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Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura has been fined 20% of his match fee for a minimum over rate breach of the ICC Code of Conduct during the fourth ODI against Bangladesh in Mirpur

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Nov-2014Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura has been fined 20% of his match fee for a minimum over rate breach of the ICC Code of Conduct during the fourth ODI against Bangladesh in Mirpur. In addition, Chigumbura’s team-mates received 10% match fines, in accordance with Article 2.5.1 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which states that “players are fined 10 per cent of their match fees for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time, with the captain fined double that amount.”The match referee Ranjan Madugalle imposed the fines after Zimbabwe were ruled to be one over short of their target when time allowances were taken into consideration. If Chigumbura is found guilty of one more minor over-rate offence in ODIs over the next 12 months, he will receive a one-match suspension as per the provisions of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel.Zimbabwe lost the ODI by 21 runs to fall behind 0-4 in the five-match series. They had earlier been whitewashed 3-0 in the Tests that preceded the one-day games.

West Indies’ two-T20 series against New Zealand will mark the return of Kieron Pollard from injury. Sunil Narine will also be back in national colours and so will Samuel Badree

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Jul-20141:41

‘I am short of practice’ – Badree

The switch to T20 cricket brings a familiar look to West Indies. Their two-match series against New Zealand will mark Kieron Pollard’s return from a year-long injury break. Sunil Narine, who was sidelined from the Tests owing to IPL commitments, will take up national duty again. So will Samuel Badree, the no.1-ranked T20 bowler.All three players had been involved in the IPL, along with some of the New Zealand squad. Pollard had shared a dressing room with the big-hitting Corey Anderson at Mumbai Indians. Badree was a team-mate of the New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum at Chennai Super Kings and he believed the insights he had gained would come in handy.”Obviously Brendon McCullum is one of their key performers in this version,” Badree said. “I’ve been with him in the IPL at Chennai and I know him quite well. Kane Williamson seems to be in good form, I don’t know who the other opener will be. I don’t think they’ve brought specialist openers for these two games. So I’ll work with the analyst before the game and come up with my game plan.Kieron Pollard is expected to return after a year-long injury layoff•WICB”Always mentally ready for any challenge. Physically, some might say I’m a bit short on practice, given the weather conditions and the fact there’s no cricket on in Trinidad & Tobago, but that’s no excuse. I’ve been working in the nets and so on so like I said looking forward to two games against New Zealand.”West Indies had trialled an inexperienced team under a new captain during the three-Test series. Though there were some heartening individual performances, they lost the series 2-1. Most of the T20 squad is consistent with the one that turned out for the World Cup in March. Krishmar Santokie, the left-arm seamer, might make his first appearance on this tour. His assortment of slower balls and yorkers helped him play all of West Indies’ games at the World Cup and a couple of matches for Mumbai in the IPL as well.”Always be watchful of the batters. That’s my main thing,” Santokie said. “On occasions, it depends on the situation of the game, you might have to change things. I’ve been working on some more variations in the nets but nothing in particular.”Regardless of what kind of pitch you play on. Everywhere in the world, variation is the key and that’s what I bring to the team.”

Sri Lanka sent back the Pakistan top order before lunch but Younis Khan’s unbeaten century ensured the visitors hit back to end the day on a solid 261 for 4

