Bangladesh A will tour India later this month to play three one-day matches and two three-day games, the first of their three back-to-back tours this year. The touring squad is likely to be announced on Sunday.According to the tour schedule released by the BCCI, Bangladesh A play three limited-overs matches against India A in Bangalore, on September 16, 18 and 20. Their three-day games are against Ranji Trophy champions Karnataka from September 22 to 24 in Mysore, and against India A from September 27 to 29.Two weeks after their India tour, Bangladesh A go to South Africa to play two one-dayers and a three-day game, followed by a tour of Zimbabwe, where they are scheduled to play two four-day matches and three one-dayers. The Africa tour ends on November 18.India is the only Test-playing nation where Bangladesh is yet to play a Test: the senior side is scheduled to tour the country in August next year. Bangladesh A have previously toured India in 2001, 2009 and 2012.
All doubts over the nature of the surface were dispelled when Harbhajan Singh coined a sweet term for it. is a term used to describe a benign, flat surface with very little in it for the bowlers but Harbhajan felt it right to call the pitch provided for the first Test as a super . So dopey was the track that WADA [World Anti-Doping Agency] might send a few officials to Chennai soon.”It was a first-day wicket and you can’t rely on the patches [on the pitch]. You have to vary your line and length according to the wicket,” Harbhajan said. “Let me tell you one thing. The wicket is very, very flat and it is hard for the bowlers to keep running in with the same intensity in this heat.”The irony about India preparing such tracks for home Tests is that their recent successes abroad have all come on bowler-friendly surfaces. Spiced up pitches in Kingston and Johannesburg have produced Indian wins; so have swing-fests at Headingley and Nottingham; so has a sporting pitch in Perth. It’s high time someone realised that India’s best chance of winning is on a track with some life.The Chennai ground staff point out to the lack of preparation time. As recently as February 27 a Ranji Trophy one-dayer was played on this ground and 12 days of rain in between meant there was little time for producing a quality wicket. They probably have a case but the earlier India start putting some life into their pitches, the more advantageous it could be. Through the 1990s India relied on their spin formula to torment visiting teams but this is an era when their strength lies in seam and swing. Even their spinners thrive with a bit of bounce on the surface.”I think it was very important to win the toss,” Harbhajan said, “but the Madras [Chennai] wicket has always been like that. It has always been good for the batsmen for the first two-three days and then the spinners come into play. You can’t really keep complaining.”The moment the toss plays such a big part in fortunes, you know something is amiss. Which brings us to the kind of bowling attack India choose for such death-beds. The conditions were always going to be hot and humid, the batsmen were bound to apply the pressure, and the bowlers were expected to tire. Neither Sachin Tendulkar nor Sourav Ganguly were given a bowl [the former was off the field for an extended period] and it meant long spells for the frontline bowlers. With 14 days to go in the series, it could well turn into a long and tiring one.Choosing Irfan Pathan would have probably been one seamer too many and going with Piyush Chawla would have required one of the middle-order batsmen to sit out – a possibility which might have been pushing it too far. So in a way India probably had their hands tied but there should be a thought given, in the long-term at least, for playing five specialist bowlers. Even if one of them has an off day, the others could share the responsibility.Where India really lost out was the amount of boundary balls they gave through the day. Forty- five fours on the first day of the match is probably twice as much as they would have targeted. Even more interestingly they managed 400 dot balls out of 540. So while they did the right things for most of the day, they kept taking off the pressure with the loose deliveries. Handcuff the batsmen for a while before opening the back door at exactly the wrong time.Harbhajan agreed. “I think we have given a lot of boundary balls,” he said. “In the first session we gave around 60-70 runs in boundaries. The first session is always important in a Test match and they dominated it. We did very well in the last two sessions and got those four wickets. It would be nice to have got one or two more wickets, but they batted well today.”I think we have given around 20-30 runs in our fielding and that makes a big difference. I hope tomorrow we put in a good performance in bowling, batting and fielding. It would have been nice to stop those 30 runs and see the scoreboard at the end on 270 for 4.”
