Gary Kirsten, the newly appointed India coach, landed in Bangalore today for his first interaction with the players. Unperturbed by the crowd of reporters awaiting his arrival, he said it was great to be back in India and an honour to be chosen as the coach of the national team.Asked about his agenda during the visit, he said: “I’m going to meet the players and see how they play their cricket. I will also be taking inputs from the team’s support staff.”Earlier the Indian board secretary Niranjan Shah confirmed Kirsten will join as coach from March 1. “He will be briefly involved with the Test team as a consultant during the tour to Australia,” Shah said. Kirsten confirmed that he will be spending around 3-4 weeks with the team in Australia.Kirsten stressed the importance of the mental side of sport and is keen to have Paddy Upton, South Africa’s fitness trainer during the mid to late nineties and currently working at Kirsten’s academy as a mental conditioning coach.”Kirsten wants to have Upton in the support staff. But we have to discuss the issue with him once he is here but we don’t think he is required at the moment,” a top BCCI source told Cricinfo. It is learnt that the matter will come up for discussion in the Working Committee meeting in Mumbai on December 16.Kirsten will get an opportunity to watch the players in action when they take on Pakistan in the third and final Test which starts on Saturday.
Michael Vaughan, the England captain, will miss Friday’s CB Series match against Australia in Brisbane due to a torn left hamstring. Scans showed Vaughan had a grade one tear after injuring the leg while fielding in the three-wicket win over New Zealand in Hobart on Tuesday.Vaughan, who needed a runner during his innings of 17, will stay with the squad and an ECB spokesman said a decision on who will captain England will be made in due course. Andrew Flintoff, who led the team during the 5-0 Ashes loss, and Andrew Strauss, the struggling opener, are the two candidates for the position.Despite the decision to retain Vaughan, who will be reassessed over the next two days, England have called up Mal Loye, the Lancashire batsman. Loye was named in the 30-man preliminary World Cup squad this week and will join the squad in Brisbane on Wednesday night.
Kumar Sangakarra, the Man of the Match in Sri Lanka’s VB Series victory over South Africa yesterday, hopes to build on the win and dispel doubts about his team’s credibility.Speaking to BBC Sport, Sangakarra was relieved that Sri Lanka could get over South Africa. “It’s been a tough couple of months but it’s done us a world of good. It shows you need a lot of character to play this game,” he said. “You need to go through the tough times and keep yourselves together. Moments like these make it all worthwhile.”Sangakarra top-scored with 88 in a total of 282 for 6 as Sri Lanka bounced back from a woeful performance against Australia on Friday to record a 94-run win over South Africa. “The ball comes on at an even bounce here and there’s not much movement so what more can you ask for as a batsman?” Sangakarra said. “It was getting the basics right, doing our homework properly and getting prepared. Let the result take care of itself and just worry about what we can control.”Sri Lanka’s win over South Africa was only their third in 13 matches, but Sangakarra believed this run of bad form was no bad matter. “Ever since the 1996 World Cup [which Sri Lanka won] we have had a great record in one-dayers,” he said. “We owe a debt of gratitude to those players and it’s something we should be proud of. All the players should know their place in history and respect that.”Graeme Smith, South Africa’s captain, refused to use his side’s mounting injury toll as an excuse for a below-par showing. “The injury situation is definitely becoming a big irritation because it is very difficult to build any sort of momentum or continuity with players in and out of the side,” Smith said to .” But we have to deal with what we have got and today we just had bad basics from top to bottom. We let ourselves down in the opening overs with some ordinary bowling, and our fielding and batting wasn’t any better. But one bad performance doesn’t make a bad team and we can regroup and bounce back from this.”
ScorecardAt St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth the confident attacking tactics of the Eagles, Standard Bank Cup log leaders, again paid off as the Warriors ended 63 short of the 278-run target. The Eagles have now virtually secured themselves a home semi-final spot.Winning the toss on a good batting pitch and electing to bat first the Eagles needed just three solid partnerships to power their way to 277 for 5. The opening pair of Morne van Wyk and Jonathan Beukus, for the fifth time this season, passed the 50-mark. This was followed by the hard hitting of Davey Jacobs and Benjamin Hector, who put on 137. Jacobs was destructive in his undefeated 101 hitting nine boundaries and two sixes. Hector finished on 75 as he tried to muscle his fourth six over the ropes. Loots Bosman then hit 30 off 16 balls as he and Jacobs put on 50 off 22 balls in 14 minutes for the Eagles to end on a match winning 277 off 45 overs.Mornantau Hayward, slightly expensive, proved that he remains a wicket taker as he pocketed three of the five wickets to fall while Tyron Henderson put in a creditable 1 for 36 in his nine overs.Throughout their innings the Warriors struggled to maintain the required run-rate. After losing Dumisa Makalima for 12, Mark Bruyns (33) and Tyron Henderson (41) made a valiant attempt but both succumbed just after establishing themselves. Laden Gamiet had a little flurry, scoring 43, but it was all in vain as wickets kept on falling at regular intervals.Where the Eagles batting had set up the win, the bowlers finished it off with excellent disciplined bowling, as they continued to build the pressure on the batsmen. Deon Kruis was the most successful, taking 3 for 36, as the Warriors crumbled to 215 all out.
