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	Tamil Kumaran scalped five for the Chennai Superstars in the final © Cricinfo Ltd

Chennai Superstars completed a double in the Indian Cricket League, adding the 50-over competition crown to their Twenty20 championship win in December last year.The final of the 50-over tournament, involving only the Indian players recruited for the league, turned out to be a close contest, with the Superstars thrillingly upstaging the Delhi Jets by one wicket.Jets opted to bat and managed 240 runs before being bowled out in 49 overs. Monish Mishra top scored for the Jets with 64 off 69 balls, with six fours and a six. JP Yadav’s 42 off 54 deliveries, Abbas Ali’s 45 and Abhinav Bali’s 29-ball 33 ensured the Jets posted a competitive total. The standout performance for the Chennai Superstars came from Tamil Kumaran, who took 5 for 39. T Kumaran finished with figures of 2 for 36.Superstars faltered in their pursuit, and were soon down to 33 for 3. V Devendran and Hemang Badani led a recovery, before Devendran was out for 43. Badani then combined with J Hariesh to put the chase on track. Both batsmen scored fifties but were unable to go on to make a big score, leaving their team in trouble.Two run-outs in the lower order left Superstars at 208 for 9, and a win seemed improbable. With their hopes hanging on the last-wicket pair, Superstars’ T Kumaran blasted 38 from 25 deliveries, with two sixes and three fours, to power his team to a unlikely win. The victory was sealed with four balls to spare.Tamil Kumaran was named the Man of the Match for his five-wicket haul, while Yadav was declared the Player of the Tournament with 387 runs, eight wickets and five catches from eight matches.The ICL’s next tournament is a proposed Twenty20 championship in March-April, with eight teams expected to participate, up from the current number of six.

Kenyan cricket is looking towards the future as Nairobi prepares to host the World Cricket League, which starts on Monday featuring the top six associate countries.Samir Inamdar, the Cricket Kenya chairman, says the tournament is a major stepping stone for cricket in the country. “Kenya has a long and proud history of cricket and it is determined to put on a great tournament,” he said. “We have the facilities, we have the expertise and we have the manpower. This is an enormous opportunity to announce to the world that we are ready to host an event like this again.”By running a good tournament we will showcase Kenyan cricket and put it back in the news for all the right reasons. Cricket in Kenya has gone through a period of transition in recent years but we are very optimistic for the future of the game here and part of the development process for us is being able to host events like this.”We are moving forward here at Cricket Kenya and this tournament is very much part of that process.”The ICC president, Percy Sonn, added: “There is now an exciting structure of competitive cricket outside the 10 Full Members that gives a real edge to the level of competition being played at that level. In many ways, the World Cricket League is what the ICC is all about.”The big prize at the end of the tournament for Kenya is a place in the Twenty20 Championships to be held in South Africa during September. There are two spots up for grabs, for the two leading teams from WCL, and a huge financial boost as well.

Scorecard

Qanita Jalil bowled tidily but went wicketless against Sri Lanka © AFP

Pakistan’s women cricketers narrowly lost the opening match of the Asia Cup against Sri Lanka, falling by 14 runs. Chasing 179 to win, Pakistan needed 15 from the final over but lost their last wicket off the second ball.Sri Lanka reached a competitive total of 178 for 9 largely thanks to Dumila Dedunu, who top-scored with 52. Pakistan’s bowlers resticted the visitors to 130 for 7, before Inoka Galagedera (25) and Praba Udawatte (22*) helped their team to a total of some respectability. The leg-spinner, Urooj Fatima, was the pick of Pakistan’s bowlers taking 3 for 40.Pakistan’s openers, Tasqeen Qadeer and Sajjida Shah, got the home side off to a useful start with a partnership of 33, but Suwini de Alwis (4 for 24) and captain Shsikala Siriwardene (3 for 32) had Pakistan stumbling on 88 for 6. A seventh-wicket stand of 66 between Sana MirAsmavia Iqbal nearly won the match Pakistan, before running 14 runs short.Sri Lanka now meet India on Thursday. All teams will play each other twice with the top two teams going through to the final on January 4.

