John Mooney’s man-of-the-match winning spell of 3-23 restricted Namibia to 124 for 8 before Ireland, riding on captain William Porterfield’s unbeaten half-century, knocked off the runs with 16 balls to spare

Peter Della Penna in Belfast10-Jul-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsHe may have eased off on plans to wear a black armband to protest the ‘death of Associate cricket’, but John Mooney followed through with an impressive spell of seam bowling to launch Ireland’s 2015 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier campaign in a seven-wicket win over Namibia at Stormont, Belfast. The allrounder’s man-of-the-match winning spell of 3-23 restricted Namibia to 124 for 8 before Ireland, riding on captain William Porterfield’s unbeaten half-century, knocked off the runs with 16 balls to spare.After Namibia’s Stephen Baard pulled a six and four off the opening over bowled by Tyrone Kane, Mooney replaced Kane for the third and peeled off an impressive four-over spell to quell Namibia’s top order. Baard fell slashing to Niall O’Brien at third man off Mooney’s third ball before Gerrie Snyman edged an attempted drive to Gary Wilson in the fifth over. Mooney capped off his burst with a brilliant yorker to remove Raymond van Schoor as Namibia slipped from 20 for 0 to 45 for 3.The spin tandem of George Dockrell and Paul Stirling kept the clamps on Namibia’s middle order from the 10th through the 16th overs. After Stirling started off with a maiden in the 10th, Dockrell struck in the first ball of the 11th when JP Kotze’s tame cut floated to Alex Cusack at backward point where he dived forward for the catch.Dockrell started the the 13th over with a wicket after Sarel Burger skipped down the track but failed to clear Kevin O’Brien at long off. Craig Williams then lofted Stirling to Andrew Balbirnie at sweeper cover in the 14th to make it 73 for 6.Namibia’s biggest partnership of the day – 32 for the seventh wicket between JJ Smit and Nicolas Scholtz – came to an end when Smit edged an attempted cut behind to Wilson off Cusack. Scholtz failed to fend off a short ball two balls later to give Wilson his third catch of the day.Ireland’s chase got off to a sloppy start with Stirling spooning his second ball to short extra cover off Jason Davidson where Baard claimed a low diving catch. Three balls later, Porterfield nearly ran himself out on nought when he set off from the non-striker’s end for a single behind point. He was sent back by Niall O’Brien but the throw to the bowler’s end bounced over the stumps.Porterfield and Niall O’Brien survived another pair of chances, on 5 and 18 respectively, before settling down to notch up a 71-run stand. Niall eventually holed out to long off against Burger on the first ball of the 11th for 45 before his brother Kevin was dismissed in identical fashion in the next over off Bernard Scholtz’s left-arm spin for 3.Porterfield and Balbirnie shared an unbroken stand of 48 runs to ensure Ireland had no further alarms. Porterfield hit his sixth four through extra cover to bring up his half-century off 43 balls, and level the scores. He ended the match the very next ball with another four .

Rain and gloom delayed the start but Lancashire wasted no time in taking the final five wickets they needed to confirm a resounding innings victory over Glamorgan

Paul Edwards at Colwyn Bay22-Jul-2015
ScorecardSimon Kerrigan picked up 4 for 28 as Glamorgan’s resistance was broken•Getty Images

