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After being bracketed as a Test specialist, Cheteshwar Pujara has finally received an ODI call-up and is confident of success in the format

Siddarth Ravindran in Rajkot07-Jan-2013Over the last decade, the traditional route for Indian batsmen has been to make the limited-overs side and then, after success in that format, the Test team. Cheteshwar Pujara has bucked the trend. Long bracketed as a Test specialist, Pujara had to wait more than two years after announcing himself in the five-day version for his ODI call-up, despite a domestic one-day average that puts him second in the all-time list.A top-order batsman, Pujara had to wait because of two major injuries and the presence of three senior players – Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir – who can open the batting, and the blossoming of Virat Kohli at No. 3. The ODI retirement of Tendulkar and the faltering form of Sehwag finally provided him the limited-overs opening.Pujara also pushed his case by emerging as the highest run-getter in the Challenger Trophy, the only domestic one-day tournament so far this season. “I was expecting this call,” Pujara said on the second morning of Saurashtra’s Ranji Trophy match in Rajkot. “I did well in the one-dayers at the domestic level and when I went with the India A team to England (where he top scored with 332 runs in five matches). So I was quite confident that I could play the ODI format. I have proved that at the domestic level now it’s a question of proving the same thing at the international level.”It isn’t clear which spot in India’s line-up will be available for Pujara, though. Ajinkya Rahane is set to take over as opener from Sehwag for the first three ODIs against England, and with Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni, the middle order also looks settled. “I’m hopeful of getting to play in the final eleven,” Pujara said. “I may not get to do that in the first match but whenever. Not sure what the team strategy is but once I get to the team I will get to know what my role is. If given a chance, I’m very hopeful of doing very well.”Seen as a long-term replacement for Rahul Dravid at No. 3 in Tests, a format where Pujara describes himself as one of the mainstays in the batting, he says he doesn’t feel any pressure to show he can thrive in the shorter versions. “I don’t need to prove to anyone other than myself, I know that I can do it. I have done it at the domestic level, so it is just about playing the game properly than worrying about what people will say,” he said. “If I’m not doing well today then tomorrow I can still do it, I’m young I have still got enough time to prove myself, I don’t play cricket to prove anything to anyone.”Pujara says he has worked on expanding his repertoire of strokes over the past few years to include some of the more high-risk shots required in limited-overs cricket. In his previous Ranji match against Madhya Pradesh, he zipped from 150 to 200 in 17 deliveries and played the reverse-sweep and reverse-paddle. “Actually, I started playing the reverse a couple of years ago when the bowlers started adopting the negative tactic against me,” he said. “Left-arm spinner bowling over the stumps and on to my pads and you have more space on the off-side and the chances of getting out are less so I have been working on that shot and I have had some decent success with it. That is the kind of shot you don’t like to play often but if the situation demands it then you need to learn it.”Even in the Test format, many felt Pujara’s selection was delayed, and the wait for the one-day call-up has been longer. “At times I was unfortunate also, because I had two injuries, I was out of the game for more than a year. When you are performing well and you get an injury, you have to start from the scratch, I believe that your concentration, your technique goes down a bit. That way I had to work a little extra to get into the team. Now I am happy because I am fit and doing well in Tests and now have got a call in the ODI format as well. Things are on track.”

Charlotte Edwards said that she didn’t believe that England were out of the Women’s World Cup when she was first told on the field

