Preview of the match between Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad in Chennai

The Preview by Devashish Fuloria24-Apr-2013

Match facts

Thursday, April 25, 2013
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)X-factor: Sunrisers Hyderabad’s batting is in need of some verve•BCCI

Big Picture

How did they do it? Sunrisers Hyderabad were at best predicted to be spirited also-rans, but despite their supposed weaknesses, they are near the top end of the table. Their run until now has been as unexpected as Delhi Daredevils’ rut and the surprise is visible in Dale Steyn’s smirk every time he is interviewed after a tight win. In Chennai, where they will be without their in-form allrounder – Thisara Perera, against a home team that has enough ammunition in their batting to raze their bowling attack, Sunrisers’ pluck is going to get seriously tested.Sunrisers’ balance is going to take a hit in the absence of Perera who has been their top run-scorer and has picked up nine wickets. With Steyn, Ishant Sharma and Amit Mishra, they still have bite in their bowling, but it’s their batting which continues to be a headache. They left out Kumar Sangakkara in the last two matches to allow Quinton de Kock time to settle in preparation for this match, but that move has had zero results. With Perera missing, they are in serious need of some good news on the batting front. One came yesterday – Shikhar Dhawan took part in training on Tuesday evening and could feature in Chennai.Chennai Super Kings have no such issues. After a scratchy start to the tournament, they have had three wins a row. Their bowling strangled the opposition in two of those games and their batting rose to the occasion in the third. Suresh Raina, who had a quiet start to the tournament, also showed signs of returning to form with a half-century in the last match. Faf du Plessis is also available for selection. No question then who starts this match as a favourite. However, Sunrisers can take encouragement from the fact that Pune Warriors sneaked out a win in Chennai too.

Form guide

Chennai Super Kings WWWLW (most recent first)
Sunrisers Hyderabad WWLWL

Players to watch

While Amit Mishra has been hogging the limelight, Sunrisers’ other legspinner Karan Sharma has quietly cemented his place in the side. In the three matches he has played, he has picked up four wickets and has been miserly with an economy of 5.62. It is because of support acts like Karan that Sunrisers haven’t had any loose ends in their bowling. In the absence of Perera, Karan would be expected to step up against Super Kings’ big-hitting left-handers.Michael Hussey is in the middle of a productive run and his last five innings read – 88, 40 65*, 6, 86*. The solidity he has provided at the top of the order has helped in laying the platform for the power hitters, who could be susceptible in situations that need them to graft. If he can keep Steyn and Co at bay early, a big chunk of Super Kings’ job would be considered done.

Stats and trivia

• Super Kings have scored less than 130 just once this season. Sunrisers, on the other hand, have crossed 130 two times in seven attempts.
• Only four Sunrisers batsmen have a strike-rate of more than 100 this season – Mishra, Perera, Steyn and Ashish Reddy.

Quotes

“The batsman is already struggling against Steyn and then he has to face a ball delivered by Ishant from eight feet high.”

The BCCI will implement several measures targeted at players, support staff and team owners to curb corruption in the IPL

