Shamsur, Razzak added to Bangladesh ODI squad

Abdur Razzak and Shamsur Rahman have been added to the Bangladesh ODI squad for the three-match series against Zimbabwe that begins on May 3. They will also be in the squad for the two Twenty20s which take place just after the ODI series.Shamsur is a right-handed top-order batsman who made his Twenty20 debut against Sri Lanka last month. He was adjudged leg-before, falling for a first-ball duck, though the decision looked dubious at the time. He scored heavily in this year’s Bangladesh Premier League, making 421 runs in 12 matches. He also had a decent first-class season, averaging a shade below 36 and scoring one century. He is yet to make an ODI debut.Razzak has been a regular in the limited-overs squad, recently completing 200 ODI wickets. In his last ODI appearance, he took a five-for against Sri Lanka.ESPNcricinfo has learned that a total of three players will be returning to Dhaka after the second Test. Shahriar Nafees and Enamul Haque jnr are so far the only two confirmed while the third player will be decided later.

Mangongo admits to pushing player

Stephen Mangongo, Zimbabwe’s interim coach during their series against Bangladesh, has admitted to pushing one of his young players in a moment of rage. Mangongo told Zimbabwe’s newspaper that he shoved 22-year old Natsai Mushangwe after the legspinner failed to deliver instructions to a batsman at the crease.The incident took place last Saturday, during the first Twenty20 against Bangladesh. Mangongo asked Mushangwe, who was one of the reserves, to send a message to Hamilton Masakadza. Instead, he found Mushangwe having a meal.”I was angry with him and I pushed him and asked the team manager to order him out of the dressing room and he went back to the hotel,” Mangongo said. But, he insists there is no bad blood between the two and they will continue to have a good relationship.Mushangwe played in the second T20 and Mangongo met with both him and his mother in their hometown of Harare after the series to clear the air. “We dealt with the issue to the satisfaction of both sides,” he said. “I have groomed Natsai since his club cricket days at Takashinga and I cannot go out to inflict harm on him now when he has finally made it to the national team. I regret the incident that happened and I have gone out of the way to address it with the family.”Although Mushangwe has not submitted a written report of the incident, other members of team management were asked to furnish ZC with the details. Disciplinary action could follow after ZC examines the documents.Mangongo, who applied for the job of head coach, has had to hand over the reins to Andy Waller but remains the assistant. He is known for his uncompromising approach and stern style, which is a complete antithesis to former coach Alan Butcher’s gentle manner.He has worked in coaching for two decades and was one of the founding members of Takashinga cricket club, known as the heartbeat of black African cricket in the country. Mangongo worked under Butcher for three years and will continue in the role under Waller.

Hartley, Coulter-Nile win state awards

The wicketkeeper Chris Hartley has been named Queensland’s player of the year for 2012-13 while the fast bowler Nathan Coulter-Nile won Western Australia’s equivalent award after a strong summer. The state awards period was wrapped up at the weekend with the Queensland titles handed out and Hartley almost swept all categories.He won the Ian Healy Trophy as the state’s player of the year and also picked up the one-day player of the year prize and the players’ player award after a season in which he completed the double of 500 Sheffield Shield runs and 50 dismissals. However, the Shield award was the only honour Hartley did not collect as that went to the captain James Hopes for a season that brought him 473 runs at 31.53 and 32 wickets at 22.75.Hartley was Queensland’s second-leading run scorer in the Shield behind Joe Burns, with 510 runs at 28.33 and he also picked up 51 catches and a stumping. The likelihood is that Matthew Wade and Brad Haddin will be Australia’s two glovemen on the tour of England later this year but all the same, Hartley’s efforts are a reminder to the national selectors in an Ashes year of his consistent output – it was the fourth time he had completed the double of 500 runs and 50 dismissals.In Western Australia, Coulter-Nile had another encouraging summer and will be in contention for the Ashes squad, although fast bowling is not an area in which Australia lack depth. He collected 26 Shield wickets at 27.92 and was the second leading wicket taker in the Ryobi Cup with 16 victims at 23.18.The other four states all named their players of the year last month. James Faulkner won the Ricky Ponting Medal in Tasmania, Chris Rogers took out the Bill Lawry Medal in Victoria, in South Australia Chadd Sayers claimed the Neil Dansie Medal and Gurinder Sandhu won the Steve Waugh Medal in New South Wales.

