All posts by csb10.top

Michael Vaughan
“Throughout my short career to date this is my best Test victory. [South Africa] were 362 for 4 after the first day on a good batting pitch, and to show the character we did and come back was a fantastic team effort. Steve Harmison was fantastic and Martin Bicknell on his home ground was exceptional.”Marcus Trescothick
“It’s just been a great gig and a great game of cricket for all of us. I’ve worked hard throughout the whole series. There have been some tough wickets and things had not gone my way but I worked hard for this and will enjoy the moment. I still had to fight hard, I did not play all that well for the first hour. I needed a bit of luck but that’s the way it goes.”Graeme Smith
“I’d like to have had 700 in the first innings. The run-outs didn’t help, and one or two little things go against you, but that’s Test cricket. I don’t think we’re chokers. England played good cricket in this match. But at Headingley [where South Africa won the fourth Test by 191 runs after being 21 for 4 and 142 for 7] we fought back well. England are allowed to play good cricket but it’s obviously disappointing not pushing on from 2-1. Test cricket is about pressure and we didn’t cope with it in this match."England batted superbly on what was a good Test wicket – one big partnership up front really set the tone of the innings and then Freddie [Flintoff] came in and took the game away from us."It’s been a hard-fought series, neither side has wanted to give an inch and hasn’t given an inch. You’ve had to fight for everything you’ve gained. I thought my boys had a fantastic series. Three months away from home, they really fought hard for the whole series and put up a fantastic performance."We have to learn to be a bit more ruthless. But apart from this match, when we’ve got into trouble, someone’s got us out of it and that’s given me a lot of satisfaction.”The retiring Alec Stewart
“I said before the Test it was not all about Alec Stewart. It was the perfect sendoff and I wish the team all the best for the future. There was some good batting, some good bowling and it was an excellent wicket here.”Obviously that debut [a win over West Indies in 1989-90] is still clear in my mind. To start and end with a win is perfect. I won’t forget Barbados, the Headingley win to beat South Africa last time they were here, and the series wins in Sri Lanka and Pakistan.”I’m going to enjoy the next few weeks and finish the season with Surrey. Then I’ll put the cricket kit away and get out the golf clubs and the Chelsea shirt. I’ve had some good offers, a good one from here at The Oval. I’ve got some things in the pipeline."

Hampshire’s Academy side are off the mark in the ECB Southern Electric Premier League with a tense one-wicket victory at Liphook & Ripsley – the winning runs coming courtesy of four byes!The Young Hawks had lost nine wickets and left last pair Charlie van der Gucht and Tony Middleton to chisel out the 11 runs needed to squeeze past Liphook’s rain reduced 130-run target off 34 overs.And they did it, thanks to several lusty leg-side blows from the Hampshire left-arm spinner … and four byes off South African Alistair Gray, which shot past wicketkeeper Jez Bulled and sped over the boundary.There was great relief in the Academy ranks – but heartbreak for Liphook, who have now lost three times already this season."I honestly didn’t think they’d beat the 190-9 we scored off 50 overs," lamented Liphook skipper Bulled. "Especially when they were 58-5 and then 119-9."Liphook’s total was built around Gray (56) and Duncan Berry (49), with Morgan Rushbrook (3-31) and Kevin Latouf (3-33) bowling the county youngsters back into contention.Latouf (26) became the first of three victims of spinner Alan Crawford (3-25), who had the Academy struggling at 58-5 before Mitchel Stokes (29) and Tom Burrows (21) pulled things round.Burrows held firm while later wickets tumbled, but when he was caught at 119-9, the Academy looked set for a second consecutive defeat. But van der Gucht and those four byes changed all that!Havant emerged 16-run winners over Calmore Sports, whose prospects of pulling off a surprise win gradually diminished in the last 15 overs.Chasing Havant’s 214-6 (Dominic Carson 48), Calmore came out of the traps at speed with Clive Surry (50) leading the charge. "Their tactics really caught us by surprise," admitted Havant skipper Paul Gover."With the fielding restrictions, you can hardly defend