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Steve Rhodes claimed a “moral victory” for Worcestershire after rain thwarted their victory attempt on the final day of the Championship match against Gloucestershire

George Dobell at New Road01-Jun-2010
ScorecardSteve Rhodes claimed a “moral victory” for Worcestershire after rain thwarted their victory attempt on the final day of the Championship match against Gloucestershire.Worcestershire would have risen to second in the division two table had they been able to secure the win. But, with rain preventing any play until 3.45, the visitors were able to cling on for a draw. Perhaps, had Vikram Solanki clung on to a chance offered by Vikram Banerjee at fourth slip, Worcestershire might have been able to force victory.But, by then, Gloucestershire were already 85 runs ahead with just 18 overs remaining.
It was wretched luck for Alan Richardson, however. The 35-year-old seamer, who bowled 28 accurate overs in the second innings, was easily the pick of the attack and richly deserved his third five-wicket haul of the campaign.A couple of Gloucestershire players were also grateful for the reprieve. Both James Franklin and Chris Taylor were dismissed by bizarrely inappropriate shots. Franklin obligingly pulled directly to the man positioned for the shot on the square-leg boundary, before Taylor undid much of the value of his resistance with a horrid heave across the line.Without Richard Jones, however, who was off the field with a hamstring strain, Richardson lacked support and Gloucestershire were able to cling on until the sides agreed to shake hands on the draw with 10 of the scheduled overs remaining. Jones will undergo a scan to ascertain the extent of his injury in the next 24 hours.”It’s very frustrating,” Worcestershire’s director of cricket, Steve Rhodes, said afterwards. “I felt we played all the cricket in the game but we can’t control the weather. That’s two games in a row we’ve had the best of draws. It’s a moral victory.”Rhodes expressed satisfaction at Worcestershire’s start to the season, however, taking particular pleasure in the performance of the club’s younger players.”We’re reasonably well placed,” he said. “We’ve only lost one [championship] game – which is better than anyone else in the division – and we’ve shown a bit of resilience. There are good signs for the future. Our two leading run scorers are aged 20 and 22 [Alexei Kervezee and Moeen Ali respectively] while until this game 23-year-old Richard Jones was our leading wicket taker. All three are very ambitious and, with hard work, can go a stage further.”I’ve always said I want us to be in a position to challenge for promotion in the last month of the season. That would be lovely. We’re a proud county and we want to be playing in the top division.”Gloucestershire were stung by the news that they had suffered a two-point deduction for their tardy over rate. Still, they are up to second in the table (equal on points with Sussex, who have a game in hand) and look likely to be involved in the promotion race.”We still felt we could win this morning,” their captain, Alex Gidman said afterwards. “But to come out of the game with a draw having not played our best cricket is a positive for us.”
Gidman also insisted he was not concerned by his side’s poor form with the bat. Despite Gloucestershire averaging the lowest score per wicket of any side in the country and are the only team without a first-class century in the campaign.”I’m not really worried, no,” he said. “We’ve played on some tough wickets and, at the halfway stage of the season, we’re challenging for promotion. Statistics are fine, but it’s what works for the team that is important, and we’re right in the hunt.”Meanwhile Gloucestershire have added Ian Butler to their squad for the T20 Cup. The fast bowling allrounder, who recently impressed in New Zealand’s World T20 campaign, joins up with compatriots John Bracewell, Hamish Marshall and James Franklin in Bristol.

South Australia are resigned to being without the powerful allrounder Kieron Pollard for the Champions League in South Africa in September