Abhishek Purohit in Mumbai13-Feb-2013When it started on Wednesday afternoon, the final Super Six match of the Women’s World Cup looked set to decide which of England or New Zealand, the 2009 finalists, would face Australia in Sunday’s final. The third contenders, West Indies, had been bowled out for 164 in a morning start and surely Australia would chase that down. Which is why Charlotte Edwards, in the midst of providing her side a solid base, didn’t believe a New Zealand fielder who told her that Australia had in fact fallen short.It was only when her partner Sarah Taylor walked up to Edwards and broke the news that the England captain realise that her side’s tournament was all but over. For those watching the match, the excitement had drained as soon as online updates showed Australia had been bowled out for 156. But Edwards had to swallow her disappointment and get on with the game in the middle. She went on to score a vital half-century.”I looked at the big screen to see the result,” Edwards said. “I didn’t actually take in what the information was telling me. I assumed Australia had won the game because when I went out to bat they were going pretty well. [I was] pretty heartbroken really. For three overs after that I didn’t know what was going on. It was disappointing for both teams. It was kind of an anti-climax. I’m very proud of how both teams stuck to it out there.”New Zealand captain, Suzie Bates, also spoke of how the sides had played a competitive game but said intensity levels weren’t the same after the dispiriting news came in. Bates felt it would have been better to have not known the result of the other match.It was a particularly shattering end for the holders England, who went out of the tournament without having had a single really poor game. Their defeats to Sri Lanka and Australia were by one wicket – off the last ball – and two runs. Edwards, however, refused to offer any excuses and said England had paid for their “slow start” to the tournament, beginning with the shock loss to Sri Lanka.”We had come here to win this tournament and we haven’t. We haven’t even got to the final,” Edwards said. “That is disappointing for us as a group of players. We were very inconsistent in the first phase of the tournament and are probably now playing our best cricket, which is too late. We prepared well. We have no excuses. We didn’t play well. We didn’t hold our catches against Sri Lanka.”Edwards said there would be time for reflection on England’s performance in this tournament, and also over a “disappointing” previous 18 months, after they return home but ruled out any immediate decision over her own future. The 33-year-old Edwards, who is now in the 17th year of her international career, said she hadn’t even thought about retirement.”That is a long way off. I am not going to make any rash decisions,” she said. “I am going to enjoy my cricket. I am loving my time with this group. We have got a big summer. There is a World Twenty20 next year. I can’t say if I am going to be there in four years’ time [at the next World Cup] but the only thing that will keep me going is that it might be in England. But four years is a long time.”

Bangladesh believed they fell 60 runs short due to the slow outfield at the Premadasa

Mohammad Isam at the Premadasa16-Mar-2013Bangladesh believed they fell 60 runs short due to the slow outfield at the R Premadasa Stadium. The visitors were bowled out for 240 on a wicket that did not hold its reputation as seamer-friendly, as was predicted ahead of the second Test.”The outfield is not good, we couldn’t get around 60 runs,” Mominul Haque said at the press conference. “If the outfield was good, our score could have been 300-320. The outfield is not in our control. It was hard work to run a lot in the heat.”We probably didn’t read the wicket correctly. The ball came normally on to the bat. There wasn’t any extra bounce from the fast bowlers.”ESPNcricinfo understands that match referee David Boon has directed the curator to keep the length of the grass identical for the rest of the Test match. There has not been any official complaint from either team so far.Despite the slow outfield, Mominul top scored with 64 off 98 deliveries so perhaps his view on the wicket would vary from the rest of the batting order. They struggled to put together the same effort as they did in Galle, where they racked up 638, lacking in confidence, as it was certain from the first over itself that boundaries would be hard to come by.Bangladesh were 62 for 2 in the first session but as soon as Rangana Herath settled into a good rhythm, they lost three wickets in the middle session to be 155 for 5 at tea. They scored another 85 runs in the final session but lost their last five wickets.The approach at the beginning was cautious but it somehow translated into a poor second session and ultimately the side getting bowled out on the first day. Mominul said the first hour belonged to the bowlers here but conditions eased out.”The first hour is difficult in any conditions,” he said. “Our plan was to survive the first hour so we tried doing it. The wicket eased up in the second session, and it’s still good. I enjoyed batting out there, the ball was coming nicely on to the bat.”