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Jun-2013The BCCI has announced its first set of proposals to “clean up” the IPL, measures ranging from financial disclosures by players and team owners to curbing the tournament’s controversial “entertainment” quotient, including putting a stop to cheerleaders and after-match parties.The measures are part of “operation clean-up,” announced by acting BCCI head Jagmohan Dalmiya at the end of a working committee meeting in Delhi on Monday. It aims to curb corruption and remove “sleaze” in the IPL by enforcing a “strict code of conduct” for players, support staff and owners, after the 2013 season was hit by charges of spot-fixing against players and by allegations that team owners were involved in illegal betting.Players will be required to reveal sources of their earnings, and owners will have to furnish details of payments and their contractual obligations with players and support staff.Access to the players’ dug-out and dressing room has been tightened once again, with Dalmiya saying that team owners will be restricted from these areas during matches. Owners were allowed in the dug-out and dressing room during the first season in 2008, but following complaints had been prevented from entering those areas thereafter. They now have seating arrangements close to the dug-out. Top officials of two teams, Gurunath Meiyappan of the Chennai Super Kings and Raj Kundra of Rajasthan Royals, have confessed to taking part in illegal betting, according to the Mumbai and Delhi police.Dalmiya also said that “no selector will be allowed to get associated with any franchise in any capacity.” No member of India’s current selection panel is attached to any franchise, but former selection chairman Kris Srikkanth was brand ambassador for the Super Kings for a period at the start of the IPL.Players and support staff will need to provide their telephone numbers to the BCCI before the IPL, and there will be a larger number of officials from the BCCI’s Anti Corruption and Security Unit at grounds and hotels during the tournament. It was also said that cell phone towers at the ground could be jammed during matches.No decision was taken on the strategic time-out, which accounts for five minutes of every IPL match and came into being in 2010. The two intervals of two and a half minutes each in every innings allow teams to strategise with support staff, and commercially it creates 300 seconds of advertising space. However, according to police investigations that led to more than 25 betting-related arrests in Delhi and Mumbai, the time-out was also an ideal period for the syndicates to adjust their session and spot odds. When Dalmiya was asked about this, he said: “We have not thought about it, it was just a financial exercise.”On Tuesday, BCCI’s secretary Sanjay Patel was quoted in the saying that cleaning up the IPL was an “ongoing process” and doing away with the strategic time-outs had “financial implications.” He did not rule out any future change, however, saying that the strategic time-out could form a part of “additional measures in our programme. We will discuss all other issues, including strategic time-out in our future meetings.”Operation clean-up is a work in progress, Dalmiya said, and IPL captains will be called for a meeting and franchises will also be consulted before a blueprint could be finalised at another working committee meeting.By Sharda UgraThe BCCI’s 12-point “Operation Clean-Up” should, in a twisted way, look like a giant leap for Indian cricket. It is the first formal, even if disguised, admission of errors, misdemeanours and lapses in governance that Indian cricket has made since it became the game’s financial behemoth.It was official acknowledgement that the dirt whirling around the IPL could not possibly be brushed under a carpet of delusion. It involved three players, two IPL team owners, the police of two cities, an umpire who was yanked out of the Champions Trophy by the ICC, two dozen illegal bookies and time in prison.Operation Clean-Up addresses IPL’s corruption issues at two levels. Putting an end to cheer leaders and after-match parties and planning to jam cellphones during matches is at worst a cosmetic change, at best tangential. Cheerleaders are not responsible for cricketers being lured by bookies or owners falling prey to gambling. After-match parties have been off limits in the post-Modi IPL world anyway. Jamming cellphones during matches serve no purpose if deals have already been done.The more serious aspect of the BCCI’s plans involve asking cricketers to spell out their financial investments and partnerships, and for IPL owners to come clean with the details of their payment structures with players and support staff. While it may not uncover ‘black’ or ‘grey’ money dealings but it is the most you can do. It must be hoped that these will be early steps towards financial transparency in the BCCI, signaling a departure from the IPL’s very smelly ‘secret tie-break’ culture.Whatever may have been included in the 12-point list, what stayed off it were the unmentionables. Whether BCCI officials would be willing to have their own financial backgrounds so thoroughly examined. To reveal the channels through which they make profits through cricket. Whether the BCCI would consider re-amending their constitution, rolling back the clause that gave N Srinivasan the latitude to buy an IPL franchise. Whether officials fighting misappropriation of funds cases against them could possibly continue in office.Operation Clean Up is a very small first step. It is the follow through that will tell us whether the BCCI has responded to perhaps the worst crisis in its history with a thorough overhaul of its governance structures, or mere window dressing.

