South Africa’s build-up to their two-Test series against Bangladesh has hardly been ideal. Firstly there was the selection row before the team left home, then the bowlers took a hammering during their warm-up match against a Bangladesh Cricket Board XI.The Test attack was taken for 412 in a little more than 100 overs with only Johan Botha coming out with anything like complimentary figures. However, coach Mickey Arthur believes his side are shaping up nicely ahead of the first Test on Friday despite Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini and Morne Morkel returning combined figures of 5 for 219 from 57 overs.”We had a long chat soon after we arrived from Fatullah Stadium. We opened up to speak about all aspects of our game and that included the plans for the two Tests that we are heading into from Friday,” Arthur told the . “We have come to the realisation that Bangladesh will not roll over and die in their conditions. They will be a difficult batting side to dislodge if we approach the Tests in the manner we played their Board XI.”Arthur said the team’s fast bowlers will have to adapt and can’t expect to run in and blast sides out as they might do on the surfaces back in South Africa. “We spoke about our bowling and have decided that we have to be a little more defensive in our approach to field placings. The bowlers will have to be a lot more circumspect about their lines and lengths and the channels they bowl to gain success.”Although there wasn’t time for South Africa to gain much of a second innings, Arthur was pleased with the warm-up match. “I believe we got a lot out of the game, but there’s still a lot to do. We’ll be working hard over the two remaining days before the Test to get to where we want to be.”Andre Nel, recovering from a hamstring injury, was restricted to eight overs against the BCB XI as he recovers from a hamstring injury and Arthur said he will be assessed closer to the start of the Test.
Manoj Tiwary’s dream season continued as he stroked 89 to help East Zone scamper home by three runs against North Zone at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Chasing 239 under lights, Pankaj Dharmani and Dinesh Mongia’s half centuries went in vain as North were restricted to 235 in their 50 overs.It was a counter-attacking innings by Tiwary, who walked in with the score at 16 for 2. VRV Singh and Ishant Sharma, the North Zone seamers, made early inroads to reduce the opposition to 27 for 4. Tiwary and captain Deep Dasgupta led the rescue act with a stand of exactly 150 for the fifth wicket. Tiwary, who survived a chance at second slip early in his innings, went on the attack, striking seven fours and two sixes. Dasgupta made a steady 63 off 80 balls and played the supporting role to Tiwary. Singh finished with figures of 4 for 44.Mongia, who top-scored with 71, led North’s chase and dominated the fourth-wicket stand with Paras Dogra. However, a double strike by Abhishek Jhunjhunwala pulled things back for East Zone. Tiwary played his part with his legbreaks as well, picking up a wicket in a tight 10-over spell, conceding just 35 runs. Dharmani and Bipul Sharma upped the tempo towards the end but it wasn’t enough to go the distance.
The Pakistan International Airlines batsmen staged a splendid fightback, as they finished the third dayof their Patrons Trophy Quadrangular Stage match against Habib Bank with an overall lead of 296 with three second-innings wickets remaining.After having earlier surrendered a 19-run first-innings lead to Habib Bank, PIA reached 315 for 7 in their second innings by close of play on the third day. Ghulam Ali followed his 79 on the first day with another valuable knock of 84, off 162 balls in just over four-and-a-quarter hours with 10 fours and a six. At stumps, Bazid Khan, PIA’s stand-in captain, and Najaf Shah, the left-arm pace bowler, were at the crease on 38 apiece, having added 73 for the eighth wicket.Earlier, Ghulam Ali and Yasir Hameed (30) had put on 71 for the second wicket. Then, Ghulam was joined by Asif Mujtaba (45) as another 105 were made added for the third wicket. Four wickets fell with only 24 scored before Bazid and Najaf steadied the ship.On a day cut short by bad light, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) reached a first innings score of 214 for 6 on the first day of their Patrons Trophy match against National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) at the Sheikhupura Stadium .At the forefront of PTCL’s late fightback was an unbeaten 59 by Asim Kamal, Pakistan’s left-handed middle-order Test batsman. Kamal scored his runs off 122 balls in under three hours with nine boundaries.Earlier, after PTCL had been put in, they lost their first three wickets with only 14 on the board. Aamer Bashir, the captain, then helped take the score to 54 in partnership with Usman Tariq. Aamer’s 55 came off 87 balls with eight fours. Shahzad Malik had to retire hurt but Aamer and Asim helped move the score to 117 for 4, when Aamer was dismissed by Wasim Khan, the fast bowler, who bagged three wickets. Another 97 runs were added till the day’s close, with Asim and Tahir Mughal adding 58 for the seventh wicket.This match was earlier scheduled to start on Friday in Multan, but it was shifted because floodlights are being installed at the Multan Cricket Stadium prior to the ODI between Pakistan and India next month.
