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Fast bowlers Mohammad Irfan and Ehsan Adil are among five players who have been called up to the Pakistan Test squad for the tour of South Africa

Umar Farooq11-Jan-2013Fast bowlers Mohammad Irfan and Ehsan Adil are among five players who have been called up to the Pakistan Test squad for the tour of South Africa, which begins at the end of the month. Batsmen Nasir Jamshed and Haris Sohail, and wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed were the other inclusions who were not on the Test tour of Sri Lanka in June and July 2012.The players left out were wicketkeeper Adnan Akmal, fast bowlers Aizaz Cheema and Mohammad Sami, batsman Mohammad Ayub and Afaq Raheem.Asad Shafiq, who had missed the limited-overs tour to India due to a finger injury, has recovered and is back in the national team. Left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman, who was banned by the ECB during last year’s county season for failing a dope Test, also returns to the squad.Irfan and Jamshed performed impressively in the ODI series in India. Irfan made an impact because of his height, using his seven-foot frame to generate pace and bounce, Jamshed scored two hundreds in three matches and was the Player of the Series. Haris Sohail was part of the ODI squad to India but did not get a game.Adnan, who has been Pakistan’s specialist wicketkeeper and has played 16 Test matches between 2010 and 2012, was reportedly dropped for being unfit. However, Adnan is currently playing the ongoing first-class tournament and has scored 243 runs at 121.50. Interestingly, none of the Akmal brothers – Kamran, Umar and Adnan – feature in the squad.Adil was part of Pakistan’s Under-19 team at the 2012 World Cup Australia, where they made the quarterfinals. Sarfraz last played a Test for Pakistan in 2010, in Hobart. His last ODI was in Colombo in June 2012. He was out of action due to finger injury, but in the ongoing Quaid-e-Azam Trophy he is the leading wicketkeeper with 13 dismissals.Pakistan play three Tests in South Africa, in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Centurion. The first Test begins on February 1.Test squad: Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Mohammad Hafeez, Nasir Jamshed, Azhar Ali, Umar Gul, Asad Shafiq, Younis Khan, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Irfan, Ehsan Adil, Saeed Ajmal, Adbur Rehman, Haris Sohail, Faisal Iqbal, Taufeeq Umar, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk).

Shane Watson will be pushing against the prevailing tide of Australian cricket should he choose to abandon bowling in his search for a way out of the maze of injuries that have blighted his sporadic Test career

