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Australia and Sri Lanka enter their second Super Eight encounter with bright hopes after they were successful in the opening fixtures

The Preview by Peter English08-May-2010

Match Facts

Sunday, May 9, Bridgetown

Start time 1330 (1730 GMT)Master and commander: Mahela Jayawardene has held together Sri Lanka’s batting•AFP

The Big Picture

The last time Australia and Sri Lanka played in Barbados was the 2007 World Cup final, an ODI which finished in darkness and with a third global trophy in a row for Ricky Ponting. Both teams have changed considerably since then, with Australia having only four players in the Caribbean who appeared in that game and Sri Lanka six.Each side enters their second Super Eight encounter with bright hopes after they were successful in the opening fixtures. Australia have shown their power and no signs of the slips that have softened up their previous two World Twenty20 campaigns. Following group victories against Pakistan and Bangladesh and a convincing 49-run win over India, they are the form team of the competition.Sri Lanka, who stumbled in the tournament-opener against New Zealand, lost the rust that their board complained publicly about with a 57-run thrashing of West Indies on Friday. Both teams have on-song batsmen at the top of the order while their bowling attacks are also clicking.
Whoever wins will probably have done enough to earn a spot in the semi-finals, so there is extra motivation in this compelling fixture.

Form guide (most recent first)

Australia WWWTW
Sri Lanka WWLLW

Watch out for…

Mahela Jayawardene is the player of the tournament so far and a shining example for the team. In only three matches he has flooded 279 runs at 139.50, with a strike-rate of 163.15, and done it while being true to the roots of his traditional technique. If Jayawardene can keep his streak going – he has scores of 81, 100 and 98 – he can carry Sri Lanka to the final.In comparison to Jayawardene’s heroics, Shane Watson isn’t doing anything stunning. However, Watson and his partner David Warner are quickly forging a reputation as the most feared combination in the game. Watson has two half-centuries in his collection of 139 runs at 46.33, along with a strike-rate of 157.95. Sri Lanka will increase their chances of success if they take care of this brutal pair.

Team news

Mitchell Johnson returned against India as Australia chose their preferred XI, and there will be no need to change unless Johnson’s elbow infection flares. With their batsmen and bowlers firing, Australia have no concerns.Australia (probable) 1 David Warner, 2 Shane Watson, 3 Michael Clarke (capt), 4 Brad Haddin (wk), 5 David Hussey, 6 Cameron White, 7 Michael Hussey, 8 Steven Smith, 9 Mitchell Johnson, 10 Dirk Nannes, 11 Shaun Tait.Muttiah Muralitharan is out of the tournament after re-injuring his groin against West Indies and will leave a big hole. This should give another chance to the offspinner Suraj Randiv, who stepped in for Murali against Zimbabwe, or the last-minute replacement Thilan Thushara.Sri Lanka (possible) 1 Sanath Jayasuriya, 2 Mahela Jayawardene, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (capt, wk), 4 Chamara Kapugedera, 5 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 6 Angelo Mathews, 7 Thissara Perera, 8 Lasith Malinga, 9 Ajantha Mendis, 10 Nuwan Kulasekara, 11 Suraj Randiv.

Pitch and conditions

This is the final game of the Super Eight stage in Barbados before the tournament heads back to St Lucia. The surface has suited the bounce of the Australian fast bowlers and the Sri Lankan batsmen can expect a lot of short balls. Another warm day is predicted for Kensington Oval.

Stats and trivia

• Mahela Jayawardene needs another 39 runs to overhaul Tillakaratne Dilshan’s World Twenty20 tournament record of 317, which was set last year. Jayawardene has already passed Matthew Hayden’s haul of 265 in South Africa in 2007
• The last time the teams played Sri Lanka knocked Australia out of the 2009 World Twenty20 in Nottingham. Australia won the only other exchange they have had in this format, which occurred in the 2007 event
• Michael Clarke dropped himself down the order and didn’t get a hit against India. He hasn’t batted in T20 internationals six times and on five of those occasions Australia have won
  

  Quotes

  “Whatever the role you’re given, you back yourself to contribute. Opening the batting gives you more time, it suits my game.”
  
