All posts by csb10.top

Sachin Tendulkar became the first batsman to make a 100 international centuries, getting to the milestone against Bangladesh at the Shere Bangla stadium in Mirpur at 5:05pm local time on March 16, 2012. It ended a year-long wait for one of the most discussed landmarks in cricket history, and was his first ODI hundred against Bangladesh, completing his set of centuries against every Full Member country in both Tests and ODIs.He reached the 100th hundred in the 44th over with a nudge behind square leg, one of his favoured strokes to reach a century. Despite the huge amount of hype surrounding the landmark, which has shown little sign of abating during the prolonged wait, there was no over-the-top celebration. The helmet came off and there was a wave of the bat, he looked up at the sky, as he usually does on reaching a hundred, and he acknowledged his team-mates by raising his helmet towards the dressing room. Several of the Bangladesh fielders congratulated him, even as the decibel-level in the packed stadium reached new highs.It was not one of Tendulkar’s most swashbuckling innings, more about efficient accumulation early on, before slowing down further as he neared the century, finally completing it off 138 deliveries. Tendulkar’s achievement might have come against one of the weaker teams and in the league game of a low-key competition, but he still had to brave a raucous and partisan crowd. Once he reached the eighties, every dot ball he faced was loudly cheered. The Bangladeshi chant expressing displeasure, Bhua bhua, also rang out from sections of the stadium as he batted.The stadium had been less than half-full when the match started, but as Tendulkar’s innings progressed, more and more people came in and by the time he completed his hundred there weren’t too many empty seats. There were frantic phone calls from reporters in the press box, back to their bosses, discussing long-ready tribute packages and whether the innings should replace the national budget as the front-page lead.Unusually cautious play from Tendulkar suggested the weight of the coming milestone was affecting him. The holiday crowd, excited at the prospect of a terrific “I was there” anecdote to boast about, was egged on further by an enthusiastic DJ. He belted out several local hits, and that familiar background sound at the cricket these days, the bugle, ensured the stadium was a cauldron of noise.The Mexican wave made its way around the ground, and the bouncing fans were rarely more thrilled than in the 34th over, a maiden by Mashrafe Mortaza. First, Tendulkar had to scramble back after attempting a single to mid-off, then a solid push towards mid-on went straight to the fielder before a slash landed just short of backward point. Sensing the batsman’s discomfort, and possible nervousness, the crowd amplified the pressure with loud roars of approval after every delivery. He was nearly run out soon after, trying to pinch a single to backward point.A lofted drive over extra cover in the 40th over and several singles took him to 99, which was when the crowd began to support Tendulkar, standing up and cheering in anticipation. Though India were past 200 with only two wickets down, Bangladesh tried to stifle Tendulkar by keeping seven fielders in the circle. The single to square leg finally brought up another mark of the longevity of the man who already has the most runs and has played the most matches in Tests and ODIs.Edited by Dustin Silgardo

Some sports teams draw inspiration from what their predecessors did years before them. New Zealand need only delve three months into the archives to be reminded of what they can achieve.After being smacked sideways by Australia in Brisbane, losing by nine wickets in the first Test last December, they returned in Hobart to record a historic win. The victory was talked about as a turning point for New Zealand and whose results would resonate far into the future. The Hobart comeback will be a talking point as they head into Wellington for the final Test of the summer, although Ross Taylor said they are not necessarily banking on lightening striking twice.”We have touched on it a little bit; we haven’t touched on it a lot. But we were in a similar situation [in Hobart],” he said. “The score reflected that we got pretty much thrashed in Brisbane but it was actually a lot closer than people give it credit for and I think the same thing about Hamilton. We did have our moments in that game and if a couple of bounces of the ball went our way then it could have been a different story. We came back hard at the Hobart Test and we plan to do the same again tomorrow.”New Zealand have not had the opportunity to test that theory properly yet. Their first assignment after Hobart was a relatively simple one against Zimbabwe and since then they have played just two more Tests. The latest one, in Hamilton, is coloured with