Off-spinner | SilverScorpio.Com

Swann hopes to wake England pals from their one-day slumber

September 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Sep.15 (ANI): Off-spinner Graeme Swann is hoping to give a wake up call to his England team-mates when they take on Australia in the fifth of the seven match NatWest series.

The day-night clash is to be played at Trent Bridge tonight.

The spin ace told SunSport: “I’m going to try to lift the camp. I find it easy to have a laugh while playing cricket – and it’s probably more important to do that when you are losing. I don’t target anyone in particular with the piss-taking. It is whoever walks in the dressing room at the wrong time. But you can’t kid anyone, we’ve played terrible cricket in the one-day series so far.”

England’s one-day form needs a sharp hand-brake turn if they are to stand any chance in the upcoming Champions Trophy in South Africa. Their mini-World Cup campaign starts on September 25 and once again you wouldn’t back them to bag the silverware.

Swann was meeting fans on the Ashes Urn Tour. (ANI)

Filed Under: Sports News Tagged With: ace, ANI, anyone, ashes, Ashes Urn, Australia, bag, call, Call England, camp, campaign, champions, champions trophy, chance, clash, Cricket, cup, dressing-room, England, england team, fifth, form, Graeme Swann, kid, laugh, London, match, mini, mini world cup, NatWest, natwest series, off-spinner, pals, room, Sep, September, series, silverware, slumber, South Africa, spin, sunsport, target, team-mates, time, tonight, tour, trent bridge, trophy, turn, urn, wake, wake up call, world, World Cup Campaign, wrong time

Anderson says Ponting let England off the hook

July 13, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Cardiff (Wales), July 13 (ANI): Batting hero Jimmy Anderson on Sunday claimed that Australian captain Ricky Ponting took his fingers off England’s throat by bowling part-time spinner Marcus North in the dramatic final overs at Cardiff.

As England held out for a controversial draw, Ponting tossed the ball to North for two of the final four overs.

Off-spinner Nathan Hauritz was bowling at the other end at a time when Australia’s pacers had been far more threatening to the last batting pair of Anderson and Monty Panesar.

“Certainly when they put Marcus North on I thought we had a great chance, them putting a part time spinner on,” The Daily Telegraph quoted Anderson, as saying.

“I thought, we’ve got a good chance here because Monty was playing it very well, we were communicating well together,” he added.

Ponting, however, vigorously defended the use of his spinners, saying time was running out and Australia needed to bowl as many deliveries as possible at England’s last pair.

“Look, we were running a bit short of time. Once they forged that last partnership, we needed to get as many balls into their batsmen as possible. A few other minutes being taken up by other things. Two left-handers being in, two off spinners being on, I thought we could create some chances,” Ponting said.

England skipper Andrew Strauss refused to publicly savage Ponting for the spin ploy, but claimed the tailenders would have found spearhead pacer Mitchell Johnson more difficult to face.

“I could understand what he was doing, but personally I thought Mitchell Johnson would have been harder for these two to face,” Strauss said.

“Each captain sees things differently, I suppose. It’s a difficult situation when you’re trying to rush through overs when you get to the back end of the game there,” he said.

“The reality was that it was a very flat wicket and it was difficult to prise people out, especially if they showed application, which the second half of our order did,” Strauss said. (ANI)

Filed Under: Sports News Tagged With: anderson, andrew strauss, ANI, application, Australia, australian captain, back, ball, batsmen, batting, being, bit, bowl, captain ricky, captain ricky ponting, Cardiff, Cardiff Wales, chance, Controversial Draw, daily, daily telegraph, draw, end, England, england skipper, final four, game, good chance, half, hero, hook, Jimmy Anderson, July, left handers, Marcus North, Mitchell Johnson, Monty, monty panesar, nathan hauritz, off-spinner, order, pacer, pacers, pair, Panesar, part, partnership, ploy, prise, reality, savage, situation, skipper, spearhead, spin, spinner, Spinners, strauss, sunday, Telegraph, throat, time, use, wales, wicket

Symonds timely return to form helps Australia defeat Pakistan

April 25, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Sydney, Apr 25 (ANI): Troubled Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds has found form he and his country badly needed to set up six-wicket win over Pakistan in Dubai.

Symonds scored 58 of 62 balls to help Australia reach 4-208 in 45.1 overs, chasing Pakistan’s total of 207 all out.

Symonds also took two wickets in as many balls at the end of Pakistan’s innings to curtail a barrage of late hitting which threatened to set up a much bigger run-chase.

