Category Uncategorized

Johann Louw, the South African-born allrounder, has rejoined Northamptonshire for the 2008 season. Louw last played for the club in 2004, after which he signed for Middlesex.”We are fortunate that we have been able to attract a player of Johann’s quality back to the club at this late stage of preparation,” David Capel, the Northamptonshire coach, said. “We needed to reinforce our seam bowling department due to the ECB blocking Johann van der Wath and Andrew Hall’s registrations for 2008, and although we will not have Johann available for the opening two Championship and Friends Provident Trophy matches he will be a welcome addition to our squad.”He has expressed to me how excited he is about returning to us and I feel that he is capable of matching his best season for us when he took in excess of 60 first-class wickets. He has obviously been in good form during the South African domestic season, which he will be looking forward to continuing when he joins us at the end of April.”Louw said he was looking forward to returning to the club, adding: “Hopefully we can achieve what the club has being working towards and personally it will be great to be under the watchful eye of David Capel. I am very excited about the season and can’t wait to join the squad at the end of April.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

The burning question at the start of play, considering the poor weather forecast for the next couple of days, was when Sri Lanka would declare. The answer may not have been a popular one, at least not in Bangladesh, but it went according to the script. Sri Lanka ground down the visitors in humid conditions, with 125 runs coming in the first session, 107 in the second and 118 in the third as the lead swelled to 488.Mahela Jayawardene allowed Prasanna Jayawardene and Chaminda Vaas to bring up their maiden centuries before finally declaring 15 minutes before the close. The Bangladesh openers safely played out three overs before the close.Prasanna, who scripted a fluent knock, and Vaas, who played a chanceless innings, stitched together an unbroken 223-run stand while Michael Vandort got to his third hundred. Just for good measure, Jayawardene reached his 17th century as Sri Lanka indulged in a run orgy.Sri Lanka had started off with a positive intent in the first session: Vandort batted aggressively, Tillakaratne Dilshan belted the ball around and Jayawardene upped the ante. Things slowed somewhat in the second session and meandered along at a leisurely pace in the third but the writing was on the wall. The first Test was limping towards a predictable conclusion.The attack was more incisive once the new ball was taken in the second session. It helped that Jayawardene fell almost immediately, slashing uppishly at a swinging delivery well outside the off stump. Mashrafe Mortaza made the batsmen poke tentatively, Shahadat Hossain got it to kick up from short of a length, and Prasanna and Vaas went quiet. Only 19 runs came in eight overs before both men pulled Shahadat in the ninth over to break the shackles.The stranglehold was broken as Vaas began to pull with purpose when Shahadat hurled in a few bouncers. Mohammad Ashraful, the captain, sent down a few long hops, and they too were promptly dispatched.In the morning, with the sun out and a light breeze blowing, the pitch was perfect for batting. Ashraful started off with a pace and spin combo – Mortaza and Abdur Razzak. Mortaza kept pinging the full length, while Razzak sent down one arm-ball after another. But a comatose pitch and aggressive batsmen resulted in the ball being dispatched all around the field.

Dilshan carved the fifth ball of the day, from Mortaza, to the point boundary and two overs later, Vandort waltzed down the track to send Razzak’s floaters over the rope twice. A ball later, he brought up a convincing hundred with a sweep shot. It was an innings that hinted at a promising future.Ashraful, leading for the first time, was aggressive – there was a slip, short-leg and a silly point for the spinner, while only one man was out for the seamer. Perhaps, looking at the dark clouds that the weathermen promised, he could have had an inside-out field and delayed the declaration.No one could fault his bowling changes though. He rotated the spinners well, giving two spells to Mortaza, but the dead track and the high-quality batsmanship didn’t help. The busy Dilshan was, as always, on the look out for the runs. He chose to go back to the spinners to cut, forcing them to bowl fuller, upon which, he drove them nuts.He showed a strong preference to the off side, scoring nearly three-quarters of his runs in that region. A complete mess-up ended his breezy knock. He square-drove to left of sweeper-cover where Mortaza fumbled, creating thoughts of a second run in Dilshan’s mind. But Jayawardene, who retired hurt yesterday due to cramp, stayed rooted to his crease.Vandort had departed early, after setting the tempo. Using his height, he stretched forward well to drive anything remotely full. He also swept the spinners impressively but he fell, against the run of play, when he pushed a touch lazily at a Mohammad Rafique delivery.Jayawardene was unhurried and classy, and used the pull shot well to accelerate the scoring. By the close of play, only one team could lose and that was not Sri Lanka.

