SPORTS Friday, 1 September, 2017
Injured McCarthy, Young ruled out of ODI against West Indies SPORTS DESK Seamers Barry McCarthy, who has fractured his right thumb, and Craig Young, who is nursing an elbow injury, were ruled out of Ireland’s one-off ODI against West Indies on September 13 in Belfast. Wicketkeeperbatsman Niall O’Brienand offspinning allrounder Paul Stirling, though, returned from injuries. Left-arm spinner George Dockrell, who had missed Ireland’s Intercontinental Cup match against Netherlands, also made a comeback. In the absence of McCarthy and Young, Peter Chase, Tim Murtagh, Kevin O’Brien, Boyd Rankin are the seam options in the 14member squad. Rankin appears set for his first ODI since June 2016. A back injury had kept Rankin out for most of Ireland’s matches this year. He had played the Intercontinental Cup match against Netherlands earlier this month. Ireland’s spin department is well stacked with no less than six options, including legspinner Jacob Mulder, whose last ODI appearance came against Afghanistan in March this year. Mulder, too, was part of the Intercontinental Cup team, along with batsman John Anderson, who has not played an international for Ireland since September 2016. “It’s disappointing that both Barry and Craig are ruled out but we have other options in the seam-bowling department,” Ireland coach John Bracewell said. “On the plus side we have Paul Stirling and Niall O’Brien back from injury and that will certainly bolster the batting. George Dockrell has been in prolific form in domestic cricket and he is recalled too, which means we have no fewer than six spinning options in the squad.” Bracewell was wary of West Indies, who bounced back from a heavy innings defeat in the first Test to stun England in the second, with Shai Hope’s twin hundreds playing a big role. The return of Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels also lends more depth to the side. “The West Indies showed incredible character to bounce back after losing the opening Test heavily against England, and showed just how dangerous and talented a side they truly are,” Bracewell said. “They will have double-centurion Shai Hope in their ranks for the Belfast clash, and when you add Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels into the mix then it’s a very dangerous group of players. “ Ireland have recent history on their side, having chased down 305 against West Indies, during the previous clash between the two sides, in the 2015 World Cup in Nelson. Ireland squad: William Porterfield (capt), John Anderson, Andrew Balbirnie, Peter Chase, George Dockrell, Ed Joyce, Jacob Mulder, Tim Murtagh, Kevin O’Brien, Niall O’Brien, Boyd Rankin, Simi Singh , Paul Stirling, Gary Wilson (wk).
LahOrE QaLanDarS pICk 16 OuT Of 35,000 aSpIranTS frOM azaD kaShMIr
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HE first phase of the Jazz Rising Stars program by Lahore Qalandars concluded on Thursday with 16 players selected out of around 35 thousand players, who appeared in the trials in two cities of Azad Kashmir. Trials were conducted at Mirpur and Muzaffarabad during the first phase of the program, which will now resume after Eid. According to the details provided by Qalandars management, the first stop of Jazz Rising Stars was Mirpur where over 15,000 aspirants tried their luck in the talent-hunt program. “20 players were picked from trials at Mirpur and were taken to Muzaffarabad for the 2nd phase of Kashmir trials for the final selection,” said Atif Rana, CEO of Lahore Qalandars. In Muzaffarabad – the second stop for the JRS in Azad Kashmir – over 19,000 participants showed up for the trials. “From these participants, 60 were shortlisted including 20 from
Mirpur, and from these 60, the final 16 were selected before Jazz Rising Stars wrapped up for Eid-break,” Rana added. Players selected from Azad Kashmir trials include Sohail Akhter, Malik Aswad, Ahmed Abbasi, M. Irfan, M. Mubashir, Hassan Raza, M. Yasir, Owais Butt, Salman Irshad, Fahad, Shadab, Usama, M. Bilal, Danyal, Shayan, Tayyab and Ayyan. Among the selected, Salman Irshad is said to be a fast bowler who constantly bowled at speed of 144kmph and Aqib Javed spoke high of him. The next stop of Jazz Rising Stars will be Rawalpindi on 4th and 5th of September. This is the second edition of Rising Stars program by Lahore Qalandars. Last year over 113,000 players appeared in trials across eight cities of Punjab. Of them, after appearing at different stages, 15 selected players were sent to Australia for further experience, while four of them were picked for Qalandars’ PSL side.