at all in the initial 15 overs and the Calmore top order batters took advantage."Surry remained until Calmore reached 121-4 and then watched Tom Pegler (30) and David Rouse (32) apply further pressure on the champions.But as the scoring rate increased, four batsmen were run out and Calmore finished 16 runs adrift at 198 all out after a gallant effort.Gover reckoned that the pre-tea onslaught by his own fifth-wicket pair Bev Moynhan (36) and Shane Ferguson influenced the outcome."They put on about 80 in ten overs, including a 14 run blitz at the end – and that was a major factor," he added.Havant fear that their unbeaten start could come to grief at Lower Bemerton next Saturday when they play South Wilts, who nailed Portsmouth by eight wickets at St Helen’s, Southsea.Portsmouth, furious that Lawrie Prittipaul had been pulled out of their starting line-up to carry out Hampshire’s second innings 12th man duties against Somerset at the Rose Bowl, caved in against some top class pace bowling.Hampshire’s James Tomlinson (1-32) and Combined Services pacebowler Andy Senneck (1-18) had Portsmouth scrimping and scraping for every run."The overs were keeping pace with the runs at one stage," reflected South Wilts skipper Rob Wade.But it was Adie Holewell (3-18) who did the damage, as Portsmouth slipped to 47-5 before Neil Randall (41) and James Manning (39 not out) led the recovery and they reached 147-9.Paul Draper and Russell Rowe fell cheaply for South Wilts, who would have lost Jason Laney – but for a spilled return catch.The former Hampshire man cashed in with 75 not out, including three big sixes off Lee Savident, and with Wade (48 not out) alongside, swept South Wilts home.Bournemouth made it two wins out of two after a cloudburst left Andover marooned in the rain at Chapel Gate.They beat the North Hampshire side by virtue of a faster overall run rate to secure a second consecutive Division 1 win in four rain-ravaged weeks.Once Bournemouth had posted 227-5, they were always favourites to beat weakened Andover.But it was only due to the fact that they bowled their overs quickly after tea that they snared the crucial win points."We’d bowled 26 overs – one more than the regulation number you need to send down in order to get a result – when it poured down with rain," said vice-captain Martin Miller."Five minutes later, Chapel Gate was underwater and a haven for seagulls."Bournemouth’s success was built around former Hampshire all-rounder Richard Scott and Kingston Lacey teenager Nick Park, who shared a prolific 153-run opening partnership.Park, whose elder brother Chris cut his teeth at the Sports Club two seasons ago before joining the Northants Academy, belied his tender years with a splendid 62.Scott, striking two 6s and ten boundaries, hit 99 before being stumped by young Cille van der Merwe off Hampshire Under-19 spinner Matt Hooper."It would have been my first ton since 1997," Scott said afterwards. "And, of all things, I go and get myself stumped."Nonetheless, the pair set the tone for Western Australia’s Adam Voges to spank 41 and lift Bournemouth to 227-5 in 50 overs.Andover, fielding a much weakened side, lurched to 13-2 against the miserly David Kinder and Joe Wilson who, conscious of the pending rain storm, whipped through their overs.Left-arm spin duo Voges and Sean Wallbridge hurried through their overs to leave Andover marooned at 52-2 after 26 overs when the rains came.Skipper Roger Miller, with little back-up batting to follow, was 29 not out.It all went horribly wrong for Bashley (Rydal) at BAT Sports, who avenged a recent ECB Club Championship defeat with a 22-run victory at Southern Gardens."We bowled very poorly to start with and batted without much application," groaned skipper Matt King.Kiwi Neil Parlane (40) and Richard Kenway (40) feasted on Bashley’s off-line bowling and were comfortably scoring at six runs an over.BAT pushed on to 100-1, with Dave Banks (44) piloting the mid-innings while wickets fell to Matt King (4-29) and Kevin Nash (3-53).Rain delays left Bashley chasing 170 off 42 overs – BAT had reached 202-8 in their full 50-over allocation – but the Tobacco men need not have worried.Bashley’s batting folded against the second string attack of Mark Page (3-16) and Chris Thomason (2-14), who had the visitors reeling at 30-5 and later 47-7.Kevin Nash (52), with a swashbuckling maiden SPL half-century, and Neil Taylor (29) launched late resistance, but Bashley could only manage 148 all out.

