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It took Surrey six games last season to record their first Championship victory. When Northamptonshire slid to 163 for 7 on the second day at The Oval, Surrey looked on the way to winning at the first attempt this time round but Andrew Hall and James Midd

Sahil Dutta at the Oval09-Apr-2011Stumps
Scorecard
It took Surrey six games to record their first Championship victory last season. When Northamptonshire slid to 163 for 7 on the second day at The Oval, Surrey looked on the way to winning at the first attempt this time round but Andrew Hall and James Middlebrook fought back with an unbroken 120-run stand to leave the game intriguingly poised.After the first day rattled along, proceedings were more meandering on another heady afternoon of London sunshine. The patience on show from both sides was in stark contrast to the flamboyance of Surrey’s batsmen but Tim Linley’s four wickets and Northamptonshire’s eighth-wicket pair demonstrated all the merits that dour discipline can still have.Linley found the perfect rhythm early on with his unflashy wicket-to-wicket medium-pace, barely venturing from back-of-a-length on off stump, to ensure Surrey might yet come away with a first-innings lead.It was his morning spell that set the tone. Nine splice-jarring overs for 11 runs and the key scalp of Steven Peters, pinned on the crease lbw for 19. Though Yasir Arafat was below his best Stuart Meaker provided useful support and – but for overstepping – would have had Rob White, who eventually top-scored with 78, out for a duck. A ball that nipped back on a lowish-surface struck White plush in front only for the no-ball to be signalled. Having grimly resisted all morning, Mal Loye suddenly ran down on at Gareth Batty on the stroke of lunch, only for a quicker ball to slide past him onto middle stump.After lunch, White made use of his no-ball reprieve by picking off the few loose offerings and when he swung an Arafat half-tracker over deep square to bring up his half-century Northamptonshire were looking comfortable. Linley then returned, this time from the Vauxhall End, with another nip-backer which, thanks to Alex Wakely’s generous leave, uprooted off stump.That sparked a mini-collapse as Northamptonshire lost three further wickets for six runs in 15 balls. First Meaker found David Sales’ edge, to make it four ducks in five Championship innings against Surrey, then Niall O’Brien squeezed a full, wide Linley delivery low to Steve Davies to fall for a duck. O’Brien felt he had jammed into the ground though and was disgusted with the decision.Chaminda Vaas fell soon after, missing an ill-advised and ambitious sweep to give Batty a second wicket and leave Northants wobbling at 163 for 7.It needed captain Hall to shore his side up. Together with Middlebrook he scrapped in the lengthening shadows and made use of a tiring attack. Hall and his Surrey counterpart, Rory Hamilton-Brown, could hardly appear more contrasting but his rugged, sensible 55 not out was every bit as crucial to Northamptonshire’s innings as Hamilton-Brown’s polished 74 was to Surrey’s.Middlebrook, ending the day unbeaten on 49, was equally accomplished and the pair batted through the entire evening session to surpass Rob Bailey and Paul Taylor’s Northamptonshire record for the highest eighth-wicket stand against Surrey. With the pitch dusting anything around 300 will be difficult to chase on the final day which leaves the game resting on Surrey’s inconsistent batsmen on day three.

Mark Pennell at Canterbury15-Sep-2011
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Glamorgan wrapped up an eight-wicket success over Kent with a sessionto spare to secure their second Championship away win of theseason, but this time under the floodlights at Canterbury.Chasing 129 for victory in this first championship game to be playedwith a pink ball and as a day/night fixture, Glamorgan sailed tovictory courtesy of skipper Alviro Petersen with an unbeaten 70 from 54balls and an equally brisk19 from as many deliveries from first-inning top scorer Stewart Walters.The visitors lost Gareth Rees to a slip catch by Alex Blake with 19 onthe board then Will Bragg (30) was comprehensively bowled by MattColes. It proved to be Kent’s final success of the game, however, as Waltersand Petersen then combined to add the 34 runs required for acomprehensive and deserved win.Kent had started the day on 148 for 5 and still trailing by 38 interms of the game overall, but the pink ball, the floodlights and theearly-evening dew were all unknown quantities. In many ways the result rested with Kent’s player-of-the-season and No6 bat Azhar Mahmood who, after resuming on 31, might have batted the Welsh out of the equation.As it was Mahmood plundered seven fours and a six on his way to an eye-catching 70 before he toe-ended an attempted cut shot to the keeperagainst the occasional military-medium seam bowling of Will Bragg. Itwas Bragg’s maiden first class wicket.Though Kent’s acting captain Geraint Jones, playing against his firstcounty, held down one end for a stoic 79 in almost three hours, wicketsfell cheaply around him as Kent finally succumbed for 312.Veteran spinner Dean Cosker was easily the pick of the visiting attackwith 4 for 106 as Glamorgan went home with a win leaving Kent tocontemplate their worst championship finish since 1995.

