Tag Futebol

West Ham United and Newcastle are set to battle it out with Barcelona for the signing of Toulouse defender Aymen Abdennour, according to Talksport

The Tunisian international has been earning rave reviews in the French league this season, interesting a host of top European sides, including Barcelona.

The Catalan giants have already sent their representatives to watch the defender in action as they source a long-term replacement for club legend Carlos Puyol.

But it now looks as though Barcelona won’t have it all their own way as they battle for his signature with Newcastle and West Ham declaring their interest in the defender.

Magpies boss Alan Pardew will fancy his chances of bringing Abdennour to the club having achieved a number of successful Ligue 1 raids over the last couple of seasons, including the signings of influential midfielders Yohan Cabaye and Hatem Ben Arfa.

But Sam Allardyce is also said to be keen on bringing the big Tunisian to the Premier League and the West Ham manager is desperate to provide defensive competition to his backline as he tries to build his defence around New Zealand captain Winston Reid.

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.

Any move from an English club will of course depend on Barcelona’s involvement as neither side will be able to match a bid from the Spanish side.

[cat_link cat=”newcastle-united” type=”grid”]

She will replace the injured Grace Harris in the squad

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Jul-2024Deepti Sharma will return to the Hundred this year after signing for London Spirit as a replacement for the injured Grace Harris. Deepti played for Spirit in the competition’s inaugural season in 2021 and was an unused member of Birmingham Phoenix’s squad the following summer.The Hundred starts on July 23 with Spirit due to play their opening fixture away against Southern Brave the following day, but Deepti will miss the start of the competition due to the Asia Cup in Dambulla. She will be replaced by Erin Burns for the first two games, who is already in the country playing for Northern Diamonds.Deepti is one of three India players due to be involved in the Hundred this season, along with Richa Ghosh (Birmingham Phoenix) and Smriti Mandhana (Southern Brave). Like Deepti, both players are part of India’s Asia Cup squad so will miss the first week of the competition.Related

• Silverwood returns to English cricket in Oval Invincibles role

• Mahika Gaur withdraws from Women's Hundred due to side strain

• Ben Stokes to link up with Andrew Flintoff in Northern Superchargers comeback

The ECB confirmed the latest tranche of replacement players on Thursday afternoon, with Sophie Molineux (Manchester Originals) joining Harris in pulling out of the Hundred. Cricket Australia confirmed on Friday that Molineux had suffered a fracture rib and Harris a calf strain.Molineux has been replaced by Kim Garth, while Bethan Ellis will join her at the Originals after Mahika Gaur pulled out due to a side strain. Tash Farrant has been ruled out with a hamstring injury but is yet to be replaced at Oval Invincibles, while Beth Langston is in for Claire Nicholas at Welsh Fire.As ESPNcricinfo revealed on Wednesday night, England’s Test batters will be released to play in the men’s Hundred immediately after their third Test against West Indies at Edgbaston, while their bowlers and allrounders – including Ben Stokes – are only likely to play the second half of the group stages due to workload management.Further replacements include Leicestershire’s Louis Kimber, who takes up the injured Will Smeed’s spot at Phoenix, while Mohammad Amir has signed for the Invincibles – who are defending champions – for the start of the competition as short-term cover while Spencer Johnson concludes his commitments at Major League Cricket.

Hundred replacement deals:

Birmingham Phoenix: Louis Kimber and Tim Southee replace Will Smeed and Naseem Shah.
London Spirit: James Neesham and Matthew Taylor replace Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope while they are with England; Deepti Sharma replaces Grace Harris, with Erin Burns replacing Deepti until the end of the Asia Cup.
Manchester Originals: Kim Garth and Bethan Ellis replace Sophie Molineux and Mahika Gaur.
Northern Superchargers: Mitchell Santner replaces Daniel Sams.
Oval Invincibles: Harrison Ward and Mohammad Amir replace Gus Atkinson (while he is with England) and Spencer Johnson (while he is at MLC). Tash Farrant has withdrawn, replacement TBC
Trent Rockets: Riley Meredith replaces Joe Root while he is with England.
Beth Langston: Beth Langston replaces Claire Nicholas.

