Category Uncategorized

Mathew Sinclair drummed out a reminder to the national selectors that he still wants to be considered for the Test series with an unbeaten century for Central Districts against Otago at Alexandra in their State Championship match today.CD had built themselves into a powerful position by the end of the day when ending at 234/3, a lead of 296 with seven wickets remaining.Otago did not help their cause by being dismissed for 123 early this morning.The day began with Otago reasonably confident of securing a first innings lead. At 48/2 chasing 185 they had every reason to be so but in the event they batted poorly to be all out 62 runs short of CD.Brent Hefford made the first breakthrough of the day when getting the overnight batsmen Simon Beare (17) and Chris Gaffaney (25). Andrew Hore added 20 and Nathan Morland was 18 not out.It was one of their most miserable batting performances in recent times. Too often they played at deliveries outside the off stump and they seemed to lack application to play in a manner which would have seen them through to the promised sunshine and much better batting conditions. Only Morland played with any discipline which was what was needed from all the other Otago batsmen. The Otago innings lasted only 47.3 overs.Andrew Schwass headed the assault and continued his excellent summer with four wickets for 29 runs from 12 overs, while Michael Mason’s economic approach was well rewarded as he took three for 30 from 15 overs and he made the Otago batsmen play at most deliveries. Lance Hamilton and Hefford bowled economically and could have easily captured more wickets than their combined total of three.Central Districts began their second innings much the same way as their first by losing early wickets and at 32/2 Otago perhaps had a glimmer of hope in rolling them cheaply.But both Sinclair and Ben Smith decided enough was enough and put on 129 for the third wicket with Smith finally going for an attractive 57, his 50 coming off 99 balls.Sinclair went on to get a good century, off 154 balls, and by stumps was 118 not out. CD captain Glen Sulzberger provided a fine anchor with 28 not out. The overall lead of 296 would seem to be far too many for Otago to chase even although two days play remain and, of course, with CD having only lost three wickets the prospect of a much bigger run chase.None of the Otago bowlers was been really caned but improved batting conditions and two classy batsmen in Sinclair and Smith had given CD quite an advantage.

June 7th has been the date on the lips of every politician in this country.In the years to come, Darren Thomas will have other reasons forremembering June 7th, 2001.In the morning session of the Championship match at Chelmsford, Darren Thomascreated a piece of cricketing history for himself by making the highest everscore by a Glamorgan number eight.Yesterday, Thomas scored his maiden first-class century, hitting 119*and shared in a 7th wicket stand of 163 with fellow centurion AdrianDale. This morning, he subsequently extended his overnight score to 138,and past the previous best by a Glamorgan number eight – Malcolm Nash`s 130,scored in the opening match of the 1976 season against Surrey at The Oval.There were certain parallels between both of these innings. Thomas came tothe crease yesterday with Glamorgan lurching at 128-6, whilst Nash started hisinnings in 1976 with The Oval scoreboard reading 65-6. Nash then shared ina stand of 171 for the 7th wicket with Mike Llewellyn, with Nash mauling theSurrey attack by hitting two sixes and seventeen fours.Thomas was equally aggressive, with nineteen fours and a six in his career best score. But there the comparisons end, as the 1976 match finished in a draw,with Glamorgan`s last pair stoutly defending the last 21 balls on the finalafternoon to draw the game.Thomas` career best 138 may prove to be a match winning innings, asGlamorgan made 370 in their first innings. By tea on the second day,Essex were already following on after being dismissed for 193 withDarren Thomas taking four wickets.This is the third year running that a Glamorgan player has established a recordscore for a batting position, and as the table below shows, in the past two years it has been Steve James who has rewritten the record books, with the highest scores at number one and two in the order:

HIGHEST SCORES FOR EACH POSITION IN THE BATTING ORDER BY GLAMORGAN1 259 S.P.James v Nottinghamshire Colwyn Bay, 19992 309* S.P.James v Sussex Colwyn Bay, 20003 223 A.R.Lewis v Kent Gravesend, 19664 243 M.P.Maynard v Hampshire Southampton, 19915 280* R.G.Duckfield v Surrey The Oval, 19366 165* D.Davies v Sussex Eastbourne, 19287 151* C.C.Smart v Sussex Hastings, 19358 138 S.D.Thomas v Essex Chelmsford, 20019 124* M.A.Nash v Leicestershire Swansea, 197810 101* J.C.Clay v Worcestershire Swansea, 192911 73 S.A.B.Daniels v Gloucestershire Swansea, 1982

A major update has emerged on Sunderland striker Ross Stewart and his future at the Stadium of Light…

What’s the talk?

