Report
Tests and tribulations continue for vanquished West Indians
Fourteen and counting
John Polack
29-Dec-2000
Fourteen and counting. Courtesy of the touring West Indians' continuing ineptitude, Australia has extended its record-breaking streak of consecutive Test wins a level further today by inflicting a whopping 352 run defeat on the visitors in the Fourth Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Throughout this series, a lack of application with the bat has been the West Indians' most obvious Achilles heel. In crashing to a total of 109 here, they underlined that they are still yet to discover any meaningful way of addressing their collective frailties.
This current Australian side has a ruthless tendency to punish inefficient teams; in the West Indians, it continues to find opponents who more than fit the bill. By contrast, the Australians themselves again looked sharp today, just as might be expected of a group of players with such a repetitive run of success behind it. In a series in which only one of the bowlers they have used has averaged more than thirty, Jason Gillespie (6/40) was the star today with a sizzling display of bowling that helped net him each of the first six wickets to fall in the innings.
"I think we're playing better in every match," said a very pleased Australian captain, Steve Waugh.
Full postDolphins halt Bears as rain threatens.
Border's recent improvement, in which they had won their last three matches following three defeats to start their Standard Bank Cup campaign, came to a shuddering halt as KwaZulu-Natal beat them by 58 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis method, jumping
MWP
29-Dec-2000
Border's recent improvement, in which they had won their last three matches
following three defeats to start their Standard Bank Cup campaign, came to a
shuddering halt as KwaZulu-Natal beat them by 58 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis
method, jumping three places to fourth on the log in the process.
Set 219 for victory, the home side was struggling on 105 for six when rain,
which had been threatening for some time, forced the players off the field
in the 25th over. Five overs were lost and the game resumed with Border
needing a further 102 off 15.3 overs, or 93 balls, to win.
They got less than half of them, with top-scorer Laden Gamiet failing to add
to a somewhat laboured 36 after the resumption - he faced 79 balls in all -
and Piet Botha, Tyron Henderson and finally Vasbert Drakes dying for the
cause as Border slumped to 148 all out after just 34.1 overs.
Jon Kent had spearheaded the Dolphins' attack before the break, claiming the
scalps of Pieter Strydom, Craig Sugden and Wayne Wiblin, for an eventual
analysis of three for 42, but the wickets were shared around after the rain,
with four bowlers, including skipper Dale Benkenstein, each snaring a
victim.
Full postBatsmen put Maharashtra in command on opening day
Riding on the good form of Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Abijit Kale and Kaushik Aphale, Maharashtra piled up 320 runs while losing four wickets at the close of play on the opening day of their last league match of the West Zone Ranji trophy match against
Natarajan Sriram
29-Dec-2000
Riding on the good form of Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Abijit Kale and Kaushik Aphale,
Maharashtra piled up 320 runs while losing four wickets at the close of play on
the opening day of their last league match of the West Zone Ranji trophy match
against Mumbai at the Shivaji Stadium in Kolhapur on Friday.
Opting to bat, Maharashtra lost veteran opener Surinder Bhave (0) caught behind
off Sameer Dighe off Swapnil Hazare in the sixth over of the innings. But this
ushered in the Maharashtra skipper Kanitkar (61) to join the other opener Dhiraj
Jadhav (31). The two added 100 runs for the second wicket in 21.5 overs. Jadhav
was the next to depart giving a return catch to Ramesh Powar.
Abijit Kale (87) then replaced Jadhav but four balls later Kanitkar returned to
the pavilion after giving a catch to Sachin Sawant off Powar. During a 105-
minute stay at the crease, Kanitkar faced 82 balls and found the boundary ropes
10 times. Then Maharashtra recovered well from the double blow as Kake and
Kaushik Aphale (69) forged a 111-run partnership for the fourth wicket.
Aphala, who fell for a catch by Sawant off Powar, had stayed at the centre for
106 minutes and faced 106 balls and hit eight fours and two sixes. Thereafter,
Kale found able company in Sagar Shah (43 not out) to take the home team to
stumps without any further hiccups. The unbeaten partnership was worth 99 run.
Ramesh Powar was the most successful bowler for Mumbai with figures of 3 for 79
in his 15 overs.
Full postRain continues to hound Central's Cup campaign
The sound of falling rain has become an unmusical and unsolicited accompaniment to Central Districts' progress through the Shell Cup this season
Steve McMorran
29-Dec-2000
The sound of falling rain has become an unmusical and unsolicited accompaniment to Central Districts' progress through the Shell Cup this season.