Matthew Hayden was on the treadmill when the semi-final of ’99 happened. He meant it literally – it’s from where he watched the remarkable dying minutes of the match on telly – but his every other memory of the occasion was laden with the metaphoric. Dumped from the national side, he was doing the county circuit with Northamptonshire; he was, in his words, “absolutely zero part of the Australian setup and didn’t even looking getting a start”.He remembered that “it’s the same year that Steve Waugh rang and said: ‘Mate keep going. You have a chance of playing for Australia. I believe in you. Keep going’.” And he remembered that “it was a pretty remarkable event really, the whole game, but ironically, I happened to be in a completely different competition, at a completely different part of my life. But still, with that sort of burning desire to play for my country and be part of the spectacle of a World Cup.”Hayden did become a part of the spectacle in 2003. He lifted the World Cup. Another four years down the line he is its prime spectacle.No batsman has imposed himself on this Caribbean tournament as Hayden, and few have in any previous edition. Only two batsmen before him have struck three centuries in one competition. While both his predecessors were rather more soothing on the eye, neither so damaged the very soul of the opposition. Neither also made their runs against such quality opposition.Sourav Ganguly in 2003 scored two of his centuries against Kenya and one against Namibia. Mark Waugh had one against Kenya. Hayden’s came against South Africa – 66 balls – West Indies and New Zealand. His 580 runs have been at an average of 82.85 and a strike-rate of 108. Not bad for a man dropped from the one-day side two years ago.Hayden has thanked Ricky Ponting for reposing faith in him. That was a good headline there. Yet more impressive was his assessment of the comeback. “I mean this story is nothing remarkable,” he stressed. “It’s just a story of what it means for us to play for our country and the level of expectation that we firstly put on ourselves and secondly the rewards of playing good cricket for Australia. It’s no coincidence that this is a side that’s been at the top of its game for a long period of time.”Perhaps not to the degree of his partner of old, Justin Langer, Hayden brings a kind of spiritual heft to his work. He meditates at the pitch the day before the match. He speaks of hard work as a kind of salvation. Accomplishment is a kind of credo. While it may not be unusual for cricketers to have hobbies and interests, few pursue them as seriously as Hayden does cooking, surfing, fishing.
In the Caribbean Hayden has been at peace with himself. He talks about the joy of being surrounded by water, of waking up to the sight of it. He is delighted to find juicy fresh lime that can be squeezed on his food. At St Vincent he caught tuna and did a barbecue for the team. In Grenada he hauled in a 136kg marlin that made him famous on the island. Eighty people received him on the shore. A local presented him a greyhound on the achievement. “The smiles you see on the West Indians faces, no matter what walk of life they are, are certainly encouraging,” he said. “We draw a lot of strength from it as well.”To achieve is to be, Hayden gives off the feeling. When the Australians recently had an audience with the rowing legend Sir Steve Redgrave Hayden was moved. “What hit a chord with me,” he said, “was that he really had to work harder as his career went on. He wasn’t looking for the easy routes at all. In fact, he was looking to trying harder.”When Hayden returns to face the South Africans on Wednesday the memories will be of his contemptuousness of their bowlers last month. But the association goes back 13 years, and it was in some ways the making of Hayden.”I certainly learnt a lot from my first tour of 1994 of South Africa,” he said. “We saw the likes of Allan Donald and Brian McMillan – very aggressive, competitive cricketers, backed up by the hard-nosed captain in Kepler Wessels,” he said. “In my first game against them I got 5 and 15 and a broken thumb. So, it was a baptism of fire, but one I really enjoyed.”The teams are staying at the same hotel, and Hayden acknowledges the effect of all the talk of mental holds and historic needle flying about before a big match. “There is an unusual tension – a friction I guess,” he said. “It is melodramatic in a lot of ways. It’s kind of good versus bad. All those kind of things come out. But I can assure you that it is very personable.”I mean, you get two great countries like Australia and South Africa and you can play a game of dominoes, as the locals love to play here, and I am sure we will be competitive as well.” You suspect he’s probably been practising dominoes.
Andrew Flintoff, the England captain, said his team didn’t panic following the late assault launched by India. “It [India’s charge] was explosive. But we knew it would have required some effort from them to chase the total that we had set,” Flintoff told reporters.Facing a daunting target of 368 in three sessions, India produced a late flurry after tea with Irfan Pathan and Mahendra Singh Dhoni leading the charge before the two teams agreed to a draw with 108 runs required for a home win from over 11 overs. “The team showed lot of character. We are proud of the way we performed. With three debutants in the team, we competed with one of the best teams for five days,” Flintoff said.”I enjoyed the captaincy, concentrated on doing simple things correctly. I am grateful for the help by the teammates, particularly Paul Collingwood, Andrew Strauss and Steve Harmison.” Flintoff said it was Matthew Hoggard with 6 for 57 in the first innings who put England in control.”Hoggy bowled us into the match. He showed control and discipline on a wicket that was not conducive for pace bowling.” Among the debutants, Alastair Cook, the 21-year-old opener, and Monty Panesar, the left arm spinner, also the first Sikh to play for England, received special mention from Flintoff.”To get 60 and 100 [in two innings] against the two best spinners in the world says a lot about Cook. Panesar bowled well. He was excited by the way the crowd egged him on whenever he came on to bowl.”Ian Botham, the former England captain and commentator, looking ahead to Thursday’s second Test in Mohali, wondered if England might consider recalling Liam Plunkett if the Durham seamer proves his fitness. “The word is that the wicket in Mohali has a bit more pace and carry than the others so they could revert to one spinner and bring in another seamer,” he said.Botham too had some good words about both Cook and Panesar. “The guys on debut have done magnificently”, and added that a draw was a good result given the problems England had going into the opening Test. “Overall I think England will be very pleased.”
