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A round-up of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Gold League matches that ended on October 22, 2014

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Oct-2014Saad Ali’s 178 runs and Shahzaib Ahmed’s nine wickets in the match set up Karachi Dolphins’ massive 234-run win against Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited in Karachi.Dolphins opted to bat and scored 205 led by Saad’s 105, with only four other batsmen reaching double-figures. In reply, SNGPL got a strong start, but Shahzaib didn’t let the top-and middle-order settle down for too long. His 6 for 67 kept them to 203, giving Dolphins a slender two-run lead. Dolphins then built on that with a score of 402 for 7 in the second innings, led by Majid Khan (79), Fazal Subhan (90), Saad (73) and Babar Hussain (54) to set SNGPL a stiff target of 405 on the last day.Some of the SNGPL batsmen got starts but failed to capitalise on them. No one could go beyond 35 and three wickets each from Mir Hamza and Shahzaib dismissed them for 170 , which included three ducks.

Iain O’Brien, the former New Zealand fast bowler, has called on cricket authorities to do more to combat corruption, in particular reduce the time lag between incidents occurring and their resolution

ESPNcricinfo staff19-May-20148:12

O’ Brien: I wanted Vincent to come clean

Iain O’Brien, the former New Zealand fast bowler, has called on cricket authorities to do more to combat corruption, in particular reduce the time lag between incidents occurring and their resolution. He was speaking a day after it was leaked that New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum testified to ICC anti-corruption authorities about an approach to underperform in 2008.”It’s taken a long time, we’re talking about an approach way back in 2008, that’s a long time ago, we haven’t had any resolution since then,” O’Brien told ESPNcricinfo. “As cricketers we are kind of dealing with an organisation that hasn’t done enough … maybe leaking it [McCullum’s testimony] is the way to get things moving forward.”O’Brien also revealed that in 2012 he confronted Lou Vincent, who is the subject of an ICC anti-corruption investigation and has reportedly given information of ‘widespread fixing’ in the game, and talked about asking Vincent to come clean over his dealings in the unofficial Indian Cricket League around six years ago. “I wanted to know, I wanted to find out, because we all knew, and this is the thing, there was nothing we could do at that time, ICL – outside of any jurisdiction, so there is no one to report what we see, and I wanted to find out from him what he had been up to.”I wanted to find out because I wanted him to come forward, I wanted him to own up, and then the people that corrupted him, I wanted him to take them down, out of the game and out of the system.”O’Brien wanted more resolve to be shown when dealing with fixing. “We need to talk about it, we need to realise how entrenched and how shadowy that this all is, and if we don’t discuss it, we don’t try and push things forward then it just keeps ticking over in the background, until we actually confront this and confront it properly, there’s always going to be rumours and speculation, let’s have it all out in the open.”Though he had spoken to Vincent in 2012, O’Brien said he couldn’t push things further. “Without proof you are just a libel case away from being in a very bad place, we know that, we can’t talk about those things, and it is the hardest thing to prove,” he said. “The corruption unit is basically there to report advances to by players, and it is also there for players to come to when they know things are going on … it is not there for us to dial in and speculate from the outside, from the couch if you like, it is for players on the inside to report.”O’Brien talked about how the ACSU worked in the Mervyn Westfield case, and England batsman Eoin Morgan, speaking at an press conference, stressed the importance of getting in touch with them. “Recognising some conversation or being approached is crucial and reporting it is even more crucial.”Morgan said education and harsh penalties are necessary to curb the menace of fixing. “Everyone knows you have to say no to corruption, education is in place from early on in county career through to senior level and it is important for guys to come out and say this is unacceptable, people have to be punished for it.”

