New South Wales’ bowlers delivered four wickets to maintain the upper hand after their batsmen posted a massive 9 for 550 declared

Cricinfo staff11-Mar-2010South Australia 4 for 168 (Harris 54) trail New South Wales 9 for 550 dec (Nevill 105, Khawaja 102, Smith 100, O’Keefe 91, Forrest 78, Cleary 4-82) by 382 runs

ScorecardDaniel Harris scored 54 in South Australia’s innings but they face an uphill task•Getty Images

New South Wales’ bowlers delivered four wickets to maintain the upper hand after their batsmen posted a massive 9 for 550 declared at the SCG. Daniel Harris started with 54 in the reply but South Australia were 4 for 104 before an unbeaten stand between Cameron Borgas (30) and Aaron O’Brien (36) took them to 168.Steven Smith completed an even century at the start of the day in an excellent warm-up for the Test tour of New Zealand. Smith brought up his fourth hundred with a pull for four but was caught behind trying to hit Peter George (3 for 132).The wicketkeeper Peter Nevill and Steve O’Keefe kept building in a stand of 132 that took the game further away from South Australia. Nevill’s maiden century ended on 105 when he gave Tim Ludeman his sixth catch of the innings.O’Keefe, who went on to collect 2 for 42, almost made it to three figures but fell to a leading edge on 91. The wicket was Mark Cleary’s fourth and forced the declaration.

Despite all the changes at The Oval over the winter there was one very familiar sight on the second day against Derbyshire – Mark Ramprakash making effortless runs

Andrew McGlashan at The Oval10-Apr-2010
ScorecardDespite all the changes at The Oval over the winter there was one very familiar sight on the second day against Derbyshire – Mark Ramprakash making effortless runs. Surrey will need plenty more from him, too, after Greg Smith’s three-wicket burst built on Chris Rogers’ double hundred to leave the visitors in charge, although the fifth-wicket stand of 109 between Ramprakash and Steven Davies averted an imminent collapse.Ramprakash’s pre-season was a disjointed affair as he spent time on the road with the tour, then helped himself to some runs in Dubai before missing the MCC match against Durham for personal reasons. But Ramprakash has been doing this job for so long that he just slots straight back in. Although he had an escape on 10 when Graham Wagg overstepped and the ball seemed to take an edge down the leg side he barely looked in trouble.By the close he had registered the first of what will be many fifties this season from 94 balls and alongside Davies had steadied the innings from a precarious 74 for 4. Davies, after spending the winter as a drinks waiter for England, played positively for his 70-ball half century although had a few uncomfortable moments against Robin Peterson’s left-arm spin out of the footmarks. And three overs before the close it proved his downfall as he pushed forward and got a low edge to slip, a wicket that confirmed Derbyshire’s position of strength.The Surrey openers had a fair degree of luck in a stand of 44 as both Arun Harinath and Matthew Spriegel were given lives. Tim Groenewald dropped a tough return catch from a leading edge off Spriegel when he had 10 and Harinath was missed off a much simpler chance by Peterson at first slip. So it didn’t come as a complete surprise when Spriegel pushed outside off to give a regulation catch to the keeper and Smith his first wicket.Smith, a versatile cricketer who also bowls offspin, bustled in from the Pavilion End and found a hint of movement with his skiddy action to take 3 for 4 in 14 balls. An over after dislodging Spriegel he ended Harinath’s fidgety innings when the left-hander skewed a catch to gully and Surrey were really in the mire when Usman Afzaal offered a simple edge to first slip.It meant a daunting position of 53 for 3 greeted Rory Hamilton-Brown as he joined Ramprakash, someone who hasn’t been overwhelming in the support of his captaincy appointment. Despite one pleasing cover drive Hamilton-Brown couldn’t stop the slide when he was trapped on the crease by Groenewald so it was left to the man who made his first-class debut in the year Hamilton-Brown was born.When play resumed the main interest was whether Rogers could register another double century and he duly reached the milestone from 318 balls – but not before a second let-off by Stuart Meaker who dropped a sitter a deep square-leg, then gave away four overthrows next ball. It was Rogers’ third double in his last four Championship matches for Derbyshire, a conversion rate that most English batsmen can only dream of. However, he couldn’t add to his tally before being trapped lbw sweeping at Gareth Batty.Peterson had already departed when he was beaten for pace by Meaker to partially atone for his poor fielding, but Derbyshire’s lower order frustrated the home side. Wagg struck the first six of the match during his 37, but Andre Nel finally found some deserved reward when he took the off stump and also added Groenewald.Still, though, there was no swift finish as wicketkeeper Lee Goddard and last-man Mark Footitt added 51 in nine overs with some merry stroke play including a reverse sweep from Goddard. But despite their large total, Derbyshire missed out on full batting points which this season have to be collected within 110 overs of the first innings. Surrey, too, missed out on a point, but that soon became the least of their concerns.