shades of the Gabba defeat. Although New Zealand were able to set South Africa a more challenging 101 to win (the target they set Australia in Brisbane was a mere 19), they still lost heavily.After Hobart, their confidence in their ability to win games with five specialist batsmen and four seamers grew. But, in the space of two matches, South Africa have made them rethink. New Zealand will include an extra batsman in the XI at the Basin Reserve and opt for three seamers, which may be seen as going backwards but Taylor is optimistic about the change. “The balance of our side might be a little bit different in this game. I’m sure that it will be good to have a different balance to our side and a different energy with a couple of new guys coming in,” he said.New Zealand’s main concern is putting runs on the board against a relentless South African attack. Taylor said the team management is urging them to keep it simple. “The message to the batsmen is that ‘we have got confidence in you. Play your natural game’.”None of New Zealand’s batsmen have got into three figures, with Kane Williamson their top-scorer across the two matches with 77. Both Taylor and Brendon McCullum have shown the capability to get a few more, but periods of stoic resistance and sublime shot-play are spoilt by making rash mistakes. “Mental barriers sometimes get you out,” Taylor said. “Hundreds are what get you into good positions, 60s and 70s are good for a certain period of time but it’s about getting hundreds and big hundreds. First of all, you have to get yourself in. Brendon and myself have got ourselves in but we haven’t been able to capitalise.”The biggest obstacle to New Zealand scoring runs has been Vernon Philander who has looked threatening every time he has touched the ball. With his ability to swing, reverse-swing and get seam movement, Philander has offered no let-up but Taylor said New Zealand are determined not to let him break through this time. “It’s just trying to deny him as much as possible. We have denied them [the other bowlers] to a certain extent but Philander has got on top of us. We have to deny him and if we do that, I’m sure we will put a bit more pressure on South Africa,” he said.Philander’s nagging consistency has troubled New Zealand but Taylor seems to have figures out a plan to negate his effectiveness. “He puts the ball in the right places for long enough. I don’t think reverse swing will come into it as much as it did in Hamilton,” Taylor said. ‘We have to play him on his merits and when we have played him attackingly we have come out on top, so maybe that’s the way we go about it.”Taylor said that if New Zealand win in Wellington, it will not be as defining as the Hobart victory especially because they have backtracked on their four-seamer philosophy. But, it will still be an important achievement and a sign of what is to come for New Zealand. “It will be very big in the context of this series in itself,” Taylor said.Edited by Kanishkaa Balachandran

Rahul Dravid formally announced his retirement from international cricket on Friday, saying he was leaving the game sad but proud. It wasn’t an easy decision, he said, but he was comfortable with it because it was time to move on and let the next generation take over.The announcement was made at a press conference in Bangalore on Friday that was also attended by N Srinivasan, the BCCI president, and Anil Kumble, the KSCA president and Dravid’s former team-mate and captain.”You know that when you leave playing for India and the life that I have lived for 16 years, and five years before that of first-class cricket, it is tough,” he said. “It is all I have known all my grown life. From that point it was a difficult decision, but it wasn’t a difficult decision for me because I just knew in my heart that the time was right and I was very happy and comfortable in what I had achieved and what I had done. You just know deep down that it is time to move on and let the next generation take over.”It wasn’t a sudden or overnight decision, he said. “I don’t think that I made this decision made just on one series, it’s a culmination of a lot of things. Of course it would have been very nice to contribute and do well in the last series and play really well. These decisions are based on a lot of other things, not on one series.”I don’t think there was a eureka moment for me that said that this is the time I have to go. For each one it comes differently, for me it’s come with a bit of contemplation, a bit of thought, with friends and family. It is difficult … but you recognise that this moment has to come to everybody some day. While it will be difficult I have loved every moment of playing for India and for the Indian cricket team. In some ways it’s been an easy decision, because I just know that the time is right.”Dravid became the first of India’s senior-most cricketers – including Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman – to quit the game after a season of speculation surrounding their future. His decision follows a poor tour of Australia but he enjoyed a prolific run through 2011, scoring five centuries – including four in the Caribbean and England. However, he is set to captain Rajasthan Royals in the upcoming IPL season.The first public tribute came from Tendulkar, who said no tribute was enough for the “one and only” Dravid. “There was and is only one Rahul Dravid. There can be no other. I will miss Rahul in the dressing room and out in the middle,” he said.Dravid, who made his debut at Lord’s in 1996, scoring 95, ended his career as one of the greatest players of his generation and among the most accomplished ever. He scored 13,288 Test runs – behind only Tendulkar – in 164 matches, with 36 hundreds at an average of 52.31. His ODI career, which effectively ended in 2008 with a brief reprisal in 2011, was scarcely less successful – it yielded more than 10,000 runs and 12 centuries. He also has 210 catches, a Test record, in addition to 196 catches in ODIs.Behind the statistics, he will be remembered as the consummate team player, moving around in the batting order to suit the team’s requirements and keeping wickets when necessary – most strikingly in ODIs, when his double role gave the team balance on its way to the World Cup final in 2003. His remarkable fitness allowed him to play 93 consecutive Tests from his debut to December 2005.He will be remembered as one of the last classical Test match batsmen, renowned for his technique and a willingness to bat through difficult circumstances – and over prolonged periods – yet able to stroke the ball around when the mood struck him. He was the anchor of India’s famous middle-order, keeping the innings together while the strokeplayers – Tendulkar, Laxman and Ganguly – played a more attacking role. He appeared to especially flourish in partnership with Laxman, never more so than in the Eden Gardens Test of 2001.His batting qualities and efforts were often overshadowed by the flair of his team-mates yet they were brought into sharp focus over the past year with India’s Test team struggling through a period of transition. Dravid showed his class on the tour to England in 2011. In a series in which India were completely outplayed and none of their other batsmen scored more than 275 runs in the Tests, Dravid amassed 461, including three hundreds, two of them when opening the innings against a high-quality pace attack. However, that was followed by a poor series in Australia, which reopened the debate about his retirement.As a captain Dravid had mixed success; he led India in 25 Tests, winning eight and losing six. Under him India cemented a newly won reputation for being good travellers, winning Test series in Pakistan in 2003-04 – he captained in two out of three Tests – West Indies in 2006 and in England in 2007. His captaincy coincided with Greg Chappell’s controversial term as coach, though, and Dravid was clearly uncomfortable with the role.Yet he was seen as one of the game’s thinkers, meriting a place on the MCC’s cricket committee and delivering the Bradman Oration in December 2011 – the first cricketer from outside Australia to do so.Edited by Jayaditya Gupta

The tussle between the West Indies board and the Guyana government has put the Providence Test against Australia in doubt. The WICB shifted the first four rounds of the domestic first-class tournament out of Guyana and said that a call on the Test, scheduled for late April, will be taken later.The decisions come after the executive committee of the WICB’s board of directors had a teleconference on Saturday evening to try and resolve the impasse surrounding Guyana cricket.Earlier this month, the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) was locked out of its premises by the Guyana government, which appointed an Interim Management Committee (IMC) headed by Clive Lloyd to govern the sport in the country because the July 2011 GCB elections were being disputed. The WICB refused to recognise the IMC, and the stalemate, it was feared, would prevent Guyana from competing in the Caribbean T20 earlier this month, though that did not happen.Both the GCB and the IMC had submitted teams to take part in the regional four-day competition, which begins on Friday. The WICB announced that Guyana’s first two matches will be played at Windsor Park in Dominica, and that a decision on the venue of the next two rounds will be taken later.The WICB said in a press release that it was yet to hear from the Guyana government regarding an agreement document that was drafted on January 10 after a meeting between the West Indies board, the GCB and the Guyana government.Australia arrive in the West Indies in early March and round off a series of five ODIs, two T20s and three Tests with a Test in Providence starting on April 23.