Jerome Taylor’s economical spell ensured the Barbados Tridents couldn’t overhaul the Jamaica Tallawahs total of 147 for 9 in a 19-run win for the defending CPL champions in Kingston

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Aug-2014
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Jerome Taylor’s economical spell ensured the Barbados Tridents couldn’t overhaul the Jamaica Tallawahs total of 147 for 9 in a 19-run win for the defending CPL champions in Kingston. Man-of-the-Match Taylor had figures of 3-0-3-2 entering the final over with 28 needed to win for the Tridents but only a single was scored off the first two balls to clinch a victory for the Tallawahs as Taylor ended with 2 for 11 from four overs.It was a hard fought win for the Tallawahs, who were sent in to bat by Tridents captain Kieron Pollard. Chadwick Walton got the Tallawahs off to a strong start with 25 before he was pinned on the crease by Ravi Rampaul three balls into the sixth to make it 35 for 1. Chris Gayle and Owais Shah calmly added 79 for the second wicket across the next 10 overs with Shah doing much of the work as the English import top-scored for the Tallawahs with 42. Having opened with Walton, Gayle evidenced the difficulty to score on the Sabina Park track as he began the 16th over on just 25 and was eventually dismissed for 39 off 38 balls.Rampaul came back in a late spell that resulted in three more wickets as no one beyond the Tallawahs top three made it into double-digits. Rayad Emrit also did well restricting the Tallawahs at the death, taking three wickets in the last three overs as the Tallawahs slipped from 114 for 1 to finish on 147 for 8.The Tridents chase was hurt by the departure of the explosive Dwayne Smith off the last ball of the first over for 4, gliding a late cut to Taylor at short third man in the ring to give Dave Bernard his first wicket. From there the Tridents took a cautious approach with opener Shane Dowrich ending the power play on 9 off 22 balls. He fell three balls later, giving a flat-footed swish to a length ball from Bernard that was easily pouched by Walton behind the stumps to make it 27 for 3.Shoaib Malik played the innings of the match at the opposite end but was unable to get any support. In the end, his unbeaten 81 off 43 balls represented 63 percent of the Tridents runs. The next best efforts came from Dowrich and McKenzie who scored nine apiece.The Tridents best chance for victory was for Pollard to stick around with Malik, but he fell for 6 at the start of the 16th, top-edging an attempted hook off Andre Russell to Taylor running in from the third man rope to make it 79 for 5. Malik gave the Tridents hope in the 17th when he thumped Rusty Theron for four to bring up his half-century in 29 balls and then hit back-to-back sixes over wide long-on as part of a 19-run frame to leave the Tridents needing 39 off 18 balls to win.The Tallawahs took back momentum at the start of the 17th when Jason Holder fell to Taylor, mistiming a lofted drive to the cover sweeper for 7. New batsman Akeal Hosein struggled to get Malik back on strike in an over that netted just one run. The pressure grew on Malik with 38 needed from 12 and he signaled his intentions to try winning the match by himself after turning down a single to long-on off the first ball of the 19th. He was able to hit a six off the third ball, but nothing else went to the boundary and Taylor sealed the win at the start of the 20th as the Tridents eventually ended on 128 for 6.

West Indies Women cruised to their third win in a row and moved to the top of the Group B table after bowling Sri Lanka Women out for 84 on their way to an eight-wicket win in Sylhet

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Mar-2014
ScorecardWest Indies Women cruised to their third win in a row and moved to the top of the Group B table after bowling Sri Lanka Women out for 84 on their way to an eight-wicket win in Sylhet.Sri Lanka chose to bat and made a good start, their openers putting on 25 in just 3.2 overs. Even when they lost their second wicket, that of Yasoda Mendis who fell for a 17-ball 21, they were in a decent position at 41 in the sixth over. Starting there, though, Sri Lanka collapsed, losing their last nine wickets for 43 runs and ending their innings with 3.1 overs left to play. Medium-pacers Tremayne Smartt and Shanel Daley did the bulk of the damage, sharing seven wickets between them.West Indies went about their chase in steady but decisive manner, reaching their target in 15 overs. Stafanie Taylor did the bulk of the scoring, making an unbeaten 45-ball 56 with seven fours, including the winning hit off Udeshika Prabodhani.