Cricinfo staff25-Jun-2010South Australia are resigned to being without the powerful allrounder Kieron Pollard for the Champions League in South Africa in September and are still waiting to learn whether Shahid Afridi will be available. Pollard and Afridi were key components in the Redbacks qualifying for the lucrative Twenty20 event, but they were not part of the state’s 20-man preliminary squad for the tournament.Pollard’s IPL side Mumbai Indians are also in the competition and he will have a third option if his home side Trinidad and Tobago win the domestic series in the West Indies next month. Afridi’s calendar has become complicated by his new leadership duties with Pakistan and a South Australian spokeswoman said they were unsure whether he would be available.The offspinner Dan Cullen has been given hope that his career with South Australia is not over after being named in the outfit. Cullen, who played a Test in 2006, was cut from the Redbacks’ contract list along with Mark Cosgrove after the summer, but remains in their plans even if he doesn’t make the final 15-man squad.South Australia will test out their new leadership team at the event, which they qualified for by finishing runner up to Victoria in the 2009-10 Big Bash final. Michael Klinger is the new captain and his deputy is Callum Ferguson, who did not play at all last summer due to a knee reconstruction.The squad will be boosted by Shaun Tait and Daniel Christian, who are currently playing in England’s domestic Twenty20 competition. Tait is with Glamorgan while Christian, a non-playing member of Australia’s World Twenty20 squad, is at Hampshire.South Australia squad Daniel Harris, James Smith, Michael Klinger (capt), Cameron Borgas, Aaron O’Brien, Graham Manou (wk), Daniel Christian, Gary Putland, Peter George, Callum Ferguson, Kane Richardson, Michael Cranmer, Jake Haberfield, Tim Ludeman, Shaun Tait, Tom Cooper, Chris Duval, Joel Davies, Cullen Bailey, Daniel Cullen.

Former England player Monte Lynch has been signed by the Southern Rocks franchise as head coach for the 2010-11 season

Cricinfo staff04-Aug-2010Former England player Monte Lynch has been signed by the Southern Rocks franchise as head coach for the 2010-11 season. Lynch played only three ODIs for England in 1988, but had a more storied first-class career, representing Gloucestershire, Surrey and Guyana in 359 games.Lynch was born in Guyana before migrating with his family to the UK as a child. After retiring from first-class cricket, he continued playing club cricket in Surrey. This will not be his first stint in Zimbabwe, having played and coached Old Winstonians, then a Harare-based development clube, in the mid-1990s.”He is very happy to come here,” Southern Rocks chief executive Givemore Makoni told . “He can’t wait to return to Zimbabwe. He has wonderful memories of the country and wants to resume the good job he started.”If you notice, we didn’t do too well last season because we had a young side. With his experience, Monte will add a lot of value to the team because the guys will be exposed to quality coaching,” Makoni said.Makoni mentioned Lynch had played a key role with the Old Winstonians, where he was involved in the progress of Zimbabwe cricketers Tatenda Taibu and Stuart Matsikenyeri, who were in primary school at the time. Coincidentally, Taibu and Matsikenyeri will be reunited with their mentor following their move to Rocks ahead of the new season.Lynch becomes the second high-profile coach to join a Zimbabwean side ahead of the upcoming season, after former Australia fast bowler Jason Gillespie signed a deal with Midwest Rhinos.

Pakistan would be best advised to hold a healthy respect for the task that lies ahead of them, as England will not hand over the series without a serious fight

Nagraj Gollapudi25-Aug-2010Pakistan dare not hesitate now. There are bound to be nerves and uneasiness ahead of the fourth Test at Lord’s, but this may not be the worst thing for a brash young side raised on the easy thrills of Twenty20 cricket. This is not the moment to be overconfident. Pakistan would be best advised to hold a healthy respect for the task that lies ahead of them, as England will not hand over the series without a serious fight.Exactly a month ago, despite a nerve-shattering win over Australia at Headingley, Pakistan walked into the England series as the weaker opponent. Over the following two weeks, at Trent Bridge and then Edgbaston, their batsmen stood numb against James Anderson’s prodigious swing, their fielders forgot they had hands to catch the ball and many people were starting to predict a 4-0 whitewash.Yet at The Oval, the site of the controversial 2006 Test, Pakistan played with belief and a hunger to win at all costs. Suddenly they had more than one matchwinner in their ranks. Their fast bowlers, who had carried the entire team up to that point, had some of the burden taken off their shoulders as the batsmen began to show some support. Almost every catch was held, and suddenly it was England who had more questions with Pakistan having found the answers to their problems.If Pakistan have managed not to be sucked in by the whirlpool of instability in their home country it is only because of the wise and mature leadership of Waqar Younis and Salman Butt. Both men remained level-headed regardless of Pakistan’s roller coaster ride on this exhaustive six-Test tour. As Pakistan enter the final match as equals for the first time this summer, once again it will be these two who will have to help the side find their feet as quickly as possible on unfamiliar territory.”We know the slopes and from where the winds comes. If we can play to our potential I do believe we can beat them and level the series,” Butt said with an assured smile, but without arrogance.Having touched both defeat and victory Butt’s philosophy is to see his glass as half full. “There is no need of going very high or very low. What we have to do is stick to our basics and do our best,” he said.Pakistan have never bounced back in a live series after being 2-0 down, and it is five years since they won consecutive Tests. Those wins were spread over two different Test series: the first achieved in Kingston against the West Indies in July 2005 followed by the narrow 22-run defeat they inflicted on England in Multan three months later.They couldn’t have picked a better venue to try and re-write history: Lord’s has a rich history of inspiring visiting cricketers and can inspire the most insipid of cricket fans. After the victory last week Butt stressed about the importance of history and how that can motivate young players. The walls at Lord’s are steeped in more than two centuries of historic performances.

