Category Uncategorized

Otago’s 18-run win over Canterbury in the State Shield match at Oamaru today became the battle of the bonus point.Otago scored 156/8 in their 37 overs and Canterbury, if unable to match that target, had to try and stop Otago picking up a bonus point, to achieve that they needed to reach 125, and they managed that but not before a fright or two.In their chase Canterbury lost their two openers Michael Papps and Stephen Cunis for seven, and then slumped to 46/6. Gary Stead, who else, and Paul Wiseman effected a recovery.Otago had to restrict the Canterbury scoring but some indifferent bowling from the usually miserly Craig Cumming and Craig Pryor produced a flurry of runs and Canterbury went to 80/6 from 24 overs – a partnership of 45 runs.In the 28th over Stead was bowled neck and crop by Cumming for 23. Canterbury were 93/7.Wiseman followed in the 29th trying to hit Nathan McCullum over square leg and was caught by Andrew Hore on the boundary for 22. Canterbury were 95/8.Consideration of the bonus point did add a different dimension to the game which would otherwise have been dead.The 30th over saw Warren Wisneski and Carl Anderson take six off Cumming to go to 101 but in the 31st over Hore again took a brilliant running catch to dismiss Wisneski on the square leg boundary for six. Canterbury were 103/9.The target for Canterbury was now another 55 runs but with only six overs left and one wicket in hand. The cry of ‘Otaagoo’ went around the ground. It looked very much as though they would defeat their old enemy twice in the one season.With 33 overs gone and Canterbury 115/9, Kerry Walmsley resumed the attack. He had to contend with a wet ball after a shower which lasted for two overs made the ball slippery and the fielders understandably make a couple of minor errors. He conceded five from the over. Canterbury 120/9 from 34 completed overs.The last Canterbury pair at the wicket were looking good,they were playing straight and collecting singles and Otago’s chances of gaining a bonus point were receding. Pryor conceded only three in the 35th over and the Canterbury total was 123/9 with two overs to go.Canterbury denied Otago the bonus point in the 36th over as Walmsley conceded two runs and then with nothing to lose the batsmen hit out in the last over to reduce the deficit to 18 runs. Canterbury had denied Otago the bonus point, but the satisfaction for Otago was huge as they claimed their second victory of the summer over their old rivals.Carl Anderson finished on 18 not out and Ryan Burson 14 not out.Bowling for Otago, Walmsley took two for 17 from eights, David Sewell three for 22 from five and McCullum two for eight from four.Earlier, Otago had built its position on a solid innings of 41 from 71 balls by Cumming while a lower injection was given by Lee Germon with 21 and Martyn Croy 26. Cunis did best for Canterbury by taking two for 18 from eight overs.

With the competitive interest having long been put to rest, the Ranji Trophy semifinal between Karnataka and Hyderabad meandered to a listless conclusion in Bangalore today. Vanka Pratap’s sixth Ranji century and his second this season was the only saving grace after Karnataka’s resistance had terminated at 557 in the morning. VVS Laxman failed and Mohd. Azharuddin did not deign to grace the wicket with his presence as Hyderabad settled at a score of 236/6 to go ahead towards a summit clash with Mumbai in Mumbai beginning April 19.Earlier Dodda Ganesh enlivened the proceedings with some big hitting on the final morning. Ganesh struck consecutive sixes over long on and mid wicket off Kanwaljit Singh while Mansur Ali Khan who had got off the mark earlier with a five, including two overthrows, played the two spinners with an admirably straight bat. The third new ball was due eight overs into the session but Azhar persisted with the two spinners and it was Raju who drove the final nail into the coffin when Ganesh charged at him with head high in the air and eyes off the ball, to have his stumps rearranged. His 76 was the sixth half century of the innings and if just one guy had played a longer hand, Karnataka would have got within sniffing distance of the Hyderabad total.With a lead of 154 in the kitty, Daniel Manohar and Nandakishore resumed battle against the Karnataka seam attack. Ganesh bowled a short length to Manohar and was pulled away to the boundary on two occasions. But Ganesh persisted and took a good left handed catch to his intense delight as Manohar got an edge while trying to dismiss the ball from his presence once more. Off the very next ball, Nandakishore fell leg before to Prasad, playing forward but not enough to sow some doubt in the umpires mind. VVS Laxman and Vanka Pratap both got their first boundaries to the vacant third man area. With Sunil Joshi not taking the field, Vijay Bharadwaj was thrust into the role of lead spinner and in the second ball after lunch he uprooted Laxman’s middle stump through the gap between bat and pad, with the batsman having taken his season’s tally to 1258, just 22 short of Bharadwaj’s record.Parth Satwalkar kept driving into the midriff of silly point who was standing too close to hold anything but Bharadwaj finally snared him when he flicked one in the direction of midwicket where Akhil leapt to his right to hold a brilliant one hander. That left Hyderabad at 93/4 but Azharuddin still did not bother to make the effort to climb down one flight of stairs and enter the middle. Karnataka were bowling with enthusiasm and appealing spiritedly as they tried to make further inroads into the middle order although it was dubious whether this would serve any practical purpose.Vanka Pratap’s favoured routes for directing the ball to the fence were through the covers and to backward point as he got in some useful batting practice ahead of the final against Mumbai. After Riaz Sheikh presented a simple catch off Rowland Barrington’s leg breaks to Prasad at short extra cover, Vanka and Fiaz Ahmed added 99 for the sixth wicket in the final session. Vanka was more adventurous as his innings progressed, taking the aerial route several times, to the long on and long off boundaries. Dropped on 94 by substitute KN Ramesh, he reached his hundred off 201 balls with an extra cover drive off A Vijay. And when he holed out to long off where Ramesh made amends with a neatly judged catch off the very next ball, the match was called off with Hyderabad at 236/6 in the 73rd over.

