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The game between Dolphins and Lions in Durban was abandoned without a ball being bowled

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Nov-2012
ScorecardThe game between Dolphins and Lions in Durban was abandoned without a ball being bowled.The rain at Kingsmead started soon after the toss, which was won by Dolphins. The match was called off after three hours by the umpires.The teams were awarded two points each. Lions moved to 21 points, holding their No. 1 position in the table, and Dolphins were third. Lions play Titans, and Dolphins play Cape Cobras in their next match, on Friday.

New Zealand Cricket is organising a meeting of its former captains in the New Year in order “to open better lines of communication” regarding the development of the sport

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Dec-2012New Zealand Cricket (NZC) is organising a meeting of its former captains in the New Year in order “to open better lines of communication” regarding the development of the sport in the country. The move came after several players had criticised the board for its handling of the captaincy issue, and for not accepting their help in taking New Zealand forward.”Former captains will be invited to attend the meeting which is intended to be an annual event designed to provide quality input from both the former captains and the players who were part of their era in cricket,” NZC said in a statement. “Creating a vehicle for former captains and players to directly communicate their ideas and observations to NZC is complimented by the current constitutional review process that the board has committed to in the early part of next year.”Martin Crowe, Dion Nash, Simon Doull, Craig McMillan and John Parker were some of the former New Zealand players who had criticised the board, saying it had turned down their offers.NZC chief executive David White also said it was “time to draw a line” under the Ross Taylor captaincy controversy. “We’ve already acknowledged mistakes were made on this issue and we have learned from those mistakes,” he said. “Team management has given an undertaking to improve communication and to ensure nothing similar occurs again. The board and management of NZC make that same commitment.”NZC believes it now serves no useful purpose to further rake over the events of the captaincy change. We now need to focus on the tour of South Africa. This is going to be a challenging tour against one of the leading teams in the world, so it is important that the team now focuses and prepares to ensure it is competitive in this series.”New Zealand begin their tour of South Africa with a Twenty20 international in Durban on December 21.

Cricket fans in South Africa will again have to go without live free-to-air coverage of the majority of the Test series against Pakistan

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Jan-2013Cricket fans in South Africa will again have to go without live free-to-air coverage of the majority of the Test series against Pakistan after talks between Cricket South Africa (CSA) and the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) failed to come to an agreement.The outcome is similar to that reached for the New Zealand tour, where the Test matches were restricted to highlights on SABC, the national broadcaster, and the ODIs and Twenty20s were shown live. However, the board had retained the hope that for the season’s main attraction, the visit of Pakistan, that all the matches would be available on free-to-air television but now the five-day games will remain ball-by-ball on pay service SuperSport.There has, though, been a small increase in what is available free-to-air. SABC will show two blocks of footage on a daily basis during the Test series. This will comprise a broadcast in the afternoon which will contain a mixture of highlights and live coverage. Full evening highlights, however, will not be screened until 10pm at night.CSA’s commercial manager, Marc Jury, said: “Although we could not reach an agreement on live ball-by-ball coverage of the Test Series, we are satisfied that there is an increase in coverage compared to the New Zealand series.”With the Pakistan series being the last home international series of the 2012/2013 season, we will definitely be looking at how best to manage our free to air broadcast rights going forward to ensure that all South Africans are able to watch the Proteas when playing at home.”Cricket is the second-most popular sport to football in South Africa and almost five times as many people watch T20 and ODI matches on the SABC compared to SuperSport. Nearly seven times more watch Test cricket on the national broadcaster.

Andrew Weekes, a former Test umpire from the West Indies, died on January 21 in St. Kitts

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Jan-2013Andrew Weekes, a former Test umpire from the West Indies, died on January 21 in St. Kitts. He was 72. Weekes, who was the first international umpire from St. Kitts, stood in four Tests and three ODIs between 1983 and 1990.”He was one of the outstanding umpires in the Caribbean during the 1980s and early 1990s,” Julian Hunte, president of the WICB, said. “He did some tremendous work with the development of the game in St Kitts and also was one of the leading match officials in the Shell Shield and regional limited-overs tournaments.”He loved the game and he also dedicated a lot of time and energy to educating the people of his country. Excellence was his hallmark. For four decades he one of the leading educators on the island of St Kitts and helped to with the development of thousands of young lives. He was a true pioneer, ambassador and shining example for others to emulate.”