It seems absurd that Andrew Strauss’s place in England’s one-day line-up was being debated on the day he struck 126 to set-up a 2-0 series lead against Pakistan

Andrew McGlashan at Headingley12-Sep-2010It seems absurd that Andrew Strauss’s place in England’s one-day line-up was being debated on the day he struck 126 to set-up a 2-0 series lead against Pakistan, but during the lunch interval of the second one-day international a panel of experts on TV selected their World Cup squads and Strauss wasn’t in the 15.Neither, for that matter, was Jonathan Trott, who is England’s in-form batsman of the moment in all formats and added 146 with Strauss at Headingley. But it was the absence of the current captain that provoked debate as he notched up his fifth one-day international hundred and second in three matches. The panel’s reasoning behind Strauss’s omission is his lack of runs straight down the ground and how he will adapt on the slower pitches in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.Yet since returning to the one-day side in early 2009 – at that time because there was no other choice following the messy end to Kevin Pietersen’s captaincy stint – Strauss has averaged 42.03 in 32 matches compared to a career mark of 35.06. He knows he will be the man leading England at the World Cup and the numbers back up that decision.”All I can do is do my talking with the bat and help England to win cricket matches,” he said. “Other people can talk as much as they like, it’s pretty irrelevant to me. I’ve worked very hard on trying to expand my game and it’s important I can lead by example. I’ve been in good form all summer and that helps because things tend to come a bit more naturally. I’m very happy with my game and even more happy that we are continuing to win.”However, his innings wasn’t without two moments of good fortune and Pakistan were convinced he’d been caught behind on 38 when Umar Gul nipped one back off the seam. Kamran Akmal held a fine catch but Billy Doctove turned down the appeal and a few words were exchanged between batsman and bowler. It led to Shahid Afridi calling for the introduction of the umpire review system for major one-day series.”Definitely it would be good in matches like this and in big series like this,” he said. “It is important that it’s in cricket now. I know in Twenty20 you don’t have much time but in one-dayers you would.”But on this occasion it wasn’t a clear-cut decision even on replays so the UDRS may not have even overturned the on-field call and Strauss was very content about standing his ground. “I wasn’t sure if it had hit my glove,” he said. “Nothing has changed in cricket, the umpires are there to make a decision and they did that.”Strauss was given a much more obvious life on 23 when Mohammad Irfan, the seven-foot pace bowler, couldn’t take a simple catch at short fine-leg. Irfan later limped off with cramp for the second match running and Afridi was far from impressed with his new recruit.”I’m really disappointed with this guy,” he said. “Cricket is not all about just batting and bowling, fielding is very important and maybe if he’s good in the field I will give him a chance otherwise I’m not happy.”However, Pakistan don’t have many other pace options in their squad. Wahab Riaz would be a controversial selection considering his links to the ongoing spot-betting allegations while Abdul Razzaq, who has been left out of the opening two matches, is due to undergo an MRI scan on his troublesome back in the next few days.