Daily Record journalist Steven Mair has talked up the possibility of Liam Kelly making a ‘fairytale’ return to Rangers this summer. 

The lowdown

The 26-year-old came through the youth ranks at Ibrox before he was offloaded to Livingston four years ago. From there, he moved to Queen’s Park Rangers, and then onto current club Motherwell.

Rangers may need a new ‘keeper this summer, with the veteran Allan McGregor reportedly set to leave when his contract expires at the end of the season.

Kelly still has just under two-and-a-half years left to run on his deal at Fir Park, and he is valued at just £405,000 by Transfermarkt.

The latest

In pinpointing potential successors to McGregor at Rangers for the Daily Record, Mair claimed that Rangers realise Kelly has ‘plenty of peak years’ ahead of him. Furthermore, he is a particularly ‘great option’ for Giovanni van Bronckhorst if he ‘wants to go down the route’ of a ball-playing ‘keeper.

Kelly was ‘cut adrift’ by the Light Blues in 2018, so Mair wrote that ‘it would be the stuff of fairytales’ if the 26-year-old came back and assumed the number one spot. However, the journalist warned that he ‘wouldn’t come cheap’, which will surely be a consideration for the Gers.

The verdict

It was only at the weekend that Kelly faced off with his former club at Ibrox, and he certainly gave a good account of himself, making seven saves (five from inside the penalty area) to earn a team-high SofaScore rating of 8.0/10.

Mair described one save from James Tavernier as a ‘worldie’ but stressed that he’s produced a multitude of ‘wow’ moments over the course of the campaign.

In addition to his eye-catching saves and passing range, Kelly also boasts intangible attributes. For instance, WhoScored cite ‘concentration’ as a strength of his, while Mair noted that the goalkeeper is ‘largely seen as a great influence’ in the dressing room at Fir Park.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

Therefore, it should come as no great surprise that he is being talked up as the possible successor to McGregor at Rangers.

In other news, one journalist expects significant transfer interest in these two Rangers players

The performance of Ramesh Powar will be key as Mumbai fight to reach the semi-finals of the Ranji Trophy Super League © Cricinfo Ltd

