Rain helped, but Rubel made the difference - Anderson

New Zealand allrounder Corey Anderson has said that the rain interruption in the first ODI worked in their favour but Rubel Hossain's hat-trick made the difference once play resumed. Rubel's six-wicket haul got Bangladesh off to a good start, and made sure they defeated New Zealand for the fifth time in as many completed games.

"The rain actually brought it back to where we would have liked it," Anderson said. "It became a shortened game with the big hitters down the order. You cannot take anything away from Rubel, he bowled very well. Hat-tricks don't come around often. A cluster like that will always make a difference in the game. The hat-trick didn't do us any favours at all."

In his short career, Anderson has become the first victim of two hat-tricks. Sohag Gazi trapped him lbw in the first Test, before taking the wickets of BJ Watling and Doug Bracewell. This time it was Rubel who clean bowled Anderson in the 24th over to soon complete his hat-trick and changed the complexion of the game.

"We made the run rate come down a little bit," Anderson said. "I probably didn't need to play the shot I did. We thought we were going well, but that hat-trick put us a long way behind the eight-ball. He bowled smartly. We bowled cross-seamed and slower balls. He did the exact same thing [and a] couple popped off the gloves."

Before the rain or the hat-trick, New Zealand had other problems. Tim Southee gave them a good start but they let Mushfiqur Rahim and Naeem Islam off the hook, the pair adding 154 runs for the fourth wicket. The visitors pulled back the run rate considerably but still had to chase 265 runs in 50 overs.

Their frontline spinner Nathan McCullum was not very effective, giving 28 runs in four wicketless overs. Part-timers Anton Devcich and Kane Williamson too bowled nine unsuccessful overs between them.

"I don't know if it was Bangladesh's tactic to attack Nathan, but I think they got on top of us in the middle period," Anderson said. "We started standing up in the last 15 overs. We got them 30-40 runs short of what they would have liked."

But Anderson doesn't think alarm bells are ringing despite the loss. They have one day in between to turn it around, and they have chosen to rest on Wednesday, on the eve of the second ODI.

"I don't think we have to get worried about anything," he said. "Someone got a hat-trick, and fingers crossed he doesn't get it in the next one. I think we have to come back firing in the next game."

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Andy Pick resigns as USACA High Performance Manager

Andy Pick has resigned as USACA High Performance Manager after just two months on the job. The abrupt end to Pick's tenure comes in the wake of a USA men's national team training camp in Florida from October 18-20, during which a series of incidents occurred that Pick says were not in line with how a professional organisation should operate.

At the top of the list of his reasons for stepping down was the unhappiness with the squad selection process for the USA team that will be traveling to the UAE next month for the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier. This included a petition from the USACA to the ICC to change two players in the squad after the final list of 15 players had already been submitted by the original tournament deadline of October 15.

"Following the camp and a number of other issues before and after, culminating with the changing of the final squad after its submission, I felt unable to continue working for USACA," Pick wrote in the letter, a copy of which has been obtained by ESPNcricinfo. "In my brief time there, it became obvious that certain people are not ready for change and structure and are determined to maintain control even if it holds back cricket in the USA and I was not prepared to sacrifice my personal and professional reputation working for these people."

Prior to his role with the USACA, Pick had been working full-time as the ICC Americas Regional High Performance Manager out of Toronto. In taking on the role with the USACA, Pick was to split his duties part-time working out of USACA's Florida headquarters and part-time working for the ICC Americas but he will now resume full-time duties back in Toronto with the ICC Americas office. When contacted by ESPNcricinfo on Tuesday, Pick said he had accepted the position with the USACA because he believed the organisation was ready to become professional but that his brief experiences after being hired indicated otherwise.

"I think earlier on in the summer, there was a feeling around USA Cricket that people were ready for the change," Pick told ESPNcricinfo. "This external review was going on and I think people thought that with its recommendations they hoped things would move forward and that this would be agreed or voted on at the AGM, and it still might be. Who knows, I don't know how the vote is going to go."

