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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. 

	Shaun Tait “is just the happiest bloke to have around the change-room”, according to Ricky Ponting © Getty Images

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.”

The mission now for Dwayne Smith, as with the team, is to make winning a habit © AFP

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.

‘Dwayne Bravo seized two stunning catches and went into his usual wild, uninhibited celebration that reflected the attitude on and off the field’ © AFP

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

How hard could this be?© Getty Images

After leading East Zone to a resounding win over a Bangladesh Board XI in a Duleep Trophy game, Sourav Ganguly said that India required to stretch themselves to beat Pakistan. Shrugging off Shoaib Akhtar’s absence from the Pakistan squad, he acknowledged that there were other players who could prove difficult for India.”[The] Pakistan team is a good side and India will have to do very well on the field to win the upcoming series against them,” Press Trust of India reported Ganguly as saying. He said that despite Shoaib’s withdrawal, Pakistan had “a lot of good players on their side and is still a strong side. India will have to do hard work.”The first-innings century stood him in good stead, said Ganguly, for he spent time at the crease, which was important after a lengthy period away from cricket. “It is very important for me to play in…domestic cricket after a long gap. I played for almost five-six hours and that’s good enough for me to prepare before the forthcoming series against Pakistan. International cricketers hardly get a chance to play in…domestic cricket and I utilised this before leading the side against Pakistan.”

All Today’s Yesterdays – October 28 down the yearsOctober 27 | October 291986
An astonishing West Indian collapse left Pakistan on the brink of victory in the first Test at Faisalabad. West Indies were chasing 240 to win a game they had largely dominated, but they closed in disarray on 43 for 9. The last rites were administered the next morning when they were bowled out for 53, their lowest total until Australia skittled them for 51 in Trinidad in 1998-99, and still the lowest in a Test in Pakistan. It was one of only eight defeats (in 82 matches) suffered by West Indies in the 1980s, and in most spin had a big part to play. For Bob Holland, Narendra Hirwani and Allan Border, read Abdul Qadir here: he tore through the middle order to take 6 for 16.1963
Rob Bailey, who was born today, was rather unlucky to play only four Tests for England, all of them against West Indies in their prime. He is best remembered for an infamous incident in Barbados on the 1989-90 tour, when he was given out caught down the leg side. Wisden Cricket Monthly’s editorial castigated “the antics of the West Indies captain (Viv Richards), all dignity cast to the wind as he displayed his ‘ceremonial dance’, orgasmic gesticulations every one of which was a denial of the belief that this is a game for mature, controlled men”. Bailey did not play for England again after that tour.1994
Another one-day hundred from Sachin Tendulkar led India to a seven-wicket win over New Zealand at Baroda. Ken Rutherford’s first one-day ton, in his 103rd match, had helped the Kiwis to an imposing 269 for 4, but Tendulkar and Manoj Prabhakar replied with a first-wicket partnership of 144, and India eased home with 11 balls to spare.1985
Sterling work from Ravi Ratnayeke could not save Sri Lanka from an eight-wicket defeat in the second Test against Pakistan at Sialkot. Ratnayeke took 8 for 83 in Pakistan’s first innings, the best figures by a Sri Lankan bowler at the time and still third only to Murali’s 9 for 51 at Kandy in 2002 and 9 for 65 at The Oval in 1998. But Imran Khan trumped him with match figures of 9 for 95, as Sri Lanka were dismissed for 157 and 200. Pakistan knocked off the 99 needed for victory with a day and a half to spare2000
Yet another ton for that under-rated one-day player Gary Kirsten as he helped South Africa to a five-wicket win over New Zealand at Kimberley. Kirsten’s 101 led the South Africans to 289 for 5. In the age of pinch-hitting Kirsten was living proof that there was still a place for the orthodox opener in the shorter game.1962
Birth of the Dutchman who put the skids under England’s Ashes dreams. Peter Cantrell was born in Gunnedah in Australia, and played for Holland in the 1996 World Cup, but is best remembered for his part in England’s first-Test defeat at Brisbane in 1990-91. He was hurriedly called up as a substitute fielder (he’d been at a nightclub until 3am that morning) and took two catches – one a blinder to do Alec Stewart – as England collapsed fatally for 114 in their second innings. Cantrell’s presence was slightly controversial, given that he was probably the best gully fielder in Australia at the time and that the less sure-fingered Carl Rackemann was the official 12th man.Other birthdays
1913 Cyril Christiani (West Indies)
1929 Tom Puna (New Zealand)
1938 Peter Carlstein (South Africa)
1952 Flavian Aponso (Netherlands)

