Varun Aaron, the India and Delhi Daredevils fast bowler, has almost recovered from the injury that has kept him out since December last year and is expected to be able to bowl in the IPL within a week

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Apr-2012Varun Aaron, the India and Delhi Daredevils fast bowler, has almost recovered from the injury that has kept him out since December last year and is expected to be able to bowl in the IPL within a week, according to franchise mentor TA Sekar.Aaron had to pull out of the Test squad for the Australia tour with a stress injury to his back. His last game was India’s second ODI against West Indies in Visakhapatnam in December 2011. He impressed with his pace and control before his short stint with the Indian team was ended by injury. Aaron has had a history of back trouble, having suffered two stress fractures soon after he made his Ranji Trophy debut for Jharkhand in the 2008-09 season.Sekar said that while Aaron was on the verge of regaining full fitness, Daredevils were not willing to take any chances with him. “He is getting very close to 100 percent fitness,” he said. “I think, in maybe a week, he should be ready to bowl in the IPL.””These fast bowler’s injuries, you cannot rush, because if it recurs, then he goes back by another two months. We are playing it very safe. He is almost ready to bowl, but we want him to be mentally [prepared], because he hasn’t played for a long time. Mentally also he should be match fit.”

Joe Root, the Yorkshire batsman, hit an unbeaten hundred as England Lions cruised to a 10-wicket victory against the West Indians on the final day in Northampton

Andrew McGlashan13-May-2012
ScorecardJoe Root made the most of the easy runs on offer during the Lions chase•Getty Images

Joe Root, the Yorkshire batsman, hit an unbeaten hundred as England Lions cruised to a 10-wicket victory against the West Indians on the final day in Northampton. Root and Michael Carberry ensured the Lions knocked off their target of 197 with considerable ease with the visitors disappointingly going through the motions after showing much more spirit the previous day.The West Indians provided barely a threat with a depleted bowling attack after the last two wickets had been removed in the opening half an hour. Kemar Roach did not bowl during the Lions chase after taking a blow on his right hand while batting to add to the twisted ankle he picked up on the second day. Ravi Rampaul then left the field after an opening four-over spell while Fidel Edwards was not given much further work ahead of the first Test despite the visitors’ lack of cricket on tour.Whether there were serious concerns ahead of the Test remained to be seen, but if they do opt to play offspinner Shane Shillingford, one of the three quicks on show here will have to make way for Darren Sammy, who was rested.It meant the bowling was largely in the hands of the two spinners, Shillingford and Marlon Samuels, plus an appearance from the rarely seen medium pace of Darren Bravo who bowled for just the second time in his first-class career. Root and Carberry had few problems as they compiled their partnership at a steady pace in a match that had lost any semblance of intensity.The 21-year-old Root, who is often compared to Michael Vaughan, is in the early stages of his Lions career and remains a longer-term project in terms of international recognition. The attack he faced during this innings did not allow many judgements to be made, but neither did he let the opportunity of a lengthy stay in the middle pass him by, which will have been noted. He also made it a good day for Yorkshire following the earlier call-up for Jonny Bairstow to the squad for the first Test.Root’s hundred, like Kieran Powell’s yesterday, was just the second of his first-class career and came off 132 balls. He had skipped ahead of Carberry during the latter half of his innings against the comfortable bowling on offer with Shillingford conceding more than four an over.The Lions had not taken long to wrap up the West Indian second innings after being given a tough day in the field on Saturday with Powell making his stubborn century. However, the home side did add two more dropped catches to their tally during a below-par fielding display. Nick Compton spilled Roach at slip and Root put down Rampaul at short leg both off Matt Coles, but Coles wrapped up the innings to finish with hard-earned figures of 4 for 76.

Northamptonshire’s pace bowler David Willey, son of the former England all-rounder and umpire Peter Willey, took five wickets as his county claimed their first Division Two win of the season as they defeated Hampshire by 117 runs.

