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On the ground where Denis Compton enjoyed such success, his grandson Nick provided another reminder of his considerable qualities with another century in what is already turning into a remarkable season.

George Dobell at Trent Bridge21-Apr-2012
Scorecard
Nick Compton has now scored over 600 runs this season•PA PhotosMaybe it is genetics, maybe it is coincidence, maybe it is simply a respect for the timeless values of cricket, but the Compton family seems to like batting at Trent Bridge.Here, on the ground where Denis enjoyed such success, his grandson Nick provided another reminder of his considerable qualities with the third century – and second double-century – of what is already turning into a remarkable season. With more than a week to go to the start of May, Compton has already amassed 685 first-class runs at an average of 137. Few are seriously suggesting changes in England’s top-order but here is an interesting (and rhetorical) question to ponder: who, given equal opportunity, would score more Test runs this summer, Andrew Strauss or Nick Compton?Denis Compton’s record at Trent Bridge is remarkable. In seven Tests, he accumulated 955 runs at an average of 95.50, with five centuries and a top score of 278 against Pakistan in 1954. While Nick Compton will surely never reach such heights, his record this season is still impressive: after 236 against Cardiff MCCU, he scored 99 against Middlesex, 133 against Warwickshire and now this innings against Nottinghamshire. In 1947, the year when Denis scored 3,816 first-class runs, it took until June 2 to reach 700 runs. There again, Denis did not start quite so early…Compton was not alone in filling his boots against a strangely off-colour attack. Arul Suppiah and James Hildreth also recorded centuries, with Hildreth – who now has 411 – the second-highest run-scorer this season. It meant that, on a pitch where only one Nottinghamshire batsman could score more than ten, their bowlers were unable to claim even a single bowling point. Somerset, treating the bowling with a level of contempt rarely witnessed at this level, lost just two wickets in claiming all five batting points and declaring with a lead of 283.There are mitigating factors for Nottinghamshire. As a result of losing the toss, they batted in tricky conditions and bowled when they had eased. In surviving a testing 12 over spell before stumps, their openers also demonstrated some backbone in trying circumstances.But they would do well not to blame misfortune. They have also played some remarkably poor cricket so far in this match and they are not the only team missing a top performer. Too many of the batsmen, the blameless Chris Read apart, squandered their wickets, the bowlers failed to adhere to the basic principles of line and length and their fielding was wretched.Wretched is a strong word, but when every tight single is reached with ease, when every boundary save fails and when catches are put down like the sort that Paul Franks, at third man, dropped to reprieve Hildreth on 70, then no other word will suffice. While other counties have raised their levels of fitness and agility to new levels, Nottinghamshire were stuck in a 1970s time warp where bowlers and all-rounders were content with perfunctory dives. Most counties have to hide a player or two in the field; Nottinghamshire had to hide half the side. There is not a top division attack in the country that is so poorly supported in the field.But the most disappoint aspect of Nottinghamshire’s cricket iwa that the real difference between them and Somerset has been application. While the hosts lacked patience and flirted outside off stump, Somerset’s batsmen left well and took the time to play themselves in. And while Somerset’s bowlers kept asking questions of the batsmen on and around off stump, Nottinghamshire’s fed the cut and the pull and, in the crucial first session, simply failed to make the batsmen play. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Andre Adams, missing this game with flu, has masked holes in this side for too long.Perhaps most disappointing of all was Samit Patel. While the pitch offered him little, he was unable to stem the flow of runs; an ability an international class bowler simply has to possess. Somerset’s batsmen did not just milk him: they churned him up and turned him into yogurt.Franks, at least, could celebrate the 500th first-class wicket of a career that, when it started in 1996, perhaps promised even more. But this was a day when Compton and co. showed that the basics of cricket – play straight, play compact and play yourself in – are as true now as they have ever been. They did all the simple things better than Nottinghamshire and have a great chance to press for success on day four.Somerset’s success should also give them confidence to deal with the absence of Marcus Trescothick. It is, in the words of Somerset’s director of cricket, Brian Rose, “pretty certain” that Trescothick will not play any more cricket for the “next couple of weeks at least.” Trescothick suffered a recurrence of an old ankle ligament injury in the field on Friday, was taken for scans in Derby and will see a specialist in Exeter on Monday.