Not many expect much from the unheralded Central Districts, which puts them in perfect position to hurt a bigger team, especially one like Chennai, which tends to start slowly

The Preview by Sriram Veera in Durban10-Sep-2010

Match facts

Saturday, September 11
Start time 17.30 (15.30 GMT)Matthew Hayden had a poor IPL and will need to lift his game in the Champions League•Indian Premier League

Big Picture

This is just the second Champions League Twenty20 but it’s already built a strong perception: that the IPL teams are at a disadvantage because they are just mercenaries, ronins who assemble for two months a year. The real “teams” like Warriors or South Australia know each other better and gel with each other so well that they hold the edge. This second edition could make or break that cliché.Stephen Fleming, Chennai Super Kings’ coach, is slightly nervous, since he too believes in that perception. Or so he says. “It’s a big challenge for the IPL teams. They [teams like Central Districts] hold the advantage. They play a lot of cricket together. We just come together for two months in a year. We have used this week [of preparation] to get up to the speed. The best catalyst for that will be a win tomorrow. If things don’t go well we have to work very hard to get back into the competition. Tomorrow is a very important day.”It certainly is as Chennai have been slow starters in the last two editions of the IPL. Fleming says he is desperate to change that bad habit. In a short competition like this, and especially against a relatively weaker team like Central Districts, you can’t get off to a bad start.There are a few other concerns. Some haven’t played much competitive cricket. “Some players like Matthew Hayden are coming out of the cold,” Fleming said. “So you work harder with them but they are experienced. If you push too hard you are making too much of an issue of it. On one hand we are trying to be relaxed about what we need to do but as a coaching group you are bit nervous as you want to do a bit more.”Not that their opponent Central Districts are riding a wave of confidence. Inclement weather hampered their preparations back home. They just have managed a week of proper practice, according to their new coach Alan Hunt. The injuries to Jacob Oram and Graham Napier, and the loss of Ross Taylor to Bangalore Royal Challengers have been huge setbacks.Their strength is their mystery, their unknown quality. Even Fleming, a New Zealander, hasn’t seen many of their youngsters. Not that Hunt is expecting any miracles from his young team. He sees this tournament as an opportunity for his boys get used to playing at this level, learn from the exposure, and go back home as a better team and better professionals. “If we can do that, I would be happy.” Not many expect much from them. It puts them in perfect position to hurt a bigger team by an upset win.

Pitch and conditions

The pitches in the practice games have done quite a bit. The ball has swung and seamed around. Fleming called it “tricky”. The locals reckon 150 should be a good score. It has been drizzling in the late evenings for the past few days though the sun came out strongly today to revive batsmen’s hopes. Only time will tell how the pitch will behave.

Watch out for…

Michael Hussey is not the first name that springs to mind when you think of Twenty20. The Durban pitch could well put his talents at a premium. The ball is expected to seam and swing around. Hussey’s compact batsmanship could help hold Chennai together. If he stays in for a few overs he can prove to be a terrific finisher.Adam Milne, the 18-year-old lanky medium-fast bowler, grabbed four wickets in his debut first-class game last season after received a surprise call-up the night before. He has just played three first-class games. He doesn’t have any Twenty20 or any List A experience at the domestic level. His coach Hunt, though, reckons he could be the most potent young talent in this team.

Key contests

Matthew Hayden v Milne Hayden is known for his ruthlessness. He is known for taking apart colts and Milne is definitely the new kid in the block. Hayden sees such inexperience as an invitation to impose himself, to showcase his imperious nature. The contest could reveal Milne’s character.

Stats and trivia

• Matthew Hayden didn’t shine in the last IPL. Despite a score of 93 in one game, he only averaged 21. Six other Chennai players had better averages than him. That innings of 93, though, came in just 43 balls with seven sixes and nine fours.