FOX Sports reported that Symonds’ batting performance was timely on several fronts.

Australia had entered the match trailing 1-0 in the five-game series after having their batting ripped apart by Pakistani spinners in Wednesday’s series opener, with Symonds out for two in that match.

A similar scenario was in danger of unfolding when he came to the crease on Friday night.

Off-spinner Saeed Ajmal had claimed Australia’s Shane Watson (30 off 52 balls) and leg-spinner Shahid Afridi dismissed James Hopes (48 from 64) in the space of three balls to reduce Australia from 1-91 to 3-93 in the 22nd over. On Wednesday night, that same pair had reduced Australia from 1-95 to 9-122.

But Symonds mixed watchfulness and clever placement with some occasional big hits to blunt the spinners and dominate a 90-run fourth-wicket stand with captain Michael Clarke (39 not out from 72 balls).

“It was a very important game, we had a really good chat after the (first) game and then the batters got together yesterday after our training just to talk about a few things and come up with a few ideas,” Clarke said.

Symonds’ performance was just as crucial to his own career prospects, which have flagged since he was banished from the national team in Darwin last August, when he went fishing instead of attending a team meeting.

He returned to the side last November, but his international career was further interrupted for knee surgery in December and then when he was stood down after using crude language to describe New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum during a radio interview in January. (ANI)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Afridi, ajmal, Andrew Symonds, ANI, Apr, August, Australia, barrage, Batters, batting, brendon mccullum, captain michael, captain Michael Clarke, career, Career Prospects, clarke, country, crease, crude, Crude Language, danger, darwin, December, defeat, Dubai., end, first game, form, fox, fox sports, Friday, game, game series, innings, international career, Interview, James Hopes, January, knee, knee surgery, language, match, meeting, Michael Clarke, New Zealand, night, November, off-spinner, opener, pair, Pakistan, performance, placement, radio, return, rounder, Saeed Ajmal, scenario, series, shahid, Shane Watson, side, space, Spinners, stand, surgery, sydney, team, Timely Return, total, training, Wednesday, wicket, wickets, win, yesterday

New Zealand stumble as Zaheer rips through top order

April 5, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

India’s Zaheer Khan took advantage of a blustery northerly wind to rip through New Zealand’s top order and reduce the hosts to 140 for seven at tea on the second day of the third test on Saturday.

Brendon McCullum (seven) and Tim Southee (one) will attempt to guide New Zealand towards the follow on target of 180 after the break.

Zaheer, who had dismissed Martin Guptill (17) and Daniel Flynn (two) before lunch, captured the wickets of Tim McIntosh (32) and Jesse Ryder (three) afterwards to destroy New Zealand’s top order. He had figures of four for 46 at the break.

Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh then captured the crucial wicket of second test centurion Ross Taylor for 42 and James Franklin for 15 to leave the hosts in dire straits at the break.

Taylor’s dismissal had some doubt after television replays and ‘snicko’, the microphone dedicated to picking up the sound of edges, indicated he had not touched the ball.

Earlier, the tourists added just four runs to their overnight total of 375 for nine when Ishant Sharma edged a catch behind off Chris Martin to McCullum for 18 in the third over of the morning.

India lead the three match series 1-0 after winning in Hamilton and drawing the second match in Napier.

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: advantage, ball, blustery, break, brendon mccullum, catch, Centurion, Chris Martin, Daniel Flynn, day, Dire Straits, dismissal, doubt, guptill, Hamilton, Harbhajan, harbhajan singh, India, Ishant, james franklin, Jesse Ryder, khan, lunch, Martin Guptill, match, microphone, morning, napier, New Zealand, Northerly Wind, off-spinner, order, Replays, Rip, Rips Through, Ross Taylor, Saturday, second test, series, Series 1, sharma, Singh, snicko, sound, spinner, target, tea, television, test, third test, Tim Southee, tim mcintosh, total, wicket, wickets, wind, Zaheer, zaheer khan

Unbeaten England reaches first final in 16 years

March 17, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Sydney, Mar.17 (ANI): England sealed a place in its first World Cup final in 16 years when it extended its unbeaten run at this tournament to five matches by defeating the West Indies by 146 runs, while New Zealand stayed on course for a final showdown with Charlotte Edwards’s side when it overpowered India by five wickets in the penultimate matches in the Super Six stage of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2009 on Tuesday.

At the Drummoyne Oval, England openers Sarah Taylor (78) and Caroline Atkins (50) featured in a 134-run first wicket partnership before Claire Taylor (65) rescued her side from a middle-order collapse as the two-time former champion reached an imposing 236-8 in 50 overs.

