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As things stand, India will have to play with only ten men in the remainder of the Rajkot Test if Ashwin doesn’t return

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Feb-2024India offspinner R Ashwin has withdrawn from India’s Test side in Rajkot, effective immediately, because of a family medical emergency.”The BCCI extends its heartfelt support to the champion cricketer and his family,” the Indian board said in a media release. “The health and well-being of the players and their loved ones are of utmost importance. The Board requests respect for the privacy of Ashwin and his family as they navigate through this challenging time.”The Board and the team will continue to provide any necessary assistance to Ashwin and will keep the lines of communication open to offer support as needed. Team India appreciates the understanding and empathy of the fans and media during this sensitive period.”Related

• Ashwin rejoins Indian team in Rajkot

• Crafty Kuldeep undoes Bazball in 12-over spell for the ages

• For Ashwin, process trumps outcome in the face of England's risky business

• Duckett leads charge as India feel the force of Bazball

• Why England started their innings in Rajkot with five runs on the board

The BCCI’s announcement came at 11pm IST, hours after the second day’s play in Rajkot had ended, during which Ashwin had provided India their first wicket of the Test.Ashwin’s withdrawal could leave India with only ten players, with three days of play left in the Rajkot Test. Ordinarily, playing substitutes are only permitted for players ruled out by concussions or Covid-19. In the absence of Ashwin, India are left with Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav as frontline spin options for the rest of this Test.With his wicket on the second day, Ashwin had reached a significant milestone, becoming the ninth bowler to 500 Test wickets.

Western Australia are well placed for a fourth win of the season in a game dominated by the ball

AAP23-Nov-2022Western Australia set New South Wales the seemingly Herculean task of chasing 268 runs to win after 20 wickets fell for 220 runs on an eventful day of Sheffield Shield cricket.On a lively but not unplayable SCG pitch, both sides struggled to make runs. D’Arcy Short top-scored for WA with an unbeaten 38 on a grim day for the batting profession. The visitors were bowled out for 127 in their second innings after slumping to 7 for 45 shortly after tea.Short and debutant paceman Charlie Stobo steadied the ship with a 60-run partnership – the largest of the day – to drag their side past three figures.”As you’ve seen, getting 200 on this wicket is really challenging,” Stobo said.  “Getting [a lead of] 260, 270 is a real bonus, so pretty content at the moment.”Related

• Spin duo Green and Gray enjoy impressive starts for New South Wales

• McSweeney and Lehmann leave Queensland ruing missed opportunity

Journeyman NSW spinner Chris Green continued his dream first-class debut, picking up a five-wicket haul to add to his four opening-day dismissals.Quick Mickey Edwards got his first wicket in the competition since 2018 after a torrid injury run, trapping opener Cameron Bancroft lbw for 1.Chris Tremain got the pick of the wickets, taking an exceptional return catch in his follow-through off Sam Fanning’s firmly struck straight drive.The Blues were earlier skittled for 93, 140 runs short of WA’s first-innings total. Matthew Kelly was the pick of the quicks for the visitors, taking 3 fpr 9 including a double-wicket maiden over that brought the dismissals of Jason Sangha and Moises Henriques.Stobo picked up his first wickets for WA, while spinner Corey Rocchiccioli helped clean up the tail with four of his own.Daniel Hughes top-scored for the hosts with 30 off 96 deliveries, battling admirably for each run as his partners fell around him.Fast bowlers took 11 of day’s wickets with the spinners nabbing nine on a green pitch offering plenty of turn and bounce after the NSW spin pair of Green and Toby Gray dominated on day one.”It’s obviously a bit of a difficult wicket,” Hughes said.  “You can’t play any cross-bat shots on that. You’ve got to play as straight as you can and wait for the spinner to drop short or the quicks to bowl full and just hit down the ground. That’s the key, and if we can do that for a long period tomorrow we’re in with a chance.”With South Australia leapfrogging them at the bottom of the table following their draw with Queensland, the winless Blues will need a massive batting effort to avoid defeat on day three.

