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Vidarbha’s Shrikant Wagh has slammed the umpiring in his team’s match against Karnataka, holding it responsible for his side conceding the first-innings lead

Arun Venugopal in Bangalore17-Oct-2015Vidarbha’s left-arm seamer Shrikant Wagh has slammed the umpiring in his team’s match against Karnataka, holding it responsible for his side conceding the first-innings lead. He said the standards of umpiring were poor, and they favoured the home side. Wagh also accused Karnataka wicketkeeper CM Gautam of claiming bump catches that accounted for Aditya Shanware and Shalabh Shrivastava.”The first three wickets were not out. We got the video footage,” Wagh said after the day’s play. “Ganesh Satish was nowhere near the ball, and those two catches taken by CM Gautam were taken one bounce. So that’s the main difference. You can say end of the day that’s 40 runs short.”I am very disappointed by CM Gautam. Champion side… you never expect them to do it. We are in shock. One bounce, he [Gautam] should say not out.”Responding to Wagh’s accusations, Gautam told ESPNcricinfo it all stemmed from “frustration”. “I felt it was out. That’s the reason I went up,” Gautam said. “The umpires, they consulted each other and took a decision because they are in the right position to see what’s happening.”I think this is coming out of frustration. They lost the lead. It has not been an easy game for them. I thought we bowled really well today. They couldn’t take that, I think.”Wagh said Karnataka applied “a lot of pressure” on on-field umpires Virender Sharma and Pashchim Pathak, both of whom, he said, gave decisions in favour of the home team.”You can see from outside even, in the second innings, that Robin Uthappa was plumb, but they [umpires] were not sure,” Wagh said. “Umpiring standard was poor, very poor and that has cost us. Umpires are confused and doubtful. Leg before, hardly you can see them giving [except] I think one or two in the match. I can say umpires favoured their side more rather than being mutual to both sides.”Gautam said Karnataka had taken umpiring decisions in their stride even when they went against them. He cited his own example from Friday, when he was adjudged caught behind. “Even yesterday, mine was not out,” Gautam said. “When I was batting, it hit the pad and they appealed for caught behind, they gave it out. I didn’t tell anything. The keeper was laughing, even Wasim Jaffer was laughing after that dismissal.”Plumb decisions went against us yesterday, Jaffer’s and Ganesh Satish. [But at] the end of the day, we just spoke about the game. We never spoke about the bad decisions or decisions going against us.”Wagh said Vidarbha would incorporate their complaints against the umpiring in the team’s report at the end of the match, but there was not much else they could do. ” (there isn’t a lot in our hands). End of the day match referee has power to do things. The captain knows the rules as to how much we can appeal and what we can include in the report. We will do our best.”He said poor umpiring had hurt Vidarbha in the previous season as well, when they finished as quarter-finalists. “To be honest, it’s [wrong decisions] happening a lot to our side rather than the opposition, with teams like Karnataka and Delhi. We have got the evidence, that’s what I am saying. We have got the footage.”

The refusal of Rodney Marsh, the former Australia wicketkeeper, to sign a cricket bat which already carried Chris Cairns’ autograph was an early sign that players had been “warned off” him by the ICC, the jury at Southwark Crown Court heard today

