March 6, 2019 issue
Cricket
After all the hard work by Soumya Sarkar and Mahmudullah against New Zealand's short-ball ploy, the hosts hit back with the second new ball to secure an innings victory on Day 4 of the the first Test in Hamilton on Sunday (March 3). Sarkar and Mahmudullah ensured a wicket-less first session and added 235 for the fifth wicket. However, Boult used the new cherry to good effect post lunch, picking up a five-wicket haul to bowl New Zealand to a win by and innings and 52 runs.
The positive batting from Bangladesh, which was the feature of the first session, was on display again post lunch as Mahmudullah took a liking to Colin de Grandhomme, dealing in boundaries to extend the partnership past 200. But there was another testing period for the fifth wicket pair when New Zealand opted for the second new ball as soon as it was available. Boult, who was moving the ball both ways, went past the edge of Sarkar's bat on a few occasions. Sarkar was also tested by full deliveries from Southee. But the batsman also managed boundaries through the cover region, taking the fight back to the New Zealand bowlers.
However, Sarkar's fight against the second new ball ended when he was bowled by Boult after missing a flick, ending what was Bangladesh third-best fifth wicket stand. Mahmudullah, meanwhile, continued unperturbed as he took on Southee's full and short deliveries for two successive fours to register his fifth Test ton. But Bangladesh suffered another setback as Liton Das chased a Boult delivery outside off and although he looked to leave it in the end, he ended up chopping it on to the stumps. With Mehidy Hasan failing in his attempt to take on a short delivery from Wagner, Mahmudullah was left to bat with the tail.
Mahmudullah wasn't through with his fight as he struck two sixes and a four in an over off Wagner before scoring two back-to-back fours off Boult. Abu Jayed was doing his best to survive at the other end, with his skipper providing constant encouragement. But he was out after facing 19 deliveries, bowled by a straight one from Boult who bagged his fifth wicket with the dismissal. Mahmudullah managed to force the game into the final session of Day 4, having brought up his career-best score in Tests. However, he fell early in the post-tea session, getting out to Southee who also accounted for Ebadat Hossain to end the innings with three wickets.
Earlier, the short-ball barrage, which tested Sarkar and Mahmudullah late on Day 3, continued into the fourth morning as Wagner and Boult came hard at the Bangladesh fifth wicket pair. But Sarkar didn't hesitate to take them on, pulling Boult for a couple of sixes. At the other end, Mahmudullah was hanging back and waiting for the short balls which he handled well. Although he was jumping, ducking, weaving and pulling, with his technique looking ungainly, the Bangladesh captain was effective in preventing New Zealand from picking up any wicket.
Having seen off a 12-over spell in tandem for Boult and Wagner, Sarkar and Mahmudullah batted confidently against the legspin of Todd Astle, scoring a couple of sixes. Southee also went for a few as Sarkar reached three-figures for the first time in Test cricket, getting there off 94 deliveries to make it the joint fastest hundred for Bangladesh. Mahmudullah went past fifty, adding to the frustration of the New Zealand bowlers as Bangladesh managed 136 runs in the session in 29 overs.
Brief scores: Bangladesh 234 (Tamim Iqbal 126; Neil Wagner 5-47) & 429 (Soumya Sarkar 149, Mahmudullah 146; Trent Boult 5-123) lost to New Zealand 715/6 decl. (Kane Williamson 200*, Tom Latham 161, Jeet Raval 132; Soumya Sarkar 2-68) by an innings & 52 runs.
off 62 balls
Hazratullah Zazai hit an unbeaten 162 off 62 balls with 16 sixes — another record — and 11 fours in a free hitting innings.
Ireland made 194-6 to lose by 84 runs, their second straight defeat in the three match series.
Afghanistan's score overtook Australia's 263-3 against Sri Lanka in Kandy in Sept 2016.
Zazai made his century off just 42 balls — the second quickest in T20 internationals — completed with the ninth six of his innings.
Four of the sixes came off Kevin O'Brien in the 17th over, which reaped 28 runs in all.
two years: ICC
The 49-year-old – regarded as one of the greatest One Day International (ODI) batsmen of all time and was pivotal in winning the 1996 World Cup – accepted the punishment.
