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Allrounder says he has been coping with the condition for the last 15-16 years

Umar Farooq13-Feb-2022Chronic back pain has forced Shahid Afridi to end his Pakistan Super League season early. The 41-year old allrounder, who has been in rehab, said he only chose to take the field this year “for the fans” but the pain had become too much to bear.Sunday night’s game for Quetta Gladiators was effectively Afridi’s last game in the PSL. He picked up two wickets in the game, against Islamabad United in Lahore, and ran Azam Khan out with a direct hit. It was his 53rd outing in the PSL, where he has been four teams over the years, playing for Peshawar Zalmi, Multan Sultans and Karachi Kings before Gladiators.”I was trying to sign off on a good note; my lower-back injury has been there for 15-16 years, and I have been playing with it.. But now it has become so much that it has affected my groin, my knee and it goes down to extreme pain in my toes,” Afridi said in a social media message. “I tried to cope with it but can’t tolerate the pain anymore. After all, when you have good health, you have the world with you.”I will go back and undergo rehabilitation on my fitness. There is cricket coming up, like the KPL [Kashmir Premier League] and T10 league. So I will soon return in front of my fans again.”Afridi’s stint this season was a disrupted one. He picked up a back injury during a training session, and then tested positive for Covid-19, and missed Gladiators’ first few games. Then, back on the field, he was carted for 67 runs in his four overs by United, the most expensive four-over spell in PSL history.He appeared to have hit his groove last evening, again against United, but was visibly in pain, and didn’t come out to bat as Gladiators won by five wickets.Afridi last played international cricket more than five years ago, but continued to take part in the PSL ever since its inception. He led Zalmi in the first season and was part of the team that won the title the following year.

The St Lucia Zouks captain says he’s ‘closer to retirement than playing more T20 cricket’

Deivarayan Muthu08-Sep-2020Daren Sammy’s place in the XI was often questioned when he was the West Indies captain. He didn’t quite have the flair or aura of his predecessors, but he undoubtedly brought results, particularly in T20 cricket. Things aren’t too different with Sammy at the helm of St Lucia Zouks in the CPL. He has managed just 34 runs in nine innings at an average of 5.66 and a strike rate of under 80 this season. He has bowled a mere two overs, giving up 19 runs for one wicket. But the Zouks have made the playoffs for only the second time in their history, and will make their first-ever final if they topple five-time finalists Guyana Amazon Warriors on Tuesday.Not many gave the Zouks a chance to go so deep in the tournament, especially after some of their key players, including Chris Gayle, became unavailable. Head coach Andy Flower said as much last week, while reiterating his faith in Sammy, whom he called an “inspirational figure”.So has the lack of expectations worked in Zouks’ favour? “A lot of people have said a lot of things about the St Lucia Zouks and the performance in the history of the CPL. But I’m one who has always been confident silently in our dressing room,” Sammy said ahead of the semi-finals. “I said that the guys we have in the squad this year are not superstars, but guys that could be very effective in these conditions.”You [have] seen the way we played throughout this competition – you know especially when we’re out there in the field as a unit, I can’t stress enough on how my men, especially my bowlers, have responded in these conditions. And the way we defended low totals and we have to do it two more times to win this competition.”While Mohammad Nabi’s displays with ball and bat have made up for Gayle’s absence, the Zouks have also found unlikely heroes in Roston Chase and Javelle Glen. Chase was not a CPL regular before this season, but he has regularly fronted up to bowl in the death overs and accumulate with the bat in the middle order on the turning tracks in Trinidad.Glen wasn’t a CPL regular either before 2020. The 22-year-old was sidelined from the 2018 season with injury and was with Jamaica Tallawahs in 2019, playing as a batsman who could bowl a bit. This season, however, Sammy has used Glen as an attacking legspinner, matching him up with right-handers and restricting them from accessing the smaller boundaries.The pitches for the final week at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy have been more batting-friendly than earlier in the season, but Glen, Chase, and Zahir Khan still combined in the end overs to strangle the Tallawahs in their chase in the last league fixture.”You look at the situation of the game – you know you have the advantage of whether the pitch assists spin or there’s a big boundary to which the batsmen have to hit,” Sammy said. “If you see throughout the tournament spin has been difficult to get away. Plus, Javelle every time he comes on to bowl, he brings this type of energy – positive energy – and it’s infectious and the team goes with it. I needed somebody who can spin the ball away from righty to hit in the big side and he was the guy.”I know he has done it before against Barbados and the confidence level he has…we trust him enough to do the job for us when required. And Roston has showed, his ability to execute – whether wide yorkers or making them hit to the big side – you always go for that experience.”Darren Sammy has become Peshawar Zalmi’s head coach•Pakistan Super League

