SPORTS Monday, 28 July, 2014
South AfricA Set for finAl-dAy Spin inquiSition
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sPoRTs DesK
ET again, Kumar Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews formed the bedrock of Sri Lanka's effort, with both making brisk half-centuries to extend their purple patches. With South Africa having turned this game into a long slog for survival, their objective when the day began was to keep the
run-rate down. Getting wickets was good, but not good enough if the Sri Lankan run-rate wasn't reined in. The longer Sri Lanka were out there before declaring or being bowled out, the shorter South Africa's batsmen would have to persevere. They hung around for more than four sessions in the first innings, but on a track that has worn down significantly more, it will be miraculous if they last nearly that long in the sec-
Scoreboard SrI LaNKa 1st innings 421 SoUTH aFrIca 1st innings 282 SrI LaNKa 2nd innings WU Tharanga c †de Kock b Steyn 30 VJK Silva c Philander b Morkel 26 VKc Sangakkara c †de Kock b Morkel 72 0 VdPMd Jayawardene c elgar b Imran Tahir 63 ad Mathews not out 7 VKdK Vithanage c du Plessis b Morkel VN dickwella c de Villiers b Steyn 16 VMdK Perera b Imran Tahir 7 VHMrKb Herath c de Villiers b Morkel 4 extras (b 1, lb 2, nb 1) 4 Total (8 wickets dec; 53.4 overs; 242 mins) 229 did not batraS Lakmal, baW Mendis Fall of wickets 1-38 (Tharanga, 10.2 ov), 2-82 (Silva, 21.1 ov), 3-83 (Jayawardene, 22.4 ov), 4-164 (Sangakkara, 39.6 ov), 5-174 (Vithanage, 41.6 ov), 6-203 (dickwella, 47.6 ov), 7-214 (Perera, 50.2 ov), 8-229 (Herath, 53.4 ov) bowling dW Steyn 13-1-59-2, Vd Philander 11-3-35-0, Imran Tahir 18-0-76-2, M Morkel 9.4-1-45-4, d elgar 1-0-
9-0, JP duminy 1-0-2-0 SoUTH aFrIca 2nd innings VaN Petersen c Vithanage b Herath 0 d elgar not out 13 Q de Kock not out 21 extras (lb 4) 4 38 Total (1 wicket; 17 overs) To batF du Plessis, HM amla*, ab de Villiers, JP duminy, Vd Philander, dW Steyn, M Morkel, Imran Tahir Fall of wickets 1-4 (Petersen, 8.1 ov) bowling HMrKb Herath 8-5-7-1, MdK Perera 6-1-24-0, baW Mendis 3-2-3-0 MaTcH deTaILS Toss - Sri Lanka, who chose to bat Test debut - N dickwella (Sri Lanka) Player of the match - tba Umpires - ra Kettleborough (england) and NJ Llong (england) TV umpire - bF bowden (New Zealand) Match referee - JJ crowe (New Zealand) reserve umpire - reJ Martinesz
ond. Sri Lanka knew it as well, and began the morning with a bunch of boundaries. Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander leaked 27 runs in the first four overs before restoring a semblance of control. Upul Tharanga eased the first ball of the day to the long-off boundary, and did the bulk of the early scoring before nicking one through to the keeper on 30. A Morne Morkel slower ball accounted for the other opener, Kaushal Silva, and Imran Tahir had a reverse-sweeping Mahela Jayawardene dismissed for a rare duck at the SSC. That brought together Sangakkara and Mathews, who rushed the score along. They were held back for an hour by the rain as the threatening clouds finally opened up at lunch. Every minute lost was a minute less for South Africa to survive, but once play resumed they were reminded of the troubles ahead. Tahir, as usual, offered loads of full tosses, and when one of them was put away to fine leg by Sangakkara, it brought up his tenth 50plus score of the year and highlighted how far away South Africa are from solving their spin problem. The next ball pointed out
a more immediate worry. Tahir got the ball to explode off the rough, unsettling even the well-set Sangakkara. Given how accurate Herath is, that rough outside the left-hander's offstump is going to be regularly hit before the end of this game, and every time South Africa's batsmen are likely to be guessing what the ball will do. Though bad light stopped play well ahead of the allowed close, South Africa's batsmen were given a clear idea of what to expect on the final day. For only the second time in their Test history, Sri Lanka opened with two spinners. Herath and Dilruwan Perera had the ball spinning and leaping, there were edges aplenty before Alviro Petersen popped a catch to silly point. Dean Elgar was hit on the box by a ball that ripped in off the rough, the promoted Quinton de Kock was bemused when a delivery from Perera sharply changed direction outside off. De Kock decided the way to counter the situation was to play his strokes, unlike every South African batsman in this match, and finished the day on 21 off 31.
