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ScorecardNetherlands brushed aside Bermuda with ease in the second one-day international at Rotterdam to sweep the series 2-0. Netherlands bowled Bermuda out for 115 in 43.4 overs and needed only 19.3 overs to knock off the target with eight wickets in hand.Bermuda had lost the first ODI against Netherlands by 172 runs and started the second on the wrong foot after they lost the toss. They were soon struggling at 55 for 4, having lost their top order inside 15 overs. Netherlands, led by Maurits Jonkman who took 3 for 23, chipped away and ensured that Bermuda did not build a partnership of greater than 20. Ryan ten Doeschate bowled a tight spell that yielded 2 for 16 off ten overs.Bermuda needed quick early wickets to have a chance of bowling out Netherlands but Tom de Grooth and Alexei Kervezee dashed those hopes by adding 59 for the first wicket in 9.4 overs. de Grooth fell for 31 off 23 balls but Kervezee remained unbeaten on 50 off 59 balls as Netherlands cruised to victory.

Brad Hodge’s faith in the national selectors has been restored after he was chosen to replace Ricky Ponting for the CB Series match against England in Brisbane on Friday. Hodge has experienced a number of confusing calls over the past two years, including being dropped from the Test side two games after posting a double-century, and he knows he must make the most of his chance.Hodge will probably be with the squad for only one game as the resting Ricky Ponting is expected back for the match against New Zealand in Sydney on Sunday. “Sometimes in cricket and especially representing Australia it might be the one chance that you get,” he said in the Sydney Morning Herald. “It’s such a great side. This is a window of opportunity for me.”Australia have cruised through their opening two games of the series and Hodge said it was a “great reward” to be part of the squad. “To get selected and to find out exactly where you are, it’s something you don’t really understand from time to time,” he said. “But this selection really gives me good faith and good hope to know that the selectors are still watching.”Hodge did not want to worry about his chances of being part of the World Cup squad, but he has been a regular tourist with Australia over the past three years. He was the back-up batsman in India, New Zealand and England before getting a five-Test run and averaging 58.42 in 2005-06. However, he was dropped for the tour of South Africa when Damien Martyn was preferred and has been in the domestic game ever since.

After leading England to a convincing victory over Sri Lanka in the second Test at Edgbaston today, and hitting the winning runs, Andrew Flintoff paid tribute to Kevin Pietersen whose 142 in England’s first innings set them up for victory.”The difference between the teams was KP’s knock,” Flintoff said. “Whoever saw it witnessed something special – who knows how good he can be? He is something really special, I don’t think that’s a secret.”He’s only played a handful of Test matches and in that short time he’s got better and better,” Flintoff said. “I’m going to be excited to watch and play with Kevin over the next few years and see how his career unfolds. Hopefully, in years to come, people will be talking about finding a ‘new Kevin Pietersen’ and talking about him in the same breath as the likes of Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar.”Speaking of the win, Flintoff said: “It was a comfortable in the end, but hard-fought as the wicket probably suited them more than us.”I bowled more overs than normal in the last Test because I try to bowl to the circumstances,” he said. “This pitch wasn’t my type of pitch; it suited Matthew Hoggard and Liam Plunkett better, those bowlers who hit the surface and move the ball around.”Though the margin of six wickets appears comphenesive enough for England, they were made to work hard all day. Liam Plunkett earlier wrapped up Sri Lanka’s innings in a hurry and, with figures of 3 for 17, put his name forward for the final Test at Trent Bridge. England could yet recall Steve Harmison, who last week returned to bowling in a Championship match, for Friday’s Test meaning there will be just one available place between Plunkett and Sajid Mahmood.Meanwhile, it is expected that the England captain, Michael Vaughan, will finally return to competitive cricket tomorrow for Yorkshire’s clash against Scotland. Commenting on the news, Flintoff was delighted but confirmed that his role as stand-in captain is very much a short-term solution.”It’s been fantastic doing the job as England captain,” he said, “but it’s a temporary job – he [Vaughan] is the one who’s taken the side forward in the past three years. Maybe further down the line if the job became available I’d be interested. But with Michael back I can just get back to my day job.”

