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USA coach Pubudu Dassanayake has picked out Oman as the main threat to his team winning ICC WCL Division Four on home soil

Peter Della Penna in Los Angeles28-Oct-2016USA coach Pubudu Dassanayake has picked out Oman as the main threat to his team winning ICC WCL Division Four on home soil. Dassanayake is confident USA will finish in the top two and gain promotion after the last two-and-a-half weeks of training leading into the tournament that began with the Auty Cup series against Canada, which he says allowed the team to see its own flaws and work them out ahead of Saturday’s tournament-opener against Bermuda.”I think the build-up to this tournament, I’m very pleased,” Dassanayake told ESPNcricinfo. “Playing the Auty Cup, we were just exposed in all departments and we planned what to do to get better for this tournament, analysing all three games against Canada.”I’m very happy, the guys who stayed back, we were working very hard. They put in a lot of hours training and I think the build-up to the [warm-up] game we played [on Tuesday] against SCCA [Southern California Cricket Association], I’m very happy how the guys turned out in that game. Basically everybody has put in a lot of time, effort and hard work and I feel like everything is really ready to go on Saturday morning.”After USA’s first match against Bermuda, they face Italy, which lost to the SCCA XI by 38 runs on Wednesday after failing to chase a target of 212. That came a day after a USA XI took down the local league representative side by 112 runs after posting a score of 286 for 8. The other two European sides in the tournament, Jersey and Denmark, were both beaten by a club side from Houston, Texas, by eight wickets and three wickets respectively, showcasing the strength of league cricket in the USA. It’s one reason why Dassanayake isn’t afraid to talk up his own squad’s chances of promotion.”Looking at the other teams, for me personally as a coach, I don’t think that we’ll have any threat, especially from the European teams,” Dassanayake said. “We have so much talent. We just have to transfer that talent into performance. Oman is a good team because they were in the World [T20]. The last few months they’ve played quality cricket. That’s the team for us to beat but overall, having said all these things, we’re not going to relax any game. We need to just focus one game at a time and do our best every game.”One thing USA teams have lacked in the past, despite their immense talent, is good team chemistry built up in part through clearly defined roles for each player. Dassanayake says, though, that the lead-up to this tournament has seen that change, giving the team a solid platform for a successful event.”Our strength is currently is that everybody is playing together and they take care of each other,” Dassanayake said. “We started knowing the strengths of each other and are very clear in their roles. That’s actually what I was looking for coming into this tournament. That is what we didn’t have against Canada in the Auty Cup.”In the last eight days, there’s a huge change in the atmosphere within the team. So I think that’s a really big plus point for the USA team. But again, in saying these things, it’s very important the first day of the tournament getting that momentum, start winning and start enjoying the wins. When the team does well, they need to feel that and that’s how you build the winning atmosphere in the team.”

Anil Kumble has said India have put the events of Rajkot behind them, and expect to be back to their best in the second Test against England in Visakhapatnam

Alagappan Muthu in Visakhapatnam15-Nov-2016In Rajkot, England’s spinners took more wickets and conceded fewer runs than India’s. That too on a pitch that did not take too much turn until the final day. Visakhapatnam appears likely to provide a lot more assistance to the slow bowlers and there was a notion that home advantage may backfire on the home team. India coach Anil Kumble did not share this notion.”The fact that they took more wickets than India’s spinners in Rajkot doesn’t mean that a spin-friendly pitch here will be a disadvantage for us,” he said on Tuesday.Last week at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Ground, R Ashwin had to settle for only three wickets in 69.3 overs and Amit Mishra conceded upwards of four runs per over in both innings. Both, however, had to bowl their first-innings overs when the pitch was at its flattest. It had a curiously slow rate of deterioration as well, prompting Ashwin to change his bowling action in the second innings in an attempt to make balls rip off the deck.But those memories, as well as those of their fourth-innings wobble, when they lost six wickets in 52.3 overs while batting to save the Test, seem to be firmly in the past for India, at least according to Kumble.”I don’t like to read too much into that batting that happened in those 70 overs,” he said. “If you look at that, probably if [Cheteshwar] Pujara had taken the DRS, probably it would have been 170 for 1 and probably people would have focussed more on the pitch.”Bolstering that belief were the positives Kumble had seen over the five days in Rajkot. Pujara and M Vijay struck battling hundreds and Ashwin compensated for his lack of wickets with two important knocks in the lower middle order. The first of them ensured England’s first-innings lead was kept to 49 and limited the time they could give their bowlers in the final innings.”It was a performance where I thought it was a good batting surface and there were six centuries – two from us and four from the English batsmen,” Kumble said. “It was a good Test match but unfortunately we couldn’t get a result.”Kumble also made special mention of India’s fast bowlers who were able to find reverse-swing when it looked like none of England’s could.”Both [Mohammed] Shami and Umesh [Yadav] bowled exceptionally well on that surface. They got it to reverse as well and they troubled all the English batsmen.”I think all our fast bowlers have been doing well and we will continue to try and see how we can ensure we put together a plan to pick up 20 wickets,”An area that India know they need to improve, though, is their catching. They dropped three chances in the first half-hour in Rajkot, which contributed to their having to chase the game for the rest of its duration.”It’s just that the one area where we certainly probably let ourselves down was our catching and this team really prides itself in its fielding and its catching,” Kumble said. “That’s something that we are obviously aware of, going into this Test match.”

