England’s chairman of selectors, David Graveney, has confirmed that Darren Goughwill not be selected for the forthcoming Test series in New Zealand.Gough was omitted from the squad for the three-match series along with Surrey’s Alec Stewart after both players decided to miss the first part of the winter programme in India.Gough’s recent good form in India and New Zealand had led to speculation that England might ask him to stay on.”The players were offered a contract that encompassed two Test series in India and New Zealand,” Graveney said.”Darren decided he wanted a rest and that’s up to him. Therefore the squadswere chosen without him playing Test match cricket. He is an important guy but we have to stick to decisions that we have made.”There could be extreme circumstances with injuries or whatever – situationscould change. But at the present stage I am happy to let Duncan and Nasser get on with the cricket. Our situation hasn’t changed, whatever speculation there has been.”
Punjab qualified for the Semifinals of the Vijay Merchant Trophy thanks to the first innings lead over Saurashtra. Rahul Arora missed out on the double century as he got out at 195. Arora was severe on Saurashtra bowling smashing 6 sixes and 19 fours in his 267 balls. He was given good support by T Kanish who made 88 (2 sixes, 6 fours) as they put on 198 for the seventh wicket in 45 overs. Punjab were all out for 493 in the 117th over. S Padhiyar picked up three of the four wickets to fall on the third day. At the close of play Saurashtra were 197/5 in 50 overs in their second innings. BM Chauhan made 46 and A Sinha 38 to steady the innings after losing J Yadav for a duck. S Padhiyar was inbeaten on 35 with CA Pujara on 32. Vipul Sharma picked up 3/26 to take the match tally to 8/69.
Under-fire Everton boss Frank Lampard faces a tough battle in his quest to renew the Toffees’ Premier League status for next season. It’s a battle that is made even more difficult as he returns to the club where it all started in West Ham United.
The Hammers will certainly not consider their opponents’ position in the table this season and will be out to fight for their own cause, as they look to bustle their way into the Champions League places in what, albeit, looks like a very unlikely ambition.
Two wins from their last six games in all competitions is not the kind of form that will elevate David Moyes’ side to that next level and todays fixture at the London Stadium represents a high stakes fixture for both sides.
West Ham seem to have lost momentum at the worst possible time of the season and will need a win against this season’s Premier League strugglers Everton in order to bounce back from what was a disappointing 3-1 loss against Antonio Conte’s Spurs side last time out.
Everton are in a similar vein of form, with the Toffees also registering two wins from six in all competitions, though one of their two wins came against National League outfit Boreham Wood during their FA Cup tie, so make of that what you will.
During that span of six games, Lampard’s side have shipped an unbelievable 11 goals and scored just three with both stats pointing towards serious downfall for the Merseyside outfit.
In terms of injury news, Lampard is optimistic over the return of the 6 foot 5 Colombian giant Yerry Mina and believes he will return to action in “the next couple of weeks.”
The Everton boss also revealed that Fabian Delph’s return could be “in another week or so” whilst the “long-term injury” to Andros Townsend will be a disappointing one to take for the Toffees faithful.
This is how we believe the Toffees XI will line up against an ambitious West Ham side:
Our prediction sees Richarlison, who was dubbed a “top” player by journalist Carl Markham, miss out after failing to score since the middle of January.
As a result, the £37.8m-rated Dominic Calvert-Lewin returns in what will be just his third start since early March.
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His inclusion in the side will come as a huge boost with the Toffees in need of goals. Calvert-Lewin should certainly bring more of a goal threat considering his 21 strikes in 2020/21.
Townsend will miss out through injury, with Demarai Gray coming in to replace him and Andre Gomes will be axed for the inclusion of on-loan United midfielder Donny Van de Beek in the third and final change to the side.
