Report
Battle on for runs
Bourda, Guyana - A definite pattern has developed after two days of the first Cable & Wireless Test between Pakistan and West Indies
07-May-2000
Bourda, Guyana - A definite pattern has developed after two days of
the first Cable & Wireless Test between Pakistan and West Indies.
The West Indies, 101 for three when fading light halted the second day
seven overs before schedule, are 187 short of Pakistan's first innings
288 and already finding Mushtaq Ah-med's tantalising mixture of
leg-breaks and googlies a handful.
Committed to batting last by Jimmy Adams' justifiable gamble on
winning the toss, they ideally need to bat through the third day,
compile over 300 and limit the time they will have to bat and the runs
they will have to make second time round.
It demands significant innings from Adams himself and Shivnarine
Chanderpaul, the two most seasoned batsmen in their inexperienced and
unproven order, who resume their difficult assignment this morning.
Full postInzamam holds the fort
Bourda: As they have so repeatedly done throughout their lengthy careers, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh claimed an immediate and seemingly decisive initiative for the West Indies on the opening day of the first Test against Pakistan here
06-May-2000
Bourda: As they have so repeatedly done throughout their lengthy careers, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh claimed an immediate and seemingly decisive initiative for the West Indies on the opening day of the first Test against Pakistan here yesterday.
They and their toiling colleagues then ran into a formidable and impenetrable brick wall, mounted by Inzamam-ul-Haq, Pakistan's one batsman of proven quality, and the fledgling 20-year-old all-rounder Abdur Razzaq that changed the course of the day, the innings and possibly the match.
The two started their rescue act an hour and 20 minutes into play after the evergreen Ambrose and Walsh had instigated a familiar top-order collapse.
Walsh struck the first blow, Ambrose quickly responded with three, the last two with successive balls.
Full postDurham v Surrey at Chester-le-Street
On a pitch helpful for seam bowlers Durham failed to make the best use of the conditions as the Surrey Lions compiled a winning 230 at the Riverside
Paul McGregor
06-May-2000
On a pitch helpful for seam bowlers Durham failed to make the best use of the conditions as the Surrey Lions compiled a winning 230 at the Riverside. It was some recompense for the Championship defeat earlier in the week. Durham's all round performance was not up to scratch and their National League form of 1999 continued. For Surrey this was win number two from two games in the League. Of the full quota of 45 overs Durham managed only 2 maidens and England prospect Steve Harmison went for 66 in his 9 overs. They batted too slowly and the fielding of both sides could have been better.
Surrey started slowly with the first boundary not coming until the 4th over by which time 13 runs had been posted. Betts and Killeen opened the attack for the home side but were unable to make an initial breakthrough against Butcher and Ali Brown who opened for the Lions. Brown eventually went in the 8th over when he had scored 19 and was just beginning to look menacing Katich taking a smart catch off the bowling of Killeen.
By the 10th over Surrey had advanced to 49 without further loss but the major point of interest occurred in Harmison's first over when he struck a fearful blow on the helmet of Mark Butcher. This necessitated the visit to the field of the Surrey physio and a delay of 5 mins before Butcher felt fit enough to continue. Butcher himself had managed to advance his own score to 27 before the Durham spinner Phillips bowled him.
Thorpe, who has not had a good week up in Durham, hung around for 6 overs but failed to score before he too went, bowled, courtesy of Phillips. The Surrey 100 came up in the 23rd over before the major batting contributor to the innings thus far; Alec Stewart went for 41, caught Lewis off Harmison. Of the 80 balls Stewart faced he hit 6 fours. Surrey's score was receiving a second substantial contribution from extras. In all 51 extras were contributed by Durham to the Surrey total of which 26 came off wides.
Full postAvishka Gunawardena races to second century of the series
The forty or so groundsmen, who worked so hard in the morning to dry the ground this morning, will have been greatly relieved that their efforts have proved so worthwhile for the Sri Lankan team
Charlie Austin
05-May-2000
The forty or so groundsmen, who worked so hard in the morning to dry
the ground this morning, will have been greatly relieved that their
efforts have proved so worthwhile for the Sri Lankan team. In the 39
overs that were eventually possible, after heavy rains in the
preceding 48 hours, Sri Lanka quickly progressed to 164-1. Not a bad
days work for a side that would have preferred to have started this
match tomorrow and play an extra day at the end.
The Zimbabwean's will perhaps rue their insistence to play today after
a thorough mauling by Avishka Gunawardena (114*). In a quite brutal
display of batting, Avishka was completely undeterred by the bowler
friendly conditions and continued in the same positive vein that he
scored a hundred at Kurunegala and a 72 in the Colombo for the BCCSL
XI.
