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India opener Shikhar Dhawan has been named captain of the A squad to play a three-day match against Bangladesh A in September

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Sep-20153:07

Kalra: Jadeja not forgotten yet

India opener Shikhar Dhawan has been named captain of the A squad to play a three-day match against Bangladesh A in September. Dhawan had been ruled out of the second and third Test in Sri Lanka last month after fracturing his hand during the first Test in Galle.Varun Aaron, who lost his Test spot to Umesh Yadav after a profligate showing in Galle, will get a chance to impress in the three-day game. Ravindra Jadeja, left out of both Test and ODI sides after having been a regular not too long ago, got a big break just before the start of the home season. His selection indicated he was still part of India’s plans, and if he can have a good early season, the third spinner’s slot could be his for the taking after a lukewarm performance from Harbhajan Singh.It has been a good pre-season for the young Karnataka batsman, Karun Nair, whose most notable performance was his second-innings century to save a four-day match against South Africa A. He was named in both the three-day and one-day sqauds, and should also play the other three-day game between Bangladesh A and the Ranji Trophy champions Karnataka.Nair’s captain in the one-day side will be Delhi batsman Unmukt Chand. Suresh Raina was the only India regular in the squad, but Kedar Jadhav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Manish Pandey and Sanju Samson – all named in this squad – were part of the contingent that won all the three ODIs in Zimbabwe. Legspinner Karn Sharma, who missed out on the Zimbabwe tour because of injury, was back too.Two promising young spinners, chinaman Kuldeep Yadav and offspinner Jayant Yadav, were also handed a chance to stake claims for an international spot during a busy home season.The three one-day fixtures will be played on September 16, 18 and 20, and the three-day match from September 27 to 29. All the games will be held in Bangalore. Karnataka will play Bangladesh A from September 22 to 24 in Mysore.Three-day squad Shikhar Dhawan (capt), Abhinav Mukund, Karun Nair, Shreyas Iyer, Baba Aparajith, Naman Ojha, Jayant Yadav, Vijay Shankar, Ravindra Jadeja, Shreyas Gopal, Abhimanyu Mithun, Varun Aaron, Ishwar Pandey, Sheldon JacksonOne-day squad: Unmukt Chand (capt), Mayank Agarwal, Manish Pandey, Suresh Raina, Kedar Jadhav, Sanju Samson, Karun Nair, Kuldeep Yadav, Jayant Yadav, Karn Sharma, Rishi Dhawan, S Aravind, Dhawal Kulkarni, Rush Kalaria, Gurkeerat Singh Mann

