On a day of old-school Test cricket, Sri Lanka’s bowlers plugged away, focusing on the basics and earned rich rewards

Andrew Fernando in Galle17-Nov-2012Even Sri Lanka’s weather seems to have taken umbrage at the board’s removal of Tests from the 2013 schedule in favour of ODIs. Daily monsoon rains that had reduced the limited-overs leg of the tour to one rung above farce cleared abruptly for the first day of Test cricket, and barely a cloud gathered to object to a full day’s play in a setting whose history and allure matches and enhances the wonder of the game it hosts.The cricketers also endorsed Test cricket in their approach. Often attritional and rarely frenzied, neither side betrayed the tight schedule that had had them playing limited-overs cricket five days prior. Runs were made at a languid 2.56 per over for the day, and rarely for a Test involving New Zealand, almost no one was guilty of over-aggression. However, one team assumed Test-match temperament better than the other, and that sees them going into day two far better placed than the opposition.Sri Lanka’s attack is not one adorned with many bells and whistles, and to label it simple and workmanlike does not do it injustice, nor demean the men who comprise it. Rangana Herath has featured heavily in Sri Lanka’s recent Test triumphs, sporadic though they may be, and he does not command anywhere near the intrigue Ajantha Mendis, the man he usurped to become successor to Muttiah Muralitharan, did. Herath has a doosra, which is not the best going around by any means, and he uses it rarely and only after careful calculation of the batsman’s flaws, as he affirmed at the end of the day’s play. Instead, patience and stickability are the staples of his art, often spiced with a soulful splash of fight.Herath was played well by Brendon McCullum and Daniel Flynn, New Zealand’s best batsmen of the day, particularly during their 90-run partnership, which McCullum later described as “efficient”. Yet Herath never felt the need to change his game or intensify his attack. The visitors may have been already at a disadvantage at his introduction, but there was no effort to extend the collapse in 12 wicketless overs. His delivery to McCullum was simply a well-drifted length ball, made to look spectacular by a little extra bite from the pitch, and his patience outlasted Flynn’s too, when the batsman nicked behind trying to cut Herath square, last over before the tea break. The rest of his breakthroughs followed a similar pattern.”I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary,” Herath said of McCullum’s dismissal at the end of the day. “Bit of turn and I was able to dismiss him. Although I got five wickets today, those were not wickets that I got trying for additional spin or whatever. I think it’s a very good wicket still. This is a new game and a new wicket, and I just did what I thought would work on this strip.”Galle was once Muralitharan’s fortress – or at least, one of them – until he retired having taken that unforgettable final wicket of his Test career off the last ball he bowled here. Herath knows that in Galle, the surface will add extra venom to some deliveries and he only needs to keep putting the ball in the right place, and with that knowledge he is quickly piling rock upon rock to make the venue a stronghold of his own with each Test. He now has four five-wicket hauls in his last four matches here, having taken 30 wickets at 16.33.
”Actually in 1999 my debut was also in Galle'” Herath said. “I love this place. Most of the time I have played here I have done well. Last two or three years I have had a great time at this ground.”Herath’s spinning partner Suraj Randiv was another study in patience throughout most of his 21 overs on day one. Against the left-hand batsmen, Randiv found a spot that gave him a little extra bounce, just on a length, and plugged away there for overs on end. He finished wicketless, and was unlucky to do so, but New Zealand were never allowed to spur the run rate, with Randiv and Herath operating in tandem.”Mahela told us to focus on building pressure, rather than on taking wickets. I thought Suraj did it to a certain extent. After 85 overs they only managed 221 runs, and things like rotating the strike and attacking are important and because they couldn’t do that, it gave us an advantage.”The seam bowlers also relied on the basics of swing, length and seam for their wickets, and both Shaminda Eranga and Nuwan Kulasekara did their reputations as Test bowlers a world of good, not only in their opening burst, but also with restrained spells with the older ball. Tim Southee swung the ball prodigiously in his opening spell, and Sri Lana’s batsmen now need to adopt the patience of their bowlers to see out what promises to be a difficult morning on day two, if they are to consolidate the advantage their attack ground out today.”It’s only day one of the Test Match, so we need to put pressure on their bowlers. If we can bat tomorrow and even the day after and get as much as possible, that should be our plan. The fourth day and the fifth day the ball is going to turn and we need to get lot of runs.”