Darren Berry, the Rajasthan Royals team manager, says there is a “real option” three of the team’s highest profile players will not return to Jaipur following a series of bombs that killed about 80 people in the city on Tuesday. Berry is having a four-day break in Goa with Shane Warne, Shane Watson and Graeme Smith and said the group had considered “getting on the plane and getting out of here”.”We are not comfortable at all,” Berry told the Sydney Morning Herald from Goa. “This is an extremely uncomfortable situation. Cricket has been good to me, but I have a wife and three kids back in Melbourne and they are less than impressed with the part of the world I am in.”Berry said there had been discussions with Warne over the seriousness of the situation. “I was talking to Warney this morning and asked: ‘If this blast had occurred a day before we were due to fly over here, would we still have come?’ He said there was no way we would have come.”It is terrifying. To think I was standing in the exact location the bombs went off only two days ago … it was a couple of kilometres from the team hotel. The whole country has gone into lockdown.”The IPL has refused to move Saturday’s match against Bangalore from Jaipur, but there will be an increased security prescence. “That is the part that scares me,” Berry said. “These games are getting big crowds.”People over here tell me this has nothing to do with cricket, it is political … but if some people are prepared to cause this type of damage, detonating bombs in peak hour to harm the most number of people possible … 50,000 people come to the stadium to watch the games.”

Mohammad Asif, the Pakistani fast bowler currently being investigated on doping charges, is still eligible for the Emerging Player of the Year award at next month’s ICC awards. Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, confirmed this with Cricinfo while announcing the short-lists for the awards presentation on November 3 in Mumbai.”Under the anti-doping policy he is not ruled ineligible for awards for performance prior to his doping offence,” Speed said. Asif, who along with Shoaib Akhtar tested positive for nandrolone, a banned steroid, will submit his written statement at a second hearing of the tribunal investigating the case on October 26.Ricky Ponting has been short-listed in four categories for the ceremony. After averaging 58.22 and 48.42 in Tests and ODIs, Ponting, 31, picked up nominations in the Player, Captain and separate Test and ODI Player of the Year sections. Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan and Mohammad Yousuf were also short-listed for Test Player of the Year. In the ODI category, Ponting is up against his team-mate Michael Hussey, Yuvraj Singh and Mahela Jayawardene.In addition to the individual awards and the Spirit of Cricket prize, this year’s ceremony will also feature the Test and ODI Teams of the Year. And for the first time there is an award for Women’s Cricketer of the Year.”The past year has been another exciting one for cricket fans around the world and these players have contributed hugely to our enjoyment,” Speed said.”This is the third annual ICC Awards night and it promises to be a fantastic evening with some very tough decisions to be announced. It is also a pleasure that for the first time we will be presenting the award for the Women’s Player of the Year. Now that the women’s game is under the auspices of ICC it is important that we acknowledge the marvellous contribution that female players are making.”The short-lists were announced after the votes were submitted by members of the voting academy. The 50 Academy members were asked to pick players nominated by a selection panel chaired by Sunil Gavaskar. The period of contention was between August 1, 2005 to August 8, 2006

