Category Uncategorized

A defiant NSW put a dent in Western Australia’s ambition of making the Pura Cup final by digging in for a thrilling draw at the WACA Ground today.The Blues were outplayed for the entire match but the pesky duo of Mark Higgs and Nathan Bracken (8) survived 56 minutes to help foil the Warriors’ plans.Bracken fell in the third last over leg before to Brad Hogg (1-49) but Higgs (18no) and Stuart Clark (0no) were able to negotiate the final 14 balls.Hogg thought he had Higgs with the third last ball which just scraped over the off stump.The result left the Warriors in third place on the Pura Cup table on 18 points. Queensland leads with 28 then South Australia has 20 with fourth-placed Tasmania(16) and Victoria (12) currently battling it out at the MCG.NSW finished 9-311, some 95 runs short of its victory target, but remained anchored to the bottom of the standings, and winless in the four-day game sinceNovember.A three-hour plus stand between Michael Bevan (72) and Michael Clarke (81) earlier looked like leading the Blues to safety but three wickets in eight balls around tea turned the game WA’s way.Part-time bowler Marcus North (1-30) had Bevan caught on the long on boundary by Hogg after the left-hander strained his hamstring running a second in theprevious over.And Clarke fell lbw to Kade Harvey (2-36) in the next over but not before he’d reinforced his position as one of the hottest prospects in Australian cricket with an effortless display.Team officials didn’t expect Bevan’s hamstring strain to be a problem ahead of Sunday’s ING Cup final against Queensland at the Gabba.Brett Van Deinsen (0), who is carrying a back injury, lasted just four balls after the interval before Harvey trapped him in front for his second wicket.Shane Lee (28) and Graeme Rummans (12) both fell chasing quick runs after it became a tempting option with 151 needed off 23 overs and five wickets in hand.Don Nash made an entertaining 24 before Brad Williams (3-78) had him caught behind for his third scalp of the innings.But after losing the eighth wicket the Blues dug in for the draw.The Warriors earlier looked like running through the Blues line-up with openers Grant Lambert (11) and wicketkeeper-batsman Brad Haddin (41) back in thepavilion within the opening hour.Haddin threw away an enterprising start by continuing to sky the ball through cover and was caught by Chris Rogers to hand Jo Angel (2-74) his 400th first-class wicket for Western Australia.

Bengal fought hard and clawed their way back into the match on the second day oftheir Cooch Behar encounter against Maharashtra. The Maharashtra side was 292/7overnight and quickly succumbed to 303 all out.After getting the home side out for 303, Bengal started solidly, ending the dayon 226/1. Opening batsman Arindam Das was unbeaten on 110 when stumps wascalled. His innings included 16 fours and spanned over five hours. At the otherend, Amitav Chakravarti was unlucky to miss a half century. Dismissed by Adhavwhen he had 49 to his name, Chakravarti was the first Bengal wicket to fall.From there on, Subhomoy Das (batting 53) and Das saw Bengal through to stumpswithout any further damage.

When Celtic were planning for life after Kieran Tierney in the summer of 2019 – with the left-back having been heavily linked with a move away from Parkhead for a number of months, before ultimately sealing a £25m move to Arsenal – Neil Lennon and Peter Lawwell were believed to have identified a number of targets to replace the Scotland international.

One such target was reported to be OGC Nice’s Romain Perraud, a former France U21 international who had highly impressed on a season-long loan spell at Paris FC, while another was Rapid Vienna left-back, Boli Bolingoli.

And, despite contacting the Ligue 1 side regarding a deal for Perraud, Lennon and Lawwell ultimately decided to go with Bolingoli – spending a quite considerable £3m on the Belgian, while Perraud went on to join Stade Brestois in a £1.8m move the same summer.

However, since these moves, the careers of Bolingoli and Perraud have gone in quite contrasting directions, with Celtic’s decision to go with the 26-year-old ahead of the Frenchman proving to have been something of a nightmare.

Celtic had a nightmare on Perraud

Indeed, the £1.35m-rated Bolingoli failed to impress over 14 Scottish Premiership appearances in his debut campaign, before being bombed out of Lennon’s first-team squad after being found to have broken lockdown restrictions in August 2020.

