All posts by csb10.top

With Somerset in the depths of the relegation zone in the county championship and already doomed to Division Two of the NUL National League, the thoughts of their supporters will no doubt be looking for brighter things in the Cheltenham and Gloucester Final against Yorkshire at Lord’s on Saturday.The premier one day cricket competition is the only format of the game where Somerset have been consistent this season, and if they win at Lord’s and retain the trophy they won in September last season, 2002 will be deemed to have been a success by many of their fans, irrespective of the fact that next season they could be playing in the second division in both of the others.Somerset’s allocation of tickets for the Lord’s showcase final sold out at the County Ground within days of going on sale and were snapped up by supporters much quicker this year than they were in 2001.Despite their lack of form in the other forms of cricket the Cidermen have produced a match winning performance in each of the previous rounds of the C and G.Few who were present at Taunton for the semi final against Kent earlier this month are likely to forget how close Somerset were to going out of the 2002 competition and yet still managed to grab a victory from an almost certain defeat.The question that everyone is now asking is whether or not Marcus Trescothick will be fit to play against Yorkshire.The Somerset skipper has been having net practice with the rest of the team at Blackpool earlier this week, and from the time that the cast was removed from his broken thumb he has made it quite clear that he wants to return to the big stage at Lord’s to captain the side. However no decision will be made regarding the England opener’s fitness until just before the start of the match.Likewise a final decision as to who will make up the Somerset attack alongside Andy Caddick and Richard Johnson will also be left until the morning.Somerset coach Kevin Shine has taken a squad of fourteen to Lord’s, which includes five quick bowlers so it is likely that at least one or even two will miss out on a final spot.The full squad is: Jamie Cox, Marcus Trescothick, Matt Wood, Mike Burns, Peter Bowler, Keith Parsons, Ian Blackwell, Rob Turner, Keith Dutch, Richard Johnson, Matt Bulbeck, Andy Caddick, Steffan Jones and Simon Francis.The coach told me earlier: "We’ve played well in the C and G for two seasons so I don’t see why we won’t perform against Yorkshire. There is plenty of confidence in the side and we are certainly up for it."Chief executive Peter Anderson told me: "In a season where we have struggled in everything but the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy, as the holders we are looking forward to the Lord’s final."He continued: "The players are confident for the final, and of course they will be heartened by the presence of both Andy Caddick and Marcus Trescothick, who we are very confident will play."

THE MCC TOUR OF SOUTH AFRICA 1948 / 49Unique and rare footage of the three Tests on England’s first tour abroad after the Second World War – Narrated by Charles Palmer CBESend cheque for £14.24 made payable to “MCC Tour of South Africa” to Mrs S Michael, 1 Park Hill Avenue Leicester LE2 8HQ (Includes postage & packing)Books available:The History of Leicestershire Cricket – Price £11.00 (incl p&p)
100 Greatest Leicestershire Cricketers – Price £13.00 (incl p&p)
Available from Mrs S Michael, Leicestershire County Cricket Club, County Ground, Grace Road Leicester LE2 8ADCheques made payable to Leicestershire County Cricket Club

Sri Lanka all-rounder Thilan Samaraweera has been sent as a replacement for the forthcoming NatWest triangular series after Muttiah Muralitharan was forced to withdraw from the tournament to protect his shoulder.Samaraweera, 25, an off-spinner and middle order batsman, had just returned to Sri Lanka having been a member of the Test squad.He was preferred to fellow off-spinner Kumar Dharmasena, 30, who has been aregular member of the Sri Lanka one-day squad in recent times.Samaraweera, who is better known in the longer form of the game having scoredtwo centuries and three fifties in his first 10 Tests, has played just eightODIs.Samaraweera is expected to arrive in England on Tuesday evening. Sri Lanka play their first game against England at Trent Bridge on Thursday.