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Nov-2015The refusal of Rod Marsh, the former Australia wicketkeeper, to sign a cricket bat which already carried Chris Cairns’ autograph was an early sign that players had been “warned off” him by the ICC, the jury at Southwark Crown Court heard today.The crown prosecutor, Sasha Wass, QC, cited that incident during her cross-examination of Andrew Fitch-Holland, Cairns’ former attorney and co-defendant, who is the final witness to be called in the four-week trial.”Rod Marsh said I’m not having anything to do with Mr Cairns, he wouldn’t sign a cricket bat,” Wass said to Fitch-Holland.Rumours about Cairns’ involvement in match-fixing had circulated ever since he was removed from the Indian Cricket League in October 2008, under the pretext of an injury.Following Marsh’s action, Fitch-Holland had asked the ICC whether it had any evidence that Cairns was a match-fixer. It turned out that the governing body was not investigating him as the ICL was an unsanctioned tournament.”It seemed that someone was saying something, because of the Rod Marsh incident, and we just thought ‘this can’t be allowed to continue’,” Fitch-Holland told the court.”I took that to be confirmation from the ICC that they weren’t sniffing around Chris,” he added.Marsh’s snub had occurred in 2009, one year before Lalit Modi, the founder of the Indian Premier League, had tweeted about Cairns’ alleged activities, an event which formed the basis of Cairns’ successful libel action against Modi in 2012.Cairns, who denies two counts of perjury and perverting the course of justice, stands accused of having lied under oath to secure that court victory. Fitch-Holland denies one count of perverting the course of justice, after allegedly persuading Lou Vincent, Cairns’ former team-mate, to provide a false witness statement.Wass wanted to know if Fitch-Holland knew any reason why Modi would make a false accusation against Cairns.”I assumed at the time he had misspoken, and he would correct it,” Fitch-Holland said.At the libel trial in 2012, Cairns confirmed that he had “had it out” with Marsh over a drink at his house following the bat-signing incident.Fitch-Holland, whom Ms Wass tried to paint as a “cricket groupie”, admitted to having been “very pissed off” with Cairns in an email exchange in April 2013 following a lengthy delay in payment for his role as “lead adviser” during the legal action.During a heated cross-examination, which involved an intervention from the judge, Fitch-Holland was also asked about an incident in which he had told a group, including Chris Harris: “Oh, he’s guilty, Cairnsy’s guilty”.”I’m not for one second suggesting that Chris Harris is lying, and you know perfectly well that I’m not,” Fitch-Holland told Ms Wass.”It cannot have been about match-fixing, because quite simply that was not in my mind.”Fitch-Holland is expected to continue giving evidence on Tuesday.

The Sri Lankans’ bowlers let the NZC President’s XI’s eighth-wicket partnership plunder 124 runs, but batted marginally better than in the first innings to secure a draw in the three-day warm up game in Queenstown

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Dec-2015
ScorecardFile photo: Udara Jayasundera made a painstaking 63 off 153 balls for the Sri Lankans•WICB Media

The Sri Lankans’ bowlers let the NZC President’s XI’s eighth-wicket partnership plunder 124 runs, but batted marginally better than in the first innings to secure a draw in the three-day warm up game in Queenstown. The hosts took a 206-run lead before declaring and the Sri Lankans then moved to 226 for 6 by stumps.A 153-ball 63 from opener Udara Jayasundera led the Sri Lankans’ innings, and heightened his chances of a debut in the first Test against New Zealand next Thursday. He struck up a 108-run partnership with Kithuruwan Vithanage, who hit 61 off 109 himself. Angelo Mathews made an unbeaten 54, while Dinesh Chandimal collected 29. Kusal Perera and Kusal Mendis were dismissed for low scores for the second time in the match.The President’s XI bowlers shared the six wickets between them, Neil Wagner taking 1 for 31. Seamer James Baker picked up the innings’ best figures of 2 for 21.Earlier in the day, the Presidents’ XI’s resumed on 288 for 7, before hitting 111 runs in the next 15.3 overs. No. 9 batsman Tim Johnston hit 62 from 74 balls while Shawn Hicks finished with 79 not out from 85 deliveries. Sri Lanka lent their opposition a hand with 44 extras, including 21 no-balls. Dushmantha Chameera claimed his fourth wicket of the innings to end that eighth-wicket partnership and invite the declaration.

Dane Piedt, who was released from South Africa’s Test squad, took four wickets in each innings, Simon Harmer claimed nine scalps in the match, but Rory Kleinveldt had a bigger say in Cape Cobras’ 148 run win over Warriors

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Jan-2016
ScorecardFile photo – Rory Kleinveldt finished with a match haul of nine wickets•Getty Images

