KARACHI: With the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) barring those Test players who will likely be a part of the forthcoming series against England from participating in the Bangladesh league, discarded wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal is keeping his fingers crossed over his participation in the 50-over event. The PCB has stopped Test players from playing in the league to avoid burnout and possible injuries before the important series against England next month.

The players who have been barred from playing in the event include Younus Khan, Shoaib Malik, Imran Farhat, Mohammad Hafeez and Abdul Rehman, while the PCB is yet to make a decision on giving the go-ahead to those who are not the part of team. However, wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal who has been overlooked for the national side ever since the World Cup is gearing up for the event. “I’m hoping to get clearance from the PCB,” Akmal told The Express Tribune. “The board is only stopping players who are part of the team and since I’m not playing for Pakistan right now, I’m confident that I’ll get the NOC. I’m scheduled to leave for Bangladesh next week.”

Seeks international exposure
The wicket-keeper said that the upcoming event was a good chance for him to gain some international exposure. “Bangladesh will be hosting the Asia Cup and if I’m recalled for that, my stint in the league can help a lot.”‘Clearance not certain for any player’ Meanwhile, Wahab Riaz, Umar Akmal, Sohail Tanveer, Umar Amin, Qaiser Abbas and Nasir Jamshed are the other players who have been approached by the organisers to play in the event. However, a PCB official said the board has not yet made a decision on giving NOCs to any of the players.

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The tourists toyed with Bangladesh in the opening Test, racing to an innings and 184-run victory with more than a day to spare in Chittagong on Monday. Misbah-ul-Haq’s side won after dismissing Bangladesh for a paltry 135 in the first innings on the first day of the match on a good batting pitch. Pakistan’s batsmen dominated the mediocre Bangladeshi attack to help their team post a mammoth 594-5 declared, with Younis Khan hammering an unbeaten double-century and Mohammad Hafeez and Asad Shafiq each scoring a hundred.

Pakistan’s bowlers never allowed the Bangladeshi batsmen to build a big partnership in the match, bowling the hosts out for 275 in the second innings. Left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman emerged the most successful bowler with seven wickets in the match, while off-spinner Saeed Ajmal and pacemen Umar Gul and Aizaz Cheema also kept pressure on Bangladesh.

Pakistan, who arrived in Bangladesh fresh from their success in all formats of the game against Sri Lanka in the United Arab Emirates, will be keen to extend their impressive run. “The confidence comes from performances,” said Misbah. “When you are performing as a team and performing well, the confidence keeps building. This is really helping us as a team.”

Bangladesh need to put in improved batting and bowling performances if they want to avoid their eighth successive Test defeat against Pakistan since 2001. The hosts dropped former captain and middle-order batsman Mohammad Ashraful, who scored one and zero in the first Test, and named fast bowler Shafiul Islam in place of injured Rubel Hossain. Batting was Bangladesh’s main worry in the last Test, with debutant opener Mohammed Nazimuddin alone giving a good account of himself with a defiant 31 in the first innings and 78 in the second. The hosts expect more from their specialist batsmen like Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal and skipper Mushfiqur Rahim, in a bid to test Pakistan.

Bangladesh (from): Mushfiqur Rahim (capt), Mohammad Mahmudullah, Tamim Iqbal, Mohammed Nazimuddin, Shahriar Nafees, Shakib Al Hasan, Naeem Islam, Nasir Hossain, Elias Sunny, Shahadat Hossain, Sohrawardi Shuvo, Robiul Islam, Nazmul Hossain, Shafiul Islam. Pakistan (from): Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Mohammad Hafeez, Taufeeq Umar, Imran Farhat, Younis Khan, Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Shoaib Malik, Adnan Akmal, Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Umar Gul, Mohammad Talha, Aizaz Cheema, Mohammad Khalil.

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South Africa have lost one and drawn three of four most recent home series while Sri Lanka have had more than a year of poor results since the retirement of Muttiah Muralitharan, whose last Test match, against India in Galle in July 2010, marked Sri Lanka’s most recent win.

Since then Sri Lanka have lost four and drawn 10 of 14 Tests. However, Sri Lanka’s fortunes will depend on the form of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, who have been Sri Lanka’s leading batsmen for the past decade.

Sangakkara suffered a hand injury in his team’s only warm-up match at the weekend but is expected to play. The two have formed the backbone of the Sri Lanka batting order but much will be expected from the captain Tillakaratne Dilshan who is going through a lean patch.

