The U.S. took a giant step towards reaching the semi-finals of the CONCACAF Nations League on Thursday, but it seems that Elon Musk wasn't too happy.
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Things got rather more difficult for India’s slow bowlers after they enforced the follow-on, as Sri Lanka delivered on their promise to use the sweep more
Sidharth Monga05-Aug-20171:27
Dasgupta: Hardik should have been brought on earlier
The third day’s play at SSC was a good illustration of how difficult winning Test matches can be. You nip an opposition out in under two sessions, you ask them to bat on because you suspect the pitch will slow down quickly, and then the opposition batsmen come with a game plan, attack you, have some luck running, and at the end of the day you have two wickets to show for 60 overs’ work. The effort to win looks that much bigger because India didn’t do too much wrong with the ball. They erred with the selection – Hardik Pandya ahead of Kuldeep Yadav on a turning track – but even he produced the breakthrough at the end of the day.The cause of what unfolded on day three was quite predictable. Sri Lanka spoke of sweeps and reverse sweeps even coming into the Test, Ajinkya Rahane in a press conference on day two said he anticipated sweeps and that they were a risky option, and history suggests India spinners don’t like being swept as Andy Flower, Matthew Hayden and Younis Khan among others have shown.The effect fluctuated wildly. Dinesh Chandimal delivered on his promise to play these shots but he found square leg first thing in the morning. Niroshan Dickwella continued sweeping and said at the end of the day that losing the captain early in the morning to that shot didn’t deter them. “Chandimal is only one wicket,” he said. “We are in a good position in the second innings because we kept sweeping.”At the forefront of it was Kusal Mendis, who scored his third Test century. In the second innings, Sri Lanka swept or reverse swept 35 of the 240 balls of spin they faced, a healthy 15%, for 63 runs and no wicket. In the morning, Dickwella swept or reverse swept 15 of the 37 balls of spin he faced, much higher 40%. The impact was there to see, especially on the bowling of Ravindra Jadeja, who went at close to five an over in the second innings. Neither he nor R Ashwin had a wicket to show for it.The sweep carries a bit of risk so you need top-class execution and a bit of luck. Ashwin complimented Sri Lanka for that. “I thought Mendis batted beautifully,” Ashwin said. “He put Jadeja off his length very quickly. Kept on sweeping him, and he was lucky, he got away with it, but credit to him, he batted beautifully.”R Ashwin: ‘A batsman who’s sweeping against me, I don’t really mind it, it gives me a good chance’•AFP
However, the idea that batsmen are sweeping him excites Ashwin. “You can try and vary your pace,” he said when asked what adjustments are required when batsmen sweep so much. “For me, the best option is to try and vary the pace and try and find the top edge, because as it is, I’m a tall bowler. To try and get underneath the bat is a bit of a no-no as far as I’m concerned because you start darting the ball in and you start bowling faster.”I did try a lot, I went wider, I went straighter. I didn’t give him a lot of boundaries in terms of sweep, which he did yesterday. So that was my plan, basically try and get him to play a sweep and… one run is a good trade-off for a top edge, that’s how I look at it. As a batsman who’s sweeping against me, I don’t really mind it, it gives me a good chance. But having seen him for the first time, probably the next time I will try and come in with a different plan.”The other important statistic for the second innings was the number of times the spinners beat the bat without getting the edge: 37 times, one in six balls. This was a little reminiscent of how India kept missing the edge in Pune against Australia earlier this year where the ball turned a lot, but a look at the pitch map will show that they did try to bowl fuller here but with no luck. There was also one big difference here. For Ashwin, the ball didn’t turn from the straight here, only from wide outside off, which worked for them if they were turning it back in, but not when taking it away.”You can change the angles, which I tried from over the stumps,” Ashwin said when asked of the adjustments spinners can make when they are missing the edge so often. “It’s pretty difficult because from the straight there is not a lot happening. It is only a kind of a visual mirage that you’re trying to create, try and turn the ball out from the left-hander and get him miss one that’s coming straight. Obviously that didn’t happen. With the technology improving more and more, the batsmen are pretty adept at covering their stumps and then probably playing inside the line for ones that are turning away. You do try everything in the middle; some day it works, some days it doesn’t.”The other challenge for India will be the dying bounce in the SSC pitch. “I think this wicket will get slower and slower,” Ashwin said. “It is not going to be easy work tomorrow for sure. We will have to be really disciplined. I thought we gave a few runs more than ideally we should have given today. Tomorrow we can probably try and squeeze them out and try and nip a few wickets up early. It is going to be very very important. Mind you, it is not going to be easy. Because it is slowing down at a very, very quick pace. Edges aren’t carrying. So that means we will have to stick to our guns and try to prise a few wickets out.”India were tested on day three – “Test teams are allowed to bat well,” Ashwin said – but how they respond to it will reveal a lot about them. If they do come back well, they will savour the win much more.