England Lions continued their difficult start in Australia with a third-straight warm-up defeat as Victoria eased home by eight wickets at the MCG

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Feb-2013
ScorecardRob Quiney guided Victoria’s run chase with 76•Getty ImagesEngland Lions continued their difficult start in Australia with a third-straight warm-up defeat as Victoria eased home by eight wickets at the MCG.The Lions never recovered sufficiently from a poor start which left them on 3 for 18 and could only post 173. Scott Boland took 4 for 29 and Fawad Ahmed also impressed with 2 for 21 from nine overs. Victoria cruised to their target with more than 12 overs to spare, Rob Quiney leading the way with 76 to following the hundred he scored in the first of the warm-up matches.After putting the Lions into bat, Victoria’s seamers made early inroads with the first three wickets all falling to catches by the wicketkeeper. A recovery of sorts was started by James Taylor (31), who scored a hundred in the previous match, and Gary Ballance, who finished as top-scorer with 57, but the batsmen rarely dominated.Ahmed removed Taylor and Ben Stokes, the Durham allrounder, was run out to leave the Lions 5 for 95 in the 31st over. Ballance added 46 with Rikki Clarke (32) but when Ballance was lbw to Clive Rose it meant there was no late flourish to the innings. The last four wickets fell for 11 runs in four overs.Victoria made a brisk start to their chase with Quiney and Peter Handscomb adding 83 for the first wicket and another half-century stand followed for the second wicket. The Lions bowlers have failed to impress during the warm-up matches and again did not make much of an impression although Chris Wright and Craig Overton were economical.The Lions now travel to Hobart where the five-match one-day series against Australia A begins on February 16.

M Vijay’s performance in Chennai was what pushed him into an innings that could mark his return to the Indian team for a longer period

Sharda Ugra03-Mar-2013M Vijay’s performance in Chennai, where he scored 16 runs in two innings, and the disappointment of his second innings dismissal, was what pushed him into an innings that could mark his return to the Indian team for a longer period.Vijay scored a superbly-weighted second Test century, against Australia in Hyderabad, as part of a vital unbeaten 294-run partnership with Cheteshwar Pujara to take India’s total to 311 for 1 at stumps on day two.Vijay said the Chennai Test had “hit him hard” because “I gave my wicket away in the second innings.” Vijay had scored 10 and 6 in the Chennai Test, dismissed both times by James Pattinson. In the second innings, with the victory target being only 50, Vijay had gone for an extravagant drive outside the off stump and was caught by Moises Henriques at mid-off.”Basically, I was thinking that I made a mistake in the second innings of the first Test match rather than the first,” Vijay said. “I should have just come back not out, which didn’t happen. So I was just ready for this game.”M Vijay: “I just wanted to stay at the wicket for as long as possible. So that was my intention and it didn’t matter how the wicket goes”•BCCIComing to Hyderabad, Vijay said, “I just wanted to stay at the wicket for as long as possible. So that was my intention and it didn’t matter how the wicket goes. My thinking was to give a good start for the team. Apparently, it happened.”Vijay’s was an uncharacteristically sedate innings: of the 288 balls he faced today in his innings of 129, he scored off only 57 balls, at a strike-rate of under 45. “I was preparing to fight it out there as long as possible and maybe if a good ball comes, then it is fine. I just wanted to stay and not give my wicket away.”He realised that his partnership with Pujara was an unusual and important one for India. “It is always wonderful to get a good start for the team. Partnerships like this don’t happen all the time. We really cherished it. Pujara batted really well and it was good for the team.”Over a single inspired day in Hyderabad, Vijay’s selection in the Indian team for the first two Tests against Australia had gone from being a flaky choice to one governed by enormous foresight. A woeful Ranji season, in which he averaged 17.25 and top scored with 42, was not the reason he was included in the Rest of India team for the Irani Cup. Vijay scored 116 in the Irani Cup and what could have counted in his selection was a good record at home, where he averages above 47 across a smattering of 13 Tests since November 2008.Vijay said he didn’t know whether this innings would cement his pace in the Test team. “Every innings in the international circuit is very important for everybody. I was really pumped up to play this series and that is what I really worked for. When I got it, I just wanted to hang in there and show what I am capable of.”The Uppal wicket he said, was a good one to bat on, “if you apply yourself.” The difficulty it presented for new batsmen coming in became the centerpiece of his partnership with Pujara. “We took it session by session. Myself and Pujara decided to bat as long as possible because on this wicket, batsman coming in will find it a little difficult.”He said that occupying sessions and time was a conscious effort by him and his partner. The turn being offered by the wicket was not consistent, he said, and the unpredictability meant that the batsmen couldn’t take it easy against the spinners.Despite that, Vijay and Pujara scored 140 runs against the spinners Xavier Doherty and Glenn Maxwell in 36 overs, and punished David Warner’s part-time leg spin for 14 in a single over.