Offspinner bowls visitors out for 69 to hone his preparations for England series in August

ECB Reporters' Network14-Jul-2021R Ashwin stepped up his preparations for India’s Test series against England by taking 6 for 27 as Surrey’s LV= Insurance County Championship match against Somerset ended in a draw.The 34-year-old off-spinner, who was making a one-off appearance for Surrey, helped rattle Somerset out for 69 in their second innings with left-arm spinner Dan Moriarty picking up 4 for 20 on a Kia Oval pitch offering plenty of help to the slow bowlers.It left Surrey needing 259 to win in 57 overs and England slow left-armer Jack Leach followed up his 6 for 43 in Surrey’s first innings with another wicket but the hosts had reached 106 for 4 when the teams shook hands at 5pm with Jamie Smith 46 not out.A day during which all but seven overs were bowled by the spinners started with Leach sealing his best figures against Surrey when he picked up last man Amar Virdi. Roelof van der Merwe had Moriarty lbw with the third ball of the day to finish with 4 for 54 as Surrey were bowled out for 240 and conceded a first innings deficit of 189.Somerset did not enforce the follow on and Ashwin, who took just one wicket in 43 overs in the first innings, took the new ball at the pavilion end and quickly settled into a high-class spell. Although the pitch was slow, the ball turned sharply out of the footholds and Somerset’s batsmen found it hard going against a world-class operator.Ashwin took his first wicket in his fourth over when Steven Davies was drawn forward and edged behind. Tom Lammonby fell to an ill-judged sweep, James Hildreth was pinned on his stumps when Ashwin went round the wicket, George Bartlett bowled offering no shot and van der Merwe fell leg before just before lunch which Somerset reached on 60 for 7.Ashwin took his sixth wicket with a superb delivery which drifted in and spun sharply to defeat Ben Green’s defensive push. He was given excellent support by Moriarty, who bowled arguably the best delivery of the day to end Devon Conway’s determined resistance with a ball that spun sharply past his defensive push and knocked back off stump.Surrey’s hopes of an unlikely victory chase effectively ended by the 13th over when they lost their third wicket. Leach had Mark Stoneman held at short leg and van der Merwe picked up Rory Burns and Ryan Patel before ending a stand of 66 for the fourth wicket when he pinned Hashim Amla to finish with match figures of 7 for 115.

England’s bid for Test resurgence will hinge on their success in broadening red-ball playing pool

Andrew Miller05-Mar-2020As England’s Test squad assembles for their tour of Sri Lanka – in the wake of a multi-format tour of South Africa, with a home Test summer looming ever larger on the horizon, and with back-to-back T20 World Cups offering a more immediate route to further global glory, it would be easy to park the ECB’s other stated ambition for the current four-year cycle – victory in Australia in 2021-22 – in the file marked “pending”.And yet, if there’s one lesson to be taken from the abject failure of three of England’s last four campaigns in Australia – and moreover, from the stand-out success of that one campaign to buck the trend in 2010-11 – it is that a failure to get planning months, and even years, in advance is a plan for further failure, full stop.England have, after all, lost nine out of their last ten Tests Down Under, including a 5-0 whitewash in 2013-14 – the same scoreline by which they were thrashed in the 2006-07 campaign that preceded Andrew Strauss’s stand-out triumph four years later.And, as Mo Bobat, the ECB’s performance director, pointed out in the wake of a more recent – and equally rare – England Lions triumph over Australia last week, the groundwork that gets laid now will be of fundamental importance to any hope of a repeat success in two year’s time.For last week at the MCG, an England Lions team featuring a mixture of the tried and the tyros won by an emphatic nine wickets over Australia A, their first victory in an unofficial Test in Australia after seven blank campaigns.And just as Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen et al had batted Australia to a standstill in that famous 3-1 win in 2010-11, it was England’s weight of first-innings runs that proved crucial to their MCG victory. Dom Sibley, fresh from his breakthrough Test tour of South Africa, made 116 out of 428, while Essex’s Dan Lawrence top-scored with 125 – all the while looking as run-hungry as Pietersen himself had been on the England A tour of India in 2003-04 that preceded his own breakthrough year.For a week earlier in Hobart, Lawrence’s 190 had been the highest of three hundreds in an imposing 613 for 8 declared against a Cricket Australia XI. It seems the virtues of batting time, so alien in the modern T20-dominated landscape, haven’t been completely abandoned by the coming generation.Dan Lawrence drives during his hundred•Getty Images

