All posts by csb10.top

India don’t want to create controversy about the five-ball 30th over that may or may not have made a difference to the final result of a tight game, a tie. However, it gave MS Dhoni an opportunity to raise the question that, with so much technology available, why couldn’t the officials ensure the proper counting of balls, and why blindly follow the DRS?The essence of Dhoni’s comments, though, was that this could easily be turned into a controversy but he didn’t want to do so. “Duncan [Fletcher, the coach] told me about it,” Dhoni said. “There have been five-ball overs in the past, but we have seen the third umpire interfere and you have to come back and bowl that ball. Usually that’s what has happened to us also. It didn’t happen in this game, fair enough. Nothing much can be done now.”I don’t know [if a full over might have broken the tie] because you could have had a dot ball. It happens in cricket, so maybe it would have been a dot.”Dhoni said India were not going to lodge an official complaint. “Well because it’s done and dusted,” he said. “That’s what is important. We can create a big fuss out of it but what’s the point? It’s like a controversy standing right at the edge, just about to happen, because we have seen in the past that we have bowled an over and they have almost changed ends. But then the third umpire interferes and says, ‘Okay you have to bowl one more ball in this particular over”. It didn’t happen in this game. I don’t know why. We don’t really want to create a controversy.”As an afterthought, Dhoni took a dig at DRS. “If this can happen then I don’t know why people back DRS so much,” Dhoni said. “We have seen people happy with DRS in one series as long as it goes in their favour. Once it doesn’t go in their favour, they are quite unhappy about it so. I am quite happy with three individuals. If I am not wrong, two umpires in the middle and the match referee and the scorer [are there], and it has still happened. Better off accepting it because we humans are bound to make mistakes.”The said over was, at that time, the second best of India’s innings. Gautam Gambhir and Dhoni had taken nine off Malinga when over was called after five balls. Mahela Jayawardene, Sri Lanka’s captain, said he didn’t know of the error. “I am not complaining,” he joked.

The match between Khulna and Sylhet ended in a draw in Chittagong and both teams remained in contention for the final.During the game, Enamul Haque jnr became the first Bangladesh bowler to take 300 first-class wickets when he picked up Khulna’s last second-innings wicket on the fourth morning. Al-Amin Hossain drove straight to Shaker Ahmed at mid-off to give Enamul the milestone. The next best is Mohammad Sharif with 272 wickets and Mohammad Rafique who has 237. Enamul finished the match with 7 for 171.After opting to bat, Khulna made 301 for 9 before declaring their first innings. Mithun Ali hammered 109 off 106 balls while the captain Tushar Imran struck a half-century. Sylhet replied poorly, declaring with a 50-run deficit on 251 for 9. Mithun scored a second ton in the game to become the fourth Bangladesh batsman to score two hundreds in a first-class game (after Minhazul Abedin, Javed Omar and Shahin Hossain). His innings, this time off 160 balls, led Khulna to 274, setting Sylhet a target of 322.Dollar Mahmud reduced Sylhet to 0 for 2 and then 30 for 4 before Rajin Saleh scored a half-century to lead his team to a draw.Centuries from Junaid Siddique and Jahurul Islam helped Rajshahi secure a nine-wicket victory against Dhaka Metropolis at the Sylhet Stadium.Saqlain Sajib took 5 for 59, while Mukhtar Ali claimed 4 for 47, to dismiss Dhaka Metropolis for 201 in their first innings. Junaid and Jahurul then made 161 and 167 as the defending champions Rajshahi declared on 404 for 5, with a 203-run lead.Mehrab Hossain jnr scored a century in Dhaka Metropolis’ second innings, but there was little support for him apart from Mohammad Ashraful’s 69. Farhad Reza and Mukhtar Ali took four wickets each to dismiss the Dhaka side for 274, leaving Rajshahi’s batsmen with a target of 72. They chased it down in 10.3 overs.

