Andrew Strauss filled his boots against the Bangladesh attack for the third time in the NatWest Series as England comfortably sealed their place in the final with a five-wicket win at Headingley. Strauss was out with just one run needed, for 98, following Andrew Flintoff’s 4 for 29 which restricted Bangladesh after they made a promising start.Strauss attempted to finish the match in the grand manner, by reaching his century, but was bowled by Manjural Islam, the ball after hitting a six to get within two runs of his milestone (208 for 5). It was another impressive innings from Strauss and it is important that he now starts to take this form into the remaining matches against Australia – starting at Edgbaston on Tuesday.A target of 209 was never going to be enough to trouble England, especially when Strauss and Marcus Trescothick continued to gorge themselves on the Bangladesh bowling. Trescothick was in great touch again and it was a surprise when he got a feathered edge against Manjural for 43 – a relative failure against after his previous scores of 100* and 85 against Bangladesh in the tournament.Habibul Bashar was forced to turn to his spinners – Manjural and Mohammad Rafique – within the 15 overs and Trescothick took advantage and slog-swept into the Western Terrace (or Stand as it now prefers to be known). However, Manjural got his revenge when Trescothick tried another dab to third-man and got the thinnest of edges to Khaled Mashud (99 for 1).Flintoff was promoted to No. 3 but he again failed to make the most of his opportunity when he fell lbw sweeping at Rafique (134 for 2). Kevin Pietersen gave the Headingley crowd a brief glimpse of his power, clearing the midwicket boundary once during his 23, before finding long-on as he attempted to win the match quickly (182 for 4).
Bangladesh stuttered to 208 for 7 as England’s bowling improved after a poor start with Flintoff leading the resurgence with another menacing spell. Javed Omar provided the backbone to the innings with 81 from 150 balls and Mashud brought some much needed late acceleration with 42 off 43.Omar’s innings was a model of concentration and he largely managed to eradicated the cross-batted shots that have been is downfall in this series. But at times it was questionable whether he was doing more harm than good to the innings. However, after their rapid collapse against Australia yesterday they can be forgiven for ensuring they batted out their 50 overs.Simon Jones gained a useful workout. He grabbed the first wicket to fall, when Shahriar Nafees edged a expansive cut to first slip, where Trescothick took a well-judged low catch (22 for 1).But Flintoff was easily the pick of England’s seam attack after they generally wasted the new ball in a lazy display of bowling and fielding. As Tushar Imran attempted to increase the scoring rate he chopped into his stumps after comfortably scoring at a run-a-ball (92 for 2). It was typical of so many Bangladesh dismissals on this tour, with a batsman doing all the hardwork then losing concentration at the vital time.Mohammad Ashraful had a perfect base to continue his scintillating form, but picked out Trescothick at midwicket from his first ball (92 for 3). Flintoff was then within a whisker of a hat-trick – although not as close as Tremlett last week – when Habibul Bashar just managed to get his pad outside off stump.But Bashar did not last much longer and became another victim of Paul Collingwood’s sharp fielding in the covers. Omar dropped the ball and set off for a single but Bashar’s dive was not quite enough to get him home as Collingwood’s underarm flick just clipped the stumps (112 for 4). When Aftab Ahmed was bowled by Ashley Giles, Bangladesh had lost all their momentum (138 for 5) but Mashud used his experience to ensure they at least passed 200 and gave England a decent chase.Although not the most convincing of England’s performances against Bangladesh, they still got the job done with plenty of time to spare. Now the attention turns firmly to Australia for the rest of the summer. Although Tuesday’s game has no bearing on the final, some important psychological points can be scored ahead of the Lord’s showdown.
After 34 incident-free days, a sour note was struck on the cricket field today when an Indian photographer was assaulted by a police constable at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium during the afternoon session. Local authorities have been prompt in ordering an enquiry pending which the constable has been suspended.Suman Chattopadhyay, a photo-journalist of Pratidin newspaper in Kolkata, was slapped and kicked by the constable. Chattopadhyay was making his way back to the area where photographers are seated, and was accosted by the constable. The photographer explained that he was merely returning to the spot he had occupied all through the first session, and displayed the media badge issued to him by the Pakistan Cricket Board. The badge says clearly `Access to all areas except dressing rooms’.Unsatisfied by this, the constable prevented the photographer from returning to his spot on the pretext that he did not possess a special pass required to enter the perimeter area of the ground. In no other venue in Pakistan has such a pass been necessary, and even here, Chattopadhyay was not stopped when he took his place first thing in the morning.The constable proceeded to slap the photographer and then kicked him, all in full view of other policemen, including his superiors, who made no attempt to stop him. It was only the timely intervention of other photographers, followed quickly by Samiul Hasan and Amrit Mathur, the media managers of Pakistan and India, that broke up the fracas. The constable, identified simply as Imtiaz of the Punjab Police, tried to make a quick getaway from the scene, but that was prevented.The constable then attempted a weak apology, filmed all the while by news channels, in the hope that the matter would be laid to rest. However, news spread to the authorities at the highest levels, and the mayor of Rawalpindi, Raja Tariq Mehboob Kiyani, was forced to apologise. Having done so, Kiyani said that the constable had been suspended and that an inquiry was underway. The PCB, which has done its best to ensure that this tour is conducted successfully in an incident-free manner, expressed its deepest regret at the incident.