Division One

Day 2
Callum Thorp took six sharp wickets and Phillip Mustard six keen catches to bring Durham right back into their match against Hampshire at Southampton. This was Thorp’s second six-for in a week, after he wrecked Scotland in the C&G match on Sunday and it was a timely one, too, after his side had been dismissed for 234 in the first innings. Hampshire had looked threatening, their openers putting on 59 for the first wicket, but after that things swung Durham’s way. Their own openers, John Lewis and Jimmy Maher, soon erased the first-innings deficit of 22 and by the close Durham had made a solid 165 for 3 on a pitch that was beginning to show signs of wear.Matthew Walker and Neil Dexter joined Martin van Jaarsveld as centurions as Kent passed 600 for only the second time at Canterbury – the first time was against Somerset in 1996. Dexter’s maiden Championship hundred was well made but he survived a run-out appeal when he appeared well short, but the umpire was unsighted. Nottinghamshire began their reply well, losing just Jason Gallian for 7 before stumps, as Darren Bicknell (44*) and David Alleyne (27*) took them to 79 for 1.Day 1
Sussex’s decision to put Yorkshire in on a bowler-friendly pitch was rewarded when the visitors were nipped out for 238 at Arundel. Jason Lewry bowled well – he jagged one back between bat and pad to bowl Michael Vaughan, one of four scalps for him. But Craig White and Richard Dawson led a counterattack to lift Yorkshire from 101 for 6 to 200 for 7. The pitch did a bit early on, but flattened out during the afternoon as White, who was the last man out, and Dawson put on 99 between them. After Dawson fell, though, the momentum fell away, too. Sussex had reached 55 for 2 by the close.Full a full report of Middlesex‘s first day against Lancashire click here.

Division Two

Day 1
The unstoppable Phil Jaques struck a splendid double-hundred to give Worcestershire the upperhand against Northamptonshire at New Road. He was joined by fellow run-machine Graeme Hick with Worcestershire 139 for 3 and together they put on 245, gunning down Northants’ bowlers on a day of toil for them. Of the four wickets to fall all day two of those were run outs, which put paid to Stephen Moore and Ben Smith in their twenties. Matthew Nicholson and Monty Panesar picked up the only bowlers’ wickets, Nicholson removing Vikram Solanki for 23 and Panesar finally prising out Jaques. If Hick, 93 not out overnight, complete his century. it would be his 100th for Worcestershire and his 130th in all, taking him past Len Hutton’s first-class total.Day 2
Varun Chopra continued to show what he’s made of, striking his fourth half-century for Essex in his first seven innings at a cold and windy Derby. Chopra, who is keeping Grant Flower out of the first team, just keeps blossoming and today, on his 19th birthday, he put on 92 with Mark Pettini for the first wicket until Graham Wagg broke their partnership to remove Pettini for 30. Chopra finally fell for 65, removed by Mohammad Sheikh, but by the time Ravinder Bopara (50) and Andy Flower (84*) had also made fifties, Essex had made decent inroads into Derbyshire‘s 312, reaching 271 for 4 before bad light stopped play. Travis Birt had added nine more runs to his overnight score of 121 before falling to Andy Bichel, which brought Derbyshire’s innings to an end.Glamorgan squeezed into a slender first-innings lead against Surrey at Sophia Gardens. While three Glamorgan players made fifty – Mark Cosgrove, Nicky Peng and Alex Wharf – none of them were allowed to progress from there; they were each out shortly after bringing up the milestone. But Robert Croft remains unbeaten on 48 by the close, with Glamorgan leading by 15, with just one wicket remaining. Ian Salisbury struck a flighty 42 from No 9 to add some spice to Surrey’s tail – they added 32 in the morning before he was finally removed.A frustrating day for Gloucestershire‘s batsmen at Grace Road, as most of them made starts, but none failed to go on to fifty. Stuart Broad did the bulk of the damage for Leicestershire, grabbing the last four wickets in 24 balls to claim a career best 5for 83. Gloucestershire declared on 282 for 9, giving Leicestershire a lead which they had extended to 105 runs by stumps, with just one wicket down.

