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Fifties to Matt Taylor, Chris Dent help frustrate home bowlers at Taunton

ECB Reporters Network16-Apr-2021James Bracey’s sixth first-class century led Gloucestershire to 301 for 8 in reply to Somerset’s 312 on the second day of the LV=County Championship match at the Cooper Associates County Ground.Combining solid technique, sound shot selection and a high degree of concentration, 23-year-old Bracey enhanced his England prospects by contributing 118 in an innings spanning 12 minutes short of six hours.Chris Dent made 50 and Matt Taylor a career-best 53 not out, while Craig Overton (3 for 60) was the pick of the Somerset bowling attack.Gloucestershire began the day on 13 without loss, with Dent and Kraigg Brathwaite in positive mood. They took the score to 41 before the West Indies captain was pinned lbw for 18 by a ball from Overton that nipped back off the seam.Dent struck Lewis Gregory for three successive boundaries, moving to his third half-century in as many innings, off 70 balls. But, without addition, the Gloucestershire captain aimed to work a straight ball from Marchant de Lange towards the short leg-side boundary and edged catch to wicketkeeper Steve Davies.It was de Lange’s first wicket for Somerset. He produced some pacey short balls, but Bracey and Tom Lace took Gloucestershire to 97 for 2 at lunch.The afternoon saw Somerset’s seamers, aided by some tight spin bowling from Jack Leach, exert greater control.Seeking to break loose, Lace reached to drive a wide ball from Overton and lifted a catch to Tom Banton at cover.Bracey pulled a six over fine leg off Overton. But, with the score on 119, Graeme van Buuren edged de Lange to second slip where Gregory held a diving catch.Nothing seemed to perturb Bracey, who looked increasingly assured as he reached a half-century off 115 balls. Ryan Higgins contributed 23 to a stand of 41 before edging Josh Davey to first slip.George Hankins fell lbw on the back foot to de Lange. But Bracey remained rock-like and was unbeaten on 79 at tea, taken with Gloucestershire 189 for 6.George Scott went on the attack at the start of the final session, launching a big straight six off Leach.But after helping Bracey add 26, Scott edged Gregory to second slip where Overton pouched a comfortable catch.Bracey reached a chanceless hundred by glancing Davey to the fine leg boundary. He had faced 208 deliveries and hit 14 fours and a six.Somerset took the second new ball at 217 for 7, but were frustrated as Taylor weighed in with a hugely valuable maiden first class half-century, made off 92 balls, with seven fours and a six.Bracey’s vigil finally ended when he edged Gregory to second slip. Prior to that, his only problem had been a broken bat on 107.

Pakistan captain feels Mickey Arthur’s presence in the Sri Lanka camp could make a difference