Sammy had a taste of coaching earlier this year, moving upstairs at Peshawar Zalmi after giving up the captaincy in a mid-season reshuffle at the Pakistan Super League (PSL). Sammy, who will be 37 next year, conceded that CPL retirement has “crossed his mind”, but he hoped to exit in front of his home fans in St Lucia at the stadium named after him.”I’m pretty sure this year if we were playing in front of the crowd and I get to play in front of my home fans in St Lucia, I probably would’ve called it [a day] – like I always say; that’s it. I still have some time and I would really love to finish in front of St Lucia and my St Lucian fans at home and bow out at the Daren Sammy cricket ground. But, it all depends on how hard I work after this. If we win the cup, I will definitely have a think about it. I know I’m closer to retirement than playing more T20 cricket – that’s the truth.”‘One country can’t get all the love’
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the entire CPL season has been played behind closed doors in Trinidad. League leaders Trinbago Knight Riders, who have a bevy of Trinidad-based players in their squad, have enjoyed overwhelming home advantage. Before the start of the tournament, some of their players were also allowed to remain outside the bio-bubble and train while the rest of the squads were holed up in their hotel rooms. That didn’t go down well with Sammy. When asked if he would come back and play the entire tournament in just one country in a similar scenario, Sammy said he would, but wanted another country to get the chance to host the tournament.”I was very vocal in my dissatisfaction of what I was seeing in terms of bubble – guys having access to training and facilities every day when others were not,” Sammy said. “I questioned that but one thing I didn’t question is the availability of cricket for all those probably 160 cricketers that are here showcasing their talent.”Now if, let’s say next year, we still have to play in one country, I know for sure it can’t be Trinidad. You’ve got to share the love somewhere else – whether St Kitts, whether St Lucia – and we can come back. And one country can’t seem to be getting all the love all the time. That’s what I’ll say on that.”

England coach admits his side missed Jason Roy but stresses that the opening batsman will not be rushed back from injury

George Dobell22-Jun-2019Trevor Bayliss believes complacency among England’s batsmen cost them in their World Cup match against Sri Lanka.Bayliss, the England coach, believes his side “just took it a little bit easy with the bat” when confronted by a relatively low total and a relatively lower-ranked opponent. England have so far only played one side (South Africa) in the top five of the world rankings and have been beaten by two (Pakistan and Sri Lanka) ranked between sixth and ninth. They play Australia (ranked five), India (ranked two) and New Zealand (ranked three) in their final three qualifying games knowing they may need to win two of those matches to progress.But while Bayliss admitted the team missed the injured Jason Roy, he insisted there would be no risks taken with his recovery and he would not be rushed back for Tuesday’s game against Australia at Lord’s.”What went wrong? Obviously our batting,” Bayliss said. “I thought our bowling was pretty good. It was superb.”But with the bat we weren’t as busy as we normally are. Normally, on a wicket like this one, which wasn’t the easiest to play big shots on, we’re still busy and knocking singles around into the gaps. I don’t think we did that well enough.AFP

