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Alastair Cook will captain a 12-man England Lions squad in a triangular one-day series against A sides from India and West Indies between June 28 and July 8

Cricinfo staff21-Jun-2010While the national one-day side wages a pre-Ashes battle against Australia, Alastair Cook will captain a 12-man England Lions squad in a triangular one-day series against A sides from India and West Indies between June 28 and July 8. The side is a strong one, featuring seven England-capped players including Jonathan Trott, Ravi Bopara, Sajid Mahmood and Liam Plunkett.The rest of the squad, apart from Darren Stevens, have featured in Lions line-ups in the past. His call-up comes after a prosperous start to the county season with Kent, for whom he is currently leading run-scorer in the county championship with 774 runs at 70.36, including four hundreds, and in the Friends Provident t20 competition, with 212 runs in seven innings at a strike-rate of 142.28. He has also scored at a rate of 111.84 in the CB40 League, and taken 17 wickets so far across the three formats.”This is well deserved for Darren because he is a quality player,” said Robert Key, Stevens’ captain at Kent. “Hopefully a place in the Lions squad will be a quick stepping stone for him because I feel he deserves to be in the full England side.””We are pleased to welcome Darren Stevens to the squad who has been rewarded for his impressive form with Kent this season,” said National Selector Geoff Miller. “This triangular series presents the England Lions squad with an excellent opportunity to demonstrate their abilities in the one-day format and challenge for a place in the senior side.”Alastair Cook will have an opportunity to gain further experience as captain after successful spells as captain with both England and England Lions and he will lead a side that includes six of the squad members involved in the one-day series against Pakistan A in February.”With England facing a busy summer schedule and the county season in full swing, Miller also suggested that there was the possibility of squad members maintaining their county commitments, and of national players in need of some time in the middle coming in to the side.”We have selected a strong squad for what will be a challenging series. There is scope for non-playing Lions squad members to return to their counties for fixtures when appropriate and we will also consider using non-playing members of the England one-day squad throughout the Lions series to give them match practice.”England Lions squad: Alastair Cook (capt), Ravi Bopara, Steven Davies (wk), Andrew Gale, Sajid Mahmood, Liam Plunkett, Darren Stevens, James Taylor, James Tredwell, Peter Trego, Jonathan Trott, Chris Woakes

England Lions overcame the loss of their captain Alastair Cook to injury and cruised to their second victory of the tri-series

Cricinfo staff01-Jul-2010
ScorecardEngland Lions overcame the loss of their captain Alastair Cook to injury and cruised to their second victory of the tri-series by beating India A by five wickets and more than four overs to spare. A collective performance with the ball dismissed the visitors for 254 before contributions from all of the batsmen sealed the result.Stand-in captain Andrew Gale asked India A to bat and the Lions’ bowlers were faced with the challenge of curbing a fluent start. Abhinav Mukund and Shikhar Dhawan added 54 before Peter Trego struck the first blow, dismissing Dhawan for 24. India A progressed steadily to 112 for 2 before the slide began. The seamers struck at regular intervals and soon the score read 145 for 5 in 31 overs.Cheteshwar Pujara held the innings together with a half-century ; India A had recovered to 234 for 6 and were poised for a final thrust. Ajmal Shahzad, however, struck twice in the 47th over and dismissed Pujara for 73. Shahzad finished with 3 for 56, while Bopara had claimed three top-order wickets to end with 3 for 32.The Lions’ top five batsmen got off to starts but all of them failed to carry on and, at 165 for 5 after 31 overs, India A held the edge. Dhawal Kulkarni and Manoj Tiwary had taken two wickets apiece. Darren Stevens and Trego, however, came together and forged a match-winning 90-run partnership for the sixth wicket. Stevens was unbeaten on 58 and Trego on 48 when the winnings runs were scored.

Shane Watson cannot be expected to carry the pace attack and then jog inside, pad up and battle the new ball