According to the Daily Record, the Black Cats are preparing to pin him down to an extended contract with the club to avoid losing him in the summer.

The report claims that they are aware of growing interest in his services after his call-up to the Scotland national team and Kristjaan Speakman is now eyeing up an imminent offer in an attempt to keep him on Wearside.

Buzzing

This update will surely leave the Stadium of Light faithful buzzing as they will be keen to see Stewart commit his future to the club.

He has been phenomenal in League One and allowing him to leave in the summer would be a major blow to the squad. His average SofaScore rating of 7.29 is unrivalled within the Sunderland squad and this suggests that he has been the club’s most consistent performer throughout the campaign as he has maintained a high standard all throughout 2021/22.

The Scot’s goalscoring numbers reflect his performances as he has found the back of the net a whopping 22 times in 39 outings for the Black Cats. He has been able to consistently bang in the goals in the third tier, whilst he has also shown off his link-up play with six ‘big chances’ created and 1.4 key passes per game.

This shows that he has been a major force at the top end of the pitch for Lee Johnson and Alex Neil this season. He can score and create goals as the number nine and his contributions have been key to the club’s promotion challenge as they sit in the top-six as it stands.

Therefore, his exit would leave Neil with a huge gap to fill in his starting XI. This would be particularly painful should the club achieve promotion to the Championship as it would, naturally, be harder to find a replacement whilst playing at a higher level in the football pyramid.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

This is why fans will be delighted to read that Speakman is set to offer Stewart a new contract. They will surely want to see him scoring goals for Sunderland for as long as possible and it would be intriguing to see how he would fare in the second tier if the Black Cats end up being promoted.

AND in other news, Left for £0, now worth £6.3m: SAFC had huge howler over “Champions League” quality gem…

Match facts

Sunday, May 18, 2008
Start time 20.00 (local), 14.30 (GMT)

	Will Shahid Afridi prevail in the opening dash? (file photo) © AFP

The Big Picture

The last time these teams met Adam Gilchrist blasted a century off 42 balls to hand Mumbai a crushing defeat, their fourth in a row. It was Deccan’s first win in the IPL; they have won just one more game since and must win on Sunday to keep alive their faint hopes of a semi-final spot. Mumbai went on from that match to string together five consecutive wins, the last two in spectacular and emphatic fashion, and will fancy their chances of becoming the first team in the IPL to win six in a row.Mumbai’s streak has been based on the explosive batting of Sanath Jayasuriya, the bowling led by Shaun Pollock and the morale-boosting return to the side of captain and icon Sachin Tendulkar. Their annihilation of Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday and the ease with which they dismantled Chennai Super Kings in the match before that are ominous signs of a well-oiled machine hitting full throttle.Deccan are yet to win a game at home and, languishing one spot above the bottom of the table, have seen the wheels come off their campaign. None of their bowlers has been able to provide early breakthroughs and the batting has been over-reliant on Gilchrist and Rohit Sharma. The big names – especially Herschelle Gibbs and Shahid Afridi – have flattered to deceive.

Tournament position

Deccan Chargers: P10, W2, L8, NRR -0.380
Mumbai Indians: P9, W5, L4, NRR +0.658

Form (last five matches, most recent first)

Deccan Chargers: LLLWL
Mumbai Indians: WWWWW

Watch out for …

The equivalent of an Olympic 100 metres final with Sanath Jayasuriya, Adam Gilchrist, Shahid Afridi, Herschelle Gibbs and Sachin Tendulkar getting ready to dash off the blocks.

Shaun Pollock will be the biggest hurdle for Hyderabad’s top order to clear before aspiring for a podium finish.