Shadab joins Brisbane Heat for Australia’s T20 Big Bash League
SPORTS DESK Pakistan’s dynamic teen legspinner Shadab Khan will play in Australia’s Twenty20 Big Bash League with Brisbane
Heat this year, the club said Thursday. Shadab, 18, has made impressive progress since his international debut for Pakistan last year, producing starring
T20 turns in the Pakistan Super League and the Caribbean Premier League. He earned player of the match honours in his first two T20 Internationals for Pakistan against the West Indies, claiming 3 for 7 and 4 for 14. “He is one of the most dynamic young spinners in the game and will fit nicely into the style of play that we want to employ this summer,” Heat coach and former New Zealand international Dan Vettori said. Vettori said Khan’s recruitment meant that the Heat would not contract West Indian wrist spinner Samuel Badree for the next campaign. The BBL season starts on December 20.
Kohli, Rohit smash hundreds in crushing victory The last time Virat Kohli had elected to bat after winning an ODI toss, Rohit Sharma made an unbeaten 264 in an India total of 404. Now, against the same opponents, it seemed as if Kohli and Rohit were on course to become the first pair of batsmen to score double-hundreds in the same ODI. By the end of the 29th over, they had put on 219 in 165 balls. Kohli was batting on 131 off 93 balls, Rohit on 86 off 75. On a hard, flat Premadasa Stadium pitch bounded by one of the quickest outfields anywhere, India were 225 for 1 and the record ODI total of 444 seemed under serious threat. In the end, India only got as far as 375. Kohli’s 30th-over dismissal, which gave Lasith Malinga his 300th ODI wicket, sparked a slump that saw India lose four wickets for the addition of only 49 runs, in 49 balls. Without a whole lot of batting to follow, MS Dhoni and Manish Pandey had to ration their risk-taking somewhat in an unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 101 off 74 balls. And so, instead of a world-record chase, Sri Lanka were left merely the task of bettering their own highest successful chase. By 52 runs. In the end, they never even threatened to get close, eventually folding for 207 in the 43rd over of their chase and slumping to their biggest defeat - by a runs margin - in
Kohli set off in a blaze of bounda home ODI. The target was a speck that grew smaller and more distant aries, hitting three successive fours with each over, and regular wickets off Fernando, off only the ninth, meant Sri Lanka never got enough of tenth and eleventh balls of his ina foothold to even think of going for nings. None of the three balls were it. Apart from Angelo Mathews, who half-volleys. He drove the first ball made 70, and Milinda Siriwardana, to the cover boundary, on the up. The who scored a punchy 39, no one got next two, near-identical balls closer past 30 as Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik to off stump, went past mid-off and Pandya and Kuldeep Yadav finished midwicket. It took him only 23 balls to get to 30, with six fours, all either with two wickets apiece. Kohli based his decision to bat - driven or flicked. At that point, Rohit was batit was only the second time he ting on 3 off 7. A lofted had done so, having won drive over extra-cover, 16 tosses - on letting INDIA off Mathews, moved his bowlers and 375 FOR 5 (KOHLI the opener into his fielders put their stride, and from feet up in the 131, ROHIT 104, PANDEY on, no matter heat and humid50*, DHONI 49*) BEAT SRI there who the bowler ity of the LANKA207 (MATHEWS 70, was, both batsmen Colombo afterdid as they noon. Given KULDEEP 2-31, BUMRAH pleased. There were those conditions, 2-32) BY 168 RUNS two mix-ups early in and the utter lack of the partnership, with help from the pitch Kohli at the danger end on for both seam and spin, both occasions, and a run-out Sri Lanka looked like they were serving a sentence during the first seemed the likeliest way, by far, for 29.2 overs of the Indian innings. Sri Lanka to break it. After the first Powerplay, Rohit Their only moment of joy, in that time, came in the second over, when and Kohli turned on a steady stream Shikhar Dhawan sliced Vishwa Fer- of ones and twos, and manufactured nando straight to third man. Given a boundary every now and then to the form he was in, he would have keep the run rate rattling along at rued that shot as he settled in the well above seven an over. A botdressing room and watched Kohli tom-handed whip from Kohli enabled him to hit Siriwardana and Rohit dominate the bowling.