Grant Flower, who broke his thumb during a Logan Cup match last weekend, has been ruled out of Zimbabwe’s forthcoming tour to Australia. This means that, for the first time in 15 years, the name `Flower’ will not be on a full Zimbabwe team scoresheet.Flower, 32, was fielding in the slips for champions Mashonaland against Manicaland at Mutare Sports Club last week, when he was hit on the right thumb while attempting a tough catch. "It was very fast and low, and the ball swung at the last moment, causing me to misjudge it," said Flower, who left the field immediately in considerable pain.Speaking from Harare, Flower said he had just undergone an operation to insert a wire into the thumb, which would be in plaster for six weeks. He is hoping to be fit to play again when West Indies arrive in Zimbabwe at the beginning of November, but it will be a race against time.Flower is Zimbabwe’s most experienced player, with 65 Tests and 209 one-day internationals behind him, and on the recent tour to England he was the only member of the side to have scored a Test century.He has never quite regained the brilliant form and confidence he showedabout six years ago, when he looked on the verge of becoming a trulyworld-class player, but he remains totally committed to Zimbabwe cricket, and to lose him for Zimbabwe’s first Test-playing tour of Australia is a serious blow to a team that will, in any case, be looking down the barrel.The team to tour Australia is due to be announced on Wednesday morning. It is unlikely that Zimbabwe will travel to Australia without any Test centurion in their ranks, as Craig Wishart and Trevor Gripper, who were controversially omitted from the England tour, have both shown superb early-season form. Although both men scored their Test centuries against the inexperienced Bangladeshis, the omission of either would be even more controversial now.
It is highly encouraging to hear the chairman of New Zealand’s selection panel Sir Richard Hadlee say that there will be no lessening of endeavour as New Zealand goes from the heights of Test combat in Australia to playing the minnows of the game Bangladesh.The two Test series which starts in Hamilton on Tuesday next week will not be the place for any complacency as far as Hadlee is concerned.This is not the time to lose sight of what has been achieved against the might of Australia.Nor should it be forgotten that New Zealand has been in exactly the position Bangladesh finds itself in now.For 25 years, after its introduction to Test status in 1929/30, New Zealand roamed the cricket world without a victory, suffering some harsh and heavy defeats.All have been part of the structure on which the game is now built and while the cricket world has changed, the ultimate test of victory taken as often as possible is still the basic requirement by which all sides are judged.Rain may have been a constant companion for cricketers this summer but these are the misfortunes of the game, just as they were in 1958 when John Reid’s team ran into a miserably wet summer in England, and which saw them well and truly beaten.For all its success in the last 30 years, New Zealand still hasn’t recorded 50 Test victories out of 291 matches played.It is sitting on 47, however, and it should be remembered that its last victory, against Pakistan in Hamilton by an innings and 185 runs was its biggest winning margin.There are incentives aplenty to succeed, and succeed well, against Bangladesh.Firstly, there is the obvious chance to cash in on the developments in Australia, personally, as a team and with the New Zealand public.Secondly, there is the knowledge that victory over Bangladesh, and a subsequent series win over England, will lift New Zealand into third ranking among the Test playing nations, somewhere it has never been before.And thirdly, there is the chance for individuals to benefit from a good all-round team performance by lifting their individual rankings on the world lists.The Australian deeds have set a high and demanding standard, and that plateau should not be the end of New Zealand’s climb.
Dane Paterson, the Cobras quick, has been called up as an emergency replacement for Wayne Parnell in the South Africa A squad that will take on England in a three-day warm-up match in Pietermaritzburg starting on Sunday. Parnell has picked up a foot injury and will not be able to take part in the match.The news will come as a blow to Parnell’s long-form ambitions and hopes of an international recall after he was left out of South Africa’s squad to tour India in October and November. Parnell, who also plays for the Cobras, has been opening the bowling in the recently completed 20-over competition and twice opened the batting as well. He was being primed for a comeback after last playing a Test in March 2014 and took part in the South Africa A side’s tour of India.Paterson was also part of that A series and opened the bowling with Parnell. The visit was tough on both of them – they only picked up a wicket apiece – but Paterson has been on the selectors’ radar since he topped the first-class bowling charts last season. In nine matches for the Cobras, Paterson took 42 wickets at 22.54 to take his overall tally to 228 first-class wickets at an average of 21.81.He will bowl alongside Marchant de Lange, who is challenging for a Test spot, and Chris Morris in a strong A side. South Africa have named the two wicketkeeper batsmen competing for a place in the senior side, Dane Vilas and Quinton de Kock, although neither of them is part of the squad for the first two Tests, and also included left-hander Rilee Rossouw, who has recovered from a stress fracture and is the reserve batsman in the Test squad.South Africa have received some good news ahead of the Test series against England, with Dale Steyn passing a fitness test on the groin injury he suffered in India last month.
