Australia captain Michael Clarke has said that he expects a tough five-match one-day series against Sri Lanka

Sa'adi Thawfeeq09-Aug-2011Australia captain Michael Clarke has said that he expects a tough five-match one-day series against Sri Lanka. Clarke takes over as captain from Cameron White, who led the team in the two Twenty20s but is not in the one-day or Test teams.”Sri Lanka has shown that they are playing some good cricket at the moment in the T-20 matches,” Clarke said. “They love playing in their home conditions and it looks like that we will have lot of spin to face. We have obviously seen their bowlers a lot over the years, but there’s no guarantee that we are going to have any success. The conditions are very tough to play spin bowling. We have to be at our best and we have to be playing well. I can guarantee that all the boys are excited.”The first game will take place at the Pallakele Stadium on Wednesday and Clarke said the pitch looked fantastic. “Once you get in as a batter, it’s a beautiful place to bat. It’s just going to be tough to start off the spinners. But look we don’t expect anything different throughout the tour. We know wickets are going to be conducive to spin bowling.”Australia lost both T20 Internationals prior to Clarke’s arrival, which he said was a good indication that they need to get better in conditions that suit spin. “The boys have been training hard. That’s been our main focus in the last couple of months. We are really working hard on our preparations and putting in lot of time and energy in trying to get better. We know that we need to improve in all facets of the game. Few of the boys who have come with the ODI side are good players of spin and hopefully that will help us out.”Sri Lanka spinner Ajantha Mendis took 6 for 16 in the second T20, the best figures in the format’s international history, and Clarke said that his batters were looking forward to the challenge of facing him. “He’s a very good bowler and he has success in his career in all three formats of the game. We know that he’s a tough competitor and he spins the ball in both directions. That makes it harder for the batters. We have faced him before and it’s going to make our job hard.”We are looking forward for the challenge. We have obviously seen their bowlers a lot over the years but there’s no guarantee that we are going to have any success.”

Graeme Smith, South Africa Test captain, batted for the first time in a competitive match since undergoing a knee operation in July

Firdose Moonda01-Oct-2011South Africa Test captain Graeme Smith, batted for the first time in a competitive match since undergoing a knee operation in July. Smith was ruled out of the Cape Cobras squad for the Champions League to complete rehabilitation on his knee, which he injured while playing for the Pune Warriors in April this year.Smith collided with Rahul Sharma while fielding against the Kochi Tuskers Kerala and had to bat with a runner, a practice that has subsequently been outlawed, later in the match. He played two more games for Pune but left the competition before its completion. Smith complained of discomfort after that, went under the knife and started batting against the hard ball in mid-August.It was only on Saturday that Smith was able to get some game time, during a 20-over match for Claremont Cricket Club against Belville in Cape Town. He occupied the crease for seven overs and scored 20 runs, including two fours. “It was great to be back in the middle,” Smith said. “I hit some nice straight and cover drives and it was also important to start running sharply between the wickets again.”He is due to play another T20 game for Claremont next weekend and may turn out for his provincial side Western Province midweek. There is no opportunity for Smith to play franchise cricket because the Cobras’ first fixture of the season is on October 13, the same day as South Africa begin their series against Australia.Smith stepped down as T20 captain in August last year and as ODI captain after World Cup but remains available for selection in all three formats. His presence will be a much-needed one after AB de Villiers, who named Smith’s successor in limited-overs formats, broke his finger and was ruled out of the T20 and ODI series. There has been some talk of Smith returning to the captaincy, but that seems unlikely with Hashim Amla, the appointed vice-captain, waiting in the wings.