KKR’s new opener Jason Roy set them up for a total of 200 by smashing 56 off 29 balls

Sreshth Shah26-Apr-20232:02

Dasgupta: You need guts to bowl in the situation that Suyash did

It took Kolkata Knight Riders eight games to finally produce a cohesive team performance. They excelled with bat and ball, and were the better team in the field too, as they achieved only their third win of the season. It was the perfect way for them to start the second half of the league stage, beating Royal Challengers Bangalore for the second time in the season.KKR’s win was set up by their new opener Jason Roy, who laid the base for their total of 200 by smacking 56 off 29 balls. Nitish Rana pumped 48 off 21 to keep the momentum going through the middle overs, and Rinku Singh (18 off 10) and David Wiese (12 off 3) put on the finishing touches.RCB’s chase, though, was on while Virat Kohli was out there. He scored 54 off 37 to keep them on course. However, regular wickets from Suyash Sharma, Varun Chakravarthy and Andre Russell kept pegging them back, and RCB eventually ran out of gas and fell 21 short.

Suyash, Varun pull it back for KKR

Kohli and Faf du Plessis hammered 30 runs in two overs from Vaibhav Arora and Umesh Yadav to start the chase, forcing Rana to bring on spin in the third over. He chose to go to his least experienced spinner – Suyash Sharma – ahead of Sunil Narine and Varun, and was rewarded with du Plessis holing out to long on second ball.While Kohli kept finding the boundary, he failed to find support in the powerplay with Shahbaz Ahmed falling lbw to Suyash, while Glenn Maxwell holed out off Varun. With RCB three down in the powerplay, Kohli and Mahipal Lomror stabilised the chase by running hard and taking on Sunil Narine.Jason Roy gave KKR a fabulous start•Associated Press

Rana then went back to Varun, who had Lomror caught in the deep, and when Kohli was superbly caught on 54 by Venkatesh Iyer, diving to his left at deep midwicket in the 13th over, KKR were decidedly ahead in the contest. The dismissals of Wanindu Hasaranga and Dinesh Karthik in the space of four balls ensured RCB had no way back and Kohli, who was standing in as captain for du Plessis once again, said they had “gifted” the victory to KKR.

Rana makes RCB pay

Kohli’s scathing post-game comments were largely because of RCB’s fielding. They put down a tough caught-and-bowled chance off Roy, but it was the two reprieves that Rana received that really cost RCB. According to ESPNcricinfo’s Luck Index the two drops, by Mohammed Siraj in the 13th over and Harshal Patel in the 15th, cost RCB a total of 29 runs.

Roy fined for breaching Code of Conduct

KKR opening batter Jason Roy has been fined 10 percent of his match fees for breaching the IPL Code of Conduct. It appeared that he hit the bails with his bat after he was dismissed by Vijaykumar Vyshak. He admitted to the Level 1 offence, where the Match Referee’s decision is final.

The first chance came when Rana was on 5 off 5 deliveries and then second when he was on 19 off 12. He ended up scoring 48 off 21 balls. Rana’s innings included three fours and four sixes and it allowed KKR to wrest the momentum after sluggish innings from N Jagadeesan and Venkatesh.

Roy sets Knight Riders up

It was Roy’s innings, however, that set the tone for KKR’s night. After struggling for runs from their opening partnership all season, KKR finally had a strong start and it was all Roy. He smashed four sixes in the fifth over from left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed to power them to 66 for 0 in the powerplay.So even though Vijaykumar Vyshak dismissed N Jagadeesan and Roy in the same over, KKR had a platform to build on, and this time Rana and the rest ensured that it was not wasted.

Team owner said the former Zimbabwe captain was chosen because of his “professionalism” as a player and coach

Nagraj Gollapudi17-Dec-2021Former Zimbabwe captain Andy Flower has been appointed the head coach of the yet-to-be-named Lucknow IPL franchise. Flower is the first appointment on the coaching staff by the Lucknow franchise, which was bought by Indian business conglomerate RP Sanjiv Goenka Group (RPSG) in August for nearly USD 1 billion.Sanjiv Goenka, RPSG’s owner, told ESPNcricinfo that Flower’s contract is “longer”, although he didn’t specify the exact duration. In a media release, Goenka said Flower was chosen because of his “professionalism” and that he had “left an indelible mark” on the game as both a player and coach.Flower said he would “relish the challenge to build something meaningful and successful” with the Lucknow franchise, one of the two new IPL teams, along with the Ahmedabad franchise, who will debut in 2022.Related

