Past and present Victorian First Class players will be re-united tonight for the last supper in the MCC Long Room. It will be a celebration of the spirit and tradition of Victorian cricket.Of the 797 players who have pulled on the Victorian cap, approximately 250 will be in attendance including some of the biggest names in the history of the game, such as Neil Harvey, Sam Loxton, Keith Stackpole and Merv Hughes.Dick Hassett, at 95 and brother of the legendary Lindsay, will be the oldest living Victorian player whilst recently appointed ING Cup Captain Cameron White will be the youngest.To mark the historic occasion each player will be presented with a commemorative tie. The tie features a number, representing the order in which each player made their Victorian First Class debut.Tonight’s function is also significant as season 2003/04 marks Victoria’s 1000th First Class match, the first state in Australia to reach this milestone.
Pakistan coach Mudassar Nazar Monday said the West Indies would be no pushover but admitted that he would be disappointed if his team didn’t win the Test and one-day series.”I will not repeat my prediction of a clean sweep against Bangladesh. But I will be disappointed if we don’t win the Test and one-day series against the West Indies,” Mudassar said on the eve of his team’s departure.Mudassar said the West Indies was not being taken seriously by the game’s pundits which was a dangerous thing to do.”West Indies strength lies in their bowling. They may have been bashed in Sri Lanka or some other place, but conditions in Sharjah are absolutely different,” he said.The West Indies, currently the whipping boys of international cricket, will be without Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan because of injuries.”West Indies might be without Lara and Sarwan. But we will also be without Wasim Akram who is an outstanding bowler and who could have made better use of the old ball. I don’t have a bowler who can replace him,” he said.Wasim bowled 20 balls in Dhaka before turning with a hamstring injury. He was overlooked by the selectors for the Sharjah series but Mudassar said door was open for the left-hander to join the team for the second Test starting Feb 4.”I have seen marked improvement in his bowling in the last two days. He is making speedy recovery and I sincerely hope he joins the team before the second Test,” he said.Pakistan named a four-man pace attack led by Waqar Younis who is probably the only bowler who is in form. Mohammad Sami, Mohammad Zahid and Shoaib Akhtar are all injury-prone and staging comeback after a layoff.”I am a bit concerned but I am confident Sami and Shoaib will come through. Sami is a bowler who can do anything anytime though he was a bit rusty in the last one-day international.”Shoaib looks fit to me and is also bowling well. But I agree that there are question marks since the fast bowlers will have to do a lot more bowling than they have been doing recently.” Mudassar has, however, pinned his hopes on spin duo of Saqlain Mushtaq and Danish Kaneria.”Going by the trend, the series should be dominated by the spinners and I believe Danish has a major role to play,” he said.Danish, he continued, had come out of age and was bowling brilliantly. “Although he cannot be compared with someone like Shane Warne, but he gets more bounce than Warne because of his height. He is a keen cricketer who has improved his overall cricket.”Mudassar said it was premature to say on the combination of the team for the first Tests, be admitted that Shahid Afridi was a serious contender to open the innings with Taufiq Umer.Meanwhile, paceman Mohammad Zahid’s comeback to international cricket was abruptly halted when he couldn’t depart to Sharjah with the team.According to highly placed sources, the Cricketers Benefit Fund Series (CBFS) failed to arrange visa for the fast bowler who last played for Pakistan three years ago.Sources further said Zahid might also miss the first Test. “His visa has gone into security clearance. Probably the confusion is because of his namesake. But it is highly unlikely that he would be able to join the team before the first Test,” sources said.Squad: Taufiq Umer, Shahid Afridi, Younis Khan, Inzamam-ul-Haq (vicecaptain), Yousuf Youhana, Abdur Razzaq, Rashid Latif (wicketkeeper), Waqar Younis (captain), Shoaib Akhtar, Danish Kaneria, Saqlain Mushtaq, Faisal Iqbal, Naved Latif, Mohammad Sami and Mohammad Zahid.