Australia’s wicketkeeper Brad Haddin has said he feels like he has been dropped from the ODI side rather than rested

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Jan-2012Australia’s wicketkeeper Brad Haddin has said he feels like he has been dropped from the ODI side rather than rested. And Haddin believes that he could find it hard to force his way back into the one-day squad if his replacement Matthew Wade performs strongly in the first few games of the tri-series with India and Sri Lanka.Australia’s national selector John Inverarity said on Monday that Haddin deserved to put his feet up after a gruelling schedule of Tests over the past few months. However, he also said the selection panel had an open mind about who would keep wicket for the remainder of the one-day series, the squad having only been named for the first three matches.”I think anytime you’re out of the Australian Cricket team you’re dropped,” Haddin said on the Sydney radio station . “You give another guy an opportunity to take your spot. If they do well you could find it hard to get back in the team but that’s the way it is and I’ve just got to deal with that.”We need to see how young Matty Wade goes at this level. It’s seen as a good opportunity to play him and from my point of view, if he does well there’s no guarantee you’ll get your spot. Once you’ve given it up you give someone an opportunity and you might not play again … If you give your spot up, you’ve got no right to walk straight back in.”Haddin, 34, last year retired from Twenty20 internationals but remained part of Australia’s Test and one-day setup. However, a summer in which he failed to have a major impact with the bat and initially made some errors behind the stumps has left Haddin under pressure to hold his place, although he is expected to be one of the two keepers who will take part in the Test tour of the West Indies in April.He will captain the Prime Minister’s XI in a one-day game against Sri Lanka in Canberra on Friday. Wade, 24, will make his ODI debut against India at the MCG on Sunday.

Scotland, driven by a century from Richie Berrington, took control of their Intercontinental Cup match against UAE, on the second day in Sharjah

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Feb-2012
ScorecardSimon Smith complied a vital half-century•ICCScotland, driven by a century from Richie Berrington, took control of their Intercontinental Cup match against UAE on the second day in Sharjah. Berrington was supported by the lower-middle order, as Scotland pushed on to 305, giving them a first-innings lead of 205.The visitors resumed on an overnight score of 121 for 5, with Berrington and Simon Smith at the crease. They went on to add 99 runs, with Smith scoring 54. After Smith was dismissed, Calum MacLeod hung around for a 57-ball 19 in a partnership of 55. Berrington was the last man dismissed, after completing his maiden first-class hundred. Two lower-order wickets gave left-arm spinner Fayyaz Ahmed the best figures for UAE: 3 for 63 from 26 overs.Facing the huge deficit, UAE’s openers Faizan Asif and Arshad Ali began steadily. They added 56, before Gordon Drummond bowled Asif for 46, an innings that included six fours and a six. Arshad, in contrast, looked to survive and he did. While Swapnil Patil fell at the other end, Arshad went to stumps unbeaten on 12 at a strike-rate of just over 18. UAE were on 74 for 2 at the close, trailing Scotland by 131.

Trying to come back from being 2-0 down in the series presents MS Dhoni with his toughest challenge as captain

