All posts by csb10.top

Scorecard
Andre Adams ensured Nottinghamshire’s title defence got off to a good start against Hampshire•Getty Images

Nottinghamshire’s 2010 title owed much to their flying start, which saw them win their first four Championship matches, three of them on Trent Bridge wickets made to measure for their seam attack. It will surprise no one that their strategy for 2011 will run along similar lines.The pitch prepared for this year’s curtain-raiser is typically green tinged and with cloudy conditions to aid movement in the air it Chris Read’s decision to put Hampshire in will not have required a lot of deliberation.Indeed, there was a familiar feel to the day in many ways, not least in the identity of the bowler doing most of the damage. Andre Adams, whose 68 wickets last season were far and away the biggest reason why the title came back to Nottinghamshire, took up where he had left off when Read’s men captured the prize at Old Trafford back in September.He finished with 5 for 54 as Hampshire were bowled out for 218. Charlie Shreck, back from a very brief loan spell with Kent, claimed four wickets, with Luke Fletcher taking the other. Bad light, which cut 26 overs off the day’s schedule after tea, denied Hampshire the chance to properly test the champions’ rejigged batting line-up but with a bowling attack depleted by injuries, veteran skipper Dominic Cork might have quietly appreciated some extra feet-up time after top-scoring with the bat.Much will depend on how Nottinghamshire perform on day two but at the close of day one Cork will have had cause to feel his side should have done better, having come through the first 25 overs unscathed.Injuries to Andy Carter and Darren Pattinson prompted Nottinghamshire to curtail Shreck’s temporary move after he had played against Essex at Chelmsford last week. Otherwise, with Ryan Sidebottom having left, the onus on Adams to perform would have been heavier still.Yet none of the home side’s seam quartet could make much impression in the early stages. Aside from an edge or two that did not carry to the slips, and a couple of rejected lbw shouts, Hampshire openers Jimmy Adams and Liam Dawson had few alarms.Ironically, it was the confidence he must have drawn from seeing 91 on the board and no wickets lost that contributed to Adams falling on 45, when he was tempted to pull a short ball from his namesake but did not make clean contact, top-edging to long leg, where Fletcher held the catch.It was a setback but not nearly so damaging as was to follow as what turned out to be the last three balls of the morning session cost Hampshire three wickets. Shreck took two in consecutive balls, inducing a thin edge from Johann Myburgh that Read pouched behind the stumps, then surprising Neil McKenzie with a shorter ball, which flew off the shoulder of the bat to gully, where Samit Patel took a fine catch. An Adams inswinger into Dawson’s pads with the first ball of the next over hastened lunch.When play resumed, James Vince survived Shreck’s hat-trick ball but it was not long before Hampshire’s troubles deepened, Shreck bowling Nic Pothas through the gate to leave the visitors 116 for 5, having lost five wickets in the space of 13.2 overs.There is no Dimitri Mascarenhas, Michael Carberry, Michael Lumb, James Tomlinson, Simon Jones or Imran Tahir in this Hampshire line-up so the experience of Cork is particularly important. Certainly, had he not held things together, they might not have even have scraped their solitary batting point.As it was, his partnerships of 50 with James Vince and 35 with Sean Ervine at least achieved that modest target. The 39-year-old showed that he can still wield a bat to good effect, too, with a couple of tasty drives through extra cover for four and another boundary punched past point.He could not take the game away from Andre Adams, though. The 35-year-old Kiwi, who arrived back in the UK only on Monday after a winter in Auckland, was back in the groove immediately and produced a couple of nip-backers to account for Vince and Cork in turn before a superb catch by the daddy of all the veterans present — 41-year-old Ali Brown — accounted for Ervine at extra cover and gave Adams his five.Fletcher bowled Danny Briggs and Shreck had David Griffiths caught at first slip to wrap things up but by now a gloomy evening was closing in and an over each from Cork and Friedel de Wet was all the new Nottinghamshire opening combination of Paul Franks and Mark Wagh had to negotiate before stumps.