Daniel Brettig29-Dec-2012Shane Watson will be pushing against the prevailing tide of Australian cricket should he choose to abandon bowling in his search for a way out of the maze of injuries that have blighted his sporadic Test career. In the aftermath of the Boxing Day Test, in which he aggravated a calf niggle he had taken into the match, Watson admitted for the first time that he was seriously considering recasting himself as a batsman to play more consistent sequences for Australia.The national selectors and the team performance manager Pat Howard have made it patently clear their preference is for Watson to remain an allrounder, in keeping with a policy to push for cricketers as widely skilled as possible. This has been underlined by the selection of the Victorian Glenn Maxwell for the New Year’s Test at the SCG, where his assortment of skills will contrast with the one-note batting role Watson may yet turn to.”At the end of the Test series Shane will have the opportunity to sit down with a few of us and have that discussion,” Howard said. “The selectors have been very keen on having people who are multi-skilled across the board. You’ve seen many of our players bowl this summer, even the wicketkeeper. I think the selectors are open to discussion with any player regarding how they see they can get the best out of them. If Shane Watson opens that dialogue he’s free to do that, and to be judged on those performances.”Very much the selectors do want that multi-skill ability. That’s not just about Shane Watson, they love people being able to bat, bowl, field, bring some leadership to the table, and having more than one skill. When the selectors sit down they do look at that ability, but also they look at the mix as well. If Shane or anybody wants to be a batsman only, well somebody else has got to be able to take up the overs.”That’s something selectors think about when they put up a squad of 13 but also when they put up 11. How can they make sure that Michael Clarke, Mickey Arthur, the selectors and the team have a bowling armoury that can work together and deal with a James Pattinson situation from Adelaide. We got exposed there, obviously, it had flow-on effects for Perth and probably flow-on effects afterwards.”The push towards cricketers of greater versatility may presently be linked to reducing the chances of injuries to the squad’s younger fast bowlers, but has its origins in the West Australian Sheffield Shield teams of the 1970s led by John Inverarity and his deputy Rod Marsh, now the senior selection figures on the national panel. The emphasis on batsmen who could bowl and vice versa was pronounced enough to mean even wicketkeeper Marsh bowled his quota in the nets. Howard also noted that at 37, the highly valuable Michael Hussey could not be expected to bowl as much as he has in recent times, leaving further slack to take up.”The reliance on Mike taking at 37 years of age a lot of overs is something we can’t rely on,” Howard said. “Being able to do the odd over here and there we’ve seen Dave Warner bowl, so that multi-skill is being pushed. I know Usman Khawaja bowled in the Chairman’s XI and got a wicket against Sri Lanka. So that message is getting through from the selectors. Those who work hard on their fielding, work hard on their other attributes … we want that ability to bat deep, we want batsman to bowl, and John Inverarity and Mickey Arthur and the selection panel do drum that in.”Typically, Watson has been reluctant to play when picking up injuries, even minor ones. Yet in Melbourne he played, his calf niggle perhaps overshadowed by the greater doubt surrounding Clarke’s hamstring and the presumption that Watson would take up the leadership of the team if the captain failed to prove his fitness.”It was a niggle, nothing more than that,” Howard said. “If you’re a professional sportsman you have niggles you have going in. He had a niggle, so did a lot of guys, but it did get worse during the Test match. That [Watson not playing] was a possibility. But we know that he can contribute, we know he had a heavy workload in Hobart, but so did Peter Siddle, so did Mitchell Starc, and we knew from the lesson from Adelaide to Perth, taking a group of guys all with high injury risks, you can’t take everybody in together.”Howard also sounded a note of gratitude for the selectors’ fortitude in ignoring public pressure not to rest Mitchell Starc from the Melbourne Test after his five-wicket haul to close out the first Test in Hobart. Mitchell Johnson and Jackson Bird were instead included as fresh pacemen and shared 10 wickets between them as Sri Lanka were routed on two and a half days.”The fast bowling discussion was a very big one in the lead-up to this Test,” Howard said. “There’ll be differing views through that process but there’s the opportunity to give the selectors a bit of a wrap regarding that. They held firm and I think many of you would say there’s been some benefit to that process, so I think on reflection it’s been a reasonably positive couple of days.”Injuries are a difficult part of the world game at the moment that we’ve all got to try to be very good at, we want to be the best at it, and we’ve got a long way to go. It’s one of those things where if we try to play with 11 [fit] players it makes a significant difference to the outcome of the game.”

Regular captain Darren Sammy and batsman Chris Gayle have been rested by West Indies for the first two ODIs of their three-match home series against Zimbabwe

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Feb-2013

West Indies squad for first two Zimbabwe ODIs

Dwayne Bravo (capt), Tino Best, Darren Bravo, Johnson Charles, Narsingh Deonarine, Sunil Narine, Veerasammy Permaul, Kieron Pollard, Kieran Powell, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Kemar Roach, Andre Russell, Ramnaresh Sarwan
In: Veerasammy Permaul, Denesh Ramdin
Out: Darren Sammy, Chris Gayle, Jason Holder, Devon Thomas

Dwayne Bravo will lead West Indies in the first two Zimbabwe ODIs•Associated Press

Regular captain Darren Sammy and key batsman Chris Gayle have been rested by West Indies for the first two ODIs of their three-match home series against Zimbabwe. Allrounder Dwayne Bravo will lead the team in the matches, which are scheduled for February 22 and 24 in St George’s.Gayle, a WICB release said, had asked to skip the games, while it was decided that Sammy needed a break after playing in every match for West Indies over the past two years. The selectors are yet to name a vice-captain.Wicketkeeper Devon Thomas, who travelled with West Indies to Australia for their just-concluded limited-overs series missed out, making way for Denesh Ramdin to return. Ramdin’s last ODI for West Indies was against New Zealand in July 2012, though he played the World Twenty20 and the Test series against Bangladesh that followed.Fast bowler Jason Holder was also left out, with the selectors going in for the extra spinner in left-armer Veerasammy Permaul who had a fine first-class game for Guyana against Leeward Islands last week, taking a match haul of 9 for 115.Devon Thomas had a poor series in Australia with the bat, totaling 48 in five ODIs. Holder had played only two of those games, claiming the wicket of Aaron Finch in both matches.Veteran batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan, who made a comeback on the Australian tour after a contentious 18-month absence from the team, retained his spot despite getting two ducks in three ODIs in Australia.Marlon Samuels, meanwhile, is still sidelined, currently recovering from the facial injury that he suffered at the Big Bash League after being struck in the face while facing Lasith Malinga.Following the ODI series, West Indies also host Zimbabwe in two Twenty20s and two Tests.