When their fifth round match against Canterbury at Pukekura Park was abandoned at 3pm today before a ball had been bowled, Central found themselves victims for the third time of a total match washout.
On Wednesday their match against Northern Districts was lost to rain - they pocketed a point and moved on glumly - and today's late abandonment only deepened their disappointment and frustration.
Every effort was expended today in trying to wring even the minimum possible amount of play from a sodden wicket block and outfield. The groundstaff worked strenuously, the umpires made every possible effort and concession to further the chances of play and the players looked on with unmitigated hope, offering every encouragement to those parties.
Full postNorthern win in the dark and confusion
Northern Districts won an extraordinary and sometimes bizarre match by three Duckworth/Lewis runs at Blake Park, Mount Maunganui, leaving Wellington angry and disappointed at the end
Peter Hoare
29-Dec-2000
Northern Districts won an extraordinary and sometimes bizarre match by three Duckworth/Lewis runs at Blake Park, Mount Maunganui, leaving Wellington angry and disappointed at the end.
With 14 still needed, six overs and two balls to bowl and the last pair at the wicket, the umpires offered Northern the light. Knowing that they were ahead on Duckworth/Lewis calculations, the offer was gleefully accepted.
With two spinners bowling (as demanded by umpire Bowden as a condition for play continuing in the gloom) there was no danger to the batsmen. Indeed, it could be argued that they were in less danger than anybody else in the ground.
Wellington were obviously disgusted at the decision, with hats being thrown on the ground and the players remaining in the middle for some five minutes, debating the issue with umpires Wright and Bowden before reluctantly accepting their fate.
Full postBengal hit back after being shot out
Nineteen wickets tumbled on the second day of the East Zone Ranji Trophy match between Bengal and Orissa at the Eden Gardens on Friday
Sakyasen Mittra
29-Dec-2000
Nineteen wickets tumbled on the second day of the East Zone Ranji Trophy match
between Bengal and Orissa at the Eden Gardens on Friday. Orissa were dismissed
for 255 after resuming at their overnight score of 251 for eight. However,
Bengal were then shot out for 117. They managed to avoid the follow on because
of 19 extras. But the hosts hit back immediately to have Orissa reeling at 82
for seven when stumps were drawn due to bad light with 14.1 overs still
remaining.
It must be said that the reasons for the dismal batting failure of the batsmen
of both sides were the two umpires Vineet Gupte and Umesh Dubey from Mumbai. In
the Bengal innings it was Gupte who gave three decisions that were appalling.
Amongst them was the leg before of Sourav Ganguly. And when Orissa batted, the
two again gave some controversial decisions. Amongst them were the leg before
decisions against Sanjay Raul, Rashmi Ranjan Parida and Gautam Gopal.
However, the umpiring cannot take away any credit from Debashis Mohanty. The
lanky medium fast bowler bowled with supreme control to scalp six Bengal
batsmen. He maintained the right line and length and started the slide by having
Amitava Bannerjee caught behind with a ball that seamed and moved away.
Bannerjee could only glove it.
Except for Srikkanth Kalyani, none of the Bengal batsmen demonstrated any effort
to tackle Mohanty and his partner Ajay Barik. The two moved the ball both ways
and always had the batsmen guessing. Only Kalyani with 39 (9x4) showed the
resolve to stay in the middle. The result was that the Bengal innings lasted
just 35.3 overs and 183 minutes.
Full postGujarat bat cautiously on opening day
Gujarat, batting cautiously, scored 209 for five wickets off 90 overs at stumps on the first day of their West Zone Ranji Trophy match against Baroda at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera, Ahmedabad on Friday
Partab Ramchand
29-Dec-2000
Gujarat, batting cautiously, scored 209 for five wickets off 90 overs at stumps
on the first day of their West Zone Ranji Trophy match against Baroda at the
Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera, Ahmedabad on Friday.
Opting to bat, Gujarat lost Vivek Gandhi for a duck in the second over. The
other opener Nilesh Modi (43) and Niraj Patel (40) steadied the innings by
adding 80 runs for the second wicket off 39.5 overs. Modi symbolised the Gujarat
approach by taking 201 minutes to compile his runs. He faced 111 balls and hit
five fours. Patel too took his time to get his runs (156 minutes). He faced 133
balls and hit only three boundaries. After the fall of both these batsmen,
Mukund Parmar (54) and Kirat Damani (37 not out) continued the recovery process
by adding 68 runs off 23 overs for the fourth wicket. Parmar batted in a rather
aggressive manner, his runs being scored off just 97 balls with eleven hits to
the fence. But Damani was more circumspect taking 174 minutes over his unbeaten
37. He faced 117 balls and hit two fours. Among the bowlers, medium pacers
Zaheer Khan (2 for 47) and Rakesh Patel (3 for 57) were the pick and deservedly
shared the wickets.
