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He was the most expensive player the franchise bought in the IPL 2022 auctions, at INR 12.25 crore

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Feb-2022Kolkata Knight Riders have named Shreyas Iyer their new captain for the upcoming IPL season. Iyer was Knight Riders’ most expensive buy at the IPL 2022 auction last weekend – for INR 12.25 crore (USD 1.63 million approx.) – and became their highest-paid player by overtaking Andre Russell’s salary of INR 12 crore (USD 1.6 million approx.).Iyer takes over from Eoin Morgan, under whom Knight Riders had reached the IPL final last year and lost to Chennai Super Kings.”We are delighted firstly to have been able to successfully bid for Shreyas in the IPL auction and to have the opportunity for him to lead #TeamKKR,” Venky Mysore, CEO & MD of Knight Riders said in a statement. “He has impressed one and all as a quality batsman at the highest level and we are confident that he will excel as a leader of #TeamKKR.”Related

• Shreyas Iyer buys into Kolkata Knight Riders' 'mindset' and 'intensity' as new captain

• From shoulder dislocation to sealing a Test spot, how Shreyas Iyer turned it around

• Mayank Agarwal named new Punjab Kings captain

• Shreyas Iyer soaks up the pressure to offer reminder of his middle-order chops

• IPL 2022 mega auction: Ishan Kishan, Deepak Chahar and Shreyas Iyer earn the biggest bucks

Iyer has had considerable success as captain in the IPL. He led Delhi Capitals, his last franchise, to the playoffs in consecutive years in 2019 (eliminator) and 2020 (final). He led them from 2018 to 2021 before a shoulder injury during the home series against England early last year had ruled him out of IPL 2021. But the IPL was then postponed in May because of the rising Covid-19 cases in India, and when he returned to the squad for the second leg in the UAE, the Capitals management decided to continue with Rishabh Pant as captain, who had taken over from Iyer in May.Overall, Iyer has led in 41 matches in the IPL, out of which he won 21, lost 18 and two ended in ties.”I am extremely honoured to have gotten the opportunity to lead a prestigious team like KKR,” Iyer said. “The IPL as a tournament brings the best players from different countries and cultures together and I look forward to leading this great group of very talented individuals.”Iyer will join head coach Brendon McCullum in the team management, which also includes a new member in Bharat Arun as their bowling coach.”I am very excited to have one of India’s brightest future leaders in Shreyas Iyer, take the reins at KKR,” McCullum said. “I’ve enjoyed Shreyas’ game and his captaincy skills from afar and now will look forward to working closely with him to drive forward the success and style of play we want at KKR.”After the last IPL, Iyer also made a scintillating Test debut with a century and half-century at No. 5 against New Zealand in Kanpur. When the time came for IPL retentions, Iyer opted to go into the mega auction instead of being retained by Capitals.Iyer was then bagged by Knight Riders as the third most expensive player at the auction, after Ishan Kishan (INR 15.25 crore by Mumbai Indians) and Deepak Chahar (INR 14.00 crore by Chennai Super Kings).

After two disappointing seasons at the club, Farbrace is considering a shake-up

George Dobell30-Sep-2020A review of the coaching set-up at Warwickshire is underway with the expectation there could be changes in personnel.Warwickshire finished without a win in their five Bob Willis Trophy matches in 2020 and failed to qualify for the quarter-final stages of the T20 Blast. In 2019, Warwickshire just survived in Division One of the County Championship – they finished seventh – and failed to qualify for the knock-out stages in either white-ball competition, finishing eighth in the North Group of the Blast and seventh in the North Group of the One-Day Cup. For a Test-hosting ground with a large playing budget and illustrious history, that is not deemed adequate.While Paul Farbrace, the club’s sport director, declined to clarify his plans when approached by ESPNcricinfo, it is understood he has reservations about the policy of employing a coaching set-up dominated by recently-retired Warwickshire players.All four of Warwickshire main coaches – Jim Troughton (head coach), Ian Westwood (second team coach), Tony Frost (batting coach), and Graeme Welch (bowling coach) – played for the club. While several of the individual coaches are well regarded – Welch, in particular, has an outstanding reputation and has several spells as a consultant with the England team – there are suggestions that the combination has created an overly cosy environment. Farbrace joined the club at the start of the 2019 season and, after 18 months in which to observe how it operates, appears to be ready to implement some changes.Among those understood to be under consideration to join the coaching staff is David Saker. The former England bowling coach is currently with Sri Lanka but has previously been linked to the role of director of cricket with the club. Indeed, he described the position as “ideal” back in 2012.David Saker watches on•Getty Images