"One thing is for certain. There was more confidence earlier in the year when this project was started. There was an air of confidence that things were going to move forward and with the right support Darren [Beazley, USACA chief executive] would be able to get things moving and that's not been the case. There are still people holding things back and affecting the way that things need to be done."

The tipping point for Pick were the events that took place in Fort Lauderdale just over a week ago at a USA player preparation camp ahead of the tour to the UAE. The USACA had submitted its final 15-man roster for the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier to the ICC and had already informed those players who were going on tour. After the weekend camp though, a request was made to make two changes to the squad.

According to team sources, those changes were to take Fahad Babar and Ritesh Kadu out of the team in favour of Imran Awan and Barrington Bartley, neither of whom were originally invited to the camp. However, Awan paid for his own plane ticket to come down to the camp. Despite not playing in any of the three trial games against Bermuda, he impressed USA coach Robin Singh enough with his bowling in the nets that Singh, according to team sources, requested for the changes to be made. USACA applied to the ICC for a special exemption to make the two changes, which were accepted.

"After having decided on 15 and having brought them down to Fort Lauderdale, to then decide on the Sunday night after the camp that they wanted to make two changes and leave two people out, that was it," Pick said. "That's just no way of going and you can't treat players like that ultimately, not players who you want to go out and give their all, take time off work, leave their families behind. You treat them like that but then expect them to be fully committed to the cause. That's just not right.

"I've worked with some of the best players in the world. I know how you go and how you treat players and how selection is done. There has to be some sort of a process. I feel I failed because I was hoping we could get some sort of a process in place and things would be better and it's not happened ultimately. That was probably the final straw really, when they wanted to tell people who were going [to the UAE] and had been told they were going and had kits ordered that now they weren't going."

Awan was not the only player to show up to the camp without his travel being arranged and paid for by the USACA. According to sources, as many as six other players, mostly from the Washington, D.C., area where USA team manager Shoaib Ahmed and USACA president Gladstone Dainty reside, were encouraged to come to the camp despite not being part of the official 15-man USA roster that was submitted to the ICC for next month's tour to the UAE. Pick was never informed that these players would be showing up in Florida and does not know who invited them.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Pick said. "That was another one of the issues. When people come and introduce themselves to me in the hotel and I'm not expecting them to be here…. There's no process. There's people off on their own doing their own thing. I'm trying to organise food and transport and all these different things for certain numbers. USACA doesn't have a lot of money. If we've paid for 17 meals, then I want 17 meals, I don't want 20 people sitting down and eating because that's another $50 a day that we've got to find from somewhere. There has to be some sort of structure and there isn't."

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Rubel gets his confidence back

Injuries and several underwhelming performances stood in Rubel's way in the past. Against New Zealand, the 'introvert' showed a different side to himself

Rubel Hossain's international career of nearly five years has been one of constant ups and downs, the likes of which not many of his team-mates can relate to so early in their careers. The six-wicket haul and hat-trick which triggered the 43-run win over New Zealand in Mirpur was a performance that should give him a lot more confidence on and off the field.

He became the first Bangladeshi bowler to take four wickets or more on ODI debut, his 4 for 33 setting up a win against Sri Lanka in early 2009. In the next match however, he was the villain, getting hit for four fours and two sixes by, of all people, Muttiah Muralitharan. Bangladesh lost a nailbiting tri-series final, and Rubel drew the ire of the nation. He started off his Test career with a three-wicket haul, but has been expensive in this format. His first and only five-for cost him 166 runs in 29 overs, in early 2010. He was hardly picking up wickets until the four-wicket haul against New Zealand in October that year, a performance that sealed one of the most famous wins in the country's history.

He fell into another lull thereafter, only picking up a four-wicket haul against Zimbabwe in a dead rubber in mid-2011. He continued to be expensive and bereft of wickets before being injured in the BPL's inaugural edition. It put him out for nearly a year, but even after returning against West Indies, his fortunes didn't change, giving away 63 in four overs of a T20 game.

He had another shoulder niggle, then fared poorly against Sri Lanka and was ordinary compared to Man of the Series Robiul Islam in the Test series in Zimbabwe. He was again out of the team, this time due to a bout of chicken pox which prevented him from playing the ODI series against Zimbabwe in May. He regained his fitness, took 19 wickets in six Dhaka Premier Division matches, after which the coach Shane Jurgensen saw a "different Rubel".