Rohit Sharma, the India batsman, has said his team’s victory against Sri Lanka in the tri-series final, despite the pressure of the last over, came as no surprise to the dressing room, as they always had confidence in captain MS Dhoni

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Jul-2013India batsman Rohit Sharma has said his team’s victory in the tri-series final against Sri Lanka came as no surprise to the dressing room, despite the pressure of the last over, as it always had confidence in captain MS Dhoni, who has “done it over and over for us”. Dhoni said that he wasn’t panicking either, using his “good cricketing sense” to deal with the situation.”I think I am blessed with a bit of good cricketing sense. I thought 15 runs was something that I could look for [in the final over], the reason being the opposition’s bowler was not someone who is very experienced,” Dhoni said after the match. “So I thought, rather than taking on a Malinga or a Mathews, I’d take it to the end, and it really worked in our favour.”India were on course in their chase of 202 while on 139 for 3 in the 32nd over. But Sri Lanka fought back with a flurry of wickets, mainly through Rangana Herath, leaving India tottering at 167 for 8. Dhoni, returning from a hamstring injury for this match, turned down a few singles, and was content to play out Mathews and Malinga. That left India needing 15 runs off Shaminda Eranga’s final over and Dhoni, after a change of bat, won it with two balls to spare.Dhoni said he was looking for a heavier bat to get those final hits away. “That was a 2kg bat, a very heavy bat, it was needed at that point of time. Apart from it being a very good bat, I think the weight of the bat was perfect also.”Rohit, who set up the innings with a battling 58, said the pitch was quite tricky: “The wicket was not easy to play shots on, so I just wanted to delay my shots [and] bat till the end, but unfortunately it didn’t happen. But it came out really well in the end.”Dhoni has done it over and over for us, so we were all positive in the dressing room. We’ve seen him doing it for many years now. This wasn’t any surprise.”Sri Lanka’s captain, Angelo Mathews, said his team did well to stretch India as much as they did. “Our bowlers showed a lot of character, especially Herath. He brought us back into the game [and] almost helped us defend 200.”Herath had dealt India a double-blow in the 38th over, trapping Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin lbw off consecutive deliveries. But, in the end, it was another loss for Sri Lanka in a one-day tournament final. Mathews said his batsmen should have done better, after being 171 for 2. “To get to the finals, once again we showed heart, played positive cricket, but once again we couldn’t cross the line.”After Sangakkara and Thirimanne got out, we just panicked and kept losing wickets. We didn’t have the momentum to go at the end. We kept taking wrong options. If we had batted through the 50 overs, we would have got to 230-240.”

Shakib Al Hasan, the Bangladesh allrounder, has said he is enjoying the success with the ball, but he is “desperate to score some runs”

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Aug-2013Shakib Al Hasan, the Bangladesh allrounder who is playing for the Barbados Tridents in the Caribbean Premier League, has said he is enjoying the success with the ball, but he is “desperate to score some runs”. Shakib bowled a destructive spell of 6 for 6 in the match against the Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel, but is yet to taste success with the bat and has scores of 5, 1 and 1 from his three innings.”If you told me I could take five wickets or score a hundred, I would take the hundred any day,” Shakib said. “I am more satisfied getting runs than wickets. I am an allrounder, but I always prefer scoring runs more than my bowling so I am more desperate than anyone else right now I guess.”Shakib’s poor form with the bat has followed him from England, where he was part of Leicestershire team in the FLT20, and managed 146 runs from nine innings with a best of 43. In his last match, Shakib’s bowling spell skittled T&T out for 52, but he managed only 1 in the chase, playing on a Fidel Edwards delivery, and his wicket left the team in a precarious position at 36 for 5.”In that situation I needed to bat. The plan was to see off Fidel because he was getting wickets and I played a rash shot,” he said. “I could have left that ball easily because we were not chasing 150, 160 runs so I was frustrated with myself, not anything else.”Shakib, however, was happy with his bowling after registering the second-best T20 bowling figures. “I guess I was a bit lucky because you can’t get six wickets every day in a T20 game,” he said. “Bowling four overs, getting six wickets, once in a blue moon you may get it but I’ll take it.”Barbados Tridents have not been affected by Shakib’s lack of form with the bat and have registered three wins out of three in the tournament.