Dumped Test batsman Michael Slater could yet figure in NSW’s opening Pura Cup match against Queensland when he arrives at the Gabba tomorrow morning on standby for rising star Michael Clarke.Slater was called to Brisbane tonight and he could be joined in the NSW team by rookie paceman Doug Bollinger – a park cricketer just 18 months ago – as the Blues sweat on last-minute injury concerns before they meet the three-time champions.The 21-year-old Clarke has a back problem which hampered him during the Blues’ impressive one-day victory over the Bulls in Sydney last Sunday, while paceman Stuart Clark is battling an ankle injury.Clark bowled in the nets this morning and the Blues will give the injured players until the last hours before tomorrow’s game to prove their fitness.Otherwise, it’s a golden chance for Slater to end the wretched run which began when he was dropped from Test cricket in August 2001 during an erratic Ashes series.He then slid out of the NSW team, leaving very little hope that the 32-year-old would add to his 74 Tests.Bollinger’s fortunes have risen as quickly as Slater’s have plummeted, leaving the 21-year-old left-armer on the verge of his first-class debut less than a year after he played lower grades for Fairfield-Liverpool.But the Blues will be desperate for Stuart Clark to play after the ACB-contracted paceman took match figures of 6-90 in his last visit to the Gabba.He will be a key man for new captain Simon Katich, who is stepping into one of Australian cricket’s most intense rivalries.Katich said the Blues were about to learn where they stood in interstate cricket after wearing the wooden spoon during a dismal last season, which included an eight-wicket loss to the Bulls at the Gabba.Katich will also learn about the rivalry between NSW and Queensland after quitting Western Australia during the off-season for a new start in Sydney.”I’ve sensed it already from speaking to the guys and we’ve approached this week thinking that it’s a good chance to see where we’re at,” Katich said.Katich has crossed the country trying to revive the promising career which netted him a sole Test appearance at Headingley during last year’s Ashes tour.He is much admired in Queensland after scoring heavily against the Bulls during their recent stoushes with Western Australia, often taming the Bulls on a Gabba wicket which promises its usual spice tomorrow.The match will be significant for veteran Queenslander Stuart Law, who was a shock axing from the one-day team last week.The former Test batsman, who turns 34 on Friday, will become Queensland’s most capped interstate first-class player when he plays his 124th match, surpassing Sam Trimble.It also marks Law’s first match since handing over the Queensland captaincy to Jimmy Maher after eight years at the helm.”I’m not really into statistics but to knock off a guy like Sam Trimble, who is a living legend in Queensland cricket, makes it a special day,” Law said.The Blues will play leg-spinner Stuart MacGill, who is a genuine threat at the Gabba, while the Bulls are expected to overlook left-arm spinner Matthew Anderson for pacemen Michael Kasprowicz, Ashley Noffke, Joe Dawes and Damien MacKenzie.

For Ivan Lendl, it was Wimbledon; for Boris Becker and Pete Sampras it wasthe red clay at the French Open; for the current Australian side it’s beenthe Champions Trophy. Ricky Ponting can’t zero in on why Australia hasfailed to capture the mini World Cup, but he insists his side is suitably prepared to tackle this one.Just like Andrew Flintoff yesterday, Ponting summed up the value of thisevent by saying thoughts of the Ashes had, for a while at least, beenput on the backburner. “It’s a very important tournament for us, thesecond biggest that we play as an ODI team,” he said in Delhi. “It’s something that’seluded us in the recent years – we’ve made it to the semi-finals in thelast two Champions Trophies – and we’re hoping for more this time. We’vecome here pretty well prepared and there’s still time before it starts.We’ve got a good record in India while playing one-day cricket over theyears, hopefully that will come through early on.”In the 12 games they’ve played in India since the start of the decade,Australia have won nine and lost only three. The last of those games wasthe finalof the TVS Cup in Kolkata, when a second-string Australian sidetriumphed by 37 runs. This time Ponting will be looking to put out his “best side” from the word go. “We have14 players here and you’d think that when the first game comes around,we’ll have our best XI and maintain that team throughout, injuriespermitting.”Question marks hang over Glenn McGrath’s fitness and he is someone whoPonting would dare not risk ahead of the Ashes campaign.”Glenn came back really well in Malaysia,” Ponting said. “He was never going to come back and be at his absolute beststraight away, but I thought he improved game by game in Kuala Lumpur. In the final game he bowled six oversfor six runs. Then he went back and played club cricket and got about26-28 overs under his belt. We’re going to monitor his progress throughthe course of the Champions Trophy, with an eye on the Ashes, and keep himas ready as possible for that.”Australia kick off their campaign on October 18 against one of thequalifiers, but their next two games are the big ones. On October 21 -which also happens to be the festive day of – they take onEngland at Jaipur before locking horns with India a week later atMohali.Ponting said the England game was a chance to make the earlyrunning ahead of the Ashes. “There’sstill a while before the first Test [at Brisbane on November 23] butcertainly it will be our first chance to play them before the Ashes,” he said. “We’dlike to think we can provide some sort of statement in that game.”The early part of that early message will need to come from the opening batsmen.As the latest NumbersGame column points out, Australia have tried 12 opening pairssince the start of 2005, a figure that places them behind only West Indiesand India in the juggling stakes.”We had a look at [Shane] Watson in KualaLumpur,” Ponting said. “He was prettyimpressive there. [Simon] Katich has done well for close to 18 months or so sincehe’s had the opportunity to open. It’s not an area of concern for us. Welooked at a few things in Kuala Lumpur and thought of a better way of doing it, andhopefully we can get it right during the practice matches here.”