“We didn’t build those partnerships. If we’d shown the same urgency at the start of the innings as we did at the end, we would have been in a better place.”I think we just took it a little bit easy with the bat, to be honest. We thought if we just bat a bit of time we’ll put together a partnership. I think we forgot about the process we actually go through to put those partnerships together. That puts you under a bit of pressure towards the back end and that gave Sri Lanka confidence. They certainly bowled well. They hit their lengths and changed their pace.”Of course you miss someone of Jason’s ilk. He’s injured and I’m not exactly sure when he’ll be back, but we’re looking forward to him coming back.”We’re not going to risk him, that’s for sure. We’ll play each game as it comes and get the medical people to let us know whether they think he is right for the next game. If he’s not, well we’ll do the same heading into the next game.”With Roy not expected back until the India game (at Edgbaston on June 30), at least, James Vince looks set to win another opportunity at the top of the order. He has looked in good touch every time he has batted for England this summer but has failed to pass 43 in six international innings. Bayliss remains hopeful, however, that one substantial score can kick-start a career that has, to date, promised more than it has delivered.”It’s not as infuriating [for me] as it is for him,” Bayliss said. “He looks a million dollars, but then he finds a way to get out. Hopefully he’s one of those guys who can put one together and it tips him over the edge and he gets a string of big scores. He’s certainly a good player, but he’s looking to play a longer dig.”WATCH on Hotstar (India only) – England’s wickets against Sri LankaBayliss was also phlegmatic about Moeen Ali’s dismissal, caught on the long-off boundary at a time when England needed less than a run a ball to win the game.”I think he’s obviously disappointed,” Bayliss said. “I’m no more disappointed than he is with that shot. It was not a great time to play that shot after hitting a six the ball before.”But other times he goes out, hits it over the fence and we’d be yelling ‘great shot’. They’re always going to make a mistake if you’re trying things. They have a bit of a joke at times in the dressing room about hitting a single off the next ball and that being good cricket. Some of the guys have hit ‘six, six, six’ and that’s really good cricket.”Despite the setback, Bayliss says the dressing room remains full of belief. And, he believes the quality of the teams which England have to play next will ensure “minds are on the job”.”We know how good we are,” he said. “We didn’t play as well as we’d like in this game and maybe we let one slip, but we have been in this situation before and it hasn’t stopped us coming out and playing well in the next game.”I think the three teams we’ve got coming up are good teams and we know what we’re going to get. We know what we can expect from those three good teams so I think our minds will be on the job.”They will need to be. Australia will sense a chance to push England towards the brink of elimination on Tuesday and life will be no easier in the two matches to follow. While, from a global perspective, there may be some relief that the final group matches do not amount to a glut of dead games, England supporters – starved of World Cup success and knowing this is probably a one-off opportunity – may well have settled for just a little more predictability.

The two things England have most enjoyed in this Test match so far have been with neither bat or ball