Captain Sami Aslam almost single-handedly set up Pakistan Under-19s’ eight-wicket win over Bangladesh Under-19s in the triangular series at Market Harborough.

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Aug-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsCaptain Sami Aslam almost single-handedly set up Pakistan Under-19s’ eight-wicket win over Bangladesh Under-19s in the triangular series at Market Harborough. His unbeaten century led his side to their second win in the tournament and put them at the top of the points table.Chasing 193 to win, Pakistan got off to a solid start, with Aslam and Imran Butt adding 107 for the first wicket. The game was all but decided by the time Bangladesh ran out Butt in the 29th over. Imam-ul-Haq was the other batsman dismissed, caught and bowled by offspinner Mehedy Hasan, but Aslam remained steady at the other end, his 120 off 142 balls, with 17 fours and a six, spanning the entire Pakistan chase. He added an undefeated 58-run stand with Hussain Talat to secure the match and as in the two previous partnerships, Aslam dominated this one too.After Bangladesh were invited to bat, left-arm seamer Zia-ul-Haq gave Pakistan the first breakthrough with the wicket of Shahriar Sumon in the fifth over. He added two more to his final tally to end up with three for 27, while Mohammad Aftab and left-arm spinner Kamran Ghulam chipped in with two wickets each. Wicketkeeper Jashimuddin top-scored for Bangladesh, his 50 off 67 balls, featuring five fours. He put on Bangladesh’s only fifty-plus partnership with Sadman Islam, who toiled for two hours to make 46 and was run out.The two sides play the next game of the Under-19 tri-series on Sunday at Kibworth.

Northants will have had better days than this. They were not at their best with the ball. The fact that they are still in a strong position speaks volumes of their season to date

Vithushan Ehantharajah at Northampton28-Aug-2013
ScorecardSteven Crook added four more wickets to the five he took against Glamorgan earlier in the season•Getty Images

Northants will have had better days than this. They were not at their best with the ball and allowed Glamorgan to score 50 more than they should have. The fact that they are still in a strong position speaks volumes of their season to date – one which looks to end in promotion should they capitalise on what, by their standards, was a modest first day.At stumps, Stephen Peters could rest easy knowing his call at the start of the day was vindicated, as a green pitch played honest and true. Both he and James Middlebrook played positively in a 21 over period that saw them score at over four-an-over, with crisp drives and the odd boundary through third man, to leave them unblemished and just 156 runs behind.Northants went into the match with five seamers, inserting the opposition upon winning the toss. But Trent Copeland, in his penultimate game for the county before he heads home for a second and final time this summer, was uncharacteristically wayward, struggling for a consistent line against the left-handed opening pair of Will Bragg and Gareth Rees.Rees looked at ease, particularly against David Willey, as Glamorgan built up a good head of steam, and the only thing the home support had to cheer on was the athleticism of their keeper David Murphy, who was sent tumbling down the leg side on numerous occasions throughout the day; but even he was powerless to stop a wide short-ball from Azharullah that had the members gasping.But Northants showed that when they’re not good they can be lucky, as they demonstrated in an afternoon session that saw six wickets fall.Soon after Murray Goodwin and Chris Cooke brought up their fifty partnership for the third wicket, Cooke looked to have played a short-ball comfortably into the leg-side. Suddenly, Andrew Hall, from first slip, starts cheering and runs up to the stumps at the strikers end, pointing to a grounded bail. It turned out that as Cooke prepared for the back-foot shot, he inadvertently clipped off stump with his bat, much to the bemusement of all in the ground.Just 17 balls later, Willey was the beneficiary of further good fortune. Despite coming around the wicket and swinging the ball into the right-hander, he somehow managed to strangle Goodwin down the leg-side. He then managed to effect the same dismissal with his very next delivery – this time from over the wicket – as Glamorgan’s left-handed skipper Mark Wallace departed for a golden duck. Between the dismissal of Cooke and Wallace, only 17 runs were added.It would be wrong to say that Willey did not deserve his four wickets. His control in his second spell was exceptional and his ability to move the ball in the air and off the seam, at good pace, was exciting to watch.Credit should also go to Steven Crook, who powered through an 11-over spell from the Abington Avenue End to finish with four of his own. Along with Copeland and Azharullah, who recently put pen to paper on a new two-year deal, Crook has been one of the signings of the summer. It is no wonder Middlesex were reluctant to let him leave.You will be hard-pressed to find anyone at Middlesex who would not want him back, and even fewer who begrudge the success he has enjoyed this year.

