Worcestershire have been forced to swap the dashing strokeplay of Phillip Hughes with the more measured approach of his fellow Australian Michael Klinger because Hughes’ arrival at New Road has been delayed until late May due to his involvement in Austral

David Hopps08-Mar-2012Worcestershire have been forced to swap the dashing strokeplay of Phillip Hughes with the more measured approach of his fellow Australian Michael Klinger because Hughes’ arrival at New Road has been delayed until late May due to his involvement in Australia’s training camps.The change is the latest setback for English counties trying to attract overseas players at a time of ever-expanding international commitments.Hughes put a positive spin on his delayed arrival for his second stint in county cricket and if it is as successful as his brief period at Middlesex three years ago Worcestershire will deem it worth the wait. “I now have commitments with Australia that will delay my arrival at Worcestershire but while it has cut back my time in the UK I am confident that I will be better prepared,” Hughes said.Klinger’s career has blossomed since his move from Victoria to South Australia in 2008, and he was named Australia’s State Cricketer of the Year in each of his first two seasons with his new side. His first taste of county cricket comes relatively late in his career, at 31, and his reputation has never been higher.He scored the third double-century of his first-class career against Tasmania last weekend and was also the leading run-getter in the recently-concluded Ryobi Cup one-day tournament, amassing 498 runs at an average of 55.33.Worcestershire’s director of Cricket, Steve Rhodes, said: “I saw Mike play out in Adelaide against New South Wales in October and his skill, attitude, and maturity as a player made me sit up and take note. Mike has recently captained South Australia to the domestic one-day title and his batting was one of the main reasons for the success.”Edited by Brydon Coverdale

ESPNcricinfo previews the match between Pune Warriors and Deccan Chargers in Pune

The Preview by Devashish Fuloria25-Apr-2012

Match facts

Thursday, April 26, Pune
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)Dale Steyn will hope to inspire Deccan Chargers’ bowling again•AFP

Big Picture

Deccan Chargers will arrive in Pune buoyed by the fact that they have finally got their first point of the tournament, courtesy the washout against Kolkata Knight Riders on Tuesday. A couple of wins, however improbable it may seem after five successive losses, is all that it takes to lift a team. Pune Warriors, on the other hand, have four wins and they have nicked points off strong units such as Delhi Daredevils, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings. Playing at their home ground, they wouldn’t want to lose points to bottom-placed Chargers.Warriors will be relieved to see Manish Pandey grab his chance at the top of the order and make some runs. With Jesse Ryder, Robin Uthappa and Steven Smith already in good form, their batting appears balanced. Bowling-wise, Alfonso Thomas is an automatic choice and that opens up the slot for the fourth foreign player. Luke Wright didn’t get a chance with bat in the last game, so he might be persisted with.For Chargers, the batting needs to come together fairly soon. Apart from Shikhar Dhawan, who has scored 208 runs, no one else has even managed 100 runs in the tournament yet. Kumar Sangakkara and JP Duminy are more than capable of scoring big. Cameron White has not looked comfortable this season, which means Daniel Christian could be back. Chargers’ bowling has looked sharp whenever Dale Steyn has bowled, but there has been a lack of support at the other end. Batting and bowling problems aside, Chargers’ coach Darren Lehmann will hope the fielders hold on to whatever comes their way.

Form guide

(most recent first)
Pune Warriors: LWLLW
Deccan Chargers: NRLLLL (NR – no result)

Players to watch

Dale Steyn has fought a lone battle on the field for Chargers and picked up nine wickets at an average of 13.77. The quality of the opposition has always fired him up. What he needs is a bit of support from the other end.Alfonso Thomas’ figures in the two games that he has played stand at 6-0-36-3. These six overs have all been bowled at Delhi Daredevils’ batsmen. Against a misfiring Chargers batting line-up, he could be potentially more dangerous than Steyn.

Stats and trivia

• The two teams have met twice before, and both times the team batting first has managed 136.
• For batsmen who have scored more than 1000 runs in IPL, Sourav Ganguly is the slowest, with a strike-rate of 108.43.
• Pune lost only two wickets in their defeat to Daredevils on Tuesday, the joint lowest number of wickets lost in a Twenty20 defeat (excluding shortened games).

