Darren Sammy has praised the former Australian captain Steve Smith for not running away from his responsibility when Australia’s plan of tampering the ball in the third test match against South Africa was caught on television. Smith was the skipper of Australia in that game and he came out in open and accepted in front of the press that he had prior knowledge of the plan and he was responsible for all that as a captain as he was the one who allowed it to happen.
The Australian selectors have included Michael Clarke in the test squad for the tour of United Aram Emirates, but, there are concerns over his fitness. There are speculations that he might not make it to the first couple of matches of the test series because of his hamstring problem which he sustained on Zimbabwe tour last month.
Clarke would probably have got rid of that problem by now if he had not made the wrong call of featuring in a match of that Zimbabwe tri-series when only 80% fit. He batted for about 2 hours in that match and ended up aggravating his problem to get ruled out for the rest of the series.
Clarke is by far Australia’s best player of spin and the Kangaroos are going to miss him badly there in the Emirates if he happens to be unavailable eventually.
Clarke makes a difference with his captaincy as well especially in test match cricket.
Brad Haddin, the Australian vice captain, is also a wily, old fox, but, he has not captained that much internationally and thus, for him to lead the Kangaroos in alien conditions against Pakistan, which has got as good a spin attack as any other team in the world, it would be hard.
A couple of weeks are there for Clarke to recover though and he has assured his fans on twitter that his recovery is going well.
This UAE tour is very important for Australia. People consider them an impotent side on spinning pitches. It’s a tag which they can get rid of if they win the series against Pakistan on the slow pitches of Emirates, but, for that, they would surely need a fit Clarke.
Australia’s tour of UAE starts on October 7.
Akshar Patel who was one of the most impressive Indian youngsters during the previous edition of the Indian Premier League says that he admires the Punjab all rounder Yuvraj Singh a lot and sees him as his role model.
Like Yuvraj, Patel is also a batting all rounder who bowls left arm spin. He is a bit more than a part time bowler though.
According to Patel, the thing that he likes the most about Yuvraj is his attitude. He doesn’t pay much attention to the opinions coming from outside and just keeps doing what he needs to do.
It would not be easy for Patel to achieve as much success as his role model at the international level; that’s for sure. Yuvraj although is out of contention at the moment, but, what he has done for the Indian team in the last one decade or so is just extraordinary.
India has won a couple of World Cups in the last 7 years under their current captain MS Dhoni and in both those competitions; Yuvraj had played a major role for them. He was, in fact, the man of the tournament in the ODI World Cup 2011.
Patel would have to work very, very hard to reach up to that level. He perhaps would have got better bowling skills than Yuvraj, but, as far as batting is concerned, he is not a finished product at all. He looks a bit uncomfortable against spin bowling.
The 20-year old Gujarat youngster perhaps will get the opportunity to make his debut for India on the upcoming tour of Bangladesh and he will have to make it count because there are many other talented players waiting in the wings as well.
Patel had taken 17 wickets for Kings XI Punjab in IPL 7.
Ravi Bopara guided England to a close win in the second match of the ongoing One Day International series against West Indies. He scored 38 useful runs batting at no. 7 and helped England achieve the target of 160 set up by the opposition.
The surface was very hard for batting in Antigua. The pitch was offering steep bounce and thus, it was a bit awkward to handle the fast bowlers.
The English captain Stuart Broad decided to field first after winning the toss and that was a brave decision because the pitch was only going to deteriorate. So, batting in the second innings was one hell of a task, but, Broad decided to do that.
His idea was to try and bowl the Caribbean team out on a low score and then chase down that total. His bowlers did exactly what he was expecting from them. They kept the deliveries at just back of length and created a lot of problems for the batsmen. The wickets fell regularly and the whole West Indies team was in the pavilion with not even 200 on the board.
However, the kind of pitch it was, the hosts still had the chance of winning the match. They had to take a couple of wickets early though which they got. In fact, they got more than a couple. At one stage, they had had England 105 for 7 and the game was in their pocket, but, that’s when Bopara decided to show his potential.
He grinded his way through along with Stuart Broad and took England home to make sure that the series score becomes 1-1.
Bopara deserved the man of the match award, but, that didn’t go to him. The adjudicators decided to give it to Stephen Parry who was playing his first ODI match.
Shane Warne is not happy with the fact that the captain of the Australian cricket team, Michael Clarke, was fined by the International Cricket Council for sledging the English fast bowler James Anderson during the Brisbane test match.
According to Warne, it’s Anderson who had started all that by trying to intimidate George Bailey and Clarke had just come forward to defend his teammate.
Talking to the reporters about that Clarke incident, Warne said, “I think what happens on the ground should remain there. All the players shook hands at the end of the game and the issue should have ended there. I don’t think anyone should have been fined.”
“As a sportsman, if you start sledging, you should be ready to take that back as well. You shouldn’t complain when somebody answers you back in the same way.”
“Everybody here in Australia has got a lot of respect for the English side for what they have achieved and we are aware of the fact that we need to play our best cricket to get better of them.”
There was clearly a lot of tension out there on the ground between the England and the Australian players at Brisbane. There were words being exchanged from the first day, and it was evident that somebody would cross the line at some point of time. It eventually happened on the 4th day when Anderson got into a fiery discussion with George Bailey who was fielding at short leg.
Clarke joined the discussion and finally, the umpires had to intervene. However, soon after that discussion, the game was over as Johnson dished out another short, rising delivery to Anderson who took his eyes off the ball and got a leading edge to be caught by the bowler.
The Indian batsman Rohit Sharma has said that he is glad with his recent performances in international cricket, but, he is looking not to get complacent and keep going on like this.
The last couple of months have been brilliant for Rohit. In the ODI series against the Aussies, he scored almost 500 runs including a double hundred and then, in the recently finished test series against West Indies, he scored a couple of successive tons and ended up becoming the player of the series. (more…)
The opening batsman of the West Indies cricket team, Chris Gayle, has said that he is glad to have got a bit of a break from cricket.
Gayle has played a lot of cricket this year. Apart from featuring for his national team in various tournaments, Gayle has also played for a few franchises in the T20 Leagues around the world.
He recently guided his team Jamaica Tallawahs to title in the first edition of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).
He played a captain’s knock in the final match against Guyana Amazon Warriors. His team was chasing a low, but, tricky total and Gayle anchored the innings beautifully. He scored an unbeaten 47 and received the man of the match award for his effort.
Talking to the reporters in the post match press conference, Gayle said, “This season has been quite hectic. I am happy that it has ended now and I can rest for the next few months.”
“It’s great to finish the season on a winning note. I am mentally exhausted at this point of time, but, I am satisfied that I managed to lead the side from the front.”
Gayle was struggling with his form before the start of CPL. He had got a century in the first match of the tri nation series which was played in Caribbean after the Champions Trophy, but, after that match, Gayle’s form dipped considerably.
He kept getting out cheaply in the remaining matches of the tri series. In the next series against Pakistan, he got demoted down to no. 5 in the batting order, but, his struggle continued there as well.
But, in the CPL, Gayle seemed to have got his old spark back. He played some crucial innings and ended up at no. 4 in the list of leading run scorers in the tournament.