Quotes

“They [Central Districts] have some youngsters even I don’t know about. They ware bit of unknown quantity but they have a great attitude and fight for everything. It will be a tricky start for us to the competition.”
Stephen Fleming is wary of his countrymen
“We are used to not having Jacob Oram around. We might not have the big stars but we have couple of young guys people don’t know much. Some might call us underdogs; I expect the crowds to get behind us”

Kane Williamson and Hamish Bennett, two uncapped players, have been included in New Zealand’s Test squad for the three-match tour of India beginning in Ahmedabad on November 4

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Oct-2010New Zealand batsman Kane Williamson and fast bowlers Hamish Bennett and Andy McKay, three uncapped players, have been included in the Test squad for the three-match tour of India beginning in Ahmedabad on November 4. The 15-man team also includes batsman Martin Guptill, who was in Zimbabwe with the New Zealand A team while the national side was being drubbed 4-0 in an ODI series in Bangladesh.”Kane Williamson is an impressive young talent and his game continues to improve with his involvement in the New Zealand team, while Bennett did everything asked of him on the recent tour of Bangladesh and offers the side a genuine pace option,” New Zealand coach and selector Mark Greatbatch said.Williamson was one batsman to emerge with any credit from New Zealand’s disastrous trip to Bangladesh, scoring his maiden ODI century in one of the defeats. Bennett picked up three wickets at 24.33 apiece in the two matches he played. Guptill as well as five other players – Brent Arnel, Chris Martin, Tim McIntosh, Gareth Hopkins and Jeetan Patel – will travel to India from Zimbabwe, where they have been playing four-day matches for New Zealand A.”The group of players coming from Zimbabwe have had the ideal preparation with three hard-fought matches in difficult conditions,” Greatbatch said. “The rest of the squad have been training hard and are keen to prove that they are better that the recent performances in Bangladesh.”The tour of India, the No. 1 ranked Test side, will be a testing one for New Zealand, especially after their disheartening performances in the slow and spinner-friendly conditions in Bangladesh. “We are well aware that we are recent performances are not up to scratch and we need to improve if we are to compete with a very strong Indian side – the team is determined to do so,” Greatbatch said. “Players outside the 15 will continue to be considered and we will closely monitor performances in the Plunket Shield. The door has not closed for any player.”New Zealand’s previous Test series was at home against Australia in March 2010. Three players – Mathew Sinclair, Peter Ingram, and James Franklin – were cut from the squad for that series.Squad: Daniel Vettori (capt), Brent Arnel, Hamish Bennett, Martin Guptill, Gareth Hopkins, Chris Martin, Brendon McCullum, Tim McIntosh, Andy McKay, Jeetan Patel, Jesse Ryder, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, BJ Watling, Kane Williamson.

ESPNcricinfo profiles the Super League teams in the Ranji Trophy

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Oct-2010

Tamil Nadu

R Ashwin will lead Tamil Nadu’s attack this season•Sivaraman Kitta/K Sivaraman

Tamil Nadu’s emergence as a consistent domestic force has been undermined by their inability to bring home the biggest prize; the last time they won the Ranji Trophy was in 1987-88. Last year, they marched into the knockouts after topping their group, but exited the tournament after conceding a decisive first-innings lead in the quarter-final against Delhi. The outcome would have rankled, given the abundance of talent in the side. Though they operated well as a cohesive unit, the absence of stand-out performers, with bat or ball, hampered them. S Badrinath (599 runs), who topped TN’s run-charts was only the ninth highest overall, while Aushik Srinivas’ haul of 23 wickets was less than half of table-topper Abhimanyu Mithun’s.Finding batsmen who can bat big, and bowlers who can run through the opposition, will be one of the priorities for the new coaching team that takes over from WV Raman who finished his four-year term last season. This time, the side has done away with the practice of appointing a single coach, and have put PC Prakash and Jayaraman Gokulakrishnan in charge of batting and bowling respectively. Will the specialist approach change TN’s fortunes?Having played most of their league games away from home last year, TN have the luck of the draw going their way this time – six of their seven matches will be played in three Chennai venues. The home advantage will surely add to their potency, but their biggest challenge will be finding the extra gear that teams like Mumbai shift into at the business end of the Ranji Trophy.What they did last seasonTN’s strong batting line-up, headed by Badrinath, Arun Karthik and M Vijay, helped them secure the first-innings advantage in their first two games, before the bowlers took charge. R Ashwin served notice of his all-round skills, bagging a five-for in the innings victory against Punjab, and setting up a hard-fought win against Himachal Pradesh with his batting. Srinivas and allrounder C Ganapathy flourished in the middle phase of the season, as TN drew with Orissa and Mumbai, after dominating the match against the eventual champions. Abhinav Mukund’s 257 was the highlight as TN’s batting machinery got into prime form for the knockouts, amassing 785 in their final group match against Hyderabad.In the quarter-final, however, TN ran into Delhi left-arm spinner Vikas Mishra after the top three had guided the score to 175 for 2. Srikkanth Anirudha’s maiden first-class ton and support from the lower order helped his side finish with 463, but on a flat track at the Palam A Ground, Delhi’s middle order had the reserves to get the lead and knock TN out.Men to watchAshwin’s exploits last season earned him a chance to shine in the IPL, and an opening into India’s limited-overs sides. This year, he has a chance to convince the selectors that he has the skills for Test cricket. The emergence of Suresh Raina and Cheteshwar Pujara has put Badrinath on the fringes of the Test side once again, and he will be hungry to force his way back into the frame, as will Dinesh Karthik. This season could be the big break for Arun Karthik and Abhinav Mukund, while left-arm spinner Srinivas will strive to repeat his success from 2009-10.