In an intriguingly balanced match on a testing pitch, Hampshire have a platform from which they might just lift their spirits after a woefully poor beginning to the season with a win over the First Division leaders

Jon Culley at Trent Bridge18-May-2010
Scorecard
In an intriguingly balanced match on a testing pitch, Hampshire have a platform from which they might just lift their spirits after a woefully poor beginning to the season with a win over the First Division leaders. It is an unsteady platform, for sure, represented by a lead of just 35 runs, but after losing four of their first five matches in the Championship, to be in with a chance at the half-way stage in this one must feel like progress.Much will depend, of course, on how they bowl on day three, given that a big target on the last day could be a daunting prospect for a batting line-up lacking Michael Carberry as well as Michael Lumb and Dimitri Mascarenhas. Variable bounce is likely to be a factor on a dry, cracked pitch.They will look again to Jimmy Adams, who missed out by four runs on a first century of the campaign but was the fulcrum nonetheless of a steadfast performance from Hampshire, whose record contrasts with Nottinghamshire’s four wins from four.It could be a good moment, too, for Neil McKenzie, the former South African Test batsman, to properly prove his value to the county after a slow start to his Hampshire career. The way in which he ended a run of low scores with a first half-century in the Championship perhaps signalled a timely return to form.Two partnerships were pivotal on day two, the first of which saw Adams and Chris Benham add 115 after the loss of nightwatchman James Tomlinson left them 39 for 2.At the start of it, Darren Pattinson bowled superbly, maintaining excellent control, finding movement off the pitch as well as through the air and beating the bat repeatedly. He looked a bit like the Pattinson of two years ago, before he earned his solitary and controversial Test call-up. James Whitaker, the England selector, was looking on, as he often was then, although it would be a surprise if he is mentioned in dispatches this time.Charlie Shreck was no less impressive and when he and Pattinson gave way, Andre Adams and Paul Franks kept up the pressure. In an enthralling contest, the Hampshire pair were made to work for their runs.Indeed, their application was impressive, in particular from Jimmy Adams, who grafted for 153 balls to get to 50, although he should have been caught at second slip off his namesake’s bowling on 37, Neil Edwards spilling the chance.Benham, who had a painful blow on the elbow facing Adams the bowler, survived a difficult chance to the wicketkeeper off Pattinson on 20 soon after lunch.Adams at last found an opportunity to attack when Nottinghamshire introduced Samit Patel’s left-arm spin an hour into the afternoon session. His next 46 runs came much more briskly, all bar six of them in boundaries, but Nottinghamshire regained the initiative again when Shreck broke the stand by bowling Benham.Then Franks, who had been turned down in a vigorous appeal for lbw moments earlier, found some extra bounce and movement to Adams, who was caught behind off a thin contact and walked without waiting for the umpire’s verdict.Franks, whose all-round talents saw him accelerated into the England one-day side a decade ago only for a knee injury to blunt his progress, has been in and out of the Nottinghamshire side in recent years but seems to be thriving again now, with Mark Ealham’s retirement offering the chance to forge a permanent place. Full of confidence, he struck again four balls later in the same over, James Vince hitting him straight to Steven Mullaney at midwicket. Vince is a young man who might interest Whitaker and company at some stage, but not on this occasion.With his quick demise, Hampshire were five down and still 102 adrift. Nottinghamshire sensed a chance to take the upper hand decisively.But McKenzie and Nic Pothas had other ideas. Adding 74 in 23 overs, they swung the balance again towards Hampshire before, Pattinson, with the new ball, trapped McKenzie leg before with a fuller delivery.Adams, whose last spell was his best, dismissed Pothas and mopped up the tail to finish with 4 for 56, but not before Sean Ervine had eked out a valuable unbeaten 31 for a lead of 35.