• Lucknow IPL franchise picks up Rahul, Stoinis and Bishnoi

• IPL 2022: Brian Lara, Dale Steyn join Sunrisers' support staff; Tom Moody returns as coach

• Gautam Gambhir named mentor of Lucknow IPL franchise

• Lucknow and Ahmedabad become home to the two newest IPL franchises

• Andy Flower named Afghanistan consultant for T20 World Cup

Flower is no newcomer to the IPL. He served as the assistant coach for two seasons at Punjab Kings from 2020. Flower’s high pedigree as a coach across formats is well-known: he was at the helm when England dominated Test cricket and were No.1 on the rankings about a decade ago as well as when Paul Collingwood’s team won the 2010 World T20, England’s maiden ICC trophy.After serving in various coaching roles for 12 years with the ECB, Flower took the plunge into franchise cricket in 2019 where he has had a successful run so far. He was head coach at Multan Sultans who won their maiden PSL title earlier this year. He also led St Lucia Kings to two CPL finals in 2020 and 2021. Flower’s latest international assignment was as a consultant with Afghanistan at the T20 World Cup.Flower might have cut his teeth as an international coach using techniques from the last century, but he has kept an open mind and adapted quickly to the new age. In a recent interview with ESPNcricinfo, Flower acknowledged the importance of data in cricket, but stressed that “looking after the person” still remained his primary job.”When I was with England, we wanted to approach the game differently, and help us as coaches to understand the game to a different depth and breadth, and also help players challenge their understanding of the game,” he said. “In this last period, it’s an important part of it. But you can never forget that you’re dealing with human beings. One of the most important things I’ve learned in my years of coaching is that looking after the person is more important than developing the player. It’s a really important thing to learn as a coach because it drives how you interact with people, and how you care for them.”

The IPL Governing Council is going to chalk out the final details and approve the schedule

Nagraj Gollapudi24-Jul-2020The 2020 Indian Premier League (IPL) will be played between September 19 and November 10 in the UAE. Brijesh Patel, the IPL Governing Council chairman, told ESPNcricinfo that the final could be played on November 8 or 10, with a definitive decision expected soon.Even as the BCCI has set the ball rolling for relocating the IPL to the UAE, it still needs the nod of the Indian government. Earlier this week Patel had said that the permission “will come” and had confirmed Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah will be the three main venues for the tournament.Patel said the tournament dates had been “circulated” among the IPL Governing Council members but he did not confirm whether there is a Governing Council meeting scheduled which was speculated to take place this weekend. He further said that key points including the schedule along with the contours of what a biosecure bubble would comprise would be finalised and communicated to the franchises soon. It is understood the franchises were informed only about the tournament dates on Thursday and were told further details would emerge soon.One key advantage of having the tournament in the UAE is the quarantine period is less relaxed. Currently anyone travelling into the UAE needs to test negative before flying in, and also has to take a test upon landing. If both those tests are negative there is no quarantine required. But if a person lands without having done a test prior to flying in, then a quarantine period is mandatory.ALSO READ: Kane Williamson looks forward to IPL as he eases back into trainingThe IPL will comprise 60 matches and will be played over 51 days (in case final is on November 8). In the original schedule prepared in March for this year, the tournament days stretched to 50 to keep the double-headers minimal, a request of the franchises who did not want players to suffer during the peak Indian summer. It is likely the double-headers will remain minimal even in the UAE.It remains to be seen whether the IPL will stick to evening matches commencing at 8pm IST despite reservations from host broadcaster Star Sports, which was sceptical about games stretching past midnight. It is likely that the IPL will reconsider advancing the start time to 7.30 pm IST.With the final on November 8 or 10, the Indian players will also have enough time to quarantine for two weeks in Australia for the Test series scheduled to start on December 3 in Brisbane.