Suresh Raina, who is India’s captain for the limited-overs leg of the tour of West Indies, admitted there will be huge expectations from his team despite the absence of some big names, and has said he was looking forward to the challenge

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Jun-2011Suresh Raina, who is India’s captain for the limited-overs leg of the tour of West Indies, has admitted there will be huge expectations from his team despite the absence of some big names.”[Being captain] is a great challenge to me and I’m really looking forward to that,” Raina said on the team’s arrival in the Caribbean. “We have good players who want to do well in this series. They have done well in first-class cricket and the IPL or in the World Cup team.”For the ODIs, India will be without regular captain MS Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, and Zaheer Khan, who have been rested, while Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag miss out through injury or illness. Dhoni and Zaheer are set to return for the Tests, but the other seniors are set to miss the entire series. The tour will also be Duncan Fletcher’s first assignment with the Indian side.Raina said the senior players “deserved a break” and was hopeful the youngsters in the squad would make the most of the opportunity. “We have a young team here and they are focussed on doing well for India and I am excited to see how they perform over the next few weeks.”West Indies lost their recent ODI series to Pakistan and will once again be without opener Chris Gayle, who was the top run-getter in the IPL, but has been left out for the first two ODIs. When India last played ODIs in the West Indies in 2006, they lost 1-4. The two teams subsequently met in the World Cup earlier this year when India won by 80 runs in Chennai, en route to their tournament triumph. Raina, however, said India would not be complacent. “The West Indies team has been playing good cricket for the past few months and we are not going to take them lightly,” he said.The only Twenty20 game will be played on Saturday at Port of Spain, while the five-match ODI series begins at the same venue on June 6.Meanwhile West Indies beat the High Performance Centre (HPC) team by 11 runs in a practice Twenty20 game in Couva on Thursday. Batting first, West Indies were restricted to 145 in their 20 overs on what appeared to be a good batting pitch. Opener Lendl Simmons carried on his good form from the Pakistan series, top-scoring with a rapid 43, while Danza Hyatt made 22.Uncapped left-arm seamer Krishmar Santokie, who has been picked in the Twenty20 squad, and Christopher Barnwell shared two wickets apiece as HPC were restricted to 134 for 6. Wicketkeeper-batsman Shane Dowrich was their mainstay with 52 off 41 balls.

The IPL has pruned its auction list for the next season from a preliminary 416 to 350, and also increased the base prices of Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Dec-2010The IPL has pruned its auction list for the next season from a preliminary 416 to 350, and also increased the base prices of Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman. All 80 players named in the top three price bands of the preliminary list have retained their place in the final list for the auction, which is scheduled to be held in Bangalore on January 8 and 9.In the preliminary list, 21 players including former West Indies batsman Brian Lara had been in the highest bracket of US$400,000, a bunch that Ganguly has now joined after his reserve price was raised from $200,000. Laxman, who has had a vintage year in Tests in 2010, also had his base price bumped up from $200,000 to $300,000.Ganguly and Laxman are not the first players to modify their reserve prices. Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble had earlier changed their base price from $200,000 to $400,000. An IPL official confirmed that the players had the right to choose their reserve price. “This has been the practice in every IPL,” said the league’s chief operating officer Sundar Raman, “we merely set the bands of reserve prices.”But one of the franchise officials put a different spin to Ganguly increasing his base price. “Ganguly might have understood that there are not many franchises willing to even consider him. But to my knowledge one of the franchises has already assured him that they will buy him out. So, if there is only one franchise willing to buy but assuring him why not hike his price then. Probably that made Ganguly hike his price.”Previous IPL auctions have shown that base prices are not indicative of the final amount for which the franchise will buy the player. For example, at the first auction in 2008, Ishant Sharma was listed at $150,000 but was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders at $950,000, while Hayden was listed at $250,000 and was bought by Chennai Super Kings at $375,000. “With the requirement of each franchise minimal, virtually more than half of these players in the auction list will not attract any attention,” an IPL official said.Only 12 players were retained by their teams ahead of the auction, with three of the eight existing franchises – Kings XI Punjab, Deccan Chargers and Kolkata – choosing to release all their players into the auction pool. As a result, those three franchises will have the entire complement of $9 million at their disposal for the auction, while the other teams will begin the auctions with purses reduced in accordance to the number of players they retained. Chennai and Mumbai Indians, who retained the maximum allowed four players each, will go into the auction with only $4.5 million to spend.The season is set to go ahead with 10 teams and 74 matches as originally planned, since the BCCI is not likely to move the Supreme Court after it lost its High Court appeals against the stay orders granted to the termination of Punjab and Rajasthan.