ESPNcricinfo staff05-May-2012
ScorecardNorthamptonshire’s pace bowler David Willey, son of the former England all-rounder and umpire Peter Willey, took five wickets as his county claimed their first Division Two win of the season as they defeated Hampshire by 117 runs.Northants added 56 to their overnight total in the morning before they declared on 232 for 9 to give Hampshire a winning target of 297 from 71 overs.It was a mark they fell considerably short of as they were bowled out for 179 despite Michael Carberry’s bright 61 off 88 balls, with Willey standing out with 5 for 39.Liam Dawson played Willey’s delivery on to his stumps in just the second over before Willey struck again when Sean Terry slashed him to David Sales at second slip. After a brief rain delay, Daggett accounted for the Australia international and stand-in captain Simon Katich, who had reached 31 when he caught at the wicket.James Vince then lasted just two balls before he returned to the pavilion when he edged Daggett to Hall at first slip. Former Zimbabwe international Sean Ervine fell cheaply by clipping Daggett to Middlebrook at gully to give the bowler his third wicket in 12 balls.Hampshire’s hopes effectively ended when Carberry was trapped lbw by Willey with the last ball before tea.Bates was the next to depart as he chopped Brooks on to his stumps before Willey bowled Hamza Riazuddin for a single. Willey then completed the third five-wicket haul of his career when Wood edged him to O’Brien and the result was wrapped up when Balcombe launched Brooks to Daggett at mid-wicket.

First blood in the NatWest series went to England, but the match felt closer than the final 15-run margin would indicate

The Report by David Hopps29-Jun-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsEoin Morgan struck four sixes during the latter part of the England innings•Getty Images

This is surely one of the most inconsequential England v Australia series in history, but it did not lack for intensity or entertainment for all that and long before the end the Lord’s crowd was relishing the renewal of old rivalries. First blood in the NatWest series went to England, but the match felt closer than the final 15-run margin would indicate.Australia’s chances departed with their captain, Michael Clarke, who had made 61 from 67 balls when he walked across his stumps, not for the first time, and was aghast to fall plumb lbw to a swinging, low full toss from Tim Bresnan.It aggravated the hurt of the previous over when Australia lost Matthew Wade to a run out. Wade had just lifted James Anderson into the Mound Stand, Clarke had deposited Graeme Swann’s offspin into the Tavern and another 69 from 49 balls felt just about gettable. Then Wade pushed Swann into the leg side, did not share his captain’s enthusiasm for the single and barely got halfway down the pitch when the stumps were broken.England have now won seven successive ODIs, and they have taken the last six home series in this format, but their record against Australia over 50 overs has been discouraging. Statistical talk of a 5-0 series win which would make them the first side in the world to be No. 1 in all three forms of the game is regarded even by England’s most optimistic fans as a late-night pub fantasy. It has the makings of a tight series.England were under pressure after losing the toss on a drizzly morning, but they avoided the early tremors that Australia must have felt were within their grasp on a pitch that the groundsman, Mick Hunt, accepted had more moisture in it than would normally be expected at Lord’s at the end of June. Much of the rest was down to Eoin Morgan, who roused the innings with 89 from 63 balls and for the first time for a while had that assassin’s look again.Morgan has had an unsettled time since his return from an inactive season with Kolkata Knight Riders at IPL. His technique has been under scrutiny, particularly the adoption of a squatting stance, he has been omitted from the Test side as a result, and he has dared to tell the ECB that England’s domestic Twenty20 tournament has fallen hopelessly behind the times.It was dangerously late in the day for England when he finally broke Australia. His first six came in the 38th over when Pat Cummins spilled 13 in the middle of England’s batting Powerplay. England then made 46 from the last 20 balls, Morgan responsible for 34 of them, including three sixes. If the first blow, a scythe over long on, was encouraged by Brett Lee’s full toss, the follow-up was special as Morgan, back leg bent almost to ground level, swung a near yorker into the crowd. Shane Watson was also swung over the square-leg boards.An opening stand of 74 in 17 overs between Alastair Cook and Ian Bell quietly batted England into good shape. Neither looked secure; it was not the sort of morning to expect that. Cook’s first boundary took 11 overs and, on 28, he was dropped down the leg side by Wade off Watson before Cummins, as mature as you like as he experienced the Lord’s slope from Nursery and Pavilion ends, had him caught at the wicket, driving at a wide one.

