The Kolkata Knight Riders have signed Ajantha Mendis, the Sri Lankan slow bowler, till the end of the current season. Mendis, who shot into prominence in the ODI series against West Indies with his unusual action and crafty variations, flew into Kolkata yesterday.The agency which manages Mendis’ affairs was certain that their client will be able to deliver the goods. “Kolkata is a place where the pitches are generally slow and receptive to spin and a bowler like Mendis would be able to make the maximum use of the conditions,” the spokesman told the , a Colombo-based daily.Mendis, 23, made a sensational debut when he took 3 for 39 against West Indies in Port-of-Spain on April 10. He flummoxed Chris Gayle and Darren Sammy as the Windies batsmen struggled to pick his assortment of deliveries. Mendis, however, failed to take a wicket in his second match, and did not get an opportunity to bowl in the third.Meanwhile, Mendis’ compatriot, allrounder Kaushal Weeraratne, has been invited to join Kolkata in training for a week. Weeraratne has scored 97 runs in 13 ODI innings at 16.16, and taken six wickets. He is also the record holder for the fastest fifty in List A cricket, which he completed off only 12 balls while playing for Ragama against Karunegala in Sri Lankan domestic cricket in 2005-06.
Australia’s coach Tim Nielsen believes Mitchell Johnson might be the man who can unnerve India’s strong batting line-up if he is picked for the Boxing Day Test. Johnson was impressive in his first two Tests against Sri Lanka last month but the re-emergence of Shaun Tait has left him uncertain of a place for the Melbourne match.However, Johnson has an excellent record against India in one-day internationals with 19 wickets at an average of 16 and he was the leading wicket-taker for either side in the recent ODI series in India. Nielsen said that would work in his favour when the selectors decided on their final 11 for Boxing Day.”He’s had really good success,” Nielsen said. “He’s knocked over their top order consistently over the last couple of years. When the selectors sit down and have a look at the best mix for a team against India I’m sure the fact Mitchell’s knocked over the likes of Tendulkar and Ganguly and Dravid consistently over the last couple of years will be a big tick in his box.”Tait was still recovering from elbow surgery when Australia played Sri Lanka, leaving Johnson as the obvious candidate to back up Brett Lee and Stuart Clark in the pace attack. But Johnson was left out of the ODIs against New Zealand as Australia wanted to give Tait some match time and Tait’s success meant Johnson was suddenly being mentioned as a possible 12th man for Boxing Day.”He’s been so good in the Test match arena especially,” Nielsen said. “The biggest challenge for him is not to think ‘what do I have to change to get back in’ it’s just to understand that 12 doesn’t fit into 11 [for the ODIs].”Australia have not decided whether to experiment with a four-man pace attack in Melbourne as the MCG pitch remains a mystery. Rain has bucketed down in Melbourne over the past few days, meaning the centre-wicket area is still under cover.
Group A With half-centuries from Imran Farhat and Rafatullah Mohamand Habib Bank Limited (HB) chased down Zarai Taraqiati Limited Bank’s (ZTB) 267 with two wickets to spare at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.Despite Aamer Bashir’s 81 and Adnan Raza’s unbeaten 55, ZTB could not set a high enough target. Abdur Rehman, the Pakistan left-arm spinner, took 3 for 54 and Shahid Nazir, Pakistan’s right-arm fast bowler, took 2 for 25. HB’s top order set up the platform for the chase as Farhat and Mohmand added 47 together and then Mohamand added another 79 with Hasan Raza. But Mohammad Khalil and Naved Ashraf triggered a lower-order collapse and four wickets fell for 39 runs. Nazir and Sajid Shah held their nerve and scored the required runs with three balls to sprae. Khalil and Ashraf got three wickets each for the game.National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) bowled out Pakistan Customs for 144 and reached the target for the loss of two wickets at the Sheikhupura Stadium.Tahir Mughal and Wasim Khan, NBP’s opening bowlers, sent back the first four Customs’ batsmen for 60 runs. Then Mansoor Amjad, a legbreak bowler, took three middle-order wickets for three runs though Customs’ managed to last out 47 overs for their paltry score. Usman Arshad top-scored for Customs’ with 35.Salman Butt and Qaiser Abbas set the tone of the chase adding 93 for the first wicket. Abbas was unbeaten on 72 when NBP reached the target in 34.4 oversGroup B Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGP) had an easy chase on their hands as Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) crumbled to 103 at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.Only two WAPDA batsmen – Masood Asim (30) and Aamer Sajjad (37) got to double figures. Three batsmen failed to score at all. Imran Ali and Tauqeer Hussain, SNGP’s right-arm fast-medium bowlers, took three wickets each.Yasir Arafat was not out on 50 when SNGP reached the target in 19 overs for the loss of two wickets.An 108-run partnership between Shehzad Malik and Azhar Ali got Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) a five-wicket win over Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in Rawalpindi.PIA made 277 in their 50 overs with half-centuries from Agha Sabir and Faisal Iqbal. KRL had a setback early in their innings with two wickets falling at 43. But the Malik-Ali partnership was preceded by two fifty-run partnerships between Saeed Anwar jr (52) and Bilal Asad (68) and Asad and Malik(83*). Fazl-e-Akbar and Bazid Khan were the only two out of seven PIA bowlers who got wickets.
