ScorecardLeicestershire secured their first win of the Pro40 with a comprehensive 27-run win against Middlesex. Jim Allenby’s career-best 91 led a strong batting display then the Leicestershire spinners forced the home side to collapse after Ed Joyce and Ed Smith opened with a stand of 133.As the partnership between Joyce and Smith rattled along Middlesex were up with the rate and the seamers were being dispatched around Lord’s. Joyce has been batting in the middle order in recent one-day matches but. moved up to open. he cracked 13 boundaries in his 59-ball innings.However, the introduction of Claude Henderson changed the game as he bowled Joyce and Smith and quickly followed up by having Eoin Morgan caught. Jeremy Snape removed Owais Shah, Middlesex’s last real hope of making an impression, and Stuart Broad sealed the result with three at the end.Leicestershire’s innings was based around a series of useful partnerships. HD Ackerman and Paul Harrison opened with 64, Ackerman taking 80 balls for his 83. Allenby then needed just 77 balls for his powerful innings and added 111 with Paul Nixon for the fourth wicket.
Somerset’s hopes of defending their title are now slimmer than a catwalk model following a five-wicket defeat at the hands of Northamptonshire at Taunton. David Sales struck 62 not out from 42 balls to take his side home with three balls remaining. Justin Langer made 97 off 60 balls to lift Somerset to 188 for 6 and set Northants a stiff ask. But, despite Charl Willoughby’s restrictive 3 for 30, the visitors responded in style.Glamorgan and Warwickshire had to make do with a point each when rain washed out their match at Cardiff after just three overs. Preparations were made to have a six-over-a-side thrash but another deluge put paid to those ambitions. The match was finally abandoned at 9pm.
North
No change at the top as Nottinghamshire maintained their winning ways, beating Yorkshire by seven wickets in the final over at Headingley. In truth, the result was hardly in doubt with Stephen Fleming and Graeme Swann at the helm, giving them a decent start. Yorkshire were then in trouble at 22 for 3 – and had reached only 50 for 3 by the ten-over mark – but some powerful hitting lifted them to 160. Yet it wasn’t enough.Leicestershire dispatched Derbyshire for the second time in a fortnight to give themselves a chance of making the quarter-finals. HD Ackerman’s 41-ball fifty boosted Leicestershire to a par 161 for 6, and then some tight bowling at the death helped them to an 18-run victory at Leicester. Steve Stubbings gave Derbyshire their best chance with a fifty but when he holed out to long-on the momentum seeped away from the innings and Leicestershire grabbed the points.
Since Australia arrived in England three weeks ago, the psychological point-scoring has been unabating and unabashed. There have been ghosts and boasts, embarrassments and barrages but now, finally, comes the chance to land the first truly telling blow at Lord’s this weekend. And the two sides will head into the NatWest Series final on a pretty evenweighting.Australia may have shaded the points in the latest completed bout, but England beat them in the first round and, having finished top of the table, they have proven they are no pushover. Both sides named a full-strength side for the last match, a dress rehearsal which ebbed and flowed but was finally washed out. And it is likely that they will stick to those sides for the final.It was a stormy end to a stormy encounter at Edgbaston, in which Simon Jones and Matthew Hayden nearly came to blows. But Australia’s captain Ricky Ponting was quick to dismiss the incident. Speaking at a press conference ahead of the final he said: “It is water under the bridge.” His opposing captain, Michael Vaughan, agreed. “As soon as the game was finished the other day most of it was forgotten,” he said. Nevertheless, the matterwill add some spark to what will already be a crackling occasion, given that it is a Lord’s final.History suggests that chasing in Lord’s finals is the preferred option, but last year New Zealand bucked that trend, becoming the first side in five NatWest Series finals to win batting first. England’s strength in one-day cricket is still chasing, as their batsmen are more comfortable knowing their target, especially on a quick Lord’s outfield where therewill be plenty of runs up for grabs.Whenever they bat, Kevin Pietersen could be promoted to No 4 to exploit his big hitting potential. “He looks like a player who if he gets in could get a real big score and go beyond a hundred,” said Vaughan, “he’s got that many shots.” Pietersen will use the match to continue his aim of forcing his way into the Ashes side although, of course, he will concentrate on the matter in hand in the meantime.But England’s one-day form remains as inconsistent as Pietersen’s hairstyle. Last season they failed to qualify for the Natwest Series final, then made the final of the Champion’s Trophy before, this year, losing 4-1 in the one-day series in South Africa, where they were without their star allrounder Andrew Flintoff who had an ankle injury. “Having someone likeFreddie Flintoff back bowling has been a big key for us,” said Vaughan. “His bowling, which we missed immensely in South Africa, has been very important in this series.”But if he and Pietersen can star togther with the bat then their fireworks