It’s official.In their quest to meet New Zealand Cricket’s demands for pitches with more pace and bounce, the country’s turf managers for the controversial Indian series over the summer went too far in their preparation.At a long-awaited debrief on pitches in use over the entire summer, it emerged that in order to avoid criticism for not producing pitches that had the required pace and bounce, the turf managers had gone further than was suitable.That resulted in the pitches for the two-Test series and the seven-match one-day series having excessive bounce and movement which was criticised by both teams for reducing the quality of the contests.New Zealand Cricket (NZC) operations manager John Reid reported the debrief, held in Christchurch, had been very successful.”The feeling about the pitches for the Indian matches was that in the quest for pace and bounce, something that NZC has been pushing for the last five years, the turf managers felt they were too conscious of those demands and had gone a little further than was necessary in their preparations,” Reid said.Rather than pulling back a little and possibly being criticised for not having enough of the required pace and bounce, the turf managers had gone too far.Reid said that there was no common factor in the problems that developed because each venue had slightly different problems.”What you do in Auckland is different to what happens in Christchurch. The solutions tend to be venue specific,” he said.It was a case of NZC giving the turf managers the confidence to make the specific adjustments required for their grounds on an individual basis, and not being crucified for doing that, he said.No-one wanted to hide the fact that there were problems, but it was a fact that the solutions were not rocket science, he added.”The debrief was a chance to get the professionals together, to get the best brains together and to discuss the best way to approach these things,” he said.New Zealand Sports Turf Institute chief executive Keith McAuliffe also attended the meeting as did the chief executive of NZC, Martin Snedden.”It was a good opportunity for the chief executive to spend time with them, as he hadn’t done that before, and it was good for him to hear some of their problems,” Reid said.Other matters discussed were the practice facilities at grounds around the country, long a source of complaint by touring teams and locals.”We talked about having purpose-built practice facilities because it is hard for turf managers to prepare the practice pitches when they are stuck in the corner of a ground when there is a match going on,” he said.There was also discussion on the utilisation of different grass types, especially introducing couch-grass on wickets.Couch-grass had stronger regeneration qualities which allowed a greater return for the cricket investment by getting pitches used more than once during a season.NZC are doing experimental work at the High Performance Centre at Lincoln University with couch-grass over the winter.Reid has asked the New Zealand Sports Turf Institute to design a research programme to find a suitable environment for the development of couch-grass pitches, whether they be with glass-houses, purpose-built heating systems or some other means.The development of portable-pitch technology was continuing with Eden Park looking to extend its use of portable pitches to their Outer Oval.Reid said there was no negativity towards portables and there was a growing core of players who preferred the pitches.There was also some research being done on the greater use of “swelling clays” in pitches. The Waikari and Kakanui clays which have been so successful in Dunedin, and “swelling clays” in Australia, were effective because they reconsolidated well after being wet.

Australia dominated all but one New Zealander to claim victory at Adelaide Oval today in the opening match of the women’s one-day cricket series.Australia won by 53 runs, despite the efforts of New Zealand opener Rebecca Rolls, to take a 1-0 lead in the six-game series.Rolls smashed 61 from 67 balls but found little support as the Kiwis were bowled out for 151 from 46.4 overs in reply to Australia’s 7-204 from 50 overs.Only two other New Zealanders – Paula Flannery (21) and Rachel Pullar (27 not out) – made double figures.Rolls, who struck nine boundaries, was the only Kiwi able to counter a pace bowling onslaught from Australian Cathryn Fitzpatrick, who claimed 2-13 from 7.4 overs.Medium pacer Julie Hayes also bewildered batters in snaring 2-20 from 10 overs while Karen Rolton also took two wickets.Earlier, Australian allrounder Melanie Jones top scored as the hosts compiled their competitive total.Jones struck an aggressive 40, the English-born 29-year-old involved in a valuable 65-run partnership with Lisa Sthalekar for the fifth wicket.The pair came together with Australia shaky at 4-93 in the 27th over but Sthalekar made a polished 33 to cap off contributions from captain Belinda Clark (27) and vice-captain Rolton (33).New Zealander Haidee Tiffen collected the bowling honours with 3-32 from eight overs while Nicola Browne claimed 2-29 from 10 overs for the reigning World Cup champions.The teams clash again tomorrow in a day-night fixture at Adelaide Oval.