Whatever riches this match possessed, it did not, until the final morning, contain much tension. Lancashire’s batsmen had amassed runs like bibliomaniacs collect books and Glamorgan’s had done their best to respond. Glen Chapple had produced the finest spell of seam bowling ever seen on an autobahn but it was Lancashire’s spinners who seemed likely to seal the win that would take their side 68 points clear of third-placed Glamorgan having played one game more. There was lots of interest but little doubt.Then on Wednesday morning the sky was as grey as a deacon’s suit and the rain fell from the Book of Isaiah. Would Lancashire get any chance of press home their Kangchenjunga of an advantage? There was much mooching about and shaking of heads. Websites had predicted everything short of Armageddon, said the wiseacres and the oddballs.Just before noon, the small crowd received deliverance from both the gloom and its mongers. The clouds broke and Lancashire coach Ashley Giles even came out to bowl to some patient young spectators on the outfield. Stewards fielded. It was one of the most heart-warming sights of a season which has been filled with such gentle stuff.Giles’s players had a match to win, though, and five wickets to take. As it turned out, their spinners managed this lickety-spit and a match which might have dragged protesting into its final hour was won before 2.30pm. Within 30 minutes or so the plastic chairs were stacked, the temporary sightscreen was being towed away and the ground was undergoing its curious metamorphosis back into the home of Colwyn Bay CC.By the time all this shifting was under way, Simon Kerrigan and Arron Lilley were on the road home, having helped take their side to their seventh four-day win of the season. They had done so under the interested gaze of Peter Such, the ECB’s lead spin bowling coach, who already knows plenty about Kerrigan but was keen to see a little more of Lilley.Neither bowler will have disappointed Such but both were made to wait on this final day as Glamorgan’s batsmen threatened to reproduce the truculent defiance they had offered in the first innings. Chris Cooke and Andrew Salter dealt very capably with the 11 overs bowled by Chapple and Kyle Jarvis and it was not until James Faukner was given the ball that Glamorgan resistance cracked and crumbled away.First Cooke, who had reached his fifty off 139 balls by driving Chapple easefully through midwicket, shaped to cut the Australia seamer but only edged a catch to slip which Paul Horton held at the second attempt. But now Lancastrian joy was tempered by the sight of the dark clouds rolling in from the mountains. They looked as if they would dump more rain upon Penrhyn Avenue but did not do so. The poor light, however, prompted the umpires to give Croft the hint that the spinners would need to be operating if the game was to continue.Lilley was brought on from the Embankment End and a remarkable match scampered to its conclusion. In Lilley’s first over Craig Meschede was leg before on the back foot and Graham Wagg was bowled by what seemed an arm ball that the Glamorgan man was attempting to cut. In three balls Lancashire had disposed of much of their opponents’ heavy artillery and they could almost taste the post-match lager.Three overs later Kerrigan had Salter lbw for 34 when playing no shot and in his next over he finished the match by accounting for Michael Hogan, who had already deposited Lilley into the tea hut. The Australian skied Kerrigan to Jarvis at cover and Lancashire’s players strolled happily from the field, secure in the knowledge that they now led second-placed Surrey by 32 points. In all, five Glamorgan wickets had fallen for 12 runs in 53 balls.Kerrigan performed well on this final afternoon and looked to have the rhythm and balance which are integral to good spin bowling. But Lilley’s 3 for 38 had given him match figures of 6 for 151 and he now has 23 wickets in five County Championship games. He was selected ahead of Kerrigan in Lancashire’s last game against Essex and it is no wonder that Such is taking an interest. A place on a Lions tour seems a possibility.Not that this will have troubled Lilley too much as he joined in Lancashire’s raucous victory song, although chant might be a more appropriate word for the thing, since it consists of the one word, “Lancashire”, which is yelled at drum-splitting volume. At Colwyn Bay this was done directly above the gentleman’s washroom, turning it into a thunderbox, indeed.Within an hour, though, almost everyone connected with professional cricket had gone their many ways. The ground which had witnessed that Petersen-Prince stand was left to the afternoon sunlight and to the monstrous gulls. The huge birds were stalking on the outfield as if it were they, and not two South African batsmen, who really owned the place.

India’s fielding coach R Sridhar has lauded Ajinkya Rahane as the “complete package” on the field, after he broke the record for most catches in a single Test

Sharda Ugra and Arun Venugopal 14-Aug-20153:19

‘Was just trying to stay focused at the slips’ – Rahane

Ajinkya Rahane could easily be considered the Indian fielding unit’s MVP, given his flexibility and ability to patrol all parts, and across all formats. He has speed on the ground, the athleticism on the ring, and the soft hands valuable in the close cordon.That he broke the existing record of seven catches by a fielder in a single Test is a reflection of those qualities. Of his eight catches, six were at first slip and two were in the gully. Five were off the spinners, and two off the seamers. Rahane himself had no idea about the world record he had broken. “Vijay and Umesh told me (during a drinks break) it was a world record and I was quite surprised.”In Test matches, Rahane said he stood in two main positions: always in the gully for the pace bowlers, and put into first slip for the spinners in this Test by captain Virat Kohli. India are still trying to find a settled slip cordon and the incumbent Shikhar Dhawan moved out due to a hand injury on day one; in this match Rahane has shown that he has the chops to prepare for and master slip-fielding.India’s fielding coach R Sridhar told ESPNcricinfo that Rahane was the “complete package” on the field.”It’s about strong hands and anticipation which he is excellent in and because he is a good athlete, he is good in the outfield,” Sridhar said. Once Rahane learnt he was to field in the slips on this tour, he took it upon himself to ask for “very, very specific sessions.”He expected, Sridhar said, for more catches to come off the left-handers to spinners and “made sure he took a lot of catches low to his left standing at first slip, going away from him, and that paid off.” Rahane has taken a range of first slip catches in the match – the conventional, which demand stability with a low-centre-of-gravity, the fast faders moving away from his wrong hand and the diving one-handed screamers: e.g. off Thirimane in both innings, and the key wicket of Kumara Sangakkara in the second. Sridhar says, “He has also got enough cricket acumen and wisdom to position himself absolutely appropriately.”Rahane believes the key to fielding in the slips is “focus and concentration”. According to Sridhar, along with asking for specific sessions, Rahane also did a lot of “rapid reaction and decision-making drills and match simulation catches.” The close-in drills, done with all the fielders, involved two different-coloured soft balls, one red, one white, being thrown at the fielder, with the coach calling out the ball that he needed to catch. “We throw both at the same time and they are hidden – the players can’t see which hand I am holding the ball in.”According to Rahane, the Indian players have been taking “fifty to hundred” catches a day during training, and Sridhar felt it was Rahane’s “excellent reflexes” made him an obvious candidate to field at slips. “He has got a very nice composed demeanour which suits slip fielding,” Sridhar said. “A slip fielder requires good bouts of concentration, also lots of calmness and composure.”Ajinkya is a very calm and composed guy, at the same time he has got excellent reflexes, reactions and anticipation. It’s a combination of these two which prompted our captain Virat Kohli to suggest that Ajinkya should be at slips.”

