Mahela Jayawardene believes Tom Moody has still not decided where he will coach after the World Cup, despite reports he was heading home to Perth to take the reins of Western Australia. However, Jayawardene said cricket was “only a game” and it was entirely up to Moody whether continuing with Sri Lanka was the right move.Justin Langer said his decision to stand down as Western Australia’s captain was in part based on a conversation with Moody that led him to believe Moody would replace the retiring Wayne Clark as the state’s coach next season. A Western Australia spokeswoman said no final agreement had been reached over who would take over from Clark, but Moody was the preferred candidate.Jayawardene questioned whether Langer had interpreted Moody’s words correctly. “What has come out in the papers is not what Tom has told him [Langer],” Jayawardene said on . Moody, who has repeatedly said he would not consider his future until after the World Cup, insisted again on Tuesday he had made no firm plans.Jayawardene said he hoped Moody, who has been coaching Sri Lanka since June 2005, would remain in his current role. “Tom has been brilliant for us,” he said.”He’s brought something different to the side and we’ve flourished. I don’t have to tell the [Sri Lanka] board that. They know how valuable Tom is to us and I’m sure they’ll do everything in their power to keep him.”Jayawardene said there would be no hard feelings from the players if Moody chose to move on. “He has said he wants to finish the World Cup with Sri Lanka and then decide,” he said. “Cricket is only a game and there are other factors in life. At the end of the day, it’s his decision.”
Chris Gayle may rue hitting a powerful six in the second innings at Auckland as it was a hit that not only lost the ball, but could have cost his side the game. The match-turning incident came midway through the fourth day of the first Test between West Indies and New Zealand at Eden Park, resulting in West Indies frittering away a great position.The big-hitting Gayle, who put on a 148-run opening stand with Daren Ganga, swung Daniel Vettori into the stands, losing the ball in the process. Alarmingly the replacement cherry started to reverse swing, something the New Zealand bowlers were unable to extract with the previous ball. From having all wickets intact and needing just 143 to win, West Indies were rattled by the reverse-swing and crumbled to a close 27-run defeat.Shane Bond, the wrecker-in-chief with four quick wickets, including that of Brian Lara, acknowledged the turn-around provided by the replacement ball. “The turning point was Chris [Gayle] whacking the ball up on the roof and we got a new ball and it reversed a few overs later and we exploited it well, we never gave up and we got the result,” Bond told AFP.Stephen Fleming, the New Zealand captain, concurred: ”We were able to get more swing and put more pressure on them. We finally started to hold our catches and we got into them a bit. ‘Shane Bond bowled very well with the swing he was able to achieve and that let us get wickets and keep the pressure on.”Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the West Indies’s captain, also reckoned the change of ball made a difference. ”I don’t want to say much about that but the new ball did swing around,” he added. ”The lost ball was 35 overs old and this ball was 12 or so but there’s not much I could say about it.”
The New Zealand selectors have called up Tama Canning, the Auckland allrounder, to replace Nathan Astle for the final one-dayer against Australia in Napier on Saturday.Astle damaged the AC joint in his right shoulder while fielding today and though he stood an outside chance of playing the game at Napier the selectors thought it best to rest him and have him fully fit for the first Test, starting at Christchurch on March 10.New Zealand are likely to use Craig Cumming as the replacement for Astle at the top of the order while Canning will bat in the middle order and chip in with his lively medium pace.New Zealand squad for fifth ODI 1 Stephen Fleming (capt), 2 Craig Cumming, 3 Hamish Marshall, 4 Craig McMillan, 5 Chris Cairns, 6 Tama Canning, 7 Brendon McCullum, 8 Lance Hamilton, 9 Jeff Wilson, 10 Daniel Vettori, 11 Kyle Mills, 12 James Marshall
New Zealand’s hopes of getting a good start to their women’s Test match with India at Vapi, took a blow, almost from the outset. Asked to bat on a pitch that offered little suggestion of how it would play, the lost two key wickets to disappointing decisions.Kate Pulford, one of the opening batsmen, was adjudged to have edged the ball behind when her bat was well away from the ball after only five balls and her fellow opener, Maria Fahey was given out caught bat-pad off her toe. The road to recovery was a slow grind and the scoring rate barely reached two runs per over throughout the 94 overs bowled.Katey Martin, who was one of six New Zealand women making their Test debut, settled in for the long haul. There was a significant disappointment when Maia Lewis, New Zealand’s captain, started aggressively but was caught out from the bottom edge for only nine runs.Martin was joined by Haidee Tiffen and they grafted their way to 81 before Martin, in sight of a half-century on debut, played back to Neetu David, the left-arm spinner, and was caught behind for 46, scored off 139 balls in 176 minutes of batting.The message was to build partnerships, but at every stage they seemed to be developing, a wicket was lost. Tiffen produced a monumental display of control, given her attacking bent, and by stumps she had batted for 264 minutes for her unbeaten 38.New Zealand were disappointed that they had not been able to score faster and at stumps were left in No Man’s Land on 141 for 7. The pick of the Indian bowlers was Nooshin Al Khadeer who took 3 for 36 from her 27 overs. Neetu David took 2 for 37 from 29 overs.
