The final league game of the Tri-Nation Under-19s Tournament in South Africa at the King Edward VII School Ground in Johannesburg, involving the hosts and India, was abandoned without a ball being bowled.The splitting of points meant South Africa nosed ahead of Sri Lanka on the points table and will now be contesting the final, scheduled for January 5, against India, who are unbeaten in the tournament.
Sunday, December 27
Start time 09:00 (03:30 GMT)India sealed the series in Kolkata, but will want to get rid of the habit of losing dead rubbers•AFP
It’s dead-rubber time again. Since MS Dhoni became captain, India have won seven of the eight bilateral ODI series they have played. Keeping aside the series against England, Australia and West Indies – where last matches could not be played out – India have played four dead-rubbers and lost all four. With Dhoni coming back from his ban, India would want to set that blip right in Delhi.The visitors, though, will be playing for much more. They came here with the strongest Sri Lankan squad to have toured India. The final balance sheet will give them reasons aplenty to feel bitterly disappointed: they are yet to win a Test in the country, or an ODI series. What the balance sheet won’t show is how well they managed despite a plethora of injuries to key players and how they could easily have been 2-0 up despite having to chase 415 and 302 in the first two matches. Having lost Muttiah Muralitharan, Angelo Mathews, Thilan Thushara and Chanaka Welegedara to injuries, this was not as bad an effort as the scoreline would suggest.After the fourth ODI, Sangakkara said this was the most competitive they had ever been in India, and yet they came up short. Sangakkara will want to leave with good memories, a final stamp of competitiveness in Delhi, a good performance and not a whimper to remember the tour by.
(last five completed matches, most recent first)
India – WWLWL
Sri Lanka – LLWLL
Upul Tharanga: With big-hitters all around him, and a bold decision that put him in Sanath Jayasuriya’s spot at the top of the order, Tharanga would have been under pressure coming into the series. If he was, he is yet to show it. With 295 runs at 73.75, he is behind only Tillakaratne Dilshan in terms of run-scoring. A definite contender for the Man-of-the-Series award if he can put in another strong show.Sachin Tendulkar: What Tharanga has been to Dilshan, Tendulkar has been to Virender Sehwag. For a second fiddle, 216 runs at 72 is not a bad job. Having rested for the tri-series in Bangladesh, Tendulkar will want to make the most of his last ODI innings in a while.
Dhoni was named in the squad for the final ODI, which should mean India have no intentions of resting him. His coming back should be the only change in the batting line-up, because India don’t have any reserve batsmen. Harbhajan Singh could be rested, though, and this would be the best opportunity to give Sudeep Tyagi a debut.India: (probable) 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 Gautam Gambhir, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 MS Dhoni (capt/wk), 6 Suresh Raina, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Pragyan Ojha, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Sudeep Tyagi, 11 Ashish Nehra.Their opening problem solved, Sri Lanka are left looking for one more middle-order mainstay to go with Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. Chamara Kapugedera, Thilan Samaraweera and Jayasuriya have all disappointed there, and that will be the only major decision to make. Thissara Perera and Suranga Lakmal should retain their places, while Lasith Malinga will be under pressure to hold his.Sri Lanka: (probable) 1 Upul Tharanga, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (capt/wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 and 6 two out of Sanath Jayasuriya, Chamara Kapugedera and Thilan Samaraweera, 7 Thilina Kandamby, 8 Thissara Perera, 9 Suraj Randiv, 10 Lasith Malinga/Ajantha Mendis, 11 Suranga Lakmal.
“We wanted to win the game and finish the series off in Kolkata as I am not sure of the wicket in Delhi,” Sehwag said after the fourth ODI. That’s how the Kotla track has been this year: low and slow throughout the Champions League, and if it was slightly truer in the Australia ODI, the dew later in the night reminded Ricky Ponting of the wettest conditions he had ever played in. While the early start should take care of the dew, it will bring with it a chilly, foggy start. The pitch remains an unknown, and could tempt teams to play two spinners. Vijay Bahadur Mishra, the curator, predicts scores of around 250, which is an improvement on the Champions League matches, and the one against Australia.