The quick turnaround time of one day was hardly enough for Zimbabwe to get its act together and challenge the hosts, after West Indies had posted a competitive 158

The Report by Kanishkaa Balachandran03-Mar-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsKieron Pollard’s big hitting took the initiative away from Zimbabwe•Randy Brooks/WICB Media

The quick turnaround time of one day was hardly enough for Zimbabwe to get its act together and challenge the hosts, after West Indies had posted a competitive 158. West Indies were hardly stretched during the chase and once the Zimbabwe top order succumbed to the spin of Samuel Badree, it was all one-way traffic. West Indies took the T20 series 2-0, adding to their three consecutive wins in the one-dayers, extending their winning run in a one-sided tour.The only time Zimbabwe kept the hosts under check was in the first ten overs of the match. The bowlers followed a plan of containing the batsmen, but they couldn’t maintain that control against a power-packed middle order. Kieron Pollard and Darren Sammy blazed 56 together in their fifth-wicket stand to give the innings a push and though Zimbabwe hit back with late wickets, Pollard ensured he stayed till the end, helping West Indies to a match-winning total.After getting pasted in the opening T20 on Saturday, Zimbabwe needed to work out a plan to keep the number of boundaries in check and in general make the batsmen work harder for runs. An obvious change was the way the spinners bowled it flatter and fuller and not allowing the batsmen to go for big hits. Lendl Simmons, who smashed six sixes – mostly slog sweeps – in his unbeaten 63 off 49 balls on Saturday, managed only two big hits in his 41 off 39 today. He found it harder to get under the bounce and slog thanks to the lengths bowled by the spinners.Johnson Charles, Dwayne Bravo and Simmons all perished while trying to push the scoring. The first 12 overs had 29 dot balls, showing the sort of control the Zimbabwe bowlers had.Pollard and Sammy came together at the start of the 15th over and the run rate surged. Sammy launched Christopher Mpofu out of the ground when the bowler overpitched and Pollard was merciless against Chatara, ransacking 23 off an over that included two sixes and two fours. The extra pace worked to West Indies’ advantage, and the seamers erred by not bowling it fuller. As a result, the batsmen helped themselves to some powerful blows down the ground.Zimbabwe conceded only 64 off the first ten overs, but the last five leaked 60. Zimbabwe did hit back towards the end with quick wickets, but Pollard’s was the one they wanted, but never had.Zimbabwe needed a rousing start from their top order but their twin failures in the two T20s will be the biggest concern ahead of the Tests. They were undone by Badree, who nipped out three of the top four. Chamu Chibhabha made too much room to cut against the turn and lost his middle stump; Vusi Sibanda slashed towards point but Bravo’s sharp reflexes had the better of him; Brendan Taylor fell to a leading edge to cover. Taylor’s failures in both games put pressure on the middle order. Hamilton Masakadza played the lone hand with an unbeaten 53, but his knock was overshadowed by what was a sorry response from Zimbabwe.There was no passage of play during which West Indies were challenged – only seven fours were scored in the first 15 overs and there were no sixes. Batting out 20 overs was no consolation.