This is a different kind of cricket

Krishna Kumar12-Jun-2013

This is a different kind of cricket. Not the soft artistry of VVS Laxman, not
the classical, streamlined beauty of Rahul Dravid, not the scientific art of
Sachin Tendulkar’s genius. This isn’t the moody strokeplay of Sourav Ganguly, nor the
muscular presence and timing of Yuvraj Singh. This is somehow a bit more
uninhibited. At times, it’s easier to define things by describing what
they aren’t. When you think of Sehwag, you first think of unrestrained,
unrehearsed, inscrutable. Everything seems instantly conceived.
Everything is very definitely original.It is easy to get carried away by the seemingly spontaneous flow of Sehwag’s
shotmaking. When hours of careful study of bowlers’ techniques align with
an unerring ability to pick line and, more importantly, length early, you feel
a batsman is playing purely by instinct. It is an instinct that has been finely
honed. Sehwag possesses a fine cricketing mind and he plays the ball very
late. Nearly always, he’s on tiptoe and, now and then, his feet are off the
ground. This is what allows him the freedom to improvise.Sehwag’s confidence in his abilities borders on cricketing swagger. It is a
different brand of arrogance. It isn’t the restrained confidence of a
Tendulkar. It’s a bit like Richards. With bowlers bowling to Tendulkar,
especially these days, it is an acknowledgement of mastery. With Sehwag,
it’s almost a fear of flogging. There’s a crucial difference with Richards
however. Viv was the master of machismo, of the exaggerated strut and the
flourish of the follow-through. It was muscular masculinity expressed
through sport. Where Richards’s arrogance was significant in its
exaggeration, Sehwag’s is apparent in its minimising.Sehwag doesn’t hold his pose after a flashing cover-drive, the bat is brought back down from the follow-through very quickly, as if it wasn’t such a big deal after all. He
might take a couple of short steps about the crease, look down the handle of
his bat held away from him at an angle, and then he’s ready again. His is
almost an oriental spunk. Viv’s cricket was also a statement of a people,
Sehwag’s is simply the sporting expression of a free-spirited individual.
To bowlers, both might appear the same.There are resemblances to Javed Miandad in his very streetsmart approach to
cricket. But the jauntiness is at variance with Miandad’s. He may assume his
stance well outside leg as he did to Stuart MacGill in Sydney. He might splay his
left leg and hit the first ball of a new spell for six over the bowler’s
head. But, the jauntiness isn’t in your face like Miandad’s. He very
rarely provokes, he generally only reacts.From a batsman who modelled some of his early batsmanship on Tendulkar,
Sehwag has blossomed quickly into a batsman with his very own range of
strokes. Not many now will mistake him for Sachin. That flick off his toes
that resembles Sachin’s in body balance has a table-tennis-like flourish,
you can feel the face of the bat turning on the ball. Sachin seems to use the
pace of the ball, Sehwag looks to give it a real whip. His vast array of
off-side shots are close to all his own. He might have initially borrowed
the upper cut from Sachin, but he plays it far more regularly than Sachin
these days. There is incredibly, at least one six over point every big
innings. There is a difference even in the way he ducks under the short
ball. He doesn’t necessarily follow the ball into the keeper’s gloves, it’s
as if he’s saying, the ball’s gone over my head, why bother looking.He has succeeded at opening because he has stuck to his game. Shrewdly, in
Tests, he gives the first hour to the bowler and then opens out. The
defence has tightened and he leaves a lot more outside off. His camaraderie
with Akash Chopra reminds you sometimes of the relationship between Desmond Haynes and Gordon Greenidge. His acute cricketing alertness makes you feel he’s rarely rushed when taking those quick singles. Mostly, you see him ease to the striker’s end at a short,
light canter.The same alertness is why he’s a very good fielder and an
excellent catcher. Ajit Agarkar and Dravid were the architects of that famous
Adelaide win, but it was the brilliant, full-length diving tumble from
Sehwag to catch Simon Katich at the end of an exhausting first day that
provided the initial spark. Earlier in the year, he’d held a few very sharp
ones at slip to help Ashish Nehra run through England in the World Cup game at
Durban. His first movement to the ball is so well-timed that the rest seems
easy in comparison. To top it all off, he’s a half-decent offie as well.Often it is flippantly claimed that there’s a method to his madness. I beg
to differ. This is no madness. We see so much of what’s conventional that
we can’t seem to recognise celebration. It isn’t that he doesn’t respect
cricket’s time-tested techniques, it’s just that he’s very alert to its
intricacies. He can conceive attack when so many would defend. It’s not as
if he doesn’t understand the importance of footwork and getting behind the
line. He appreciates these for what they are. They are means to an end.
That of hitting a cricket ball consistently with the middle of the bat. He
does this by a wonderful combination of bat-speed and fine balance. This is
a celebration of rare talent. Not someone having a waft in the wind.

The second match of the evening too didn’t produce an evenly matched contest as Chittagong Kings’ 206 proved too much for Duronto Rajshahi

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Feb-2012
ScorecardThe second match of the evening too didn’t produce an evenly matched contest as Chittagong Kings’ 206 proved too much for Duronto Rajshahi. Nasir Jamshed smashed 56 while Mahmudullah and Jason Roy hit 43 each to bring up the first 200-plus score of the tournament.Jamshed smashed three sixes and five fours in his knock. England’s Roy hit the same number of sixes in his 25-ball knock. Both Roy and Jamshed departed before the 15th over, setting the platform for Mahmudullah and Dwayne Bravo to unleash their fireworks. Bravo hit a 19-ball 38 to go with his partner’s 18-ball unbeaten 43.Bravo was the pick of the bowlers, taking 3 for 17. He truck twice in the first over of the innings and that set Rajshahi back in their chase. They failed to string together partnerships the highest being 60 for the third wicket between Abdul Razzaq and Junaid Siddique. The next highest stand was 27, for the seventh. Rajshahi also found it difficult to get on top of the spin duo of Enamul Haque jnr and Muttiah Muralitharan.