Wolves took a big knock to their hopes for securing European football by the end of the season after losing their midweek Premier League match against Arsenal thanks to a crushing last-gasp winner from Alexandre Lacazette.
As well as the disappointing result, Bruno Lage’s side were also struck with an injury blow in the second half when full-back Nelson Semedo was forced off with what Tim Spiers identified on Twitter as a leg issue.
Opportunity knocks
Assuming the injury the Portuguese defender picked up is a serious one that could force him to miss the Old Gold’s next game against West Ham United at the weekend, this could pave the way for one figure in Lage’s squad to come in and show what he’s capable of.
With just six league appearances and two starts under his belt this season, Ki-Jana Hoever has found regular game time hard to come by in this campaign, mainly as a result of Semedo’s prominence in the team.
Even though the 20-year-old hasn’t been in Wolves’ two previous matchday squads and Lage chose to pick Jonny Otto to replace the injured full-back against Arsenal last night, the 45-year-old should definitely consider bringing the Dutchman back into the frame, especially if Semedo isn’t available at the weekend.
Also, having made his return to action in midweek after a long-term knee injury, Jonny may not be the best option to start against the Hammers on Sunday compared to Hoever.
The former Liverpool youngster’s previous appearance in the league saw him start and play the full 90 minutes in their 0-0 draw against Chelsea back in December where he managed to show how capable he is on the ball by completing 23 passes and two successful dribbles.
He also managed to show his defensive talents by racking up four clearances, three interceptions and three tackles as well as winning five out of the nine duels he was involved in, ultimately earning himself a solid overall match rating of 7.1/10 from SofaScore.
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Labelled as a player that can be “aggressive” on the pitch by Lage, Hoever may not have a better opportunity to really stake a claim to be in the team if Semedo can’t play and should therefore grab any chance he gets with both hands and make the most of it.
In other news: Forget Hwang: “Phenomenal” Wolves gem who won 77% duels was Lage’s shining light v AFC – opinion
On a rain-hit day, SSC and Moors qualified to meet in the Tier A final, beating fancied Bloomfield and Colts in the semi-finals. Both matches never went the full distance and were affected by bad weather.At the R Premadasa Stadium, in a match reduced to 41 overs-a-side, SSC made the highest total of the day reaching 174 for 9 against Colts, whose target was revised to 117 from 21.5 overs under the D/L rule. But Colts could manage only 93 for 6 in the allotted overs and lost by 24 runs. Former Sri Lanka fast bowler Nuwan Kulasekera picked up four wickets, but finished on the losing side. However another former fast bowler Nuwan Zoysa along with Shalika Karunanayake shared the six Colts wickets to fall between them.In the other semi-final at the Nondescripts Cricket Club, reduced to 45 overs-a-side, Moors put up a fighting display to defeat Bloomfield by four wickets. The match-winner for Moors was former Sri Lanka left-arm spinner Rangana Herath for his all-round efforts. He captured three wickets – including that of top scorer in the match Saman Jayantha for 45 – and shared an unbeaten seventh-wicket stand of 26 with wicketkeeper Dasun Randuka to help steer the side to victory after they slipped to 105 for 6 chasing 131. Bloomfield used eight bowlers in a bid to prevent Moors from topping their total. The two sides meet in the final on December 23 at the SSC grounds.The semi-finals of Tier B, at Bloomfield were both washed out without a ball bowled. One of the finalists, at Bloomfield, was decided by a toss of a coin because the two semi-finalists Burgher Recreation Club and Army SC were equal on the number of wins and also on the number of bonus points in the preliminary round. Therefore the third option to decide the winner was the toss. Burgher called correctly and went through to the final. Deciding the other finalist, at Colts, was straightforward as Lankan CC had more wins than Panadura SC in the preliminary round and sailed through. Burgher and Lankan play their Tier B final on December 21 at the NCC grounds.
Dayle Hadlee, the former New Zealand fast bowler and brother of legendary allrounder Richard Hadlee, has been appointed as New Zealand Cricket’s (NZC) head bowling coach. Hadlee had previously been in charge of New Zealand Cricket Academy programme and was a former coach of the New Zealand Under-19 side.”This is a new position that provides specialist bowling coaching, administration, direction and leadership within the NZC high performance programme,” Ric Charlesworth, the NZC High Performance Manager said. “Dayle will be responsible for setting up a network of specialist bowling coaches who will be aligned with the best talent throughout the country.”Charlesworth also announced the appointment of Steve Jenkin as NZC’s case manager. Jenkin is currently the coach of the White Ferns, New Zealand women’s team, and Charlesworth added that Jenkins would continue his existing role as coach, in addition to overseeing player development plans for select athletes in the NZC high performance programme.