“I was slightly alarmed when I saw it was the first time we’d beaten Australia A ever,” Bobat said during a briefing at Lord’s after his return from Australia.”I remember briefing the players at our camp in January. I talked at length about what it takes to win in Australia and the way we wanted to approach getting results. It’s not rocket science, but we talked quite a lot around making the most of first innings.”Of the four times we had won in Australia over the last 20 years, I think in three of them we scored 500-plus in the first innings, someone had batted for more than four or five hours, and bowlers had put in something like 40 overs in the game – so it was about framing into context what it actually takes to win in Australia.”Situational experience is a key part of what the England Lions programme has become. As Bobat conceded, their actual playing record in recent years is nothing much to write home about – take the Caribbean tour two winters ago, when a Lions side featuring four members of the current Test squad (Keaton Jennings, Jack Leach, Dom Bess and Saqib Mahmood) were crushed 3-0 in a series that exposed some deep-seated issues with playing and bowling spin overseas.But as a means of preparing players for the step-up in intensity and expectation that will come at Test level – or to keep them in the bubble between senior assignments, as in the cases of Sibley, Bess and Zak Crawley since the South Africa tour – it offers the sort of finishing school that county cricket, in its current guise, is struggling to provide in its own right, as Bobat himself told ESPNcricinfo back in December.”In recent years if you purely looked at win percentage, I don’t think our ‘A’ team win percentage would probably be as high as we might have liked it to be,” he said. “But a reassuring thing that I’ve started to communicate this winter, that people have started to get their heads around, is probably moving the Lions from being viewed as a programme that people might pass through on their way to playing for England – which I’m not that keen on as a mantra – to it being a range of experiences and expertise that players can access based on their needs.”So we might have England players, as we saw this winter, who then drop back down and get a bit more exposure and experience, and then go again.Craig Overton celebrates after dismissing Tim Paine•Getty Images

“Playing a game at the MCG against Australia A felt like something we should try and bank as an experience for them,” he added. “Because we wouldn’t want to get to the Ashes in two years’ time and for them to experience all of that for the first time.”It isn’t just what you get on the 22 yards, it’s being on that flight for that amount of time, it’s being in that country and dealing with Aussies just in and around the cricket itself. There are a number of things that you get from that that I would put into that relevant experiences category – dealing with the jet lag, walking out of the MCG through the tunnel. All those types of things, to get that first time, when it really matters, is probably asking a lot for a player, so banking some of that earlier is useful.”For the 2010-11 squad, a lot of that experience came first-hand – meted out by the likes of Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist and Glenn McGrath in their valedictory triumph four years earlier, and stored away for future reference when Strauss, Cook, Pietersen, Ian Bell, James Anderson et al returned with vengeance aforethought. But it was England’s depth of fast-bowling options, every bit as much as their vast experience, that made the difference in that campaign – giving them leeway to cope with Stuart Broad going lame midway through the Adelaide Test, or for Chris Tremlett and Tim Bresnan to come off the bench for the third and fourth Tests and made fundamental contributions.Having been outgunned last summer by an Australian pace contingent featuring, at various points, such quality quicks as Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, James Pattinson and Mitchell Starc, England know that they have the raw materials to fight back in style in two years’ time, with Jofra Archer and Mark Wood both demonstrating an ability to deliver eye-watering spells of raw pace that can rattle the very best.But, with both men currently injured, not to mention in high demand in the white-ball formats too, the challenge of broadening England’s fast-bowling stocks is one that Bobat knows cannot be left to chance. In January, the ECB handed the first of a new range of pace-bowling development contracts to Olly Stone, Saqib Mahmood and Craig Overton, a man whose temperament as a Test prospect is rated perhaps more highly than his bowling at present, but whose six wickets at the MCG were a key factor in last week’s Lions win.”We are making it a judgment on the quality of their current performance and we’re making a prediction on their future potential and all three of those bowlers were deemed to be guys that we thought could add value in the future,” said Bobat. “They are all slightly different, as well. One thing we do know, and we’ve done a huge amount of analysis to understand this, is to be successful all around the world, we need a varied attack.”Whether that variety needs to be augmented by using the Kookaburra ball in county cricket, however, is a question that Bobat isn’t entirely sold on, despite Joe Root’s recent endorsement of the notion and despite Australia turning to the Dukes in their own preparations for English conditions.ALSO READ: Technical tweaks the trigger for Dan Lawrence’s Lions form“A personal view is I’m not totally sold on the idea because I don’t think we know how it’s going to behave in this country,” he said. “Our pitches are not as abrasive, so I think we’re making a bit of an assumption. I’m slightly mindful that we play half of our games at home so let’s make sure we are really strong at home, too. If you start to move away from your own strength, there may be some unintended consequences.”The Ashes isn’t the only thing we plan for, clearly. We’ve got the World Test Championship and we’re very ambitious about what we want to achieve in the two T20 World Cups coming up. “It is my job, though, to help get a broader and richer talent pool, to allow us to be able to select strategically, which will also involve at times giving players a rest.”Increasingly, those rests appear to be coming in the switch between formats, with England’s Test and white-ball squads containing a range of increasingly specialised players … with a handful of notable exceptions. Key among those, of course, is the kingpin Ben Stokes, a man who produced two of the greatest matchwinning performances of all time at Lord’s and Headingley last summer. On his punishing schedule, Bobat is cautious but clear.”If we fast forward to the Ashes, the period before that we play India twice over five Tests [home and away]. We then go to Bangladesh. Then there’s the World T20 in India. If we think someone is going to play all that, I think that we are probably kidding ourselves,” he said.”I’d almost rather not be quoted on this but if we get to a point where Ben Stokes doesn’t have to play in the T20 World Cup because we can prioritise the Ashes that would be a great place to get to.” Planning for all eventualities, even the currently unthinkable ones, is precisely why he’s in his role.