Andrew McGlashan in Auckland23-Mar-2018The two things England have most enjoyed in this Test match so far have been with neither bat or ball: Ed Sheeran popped into the dressing room while in Auckland for three gigs this weekend, and rain wiped out most of the second day with more forecast for the next two. Stuart Broad’s 400th wicket aside, there is not much else they can take from it.Sheeran, a cricket fan who is friends with Shane Warne, received a bat from Mark Wood and a signed shirt. “A few of the lads chatted to him for a while, it was nice especially after a couple of average days to meet someone of his calibre,” James Anderson said. “It was nice of him to come in, there are a lot of big fans in there.”Back on the field there was precious little to savour in the 23.1 overs possible. They bowled tightly but without much penetration which is not a new story. Anderson managed to extract Kane Williamson for 102, but New Zealand’s lead swelled to 171.Having been bowled out for 58, the game is so far advanced that the weather is not yet a problem for the home side, but the forecast is poor for the weekend. From such depths England will take any help they can, although Anderson insisted they could yet haul themselves out of the mire.”We have to keep believing we can save it because if we don’t have belief there’s no point turning up and putting in the hard yards and bowling the overs in the middle,” he said. “We’ve got to believe that we can get something out of this game.”Twenty-four hours after registering their sixth-lowest total in Test history and threatening the lowest by anyone – 26 – there was a sense of England still trying to work out how it happened. The same could be said for New Zealand.When asked his thoughts on batting before lunch on the first day, Anderson said: “It was a big chance for my maiden hundred.” Gallows humour is not a bad idea.”I can’t remember experiencing an hour like that before,” he added. “Certainly at the start of the game. It’s just one of those things, when the stars align, you’re not on form and facing two world-class bowlers it’s going to happen. We’ve got to try and work very hard to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”There was still a sense of disbelief in Williamson’s voice: “It was a bit of a perfect storm, really. England have a very long batting line-up. Even when you do fire you expect a partnership or two. It was doing just enough and that just enough was on our side. Hard to beat it from our perspective with ball in hand.”On the first day England coach Trevor Bayliss lamented technical failings from batsmen with a reluctance to get on the front foot to a slightly moving ball and while the major post-mortem will wait until after the match, Anderson said the onus was on the batsmen to work out what had gone wrong.”I’m sure the batsmen are working hard with the coaches to figure out what went wrong with them and counter that during the second innings and hopefully bat much better. I think it’s something after the game we’ll really have a chat about it but at the minute you’ve really got to do what you can do to influence this game.”More rain would be music to England’s ears. Otherwise, they might have time to see one of Ed Sheeran’s concerts in person.

An ECB delegation has spent time in Australia this month assessing the Big Bash League as they step up preparations for a high-powered tournament of their own

Will Macpherson in Melbourne12-Jan-2017An ECB delegation has spent time in Australia this month assessing the Big Bash League as they step up preparations for a high-powered tournament of their own.Anthony Everard, the league manager of the Big Bash, said the delegation, led by the ECB’s head of commercial partnerships, Mike Fordham, “asked all the right questions” when they met. Fordham was joined by Gordon Hollins, the ECB’s chief operating officer, as well as two county cricket chief executives, Somerset’s Guy Lavender and Nottinghamshire’s Lisa Pursehouse.The travelling contingent are representing the “T20 working group”, which was established in December and also contains Rob Calder, the ECB’s head of marketing, and Tom Johnson, the head of business support as well as the chief executive of the PCA, David Leatherdale.It is understood that they are not looking to file a formal report from the BBL, but are observing and researching the way Cricket Australia and the clubs have pulled off the highly successful competition.Anthony Everard, league manager of the Big Bash League•Getty Images

ECB delegations have become a regular feature of the Big Bash as the future of T20 in England remains undecided. “There is a mutual curiosity,” Everard told ESPNcricinfo. “We welcome the ECB, we spent the morning with them, and they asked all the right questions. There is common ground, but also apples and oranges.”The BBL model has effectively tapped its target market: anybody who had not been to a cricket match before. The ECB appreciates that due to a differing population spread and starting point (18 counties, rather than six states) they cannot simply replicate but they do seem increasingly determined to hold a comparable eight-team competition from 2020.Last year, ECB’s market research suggested that only 13% of fans at NatWest T20 Blast games were under 16, and that the average was between 48 and 49, prompting fears about where the next generation of fans would come from and strengthening determination that a shake-up was required.Progress on the project – which has received significant opposition from county members – is expected when the county chairmen and CEOs meet at the end of March.This is not the first time the ECB have visited the BBL – which is averaging 29,875 fans per match this season, as well as free-to-air TV ratings of more than 1m people per night – for inspiration for their own competition. Last year Sanjay Patel, the chief sales and marketing officer, travelled to Australia to assess the competition. Tom Harrison, the ECB’s chief executive, travelled to the USA in November to meet with Twitter, Facebook and other social networks to research how the competition’s media rights package could work.The ECB are not the only overseas board in town to pick the BBL’s brains. Damien O’Donohoe, the Caribbean Premier League’s chief executive, has also met with his Australian counterparts this week.

