Alex Blackwell posted the second-highest score in WNCL history to push the New South Wales Breakers to a record-breaking 5 for 395 against Tasmania

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Oct-2010New South Wales 5 for 395 (Blackwell 157, Poulton 86, Sthalekar 75) beat Tasmania 160 (Burns 51, Perry 4-10) by 235 runs

Scorecard
Alex Blackwell posted the second-highest score in WNCL history to push the New South Wales Breakers to a record-breaking 5 for 395 in the 235-run victory over Tasmania. The total comfortably beat the previous best of 3 for 309, which was set by ACT against South Australia last year, and the victory was sealed when Tasmania fell for 160.Blackwell, the captain, raced to 157 off 111 balls, with 17 fours and a six, while Leah Poulton (86) and Lisa Sthalekar (75) also joined the fun. “I was quite determined once I got to 100 to see if I could push myself to 150,” Blackwell said. “I’ve never done that before. I didn’t have any records in mind but as a personal milestone I just wanted to make sure I kicked on.”She said as the game wore on the team was aiming for 400. “All the way through our innings we had our goals,” she said, “and in the end we fell just short of that.”Tasmania lasted until the 37th over, with Erin Burns top scoring with 51. Ellyse Perry did the damage with the ball by taking 4 for 10 from 7.4 overs.

Zulqarnain Haider has said the ICC needs to start tapping players’ phones and tracking their whereabouts if it wants to eradicate match fixing

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Nov-2010In his first public appearance since fleeing Dubai midway through a tour and surfacing in London, Zulqarnain Haider reiterated to reporters at an impromptu press conference at Chaudhry’s TKC Restaurant in Southall that he fled because of death threats against him and his family, and said the best way for the ICC to eradicate match fixing is to “record all the players’ phones and record where they are going.””It was very hard for me when I got threats from one person in Dubai,” he said. “I just felt very nervous that he gave me threats.” Haider chose the venue because it had provided catering to the Pakistan team during its tour of England earlier this year.Haider said “a lot of people are involved” in match-fixing and that he would co-operate fully with the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit as he wants cricket to be “clear of fixing”, but did not accuse any of the players in the Pakistan team, saying he didn’t want to blame or be negative towards anyone. The ACSU has already communicated with Haider over his claims.The 24-year-old chose to flee to England because “this country is very humane, very co-operative, and there are very nice people here and there are very good rules here for my safety.” However, he said he did not intend to claim asylum permanent, saying “I don’t want any aid from the British government. I want to be a good citizen and I am a good citizen also in Pakistan. I want to live in peace.”Haider believes the person who threatened him wanted him to help fix the fourth and fifth ODIs against South Africa. He described the conversation but said he did not know the man’s identity. “He said, ‘If you work with us, we will give you a lot of money. If [not and] you go back home, we will kill you and your family.'”He said he chose not to tell the Pakistan team management about his plans because he didn’t want to create problems for someone else as well. “It was a crucial time for me, so I don’t want to tell these things to my management. If your family was threatened, you would think like me. At that time I had pressure on me and I didn’t want any problems for the Pakistan team or officials.”However, in an earlier phone interview , Haider indicated he didn’t tell team management because he wasn’t sure whom he could talk to. “I just felt if I told anyone about the threat – senior players, my manager, the cricket board – maybe if they are involved in the situation they too will be in trouble. I listened to people in Pakistan who talked about the match fixing, they said that a lot of people are involved and I felt threatened and very disappointed.”Haider had a meeting with Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK and has asked for protection for his family “because I have two daughters and a wife, so I want to be safe.” Pakistan’s sports minister has said, however, that the government will not support Haider’s bid for asylum. The PCB has also suspended his stipend contract and launched a full inquiry into the case. Responding to allegations in Pakistani media that he might have taken a bribe and run, Haider said he was willing to let the police check ” all my accounts around the world” to prove his innocence.Haider fled from Dubai without informing the team and resurfaced in London on Monday. He later confirmed later that he received threats from unidentified people following his team’s one-wicket win in the fourth ODI against South Africa and was told to get in line for the fifth match. As a result of the threats Haider announced his retirement from cricket. The ICC said that Haider had erred in not informing the ACSU about the approach, but was ready to help the player if he was willing to engage with them.