Shoaib Malik had waited more than five years for a return to Pakistan’s Test side and England’s generorisy ensured he had a century to mark it in the first Test in Abu Dhabi

Andrew Miller13-Oct-2015Close
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsShoaib Malik marked his first Test appearance for more than five years with a composed unbeaten 124, Mohammad Hafeez fell two runs short of a century of his own, while Younis Khan sealed his place in history by overhauling Javed Miandad’s 22-year-old record to become the leading run-scorer in Pakistan Test history, as England’s bowlers were served notice of the hard graft to come on the opening day of the first Test in Abu Dhabi.By the close they had chiselled four key wickets, including that of Pakistan’s captain Misbah-ul-Haq, who had made three centuries in as many innings in his last two Tests in Abu Dhabi, but was dismissed this time for 3 in controversial circumstances – umpire S Ravi upholding James Anderson’s review for a caught-behind, despite no overwhelming evidence that the initial not-out decision had been incorrect in the first place.Malik, however, was still in situ at stumps, having negotiated 230 deliveries in his first first-class innings since November 2014. With a previous best score of 39 in five Tests against England, the last of which was also his most recent outing, at Edgbaston on the infamous 2010 tour, he had been, on the face of it, an insubstantial replacement for Pakistan’s established No. 3, Azhar Ali, who was ruled out of the contest with an infected toe first injured on the Haj pilgrimage to Mecca.And yet, having forced his way back into the reckoning by averaging exactly 100 in 11 matches since his ODI recall earlier this year, Malik proved to be the rock of Pakistan’s first innings. With 14 fours, the majority filleted through the off side whenever England’s discipline wavered, he showcased the technique, application and acceleration necessary to thrive in the stifling heat of the UAE desert.The bulk of Pakistan’s first-day total of 286 for 4 were made in his 168-run stand for the second wicket with Hafeez, who was himself making a return to the team having been overlooked for Pakistan’s most recent Test, against Sri Lanka in Pallekele in July. Hafeez had looked nailed on for his ninth Test hundred until Ben Stokes trapped him lbw with the final ball of the afternoon session – an optimistic review proved futile as replays showed the ball was taking out his leg stump.Younis Khan salutes the crowd after breaking Javed Miandad’s Pakistan record•Getty Images

At 173 for 2, the die was cast for an arduous final session, and sure enough, into the fray strode the imposing figure of Younis, who started the series needing 19 runs to overhaul Miandad’s long-standing record of 8,832 runs. After a cautious start, he climbed into his strokes against the spinners and, in one bludgeoned swing of the bat against Moeen Ali, he struck the six over midwicket that enabled him to leapfrog both Miandad and his predecessor as Pakistan’s linchpin, Inzamam-ul-Haq, who had challenged Miandad’s record back in 2007, only to fall three runs short in his final Test innings.Younis’ itchy innings continued in a similar vein and it was not a massive surprise when, on 38, he smeared once too often at Broad and picked out Cook at short straight mid-on, a cunning fielding position from a captain who has begun to find his feet as a tactician in the past six months.There was little Cook could do, however, about the moments that got away from him and his team, and three vital let-offs – one each for Shoaib and Hafeez, and another for Asad Shafiq in the penultimate over of the day – cruelly undermined a determined day’s work from England’s six-man attack.The need for the fielders to capitalise on every opportunity had been drummed home by their assistant coach, Paul Farbrace, in the wake of two fallible fielding efforts in their warm-up games in Sharjah last week. But the advice might as well have been a mirage, in particular to Ian Bell, whose two dropped chances at slip spoke of a cricketer who, to judge by his comments after the Ashes win, isn’t entirely convinced of his continued hunger.The first moment came in just the seventh over of the morning when Bell, at second slip, dropped a regulation edge when Hafeez had made just 7.England at that stage were on something of a roll. Anderson, restored to new-ball duties after being ruled out of the final two Ashes Tests with a side strain, had already drawn level with Wasim Akram on 414 Test wickets by bowling a shocked Shan Masood off his grille with his first short ball of the day.Shan Masood deflected the ball on to his stumps but England’s opportunities were limited•Getty Images