Bob Woolmer thinks the VB Series will get a facelift© Getty Images

One-day cricket requires a sharp overhaul and Twenty20 is the vehicle to drive the change, according to John Buchanan, the Australian coach. Buchanan told the Sydney Morning Herald that the 50-over game was overdue for alterations and there were no limits to the number of innovations.”What Twenty20 cricket will do is question why the 50-over format continues to be the way it is,” Buchanan told the newspaper. “The 20-over game can accelerate that whole format change.”Buchanan said Twenty20 should be a part of the “overall package of cricket” and hoped it would produce players who were fitter and more creative. Not only did the experimental Australia A v Pakistan match fill Adelaide Oval last Thursday, but its television ratings were better than the opening two VB Series games.One idea Buchanan suggested was to split 50-over innings with bonuses for being in front at the end of 20 or 25 overs. “Then teams have to decide whether they chase that incentive point or whether they’re more interested in chasing the win at the end,” he said. “I’m sure lots of other people have got lots of other ideas. The ODI game does need the ICC to rethink it’s format.”Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach who played for England in Australia’s first World Series Cup, said he would not be surprised if the VB Series was headed for a revamp. “I’m sure they’re thinking of a change of format because it is now 27 years,” Woolmer told the Courier-Mail. “It’s not necessarily outlived its popularity, but it needs to be looked at in terms of changing how it’s done. I don’t know how quickly Cricket Australia and the television people will come up with an answer.”The dwindling popularity of the neutral teams in the series has been shown by Channel 9’s decision to make the three Pakistan-West Indies matches day games. All of Australia’s remaining fixtures and the finals will be under lights. West Indies play Pakistan at the Gabba tomorrow.

Gary Kirsten: a season by the sea? © Getty Images

Gary Kirsten, South Africa’s leading Test runscorer, has been linked with a one-year contract with Sussex for 2004. Kirsten is tipped to replace the former Zimbabwean Test batsman Murray Goodwin, who was unhappy when the county champions could only offer him a one-year contract.Kirsten, 36, has played 95 Tests to date, and has scored nearly 7000 runs, with 19 centuries – all South African records. Yesterday he dropped out of the first Test against West Indies, which starts on Friday (Dec 12), as his wife is about to give birth to their first child. But Kirsten is keen to return and become the first South African to win 100 Test caps, which – barring injury or loss of form – he should do on tour in New Zealand early next year. He has confirmed that he will retire from Test cricket after that series.If Goodwin does leave, as expected, it will mean that his last innings for Sussex will be his 335 not out against Leicestershire at Hove in September – the highest individual score in the county’s history – in the match that sealed Sussex’s first County Championship title.Peter Moores, Sussex’s director of coaching, confirmed that Kirsten was in their thoughts: “There are a few names in the hat, and one of them is Gary Kirsten,” he said. “He’s defintiely our sort of cricketer.”

A crushing six wicket victory over Taunton has allowed Hampshire’s indoor cricket specialists Winchester K.S. another crack at progressing to the National Finals, the competition they won six years ago.The county capital’s men easily qualified for the Regional Finals at Taunton in a fortnight’s time (March 3), and carry the Hampshire flag once more towards another prospective visit to Lord’s, where they were crowned champions in 1996.Having already scooped the Hammonds Jewellers South Hampshire title, Winchester, on their familiar home patch at Fleming Park made light work of the Somerset side’s challenge.Electing to field first, some outstanding fielding and tight bowling picked off Taunton for just 56, with Hampshire Board representative Dave Greetham collecting 2-6 and Havant & Waterlooville striker Jim Taylor (2-17) the main protagonists.Paul Marks and Taylor added a steady 30 in seven overs before Chris Wheeler joined the Wiltshire Minor Counties all-rounder to see the side home with 10 balls to spare.Wheeler is looking forward to the challenge ahead of the former European Champions, “Unless we lost an early wicket or two, the target was always going to be a straightforward chase.”The action starts at 2pm at the Indoor School at the County Ground, the home of Somerset County Cricket Club.