James Anderson set off for home on Tuesday, where he will be attending the birth of his second child

Andrew Miller in Melbourne08-Dec-2010James Anderson cut short his celebrations at the end of England’s crushing innings-and-71-run victory over Australia in Adelaide on Tuesday to set off for home where he will be attending the birth of his second child. England’s team director, Andy Flower, confirmed Anderson’s departure as the remainder of the squad arrived in Melbourne ahead of the team’s three-day warm-up match against Victoria, adding that he is expected to arrive back in Australia ahead of the Perth Test.Anderson, 28, claimed six wickets in the match including two key breakthroughs on the fifth and final morning but remained with the squad for only a few hours before boarding a flight back to London. He is the latest England cricketer to follow the example set by the current captain, Andrew Strauss, who missed a Test in Lahore in 2005 for the same reason, while most recently Kevin Pietersen flew back from England’s World Twenty20 campaign in May for the birth of his of son Dylan.While Anderson is sure to have been rested for the Victoria fixture, his journey is the furthest of its type that any player has yet had to make, and it will leave him just two days to re-acclimatise ahead of the third Test in Perth on December 16. While Flower admitted it was “not ideal”, he stressed that it was important for the players to maintain their work-life balance, even in the midst of a series as significant as the Ashes.”He left last night, and he’s going to be there for the birth of his child,” Flower said. “We hope everything goes well, and he’ll be back a few days before the Perth Test. It’s not ideal, not perfect, but we try to get the balance right between our commitments to England and our responsibility to the individual and family. His wife and kids come ahead of this, but we try to get the balance right. It’s not great that he’ll have to be on this plane all the time, he’ll have a bit of jetlag, but that’s what we’re dealing with.”We’ve set a precedent in the past for making sure that people can be back home for the birth of a child if possible and if that’s what they want. If that’s not necessary in their particular circumstances then it would be great to have everyone here all the time. But he should be back and in working order for the third Test.”At any rate, Anderson did not miss much of a post-match party, because as Flower was at pains to point out, the series is far from over, and despite the apparent disarray that has been sweeping through the Australian squad, the onus is on the touring team to keep their focus through to the end of the trip.”They were pretty muted, as far as I know,” Flower said of the team’s celebrations. “There’s a long way to go in this series. We work hard for any victory, and to win a first-class game takes an enormous amount of effort and skill – and the same goes for Test matches, even more so. It’s good for the guys to let their hair down, but they are focused on what’s ahead. We know how serious the challenge is ahead of us.”With Anderson temporarily out of action, and Stuart Broad also flying home due to a torn stomach muscle – though not until the end of the third Test – the attention now turns to the search for a replacement fast bowler, with Ajmal Shahzad, Chris Tremlett and Tim Bresnan all expected to line up at the MCG on Friday for what is in effect a three-way shoot-out.Flower, however, didn’t quite see it that way, and said that he already had an indication of which player he would like to slot into the team for a venue that is starting to regain its reputation as one of the fastest and bounciest wickets in the world.”You don’t judge people on one performance,” Flower said. “Obviously, we have ideas in mind who would replace Broad. But we will get 270 overs of viewing our potential replacement, and I’d prefer to emphasise some of the qualities of whoever takes his place, rather than that person to be another Stuart Broad. They are individuals with their own qualities that should be celebrated, and used.”It’s really unlucky [for Stuart], because he’s been an integral part of our side and our relative successes over the last couple of years. It’s not good for him; it’s not good for the side, but these things happen. We weren’t totally naive in thinking we’d get through the whole Test series without injuries to any of our quicks, and we thought it was a priority to get some of our back-up quicks into good nick. They had a good run-out in Hobart; they’ll get another one here against the Vics – and you’ve got to factor these things in.