Somerset’s close two-wicket win over Yorkshire at Scarborough took them closer to Worcestershire at the top of the First Division of the National League. Some five thousand spectators saw Somerset, set to score just 142 for victory on a pitch which did not favour batting, collapse to 74-7 in the 27th over.From that point, however, Ian Blackwell struck back strongly by hitting 50 n.o. from 41 deliveries. His partner Michael Burns (26) was out at 107, but Blackwell pressed the attack by hitting slow left-armer Darren Lehmann for six. With Graham Rose he chiselled away at the margin and ended the match by striking Paul Hutchison which raised his fifty and won the match.Somerset’s poor early batting had been brought about by fast bowlers Matthew Hoggard and Chris Silverwood supported by the catches of Richard Blakey at the wicket. Winning the toss Yorkshire were bowled out for 141: Steffan Jones took 4-33 to raise his season’s National League aggregate to 21 wickets. Paul Jarvis (3-23), Marcus Trescothick and Blackwell gave him accurate support. Blakey (33) was the hosts’ top-scorer but he hit only two fours in 75 balls. Ian Fisher wasmore adventurous with 20 from 29 deliveries and then took 3-20.
Aston Villa are back in action this evening with a Premier League clash against Leeds United at Elland Road.
Now with two consecutive victories under their belt in their previous league outings against Brighton & Hove Albion and Southampton, scoring six goals and conceding none in the process, Steven Gerrard’s side will be hungry to add another three points to their tally for the campaign.
In his pre-match press conference, the 41-year-old revealed that in terms of which players will be available for selection for tonight’s game, defenders Lucas Digne and Ezri Konsa will be available again after missing the match against Southampton, as well as Carney Chukwuemeka.
With that in mind, here’s our prediction for Villa’s starting XI to take on Jesse Marsch’s side.
Having started all but one of Villa’s league games so far this season, it’d be a surprise to see anyone other than Emi Martinez start in goal, who will be hoping to keep a third consecutive clean sheet.
In a back four, we think both Digne and Konsa will come back into the side alongside Tyrone Mings and Matty Cash with Ashley Young and Calum Chambers dropping out after starting in the win over Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side at Villa Park.
Regarding the 27-year-old former Arsenal man, Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville labelled his display against Newcastle United as “clumsy,” which could make it an easier choice for the Villa manager to make in terms of putting Konsa back in.
Moving on to the midfield, given how prominent he’s been for Villa so far this season, it seems likely that John McGinn will keep his place in the team to try and keep the home side from attacking as much as possible given how he’s racked up a higher average of tackles per game (2.9) than any other player in Gerrard’s squad in this campaign.
Next to the Scotland international, we think the former Rangers boss will stick with Douglas Luiz after he managed to get his name on the scoresheet last time out against the Saints.
Then, next to those two, we predict that Gerrard will make a change by bringing Morgan Sanson in for Jacob Ramsey after the Englishman’s uneventful display in his previous appearance over the weekend, which would see the Frenchman make his third league start of the 2021/22 season.
Labelled as a “great technician” by Dean Smith in the past, the £59k-per-week midfielder could use this match as great opportunity to show what he’s capable of in an attacking sense given Leeds’ knack of conceding goals.
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Finally, it would make sense for the Villa boss to stick with the same three players that scored in the last game to see if they can find the back of the net once again this time around against a side that have conceded more league goals than any other team in this campaign.
This means that Philippe Coutinho will line up once again behind the strike duo of Ollie Watkins and Danny Ings.
In other news: Good news: Aston Villa handed huge injury boost ahead of Leeds, Gerrard surely buzzing – opinion
Pakistan’s plans to adopt a ground rotation policy for next month’s home series against Zimbabwe suffered a minor setback after Jinnah Stadium in Sialkot was declared dangerous for spectators.A PCB official told that the idea of holding an ODI at Jinnah Stadium was dropped after it was discovered that one of the pavilions at the stadium was in “pretty bad shape”.”It would have been risky to stage a match in Sialkot because of that particular pavilion,” the official said. “Also the road leading to the stadium is in a shambles. We will now host an international match in Sialkot sometime later.”Sialkot hasn’t hosted an international match for over ten years. A Quaid-e-Azam trophy first-round match between National Bank of Pakistan and Sialkot was abandoned due to unplayable pitch conditions in October.Zimbabwe arrive in Pakistan on January 12 for a series of five ODIs and a three-day and four-day game.