  Mahela Jayawardene“If we can continue to make totals like that, with our bowling and the way we’re fielding, it’s going to be hard for opposition teams to beat us.”
  
  
  Michael Clarke has faith in his men after they disposed of India

Maharaj’s three-for and Brathwaite’s run out hurt West Indies on a slow, dry pitch

Firdose Moonda09-Aug-2024Keshav Maharaj bowled 28 overs unchanged from the Media Centre End, albeit with weather-related interruptions, as South Africa frustrated West Indies on the third day of a rain-affected Test. The squeeze only brought four wickets, and with 90 minutes lost in the day and more rain on the way, the chances of victory for either side seems slim, but South Africa will consider themselves as having the upper hand.West Indies are 212 runs behind on a slow, dry pitch, and runs continue to be hard to come by. South Africa only added 13 runs to their overnight score but managed their highest first innings total in nine away Tests since Christchurch 2022 but needed quick wickets to make it count. They were blunted by the West Indies’ line-up and committed a few lapses in the field on a surface unsuited to urgency.Batting has been laboured so far and the early signs on the third morning were that it would become even more difficult. The second ball, from Jayden Seales, kept low and Wiaan Mulder was fortunate that it did not seam back in enough to take out off stump.Still, South Africa seemed to have a clear directive to score quickly and Kagiso Rabada led the charge. He flicked Seales through backward square leg and then attempted a drive but edged wide of second slip in a productive over. His intent did not last long. Rabada faced five more balls before Jomel Warrican found the edge and Joshua Da Silva did the rest. Seales finished off when he bowled Lungi Ngidi six balls later to end South Africa’s innings 20 minutes into the session. They added just 13 runs to their overnight score.West Indies were in the field for 117.4 overs and would have had enough time to know that batting would be tough especially against South Africa’s best. Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi shared the new ball and had different but equally testing questions for the openers. Rabada kept it full, Ngidi was more back of a length, and West Indies managed only 23 runs in their first ten overs. Mulder, playing as the third seamer, replaced Ngidi but when Rabada’s spell ended, South Africa were forced to turn to spin early.Maharaj was given the ball in the 13th over and came close to an early breakthrough. In his second over, Maharaj drew Kraigg Brathwaite forward and induced the edge, which lobbed low but carried to Aiden Markram at slip. However, he could not hold on. Brathwaite was on 7 off 43 balls at the time. Brathwaite went on to cut Maharaj through point for his first four but, much like South Africa’s captain Temba Bavuma on day two, was content to spend time at the crease and let the runs come from the other end.Mikyle Louis was more proactive, particularly through the covers, with four of his five boundaries coming in that region. He hit the single that took West Indies to fifty which was also the fourth half-century opening stand between him and Brathwaite in three Tests and helped West Indies nearly get through the session unscathed. But, the ball before lunch, Louis played for turn to a Maharaj arm ball and was bowled.Kraigg Brathwaite and Keacy Carty put on 60 for the second wicket•AFP/Getty Images