An introvert, even listening to him from close quarters can be a task at times. But on Tuesday evening, his confidence imposed itself on New Zealand. His was the loudest whoop at the Shere Bangla National Stadium.

	It is fun bowling against New Zealand Rubel Hossain

He was actually Mushfiqur Rahim's last resort after three spinners were smashed for 38 runs in three overs after the rain break after 20 overs. The Bangladesh captain had one over of Mashrafe Mortaza after the New Zealand innings was reduced to 33 overs, so when he turned to Rubel, and given the bowler's recent performances in the slog overs, he was taking a major risk.

The visitors too had started to get the run-rate within their grasp quickly with that early impetus after the rain break. When they got back at 9:00pm, they needed to score at 9.53 runs per over, but by the time Rubel was handed the ball, they required 86 to win from 60 balls.

His first two balls yielded one run before Corey Anderson, Bangladesh's biggest threat with a rapid 46, swung high and hard but only at air. It was a fuller length delivery on the stumps, something that Jurgensen had asked him to bowl repeatedly for the last two years. Anderson's wicket was key to Bangladesh staying in the game but what happened next swung the game further Bangladesh's way. Rubel didn't give Brendon McCullum much room to move, and a ball that took off on the batsman took a leading edge and was caught at point.

The pitch was perhaps spiced up a little with the 35-minute spell of rain, and it was evident in the McCullum dismissal. James Neesham became the hat-trick victim, caught down the leg side by a diving Mushfiqur.

Rubel had earlier dismissed Ross Taylor with a delivery that cut back in after pitching and took the edge as he tried to play it through backward point. He added two more after the hat-trick, those of Nathan McCullum and Grant Elliott, equaling the best figures for a Bangladesh bowler in ODI cricket - Mortaza too had taken 6 for 26 seven years ago against Kenya.

And it was appropriate that Mortaza took both catches to give him his fifth and sixth wickets, because it was Mortaza who inspired Rubel in his childhood in Bagerhat. It was Mortaza whose image he carried when he came to Dhaka after being one of the top-finishers in a nationwide pace-bowling hunt.

Rubel, in his own soft-spoken manner, said that Mortaza had been an inspiration in the field today as well.

"Mashrafe bhai kept running towards me, telling me that I was bowling the right way," Rubel said. "He told me that the cutters and slower balls I was using were perfect.

"Every bowler wants to bowl such a spell. It was in my fate, it happened. I was out due to a shoulder injury for a long time. I worked hard, went through rehab. I wasn't in the ODI squad for a bit. I bowled well in the Dhaka Premier League recently. I feel confident these days."

He added, "It is fun bowling against New Zealand."

To those who know Rubel or have followed him over the last few years, this was an off-the-cuff comment and not one in jest. A few wickets under his belt has given him much-needed confidence.

On Tuesday evening, he soared, and there is hope among those who are going to persist with him, he keeps soaring on and off the field.

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Uncapped Babar replaces Steve Massiah

Steve Massiah, the former USA captain, will not be traveling with the team to UAE for the ICC World T20 Qualifiers, as he was unable to get time off work. Massiah, 34, was officially announced as part of USA's squad when the ICC unveiled the tournament rosters last week , but a USACA spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday that he had been replaced by the uncapped 21-year-old batsman Fahad Babar.

Babar was originally in USA's 15-man squad to tour the UAE next month, but USACA had made a request to the ICC after the October 15 submission deadline to have both Babar and wicketkeeper Ritesh Kadu replaced by Imran Awan and Barrington Bartley. The squad shuffling has, in part, spurred Andy Pick to resign as USACA High Performance Manager.

"It was hard. I was kind of disappointed," Babar told ESPNcricinfo, describing his emotions after he was told last week that he would no longer be traveling to the UAE. "It was a little depressing but then I got a call yesterday saying I was going so now I'm really happy."

