Tag Futebol

A wrap of the final day of the first round of Ranji Trophy matches in Group C

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Nov-2012
Scorecard
Saurabh Tiwary’s patient 27 was not enough in Jharkhand’s unsuccessful chase of 213 (file photo)•Getty Images

Assam’s spin twins, J Syed Mohammad and Arlen Konwar, delivered them a second win in as many matches, keeping Jharkhand down to 157 in their defence of 212. It will be ironical to Tamil Nadu supporters that on the day their spinners struggled badly on a rank turner, Syed, who has played Under-19 cricket for them, took his first five-wicket haul for another team and took them to the top of Group C.Jharkhand began the day needing 157 with eight wickets in hand, but Syed took little time in dismissing the first-innings half-centurion and danger man Rameez Nemat for 42. Saurabh Tiwary and Deepak Chougule then added 29 for the fourth wicket, but Syed dismissed Tiwary too to make it 101 for 4.To make things worse for Jharkhand, he trapped Chougule too, and at 120 for 5 Assam were the favourites. Wicketkeeeper Shiv Gautam, though, had other ideas, and took Jharkhand to 155 for 6. By now, the first-innings hero, Konwar, had swung into action, and had begun chipping at the lower order. To seal the deal, Syed dismissed Gautam for 30. At 155 for 8, it was all but over. Konwar completed the formalities, and the four wickets gave him a maiden 10-wicket match haul.
Scorecard
Shadab Jakati’s four-wicket burst at the top of Jammu & Kashmir’s innings injected some interest into an otherwise drab match, but Bandeep Singh and captain Samiullah Beigh fought it out to a draw and their first point of the season. Playing their first match of the season, Goa had already secured three points when they went past J&K’s 338 in the first session.They began the day needing 81, and even though they lost Manvinder Bisla early, Goa kept moving towards the target steadily. Reagan Pinto and Ravikant Shukla were at the wicket when the first-innings lead was secured, and Pinto went on to score an unbeaten half-century.An innings run rate of 2.63 an over didn’t suggest any desperation for an outright result, but Jakati livened up the proceedings. At 40 for 6, J&K were still 28 short of avoiding an innings defeat. However, Beigh, who scored a fifty in the first innings, and Bandeep batted out a whopping 41.3 overs for an unbeaten 55-run partnership. That was a point well earned.
Scorecard
For the second game in a row, Himachal Pradesh went into the final day looking to force an outright win. And for the second time, they were thwarted by some dogged batting.Himachal needed eight wickets, they began well enough, claiming the third wicket in the second over of the day, but Soumya Swain and Anshul Gupta of Services played out 46.4 overs for the fourth wicket, and Swain and Yashpal Singh remained unseparated for 26.5 overs. Swain’s unbeaten 118 was his second first-class century, while Gupta and Yashpal posted fifties too.
Scorecard
Andhra bowlers took three early wickets, but that was not enough to bring to life a sleepy contest in Anantapur. Andhra had already taken the lead on the third day, and Tripura were not showing any inclination to go for quick runs.Once Andhra reduced them to 74 for 3, though, they had to dig deep to salvage the solitary point. Subhrajit Roy and Ajay Ratra did just that. They batted out 41.2 overs for the fourth wicket. That was enough even though they added 83. Once Roy got out for 81, there was no interest left in the game, and the draw was amicably called.

