Youthful squad to tour West Indes

England have named the uncapped pair of Beth Langston and Kate Cross in their 14-player squad to tour West Indies. The players were picked from a 21-strong England Women's Performance Squad for 2013-14.

The tour to West Indies will feature a T20 tri-series with New Zealand followed by three ODIs against the hosts. First-choice players Katherine Brunt, Anya Shrubsole, Laura Marsh and Heather Knight have been omitted in order to recover from injuries sustained during the Ashes, which England won 12-4 on the points-based system. Arran Brindle was not included for personal reasons.

The return series in Australia will take place in January and February, with a 15-player squad to be selected after the West Indies trip.

"After an inspirational summer regaining the Women's Ashes, the England team now embarks on a full winter schedule starting with a tour to the West Indies," Clare Connor, the head of England women's cricket, said. "With a few experienced players currently rehabilitating injuries sustained during the Ashes campaign, a number of young players will have the opportunity to play key roles for the side in what promises to be an exciting tour against the hosts West Indies and also New Zealand.

"Kate Cross and Beth Langston should both be congratulated on their selection after delivering consistently strong performances at England Women's Academy level. Strength in depth is going to be critical to England's success over the next couple of years with more and more international cricket on the horizon, including the return Ashes to Australia in January 2014 and the ICC World Twenty20 in March/April 2014."

England Women's Performance Squad 2013-14: Tammy Beaumont, Arran Brindle, Katherine Brunt, Holly Colvin, Katie Cross, Charlotte Edwards, Georgia Elwiss, Natasha Farrant, Lydia Greenway, Jenny Gunn, Danielle Hazell, Amy Jones, Heather Knight, Beth Langston, Laura Marsh, Natalie Sciver, Anya Shrubsole, Sarah Taylor, Fran Wilson, Lauren Winfield, Danielle Wyatt

England squad to tour West Indies: Charlotte Edwards (capt), Tammy Beaumont, Holly Colvin, Katie Cross, Natasha Farrant, Lydia Greenway, Jenny Gunn, Danielle Hazell, Amy Jones, Beth Langston, Natalie Sciver, Sarah Taylor, Lauren Winfield, Danielle Wyatt

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Injury scare for Sehwag

Preparing for his first first-class game since being dropped from the Test side, Virender Sehwag gave everyone an injury scare in Shimoga. After hitting everybody in the spinners' nets around, Sehwag was hit by the first ball of pace he faced, a nippy delivery from Dhawal Kulkarni. Immediately the bat went out of the hand, off came the gloves, and on his knees Sehwag began to tend to his right index finger.

To allay fears of a serious injury, Sehwag got up about an hour later and batted in the spinners nets again. Cheteshwar Pujara, the India A captain, said Sehwag had looked fine when he batted again, but he wasn't sure if Sehwag would need a precautionary x-ray. While Pujara might not assure you of Sehwag's availability as India A try to erase the 1-0 deficit in the three-unofficial-Test series, he gave enough hints that Sehwag might bat in the middle order. Asked specifically about opening options, Pujara pointed out they had Kerala's VA Jagadeesh too.

Similar uncertainty hung around the star attraction in the West Indies A side, Fidel Edwards, who has not played a first-class game in nearly a year. He has been drafted in after injury to Sheldon Cotterrell. His namesake and captain, Kirk Edwards, said "we have to wait and see" when asked if Fidel Edwards would play.

Four-day pitches are not ideal for results, and A tours are usually seen as ones to get good long innings and spells under your belt. Leading 1-0 in the series, West Indies A can afford to think so more than India A can. "A huge part of A-team cricket is about developing players and stuff like that," Kirk Edwards said, "but at the same time when you play a cricket game it is always good to win. So if you can do both at the same times, that's brilliant."

Pujara and India A want to win. The return of Zaheer Khan, Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir is going to hog the headlines, but Pujara is hurting both from the loss in Mysore and his own twin failure. "I had a good series against South Africa but I was disappointed with how I got out in both the innings in the last game," Pujara said. "I always like to score runs in each and every game I play. Now I am focusing on this series, and I want to perform in this game."

We don't know how the pitch will behave, but going by how the practice strips behaved and a few overcast spells during the day, scoring the runs Pujara wants might not be the easiest. "It looks a good wicket, and whatever we saw in the practice pitches, there was a bit of help for the fast bowlers," Pujara said.