Umar Farooq in Rawalpindi10-Dec-20192:54

Misbah: Test cricket was dying in Pakistan, no-one was coming to watch

Along with ending the long break from playing Test cricket at home, Pakistan would be looking to end a winless – indeed, losing – streak in the format when the first Test against Sri Lanka begins in Rawalpindi tomorrow. It is a fresh start in so many ways – almost like making a debut, as Shan Masood put it – and captain Azhar Ali is very aware that Pakistan have lost all their five Tests in the past 12 months, in South Africa and Australia.”Test cricket’s return to Pakistan after ten years is an opportunity for us to get back on the winning track,” Ali said. “We had a tough series in Australia and it’s very unfortunate the way we lost there. It was disappointing. But moving forward, we see this home series as an opportunity and advantage to turn things around.ALSO READ: ‘Our pride has been hurt’ – Azhar Ali on Australia debacle“We are excited to be back at home and our grounds are alive again. Cricket is our pride and we will have to quickly return to our groove to give our nation and the team confidence. It’s a moment of joy for not only the players but the nation. We will try our best to rectify the mistakes we made recently, and will improve wherever we have been lacking. We have outstanding talent in our squad. They have potential, and if we implement it, our results will be stable.”Pakistan last ‘home’ series against Sri Lanka was in the UAE in 2017, which they lost 2-0 to bring an end to their blemishless record there. Since moving to the UAE, Pakistan were the only team to not lose a home Test series. They played nine series in the UAE between 2010 and 2017, won five of them and drew four.”You can never take Sri Lanka easy, they have always been a tough opponent regardless of whether they are playing at home or away,” Ali said. “Their bowling and batting is very disciplined and if you have to challenge them, you really have to come hard and be disciplined. We were lacking both with bat and ball in our previous series in Australia, but we have to come back quickly. Test cricket demands discipline, and you have be consistent as well. You can’t win in one session but lose in another session.”In Australia, Pakistan picked up just 13 wickets over two Test matches, losing both by an innings. Against Sri Lanka in Rawalpindi, they are likely to field three fast bowlers – Mohammad Abbas, Naseem Shah and Usman Shinwari – alongside Yasir Shah.”In Australia, we struggled to take 20 wickets, and it has been like this in our last few outings. But obviously we have a new attack, and we cannot write the new fast bowlers off straightaway. They are young, but experience is something they can get by playing more cricket, and we can’t buy it,” Ali said. “It is a home venue this time, and these boys have been bowling on these tracks in first-class cricket and this will prove the difference in lifting their performance.ALSO READ: Unbeaten streaks and unexpected triumphs – Pakistan’s high points in exile“We feel this is the best bowling attack we have, and they have to take wickets with the new ball. Yasir Shah, our ace spinner, has struggled in Australia. That is because we weren’t able to get wickets up front with the new ball.”Azhar Ali gets ready for a hit•Getty Images

Adding a dash of spice to the proceedings will be the fact that Mickey Arthur, Pakistan’s coach till recently, is now in the opposition camp. Arthur’s intimate knowledge of Pakistani cricketers could make a difference, Ali acknowledged. “Definitely, if someone is with you for so long, he does have a lot of information about you. But in cricket these days, we all have a lot of knowledge about each other’s strengths and weaknesses, but yet players score runs. Like David Warner recently.”Good players cope because they also know that they will be attacked on their weaker points, so they work with counter-attack. Yes, Mickey does have a lot of insight about us, but we are also ready and believe that whatever the challenge he will throw at us, we will counter.”His own batting hasn’t been at its best in recent times. Ali’s career average is still a healthy 42.45, but in the last two years, he has gone at 24.08, tallying just 602 runs in 13 Tests.”Whoever is the captain obviously have a playing role as well, and it is really important for me to perform,” he said. “I realise that I am unfortunately not making runs, but I am trying to revive my form. My form is good, unfortunately I am not able to transform it into runs. Sometime all you need is runs to get all the things back to normal. I am in international cricket now for nearly ten years, and with such experience, the purpose is to think how I can contribute to win games for my team. It is also important for me as captain to score runs to give a message across the board and lead from the front.”

Rohit Sharma made a breezy, unbeaten 63 as India hunted down their target of 105 in just 14.5 overs