Ranga Reddy, the vice president of the Indian boart (BCCI), has invited a select team from the USA’s Central-East Zone (Chicago and Midwest region) on a tour of Hyderabad, where they will play a series of matches against state and district teams. The side will arrive in India on March 6 and will stay until March 15.There are six matches on the schedule. One of them will be a day/night game, and a two-day fixture is also in the cards. Three of the matches will be played in the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium (the regular Test and ODI venue in Hyderabad), and the remaining three games will be played in the newly-built stadium at Uppal, also in Hyderabad. The new Uppal stadium is supposed to be among the top five in the world and the US team will be the first overseas team to play there.The US side has not been named but it is likely to include top players from other regions than the US Midwest as well. Among the names mentioned are allrounder Duane Nathaniel of Florida, an U-19 Allstar at the US Nationals in 2004; opening batsman Amer Afzaluddin, former U-19 All-Americas captain in 2002 who played for USA in 2003 and 2004, and Amjad Khan from New York, former first-class cricketer who is the only person to have scored a triple century in an official limited-overs league match anywhere in the world. Other players who may make the trip are Nasir Javed and Roy Weekes from Florida, Rashid Afzal from New York, Jignesh Desai and Hitesh Patel of New Jersey, and Dawood Ahmed and Zaheer Chano from Maryland.This may not be the strongest team that could be selected to represent the USA, but it has an interesting blend of youth and experience. Amer and Nathaniel are youngsters who have shown promise in recent years, and veterans Amjad Khan and Nasir Javed (who had the best bowling performance for Team USA in the Champions Trophy) lend needed experience to the squad. Conspicuously missing are many senior players who have played for the USA in recent years, and who earned the "geriatric" label that has haunted Team USA since the Champions Trophy.Now it remains to be seen whether this younger and less experienced team from the USA will at least be able to exorcise that image by how they perform in India. That, more than how many matches they win or lose, will be the acid test of their temperament.
Asked to rate his first-innings knock a couple of days ago, Rahul Dravid had responded with the realism that is a feature of his persona. “It is satisfying to score a hundred in Australia,” he had said, “but the true value of the innings will only be judged by what result it achieves for the team.” After ensuring the unbelievable for his team, he was willing to term his performance, a staggering 305 runs from 835 minutes of occupying the crease, as the greatest of his life. His captain was more effusive. “Rahul batted like god,” said Sourav Ganguly.God indeed. Because he offered India deliverance. From 85 for 4, he forged a partnership with his old ally, VVS Laxman, that first frustrated Australia and then drove them to desperation. And then, as they sought frantically for a breach in the second innings, Dravid stood before then like an immovable object, offering a straight bat to anything remotely threatening and latching on to every scoring opportunity. Australia blew their chance when Adam Gilchrist dropped him early because after he had got over his early tentativeness, he didn’t offer them a sniff. “It was a remarkable achievement,” said Steve Waugh, paying Dravid repeated compliments after the match, “to come back after a double-hundred and to be able to concentrate so hard, it is an outstanding performance.”Dravid said there were times today when his concentration flagged. “But it has always been a strong side of my game, so it wasn’t difficult to get it back. The motivation wasn’t hard to find. There was history for the making, there were many team-mates, our coaching staff, who have worked so hard over the last two or three years, I knew I had to do it for them.”He said the gameplan had been simple. “I knew that if we batted out the overs, we were going to win. It was my job to stay there and let the others bat around me. I had a few partnerships, a brief one with Sehwag, a good one with Sachin and another good one with Laxman. To be able to stay there till the job was done is a quite a special feeling.”Inevitably, comparisons were sought with Eden Gardens. “I have not had a chance to sit back and think about this. May be things will sink in better a few days later. But Eden Gardens was a very emotional affair, very special. But in terms of what it could mean to us as a team, and what this could lead to, this win is significant.”Ganguly offered the same sentiments. “We have been winning Tests abroad in the last couple of years. But to win in Australia, to go one ahead is special. I have been here as vice-captain in 1999. I remember the atmosphere in the dressing room then, and I can feel the difference now.”When asked if his team was not intimidated by Australia, Ganguly said while many members of his team may look soft from outside, there was a lot of steel within. “Don’t go by how they look,” he said, “we have plenty of tough guys. Rahul, Laxman, Kumble, Zaheer, Ajit, they are all very strong in their head. I am proud of them.”We know Australia will come hard at us in the next two Tests. But we will be ready for them. We know, and they know, that we can beat them. I have always said that we are the second-best team in the world. And now if we beat them, and with some of their top players going out, well …”The job isn’t done yet. “Perhaps we will party tonight,” Dravid said. “We have a few days of break coming up. Then it’s back to work.”Sambit Bal, the editor of Wisden Asia Cricket magazine and Wisden Cricinfo in India, will be following the Indian team throughout this Test series.