Two overs later, he changed his angle subtly to lure Hafeez into a loose prod outside off stump. The edge, however, appeared to travel in slow motion to Bell, who reached down to his left but fumbled the knee-high opportunity.The wicket-that-wasn’t would have left Pakistan 12 for 2 in the seventh over. Bell’s second miss, a near-identical chance off Anderson with Shafiq on 10 at the time, would have given England a hard-earned fifth of the day. Anderson finished the day with the creditable figures of 2 for 29 in 14 overs, but he could have had a four-for on an absolute road.To a degree, England’s tactics served their purpose in the conditions. The seamers operated in short, sharp bursts, including alternating one-over spells as Anderson and Broad shared the burden in the heat of the afternoon. Initially Anderson concentrated on a fourth-stump line to a packed off-side field, before attacking the stumps with reverse swing and a leg-biased field. At the other end Moeen Ali, the senior spinner, kept things tight, at least until the final session, to give Adil Rashid, the debutant legspinner, licence to mix it up in search of the partnership-breaking moment.But the other opportunity, when it eventually came, was squandered by Broad’s size 12s. Midway through the first hour of the afternoon session, Shoaib on 40, squirted an angled delivery from Broad straight into Joe Root’s midriff at gully. Instantly, however, the third umpire zoomed in on Broad’s front foot, which had clearly landed the wrong side of the popping crease.England were suitably aghast, for it was the sixth time one of their bowlers has been denied a wicket by a no-ball this year. And yet, in mitigation, they have only been called for 23 in the whole of 2015, and never more than three in a single innings. For all that Broad was at fault, so too are the umpires for failing to police the front line until the critical wicket-taking moments.To their credit, England kept their discipline in spite of the disappointment, and by the close Pakistan’s run-rate had at least been kept in relative check. But after two half-hearted warm-ups, they entered this match like an unseared steak in a roasting hot oven. Under-cooked in the preparation, and therefore over-cooked in the final reckoning.

Wellington Masakadza’s best ODI figures of 4 for 21, and three-fors from debutant Tendai Chisoro and Luke Jongwe helped Zimbabwe crush Afghanistan by eight wickets in the first ODI in Bulawayo

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Oct-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsWellington Masakadza picked up 4 for 21 and was adjudged the Man of the Match•AFP

Wellington Masakadza’s best ODI figures of 4 for 21, and three-fors from debutant Tendai Chisoro and Luke Jongwe helped Zimbabwe crush Afghanistan by eight wickets in the first ODI in Bulawayo. Afghanistan were bundled out for 122 and the hosts chased it down with rather ease within 24 overs with a fifty from Chamu Chibhabha.Afghanistan elected to bat on a typically flat Queens Sports Club pitch and were rocked by Jongwe’s double-wicket maiden in the sixth over. He had Noor Ali Zadran sky a catch to midwicket and Nawroz Mangal edge one to Craig Ervine in the slips, leaving them on 15 for 2. No. 3 Mohammad Shahzad counterattacked by smashing three consecutive fours off Tinashe Panyangara in the next over and got a reprieve when he was dropped by John Nyumbu in the slips in the same over.However, Jongwe struck again, in the tenth over, when captain Asghar Stanikzai also edged one to Ervine in the slips to finish his first spell with 6-2-10-3. Shahzad buckled down for a few overs and broke free with a six off left-arm spinner Masakadza but was trapped lbw on the very next ball and to deepen Afghanistan’s problems, Mohammad Nabi edged his first ball to the slips, Ervine taking his third catch, to leave Masakadza on a hat-trick.Najibullah Zadran survived the hat-trick ball and nearly fell in Masakadza’s next over when he drove the ball at a catchable height to Chisoro at mid-off, but the chance was spilled. Masakadza didn’t have to wait long for his third wicket – Samiullah Shenwari also offered a catch to Chisoro at mid-off and this time the debutant held on to it.Afghanistan were 71 for 6 now and Najibullah unleashed a four and a six off Nyumbu’s consecutive overs to give them some hope of a revival. But Chisoro dashed those aspirations by dismissing Amir Hamza and Najibullah in consecutive overs before they could reach 100. Tailenders Dawlat Zadran and Aftab Alam did rescue the innings a little bit. They combined for the innings’ biggest partnership of 27 runs which featured three fours and a six from Dawlat. Chisoro came back to break the stand and Masakadza finished things off in his seventh over to wrap the innings in the 35th over.Zimbabwe came out to bat an hour before lunch, and Chibhabha got going with a whip off his pads for four in the second over. The opening pair of Chibhabha and Richmond Mutumbami had the chase in a cruise with a fifty stand which saw frequent fours from both batsmen. The partnership of 53 was broken by medium-pacer Aftab Alam as Mutumbami edged him behind for 30.Chibhabha then reached his 15th ODI fifty in style with a six off Amir Hamza in the 19th over and followed it with a four in the next over, but fell in the over after that for a brisk 58.Tinotenda Mutombodzi finished things off three overs later with a four and a six to hand his team a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.