In other news – Everton must finally unleash £19.8m-rated “freak of a talent” who has been “destroyed”
St Vincent and the Grenadines made a meal of the target set by Trinidad & Tobago and handed them a 59-run win and a spot in the semi-finals of the Stanford 20/20.Dwayne Bravo plundered 62 off 34 balls and added 86 with William Perkins (56) to revive the T&T innings following a poor start. T&T had scored 55 for 3 in the first ten overs. By the 15th – with Bravo and Perkins on the offensive – 55 more were added without the loss of any wicket. Bravo hit a six and two fours off Romel Currency’s first over that went for 18 runs. But the T&T batsmen’s urgency to score runs was evident though ill-advised with four of the seven wickets falling to run-outs. Keon Peters was St Vincent’s most successful bowler, removing Perkins and Bravo in successive overs.St Vincent’s chase was checked right from the second ball when opener Miles Bascombe was caught off Mervyn Dillon for a duck. It hit further snags on the way and at the end of the first ten overs St Vincent were 37 for 6.Legspinner Samuel Badree dried up the runs, conceding only nine from his four overs, and took two wickets off successive deliveries. Deighton Butler was St Vincent’s top scorer with an unbeaten 33.On February 15 T&T will play the winner of the match between Barbados and Grenada to fight for a spot in the final.
It was a measure of Sri Lanka’s overwhelming superiority in this game that Muttiah Muralitharan could afford to have a mediocre outing. Having suffered a bit of a mauling at Brian Lara’s hands in 2001, Murali ran into another left-hander determined to assert himself.Shivnarine Chanderpaul might have struggled to work Chaminda Vaas and Dilhara Fernando off the square, but he pummelled four sixes off Murali while taking him for 38 from just 31 balls. For the near-capacity crowd, it was but consolation, with the asking rate having climbed into double figures as early as the 30th over.In their first Super Eights game, Sri Lanka lost a match that they would have expected to win, against South Africa on a sluggish pitch. But with even the weather gods frowning on them on Sunday morning, they delved deep to produce the sort of dynamic all-round performance that had pushed a feeble Indian side through the tournament’s trap-door.The headlines will undoubtedly be hogged by Sanath Jayasuriya, after 115 scintillating runs and three wickets, but just as critical was a dogged 82 from Mahela Jayawardene. When he arrived at the crease, Sri Lanka were sliding on very thin ice. Lara had won an important toss, and Daren Powell was making use of it with another excellent spell of new-ball bowling.His seven World Cup innings in 2003 had fetched Jayawardene all of 21 runs, and his record over the past few months against decent opposition was nothing to crow about. Had he departed early, as he did against South Africa, a combination of the leaden skies, raucous support and committed work in the field might have induced a collapse.It didn’t happen. The sky stayed grey, and the crowd roared, but West Indies disintegrated once Powell’s spell was over. Chris Gayle started with long hops and wides, and was duly swatted away, while the usually metronomic Ian Bradshaw endured a real savaging from Jayasuriya. The two Dwaynes, Bravo and Smith, are usually effective on these kind of pitches, but once Jayasuriya abandoned circumspection for bristling intent, they were made to look like trundlers with little variety and guile.As Jayasuriya went from handbrake to full throttle in the space of a few deliveries, Jayawardene had the time to play himself in. He needed it too, appearing listless and strokeless in the opening exchanges. Only ten came from the first 25 balls he faced, and after 50 deliveries, he was becalmed on 22, by which time Jayasuriya had thumped to a run-a-ball 53.
When asked what it felt like to break out of his slump finally, Jayawardene laughed and said: “I got runs against Bermuda. You don’t count that?”For him and most others apart from the exceptional Jayasuriya, batting was hard work on this Providence pitch. Of Sri Lanka’s total, only 106 came in boundaries, and the quality of the running between wickets was mitigated only by some abysmal West Indian fielding. Smith’s failure to catch Jayawardene at deep midwicket might not have been costly in terms of runs, but it summed up a third successive West Indian debacle after an encouraging start to the competition.After the defeat to South Africa, Tom Moody had talked of how his batsmen would address the situation. Jayasuriya, who Jayawardene termed a “big-game player”, shone the torch for the others with his 25th century, an innings of two parts that he said he would “never forget”. Having eked out 14 from the first 33 balls he faced, Jayasuriya exploded into life with the third Powerplay being taken. Batting as though he desired an extra zero on his back – his shirt has 07 on it – he raced to his century from 86 balls. There was the odd miscue on a slow pitch, but the patented pick-up shots over the leg side were breathtaking.”He was exceptional today,” Lara, who knows a thing or two about special World Cup knocks, said. “We did not see it coming.” Jayawardene certainly did. “He changed the momentum,” he said. “Sanath took the pressure out. I could play risk-free and straight. I didn’t have to look for runs.”The 183-run partnership effectively settled the game, with Tillakaratne Dilshan’s 22-ball cameo merely making West Indian shoulders droop even more. But even with so much by way of run-insurance, Sri Lanka were exceptional in the field. “The idea was not to give them an explosive start,” Jayawardene said. “They had to take chances.”Few of them came off, though Chanderpaul’s sixes did give Murali ordinary figures for a change. Tremendous wicketkeeping had already killed off admittedly slim West Indian hopes, with both Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan suspended in mid-air as Kumar Sangakkara whipped off the bails faster than you could say Jumpin’ Jack Flash. “He’s a workaholic,” Jayawardene said later. “He bats for hours and hours and keeps for hours too. It pays off.”Almost everything Sri Lanka tried today paid off too. “They played good cricket,” Lara said. “We didn’t play to the best of our ability but were totally outclassed. They ticked all the boxes.” Jayawardene admitted that it would be “brilliant to dream of winning the World Cup”, but didn’t dare look as far ahead as April 28. If they can play like this though, the chance of that dream becoming reality can’t be discounted.