The Report by Abhishek Purohit06-Aug-2014
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsWhen Misbah-ul-Haq chose to bat, the skies were overcast and the pitch had been under covers following overnight rain. The ball moved around for a while, and Pakistan lost their openers inside six overs. Then came in Younis Khan and fought his way through to lunch. By stumps, Younis was batting on 133, had equalled Mohammad Yousuf for 24 Test centuries, the second-most by a Pakistani, and had gone past the latter’s 7530 Test runs.Younis and Azhar Ali started the resistance from 19 for 2. Younis then added 100 with his captain Misbah and piled on an unbroken 105 with Asad Shafiq. Rangana Herath persevered for 26 overs, and took out Azhar Ali and Misbah with rippers, but even he could not dislodge Younis, who just got better and better as the day progressed.There was swing as well as seam in the morning, and the hustling pace of Dhammika Prasad made the combination hard to tackle. He moved the ball in consistently and took the odd one away, leaving Azhar, in particular, groping. Before that, Ahmed Shehzad failed to cover enough for an inswinger, and chopped on his third ball on to the middle stump. His opening partner, Khurram Manzoor, kept falling over in his stance and was caught in front with another incoming delivery.Azhar, aside from his struggles, also played some lovely cover drives for fours. Those boundaries were a fitting reply to the pressure Prasad created, but after the burst from the fast bowler, Pakistan had to contend with relentless examination from Herath. Finding turn and occasional bounce early in the match, Herath pitched one on middle stump, drew Azhar forward, and spun it past the outside edge to strike the top of off.Younis took his time as usual, gradually playing himself in. He hung back when he could, and also used the sweep regularly to counter the spinners. The frequency of the stroke only increased after lunch, and Younis swept and reverse-swept Dilruwan Perera off successive deliveries. It was Misbah’s turn to try a paddle off the very next ball, and Perera switched to round the wicket thereafter.It only allowed Younis to bat even more positively against the offspinner; the batsman collected 48 off the 43 balls he faced from Perera. Just before drinks in the second session, Younis swept, lofted and drove Perera for three consecutive fours. Younis also stepped out to hit Perera for six. Two balls later, he hit a reverse-sweep in the air, and Mahela Jayawardene, moving to his right from slip, got both hands to it but could not hold on. Younis was on 68.He had already reviewed twice successfully, once on 20 after being given caught behind off Prasad, and on 59 after he was adjudged leg-before to Perera. On the first occasion, replays showed there was no bat involved, and on the second, the ball-tracker showed the delivery would have bounced just over the stumps.Misbah had a review against him turned down when he was yet to get off the mark, with replays signalling umpire’s call on the point of impact off Angelo Mathews. Misbah took his first run off his 17th delivery, and his second scoring shot was a hook off Prasad off his 40th. He was happy to stay right back or lunge right forward and defend initially as Younis went about the scoring business. Sweeps and nudges brought him the odd run. Misbah battled till his 100th delivery proved to be a Herath stunner that pitched middle and leg and jagged past the push to take a nick through to the keeper.Shafiq joined Younis and was quite eager to punish the bad deliveries. He was particularly severe on the cut and the pull and even charged at Herath to hit him for a straight six. Pakistan rotated strike faster now and quickened up the scoring before the second new ball approached. Younis launched a series of powerful drives through the off side, the standout stroke being when he moved inside the line of a Herath ball to lift it over extra cover. With the surface having eased out considerably, the second new ball was much easier to handle than the first, and Pakistan closed the day having taken the last two sessions.

Dennis Lillee has parted ways with Cricket Australia after turning down an offer to renew his contract as a coaching consultant with the fast bowlers

ESPNcricinfo staff06-May-2014Dennis Lillee has parted ways with Cricket Australia after turning down an offer to renew his contract as a coaching consultant with the fast bowlers.The has reported that Lillee demanded more money for his services as a consultant, and Cricket Australia was not willing to meet his request.”Unfortunately Dennis Lillee didn’t accept Cricket Australia’s offer to renew his contract,” a Cricket Australia spokesman said. “He is a great of the game and the door will always be open to him if he wants to return and be involved in any way. We’ve made a point in recent times of being open to bringing in coaching consultants when required.”Lillee has been widely credited with helping to reignite the career of Mitchell Johnson, while he has also worked with bowlers such as Pat Cummins and James Faulkner.Cricket Australia said in January last year that Lillee had been made a pace-bowling advisor, but his preferred terms for a renewed contract were not met this year.Cricket Australia this week confirmed a contract extension for bowling coach Craig McDermott, whose roles was also expanded to include the shorter formats as well as Tests, while Ali de Winter will work alongside McDermott, largely at the National Cricket Centre.

There has been this sense of quiet inevitability to Ireland’s World T20 campaign so far. From the start, they have maintained that they are here to win three games and get into the Super 10

Abhishek Purohit in Sylhet19-Mar-2014There has been this sense of quiet inevitability to Ireland’s World T20 campaign so far. From the start, they have maintained that they are here to win three games and get into the Super 10.Of course, that should ideally be any side’s goal coming into the tournament, but Ireland have achieved two-thirds of it so convincingly they can now go back to doing what they often do. Making statements. This time, it was a rarer one – for their fellow Associates. Ed Joyce, Man of the Match in the emphatic victory over UAE, said Ireland wanted to let them know who was “top of the tree.” Which is partly why Ireland wanted to win big over UAE, which they did.”We have obviously got four points and there is the chance that we could lose the last game. Netherlands could have four points, Zimbabwe could have four points,” Joyce said. “It was important to win well but also make a statement against our fellow Associates that we are still top of the tree there. So it was good to get a relatively easy win.”We have played well against the others for a really long time now. We are aware that the teams around us are improving all the time. We have played a lot of close games against teams like UAE and Afghanistan and Scotland in the last few years. We have come out on top most of the times. We definitely can’t take anyone for granted.”In the event they do go down to Netherlands in their final group game, net run-rate will come into the frame, which was the reason why Ireland went harder as they closed in on UAE’s total. “It could come to run-rate. Once we were about 80-odd, we talked about it, made a conscious effort to increase the run-rate. Kevin [O’Brien] came in, he usually wouldn’t do so. It didn’t work out but we knew we were close enough, the game was won anyway.”Ireland had already seized control when they restricted UAE to 123 for 6. Paul Stirling’s offspin brought two early wickets after which the seamers, led by O’Brien, tied UAE down throughout the innings on what Joyce felt was a good batting surface.”We pride ourselves on the way we bowled and the wicket was probably more an Irish and UK wicket than we are used to here which is why we picked [seamer] Tim Murtagh ahead of [spinner] Andy McBrine. It was a good choice by the captain and the coach, so credit goes to them.”But huge credit goes to the bowling attack. It is a very good wicket and to restrict them to 120-odd, Man of the Match should have gone to one of the bowlers, really. They did a fantastic job, we fielded reasonably. We’ve still got a way to go with our fielding but we bowled very well, with great discipline.”

