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A preview of Pune Warriors in IPL 2013

The Preview by Amol Karhadkar03-Apr-2013

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Angelo Mathews will be Pune Warriors’ third captain in three years•AFP

Sunrisers may be the newest entrants to the IPL (family) but it would be Warriors who would be seen in a new avatar. Since their bottom-placed finish last year, a lot of water has flown under the bridge. When it came to running the team, it was a one-man army last year, with Sourav Ganguly acting as a captain-mentor.Come 2013, and Ganguly is nowhere in the picture. Instead, it’s Allan Donald who has been elevated from a bowling coach to the head coach. And for the third time during their third year in IPL, Warriors have appointed a new captain at the start of the season. Beyond the captain and the navigator of the ship lie the real changes. There are more than a dozen changes to the squad that represented Warriors last year.Those who attended Donald’s half-hour interaction with the press would realise that their homework has been near- perfect. Warriors made far too many changes to their line-up last year. As a result, only one player – Robin Uthappa – featured in each of their 16 games, while a whopping 23 players got at least a game. As a result, the team combination was far from settled throughout the season.This time around, though, Donald and Co have decided to downsize the squad for every game from 33 to 16, if not 15. And the thrust during the build-up hasn’t just been on adding match-winning overseas cricketers. As a result, domestic stars like Abhishek Nayar, Ishwar Pandey, T Suman and Parvez Rasool, who became the first player from Jammu & Kashmir to have been signed by an IPL franchise after impressive domestic season, have indeed made Warriors a formidable outfit at least on paper.The coming weeks will tell us whether the line-up that looks as impressive as any other on paper delivers the goods on the field.

Key Players

He was the captain and the marquee player during their inaugural season and was forced to watch Warriors from the sidelines during IPL 2012. Warriors will be looking forward to Yuvraj Singh marking his return to IPL in style. Despite being the star of India’s triumphant world titles in both the shorter versions of the game, Yuvraj hasn’t really lived up to his potential in the IPL so far. Warriors would be hoping that the next two months help Yuvraj change that.Once it was decided that Yuvraj won’t be considered for captaincy and Michael Clarke pulled out due to the recurrence of his back injury, Angelo Mathews emerged as the leading candidate to skipper the side. Mathews is already a vital cog in terms of the balance of the team, and his elevation has increased the responsibility on him further. Mathews would be hoping to draw all the experience he has gained from leading Sri Lanka in Tests and ODIs recently.

Big names in

The signing of Ross Taylor from Delhi Daredevils can help Warriors fill the gap of the floater they missed all through the last season. Taylor will be desperate to feel at home with what will be his fourth IPL team. And if the track for their home games is as slow and low as it was during the last year, Ajantha Mendis can be a handful with his not-so-mysterious-anymore spin bowling. Mind you, Mendis may be a familiar proposition for regulars at the international stage, but he can be destructive against the domestic batsmen.

Big names out

Michael Clarke’s unavailability for the entire duration of the tournament is a big blow for Warriors. Though Clarke isn’t exactly renowned for his Twenty20 skills, he is widely regarded as one of the most enterprising captains in the world cricket. It is his leadership ability that Warriors will sorely miss.

Availability

Ross Taylor is likely to miss the latter half of the tournament due to New Zealand’s tour to England. And Tamim Iqbal, who injured himself during an ODI in Sri Lanka last week, is unlikely to be available for at least the first half of the tournament due to Bangladesh’s tour of Zimbabwe.

England still harbour doubts about their batsmen as they approach the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle, but their bowling attack has quickly found the groove

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Mar-2012
ScorecardSteven Finn took three wickets in the second innings as England won easily•AFP