ESPNcricinfo’s preview of the third Test between Sri Lanka and Australia in Colombo

The Preview by Brydon Coverdale15-Sep-2011

Match facts

Peter Siddle is back in Australia’s Test team•AFP

September 16-20, Colombo (SSC)
Start time 10:00 (04:30 GMT, 14:30 EST)

Big Picture

Sri Lanka have been outplayed during this series but they could still escape with honours even, if they find a way to win at the SSC. Australia’s 1-0 lead would likely have become 2-0 had rain and bad light not intervened in Pallekele. Instead, Michael Clarke and his men now find themselves needing to draw or win in Colombo to take the series. It won’t be as easy as it appears. The SSC has been renowned for flat, batsman-friendly pitches in recent years, but draws haven’t been the only result on offer. Of the past 17 SSC Tests, only four have been drawn and Sri Lanka have been beaten just once. The triumphant team? Ricky Ponting’s Australians in 2004.Ponting will be back in Australia’s side at No.3, having missed the Pallekele Test for the birth of his child. Usman Khawaja has been confirmed as the unlucky batsman who will make way for Ponting. Khawaja had good form behind him, having made a century in the tour match, but Shaun Marsh’s debut hundred made him an irresistible prospect. There will also be a change in the attack, with Ryan Harris left out due to his hamstring problem, and Peter Siddle included. One thing that won’t change is Australia’s attitude: they will not be playing for a draw. “Our mindset must be the same,” Clarke wrote in his column on Thursday. “Not one of us is in a position to take our foot off the pedal or start taking things for granted because the team has had a couple of good games.”Sri Lanka’s strong record at the SSC should not be under-estimated, regardless of their recent form, and there will be extra incentive for the hosts to lift this time around. Kumar Sangakkara, not only one of the finest batsmen in the world but also one of cricket’s greatest ambassadors, is playing his 100th Test. Four Sri Lankans have reached that mark before Sangakkara and Sri Lanka won every one of those milestone matches. The hosts will regain Rangana Herath, but most importantly they need some big runs from their top order.

Form guide

(Most recent first)
Sri Lanka DLDDL
Australia DWLLW

In the spotlight

Angelo Mathews hasn’t been bowling during this series, so being included as a specialist batsman at No.7 meant he simply had to make runs. He has done just that. His 95 in the first Test, in a big partnership with Mahela Jayawardene, almost gave Sri Lanka a sniff of victory, and another half-century in Pallekele helped Sri Lanka avoid an even more embarrassing first innings. The kind of player who makes runs when it matters, Mathews does, however, lose patience occasionally and gives the fielding side opportunities. All the same, he has been the best player in Sri Lanka’s lower middle order this series.Shane Watson has now gone five innings without a Test half-century, his longest such streak since he started opening during the 2009 Ashes. He’ll be keen to make the most of what is likely to be a batsman-friendly pitch at the SSC in Colombo, as he continues to work on his new opening partnership with Phillip Hughes. Watson has certainly been contributing with the ball, as arguably the team’s best exponent of reverse swing, and despite his extra workload in the field, Michael Clarke is not considering shifting Watson down the batting order just yet. “It is something I’ll continue to think about,” Clarke told the . “I see Watto’s bowling as very important for the team so in time, if it’s best for the team, he might move down the order. But the priority is whatever’s best for the team and right now I think that’s Shane opening the batting.”

Team news

Sri Lanka should regain the most experienced spinner in their squad, Rangana Herath, who missed the second Test due to a finger injury. However, the news was not so good for Ajantha Mendis, who did not play the first two matches and has been ruled out of the third due to a back complaint. Herath should replace the legspinner Seekkuge Prasanna, who made his debut in Pallekele and didn’t pick up a wicket.Sri Lanka (possible) 1 Tillakaratne Dilshan (capt), 2 Tharanga Paranavitana, 3 Kumar Sangakkara, 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Thilan Samaraweera, 6 Prasanna Jayawardene (wk), 7 Angelo Mathews, 8 Suraj Randiv, 9 Rangana Herath, 10 Suranga Lakmal, 11 Chanaka Welegedara.Ponting and Siddle have been named in the starting XI for Khawaja and the injured Harris. Ponting will slot back in at No.3, with Marsh to slip down the order to No.6. The selectors decided against blooding the uncapped fast bowler James Pattinson.Australia 1 Shane Watson, 2 Phillip Hughes, 3 Ricky Ponting, 4 Michael Clarke (capt), 5 Michael Hussey, 6 Shaun Marsh, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Peter Siddle, 10 Trent Copeland, 11 Nathan Lyon.