Despite stern cautioning from the ICC regarding sledging, Ricky Ponting, Australia’s captain, has openly supported Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath continuing their verbal tirade against South Africa as the first Test gets underway at Perth on Friday.Ehsan Mani, the ICC president, had earlier this week stated that the ICC was determined to keep the game’s image clean and not let it fall to the level of a “hooligan’s sport”. “We don’t want cricket being reduced to a level where it turns into a hooligans’ sport and the spirit of the game is eroded,” Mani had said. “We can’t have a situation like we see in football (soccer).” The ICC is concerned by the fact that since November, eight players and officials have been found guilty of code of conduct breaches – twice the number when compared to this same period last year. So far this year 38 players and officials have been charged with offences, and Mani’s comments come a day after a blunt warning issued by Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, about the growing number of code of conduct violations.Responding to Mani’s claims, Ponting has defended his ace bowlers, maintaining that verbal banter was a part of Australia’s motivation leading into a series of this magnitude. “The main culprits this time have been the ones who do it every series, Warney and McGrath,” Ponting told . “That’s why I don’t think it’s too much different than normal. Those guys actually like the challenge of making some statements and then getting out there and backing them up. That’s the way they’ve played their best cricket over the last 10 years. “While accepting that the ICC was tolerable of verbal exchanges between players in tense and competitive matches, Mani was adamant that it would not tolerate any degrading comments that fell outside the boundary of sport. Ponting, however, maintained that this would not be the case in the series against South Africa. “As long as we’re being sensible about what we’re doing and staying on our side of the line in the sand I’m happy with that,” he said. “Glenn and Shane like to challenge themselves as much as they can and they seem to lift when those bigger occasions and one-on-one battles come around.”He does remain fairly surprised by the ICC singling out this series as a potentially volatile scenario. “There’s no reason at the moment for me to have to address the players and let them know to take it easy. It’s just a bit of banter between the players…there’s nothing untoward as far as I’m concerned at the moment,” Ponting said. “I’m sure the cricket’s going to be played in a hard and fair manner. It usually is when Australia and South Africa get out on the field of play. All the players are very aware of the spirit of cricket on the field and off the field.”He did, though, take the opportunity to mention the role that Warne will play in the tense encounters that will pepper the three-Test series. “Warney’s record against South Africa (101 wickets at 22) would be outstanding so that’s probably why he’s come out and said what he has,” he said. “It’s just another thing they (South Africa) are going to have in the back of their minds now and Warney will just go out there and play cricket.”

As it happened: Afghanistan v Sri LankaTwo teams, both doing a lot of things wrong. In the end, Sri Lanka did just about enough right and got on the points table with a 34-run (DLS method) win, preventing Afghanistan from recording their first World Cup win over a full-member nation. In the process, they also ensured that Lasith Malinga finally figured in an ODI win after July 6, 2017 – he had been part of 21 losses and one no-result in between.For Afghanistan, the day started well with the right call on the coin, but Hamid Hassan missed his lines and lengths completely upfront to concede 31 runs in his first two overs. Dawlat Zadran was better only in comparison and the ground fielding even worse than what Hassan dished out. If Afghanistan were in the contest despite all that, it was only due to one man: Mohammad Nabi. Nabi’s four wickets – including three in a chaotic over – put Sri Lanka in a hole they never quite got out of but rain and a revised target later, a batting effort even poorer than the Sri Lankans’ meant Afghanistan finished second best.WATCH on Hotstar – Kusal Perera’s punchy half-century (India only)Lasith Malinga savours the winning moment•Getty Images