Quotes

“We are positive and the atmosphere is good enough for the team to make a winning comeback. We are very hopeful of making the last four.”

Gary Ballance scored an unbeaten century as Yorkshire made light work of chasing 185 to beat the Unicorns

27-May-2012
ScorecardGary Ballance’s unbeaten century carried Yorkshire to an eight-wicket win over the Unicorns at Scarborough.Left-armers Ryan Sidebottom and Mitchell Starc took three wickets apiece as the visitors were bowled out for 184 despite an unbeaten 83 from wicketkeeper Tom New. The Tykes slipped to 26 for 2 but Adam Lyth (60 not out) joined Ballance – who hit eight fours and four sixes – in an unbroken stand of 160.Yorkshire captain Andrew Gale put the Unicorns in to bat and Sidebottom removed James Ord in the first over for a duck before switching ends and adding the scalp of Michael Thornely, caught by Phil Jaques for 20. As wickets fell steadily, New was left as the mainstay of a score which always looked like being below par, especially once Starc removed captain Keith Parsons for 19.From 107 for 4 at that point, the Unicorns slipped to 150 for 7 as Starc took three wickets for six runs in 3.1 overs. Former Leicestershire man New reached a 67-ball half-century in between but Moin Ashraf claimed two tail-end wickets before Sidebottom returned to pick up Steven Cheetham with the final ball of the innings and finish with 3 for 44.Gale made 17 in an opening stand of 23 with Lyth, but he was trapped in front by Warren Lee before Jaques edged Glen Querl to New having made just 3.Lyth hit three fours in Lee’s next over, giving Ballance leeway to play himself in patiently. The Zimbabwe-born 22-year-old stepped up the pace with two sixes in successive Luke Beaven overs and soon passed Lyth’s scoring rate, reaching his half-century from 58 balls before hitting Lee for two sixes and a four in successive balls.Lyth took 71 balls to reach 50, by which time Ballance was on 98. The latter moved to three figures with a four off Bradley Wadlan from the 88th ball he faced before Lyth hit the winning boundary off Querl.

Steven Finn took three wickets in Sussex’s second innings as Middlesex’s bowlers combined well to set up victory

David Lloyd at Lord's02-Jun-2012
ScorecardSteven Finn took three wickets as Sussex failed to bat through for a draw•Getty Images

Middlesex will be without Steven Finn for next week’s home Championship match against Somerset, regardless of whether or not he makes his Test return on Thursday. The fast bowler is certain to be in the squad to face West Indies, at the very least, but his county colleagues should take enough confidence from this excellent victory to believe they can cope without him.Finn certainly played his part here, especially during the early stages of Sussex’s second innings. The first three wickets – Ed Joyce, Chris Nash and Murray Goodwin – all fell to the 23-year-old, who looks quick and hostile even on a slow pitch, and the visitors were immediately up against it.Had Finn added a fourth victim (and made it seven for the match) Middlesex would surely have won by an innings. But Eoin Morgan dropped a fast, two-handed chance in the gully before No. 8 Naved Arif had scored and Sussex – showing some welcome and somewhat overdue fight during the afternoon session – just about managed to make the hosts bat again.Despite Finn’s important contribution, Middlesex are anything but a one, two or even three-man team. Last year’s Division Two champions started the season with many people tipping them as relegation candidates but this 10-wicket success sees them firmly established in fourth place.Their third win of the season was sealed during the early stages of the final session. But it was what happened during the first two hours of day one that had most bearing on the outcome – Tim Murtagh, Finn’s new-ball partner, taking three wickets at next to no cost as Sussex, having chosen to bat, crumpled to 66 for 5. The visitors did well to recover to 283 after that. It was still an inadequate total, however, and a draw became the height of their ambition once Middlesex amassed nearly 500 without a single century-maker. Five players passed 50 to underline the depth of their batting.”We are playing some good cricket,” Angus Fraser, Middlesex’s director of cricket, said. “The only objective we’ve set ourselves this season is to make a positive impression on this division. I want the coaches of all the big, successful sides to go away from their games against us thinking we are a good team who can only get better.”Sussex believed on the fourth morning that they could escape. But Finn’s 11th ball of the day put a huge dent in that idea, a fast yorker ripping through Chris Nash’s defence. Having removed Ed Joyce the previous evening, Finn made it three-for with the struggling Murray Goodwin edging into the huge, flypaper hands of Ollie Rayner at second slip.From then on, it was only likely to be a matter of time. Sussex did not help themselves, however, with Luke Wright snicking an away-from-the-body drive against Gareth Berg and Mike Yardy inexplicably pulling Toby Roland-Jones straight to deep square leg. And so it continued, with even Ben Brown – who played so well while compiling his second half-century of the match and sharing in a stand of 63 with Arif – bizarrely falling to a fluffed reverse sweep against Rayner.Sussex will find themselves in relegation bother this season unless they can sort out their batting. They play Surrey at Horsham next week still looking for a total in excess of 315, and their biggest individual worry must be Goodwin. The veteran Zimbabwean has nine single-figure failures in 11 knocks.As for Middlesex, it is onwards and upwards. And they wish Finn well on his travels. “When you are out of the England side and badly wanting to get back in you are constantly striving to get a big bag of wickets,” said Fraser. “You’re bowling can suffer as a result but he has been doing well for us and I’m sure he will do well for England when he next plays for them.”