COOK, BALLANCE PUT Waqar hopeful ENGLAND WELL AHEAD Pakistan will be victorious in Sri Lanka AgeAs Bowl aGeNcIeS
lAHoRe aGeNcIeS
Waqar Younis, Head Coach of the Pakistan cricket team says he is overwhelmed with the way the players have responded during ongoing training camp. Younis lauded how each players has made ‘fitness’ a top priority. He will be flying to Sri Lanka with the
team on the 2nd of August where Pakistan will play 2 test matched and 3 ODI’s against the Lankans. Waqar Younis added that Pakistan’s fast bowling attack should not be underestimated, adding that they might lack experience but they make for it with talent. He is hopeful that Pakistan will be victorious in Sri Lanka.
PCB move to give AJK regional status good for game MIRPUR aGeNcIeS
Former AJK Cricket Association president M Nawaz Rattayal has said that Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has principally decided to grant regional status to Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) to encourage and promote cricket in the AJK territory. Talking to the newsmen here on Saturday, Nawaz said that grant of regional status to AJK would not only help encourage the first class cricket in this region but also to produce the quality talent of national and international standard from the area. “The grant of the regional status will also help AJK to perform independently under the supervision of the PCB to host Twenty20, one-day and four-day first class events in the AJK especially Mirpur city, where a world-class stadium with the seating capacity of over 25,000 spectators is already available to hold the matches,” he added. He said that a conducive environment vis-à-vis foolproof security and peace and order were already available in Mirpur and rest of AJK for holding the cricket events. “Mirpur International Cricket Stadium is already being directly looked after by the PCB since it took its
control from Mirpur Development Authority,” he pointed out. Nawaz expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister of Pakistan Mian M Nawaz Sharif, who is also PCB patron-in-chief, AJK Prime Minister Ch Abdul Majeed, PCB chairman Najam Sethi, Member Governing Board Sheikh Shakeel and other concerned officials of PCB and AJK Sports Board for ensuring the grant of the regional status to AJK to facilitate the area for performing independently for the promotion of regional and first class cricket in the region.
Alastair Cook took a step towards quelling some of the criticism he has been bombarded with recently by making his highest score since his last Test hundred in May 2013. He laid a foundation for England's large first-innings score during a 158-run association with Gary Ballance, who, unlike his captain, is enjoying a productive summer and scored his third hundred to go with two half-centuries in only six Tests. Cook now needs his tactical decisions to pay off to earn breathing space on the captaincy front.Cook had the sort of fortune an under-pressure captain needs when chasing a 0-1 deficit in the series. England's first break came before play began when India's Man of the Match at Lord's, Ishant Sharma, was ruled out with an ankle injury. Cook then won the toss on a pitch that left MS Dhoni undecided about whether to bat or bowl had he called correctly, but the hard and grassy surface offered limited swing and seam movement to India's quicks. Both those pieces of luck would have amounted to naught, however, had Ravindra Jadeja held a straightforward chance. Cook was on 15 at the time and the debutant Pankaj Singh, Ishant's replacement, missed out on a maiden Test wicket. The first delivery of the match was perfect from Bhuvneshwar. He pitched on a good length around off, drew the batsman forward, wobbled the ball a bit and found the edge. Cook looked behind to see the chance fall short of second slip, an immediate sign it was going to be his day. Sam Robson's footwork was more assured at the start, his judgement astute as he left deliveries that swung away and seamed into him. As his confidence grew, Robson pressed forward and drove on the up to the cover boundary, a shot he repeated twice more in his innings. Unlike at Lord's, Cook stood outside his crease in this innings to counter Bhuvneshwar's swing. It worked, and when he was beaten the ball missed the edge. The plan was trickier to execute against the taller Pankaj, though. He bent a few deliveries back into Cook, before getting one to straighten off a good length. Pankaj had taken 300 first-class wickets before getting a Test debut, and he could have had a wicket in his third over had Jadeja been competent at third slip. It was the fifth catch India had put down in the cordon this series.