Gambhir's chance to stake a claim

The presence of Gautam Gambhir in the three-day practice match between India A and the Australians is going to be a constant reminder of his absence from the team for the first Test in Chennai starting on February 22.Over the past few days, Gambhir has received several endorsements but from the Australian side. On Friday, Michael Clarke said he had expected Gambhir to be in the Test team. A few days earlier, Matthew Hayden had told an Indian newspaper that he was surprised Gambhir had been dropped.On the Indian side though, there is no astonishment; a poor run of scores for Gambhir from the start of 2011, coupled with India’s dipping results in Test cricket, has led to a situation where he must reestablish public faith in his ability.The India A coach Lalchand Rajput said before the three-day game that it would be an important match for players like Gambhir. “They won’t put pressure on themselves because they have been in this situation earlier as well … These are good players who have performed very well at that level. It’s just a matter of getting there and spending more time in the middle and utilising the opportunity. Once he spends more time, everything will fall in place. Gautam knows this.”Of the quick bowlers Australia are most likely to field in the series, Gambhir will have a chance to illustrate his return to assurance against Peter Siddle and Mitchell Starc. A solid performance against the quicks would mean much, particularly if the Indian openers have a wobbly start in the first two Tests.Rajput said it depended on Gambhir being relaxed before the game rather than wound up with the possibilities it presented. It will require a move away from old habits, particularly the similarity in his recent dismissals, caught in the cordon trying what can only be called one-day dabs and steers.”He was playing one-day games the past few days, so he had to change his game a wee bit because you look for runs,” Rajput said. “In the longer version, he knows he has been getting out in those areas and is definitely looking forward to curb those shots.” As to what Gambhir needed to do in the longer version of the game, Rajput said it came down to playing close to his body.Gambhir’s efforts may not be the sole focus of the match. India-A’s role, Rajput said, had to be larger. “It’s very important that India A puts a lot of pressure on the Australians. We have done it earlier also, when we played against England in that one-day game. At that level, it’s a matter of confidence. If you do well against them, they will have to do a wee bit of thinking. It’s also up to the players to look into that aspect and put pressure on the Australians.”When the Australians lost to Mumbai in three days in 1998, Rajput said, “That put pressure on them and forced them to think about how they should plan for the Test series. So that’s something we are looking at – to put pressure on them and make it easier for the Indian team.” The team Rajput wants India A to help is, however, lined up against an Australian team far removed from the powerful squads that travelled to India for the last 15 years. So for Gambhir, a personal recovery wouldn’t be a bad place to start.

Dhoni, Ashwin and Pujara in Corporate Trophy squads

MS Dhoni, Cheteshwar Pujara and R Ashwin, who are not part of next week’s Irani Cup match, may end up playing in the Raj Singh Dungarpur Corporate Trophy, which is not even recognised as a List A event*.On a leaflet circulated by the BCCI to all the four staging associations, Pujara’s name appears in the Indian Oil squad, and those of Dhoni and Ashwin in India Cements’. Their names’ appearing on the leaflet is no guarantee they will play the Corporate Trophy, but apart from Dhoni’s case, who hinted at wanting rest, no explanation has been given for not picking Pujara and Ashwin for the marquee Irani Cup first-class match.This also confirms that Dhoni has switched clubs from Air India to India Cements. India Cements is the company that owns the IPL Chennai Super Kings franchise, which Dhoni has captained since 2008, and has BCCI president N Srinivasan as its vice-chairman and managing director. The leaflet, made accessible to ESPNcricinfo on Tuesday, listed Dhoni as the 16th name in the India Cements squad. The leaflet also includes the names Wasim Jaffer, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane and Aditya Tare, who will be first-choice players for Ranji champions Mumbai.When asked about Dhoni’s move from Air India to India Cements last week, his manager Arun Pandey had denied that he would be playing in the Corporate Trophy. “How can he play Corporate Trophy? He has been playing non-stop cricket for so long,” Pandey had said. Dhoni also said, after the final ODI against England, he wanted to make the most of the break he is getting before the Australia series.Despite several attempts, none of the India Cements officials either confirmed Dhoni’s recruitment or his designation as employee of the Chennai-based group. Until this announcement Dhoni had been employed by national carrier Air India. Air India Sports Promotional Board secretary Dilip Pinge confirmed Dhoni was no longer employed by them. “He used to be employed with [the airline] Indian before it was merged into Air India,” Pinge said. “The Delhi office forwarded his resignation letter to us [Mumbai office] around four months ago. As a result, there was no question of considering him for the Corporate Trophy.”The Corporate Trophy features 16 companies taking part in the one of the BCCI’s newly revived events, in the memory of their former president Dungarpur. This year’s tournament will be played between top employers in India in four cities – Pune, Nagpur, Indore and Raipur – from February 1 to 8. The Irani Cup will be held in Mumbai from February 6 to 10.*05.50GMT, January 13: This story was updated with news from other squads on the leaflet