Sky Sports refereeing analyst Dermot Gallagher has responded to Jurgen Klopp on Martin Odegaard's 'handball' flashpoint during Liverpool vs Arsenal.
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The gold Adidas Predator boots worn by David Beckham when winning his 100th cap for England are expected to sell for £10,000 at auction.
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Bad light brought the first ODI to an excruciating end with Hong Kong needing 18 to win off 12 balls with six wickets in hand when the match was called off
ESPNcricinfo staff08-Sep-2016
Match called off due to bad light
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsHong Kong’s Ehsan Khan became the 23rd man to strike with his first ball in ODIs•Hong Kong Cricket
Bad light brought the first ODI between Scotland and Hong Kong at the Grange in Edinburgh to an excruciating end with Hong Kong needing 18 to win off 12 balls with six wickets in hand when the match was called off. Hong Kong had played 18 overs. If this were a T20, Duckworth-Lewis would have kicked in at this point to decide a winner. But this was an ODI, and both sides needed to have played a minimum of 20 overs for that to happen.With rain delaying the start by five-and-a-half hours, the match had first been reduced to 21 overs a side. Another spell of rain 4.2 overs into the Scotland innings, after Hong Kong had sent the home side in, caused a further reduction to 20 overs a side. This was effectively a T20 game, but not quite.Chasing 154, Hong Kong began briskly, thanks to a 26-ball 43 from Nizakat Khan. They slipped to 64 for 2 in the ninth over after Con de Lange, the left-arm spinner, dismissed both openers in quick succession. Babar Hayat and Anshuman Rath then put on 62 in 8.2 overs for the third wicket, leaving 28 needed off the last 22 balls. Both fell in the 17th over, bowled by Mark Watt, with the aggressive Rath run out. Ehsan Khan, on 2, and Tanwir Afzal, on 7, were at the crease when the umpires decided the light was insufficient for play to go on.”It was the right decision to come off the field but the decision should have been made six overs prior as it was significantly dark then,” Hong Kong coach Simon Cook said. “And that was further away from a result when neither team could claim to be unhappy.”The umpires asked our batters if they could see the ball and our guys said it was tough and then Scotland were told they couldn’t bowl fast bowlers. So towards the end they could just bowl slow to have a shot at getting in to contention and once we hit a boundary and a few singles they brought the fast bowler on. The umpires handled the game brilliantly other than that but they held on for a decision too long with the light.”Scotland’s innings was given a firm foundation by Kyle Coetzer, who struck 53 off 30 balls, with six fours and two sixes, before he became the debutant Ehsan’s second victim. The offspinner had earlier struck with his first ball in ODIs when he dismissed the opener Craig Wallace at the start of the fourth over.Scotland, 96 for 1 after a 58-run second-wicket stand between Coetzer and Calum MacLeod, slumped to 102 for 5. De Lange’s unbeaten run-a-ball 26 stilled the tumble of wickets, but the collapse took all the momentum out of the Scotland innings. Having scored 99 in the first ten overs of their innings, they only managed to add 54 in the last ten.The two sides are scheduled to meet again for the second ODI in Edinburgh on Saturday.