Rohit Sharma has said that he is mentally ready should he be asked to make his Test debut at the SCG on Tuesday. If he is asked to play, it will be in the place of Virat Kohli, who has scored 107 runs in seven Test innings away from home. Kohli was dropped after a disappointing tour of the West Indies, and then scored two fifties against the same side when recalled for a home Test. In the first Test of this series, he scored 11 and 0.Rohit said he has to stay mentally prepared all through the tour, even if he doesn’t get a game. “Of course [I’m ready],” he said. “I don’t want to be unprepared. My preparation has to be 100%. It doesn’t matter if I am playing or not. Preparation has to always be the same. I have to be ready [to play] each and every time. Because you never know, somebody might get injured on the day of the Test. You have to be ready.”Rohit should know about injuries on the morning of a Test: one he suffered during the warm-ups cost him his Test debut in Nagpur, against South Africa, in early 2010. Under MS Dhoni, India have been known to given players a decent run before dropping them, if required. Keeping that in mind, smart money has to be on Kohli getting another chance.They haven’t been told either way as of now. “As far as the team combination is concerned, we have not decided anything yet,” Rohit said. “Maybe tomorrow we will have a better idea as to what the wicket will be like. Probably by tomorrow I will be told whether I am playing or not.”Rohit said the morale in the team is “very good” right now. “We really had a good time off,” he said. “We had a team get-together yesterday, which was nice. And we got back again today to see how we are going to take it forward. We don’t want to think about what has happened. We need to focus on what we have to do now. The process is still on. Hopefully things will turn around for us.”We spoke about what went wrong, and what we need to do, and stuff like that. Which always happens, whether you win or lose. That is nothing new for us. As I said, we need to keep doing the right things.”Rohit gave credit to the Australian bowlers for their performance at the MCG, but denied the notion that the Indian batsmen might be shaken up or intimidated. “Not shaken up,” he said. “They really bowled well, we need to accept that. Our batters also batted well in the first innings, but somehow we didn’t manage that in the second. Credit goes to their bowlers.”

Led by Mohammed Khader and Anwar Ahmed, Hyderabad skittled Goa for 147 on the first day of their Ranji Trophy game in Porvorim. Khader and Ahmed combined to take 6 for 50, and India spinner Pragyan Ojha took 2 for 43, as the hosts failed to generate any momentum. Swapnil Asnodkar, returned after serving his two-match ban for calling off a potentially achievable chase against Maharashtra, returned to the side, but failed to make an impact, falling for 8 as Goa crawled to 22 for 1 from 14.3 overs. The scoring-rate hovered around two for the duration of the innings, and only two batsmen managed to go past 20. Vaibhav Naik crawled to 23 from 81 balls while Abhishek Raut top-scored with 41 from 78 balls. Akshath Reddy got Hyderabad’s reply off to a positive start, remaining unbeaten on 41 as the visitors ended the day on 61 for 2.Dheeraj Jadhav’s 18th first-class century and a supporting hand from Amit Sinha gave Assam the first-day honours against Jharkhand at the Railway Stadium in Dhanbad. Assam began well after choosing to bat, their openers Jadhav and Pallavkumar Das adding 58. Sinha went along patiently at No.3, reaching 79 by the close off 198 balls, and guiding Assam to 234 for 3. Jadhav and Sinha put on 135 for the second wicket before the centurion fell for 102, dismissed by Samar Qadri who picked up two wickets. Sibsankar Roy fell cheaply but Sinha saw Assam through to the close with no further hiccups.Andhra Pradesh made the Kerala batsmen struggle on a rain-curtailed day at the Nehru Stadium in Kochi. Left-arm medium-pacer Takkami Atchuta Rao and left-arm spinner Shankara Rao. Takkami did the early damage, dismissing opener VA Jagadeesh and No.3 Robert Fernandez off successive deliveries in the eighth over. Those early strikes slowed down the innings considerably. Though the Kerala batsmen consumed several deliveries, their batting stagnated, and AP made steady inroads to reduce them to 95 for 5 in the 58th over. That became 110 for 6 soon after, Takkami ending the day with three and Shankara with two.Jammu and Kashmir batted out the first day at the Chatrapati Shivaji Stadium in Ratnagiri, reaching 302 for 8, against the in-form Maharashtra. Opener Adil Rishi top-scored with 88, backed up by important contributions along the way. He added 116 with wicketkeeper Manish Dogra, and was the third wicket to fall, with the score on 166. For Maharashtra, left-arm spinner Akshya Darekar grabbed 4 for 60 and his team would have felt confident of bowling out J&K for under 300 after reducing them to 236 for 7 at one stage. Captain Hardeep Singh and Samiullah Beigh, however, added 59 for the eighth wicket that made it possible for J&K to reach 302 at the close.Vidarbha had the better of the first day against Tripura at the Maharaja Bir Bikram College Stadium in Agartala. Medium-pacer Sandeep Singh picked up four wickets to help restrict Tripura to 246 for 7 at stumps on the first day. Opener Rajib Saha made 77 and wicketkeeper Vinayak Samant also scored a half-century; this, after Tripura were struggling at 38 for 3 at one stage. Debabrata Chowdhury and Udit Patel chipped in with 37 and 38 respectively, ensuring Tripura reached a respectable score at stumps.A determined rear-guard action from the lower order rescued Himachal Pradesh from 95 for 5 and took them 262 for 6 at the close of the first day against Services in Dharamsala. Having been put in, Himachal lost wickets at regular intervals and when Nishan Singh removed Sridharan Sriram for a painstaking 16 from 94 balls, it looked like the hosts would capitulate quickly. However, captain Ajay Ratra and Amit Kumar turned things around with a 112-run partnership for the sixth wicket before Ratra became Nishan’s third wicket of the day, caught behind for 52. Kumar (76*) then found another willing ally in Rishi Dhawan (29*), and the pair addeda further 55 to give their side a share of the honours on the day.