Squads

India A: Cheteshwar Pujara (capt.), Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Sheldon Jackson, Abhishek Nayar, Paras Dogra, Uday Kaul (wk), Parveez Rasool, Bhargav Bhatt, Dhawal Kulkarni, Zaheer Khan, Ishwar Pandey, Mohammed Shami, Mohammad Kaif, VA Jagadeesh

West Indies A: Kirk Edwards (capt.), Kieran Powell, Kraigg Brathwaite, Jonathan Carter, Ashley Nurse, Miguel Cummings, Narsingh Deonarine, Assad Fudadin, Jahmer Hamilton, Delorn Johnson, Leon Johnson, Nikita Miller, Veerasammy Permaul, Chadwick Walton (wk), Fidel Edwards

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Strauss 'pulls out' of managing director running

Andrew Strauss, the former England captain, has withdrawn from the running to replace Hugh Morris as the ECB's managing director of England cricket, according to a report in the Telegraph.

Strauss, who retired from professional cricket last year, had been considered a perfect fit for the role but it is now believed that he has asked not to be considered for the six-man shortlist. The ECB is expected to begin interviewing candidates this month.

Having shadowed Morris during the summer, Strauss said that he was "looking into" applying for the post. He would have had to give up lucrative media work and sidelines as a "brand ambassador" and corporate speaker, however; there was also the possibility of friction with his former team-mate Kevin Pietersen, whose behaviour last summer Strauss has criticised in his autobiography, to be published next week.

Appointing Strauss to the position would also have seen England's team director, Andy Flower, reporting to the man who worked alongside him as captain for almost four years.

Other suggested candidates to succeed Morris include another former England captain in Nasser Hussain - who has recently signed a new contract with Sky Sports - Angus Fraser, currently Middlesex's director of cricket, and Clare Connor, the head of England women's cricket.

Another issue for the ECB to address in the coming weeks is the negotiation of new central contracts for England's players. The contracts awarded last year expired on September 30 but the board and the Professional Cricketers' Association are continuing to discuss the issue and hope to have it resolved before the squad fly out for the Ashes on October 23.

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T&T need win, or slim defeat

Match facts

October 2, 2013
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)

Big Picture

It's easy, if Trinidad & Tobago beat Chennai Super Kings on Wednesday, they qualify for the semi-finals. If they don't they will be tied on points with the Titans. T&T are ahead of the Titans on net run-rate, but it is only a marginal advantage. For instance, if they bat first and score around 125, or more, they need to lose with three or lesser balls to spare to qualify. In other words, they should make Super Kings play at least 19.3 overs, or the Titans will go through.

If T&T are chasing, they need to make sure they lose by five or lesser runs to qualify. So whether Super Kings score 50 or 250, all T&T need to do is fall not more than five runs short if they end up losing. Even though T&T have won two of their three games batting first, they may want to chase this time as taking an in-form Super Kings side to the last three balls of the chase might be tougher than getting within five runs of the target themselves.

T&T draw confidence from their progress in the tournament as their totals have ascended from 135 to 160 and then to 188. What they need to work on, is their bowling. Since Ravi Rampaul's four wickets in their tournament opener, against Brisbane Heat, their attack has relied heavily on Sunil Narine's dexterity. As they don't have their fate in their own hands, Titans can only watch from the sidelines and hope for a qualification.

Super Kings are not playing for nothing. Currently at the top of the table, they can still be displaced if they lose heavily to T&T. Much will have to go against Super Kings for that to happen as they have clicked in all departments in the three matches so far. Their opening looks stronger after M Vijay followed his two ducks with a 27-ball 42, Suresh Raina, Dwayne Bravo and MS Dhoni have torn oppositions apart from the middle order and their slower bowlers made a comeback in their previous match. What needs to be worked on is their pace bowling, and T&T may want to target the fast bowlers in the initial overs as Dhoni has not been opening with R Ashwin in this tournament.

Players to watch

After making headlines in the Caribbean Premier League with a quickfire 54 from 24, 17-year-old Nicolas Pooran has not done much. He has managed scores of 11, 6 and 8 in the tournament and since T&T's middle order has not mustered big scores till now, Pooran is the man they might need to do the job against Super Kings.

Dwayne Bravo was among the top three run-scorers for T&T in the Caribbean T20 with 153 runs at an average of 38.25 and strike rate of over 110. He has also been in fine form recently with four wickets in the tournament and a quickfire 38 against the Titans. However, he will be under the spotlight against his home team now facing the same attack he was a part of and will bowl to the batting line-up he scored with, to win the T20 event earlier this year.

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Ahmedabad gamble backfires on organisers

Last Friday, the organisers of the Champions League were busy preparing to move Monday's crucial Group B double-header out of Ahmedabad due to the torrential rain that had washed out a double-header and forced another game to be rescheduled to Jaipur last week.

Suddenly, the weather cleared on Friday evening and the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) assured the CLT20 officials that if there was no more rain, they could make a submerged Motera stadium playable by Monday afternoon.

This in itself was surprising since Motera is far from being a modern cricket venue. With an age-old drainage system, even a short shower makes the outfield soggy. Still, the GCA hadn't organised sheets that would cover the whole field of play and not just the inner circle, a step that has worked well in keeping outfields dry in Sri Lanka, where matches are often interrupted by heavy rain.