While his colleagues were drawn into edges as the ball darted around on a grassy surface and under overcast skies, Jennings left well, played straight and put away anything on his legs or hips
George Dobell at Richardson Park09-Dec-2017
ScorecardTom Curran showcased some attacking strokes in his unbeaten 77•Getty Images
It’s not just the shots you play. It’s the shots you don’t play. And, it would appear, the shots you don’t drink.If you were to walk past the nets while this England squad – enlarged as it is with members of the England Lions squad – were training, Ben Duckett is one of those who would stick out. His range of stroke and the crispness with which he hits the ball mark him out as an extravagant talent.Keaton Jennings, by contrast, might easily escape your intention. While Duckett thumps the ball, Jennings nudges it. While Duckett punishes bowlers, Jennings tries to see them off.But while Duckett is in the news for the wrong reasons, Jennings seems intent on making himself into the best player he can be.Because of that, it is Jennings who is giving himself the best chance to play more Test cricket. And while Duckett appears to be struggling to come to terms with the sacrifices inherent in the life of an international sportsperson, Jennings continues to buckle down and grind out the runs.Certainly that was the way it appeared on the first day of this warm-up match in Perth, anyway. While Duckett didn’t even make the ground – he was dropped while the team management consider what, if any, action to take against him following an incident on a night out – Jennings was the one man in England’s top five to reach 30 and eventually top-scored with a polished innings of 80.It was an innings that kept England’s heads above water on another troubled day. What might have been a gentle warm-up game against relatively modest opposition instead became another opportunity for self-inflicted damage as news of the incident involving Duckett broke. A squad supposedly doing everything it could to avoid the growing – though inaccurate – perception that they have a drinking culture was once again fuelling the image of them as a group of lads on a stag night who stagger out of bars every now and then and play a bit of cricket.At least Jennings provides a suitably sober contrast. While England may have the image of champagne Charlies, he is much more Kool-aid Keaton. And, as his colleagues were drawn into edges as the ball darted around on a grassy surface and under overcast skies, Jennings left well, played straight and put away anything on his legs or hips. While many of his runs came from nudges down to fine leg, there was one pull for six and several firm cuts. He also played the spin well, demonstrating sweeps both reverse and conventional, until missing one on 80 and being adjudged lbw.In reality, the Duckett incident amounts to very little. But coming in the context of the Stokes and Bairstow incidents, coming when the Ashes are slipping away and when they know the scrutiny of the media is upon then, coming on the very first night when a curfew had been relaxed and in the same bar in which Bairstow “greeted” Bancroft, it does seem extraordinarily dim.And, of course, it provided an opportunity to a rival. With one batsman with aspirations to keep wicket out of contention, another – Joe Clarke – came into the side. Very well he played, too, until horribly mis-hitting a long-hop to mid-wicket. But make no mistake: the next time an England squad is announced, Clarke will be in it ahead of Duckett.There was a nice innings from Liam Livingstone, too. Both he and Clarke have the class to play the game at the highest level and showed it in innings that contained some sparkling strokes. But both also fell after good starts. And, as Trevor Bayliss said with some regret at the end of the day, “20, 30 and 40s at this level are not good enough”.For nobody was that more true than Moeen Ali. Playing in this game in order to spend a significant amount of time at the crease, he made a typically lovely 24 before edging a fine delivery that demanded a stroke and left him just a fraction.”I’m sure he’s very disappointed,” a not especially cheerful Bayliss said. “That’s why he wanted to play in this game. He was looking forward to spending time in the middle.”Meanwhile, Dan Lawrence failed to take advantage of a let-off in the slips – he top-edged a footless slash – by pretty much repeating the short two balls later, before Gary Ballance edged into the gully and Ben Foakes was caught down the leg side.Tom Curran, counter-attacking the spinners and driving nicely, ensured England were not to be embarrassed, though the bowling had long lost any sting it once had by the time he made most of his runs.Curran was, however, rated by Bayliss as the best of England’s bowlers in the final hour of the day. While Wood gained decent life from a surface offering some bounce but little pace – his away swinger also looked in fine order – he didn’t overly impress the England coach. “He got the ball through okay, but he didn’t really threaten to take a wicket,” was Bayliss’ assessment. In short, he didn’t look like the quick-fix solution to England’s one-paced attack.It wasn’t really a day for answers. And, as Mitchell Johnson prepared for his upcoming BBL stint by bowling in the nets adjacent to the pitch, it was a reminder of how quickly these series can come off the rails. Whichever way you look at it, things aren’t going well for England, are they?