Since then the £12.5k-per-week dud has featured just heavily linked with a move away from the club for the past year.

Meanwhile, following Perraud’s move to Brest, the defender has gone from strength to strength, highly impressing over his 36 Ligue 1 appearances last season, scoring three goals, registering seven assists and creating five big chances for his teammates, as well as making an average of one key pass, 1.3 interceptions, 1.7 tackles and winning 4.7 duels per game.

These returns not only saw the player who French football expert Adrien Dryll dubbed “deadly” average an extremely impressive SofaScore match rating of 6.96 that season – that ranks him as his club’s sixth-best player in the league – but they also earned the 24-year-old a move to the Premier League, with Southampton paying £10.8m for Perraud last summer.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

As such, not only did Celtic miss out on an extremely talented player when Lawwell sanctioned a move for Bolingoli ahead of Perraud back in the summer of 2019, the Bhoys also missed the opportunity of a huge payday – something that the club will undoubtedly be regretting.

AND in other news: Forget McGregor: Celtic “threat” finally showed “flashes” of his true ability vs Utd

Sourav Ganguly believes India’s senior players can handle anything Australia throw at them during the Test series that starts on Boxing Day © Getty Images

Sourav Ganguly says India will have extra motivation in their four-Test series against Australia because it will be the last trip to the country for several of the squad’s veterans. Ganguly said the tensions between the two sides during their recent ODI series in India were in the past and India would not be intimidated when the Tests begin on Boxing Day.Ganguly, 35, is looking forward to what will almost certainly be his last Test tour of Australia. It might also be the final visit for Sachin Tendulkar, 34, Rahul Dravid, 34, VVS Laxman, 33, and the captain Anil Kumble, 37.”This is motivation. A number of guys will not be back to Australia, so we want to play good cricket,” Ganguly told the . “The challenge for us is handling the Australian conditions.”We have not been so good away from home but we have been a lot more consistent in the past couple of years and that has given us confidence. It’s important we start well. If we can win in Melbourne, that will give us some good momentum.”Ganguly and India are in good form at the moment – India are 1-0 up in their Test series against Pakistan and Ganguly has scored two centuries. But he said succeeding in Australia was a very different prospect from playing well at home.”Winning in Australia is always difficult but we are confident,” he said. “This is probably the most experienced Indian team to come to Australia in quite a while – we know what to expect from them.”Although the most recent contest between the two teams was dominated by confrontations between players – notably Andrew Symonds and Sreesanth, who will miss the tour with a shoulder injury – Ganguly was confident India could handle anything Australia dish out. “That is not a worry for us,” he said.”What happened in India for me is in the past, but for Australia, maybe not. They will try to pressure us and they may say some things but we have many senior players who can handle that.”India begin their visit with a three-day tour match against Victoria starting on December 20. The four-Test series then begins on Boxing Day in Melbourne before Sydney, Perth and Adelaide host their Tests in January.

Both are back, but for how long? © AFP

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) may be able to reinforce the ban against doping-tainted Pakistani pacemen Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, the anti-doping head of the first tribunal said.”According to the WADA code they can apply for provisional suspension,” barrister Shahid Hamid told AFP, quashing suggestions the pair were now in the clear.Hamid headed the three-member Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) tribunal which last month banned Akhtar for two years and Asif for one year, after the new-ball pair tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone.Both bans were overturned by a committee headed by a retired high court judge earlier this month, which ruled the pair had not been fully educated about doping matters. As a result, the PCB insisted the doping case was closed and that any action by WADA or the International Cricket Council (ICC) would not stop the pacemen from playing. Akhtar and Asif were included in their preliminary squad for next month’s tour of South Africa.However, Hamid said Pakistan was obliged to follow WADA rules. “It is a fact that the Pakistan government signed the Copenhagen declaration in 2003, like other 186 governments, including 38 countries in Asia,” he said. “The Pakistan government has paid to WADA the annual and subscription fee for the years 2006 and 2007.”This declaration, through culture and sports ministries, binds us to follow the WADA codes and under clause 13 of their codes, the WADA has the right of appeal against the decision of a national anti-doping commission whether it is done during the competition or out of competition.”WADA last week challenged the lifting of the bans in the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland, saying any overturning was against its code, a stance backed by the ICC. CAS was expected to hear the case in the new year.Hamid also disagreed that Akhtar’s decision not to sign a contract with the PCB could give him any leeway. “Akhtar has not signed the latest contract, but he has signed an identical contract before and that contract in its provision is identical and under clause 3 of the contract he was bound not only by the PCB but by the ICC anti-doping policies as well,” he added.Hamid, however, refused to comment on the decision to exonerate the players. “It is now for the CAS to decide,” he said.