Left-arm seamer Harry Gurney will be leaving Grace Road for Trent Bridge at the end of the season after signing a three-year contract with Nottinghamshire

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Aug-2011Left-arm seamer Harry Gurney will be leaving Grace Road for Trent Bridge at the end of the season after signing a three-year contract with Nottinghamshire. Gurney, 24, will represent Leicestershire in the Champions League, the qualifying tournament for which starts on September 19, before completing the switch.Gurney was Leicestershire’s leading wicket-taker in this year’s Twenty20 competition with 23 scalps. He missed Leicestershire’s Finals Day victory with a side strain but will recover in time to take part in the Champions League.”I’ve made my mark in limited-overs cricket but I think I can be more effective in four day cricket given the way the red ball swings at Trent Bridge and the carry in the wicket,” said Gurney. “Nottinghamshire have an excellent squad that is usually in contention in all three formats and I want to be part of that.”Nottinghamshire Director of Cricket Mick Newell suggested that Gurney would add left-arm variation to his pace attack. “Leicestershire tend to play two spinners in the Championship and Harry has found himself behind Matthew Hoggard and Nathan Buck which has limited his appearances,” said Newell.”He’s had success in twenty-over cricket and our batsmen were impressed by the pace he showed in the matches against us. Left-arm swing is a good option for us to have at our disposal and we’re pleased to have agreed this deal with Harry.”Gurney played club cricket for Loughborough Town before graduating through Leicestershire’s age group system and making his first class debut in 2007. He took three wickets in his solitary Championship appearance this season.

No play was possible on the first day of the County Championship match between leaders Durham and Yorkshire at Chester-le-Street because of rain

18-Jun-2011
Scorecard
No play was possible on the first day of the County Championship match between leaders Durham and Yorkshire at Chester-le-Street because of rain.It was a mixed blessing for both teams as the delay gave them some rest after travelling from Friends Life t20 matches last night, although neither will welcome the prospect of a draw.With five wins from eight games, Durham are 17 points clear at the top, while Yorkshire have not won since the opening match at Worcestershire and lie seventh with 62 points. A week after his 37th birthday Durham’s Dale Benkenstein needs 148 runs to break the county’s record first-class tally.Former captain Jon Lewis, now the second team coach, totalled 7,854 runs in 262 innings from the 1997-2006 seasons, while Benkenstein has scored 7,707 in 171 innings. He has hit four centuries and four half-centuries in 12 knocks this season in the County Championship, in which he has scored 856 runs at 77.72.While Yorkshire await Tim Bresnan’s return to full fitness, Durham are able to reunite Steve Harmison and Graham Onions for the first time since August 2009. They also have Liam Plunkett available for his first championship action since the win at Headingley in April.

The Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) in Columbo will host the two World Cup 2011 warm-up matches that had been scheduled to take place at Pallekele in Sri Lanka

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Feb-2011The Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) in Columbo will host the two World Cup 2011 warm-up matches that had been scheduled to take place at Pallekele in Sri Lanka. The ICC said in a statement that it had also considered Hambantota as an alternate venue, but heavy rain in the southern Sri Lankan region ruled out that option.The two games, Sri Lanka versus the Netherlands on February 12, and Kenya versus the Netherlands on February 15, will be day games. This does not affect the three tournament fixtures scheduled to take place at Pallekele in March.The decision to move the games from Pallekele was made following a recommendation by ICC pitch consultant Andy Atkinson after he inspected the venue on Wednesday. Heavy rain in the region had affected the preparation of the pitches.