New Zealand’s batsmen are rightly cursing their shot selection after giving up the first five wickets of the innings with a flurry of poor choices. However, batsman Brendon McCullum believes the visitors are on course to reach a total that will stretch Australia’s youthful top order.McCullum creamed three boundaries from the debutant James Pattinson in the first over of the series, but later cut unwisely to point soon after drinks to expose the middle order to swing and spin. He was frank about the batsmen’s failings, but retained hope of a fruitful Test match given the Gabba’s potential for rushes of wickets.”There are some very disappointed batsmen, myself included, all of us are pretty upset to pass up an opportunity to score some big runs on a challenging pitch against a very good team,” McCullum said. “When you pass up those opportunities it always disappoints you. But can’t stress enough it wasn’t so much the deliveries themselves but more-so the build-up of pressure.”When you see a ball that’s not one of the better ones you try to dominate and that’s where we came unstuck a little bit. Of more importance is we lost wickets before drinks, before lunch then straight after lunch. We pride ourselves on playing hard cricket during those times and today we let ourselves down before and after breaks.”That first hour at the Gabba is always going to be the most challenging, and to get through that, to get to drinks and start after drinks and get out in the fashion I did, just before the spinner came on and I thought that would’ve been an opportunity to put pressure on with one wicket down. The timing of when I got out after putting in that hard work was hugely disappointing.”Grateful to Dean Brownlie and Daniel Vettori for a sturdy sixth wicket stand, McCullum pointed to David Warner, Phillip Hughes and Usman Khawaja, Australia’s developmental top three, as an opportunity for early wickets if a total of 280 or more can be raised on day two.”We still think we’re not far away from putting up a competitive total, and if we can eke out a good two hours tomorrow morning then we put ourselves in a position where we’re relatively comfortable with where we’re at and have something to bowl at,” McCullum said. “Hopefully we can expose some inexperience in the Australian top order as well, and try to utilise the scoreboard pressure we might create by batting first.”Three hundred is competitive, 280’s competitive, it’s not like every other cricket ground, it is one of those things where if we do hit the right areas, any team can easily have a session where you run through six or seven wickets if you get it right, so we’ve just got to keep making sure we put ourselves in the strongest position we can.”Though he did not claim McCullum’s wicket with a particularly searching delivery, Mitchell Starc had made the opener uncomfortable with earlier offerings, singeing his helmet with one bouncer and cramping his hands with swing and seam into the body.”I thought I was a bit stiff not to get four leg-byes actually,” McCullum said of the bouncer. “I thought he bowled pretty well. In terms of the length he bowled, he was probably the most challenging out of the lot of them. He’s left-arm as well, being able to use his angle across you but also [challenging] when he came around the wicket coming from a wider angle as well. He bowled really smart today and got the rewards for it.”New Zealand have only played three other Test matches in 2011, but McCullum denied that had much to do with the batsmen’s questionable shot choices. Instead he considered the occasion, against Australia in the first Test of their summer, had affected the visitors.”We always want to play more Test cricket, but our dismissals today weren’t because of our lack of Test cricket,” he said. “It was just that we didn’t execute the options we took, and pressure sometimes does that, and also the spectacle of playing Australia can sometimes bring that out in you as well. We’re slightly behind the eight-ball but we’re going okay.”