Despite an extensive meeting of the PCB’s integrity committee, Pakistan’s selectors failed to finalise a 15-man squad for the ODI series against New Zealand or a list of 30 probables for the 2011 World Cup

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Dec-2010Despite an extensive meeting of the PCB’s integrity committee, Pakistan’s selectors failed to finalise a 15-man squad for the ODI series against New Zealand or a list of 30 probables for the 2011 World Cup. Though the board has been given till January 5 by the ICC to announce the World Cup probables, it was thought the selectors would have announced squads on Friday.”We had lengthy discussions on performance and availability of many players,” chief selector Mohsin Khan said after a meeting with fellow selectors on Friday. “We were of the opinion that since we still have a few days before the deadline for announcing the World Cup Squad it would be better to wait until there is absolute clarity from PCB on the availability for selection of certain players.”The players Khan refers to are Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal and Danish Kaneria. The trio appeared in front of the integrity committee on Thursday. The players submitted further documents detailing financial and property records and were spoken to individually by members of the committee.The committee is considering whether or not to clear the players for future selection for Pakistan assignments. The three have not played for Pakistan in any format since the summer tour to England, having not been cleared for selection by the integrity committee. Though the board has made no official comment and not charged the players, it is understood it has concerns about the trio.Accordingly, none have been picked for various squads; Kaneria was in the Test squad for the South Africa series but was prevented from travelling by the board to the UAE at the very last minute. Akmal even wrote to the ICC to ask whether he was the subject of any corruption inquiry or case and was subsequently told there was nothing on him.The announcement of both squads has now been deferred till early next week.On Thursday, the integrity committee also spoke with Yasir Hameed. The opener apologised to the board over his conversation with an undercover reporter in September during a sting operation conducted by , where he was recorded talking about the three players – Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir – suspected of being involved in spot-fixing. Hameed hasn’t been part of the national team since that tour of England.”I was trapped into it but I should not have said all that before a stranger and I apologise to all the players who were hurt because of that,” Hameed told .During the course of the video, Hameed discussed the fall-out of the spot-fixing controversy, the Sydney Test and Hameed’s claim that a bookie approached him during the 2004 Champions Trophy in England.Hameed, who claimed the man he was speaking to in the video had posed as a representative of a global airline trying to discuss a sponsorship deal, had denied speaking to and said he was merely repeating information from the original reports in the same newspaper when the story on the controversy broke.In his statement, Hameed said that after discussing sponsorship deals, the man he knew by the name of Abid Khan, offered him a sum of £25,000 to give a statement against his three team-mates who found themselves at the centre of the controversy to which Hameed said, he, “immediately refused and put the phone down. I was neither called nor answered any calls from Abid after this conversation.”

Shane Watson’s brilliant match-winning century at the MCG suggested a mind focused firmly on the job, but his thoughts have been far from the cricket world over the past few days

Brydon Coverdale in Melbourne16-Jan-2011Shane Watson’s brilliant match-winning century at the MCG suggested a mind focused firmly on the job, but his thoughts have been far from the cricket world over the past few days. While Watson plundered an unbeaten 161 against England, the fifth-best individual score in Australia’s ODI history, the residents of his hometown, Ipswich, were starting the clean-up after devastating floods, and by Monday, he’ll be there too.Shortly after Watson brought up victory with a six in the 50th over, he was already casting his mind to Queensland and a two-day trip back home before Australia’s next ODI, which is in Hobart on Friday. Watson has organised a sausage sizzle at a Bunning’s hardware store in the Ipswich suburb of Booval, and he’ll be doing what he can to raise funds and lift spirits.”I haven’t really been thinking about cricket too much,” Watson said. “It has been all about what’s been going on back home and also trying to organise things that I can do after this game to be able to help out in any way I can. It’s going to be great to be able to get up to Ipswich tomorrow morning and to be able to help out. My mind has been there.”I’m really looking forward to being able to get up there and feeling like I can have some input in some way. My family was lucky enough not to be affected, but I know some of my friends who live close to the river, and also my primary school, the grounds close to it were all flooded. It’s going to be heart-wrenching to see the devastation that’s there.”It will be a far cry from the MCG, where Watson thrilled the crowd with a fluent and powerful innings that featured four sixes. Right from the start, the ball fizzed off his bat with impeccable timing, and in pursuit of 295, he and his opening partner Brad Haddin ensured that Australia got to 110 in the 20th over before they lost a wicket.By the closing stages, things became a little tighter but Cameron White helped to close things out with an unbeaten 25, which included a couple of important boundaries to long-on when Watson was tiring. But Watson had enough left in his tank to bring the fans to their feet with the first ball of the last over, when four runs were needed and he lifted Ajmal Shahzad over long-on for six.”Cameron White was great to keep me thinking about exactly what was required and how we were going to do it,” Watson said. “I was a little bit tired at that stage so for him to process it well with me, it worked out nicely in the end. To be able to get through and get a hundred, it’s going to continue to build my confidence if I get close to there in Test matches.”Watson has a habit of failing to capitalise on his starts in Test cricket, where he has made 15 scores from 50 to 99, but only two centuries. However, in ODIs, he has now managed five hundreds. And none of it means as much to him as the trip he’ll make to Ipswich this week.

