ScorecardBarbados drove home the advantage by securing first-innings points thanks to a fine 127 by Dale Richards that propelled them to finish the second day on 259 for 5, 18 runs ahead of Guyana, at the Everest Cricket Club.Richards, who hit his first first-class century, was the dominant player early on as he and Wayne Blackman (27) put on a solid opening stand. Kurt Wilkinson provided good support, making just 20 in the 63-run partnership with Richards after Reon King, the pick of the bowlers with 3 for 54, dismissed Blackman with the score on 79.However, after Wilkinson departed, Richards went into his shell and dropped anchor as Ryan Hinds played some aggressive shots during his half-century. The pair took to score past 200 and the game was slipping away from Guyana until King struck with the crucial wicket of Hinds for 57 and then followed up by dismissing Floyd Reifer (5). Richards, who battled cramps in the latter half of his innings, fell just before stumps, leg-before to Esaun Crandon.
The highlights of Michael Clarke’s debut series in India had been limited to news bulletins and pay television, so most Australians were getting their first real look at the boy wonder. And in one shot Clarke united grandstands and lounge rooms when he pulled a four from the final ball before lunch to bring up a magical century. What an introduction.Eleven minutes earlier he had been 16 short, straining to go for it but running out of seconds. With one over to go he needed 11 and the mark was surely impossible. But he followed a four through cover off Chris Martin with a three to mid-on, Adam Gilchrist got off strike and Clarke had one ball to move off 96.Stephen Fleming posted two men in the deep at fine and square leg. Knowing the batsman was in the mood for risk, Chris Martin wanted a short ball rising to shoulder height or more above off stump. He delivered it. Clarke rocked back and slapped it in front of square, punching out his celebration like a Cup-winning jockey.Gilchrist, one of the game’s finest shot-makers, had been left behind and clapped in amazement as Clarke slobbered on his helmet, belted the Australia crest on his shirt with his bat and walked off to the appropriate backing music of Alex Lloyd’s ‘Amazing’. It was almost Doug Walters versus Bob Willis at the WACA in 1974-75.Walters trotted off for a beer; Clarke deserved a few breaths to settle down. It was a wild ride that had pulled him more history. Clarke had registered centuries on debut at home and away, joining Kepler Wessels at the Gabba and Kandy in 1982-83 and Harry Graham at Lord’s in 1893 and Sydney in 1894-95. It took Clarke, 23, less than seven weeks.Starting the morning on 31, Clarke was in a hurry and hit Kyle Mills through midwicket in the same over he hooked him for four. As he passed fifty his innings became a sprint and the lunch break hovered. Drives went on both sides to passthrough the 60s, fiercely timed pulls and back foot cover drives got him to the 80s. There were also surges of youthful, unrefined adrenalin that forced an inside edge and some minor miscues.Gilchrist had been Clarke’s Sherpa during his hundred at Bangalore and was again trying to be a calming influence. His message was there was no need to rush. Clarke was listening, but thankfully – and spectacularly – ignored the request for caution.
Calmore Sports face their biggest test in years when they travel to play Liphook & Ripsley tomorrow, 11.30am, in an ECB Southern Electric Premier League basement battle they dare not lose.Defeat for Calmore – already 20 points adrift at the bottom – would be unthinkable and mean virtual relegation."It needs a massive effort from everyone," said opening batsman Gary Stinson, who hit a gritty half-century in Calmore’s recent drawn match with South Wilts."There have been signs of an improvement. We might have beaten South Wilts and had Havant 58-3 when it rained last week."But this really is the big one and I believe we’ve got the ability in the team to win," he added.Calmore, minus Lord’s-bound Stuart Bailey, need a big performance from all-rounder James Hibberd."Hibbo’s been producing the goods for Hampshire 2nd XI and Wiltshire. Now we need him to do it for us," Stinson said.Liphook are doing little better in the league and have major doubts over opening bowler Tim Wheatley, who missed last week’s visit to the Academy, and 16-wicket off-spinner Alan Crawford (shoulder).Fellow strugglers Portsmouth will have Hampshire all-rounder Lawrie Prittipaul on duty against Andover at St Helen’s, Southsea.Andover are hampered by the absence of Jerry Hayward, Ian Langdown and the influential Mark Miller, who is organising a fielding clinic at the Rose Bowl.Table-topping BAT Sports will be virtually out of sight if they extend their 43-point lead at the expense of the Hampshire Academy at Southern Gardens.They are without Damian Shirazi, who is Lord’s Groundstaff duty at the Test Match, but call up King Edward VI School captain Graham Noble, who has been in good form for Hampshire Under-21s.The Academy team includes Ed Bruce – younger brother of Hampshire newcomer James Bruce – who this week became the first batsman in ten years to score consecutive centuries for Hampshire Under-16s.Bruce minor hit 122 in the U16s drawn match against Middlesex at Lensbury.Bashley (Rydal) need to complete the double over neighbours Bournemouth at Chapel Gate to stand any prospect of wresting the `time’ cricket pennant away from BAT Sports.It’s the last of the nine-week session of all-day `time’ matches and Bashley have a seven-point leeway to make up on BAT, who host the Hampshire Academy at Southern Gardens."In some ways it’s out of our hands," said Bashley’s 32-wicket strike bowler Matt King."We’ve just got to get on with the business of beating Bournemouth and hope that the Academy lads can do us a favour by holding BAT."