Inzamam-ul-Haq has urged the people to contribute towards earthquake relief © Getty Images

Inzamam-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain, and his teammates are keen to do well in the first one-day international against England on Saturday, which has been declared a fund-raiser for the October 8 earthquake victims.”It is a significant match for us as there is a need for us and the rest of Pakistan not to forget about the problems being faced by the earthquake victims and that we need to do a lot more for them in future to rehabilitate them,” said Inzamam. The earthquake in the northern areas of Pakistan killed over 80,000 people and has left some three million homeless.The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and its players have been in the forefront of organising events to raise funds for the quake victims. The entire gate money from Saturday’s day and night fixture will go towards the rehabilitation of the victims with a board official saying a sum of approximately 12 million rupees (US$ 200,761) should be raised from sale of tickets. The PCB has already donated 50 million rupees (US$ 836,505) for the quake victims with the players also contributing a percentage of their matches fees for the next one-year.Inzamam made a fervent appeal to the people to make the match a big success. “It is an occasion when we can all do a lot to raise awareness about the plight of those affected by the earthquake. I hope companies and individuals will also donate at the match.” He added that the players were also planning to sponsor some villages in the affected areas.

ScorecardGaurav Dhiman, the Karnataka allrounder, caught the eye as India Under-19s eased to a comfortable 46-run victory over England, in the first one-day international at the Maharaja Bir Bikram College Stadium in Agartala. Dhiman blazed his way to 43 off just 30 balls as the Indians piled up 299 for 9, and then dismissed both openers as the English challenge faltered in the first 20 overs.With M Tewari also smashing 46 from 37 balls, the India Under-19s didn’t lack momentum. Mayank Tehlan provided the solidity with a dogged 84-ball 51, and there were contributions right down the order, with Piyush Chawla thwacking three sixes in his 32 from 17 balls. Mark Lawson’s legbreaks fetched him 2 for 46, and although David Griffiths took two wickets they cost him 48 from four overs.In response, the English side slumped to 81 for 6, not helped by two early run-outs. Moeen Ali (57) and Tom Smith (56) spared them an absolute hiding by striking half-centuries, but the result was never in doubt, and the Indians wrapped it up with 20 balls to spare. Dhiman finished with 2 for 58, while Kuldip Sharma (2 for 20) and Andimani Pradeep, the offspinner from Andhra Pradesh (2 for 45), were also among the wickets.