Not many England cricketers have reacted to their selection for a major tour – a tour against the No. 1 Test side in the world no less – with “a bit of a chuckle”

David Hopps21-Nov-2015Not many England cricketers have reacted to their selection for a major tour – a tour against the No. 1 Test side in the world no less – with “a bit of a chuckle”, but that is how Samit Patel says he reacted when he was summoned against expectations for the Test series in South Africa.Assumptions that Patel had been called up for the Test series against Pakistan in the UAE, following Zafar Ansari’s injury, and then would be routinely discarded had only been encouraged by a 2-0 series defeat which led to a widespread debate over the state of spin bowling in England. He did not figure in many predicted squads on the day the tour party was announced, but he was in the one that mattered.Patel’s reputation proved more robust than even he expected. He played the final Test, performed as well as his two spin partners, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid, and won the vote for South Africa ahead of Rashid as England’s selectors opted to give Moeen some meaningful competition with a like-for-like replacement on a tour where spin bowling is expected to play a secondary role to a diet of pace.”I had a bit of a chuckle to myself to be honest,” Patel told ESPNcricinfo at the Chance to Shine Street awards. “I’m just happy I’ve been given the chance to go to South Africa. I get pigeon-holed as a subcontinent cricketer which I don’t really like. So hopefully I can put that right and stop people saying that because I have played all my cricket in England. So I don’t really agree when people say that. I can’t be because I play in this country as well.”But it was very much a surprise to be honest. I thought they were going to go with Mo and Rash again – just continuity wise I thought that’s the way they’d go – but surprisingly I got the call. I was very surprised.”Rashid will benefit from his omission. He has not been deliberately excluded to play Big Bash in Australia – as Andrew Strauss, the director England cricket, has made clear that Test cricket remains paramount – but the selectors were aware that the opportunity existed for him to join his Yorkshire coach Jason Gillespie at Adelaide Strikers and are delighted about this opportunity ahead of the World T20.That leaves Patel only too aware of his role in South Africa: if not carrying the drinks, he begins very much Moeen’s understudy, on hand in case of injury or a collapse of form with bat or ball. As a player who treated his Test series in the UAE “as though it was going to be my last Test tour” that is no hardship.”I’d fill any role for England. If they told me to bat No. 9 or 10 I’d bat there. Whatever fits the team I’d do. I think Moeen is fantastic – a good bowler, great batsman – so I think I’m second choice definitely. I personally think just Moeen and four seamers will be the make-up of the team. I’m not talking myself out of it, I just think that’s the way we’ll go.”He is supremely relaxed about James Anderson’s observations after the lost series in the UAE that England’s spinners needed to learn quickly. “I wasn’t aware what Jimmy said – it’s irrelevant though because he’s just trying to help the team. We do have to learn quickly. It’s a Test match playing for England. We probably did get exposed but they’re used to playing on wickets like that so you can’t really say we bowled badly. We bowled bad balls but so did their spinners. They were just more consistent at building pressure than we were.Samit Patel provides some impromptu coaching during the Chance to Shine Street awards at Kia Oval•Chance to Shine

There is not much in his record to suggest he is about to bowl out South Africa if he gets the chance to add to his seven Tests. If he does play, expect to see two fingers of his bowling hand strapped together as a protective measure, the legacy of a dislocation suffered during his first over on his Test return in Sharjah. “I’ve had it checked out and it’s fine, but I’ll probably keep the strapping on because I don’t want it slipping out again.”As a representative of England’s put-upon spin-bowling collective, Patel has learned to make the best of things. In 14 years of county cricket, he has become inured to Trent Bridge’s seam-friendly surfaces, averaging 200 overs a season and taking his first-class wickets at a touch over 40.”I don’t think it’s correct when people say we don’t have English spinners because we do. I don’t think our wickets encourage spinners. When it’s green in April, May, sometimes even June, why should people bowl spin? Groundsmen should make more spinning wickets if English cricket wants to see better spinners. I don’t think you should do that every week – groundsmen should pick their games, probably in the middle of the year, in June, July and August. I think we need to see more spinning wickets for us to get better batting and bowling on them.”It is a trimmer, more mature Patel these days, a far cry from the player who first won England honours seven years ago. If it would be unwise to suggest he is free of his addictions (only Samit could have gazed at the canapes at The Oval as if his resolve was being tested), at least the talk of his weight issues has relented. He thinks that is partly down to his own development, partly because of a less judgemental attitude around the England squad.”The environment does change. Hopefully I’ve made a better impression than when I first came in. My attitude then was poor and naïve. The criticism I got was probably fair, not wholly, but the majority. I think I’ve moved on from there and changed, which hopefully everyone has seen.”I thought I was untouchable. I couldn’t do anything wrong. I started well against the South Africans. Everyone thought I’d carry on but it doesn’t really work like that. It was a different period but you learn as you get older what you can and can’t do, and what you need to do.”Samit Patel was attending the Chance to Shine Street Awards. Lycamobile supports the programme as part of its mission to bring communities together. Chancetoshine.org/street