Babar scored an unbeaten 45-ball 58 in the first of three T20 trial matches against Bermuda on October 18, before getting out first ball in the third match two days later. He formerly represented the USA Under-19 team in 2011 at the ICC Americas U-19 Division One tournament in Florida.

USA are scheduled to depart for the UAE on November 9. They have been placed in Group A, and their first match of the World T20 qualifiers is against Canada in Abu Dhabi on November 15.

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Venkatapathy Raju to work with UAE spinners

Venkatapathy Raju, the former India left-arm spinner, is currently on a 10-day visit to the UAE to help in the development of spinners in the country. Raju, now the Asian Cricket Council's (ACC) development officer for UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, and Thailand, is working with spinners at the Under-19 and senior level.

"It is always a nice feeling to work with the younger cricketers," Raju told the National. "I am available whenever any of the four countries are in need of my services. Most of the spinners know what they do at this level and my task is fine-tune them and work on the variations."

The U-19 side's next major assignment is the World Cup in the UAE in February 2014. The country will also host the upcoming World T20 Qualifiers in November, and Raju will be involved in training spinners for both events.

"The U-19 concept is the best thing to happen for the development of cricket at the grassroots level," Raju said. "It provides the young cricketers with the opportunity to play against different countries at an early age."

Raju, 44, played 28 Tests and 53 ODIs for India, taking 93 and 63 wickets respectively. Following his retirement from first-class cricket in 2004, he has coached Orissa and Hyderabad and also served as a national selector.

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South Africa win 2-0 after rain abandons third ODI

Match abandoned Sri Lanka Women 164 (Atapattu 58, Kapp 3-38) v South Africa Women 2 for 0 in 1 over
Scorecard

South Africa women won the three-match ODI series 2-0 as rain washed out the third match in Potchefstroom after the hosts's pacers reduced Sri Lanka to 164.

Sri Lanka were asked to bat and got off to a slow and precarious start as they lost Yasoda Mendis for a duck in the second over to Marizanne Kapp and two more wickets, of Sripali Weerakkody and captain Shashikala Siriwardene, before reaching 50 in the 18th over. Opener Chamari Atapattu kept going at the other end and scored her sixth ODI fifty.

Once she fell in the 35th over for 58 at the score of 105, Sri Lanka could add only 59 more runs. No. 5 Chamani Seneviratna scored a patient 32 off 71 and Dilani Manodara and Maduri Samuddika also scored in double figures before they were all out on the last ball of the 50th over. Kapp picked up two more wickets to finish with 3 for 38 and Shabnim Ismal ended with figures of 2 for 20.

South Africa batted for only one over before lightening in the surrounding area halted play and rain soon interrupted to not allow further play.

The two teams will now play three T20s in the same city starting October 31.

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No Glamorgan T20 deal for Jones

Simon Jones's prospects of extending his career in Twenty20 have been dealt a blow after he was not offered a contract for next season's NatWest T20 by Glamorgan.

Jones, the 34-year-old former England fast bowler, retired from first-class and List A cricket at the end of last season but hoped to play on in the shortest format. But in domestic cricket, his future will not be in Cardiff as new chief executive Hugh Morris revealed Jones would not be offered a deal for 2014.

Jones has now played his final game for his home county, which was the Yorkshire Bank 40 final in September, where Glamorgan lost to Nottinghamshire.

"I am bitterly disappointed that nothing has been offered," Jones said. "I am a local boy and I thought when I came back from Hampshire I would finish my career here. I felt I could have offered a lot more but it was not to be."

His cause was not helped by missing most of the 2013 T20 campaign with a shoulder injury but Jones hoped his form in the YB40, plus his potential in an ambassadorial or mentor role, would work in his favour.

"I have to take it on the chin and get on with my life and look to play over the Bridge," Jones said. "I am a strong character and wherever I go I will do my best.

"We have had quite a lot of interest and we will just have to see what offers come in and where that takes me. I still feel as if I have a couple of years left in me so wherever that might be I am willing to travel and relocate to continue playing the game I love.

"I just want to play because I have spent too many years rehabbing and being off the park. I still feel as if the body is ready for a couple of years and if I didn't I would hang up my boots. But compared to other 34-year-olds on the circuit my body is relatively young."