"This conviction under the Code demonstrates the importance of participants in cricket cooperating with investigations," said Alex Marshall, ICC General Manager of the Anti-Corruption Unit in a statement.
"Compelling participants to cooperate under the Code is a vital weapon in our efforts to rid our sport of corruptors. These rules are essential to maintain the integrity of our sport."
Jayasuriya was charged in October 2018 after failing to provide his mobile phones to the ACU. He was also accused of obstructing or delaying any investigation into corruption in the game.
In a statement he said he had pleaded guilty to the charges expecting a mitigated punishment.
"Consequent to correspondence between the ICC ACU officials and my lawyers we agreed to a sanction of a period of ineligibility of two years, which period is to take effect from the 15th of October 2018," Jayasuriya said.
Last month, the ICC urged Sri Lanka's scandal-ridden sporting community to come forward with information about corruption and issued a 15-day deadline that expired in mid-February.
Sri Lankan cricket has been mired in corruption allegations in recent years, including claims of match-fixing ahead of an international Test against England last year.
Virat Kohli hit his 40th one-day international century before Australia collapsed to hand India a tense eight-run win in the second ODI in Nagpur yesterday, March 5.
Kohli, the only India batsman to pass 50, made 116 from 120 balls as his side were bowled out for 250 in 48.2 overs.
In reply, the tourists were well placed at 218-6 in the 45th over but lost their last five wickets for 24 runs.
They needed 11 from the final over but Vijay Shankar took the last two wickets including Marcus Stoinis for 52.
Australia's chase was given a good start by a partnership of 83 between openers Aaron Finch and Usman Khawaja and, despite the loss of regular wickets, they looked in control through a sixth-wicket stand of 47 between Stoinis and Alex Carey.
But with 38 runs needed from the last 36 balls, Carey was bowled by Kuldeep Yadav for 22 and then Jasprit Bumrah, who finished with miserly figures of 2-29 from his 10 overs, dismissed Nathan Coulter-Nile and Pat Cummins.
All-rounder Shankar was left to bowl the 50th over and he trapped Stoinis lbw with his first delivery and sealed the win by bowling last man Adam Zampa two balls later.
Shankar (46) had earlier put on 81 with Kohli, who dragged his team to a defendable total.
Kohli is now nine centuries short of the ODI record despite having appeared in fewer than half the number of matches played by India legend Sachin Tendulkar, the current holder.
This was India's 500th ODI victory.
India lead the five-match series 2-0.
Summarized Scores: India 250 (48.2 overs): Kohli 116, Cummins 4-29; Australia 242 (49.3 overs): Stoinis 52, Kuldeep 3-54
India won by eight runs
By Romeo Kaseram
Inshan Ali was born on September 25, 1949, in the rural village of Preysal in central Trinidad. His bowling prowess saw delivery of a left-arm unorthodox spin, in what is described on the website, cricketbooks.com.au, as a style that consistently confounded big-spinning wrist spinners. According to this website, “So bamboozling were his each-way breaks one day in the 1973 Trinidad Test, that after two or three plays and misses, Australia’s captain Ian Chappell lobbed back a return catch. Inshan always prized that wicket as the most cherished of his life, especially as it came at Queen’s Park, in front of his hometown fans.” Ali was famed for his googly, “which would spit away from the right-handers, [and] was consistently deadly”, the website notes.
The website also includes praise for Ali from Gary Sobers, who “regarded the diminutive left-armer as ‘prodigiously gifted’, [and] who deserved to play more than 12 Tests”. As Sobers notes, “Inshan was a great tourist and even in difficult moments on tour would have the team laughing… I will always remember the passion with which he loved representing Trinidad and Tobago, and his home club Preysal, about which he boasted could beat the West Indies at Preysal.”