A defiant Martin Love returned from hospital and crawled back into the Gabba trenches today as Queensland tried to hold off a weary South Australia in the Pura Cup cricket clash at the Gabba.South Australia enters tomorrow’s final day with the only chance of winning but Love (28 not out) and Jimmy Maher (90 not out) gave the Redbacks something tochew over during a fluctuating third day.At stumps, the Bulls were 1-164 in their second innings after they were forced to follow on, still needing another 157 to make the Redbacks bat again.The competition leaders must bat into the final session, especially with pacemen Michael Kasprowicz (hamstring) and Ashley Noffke (heel) unable to bowl.Otherwise, SA will charge into outright second place on the Pura Cup table after it claimed first innings points by flooring the Bulls for 232 in reply to their massive 6-553 declared.But Maher and Love stand in the way, with Love returning from a hospital visit to provide some starch to a jittery Queensland batting line-up.Love needed treatment after he was knocked unconscious by a pinpoint bouncer from Mark Harrity (3-61 and 0-40) during the first innings.The right-hander was cleared by Queensland medical staff before he returned to the crease for today’s first ball, adding another 70 runs to finish with 84.”I had a pretty nasty headache but that went overnight and I had to get checked out again this morning,” Love said.”I didn’t really know where I was when I was hit and it was the first time I’ve been hit solid like that.”But I felt OK this morning.”That was lucky for the Bulls, who crossed their fingers as Love, Maher and Test opener Matthew Hayden (63 and 43) began swinging at the Redbacks in thesecond dig.Hayden landed some punches in his lively second innings while Maher survived more than three hours.He hopped into a Redbacks attack which had spent 134 consecutive overs in the field, with the promise of plenty more tomorrow.The Redbacks bowlers were sore but the aches will surely ease tomorrow if they get a sniff of an ailing Queensland.A fiery Harrity and the promising Paul Rofe (2-41 and 1-20) hold the key to dismissing the Bulls, with the second new ball due after lunch tomorrow.Rofe has impressed the Queensland batsmen while Harrity drew plenty of ribbing from the crowd while he tested Love with short-pitched bowling.He eventually claimed his man in the first innings to a legside catch and immediately turned around and gestured to his critics in the northern stand.Regardless of the outcome, South Australia has already locked itself into a fierce race for a final berth.The two points for the first innings victory pushed the Redbacks (16 points) into a three-way tie for second with Western Australia and Tasmania.Queensland is six points clear but that lead will fall to just two points if the Bulls’ batsmen continue their mediocre post-Christmas form.

A record 96 run last wicket stand between Harbhajan Singh and Bharat Bhushan puthosts Punjab in a commanding position in their Ranji Trophy North Zoneencounter against Haryana at Amritsar on Sunday. Off spinnerHarbhajan, not particularly known for his prowess with the bat, strucka breezy career-best 84 as his part of the bargain, besides snatching a wicketlate in the day to leave Haryana very much on the defensive.When Punjab resumed at 281/3, medium pacer Vineet Jain dismissedDinesh Mongia off the first ball of the day. The 23 year oldlefthander who just last week caned the Jammu & Kashmir attack for anunbeaten 308, had no such success on this occasion, falling for 12.Reetinder Sodhi’s first three scoring strokes were boundaries but hisominous intent was not converted into a big score. The allrounder fellfor 25 to offspinner Pankaj Thakur who also removed wicketkeeperHarminder Jugnu cheaply.Pankaj Dharmani had showed great fortitude in moving to 89 (178 balls,12 fours) and his departure right on the heels of Jugnu at 359 was agrave setback for Punjab. Two more wickets fell before Harbhajan andBhushan joined hands. In just over two hours, the duo added 96 withHarbhajan being much the dominant partner, belting 8 fours and 3 sixesin his 102 ball knock. It took part time off spinner Sanjay Dalal toget rid of him with the score at 486, Bhushan returning undefeated on30. Jain and Thakur were rewarded with three wickets apiece.In reply Haryana closed at 41/1, the casualty being opener JasvirSingh for 16. Play ended five overs early due to bad light. P Sehrawat and Ishan Ganda will resume battle on Monday as Haryana strive to wipe out the imposing first innings deficit.

Vladimir Coufal will be ‘missed so much’ as West Ham battle for European qualification, BBC radio pundit Noel Whelan has told Football Insider. 

The lowdown

The 29-year-old hasn’t played for the Hammers since the 2-2 draw with Leicester City on 13 February. David Moyes had selected him in the starting line-up for 19 of his 25’s Premier League matches up to that point.

The Czech international suffered a groin injury and the club have confirmed that he has undergone surgery. Injury expert Ben Dinnery has predicted a further “five to six-week” layoff for the defender after the procedure.

The latest

Whelan believes that West Ham will suffer from the absence of Coufal at both ends of the pitch. The Hammers currently sit fifth in the table, but the 47-year-old fears that this injury will ‘ undoubtedly dent’ their hopes of making it into the Champions League.

Speaking about Coufal to Football Insider, Whelan said: “He’s such an important player. He’ll be missed so much in that West Ham side because he’s so consistent.

“He’s come up with goals and assists in the past, he’s intelligent defensively, and he fits right into that style of play brought by David Moyes – he works so hard.

“It’s difficult not to miss these types of players when you’re still fighting in two competitions, because there’s no option to rest or rotate.

“They’re fighting to qualify for the Champions League, let’s not forget – but this news will undoubtedly dent those hopes, it’s a massive void.”

The verdict

It’s clear that Moyes values Coufal highly, and with good reason. Since the Czech ace joined West Ham, he has registered 10 assists in 56 league appearances, illustrating the creative threat that Whelan mentioned.

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Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher even included the ‘brilliant’ right-back in his team of the season for 2020/21, butt now the Irons face being without him for both legs of their Europa League round of 16 tie against Sevilla, as well as a trip to local and positional rivals Tottenham.

After Declan Rice missed the defeat at Liverpool and Jarrod Bowen was forced off at Anfield with an injury, Moyes must be cursing his luck on that front.

In other news, Gabriel Agbonlahor has ripped into this ‘overrated’ WHU trio.