ESPNcricinfo previews the fifth ODI between New Zealand and Pakistan in Hamilton

The Preview by Abhishek Purohit02-Feb-2011

Match Facts

February 3, Hamilton

Start time 14:00 (01:00 GMT)
New Zealand need Jesse Ryder to return for a game that could decide the series•Getty Images

Big Picture

New Zealand have reason to feel exasperated. They have attempted everything to turn around their string of losses; in fact, there can be a case that they have tried too hard. They have brought in a capable new coach, rotated their players faster than a revolving door spins, tinkered around with the batting order, and even broken one of their most successful opening combinations. But at least one of their many old failings continues to crop up at crucial junctures.If the misfiring top order manages to provide a good start, the middle order contrives to cave in. When the top order suffers one of its spectacular collapses after seemingly promising starts, the middle order gets involved in the repair job, and they end up with a below-par total. And on the rare occasion that the batsmen fire collectively, the bowlers have kept the opposition in check, they inevitably manage to run in to a rampant batsman who takes the game away from their grasp. In the bowlers’ defence, there just haven’t been enough runs to play with, with the batsmen crossing 250 only thrice in the previous 14 matches, 13 of which have been lost.If the fact that one more series is now on the line isn’t motivation enough for the home team, they need look no further than their opponents. Despite all the issues surrounding the side, Pakistan have started to give the feeling of approaching somewhere close to being a settled side. The current captain and vice-captain have played major roles in their respective wins in the series, and the mutual admiration has overflowed from Shahid Afridi and Misbah-ul-Haq. If some of that feel-good can translate into another match-winning performance, Pakistan will leave New Zealand with Test and one-day series wins, a massive achievement considering what has gone on in the previous six months.

Form guide

(Last five completed games)
New Zealand: LLWLL
Pakistan: WWLLW

Players to watch out for …

Misbah-ul-Haq keeps adding facets to his game that no one expects him to. His idea of breaking free in limited-overs games used to be an ungainly bent-knee swipe that almost always never went beyond midwicket. But he has shown that he can find the boundaries when needed. His calm approach has impressed John Wright, the opposition coach, enough to say that the New Zealand batsmen can learn from Misbah how to hold the innings together.Martin Guptill has looked assured, and has breezed away to solid starts throughout the series. The dismissals have been soft though – getting caught in the in-field while looking to work the ball away. If he can get over those momentary lapses, he could be the one who could do a Misbah for New Zealand.

Team news

Wright has hinted that the music is about to stop as far as the rotation chairs are concerned, and New Zealand will look to go in with their frontline side, injuries permitting. But different injuries are yet to allow Daniel Vettori (hamstring) and Jesse Ryder (finger) to be declared certainties for tomorrow. While Wright was hopeful about Ryder playing, Vettori remains a bigger doubt.New Zealand (probable): 1 Jamie How/Jesse Ryder, 2 Martin Guptill, 3 Ross Taylor, 4 Scott Styris, 5 Kane Williamson, 6 James Franklin, 7 Brendon McCullum (wk), 8 Daniel Vettori (capt)/Jacob Oram, 9 Nathan McCullum, 10 Tim Southee, 11 Hamish Bennett.Pakistan have been unchanged for the previous two games, and in a potential series-decider, could go in with the same XI again. Sohail Tanvir has been a bit expensive so far, but he also got his side home in Napier with three fours in six deliveries. That he comes in at No. 10 shows the depth Pakistan have in their batting.Pakistan (probable): 1 Ahmed Shehzad, 2 Mohammad Hafeez, 3 Kamran Akmal (wk), 4 Younis Khan, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq, 6 Umar Akmal, 7 Shahid Afridi (capt), 8 Abdul Razzaq, 9 Sohail Tanvir, 10 Wahab Riaz, 11 Umar Gul

Stats and trivia

• New Zealand’s 350 for 9 against Australia in 2007 at Seddon Park remains their highest ODI total in New Zealand, and the second-highest in the country.
• New Zealand’s 250 for 9 in the 3rd ODI is their second-highest total without any batsman making a half-century.