Pitch and conditions

“We’re preparing for a long haul on a traditionally flat SSC pitch,” Clarke said two days before the match. The SSC surface tends to produce hefty first-innings scores – at least in the past few years – and the team that wins the toss will certainly be batting.

Stats and trivia

• Sangakkara will become the fifth Sri Lankan to have played 100 Tests, after Muttiah Muralitharan, Mahela Jayawardene, Chaminda Vaas and Sanath Jayasuriya
• Tillakaratne Dilshan has captained four Tests without a win; the last Sri Lankan to have such a lean run at the start of his captaincy career was Hashan Tillakaratne
• Had Shaun Marsh been dropped for Ricky Ponting he would have been the first Australian to score a century on Test debut and be left out of the next Test since Dirk Wellham

Quotes

“It has been suggested that we only need a draw in Colombo to win the series but that’s not in our thinking. That’s not the way we play.”

The agent at the centre of the spot-fixing allegations tried to impress an undercover journalist, posing as an Indian businessman

Richard Sydenham at Southwark Crown Court10-Oct-2011The agent at the centre of the spot-fixing allegations tried to impress an undercover journalist, posing as an Indian businessman, with a series of boasts that included a meeting with PCB chairman Ijaz Butt about setting up a domestic Twenty20 tournament, a court in London has heard.Agent Mazhar Majeed also told journalist Mazhar Mahmood that he knew actor Brad Pitt “very well”, tennis legend Roger Federer and was good friends with former England cricketers Mike Gatting, Phil Tufnell, Geoffrey Boycott, ex-Pakistan skipper Imran Khan and former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi among others.He also bragged how he managed ten Pakistan players including Salman Butt, Kamran and Umar Akmal and Shoaib Malik, and had access to other world stars like Chris Gayle, Brett Lee, Ricky Ponting, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh. A potential meeting with their mutual contact – former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf – was also referred to.The name-dropping and boasting from Majeed was heard in a recording while Mahmood was in the witness box at Southwark Crown Court in central London, on the fourth day of the trial of Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif, who are alleged to have bowled pre-determined no-balls for cash. Both players deny the charges.The jury also had a written transcript of the recording to follow. It was taken from the first meeting between the two men, when Mahmood had secret microphones on him that preceded an eventual global controversy after Mahmood exposed his trap. The journalist took his position in court behind a screen to hide his identity to the public and media.Mahmood lured Majeed to the meeting posing as an Indian businessman from “Tata Equity” with the promise of setting up a Twenty20 tournament in the United Arab Emirates, which would be sponsored by Etihad Airlines.The boasting raised smiles of disbelief in the court as Majeed was heard to also own seven ice cream parlours – which he has Pakistan players appear at for free, “the biggest property company in Surrey”, football club Croydon, and told of how he lived at different times in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Malaysia and Turkey as he studied religion and gave lectures.The court heard Majeed explain why he did not wish to manage former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi because “you have to kiss his arse every day”. Incredibly he also revealed how he regrettably turned down the chance of involvement in the hit movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire’.Majeed, who said he worked very closely with the PCB, said of the meeting with Butt: “I had a meeting with Ijaz Butt about doing a domestic tournament. What we were going to do was look at putting a sponsor with each region and do a Twenty20 league because Pakistani people are not getting any cricket to watch. They will come in droves.”In-court sketches and visible descriptions of Mahmood were not allowed to be published. His evidence is key to the prosecution and his appearance in court is expected to run into a second day. In his sting operation, Mahmood said he was backed by a Far East betting cartel, and eventually lured Majeed into revealing a corrupt plot during Pakistan’s 2010 tour of England.Butt and Asif are facing charges of conspiracy to cheat, and conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments, following that Lord’s Test in August last year when they allegedly conspired with Majeed, teenage fast bowler Mohammad Amir and other people unknown.