Premier League Time Pennant
B.A.T.Sports, Played 7, Points 136, Avge 19.43; Bashley (Rydal), 7, 129, 18.42; Hampshire Academy, 7, 121, 17.28; Havant 7, 97, 13.86.Bashley, who expect to field an unchanged side, have won five of their seven `time’ matches, compared with Bournemouth, who have won four times and lost the other three.Bournemouth, minus Matt Swarbrick and Tom Webley, who is making his County Championship debut for Somerset at Durham, will be captained by Western Australia’s Adam Voges.Defending champions Havant, who face Bournemouth in the SEC Cup final on the main Rose Bowl arena on Tuesday, 5.45pm, are without Steve Snell against South Wilts.Hampshire’s James Tomlinson will spearhead the South Wilts attack.
The Perth Test, which begins on Friday, will be the decider in the three-match series between Australia and New Zealand, after rain again hit Hobart to ensure that the Second Test ended in a frustrating draw today.The rain gods had already wiped out around ten hours of play in the match but still weren’t satisfied with their work, duly venting their anger to eliminate all but 86 minutes of action on its fifth and final day. There was less cricket today than on any of the four days which preceded it.In such cricket as could be squeezed in, New Zealand’s batsmen had continued their battle to try and ward off Australia’s bowlers, albeit without a great degree of success. In the main, it was pacemen Jason Gillespie (3/45) and Glenn McGrath (2/46) who confounded them, each exhibiting methodical control as they set about removing arguably the tourists’ three finest batsmen. It left the New Zealanders at the ultimately rather irrelevant score of 7/243 as they responded to the somewhat distant memory represented by Australia’s total of 8/558.”It’s just the way it goes. It’s unlucky, but it’s just the luck of the draw,” said Australian captain, Steve Waugh, after an official abandonment had been made at 3:08pm.”It’s certainly bad luck for everyone, because we played some pretty good cricket. I thought today was the best day that our bowlers have bowled for a long time; if they continue that, then we’re going to be very hard to beat. I thought it was superb.”There was a bit in the wicket, but the bowling was top class.”We were keen to get a result any way we could. It worked out that we had to try and take 16 wickets so that was a lot. But I really believe, (even) if we’d had a full day today, we were a chance of achieving that,” he enthused.As it was, his opposite number Stephen Fleming (71) fell to the very first delivery of the day, the victim of an interminably delayed lbw decision as he padded up to McGrath. Maybe it was the mass of grey clouds behind the bowler’s arm that helped to distract him but, whatever the reason, Fleming had misjudged the line as the Australian spearhead came around the wicket to cut one back in from outside the line of off stump.Stopwatches conservatively put the length of the time needed by umpire Steve Bucknor to form his decision at around seven seconds. Fleming’s walk to the gate, after an innings in which he was unable to convert a half-century into a century for the 31st time in Tests, rivalled it for speed.Craig McMillan (55) was similarly content to continue leaving most deliveries bowled to him as well. Unlike his captain, though, the practice didn’t land him in trouble until much later in the morning. His error came after a patient 209-minute stay during which he had generally shown excellent knowledge of where his off stump was; fatally, he had not counted on the prospect of Gillespie cutting a ball significantly back in off the seam to take a mixture of off and middle.Chris Cairns (20) played a restless innings, slamming his first delivery imperiously through the covers and then serially attempting to increase his score with a mixture of aggressively-executed vertical and horizontal bat strokes. It was a spectacular exhibition that came to be ended by an equally spectacular catch when wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist launched himself horizontally to his right to intercept a thick outside edge at McGrath.The position might have been even worse for the tourists if umpire John Smeaton had upheld a confident appeal for a gloved catch down the leg side as Adam Parore (10*) fended off the line of hip at Gillespie before he had scored. But that was denied; the Australians were unable to shift Daniel Vettori (10*) either; and then the heavens unleashed their fury upon the second-driest capital city in Australia to honour the rain dance that could well have been going on in the New Zealand dressing rooms.”We have to be,” said Fleming, when questioned whether his team was content with the outcome.”Particularly in this game: we were always behind the eight ball. To get out with a draw … we’re happy.”If we want to compete in a Test match, we have to be there or thereabouts at the end of day one. Otherwise, we’re just chasing. Up against a very good side, it’s very rare that you can then get them on the run.”Their countrymen from Crowded House would be proud of them, for the Black Caps are truly taking one form of weather with them almost wherever they go on this trip. Now they head, with the series artistically still deadlocked at 0-0, for Perth.
