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Day 2 Close Queensland Academy of Sport Invitation 201 and 153 for 7 (Payne 52, Kapali 4-24) lead Bangladesh 203 for 9 dec (Kapali 55, Hopes 4-35) by 151 runs
ScorecardAlok Kapali starred with both bat and ball as Bangladesh gained a slight upperhand over Queensland Academy of Sport Invitation at the close of the second day’s play. In a low-scoring match which looks certain to end inside three days, Bangladesh declared their first innings at 203 for 9 – just two runs in the lead – and then restricted the Queensland side to 153 for 7.Kapali top-scored for Bangladesh, hitting six fours and a six in a spunky 55. Then, he caused plenty of damage with his legspinners, running through Queensland ASI’s middle order to return figures of 4 for 24.Resuming their innings at 86 for 3, Bangladesh were quickly reduced to 112 to 6, with James Hopes’s medium-pace doing most of the damage. He snared the first two wickets of the day, dismissing Al Sahariar (4) and Mohammad Ashraful (39). When Damien MacKenzie, right-arm fast-medium bowler, dismissed Sanwar Hossain for 6, a Bangladesh lead looked unlikely, but Kapali and Khaled Masud, the wicketkeeper, stitched together a 60-run partnership for the seventh wicket which put the innings back on track.Kapali was finally dismissed by Hopes, who finished with figures of 4 for 35, but Bangladesh managed to sneak ahead of the Queensland ASI total.The Queensland team’s opening pair saw off Bangladesh’s new-ball attack, adding 54 for the first wicket, but the problems for the home team began soon after. Despite a spirited 52 from Daniel Payne, the right-handed opener, Queensland ASI lost wickets at regular intervals. Kapali ripped through the middle order, and among his victims was Nathan Hauritz (9) and Payne.The eighth-wicket pair of MacKenzie and Lee Carseldine saw off the last six overs, but Bangladesh still had reason to be pleased. If their batsmen keep their wits about them, Bangladesh could well make a winning start to their Australian tour.

Teenage batsman Bilal Shafayat has become the first player to graduate from the new Nottinghamshire Cricket Academy by signing a three-year staff contract with the club.The 17-year-old Nottingham-born A level student was offered the deal aftermaking a hugely impressive start to his first team career this summer.Said Notts Cricket Operations Manager Mick Newell: “We are very happy to getBilal on board. We know he has a lot of potential and expect him to make a big impact at Notts in future years.”Shafayat was one of 14 inaugural members of the Notts Academy and this season became the only 16-year-old ever to represent the club in Championship cricket.He scored 72 in his maiden first class innings against Middlesex andsubsequently played in two more Championship matches as well as five NorwichUnion League games.Currently a sixth form student at Bluecoat School, in Aspley, Shafayat is due to travel to Australia and New Zealand after Christmas to play for England in the Under-19 World Cup and will join the Notts staff full-time on completion of his A¹ level exams.Three more Notts players, Andrew Harris, Richard Logan and Darren Bicknell have all agreed contract extensions to keep them at Trent Bridge until the end of 2003.

