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Scorecard
Plate Group Points Table
Madhya Pradesh ended the second day of their Ranji Plate semi-final on even terms, closing on 191 for 5 in reply to Saurashtra’s 296. Shitanshu Kotak, overnight on 95, brought up his ninth first-class century before Amay Khurasia’s power-packed 80 charged Madhya Pradesh left the match hanging in the balance.Khurasia, who played only two games this season, chose the right moment to come good. After the openers put up a 55-run stand off 16.3 overs Khurasia took charge and the next fifty rolled off in just eight overs before Sandip Maniar removed Sachin Dholpure and knocked off Devendra Bundela, the leading run-getter for MP, for a duck to push them to 106 for 3.Abbas Ali joined Khurasia and the duo steered MP to 182 for 3 before Saurashtra fought back with two wickets. Earlier, Saurashtra resumed on 226 for 6, were propped up by Kotak’s first hundred of the season and 21 from Sandeep Jobanputra, the No 10 batsman.

Match facts

Sunday, May 11, 2008
Start time 16.00 (local), 10.30 (GMT)

The Big Picture

The last time these two teams played each other, the pitch at Eden Gardens took centrestage as the ball kicked up, scooted low, jagged around, and in general made life miserable for the batsmen. VVS Laxman hit out at the surface after his team was at the wrong end of the result, but here his team have a chance to avenge that defeat, and more importantly, inject some momentum into what has so far been a disastrous campaign – with two wins in eight games, they are sitting at the bottom of the table and each of their last six matches are virtually must-win games for them.Kolkata arrested a worrying four-match slide with a thrilling five-run win against Bangalore, but the fact that the worst team in the tournament pushed them all the way remains a cause for worry, as does the fact that the batting hasn’t yet inspired any confidence yet. They have played one less game than Deccan, though, and a win on Sunday will put them on eight points from as many games, and in a good position to push for a semi-final spot.Both teams will also have to battle their unfavourable home and away records. Deccan have lost all three games at home, while Kolkata have lost three out of four away matches. Deccan also have a huge problem when batting first: they have lost all five games when setting a target, and most of those defeats have been convincing ones.

Tournament position

Deccan Chargers P8, W2, L6, NRR -0.240
Kolkata Knight Riders P7, W3, L4, NRR +0.461

IPL form (last five matches)

Deccan Chargers: LWLLW
Kolkata Knight Riders: WLLLL

Watch out for …

Mitchell Johnson says he couldn’t have done more over the last year to force his way into Australia’s Test side after being named in the 13-man squad for the first Test against Sri Lanka.Before that match, which is at the Gabba from next Thursday, he has the chance to impress in the second warm-up match at Allan Border Field on Friday.”I think I’ve done what I can over in India and over the past 12 months or so,” he told Sportal.com. “It is out of my control but my fingers are crossed.”He faces an anxious wait to see if he made the final cut ahead of fellow fast bowler Shaun Tait but being the only left-arm pace bowler in the squad may help. He also impressed in India recently, where he was the leading wicket taker with 14 at an average of 18.57 including a five-for.But Johnson, who has yet to make his Test debut, has been here before: this time last year he was waiting to see if he would get the nod for the Ashes ahead of Stuart Clark. He lost out then and his wait for a Test continues.”I don’t want to get my hopes up and be too confident but deep down I’m hoping.”

Darren Lehmann will miss South Australia’s Pura Cup opener against Victoria next month after tearing a hamstring last week. Lehmann had only just started training following an off-season interrupted by surgery on his achilles tendon and a case of deep-vein thrombosis.He told the that at 37 it would be a challenge to make it through a 21st season of first-class cricket. “It is disappointing breaking down again but I guess it’s a case of finding the best way to manage my body,” Lehmann said.Nathan Adcock, the new captain of South Australia, will not be able to call on Lehmann for advice in their first Pura Cup game at Adelaide Oval starting on October 14. Lehmann has also confirmed he will be on the sidelines for the KFC Twenty20 competition in January, giving the Redbacks’ less experienced batsmen a chance to shine.”Twenty20 is probably a young man’s game now,” he said. “It will be good for some young guys to get some more opportunities.”