Tea ScorecardShane Deitz and Greg Blewett eased South Australia towards Tasmania’s first innings total with a 98-run partnership in the battle for the wooden spoon at Adelaide. Playing his second game of the summer, Deitz collected his second half-century while Blewett was 48 as they moved to 1 for 111 at tea. The Redbacks quickly lost Daniel Harris to Adam Griffith but it was one of few low spots during the first two sessions.Dan Cullen, the offspinner, ended Tasmania’s first innings for 319 with four wickets as South Australia took 6 for 71 in the opening session. Cullen, 20, returned 4 for 24 today to clean up the Tigers, who resumed on 4 for 248, and increase his season tally to 39. Damien Wright (25) was the only batsman to delay the collapse before falling to Cullen Bailey, the debutant legspinner who collected 2 for 82.
Wasim Akram has denied claims that he coached the Indian side, or had plans to do so, and insisted that an action against him accusing him of doing so was born out of malice and was little more than an attempt to gain cheap publicity by the petitioner.Akram was appearing in front of a civil court in Lahore in a bid to have the petition, which seeks to prevent him coaching any Indian players, dismissed. “I have no such intention to coach the Indian cricket team," he told the judge. "Nor I have been approached by the Indian cricket board." Akram explained that the petition had caused him "mental torture" as well as damaging his reputation."If anyone seeks my advice I am duty-bound to help him." Akram continued. "Indian bowlers Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan used to call me and take advice, there is nothing wrong with that because when I was young I took advice from Kapil Dev and the late West Indian Malcolm Marshall."I am amazed at the narrow-mindedness of the people, they make mountains out of a molehill," he added. "I am going to sue them instead. "Akram also faces another appearance in court, again because of a petition filed by a member of the public, following his appearance in a liquor advertisement in India two years ago.The judge adjourned the current case until December 8.
Baroda off-spinner Ajit Bhoite claimed the last two Hyderabad wickets as the Ranji Trophy champions seal an innings and 256 runs win and a place in Ranji quarter-finals.Bhoite removed No.9 Vishnuvardhan and last man NP Singh to end the Hyderabad innings on the fourth morning. Hyderabad skipper VVS Laxman, who made stylish century in the vistiors’ first innings, again played a lone hand to remain unbeaten on 53.What would be heartening to all Indian cricket lovers is the return to form of Laxman and Baroda’s Zaheer Khan. The latter claimed five wickets in Hyderabad’s second innings, this to go with his five-fer in the first.
Orissa, who are enjoying a very good season, continued their fine formon the opening day of their East Zone Ranji Trophy league matchagainst Assam at the Tinsukia District Sports Association Stadium inAssam on Thursday. After dismissing Assam for 167 runs, Orissa were 99for two off 27 overs at stumps.Electing to bat after winning the toss, Assam made a bad start losingopener Parag Das for a duck. Subharajit Saikia (31) and skipperZakaria Zuffri (66) steadied the innings with a second wicketpartnership of 63 runs. Saikaia made 31 off 57 balls while Zuffri topscored with 66 off 147 balls. But the rest of Assam batting offeredlittle resistance and Assam were bowled out in the 58th over. SanjaySatpati was the pick of the bowlers with 3/41 in 12 overs.Orissa too made a poor start, losing Pradeep Das leg before to ZavedZaman for a duck. A second wicket partnership of 93 runs betweencaptain Shiv Sunder Das and Rasmi Ranjan Parida saved Orissa fromfurther trouble. Das was dismissed after making a stroke filledinnings of 54 off 77 balls. He smashed nine boundaries in his 104-minute stay at the crease. At close of play, Parida was unbeaten on 44off 78 balls which includes three boundaries and a six. SanjaySatpathy remained unbeaten without opening his account. Play wasstopped five minutes before the scheduled close because of bad light.
Arsenal made a miserable return to Premier League action last night after losing 3-0 away against Crystal Palace following the latest international break.
Goals from Jean-Philippe Mateta and Jordan Ayew in the first half gave the Gunners a tough task in the second period of the game at Selhurst Park.
However, a penalty from Wilfried Zaha sealed all three points for Patrick Vieira’s side and put the nail in the coffin for the visitors on this occasion.
In terms of the individual performances for Arsenal, one figure that stood out for all the wrong reasons was midfielder Thomas Partey.