Hampshire made the most of the 90 minutes of play possible on the third day of their rain-interrupted Division Two meeting with Worcestershire

13-Sep-2013
ScorecardJames Tomlinson grabbed two key wickets in the brief play possible•Getty Images

Hampshire made the most of the 90 minutes of play possible on the third day of their rain-interrupted Division Two meeting with Worcestershire at New Road.James Tomlinson took two wickets, while Matt Coles took the other to fall as the home side reached 189 for 5 in their struggle to avoid the follow-on. They will go into the final day with a lot resting on Ross Whiteley if the lower order are to score a further 90 runs to make Hampshire – who made 428 in their first innings – bat again.Steady drizzle prevented any play before lunch and when the players did come out, Tomlinson ended a partnership of 84 by Moeen Ali and Thilan Samaraweera. In an eventful opening over Moeen edged a boundary and then survived an lbw appeal in the first two balls but there was no reprieve when the fifth delivery hit the pads.The England Lions left hander was never at his best in making 32 and with a maximum of three innings left, he needs 169 runs to become the first Worcestershire player to reach 1,500 in a championship season since Tom Moody in 1995.Samaraweera went beyond 50, but with nine boundaries to his name, the Sri Lankan went for 51 when caught at mid-on after a miscued attempt to pull Tomlinson. Worcestershire overcame this setback as young prospect Tom Fell and former Derbyshire all-rounder Whiteley scored at better than five runs an over.The left handed Whitley was quick to profit from a wayward start by Coles, clipping Hampshire’s on-loan seamer over long leg for six and then taking four boundaries in his next over. However, Coles was back in business when diving forward in his follow-through to hold a low chance from Fell (32) after a stand of 58.The arrival of more bad weather then became the main focus. Umpires Nigel Cowley and Mike Burns made the first move by taking the players off for bad light and then a forecast belt of rain then arrived before the game could re-start after tea.

Glamorgan have added to their South African contingent by bringing in Wayne Parnell for the NatWest T20 Blast

ESPNcricinfo staff07-May-2015Glamorgan have added to their South African contingent by bringing in Wayne Parnell for the NatWest T20 Blast. Allrounder Parnell will fill the second overseas slot and is initially expected to be available for the first ten of Glamorgan’s 14 group games.”I’m very excited about the prospects of joining up with both Jacques Rudolph and Colin Ingram and playing for Glamorgan,” Parnell said. Rudolph, Glamorgan’s captain, is the main overseas signing in Cardiff, while fellow former South Africa international Ingram has joined on a Kolpak deal.Parnell, who has been capped in all three formats and was a member of South Africa’s recent World Cup squad, has taken 118 T20 wickets, with an economy of 7.56. He has previously appeared in the IPL, as well as playing county cricket with Kent and Sussex.”We are delighted to have secured the services of Wayne Parnell, who was earmarked at a young age as one of South Africa’s brightest talents and who is a naturally gifted allrounder,” Glamorgan’s chief executive and director of cricket, Hugh Morris, said.”He will give us a wicket-taking threat and also the potential for valuable runs. Even more importantly, Wayne is available to us for the vast majority of our NatWestT20 Blast group games and we will re-visit discussions around a potential extension as the competition unfolds.”