PERTH, Jan 4 AAP – The pacemen exploited perfect WACA bowling conditions and threatened the umpires with RSI as Queensland claimed first innings points over Western Australia in their Pura Cup clash today.An incredible 16 wickets fell for 225 runs as the Bulls steamrolled WA out for 107 before suffering their own collapse and going to stumps on 6-118.Although some aggrieved batsmen may be calling for the WACA deck to be swept for landmines, in truth it was exceptional bowling from both sides and not the pitch that contributed to one of the most extraordinary day’s play here in many seasons.The WACA’s reputation as a pace bowlers’ paradise rung true as the quicks claimed all but one of the wickets to fall.Only rookie spinner Beau Casson (1-10), who claimed his first wicket on the WACA when he bowled the Bulls’ top scorer Clinton Perren for 40, broke the trend.WACA officials were left to lament what might have been when Adam Dale, once a potential Warrior, joined forces with old-mate Michael Kasprowicz (5-36) to demolish the WA top order.During the off-season, Dale was linked to a move West to take up a position as a player and assistant coach with the Warriors.But he was wearing the Bulls’ maroon strip today when he delivered a swing bowling coaching clinic as WA collapsed to its lowest total of the season.The former Test and Australian one-day star whose career was in the balance after major shoulder surgery, celebrated his return to first class cricket after a 15 month lay-off in devastating fashion with 3-52.He claimed his first two wickets without conceding a run and his figures would have been more impressive had Michael Clark and Paul Wilson not bludgeoned 23 runs off his final two overs in a cavalier, 29 run last wicket stand that pushed the Warriors beyond 100.Kasprowicz also enjoyed a triumphant return, albeit from just a one-match lay-off, to claim 5-36, his best figures against WA and his 20th career five wicket haul.Kasprowicz, captaining Queensland in the absence of Australia A skipper Jim Maher, won the toss and had no hesitation sending the hosts into bat.With the skies overcast, the south westerly already in and Dale champing at the bit to begin his first spell in over a year, he had little choice.And in the end the Warriors quicks didn’t have too long to wait for their own chance.Queensland’s innings began shortly before tea and it wasn’t long before Jo Angel (2-19 ) and Michael Clark (2-41) were mimicking the Bulls’ bowlers’ feats.The pair produced a devastating opening spell to reduce Queensland to 4-35 before a 65 run middle order partnership between James Hopes (32) and Perren (40) fortified the Bulls’ innings.Late wickets to Paul Wilson (1- 18) and Casson were not enough to salvage first innings points.
* Harbhajan aims to be an all-rounderHaving proved his bowling credentials, Harbhajan Singh is nowconcentrating his energies on improving his batting too in order tobecome a potent all-rounder. The Indian off spinner, who earned arecord 32-wicket haul in the home Test series against Australia, hasmade the headlines on the current Zimbabwe tour for different reasons.Despite being the second highest wicket-taker for India in the Testseries, it was his gutsy contribution with the bat in both the Teststhat was more acknowledged. And Harbhajan, who turns 21 on July 3,himself knows his batting only too well.”I think my footwork is not very good but my eyesight is very good. Ican spot it (the ball) early,” he told PTI in an interview inBulawayo. He said his crucial knock in the Chennai Test againstAustralia had given him the confidence that he can get some runs too.”The point is if you bat well in an international series once, youhave the confidence to do it again. (After the knock againstAustralia) I said to myself: ‘If you can get it against Australia, youcan get it against any team’.”* Vengsarkar is MCA selection committee chairmanFormer Indian captain Dilip Vengsarkar has been appointed chairman ofthe senior selection committee by the Cricket Improvement Committee(CIC) of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) for the 2001-2002season. The decision to appoint Vengsarkar was taken by the MCA at itsmeeting held in Mumbai on Thursday, an MCA release said. The othermembers of the committee include Raju Kulkarni, Abdul Ismail andSudhir Naik.The Under-19 and MCA Colts committee includes Abdul Ismail as chairmanand Ranjan Baindoor, Sanjay Patil and Deepak Jadhav as members. AbeyKuruvilla has been appointed chairman of the junior selectioncommittee. Bharat Nadkarni, Tukaram Surve and Pradeep Kasliwal havebeen appointed as members.While Lalchand Rajput has been appointed as coach for the Ranji Trophyteam, Subhash Bandiwadekar and Chandrakant Pandit are the coaches forthe under-22 and under-19 teams respectively, the release said. DineshNanavaty has been appointed coach for the under-16 team and SuruNayak has been asked to coach the under-14 team.* BCCI yet to decide on Super Challenge SeriesThe Indian cricket team’s participation in the three-match limitedovers series against Australia in September was yet to be approved bythe Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).BCCI secretary JY Lele, told PTI in Mumbai on Thursday that a decisionwhether to accept the invitation from the Australian Cricket Board(ACB) to play would be taken at the Board’s working committee meetingto be held in the third week of July.”We had asked for a change in the dates from the ACB as they clashedwith the Asian Test championship tie with Pakistan from September13-17 and the ACB has acceded to our request,” he said. “However, thefinal decision whether to send a team for the series rests with theworking committee,” Lele said.