Railways

Will Murali Kartik get support from the other bowlers? Will Kulamani Parida be allowed to bowl this season?•AFP

For a side that pleasantly surprised everyone with three finals – and two titles – in five years during the early 2000s, Railways have tapered off lately, fighting back from relegation, and then settling for middle-of-the-table performances. That they are a side always struggling to retain players, many of whom prefer to turn out for their state sides rather than their employers, hasn’t helped. That they are in the same group this year as heavyweights Mumbai, Delhi and Tamil Nadu will certainly not make their task any easier.Railways continue to be heavily reliant on the batting of Sanjay Bangar, Yere Goud and TP Singh. Bangar and Goud are past 38 years, and TP is pushing 33. However, Faiz Fazal, the 25-year old former Vidarbha captain and Rajasthan Royals opener, has been a consistent performer over the past two seasons, and V Cheluvaraj showed promise last year in only his second first-class season, his 372 runs the third-highest for Railways in the tournament.It’s the bowling that is the bigger worry. Murali Kartik, the veteran left-arm spinner, was the only specialist bowler to play all seven games last year. And even his 17 wickets meant that 29 bowlers were ahead of him in the wickets list. Bangar chipped in with his medium-pace, but there was hardly any support from the others, apart from fast bowler Shailender Gehlot. The lack of a reliable new-ball pair means Bangar opens the bowling more often than not.Last season, Kulamani Parida, the offspinner, was barred from bowling during the opening match against Tamil Nadu, as his action came under scrutiny after 13 seasons in first-class cricket. He hasn’t played after that, further denting Railways’ thin bowling resources that managed only 68 victims, the second-least after Maharashtra. Railways coach Abhay Sharma said that they have worked hard on Parida’s action during the off-season. “We will have trials with officials before our first game (against Gujarat) and are hoping for the best.” If Parida – who has 320 first-class wickets – is allowed to bowl, it will be a huge boost for his side.What they did last seasonA fourth place finish among eight teams was an improvement over their 2008-09 performance by one position. They conceded the first-innings lead in two of their first four games, and were unfortunately thwarted in their attempt to gain it by bad light and rain in the other two. Though they came back strongly, thrashing Gujarat by an innings, and hanging on to the lead against Hyderabad, it was too late by then. Another lead-conceding show against Punjab rounded off a middling tournament for them.Men to watchM Suresh, the legspinning allrounder, topped the batting averages for Railways last year. However, his legspin brought him only one wicket in five games, and if he can step up his bowling a notch, the former Andhra player and Railways employee could reduce Bangar’s burden on both fronts.With three half-centuries, including a career-best 93, opener Cheluvaraj gave his side several solid starts and also kept wickets in three matches. As the old guard of Bangar and Goud approach the end of their careers, the 24-year old Cheluvaraj will need to convert the fifties into big scores. If he can do that, the transition for Railways, whenever it happens, will be that much smoother.