Uncapped right-hand batsman Shamsur Rahman will replace an injured Tamim Iqbal in the Bangladesh squad for the remaining two ODIs against Sri Lanka

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Mar-2013Uncapped right-hand batsman Shamsur Rahman will replace an injured Tamim Iqbal in the Bangladesh squad for the remaining two ODIs against Sri Lanka. Tamim suffered a hairline fracture on his right thumb while fielding in the first ODI in Hambantota after scoring 112.Shamsur has scored 978 runs in 48 List-A matches at an average of 21.73 with a high score of 67. He was the third-highest run-scorer in the Bangladesh Premier League, in which he represented Rangpur Riders, with 421 runs from 12 matches at an average of 42.10 and a strike rate of 130.74, including six fifties. He is expected to join the Bangladesh side on Monday.Tamim will return to Dhaka on Monday for further examination to determine the extent of his surgery.Meanwhile, Shahadat Hossain, the replacement for Nazmul Hossain, will join the squad today and is expected to be available for the second ODI to be played in Hambantota tomorrow.

Tamim Iqbal, one of Bangladesh’s senior players, has said he had no idea that the national coach Stuart Law was going to resign

Nagraj Gollapudi16-Apr-2012Tamim Iqbal, one of Bangladesh’s top batsmen, has said he had no idea that the national coach Stuart Law was going to resign. He was talking hours after Law announced his decision to quit as Bangladesh coach.”I’m completely taken by surprise,” Tamim told ESPNcricinfo. “But family comes first.” Law was stepping down less than a month after guiding Bangladesh to the final of the Asia Cup.Tamim said Law had added to the professionalism brought in by his predecessors as coach, the Australian pair of Dav Whatmore and Jamie Siddons. “Law gave us the belief that we can do it,” Tamim said. “And that only pumped up the players. He used to give us tremendous amount of confidence. A team like us needs the confidence and he always supported us.”The relationship between a coach and the players takes time to develop usually and with Stuey, we were almost there. Everyone was enjoying his presence in the dressing room and he was enjoying being with us as well.”Tamim also gave a personal example of Law’s influence. “When I was going through a rough patch during the Pakistan series (last December) he kept pushing me to work hard. There is one line I can never forget. He said: ‘Someone is hurt now and someone will be hurt in the Asia Cup.'” Tamim made four half-centuries in four matches in the Asia Cup and finished as the second-highest run-maker in the tournament.Tamim said he was also disappointed as he felt Law’s departure was a bit of a backward step for Bangladesh cricket. “We will miss him definitely. This is the tragedy with Bangladesh cricket: whenever we do something good, something bad happens.”Edited by Siddarth Ravindran

Accurate spells of fast bowling from the entire cast of seamers helped Deccan Chargers inflict a convincing 33-run victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore, who have now suffered two losses in a row

The Bulletin by Nagraj Gollapudi14-Apr-2011
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsBharat Chipli set Deccan Chargers up for their maiden home win•AFP