Nagraj Gollapudi at Trent Bridge01-Aug-2011For the second successive Monday, England emerged the superior side. The more happy unit. The more confident team. India, the world’s No. 1 Test side, were never able to entirely dominate on any of the nine playing days. In his three-year stint as Indian captain MS Dhoni has never lost two Tests in a row, nor have India lost a Test series. But now, Andrew Strauss’s men are not only threatening to win the Pataudi Trophy, but also are marching towards the title of the best Test team in the world.On evidence at Lord’s and in these four days at Trent Bridge, Her Majesty’s men might just be able to snatch the crown from India. As they have done over the past two years, England played like a domineering team. The depth in their batting, which Dhoni said he was envious about, plucked them out of a precarious position on the first day at Trent Bridge after they slipped to 124 for 8. The local boy Stuart Broad hit a steely half-century to guide England to a more respectable 221, 97 runs which “really mattered,” according to Dhoni. On the second afternoon, Broad restricted India’s lead to 67 with a fierce spell of seam bowling that included a hat-trick.India needed quick wickets on the third day to keep alive the hope of levelling the series, but one by one, the England batsmen, toyed with the bowling. The Indian attack was down to three specialists as Harbhajan Singh bowled only 13.4 overs in the match due to a stomach muscle injury.”I didn’t have any tricks left,” Dhoni said after the 319-run defeat. “I tried everything I had left. They bat quite deep, [James] Anderson is the only one who doesn’t bat to some extent. They were eight down for 120 and were able to score 100 more runs (in the first innings). The bowlers tried what they could. We were not really successful and that happens in cricket.”Dhoni said he couldn’t blame his bowling attack, especially the new-ball pair of Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar, who have now played five Tests since June 20. “Our bowlers were a bit tired. That was one of the reasons. Their batsmen played some big shots. Their mis-hits landed in between the fielders. The bowlers tried everything but nothing really went our way.”But the biggest concern for India is the failure of their esteemed batting order to construct big totals. In the last five Tests, India have crossed 300 only once, at Roseau in the third Test against West Indies. In England, their highest so far has been 288.MS Dhoni’s advice: “Have belief in yourself and the team, in what you do”•Getty ImagesThe most damning stat is the performance of the Indian lower order (last five batsmen) as compared to their English counterparts. The England lower order comprising Matt Prior, Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann, Broad and Anderson faced 710 deliveries and lasted 1059 minutes over the two Tests, while the Indians could barely survive 356 balls spanning 487 minutes.”It’s important to put runs on the board and we are slightly lacking that. Right from the last series we played, we haven’t scored consistently so that’s also a bit of a concern,” Dhoni said. “One of the big areas of concern is the lower-order; we haven’t been able to see the second new ball through. Hopefully it will get better and we won’t be exposed to the new ball.”Adding to India’s batting problems was the fact the neither Suresh Raina nor Yuvraj Singh could respond convincingly to the short-ball strategy emplyed by the England fast bowlers. Both men had hit fighting half-centuries (Raina in the second innings at Lord’s and Yuvraj in the first innings at Trent Bridge) but today they succumbed cheaply to short-pitched deliveries.Dhoni, though, backed his batsmen and their technique against bouncers. “That’s often said to us but there have been games when we’ve done well in Perth, Durban and Barbados. We will get caught out once in a while but most of the batsmen are used to the short-pitched stuff.”A lot was written about India’s determination and their ability to bounce back after starting poorly in a series. Coming back from 2-0 down, could be the biggest test of Dhoni’s captaincy. And for Duncan Fletcher, who is barely two months into the India coaching job. “We are very confident in the talent in the dressing room and we’ll make the most of the next 10 days,” Dhoni said. He will have some reinforcements for the third Test: Gautam Gambhir is certain to play, while Zaheer Khan and Virender Sehwag could also return.Dhoni said India needed to remain mentally tough in the nine-day break before the Edgbaston Test. “When you play at the top level you face tough situations and this is one of those. And that is what you are supposed to do: have belief in yourself and the team, in what you do. We will definitely make it tough (for England).”

Neil D’Costa, Michael Clarke’s mentor and coach, has said Australia’s growing preference for Twenty20 could lead to Test cricket getting sidelined in the country