Nick Compton, that most consistent of runmakers, guided Somerset past the follow-on figure and made Warwickshire’s task of forcing victory doubly difficult.

Ivo Tennant at Taunton20-Jul-2012
ScorecardNick Compton guided Somerset past the follow-on figure to make Warwickshire’s chance of forcing victory doubly difficult•Getty Images

The fact that there was no play at Trent Bridge should have been a boon for Warwickshire, who began this match with a mere one point advantage over Nottinghamshire at the top of the first division table. It would have proved just that had they made Somerset follow on, as really ought to have been the case. Only Nick Compton, that most consistent of run-makers, prevented this from happening.It is barely two month since Compton’s name was being floated as an England candidate, but it seems much longer: the t20 window and sundry other events have occurred and obscured such thoughts since then.He had scored 862 championship runs before this match started and added a further unbeaten 73 as he shepherded the middle order and the tail towards reaching the 251 they required to avoid the follow-on.Somerset accomplished that with two wickets intact, but for much of an unexpectedly sunny day, it had not looked likely. Jeetan Patel, obtaining some turn and occasional bounce from the Pavilion End, took five key wickets through catches close to the bat or, in the case of Craig Kieswetter and Jos Buttler, in deeper fielding positions through an inability to hit him over the top. Compton’s concentration and application remained steadfast throughout it all.The difficulty Warwickshire now have is self-evident: they lead by 212 with seven wickets remaining but only one day’s play remains in a game that was restricted to only 10.4 overs on the first day. They needed to force the follow-on.If Jim Troughton had not gone to the second ball of the morning, without adding to his overnight 132, or the last two wickets not fallen at the same score, 400, there would in all probability have been enough runs in the bag to achieve it. But all that is hypothetical.Alfonso Thomas was responsible for this sudden fall of wickets, having Troughton caught behind, aiming to hook, and swiftly accounting for Keith Barker and Patel. His figures of 6 for 60, achieved largely through swinging the ball, equalled the best of his career. When Marcus Trescothick returns, possibly this Sunday in the CB40 match against Durham, Thomas will willingly stand down as temporary skipper.Of the Somerset batsmen, Arul Suppiah managed to run out Alex Barrow before atoning to some extent with a characteristically stylish half century at almost a run a ball with eight fours and Craig Kieswetter made a brisk 44 before Patel lured him into misguided aggression. Compton was much in need of partners to enable Somerset to reach the follow on target.Indeed, when Peter Trego fell to Patel’s arm ball, caught at slip, and Thomas went the same way, Somerset were still 34 runs short of so doing. Max Waller was then missed off the same bowler when one run was still required. It was only just that the off spinner should take his wicket and then bowl Gemaal Hussain first ball. As for Compton, his championship average for the season now stands at 93.05.The best option for Warwickshire, it seemed, was to make runs swiftly in the final session and then again in the morning before declaring around lunchtime on the final day. Maybe the best scenario would have been for them to lose wickets quickly because all captains, in the modern mode, delay their declarations too late. The great Garry Sobers, who did exactly the opposite and hence enabled England to win a series in the Caribbean in 1967-8, has something to answer for.As it was, Varun Chopra and Ian Westwood progressed somewhat conservatively until the latter was out, leg before to Hussain, and two other wickets, including that of the captain, run out for a single, fell besides. Troughton’s timing of his declaration on the final day will need to be better than his running between the wickets…