While Dale Steyn refused to go as far as to say it was ‘payback time’ for the bowlers, he said the South Africans had made a close study of the Sri Lankan batsmen on video. “In the last two domestic games I bowled the quickest I have this season. The elbow is fine and my rhythm is good. Apart from the opening bowlers, we have Morne Morkel bowling thunderbolts from about 10 feet high and Jacques Kallis is bowling well too.”

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Cricket Australia (CA) will return to the voting of an expert to decide the man-of-the-match award following the controversy over Monday's Hobart Test. Mobile phone and tablet app-users shunned New Zealand quick Doug Bracewell's match figures of 9-60 and voted Australia's David Warner as best player for his unbeaten 123 in the losing side's second innings. Bracewell polled just 27 per cent of the vote to Warner's 58 in the Vodafone-sponsored arrangement.

"We were always running a bit of a trial for these two Tests with those man-of-the-match awards," CA chief James Sutherland told Radio 3AW on Wednesday. "But we will definitely revert to an expert's choice for that decision about man of the match. "We will still run what the fans think. It has worked really well with the (viewers' choice) application and the television. "It's something really ahead of its time and I'm sure we'll see it in other sports as well in the future."A sheepish Warner said in his acceptance speech that Bracewell's bowling had been fantastic. New Zealand assistant coach Trent Woodhill described the decision to give the award to Warner as embarrassing.

"David Warner had a fantastic innings," Woodhill told Cricinfo. "Doug Bracewell was the player of that match. He took nine wickets for 60. "If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have won the match. To me, that's who the player of the match should be."The man-of-the-match award was more clear-cut in the first Test against New Zealand in Brisbane where Australian pace bowler James Pattinson played a starring role in the home side's victory. Australia host India for a four-Test series starting on Boxing Day at the MCG.

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Australia reacted with a wave of panic on Tuesday after falling to a first home Test defeat to New Zealand in more than a quarter of a century with a series against India just two weeks away. "Aussie cricket crisis", "Black Monday", the "Lowest of the Low", "The Flat Empire" were the headlines adorning the back pages of the country's newspapers above pictures of celebrating New Zealand and forlorn Australian cricketers.
"Once the kings of world cricket, Australia are no longer capable of putting away eighth-ranked New Zealand and ... they are in disarray heading into the series against India," read the back page of Sydney's Daily Telegraph.

The thrilling drama of the conclusion to the Hobart Test, which New Zealand won by seven runs, was largely forgotten as critics lined up to take pot shots at the team. Opener Phil Hughes, who was out in almost identical fashion in all four innings of the series against the Black Caps making just 41 runs, was the most pilloried but experienced batsmen Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey were also lambasted for failures.

"The time has come for change," Richard Hinds wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald. "Most pertinently, the time when a couple of much-loved veterans, Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey, could nominate their retirement dates has passed."

Former coach Bob Simpson led calls for the recall of Simon Katich, who controversially lost his central contract with Cricket Australia in June despite being one of his country's best Test performers over the previous three years. The 36-year-old opener, however, told the Telegraph he thought his Test career was probably over.

"I pretty much know they've made their decision, there is nothing much else that has happened," said Katich, who was reprimanded last week for comments suggesting captain Michael Clarke had been behind the loss of his contract. As after the Ashes humiliation against England last year, the whole system of Australian cricket came in for considerable scrutiny.

Many commentators, as Clarke did on Monday, pointed to the fact that the struggling batsmen would have only Australia's new Twenty20 competition in which to find their form before the first of four Test against India begins on Dec. 26.

India, who play their first tour match in Canberra on Thursday, have never won a Test series in Australia but arrived ranked second in the world with their hosts still languishing in fourth place.

Patrick Smith suggested the country's cricketers had displayed a "soft centre" in Hobart rather than the grit and determination that marked the wearers of the baggy green caps during the heyday of Australian cricket.

"A side supposedly intoxicated with the grisly Australian culture does not lose to an earnest but ordinary Kiwi side," he wrote in the Australian. "This Australian side is neither technically sound nor stern of character. It might be enthusiastic but any fourth XI side can boast such a common quality."

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A glorious moment for New Zealand cricket. Australia, on the other hand, are a disaster. As news spread of the Black Caps historic win over Australia at Hobart, the reactions of New Zealanders and Australians were separated by attitudes as wide as the Tasman Sea. The Melbourne Age immediately called the loss a "disaster" for Australia.

The Sydney Morning Herald said the Australian batting collapse was "horrible" and had cost the side a series victory. It blasted skipper Ricky Ponting's continuing run of poor form and opener Phil Hughes' batting woes. Cricinfo said the Black Caps owed their win to the "extraordinary" bowling of Doug Bracewell and a "horrific" batting disintegration from Australia.