Rohit Sharma. Why Mumbai never picked him remains a point of debate and it will interesting to see if he feels he has a point to prove.

This is Dwayne Bravo’s last game for Mumbai before he joins the West Indies squad for the Australia Tests and he’d surely like to leave on a winning note.

	How will Deccan Chargers cope against Shaun Pollock? (file photo) © Getty Images

Team news

Gilchrist indicated there won’t be any changes from the team that played against the Delhi Daredevils two days back.Deccan Chargers (probable): 1 Adam Gilchrist (capt & wk), 2 Shahid Afridi, 3 Herschelle Gibbs, 4 Rohit Sharma, 5 Venugopal Rao, 6 Ravi Teja, 7 Scott Styris, 8 PM Sarvesh Kumar, 9 Pragyan Ojha, 10 RP Singh, 11 P Vijaykumar.Why change a winning combination, Mumbai might think. Considering three big games coming up they might like to rest the young medium-pacer Dhawal Kulkarni, who is recovering from an ankle injury picked during the match against the Chennai Super Kings earlier in the week.Mumbai Indians (probable): 1 Sachin Tendulkar (capt), 2 Sanath Jayasuriya, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Dominic Thornely, 5 Dwayne Bravo, 6 Shaun Pollock, 7 Abhishek Nayar, 8 Yogesh Takawale (wk), 9 Rajesh Pawar, 10 Rohan Raje, 11 Ashish Nehra.

Stats and trivia

With 18 sixes, Sanath Jayasuriya currently has hit the most number of maximums, one more than David Hussey’s 17.

Scott Styris has only managed 91 runs in six innings for Deccan, but more perplexing is that the runs have come at a woeful strike-rate of 90.09.

Deccan are the only team yet to win at home.

Quotes

“Rohit Sharma is a genuinely talented batsman. He is a very confident player and has his own style of play. The time I spent in Australia, batting with him [in the first CB Series final], was one of the longest innings I’ve played and I could see he was very calm, which is very important for a batsman.”
Sachin Tendulkar praises a fellow Mumbaikar who happens to be Deccan’s leading run-scorer.”We are already thinking about next year.”
Adam Gilchrist sums up the feelings in the Deccan camp.

Shaun Liebisch made 91 and took six wickets on debut © Keith Lane

Northerns routed Free State by an innings and 91 runs at the LC de Villiers Oval, the game all but decided on the first morning as Pretoria were skittled out for 98 after being stuck in on a green track.Poor batting was also behind Zimbabwe Provinces’ 210-run defeat by Easterns at Bulawayo as they were bowled out for 81 and 130.Deon Carolus grabbed 9 for 103 in Griqualand West’s draw with North West in Kimberley. His career-best 5 for 37 ensured that North West had to follow on, but they batted better the second time round and almost pulled off a remarkable win as Griqualand West finished on 139 for 8, chasing 157 in 23 overs.Western Province eased to an eight-wicket win over South Western Districts at Oudtshoorn. Esmund Peter van Wyk set up the victory with match figures of 9 for 67.

Pool A

Team	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	Draw	Aban	Pts
Western Province	3	2	1	0	0	0	43.34
Border	2	1	0	0	1	0	22.92
Eastern Province	1	1	0	0	0	0	17.48
KwaZulu-Natal	2	0	1	0	1	0	13.06
S West D	2	0	2	0	0	0	7.64
Boland	1	0	0	0	1	0	6.96
KwaZulu-Inld	1	0	0	0	1	0	6.08

Pool B

Team	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	Draw	Aban	Pts
North West	4	0	0	0	4	0	33.14
Northerns	2	1	0	0	1	0	25.34
Gauteng	2	1	0	0	1	0	22.92
Easterns	2	1	0	0	1	0	22.54
Free State	3	0	1	0	2	0	18.56
Griqualand West	2	0	0	0	2	0	16.56
Zim Provs	2	0	2	0	0	0	10.38
Namibia	1	0	0	0	1	0	8.8