England skipper Nasser Hussain praised the courage of his two opening bowlers for testing Australia’s nerves before the hosts managed a five-wicket win on the final day of the fourth Test in Melbourne.Despite the drama of the fifth morning, England are now 4-0 down in the series, but not before Steve Harmison and Andrew Caddick troubled Australia, who were chasing just 107 for victory.”It was a good morning for us,” Hussain told Sky Sports. “We still lost the Test match but at least we showed we can do something out here and that we’ve got a bit of character. That was about as enjoyable as we’ve had it out here this winter.”Cricket must be a mind game really because Australia have a history of struggling to chase low scores, and that was a really low score. The two big lads ran in hard and did well. It wasn’t an easy pitch to bowl on but they bowled well and all credit to them.””There will be some tired legs because we’ve gone in with four bowlers here and lost one of them with Craig White getting injured. So we’ll have to get the balance right as Sydney is a different pitch and we’ll have to look at what we need to do.”Australia captain Steve Waugh paid tribute to the spirit shown by the tourists.”England bowled really well this morning and they made us fight hard for our win,” Waugh said. “We didn’t play all that well today but all credit to England, they really gave it a go.””We’ve had some problems in the past chasing low totals – I think you can get yourself into problems when you don’t play your shots and play your natural game,” admitted the Australian captain.”England came at us really hard this morning and once you lose a wicket in the first over you start to doubt yourself a fraction in the dressing room, then you lose a couple more and all of a sudden it’s game on – any side is vulnerable under pressure.”Waugh himself was the subject of a belated appeal for caught behind, made after England’s wicket-keeper James Foster and other fielders had seen a replay on the big screen.”They appealed only because of what they saw on the screen, partly in shock and disbelief and also because of the rollicking they knew they were going to get from me at drinks that they hadn’t appealed for one of the greatest batsmen ever to play the game,” Hussain said.”But you can’t see something on the big screen and appeal on that, you can’t play the game like that. Most of the time we appeal on gut feeling and what we see and what we hear, that’s the way we play the game and it probably shows credit to our boys that they didn’t hear anything so they didn’t appeal.”
Marcus Trescothick has issued a call for tougher penalties for spectators who run onto the pitch.”I would advocate the Australian system whereby any spectator running on the pitch during the game should be hit with a heavy fine and then banged up for a night in the cells,” the England and Somerset opener told the Mail on Sunday.Trescothick was voicing his fears after the Edgbaston pitch invasion of Thursday night, when team-mate Nick Knight was assaulted on the pitch. Trescothick was keen to distinguish between over enthusiasm and deliberate intimidation, and believes that some spectators crossed the line between the two on Thursday night.”I feel it is important to stress the serious risk the players felt under on Thursday,” Trescothick explained. “No one minds enthusiasm or exuberance and I totally accept that there was no malice in the premature celebrations which forced the interruption. But some of the behaviour of the crowd prior to that flashpoint made the atmosphere the ugliest and most hostile I have ever experienced.”We all accept that people are entitled to voice their opinions and you expect a bit of good-natured banter. But this was different. This was full-on, foul-mouthed personal abuse and there was nothing remotely amusing about it.”Meanwhile David Graveney, Chairman of the Selectors and Chief Executive of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, has echoed calls for harsher penalties for miscreants and warned that action should be taken before a serious incident occurs.”We agree with Alec Stewart that in terms of security, it wasn’t adequate,” Graveney said, referring to Edgbaston. “Everything must be done to give that an uplift. The England Cricket Board have issued a series of measures and let’s see how they work.”Areas have got to be looked at because sooner or later, a player or an umpire, is going to have a serious injury. We’re obviously trying to avoid that scenario happening.Graveney also lent his support to Australian captain, Steve Waugh, who has publicly voiced his concern over the levels of security at English grounds.”Australia have voiced their concern with some justification. You look at the way Australia have treated security; there are considerable penalties for even putting one foot on the pitch. I think the ECB have to speak to the Australians to see how it’s worked. They have life bans from grounds; it’s pretty Draconian, but it does work.”
