The fast bowler Ryan Harris has all but ruled himself out of Australia’s Test series against South Africa this summer as he continues his recovery from shoulder surgery

Brydon Coverdale24-Sep-2012The fast bowler Ryan Harris has all but ruled himself out of Australia’s Test series against South Africa this summer as he continues his recovery from shoulder surgery. Harris had an operation two months ago and he believes it is “pretty unrealistic” for him to return for the South African series, which starts at the Gabba on November 9, and is instead hoping to be available for the Test series against Sri Lanka, beginning in Hobart on December 14.Harris played two of the three Tests during Australia’s tour of the Caribbean in April and was Man of the Match in Barbados for his five wickets and unbeaten half-century. Since he made his Test debut in early 2010 only Pat Cummins and James Pattinson, who have played far fewer matches, have had better Test bowling averages for Australia than Harris, who has collected 47 wickets at 23.63 in 12 appearances.However, his workload has taken a physical toll and the Australian team management is reluctant to overuse Harris, who turns 33 next month. The only time Harris has played all the Tests in a series was during his debut series in New Zealand, and he knows that it does not make sense to take any risks in an attempt to rush himself back into contention for the South Africa matches.”I would love to be able to be back against South Africa but at this stage it is pretty unrealistic. It is one of those things I can’t control,” Harris told News Limited newspapers. “I will get back for Queensland and let the rest take care of itself before any Australian stuff. In theory I will be up and going in six weeks but it is an injury we will not rush. The pain is going, I just have to build confidence now but believe I can get back well.”Although the absence of Harris is a blow for Australia, the depth in their fast-bowling stocks should allow the attack to remain strong against South Africa. If Pattinson and Cummins remain fit they will be in contention for the Gabba Test having both impressed in their initial Tests last summer, while Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle will shoulder much of the workload. The left-armer Mitchell Starc is another candidate.The Australians will be battling for the No.1 spot on the ICC’s Test rankings when they take on South Africa, having not lost a Test series since Michael Clarke took over as captain. South Africa are on top of the rankings table and have not been defeated in a series since Australia beat them 2-1 in early 2009, but in their past 20 Tests South Africa have not won any two consecutive matches.

England’s county championship will benefit from Sunday starts after the ECB Board agreed a new domestic schedule for a four-year period from 2014

David Hopps18-Oct-2012England’s county championship will benefit from Sunday starts after the ECB Board agreed to a new domestic schedule for a four-year period from 2014.A new-look county programme will also include Twenty20 cricket played weekly over much of the season, predominantly on Friday evenings, and the scrapping of 40-over cricket which will be replaced by the 50-over format, replicating the international game. The proposals will be formally adopted next month.The desperate need to create space in an overcrowded fixture list is made by slimming down the Clydesdale Bank 50 to eight group matches per county – four fewer days than the 40-over equivalent.Counties will either be split into two groups of nine, which would leave no place for Scotland, Netherlands or the Unicorns, an invitation side made up of some of the best non first-class players, or into four groups of five in which case only Scotland, who have already indicated their wish not to continue after 2013, would be omitted.The decision follows the failure of the Morgan Review, chaired by David Morgan, the former Board chairman, to find unanimity and a subsequent polling online of more than 25,000 county supporters in the biggest customer survey ever undertaken by English cricket.Morgan’s proposals that the Championship should be reduced have finally been defeated after strong opposition from players, coaches and supporters.His preference for T20 cricket to be spread over the season has, though, found more favour. A rain-wrecked FLt20 last summer subdued calls for the competition to be played over a short, intense period in mid-summer, as did an increasing recognition that the counties are no longer able to attract the best overseas talent, especially with a USA professional T20 tournament lurking on the horizon.An ECB statement said: “The ECB Board noted the strong desire from counties and spectators to create an ‘appointment to view’ for T20 cricket spread over a longer period of the season. There was no compelling preference from spectators for 40-over cricket rather than 50-over cricket and therefore the format from 2014 will replicate the 50-over format played by the national team.”The FLt20 will consist of 14 matches per County, mostly played on Friday evenings – although counties such as Surrey are expected to win the freedom to play on Thursday because of too many rival attractions in London at the weekend. The top eight counties will progress to a quarter-final round and the retention of the popular FLt20 Finals Day format.A desire to preserve the primacy of Championship cricket is likely to see England’s first-class counties opting out of the Champions League unless the tournament is put back at least a week to dovetail with the climax to the England domestic season. Counties have already decided not to participate in 2013.In 2013, in order to avoid a repeat of the earliest starts in history in 2011 and 2012, the county season is likely to commence on April 9 and finish in the third week of September. The Champions League, which has a window in the Future Tours Programme, starts in the second week of September.

A wrap of the opening day of the second round of Ranji Trophy matches in Group A

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Nov-2012
Scorecard
Hrishikesh Kanitkar scored his third centuries in the last three matches against Mumbai•Rajasthan Cricket Association

Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Vineet Saxena continued their domination of the most successful Ranji side, Mumbai, with centuries that took the defending champions Rajasthan to 269 for 2. Along the way Kanitkar also crossed 10,000 first-class runs, while Saxena went past his 5000th.Mumbai managed to get captain Kanitkar out before stumps, but their 220-run partnership made the Mumbai attack look weak, especially in the absence of Ajit Agarkar. With these centuries, the records of Kanitkar and Saxena in the last three matches against Mumbai became all the more daunting. As a Rajasthan player, Kanitkar has played three matches against Mumbai, and scored 113, 141 and 119 in this match. In the same matches, Saxena has piled on 143, 53 and 4, and 114 not out in this game.Mumbai tried seven bowlers, but only Kshemal Waingankar and Ankeet Chavan managed a wicket each.
Scorecard
The resilient lower middle order of Bengal bailed them out against a Punjab attack that looked like pushing towards a second straight position of dominance. Led by Manpreet Gony and Sandeep Sharma, they had reduced Bengal to 118 for 5, but ran into Wriddhiman Saha and Laxmi Shukla, who added 124 for the sixth wicket.This was a third half-century in three innings this season for Saha, who finished unbeaten on 75. Shukla, who played his part with both bat and ball in the previous game, provided him able support, and Punjab had to wait for 36.2 overs for the sixth wicket. Debutant Arnab Nandi then added 33 with Saha to further frustrate, but parity was restored with Nandi’s wicket with the last ball of the 87th over.
Scorecard
They were three bad-light interruptions in Hyderabad, the third one ending the day with only 54 overs bowled, but there was time enough for Hyderabad to get off to a usual ordinary start, and VVS Laxman to find a partner and put up a usual rearguard.Hyderabad lost their openers with only 22 runs on the board, but Laxman and the 19-year-old Hanuma Vihari then kept the MP attack at bay. Vihari finished the day five short of his personal best, and Laxman’s 70 even inculded a six. He hit only five sixes in Tests.
Scorecard
In the Gujarat derby, Gujarat gained the upper hand against Saurashtra on a day in which the balance of power shifted more than once. Saurashtra took two early wickets to make it 62 for 2, but the Patels, Smit and Parthiv, both wicketkeepers too, scored aggressive fifties only for Ravindra Jadeja to dismiss them within three overs to put the game in balance again at 148 for 4.From there on then, youngsters Manprit Juneja and Bhargav Merai put Gujarat in ascendency with a partnership of 82. Merai, playing his second game, missed out on a maiden first-class fifty, but Juneja seemed on the way to what could be his second century in only his fourth match. Juneja also found support from No. 7 Rujul Bhatt, with whom he added an unbeaten 48 before stumps.

Believe it or not, Ricky Ponting appears already to have mellowed. Little more than a week into his retirement from international duty, Ponting admitted he quite enjoyed getting to a Test match right on the appointed 10.30am start time rather than two hou

Daniel Brettig at Bellerive Oval14-Dec-2012A week into his retirement, Ricky Ponting is already developing a taste for life after cricket.Ponting admitted he quite enjoyed getting to a Test match right on the appointed 10.30am start time rather than two hours before, and that he was not exactly sorry to be missing training for the Hobart Hurricanes in Melbourne. This was in order to be conveyed around Bellerive Oval in the back of a ute as a way of saying thankyou to the Tasmanian cricket faithful, who numbered 6,221 on the first day of the first Test against Sri Lanka.The question of Ponting’s life after Test matches has been pondered by many in the wake of his emotional exit at the conclusion of the South Africa series, and the man himself is wondering aloud at how the pull of participating in the game will be diminished by the lack of Australian duty to sustain him.”I’ll see how I feel about cricket at the end of this season,” Ponting told Channel Nine. “It might be a little harder for me I reckon, playing those last few games out, knowing there’s not the bigger picture in mind as there’s always been for me when I’ve played state cricket, which is to play for Australia.”While Cricket Australia and the national captain Michael Clarke are equally keen to have Ponting still involved with the team in a coaching or mentoring capacity, the attraction of a lucrative and far less stressful role as a television commentator has its appeal.”I’d like to work in the media at some stage, at some time, in some way, shape or form,” Ponting said. “Just being around cricket for as long as I have and being part of successful teams, I think I’ve got a pretty good knowledge of the game and I’m pretty insightful on the game I think. So we’ll wait and see what happens.”Ponting was memorably granted a guard of honour by South Africa’s captain Graeme Smith at the WACA ground as he commenced his final innings, and in Hobart he and his family were flanked by the ranks of cricketers from his home club of Mowbray in Launceston before starting on his valedictory lap of the oval.”As we all know things came to an end for me last week, so to be here in a different capacity today is good fun,” Ponting said. “I’m excited about this next little phase of my life, all my family here and a lot of my club-mates have even made it down for the game – they probably bought all their tickets weeks ago thinking I was going to be playing, but unfortunately I’m here as a spectator with them today.”I generally get a little bit embarrassed when people start talking about me, and even having a whole lunch break in a Test match dedicated to me today is a little bit more than what I would have expected as well. But the reason it’s here is for me to come and say goodbye to the Hobart fans and people of Tasmania who have looked after me so well over a long period of time.”As for those final moments in Perth, particularly his opponents’ spontaneous gestures of thanks for a career spanning 17 years and innumerable achievements, Ponting said they would not soon be forgotten. “That is something I’ll never, ever forget,” he said. “When I pulled Graeme Smith out of the line and shook his hand I said ‘I really appreciate this’ and he said ‘no, you deserve it, but just make sure you don’t get too many against us today’.”I thought all the running around that was happening after I got out was just them celebrating the wicket, but they were actually running over to try to shake my hand and say congratulations on my career. Robin Peterson got me out and actually apologised, he said ‘I’m sorry about that’.”So there were a couple of things that took me by surprise, the guard of honour and then all of them running to me on the way off. I got 10 metres from the gate and realised I hadn’t said goodbye to the crowd either, so I had to take my helmet off, and do all that stuff, and make sure that I acknowledged my family, and everyone there as well. A lot of those are memories I’ll never forget.”Before Ponting thinks about whether he might play another season, he has the BBL to negotiate, flying to join the Hurricanes ahead of their date with Shane Warne’s Melbourne Stars on Saturday. But the enthusiasm that has always been there for any game of cricket is quickly being tested by the more leisurely life. “I’m actually missing a training session so it’s not that bad,” Ponting said. “The boys are over in Melbourne training at the moment, so I’d rather be here I think.”

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.