South Australia’s spin duo of Adam Zampa and Tom Andrews secured their side a place in the Matador Cup elimination final with a 79-run victory over the Cricket Australia XI. Tom Cooper set up the win with 77 in the South Australian innings, and they will now play Victoria on Friday for the right to take on New South Wales in Sunday’s final.Travis Head won the toss and chose to bat first and although Head himself fell for 29, there were enough contributions through the innings to reach a competitive 5 for 244. Head’s fellow opener Tim Ludeman struck four fours in his 50 off 81 deliveries, Callum Ferguson chipped in with 35, Jake Lehmann made a quick 38 and Cooper anchored the innings with 77.South Australia needed to win to progress in the tournament and it was their spinners who did the job, with Zampa collecting 4 for 48 and Andrews picking up 4 for 41. Hilton Cartwright followed his 99 from the previous match with 66 from 76 deliveries, but the wickets kept falling around him and when he was bowled by Andrews the chase was all but over.Kane Richardson finished the task by bowling the No.11 Ryan Lees and the CA XI were dismissed for 168. Although they finished last on the table in their first Matador Cup campaign, the CA XI did pick up one scalp along the way, beating Tasmania, a result that ultimately cost the Tigers a place in the elimination final.
ScorecardRachel Priest scored her maiden ODI ton•Getty Images
Opener Rachel Priest’s maiden century set up New Zealand’s 96-run win over Sri Lanka in the first Women’s ODI in Lincoln. Besides going 1-0 up in the five-match series, New Zealand have moved up to fourth on the ICC women’s championship points table.Asked to bat, New Zealand ran up a big score thanks to their top-three batsmen. After captain Suzie Bates (38) and Priest added 84 runs for the first wicket, Priest raised 131 runs in the company of Amy Satterthwaite, who made 69 off 72 balls.While there weren’t any major contributions after Priest and Satterthwaite departed in the space of three overs, the hosts made enough to stifle their opponents. Left-arm spinner Inoka Ranaweera cleaned up the lower order and finished with four wickets.Sri Lanka’s reply had a good beginning, as Chamari Atapattu put on 54 runs with Prasadini Weerakkody, but once Weerakkody was run out, wickets began to fall at regular intervals. Only Atapattu resisted for the visitors, but with little support from the other batsmen, the chase was never on. Offspinner Leigh Kasperek accounted for four wickets, including those of Atapattu and captain Shashikala Siriwardene.
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAustralia arrived on the third morning in Birmingham dreaming of a monumental comeback. They left on the third afternoon still dreaming of one. It will have to come at Trent Bridge and The Oval, though. There were no last-minute surprises at Edgbaston, where Ian Bell’s second fifty of the match ensured a 2-1 series lead for England and snuffed out any hopes Australia raised during a tail-end fight that set England a target of 121.It might still have proved tricky had a few top-order wickets fallen early. And England did lose both openers cheaply. But Bell realised that a handful of boundaries would be enough to place the pressure back on Australia, so he counter-attacked. Five fours came from his first nine balls, all against Mitchell Starc. And when Michael Clarke dropped a sitter at slip from Bell’s 11th ball, all the wind was out of Australia’s sails.It capped off a listless match for Clarke, who managed only 10 and 3 with the bat. There was little he could do as captain with such a small total to defend, but still it was odd that Mitchell Johnson, the man who roughed up England on the second mornings, was not handed the ball until the ninth over. By then, England were already 47 for 1. From there it was just a matter of how much time. And a Test that had raced along for two days began to meander.Cannabis lamps had been used to prepare the surface and typical of gateway drugs, the match soon appeared to be on speed. Day one brought 13 wickets, day two brought 14. Thirteen more on day three would have meant an Australian victory. But instead only five eventuated. Alastair Cook was bowled by a Starc outswinger for 7 and Adam Lyth was lbw to a Josh Hazlewood inswinger for 12, but that was all Australia managed.Lyth’s continued lack of form was one of the only negatives for England in this match, although the major one was the side strain sustained by James Anderson, which will keep him out of the next Test. But the positives were significant: Steven Finn’s return from the wilderness brought eight wickets for the match, and Bell’s move up the order to No.3 resulted in a fifty in each innings.From his first ball, a clip through