A round-up of Premier League Tournament matches played in Sri Lanka this week

Andrew Fidel Fernando02-Apr-2013Moors Sports Club beat Panadura Sports Club by seven runs in a thrilling, final-round match of the Premier League tournament. The win put Moors at the top of Group A and helped them book a place in next weekend’s final.Moors, who were placed second before this match, needed an outright victory over leaders Panadura to secure a final berth. Panadura won the toss and put the opposition into bat on a result-oriented pitch. Moors were dismissed for 240, thanks largely to a five-wicket haul by Gayan Sirisoma. Panadura, though, were skittled for exactly half that score in their first innings as Malinda Pushpakumara took 7 for 56, dismissing five of the top six batsmen.
Sirisoma grabbed another five wickets in the second innings as Moors fell for 130 with none of their batsmen crossing an individual score of 20. That collapse gave Panadura a second chance, but they fell eight runs short of a target of 251, in spite of contributions from Chamara Silva, Prasanna Jayawardene and Dinesh Ranga Cooray. The last-wicket pair of Sirisoma and Sujeewa de Silva added 23 runs together before de Silva was given out lbw, ending Panadura’s season.In Group B, a run fest helped Sinhala Sports Club (SSC) keep Tamil Union at bay as they qualified for the final, which will be played on their home ground. SSC captain Thilina Kandamby’s unbeaten 340, which broke the Sri Lankan first-class record for the highest individual score set by Kusal Perera two weeks ago, was the standout performance of the round.A Tamil Union bowling attack, that featured Chanaka Welegedera, Suranga Lakmal and Rangana Herath, failed to prevent SSC from scoring a massive 787 for 8, nullifying Tamil Union’s chances of an outright win. Dimuth Karunaratne was the first of three centurions, hitting 115 off 170 balls, after his opening partner fell for a four-ball duck. Kaushal Silva made 180 at No. 4. Kandamby arrived after Karunaratne’s dismissal, with the score at 241 for 3, and put on 195 with Silva. He later shared a 226-run partnership with Upul Bandara for the seventh wicket, before eventually declaring the innings at stumps on the second day. Needing almost 800 to get the first-innings points they needed to displace SSC, Tamil Union had little to play for on the final day and were all out for 314. Kaushal Lokuarachchi was the highest wicket-taker for SSC, picking 4 for 136.Air Force Sports Club and Burgher Recreation Club competed in what was effectively a relegation battle amid some controversy. The pitch prepared for the match was deemed unsuitable and the teams played on a different surface, which only allowed for a two-day match. The difference between the two teams was 1.7 points, with Air Force on 51.6 and Burgher on 49.9, but Air Force managed to secure first-innings points by gaining a lead of 29 runs to help seal their place in the Premier League. Opener Thuppahi Nadeera scored an unbeaten 105 in the first innings for Air Force and guided his side to 244, with little support from his teammates. Left-arm spinner Akila Isanka then took 5 for 90 as Burgher were dismissed for 215. With only two days of play possible, the match ended in a draw.Sri Lanka Navy Sports Club defeated bottom-placed Kurunegala Youth by six wickets. Navy needed an innings victory to stay in the first-class competition and, their six-wicket victory wasn’t enough to take them past Badureliya Cricket Club in the points table. Navy made 369 in the first innings, with Chanaka Ruwansiri making 122. Although they dismissed Kurunegala Youth for 212 and 182, they still had to bat in the fourth innings to chase a target of 26.Three left-arm spinners topped the list of wicket-takers this season. Moors’ Pushpakumara took 64 wickets, ahead of Panadura’s Sirisoma and Colombo Cricket Club’s Dinouk Hettiarachchi, who both took 58. No bowler with more than 30 wickets had a better average or strike rate than 19-year-old offspinner Tharindu Kaushal who finished with 50 wickets in spite of playing fewer matches than the table leaders due to his national commitments. Sachithra Senanayake, who led the table before he left for national duty, finished with 49 scalps.Among the batsmen, SSC’s wicketkeeper Kaushal Silva scored the most runs, hitting four hundreds and two fifties to pile up 814 runs. Former Test opener Malinda Warnapura made 804 runs while Air Force’s 20-year-old batsman Yashodha Lanka made 802. The best average however, belonged to Kusal Perera who scored 695 runs at an average of 115.83 in four fewer matches than the table leaders.The end of the season also sees six teams – three lowest-ranked teams from each group – culled from the top competition. These teams will move down to form an emerging league, which begins next year. The matches in the league will be treated as club matches. After the final round, Burgher Recreation Club, Lankan Cricket Club and Saracens Sports Club were relegated from Group A, while from Group B, Navy Sports Club, Galle Cricket Club and Kurunegala Youth Cricket Club will not play first-class cricket in 2014. The relegations are part of a three-year plan to halve the number of clubs playing in the top three-day tournament, in order to improve the quality of the first-class competition.