Round-up of the President’s Trophy matches that ended on January 16, 2014

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Jan-2014Seamer Ahmed Jamal finished with a match haul of seven wickets, and the opener Mohammad Nawaz struck a century to help National Bank of Pakistan crush Pakistan Television by an innings and 53 runs at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.PTV, put in to bat, were bundled out for 125 in the first innings as the pacers Ataullah and Wahab Riaz shared eight wickets between them to run through a batting line-up that offered no resistance barring a 36 from the captain Zohaib Ahmed.Nawaz then helped National Bank seize the advantage by scoring 170- his maiden first-class ton- and putting up big stands with Fawad Alam, Kamran Akmal and Riaz, before the team decided to declare at 397 for 7 with a lead of 272 to boot.Nawaz Ahmed scored 85 in PTV’s second essay with the bat, but once again, the remaining batsmen failed to provide any support as Jamal ran through their top and middle order to finish with 6 for 42, and dismiss the team for 219.United Bank Limited opener Abid Ali hit a fifty in both innings and Atif Maqbool notched a total of eight scalps, as the team beat State Bank of Pakistan by 122 runs in Karachi.Abid hit 57 in the first innings, but the team could only muster 147 in total as the State Bank seamer Mohammad Naved finished with 6 for 55 to run through the line-up inside 48 overs.State Bank, however, did not fare any better themselves in their first outing with the bat, and lost wickets right from the off. Most of their batsmen made starts, but only Rizwan Haider scored more than 21, as Maqbool and Kashiff Bhatti took seven wickets between them to dismiss the visitors for 145.Abid made United Bank’s slender advantage count by scoring 73 with 11 fours. He fell in the 38th over, but Saeed Bin Nasir chipped in with 55 to help the team to 254, meaning that State Bank needed 257 for victory.But just like they did in the first innings, State Bank stumbled during the chase and failed to string together any meaningful partnerships. Mohtashim Ali’s 46 was the only score of note, as Bhatti, Maqbool and Tariq Haroon shared nine wickets between them to bowl State Bank out for 134 and seal the win.

Joe Root has, as expected, been ruled out of the World T20 due to the broken thumb which forced him to leave the tour of West Indies last week

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Mar-2014Joe Root has, as expected, been ruled out of the World T20 due to the broken thumb which forced him to leave the tour of West Indies last week. Ian Bell, who has not played a Twenty20 match since January 2011, has been approved by ICC as his replacement.Root was struck on the thumb on the third ball of his innings during the final ODI in Antigua and despite advice to retire hurt, he continued to score his maiden one-day hundred and help England to a series win. He still managed to open the bowling before leaving the field for treatment, and subsequent x-rays showed the extent of the damage. An ECB spokesman commented that the x-rays revealed that Root’s thumb is “in eight pieces.”He returned to the UK to see a specialist and although he has not been required to have the thumb pinned, the timescale to the World T20 is too narrow for him to make a return. England’s first group match is on March 22 against New Zealand.On Twitter, Root posted: “Bitterly disappointed I’m unable to make the World Cup! Want to wish the boys the best of luck and have every confidence in the whole squad.”Currently there is no precise date for Root’s return to action. Yorkshire’s County Championship season starts on April 13 but that may yet prove too early for him.Bell has played seven T20Is, the last against Australia in Melbourne more than three years ago, and was not part of the initial 30-man squad named for the World T20.England have other, ongoing, injury concerns in the T20 squad with Stuart Broad ruled out of the final two matches against West Indies due to a knee problem and Eoin Morgan, who will deputise as captain, not at full fitness either.