The Report by Karthik Krishnaswamy01-Nov-2018So promising across the first three ODIs, West Indies’ batting unravelled when a share of the series was still up for grabs. Having been bowled out for 153 on a flat Brabourne deck in the fourth ODI, the visitors did even worse on a trickier pitch in Thiruvananthapuram, folding for 104 after choosing to bat first.Virat Kohli, India’s captain, was happy to chase at a ground where he felt dew would be a “massive factor” in the second innings, under lights. But the match didn’t even last as far as the scheduled 45-minute interval.West Indies were bowled out in 31.5 overs, and India hunted down their target in a mere 14.5, as Rohit Sharma stroked an unbeaten 63 off 56 balls, adding an unbroken 99 for the second wicket with Kohli. Rohit hit four sixes – all clean hits, as they needed to be on one of the larger grounds in India – to become only the second India batsman to get past 200 sixes in ODIs.The only spell of positivity for West Indies was the new-ball spell of the pacy Oshane Thomas, who got Shikhar Dhawan to chop on for the second time in two ODI meetings, had Kohli dropped by Jason Holder at first slip after getting one to lift nastily at him, and had Rohit edging an away-seamer behind only for a no-ball call to deny him another wicket.Thereafter, it was all Rohit and Kohli who, having got past some early difficulty against the slowness of the pitch, entertained the Thiruvananthapuram crowd who might otherwise have felt shortchanged at getting to watch only 46.4 overs of the promised 100.The contest lasted only that long, thanks to West Indies’ inability to adapt to a slow pitch on which the ball held up and made driving on the up a hazardous prospect.It was swing that began their collapse. By the tenth ball of their innings, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, swinging it away from the left-hander, and Jasprit Bumrah, swinging it into the right-hander, had made Kieran Powell and Shai Hope pay for playing away from the body.Then came the longest partnership of the innings, of 34, between Rovman Powell – who struggled to find his feet after being promoted up the order, with West Indies sacrificing regular opener Chandrapaul Hemraj to add Oshane Thomas to their pace attack – and Marlon Samuels, who came out playing his shots at the end of a lean series with the bat.It looked pretty while it lasted, as Samuels drove Bhuvneshwar past mid-off and whipped his next ball – from virtually the same off-stumpish line – wide of mid-on. Another free-flowing drive off Khaleel Ahmed, in the next over, carried all the way over the straight boundary.Kohli responded by bringing on Ravindra Jadeja. His first over, the tenth of West Indies’ innings, was a maiden, and through that over it was clear that Samuels was itching to keep driving and that Jadeja, teasing him with his changes of pace and a length just short of driveable, was not going to allow him to. Having already inside-edged once while driving away from his body, Samuels fell in Jadeja’s second over, reaching out once again, this time only managing to pop a catch to extra-cover as the ball stopped on him.That stand broken, India kept chipping away at the wickets. Shimron Hetmyer played back to Jadeja when he should have been forward, Rovman and Fabian Allen were out hooking well-directed short balls from Khaleel and Bumrah, and Jason Holder, who had looked good while getting to 25, chipped a catch to mid-off as another ball held up off the surface.The tail survived just long enough for Jadeja, who took a five-over break after an unbroken first spell of eight overs, to return and bag two more wickets to finish with 4 for 34. It was his second four-wicket haul in eight matches since his comeback to the ODI team during the Asia Cup in September.

Sam Billings showed the sort of form thyat won an IPL contract but Kent fell foul of a Sussex side making a late move up the South Group table

ECB Reporters Network04-Aug-2017Alex Blake is bowled by Jofra Archer•Getty Images

Kent’s hopes of reaching this season’s NatWest T20 Blast quarter finals were dealt a severe blow as Sussex Sharks snaffled a five-wicket South Group win in Canterbury.Sharks’ skipper Chris Nash bossed the show with an unbeaten 73 from 58 balls as Sussex landed their third South Group win, whilst inflicting Kent’s fifth defeat of an inconsistent campaign.Sussex were chasing Kent’s hard-fought total of 163 for 9 – almost half of which came from the bat of Sam Billings.”Billings played exceptionally well and hit the ball really cleanly in areas that we couldn’t defend, so all credit to him for putting a decent score in the board,” Nash said. “But I thought the way our bowlers dictated up top meant they could only post 160 instead of 190.”Sussex made a useful start only to be set back when Stiaan van Zyl edged to the keeper when attempting a back-foot force against Jimmy Neesham, Kent’s Kiwi all-rounder.Nash and Ben Brown added 88 for the second Sussex wicket until Brown, one short of his 50, was bowled by Darren Stevens when aiming an ambitious, leg-side clip.Kent’s veteran all-rounder lifted the spirits of a 5,500 crowd – Spitfires’ biggest of the campaign – by having Ross Taylor caught at point from his very next delivery, but, with the wily Nash at the crease, it proved a false dawn for Spitfires’ fans.With only 16 runs needed Laurie Evans played across the line to go lbw to Mitch Claydon then David Wiese was run out in his follow-through by Jimmy Neesham without scoring, yet still Sussex romped home with an over to spare when Nash smeared the winning boundary over backward point.Fresh from their emphatic eight-wicket win over Surrey on Thursday evening, Sussex named an unchanged side and were on top from the start despite Kent winning their third successive home toss.Only five of the Spitfires top-to-middle order made it into double figures, of those only Billings showed the class that led to his IPL debut for Delhi Daredevils in the domestic close season.The impish right-handed wicketkeeper, to many Kent supporters a re-embodiment of 1970s legend Alan Knott, smashed a sublime 74 from 40 balls while those about him struggle for timing.Billings, 26, but playing in his 118th domestic T20 game, clattered four fours and five sixes to save Kent’s blushes after his side had made a miserable start.Spitfires’ in-form opening bat Joe Denly had his off stump pegged back by the first ball of the night from David Wiese then, in the second over, skipper Sam Northeast skied an attempted leg-side force against spinner Danny Briggs only to hole out to the keeper.Sam Billings played his most commanding Blast innings of the season•Getty Images