Stephen Peters fell one run short of what would have been the first
double-century of his career after batting for just over nine hours to put
Northamptonshire in a commanding position against Middlesex at Lord’s

06-Jun-2010

ScorecardStephen Peters fell one run short of what would have been the first
double-century of his career after batting for just over nine hours to put
Northamptonshire in a commanding position against Middlesex at Lord’s.He had faced 391 balls and hit 20 fours in the County Championship Division
Two match when he chipped a return catch to Shaun Udal, sprawling to his right. Peters looked crestfallen but he had done a great job for his side in sharing stands of 182 with Alex Wakely, 70 with Nicky Boje and 144 with his captain Andrew Hall.Hall went on to make 133 off 192 balls with 17 fours and when he declared at
581 for 7, Northamptonshire’s highest score against Middlesex, they were 234
ahead. Middlesex closed on 48 for the loss of Scott Newman.Northamptonshire had resumed at 280 for 4 in reply to Middlesex’s first innings
347 and Peters and Boje added 50 in 14 overs before Boje pulled Pedro Collins
straight to square leg. Peters, 115 overnight, was never in trouble as he went past his previous
highest score of 183 not out – scored in leading Northamptonshire to a
six-wicket victory over Middlesex at Northampton in April – but he became
increasingly tentative as he neared his milestone.In the end he could not get there but he had still made the highest score by a
Northamptonshire batsman against Middlesex and given Hall the perfect platform
to build his first century of the season.David Murphy, a wicketkeeper-batsman from Loughborough University who is
deputising for the injured Niall O’Brien, joined him in a seventh-wicket stand
of 107. Murphy made an unbeaten 50, his highest score in the championship, off 87 balls
and by the time Hall was bowled driving at Pedro Collins Middlesex were in
disarray.Udal, their captain, had his left hand strapped after splitting the webbing
between his thumb and forefinger, and Gareth Berg, their newly-capped
all-rounder, was off the field with back trouble.No fewer than nine bowlers were used with only Udal himself and Collins
emerging with any credit and the fielding was so poor that there were jeers from
a section of the small crowd. Their mood did not improve when Newman edged his third ball from Jack Brooks to first slip but at least Sam Robson and Owais Shah held out until the close.

Second time in Championship history a side has chased over 500 to win, after Middlesex beat Notts in 1925

ECB Reporters Network14-Jun-2023Surrey rewrote history with almost casual ease in the LV= Insurance County Championship on Wednesday, chasing down a target of 501 to beat Kent by five wickets at Canterbury.What threatened to be a pulsating final day instead turned into a one-sided procession as Dom Sibley and Ben Foakes batted mercilessly, eclipsing Surrey’s previous highest chase of 410, made at this venue in 2002, to finish on 501 for 5.Foakes made 124, while Sibley scored what’s believed to be the slowest ever century in the County Championship over the course of 511 minutes and 368 balls. He eventually finished on 140 from 415 balls, seeing Surry home with Jordan Clark after a magnificent feat of concentration and endurance.Three days of violent momentum swings, luck, individual brilliance and human error had left the match almost perfectly poised at the start of day four, with Kent needing seven wickets and Surrey 238 runs.It was the human factor that added the intrigue: without the dropped catches, the “poor” shots and the “bad” balls this would have been a torpid 700 v 700 bore draw. The final day, however, offered almost none of the drama of the previous three.Only once in the history of the Championship had a side chased over 500 to win: when Patsy Hendren hit an unbeaten 206 as Middlesex scored 502 to beat Notts by four wickets at Trent Bridge in 1925.The reigning champions did it with a determination that belied everything that had gone before. Needing under three an over, they homed in on the target like an armour-plated milk float: slow but bombproof.The morning session was almost ideal for Surrey. Foakes and Sibley saw off the new ball and scored predominantly in singles, at one point going ten overs without a boundary. Foakes survived an lbw appeal from Wes Agar but they were otherwise unthreatened.At lunch it was 335 for 3 and a Surrey win was looking as inevitable as an Arsenal title collapse. There was a fleeting moment of controversy when Kent were convinced Hamid Qadri had Foakes, on 73, caught behind, but it was an isolated outbreak of excitement during an almost catatonic afternoon.Sibley finally reached three figures when he drove Joey Evison for four, beating the previous record, understood to be Jason Gallian’s 453-minute ton for Lancashire against Derbyshire at Blackpool in 1994. He just beat his partner to the landmark: Foakes took two from Jack Leaning in the next over to bring up a relatively quickfire hundred from 198 deliveries.With the target now under a hundred, Surrey swapped the milk float for a Lamborghini. The 130th over went for 20 but Foakes then holed out to Joe Denly and was caught by Matt Quinn on the boundary, ending a partnership of 207.It was 452 for four at tea, by which time Kent’s members had long been delivered from the hell of hope and the smattering of Surrey fans by the Old Dover Road entrance were savouring every minute.Will Jacks was out for 19 caught by Agar off Arshdeep Singh but by then just 40 were needed. Clark sealed the win with a single off Denly and Surrey exited the field to a fully deserved ovation from home and away fans alike.