Jaggi ton lights up curtailed day

ScorecardFile photo: Ishank Jaggi scored 76 of the 115 runs scored in the day•K Sivaraman

Poor visibility in Jamshedpur, due to fog, meant that only 40 overs were possible during the second day, resulting in over two sessions of play lost due to bad weather over two days. In that period, Ishank Jaggi scored his maiden hundred of the Ranji season to help Jharkhand remain in the game. Had it not been for Jaggi’s resilient knock, combined with flair and caution, the Punjab openers could well have had a look in before the premature end to the day’s proceedings.If the half hour delay on the opening day was bad, the second day was worse. Play began 80 minutes after the scheduled start of 9am, reducing the first session to 70 minutes. When the teams returned after lunch, they took the field for only two balls, before returning indoors for almost an hour and a half. Another 65 minutes of play was followed by tea and the final session only lasted 40-odd minutes.Walking in with Jharkhand at an uneasy 97 for 3, Jaggi had to resort to defensive tactics during the opening day. His overnight partner, the opener Rameez Nemat, was undone by a Harbhajan Singh top-spinner three balls after celebrating his maiden first-class ton. Following the dismissal, Jaggi preferred to play his shots instead of just blocking the ball. As a result, he ended up scoring 76 out of his team’s tally of 115 on the second day to remain unbeaten on 126.Jaggi had to move down the order from his preferred No.3 position with the inclusion of three openers in the XI. He drove the Punjab spin duo of Harbhajan, who appeared to be at his best after a while, and legspinner Sarabjit Ladda at the start of the day. He was rewarded for his approach as he managed seven boundaries in the first session, in contrast to his five during the course of the first day.Soon after a prolonged lunch break, Jaggi flicked Siddarth Kaul to the square leg fence to bring up his seventh first-class century. Then on, it was the Kaul show with the second new ball. The medium-pacer first forced Kumar Deobrat to nick one to Uday Kaul behind the stumps. Four overs later, he forced the wicketkeeper SP Gautam to edge to Amitoze Singh at first slip. Jaggi and Sunny Gupta then avoided any further damage till the weather had the final say.Both camps would hope for better weather in the coming days so the match will not have to be extended by an additional day in case the first innings is not completed within five days. On a day when uncertainty prevailed over who would be ruling the state of Jharkhand, there was no doubt whatsoever that the winner on the cricket field at the Keenan Stadium was the weather.

India will come out fighting, warns Swann

Graeme Swann has urged caution ahead of England’s final Test against India, warning that the hosts will be desperate for a victory in Nagpur that would tie the series.Back-to-back wins in Mumbai and Kolkata have put England on the verge of their first series victory in India since 1984-85 and, while Swann expects to play a prominent role alongside Monty Panesar on another spin-friendly pitch, he recognises the danger of playing a team looking to salvage their eight-year unbeaten run at home.”It is tough, but sometimes it’s a good position to be in,” Swann said of India’s situation. “If there’s only one possible result you can get, you can go all out fighting. The last Test of a series, if you know the result hangs on it, is normally a very exciting one.”India have rung the changes ahead of the final Test, which starts on Thursday as they look for a response from their under-fire squad. Batsman Yuvraj Singh and seamer Zaheer Khan have been dropped, while spinner Harbhajan Singh misses out despite playing no role in the defeat in Kolkata.”I’m sure India will come out fighting because they have to win the game,” Swann said. “Equally so, I’m sure we’ll approach the game thinking attack is our best form of defence. I think that’s what has proved crucial in the last couple of games.”Swann and a number of his England colleagues have been in a similar position before, winning the final Test in Sydney in 2011 to claim a 3-1 Ashes victory in Australia, England’s first triumph Down Under in almost a quarter of a century.”Back in Australia, we didn’t get carried away before that Sydney game,” Swann said. “We spoke of how important it was to keep our feet on the ground. That’s all we’re doing here. We’re not taking anything for granted, we don’t sit down and pat ourselves on the back and say ‘Look how well we have played the last two games’. That’s a very dangerous place to get in.”On Thursday morning we’ll assess the pitch, play accordingly and hope to win this game, because we obviously want to get home for Christmas having won this series 3-1. Whatever the pitch is we’ve got to try and win the game, that’s all we ever try and do.”