Chris Drum sent big signals out to the Test selectors today as he led a depleted Auckland attack to a comprehensive victory by an innings and six runs over Canterbury at Eden Park in their fifth-round State Championship match.Drum, bowling with pace and control, took five for 33 in the second innings to go with his five for 22 in the first. His dominance came as Canterbury, needing 178 to avoid the follow-on, crumbled in the morning, stiffened their resolve in the afternoon, and then ran up the white flag as Drum made maximum use of the new ball to take the last three wickets.Canterbury started the day at 49/1, still 129 behind. Auckland started the day without Tama Canning and a doubt over Drum as cramp had restricted his appearance the previous evening to one over. They also lost Gareth Shaw with a groin strain suffered while fielding but not before the debutant had bowled Aaron Redmond for 17 just when the Canterbury all-rounder looked to be settling in.Drum, with assistance from his captain, Brooke Walker, was left to shoulder the burden and did it magnificently. He was fast and accurate and the Canterbury batsmen had little answer. They might look sideways at the drop-in pitch – and not a few comments were passed during the match about its uneven bounce. However, shot selection and execution had plenty to do with the cheap demise of many of the batsmen on both sides.In the morning session, Canterbury lost six wickets, going from the overnight 49/1 to 106/7 (very similar to Auckland’s innings before their eighth-wicket record partnership) at lunch. The pattern was set when Shanan Stewart tried to belt the second ball he faced from Walker and only managed to dolly it to Llorne Howell at point. He departed for his overnight score of 35 and the procession began.Only the resistance of Gareth Hopkins (36) and Ryan Burson (26) in a 48-run eighth wicket partnership allowed Canterbury a sniff of at least making Auckland bat again and at best forcing a draw. After the collapse in the morning, Canterbury got through to the shadow of tea before they lost another wicket. But Hopkins’ departure with the score at 149 after Drum took the new ball was the signal that the end was nigh.A couple of Warren Wisneski belts offered entertainment value but Drum would not be denied, cleaning out Burson and Chris Martin with successive balls to end the innings at 172, six runs short of making Auckland bat again.Walker, two for 43 off 25, and Aaron Barnes, two for 20 from 14, provided Drum the support he needed. It was a special match for both players, Walker collecting his 100th first-class wicket, Barnes his 50th.Commenting on the pitch, the Auckland coach, Tony Sail, noted that the main problem was that, being under covers for a couple of wet days. it was soft on the first day. But, as he said, it did dry out.Certainly Matt Horne and then Reece Young and Rob Nicol on the first day of play, Stewart in both innings and then Hopkins and Burson showed that it was possible to build innings.Sail signalled out the youngsters Young and Nicol for praise and acknowledged Drum’s fine contribution.Of Canning and Shaw, he said their injuries would be assessed over the next two days before the match against Northern Districts starting on Monday on the Outer Oval, into which Auckland go as competition leaders on 19 points, five points ahead of their neighbours.