A round-up of Franchise 1-Day Cup matches that took place on November 23

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Nov-2011Warriors and Cobras retained their positions at the top of the Franchise 1-Day Cup table, with victories over Lions and Knights respectively.Cobras’ win in Bloemfontein was a high-scoring affair after they won the toss and piled on the runs. Andrew Puttick laid the base with 62 off 91 balls, while Dane Vilas at No. 3 provided the mid-innings momentum with 43 off 44 balls. Thereafter, Owais Shah and Justin Ontong took off, with a 78-run stand in 63 balls. Justin Kemp and Rory Klienveldt ended the innings in a blaze of big hits, lifting Cobras to 296 for 6. Dean Elgar and Rilee Rossouw built the platform for Knights’ chase, but took their time doing it. Robin Peterson (4 for 52) made frequent incisions to leave Knights at 185 for 5 in the 39th over. Werner Coetsee, Johan van der Wath and Dillon du Preez attempted a late surge, but their side fell 15 short.Warriors had an easier passage to victory, after Makhaya Ntini and Rusty Theron snuffed out Lions’ top order early in East London. Neil McKenzie resisted with an accomplished 87, and was one of only two batsmen to go past 26, the other being Jean Symes (44). Their efforts took Lions to 218. Arno Jacobs and Colin Ingram had put the chase on course when rain intervened at 83 for 1 in 17 overs. The revised target was 195 off 40 overs, and the pair surged without fuss towards victory when a second rain break ended play. Warriors had reached 174 for 1 in 31.4 overs by then, comfortably ahead of the D/L par score.The other game of the day, between Titans and Dolphins was abandoned midway through at Durban. A string of top-order starts, led by Jacques Rudolph’s 64, led Titans to 252 for 9 in their 50 overs, with Cameron Delport making four breakthroughs. Dolphins were in good shape at 97 for 2 in the 19th over when persistent rain ended the action.

Shakib Al Hasan, the former Bangladesh captain, has become the No. 1 Test allrounder in the latest ICC rankings

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Dec-2011Shakib Al Hasan, the former Bangladesh captain, has become the No. 1 Test allrounder in the latest ICC rankings following his outstanding performance against Pakistan in Mirpur. Shakib’s rise ended Jacques Kallis’ lengthy hold on the position.”Without any doubt it’s great news for me and for the country’s cricket, and I’m really happy. I have had the self-belief that it will come my way sooner or later because for a long time I was in the top five, so it was a matter of time,” Shakib told the . “It’s fantastic that the performance in the last Test of the year helped me achieve this feat, but it would be much better if we could manage a good result from the last Test match.”Shakib became the first Bangladesh player to score a hundred and take five wickets in an innings during a Test, and his 144 and 6 for 82 won him the Man-of-the-Match award. The century was Shakib’s second in Tests and it lifted his average to 34.68. He averages 31.36 with the ball and has 96 Test wickets. Pakistan, however, won the Mirpur Test to take the series 2-0.Kallis, who made 31 and went wicketless in the first Test against Sri Lanka in Centurion, was the No. 1 allrounder for 3696 days and will have the chance to reclaim the top position during the final two matches of that series in Durban and Cape Town.Daniel Vettori, Shane Watson and Stuart Broad complete the top allrounders list in Test cricket.

Ricky Ponting is confident he has overcome the technical flaws that troubled him during the leanest patch of his international career