The MS Dhoni-Yuvraj Singh face-off in Chennai drew the biggest TV audience last week•Associated Press

Television ratings for the 2011 IPL continued to plunge, with the average rating for the first 37 games down 25% from the previous year across six key markets. But it wasn’t all bad news for the league, as the cumulative number of people that have watched the tournament this season has already surpassed last season’s total, and ticket sales have boomed.The tournament has drawn an average Television Viewer Rating (TVR) – a time-weighted figure which accounts for time spent watching by viewers and the number of viewers – of 4.07 across the cities of Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. That figure is down from 5.44 in 2010, according to TAM Sports, a division of TAM Media Research, the leading television ratings agency in India. The ratings are the lowest for the first 37 games over the four years of the tournament.However, a cumulative total of 146.4 million viewers have watched all the games so far, a number that exceeds the 143.7 million that saw the entire 2010 season (60 games). This suggests that while the IPL continues to attract new fans, they are watching each game for shorter periods.League leaders Mumbai Indians have not been immune to the trend of diminishing returns either. Their game against Rajasthan Royals, in which they were dismissed for 94, their lowest total in the IPL, posted a TVR of 2.28 with only 12 million people tuning in. The best game of the week was between Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Daredevils, where Kolkata successfully defended a total of 148 at the Feroz Shah Kotla. The TVR for that game was 5.20, the only rating over 5 over the last 11 games, and it drew 21 million viewers.The best watched game was Chennai Super Kings’ comfortable win at home over the fast fading Pune Warriors, with 23 million catching at least some part of that match.

Ratings jargon

• Universe: The total number of people in a defined target audience (in this particular case, the universe includes all cable and satellite viewers in the six metros).

• Reach: The number of individuals in the universe who watched at least one minute of a particular game or a particular show. It is typically expressed in percentage terms. For example, if 1000 out of a universe of 10,000 watched at least one minute of a game, the reach would be (1000/10,000) x 100 or 10%.

• TVR: It is a time-weighted figure which accounts for time spent by viewers in addition to the total number of viewers. So you could have a higher TVR because more people watched a particular game or you could have a higher TVR because the same number of people watched the game, but each person watched more of the game than before.

Media experts pin the blame for the downward trend on the surfeit of cricket, the diminishing meaning of the IPL to fans in view of India’s World Cup win and the shuffling of the players on each team, but advertisers are not worried by the lower ratings, saying there is still plenty of buzz around the tournament.”As a country we have been watching competitive cricket since February 19, so there is no doubt that would have a bit of an impact,” Abhijit Avasti, national creative director of advertising firm Ogilvy & Mather, told ESPNcricinfo. “But personally, I wouldn’t think advertisers have to worry. We still have clients eager to get on the IPL bandwagon. Interest is definitely alive and kicking.”Not everyone is convinced, though. Santosh Desai, the chief executive of Future Brands, a leading brand consultancy firm, believes the viewership numbers might reflect a deeper structural problem with the league, in that it has been marketed as a television programme that features cricket and the “fault lines are [now] showing between sport and a television programme.””A sense of meaning has been absent,” Desai said. “It has become repetitive. Sports must produce some sort of meaning finally. Otherwise it is just leather hitting wood.”But even he agrees advertisers don’t have to worry yet, saying “there is still good reason for [the IPL] to exist” and that it simply needs to transition from being a spectacle into a tournament that reflects “what every team represents and stands for”.There has also been strong demand for tickets for most of the games. Ashish Hemrajani, the CEO and founder of Book My Show.com, which sells tickets for four teams, concedes that a certain amount of fatigue has set in with TV viewers, but believes the World Cup created a latent demand for tickets because “lot of people could not go to the stadium and see the games [then]. So now a lot of people want to go and see the same players in the same atmosphere.”According to Hemrajani, Mumbai Indians sold as many tickets in the first six days as they did all of last season, Delhi Daredevils have sold over four times as many tickets as last year and for Kings XI Punjab, that figure is two and half times. The website handles both online and offline ticket sales for the teams (with the exception of Delhi, for which it deals only with online sales).Neetu Bhatia, the chief executive of KyaZoonga.com, which handles ticket sales for the two new teams, Pune Warriors and Kochi Tuskers Kerala, said demand has been good considering the teams are in their first year, especially for Pune, whose games have seen at least 70% of the tickets sold. Sales for Kochi have been slower in comparison, Bhatia said, but the early bird tickets for the team’s home games in Indore were sold out overnight, indicating more interest. KyaZoonga also handles the entire gamut of ticket sales for both teams.