England still harbour doubts about their batsmen as they approach the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle, but their bowling attack has quickly found the groove. The England attack was largely blameless during a 3-0 defeat against Pakistan and they could not have made better use of the first warm-up match, dismissing a Board President’s XI for 119 on the final day to force victory by an innings and 15 runs.James Anderson took three more wickets to finish with 7 for 40 in the match and there were also three apiece for his fellow fast bowler, Steve Finn, and the offspinner Graeme Swann. With Monty Panesar also among the wickets in the first innings, England only need Stuart Broad to prove his fitness in the final practice match to reach Galle in good heart.Anderson said the intensity with which his team played the practice match will serve the tourists well. “I thought it was a pretty good three days for us with both bat and ball,” he said. “We could not have asked for more. There are sterner challenges ahead but all we can do is play what is put in front of us. We know full well it is going to get harder throughout the tour with the heat and the opposition.”The only downside was that their victory was so swift it prevented any of their out-of-form batsmen, primarily Ian Bell, from spending more time at the crease. They had declared on 303 for 8 overnight, a lead of 134, their authority established largely through Alastair Cook’s unbeaten 163.Sri Lanka cricket will be unnerved by the extent of the defeat. They selected a young side, but only two of the top seven reached double figures second time around.It took England only three balls to strike when Ashen Silva, who top-scored with 66 in the first innings, carved the third ball of the innings, from Anderson, to point. Finn also struck with the new ball when Bhanuka Rajapaksa, an attacking left-hand batsman who impressed in the 2010 Under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka, edged an attempted drive to Swann at second slip.
One unexpected blemish in England’s display came from Anderson, whose reliability at slip is taken for granted, but who dropped three chances off the spinners in the match. Dimuth Karunaratne benefited from a let-off, a difficult chance, but after he raised the fifty he was bowled by Swann for 31.Prasanna Jayawardene, with 43 Tests to his name as well as a Test hundred against England, was the most recognisable opponent to the England attack, but he made only two runs in the match, falling for a duck second time around when Finn had him caught at second slip with the first ball of his second spell. Five wickets fell by lunch as Swann had Sachithra Serasinghe caught at short leg.England’s progression through Sri Lanka’s lower order during the afternoon was marked by several moments of ill temper. Swann’s frustration showed through when Panesar made a comically inept attempt to catch Dilruwan Perera off Swann.England fielders then reacted angrily when the captain, Andrew Strauss, claimed a catch off Anderson, but Perera refused to take his word for it and stood his ground. The umpires conferred before Ravindra Wimalasiri, the umpire at square leg, indicated that he had not seen whether the ball had carried or not so could not confirm the catch. Perera was surrounded by half-a-dozen England players, protesting that in the absence of technology the captain’s word should have been accepted.The refusal of a run-out appeal against Malinga Bandara moments later further inflamed tensions, but it merely delayed the victory.

While Associate nations ponder a future that may not include being part of the World Cup some of the game’s least well-known nations take their first steps towards the World Twenty20

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Feb-2011While Associate nations ponder a future that may not include being part of the World Cup, some of the game’s least well-known nations take their first steps towards what they hope can ultimately be a place at the expanded 2012 World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka.Although the 2015 World Cup is set to be trimmed to 10 teams this has been balanced to some degree by the expansion of the Twenty20 event which will increase from the 12 sides that took part in 2010 to 16 for the next tournament.However, it is highly unlikely that the seven countries who begin the qualifying campaign on February 24 will reach the showpiece event next year. Cameroon, Gambia, Lesotho, Mali, Morocco, Rwanda and the Seychelles will play in an initial qualifier in Ghana at the end of this month.Sixteen teams will take part in the final global qualifier in UAE in early 2012 to decide the final places at the World Twenty20. The six Associate and Affiliate members with one-day international status – Afghanistan, Canada, Ireland, Kenya, the Netherlands and Scotland – have automatically qualified for the UAE event.Three teams from the Asia region, two teams from Africa, Americas and Europe, and one team from East Asia-Pacific will play in the global qualifying event.In 2010 in the Caribbean the two Associate and Affiliate nations involved were Ireland and Afghanistan. Although neither progressed to the Super Eights, Ireland caused England problems in Guyana and Afghanistan performed with great credit during their first global tournament.