Smart stats

• England’s total of 272 is their second-highest score against Australia at Lord’s and the highest since 1989. On the previous occasion they passed 270 against Australia at Lord’s (1997), they won by six wickets.

• Of England’s 21 wins in home ODIs against Australia, only five have come when they have batted first. The 15-run win is England’s fifth win against Australia at Lord’s.

• Eoin Morgan’s 89 is the third-highest score by an England No.5 batsman in ODIs against Australia. Paul Collingwood is on top with 120 at the MCG in 2007.

• Morgan’s strike rate of 141.26 is the third-highest for a fifty-plus score by an England batsman against Australia. Ian Botham is on top with a strike rate of 174.35 in Perth in 1987.

• The partnership run-rate of 8.44 during the 83-run stand between Morgan and Craig Kieswetter is the best for the fifth wicket (fifty-plus stands) for England against Australia and their sixth-highest overall for the fifth wicket.

• When he picked up Ian Bell’s wicket, Brett Lee equalled Glenn McGrath’s record of most ODI wickets for Australia. Lee now has 380 wickets at 23.17 with nine five-wicket hauls.

Bell, whose introduction to the opener’s role after the retirement of Kevin Pietersen had brought a century against West Indies at West End, had an eventful and not-altogether convincing stay. He marched off when Brett Lee’s lbw appeal was answered in the affirmative, but the Hot Spot cameras these days could probably spot the friction of a fly on a teacup and TV replays as he unstrapped his pads suggested that he had managed the faintest inside edge.He had already reviewed successfully, on 3, given out caught at wicket of Clint McKay only for replays to show that the ball came off his trousers. Trott was left to guide England through the middle overs before being bowled for 54 as he failed to work Doherty through the leg side.Australia repeatedly faltered just as they threatened to break the target. Anderson bowled throiugh a strained groin and looked as if life was hanging heavily upon him, but he found something to cheer him as he removed George Bailey and David Warner in the space of three balls.Warner’s belligerence was growing on a sound Lord’s surface, with Steven Finn cudgelled through the offside twice in an over when he strayed in line, but when he had made 56 from 61 balls Anderson exposed a lack of footwork by shading a delivery away from him and the nick was well held by wicketkeeper Craig Kieswetter. Bailey chopped on in Anderson’s previous over.Then Australia’s chase foundered again during their batting Powerplay. Clarke called it at 131 for 3 after 28 overs to enliven the innings, but things went awry as they lost both David Hussey and Steve Smith in five overs while adding 17 runs.Hussey was bowled by Finn as he tried to hook and, if there was an element of ill luck as the ball dropped onto the bails off shoulder and helmet, he got in a tangle playing the shot. Smith felt for a wide one from Bresnan and was caught at the wicket. Australia could also have lost Clarke, on 16, but Bresnan failed to hold a relatively simple return chance.As for DRS, it again proved its value, not just with Bell’s successful review, but with Watson’s dismissal as the much-improved Hotspot cameras showed a thin edge.Time and again in this England cricket season, technology has improved the standards of decision making, supporting good umpiring and sparing bad. It has not achieved perfection – nobody has ever claimed that – but it has moved closer towards it. Those who continue to question the merits of DRS are either too wedded to tradition, too busy or simply too wilful to recognise the facts.

Middlesex left Essex rooted at the bottom of the Clydesdale Bank40 Group A table as they carved out a nine wicket victory at Chelmsford.

