Category Uncategorized

Chris Gayle has joined the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad for the 2011 season as a replacement for injured Dirk Nannes, Vijay Mallya, the owner of the franchise has confirmed

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Apr-2011Chris Gayle, the West Indies opener, has joined the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad for the 2011 season as a replacement for injured Dirk Nannes, Vijay Mallya, the owner of the franchise has confirmed. The development means that Gayle will not be available for the home limited-overs and Test series against Pakistan, which begins on Thursday.”It’s official now. The explosive Chris Gayle is now a part of the RCB squad after receiving clearance from the WICB,” Mallya said on Twitter.Gayle, along with Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard, had refused the West Indies board’s central contracts so that he would be free to pursue his Twenty20 interests in the IPL. In a media release on April 4 regarding the participation of West Indies players in the IPL, WICB chief executive Ernest Hilaire had this to say about Gayle: “With Chris Gayle it has not been a productive discussion and therefore it is a little more difficult for me to make any pronouncements as it relates to Chris. But we are open to discussing with players what their plans and objectives are and how best we can accommodate them within the commitment that they must also play for country and to represent West Indies cricket.”In January, Gayle, who scored 463 at a strike-rate of 141.59 for Kolkata Knight Riders in the previous three IPL seasons, surprisingly went unsold at the player auction. His base price of $400,000 found no bidders over concerns that he would not be available for much of IPL 2011 because of international commitments.He has since been left out of West Indies’ ODI squad (for the first two matches) that will take on Pakistan from April 23, with the WICB deciding to focus on grooming youngsters after the quarter-final exit from the World Cup.Nannes, who was injured during Bangalore’s second match of the league, was bought for $650,000 at the auction. IPL rules prevent franchises from signing replacement players at a higher value than the player they are replacing. Bangalore made a poor start to the IPL, losing three of their first four matches, and are languishing at the bottom of the table.

Phillip Hughes said he was “hit pretty hard” by Ian Botham’s claim that he was cheating for appealing for a catch during the SCG Ashes Test

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Jan-2011Phillip Hughes, Australia’s opening batsman, said he was “hit pretty hard” by Ian Botham’s claim that he was cheating for appealing for a catch during the SCG Ashes Test. Hughes was fielding at short-leg when he took the ball off Alastair Cook and quickly expressed his uncertainty over whether the ball had carried – replays showed it hadn’t.But by then Botham, commentating on Sky Sports, had said: “Terrible. Cheating. How much do you want it to bounce into your hands? He knows he hasn’t caught it.”Hughes was defended by both Cook and Michael Clarke, the captain, and said he was “shocked” by the comments. “I remember [Clarke] came back into the sheds and said, ‘Botham’s called you a cheat’,” Hughes said in the Sunday Telegraph. “I said, ‘what’s he talking about? What’s going on here?'”If you saw the replay you could see I wasn’t sure, and I even said to Alastair Cook I wasn’t sure. People will look back on the incident and know I wasn’t sure. I was a bit shocked by the comments. It doesn’t matter when people say your technique isn’t great, but when you’re called a cheat, it hits you pretty hard.”Hughes struggled for runs after replacing the injured Simon Katich, managing only 97 in the final three Tests of the series. “I suppose when you lose everyone comes out and nails you, but if you score 50 or 100 and win the game, people don’t comment,” he said. “That’s part and parcel of professional cricket.”He was also in trouble during the series for attending pre-game breakfasts with Clarke in Sydney and Melbourne. James Sutherland, Cricket Australia’s chief executive, called the decision “a supreme error of judgment” that opened them up to criticism. “You learn through your journey,” Hughes said. “Everyone makes mistakes and this was a mistake.”

Kiran Carlson, Chris Cooke add fifties as Cheltenham sees 432 runs, five wickets in the day