David Warner has slammed New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum for his comments on Steven Smith’s decision to not withdraw an obstructing-the-field appeal against England’s Ben Stokes

Brydon Coverdale in Brisbane03-Nov-20151:24

‘NZ the nice guys, we’re the aggressors’ – Warner

If Australia and New Zealand are the big brother and little brother across the ditch, they have certainly mastered the art of the sibling insults. You’re immature. No, you are. I know you are but what am I? Such is the niggle that has crept in between the teams this year, a year in which they not only faced off in a World Cup final, but have clearly approached their cricket in different ways.New Zealand under Brendon McCullum are all about the spirit of cricket. No sledging and send-offs for them. By comparison, Australia have been widely viewed as the villains of the rivalry, the masters of the on-field verbals, the send-offs, of playing to win at all costs. They say they try not to cross the line, but in the words of David Warner: “We’ve head-butted it a couple of times”.A key case of carping this year was McCullum’s column in September, when he said that Australia’s captain Steven Smith had “showed his immaturity” by not withdrawing an obstructing the field appeal against England’s Ben Stokes in an ODI. McCullum argued that it was a chance for Smith to make a statement about the way he wanted his side to play.It was a comment that was not well received by the Australians, who in the lead-up to this week’s first Test in Brisbane have clearly not forgotten McCullum’s words. Smith told this week that he was “a little bit disappointed” and that he felt it was none of McCullum’s business; his vice-captain was less polite in his words when asked about the incident on Tuesday.”In my opinion it was something that was quite poor and immature on his behalf, to actually make the comment about Steve,” Warner said. “For one, as an international cricketer I don’t see the need or the right for a current cricket captain to write columns on another series. After I read the first one I didn’t really pay attention to what he was saying.”His opinion is going to be heard worldwide but you can’t be talking about the players the way he did. At the end of the day he’s the captain and you’ve got to respect Brendon, he’s done a great job with the Kiwis and he’s trying to make them the world’s politest team, and well done to him.”Warner was critical of what he considered to be the hypocrisy of McCullum by having his team play as the “Mr Nice Guys” of world cricket on the field, yet criticise Australia’s captain off it. New Zealand have been regular winners of the ICC’s Spirit of Cricket Award, but that is not something that interests Warner.McCullum had written that Smith had shown his immaturity by not withdrawing an obstructing-the-field appeal against England at Lord’s•Getty Images

“At the end of the day you’re not playing for the Spirit of Cricket Award are you, you’re playing for a series and for us that’s what our goal is, is to win the series,” he said. “Our goal is to be No.1 in all formats and we’re always going to fight for that. At the end of the day we try not to cross that line. A couple of times we’ve head-butted it.”Smith, for his part, said this week that if he had his time over again he would do nothing differently in following through with the obstructing the field appeal against Stokes. McCullum wondered in his newspaper column at the time whether Smith might live to regret the appeal, but Australia’s captain dismissed that suggestion this week.”I actually wouldn’t change a thing,” Smith said. “I think what happened, Starcy threw the ball and Stokes willingly put his hand out when the ball was going to hit the stumps, so for me it was just out. If I faced the same situation again you’d get the same result.”It was a nice little experience. Obviously the crowds can be quite vocal over in England, at Lord’s that day they were getting into you. That doesn’t happen too often but I think it was nice to look back and be able to say if that happened again I’d do the same thing. No regrets.”The New Zealanders can no doubt expect some choice words from the Australians when the Test series begins on Thursday, as was the case during the World Cup; after the final, Brad Haddin said he had wanted to get stuck into New Zealand because they had been so nice it made him feel uncomfortable. Fast bowler Trent Boult said sledging was not in the New Zealand make-up.”In terms of sledging, the Australians are known for that but I can’t see us wasting too much energy there and getting caught up in too much of that stuff,” Boult said. “We haven’t spoken about don’t sledge anyone or anything like that. It’s 38 degrees out there at the moment so we aren’t going to waste our energy trying to spray the Australians.”