19-Jul-2012
ScorecardMiddlesex left Essex rooted at the bottom of the Clydesdale Bank40 Group A table as they carved out a nine wicket victory at Chelmsford. After the home side totalled 146 for 7 in a clash reduced to 25 overs per side because of rain, Middlesex achieved success with 15 balls to spare.Their crushing triumph was inspired by Chris Rogers and Dawid Malan who gathered runs with embarrassing ease. They were cautious at the outset, scoring just 16 from the first five overs against David Masters and Graham Napier. But then they increased the tempo considerably as the 50 was raised in the 10th over and 100 in the 16th.The only early blemish came when Rogers offered a chance to a leaping Tom Westley at slip when he had made 16, but the Australian made good his escape to reach his half-century from 48 balls. He had moved to 64 with the aid of two sixes and six fours, before he holed out to Masters off Tymal Mills having taken his side to within 11 runs of their target.Malan finished unbeaten with 76 from 68 deliveries that included seven fours and two sixes and fittingly it was he who took Middlesex to their target with two boundaries in an over from left-arm fast bowler Mills.Apart from Mark Pettini, the Essex top-order struggled to make an impact in the face of tight bowling backed up by fine work in the field. It was one piece of great work in the deep that brought Pettini’s innings of 44 from 43 deliveries to an end. Rogers was responsible for that as he threw down the stumps from deep mid-wicket as the Essex captain for the day attempted a second run.Pettini, who was leading the side because James Foster was excused duty as his wife is due to give birth, scored his runs from 64 balls before he departed in the 14th over.It was another six overs before the 100 was raised but much needed impetus was provided late on by Adam Wheater and Jaik Mickleburgh. They put together 53 in five overs, Wheater smashing three sixes in making 33 from 19 balls before he was caught in the deep while Mickleburgh’s unbeaten 22 arrived in 15 balls.Toby Roland-Jones was the pick of the Middlesex bowlers with 3 for 25 from his permitted five overs, an effort that enabled the visitors to keep alive their hopes of reaching the knockout stages in the competition.

As South Africa’s senior team closed in on victory at Lord’s the second XI secured a first victory on their tour of Ireland

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Aug-2012
ScorecardAs South Africa’s senior team closed in on a win at Lord’s that would secure them the No. 1 Test ranking, the second XI secured a first victory on their tour of Ireland with a rain-affected 68-run win in the first one-day game.Farhaan Behardien was the mainstay of the South Africa A innings with 88 off 85 balls, his highest one-day score, while Justin Ontong made 60 in a total of 255 for 9. The chase proved well out of reach for the Ireland XI as they lost three of their top five batsmen for ducks before rain brought an early end to the match.The home side had made a promising start by reducing South Africa A to 86 for 4 in the 22nd over when Dean Elgar was caught behind off Kevin O’Brien. However, Ontong and Behardien added 95 for the fifth wicket to form the backbone of the innings.Ontong had struck two sixes in his 66-ball stay when he fell to Peter Connell but Dane Vilas, the wicketkeeper, offered useful support in a stand of 34 with Behardien who played out the innings as the lower order fell away a little. Trent Johnston finished with 3 for 33 from his 10 overs.Wayne Parnell, who was outstanding in the four-day game, struck in his first over of the chase to immediately set the Ireland XI back. James Shannon played positively for his 33 off 35 balls but when he departed to Ryan McLaren three wickets fell with the score on 48.Andrew Poynter and John Anderson resisted for an 11-over stand but the required rate was rising and the South Africans chipped away, including a scalp for Behardien to cap his day, before the game decided was when the weather closed in.

West Indies opener Chris Gayle scored an unbeaten 65 to take his side to a comfortable eight-wicket win against Afghanistan in Colombo