Dane Piedt, who was released from South Africa’s Test squad, took four wickets in each innings, Simon Harmer claimed nine scalps in the match, but Rory Kleinveldt had a bigger say in Cape Cobras’ 148 run win over Warriors, their first victory of the season.Kleinveldt claimed a match haul of nine wickets, including a five-for in the last innings. He nipped out the Warriors’ openers early in the chase of 327 before coming back to wrap up the tail and secure the big win.Colin Ackermann mounted some resistance with 82 off 140 deliveries, before he was last man dismissed. Piedt proved an able foil for Kleinveldt as Warriors were bowled out for 178.They had fared worse in their first innings. Kleinveldt rocked the top order, striking twice in his first over. The slide seeped into the middle order as well as Warriors were reduced to 18 for 5 and then 63 for 8. Ayabulela Gqamane, coming in at No.10, hit 37 off 53 balls and spared his side the ignominy of getting rolled over for a double-digit score.Cobras endured a similar collapse in their second innings as they were bowled out for 130, but they had the cushion of a strong first-innings batting effort. Andrew Puttick (33) and Omphile Ramela (32) gave Cobras a good platform. Justin Ontong then built on it with 98 off 189 balls, including 10 fours and one six. Piedt chipped in with a patient 62 to push Cobras to 325. They eventually walked away with 17.74 points.
ScorecardKnights fell apart in what seemed like a relatively simple chase of 138, as the team lost by 45 runs to Lions in Kimberley. Despite securing an innings lead, Lions looked to be heading towards defeat after folding for 94 in their second dig, thanks to a career-best 7 for 44 from medium-pacer Malusi Siboto.Knights, however, fared even worse in their second innings, losing wickets right from the off and failed to string together even a single meaningful stand. Only three batsmen reached double figures, as Dwaine Pretorious (3 for 37), Pumelela Matshikwe (2 for 19) and Eddie Leie (2 for 7) routed Knights for 92 in 44.5 overs.Earlier, Lions, opting to bat, posted a first-innings score of 264 on the back of fifties from the captain Stephen Cook (76) and Dominic Hendricks (80). Tumi Masekela was the pick of the Knights bowlers, collecting 7 for 38. In reply, Knights could only manage 221, as despite several starts from their middle-order batsmen, no one was able to compile a much-needed half-century. Pretorious and Sean Jamison shared three scalps apiece for Lions.

On pitches where Australia are playing no specialist spinners, and where the India spinners have been moderately effective, captain MS Dhoni feels the only way Rishi can play is if a specialist batsman is dropped

Sidharth Monga15-Jan-20164:56

Always believed Rahane is a good opener – Dhoni

The Himachal Pradesh allrounder Rishi Dhawan is likely to accumulate a lot of frequent flyer points and bowl a lot in the nets, but the India cap looks as far as it did before he was selected for the Australia tour. On pitches where Australia are playing no specialist spinners, and where the India spinners have been moderately effective, captain MS Dhoni feels the only way Rishi can play is if a specialist batsman is dropped, and if that happens, Dhoni said, India will be playing with “six bowlers”.Despite going for 239 in 37 overs for three wickets to outfield catches, spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja are being considered better on hopelessly unhelpful tracks than Rishi on tracks with good bounce. This should come as a strong message to the selectors.Dhoni was asked if he had given a thought to going horses for courses as opposed to playing his best bowlers on paper. He responded: “If you see what is important is to see that we played the first game with our best bowling attack. In this game, too, Ishant [Sharma] was fit and we thought he will get good bounce. We feel it is important to play with a proper bowling set-up. And at the same time you cannot neglect the batting.”When it comes to whether we can play