midiwicket for four off a fullish Starc inswinger, Bell looked in touch. There was a majestic drive through cover point and another straight down the ground, and his half-century came with a glide to the third-man boundary from his 68th ball, also off Starc. Bell found good support from Joe Root, and between them they ensured an eight-wicket win, with Bell on 65 and Root on 38 after he struck the winning boundary.That the match lasted until past the time of the scheduled tea break was thanks to the fight shown by Starc and Peter Nevill before lunch. They each managed a half-century and Australia’s last three partnerships extended their advantage by 97 from the overnight lead of 23. Nevill and Starc did their best to make a game of it during a 64-run eighth-wicket stand.Nevill had some nervy moments, edges and a near chop-on, and he should have been given out on 53 when he gloved behind off Stuart Broad; Chris Gaffaney did not pick up the contact and England had no reviews left. Nevill’s innings came to an end on 59 when he tickled a catch down the leg side off Steven Finn, who after his day two heroics finished with his best Test figures of 6 for 79.At the other end, Starc proved tough to remove and he later started to play his shots, going over the top when the spin of Moeen Ali and Root was introduced. Starc’s fifth Test half-century came with a six over long-on from his 83rd ball, off the bowling of Moeen, and Australia could have been forgiven for dreaming of pushing their lead up towards 150, and perhaps beyond.But Starc lost his partner Hazlewood (11) to a stunning one-handed catch at third slip from Root off Ben Stokes, and their 28-run partnership was over. Still, Nathan Lyon proved a capable ally for a further 20-run stand before Starc chipped a catch to extra cover off Moeen and was dismissed for 58.It was too little, too late. All of Australia’s bottom five batsmen reached double figures in the second innings. Only one of the top six did – David Warner with 77. It is hard to imagine the same batting line-up being retained for Trent Bridge, with Shaun Marsh for Adam Voges the most obvious change on the cards, given Marsh has piled up centuries in the tour games.Whatever XI is picked, they will need to recreate history. Only once in Ashes history has a team come from 2-1 down to claim the urn. That was in 1936-37, when captain Don Bradman scored 212 in Adelaide and 169 in Melbourne to lead the fightback. Australia may need Steven Smith to return to his recent Bradmanesque touch to have any hope of repeating the feat.England’s outstanding all-round match at Edgbaston has given them every chance of regaining the urn. Another win (or two draws) will do it. The good news for Australia is that England’s recent form is up and down like Tower Bridge: WLWLWLW. The bad news is there are five Tests in this series, not four.
ScorecardAllrounder Jalaj Saxena and left-arm spinner Ankit Sharma shared six wickets between them to reduce Mumbai to 69 for 6, after Harpreet Singh’s 59, coupled with useful contributions from the lower order, guided Madhya Pradesh to 240.Mumbai openers Akhil Herwakar and 19-year old Jay Bista began reasonably well, putting on a 39-run stand before both batsmen fell in successive overs. Soon after, Saxena had Shreyas Iyer caught behind for 1, the batsman’s first single-digit score after 20 innings in the Ranji Trophy. The slide continued as the visitors lost six wickets in space of 30 runs in eight overs.After having opted to bat, three of MP’s top four had starts but neither carried on to make a substantial score. Harpreet Singh, however, anchored the innings, hitting five fours during his 155-ball vigil. Offspinner Ankush Jaiswal, playing his maiden first-class game, took four wickets, including that of Harpreet, but a quick last-wicket stand of 56 in less than six overs dragged MP past 200. ScorecardSneha Kishore, the 21-year old left-arm spinner, claimed his maiden five-wicket haul to skittle Railways for 182 at Karnail Stadium in Delhi but the hosts hit back, leaving Andhra at 62 for 4 at stumps on the first day.Anureet Singh struck with his first ball to trap Srikar Bharat lbw before Mohammad Kaif fell in a similar manner, bagging his fourth successive duck this Ranji season. Koripalli Sreekanth and AG Pradeep also failed but opener Prasanth Kumar and Ashwin Hebbar ensured that there was no further damage.Earlier, Railways lost an opener of their own – Ashish Singh – for a duck, before Saurabh Wakaskar and V Cheluvaraj steadied the innings with a 76-run partnership. Kishore then tripped up the middle order but Ashish Yadav and Arnab Nadi guided Railways past 150. The innings was wrapped up by seamer Bandaru Ayyappa, who finished with four wickets.Overnight rains and intermittent showers forced the abandonment of the first day of the eighth round fixture between Tamil Nadu and Gujarat in Tirunelveli, which was hosting its first Ranji game after 10 years. The day was called off at 1.45 pm local time, without even the coin going up, after two ground inspections.UP v Punjab: Khera, Sidhana resist after UP pacers strike