Kent’s demise continued when Wiese skittled Daniel Bell-Drummond to make it 22 for 3 only 29 balls into the match.Starved of short-form batting, Darren Stevens took time to get his eye in but, with his score on 18, the veteran all-rounder smeared to long-off after making room against Briggs, who finished with 2 for 33.Neesham’s run of useful contributions ended when he cross-batted one to long-off against Chris Jordan and Kent’s big-hitters continued to fail when Alex Blake dragged on when eyeing a back-foot force against Jofra Archer.Matt Coles heaved across the line to be bowled by the same bowler leaving Jordan to sweep up with figures of three for 38. The former Surrey and England seamer bowled Billings, after he attempted an audacious sweep shot, then skittled Imran Qayyum first ball with a low full-toss as Kent just about batted out their 20 overs.Billings, the night’s top-scorer said: “It was a belting pitch but T20 is a game of fine margins and a couple of overs with the bat and ball really cost us the game tonight.”As soon as we started getting back into the game we seemed to let the pressure off which you can’t afford to do in Twenty20. Credit to ‘Nashy’, who played a top-class knock, but we weren’t quite at it tonight and you can’t afford to do that in the South Group.”

Will Bragg made his second hundred of the season for Glamorgan has his team built a sizable lead against Essex in Cardiff

ECB Reporters Network24-May-2016
ScorecardWill Bragg gave Glamorgan a chance of pushing for victory•Getty Images

Will Bragg made his second hundred of the season for Glamorgan has his team built a sizable lead against Essex in Cardiff. Glamorgan closed the day on 295 for 3, an advantage of 242 runs, with the game is nicely poised going into the last day with run scoring a struggle on this pitch; the lead Glamorgan have could well be decisive.Having picked up the last Essex wicket after a further 13 runs had been added to their overnight total Glamorgan got off to a poor start with the bat when Jacques Rudolph was dismissed for a 12-ball duck, edging a delivery from David Masters through to the keeper with just two runs on the board.From there it was Glamorgan’s day as Bragg put on 107 for the second wicket with Mark Wallace and 106 for the third wicket with Chris Cooke. Wallace was dismissed for 40 when he attempted to drive Ravi Bopara and only succeeded in edging the ball through to James Foster. Cooke completed his second half-century of the match before he was pinned lbw by a fuller ball from David Masters for 59.Masters was the pick of the Essex bowlers and was the only one who consistently threatened to claim wickets. He gave a particularly torrid time to 19-year-old Aneurin Donald who did well to survive. As it was Donald, the 19-year-old, shared the third significant partnership of the day for Glamorgan with Bragg as the pair put on 80 he was still undefeated at the close on 44.While all of that was happening Bragg remained undefeated and becalmed, finishing the day on 119. With the troubles that Glamorgan have had all season with their top order under-performing this was a vitally important innings that has gone a long way toward putting the home side in a winning position.With self-confessed lack of confidence a problem for Glamorgan how they go about setting up a chase for Essex on the final morning will be interesting. They are unlikely to want to give Essex a sniff of a win and may choose to bat on a while longer than they might otherwise. While scoring has never been straight forward on this surface it doesn’t appear to be deteriorating rapidly. It could be a fascinating finish on the final day.