Full postCanning magic steers Auckland to victory from hopeless situation
Coming on the back of two consecutive wins in the Shell Cup for the 2000/2001 season including a previous win over Auckland at Eden Park, the Otago Volts hopes were riding high when their fifth round match in the series against Auckland started at
Warwick Larkins
29-Dec-2000
Coming on the back of two consecutive wins in the Shell Cup for the 2000/2001 season including a previous win over Auckland at Eden Park, the Otago Volts hopes were riding high when their fifth round match in the series against Auckland started at Molyneux Park today.
Winning the toss and electing to bat the Otago team was- Lee Germon(Captain), Craig Cumming, Martyn Croy, Simon Forde, Chris Gaffaney, Andrew Hore, Brendon McCullum, Nathan McCullum, Warren McSkimming, Craig Pryor, Kerry Walmsley, Karl O'Dowda (12th man)
Auckland - Blair Pocock(Captain), Llorne Howell, Lou Vincent, Mark Haslam, Dion Nash, Kyle Mills, Richard Morgan, Andre Adams, Aaron Barnes, Tama Canning, John Aiken, Chris Drum (12th man).
State Otago Volts started in brisk fashion with Andrew Hore leading the way with a workmanlike 37. Craig Cumming however was the anchor and proceeded to work the ball around particularly in the early stages while others fell around him. He made 66.
Full postSeventy-one parts to another tragedy
All it took was seventy-one minutes
John Polack
28-Dec-2000
All it took was seventy-one minutes. To underline the gulf between Australia and West Indies yet again, that is. In fact, the second day of the Fourth Test was the
perfect encapsulation of the state of this entire series. While the West Indians ultimately averted the possibility of following on by the narrowest possible margin, they
nonetheless crashed again to find themselves dismissed for 165 in reply to Australia's 364 by the time that the day's play finally ended at 7:19 pm.
If it hadn't been for wicketkeeper-batsman Ridley Jacobs, then the West Indians might as well have written this day off entirely. From very early in the piece, the
Australians began building a strong position from which to pursue a fourteenth successive Test victory. And their sense of command was never relinquished; not even
during the course of a sixth wicket partnership of seventy-five that at least went some way toward rectifying the by then horrific West Indian plight. At the heart of the
home team's work remained the indomitable figure of Steve Waugh (121*), whose completion of a twenty-third Test century amid a fine complementary effort from
the Australian tail appeared to thoroughly demoralise the tourists.
It took Waugh a mere sixteen minutes this morning to raise two significant landmarks. His hundred itself came after he ran a cheeky single from a shot dropped into the
leg side in the second over of the day. And then, within the space of another three overs, he sauntered past Sir Vivian Richards (8540) into fifth place on the all-time
list of leading Test run scorers as he clipped a shot sweetly off his pads through mid wicket.
With spectacular support being provided to him by the spirited tailend batting of Jason Gillespie (19), Colin Miller (29) and an outrageously expansive Glenn McGrath
(11), Waugh was barely troubled today by the West Indian bowlers. The only real disruption to his mixture of solid defence and forceful driving to both sides of the
wicket came when the first of the day's three downpours sent the players scurrying from the field for eleven minutes after just under an hour's play.
Full postPollock joins the 200 Club as Sri Lanka fold up
Shaun Pollock probably couldn't have hoped for a better Christmas present: his 200th Test wicket and a handsome first innings lead over Sri Lanka, both on the same day and both at his home ground of Kingsmead
Peter Robinson
28-Dec-2000
Shaun Pollock probably couldn't have hoped for a better Christmas present: his 200th Test wicket and a handsome first innings lead over Sri Lanka, both on the same day and both at his home ground of Kingsmead.
At the close of the third day of the first Castle Lager/MTN Test match, South Africa led by 251 with nine second innings wickets standing. It is a substantial lead and should lead to a declaration before the end of the fourth day. Whether South Africa can bowl Sri Lanka out a second time, however, is another question.
For the fourth time in as many matches, South Africa have been presented with a pitch that has died by the fourth day. On Thursday evening Pollock made it quite clear that the home team, as is their traditional right, have asked all along for wickets with a bit of pace and bounce.
"I'm not talking about big lateral movement," he said, "but something where the snicks will carry to slip. There would be more gaps in the field for the batsmen to play their shots, and it would probably be more interesting."
Full postMost Read
Writers