Jordan first to reach 50 Championship wickets

ScorecardThe wickets keep coming for Chris Jordan, who became the first player to reach 50 Championship victims for the season•Getty Images

Sussex all-rounder Chris Jordan became the first man to reach 50 Championship wickets for the season to maintain the impetus in their title challenge on the second day of the Division One game against Derbyshire at Hove.Jordan reached the landmark when he had Tim Groenewald well caught by Michael Yardy at second slip to give him his third wicket of the day.Derbyshire, still looking for their first win of the season, were made to battle hard for runs, even though the ball did not swing as generously as it did on the opening day. They were bowled out for 274, conceding a first innings lead of 40 runs.At stumps Sussex had extended their lead to 51, although they did lose Chris Nash who was bowled by Groenewald just before the close.Derbyshire’s captain Wayne Madsen was the only specialist batsman to offer strong resistance, batting four minutes short of four hours for 97 but there was valuable support lower down the order from Peter Burgoyne, who scored his maiden Championship fifty in only his second match.Burgoyne, 19, went to Zimbabwe with Derbyshire’s batting coach Dave Houghton in the winter and scored two first-class hundreds and he and Madsen briefly gave the visitors a period of ascendancy.Sussex, looking for their fifth win of the season, took their first wicket of the morning when Jordan had Chesney Hughes caught behind for 16. Three overs later Steve Magoffin had Ben Slater caught behind for 16.Luke Wright, operating off a shortened run, appeared to be the least threatening of the Sussex bowlers but he put his side well on top with two quick wickets. First, he had Shivnarine Chanderpaul brilliantly caught by Jordan, low to his left at first slip, and then dismissed Richard Johnson, who played a weak shot to short cover.When Jordan had Alex Hughes – making his first-class debut – caught at short leg Derbyshire were in trouble at 103 for five.But Madsen led the recovery, first adding 36 with Tom Poynton and then 78 withBurgoyne, who finished unbeaten on 62 from 105 balls, with eight fours and asix. Madsen was seventh out at 217, missing out on his hundred as he was lbw to Monty Panesar, playing to leg.Groenewald was eighth out to give former Surrey man Jordan his landmark andthen Matthew Higginbottom, on his Championship debut, was bowled for nine. Ed Joyce ran out last man Mark Footitt for six but Derbyshire struck a late blow by dismissing Nash before Luke Wells and nightwatchman Lewis Hatchett saw their side through to stumps.

Bangladesh hosting of World T20 in doubt

The World T20 tournament could be moved from Bangladesh due to concerns at the country’s lack of adequate facilities. ESPNcricinfo understands that Sri Lanka and South Africa are potential alternative venues although discussions have yet to reach the official stage.An ICC official inspected the stadiums recently and is understood to have been underwhelmed by the results. The situation is now scheduled to be discussed at the ICC’s annual conference in London later this week with insiders suggesting that concerns are such that a decision to move the tournament is one of the options to be discussed.The men’s and women’s World T20 is scheduled to be played in four venues in Bangladesh between March 16 and April 6 next year. The stadiums in Mirpur and Chittagong are deemed perfectly acceptable for international cricket, but work on the facilities at the stadium in Sylhet, which was built last year – remains incomplete, and construction at the new stadium in Cox’s Bazar, home of the world’s longest natural sandy beach, is still underway.BCB president Nazmul Hassan has this week vented his frustration about the slowness of work on the two unfinished grounds. The latest phase of work in the Sylhet Stadium began on June 7, and the BCB estimates that the four-storied pavilion will be completed by the time the ICC inspection team returns in September. There is a plan to host a couple of ODIs when New Zealand are touring in October.But the National Sports Council, the sports regulator in Bangladesh and also the custodian of all sporting venues, have said that it would only be ready by November and that outfield drainage work will be delayed until after the World Twenty20s. As for the Cox’s Bazar stadium, it is being built from scratch on a patch of land that was once a golf course.While Sri Lanka cricket chief executive Ashley de Silva indicated that there had been no contact as yet between his board and the ICC, he did suggest that the country would be ready to host the tournament if required, even though it would mean that Sri Lanka could end up hosting World Twenty20 twice in 18 months. The most recent edition of the World Twenty20, which ended last October, was also held in Sri Lanka.”There has been no communication between SLC and ICC on that topic,” de Silva told ESPNcricinfo. “We have the facilities to host it, but I don’t know if it will crop up at the meeting this week.”South Africa have made similar noises.The other school of thought in Bangladesh questions whether the ICC might be more concerned about the country’s political situation, especially when a national election is scheduled to be held in early 2014.When they officially launched the tournament in April this year, it was at the end of month-long unrest in many parts of the country and immediately after a day-long general strike in Dhaka.The tournament is slated to be Bangladesh’s fourth ICC event after hosting the 1998 ICC Knockout, the 2004 Under-19s World Cup and co-hosting the 2011 World Cup.But Hassan and the board’s acting CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury will have a lot of assurances to give to keep the event in Bangladesh.