Greg Blewett’s fractious relationship with South Australian cricket authorities took another turn for the worse when the batsman was handed a $1000 fine for negative comments he made about the state’s officials. Blewett, who is still contracted by the Redbacks but has been dropped and is looking for the opportunity to transfer to another state, has been scathing in his description of the South Australia hierarchy in the past month.Among other things, he described the state’s selectors as “clowns” after they all but ended his career with the Redbacks by dropping him from the one-day team and promoting younger players. Blewett also told Adelaide’s newspaper that comments by Paul Nobes, the chairman of selectors, that Blewett was in poor form were unfair.”It’s incorrect, not right,” Blewett said. “For Nobes to say that my form is not warranting selection is absolute crap. I’ve had a pretty good year for [my club] Kensington. It doesn’t make sense what he is actually saying.”But that was a far cry from the words attributed to Blewett in an official South Australia statement after he was found guilty of detrimental public comment under the Cricket Australia code of behaviour. “I have always maintained and valued a strong relationship with the SACA and want to ensure that continues to be the case,” Blewett’s statement said.”And I am particularly grateful for the assistance the SACA has given me throughout my career. I sincerely regret if any of my comments have caused the SACA any offence or harm, as this was never my intention.”
Scorecard Bengal marched to a ten-wicket win on the third day of its Elite group encounter against Delhi, after Saurashi Lahiri, the offspinner, shot the hosts out for a paltry 131. Needing just 69 to win with more than a day to spare, Subhomoy Das and Arindam Das, Bengal’s openers, knocked off the runs in 23.3 overs to take Bengal to its first outright win of the season. Delhi’s batsmen failed for the second time in the match, unable to better their first-innings score of 151 and capitulated to Lahiri’s probing spells either side of lunch. It was a poor batting effort from the hosts, with only Shikhar Dhawan, the opener, standing out with his 44 in 167 minutes. After nearly being relegated to the Plate Group last season, this has been a good turnaround for Bengal, with seven points – they claimed a bonus point today – in two matches. Scorecard Karnataka were 158 runs behind Mumbai’s first-innings score of 344 when bad light forced the umpires to call stumps on day three at Bangalore because of bad light. Earlier, Vinit Indulkar’s second first-class hundred and useful contributions from Ramesh Powar and Omkar Khanvilkar had taken Mumbai past Karnataka’s 186. It was a consistent, if not threatening, display from Karnataka’s bowlers, with each of the six bowlers picking up at least one wicket.Scorecard Two quick wickets before stumps gave Tamil Nadu the upper hand against Railways in Delhi, after Subramaniam Badrinath’s hundred and a dogged fifty from Hemanth Kumar took them to an imposing 371. Badrinath, 54 overnight, occupied the crease for 521 minutes and shared in a 113-run partnership with Kumar to wrest the initiative from Railways early in the day. Madan Yadav, the left-arm spinner, was the most successful Railways bowler with 4 for 94. Scorecard Bad light stopped play with 21 overs left on the third day at Anantapur, with Hyderabad 14 for 0, 153 runs ahead of Andhra’s first innings 231. Ganeswara Rao top-scored with 65 but Kaushik Reddy, the opening bowler, claimed career-best figures of 4 for 43 to bowl Andhra out for an inadequate total. Scorecard Jacob Martin led from the front in scoring an unbeaten 224, his 23rd first-class century, and Connor Williams hit a fine 138 to take Baroda to 562 for 7 at stumps at Kanpur, 216 runs ahead of Uttar Pradesh with only a day to go. Martin’s was a stellar effort as Baroda firmly wrapped their fists around a hapless Uttar Pradesh bowling attack to ensure that they could lose the match. Piyush Chawla, the legspinner, had figures of 4 for 177 from 46 overs, but Martin’s stubbornness was the deciding factor on a day in which Baroda walked away with the honors. Scorecard Mahesh Rawat, Haryana’s wicketkeeper, needed one more run to complete his maiden first-class hundred as Haryana finished the third day on 332 for 8, a lead of 341 over Punjab at Mohali. Rawat was aided in a 111-run stand for the eighth wicket by Sachin Rana as Haryana reached a comfortable position and gave themselves a strong case for victory on the final day. Gagandeep Singh, the medium-pace bowler, had the best figures of 5 for 109, but it was the only shining effort from an otherwise insipid bowling display from Punjab. Scorecard Vital contributions from the lower-order batsmen enabled Gujarat to gain the first-innings lead, all but ensuring themselves of two points in what should be a drawn encounter at Valsad. Suyash Burkul, the fast bowler, and Rohit Jadhav, the offspinner, shared six wickets but Maharashtra couldn’t prevent Gujarat reaching 258, with Bhavik Thaker, Hemal Watekar and Salil Yadav adding 80 between them. Dheeraj Jadhav scored an unbeaten 54 as Maharashtra ended the day with a lead of 90, but they will require a minor miracle to pull off a win tomorrow.