A four-wicket win for Islamabad United saw them chasing down Karachi’s 161 with three balls to spare

The Report by Danyal Rasool14-Mar-2019

How the game played out

Karachi Kings may be one of the less prolific sides in this competition’s brief history, but they are the only side to have knocked Islamabad United out of any PSL tournament. That victory came in an Eliminator two years ago. But today, Islamabad United avenged that loss in a scrappy, entertaining game where both sides chugged along like an antique car on a dodgy engine, hurtling along seemingly without control before grinding to a halt at various stages of their innings. The upshot was a four-wicket win for Islamabad, who chased down Karachi’s 161 with three balls to spare.Despite the loss, the most memorable part of the game was arguably the first six overs. Karachi had courageously won the toss and chosen to bat first in a tournament where that decision is close to sacrilege, and blistered to 50 in just 20 balls as Colin Munro finally began to make good on the talent based on which he was signed. When he feathered an edge to Mohammad Musa, he had smashed 32 runs in a mere 11 balls, and Karachi were motoring along at 17 an over. They would go on to add an eye-watering 78 in the first six, as the boundaries flew like confetti.Islamabad came back to choke them after the Powerplay ended, and somehow maintained that stranglehold right throughout the innings, with Karachi only just managing to double their Powerplay total, in the end limping to 161 for nine. Most of Islamabad’s bowlers had recovered their figures, and the one who was most expensive – Muhammad Musa – was the highest wicket-taker, having removed Munro, Ingram and Iftikhar Ahmed.Islamabad’s chase always looked tight, not helped by a slow start and Ronchi’s early departure. Alex Hales and Cameron Delport saw them through the Powerplay, but the nerves wouldn’t have been eased as the asking rate continued to rise in the face of a stellar bowling attack and a world-class spell from Umer Khan. Towards the end, it came down to Islamabad’s own local talent in Faheem Ashraf, Asif Ali and Hussain Talat to manage the asking rate. Mohammad Amir missed his lines once too often, Babar Azam dropped a catch once too frequently and Karachi were simply a few too short in the final overs. It all amounted to Islamabad getting to the finish line just in time, dashing Karachi’s hopes of a title on home soil.

Turning point

• Karachi began to struggle as soon as that whirlwind of a Powerplay came to a close, but the final three overs were especially ruinous to their chances. Positioned at 150 for six with three overs to go, they still had the opportunity to pose a stiff challenge with a brisk finish. Instead, the last three overs saw a mere 11 runs scored.

Star of the day

Pakistan have swooned over the fast bowling gems they may have unearthed this tournament, and bemoaned the lack of exciting local batsmen. But the find of the competition may be 19-year old Umer Khan, perhaps the most promising spinner to come out of the PSL since Shadab Khan. Having impressed ever since he got AB de Villiers out weeks ago, Umer has found a way to get the biggest names of the planet out just when Karachi have required him to. His spell today was one of the spells of the tournament, with the teenager the only bowler to find genuine drift and turn on a flat wicket. He wasn’t afraid of flighting the ball, and found due rewards, finding the outside edges of Delport and Chadwick Walton within three deliveries of each other. He ended up with 4-0-16-2, and if ever a performance deserved not to end up in the losing side, it was his.

The big miss

Ronchi has the highest strike rate in the world off the first 10 balls, but the New Zealand opener was strangely subdued over that period today. Valued around the world because he doesn’t need so much as a warm-up ball to begin attacking the bowlers, Ronchi played out nine deliveries today, unable to get one to the boundary rope. Imad Wasim, Mohammad Amir and Aamer Yamin all executed their plans perfectly, pitching the ball short of a length. It deprived Ronchi of the ability to strike the ball through the line. The change-up came off his ninth ball, with Yamin sending down a wide yorker that Ronchi could only mishit to mid-on. 5 off 9 is an unlikely innings breakdown for the Islamabad talisman, and in a game of exceptionally fine margins, they almost ended up paying for it.

Big picture

Karachi bow out with today’s defeat, with Islamabad through to the playoff with Peshawar tomorrow. The winner of that contest plays Quetta Gladiators in the final.

Important to focus and not let change in batting positions affect game, says India batsman

