All posts by csb10.top

ScorecardMohammad Sami took lots of wickets for very little runs•BPL T20

Duronto Rajshahi have finished top of the Bangladesh Premier League table after winning what ended up being a tense match against Dhaka Gladiators in Mirpur. Dhaka also qualify as they have a better run-rate than Chittagong Kings. Mohammad Sami had remarkable figures of 5 for 6 as Dhaka were shot out for 116, but Rajshahi stuttered in the chase and needed captain Mushfiqur Rahim to score 40 not out as they won in the final over.Sami had ripped through the Dhaka line-up, causing them to collapse from 59 for 2 to 116 all out in 18.2 overs. All of Sami’s wickets were either lbw or bowled.The chase looked a simple one, but Rajshahi slipped to 80 for 6. Mushfiqur stitched together a 32-run partnership with Soumya Sarkar to get Rajshahi close. Sarkar’s dismissal in the 19th over meant the match was pushed into the final over. Sami, who had been the star with the ball, came in and scored 3 off 3 balls with the bat to help Mushfiqur get Rajshahi over the line.

Mark Gillespie has a “mouth” on his left big toe. “And it doesn’t talk either,” he said, with a grin across his face.It’s impressive to hear Gillespie joke about it, considering how painful it is. A cut, wide in the middle and thinning out on the sides (in the shape of a mouth), has planted itself way onto his toe, causing so much pain that he only slept for three hours on Saturday night. On Sunday, he took five wickets, so it can’t be that bad.Gillespie spoke about bowling through pain after his five-for in the Hamilton Test and how his idol said all fast bowlers do it. He has since confirmed that the idol he referred to was Allan Donald and his words have never rung truer, because pain has just kept coming. “My toe was just throbbing and yes, it’s a lot of pain but it deflects every other pain that you’ve got because it’s just banging away,” Gillespie said. “So it’s quite good in that regard but just when you’re bowling it’s not that much fun.”The cut did not stop Gillespie from bagging a six-wicket haul in Wellington which may lose itself in the mass that was the South African innings but was crucial for ending it as soon as possible. After a tough two truncated days of cricket, in which all of New Zealand’s bowlers underperformed, Gillespie returned the strongest on day three.He got the ball to move in to JP Duminy from around the wicket and consistently found good lines and lengths. “If you bowl on any deck in the right areas for long enough then things will happen,” he said. “Obviously day one was a disappointing day for all us bowlers, but I don’t think it was so much about not exploiting the conditions, we didn’t really hit consistent areas.”Gillespie’s consistency was spiced up by his aggression. He did not allow any let up, even though he was tired, had bowled long spells and had that mouth talking to him from his toe.One feeling that may have doused out the pain was the satisfaction of another impressive haul at Test level. “To get off the park was more important and put my feet up but to get six wickets was a pretty good feeling,” he admitted. “On a really flat Basin pitch, you just have to keep running in and bending your back and can get rewards out of it but it’s such a flat wicket, it’s pretty tough.”Local knowledge, especially of the effort required to take wickets, served Gillespie well as the Basin is his home ground. Before his Test call-up, he took eight wickets on the ground in two first-class matches and said conditions had not really changed from then. “It’s a similar deck to the one two weeks ago, it just sort of flirts. You think it’s going to offer you something at the start, it doesn’t really,” he said.Two weeks ago, Test cricket was not on Gillespie’s mind at all. Although he was the third top wicket-taker in the Plunket Shield, he did not anticipate being called up to the New Zealand side. “I was getting ready for the season to end and then get my body right over the winter and find a job, find something to do, earn some money. Two weeks ago I was actually going to have to find a job,” Gillespie said. “And yeah, now things might be a little bit different.”Instead of a long winter, Gillespie may have to get ready for tours to the West Indies and India. The first step in his recovery is for the mouth to close and his toe to heal. While that happens, he seems to be enjoying his return to Test cricket, which became even more successful in Wellington and enjoyed by most of his family. “In Hamilton, I had my parents and one of my brothers, he heard four of the wickets on the way up in the car and then I got [Mark] Boucher out and he thought it was going to end pretty quickly so he turned around and drove all the way back,” Gillespie said.Luckily, his brother did not miss out this time. “Today I had my wife, my parents, my brothers and their families were here. To do it on my home ground in front of them was pretty special.”