New Zealand’s batsmen had their tactics well worked out when they came to face the Indian spinners on a fifth-day pitch. Play off the front foot, eschew strokes on the off side – especially shots against the spin – and sweep when in doubt.As the table below demonstrates, three-quarters of the runs scored off the bat on the final day came on the leg side. The stats were most stark in the first session, when only six runs were scored on the off side, and 43 on the on. It wasn’t as if the Indian bowlers strayed on leg stump either: out of the 540 balls bowled today, 400 pitched on or outside off, from which New Zealand managed 144 runs.

The sweep shot came in handy too: 35 of them were played in thefirst two sessions, fetching 47 runs. Craig McMillan might havebeen dismissed playing that stroke in the first innings, but thatdidn’t prevent him from favouring that stroke in the secondinnings: 25 of his 83 runs came from that shot.The New Zealand batsmen played forward almost 75% of the time -not surprising, considering the nature of the wicket – but apartfrom Lou Vincent, no-one was prepared to use their feet and comedown the pitch. Vincent did it nine times, the rest of the teamdidn’t step out even once.For India, Anil Kumble showed an encouraging return to form. Asthe graphic shows, 212 out of the 235 balls he bowled were ongood length or slightly short – that’s an impressive 90%. ForHarbhajan, the corresponding figure was a mind-boggling 95%. ThatNew Zealand held on despite such accuracy says much about thefortitude and doggedness of the batsmen.

As expected, England and Australia will contest the world’s first Twenty20 international next summer, as part of the 2005 Ashes tour. (The first by men, anyway. England’s women are playing one against New Zealand later this summer.) The match will take place at Hampshire’s Rose Bowl on June 13, as a curtain-raiser to the NatWest Series, which will also feature Bangladesh, whose maiden Test in England will start at Lord’s on May 26.The ten-match one-day NatWest Series will be followed a further three one-day fixtures, also against Australia, before the main event of the summer gets under way. The five-Test Ashes campaign starts at Lord’s on July 21, and, happily for the players involved, there will be plenty of breathing space between the matches.The second and third Tests at Edgbaston and Old Trafford will be back-to-back affairs, but the other games all have a ten-day break between them. With England and Australia set for their most evenly contested series in years, this should reduce the danger of player burnout.

npower Test series

May 26-30 1st Test v Bangladesh, Lord’s
June 3-7 2nd Test v Bangladesh, Chester-le-Street

NatWest Twenty20 International

June 13 v Australia, Rose Bowl

NatWest Series

June 16 England v Bangladesh, The Oval
June 18 Australia v Bangladesh, Cardiff
June 19 England v Australia, Bristol
June 21 England v Bangladesh, Trent Bridge (D/N)
June 23 England v Australia, Chester-le-Street (D/N)
June 25 Australia v Bangladesh, Old Trafford
June 26 England v Bangladesh, Headingley
June 28England v Australia, Edgbaston (D/N)
June 30 Australia v Bangladesh, Canterbury
July 2 Final, Lord’s

NatWest Challenge

July 7 v Australia, Headingley
July 10 v Australia, Lord’s
July 12 v Australia, The Oval

npower Test series

July 21-25 1st Test v Australia, Lord’s
August 4-8 2nd Test v Australia, Edgbaston
August 11-15 3rd Test v Australia, Old Trafford
August 25-29 4th Test v Australia, Trent Bridge
September 8-12 5th Test v Australia, The Oval