Rob Key hit 89 on his return to County Championship action but Surrey emerged with the opening day honours at a redeveloped Beckenham as Kent’s first innings fell away sharply to 282 all out

ECB/PA24-May-2015
ScorecardRob Key was back in the Kent side and made his best score of the year•Getty Images

Rob Key hit 89 on his return to County Championship action but Surrey emerged with the opening day honours at a redeveloped Beckenham as Kent’s first innings fell away sharply to 282 all out amid a rash of poor strokes. In reply Surrey were 17 for 1 at stumps, having lost Zafar Ansari leg-before to Matt Coles for 3 in eight awkward overs before the close.Key added 133 in 28 overs with Sam Northeast, who made a fluent 73, but from 182 for 2 Kent let things slip badly on a good pitch after three wickets went down for just seven runs in mid-afternoon. Sam Billings, Fabian Cowdrey and Coles did offer some further resistance following the sudden slide to 189 for 5, but too many wickets were gifted to a Surrey bowling attack depleted by the loss of Luke Fletcher to a back spasm after the on-loan seamer had sent down just six overs.Nothing better summed up the nature of Kent’s disappointing decline than the hard-hitting Coles’s departure for 21 when the big left-hander tamely chipped a return catch to Jason Roy when he bowled a single over of his occasional seam just before Surrey took the second new ball.Cowdrey was then leg-before to the deserving Matt Dunn for a grafting 39, and the same bowler soon wrapped up the innings by castling last man Ivan Thomas.Kent club captain Key is playing under Sam Northeast’s leadership in this game, having missed two Championship games after dropping himself following three unproductive four-day matches with the bat at the start of the season. But Key, who hails from Beckenham, has always enjoyed playing on the ground, which has not hosted any senior county cricket since 2012 due to the construction of a new 2000-seater stand, a new indoor school, and the addition of commercial and multi-sports facilities. He also has a magnificent career record against Surrey, against whom he has now scored 2096 first-class runs at an average of 63.51, with eight hundreds and ten further scores of 50 or more.Key was soon at the crease from No 3, after Kent had won the toss but lost Joe Denly in the second over, and initially he featured in a stand of 49 for the second wicket with Daniel Bell-Drummond. Denly was leg-before for 0 to a nip-backer from Fletcher, and it could have been worse for Kent had Bell-Drummond not been dropped by Rory Burns at third slip off the second ball of the match, bowled by Dunn.As it was, Bell-Drummond played nicely for 20 before pushing forward to an arm ball from left-arm spinner Ansari and being given out leg-before when the ball hit his front pad just before the inside edge of his bat.But Northeast came in to hit nine fours and a driven six off Ansari in his 93-ball innings while Key – who has been playing in Kent’s Second XI in order to regain his batting form – looked to gain quickly in confidence after advancing down the pitch to Ansari early in his innings and lofting a cleanly-struck six over long off.There were seven fours besides, including the cover boundary which took him to his half-century, as Key sailed past his previous season’s best of 34, made against Lancashire at Old Trafford in the last week of April. He had made only 86 runs in six innings before taking his self-enforced break from first team action, and last summer scored just 561 Championship runs at 22.44.Just when it looked certain that Key would complete a ninth first-class hundred against Surrey, Key was adjudged lbw to a quicker ball from Ansari – although it seemed as if the batsman might have got some bat on it. He had faced 134 balls.Two balls later Northeast edged Tom Curran to second slip, trying to force into the offside, and Darren Stevens then lifted a simple catch to mid off, driving at Dunn, to depart for a duck.Billings and Cowdrey saw Kent through to tea at 224 for 5, but afterwards Billings was rightly livid with himself when he flashed at a short wide ball from Curran and edged a catch behind. They had added 46 for the sixth wicket but Calum Haggett was soon gone too, for a duck, nicking Curran to first slip as the sun and warmth of earlier in the day turned to cloud cover and plunging temperatures in the final session.

