Report

Nothing was strange about the team selections

03-Aug-2000

Nothing was strange about the team selections. Ramnaresh Sarwan was the obvious replacement for the injured West Indian batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul, while England gave themselves every option by selecting all four of their faster bowlers, Dominic Cork, Darren Gough, Andy Caddick and Craig White, plus the off-spin of Robert Croft. Since Graeme Thorpe was returning and had to be selected, the other Graeme, Hick, was omitted.

The first strange decision came when the West Indies captain, Jimmy Adams, won the toss and confounded most by electing to bat first, despite the overcast conditions, the fact that England had bowled the West Indies out for 54 the last time the two teams had met, the pitch not being properly prepared because of the persistent rains and the final fact that the pitch was only cut moments before the delayed start. All of these suggested that the West Indies should have fielded first, having won the toss. The decision to bat first soon backfired.

Roger Harper, the West Indian Coach, after the day's play, suggested:

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MRF break into little sweat to dismiss Andhra challenge

Sankhya Krishnan

03-Aug-2000

MRF thrashed Andhra by 161 runs in a lopsided encounter at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore today to move into the quarter finals of the KSCA Diamond Jubilee tournament for the Coromandel Cement Trophy. When Andhra captain MSK Prasad got the better of his counterpart, M Senthilnathan over the spin of the coin, he invited MRF to take first strike. They posted a total of 225 which proved more than adequate in the circumstances as Andhra crumbled to a miserable 64 in just under two hours.

In the morning session, MRF were bowled out in the last of their allotted fifty overs, with five balls to spare. They suffered a poor start when Aashish Kapoor was caught off the bowling of former India A seamer N Madhukar for nought. In the fifth over, one of the heroes of India's Under-19 World Cup triumph, Venugopala Rao was thrown out to leave the tire manufacturers at 18/2.

Hemang Badani and Hrishikesh Kanitkar then steadied the boat with a 82 run third wicket stand before the former was trapped leg before one run short of his half century. Badani had struck six boundaries in his run a ball knock. Kanitkar duly went past the fifty mark but was given the marching orders by Ram Mohan for 61 (77 balls, 4 fours, 1 six) in the 31st over.

All rounder Rajat Bhatia also showed his mettle with a useful 46 but when he tickled one through to Prasad off Madhukar, the lower order fell apart and MRF settled for a score of 225. Madhukar ended with the creditable figures of 4/48 but it was Watekar who combined both potency and miserliness to finish with 4/24.

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Torrid start for Somerset as Reeve quits as coach

Somerset have confirmed that Head Coach Dermot Reeve will be leaving the club at the end of the season to concentrate on his media career

Richard Latham

02-Aug-2000

Somerset have confirmed that Head Coach Dermot Reeve will be leaving the club at the end of the season to concentrate on his media career. The news was the main talking point at Taunton on a day when only 37.3 overs were possible due to heavy showers.

Somerset closed on 73-3 after winning the toss, with Peter Bowler's unbeaten 29 steadying the innings after a torrid start against Chris Silverwood and Matthew Hoggard.

Reeve was not at the ground and it is his many absences this summer due to increasing commitments as a television commentator that has led him to sever his four-year connection with the county.

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Reuben Paul helps Pistons knock out NCA

Amidst turmoil in Bangalore, the India Pistons team from Chennai coasted to a 76 run victory over the local National Cricket Academy (NCA) side

Anand Vasu

02-Aug-2000

Amidst turmoil in Bangalore, the India Pistons team from Chennai coasted to a 76 run victory over the local National Cricket Academy (NCA) side. This is the first time the NCA has fielded a side in the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) Diamond Jubilee Tournament. Their inexperience showed through loud and clear as they were knocked out in the very first match they played.

When the NCA captain Reetinder Singh Sodhi won the toss, he put India Pistons in to bat. Vikram Rathore, former India opener and seasoned Ranji Trophy cricketer managed to stay at the crease long enough to make 17. It was Anand George however who was the first to be dismissed, with just 12 runs on the board. He was caught by the captain off the bowling of talented young mediumpacer Mrithyunjay Tripathi. The youngster struck again soon after, when he had Rathore caught behind.