Punjab

Will Yuvraj Singh be smiling at the end of the Ranji season?•Cameraworx/Live Images

Punjab have won the Ranji Trophy only once, in 1992-93, and have been runners-up twice since then, in 1994-95 and 2004-05 – a record they are desperate to improve upon. In the season before last, Punjab were knocked out in the group stages. In 2009-10, they lost out in the quarter-finals.Punjab will be led by 36-year-old Pankaj Dharmani, who replaced Ankur Kakkar as captain mid-way through 2009-10 following an innings defeat to Tamil Nadu. Crucially, they have Yuvraj Singh in their ranks and he is determined to force his way back into the Test side. Yuvraj will fortify a batting line-up that struggled last season. “Green-tops,” Bhupinder Singh, Punjab’s coach, said were the reason his batsmen fared worse than his bowlers. “Batting was quite difficult. Otherwise, batting is our strength.”Punjab have been working with Adrian Dias, the trainer who was with the Kings XI Punjab, during the off season and Bhupinder believed their improved fitness will prevent breakdowns during the course of 2010-11. That, however, hasn’t prevented a problem or two cropping up at the start. Love Ablish, their premier bowler, suffered a hairline fracture four days ago and will take a week or so to recover. Manpreet Gony, another key bowler in 2009-10, hasn’t been selected for the first two games, presumably on form. He will be back, though, according to Bhupinder.What they did last season
Punjab finished second, behind Tamil Nadu, in their group, winning two matches outright, drawing four and losing one. They earned 19 points, the same as eventual winners Mumbai, but were eliminated in the quarter-final after Karnataka earned first-innings points in another drawn contest. The result was an improvement from the 2008-09 season, when Punjab finished fifth in their group.Punjab’s batting order failed to amass totals that would heap pressure on the opposition and they managed to score more than 400 only twice – against Gujarat and Railways. Their highest run-scorer, Uday Kaul, made 582 runs in 14 innings and was tenth on the list of top run-getters for the season. Their next best batsmen Ravi Inder Singh, Pankaj Dharmani and Vishwas Bhalla were 25th, 41st and 42nd.Their bowlers fared better, with medium-pacers Ablish and Gony finishing third and seventh on the wicket-takers chart. Ablish took 36 wickets at 23.88 apiece, while Gony claimed 31 at an average of 19.29. They were among only six bowlers to have taken ten-wicket hauls in the previous season.Men to watch
Yuvraj is presently out of the Test side, having been overtaken by M Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara and Suresh Raina, and has to fight his way back. If Yuvraj succeeds, Punjab will also benefit immensely in their pursuit of a knock-out berth. He’s already scored a blistering double-century in the Irani Cup and a few teams could suffer from similar onslaughts during the season.Bhupinder said that the two legspinners – Sarabjit Ladda and Rahul Sharma – were different enough for Punjab to consider playing both if the conditions warranted it. Rajwinder Singh, a 21-year old left-arm spinner who’s played only one first-class game, is also one to watch out for. There are two uncapped players in Punjab’s squad for the first two matches of the season – medium-pacer Navdeep Singh from Jalandhar and opener Sarul Kanwar from Chandigarh.