Scorecard

Michael Bevan: played a crucial hand in the run-chase © Getty Images

When New Zealand lost four wickets in next to no time in the morning, Australia could have been forgiven for expecting a repeat of Faridabad, where the same batting crumbled from a similar position. Instead, thanks to Jacob Oram and Daryl Tuffey, Pune gave its cricket fans a much more climactic game, and although Andrew Symonds slammed Australia home by two wickets, New Zealand’s fielding lent more than a helping hand towards that result.Set 259 for victory, Australia needed four off the final over, and after two of those runs had been notched up, Brendon McCullum dropped Brad Williams’s wild slash. Symonds clouted the very next ball to Lou Vincent at short midwicket, and even as that was grassed, the batsmen ran the single needed. Had they been taken, either of those chances could have potentially reversed the result of this game and may even affect New Zealand’s chances of making the TVS Cup final.Vincent had already dropped Symonds once at short extra cover, and his wicket at that time would have dented Australia’s hopes severely. Chasemeister Michael Bevan departed shortly afterwards for 50 (204 for 6), and it was Symonds who nudged Australia steadily towards 259, taking 10 runs off the last two balls of the penultimate over and keeping a cool head throughout.Symonds’s final assault built upon a 108-run fifth-wicket partnership between Bevan and Michael Clarke (70), who came together with Australia in some distress. Daryl Tuffey had Adam Gilchrist caught at mid-off (34 for 1), Matthew Hayden caught at slip (40 for 2) and Damien Martyn bowled off an inside edge (54 for 3). Scott Styris then bowled Ricky Ponting, and at four wickets down for 54, some calm batting was urgently needed.Bevan had provided that so many times in the past that it was now almost second nature, but Clarke’s supply of it was a revelation. Displaying excellent hand-eye coordination and some canny shot selection, Clarke rotated strike easily, and displayed an array of strokes and a willingness to improvise. He used his feet regularly to Daniel Vettori, once coming down the pitch and dragging him from outside off for a mighty six over midwicket. At the other end, Bevan batted away with minimum fuss; even his six off Chris Harris over long-off bore the stamp of business rather than pleasure.After Clarke inside-edged Tuffey onto his stumps (173 for 5) and Bevan, uncharacteristically, made an error of judgement during the final phase of a chase by top-edging a pull, Symonds stuck it out relentlessly. Ian Harvey and Andy Bichel played their part by sticking to a run-a-ball formula.Earlier Brad Williams, having found at Faridabad a script that pleased him, took ball in hand with the sole purpose of creating a sequel. Consistently moving the ball either way in his opening spell, Williams trapped both Chris Nevin and Scott Styris lbw by getting some nip into the batsmen. In between, he induced Lou Vincent to jab an outswinger to slip, and when he bowled Craig McMillan through the gate (21 for 4), New Zealand had their backs to the wall.

Andy Bichel celebrates the dismissal of Chris Cairns © Getty Images

After Bichel came into the attack, however, the pressure eased. The prodigious movement, which had so far worked against New Zealand, now started to contribute to the number of extras, and Cairns and Stephen Fleming had just started to mount a recovery when Bichel snaffled Cairns with the 10th ball of an over. After having delivered three wides and a no ball, Bichel got one to move into Cairns and trap him lbw (68 for 5).Fleming went into Test-match mode after that. He survived a difficult caught-and-bowled chance off Harvey, but his shield looked impenetrable until he skied a pull off Symonds to midwicket in a rush of blood (130 for 6).Harris soon slashed Williams to deep cover (151 for 7), but thereafter followed New Zealand’s best partnership – of 68 runs for the eighth wicket. Oram, using his height to good effect by striding forward and covering all swing, thumped bad balls for four and nudged singles otherwise. McCullum was content to turn the strike over repeatedly to Oram. A vicious six off Bichel over midwicket brought up the 200 for New Zealand, but soon after, Oram was struck on the ribs by a full toss that slipped out of Symonds’s hand. Although it was entirely accidental, it seemed to shake him up a little. Oram savaged 14 runs off the first five balls of that over, hitting cleanly and powerfully, but he moved to leg for the final ball – a full, straight delivery – and was bowled (219 for 8).Oram’s innings had wrested back the initiative for New Zealand, and McCullum and Vettori intelligently kept the scoreboard ticking over in the final few overs. Perhaps New Zealand could have used a few more slogged fours during that time, but more than anything else, they could have used their normally high levels of fielding, for if any game was lost by dropped catches, this one was.