India marched into an all sub-continent final with a clinically cold-blooded chase against a South African team that put in one of their better performances in a crunch match but were still not good enough

The Report by Firdose Moonda04-Apr-2014
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details 3:53

Cullinan: Du Plessis has a lot of work to do as captain

It has been 14 years, five Champions Trophies, five World Cups and four World T20s since South Africa last won a knockout match at an ICC event and that has not changed. Neither has the fact that India have not lost a semi-final under MS Dhoni’s captaincy. They marched into an all sub-continent final with a clinically cold-blooded chase against a South African team that put in one of their better performances in a crunch match but were still not good enough.South Africa had never lost a T20 match after posting a 170-plus score before today and they would have thought they were halfway to breaking the hoodoo with that total. They were not overawed by India’s spinners, apart from R Ashwin, their captain Faf du Plessis put runs on the board, he was supported by JP Duminy, with whom he shared the biggest partnership of the match, and they had big overs at the end.But India matched them man for man and then outplayed them through one of them. The tournament’s top run-scorer, Virat Kohli, went after the runs ruthlessly. He paced the chase perfectly, put on 56 runs with Yuvraj Singh, brought up his third half-century in four innings and then ushered India over the line with five balls to spare.If India had reservations about how they would fare chasing a higher target than the most they have been presented with so far in this tournament -138 – the start they got would have put those to bed. Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane raced to 33 after three overs, against some questionable South African strategies.Faf du Plessis eased India into the task by using JP Duminy and Albie Morkel as his new-ball bowlers. India’s comfort against offspin and the lack of a threat, despite his ability to take pace off the ball, Morkel posed allowed India’s openers to settle. Dale Steyn bowled the third over, by which time Rohit had seen enough to upper-cut a short ball over the boundary.South Africa continued to juggle their bowling with the relatively new left-armer Beuran Hendricks used before Wayne Parnell. Hendricks got the first wicket when Rohit launched him high but the shot had no distance on it and du Plessis took the catch running in from mid-off.India would not have minded losing a man in the Powerplay because they posted 56 in the six-over period; the most they have ever put on against South Africa when the fielding restrictions are in operation. That was an early sign of how India were going to edge ahead of South Africa in every department. South Africa had scored 44 for 2 in their Powerplay, not a statistic worth mentioning except that it was the most runs scored against India in that period in this tournament.Kohli and Rahane played Imran Tahir, the joint highest wicket-taker at this event, with the respect someone of that stature deserves. They milked him without hitting out and went through the next three overs content without boundaries. With a rising required run-rate, Rahane was the man to take the risk. He swung at a Parnell bouncer and was caught at deep mid-wicket by AB de Villiers.With Kohli still out there, India did not have much to worry about. His response to losing his partner was lofting Duminy over long-on to start the second half of the Indian innings. Yuvraj Singh could not get the South Africans away with similar ease but played his part in rotating strike and leaving Kohli to do the big-hitting.Du Plessis kept Steyn back until the last six overs, when India required sixty. Yuvraj had also found his groove by then and when Steyn pitched one up, Yuvraj met it with a pick-up over mid-off. Yuvraj was victim to another de Villiers catch, this time at long-off but for as long as Kohli remained, South Africa would have been uneasy.That would have turned into despair when Parnell bowled the 17th over. India needed a big over, a 17-run over like South Africa had in their innings, and they got it. The runs came streakily – a six off a Suresh Raina top-edge, a four off an edge that went through third man and another off an inside-edge. India only needed 23 off the last three overs, Steyn was blunted and MS Dhoni even had enough time to block the final ball of the 19th over to allow Kohli to hit the winning runs.South Africa could only dream of such luxury. They lacked it all tournament, with tense finishes underlining their campaign, and they lacked it again in the semi. Their innings started with the wicket of Quinton de Kock at the end of the first over and Hashim Amla and du Plessis had to start by rebuilding. Amla had some fortune early on, with an edge off Mohit Sharma flying through the vacant slip cordon, and was out as he found his touch. R Ashwin got one to turn in from outside legstump to peg back off and stun Amla.Ashwin’s first over and the two lbw appeals Ravindra Jadeja had off JP Duminy’s failed attempts to sweep may have hinted at a raging turner but the surface was not that hostile. Duminy and du Plessis worked Raina and Jadeja around and dealt with Amit Mishra effectively. Du Plessis was particularly forceful, chipping Mishra over cover and slapping Raina for a one-handed six before bringing up his fifty with a lob over point.He was eventually also bowled by Ashwin, with the ball coming off his body to hit the stumps. That brought de Villiers to the crease in the 14th over, leaving him with little time to make an impact. De Villiers scored just 10 but David Miller provided the late surge. South Africa took 38 runs off the last three overs of their innings but it was not enough.