Pakistan allrounder Shahid Afridi has vowed to make a comeback to Pakistan’s one-day squad, claiming that he is “better than most”

ESPNcricinfo staff01-May-2013Pakistan allrounder Shahid Afridi has vowed to make a comeback to Pakistan’s one-day squad, claiming that he is “better than most”. He was dropped from the side for the upcoming tours of Scotland, Ireland and England for the Champions Trophy in June, along with batsman Umar Akmal and fast bowler Sohail Tanvir.”The decision to drop me from the side is taken by the captain (Misbah-ul-Haq),” Afridi told the . “It isn’t a big thing if the captain does not want a player but in cricket, being in and out is a one-off thing. It happens and I will soon come back.”I am still better than most. I know I have ample cricket left in me and I can represent Pakistan for the next few years. Players usually get dropped but I appeal to my fans to pray for me.”Afridi, 33, had been dropped from Pakistan’s squad for the ODI series in India in December 2012, but was chosen for the trip to South Africa because of his skill as a legspinner. He failed to take a wicket in 37 overs, though, and scored 126 runs in four innings with a high score of 88. Since the start of 2012, Afridi’s taken only 15 wickets in 21 ODIs, and five of those came in one game against Afghanistan. His batting average during this period was 19. He managed to score only 70 runs and take three wickets in four matches for his domestic side last month.”I have been training for the England tour. I want to insist once again that I will walk away before being a burden on the side but for a while I understand I have to work hard to come back,” said Afridi.However, Afridi could be playing Twenty20 games for Hampshire this season. Due to visa issues, he was forced to miss the T20 matches for the county last year. In 2011, he had a successful stint with the county, taking 17 wickets in 10 matches at 11.17.

It was as if the Chennai Super Kings batsmen wanted to beat the evening crowds in the Mumbai local trains

The Report by Sidharth Monga05-May-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Mitchell Johnson bowled Mumbai to a win again•BCCI

It was as if the Chennai Super Kings batsmen wanted to beat the evening crowds in the Mumbai local trains. So as opposed to chasing the below-par 140 in a hurry, they kept throwing away their wickets away, folding for the lowest total this IPL and losing by 60 runs to end their seven-match winning streak.No matter how much credit you give to Mumbai Indians’ bowling – one of the more watchable acts of the IPL – it was a surreal case of mediocrity manufacturing excitement in the first few overs of the chase. In the first over of the chase, Mitchell Johnson kept bowling short and wide, Michael Hussey kept cutting it to Kieron Pollard at point, and Pollard kept dropping. The third successive one of those cut Pollard’s nose, and he walked off the field even as the Wankhede Stadium rubbed its collective eyes.You could argue Johnson came back with a superb second over, but that began with a loose shot from M Vijay, who dragged a wide length ball on. Suresh Raina played across one, and got a leading edge to Pollard at point. This time Pollard dived in front and half-redeemed himself. As is the rule with Super Kings, they sent S Badrinath to face the crisis, and he nearly edged the hat-trick ball. Soon, Johnson beat his other edge with a left-arm bowlers’ outswinger, and was denied a triple-wicket maiden only by Dwayne Bravo.And Wankhede was yet to finish rubbing its eyes. In the next over, Bravo drove a shortish Pawan Suyal delivery off the back foot straight to cover. At 18 for 4, MS Dhoni held himself and Ravindra Jadeja back, and sent in R Ashwin, who soon fell to the veteran offspinner he has usurped, Harbhajan Singh. In came Dhoni with the asking rate past eight and only five wickets in hand.Hussey regained his orange cap, but his innings was never fluent. Lasith Malinga’s over to him was striking as the bouncers did Hussey in with both the slowness and then pace. Under immense pressure, Hussey looked for release the moment Pragyan Ojha came on to bowl, and lofted him straight to deep midwicket to make it 40 for 6 in 9.1 overs.Too much was left for Dhoni to do, and he too holed out off Ojha. Malinga ran through the rest, and Mumbai kept themselves in the top four with the end of the league approaching. It shouldn’t have been that easy, though, after they managed about 50 fewer than the average first-innings score in Mumbai this season. Once again, they were off to a slow start, and five of their top six failed to score at more than a run a ball.The two who did, captain Rohit Sharma and Harbhajan, went on to bat until the end. When they took it to the end, they got a loose last over from Ben Laughlin and took 19 runs off it. It didn’t seem the case then, but the momentum had shifted.

