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Mickey Arthur’s comments that senior players may be shunted out of South Africa’s ODI team have not found favour with Ray Jennings, the man Arthur replaced as national team coach in 2005. The problem is not with age, Jennings says, but with performance.Arthur had said South Africa would need to re-think their team composition in the build-up to the 2011 World Cup after losing 4-0 to England in the ODI series, which followed a historic triumph in the Tests.Four of South Africa’s most experienced players, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Makhaya Ntini and Mark Boucher, were below-par in the ODIs against England, but Jennings said Arthur would be committing a blunder by dropping senior players. “You can never throw away experience and you rather need to ask why the more experienced players are not performing at the moment,” Jennings told the Afrikaans Sunday newspaper Sondag. “It is not the solution to throw away older players and replace them with young players. Age has nothing to do with the performances and the real question is if you want to play and if you want to perform at this level.”Kallis, South Africa’s most prolific batsman in recent years, had a torrid time with the bat in both the Tests and ODIs, and Jennings said he felt the allrounder was unhappy during the tour. “I believe a happier Kallis is a Kallis who will perform,” he said. “Something was wrong with him on tour, or am I missing the point. If he had a technical problem in his batting, I’d also have loved to have it, because with it he became the best batsman in the world. A happier Kallis would be putting runs on the board and something was definitely wrong with him on this tour.”Arthur, meanwhile, has said he’s committed to South Africa, even as he admitted speaking to a few counties in England. “I would seriously like to work in county cricket, but South Africa have offered me a new contract through to the 2011 World Cup and my current commitment is to them,” he told the . “I haven’t won the World Cup or beaten Australia. They are things I would love to do.”South Africa’s loss in the ODI series to England ended an otherwise memorable season, in which they won away Test series in Pakistan, Bangladesh and England and drew in India.

Tim Nielsen, the Australia coach, has taken confidence from Kevin Pietersen’s early talk about the Ashes following his opening game as England captain. The series doesn’t start until next July, but Pietersen said after opening his account against South Africa that “if we play like we played this week, we’ll beat Australia”.”I’m pleased that he is thinking about us already,” Nielsen said in the Age. “We’ve got a couple of big series coming up that are taking up most of our thinking at the moment, but we’re certainly very aware that in 12 months we’ll have an Ashes series on the go, and we’re very much looking forward to it.”Australia have a Test campaign against New Zealand in November followed by home-and-away contests against South Africa before they head to England. Nielsen felt England, who lost the 2006-07 Ashes 5-0, had a lot to improve before they could compete with Australia.”Without wanting to put too much on paper, I reckon it is interesting that he’s coming out and saying that already,” Nielsen said. “There are obviously some things they need to work on. It was a dead rubber and if they want to win the Ashes, they’ve got to win two more Tests than they won in this series, against us in England next year.”

Twenty20 is always looking for new ideas and there is a chance a Sydney rugby league coach could end up passing on his methods at the Indian Cricket League. Jock Campbell, the former Australia fitness mentor and current high performance director at the ICL, has been speaking with Steve Folkes of the Bulldogs.Folkes, who has been busy dealing with the high-profile exit of the player Sonny Bill Williams, is looking for a new job and considering a move to India as a fitness co-ordinator. “It would be a good change,” Folkes said in the Sydney Morning Herald.”It’s still very early but it’s an option. I love league but this season has definitely worn me down and a change would be nice.” While the Indian Premier League attracts most of the attention, the ICL is an unofficial competition that mixes Twenty20 and 50-over tournaments throughout the year.