Australia allrounder Cameron Green has been bought by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for INR 25.20 crore ($2.8 million/AUD4.2 million approx.), making him the third-most expensive player sold at an IPL auction, and the most expensive overseas player ever.KKR also bought the second-most expensive player at the IPL 2026 auction – Sri Lankan fast bowler Matheesha Pathirana for INR 18 crore ($1.97 million approx.).The limelight on auction day, however, was stolen by the uncapped Indian players, with 20-year-old left-arm spin allrounder Prashant Veer and 19-year-old wicketkeeper Kartik Sharma going to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for a staggering INR 14.2 crore each. Both of them broke Avesh Khan’s record in 2022 of INR 10 crore for the most expensive uncapped Indian player bought at an IPL auction. Jammu and Kashmir fast bowler Auqib Nabi also had a big payday, with Delhi Capitals buying him for INR 8.4 crore.Related
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KKR, who began the auction with the largest purse of INR 64.3 crore, had to stave off competition for Green from CSK, who had the second-highest purse of INR 43.4 crore. The bidding, though, began with Mumbai Indians (MI), who had to drop out of the race quickly because they had a purse of only INR 2.75 crore. Rajasthan Royals (RR), who had a purse of INR 16.05 crore, took the bid as far as INR 13.40 crore before exiting, at which point CSK joined the bidding against KKR.Green’s bid took more than ten minutes to complete, and he ranks behind Rishabh Pant (INR 27 crore) and Shreyas Iyer (INR 26.75 crore) on the list of most expensive IPL players. The most expensive overseas players before Green were Mitchell Starc (INR 24.75 crore) and Pat Cummins (INR 20.50 crore). Green, however, will get only INR 18 crore due to a maximum salary cap imposed by the IPL on overseas players at mini-auctions. The bid amount in excess of INR 18 crore (INR 7.2 crore) will go to the BCCI for player welfare.Green first played the IPL in 2023, when MI bought him for INR 17.5 crore. He scored 452 runs at a strike rate of 160.28, and picked up six wickets. MI then traded him to RCB a year later for the same price; he scored 255 runs for RCB at a strike rate of 143.25, and took ten wickets. Green did not register for the mega auction ahead of IPL 2025 because he was returning from a back injury.Green was one of only two players sold from the first set of batters on Tuesday, along with South Africa batter David Miller, who went to Delhi Capitals (DC) at his base price of INR 2 crore. Jake-Fraser McGurk, Prithvi Shaw, Devon Conway and Sarfaraz Khan were unsold.8:45
‘KKR spent their money well’
The lukewarm bidding continued into the second set of allrounders, with only two of seven players sold. Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) bought Sri Lanka’s Wanindu Hasaranga at his base price of INR 2 crore. Venkatesh Iyer, who had been bought by KKR for INR 23.75 crore in the IPL 2025 auction, was sold to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for INR 7 crore. Liam Livingstone, Rachin Ravindra, Gus Atkinson, Wiaan Mulder and Deepak Hooda were unsold in the first set of allrounders.During the accelerated rounds later in the day, when some unsold players came back for bidding, CSK bought Sarfaraz at his base price of INR 75 lakh, while SRH outbid LSG to buy Livingstone to INR 13 crore. Shaw was also bought at the very end by DC, whom he had played for from 2018 to 2024, at his base price of INR 75 lakh.There was more action in the first set of wicketkeepers, with MI buying South Africa’s Quinton de Kock, DC buying England’s Ben Duckett, and KKR buying New Zealand’s Finn Allen – all at their base prices. CSK, who began the auction with the second-largest purse, did not buy a player from the first three sets.CSK did not bid for Pathirana, who they had released at a price of INR 13 crore after IPL 2025. The demand for Pathirana began with DC and LSG, and once the bid reached INR 15.6 crore, DC dropped out considering they had a purse of INR 17.8 crore. KKR entered the bidding and priced out LSG, who had a purse of INR 20.95 crore, at INR 18 crore. Having missed out on Pathirana, LSG immediately bought South African quick Anrich Nortje at his base price of INR 2 crore.RCB’s second buy at the auction was New Zealand fast bowler Jacob Duffy (INR 2 crore), who could slot in as back-up for Josh Hazlewood.