Valuable knocks by skipper Sachin Dholpure and one drop M Mishra helpedMadhya Pradesh to score 251 before they were all out in the last over onthe opening day of their Cooch Behar Trophy semifinal against Tripura atPune on Saturday.Opting to bat, MP lost wicketkeeper NV Ohja (0) in the fourth over withonly one run on the board. Dholpure and Mishra then came together to add 67runs for the second wicket off 25 overs. Mishra, easily the more aggressiveof the two, slammed 55 of 82 balls with the help of nine fours and a six.Dholpure however continued to bat patiently before he was sixth out at 205in the 68th over. Dholpure faced 199 balls and hit ten of them to theropes. JS Saxena (33) and N Menon (31 not out) gave a helping hand in themiddle order to keep the innings going. Saxena faced just 19 balls and hittwo fours and two sixes in a breezy cameo. T Shah was the most successfulbowler for Tripura finishing with four for 35 off 20.2 overs.

Celtic have had many players arrive at the club on loan deals over the years such as Jonjoe Kenny, Diego Laxalt and Mohammed Elyounoussi among many others.

While most players that come on loan end up going back to their parent clubs, one player that the Hoops would presumably now be regretting not securing a permanent deal for is defender Jason Denayer.

Having arrived at the Parkhead club on loan from Manchester City back in the 2014 summer transfer window, the centre-back ended up making 44 appearances in total during his time in Scotland across all competitions, chipping in with six goals and two assists along the way, showing how useful he was in front of goal.

After leaving Celtic, the Belgian had loan spells with Galatasaray and Sunderland before eventually bringing his time as a City player to an end in the summer of 2018 when he joined French club Olympique Lyon in a deal worth a reported fee of €13.5m (£11.4m).

Since then, the 26-year-old has gone on to make 136 appearances for Lyon across all competitions with eight goals and two assists to his name.

Back in October 2014 when the former City defender was making a name for himself with the Hoops, Transfermarkt had his market value listed as £450k, whereas it now stands at £18m, highlighting a huge increase of 3900% based on what he’s done in his other loan spells and in France with his current club.

Labelled as a “powerful” player in terms of winning his defensive duels by Lyon’s recruitment chief Florian Maurice, Denayer has certainly found his feet after such a long but ultimately uninspiring time with the current Premier League leaders.

Taking all of this into account and with the benefit of hindsight, it could be seen as a big mistake from Peter Lawwell to not secure a permanent deal for Denayer after his loan spell in Scotland as he could have gone on to be a stalwart figure for the Hoops at the back.

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Moving forward, with the defender’s current contract at the French club set to expire at the end of the season, it’ll be interesting to see whether or not Celtic would be inclined to try and bring the Belgium international back to Scotland in the summer and whether he’d be open for the move or not.

In other news: Cost £0, now worth £1.6m: Celtic hit the jackpot with “huge” £7.5k-p/w “warrior” – opinion

Scorecard
Madhya Pradesh bowled out Gujarat for 192, with offspinner Sunil Dhoplure and right-arm medium-pacer Sanjay Pandey taking three wickets apiece, to take control of their Ranji Trophy Plate League semi-final in Delhi. It could have been much worse for Gujarat but for Timil Patel’s unbeaten 71, much of which came in the company of the lower oder.Gujarat, who were asked to bat, were in trouble in the first over when Nilesh Modi edged to wicketkeeper Naman Ojha off Pandey. Rajesh Tabiar and Parthiv Patel then adopted a defensive approach to see off the new ball.Parthiv, who had made his way to 20, fell immediately after spin was introduced when he edged Dholpure to Ojha. Dholpure soon claimed his second wicket when he bowled Neeraj Patel. Seamer Anand Rajan then took two wickets in quick time, ending Tabiar’s dour 12-run knock off 82 balls by having him caught behind before cleanbowling Bhavin Thaker. At that time, Gujarat were 51 for 5, and lost three more quick wickets to reach 92 for 8.Timil then found support from Ashraf Makda at the other end as the two added 86 for the ninth wicket.MP lost Ojha just before stumps were drawn when he edged Makda to Parthiv.
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Railways, led by economical bowling from Sanjay Bangar and captain Murali Kartik, managed to put the screws on the Kerala batsman, who scored 207 runs for the loss of six wickets in their Ranji Trophy Plate League semi-final in Nagpur.Earlier Kartik’s decision to send Kerala in was vindicated when Santosh Saxena dismissed Raiphi Gomez in the eight over. But Antony Sebastian and captain Sony Cheruvathur set about consolidating the innings by adding 61 runs.Harvinder Singh struck just before lunch when he got Cheruvathur’s wicket for 26. Sebastian fell to Bangar soon after completing his half-century.Preambhastn Prem and Sreekumar Nair then added 54 runs for the fourth wicket in 29.2 overs before Prem was cleaned up by Kartik. Kartik claimed his second wicket when he had VA Jagadeesh caught by Amit Pagnis for 17.Nair, who scored a painstaking 44 at a strike rate of below 25, fell on the last ball of the day to Bangar. Railways managed to bowl 35 maiden overs in the day.