It is understood there was some contact between Farbrace and Sussex about the vacant head coach role at the club following Jason Gillespie’s departure, but it is thought Farbrace will not be pursuing that opportunity.Meanwhile, history has repeated itself after Ismail Mohammed, a young batsman of whom much is expected, has left the club to join Worcestershire. Ismail, a nephew of Moeen Ali, is a 16-year-old who has made a good impression in the Birmingham League. But, feeling his opportunities were limited – he was only recently added to the club’s academy – he has followed the path taken by Moeen at the end of 2006 and moved to New Road. His brother, Isaac, remains part of Warwickshire’s youth set-up.Despite their position in the middle of a large, ethnically diverse city, Warwickshire currently have no players or coaches of BAME background on their senior staff. The club are confident they have things in place to improve this, however, with around 50 percent of their pathway players and almost all of their academy squad coming from such backgrounds.

The hope that the South African would bring some mega-star quality to the BBL have been dashed and raised further questions about the direction the tournament is heading

Daniel Brettig13-May-2019From start to finish, a whiff of panic lingered over the way the Big Bash League and its clubs handled AB de Villiers’ brief and ultimately dead end flirtation with the tournament. As the most game-changing addition to Australian cricket, and indeed sport, in well over a decade, the BBL deserved better than to play host to a saga that had no winners.Whether it was Cricket Australia, the clubs or their broadcasters Seven and Fox Sports/News Corp, the eagerness to secure de Villiers after he declined to take part in the tournament last season seemed motivated as much by worry about the summer to come as it was by robust belief in the strength of the competition that already exists.De Villiers and his management, having fielded offers by more than half the clubs, indicated on Friday that he was no longer interested, providing no concrete reasons other than to complain about the “repeated media leaks” about his interest and then the terms by which he would be secured.Given the length of the tournament, the constraints of the BBL salary cap and the close proximity of news that Australia’s best white-ball players would be away in India for an ODI tour during much of January, thus depriving the league of much of its best homegrown talent, the sense that it was “AB or bust” left plenty of questions hanging in the air.ALSO READ: AB de Villiers pulls back from BBL interestFor one thing, the sort of money that needed to be cobbled together, via the successful club, CA’s marketing funds and the broadcasters – both of whom were involved in discussions around signing de Villiers to “value-add” deals to help get him to the figure he desired – made a mockery of the payments usually available to players taking part in the tournament, while raising the issue of whether de Villiers would be in Australia as a cricketer or a billboard.A figure in the region of A$350,000 for a handful of games made even the headlining five-year, A$1 million deal signed by Chris Lynn with the Brisbane Heat in 2017 look puny. Global market pressures from the BPL and elsewhere forced CA, the clubs and broadcasters to raise their eyes above the usual sorts of deals, but there were plenty of voices questioning the integrity of an arrangement that would allow the successful – most likely major market – club to benefit from one player being paid so much outside the cap in broad daylight.Not for the first time, tails seemed to be wagging dogs. The first indications of de Villiers coming to Australia only became apparent after it was clear that the BCCI would insist on a tour of India in mid-January, duly depriving Fox Sports of the exclusive ODI content on home soil it had paid the lion’s share of a A$1.18 billion rights deal to secure. ESPNcricinfo understands that broadcasters were contacted and asked to put in lucrative commentary offers to de Villiers’ management by way of sweetening the deal, this after CA had itself written to the clubs to indicate it was willing to put in extra funds in the region of A$50,000 to help add ballast to any club’s offer.Such exchanges bore the stamp not of the maturing and successful league that the BBL now is, but instead of the nascent exhibition tournament that it was eight years ago. Back then in 2011, similar package deals ensured Shane Warne and Kevin Pietersen, to name two, were secured as high profile talent.Pat Cummins made a rare appearance for Sydney Thunder•Getty Images