CSK did bid for legspinner Ravi Bishnoi, but stopped once the price reached INR 6 crore. RR and SRH then bid for Bishnoi, and he was eventually bought by RR for INR 7.2 crore. Akeal Hosein, the West Indies left-arm spinner, was eventually CSK’s first buy at the auction at his base price of INR 2 crore before their aggressive bidding for the uncapped Indians later in the auction.”It’s a little bit about discipline, we had earmarked those players as being key spots for us so we had to wait,” CSK coach Stephen Fleming said. “And it’s very difficult because you see a lot of good players beforehand going at low prices but you have to stick to your plan and in our case we knew we probably had to spend a little bit of money at the back end.”But it’s hard; you sit and watch these good players who could come into your side and make a real difference and when others pick them up you are a little bit jealous. But there’s a discipline to it that’s really important, if you believe in the plan. Otherwise you find yourself in a real mess because it’s like an ice cream store, you’re gonna have a scoop of each and you end up a little bit fatter than what you should be.”From the first ten sets of players, only 25 out of 70 were bought, with Punjab Kings (PBKS) not yet having bid for any player. They eventually made their first bid for allrounder Aman Khan during the accelerated round but lost him to CSK, after which they outbid KKR for Australian allrounder Cooper Connolly as a possible replacement for Glenn Maxwell.There were some high-value buys during the accelerated round late in the auction: DC bought Sri Lanka batter Pathum Nissanka for INR 4 crore, GT bought West Indies allrounder Jason Holder for INR 7 crore, KKR bought Bangladesh quick Mustafizur Rahman for INR 9.2 crore, CSK bought legspinner Rahul Chahar for INR 5.2 crore, and LSG bought Australian wicketkeeper Josh Inglis for INR 8.6 crore.1:11
Watch – Prashant Veer’s family soak in the moment after CSK buy him for INR 14.2 crores
Players bought at the IPL 2026 auction
KKR: Cameron Green, Finn Allen, Matheesha Pathirana, Tejasvi Dahiya, Kartik Tyagi, Prashant Solanki, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert, Mustafizur Rahman, Sarthak Ranjan, Daksh Kamra, Rachin Ravindra, Akash DeepLSG: Wanindu Hasaranga, Anrich Nortje, Mukul Choudhary, Naman Tiwari, Akshat Raghuwanshi, Josh Inglis DC: David Miller, Ben Duckett, Auqib Nabi, Pathum Nissanka, Lungi Ngidi, Prithvi ShawRCB: Venkatesh Iyer, Jacob Duffy, Satwik Deswal, Mangesh Yadav, Jordan Cox, Vicky Ostwal, Luke Wood, Vihaan Malhotra, Kanishk ChouhanMI: Quinton de Kock, Danish Malewar, Mohammed Izhar, Atharva Ankolekar, Mayank Rawat RR: Ravi Bishnoi, Sushant Mishra, Yash Raj Punja, Vignesh Puthur, Ravi Singh, Aman Rao, Brijesh Sharma, Adam Milne, Kuldeep SenCSK: Akeal Hosein, Kartik Sharma, Prashant Veer, Matthew Short, Aman Khan, Sarfaraz Khan, Matt Henry, Rahul Chahar, Zak FoulkesGT: Ashok Sharma, Jason Holder, Tom Banton, Prthvi RajSRH: Shivang Kumar, Salil Arora, Sakib Hussain, Omkar Tarmale, Amit Kumar, Praful Hinge, Krains Fuletra, Liam Livingstone, Shivam Mavi, Jack EdwardsPBKS: Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Praveen Dubey, Vishal Nishad