Stuart MacGill claimed ten wickets for the match as Australia completed an impressive lead-up to Thursday’s third Test with a six-wicket victory over the University of West Indies XI in Barbados.Australia won with more than one session to spare, reaching 4-95 in its second innings after the University XI was bowled out for 162 with MacGill (5-45) completing his second five-wicket haul of the match.MacGill ensured he would be the first spinner picked for the Test at nearby Kensington Oval as Australian selectors decided on the most suitable attack with the return of spearhead Glenn McGrath.McGrath claimed 1-22, bowling 19 overs for the match in a solid workout before he returns to the Test arena for the first time this year as Australia tries to seal the series after winning the opening two Tests.Captain Steve Waugh was satisfied with the performance against a University XI clearly outclassed by the tourists, despite the presence of Test batsman Chris Gayle and former Test representatives Philo Wallace and Corey Collymore.The home team still threw some punches in the final session, claiming the wickets of Waugh (one), Andy Bichel (17), Martin Love (15) and Michael Clarke (47) as the Australians reshuffled their batting order.Clarke batted well but his procession towards a half-century in his maiden first-class appearance for Australia ended with a sharp stumping from the bowling of guest Kenyan spinner Collins Obuya (1-24).Brad Hogg was unbeaten on four, following his haul of 2-34 in the morning, but the left-arm wrist spinner is no certainty to retain his Test spot on Thursday as selectors consider MacGill as the support for a possible four-man pace attack.MacGill was on a hat-trick after removing Matthew Sinclair (one) and Obuya (0) with consecutive deliveries to continue his improving performances over the tour.The Australians will train on Wednesday at the University’s Cave Hill campus in their last major hitout before the Test

Lancashire will be confident of completing victory tomorrow after ending the third day in firm control of this match.They forced bottom of the table Essex to follow-on after gaining a first-innings lead of 187 runs and then captured three wickets to leave the home side still needing a further 77 runs to avoid an innings defeat.Victory would considerably ease Lancashire’s relegation worries and their cause today was assisted in chief by Glen Chapple who added two more wickets to his first innings haul of 4-71.Having dismissed Essex for 236, the visitors were given an immediate boost to their victory aspirations when Chapple removed Darren Robinson for a duck and then followed up by having Stephen Peters superbly caught low down at slip by Graham Lloyd for 3. That gave the red-haired pace bowler his 50th first-class wicket of the season and left the home side on a parlous 8-2 in the ninth over.A partnership of 68 between Paul Grayson and Stuart Law added some substance to a flagging innings but having reached 46, Law hooked Andrew Flintoff to deep fine leg where Joe Scuderi took a fine running catch to rekindle his side’s victory hopes. It was only the third time this season that Law had failed to score at least one half-century in a championship match.However Grayson continued in resolute manner showing studious defence to end the day 38 not out having batted for almost three hour to underpin his side’s 110-3 at the close.Earlier James Foster had offered dogged resistance in the Essex first innings batting resolutely for three hours to score 32. His eighth wicket serene partnership with Tim Mason produced 47 gritty runs in 26 overs and at one stage just two runs were added in nine overs.Foster batted throughout the morning session but was dismissed three overs after the interval when Lloyd clutched a difficult chance at slip before Peter Such joined Tim Mason for an invigorating last wicket stand of 47 in 15 overs that took their side to their only batting point when Mason struck Chris Schofield for his second boundary of his innings to bring up the 200. There was time for Such to sweep John Wood for 6 before the tail ender was fooled by Schofield’s wrong’un and was bowled for 21 offering no shot to leave Mason unbeaten on 41 and Essex asked to bat again.

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu will look to captain Abhinav Mukund to give them a solid start•K Sivaraman