SAA Provincial One-Day Challenge

Pool AA disciplined performance from Western Province’s bowlers handed them an impressive 86-run win over South Western Districts at Oudtshoorn. Western Province were indebted to Ryan Canning’s 67 in their 180, but William Hantam blew South Western Districts away with three early wickets before Esmund Peter van Wyk broke through the middle order with 3 for 20. Jonathan Beukes was left stranded on 50; the next highest total (other than extras, with 20) was Ntabyozuko Nobebe, the No.11, who made 8.Pool B
A blistering 71 from Niel Bredenkamp, the 20-year-old, led North West to an imposing 288 for 4 from their 45 overs, which proved too much for Griqualand West at Kimberley. Tianne Mostert got the innings off to a flyer with an 81-ball 74, combining well with Werner Coetsee who fell three short of a hundred when he was trapped in front by Jandre Coetzee. But it was Bredenkamp who gave the innings the injection they needed, smacking 71 from just 46 balls, heaving six sixes and four fours. Griqualand West fell 46 runs short, despite an unbeaten 93 from Wendell Bossenger. Etienne Gerber picked up 4 for 37.Northerns eased past Free State by 104 runs at Pretoria after dismissing them for 168. None of Free State’s batsmen moved out of first gear – Hancke van Rauenstein’s 31 came from 64 balls – as Mandla Mashimbyi, Roelof van der Merwe and Aaron Phangiso picked up two wickets each. Northerns’ 272 for 4 was led by Rushdi Jappie’s unbeaten 98 and a 36-ball 60 from Farhaan Behardien.A fine allround display from Geoffrey Toyana gave Easterns an easy four-wicket win over Zimbabwe Provinces in Bulawayo. Toyana’s 3 for 23 restricted the Provinces to 191 for 8, and he guided Easterns home with a slick 87.

Pool A

Team	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	N/R	Pts	Net RR	For	Against
Western Province	3	3	0	0	0	13	+0.768	675/132.3	584/135.0
S West D	2	1	1	0	0	5	+0.176	126/50.0	211/90.0
Boland	1	1	0	0	0	4	+0.223	233/43.3	231/45.0
KwaZulu-Natal	2	1	1	0	0	3	+0.278	419/84.0	420/89.1
KwaZulu-Inld	1	0	1	0	0	0	-0.223	231/45.0	233/43.3
Eastern Province	1	0	1	0	0	0	-0.232	244/45.0	245/43.2
Border	2	0	2	0	0	-1	-2.426	201/90.0	205/44.0

Pool B

Team	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	N/R	Pts	Net RR	For	Against
Gauteng	2	2	0	0	0	9	+0.961	352/76.5	315/87.0
Northerns	2	2	0	0	0	8	+1.199	510/89.5	403/90.0
Easterns	2	2	0	0	0	8	+0.436	415/88.4	382/90.0
North West	4	1	3	0	0	4	+0.035	975/176.0	968/175.5
Free State	3	1	2	0	0	4	-1.027	537/131.1	676/132.0
Namibia	1	1	0	0	0	2	+0.073	264/41.0	261/41.0
Zim Provs	2	0	2	0	0	0	-0.609	335/90.0	340/78.3
Griqualand West	2	0	2	0	0	-1	-0.528	443/90.0	486/89.1

Player of the Week

– Shaun LiebischAn impressive debut from Northerns’ 21-year-old Liebisch. The son of a retired umpire who has a reputation as a death bowler for the University of Pretoria, he moves the ball away from right handers and has a reputation for hitting the deck hard. He kicked off with remarkable figures of 12-8-7-4 with his accurate seamers and then top-scored with a three-hour 91 from No. 6 – he started his career as an opening batsman. His accuracy was again to the fore in Free State’s second innings as he finished with 16-6-38-2.