Quotes

“His was exactly the type of innings we need. I think throughout this series he’s been their glue, and we probably need some glue”
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“There’s still an opportunity to win the series with two games coming up. I think the teams are relatively level. It’s just that one individual performance wins the game.”
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A game against Kenya should not be a thing to be fussed about and New Zealand would actually be worrying how not to get complacent. Instead, Daniel Vettori said that intensity will be even bigger for the “must win game.”

Sriram Veera in Chennai19-Feb-2011These are desperate times for New Zealand. On better days, a game against Kenya should not be a thing to be fussed about and they would actually be worrying how not to get complacent ahead of the contest. Instead, they feel the pressure of a “must-win game”. “Intensity will be even bigger because this is a must win game for us,” Daniel Vettori said. “We will be strong and play well.”For the past few months, New Zealand have been psyching themselves to look to the future. The recent past has been dispiriting: a whitewash in Bangladesh, losses in India, defeats against Pakistan at home, and a soul-crushing pasting against India in the warm-up game. Gloom shadowed them everywhere. Harsh criticism floated up first: “We batted like dicks,” was the frank assessment of the then coach Mark Greatbach. Saner post-mortem followed with the inclusion of John Wright as the new coach. The losses continued, meanwhile.Brendon McCullum recently agreed to the assessment that they had forgotten how to win. Will tomorrow’s game against Kenya be the first step out of the sordid mess or a further slide into the abyss? Daniel Vettori, the captain, tried to sound positive in the pre-game conference. “We are sure to up our confidence levels after our match tomorrow. It is quite a fluid concept when we play bigger teams but our guys have the abilities to bounce back. But I prefer to look at that rather than dwelling on the past.”The past though couldn’t be shoved under the carpet. “We acknowledge the comments [about New Zealand being low on confidence] since we lost a lot of games in recent times and they were disappointing performances, particularly in the sub-continent, but hope we can look at the World Cup as a fresh start.”The first game against Kenya shouldn’t be difficult to win but Vettori, understandably, chose to be cautious. “The hardest thing about playing a qualifier is that you do not see much of them. Some of their players will be a bit of a surprise. You prepare may be after seeing them on television. In a way it is a challenge but it does not matter as we got to turn up and play tomorrow.” It’s something they haven’t done well in the recent past.Things could kickstart if the batsmen start performing. A line-up that reads Brendon McCullum, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor, an in-form Martin Guptill, Scott Styris and Jacob Oram should make the Kenyans sweat. Even in the defeat against India in the warm-up game, the way Brendon and Guptill batted against the seamers would have given a lot of heart to New Zealand fans. It’s their batting against spin that has let them down. And their bowling.The bowlers, especially the seamers, have been so lacklustre that Vettori was prompted to say that their bowling coach Allan Donald “is even now bowling better than all fast bowlers”. It was meant to be a compliment to Donald but it didn’t seem way off the mark. “We have fixed too much on batting and that does not give us enough in bowling,” Vettori said. “Allan has been an exciting addition to the team because he is bringing obviously his own personal skills and his own confidence. Ever since he came on board, he speaks with a position of authority to our players and the guys listen when he says what it takes to succeed in the sub-continent and other parts of the world.”New Zealand have a selection worry ahead of the game as Nathan McCullum is a doubtful starter after running high temperature yesterday and being kept under observation in an hospital. He returned for a light training session this morning but it’s unlikely they will take a risk by playing him against Kenya. “As of now, we plan to play three pacers and two spinners. It depends on Nathan’s fitness. We will play two spinners and look at the possibilities in balancing if the third one is coming in. I think there is plenty of runs on the track, if you bowl well, you can restrict the batting side. Generally, it is a batting wicket. It is incredibly difficult for the fast bowlers on these kinds of wickets to make their presence felt.” For New Zealand’s sake, they must.

