Dec
29

League president protests against USACA AGM

Leighton Greenidge, the president of the Southern Connecticut Cricket Association and regional director of the currently suspended North East Region, has spoken out against the USA Cricket Association (USACA) for the way the Annual General Meeting was handled on December 15 in New York. According to sources, only two league presidents belonging to member leagues in good standing attended the meeting,...
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Williamson, McCullum make it NZ's day

New Zealanders 311 for 6 (McCullum 65, Ackermann 3-46) v South African Invitation XIScorecard The New Zealanders could not have asked for a more hospitable welcome as the one they got in the Winelands to begin their Test preparation. Temperatures hovered around the upper 20 degrees at Boland Park and the South African Invitation XI provided a tame attack to help the tourists get their eyes...
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Kirsten sees broader landscape from NZ series

Gary Kirsten's first away tour in charge of South Africa was to New Zealand earlier this year. It was an opportunity to claim the world No. 1 ranking - which would have required a 3-0 series sweep - but Kirsten had other things to think about. For him, it was the time to entrench his philosophy away from the pressures of a prying home media and parochial fans. The trip was the first of three major...
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Zaheer set to lead Mumbai

Zaheer Khan is set to become Mumbai's 41st captain because a groin strain is likely to rule out regular captain Ajit Agarkar from their Group A Ranji Trophy match against Gujarat, beginning on Saturday at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. Both Zaheer, who bowled 40 overs to help Mumbai win their first game of the season, and Agarkar, who pulled his groin on the last day of that game, were doubtful...
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Dec
28

Stars secure fourth straight win

Melbourne Stars 8 for 175 (Hodge 88) beat Adelaide Strikers 4 for 167 (Pollard 65*) by eight runsScorecard They speak of Twenty20 as a young man's game, but the evergreen Brad Hodge, like Ricky Ponting, continues to dispel popular opinion. Two days shy of his 38th birthday Hodge put on a batting master-class, at one of his favourite and most prolific venues, the Adelaide Oval, to help the Melbourne...
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Break from captaincy will benefit Dhoni - Gavaskar

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar believes it would do MS Dhoni good to take "a break" from the India captaincy. Dhoni, Gavaskar said, could keep his place in the team as a player, and use the time away from the responsibilities and pressures of leading India to "reflect on his game". "It's still early days as far as 2015 World Cup is concerned, and I believe that a break in captaincy will do...
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Sri Lanka in tatters after early blows

Sri Lanka 156 and 4 for 43 trail Australia 460 (Clarke 106, Johnson 92*, Watson 83, Warner 62, Prasad 3-106, Eranga 3-109) by 261 runsScorecard and ball-by-ball details Sri Lanka reeled from the decapitation of their second innings as Australia rumbled closer to victory on the third morning of the Boxing Day Test at the MCG. After Mitchell Johnson guided the hosts to a first innings advantage of...
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Lee stands by Gilbert criticism despite report

Brett Lee is standing by his stinging criticism of Cricket New South Wales and its chief executive David Gilbert despite being ordered to face a Cricket Australia disciplinary hearing after being reported for allegedly breaching the Code of Behaviour during an interview. Lee has been reported by Cricket New South Wales following the interview he gave Fairfax Media last weekend, in which he said Gilbert...
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Dec
27

Welegedara sent for scans on hamstring

Sri Lanka may be forced to play out the majority of the Boxing Day Test with two key players injured after Chanaka Welegedara left the field early on day two with a suspected hamstring injury. He will undergo scans to assess the extent of the damage, and is not expected to take further part in the morning's play. Wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene was also off the field on day two, having fractured...
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Warne skips Big Bash in hope of a UK White Christmas

The Big Bash League's marquee player Shane Warne will miss the Melbourne Stars clash with the Adelaide Strikers after travelling to the UK for Christmas. The Stars sent a press release late on Christmas Eve saying that their captain had "pre-existing commitments in the United Kingdom" and would miss the match scheduled for Thursday December 27. Warne made no secret of his location announcing...
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Progression of the team encouraging - McCullum

Brendon McCullum, the New Zealand captain, has said that although they lost the Twenty20 series to South Africa 2-1, he was pleased with the way his young team responded after the drubbing in Durban. McCullum pointed out to the progression of the young players in the squad as one of the big positives from the series. "The introduction of the new guys, playing in front of big crowds, is a positive,"...
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Clarke passes record against wounded tourists

Lunch Australia 3 for 238 (Warner 62, Watson 60*, Clarke 56*) lead Sri Lanka 156 by 82 runsScorecard and ball-by-ball details Michael Clarke surpassed Ricky Ponting's record for the most runs in a calendar year by an Australian batsman as the captain and his deputy Shane Watson sapped the spirit of a wounded Sri Lanka on the second morning of the Boxing Day Test at the MCG. Losing the left-arm...
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Dec
26

McClenaghan added to New Zealand Test squad

New Zealand and Auckland left-arm seamer Mitchell McClenaghan will stay back in South Africa for the two-match Test series starting January 2. McClenaghan replaces Tim Southee, who was ruled out last week due to a thumb injury. McClenaghan, 26, played the two Twenty20 internationals on the current tour, picking up a wicket in each game. "With Tim Southee's injury and Mark Gillespie being unavailable...
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We were 10-15 runs short - Dhoni

India were 10 to 15 runs short of a "safe" total against Pakistan in the first Twenty20 international, according to their captain MS Dhoni. India's openers put on 77 runs inside 11 overs to give the hosts a solid base but Pakistan struck regularly after that, as India collapsed to finish on 133 for 9. "We should have got more runs," Dhoni said. "We got a fantastic start from the openers but we couldn't...
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Malik and Hafeez guide Pakistan to victory