Steady middle order bat Satyajit Medappa was in his element in a low scoring game. Making a well paced 33 including 3 boundaries, Medappa propped up the middle order. C Hemanth Kumar who has been among the runs in the first division league in Chennai, where he made an unbeaten hundred in the last game he played, was the next to go, stumped by Ajay Ratra off the Mumbai off spinner Romesh Powar. A mini collapse in the middle order looked inevitable as India Pistons slumped to 83/6.

Any hopes Sodhi would have harboured of knocking India Pistons out for a low score were dismissed by Reuben Paul who slammed an unbeaten 58 batting at number 7. The hard hitting wicketkeeper batsman notched up a half century partnership with the experienced Sunil Subramaniam. Reuben Paul, known more for his hard hitting than his ability to stay at the wicket long, brought up his half century off just 56 balls. Given the fact that India Pistons were 83/6 at one point, this was an invaluable innings. Sunil Subramaniam made 28 in his stay at the wicket. At the end of their allotted 45 overs, India Pistons managed a respectable 176. The match was earlier reduced to 45 overs a side as overnight rain forced a 40 minute delay in starting the match.

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Ostler leads Bears to 244-6 at Trent Bridge

Warwickshire Bears, who elected to bat first, made 244-6 in their day/night match at Trent Bridge against the CricInfo-sponsored Nottinghamshire Outlaws

Dave Bracegirdle

01-Aug-2000

Warwickshire Bears, who elected to bat first, made 244-6 in their day/night match at Trent Bridge against the CricInfo-sponsored Nottinghamshire Outlaws. Dominic Ostler top scored, making 79 not out from 92 deliveries. Richard Stemp was once again the pick of the home bowlers, taking 4-36.

Notts were rocked before the start with the news that a back injury would sideline John Morris allowing Guy Welton another chance at the top of the order. Warwickshire made two changes from their last Norwich Union outing, bringing Anurag Singh and Keith Piper back into the starting line up.

With the floodlights already on Singh and Nick Knight opened the innings confidently but Notts missed the chance of an early breakthrough. Singh slashed David Lucas to point but Stemp couldn't hold the chance. The miss was to prove expensive as Singh began to hit the ball with venomous power. 47 runs came from the first ten overs but as Jason Gallian began to ring the changes the runs flowed at an alarming rate. Ten went from AJ Harris' first over and Paul Franks conceded eleven, including two no-balls, from his. The boundary boards were being peppered with regularity as The Bears took 43 from five overs before the fielding restrictions were lifted, with the score on 90-0.

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Bevan hits Sussex to resounding win

A stunning fourth century in five County Championship innings from Michael Bevan has led Sussex to an emphatic seven wicket win over cellar dweller Middlesex at Southgate this afternoon and to the top of the Division Two standings

Staff and agencies

31-Jul-2000

Bevan (173*), who also became the first man to pass one thousand first class runs for the summer in the course of his hand, was in serene touch. He cut, he drove, he pulled, he hooked, and he rarely looked in trouble at any stage during a 193-ball stay replete with twenty-one powerful boundaries and three contemptuous sixes. The New South Welshman's rumoured weakness - an inability to cope with well directed short-pitched bowling - was well tested, but his bat was generally impassable and his defences impregnable. There was one major scare - as he survived a loud lbw appeal in Angus Fraser's third over - but that was as close as Middlesex came to removing him.

If any other statistics were needed to verify the authoritative nature of this latest effort, then the truest measure of the left handed Australian's dominance probably comes in the notion that stubborn nightwatchman James Kirtley (26*) scored less than one sixth of the 166 runs they added in their unbroken stand for the fourth wicket. It was appropriate that Sussex's triumph, which came twenty minutes after lunch, was sealed with a Bevan boundary.

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Soaking rain nips things in bud at Roses match

Heavy overnight and morning rain in Leeds has seen to it that the final day of the match between Yorkshire and Lancashire has been abandoned without a ball being bowled

Staff and agencies

31-Jul-2000

Heavy overnight and morning rain in Leeds has seen to it that the final day of the match between Yorkshire and Lancashire has been abandoned without a ball being bowled.

Even though a draw had appeared the most likely result in any case - with Lancashire at 127/2 in its second innings and in possession of an overall lead of eighteen runs - it was a disappointing way to end a match that had offered absorbing cricket throughout.

The frustration will likely be felt most acutely by Yorkshire's players and administrators. Their reaction to the disruptions to their squad being perpetuated by the new England contract system appeared to be developing into one of much angst even before this latest stroke of ill-fortune. Captain David Byas also bemoaned the intervention of rain on the second day, identifying it as the crucial factor in preventing the locals from pressing home an advantage which they had held for most of the opening three days.