The last time a Queensland team played a one-day match in Hobart, it suffered a crushing loss that effectively ended the state’s limited-overs season. Today, circumstances were reversed as the Bulls’ 76-run walloping of Tasmania served as the springboard for a likely appearance in the ING Cup Final this summer.The Bulls lost the toss, suffered a middle order collapse, and were under-strength – with their captain unavailable and three other top-line players missing.They also registered no more than a moderate-looking total of 8/203 upon being invited to bat first here at the Bellerive Oval.Yet they never seemed under threat once new ball bowlers Joe Dawes (3/26) and James Hopes (1/16) had each made incisions at the start of a flimsy Tasmanian reply. Ashley Noffke (4/32), backing up a valuable unbeaten 21 with the bat, then guaranteed the home team’s demise by wrecking its middle order with skilful pace bowling.Impressively, the visitors didn’t seem perturbed by the absence of national representatives Andy Bichel, Andrew Symonds and Matthew Hayden and captain Stuart Law – at home for the birth of his son. The loss of paceman Michael Kasprowicz, who left the field after feeling slight soreness in a hamstring, was easily overcome as well.Young all-rounder – and former Queensland junior – Shane Watson (53) offered the illusion of a Tasmanian revival with an accomplished innings amid crisis. With errors being committed all around him, though, there was little he could do to help avert a slide that saw seven wickets fall for the addition of just 65 runs.”It probably wasn’t the sort of total we were after with the bat but ‘Joey’ (Dawes) and ‘Hopesey’ started us off brilliantly and the rest of us were lucky to get a few wickets in the middle,” said Noffke in the wake of a win that gave the Bulls maximum points and a vital five-point buffer at the head of the Cup standings.”We came down here (wanting) to concentrate on the basics of the one-day game. We did that well and it was great to come out of it with a bonus point.”No matter what position we’re in, we believe that we can win. That we’ll get ourselves out of a bad position. It’s all about belief and trusting our ability.”It’s a superb position for us to be in (on the table) now but we still want to win every game we go into obviously.”With only one win from 11 previous outings this summer, the odds were arguably stacked against Tasmania from the start. They lengthened when Brendan Nash (63) and Jimmy Maher (31) joined in a composed opening stand of 62 after the latter, in his temporary role as skipper, had experienced defeat at the toss.The match tightened as the Tasmanian bowlers lured a succession of middle order batsmen into over-ambitious strokes. Only an intelligent unbroken liaison of 40 for the ninth wicket between Noffke and Nathan Hauritz (18*) quelled the Tasmanians’ determined fightback.But the gulf in the two teams’ confidence and self-belief was re-defined almost as soon as the Tasmanians began the chase.On a pitch that captain Jamie Cox later described as being over-generous to the bowlers, eight of the Tigers’ top nine batsmen added further complexity to the task by falling to the strokes of millionaires.”We’re playing terribly; simple errors are turning into catastrophes,” lamented Cox after the match.”We’re embarrassed, disappointed and upset.”My head’s a bit of a muddle (after that) but we’ve just got to figure out a way forward.”Openers Michael Di Venuto (6) and Michael Dighton (1) offered catching practice to Maher at second slip. Cox (15) drove a catch straight to mid off; Sean Clingeleffer (0) spooned another to cover; Shaun Young (4) heaved across the line; and Daniel Marsh (8), Scott Kremerskothen (4) and Graeme Cunningham (2) all chased deliveries they would have been well advised to leave alone.It was a tame display – to add to a rapidly swelling collection of them this season for the last-placed Tigers.They continued to prove that the limited-overs game is not easy when confidence is low and when the next win seems a mile away.Though they only had to look across a passage way, to the opposite dressing room, to note that reversals can sometimes come in a hurry.

Bengal and Assam carried their battle in the Ranji Trophy East Zoneleague match played at the North-East Frontier Railway Stadium,Guwahati, on Tuesday. Rohan Gavaskar stole the show with a brilliantcentury as Bengal were bowled out for 383 in 151.2 overs after tea onthe third day.Gavaskar hit nine boundaries in his innings of 114 that lasted212 balls. Rohan was at the crease for eight minutes short of sixhours. His was a well disciplined innings. Rohan and Srikant Kalyaniadded 169 runs for the sixth wicket in 53.1 overs, which wasinstrumental in helping Bengal gain a first innings lead of 92.Kalyani made a patient 75 that included nine boundaries. India discardSaba Karim again came good with the bat scoring 44. Rohan had put 69in 27 overs with Karim before he was dismissed by Sunil Subramaniam.The left arm spinner who had started his career with Tamil Nadu provedto be the nemesis of the Bengal tail as he returned to the pavilionwith the figures of 23.2-1-59-5.Assam saw through the difficult 11 overs bowled at them by Bengalbowlers to finish at 22 without losing any wickets.