Elsewhere Chris Gayle was attracted to the Sydney Thunder on a deal that was believed to constitute near enough to half the club’s entire salary cap. Entering season number eight, having grown from a start-up as part of Fox Sports’ then modest domestic rights deal to being worth roughly half of the total $1.18 billion rights value, the BBL really should be past such dealings.Imagine, for a moment, a salary capped league such as the AFL in which broadcasters were approached to offer extra money outside the cap to a particular player to ensure their arrival at a club in the league’s preferred market. While the constraints of the BBL cap are determined as much by CA’s wider strategic goal of maintaining the primacy of international cricket as by any cash shortage, there has to be a more systematic and professional way to go about things.That, of course, is if the BBL is to be viewed as a league with genuine club support, and not an exhibition tournament where the overall “product” watched by as many viewers as possible regardless of the competing teams or their context means more than anything. This tension has been evident in discussions about the shape of the competition for next season, from whether the finals series should include the current four teams or be raised to five out of eight, as well as the aforementioned issues around marquee recruitment.Undoubtedly the exponential increase in the number of games per team has created problems, but so too the vagaries of pitches such as problematic drop-ins at Docklands Stadium – home to the Melbourne Renegades – and the Sydney Showgrounds – home to the Thunder.Among the most intriguing learnings from last summer was that some of the biggest television ratings for the entire tournament took place when the Heat’s Ben Cutting and Max Bryant laid waste to the Melbourne Stars by chasing down 156 inside 10 overs – an audience not for a contest, but for freakishly big hitting.That sort of display was most certainly in the minds of all those parties working to get de Villiers to Australia. In their future decisions, the integrity and longer term growth of a competition must take greater precedence. All the scrambling made the BBL look less like the biggest addition to cricket down under in decades, and more like a league struggling to stay afloat.

Friday’s raid on the Cape Town stadium was the third such instance since 2015, according to the Western Province Cricket Association

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Apr-2018Armed robbers raided Newlands on Friday, smashing the glass doors of multiple suites at the Cape Town stadium and making away with TVs, liquor and other items. This was the third time since 2015 that the ground had been hit by robbers, according to a Western Province Cricket Association (WPCA) release.The raid began shortly after midnight, according to the WPCA, when a woman approached security personnel at Gate A and asked for directions to a nearby church. She returned five minutes later, only this time she was joined by three accomplices who jumped the fences, apart from “more than 15 other men”, some of whom had guns. They forced the security officials to provide them keys to the Presidential Suite.The raid lasted less than an hour, and ended with the robbers making away with the stolen goods in three vehicles.”The South African Police Services are busy with an extensive investigation into the event and we will also reassess our security measures, including the possibility of having more cameras installed,” the WPCA statement said.”As an Association we are disturbed by the robbery and will do our utmost with the help of the South African Police Services to get to the bottom of this and try and prevent a reoccurrence of this type of incident. We will seriously look within our budgetary constraints to improve our security situation at the stadium.”Whilst it is truly appalling for this type of robbery to take place at our iconic cricket stadium where we have enjoyed some wonderful memories this past season, we are thankful that the security guard caught up in this crime was unharmed. He has been offered the necessary counselling in order to help him recover from this ordeal.”