“We had so many debutants on our tour and some of them have really stepped up and that promises better things on future tours. This is the most competitive we have been in India since I debuted.”
“It’s very important that youngsters like Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja get going and play 18-19 matches ahead of the World Cup in 2011. If we get the full strength side we can win the World Cup.”
Peter Siddle and his fresh fast-bowling team-mates want to develop their standing and become a fearsome unit to rival the great combinations of Australia’s past. The trio, which also includes Mitchell Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus, starred in South Africa, where they won the series in March, but were unable to repeat their performances during the 2-1 Ashes defeat.Despite their role in the loss, they remain the preferred line-up and will run into the West Indies from Thursday in the first Test at the Gabba. It is there that the side intends to hit back following the setback in England, which reduced them to fourth in the world rankings, and Siddle is keen to build on a new era for the attack.”Growing up, Australian cricket was always strong and a force to be reckoned with,” he said. “We want to try and forge something of our own, become quality players who can hold Australia in good stead for the next five, ten years or whatever, when we are going to be around the team.”Siddle, 24, played the first of his 12 Tests in India last year and Hilfenhaus, 26, joined the team in South Africa, taking 29 wickets in the next eight games. Johnson, who is 28, remains the attack leader despite his troubles in England and has been a key member of the set-up since he was 12th man throughout the 2006-07 Ashes series.”We have almost a good year together, the three of us,” Siddle said. “We are starting to get used to how each other plays, what our roles are in the team. We are all close mates and at similar ages and we are all disappointed with the Ashes and how we finished up there. We want to start off well here and perform well and have a good series.”A foot injury to Brett Lee at the start of the year allowed the trio to come together and his most recent elbow problem means Doug Bollinger, the left-arm fast man from New South Wales, is the only one capable of splitting them up this week. Given the selectors’ faith in them that appears highly unlikely.Siddle returned early from the one-day series in India with a side strain and, like Hilfenhaus and Johnson, will enter the opening Test without a first-class warm-up. The selectors preferred them to rest following a gruelling schedule and Siddle is not concerned.”I have played that much cricket now that I know what I have to do to prepare for each match and what I have to do to get ready,” he said. “I feel comfortable with where I am right now and am looking forward to a big summer.”
Doug Bollinger couldn’t be much less like Ben Hilfenhaus, who he will replace in Australia’s Test team in Adelaide. The right-arm swing bowler Hilfenhaus is quiet and the last man you’d expect to be involved in a bit of on-field banter. Bollinger is a left-arm hit-the-deck type who, when asked what he would bring to the Australian team, gave this response.”Probably a lot of noise, a lot of energy, that’s what I like to do, I like to be loud, I like to have fun and I like to get in amongst it and have a good time with the guys,” Bollinger said. “You can’t be sitting around all quiet all the time, I like to bring a bit of everything.”I like to be loud and obnoxious – I think that’s just me and my profile, ‘Doug’s loud and obnoxious’. I like to do that on the field as well as doing the work, it makes everyone enjoy themselves whether you have long or short days in the field.”Bollinger not only enjoys banter with his team-mates and opponents but also with spectators. During Australia’s tour match in Potchefstroom on the tour of South Africa earlier this year, some local wags kept yelling ‘wide’ at Bollinger during a slightly wayward spell.They didn’t count on a response from the bowler himself, who yelled back “it’s a four-day game, there are no wides, ya nuffies”. Never mind that wides do of course exist in the longer format and, in any case, it was actually a three-day match. It just wasn’t in Bollinger’s nature to keep his mouth shut.Fortunately, his bowling also speaks volumes. A tireless worker on the field, Bollinger has a happy knack of regularly taking bags of wickets. He picked up eight in last week’s Sheffield Shield game in Perth, already has two five-fors in a seven-match ODI career, and has been on so many tours with Australia it’s hard to believe he has played only one Test.”It felt really good in Perth, against the WACAs for New South Wales,” he said. “I was swinging the ball and bowling pretty fast. I was swinging the new ball and bowling Irish with the old one, so I’m feeling really good at the moment. I think [the Adelaide pitch] will be flatter than Brisbane, so you’ve just got to bash away.”However, Bollinger isn’t brash enough to predict another three-day victory for Australia after their innings triumph at the Gabba. He knows that he, Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle and Nathan Hauritz will have to work hard to knock over the visitors on a surface likely to be a batsman’s paradise.”They are not bunnies. They are a good team,” he said. “They just got beaten by a better team in Brisbane. [Shivnarine] Chanderpaul is a very good batter. He likes to face a lot of balls and is just a rare talent. [Ramnaresh] Sarwan bats long and well and [Chris] Gayle could go off at any time.”West Indies will be hurt by the loss of Jerome Taylor, who was heading home due to a back strain, and is likely to be replaced in the starting XI by Gavin Tonge. However, they should regain Sarwan, who missed the Gabba Test with a back injury.
