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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

19-Aug-2011
Scorecard
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.

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.

Darren Stevens took career-best match figures of 11 for 70 as Kent swept aside Surrey in three days to win their Division Two clash by 265 runs

12-Aug-2011
Scorecard
Darren Stevens took career-best match figures of 11 for 70 as a Kent side, inspired by a backs-to-the-wall, unbeaten century by their captain Rob Key, swept aside Surrey in three days to win their Division Two clash by 265 runs. Facing a mammoth target of 370 for victory, Surrey capitulated inside two hours for a paltry 104 – their worst championship total in a decade – to lose with almost four sessions of the game remaining.Surrey’s demise started as early as the third ball of their second innings when Stevens, Kent’s first-innings hero with career-best figures of 7 for 21 – trimmed the off stump of left-hander Steve Davies with a sublime away-swinger.In poor light Mark Ramprakash shuffled hesitantly forward to a full ball from Matt Coles that plucked out the off stump to spark a dramatic collapse that saw the visitors lose their last nine wickets for 78 runs.Zander de Bruyn became one of eight Surrey batsmen to record a duck in the match when he edged behind off Stevens, who then had Surrey top-scorer Rory Hamilton-Brown (40) caught at third slip at the third attempt by counterpart Rob Key. That gave Stevens his first ever 10-wicket match haul.Jason Roy miscued to mid-off against the same bowler leaving James Tredwell to run through the tail on a crumbling surface with a season’s best haul of 5 for 35.Earlier, Kent batted for the first 24 overs of day three in adding 63 to an already impressive 300-plus lead. Key carried his bat for the first time in four years to score a stoic, unbeaten 110 from 202 balls – his 20th century for Kent at the St Lawrence ground.Backed up by the tailenders and last man Simon Cook in particular, Key’s century included only five fours and came off 192 balls. The former England right-hander went 33 overs without posting a boundary yet his innings, coupled with the bowling of Stevens, ensured that Kent secured their fourth win of the campaign to bank 21 points to Surrey’s three.The only bright moment of a dire game for Surrey came when their doughty right-arm seam-bowler Tim Linley dismissed Kent tailender Adam Ball to secure his 50th championship scalp of the summer. Otherwise, these were three days Surrey will quickly want to forget.Key was the only player of the game to pass 50 as Kent took big strides in staving off the championship wooden spoon while also leaving Surrey’s promotion hopes in tatters.

Sri Lanka will have to adjust to the Test format and the English conditions if they are to challenge England this summer, Marvan Atapattu, their batting coach has said

ESPNcricinfo staff10-May-2011Sri Lanka’s batting coach Marvan Atapattu has said that the side will have to adjust to the Test format and the English conditions if they are to challenge England this summer.”The biggest challenge is to adjust to English conditions,” he said prior to the team’s departure for the two-month tour. “We are playing a Test series after a gap of a few months [Sri Lanka’s last Test was in the rain-affected series against West Indies in November-December 2010]. Winning the Test series in England is our aim.”A [Test] win will make it easier for our preparation work for the one-day and T20 games [that follow].”The squad left without newly appointed captain Tillakaratne Dilshan, and former captains Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, as the players are on IPL duty. While Dilshan will join the squad ahead of their first practice game – against Middlesex between May 14 and 16 – the other two seniors will join the squad along with Dilhara Fernando, Thisara Perera and Suraj Randiv, in time for the second practice game on May 18.Another notable absence in the squad leaving for England was Muttiah Muralitharan, who retired from international cricket at the end of the World Cup. While Sri Lanka are yet to win a Test series in England, Muralitharan has featured in some of their better performances there, picking up 16 wickets to help them win a one-off Test at The Oval in 1998, and eight wickets to win a Test at Trent Bridge in 2006 to draw a series.Downplaying Muralitharan’s absence, Atapattu said the tour provided a chance for fringe players like Farveez Maharoof and Kaushal Silva – who have been brought in for the first practice game as cover for the absent players – to prove their credentials.

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.