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Jun-2011Neil D’Costa, Michael Clarke’s mentor and coach, has said Australia’s growing preference for Twenty20 could lead to Test cricket getting sidelined in a country already struggling to rebuild a team which has slipped to No. 5 in the rankings. ”A lot of junior state cricket in Australia is now Twenty20 cricket and that could kill Test cricket in this country,” D’Costa told the .D’Costa has been Clarke’s mentor since he was seven and has been coaching state-level juniors in India for some years now. He contrasted Australia’s preference with the relative lack of Twenty20 cricket in India at the junior level, which he says allows young players to learn the basics of the game better.”In India, it’s very different. There is no Twenty20 in the junior state programs. We don’t train for it, don’t play it, don’t promote it and the players have nothing to do with it. It’s only at the higher levels, where there are players who have learnt their game and can make improvisations, that Twenty20 is introduced. The job of all junior coaches in India is to teach players the fundamentals of batting.”The energy that’s being put in, the planning that’s going into the development of Indian cricketers, is amazing. At the same time, Australia’s spending time and money just trying to work out our problems.”D’Costa said he was surprised when he met several of his young Australian students who just wanted to score faster and hit the ball harder. ”It’s a real concern because everything in Australian cricket at the moment seems to be about Twenty20. It’s all about the Big Bash, how we can get more people to the games, how we can make money out of India. It’s not really about how we can make better cricketers.”D’Costa also raised concerns about the direction of the Centre of Excellence program, saying more players were being taught to become ”clones” instead of their individual needs being attended to. D’Costa cited the example of Phil Hughes who started his career with twin centuries in his second Test only to have his technique questioned, especially against the short ball.”The stuff that he was told was not in sync with how he’d made runs all his life,” D’Costa said. ”The fact that he scored a couple of centuries early on showed there were some skills there. He had to refine them within his way of doing it. But the information given to him didn’t take into account his way of preparing and playing.”You don’t coach a Premier League soccer player how to kick a ball. And you don’t get a landscape artist to paint portraits. They are coaching our most talented players with the same principles as you should coach a junior. These guys are past all that. It’s as though they’re trying to create clones. They’re not coaching players according to what they specifically need.”

The former fast bowler Jason Gillespie has been brought in to Cricket Australia’s circle of coaching staff, having been appointed an assistant for this month’s Australia A tour of Zimbabwe

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Jun-2011The former fast bowler Jason Gillespie has been brought in to Cricket Australia’s circle of coaching staff, having been appointed an assistant for this month’s Australia A tour of Zimbabwe. Gillespie, 36, will support the head coach Troy Cooley on the month-long trip, which includes one-day and four-day matches.Earlier in the year, Gillespie applied for the job as Australia’s bowling coach, which was recently given to Craig McDermott. But he did enough to impress Cricket Australia’s bosses, who have shown an inclination to embrace former star players who are interested in coaching; along with McDermott, the 105-Test veteran Justin Langer is now part of the full-time staff.Gillespie has recently finished a stint as the bowling coach with the Kings XI Punjab in the IPL and last year, he mentored the MidWest Rhinos in Zimbabwe’s domestic competition. He earned a positive reputation for his work with the young team, which followed on from him being part of Cricket Australia’s elite coach development program, which started in 2008.”[The program] allows CA to fast track former players who show a desire to ascend to the highest levels of cricket coaching in this country,” CA’s general manager of cricket operations, Michael Brown, said. “Justin Langer, Darren Lehmann, and Jason Gillespie were all part of the first wave of former players to be part of this program and they are all now coaching at either national or state level, as is Craig McDermott, another program member.”In Jason’s case, CA feels this A tour presents a good opportunity to further enhance his elite coaching experience. Jason has recently coached in Zimbabwe and understands the conditions we’ll face there. Many of the young upcoming players he’ll be working with followed Jason’s successful international career as schoolboys.”Gillespie, who took 259 wickets in 71 Tests for Australia, said he was looking forward to helping the Australia A players under his watch.”This is a really good opportunity for me to learn more about coaching at this level from the likes of Troy Cooley,” Gillespie said. “This Australia A tour allows me to further dip my toe into the elite coaching system, to work with some of the best young cricket talent in Australia and to learn from experienced bowling coaches like Troy.”The trip begins with a one-day tri-series involving Zimbabwe and South Africa A, before two four-day matches against the hosts. The players head to Brisbane on Monday for a training camp at the Centre of Excellence before they depart for Zimbabwe on June 25.