Paul Grayson, Essex’s beleaguered coach, has been confirmed in the role until the end of the season as the club’s general committee has overwhelmingly resisted a recommendation from the new cricket chairman Ronnie Irani to remove him immediately from the post.The debate about Grayson’s future could hardly have been more disruptively timed, coming only a few days before Essex’s NatWest quarter-final against Birmingham Bears at Edgbaston which was duly lost in one of their most disappointing displays of the season.The committee, clearly wary of a repeat, voted in Chelmsford on Monday to delay their decision on Grayson’s future, even as Essex travelled to their final Royal London Cup group match against Sussex at Hove, another season-defining match in which victory would ensure them of a home quarter-final.Grayson has supervised consistently excellent displays in limited-overs cricket since taking charge in 2008 with Essex second only to Hampshire in the number of victories in one-day cricket in that time. But while Hampshire have gone on to win trophies, Essex have repeatedly faltered in the final stages, encouraging Irani to press for change soon after being elected to the role last month.It is the timing of the recommendation that has brought most unease, although in some ways that was unavoidable. Grayson was anxious to determine his future before the end of the season after the decision of the former cricket committee chairman, Graham Saville, to step down after 27 years in the role naturally introduced a period of reassessment within the county.Grayson, it is interesting to note, is one year into an official three-year plan in which it was made clear that the priority was to secure a one-day trophy and reshape a young Championship side based on home grown players. That commitment has been followed to the letter with a whole host of debutants given an opportunity to prove their worth for a county that lacks the pace bowling depth to sustain a serious challenge.Irani sounded more ambitious, stating upon taking office: ” We need to try to get into division one of the County Championship. We’ve fallen short of that for quite a few years now. We have to change and we have to improve massively.”We have an immensely talented group of individuals and it is fair to say that at this moment in time we have underachieved in the last seven or eight years.”We are still talented and it is great to see young players coming through like Nick Browne, Tom Westley and Jamie Porter. We have to make sure we keep doing that, while getting Essex back to the level that we were in years gone by, knocking on doors and trying to win trophies.”At this moment in time Paul is the head coach and we have to respect that position until the cricket committee decide on anything different.”Quite how much Grayson can be blamed for a prolonged failure to reach Division One of the Championship is a question worth asking. As a coach, as opposed to a director of cricket, his powers have remained limited, much against the trend in the county game and Essex’s budget is considerably lower.Essex still have one of the most traditional structures in county cricket with the outgong cricket chairman Saville, a former England U19 coach, and captain, James Foster, having had most influence on the big cricketing decisions. That way of doing things is unlikely to change.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul has insisted he has not retired from domestic cricket and intends to resume playing for Guyana within a couple of weeks.In an episode that sheds light on the sometimes toxic relationship between the West Indies Cricket Board and Caribbean players, Chanderpaul has expressed resentment at being obliged to announce his international retirement in order to gain a No Objection Certificate to play in the Masters Champions League currently taking place in the UAE.Chanderpaul, 41, has not played international cricket since May 2015 and was omitted from the list of contracted WICB players in December.”I was given a No Objection Certificate by WICB with a clause in it that I retire on the 23rd,” Chanderpaul told ESPNcricinfo. “If I didn’t announce my retirement they would have taken it back.”I have spoken to Guyana already. I know the chairman wants me to go back and play.”They