Off-spinner Laura Marsh then took 3-17 as the West Indies was bowled out for 90 in 38.2 overs, with Shanel Daly unable to bat due to illness.

At the North Sydney Oval, New Zealand rode on an excellent 71 by player-of-the-match Kate Pulford and a priceless 47 not out by Suzie Bates to achieve the victory target of 208 runs with five wickets and 15 balls to spare which made it the first side in the tournament to score over 200 runs in the second innings to win a match.

While England is guaranteed a place in the 22 March final after collecting maximum points, New Zealand now has six points and can set up a repeat of 1993 World Cup final at Lord’s against England if it beats Pakistan on Thursday at Drummoyne. And if it manages to do this, defending champion Australia will be knocked out of the final race and instead will be left to play in the third-fourth place-off against India on 21 March at the Bankstown Oval.

Australia’s only chance of reaching the final is if it beats England on Thursday and also hope that eighth-ranked Pakistan turns the table on New Zealand. This scenario will put both Australia and New Zealand on even points and on equal wins which will bring the net run-rate into play.

India can also come into the equation if it beats the West Indies by a convincing margin and both Australia and New Zealand lose their last matches with the net run-rate to decide which team joins England in the final. The calculations are hypothetical and highly unlikely but certainly not impossible. (ANI)

Filed Under: Sports News Tagged With: ANI, Australia, australia and new zealand, Bankstown, bat, Caroline Atkins, champion, champion australia, chance, Charlotte Edwards, claire taylor, collapse, course, cup, daly, defending champion, Drummoyne, England, equation, Final Showdown, icc, illness, India, innings, Kate Pulford, Laura Marsh, lord, mar, March, Margin, match, maximum, Maximum Points, New Zealand, North Sydney, off-spinner, Oval, Pakistan, partnership, penultimate, Penultimate Matches, place, play, Pulford, Race, repeat, run, Sarah Taylor, scenario, score, Shanel, showdown, side, six points, stage, super, Suzie, Suzie Bates, sydney, table, target, team, Thursday, tournament, Tuesday, unbeaten, victory, West Indies, wicket, Wicket Partnership, wickets, Women, world

Oz cricket team sees Krejza as their last hope against India in Nagpur

November 5, 2008 By Rajiv Gupta Leave a Comment

Nagpur, Australia is seriously considering picking off-spinner Jason Krejza for the final Test against India to be played in Nagpur from November 6 to November 10.

The visitors seem to be desperate about retaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which they won during the last series Down Under.

Unable to gain a regular game with Tasmania in the Sheffield Shield and slogged by an India second XI in a pre-series tour match, Krejza has now emerged as Australia”s last hope against a powerful Indian batting line-up.

Australia has never looked like claiming the 20 wickets necessary for victory in any of the first three Tests and there is nothing to suggest that Krejza will be able to change that situation, reports Fox Sports.

Australia goes to Nagpur 1-0 down and must win the fourth Test, which starts on Thursday, to draw the series and retain the trophy.

Despite claiming Tendulkar”s wicket twice in the series so far, White, the Victoria captain and reluctant leg-spinner, has series figures of five wickets at 60.6 from three Tests, highlighting his lack of impact.

It was difficult to expect anything else from a player who considered himself a batting all-rounder and bowled himself for just 84 overs in nine Sheffield Shield matches last season.

Krejza has always been considered a talented off-spinner but, like many spinners from the past, he is a different and sometimes errant character, forcing him to leave New South Wales and head to Tasmania.

He was 20th on the list of Sheffield Shield wicket-takers last season with just 18 wickets in seven games at an average of 47.11, hardly the figures which should have earned him a spot on this tour.

However, the selectors have continued their obsession with taking off-spinners on Test tours of India.

Krejza was on course to play the first Test ahead of White, a late replacement for McGain, until the off-spinner returned the ugly match figures of 0-199 from 31 overs, at more than a run a ball, against an Indian second XI in a four-day match at Hyderabad.

The Australians certainly need to take wickets more regularly to reduce some of the frustration they continue to display with unnecessary and unseemly outbursts.

Lee has been the biggest disappointment of this series, having just seven wickets at 57. (ANI)

Filed Under: Sports News Tagged With: Australia, batting, claiming, considered, continue, figures, game, India, Indian, krejza, match, nagpur, off-spinner, overs, play, retain, season, series, seven, sheffield, shield, sometimes, taking, tasmania, test, tour, trophy, white, wickets, xi