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Duncan Fletcher believes captaincy may have affected Suresh Raina’s batting but that Raina has the makings of a good leader in the future

Sriram Veera at Sabina Park17-Jun-2011The thought hovered in the air for a while at the press conference. Finally someone raised it to Suresh Raina, India’s stand-in captain. “India won the games played in slow and low tracks in Trinidad but at the first sign of some bounce and pace, you lost two games.””It wasn’t about bounce,” Suresh Raina said. “If you see Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli had a good partnership. They bowled really well at the right areas. We couldn’t get a partnership after 35 overs and that hit us. It would have made a difference if we had 30-35 runs more.”But that was exactly the point. Kohli and Rohit tackled the conditions well – it was by no means a real bouncy track of course- but the rest didn’t. Raina the captain was very involved but Raina the batsman let himself and the team down. And he knew it. He also knew exactly why he failed in this match and in the series. “I didn’t bat well in three games. I was in bit of rush. I was not spending much time in the middle. If I had spent more time it would have been probably been different. My game is very positive. I was thinking if the ball was full I can go over covers but it didn’t work out. I will learn from this mistake and hopefully won’t [make] them anymore.”Did the captaincy affect his batting? Raina didn’t think so but the coach Duncan Fletcher, while lavishing praise on Raina’s captaincy skills, offered a different take on the issue. “It does have some sort of an effect. As a young player you are trying to develop your game and trying to establish your game but at the same time you are looking after ten to 14 other youngsters. You can’t move away from the fact that captaincy is a very very difficult job. Sometimes your mind can wander. It happens at times. The mind wanders from your game to game of team. During that period you need to be careful. Sometimes it comes in your advantage and helps your game. You just have to accept sometimes you just go through a bad patch. Other times your shots come off and your performance can be match winning.”However, Fletcher felt that Raina handled himself very well as a captain. “For someone who is 24 years of age, to lead a country like India, and a young team like this, he has done a tremendous job. He is the man who puts his head on block; he has to take the criticism and he has held his head high. He has looked positive, his body language has been positive and that is good. He can develop into a good captain in the future.”India won four of the six games during the limited-overs leg of the tour and Fletcher said he will take lots of positives from the team’s performances. “As a young side we came with a 4-2 result. You have to include the T20 game as well and it’s a very good result. You can talk about that last two which didn’t go our way but sometimes it’s very very difficult for players to concentrate after taking the series.” It’s a slightly tricky reasoning. A young side, ideally, should be fired up to play their best not matter what the circumstances. Perhaps it was just Fletcher’s way of trying to back up his players.Suresh Raina struggled with the bat in the West indies•Associated Press

The likes of S Badrinath, Shikhar Dhawan and Manoj Tiwary were given opportunities in this series but they failed to produce. No player was named but Fletcher was asked whether the failure of some who have done well in domestic cricket but haven’t done well in this series was a fair indication of their talent. Fletcher said he didn’t see it that way and that he believes they can’t be judged on these performances.”If you see these young guys haven’t got really a fair chance. Five games are not enough to judge a player’s ability. First of all playing for India there is a lot of pressure. Because of so much talent around, you are going to get very few chances. Hopefully, they will get more chances in the future. They put a lot of pressure on themselves and as a result you don’t see their true potential. When you put pressure your technique changes a litte bit and it can alter your performance.”I have always used a figure of 30 games, especially for batters. You got to look at 30 games to learn to understand one-day cricket. I don’t know how many games these youngsters have played. I don’t have the stats with me right now. I have heard some great batsmen who say that it took them 50 ODIs to understand the game. The important thing is they learn from this experience.”