It said the win showed Bracewell was a bowler of enormous potential. The local Tasmanian newspaper, the Mercury, likened Australia's batting order to Russian roulette saying the crumbling order contributed to an "embarrassing loss" at Bellerive oval, Hobart.

"A maiden Test century from David Warner could not save Australian blushes and even more confusion over the make up of the side going forward," it said. It added that Hughes was destined for the axe after failing to add to the scoreline from the previous day's play.

Actress Madeleine Sami tweeted: "Black caps you beauties! #nicetobeinozzierightnow."The Managing Director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Mark Scott said: "About to have a meeting with a member of the executive who is a New Zealander. The timing could be better. #abchobtest"

Others took the opportunity to rail against the decision to name Australian centurion David Warner man of the match. Max Johns said: "Warner man of the match? This is what happens when you let the audience at home vote BEFORE the end of the game #blackcaps"Andrew Biggs said: "Let's have a #BlackCaps twitter-fan whip round to reward the REAL man of the match Doug Bracewell #illputintenbucks"

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Virender Sehwag's awe-inspiring double hundred, only the second in ODI history, continued to fetch him effusive praise with cricketers, athletes from other sports and international media bowing in admiration to his epic knock. Sehwag smashed 219 off 149 deliveries in the fourth one-dayer against the West Indies on Thursday in Indore, overtaking his idol Sachin Tendulkar's unbeaten 200 to become the highest individual scorer in an ODI.

Leading the praise was Tendulkar himself, who said he was happy that a fellow countryman had broken the record created by him. "I am very happy for Viru and also happy about the fact that someone who has broken my record is my team-mate and an Indian. Well done Viru," the veteran right-hander, who is in Melbourne right now, said in an SMS.

The knock also created ripples far away in Australia, a country which India tours next for a Test series. Staying up to catch Sehwag's brutality was Aussie swashbuckler David Warner and he claimed the 33-year-old left him amazed. "Wow, Test match tomorrow but am still up watching Virender Sehwag score, hopefully, 200. Unreal, and he does (get the) highest ever. Well done mate," Warner tweeted referring to the second Test against New Zealand on Friday.

Sehwag's Indian colleagues were expectedly in awe with players such as Dinesh Karthik and Murali Vijay congratulating the marauding opener. "It's a great effort. Once he got a triple hundred (in Tests), it was just a matter of time for him to bring up this one. I am a big fan of him. The fact that he can even dispatch good balls to boundaries makes him so different," Karthik said. Vijay said, "I was just watching it. I am so happy for him. It's unbelievable. He is such a great batsman. He batted like himself."Former chief selector Kiran More described Sehwag as one of the greatest cricketers India had ever produced.

"One of the greatest cricketers India ever had. He is one of the biggest destroyers of spin bowling. Be it Test, one-day or T20, he bats with equal flair. If you see the records, Indian Test cricket has improved tremendously in last 10 years and Viru is a key factor. "The results are showing. He will be a vital cog in the Indian wheel in their upcoming tour Down Under. He has done well in difficult conditions and on various types of pitches. We can't compare Sachin with Sehwag. When he came, he tried to copy Sachin. But Sehwag has played very freely since then," More said.

Sehwag had athletes from other sports also glued to the TV sets and among them were Indian tennis players Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza who were effusive in congratulating Sehwag. "Holy cow is all I am gonna say about that innings. Amazing stuff by Viru. As Johnny Mac would say, "You can't be serious," said Bhupathi. "What an achievement. What a player. Hats off to Sehwag," added Mirza. Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar said, "Congrats Viru for that incredible 219 which was an epic innings! What timing and energy, indeed SehWhacked. Respect."Not to be left out, Indian Premier League CEO Sundar Raman said, "If one did not see Viru's innings, could easily mistake the scorecard for a game of book cricket!"

Former India captain Ajit Wadekar said Sehwag's phenomenal knock of 219 was "out of the world" stuff.
"No batsman in the modern game destroys attacks quite like Sehwag when he is in the right mood, and when presented like he was with an easy paced batting pitch and short boundaries, there was always going to be problems for the West Indies. When he raced to his 100 off only 69 deliveries, Sehwag was unstoppable," said The Daily Telegraph. The Guardian said Sehwag's understanding of the game is quite different from his contemporaries. "Virender Sehwag's technique is not revolutionary, just thrillingly heightened. The way he sees the game is so different," it said.