Where they finished last season
Runners-upBig Picture
Tamil Nadu began the last season not having made it to the knockouts for the last two years, without two big players in S Badrinath and KB Arun Karthik, were bottom-placed in their group after five matches and had regular captain R Prasanna ruled out for a few games with an injury. Then, like a switch had been flicked, new captain Abhinav Mukund, who has played five Tests, led a comeback that ended only when champions Karnataka proved too strong for them.”We hadn’t found ideal replacements [for Badrinath and Arun Karthik],” Abhinav said. “A lot of players were in their first seasons, or they were just trying to get their feet in first-class cricket, like [B] Indrajith or Vijay Shankar. But now, there are three of us in India A squad, a couple actually pushing for places [in the senior side].”Indrajith has been given a bigger responsibility as vice-captain, so, I think, with a mixture of Dinesh [Karthik] and Prasanna, and obviously Malolan [Rangarajan, offspinner] doing well with the ball, it’s definitely looking a lot more settled.”As bowling-coach-cum-player, former India bowler L Balaji provides the young and reinforced seam attack experience. Malolan will lead the spin attack, and Tamil Nadu will look to captain Abhinav, brothers Indrajith and Aparajith, and youngster Vijay Shankar to team up with the experienced Kathik and Prasanna for the runs.Players to watch out for
B Indrajith, 21 years old, is only into his third season of first-class cricket, but has already been made the vice-captain of the side. He scored 713 runs at an average of 44.56, including five fifties and a century in last year’s Ranji Trophy to finish third on the list of Tamil Nadu’s run-scorers.Over the last two seasons, Aswin Crist has emerged as one of the most promising pacers from Tamil Nadu. Abhinav called him the “quickest bowler in the team.” Crist finished with 15 wickets at 25.93 in the 2014-15 Ranji Trophy, including four wickets in the semi-final against Maharashtra. At 21, he will be expected to lead the seam attack this time around.Coaching staff
Tamil Nadu have dispensed with WV Raman’s services, and have named M Sanjay, Raman’s assistant last year, coach. They have roped in RI Palani as cricket manager. Palani had played a similar, overarching role during the 2011-12 season, when they were finalists.The big news, however, is that of L Balaji being named bowling coach and player, if conditions suit his bowling.Preparation
Ahead of last season, Tamil Nadu had fitness and skill-training camps in Wayanad and Mumbai, but they have opted to train in Chennai this time. A major reason for that is the amount of cricket they have been playing in the build up to the Ranji Trophy. Apart from the highly competitive TNCA first-division league, most players have been playing in tournaments like the KSCA invitation, Buchi Babu and the Moin-ud-Dowla Gold Cup. Aparajith, Shankar and Abhinav have turned out for India A matches.”I think we never had a problem with the lead-up,” Mukund said. “Chennai is known to have a very strong league structure. They are all playing a lot of games and there is no one short of match practice.”Team news
Left-arm seamer Prasanth Parameswaran has moved to Goa, while left-arm spinner Aushik Srinivas hasn’t found a place in the squad for the first three games.Squad
Abhinav Mukund (capt), B Indrajith (vice-capt), Umashankar Sushil, B Aparajith, L Balaji, Bharath Shankar, DT Chandrasekar, Kaushik Gandhi, J Kousik, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Ramaswamy Prasanna, M Mohammed, Malolan Rangarajan, Rahil Shah, Vijay Shankar, Lakshminarayanan Vignesh.In their own words
“It [making the final last year] has changed the way a lot of people are looking at our team. Not only from the outside, but within ourselves we have got the inner belief that we can go on to do better things. The youngsters that have come in want to win, which is good.”