'After Pollard got out, seemed like Mumbai were all out' – Jadeja

As Chennai Super Kings crushed Mumbai Indians in Delhi to make their fifth IPL final, Ravindra Jadeja struck two pivotal blows, removing a rampaging Dwayne Smith and then dismissing Kieron Pollard just as he looked ready to make a final charge at the target of 193. His strategy, left-arm spinner Jadeja said after the game, was to look to dry up the runs and thus pressurise the batsmen.”The plan was to not give boundaries because the format is such that if the batsmen don’t get boundaries then obviously there are chances of getting wickets,” Jadeja told . “So that is what we were trying for. After ten overs the ball was not coming on to the bat. We were trying to bowl slow deliveries and in the right areas so that they don’t get boundaries.”Jadeja claimed the wicket of Smith, who had threatened to take the game away from Super Kings with 68 off 28, with his second ball, getting him to mis-hit to Suresh Raina at square leg. In his second over, he trapped Dinesh Karthik lbw, before dismissing Pollard soon after the time-out; after being hit for two sixes in the over, Jadeja fired one into Pollard’s pads and the batsman flicked it to Michael Hussey at square leg.Though he got him with a leg-stump delivery, his primary aim was to keep the ball out of Pollard’s reach, Jadeja said. “He is strong on the on-side. The plan was to bowl to him outside off and make him stretch for his big shots. I was trying to keep the ball outside his reach and also was bowling slow so that he struggles with his timing.”In the first ten overs, they were on 92 for 2. We made a good comeback from there and in the last five overs, all the bowlers bowled well. And after he [Pollard] got out, it seemed like Mumbai Indians were all out.”After Pollard hit those consecutive sixes off Jadeja, Super Kings captain MS Dhoni had come over to speak to his bowler. Dhoni’s inputs, Jadeja said, are a big help: “Depending on the situation and speaking to Mahi , I try to bowl. He tells me what can happen and how the wicket is assisting [the bowlers]. And that is the advantage that we try to make use of.”Dwayne Smith, meanwhile, said Mumbai Indians would not let the loss get to them: “We still have another chance. We have to regroup and come back strong in the next game to get a chance to play in the final. We are still in the competition and our confidence will not drop.”But there was another small piece of bad news for the team after the game, as Karthik, who was not too happy to be given out lbw, was found guilty of breaching the players’ code of conduct. He was fined 5% of his match fee for “showing dissent at an umpire’s decision”, the IPL said in a release.

India's Supreme Court rejects petition to stay IPL playoffs

The Supreme Court of India has rejected a public interest litigation (PIL) to stay the IPL playoff matches until the completion of investigations of the alleged spot-fixing in the tournament. It has, however, given the BCCI a 15-day deadline to conclude its investigation, which is being carried out by the board’s anti-corruption unit chief Ravi Sawani.The PIL, filed on Monday by a resident of Lucknow, sought a stay on the playoffs and the setting up of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe spot-fixing. The petitioner had asked that the matches be put off until the SIT completed its inquiry.In its ruling, the court observed that cricket was a gentleman’s game “and it should remain as gentleman’s, not tainted”. At the same time, it said was not a case for the court to “interfere and ban matches”.It was critical of the BCCI’s attitude. “Definitely, there is some kind of irregularity. But the biggest problem is the lackadaisical attitude of BCCI. It should stop. There has to be some scientific, dispassionate and impartial approach to solve these problems.”It warned that the viewers “may not be able to retain their quietus” if the BCCI didn’t act.The Delhi High Court, on Wednesday, also rejected a similar petition that sought a stay on the IPL matches.**08.45GMT, May 22: The article has been updated after news of the Delhi High Court’s ruling came in

Barbados whip T&T to take Regional Four-Day title

ScorecardKirk Edward and Everton Weekes at the trophy presentation•WICB Media Photo/Randy Brooks