Andrew McGlashan provides the Plays of the Day from the second day at Old Trafford

Andrew McGlashan at Old Trafford05-Jun-2010Ball of the day

Old Trafford has a decent history of spinners producing some special deliveries. Shane Warne tops the list in 1993, but Ashley Giles’ ball to Damien Martyn in 2005 wasn’t too shabby while Monty Panesar has managed a few good ones as well. However, Shakib Al Hasan’s delivery to remove Ian Bell can stand proud among the best as he turned one from leg stump to take the top of off against a batsman well set on 128. For a moment it was unclear what had happened because Shakib, in complete contrast to when he removed Kevin Pietersen on the first day, barely acknowledged the dismissal after being frustrated by his team’s bowling during the morning.Sequence of the day

Tamim Iqbal was at it again. Not content with his memorable display at Lord’s he again put England’s attack to the sword with another hundred of the highest quality. He probably wishes he could play England all the time because his current sequence stands at six scores over fifty in seven innings. When he passed fifty he became the first Bangladesh batsman to make five half-centuries in consecutive innings. But he wasn’t finished there and when he cut Graeme Swann through point to reach three figures he became the first to hit back-to-back Test hundreds as well. Only two of his countrymen have managed two hundreds in their entire careers.Stand of the day

Century opening stands have been like London buses for Bangladesh.
Wait ages for one, then two come along at once. They have only had four in their Test history, but the last couple have been back-to-back (unsurprisingly for the first time) after Tamim and Imrul Kayes followed their 185 at Lord’s with 126 at Old Trafford. They are a highly contrasting pair – but the best opening combinations so often are – with Kayes happy to follow in Tamim’s slipstream.Plan of the day

England, though, are convinced that Kayes doesn’t play the short ball well. The idea was set in their mind when he was bounced out on a shirtfront by Stuart Broad at Chittagong and they continue to bang the ball in. And even though Kayes has been tough to shift, he has fallen to the short-ball plan in all three innings of this series. At Lord’s he fended to slip and short leg and here, against Steven Finn, he picked out long leg with precision as he top-edged a hook. It was again impressive execution from Finn, in the first over of his second spell, and a vital breakthrough for England who were really struggling.Relief of the day

It was a rare wicketless Test for Graeme Swann at Lord’s, but having seen Shakib and Abdur Razzak turn the ball square expectation was squarely on his shoulders this time around. However, his barren spell went on a little longer still as Tamim and Kayes played him well during their opening stand and it was delight mixed with relief when he got one to take Junaid Siddique’s edge through to Matt Prior. Swann was then back in the groove and produced a lovely ball to remove Jahurul Islam. By the close he had another five-wicket haul.Spell of the day

A 12-ball 5 and an opening spell of six overs for 35 meant a quiet start to Ajmal Shahzad’s Test career, but that didn’t last. Recalled late in the day with the ball reverse-swinging he showed what has caught the eye of Andy Flower as he ripped out three wickets in 16 balls as Bangladesh crumbled. His first Test wicket didn’t come from his best ball, as Mohammad Ashraful cut to backward point, but the two deliveries to castle Mahmudullah and Shafiul Islam were high-quality late swingers that would have dismissed many batsmen.

It’s fair to say that Bangladesh have not enjoyed the ideal build-up to the first Test at Lord’s