Dean Elgar, Colin Ingram, Justin Ontong and Ashwell Prince are the main contenders to take the injured JP Duminy’s place in the South Africa Test squad

Firdose Moonda in Brisbane10-Nov-2012JP Duminy knows the impact a moment can have on a career. The instant Ashwell Prince’s hand was fractured in Perth in 2008, Duminy was given a chance to perform on the international stage. In a nasty twist, the second he snapped his Achilles’ tendon in Brisbane someone else will get that opportunity this time.Faf du Plessis is going to be the biggest benefactor of that. This is his second tour as a back-up batsman in the Test squad – a spot he earned through his improvements in the first-class game – and will likely slot in Duminy’s place. Until Matthew Maynard took charge of the Titans, du Plessis was batting in the lower middle-order, did not spent much time at the crease as a result and his string of low scores came through batting with the tail.Maynard suggested that du Plessis move up to No. 4 and the change gave him everything he did not have before: more time and more runs. In four first-class matches he scored 599 runs which included three hundreds. Du Plessis captained South Africa A against Sri Lanka A in June and scored a hundred in the first unofficial Test. He was due to lead them again in Ireland but was called up to the Test squad in England after Albie Morkel suffered an ankle injury.Batting at No. 7 will put du Plessis back in the position where he floundered at the Titans but in a Test side, he won’t complain. Du Plessis will also offer the option of his more than part-time legspin and has been rated one of the best fielders in the world. As a replacement, he is more than ideal, which can only serve to worry Duminy more.The rest of the chasing pack inspires a little less confidence. One of Dean Elgar, Justin Ontong, Prince or Colin Ingram will be called up as a shadow member of the squad. ESPNcricinfo understand that Elgar is in prime position to get the nod, although his first-class form of late has not been as notable as the other candidates.His overall average is an impressive 44.75 but he has only played one match this season in which he scored 44 and 2. He was part of South Africa’s ODI squad in England and top scored with 42 and played with du Plessis against Sri Lanka A where he outscored him with 171. He was also part of South Africa’s one-day squad who faced Sri Lanka in January but tore ligaments in his knee and experienced a lengthy injury layoff.Elgar’s call-up will be seen as a long time coming, given that he has long hovered around the national set-up and is considered to be the future. But going back to the past has not always hurt South Africa. Vernon Philander, Rory Kleinveldt and Hashim Amla are cases in point and could serve as the example to recall an old hand.All three of Ontong, Prince and Ingram have been in good form and are difficult to look past. For Ontong, being re-selected could be a coming full circle after his last tour of Australia – the traumatic 2001-02 series where he was picked over Jacques Rudolph. Of the middle-order batsmen last season, Ontong was the top scorer. In nine matches, he scored 658 runs at an average of 59.81, with two hundreds and four fifties. He is currently captaining the Cobras and has been involved in the limited-overs squads.For Prince, anther nod would also be a completion of something. He lost his place after the 2008 injury to Duminy and although he would never wish to get it back in the same fashion, it may be fate’s way of repaying him. Since Prince was dropped after the Boxing Day Test against Sri Lanka in Durban last December, he has done well for Lancashire and started this season with 213 runs in three matches for the Warriors. He remains a nationally contracted player and Andrew Hudson, convenor of selectors, said at the time of Prince’s exit that he would remain in their thoughts.Prince’s experience would not go unnoticed either, especially as it is a trait Gary Kirsten has placed great value in. But it could also be a quality which works against him. South African management may not fancy calling Prince up only to put him on the bench, which is the domain of rookies.For that reason, Ingram could come into contention having played in the limited-overs sides but never being part of the Test squad. Ingram fell out of favour after the ODI series against Sri Lanka in January but has been churning out the runs at franchise level. His 270 runs in three matches this season have come at an average of 54.00.With South African cricket making a noticeable effort to reward performances at domestic level, any of these players would be deserving of their place, just as Duminy was four years ago.