Group BShoaib Malik led Sialkot Stallions, the defending champions, into the semi-finals with a comfortable seven-wicket win against Hyderabad Hawks. Malik’s astute 53, helped equally by breezy thirties from Shahid Yousuf and Qaiser Abbas, saw the Stallions reach their target of 144, with an over and seven wickets to spare. Though Rizwan Ahmed top-scored for the Hawks with 42, disciplined Sialkot bowling all round, restricted their final total, with Tahir Mughal picking up two for 22.Group CFazl-e-Akbar, former Pakistan paceman and perennial domestic giant, took 3 for 9 as Peshawar Panthers thrashed the Islamabad Leopards by 65 runs to advance to the semi-finals. The Leopards were never in the chase for 147, as Umar Gul and Akbar reduced them to 31 for 5. Only Shoaib Akhtar, top-scoring with 14 took them to 81. Earlier, Shoaib had gone for over ten an over in return for a solitary wicket as middle-order forties from Riffatullah Mohmand and Wajahatullah Wasti saw the Panthers recover from an iffy start.Group AA 60-run partnership between Shadab Kabir and Fawad Alam took Karachi Dolphins home to a comfortable eight-wicket win over the tournament’s weakest links, the Abbotabad Rhinos. Chasing only 114, both batsmen took advantage of a weak bowling attack, Kabir’s 40 coming off 34 balls. Alam’s 35 complemented a fine bowling performance earlier in the piece, his two key middle-order wickets, helping restrict the Rhinos. Shahid Afridi, captaining the Dolphins, continued his good leg-spinning form, picking up three wickets for 23 off his four overs.Group DLahore Lions edged out the Rawalpindi Rams by only two runs in what turned out to be, comfortably, the day’s most exciting game. A blazing fifty from Kamran Akmal, with six fours and six, set the Lions on their way to a healthy total. Mohammad Yousuf, who has taken runs from the best this year, could only make 19 here and it was left to a manic 28-ball 51 from Adnan Raza to lift the Lions to 178. The Rams began as if to finish the game in ten overs, and Babar Naeem and Mohammad Wasim brought the fifty up in only fourth over. Thereafter though, they lost wickets at regular, brief intervals with Imran Ali, Kashif Sadiq and Sulaman Qadir (off-spinning son of leg-spinning Abdul) picking up two wickets each. And despite some lusty hitting by Akhtar Ayub and Sohail Tanvir at the death, including a four off the last ball, the Rams fell just short.

Laura Newton – out © Getty Images

Laura Newton has left England’s tour party and flown home after fracturing a finger when fielding at cover in the third one-dayer against India on Sunday. She will visit a specialist who may prescribe surgery. The opening batsman Newton is the second casualty of the trip; the allrounder Katherine Brunt is already back in England after breaking a bone in her hand.Newton had a poor start to the one-dayers, with two ducks in succession, but hit her straps on Sunday with 40 as England slipped 2-1 behind India in the five-match series. She also hit 59 and 60 in England’s 2-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka earlier this tour. “I’m obviously disappointed to have to leave at such a late stage in this tour,” she said. “I’d have liked to have finished the job we started as a team, but these things happen and I have to accept that.”This squad has a do-or-die attitude and I know they’ll come out fighting for the remaining two games. It’s always tough touring India and this time has been no exception. We’ve had highs and lows and I’m sure the girls will focus on the positives to ensure the tour finishes with success. I’ll be following it all closely from home and wish them the best of luck.”Richard Bates added: “It’s definitely a huge blow to lose another key member of the squad. Laura is a prolific run scorer for us and to lose her as well as Katherine Brunt is a major loss.”As a squad we now really need to rally round, pull together and above all be strong as a unit. I really feel for Laura, but following medical advice the best thing for her is to fly back to the UK straight away and seek further medical opinion.”With Newton missing, Caroline Atkins may be boosted from the middle order to opener. Atkins was originally included in the squad as a replacement for Clare Connor, who has an injured ankle, but has batted in the top spot before – with some success. As an opener, Atkins averages 25.4 compared to 21.5 lower down the order. Her only one-day fifty has come from opening, too.