The efforts of the Old Trafford groundstaff once the rain finally ceased in the early hours of this morning (Saturday) ultimately proved fruitless as play was abandoned for the second day in succession just after lunch.With the rain unrelenting throughout Friday and well into the night-hours of Saturday, it was always likely to be a tough ask to get the ground fit for play and so was the case when the umpires, Barry Dudleston and Nigel Llong were joined by the two captains and coaches to snuff out any hope on day three.Hampshire skipper Will Kendall told the Hampshire web-site shortly after the inspection, “Full marks to the groundstaff who have worked very hard.”But some areas of the ground, especially at the Stretford End are very wet, to the point of being just plain muddy and with no wind or any sign of the sun, there was no point in waiting for nothing much to happen.”Peter Marron, the Lancashire head groundsman admitted that it would take “a heat-wave today” to dry the ground in time, but there is hope for a resumption on the final day (Sunday), as the groundsmen attempt to further improve the state of the ground – whilst everyone else heads home.

TelstraClear Black Caps batsman, Nathan Astle, has been ruled out of rest of the tour of Pakistan with a knee injury and he will be replaced by Mathew Sinclair.Astle had been experiencing increasing discomfort in his left knee since the one-day tournament in Sharjah and had a precautionary scan in Pakistan today.The scan was reviewed by specialists in Pakistan who diagnosed him as having a tear to the patella tendon.New Zealand Cricket Operations Manager John Reid says Astle will be returning home as soon as possible for examination and treatment.”Nathan will not be playing in the second One-Day International (day-nighter starting today) and will take no further part in the series,” said Reid.”We want to get him home for further diagnosis from our medical team and start him on rehabilitation as quickly as possible.”Sinclair will fly out to rejoin the side on Friday and will be available for the Test series.

Pedro Collins gallantly fronted a spirited West Indies effort at damage control on the third day of the second Cable & Wireless Test yesterday.Yet it was still not enough to compensate for the batting recklessness of the previous afternoon that committed them to an unequal struggle for the remainder of the match and their position remained as daunting at the close as it was 24 hours earlier.Although they restricted New Zealand’s second innings to 243, it left them with a target of 474, a total never before achieved to win any Test.Openers Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds nervously survived four overs at the end of the day but, on a wearing pitch and with their inconsistent batting, the West Indies would do well even to extend their purposeful opponents very far into the last day.Their most realistic hope of survival rests with the weather in the first month of the rainy season but the forecast is not favourable.For 28 overs on a sultry, overcast day, broken into four spells, Collins charged in with the George Challenor Stand at his back, harassing the batsmen with the stamina and nagging control, if not disconcerting bounce, of Joel Garner, the man whose name the end now bears.It was a responsibility thrust on his square shoulders by the absence for all but the first six overs of the day of Merv Dillon, the established leader of the attack.Dillon succumbed again to the lower back strain that obliged him to rest for a week before the match, restricting captain Carl Hooper to three green fast bowlers with 19 Tests between them.It proved a coming of age for Collins. The slim left-armer from Boscobel delivered exactly a third of the overs, making the ball move both ways as he added five wickets to the one he already had overnight for his best return in his 12 Tests, six for 76.But it would have required the kind of miracle Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh used to perform at Kensington to restore the West Indies to a position of near parity.A first innings deficit of 230 meant New Zealand had to be rolled over a second time round for not much over 150. At 88 for five, ten minutes after lunch, when Collins induced a second slip catch from Craig McMillan’s drive, it seemed possible.But, by then, Ramnaresh Sarwan had let two sharp chances off Collins spill to the turf, the second when Nathan Astle was 12, and Astle launched a blistering assault on the wayward Adam Sanford that changed the course of the innings.Sarwan’s first error denied Collins two wickets in two balls.The left-armer gained an lbw verdict as opener Lou Vincent padded away an inswinger 25 minutes into the day.Next ball, the left-handed Chris Harris pushed firmly to Sarwan’s right hand at short-leg where the most recent occupant was the sharp Wavell Hinds, but Sarwan couldn’t hold on to the catch that would have made New Zealand 11 for three.Harris was eventually trapped on the crease and lbw to Darren Powell at 48, soon after which Sarwan at cover spilled Astle’s firm, low drive off Collins to his right.It was not the happiest 22nd birthday for Sarwan, generally an outstanding fielder. What with his first ball duck in the first innings, he was unlikely to have celebrated it with champagne and an expensive dinner at Sandy Lane last night.Astle soon made Sarwan pay for the mistake.New Zealand were 69 for four when Hooper’s arm-ball finally removed the frustrating night-watchman Daryl Tuffey to a slip catch on the stroke of lunch.When Hooper mystifyingly replaced himself with Sanford immediately on resumption, Astle greeted the change by hammering the fast bowler for four boundaries in his first over, one in his second and two more in his third in which captain Stephen Fleming also helped himself to one.Sanford’s spell of three overs cost 35 and changed the course of the innings.Astle proceeded to gather a typically brisk 77 with 11 fours and Fleming, batting three places below the No.3 he occupied for his first innings hundred because of a stiff neck, got 34 as they put on 76.By the time Astle became another Collins victim to an edged catch, deflecting one angled across him to Brian Lara at first, and Fleming miscued a hook off Sanford that Wavell Hinds gathered in over his head in front of the Kensington Stand at square-leg, New Zealand were 181 for seven.By then Collins was on his haunches with exhaustion and the other bowlers, once more, couldn’t complete the job as the last three wickets yielded 62.Sanford did sneak one low through the left-handed Daniel Vettori’s defence to uproot the middle-stump at 205, and Collins’ bouncer with the second new ball gained him his first return of five Test wickets in an innings, courtesy of Robbie Hart’s gentle hook to square-leg.Unlike the West Indies bowlers, New Zealand’s can bat, as Tuffey and Vettori already showed. Now Ian Butler, the No.11, enforced the point with four handsome boundaries in 26 off 31 before he too fell to Collins.They were redundant runs for New Zealand already had a match-winning advantage. But it was further frustration for the weary West Indies who now face their two most difficult days of the season.