Mumbai face a quarter-final situation when they take on group leaders Saurashtra in their last Group stage match on Tuesday. While a loss will most likely eliminate them, an outright win will ensure a place in the semi-finals. If they draw, they will have to hope Delhi do worse than them. The two teams are currently tied in second place with 18 points each.Mumbai are cornered, but they have scripted successful escape acts in the past. Last season, they were without any points going into the fourth game, but won five in a row to lift the Ranji Trophy. “Been there, done that” is the fuel behind their confidence and Amol Muzumdar, the captain, is banking on it. “We have been in this situation before and everybody knows the importance of the game. We can do it.”But even Muzumdar admits the situation this year is precarious. The bowling has been severely depleted with injuries to Ajit Agarkar, Aavishkar Salvi and Rajesh Verma. Meanwhile, Ramesh Powar’s recent form has been a cause of worry. He has picked up just nine wickets from the last four games, after grabbing 15 in the first two. The inexperienced Murtuza Hussain leads the seam attack and Mumbai will hope that Powar, along with Nilesh Kulkarni, the replacement for Iqbal Abdulla, can raise their game when it matters the most.Muzumdar knows where the problem lies. “It has been an up and down season. Obviously the injuries have not helped. The replacements are very young; Murtuza is playing his third game, [Mondeep] Mangela has just played one. [Usman] Malvi has been around but he has been in and out. We have been struggling to get 20 wickets and that’s why we have not been able to finish games.”That has been the story of their season. In their opening game, Mumbai had Karnataka reeling with a 142-run lead, but Rahul Dravid imposed himself in the second innings with a double century. In the third game, against Delhi, they came back from an 85-run deficit to set a target of 387, but could only pick up three wickets as Gautam Gambhir and Akash Chopra put up an 188-run opening stand.And in the next match, they fell 15 runs short of Maharashtra’s 451 to give away the lead and three points. From a wobbly 197 for 6, they were steadied by a 185-run partnership between Powar (107) and Agarkar (95), but both fell in quick succession to leave Mumbai just short of the line.Mumbai picked up five points next time out, but it was only because Rajasthan chose to go for a win and lost three wickets in the last over. Again the bowlers had not done a great deal as Rajasthan lost five wickets in the second innings to run-outs. In their last outing, Hossain picked up a six-wicket haul to force Himachal Pradesh to follow on, but injury to Agarkar – who limped off after just 5.2 overs – and Powar’s indifferent form meant they couldn’t kill the contest and Himachal batted their way to a draw.The batting too has been a bit up and down. Abhishek Nayar and Sahil Kukreja, the opener, tapered off after a good start, Muzumdar has gone the other way – coming into form after an indifferent beginning, Ajinkya Rahane has been steady, but not spectacular while Rohit Sharma has been struggling for runs with just 150 from four games.Pravin Amre, who helped in Muzumdar’s revival by rectifying problems with his footwork and head position, has been working a lot on Sharma. “The change of format [from Twenty20 to ODIs to first-class] has been a reason for his loss of form. A few errors have crept in. We are working hard on his pick up and his down swing and he is improving rapidly. I am hoping he scores a big one in this game to set up things for us.”Hope is the operative word in the Mumbai camp – they hope Powar and Kulkarni will perform, they hope the batsmen will raise their games and they must be hoping Tamil Nadu can help their cause by upsetting Delhi – but they are also waiting to see how Saurashtra handle pressure. And that could be the real factor in this game.As Muzumdar put it, “The pressure is on them. They are leading the table. We just want to treat this game as a quarterfinal and we need to play good aggressive cricket. We know how to play that kind of cricket and we are focussed.”And a national selector said, “Mumbai have this knack of getting out of trouble, they will somehow make it.” Time will tell.

ScorecardShannan Stewart and Michael Papps guided Canterbury to a thumping nine-wicket win against Wellington in their Twenty20 match at Christchurch. Both made 66 – although Stewart’s was unbeaten – as Canterbury chased down the required 170 with a minimum of fuss.Neal Parlane piloted Wellington with 63, sharing a second-wicket stand of 71 with Chris Nevin. Stu Mills took charge after Parlane was dismissed in the 17th over, as his unbeaten 37 lifted them to 169. Stewart and Papps made easy work of the target with an opening stand of 136. Captain Chris Harris and Stewart guided the team home with two overs to spare.
ScorecardNathan McCullum’s allround performance steered Otago to a 14-run win over Auckland in their Twenty20 match at Eden Park. McCullum’s late-innings 20 lifted Otago to a competitive 181, but his contribution in the field was more crucial, picking up two wickets and affecting three run-outs.Richard Jones, the Auckland captain, was the only batsman to carry on after getting a start, but the steady fall of wickets increased the pressure and consequently the asking rate. Two early run-outs, courtesy of McCullum, reduced Auckland to 42 for 4. Jones and Dave Houpapa led the recovery adding a quick 55 in just over five overs. However, the rate slackened after Houpapa was dismissed. Mayo Pasupathi made a breezy 28 off 14 balls but both him and Jones were dismissed in the final over to McCullum. Jones top-scored with 75 off 57 balls with eight fours and a six.Earlier, Otago were boosted by contributions by Chris Gaffaney and and Gareth Hopkins, who made 43 and 47 respectively. Opener Gaffaney got the team off to a good start, and once he was dismissed, Hopkins and Greg Todd added 56 for the fourth wicket to lay the platform for a good score.