Another sorry defeat sent Netherlands tumbling out of the tournament, as Hong Kong’s remarkable inconsistency came up trumps again

The Report by Peter Della Penna in Dubai18-Jan-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsNizakat Khan slashes another boundary over backward point to bring up a half-century•Peter Della Penna

At around 9.10pm in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday evening, Netherlands had one foot in the door of the semi-finals of the inaugural Desert T20 Challenge. They were 49 for 0 in five overs, leaving 100 to get off the final 15. Moments later, Ben Cooper was caught at deep square leg in the final over of the Powerplay, the first domino to fall in a remarkable Scotland win.At around 9.10pm in Dubai 24 hours later, Ben Cooper fell once again in the final over of the Powerplay, bowled by Ehsan Khan of Hong Kong. But, at this stage of the Dutch chase, they already had one foot out the door of the tournament. Going after a target of 184, their leading scorer – Michael Rippon – fell missing a reverse sweep on his first ball in the opening over. Captain Peter Borren was run out after an awful mix-up with Cooper in the second.Cooper went next and, two overs later, Wesley Barresi skied a chance in the circle towards Anshuman Rath at cover. Roelof van der Merwe made it to the striker’s end and was yelling for Barresi to cross so that, if the catch was taken, at least van der Merwe would be on strike rather than a new batsman. But Barresi had already tucked his bat under his arm and begun walking to the pavilion, underscoring the Dutch despondency. Thirty-five minutes later, Nizakat Khan took the final catch to officially KO Holland.Wrath of Khan? No. Rath and Khans? YesComing off their 87-all-out first-innings implosion against Oman and with only a slim mathematical calculation keeping them afloat for a chance at the semi-finals, expectations were low for 17th-ranked Hong Kong, especially coming up against the 11th-ranked Netherlands. Nizakat ambushed van der Merwe in the first over, smacking the first three balls for four through point and over mid-on. Borren and van der Merwe had to pause to realign the field.After two dots, van der Merwe produced the desired result as Nizakat laced a drive to Ahsan Malik at cover point, but he spilled a regulation chance at head height and Nizakat continued to plunder the Dutch attack until he was run out for 59. If they thought the wicket would provide respite, the Dutch were in for a rude awakening.Rath came to the crease at the fall of Nizakat and when captain Babar Hayat fell in the 13th it brought Waqas Khan to the middle. The pair continued to keep Netherlands’ bowling attack off balance with a mix of orthodox and inventive shots to add 77 in seven overs. Rath’s innings stood out most, though, because he played against type. Usually a reserved accumulator, the left-hander charged down the pitch, shuffled back and forth, anything to throw the fast bowlers off their lines. It was an effective ploy allowing him to hit over the infield and pierce unprotected gaps on the boundary.Rath then capped off his Man-of-the-Match performance with the ball by striking on his first two deliveries in the 10th over to reduce Netherlands to 52 for 7, then took another in the 12th. His only blemish on the night came with the score on 69 for 9 when he came in off the deep midwicket rope only to see a chance go over his head and land just over the rope for six. Netherlands added 23 more runs in all as a result, which could be crucial in the context of the net-run-rate tiebreaker if Scotland hands Oman a defeat on Thursday.“Devastated yesterday, embarrassed today”That was Borren’s description in the post-match press conference as he reflected on how the meltdown against Scotland in Abu Dhabi compared to the lie-down against Hong Kong in Dubai, making them the first team from their half of the draw to be eliminated.”The two are not unrelated,” Borren said. “We obviously had a few hours to review yesterday and then to look forward to tonight. The way that yesterday’s game panned out, it probably wasn’t quite long enough given what we’ve done here tonight because we simply were not good enough tonight.”A Hong Kong box of chocolatesHong Kong opened the 2015 World T20 Qualifier in Ireland with a nine-wicket throttling at the hands of Jersey. Two matches later, they defended 129 to beat Ireland at Malahide. A day later, USA doled out a convincing seven-wicket thumping to leave them on the brink of missing the knockout round. Seventy-two hours later, they had beaten Afghanistan for the first time in seven T20 attempts in a last-ball thriller to punch their ticket to the World T20 in India.At this tournament, they followed up a stinker against Oman with a blooming rose of a showing against Netherlands. To paraphrase Forrest Gump, Hong Kong is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get. Coach Simon Cook says the side’s inconsistency can be put down to giving young players as many opportunities to play so they can learn and grow on the field.”It’s a challenge,” Cook said. “Our consistency has been slow starting to tournaments. It’s about getting the back-against-the-wall attitude in terms of winning every game from the first game, rather than waiting until we are literally backs against the wall to pull out performances like this.”