Australia v Namibia:Adam Gilchrist (AUS) needs 73 runs to complete 5000 ODI runs
Andy Symonds (AUS) needs 95 runs to complete 1000 ODI runsMichael Bevan (AUS) needs 111 runs to complete 500 World Cup runs
Adam Gilchrist (AUS) needs 166 runs to complete 500 World Cup runsSouth Africa v Canada:Jacques Kallis (RSA) needs 52 runs to complete 6000 ODI runs
Shaun Pollock (RSA) needs 164 runs to complete 2000 ODI runsMakhaya Ntini (RSA) needs 4 wickets to join the 100 ODI-wicket clubGary Kirsten (RSA) needs 202 runs to complete 1000 World Cup runs
Jacques Kallis (RSA) needs 79 runs to complete 500 World Cup runs
Lance Klusener (RSA) needs 129 runs to complete 500 World Cup runsLance Klusener (RSA) needs 3 wickets to join the 25 World Cup wicket-club
Shane Pollock (RSA) needs 4 wickets to join the 25 World Cup wicket-club

The West Indies cricket team will tour Pakistan in February, ending any need for using a neutral venue, said General Tauqir Zia, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board.The PCB in October shortlisted four sites to host the tour, following the September 11th attacks and subsequent military strikes on neighbouring Afghanistan.Dhaka in Bangladesh, Sharjah and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, and Rabatin Morocco were the venues under consideration.New Zealand cancelled its Pakistan tour in September and Sri Lanka refused a three-match one-day series later that month. The International Cricket Council ruled that alternative venues would be permitted in cases where it was unsafe to play. Zia maintained his country is ready to host a cricket tour.”There is no problem and I’m going to insist to the ICC that Pakistan is all right and that people should come and play here,” Zia said. “As far as I’m concerned the West Indies tour is already on, they haven’t said no, they said ‘we are coming.'”New Zealand would have been able to fulfil its tour commitments, Zia said, adding that the “Under-19 babies of Sri Lanka” finished their tour of Pakistan last week without incident.The West Indians last toured Pakistan in 1997 and lost all three Tests. The last international cricket event in Pakistan was an Asian Test Championship match against Bangladesh in Multan in August. Pakistan won by an innings and 264 runs.

Auckland coach Wally Stamp believes that “business as usual” is the key to his unbeaten side winning a historic State League “three-peat” on Sunday at Eden Park’s Outer Oval.Auckland, the defending champions, have performed strongly in all key areas of the game over the past three weeks.”We’ve looked after our own game and made sure that our focus was on individual performance and our own team standards, rather than the mental application or any other weakness in opposing teams,” he said.”Our approach to the final is exactly the same. It never mattered to us who we’d be playing, because our focus has always been on looking after our own game to the best of our ability.”Stamp is expecting a good batting track aided by a fine weather forecast. The final will be played on the same pitch used by Auckland in the men’s State Shield earlier this month in which the side batting first made 275 runs before rain caused an abandonment.That’s good news for the unbeaten Aucklanders’ star batsman Emily Drumm. Drumm is in peak form, coming off an outstanding century against State Northern Spirit last Saturday.Auckland’s bowling line-up has also dominated the competition with Debbie Ramsay leading the attack, 14 wickets at 10.92. Ramsay will be playing her first final on Sunday after a finger injury kept her out of last season’s final.Meanwhile, Canterbury captain Paula Flannery says her players are determined to lift their game for the most important match of the women’s season.Seventeen-year-old left-arm pace bowler, Rebecca Steele, 14 wickets at 10.85, has topped the round-robin bowling statistics.The star-studded Cantabrian top order has been slow to come into form and further frustrated by a rain-affected summer, but Flannery said the team felt like it had been given a second life when they found out last Sunday that they had just scraped into the final.”We think the Aucklanders have had the title long enough and we’re going to throw everything at them,” says Flannery.”Everyone’s keen to prove that we can pull a victory out of the bag on the day that matters – and we do have a few key players who have been in a number of finals, so we can handle the pressure.”Six of this year’s CLEAR White Ferns are involved in the final, plus New Zealand ‘A’ captain and recent White Fern Emily Travers. This is the last opportunity to see members of the world champions in action before their imminent 2000 CricInfo Women’s World Cup final re-match with beaten finalists Australia in a home-and-away series beginning next month.Auckland are the defending champions and are unbeaten this summer. They have played 10 matches for eight wins and two no results. Before winning the 1999/00 State League final, the Auckland had not won the women’s competition in 26 years.The Canterbury have played 10 matches this summer for five wins, three losses and two no results.The State Canterbury Magicians required maximum points (including bonus points) from their last two matches to make the final, while State Wellington Blaze needed only one point from