Akshay Gopalakrishnan in Alur09-Nov-2017Mayank Agarwal’s classy century against Delhi on Thursday may have made him the star on most days. But for the few hundreds that gathered at the KSCA ground in Alur, Manish Pandey was all the rage. The Karnataka batsman was the sole recipient of applause from a clamouring crowd as he walked out to bat. Later, when a few members of the team cooled down with a light football session at the end of day’s play, Pandey was the centre of all attention again. It didn’t seem to matter that a few other heroes, who have also played for India, were in closer vicinity, jogging around by the boundary.This popularity of Pandey isn’t newfound, but it has certainly surged since he’s become a part of India’s limited-overs squad. Coming from the same batch of India Under-19s as Virat Kohli, Pandey hasn’t had the same opportunities or exposure at the senior level. He’s had to bide his time despite consistent scores in domestic cricket. His rise hasn’t been meteoric, but he’s still a popular player.Now, over two years since his international debut, Pandey is still fighting to nail a permanent spot. Constant changes to his batting position haven’t made the process easy. An average of 43 and strike-rate of 95 suggests there’s ability and potential, but it hasn’t always been enough. There’s been competition in the form of Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik and KL Rahul, his good friend and Karnataka team-mate. That is perhaps why every opportunity he gets at any level of competitive cricket is a blessing at this stage of his career.Barely a few hours after turning up for India in a T20 international against New Zealand in Thiruvananthapuram, Pandey hopped onto a flight to Bangalore and drove to Alur, on the outskirts of the city, to join his Karnataka mates ahead of a crucial Ranji Trophy game. The batsmen who preceded him had set it up nicely. The sunshine had eased out whatever moisture there was on the surface, and Delhi’s bowlers were tiring. Pandey walked in and stroked a half-century, the significance of which was magnified by the presence of MSK Prasad, the chairman of selectors. After a punchy 74, Pandey acknowledged it was important to not let the bar drop.”It’s a completely different ball game [playing four-day cricket as compared to the limited-overs formats], you know,” he said. “I had more time to settle down and play my shots as the innings progressed. It’ll be important for me to continue batting like this and have fun.”It was quite easy. The plan was to come at No. 4, but with the jet lag and stuff like that, I came in at No. 5. I have been playing a lot of ODI and T20, which obviously starts in the later part of the day. It was good to come back and play Ranji Trophy cricket for Karnataka. It was amazing to see the boys again. The partnership before definitely helped.”Pandey had a rousing start to his one-day career, with a half-century against Zimbabwe in Harare. Three games later, he blitzed a match-winning century against Australia in Sydney. A middling series against New Zealand cost him his place, and it took nearly a year for him to get a chance again, after a highly successful series with the India A team in South Africa.Pandey announced his return with an unbeaten half-century in a crushing 168-run win over Sri Lanka. Since then, he has floated between Nos. 4 and 6, not remaining in the same position for more than three games in a row. It also hasn’t helped that he returned with two single-digit scores in the three innings that he batted at No. 4. With India still in the hunt for a permanent fix to the No. 4 spot, those were costly lapses.Pandey’s game is well-suited to the position as he has the wherewithal to play the big shots as well as build an innings, like he showed in that Sydney hundred against Australia. However, being denied the luxury of settling into a position has made the bid harder.”I didn’t think about international cricket or the memories from before. I only thought about Karnataka cricket and my batting today,” he said. “I was looking forward to play this game. It is a little difficult to adapt, but I think I have done this for a long time. It’s a part of the game where the team wants you to play No. 4 or 5 or 6, and it’ll be important for me to stay focussed and keep waiting for the call-up.”Pandey last played a first-class match in December last year, when Karnataka conceded the quarterfinal of the previous season’s Ranji Trophy to Tamil Nadu inside two days. Given how heavily involved he has been in limited-overs cricket in that time, the pace at which Pandey struck his runs on Thursday perhaps wasn’t entirely surprising. But he denied any conscious effort in tweaking his game.”You don’t look to score a boundary every ball, but I look to score a single every ball, be a little aggressive. Even if it’s a defence, the intention is to be aggressive. Because of a lot of T20 cricket that is happening, cricket has changed in such a way that batsmen want to score runs and score boundaries. In a way, that’s really good for cricket where it’s looking good from the outside. I think we should just focus on getting runs.”

WI captain Carlos Brathwaite has rued the batting failure of his team in the first T20 against Pakistan in Dubai and said it was “poor execution” that led to them being bowled out for 115

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Sep-20161:56

Poor execution by our batsmen – Brathwaite

West Indies captain Carlos Brathwaite has rued the batting failure of his team in the first T20 against Pakistan in Dubai and said it was “poor execution” and a failure to “assess conditions quickly enough” that led to them being bowled out for 115. West Indies had only two batsmen scoring in double-figures as left-arm spinner Imad Wasim ran through their line-up with figures of 5 for 14.”[We lost because of] poor execution, [their] good bowling, you know we are an aggressive, exciting team, two games ago we scored 240 odd and today we scored 115,” Brathwaite said. “We have ebbs and follows ups and downs, today it just didn’t come off for us. I don’t think we assessed the conditions quickly enough. Majority of the shots didn’t show situation awareness.