Play was delayed for 55 minutes after the scheduled second-session restart, but one over later, rain forced another 20-minute break. The interruptions had no effect on Brathwaite’s concentration as he hit Maharaj for six three overs into the second session, but left it to Keacy Carty to do most of the attacking. On debut, Carty impressed with his assuredness and played the shot of the day when he got up on his toes to punch Rabada behind point for four.With their options limited to four frontline bowlers, South Africa had to keep Maharaj at one end – and he kept Brathwaite quiet for a period in which the West Indian captain scored just 6 runs off 37 balls from him – and rotate through the three seamers and matters became pedestrian. None of them looked like taking a wicket but a chance came in the field when Carty, on 28, defended a Mulder ball to point and took off a run but had Ryan Rickelton to contend with. Carty turned back and if Rickelton’s throw was accurate he would have been caught short of his ground but the ball went wide and Carty batted on. Three overs later, Carty was on 32 and hit Maharaj aerially to cover. Tristan Stubbs ran back to take the catch over his shoulder but misjudged and spilled it.Just when South Africa may have become disheartened, a sedate Brathwaite hit Ngidi to Mulder at mid-on and ran for the single but a direct hit found him on the line and out on the stroke of tea. Brathwaite’s 35 runs took 131 balls, and he maintains the lowest strike rate among batters who have scored 5,000 Test runs since 2001. With the interval, came the rain and there was a further 35 minute delay before the start of the last session.Seven balls into the evening, a Maharaj ball ended Carty’s debut innings as it skidded and struck him on the front pad. Aiden Markam, operating as South Africa’s second spinner, could have had another five overs later when Kavem Hodge, on 3, edged but Kyle Verreynne did not react quickly enough to hold on. Instead, Markram was the fielder when Maharaj struck again in the next over. Alick Athanaze edged an arm ball to Markam at slip. Markram and Maharaj bowled out most of the rest of the session, apart from a final late burst by Rabada, who could not remove either Hodge or Jason Holder.

SRH batter wasn’t happy with the on-field decision for the full toss being overturned, saying, “Not great umpiring”

ESPNcricinfo staff13-May-20232:02

Avesh’s non no-ball: the issue of subjectivity in umpiring decisions

There was an unsavoury moment during Sunrisers Hyderabad’s innings against Lucknow Super Giants when an object was thrown from the stands, forcing the umpires to intervene.The incident took place in the 19th over of the innings, shortly after a decision by the third umpire to overturn a no-ball call – off the bowling of Avesh Khan – given by the on-field umpire for a full toss. Heinrich Klaasen and Abdul Samad were the batters at the crease and they both made their displeasure evident, Klaasen more than Samad.Klaasen hit the next ball for four, but after that there was a stoppage when the object was hurled at Super Giants batter Prerak Mankad, according to Jonty Rhodes.Related

• Mankad 64, Pooran 13-ball 44 take LSG back to No. 4

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• Pooran comes alive at the death to show what SRH missed

Rhodes, the Super Giants fielding coach, tweeted that the object hit Mankad on the head while he was fielding at long-on, close to the Super Giants dugout.Speaking to the broadcaster after the innings, Klaasen said that the episode broke the Sunrisers batters’ momentum, and added his criticism of the umpiring.”Disappointed with the crowd. That’s not what you want from a crowd. It broke a lot of momentum,” Klaasen said. “Hopefully the umpires stay consistent. Not great umpiring.”He was later fined 10% of his match fees for breaching the IPL code of conduct. The official IPL statement didn’t specify the reason for the penalty, only saying, “Klaasen admitted to the Level 1 Offence under Article 2.7 which states the use of public criticism/inappropriate comment in the IPL’s Code of Conduct.”Super Giants’ Amit Mishra was also found guilty of breaching the code of conduct, but he just faced a reprimand. “Mr Mishra admitted to level 1 offence under Article 2.2 of IPL’s Code of Conduct which states abuse of equipment during the match. Mr Mishra accepted the sanction,” the statement said.A similar incident had taken place very early in IPL 2023 when R Ashwin expressed his displeasure about the umpiring during a Chennai Super Kings vs Rajasthan Royals game, and was fined 25% of his match fee.Klaasen scored 47 to help Sunrisers reach 182 after opting to bat. But a half-century from Mankad and explosive knocks from Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran helped Super Giants win the game in the last over.