Brandon King’s career-best 194 coupled with 10 wickets from Damion Jacobs helped Jamaica beat Leeward Islands by an innings

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Dec-2016
ScorecardDamion Jacobs’ match tally of 10 for 167 was his third ten-wicket haul in first-class cricket•WICB

Centuries by Brandon King and Devon Thomas coupled with Damion Jacobs’ match haul of 10 wickets helped Jamaica beat Leeward Islands by an innings and 73 runs in St Kitts. The win was Jamaica’s third in five matches, while Leewards slumped to their second consecutive loss.Leewards folded for 243 after electing to bat, with Jahmar Hamilton scoring 103, thereby helping the team recover somewhat from 96 for 5. He added 102 runs for the sixth wicket with allrounder Rahkeem Cornwall (66).Jamaica’s batting strengthened their grip on the game; their openers John Campbell (88) and Shacaya Thomas (54) added 90. Jermaine Blackwood (55) added another 112 runs for the second wicket with Campbell before they lost three wickets in a hurry to slip to 209 for 4. King and Thomas wrested the game’s momentum back from Leewards with an imposing 309-run stand for the fifth wicket. Jamaica declared on 550 soon after King’s dismissal for 194, which happened to be his maiden first-class ton.Leewards, behind by 307 runs, succumbed once again to Jacobs’ legbreaks. He picked up five, and was ably helped by Nikita Miller who finished with 3 for 44. Leewards slipped from 200 for 4 to 206 for 9, before eventually folding in the 72nd over after a 28-run final stand. Kieran Powell scored a 17-ball 40 at the top while Jahmar Hamilton followed up his first-innings century with 45.

Sri Lanka unravelled again, losing 10 for 103 and the series in the third ODI in Johannesburg

The Report by Andrew Fidel Fernando04-Feb-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAnother day on tour, another collapse – Sri Lanka sank from 60 for no loss to 163 all out at the Wanderers, mis-hitting short balls, hanging their bats out to give catches behind the wicket, and in general committing the same batting mistakes that will have become familiar to their fans during the past six weeks. Of their diminutive target, South Africa made short work. AB de Villiers produced a clinical 60 not out to bring his team home in 32 overs, seven wickets in hand.The hosts were far from their best in their pink gear, dropping catches and attempting needless runs, but they did not need to be at their best. They have won the series now. The two remaining games are dead rubbers.

De Villiers’ hot streak at the Wanderers

• 100.85 Average of AB De Villiers at the Wanderers . He has three hundreds and three fifties from 10 innings.

• 108 Balls remaining in South Africa’s innings. This is their fifth-quickest win against Sri Lanka. Two of these wins have come at the Wanderers.

• 3 Number of lower scores than 163 for Sri Lanka against South Africa while batting first. Incidentally in 2002 they were dismissed for 128 at the Wanderers.

• 7 Consecutive series wins for South Africa at home since 2013. They have won 20 out of the 25 matches played during this period.

