Sunday, September 19, 2010
All-round Lions crush listless Guyana
Lions brushed aside an uninspired Guyana in front of a healthy Johannesburg home crowd to boost their chances of making the semi-finals. After Guyana's batsmen showed a lack of nous, and put up an inadequate total, Richard Cameron and Alviro Petersen blunted their attack to pilot the Lions to victory with nearly five overs to spare. Guyana never looked like repeating the heart-warming run of Trinidad & Tobago, who powered their way to the final of the Champions League last year, and their slim chances of reaching the final four ended with this crushing defeat.
Guyana's batsman looked to thrash almost every delivery, and mistimed plenty of strokes, but never attempted to dab the ball around to rotate the strike when things weren't going their way. A late flourish lifted them from the depths of 88 for 6 to the relative respectability of 148, which still proved too trifling a target.
The express pace of Craig Alexander and the sideways movement extracted by some of the Lions other quick bowlers proved too much for Guyana. The trouble started in the very first delivery of the match when Travis Dowlin escaped an extremely close lbw call. His short stay foreshadowed the Guyana effort: filled with thrashes and flails for little reward, and one panicky piece of running before he fell in the second over.
Ramnaresh Sarwan is the most important batsmen in the Guyana line-up and he came out firing, cracking four boundaries in five deliveries to kickstart the innings. However, his performance was cut short in the fifth over by a spectacular diving catch by John Symes, at backward point, off Craig Alexander's first delivery. In the next over, their other experienced batsman, opener Sewnarine Chattergoon who had faced only three deliveries in the Powerplays, holed out to mid-on.
From 42 for 3, debutant Steven Jacobs stepped up to push Guyana forward. He was often beaten by the movement, and his timing was mostly awry, but he slipped in some flamboyant boundaries to take Guyana to 77 after 11 overs.
Lions were well on top soon after due to some muddled running that led to the run outs of Christopher Barnwell and Esuan Crandon. Jacobs also perished, one of his mistimed strokes finally carrying to long-off. Ethan O'Reilly bowled a pinpoint yorker and a low full toss to take out middle stump twice in the 17th over to end with career-best figures of 4 for 27 and put Guyana in further trouble.
Guyana somehow managed to push their total close to 150, thanks to some free-swinging from Lennox Cush who finished on 19 off 10 including a massive six over long-off.
The chase began brightly with both Petersen and Johnathan Vandiar picking a boundary each. Lions' only moment of bother was when Vandiar nicked Esuan Crandon behind in the third over, bringing together Cameron and Petersen who bludgeoned the weak Guyana bowling to bring up Lions' second win in three games.
Petersen sparked the innings to life after a quiet spell following Vandiar's exit by thumping Esuan Crandon over long-on for a 102-metre six and then cracking him past point for four. It was mayhem after that - only two of the remaining overs of the chase went for less than 11 runs as Cameron went into overdrive. Helped by a gift-wrapped bunch of short deliveries from the Guyana spinners, Cameron soon overtook his captain with a series of pulls and carves.
Petersen was content to let Cameron take most of the strike, and quietly moved to his second consecutive half-century. Cameron more than doubled this previous career-best of 36 before the victory was completed in the 16th over, keeping Lions firmly in the mix for a semi-final spot.
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Conspiracy to defraud Pakistan cricket - Ijaz Butt
In an extraordinary outburst, PCB chairman Ijaz Butt has pointed a finger at the English cricketers for their role in the batting collapse that cost England the ODI at Oval and said the board was investigating a conspiracy, involving "august cricket bodies", to defraud Pakistan and Pakistan cricket.
In a prepared statement read out to ESPNcricinfo - and repeated on Pakistan TV channels - a day after the ICC started a formal investigation into Pakistan's win in the third ODI at The Oval, he also launched thinly-veiled attacks on the ICC, some cricket boards and the media.
"This is not a conspiracy to defraud bookies but a conspiracy to defraud Pakistan and Pakistan cricket," Butt said. "We have taken it in hand to start our own investigations. We will shortly reveal the names of the people, the parties and the bodies involved in this sinister conspiracy and we also reserve the right to sue them for damages.
"There is loud and clear talk in bookie circles that some English players have taken enormous amounts of money to lose the match [the third ODI]. No wonder there was such a collapse."
When asked by this reporter whether the board had any proof of the allegations regarding English players, Butt responded with a question: "Did you ask the other people who made allegations against our players whether they had any proof? What did they say? We have thought about this properly and we have positive proofs here before us just like they say they have also."
Butt then concluded his statement: "We feel the media in certain countries is biased and not fair. We feel august cricket bodies are also involved in this conspiracy, which will damage the great game of cricket."