Michael Clark, the 27-year-old West Australian fast bowler, has announced his retirement from first-class cricket. He has been plagued by a series of back injuries and was not offered a full-time contract for the current season, so was forced to combine his cricket with a job in a car dealership .”It’s been a tough call to make,” he said. “But I have to consider what’s best for my family and it’s just become too much to try and hold down my job and put in the amount of time and effort that’s required to train with the Warriors. That said I’ve lived every young kid’s dream of playing footy and cricket at a high level and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.”Clark made his debut for WA in 2001-02 but was limited to 17 appearances, the last in November, in which he took 49 wickets at 28.71.
Scorecard Amit Pagnis almost single-handedly steered Railways to the target of 157 and took them to the final of the Ranji Trophy. The last time Railways reached the final was in the 2001-02 season, when they completed a memorably triumph.Hyderabad added only 39 to their overnight total as Daniel Manohar fell early in the day, for a well-made 75. Arjun Yadav managed a dogged 26, of 72 balls, but the tail crumbled around him. Harvinder Singh and Murali Kartik were the most effective bowlers with three wickets apiece.Pagnis, who used to play for Mumbai earlier, got the run-chase off to a rollicking start and did the chunk of the scoring. His 98 included 11 fours and a six and dominated the scoring throughout. None of the other batsmen crossed 20 as Railways overcame the target in 47 overs.
Zimbabwe v West Indies, 1st Test, Harare, 3rd DayThe first Test between Zimbabwe and West Indies at Harare Sports Club almost came to an untimely ending before the start of the third day’s play, thanks to a freakish incident that seriously damaged the pitch.Play was due to start at 9.30, half an hour early, to make up for time lost on the second day. All was normal as the time approached, with the ground staff rolling the pitch and the players practising on the outfield. Then Zimbabwe’s Trevor Gripper unleashed a well-timed drive that sent a practice ball scudding on to the pitch – right in the path of the roller.The operator had no time to stop, and a split second later the ball lay embedded in the pitch – short of a length to a left-hander at the City (southern) end of the ground. The dent was about an inch deep, and any ball pitched in it could fly anywhere, an obvious danger if bowled at speed.Fortunately the Royal Harare Golf Club adjoins the ground, and an urgent request was made to borrow an auger, with the idea of lifting out the damaged area and replacing it with a similar piece from just behind the stumps. After all, if entire pitches are transported these days, why not a small fraction of a pitch?Robin Brown, the HSC groundsman and a former Zimbabwe opener from the eighties, was in charge of operations. Wisely he wanted to be sure it would work before risking the operation on the troublesome area in mid-pitch, so he tried it first behind the stumps and then in the middle of the pitch, but at the side. After all, the pitch here was much harder and drier than anything likely to be found on the golf course.When this was successful, the final operation on the damaged portion of the pitch was made. With a bit of cleaning up, the area was invisible and appeared to be thoroughly firm. Gundappa Viswanath, the match referee, gave the go-ahead, and play finally started two hours late. If any ball was pitched on that particular spot during the day, it was not obvious.This was a successful venture into unknown territory, and the Zimbabwe Cricket Union sighed a huge sigh of relief – if the match had had to be abandoned, the financial loss would have been appalling. But what if it had not been successful? There is nothing in the laws of cricket that would cover such a situation. But would the ICC approve a common-sense approach, should a small area of a cricket pitch be damaged beyond repair?Flexibility and common sense. These were exceptional circumstances at Harare, which fortunately had a happy ending. But it would be a shame should a whole Test match be abandoned due to an irreparable mishap to a tiny area of the pitch. It would also be annoying if the match referee had to waste time in lengthy communication with ICC headquarters to get permission to work around a unique situation that was not covered by the laws.Let us hope flexibility and common sense may be given free rein in unusual circumstances. Viswanath showed he possesses these by altering the time of the lunch interval today, a sacrilege that was strictly forbidden at Zimbabwe’s Lord’s Test this year, when after a late start half an hour’s play was possible before the players had to troop off so as to take lunch at the appointed time. And the world did not cave in at Harare.