The Irish Government has offered its support to the cricket board as they consider how to respond to the ICC vote to make the 2015 World Cup a 10-team tournament

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Apr-2011The Irish Government has offered its support to Cricket Ireland as they consider how to respond to the ICC vote to make the 2015 World Cup a 10-team tournament consisting of only the Test nations.The decision, which was announced on April 4, and closed the door on anyone outside the main 10 nations competing at a World Cup until 2019, sparked fury among Irish cricket as players expressed their anger over Twitter while the chief executive, Warren Deutrom, called it a “dark day for the sport.”Cricket Ireland, in consultation with the other 94 Associate and Affiliate nations, are considering all their options to try and overturn the decision and the Irish Sport’s Minister, Leo Varadkar, said the Government would offer their backing.”I fully support the efforts of Cricket Ireland and the other non-Test countries to persuade the ICC Board to reverse their decision,” he told a reception held to ironically mark Ireland’s success at the recent World Cup. “And I want you to know that my offices are available to assist the Associate nations in their campaign to have this decision reversed, in any way that you see fit.”Non-Test nations such as Ireland have played a major part in World Cups, not just by their talent and skill, but also by their commitment, passion and love of the game,” he said. “It is difficult to see how the best interests of the game can be served by not allowing countries such as Ireland a chance to compete at the highest level. This ‘closed shop’ approach cannot be good for the game, and appears to fly in the face of the sacred values that cricket has espoused for so long – namely fair play, sportsmanship and camaraderie.”Cricket Ireland want to pursue all other options before opting for the legal route which could be costly and damaging. It is even unclear what legal challenges are open to them, but if they wanted to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport it is understood they have a three-week window from the date the decision was made. Such a short timeframe makes that an unlikely option.On Sunday it is the board’s AGM which was meant to be a celebration of what Ireland achieved at the World Cup, but will now become a further inquest into the ICC’s recent decision and no doubt there will be more strong calls for action.

ESPNcricinfo previews the IPL match between Delhi Daredevils and Royal Challengers Bangalore in Delhi

The Preview by Dustin Silgardo25-Apr-2011

Match facts

Tuesday, April 26, Delhi
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)Virender Sehwag found the quicker surface at the Kotla more to his liking•AFP

Big picture

After lacklustre starts to the tournament, both Delhi Daredevils and Royal Challengers Bangalore have taken bold steps to try to improve their fortunes; for each of them, the moves worked in their last games. The newly-prepared green top at the Feroz Shah Kotla allowed Virender Sehwag and David Warner to play their strokes, as the ball came on to the bat, and the Delhi fast bowlers enjoyed the bounce they got from the track.For Bangalore, the shot in the arm came in the form of new signing Chris Gayle, whose century helped turn around a trend that had seen Bangalore not manage an opening stand of more than seven in their previous four matches.The switch from the traditional slow-and-low Kotla wicket to a livelier one makes sense for Delhi, since all their foreign players are either Australian or South African – and therefore used to bouncy tracks – while their most-expensive player, Irfan Pathan, is a seamer. Tuesday’s match will be a test of whether the win against Kings XI Punjab was a one-off or whether their strategy to pack the side with seamers for home games can be a consistently successful one.From Bangalore’s point of view, they will want to make as much use of their new opening partnership before Tillakaratne Dilshan leaves for England, which could be as early as May 10.Adding further interest is the fact that Bangalore snapped up four of Delhi’s foreign stars from last year in the January auction. “Old Delhi v New Delhi,” Delhi coach Greg Shipperd dubbed the contest, though with several players changing teams in the rejigging, former team-mates clashing is not uncommon.Apart from the fluidity of players’ loyalties, the other salient feature of the IPL tomorrow’s match exposes is its innate forgivingness. In many other sporting leagues Delhi and Bangalore’s starts of three losses in their first four games may have seen heads roll at the franchises. But because of the congested nature of the IPL table, both teams find themselves in a position where a single win will put them right back in contention for the knockout stages.