Ireland progressed to the final of the Desert T20 Challenge with a performance that showed glimpses of the form that made them the dominant force among Associates
The Report by Peter Della Penna in Dubai20-Jan-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:54
Crowds are what we play cricket for – Porterfield
Four years ago, Ireland were the dominant force among Associates, beating virtually all comers on their voyages in the desert at back-to-back World T20 Qualifiers. But after falling on hard times in the game’s shortest format, their performance in a semi-final win over Scotland may have been a rebirth. They thrashed Scotland by 98 runs to set up a clash with Afghanistan in the final for the fourth time, and first since Ireland’s undefeated run to the 2013 World T20 Qualifier.In scoring a mammoth 211 for 6, Ireland tied a T20I record score at the ground set by Sri Lanka against Pakistan in 2013. It’s also Ireland’s second-highest T20I score, 14 short of the 225 for 7 they racked up against Afghanistan in the final of the World T20 Qualifier in Abu Dhabi. Paul Stirling and Stuart Poynter fired Ireland at the top, scoring 71 for 0 in the Powerplay, the best first six overs for any team at the tournament, and added 78 for the first wicket before Poynter fell to Con de Lange for 39 off 19 balls.Stirling peppered the rope between point and cover for most of his five boundaries and hit two of his three sixes over square leg before he fell for 60 at the start of the 12th over. Gary Wilson picked up the baton and continued the relay sprint past 200, firing a clinically savage 65 not out off 29 balls.Scotland fought gamely in their own Powerplay as Matthew Cross biffed his way to 35 off 16 balls. Cross lifted Craig Young, Kevin O’Brien and George Dockrell over the rope for six in a frenetic first four overs before he was beaten for pace by Boyd Rankin attempting a pull and was caught at mid-on. Young persisted with a short-ball plan to Coetzer. He was hit over the leg side for a pair of fours and sixes in the fifth over as Coetzer tried to balance the ledger after the wicket of Cross.Legspinner Jacob Mulder entered in the eighth over and hastened Scotland’s demise, producing another impressive spell to finish with 4 for 16. After his first two overs, the required run-rate had jumped to 13 halfway through the chase. Forced to take more risks, Scotland started to slog their way back to the dugout and the innings concluded one ball into the 16th over.What if … Left-arm spinner Mark Watt took the new ball, coming around the stumps. With his first delivery, Watt found Paul Stirling’s outside edge prodding forward to a good-length ball. Cross, one of the best pure glovemen on the global circuit, couldn’t hand on to the chance. Two balls later, Stirling played a scoop over fine leg and Ireland never looked back.Legspinner Jacob Mulder has used the bounce in the Dubai surface to induce plenty of false strokes•Peter Della Penna
Mr RobotAfter Stirling broke down Scotland’s firewall with a blitz at the top of the innings, Man of the Match Wilson continued to hack through their opponent’s operating system.Wilson’s finest sequence came against Josh Davey in the 18th over. He cut the fourth ball past point to the boundary, then lofted straight for six over long-on, who had been fielding wide on the boundary. He moved straighter for the next ball, and Wilson took pleasure in manipulating the field as he flicked Davey’s last ball of the over through wide long-on for another boundary.Jacob’s ladderThe emergence of legspinner Mulder in this tournament has been positively divine for Ireland. Like most bowlers at the tournament, Mulder hasn’t been getting a lot of turn, but in Dubai in particular, he has seized on the extra bounce on offer to produce plenty of top edges and wickets.Calum MacLeod was his first victim in the semi-final, as his slog against the turn ballooned up to Andy McBrine at deep square leg. Coetzer fell targeting mid-off but sent a catch swirling to Porterfield at cover. He put himself on a hat-trick next ball when he got Safyaan Sharif to slog to deep midwicket, then clipped Craig Wallace’s top edge in the 14th over as an attempted cut fluttered to short third man.Heading into the final, Mulder is the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with 10, one more than Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan. The final is all set to be a tantalising legspin duel.
Ryan Reynolds has given a glowing review of Paul Mullin’s autobiography, with the Wrexham co-owner figuring prominently in said publication.