Frank Lampard could be heading for his first big Everton disaster in the coming months, and we’re not talking about the immediate threat of relegation.

It’s no secret that the Toffees have had a horrendous season, and even remaining in the Premier League for next year surely won’t appease the fans as urgent change is needed on the pitch to get them back to where they belong.

With Lampard looking to strengthen, the onus might be on him to focus more on the players whose contracts are due to expire, with Yerry Mina being the obvious choice to tie down to a long-term deal.

The £18m-rated centre back has only played 12 times in the league this season, but Everton have lost just four of those matches, compared to the other 15 defeats without his presence in the team.

The Colombian has had his injury problems, but whenever he has featured, he has largely been excellent, with former Toffees player Don Hutchison describing him as a “rock” against Chelsea in the 1-0 victory last weekend.

Over his 12 league matches this season, Mina is in the 90th percentile for both blocks (2.20 per 90) and aerials won (3.95) among positional peers in Europe’s top five leagues, showing just how much of an asset he has been during his limited game-time in the current campaign.

His performance against Chelsea gathered further praise from journalist Patrick Boyland, who claimed that Mina was “a joy to behold”, and Lampard should be putting plans in motion to keep the Colombian at the club on a long-term deal.

This could, of course, depend on Everton’s Premier League status next season. Mina should be playing at a higher level, and relegation to the Championship could mean the end for the 27-year-old as an Everton player.

AND in other news, Lampard must brutally axe “clumsy” £120k-p/w Everton dud, he’s bleeding them dry

Everton’s battle to retain their Premier League status continues this weekend as Frank Lampard takes on his former club Chelsea at Goodison Park, with the hosts in desperate need of a positive result.

At present, the Toffees find themselves in 18th place and two points adrift from safety, albeit with a game in hand on relegation contenders Burnley, having registered their 19th loss of the campaign away to Liverpool in the Merseyside derby last Sunday.

While Lampard insisted that his side produced a “good performance” and were denied a clear penalty against Jurgen Klopp’s title-chasing outfit, the 43-year-old will know that it is only points on the board which will help spare his team from a first relegation since 1951.

In order to bounce book on Sunday against Chelsea, one man who needs to give way is Brazilian midfielder Allan, with the former Napoli star having endured a torrid time of it against the Reds last time out.

Allan must be axed

Although dominating the ball clearly wasn’t the name of the game for the visitors – as their opponents finished the clash with a Premier League record of 85% possession – they certainly weren’t helped out by the performance of the £16.2m-rated midfielder, who achieved just a solitary successful pass in his 73-minute display.

Even if it was not in his remit to dictate the tempo of the match, the 31-year-old still failed spectacularly in his other duties, winning just one duel throughout the game prior to his substitution, as the away side hardly laid a glove on Thiago Alcantara, who pulled the strings for the opposition.

Such a shoddy performance is not a one-off for the Everton man this season, either. He has also been dribbled past 2.7 times per game in his 26 top-flight outings and has lost 146 duels in total, showcasing his lightweight nature in the centre of the park.

Former Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp echoed that view earlier this season, as he suggested that the 31-year-old simply “can’t run” and that the club have “no legs in midfield”, with that potentially a key factor in their struggles so far this term.

Football Insider pundit Paul Robinson previously suggested that the club has “too much quality” to go down, but with games quickly running out, they simply cannot afford to be carrying any passengers, particularly against Thomas Tuchel’s side this weekend.

Lampard needs to be ruthless on Sunday and axe the diminutive Allan, or else risk witnessing another horror show from the £120k-per-week midfielder.

In other news, Cost £25m, now worth just £608k: Koeman made huge blunder on “dynamic” Everton flop

Rahul Dravid has said he wishes he had reviewed the decision that ruled him out caught-behind in the second innings of the Edgbaston Test, and that it was confusion that led him to walk off without contesting