Yorkshire beat Northamptonshire to pick up 19 points and go top of the CricInfo Championship table at Headingley yesterday, but victory was not achieved with the ease that they had expected.Having avoided the innings defeat, Northants stretched out their second innings to 255 which left Yorkshire to make 77 with a full day and a session to spare.In murky light, they got into big trouble against young pace bowler John Blain who claimed career-best figures of four for 34 and they made it with only four wickets to spare.Northants would probably have managed an even bigger score but for two destructive bursts by Matthew Hoggard who celebrated his inclusion in the Test squad by capturing five for 82.In his first spell of the day he had Mike Hussey and Jeff Cook both caught behind off consecutive balls and in his next over he bowled Russell Warren.Later on, Hoggard returned to make further inroads by knocking back the stumps of David Ripley and Blain with dynamic deliveries.Top-scorer for Northants was opener Mal Loye who reached his half-century in Michael Vaughan’s first over before the next ball lifted off a length and he gloved it to slip.Tony Penberthy (45), Kevin Innes (40) and Graeme Swann all made life difficult for Yorkshire by refusing to give in.Yorkshire got into trouble in Blain’s first over when he knocked back Scott Richardson’s middle stump with a yorker before bowling Matthew Wood with a similar delivery. Vaughan and Craig White both departed quickly as Yorkshire dipped to 43 for four and it was left to skipper David Byas and Michael Lumb to calm things down.They had taken Yorkshire to within four runs of victory when Lumb was trapped lbw by Penberthy and Blain struck again by bowling Gary Fellows, leaving Richard Blakey to hit the winning run.

The best ever Junior Sabres Bash is all set to take place at the County Ground in Taunton on Easter Saturday morning.The Junior Sabres, who are the under 21 members of Somerset County Cricket Club have all been invited to attend the pre season bash, which this year is promising to be a very enjoyable occasion, and one that none of the youngsters will want to miss out on.One Dad was so keen for his children to attend the Junior Sabres Bash that earlier this week he signed them all up as club members just so that they could be there.Junior Sabres Membership Secretary Jo Betsworth told me this morning, “The Junior Sabres bash this year looks like being the biggest and best ever that we have staged.”No wonder that the youngsters are keen to be at the County Ground on Easter Saturday. Among the activities due to take place are the Coca Cola inflatable, face painting, bowl at a player, and a guest appearance by Professor Popcorn with his special brand of magic and entertainment.A large number of Junior Sabre members have already contacted Jo Betsworth to let her know that they are going along to the Junior Sabres Bash on Easter Saturday.However, so that all the final arrangements for the day can be made, it is important that anyone who intends being at the Junior Sabres Bash lets Jo know in advance.Remember, the Junior Sabres Bash is free, but is only open to Junior Sabre members of Somerset County Cricket Club.To find out more details and to register for the Junior Sabres Bash give Joanne Bestworth a call on 01823 272946.