Brydon Coverdale at the WACA11-Jan-2012Ricky Ponting is confident he has overcome the technical flaws that troubled him during the leanest patch of his international career. Ponting conceded he had been in a rut and had needed to try some new training methods to address problems with his trigger movement and balance at the crease, issues that contributed to a stretch of 33 Test innings without a century.That drought ended last week at the SCG, where Ponting’s 134 helped set up Australia’s innings victory over India. It had been a century that Ponting could feel coming. Since the second innings in Johannesburg in November, he had made steady progress towards a big total, with scores of 62, 78, 5, 16, 62, 60 and then his Sydney hundred.”I’ve made some progress on getting to where I want to be,” Ponting said ahead of this week’s Perth Test. “The biggest challenge for me with the technical flaws that I’ve been working on has been getting enough quality time in the middle and starting to feel that bit more free again and feel my rhythm starting to come back into my batting.”The first 30 or 40 runs in Sydney last week I was probably still battling myself a little bit but at the start of day two was probably as free as I’ve felt in a long time, the way that I moved and hit most of the balls in the middle. I might have played and missed one ball, I think, on that second morning. When you’re making as few mistakes as I did for the last half of that innings you can start to take some confidence from that.”One of Ponting’s problems had been his initial stride across his stumps. His head was often not in line with the ball while he was looking to work straight deliveries to the leg side, which had resulted in a string of leg-before dismissals on the tour of South Africa. On that trip, he was trapped in front in the first innings of the tour match in Potchefstroom, and in the first three innings of the Test series, in each case before he had reached double figures.”It was all about my initial movement and the balance, they’re the only things I’ve been working on the last few months,” Ponting said. “I’ve just done a few different drills that I’ve incorporated into my game that I’ve never had to do before.”I was in a rut technically that I hadn’t been in right through my career, so I had to have a really close look at things and break things down and try to find the best and simplest way to address it and fix it. I’m not sitting here saying I’m completely on top of my game but I know very well that I’m not far off.”Not that the innings in Sydney was typical Ponting. India’s fast bowler, Zaheer Khan, said on Tuesday that the 134 lacked the usual Ponting flair, and that he appeared to have “become more of a grinder”. It was not a description that concerned Ponting.”There’s more than one way to skin a cat,” Ponting said. “You’d probably say the same thing about Sachin [Tendulkar], the way that he’s been able to accumulate runs over the years, and someone like [Jacques] Kallis or [Rahul] Dravid. They’re consistent run-scorers. I’ve had to work really hard on my game in the last few months and I’ve felt that I’ve made a bit of progress the last few weeks and been able to put up some good scores on the board.”Ponting will be aiming to improve on his record at the WACA when the third Test begins on Friday. The venue is the only one of Australia’s six major grounds at which Ponting averages less than 55 in Test cricket, and it is significantly less: he averages 43 in 15 Test appearances in Perth. He has scored only one Test hundred there, against Pakistan in 1999.However, runs are just part of what Ponting hopes to bring to the Australian side under the leadership of Michael Clarke. Ponting is often seen working in the nets with the younger batsmen, giving throwdowns and offering advice, and he believes he has a key role to play in helping Australia’s developing top order – Ed Cowan, David Warner and Shaun Marsh have played 11 Tests between them – learn about international cricket.”I think it’s really important for teams going forward that they have the right mix of youth and experience,” he said. “You’ve only got to look at some of the innings that have been played over the last couple of weeks: Hussey’s 89 in the second innings in Melbourne and then his 150 in the second innings last week [in Sydney], two sixties from me [in Melbourne] and a hundred last week, they’ve been in pretty crucial times in Test matches.”It must be really nice for Ed Cowan and Dave Warner and Shaun Marsh to get to spend a lot of time in the middle with Michael Clarke, Mike Hussey and myself. I think there’s a lot we can teach those guys about how to face different bowlers or how to get through certain situations in Test matches and that’s still part of my job now, to make sure I’m still doing the right thing by the young blokes.”