Ali Tareen, son of businessman and politician Jehangir Tareen, has won the rights to the sixth PSL franchise, formerly known as Multan Sultans

Umar Farooq20-Dec-2018Ali Tareen, the son of one of the wealthiest businessmen and politicians in the country, has won the ownership rights of the sixth team in the Pakistan Super League. According to the PCB, he has won the ownership rights for seven years after significantly exceeding the reserve price of USD 5.21 million per year. Tareen’s bid of USD 6.35 million won out against a South African consortium, which bid USD 3.5 million for the rights. It isn’t yet established whether this is inclusive of 26% tax.Alamgir Tareen, the Pepsi franchise owner in South Punjab, is the biggest shareholder, while Ali Tareen and Taimur Malik, a Dubai-based lawyer from Multan, are the other major shareholders. Combined, they own over 80% of the sixth franchise, with Ali to take up a role as Director Operations.The ownership rights of Multan Sultans was terminated by the PCB this year after the Schön Group, a Dubai-based enterprise well-established in the real estate business, failed to pay their annual fee of USD 5.2 million. Tareen, after securing the rights, confirmed the team’s name would stay as Multan, though it remains unclear if it would still be called Multan Sultans.Ali Tareen’s financial clout emanates from his father Jehangir Tareen, has established JDW Group, a company that has overseen the development of one of the largest sugar mills in the country. Jehangir Tareen was a key political and financial backer of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, headed by current Prime Minister Imran Khan.Ali dabbled in politics last year, contesting a by-election in his native Lodhran, a key constituency in South Punjab, after his father was disqualified from holding political office. He was ultimately unsuccessful, and has since focused on promoting cricket in the province, and has championed the promotion of grassroots cricket in the country.The players selection process for the sixth team was completed last month in the draft process. The PCB-led selection team notably snapped up Steven Smith. They also retained Shoaib Malik, likely to be retained as captain, apart from purchasing Shahid Afridi in the Platinum category.Tareen is yet to take a decision on whether he would retain the management structure and personnel that have been at the franchise since last season, when they finished fifth and narrowly failed to make the knockout round.Separately, two petitions were filed in Lahore’s High Court, alleging the bidding for the Sixth Team was invalid. An investment group from Hong Kong Abelena Capital Limited with a local office in Lahore raised questions about the legality of the bidding process. Another group, Metac General Contracting Company, claimed they were the rightful owners, having finished second in the bidding last year to Schon Group. Both petitions were rejected.