With 56 touches of the ball in total, the Ghanaian ended up giving the ball away for his side on 14 occasions, once every four touches.
From a defensive perspective, off the ball, the 28-year-old, who has been slammed for his “stupid” decision-making in the past, gave his side next to nothing, which is reflective of the scoreline.
The midfielder ended up failing to make even one tackle, block, interception or clearance, in addition to getting dribbled past twice and giving three fouls away, picking up a yellow card for his troubles, making him a real liability in the middle of the pitch on this occasion.
The former Atletico Madrid figure also managed to lose 78% of his duels, showing how easy it was for the Palace midfielders and attackers to play against him.
This display ultimately earned Partey a disheartening overall match rating of 5.9 from SofaScore, making him the joint-lowest rated player for Mikel Arteta’s side, lower than defender Nuno Tavares who was hooked at halftime after an abysmal showing himself.
Football.London also picked up on Partey’s poor performance by saying that he was “hideously loose in possession.”
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To make things worse for the midfielder on a personal level, he was forced off the pitch with an injury after 75 minutes, as just moments before he allowed the Palace offence to stroll past him before Martin Odegaard gave away a penalty.
Taking all of this into account, it was definitely a night to forget for Arsenal and their midfield man and despite his poor showing, everyone at the north London club will be hoping that his injury is not a serious one.
In other news: Arteta must ruthlessly axe “shocking” £18m-rated AFC liability, he’s “not world-class”
The first day of quarter-finals had two extremely one-sided matches: Indiacrushed England by seven wickets after dismissing them for 146 while WayneParnell took 6 for 8 to skittle Bangladesh for 41 as South Africa secured a 201-runvictory. Both teams are awaiting the results of Monday’s matches, whichwill decide the semi-final line-up. Cricinfo takes a look at the remaining quarter-finals.Australia v Pakistan
Australia and Pakistan have faced similar problems in the lead-up totheir quarter-final clash at the Kinrara Oval: the batsmen of both teams have failed to fire.Australia had one impressive showing against Namibia when captain MichaelHill’s brutal 124 off 71 balls led them to 312 but even in that matchtheir lower-middle order collapsed. In the next two games, Australia wererestricted by Nepal to 206 and Sri Lanka’s spinners dried up the runs so effectively that Australia could muster only 172. Several of their top-order batsmen – Phillip Hughes, Hill and Steven Smith – have got off toaggressive starts but they haven’t been able to carry on. The bowling attack has been the main reason for Pakistan’s unbeaten run in the league phase and will severely test Australia’s batting.Pakistan’s batting has struggled even more than Australia’s. They areyet to pass 200 in the tournament, having been dismissed for 156 againstNew Zealand and restricted to 173 for 8 by Zimbabwe, a team that lost toMalaysia. Their opening combination has failed to click, with UmarAkmal, the younger brother of Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran, yet to reachdouble figures.The encouraging aspect for Pakistan, however, is that their bowlers – ledby Adil Raza, a right-arm fast bowler, who has taken eight wickets at 7.75 apiece – have been red hot, managing to defend whatever target their batsmen have set. They ripped through Malaysia for 75, dismissed New Zealand for 129 and allowed Zimbabwe only 86.At Monday’s knockout, it could come down to which batting side performs on the day to set up a semi-final clash against South Africa.New Zealand v Sri Lanka The nature of the pitch at the Royal Selangor Club in Kuala Lumpur couldplay a significant role in the outcome of the quarter-final between NewZealand and Sri Lanka. Both teams have in-form bowling attacks but thestrengths are very different. While New Zealand have relied on theirnew-ball attack to pick up bulk of the wickets, Sri Lanka’s forte istheir battery of spinners.New Zealand’s Trent Boult has the best figures of the tournament, taking 7for 20 against Malaysia, while Tim Southee also has a five-for againstZimbabwe. Between them, they’ve taken 19 out of the 30 opposition wicketsto fall. Sri Lanka’s fast bowlers haven’t been very impressive so far buttheir left-arm orthodox spinners Sachith Pathirana and Navin Kavikara, andoffspinners Umesh Karunaratne and Roshen Silva have bowled their overseconomically and taken wickets as well. They did a fabulous job ofquelling Australia – who had got off to a solid start – during their Group C match in Penang.As with most of the teams in the tournament, barring India, New Zealandand Sri Lanka’s batting hasn’t been solid so far. New Zealand could notdominate against Zimbabwe, scoring only 221, and were bowled out cheaplyby Pakistan, while Sri Lanka also failed to post imposing totals againstthe minnows in their group – Namibia and Nepal.Whichever team makes it through will face an acid test against India inthe semi-final at the Kinrara Oval.