Harry Maguire has explained how he is able to handle the terrace taunts aimed in his direction and why he is still on the books at Manchester United.

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Stripped of captaincy at Old TraffordTumbled down domestic pecking orderJeered when representing Three LionsWHAT HAPPENED?

The 30-year-old defender has endured a testing few months, with the club captaincy taken off him at Old Trafford. He has seen just 23 minutes of game time at club level through the opening weeks of the 2023-24 campaign and was jeered relentlessly when in England friendly action against Scotland before scoring an own goal at Hampden Park.

AdvertisementGettyWHAT THEY SAID

Maguire has told reporters of turning a deaf ear to his detractors: “I would not say I am a person who struggles with pressure mentally. I have been through a lot in the last couple of years and I have been Manchester United captain for nearly four years. You take a huge lot of responsibility and everything that comes with it – and that is a lot of bad as well as good. (At Hampden) they piled pressure on myself. I would not say I am used to it but I can deal with it. I am disappointed with the own goal but that is football. You are a centre-back and you put yourselves in those positions. I am really pleased with how I performed in the second half and how I dealt with it.”

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Maguire had opportunities to leave Old Trafford during the summer transfer window, but no deal was done despite slipping down the pecking order under Erik ten Hag. He added on sticking around in Manchester, with his contract due to run until 2025 and there a desire on his part to play his way back into the team: “I think it was a bit of both. How can I put this? We just didn’t come to an agreement and they were happy for me to stay and I was happy to fight for my place. I want to do that and every time I train or play I will give everything. I know, at the moment, when I have not started a game in the first four games of the season, the story comes to me. So, I need to keep performing when I get chosen. Listen, at club football, I want to play games. The first four weeks were hard because it was one game a week and the manager didn’t select me but we have lots of games coming up now and I am sure I will play lots of games.”

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Erik ten Hag took the armband off Maguire, handing it to Bruno Fernandes instead, and has been favouring the likes of Lisandro Martinez, Raphael Varane and Victor Lindelof when it comes to filling centre-half berths for United at the start of the new season.

Varun Chopra and Will Porterfield both struck centuries to open the new season in fine style for Warwickshire

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Mar-2013
ScorecardVarun Chopra struck his 11th first-class century•PA PhotosThe annexing of the Champion County match to the Emirates has marginalised its use as a proper warm-up for the County Championship but Varun Chopra and Will Porterfield will take confidence from a pair of centuries on the official opening day of the new season.The fixture will return to Lord’s in 2014 where a stand of 308 will be trickier to compile than the four-an-over stand Chopra and Porterfield put together for the second wicket this year.Porterfield’s innings, from 240 balls, was his first three-figure effort since joining Warwickshire, taking full advantage of a flat pitch and an attack toiling in temperatures more than 20 degrees warmer than Britain.Chopra had been the first to reach a century, his 11th in first-class cricket, from 165 balls. He went on to score 20 fours and three sixes – the pick of which was lifted over long on from a Peter Trego slower ball.”It was a great start to the season for me,” Chopra said. “The wicket was good and we made the most of winning the toss on a decent deck. Playing under the floodlights and with the pink ball was fine. Having two set batsmen definitely helped, especially during the twilight period, which can be a challenge, but I really enjoyed it out there today.”The treble century stand was by some distance the highest partnership of any wicket for Warwickshire against MCC. It came after Ian Westwood fell without a run on the board. He skied a pull from Trego and was taken at midwicket. But that was the most joy MCC enjoyed as their spin trio of Simon Kerrigan, James Middlebrook and part-time leg-spinner Dawid Malan failed to find any control as runs flowed merrily.Kerrigan eventually broke through when Chopra mistimed an attempted lofted off drive. Porterfield also fell playing in the air, driving loosely on the up to hand third seamer Chris Rushworth a wicket. But it was 102 runs later than it should have been; Rushworth having had Porterfield dropped in the slips on 60.