Virat Kohli’s 23rd ODI century – in only his 157th innings – was the cornerstone of India’s series-levelling victory in Chennai and it was also a sign of his evolution as a batsman according to captain MS Dhoni.”Virat is somebody, right from the very start – and not today, I’m talking about the ODIs when he started – he was always someone who was very keen on improving his game,” Dhoni said after the win. “And even when he would get out scoring a 60 or a 70, he wanted to convert it into a hundred.”Just watching how he plays his 50 to 60 and 100 to 110 – because a lot of times these are the brackets where you see a lot of batsmen getting out – so once he crosses that, with the kind of mindset he has he will always play a big innings.”On the surface Kohli’s 138 off 140 balls implies an innings that befits the pace of modern cricket. But it was achieved using old-fashioned values. He was back at No. 3 and was forced onto the scene in the fifth over. Then in the eighth he watched another wicket fall to leave India at 35 for 2.The new ball zipped off the Chennai pitch, so Kohli had to mind the bounce on offer. Later on, as the ball got older and softer, he had to adjust from weathering the pace on the ball to making the pace himself. This is one-day cricket after all and runs need to be made at a fair clip.But that doesn’t necessarily mean it had to come from flashy strokes. Kohli, as per the team’s strategy, fed his innings through singles and twos. They accounted for 84 (66 singles, nine twos) of his 138, a whopping 61%. He kept the ball along the ground. He trusted a strength – his wrists – and subsequently a lot of his runs came through on-drives and flicks to square leg and midwicket. He was severely efficient against spin – 77 off 62 balls faced from Imran Tahir and Aaron Phangiso.”I felt he was rotating the strike really well and again the important thing is when you play such a long innings, the middle overs when you put pressure on the fielders is the key,” Dhoni said. “You can’t play a big innings by playing only the big shots. With the amount of heat that’s around, you have to put pressure on the bowlers especially when they are fielding out on the boundary and that’s how you get them tired.”When they come to bowl their second spell or third spell they will commit that error and give you a few balls to hit. I felt he is very good that way and he was just brilliant when it comes to pacing his innings and how he played the full quota of overs.”One-day cricket in India is no longer the same as it once was. Slower pitches are not readily conducive to hit through the line. The extra fielder – five as opposed to four – on the boundary allows fielding sides to restrict the flow of runs even in the death and South Africa’s tall and extremely pacy bowlers have been able to extract reverse swing as well. So Dhoni felt this knock was a clear sign of Kohli’s evolution from when Australia visited India in 2013, when Kohli clinched the record for the fastest ODI ton by an Indian.”Also if you see, the wickets have been very different. You can compare his hundreds to the hundreds he scored in the Australian series. There was a bit of dew, the ball was coming on nicely to the bat and it was big-scoring games – we chased down 350 twice – so that’s why I felt it was an important innings because on a slow wicket what happens is the batsman who is set will always find it slightly easy when compared to the new batsman coming in and playing the big shots.”However, with AB de Villiers in the opposition nothing can be taken for granted. Moreover, India were without R Ashwin, whom Dhoni called “his main bowler.” But Harbhajan Singh made sure India’s attack was not bereft of threat.The old loop is back. The drift away from the right-hander is palpable. Harbhajan produced a beautiful offspinner that beat a fluent Quinton de Kock in the air and had him caught at second slip. Then he set up another left-hander in David Miller by sneaking the arm ball through and trapping him in front.Although they were only two wickets, Dhoni from behind the stumps, could see Harbhajan’s rhythm was very good.”At times we always assess bowling in terms of wickets. If somebody is getting wickets we say he is bowling well,” Dhoni said. “But a lot of times, and especially being a keeper, you have the advantage of seeing what the bowler is doing, seeing what he is extracting off the wicket. I think he is bowling really well.”Losing Ashwin right at the start of the series, that is a big blow because especially in these conditions he is our main bowler. I can use him in the first ten, I can use him in the middle overs, I can use him in the slog, wherever I have to he is always there. That did put a bit of pressure on me.”But it was good that Harbhajan, the way he has bowled so far in the series, that eases a bit of pressure because I can use him in the first ten, couple of overs in the first 10, then today also I used him in the last few close to the 40th over onwards. He has eased off the pressure.”

Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the chairman of the ICC’s anti-corruption and security unit (ACSU), says that his body is close to signing a memorandum of understanding with the UK’s National Crime Agency that will enable a greater level of intelligence on cricket corruption to be shared between all police forces in the United Kingdom.”We have a whole series of ongoing investigations at the moment ranging across different countries so the benefit of the increased co-ordination are already being seen,” Flanagan told The Daily Telegraph.”We want MOUs with investigative bodies wherever world cricket is played. We have it already in New Zealand and Australia and we are in the final stages in drawing them up to be signed within the next month or so with South Africa, India and the National Crime Agency in the UK.”However, Flanagan denied that his unit needed to “regain the trust” of the players whom it is supposed to protect, in the wake of the Chris Cairns perjury trial in which leaked testimony from the current New Zealand captain, Brendon McCullum, formed one of the key pieces of evidence in the failed prosecution.Several players’ union spokesmen, including the outgoing head of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, Angus Porter, have said that the treatment of McCullum and other witnesses during that trial will make other players more reluctant to speak out about approaches in the future.However, Flanagan added that the ACSU is not a police force and therefore has limited investigative powers. Instead, he said, players needed to get the message that “we are their friend and here to protect them.””I don’t feel we have to regain trust,” he said. “At the recent World Cup the relationship we had was very positive and the feedback we had from teams was very positive too. It is a question of building on that and making the players realise we are there to protect them and that we are not there to snoop on them. We are there to protect players from the predators that would want draw them in.”The criticism of the ACSU during the Cairns trial centred on its failure to produce sufficient evidence to support the prosecution – it was said during the trial, by the former ICC intelligence unit general manager Ravinder Sawani, that the information it had collected went “beyond rumour”, yet very little of it was revealed in court. Cairns, who pleaded not guilty to two counts of perjury and perverting the course of justice, was acquitted last month after a nine-week trial at Southwark Crown Court.It was claimed in the same newspaper that the ACSU had examined 450 intelligence reports in 2015 alone, of which around 20 percent had originated from players and umpires. That represents a steady rise in reports over the past five years, with 70 being handled in 2009 and 281 in 2011.”It is very important that there is a recognition that we are not a police force, do not seek to be a police force and do not have the powers,” said Flanagan. “We cannot investigate members of the public. We can only investigate people within our remit, players in the international game as far as the ACSU is concerned, which is why it is so important to work hand in glove with colleagues in individual nations that have their own anti-corruption structures.”It is also key that we keep good relationships with other sports whether it be tennis, horse racing, rugby or soccer because I’m convinced the bad guys do not confine themselves to one sport.”Prevention, Flanagan believes, is as important a part of the unit’s work as investigation, and to that end, a new head of prevention is being appointed to improve its education programme, alongside a new director and co-ordinator of investigations, and a senior analyst.”The job of the head of prevention is to look at everything that goes on with educating players, make sure we are getting the best from that and bring it up to date,” said Flanagan. “I want to work with the players’ associations to make sure that our education programme is world class.”

Ray Mali, the ICC president, believes Zimbabwe will be at the top of the ICC ODI championship table if the current team is allowed to remain intact for the next three years.Mali told the on Tuesday: “The programmes that they (ZC) have will, I believe, take cricket far and it has been demonstrated by what we saw over the last three one-day games, especially on Sunday when Zimbabwe was almost there. And I believe these boys – if they are given a chance to play for the next three years as one unit – they will be at the top of world rankings.”It is not a dream, I believe it can be done. Zimbabwe Cricket will have to continue exposing these boys to higher class, intensive cricket all the time. Zimbabwe Cricket will have my support, they will have the support of ICC with this type of cricket that has been demonstrated over the last few days.”Mali, the former head of the South Africa board, heaped praised on the current ZC leadership, saying they have managed to have a sustained developmental programme that will ensure a constant supply of talent.”At the same time I am excited by the involvement of schools in the cricket set-up which augurs well for the future because I believe with the participation of schools, from the Under-11 age-group up to the top, it means the future of cricket in this country is guaranteed.”There will be a constant flow of players going up and the quality of leadership that has been assigned to look after the cricket here is of the highest quality that you can find anywhere in the world. It compares well with what we have in South Africa and other parts of the world.”Mali was in Zimbabwe for a six-day working visit to familiarise himself with the happenings inside Zimbabwean cricket. He returned home yesterday afternoon along with the South African team.”We live in a world that is governed by the information that is sent out to the various members of the world community. I came out to Zimbabwe simply because I wanted to experience myself what is happening out here. We tend to get conflicting reports about the situation in terms of cricket but the most important motivation for my coming here is that my predecessor Advocate Percy Sonn was here in August last with the CEO of ICC Malcolm Speed.”At that stage Zimbabwe were busy having a new board in place, trying to set up new cricket structures and at the same time I was here 13 years ago as manager of the South Africa A team.”Now looking at the facilities that I saw in Bulawayo and Harare, I was quite amazed by the giant strides that Zimbabwe have taken to have facilities that measure up to world standards in terms of playing cricket.”Now even on the development front I did go to Emakhandeni (Bulawayo) to have a look because, unfortunately, in Africa we have had the unfortunate situation where facilities are wrongly placed.”You find good, better and more facilities in areas where there are fewer people using them. In South Africa we have facilities that are under-utilised and I am pleased to note that the Zimbabwe Cricket board are busy tackling that serious imbalance to have more facilities in the high-density areas.”

