Category Uncategorized

AB de Villiers played another cameo as the hosts chased down 101 with six wickets in hand

The Report by Brydon Coverdale12-Mar-2018
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsThe hardest job on day four in Port Elizabeth was not chasing 101 for victory. Through the majesty of AB de Villiers, South Africa did that with ease and levelled the series 1-1. No, the most difficult task was assigned to whoever chose the Man of the Match. Would it be de Villiers, whose unbeaten 126 in the first innings was not only a game-changer but one of the most impressive knocks in recent history, and whose run-a-ball 28 in the second innings helped seal the win? Or would it be Kagiso Rabada, whose 11-wicket haul was irresistible to watch and completely blunted Australia’s batting?Certainly it was Rabada who lit up the morning session at St George’s Park. South Africa began the day clearly in the stronger position, but Australia were 41 runs ahead and still had five wickets in hand. If they let Australia’s lower order off the hook, South Africa could have been faced with a tricky chase of 200-plus. The key seemed to be Mitchell Marsh, the last member of Australia’s top six, who was unbeaten on 39 at the start of play. Rabada didn’t even let Marsh survive an over. He nipped one back in to Marsh, at speed, to find the gap and rattle his stumps.Rabada followed by having Pat Cummins caught by Theunis de Bruyn at gully for 5, and he added Mitchell Starc, who was caught behind for 1. Rabada finished with match figures of 11 for 150, and he became just the third South African to achieve a ten-wicket Test haul on at least four occasions. For perspective, the others are Dale Steyn, whose five ten-wicket hauls have come in 86 Tests, and Makhaya Ntini, whose 101-Test career brought four ten-fors. Rabada has four in just his 28th Test. He is still only 22 years old. This is a young man who could be absolutely anything.Perhaps a caveat is needed to the earlier statement. There was one other task on day four that might have been even harder than determining the Man of the Match. This job fell to match referee Jeff Crowe, who had to decide whether Rabada would be suspended for the remainder of the series for his shoulder bump with Steven Smith during Australia’s first innings. In isolation, the incident would not be worthy of a ban, but Rabada’s bank of demerit points changes that. After a hearing on day three, Crowe chose to defer his verdict for 24 hours.Kagiso Rabada celebrates a wicket with his team-mates•Associated Press

Australia’s innings finished with Nathan Lyon being caught behind off Lungi Ngidi for 5 and Josh Hazlewood caught at deep midwicket off Keshav Maharaj for 17. Tim Paine remained unbeaten on 28 in Australia’s 239, and their lead of 100 was never likely to be truly competitive. One of the major concerns for Australia as they head to the third Test in Cape Town is that not a single Australian batsman has scored a century so far in this series. South Africa, by comparison, have had hundreds in each Test – from Aiden Markram in Durban and de Villiers in Port Elizabeth.Australia had the chance to snap up Markram for 7 in this chase, but his edge off Hazlewood was put down at first slip by Mitchell Marsh, hardly a promising start for a team needing a miracle to avoid defeat. Wickets did fall, but not enough. Dean Elgar was caught and bowled by Lyon off a leading edge for 5, in a near carbon-copy of his dismissal in the first innings in Durban, and Markram was caught at second slip by Smith off Hazlewood for 21, but all that did was bring de Villiers to the crease.Australia’s minor sniff was snuffed out by the aggression of de Villiers, who struck four fours and one six during his 28 off 26 balls, and his 49-run stand with Hashim Amla delivered South Africa to within 20 runs of victory. Both men fell – Amla caught behind off Cummins for 27 and de Villiers caught at short-leg off Lyon – but Faf du Plessis and de Bruyn steered South Africa home with no further loss, a cover-driven boundary from de Bruyn confirming the six-wicket win.The teams will head to Cape Town for the third Test with South Africa looking in the stronger form, but potentially without their strike bowler Rabada, who is far and away on top of the series wicket tally with 15 at 16.80. Whether they are the same threat without him remains to be seen. And, just for the record, in the race to be Man of the Match, Rabada beat de Villiers by a nose.