ESPNcricinfo previews the match between Rajasthan Royals and Pune Warriors in Jaipur

The Preview by Sidharth Monga04-May-2013Match factsSunday, May 5, 2013
Start time 2000 (1630 GMT)Out of the Indian side, Yuvraj Singh will want to prove a point•BCCIBig PictureBeware the team with nothing to lose, even if their own player is ripping into the team management for having made changes to the winning combination. Pune Warriors are out of the race for playoffs. They have been easier to beat than others, but you can bet teams will be approaching a match with them with slight trepidation too. For a team like Rajasthan Royals, who are in with a chance to make it to the playoffs, and who have provided Warriors’ one of their rare wins this season, this becomes a crucial game. They need to win three out of their remaining six to reach nine wins, which all but assure their progression.This is one of Royals’ last three home games, and they haven’t lost one in Jaipur this year yet. They will be wary of individual brilliance, which the visiting side is well capable of, despite the results’ stating otherwise. Yuvraj Singh will be miffed at having been left out of the India team for the Champions Trophy, and might have a point to prove. Nobody wants to be at the receiving end of his ire.Form guideRajasthan Royals LWWLL
Pune Warriors LLLLLLWatch out for…Like Yuvraj, Ajinkya Rahane must be smarting too. That he hasn’t got many chances playing for India is well documented, but now even the bench has been pulled from under him. He is not part of the India squad for the Champions Trophy, and his bat might have a thing or two to say about it.Angelo Mathews’ first taste of captaincy in a big tournament hasn’t been great. He has presided over losses, he has been dropped, and he has taken just one wicket and scored 84 runs, but before he leaves to lead Sri Lanka in the Champions Trophy, he will hope to bring about a turnaround.Stats and trivia Robin Uthappa, Pune Warriors’ wicketkeeper, has only five dismissals to his name in 11 matches. It gives you an impression of how penetrative their bowling has been. The three worst bowling analysis for an innings this year belong to Warriors bowlers. Ashok Dinda features twice, and Mitchell Marsh once, when he bowled just three overs for 56. His captain saved him the record for worst analysis by not bowling him out. Quotes”We’ve never stuck to a winning combination. It was pretty disappointing for me, as a player. When we beat a strong team at their home ground [Chennai Super Kings], we came back and changed the combination, and I think that kind of shook things up for us a little bit.”
“There is something about Sanju Samson that is reminiscent of the young Sachin Tendulkar. Fabulously talented, wide-eyed, honest, #thefuture”
Former Glamorgan left-arm quick, and now a commentator, Alan Wilkins, on Twitter

Preview of the opening match of the Champions Trophy, between India and South Africa