DEON Kruis singlehandedly took his maiden first-class hat-trick asGriqualand West ended the second day with a lead of 205.In fact, four home side wickets crashed in as many deliveries as Natalslumped from their overnight score of 88 without loss to 241 all out an hourafter lunch.That gave Griquas West, who were dismissed for 279 in their first innings, alead of 38 runs. By the close, the visitors had limped to 167 for five.Natal’s problems began in the second over of the day when Doug Watson wasrun out for a 51 that included nine fours. Mark Bruyns and Ahmed Amla stuckit out for another 10 overs before the wheels came off.Amla was trapped in front by Johan Louw with the last ball of the 34th over,followed immediately by Bruyns suffering a similar fate at the hands ofKruis for 52, Dale Benkenstein being bowled and Wade Wingfield also outleg before.It was Kruis’ first hat-trick at first-class level, and it put the skidsunder the rest of Natal’s batting with Jon Kent, who hit nine fours inhis 58 before he was eighth out, Gulam Bodi and Eldine Baptiste the onlyplayers outside of the top order to make it into double figures.Kruis finished with four for 57, while Wayne Kidwell got among the lowermiddle order to take four for 71.However, having bowled themselves into a viable position, Griquas threatenedto bat themselves out of it in losing three wickets for 24 runs in the spaceof seven overs.The best of their batting came from young opener Brett Tucker, who scored 47before falling leg before to Bodi to end a partnership of 63 shared withGrant Elliott.That made it 63 for two in the 40th over, and five overs later Elliott wascaught at second slip off Kent. Left-arm wrist spinner Bodi, whose bowlingebbed and flowed much like the match itself, then bowled Loots Bosman roundshis leg and trapped Pieter Koortzen in front to reduce the visitors to 137for five with 11 overs left in the day’s play.Captain Wendell Bossenger, who was 24 not out, and Louw, on 14, saw Griquasto the close without further loss.Bodi ended the day with figures of three for 72 off 26 overs.

Shiekhupura reserved for themselves a berth in the Final of the One-day tournament (Associations) after achieving a convincing 68-run victory over Rawalpindi in the second semi-final, played at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore.The main architects in Sheikhupura’s 6th consecutive win in the competition were Kashif Raza, with his magnificent 4-wicket haul, and the middle order batsmen Mohammad Ayub and Mohammad Haroon, who rescued their side from a vulnerable position of 4 for 79 with a timely 96-run partnership.After getting off to a blazing start, featuring a fine 37 off 25 balls by Imran Nazir, Sheikhupura lost four quick wickets, as Naeem Akhtar (3 for 56) found inroads in their upper order. It was at this junction that Ayub (58 off 107 balls) and Haroon (40 off 82 balls) joined together to not only steer their side out of trouble, but also provide a firm platform for the lower order to find some quick runs in the end.The charge was duly taken over by Sarfraz Kazmi and Nasim Abbas, as the two collected 80 runs in the last ten overs, thus, closing the Sheikhupura innings at 250 for 7 in 50 overs.Scoring 251 at slightly over 5 runs an over was never going to be easy for Rawalpindi, especially after Kashif Raza had struck very early. After getting rid of Hashim Iqbal in only the second over of the innings, he accounted for Naeem Akhtar in the next, reducing the opposition to 22 for 2. He struck for the third time in his first spell, when he clean bowled Nauman Aman.Meanwhile, skipper Aaqib Javed also claimed two wickets to reduce Rawalpindi to 73 for 6 by the 15th over, a position from which they did never recover despite determined knocks by Nadeem Abbasi (49 off 73) and Tassawar Hussain (34 off 70).However, once Kashif, operating in his second spell, had got rid of Nadeem Abbasi, the remaining amount of resistance just left their ranks. They were eventually all out for 182 in the 45th over, when the last man Junaid Zia was stumped off the bowling of left-armer Qaiser Abbas.Sheikhupura meet Karachi Whites, the winner of the first semi-final, in the final, to be played at Gaddafi Stadium on 13 May.