Match facts

Wednesday, May 18, Chennai
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)Brad Hodge has had a disappointing IPL. Will he come good against Chennai?•AFP

Big Picture

Chennai Super Kings’ strength is their batting; they have crossed a total of 175 four times and four batsmen have accumulated over 300 runs. They have done just about enough with the ball to keep rolling out the wins. Three bowlers are in the list of top ten wicket-takers this season and the team has gelled as a unit. You might be able to make a criticism of the table-toppers Bangalore that they are heavily dependent on Chris Gayle but you can’t pick too many holes in the Chennai campaign.This could well be the last IPL game of the season for Kochi Tuskers Kerala. They have a mathematical chance of making the top four but to topple Kolkata, the only team they can get ahead on points, they have to beat Chennai by a huge margin. They have to then hope Kolkata lose both their remaining games convincingly. In contrast to Chennai, they have only one batsman, Brendon McCullum, who has tallied over 300 runs. To make things worse, they will be without the services of Mahela Jayawardene; Parthiv Patel will lead the side.

Form guide (most recent first)

Chennai: WWLWW (second in points table)
Kochi: WLLWW (sixth in points table)

Team talk

It will be interesting to see if Chennai continue with Wriddhiman Saha or get in S Anirudha, who can at least belt the ball lower down the order. In Jayawardene’s absence, Muttiah Muralitharan might get a game.Predict the playing XIs for this match. Play ESPNcricinfo Team Selector.

In the spotlight

Brad Hodge, who made 33 in the last game against Rajasthan Royals, hasn’t had a great IPL season, tallying 234 runs. Much was expected from the man who had the most number of runs in the Twenty20 format but he hasn’t sparkled. Will he leave his imprint against Chennai?
Dwayne Bravo has just played two IPL games and has done the job with the ball. With fellow West Indian Gayle firing in style for Bangalore, it will be interesting to track Bravo’s progress in the remainder of the tournament. He will slip in the slower yorkers and cutters, and be restrictive with the ball; will he get a chance to showcase his prowess with the bat?

Prime numbers

• With three ducks this season, Kochi’s Raiphi Gomez is second on that inglorious list, behind Mithun Manhas’ four zeroes. Kochi have three more men on that list: Brendon McCullum, Parthiv Patel and RP Singh have two ducks.
• With 16 sixes, McCullum is sixth on list of batsmen with most sixes. Chennai’s MS Dhoni is seventh on that list with 14.

The chatter

“We are still disappointed. Every team wants to get to the final four. We had our chances but didn’t grab on to them. Like I said we lacked consistency in the tournament.”

“To be honest, Twenty20 is a game of luck. There is a lot of luck in it because the risk is more for a batsman, for a bowler or for that matter, even for a fielder. And when the risk is more, you need luck.”

Scorecard
Jason Roy plays a flamboyant shot to midwicket during his 40•PA Photos

Fourteen wickets fell as Gloucestershire enjoyed the better of the opening day exchanges in their County Championship trip to the Oval where the visitors closed on 171 for 4 in reply to Surrey’s 225 all out. But for Zander de Bruyn’s responsible 66 from 90 deliveries Surrey might already be ruing preparing a green, seamer-friendly pitch.The South African found useful lower order allies in Yasir Arafat and Jade Dernbach as the hosts edged to one bonus batting point under leaden skies. When the clouds dispersed in late afternoon the Gloucestershire batsmen, led by Chris Taylor (52), were rewarded for demonstrating far greater resolve.Having been invited to bat Surrey’s positive approach against the moving ball initially misfired as Rory Hamilton-Brown perished in the third over attempting to clip Jon Lewis through midwicket.However, an entertaining stand of 57 in 12 overs between Jason Roy and Mark Ramprakash saw Surrey seize the initiative.Roy found the boundary on six occasions in addition to flicking Lewis over midwicket for six only for Gloucestershire to fight back by having Roy caught behind off Ian Saxelby for 40. With Will Gidman striking twice in the space of seven deliveries to prize out Ramprakash, caught at second slip, then Steven Davies, who edged behind when glancing, the visitors went into lunch with a spring in their step.Gloucestershire continued their fightback after lunch when Tom Maynard was brilliantly caught in front of first slip by Richard Coughtrie off the second ball of the afternoon session to leave Surrey 101 for 5. It became 108 for 6 when, following a short break for rain, David Payne trapped Gareth Batty leg before with an inswinger.During an exhilarating passage of play de Bruyn forged productive alliances with Arafat and Dernbach to edge Surrey into the ascendancy. Arafat’s 44 came in just 47 deliveries to overtake de Bruyn and bring up the 50 stand for the seventh wicket. Three overs later, de Bruyn went to his half-century off 73 balls, though not before Arafat had been caught at second slip. Dernbach lifted Lewis over long-on for six as he and de Bruyn then added 43 in seven overs.Dernbach was eventually bagged at first slip and, in the next over, de Bruyn went for 66 when he drove a full toss straight to point. Saxelby drew a line under Surrey’s first innings and finished with 4 for 73 by having Tim Linley caught at second slip.Gloucestershire quickly shrugged off the early loss of Chris Dent, caught behind off Linley in the third over. It needed a superb delivery from Dernbach to see the back of Kane Williamson. Hamish Marshall, who was dropped on 19 and 33, and Chris Taylor, also fell victim to balls that appeared to keep low.Taylor, however, led from the front with a responsible 52 off 70 balls, and Alex Gidman batted equally sensibly to put their side within 54 runs of Surrey by the close.