Mark Vermeulen’s ten-year ban imposed by the Central Lancashire League has been declared invalid and he has now been banned for three years – with the second and third suspended – after a hearing of the Lancashire Cricket Board on Monday night.Vermeulen was slapped with the ban last week following a serious altercation during a match between Werneth and Ashton. The league committee imposed the punishment without the player being present as it was widely reported he had left the country. It later emerged he was staying with Andy Flower in Essex.Andrew Fitch-Holland, Vermeulen’s legal representative, told the hearing that his client admitted breaching the ECB Code of Conduct and Spirit of Cricket although mitigating circumstances were put forward. The hearing considered all this and subsequently imposed a three-year ban with effect from April 1, 2007. The second and third years will be suspended.”We are pleased that the board have clearly recognised the substantial mitigation put forward on Mark’s behalf,” Fitch-Holland explained. “However, we are disappointed that Mark remains subject to an effective 12-month ban. Mark is totally focused on fighting for a place in Zimbabwe’s World Cup squad and is obviously concerned as to how this outcome will be viewed. We believe that issues raised by Mark in his mitigation are of great consequence for all professional cricketers and accordingly we feel that it is in Mark’s best interest to pursue his right to an appeal before the ECB.”Fitch-Holland added that Vermeulen had been diagnosed as “suffering from a depressive illness which of course has a significant impact upon his behaviour”. He continued: “For anyone, let alone a professional sportsman, to publically admit to such a struggle is, I suggest, exceptional and worthy of a degree of respect. We offer no excuses for Mark’s unacceptable conduct but ask instead for some understanding. To his credit Mark has aready taken positive steps to seek help, and is trying to remain upbeat about his future in cricket in these difficult days.”Click here to see the video of the incident at bbc.co.uk

England named an unchanged 12-man squad for the fourth Ashes Test against Australia at Trent Bridge starting this Thursday.Chris Tremlett, the Hampshire pace bowler, was again included in the squad, which featured the same eleven players who played in the first three Tests. David Graveney, the chairman of selectors, said: “We are playing some good cricket at present and there is a positive vibe about the team which I am sure the players will be keen to take into the next Test Match.”The last two Tests have been extraordinary games which have really captured the imagination of the sporting public and produced scenes around the ground reminiscent of the Oval in 2000 against the West Indies. But back-to-back Tests are also mentally and physically draining for both teams and we are very grateful to the counties for agreeing to Duncan Fletcher’s request that our players should be rested from domestic cricket ahead of the Trent Bridge Test.”Tremlett, who is yet to make his Test debut, has been included despite having his third injection of the summer to help him overcome a troublesome right knee. He was the only member of the squad to figure in Saturday’s C&G Trophy semi-finals and helped Hampshire beat Yorkshire.If the same team is retained for the final Test at The Oval, it will be the first time in 120 years that England go through an entire Ashes series unchanged.England’s squad for fourth Test
1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Andrew Strauss, 3 Michael Vaughan (capt), 4 Ian Bell, 5 Kevin Pietersen, 6 Andrew Flintoff, 7 Geraint Jones (wk), 8 Ashley Giles, 9 Matthew Hoggard, 10 Steve Harmison, 11 Simon Jones, 12 Chris Tremlett.