Form guide (most recent first)

Delhi: WLWLL (ninth in points table)
Bangalore: WLLLW (seventh in points table)

Team talk

Bangalore’s batting has a settled look, but the problems in the bowling department are perhaps illustrated by the fact that Virat Kohli, who has an IPL bowling average of 93.00, has been one of their more economical options this season. They might want to include an extra seamer to make use of the Kotla pitch, but with Dirk Nannes injured there aren’t too many options; both S Aravind and Abhimanyu Mithun have gone for more than 10 an over so far, while Johan van der Wath has gone at 9.87. So they may give left-arm spinner J Syed Mohammad, who impressed in the last game, another go.Delhi went in with five seamers in their last game, and may stick with that strategy since they don’t have any established international spinners in their squad. Ajit Agarkar went for 47 runs in four overs in the last game, but the man who could replace him, Ashok Dinda, hasn’t exactly set the tournament on fire either.Predict the playing XIs for this match. Play ESPNcricinfo Team selector.

In the spotlight

Aaron Finch entered the tournament with a big reputation, after his match-winning innings in a Twenty20 international against England, and his impressive performance for Victoria in the 2011 Big Bash. However, he has struggled on the slow Indian wickets, only managing 47 runs from five innings. The grass cover at the Kotla makes it a more familiar habitat and Tuesday is a chance for Finch to justify his billing.Bangalore would have been pleased with the 123-run partnership between Gayle and Dilshan against Kolkata Knight Riders, and will now be looking for the middle order to give AB de Villiers some more support. Saurabh Tiwary will be key in achieving that end. He hasn’t had the same impact since joining Bangalore as he did for Mumbai Indians last season, and will be looking to turn things around.

Prime numbers

• Out of all the bowlers who have bowled more than five overs in IPL 2011, Bangalore captain Daniel Vettori has the best economy rate. He has gone at 5.75 in 20 overs so far.
• David Warner has got the joint-highest number of half-centuries in this IPL, with three in five innings. He is fourth in the list of leading run-getters.

The chatter

“I prefer it when there is some bounce and carry on the pitch … and I’m definitely in favour of this wicket.”
“Half of their [Bangalore] side played for Delhi. They were our valued players. We tried to keep them in the auction but at last couldn’t afford them.”

Marcus Trescothick returned to form in resounding fashion with an unbeaten 193 as Somerset gained control of their match with Hampshire at the Rose Bowl

28-Apr-2011
ScorecardMarcus Trescothick returned to form in resounding fashion with an unbeaten 193 as Somerset gained control of their match with Hampshire at the Rose Bowl. Former England opener Trescothick had endured a miserable start to the season, with a total of 48 first-class runs and a top score of 21.But all that was forgotten as Trescothick dominated the Hampshire attack, batting through the day for an innings total so far of six hours and 42 minutes. Somerset, who had lost their opening two matches of the season, ended the second day 120 ahead at 405 for 5 in their first innings in response to Hampshire’s 285 all out.Somerset began the day at 40 without loss and experienced none of the difficulties apparently facing Hampshire when they batted on a typically gentle Rose Bowl wicket. David Griffiths gave Hampshire some early hope when he had Arul Suppiah (19) caught at the wicket with only seven added to the overnight total.But then Trescothick took control, dominating stands of 70 with Nick Compton for the second wicket and 80 for the third with James Hildreth. Sean Ervine knocked back Compton’s off stump at 117 and Hildreth mistimed a drive to give South African Friedel de Wet a return catch at 197.Trescothick lifted de Wet over long leg for six and featured in a partnership worth 131 in 30 overs for the fourth wicket with Craig Kieswetter, who made 58. Kieswetter went at 328 in the 84th over, giving de Wet another sharp return catch, but there was no stopping the Somerset captain.Trescothick reached 150 out of 330 and added to Hampshire’s problems by guiding debutant Alex Barrow through to 14 before he was the last wicket to fall, leg before to spinner Danny Briggs. At the close Trescothick had so far faced 319 balls and hit 28 fours and two sixes with the Hampshire attack already wilting.Hampshire captain Dominic Cork, still feeling the affects of a groin problem, bowled only 12 overs while de Wet was the pick of the Hampshire bowlers with two wickets for 59 from 17 overs.