Scorecard
Lancashire cruised to an eight-wicket win over Unicorns to pick up only theirthird Clydesdale Bank 40 victory of the season.After bowling Unicorns out for 179, Junaid Khan claiming four wickets,Lancashire reached their victory target with a massive 12 overs to spare,finishing on 182 for 2 at the Colwyn Bay Cricket Club Ground.Captain Steven Croft led the way with an unbeaten 59 off 51 balls forLancashire while there were good contributions from Karl Brown (42 not out) andopeners Stephen Moore (40) and Tom Smith (35).Lancashire move onto seven points with the win – four points behind joint GroupC leaders Somerset and Essex – while winless Unicorns remain bottom of thestandings with just one point from nine games.The part-timers, having won the toss and opted to bat, looked on course for achallenging total as they 75 without loss in the 14th over. However, Lancashire started their fightback by claiming the important wicket of Unicorns opener Michael Thornely, who had struck nine fours in a 38-ball 47 before he was caught by Paul Horton off the bowling of Stephen Parry.Thornely`s opening partner James Campbell then fell soon after for a patient26, and although Josh Knappett (42) and Luis Reece (19) helped take the score upto 114 for two, the wheels then quickly came off for Unicorns. Aside from the top four, only Amar Rashid (10) and Dan Wheeldon (14) managed to get into double figures as Unicorns lost their final eight wickets for 65 runs.Pakistan paceman Junaid was the pick of the Lancashire attack as he finishedwith figures of four for 29 off 7.3 overs – all four victims being bowled -while Simon Kerrigan took two for 21 off eight. Lancashire made short work of their reply with all of their top four finding the boundary with regularity.Moore clubbed two sixes and four fours as he shared an opening stand of 58 withSmith (six fours and a six), and a 31-run second-wicket partnership with Croft.The departure of Moore brought Brown to the wicket and he combined with skipperCroft for an unbroken 93-run stand, the pair finishing with 10 fours and foursixes between them as Lancashire ran out comfortable winners.