"What is different about Sehwag is his mind, the way he sees the game. Essentially, he is free. Where tradition insists that the new ball and fresh bowlers and aggressive fields are threats, he sees wide open spaces, a hard ball that will fly off the bat," it added. The newspaper likened Sehwag to Brian Lara, saying he simplifies the game. "Viru doesn't have Gayle's shoulders or Jayasuriya's forearms or Haydo's pecs. He has none of the nervous intensity of Slater or the cross-eyed desire of Hayden. He doesn't really have the insouciance of Gayle or Barry Richards," it said.

"He is instead an almost implacable little Buddha, soft-edged, calmly accepting of the fates, whether they swing for him or against. If there is one player he is most like, it is Lara, in that he can hit unstoppably not just for hours but for days. It is they who have built monolithic scores most regularly. "Yet Lara didn't open, and he often gave the first hour or so of his innings to the bowler. That has not been Sehwag's way," The Guardian added.

"I think the knock was out of the world. I have never seen anyone hitting so hard and so aggressively. His cuts, pulls were ferocious. We talk about Vivian Richards, the Aussies but in Sehwag we have someone who can play breathtakingly," Wadekar said. "He has got so many 200s. He has such confidence. He knows that he can do it and it was just a matter of time. This knock is one of the best. People will remember his knock for a long time," he added. Wadekar said the knock would give Sehwag a confidence boost ahead of the Australia series later this month.

"The record-breaking knock will give him a lot of confidence. Having played such a knock, helping the team to 418 is not a joke. I'm sure the Aussies would be very worried now," he Wadekar said.
"It gives us a thrill. We have all the record-breakers in our team - Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid. This is the best Indian team ever," he said. Former Test player Lalchand Rajput said that it was only Sehwag who could have broken Tendulkar's record.

"This was one of the best knocks I have ever seen. People were casting aspersions on him. Many were writing that he had not scored for the past five innings. But he answered them in the right way," Rajput said.

"If there was anyone who could have broken Sachin Tendulkar's record, it was Sehwag. Had he stayed there till the end, who knows he could have scored even a 250. A innings such as this before the Australia tour will give him a lot of confidence."The international media too gave a round of applause to the rustic Najafgarh-lad, whose simplicity with words and high-risk batting has bowled over many.

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Hopes for a mouth-watering contest between Pat Cummins and Sachin Tendulkar have been dashed by the news the young Australian pace sensation has a serious foot injury that will cause him to miss much of the India Test series.

The 18-year-old fast bowler was making a slower-than-expected recovery from a heel problem incurred during his breathtaking debut in Johannesburg last month and further scans have revealed a more serious injury that will keep him from bowling for at least another month.

“Patrick injured his heel early into the second Test against South Africa. By the end of the match he was quite sore and we had scans done after the game that confirmed heel 'fat pad' injury. On return to Australia, he was given some time to recover and was reviewed throughout last week by NSW medical staff and then by myself in Brisbane during the first Vodafone Test versus New Zealand," said Australian team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris.

"By the end of last week it was apparent to all of us managing him that he was progressing slower than expected for a soft-tissue injury of the heel. As such we arranged for him to see a foot specialist and had further scans that have identified a bone component to his injury, that was not evident on the original scans. We now believe that Patrick has a bone stress injury as well as the 'fat pad' injury. This means that his recovery will take longer than first expected. He is not likely to resume bowling until early to mid-January 2012.”

Cricket fans had been salivating at the prospect of watching the hottest young pace prospect in the world bowl to the greatest batsman of his generation from Boxing Day at the MCG but now it seems Cummins' best-case scenario is a return for the fourth Test of the series in Adelaide from January 24. He will also miss the Big Bash League in which he would have been a star attraction in a new-ball partnership with Brett Lee for the Sydney Sixers.

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West Indies ended India's 11-game winning streak at home with a 16-run victory in the third one-day international today to keep the series alive after fast bowler Ravi Rampaul's four-wicket haul.

Rampaul took 4-57 to help bowl out India for 244 in 46.5 overs in reply to West Indies' total of 260-5 at Sardar Patel Stadium. It was the hosts' first ODI loss at home since going down to South Africa in the group stage of the World Cup in March. India, which won the opening two matches, was led by Rohit Sharma's fluent knock of 95 as he resurrected the innings from 105-6 in the 21st over.

He smashed 10 fours and a six in 100 balls to keep the match in the balance until he was the second last man out in the 44th over. Sharma, who struck 72 and 90 not out in the previous two games, put on a 91-run stand with Ravichandran Ashwin (31) before being run out by a direct throw from West Indies captain Darren Sammy.