His 114 not out from just 132 balls was a dismissive innings, it was
the innings of a man who has supreme confidence in his ability at the
moment. The greatest threat to his wicket is surely his
overconfidence. In fact this innings was neither as technically
correct nor as ascetically pleasing as the innings in Kurunegala last
week . It made up for this in it's sheer audacity and high class
entertainment. Such is his confidence that he was prepared to uppercut
a disconsolate Andy Blignaut over the slips in the early overs.
Starting the innings with a flurry of boundaries square of the wicket
his only moments of unease were an appeal for a catch behind and a
dropped catch. In the ninth over the Zimbabwean's were certain that he
had been caught behind of the bowling of Blignaut. The umpire didn't
agree and he was allowed to continue. He was also dropped in the gully
when he had made just 60, it was though an extremely hard one-handed
chance.
Full postKenyans defeat Baroda by seven wickets
The visiting Kenyan team scored a comfortable seven wicket victory over Baroda Cricket Association XI in a one day game at the Alembic ground in Baroda on Monday
Partab Ramchand
03-May-2000
The visiting Kenyan team scored a comfortable seven wicket victory
over Baroda Cricket Association XI in a one day game at the Alembic
ground in Baroda on Monday.
Put in to bat, Baroda were all out for 176 in 45.5 overs. Opener D
Thorat (52) and Jacob Martin (38) added 57 runs for the third wicket
off 13.2 overs after two wickets had fallen for 50 runs. But after
that wickets at regular intervals. Thorat faced 75 balls and hit five
fours and a six while M Martin faced 65 balls and hit three of them to
the ropes. The wrecker-in-chief was B Patel who finished with five
wickets for 40 runs off 10 overs.
Kenya lost Ravindu Shah (25) at 37 but wicketkeeper K Otieno (58) and
Hitesh Modi (28) put them firmly on the road to victory with a second
wicket stand of 80 runs off 21 overs. Both batsmen fell in successive
overs but B Patel (31) and skipper Maurice Odumbe (24) closed out the
match with an unbroken fourth wicket stand of 58 runs off 16.2 overs.
Otieno faced 94 balls and hit three fours and four sixes.
Full postPakistan win pre-Test match by 107 runs
Georgetown (Guyana), May 1: Pakistan scored a comfortable 107-run victory over West Indies Under-23s at Uitflugt on Sunday, which carries them into the first Test, starting at Bourda on Friday, with a certain amount of confidence
Qamar Ahmed
02-May-2000
Georgetown (Guyana), May 1: Pakistan scored a comfortable 107-run victory over West Indies Under-23s at Uitflugt on Sunday, which carries them into the first Test, starting at Bourda on Friday, with a certain amount of confidence.
Pakistan's win against the second string of West Indian team was achieved at the fag end of the fourth and final day partly because of various rain stoppages and also partly because of determined batting by Under-23s opener Azeemul Haniff. The youngster once again displayed true grit and concentration while contributing 75 gutsy runs to add to his first innings score of 46.
Haniff batted for 193 minutes and hit eight fours and one six. In the process he shared a partnership of 104 for the sixth-wicket with Marlon Samuels, who scored an attacking 61.
After an early lunch when play resumed at 1.30 p.m with the home team having added 60 to take their overnight score of 12 for one to 72 for three, Sylvester Joseph was out to Shahid Afridi for 23 after a stand of 48 with Haniff.
Full postBCCSL XI waste another opportunity for victory
All those present at De Soysa Park Stadium today were robbed of a potentially appetising contest on the final day of this practice match
Charlie Austin
02-May-2000
All those present at De Soysa Park Stadium today were robbed of a
potentially appetising contest on the final day of this practice
match. Robbed by a Sri Lankan team too concerned about losing and
unprepared to take minimal risks in an effort to win the match. Denied
an opportunity to learn from a run chase the players had to settle for
tedious and quite pointless last two sessions. Required to score 269
in just 56 overs the Zimbawean's unsurprisingly decided not to chase
the runs, finishing 81-4.
Sri Lanka's unwillingness to set a reasonable target, say something in
the region of 210-220 is really quite inexplicable on a pitch that was
giving plenty of assistance to their spinners and against a team with
a relatively inexperienced top order. One hopes that the approach of
both sides will improve in the next match. So far we have no results
from the first three matches.
Starting the day with a lead of 117 the Sri Lankan openers extended
their fine opening partnership to 128. Ian Daniels (52) took over the
role of the aggressor this morning and started well. Looking to be
expansive they soon started to struggle against the Zimbabwean
spinner's leg stump line. Neither Daniels nor Kalavitigoda (72) were
able to increase the scoring rate sufficiently and in the 90 minutes
they batted this morning they only scored 50 runs.
When Daniels was eventually adjudged LBW off the bowling of Raymond
Price it precipitated a dramatic collapse as the Sri Lankan's tried to
increase the tempo but only succeeded in losing wickets. Five wickets
falling for just 16 runs in 28 minutes.