Madhya Pradesh

Aditya Shrivastava was a big positive for Madhya Pradesh last season•MPCA

Where they finished last season
Fourth in Group A with one win and six draws in eight matchesBig Picture
In their second match of the season last year, Madhya Pradesh took a 116-run, first-innings lead on a green top and put themselves in a comfortable place to notch up an early win. All they needed to do in the second innings was post a target to shut UP out of the game. Instead they crumbled for 63. Set a target of 180, UP’s lower order kept their nerve for the six-wicket win.For MP, it was the beginning of a pattern that repeated a few times through the season, against Tamil Nadu, Mumbai and most critically, in their final league match against Bengal, a draw which snuffed out their chances of a knock-out place.It’s a weakness that captain Devendra Bundela says the team will work hard towards this season. “At crucial times when we had to click we fell short by a bit,” Bundela said. “This season, however, we are confident of a good performance.”Like last season, much of the onus, particularly in the run-scoring department will rest on the shoulders of the 37-year-old Bundela, off-spinning allorunder Jalaj Saxena, Naman Ojha, who played India’s last Test, and Mohnish Mishra. The bowling department, led by Ishwar Pandey, has a few youngsters, and Bundela is keen for them to make an impression.The side for the first two matches – against Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu – includes young medium-pacers Puneet Datey and Yogesh Rawat, who were impressive last season, left-arm spinner Ankit Sharma (their second-highest wicket-taker in Ranji Trophy 2014-15) and 18-year-old medium-pacer Avesh Khan, who made his first-class debut last season after representing India Under-19s in the 2014 World Cup. Udit Birla, who did not play a first-class game for MP last season, has been picked for the first two games. The squad also features uncapped opening batsman Rajat Patidar and wicketkeeper-batsman Ankit Dane as the 16th man.Players to watch out for
In Jalaj Saxena, Bundela and N Ojha, MP can count some of the most established names in domestic cricket among their line-up. The focus this season, however, will be on their youngsters – some of whom made their debuts last season.Twenty-two-year-old Aditya Shrivastava notched up scores of 91, 108*, 0 and 151 in the four first-class innings of his maiden season, including knocks against Karnataka and Bengal. Datey, an allrounder playing his first full Ranji Trophy season after a debut in 2013, was the leading wicket-taker for the side with 31 scalps in 14 innings at an average of 21.83. Rawat, who played five matches, took 15 wickets including a five-for against Bengal that allowed MP to enforce a follow-on in a crucial game. Another impressive performer was Avesh, who also finished with 15 wickets in five matches. Shrivastava, along with Datey and Rawat, were the positives of last season for MP, according to Bundela. With some experience behind them, the bowlers will be crucial in helping MP shut out matches.Coaching staff
Harvinder Singh Sodhi (coach), Mayank Agarwal (trainer), Balasaheb Tate (physio)Preparation
The preparation for MP’s main squad and reserve pool has included matches in the Nimbalkar Trophy in Pune, a tournament organised by the Vidarbha Cricket Association and a pre-season camp of 20 players.Squad
Devendra Bundela (capt), Naman Ojha, Avesh Khan, Ankit Sharma, Udit Birla, Ankit Dane, Puneet Datey, Harpreet Singh, Mihir Hirwani, Mohnish Mishra, Ishwar Pandey, Rajat Patidar, Rameez Khan, Yogesh Rawat, Jalaj Saxena, Aditya Shrivastava.In their own words
“We have wicketkeeping back-ups for Naman Ojha in Ankit Dane and Zafar Ali. The season is also quite long now so we have developed a good bench strength of fast bowlers.”