Nathan Hauritz’s good form continued as he held New South Wales together with an aggressive half-century and then picked up two wickets, but it was not enough to prevent a Victorian win

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Dec-2010
Scorecard
Nathan Hauritz’s good form continued as he held a tottering New South Wales together with an aggressive half-century and then picked up two wickets, but it was not enough to prevent a Victorian win as left-handed opener guided his side home with a fluent hundred. NSW struggled against Victoria’s seamers after opting to bat first and were bowled out for 225 three balls short of their allotted 45 overs. Wade carried Victoria to the brink with a career-best 105 while Brad Hodge added a rapid half-century as victory was achieved with six overs to spare.James Pattinson, who was the only uncapped player in Australia’s preliminary 30-man World Cup squad, did the early damage by removing Usman Khawaja and David Warner early and when Nic Maddinson was run out NSW slipped to 3 for 32. With Phil Jaques falling moments before the mid-innings suspension, Dirk Nannes removed Moises Henriques for 47 and Clint McKay got rid of wicketkeeper Peter Nevill to put the Blues in real trouble at 7 for 127 before Hauritz set about repairing the innings by putting on 93 for the eighth wicket with Steve O’Keefe, who contributed an adventurous 48.Hauritz, who has been in decent touch with both bat and ball since being discarded by the national side, went to his second List A fifty with five fours before he was caught behind for a 45-ball 51 in the 44th over. Four balls later McKay struck to remove Brett Lee, and the innings came to a swift conclusion when O’Keefe was run out immediately afterwards.Wade and Aaron Finch bettered a NSW attack boasting four men with Test experience to put on 95 for the first wicket and Victoria took an early lead when they reached 1 for 112 in their first 20-over innings. Hauritz and O’Keefe’s fightback meant a further 114 were needed when Victoria’s innings resumed, and although Hastings was quickly removed by Doug Bollinger upon the resumption Wade and Hodge – who has also been given an Australia lifeline with an inclusion in the preliminary World Cup squad – then took full control. Both men eventually fell to Hauritz, but by then the result was firmly within Victoria’s grasp.

The ICC has rejected the BCCI request to reconsider its decision to move the Group B match between India and England from Kolkata

Nagraj Gollapudi29-Jan-2011The ICC has rejected the BCCI’s request to reconsider moving the Group B match between India and England from Kolkata. The BCCI has recommended that the match, initially scheduled to be held at the Eden Gardens on February 27, be shifted to Bangalore. The ICC has given the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) 10 days to get Eden Gardens in shape for the other three World Cup matches that are scheduled to be held in Kolkata.On Thursday, the ICC, after many deliberations, ruled out Kolkata as a host venue after its inspection team deemed the stadium unfit and expressed strong concerns about various facilities in the ground being ready in time for the game. Following the decision, the CAB president, Jagmohan Dalmiya, sent a plea to the ICC through the BCCI asking for a ten-day extension to finish the remaining work. Dalmiya received support from Shashank Manohar, the BCCI president, who sent in a separate “forwarding letter” to ICC chief executive, Haroon Lorgat, echoing the CAB’s request.However, Lorgat said the ICC could not be swayed at the last minute and conveyed his message to Manohar in an email late Friday night. “I told him the ICC could not accommodate the request,” Lorgat told ESPNcricinfo. “There was too much of planning and too much of logistics that would be involved,”It is understood that the ICC refused to climb down from its original stance because, having spoken to its stadium and ground-preparation experts again, the consensus remained that there was no guarantee Eden Gardens would be ready for the February 27 game. The feeling at the ICC was that Dalmiya, having found himself in a tight corner, was acting out of desperation. They believed things could not be sorted out in ten days, especially since Dalmiya had conceded to the ICC’s inspection team on their January 25 visit that a further 20 days would be needed to get the ground ready.The status of the other three group matches scheduled to be hosted by Kolkata – Ireland v Holland, South Africa v Ireland and Zimbabwe v Kenya – remains unclear at the moment. The ICC has clarified that there will be no further inspections of the venue. It is for the BCCI and CAB to let them know if Kolkata can host those three matches.”The big commercial game was India v England. The other matches involve Associates, which cannot be big money spinners. It is now for the CAB to take a call and if they want to save the face, they could get the ground ready for the other three matches,” an official close to the negotiations said.Manohar, who had said on Friday that the ball was in the ICC’s court regarding the decision, told that the ICC was well within its rights to refuse the plea for reconsideration. “This is an ICC tournament and it has every right to decide on this,” he said. “We’ve tried our best for the CAB but the final word was always going to be the ICC’s.”