India bowled no short deliveries or bouncers in the first hour. England's openers had been given no opportunities to cut or pull, though Cook had been offered a few balls on his pads to clip through square. With Cook settling in, however, Dhoni took out his gully, and soon watched an edge off Shami fly at catchable height to the third-man boundary. Robson fell against the run of play. He had been moving forward smoothly until he stayed in his crease and prodded away at Shami's outswinger. This time Jadeja held the catch at third slip, ending the partnership on 55, England's first 50-plus opening in ten innings. Cook brought up his half-century soon after lunch, pulling a short delivery from Shami for two. There was no release of emotion as he received a standing ovation. Instead, he pulled the next short one for four. India bowled too straight or too wide at Ballance, who scored his first ten runs between backward square and midwicket and then began hitting the ball through point whenever he had width, which was often. Cook and Ballance picked on the shorter lengths from India's quicks, and while Jadeja's left-arm spin offered India economy, it did not do much else apart from ensuring an outstanding over rate.
Scoreboard eNGLaNd 1st innings aN cook c †dhoni b Jadeja 95 Sd robson c Jadeja b Mohammed Shami 26 GS balance not out 104 Ir bell not out 16 extras (b 1, lb 5) 6 Total (2 wickets; 90 overs) 247 To batJe root, MM ali, Jc buttler†, cr Woakes, cJ Jordan, ScJ broad, JM anderson Fall of wickets 1-55 (robson, 20.5 ov), 2-213 (cook, 75.6 ov) bowling b Kumar 22-7-58-0, Mohammed Shami 18-3-62-1, Pankaj Singh 20-3-62-0, rG Sharma 6-0-21-0, ra
Published by Arif Nizami at Plot # 7, Al-Baber Centre, F/8 Markaz, Islamabad.
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India had another opportunity to dismiss Cook, but Shami missed a direct hit from mid-on, and when the batsman scored his 70th run he moved past David Gower to take third spot among England's leading run-scorers. While Cook scored at a careful pace, Ballance gave England an infusion of energy in the last half hour before tea. He was adept at putting away anything wide, and peppered the arc between third man and cover with a series of cuts and drives to help England score 108 in the second session. India's seamers frequently bowled poor lines and lengths - too straight and too short. Ballance fed off deliveries on his hips, while Cook moved into the nineties with a controlled pull off a half-tracker from Shami. All day Jadeja had bowled over the wicket to the left-hand batsmen with a packed leg-side, trying to stifle them, but Ballance was able to step out and surgically place a drive through midwicket. Cook was also dismissed against the run of play. On 95, he went back to pull a delivery from Jadeja that was sliding down leg and Dhoni caught the bottom edge. The Ageas Bowl had been preparing to celebrate Cook's hundred but the spectators rose in unison to applaud the England captain.
Jadeja 22-6-34-1, S dhawan 2-0-4-0 INdIa team M Vijay, S dhawan, ca Pujara, V Kohli, rG Sharma, aM rahane, MS dhoni*†, ra Jadeja, b Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Pankaj Singh MaTcH deTaILS Toss - england, who chose to bat Test debuts - Jc buttler (england); Pankaj Singh (India) Player of the match - tba Umpires - M erasmus (South africa) and rJ Tucker (australia) TV umpire - rJ bailey Match referee - dc boon (australia) reserve umpire - rT robinson