Half-centuries by Michael di Venuto and Dale Benkenstein helped Durham warm up for their four-day clash against the MCC in Abu Dhabi next week with a comfortable 33-run win over Sussex

Mark Pennell in Abu Dhabi24-Mar-2010
Half-centuries by Michael di Venuto and Dale Benkenstein helped Durham warm up for their four-day clash against the MCC in Abu Dhabi next week with a comfortable 33-run win over Sussex in the Emirates Airline Forty40 at the Zayed Stadium.Chasing Durham’s seemingly modest 224 for 6, built around Di Venuto’s 51 and 61 by Benkenstein, Sussex lost two wickets in the opening over of their reply and never seriously threatened the target thereafter, capitulating for 191 to lose with 11 balls in hand.Fresh from shock defeats to part-timers Fly Emirates and rookie South African side the Emerging Cape Cobras, Michael Yardy’s side made a poor start to their pursuit at 5.63 an over by losing both openers in the space of six balls. Michael Thornely fenced at a length ball from Mitchell Claydon to be caught behind by debutant keeper Michael Richardson, then five balls later Joe Gatting chanced a second run on an overthrow to mid off and lost the race against Will Smith’s throw to the strikers’ end.Ben Brown committed another costly blunder when he pushed one from Will Gidman and set off, only for Smith to take aim at the non-striker’s stumps and run Brown out with a direct hit. Sussex fought back through Yardy (37) and Ragheb Aga (18) with a determined fourth-wicket stand of 52 in 11 overs, but the introduction of spin at both ends sent Sussex tail-spinning toward defeat.Young legspinner Scott Borthwick pegged back Yardy’s off stump after the left-hander missed an attempted dab to third man then Aga’s reverse lap against Gareth Breese looped to short third man. The run-chase effectively ended when Robin Martin-Jenkins ran past another well-flighted delivery from Gareth Breese to gift Richardson a stumping.Sussex keeper Andrew Hodd, playing solely as a batsman, helped save face with a bright 48 at almost a run-a-ball as he and Ollie Rayner added 55 before, in the first over of their batting Powerplay, Hodd chipped a simple catch to deep square and then Chad Keegan slogged to cow corner as the last three Sussex wickets went down for 11.Durham’s workmanlike total relied heavily on the experience of di Venuto and Benkenstein, who took a no frills approach to scoring their first fifties of pre-season on a flat, yet sluggish pitch. Each hit six boundaries in helping their side lay solid, if unspectacular foundations.Captain Smith chipped in with a composed 31 from 41 balls while left-hander Mark Stoneman chanced his arm to add 43, but should have gone on 1, only to see slip fielder Rayner grass a dipping chance at off the luckless James Kirtley.Monty Panesar finished wicketless from a six-over stint that cost 38 leaving Keegan as the pick of the attack for a Sussex side who will spend their seven-hour flight home to the UK reflecting on three defeats in as many starts during their visit to the UAE.

This is the first match between the two teams in any format

Karthik Krishnaswamy18-Sep-20251:30

Bangar: India might give Arshdeep a game and rest Bumrah

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As expected, the group stage of this Asia Cup ends with a high-stakes clash in Group B, and a dead rubber in Group A. India and Oman contest this dead rubber, and their aims are wildly different.For India, this could be about getting some of their bowlers match time, and some of their middle- and lower-order batters crease time, ahead of the Super Four stage. Four members of their squad are yet to play a match, and three members of their top eight have played both their matches so far but are yet to face a ball.For Oman, this is their last match against a Full Member team before they host a tournament of serious consequence next month – the T20 World Cup Asia & East-Asia-Pacific Regional Qualifier. They are one of nine teams taking part in that tournament, of whom three will make it to next year’s T20 World Cup. Oman will want to be one of those three teams, and learnings from this Asia Cup, and this final game against India, could well help them in that quest.Related

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• Oman's Sufyan Mehmood is living his dream after defying his family

Form guide

India WWWWL (last five T20Is, most recent first)
Oman LLLLL

In the spotlight

India have retained Sanju Samson as their wicketkeeper ahead of Jitesh Sharma, trusting him to play an unfamiliar role in the middle order. He has not had a chance to play that role yet in this tournament, though, with DNBs against both UAE and Pakistan. Will he get a chance to bat against Oman?He’s returned an economy rate of just 4.71 through this Asia Cup, and he’s been even more frugal in the powerplay, going at just 3.50 across four overs. Shakeel Ahmed has had an excellent tournament so far, but now he’s set to face a real pressure test: will Oman continue to use their left-arm spinner with the new ball, with the marauding, left-handed Abhishek Sharma waiting at the top of India’s line-up?