Jones, who has taken 43 T20 wickets at 21.46 with an economy rate of 7.43, also hopes to explore opportunities in global T20 leagues. Jones said he was "desperate" to be involved in the auction for the Bangladesh Premier League in December.

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Khawaja, Marsh, Doolan in Australia A squad

Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh and Alex Doolan will contend for Australia's Ashes No. 6 spot among the batsmen given an early sight of England through selection for Australia A in the tour match against the visitors at Bellerive Oval from November 6.

The trio are part of a team that mixes potential Test aspirants with cricketers further back in the queue, after the selectors weighed up the merit of their playing against the Englishmen or for their own states in the concurrent Sheffield Shield round.

Marsh and Khawaja will be particularly keen to show their worth following strong form in the domestic limited overs competition, while Doolan and Callum Ferguson are among others who have the opportunity to push themselves up a changeable batting order of preference by making runs against the tourists.

"We have struck a balance in what we think is the appropriate Australia A team to face England, while ensuring individuals have a solid preparation and chance to impress," the national selector John Inverarity said.

"There were clearly a number of players under consideration to play for Australia A in this match, however we have long been aware that 77 cricketers would be playing across these four days and due to various circumstances we have balanced our interests with what we feel is in the best interests for each player, their preparation and chance to push for higher honours.

"While these next couple of rounds of Shield cricket are important, the NSP is well advanced in its planning around the squad for the first Test.

"Players returning from one-day duties in India and not named for Australia A may play in the Bupa Sheffield Shield fixtures played concurrently with the Australia A fixture if it is considered that it is in their interests and the interest of their States' to be included."

As was the case against South Africa a year ago, the team is stronger on batting than bowling, the Queenslander Ben Cutting and the Victoria left-arm spinner Jon Holland providing the greatest threat to England's batsmen in an attack that also features Trent Copeland and the captain Moises Henriques.

Australia A squad Moises Henriques (capt), Glenn Maxwell, Trent Copeland, Ben Cutting, Alex Doolan, Callum Ferguson, Jon Holland, Usman Khawaja, Michael Klinger, Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine.

More to come...

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Mohnish Mishra returns in style after suspension

As the Madhya Pradesh team was going through its warm-up drills at Holkar Stadium on Sunday morning, ahead of its Ranji Trophy season-opener against Railways, MP coach Mukesh Sahani noticed that Mohnish Mishra, the vice-captain, was stiffer than usual. Sahani wasn't surprised, since Mishra was marking a return to top-flight cricket after serving a one-year suspension imposed by the BCCI for having indulged in "loose talk" and brought disrepute to Indian cricket, following a sting operation into alleged corruption in domestic cricket by India TV in May 2012.

"He just walked up to me and told me, 'You are thinking much more than what you should be,'" Mishra told ESPNcricinfo. "He asked me to set all other thoughts aside and concentrate only on the ball that would be coming at me. That is precisely what I did, and I am kind of relieved it worked."

The result was a near-perfect return to domestic cricket for Mishra, who threw his wicket away just three runs shy of what would have been his sixth first-class century. Still, his knock of 97, played in his trademark attacking style and helping MP cruise to 282 for 3 at stumps on day one, could be enough to silence those who raised eyebrows over his appointment as captain Devendra Bundela's deputy. And it was enough to reassure Mishra that he still belonged at this level.

"When you cannot play at this level for one full season, somewhere down the line you start asking yourself whether you belong here. Once I survived the initial anxiety, I knew that I was back to where I belonged and was keen to justify it," Mishra said. "Besides, the competition is so fierce nowadays that despite the MP Cricket Association, coaches, captain and selectors giving me full assurance, I knew I had to make their confidence count at the earliest."

Sahani agreed that it was crucial from both Mishra's and the team's perspective for him to come good at the earliest. "Having known him well since his Under-19 days, I knew that the sooner he got a decent score the better it would for everyone, to get the monkey off his back. And I am glad that he has managed to deliver in the first innings."