Mitchell Johnson used to be an object of ridicule for English fans, but as he took the final Ashes-sealing wicket, his journey from wayward bowler to tyrant was made complete

Brydon Coverdale in Perth18-Dec-2013There have been times in Mitchell Johnson’s past as an erratic Ashes bowler when his emotions might have got the better of him, but not like they did on the final day at the WACA. Johnson was on the verge of tears as he shook the hands of England’s batsmen and umpires in the moments immediately following his Ashes-sealing wicket of James Anderson. It was a cathartic day for several Australians, none more so than Johnson.The subject of Barmy Army taunts in previous Ashes campaigns, Johnson had always struggled to live up to expectations against England, remembered more for his wayward spells than his challenging ones. But at 32, now a husband and father with a greater perspective on life and cricket, Johnson entered this series in a different state of mind. He has been, without question, Australia’s most influential player in the series.It is not just the wickets, although his tally of 23 at 15.47 and a strike-rate of a wicket every 33 balls is remarkable. It has been his pace, accuracy and consistency that has troubled England over the first three Tests. If England were metaphorically on the back foot coming to Perth, it was largely because Johnson had literally forced them on to the back foot in the first two Tests. It was fitting that he took the wicket that confirmed the triumph.It might easily have ended differently for Johnson, for one of the ugliest sights of the whole series came on the final day at the WACA when Johnson tried to do the team thing and cut off a boundary at deep square leg. His awkward slide was vividly reminiscent of Simon Jones’ slide at the Gabba in 2002-03, which resulted in a ruptured cruciate ligament. Johnson’s right knee jolted with such force in the WACA turf that viewers turned away from replays.Johnson was fortunate that a dirty set of whites was the worst that resulted of it and after a few stretches he returned to the top of his mark to bowl the next over. After a change of trousers at the lunch break, Johnson was back on the field to wrap up Australia’s victory.”I think Mitch has known his role from the start of this series,” Michael Clarke, the captain, said. “He’s known what I’ve expected of him in this team at the moment with other bowlers around him. And credit to the other guys, because I think they’ve played a big part to allow Mitch to bowl the way he has bowled.”But this game was a really good example. Mitch’s pace probably wasn’t as high as it was in the first two Test matches, but he executed with skill, and he’s got natural variation. You saw there he got a wicket with the slower ball as well. He was able to bowl good areas. That’s the class of Mitchell Johnson. Through his career he’s been used in different situations. He’s bowled long spells. He’s opened the bowling. He’s bowled first change. He can do all of that.”It’s just about what is best for the team. It’s just another example of players putting the team first. He’s been happy to bowl in short spells and maximise his pace, and then throughout this Test match at times he’s had to bowl longer spells and be more consistent, and he’s able to do that, which is very pleasing.”Johnson finished with match figures of 6 for 140 at the WACA to give him 23 for the series. England’s two main strike bowlers, Anderson and Stuart Broad, haven’t even taken that many between them. England’s captain, Alastair Cook, said his men had always known that Johnson could provide a serious threat when in form, but they had been surprised by his control and lack of loose balls this time around.”We’ve known that when Mitch gets it right, he’s a very good bowler,” Cook said. “Even when he was having that tough series in 2010-11, when he got it right here in Perth he [proved he] was a tough bowler to face. He bowls quickly and swings it, and that’s a pretty good combination. 230-odd wickets suggests he’s done it for a fair period of time. When he gets it right he’s dangerous.”It hasn’t surprised that he’s taken wickets, but I think it’s surprised us the control he’s had. He’s managed to improve his control a lot since the last time we saw him.”