Claire Polosak to stand with Paul Wilson in the List A contest between New South Wales and a Cricket Australia XI at Hurstville Oval on Sunday

Daniel Brettig04-Oct-2017Claire Polosak was a Goulburn teenager with a love of cricket when a schoolmate gave her a new idea for getting involved in the game. “A friend came to school with a flyer and she said ‘Dad says you like cricket, you should give this a go’,” Polosak said. “She thrust the flyer into my face and it was a course for umpiring. So I thought ‘oh I’ll give this a go’ and it grew from there.”From that abrupt introduction, her career did indeed grow, to the point that Polosak, 29, will on Sunday become the first woman to officiate as an on-field umpire in an Australian domestic men’s fixture – standing with Paul Wilson in the List A contest between New South Wales and a Cricket Australia XI at Hurstville Oval.In doing so, she will join the likes of Kathy Cross (New Zealand), Jacqueline Williams (West Indies) and Sue Redfern (England) as women to have umpired at the men’s first-class level. Polosak’s progress also follows significant progress for female officiators in other sports. In May, the South Australian Eleni Glouftsis became the first woman to stand as a field umpire in an AFL men’s match.”A little bit nervous, but if you don’t have a little bit of nerves, you don’t care,” Polosak said in Sydney. “So it’s all about getting all the butterflies going in the same direction. Planning on going out there and having my routines, get through the first ball and go through it from there. I love the challenge, watching balls, being out there, the camaraderie between umpires as you’ve come through is really good, it’s a family, the challenge of having to answer decisions is always good.”I never played cricket, but I always followed cricket, and my parents got me into it [umpiring], Dad used to drive me up from Goulburn to do the umpires course here. It took a few times to pass but it was something I was determined to do and I just kept working through the grades in Sydney competition.”I got a phone call from Simon Taufel [to say I would umpire on Sunday]. I followed Simon when I was a lot younger growing up, he was at his peak, so to have the phone call from him was quite special.”Having umpired men’s and women’s matches extensively, Polosak is in a unique position to compare and contrast. She has found that the women’s game can be more difficult to judge as the high standard of fielding often catches out runners between the wickets, while the greater speed of the ball in men’s matches means that nicks off the edge of the bat can be more easily heard. But either way, she is yet to meet an angry fast bowler or irritated captain she has not been able to “deal with”.Equally, Polosak has not yet joined other colleagues in wearing much in the way of protective equipment when standing. “Cricket Australia is very open to if you want to wear a helmet or protective equipment, they’re happy to provide that,” she said. “At the moment I’m fortunate that I haven’t been in that situation. But if you’ve got good positioning and watching the ball, hopefully that reduces your chance of any injury.”Asked whether her pathway had been anymore difficult than for a male equivalent, Polosak paused. “A bit hard to tell, as I’ve come through the grades, I’ve come through at the same speed that players have, so now in first grade in Sydney I’ve seen players I’ve worked with all the way through, so I’m not a novelty anymore,” she said. “The way the appointments work are based on merit, so I can never ask for anything extra.”I’ve probably had to work a little bit harder [than men] but it’s all part of the enjoyment, and being able to do well makes it even better.
It just shows there is a pathway now, there are increased opportunities. Cricket Australia and Cricket NSW are really increasing the amount of support available for female umpires, and I think that’s showing in other sports as well.”In addition to her own umpiring, Polosak works in female engagement and umpire education at Cricket NSW, where she is intent on building the number of females coming through the ranks of the game’s arbiters. “We’re looking to improve the numbers,” she said. “There’s now an increased awareness of women’s sport and an increased pathway so it’s really exciting.”As for whether the road, that started with that flyer waved in her face, can lead to standing in a Test match, Polosak said she was not putting any limitations on what could be achieved. “There always is [a dream to umpire a Test match],” she said, “but if you ask players or referees from any sport, you just want to go to the highest possible opportunity that you can.”

Derbyshire have turned to Kim Barnett, one of the most inspirational captains in their history, to shake them out of their torpor