A round-up of the action from the first day of the sixth round of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Division One

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Nov-2011A strong bowling performance helped top-of-the-table Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) knock over Islamabad for 232 on the first day of their game at the Diamond Club Gound in Islamabad. Islamabad made a strong start with the openers adding 83 before Afaq Raheem was caught behind for 44. They were still well placed at 130 for 1 but then began to lose wickets in bunches. First they lost 5 wickets for 10 runs, with Naved-ul-Hasan and Sarfraz Ahmed picking up two apiece. Imad Wasim and Naeem Anjum briefly stemmed the rot, adding 35 together, before another 3 wickets fell for 20 runs. It was only an obdurate tenth-wicket stand worth 37 between Wasim and Nasrullah, who made 7 from 52 balls, that took them past 200. Naved was the pick of the bowlers, with figures of 4 for 66 from 28.5 overs.Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) made a strong start to their match against Abbottabad, piling up a score of 305 for 3 at the Abbottabad Cricket Stadium. Three of ZTBL’s top five batsmen made half-centuries, two of them unbeaten, as Abbottabad’s decision to bowl first backfired. After opener Sharjeel Khan went without scoring, Imran Nazir and Yasir Hameed added 121 before Hameed was out for 48. Nazir fell agonisingly short of a hundred, trapped lbw on 99, but that was the last success of the day for Abbottabad as Shahid Yousuf (77*) and Haris Sohail (73*) put on 142 and take their side to stumps.Pakistan legspinner Danish Kaneria picked up four wickets as Faisalabad struggled to 219 for 8 against Habib Bank Limited (HBL) at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad. Habib Bank chose to bowl and Fahad Masood removed the openers with only 14 on the board. Kaneria then took two wickets to end burgeoning partnerships, before Zeeshan Butt and Naved Latif came together to add 98 for the fifth wicket. Kaneria picked up his third wicket when he bowled Butt for 66. The home side were 207 for 5 at that stage but Zeeshan’s dismissal triggered a mini-collapse and Faisalabad lost another three wickets for 12 runs, including Latif for 51, to hand HBL the advantage.Asad Baig’s unbeaten century guided Karachi Blues to a total of 247 for 4 against National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) at the National Stadium in Karachi. Baig batted for six and a half hours to make exactly 100, and shared in three substantial partnerships. He added 56 with fellow opener Shahzaib Hasan (33), 87 with Khalid Latif (51) for the third wicket and 104 with Wajihuddin for the fourth before the latter was caught behind off Wahab Riaz for 48 off the last ball of the day.Rameez Raja’s painstaking half-century carried State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to 162 for 4 against Rawalpindi at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. Only 68 overs were bowled in the day, and the openers started cautiously. Waqar Orakzai needed 101 balls, and two and a half hours, to make 20, while his partner was somewhat quicker, taking 51 balls, and 80 minutes, to make 27. Rameez Raja continued to bat in the same vein and progressed to 69 not out by the end of the day. Mohammad Rameez and Barbar Naeem took two wickets each.Kamran Sajid’s century ensured Sialkot toiled in the field and took Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to a strong 253 for 2 after the first day at the Jinnah Stadium in Sialkot. Opener Agha Sabir was bowled by Naved Arif for a duck but it was all PIA after that. Sajid added 153 for the second wicket with Sheharyar Ghani (68) and then a further 97 with Faisal Iqbal. He was not out on 122 at close, with Iqbal on 46.

India should field a rare full-strength XI against a New Zealand side struggling to win games, but Dhoni isn’t taking their opposition lightly