The hosts’ bowlers were disciplined – Imran Tahir miserly and menacing in equal measure, as usual – but there was little in the surface to warrant Sri Lanka’s loss of 10 wickets for 103 runs. A little extra bounce – hardly a surprise at the Wanderers – was responsible for the wickets of Upul Tharanga, Niroshan Dickwella, Asela Gunaratne and Suranga Lakmal. Kusal Mendis and Dhananjaya de Silva were caught behind. Sachith Pathirana left a stock legbreak which turned to hit his off stump. Such was the quality of their batting.If it wasn’t for a 65-minute delay due to the arrival of a swarm of bees, Sri Lanka’s innings would have been even shorter. Plenty noted that the bees had spent more time in the middle than most batsmen. Only Dickwella resisted for any notable length of time, his 74 studded with spunky square-of-the-wicket shots – usually timed impeccably. Of his teammates only three others made more than five, and only Tharanga breached 20.It was Dwaine Pretorius, playing in his fourth ODI after replacing Wayne Parnell in the XI, who took the game’s best figures of 3 for 19. He was tight with the new ball, and although not especially quick, was accurate with his variations. Tahir claimed 2 for 21 in 9.2 overs, and Kagiso Rabada got two scalps as well. South Africa’s fielding was not as effective as usual, but in his 100th ODI, Faf du Plessis nevertheless managed to complete his third spectacular one-handed grab of the series, when he sprang horizontally from second slip to intercept an edge from debutant Lahiru Madushanka.Though the scorecard will suggest Sri Lanka squandered a good foundation – the openers having made 60 together – in truth, their start was inauspicious. The first boundary came off a Dickwella top edge, and Tharanga was dropped on 11 soon after – the one-handed grab at second slip too tough for du Plessis, for once.At the end of the first Powerplay, however, Sri Lanka were well-placed at 54 for no loss, both batsmen having found some fluency. Pretorius bowled tightly from the beginning, but Rabada, who would have been seen as the primary wicket-taking threat in the innings, had even been a little expensive in those early overs.But when the openers both sent catches into the air off their top edges in the 12th over, things began to unravel quickly. The first of those chances – off Dickwella on 25 – was spilled by JP Duminy, who had backtracked from backward point. The second was secured by Pretorius, and the rapid fall of wickets had begun.Dwaine Pretorius, replacing Wayne Parnell, took the game’s best figures of 3 for 19•AFP

Andile Phehlukwayo removed Mendis and Dinesh Chandimal in the space of three overs with two unremarkable deliveries. Chandimal, especially, will be unhappy with this dismissal on what has been a poor tour. Seeing a full, wide delivery, he went down on one knee and nailed it in the air straight to the deep cover sweeper.When de Silva fell, and following the delay, Gunaratne also went, Sri Lanka had slid to 125 for 5. Dickwella attacked for a little while, perhaps knowing there was not much batting to come, and fell by his sword when he gloved a Pretorius bouncer to the keeper. The tail barely resisted. It was all done inside 40 overs.Lahiru Kumara bowled with characteristic spirit on ODI debut, and claimed the wicket of Quinton de Kock in the fourth over with a 142kph short ball. But though he continued to threaten through the remainder of his overs, was wayward between the good balls, and conceded more than six an over.Kumara’s opening partner Suranga Lakmal was unlucky, as he has been through the tour, gleaning an edge off Hashim Amla on 12 only for wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal to grass the diving chance. But with so much batting in South Africa’s line-up, perhaps it wouldn’t have made a major difference to the final score. Amla ran himself out for 34 anyway, though by that stage de Villiers had already begun to take the chase by the collar.Early in his innings, de Villiers dominated Lakshan Sandakan, who had dismissed him in the previous ODI, and after about 20 balls at the crease, there was no bowler that de Villiers didn’t seem capable of dictating to. He was especially active on the legside – each of his five boundaries coming there – but that was more a reflection of the lines Sri Lanka bowled to him. He took clutches of singles out to deep cover as well, and generally made a small chase seem even smaller.Sri Lanka may take heart in the bowling of Madushanka, who swung the ball away, albeit at gentle pace, and seemed a player worth a few more games at least. Apart from him and Dickwella’s innings, there was precious little to salvage from this match.

Worcestershire’s Daryl Mitchell has been elected as the new chairman of the Professional Cricketers’ Association

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Feb-2017Worcestershire’s Daryl Mitchell has been elected as the new chairman of the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA). He succeeds Mark Wallace, who steps down after four years having completed the maximum two terms.Mitchell has already flagged the ECB’s plans for a new city-based T20 competition to be introduced in 2020 as a major issue to be tackled by the PCA under his chairmanship.”There is going to be big change ahead, not just for English domestic cricket but also on the world stage. These are interesting times,” Mitchell said.”There is talk of a franchise Twenty20 competition and it would be good to be involved in the discussions surrounding that. It’s important that the questions of our 400-plus members about how it will all work are answered and that was the crux of my manifesto.”Mitchell won a ballot of current county players ahead of four other candidates: Graham Onions, Paul Horton, James Hildreth and Steven Crook. He will serve for the next two years, with the appointment due to be ratified at the PCA’s annual general meeting on Tuesday.”It was pretty competitive and there were some really good lads who went for it, so to be elected by your peers from other clubs is very pleasing,” Mitchell said.”It’s a prestigious role and it has been done very well in recent years by Vikram Solanki, who I know from his time at Worcestershire, and then Mark Wallace, who has done a fantastic job over the last four years. It’s a big role and a big honour and I’m looking forward to the challenges ahead.”I have been involved with the PCA as a county representative since 2009 so I know about the fantastic work that they do. I have enjoyed being involved as a representative so this is the next step really. I want to try to get involved at the coal face of the organisation.”Mitchell, 33, has been a Worcestershire player for over a decade and served as captain until the end of last season, when he was removed from the position in acrimonious circumstances.He is the third Worcestershire player to become PCA chairman after Tim Curtis (1989-96) and Solanki (2009-13) and he will link up with another former county team-mate, David Leatherdale, the PCA chief executive who previously held the same role at New Road.”Daryl has been a PCA county representative for more than seven years and has a wealth of knowledge of the county game at all levels,” Leatherdale said.”He is undoubtedly held in high regard by players across the whole country as today’s appointment shows and, combined with his experience as the players’ representative on the ECB cricket committee, he will bring a great deal to the role of PCA Chairman. I very much look forward to working with Daryl again over the coming years.”Mitchell takes charge in the PCA’s 50th anniversary season. Wallace, the former Glamorgan wicketkeeper, last week announced his retirement to become a PCA Personal Development Manager.