Hosts Assam took a stranglehold of the proceedings in their East ZoneRanji Trophy clash against Bihar at the Tinsukia District SportsAssociation Ground on Friday. After Bihar were trundled out for 85,the Assamese overhauled their tally before the day was out, but notbefore losing their entire top-order in the process, closing at 122/5.The visitors won the toss and elected to take first strike, only tolose Nikhilesh Ranjan to the second ball of the match, bowled byGautam Dutta. For good measure, Dutta in his third over also toppledthe stumps of the other opener Mohinder Singh Dhoni. Bihar neverrecovered from that horror start as the other opening bowler JavedZaman got into the act, collecting the next three scalps. The Biharmiddle order crumbled from 45/3 to 46/6 in the space of three overs.Sukhbinder Singh proceeded to finish off the tail, terminating theinnings for 85 in the 43rd over, but it was Zaman who collected thebest figures of 4/39. In an innings that contained five ducks, onedrop Aamir Hashmi’s 27 was top-score.Assam openers PK Das and SB Saikia knocked off forty for the firstwicket inside ten overs. A series of setbacks from thereon impededfurther progress as four wickets tumbled in quick succession to leavethe hosts at 69/4, Kunjan Saran and Nikhilesh Ranjan sharing the fourwickets equally between them. Rajesh Bora and Ganesh Kumar added 45for the fifth wicket before Bihar pulled back a late wicket when theformer was stumped for 33. With fifteen overs remaining, the match wassuspended at 4.07 pm due to bad light, Assam holding a 37 runadvantage with five wickets in hand.
Pundit and former Premier League manager Alex McLeish has been reacting to an update on Newcastle United’s permanent swoop for Aston Villa left-back Matt Targett, Football Insider report.
The Lowdown: Targett impressing at St. James’ Park
Eddie Howe brought in the 26-year-old on loan late in the January transfer window. Targett has been a regular since then, playing every minute possible in the Premier League other than being forced to sit out in the 1-0 win over his parent club last month.
The left-back has helped The Magpies pick up 13 points from a possible 15, with Lee Ryder reporting in the week that an agreement in principle is already in place over a permanent move north.
The Latest: McLeish reacts
McLeish, who contributes for BBC Radio 5 Live, was talking to Football Insider regarding Targett and the news of a likely full-time transfer.
He labelled Targett as a ‘very consistent player’ and said it would be ‘another shrewd signing’ by the club.
“A very, very consistent player. I watched him at Fulham and he’s been a regular for Villa as well.
“For me, it’s another shrewd signing for a guy who now has got a hell of a lot of experience in the division.
“He is looking like a really good player. You can see Newcastle have got an extremely high confidence level. When you get three points on the board, you can’t wait until the next week.
“All of a sudden that confidence soars. The signings that they’ve made have been shrewd.”
The Verdict: No brainer
Ryder believes a fee for Targett will be in the region of £15m, with Villa already looking at back-up replacements for the Englishman.
He appears to be at the top of his game with a career-high £15.3m Transfermarkt valuation, so a permanent move at this time appears to be a no brainer.
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As per WhoScored, Targett is the club’s third-best performer this season behind Kieran Trippier and Allan Saint-Maximin, and it is good to know that an agreement is already in place in what looks set to be a busy summer window.
In other news: Staveley now actively working on free transfer deal for Howe; target shares same agent as Fraser.
Ricky Ponting says the Australian players were “flabbergasted” by Shaun Tait’s decision to walk away from cricket indefinitely. Tait said physical and emotional exhaustion were the reasons for his move and Ponting said his team-mates had not seen the signs of Tait’s struggles.”Obviously Taity has been run down for a long period of time,” Ponting told the . “We never saw it. He is just the happiest bloke to have around the change-room. It’s hit me like a ton of bricks. We’re all flabbergasted.”Tait was one of Australia’s leading players at the World Cup in the Caribbean but after having surgery on his right elbow during the off-season he had trouble getting back to his peak. He was given limited first-class outings before his ill-fated return to Test cricket at the WACA, where he took no wickets and rarely looked threatening.”A lot of people might think cricket is five-star hotels and living,” Ponting said. “It is very hard work to maintain that for a long time. You could probably ask Phil Jaques about coming in and not understanding how demanding cricket at the highest level really is.”The fact people thought Jaques had the mumps after playing back-to-back Tests was significant. It’s no fluke. You get run down and tired. It’s having a body and mind that can deal with it, and it isn’t easy.”