Tim Southee has heaped praise on New Zealand’s fast bowlers, particularly Neil Wagner, whose contribution, according to Southee, has often gone unnoticed

Abhishek Purohit in Wellington12-Feb-2014Tim Southee is happy about the accolades that came fellow fast bowler Neil Wagner’s way after his match-winning performance in the Auckland Test against India.Wagner has often been the workhorse wheeling away in the background while strike bowlers Southee and Trent Boult share the limelight, but at Eden Park, Wagner dismissed several key batsmen on his way to a match haul of eight wickets. Southee was glad that the role played by a key component of an increasingly productive attack was being acknowledged.”It is pleasing to see Wags finally get some credit for the hard work he’s done over the past few years,” Southee said. “I think a lot of it goes unnoticed, not unnoticed by the team, but unnoticed by people watching and probably outside. He does a hell of a job for us and it was pleasing to see him do so well and reap some rewards.”He complements myself and Trent very well. He loves bowling with the old ball and somehow he manages to pick up wickets just before the second new ball and that makes it easier for myself and Trent to come in where there’s two new batsmen around with the second new ball.”The trio of Southee, Boult and Wagner have been bowling New Zealand to Test wins throughout this home summer. There were successive ones against West Indies in Wellington and Hamilton before the Auckland thriller against India. Southee was proud of this grouping and the way they were progressing.”It is nice to have an attack where you can take 20 wickets. We have over the last few Test matches. We have shown a lot of promise over the last year, year and a half and we keep continuing to improve. It is good,” Southee said. “We all complement each other very well. We are forming a good partnership and hopefully we can keep that going in the direction it is.”The Indian batsmen had not been allowed to get away as the New Zealand quicks executed their plans to perfection. This was the reason for the hosts’ success, Southee said.”I think the way we bowled as a group, I think we kept the pressure on and bowled in partnerships and as you saw the wickets were shared around between the three of us. That shows you that we never really gave them a let-off. There was always someone who was coming hard at different times.”They are quality players and you just have to up your game. It becomes a game of patience and sort of who falls first. Little bit of movement off the deck helps as well. The new ball always helps and taking regular wickets and getting batsmen out there and not giving them a chance to settle goes a massive way to creating that pressure.”We have put a lot of thought, and research goes into plans before the series. It is pleasing to see them come off. Shane (Bond) and the computer analysts and Mike Hesson, they put these plans in and it is a reward for them to see the bowlers sticking to them and the success we are having. It is the consistency we are bowling with and the familiar conditions we are used to.”While the Indians no longer had the big batting names of recent years, they came back from a disappointing first innings in Auckland to make 366 in the chase, falling short by 40 runs. Southee said India had a promising line-up, and that New Zealand were expecting a stiff contest in Wellington.”They don’t have the names like the Tendulkars, the Dravids and the Laxmans but they have got the potential to be great players. It is the first time to New Zealand for a few of those players and foreign conditions for them. We have bowled well as a unit and it has put pressure on their batters.”They have obviously had a disappointing tour and are too good a side to roll over. They’ll come hard and they will want to have a win on the tour. They are a far better side than they have shown on this tour so far. They have a lot to prove in this last Test and have a got a lot of quality players and I am sure we are going to have to up our game. They’ll come out and hopefully look to finish their tour on a high. Hopefully we can keep them winless on their trip to New Zealand.”

A law against sports fraud that offers real consequences of “jail time” could well be the deterrent for athletes in the fight against corruption in sports, former India captain Rahul Dravid has said