Embarrassment caused by the abandonment of the Sheffield Shield match between New South Wales and Victoria at the SCG has forced a review of the ground’s transition from football to cricket season and a commitment by Cricket NSW, the Sydney Cricket Ground and Sports Trust to work more closely together in future.Cricket Australia will also be involved in the review, which will look into the factors that contributed to the ground’s surface being deemed unfit for play between the Blues and the Bushrangers. Issues such as scheduling, climate and the technology available to the head curator Tom Parker and his ground staff will all be explored, as the ground seeks to meet the world’s best practice standards after the fiasco seen at the weekend.Emergency talks between the Trust and their cricketing tenants have resulted in several other measures designed to prevent a repeat, including a revised field of play inspection protocol in the lead-up to any men’s or women’s first-class or international fixture; an updated post-match review process and the formation of a joint working party to manage the NSW team’s training needs, with the ultimate goal of producing a new practice facilities plan.All these moves have been discussed and argued over in the past, but the loss of outright points for the NSW state team on their home ground and damaging headlines across the country have brought them to a head. In this, the abandoned Shield match may be seen as a catalyst for change in the same way the loss of the Ashes to England in Australia in 2010-11 wrought fundamental change to CA’s team-performance arm.”Cricket NSW has a long and proud tradition at the Sydney Cricket Ground, one of the most iconic cricket grounds in the world,” John Warn, the CNSW chairman, said. “Cricket NSW is keen to enhance that tradition by working closely with the SCG Trust to ensure that the playing surface and training facilities are of world-class standard.”It was disappointing that the recent Sheffield Shield match against Victoria had to be abandoned after match officials ruled the playing surface unsafe, forcing the following Shield game beginning on Saturday against Tasmania to be relocated to Bankstown. Cricket NSW and the SCG Trust have had positive discussions about how to achieve and maintain the high standards required for first-class and international cricket.”Tony Shepherd, the chairman of the SCG Trust, acknowledged that “without cricket, there is no Sydney Cricket Ground”. “Cricket NSW’s commitment to excellence can be seen in the vast numbers of Australian players produced and the record 46 Sheffield Shield wins,” he said. “They expect that same standard of excellence at their home ground and the Trust will work closely with Cricket NSW to ensure that this is the case.”After the loss of the SCG’s next Shield fixture to Bankstown Oval as a result of concerns about the playing surface, the ground is expected to have improved sufficiently to host first-class cricket in time for the next fixture on from November 27.
Everton had a rather turbulent January behind the scenes with numerous fan protests against Farhad Moshiri, Rafa Benitez getting the sack, Frank Lampard being appointed as his replacement as well as seeing numerous players moving in and out of the club.
Despite seeing five new players join the Toffees such as Dele Alli, Donny van de Beek, Anwar El Ghazi, Nathan Patterson and Vitaliy Mykolenko, one player that was linked with a move to Goodison Park last month that didn’t end up joining was Dejan Kulusevski.
The winger did end up eventually leaving Juventus last month for a move to fellow Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur on an 18-month loan deal with an option to buy if certain criteria are met.