Their long history of inconsistency, amply exemplified by their two most recent matches, moderates the immediate temptation to proclaim Tuesday’s emphatic victory over Pakistan in the opening match of the World Cup as the preface to the championship itself.It was, all the same, a performance of considerable significance for it was centred, not around the seasoned campaigners accustomed to such momentous occasions, but on the eager young brigade.Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Brian Lara, a quartet now with 769 ODIs and ten World Cups between them, contributed 107 runs to the modest total of 241 for 9. Gayle’s usually necessary offspin wasn’t required for a single over.Instead, the decisive runs, wickets, tight overs, brilliance in the field and infectious enthusiasm came from players all with fewer than 100 matches to their names. The packed, noisy stands at the enhanced Sabina caught the vibes and complemented their heroes.The discipline and concentration was such when defending a moderate total that only four extras were conceded – two leg-byes, two wides and not a single no-ball. It was as revealing a statistic as any for the day.Captain Lara spelled out their responsibility, and their opportunity, to the new generation prior to the match. The all-out 85 against India in the warm-up four days earlier had clearly not created disgust among the fans alone.”This is an opportunity for a lot of younger players,” Lara told the media, as he had no doubt told the men concerned. “I would love to see them get hold of the World Cup in the very first match and make it their own.” The message appeared to get through, helped by the uplifting opening ceremony on Sunday and the trumpeted presence of the surviving World Cup winners of 1975 and 1979.Marlon Samuels, now aged 26 and starting to make the most of his undoubted talent after six years in international cricket, shook the innings out of its slumber with his calculated assault on Rao Iftikhar Anjum, the little known but impressive quickie, and Danish Kaneria, the dangerous legspinner.
If the ICC’s protracted investigation into his contacts with an alleged bookmaker concerns him, it was not evident. But then nothing appears to concern the languid Jamaican except, now perhaps, the realisation that he has previously sold his ability short. His last ten ODI innings have included two hundreds and three scores over 60. He has, at last, secured his place in the middle order.When he was out, Dwayne Smith came out of a worrying batting slump with his 32 off 15 balls. It was an assault of clean hitting that, like Samuels’ earlier, undermined the Pakistanis’ fragile self-belief and brought 58 off the last five overs. Inspired, even Corey Collymore smashed the last ball of the innings for six. It was a finish that changed the moods of the teams.There was a distinct lack of bounce in the Pakistani step as they left the field. The buzz in the West Indies room could be heard almost above that of the expectant crowd. It was all reflected in what followed.Jerome Taylor and Daren Powell were fiery with the new ball, Collymore miserly in control. Three early wickets forced such care onto Pakistan’s two main batsmen, Mohammed Yousaf and Inzamam-ul-Haq, that the required scoring-rate climbed to almost eight an over.As they attempted to break free, Smith was back to expose their impatience with his controlled medium-pace. His line rarely strayed from around off-stump, his length offered little to cut and pull. Once he had dismissed both Yousaf and Inzamam, the match was as good as won. There have been times, many, when the West Indies have contrived to turn certain victory into defeat but there was never the slightest hint this would happen.The fielding was predatory, the throwing precise. Samuels sweeping under the Kingston Club Pavilion was superb. Dwayne Bravo seized two stunning catches and went into his usual wild, uninhibited celebration that reflected the attitude on and off the field. Collectively, it was a heartening result for the team and for their expectant public. Individually, it was a timely boost for Smith.No selection was more questioned and criticised than his, with good reason. Even the convenor of selectors, Gordon Greenidge, publicly expressed his doubts. The whirlwind batting that brought him a run-a-ball debut Test hundred three years ago had become so unreliable, his average over the last year was in single figures. Darren Sammy was a worthy contender to replace him. Only his electric fielding and useful medium-pace bowling saved his place.No one would have been more pleased at his Man of the Match return than head coach Bennett King, an unswerving believer in Smith’s ability. The mission now for Smith, as with the team, is to make it a habit. It is a challenge that has eluded both for too long.
Points table Group A Pakistan beat New Zealand by eight wickets Scorecard BulletinGroup B West Indies beat South Africa by seven wickets Scorecard BulletinGroup C India beat Sri Lanka by four wickets Scorecard BulletinGroup D Zimbabwe beat England by two wickets Scorecard Bulletin