At the Chinnaswamy Stadium, it was a day that belonged to Haryana’s unheralded 21-year-old Harshal Patel. An outswing bowler, Harshal took a bold decision to remain in India to play cricket when his parents moved to New Jersey a few years ago, and today that decision looked to have paid rich dividends. Taking the new ball in Haryana’s quarter-final against Karnataka, he rolled the hosts out for 151, bowling with testing outswing and dogged discipline. He finished the day with 8 for 40 – the best figures so far in the 2011-12 Ranji Elite season.Harshal kept the ball on and around the off stump all through, repeatedly testing the batsmen’s technique and patience. He bowled from wide of the crease and got some deliveries to move a tad away, while others held their line, leaving the batsmen in quite a quandary.His first three wickets were caught by the keeper, Nitin Saini. That early burst was aided by the surface. “The wicket had something in it early on,” Harshal said after the day’s play. “There was a little movement off the seam, the ball was also stopping a little, it was a bit two-paced. But it was not damp, we [Haryana] would have batted too.”He backed up an incisive opening spell with one that cleaned up Karnataka’s tail after lunch. This time he tried something a little different to take 3 for 9 in 4.5 overs. “Bowling over the wicket to the tail, they were leaving the ball. The wicket too had slowed down a bit. So I tried bowling around the wicket against them and it worked.” In between he got rid of Amit Verma and Stuart Binny. The in-form Binny had let one of Harshal’s deliveries go and it whizzed away, dangerously close to off stump. He shouldered arms to the next ball too, but this time it pitched on off and held its line to rattle the stumps.Harshal, who played Under-19 cricket for India, made the move from Gujarat to Haryana before the start of the 2011-2012 season, and it was all a natural progression for him. “The year my parents left [India], I had had a very good time in Under-17 cricket – I had taken 32 wickets in five games. So I told my dad to give me some time to keep working on my cricket here in India. He told me he’d give me two years, during which I was to work only on my cricket and see where it took me. Now I’m here.”I was not getting a chance in first-class cricket in Gujarat. Anirudh Chaudhary, the Haryana Cricket Association head, was our [India Under-19] manager at the Under-19 World Cup [in New Zealand in January 2010]. He later called me and told me I could play for Haryana if I wanted to. Several of their seamers had had to have surgery, so I got an offer.”Harshal’s tally puts him behind only Kapil Dev and Joginder Sharma for the best figures in first-class cricket for Haryana. But Harshal seems to know that this is no reason to get carried away. “Whatever format I play, I look to take wickets. There are still flaws in my bowling action that I need to work on. For example, my front knee bends when I deliver and my [body] alignment is a bit on the cross. I’m working on these things.”He has the assistance of former Essex fast bowler Ian Pont to iron out the flaws. Pont, who has a four-year contract working with Haryana, has worked with Harshal since Haryana’s preparations for the 2011-12 season began. Pont, now back in England, is constantly in touch with Harshal and the other Harayana seamers. “Harshal’s got a good head. I first met him at a training camp in May, he was the bowler who really stood out in that camp,” Pont told ESPNcricinfo. “He is very aware of his bowling action. It’s important to know what you need to correct in the first place.”I’ve left him with a few drills for this, simple ones that you could do in the bedroom even and don’t need cricket nets for, and he works on them and gets back to me with updates.”Pont is also working on Harshal’s pace. “He swings it, swings it away, which makes him dangerous. He’s not express, but I think he can bowl much quicker,” he said. “It’s something we are working on, to give him more pace and control.” And it helps that Harshal, like his team-mates, is a willing learner. “Every Indian bowler [that I’ve worked with] is very attentive and they tend to listen to what you say. In addition to that, Harshal is very smart. He takes what he thinks will work for him and goes and works on it. His mental approach is very strong.”This performance, Pont said, could be just the trigger Harshal needed to go on to bigger things. “It’s tremendous for the young man to be put in the same category, in some way, as Kapil Dev. It’s a launching pad.”Young bowlers need confidence; I’ve noticed that Ranji cricket tends to favour the batsmen and you get quite a few huge totals. So for a young outswing bowler like Harshal, this is a great confidence boost.”