ECB Reporters NetworkBilly Root fell two short of a century as Glamorgan blitzed their way to maximum batting points on the second day of the LV= County Championship match with Gloucestershire at Cheltenham.Kiran Carlson (76), Root (98) and Chris Cooke (86 not out) smacked 41 fours and two sixes between them to help the visitors extend their first innings from an overnight 152 for 2 to 450 for 6 declared on the fast-scoring College Ground.Paul van Meekeren was the pick of a Gloucestershire attack, who found it hard to extract any help from the true batting surface. The Dutch seamer’s figures of 3 for 92 from 21 overs were reward for sustaining impressive pace on his first Championship appearance for the hosts.By the close, Gloucestershire had moved to 134 for 1 in their second innings, Chris Dent leading the way with 61 not out. With bad weather forecast tomorrow, the match already seems to be heading for a high-scoring draw.The day began well for the home side. With only a run added to the Glamorgan total, Colin Ingram edged the fourth ball of van Meekeren’s opening over to first slip where Ben Charlesworth took a waist-high catch.The lively van Meekeren struck again in the seventh over of the morning, squeezing a delivery through Sam Northeast’s defence to bowl him for 28. At 183 for 4, Glamorgan were in danger of undoing their first-day efforts with the bat.But Root had other ideas, getting off the mark with a sumptuous square driven four off van Meekeren. Soon Carlson was square cutting the same bowler for four before bringing the 200 up with a boundary through extra cover off Dom Goodman.It took the pair just 17 overs to complete a century stand, Carlson reaching a run-a-ball fifty with a lofted shot that almost saw him caught at mid-on off Josh Shaw. The partnership was worth 113 when he pulled van Meekeren to square leg where Dent took a smart low catch.Root also reached an entertaining half-century, off 63 balls, before lunch, which was taken at 311 for 5. Glamorgan had added 159 runs a session prolonged by ten minutes to help make up for overs lost to rain on day one.Cooke had also begun to enjoy himself on a pitch offering consistent bounce and a quick outfield providing full value for shots. He and Root put together a 50-stand in 69 balls before the second new ball was taken at 361 for five.On 29, Cooke appeared to survive a chance to Ollie Price at second slip off Tom Price, but it was a rare moment of alarm as he and Root progressed their partnership into three figures with a succession of well-timed strokes.Root had struck 14 fours and a six during a fluent innings when, on the verge of what would have been his eighth first-class ton, he edged left-arm spinner Zafar Gohar to Ollie Price at slip.Cooke had moved imperiously to fifty off 73 balls and was still there when a fifth batting point was secured, having taken his boundary count to 15 fours and a six. The declaration came immediately and by tea Gloucestershire had replied with 15 for no wicket.The final session saw runs continue to flow, this time for the home side. Dent and Charlesworth had put together an opening stand of 39 when the latter was bowled off an inside edge by leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson for 15.It was a first and last success of the day for the Glamorgan bowlers as Dent moved to a comfortable half-century off 113 balls, with seven fours, finding an equally assured partner in Ollie Price, who was unbeaten on 49 at stumps, having hit eight elegant boundaries.A decent sized Festival crowd, including a host of past players from around the counties attending a Professional Cricketers’ Association lunch, had witnessed 432 runs and only five wickets in the extended day’s play.

The left-arm seamer is currently recovering from a back injury at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru

Deivarayan Muthu25-Mar-2023Chennai Super Kings left-arm seamer Mukesh Choudhary is a doubtful starter for IPL 2023 as he is currently recovering from a back injury at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru.It could not be confirmed whether Choudhary will miss some part of the season or the entire tournament. The uncapped 26-year-old is understood to have joined Super Kings’ camp earlier this month in Chennai before heading to the NCA, but a timeframe for his return from injury could not be confirmed.Choudhary’s most recent competitive game was in the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy for Maharashtra in December 2022 in Ahmedabad.Related

• Mohsin Khan to miss majority of IPL 2023 with shoulder injury

• Injured Shreyas Iyer doubtful starter for at least first half of IPL 2023

Choudhary’s injury is another blow to Super Kings’ seam attack that has already lost New Zealand fast bowler Kyle Jamieson, who is also down with a back injury. Deepak Chahar, the leader of the seam attack, is also working his way back from injury, as is opening batter Ruturaj Gaikwad. Allrounder Shivam Dube, too, is on the road back from an injury he sustained while bowling at the nets during the Vijay Hazare Trophy.Super Kings will also be without the Sri Lankan pair of Maheesh Theekshana and Matheesha Pathirana, who will link up with the franchise only after the end of Sri Lanka’s six-match white-ball series in New Zealand on April 8.If Choudhary doesn’t recover in time, it will leave Super Kings without a left-arm seamer in their squad. He was one of the finds of the last IPL season, emerging as the team’s joint-highest wicket-taker, with 16 strikes in 13 games at an economy rate of 9.31. Eleven of those wickets came in the powerplay, the joint-most by any bowler during this phase in the tournament.Delhi’s Simarjeet Singh and Mumbai’s Tushar Deshpande, who recently won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy title, are the reserve pace-bowling options for Super Kings. Super Kings play the first game of the season against defending champions Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad on March 31.