The first T20 went down to the wire but it was still Bangladesh who prevailed, winning by four wickets in Mirpur

The Report by Mohammad Isam13-Nov-2015
ScorecardMalcolm Waller smashed the fastest fifty by a Zimbabwe player in international cricket•AFP

Finally a contest, eleven days and four matches into Zimbabwe’s tour of Bangladesh. The first T20 went down to the wire but it was still Bangladesh who prevailed, winning by four wickets in Mirpur. Malcolm Waller and Graeme Cremer offered a fight on behalf of Zimbabwe, but ultimately 131 wasn’t a big enough score for the bowlers to work with.Waller got into a six-hitting mode that dug the visitors out from a hole, and later it was Cremer whose double-wicket over gave Bangladesh something to think about at 80 for 5. Liton Das and Mahmudullah and later Mashrafe Mortaza, though, ensured the win with two short but vital partnerships for the sixth and seventh wickets. Mashrafe finished off the contest with a straight smack over the bowler’s head in the 18th over.Zimbabwe were inserted and by the ninth over, they were four down. The openers Sikandar Raza and Regis Chakabva fell within the first nine balls of the innings before their best hitter Elton Chigumbura, and their best batsman of the year, Sean Williams, got out with the score reading only 38.Raza was dismissed in the first over, giving Liton Das an easy catch at mid-off. Chakabva premeditated a scoop but Al-Amin Hossain changed his length at the last moment to have him flap at a short ball, looping it to Mushfiqur Rahim. In the next over, Mashrafe got his opposite number by getting one to rush past his defenses. Williams was then bowled by Nasir Hossain, who celebrated by blowing a kiss to the heavens. He had managed only one boundary in his 21-ball 15.What happened next was hardly predictable, given how the Zimbabwe batsmen have fared on this tour. Waller suddenly exploded in the most spectacular way. The straight boundaries on both sides had been pulled in by a few metres but most of Waller’s blows cleared the ropes by a long way.Jubair Hossain, playing his first-ever T20 game at any level, bowled one extremely short ball which nearly bounced twice as Waller smashed his first six. He clubbed the next ball for a huge six over midwicket and the Waller machine was up and rumbling. Jubair conceded 17 in that first over but Nasir had more trouble in the next over. Waller took all 20 runs, with two fours and two sixes, the second of which was parried over the ropes by Tamim Iqbal.Waller soon reached his fifty off 20 balls, the fastest for a Zimbabwe batsmen in international cricket, eclipsing the 21-ball fifties of Dougie Marillier, Chigumbura and Williams. Mahmudullah then ended the 67-run fifth wicket stand by bowling Craig Ervine for 20.Jubair was brought back for a second over and much to his relief, he got rid of Luke Jongwe and Neville Madziva. Waller was finally sent back to the pavilion in the 18th over when he holed out to deep midwicket off Mustafizur Rahman. He finished with 68 off 31 balls with four fours and the six sixes. Mustafizur wrapped up the innings with three balls to spare when he had Tinashe Panyangara lbw. Mashrafe, Al-Amin, Mustafizur and Jubair all took two wickets apiece while Mahmudullah and Nasir claimed one each.Bangladesh didn’t have a great start either, after Anamul Haque, in his first international match since the World Cup, fell run out in the first over, courtesy Raza’s brilliant stop at cover. Sabbir Rahman, promoted to No. 3, crashed three boundaries but was undone for 18 off 16 balls, after Ervine too a good diving catch at midwicket in the sixth over.Mushfiqur Rahim, though, got out to the worst ball, top-edging a long hop from Cremer in the next over. Tamim, who was was watching all of this from the other end, batted quite sedately after the fall of Sabbir. Nasir joined Tamim and hit the first six of the innings by creaming Williams over long-on He even got a boundary off Cremer’s next over but was out lbw next ball. Tamim was also dismissed lbw in the same over, despite gesturing that he had hit the ball.Bangladesh slipped to 80 for five in the eleventh over but Mahmudullah and Liton combined to put the hosts back on track. They added 38 runs for the sixth with before Liton guided Chisoro to short third-man for 17, in the 16th over. Mashrafe and Mahmudullah, however, finished the chase with 14 balls to spare.