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Opening combination goes undisturbed as Canterbury tale ends tamely

Staff and agencies

31-Jul-2000

Openers Steve Titchard and Steve Stubbings have recorded the second highest partnership in Derbyshire's history but their feat carried little relevance beyond the statistical as their team's Championship fixture with Kent ended in a tame draw at Canterbury today. Titchard and Stubbings batted undisturbed through the fourth and final day of the match to take the visitors to a second innings score of 293/0 before play was called off in late afternoon.

Titchard's unconquered 141 represented his highest score for his new team since his transfer from Lancashire at the start of 1999, while Stubbings' 135 snared him a morale-boosting maiden hundred for the county. Both played very straight - on and off drives were in abundance - but neither the pitch nor the attack posed too many terrors. It was a measure of the extent to which the match had lost any genuine meaning that Kent captain Matthew Fleming even found time toward the end to ensure that all eleven of his players received a chance to bowl at some stage of the day. The home team also took the opportunity of resting Rahul Dravid and Min Patel just after tea, sending on substitute Ben Trott and physio Martin Sigley in their places as the inevitable early finish loomed.

By the time that the match was finally brought to a merciful halt at 5:20pm, the teams had each taken nine points away from it. This a result which leaves Kent entrenched in sixth place on the Division One table but which has seen Derbyshire relegate Hampshire to bottom position. It is Hampshire which Derbyshire meets in its next match (beginning on Wednesday at Derby). Kent's players, meanwhile, stay at home to ready themselves for a clash with Leicestershire which starts the same day.

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Final day washed away at Chester-le-Street

Not a ball was bowled as persistent showers washed out the fourth and final day of the County Championship match between Durham and Somerset at Chester-le-Street

Staff and agencies

31-Jul-2000

Not a ball was bowled as persistent showers washed out the fourth and final day of the County Championship match between Durham and Somerset at Chester-le-Street. The prospect of at least some play looked a possibility for a time when the rains cleared at shortly after the scheduled start time; when they returned within the hour, though, the die was cast.

Having found itself at a score of 73/3 overnight - and in the lead by eighty-five runs overall - the home team would have been expecting to use the last day to push for a victory and to narrow the gap between these two teams on the Division One table. As it was, though, the abandonment ensured that both sides left with nine points to show for their efforts in the match.

Somerset, which did well to share the honours after finding itself in massive trouble at 88/6 at one stage in its first innings, now heads home to prepare for a battle with Yorkshire beginning on Wednesday. Durham, meanwhile, is not engaged in action again until the occasion of a National League clash with Glamorgan on Sunday. The break will be a welcome one and should allow both Melvyn Betts (who is nursing a knee strain) and Steve Harmison (who begins his comeback in the county's second eleven team tomorrow following a shin complaint) some much-needed time to prepare themselves.

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England complete NatWest Series with 3-wicket win at Hove

England's Under 19 cricketers confirmed their superiority over Sri Lanka in the NatWest Series with a 3 wicket win in the third match at Hove, having won the two previous encounters in Cardiff

Ralph Dellor

31-Jul-2000

England's Under 19 cricketers confirmed their superiority over Sri Lanka in the NatWest Series with a 3 wicket win in the third match at Hove, having won the two previous encounters in Cardiff.

Sri Lanka won the toss and decided to bat first on a pitch of no great pace. No doubt part of the strategy was to make England bat under lights, but the fact that Sri Lanka were bowled out in under 44 overs meant that most of the reply was made in daylight.

The Sri Lankan batsmen contributed to their own downfall with some injudicious shots and a needless run out. The bowling was not necessarily of the highest order, with too many wides, but the fielding was out of the top drawer. Captain Ian Bell set the tone with a fine low catch at slip off Kabir Ali to dismiss Ian Daniels in the third over.

Runs were scored with great alacrity, but so too did the wickets fall so that half the side had gone by the eleventh over with 53 on the board. Muthumudalige Pushpakumara was joined by Kaushalya Weeraratne and the pair put on 58 for the sixth wicket before the captain holed out to deep mid-wicket. Pushpakumara went on to 48, but the remaining wickets fell cheaply with James Dalrymple picking up 3 wickets, as did opening bowler Mark Davies.

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