Scorecard
Craig Kieswetter was bowled for 10 by Charlie Shreck•Getty Images

Andre Adams, swinging the ball into the bat at a deceptively gentle pace that could best be described as the slower side of medium, and seemingly occasionally reversing it to boot, enabled Nottinghamshire to bowl out Somerset for 177 in this rain-affected match.He finished with an exceptional return of 6 for 33. An indication of the assistance he and Charlie Shreck obtained was that six of the eight wickets that fell came through a single stump being plucked out of the ground.Adams recently signed a new two-year contract with Nottinghamshire, and no wonder. He is a bowler to utilise the swing at Trent Bridge – and, clearly, elsewhere. Somerset, two down overnight, or rather on Wednesday night as there was no play on the second day, lost, in relatively quick succession to Adams, Nick Compton, whose off stump was removed, James Hildreth, likewise, although he did make the second highest score of 35, and Jos Buttler and Alfonso Thomas in identical manner.If techniques were suspect – Hildreth, for one, played an airy-fairy shot – then nothing should be taken away from the bowling. For there was no cloud cover and this, lest we forget, was Taunton, where many a batsman comes in the sure knowledge and confidence that a return to form will follow. Buttler, it should be added, looked the class batsman he so clearly already is, striking eight fours in 43, the majority attractive front foot drives, until he succumbed to the dreaded Adams.Shreck took his one wicket of the innings when Craig Kieswetter had his leg stump knocked out, the ball conceivably coming off the inside edge. George Dockrell, the Dubliner making his Championship debut, became Adams’ fifth victim, leg before, and Charl Willoughby, after a couple of characteristic swishes, nowhere near the line of the ball, also had his off stump removed. Not quite career-best figures for Adams, but he and his coach, Mick Newell, were not bothered about that.”There is more carry at Trent Bridge and so Andre has to adjust his line when we are away from there,” said Newell. “He is a similar bowler to Alfonso Thomas – his economy rate is good and he bowls hardly any rubbish. We don’t have a great record on this ground, but there are clearly more ‘result’ pitches being prepared here now. At Trent Bridge we roll the square a lot to try to improve the pace in the pitch. Here, the groundsman tries almost to under-prepare the surfaces.”Newell’s intention on the final day will be to try to bowl Somerset out, as opposed to setting up a declaration with opponents with whom his relations are strained following their trying t20 quarter-final earlier this month. When Nottinghamshire went in before tea, Alex Hales and the left handed Karl Turner put on 50 in eight overs before the former was athletically held by Kieswetter, diving to his right off Kirby.Turner, missed at second slip by Marcus Trescothick when on 28, had added eight more runs when he was nicely taken low at mid-on off Thomas. Kieswetter then held another acrobatic catch to remove Darren Bravo, this time to his left. Who said anything about iron gloves? This was Knottesque. And who said anything about Samit Patel not being trim? He looked the part both in terms of his figure and his batting. An unbeaten 70 with 11 fours was the best innings thus far, if hardly a match-winning one.

Match facts

Jade Dernbach has become a pivotal member of England’s ODI bowling line-up•PA Photos

September 3, Chester-le-Street
Start time 1015 (0915 GMT)

Big Picture

Autumn is closing in and the football season is in full swing. A major Test series has been wrapped up with aplomb, and now attention turns to a lengthy round of what might, in some quarters, be regarded as After-the-Lord-Mayor’s-show ODI fixtures. Not so long ago, such a scenario would have guaranteed a slackening of English interest and, coincidentally or not, culminated in a crushing defeat. But not anymore. For a variety of reasons, the coming fortnight ought to contain some of the most keenly fought contests of the year.As a reference point, take the last ODI meeting between these two teams – that incredible World Cup tussle in Bangalore back in March. A Sachin Tendulkar hundred appeared to have propelled India towards a hefty victory, only for the innings of Andrew Strauss’s one-day life to haul the game back in England’s direction. A stunning late spell from Zaheer Khan tipped the scales once again, only for England’s tail to scramble their way to a tie.What happened next hardly needs spelling out. India surged to their second World Cup victory, while England staggered to a quarter-final battering by Sri Lanka in the most harum-scarum campaign of all time. Six months on, therefore, both teams have a great deal to prove. India, as reigning World Champions, will be seeking to confirm their one-day pre-eminence in their biggest bilateral series since that final in Mumbai; England will want to use this stage to prove they are a far better limited-overs outfit than they recently appeared to be.So far this summer, England have already had the better of one of the World Cup finalists, Sri Lanka, and on the evidence of India’s tour so far, they will be expecting to emulate that achievement in the coming weeks. Strauss has stepped aside to concentrate on his Test future, but his replacement Alastair Cook showed an astounding change of pace in his first ODI series for 15 months, leading from the front with a century at Lord’s, and 95 from 75 balls in the series-turning victory at Trent Bridge. A new-look team has no place for Kevin Pietersen, after the decision was taken to rest him for the remainder of the summer, but England’s momentum and self-belief is sure to carry over, to some degree, from their Test series whitewash.India’s fortunes surely cannot slip any lower than they are at present. There were glimpses of a resurgent attitude in the Twenty20 defeat at Old Trafford, where the debutant Ajinkya Rahane showcased a technique and temperament that bodes well for future challenges, and where even the exposed Suresh Raina found a method to combat his short-ball uncertainties – his baseball smack for six off Stuart Broad wasn’t entirely convincing but mighty effective.They lack a glut of senior players from that World Cup campaign – Zaheer, Harbhajan Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Ishant Sharma and Virender Sehwag have all fallen by the wayside in the course of an arduous tour, which leaves the ever-green Sachin Tendulkar to carry the burden of expectation once again, as he embarks on his latest quest for that elusive 100th international hundred. Rahul Dravid, recalled to the ODI team for a farewell campaign, will provide a sturdy sidekick, but all things considered – not least, the ropey Indian fielding that prompted Nasser Hussain’s controversial “donkey” comment – England will believe they’ve got the beating of this team.As West Indies, Australia and India all demonstrated in cricket’s recent past, when you’re the No. 1 in the world in one format, the expectation is that you should emulate that achievement across the board. With 10 series wins in their last 12 bilateral engagements, England do have something on which to build. But if India deny them in the coming five games, they’ll feel they’ve lost more than just the summer’s consolation prize.