David Hopps30-Sep-2016Derbyshire have turned to Kim Barnett, one of the most inspirational captains in their history, to shake them out of the torpor which saw them finish bottom of the second division of the Championship without a win to their name and fail to progress in both limited-overs competitions.Barnett has been appointed as director of cricket in a new coaching set-up which leaves the future of John Sadler uncertain. Sadler stepped up as first team coach in June after Graeme Welch resigned from his role after his two-and-a-half years in charge failed to revive the county’s fortunes.Barnett, who will step down immediately from a role as president that he accepted in April, became Derbyshire’s youngest ever captain at 22 and won six Lord’s finals in a 24-year career as well as enjoying brief England recognition. He became known in county circles for strong opinions about how the game should be run and a determination to see those opinions carried out; the largely ceremionial role of president always seemed an unlikely fit.Welch laid much emphasis on developing young players, but Barnett’s appointment seems to have come with a slight shift of approach with the club talking of “targeted recruitment of senior players”.Chris Grant, Derbyshire’s chairman, said that the current coaching structure had been found wanting: “We have been spending over 20% of our overall cricket budget on coaching and this new model will achieve a better balance between our coaching and playing budget.”As well as providing more targeted coaching resources, it will also free up funds from the cricketing budget that can be spent on attracting higher quality players.”We believe Kim is the perfect man to lead this new structure. He has done it all as a player and knows how to win competitions. His experience, knowledge and tactical awareness will be invaluable as we move forward.”Below Barnett, as director of cricket, the club will interview shortly for the positions of 1st XI support coach, Twenty20 specialist coach and development coach. Specialist coaches will also be employed on an occasional basis.Barnett said: “We have some great talent here and some great facilities with a tremendous fitness and medical team supporting the players. However, we have not achieved enough success on the field in recent years. We’re determined to change this.”With a strong captain and players technically sound and tactically clued up, we will be in a great position for next season. If every player at the club proves their worth and takes responsibility for their own performances, the chances of success are greater. Our talented youngsters will come into a dressing room with experienced cricketers that know how to win.”

The Karachi City Cricket Association has protested against the restructuring of the Quaid-e-Azam trophy

Umar Farooq18-Aug-2015The Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA) and Pakistan Cricket Board are in disagreement over the changes made to domestic cricket in the country. In July, it had been decided that the final four of the 16 teams participating in the Quaid-e-Azam trophy, Pakistan’s premier first-class tournament, have to play a qualifying round. But the KCCA have objected to it, and insisted that their two teams should gain direct entry to the main round.According to the PCB, the KCCA had accepted to the change in format in earlier meetings. But on Tuesday, the KCCA president Ijaz Farooqi protested by staging a walk out of the PCB governing board meeting in Lahore. He did return to attend the meeting in full, but the symbolism was clear. The PCB considered deliberating the issue raised by the KCCA, but decided that making an exception for one team was not wise. The other teams set to participate in the tournament are understood not to have raised any concerns.The PCB had revamped format of the Quaid-e-Azam trophy for the third time in the last four years, trimming the competition from having 26 teams to 16 – eight regional and eight department sides.Of the 16 teams, 12 – six regional and six department – will gain automatic qualification on the basis of their performance last season. The last four places will be filled through a qualifying round introduced by the PCB, which will be played between 14 teams. The top two regional and department teams will qualify for the main tournament. The qualifying round will be a non-first-class tournament in which six departmental teams will play five matches on single-league basis while eight regional teams will play three matches each.Traditionally, Karachi gets to field two teams as a result of having a greater number of people. The PCB have allowed for that to continue, but Karachi Zebras failed to finish within the top 12 last season and the new format dictates they have to go through the qualifying tournament if they want to play first-class cricket this season.Apart from Zebras, Faisalabad Wolves, Abbottabad Falcons, FATA Cheetas, Lahore Eagles, Multan Tigers, Bahawalpur Stags, Sialkot Stallions are the other teams who will compete in the qualifying round. The inter-department qualifying round features six teams: Pakistan International Airlines, State Bank of Pakistan, Sui Southern Gas Company, Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited, Khan Research Laboratories, Karachi Port Trust.No one other than Karachi have disputed the new format. They have called a meeting of the local governing council on Wednesday to plan their next move.This is not the first time the two parties have been at loggerheads. The KCCA, in the past, had claimed the PCB deliberately neglected players from Karachi when selecting the national team. The KCCA had also launched a court petition in 2003 over hosting a Test in Karachi. At the time, the PCB had intended to stage the matches at the then newly formed Sindh Cricket Association instead of the KCCA. However, the court decided to maintain the status quo and the first Test between Pakistan and Bangladesh was hosted by KCCA.