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Aug-2011Rahul Dravid has said he was too confused in the heat of the moment to contest the decision that ruled him caught behind off James Anderson in the second innings at Edgbaston. Replays showed he hit his shoelace and not the ball and Dravid said later that he wished he had asked for a review.Dravid appeared to have nicked a delivery from Anderson in the 16th over and was given out, but he was not convinced by the decision. After a word with the non-striker Sachin Tendulkar, however, Dravid decided against using a review.”My first instinct was that I had not hit it,” Dravid told the . “But there was a loud noise, and I couldn’t figure out where it had come from. I knew I hadn’t hit the ground, or my pad, or my shoe, so it confused me as to where the noise had come from. But I didn’t think I had touched it. So I asked my partner and he said there was a big noise. So I had Simon Taufel, one of the best umpires in the world, ruling me out, my partner saying it was out and I myself had heard the noise. I thought maybe it was just one of those instances where I hadn’t felt the edge.”As soon as I got back to the dressing room I told the guys I had to see the replay. I wanted to know where I had touched it [the ball]. I could never have imagined it was a shoelace. It was disappointing because I’ve been batting well and if I had batted longer with Sachin, who played well in that innings, and if we had seen off Anderson’s spell before lunch, we could have at least put up a bigger fight.”It was an odd sequence of play, with the dismissal preceded by Dravid running off the field in between overs. “I rushed off the field because my bladder was full and I wanted to relieve myself. It is an uncomfortable feeling to bat with a full bladder, so I did not want it on my mind.”Dravid has been India’s most successful batsman on a dismal tour of England. After he fell at Edgbaston, the rest of the line-up offered little resistance and India slumped to their third-biggest defeat in Tests. The result meant England replaced India as No. 1 in the ICC’s Test rankings.”It’s been a hard series for a combination of reasons. The pitches have been conducive to good swing bowling, and also the quality of the England bowling has been superb,” Dravid said. “Their seamers have bowled beautiful lengths, and have pitched the ball up. We expected England to be good in this series, but we expected ourselves to be better.”While the rest of India’s batsmen, including Tendulkar and VVS Laxman, struggled to deal with the conditions and England’s bowling, Dravid managed two centuries in six innings. He said there had been a change in his mental approach to the game since his early years.”Early in my career, I used to try to block out thoughts while I was batting and that was very tiring. Now I let my mind wander a bit. I recognise that it is wandering and that helps bring me back to reality. I take a couple of deep breaths and that gets me focussed.”While Dravid heaped praise on England, he pointed out they still had to win in India. “You have to do well in conditions in which you haven’t done well. England haven’t won in India for 27 years, so they have to do that. They’ve got the team and the skills to do it but it still needs to be done. Hopefully we can stop them from doing that.” England will play four Tests in India at the end of 2012.Down 0-3 in the series, India go into the fourth Test at The Oval with little to play for. Dravid, though, said they were also thinking about climbing back to the No. 1 spot. “Of course we want to play for pride and to show people what we can do. But also the goal now is to get back to No. 1 and for that every Test matters.”

England Lions pair James Taylor and James Harris were the stars of the third day of Glamorgan’s County Championship Division Two clash against Leicestershire at Colwyn Bay

19-Aug-2011
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England Lions pair James Taylor and James Harris were the stars of the third day of Glamorgan’s County Championship Division Two clash against Leicestershire at Colwyn Bay.Taylor scored 127 not out, his first Championship century of the season, while Harris claimed 5 wickets for 45 runs from 27 overs – this third five-wicket haul of the summer. Leicestershire declared their first innings on 309 for 7 in a bid to force a positive result. And with an 83-run first innings advantage Glamorgan finished their second innings on 146 for 4 – an overall lead of 229.Glamorgan will probably leave Leicestershire a chase of something in the region of 320-330 runs from 60-70 overs. Leicestershire had resumed the third morning on 140 for 4 requiring a further 103 to avoid the follow-on.In a morning session relatively free of incident, Glamorgan managed to take just the one wicket when Harris claimed his fourth wicket accounting for Wayne White – who had reached his 50 from 80 balls. When Paul Dixey joined Taylor the east Midlands county still wanted 82 to save the the follow-on.Taylor had been very watchful throughout his innings until on 72 he played his first shot in anger -driving Robert Croft for six over long-on, a shot which should have been caught by Will Owen on the boundary but it went through his hands. Dixey went to his 50 from 95 balls, but in the next over he edged Harris into Wallace’s gloves to give the seamer his fifth victim – his third five-wicket haul of the summer.Taylor went to his first Championship century of the season. It was a marathon effort taking six hours 21 minutes. He faced 255 balls. Just before the declaration Nick James took his first Championship scalp with his second ball, bowling Jigar Naik.After Taylor saw Leicestershire to their third batting point Hoggard declared. Either side of tea Glamorgan lost a wicket – Petersen edged an attempted cut behind off Buck. From 25 for one the home side slumped to 29 for two when Rees was caught down the leg-side in the first over after tea off White.Will Bragg and Stewart Walters steadied the Glamorgan ship in a third wicket partnership of 76 to take the overall lead to 159 before Walters chipped off spinner Naik to midwicket. James became Naik’s second wicket, trapped lbw, before Bragg reached his half-century from 98 balls just before the close.

