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“He’ll just have to wait for some more time as Kyle Mayers is doing really well”

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Apr-2023KL Rahul has admitted he “feels bad” about Quinton de Kock’s continued absence from Lucknow Super Giants’ starting XI in IPL 2023, describing his omission as “very unfortunate”.De Kock was unavailable for Super Giants’ opening two games of the season while on international duty and Kyle Mayers, who filled in at the top of the order, made the most of his opportunity.Ahead of Wednesday night’s game against Rajasthan Royals, Mayers was Super Giants’ leading run-scorer for the season with 168 in five innings, including two half-centuries. He has also maintained a healthy strike rate of 168.00.Super Giants have used Mayers, Nicholas Pooran, Marcus Stoinis and one fast bowler – either Mark Wood, Romario Shepherd or Naveen-ul-Haq – as their four overseas players this season, and have been unwilling to alter that combination to accommodate de Kock despite his previous success for them.”It’s very unfortunate that someone like Quinton has to sit out,” Rahul, Super Giants’ captain, said at the toss ahead of their game in Jaipur. “But unfortunately, there are only four foreign players [per XI] that can play in this competition.”He’ll just have to wait for some more time. Kyle is doing really well. It’s a bit unfortunate. You feel bad. I’ve enjoyed playing and enjoyed opening with Quinton, but for now, he’s still not playing.”De Kock opened the batting alongside Rahul throughout the 2022 season as Super Giants reached the play-offs, scoring 508 runs at an average of 36.28 and a strike rate of 148.97. He was retained on a contract worth INR 6.75 crore ahead of this year, but has found himself running the drinks.”It’s been quite relaxed,” de Kock told Star Sports before Wednesday’s game. “I’m not quite used to being on the side for so long but it’s all good – the team’s doing really well so I guess that’s the most important thing.”It’s been chilled. I’ve made a couple more friends sitting on the side, learned a lot more with the boys and it’s been fun watching the guys.”He added that he has been working hard to keep himself fit and try to force his way into the side. “Put it this way: I don’t think I’ve gymed, run and practised as much as I have in the last two in my whole career,” de Kock said.

The domestic CSA T20 Challenge will be played instead of the MSL in the February slot

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Dec-2021The 2021 edition of the Mzansi Super League (MSL), which was scheduled to be played in February 2022, has been cancelled owing to Covid-19 concerns in South Africa. A CSA statement said that the discovery of the new Omicron variant of Covid-19 has “made it difficult to maintain the brand proposition of being the premium international T20 tournament, due to increased travel restrictions as imposed by many nations on South Africa”.Pholetsi Moseki, CSA’s acting CEO, confirmed that the CSA T20 Challenge would be played instead of the MSL in that slot in February.”The decision to cancel the 2021 edition of the MSL is meant to allow CSA and its strategic partners to revamp and review the tournament post-Covid-19 to regain its market and commercial position,” Moseki said. “For its purposes, the MSL slot will again be replaced by a domestic CSA T20 Challenge, featuring the 8 (eight) Division 1 teams and this tournament will take place in February 2022.”Related

• CSA revises bio-bubble norms for India tour

• CSA 4-day series: Final round of games postponed to 2022

The T20 league was played in 2018 and 2019 but was called off in 2020 because of logistical challenges posed by the pandemic. It was converted into a domestic T20 competition – played among eight top-tier teams – starting this season.Paarl Rocks are currently the defending MSL champions, while Lions beat Dolphins to become the domestic T20 champions in the 2020-21 domestic competition.On Sunday, ESPNcricinfo reported that the final round of matches in the four-day franchise series have been postponed and would be rescheduled in 2022.So far this season, domestic cricket has not been played in biosecure bubble environments, but ESPNcricinfo understands that this would change for the one-day and T20 competitions. Last summer, both white-ball tournaments took place in biosecure conditions.South Africa is currently in a fourth wave of the pandemic, which accompanied the discovery of the Omicron variant last month. Cases peaked at over 26,000 earlier in the week, but the number is now on the decline. The country, however, remains at alert level one of five, with the least stringent restrictions since the start of the pandemic last year.