After the blitz of Virender Sehwag on the second day of the Challenger Trophy, everything that followed was doomed to being termed ordinary. The clash between India A and India B certainly did not boast the same star studded cast and somewhat unsurprisingly did not serve up the same exciting fare. India B justified their name as such and failed to qualify for the final of this tournament, losing to India A by 59 runs in the final league encounter.On winning the toss and sticking India A in to bat at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, India B skipper Anil Kumble must have felt a tinge of disappointment as the opposition got off to a sedate yet very stable start. Sangram Singh, bowled off a no-ball and dropped once, went on to make 40 before the first wicket fell with 63 runs on the board. Connor Williams, the other opener looked happy just staying at the wicket and grafted, as is his wont. The left hander looked in no hurry at all and took more than his fair share of time to get his eye in.VVS Laxman, of whom a big score has been expected for a while, played a sizzling cameo, striking the ball cleanly and yet failed to make the most of a good batting wicket. After hitting four boundaries in the course of his 28 Laxman played down the wrong line to his opposite number Kumble and was clean bowled.With Rohan Gavaskar, who failed in the first game he played in this series, Williams continued to push the score on. In the 33rd over of the innings, Williams finally made a mistake, falling to the part time off-spin of Hrishikesh Kanitkar. Williams’ 73 (91 balls, 7 fours, 1 six) provided the India A team with a strong base to build on.And build they did in the form of Gavaskar and Yuvraj Singh. The two left-handers played briskly, hitting the ball over the infield with great regularity. Yuvraj Singh in particular was effective, getting good power behind his strokes. Both of them however fell before reaching their respective half centuries. Gavaskar made 45 while Yuvraj Singh fell 2 short of 50.Personal landmarks might have been missed, but the pair had played their parts admirably in the middle order. India A were able to post a healthy 289/7 in their allotted 50 overs.What made the India B chase specially fraught with danger was the fact that they had to make the required runs in 40 overs or less to take an extra bonus point and qualify for the final. In their anxiety to score at a fast pace the India B team lost opener Sridharan Sriram (2) in just the first over of the day when Ajit Agarkar had the left-hander caught behind. Dinesh Mongia, centurion in the last game, followed soon after, being needlessly run out. At 12/2 India B hard the worst possible start to their essay.Mohammad Kaif, who has impressed in this tournament played a spirited knock in the middle order but he must have known in the back of his mind that the game was over before he walked out to bat. Flicking and pulling with great comfort Kaif worked his way to 69 before he played one shot too many and became Sarandeep Singh’s first victim.Kaif certainly wasn’t Sarandeep’s last scalp. Perhaps spurred on by Harbhajan Singh’s lacklustre performance in the Challenger Trophy, Sarandeep tossed the ball up, gave it a good tweak and invited batsmen to go after him. In the circumstances they had no choice but to go for it and perish in the process.Kanitkar, a permanent fixture in all representative and selection matches, fell for 47 (63 balls, 3 fours). Vijay Bharadwaj, attempting to serve the selectors a reminder of his abilities showed good spirit, tonking 43 off just 28 balls but could not outwit Sarandeep Singh. Arjun Yadav (2) and Devendra Bundela (3) both rated as good prospects for the one-day game failed, completing Sarandeep Singh’s five-wicket bag. The young offie is now almost a certainty for the one-dayers against England, with a timely 5/57. What’s more, if his last over had not been thrashed for 13 by the lusty hitting of Ashish Nehra, his figures would have been far more respectable!Nehra provided some good comic relief, swatting the ball around for 23 at the end.By this stage, with the score on 191/7, India B were out of it. Ajit Agarkar (3/55) cleaned things up with some good straight fast bowling, putting an End to the India B innings on 230.India A, with this performance book themselves a spot in the final against India Seniors, to be played on Sunday.
As if to prove that the range of new bribery allegations against him have done little to alter the elegance of his batting, Mark Waugh (152) has slammed a defiant century to lead New South Wales to first innings points on day three of the Pura Cup clash with Tasmania in Hobart. Waugh led a fine middle and lower order performance from the Blues on a day when circumstances and conditions ran very firmly in the visitors’ favour.With the fourth century of the match, Waugh promptly dispelled any lingering rumours that he is unworthy of a place in the Test team that will tackle the touring West Indian side in a fortnight’s time. His timing was characteristically assured and his range of strokeplay a feature as he set about the business of transforming a tense battle for the first innings honours into a comfortable decision.Nonetheless, Waugh’s task – and that of his teammates – was not too taxing given the benign nature of the Bellerive Oval pitch and the horribly depleted state of the Tasmanian attack.After promising left armer Andrew Downton had taken his leave of absence from the match yesterday as a result of straining his intercostal muscle, the Tigers’ plight became even more grave when his fellow fast bowler Damien Wright succumbed to a damaged quadricep not long into the new day’s play. This left the locals needing to rely largely on veteran David Saker (1/97) and the unheralded Scott Kremerskothen (2/120) in the pace department. Saker had an imploring lbw appeal against Waugh (then on 24*) turned down early in the morning; Kremerskothen beat him on 40 with an inswinging yorker that shaved leg stump; and Dene Hills missed with a throw from cover that would have run him out with his total at 57. Otherwise, scares were few and far between.And just to compound the Tigers’ literal and metaphorical agony, Waugh was able to lead a brutal flurry of scoring with tailenders Don Nash (32) and Nathan Bracken (30) that saw the Blues extend their lead to as many as 102 runs. After spending more than half a hour in the nineties, Waugh smashed his next fifty runs from a mere twenty-six deliveries, leading a phenomenal display of hitting that only ended when the very occasional spin of Hills (2/20) drew two errant shots deep into the leg side field.Waugh was unavailable for comment after an innings which guided New South Wales to a total of 464 before Tasmania itself made batting look easy in reaching 1/119 by stumps. But rival skipper Jamie Cox paid testimony to the hand.”He played very well, hit some awesome shots. One hundred and fifty runs – you can’t buy them off the shelf,” said Cox.As for the fate of the match, though, the Tasmanian captain was less enthusiastic.”We were one hundred runs down at the start of the second innings and we’re two bowlers down. I don’t think that gives us any leeway at all. We owe it to ourselves to take something out of this game, and that appears as though it’s an honourable draw.”