The EPP suffered a batting collapse on the second day of their match against the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy as they fell from 153 for 1 to close on 235 for 7

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Dec-2012
ScorecardThe England Performance Programme suffered a batting collapse on the second day of their match against the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy as they fell from 153 for 1 to close on 235 for 7.Varun Chopra and James Taylor had added 96 for the first wicket, as the EPP replied to the Academy total of 277, but the real problems started when Chopra fell for 70. Vishal Dabholkar, a left-arm spinner, claimed three wickets having opened the bowling while Pankaj Jaiswal took 3 for 25.The Academy had resumed on 219 for 7 and Vinit Indulkar continued his extensive occupation of the crease until being the last man out for 94 having faced 252 deliveries. He received some useful support from the lower order as the last three wickets added 76.The EPP began solidly through Chopra, who is a regular opener for Warwickshire, and Taylor who is usually a middle-order batsman although he has opened for England Lions in the past. After Taylor fell to Jaiswal, Chopara and Craig Kieswetter added a further 57 for the second wicket to suggest that the visitors would be well placed for a first-innings lead.However, that changed when Dabholkar, who has not played first-class cricket, removed them both and in between Gary Ballance fell for 4. Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes started to form a partnership for the fifth wicket, but Jaiswal came back to claim two more scalps either side of Dabholkar trapped Buttler lbw for 44.

The rain-interrupted semi-final between Services and Mumbai will go into its sixth day on Monday. Services trail Mumbai by 291 runs with seven wickets in hand

The Report by Sharda Ugra in Delhi20-Jan-2013
ScorecardThe Services Ranji Trophy team may not be familiar with a World War I ditty called . They would be well aware though that the road to the Ranji Trophy final is equally distant, with the semi-final having turned into a first-innings shootout against Mumbai. At stumps, in pursuit of Mumbai’s total of 454 for 8, Services were 164 for 3 with captain Soumya Swain batting on 64 and Yashpal Singh on 43. Their unbeaten fourth-wicket stand of 92 has given Services the most alluring of sniffs at pulling off, for the second match in a row, one of the biggest upsets in Ranji Trophy history.This rain-interrupted and wet-pitch dominated match will now go into its sixth day on Monday to allow both teams to complete their first innings. Services need 291 runs more to get past Mumbai’s first innings score total, and Mumbai need seven wickets.On Sunday, the entire morning session was again lost due to the effects of the hailstorm and unexpected showers of two nights ago. The covers over the match pitch had been blown away and the track had to face the brunt of a downpour in the early hours of Saturday morning. Then, even after being baked in golden winter sunshine all of Saturday, there was more waiting to be done on Sunday morning. Thanks to early morning cloud cover and poor light, the moisture on the track had not dried up enough to get play started on time.Mumbai had made its intentions clear when play finally began at 12.10 pm. Facing the first ball of the day, Agarkar spanked a four off Shadab Nazar over midwicket and then, in Nishan Singh’s next over, hit the bowler for a six down the ground. Seventy-two overs had been scheduled for the day and the Mumbai batsmen didn’t want to use up too many of them. Thanks to a late dash from Dhawal Kulkarni, Mumbai crossed 450 scoring 74 runs in nine overs before the declaration came 41 minutes into the second session.Services tried to mix up their bowlers and spread the field, but Mumbai were on the move. Kulkarni scored 20 off 12 balls, playing straight but hitting long. His innings included a six and a four off left-arm spinner Avishek Sinha, who was brought on in the fourth over after Nishan Singh went for 13 runs. The change made no difference to Mumbai and Sinha was hit for 23 off three overs in the morning.Mumbai stamped their presence all over the match when they reduced Services to 22 for 2 in the 14th over. Mumbai’s attack against Services was led by Dhawal Kulkarni, who used length and pace to cramp their openers and dry up the runs. At one stage, Services went 46 balls without scoring as Kulkarni gave Pratik Desai a working over, bowling a line that turned him square, produced two lbw appeals and then hit him on the leg. After ten overs of scratching around by the Services openers, Kulkarni had Nakul Verma trapped leg before, trying to work one onto the onside. The introduction of the left-arm spin of Ankeet Chavan at the other end ended Desai’s laborious 73 minutes at the crease, the latter yorking himself and Services sliding to 22 for 2.It took two 50-plus partnerships for the third and fourth wickets to give the Services batting its oxygen. Swain was involved in both, first with Anshul Gupta (for 50 runs) and then with Yashpal Singh.After scoring an unbeaten 118 against Himachal Pradesh in the second match of the season, Swain had largely struggled. His highest score between that match and the semi-final was 33. In Palam today, however, he was like all left-hand batsmen – stylish in strife, batting with a fluid grace and timing. Barring a few anxious end overs, as the light began to drop and the slowness of the clock began to wear his concentration down, Swain endured. An edge off Ajit Agarkar’s bowling fell short of Wasim Jaffer at second slip and Shardul Thakur beat him several times.Yashpal was just the hardy companion Swain needed, as the two men were watched by their team-mates sitting in the plastic chairs around the boundary. A man stood near the scorer, shouting out totals and scores.The odds, however, are still against a Services upset. After a first day in which they lost six first-innings wickets for 169, Mumbai have played like the much stronger team they are reputed to be. A seventh-wicket partnership of 246 runs between captain Agarkar and Aditya Tare took Mumbai to more than respectability. On day five, they were able to press the pedal half-way to maximum.The weather tomorrow promises to be good, the track has dried up and the sixth day’s play is suddenly full of possibilities.