Celtic are interested in a deal to bring promising young defender Luke Graham to Parkhead.
What’s the talk?
That’s according to a report by The Courier, who claim that Ange Postecoglou’s side, as well as Arsenal and Rangers, sent scouts to watch the 18-year-old in action for youth side Lochee United on Saturday.
The centre-back has also caught the eye of Sheffield United, so much so that the Dundee FC starlet linked up with the Championship side on a week-long trial on Monday.
The next Jack Hendry
Considering the sheer amount of interest there currently is in the teenager, it is clear that expectations surrounding the defender’s future in the professional game are extremely high.
Indeed, Dundee U18 coach, Scott Robertson, said of the left-footed centre-back prior to his switch to Sheffield United: “It will be a great experience for him, no matter how it goes.
“Luke has only been in full-time for a year and, through challenging circumstances with [the pandemic] and all that brings, has really progressed. He’s come on physically, mentally, tactically – everything we want to see. It’s credit to him how far he has come. He’s been making real strides recently.”
And, while Graham is yet to make his professional bow for the Dark Blues, it would seem that there are already very clear comparisons that can be drawn between the 18-year-old and another former Dundee starlet – Jack Hendry.
Indeed, both Celtic and Rangers were also interested in the 22-year-old back in February 2018, before the Hoops splashed £1.5m in order to secure the signing of the promising defender.
However, while the decision to loan the Scotland international out to KV Oostende with a £990k option to buy clause ultimately proved to be something of a mistake on the part of the Bhoys – as the centre-back is now valued at £5.4m and is highly impressing for Club Brugge – the fact remains that Celtic initially identified the defender’s talent while playing at Dens Park.
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As such, with the early signs appearing to suggest that Graham could be just as talented as Hendry – if not more so – it would indeed appear a very wise move for Postecoglou to do all he can to land the teenager ahead of the other interested parties this summer.
AND in other news: Sold at £18m, now worth £7.2m: Celtic hit the jackpot on “desperate” £25k-p/w disaster
Debut of the day New Zealand like to blood their cricketers young. Maybe not as young as the subcontinental nations, but they’ve still had five 18-year-old debutants in their history, including the current captain, Daniel Vettori. Therefore at 19 years and 102 days, Tim Southee was an old sweat by comparison, and he bowled like one as well, with guile, accuracy and stamina, and at a waspish mid-80mph pace that gave all of England’s batsmen the hurry-up. At the recent Under-19 World Cup in Malaysia, he took 17 wickets at 6.64, and today he didn’t alter his mindset one iota despite the apparent step-up in class. Within his first three overs, he had claimed the wickets of two England captains, Michael Vaughan and Andrew Strauss, and then struck again with his second delivery with the new ball to remove none other than Kevin Pietersen.Innings of the day Pietersen has been in the doldrums of late, his mindset seemingly muddled by his side’s ongoing failings. He hadn’t passed fifty in any of his previous ten innings of the winter, but today he ended his drought in the most emphatic manner imaginable. This time, his hand was forced by the chaos going on around him. England were 4 for 3 in the blink of an eye, so rather than mope around in a repeat of his Hamilton dirge, Pietersen decided to cut loose on what – contrary to appearances – was a superb batting track. At the time of his dismissal, his superb 129 from 208 balls had comprised 62% of the team total, which placed it on a par with Graham Gooch’s famous 154 not out at Headingley in 1991. Its ultimate place in the annals will be decided by the manner in which England respond over the next four days.Shot of the day Pietersen’s six count has been on the wane in recent years. He’s managed a meagre eight in 18 Tests since the start of the Ashes in 2006-07, which is fewer than he’d managed in any single season before that. But when he does decide to take the aerial route, they really do stay hit. Daniel Vettori discovered that in the 80th over of the innings, when Pietersen dropped to one knee and belted him onto the roof of the Western stand. With the new ball looming large, it looked as though there might be two ball changes within the space of an over, but up jumped a useful chap from the groundstaff to retrieve the errant missile from its resting place.Debut of the day Mk 2 There can’t have been many occasions in recent Test history when, as an attacking option, the wicketkeeper has stood up to a genuine medium-pacer inside the first 20 overs. But such was the luxury granted to Grant Elliott, the other debutant in New Zealand’s ranks. As Jacob Oram has spent the last two Tests demonstrating, defence is the best form of attack against this England line-up, and so Elliott proved with a probing maiden spell of 5-1-10-1. He offered the batsmen nothing as he adopted Oram’s wicket-to-wicket approach, then claimed the scalp of Ian Bell with arguably the first hittable ball of his spell. Bell completely muffed the shot, however, as his eyes lit up like a starving man, and two newbies had made vital incisions of the opening morning of the match.