Pakistan 134 for 5 (Hafeez 61, Malik 57*) beat India 133 for 9 (Gambhir 43, Rahane 42, Gul 3-21) by five wicketsScorecard and ball-by-ball details Two of Pakistan's experienced hands guided them to victory in their first game in almost three months, and their first bilateral tour of India in five years. An early burst from debutant Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who began his international career with a...
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Sangakkara hits 10,000 but Sri Lanka wobble

Lunch Sri Lanka 3 for 79 (Sangakkara 43*, Samaraweera 10*) v AustraliaLive scorecard and ball-by-ball details Kumar Sangakkara became the second Sri Lankan to reach the 10,000-run milestone in Tests but there was little else for Sri Lanka to celebrate in the first session on Boxing Day at the MCG as Australia's fast bowlers all made breakthroughs. Mahela Jayawardene won the toss and chose to...
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Dec
25

Punjab take lead, need 231 to win

Punjab 268 (Uday Kaul 93, Mandeep 66, Sidhana 50) need 231 runs to beat Gujarat 266 and 232 (Juneja 79, Ladda 4-112)Scorecard Punjab gave themselves a chance of winning their fifth game of the season - no side has won more than two - but before that, Uday Kaul gave them the first-innings lead as he added 31 with the last man Sarabjit Ladda. Punjab began the day on 227 for 7, still well behind Gujarat's...
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Famous rivalry resumes after five-year break

Match facts December 25, 2012Start time 1900 (1330 GMT) Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez speaks to the media ahead of the first T20 in Bangalore Big Picture Just the plain fact that this tour is actually happening is a gargantuan achievement for the Pakistan Cricket Board and its chairman Zaka Ashraf. How many diplomatic and political channels must have been traversed, how many meetings...
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Revamped tournament aims to generate interest

Pakistan cricket history is as old as the country itself. The Quaid-e-Azam trophy - the country's premier first-class competition - has been a testing ground for cricketers in the domestic circuit since 1953. This year, 14 teams including Bahawalpur will compete in a newly revamped structure and is a chance for players to impress ahead of Pakistan's South Africa tour in January 2013. The new structure...
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Showpiece for hosts, last chance for tourists

Match facts December 26-30, MCGStart time 1030 (2330 GMT) Big Picture Australian cricket's biggest day conjures up plenty of memories for the hosts, but only one painful recollection for the visitors. The MCG on Boxing Day was the scene of Darrell Hair's fateful decision to call Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing, in a match that finished in a comfortable 10-wicket victory for Mark Taylor's...
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Dec
24

All-round Murtaza puts UP in control

Tamil Nadu 149 for 6 (Vijay 42, Murtaza 4-65) trail Uttar Pradesh 392 (Murtaza 106, Prashant Gupta 57) by 243 runsScorecard Ali Murtaza scored a century at No.8 and took four wickets to put Uttar Pradesh in a strong position against Tamil Nadu at the Chemplast Ground in Chennai. Tamil Nadu were struggling at 149 for 6 in the face of UP's 392. Resuming on 279 for 6, the UP lower order resisted thanks...
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Van der Wath helps Knights to first win

A career-best 154 and a match tally of five wickets by Johan van der Wath helped Knights secure an eight-wicket win in Bloemfontein, their first in the competition. The Dolphins put on a better batting performance in their second innings, but could only manage to set a target of 115, which the Knights chased easily. The Knights did a good job keeping the Dolphins to 221 on the opening day after winning...
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Guptill century gives NZ last-ball win

New Zealand 169 for 2 (Guptill 101*) beat South Africa 165 for 5 (Du Plessis 63, Davids 55) by eight wickets (D/L method)Scorecard and ball-by-ball details Captain, dethroned unceremoniously, pulls out of a big tour. Inexperienced side, with four debutants, gets rolled over in the opening game. You would have expected New Zealand to collectively scrap after that, you would have expected them...
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Bird to make Boxing Day debut

Jackson Bird will become Australia's 431st Test cricketer on Boxing Day against Sri Lanka after the coach Mickey Arthur confirmed the left-armer Mitchell Starc would be rested. The decision means the only remaining uncertainty around Australia's side is the fitness of the captain Michael Clarke, who will be given until the morning of the match to prove himself ready, after batting in the MCG nets...
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Dec
23

Five BPL franchises sign contracts with BCB

Eleven months after they had acquired Bangladesh Premier League teams, five franchises out of seven have signed agreements with the Bangladesh Cricket Board. Sylhet Royals and Barisal Burners were the two teams that were not present in the ceremony held in Mirpur on Saturday, which took place after a long meeting between the franchises and the BPL governing council. "The agreement was signed in a...
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BCB awaits ICC security clearance for Pakistan tour

Nazmul Hassan, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president, has said the decision to tour Pakistan is still "two to four days" away after his Pakistan counterpart Zaka Ashraf claimed that the BCB had confirmed that the tour was on. The BCB is awaiting a security assessment to be conducted by the ICC before making an announcement. "In my opinion, we can reach a final decision in the next two to four...
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SLC to probe Jayawardene's comments to newspaper

Sri Lanka Cricket's Executive Committee will review the actions of captain Mahela Jayawardene and team manager Charith Senanayake, after Jayawardene said he had "lost all confidence in dealing with SLC" in a letter to the Daily Mirror newspaper. Jayawardene's letter had come after the newspaper carried a story about a request from Jayawardene to the SLC, which he had believed was confidential. Jayawardene's...
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Buttler hails 'world class' Morgan

Jos Buttler described Eoin Morgan as "world class" after the pair had combined to help England to a six-wicket win over India in the second T20 international and square the series at 1-1. With England needing three runs for victory, Morgan, England's stand-in captain, hit the last ball of the match for six to end unbeaten on 49 and complete his team's highest successful run chase in the format. Buttler...
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