South Africa lived to fight another day in the Champions Trophy as their bowlers, woeful against India but wolfish against an fragile line-up, defended a barely-par total

The Report by Firdose Moonda at Edgbaston10-Jun-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsHashim Amla’s 81 underpinned a total that proved well beyond Pakistan•AFP

A taxi driver in Birmingham has bought a ticket to watch Pakistan every time they played in the city for the last 30 years, except this time. He simply did not have the confidence in their batting to bother. It turns out he was right.South Africa lived to fight another day in the Champions Trophy as their bowlers, woeful against India but wolfish against an fragile line-up, defended a barely-par total. In the absence of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, Lonwabo Tsotsobe led the pack with maturity while debutant Chris Morris added energy and Ryan McLaren backed them up at the death.Misbah-ul-Haq was again Pakistan’s lone ranger and again he could not take them over the line. He lacked support from everyone except Nasir Jamshed. By contrast, South Africa’s anchor, Hashim Amla, enjoyed small contributions throughout the middle order.In an almost exact replica to the England-Australia match that was played here on Saturday, Amla’s 81 was as valuable as Ian Bell’s 91 but it may never have swelled to that had Pakistan held on to an early chance. Amla was on 7 when he slashed at a short, wide delivery off Mohammad Irfan and presented a tough but takeable catch to Umar Amin at point. Amin dived, got fingers to it and then he watched it slip through. It was a moment that taught him a tough lesson: don’t’ drop Amla.Over the last year, England, Australia and New Zealand have paid for that mistake. Pakistan may do so twice. They put Amla down at the Wanderers in March, he went on to score 122. Both then and now, South Africa came out winners.Conditions could not have been more different to Johannesburg than they were in Birmingham. There it was a belter of a track on which runs rained. Here it was a sluggish surface that did not facilitate a free flow. Both teams started slowly, Pakistan ended that way too.Mohammed Irfan and Junaid Khan kept South Africa to 36 runs in the first 10 overs and did not take wicket, although they could have had Amla. Morris, Tsotsobe and McLaren restricted Pakistan to 18 for 2 in the same period, which immediately made Pakistan’s task more difficult.By the 19th over, their required run rate had already ballooned to six an over and considering no one had scored at that rate at any stage of the game, it seemed unlikely Pakistan would. But Misbah marshalled proceedings in his usual, calm way. He saw off the good balls – and there were many which South Africa bowled – and waited to take advantage of anything that was occasionally tossed up or slightly wide.AB de Villiers did a fine job of rotating his bowlers and was spoilt for choice with three seamers and three spinners. He used JP Duminy before Robin Peterson and it paid off, when Shoaib Malik was bowled by a delivery that rolled back onto his stumps, and brought Tsotsobe back at exactly the right time, after a first spell of five overs for six runs.The left-armer used his variations well and bowled Jamshed an offcutter that he fed back. The tall man got down low and plucked it in his follow through. Misbah knew he had to battle on his own.After 49 boundary-less deliveries, he cleared Morris over mid-on to release pressure but he was soon stranded. McLaren removed Umar Amin when he tried to go big and was caught at cover and Kamran Akmal, who was caught at point, in the same over and Pakistan’s chase seemed over.Misbah responded with a six over long-on and then his fight was also extinguished. He picked out midwicket from a Tsotsobe slower ball and left it to the tail to have some fun at the end. Instead, it was McLaren who helped himself to four wickets for five runs to ensure South Africa rounded up a convincing win.They would not have been confident of that at the halfway stage. With 51 runs scored and six wickets falling in the last 10 overs of their innings, it seemed they had squandered the chance to build on a well-laid platform.Even though Pakistan’s three spinners cost them only 107 runs in 26 overs, Amla’s 69-run stand with Faf du Plessis and the 41 put on by de Villiers and Duminy helped negate the collapse later on. South Africa will remain concerned about the four run-outs but showed significant improvement and will eye the last four.Pakistan now look at the semi-finals from a greater distance and, although they are not out of the competition, they need West Indies to beat India on Tuesday. If Pakistan then beat India and West Indies triumph over South Africa in the final group games, three teams would have won one match and net run-rate will come into the equation.