South Africa’s five T20s against Zimbabwe in Harare in June may not be televised as Zimbabwe Cricket is unlikely to be able to afford the costs involved. The matches will be played between June 20 and 24, in accordance with South Africa’s request earlier this year. The tour is an addition to the Zimbabwe board’s planned budget, which will impact on its ability to provide television coverage.”It will cost us a lot of money to get a broadcast deal and because this was not part of our initial plans, we have not budgeted for it,” Ozias Bvute, managing director of Zimbabwe Cricket, told ESPNcricinfo. “But South Africa are our neighbours and they requested this from us, so we will host the matches. As long as it is cost neutral, we can make it happen.” So far, the only costs Zimbabwe Cricket will incur are the South Africa team’s hotel expenses.Zimbabwe’s board is on a tight budget and made a loss on all three incoming tours hosted during the 2011-12 season. It remains committed to seeking out more competition as part of the plan to re-establish the team at Test level and will likely also host an A tour later in the winter.The five T20s will not be recognised as internationals but have instead been given practice match status because the visit is not part of the Future Tours Programme. They were organised on special request after Gary Kirsten, South Africa’s coach, asked to play more 20-over fixtures before the World Twenty20 in September. All five fixtures will be played in the afternoon to “accommodate the shorter daylight hours”, according to Zimbabwe Cricket.South Africa will arrive in Harare on June 18 and play one practice game before the back-to-back engagements start on June 20. South Africa have not been to Zimbabwe since August 2007, for an ODI series, and are not scheduled to play Tests against their neighbours until 2014, although they have sent various A teams to play first-class matches and in tri-series, as well as hosted Zimbabwe in 2010.The South Africa visit will mark the end of a five-month break for Zimbabwe, who last played in early February on their tour of New Zealand. Zimbabwe do not have any international engagements over the winter but are due to host Bangladesh in the 2012-13 season.South Africa and Zimbabwe are in the same group for the World T20, which also includes Sri Lanka. South Africa have not won an ICC trophy since 1998 and Kirsten has been tasked with changing that.

Scorecard
More innings like his century at Headingley could seal a regular place for Ravi Bopara’s in the England team•Getty Images

Twelve Tests in five years since Ravi Bopara’s England debut sums up his constant struggle to gain acceptance at the highest level, but much more of the resilience he displayed for Essex in taking a century off Yorkshire at Headingley and his claims for a longer opportunity will become impossible to ignore.April has been the toughest of months for batsmen, but Bopara’s stock can only have risen after his judicious 117 not out for an Essex side which managed only another 60 runs off the bat. He survived one chance on 50, Ajmal Shahzad forcing the edge but Phil Jaques, diving at third slip, failing to hold the catch.A year ago, Bopara committed himself to county cricket, with reasonable success, only for Eoin Morgan to return from IPL to claim the last England batting place vacated by Paul Collingwood. Conceivably, the same could happen again, but this time Morgan, technically frail against Pakistan in the UAE, cannot yet get a game with Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL. Meanwhile, Bopara is showing the benefits of a prolonged education in challenging conditions that have left most batsmen throughout the country befuddled.Of those 6o runs provided by the rest of the Essex side, the two runs registered by the last man, Tymal Mills, were the most argument. Mills blocked determinedly for 41 balls to share a last-wicket stand of 48 in 17 overs, during which Bopara reached his hundred with three successive boundaries off Ajmal Shahzad.Bopara’s only misjudgment was to run out Mills as he understandably tried to keep the strike by stealing a single after driving Anthony McGrath too firmly to Steve Patterson at mid-on. Mills was not too downcast. “I can safely say I have never batted for an hour before,” he said. Tim Phillips, who batted with a runner because of back spasms suffered on the first day, also frustrated Yorkshire as he spent 41 balls over seven. From 119 for 7, Essex’s last three wickets added 80.Yorkshire’s most successful bowler was Ryan Sidebottom, who managed to return figures of 5 for 30 in 24 overs while looking largely disenchanted with life. Sidebottom finished last season with career-best bowling figures against Somerset (7 for 37 as well as 11 for 98 in the match), a feat that brought Yorkshire victory in their last game of the season but one which ultimately failed to spare them from relegation.Just like his father, Arnie, who trod the same Headingley pastures, passions are never far from the surface when Ryan bowls. But while Arnie used to become an exasperated, red-faced figure, looking so agonised that one imagined his bones were becoming more brittle by the minute, Ryan’s moods are deeper, like swirling eddies in dark rivers. Arnie would tear at his thinning hair; Ryan tosses his mane of curls in disgust. Arnie made the ball rise and seam from just short of a length; Ryan relies more on swing and a fuller length. Like Arniue, Ryan gives the impression that he is wearied by the whole process and yet is as resntful of every run off his bowling as was his father before him.Yorkshire’s first-innings lead of 47 grew to 191 by the close, courtesy of a controlled opening stand of 106 in 31 overs between Joe Root and Joe Sayers. While Sayers settled into his one-an-over routine, Root gradually drove expansively and even reverse-swept Tom Westley to reach his 50 before he was caught down the leg side off Greg Smith. It will take kinder weather than predicted to allow a result on the final day.