Sanath Jayasuriya, the elder statesman of the Sri Lanka team, was happy to take the blame for running out team-mate Kumar Sangakkara, a dismissal which contributed largely to their 149-run loss to Australia in the first Test at Darwin.Having got a close leg-before decision against him in the first innings, Sri Lanka were looking to the in-form Sangakkara to make a big score in the second innings. But he faced only four balls before he was run out. He responded to a call for a risky single by Jayasuriya and failed to beat Damien Martyn’s direct hit from cover point.”I misjudged the run and I admit it was my fault. I shouldn’t have gone for that single,” said Jayasuriya, whose own game seemed to be affected after that dismissal. “We had to rotate the strike otherwise if you get stuck on one side for four to five overs you will eventually get out, especially on this kind of wicket. I take full responsibility for that run out.”He added: “Normally I don’t worry about such things. But I was upset when Kumar was out because he was our batsman in form.” Sangakkara had come into the Test having scored an unbeaten double-century in the four-day warm up game against a Chief Minister’s XI at the same venue.Four overs after Sangakkara was dismissed, Jayasuriya was then out for 16 when he fell leg before to a fast swinging full toss from Glenn McGrath, who had openly said that he was targeting Jayasuriya’s wicket during the series.Jayasuriya also revealed that during the 73 minutes he spent at the wicket, the Australians were constantly chirping at him, saying that all they needed was his wicket for them to wrap up the Test.Reflecting on his second innings dismissal, Jayasuriya said: “I missed the ball totally. It swung late in the air in the last minute and I missed it. I didn’t want to play a cross bat shot. All I wanted to do was to play straight and occupy the crease. It was not easy to play shots on that kind of wicket. I thought I would stay as long as possible to see the shine off. Our task was made even more difficult by the accuracy with which the three Australian fast bowlers bowled.”McGrath, Gillespie and Kasprowicz bowled in the right areas constantly. They made very little errors for us to play shots. On a very good wicket we would have gone after them, but certainly not on this.”Sri Lanka are not due to tour Australia until November 2007 and, at 35, it is very unlikely that Jayasuriya will be seen again in Australia. Cairns, the venue of the second Test starting on Friday could probably be his last Test on Australian soil. “It could be my final innings in Australia, but retirement has been furthest from my mind. I am playing well at the moment and I am fit,” said Jayasuriya. “I want to take it tour by tour and see how I perform. Everything depends on my performance. I have been training and looking after my fitness really well.”He continued: “Getting runs in Australia is a big achievement for any team. It is not easy to perform against the best team in the world under their conditions. I have always wanted to perform in Australia. If I get the opportunity in Cairns I will. If I perform well it is good for the team.”Jayasuriya also said that to succeed against Australia you had to be aggressive. “You have to be on top of them all the time. We were on top of them from day one in the 1999 series which we won.”In the present series we have been able to dominate them only in the first innings which is not enough. We had this bad experience of losing to Australia even in Sri Lanka. It is disappointing. The players have realized what went wrong. The bowlers have done their job magnificently. The area that is a worry for us is our batting.”He added: “Whenever somebody gets in he should go on and play a big innings. That has been the unfortunate part of our batting. The batsmen should concentrate more and get through the hardest period and go and get a big one. Each individual must have his own responsibilities. We have been talking of not losing wickets during sessions. When you play the best side in the world you have to play hard.”

Boeta Dippenaar has been drafted into South Africa’s one-day squad as a replacement for the injured batsman Neil McKenzie.McKenzie, who damaged a disc in his lower back during South Africa’s victory over Bangladesh last month, has been ruled out of the NatWest Series, but still hopes to recover in time for the first Test at Edgbaston on July 24.”Boeta was the logical choice, he has been in the mix for a number of years and has performed well,” said Omar Henry, South Africa’s chairman of selectors. “This is another opportunity for him to nail down a place in the one-day team.”Dippenaar has made 61 limited-overs appearances, scoring 1,810 runs at an average of 42, and had already been included in the Test squad. “It’s a pleasant surprise," he said. "I know the England tour is a really big one and I was looking forward to the Tests. Now it’s great to be part of the whole trip. It’s going to be very special.”McKenzie was philosophical about his omission. “I have made good progress, but I am probably two weeks short of full fitness,” he said. “If I pushed myself to be ready for the one-dayers I might risk missing out on the whole tour and I’d rather make sure I am 100% for the Test series.”

Lancashire County Cricket Club are delighted to announce the appointment of Warren Hegg as Captain for the 2002 cricket season. The decision was made at a meeting of the Club’s General Committee last night.Hegg, who has been selected as one of England’s two wicket-keepers for the Test Match Tours to India and New Zealand was delighted at the news. Speaking from his home, Hegg said: “This is great news, particularly after my selection for England this winter. There is a great team spirit at Lancashire and with our blend of youth and experience, I am looking forward to working with our new Cricket Manager Mike Watkinson and getting the Club back to the winning ways we experienced throughout the 1990s.”Club Chairman Jack Simmons added: “Warren is a Lancastrian through and through and is a true 100 percenter. I cannot think of a more enthusiastic cricketer and I feel sure his positive influence on the team will reflect in the team’s performances.”Hegg, 33, is Lancashire’s first official wicket-keeper/captain in the history of the Club.