A round-up of Group A games of the Ranji Trophy played on December 4, 2015

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Dec-2015
ScorecardFile photo – CM Gautam’s fighting fifty was not enough as Karnataka’s 34-match unbeaten streak came to an end•PTI

Pacer Nikit Dhumal picked up five wickets in the second innings, to add to three in the first, to halt Karnataka’s 37-match unbeaten streak in first-class cricket and knock them out of the Ranji Trophy. Anupam Sanklecha, who took four wickets, including the last two, ably complemented Dhumal, as Karnataka were dismissed for 239, chasing 293 in Pune.Robin Uthappa began positively on the last day, hitting his 46th first-class fifty. However, he could not convert it into a big score and was pinned lbw by Sanklecha. The majority of the middle order fumbled, leaving much to do for CM Gautam and the lower order. He rallied with Vinay Kumar and S Aravind but eventually ran out of partners. Gautam remained unbeaten on 65 off 104 balls, including seven fours, as Karnataka came up short by 53 runs. Mahasrashtra, who were already out of contention for the quarter-finals, finished the season with a consolation win.
ScorecardAfter having struck 110 with the bat, Ravi Jangid bowled Vidarbha to the knockouts with career-best figures of 7-59, which took his wickets tally in the match to 11. Jangid had toiled away for 41 overs and was assisted by spinner Akshay Wakhare who bowled 31.1 overs for two wickets. Yuzvendra Chahal, coming in at No.10 delayed the final rites with 0 off 77 balls.Haryana, though, had begun well before falling away. Having been asked to follow on, Haryana had a solid platform thanks to Nitin Saini (42) and Mohit Hooda (38). Rohit Sharma scored his maiden first-class century even as he lacked substantial support from the middle and lower order. He was the ninth batsman, dismissed by Jangid, for 107 off 241 balls, as Haryana were bowled out for 232, nine less than their first-innings effort.
ScorecardAssam just about held on for a draw against Bengal in Guwahati, a result which ensured that both teams booked their berth for the Ranji knockouts. Assam, following on, needed at least 301 to make Bengal bat again, but as was the case in their first innings, the majority of their top and middle order failed to make good on their starts. Pallavkumar Das top-scored with 55, but offspinner Aamir Gani’s five-wicket haul meant Assam lost wickets at regular intervals. Luckily for the hosts, though, a wet outfield before the start, and bad light towards the end of the day meant only 48 overs of play were possible, with Assam hanging on at 143 for 8.

AB de Villiers has dropped a hint that he might be willing after all to lead South Africa’s Test team in the longer term

Firdose Moonda in Johannesburg16-Jan-2016AB de Villiers has dropped a hint that he might be willing after all to lead South Africa’s Test team in the longer term, after stating that it was pressure, not personnel, that led to the side’s downfall on a catastrophic third day at Johannesburg.De Villiers, who had been rumoured to be on the verge of retirement from Test cricket amid concerns about his workload, quashed any such rumours in the wake of South Africa’s seven-wicket defeat at The Wanderers.Faced with an inspired spell of bowling from Stuart Broad, who claimed 5 for 1 in ten overs after lunch, South Africa crumbled to 83 all out in their second innings. The result confirmed the end of South Africa’s reign as the No.1 Test team, and may just have galvanised South Africa’s new Test captain to stick to his guns and lead a side in transition out of their current malaise.”I was never thinking of leaving Test cricket at all. I was just to find a way to rest a little bit throughout the year,” de Villiers said after the match. “Lots of thoughts have been crossing my mind but this [defeat] has got absolutely no influence on that.””Playing on the cricket pitch has never been an issue for me, it’s just a matter of keeping myself fresh. It’s really tough to stay on top of your game if you play up to 12 months a year. I just have to try and find a balance to keep my fight going and keep that skill level up.”South Africa’s skills may have been lacking in the decisive third Test, and the absence of several key members of their team – Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, JP Duminy and Quinton de Kock, not to mention a specialist opening batsman – cannot have helped. However, de Villiers believes the team still has plenty raw materials with which to rebuild their fortunes.”The players we have are not really the issue, there’s still something to work with there,” he said. “The talent is there, it’s just a matter of finding consistency and applying pressure more often”They [England] kept applying the pressure. Every time we looked like starting a good partnership, they took a good catch or bowled a good delivery, and it just kept going like that. I guess when momentum is on your side, things tend to happen that way. Credit to them for creating that kind of pressure.”It was a tough day for AB de Villiers but he wants to carry on•Getty Images