Barbados registered their first first-class triumph in six seasons, winning by an innings and 22 runs against Trinidad & Tobago despite a fighting 140 from Lendl Simmons while his team was following on. That also meant that for the first time in six years, the competition has not been won by Jamaica, who lost out to T&T in the semi-finals this season.T&T, coming into the third – and eventually final – day on 140 for 4, were only able to add 30 runs before Denesh Ramdin fell for 18. Lendl Simmons and Ramdhin had put on 83 runs for the fifth wicket, in an effort to reduce the deficit after T&T’s first innings flop for 110.The wicket of Simmons followed soon after with the score on 195. Simmons, who had been batting on 111 overnight, was caught-behind off the bowling of Jonathan Carter. Miguel Cummins and Javon Searles then took out the remaining batsmen. They ultimately fell 23 runs short of making Barbados bat again.Kraigg Brathwaite of Barbados ended up the second-highest run scorer in the competition with 577 runs in eight matches, while their offspinner Ashley Nurse finished third-highest wicket taker with 45 wickets in eight.Hendy Springer, the Barbados coach, was delighted with his team’s performance. “It feels great to win a trophy, after the kind of start we had to the season [Barbados began with a loss to Jamaica], and to look around and see some of the young players improve, which is the definition of success for me.”We had guys that were willing or fight, willing to prove their worth and that was important. Players have come with higher skill levels than the ones we had this season, but the fight that they showed day in, day out was what made the difference.This team is different to others that I have coached over the years since it does not include a number of players that have represented West Indies at the higher levels. When I first started coaching Barbados back in December 2000, we had players like Roland Holder, Philo Wallace, Sherwin Campbell, Hendy Bryan, Adrian Griffith, Floyd Reifer to name a few – a number of players that had represented West Indies and it was much different then. This season we had more first-class players than West Indies players, and it was good to see those players come to the fore as well.”T&T captain Denesh Ramdin was disappointed with his side’s batting, and hoped to rectify this performance for the future. “It was an up and down season and we had to keep chopping and changing players, some going and some coming, and we never got that balance right in our batting department. We were always struggling to put 200 runs on the board but our bowlers had done it throughout the season for us. This is one of the few times we have gotten over 220 runs for the season. It is something we have to think about and we have to go back to the drawing board.”The top five or six batters need to come to the party. They didn’t come consistently as we wanted them to in this tournament. Well played to Lendl Simmons for getting a hundred this game, but having to come from 260 behind was a hard task to overcome.”I believe it is a mindset that the players have to change. We have to learn to stand up and bat longer. Players are sometimes playing too many shots and not batting as long as they should. To get hundreds, you need to bat at least two and a half sessions and we find guys are trying to get the runs all in one session. Hopefully, they can all learn from this experience and learn as fast as possible. Next year will be right around the corner and we will need to bounce back strongly.”