Group A

A hat-trick from Siddharth Trivedi helped Saurashtra complete an innings and 144-run win over Punjab at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium. This was the only outright win in the third round of the Ranji Trophy Elite matches and pushes Saurashtra to fourth on the Group A points table.Trivedi, who is in his first season with Saurashtra after transferring from Gujarat, picked up the wickets of Karan Goel, Harbhajan Singh and Manpreet Gony in his eight over. This was the third hat-trick by a Saurashtra bowler, the other two being D Narottam and S Nyalchand, both of whom claimed hat-tricks against Boroda. Trivedi is also the second bowler to take a hat-trick against Punjab, behind Delhi’s Bishan Singh Bedi, who claimed his in 1968-69.Punjab had resumed on 44 for 4, with Uday Kaul and Mandeep Singh batting. Opening bowler Sandip Maniar had Mandeep caught in the first over, following which Karan Goel, who had retired hurt the previous evening, returned. He did not last long though, trapped lbw by Trivedi for 10. Harbhajan and Gony were caught off the next two deliveries as Punjab slipped to 78 for 9, still trailing by 186. A 42-run last-wicket stand between Amitoze Singh and Brainder Sran only delayed the inevitable. Punjab were eventually bowled out for 120, without managing to bat out 24 overs on the final day.Mahesh Rawat recorded his highest first-class score, 145, to help Railways secure an unlikely first-innings’s lead against Rajasthan at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi. Rawat was backed up by Yere Goud, Marripuri Suresh, Sanjay Bangar and Shivakant Shukla, as Railways piled up an impressive 525 for 8 in reply to Rajasthan’s 521, before declaring. Their bowlers then knocked over four of Rajasthan’s top order cheaply, to finish the game with the upper hand.Railways had begun the final day on 274 for 4, with Rawat and Goud at the crease. The pair went on to add 153 runs before Goud edged Sumit Mathur behind on 70. Rawat found another reliable partner in Suresh, and they added 90 for the sixth wicket before Rawat finally fell, one of legspinner Vivek Yadav’s six victims. Once Bangar declared, offspinner Arlen Konwar and medium pacer Anureet Singh reduced Rajasthan to 20 for 4, and play was ended soon after.An unbeaten double-century from Parvinder Singh and Arish Alam’s 118 not out gave Uttar Pradesh the first-innings lead against Orissa at the Veer Surendra Sai Stadium in Sambalpur. UP had started the day on 287 for 3 facing Orissa’s 482, and moved to 590 for 4 by the end of the day thanks to Parvinder and Alam’s 267-run unbeaten partnership. Parvinder took his score from 39 not out overnight to 202 not out off 331 balls, his highest first-class score. Alam was playing just his fourth first-class match and got his maiden century.Karnataka declined the opportunity to enforce the follow-on against Mumbai at the Brabourne Stadium and instead settled for the three points and opted for batting practice. Mumbai were bowled out for 441 after being 354 for 8 overnight and Karnataka then reached 147 for 3. Read the full report here.