against the turn and bisect long-on and deep midwicket. A deliberate, open-faced slice from Rohit sent the ball curling past the diving backward point fielder. Given the speed of the outfield, anything that beat a fielder on the circle left the boundary-rider no chance. By the 25th over, Kohli had already raced to his hundred, off just 76 balls, reaching the landmark with a whippy pick-up shot off Siriwardana. His next 19 balls brought him 31 runs, and he seemed unstoppable when he fell to one of the most innocuous balls he faced all day: a wide, full ball from Malinga that he slapped straight to sweeper cover. A total of at least 400 still seemed a formality, though, with Rohit reaching his hundred in the 34th over and Pandya, promoted to No. 4, clattering Akila Dananjaya for a couple of early lofted boundaries. But Mathews, carrying his injury-ravaged body creakily to the crease and delivering two short balls, dismissed both off successive balls, Pandya picking out the deep fielder with a pull and Rohit cramped for room while trying to ramp him over the keeper. When KL Rahul failed to keep a flick down off Dananjaya in the 38th over, Sri Lanka had done as much damage limitation as they could have hoped for. From there on, India’s dominance would resume unabated. SPORTS DESK
Published by Arif Nizami at Plot # 7, Al-Baber Centre, F/8 Markaz, Islamabad.
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Sir Ian Botham feels Crane should wait for England debut SPORTS DESK Sir Ian Botham believes Mason Crane would be better off not being selected for England in the third Test against West Indies at Lord’s. Crane, 20, has been named in England’s unchanged squad for the series-decider starting on 7 September. The Hampshire leg-spinner is yet to make his Test debut. “If I were Mason, I wouldn’t want to be in that final Test, I’d just wait to get on the Ashes tour to Australia,” Botham, 61, told BBC Radio Solent. Crane, who made his England international debut in T20 against South Africa in June, has been part of the squad throughout the West Indies Test series. He took a spectacular catch on the final day of the second Test at Headingley as a substitute fielder before West Indies went on to complete an historic five-wicket win, and level the threematch series. “Mason’s young and leg spin is quite an art,” legendary all-rounder Botham said. “Only Abdul Qadir and Shane Warne have really mastered it at Test level in recent times. “I’m all for youngsters coming through and I think the best experience is being around the best players. “Lord’s is probably not the pitch to suit him, so it’s probably one to miss.”
Tamim Iqbal picks up demerit point for Mirpur misconduct SPORTS DESK Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal has been given an official reprimand and one demerit point for breaching the ICC’s Code of Conduct on day four of the Mirpur Test against Australia. Tamim was penalised for “conduct that is contrary to the spirit of the game”, according to an ICC release. Tamim admitted the offence and accepted the sanction proposed by match referee Jeff Crowe, meaning there was no need for a formal hearing. Tamim was sanctioned for two particular violations on Wednesday, beginning in the first session of the day when, according to the ICC release, he “debated continuously with the umpires while the Australian batsmen were changing their gloves regularly. Shortly thereafter, he approached Matthew Wade and gestured towards him to leave the field upon his dismissal”. Since Tamim already had one demerit point to his name, received during the second Test against Sri Lanka on March 16 this year, he is now two demerit points away from a ban. Should he accumulate two more demerit points within 24 months of his March offence, he will face a ban of one Test, two ODIs or two T20Is, whichever comes first.