the extra seamer, if your frontline three seamers are going for runs, it is slightly difficult for somebody like a Rishi to come in. He may bowl well, but I am saying it will be slightly difficult for him to be successful with the fielding restrictions. He is not someone who bowls very quick. At the same time in the middle overs you need to bowl a lot of dot balls. That’s where you have to decide whether you are better off playing with the two spinners.”The only option you have is, you will have to sit out Ashwin because Jadeja gives you that cushion of batting. It is a difficult one. I still feel 3-2 (seamer-spinner) is the best combination. If somebody was there who could bowl a bit of seam-up, that obviously helps. As of now we don’t really have [one]. We can’t really look at Rishi because to play him we will have to get rid of a proper batsman. Then we will have to play six bowlers. Six bowlers is a bit of luxury to have in cricket nowadays.”Australia, on the other hand, have handed out debuts to two fast bowlers and have stuck with them. They have rotated two other quicks, but have been blessed with the presence of a proper allrounder in James Faulkner and a batsman who can bowl in Glenn Maxwell. The only “allrounder” in the Indian squad is not being considered much of a bowler. In the absence of any evidence against proper batsmen, Dhoni’s assessment of Rishi is the only considered one we have even though it goes against the view of the selectors.At any rate Dhoni seems to have stopped asking for better from his bowlers. After India lost defending 309 in Perth, there was a clear change in the way they batted in the middle over in Brisbane. They had now set themselves up for 340, but lost their way in the end, and the bowlers gave up the defence of 308 just as easily in Brisbane as they did in Perth. Now Dhoni says there are only two choices left: either score in excess of 330 or just choose to chase. And he said that while answering a question about the extras – 11 wides and a no-ball.”In both the games we have given a fair amount of extras,” Dhoni said. “That takes that number of runs off the total. On good wickets it does matter. As far as Ishant is concerned, I think the breeze was flowing in circular motions. I felt that made it slightly difficult for him. I feel even if we cut down the extras we will have to score more runs. There are two options: either put pressure on [our] batsmen and score 330 or chase down the score, give them the batting first. These are the only two options we have got. We will have a look and decide what suits us the best.”If India are to score those extra 30 runs a quick start from Shikhar Dhawan can go a long way, but he has thrown his wicket away twice. Even if Dhoni wanted to drop him, he wouldn’t be able to because the selectors have given him only five established specialist batsmen. The only way for that to happen would be for Ajinkya Rahane to open, the idea of which Dhoni likes; he is not entirely convinced with the idea of Rahane the middle-order batsman.”Jinx has improved a lot in his batting,” Dhoni said. “But also the wickets are good here. What is important is to see him when the wickets slow down and he is pushed to play the big shots. When ball comes on he loves it, and plays very good strokes. I feel he has improved a lot. We will wait and watch and see what the best position for him is. I have personally believed he is very good opener because he plays proper cricketing shots. He cuts and pulls, but he plays proper shots. He can accelerate whenever he wants to. Also once he starts with the new ball, he is quite good by the time the middle overs start. So far it is good he has done well in both the positions. We will see how it goes.”For now, though, Shikhar has the captain’s confidence. “Shikhar is someone who loves to play his shots,” Dhoni said. “If somebody plays shots from the very start, there will be periods when he won’t score runs. You can say it was a rash shot, but that’s the time you are supposed to back your stroke-players.”