Accurate spells of fast bowling from the entire cast of seamers helped Deccan Chargers inflict a convincing 33-run victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore, who have now suffered two losses in a row. In the process, they laid to rest the curse of never having won a match at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium in history of the IPL.Chasing the second-highest total in the tournament so far, Bangalore’s batsmen looked hapless throughout and had it not been for a battling half-century by Virat Kohli, they would have ended up in tatters. The four-man seam attack of Dale Steyn, Manpreet Gony, Ishant Sharma and Daniel Christian combined ruthlessly picking up eight of the nine Bangalore wickets.Tillakaratne Dilshan started off with a streaky boundary, a thick outside-edge off a seaming delivery from Ishant that raced through third man. But Ishant pitched the next ball perfectly on a length and hit the seam hard. Dilshan slashed wildly only for a thin edge to travel into the gloves of Sangakkara, who eventually ended the evening with five catches. If Sangakkara made the right decision to bowl Ishant’s four overs in one spell, Steyn – acting as the on-field bowling coach – made sure the Indian kept hitting a good length and avoided getting distracted bowling bouncers.A surprise move, actually ridiculous, by Bangalore to send Zaheer Khan in at No. 3 lasted three deliveries, before Steyn demolished the Indian’s furniture with a fast swinging full toss. Mayank Agarwal tried pulling hard against a short-pitched delivery from Gony which climbed too fast and was caught easily at mid-on. AB de Villiers and Saurabh Tiwary, two proven match-winners, had miserable evenings. The South African was deceived by Gony’s outswinger and Sangakkara happily accepted another offering behind the stumps when Tiwary tried to slog sweep against the legspin of Amit Mishra, but ended up skying an easy catch, pouched safely once again by the Hyderabad captain.Only Kohli lasted the distance, keeping a calm head on his shoulders, while picking the right balls to hit to keep Bangalore’s flame of hope from being doused early on. A few good shots – including a raging straight six charging Mishra, and a fierce slog-sweep to go to fifty – were the highlights of his innings. But except for Cheteshwar Pujara, who have batted up the order, none of the Bangalore batsmen applied themselves to stand up to the challenge.If Bangalore’s batting seemed out of sorts, the Hyderabad men were solid and certain. Barring Shikhar Dhawan, who failed for the second match in a row, the rest of the hosts’ batsmen played smartly and kept pushing the run-rate consistently.Having failed to convert his starts in the first two matches, the onus today was on Sangakkara to keep the middle order intact. And he came up with his most fluent innings to date, playing with a straight bat while building a valuable 50-run alliance with Sunny Sohal for the second wicket, which was the highest for any wicket for Hyderabad so far in the tournament.Sohal hit the first six of the match and then got out attempting a second one, but Sangakkara played with measured aggression. He took advantage of a couple of easy full-tosses from Daniel Vettori early on, then rotated the strike smartly to keep the pressure on the bowlers, before charging Dilshan to hit an elegant six straight over the bowler’s head, his best shot. If Bangalore felt they could wrest the control after Sangakkara’s (tame) exit – he tried to chip a fuller and wider delivery from Johan van der Wath – Chipli quickly washed away those aspirations.He had started with two powerful pulls, both off the back foot, one a six (against Dilshan) and next over a four (off S Arvind). But his biggest victory came when he got the measure of Zaheer.The bowler of the World Cup was smashed for 22 runs in the nine balls Chipli faced. The onslaught included four fours, the last three coming back-to-back. The first one was slapped straight down the ground to the sight-screen, followed by a bottom edge which raced past the fine-leg ropes. And when Zaheer tried a sleight of hand by coming up with a slower delivery, Chipli, with a steady head, punched a handsome cover drive for another four to march to two runs short of a half century, which he duly completed. It was an innings of impact which caught Bangalore by surprise, and set his team up for that elusive first home win.

Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, has said the IPL semi-finals have been shifted to Mumbai following the low-intensity bomb blasts outside the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore

Cricinfo staff18-Apr-2010The semi-finals of the 2010 IPL have been moved out of Bangalore and will be played at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai. The decision, announced by IPL commissioner Lalit Modi, was made following the two low-intensity blasts at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore shortly before the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians was due to begin on Saturday evening, and the recovery of two unexploded devices over the subsequent 24 hours.”We don’t want to take any chances. We want to ensure the safety of our players and spectators alike,” Modi said from Dubai, where he is attending an ICC meeting, when he made the announcement.”While reluctant to relocate the semi finals at such short notice, yesterday’s incidents have made it clear that the current environment in Bangalore prevents us from continuing with our original plans,” Modi said in a statement issued by the IPL. “The incidents were assessed by local police and the IPL’s security agency as being of a minor nature but they have forced our hand.”The developments in Bangalore, which point to a lapse in security, have raised concerns over both general pre-match security procedures and the specific handling of the match after the blasts. There have been unconfirmed reports of some overseas players being unwilling to go ahead with Saturday’s game and question marks over security arrangements during the tournament.For the moment, though, the international cricket boards are not prepared to wait and watch the situation. The ECB said they were in “constant contact with their players at various franchises over a number of issues, of which safety and security is one, but there are no plans for the players to leave early.”Cricket Australia (CA) spokesman Peter Young said the security situation in India would be closely monitored. “We’re keen to talk to IPL organisers, and that will possibly happen sometime in the next 12 hours or so, just to get an understanding of what’s going on,” he said.Young said Australians playing in the IPL were participating in India independent of CA. “In a formal sense we are not connected,” Young said. “But we are always concerned about our players and personnel.”Australian Cricketers Association chief executive Paul Marsh said the bombing was a ”serious concern” and ”it is hugely disappointing from our perspective.” ”I was in talks with one of the Australian players and there was a high degree of concern,” he told the . ”There was a significant security breach. It is hard to imagine, how after all of the security concerns raised prior to the event and the ongoing security advice about India, that this was allowed to happen.”The New Zealand players’ association manager Heath Mills said the NZPA had asked security consultant Reg Dickason for a report and added that the incident was “hardly surprising”.
“We want to ascertain what went on here, get some facts and see whether there’s been a security breach,” Mills told the . “Our security adviser has been telling us for some time something was likely going to happen and he invariably gets it right. We’re just fortunate no one was killed and it wasn’t worse.”Former New Zealand fast bowler turned commentator, Simon Doull, who was at the Chinnaswamy, said it was “frightening” after the bombs went off. “I was standing next to Andy Bichel and, when we heard the first explosion, we just looked at each other and went ‘what’s going on here?’,” Doull told New Zealand media.”At first, I think the players were a bit concerned about playing. But given nobody was killed, and that the blast took place outside the stadium, I would probably guess that 90% of people inside the stadium wouldn’t have had a clue. There was never a public announcement or anything like that as far as I heard.”When we got back to the hotel and discovered that another bomb – the biggest one of the lot – had been discovered, we started to wonder whether we should have gone ahead with the match.”There were around 40,000 spectators inside the Chinnaswamy Stadium at the time of the blasts in Bangalore and security measures were tightened. Apart from the two blasts that delayed the start of Saturday’s first match by more than an hour, and in which at least eight people sustained injuries, another bomb was found and defused at a separate location outside the arena. On Sunday morning, another unexploded device was found several meters from the stadium, and a second one a short distance away.Meanwhile, the Karnataka government and police force expressed their disappointment at the decision, and hoped the IPL will hold the semi-finals in Bangalore as initially planned.”We will talk to them to hold the matches [in Bangalore itself]. We had provided full security to the match on Saturday and assure that all security measures needed for the semi-finals will be provided,” Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa said.His stand was echoed by Bangalore city police commissioner, Shankar Bidari. “We will take full and complete responsibility for the security. I appeal to the BCCI to consult IPL security officials, security consultants of foreign teams, Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) president and secretary and reverse the decision to shift the semi-final matches to Navi Mumbai,” Bidari said.