ScorecardNarsingh Deonarine struck a defiant unbeaten century to earn Guyana a fighting draw against Barbados on the final day of their Carib Beer Series match at the Everest Cricket Club.Deonarine frustrated Barbados for the entire fourth day to hit an undefeated 136 as Guyana, facing a first innings deficit of 153, closed on 309 for 9 when the match was called off at 4.34 pm with 15 overs remaining. Showing fine powers of concentration, he held up Barbados for exactly eight hours, faced 366 balls and counted 14 fours on the way to his fourth first-class century which earned him the Man of the Match award. He resumed on 37, with Guyana on 105 for 2, and batted solidly for the entire day despite steadily losing partners. Deonarine reached his 50 off 136 balls with an off-drive for his sixth four and although he spent 50 minutes in the 90s, he raised his century in 20 minutes after tea from 256 balls.Deonarine was well supported by Neil McGarell in an eighth wicket stand of 72 after Barbados had put themselves in a position to win by reducing Guyana to 203 for 7 half way into the day. He stayed with Deonarine for an hour-and-half and made 48 off 60 balls with five fours and two sixes, but the match was still in Barbados’ favour when he was dismissed 38 minutes after tea.In the pre-lunch session, Guyana lost two wickets for 63 runs, Travis Dowlin was run out for 25 and Assad Fudadin was well caught low at point by Wayne Blackman. After lunch, Andre Percival, Derwin Christian and Mahendra Nagamotoo all fell cheaply before Deonarine found a useful partner in McGarrell, who was eventually run out by a direct throw from Kurt Wilkinson at mid on.At 279 for 9, Reon King joined Deonarine to put the contest out of Barbados’ reach by batting for 39 minutes after which the two captains agreed to end the match. Barbados’ bowlers, backed up by outstanding fielding, manfully stuck to the task in spite of Deonarine’s obdurate effort. Ian Bradshaw finished with 3 for 76 off 24 overs and Ryan Nurse and Antonio Thomas took two wickets each.Both teams have a brief break before playing their second match, starting on December 9, when Guyana meet Windward Islands at the Albion Community Development Centre in Berbice, while Barbados play Trinidad and Tobago at the Carlton Club, just outside Bridgetown

Shane Warne will play his first domestic games of the season in Perth© Getty Images

A facial cut has ruled Shane Harwood, the Victoria bowler, out of the first interstate Twenty20 match against Western Australia at the WACA tomorrow. Harwood received six stitches near his right eye following a training injury yesterday and has been replaced by Andrew McDonald, who is returning from thumb surgery.Shane Warne will also play in the 20-over match and has been named in the ING Cup squad for the clash on Friday night and the Pura Cup game starting on Sunday. The domestic appearances will be the first of the season for Warne, who replaces Ian Hewett in the ING Cup and Mathew Inness in the Pura Cup.Victoria ING Cup Cameron White (capt), Adam Crosthwaite (wk), Matthew Elliott, Ian Harvey, Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Brad Knowles, Michael Lewis, Jonathan Moss, Graeme Rummans, Shane Warne, Tim Welsford.Victoria Pura Cup Cameron White (capt), Jason Arnberger, Matthew Elliott, Ian Harvey, Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Michael Lewis, Jonathan Moss, Peter Roach (wk), Graeme Rummans, Shane Warne, Allan Wise.Victoria Twenty20 Liam Buchanan, Adam Crosthwaite, Matthew Elliott, Ian Harvey, Andrew McDonald, Ian Hewett, Nick Jewell, Brad Knowles, Jonathan Moss, Graeme Rummans, Shane Warne, Tim Welsford.