Since arriving at the north London club, the 21-year-old has made four appearances in the Premier League for Antonio Conte’s side, scoring one goal and providing one assist, both of which came during their recent 3-2 win over Manchester City.
This shows how capable he is of being an attacking threat in the league, especially against a top side such as City and why Moshiri could now be having nightmares over missing out on bringing the winger to Goodison.
In addition to this, the Sweden international’s performances have also highlighted the promise that the youngster has shown in the early stages of his Spurs spell, with WhoScored giving him an overall rating of 6.65/10, which is higher than the likes of Alli and Van de Beek at Everton.
Labelled as a “monster” in the past by Italian football expert Nima Tavallaey Roodsari, the £27m-rated attacker has shown just how vital he could have been for the Toffees if they managed to secure his signature in January, especially considering how Lampard’s side have scored fewer goals than Leeds United, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace so far this season.
Moving forward, the Toffees will have to forget about Kulusevski and focus on getting their January recruits and the other players in their squad to start getting some consistent and positive results under their belt from now until the end of the season so they avoid getting relegated.
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But, given his start in the Premier League, Lampard will surely be gutted at missing out on the Swede.
In other news: This Everton starlet is impressing behind-the-scenes at Finch Farm…
Bermuda coach Gus Logie believes the island can still qualify for the next World Cup – despite a run of results that has seen his side plummet down the world rankings.In an extensive post tour Q&A with the Bermuda Sun, Logie vented about lack of training facilities, lack of home fixtures, the inability of players to attend training and the regression of players at club level.But he remains optimistic that when Bermuda return to Dubai in 2009 for the ICC Trophy they will have improved sufficiently to reach the top six and qualify for World Cup 2011.”We have been able to achieve a hell of a lot but it’s been in spite of [the obstacles]. We still expect a lot from our players but you have a situation where there is no national team in training. You can’t have a national set up when you have four guys here and five guys there.”He added that part of the solution lay with the clubs and encouraged them to get their houses in order.”We need people on the ground to do their part. They can’t just point fingers at the national team. The national team comes from where? There has to be a bigger effort from the clubs – that’s the academy. The clubs and the community are the ones that are producing the players. We can’t have people doing the wrong things in the community and at the clubs and expect them to be eradicated at the national level.”He added that it was tough for national coaches to have an impact when they were required to work with skeleton squads in school hall gymnasiums while their opponents trained 24/7 on proper cricket fields.Despite his misgivings about the state of Bermuda’s infrastructure Logie insisted qualification for the World Cup in 2011 was still on the cards.After defeats against unfancied Associate sides like Uganda and Denmark, Bermuda are now ranked 14th among the non-Test-playing nations in CricketEurope’s unofficial standings – behind the likes of Jersey and the Cayman Islands. But anything is possible, says the coach.”It’s not going to be easy, but at the end of the day if you want something bad enough you can overcome the obstacles and achieve it. I’m quite optimistic about this group of guys and the young players we have at present.”This article first appeared in the Bermuda Sun
Shivnarine Chanderpaul will be the eighth West Indian to reach the 100-Test milestone when he takes the field for the second Test against Pakistan at Multan. He said he was “very satisfied” to have reached the 100-Test milestone because it is a “goal he had set himself” when he started to play Test cricket.”It’s obviously a great achievement, to actually make it to a hundred Tests knowing how my career has been with a lot of injuries and a lot of ups and downs it is very satisfying,” said Chanderpaul. “I feel happy to make it there yet the game tomorrow is still a Test match and you have to go out there and play so your mind has to be focused on going out there and playing another game.”Twelve years after his debut against England at the Bourda Oval, his home ground, Chanderpaul has accumulated 6617 Test runs and 14 hundreds at an average of 44.70 but still felt he “loves batting more now”. He said that it was desire to “bat all the time” that helped him through the difficult periods in his career.On the eve of his 100th Test and a wealth of experience in his safe, Chanderpaul felt that being more experienced made it easier to bat. “When you’re young it is easier to come out and bat freely with nothing on your mind,” he said. “Now you know more about the game you feel more mature, you feel a little more confident in doing things, you understand more about everything that comes with the game.”Chanderpaul career has had its fair share of troughs because of injuries and other issues. He said it took “a lot of determination and perseverance” to pull through the difficult times the most recent being his resignation from captaincy after the tour of New Zealand in March.”In cricket and in life you have to be disciplined. You have to keep fighting for what you want because nobody is going to get it for you. Even when you make mistakes you cannot sit back and relax, you have to get out there and work on it and avoid making the mistakes again. It’s good to make one or two mistakes, you learn from them and you get better.”