Harris and Handscomb fall in the 90s before Queensland induce a Victoria collapse of 7 for 24

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Feb-2022Nic Maddinson made a fine unbeaten century before Gurinder Sandhu’s second consecutive Sheffield Shield five-wicket haul sparked a stunning collapse to help Queensland avoid a significant first-innings deficit at the Junction Oval.Maddinson’s innings, along with 92 from Peter Handscomb, 91 from Marcus Harris, and 48 from Matthew Short had put Victoria in a strong position at 3 for 336, just 14 runs shy of taking the first-innings lead.But Sandhu and Mark Steketee combined to take 7 for 24 in 10 overs to rip through Victoria’s lower order and bowl the home side out for 360 with a lead of only 11. Sandhu picked up 5 for 65, following on from his 6 for 57 in Adelaide in November. It was just his third first-class five-wicket haul having claimed his first on debut.Maddinson and Short had been in cruise control during a 140-run stand having come together after the early loss of Harris and Handscomb on day three. Both men fell within sight of their centuries inside the first hour. Harris closed the bat face trying to work James Bazley through midwicket and the thick edge was well held by Bryce Street in the gully. Handscomb moved from 74 to 92 before trying to cut a slider from Mitchell Swepson that zipped through and crashed into off stump.Maddinson then proved why he’s on the fringe of Australia’s Test side with his second Shield century of the summer. He struck 12 fours and a six and attacked both pace and spin with equal skill. He now has two centuries and two half-centuries in seven Shield innings this season while averaging 80.80. But when Short holed out hooking Steketee down fine leg’s throat the game turned in an instant. Five of the last six Victoria batters registered ducks as Steketee and Sandhu tore through the tail while Maddinson watched helplessly at the non-striker’s.Queensland knocked over the deficit without loss but Mitchell Perry and Jon Holland made three key breakthroughs before stumps, removing Joe Burns, Matt Renshaw and Street to leave Queensland three down with a lead of just 58 and one day to play to force a result.

Players staff involved in the Sheffield Shield were forced to go into 14 days quarantine after the Adelaide Covid-19 outbreak

Alex Malcolm23-Nov-2020Sidelined Australian paceman Jhye Richardson is on track for the start of the BBL with the Perth Scorchers, but the club has been denied a training exemption by the Western Australia government for the players and staff undergoing quarantine following the Covid-19 outbreak in South Australia as the Sheffield Shield hub came to a conclusion.Those who were involved in the Shield matches in Adelaide with Western Australia will remain in isolation until the end of the month and will not be able to return to training until November 30 leaving them just over a week before heading to Tasmania for the start of the tournament.”Certainly, for the Perth-based guys, we will have a period of time that is not too dissimilar to what we would normally have in terms of BBL preparation,” Scorchers coach Adam Voges, who is among those in quarantine, told ESPNcricinfo. “I guess, as all teams will find, it will be a case of getting everyone together only a couple of days out before the first game.”Richardson, who was not in Adelaide so can continue to train, has had a wretched run with his right shoulder that he first dislocated while fielding on Australia’s 2019 ODI tour of the UAE, but Voges is expecting him to have a significant impact on the BBL after recovering from shoulder surgery.ALSO READ: Perth and Melbourne handed BBL fixtures in JanuaryThe injury cost him a chance to go to the 2019 World Cup and the Ashes, but he returned to domestic cricket last season and had an excellent BBL taking 15 wickets in 14 games at an outstanding economy rate of 7.07. Only Haris Rauf had a better economy rate among those with 15 wickets or more.Richardson toured South Africa with Australia’s limited-overs squad in February and March and played in the third ODI in Potchefstroom when Mitchell Starc flew home. However, he required further surgery on his shoulder in May and has only returned to bowling in club cricket in Perth in the last three weeks.”He’s actually going really well,” Voges said. “He’s progressed really nicely over the last few weeks in his return from that shoulder surgery. He’s played three weeks of club cricket now and he will have another bowl this weekend. He’s building really nicely and we’re really confident that he’ll be ready to go at the start of tournament.”Jhye had a terrific BBL last year. He probably started a bit slowly but built his way into and was probably the form bowler of the comp in my opinion at the backend. We’re hoping for something similar from him.”Richardson has bowled two lots of 10 overs in each of his last two club matches for Fremantle in WA Premier cricket, but he still can’t throw properly.”He won’t be able to throw at any real capacity,” Voges said. “He’s got one of the best underarms in the game. He can underarm from the boundary and his movement to the ball is pretty good so he should be okay.”The tournament will also see the return of Jason Behrendorff who has not played any professional cricket since having back surgery in 2019 following the World Cup. His recovery has been slow but he has also played some club cricket in Perth, bowling in three of the four matches he has played for Subiaco-Floreat.Jason Behrendorff celebrates after taking a wicket•Getty Images