have a game against Trinidad starting on February 12. Then Barbados, then Windward Islands, Leeward Islands and Jamaica. Those are games that I’ve talked to them already about going back to play. I’ve not retired from first-class matches. I’ve retired from international games.”I wasn’t being picked to play for West Indies anymore and there was nothing else for me to do. So I decided I would come out here to the UAE and play some cricket.”While Chanderpaul earns a modest fee per match for representing Guyana, it is dwarfed by the rewards on offer – around $30,000 for just over two weeks involvement – with the MCL.”I don’t have a contract with anybody. No local boards; no West Indies board. I’ve been playing for Guyana because the coach and chairman saw the value of having me around as a player. They pay me a match fee and I play and try and help the young fellas as much as I can.Shivnarine Chanderpaul is not ready to break links with Guyana•WICB Media/Randy Brooks of Brooks LaTouche Photo
“Anything is possible in life. You can go into retirement; you can come out of retirement. It is my choice. I’m definitely still hungry to play. It’s something I’ve done most of my life. There is still passion and hunger to play.”Criticising the “brute force and ignorance” of unspecified former players, Chanderpaul is currently enjoying the stress free – and lucrative – environment provided by the MCL.Irritation lingers, however, at the manner in which his international ‘retirement’ was handled, with no recognition given to his illustrious record for the West Indies or the fact that he is contracted neither to the board or Guyana.”You can’t [chose the way you go]; not with those guys,” he said. “It’s the way we’re being treated. It’s still going on and it’s not changing. We’re being treated like that and worse sometimes. That’s how it goes.”Some of the past players had better times in their career. They don’t want to change. They want to stay the same way; have the same attitude.”But you can’t bring the same thing to the table every time because you’re not going to go anywhere. We’re not going forward. We’re just going down. They’re creating some problems.”As much as you’re saying we have past players, they are the ones who are creating the problem because they have their ways – their old ways – and there’s brute force and ignorance and they’re still carrying it around and still expecting things to go the same way.”You feel much better just coming out here to play [in the MCL]; without all the stress, without all the other stuff that’s going on.”
There will be a tendency to dismiss as inconsequential India’s2-0 Test series victory over Zimbabwe. After all, it was a winachieved against the ninth-ranked Test nation – out of 10, it maybe added. Also, as I stated in an earlier column, it does notmatter that India is rated number seven or eight in the currentTest rankings. In home conditions, the Indian team makes forrather formidable opposition, borne out by the fact that only oneteam has won a Test series here in the last 15 years. Even topranked Australia came a cropper in their bid to cross the “finalfrontier” a year ago.That said, it must not be forgotten that India won both thematches in the series, something they were unable to achieveagainst the same team in their last series played here some 15months ago. Andy Flower thwarted India from registering a secondvictory on that occasion, and the left-hander’s failure this timewas certainly one reason why India made a sweep of the seriesfairly comfortably, the rather unconvincing achievement of theNew Delhi win notwithstanding. With all the huffing and puffingat the Feroz Shah Kotla, one must remember that the victorymargin in the first Test was an innings and 101 runs.