India’s Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has called the tax exemption of Rs 45 crore (approximately US$8.67 million) granted to the ICC for the 2011 World Cup “unjustified and devoid of merit”, and recommended that the Department of Revenue review the exemption.In a report tabled in India’s Parliament on Tuesday, the committee said, “regarding tax exemption of about Rs 45.00 crore granted to International Cricket Council (ICC) on the revenue generated from the recently concluded World Cup cricket tournament, the Committee are not convinced about the tenability of the tax exemptions given to the ICC, as the World Cup received huge sponsorships and was patronised by the corporate sector in a big way.”Therefore, the Committee are of the considered view that the tax exemption granted to ICC using discretionary powers under the provisions of general exemption for international sporting events was unjustified and devoid of merit. The Committee recommend that the tax exemption granted to ICC be reviewed by the Department of Revenue.”The recommendation was one of several recommendations/observations contained in the committee report, which was tabled by sports minister Ajay Maken in response to a question about the inquiries into the various allegations against the BCCI, most of them over the running of the IPL.The committee was also scathing in its criticism of the Income Tax Department, saying it had been inconsistent in taxing the BCCI and called for a probe of the department. “The inordinate delay and gross inaction in finalising assessment cannot but reinforce the Committee’s desire seeking a thorough probe into the whole gamut of this issue, bringing out clearly the culpability of the tax officials concerned with granting exemptions and finalising assessments in this case.”The BCCI was not spared either. The committee stated that the Indian board needs to improve its functioning so that it can preempt the kind of controversies and allegations that have arisen out of the IPL, and recommended that an investigation into the awarding of media rights for the tournament be instituted.”With regard to reported irregularities in award of media rights and commercial contracts executed in the course of the IPL, considering the serious irregularities and offences, the Committee would like the investigating agencies to look into all matters relating to breach of law, and identify and punish all those persons responsible for the same without further loss of time.”The board has already been sent 19 show-cause notices over foreign exchange violations involving amounts totalling approximately Rs 1077.43 crore, and been asked to pay Income Tax aggregating Rs 375.16 crore. Service tax show-cause notices totalling Rs. 159.12 crore have also been sent to a number of stakeholders and service providers of the IPL.

Group A

A hat-trick from Siddharth Trivedi helped Saurashtra complete an innings and 144-run win over Punjab at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium. This was the only outright win in the third round of the Ranji Trophy Elite matches and pushes Saurashtra to fourth on the Group A points table.Trivedi, who is in his first season with Saurashtra after transferring from Gujarat, picked up the wickets of Karan Goel, Harbhajan Singh and Manpreet Gony in his eight over. This was the third hat-trick by a Saurashtra bowler, the other two being D Narottam and S Nyalchand, both of whom claimed hat-tricks against Boroda. Trivedi is also the second bowler to take a hat-trick against Punjab, behind Delhi’s Bishan Singh Bedi, who claimed his in 1968-69.Punjab had resumed on 44 for 4, with Uday Kaul and Mandeep Singh batting. Opening bowler Sandip Maniar had Mandeep caught in the first over, following which Karan Goel, who had retired hurt the previous evening, returned. He did not last long though, trapped lbw by Trivedi for 10. Harbhajan and Gony were caught off the next two deliveries as Punjab slipped to 78 for 9, still trailing by 186. A 42-run last-wicket stand between Amitoze Singh and Brainder Sran only delayed the inevitable. Punjab were eventually bowled out for 120, without managing to bat out 24 overs on the final day.Mahesh Rawat recorded his highest first-class score, 145, to help Railways secure an unlikely first-innings’s lead against Rajasthan at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi. Rawat was backed up by Yere Goud, Marripuri Suresh, Sanjay Bangar and Shivakant Shukla, as Railways piled up an impressive 525 for 8 in reply to Rajasthan’s 521, before declaring. Their bowlers then knocked over four of Rajasthan’s top order cheaply, to finish the game with the upper hand.Railways had begun the final day on 274 for 4, with Rawat and Goud at the crease. The pair went on to add 153 runs before Goud edged Sumit Mathur behind on 70. Rawat found another reliable partner in Suresh, and they added 90 for the sixth wicket before Rawat finally fell, one of legspinner Vivek Yadav’s six victims. Once Bangar declared, offspinner Arlen Konwar and medium pacer Anureet Singh reduced Rajasthan to 20 for 4, and play was ended soon after.An unbeaten double-century from Parvinder Singh and Arish Alam’s 118 not out gave Uttar Pradesh the first-innings lead against Orissa at the Veer Surendra Sai Stadium in Sambalpur. UP had started the day on 287 for 3 facing Orissa’s 482, and moved to 590 for 4 by the end of the day thanks to Parvinder and Alam’s 267-run unbeaten partnership. Parvinder took his score from 39 not out overnight to 202 not out off 331 balls, his highest first-class score. Alam was playing just his fourth first-class match and got his maiden century.Karnataka declined the opportunity to enforce the follow-on against Mumbai at the Brabourne Stadium and instead settled for the three points and opted for batting practice. Mumbai were bowled out for 441 after being 354 for 8 overnight and Karnataka then reached 147 for 3. Read the full report here.