Jacob Oram and Scott Styris, the New Zealand allrounders, have recovered from their injuries and will play in the second ODI against South Africa at Cape Town. Oram, who picked up a groin injury in the first game, will play purely as a batsmen while Styris will get his first chance on this tour, after being laid low by a hamstring problem.New Zealand, who choked in the final stages of the first game and lost by a two-wicket margin, also included Hamish Marshall and Jeetan Patel, the offspinner, for the crucial clash. Marshall, who made 16 from 40 deliveries in the first game, has had a torrid time with the bat and will need to rediscover the superb form he displayed last season, when he was named New Zealand’s batsman of the year.John Bracewell, the New Zealand coach, said that the Supersub will be picked before the game. He also cited injuries to key players as the reason for the reverse at Bloemfontein. “We definitely didn’t plan that Nathan Astle would be one of the bowlers,” he said. “If Styris and Oram play, the bowling strength of the teams would be very evenly matched, no matter the type of pitch. We don’t have a lot of depth in New Zealand cricket and when both of our allrounders are out of action, the balance of the team is disrupted.”South Africa, though, have no such worries and were likely to stick to the same winning combination. Graeme Smith, their captain who will be looking to set a new South African record of 11 consecutive ODI wins, didn’t read too much into the victory at Bloemfontein and insisted that New Zealand were still the firm favourites to win the series. “I know that New Zealand consider themselves a small country [in terms of cricket] but they always give the big guns a run for their money,” he said. “They beat India in Zimbabwe last month and also beat us 5-1 in New Zealand last year.”TeamsNew Zealand 1 Stephen Fleming (capt), 2 Nathan Astle, 3 Lou Vincent, 4 Craig McMillan, 5 Scott Styris, 6 Jacob Oram, 7 Brendon McCullum (wk), 8 Daniel Vettori, 9 Andre Adams, 10 Kyle Mills, 11 Shane Bond, 12 James FranklinSouth Africa (probable) 1 Graeme Smith, 2 Boeta Dippenaar, 3 Jacques Kallis, 4 Hereschelle Gibbs, 5 Ashwell Prince, 6 Mark Boucher, 7 Justin Kemp, 8 Shaun Pollock, 9 Charl Langeveldt, 10 Nicky Boje, 11 Andre Nel, 12 Makhaya Ntini
Compared with the soul-searching and winter-long agonising that went intoEngland’s eventual refusal to visit Zimbabwe for lastyear’s World Cup, the decision that Steve Harmison reached this morning wasan absolute no-brainer. But it was no less laudable for that.In the 18 months that have passed since that World Cup,Harmison’s stock as a cricketer has risen exponentially, the standard ofthe Zimbabwean team has fallen through the floor, and the situation in that country becomes ever more objectionable by the day. In the eyes of those who seek to put a political spin on every step of this saga, he had muchto lose from taking the trip, but plenty to gain from taking a stand.The tour will probably benefit from his absence as well. At a time when theworld is debating whether cricket’s minnow nations have any place inthe big pond, it makes no sense for Harmison, one of the meanest pikes inthe game, to be let loose on such defenceless opposition in suchmeaningless circumstances. If England are obliged to take part in thisseries, then the least they can do is blood some young bowlers and makea competition of it.Harmison has long had a reputation as a somewhat reluctant traveller, sothe moral aspect of his stand is probably less relevant than was the casewith Australia’s Stuart MacGill, who might now be reflecting on whether his refusal to tour Zimbabwe had anything to do with his omission from nextmonth’s India series. Naturally, Harmison has no such fears.But looking at the bigger picture, this tour is an unwanted distraction forEngland. They have a crucial nine months coming up, with a massive series in South Africa in December, followed by next summer’s Ashes. The morale ofthe side is every bit as important as form and fitness, and all three couldbe jeopardised on this trip.Harmison has a young family to consider and a huge workload ahead of him.Secretly, the England management may be hoping that his influence rubs offon some of the other key players, not least that man Flintoff. For the timebeing, less is definitely more.