may be enough to grab London’s attention on what will be a busy day for the capital. Elsewhere, Live8, the Gay Pride March and Wimbledon are all taking place. Flintoff and Pietersen will hope that, should they bat together, their second partnership will return better results than theirmuch-awaited first stand together, which posted a squib-like 9 runs at Durham.The bookies have made Australia marginal favourites, at 4/7, with England priced 5/4. England’s batting hasn’t been the most convincing against the Australian big guns this tournament; their opening pair of Andrew Strauss and Marcus Trescothick in particular. Strauss has made scores of 16, 3 and 25, while Marcus Trescothick has struck 27 in threeinnings, at an average of just 13.5. Now is the time for them to start firing.For Australia, once again Andrew Symonds will be their key player. Symonds has made himself indispensable with both bat and ball ever since he returned from his two-match ban for staying out late drinking. He’s in-form and in-yer-face. As Ponting admitted, “He is vital to us” – and Australia found out just how vital when they lost both matches which he missed, including defeat against Bangladesh. Symonds is now pushing for a Test place, and he’s not the only one.Brett Lee has been Australia’s most dangerous bowler on the tour so far, as batsmen have struggled against his pace. He knows that a devastating performance at Lord’s will present an unanswerable case for his inclusion in the first Test of the Ashes series which begins inthree weeks’ time. Brad Hogg and Glenn McGrath are also likely to return, having missed the last dead rubber against Bangladesh.It’s the final that everyone expected – although Australia’s passage to Lord’s didn’t go entirely to plan. But Bangladesh have now gone, leaving the big boys to grapple. The Ashes, they are coming, but the summer begins here.England (probable) 1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Andrew Strauss, 3Michael Vaughan (capt), 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Andrew Flintoff, 6 PaulCollingwood, 7 Geraint Jones (wkt), 8 Ashley Giles, 9 Darren Gough, 10Simon Jones, 11 Steve Harmison.Australia (probable) 1 Adam Gilchrist (wkt), 2 Matthew Hayden, 3Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Damien Martyn, 5 Andrew Symonds, 6 Michael Clarke,7 Mike Hussey, 8 Brad Hogg, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Jason Gillespie, 11Glenn McGrath.
A Yorkshire club player has been jailed for three years after a row which started during a Sunday league match ended with an umpire suffering a fractured arm in a revenge attack.York Crown Court was told that Mahmood Akhtar was so incensed when he was given out leg-before by Qadeer Hussain in September 2002 that he instigated an attack with a baseball bat during a game a week later.Hussain was fielding during the subsequent match when Akhtar and his brother, Gulfam Zaqar, ran onto the field and began hitting him. Hussain’s teenage nephew, who tried to intervene, was also assaulted. Zaqar also pleaded guilty to the charge of grievous bodily harm and assault and is awaiting sentencing.”The fact that you didn’t wield the baseball bat serves you not a jot,”the judge told Akhtar. “The fight that followed was a cowardly attack upon this man. Your brother attacked him with a baseball bat with such effect it caused him serious injuries.”During the hearing, Akhtar’s solicitor had told the court that his client’s life “revolves around his family, his work and the people at his local cricket club.”
BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa – Top batsmen Carl Hooper and Brian Lara, missing from recent West Indies assignments, return to action today as the two-time world champions tackle South African club side Free State in a warm-up match for the World Cup.The West Indies play the first game in global championship this weekend and welcome the return of their two most experienced batsmen, six days before facing home side South Africa in the World Cup opener on Sunday in Cape Town.Hooper missed the West Indies tour of Bangladesh in December to undergo knee surgery, and Lara has not played international cricket since falling ill in the Champions Trophy tournament in Sri Lanka last September.Team coach Roger Harper took the side through training sessions Saturday and yesterday and is anxious to assess his side’s readiness in match conditions against Free State."This is all part of the build-up towards our opening game," he told CMC Sport yesterday."We have had two good training sessions this weekend and we now want to get some match practice, relative to the conditions here, so we can see where we are for the tournament," Harper added.West Indies are playing the extra batsman in today’s game with the hard-hitting Ricardo Powell named in the line-up, leaving bowling spots only for Mervyn Dillon, Nixon McLean, and Corey Collymore.After winning the first two World Cup tournaments in 1975 and 1979, West Indies have gone 24 years without international cricket’s biggest One-Day prize, and team manager Ricky Skerritt is maintaining the positive vibes he exuded when the team left the Caribbean last week."The guys have remained very focused and they are working hard, the team spirit is high," Skerritt told CMC Sport.Former Jamaica and West Indies skipper Jimmy Adams is the regular captain at Free State, but it is the off-season in South Africa and he is not in the country for the match.The West Indies, scheduled to face Griqualand West in another warm-up game on Wednesday, will contest Pool "B" of the World Cup alongside South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Kenya and Canada.Team: Carl Hooper (captain), Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Ricardo Powell, Ridley Jacobs, Nixon McLean, Mervyn Dillon, Corey Collymore. (CMC)