Graeme Swann’s chronic elbow problem means England may well be sweating on the fitness of their No. 1 spinner ahead of the South Africa Tests

David Hopps06-Jul-2012It is the lot of the understudy that even when an opportunity arises for them to show their paces, attention can remain fixed on the star of the show. So it was for James Tredwell. As he prepared for a potential international comeback against Australia, it was the fitness of Graeme Swann ahead of the marquee Test series against South Africa that really mattered.As England’s NatWest series against Australia reached its penultimate game and rain lashed the north-east, forcing both sides to practice indoors, discussions were already underway about whether Swann needs to prove his elbow injury has stabilised in time for the first Test against South Africa at The Oval, which starts in just under two weeks’ time.This is not quite the routine injury England would have you believe. For Swann’s elbow read Flintoff’s knee – a slight exaggeration perhaps but it is a known vulnerability. He refers in his autobiography, , to “career-saving surgery” in Minnesota three years ago, when the renowned elbow surgeon Shawn O’Driscoll found 29 fragments of bone and removed 26 of them, leaving only the three that were too close to the nerve for extraction.Swann tells how Dr O’Driscoll’s pastor was even called in to chat cricket and say a lengthy prayer before the operation for his full recovery. Swann briefly suppressed his hysterics to pray with him. Now the injury has recurred, he might be searching out the prayer book again.Before the operation, the injury had a habit of returning every couple of years and was normally cured by a couple of week’s rest. England now face the dilemma of whether to trust in old remedies or ask him to prove his fitness for Nottinghamshire against Middlesex in the Championship at Uxbridge, beginning on Wednesday.The injury flared up in only his third Test for England, a hastily rearranged affair in St John’s, Antigua three years ago when he took eight wickets in the match, but needed constant treatment and cortisone injections to get through it.He described it as “an intermittent problem, which has started in my first year at Nottinghamshire and surfaced every blue moon… basically, my elbow just locked up at funny angles now and then and on this occasion I couldn’t straighten my arm at all.”Tredwell cannot even expect to remain Swann’s understudy in the Test series. That role is more likely to belong to Monty Panesar. Hopes of selection in the next two ODIs are likely to be as good as it gets for a while, although the unrelenting rain might tempt England into fielding Samit Patel as the sole spin-bowling presence. Talk may be of Swann’s elbow but Tredwell is the one normally given it.He last appeared for England in their World Cup quarterfinal defeat against Sri Lanka in Colombo last March, such an unhappy night that he prefers to backtrack to his four wickets that sparked a narrow win against West Indies earlier in the tournament. Since then, he said, with characteristic decorum: “The selectors have not overly regularly been in contact.” They preferred to keep in touch, he suggested, “at a distance”.What is left is daily dedication on the county circuit in defiance of one of England’s most climatically cursed cricketing summers. Spin bowlers have been living on scraps, forever drying sodden cricket balls, bowling negatively, building pressure but Tredwell dismissed suggestions that, at 30, he had become resigned to his county lot.”Hopefully I can get another game and try to make my mark again,” he said. “You get the idea that the selectors are keeping an eye on you. They are keeping in touch with what you are doing as opposed to putting you under pressure by giving you a call here, there and everywhere.James Tredwell could make his sixth ODI appearance•Getty Images