Justice RM Lodha was critical of the Indian board and the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators in the tardiness regarding the implementation of reforms suggested by his committee

Arun Venugopal29-Jun-2017Justice RM Lodha, the architect of the Lodha Committee recommendations, has expressed dismay at the tardiness of the BCCI and the Committee of Administrators (CoA) in implementing the sweeping structural reforms approved by the Supreme Court nearly a year ago.While Lodha, a former Chief Justice of India, was irked by the BCCI’s defiance, he was also critical of the CoA for not being proactive enough.”It’s unfortunate, actually, [that] nothing has been done,” Lodha told ESPNcricinfo. “Things have not moved, reforms have not been taken forward, so definitely it is not a good thing to happen. I have yet to see a body defy the Supreme Court’s order continuously. It is almost one year – 11 months are already over and the 12th month [is] going on and there is no sign of implementation of the highest court’s order. This is something that doesn’t happen at all.”Had [the CoA been proactive], by this time [the] Supreme Court order and reforms would have been in place. Unfortunately, I think, [they have involved] themselves in incidental matters instead of taking the reforms forward and implementing the order which was the main brief given to them.”Lodha also felt that the resignation of CoA member Ramachandra Guha, who alleged inaction on a number of issues, was possibly an indication that the committee did not function smoothly.”The CoA are doing their job,” he said. “[But] maybe they [spend] a lot of their time in these contractual and administrative matters, whereas the focus should have been the implementation of the court order because that was the primary task. Everything else was incidental. Maybe, as the reports have come, one of their members has resigned, so maybe the things aren’t going on smoothly. I don’t know; it’s all conjecture and surmise.”The fact of the matter is the BCCI actually continues to defy and not implement the Supreme Court order. The CoA, being a body appointed by the court, must have been actually proactive and the focus ought to have been implementation of the court order.”In the lead-up to the board’s special general meeting earlier this week, the CoA had been hopeful that the BCCI would adopt the Lodha reforms.After discussions, the committee had urged state associations to distil their objections of the Lodha recommendations to a few points which could then be run past the Supreme Court. The committee believed this might make the court more amenable to revisit these recommendations.However, the BCCI went ahead and formed a committee of their own to examine the areas of difficulty in the implementation process.Justice RM Lodha on the Committee of Administrators: “Unfortunately, I think, [they have involved] themselves in incidental matters instead of taking the reforms forward.”•AFP

Lodha was categorical that there was no scope for negotiation in an order delivered by the highest court in the land. “After the Supreme Court’s judgement what do you negotiate?” he asked with a laugh. “You can’t bargain on the court’s order. To overrule the Supreme Court’s judgement, no authority can do that. The only authority that can change it [the order] is the Supreme Court itself, no-one else.”The Supreme Court’s judgement is there, it is there. And, it has been passed after hearing BCCI at quite some length. I don’t fathom any reason. I just can’t figure out what should be negotiated. A Supreme Court judgement is non-negotiable.”According to Lodha, there was no ambiguity in the Supreme Court’s position since it passed the order in July 2016. “There is no history of order passed by the Supreme Court staying the implementation of the judgement,” he said. “Rather, the orders subsequent thereto have been to implement the order. The cricket board and the state associations will continue to put obstructions, but that should not hamper the implementation of the highest court’s order.”People who know the procedure of the court know how the Supreme Court actually deals with the matter after the final judgement is passed. There is a procedure for [filing a] review petition. The other procedure is of curative petition, that’s all. Both processes have been pursued [by the BCCI] and pursued unsuccessfully.”There have been no impediments from the court’s side. As a matter of fact, there is no order; the judgement of July 18 stands as it is. It’s as simple as that: it has to be implemented because Supreme Court has not modified or reviewed its order.”The BCCI SGM was attended by veteran administrators N Srinivasan and Niranjan Shah despite their being ineligible to be office bearers on more than one count according to the Lodha guidelines. When asked about Srinivasan’s eligibility, CoA chairman Vinod Rai had said his committee was not mandated by the Supreme Court to “sit in judgement on people’s qualification or disqualification.”Lodha, however, said the eligibility was clearly specified in the court’s order. On whether the CoA could have taken a call on the matter themselves, he said: “Look, our report is there. A person is disqualified if he has attained the age of 70 years. This has got the seal of the approval from the Supreme Court. One should always keep in mind [that] what cannot be done directly cannot be done or achieved indirectly. Ultimately, it is a committee of administrators appointed by the Supreme Court to oversee the affairs.”Still, with the Supreme Court hearing the matter on July 14, Lodha was optimistic the reforms would be implemented. “The court order has to be implemented. There may be some delay that is happening, of course,” he said. “But, I am sure it will be taken to its logical conclusion and our efforts and hardwork will not go waste.”