Under immense pressure for his poor batting form, Hamish Marshall has been instructed by John Bracewell, his coach, to raise his performance in the third Test against West Indies at Napier or face the axe. Marshall, New Zealand’s makeshift opener, has endured a lean period in the last 11 months and was included in the Test squad mainly because of his willingness to open the batting.Bracewell has taken a few drastic decisions of late with regard to New Zealand’s batting order, particularly with Lou Vincent’s controversial omission from the Test squad. The selectors have been keen on blooding new players and the advent of batsmen like Jamie How and Peter Fulton has increased the competition in the batting order.However, Marshall remained confident when asked about dealing with pressure. Speaking to the , Marshall said, “If you’re not scoring many then there’s always going to be people commenting on your game and the selection issue will always come up as well; that’s just the reality of cricket and sport. I just have to go out and hopefully get some runs, and if things go my way hopefully I can hang in there and make a decent knock of it.”Marshall would have fond memories of Napier, where he scored 160 against Sri Lanka last April, rounding off an impressive home season, which included a productive series against Australia. However, Marshall’s lean trot began with the tour of Zimbabwe in August, scoring just 20 and 13 in the two Tests. He was promoted to open the batting in the first Test against West Indies at Auckland with debutant How, but has flattered to deceive, averaging just 12.66.He said he was not averse to opening the innings and that he would require more time to get settled in his new role. “I’m still getting used to the mindset of opening, and instead of being so defensive in terms of survival I just have to go out there and play my shots. If there’s a bad ball I need to hit it, rather than defend it.”It’s a new role and I’m still getting the feel for it. I was probably a little tentative in the way I approached it, but in the second innings in Wellington I thought ‘what the heck’ and just played the bad ball.”
ScorecardWest Indies women edged to a tight three-wicket victory against South Africa, at the Technikon Oval, to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match one-day series, hastily arranged after both teams where knocked out of the World Cup. Chasing 207 to win, Nelly Williams was the star for the West Indies, anchoring the run chase with an unbeaten 82. At 148 for 2 the target looked a formality but a middle-order collapse opened the door for South Africa, before Williams settled the issueSouth Africa’s top order had put in a solid performance against a West Indies outfit who had, for their part, performed better than expected, to come fifth and gain a place at the next World Cup. Daleen Terblanche (68) and Cri-Zelda Brits (53) shared an opening stand of 121 to give South Africa a solid platform, and Johmari Logtenberg added 40 at No 3. But the middle and lower-order could not maintain the scoring rate and South Africa ended at least 20 runs short of the total they should have made.The result will not have helped the cause of Stephen Jones, the South African coach, who called on the women to “be serious about the future” after the hosts fared worse than expected in the World Cup – prompting Jones to criticise their board implicitly for their lack of assistance – meaning they will have to re-qualify for the next tournament.