Team news

India have played just the one frontline fast bowler in their two matches so far, but the shift from Dubai to slightly less spin-friendly conditions in Abu Dhabi, and the context of this dead rubber, could cause them to change their strategy. In any case, Jasprit Bumrah could be rested, and either one or both of Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana could get a look-in. With the middle-order batters not having got much of a chance in the middle so far, India might find it a little harder to give Rinku Singh and Jitesh Sharma a game.India (probable): 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Sanju Samson (wk), 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Harshit Rana, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Kuldeep Yadav/Varun Chakravarthy2:27

Bangar: India unlikely to tinker with in-form top order

While India played the same XI in their first two games, Oman have used 14 players across theirs. Given how their tournament has panned out so far, with batting collapses against both Pakistan and UAE, it’s hard to predict who stays in and who goes out of their XI.Oman (probable): 1 Jatinder Singh (capt), 2 Aamir Kaleem, 3 Hammad Mirza, 4 Wasim Ali, 5 Aryan Bisht, 6 Vinayak Shukla (wk), 7 Jiten Ramamnandi, 8 Shah Faisal, 9 Shakeel Ahmed, 10 Hassnain Shah, 11 Samay Shrivastava

Pitch and conditions

Recent history suggests that the pitches in Abu Dhabi don’t have quite as much help for spin as those in Dubai do. Since the start of 2023, spinners have averaged below 20 in Dubai and gone at less than 6.5 per over in T20Is; they’ve averaged over 38 in Abu Dhabi and conceded more than 7.5 per over. The two teams’ selections could well reflect this.

Stats and trivia

• This is the first meeting between India and Oman in any format.
• Abhishek (195.40) currently has the best strike rate of any batter with at least 500 T20I runs.
• Arshdeep is India’s leading wicket-taker in T20Is. He currently has 99 in 63 matches. If he remains on the bench through this tournament, Hardik Pandya (95) and Jasprit Bumrah (92) have a chance of catching up with or going past him.

Quotes

“I feel these wickets are perfect for spinners. Because you get bounce and the zip. If you compare to the Champions Trophy, the wickets [then] were very slow and you had to put a lot of revs on the ball to get the extra bounce and the pace as well. Those tracks, it was difficult for a batter to score runs. For wristspinners, to get bounce and turn on those wickets was tough.”

He found it “pretty simple to calculate everything” in a tricky phase during Royals’ chase against Mumbai

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Apr-2024Riyan Parag’s promotion to No. 4 is paying dividends for Rajasthan Royals. It’s a position familiar to 22-year-old Parag, who topped the run-scoring charts – with 510 runs at an average of 85 and strike rate of 182.79 – in the latest edition of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He has carried that form into IPL 2024.Coming into the game against Mumbai Indians on Monday on the back of a 29-ball 43 and an unbeaten 45-ball 84, Parag, with Royals in just a bit of trouble at 42 for 2 chasing 126, kept his calm and took them over the line with an unbeaten 39-ball 54. With 181 runs in three innings, he also became the joint-highest run-getter in IPL 2024 along with Virat Kohli, but ahead on the list because of a superior strike rate.Related

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“When I play domestically, this is the exact type of situation I go in to bat,” Parag told the host broadcaster after the game. “When Jos [Buttler] got out and Ash [R Ashwin] got out a little after, I was like ‘this is what I do, this is what I’ve been doing for the last six months playing domestic cricket’. So it was pretty simple to calculate everything.”Royals had restricted Mumbai Indians to 125 for 9 but were rocked early by Kwena Maphaka and Akash Madhwal. But Parag carried on unfazed and stitched a 40-run stand with Ashwin to calm down the camp.Parag had been used primarily as a finisher by Royals in the past, and his returns had been patchy.”I have had three to four years of not performing at all,” Parag said. “And you really go back to your hotel room and you think… that when you know you can do something and the performances are not coming, you get back to the drawing [board]. I tried finding what was wrong, and I figured out that I was not practicing at this level enough.”So I went back after the [last] season and practised very hard, and I think that’s showing now. I’ve practiced [against] these types of quick balls and these kinds of scenarios a lot, hence the performances.”