Mithali Raj’s fourth ODI century, which came one match too late, helped India maintain their unbeaten record against Pakistan and end their World Cup campaign with a consolation victory

The Report by Amol Karhadkar in Cuttack07-Feb-2013
ScorecardMithali Raj’s fourth ODI century, which came one match too late, helped India maintain their unbeaten record against Pakistan and end their World Cup campaign with a consolation victory. The six-wicket win helped India end the tournament at seventh place.No team had chased more than 105 at the Barabati Stadium during the tournament. However, once the Pakistan batting eventually clicked, the sizeable crowd – expectedly the biggest turnout so far – knew that India had to bat very well in order to chase down a respectable target of 193.India lost Poonam Raut cheaply for the second time in as many games, falling over while attempting an on drive, trapped in front of the wicket. Mithali walked in at No.3 and looked in sound touch and though she had started off on a similar note against Sri Lanka, she made sure she stayed till the end.When Raj and the left-handed opener Thirush Kamini were looking set for a big partnership, the opener perished, holing out to Sana Mir at mid-off off Bismah Maroof with the score on 51. Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur were untroubled by the Pakistan bowlers. Raj did the bulk of the scoring, charging down the wicket and lofting the offspinner Mir straight and following it up with a square cut through point off the next ball.Four balls after the halfway mark, Kaur perished, thanks to a run out. Shortly after, the offspinner Nida Dar sneaked through Sulakshana Naik’s defence to leave India at 108 for 4. Raj found an able partner in Reema Malhotra. While Malhotra focused on rotating the strike, Raj went after the Pakistan bowlers at will.Once India crossed the 150 mark, Raj cut loose and eventually reached her century to robust cheers from the crowd after pulling Dar for a one-bounce boundary through midwicket. India thus overhauled the target with four overs to spare.Pakistan’s decision to bat first appeared surprising, considering they came into this game on the back of totals of 84, 104 and 81. However, fifties by Nain Abidi and Nida Dar, and the duo’s 80-run stand for the fifth wicket helped Pakistan post a better total.The pair not only resurrected Pakistan’s innings but also helped them register their highest ever total in World Cup matches, also their fifth-highest total overall. Despite losing Abidi while attempting to push the scoring, Dar remained unbeaten, raising the third-highest individual score for a Pakistani in international women’s cricket.

Alastair Cook admitted England’s batsmen hadn’t started their tour as they’d hoped but wasn’t overly concerned despite an unconvincing display against an ICC Combined XI in Dubai

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Jan-2012Alastair Cook admitted England’s batsmen hadn’t started their time in UAE as they’d hoped but wasn’t overly concerned despite an unconvincing display against an ICC Combined XI in Dubai. Cook top-scored with 76 but no one else reached 20 as England struggled to 185 for 8 before Andrew Strauss declared.For Cook it was his first competitive innings since the one-day series against India in October but for some of his team-mates, notably Strauss and Eoin Morgan, it has been much longer. Strauss last played in mid-September while Morgan suffered a shoulder injury at the start of the home one-day series against India.”It wasn’t ideal,” Cook said. “I think we have to put that down to a little bit of rustiness. But credit to the opposition, especially Boyd [Rankin]. I thought he bowled very, very well. I think when you haven’t batted outside for probably four months, with whites and a red ball, it does take a while to get into that rhythm. But it’s not the end of the world.”However, Cook suggested that even if the top order had fired during the first two sessions, a declaration would have still been part of England’s plan to keep the game open.”I think, if we’d batted better, we still would have pulled out to set up a game. One of [coach] Andy Flower’s big things is to try and win these preparation games to make them competitive for us,” he said. “They do lack that intensity of Test cricket, of course. But we try to get as much competitive cricket into us as possible, so that when we come to the first morning of that Test match we’re ready for it.”It has been a busy time of late for Cook who, while now concentrating on opening the batting for England, got married on New Year’s Eve and joined the tour 36 hours later than his team-mates after being granted brief leave by the ECB.”It was an amazing day – a bit too short with the celebrations afterwards,” he said. “Thirty-six hours can’t really be allowed to constitute a honeymoon. I hope at some stage in the next 12 months we’ll get to go away. But it was very kind of the ECB to give me that time.”Meanwhile Boyd Rankin, who removed Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell during the afternoon session, knows that such performances can’t do him any harm with a view to furthering his England ambitions. After this match he will join the Lions squad in Bangladesh and has gained good reviews on the county circuit for Warwickshire.”Hopefully I’ve done myself a few favours and shown what I can do,” he said. “It is a pretty flat pitch and I’m actually surprised how many wickets have fallen. We had plans against all the batsmen and we did well to put them under pressure. Hopefully we can get a few more runs in the morning and then we’ll be confident of bowling them out.”