South Africa 455 for 3 (Amla 172, Kallis 160*) v Somerset
Scorecard

Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis launched South Africa’s tour of England in ominous fashion, as a depleted Somerset attack was put to the sword in front of a packed Sunday crowd at Taunton. Both men posted scores in excess of 150, while their 216-run partnership for the third wicket was their third-highest in the past 12 months, following their stands of 330 at Johannesburg and 220 at Centurion, against New Zealand in November.Such was their dominance, especially during the final session, that neither man could be prised from the crease in conventional fashion. Amla was eventually run out for 172 by Zander de Bruyn at point, after Kallis called him through for a non-existent single, but it was Kallis’s own departure that gave the South African camp the most cause for concern.Having brought up his hundred from 125 balls, Kallis treated Somerset’s bowlers with disdain thereafter. He flogged Steffan Jones on the up over cover for a vast six, and reached 152 from 153 balls when he drilled Andrew Caddick – armed with the new ball – through extra cover for his 21st four. Caddick’s response, however, was a bouncer that struck Kallis a fearful blow on the elbow.Though Kallis continued batting after lengthy treatment from the physio, Shane Jabaar – and even added two more fours from consecutive balls – he was clearly in some pain when he pulled off his gloves and retired hurt in the same Caddick over, for 160 from 157 balls. A spokesman for the South African team said that Kallis had suffered “bruising but no structural damage”, although he has 12 days to recover before the first Test at Lord’s on July 10, and the reports at the close of play are that he will be fine.The injury took the gloss off a comprehensive batting display by a South African side that will have been encouraged by England’s feeble showing in the fifth and final ODI against New Zealand on Sunday. They have arrived in the country full of intent, and their side for today’s fixture featured nine of the probable starting line-up at Lord’s – the exceptions being the injured captain, Graeme Smith, and the rested strike bowler, Dale Steyn. Somerset, by contrast, chose to omit six of their regular first-team players, including the captain, Justin Langer, and Marcus Trescothick.In Smith’s absence, Ashwell Prince won the toss and chose to bat, although the day did not begin quite as South Africa would have intended. Caddick, playing in only his third first-class fixture of the season following a persistent back problem, pitched full and straight and trapped Neil McKenzie with the very first ball of the match.

It was a false dawn for Somerset, however. Amla and JP Duminy combined in a 146-run stand for the second wicket, and batted all the way through to lunch without giving even a hint of a chance. Duminy is unlikely to feature in the Tests at this stage of the tour, but he showed his class with a boundary-laden 64. He went to lunch on 59 not out, but in the second over after the resumption, Caddick struck again, inducing a glove down the leg-side, for Craig Kieswetter to complete a good diving catch.Amla, however, made no such error. He had required 19 balls to get off the mark, but that consolidation period proved to be time well spent. He brought up his half-century from 63 balls with a top-edged pull for four off Jones – arguably his only false stroke of the day – and hurtled to his hundred in just 42 more balls, with a blaze of boundaries off the legspinner, Mike Munday – a lofted drive for six over wide long-on, and three further fours, all from consecutive deliveries.Caddick rotated his resources as best he could, but with Charl Willoughby, Alfonso Thomas and Ben Phillips all missing from Somerset’s first-choice attack, he had little firepower to respond to South Africa’s onslaught. Kallis had a moment of good fortune when Caddick squared him up and a thick edge flew through the slips for four, and he was later dropped on 113 by Kieswetter in Wes Durston’s first over. Durston’s next ball, however, was smacked dismissively over the covers, and for the remainder of his innings, he played a stroke virtually every ball – even after he had been thwacked on the elbow.After Kallis’s departure, AB de Villiers and Prince settled in for a 45-run stand that carried South Africa to an imposing 455 runs in the day. Kallis’s setback aside, they have started their tour as emphatically as any side could hope.