Maharashtra’s weird tactics against Uttar Pradesh in Pune have drawn the ire of opposition captain Suresh Raina, who minced no words in criticising Dermot Reeve, the newly-appointed Maharashtra coach

Amol Karhadkar in Pune11-Nov-2012When a team sets the opposition a target of 765 in a maximum of 169 overs in order to attain the first-innings lead, the game is as good as killed once the chasing side doesn’t lose early wickets. Maharashtra’s weird tactics in their Ranji Trophy season opener against Uttar Pradesh in Pune have drawn the ire of opposition captain Suresh Raina, who minced no words in criticising Dermot Reeve, the former England allrounder and newly-appointed Maharashtra coach.”They have a foreign coach and he needs to teach good things to youngsters,” Raina said after UP finished the penultimate day on 287 for 1 in reply to Maharashtra’s 764 for 6 declared. “I am not against anyone but at the same time, he is earning [Rs] 30-40 lakh [3-4 million] per season, so he needs to teach youngsters in a good way. Two-and-a-half days. We can also do the same when they come to play against us next time, but we all have to keep on improving our cricket.”Had Maharashtra declared just after Kedar Jadhav completed a triple ton on the second evening, their bowlers would have got a shot at the tired UP openers. But they continued to bat till bat 35 minutes into the third morning on a track that just doesn’t have any assistance for the bowlers.”I am unhappy with the way they have approached the game,” Raina said. “Perhaps they were scared of us. Jadhav played well and the captain [Rohit Motwani] as well but they needed to give us time to chase well. If they really want to achieve their goal of doing well in the Ranji Trophy, there’s no point in batting for almost two-and-a-half days and asking us to chase 765. But still we managed to reach almost 300 today. You might see something different from the UP team tomorrow.”Howsoever optimistic Raina tried to be, he eventually admitted it was virtually impossible to score nearly 480 runs in a day. “We will see how it goes in the first session. I am slated to bat next and then we have Piyush [Chawla], Parvinder [Singh], Arish Alam as well, so we have a long batting line-up. Still you can’t look to chase more than 460 on the last day. Somewhere around 340-350 is gettable but 460 is virtually out of question.”I am not happy with these tactics. We won against Delhi and when we came here – this is their first game – I thought they would try and improve on where they had left last season. But they were safe, they were too defensive. Hopefully they will improve over the next couple of games.”It wasn’t just the tactics. Raina was equally critical of the pitch which was nothing but a batsman’s paradise. “No bounce, no pace, no spin. There is literally nothing in it for the bowlers. They work so hard on their game, there has to be something in it for them. There are some who need to pick a lot of wickets in order to come back into the Indian team but they can’t do anything about it when you have such wickets.”

Cricket Kenya has been forced to name a weakened squad to take on Netherlands in the ICC Intercontinental Cup and the subsequent ODI series. The four-day match starts in Deventer on September 7

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Sep-2011Cricket Kenya has been forced to name a weakened squad to take on Netherlands in the ICC Intercontinental Cup and the subsequent ODI series. The four-day match starts in Deventer on September 7.Several players continue to be in dispute with the board, and a decision was taken to exclude them from consideration.”This squad features some new names and the return of one or two experienced players,” explained chairman of selectors Alpesh Vadher. ” Youngsters such as Duncan Allan, Irfan Karim and Emmanuel Ringera have shown great promise for the national Under-19 squad and deserve their chance, Ibrahim Akello has been impressive in the early games of the East Africa Cricket Competitions as have Lameck Onyango and David Obuya who will add experience to the squad.”Turning to those not picked, Vadher said: “There are some players who we would have liked to consider but yet again they have made themselves unavailable which is disappointing. Cricket Kenya has offered these players contracts until the end of the current contract year subject to the same reviews that every other player goes through but they are not happy with that. What players must realise that we will be focusing on performance and attitude and in the future will only select players who can demonstrate a real commitment to play for Kenya.”Kenya squad Collins Obuya (capt), Rakep Patel, Tanmay Mishra, Runesh Gudka, Hiren Varaiya, Lucas Oluoch, Dominic Wesonga, Seren Waters, Duncan Allan, Irfan Karim, Ibrahim Akello, David Obuya, Emmanuel Ringera, Lameck Onyango.