John Buchanan is in the final week of his seven-year coaching role with Australia, but he has not stopped talking about the future by suggesting Michael Clarke could be the next captain. After being dropped two years ago, Clarke has returned stronger and more mature and has been a crucial part of Australia’s march into the World Cup final with 464 runs, including 60 not out in the semi-final win over South Africa.The leadership debate is not an immediate issue as Ricky Ponting is only 32, but Buchanan has tipped Clarke as a contender when he retires. He was a captain of the Australia Under-19s and was named deputy to Michael Hussey for the one-day tour of New Zealand in February before he went home with a hip injury.”I see him growing as a person and he is obviously performing pretty well in the field,” Buchanan said in the Sydney Morning Herald. “Obviously he is [considered a future captain] because he should be around the team for years to come.”By that stage he will be a senior player and should have an incredible record behind him. But who is to know what will happen in the future?”Clarke began his Test career in India when his friend and coach Neil D’Costa was his manager, but before the Ashes series he swapped to the management group that looks after Matthew Hayden. “He is associating himself with the right people,” Buchanan said in the . “No disrespect to people before him, but for Michael’s future he needs to associate and be educated by the right people. I see him making those sort of choices.”While Buchanan looked ahead, he also allowed himself to go back over the relationships with some of his current and former charges. In the Herald Clarke, Hayden and Shane Watson were listed as some of Buchanan’s successes, but he regretted he was unable to connect with the legspinners Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill.”People are not compatible with each other all the time and probably their style and my styles were never going to nicely coalesce,” he said. “There have been moments when they have gone in the same direction and moments when they haven’t, not necessarily due to them or due to me. It’s just the way it is.”I always regret that you don’t have the perfect relationship with everybody because if you don’t it’s very difficult, I think, to bring out the best in them. That to me is one of the roles of the coach, that you’re always trying to expand somebody’s horizons and if you don’t have a good relationship with someone there’s no way you can achieve that. I regret that.”

Jonty Rhodes is one of the favourites to become England’s fielding coach as the new management team continues to expand the back room staff. It is hoped the position will be filled by the time the one-day squad meets up again for the seven-match series against India in the second half of August.England dropped three catches during the deciding one-dayer at Trent Bridge on Sunday – two in the outfield by Alastair Cook and Ian Bell, plus one by wicketkeeper Matt Prior – while the ground fielding was caught out by aggressive West Indies running. The boundary sweepers often struggled to collect the ball cleanly while those inside the circle rarely managed any direct hits.”As with the rest of the support team we want the right person to do that job,” said England coach Peter Moores. “When we’ve got the right bloke we can look to bring him in and see how he goes. We have seen that in other specialist positions for coaches.”We are talking about people who could make a genuine difference to international performances – and they don’t always grow on trees. If we get a fielding coach we want him to influence fielding in England not just at England level.”Rhodes, who was famous for his work at backward point in his career, has previously held a similar post with South Africa and Pakistan. His former team-mate Allan Donald is currently England’s bowling coach until the end of the Twenty20 World Championships.

ScorecardA four-wicket haul by allrounder Darren Sammy guided West Indies A to a convincing 59-run win over Sri Lanka A in the decisive match of their five-match limited overs series yesterday at St Lucia, winning the series 2-1.Electing to bat, the West Indians were dismissed for 215 in 49.4 overs and they then restricted the Sri Lankans to 156 in 41.3 overs, with Sammy registering figures of four for 16 off 7.3 overs. Pacer Gavin Tonge supported him with 2 for 31 off eight overs, as the home side clinched a 2-1 victory in the series.Earlier, opener Austin Richards plundered 68 with nine fours and a six off 99 balls to guide West Indies A to their total. Omari Banks made a useful contribution of 40 late in the innings and Wavell Hinds chipped in with 29.The West Indies were at one stage 124 for two, but lost captain Joseph driving too early at Ishara Amarasinghe, giving a return catch. Richards was caught behind by Kaushal Silva off Amerasinghe, who also accounted for Narsingh Deonarine caught behind for six. Amerasinghe finished with 4 for 34 and Bandara 3 for 41.In reply, the Sri Lankans were in all sorts of trouble at 87 for 8, before Bandara and Dammika Prasad resisted for a while. Bandara remained undefeated on 47.The result finished a competitive series that saw the Sri Lankans winning the first game and the West Indians rebounding to capture the second game last weekend in St Kitts. The third game on Wednesday was abandoned because of rain and Friday’s day/night fixture finished in a tie.