Gloucestershire restricted to below-par total before Wayne Madsen leads simple chase

Richard Hobson in Bristol07-Sep-2019Derbyshire may go into their first Finals Day in a fortnight as rank underdogs, but Essex, Nottinghamshire and Worcestershire will underestimate them at their peril. Victory here in the last of the Vitality T20 Blast quarter-finals was deserved, emphatic, and based on the same hard-nosed template of cricketing nous that has served Gloucestershire themselves over the years.Having restricted the home side to a total some way below par, their prolific top-four batsmen all but knocked off the target of 136 on their own, victory arriving with 17 balls to spare. Billy Godleman, Luis Reece, Wayne Madsen and Leus du Plooy had struck 1,384 runs between them in the North Group stage; they will head to Edgbaston on September 21 with that total now on exactly 1,500.”It is a huge relief, not just to me but to everyone involved with the club,” Madsen admitted after receiving the Man of the Match award for his 47. “It has been a great day for us. We have developed a good culture in T20 and in the last seven or eight games we have really clicked. The supporters deserve this and we will go to Edgbaston with a lot of confidence.”As the 18th and last county to make Finals Day since the competition was inaugurated in 2003, Derbyshire have taken their time to get here. But the club blueprint with a specialist coach for the format in Dominic Cork is sure to be examined by the rest given unprecedented interest in the Blast this season. Spare seats, again, were rare dots in the crowd, and spectators were cramped just as tightly on the balconies of the flats behind the Ashley Down Road end.Godleman wisely chose to field first given the peculiar appearance of the pitch. It was so green the stumps might have been hammered into the wrong part of the square, but he and his bowlers quickly assessed its true, slowish and slightly two-paced character. With the fielding display matching the discipline with the ball, Gloucestershire fell well short of the average first-innings score here this season, of 164.Batsmen received few opportunities to challenge the shorter, straight boundaries, and the wagon wheel deceives because two of the sixes that look the result of fierce return drives were actually top-edged pulls. After a reasonable start, Gloucestershire found themselves strangled by the medium pace of Alex Hughes and Matt Critchley’s wrist spin. They never recaptured any momentum given by their opening pair.Michael Klinger ran into such good form at the end of the South Group stage – 264 runs in four innings – that he claimed to be re-thinking a decision to retire, but his dismissal in the ninth over proved a critical moment and has almost certainly persuaded him that he was right first time. Miles Hammond had already pushed to cover following an enterprising start and James Bracey reverse flipped to short third man, leaving a rebuilding operation once Klinger failed to beat Ravi Rampaul’s throw from the edge of the circle.In fact, Derbyshire conceded only 38 runs in the eight overs immediately on from the Powerplay. Crucially, they continued to make inroads, and the catch by Critchley off his own bowling to remove Jack Taylor was so well-judged and athletic, running back to his right and finally diving to hold the ball one-handed, that he deserved his name twice on the dismissal: ct Critchley b Critchley.Much now hinged on Ian Cockbain, and for all his swings into the leg side, Derbyshire made sure that boundaries never came in clusters. Rampaul was exceptional at the end, changing pace and finding yorker-length, and went above Matt Parkinson at the top of the wicket-taking list for the season when Andrew Tye became his 22nd victim, fittingly to a full-length ball.”I think we needed a minimum of 160,” Klinger admitted. “The pitch played pretty well, the odd one held up but we knew Derbyshire were going to take pace off the ball anyway.” He could only lament the absence of Benny Howell to a serious hamstring injury, though the serious damage had been done by the time their leading exponent of dibbly-dob would have joined the attack.Madsen said as much, modestly deflecting his own sensible effort in praising the explosive start supplied by Godleman and Reece. Having identified the Powerplay overs as the most propitious time to attack, they were so positive that the required rate fell to below a run per ball by the end of the third over, Godleman bringing out the Australian fire in Tye by charging the pace bowler during a short, captivating passage.They fell in successive overs and Madsen was a shade fortunate that his first boundary, with Tye bustling in as Mike Procter used to at the ground, sailed only inches high of cover. From then on, he found leg-side gaps expertly and with the boundaries fully patrolled the singles and hard-run twos made for very easy pickings. That was all Derbyshire needed.Vitality Blast semi-finals
Derbyshire Falcons v Essex Eagles
Worcestershire Rapids v Notts Outlaws