A round-up of the action from the Coca-Cola Pro50 Championship 2011-12

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Jan-2012Mid West Rhinos put in an all-round team performance and eased to a seven-wicket win over Southern Rocks at the Kwekwe Sports Club. The Rhinos put the Rocks in to bat and kept striking at regular intervals, eventually bowling them out for 211 in 48.3 overs. That the Rocks even got past 200 was only due to their captain Richmond Mutumbami, who scored a fluent 82. While the Rhinos bowlers shared the wickets around, new-ball bowler Richard Muzhange finished with the best figures: 3 for 30. In the chase, Rhinos’ top three, Vusi Sibanda, Steve Marillier and Gary Ballance, all scored half-centuries to make sure their side got home comfortably in the 43rd over.Mashonaland Eagles continued their dominance in the tournament, beating Mountaineers by 59 runs in a rain-hit encounter at the Harare Sports Club. After being put in, the Eagles got to 218 – a commendable total when you consider their start. They were reduced to 11 for 4 and 80 for 6 by Tendai Chatara, who claimed a five-for. However, Sikandar Raza and Elton Chigumbura, batting at Nos. 7 and 8, made 58 each to set up the competitive total. Mountaineer’s chase didn’t quite get going at any stage, and needing a revised target of 193 from 33 overs, they could manage only 133 for 8. Kyle Jarvis, with 3 for 39, was the most effective of the Eagles’ bowlers.

Paul Stirling sparkled with ball and bat as Ireland brushed aside Kenya despite an improved performance from the hosts

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Feb-2012Ireland 132 for 2 (Stirling 65*) beat Kenya 131 for 7 (David Obuya 28, Stirling 2-21) by eight wickets
ScorecardPaul Stirling sparkled with ball and bat as Ireland brushed aside Kenya despite an improved performance from the hosts. The eight-wicket win with 15 balls to spare gave Ireland the series with a game to spare, following a chase that scarcely came under pressure.William Porterfield set the base for the chase with a quick 22. In Stirling’s company he added 63 in 7.2 overs, before Ragheb Aga found a way past Porterfield. Kevin O’Brien could not contribute much, but Gary Wilson provided Stirling with the support he needed to seal the game. Stirling’s 65 came off 52 balls and featured nine fours. Wilson carted two fours and a six to finish with 22 scored at run-a-ball.Earlier, a number of Kenya batsmen wasted starts as their innings fizzled to 131 for 7. David Obuya top-scored with a sluggish 28, and Rakep Patel provided some sort of thrust with 27 off 22 balls. Three other batsmen scored at least 13, but could not press on. Stirling was the main antagonist, as he picked up the first two wickets to fall in a four-over spell that yielded only 21. But his more telling contribution came later with the bat.

A round-up of the first two quarter-finals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2011-12 in Delhi

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Mar-2012Half-centuries by Wriddhiman Saha and Anustup Majumdar and a five-wicket haul by Ashok Dinda helped Bengal seal their berth in the semi-finals after beating Madhya Pradesh by 15 runs at the Palam A Ground. Bengal chose to bat first in a match reduced to 45 overs to fog. Manoj Tiwary propped Bengal with 48 after the top order failed. Saha joined him after the fall of the third wicket and added 75 in 12 overs. Saha departed for 53, off 52 balls with six fours. Madhya Pradesh hit back with two quick strikes, reducing Bengal to 154 for 6. Majumdar then made a quick 55 off 57 balls to lift the score to 230. Early strikes by Dinda and Laxmi Shukla reduced Madhya Pradesh to 42 for 4 by the 12th over. Harpreet Singh was involved in two middle-order stands of 52 and 48 but it wasn’t enough to carry his team through. Dinda claimed three lower-order wickets to finish with 5 for 54.For the second day in succession, Feroz Shah Kotla played host to another one-sided game, this time with Mumbai trouncing Karnataka by nine wickets to advance to the semis. A combined bowling effort by Mumbai, led by the seamer Kshemal Waingankar, sent Karnataka crashing to 178. Waingankar’s early strikes reduced the opposition to 57 for 6 before Sunil Raju and Raju Bhatkal led a slow recovery. Waingankar finished with fine figures of 3 for 19 from ten overs, while Ankeet Chavan took 2 for 29. Karnataka used seven bowlers, but none could control the Mumbai top order which reached the target before the 30th over. Wasim Jaffer made a 61-ball 68, while Ajinkya Rahane remained unbeaten on 71.Rahane credited Jaffer for helping him back to form. “I had the belief that I was only one innings away from finding form and things get easier when you have such an experienced player batting with you,” Rahane told IANS.