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Nov-2010It’s been a rarity in recent times to see a full-strength India XI on the field during a Test match. At the Motera stadium on Thursday, MS Dhoni may finally be able to call on the best available, and with no injuries or niggles to complain of on the eve of the game, it was a prospect that he was looking forward to. “We have important series coming up,” he said. “After this, we go to South Africa and then we have the World Cup. If you see the last few series we’ve played, more often than not we’ve missed key players.”The lack of continuity has been most keenly felt in the pace-bowling department. Zaheer Khan missed the three Tests in Sri Lanka, but has otherwise shouldered most of the pace burden, with no consistency at the other end. “Fast bowling is a demanding job,” Dhoni said. “If a batsman is only 70 or 80 percent, you can still gamble and play him, but with a fast bowler you can’t do that, especially when you’re playing with two seamers and two spinners. If you’re missing one bowler, it gets very difficult to get through 90 overs in a day.”New Zealand have lost eight of their last 15 Tests, and won only two, and were blanked 4-0 in a one-day series in Bangladesh recently. But according to Dhoni, there was no danger of India disrespecting their opponents or taking victory for granted. “It will be a big mistake to take any side lightly,” he said. “They’ve got players who have performed everywhere they have played. Whatever happened [to New Zealand] in Bangladesh, we’re not really thinking about that.”His own side have been ranked No.1 for nearly a year now and haven’t lost a series since Sri Lanka in 2008. “Over the last couple of years, we’ve done well abroad too,” said Dhoni when asked if he felt more pressure on home turf. “That’s one thing with the Indian cricket team. The expectation level keeps on going up. It never comes down. Once you achieve a certain level, you’re expected to maintain that or do better as a team. I think Indian cricketers have done well to manage the expectations and the extra pressure.”It doesn’t matter if you’re playing Australia, New Zealand or Bangladesh. We set ourselves short-term goals. When it comes to a particular game, a lot depends on the toss.”Talk of the No.1 ranking was greeted with the usual nonchalance. “Winning games is closer [to my heart],” he said. “When you win games, the ratings take care of themselves. What the players and support staff are bothered about is how we do on the field, whether we’ve prepared well and planned for the opposition. At times in international cricket, you will be outplayed. But if you’ve done everything that you can, we accept that.”He did suggest, however, that the winning habit did much for team spirit. “When a team has lost a few games and pressure is applied, if they don’t start well, they tend to fragment or go in different directions,” said Dhoni. “When a team’s used to winning, it sticks together and waits for an opportunity to do well or go back into a game.”That has been illustrated in each of India’s last three Tests, when they’ve had to chase in excess of 200 to win games. At the P Sara Oval and the Chinnaswamy Stadium, they did so comfortably. At Mohali, VVS Laxman’s genius helped them creep over the line in an incredibly tense finish. “I would certainly love to win the toss [laughs], but that’s one good thing that has happened,” he said. “In the fourth innings, batsmen have to play cautiously and even if set, one odd delivery can get you. It adds to the confidence of the batting unit.”The one man in that unit under a little pressure is Rahul Dravid, who hasn’t had the best time of it in 2010. “He’s a great player, and has always bounced back from situations like these,” said Dhoni. “Once he’s set, we’re hoping he gets a big score. He’s looking very good in the nets, so we expect runs from him.”There were encouraging words too for Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara, prominent in that Bangalore victory but certain to miss out on places in the XI here. “Vijay and Pujara were replacing Gautam Gambhir and VVS Laxman,” he said. “When you have players like that coming back, they find a place in the playing XI. But I don’t think it’s demotivating. Vijay has always done well for India. And Pujara batted really well in the second innings in the last game.”India have now lost the toss in 10 successive Tests [Dhoni captained in nine of them, missing Chittagong through injury] and the spin of the coin aside, there will also be much attention devoted to the pitch, which has seen scores of 76 and 760 in the last two games played at the Motera. “Hopefully, it will be a turner,” said Dhoni with a smile. “We’ll have to see before the start of play. It has less grass when compared to the Sri Lanka game [November 2009] and a lot less than the South Africa game [April 2008]. It looks like a normal Indian track.”

The ICC task force looking into reviving Pakistan’s reputation as an international cricketing host met in Dubai on Saturday, a meeting which ECB chairman Giles Clarke has called “constructive and purposeful.”