Pakistan’s chief selector Iqbal Qasim has said the panel will discuss Younis Khan’s ODI future with him after the completion of the ongoing tour of Sri Lanka. Younis was left out of the fifth one-dayer, which Pakistan lost to concede the series 3-1, after making only 10 runs in three innings in Sri Lanka.Younis, 34, was dismissed for 5, 4 and 1 in the ODIs, falling to Thisara Perera twice and Nuwan Kulasekara once. He was part of the dramatic collapse that cost Pakistan the fourth match in Colombo, where they lost seven wickets for 13 runs. Younis had made only 67 runs in four innings during Pakistan’s previous one-day assignment, the Asia Cup in Bangladesh.”It’s the duty of the senior cricketers to lead the team, to carry the team and to drive it forward, but if one of your senior players is struggling then that puts pressure on the team,” Qasim told . “Let the tour of Sri Lanka finish and then we will definitely discuss his future plans with him [Younis]. Younis has of course already requested not to be selected in T20s, I don’t know what he has in mind regarding 50-over cricket.”I’m sure we will have an amicable chat about his future, as Pakistan needs him for Test cricket for the future. Experience is an invaluable commodity in cricket but you have to be out in the middle performing, which unfortunately Younis has not been doing in 50-over cricket of late.”Apart from Azhar Ali, who scored 217 at an average of 54, Pakistan’s batsmen struggled to post imposing totals in Sri Lanka. Qasim said their all-round performance had also been “below par”.”It’s difficult to put Sri Lanka under pressure in their conditions and the variable weather conditions did not make things easy for Pakistan either,” he said. “However we should not make excuses, the overall performance of the team was below par.”Qasim said the team lacked consistency in all disciplines, their performances veering from exceptional one day to ordinary the next. In the final ODI, Pakistan were shoddy in the field, with several dropped catches and missed run-out opportunities allowing Sri Lanka to win in the last over. “This inconsistency has been hurting Pakistan cricket for many years and it’s about time it was eradicated,” he said. “One day the fielding is outstanding, the next game it’s very poor and the boys are dropping simple catches. The same with the batting, one day it clicks, the next day it misfires.”Mohammad Sami is an example of this inconsistency, one day he bowls very well and helps the team to victory, the next day he bowls poorly and costs the team the game. It doesn’t matter what your game plan is going into the game – it’s very difficult to impose that game plan onto the opposition if you are inconsistent.”Despite the defeat in Sri Lanka, Qasim said the selectors would avoid making major changes for the series against Australia in August and the World Twenty20 in September. “You cannot chop and change ahead of a World Cup. There is no point selecting a player for a couple of games and then discarding him,” he said. “I think it’s too late to experiment now ahead of the T20 World Cup and I would expect that most of the personnel in the T20 squad in Sri Lanka recently will be retained.””I don’t think we should panic in this format and make major adjustments to the T20 squad. I think that slowly and gradually our philosophy in both the 50-over format and the twenty over format will bear fruit, but everyone has to be patient.”Edited by Carlyle Laurie

ScorecardKevin Pietersen raises his bat after reaching his hundred against Lancashire but there was more to come on a remarkable day at Guildford•PA Photos