Facing up to the loss of the series, and their No.1 Test ranking, de Villiers conceded, somewhat dramatically, “I almost feel like all hope is gone”. However, throwing ahead to the final dead-rubber Test in Centurion, he struck a more upbeat note.”I’m still the kind of guy that will get myself going for that last Test match, and get the team going,” he said. “I felt we were in the game lots of times throughout the Test match and just didn’t grab those opportunities.”South Africa’s chances came in the first innings when they were 117 for 1 against an England attack struggling with a stomach bug and with a big total on the cards. Instead, they squandered that chance and threw their wickets away, with every batsman reaching double figures but none going past Dean Elgar’s 46, to put themselves under unnecessary pressure.”There were quite a few opportunities that we had throughout the match and one was in the first innings,” de Villiers said. “We were getting a lot of partnerships going, a lot of guys got in. There was a great opportunity to get 400-plus and we didn’t take that. 400-plus on this wicket is very tough to play against. Unfortunately we missed that trick.”Then, South Africa had England 91 for 4 in reply and “let it slip.” De Villiers struggled to use his four quicks effectively, primarily because they all did the same job. Among them, there was no designated holding bowler and, without a spinner, there was no way to slow the game down. However, de Villiers did not blame team selection or player unavailability for the leaked runs.”We miss Dale, there’s no excuse with that. We miss Vern, we miss Kallis as well. But this is the team we have and the team I believe in,” he said. “It’s up to the 11 here and the 11 that get picked at Centurion to do something special. That’s the way past players like a Kallis and a Smith did it. They had some tough times and they found a way to get through it to get to the top of the rankings. We’ve now got to find a way with what we have to become the best.”De Villiers does not know how to find that way at the moment, but he knows the fundamental reason why. “We’re not the same side anymore,” he said. “There are lots of different players. We’re still up there in the rankings, but that means absolutely nothing. I believe our form of late has been really poor and it will take something really special to turn it around. It’s important for us to try and find that mould of cricket we’re looking to play. We’re a little bit offbeat at the moment, that’s for sure.””The youngsters will learn a lot. Not long ago I was that youngster in the team, going through ups and downs at Test level, personally and as a team a while back. You learn a lot from that. It’s important just to survive and for a youngster to get through this and not to give up and gain a lot of experience. If guys like Kagiso [Rabada] and Hardus [Viljoen] and a few others get through this patch, they’ll become much better cricketers.”De Villiers hopes to be the man to guide them through that, even if his captaincy stint is clipped at the end of these two Tests.”It’s a big responsibility for me, and a great opportunity to have an influence on younger players. I would love to walk away from the game knowing I’ve had an influence on the young guys turning into senior players in the team,” de Villiers said. “There’s a group of about four or five players that have the responsibility on their shoulders, and it’s important for us to keep things intact. And to keep the hope going. I’d love to be captain, I’m hopefully still captain in the next game, we’ll see.”In this match, de Villiers could not inspire his players, even though he said he gave it his all. “The message in the change-room was to keep fighting, there’s no doubt in my mind all 11 kept fighting but we just got a good hammering from the opposition,” he said. “I tried everything I could personally, I believe my fellow team-mates also did. It’s difficult to explain how these kind of things happen, we have to give credit to the England bowlers and the team.”That was where de Villiers had to concede South Africa were simply outgunned by a man with a trained eye. Broad dealt them a blow they will take a long time to recover from and for which, at the moment, they have no explanation for.”That’s some of the best bowling I’ve faced from their whole unit. Conditions suited them really well and they made full use of that,” he said. “They asked a lot of questions, right throughout our innings. They didn’t ask as many questions in the first innings and that’s where I thought we missed a trick.”This time around they were spot on, they were a little bit fuller in their lengths and they asked questions all the time. The ball was moving around a lot, but they showed some good skill and you have to give them credit for that, especially Broady for getting the results.”

Zimbabwe batsman Hamilton Masakadza blitzed an unbeaten 162 for Mashonaland Eagles against Mountaineers in the Domestic Twenty20 Competition, notching the second-highest individual score in T20 cricket

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Feb-2016Zimbabwe batsman Hamilton Masakadza blitzed an unbeaten 162 for Mountaineers against Mashonaland Eagles in the Domestic Twenty20 Competition, notching the second-highest individual score in T20 cricket. Masakadza, playing his 104th T20 match, did not take long to start firing, taking 16 runs off Tafadzwa Muzarawetu’s first over. The boundaries did not stop there, and Masakadza eventually reached his fifty off just 24 balls; his next 112 runs came off only 47.Overall, Masakadza slammed 14 fours and 11 sixes at an astonishing strike-rate of 228.16. His onslaught did not spare any bowler, though Tanyaradzwa Munyaradzi (41 off 16 balls) and Chamu Chibhahbha (34 off 11 balls) came in for special treatment. Masakadza reached his 150 in the penultimate over with a two, and with two consecutive sixes off Munyaradzi, he overtook the likes of Luke Wright, Aron Finch and Brendon McCullum in the list of highest individual T20 scores.Masakadza ended 13 runs short Chris Gayle’s record-shattering 175* for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 2013 IPL, but he did not face a single ball of the final over bowled by Muzarawetu, who ended nursing figures of 4-0-62-1.Masakadza’s blast, coupled with a five-ball 22 from Kudzai Sauramba, powered Mountaineers to 242 for 3. Eagles could only manage 107 for 9 from 12.1 overs in reply, giving Mountaineers a 125-run D/L win.