A round-up of the seventh round of Ranji Trophy’s Group A matches on December 18, 2012

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Dec-2012
ScorecardDevendra Bundela, the Madhya Pradesh captain, hit a century in each innings to bring Punjab’s unbeaten run this season to an end in Gwalior. It was an unbelievable run. Four outright wins, including two by an innings, in six games, and first-innings leads in the remaining two. MP were 8 for 2 this morning in their chase of 190, before the allrounder Jalaj Saxena and Bundela took over. Saxena was unbeaten on 72 to go with his 84 in the first innings, and Bundela added an unbeaten 100 to his 108 as MP scored at a run-rate comfortably above four an over. There were seven wickets for the MP fast bowler Anand Rajan, and five each for Gaurav Yadav and Amarjeet Singh, as Punjab were dismissed for 364 in their second innings. MP now have 20 points and are second in Group A behind Punjab.
Scorecard
Railways won their first game of the season, thrashing the defending champions Rajasthan by an innings in Bhubaneshwar. Rajasthan began the morning on 153 for 2 in their follow-on innings, still trailing Railways by 117. The legspinning allrounder Karan Sharma ran through the line-up, taking a career-best 8 for 97 as Rajasthan could not even make Railways bat again. There were fifties for Robin Bist and Ashok Menaria but no resistance from the batsmen after them. Rajasthan remained bottom of Group A with five points from six games while Railways now have 14 from six and are in fifth position.
Scorecard
Mumbai took three points with a 306-run first-innings lead over Saurashtra in Rajkot. Aarpit Vasavada, who completed his maiden first-class hundred, finally ran out of partners, with Dhawal Kulkarni picking up four wickets. With Saurashtra batting for 131.5 overs, and the next round starting after three days, Mumbai chose not to enforce the follow-on. Wasim Jaffer and Rohit Sharma reeled off half-centuries in the inconsequential second innings, but Ajinkya Rahane had his second failure of the match when he was caught behind off Siddarth Trivedi for 6. Saurashtra are third in the group while Mumbai are sixth.

Marlon Samuels and Fidel Edwards have been handed Grade B contracts by the WICB for 2011-12

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Oct-2011Marlon Samuels and Fidel Edwards have been handed Grade B contracts by the WICB for 2011-12, while Ravi Rampaul has been upgraded to Grade B after having been on a Grade C contract last year. Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo have not been offered central contracts after they turned them down last year. Lendl Simmons and Denesh Ramdin, who are both in the West Indies squad for the Test series in Bangladesh, have been excluded from the list of contracted players, while Ramnaresh Sarwan has been ignored again despite a brief return to the Test team over the home season.Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who had a tiff with the board after being ignored for ODIs following the World Cup, continues to be the only player with a Grade A contract. Darren Sammy, the West Indies captain, has been given a Grade B contract again.Among the players who had contracts last year but have been ignored by the board this time are left-arm spinners Sulieman Benn and Nikita Miller, and batsmen Brendan Nash and Devon Smith.Samuels returned to the West Indies team this year after serving a two-year ban for alleged links with an Indian bookmaker, and has been in prime form on West Indies’ tour of Bangladesh. Fidel Edwards also got back to Test cricket this year, after overcoming a long-term back injury, and impressed against India in the home series. Rampaul’s promotion arrives on the back of 22 Test wickets at an average of 23.13 this year, along with 22 one-day wickets at an average of 18.90.Miller and Benn haven’t played for West Indies since the end of the World Cup. Benn was left out after unfavourable reports from the team management about his behaviour during the tournament.Nash was named vice-captain at the same time that Darren Sammy took over the national team’s captaincy in October last year. However, he made just 54 runs in his last six innings and was dropped midway through the series against India this June. He recently withdrew from the Jamaica squad for the Regional Super50, citing personal reasons.Legspinner Devendra Bishoo, and top-order batsman Devon Thomas, have been promoted to Grade C contracts from the development contracts they received last year. Bishoo was named the ICC Emerging Player of the Year for 2010-11 after taking 21 wickets in his first five Tests, while Kirk Edwards scored a hundred in his debut Test, against India in Dominica.Shane Shillingford, the offspinner, who was cleared to resume bowling after undergoing remedial work on an illegal action, and is in the squad for the Tests in Bangladesh, has kept his Grade C contract.The WICB has also increased the number of contracted women players from six to eight, with the Guyanese duo of Tremayne Smartt and Shemaine Campbelle being added to the contract list.Men’s contracts
Grade A: Shivnarine ChanderpaulGrade B: Fidel Edwards, Ravi Rampaul, Darren Sammy and Marlon SamuelsGrade C: Adrian Barath, Carlton Baugh, Devendra Bishoo, Darren Bravo, Kirk Edwards, Kemar Roach, Andre Russell and Shane ShillingfordDevelopment Contracts: Kraigg Brathwaite, Shannon Gabriel, Nelon Pascal, Kieran Powell and Devon ThomasWomen’s Contracts
Grade A: Anisa Mohammed and Stafanie TaylorGrade B: Merissa Aguilleira, Shemaine Campbelle, Shanel Daley, Deandra Dottin, Stacy Ann King and Tremayne Smartt