Jamie Overton, the Somerset fast bowler who has rapidly attracted England’s attention will miss the Lions tour of Sri Lanka in the New Year because of a knee injury. Mark Wood, of Durham, replaces him

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Dec-2013Jamie Overton, the Somerset fast bowler who has rapidly attracted England’s attention will miss the Lions tour of Sri Lanka in the New Year because of a knee injury. The ECB has announced that he will be replaced by Mark Wood, of Durham.Overton and his fellow pace bowler, Wood remained at the National Performance Centre in Loughborough this winter to work on strength and conditioning while other members of the England Performance Programme shadowed the senior side in Australia.The Lions will play five matches in Sri Lanka in February and March, including three four-day matches against Sri Lanka A.Overton, still 19, was called up to England one-day squad against both Ireland and Australia last summer, but failed to make a debut, so denying him the opportunity to become the youngest cricketer to play for England since Brian Close in the 1940s. Not since the late Ben Hollioake made a dramtic impact into the England side in 1997 has a teenager made the full side.He suffered from tendonitis in his knee on several occasions last season.

A round-up of all the games played in Group B of the World Twenty20 Qualifiers on November 18, 2013

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Nov-2013
ScorecardFile photo: Steve Tikolo has been consistent since his recall to the Kenyan squad•AFPKenya cruised to their first win of the tournament with an eight-wicket victory over Denmark in Dubai. Denmark batted first and simply couldn’t muster meaningful partnerships as Kenya’s seamers kept the top and middle-order in check. Only three batsmen crossed double digits as Denmark stumbled to 84 for 8 by the end of their quota of overs. Nehemiah Odhiambo took best figures of 3 for 15.Kenya’s opening pair effectively ended any notion of a contest as they put on 71 runs in 7.1 overs. Alex Obanda fell on 30 off 21 to Kamran Mahmood, and despite Nehemiah being run out for just 3, Collins Obuya and Steve Tikolo did the needful to see Kenya home with 10.5 overs to spare. Tikolo himself finished on an unbeaten 48, continuing on his run of consistency with the bat ever since he was recalled to the national squad.
ScorecardCalum MacLeod struck an unbeaten 82 to lead Scotland to an eight-wicket win – their first of the tournament – over Nepal.Nepal batted first, losing opener Subash Khakurel for just six. Despite being reduced to 35 for 3, Captain Paras Khadka and Binod Bhandari put on 47 runs for the fourth wicket to help steady the innings somewhat. Nepal finally scraped to 137 for 7, with Scotland seamers Safyaan Sharif and Gordon Goudie taking three wickets each.Scotland’s innings started inauspiciously, with opener Richie Berrington falling with the score on 17. MacLeod and Matt Machan added 48 for the second wicket, before Machan fell caught and bowled to Khadka. This brought Kyle Coetzer to the crease, and MacLeod found a suitable ally as together they knocked off the remaining 73 runs in 9.4 overs to give Scotland an eight-wicket victory. MacLeod finished on 82 not out.

The start of the 2012-13 Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League has been deferred for the fourth time. The player transfers/recruitment programme, which was supposed to be held on Thursday, has also been delayed further, possibly till the end of August

Mohammad Isam24-Jul-2013The start of the 2012-13 Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League has been deferred for the fourth time. The player transfers/recruitment programme, which was supposed to be held on Thursday, has also been delayed further, possibly till the end of August.This time the reason for the delay is the Dhaka clubs’ reluctance to take part in the recruitment programme before Eid-ul-Fitr, which is supposed to be held in the second week of August. Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis (CCDM) chairman Jalal Yunus however said that the commencement date of the Premier League will not be delayed by too long.”The clubs have asked us to hold the recruitment programme after Eid,” Yunus said. “They wouldn’t be able to make payments during this time. But the league itself will only be delayed by three to four days because it will now most probably begin on September 2 instead of August 29.”We hope to declare specific dates for the player recruitment programme and the start of the Premier Division Cricket League after the board meeting on July 29.”The players’ representative body has criticised the BCB for this latest delay, though, saying the board hadn’t considered the effect the decision would have on the players. Cricketers’ Welfare Association Bangladesh general secretary Debabrata Paul said: “Many of the players are struggling to make ends meet ahead of the Eid holidays. The BCB and the clubs only considered their own interests, instead of the basic needs of the players. They could have held the players recruiting programme tomorrow (July 25).”The BCB’s ad-hoc committee had announced the new dates at its July 3 meeting, but the clubs continued to push the board to change dates. This has been the case since March this year when the league was originally scheduled to be held. Then, the clubs’ objection was the ongoing Sri Lanka tour, which meant all national cricketers wouldn’t be available to play.Some of the clubs also complained about players asking for too much money, so the players’ transfer system was changed, the new programme resembling the American draft system. The old system, which will return next season, had the players and clubs negotiate rather than go through a lottery.The Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League is Bangladesh’s top domestic one-day tournament, played between twelve Dhaka-based clubs. The board granted it List-A status this year, after the National Cricket League’s one-day tournament fell through for the last three seasons.