Andrew Miller at Lord's26-May-2010It’s fair to say that Bangladesh have not enjoyed the ideal build-up to the first Test at Lord’s. For all that they competed above expectations in their recent home series against England, the prospect of negotiating England’s lively early-season surfaces is one that, when they last toured the country in 2005, was cited by the then-captain Habibul Bashar as the toughest assignment of his 50-Test career.To have any real hope of putting up a fight, therefore, the Bangladeshis would surely, at the bare minimum, require their star players to be at the peak of their form and fitness. Alas, the two men most likely to provide the inspiration for an upset have spent large swathes of the tour to date on the sidelines. Tamim Iqbal has been labouring with a wrist injury that may yet require surgery, while the captain, Shakib Al Hasan, has only just emerged from quarantine after contracting chicken pox.Shakib’s style since assuming the captaincy in the Caribbean last year has been to lead from the front in every respect, both on and off the field. So the enforced isolation, with only the occasional visit from those team members who were sure that they had contracted the illness in the past and were therefore immune, was far from the best preparation for such a daunting contest.”I’ve been kept away almost for two weeks,” said Shakib. “It was very hard, staying a whole day in your room. It was weird, and a bit frustrating when you’re not going with your team-mates for dinner or a practice session. You’re missing everything. It was very hard. But I’ve been talking and going out with all the guys since, and we’re feeling much better.”After two days of practice, Shakib is certain that he’s now over the worse, and can instead concentrate on the build-up to one of the undoubted highlights of a cricketer’s career. Only three members of the Bangladesh squad have previously played a Test at Lord’s – Mohammad Ashraful, Shadahat Hossain and the wicketkeeper, Mushfiqur Rahim – and Shakib can’t wait to lead his team through the Long Room and onto the field on Thursday.”It’s exciting for most of the guys, because only a couple of the guys have played here before,” he said. “If we take 20 wickets and our batsmen do their job, we have a fair chance [of winning]. But we need to stick to our basics and be very disciplined. England know the conditions much better than us. But we’ve been here for 15 days, so we’ve got very good experience of the conditions.”Though Shakib habitually talks a good game, he’s fooling no-one as to the scale of the challenge that awaits Bangladesh. As was the case back in 2005, they are running the misfortune of encountering an England side on the up, and once again, there’s the prospect of an Ashes series on the horizon to galvanise their mindsets. It may still be some six months in the distance, but the ambitious selections of Steven Finn and Eoin Morgan are evidence that the planning for the Gabba starts right here.On their own wickets, Bangladesh were able to keep England’s ambitions in check with a spin-heavy bowling attack, but that’s not a viable option this time around, especially with the need to incorporate an extra batsman to guard against the sort of batting meltdown that has undermined all too many of their 57 Test defeats.”The practice wickets have turned a bit, so we hope it will in the middle too, but we’ll have to change our tactics,” said Shakib, who implied that there would be a Test debut for the seamer Robiul Islam, who impressed with 3 for 72 in the nine-wicket defeat against England Lions in Derby last week. “We have got some very good fast bowlers, and we have a newcomer, who will be perfect for the future of Bangladesh cricket.”The Lord’s Test will also mark the return to action of an old-stager, Ashraful, who missed England’s recent visit due to a loss of form, but is sure to slot into the middle-order at a venue that he remembers from his last Test tour back in 2005. “Being at Lord’s is a very different feeling,” he said. “We don’t have any tour to the UK until 2020, so we are not sure whether we will get another chance to play here. Everyone is excited.”Ashraful’s career has been undermined by uncertainty, with too much advice and expectation constraining the natural ability that he demonstrated both on debut as a 16-year-old in 2001, but also back in 2005, when his memorable century was responsible for the humbling of Australia in a never-to-be-forgotten one-day victory at Cardiff. Now, however, he says he intends to jettison the angst, and just get back to striking the ball with all the confidence he can muster.”An England tour is challenging for most teams that come here, and even Australia lost two Ashes Tests last summer,” he said. “But I just hope to play a big innings to cement my place, and to do that, I have gone back to my old style. I used to be a strokemaker but over the last few months I tried to check my strokes. But it did not bring any benefit, so I’ve decided to go back to my natural game.”