As Sobers indicates, Ali played 12 test matches for the West Indies. It was a career marked with an atmospheric of mystery surrounding his left-arm, unorthodox spin. Martin Chandler, writing in cricketweb.net, notes Ali as being “fascinating to watch” on the field, adding, “He didn’t much look like a cricketer, wasn’t a tall man, and was slight of build”. However, Wikipedia fills in the gap on Ali’s presence and performativity on the field, noting Test cricketer Frank Tyson thought highly of him, who said he “disguised his chinamen and his wrong 'uns with consummate artistry, spinning the ball quite prodigiously"; however, Tyson notes an Achilles’ heel in Ali’s technique was an inability to counter batsmen advancing down the pitch. Wikipedia also notes, “During the 1971/72 home series against New Zealand, Inshan was referred to as ‘astonishingly skilled and mature’ for a player in his early twenties”; he was “a small, slim man with short fingers: after a brisk little run his left arm flipped through quickly”. It was in this series that brought out one of Ali's best bowling performances, Wikipedia notes, with “the batsmen finding it very difficult to pick his chinaman and wrong 'un, leading one onlooker to write ‘properly handled, (Ali) could be a match-winner against the Australians when they tour the Caribbean next summer’”. As it turned out, Ali performed solidly, but not spectacularly, during that tour.
However, this ability, presence, and performance seamlessly worked early in his career to make him into “a trump card for both West Indies and Trinidad and Tobago”, the Trinidad Express notes, with his rise in the firmament such that following his first class debut in 1966 at 16 years old playing for South in the traditional North versus South clash, he captured three wickets for 89 runs; this was followed by his debut for the Trinidad and Tobago team against the Windward Islands, where he took five wickets for 32 runs. Consistent performances led to Ali’s Test debut in 1971 at Kensington Oval in Barbados against India. His final Test was at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain, capping off with match figures of 5/159 against Pakistan. His best bowling performance was against New Zealand with figures of 5/59.
While Ali spun a legend for himself on the field, his personal life beyond this boundary was not without its rough patches. As Chandler notes, at 19 years old, and yet to begin his brief Test career, Ali lost a younger brother to cancer. Chandler adds: “In the years that followed Inshan’s first son died as a baby, and then so did his second. He did then have a daughter, but his marriage ended, and he drank too much and he lost contact with his daughter. At least that relationship was re-established before, at 45, the family were hit again by an aggressive cancer, the disease claiming Inshan as well in 1995.”
Ali’s biography, The Pride of Preysal (2014), was written as a labour of love by sister Shafeeza Ali-Motilal. While there are shortcomings in the narrative, Chandler tells us it “[paints] a vivid picture of a man who created plenty of interest in a First Class career that was over at the age of 30. Personal issues must have affected his cricket, and one wonders what he might have achieved had he not suffered those grievous losses.”
Cricket commentator and journalist, Fazeer Mohammed, officiating at the November, 2014 launch of Ali’s biography, gives us an original insight via anecdotal recall, not into the unorthodox action of the bowler, but through distillation of Ali at the receiving end of the wicket, facing the thundering pace of the Pakistani bowler, Imran Khan. Says Mohammed: “When [Ali] came out to bat with three slips, gully, forward short leg and leg gully in place and Imran Khan bowled short and he played the most astounding square cut that I’m sure the bowler had ever got in his life. It was like right-handed Gordon Greenidge hitting it for four, and it’s almost like he was saying, ‘You’re the Lion Inshan Ali of Lahore; well come, I’m the Lion of Preysal!”
Later, Mohammed penetrates to the core to emphasise how Ali’s career, now inscribed in the biography, impacted on many lives beyond the pitch, saying, “[The Pride of Preysal is] not just for the people of Preysal; but the people of Preysal should take real pride in this effort because we always have this sort of stigmatised image of rural communities, but these so-called ordinary people have remarkable stories to tell.” Mohammed also notes those whom we like to consider ordinary probably have the more remarkable stories because they rise from very humble, very ordinary circumstances from the margins, and as outliers have gone on to achieve great feats.
Ali retired from first-class cricket at the completion of the 1979-1980 West Indies season. He returned to club cricket in Trinidad, but later developed throat cancer. He died at the young age of 45 in Port-of-Spain on June 24, 1995. A legacy is the Inshan Ali Oval in Preysal, which is named after him.