Spinners to the fore on slow surface as Pakistan fail to capitalise on winning the toss

Matt Roller17-Dec-2022Pakistan’s batters sowed the seeds of their own demise on the first day of the dead-rubber third Test in Karachi, as England bowled them out for 304 on a dry, benign National Stadium pitch after being asked to bowl first.Babar Azam and Salman Ali Agha both made half-centuries but Pakistan threw three wickets away cheaply. Mohammad Rizwan was the first culprit, heaving Joe Root straight to deep midwicket before tea. In the evening session, Babar was run out while scampering through for a single; Nauman Ali, the left-arm spinner, top-edged a slog-sweep to mid-off; and Salman, the last recognised batter, was stumped while charging down the pitch to Jack Leach.As Leach mopped up the tail to finish with 4 for 140, Pakistan were bowled out for 304. Despite losing Zak Crawley for a duck, England were clearly the happier side overnight, given the lifelessness of the pitch. There was just enough on offer for their spinners to suggest that batting last may prove to be a challenge, but the only balls that misbehaved were ones that died from short of a length.
Rehan Ahmed, Leicestershire’s legspinning allrounder, became the youngest man to play Test cricket for England at 18 years and 126 days old and struck twice on debut, having Saud Shakeel caught at short leg and trapping Faheem Ashraf lbw. After a nervy start before lunch, he found his length in the second session and finished the day with 2 for 89 in 22 overs.Related

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Ahmed, presented his cap by Nasser Hussain while stood next to his father Naeem in England’s huddle, bowled five wicketless overs for 37 runs in the morning session, struggling to find a good length as Babar and the recalled Azhar Ali batted positively against him. But after lunch, he found his groove.Beaten by his previous ball, a sharply-spun googly that turned past the outside edge, Shakeel prodded forward and inside-edged a legbreak into his pad. The ball ballooned up to forward short leg where Ollie Pope – back in the field as Ben Foakes returned to the England side – flung himself forward to take an excellent one-handed catch.And in the evening session, Ahmed made Faheem his second Test victim. His googly, which he used extensively throughout the day, straightened enough to beat the left-hander on the outside edge from around the wicket, hitting him low on the back thigh pad. He became the first England legspinner to take two wickets in his first innings as a Test cricketer since Ian Salisbury, also against Pakistan at Lord’s 30 years ago.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

England’s spinners bowled 56 of the 79 overs and Ben Stokes wasted no time getting Leach into the game. He became the first England spinner to share the new ball in the very first innings of a Test since Jack White in 1921 and struck early on, trapping Abdullah Shafique on the front pad with a ball that skidded through.Shan Masood, playing his first Test match since January 2021 after two seasons of prolific all-format run-making in domestic cricket, was positive early on, using his feet and twice hitting boundaries down the ground for four in Leach’s first over, but fell for a 37-ball 30, having earlier survived a close lbw shout on review while reverse-sweeping. He was sucked in by a short-ball plan, as Mark Wood slammed the ball into the pitch at 90mph/145kph which he miscued down to Leach at long leg via the back of the bat.That brought Babar to the crease, who played positively alongside Azhar, brought back into the side at No. 3 in the final Test of his career. He was one of four men to come into the side along with Masood, Nauman and debutant Mohammad Wasim, with Mohammad Nawaz, Zahid Mahmood, Mohammad Ali and the injured Imam-ul-Haq giving way.Azhar pulled Ahmed’s third ball through midwicket for four as he dropped short, the first of six boundaries that the legspinner conceded in his first spell. Those included a thick outside edge for four from Babar, slashing at a wide legbreak, but the rest were played with controlled aggression.Ollie Robinson bowled only three overs in his first spell before leaving the field for the best part of an hour with an upset stomach, but returned shortly before lunch to make the crucial breakthrough. Azhar had found some rhythm after a slow start but gloved a back-of-a-length ball down the leg side. Foakes, back behind the stumps after sitting out of the first two Tests, took an excellent diving catch low to his left, which TV replays confirmed was a clean take.Jack Leach claimed four wickets on the first day in Karachi•Getty Images