Mark Pettini has resigned as Essex captain with James Foster taking over the leadership in all formats

Cricinfo staff02-Jul-2010Mark Pettini has resigned as Essex captain with James Foster taking over the leadership in all formats of the game having moved into the position for the Friends Provident t20 last month.Pettini handed over control of the team to Foster for the Twenty20 having suffered a slump in form and took time away from the first-team. With Alastair Cook on England Lions duty he was recalled against Sussex and responded with an aggressive half-century and now he has decided the best route for both him and the club is for him to concentrate on being a batsman.”I felt it was time for me to step down as Essex captain,” he told the club website. “We suffered a poor start to the Friends Provident t20 campaign and I wanted to be able to focus on my own game. I got to the point that I was exhausted and I was under pressure with my batting.””The team performances were, at that stage, not going to plan and personally I was struggling with the bat. On Tuesday I returned to the side to face Sussex in the T20, hopefully I showed the difference to my game without the pressures of being captain. The role is obviously very stressful and creates a lot of hard work, both on and off the pitch. Now I can focus on scoring runs across all formats of the game which will hopefully help us to have another successful season, with a chance of winning some major honours”.”It was an extremely tough decision to make; I have really enjoyed the last three years and the success we have enjoyed as a team. I particularly enjoyed working closely with Paul Grayson, if the circumstances are different in the future then the captaincy is certainly something that I would be honoured to take up once again”.Paul Grayson, the Essex coach, said he’d been involved in discussions with Pettini for a number of weeks about his position and hoped the move would free him up to fulfil his potential.”Obviously it is a disappointment that it has come to this,” Grayson said. “Myself and Mark have discussed the situation over the past few weeks. We want him to come back into the ranks and for him to be the player that he was. Anyone who was here for the game on Tuesday night would have seen he was really refreshed and focused, he did not appear to have any concerns and that is the way we want him to play for Essex”.Meanwhile Foster, who led Essex against the touring Pakistan team on Friday, said his priority was now leading the county to a trophy this season.”I was asked whether I would like to accept the role as captain and I am delighted and thrilled to be considered for such a pivotal position in the club, there have been some illustrious names that have done well in the role in the past and to be listed amongst them is an honour and a privilege,” he said.”I have thoroughly enjoyed the role as captain in this season’s Twenty20 tournament. The focus now is continuing our form across all three competitions. We have every chance of maintaining our place in the County Championship and hopefully gaining some silverwear in the one day competitions

With both sides weak in their respective fast bowling departments, both Dhoni and Sangakkara have pledged to make the Test series more interesting and enterprising by aiming for results

Sa'adi Thawfeeq in Colombo13-Jul-2010With both sides weak in their respective fast bowling departments, Indian captain MS Dhoni and Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara have pledged to make the Test series more interesting and enterprising by aiming for results. The three-Test series beginning in Galle on July 18 is expected to be a very high-scoring one due to the imbalance between the batting and bowling strengths for both sides.India, currently the No.1 team in Tests, have been hit by injuries to opening bowlers Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth, both of whom have been ruled out of the series. Even their key spinner Harbhajan Singh is also struggling for fitness, battling with a bacterial viral infection which ruled him out of the ongoing three-day practice match against a Sri Lanka Board President’s XI.”Most of the teams playing today want a result in a five-day game. That intent is more than enough to make the game interesting. We are hoping we can get results in all the games,” said Dhoni. “It’s not about targeting just one bowler, we have to think about the whole bowling department of the opposition.”They’ve got experienced campaigners who are playing Test cricket for the past ten years or so. Our preparation level is quite good. When you are playing in the subcontinent and playing a side that has got a batting order that is really experienced and knows the conditions really well it always better to have fast bowlers who have played Test cricket under the circumstances and who have got plenty of experience under them and who know how to bowl in those conditions.”That experience always comes when you play more and more games. It’s a bit of concern that we are missing fast bowlers quite regularly in important series. The good thing is we have somehow been able to do well in all the series we have played. Hopefully we’ll have a bench strength of a minimum of five to six bowlers who are always available and who are at the top of their form.”Although Sri Lanka are not affected by injuries, their fast bowling line-up for the Galle Test doesn’t have much experience with Dilhara Fernando and Lasith Malinga, who is making a comeback to Test cricket after two-and-a-half years, being the most experienced pair with 33 and 28 Test appearances respectively. Another seamer who has performed well in recent home Tests, Nuwan Kulasekara, has been dropped. From the Indian side, Ishant Sharma, with 23 Test caps is the most experienced.”As a team we are going to play as hard as we can on the field to make sure that we come out on top. India will be doing the same so if that is not going to make it an interesting tug of war I don’t what is,” said Sangakkara. “We are looking forward to an interesting Test match and a result at the end of five days or even before.”The Galle Test marks the end of world’s leading Test and one-day wicket-taker Muttiah Muralitharan’s illustrious career who will be retiring after the match.