“I knew I wasn’t going to play for India, so there was no reason to continue playing”

Shashank Kishore25-Oct-2020Tanmay Srivastava, the Uttar Pradesh batsman, has decided to retire from all forms of cricket at the age of 30. Srivastava finishes with 4918 runs in 90 first-class matches, a majority of which he played for Uttar Pradesh, a state he captained at different times right from the age-group circuit.A solid left-hand opener, Srivastava moved to Uttarakhand ahead of the 2019-20 domestic season. He wasn’t named among the probables for the upcoming season, which continues to remain in doubt due to the covid-19 pandemic.”I wasn’t going to play for Uttarakhand, so I didn’t have an immediate future with the team. I haven’t been playing in the IPL, I knew I wasn’t going to play for India, so there was no reason to continue playing,” Srivastava told ESPNcricinfo. “I played 90 first-class games. Yes, even if I could have played 10 more for 100, what would I have achieved?”Nothing would’ve changed. I’d rather not block a youngster’s place now. Someone else getting the right opportunity at the right time could benefit much more than me sticking around to complete a milestone.”Srivastava’s career started with much promise. As a 16-year old, he captained an India Under-19 team that had in their ranks the likes of Virat Kohli, Manish Pandey and Ravindra Jadeja. At 18, he lost the captaincy to Kohli but was India’s highest run-getter in their victorious Under-19 World Cup campaign in Malaysia in 2008.He was also part of the Uttar Pradesh team when they made back-to-back Ranji Trophy finals from 2006 to 2008, even scoring a century in a losing cause against Delhi on a seaming deck at the Wankhede Stadium. He was part of Kings XI Punjab for the first two IPL seasons before he fell off the IPL radar. Although he was then contracted with Kochi Tuskers Kerala, he didn’t have opportunities to present his case.”One of my favourite memories from cricket is opening the batting with Sachin Tendulkar in the Challenger Trophy in 2006 as a 17-year old,” he said. “He is a hero, so that was a magical experience. Scoring a century in a Ranji final, being part of an Under-19 World Cup win, wearing that India jersey, being part of the IPL – these are all experiences I cherish.”Srivastava finishes his career with a first-class average of 34, something he felt a little disappointed with, although he felt playing on surfaces up north meant the worth of it was probably a lot more. That said, he also accepted inconsistency didn’t help his case.”I used to score 500-600 every season, which is okay, maybe good. But there were a lot of other batsmen who also made the same amount of runs. That is why probably I couldn’t stand out. Also, the wickets in the north, especially in winters, were a lot more challenging than in other parts of the country. So it wasn’t easy as an opener. But that said, I’m overall happy with the career I’ve had.”Srivastava hasn’t charted out a post-retirement plan just yet. For now, he will continue representing ONGC, the company that gave him a sports-quota job as a teenager in 2007, in corporate tournaments.