The demand for Sourav Ganguly’s head is steadily increasing with everyfailure of the Indian skipper but the team is solidly standing by him.After Ganguly was dismissed for just two in yesterday’s triangularone-day series match against Zimbabwe, Melbourne Radio rang up teammanager Chetan Chauhan to know why the stylish left-hander should notbe asked to sit out and sort out his batting blues rather than be aliability to the team.”I have a lot of time for him,” was Chauhan’s cryptic reply which putan end to the issue.A desperate Ganguly also sought to draw solace from his openingpartner Sachin Tendulkar’s clean chit to his batting technique. “He(Tendulkar) has assured me that my technique is okay and I should notworry on that count,” the skipper said, while putting up a brave faceamidst continued failures.”I know the runs would come shortly. I can feel it from inside,” saidGanguly who has led India to five wins in eight Tests.But that has not prevented the critics from raising the shrill overhis inability to get the runs. The website of the company telecastingthe series is flooded with hate mails for Ganguly and questions on hisform and captaincy are appearing on the ballot boxes of various othersites.The pressure is showing on the captain who is not leaving any stoneunturned in his efforts to get back to his scoring ways. He is havingan extra session in the nets and is usually on the ground an hourbefore the team arrives for practice.This, from a man who usually does not like to bat much at the nets. “Ido not quite like batting in the nets but if that is the answer (to mybad form), so be it,” he said.In the matches too, he has tried various methods to break the shell.He briefly toyed with the idea of going on the attack to shrug off hispoor form but discarded it quickly after it failed to click, and hedid not want to be seen as an irresponsible batsman.He did not duck his responsibility even when he had to face the newball on the fourth morning of the Harare Test though it ended in anyet another failure.But it’s not the efforts but the figures alongside his name on thescoreboard that count and Ganguly needs to get those as quickly aspossible to silence his critics.In yesterday’s match, he took two wickets while bowling and thoughtthat finally his time with the bat too might have arrived. Alas, thatdid not happen and Ganguly had to be satisfied with his bowlingcontribution only.His deputy Rahul Dravid answered his detractors in style when hescored a brilliant 180 in that epic match-winning association with VVSLaxman in the second Test against Australia in Kolkata, and Gangulyknows he will have to come up with a similar effort to turn hisfortunes around.But till that happens, his – and his fans’ – agonies will continue tohaunt him.
Following reports that Tottenham Hotspur will listen to offers for Sergio Reguilon, former Spurs goalkeeper Paul Robinson has urged Fabio Paratici not to sell the defender.
The Lowdown: Reguilon under Conte
The left-back has been in and out of Antonio Conte’s starting XI since November. As a result, it was recently revealed that the Italian has given the green light for Paratici to listen to offers for the Spaniard in the summer.
Having joined the Lilywhites for £32m in 2020, Reguilon has nearly maintained his market value, which is currently set at £25.2m by Transfermarkt.
Robinson believes that letting the defender go will be a mistake by Tottenham, as it would be too expensive for the club to replace him with someone of the same quality.
Speaking with Football Insider, the ex-England ‘keeper claimed: “If you are going to let him go, you are going to have to replace like for like.
“[Ryan] Sessegnon is a quality player but he’s young and injury prone. They cannot let Reguilon go without replacing him, no way.
“It would seem senseless to let him go and then try and find somebody who is very similar.
“He is a top player. I do like him. It would be a shame to see him go because he has improved a lot under Conte. He’s brilliant going forward and offers a lot more. It would be slightly naive to sell him I think.”
The Verdict: Bad move?
Going forward, Reguilon’s statistics as a left-back illustrates how much of an attacking threat he adds to Conte’s Tottenham side.
As per FB Ref, he ranks in the 95th percentile for non-penalty expected goals, the 87th percentile for expected assists and the 93rd percentile for non-penalty expected goals plus expected assists.
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Former Leeds striker Noel Whelan has praised Reguilon for a number of his “brilliant” performances, whilst pundit Micah Richards also used the same word to describe him.
With the 25-year-old earning £68,000 per week, it could be difficult for Spurs to secure a new left-back of the same quality for a similar wage packet. Therefore, they should potentially back-track on their decision to make Reguilon available for sale in the summer.