Former Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan took three wickets for Worcestershire on the third day of their County Championship match against Northamptonshire at Wantage Road

27-Aug-2010
Scorecard
Former Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan took three wickets for Worcestershire on the third day of their County Championship match against Northamptonshire at Wantage Road.Stephen Peters, Rob Newton and Northants captain Andrew Hall all made half-centuries for the home side, who batted through the day in posting 385 for 9 declared at the close, with the game surely destined to be drawn.Peters top-scored with 75, with Shakib taking 3 for 75 and Alan Richardson claiming overall figures of four for 83 with an anti-climactic final day seemingly on the way tomorrow. After two days ruined by rain, Northants resumed their first innings on 96 for three, with opener Peters on 38 and youngster Newton yet to score.Peters went on to complete a patient half-century off 123 balls as the home side made a confident start. 20-year-old Newton reached his 50 in a more explosive fashion, smashing it off 59 balls including one superb six pulled over mid-wicket off Richardson.He added six more to his tally before his aggression proved to be his undoing when he launched Gareth Andrew to Richardson at deep square leg to end a fourth-wicket stand of 80 with Peters. Peters made it to 75 before being pinned lbw by Shakib in the last over before lunch. Richardson, who took two wickets on the first day, then dismissed Zimbabwe’s Elton Chigumbura (nine) when the seamer forced him to edge to Worcestershire wicketkeeper Ben Cox in the third over after the second new ball was taken.Hall then became the third batsman to make a half-century for the hosts when he clouted his 129th ball, delivered by Jack Shantry, behind square leg for four. He and James Middlebrook survived until tea, with the pair completing a 50 partnership in the first over of the evening session.Hall had reached 65 before he feathered a Shakib delivery to Cox in the following over before Middlebrook, who had made a competent 40, saw his leg stump taken out by the same bowler. However, the ninth-wicket pairing of Northants wicketkeeper David Murphy and Jack Brooks made the visitors attack toil after that in producing a 50 stand of their own.Richardson ended their entertaining partnership of 68 when he comprehensively bowled Brooks, who had blasted 34 off 46 balls. Murphy stayed put for the rest of the day and finished on 36 not out, with Lee Daggett unbeaten on six at the other end as the hosts declared.

Nathan Hauritz and India go back a long way. It was here almost six years ago that his Test career started … and nearly ended