Ricky Ponting has revealed Shaun Marsh’s elevation to No. 3 in the Australian Test batting order was a “long-term plan” of the captain Michael Clarke

Daniel Brettig10-Oct-2011Ricky Ponting has revealed Shaun Marsh’s elevation to No. 3 in the Australian Test batting order was a “long-term plan” of the captain Michael Clarke. Ponting said he was happy to move down to No. 4 for as long as he keeps on playing.As he prepared for a rare Sheffield Shield appearance with Tasmania against Western Australia at the WACA, Ponting spoke frankly of the Test batting order, which has been shuffled to accommodate Marsh at three while Ponting, Clarke and Michael Hussey all slip one spot.Clarke’s vision for the team has so far been made clear, as he is equally adamant that the vice-captain Shane Watson will not be moving down the order from his demanding position as an opening batsman and allrounder.”It was a long-term plan of Michael’s to have Shaun move to No. 3 and me move to No.4 and Michael move to five and Huss to six,” Ponting told reporters in Perth. “So that wasn’t just something I don’t think as a one-off for that game. Michael sees that in the best interests of the team going forward for a period of time. So I’ll be three this week, probably three in the one-dayers in South Africa and then probably drop back to four for the Test matches.”When I first came into the Australian side, batting at six was hard. Waiting that amount of time to bat for me was something that was very foreign to me. But three to four I don’t think is as big a change as three to six, or it certainly wasn’t in the last Test because I was in pretty early both times. Slight adjustment. It just gives me a little bit more time once our fielding’s over to get my head around what I have to do to bat.”Ponting also spoke of the state of flux the team is presently in while Cricket Australia decides on a range of appointments recommended by the Argus review. The position of team performance manager must be finalised first, allowing the appointee to have a say in the choices of coach, national selector and part-time selectors.This means that Clarke will go to South Africa with plenty of weight on his shoulders regarding decision-making, for the interim coach Troy Cooley has flagged his lack of experience as a selector and also an unwillingness to make any lasting changes to the set-up run with mixed results by the departed head coach Tim Nielsen over the past four years.”Unfortunately at the moment the way things are working out a lot more of the responsibility is going to come back on the captain for this next tour,” Ponting said. “So it’s important that the captain, the vice-captain and probably the senior players do as much as we can around the group on this trip.”Troy’s been around the group for a long time and understands everyone really well, but he’s sort of been thrust into that selection role at the moment as well which is something very foreign to him. We’ll make do with the best we can. It’s probably not an ideal situation, but we knew that a long way out and the boys have been playing that way so everything should work out fine.”Ponting said many of the changes wrought by the Argus review were designed to lessen the load on the captain, but reckoned the short-term would be difficult for Clarke while the new positions were filled and settled into.”Having been there and done that in the past you want to be able to focus on your cricket and the team’s demands and probably not much outside of that if you can,” Ponting said. “That’s why a lot of these roles are changing, to take a bit of that strain if you like off the captain. It’s hard enough work when you’re just out there being the captain and worrying about your own game rather than everything else that goes with it. We’ll see how it goes, but he [Clarke] understands he’s got great support from all his team-mates around him.”Ponting’s appearances for Tasmania, who won the Shield in his absence last summer, would not be quite so rare if the schedule was balanced to ensure the strongest domestic competitions possible, something the Argus review also recommended.”With the Australian summer as packed as it is internationally-wise, it just makes it too hard for the international players to play state cricket,” Ponting said. “We’d all like the chance to be able to do that a bit more. I know the states and even our clubs would probably appreciate it if we can get back and spend more time around the next crop of potential international players.”While Hussey is missing the match after his time at the Champions League Twenty20, Ponting said he was never in any doubt for the fixture, and flatly rejected all reports to the contrary.”Some confusion’s probably happened as a result of our leave dates being changed, the coach at the time of the Australian team in Sri Lanka had ruled us out because the leave date was different than it is at the moment,” Ponting said. “As it turns out I only found out on Thursday that I was playing the game but I’ve been excited about the chance to play the game.”