Rassie van der Dussen keeps his form going with a patient 75 for the Lions

Firdose Moonda24-Oct-2019All three of this week’s fixtures were drawn which means that the Titans have a slender 1.7 point lead at the top of the table and less than 10 points separate the top-four teams after three rounds of the competition. Here are the highlights of a closely contested round.Big runs
There were seven centuries across the three fixtures, fairly evenly spread out among all the matches. Notably, Reeza Hendricks – who has played in 18 ODIs and 22 T20s for South Africa but missed out on selection for the 2019 World Cup – notched up a career-best 168* for the Lions against the Knights. He also shared in a 200-run fifth-wicket stand with Nicky van den Bergh, who scored a hundred of his own, to allow the Lions to declare on 468 for 4. The Knights were the only team not to record a hundred in this round.Warriors’ No. 3 Yaseen Vallie scored 137 for them in a first-innings total of 364 for 9 declared, before Titans’ Grant Thomson responded with 101 as they conceded a deficit of 21 runs in Port Elizabeth. In Pietermaritzburg, Grant Roelofson’s 133 took the Dolphins to 325 for 9 declared while Janneman Malan’s 118 and Matthew Kleinveldt’s 175 meant the Cobras first-innings lead of 166 could have been enough to push for a win. The Dolphins were 198 for 6 when stumps was called.Ntini debuts Thando Ntini, son of Makhaya, made his franchise debut this week and claimed two important second-innings wickets as the Cobras pushed for a win. He had Khaya Zondo caught behind and Andile Phehlukwayo trapped lbw to leave the Dolphins at 81 for 5, still 85 runs behind, and the Cobras in sight of an innings win. Cody Chetty and Robbie Frylinck kept the bowlers at bay and were both not out at the end.Van der Dussen scores another fifty He didn’t go quite as big as some of his counterparts but Rassie van der Dussen, whose name keeps cropping up when the Test squad is mentioned, scored a second successive half-century. After his 68 last week, he scored a patient 75 this week, off 206 balls, to ensure the Lions secured the draw after they stumbled to 45 for 3 in their second innings.Shamsi in the wickets The position of South Africa’s Test spinner is also up for debate and Tabraiz Shamsi, won the vote on an ESPNcricinfo poll during the Live Report on the Ranchi Test as the spinner most likely to be Keshav Maharaj’s second in command, made a case for consideration. He took 5 for 65 for the Titans in the Warriors’ second innings, to help bowl them out for 260. The Titans were set a target of 282 but ran out of time.

Opener stars with bat and ball to keep Lancashire at the top of the North Group

ECB Reporters Network02-Aug-2019Liam Livingstone starred with both bat and ball to maintain Lancashire Lightning’s impressive start to the Vitality Blast, as they defeated Durham by five wickets at Emirates Riverside.The 25-year-old displayed his all-round ability by taking 2-21 with his combination of off and leg-spin, while Matt Parkinson took four wickets to bowl out the home side for 139 from their 20 overs. Livingstone took centre stage with the bat to chase down total, blasting the Durham attack around the park with an innings of 70 from 48 deliveries.It proved to be enough to take the Lightning over the line, although the ending was tighter than visitors would have expected. Regardless, Lancashire earned their fourth win of the campaign and extending their lead at the top of the North Group.Durham won the toss and batted first, and Steven Croft could have dismissed the dangerous D’Arcy Short from his first ball, only to drop a brisk return catch. Scott Steel’s return from injury did not last long as he fell for six attempting to scoop Saqib Mahmood over the top and was caught behind.Short and Graham Clark found their rhythm at the crease and guided Durham towards the 50-run mark at the powerplay. However, Richard Gleeson produced a quick delivery that Short skied into the air and was taken comfortably by Dane Vilas moving forward.Durham’s progress was further stymied after the introduction of Parkinson. Ben Raine had swept the first ball of the leg-spinner’s over for four, but he returned to pin the left-hander lbw. Parkinson then turned one through Clark’s defences in the same over, leaving the home side with work ahead of them at 72-4.Alex Lees and Peter Handscomb were forced to rebuild the innings in the middle overs. Both players found it difficult to find the boundary and Handscomb’s struggles resulted in his dismissal when he caught by James Faulkner off Gleeson.Skipper Stuart Poynter lost his wicket to Parkinson’s spin, while the Lancashire bowler collected his fourth wicket by dismissing Lees courtesy of a fine catch by Croft. Durham edged their way towards 139 before Faulkner ended the innings removing Nathan Rimmington.The chase required a rate of seven runs per over, and Alex Davies ensured that the Lightning got off to a strong start, finding the boundary from opening two balls of the innings. Livingstone opened his arms and found the boundary with regularity during the powerplay, including dispatching a short Rimmington ball over the head of Trevaskis at square leg.Matty Potts broke the opening stand with the final ball of the sixth over as Davies chipped tamely to Trevaskis for 24, although he left his team in a strong position at 57-1. Livingstone continued to punish the Durham attack, driving Trevaskis straight over his head for a six to the long-on boundary. The 25-year-old reached his half-century from 28 balls, keeping Lancashire well ahead of the rate.Glenn Maxwell came and went cheaply, falling to his compatriot Short as he picked out Potts in the deep. The Aussie then notched his second wicket by bowling former Durham man Keaton Jennings to put the pressure on the visitors.Livingstone’s impressive innings came to an end when Trevaskis turned one past the opener, who was stumped by Poynter.But Vilas and Faulkner calmed any nerves to guide their team to the victory target in the penultimate over.