In other news: Pete O’Rourke makes Paulo Dybala to Spurs claim
Chris Cairns will lead the MCC against his former team-mates when New Zealand kick off their tour of England with the traditional opener at Arundel.Cairns, who retired from international cricket in 2006, is one of three New Zealanders in MCC’s squad. He will be joined by his former Test and one-day colleague, Nathan Astle, and Rob Nicol, the Auckland batsman and former MCC Young Cricketer. Darren Bicknell, who cracked 132 for the club against Scotland at Lord’s earlier this week, will open the batting, and the squad also includes Steve Elworthy, the former South Africa fast bowler, Paul Nixon, John Stephenson and Min Patel.”Touring team matches are always a highlight in the MCC cricketing calendar and Arundel is a fantastic place to play cricket,” Stephenson, MCC’s head of cricket, said. “It promises to be a great day for players and spectators alike and, hopefully, an international scalp in the bag for the club.”New Zealand’s squad, depleted by five players participating in the Indian Premier League – including their captain, Daniel Vettori – arrived at Heathrow yesterday afternoon. The first Test gets underway on May 15 at Lord’s.MCC team Darren Bicknell, Hylton Ackerman, Richard Montgomerie, Rob Nicol, Nathan Astle, Sean Ervine, Chris Cairns (capt), John Stephenson, Paul Nixon (wk), Steve Elworthy, Min Patel
Michael Vaughan has announced his intention to stand down as captain of England’s one-day side with immediate effect. Vaughan, whose place in the ODI side came under scrutiny following a poor World Cup, will not be retiring from limited-overs cricket, but anticipates that the focus for the remainder of his career will be on captaining the Test side, particularly with a view to reclaiming the Ashes in 2009.Vaughan, 32, has been in charge of England’s one-day fortunes ever since Nasser Hussain stepped down in the wake of the 2003 World Cup. He has led the side in 60 matches, winning 32 and losing 22, but in that time, he has been unable to establish his credentials as a one-day batsman. His career average is a meagre 27.15 from 86 games, and he has never made an ODI century.His hold on the one-day captaincy was weakened during the recent World Cup in the Caribbean. He managed just 130 runs in England’s first eight games of the tournament before massaging his figures somewhat with a quickfire 79 against West Indies at Barbados, and in the field he was unable to inspire his side in the wake of the infamous “Fredalo” incident in St Lucia.”Since our disappointing performances in the World Cup, I have been giving careful consideration as to what is the best way forward for the England one-day team and my own role within the side,” said Vaughan in an ECB statement. “I reached this decision some time ago, but I did not want to announce it until after the end of this Test series to avoid it becoming a distraction to the team.”However, due to intense speculation in the media about my future, I feel it is important to make my intentions clear now. Our priority is to build a one-day squad able to compete strongly at the next World Cup, and I firmly believe that the interests of the team will be best served if I step down and allow another player to gain additional experience of captaincy in the one-day international arena.”I am committed to continuing as England’s Test captain for as long as I can be successful in the role,” added Vaughan. “I enjoy the job and I also believe that I will be able to form a strong working relationship with whoever is appointed to the one-day captaincy. I will continue to play one-day cricket for Yorkshire and it is not my intention to retire from ODI cricket as a player. I do, however, fully appreciate that the new captain will need a period of time to establish his own authority over the team.”Vaughan recognises that the grievous knee injuries that forced him out of the game for 18 months will not stand up to the constant rough-and-tumble of ODI cricket, especially as it is another four years until the 2011 World Cup in the subcontinent. However, his hold on the Test captaincy has been consolidated since his return to the side. He cemented his place as a batsman with a century in his comeback innings at Headingley, and has since overtaken Peter May as England’s most successful Test captain, with 21 wins in 35 matches.On Friday, England’s selectors announce their squad to take on West Indies in two Twenty20 matches and three ODIs. Paul Collingwood, who made his fifth Test century at Chester-le-Street on Monday, is widely tipped to take over Vaughan’s role, although Kevin Pietersen is also considered to be in the running.
Dave Richardson, the ICC general manager of cricket operations, has said that Indian umpires are not up to world standards and it is a challenge for the Indian Board (BCCI) to improve on their performance.No Indian was included in the ICC Elite Umpires panel announced in April and Richardson said it wasn’t due to a flaw in the appointment process. “We do it [appointment] as professionally as we can,” said Richardson. “Who ever does well is going to move forward. And if you are not up to the mark and there are other international umpires who are better, then you will be left out. It is a challenge for the BCCI to see that Indian umpires make it to the Elite Panel.”Richardson said that the proposal to allow players to appeal against the on-field umpires’ decisions had received mixed response. “I should say the reaction has been pretty mixed. It is split 50-50 among the players, umpires, officials and even the media. Mark Benson, an ICC umpire from England, felt that he would be better off getting decisions verified by the third umpire and be not crucified later. There are others who feel they are better qualified to make the decisions on their own.”If the proposal is passed at the ICC Chief Executives’ meeting in July, the system of appeals could be trialled at the Champions Trophy in October.