Andy Moles has expressed his disappointment at a lack of feedback over the perceived shortcomings that led to his resignation as New Zealand’s coach today. Moles walked away less than a year into his tenure, following a review of the team’s performance in recent months.His departure came two days after news reports that senior players were dissatisfied with the level of support Moles was providing. He said it had been a privilege to coach the national side but he was disappointed at a lack of communication that contributed to his exit.”Let me be very clear, it is the players’ team, they are the most important thing,” Moles told NZPA. “It is unfortunate that it [coaching deficiencies] wasn’t raised before and that will be looked at, I’m sure, by New Zealand Cricket (NZC) going forward.”If I had got some feedback earlier, we may have been able to quell this problem and been aware of it. Obviously we’ll never know because the feedback wasn’t forthcoming.”New Zealand have played seven Tests without a victory since Moles took over but his last act as coach was to guide the team to the Champions Trophy final earlier this month. He said that his relationship with the captain Daniel Vettori remained strong despite the outcome of the NZC review.”He confirmed to me that we had an excellent relationship, those were his words, and he’s really sorry that it’s ended up like this,” Moles said of Vettori. “It’s in the best interests of the team so that they can move forward and I can get on doing what I’m going to do.”NZC’s chief executive Justin Vaughan has vehemently denied that any players were plotting the demise of Moles and said it was simply the result of a typical post-tour review in which players and support staff provided their opinions. However, Moles said it was important that his successor be strong-willed enough to handle the role.”They need a coach who’s going to be really forceful and a guy who perhaps will be allowed to come in and run the show by himself,” Moles said. “The most important thing is that Dan Vettori must really believe in the new bloke… and they must work closely together.”Hopefully as close as Dan and I did but obviously with a different type of chemistry to his coaching. Obviously my brand of coaching wasn’t the type of coaching that these players desired and I understand that. All coaches in the world are different. [John] Bracewell operated differently to what I did and [Steve] Rixon did.”New Zealand’s one-day squad flies out early this week for a series against Pakistan in the UAE. There will be no head coach for the trip and a replacement for Moles, who was contracted for two more years, might not be found until early next year.