Five uncapped players have been picked in the squad for the Bangladesh T20 in Pallekele which will round of the Bangladesh tour

Andrew Fidel Fernando27-Mar-2013Five uncapped players have been named in Sri Lanka’s squad for the one-off Twenty20 that will complete the Bangladesh tour in Pallekele. Kumar Sangakkara, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Nuwan Kulasekara have been rested for the match. Mahela Jayawardene has recovered sufficiently from a finger fracture to be available for selection, but was not picked either.*Allrounders Shehan Jayasuriya, Chaturanga de Silva, Ramith Rambukwella, and fast bowler Ishan Jayaratne were the new additions to the squad, while batsman Angelo Perera, already in the ODI squad, also found a place.The selectors’ focus on youth development is writ large in their latest team, as all five uncapped players are yet to turn 24, with Jeevan Mendis the only player named in the squad above the age of 30.Kithuruwan Vithanage, who debuted in the Test series and is in the ODI squad, retained his place for the final assignment of the tour. Sachithra Senanayake was the only specialist spinner, with no room for either Ajantha Mendis, Akila Dananjaya or Tharindu Kaushal.The match will be Dinesh Chandimal’s first as Twenty20 captain, with Malinga set to be vice-captain for the first time. The squad for the third ODI was unchanged from the side named for the first two matches, after the second game was washed out in Hambantota.Twenty20 squad: Kusal Perera, Lahiru Thirimanne, Dilshan Munaweera, Dinesh Chandimal (capt & wk), Angelo Mathews, Jeevan Mendis, Kithruwan Withanage, Angelo Perera, Lasith Malinga (vc), Sachithra Senanayaka, Shaminda Eranga, Chathuranga de Silva, Shehan Jayasuriya, Ramith Rambukwella, Ishan Jayaratne, Thisara Perera

The SLC are to hold a meeting to consider recalling out-of-form Sri Lanka players in the IPL so they can participate in a triangular series held in Sri Lanka from May 12 to 20, as preparation for the Champions Trophy tournament in England in June

Sa'adi Thawfeeq04-May-2013Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) will hold a meeting next week to decide whether it should make a request to the BCCI to release some of the under-performing Sri Lankan cricketers in the ongoing IPL so that they can partake in preparations for the Champions trophy. Nine of the ten Sri Lankan players playing in the IPL are part of Sri Lanka’s 15-member squad for the Champions trophy.”We have been discussing this issue recently but have not taken a firm decision,” Nishantha Ranatunga, the SLC secretary, said.Sri Lanka have arranged a limited-overs triangular tournament at Pallekele as preparation for the Champions trophy in England. The three teams in the preparatory tournament, Sri Lanka Rest (team selected for England), SLC Combined XI and Sri Lanka ‘A’, are due to play a total of seven fifty-over matches from May 12 to 20.”We know a lot of them are not faring well in the IPL, and we are worried about their form,” Ranatunga said. “We thought it would be better for these players to return home and play in the 50-over triangular rather than sit on the bench without playing a match in the IPL.”Former Sri Lanka captain and current captain of Delhi Daredevils Mahela Jayawardene is the only Sri Lanka player to have appeared in all the matches for his IPL team. The others have either been dropped from their respective sides due to poor form, to provide balance to the side, or simply were unable to play in Chennai due to political tensions. Angelo Mathews, the Sri Lanka captain, stepped down as the captain of Pune Warriors early this week.Ajantha Mendis is the only Sri Lankan player in the IPL who is not part of the Champions trophy squad.

Preview of the match between Kings XI Punjab and Royal Challengers Bangalore in Mohali

The Preview by Nikita Bastian05-May-2013

Match facts

May 6, 2013
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)For Kings XI Punjab, a lot will depend on David Miller extending his smashing run•BCCI

Big Picture

Royal Challengers Bangalore finally scored away points, their first in five games on the road in IPL 2013, against Pune Warriors on Thursday. While the winning margin of 17 runs seemed comfortable enough in the end, Royal Challengers must have been worried as Robin Uthappa had a feisty go at the target of 188. To remove all remaining doubts, for themselves, the fans and the experts, they would have to score again in Mohali.Apart from the psychological benefits of consecutive away victories, it’s imperative that they win to allow themselves a bit of a cushion on the points table. Royal Challengers currently sit at No. 2 with 14 points from 11 games. But Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals all have the same numbers too. With five games to go in the group stages, Royal Challengers will want to break away from the pack without much delay.Kings XI Punjab sit just outside of that mid-table cluster, with eight points from 10 games. With nine wins being the number widely agreed upon as the number required to stand a serious chance of making the playoffs, they must win five of their remaining six matches. While Royal Challengers – with the likes of Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli all having delivered at different times in this tournament – might seem like a daunting challenge for the relatively low-profile Kings XI, they can take heart from their previous two showings. After almost pulling off a giant-killing in Mumbai, they were spirited in their chase of 187 at Chepauk. Now, back at home in Mohali, they will be hoping to finally close out a game. Time is running out for them, and they can’t afford any more almost-theres.