Former West Indies fast bowler Wes Hall was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame during the lunch break on the opening day of the Sabina Park Test, becoming the fourth cricketer to receive the honour this year after Betty Wilson, Anil Kumble and Mar

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Jun-2015Former West Indies fast bowler Wes Hall was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame during the lunch break on the opening day of the Sabina Park Test between West Indies and Australia. He became the fourth cricketer to receive the honour this year after Betty Wilson, Anil Kumble and Martin Crowe.Hall, 77, received his commemorative cap from fellow Hall of Famer Courtney Walsh, and is now the 18th cricketer from the Caribbean to be bestowed with the award.Hall, who played 48 Tests for West Indies between 1958 and 1969, said he was “privileged” and “honoured” to receive the award which put him in the company of the “many greats of the game”.”Anytime you get these kind of encomiums, it is memorable,” he said. “It is fantastic to receive the award in the West Indies and in front of adoring fans, which makes it even more special. I have represented the West Indies as a cricketer, as the team manager, and as the President of the WICB, so I will treat this as something I value and will always remember.”Cricket has been extremely good to me and I was happy to give back to the game. This honour, presented to me by the ICC, is one I will cherish. It is not just for me but for the people of the West Indies.”Hall took 192 Test wickets at an average of 26.38. Overall, he played 170 first-class matches, collecting 546 wickets. He picked up a five-for on nine occasions in Tests, including 5 for 63 in the second innings of the famous tied Test against Australia in Brisbane in 1960, where he bowled the last over of the match with the hosts needing six runs with three wickets in hand.During the 1958-59 tour of India and Pakistan, Hall took 46 wickets from eight matches. In the third Test against Pakistan in Lahore, he became the first West Indies bowler to claim an international hat-trick.After retirement, he become an ordained minister as well as the Minister of Tourism and Sports in the Barbados government. Hall also managed the West Indies touring sides and in 2001, took over as the president of the WICB. In 2012, he was knighted in the Queen’s birthday honours list for his “services to sport and the community”.

Evin Lewis’82 led St. Kitts & Nevis Patriots to the second-largest win in a T20 competition hosted in West Indies, as Patriots thrashed Jamaica Tallawahs by 119 runs in Basseterre

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Jul-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsEvin Lewis smashed six fours and six sixes in his 82•Caribbean Premier League

Evin Lewis’ boundary-laden 82 led St. Kitts & Nevis Patriots to the second-largest win in a T20 competition in the West Indies and the largest in CPL history, as Patriots thrashed Jamaica Tallawahs by 119 runs in Basseterre.Lewis and Martin Guptill got stuck in right from the beginning, clobbering three fours and four sixes in the first six overs. Rusty Theron ended Guptill’s 25-ball 35 in the eighth over, but Lewis showed no signs of letting up. He smashed Nikita Miller for two fours in the next over and Andre Russell for two sixes in the following over. The second-wicket stand of 72 in 42 balls between Marlon Samuels and Lewis – in which Samuels contributed 19 – gave the Patriots the ideal platform to reach 200, a feat that had been achieved just twice since the CPL’s inception in 2013. Though Lewis and Samuels were dismissed in consecutive overs, Carlos Brathwaite ensured there wouldn’t be a shift in momentum with an 18-ball 36, which ensured the Patriots got to 199 for 5.In reply Tallawahs lost Chris Gayle, who had scored half-centuries in his last two games, in the second over for 8 and were never in the game after that. A brief 25-run third-wicket stand between Chris Lynn and Mahela Jayawardene was the best partnership of the innings. They lost wickets in clumps and were eventually bowled out for 80 in 16 overs. South African chinaman bowler Tabraiz Shamsi picked up 4 for 23 – his career-best figures – and Sheldon Cottrell took three wickets, those of the top-three batsmen.