Brydon Coverdale at Headingley22-Jul-2010Shane Watson was Australia’s best bowler in swinging conditions at Lord’s and he has been the most dangerous at Headingley. With all due respect to Watson, that is a problem for Australia. Their opening batsman cannot be expected to carry the pace attack and then jog inside, pad up and battle the new ball, especially given Watson’s injury history.Instead of spending the final stages in the field planning ahead to his innings, Watson was striving to bowl Pakistan out himself, and when he went out to bat his concentration wasn’t quite there. Within 20 minutes he had fallen to a shot that a Test opener shouldn’t play that early, and was bowled trying to dab a late cut through the cordon off Umar Amin’s dibbly-dobbly part-timers.Batting is his primary role in this team, but his 6 for 33 in Leeds was an example of fine swing bowling and it took him to 11 wickets for the series. Between them, Ben Hilfenhaus, Mitchell Johnson and Doug Bollinger have nine. And if they keep bowling like they did on the first two days of this Test, Johnson and Bollinger in particular will struggle to add to that tally.There were lessons to be learnt from the method used by Pakistan’s swing trio after they curled their way through Australia on the first day. Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer especially were constantly threatening when they pitched the ball up and encouraged it to swing, perhaps a few curving away and then a surprise in-ducker.They understood that Headingley is a venue where glancing to the skies is of more value to a fast bowler than looking down at the surface. But when confronted on the second morning by overcast conditions similar to those experienced by Pakistan a day earlier, the Australians instead focused on the middle of the pitch and banged the ball in.Rarely will they be blessed with more favourable circumstances in which to swing the ball. Asif operates in the low 130kph region and he proved that speed was not important, yet Bollinger and Johnson bent their backs, charged in and were surprised when their efforts were picked off with ease.The only wicket either of them collected came when Umar Akmal drove unnecessarily outside off and edged behind off a Johnson delivery that moved away with the natural angle. Perhaps he’d watched his own bowlers and assumed the ball would swing in, but recently Johnson’s seam and radar have both been scrambled.Hilfenhaus at least adjusted his method after leaking early runs and looked threatening at times. But it was Watson who stopped the Test from drifting towards a position from which even Pakistan couldn’t lose. His two wickets in the over after lunch were decisive.First it was Kamran Akmal, who edged to slip from a lovely delivery that moved away, and then Aamer, who padded up to one that angled across him and swung back to straighten down the line. Replays suggested the ball would have missed off stump but to the naked eye it looked out.It was excellent bowling, full enough to allow the ball to swing and straight enough that the batsmen needed to play. At the other end, Bollinger started the next over short of a length – twice. Lessons learnt by Watson, first from the Pakistan bowling effort and then from his own success, were not being taken in by others.”They got their length very right the majority of the time,” Watson said of the Pakistan attack. “The length I try to bowl is that fuller sort of length and try and get some lbws and bowleds if it’s not swinging that much anyway. But it’s definitely something that I did take out of how they bowled, because they did bowl perfectly under those conditions in the first innings.”I have been lucky that the conditions have suited me a little bit better. The conditions have swung and it’s probably helped me and Ben out more than someone like Mitch or Dougie, who probably bowl that little bit quicker and have probably less chance of swinging the ball.”That is true of their natural bowling styles, and perhaps it won’t be an issue on dusty Indian pitches and at home for the Ashes, but the best practitioners adapt to the conditions. One of the greatest, the Pakistan coach Waqar Younis, was surprised that Watson was the only one of the Australians who made full use of the swing.If his batsmen end up chasing 150, he’ll be hoping Australia’s strike bowlers continue along the same lines. And lengths.

Three late wickets by their former team-mate Mitch Claydon checked Yorkshire’s
cruise to victory against Durham, but with only 54 needed and six wickets
standing they should stay in contention for the County Championship Division
One title

18-Aug-2010
ScorecardAdam Lyth got the Yorkshire chase off to a good start with 48•Getty Images

Three late wickets by their former team-mate Mitch Claydon checked Yorkshire’s
cruise to victory against Durham, but with only 54 needed and six wickets
standing they should stay in contention for the County Championship Division
One title.On a Chester-le-Street pitch becoming progressively flatter after 17 wickets
fell on the first day, Claydon forced Jacques Rudolph to play on for 100 and
reduced Yorkshire from 181 for one to 228 for 4.Chasing a target of 299, they closed on 245 for 4, with skipper Andrew Gale
unbeaten on 36 and nightwatchman Steve Patterson on three after surviving an
impassioned first ball lbw appeal by Claydon.Rudolph was troubled only by the swing of the luckless Chris Rushworth in
racing to his fourth Championship century of the season off 137 balls, with 15
fours. He put on 113 with Adam Lyth, who fell for 48 when he tried to force away Ben
Stokes’ third ball off the back foot and edged to Michael Di Venuto at second
slip.First innings century-maker Anthony McGrath helped to take the total to 181
before Claydon struck. He forced Rudolph back with a ball of steep bounce, which the left-hander
played down into his stumps, then McGrath sliced a drive to point, where Stokes
held a good low catch.In between those two wickets, Gale hit three successive balls from Claydon for
four and it seemed he might want to claim the extra half hour for a three-day
finish. But that was out of the question once Jonny Bairstow had departed for 13,
edging Claydon to Phil Mustard.The warning signs that the pitch was placid were there in the morning for
Durham as their tailenders helped Dale Benkenstein add 133 to the overnight 207
for 6. Benkenstein never looked like getting out until he sensed he was running out of
support after Liam Plunkett edged a drive to second slip and Claydon was lbw to
the new ball.Both had looked in no trouble, making 30 and 29 respectively, but after
Rushworth was dropped on nought by Gale at cover Benkenstein dabbled outside off
stump and edged to the wicketkeeper to fall for 74. Rushworth then hit four fours in an over off Patterson on his way to 28 before he was bowled by the second ball after lunch, giving Patterson his fourth
wicket.There were also four for Oliver Hannon-Dalby, continuing to deputise for Tim
Bresnan, who arrived back from The Oval where he had been released by England in
mid-afternoon.