Matthew Hayden is a strong chance to be in Australia’s World Cup team © Getty Images

Matthew Hayden has been handed a limited-overs lifeline and Cameron White has been rewarded for his domestic form after both were named in Australia’s 13-man squad for the Commonwealth Bank Series. The selectors were forced to rethink their one-day line-up after losing two members of the Champions Trophy squad: Shane Watson, who has a hamstring injury, and the now-retired Damien Martyn.Hayden is set to open the batting with Adam Gilchrist in the tri-series featuring England and New Zealand, which begins on January 12. He got the nod ahead of Phil Jaques and Chris Rogers, one of whom will almost certainly partner Hayden in the Test team after Justin Langer’s departure.White will hope to slot into the middle-order after a strong start to his season with Victoria. In eight domestic one-day games in 2006-07, he has averaged 52.33, including a blistering 126 not out from 100 balls against New South Wales. White’s legspin bowling and excellent fielding could have given him the edge against other middle-order candidates including Adam Voges.Ricky Ponting said Hayden was the logical replacement for Watson as Gilchrist’s opening partner. “There’s no doubt Matty is the next best opener,” Ponting said. “He was bitterly disappointed when he missed out last time. I’m looking forward to seeing him play some one-day cricket again. I’m looking forward to him grabbing the opportunity with both hands. We’ve all seen how hungry he’s been this summer.”Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, said White would be a useful addition to the team. “Cameron White has been in great form with the bat and has had some terrific performances with the ball,” Hilditch said. “He richly deserves this opportunity. He adds depth to the batting and balance to the bowling and hopefully we can see him seize his chance.”

Cameron White’s form for Victoria has earned him a place in the one-day team © Getty Images

Both will be aiming to secure their place ahead of the World Cup, which starts in March. Australia have chosen a preliminary 30-man squad for their title defence. The names include a mix of youth and experience, with the most notable omission being Rogers, whose stellar Pura Cup form this year has not extended to the domestic limited-overs competition.A number of players who will push for a spot in the one-day team in the next few years were named, including the batsmen Adam Voges, Marcus North, Travis Birt, Shaun Marsh and Mark Cosgrove, and the bowlers Ben Hilfenhaus, Daniel Cullen and Nathan Hauritz. Although Watson is Australia’s preferred allrounder, Queensland’s James Hopes and Victoria’s Andrew McDonald have been rewarded for their domestic efforts. The selectors showed Brad Hodge is still in their thoughts, while his Victoria team-mate, the fast bowler Shane Harwood, 32, was a surprise inclusion.White and Hilfenhaus, the Tasmania swing bowler who has been touted as a potential replacement for Glenn McGrath, will have an extra chance to press their cases, having been chosen in the Twenty20 line-up to take on England at Sydney next week.Australia tri-series squad Adam Gilchrist (wk), Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Hussey, Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds, Cameron White, Brad Hogg, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Stuart Clark, Nathan Bracken, Glenn McGrath.Australia World Cup preliminary squad Adam Gilchrist (wk), Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting (capt), Phil Jaques, Shane Watson, Simon Katich, Michael Hussey, Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds, Marcus North, Adam Voges, Brad Hodge, Travis Birt, Shaun Marsh, Cameron White, Mark Cosgrove, Brad Haddin (wk), James Hopes, Andrew McDonald, Brad Hogg, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Hauritz, Stuart Clark, Glenn McGrath, Daniel Cullen, Nathan Bracken, Shaun Tait, Shane Harwood, Ben Hilfenhaus.Australia Twenty20 squad Adam Gilchrist (wk), Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Hussey, Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds, Cameron White, Brad Hogg, Brett Lee, Nathan Bracken, Mitchell Johnson, Ben Hilfenhaus.