Cricinfo staff06-Dec-2009The ICC task force looking into reviving Pakistan’s reputation as an international cricket host met in Dubai on Saturday, a meeting which ECB chairman Giles Clarke has said was “constructive and purposeful”. Clarke leads the five-member team which discussed how the PCB could fulfill its commitment under the Future Tours Programme given the security problems in Pakistan.”The objective of the meeting was to come up with possible solutions in consultation with the PCB to ensure that the cricketing talent remains attached and attracted to the sport despite the PCB’s inability to host international cricket at home in the near future,” Clarke said. “The PCB made an impressive and strong presentation in which it sought ICC’s assistance in retaining its position as a competitive team in world cricket and a self-sustaining and revenue-generating organisation.”The task force, which also includes the ICC’s general manager for cricket, Dave Richardson, former international captains Mike Brearley and Ramiz Raja, and ICC match referee Ranjan Madugalle, will now put together a report which will be submitted to the ICC’s board in February 2010.Several countries have refused to tour Pakistan due to security fears. Cricket in the country was dealt a severe blow when the Sri Lankan team’s bus was attacked in Lahore in March this year, killing eight people and injuring five visiting players. The 2009 Champions Trophy was moved out of Pakistan to South Africa and the country lost its share of 2011 World Cup matches later.

Lancashire secure India tie-up they desired in latest stage of the ECB’s Hundred equity sale

Matt Roller and Nagraj Gollapudi03-Feb-20251:42

Roller: Hundred equity sales a success for the ECB

Lancashire have secured the IPL partner they wanted to run Manchester Originals as a joint venture, with Sanjiv Goenka’s RPSG Group submitting the highest bid for a stake in the Hundred franchise on Monday.RPSG Group, who own Lucknow Super Giants, were the losing bidders in a three-hour auction for a stake in London Spirit on Friday, which was eventually won by a Silicon Valley tech consortium valuing the Lord’s-based franchise at £295 million. But RPSG Group have now secured a stake which values the Manchester-based Hundred team at above £100m, understood to be around £116m.The two parties will now enter into an eight-week period of exclusivity in which they will discuss the exact terms of the deal. Lancashire have previously suggested to members that they are open to a discussion about selling some of their 51% stake in Originals if the price is high enough that it enables them to pay down a significant proportion of their bank debt.Related

• Sun Group secures 100% stake in Northern Superchargers

• Brady stardust comes to cricket with Birmingham Phoenix acquisition

• Silicon Valley consortium values Spirit at £295m in Hundred coup

• Lancashire want IPL link for Manchester Originals

The club declined to confirm on Monday night* whether RPSG Group are buying anything more than the ECB’s 49% stake in the Originals, though ESPNcricinfo understands that Lancashire told prospective investors that they were willing to part with up to 70% of the overall shares during talks earlier in the sales process.Lancashire confirmed the news in a statement on Monday afternoon. “We have been very focused on securing a great partner – ideally from the IPL – and RPSG has been our preferred bidder for some time,” the club said.”We are delighted by the outcome and look forward to working together to create an exciting future. Together, we have a shared ambition to create a very special cricket team for the people of Manchester and the wider North West region.”ESPNcricinfo first revealed last August that officials from RPSG Group had visited Emirates Old Trafford, with Lancashire chief executive Daniel Gidney making clear in an interview his desire to work with an IPL franchise. Lancashire’s initial shortlist also included Mumbai Indians owners Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), who dropped out of the bidding for Originals after securing a stake in Oval Invincibles last week.Lancashire have actively grown their profile in India in recent years with a deliberate strategy that has included men’s and women’s pre-season tours and signing Indian internationals Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar and Venkatesh Iyer as overseas players. They are set to return to India next month as part of a pre-season tour.Sanjiv Goenka, pictured celebrating with Marcus Stoinis, is the chairman and founder of RPSG Group•Sportzpics