Babar and Salman both played with positive intent, rotating the strike and putting the occasional bad balls away, but a series of casual dismissals meant wickets fell regularly. Rizwan was the prime culprit, charging down and hoisting Root’s gentle lob straight to Stokes in the deep, but Babar is unlikely to reflect fondly on his dismissal.After reaching a first-innings half-century for the third consecutive Test, Babar was slow to set off from the non-striker’s end as Salman worked to square leg. Harry Brook’s throw was slightly wayward, but Foakes reacted sharply and whipped off the bails with Babar just short of his ground.When Leach rolled through the tail – Nauman caught slog-sweeping, Salman beaten on the outside edge charging down and Abrar Ahmed flummoxed by a beauty that hit the top of his off stump – England walked off with the light fading but enough time left in the day for them to face three overs.Abrar struck with the fifth ball of the innings, trapping Crawley in front with a flat legbreak, but Pope and Ben Duckett survived until stumps. Pakistan reviewed the final ball of the day, an Abrar googly which struck Duckett on the body as he got down to sweep, but ball-tracking technology confirmed it had pitched outside his leg stump.

Home side hopeful of reaching knockouts after seven-wicket win over Hampshire

ECB Reporters Network06-Aug-2021Ben Charlesworth kept Gloucestershire’s hopes of reaching the knockout stage of the Royal London Cup alive with a career-best 99 not out in a seven-wicket win over Hampshire at Bristol.The 20-year-old left-hander smacked 13 fours, sharing an unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 130 with Jack Taylor, who finished on 67, having been dropped twice, as the hosts reached a target of 205 with nine balls to spare.In a match reduced to 37 overs per side, Hampshire ran up 204 for 8 after winning the toss, Tom Alsop top-scoring with 57 and sharing an opening stand of 90 with Tom Prest.Graeme van Buuren claimed 3 for 36 with his left-arm spin and the total looked below par, despite a slow pitch.On a blustery day, play did not start until 1pm following heavy overnight rain. Both Hampshire openers rode their luck early, Prest being dropped on three by Tom Smith at point off Matt Taylor.It proved an expensive miss as Prest and Alsop brought up their fifty stand in the ninth over and added to it with increasing confidence until Smith atoned for his error by beating Prest’s defensive push and bowling him to end the partnership.Alsop went to his half-century off 61 balls before Nick Gubbins was caught at fine leg off Josh Shaw with the total on 110 in the 20th over.Things began to go awry for Hampshire when Joe Weatherley called for a single to short cover off Smith and Chris Dent’s throw to the wicketkeeper’s end saw Alsop run out.Ian Holland contributed 17 before falling lbw to van Buuren reverse sweeping and it was 145 for 5 when Weatherley was bowled by the same bowler on the back foot.Lewis McManus lifted a big six over mid-wicket off van Buuren, who took his revenge with a smart caught-and-bowled above his head to make it 190 for 6.Felix Organ was run out in a mix-up over a quick single and, although James Fuller hit a superb six over extra cover off Dan Worrall, a clatter of late wickets saw Hampshire’s innings fold disappointingly.With a required run rate of less than six an over, Gloucestershire openers Charlesworth and Dent began cautiously. They had taken the score to 47 in the 11th over when Dent fell leg before, trying to sweep off-spinner Prest, who quickly followed up by having Tom Lace caught off a top edge attempting the same shot.It was 75 for 3 when van Buuren fell lbw on the back foot to Holland and the game looked evenly poised. But Charlesworth was looking increasingly in command as he moved to fifty, from 67 balls, with a gloriously timed four, lifted elegantly back over off-spinner Organ’s head.Taylor attacked at every opportunity to reach a 47-ball half-century, but was lucky to get there as he was dropped at third man by Organ off John Turner on 49.The century stand occupied 90 deliveries. Taylor was dropped again on 63, by Turner at fine-leg off Weatherley, before Charlesworth pulled a boundary off Holland to pass his previous best score for Gloucestershire of 87. Time ran out for him to get a century but it was an innings rich with promise that he will long remember.