The return of Richardson, Behrendorff, and Andrew Tye, who has been called into Australia’s limited-overs squad after playing just one professional match in the last 12 months due to elbow surgery, has Voges confident about the composition of the Scorchers attack.”Obviously to get AJ and Dorf back who didn’t bowl a ball for us last year it almost feels like we’ve got two new signings again and they will bring us a lot of experience and it’s going to be really important for our attack,” he said. “Yes, they’re all coming back from injury in some way shape or form but we’re hopeful preparation wise that we’ve got that right and they’ll be ready to go for the first game.”Mitchell Marsh is also close to returning from his ankle injury and Voges believes he is on track to play in the Australia A games against India in a couple of weeks.”He’s had his first hits this week,” Voges said. “I think that the ankle has been a little bit slower in terms of recovery that he or we would have liked. He’s still on track to play the Australia A games that he has been selected for primarily as a batter to start with and we’ll continue to work with his bowling but he’s making some good progress albeit a little bit slower than we would have liked.”The Western Australian players and coaching staff were forced to isolate at home for 14 days after returning from Adelaide on November 15. The WA government, which has had a hard border to the rest of Australia protect against the spread of Covid-19, has denied the WACA and the Scorchers a training exemption that had been available to the AFL clubs that travelled interstate during the winter.”It’s just a case of when we do get out of quarantine I think we will still have eight or nine days’ prep before we get on the plane to Hobart,” Voges said. “We’ve got guys flying in from England, we’ll have a couple of our overseas guys playing over in South Africa, Colin Munro is coming from New Zealand.”We have our guys from the eastern states who we won’t see until we get to Hobart as well so it’s a bit of a disjointed preparation, but in saying that we will hopefully all be able to come together a couple of days before that first game and at least be together as a team before we start.”Liam Livingstone and Jason Roy will not join the team until they have completed the compulsory 14-day quarantine after arriving from South Africa in mid-December and will not be available until after Christmas. Joe Clarke has been signed as an early-season replacement and will fly to Australia shortly to undergo quarantine in Perth in order to join the squad before heading to Hobart.Munro, and the Scorchers’ eastern states based players in Kurtis Patterson and Fawad Ahmed, will link up with the team in Hobart prior to their first game.

‘I think in the past we have let ourselves down in having a foundation. It’s just a matter for us to take a few balls at first and get ourselves set’