Yet on Saturday, all the four teams involved in Monday's double-header - Trinidad & Tobago, Titans, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Brisbane Heat - who had been told to be on standby for flying to Ranchi in case the venue was switched, were informed their matches would not be rescheduled, despite a scattered thunderstorm being predicted for Monday.

No doubt the CLT20 organisers had their hands full of problems. First and foremost, with a plethora of important tournaments clashing with CLT20 - the A series against West Indies, Challengers Series, Under-19 quadrangular series and the Duleep Trophy - the CLT20 team had to struggle to find venues for matches with clear weather.

To add to their woes, there were limited options to move Monday's double-header, if the need arose. Mohali, which staged a few games early on in the tournament including qualifiers, couldn't stage it since the in-stadia branding had been removed from the PCA Stadium. Jaipur couldn't host a match for three nights in succession due to a lack of pitches and the Delhi stadium wasn't available as it was only scheduled to be ready in time for the knockouts. As a result, the only possible venue for the double-header to be shifted was Ranchi, where a big hurdle was accommodating four teams in five-star hotels at such short notice.

The CLT20 organisers went ahead and took the risk of not moving the games out of Ahmedabad. However, it backfired badly as a heavy downpour arrived just as the first match of the day was heading towards a thrilling finish, thus possibly robbing Titans of a place in the semifinals. And even though the storm subsided after about 45 minutes, it was enough to give the Motera the look of a mini-swimming pool and wash out the late game, thus taking away the possibility of Sunrisers keeping themselves in the hunt for a place in the semi-finals.

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Gurunath 'ran the team', says Hussey

Michael Hussey, Chennai Super Kings' opener, has become the first player to suggest Gurunath Meiyappan was more than just a "cricket enthusiast" after N Srinivasan and India Cements have distanced themselves and Super Kings from Gurunath, who has been chargesheeted in the IPL betting scandal. In his book, Underneath The Southern Cross, Hussey has commented that Srinivasan ceded control of the team to his son-in-law.

"Our owner was Indian Cements, headed by Mr Srinivasan," Hussey has written. "As he was also on the board of the BCCI, he gave control of the team to his son-in-law Mr Gurunath. He ran the team along with Kepler Wessels, who was coach."

This comes at a time when the Supreme Court of India is hearing a matter related specifically to Gurunath, and Gurunath's to the Super Kings team. Before Mumbai Police first sought to arrest him, Gurunath was often seen in the team dugout, at the auction table to represent Super Kings, represented himself as the team prinicipal on a verified Twitter account, and his IPL accreditation represented him as an owner.

Super Kings is owned by India Cements, a listed company of which Srinivasan is vice-chairman and managing director. The BCCI president has maintained that Gurunath had nothing to do with the team, and was just a "cricket enthusiast" who was allowed to travel with them.

A two-member probe panel constituted by the BCCI then cleared the Super Kings of any wrongdoing, but Cricket Association of Bihar moved court and procured a stay order against the findings of the panel, the fairness of whose constitution was questioned by the court. The matter is now being looked into by the highest court in India. The next hearing is scheduled on October 7.

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Sunrisers eliminated after washout

Brisbane Heat v Sunrisers Hyderabad - Match abandoned without a ball bowled

The match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Brisbane Heat was abandoned without a ball being bowled in Ahmedabad. This puts Sunrisers out of the Champions League after they finished with six points from four matches, winning once and losing twice. This was the third washout in Motera, after the double-header on September 23 took the same route due to rain.

Heat were already knocked out having lost their first three matches. This leaves the Titans and Trinidad & Tobago battling for the second position in Group B behind Chennai Super Kings who have already qualified. All T&T need to do is not lose by a great margin against Super Kings in their final group match.

The match scheduled for an 8:30pm start couldn't go through after heavy rain began during the first match between T&T and Titans. That match ended with three overs to spare, the Caribbean side winning by six runs by the Duckworth/Lewis method.

The two matches were retained in Ahmedabad, after an earlier game was moved out of the city due to week-long rains. Though there was 60% chance of rain today, the first game was uninterrupted until rain struck 17 overs into Titans' chase.

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Afghanistan look to seal World Cup spot

Afghanistan coach Kabir Khan has targeted winning both matches against Kenya this week in the World Cricket League (WCL), victories which will guarantee direct qualification to the 2015 World Cup.

Afghanistan are currently No. 4 in the WCL points table behind Ireland, UAE and Netherlands, with only the top two automatically progressing to the World Cup. While Ireland have already qualified, UAE and Netherlands have 18 points each after playing all their matches.

Two wins for Afghanistan, currently on 15 points, will lift them to second place and seal a World Cup spot. If Afghanistan fail to do so, they will head to New Zealand for a second chance to qualify.