Darren Gough: ‘As the scale of the disaster grew it’s just been heartbreaking’© Getty Images

International stars from various countries have sent messages of commiseration to the people affected by the tsunami disaster that ravaged several parts of South Asia recently. Darren Gough, Chris Cairns, Daniel Vettori, Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo are some of the players who have have converged in Melbourne to participate in the charity game between an ICC XI and an Asian XI on January 10, and they all expressed their grief at the tragic event.Gough revealed the shock he had felt when he initially heard the news. “I suppose my first reaction was to think of all the really nice people I’ve met in Sri Lanka when I’ve played there, and memories of playing at Galle and other grounds. As the scale of the disaster grew and grew it’s just been heartbreaking.”Cairns was happy that the cricket community managed to organise an event of such scale in such a short time. “The massive logistical operation required to put on an event like this means all those involved are fully committed to making this a huge success.”Gough spoke of the generosity of the people from all over the world to reach out to the victims. “I think cricket has led from the front too. The generosity of people from Britain has been immense – my kids have given their pocket money and millions of people have made massive contributions. Then there are people like Murali who has been handing out food parcels virtually since it happened.”Vettori hoped that the rehabilitation efforts would be sustained over a period of time and added, “It is going to take a long time for people, cities, and countries to recover. It is going to take years of resource before communities are able to function. This appeal is not about one day or one week, it’s about being there for as long as it takes.”

Stephen Fleming has spoken out strongly against the scheduling of the ongoing triangular series, the TVS Cup. He has said that Australia and New Zealand have been made to play more day matches, and the quality of the pitches in some of them has been such that the toss virtually decided the match.SK Nair, the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has reacted to this by saying that the New Zealand board was aware of the scheduling and the conditions, and if Fleming has a problem, he should approach his own board.”They’ve got it wrong,” Fleming had said earlier. “You can’t start this early with wickets like this, there’s no point. We’ve been on the wrong side of it twice and it makes the next game a lottery too.”There’s two competitions going on – one for us and Australia where it seams around and is tough to bat and India lay another one where it gets lower and slower then turns. I wonder who did that itinerary.”New Zealand lost the toss against Australia at both Faridabad and Pune, and their top order was blown away in both games on a grassy pitch, in early morning conditons. They were all out for 97 at Faridabad, and though they did recover at Pune, the damage had already been done.”So much rides on the toss,” said Fleming. “At least in New Zealand it seams for 100 overs, here it seams for 25 and after that it’s a belter. I’ve talked to Ricky Ponting and he’s not happy either because we know how crucial the toss is.”Ponting backed up Fleming, saying, “They’re trying to better their wickets for the standard of their own cricket but they’ve just left too much juice in them for one-day cricket,” Ponting said.”When you are starting at that time of the morning it is bound to swing, and the wickets have had life in them which is tough for the side batting first.”Nair replied to Fleming outburst by saying, “He [Fleming] should ask his own Board [about the scheduling].” He said that both teams had been had been presented with the itinerary a month before the series began on October 23, and that neither team had raised any objections.Nair also asserted that not all venues in the country have floodlight facilities, and that day-night games were allotted on ” a rotational basis”.

Inspired spells of fast bowling from Paul Rofe and Mark Harrity have paved the way for a 66 run victory and a valuable bonus point for the Southern Redbacks over the Queensland Bulls in their ING Cup day/night clash at the Gabba.Defending a modest total of 8-203 the Redbacks were provided with a dream start after Rofe ripped through the Bulls’ top order batting.The much improved speedster picked up Test opener Matthew Hayden for two and then Martin Love for two with just 17 runs on the board.Andrew Symonds (18) then threatened to turn the match in a way only he can smashing 16 off five Rofe deliveries before the Redbacks trump surprised Symondswith an off-cutter that careered into his stumps.The Bulls had slumped to 3-43 and despite a 40 run partnership between captain Jimmy Maher (24) and Clinton Perren (24) the Redbacks were always incommand.All rounder Mike Smith ably supported the front row bowlers chiming in with two low order wickets while Greg Blewett grabbed the final one to fall.Earlier Blewett top scored for South Australia with 45 while Ben Johnson rallied the tail, making 44 ably assisted by Brad Young (32).For the Bulls Joe Dawes finished with 3-37 off nine overs while Damien MacKenzie took 2-21 off six.James Hopes was the pick of the bowlers though with 1-19 off his 10 overs.Redbacks left arm speedster Harrity was named man of the match for his outstanding figures of 3-15 in 10 overs.The win and a valuable bonus point has helped the Redbacks to move to equal first with the Bulls on the ING Cup table on 27 points.The two teams meet again next weekend in Adelaide.