Assam

Amol Muzumdar,retained as captain, will have a point or two to prove, especially when he plays his former Ranji side, Mumbai•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Assam are back in elite company for the first time since they were relegated in 2004-05. Their first brush with the Super League came last year itself, when they came face to face with Uttar Pradesh in the quarter-final. They put up a fight reaching 259 for 8 in the last innings, chasing 337, but ran out of time and lost of the basis of the first-innings deficit.The batting part of their success was built on the contributions from Dheeraj Jadhav, the guest player from Maharashtra. By the time Amol Muzumdar, their captain and guest player from Mumbai, started contributing meaningful runs, an unbeaten century in the quarter-final, it was perhaps too late. Assam will rely on both of them, and on the other outsider S Sriram, the doughty left-handed allrounder, but they will feel a desperate need to shrug off the image of having made it to the Super League riding on outsiders’ performances.Abu Nechim Ahmed and offspinner Arlen Konwar counter that image partly. They picked up 26 wickets each last season at averages of 16 and 17 respectively. Nechim, though, is likely to miss the first two games this season, recovering from a hand injury. That will put extra pressure on Konwar, who will have to lead the attack, that too against stronger batting line-ups than he is used to bowling to.Assam also have just one home game in the league stages, which well and truly marks them as underdogs.What they did last season
They hardly looked like contenders in the first quarter of the last season. Rajasthan beat them outright, their Goa game got washed out, and against Jharkhand they were reduced to 99 for 9 in the second innings, but just about got away with first-innings points.In the later stages, though, Jadhav and Nechim turned it on. Jadhav scored a century, and Nechim took 10 in beating Tripura outright. Another century from Jadhav and a three-wicket haul from Nechim secured a first-innings lead against Vidarbha, and with that a place in the Plate league semi-final.Konwar and Sairaj Bahutule this time provided the wickets to go with Jadhav’s runs as Assam beat Andhra outright to book their ticket in the big league.Men to watch out for
Assam will look to Jadhav to carry the batting once again, and Konwar will be the main man with the ball in Nechim’s absence. Muzumdar,retained as captain, will have a point or two to prove, especially when he plays his former Ranji side, Mumbai.

Wellington overcame a sparkling effort from Aaron Redmond, and a late collapse while chasing, to outlast Otago at Basin Reserve and make a winning start to their HRV Cup campaign

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Dec-2010Wellington overcame a sparkling effort from Aaron Redmond, and a late collapse while chasing, to outlast Otago at Basin Reserve and make a winning start to their HRV Cup campaign. Jeetan Patel won the toss for the hosts and Damien Wright got them off to a strong start, removing Hamish Rutherford early. Redmond, however, was in a zone of his own and attacked from the outset. Neil Broom supported him with 23 in a partnership of 94 off 65 balls. Left-arm spinner Luke Woodcock’s double-strike pegged the innings back, before Redmond attacked again along with Darren Stevens, who made a quick 23. Redmond struck six fours and four sixes in his 82 that came off 54 balls, but Wellington removed both batsmen in the end overs to come back into the game. Wright finished with figures of 2 for 10 in his four overs as Otago reached 153 for 6 in their 20.Neal Parlane’s early exit without scoring set up Otago for a fight, but Michael Pollard took the game away with a fearsome attack. He smashed four sixes in 32 off 15 balls to give the chase early momentum before falling off the last ball of the Poweplay, with the score 52. Stewart Rhodes anchored the innings thereafter, calmly working his way to 49 off 54 balls, while Luke Wright and Chris Nevin accelerated at the other end. At 124 for 3 in the 15th over, Wellington were on course for an easy win, but Otago had some more tricks up their sleeve. Three wickets went down for the addition of no runs in the space of five balls, as Neil Wagner raised hopes of a back-door entry for his side. Rhodes, however, batted through the slump to take his side to safety before Wright and Dewayne Bowden finished things with two balls to spare.

Wellington joined Northern Districts at the top of the points table in the HRV Cup after they beat Central Districts by 8 wickets in at the Saxton Oval in Nelson

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Dec-2010Wellington joined Northern Districts at the top of the points table in the HRV Cup after they beat Central Districts by eight wickets at the Saxton Oval in Nelson.Central Districts chose to bat and looked well-placed for a big total after Peter Ingram (46) and George Worker (31) put on 77 for the first wicket in the first 10 overs. However, once offspinner Jeetan Patel struck to dismiss Worker and Ingram, within the space of 12 balls, the Central Districts batting fell away. Luke Woodcock picked up the crucial wickets of Ian Blackwell, Michael Yardy and Mathew Sinclair in quick succession. This was followed by two run-outs and Central Districts crumbled from a healthy 93 for 2 to a below-par 128 for 8, losing six wickets for 35 runs.A required-rate of just above six runs per over was never going to test the Wellington batting line-up. Though they lost Michael Pollard in the second over, Stewart Rhodes, with an unbeaten 75 off 60 balls, anchored the Wellington chase. They reached the target in 19.2 overs for the loss of only two wickets.