Nottinghamshire could face an uncomfortable final day after getting the worst of a rain-ruined match against Sussex at Trent Bridge

Les Smith24-Jun-2013
ScorecardNottinghamshire could face an uncomfortable final day after getting the worst of a rain-ruined match at Trent Bridge. Sussex ended the third day firmly in control with the pace and accuracy of Chris Jordan breaking through the top order before Monty Panesar made more incursions by the close.At the start of play both Ed Joyce and Rory Hamilton-Brown had achievable personal objectives: Hamilton-Brown a century and Joyce a double. Both would come to pass. Hamilton-Brown went on to 113 before Luke Fletcher, Nottinghamshire’s stand out bowler in the innings, had him caught behind. Joyce went on his merry way though, and brought the innings to its conclusion in explosive style.When Samit Patel came on at the pavilion end to bowl his first over of the day you could almost hear the sound of Joyce licking his lips as he eyed the short leg side boundary. Sure enough, he hit three sixes over mid wicket, in addition to a 4 and a single. The over yielded 26 runs, Joyce had 23 of them, and when the last 6 took Sussex beyond 500 and Joyce beyond 200, he promptly declared.Notts made it through seven overs before lunch, though not without discomfort in the case of Riki Wessels. That Steve Magoffin struck him very unpleasantly was made clear over lunch. Wessels tweeted, “That really hurt”. The tweet was accompanied by a frightening photograph of a shattered item of protective equipment.The mood and momentum of the innings shifted when Chris Jordan replaced Magoffin at the Radcliffe Road end to bowl the 14th over of the innings. He was hostile and accurate from the start, and soon had Wessels beaten for pace, his attempted pull spooning up off the top edge to the safe hands of Monty Panesar at mid-on.Next he skittled Steven Mullaney before unleashing two brutish deliveries which did for Samit Patel and David Hussey. Patel was caught at short leg after an act of justifiable self-protection, and Hussey gloved a bouncer to Matt Prior.Not so long ago James Taylor was playing in England’s Test middle order. He is only a year older than Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root, but seems to have been around longer.He demonstrated the skills and application that saw him selected for his country. He was busy and, as so often, particularly effective on the back foot and through the leg sideBy the close, he had made 81 not out with eight boundaries, and in doing so passed 6000 first class runs.His captain Chris Read provided pugnacious support until Panesar bowled him with one that turned. Paul Franks followed in Panesar’s next over, offering a bat pad catch to Rogers, leaving it all to for Notts on the final day to avoid having to follow on.

Danza Hyatt and Vernon Philander robbed 41 runs in 14 balls to post just enough for Jamaica Tallawahs as they beat Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel by five runs

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Aug-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAdrian Barath’s wicket triggered a middle-order collapse for T&T•Getty Images