their last two matches last weekend, but failed.The finalists met twice in round-robin play. The winner on both occasions were the State Auckland Hearts, winning by two wickets and then 99 runs. The latter was a record margin against Canterbury. In last summer’s final Auckland beat Canterbury by five wickets in Christchurch. The year before that, Auckland defeated Canterbury by six wickets at Eden Park.Until 1999/00, the Canterbury had been the champion domestic women’s cricket side every year for a decade, and had dominated a history of inter-provincial competition that now spans over 60 years.Admission is free and host association Auckland Cricket is encouraging the public to bring a picnic and support Auckland’s most successful team this season.The teams are:Auckland: Kathryn Ramel (captain), Ingrid Cronin-Knight, Emily Drumm, Paula Gruber, Kelly Hill, Elfrieda Komp, Michelle Lynch, Debbie Ramsay, Rebecca Rolls, Natalee Scripps, Megan Tyler, Helen Watson.Canterbury: Paula Flannery (captain), Delwyn Brownlee, Sarah Burke, Kirsty Craig, Helen Daly, Maria Fahey, Beth McNeill, Nicola Payne, Hannah Rae, Rebecca Steele, Haidee Tiffen, Emily Travers.

Fidel Edwards, a 21-year-old fast bowler from Barbados, was a surprise inclusion in the 14-member West Indies squad named for the second Test against Sri Lanka at Kingston, Jamaica.Edwards has played just one first-class match and taken a solitary wicket,but he has the unflinching support of Brian Lara. “I think young Fidel of course is going to be a surprise for the people of the Caribbean, but I think our cricket aficionados would understand that he’s been around,” said Lara after the drawn Test in St Lucia.Edwards replaced the reserve wicketkeeper Carlton Baugh in the squad from the first Test. He is the fifth fast bowler in the squad, joining Merv Dillon, Corey Collymore, Vasbert Drakes and Jerome Taylor.”Right now, we are looking to find the right set of guys to take West Indies up in the future,” said Lara. “Fidel just falls into that fold. He’s someone who weare going to be looking at [not only] over the next Test match but also over the next few weeks.”Edwards found it hard to fight his way into a Barbados side packed with fast bowling riches during the 2003 Carib Beer Series. Pedro Collins – Edwards’shalf-brother – Tino Best, Drakes, Collymore and Ian Bradshaw all play for Barbados. Lara, however, was apparently impressed with Edwards when he bowled inthe nets before the third Test against Australia last month.Squad
Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Daren Ganga, Devon Smith, Brian Lara (capt),Ramnaresh Sarwan, Marlon Samuels, Ridley Jacobs (wk), Omari Banks,Corey Collymore, Merv Dillon, Vasbert Drakes, Fidel Edwards, Jerome Taylor.

The first rain-free day in Central Otago for a fortnight did not prove to be a happy omen for Otago who lost their State Shield match with Auckland at Molyneux Park in Alexandra today by seven wickets.The powerful Auckland side with eight former or current New Zealand representatives carried too many guns for Otago who never gave up trying but at the end of the day had to bow to a superior opponent.Auckland won the toss on a still sunny morning and asked Otago to bat on a pitch which had achieved a deserved reputation around the country as being full of runs.This game proved to be no exception but from an Otago perspective they trudged to an inadequate 206/7 with only new captain Craig Cumming (70), Andrew Hore (39) and Robbie Lawson (37) being anywhere near the mark.The Otago batsmen have tended to get bogged down this season and the number of balls not being scored from must be a concern to them and their coach Glenn Turner.The Auckland bowling was straight in the main but perhaps New Zealand representatives Dion Nash and Andre Adams with 45 and 47 off their 10 overs respectively would have liked to have been a little more miserly than their figures suggest. Mark Haslam with two for 30 from 10 overs, Chris Drum none for 31 from 10 and Tama Canning two for 36 from eight completed a satisfactory quintet for them.A major concern for New Zealand occurred when Kyle Mills only bowled one over and then went from the field with apparently an injured shoulder.Auckland began its chase with New Zealand openers Mark Richardson and Matthew Horne in fine form and they put on 104 for the first wicket before Richardson was out for a classy 47. Horne continued on in similar fashion with the scorebook totalling 144 when he was dismissed for 60.Both he and Horne had set strong foundations for an Auckland victory and it was over to the remainder of their batting lineup to continue the goodwork. Continue it they did through the fine innings of Aaron Barnes with 55 and Mills with 23 not out.They achieved their target with five overs and seven wickets to spare and looked very competent in doing it.The Otago bowling saw no-one really caned but they would have liked another 70 or 80 runs to bowl to. Kerry Walmsley had a very good none for 23 from eight overs, David Sewell none for 32 from seven, Craig Cumming one for 35 from nine which, when put alongside his 70 with the bat, represented an excellent debut as captain.Auckland deserved its win and Otago know they will have to increase their run rate dramatically if they are to have any success in this competition.