"It is very important for us to qualify directly, otherwise there would be extra pressure on the boys to go to New Zealand for another round of qualification," Khan said. "We want to qualify directly and start preparing for the World Cup."

Khan stated that though the players have been under pressure throughout the tournament, they are now used to it. "Since I joined about 18 months ago, we knew that we had to win all remaining matches to qualify directly for the World Cup," he said. "The pressure has been there since the beginning and the boys are used to it."

If Afghanistan are unable to win both the matches, UAE at No. 2 will qualify automatically along with Ireland. UAE won their last two matches, on Friday and Sunday, dismissing Namibia for 39 and 80 respectively, which also caused Netherlands' elimination.

The WCL teams that don't progress directly to the World Cup will get a second chance in next year's qualifiers in New Zealand. They will play with Hong Kong, Nepal, Papua New Guinea and Uganda for the other two World Cup spots.

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Winning 14 on bounce breeds confidence - McCullum

When Otago needed 65 runs off the final five overs in their chase of 168, with only four wickets in hand, it looked like Lions had won the game in Jaipur. But James Neesham managed to take it to the Super Over. When Otago had got only seven runs off the first five balls of the Super Over, they looked in bad shape again. But Brendon McCullum charged down to convert one of many good deliveries from Sohail Tanvir into a full toss and hit it for six to give them a defendable 13. When Lions needed only three off the final three deliveries of their over, it seemed the game had finally got away from Otago. But the fielders and Neesham held their nerve, again.

In the end, captain McCullum said, for them it came down to the confidence gleaned from their 14-match winning run in T20s which ended with this tie. "I think it's the luxury of winning all the games on the bounce, it breeds confidence," McCullum said after victory was secured via a superior boundary count. "The guys get pretty composed in the middle and are backing their ability."

They might have been clear in their mind as to what was needed to be done, but the nerves were still jangling, McCullum admitted: "I don't know about calm. I played about three dots and in the Super Over [and that] wouldn't have gone down that well. I missed two really good balls from Tanvir to start the over and at the end was fortunate to get one away."

Neesham, who had thumped 52 off 25 to get it to the Super Over, was entrusted with bowling it for Otago. He didn't bowl the best of overs, dishing out several length deliveries but, as he said later, it was just his day. "Everyone has their day I guess. I guess it was just my day. Someone new stood up in each game, so I guess it was my turn."

He mirrored McCullum's thoughts, saying that the situation was tense but he didn't let that get to him. "Did I look calm? Got to be cool on the outside and not let on, and just be clear in your plans and go forth from there. I think this feeling will linger for a while."

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NZ A prevail in high-scoring game

New Zealand A 350 for 8 (Ronchi 84, Munro 70, Serasinghe 2-46) beat Sri Lanka A 322 (Karunaratne 120, Chandimal 69, Devich 3-58) by 28 runs
Scorecard

Sri Lanka A's lower-order buckled late during a steep chase of 351 in Pallekele, giving New Zeland A a 22-run victory in the first of three one-dayers between the two sides. The victory is New Zealand A's first on their trip to the subcontinent, after having been whitewashed in the one-day series against India A, in addition to losing the unofficial Test series to Sri Lanka A.

Opener Dimuth Karunaratne anchored Sri Lanka A, stitching century-run stands with Kusal Perera and captain, Dinesh Chandimal. Sri Lanka were 314 for 5 towards the end of the 46th over, needing 36 runs off 25 balls. Their slide began when left-arm spinner Ronnie Hira had Sachithra Serasinghe out leg before for 7 off the last ball of the 46th over. New Zealand pace bowler Adam Milne then took three wickets in the 47thover, to leave Sri Lanka tottering at 316 for 9. It took another four balls for New Zealand to secure the win, after wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi had Suranga Lakmal run out for 1.

Karunaratne's run-a-ball 120, which included 17 fours, kept Sri Lanka in the chase and he received good support from Perera and Chandimal. Sri Lanka lost a cluster of wickets after Karunaratne fell but recovered with a brisk knock from Ashan Priyanjan.

Earlier, New Zealand A rode on fifties from Anaru Kitchen, Colin Munro and Luke Ronchi to reach an imposing 350 for 8. They had an indifferent start, losing Anton Devcich early, but Kitchen held things steady with a 50-ball 62. Once he fell, New Zealand slipped a little but an 85-run stand between Munro and Ronchi set the side back on track. After Munro's wicket, Ronchi took charge of the innings, adding 76 crucial runs in quick time with Andrew Ellis. Two big overs towards the end of the innings then propelled NZ A to 350.

Sri Lanka bowlers Shaminda Eranga and Suranga Lakmal had been added to the A team in order to get some match practice in a lean period for the national team, but both fared poorly. Eranga's ten overs cost 84 and Lakmal went for 7.28 an over. They took one wicket apiece.

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