Kevin Pietersen, with a double-century of the highest class, did not so much nudge the England selectors as grab them by the throat and roar ‘pick me’ in their faces.The selectors meet this weekend to pick the 30-man preliminary England squad for September’s World T20. This squad must be submitted to the ICC on July 18 and, while Pietersen had previously announced his retirement from limited-overs international cricket, all the evidence of recent days suggest he is having second thoughtsWhile Pietersen and Co. may hope to persuade the ECB to rethink their policy of insisting that players must be available for both forms of limited-overs cricket to be considered for either, there seems little chance of that happening. Andy Flower refused to back down when confronted by Robert Mugabe; he is most unlikely to back down now.It is hard to see a middle course, a course where Pietersen is rested for more ODIs than his colleagues, but perhaps it may be found. His Test career and his IPL future seemingly remain assured.There may be other doubts. There may be doubts over whether his teammates want him back; whether his request for a somewhat easier schedule should be heeded and whether it is fair for the likes of Alex Hales, Ravi Bopara and Ian Bell – the men who have flourished in his place – to potentially make way for his return. There may be doubts, too, over whether England need such a distraction just as they begin an important Test series against South Africa.But there should be no doubting Pietersen’s class. He was, after all, man of the tournament when England won the World T20 in 2010 and, since returning to form in the ODI series against Pakistan, has produced some of the finest performances of his life.This, by any standards, was an extraordinary innings. It was not just that Pietersen hit the fastest first-class century of the season – 93 balls with 13 fours and three sixes – or that he went on to hit the fastest double-century of the season – 170 balls, 25 fours and seven sixes – but that he bullied the bowling – the bowling of the county champions, no less – with a dominance rarely witnessed in the professional game. It was an innings that would have made Sri Viv Richards proud. And there really isn’t higher praise than that.Indeed, in years to come, those lucky enough to have been at Guildford for the third day of this game may reflect that they were blessed to witness greatness in action. Pietersen, in compiling the seventh double-century of his first-class career, a chanceless affair, provided a medley of his greatest hits: the ferocious cut shot; the impudent scoop; the outrageous switch-hit; the murderous pull; the dismissive slog-sweep and the gentle sweep; the magical flick through mid-wicket and, most of all, the thundering drive over the bowlers’ heads that brought majority of his sixes.And, it was interspersed throughout with quick singles and deft touches that spoke volumes for his fitness and his hunger for runs. Some of us are fortunate to watch many fine innings and many worthy centuries. This one, for its range of stroke and its complete mastery over decent opposition, stood out. It really does not get any better.Poor Simon Kerrigan bore the brunt of Pietersen’s assault. Kerrigan, a left-arm spinner of unusual skill and promise, was the victim of seven of Pietersen’s eight sixes and conceded 152 in his 23 overs. Only late in the day did Kerrigan allow the assault to affect him. For the most part he bowled well, but was unfortunate enough to come up against a great batsmen in murderous mood. Even Pietersen admitted that this innings was “right up there” among his best”Simon has bowled at a very good international cricketer on a tough pitch with short boundaries,” Lancashire coach Peter Moores said. “It won’t be the first time KP’s attacked a spinner. Simon’s had his days. He got his nine-for against Hampshire, but you’ve got to take both sides as a cricketer.”Some perspective is probably required. The pitch was flat, the bowling decent, though far from exceptional and the outfield is both short and fast. But Surrey were actually under some pressure when Pietersen walked to the crease and, bearing in mind the traumatic events of recent weeks, this was an important innings. Bearing in mind he remains unbeaten, Pietersen may even be able to build a match-winning lead on the final day.”It’s been a very traumatic time for the management and everyone at the club,” Pietersen said afterwards as he reflected on the death of Tom Maynard. “Today was a day that the boys needed. I said that I wanted to come back and put smiles on the guys’ faces. The boys have gelled real tight in the dressing room, some of them will be lifelong friends after all the stuff that they’ve been through and this was just a good day for Surrey.”It was, oddly enough, only Pietersen’s second championship century since his Test debut in 2005. He has made 20 Test centuries in that time, but his last in the championship came on May 7, 2008 at Taunton. It is his 43rd first-class century, but his first for Surrey.Pietersen’s brilliance utterly overshadowed several other worthy performances on an enjoyable day’s cricket. Not only did Zander de Bruyn make a splendid 94 in helping Pietersen add 181 in 35 overs, but Steven Croft extended his overnight total to the highest score of career in the morning session. Croft added 50 in 35 balls with six fours and a six as Lancashire scored 60 in 37 minutes to set up their declaration.It left Surrey requiring 336 just to avoid the follow-on. And, after Rory Burns, having fielded for two-and-half days, was bowled first ball, leaving one that turned out to be very straight, that looked some way distant. But, on a wonderful day of almost 500 runs, everything else seemed trivial compared to the excellence of Pietersen.