Australia’s recently axed selector Merv Hughes believes Mitchell Johnson should play the Adelaide Test, and Ben Hilfenhaus was the most disappointing of Australia’s bowlers at the Gabba

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Dec-2010Australia’s recently axed selector Merv Hughes believes Mitchell Johnson should play the Adelaide Test, and Ben Hilfenhaus was the most disappointing of Australia’s bowlers at the Gabba. Hughes was sacked in October, leaving no specialist bowling input in the four-man selection panel, and he thinks Johnson is being unfairly maligned after the Brisbane draw.The selectors have added Doug Bollinger and Ryan Harris to the squad for the Adelaide Test, which begins on Friday, and Johnson is considered the most likely man to be dropped for his 0 for 170. It was the worst match analysis in Johnson’s Test career, but Hilfenhaus’ 1 for 142 was also far from his best, and collectively the Australian attack took only 11 wickets in the match.”Ben Hilfenhaus … he was the guy up there that I expected, especially on the first day, to do a really good job,” Hughes said on the Melbourne radio station SEN. “And probably his performance, for mine, is a little bit more disappointing than Mitchell’s. Everyone is having a crack at Mitchell Johnson. Now if other bowlers have taken wickets, you can point the finger at Mitch and say ‘mate, you have got to lift your game’.”Adelaide is probably going to suit Mitchell Johnson a little bit better than Brisbane because it sort of slides on, his extra pace is going to be useful. I think we are just starting to get too critical. We are starting to expect a lot from a young man that, yes, he has got talent, but really hasn’t matured or developed into the cricketer that he can be. And by cutting him short, and leaving him out of this Test match, it’s going to dent his confidence more than anything else.”The Adelaide pitch is expected to be tough work for the fast men, and the short boundaries mean there won’t be any leeway for bowlers who drop short. Harris is easily the most experienced of the Australian fast bowlers at the venue, having played most of his career at South Australia before switching to Queensland.Neither Hilfenhaus nor Bollinger have a first-class five-for at Adelaide Oval, while Johnson has taken 31 first-class wickets there at 22.93 in six appearances, and Peter Siddle has a best of 5 for 27 despite playing only two matches there. Greg Chappell, Australia’s full-time selector, said the panel was not worried about Johnson’s Test form and realised that rotating their bowlers throughout the Ashes was an option.”Worried is not a word I would use,” Greg Chappell told the . “We obviously recognise he’s not in the peak of form at the moment, so we’re keen to see him back to that as soon as possible. Players go through ups and downs in various stages of their careers … He’s still one of our key bowlers.”We’re conscious of the fact there’s five matches in seven weeks. We were always going to look at playing horses for courses to get the best combinations for each wicket. For that reason primarily, also conscious of the fact we can’t expect to take the same bowlers through five matches in seven weeks.”

Aston Villa showed great character and determination on Saturday to come from 3-0 down to snatch a stoppage time equaliser against Sheffield United, which gave Dean Smith’s men at least a point from the match.

Villa were staring down defeat at Villa Park and with only eight minutes left to play Tyrone Mings gave the home-side a lifeline before Tammy Abraham and Andre Green got in on the act to rescue the result.

But, the draw was again a sign of the inconsistency that Villa have been struggling with this season, while it was also the Birmingham club’s 14th draw of the campaign, the most by any team in the Championship.

Draws have begun to cost Villa points lately, instead of helping them secure valuable results.

The main problem, though, for Smith’s team has been the fact that they have scored quite a lot of goals in these draws.

Defensively, Villa have struggled for a while now due to injuries to some of the club’s main centre-backs, but going forward, the Villans have been lethal and the performances of someone like Abraham this season might have deserved better than a draw at stages.