Uttar Pradesh

Praveen Kumar takes charge of Uttar Pradesh•Getty Images

Where they finished last season
After starting the Ranji Trophy with a win over Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh went on to lose three of their remaining seven matches to finish seventh in Group A, just ahead of Bengal and Jammu & Kashmir.Big Picture
After making it to the quarter-finals in 2013-14, UP managed only two wins last season, just avoiding relegation. To add to that, none of their batsmen featured among the top 50 run-scorers and their leading wicket-taker, Praveen Kumar, was 45th overall.UP have had a stronger bowling unit in recent times than batting with Praveen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, RP Singh and Piyush Chawla. They will be without Bhuvneshwar for at least the duration of the South Africa ODIs and T20Is, leaving much of the responsibility on new captain Praveen and Chawla, since RP Singh has moved to Gujarat and Imtiaz Ahmed is not in the squad. So the challenge for the younger bowlers such as chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav and medium-pacers Amit Mishra and Ankit Rajpoot will only get steeper.In the batting line-up, UP will bank on opener Tanmay Srivastava and the pressure will not cease for the inexperienced middle order – they relied a lot on Eklavya Dwivedi last time. They will be desperate for the return of Suresh Raina, who didn’t play a single Ranji match last year. This time he might be back in November, unless he gets a surprise call for the South Africa Tests.Players to watch
Sarfaraz Khan made his name in IPL 2015, after making numerous school records in Mumbai. Known for picking the gaps in the shorter formats with unorthodox shots, Sarfaraz’s main challenge will be to adapt to the four-day format. He was a part of the India squad for the 2014 Under-19 World Cup. He was dropped by Mumbai last season, soon after his first-class debut, after scoring only 95 runs from three matches, but followed that with 111 runs at a strike rate of 156.33 in his maiden IPL season. How UP will use the teenager will be interesting to watch.Twenty-year-old chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav also made his first-class debut last season just after being named among the 2015 World Cup probables. With Chawla the lead spinner and Ali Murtaza not in the squad, Kuldeep could move up the ranks this time. He got only five matches last season and is known to bowl good lengths with control and variations under his belt, including the wrong ‘un. He impressed against Bangladesh A in the third one-dayer recently with figures of 6-0-29-2, taking the wickets of Mominul Haque and Liton Das.Coaching staff
UP have a new coach this season in Rizwan Shamshad, replacing Venkatesh Prasad. A former middle-order batsman, Shamshad played most of his 108 first-class matches for UP between 1990 and 2006, scoring over 7000 runs with 19 hundreds at an average of 46.Preparation
In the lead-up to the season, there has been much happening with the UP squad. Seventeen-year-old Sarfaraz Khan switched from Mumbai to UP and the experienced RP Singh left his native state to join Gujarat. And to weaken UP’s middle order further, Parvinder Singh made the switch to Tripura.Team news
UP have named three uncapped players this season – Almas Shaukat, Deependra Pandey and Israr Khan. Shaukat made his name as an opener at the Under-19 and Under-22 levels and Pandey is an offspinner. “We didn’t have an offspinner and other teams have left-hand batsmen so we thought that would pinch us earlier,” Praveen said of Pandey’s selection. Israr is a fast bowler Praveen is confident about. In addition, there are six players in the squad of 16 who have played under ten first-class matches each.Squad
Praveen Kumar (capt), Eklavya Dwivedi (vice-capt), Umang Sharma, Mohammad Saif, Tanmay Srivastava, Himanshu Asnora, Almas Shaukat, Sarfaraz Khan, Akshdeep Nath, Amit Mishra, Piyush Chawla, Israr Khan, Kuldeep Yadav, Saurabh Kumar, Deependra Pandey, Ankit Rajpoot.In their own words
“The team is good, there are good fast bowlers and we have added some batsmen. There is a good mix of senior players and youth from Under-19 and Under-22 level, so it’s a good team. There was a good preparatory camp in Noida, we focussed on fitness.”