Somerset were emphatically undone by Trinidad’s Chinaman bowler Dave Mohammed and his fellow spinners 76 years after Walter Robbins’ famous exclamation – “Fancy getting out to a bloody Chinaman” – on being bowled out by another Trinidadian, Ellis “Puss” Achong.Justin Langer, Somerset’s captain, wasn’t as evocative as Robbins but he did say his team had been sufficiently warned about Mohammed and legspinner Samuel Badree by Omari Banks, the West Indian offspinner in the county’s ranks – to no avail.Perhaps Somerset were distracted by the sight of three spinners in a West Indian side playing a Twenty20 game but Daren Ganga, Trinidad & Tobago’s captain, was unambiguous about his team’s strengths.”In West Indies we still talk about our great 70s pace quartet and what not,” Ganga said. “We have quite a few good spinners like Mohammed and Badree in our region. Those in power in West Indies cricket are going in the wrong direction by not giving enough opportunities to the spinners. You need a quality spinner or two to win you Test games. And unless you give chances they are not going to develop. The spinners are very underrated back home by the men in power.”In the here and now, it was almost a joy to see three spinners of different variety – an offie, a leggie and a quality Chinaman – do the strangling act on hapless batsmen. Mohammed was the best of the lot, Badree landed most of his leg breaks on the correct line and length and Sherwin Ganga squeezed in his offbreaks to pick up the biggest haul.Langer was the first victim to spin, pulling Ganga straight to backward square leg. Arul Suppiah charged out only to be beaten in flight and bowled by Mohammed, who also went on to lure Peter Trego to his demise with a loopy delivery. Ganga stepped in to pick up a bagful as the Somerset lower order swatted at him cluelessly. Both Badree and Mohammed should have got more wickets, and would have with a few plausible lbw decisions going their way. Perhaps even the umpires were taken by surprise at the plethora of spinners from the Caribbean region and didn’t quite know how to react.Mohammed’s pumped-up celebrations made him the toast of the Bangalore crowd, which must have been a great feeling given that the last time most Indian fans saw him in action was disastrous for him. In 2006, with India pressing for a declaration in the first Test in Antigua, Brian Lara gave the ball to Mohammed. MS Dhoni biffed six sixes in his 51-ball 69 and Mohammed’s figures read 3 for 162 from 29.5 overs. He never played another Test in that series.Today the highlight came when he removed Trego. As soon as he saw the attempted reverse sweep land in point’s hands, he did a somersault and thumped his chest like Tarzan as he lay on the ground, waiting to be mobbed by his team-mates. The crowd roared in delight. It wasn’t quite self-redemption for Mohammed – that will come when he performs against India – but for now this public appreciation will do just fine.
Justin Langer, the Somerset captain, has confirmed he will not be returning to the county next season, fuelling speculation that he is being lined up to take the role of coach at struggling Middlesex.Langer, who turns 39 in November, said the time was right to move on to the next phase of his career after four seasons with Somerset, where he has led the side since 2007.He enjoyed three seasons with Middlesex between 1998 and 2000, and at the weekend Angus Fraser, their director of cricket, admitted that Langer was a possible candidate to succeed Toby Radford, who left in July. “I hold Justin in high regard and want to talk to him once I know what his contractual situation is with Somerset,” Fraser said. “We have talked to some other people as well.”Langer helped guide Somerset from the bottom of the County Championship Second Division to the First Division, where they finished fourth last year and again competed strongly for the title this season. He has also been part of Somerset’s short-format success – they were runners up in the Twenty20 cup this year – and will lead the county in the Champions League Twenty20 in India next month.”I am very proud of what we have achieved as a team over the last few years,” Langer said. “We have proved that organisation, teamwork, talent, vision and discipline are the most important factors when competing on the field.”While it is tough to let go of my playing ties with Somerset, I feel the time is now right for me to move on to the next phase in my career. I have not yet decided where or what that might be and I will take some time out to decide which route I wish to take, either within cricket or in following my other life pursuits.”Langer, who played 105 Tests for Australia before retiring at the end of the 2006-07 Ashes, set a record in 2006, when he scored 342 against Surrey at Guildford, which gave him the highest individual first-class score by a Somerset player. Somerset’s chief executive Richard Gould said Langer would be remembered as one of the county’s greats.”JL’s contribution as a player and captain will mark him down in club history as one of our most outstanding performers,” Gould said. “His direction and determination has allowed the club to reinvent itself as one of the top performing clubs in English cricket. His personal example has allowed many of our younger players to blossom and his legacy will evident for years to come.”Brian Rose, Somerset’s director of cricket, said: “I have been privileged over the years to have been involved with many great overseas players at Somerset, including Viv Richards, Greg Chappell and Sunil Gavaskar. JL is right up there with them in terms of the progression he has achieved for the club in the last three years.”