Ric Charlesworth, the former Western Australia batsman, has rejected an approach to coach South Australia and believes a return to his former state is blocked by the imminent appointment of Tom Moody. Charlesworth, who guided the Australian women’s hockey team to two Olympic gold medals, is currently New Zealand Cricket’s high performance manager, but he has plenty of domestic and international vacancies to consider.Charlesworth told the West Australian he was approached by Rod Marsh, the South Australia high performance manager, last week but was not interested “at the moment”. “There are a range of options,” he said. “I’m not sure what I’m going to do.”While Moody has said he would not make a decision on his future until he spoke to the Sri Lankan board, Charlesworth said he talked to Western Australia officials and “Tom is going to do that job”. “That would have been the better option for me as it’s closer to home,” he said. “I think Tom is the right choice. They have done very well to get him.”The paper reported Moody was due to announce his plans to head back to Perth last week, but he delayed the decision when Sri Lanka made the final. It said he was likely to wait until after a welcome home reception in Colombo on Thursday.Greg Chappell, Dav Whatmore, John Buchanan and Bennett King stepped down after the World Cup to open up three international vacancies while the Australian Centre of Excellence also has a post available after Tim Nielsen’s promotion to the senior set-up. Wayne Phillips resigned from the South Australia job at the end of the Australian season and Wayne Clark stepped down from Western Australia.
I read with interest on Saturday morning a story in the media reporting I had been sent a letter from stakeholders within Zimbabwe’s cricketing fraternity calling upon me to resign as CEO of the ICC over the organisation’s handling of that country’s cricketing problems.I have not yet received the letter but even if and when I do I have no intention of walking away from my position because of the issue. On the contrary, I am determined to use my role to try and ensure the matter is resolved in as satisfactory a way as possible for all sides.In relation to the letter, it is worth pointing out that the reports indicate it appears to emanate from a group of people currently outside the current Zimbabwe Cricket set-up. Their disenfranchisement may help to explain why they appear to have an axe to grind and I am a convenient target but their accusations against the ICC are wide of the mark.Those accusations ignore the make-up of the organisation. The ICC is not simply Malcolm Speed or Ehsan Mani [the president]. It is made up of 96 members, all of whom are charged to run cricket in their respective countries or territories without interference from the centre.From those 96 members come ten Full Members, of which Zimbabwe is one, and the representatives of those ten members, as well as three further delegates from the Associate and Affiliate members plus the chief executive, president and vice-president make up the Board of Directors.That group is charged with overseeing the running of the game on the world stage but it is not the ICC board’s responsibility to dictate how each individual member runs its own affairs. That would be impractical and would also be likely to provoke widespread opposition among members.Nevertheless, we have recognised the problems that exist within cricket in Zimbabwe and, within our framework, have endeavoured to help resolve them.I have previously travelled to Zimbabwe to discuss the situation with the chairman of Zimbabwe Cricket, Peter Chingoka, and players and their representatives. And as an organization, the ICC has consistently urged all disputing parties to get together and resolve any differences they may have.The ICC has welcomed the decision of Zimbabwe Cricket to step back from Test cricket while it tries to address its problems and has also endorsed the action points issued to its interim committee by the Zimbabwe Sports and Recreation Commission.These include dealing with allegations of financial mismanagement, ensuring disputes between players and the board are effectively addressed and providing certainty for other ICC members that the strongest possible Zimbabwe cricket team will be able to fulfil future international commitments.The ICC will continue to urge the interim committee to address the action points in an open and transparent manner and looks forward to hearing back from Chingoka with the results of that work at the meeting scheduled for October.In the meantime, the Zimbabwe team is performing competitively in its current ODI series against the West Indies but the ICC recognises that restoring the side to one that is competitive at Test level will take some time.As CEO I will do all I can to assist in that process and I have no intention of shirking the task.