Allan Donald is back in the frame, as far as Test cricket is concerned, and he will be joined on South Africa’s tour of Zimbabwe next month by Claude Henderson, the Western Province left-arm spinner, the only uncapped player named in a 13-man squad by the selectors on Monday.Donald, South Africa’s premier fast bowler for the last decade and the only South African to have passed 300 wickets in Test cricket, has been included in both the Test and one-day squads for Zimbabwe. This contradicts earlier statements from Donald that he wished only to be included in the South African side for one-day internationals only and suggests a new resolve on the part of the United Cricket Board that players may not pick and choose how and when they would like to be considered for selection.Apart from the 13 players named for the Zimbabwe Test matches, Jonty Rhodes and Justin Ontong will be added to the squad for the subsequent three Test matches.Rhodes, according to convener of selectors Rushdi Magiet, is now also available for Test selection, "but was not chosen". Allowing that the selectors have also now signed a confidentiality agreement which forbids them to reveal what went on in committee meetings, this would nevertheless suggest that Rhodes will be available for the Australian tour at the end of the year.South Africa should hope that he is. As the country’s most experienced middle order batsman – with two tours to Australia under his belt – Rhodes would be an invaluable asset in the Antipodes, but the equivocation about his role in Zimbabwe hints that Rhodes’ ambivalence about his roles as husband, father and Test player have not yet been completely resolved.At the same time, Daryll Cullinan’s position is no more clear. His contract with Kent precludes him from the Zimbabwe tour, but it is hoped that he will be available for the remainder of the season. Which includes Australia, a country he has toured twice previously with unhappy results.So the squad for Zimbabwe tends very much to portray itself as a work in progress. There is no Mfuneko Ngam – still recovering from a shoulder operation – and no Nicky Boje – ditto. There is also no Roger Telemachus, in either the Test or one-day squads, which some might believe to be a reflection on the attitude of one who has no little potential, much of which still remains unfulfilled.Henderson should get a Test match in Zimbabwe, ahead of Paul Adams, on the basis, said Magiet, that South Africa took Adams and Boje to the West Indies in order to have "an attacking spinner and a defensive spinner".Presumably Magiet is saying that Henderson will be in Zimbabwe as a defensive spinner – Adams certainly does not fit this description – there to give South Africa’s seam-heavy attack a rest and to provide variation. This might be unfair to Henderson’s ability, but no doubt he will grasp the chance and leaving the theorising to the critics and selectors.There is place in the squad for both Lance Klusener and Justin Kemp, who both seem to be fighting for the same place with Klusener’s track record certain to push him into pole position, and Andre Nel.With Donald around, Nel might again have to wait his turn, but South Africa’s real concern will be sorting out the middle order. Neil McKenzie should be an automatic choice at this stage, but with the uncertainty about Rhodes and Cullinan not yet resolved, it is still not possible to say with any certainty who will batting at four, five and six against Australia in December.The squad: Shaun Pollock (capt), Mark Boucher, Gary Kirsten, Herschelle Gibbs, Boeta Dippenaar, Jacques Kallis, Neil McKenzie, Lance Klusener, Justin Kemp, Claude Henderson, Allan Donald, Makhaya Ntini, Andre Nel. To join squad for ODIs: Jonty Rhodes and Justin Ontong.