Group B

Baroda hung on for a draw at the Moti Bagh Stadium keeping Haryana‘s return to three points. Baroda were faced with a target of 372 in just under a day. They played for the draw and reached 228 for 7 in 85 overs, earning a point. Haryana lost their last three wickets in just 2.4 overs on the fourth morning and managed to add eight runs to their total. Irfan Pathan took three wickets to complete his second five-wicket haul of the season.Irfan then opened the batting but was dismissed in the third over. Baroda were struggling at 31 for 2 but Ambati Rayudu dug his heels in and played a match-saving knock of 83 not out off 222 balls. Amit Mishra, who had taken four wickets in the first innings, took three this time around but Baroda’s middle and lower-middle order spent enough time at the crease to support Rayudu. The point keeps Baroda top of the table in Group B.Fog and then bad light prevented Tamil Nadu from pushing for an outright win against Delhi at the Feroz Shah Kotla, and they had to settle for three points. Delhi started the day 139 runs ahead with five wickets in hand. Fog delayed the start on the fourth morning and when play started Tamil Nadu took 23.4 overs to take the last five wickets. There was resistance from Puneet Bisht, who scored 53, but L Balaji took three quick wickets to finish with four in the innings and leave Tamil Nadu with 218 to chase.They scored at a fair rate of 3.68 runs an over in the chase but the light faded, denying them an opportunity to go for the target. Dinesh Karthik managed a half-century, his second of the season.A strong performance from Madhya Pradesh‘s lower order earned them three points for a first-innings lead against Bengal at the Jadavpur University Complex in Kolkata. MP started the day on 344 for 3 and were relying on Mohnish Mishra, who was on 130 not out overnight, to take them past Bengal’s 496. Mohnish was dismissed in the fourth over of the fourth morning but Nos. 5 to 10 all got more than 20 to give MP the lead.Bengal were kept in the hunt by seamer Shami Ahmed, who completed his maiden five-wicket haul in first-class cricket. When he dismissed Ankit Sharma for 31, MP were 477 for 8 and Bengal would have hoped to get the last two wickets quickly. But No. 10 Anand Rajan scored 21 and MP reached 533. Bengal had 20 overs to bat; Sourav Ganguly used the opportunity to open and raced to 42 off 28 balls before being dismissed. Parthasarathi Bhattacharjee remained unbeaten on 51.

Geoff Marsh has said he is looking forward to the challenge of helping rebuild Sri Lanka’s side after the loss of several veterans over the past two years. Marsh, who has been named Sri Lanka’s new coach, said he found it “quite exciting” to see the young talent on display during the recent Test series against Australia, when he was in the country watching his son Shaun play for Australia.During that series, Sri Lanka’s highest run scorer was the 24-year-old vice-captain Angelo Mathews, while fast bowler Shaminda Eranga made an impressive debut in the final Test at the SSC. Despite Sri Lanka losing the series 1-0 and slipping to fifth in the ICC Test rankings, Marsh said he was encouraged by what he saw after the loss in the series opener in Galle.”I think Sri Lanka is in exactly the same position as Australian cricket is,” Marsh told ESPNcricinfo. “In the last couple of years it’s lost a lot of really good, experienced players, with Jayasuriya, Murali, they’ve lost Malinga to Test cricket, Vaas. In a country like Sri Lanka that’s a pretty big loss.”But they’ve still got some world-class players in Jayawardene and Sangakkara in their side, and they’ve got some good young players, Mathews and co. They have two good spinners. I think they’re in exactly the same position as Australia, looking to rebuild a little bit from losing those players.”My goal for the next 12 months is to bring them on and improve on their performance against Australia. That first Test match, the wicket wasn’t a good cricket wicket so it was hard to judge where they were at. But after that I thought they were pretty competitive. We just need to grow on that and consistently improve in all areas.”Marsh arrives in Sri Lanka on September 27 to start his two-year contract, and it will be the beginning of a busy period for the side, as they prepare to head to the UAE to take on Pakistan, followed by a tour of South Africa. He said while it would be a challenge to get up to speed before the Pakistan series, he was happy to put his faith in his support staff.”I’m going in with the same support team that they’ve had there. They’ve had things pretty well organised,” Marsh said. “What I bring is a lot of hard work, and working on the basic skills of the game, and good communication with the players and making sure they understand their roles. Basically I’ll be giving the player every opportunity I can to help him perform out in the middle.”The job will be Marsh’s first international appointment since he resigned as Zimbabwe’s coach in 2004, a stint that followed his successful period as coach of Australia. He said international coaching had not been on his radar over the past few years, but the encouraging words of the former Sri Lanka coach Tom Moody, as well as Tony Greig, helped him make his decision.”It really started in the IPL last year,” he said. “I got back into coaching there and I really enjoyed that. I hadn’t thought about going back into international coaching, I had a contract with Pune Warriors, but when this came up I spoke to people like Tony Greig and Tom Moody and co, they spend a lot of time in Sri Lanka. We talked about Sri Lankan cricket and where it’s been and where it should head. The challenge was there and I decided that was the way I wanted to go.”One of Marsh’s most personal challenges will come in the new year, when Sri Lanka head to Australia to take part in the one-day tri-series, along with India. That means Marsh will almost certainly be coaching against his son Shaun, who is likely to be part of Australia’s ODI side. However, Marsh said he and his son were used to working against each other, after he coached Pune and Shaun played for Kings XI Punjab during IPL 2011.”Last time I coached against my son, he scored the most runs in the series and then played in the next Test series and scored a Test hundred on debut,” Marsh said. “Shaun was the one who really pushed me to get back into it. He thought I would really enjoy cricket in Sri Lanka and that challenge. That’s no problem for us. We’ve spoken about that. It’s always good sitting around the kitchen table over a meal, talking about coaching against him. That’s certainly not a problem.”Marsh is the latest in a long line of Australian coaches in charge of the Sri Lanka side, following Dav Whatmore, John Dyson, Moody and Trevor Bayliss.