In the ultimate analysis, the series victory, besides underliningthe fact that India continues to be awe-inspiring opposition athome, also served to confirm the strengths and weaknesses of thehosts. Touching upon the former, one must first mention theHarbhajan Singh – Anil Kumble duo. The two look well on coursefor taking their place in the honoured list of the great Indianspinning pairs of the past Subhash Gupte and Vinoo Mankad, BSChandrasekhar and Bishan Singh Bedi, and Erapalli Prasanna andBedi. The two complement each other perfectly, and notunexpectedly, they have showered praise on one another.In his 32nd year, Kumble, with over 300 wickets in the bag, is atthe peak of his powers, while his partner, 10 years younger,obviously has his better days ahead of him. Indian cricket’sstrongest point, for some years now, has been its middle-orderbatting, but the time is not far off, I venture to guess, whenthis accolade passes on to the spin duo, who shared 28 wickets inthe two Tests.Speaking of the middle-order batting, the series against Zimbabwesaw this mighty aspect lose nothing of the aura surrounding itfor some time now. Sachin Tendulkar made his customary hundred,while Rahul Dravid used the opportunity to get into his groovefollowing treatment to a shoulder injury. If there is a suddenquestion mark over VVS Laxman, who only a year ago had scaled newpeaks and was hailed as a Messiah, it is heartening to know thatVirender Sehwag and Sanjay Bangar are around to fill that vitalnumber six slot in the middle order.But what was most encouraging was Sourav Ganguly finally strikingform. The Indian captain has always been a classy player, but hisextended bad run saw some critics baying for his blood. I, forone, did not join the growing list of detractors. To me,Ganguly’s case will always be paralleled with that of GundappaViswanath who too, more than once during his 91-Test career, wentthrough a bad patch that led to the “experts” calling for hisremoval. The selectors, however, displayed more wisdom than thedetractors, and the Karnataka stylist repaid this confidencehandsomely. Similarly, I can only see Ganguly getting better andbetter from here on.Shiv Sunder Das, I have always believed, is on course toovertaking Navjot Singh Sidhu as the finest Indian openingbatsman in the post-Gavaskar period. The just-concluded seriesconfirmed this view. It can also be taken as confirmed that DeepDasgupta has played his last Test match. The doors are now wideopen for Ajay Ratra, who can grab this opportunity to cement hisplace in the side as a specialist wicket-keeper whose batting isa bonus. Bangar, who opens the batting for Railways, could be asuitable contender to become Das’ partner at the top of theorder.
There was little wrong with the new ball attack, with JavagalSrinath and Zaheer Khan capable of making the earlybreakthroughs. The latter was particularly impressive, his speed,swing, line and length all having the Zimbabwe batsmen hopping.As far as home conditions go, I emphasise, there seems to be noproblem with the Indian attack, and it is to be hoped that Bangarwill work on his bowling skills to become the kind of all-rounderthat Indian cricket has needed for so long.A word about the visitors. In a nutshell, they proved to begallant losers. They were badly outplayed at Nagpur, but within afew days, they were able to raise the level of their game severalnotches to run India pretty close at the Kotla. Overall, however,their batsmen found Kumble and Harbhajan too hot to handle, whilethe bowlers were no match for the run-hungry Indian batsmen.But a bright future surely awaits Ray Price. The 25-year-oldleft-arm spinner displayed tenacity of purpose, a tantalisinglength and line, besides biting turn on a pitch that was onlyslightly helpful. Even the reputation of being the best playersof spin did not aid the Indian batsmen in overcoming the guilesof Price, and however long he plays the game, the fact that hedismissed Tendulkar three times running twice for scores lessthan 50 could remain his proudest achievement.