Aishwarya Kumar in Port-of-Spain10-Aug-2019In the rained-out first ODI in Guyana, Chris Gayle played the slowest innings [when he has faced at least 25 balls] of his career, scoring 4 off 31 balls.This was perhaps an extreme case of it, but West Indies captain Jason Holder has said his batsmen would be looking to start their innings cautiously through the ODI series.”I think in the past we have let ourselves down in having a foundation,” Holder said on the eve of the second ODI in Trinidad. “It’s just a matter for us to take a few balls at first and get ourselves set and then we take it as the innings goes on.”The second ODI on Sunday – if he features – will be Gayle’s 300th – he will be the first West Indian cricketer to reach the landmark. “Three hundred games is a lot of games,” Holder said. “Some of us in the dressing room can’t even imagine that. We just hope he can get us off to a really good start tomorrow.”West Indies had a chance to look at the pitch at Queen’s Park Oval before rain forced the covers to come on, and Holder hoped for good batting conditions.”It’s normally pretty humid,” he said. “The wicket is a decent one, hopefully the rain stays away and it doesn’t get too soggy. The pitch normally is a very good pitch here. The conditions should be really good tomorrow. We’ve got to see how the pitch plays, but ideally in one-day cricket, 300 runs is the benchmark. We’ll see how it all plays out tomorrow.”While Gayle endured a struggle in Guyana, his opening partner Evin Lewis showed encouraging signs of a return to form, scoring an unbeaten 40 off 36 balls before showers forced the players off the field.”Definitely happy to see Evin get some time in the middle,” Holder said. “He didn’t get the runs he was looking for in the T20 format but it’s good to see him get into form in Guyana and hopefully he can transfer that performance here as well.”India’s batting line-up is among the best in the world, but Holder was confident West Indies had the bowling to challenge it. “We got to put pressure [on the batsmen] and try to get as deep into their batting line-up [as possible],” he said. “The wickets nowadays are very good for batting. It tends to play a little bit more in the batsmen’s favour, [but] we’ve been doing a really good job, especially in the World Cup I thought our bowlers did a great job, and [we’ll look to] just continue from there and just try to be consistent.”

Nitish Rana’s 59 and a 12-ball 41 from Andre Russell powered Knight Riders to what proved an eminently match-winning total of 200

The Report by Karthik Krishnaswamy16-Apr-20186:25

‘KKR seem dependent on Russell’

Is Andre Russell the most valuable T20 player in the world? He has the stats (and the Smart Stats) to back such a claim, and on Monday he added to his vast body of work with a brief and brutal assault that transformed the mood of what had until then been an edgy battle for first-innings points.Russell came in with Kolkata Knight Riders 113 for 4 in the 14th over. He departed 22 balls later, having added 61 to his team’s total in the company of the impressive Nitish Rana. He only faced 12 balls, but he hit six of them for six.Knight Riders finished with exactly 200. This was a difficult target against Knight Riders’ spin attack, on a pitch offering a good amount of turn. Delhi Daredevils needed a strong start; they ended up slipping to 24 for 3. It was all uphill from there, and Daredevils didn’t have the legs for the climb, with none of their batsmen getting into double figures apart from Rishabh Pant and Glenn Maxwell, who threatened briefly to make this a contest with a 62-run stand for the fourth wicket in 33 balls.Daredevils were bowled out for 129, with 5.4 overs still to play.Uthappa and Rana make up for misfiring Narine and LynnChris Lynn likes pace, but doesn’t score as quickly against spin. Sunil Narine likes spin, but isn’t too fond of fast, short bowling (16 off 20 balls against this type of bowling last season, and four dismissals). It’s a hard opening pair to plan against, and Daredevils, having chosen to bowl, went all pace at the start. It worked: Trent Boult started the game with the first maiden of the season, to an off-colour Lynn who struggled for timing, and then sent back Narine with a well-directed bouncer.After that early dose of pace, it was all spin from overs 6-10, presumably in an effort to keep Lynn quiet. Daredevils managed that, as Lynn ended the 10th over batting on 28 off 25, but the batsmen at the other end compensated, with Robin Uthappa and Nitish Rana hitting five sixes between them in that phase. Knight Riders ended the first half of their innings at 85 for 2.Russell ruins Shami’s nightIt remained like that for a while: runs coming quickly at one end but not quite at the other. Mohammed Shami, varying his pace constantly, went for only 11 in his first two overs, the 11th and 13th of Knight Riders’ innings, and sent back Lynn with a well-disguised knuckleball. Vijay Shankar and Chris Morris, meanwhile. went for 12 and 15 against Rana and Dinesh Karthik in the 12th and 14th overs.Neither team could really say it was significantly in front at the start of the 15th over, which began with Russell batting on 0 off 0. Twenty-two came off that over, with Russell ramping, lofting and muscling Shami for three massive sixes. In between, he miscued one, only for Jason Roy to drop him, diving forward after running in from long-on.Rana was the dominant partner in the next over, pulling Morris for six and then holding his shape to carve a slower one over point for four, before Russell versus Shami resumed. Three more sixes came off this over, off three very different deliveries – a wide, full slower ball; a length ball; a bouncer – and 20 runs in all.It took a perfectly directed yorker from Boult to send back Russell in the 18th over. Then Rana played a couple of outrageous shots himself – a middle-stump yorker from Boult squeezed past short third man, a scything square-drive off Morris that made deep point redundant – before falling for 59 off 34 in the penultimate over. With Knight Riders’ batting might almost extinguished, Rahul Tewatia took three wickets and only conceded one run off the last over, but the damage had been done.Early wickets seal the dealRoy came into this match fresh off a match-winning, unbeaten 91 in a chase of not dissimilar magnitude against Mumbai Indians. There would be no repeat here. Piyush Chawla bowled the first over, no doubt because of Roy’s dodgy T20 record against legspin, and had him stumped down the leg side when he spotted him charging out of his crease too early. That was Roy’s 12th dismissal to legspin in 27 innings – in that time he has scored 190 runs against them at a strike rate of roughly 126.Russell’s pace and bounce did for Shreyas Iyer, who fended a rising delivery to slip, and when Gautam Gambhir chopped on against Shivam Mavi, Daredevils had lost a wicket in each of their first three overs.With no option but to keep playing their shots, Pant and Maxwell kept the game alive for a little longer, but with such a large chunk of Daredevils’ resources already depleted, it was a matter of time before Knight Riders would reassert their dominance. Both fell to Kuldeep Yadav; Pant smashed him straight to deep midwicket in the ninth over, and Maxwell, having just struck successive sixes off him in the 11th, holed out attempting a third in a row. Morris and Shankar, the last two recognised batsmen, fell in the space of three stump-to-stump balls from Sunil Narine, enabling him to pick up his 100th and 101st IPL wickets.