One five-all draw, two three-all draws and five two-all draws aren’t really results to be proud of and in the long-run it has probably done Villa more harm than good for a club of such stature.

It is also worrying that the majority of those results have been come-from-behind draws where Villa left it late to get a point from the encounter.

Currently tenth in the league, Villa could’ve been higher up the table should they have seen out some of those draws by securing a victory instead and it could’ve helped their fight for a playoff spot.

But, if Smith doesn’t sort out the struggles at the back soon, these results could continue towards the end of the season.

One of Sheffield Wednesday’s out-of-contract stars has received two pre-contract offers from abroad, according to Football League World this week…

What’s the word?

They claim that Belgian league leaders Club Brugge and Portuguese giants Sporting Lisbon have offered 20-year-old Owls gem Osaze Urhoghide terms ahead of the summer, when his contract expires at Hillsborough Stadium.

Teams across Europe can enter negotiations with players in England six months before their deal ends, whilst domestic rivals have to wait until the contract is complete, thus handing them a considerable advantage.

Leeds, Palace and Watford have been mooted with interest in Urhoghide before, so it seems unlikely that he will remain a Wednesday player much longer, especially if they are relegated to League One.

Moore will be gutted

This will not only come as a huge blow to Moore but will also be gutting towards his plans next season, as the South Yorkshire academy graduate is the sort of player he’d love to build round.

The former West Brom manager has built up a reputation as a successful youth coach and that is a trend he continued when taking the helm at nearby Doncaster Rovers, where they were contending for a playoff spot under his tenure – also possessing an average squad age of 24.6, amongst the four youngest in the division.

Despite not being in the dugout recently, Moore has still continued to select the 20-year-old this season. Indeed, he’s made 16 appearances in all competitions, with the bulk coming since the turn of the year.

Following a particularly impressive display against local rivals Barnsley last month, the Owls boss heaped praise on his young defender. He said to The Star:

“I don’t like to pick out individuals because I thought they were all excellent, but he was immense today in terms of his performance. In terms of his contacts, in terms of getting in the radar of the opponents and spoiling it – he was absolutely rock solid.”

Urhoghide has also been lauded by club captain Barry Bannan, who gave an insight into his potential too.

“He’s always willing to learn and ask questions,” explained the Scottish midfielder. “He’s a good lad and I’m really happy for him. I think we’ve got a player there.”

These are all characteristics that have already delighted Moore, as evident above, so to lose him for nothing – in the same vein as Liam Shaw to Celtic and many more before him – will be a truly crushing blow.

When teams that have the potential of playing in Europe next season come calling, you’d imagine that Wednesday stand no chance in keeping him. A disappointing but understandable likely end to his Owls career.

AND in other news, this Owls monster was Moore’s unsung hero against Rovers…

In an exclusive interview with Football FanCast, former Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Carlton Palmer has suggested that Owls midfielder Liam Shaw will need a loan move in the future.

Shaw, whose time at Hillsborough is coming to an end, has agreed to join Scottish giants Celtic in the summer on a free transfer.

With Celtic expected to compete for the league title next season and set to feature in Europe, moving to Glasgow is a huge opportunity for Shaw.

Palmer, though, believes it may have come too soon for the 20-year-old, feeling that he could struggle to get game time at Celtic Park.

Discussing Shaw’s transfer to Celtic, Palmer told FFC:

“Liam is going to struggle going to Celtic that age to play. He’ll probably end up going there and going out on loan, I’m assuming, I don’t know.”

Speaking on the midfielder’s move further, the former Wednesday player added:

“If I was Liam, I’d be wanting to get out on loan somewhere where it’s guaranteed that he’s going to play because you can do that. I’ve done it before where I’ve taken a player when I was manager at Stockport and the manager’s come to me and said, ‘right, listen, I’ll let the player come, but he’s got to play.’ Bit like David Beckham when he went to Preston, that’s how they develop. They’ve got to play.”

Whoever is in the Celtic Park dugout next season will be demanding a lot from Shaw and his future team-mates. The Bhoys have been extremely underwhelming this term, surrendering their title to rivals Rangers while crashing out of the Europa League in disappointing fashion.