Travis Dowlin, who has captained West Indies A, has been dropped from Guyana’s 14-member squad for the WICB one-day championship in Jamaica starting next week

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Oct-2010Travis Dowlin has been dropped from Guyana’s squad for the WICB one-day championship in Jamaica starting next week. Sewnarine Chattergoon and wicketkeeper Derwin Christian have also been left out from the 14-member squad.Dowlin, who has captained West Indies A, was not offered a central contract by the West Indies board in August, as the WICB felt his performances in the preceding year were “less than favourable”. This came after his axing from the West Indies side for the third Test in Barbados against South Africa in June.Dowlin scored 26 runs from four games for Guyana in the recent Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa. Chattergoon and Christian also had a poor tournament, managing 23 and 14 runs respectively from three innings.Guyana will be led by Ramnaresh Sarwan and the squad includes new players for the 50-over format in Jonathan Foo, Keon Joseph and Richard Ramdeen.Foo impressed with his batting performance in the Caribbean Twenty20 in July. Joseph, the 18-year-old fast bowler, has played one first-class game for Guyana earlier this year, and has also represented West Indies Under-19. Ramdeen played for Guyana in the Champions League against South Australia.Guyana will play in Group B alongside Barbados, Leeward Islands and the Sagicor High Performance Centre XI in the tournament to be played from October 14 to 24.Guyana squad:
Ramnaresh Sarwan (capt), Chris Barnwell, Devendra Bishoo, Anthony Bramble, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Esuan Crandon, Royston Crandon, Narsingh Deonarine, Jonathan Foo, Assad Fudadin, Steven Jacobs, Leon Johnson, Keon Joseph, Richard Ramdeen

Zaheer Khan is expected to be back for India, but it’s the fast bowlers that will throw up a debate when the Indian selectors meet to pick the squad for the three Test against Sri Lanka

Cricinfo staff09-Nov-2009Zaheer Khan has recovered well from his shoulder injury and, having featured in Twenty20 matches during the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament and a Ranji Trophy fixture, is expected to be back for India when the selectors meet on Tuesday to pick the Test squad to play Sri Lanka. VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid will duly take their places in the middle order, while Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra are likely to retain their spinning roles. Yuvraj Singh is also expected to feature at No. 6 in the batting line-up, but it’s the fast bowlers that will throw up a debate.Including Ashish Nehra in the Test side is going to be tempting. It is also a risk. Nehra has done well after making his ODI return, but do the selectors want to risk his fitness in the longest format of the game? If Nehra does make the transition, he will replace one of the two back-up fast bowlers that went to New Zealand: Dhawal Kulkarni and L Balaji. India will not need a 16-member squad, so just one reserve fast bowler should do. But even if Nehra is not picked, somebody like Sudeep Tyagi might stand a better chance than Balaji and Kulkarni. Going by how Ishant Sharma was persisted with in the ODIs, he is likely to keep his Test place, along with Munaf Patel.Dinesh Karthik was the substitute middle-order batsman in New Zealand, where he doubled up as a reserve wicketkeeper. Here in India, Dhoni might not need back-up behind the stumps. There is another decision for the selectors to make: whether to retain Karthik in a role similar to the one in New Zealand, or draft in a specialist middle-order batsman like S Badrinath.Probable squad: MS Dhoni (capt/wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Karthik/S Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Amit Mishra, Ashish Nehra/one back-up fast bowler.