Marcus Stoinis did not get to play a single game for Delhi Daredevils after the franchise signed him for the 2015 IPL season, but the time he spent with the team enabled him to work on his batting against spin. More particularly – and unusually, given the IPL is a Twenty20 competition – his defence against spin.Stoinis displayed that facet of his game admirably during his 179-ball 77 in Australia A’s first four-day match against India A last week, against a spin attack comprising Amit Mishra and Pragyan Ojha on a slow turner at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.”I was pretty lucky to go to the IPL and spend seven or eight weeks with Delhi,” Stoinis said during a media interaction on Monday. “We had a great set-up, and Gary Kirsten was a great coach there. He helped me a lot, and speaking to JP Duminy and those South African players, and then had Yuvraj [Singh] help me a lot as well.”Sri [Sridharan Sriram], who’s involved with us now [as Australia A’s batting consultant during the tour] – he’s from Delhi Daredevils too. I spent a lot of time with him, one-on-one, and he talked to me a lot, not just the conditions and the wickets, but the different types of bowlers you come across and the different plans, probably more of an Indian style of approaching the game than an Australian style.”So my stance is a little bit lower than it has been, and I worked a lot – even though it might be the IPL – I worked a lot on my defence against the spinners. I found, once I could defend, I could understand the flight path of the ball, what’s happening off the wicket a little bit better, and before you know you can attack a lot easier. I’m sure it will help with Twenty20 as well as the longer format.”Recently, in a development that will no doubt please his IPL franchise, Stoinis struck six sixes in an over during a practice match against the National Indigenous Squad in Brisbane, in an over bowled by the medium-pacer Brendan Smith. Stoinis was quick to downplay the feat.”It was a short boundary and it wasn’t probably as good as someone like Yuvraj hitting six sixes,” he said. “There were two pull shots early on and a couple over long-on and one over midwicket, that sort of thing. Bit of a slog.”Stoinis made his first-class debut six years ago, when he was 19, but only got to play three games for Western Australia before he lost his contract. That prompted Stoinis to move to Victoria in a bid to rejuvenate his career; it worked, but not before a four-year wait for his Sheffield Shield return.”At that stage, [losing my Western Australia contract] was sort of, it was probably the best thing that could have happened,” Stoinis said. “It can come pretty quickly when you’re young, you move into the system and you go from the Under-19s Australian team and it moves quickly, but I wasn’t ready to play, I don’t think.”After that, I sat down with my family and that sort of thing and said, look, if I want to play cricket for the rest of my life, where do I want to live, and I picked Melbourne. They were the strongest state at the time, some great players there, so yes, I moved there, it took me a couple of years to get in, but that’s how I made my decision.”Stoinis knew it would be harder for him to break into a strong side. “But the thinking behind my decision was more that I believed I was going to get there, and may as well do it in a place that I feel comfortable in. I’ve had a few great coaches that have been involved with me over those two years to get me into the team, with Greg Shipperd who was the coach there, Kim Hughes is my batting coach in Perth and he flies to Melbourne to see me, and the sports psychologist Dave Diggle, who’s helped me a lot as well.”Stoinis picked up two wickets in India A’s second innings with his medium-pace, and though his 13 first-class wickets so far have come at an underwhelming average of 55.69, he has been working hard on his bowling in order to become a genuine allrounder.”I’ve always been a batter, since I started, so that’s a change of mindset for me, really,” he said. “I can see how important it is, because as much as I love my batting, the bowling might be what separates me from a lot of batters, so it could be a lot more important than I have given it credit in the past.”But yes, that’s the plan. I want to be a genuine allrounder, been working hard on my bowling, spent four or five weeks in Brisbane before we came here, just bowling, pretty much. Batting was the side note to that. So it will be an important string, I think.”There were no speedguns at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, but Stoinis thinks he clocks around 130kph. “130 to 150,” he said, deadpan. “My bouncer is 150, I think.”
Sri Lanka wicketkeeper batsman Kusal Perera, who tested positive for a banned substance in early December, may face a lengthy ban from international cricket with his B sample understood to have also tested positive.Perera had to be cut from Sri Lanka’s tour to New Zealand after a random test conducted in October came out positive for a banned substance. He had the right to request analysis of a second sample, taken at the same time, but ESPNcricinfo learnt the results of the B sample matched his A sample.The ICC is yet to comment on the matter considering it is an ongoing disciplinary process. Although no official penalty has been announced yet Perera can be suspended for a maximum of four years for the failed tests.The ICC had served Kusal with a provisional suspension on December 7 after tests conducted on the A sample came out positive. According to the ICC’s Anti-Doping Code, a player has 14 days to request a hearing before an independent three-person Anti-Doping Tribunal. Failing that, implies the player “shall have been deemed to have admitted that he/she has committed the anti-doping rule violation(s) specified in the Notice of Charge” and to have accepted the consequences specified in that Notice of Charge.Sri lanka’s sports minister Dayasiri Jayasekera told reporters today that, “We are appealing against this because he was never found like this in the last four instances. We will back him with legal representation while doing every possible effort to help him to get out of this issue.”Neither the ICC nor SLC have confirmed what the banned substance is.