Lahore Qalandars 171/8
Islamabad United 177/5 (19.2/20 ov, target 172)
Is Un won by 5 wkts (with 4 balls remaining)
2nd Match, (D/N) at Dubai, Feb 15, 2019
Karachi Kings 183/6
Multan Sultans 176/9 (20 ov, target 184)
Karachi Kngs won by 7 runs
3rd Match, (N) at Dubai, Feb 15, 2019
Peshawar Zalmi 155/4
Quetta Gladiators 161/4 (19.4/20 ov, target 156)
Quetta Glad won by 6 wkts (w/2 balls remaining)
4th Match, (D/N) at Dubai, Feb 16, 2019
Islamabad United 125/7
Multan Sultans 126/5 (18.4/20 ov, target 126)
Sultans won by 5 wkts (with 8 balls remaining)
5th Match, (N) at Dubai, Feb 16, 2019
Lahore Qalandars 138/6
Karachi Kings 116 (19.5/20 ov, target 139)
Qalandars won by 22 runs
6th Match, (D/N) at Dubai, Feb 17, 2019
Islamabad United 157/8
Quetta Gladiators 161/3 (18.2/20 ov, target 158)
Quetta Glad won by 7 wkts (with 10 balls rem.)
7th Match, (N) at Dubai, Feb 17, 2019
Lahore Qalandars 78
Peshawar Zalmi 81/3 (10.1/20 ov, target 79)
Zalmi won by 7 wkts (with 59 balls remaining)
8th Match, (N) at Sharjah, Feb 20, 2019
Multan Sultans 160/9
Quetta Gladiators 161/2 (18.3/20 ov, target 161)
Quetta Glad won by 8 wkts (with 9 balls rem.)
9th Match, (N) at Sharjah, Feb 21, 2019
Peshawar Zalmi 153/8
Karachi Kings 109/9 (20 ov, target 154)
Zalmi won by 44 runs
10th Match, (D/N) at Sharjah, Feb 22, 2019
Multan Sultans 200/6
Lahore Qalandars 204/4 (20 ov, target 201)
Qalandars won by 6 wkts (with 0 balls rem.)
11th Match, (N) at Sharjah, Feb 22, 2019
Islamabad United 158/9
Peshawar Zalmi 146 (19.4/20 ov, target 159)
Islamabad Un won by 12 runs
12th Match, (D/N) at Sharjah, Feb 23, 2019
Lahore Qalandars 143/7
Quetta Gladiators 148/7 (20 ov, target 144)
Quetta Glad won by 3 wkts (with 0 balls rem.)
13th Match, (N) at Sharjah, Feb 23, 2019
Karachi Kings 143/6
Islam United 147/3 (16.1/20 ov, target 144)
Islam Un won by 7 wkts (with 23 balls rem.)
14th Match, (D/N) at Sharjah, Feb 24, 2019
Multan Sultans 145
Peshawar Zalmi 146/5 (19.4/20 ov, target 146)
Zalmi won by 5 wkts (with 2 balls remaining)
15th Match, (N) at Sharjah, Feb 24, 2019
Quetta Gladiators 186/5
Karachi Kings 188/4 (18.4/20 ov, target 187)
Karachi Kings won by 6 wkts (with 8 balls rem)
16th Match, (N) at Dubai, Feb 26, 2019
Islamabad United 121
Multan Sultans 122/4 (18.1/20 ov, target 122)
Sultans won by 6 wkts (with 11 balls rem.)
17th Match, (D/N) at Dubai, Feb 27, 2019
Quetta Gladiators 106
Lahore Qalandars 107/2 (16.3/20 ov, target 107)
Qalandars won by 8 wkts (with 21 balls rem.)