Wolves are currently lying in the bottom half of the Premier League but things aren’t set to get any easier.

They will be missing Jonny for a considerable period of time after he suffered a second ACL injury of the campaign while their Player of the Season has now been ruled out too.

On the chalkboard

When Raul Jimenez suffered a fractured skull back in November, every Wolves fan will have thought the worst.

They were right to as well. Fabio Silva has only scored three goals in the Old Gold while their January replacement, Willian Jose, has netted just once.

One player who took on the mantle significantly was Pedro Neto. He has been one of the most outstanding young players in the Premier League this season and as such, has earned links to clubs like Manchester United.

He is their top scorer on five goals and he is also their best source of creativity, providing six assists for his teammates.

No one has made Wolves tick more than the Portuguese so to lose him to a broken knee cap is devastating news.

Neto will now miss the next six months of competition, damaging not his chances of securing an exit but also Wolves’ ambitions.

The solution

The Old Gold have considered a number of transfer targets ahead of the summer, one of which is Lucas Ocampos.

Football Insider revealed last month that the Molineux outfit were considering a move for the Sevilla winger.

[snack-amp-story url= “https://www.footballfancast.com/web-stories/read-the-latest-wolves-news-and-views-lingard-leao-jimenez-mir” title= “Read the latest Wolves news and views!”]

A proven La Liga talent, he’d be an astute capture from the Wolves hierarchy and could undoubtedly soften the blow of losing Neto for such a long period.

The youngster will miss the opening part of next term and thus, they will need to find a renewed sense of creativity and a goalscoring threat from elsewhere.

Ocampos could provide that in abundance. The Argentine, who can play on either flank, has scored more goals than Neto this term (7) and has registered four assists. That’s taken his tally in a Sevilla shirt to 24 strikes and nine assists throughout 83 games.

He has starred in Europe this term and has amassed a mouth-watering three dribbles per game; a tally that usurps Wolves’ dazzling winger in the Premier League – he has registered 2.1 in comparison.

Speaking about the 26-year-old previously, Fede Prami, a journalist and River Plate fan recalled his days in Argentina, calling him “electric.”

Indeed, if any quote was to sum up Neto’s energy in equal measure, it would be that.

Losing their attacking wizard is a blow, but Fosun could definitely soften it luring Ocampos to the Midlands.

AND in other news, Forget Jose: Wolves gem who won 13 duels stole the show on Saturday, he’s “unplayable”…

Leeds United are expected to be without three key players for their Premier League clash with reigning champions Liverpool.

The Whites are still basking in the glory of their 2-1 win away to Manchester City last weekend, in what was a famous top-flight victory.

Marcelo Bielsa and his players are now preparing for the visit of Liverpool next Monday, in what promises to be an entertaining contest, given the last meeting saw seven goals.

Leeds aren’t without their injury problems ahead of the game, however, and it looks as though several big players will be absent against the Reds.

[freshpress-quiz id=“351040″]

Leeds trio absent for Liverpool meeting

According to The Athletic‘s Tom Worville on Twitter, Liam Cooper, Raphinha and Rodrigo could all miss out on Monday night, acting as a blow to Bielsa.

Cooper is suspended after picking up a red card at City, while the two attackers are expected to be out for at least seven days, per The Athletic’s injury chart, which would of course rule them out also.

Transfer Tavern take

Cooper and Raphinha’s absences are particularly key for Leeds, with the former so consistent at the back this season and the latter one of the stars of the campaign at Elland Road.

Raphinha’s quality will be missed because it would have made Andy Robertson less likely to attack, as the Scot is playing alongside two inexperienced centre-backs, not to mention the Brazilian’s six goals and six assists.

Instead, it may give the Reds full-back more encouragement to push on, allowing him to link-up with either Sadio Mane or Diogo Jota down the left flank, and perhaps causing further trouble for a Leeds defence without their captain.

In other news, one Leeds player has been tipped to be a regular starter next season – find out who it is here.