Neil Flack will lead Scotland at the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh, and the squad will prepare for the tournament with a training camp in Sri Lanka on January 12 before arriving in Bangladesh on January 20

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Dec-2015Neil Flack will lead Scotland at the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh. The squad will prepare for the tournament with a training camp in Sri Lanka on 12 January before arriving in Bangladesh on January 20.Scotland, who booked their place in the tournament after winning the only available European slot during the Under-19 qualifiers in Jersey, will play two warm-up games against West Indies and Fiji in Dhaka before they arrive in Cox’s Bazar for their group fixtures.There are places for Haris Aslam, the legspinner, and Scott Cameron, the seamer, after both earned representative honours with Scotland A during the 2015 season. Gordon Drummond, the former captain, will share the head coach duties with Cedric English.”It has been tough challenge to get here but we feel we have selected a strong squad for what will be Scotland’s third consecutive appearance at this age-group event,” Drummond said. “The guys showed good resilience this summer to qualify for the World Cup, and we have been working to add to this through various supportive training opportunities this winter.”The players are aware the challenge now is to convert all the good work they have done in the last few months into the competitive environment and are determined to put on a good show for Scotland. The excitement is starting to grow in the group the closer the tournament gets with everyone fully aware of what a fantastic opportunity this is.”Scotland face a stern test in Group A against current Under-19 Champions, South Africa on January 29, before taking on Bangladesh ( January 30) and Namibia (February 2).Squad: Neil Flack (capt), Haris Aslam, Ryan Brown, Scott Cameron, Harris Carnegie, Mohammad Azeem Dar, Mohammad Ghaffar, Rory Johnston, Ihtisham Malik, Finlay McCreath, Mitchell Rao, Owais Shah, Simon Whait, Jack Waller, Ben Wilkinson.

David Willey took his Championship wicket-tally to 15 in five innings by taking 4 for 71 on the opening day against Gloucestershire

24-Apr-2013
ScorecardDavid Willey continued his impressive start to the season with the ball•PA Photos

David Willey took his Championship wicket-tally to 15 in five innings by taking 4 for 71 on the opening day against Gloucestershire at Bristol. Thanks largely to the left-arm seamer, the home side were able to post only 192 all out after winning the toss, 18-year-old wicketkeeper Cameron Herring top-scoring with 43 in his first Championship innings.Steven Crook, James Middlebrook and Trent Copeland, who conceded only 26 runs from 18 overs, provided able support for Willey. By the close the visitors had replied with 107 for 3.Gloucestershire’s County Ground is a building site at the moment with ground development work continuing behind the bowler’s arm at both ends. Perhaps that contributed to a tentative batting display by the hosts, who were 9 for 2 in the seventh over, with Willey having Chris Dent taken in the slips and bowling Dan Housego pushing forward.Michael Klinger was caught behind playing forward to Crook for 23 and, with the ball moving in the air and off the seam, may have regretted his decision to bat. Crook accounted for Alex Gidman, as he was caught at first slip by Andrew Hall and it was 70 for 5 when Hamish Marshall was caught behind off Willey for 8 in the final over before lunch.Will Gidman offered a second catch to Sales to give Willey his fourth wicket and although Benny Howell (31) looked in better form than most, he had his stumps rearranged by Crook pushing forward to make it 111 for 7.Herring and Jack Taylor then put together an attractive stand of 48, which ended when offspinner Middlebrook was introduced into the Northants attack. He accounted for Taylor with the score on 159 as the batsman skied to mid-off. David Payne was then stumped by David Murphy off the medium pace of Hall for a duck.Herring was last man out, stumped advancing down the track to Middlebrook, having hit eight fours in an 81-ball innings of immense promise.The teenager’s good day continued when he dived to catch Kyle Coetzer for 24 off Will Gidman to break a Northants opening stand of 41. Sales pulled a simple catch to mid-wicket off Liam Norwell and departed kicking himself for 5. Then Stephen Peters, on 34, repeated the shot against the same bowler and was brilliantly caught by Will Gidman at mid-on.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) is considering a request from the Bangladesh board president Mustafa Kamal for South Africa to play Bangladesh in May