Malinga helps Stars thrash Scorchers

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsLasith Malinga took the second-best figures of all time in domestic T20s•Getty Images

As heavily as the rain tumbled at various stages in Perth tonight so too did the wickets and records at the WACA ground, as Perth Scorchers were thrashed by Melbourne Stars in one of the most bizarre games of cricket ever witnessed in Australia.After Lasith Malinga ripped through the Scorchers, taking record figures of 6 for 7, to bowl the home side out for just 69, the Stars were 0 for 29 after two overs of the chase when rain halted play at 6.39pm local time. Under normal circumstances, the side batting second has to bat a minimum of five overs to constitute a match. The match had to recommence by 7.52pm to ensure a five-over chase. The rain stopped, but the confusion was caused by the revised Duckworth/Lewis target, which was 5. In which case, only one ball was required to be bowled as the score had already been reached. The Scorchers argued the ground was unfit for play, but Hilton Cartwright bowled one ball without issue, the players shook hands, and the Stars walked off as winners by ten wickets. To compound matters, that extra ball was later expunged and the margin of victory changed from 10 wickets to 24 runs*.The confusion of the result overshadowed the star performance of the night. Malinga took the second-best figures of all time in domestic T20s to help dismiss the Scorchers for the lowest total in Australian T20 cricket. Had Malinga not delivered two wides, he might have claimed the record from the unlikely holder, Somerset’s Arul Suppiah.With intermittent rain throughout the day, Stars captain Shane Warne had no hesitation in bowling first on a lively wicket. It paid dividends with four wickets in the first four overs. James Faulkner had Herschelle Gibbs dropped first ball as it reared off the gloves and went through two sets of hands, that of wicketkeeper Peter Handscomb and first slip Cameron White, although it was incorrectly ruled leg byes.Gibbs fell three balls later for a duck, bunting a full-pitched ball back to Faulkner. Malinga then knocked Marcus North’s off stump out of the ground the next over, before Faulkner induced a nick off Simon Katich to leave the Scorchers reeling at 3 for 7.It became 4 for 16 when the debutant Marcus Stoinis closed the face on one that seamed away and parried a leading edge to gully. Another T20 debutant Cartwright and veteran Adam Voges tried to salvage the innings and got through the next four overs unscathed. Enter Warne, with his supposed bruised ego from opening night. His control of a slippery ball was, well, Warne-esque. He delivered the perfect slider to Voges to trap him lbw.Having held Malinga back for the middle order, Warne called upon his trump card the following over to finish off the innings. A brilliantly disguised slower ball had Cartwright spoon a catch to midwicket. Malinga then delivered a thunderbolt outswinger past the edge of Nathan Coulter-Nile before trapping him plumb in front with another superb slower ball.Malinga’s fourth and last over was another exhibition in deception. Tom Triffitt fell in identical fashion to Coulter-Nile, before Joe Mennie became the sixth victim for the Sri Lankan as another slower ball hit the base of off stump.Extras was the third-highest score for the Scorchers as their total of 69 eclipsed the previous lowest Australian T20 total of 71, which New South Wales managed three seasons ago at the same venue.The chase began nervously as Simon Katich dropped Luke Wright at mid-off the third ball. Wright then smashed five boundaries, the same number the Scorchers managed, in the next eight deliveries before the heavens opened and mass confusion reigned.After the drama, the Stars won their first match of the tournament while the Scorchers started their campaign with back-to-back losses.*09.07GMT, December 14: This article has been updated.