The Preview by Siddarth Ravindran05-Jun-2013Match factsThursday, June 6, Cardiff
Start time 9.30am GMTIndia’s batting lynchpins will be Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni•AFPBig PictureThe last time India played South Africa in an ODI was in the 2011 World Cup, when India’s top five were Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Yusuf Pathan and Yuvraj Singh. The bowling line-up consisted of Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel and Harbhajan Singh. None of those players, most of whom are vastly experienced, are in the squad for this tournament.South Africa are also missing some of their legendary names, with Graeme Smith injured and Jacques Kallis skipping the tournament for personal reasons. Their fans might have felt reassured looking at the familiar bowling line-up, but Dale Steyn’s side strain means he could miss the first game.At least they can still rely on the calm guidance of Gary Kirsten, who has had a golden run in his two years as coach. He has already firmly established South Africa as the best Test side in the world, a position they flirted with for a couple of decades without really nailing it down. The next challenge for Kirsten, who will step down as South Africa coach later this month, is to end his country’s painfully long hunt for an ICC trophy to go along with their triumph in the inaugural version of this tournament way back in 1998.While South Africa have at least been able to focus entirely on the cricket, India haven’t. For the past few weeks in India, cricket has dominated newspaper front pages and has been breathlessly reported on round-the-clock by television channels, but almost all of it has been about the corruption in the IPL, and the ensuing turmoil in the BCCI. Even as MS Dhoni was addressing the press in Cardiff ahead of the opening match of the Champions Trophy, the cricket news back in India was about the Delhi Police questioning the owners of Rajasthan Royals in connection with the spot-fixing controversy.Dhoni’s already has a stellar CV as captain, but marshalling this new-look team under these distractions, especially in a short tournament like the Champions Trophy where even one defeat could mean elimination, will be among the biggest challenges of his career.Form Guide(most recent first)
India LWWWL
South Africa WWLWLWatch out for…Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Irfan Pathan and Vinay Kumar are all military medium and liable to be slapped around the park towards the end of the innings while Ishant Sharma’s performances are yet to justify the enormous patience shown by the selectors. Which means India’s quickest bowler Umesh Yadav has plenty to do. As if being the spearhead, despite having played only 17 ODIs, wasn’t enough, Yadav will have it even harder as he hasn’t bowled more than five overs in a match since last November when he suffered a serious back injury.Just a week before Yadav picked up his injury, JP Duminy received news that he would be out of cricket for six months due to a ruptured tendon in his left heel. Duminy’s first competitive match since then came last week against Netherlands, where he laid to rest any fitness concerns by pummelling an unbeaten 150. In the absence of Kallis and Smith, Duminy’s experience will be useful in a batting line-up filled with relative newcomers.Team newsDinesh Karthik seems to have forced his way into the XI after a couple of sparkling centuries in the warm-up matches, which leaves India with two places to decide. One of the openers’ slots is likely to be a toss-up between Rohit Sharma, who had mixed success at the top of the order in the series against England earlier this year, and M Vijay, who has had a poor IPL and is yet to convince in ODIs. The allrounders’ spot is a contest between Ravindra Jadeja and Irfan Pathan, and who gets the nod could depend on whether India are adventurous enough to opt for a four-man pace attack.India: (probable) 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Dinesh Karthik, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Suresh Raina, 7 Ravindra Jadeja/ Irfan Pathan, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Umesh Yadav”Steyn does not look good at all. It’s touch and go,” AB de Villiers said the day before the opening game. In case Steyn is deemed unfit, it is likely that Rory Kleniveldt will take his place. The rest of the line-up looks fairly settled, with David Miller likely to miss out in the middle order.South Africa: (probable) 1 Hashim Amla, 2 Alviro Petersen, 3 Colin Ingram, 4 AB de Villiers (capt & wk), 5 Faf du Plessis, 6 JP Duminy, 7 Ryan McLaren, 8 Robin Peterson, 9 Rory Kleinveldt, 10 Morne Morkel, 11 Lonwabo TsotsobePitch and conditionsBoth top orders struggled in the India-Australia warm-up match on Tuesday in Cardiff, but Karthik and Dhoni showed there weren’t too many devils in the track. Dhoni’s verdict on the pitch was: “There was not much swing for them but there was variable pace on offer.” Though Australia were rolled over for 65 by India, they had comfortably chased down 257 against West Indies on a similar surface on Saturday.Stats South Africa have the worst ODI record in England over the past six years, having won only two matches in 10 Of the players in the squads of the two teams, only AB de Villiers has aggregated 100 or more runs in the Champions TrophyIndia have won both their encounters against South Africa in the Champions Trophy, the last of which was in 2002. Of those who played that 2002 fixture, only Robin Peterson is in the current tournament’s squads. Quotes”A fresh venue a new start, we have to do all the right things again. Just because the stats are in our favour doesn’t mean we will win the game.”

“We’ll put a bit of emphasis on the first 15 overs of the game. With the bat in hand, and try and fit the foundation and with the ball be very attacking.”
AB de Villiers