Form guide

Royal Challengers Bangalore: WLLWW (most recent first)
Kings XI Punjab: LLLWW

Players to watch

Royal Challengers Bangalore bought Saurabh Tiwary for US$1.6 million at the 2011 auction, following his fine IPL 2010 with Mumbai Indians. Till last Thursday, he was yet to score a half-century for Royal Challengers. A few days ago, coach Ray Jennings said it is imperative Tiwary – who had missed the first couple of weeks of the tournament due to injury but has played all five of Royal Challengers’ games since – betters his performance. He responded with 52 against Pune Warriors, but scored at a rate of 115 even as his team got to 187. Royal Challengers will be hoping he can go that mile further against Kings XI.Praveen Kumar might have had an off-day in his previous game, going at 9.50 against Chennai Super Kings, but he has been having a very tidy IPL on the whole. Even after that showing at Chepauk, his economy rate in 10 games is 6.75, the third-best among pace bowlers (35 overs min) in the tournament behind Dale Steyn and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. But he has missed out on selection for the Champions Trophy in England in June. He last played for India a little over a year ago, before being sidelined by injury. On recovering, he had expressed “frustration” at being ignored by the national selectors. Then, he had discipline issues in domestic cricket. Now, he might be feeling a bit hard done again. He’ll be keen to prove a point.

Stats and Trivia

• Both teams have very even records against each other: they’ve played 10 in all, winning 5 each; they’ve played 4 in Punjab, winning 2 each; they won one apiece last year, both sides winning their away games
• Kings XI’s David Miller leads the tournament’s batting-average charts at the moment, with 251 runs in six games at 83.66
• Beware Chris Gayle the bowler. He has claimed three wickets in the two overs he has sent down in the tournament so far

England’s plans for the Champions Trophy could need a significant rethink following their two heavy defeats against New Zealand amid growing concerns over the fitness of Stuart Broad and Steven Finn

Andrew McGlashan at the Ageas Bowl03-Jun-2013England’s plans for the Champions Trophy could need a significant rethink over the next few days following their two heavy defeats against New Zealand amid growing concerns over the fitness of Stuart Broad and Steven Finn less than a week before their opening match of the tournament against Australia.Broad and Finn have missed the first two ODIs against New Zealand with knee and shin problems respectively. They are due to undergo fitness tests on Monday, although a clearer picture of their chances of making the Champions Trophy may not be available until Tuesday when the England squad reconvenes at Trent Bridge.Broad’s knee problem was picked up on the final day of the Headingley Test when he took a caught-and-bowled off Brendon McCullum. Finn’s shin soreness suggests a more stress-related problem after his early-season workload. It would be a major, and almost unworkable, gamble for England to enter the Champions Trophy with two of their strike bowlers under injury clouds. Teams can replace injured players, subject to ICC ratification, at any time but once a player is removed he can’t return to the 15-man squad.”They are both a concern,” admitted Alastair Cook, “but five or six days is still quite a long way away. They’ve missed two games and been out for a while, so we’ll see.”However, even in the worst-case scenario where England lose both bowlers, Cook did not believe it had to be terminal to their chances. “I think that would be doing a disservice to the other 13 guys in the squad,” he said. “If you take two premier bowlers out of any side it will hurt and you might have to change the way you play.”Cook gave a strong indication that England would consider moving away from the current balance of six batsmen and five frontline bowlers for the final ODI against New Zealand at Trent Bridge on Wednesday. When Broad and Finn are fit they make a strong bowling line-up alongside James Anderson, Tim Bresnan and Graeme Swann, but Jade Dernbach and Chris Woakes have struggled to fill the breach. Dernbach went for 87 in 10 overs in the second game and Woakes, albeit having suffered a dropped catch for the second match running, went wicketless again and was used for only seven overs.As far as options go, quick bowler Boyd Rankin is part of the squad for the New Zealand series. Ravi Bopara, who has been made available for Essex’s YB40 match against Surrey on Monday, would provide an all-round option and James Tredwell another spin choice.”It’s been a tough couple of games,” Cook said. “Clearly when you lose bowlers of the quality of Stuart and Finny it leaves a hole. It has the given the opportunity to guys to show us what they can do. We’ve learned a lot about these players and us as a side. It’s obviously a concern; the standards we’ve played to here haven’t been good enough.”You do tend to look, after a couple of defeats, at the balance and make-up of your side. We certainly have options to go both ways… at this point I’m sure we’ll look at different combinations because the ones we’ve used haven’t worked in these two games.”While conceding the series loss – and by such convincing margins – has dealt a blow to preparations going into the Champions Trophy, Cook remained upbeat that his team will be able to turn their form around.”It’s frustrating because you always want to build momentum and build confidence but as you look at the tournament from now you realise it’s two weeks of cricket and you have to play your best for two weeks,” he said. “Whoever does that will win the tournament. This will be of little relevance when we get there, but in an ideal world we’d have won these games. Sometimes when you lose good things can come of it.”