Cricket Australia has said that it has no immediate plans to start playing Twenty20 matches, although it will continue to monitor the situation.James Sutherland, CA’s chief executive, said that the absence of any formal international competition meant it did not demand integration into an already-packed summer schedule.”We’re not wanting to jump into it,” Sutherland explained. “I guess one of our observations of it is that Pura Cup and ING Cup have talent development functions for the Australian cricket team. There’s no international cricket that’s played in the 20-over format so in some ways we’re reluctant to tinker with what is a tried and true format, that works really well for the success of our national team.”Twenty20 cricket has been a massive success in England where crowds have flocked to games. In July, more than 28,000 watched Middlesex play Surrey at Lord’s in a zonal match. It has also been successfully launched in South Africa, and other countries are adding it to domestic programmes.Australia are scheduled to play the first international 20-over game in New Zealand this season, and one against England during the Ashes tour in 2005.
Until the end of the Indian tour of Pakistan, we will be running a daily Paper Round of what newspapers in India and Pakistan, and from around the world, are saying about this series. This is what the media had to say today:Cometh the hour, cometh a pronouncement from Shoaib Akhtar. A year after being savaged by Sachin Tendulkar in a World Cup encounter at Centurion, Akhtar preached the team mantra while looking ahead to the forthcoming series. “The media may bill it as a `Shoaib vs Tendulkar’ contest but this series is much more than that,” he said in an interview to . “We have to go at all the Indian batsmen if we want to win the series. If we play as a team we will win. Cricket is definitely a team game although individuals might dominate it.”He was philosophical about the Centurion hiding. “I think I am a more improved, controlled and focused bowler after that game,” he said. “Both teams have to prove themselves once again … I think it would be a case of how our bowling fares against their strong batting. Because while their bowling is inexperienced our batting is a bit inexperienced.”* * *Hanif Mohammad, the subcontinent’s original Little Master, took a walk down memory lane in the pages of . Speaking about the 1954-55 series, characterised by stifling defensive cricket, he gave insight into a time when winning wasn’t quite everything. “The matches were keenly fought but there was nothing called sledging,” he said. “In fact, during those times bowlers would give way to the batsmen as they ran between the wickets. And if they’d be caught in the middle, they’d apologise. The camaraderie was brilliant.”Hanif, who also remembers being flummoxed by Subhash Gupte’s flipper, suggests that relations between the sides off the pitch were also cordial. “My mother, who was from India , was a cricket buff,” he said. “She insisted that we host a banquet for the Indian team. We used to live at our Garden Road residence at that time. Getting someone who could cook Indian food was a big problem. But after much struggle, we found a cook in Karachi. He prepared delicious Indian food, and mind you separately for the vegetarians in the team.””The party was great fun with dance, music and jokes,” he added. “I still have a picture with my mother, brother Wazir, bhabhi posing with Indian cricketers like Naren Tamhane, [Vijay] Manjrekar and Gupte. That’s a treasure for life.”* * *Polly Umrigar’s view of that same tour is a little different. “Then, as now, there was a fear psychosis about touring an unfriendly country,” he told . “Some players were scared to go, but I wasn’t. There was security. When we went to a cinema there would be cops all around us. But we came back having enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. The culinary fare laid out was straight out of Arabian Nights, biryani with badam, pista and all. There was a marked difference in the hospitality as we moved northwards [in Pakistan]. The south was not so friendly.””When we reached Lahore, there were people taking us to some homes and pointing out `these are yours’ — homes from where the Hindus had fled during Partition. Rickshaw-wallahs would not take money from Indian fans. `Hamare bhai aaye hain’ [our brothers have come], they would say.”Umrigar had mixed memories of events on and off the field. “The warmth was mixed at the ground as well,” he said. “There was no hooting by the crowds, no jeering. There was no cheering when we hit a four. But we didn’t mind. At Lyallpur, the team had to stay in a railway bogey as the city had no hotels. It was quite upsetting to some players. But there were good hotels in the other cities.”Nostalgia isn’t always about rose-tinted glasses though. Never one to mouth empty platitudes, Umrigar went on to say that the cricket played on the tour “tended to be boring”.