Delhi Daredevils made five of the top 13 buys of the IPL auction, and three of them were uncapped players. But the franchise defended their strategy by saying that youngsters were more hungry for success

Arun Venugopal06-Feb-20162:39

‘We have had 95% success rate in this auction’ – Daredevils mentor TA Sekhar

One of the biggest talking points of the IPL auction was how Delhi Daredevils spent their money and who they spent it on. They acquired the as yet uncapped Pawan Negi for INR 8.5 crore, the highest billing for an Indian player this year. They paid 40 times Karun Nair’s base price of INR 10 lakh; he too is yet to play international cricket but will earn more than Kevin Pietersen’s INR 3.5 crore this IPL season.Then they went after Carlos Brathwaite, who has played only 2 T20Is for West Indies and 37 T20s overall, to the tune of INR 4.2 crores, and picked up Sanju Samson for the same amount to eventually end up with as many as four wicketkeepers.Overall, Daredevils were responsible for five of the top 13 buys in the auction and are the only team to reach the maximum stipulated squad strength of 27. It could be that a number of these players may not even get a game. But Hemant Dua, the Daredevils CEO, mounted a sturdy defence of what he called a “strategic shift.””We have invested definitely in younger talent. We have bought the bigger names in the past and you know what has happened,” he told ESPNcricinfo.After much deliberation over the last year, Dua said the Daredevils franchise, which has never won the IPL, decided to do away with the star system and put youth first. This shift in thinking has had a lot to do with the success they had with Shreyas Iyer last year.”We have banked on stars in the past and it has not paid off. We banked on a guy like Shreyas Iyer, and he was proving us right by being the emerging player [of the tournament]. Gave us a lot of confidence.”We spent a lot of time analysing various players and scouting. In the past we have done everything and we haven’t gone where we should have.”Dua also said Daredevils weren’t entirely devoid of a core of senior players. “You look at seniors in a different way. We look at them differently,” he said. “I think Quinton de Kock is a senior player. He has done well for South Africa, especially in Indian conditions. JP Duminy, Zaheer Khan and Mohammed Shami are very senior players. What we have done is we now have performers.”He also justified the price paid for Negi and the other young players as decisions based on their knowledge of local conditions, and also as an investment for the future. “Even the Indian selectors have seen something in Pawan Negi to pick him in the World T20 squad. We were not the only team bidding for him. Obviously we spent what we did also because the other team had bid for him up to a point.”The youngsters we have taken, a lot of them are youngsters with IPL experience like a Samson or a Karun Nair. They know what they have to do. Like a Negi or a Rishabh Pant, they are Delhi boys. [Pawan] Suyal again is a Delhi boy. It gives us a Delhi story. They know and understand the field they play on.”Dua was unconcerned about the possibility that most of these players may be stuck warming the bench, and that with the big auction in 2018 only a handful of them would be retained. “A couple of years is far away. I don’t know what the rules will be. We don’t know what is going to happen,” he said. “I need to perform in the next few years. You think why I have picked a [Mahipal] Lomror or a Khaleel [Ahmed]? The reason is very simple: they will learn from masters like Zaheer Khan.”We might end up retaining guys like them. A Mahipal Lomror knows he will never get to play. They don’t get frustrated at 16 years. People who get frustrated are the 30-40 year olds.”There is a strong imprint of Rajasthan Royals in Daredevils’ choice of players – Samson, Nair and Chris Morris have, in fact, played for Royals in the past. Added to that were rumours of Rahul Dravid being roped in as the team’s mentor, but Dua categorically denied Dravid’s hand in their auction strategy.”If you think there is an RR influence, yes we had hired Zubin Bharucha, who has worked with the Royals in the past,” he said. “So he has brought this influence. But this is a collective influence. There was Sunil Valson, Zubin, [Sridharan] Sriram, [TA] Sekhar and [Pravin] Amre who scouted extensively for talent.”All sorts of speculation has been going on [about the appointment of Dravid as mentor]. But I can tell you that there are three or four coaches we are evaluating and they are all in the mix. We will make a decision by the end of the month.”Dua said he was satisfied with the way the auction had panned out, and was confident that the results would justify their approach. “Simple catch: youngsters are more hungry than older players. In the past, Moneyball has worked for a lot of teams. I am confident it will work for us. Not a single boy we didn’t get except Nathu Singh, for whom we went up to Rs 2 crore.”When we spent Rs 16 crore [on Yuvraj Singh] were we asked why we did it? Now, when I spend Rs 8.5 crore on Negi, again there is the same question. In the past, our thought process has been different. At the end of the day, when the boys do well on the field, people will understand [our decisions]. Everything will fall in place.”

Keaton Jennings produced a superbly hard-working hundred before three late wickets put Durham on top against Somerset

Paul Edwards at Chester-le-Street10-Apr-2016
ScorecardKeaton Jennings salutes the applause after falling for 116•PA Photos