Form guide

(Most recent first)
England WWWLL
India LLWWW

In the spotlight

Jade Dernbach was a shock call-up to England’s World Cup squad this winter. Uncapped and largely unknown, he vaulted into the knock-out stages via the England Lions tour to the Caribbean, and came within a whisker of playing in that ten-wicket quarter-final defeat against Sri Lanka. But as this summer has progressed, so his extraordinary virtues have made themselves known. Not since Darren Gough was in his pomp have England possessed a one-day bowler so full of tricks and variation, and even Gough’s slower balls lacked the subtlety that Dernbach brings to the mix. In consecutive fixtures, his death bowling proved too canny for Ireland in Dublin and India at Old Trafford, and while his methods are now well-known, few batsmen have managed to decode him.Generally speaking, it’s not wise to read too much into a single Twenty20 performance, but on a tour of few highlights from an Indian point of view, the composure shown by their debutant opener, Ajinkya Rahane, was a very welcome development. He came into the contest boasting a first-class average of 67 after learning his trade in the Ranji Trophy, and the confidence with which he dismissed England’s short-ball attack gave the impression of a player with substance. In a batting order crying out for technical proficiency to replace a raft of ageing greats, he’s clearly a man to watch.

Team news

Graeme Swann, who might have celebrated the Twenty20 victory a bit harder than he intended, is a doubt for Durham after suffering a stomach complaint – a decision will be made in the morning. In Pietersen’s absence, Ian Bell is likely to slot in at No. 4, although there may be a temptation to blood the new boy, Ben Stokes, in front of his home crowd at Chester-le-Street.England (possible) 1 Craig Kieswetter (wk), 2 Alastair Cook (capt), 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Ian Bell, 5 Eoin Morgan, 6 Ravi Bopara, 7 Samit Patel, 8 Tim Bresnan, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 James Anderson, 11 Jade DernbachIndia have no fitness issues to report – aside from the glut that have already decimated the squad, of course.India (possible) 1 Ajinkya Rahane, 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 Suresh Raina, 6 Rohit Sharma, 7 MS Dhoni (capt / wk), 8 R Ashwin, 9 Praveen Kumar, 10 Munaf Patel, 11 R Vinay Kumar

Pitch and conditions

A seam-friendly surface, and grey Northern skies are on the agenda. The prospect is for showers, and nippy autumnal temperatures.

Stats and trivia

• India are unbeaten in ODIs against England since 2007, having won 5-0 in their home series in November 2008, and tied their most recent match back in March. However, England took the spoils in the last series in this country four years ago, winning the rubber 4-3 after a seven-wicket win in the decider at Lord’s.
• England have won four of their previous eight ODIs at Chester-le-Street, including each of their last three against Pakistan, Australia and New Zealand. Their only previous match at the venue against India, in 2002, was a wash-out.
• Two players remain from that 2002 fixture, and no prizes for guessing which they are. Sachin Tendulkar scored 105 not out and Rahul Dravid (keeping wicket) made 82, before rain prevented a probable India win.

Quotes

“Let’s not get too carried away with four years’ time. The most important thing is what we do tomorrow.”
“There are fresh faces with the mindset to do well and have had time to prepare.”
Virat Kohli thinks India’s build-up to the ODIs – which included three tour games – will stand them in good stead.

MS Dhoni, the India captain, has won the ICC Spirit of Cricket Award for his decision to recall Ian Bell after his controversial run-out during the Trent Bridge Test. Dhoni was unavailable to collect his award, though the Indian team was present in England.”While the initial appeal and umpire decision were correct to the letter of the law, the decision by Mahendra and his team to withdraw the appeal shows great maturity,” ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said. “To see players and officials uphold the great spirit of cricket, which has underpinned the game for more than a century, is very special.”Bell hit the last ball before tea on the third day in Nottingham towards the boundary. Having wrongly thought it had gone for four, Bell left his crease and headed towards the pavilion assuming the session was over and the ball dead. Meanwhile the ball, which had not reached the rope and therefore was still in play, was returned to the middle, the bails removed and Bell was correctly given run-out.Upon reflection during the tea interval and following a request from the England team, Dhoni withdrew the appeal and recalled Bell thus turning boos into cheers from the Nottingham crowd.Dhoni’s gesture was voted as the winner ahead of that of South Africa’s Jacques Kallis, who walked on two occasions during the World Cup after clarifying with opposition fielders directly that they had caught the ball cleanly, rather than waiting for the umpires to decide. Last year, the award had gone to the New Zealand team.