The Wanderers will look like the Wanderers on Saturday, which is hardly startling news except if you saw it two weeks ago during the second T20 between South Africa and Sri Lanka

Firdose Moonda03-Feb-2017The Wanderers will look like the Wanderers on Saturday, which is hardly startling news except if you saw it two weeks ago during the second T20 between South Africa and Sri Lanka. The surface was dry, cracked and took turn, the hosts criticised it for resembling Colombo, Sri Lanka had them in the spin and levelled the three-match series.There will be none of that again.Even if groundsman Bethuel Buthelezi has not been given any instructions, he would have heard stand-in T20 skipper Farhaan Behardien wonder what happened to the pitch that is reputed for its bounce and carry. “We haven’t quite got to the bottom of it,” Behardien said, when asked if he was given an explanation for the conditions. “But it wasn’t a traditional Wanderers wicket.”For the ODI it should be after captain AB de Villiers stressed the importance of making the most of local conditions. “Everywhere you play around the world teams try and cash in on home ground advantage. It’s important for us to – not make it ridiculous – but to play to our strengths,” he said. “That’s why touring is so difficult, especially to the subcontinent and there’s nothing wrong with that. They make pitches the way that they feel they’ve got the best chance to win. We’ve probably haven’t got it right in that last T20 and one or two of the ODIs but this wicket looks really good.”A Johannesburg ODI is usually a run-fest, especially since South Africa started playing there in pink as part of a breast-cancer awareness project. In the four pink games since 2013, South Africa have averaged 351 and won all of them.Specifically, de Villiers himself has taken to the change of kit. He has scored two centuries, including the fastest hundred in ODIs off 31 balls against West Indies, to average 97.50 and admits there’s something about the occasion that gets him going. “I enjoy big crowds and big moments and there’s a bit of hype and a lot of noise around this game.” he said. “I love playing at the Bullring. Once I get going and I get to 50 or so and the crowd gets a bit louder, it gets me going as well.”A sell-out is expected on Saturday, which means more than 30,000 people will pack into the venue in anticipation of a series win. South Africa could secure the trophy with two games to play, not only to give them the opportunity for a second series whitewash at home but as part of a strategy to learn to string together victories as they would need to do at an ICC event.”If we are going to win big tournaments, you’ve got to win five or six games in a row sometimes. We’ve got to get that habit going of winning series 4-1, 5-0, instead of 3-2 like we’ve done in the past because when you get to a World Cup, 3-2 is not good enough,” de Villiers said.With the Champions Trophy less than five months and only 11 matches away, de Villiers wants South Africa to start getting into good habits now and to maintain them until the 2019 World Cup. As has often been the case, de Villiers is confident South Africa have what it takes to break their trophy drought but knows the proof will only come with a cup. “The culture is stronger than ever. The guys seem to have a lot of direction and a lot of feel for where we are going as a team but our true test will be at the Champions Trophy.”