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

Persistent rain allowed only 4.2 overs of play in the second one-dayer between Pakistan and New Zealand

The Bulletin by Siddarth Ravindran25-Jan-2011
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Queenstown is the place for adrenaline-junkies but there was little excitement on Wednesday as persistent rain allowed only 4.2 overs of play in the second one-dayer between Pakistan and New Zealand.There were showers early in the morning, but it cleared up before start of play, raising hopes of the fans who had gathered. The rains returned, however, soon after Daniel Vettori chose to field, as every international captain has done after winning the toss in Queenstown.New Zealand stuck with their plan of giving James Franklin the new ball, ahead of the much quicker Hamish Bennett, and it didn’t work as 19-year-old Ahmed Shehzad took 16 off his two overs. Shehzad, playing his first one-dayer in 20 months, showed no signs of rustiness as he smashed the third ball of the match over square leg for six. He also slapped Tim Southee for a couple of fours before the rains came back, and stayed through the day to cause the match to be abandoned.The third one-dayer of the series is in Christchurch on Saturday, and the bad news is that rain is predicted during that game as well.

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

Aston Villa would need pay Geoffrey Kondogbia more than €120,000 (£101,000) a week if they want to sign him this summer, according to a new report.

The Lowdown: Villa keen on Kondogbia

Kondogbia has been linked with a move to the Premier League in recent days, with Villa manager Steven Gerrard potentially seeing him as a primary summer transfer target.

It has been stated that Gerrard ‘appreciates’ him as a player, with the Frenchman proving to be a key part of Atletico Madrid’s midfield this season and the Villans boss even jetting off to watch him in action.

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Kondogbia has made 23 appearances in La Liga, as well as nine in the Champions League, averaging a respective 2.7 and 2.2 tackles per game.

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The Latest: Fresh update emerges

According to Mundo Deportivo [via Sport Witness], the midfielder is looking for a pay increase in order to trade Atletico for Villa this summer.

A ‘much higher wage’ than his current €120,000 (£101,000) per week is mooted in the report, with the Villans aiming to sell players in order to afford what would be a ‘very expensive transfer.’

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The Verdict: Could be hard to get done

While Kondogbia is clearly a top-class midfielder who would strengthen Villa’s midfield, paying him such extortionate wages could be a tricky situation.

Danny Ings (£120,000) is the only current player earning over £100,000 a week, so the France international would come straight in as one of the club’s highest earners.

Not only that, but he doesn’t seem overly convinced by a move to Villa Park, according to the report, so paying such big money for a potentially money-hungry player feels like a big risk.

In other news, Ashley Preece has dropped a key Villa transfer claim. Read more here.

Transfer insider Fabrizio Romano has revealed that Manchester United have ‘discussed’ signing Richarlison, as the Everton ace changes his agent.

The Lowdown: Time to go?

Richarlison has been linked with moves to the likes of Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur in the summer, amid growing uncertainty over his future given the situation he finds himself in at Goodison Park.

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The Merseyside club currently find themselves in 17th place in the Premier League table, nervously looking over their shoulders at potential relegation.

If they were to go down to the Championship, it seems very unlikely that Richarlison would stay, especially given that it is a World Cup year and he will want to be playing at a higher level to get picked by Brazil.

The Latest: Man Utd talks

Taking to Twitter, Romano has revealed that Man Utd have ‘discussed’ the possibility of signing Richarlison ‘internally’, and that he has now signed with a new agency:

However, there have been ‘no talks’ with the player or the club themselves, and so Richarlison is ‘totally focused’ on the Toffees at the moment:

“Everton striker Richarlison and his Velasco Sport Group have now officially signed with CAA Base agency.“Been told Manchester United have discussed Richarlison internally, alongside Darwin Nunez and other options. “Of course no talks now – he’s totally focused on Everton.” The Verdict: Sell

Even though Richarlison has been a good servant to the Blues over the years, now is the time to cash in.

He has certainly not been at his best this season, with just criticised for having attitude problems.

At 24 years of age, Frank Lampard’s team could get a sizeable fee for him, which could then be used to help rebuild a squad in desperate need of quality across various positions.

In other news, find out what EFC injury boost has now emerged here!