At exactly eleven o’clock on the first day of this game umpire Rob Bailey dropped his arm to his side and, one may assume, called, “Play”. Behind him at the Finchale End, the Somerset seamer Lewis Gregory composed himself and began his run-up. The ball he bowled was of a good length and on middle stump; Durham’s Mark Stoneman played it easily to midwicket. No trouble and no run either, yet such moments matter a great deal. The very many cricket fans who measure their summers by the fluctuations of the County Championship could afford a quiet smile of collective contentment. Another season.By the end of the gorgeous spring day, when an evening chill was settling on the Riverside, Gregory had four wickets in his bag and these will certainly have increased his delight. Yet his satisfaction was far exceeded by that of Keaton Jennings, who had made his first County Championship century since June 2014, and by Durham’s players in general after Chris Rushworth and Graham Onions had removed Somerset’s openers and the nightwatchman Josh Davey in the first ten overs of the visitors’ reply.Chris Rogers, of course, already knew about the potency of Durham’s seamers; he will be in no doubt about the severity of the further examination ahead of himself and James Hildreth on the second morning of this match. The swinging yorker from Onions which bowled Marcus Trescothick off his pads mocked geometry.The second morning may also be the time when the value of Jennings’ hard work becomes even plainer. He lost both Mark Stoneman and Scott Borthwick, neither of them very culpable, inside twelve overs but that seemed only to stiffen his determination to play within his familiar limits. Pulling and cutting whenever the opportunity presented itself, Jennings was nevertheless content to score just seven runs in the hour before lunch as a Somerset attack lacking both Overtons but including the accurate Peter Trego suddenly forbade liberties.Partnering Jennings in a third-wicket stand of 79 in 33 overs was 19-year-old Jack Burnham, whose talent was recognised by his being promoted above both Michael Richardson and Paul Collingwood in the batting order. Burnham scored three centuries in the Under-19 World Cup and his tight technique was one of the most pleasing sights on offer to home spectators as they watched in the mellow afternoon sunlight. wrote Philip Larkin, and so it is with a young batsman as he becomes accustomed and easy in the crease and becomes ever more certain that this is a professional game he is able to play.But it was also a fine afternoon for Somerset’s bowlers. Davey produced one of the balls of the day to take out Burnham’s off and middle stumps when the he had made 33 in 123 minutes and Gregory then struck twice in two balls, both of which nipped back off the seam. The first had Michael Richardson leg before for nine; the second defeated Collingwood’s slightly tardy defensive push and removed his middle stump. Three overs later Pringle drove Tim Groenewald to Davey and Durham were 172 for 6, at which point this brave new toss-less world must have seemed a pleasant place for Rogers and his bowlers.However, Jennings redoubled his resolve and found an equally obdurate partner in Usman Arshad. The pair put on 72 in 24 overs, during which Jennings reached three figures off 201 balls with 13 fours. He has probably not had to work harder in any of his five other centuries, so perhaps it was simple joy that led him to become almost cavalier for the first time in the day. Whatever the truth of the matter, he perished on one of the few occasions when he took a liberty with the bowling, top edging Davey to Trescothick. It began a clatter of wickets, four of them in 19 balls in fact, as Somerset’s bowlers, Gregory and Groenewald in particular, collected just rewards for their labours.A first-innings total of 256 seemed modest enough, albeit that it allowed Durham to collect a couple of batting bonus points. Yet it soon appeared almost daunting as Rushworth and Onions set to work in the slightly thickening light. They did so in a manner that has won Championships and the home supporters cheered every late breakthrough. They, too, remember the glory days. Suddenly it seemed rather more than six hours since Gregory had stood at the end of his run at the Finchale End, a new cricket ball in his hand and all the summer before him.

Half-centuries from Karun Nair and Sam Billings rescued Delhi Daredevils from a poor start and laid the platform for a 27-run win over Kolkata Knight Riders at the Feroz Shah Kotla

The Report by Karthik Krishnaswamy30-Apr-2016
Scorecard and ball- by-ball detailsThe sweep featured prominently in Karun Nair’s 50-ball 68•BCCI

Half-centuries from Karun Nair and Sam Billings steered Delhi Daredevils past a poor start and an 11-ball 34 from Carlos Brathwaite provided the late thrust that lifted them to 186. Daredevils defended it with regular strikes that destabilised a Kolkata Knight Riders line-up of considerable depth, eventually bowling them out with nine balls remaining.Robin Uthappa held the chase together with a 52-ball 72, but wickets fell around him – Zaheer Khan did the early damage, while Brathwaite took three wickets in the middle overs.It was still anyone’s game when Andre Russell joined Uthappa, with Knight Riders five down and requiring two runs a ball. They were keeping up with the asking rate, adding 44 at 12.57 an over, when Amit Mishra made the game’s decisive strike, clutching onto a fierce hit from Russell in his follow-through despite his eyes being off the ball. It left Knight Riders needing 36 off the last three overs, and their lower order crumbled, their last five wickets falling in the space of ten balls.

Mishra reprimanded

Delhi Daredevils legspinner Amit Mishra has been reprimanded for using “inappropriate language” during the match against Kolkata Knight Riders at Feroz Shah Kotla.
Mishra admitted to the level 1 offence and accepted the sanction.
Though the IPL did not specify what Mishra’s transgression was, it is likely that he was pulled up for his send-off after completing a caught-and-bowled to dismiss Andre Russell during the chase.