Ange Postecoglou has dropped a promising injury update regarding Celtic winger Mikey Johnston.
What’s the latest?
In recent comments on the club’s YouTube channel (cited by 67hailhail), the 56-year-old confirmed that, after featuring in Celtic B’s 5-0 win over Partick Thistle in the Glasgow Cup earlier this week, the forward will be available for the Scottish Cup quarter-final clash with Dundee United on Monday, having been out of action since limping off against Raith Rovers in mid-February,
Speaking about the current condition of the former Scotland under-21 international, Postecoglou said: “Mikey missed a couple of weeks. Mikey, Karamoko [Dembele], Johnny [Kenny] got some game-time and they’re available. That means they got through the game okay.
“They obviously had [Thursday] off because they played but they’ll be back training with us on Saturday and they’re available. Mikey is in the same boat as everyone else. To be fair, it’s not easy because if you come to our training at the moment, I’ve got an easy job. I could probably pick two or three different XIs and still come out looking like a genius.”
Huge boost
While Johnston is not exactly a guaranteed starter for Postecoglou, the reports that he now appears to have recovered from his injury will nevertheless come as a huge boost to the Celtic manager and the Parkhead fan base.
Indeed, with the Bhoys still battling in both the Scottish Cup and the Premiership title race, rotation will be necessary for the 56-year-old over the season’s run-in over the coming months, should Postecoglou wish to give his side the best possible chance of sealing a domestic treble this term.
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As such, with Kyogo Furuhashi still appearing to be some way off making a recovery of his own – which means that Daizen Maeda is required to fill in for his Japanese team-mate up front, instead of being utilised on the left wing – the fresh addition of Johnston to the manager’s options on the left of his front three is undoubtedly a huge bonus.
AND in other news: Sold for peanuts, now worth £8.1m: “Staggering” £23k-p/w dud has left Celtic red-faced
Johmari Logtenberg is the only prominent name missing from South Africa women’s squad announced to participate in the World Cup qualifiers in Stellenbosch during February after quitting cricket.The 18-year Logtenberg was vice-captain for the team that was to tour Pakistan for the qualifiers in November. However, unrest in Pakistan saw the tournament being postponed; subsequently, the ICC decided to shift the matches to South Africa.Now Cricket South Africa (CSA) has confirmed to Cricinfo that Logtenberg, one of two players nominated by CSA for the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year award in 2007, has opted to stop playing cricket in order to pursue other sports. Allrounder Alicia Smith replaces Logtenberg in the 14-member squad, while Claire Terblanche will be the deputy to captain Cri-zelda Brits.Logtenberg burst on the scene with an impressive 74 on her Test debut in 2003, when she was just 14. She was named Women’s Cricketer of the Year at the South African Cricket Awards in 2006.South Africa are one of the favourites to qualify from the tournament, where the top two sides go through to join the major nations who will contest the World Cup in Australia in 2009. South Africa are in the same group as Bermuda, Netherlands and Papua New Guinea.The qualifiers will be held from February 18 to 24.South Africa squadCri-zelda Brits (capt), Claire Terblanche, Olivia Anderson, Susan Benade, Trisha Chetty (wk), Dinesha Devnarain, Mignon du Preez, Shandre Fritz, Ashlyn Kilowan, Marcia Letsoalo, Sunette Loubser, Annelie Minnie, Alicia Smith, Daleen Terblanche.
Matthew Hayden is proud of the way his team sticks together after Lou Vincent’s claims that Australian players are arrogant sledgers who “hunt like a pack of dogs”. “If he considers that to be the case, I’m not unhappy about it, to be honest,” Hayden said in Brisbane.”Regardless of what Lou says, it’s water off a duck’s back as far as Australia is concerned.” Hayden, who scored 117 against New Zealand on Sunday, said the comments reflected the competitive nature of Australian athletes.”It’s doesn’t matter what sport … we could be playing kick a cockroach from here to the wall and we’d want to be competitive,” he said. “In the heat of the battle New Zealand and Australia is one of the finest competitions you can play. They’re in our country and we’re very excited about the way we’re playing and we’re working exceptionally hard to what is ahead of us.”Hayden said one of the strengths of the Australian team was that they stuck together on the field. “We’ve had that mentality for as long as I can ever remember and it’s served us well,” he said. “We’ve been motivated by the fact we were under pressure, motivated by the fact that we needed to perform … we’re very proud of the fact that we stick by each other.”