18th Match, (N) at Dubai, Feb 27, 2019
Karachi Kings 168/8
Islamabad United 169/5 (19.2/20 ov, target 169)
Islamabad Un won by 5 wkts (with 4 balls rem)
19th Match, (D/N) at Dubai, Feb 28, 2019
Multan Sultans 172/5
Peshawar Zalmi 176/3 (19.2/20 ov, target 173)
Zalmi won by 7 wkts (with 4 balls remaining)
20th Match, (N) at Dubai, Feb 28, 2019
Lahore Qalandars 133/5
Karachi Kings 134/5 (19.1/20 ov, target 134)
Karachi Kings won by 5 wkts (with 5 balls rem)
21st Match, (D/N) at Dubai, Mar 1, 2019
Islamabad United 176
Peshawar Zalmi 177/6 (20 ov, target 177)
Zalmi won by 4 wkts (with 0 balls remaining)
22nd Match, (N) at Dubai, Mar 1, 2019
Multan Sultans 121
Quetta Gladiators 122/4 (19/20 ov, target 122)
Quetta Glad won by 6 wkts (with 6 balls rem.)
23rd Match, (D/N) at Abu Dhabi, Mar 4 2019
Peshawar Zalmi 165/4
Quetta Gladiators 166/2 (17.4/20 ov, target 166)
Quetta Glad won by 8 wkts (with 14 balls rem)
24th Match, (N) at Abu Dhabi, Mar 4 2019
Multan Sultans 118/7
Karachi Kings 120/5 (19.2/20 ov, target 119)
Karachi Kings won by 5 wkts (with 4 balls rem)
25th Match, (D/N) at Abu Dhabi, Mar 5 2019
Lahore Qalandars 124/7
Peshawar Zalmi 125/6 (19.5/20 ov, target 125)
Zalmi won by 4 wkts (with 1 ball remaining)
26th Match, (N) at Abu Dhabi, Mar 5, 2019
Quetta Gladiators 180/9
Islamabad United 137/9 (20 ov, target 181)
Quetta Glad won by 43 runs
27th Match, (N) at Karachi, Mar 7, 2019
Karachi Kings v Peshawar Zalmi
28th Match, (N) at Lahore, Mar 9, 2019
Lahore Qalandars v Islamabad United
29th Match, (D/N) at Karachi, Mar 10, 2019
Karachi Kings v Quetta Gladiators
30th Match, (N) at Lahore, Mar 10, 2019
Lahore Qalandars v Multan Sultans
Eliminator 1, (N) at Lahore, Mar 12, 2019
TBA v TBA
Qualifier, (N) at Karachi, Mar 13, 2019
TBA v TBA
Eliminator 2, (N) at Karachi, Mar 15, 2019
TBA v TBA
Final, at Karachi, Mar 17, 2019
TBA v TBA
T20 series sweep
Maxwell smashed 113 off 55 balls as the tourists chased down their target of 191 with two balls to spare.
Maxwell’s knock laced with 7 fours and 9 sixes eclipsed Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s 72 runs off 38 balls that lifted the hosts to 190 for four after being put into bat first.
The Aussies lost two early wickets in their chase but Maxwell stood his ground with two good partnerships including an unbeaten 99-run stand with Peter Handscomb, who made 20.
He finished the game with a six and four off paceman Siddarth Kaul to give the Aussies a convincing win after their last-ball finish in the opening match.
Put into bat, the hosts rode on a century stand between Kohli and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who made 40 off 23 balls, to take the attack to the opposition bowlers.
Opener K.L. Rahul gave his team a brisk start with his 47 off 26 deliveries but Australia hit back with a couple of wickets to check the opposition surge.
Fast bowler Nathan Coulter-Nile got Rahul, who scored a fifty in his team’s opening loss, with a change of pace as the batsman was caught out at deep third man.
Jason Behrendorff got Shikhar Dhawan for 14 and D’Arcy Short claimed Rishabh Pant for one with a brilliant catch from Jhye Richardson.
Kohli then clobbered the ball to all parts of the ground as he hit Coulter-Nile for three straight sixes in the 16th over to entertain a raucous home crowd.
Dhoni soon joined the party as the veteran wicketkeeper-batsman hit 3 fours and 3 sixes before falling to Pat Cummins.
The two teams now head into five One-day Internationals starting on Saturday in Hyderabad (see page 21).