ScorecardJoe Denly missed out on a century as he and Dawid Malan put on 135 for the third wicket•Getty Images

Division One leaders Warwickshire hit back late in the day to dislodge Middlesex centurion Dawid Malan and take a further four wickets for five runs, after a strong start by the hosts.At 232 for 2, having been invited to bat first, Middlesex appeared set fair for a huge total as the visiting seam attack struggled to find a telling line and length in the opening half of the day. However, Chris Woakes and Chris Wright came up with the goods with the second new ball and ultimately Middlesex were relieved to pass 300 just before stumps for a third batting bonus point.Although he had wanted to bowl first, home captain Chris Rogers found himself batting having lost the toss. Yet he appeared in little or no trouble in adding 41 for the first wicket until an ill-advised push drive against Wright took the edge to give Tim Ambrose the first of three catches for the day.Joe Denly then teamed up with his former Kent colleague Neil Dexter to add a further 56 for the second wicket in only 15 overs as the Warwickshire attack constantly offered too much width. Dexter fell leg-before three minutes before lunch when off balance and working to leg against Rikki Clarke, leaving Denly and Malan to mount the middle-session fight back.Denly in particular was happy to drop anchor and grind out his runs and, after posting a 95-ball 50, he pushed back the next 44 balls without scoring – 37 of them against Darren Maddy, who sent down five successive maidens.Denly finally broke the stranglehold with a top-edged pull shot against Rankin that flew over the keeper’s head for a six to get the scoreboard ticking once more. He looked set for his third century of the summer but, when five short, he played back to a Maddy in-ducker to fall lbw and end a third-wicket stand worth 135 with Malan.Malan marched on to post his maiden century of the summer – and his first in the Championship for 11 months – with an exquisite late drive through backward point against Wright, for the 14th boundary of his stay. Wright had his revenge in his next over, however, plucking out Malan’s off stump for 106 as the left-hander shouldered arms to an inswinger.The dismissal sparked a dramatic four-wicket collapse that ultimately left honours even going into the second day. John Simpson gloved an attempted hook to the keeper against Woakes, who then got one to lift against Gareth Berg, who could only fence to second slip. Wright then bagged his third scalp of the day when Eoin Morgan wafted outside off to be caught behind.

Sourav Ganguly doesn’t sit on the fence. He can be a contrarian at times, as when he spoke positively about the present state of Indian spin bowling. He can be extreme yet sound logical, as when he said every Indian fast bowler should have a personal trainer. And yes, he is proud of his legacy – that of changing India’s image as poor travellers. He doesn’t hold back – and he didn’t on Friday while delivering the Dilip Sardesai memorial lecture at the Bombay Gymkhana.Ganguly has seen plenty of young Indian fast bowlers burn out or lose their pace in a matter of a few seasons, and put it down to the lack of a proper fitness and training culture in India. “Since 2000 the main reason for having overseas coaches and trainers in India was to get a proper fitness culture,” Ganguly said. “I remember on the 1996 tour of England, I went to the gym only once – that too, to see it and not to use it. It was a three-month tour and I had an outstanding tour. But I could not remember going to the gym and getting onto the treadmill. That culture needed to change. You don’t get a Kapil Dev all the time.”There is so much cricket being played in the modern day. Players are on the road all the time. Fast bowling is a difficult art. Every Indian fast bowler of the modern era needs to have a personal trainer. Finances are not a problem. They can afford it. They should have a personal trainer with them right through the year. When you go to a gym alone, at times, you take the easier, safer option. There should be someone with you looking after your strength and monitoring it all the time. When you see Zaheer Khan in 2000 and Munaf Patel in 2004 they clocked almost 150 [kph], but two years down the line, they settled down to line and length bowling, which I think is mainly because of a lack of physical strength.”Ganguly was optimistic, though, when asked by presenter Harsha Bhogle about current Indian domestic cricket not producing the high-quality spinners it used to. “When I saw Ashwin and [Pragyan] Ojha bowl in the Test matches against New Zealand, although they will have some distance to go as we have England and Australia coming, I don’t feel the cupboard is empty. The problem is we Indians in domestic cricket are such good players of spin that a very good spinner is sometimes made to look average in those conditions and with players who have been brought up on spin bowling. Everytime those players graduate and play Test cricket, they look different bowlers.”

