle and came out fine so he goes in as he did in the first three Tests – fully fit to play as an allrounder,” said Michael Vaughan. “In Cape Town I thought he was our best bowler, and in Durban probably our second-best. It is good to have him fit to bowl, and we will just have to judge who is bowling well on any given day and on the given surface to see how much we use him. But as far as we’re concerned he is available to play any role required.”The news is a boost to England, but given that less than a week ago the injury was considered quite serious, there have to be concerns that Flintoff could break down during the game.