Aston Villa have been pretty busy during the two previous transfer windows in terms of bringing new players in and moving some of their current ones out in the other direction.
With the next summer transfer window on the horizon and set to open for business at the end of the season, it seems as though the Midlands club could be heading towards a potential howler concerning one of their more recent recruits.
A recent report from Football Insider has claimed that fellow Premier League side Brighton & Hove Albion have identified Villa striker Danny Ings as a potential summer transfer target.
The Villa Park outfit signed the striker from Southampton back in the previous summer window in a deal worth a reported fee of £25m.
Since then, the Englishman has gone on to score five goals and provide five assists in 23 Premier League appearances, showing that he can be a useful attacking option for Steven Gerrard’s side despite not being consistent in terms of his goals.
Labelled as a “first-class” player regarding his movement on the pitch by Sky Sports pundit Clinton Morrison, Ings still has time in his debut season at Villa Park to add some more goals and assists to his tally to help the club end the campaign as strongly as possible.
Despite not being particularly consistent when it comes to finding the back of the net in a Villa shirt, if the club were to sell the striker to Brighton, a team that are currently only three points behind Gerrard’s side in the league table, and he then managed to become a regular goalscorer with the Seagulls, this would be a major howler for the club and Johan Lange given the hefty fee they shelled out for him.
It’s also safe to say that the 41-year-old Villa manager wouldn’t be too happy to see one of his attacking players, that is more established in the Premier League than others, join another top-flight club just a year into his current deal at Villa Park.
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Moving forward, if the former Saints star can get a good run of form under his belt between now and the end of the campaign with some more goals to his name, this could put to bed any rumours of a potential summer exit from the Midlands club and hope that he can have a more fruitful season in front of goal next time around.
In other news: NSWE had lucky AVFC escape on “complete” £82k-p/w dud whose value has collapsed £25.2m
Michael Neser is turning into an Ashes hero for Australia after admitting he started the summer unsure if he would ever play Test cricket again.Neser, 35, top-scored with a vital 35 from 49 balls when Australia were bowled out for just 152 on day one at the MCG. He then took 4 for 45 with the ball, nicking off Jacob Bethell, Joe Root and Ben Stokes to tear the heart and soul out of England as they were bowled out for just 110 on a stunning 20-wicket opening day.He had started the summer outside of Test calculations coming off a serious hamstring injury last year and was then not picked in Australia’s initial 15-man squad for the first Test in Perth, but was called in when Josh Hazlewood and Sean Abbott suffered injuries.Related
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He earned a recall for the pink-ball Test in Brisbane, where he took a maiden Test five-wicket haul on his home ground. However, he was squeezed out for the returning Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon in Adelaide.But with both men injured, he earned his fourth Test cap and his first red-ball Test at the MCG and was in shock after starring in front of a record crowd of 94,199.”I didn’t know if I was going to be playing for Australia again and to be in the position I am now, I’m very privileged,” Neser said. “It’s unreal. I dreamt of this as a kid. Every Boxing Day I would wake up early, and me and my brother would play back out at cricket for hours and come back in and watch cricket. The whole day just is cricket for us and to be part of it, it’s a dream come true. Gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.”Neser’s Sheffield Shield experience proved invaluable as the surface played very similarly to domestic seam-friendly MCG pitches in recent times. Neser’s experience for Queensland and for Australia A in the last two years saw him take an aggressive approach with the bat and a patient one with the ball.”The ball definitely nipped around a bit there with the new rock,” Neser said. “So it was just a matter of trying to find ways to put pressure back on their bowlers, and knowing that when we bowled, we had to just be patient and let the wicket do the work.”