Durham consolidated their position at the top of the Championship table and moved closer to retaining their title with a thumping nine-wicket victory against Sussex at Chester-le-Street. Luke Wright’s second century of the season only delayed the inevitable and Durham were left needing 77 to win. The home side broke Sussex’s main resistance when Mark Davies shifted Andrew Hodd with a slower ball to end a stand of 112 with Wright and 30 runs later Yasir Arafat edged Ian Blackwell to slip. Steve Harmison, still battling with a badly blistered toe, picked up the tail although a 46-run stand between Wright and Corey Collymore extended the match beyond lunch. Michael Di Venuto, who hit a career-best 254 in the first innings, remained unbeaten throughout the game as he finished on 39.With no chance of a result at Taunton, Somerset’s batsmen used the final day against Nottinghamshire to put in another powerful performance. The hosts were on 29 for 0 overnight and Marcus Trescothick and Arul Suppiah added another 200 today before Trescothick was caught by Darren Pattinson off Samit Patel for 99. Suppiah, however, did not miss out on his century and reached 151 before getting bowled by Adam Voges. There was little respite for Nottinghamshire’s bowlers though as Wes Durston also scored a half-century. Somerset eventually declared on 344 for 2 and the match was called off soon after.Warwickshire crushed Worcestershire by nine wickets at at New Road, achieving their first victory in Division One since May 2007, and left the hosts struggling at the bottom of the table and in danger of relegation. Fast bowlers Naqaash Tahir, who took 5 for 67, and Boyd Rankin picked up the last four Worcestershire wickets in about an hour on the final day, ensuring their batsmen needed to chase only 47 for victory. Moeen Ali offered some resistance on a grassy pitch but was the last man out – edging Tahir to the wicketkeeper – with the score on 244. Warwickshire lost Neil Carter in the second over of the chase and the job was finished by Ian Westwood and Jonathan Trott who reached the target in less than nine overs.Click here for John Ward’s report from the fourth day between Lancashire and Yorkshire at Old Trafford
| Teams | Mat | Won | Lost | Tied | Draw | Aban | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Durham | 10 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 158 |
| Somerset | 10 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 126 |
| Nottinghamshire | 9 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 116 |
| Lancashire | 10 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 109 |
| Warwickshire | 9 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 100 |
| Hampshire | 9 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 92 |
| Yorkshire | 10 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 85 |
| Sussex | 9 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 84 |
| Worcestershire | 10 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 52 |
Robert Key and Geraint Jones scored centuries to help Kent overhaul a challenging target and secure a three-wicket victory on the final day against Derbyshire at Canterbury. Chasing a target of 318, Key scored 110 off 144 balls and Jones contributed 100 as Kent raced along at over four runs an over. The pair added 175 for the second wicket after Joe Denly fell early and set up a superb platform for the rest of the batsmen to build on. Martin van Jaarsveld maintained the pace with a brisk 51 off 47 balls while Darren Stevens contributed 29 off 28. Kent lost wickets towards the end but the lower-order batsmen ensured that the hard work of their top-order team-mates wasn’t wasted. That Kent had an opportunity to push for the win was down to their bowlers, who performed impressively to dismiss Derbyshire for only 303 after the visitors resumed on 236 for 4 in the morning. Justin Kemp bowled Wavell Hinds soon after play began and he and James Tredwell worked their way through the Derbyshire lower order. Kemp finished with 3 for 12 while Tredwell to 4 for 93.A top-order collapse during the run-chase resulted in Middlesex crashing to a 35-run defeat against Northamptonshire at Lord’s, leaving the hosts still searching for their first victory of the season after nine matches. Middlesex were chasing a target of 222 but their chances reduced drastically after David Lucas and Monty Panesar reduced them to 66 for 5. Shaun Udal offered resistance during his 55 off 94 balls but Johann van der Wath breached his defences and knocked out middle stump, taking three lower-order wickets to skittle Middlesex for 186. Earlier, van der Wath had scored 85 to help Northamptonshire extend their overnight score of 225 for 7 to 293.The bowlers will be grateful this one is over. Only nine wickets fell in four days as the match between Surrey and Leicestershire at The Oval ended in the most unappealing of cricketing contests – the high-scoring draw. Surrey began the final day on 311 for 2 and Mark Ramprakash converted his century into a massive double, reaching 274 before he was bowled by Nathan Buck. Ramprakash had added a mind-boggling 404 runs for the third wicket with Stewart, who scored 188, before he was caught off Claude Henderson. The runs didn’t stop with their dismissals for Usman Afzaal took the opportunity to score an unbeaten 70 before Surrey mercifully declared on 608 for 4. Leicestershire’s openers, Greg Smith and Matthew Boyce, added 23 before the match ended. The bowlers bowled 333.2 overs in four days and took nine wickets while the batsmen plundered 1224 runs.Only 149 runs were scored and two wickets taken on the final day in Bristol as the match between Glamorgan and Gloucestershire meandered towards a draw. Gloucestershire began the day on 19 for 0, with an overall lead of 69, and finished on 168 for 2. Kadeer Ali top scored with an unbeaten 67 while James Harris and David Harrison picked up a wicket each for Glamorgan.