Sourav Ganguly has come under the ‘conflict of interest’ scanner after Sanjeev Goenka, with whom he co-owns football franchise Atletico de Kolkata, was awarded the bid to own the Pune franchise

Sidharth Monga08-Dec-20155:07

Ganguly faces the conflict question

Sourav Ganguly’s association with one of the new IPL franchise owners has been questioned as a possible case of conflict of interest. Ganguly is a member of the IPL governing council and is also a co-owner of the football franchise Atletico de Kolkata; a fellow co-owner is Sanjiv Goenka, who heads the New Rising consortium that today won the Pune IPL franchise.The matter was raised at the press conference that followed the auction procedure and BCCI officials present denied it was a case of conflict but said it would be for the newly appointed ombudsman to decide. Ganguly, when contacted by ESPNcricinfo, laughed off the suggestion of conflict, saying football and cricket are two different sports.

The Kumble Question

The recent resignation of Anil Kumble, another former India captain, from the Mumbai Indians support staff had raised similar doubts over conflict of interest. Manohar was asked on Tuesday whether he thought Kumble’s case was similar to Ganguly’s, as he was not directly related to the Mumbai Indians franchise, and he replied: “No, he was on the technical committee, and the technical committee makes all rules and regulations with regards to playing of the game.”

Shashank Manohar, BCCI president and a lawyer himself, offered a more nuanced defence. “According to me there is not [a conflict of interest] because this is a transparent bidding concept,” Manohar said. “Basically I get questions everyday [about conflict of interest]. People have not understood the meaning of the word conflict. Conflict means where there could be an obvious bias with regards to the decision-making process. When a person can influence the decision-making, then only there is conflict. You can’t extend it to absurdity levels. I am a lawyer, if there is a client of mine, unless it can be shown I have influence, there is no conflict if he bids for a team.”Manohar, though, said his assessment of the Ganguly situation was his own personal view. “Everybody has a right to disagree with me. I am not going to be the judge. The board has appointed an independent agency.”Manohar’s point was that nobody knew the bid amounts while walking into the meeting. They didn’t even know who all were going to bid. The bidders made walk-in offers, which ruled out any knowledge to anyone as to who was going to bid how much. “It was a closed bid submitted at the bidding time,” Manohar said. “Sourav Ganguly has nothing to do with that. Even if somebody has an objection now, we have appointed an ombudsman to look into these cases.”New Rising made two bids in this reverse-bidding process, both in minus. Both were lower than any other bid, but they could get only one franchise according to IPL rules. Every other bidder made at least one positive bid.Manohar did not, however, address the issue of a situation that could arise going forward, where the IPL’s governing council – of which Ganguly is a member as a “cricketer” – might have to decide on matters directly related to the Pune franchise. Though his role is seen as largely ceremonial, it could be argued that he would have influence over decisions taken.It could also be argued that Ganguly is partner with Goenka in a separate entity, and might not have anything to gain financially from New Rising as a co-owner of Atletico. Such a defence has not been put forward by any of the parties involved, although Ganguly’s cryptic reply to ESPNcricinfo might have hinted at that.

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