Knight Riders had sent Daredevils in and removed both openers in the first over. Shreyas Iyer played across the line to Russell and fell for his third duck this season, and Quinton de Kock top-edged a pull, looking to fetch a shoulder-high ball from outside off stump.The loss of Sanju Samson in the fifth over meant Daredevils ended the Powerplay 37 for 3. Nair, though, was already on his way, having capitalised on leg side-ish bowling from the Knight Riders seamers to pick up three fours with flicks and glances. He reverse-swept the first ball after the Powerplay, delivered by Sunil Narine, for another four.With Billings busy at the other end – he did not play a single dot between the fourth and 27th balls of his innings – Daredevils’ run rate never flagged despite the early wickets. Billings biffed Piyush Chawla for two fours in a 15-run 12th over, and Nair swept and reverse-swept Narine for three in the 15th, moving past 50 in the process.Both batsmen hit a six each in the next two overs, and though Nair and Chris Morris fell in the space of three balls, there was no let-up, as Brathwaite glanced and dabbed the first two balls he faced to the boundary behind the wicket. With Billings and Brathwaite hitting four more sixes between the 18th and 20th overs, Daredevils picked up 66 runs from their last five.Daredevils had picked four seamers, and the reason became clear as the match wore on, with bounce and a bit of seam movement available to the new-ball bowlers. The bounce accounted for Gautam Gambhir, who closed his bat face too early while looking to work Zaheer into the leg side, and Piyush Chawla – possibly promoted simply for his left-handedness – was lbw playing a similar shot. Knight Riders ended the Powerplay 43 for 2.Knight Riders remained in sight of their target when Brathwaite conceded 22 in a 10th over full of no-balls, but he dismissed Yusuf Pathan and Suryakumar Yadav either side of it to leave them walking a wickets-in-hand tightrope. When R Sathish picked out deep square-leg in Brathwaite’s final over, it came down to Uthappa and Russell.The dismissals at the other end had contributed to Uthappa cutting out most of the risk from his batting. After four fours in his first 24 balls, most of which was during the Powerplay, he went 18 balls without a boundary. But he changed gear as soon as Russell joined him, going after Mishra’s legspin.Uthappa had hit Mishra for a six and a four in the 15th over, and with Russell also at the crease, it seemed a gamble when Zaheer tossed the ball to the legspinner to bowl the 17th, with Knight Riders needing 51 from 24. Uthappa and Russell took 15 off the first five balls of the over, and Russell almost smacked Mishra flush on the face off the last ball. Somehow, his hands shot up, plucked the ball out of the air, and changed the course of the game.

Dolphins CEO Pete de Wet, who has only been in the job for 16 months, is leaving South Africa at the end of July to head the Central Districts Cricket Association in Napier

Firdose Moonda07-Jun-2016Not only will the Dolphins franchise begin the new season with a new coach and a new set of players following months of major change, but they will also do it with a new CEO. Pete de Wet, who has only been in the job for 16 months, is leaving South Africa at the end of July to head the Central Districts Cricket Association in Napier.”The decision to leave the Sunfoil Dolphins is a purely personal one and has been an extremely difficult one that I, together with my young family, have thought long and hard about,” de Wet said. “I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with the Dolphins and believe our plans to achieve our ultimate goal is starting to gather momentum, so it is disappointing to hand over the reins so soon.”De Wet, who was appointed in April 2015, took over from Jesse Chellan, who moved to Port Elizabeth, to the Warriors, in September 2014. He oversaw a period of instability at the franchise in the 2015-16 season which followed their biggest success – winning the 2013-14 20-over tournament. The Dolphins were unable to replicate that success, opted not to renew coach Lance Klusener’s contract with games still to be played in the season, and lost international players Kyle Abbott and David Miller along with several others ahead of the 2016-17 summer.Under de Wet, they appointed Grant Morgan as coach but failed to make any big name signings this winter. De Wet believed he was ushering in a new era which would build the Dolphins into the top franchise in the country but he won’t be around to see the results.”Despite not being a part of that journey with the Dolphins any longer, I wish everyone everything of the best for the future and look forward to seeing the great results that I’m sure will be achieved shortly, both on and off the field,” he said. “There have been some great highs and a few challenges during my time here in Durban but on a whole I am confident that the pathway the franchise is on is one that will ultimately see the Dolphins become a force to be reckoned with.”De Wet will work with the Dolphins board as they begin their search for his successor.