Justin Langer issued the challenge.Steve Waugh – surprise, surprise – accepted.He hasn’t lost his sense of occasion.Langer, the Western Australia captain, made a freewheeling 163 not out against New South Wales at the Sydney Cricket Ground today, setting the Pura Cup match alight by chasing fast runs and making a bold declaration that triggered a thrilling limited overs-style run chase on the final afternoon.The Blues were set 303 from 52 overs for outright victory.Waugh clobbered 117 not out from 141 balls and the seriously in-form Simon Katich purred to an unbeaten 71 in 45 balls to get the defending Pura Cup champions over the line with 4.4 overs and five wickets to spare.”It was a pretty incredible day,” said the NSW and Australian skipper after the Blues finished on 5-303.”I played well, paced myself well and Simon helped me out at the end.”Full credit to both sides – for them setting a target and us going for it. A lot of sides wouldn’t have gone for it. It was a generous declaration and we probably didn’t deserve it but in the end it was a great game.”The revered Test skipper hustled to the crease at 3-70 in the 11th over after Michael Slater (17 off 21 balls) and pinch hitters Nathan Pilon (19 off 16) and Don Nash (13 off eight) had given the Blues a flying start.Waugh immediately found the boundary through cover in an ominous sign. Driving on the rise, hitting powerfully, clearly enjoying the thrill of the chase, he raced to a half century from 46 balls, almost decapitating a few fieldsmen along the way.And then a rarity – Waugh played a hook shot, believed to be his first since 1998.The departure of Phil Jaques for a 35-ball cameo of 43 brought Mark Waugh to the crease. After a typically brief discussion, the twins set about making the 134 runs still required from 25 overs. Langer was eyeing off six more wickets, not the least because Katich supposedly had a thumb injury.X-rays cleared Katich of any serious problem and he replaced Mark Waugh, who was bowled by Beau Casson for 13 not long after hitting an enormous six. Eighty-eight runs were needed from 16 overs and the mood was tense.Coming off his imperious 182 not out in the first innings, Katich batted out of this world. Waugh was 100 when they joined forces and added only 17 runs of an 88-run stand in 77 balls with the classy left-hander.”He couldn’t move his thumb,” said Waugh of Katich.”I said take a couple of Panadol Fortes and get out there … it was an amazing innings of his.”Langer deserved enormous credit for the aggressive team tactics and declaration which saved the game from fizzling into a tame draw.Asked about Waugh, he shook his head and rolled his eyes.”It ended up a great game,” he said.”We set them 300-odd in 52 overs – it was probably a pretty fair declaration.”Langer’s boundary-riddled ton, a record-breaking 22nd for WA, came from just 236 balls and included 18 fours and two sixes. With Ryan Campbell, he racked up a quick 92-run stand in 66 minutes before gambling on a second innings declaration at 8-362, setting the Blues’ their tempting target.Waugh – and Katich – were unable to resist.Five-hundred-and-eleven runs were scored on the day, about double the number of people lucky enough to be watching.
Scores after the latest round of games in the National Under-17 tournament at Nelson Park in Napier today were:Northern Districts 228 (K Read 86, P Carey 33; B Newton 4-29) beat Canterbury 219 (D Crosbie 42, M Ling 40; J Morgan 5-35, K Goble 2-31) by 9 runs.Otago 209/8 (T McLean 37, J Pyle 34 not out, W Henry 34, C Smith 32; A Corliss 2-26) beat Wellington 169 (S McLaughlan 32, M Martin 31, J Newdick 29; M McLean 4-29) by 40 runs.Central Districts 198 (T Shurr 59, T Gillespie 42, H Beaumont 32); C McDowell 5-34; S McKay 2-29) beat Auckland 61 (D Bolstan 3-13, D MacDonald 3-31, S Wheeler 3-16) by 137 runs.Points after Round three are: Central Districts 10, Wellington 8, Northern Districts 6, Auckland 4, Otago 2, Canterbury 0.
Tripura went into the last day of their Ranji Trophy East Zone Leaguematch played at Keenan Stadium, Jamshedpur on Wednesday at 92/2 still114 runs behind Bihar. And Tripura did themselves proud by batting allthrough the day and finishing at 333/7 in 135 overs. Bihar were helpedby some useful partnerships all along. But the star of the day forTripura was the right handed batsman Mridul Gupta who scored 99.Mridul was unlucky to have got out just one short of a hundred. Hefaced 167 balls and hit 15 sizzling fours. There were notable scoresby S Dasgupta (63) who added 78 in 24.1 overs for the fourth wicketwith Mridul Gupta. C Sachdev made 37 and added 92 in 26.4 overs withMridul for the fifth wicket. Bihar tried out nine different bowlersbut none were really sharp enough to make decisive breakthroughs.Tripura earned three points by the virtue of a draw. Bihar whodominated with the bat, had to be satisfied with five points thanks tothe first innings lead.