For more than half a decade before his suspension, Mishra was a vital cog in MP's line-up. In fact, in the 2011-12 season, he had led MP in the domestic one-day and Twenty20 competitions. As a result, for Sahani and the selectors, led by Narendra Hirwani, it was a "no-brainer" for him to be appointed vice-captain once he was available.

Even though Mishra couldn't play competitive cricket last year, he didn't give up training "even for a single day" all through the year. He was practising hard at his club in Bhopal and keeping in touch with his MP coaches and team-mates. "Not once did anyone make me feel I was unwanted, because they knew I hadn't done anything that would have shamed anyone. That helped me keep myself on my toes."

Mishra said the biggest change the forced one-year break brought was "maturity". "I started to know myself better - both as a person and a cricketer," Mishra said. "I had so much time to think about myself and my cricket that would help me in revitalising my dream of playing for India. That's why I am as disappointed with myself as I am happy today. Delighted, obviously, for coming good on my return. And disappointed for having missed out on a century and remaining unbeaten at the end of the day's play by playing a rash shot."

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Sylhet wins, Cox's Bazaar misses out

The ICC has retained Sylhet as one of the venues for next year's World Twenty20, after being convinced by the BCB that the stadium will be ready in time. There is still some development work left at the stadium, but the extended deadline of November 30 is being seen as adequate time to complete the work.

Sylhet has been given 28 matches, the most for one venue in this tournament, which includes 22 women's matches and six from the men's first round, which were to be played in Cox's Bazaar. But the coastal town was shelved as a venue as its playing surface is brand new and untested.

With 16 men's and 10 women's teams, this is the biggest tournament in its history. But the dropping of the Cox's Bazaar venue means that the 60 matches of both the tournaments will be crammed into just three grounds, one of which is still incomplete.

But there has been significant progress at the Sylhet venue since work started belatedly in June. The main pavilion building and the media centre on opposite sides of the ground have been completed structurally, but there is interior work still to be done. The floodlights have been installed while the green gallery, a small hill on the east of the pavilion, needs its seating arrangement to be made more spectator-friendly.

BCB president Nazmul Hassan said he is confident that they can complete the pending work well before time, but cautioned that the board cannot prevent the ICC from deciding on alternative venues if the work isn't completed on time.

"The basic structures [in Sylhet] are completed," BCB president Nazmul Hassan said. "The finishing touches are going on. We still have lot of work to do. It is a huge stadium and we also have some landscaping left to do. We are confident of doing it in time.

"[But] there is always a possibility to move matches from one country to another or from one stadium to another. Everything depends on whether we can get the stadiums prepared by the time we committed to. If we don't do it, it will go to the alternate venues. Our advantage is that we have alternate venues. But I won't negotiate for this with the ICC anymore. I have promised them that we will finish it by November 20 [the official deadline is November 30], I can assure you we can do it by November 10."

Hassan said that work in Sylhet should have begun long time ago but it was stalled because the National Sports Council (NSC) took extra time to complete the tendering process. "The Sylhet stadium was not directly done by the BCB but by the NSC. The tender should have started at least nine months back.

"You can't ask us to finish a nine-month task in two months, and we couldn't. So we asked the ICC for another one month. A lot of work has been done. The entire process started too late."

The ICC will use all three venues - Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet - for the 35 men's matches, including the first round that will be held from March 16 to 21. Dhaka's Shere Bangla National Stadium will host 17 matches in all, and the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong will host 14 games.

But what should have been one of the tournament's biggest attractions, the Cox's Bazaar Stadium by the world's longest beach, will now only host practice matches. The land was acquired quite late and only happened after the country's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina intervened earlier this year. There was never going to be enough time to build a stadium from scratch in such a short timeframe, and although it was almost achieved, there was not enough time to test the pitches.

Hassan, though, said the warm-up games needed venues too. "It is not only the World Twenty20 matches but there will be a lot of practice matches for both tournaments. We cannot [overuse] the three [main] venues, so these practice matches will be spread around.

"We initially thought that the women's matches will be held in Cox's Bazaar. It is fully ready but the pitches have not been tested. There has never been a cricket match played on those wickets. To start a World Cup on completely unused pitches is a big risk."

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