Pakistan’s captain Sarfraz Ahmed on …

A focus on fielding and fitness
“If you have to beat a good team, your fielding has to be very good. If you field well off the bad balls and take the catches, that will lead to your success. That’s what the good teams do. Fielding saves you runs.
Everyone is working on their fitness. We had a fitness test just before this tour, our fitness has improved a lot. We’ll soon have the same standards as international standards.”
Imad Wasim and reading the pitch
“Imad is an attacking bowler, he was in great form in the CPL and he knows how to bowl in the Powerplay. Our target was to attack with him.
We knew how the pitch will behave, it was skidding. A bit of grass on the pitch helped the spinners too. We made use of that advantage.”

“I don’t want to just say we didn’t bat well, credit must go to Imad Wasim who bowled fantastically, anytime you get 5 for 14 in an international match you must be doing something right, and to get it in a T20 international is even better. But these things happen. We are an aggressive team and I won’t tell any of the guys in the room to lose their aggression, it is just a matter of being more situation aware going into tomorrow’s game.”Wasim opened the bowling for Pakistan and got a wicket with his fifth ball, before striking twice in his second over to dismiss Andre Fletcher and Marlon Samuels. He struck twice in an over again when he bowled Kieron Pollard and then snared Brathwaite in the tenth over to complete his five-for. Brathwaite said Wasim’s familiarity with the West Indies batsmen because he played the CPL had given him an edge.”Imad had a head start on us, playing CPL for Jamaica Tallawahs. He knew our batsmen, and we knew him as well, and planned for him, and on the day his execution was better than ours,” Brathwaite said. “We didn’t execute it the way we wanted to. On some other day those same shots could have gone for boundaries and sixes and if we were 45-50 odd for 1 after six overs, setting a beautiful platform to go on and score 140-150 which looked like would have been a winning total on the surface today.”We are an aggressive exciting team, when it comes off it looks fine, but you have days like these when it doesn’t come off. There is no blame to point, we had a slow start and we lost the game. We keep our chin up, move forward, and look ahead to tomorrow’s game.”The main positive for West Indies was Dwayne Bravo’s 54-ball 55 while batting with the tail, taking the score from 15 for 3 to 115 . The only substantial support he got was from No. 10 Jerome Taylor, whose 66-run partnership with Bravo salvaged the innings from 48 for 8. They batted together for 7.5 overs and scored at a run rate of 8.42 before Taylor was bowled by Sohail Tanvir in the last over.”Anytime a team is 20-odd for 5, they need a herculean effort by two, three guys,” Brathwaite said. “I know we had that today from Bravo getting 50-odd, Jerome Taylor played a fantastic innings, and to be honest defending 115 is always going to be difficult. We tried our best, it didn’t quite come off today, our batters didn’t play very well, the key was getting early wickets. I tried my best as captain to switch around the bowlers and mix it up so that batsmen don’t get accustomed to one bowler. That didn’t work and fantastic work from Khalid [Latif] and Babar [Azam].”Because we had one bad game it does not dent the belief we had in the 11 guys that took part, we understand that in professional sport you have ups and downs, today was a definite down for the team,” he said. “We didn’t play like world champions, we didn’t play like the No. 1 team in the world, and the result shows. Well played to Pakistan and tomorrow we will bring a better game.”

USA wicketkeeper Akeem Dodson has questioned the motivation of some members of the team including captain Muhammad Ghous