Sharda Ugra12-Nov-2013A law against sports fraud that offers real consequences of “jail time” could well be the deterrent for athletes in the fight against corruption in sports, former India captain Rahul Dravid has said. Speaking at a conference conducted by India’s premier investigation agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation, Dravid said the four issues needing legal intervention were doping, deliberate underperformance, involvement in the betting industry and age fraud.”Criminal offences must be defined to include all forms of sports cheating, and jail time must be a genuine potential outcome where an offence is proved,” Dravid, who formed part of a panel discussion on ‘integrity in sport’, said. Modern sport was at “a crossroads”, he said, as it was “at serious risk of losing its moral compass”. “The question is no longer whether the law must intervene but it is how, to what extent and on what issues.”Being banned from a sport, he said, did not end up having the desired effect, but being punished for a crime would. “Unless people see the consequences of your action… People have to see jail at the end of the day.”Former India fast bowler Atul Wassan, who was part of the audience, asked Dravid whether cricket needed to adhere to the anti-doping clauses pertaining to players’ revealing their whereabouts to testing authorities, accept polygraph tests, and the possibility of entrapment by law-enforcement authorities. Dravid said, “I’m all for it – you need more regulation – it is what will protect the honest athlete even if it means a certain amount of loss of [personal] freedom.”One of the other speakers on the panel, Chris Eaton, director of the International Centre for Sports Security, said sports fraud needed to be tackled at a global, multi-dimensional level, involving sporting bodies, the police, governments and international co-operation. “Otherwise you are only papering over the problem, the entire gambling [world] needs to be called in to account.” A former FIFA head of security, Eaton said just banning players involved was no solution. “Stop punishing only the players – they are the victims in this, you need to tackle the people making their money through this. You punish one lot of players, the people behind the fix move on to the next lot of players. These people have to be brought to account in some way.”The fact that betting was illegal in India did not, he said, mean that the betting industry could not be regulated and called to question. Unlike Eaton, however, Ravi Sawani, the head of the BCCI’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit, said he did not believe that legalising gambling would solve the problem, stating that his view was that the laws in the western world were framed more with an eye on protecting the lucrative gambling industry rather than the sport.The enactment of a special law pertaining to sports fraud would work best if combined with “a central agency” to investigate the problem, Sawani said. He suggested the creation of a special sports integrity intelligence unit under the CBI, which would bring several layers of the illegal betting industry under scrutiny. “Young players always ask us, we have to follow a code and if we break it, we get punished. But what happens to the bookies?”Sawani had been part of the CBI investigation into match-fixing in 2000. At the time, the CBI, he said, had been advised by a former Supreme Court judge, Manoj Mukherjee, that laws 415 (cheating), 417 (punishment for cheating) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) under the Indian Penal Code did fall short in the case of fixing in cricket.The IPL 2013 corruption scandal happened to be different from what happened in 2000 in one important aspect, he said: in 2013, the cricketers were under a legal obligation to their franchises by contract. Sawani said the BCCI had always “welcomed” investigation by the police agencies, and had currently passed on information to sections of the police. “It [how the information is used] depends on what the police priorities are on looking this up.”The government representative on the panel, sports secretary Ajit Sharan, said that the draft framework of a new bill pertaining to sports fraud had been prepared and was in the process of being put out on the sports ministry website to invite “stakeholder” feedback.

Yuvraj Singh unleashed trademark pick-up sixes and lofted drives to hit an unbeaten 77 off 35 and haul in the target of 202 with two deliveries to spare

The Report by Abhishek Purohit10-Oct-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsYuvraj Singh hunted down the target of 202 with the calm of old•BCCI0:00

Aakash Chopra: ‘Yuvraj, the perennial comeback man’