The Pakistan Cricket Board’s effort to host a home series received another jolt with the West Indies turning down an invitation to play a one-day series later in the year.After being rejected by Australia, India and Sri Lanka for security reasons and scheduling problems, the PCB has now been told by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) that they can’t undertake a tour in August due to prior engagements.The PCB had invited West Indies and New Zealand to play a three-match ODI series in August to give its team some practice before the Champions Trophy in September. This would have also helped the PCB recover from the financial setback suffered due to the postponement of Australia’s tour in March. Bangladesh are currently in the country for a five-match ODI series and a Twenty20 international to cover for Australia’s pull-out.”Yes, the West Indies board has informed us that since they are already committed to play some games in Canada in August, they can’t accept our invitation,” Shafqat Nagmi, the PCB’s chief operating officer, said. “We have sent a fresh invitation to New Zealand asking them to come and play a full five-match one-day series instead of three ODIs. We are awaiting a reply from them.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Mashrafe Mortaza played an innings that was as entertaining as it was invaluable as Bangladesh averted the follow-on, and potential disaster, after their top-order had made a mess of things. For a time it seemed that Bangladesh’s bungling might just make up for the loss of nearly two full days due to rain at Chittagong, but Mortaza’s spunk took them towards safety as they replied to India’s first-innings 387 with 238 and then had India at 44 for 2 with one day left to play.When the day began, half-an-hour late thanks to more rain, the task before Bangladesh should have been a relatively simple one. There was also encouraging news that Anil Kumble, suffering from high fever, would not bat and, more importantly, would be unlikely to bowl on the day. Bangladesh then furthered their cause by quickly getting rid of Zaheer Khan, and then Mahendra Singh Dhoni, forcing India to declare their innings on 387 for 8, having added just three to the overnight score.From there on, Bangladesh’s top-order needed only to bat sensibly to reach the 187 needed to avert the follow-on. But, as they have done often in the past, the leading lights chose the path of recklessness. Javed Omar can be spared the rod for he was unlucky to be given out lbw to a ball from Rudra Pratap Singh that appeared to have pitched outside leg, but the rest of the top-order have plenty to answer for.Habibul Bashar chopped hard at his second ball and managed a duck as the thick edge flew fast and straight to Sachin Tendulkar, who snatched a good reflex catch above his left shoulder at first slip. Bangladesh’s 20 for 2 was given a facelift by a 27-run third-wicket partnership between Shahriar Nafees and Rajin Saleh, but once again an error in judgment tripped the batting side up. Nafees (32) went hard at a full ball from Zaheer Khan and edged to slip, where Tendulkar took a catch tumbling to his left.Mohammad Ashraful, obviously eschewing his natural positive game, came out of his shell briefly and fatally, gliding a short, wide ball from Rudra Pratap that was slanting away from him towards gully. Dinesh Karthik leapt to his left and snapped up an athletic catch, leaving Bangladesh at 58 for 4. Suddenly the follow-on target did not seem so attainable.Saleh, who had been getting nicely behind the line of the ball and not attempting anything fancy, found a solid ally in Saqibul Hasan, making his debut. Saqibul was a bit more positive than his partner – striking consecutive square-drives off VRV Singh to the fence – but no less careful. It was finally an attempted defensive shot that did for him, as he stood on tip-toe and tried to keep out a climbing ball from VRV, only to see the ball head onto the stumps off the bat.When Saleh (41) fell, finding Sourav Ganguly at point off a cut shot to a wide ball that gave Ramesh Powar his first Test victim, and Khaled Mashud was given out lbw to a full ball from VRV that might just have brushed bat on the way to pad, Bangladesh were tottering at 122 for 7. Then came the first of two partnerships – both centred around the talismanic Mortaza – that changed the complexion of the game.Mortaza and Mohammad Rafique, both aggressive cricketers, and clearly people who have aninstinctive feel for reading a game of cricket, quickly realised that hanging about wasn’t going to see their team limp past the follow-on mark, even on a pitch that was still good for batting. They launched into some fearless, if occasionally chancy, hits, primarily targeting two areas – square of the wicket on the off side and straight down the ground – and added 27 at a run-a-ball. Just when it looked like they would, between them, take Bangladesh to safety, Rafique fell, smartlystumped overbalancing as he tried to heave Powar out of the ground.Mortaza found a surprisingly useful batting companion in Shahadat Hossain, who began slowly and carefully but opened up as the follow-on target neared, jamming two boundaries through point. Hossain provided half a chance just before the follow-on was averted, when Powar almost held on to a miscue at mid-on, but the matter was settled soon after. Hossain slashed Zaheer over slip and punched the air in delight as Bangladesh forced India to bat a second time in this Test. It mattered little that he fell soon after, bowled by a Tendulkar googly, for the 31 runs he made were crucial in a 77-run ninth-wicket partnership.Mortaza, buoyed by the fact that the follow-on had been averted, continued to stroke the ball freely, and was last dismissed, top-scoring with 79 from 91 balls with seven fours and three glorious sixes before being cleaned up by a full ball from VRV. Bangladesh had managed only 238, but it was enough to give them some breathing space.That breathing space then turned into cause for celebration as Wasim Jaffer completed a pair for the Test, skewing an awkward pull to mid-on off Shahadat, bringing Rahul Dravid out to the middle before a run was on the board for the second time in this Test. In the first dig, Dravid had immediately stamped his class, dominating the bowlers, but that was not to be late on Monday evening. He flicked Shahadat beautifully through on, and looked on in shock as Saleh leapt full length and plucked the ball out of the air one-handed at square-leg.At 6 for 2, leading only by 155, India momentarily found themselves in position of vulnerability, after dishing it out virtually all day. But Tendulkar, along with Karthik, ensured that no further damage was done as India rode out the day to end on 44 for 2, an overall lead of 193. One day remains, and if what has gone so far is any indication, it’s likely to be either really interesting, or one spent watching puddles form in the outfield.