Wasim Jaffer and MS Dhoni speak to the press
Download MP3 (right click and select “save target as”)
Streaming Audio: Real :: WMAThe fourth day of the Antigua Test was marked out by two innings: Wasim Jaffer’s 212 and Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s belligerent 69. Both these men spoke to the press after the day’s play.Jaffer spoke about how getting dropped from the Indian team made him a more mature player, and how Rahul Dravid’s advice helped him on his way to this double-century. Dhoni, meanwhile, explained the sequence of events that led to his controversial dismissal, including Brian Lara’s plea to him to walk. Listen in.Download MP3 (right click and select “save target as”)
Streaming Audio: Real :: WMA

The Indian board (BCCI) has told Cricinfo that it will be lodging a complaint with the ECB following confirmation that the PCB has issued No Objection Certificates to Mushtaq Ahmed and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, allowing them to play county cricket in 2008.The two players are involved with the unauthorised Indian Cricket League and Niranjan Shah, the BCCI’s secretary, told Cricinfo that “we have an understanding with the other countries’ boards that they can’t allow players who are associated with the ICL to be allowed to play at any level, regardless of the reason the player has a contract with his board or not.”If the news is true that the two players have been given NOCs by the PCB then we will take up the issue with the ECB since the two counties – Sussex and Yorkshire – come under the jurisdiction of the England board.”The ECB, however, is legally powerless to take any action in the light of the NOCs being granted and is likely to pass the matter back to the Indian board to sort out directly with its Pakistan counterparts.The situation is further muddied by confusion within the PCB about the issuing of an NOC to Naved-ul-Hasan. On Thursday, Shafqat Naghmi, the PCB’s chief operating officer, told Reuters that “the factual position is that some counties had asked the PCB to issue NOC’s for these players. But we’ve now informed them very clearly that since these players are not contracted to us nor eligible to play in Pakistan we don’t come anywhere into this issue at all.”But less than a day later, Naghmi gave Cricinfo an altogether different picture. “Our board’s policy on the ICL remains as it has always been and these players cannot play in Pakistan,” he said. “But the board also felt that there is no legal or moral reason in stopping someone from playing cricket in another country. That is subject to their laws. So, on this basis, we have sent an NOC, which maybe wasn’t as well-worded as planned, but the intention was made clear.”Stewart Regan, the Yorkshire chief executive, told Cricinfo that the NOC had in fact been received last week and was dated March 17. “We have a signed letter that is very clear in confirming they [the PCB] have no objection,” he said. This was then sent to the ECB, along with the player’s registration form, and was accepted by the board.Today’s news follows the revelations last week that the ECB had refused registrations for five players because of their participation in the ICL. But with Pakistan approving Mushtaq and Naved-ul-Hasan, and in so doing leaving the England board with no room for manoeuvre, there are certain to be some terse exchanges between the PCB and the BCCI in the coming days.

The Pakistan team are to give hands-on help to areas devastated by last Saturday’s earthquake, by taking part in relief work.Inzamam-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s captain, told a private television channel of his side’s commitment in helping the area recover from the tragedy: “The entire cricket team will travel to quake-stricken areas and will take part in relief operations. Although we might not stay there during the entire operation, we’ll definitely make our presence felt in the areas that have been devastated by the earthquake,” he said.Inzamam, who is playing for the World XI in the ICC Super Test in Sydney, added: “My heart goes out for the people of Muzaffarabad and adjoining areas who lost everything in seconds. There are people in need and it’s our national and moral duty to help them and make them realise that at this time of difficulty, we are with them.”