Seamers share six wickets on rain-interrupted day at Canterbury

ECB Reporters Network18-Aug-2019Kent 125 for 6 (Bell-Drummond 55, Cook 3-25) v EssexThree-wicket bursts by Sam Cook and Mohammad Amir helped Specsavers County Championship leaders Essex to command a rain-interrupted opening day to the 168th Canterbury Cricket Week encounter with Kent. By stumps at the Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence Kent had limped to 125 for 6 after 53 overs with Cook and Amir sharing the spoils for the visitors.Chelmsford-born paceman Cook wrecked Kent’s top-order during a stint of 3 for 7, while Amir hit his straps later in the day after the hosts had mounted a partial recovery courtesy of a three-hour innings of 55 by No. 3 Daniel Bell-Drummond and a gritty 35 from keeper-batsman Ollie Robinson.Batting first after an uncontested toss, Kent lost Zak Crawley in only the fourth over of the day. Driving down the wrong line at a full delivery from Amir, Crawley was bowled through the gate, losing his off stump to make it 7 for 1.With heavy cloud cover and the floodlights on from the third over, Amir and Jamie Porter continued to set the Kent batsmen a stern examination until rain stopped play at 11.38am with Kent on 11 for 1 after only 9.1 overs. With the covers on and pools of rainwater quickly forming on the outfield, the players went in for lunch as umpires Ian Blackwell and Paul Baldwin eventually deemed that play could re-start at 3.29pm with the loss of 43 overs in the day.Seven overs after the resumption Kent opener Sean Dickson shuffled half-forward to a Cook in-ducker to be hit on the knee roll and depart lbw for 8 then, in his next over, Cook snared the returning Kent skipper Sam Billings in near identical fashion, leg before for 1 on his season’s first-class debut.Cook struck again during his superb mid-afternoon stint by removing Heino Kuhn for 6 – Kent’s fourth batsman to depart for a single-figure score. The South African’s late decision to run a Cook off-cutter down to third man backfired when he chopped the ball on to off stump.Kent rebuilt steadily either side of tea through Robinson and Bell-Drummond, who added 68 for the fifth wicket with Bell-Drummond extending a fine run of red-ball form that has led to him scoring either a fifty or a century in each of his last five, four-day appearances.Bell-Drummond, Kent’s leading championship run-getter for the season, notched his fifth half-century of the campaign from 99 balls and with seven fours, while Robinson, who contributed 35 in 98 minutes, batting with maturity way beyond his 20 years to help take Kent into three figures shortly before 6pm.With six overs left in the day, Amir returned for a second spell to finally dislodge Bell-Drummond, who chopped on for a painstaking 55 with seven fours after aiming a late cut to a low-bouncing delivery. In his next over the Pakistan left-armer swung one in through the air to pluck out Robinson’s off pole, leaving Darren Stevens, on his 300th first-class appearance, and No. 8 Ollie Rayner, to see Kent through to stumps without further alarm.