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A lowdown on Feroz Shah Kotla, the venue for the second Test between India and Sri Lanka
Cricinfo staff09-Dec-2005
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The regular Monday column in which Steven Lynch answers your questions about (almost) any aspect of cricket:
Steven Lynch08-Jan-2007The regular Monday column in which Steven Lynch answers your questions about (almost) any aspect of cricket:
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We’ve heard a lot about this embarrassing 5-0 “whitewash” that England have suffered. But how often has it happened in Tests? asked Daniel Robertson from Coventry
As nearly everyone has written, this was the first 5-0 result in an Ashes series since 1920-21, when Warwick Armstrong’s powerful Australian side overwhelmed England, captained by Johnny Douglas, in the first series after the First World War. Rather like Andrew Flintoff, Douglas was something of a stand-in captain: the Lancashire amateur Reggie Spooner was the original choice, but withdrew for personal reasons. The next five-Test whitewash was also in Australia, in 1931-32, when South Africa were the sufferers. Since then India have lost all five Tests in England (1959) and West Indies (1961-62); England lost all five Tests to West Indies in 1984 – the only instance a home side has been blanked – and in the Caribbean in 1985-86 (David Gower became the only captain to be whitewashed twice); and West Indies lost all five Tests in South Africa (1998-99) and Australia (2000-01). For a full list of whitewashes, including four-, three- and two-Test series, click here.Andrew Flintoff’s problems as captain bring to mind another great England allrounder in Ian Botham. What was his captaincy record? asked Steve Durrant from Worcester
Ian Botham captained England in 12 Test matches, and didn’t win any of them – four were lost and eight drawn. The first ten were all against West Indies, the strongest team of the period, and since Botham emerged with seven draws from those it’s possible that his captaincy skills have been under-estimated over the years (as mentioned above, David Gower captained in ten Tests against the Windies and lost the lot). Botham also skippered in two Tests against Australia in 1981, resigning shortly before he was sacked – and famously returned to form to win that Ashes series almost single-handedly under Mike Brearley’s leadership. Andrew Flintoff has now skippered in 11 Tests, and has two wins and two draws to go with seven defeats.There were loads of books published after the 2005 Ashes series. How many will there be this time? And was there a book about the previous Ashes whitewash, in 1920-21? asked Ken Baldwin from Reading
You’re right: there were at least 15 books published after the 2005 Ashes series, which threatened the record set after Len Hutton’s Ashes victory in 1954-55. Several were planned for this series – by the well-known Ashes authors David Frith and Gideon Haigh, to name but two – and most of those will go ahead, as the agreements would have been signed before the series. I can’t imagine the UK sales will be quite as high as for the 2005 books though! I’m only aware of one tour account of the 1920-21 Ashes series, and it will set you back quite a lot of money if you can track it down: the former Surrey captain Percy Fender, a member of the England team, wrote a book called Defending the Ashes which was published by Chapman & Hall. The last one I saw advertised would have cost well over £100.Is Mark Benson the only current international umpire who also played in Tests? asked Mark Davidson from Tunbridge Wells
Kent’s Mark Benson, who won one cap for England against India at Edgbastonin 1986, is the only current member of the ICC’s elite panel of umpires – from which most of the Test appointments are made – who also played Test cricket. However, the international panel (the next rung down from the elite list) includes Asoka de Silva, the former Sri Lankan legspinner who won ten Test caps, and a pair of slow left-armers: Bangladesh’s Enamul Haque, who also played ten Tests, and Nadeem Ghauri, who played one Test for Pakistan in 1989-90. Asoka de Silva has stood in 33 Tests, the most recent being the match between Pakistan and West Indies at Lahore in November 2006, and Nadeem Ghauri in five. Enamul Haque is still awaiting his Test umpiring debut, although he has stood in one-day internationals.Is it true that Milkha Singh, the famous Indian athlete, also played Test cricket? asked Anuj Chauhan from the United States
AG Milkha Singh was a talented batsman from Madras who played four Tests for India in 1960 and 1961, all before he had turned 21. He continued in the Ranji Trophy until 1968-69, finishing with eight centuries and a batting average of 35.44, with a highest score of 151 for South Zone in 1961-62. However, as far as I am aware he is not related to the Indian athlete Milkha Singh (born 1935), who just missed out on a medal in the Rome Olympics, when he finished fourth in the 400 metres.Jacques Kallis has scored seven Test centuries against West Indies – has anyone ever made more? asked Jean-Pierre de Rosnay
Jacques Kallis has indeed scored seven Test hundreds against West Indies, equalling the number made by Steve Waugh and Mohammad Yousuf. But they are all a long way behind the record-holder – Sunil Gavaskar, whose 2749 runs against them at an average of 65.45, including an amazing 13 centuries. For a full list of the leading Test century-makers, with a country-by-country breakdown, click here.