Group B

Baroda hung on for a draw at the Moti Bagh Stadium keeping Haryana‘s return to three points. Baroda were faced with a target of 372 in just under a day. They played for the draw and reached 228 for 7 in 85 overs, earning a point. Haryana lost their last three wickets in just 2.4 overs on the fourth morning and managed to add eight runs to their total. Irfan Pathan took three wickets to complete his second five-wicket haul of the season.Irfan then opened the batting but was dismissed in the third over. Baroda were struggling at 31 for 2 but Ambati Rayudu dug his heels in and played a match-saving knock of 83 not out off 222 balls. Amit Mishra, who had taken four wickets in the first innings, took three this time around but Baroda’s middle and lower-middle order spent enough time at the crease to support Rayudu. The point keeps Baroda top of the table in Group B.Fog and then bad light prevented Tamil Nadu from pushing for an outright win against Delhi at the Feroz Shah Kotla, and they had to settle for three points. Delhi started the day 139 runs ahead with five wickets in hand. Fog delayed the start on the fourth morning and when play started Tamil Nadu took 23.4 overs to take the last five wickets. There was resistance from Puneet Bisht, who scored 53, but L Balaji took three quick wickets to finish with four in the innings and leave Tamil Nadu with 218 to chase.They scored at a fair rate of 3.68 runs an over in the chase but the light faded, denying them an opportunity to go for the target. Dinesh Karthik managed a half-century, his second of the season.A strong performance from Madhya Pradesh‘s lower order earned them three points for a first-innings lead against Bengal at the Jadavpur University Complex in Kolkata. MP started the day on 344 for 3 and were relying on Mohnish Mishra, who was on 130 not out overnight, to take them past Bengal’s 496. Mohnish was dismissed in the fourth over of the fourth morning but Nos. 5 to 10 all got more than 20 to give MP the lead.Bengal were kept in the hunt by seamer Shami Ahmed, who completed his maiden five-wicket haul in first-class cricket. When he dismissed Ankit Sharma for 31, MP were 477 for 8 and Bengal would have hoped to get the last two wickets quickly. But No. 10 Anand Rajan scored 21 and MP reached 533. Bengal had 20 overs to bat; Sourav Ganguly used the opportunity to open and raced to 42 off 28 balls before being dismissed. Parthasarathi Bhattacharjee remained unbeaten on 51.

Fast bowler Chris Wright has made his move to Warwickshire permanent, signing a full-time contract with the county. He had spent some time with them last season, on loan from Essex, and enjoyed some success with the ball as Warwickshire fell agonisingly short of clinching the County Championship Division One title.”Chris made a tremendous impact during his short time in our bowling attack,” said director of cricket Ashley Giles. “His five-wicket hauls against Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire were crucial in our late-season charge.”Finishing as runner-up in the 2011 County Championship was a great achievement for this team, despite the final day heartache against Hampshire. However, that experience and signing of a player of Chris’ calibre will make us a stronger unit in 2012.”Wright, 26, claimed 22 wickets in four matches at an average of 24.31 in his part-time spell with Warwickshire last summer, having joined them on a one-month loan in August before his contract with Essex expired.Taking the new ball, he played a crucial role in Warwickshire’s ascent to the top of the Championship table, his five-wicket haul against Nottinghamshire at Edgbaston putting the county in pole position going into the final week of the season before Lancashire squeezed past them in a dramatic finale.