Goenka, the chairman and founder of business conglomerate RPSG Group, paid INR 7090 crore (£680m approx. at the time) to buy the Lucknow IPL franchise in 2021. He bought the Durban franchise in the SA20 the following year, and previously owned Rising Pune Supergiant. RPSG were involved in the 2016 and 2017 IPL seasons, while Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were suspended.Lancashire will hold a members’ forum next Wednesday. “Key items on the agenda will include details of our partnership with the RPSG Group, the projected financial outcome for Lancashire Cricket and the potential use of the funds generated,” the club said. “The investment remains subject to a satisfactory conclusion of the final due diligence and legal processes and a further announcement will be made in due course.”The deal makes RPSG Group the second IPL owners to buy a stake in a Hundred team, after Reliance. Sun Group, the owners of Sunrisers Hyderabad, are understood to be interested in both Northern Superchargers and Trent Rockets, while GMR Group, the co-owners of Delhi Capitals, are widely expected to secure a stake in Southern Brave, having bought host county Hampshire outright last year.ESPNcricinfo understands that RPSG Group were pitted against two other competitors on Monday, prompting a live auction. One of these was an investor who has struck a partnership with Royal Challengers Bengaluru, while the identity of the third bidder could not be confirmed on Monday night.The sales processes for Superchargers and Rockets were initially scheduled for Monday but are understood to have been delayed slightly, with some losing bidders from previous sales considering entering the running for another team. The sale of a stake in Brave will round out the process.*2100 GMT – This story was updated to reflect Lancashire’s statement and to note the identity of one losing bidder

Bangladesh’s captain scored the only half-century of the match and finished it with a last-ball boundary

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Nov-2023A tense Super-Over victory at the Shere Bangla National Stadium kept Bangladesh alive in their three-match ODI series against Pakistan. Captain Nigar Sultana was Bangladesh’s match-winner with the bat, scoring the game’s only half-century before hitting the winning boundary in the Super Over.Chasing eight to win the one-over eliminator, Bangladesh needed two off the last ball, with Sultana on strike for the first time after Sobhana Mostary had been stumped off Nashra Sandhu’s bowling. Sultana stepped out and lofted Sandhu over mid-off for four, bringing the series scoreline to 1-1 with the third and final ODI to be played on Friday.Having chosen to bat first, Bangladesh were in a solid position at 92 for 2 in the 32nd over, with Fargana Hoque having put on 49 for the third wicket with Sultana. Hoque’s run-out dismissal, however, sparked a slump, with Bangladesh losing seven wickets while scoring just 77 runs off the last 18.1 overs of their innings. Sultana was ninth out, in the final over, having scored 54 off 104 balls. Left-arm spinners Sandhu and Sadia Iqbal were Pakistan’s most successful bowlers with two wickets apiece.Pakistan’s chase got off to a strong start with Sadaf Shamas and Sidra Ameen putting on 41, but both openers fell in the 20s. It was a sign of things to come: in all, five Pakistan batters got into the 20s but none of them got to 30, as Bangladesh chipped away at the wickets, legspinner Rabeya Khan leading the way with 3 for 29.In a match of small margins, Bangladesh batted through their 50 overs as well as all six balls of their Super Over, while Pakistan were bowled out in 49.5 overs and lost both their Super-Over wickets with one ball still remaining. The match went into a tiebreaker after Sandhu was run out while trying to take the winning single in the last over of normal play, bowled by Fahima Khatun.

Debutant resists as under-strength top-order looks vulnerable against Lancashire’s new-ball attack