Peter Della Penna in Belfast14-Jul-2015USA wicketkeeper Akeem Dodson, who top-scored with 49 in USA’s seven-wicket loss to Namibia at Stormont on Monday, rejected any notion that his team threw in the towel early in the second innings. However, he questioned the motivation of some members of the team, including thinly veiled criticism directed at captain Muhammad Ghous.”I wouldn’t say the team gave up,” Dodson told ESPNcricinfo after the match. “Maybe a few players felt that they weren’t in a position to bowl or they didn’t want to bowl. In this kind of game, especially in a T20 game, you need a big heart. Sometimes when the ball is getting hit 100 meters, a lot of bowlers are afraid. Their heart gets a little weak and their arms might get a little lazy.”With Namibia on 73 for 0 after seven overs, and openers Stephen Baard and Gerrie Snyman both having already been dropped, Ghous brought on specialist batsmen Alex Amsterdam and Timothy Surujbally – a player who had only bowled two overs in eight previous T20 games – to bowl for USA in the eighth and ninth overs. Ghous had bowled two overs for nine runs at the start of the chase but did not reappear for the rest of the game.”It really takes being a bigger person and understanding that ‘Yeah, I’m a big bowler and this is when I need to bowl’, especially as a top bowler in the team,” Dodson said. “It was the captain’s choice. It was his decision, he made the decision and we have to live with it.”Dodson, 27, is USA’s most experienced batsman in the squad, having played 29 T20s and is their leading run-scorer in the tournament with 88 runs in three games. Dodson took responsibility for throwing his wicket away on 49 going for a six, calling it the turning point in the match at the start of the 14th over, which precipitated USA’s feeble first-innings finish to go from 82 for 3 to a total of 113 for 8.In contrast to USA’s opening match of the tournament, where they fought till the final over to defend a total of 121, Namibia reached the target of 114 with 43 balls to spare. Dodson said the team’s performance in the field was a disappointment but that morale was low heading into the innings break.”I think the fielding performance today was lackluster,” Dodson said. “I think because we ended up with that total, we lost momentum. There wasn’t the same kind of fight that you saw in Indianapolis and you saw in the first couple of games. No-balls are always costly and in the T20 game fielding is king. Fielding is where you’re going to win it or lose it and today I think it lost it for us.”It could have made the game a lot more interesting if we took those catches, if that no-ball was a wicket [with Snyman on 7]. If we had got Snyman’s wicket early, then it could have been a whole different game. We have to really emphasize that it is where we want to be a cut above the rest. If we are able to field well and field better than other teams, then we’ll be able to win games.”USA resume Group A action against Jersey on Wednesday at Bready after an off day. The previous match between Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea at Bready on Monday was washed out and USA’s final pre-tournament warm-up at the same ground against Kenya was also abandoned. Dodson said the team is hoping that the rain will stay away in order to give them a chance to break the losing streak.”The outlook is still bright I believe,” Dodson said. “We have to play well and win these games. The biggest problem will be watching the weather. We have Jersey at Bready. I feel that even though Jersey won a really good game against Hong Kong, we have the firepower to take them on and beat them. I think that’s going to be our rebound. Once we can rebound from there and regroup, Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea better watch out.”

The New South Wales captain Steve O’Keefe led from the front with four wickets to keep the Blues on top in their match against Western Australia at Sydney’s Blacktown Oval

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Jan-2013

Scorecard
Steve O’Keefe had eight wickets for the match by stumps on day three•Getty Images

The New South Wales captain Steve O’Keefe led from the front with four wickets to keep the Blues on top in their match against Western Australia at Sydney’s Blacktown Oval. At stumps on the third day, the Warriors’ tail had wagged enough to give them a 109-run lead but with only two wickets in hand – Ashton Agar was at the crease on 29 with Jason Behrendorff on 4 – it appeared they would need something special on the final day to avoid defeat.The day began with New South Wales at 6 for 263 and they were able to add a further 81 runs for the loss of their final four wickets. Moises Henriques, who was not out on 62 overnight, was caught off the bowling of Nathan Coulter-Nile for 71 but O’Keefe (36) and Trent Copeland (39) combined for a useful 54-run stand that pushed the Blues up to 344. Coulter-Nile collected 3 for 89 and the debutant spinner Ashton Agar took 3 for 104.The second innings for the Warriors began well with a 67-run opening partnership between Marcus Harris (43) and Liam Davis (32) but after Chris Tremain broke that stand, O’Keefe became a danger to the middle order. After picking up 4 for 55 in the first innings, O’Keefe added 4 for 47 and his work could hardly have come at a better time, as Australia’s selectors prepare to choose their Test squad to tour India.Copeland also claimed two important wickets, including that of Michael Hussey lbw for 8, and the Warriors had slipped from 2 for 100 to 6 for 102. Coulter-Nile helped fight back with 42 before Agar and Behrendorff came together, but with only Michael Hogan still to bat the Warriors remained in trouble at stumps.