Middlesex rejuvenated under Fraser

Last year: 3rd, CC Div 1; Group stage, FLt20; 2nd in Group A, CB40.2012 in a nutshell: Third in the Championship constituted a very decent year after promotion. Perhaps only a lack of consistency cost them an even higher finish, with four losses including a 15-run defeat against Durham when set only 118 to win and an eight-run defeat against Surrey when set 254. The seam bowling – led by Toby Roland-Jones and supported by Tim Murtagh, Gareth Berg and Steven Finn – was very good, but the spin bowling – Ollie Rayner, with 15 wickets in 10 games, was the leading wicket-taker – and the batting were weaker. Of those who played regularly, only Chris Rogers averaged more than 35, with Neil Dexter, Dawid Malan and Jo Denly struggling for consistency. Eoin Morgan, when he was available, also proved a great disappointment, averaging 18.16 in the Championship. They struggled for runs from their wicketkeeper, too, with John Simpson and Adam Rossington failing to make a Championship half-century between them. They might consider themselves unfortunate to miss out in the CB40 – they finished second in their group – but started poorly, with early losses against Gloucestershire and Worcestershire and then suffered the abandonment of two potentially-winnable games. They lost four of their first five T20 games and never looked likely to challenge.2013 prospects: Any team with a seam attack including James Harris, Toby Roland-Jones, Tim Murtagh, Corey Collymore and, perhaps, Steven Finn, have to be contenders. Some doubts remain about the batting and spin bowling in the longer format, but it is hoped that the appointment of Mark Ramprakash as batting coach will help Dexter, Denly, Malan and co find the consistency to complement their quality. Stirling, who is not part of the Championship side, and Morgan are largely underutilised, too. They will require more runs from their wicketkeeper, whoever it might be. Middlesex could be dangerous in the shorter formats, too, particularly when Stirling and Morgan are available. They remain in the market for a second overseas player in FLt20, with a batting allrounder the ideal candidate. There is some concern that Australia’s chaos could bring an unforeseen call for either of their overseas players: Chris Rogers or Adam Voges. Their T20 record – they have reached the knockout stages once in seven years – is a disappointment, but they seem to have the personnel to do better. Off the pitch, Middlesex have invested around £750,000 in their facilities away from Lord’s, at both Radlett and in Finchley.Key player: Such was the desire within the county game to sign James Harris that, upon his departure from Glamorgan, he held discussions with every Division One county and the top three in Division Two. Middlesex won a very competitive race to sign him and, as a consequence, have a highly-skilled, highly-motivated seamer who, if he stays fit, should prove a regular matchwinner.Bright young thing: Ravi Patel is a 21-year-old left-arm spin bowler in the mould of Murali Kartik who could make the spin bowling position his own in 2013. He broke into the team at the end of end of the 2012 season and claimed eight wickets in the match in an innings defeat of Lancashire. He chose shortly before the season to abandon his degree at Loughborough in order to concentrate full time on cricket and has been rewarded with a two-year contract.Captain/coach: Neil Dexter remains the club captain and will lead the side in limited-overs cricket, but Chris Rogers remains the captain of the County Championship side. Angus Fraser, the director of cricket, inherited a club lacking direction and has, relatively quickly, helped fashion a team with an exciting future. Richard Scott remains head coach.ESPNcricinfo verdict: The issues with the batting and, perhaps the spin bowling, may mean this is a year early to expect a sustained Championship challenge, but that seam attack will always give them a chance. While their neighbours across the river hog the headlines, it is Middlesex who look better placed for the next few years.

It wasn't about survival – Sammy

After the end of the second day’s play in Barbados, Darren Sammy said what’s been said several times before, that cricket was “a game of shifting fortunes and glorious uncertainties,” and despite West Indies being in a dominant position, he was going to “remind the guys that this game is not yet over.”West Indies had faced plenty of uncertainty at Kensington Oval and it had been Sammy’s attacking half-century that shifted momentum in their favour, after a spirited Zimbabwe bowling performance had reduced the hosts to 151 for 6, in danger of conceding a first-innings lead to opponents who hadn’t played Test cricket in a year.With Marlon Samuels and Shivnarine Chanderpaul falling in the space of seven runs, West Indies were down to their last recognised batsmen, Sammy and Denesh Ramdin, and the pair produced a 106-run stand. Sammy did not hold back, flaying the bowling during his 73 off 69 balls.”I backed myself and I played my natural game,” Sammy said. “That partnership with Ramdin and myself really put us in a good position and set up the game nicely.”Today for me it wasn’t about survival as I always back myself to play the proper shot. They gave me some loose balls and I put them away. That’s cricket – you respect the good balls and when you get the bad balls you put them away. It was a matter of [proper] execution. It was good to see that Denesh at No. 6 and myself scheduled to be at No. 7 were able to put on over 100 runs and put the team on the right track after we were five wickets down.”Ramdin was batting in his 50th Test on his 28th and he marked the occasion with a half-century, digging in for 62 off 130 balls. After his stand with Sammy, Ramdin batted with the tail to take West Indies past 300 and secure a lead of 96.”I was focused on getting a score and batting the team out of trouble,” Ramdin told WICB Media. “Wickets fell rapidly yesterday and we had a few fall early in the day so I knew I had to settle in and stay focused on batting to the end.”It was fantastic batting with Sammy and I was thrilled to watch the way he dominated the bowling. He took all the pressure off me and put all the pressure on the bowlers. He loves to go after the bowling and that meant there was less pressure on me. He is that kind of player, he can change the game in quick time and I was just happy to rotate the strike and run hard between the wickets.”After taking the lead, West Indies strengthened their grip on the Test by taking three Zimbabwe wickets, reducing them to 41 for 3 before stumps. “We wanted to bat all day but we didn’t so when we came out to bowl we were hunting for wickets,” Sammy said. “From the time Zimbabwe came down we were focused on winning. We have won four Test matches [in a row] and before this Test series we said we wanted to win this one – take it game by game, day by day.””We are well on top with the wickets – with Shillingford getting two wickets and Shannon bowling quite fast and getting the other wicket. We got three of their top order batmen out and they are still over 50 runs behind.”