| Teams | Mat | Won | Lost | Tied | Draw | Aban | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kent | 9 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 131 |
| Derbyshire | 10 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 113 |
| Gloucestershire | 10 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 104 |
| Northamptonshire | 9 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 104 |
| Surrey | 10 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 102 |
| Essex | 9 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 90 |
| Glamorgan | 9 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 84 |
| Leicestershire | 9 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 78 |
| Middlesex | 9 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 74 |
John Wright, a current New Zealand selector and former India coach, has confirmed he is in the running for the coach’s position at the Kolkata Knight Riders. The IPL franchise recently sacked John Buchanan after two poor seasons.”Yes, they have been talking to me,” Wright told the while in Chennai with the New Zealand A side. “Let’s see how it goes. One day I would love to come back to India.”Duncan Fletcher and Richard Pybus are also in the fray along with other candidates, and are expected to meet the franchise management at owner Shahrukh Khan’s house in Mumbai next weekend.Wright, a former New Zealand batsman, had a successful five-year stint as India’s coach during which India won a historic series against Australia in 2001 at home, won in Pakistan in 2003, and also reached the final of the 2003 World Cup.If Kolkata appoint Wright, he will be working with Ganguly, who was the national captain during his five-year stint as India coach, for at least a year. Ganguly will be playing his third season at Kolkata and at 37 it is unclear whether he will extend his contract. It has been reported that Wright’s relationship with Ganguly turned a bit rocky towards the end those five years but Wright has always insisted he respected and appreciated Ganguly. He said the two still kept in touch.”We had our differences and had different opinions, Wright said. “These were strong opinions too. But at the end of the day, we trusted each other. He was good with the young boys and gave the side aggression. We shared a common goal. I was very impressed in the manner he staged a comeback and went out on his own terms. Ganguly showed he was a fighter.Sourav and myself are strong individuals and we had great times being in the same boat,” he was quoted as saying by . “He did his things his way. I would challenge him. Sometimes, we did not know why to agree.”
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The opening game of the Champions Twenty20 League, between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Cape Cobras, will be held in Bangalore while the final will be played in Hyderabad on October 23.The 12 teams will be divided into four groups of three each with IPL runners-up Bangalore grouped with Cape Cobras and Otago, while IPL champions Deccan Chargers are in a pool with Stanford 20/20 winners Trinidad and Tobago and the runners-up of England’s Twenty20 Cup.Delhi Daredevils will be grouped with Victoria, the runners-up in the Australian domestic competition, and the Sri Lanka champions Wayamba. The other group comprises the Australian title-holders New South Wales, South Africa’s Eagles and the yet-to-be-decided winner of England’s Twenty20 Cup.The top two teams will qualify for the second round where two groups of four each will compete in a round-robin league. The top four teams will make it to the semi-finals, which will be played in New Delhi, on October 21, and Hyderabad, on October 22. A total of 23 matches will be played over 16 days in these three venues.Telecom service providers Airtel have signed up for the tournament as title sponsors for five years starting 2009. According to industry sources the deal is worth Rs200 crore (US$ 41 million approx).