The spot-fixing trial involving Pakistan players Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif has been adjourned for lunch on the second day with all parties still debating legal arguments. Among those attending the trial is the Pakistan Cricket Board’s legal advisor, Tafazzul Rizvi.Rizvi, who has been on a retainer with the PCB for five years, has attended the first two days of the case at Southwark Crown Court. He is unlikely to stay for the duration, which may be up to five weeks, but will report to the PCB on his findings.Butt and Asif, who flew in at the weekend from Lahore, are facing the possibility of a custodial sentence if deemed guilty, though both are pleading not guilty. They are facing charges of conspiracy to cheat, and conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments, following the Lord’s Test in August last year when they allegedly conspired to bowl pre-determined no-balls.”I’m here as an observer on behalf of the PCB,” Rizvi told ESPNcricinfo. “When this case started the players were on a central contract with the PCB so that is why we have an interest here. Ironically I was here in London also when the players’ hotels rooms were raided by police last year. It was important that I witness a criminal trial involving Pakistan players.”I’m only concerned with the legal side of things at the PCB not the playing side, so any evidence against them will interest us.”Rizvi also said that ICC rules mean that the players must have independent legal support, therefore he has not liaised directly with the players during the trial or beforehand. The PCB’s main aim is to observe the proceedings and learn from what has happened to influence future events or policies.”As a cricket board we need to find out if anything wrong was done by them. We can’t discuss specifics now but any wrongdoing would be reflected in the final judgement.”

Phillip Hughes is confident that his 174-run stand today with Shane Watson was the breakthrough they needed to form a powerful opening combination. Australia’s selectors signalled their intention to make Hughes and Watson the long-term top-order pair after Simon Katich was axed earlier this year, and this was their first century partnership since becoming full-time partners.Hughes was coming off single-figure scores in both innings at Newlands, while Watson has also struggled for runs in recent times while juggling the opening responsibility with his bowling load. Both men were disappointed to fall short of triple figures – they departed on 88 each – but Hughes said the partnership had been encouraging.”It was good to get runs and it was good to have that partnership with Shane,” Hughes said. “We haven’t had that in our short Test career together opening the batting so to get a 170 stand was great. But it was disappointing for both of us not to cash in and get a big 150. That is what we spoke about over the past few days as a batting unit.”During the first session, Watson and Hughes powered ahead, attacking every loose delivery offered by South Africa’s bowlers, and there were plenty of those as the fast men struggled to find their line. At lunch, Australia had reached 169 for 0, scoring at 5.12 runs per over, with the wayward efforts of the South Africa bowlers suiting the natural aggression of Watson and Hughes.”If the ball is there to hit, Shane and myself, that’s how we play,” Hughes said. “If it’s there to hit you hit it. You don’t want to miss out on balls if they’re in your areas. We had that positive intent today. It was nice. When we came out after lunch it was definitely a lot more difficult to bat.”I thought their lines were very good and their areas were very consistent. It definitely showed. Once they bowled a couple of maidens and bowled quite tight it was tough to score. We looked at that and we’ll definitely be going in with that attitude when we bowl tomorrow.”Hughes passed 1000 Test runs during his innings, becoming the fourth-youngest Australian to reach the milestone, behind Don Bradman, Neil Harvey and Doug Walters. Despite the spikes of Hughes’ short career, including twin centuries during his second Test in Durban in 2009, there have also been plenty of troughs, but he has stuck firm with his unusual technique.”To reach that 1000 mark is quite exciting but hopefully there’s a lot more to come,” he said. “Criticism, I’ve faced a lot of that and there’s been a lot of ups and downs in my short career to date. I hear the word technique a lot and I’m sure I’m going to keep hearing it and it’s something I’ve dealt with now and I don’t really worry about that. I’m just liking and enjoying every moment I can and hopefully there’s a lot more Test cricket to be played for Australia.”