Sidharth Monga28-Sep-2010Nathan Hauritz and India go back a long way. It was here almost six years ago that his Test career started … and nearly ended. It was the Mumbai Test played on the raging turner where he took the wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman, but in his own words, “after they had taken me down pretty easily”. Those runs helped India erase the deficit and win the incredible Test. Hauritz was sent back to first-class cricket where he spent the next four years. He never really thought he would be Australia’s lead spinner again, leave alone coming back as one to the land where it all began.Hauritz remembers the debut and the circumstances around it well. “Warney got hit on the thumb in the training on the day before,” he says. “It looked innocuous, not too bad. I didn’t find out until the morning that his thumb was actually cracked and broken. The first day was washed out. I didn’t bowl until late in the next day. And the match was over very quick.”Hauritz remembers not being mentally ready. The instant memory of that match, in fact, is Michael Clarke’s 6 for 9 on a pitch that should have suited Hauritz immensely. “Training-wise I was ready,” he says. “Mentally I was still developing. I was only 23 years old. I was put into that tour because there weren’t too many offspinners around. I had been bowling well in one-day cricket too.”The wickets of Tendulkar and Laxman came at a price. “Sachin hit me for the biggest six of my life,” Hauritz says. “Pup remembers he hit me into the sightscreen, and the dirt in the sightscreen looked like an ant – it was that far away.”Look it was a great thrill to get those guys in my first Test. It was a long time ago, but those memories will stay with me. I still can’t forget the feeling of being in the huddle after getting Sachin out.”The next four years were spent outside the team. “During that period, Shane Warne was playing, there were some other good spinners around, and I never really looked at myself in that way [leading the spin attack in the future],” Hauritz says. He doesn’t blame that debut Test for a slow start to his career. “I was very fortunate to play that Test. There weren’t too many spinners around. And I got the opportunity. And it was great to play. At the end of the day, my bowling wasn’t up to standard in first-class cricket in Australia, and I had to go back and become a better bowler. It took me four years to get to that stage where I could play at the next level.”As it would happen with the great Australian team of that era, the comeback, too, started through injury, this time to Jason Krejza’s ankle. “I was fortunate to have played a Test again, through injury and all that, but since then the bowling is improving all the time,” Hauritz says. “And when your bowling is improving, the confidence grows. To be the spinner going into this Test series, I would never have thought. It is a great achievement, but at the end of the day it doesn’t mean too much if you don’t do well.”The Hauritz on this tour is six years older, smarter, a better bowler. Still, he hasn’t got off to a desirable start. Piyush Chawla, a legspinner and a useful batsman in the lower order, danced down to him and lofted him with ease in the tour game against the Board President’s XI. Ajinkya Rahane, the Mumbai batsman, repeated the dose in the second innings.It’s not that Hauritz wasn’t prepared for an assault. “I don’t think you can have a better place to bowl spin,” Hauritz says. “You are bowling against the best players of spin in the world, but also on wickets that will help spin. It will be a really tough challenge, but it is something that I have always wanted to be part of. It is going to be fun, but it’s going to be really tough too.”Spinners better than Hauritz have come to India and have failed to have fun. Numerous others have had their careers destroyed here. Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan, considered two of the best spinners of all time, averaged in the mid-40s here. Hauritz is not likely to even be compared to those bowlers. He has neither the mystery nor the amazing confidence. Neither the dark tricks nor a reputation that could create some doubt in the batsmen’s mind.Hauritz is a straight-talking, simple offspinner, who relies on working hard. There is even a hint of awe when he talks about the Indian batting line-up, a sense of hoping for the batsmen’s human errors. In this self-confessed greatest test of his, Hauritz will have done well if he has some fun over the next two weeks in Mohali and Bangalore. It’s going to be tough, as he says. Really tough.

Ijaz Butt, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, has refused to apologise for suggestions he made that England fixed a match in the recent one-day series

Osman Samiuddin27-Sep-2010Ijaz Butt, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, has refused to apologise for suggestions he made that England fixed a match in the recent one-day series. Speaking on his arrival at Heathrow Airport on Tuesday, he said he thought the matter would be settled in days.Butt and the PCB’s legal advisor are expected to hold meetings with the lawyers of the three players at the centre of the spot-fixing scandal. Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, is also headed to London, but ESPNcricinfo understands his is a pre-planned visit.Butt and Taffazul Rizvi are expected to be in the UK for four to five days on a trip that was finalised only last week. The meetings with Elizabeth Robertson, the Addleshaw Goddard lawyer representing Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir in the spot-fixing case, were confirmed to ESPNcricinfo by a PCB official.The board expects there to be some movement from the Crown Prosecution Service on the fate of the case against the trio within the next week or so. Scotland Yard passed on their file of evidence on claims that Pakistan cricketers were involved in spot-fixing to the CPS on September 17.It is not known whether there will be meetings between Butt and the ECB while the PCB chairman is in London. The English board have demanded a full, public apology from Butt for claiming England players took “enormous amounts” of money to lose the third one-day international at The Oval earlier this month.That claim came in the wake of another spot-fixing story, this time in , which had sparked an investigation by the ICC over scoring rates during the match at The Oval. Following Butt’s outburst England came close to withdrawing from the fourth game at Lord’s but late-night meetings between Andrew Strauss and the ECB ended with the decision to continue with the series.However, both Strauss and the board came out with strongly-worded statements and have said they will pursue legal action if Butt doesn’t apologise. “We would like to express our surprise, dismay and outrage at the comments made by Mr Butt,” Strauss said at the time. “We are deeply concerned and disappointed that our integrity as cricketers has been brought into question. We refute these allegations completely and will be working closely with the ECB to explore all legal options open to us.”