Chris Tremlett, the England fast bowler, will fly out to Bangladesh as a traveling reserve with England’s World Cup squad

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Feb-2011Chris Tremlett, the England fast bowler, will fly out to Bangladesh as a traveling reserve with England’s World Cup squad. He has recovered from a side strain, and will be on stand-by to be added to the 15-man squad in the event that the selectors need to replace an injured player.Tremlett, 29, was awarded an incremental contract after his role in England’s victorious Ashes campaign, and played in the first four one-dayers against Australia in January, taking six wickets at 33.50.Eoin Morgan has already been ruled out of the World Cup due to a fractured finger and England are currently sweating on the fitness of five more members of their squad. Paul Collingwood received an injection on Monday, having suffered a back spasm during the penultimate ODI in Sydney. Tim Bresnan is stepping up his training having succumbed to a calf strain, while Ajmal Shahzad’s hamstring injury is still causing concern.Stuart Broad is believed to be on track having torn a stomach muscle back in December, while Graeme Swann is set to test his injured knee in the nets on Tuesday, having missed the latter stages of the Australia tour.ECB National Selector Geoff Miller said: “While the injured bowlers in the 15-man squad are all progressing well, the selectors have decided it would be prudent to have an additional player on hand who is acclimatised in case we need to apply to the Event Technical Committee for a replacement due to injury.”

The fourth season of the IPL is set to go ahead with 10 teams and 74 matches as originally planned, according to sources

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Dec-2010The fourth season of the IPL is set to go ahead with 10 teams and 74 matches as originally planned. ESPNcricinfo has learnt the BCCI is not likely to move the Supreme Court after it lost High Court appeals against the stay orders granted to the termination of Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals. The decision also means that the player auction should go ahead as previously scheduled on January 8 and 9.The news comes in three days after a division bench of the Bombay High Court dismissed the BCCI’s appeal against the court’s interim order staying the termination of the Punjab franchise. It is learnt that the BCCI didn’t want to make an “ego issue” out of the dispute by prolonging the legal fight against what the court called an “erroneous and flawed” decision to terminate the franchise.The BCCI’s acceptance of the court’s verdict seems to have ended an air of uncertainty around the player auction, and the tournament itself.In October the BCCI had expelled Punjab and Rajasthan, holding the franchises guilty for violating the franchise agreement on three counts, including changes of ownership that went unreported to the board. With the Kochi franchise also mired in an ownership wrangle, it had seemed then that the 2011 IPL would not have even eight teams, the number of teams that participated in the first three seasons. The dispute between Kochi’s owners, however, was settled and the franchise was cleared for the IPL earlier this month.The 2011 season will begin five days after the World Cup, which ends on April 2. The IPL’s governing council had originally announced the format for the season in September, and had also set down rules for player retention.