Sachin Tendulkar, the Mumbai Indians captain, has expressed his disappointment at the prospect of his team being broken up ahead of the IPL player auction in November

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Sep-2010Sachin Tendulkar, the Mumbai Indians captain, has expressed his disappointment at the prospect of his team being broken up ahead of the IPL player auction in November. Tendulkar said the Mumbai franchise had worked hard to build its team and it was “tough to accept” that the composition had to change.”I feel it is about building teams, not breaking teams,” Tendulkar said. “We have really worked hard to build this team and have got together brilliantly. In the third year we held a couple of camps, which had nothing to do with cricket. It was just about getting together and building team spirit.”Right from the management and the owners, Mr and Mrs Ambani, they have all put in a lot of effort along with the players, and then you realise that the team has to change. It’s tough to accept that.”The Mumbai Indians were the first IPL side to be eliminated from the Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa and have probably played their last competitive game together. Under the new IPL regulations, each of the eight franchises that participated in the 2010 season can retain up to four players, only three of whom can be Indians. All the other international capped players, as well as those who have played 75% of their side’s IPL matches in 2010, will be part of the auction.”I don’t know, it’s not my job to figure what’s right or wrong, but I feel if a player is happy to play for a particular team, it’s good he stays with that team,” Tendulkar said, when asked if he was happy with the retention formula. “There’s some sort of identity with that team. We have a huge following now and it’s also an attachment with a particular team.”Rahul Dravid, the Royal Challengers Bangalore batsman, however, has offered a different point of view. He said that since two new franchises – Pune and Kochi – had been added to the IPL, increasing the number of teams to ten, the majority of the players had to go into the auction. “One has to understand that two more teams are entering the IPL,” Dravid said last week, “and the beauty of the IPL is that it’s very competitive, anyone can win.”We don’t want to end up in a situation like in the Premiership [English Premier League] where only three or four teams can win the tournament. It’s an even playing field. I like the concept of everyone having a chance to do well as it raises the level of the tournament. It raises the interest levels also.”

Merissa Aguilleira and Stafanie Taylor have welcomed the West Indies Cricket Board’s decision to offer central retainer contracts to six players in the their side

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Oct-2010West Indies women captain, Merissa Aguilleira, and leading batsman Stafanie Taylor have welcomed the West Indies Cricket Board’s (WICB) decision to offer central retainer contracts to six players in the their side.”When I first heard the WICB was offering retainers to members of our team I said to the others ‘wow, this is great news for us’,” said Taylor, who has been in top form in the ongoing ICC Women’s Cricket Challenge in South Africa. “I am truly very happy not just for myself but for the other members of my team. We are all playing our hearts out for West Indies cricket and we are truly delighted that the WICB is taking notice and looking out for us.
“Our coach always urges us to play with heart and one day we will get the recognition. With the contracts, we can now concentrate fully on our cricket and we know we will have income to sustain ourselves.”Taylor, 19, is one of the rising stars in the women’s game, and on Wednesday became the youngest woman to reach 1000 ODI runs, when she made 72 against Ireland. Her captain Aguilleira led the side to the semi-finals in the 2010 World Twenty20 and West Indies have also made steady improvement and moved up the ODI rankings.”This news could not have come at a better time,” Aguilleira said. “This is a good incentive for the girls to continue the hard work we have been putting in over the last few years since we started to make strides up the international ladder. I have been speaking to the girls and they are over the moon to hear we will be offered retainer contracts. We will continue to work hard to improve and get better at doing what we love.”

Graeme Smith, the South Africa captain, has said his team is not distracted by the spot-fixing controversy that has troubled Pakistan cricket

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Oct-2010Graeme Smith, the South Africa captain, has said his team is focussed on performing its best in the upcoming tour of the UAE where it takes on Pakistan in a full series and is not distracted by the spot-fixing controversy that has troubled Pakistan cricket since the tour of England earlier in the year. Smith said he expected Pakistan to be competitive in favourable conditions and called out fans in the UAE to provide the fullest support to the teams.”I think generally there are always one or two things going on in Pakistan cricket, so they’re pretty used to dealing with stuff like that at least from a playing perspective,” Smith told told Radio 2, a station based in the UAE. “We still expect them to be very competitive on this tour and conditions to suit them.”You can’t hide away from what’s going on but as a unit we’ve dealt with this in our society over the years. We’re used to adversity and for us it’s just about being honest.”Smith reposed faith in the ICC in tackling the latest crisis and said he viewed the series as the stage to begin a successful preparation for the World Cup in the subcontinent next year. “The ICC has to control the integrity of the game and it’s our responsibility to make the game as competitive as possible. We have to put our faith in the ICC to handle things properly,” Smith said. “We’ve got a lot of exciting guys coming through and it’s a great platform for our team to kickstart our summer. This month we take on Pakistan in the UAE and then an exciting series at home against India. It’s a very important phase for us in our preparation for the World Cup and we want to go there and be competitive.”It’ll be great if the people in the UAE came out and gave us some support. It’ll be fantastic.”The tour kicks off on October 26 with the first of two Twenty20 internationals. The teams then play five ODIs and two Tests.