“If you get to that stage you are going through the motions. As a county cricketer, even if you feel you are never going to get to international level, you try to reach those heights if you can. You look on as a spinner and see Graeme as probably the best in the world at the moment. They are big boots to fill but hopefully I can come in with decent form and put in a performance. Who knows, I might be able to stay around the squad. “”You try to emulate Graeme, but he is the man in possession. All the time he is doing really well, it is going to be tough to push him out. You have to enjoy where you are. If I wasn’t a cricketer, I might be a dustman or something. Every day is a bonus really.Test and one-day tours to India this winter are enough to persuade him that his best England moments might still be to come.”Once you have had a taste of international cricket you want more. Whether it is to oust [Swann] or play alongside him, if you are doing exceptionally well in the first-class game then there may come a point where they have to pick you. You have to try to keep that in mind. I have probably not reached that level yet.”They might have to play the two of us together. If I’m doing all of the right things, showing the people that matter what I am about, hopefully they will decide to pick me as well. You don’t want to wish injury on anyone, but it could happen to anyone throughout the XI. It only takes a little niggle and somebody else gets a go.”

India’s batting would need to perform collectively to get past a tough New Zealand in the semi-final of the Under-19 World Cup

George Binoy in Townsville22-Aug-2012India have made it to the semi-final of the Under-19 World Cup in Townsville despite their batting unit performing well below potential. Their bowlers have brought them this far, defending targets in two group games and dismissing Pakistan for 136 in the quarter-final. They’ve also done the batsmen’s job twice: Kamal Passi making 24 off five balls to reach a competitive total against Zimbabwe, and Harmeet Singh and Sandeep Sharma adding a nerve-shredding 10 for the last wicket to eliminate Pakistan.Five of India’s top seven batsmen have made half-centuries in the tournament but no one averages over 40. Vijay Zol, who has 150 runs in four innings, is the best with 37.50. Three of the batsmen who went past 50 did not make it past 60. The highest score is Unmukt Chand’s 78 against Zimbabwe. What India need against a New Zealand side that will not willingly yield an inch is for batsmen to perform collectively and for them to not stop soon after getting a half-century.”Each one has clicked at different times, but we have not clicked together, now it’s just a question of mental preparation,” India’s coach Bharat Arun said. “Good thing is, each and every one of them is confident, they’ve got some knocks at different points. It’s time for them to come together on the big occasion.”Batsmen from most teams have struggled in Townsville, especially at the Tony Ireland Stadium, and especially against the new ball. India were 34 for 3 against West Indies, 139 for 0 against Zimbabwe, 98 for 5 against Papua New Guinea and 8 for 3 against Pakistan.”They have seen it for themselves,” Arun said when asked if the top-order batsmen had learned from Harmeet and Sandeep’s straight-bat and patient approach against Pakistan. “We have learnt from our mistakes, seen our videos. Hopefully we’ll offset all those things that we’ve done.”It is about understanding the conditions, no matter how many times you played there, there’s always something in it for the bowlers. I guess each and every one [of the batsmen] understands that you cannot dominate from the word go. You need to settle down and then you will be able to do something on this wicket. The batsmen have realised that; hopefully they [will] come good.”Chand, being an opening batsman, along with Prashant Chopra, has had the hardest job of getting past the new ball, which he’s managed to do twice. Against West Indies, Chand batted until the 20th over to score 22, and against Zimbabwe he made a half-century. He spoke of the importance of battling through the first 15-20 overs, saying even a run-rate as low as two or three was no problem if the wickets had been protected.”It [batting] does get easier once the ball stops doing its bit [after 15-20 overs],” Chand said. “You need to apply yourself, which we have been lacking in … if [those who have been playing well] can convert the starts into bigger ones and finish the game off, that can be really good for the team.”Like New Zealand, India also entered the final four after a tense victory, against Pakistan. With emotions running high over the last 36 hours, it was important for the team to soak in that achievement and then move past it. Chand said the team had successfully done so.”Until yesterday [Tuesday] we were talking about the previous victory, there were calls from back home, so all that was there,” Chand said. “From today, from the practice session, we are focussed on tomorrow’s match. We want to leave Pakistan game as a memory.”India will hope their batsmen stop adding to their bowlers’ burden, so they’ll be able to move past New Zealand, leave the semi-final as a memory, and set up a title clash against Australia on Sunday.