New Zealand coach Mike Hesson said that on a pitch that did not provide a lot of assistance the side needed a bowler who could create opportunities, something Neil Wagner had done consistently

Firdose Moonda in Dunedin08-Mar-2017New Zealand’s brains trust may have spent Tuesday night sleepless as they mulled over which bowler to bench, in order to accommodate two spinners in their XI at the University Oval. In the end, they left out vice-captain Tim Southee, who has not been dropped in five years since India 2012, in a move that blind-sided everyone including the opposition.”I was surprised because he is their trump card. He and Boult have been phenomenal for New Zealand, in Test and one-day cricket so I was surprised to see him not playing,” Dean Elgar, South Africa’s centurion, said. “I know to play two spinners you have to sacrifice someone. But I was surprised because he bowls with a lot of control and brings the right-arm aspect to the bowling department.”Mike Hesson explained that once New Zealand had decided on their spin duo, they had to choose two of their “three very good seamers” to make up the rest of the attack. With Trent Boult the mainstay, the choice was between Southee and homeboy Neil Wagner, and Wagner won out.”We didn’t think there was a lot in the wicket and we needed one of the two seamers to be able to create things when there’s not a lot on offer, and Neil has done that consistently over the last few years. So that was relatively straightforward,” Hesson said. “It’s certainly something Kane, myself and senior players spent some time tossing over and I think no matter which way we went it would have been a difficult decision. Whoever missed out would have felt a bit miffed.”A sullen Southee was spotted throughout the first day but he wasn’t the only one who would have felt hard done by. Colin de Grandhomme, who has impressed in this home summer, made way for Jimmy Neesham, who is regarded as a better batsman, for tactical reasons. “If we thought the wicket was going to seam then we would have played Colin de Grandhomme. It hasn’t seamed this year and it didn’t seam today,” Hesson said.Hesson conceded that the real test of whether there is any movement on offer will come when South Africa take the field and Vernon Philander has the ball in hand.Elgar is confident that even if there isn’t much for Philander to exploit, South Africa’s attack is good enough to make inroads despite having picked only one specialist spinner in Keshav Maharaj.”I’m going to say our bowlers will perform brilliantly,” Elgar said. “We are fortunate to have similar wickets, like at St George’s Park, where we play good cricket and the wicket is very similar with regards to the pace. Our bowlers seem to have a lot of success there.”Even though Elgar found his most free-scoring period when the New Zealand quicks were using the older ball post-lunch, he believes the South Africa’s speedsters could pose real problems for New Zealand, especially with the new ball. “Having a little bit of extra pace on the ball seems to be key, which is why I find it a bit odd that Neesham didn’t bowl a bit more because he does bowl a quicker, heavier ball. We’ve got Morne and KG who can crank it up to 145-plus, which could work in our favour in this kind of wicket,” Elgar said.Before South Africa get to that, they will want to ensure they give their bowlers enough to work with. After losing four wickets on a slow first day and with two batsmen well set, they could already be rethinking their estimation of what they would like to end up with. “We were looking at about 250-280 at about tea time but now being in a good position after not losing a wicket in the last session we can readjust,” Elgar said. “I think 350 is maybe a 450 on that wicket just because of the slowness of the wicket.”The pace of the match is a concern for other reasons too. The scoring rate on day one eked over 2.5 to the over, and with rain around on the weekend, there is already suggestion there may not be enough time for anything other than a draw. Hesson, however, thinks it’s too early to look further than the next day or two. “Any time you play against South Africa, it’s always a result pitch,” Hesson said. “Dunedin has put on a cracking day today and I wouldn’t expect it to be much different the next couple of days. As for the weekend, when you live on the coast, predicting the weather two days out can be a bit of a guessing game.”