Historic ton the fruit of Smith labours

Graeme Smith is due to leave England before the second Test to attend the birth of his first child but, as he marked his 100th Test with a century, his wife, the Irish singer Morgan Deane, joked on Twitter that her waters had broken already.Smith, who will return in time to lead South Africa again at Headingley on August 2, laughed it off and said he tries not to read all her posts these days. “She’s very impulsive, I’m trying to calm her down a bit,” he said. “She’s been very supportive though, considering she is going to give birth so soon.”If there was doubt about Smith’s abilities as a batsman and leader, they have surely all been squashed. His 25th Test hundred was also his seventh against England, fifth in England and made him the seventh player to have scored a century on a landmark 100th Test.Having also brought up big scores on both South Africa’s previous tours here, combined with the fact that the team have never lost a Test when Smith has crossed the three-figure mark, his reputation is at its peak. The actual magnitude of what he has achieved hasn’t formed a solid memory quite yet but he is starting to grasp what significance it has.”It hasn’t really sunk in yet. It was kind of surreal at the time. A lot of thoughts and emotions went through my head,” Smith said. “It was a dream come true to come out and have the chance to do that. At one stage when Graeme Swann was spinning it past my bat, the hundred looked a long time away but once I fought through those tough times, it became a reality.”Smith said he expected a tough passage of play up front but knew that if he could see it through, there may be an opportunity to wrest control of the match. “It was a battle of attrition out there really,” he said. “There weren’t many scoring opportunities available to me so it was about being strong in my game plan. We expected that tactic from England this morning, that they would try and squeeze us as much as possible and cause us to make a mistake. We felt that if we could hold the game in that period of time we would be able to get a release somewhere.”After a cautious start, in which “the key factor was the way I left the ball this morning”, Smith and Hashim Amla took 72 runs off the 13 overs before lunch, which included Smith’s century. “When I got to 100, there was so many emotions: from the battle with Swann to knowing my wife is giving birth in three days’ time,” he said. “All those things were coming through. I don’t even think I realised how I was celebrating. It is a blank moment in my mind.”There is still work to do before he turns his mind to fatherhood. “The way we bounced back with the ball has been probably the biggest achievement of this Test match so far,” he said. “On day one, we were 50-50, we were solid without having an X-factor in our game. It’s so easy to let the game drift from that position and be playing the rest of the Test match under massive pressure but we were able to keep England under pressure.”Now, Smith wants to go for the kill. He has already considered South Africa’s strategy for closing out this match but was careful not to reveal too much. “I don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves. We’ve got two guys, Amla and Jacques Kallis, close to milestones tomorrow and I would love them to get there,” he said. “It’s been a difficult wicket to push on and score greater than three runs an over but if we set up a good base, hopefully we can do that.”Although Smith expects a tighter effort from England, he was bullish in his assessment of whether South Africa has what it takes to win. “We need to respect our opponent, they have the ability to bounce back,” he said. “But we want to have a chance to push for a victory. I believe we have the ability to win, if we set the game up right. If we give ourselves the chance to bowl out England, I believe we’ve got the armoury to do that.”David Saker, England’s bowling coach, called the pitch “subcontinental” and expects it to deteriorate, which could set the stage for the legspinner Imran Tahir to ignite his South Africa career. Smith was hopeful that would be the case. “It is quite dusty and quite dry. There is a turn available and it will be a good opportunity for Imran to get in,” he said. “His form looks pretty solid. I don’t want to put too much pressure on him but, on day five, if we are bowling for the win, he will have to play a prominent role.”

We set sights on beating a Full Member – Peter Steindl

Scotland coach Peter Steindl has said his young team is capable of challenging more higher-ranked sides after they secured their first win against a Full Member nation by beating Bangladesh in a Twenty20 international at The Hague. Steindl praised the composure and shot selection of Richie Berrington, who scored his maiden international century to lead Scotland to a 34-run victory.”We’ve set our sights at beating a Full Member and we haven’t done that in a bonafide international before, either ODI or T20 internationals,” Steindl told BBC Scotland. “We know we are capable of challenging teams that are above us.”We had a polished performance, we worked hard and got that result we were looking for. We’ve got a young team who are hungry for success but realise we have a long way to go.”Berrington, a 25-year old batsman who was born in Pretoria in South Africa, was the only player to score more than 20 for Scotland after they chose to bat. He was firm at one end, striking five sixes and ten fours in his 100 off 58 balls, the seventh hundred in Twenty20 internationals. He was dismissed in the 19th over and Scotland’s score of 162 proved too much for Bangladesh to chase.”That was an outstanding knock by Richie,” Steindl said. “He’s had a couple of really good knocks for Scotland over the last two years, but today the composure that he had, his shot selection and decision making was outstanding and he deserved to get a hundred. But Richie would say himself that it was made even more special by the result.”Berrington concurred. “I am absolutely delighted to get my 100, my first in T20 cricket for Scotland,” he said. “But it was an absolutely fantastic team performance. We haven’t had the greatest month or so, we haven’t had a lot of cricket and we’ve had a few disappointing results in the CB40 [England’s domestic one-day competition]. And Bangladesh are a very dangerous side with some top-quality players.”It has been one of our goals for a year or two and we had great belief going into today’s game that we could do it.”Scotland travel to Cardiff to play Glamorgan in the CB40 on Sunday and Berrington was keen to build on the success against Bangladesh.

Game
Register
Service
Bonus