Pakistan would have been forgiven if they had arrived at Queens Sports Club with heavy legs and weary expressions. They touched down in Bulawayo via Dubai and Johannesburg on Friday afternoon and had to put on their game faces immediately to start a two-day tour match on Saturday. The fixture ended in a draw but instead of being allowed to put their feet up on the morning after, they were handed the early training slot on Tuesday.They could have rubbed their eyes, lumbered lazily through their drills, dragged their bodies through the motions, and generally acted jaded. But, they didn’t. The session was driven by enthusiasm, and energy flowed through the initial kicking of a football around to the more intricate fielding moves and then into the nets, where some of them batted a little longer than the usual two-and-a-half hours. That’s the value of youth, something Pakistan’s squad has in abundance for this tour.Four of their players yet to make their Test debuts, and five others have played only 24 matches between them. With the next most experienced player, Umar Akmal, having only 15 Test caps, it’s safe to say Pakistan are in possession of a bouncing group of boys. “It is exciting,” the coach Waqar Younis said. “And it is also easier to deal with them.”With Waqar on his last legs as national coach, a less complicated passage to the exit sign is seemingly what he would prefer – no politics, no infighting, no-one trying to steer anyone in any direction. Waqar believes that’s what he has got, too. “A tour like Zimbabwe is a good tour to introduce some youngsters, it’s a short tour and it gives them a good opportunity to play top-level cricket,” he said. “Youngsters bring a different flair to the game. We have three formats, so we will try to make sure everybody plays.”In some ways, the youthful make-up of the squad could be mistaken for flippancy by Pakistan, who may stand accused of taking Zimbabwe too lightly. Waqar did not take kindly to that notion, having insisted on departure that the series was a significant one. “I have worked for Pakistan for 18 months and this tour is as important to me as any other,” he said. “We know that Zimbabwe are eager, hungry and want to prove a point.”Luckily, Pakistan’s seemingly inexperienced side has a strong core and sprinkled among their boys, they have some men. Younis Khan is one of them, as the most experienced Test player in the squad. For him, this tour will be about creating the rite of passage for the younger members of the squad to gain experience at the highest level. “I am just going to try all the time to show them [the youngsters] the way, especially in Test cricket,” Younis said. “When you are young, you may make some mistakes so my aim is to help them.”Younis has over 5000 Test runs and has played for more than a decade, so he has ingrained in him all the qualities of a respected leader and a fatherly figure. He said he would like to pass some of that knowledge on, because he may not be around to actually demonstrate it for long. “I will be playing for another two or three years,” he said. “So, I want to show them [the youngsters] how to be able to score 500 or 600 in a Test match.”With Younis focusing on batting, captain Misbah-ul-Haq chose to zone in on the bowling developments. “Our youngsters are performing well in domestic cricket, especially Junaid Khan and Sohail Khan, who will have to learn to be senior fast bowlers,” he said. Junaid took 4 for 62 in the tour match and will shoulder wicket-taking responsibilities into the Test match. He might get an opportunity to bowl in tandem with Sohail Khan, and together they could make an attacking new-ball pair.The match will be about “trying out different combinations” according to Misbah and reintroducing players like Imran Farhat who last played against England last year and Sohail Tanvir who was last seen against India in 2007. “Winning is important, but this is also about team-building for us,” Misbah said. But experimentation is not likely to give way to complacency, as Pakistan showed in their training session – actions that showed Zimbabwe this will be a tougher Test than their previous one, against Bangladesh.