England seamer happy to get one over brother in high-scoring contest against CSK

Andrew Miller23-Sep-2020Tom Curran reckons that the opening night of the IPL in Sharjah offered a sign of things to come for bowling attacks in this year’s competition, after the Rajasthan Royals out-muscled the Chennai Super Kings in a bat-dominated contest that featured a record-equalling 33 sixes across the two innings.Curran himself was subjected to six of those, including three in a row in the final over of the match, as MS Dhoni belatedly turned on the afterburners with the contest already out of his side’s reach.But, Curran said, given the combination of Sharjah’s short boundaries and the onset of dew in the latter stages of the CSK chase, he was happy to have taken his licks and emerged on the winning side – especially given that his brother Sam was in the opposition ranks.”It’s going to be tough work throughout the tournament, bowling at Sharjah,” Curran said. “It’s obviously small, but when the dew came in the second innings, it became really, really hard.”The ball got really, really wet and with the combination of the humidity and how much you end up sweating there, there’s going to be some entertaining high-scoring games. And the toss is going to be crucial as well.”Curran’s second foray in the IPL comes after an initial stint as a late replacement for KKR in 2018, in which he picked up six wickets in five matches, but at an economy rate of nearly two a ball.This time around, however, his burgeoning reputation as a death bowler – for Surrey and Sydney Sixers as well as England – persuaded the Royals to shell out INR 1 crore (USD140,000 approx) at last year’s auction. And while his skills weren’t exactly tested on Tuesday night, given that he was defending 38 in the final over of the match, the experience was valuable nonetheless, given that the Royals’ next match, against the King’s XI Punjab, takes place at the same venue on Sunday night.”It was frustrating to go for those sixes but, at the same time, with a wet ball like that, the main thing was to not bowl a no-ball and make sure we win the game,” Curran said. “If I start trying to nail my yorkers and the ball slips out, and I bowl a flat one that goes for six, it just brings them back into the game.”The pressure isn’t off but it kind of is, if you know what I mean,” he added. “It’s nice that we’d won the game but, as a bowler, to run up there at one of the most destructive batters in the world, it’s not the nicest situation. It’s one of those things really. It’s about adapting on the night really, and trying to get the job done for the team, which is what we did as an attack very nicely last night.”Tom Curran poses in his Rajasthan Royals colours•Getty Images

As a bowler who relies on sleight of hand more than outright pace, however, Curran recognises that he won’t be able to shelve his variations indefinitely in such conditions.”As the tournament goes on, it’ll be about practising with a wet ball and just trying to make the best out of a bad situation,” he said. “Concentrate on the next ball and try and limit those big, big overs because there’s going to be boundaries, there’s going to be a lot of sixes. It’s about limiting those, I guess.”If his evening’s work with the ball wasn’t quite as he might have planned, then Curran did at least enjoy a degree of one-upmanship against his brother, whom he withstood in an innings of 10 not out that, with Jofra Archer letting rip at the other end with four consecutive sixes, helped to lift the Royals to an insurmountable total of 216 for 7.Sam Curran did land some telling blows on the Royals, if not his brother, claiming 3 for 33 with the ball before cracking 17 from six balls after being promoted up the CSK order. “He came out with one intention. And one message, to swing pretty hard,” Tom said. “So unless he got 80-odd, I don’t think I would have bowled to him.”I wouldn’t say there was any chirping, but there was a bit of banter going into the game, so it was nice that we got a win there,” he added. “But it was a strange feeling, a different type of concentration really, seeing him running up, there were a lot more things on my mind than usual for those first couple, which was strange.”ALSO READ: ‘I worked on range hitting during the break – Sanju SamsonTom’s main scoring shot against Sam was an outside-edged yorker that flew through third man for four, but while he was happy not to have got out to his younger brother, he did rue a missed opportunity to put a more definitive stamp on their mini-battle.”I’d have liked to put him into the stands for a couple, to be honest! The last ball I faced, he tried to bounce me actually, which was surprising because he had square leg up. I wish I’d stood still because I reckon that was my chance to put him into the stands. But he was getting his yorkers in, so I tried to put him off and walk down the wicket.”It was good fun. We definitely had a laugh about it afterwards but, like I said, I’d have liked to have put him into the stands. He had a really good game, but we had a win. It’s nice to get a win and hopefully we get another little battle in a couple of weeks when we play them again.”Watch the Rajasthan Royals take on the King’s XI Punjab on Sky Sports, Sunday, September 27, at 3pm BST