Danza Hyatt and Vernon Philander smashed 41 runs in 14 balls to post just enough for Jamaica Tallawahs as Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel failed to muster similar momentum to overhaul an achievable target at Port-of-Spain on Wednesday and lost their third match in a row.Jamaica were benefited by a swift and solid start after being invited to bat with Chris Gayle and Ahmed Shehzad collecting 44 runs before the latter holed out in the sixth over. But stifled by lack of pace, Jamaica scored 13 in the next four overs. That pressure resulted in four quick wickets as Jamaica stumbled to 81 for 5 after 15 overs and then 107 for 6 in 18. Danza Hyatt, whose 42 off 26 balls was the source of most of Jamaica’s runs during that time, was joined by Vernon Philander and they dismantled T&T captain Dwayne Bravo’s bowling in the 19th over, collecting 26 runs courtesy three sixes and a four. The final over yielded 13 more to set up a target of 147 that looked unlikely after the slowdown during the middle overs.A 62-run second wicket partnership between opener Adrian Barath and Ross Taylor kept T&T steady. However, Barath’s wicket triggered a middle-order collapse as Taylor and Darren Bravo followed him to leave T&T at 82 for 4 in 14 overs. Dwayne Bravo and Nicolas Pooran kept the home team in the game, but neither was able to tackle a constantly swelling required rate which had reached nearly 13 by the last five overs. Bravo fell in the penultimate over and his team was left six runs short of victory.

It would be quite the embellishment to say Michael Clarke basked in Australia’s 88-run victory over England at Old Trafford but there was certainly some relief evident having secured their first major victory since February

Daniel Brettig at Old Trafford08-Sep-2013Given the end-of-term atmosphere that permeates any limited overs series to follow an Ashes contest, it would be quite the embellishment to say Michael Clarke basked in Australia’s 88-run victory over England at Old Trafford. But there was certainly some relief evident in Clarke, for this was the first significant international win he had been part of since early February, and the first he has taken part in against England on a tour that began four months and three Prime Ministers ago.As results go, the Manchester margin was handsome, hurried along by a grand partnership between Clarke and his deputy George Bailey that pushed the tourists to 315 for 7, then secured by an even bowling display in which Mitchell Johnson was particularly menacing and everyone contributed at least one wicket. In a year largely barren of Australian success away from home, the win in Manchester will help establish the winning habit Clarke spoke of in the aftermath.”Winning’s always pleasing and that’s one thing I’ve emphasised to the Test boys but also the one-day guys,” Clarke said. “Sometimes it might not look pretty or feel great, but if you get over the line and get that winning feeling it’s a nice side of the fence to be on.”In the Test matches we showed in patches some really good cricket. Our performance today was a good start, but we won’t take anything for granted and I won’t look too far ahead, but I think at the end of the day it’s nice to have won a game against England on this tour.”It was nice to contribute, I’d like to play every Test and one-dayer at Manchester, I seem to score runs here. It’s about trying to help the team win and fortunately today I played my part. But everybody contributed today. There’s still three important games to go but it’s a nice feeling to be sitting here having won the first one of this series.”Surmising what his men had to do for the rest of the series, Clarke said the posting of a high total that increased the element of risk for England’s batsmen was significant, as was the plucking of regular wickets to ensure that no partnerships could be established. “England have got a lot of destructive players,” he said. “So I think for us taking wickets was crucial throughout our bowling innings, and batting as well as we could to set a target to make England take risks is something we’re going to have to continue to do throughout this series.”I wasn’t surprised by their team or that they bowled first, I think they’ve been doing that a lot in the shorter form of the game for a while now. We’ve got to make sure we keep working to get better because England will get better than today.”Eoin Morgan, England’s stand-in captain, certainly hopes so, and conceded his bowlers had allowed Australia around 40 runs too many on a dry, slowish Old Trafford strip. “It was probably more of a 275 type of pitch,” Morgan said. “It was hard when you got in but when you developed a partnership you found yourself without any effort going at five or six an over. Today we lost wickets through the whole innings. They played particularly well and put our bowlers under a lot of pressure.”James Tredwell was notably targeted by Australia’s batsmen, his usually efficient and tidy 10-over spell ended two overs short of that quota by Morgan, having already conceded 60. “It did make it difficult yeah,” Morgan said. “He’s a fantastic bowler and been a great performer, in the Champions Trophy he was one of the best bowlers in the tournament. Because they kept coming there was a feeling that he would create an opportunity to take a wicket, so it worked both ways. We ended up getting Finch because they played so hard, and I don’t have to tell you how good Michael Clarke is at playing spin.”