But, chasing 187 in 41 overs after Sri Lanka were bowled out for 201 in 32.4, Afghanistan met with their old frailties: lack of patience, an obsession with big shots, and a failure to bat in phases. Hazratullah Zazai looked good – in his smash-everything way – early on, but despite a let-off when he skied Malinga only for Kusal Mendis to drop a sitter at deep square leg, he only managed 30 off 25 before Nuwan Pradeep had his number. Though it really was Thisara Perera’s wicket, as he followed Zazai’s mistimed hook and threw in the dive to grab the dipping ball at fine leg.That made it 44 for 3 – Mohammad Shahzad and Rahmat Shah had been dismissed earlier – and 57 for 5 was only around the corner, but amid a drizzle that didn’t really go away but never really threatened to push the players off the field either, Gulbadin Naib and Najibullah Zadran scripted a remarkable recovery.The pair, up against a bowling attack with more experience and nous than them, fought hard, played their shots but without much risk, and added 64 runs for the sixth wicket. A straight drive from Naib off Malinga was especially pleasing to the eye, though when they threw their bats, they mostly went aerial.But once Thisara got a gentle cutter to nip in big time to hit Naib’s off stump, the wheels came off the chase. Najibullah tried, farming the strike in the company of the tail-enders, and kept Afghanistan in the fight. who knows what might have been had he a partner he could depend on. As it turned out, he went for a run that wasn’t and could only trot off once Dimuth Karunaratne knocked the stumps down at the non-striker’s end. That, really, was the end of it. Malinga applied the finishing touches with two yorkers that took out the stumps, but Pradeep was the star of the bowling effort, his pace and the steep bounce he generated netting him 4 for 31, his career-best figures, and the Man-of-the-Match award.In the first innings, it was all about Nabi. Four times in five balls he looked like he had a wicket. Three of those times, he actually did. Sri Lanka, who started their 22nd over on 144 for 1, were suddenly 146 for 4 at the end of it. Nabi’s ploy was to go slow, slower, and slowest, and it worked like a charm on a grippy surface.Lahiru Thirimanne was the first of those three, waiting for Nabi’s flighted delivery on off stump to arrive, then pushing at the ball and under-edging on to the stumps. Next ball, Nabi had new man Kusal Mendis edging, but just past Rahmat at slip; the very next ball, it went to hand. A ball later, this time Angelo Mathews, nicked off to Rahmat off Shahzad’s pads. Just like that, Sri Lanka’s projected score on ESPNcricinfo’s forecaster dipped from 333 to 217.Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan and Hamid Hassan celebrate a wicket•Getty Images

It had started beautifully for Sri Lanka after they were put in. In overcast conditions, Hassan conceded 15 and 16 runs in his first two overs, and Sri Lanka were on their way till Nabi and Naib got together to stem the flow of runs.By the end of the tenth over, though, Sri Lanka were cruising, the 136-run rollover against New Zealand forgotten.True, Karunaratne was crawling, after carrying his bat through the collapse the other day, but Kusal Perera, opening instead of Thirimanne, was in fine fettle, chugging along in style. They put on 92 for the first wicket – the highest partnership in the game. Afghanistan’s fielding, average at the best of times, was fraying at the edges at that stage, and it was all Sri Lanka.The tide had to turn, and it did, and it was courtesy Nabi, who struck first ball of the 14th over. Karunaratne stepped out, swung, but never got any sort of connection to a ‘slower’, going only as far as Najibullah at long leg.Then came the three-wicket burst, and the meltdown was on. Hassan, after that awful two-over spell, came back and hit a beautiful length and aimed fourth stump. Dhananjaya de Silva succumbed, hanging his bat out and bringing Shahzad into business.Udana’s straight six off Nabi was really just an aberration as the wickets continued to fall. When Kusal nicked a reverse-sweep off Rashid Khan for 78, Sri Lanka were 180 for 8.That’s when the rain came down, kept everyone out for almost three hours, and when the game restarted, lasted four more overs and, courtesy Suranga Lakmal’s biggies off Dawlat, Sri Lanka got past 200. It was enough in the end.

Allen Stanford, the Texas-based billionaire, has reportedly offered the England board a staggering US$100 million for five Twenty20 matches in five years against a West Indies all-star side.Stanford held talks with David Collier, the chief executive of the ECB, earlier this week where he offered $20 million for a match between England and a West Indies all-star team to coincide with the Independence Day in Antigua on November 1. If the match takes place, it will be the most expensive cricket match ever played.That offer, said a report in , could be spread over five years. “I talked to David about the first game and then how we could collaborate in the future,” Stanford said. “I said it could be an annual event, maybe we could come to Lord’s in 2009 and then alternate. I would be happy to make a five-year commitment.”When asked whether it meant a $100 million commitment, Stanford said: “I would be willing to do it. The money is real and I think we will get a game.”The offer was revealed in the English media a day after the start of the much-hyped Indian Premier League, to which Stanford is being seen as a counter-weight in some quarters.