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Sep-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsWest Indies opener Chris Gayle scored an unbeaten 65 to take his side to a comfortable eight-wicket win against Afghanistan in Colombo. Gayle, who averages 64.30 in all international matches this year, and 70 in the three T20Is, took his time to get going, but accelerated later as West Indies reached the modest target of 123 with more than five overs to spare.Gayle and Dwayne Smith put on 29 runs in the first five overs for the first wicket, before Smith was dismissed. Gayle started to hit a few boundaries, and with Johnson Charles added 59 runs in the next six overs, which diminished Afghanistan’s hopes of an upset. Offspinner Karim Sadiq, who gave away eight runs in his three overs, and seamer Shapoor Zadran were economical, but the West Indies batsmen scored off other bowlers to secure their chase.Unlike West Indies, Afghanistan couldn’t accelerate their scoring when required. Asghar Stanikzai scored his second half-century in two matches, guiding the innings for the most part. But before he could boost Afghanistan’s scoring at the death, he departed in the 18th over to leave them at 100 for six. A couple of sixes towards the end took them to 122, pegging the required run rate at just a little more than six runs per over – that wasn’t enough. West Indies bowled well collectively: none of the bowlers went for more than 6.50 runs per overs, with four of them being among the wickets.Afghanistan face India in their first World Twenty game on September 19 at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, and West Indies face Australia at the same venue three days later.

New Zealand fast bowler Kyle Mills has said that it’s important the side regains its form and consistency in the lead-up to the ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka later this month

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Sep-2012New Zealand fast bowler Kyle Mills has said that it’s important the side regains its form and consistency in the lead-up to the ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka later this month. New Zealand play India in Visakhapatnam on Saturday in the first of two Twenty20 matches before heading to Sri Lanka, where they will warm-up for the event with two matches against equally strong opposition – Australia (September 15) and South Africa (September 17).New Zealand are coming off a 2-0 series defeat to India in the Tests, and have only the upcoming Twenty20s to resurrect a disappointing tour. Though India have fared poorly in the last two editions of the World Twenty20, Mills said they will be a threat.”We’re playing one of the teams which is usually the No.1 or No.2 favourites before a world event so they’re a strong team,” Mills said. “They’ve proved to be really effective at Twenty20 cricket so hopefully we can put in a couple of winning performances before the World T20 and for individuals it’s a chance to get some form before we head over to Sri Lanka.”We have two warm-ups against Australia and South Africa so we’ve got four really strong games before the major event starts.”Mills is among seven players who have flown in for the Twenty20 leg, including the lead spinner Daniel Vettori, who missed the Tests because of injury. Mills said the players had been preparing well, though the wet weather in the city had halted their training.”Unfortunately it’s bucketing down with rain so we missed training but we’ve done a lot over the last few weeks,” Mills said. “I was fortunate to be involved in the SLPL (playing for Uthura Rudras). I’ve been training specifically with the white ball, ticking off the various roles I will play in games.”New Zealand have never played a match at the ACA-VDCA Stadium in Visakhapatnam and the batsman Martin Guptill said the players don’t know what to expect of the conditions.”For most of the guys it is a bit of the unknown,” Guptill said. “Brendon (McCullum) must have played here a couple of times (during the IPL) so it’s a new experience for most of us.”Guptill was confident the batsmen would turn in a better performance in the shortest format after an inconsistent showing in the Tests.”T20 requires more of an aggressive mindset and we have a lot of aggressive players in our line-up so I think we can prosper in this series,” he said.”

Sri Lanka chief selector Ashantha de Mel has said that the national selection committee may streamline the selection of teams, and have a separate squad for Twenty20s