On the difference between captaining India and an IPL team
When I was captaining India, nobody asked me and I didn’t have to answer somebody at the end of the day’s play. But when I captained an IPL team, I had to answer the owner before and after the game. There is enormous pressure. ‘Why didn’t Ashok Dinda bowl the slower ball at that particular moment?’ I was standing at midwicket, and I could not run up and tell him to bowl the slower ball at that moment. It is much, much easier to captain India. I have captained India for six years. I have never had the board president or chairman of the selection committee telling me you should have done this at this time.
On his first tour
When I started my Test career, I shared a room with the great Dilip Vengsarkar [who was in the audience today] in Australia in 1991 for a month. It was a terrific experience watching him prepare for a Test in Australia. Dilip was in the last stage of his career. Towards the end of our stint, I still remember getting up in the morning and getting a cup of tea from him. So I thought I must have done something good in the past one month if the great man wakes up and says, do you want to share a cup of tea with me?
On waving his shirt from the Lord’s balcony in 2002
I didn’t enjoy it. It is like you make mistakes in life. I will be honest. I still don’t enjoy it when I see it on TV. I have got Test and ODI hundreds, why can’t they put that on rather than this one? I don’t know why I did it.
On former India coach Greg Chappell
: His knowledge as a batsman was terrific. : I am a firm believer that a captain [and not the coach] runs the team

One thing Indian spinners do need to learn is the art of bowling overseas, Ganguly said. “When you see the team lose eight out of eight [overseas] Tests the time has probably come when a lot of these young spinners need to bowl on flatter and non-responsive wickets in India to learn the art of bowling overseas.””Overseas” brought with it questions on the India side of the early- and mid-2000s that, under Ganguly’s leadership, began to win overseas Test matches and Test series, something India had struggled to do, especially in the 1990s. Ganguly said when he started his international career, there was “a certain disrespect” towards touring Indian sides.”When I first played in 1996 on the tour of England, I could see a different attitude towards Indian players. We were not the best travellers abroad. You could see a certain disrespect when you went to England, Australia and South Africa. ‘These boys are soft, they will come to this part of the world, you will see a hundred from Sachin, from Dravid, but they’ll lose. They might draw a Test, but we will win the series.'”I could make out that when you walked around the dressing room, the confidence was not there, the knowledge was not there of how we could beat England in England, and Australia in Australia.”Ganguly said winning the famous Kolkata Test of 2001 against Australia had given the team the belief that they could beat the best in the world. It would not have been possible, Ganguly said, without the kind of quality players he had in his team.”I was also blessed as captain to have an era of terrific Test players – Sachin, Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Anil Kumble… because I am a firm believer of a captain being only as good as his team. You can take the best captain in the world but if you don’t have a good team, then you will go nowhere. A perfect example is Ricky Ponting. You look at his record when Hayden, Gilchrist, McGrath and Warne were playing and once they retired. Like chalk and cheese.”It was a conscious effort to get that culture in the team. ‘Listen, we will win in India’. There have been Tests where I have stood at point, given the ball to Anil and Harbhajan, they would set the fields and we would win the match – that would not happen abroad. We didn’t have the batting, the knowledge, the batting toughness to put 500 runs on the board, to win a Test when we went abroad.”Ganguly said he was confident, despite India’s recent struggles overseas, that the current generation of players was capable of taking Indian cricket forward. “When I see players of the ability of Kohli, Pujara and Dhoni and some of the other young names, it makes me believe that Indian cricket is in safe hands.”