Ranchi is preparing to host India, with local boy MS Dhoni as captain, for the first time and the city is buzzing with anticipation

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Jan-2013With the local boy arriving in Ranchi as India captain for the third ODI against England, the city has been taken over by Dhoni mania. In neighbouring West Bengal, Sourav Ganguly still sends the locals berserk whenever he makes a public appearance. Ranchi has had to wait eight years after Dhoni’s India debut to host its maiden international game. No wonder then that thousands lined the roads from the Birsa Munda airport to the team hotel, a sight that left MS Dhoni feeling “humbled”. Getting in and out of the team hotel has been difficult, with people crowding the entrance and even prompting the police into a mild lathi charge.To celebrate the occasion, a liquor shop put up posters of Dhoni and Alastair Cook and even lined its counters with bats and stumps. The authorities went a step further. The state aviation department has been roped in, and there are plans to have a glider fly over the stadium and scatter (pink-coloured powder) on the outfield during the inauguration ceremony, before the start of the match and during the innings break.Students are demanding a holiday on Saturday, the match day, something schools, already hit by shutdowns because of a severe cold wave, can ill-afford. J Mohanty, principal of DPS [Delhi Public School] Ranchi, is benevolent, though. “This is a proud moment for Jharkhand,” Mohanty told the . “The cricket match will be on the students’ minds and they will also have to wait outside the hotels for a glimpse of their cricketing heroes. So we will not hold any additional classes this weekend.”There is a reason Dhoni matters so much to Ranchi and Jharkhand, which had little to cheer when it was part of Bihar state and has had little to cheer since it was carved out in 2000. Political instability is common; central-government rule has just been imposed for the third time in the state’s short existence. “Small-town boys from places like this just don’t get to be captain of India,” Ushinor Majumdar, Jharkhand correspondent for the Hindustan Times, told the . “And it is mostly because of Dhoni that there is so much attention. In many ways it is an under-developed, backward place. But it is known in cricket thanks to Dhoni.”International cricket in Jharkhand was restricted to the steel city of Jamshedpur, where Dhoni has played a couple of ODIs, including one against England in 2006, at Tata Steel’s Keenan Stadium. It was the state association’s desire to have its own stadium that enabled Ranchi to watch Dhoni play for India in the city.Dhoni was clearly thrilled with the stadium at his hometown. “Personally, it’s a special moment for me. The journey begins tomorrow. It’s the beginning of a new innings,” he said at a function inaugurating cricket’s latest international venue*.He said the 39,000-seater stadium will give Ranchi plenty of recognition. “When I first joined the team, people were asking me the place I belonged to,” Dhoni said. “I used to say I am from India and the next thing I would say I am from a place called Ranchi in Jharkhand. I used to explain Ranchi, giving various routes like it is a place close to Kolkata, near Jamshedpur. We are the richest state in natural resources.”But, after the stadium was built it has now become an international venue. At least, we need not have to explain further about Ranchi in the cricket playing nations. It is a proud beginning; proud moment for people of Jharkhand.”The mood in the city has already shown how proud Ranchi is of the double honour of making its international debut with a homegrown captain.* January 18, 17.00GMT This story has been updated after the stadium’s inauguration ceremony

Ricky Ponting turned back the clock with an unbeaten Sheffield Shield double-century and his partner Jason Krejza made his second first-class ton as Tasmania piled on 6 for 425 before declaring on the second day against New South Wales in Hobart

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Feb-2013
ScorecardRicky Ponting turned back the clock with an unbeaten Sheffield Shield double-century and his partner Jason Krejza made his second first-class ton as Tasmania piled on 6 for 425 before declaring on the second day against New South Wales in Hobart. In reply, the Blues reached 1 for 145 at stumps, with the former Tasmania batsman David Dawson on 70 and Tim Cruickshank on 37, and they trailed by 280 runs.The only wicket to fall on the second day was that of New South Wales opener Scott Henry, who was caught and bowled by Luke Butterworth for 27. Earlier, the Tigers had added 115 to their overnight total for the loss of no wickets as Ponting and Krejza built an unbeaten 293-run partnership, comfortably breaking the Tasmanian seventh-wicket record of 215 set by Michael Bevan and Damien Wright in 2004.Krejza finished unbeaten on 118 and it was his first Sheffield Shield hundred; his other first-class ton came for Australia A against Pakistan A in 2009. Ponting, 38, brought up his third Shield double-century with a quick single off Trent Copeland and that brought the Tasmanian declaration with Ponting not out on 200.It took his Shield tally this summer to 555 runs at the remarkable average of 185, for he has been dismissed only three times from seven innings. Only Phillip Hughes (673) has scored more runs than Ponting in this Shield season.