Full postKerala take Coca Cola Trophy
A keen duel for the all important first innings lead was on the cards and this did come about on the concluding day of the Coca Cola Trophy (under-25) tournament final between Kerala and Tamil Nadu at the Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar Sports
Partab Ramchand
02-May-2000
A keen duel for the all important first innings lead was on the cards and this did come about on the concluding day of the Coca Cola Trophy (under-25) tournament final between Kerala and Tamil Nadu at the Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar Sports Complex in Bangalore on Monday. Ultimately Kerala emerged triumphant by snatching a 15-run lead.
Tamil Nadu resumed at 122 for three in reply to Kerala's 323. They suffered an early reverse when Lokesh was out without adding to his overnight score of 50. But their hopes were revived with Subash Raj and skipper Ganesh Kumar (17) adding 48 runs off 21.3 overs. By now it had become a battle of attrition. Dhandapani (17) left at 195 but Subash Raj continued to solider on and with MR Shrinivas (42) added 72 runs for the seventh wicket off 29 overs. At 267 for six, Tamil Nadu were back in the hunt. However at this stage, Shrinivas was run out, dealing a severe blow to Tamil Nadu's hopes. Shrinivas faced 80 balls
and hit four of them to the ropes. When Raghuram (0) was out at 268, Tamil Nadu's goose seemed as good as cooked.
But Subash Raj was still around and he made a valiant last ditch attempt with the help of the tailenders. With No 10 Vasudevan (11) he added 21 runs for the ninth wicket off eight overs. And he continued to battle it out in the company of last man Velmurugan (9 not out) with whom he added 19 runs off four overs. The score went past the 300 mark until amidst much tension and excitement, Subash Raj was leg before to Rajesh with the Tamil Nadu total at 308. Subash Raj had batted in gallant fashion for 84 which took him 418 minutes to compile. He faced 293 balls and hit seven fours. Opening bowler R Menon was the most successful bowler with three for 81 while P Manoj and PV Rajesh took two wickets each. The match was called off after 3.1 mandatory overs when Tamil Nadu were all out. Kerala were richer by Rs 50,000 while Tamil Nadu had to remain content with Rs 30,000. SK Nair chairman, finance comittee, BCCI was the chief guest at the prize distribution function.
Full postWhite Lightning strikes, but injury cloud looms
Grave fears swept around Hampshire's County Ground when South African pace ace Allan Donald was stretched from the field and taken to hospital after crashing into advertising hoardings late in Warwickshire's comfortable win on Monday
Fred McKie
02-May-2000
Grave fears swept around Hampshire's County Ground when South African pace ace Allan Donald was stretched from the field and taken to hospital after crashing into advertising hoardings late in Warwickshire's comfortable win on Monday.
Donald earlier captured three wickets in his first three overs, including the vital scalp of Hampshire captain Robin Smith, who he beat for sheer pace in a devastating display of fast bowling.
But when he attempted a catch at long-on, in the 31st over of Hampshire's innings, he fell heavily into the boundary boards. Play was delayed for four minutes as he slumped in pain in front of a stunned members' stand, players and officials rushed to his aid, paramedics were called to assist the 33-year-old from the ground and an ambulance conveyed him to a local hospital.
Warwickshire fans at the ground were devestated. Their team was in complete control of the match, but the pending victory was marred by thoughts that their star paceman might have injured himself badly enough to miss the lengthy remainder of the season.
Full postHampshire v Zimbabweans - Day 4 report
After, finally, a full day's play, Hampshire managed to force a draw without undue difficulty against the touring Zimbabwean team, the match finishing 20 minutes early in bright sunshine
John Ward
01-May-2000
After, finally, a full day's play, Hampshire managed to force a draw without undue difficulty against the touring Zimbabwean team, the match finishing 20 minutes early in bright sunshine.
Zimbabwe began the day 150 runs ahead of the county side, with four first-innings wickets in hand. Alistair Campbell, on 108 overnight, found it difficult to find his fluency, and his partner Tatenda Taibu made most of the early runs, but the inexperienced Taibu (17 next month) played some of the most impressive strokes - cover drives (off front and back foot) a flick to long leg and a square cut all reaching the boundary.
Hampshire were not impressive, with some loose bowling and one or two half chances and three possible run-outs were missed. Taibu (36) was finally adjudged lbw to Francis and now has a first-class average of 47, after scoring 11 not out in his debut match in the West Indies.
Campbell drove Charlie van der Gucht for a straight six, and then took a single to reach an unbeaten 150, whereupon he declared with a lead of 233. Hampshire made a steady start to their second innings, reaching 17 without loss at lunch (Jason Laney 8, Giles White 9).
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