England’s bowling attack, led by James Anderson and James Tredwell, set up a comprehensive victory completed by Jonathan Trott to secure a place in the Champions Trophy final

The Report by David Hopps 19-Jun-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsJonathan Trott made sure England had no problems during their chase•Getty Images

England and South Africa had not met in a major ICC semi-final since the World Cup in Sydney in 1992, a match which AB de Villiers admitted before the start of play ended with him “crying myself to sleep.” Grown man now or not, after the mess South Africa made of this tie, he could be forgiven for repeating the experience.De Villiers is no longer an innocent child, he is captain of a South Africa one-day side which throughout his lifetime has repeatedly flattered to deceive in ICC tournaments. So it proved once more. England rampaged through the top order as eight wickets fell for 80. It was a muggy morning at Kennington Oval, England won a favourable toss, and for once the white Kookaburra swung, but South Africa contributed immensely to their downfall.David Miller and Rory Kleinveldt did at least regain a measure of respectability. A record ninth-wicket partnership for South Africa of 95 in 16 overs took them to 175. But all that did was provide Jonathan Trott with a prolonged opportunity to bat much as he wished, seemingly oblivious to the pressure of a Champions Trophy semi-final. He finished with a spritely 82 not out from 84 balls, a seven-wicket win done and dusted with more than 12 overs to spare.Trott’s rate of progress is constantly pored over, his displays routinely regaled by some, condemned by others. As England lost their openers, Alastair Cook and Ian Bell, with 41 on the board, and de Villiers shuffled his bowlers impatiently, looking for a magic trick, no England supporter was carping. They yearned for his stability.Let me watch in peace, they urged him, build your bubble, do it your way. South Africa wanted his wicket more than any other, but Trott and Root, one imperturbable, the other full of vim, confirmed England’s place in the final with a stand of 105 in 20 overs. Root left cursing himself, bowled behind his legs by JP Duminy for 48, but Trott remained productive to the end, completing his ritual post-match scratching of his guard even as Eoin Morgan tried to offer his congratulations.The match was essentially settled by the 23rd over. South Africa batted skittishly, as if 300-plus and the sooner the better, was essential. Critically, they lost their most influential batsman, Hashim Amla for a single and the reverberations of that were felt deep into the order. The coach, Gary Kirsten, voiced what many were thinking. “We choked,” he said. To some extent it was a traditional exercise in self-flagellation because this was not a hugely strong South Africa side from the off.England’s mood was set by the connoisseur of swing bowling, James Anderson, whose opening spell of 2 for 11 was extended to seven overs as his captain, Cook, sought to break South Africa early while the conventional swing persisted.Wickets in the first two overs of South Africa’s innings got England moving. Anderson can cut a serious, brooding figure, but the closeness of the morning left him full of smiles before the start. He removed Colin Ingram for nought with his fifth ball, outswinger followed by inswinger and an lbw verdictSteven Finn has been stalking around the Champions Trophy, none too happy about his omission from the side, but Tim Bresnan’s absence, to be with his wife Hannah with their baby imminent, gave him his first appearance of the tournament. Cook gave him the new ball and challenged him to channel that anger and his fourth delivery brought England the prize wicket of Amla as he failed to withdraw from an outswinger, the first of six catches behind the stumps for Jos Buttler.Even in the early overs, England were planning for the possibility of reverse swing on a dry square later in the day. Stuart Broad began to bowl cross seam, to encourage wear on the ball, as early as the 10th over – and it brought him a wicket, too, as de Villiers was out without scoring, lashing at a wide one and caught at the wicket off an under-edge.Peterson’s appearance at No. 3 encapsulated South Africa’s confusion. He was a pinch hitter in inappropriate conditions. If his left-handedness was perceived as an advantage, Anderson revels against left-handers when the ball is swinging. It was an unconvincing ploy. He acquitted himself better than most, taking three boundaries off a wayward over from Finn before Anderson had him lbw.But this was not just a story about quick bowling. South Africa were so destabilised that a few overs of routine, if intelligently-delivered, offspin by James Tredwell caused further havoc. Tredwell, who was substituting for Graeme Swann, had 3 for 19 in his seven overs as well as causing the downfall, run out, of Ryan McLaren. The bounty that fell upon him was recognised with the man-of-the-match award.No batsman summed up South Africa’s failures more than Duminy. He was all at sea during his 11-ball stay. He survived a first-ball nought when he reviewed an lbw decision for Broad and was reprieved as replays showed the ball had pitched outside leg stump. He then should have fallen lbw third ball but Tredwell, with everything in his favour as Duminy was beaten on the back foot, politely refused a review as if offered a second piece of lemon drizzle cake. Duminy soon chopped on against Tredwell in any case.Tredwell’s success did not end there. Faf du Plessis, who had been as secure as anyone, fell for 26 when he flashed at a quicker, flatter ball and was caught at the wicket.The wicket, though, that brought hearty applause from Swann in the England dressing room will not appear against his name. It was the run out of McLaren who was so unhinged by flight and turn that he ran several paces down the pitch. Trott, who caught the ball at first slip, had the presence of mind to throw down the stumps to effect the run out.At 80 for 8, South Africa’s one consolation was that they batted deep. They at least avoided the lowest one-day score ever made at The Oval batting first, New Zealand’s 158 against West Indies in 1975.They immediately took the batting Powerplay, which Miller greeted by smashing Finn over long-on for six. Miller unveiled his T20 one-legged slash over point, Broad disappearing for six more, and Kleinveldt slugged away when Cook finally felt obliged in the 30th over to introduce his weaker bowlers in tandem.Broad finally ended the recovery with successive short balls to dismiss Kleinveldt and Lonwabo Tsotsobe, first ball. All that remained for England was a regulation dose of Trott, the finest suppressor of panic disorder on the market.