Firdose Moonda22-Apr-2012Cricket South Africa (CSA) is considering a request from the Bangladesh board president Mustafa Kamal for South Africa to play Bangladesh in May, CSA’s acting chief executive Jacques Faul has said. Kamal made a request to CSA president Willie Basson last week and offered to pay all the costs, whether the series takes place in Bangladesh or South Africa.”We have received the request and we are in the process of checking whether it would be possible,” Faul told ESPNcricinfo. “We’ve got nothing against it, it’s just about scheduling. At the moment, I can say it is a request we are looking at.”Faul will meet with the South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) and national coach Gary Kirsten next week to discuss the possibility of playing the series. He said the decision will be based on South Africa’s schedule and whether this fixture can be included without causing fatigue. “We always want to play cricket and foster cricket but we’ve got to be careful with how much preparation and how much rest we give our team,” Faul said. “It is quite important how we pace the team.”Bangladesh have no international cricket scheduled before the World Twenty20 in September. Their trip to Pakistan, for an ODI and a T20 later this month, was put on hold after a court order placed a four-week embargo on the tour, and their visit to Zimbabwe in August was postponed because of work being done on the pitches in Harare and Bulawayo.By contrast, South Africa’s schedule is busy. Having already spent a month in New Zealand, they will go to England for more than two months in early July, head straight to Sri Lanka for the World T20, tour Australia in October and November and then host New Zealand during the home summer.Even if all parties agree the Bangladesh-South Africa series should go ahead, it will face a number of logistical problems. With the IPL only ending on May 27, South Africa could be without some of their key players. Twenty South African players, including limited-overs captain AB de Villiers and bowlers Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, are involved in the IPL. Bangladesh, though, only have two players in the competition – Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal.Another issue will be location. The matches are unlikely to be held in Bangladesh because of the heat in summer and Faul confirmed South Africa, where it will be winter in May, was the only possibility as a venue. “Winter will be a factor for sure,” Faul said. “Durban is a possible venue but the Highveld [Johannesburg and Centurion] will be out.” Cape Town, where in rains in winter, will also not be a possibility.Another option would be for the series to be held in Zimbabwe, who were approached by the BCB to participate in a tri-series with South Africa. While Zimbabwe Cricket officials could not be reached on Sunday for confirmation on whether they received the request and were considering it, cricket can be played there during their winter. They will host South Africa for five T20 matches, which have not been given international status, in June before maintenance work on their two main centres begins.Zimbabwe could also travel to South Africa for the proposed tri-series and Faul said CSA would welcome the idea. “We always try to help Zimbabwe, we have an obligation to them because we are closest to them and we try to look after them where we can.”

Deccan Chargers were handcuffed by Yuvraj Singh’s round-arm left-arm spin, submitting to a middling total after a flashy start

The Bulletin by Sidharth Monga10-May-2011
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
Yuvraj Singh led the Pune effort with the ball•AFP