Ajmal masterclass stuns South Africa

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsSaeed Ajmal conjured five wickets in a beguiling display of spin bowling•Getty Images

The Cape Town pitch was expected to make Saeed Ajmal a central figure towards the end of the Test but he made an impact as early as the second day, first with the bat in a combative 64-run ninth-wicket stand and then, far more damagingly, with a mesmerising display of spin bowling that left South Africa stuttering for the first time in their home summer.Though this was not a tailor-made turner for Ajmal, and it had been widely predicted to be a great day for batting, he got the ball to rear up and fizz off the track in an unbroken 25-over spell that could well end up as his greatest performance. The mighty South African batting was nonplussed, and an hour before stumps there was even the outside chance of them being forced to follow-on. And this wasn’t even one of those old South African teams who were frazzled by the sight of the turning ball.Though Pakistan had three specialist quick bowlers, they turned to Ajmal as early as the 12th over, and he bowled unchanged from midway through the second session to stumps. Tanvir Ahmed was a disappointment with the new ball, bowling only around 120kph and not troubling the batsmen much, though he put in an improved second spell. The other two fast bowlers, Umar Gul and debutant Mohammad Irfan, were both regularly around 140kph, but the closest either of them came to a wicket was when Gul had Graeme Smith jabbing a simple catch to second slip, only for the usually reliable Younis Khan to grass the ball.

Smart stats

  • Pakistan’s total of 338 is their highest in Tests in South Africa. Their previous best was 329 in Johannesburg exactly 15 years ago.

  • Vernon Philander’s 5 for 59 is his ninth five-for in 15 Tests. In Cape Town he has taken 26 wickets in four Tests at an average of 12.30.

  • Saeed Ajmal’s 5 for 41 is his first five-for against South Africa. In two previous Tests against them he had taken four wickets at 84.75.

  • The last time a spinner took a five-for in the opposition’s first innings in a Cape Town Test was way back in 1970, when Ashley Mallett took 5 for 126.

  • For the first time in Test cricket, two batsmen scored 111 in a Test innings. The highest individual score by two batsmen in an innings is 234, by Don Bradman and Sid Barnes against England in 1946.

It was left to Ajmal to do the damage, and he duly delivered a masterclass of spin bowling. Just when the openers were looking settled, Ajmal struck in his second over, getting Smith lbw on the sweep. The umpire turned down the appeal but Ajmal emphatically and repeatedly asked his team-mates to go for the review, which resulted in Smith being sent on his way. He had more success soon after as Alviro Petersen nicked to short leg where Azhar Ali pulled off a smart, low catch.Ajmal’s battle with Hashim Amla, the world’s top-ranked batsman, was engrossing, with Amla repeatedly using the reverse-sweep and also frequently shuffling across the stumps to try counter Ajmal. Though Amla seemed to have got on top of Ajmal when he picked off a couple of leg-side boundaries in successive overs, Ajmal emerged the winner as he rapped Amla on the back foot to get him lbw, again after using the DRS.The DRS has already been one of the most controversial innovations in cricket, diving opinion on many levels, and there was one more talking point when South Africa’s most experienced batsman, Jacques Kallis, was adjudged lbw on referral. He was originally given out caught at short leg, and he immediately referred the decision, and the replays suggested there was no edge. The umpires then checked whether it was an lbw, and the predicted path said that it was just shaving leg stump, and that it would stick with the “umpire’s call”, though the umpire hadn’t ruled on whether the ball would hit the stumps. The rules state that when the mode of dismissal changes, the batsman should originally be considered to be not out, which means Kallis should have remained in the middle, but he was given out lbw after much confusion.That Kallis wicket had South Africa in deep trouble. Soon after, Ajmal produced what was perhaps the ball of the day, as he got one to zip from round the wicket past a befuddled Faf du Plessis, who could only edge it to the slips, where Younis safely pouched it to consign South Africa to 109 for 5.Several South African batsmen didn’t help themselves by taking a guard on or outside off stump, and virtually cut off the off side as a scoring area against Ajmal, adding to the pressure caused by the relentless probing by the spinner.AB de Villiers and Dean Elgar had some scares but survived the final hour to take South Africa past the follow-on mark to complete one of those rare days when the home side had been outplayed.It was all so different in the morning when Vernon Philander’s love affair with Newlands continued as he bagged another five-for – his ninth in 15 Tests. A quick close to the Pakistan innings seemed imminent when he took three wickets in his first three overs on the second day before Tanvir and Ajmal lifted Pakistan to their highest total in South Africa with a 64-run partnership.With the ball swerving around, regularly beating the bat and most of the runs being scored through streaky edges past the slips or the leg stump, South Africa were looking forward to an early end to the innings. There was little sign that Tanvir and Ajmal would prove so hard to dislodge. With the pitch easing up, though, they began to look increasingly solid. Ahmed punched Morne Morkel past long-on for four, and Ajmal raised his front foot as he smacked Dale Steyn over midwicket for a boundary, a shot he’ll treasure as much as any of his wickets today.It wasn’t till just before lunch that the pair were separated, after which it was all about Ajmal and his bewitching brand of spin bowling.