Andrew Umeed had to catch a flight down from Scotland to make his Warwickshire debut and then marked the occasion with a century

David Hopps at Edgbaston22-May-2016
ScorecardAndrew Umeed had to catch a flight to make his debut, then made a hundred•Getty Images

The last Warwickshire batsman to make a Championship hundred on debut was an extraordinary affair: Jeetan Patel, barely off the plane from New Zealand, coming in at No. 10 against Yorkshire and conjuring up something entirely unexpected.Seven years on, Andrew Umeed matched that feat. This time the mood was quite different. By the time Umeed reached his hundred on a comparatively challenging surface, such was his composure, even allowing for the fact that his only previous first-class match had come for Scotland against Afghanistan, he had slowly made it seem inevitable.Just to get to Edgbaston was challenging enough. By the time that Warwickshire decided to give him his debut on Friday evening, omitting Ian Westwood who had made 15 runs in seven attempts, Umeed was in Carlisle on his way back to the family home in Glasgow. He completed the journey, flew back down, and his parents followed by car in time to watch his grand moment.Umeed needed some fortune against Graham Onions with the new ball, edging wide of Ryan Pringle, at catchable height, at third slip and then badly dropped by Paul Collingwood on 19, but they were rare blemishes. As the pitch became stickier, he became stickier still, pressing on regardless after Varun Chopra, his partner in an opening stand of 121, had fallen lbw to James Weighell.The only time he attempted something rash, with exhilaration at his hundred still coursing through his veins, he was dismissed three balls after that landmark had been achieved, pulling a short ball from Onions straight to midwicket. On the surface, it was not a wicket-taking ball, but Onions is a canny enough soul to have banged one in with an expectation of something excitable.Until then, Umeed had brought a disciplined air to proceedings. In a season where Haseeb Hameed has already emerged for Lancashire, here was another opening batsman of Pakistani heritage seemingly blessed with infinite patience. His early boundaries were keenly-observant deflections to third man and his 50 was well past by the time he risked a few off drives by way of variety.Umeed was born in Glasgow and Durham, always interested in talent north of the border, took a brief look at him in a youngster, but it is at Warwickshire where his allegiance soon lay, joining forces with Dougie Brown, whose Scotland career had recently ended and who then was the county’s academy director. Durham must have found it particularly galling to encounter resistance from a young player who was almost in their grasp.He played for Kings Heath, then in the Birmingham League (he is now at Moseley) and for Warwickshire from U-17 level, just missing out on the cut for Scotland’s World Cup squad last winter. Family in Pakistan has also enabled him to extend his experience worldwide, including a spell at the Saeed Ajmal academy.These are tough times for Durham: their shaky financial situation has gained attention recently with the second Test against Sri Lanka coming up at Chester-le-Street on Friday, where advance sales are mediocre, and with the county appealing to the ECB for a restructuring of the £925,000 staging fee. The playing budget has also been slashed, leading to speculation that they will struggle to retain their best players.But on the field Durham continue to display considerable pluck. Facing a Warwickshire total of 195 for 1 soon after tea, with Umeed as rooted as a persistent verruca, they responded magnificently, claiming seven Warwickshire wickets for 64 in 18 overs.That was what Collingwood had envisaged when he put Warwickshire into bat – and a more welcome situation than before lunch when he put a recent foot injury behind him to bowl a settling spell to send a message to his youthful attack.Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott both fell to Brydon Carse, a young pace bowler of South African extraction, who persisted without much luck for 13 overs but then got his just desserts by having Bell caught at second slip and Trott caught at the wicket. A loose shot from Keith Barker gave him a third wicket.Carse was told by Durham that they wanted to bowl him in short, sharp spells – he is a slender lad with a bit of pace about him – but it has proved to be hard to get the ball out of his hands.Weighell had four in the wickets column by the close. “The ball was swinging from the start and kept swinging right until the close of play so, although as a bowler it’s never good to look up and see 190 for 1 on the board, we always felt we were in the game,” he said.Onions is supported by three pace bowlers with only 65 years between them, their inexperience so pronounced that when they beat Lancashire last week – courtesy of a daring declaration by Collingwood – they did not know the words to the team song, Blaydon Races. It is too early yet to start learning the lyrics because, thanks to Umeed, Warwickshire have a decent total on this pitch, but at least they are at the races, as it were, and that says a lot about their spirit.