The statement is an extension of the one the board released late on Saturday indicating its unhappiness with the way the ICC handled the Oval allegations. Nobody in the Pakistan board was informed by the ICC that an official investigation was being launched; the chairman, the team manager and the captain only learned of it through media reports.
An ICC spokesperson told ESPNcricinfo they tried to contact Butt all through Friday but his phone was unavailable. "On Saturday morning [after the ICC press release was sent out] we came to know that Mr Butt was in Dubai. Haroon Lorgat [the ICC chief executive] sought out and met Butt in Dubai on Saturday evening and discussed matters of mutual interest," he said.
However, there is no indication that the ICC tried to contact anyone else in the PCB, nor tried to reach Butt - who was in New Delhi after meeting the ICC president Sharad Pawar - through any number other than his Pakistan mobile.
The PCB also seems unhappy with the official implication that Pakistan's batsmen were under the scanner. Though the ICC didn't point the finger at Pakistan in their statement - though The Sun did so in their report - the subsequent statement from the ECB confirmed that no English players were involved.
"One statement from a very august official of the ICC said no, only Pakistan players were involved," Butt said, though he refused to elaborate.
Butt also refused to give more details of the nature of the board's investigation, though he said it had already begun. "I will be revealing names of people and organisations who are involved in this, so I don't want to comment more on the investigations just now. Details will come out only once our investigations are complete."
Butt's comments may well signal the final nail in the coffin of the PCB's relationship with the ICC, if they have not completely broken down already. Under Butt's tenure, the two have clashed consistently. In 2009, the PCB threatened to take the ICC to court after Pakistan was removed as a venue from the 2011 World Cup, following the Lahore terror attacks on Sri Lanka in March. The dispute was resolved out of court but tensions have simmered consistently since.
They boiled over again in the aftermath of allegations of spot-fixing during the fourth Test at Lord's. The ICC provisionally suspended the three players at the centre of the scandal, Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, after the Pakistan board refused to do so. At a press conference in Lahore soon after he returned, the board chairman expressed his unhappiness with the ICC's decision while a police investigation was still ongoing against the three.
Butt then went to Delhi to discuss the investigation and allegations with Sharad Pawar, the ICC president. He travelled on Saturday to Dubai, the ICC HQ, though it is unclear whether he has met with officials there. He said, however, that he would raise these issues at the next ICC meeting, on October 11.
Bravo, Tiwary neutralise Steyn burst
Royal Challengers Bangalore had out-thought, out-planned and out-executed Mumbai Indians until Anil Kumble dropped Dwayne Bravo off his own bowling in the 15th over, a catch that would have reduced Mumbai to 86 for 6. The game turned from thereon as Bravo and Saurabh Tiwary took 79 off the last six overs to keep the match in the balance.
That big Mumbai finish was exactly what Bangalore were trying to avoid when they held back Dale Steyn through the first 10 overs. As far as Steyn was concerned, he executed the plan perfectly. Charged up, he responded by inflicting a three-ball duck on Kieron Pollard, and generally pushed the batsmen back with ferocious pace and bounce on a lively Kingsmead pitch.
The plan did involve some risk, but the Kumars at Nos. 1 and 2 started its perfect execution. Praveen Kumar began with a maiden, R Vinay Kumar began tightly at the other end; both men extracted movement and bounce. Praveen's pièce de résistance was Sachin Tendulkar's wicket in the third over with slight away movement. Vinay followed it up with the loose-looking Ambati Rayudu's wicket.
Shikhar Dhawan and JP Duminy then got stuck, going from nowhere to nowhere. Many an ungainly shot was played, and Kumble got through seven overs from the Kumars for 42 runs. Around that seventh over, live poll results on TV showed 70% people thought Bangalore had made the right move by saving Steyn for Pollard. Pollard saw that too, and smiled.
His time was soon going to come as Duminy ended his painful stay by hitting Jacques Kallis to long-on. Mumbai made Bangalore wait by sending Saurabh Tiwary in. Steyn took matters in his own hands, getting Dhawan's wicket in the 12th over. Out came Pollard. In came slip and a short leg. Bouncer. Ducked under. Slower ball. Missed. Length ball, extra bounce, leading edge, gone.
In Trinidad & Tobago, there must be saying that if Pollard doesn't get you, Bravo will. Especially if you drop Bravo, as Kumble did when he was on 1. Bravo thanked Kumble by hitting him for two fours in the same over, and then launching him for two sixes and a four in his next. There is a risk of understating Tiwary's performance, who didn't look intimidated at all, and slapped a Steyn bouncer for a flat six, and followed it up with back-to-back fours.
A high full toss in the 19th over ended Bravo's 17-ball 29, but that didn't slow Mumbai down as Harbhajan hit three boundaries in his 6-ball 14.
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