Deccan Chargers were handcuffed by Yuvraj Singh’s round-arm left-arm spin, submitting to a middling total after a flashy start. They lost two wickets to Yuvraj at crucial junctures, and scored only 17 off his four overs. Mitchell Marsh and Rahul Sharma did their bit too, conceding 49 in their eight overs. Marsh was rewarded handsomely with three wickets in the 19th over with frustrated batsmen looking to force the pace. Jesse Ryder and Manish Pandey made light work of the chase, although this game was inconsequential to qualification for further rounds.The match might not have an impact on who goes to the playoffs, but it grew immensely as drama when Yuvraj announced at the toss that Sourav Ganguly was finally going to play in this year’s IPL. Having been ignored by his home side Kolkata Knight Riders, and picked by Pune Warriors only after an injury to Ashish Nehra, Ganguly came in to bat with the win more or less in the bag, but found time to hit a trademark six over midwicket off Amit Mishra in an unbeaten, run-a-ball 32. One member of the enthusiastic crowd found his way onto the ground, and fell at his feet during the break after Robin Uthappa’s wicket.The chase by then seemed easy, but with the way Shikhar Dhawan and DB Ravi Teja started the game, a facile win would have been the last thing on Pune Warriors’ minds. They brought up the fifty in the sixth over, but Yuvraj dismissed Dhawan in his first over, and the squeeze that followed slowed Deccan down. Five fours and two sixes were hit in the first six overs, only six boundaries in the rest of the piece.Dhawan and Teja were good against the medium pace of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shrikanth Wagh, and Dhawan welcomed Rahul Sharma and Wayne Parnell to the crease with sixes. When he tried to do the same to Yuvraj, who had brought himself on to stop the bleeding, the bowler pulled the length back, bowled a little slower, and Dhawan could only sky him to cover. Marsh followed it up with a played-on dismissal of Teja’s. At 56 for 2 in the eighth over, Kumar Sangakkara and JP Duminy tried to make sure there were no more quick strikes.However, Rahul beat Sangakkara’s sweep with a flat, straight delivery. Yuvraj came back, and tortured Daniel Christian with deliveries that wouldn’t spin. Finally Christian played around his front pad to be caught dead plumb. At 98 for 3 in the 15th over, the onus was on Duminy to take Deccan to a good total. However, as has been the case of late, Duminy couldn’t make a telling contribution, managing a run-a-ball 30.Dale Steyn, faced with the prospect of defending a pedestrian total, took matters in his own hands, and scored 10 off the last over, in the process scoring only the third boundary since the 15th over. Ryder, though, was quick to see off the only threat to their chase. He punched, drove and hooked Steyn for four, four and six in the first over. Between them, Ryder and Pandey scored 84 off 62, which basically finished off the chase.

Michael Carberry struck a second century of the season as Hampshire limped to 300 all out against Nottinghamshire on day one of their County Championship match

04-May-2010

ScorecardMichael Carberry struck a second century of the season as Hampshire limped to 300 all out against Nottinghamshire on day one of their County Championship match.On a good pitch, Carberry was the only batsmen to take full advantage as Hampshire’s early season struggles – which have so far seen them lose five consecutive games in all competitions – continued.Carberry and fellow opener Jimmy Adams appeared to be laying the foundations for a solid total after proceeding without major incident to 40 with loss. But after Adams departed, caught behind off the bowling of Paul Franks, Hants innings spluttered to a near standstill in the face of good bowling from Franks, Charlie Shreck and Darren Pattinson.Only the impressive hitting of Carberry, no doubt eager to remind the England selectors of his undoubted quality, kept the scoreboard ticking over as Shreck rushed out Chris Benham and Neil McKenzie in quick succession to leave Hants on 77 for 3.England under-19 star James Vince looked confident and played with great intent for a run-a-ball 39 as he and Carberry briefly threatened to steady the ship. But Vince’s dismissal to one-time England cap Pattinson – which was swiftly followed by Nic Pothas’ to the same bowler – tilted the initiative deservedly back in Nottinghamshire’s favour.Carberry, however, remained unmoved, playing with the sort of poise, controlled aggression and willingness to dominate which so characterised his performances last season and deservedly earned him winter international honours.But while Carberry demonstrated tangible top-level quality in the watery sunshine, so his team-mates continued to flounder. Lower order cameos from Sean Ervine and Dominic Cork were both cut short in the early 20s by the spin of Samit Patel, heaping yet more responsibility on Carberry’s shoulders.Shorn of able partners and with his side still short of par on a playable and fair surface, Carberry sought to press whatever slim advantage remained available to the home side, with some expansive shots.But with his on score on 132, Carberry finally let his vice-like grip on his innings slip, trudging off to generous applause with Hants on 276 for 8. The Hants tailed wag somewhat to drag the score to 300, but as the impressive Pattinson rounded off the innings with his third wicket, few could doubt Notts had enjoyed the better of an intriguing opening day.