Sa'adi Thawfeeq15-Oct-2012Sri Lanka chief selector Ashantha de Mel has said that the national selection committee may streamline the selection of teams, and have a separate Twenty20 squad, following Sri Lanka’s 36-run loss to West Indies in the World Twenty20 final in Colombo.The changes are likely to be introduced in the one-off T20 international against New Zealand to be played at Pallekele on October 30.Vice captain Angelo Mathews is expected to take the reins for the game against New Zealand, with Mahela Jayawardene having resigned from the captaincy following the World Twenty20 final.”We will have to go with Mathews for the moment but we will assess the captaincy. The team should be captained by a player who has a permanent place in the side,” de Mel said. “We need to separate the Test and ODI players from the T20 players and pick a squad that will fulfill the requirements of T20 cricket.”We will pick a young side with players who can make a clean strike of the ball,” he said. Sri Lanka hit the least sixes of the four semi-finalists in the World Twenty20 and managed only one six to West Indies’ seven in the final. “We really have to assess the situation and start building a team of T20 cricketers for the next World T20 in Bangladesh in 2014,” said de Mel.”We need to find some strong hitters who can clear the boundary successfully. Players like Mahela Jayawardene and Angelo Mathews don’t have the power so they adopt different methods to score runs like the scoop and the reverse sweep. Even playing those strokes you need the strength to clear the fielders,” he said.Mathews exposed his stumps and was bowled attempting to play the scoop shot against Darren Sammy and Jayawardene failed to clear the short third man fielder when he reverse swept Sunil Narine. De Mel said that Dilshan Munaweera, who was unused after the group stages of the World Twenty20, was a player who could hit sixes.”Chamara Kapugedera is another batsman who could easily clear the boundary but he has been under so much pressure from all quarters for failing to contribute big scores that he was eventually dropped,” de Mel said.Kapugedera hit 13 sixes in six matches for NCC in the Premier club T20 tournament and had a strike rate of 179.64.De Mel also said Sri Lanka paid the penalty for not being aggressive enough chasing a West Indies total of 137 for victory. Sri Lanka’s batsmen were circumspect after the dismissal of Tillakaratne Dilshan in the second over, and struggled to score at the require run rate throughout the innings. They were eventually dismissed for 101.”I don’t know what went wrong with our batting, for in the earlier matches we used to score at least 50 runs in the first six overs of Powerplay. Here they managed only 30 runs which put the fielding side on top.”I think we also panicked during our innings when there was a slight drizzle and threw away wickets rather unnecessarily trying to up the score, the two run outs of Thisara Perera and Jeevan Mendis didn’t help either. Everything seemed to go against us.”

Maybe they are in denial or maybe he was simply in an impossible position, but there were times when it was hard to remain straight faced when Samit Patel spoke to the media after the second day’s play in Ahmedabad.

George Dobell in Ahmedabad16-Nov-2012Maybe they are in denial or maybe he was simply in an impossible position, but there were times when it was hard to remain straight faced when Samit Patel spoke to the media after the second day’s play in Ahmedabad.It was not his laudable faith in his teammates, or his admirable desire to fight from the desperate position in which England find themselves that provoked the raised eyebrows. Both are to his credit. It was the insistence, in the face of all facts, that England were “good players of spin” that was hard to take. For England, with one or two notable exceptions, are not good players of spin. The record does not suggest that. It grabs us by the shoulders and screams in our faces. It has been proved over the last year really rather often and no amount of insistence otherwise will change that. Only an improvement in form will do so.Patel’s explanation for England’s struggles in their reply was also grimly amusing. “The ball’s harder and I think it spins more when the ball’s harder,” he explained. And, while there is some truth in that, it ignores the fact that England also had a new ball. In fact they had two of them.To be fair to Patel, he was in an almost impossible position. Having been kept out in the field for the best part of two days and then lost early wickets, there was little positive to take from proceedings. At least when he spoke of the challenge ahead, his words rang true.”We have two world-class batsmen at the crease,” he said. “Ian Bell is still to come, there’s me and there is Matt Prior. There is a lot of batting. There’s no question about how long we can bat. We’ve got the same potential of batting as India have and we’ve got to keep believing that. I think the telling time will be when the ball gets soft; then we can get in.”We’ve put in the hard yards; we know what we can do. Tomorrow, we hope we can show what we’re made of. We’re going to have to play some good cricket. It’s hard work – but that’s Test cricket. We have to front up. We can’t go anywhere. We’ve got to stand up and be counted. It’s no place for hiding.”Patel was also quite right to acknowledge that India’s batsmen had played beautifully. “Sometimes you have to give credit to the batsmen,” he said. “Sehwag played outstandingly well and Pujara carried on. Yuvraj played as he does. They’re good players of spin. As the Indians showed, if you bat a long time, you can wear teams down. That’s what they did. It’s something we expected. You lose the toss, and field for two days. We knew what was coming and we’re prepared.”