The board wants to stage the MSL in front of an audience, which could mean the tournament is pushed back

Firdose Moonda21-May-2020Cricket South Africa is preparing for four different scenarios ahead of the 2020-21 summer with the most likely being a reduced domestic season, with matches expected to be played behind closed doors. The Mzansi Super League (MSL) remains a priority but CSA is reluctant to play the tournament behind closed doors, which could see it pushed out as far as March next year, in order to be played with an audience. Either way, South African cricketers can expect some part of their summer to be affected by the coronavirus pandemic, with the country planning for a peak infection rate in September, which is when the season typically gets underway.”The unlikeliest scenario is that the season will start as normal,” Jacques Faul, the board’s acting CEO said. “The second one is that we only have half a season. As the scenarios unfold and we get more clarity. One of the likely scenarios we are planning for is half a season, so January onwards, and hopefully the MSL at the start.”The other two scenarios consider various amounts of cricket being played, including internationals, as well as other aspects of CSA’s financial position, such as sponsors.The third edition of the MSL is scheduled for November and December with the final taking place on December 16, the date that marks the start of South Africa’s holiday season. Although the tournament has made losses over the past two years, because of unsold television rights, CSA is hoping things would fare better this time around. The board is in the process of securing a broadcaster and is also planning on expanding the tournament from six teams to eight.While gate-takings from the MSL are not a major revenue earner, it is still South Africa’s best-attended domestic competition, intended to promote family viewing. Faul is hoping that it can stay that way.”I’m not sure it would make sense behind closed doors,” he said. “It could be a restricted audience and the capacity will be lower so that we can guarantee social distancing but it will need to be government approved and we would need to look at the cost factor of it and the risks. And that would only be around November or December. I can’t see it happening earlier, but the MSL would have been scheduled for that period anyway.”The other option would be to play the MSL in March-April, with the Easter holiday period in mind.Meanwhile, the franchise four-day first-class competition and one-day cup as well as the provincial three-day first-class fixtures and fifty-over tournament and other age-group and club tournaments are more than likely to be affected by delayed starts. While CSA is hopeful of as much professional cricket as possible, it is “planning for half a season of amateur and recreational cricket,” Faul said.There is currently no indication of when sport will resume in South Africa, which remains under a strict lockdown that prohibits any group activity. CSA and several other sporting bodies are seeking an audience with the sports minister to clarify the steps required in order to return to play.The South African Cricketers’ Association, on the other hand, is working to ensure the mental and financial well-being of their athletes given the fact that all of them are facing a truncated season.”We have an existential crisis in cricket so it is important that we all work together,” Andrew Breetzke, SACA CEO said. “It is a period when players would normally go into an off-season, so that has helped us, because it hasn’t been such a mind shift change but there have been a number of players affected by the English season which has in effect been postponed indefinitely.”Breetzke explained that it is not just the top players whose county contracts have been canceled (such as Keshav Maharaj and Vernon Philander) but senior provincial players whose club deals were called off, resulting in them losing amounts of around R100,000 (US$5,600 approx) each. Others, who would have had coaching jobs in academies and schools in the winter, have also lost out.SACA is actively encouraging players to focus on “dual career” growth and make use of the organisation’s scholarship programme to begin further study. It is also providing psychological support to players, through a referral program, the costs of which are covered through the SACA medical scheme.That said, director of cricket Graeme Smith remains hopeful cricket will resume soon and is working with players to ensure their readiness. Over the last seven weeks, players were provided with home training programs to maintain fitness over the lockdown and this week, they will begin online coaching sessions. “We are keen to play as quickly as possible. We believe we are a socially distant sport,” Smith said. “From our perspective, we are trying to ensure players are as ready as possible.”At the same time, CSA has put several other pressing matters on hold. The positions of a selection convener, A team, under-19 team, and national women’s team coach were all advertised last month but none of them have been filled. “It’s not a process we are rushing. We are trying to assess the landscape,” Smith said.South Africa are also due to appoint a Test captain in the coming months but with no matches expected for a while, that is another issue they can take some time on.