ScorecardUttar Pradesh wrestled an outright win in a tight tussle with Delhi’s ability to kill time, the fading light and a target that oscillated between reach and just out of grasp.An aggressive but controlled century from Virender Sehwag, batting with an injured finger, gave Delhi a decent chance of grabbing some points from their Ranji Trophy season opener.Sehwag’s calculated belligerence this morning ended up being the only passage of play in which Delhi looked in charge in the four-day match. He added 85 with Pradeep Sangwan for the seventh wicket over the session at a crowd-pleasing clip, and took Delhi to 322 to set UP a target of 155.It was a gettable total, but it would be a test of the composure of the UP batsmen, their response to the threat of the experienced Delhi bowlers, and the ability of the light to hold out till the target was reached. Again, UP came through as they had in every phase of the match.The openers set up the start, scoring 54 in 15 overs, and Raina came in at No.3 (instead of at No. 5 as in the first innings) to take UP to 117.Mohammed Kaif had been injured in the first innings, hit on the middle finger of his right hand, and had to sit out during Delhi’s second innings. It was said later that Kaif would have come out to bat had the situation got dire. At one stage it did, with Parvinder Singh and Arish Alam getting tied down by Ashish Nehra and Ishant Sharma.Delhi took their chances in the field to slow the game down. They had shin pads and helmets brought on, and the quick bowlers took slow trundles back from their extended followthroughs to the top of their run.Parvinder struck clean boundaries off Ishant and Nehra, and the new man Ali Murtaza, who took over almost seamlessly, followed him. Ten runs off Ishant’s last over of the match then melted UP’s anxiety away and two overs later, when Murtaza creamed a sizzling square drive off Sumit Narwal, the scores were even. Alam hit a late cut off Vikas Mishra to clinch victory.UP were feted and rewarded by the Ghaziabad organisers in a lengthy prize distribution ceremony, and Delhi’s star players melted into the background. Delhi coach Vijay Dahiya said his team had been completely outplayed by UP in every department “and in patience and consistency.” The sudden rush of heavyweight names did bring, he said, “to the back of your mind the thought that these guys will come and deliver. But it’s not about them and what they are expected to do. Eventually, it’s about the guy in the middle taking responsibility.”That guy in the middle today turned out to be Sehwag, who paced his innings as if his runs were in perfect sync with the clock. He may have hit 16 fours in the morning, but did not look like playing to either turn up in the highlights or offer the bowlers a chance. All but 31 of his runs came in boundaries; he was particularly severe on Imtiaz Ahmed.If Sehwag had given Delhi a narrow opening to grab some points and wrest out a draw, his innings should also have given the Indian selectors and the core of the team management some breathing space going into the Ahmedabad Test against England. It was Sehwag’s first Ranji century for Delhi in almost six years, out of a total of eight, the last coming against Haryana in January 2007. It was also his first three-figure score in any match since December 2011 after his double-hundred against West Indies in Indore.It has been a while, and Sehwag knows it, but he was neither hurried nor hasty and for the better, like he has always been, a man in control of his destiny. When he reached his century with a brisk two to cover, the noisiest stands to the east, packed in on a Monday, made themselves heard to “Veeru.”Before he pointed his bat at the dressing room, Sehwag turned and acknowledged this audience. To crowded, chaotic Ghaziabad, Sehwag’s innings was what they had been waiting for from the day the glamour boys came to town – a generous sprinkle of stardust.It looked like a perfect Ranji game played in a small venue on a fair, result-oriented wicket. Six points to the home team and a century from Veeru. It was as if Diwali had turned up early.

Scorecard
Gary Putland and South Australia completed a memorable week in Melbourne with a four-wicket victory over Victoria in the domestic limited overs match at the MCG.Backing up from a match haul of 12 for 92 in SA’s Sheffield Shield win over the Bushrangers, Putland claimed another match award by claiming 4 for 44 as the hosts were restricted to 8 for 241.In reply, the Redbacks were given the perfect start by Michael Klinger and Phillip Hughes, the openers adding 164 before a collapse of 6 for 48 gave Victoria some hope of snatching the points.However the wicketkeeper Tim Ludeman and the captain Johan Botha rallied the chase to overhaul Victoria’s total with 22 balls to spare.Putland’s haul included the wicket of the Bushrangers’ top scorer Peter Handscomb, who was yorked after making an attractive 64.SA’s wobbles in the chase came via a combination of diligent bowling by Scott Boland and a series of ill-advised swings at short-pitched deliveries, offering a series of catches to the Victorian fielders before Ludeman and Botha settled the affair.