The final of the Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier between Sri Lanka and Pakistan will conclude on Thursday after heavy showers in Dublin meant only the first innings was completed amid persistent rain

Ryan Bailey in Dublin31-Jul-2013
ScorecardNain Abidi top-scored with 45•ICC/Ian Jacobs

The final of the Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier between Sri Lanka and Pakistan will conclude on Thursday after heavy showers in Dublin meant only the first innings was completed amid persistent rain.Sri Lanka will require 113 runs to win when the sides return to the YMCA Ground on the reserve day but, with the forecast showing similar conditions for tomorrow, tournament organisers will be sweating about getting the showpiece final completed.Chandima Gunaratne continued her fine form with the ball as she took 2 for 7 off her four overs to restrict Pakistan to 112 for 5 during their rain-interrupted innings, despite well-constructed knocks from Nain Abidi and Bismah Maroof.However, after playing through light drizzle for the majority of the first innings, the umpires were forced to call a halt to proceedings as heavier rain left the Sandymount ground saturated.Sri Lanka’s captain Shashikala Siriwardene opted to bowl first in overcast conditions when she won the toss and her decision was quickly justified as the bowlers extracted movement both through the air and off the pitch.After breaking the shackles with a couple of boundaries, Javeria Khan departed for 11, giving Gunaratne her eighth wicket of the tournament.The wicket of Nahida Khan in the sixth over for 8 only brought Maroof to the crease as she scored a run-a-ball thirty-five to add some much needed impetus to the innings. But a brief, ten-minute interruption in the 17th over halted some of their momentum as three wickets were lost in the final over.Abidi was one of them. She had showed grit and determination to battle through difficult conditions early in her innings and revealed some deft strokeplay before she fell to Chamani Seneviratna as Sri Lanka completed the innings on a high.