"It was a good fight back from the boys especially the spell from Rampaul and debutant (Sunil) Narine,'' said Sammy, who had earlier dropped Sharma and Ashwin. "Sharma tried to take the game away but we stuck at it.''

India was on the back foot early in the chase when Rampaul dismissed captain Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir for ducks with the first two balls of the second over of the innings. Sehwag was caught behind dangling his bat outside off stump while Gautam Gambhir was trapped lbw shouldering arms to a ball that moved in sharply for India to slip to 8-2.

After spinners Marlon Samuels and Narine had taken a wicket each, Rampaul dismissed Suresh Raina (2) caught behind down the leg side in a doubtful decision with replays suggesting the ball had touched the thigh pad. Rampaul also dismissed Abhimanyu Mithun in another spell to seal victory.

Earlier, Sammy and allrounder Andre Russell put together a rollicking 79-run unbroken stand to propel the visitors after a slow start. Sammy clobbered 41 off 17 balls and Russell smashed 40 off 18 to boost the total after Samuels had made 58. Sammy and Russell were helped by some wayward bowling as Mithun went for 23 runs in the 49th over and Umesh Yadav for 20 in the 50th.

"When the two big-hitters, Russell and Sammy, were batting it was difficult for us as they were connecting well,'' Sehwag said. "I told my boys to bowl as many yorkers as they could, but they not do it.''Sammy finished with two sixes and five fours while Russell struck two sixes and four fours during a fruitful partnership that also included some smart running by the pair.

The two built on the good work of Samuels, who steadied the innings with a 93-ball knock of 58 that included five fours and a six. Samuels, who smashed two consecutive fours off Mithun and later belted Yadav for a six and two fours in an over, was out after the powerplay in the 33rd over when he tried to create space on the off side but was bowled by spinner Ashwin.

Denesh Ramdin (38) and Kieron Pollard (29) were others to contribute to the score. Vinay Kumar was the pick of India's bowlers with 2-39 while Yadav was the most expensive, conceding 75 in nine overs.

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New Zealand cricket captain Ross Taylor admits his side made it easy for Australia in the first test, resulting in a routing at the hands of the old foe. The Blacks Caps batsmen capitulated in familiar fashion yesterday morning at the Gabba in Brisbane, falling to a nine-wicket loss against one of the weakest Australian test teams in recent memory.

Taylor and his team were all talk in the lead-up to the test, with their declarations of confidence matched only by Australia's mounting injury toll. The top six all appeared in good nick in a warm-up draw with Australia A but, as the tourists quickly found, there's a big difference between batting well in first class cricket and taking on the big boys in a pressurised environment.

The top order once again crumbled - twice - and Taylor conceded the batting effort was sub-standard, making life easy for their opponents. "We've got to be harder on ourselves as a batting unit,'' he said. "Not only this morning, but in that first innings there were a lot of soft dismissals. "To be honest, Australia didn't have to work that hard for their wickets.''

That's because a significant number of the dismissals came from batsmen playing rash shots and throwing away their wickets. Their premature departures left Dan Vettori and Dean Brownlie, in just his second test, to illustrate how to bat in the longest form of the game.

In forming New Zealand's highest partnerships in both innings, Vettori and Brownlie were the only Black Caps to emerge from the carnage with any credit. In fact, Brownlie spent a total of 375 minutes at the crease - eight minutes more than the top five managed together.

What made the twin collapses more perplexing was New Zealand enjoyed the chance to face two Australian test bowlers, James Pattinson and Mitchell Starc, in the warm-up match with Australia A a week before the test. Pattinson proved chief destroyer in the Black Caps' second innings, removing each of the top five and finishing with figures of 5-27 on debut.

Taylor, who Pattinson had caught behind first ball, tipped his cap to the 21-year-old but struggled to comprehend how he had done so much damage.

"You've got to give credit to James Pattinson, he put the ball in the right areas enough times for us to nick it,'' he said. "But we had a good preparation leading up to the match, we all felt confident.''

With any remnants of confidence sure to have dissipated, New Zealand head to Hobart for the second and final test, starting on Friday. Both teams have made a change to their squad - the Black Caps calling up Brent Arnel and Australia replacing 12th man Ben Cutting with allrounder Dan Christian - but it wouldn't be surprising to see the sides unchanged.

What would be a surprise would be to see a battling batting effort, spending time in the middle rather than slashing wildly at the first loose ball outside off stump. Taylor wasn't exactly promising that, but he was in philosophical mood following the defeat and looking ahead to the rematch.

"No one ever wants to get out,'' he said. "So yeah, it was just one of those days where we didn't execute as well as we would've liked.''

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