John Bracewell, New Zealand’s coach, has defended the role played by his coaching team during the 2-0 Test series defeat by England.”It’s an interesting debate, and I’m sure it will be debated long and hard by whoever wants to debate it, especially between All Blacks tests. It’ll fill in some time,” he said. “It’s an imponderable. The nature of cricket is not a structured game like other games where you put the play on the whiteboard and you go and play it.”You get the situation where, this is our gameplan, but do I decide or does he [the batsman] decide whether it’s a half-volley or not? Do I decide or does he decide whether he’s going to get forward or back?”Asked about the failure of the New Zealanders to cope with the swing of James Anderson in the first innings at Trent Bridge – Anderson ended up with seven wickets – Bracewell said it wasn’t through lack of planning.”We talked about what we learned from [Kevin] Pietersen’s innings, he tried to present a full face and we felt that was the best strategy to play straight, and we had two guys [Aaron Redmond and Brendon McCullum] play across the line in the first 10 overs and have their off pole pulled out of the ground … you can put all the plans in place, but then who applies them?”Bracewell added that there was also no reason that the tail failed to offer support to Jacob Oram, who was left unbeaten on 50. “We failed to adapt and support a guy who was striking the ball pretty cleanly,” he said. “We knew what our gameplan was, we talked about it, playing a little straighter, not chasing full and wide balls, and supporting in a partnership role. Once we moved out into the middle and the training wheels came off, so did all the wheels. We chased wide half volleys and got sucked into width and failed to support a player who could have got us into a point where we were competitive.”He went on to say that some of the side were not psychologically tough enough. “Some are, some aren’t, that’s the nature of any team. Some of them are pretty tough nuts. Some of them are learning to be tough, and some of them are just our best players and they have their foibles and weaknesses.”

Deon Kruis, the 34-year-old Yorkshire fast bowler, has given the strongest indication yet that his playing days are coming to an end. Kruis, a South African who plays for the county as a Kolpak, is exploring other avenues beyond the field of play, including media work and coaching.”I don’t want to keep the younger guys out of the team when I feel they’re ready,” he told the . “I don’t feel they’re 100% there yet physically and skill-wise, but, if it’s up to my wife, this will be my last season. It’s hard for her being in South Africa for basically five out of the six months on her own with the little girl.”This could be my last season, but I’m hoping to do maybe one more year next year. I’ve done some media work and it’s been interesting to sit on the other side of the fence. I’ve been in touch with the guys at Sky and I’d like to keep involved in the game in some way. We’ll just have to see how it goes.”Hamstring and calf injuries limited his appearances last year to just six first-class matches, but although his body is beginning to show signs of wear and tear, he was Yorkshire’s leading wicket-taker in the Championship in 2006 with 38 wickets in 13 matches. “Last season, in particular, was very frustrating for me,” he said. “I had injuries and, as you come towards the end of your career, you obviously want to be playing as much as possible. But I’ve worked hard and I feel really good now. I feel as if I’m bowling well and in good rhythm.”I’d like to get 60 County Championship wickets this year. I’ve done it before, but that was in the second division. This would be in the first division and a better achievement.”

A banner statistical day for Punjab Kings that included KL Rahul passing 3000 runs in the IPL, 2000 runs in the league for Mayank Agarwal, and a maiden IPL five-for from left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh became completely spoiled in the final moments of play as they tripped spectacularly at the final hurdle, losing by two runs despite having six wickets in hand chasing a target of 186.

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Rahul was dropped three times during a sloppy fielding display by Royals that allowed him to reach 49 in the end as part of a century stand with Agarwal. But Royals were able to overcome that due to the brilliance of Mustafizur Rahman and Kartik Tyagi. With eight runs needed off 12 balls and eight wickets in hand, Mustafizur conceded just four singles off the penultimate over.The odds were still overwhelmingly in favor of Kings entering the final over with the well-set pair of Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran at the crease on 25 and 32 respectively in the midst of a half-century partnership. But after a single by Markram, Pooran’s attempted steer with an open face to third man instead found the gloves of Sanju Samson behind the stumps. Markram was then starved of the strike for the rest of the over as Deepak Hooda and then Fabian Allen could not get away Tyagi’s wide yorkers, capping a scoreless final four deliveries and a stunning heist by Tyagi and the Royals.