John Dyson will be back on March 1 to continue his role as the coach of the Sri Lankan team before their Test tour to New Zealand in April. Mohan de Silva, the president of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), said that Dyson had agreed to return to Sri Lanka and complete his contract which ends on March 31 and prepare the team for the two Tests against New Zealand.Dyson angered a section of the SLC top brass when he back to Sydney straight after the cancellation of the New Zealand tour, following the tsunami disaster, without informing them. The SLC’s ExCo was divided on whether they should retain Dyson and give him a fresh contract or look for someone else to replace him.However the issue appears to have thinned out following Dyson’s talks with de Silva and Duleep Mendis in Australia recently. de Silva said that SLC have offered new terms in the contract which Dyson hopes to discuss with SLC officials when he is here. Depending on the outcome of the discussions Dyson’s contract could be extended to anything from one year to until the 2007 World Cup in West Indies.Dyson, the former Australian opener, had succeeded Dav Whatmore after signing a 19-month contract in September 1, 2003. Within that period of time Sri Lanka improved their rankings in both forms of the game, moving from seventh to fifth in Tests and leaped from seventh to second place in the one-dayers.Sri Lanka are due to play New Zealand in two Tests at Napier and Wellington, apart from a three-day warm-up game from March 26. The national cricket selectors named a pool of 24 players for training from which the final squad will be selected. These players will be involved in SLC’s provincial tournament which gets underway tomorrow and ends with the final at Dambulla on March 6.
Only ten overs of play was possible on a severely truncated first day at Visakhapatnam, as New Zealand’s tour to India got off to a wet and gloomy start. Heavy rains over the last couple of days left the outfield too damp for play to start until after tea, and when the match did finally get underway at 3pm local time, the Board President’s XI could only bat for around 45 minutes before a sharp downpour sent the players scurrying back to the pavilion.In the brief passage of play which did happen, Virender Sehwag – opting to open the innings to get some practice at the top of the order before the Test series – and Akash Chopra put together 23 runs after Sehwag had elected to bat. Both openers were largely untroubled by New Zealand’s new-ball attack of Ian Butler and Michael Mason.Sehwag got off the mark in style, punching the first ball he faced, from Mason, down the ground for four. In Mason’s next over, Sehwag played a flashing cut over gully for four. Chopra was more circumspect, his only boundary coming off an outside edge which went along the ground and through the slip cordon. Apart from that stroke, Chopra was in control, playing close to his body and eschewing any risks.The Board President’s line-up excluded Wasim Jaffer, Amit Uniyal and Tinu Yohannan, while New Zealand left out Jacob Oram and Daryl Tuffey. Both Oram and Tuffey are likely to play in the Tests, and their omissions from this match were probably precautionary measures to ensure against injury on a ground where the run-up areas were still slightly damp.The match has now effectively been reduced to a two-day encounter, and with more rain forecast over the weekend, New Zealand might only be left with one warm-up game before the first Test. Both captains have, however, agreed to start 30 minutes earlier on the two remaining days to squeeze in as much play as possible. Whether the weather actually allows them to is another matter.
Andhra Pradesh registered a tense five-run win over Tamil Nadu in their Ranji one-day match at Visakhapatnam on Saturday.Winning the toss, Andhra Pradesh decided to bat first and a third-wicket partnership of 95 runs between AS Pathak and Y Venugopal Rao formed the backbone of a final total of 260 for six. Pathak made 50 off 81 balls, while Venugopal Rao made 68 off 96 balls.Captain MSK Prasad scored 58 off 60 balls, but the real boost in the scoring rate came from RVC Prasad’s blistering 42 off 26 balls, with four fours and two sixes.Tamil Nadu lost Sridharan Sriram and Hemang Badani early, but Sridharan Sharath’s responsible knock kept his side in the hunt till the very final over. His 82 off 120 balls was well supported by skipper Robin Singh’s 50 off 56 balls.SV Saravanan’s 37 off 34 balls further down the order included some quick running, but Andhra Pradesh bowlers held their nerve to restrict Tamil Nadu to 255/7.