In his second comeback after recovering from cancer, a leaner and fitter Yuvraj Singh was called upon to do a job he has done numerous times for India in ODIs – revive a floundering chase, with MS Dhoni for company, and only the lower order to follow. Only, this was a T20 and Yuvraj did not have the luxury of building his innings before accelerating. He duly cut out the building part, and unleashed trademark pick-up sixes and lofted drives to haul in the target of 202 with two deliveries remaining. India were facing an asking-rate of nearly 12 at 100 for 4 in the 12th over, but Yuvraj’s response was so forceful, that all Dhoni needed to do was give him the strike. By the end, the partnership was 102 at exactly two runs a ball, Yuvraj’s 77 off 35 showing his dominance.Shikhar Dhawan, Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli had all failed to kick on from starts and India’s innings was in danger of going Australia’s way, who had lost too many wickets in maintaining a frenetic pace of scoring, and had run out of steam at the death. Aaron Finch seemed set to carry Australia way over 200 but his exit in the 17th over for 89 off 52 helped India keep the visitors to 201, as only 29 came off the final four. India themselves needed 49 off the final four, but Yuvraj was in such flow that the big shot was always at hand.Yuvraj first took 18 off Clint McKay in the 14th over, and then, when the pressure escalated again, carted James Faulkner for successive sixes in the 17th. The timing on the boundaries was vintage Yuvraj, as was the effortlessness and grace. George Bailey’s preferred field of three men in the ring around point worked to Yuvraj’s advantage, as did the fact that Australia bowled too full to him.Dhoni did his bit, constantly scampering twos and ones as he does in ODI chases, and coming up with the crucial boundary, a typical stretch-and-club to cover, when it came down to six needed off four.Yuvraj’s cool assault meant Finch’s innings, and Australia’s electric start, were in vain. After being put in, Finch and debutant Nic Maddinson had kickstarted the innings with a 56-run partnership inside five overs. It was the manner in which the openers attacked the offspin of R Ashwin that stood out. The highly-rated Maddinson, 21, calmly stepped out to Ashwin’s first delivery and lofted it cleanly over extra cover for four. Finch set about cutting and lofting with intent, and Ashwin’s first over cost India 17.Maddinson made 34 before missing a slog to be bowled. Vinay Kumar got both Shane Watson and George Bailey in the eighth over. Finch, meanwhile, kept battering boundaries, generating immense power and finding gaps consistently. He was swift and brutal on the cut, played the lofted drive repeatedly and when he went to cow corner, it was more timing and placement than slogging.Glenn Maxwell showed Australia were in no mood to relent even momentarily, swinging Ashwin for three sixes in the tenth over as the score zoomed to 114 for 3 at the halfway stage of the innings. Ashwin’s figures read 2-0-41-0, and Dhoni was forced to turn to Virat Kohli’s mediums for a couple of costly overs.Australia stalled after Finch clubbed a high full toss straight to Vinay. The blow split the webbing on the bowler’s left hand, but did not deter him from sending down a couple of tight overs. A last-ball six from Faulkner took the score past 200, but Yuvraj hunted it down with the calm of old.

Four out of 26 cricketers who played international matches for Bangladesh in the preceding 2012-13 season have been kept out as BCB announced a 30-member preliminary squad for the New Zealand series that begins in October this year.

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Jun-2013Four out of 26 cricketers who played international matches for Bangladesh in the 2012-13 season have been kept out of a 30-member preliminary squad for the New Zealand series that begins in October this year.Mohammad Ashraful (ACSU investigation), Abul Hasan (back injury), Enamul Haque jnr and Nazimuddin did not feature in the list selected by BCB. Of them, Enamul is currently playing club cricket in England, while Nazimuddin has been out of favour since playing a Test against West Indies in November last year.Left-arm spinners Mosharraf Hossain and Saqlain Sajib found places in the preliminary squad, alongside Imrul Kayes, Raqibul Hasan, Farhad Reza, Mehrab Hossain jnr and Nazmul Hossain Milon.Mosharraf was called up for the ODIs in Sri Lanka, but didn’t play a match while Imrul, Raqibul and Mehrab earned call-ups through their domestic performances.Some of these players are also likely to feature in the Bangladesh A team’s tour of England later this summer, as well as the Under-23 side that will play in the ACC Emerging Teams Cup to be held in Singapore.The players will have their fitness assessed, especially those who have been injured in the last three months. Mashrafe Mortaza, who last played in December 2012, has almost recovered from a heel injury, while the likes of Rubel Hossain, Shahriar Nafees, Shahadat Hossain and Naeem Islam will be looked at.Allrounder Shakib Al Hasan will miss the pre-tournament camp, as he is currently in the USA on holiday, and will later play for Leicestershire in the Friends Life T20 this year.Bangladesh squad: Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Tamim Iqbal, Shakib Al Hasan, Nasir Hossain, Ziaur Rahman, Jahurul Islam, Shafiul Islam, Abdur Razzak, Anamul Haque, Sohag Gazi, Rubel Hossain, Mominul Haque, Shamsur Rahman, Marshall Ayub, Shahriar Nafees, Shahadat Hossain, Robiul Islam, Sajidul Islam, Elias Sunny, Mashrafe Mortaza, Naeem Islam, Junaid Siddique, Mosharraf Hossain, Imrul Kayes, Raqibul Hasan, Farhad Reza, Saqlain Sajib, Mehrab Hossain jnr, Nazmul Hossain Milon