Rain and bad light, meanwhile, forced the encounter between Dolphins and Knights into a draw

Liam Brickhill17-Jan-2019Results summaryThe race for the 2018-19 4-Day Franchise Series title was thrown wide open after Warriors stunned Cape Cobras at Newlands, winning by six wickets. A pair of first-innings 70s from Colin Ackermann and Sinethemba Qeshile gave Warriors a vital 104-run lead, after which Simon Harmer’s 7 for 89, his 24th career five-for, set up a tight finish, with Warriors set a target of 206 to win.Dane Piedt struck four times with his offspin, but Warriors raced to victory through a blistering 91-run unbroken partnership between captain JJ Smuts and the 19-year-old Qeshile. They compiled their stand at 6.42 per over, with Smuts hitting 10 fours and a six in his 70 and Qeshile reaching fifty for the second time in the match, from 49 deliveries. With two rounds remaining, the Cobras’ defeat, coupled with Lions’ win, narrowed the gap at the top of the table to just over 1.6 points. The result also kept alive the Warriors’ slim title hopes – they are now just over 27 points behind the leaders.ALSO READ: South Africa’s Rory Kleinveldt calls time on first-class careerNandre Burger ended with a career-best five-for as the Lions defeated defending champions Titans to win their derby clash in record fashion at Willowmoore Park, in Benoni, on Thursday. Burger took 5 for 36 in in 14.4 overs to complete an emphatic innings-and-239-run victory that was not only the biggest one ever for the Lions in their history and third-biggest ever since the inception of franchise cricket in 2004/05, but also saw the gap at the competition summit reduced significantly.Burger’s match-sealing effort came after mammoth innings from Nicky van den Bergh and Dominic Hendricks had given Lions complete control of the game. Van den Bergh recorded the first double-century of the season, reaching an unbeaten unbeaten 217 – a fixture record individual score and career-best – as the hosts amassed 593 for 5 declared.Hendricks also reached a career-best score, batting ten-and-a-half hours for his 453-ball 197. The pair put on a stand of 390 for the fifth wicket, another fixture record but not a competition best after it fell three runs short of the unbroken 393 shared by JP Duminy and Dane Vilas for the Cape Cobras against the Lions in Potchefstroom back in 2014-15. Their stand left the Titans staring at a likely defeat, particularly after Chris Morris, who had scored 97 out of their first-innings 229, had to sit out the second innings due to a finger injury. Titans folded for 125.Rain and bad light ultimately proved to be the main winner as the encounter between Dolphins and Knights ended in a draw at the City Oval in Pietermaritzburg. The inclement weather, which led to no play on day two and just over 50 overs squeezed in on day three, again briefly returned on the final day, allowing for only 72 overs to be sent down. To their credit, both teams tried to effect a result, with three declarations before the visitors finished the game on 181 for 3 in pursuit of a target of 295. Heading into the final day, only one innings had been completed, and after Knights declared their innings at 206 for 9, Dolphins went after quick runs. Sarel Erwee and captain Khaya Zondo both reached fifty, with Zondo striking 10 fours in his 45-ball 59 before declaring the innings at 146 for 3. That left Knights with a target of 295 to win, with Raynard van Tonder reaching 60 and Keegan Petersen striking an unbeaten 71 before the captains shook hands on a draw.On the national radarChris Morris was somewhat surprisingly left out of South Africa’s squad for the first two ODIs against Pakistan, and the allrounder appeared to have been further set back when he suffered a laceration to his finger in the field for Titans. The injury did not stop Morris from bowling on the third day, although he did not come out to bat in Titans’ second innings.Morris’ fitness has been one of the main factors in his limited chances for South Africa in recent times: he picked up a back injury at last year’s IPL, and, more, recently struggled with a strained hamstring. South Africa coach Ottis Gibson has suggested that the Proteas’ search for an allrounder at No. 7 to balance out their side is still open, and Morris could yet be drafted into the ODI squad for the final three games against Pakistan – but time is running short for Morris to force his way back into contention for a spot in South Africa’s World Cup squad.Top performerWhile Keegan Petersen maintained his place at the top of the competition batting charts, and Nicky van den Bergh and Dominic Hendricks deserve a mention for sheer weight of runs in their career-best knocks, it was a pair of innings from teenager Sinethemba Qeshile that turned heads in the latest round of the 4-day Series. Qeshile turned 19 in October last year, the day after he had scored back to back fifties against a strong Lions attack containing three Sout Africa players. Since then, Qeshile has bounced back from a pair to fall one run short of his maiden first-class hundred against a Knights attack spearheaded by Duanne Olivier. In his first full franchise season for Warriors, he has now scored 500 runs at an average of 50, and looks a very promising prospect, especially after his latest knocks to help beat Cobras.