Kane Williamson and Hamish Bennett, two uncapped players, have been included in New Zealand’s Test squad for the three-match tour of India beginning in Ahmedabad on November 4

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Oct-2010New Zealand batsman Kane Williamson and fast bowlers Hamish Bennett and Andy McKay, three uncapped players, have been included in the Test squad for the three-match tour of India beginning in Ahmedabad on November 4. The 15-man team also includes batsman Martin Guptill, who was in Zimbabwe with the New Zealand A team while the national side was being drubbed 4-0 in an ODI series in Bangladesh.”Kane Williamson is an impressive young talent and his game continues to improve with his involvement in the New Zealand team, while Bennett did everything asked of him on the recent tour of Bangladesh and offers the side a genuine pace option,” New Zealand coach and selector Mark Greatbatch said.Williamson was one batsman to emerge with any credit from New Zealand’s disastrous trip to Bangladesh, scoring his maiden ODI century in one of the defeats. Bennett picked up three wickets at 24.33 apiece in the two matches he played. Guptill as well as five other players – Brent Arnel, Chris Martin, Tim McIntosh, Gareth Hopkins and Jeetan Patel – will travel to India from Zimbabwe, where they have been playing four-day matches for New Zealand A.”The group of players coming from Zimbabwe have had the ideal preparation with three hard-fought matches in difficult conditions,” Greatbatch said. “The rest of the squad have been training hard and are keen to prove that they are better that the recent performances in Bangladesh.”The tour of India, the No. 1 ranked Test side, will be a testing one for New Zealand, especially after their disheartening performances in the slow and spinner-friendly conditions in Bangladesh. “We are well aware that we are recent performances are not up to scratch and we need to improve if we are to compete with a very strong Indian side – the team is determined to do so,” Greatbatch said. “Players outside the 15 will continue to be considered and we will closely monitor performances in the Plunket Shield. The door has not closed for any player.”New Zealand’s previous Test series was at home against Australia in March 2010. Three players – Mathew Sinclair, Peter Ingram, and James Franklin – were cut from the squad for that series.Squad: Daniel Vettori (capt), Brent Arnel, Hamish Bennett, Martin Guptill, Gareth Hopkins, Chris Martin, Brendon McCullum, Tim McIntosh, Andy McKay, Jeetan Patel, Jesse Ryder, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, BJ Watling, Kane Williamson.

Antonio Conte’s Tottenham Hotspur side will be looking to bounce back from their disappointing 1-0 defeat to Brighton as they take on Brentford today.

Spurs take on the Bees in the evening kick-off in the Premier League as they continue their march towards sealing a top-four finish in the division.

They are currently above their rivals Arsenal on goal difference and three points clear of sixth-placed Manchester United, as Conte has his team sitting in fourth in the table as it stands.

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The Italian head coach may look to freshen his side up after their loss to Graham Potter’s men and one player he must finally unleash from the start is Ryan Sessegnon at wing-back.

Sergio Reguilon endured a rough afternoon against Brighton and could do with a match on the sidelines. As per SofaScore, he only completed 63% of his attempted passes, failed with 100% of his dribbles and only made one tackle throughout the match – failing to make a single interception or clearance.

This suggests that it could be time for Conte to switch it up at the back and unleash Sessegnon after over a month out through injury.

Prior to his setback against Everton, the 21-year-old was starting to shine on the left. Against Burnley, he recorded a SofaScore rating of 6.9 as he completed 100% of his dribbles, 91% of his passes and created one chance. He also made two tackles, two clearances and one interception as he showed that he can impress at both ends of the pitch.

Sessegnon carried that form over into his next game as he started against Leeds. As per SofaScore, he completed 81% of his passes and created two chances, with one resulting in him recording an assist, whilst he also made two interceptions and one tackle.

The dynamo was once dubbed a “big talent” by former Fulham teammate Stefan Johansen and Jose Mourinho previously called him “absolutely fantastic” as he compared him with Ashley Cole. This shows how highly he has been rated in the past and that is why Spurs must throw him another bone in the Premier League this week.

Therefore, he must be unleashed from the start at wing-back in order to give him the chance to show that he can be an important player for the team, as he did against Burnley and Leeds. It will allow Conte to rest Reguilon and avoid overplaying the Spaniard, whilst also keeping Sessegnon fresh and match fit.

AND in other news: Huge boost: Spurs handed “fresh” injury lift ahead of Bees, supporters will be buzzing