Stuart Broad was quick to adapt to Australian conditions as he gained three wickets on the opening day of their tour opener against Western Australia

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Nov-2010England XI 1 for 10 trail Western Australia 8 for 242 dec (Voges 72, Robinson 62, Broad 3-47) by 232 runs

ScorecardStuart Broad watches Marcus North’s cut fly to Graeme Swann•Associated Press

Stuart Broad was quick to adapt to Australian conditions as he gained three wickets on the opening day of their tour opener against Western Australia. England’s enjoyed a dramatic start to their trip, with Broad taking two wickets in the second over, and the other fast bowlers completed a decent first hit-out.Western Australia declared at 8 for 242 to leave England’s openers six overs to face, but they lost Alastair Cook for 5 when he was bowled off the midriff while trying to pull Steve Magoffin. Andrew Strauss, who was 5, took them to 1 for 10 at stumps, while the nightwatchman James Anderson was on zero.The game began in a flurry of action and Broad, who is expected to be a key figure in the Ashes, was on a hat-trick almost immediately. Liam Davis edged to Graeme Swann, who took a diving catch at second slip, and Michael Swart flinched at a short ball before popping it to Paul Collingwood at first slip. Broad finished with 3 for 47 from 18 overs and will be keen for more work before the three-day game ends.Marcus North, Australia’s No.6, was edgy at the start of his innings and survived a couple of loud appeals for lbws from Broad. North has been under pressure to build on his starts over the past year, but he fell shortly before lunch when Broad returned for another spell.After spending 72 balls creeping to 19, North cut to Swann at second slip, as Broad collected 3 for 13 in nine impressive overs in the first session. It was a slow day after Broad’s initial breakthroughs as the hosts tried to hold on through Adam Voges (72) and Wes Robinson (62).Anderson, who gave up eight runs from his nine overs before the break, delivered 22 for the day and finished with 1 for 49. The wicket came when Luke Pomersbach (21) edged behind and followed Paul Collingwood’s caught-and-bowled of Robinson. Steven Finn was less effective but did pick up Luke Ronchi (32) after tea to have 1 for 69, while Swann was given 20 overs and gained the scalp of Ryan Duffield.

Victoria have been charged with ball-tampering during their win over South Australia at the Adelaide Oval, where Jon Holland took a career-best four-wicket haul

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Dec-2010
ScorecardJon Holland finished with 4 for 61•Getty Images

Victoria have been charged with ball-tampering during their win over South Australia at the Adelaide Oval, where Jon Holland took a career-best four-wicket haul. The Bushrangers were penalised five runs during South Australia’s innings after the umpires Simon Fry and Bob Parry found markings on the ball after the last delivery on the second day.The side will face a Code of Conduct hearing this week after being reported for a level one offence under rule 1.7 of the Cricket Australia Code of Behaviour, which relates to “failure by a team to ensure the condition of a ball is not changed in breach of law 42.3”. The standard penalty is a fine of 10% of each player’s match fee, as well as the five-run penalty.Victoria’s captain Cameron White said after play he was not aware of any specifics to do with the alleged breach. “I can’t say a lot, obviously the umpires have made an allegation,” White told AAP. “We know that it’s a team thing and it’s a hearing so that is about all we know to be honest. We actually … don’t know what the allegation is at this stage, so when we find out, we’ll assess where it goes from there.”The charges took the gloss off a comprehensive eight-wicket win for Victoria, which took only three days. Chasing 81 for victory, the Bushrangers reached their target with only two wickets down, with Aaron Finch on 25 and David Hussey on 8, after the Redbacks struggled in their second innings.Only one ball was possible in the first session due to rain, and when play resumed South Australia quickly lost Callum Ferguson for 15. Holland and Clint McKay (3 for 66) then ran through the rest of the Redbacks line-up to keep the home side to 213.The left-arm spinner Holland ended up with 4 for 61 and in the current state of Australian spin bowling, a couple more handy performances like that and he could find himself in the mix for a national call-up. The win was Victoria’s second of the summer and they sit fourth on the Sheffield Shield table, while the Redbacks are second-last.