Gambhir dropped for Dhawan

India squad for first two Australia Tests

MS Dhoni (capt.), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, M Vijay, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, R Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, Ashok Dinda
In: Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harbhajan Singh
Out: Gautam Gambhir, Piyush Chawla, Parvinder Awana

Gautam Gambhir has been dropped for the first two Tests against Australia. Delhi’s Shikhar Dhawan replaced him in the squad, which retained Tamil Nadu’s M Vijay. Harbhajan Singh replaced Piyush Chawla, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar earned a first Test call-up ahead of Parvinder Awana as the third change to the XV that played the Nagpur Test against England. Ravindra Jadeja and Ajinkya Rahane retained their places.Both Vijay and Dhawan opened the innings for Rest of India in the ongoing Irani Cup match. Vijay scored a century, and Dhawan scored 63. Mumbai opener Wasim Jaffer scored centuries in two Ranji Trophy knockout matches and in Irani Cup to become a late contender, but Dhawan pipped him.Dhawan has scored 833 first-class runs this season at an average of 55.53, including four hundreds and three fifties. He started with back-to-back hundreds in the quarter-final and semi-final of the Duleep Trophy. In eight Ranji Trophy matches, he scored 524 runs, averaging 47.63 with two hundreds and two fifties. He also scored 110 for Delhi against England XI in the warm-up fixture before the ODI series.Gautam Gambhir has not scored a century in Tests in over three years•Getty Images

Gambhir replaced Dhawan in the India A side, and will lead the them in a three-day game against the Australians from February 16. Since his last Test century, more than three years ago, Gambhir has averaged 30.2 over 26 Tests. “No sympathies plz,” he tweeted. “Lookin forward to training n then d india a game. Chin up guys, its time to show some steel. Come on.”Had my bak to d wall in d past 2, dis is no difrent. Will fight. Very hapy 4 vijay n shikhar. Want India to win @ all costs, wid or widou me”Harbhajan, who was dropped from India’s Test squad for the fourth match against England, has taken 16 Ranji wickets for Punjab at 32.23. In the Irani Cup, he took three wickets in the first innings, and two in the second. “Relieved at getting selected,” Harbhajan said after Rest of India won the Irani Cup on first-innings lead. “This was a big match. I bowled really well. And got the opportunity to play against Australia, my favourite team.”Bhuvneshwar seems to have benefited from his impressive run in the limited-overs formats against Pakistan and England. Ishant Sharma and Ashok Dinda are the other two pace-bowling options.

Scotland to play two ODIs against Pakistan

Scotland will host Pakistan for two ODIs in Edinburgh in May 2013, shortly before the Champions Trophy in England. Both games – on May 17 and 19 – will be played at the Citylets Grange in Edinburgh. Scotland have played Pakistan on three occasions in the 50-over format, the last one being an abandoned fixture in 2007.”These fixtures are a fantastic boost for Scottish cricket,” captain Gordon Drummond said. “We have the chance to qualify for two global ICC events in 2013, and now we find we also have the opportunity to play two top test nations with Australia also visiting for an ODI in September. These matches are particularly important for the development of the current squad.”We are all really looking to welcoming the Pakistan team to Scotland once again, and these fixtures will undoubtedly build on the already strong ties between the Pakistani/Scots community. It’s a fantastic platform for us to show what we are capable of, as we did with victory against Bangladesh last year- these are the sort of matches that every Scottish squad member will want to be involved in.””Following the ICC’s additional investment in Cricket Scotland through their TAPP [Targeted Assistance and Performance Programme] scheme, we committed to secure further matches against the Full Members,” chief executive Roddy Smith said. “These games are vital to continue our progress and measure ourselves against the best in the world, and are integral to the on field improvements desired for by the ICC. We are very grateful to the Pakistan Cricket Board for their support in making these games happen.”

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