Paul Edwards06-Sep-2022Yorkshire 130 for 4 (Bean 42, Williams 2-22) trail Lancashire 276 (Jennings 119, Wells 84, Hill 6-26) by 146 runsFew games are so wonderfully enriched by their past as cricket yet few should be more wary of being enchained by it. It is a tricky path to tread. Before the rain-delayed start to our cricket at 12.55 this afternoon, a memorial was dedicated to Peter Eckersley, who skippered Lancashire to the title in 1930 and 1934. Eckersley once piloted an aircraft containing his team to an away match in Cardiff and most of the photographs of him also feature either a plane or a posh car. One can imagine him as a suspect in an Agatha Christie whodunit.Shortly after this ceremony ended, play began, a couple of hours late, and Lancashire lost their last two wickets for the addition of only four runs. Ten minutes later, 20-year-old Fin Bean, who made a quadruple century for the second team in June, walked out to play his maiden innings in first-class cricket. Bean was unlikely to know it and there was scant reason for him to care, but of all the buildings that encircled this sacred field two decades ago, only the pavilion remains and even that is now overshadowed by a hotel and a corporate hospitality venue. The blare of the present, the imperative of now, is everywhere.And yet Peter Eckersley lived just as vividly as Fin Bean lives. Understanding such things is a triumph of historical imagination and a very necessary one in these months of notions and nostrums. So in the midst of confusions about cricket’s role and direction it was pleasant to be reminded of a few of our game’s verities this afternoon. One of these is the intensity of the Roses match, something into which Bean was inducted this afternoon as he scored just one run from his first 27 balls. Patiently, he left some balls alone; steadfastly, he tapped others back to the bowler. Then he stroked an on-drive and a cover-drive to the boundary off Will Williams and we realised here was a left-hander capable of grace as well as grind.Related

• Imam-ul-Haq 90 on Somerset debut can't stop Gloucestershire building strong position

• Feroze Khushi proves his first-team credentials at last with maiden Championship century

• Aneurin Donald, Kyle Abbott power Hampshire to full bonus points as Surrey pursuit hots up

By then, Adam Lyth had gone, caught at short leg by Josh Bohannon off Williams for 13, and it was plain that Yorkshire’s under-strength top-order was vulnerable to a Lancashire new-ball attack led by Tom Bailey, one of county cricket’s quiet masters. But Bean resisted Bailey and Williams, even though, as he admitted later, the ball was “nipping around a bit”. In company with George Hill, who might still have been in slight shock after his 6 for 26 yesterday, Bean put on 63 for Yorkshire’s second wicket. At times the cricket was a trifle slow but these things are relative.Certainly it was furlongs removed from the drawn game at Old Trafford exactly a century ago when play was possible on only two days out of three and 504 runs were scored in 252.3 overs. These, though, are not the most intriguing features of that match. 20,000 spectators watched Lancashire compile 118 all out from 77.3 overs on the Saturday of the August Bank Holiday weekend and 10,000 saw Yorkshire bat out for a draw on the following Tuesday when the visitors needed only eight runs from five overs to win but finished three short with eight wickets down, Wilfred Rhodes making an unbeaten 48. Effectively, however, Yorkshire were nine down; their skipper, Geoffrey Wilson, was in hospital with appendicitis. Even more significantly, perhaps, Yorkshire were on course for the first of what would be four successive titles and were content to remain top of the pile while denying Lancashire any chance of overhauling them.Will Williams took two wickets for Lancashire•Getty Images

A hundred years later, it is Lancashire who are chasing the title, albeit a little distantly, whereas Yorkshire fear relegation, an indignity unknown to Rhodes, Roy Kilner and those other giants. The home side’s hopes were raised a tad when Hill was bowled by a glorious leg-spinner from Matt Parkinson for 32 and lifted again when, after 153 minutes in the middle, Bean was pinned in front of his stumps by Bailey for a 116-ball 42. He will have been disappointed not to reach a half-century but he had looked as if he belonged. In its way his innings had counted for much more than his gourmandising for the second team. “This innings shows that I can play at this level, which is a big thing for a young player,” he said.Lancashire enjoyed one more success before the weather closed in. After struggling for 3 runs in 10 balls, Will Fraine was bowled by Williams when playing no shot but Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Jonny Tattersall ensured their side reached 130 for 4 before the umpires took the players off for bad light that had been gathering from the west. Ten minutes later, the rain was bucketing down.No matter… or not much anyway. Our delayed and truncated day had honoured the Roses match and Bean had taken his first steps towards the fulfilment of a dream. From the 1864 suite the blazered nobility from both counties had watched it all with the discernment that only decades in the game can bring. For once, one did not begrudge them their mighty lunches. Roses matches are their occasions, too, and that smoked salmon was never going to eat itself.

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.