In an exclusive interview for the first edition of The Wisden Cricketer magazine, which goes on sale on Friday, September 19, Michael Vaughan has called for a restructuring of county cricket, in which the number of Championship games in a season would be cut by a half.”You only have to watch county cricket to see the enthusiasm levels drained out of players,” Vaughan told The Wisden Cricketer. “Jon Lewis, of Gloucestershire, said after the Headingley Test that he had played 21 out of 24 days – that simply can’t be right.”Vaughan has proposed that the number of first-class counties be reduced by two to 16, to be divided into two divisions of eight teams. Then, instead of the current home-and-away fixture pile-up, each side would then play the others in their division only once in the course of a season, leaving a two-week gap between matches.”I love the county game but the structure is not working and I feel sorry for the young guys coming into the England side,” Vaughan added. “As a step up it is massive. I made my Test debut at 25 and had played county cricket for seven years … but it still took 18 months to get used to Test cricket.”Vaughan’s comments will cause outrage among many county stalwarts, including the Worcestershire chairman, John Elliott, who recently accused Vaughan of biting the hand that fed him. But his sentiments have also been echoed in influential circles. Prior to the Oval Test, the former ECB chairman Lord MacLaurin called for the first-class structure to be limited to 12 teams, a proposal that found favour with the Cricket Reform Group, which includes the former England captains Mike Atherton and Bob Willis among their members.Martyn Ball, the chairman of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, however, was less enthusiastic. “Michael Vaughan is entitled to his opinion but I would question the grounds for his criticism,” he told The Wisden Cricketer as part of a major debate on the future of county cricket. “Steve Waugh has said in the past that county cricket is a strong environment and in all probability is the second-toughest domestic game in the world. Poor results [should be] the fault of the guys out on the field and not down to weaknesses of the club structure.”But England’s coach Duncan Fletcher, with whom the ECB are keen to secure a new deal, is no fan of the county structure. “When you lose, you should hurt for three weeks and really think about it,” he said after the Oval Test. “You should assess what happened and why. Instead, you’ve got the coach and the captain saying to you: ‘Forget about it because we’ve got another game today.'”Click here to subscribe to The Wisden Cricketer

A responsible hundred from Baroda skipper Connor Williams brought Ranji champions Baroda within shouting distance of Maharashtra’s first innings score of 321 on the second day of the Ranji Trophy tie between the two sides at the Nehru Stadium, Pune on Sunday.Baroda, who finished the day on 294 for five, were given a strong foundation by Williams and his opening partner Satyajit Parab (74). The two put on 184 runs for the first wicket before Parab departed after having faced 142 balls and hit nine fours.Former India `keeper Nayan Mongia, who followed, kept his skipper company for a good while as the two put on 51 runs for the second wicket. But Mongia’s departure for a patient 22 saw Maharashtra stage a minor fightback; the visitors lost three more top-order wickets, including that of Williams for 137 off 199 balls with 21 fours, for the addition of just 30 runs. But veteran middle-order bat Tushar Arothe and Himanshu Jadhav ensured that Baroda ended the day without any further mishaps by putting on 28 runs for the unbroken sixth wicket.

At the scheduled start time of this match – 10.45 BST – there appeared little chance of any cricket taking place in Sophia Gardens after heavy overnight rain and further showers had left the outfield sodden and a vast acreage of covering over the square. However, the weather cleared and a 42 over-a-side match was possible starting at 1.15.England won the toss and got off to a good start. After John Sadler had fallen with 58 on the board, Nicky Peng and acting captain Ian Bell put on 108 for the second wicket from 20 overs. Peng’s fine innings came to an end when he played on to Akalanka Ganegama and Bell went on to reach 62 before he became the first of 5 run out victims in the match in the 35th over.Useful runs were garnered by the lower order in reaching 238 for 6 from the allocation of 42 overs, with Ranil Dhammika the pick of the Sri Lankan bowlers, his 9 overs producing 1 for 28.The Sri Lankans got off to a good start themselves, putting 51 on the board before the fall of the first wicket in 9 overs. Ian Daniels had been particularly effective off his legs and driving straight before he was out for 43 from 33 balls including 7 fours, and although Thilina Kandambi reached a fluent 50, Sri Lanka began to lose their way.As the required rate rose to difficult proportions and wickets fell at regular intervals, England began to assert themselves. Despite some occasionally wayward bowling and indifferent fielding, England kept their nerve and finished winning a splendidly fought contest by 15 runs.The second match in the NatWest Series of Under 19 internationals takes place at Cardiff again on Saturday, with the third match at Hove –a day/nighter – on Monday.