Seamers lead fightback after Jake Libby’s form continues

George Dobell07-Sep-2020Some would tell you there’s not much point in games like this. Some might even tell you there’s not much point in teams like these.There’s no money being made, for one thing. And there’s little chance of much of a new audience being attracted, either.But as Worcestershire and Somerset battled for what looks set to be the right to face Essex in the Bob Willis Trophy final at Lord’s, the thought occurred that this was an exemplar of domestic cricket in any country.For here we have two highly motivated teams stuffed with locally developed talent who are driving the standard of the English game forward and producing players for their country. Indeed, 18 of the 22 players* involved here were developed through the academies of these two counties.To that list you can add Jos Buttler, who has just won England a T20 series against Australia and was player of the Test series against Pakistan. You can add Dom Bess, who can’t get into the Somerset side but is England’s first-choice Test spinner. Then there’s James Hildreth, who would have played in this match had a hamstring injury not intervened, and Jamie Overton, too. All four came through the Somerset system. Worcestershire, meanwhile, can also point to Adam Finch, who is currently bowling with impressive pace on-loan at Surrey alongside Overton.Yes, a few have moved on. But they will forever be associated with the clubs that identified and nurtured their talent.In short, these are clubs doing exactly what they’re meant to be doing: producing high-class players; playing high-quality, entertaining cricket. Anyone who think they’re superfluous to the English game can’t be judging them on cricketing merit.The prize for success in this game is pretty clear: the winner has an excellent chance of qualifying for that Lord’s final. The way bonus points have fallen, Somerset are now assured of making that final if they win this game, while Worcestershire may be reliant upon results elsewhere also falling their way.For a while, as Daryl Mitchell, Jake Libby and Tom Fell were building a strong platform, it looked as if Worcestershire might be on the way to establishing a match-defining position. Libby, showing the benefits of a fresh start at a new county, is now the highest run-scorer in the competition with one century and three half-centuries across eight innings.His game is built largely on patience and discipline outside off stump. But here he was particularly impressive against the spin of Jack Leach – playing his first first-class game since the Mount Maunganui Test in November – and skipped down the track to drive the bowler back over his head for a succession of fours and one six.On the brink of lunch, Libby enjoyed two moments of fortune from successive Jack Brooks deliveries. First he looked all the world to have been trapped leg before by one which kept a little low only to be relieved to hear the umpire’s no-ball call, before he edged the next ball through the cordon. Leach, a new face at first slip in place of Jamie Overton and Hildreth, was unable to cling on to the relatively straightforward chance.But the wicket of Fell, shouldering arms to one that shaped to leave him but ultimately went unerringly straight, precipitated something of a collapse. Worcestershire lost their final nine wickets for the addition of 77 runs with Somerset’s impressive quartet of seamers sharing the spoils. Libby fell driving at a wide one which left him – replays suggest he may have been a bit unlucky with the decision – Jack Haynes and Brett D’Oliveira played inside deliveries which were angled in but may have straightened a fraction, Riki Wessels’ counter-attack was ended by an excellent catch at square-leg as he attempted to pull and Ed Barnard was bowled – Barnard castled, if you will – off the bottom edge attempting a similar shot.If Worcestershire’s total of 200 might appear modest, it needs to be seen in context. For a start, this is not a straightforward surface. It’s sluggish – perhaps increasingly so – and offers enough off the seam to keep bowlers in the game at all times. Equally, there have been a few signs of just a little uneven bounce.More than that, 200 represents the highest score made against Somerset in the competition this season. Three times they’ve dismissed their opposition for below 80 and they will end the group stages of the season having conceded just one batting bonus point. Craig Overton, bowling as well as anyone in the county game, has taken his 26 wickets as a cost of just 10.00 apiece.Jason Kerr, the Somerset coach, reckons a target of 250 – 200, even – could prove tough to reach in the final innings. Right now, at the end of day two, the lead is 67. Both sides have some hard work ahead, though Somerset surely have their noses in front, particularly bearing in mind that Josh Tongue is unlikely to bowl in the second innings after suffering back spasms. Besides, it’s hard not to feel that winning the domestic first-class competition for the first time – they are one of three counties not to have done so in the modern era – in the year when it is not considered the championship would be Somerset.”The attack has been outstanding all season,” Kerr said. “We create pressure at both ends and we work as a unit. And if anyone is bowling better than Craig Overton at the moment… well, they must be bowling brilliantly.” Worcestershire may have their work cut out to deny him.*In case you were wondering who they are, only Riki Wessels and Jake Libby, of the Worcestershire side, and Jack Brooks and Josh Davey, of the Somerset side, did not develop through the two county academies. Davies, playing for Somerset, came through the Worcestershire academy, while Eddie Byrom was schooled in Taunton from sixth-form level and was part of the county academy.

Justive DK Jain sent them notices for their alleged conflict of interest for serving as IPL franchises’ support staff members as well as members of the Cricket Advisory Committee

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Apr-2019The BCCI’s ombudsman-cum-ethics officer Justice DK Jain served notices to former India batsmen Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman on Wednesday for their alleged conflict of interest for being part of IPL franchises’ support staffs as well as serving as members of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC). Justice Jain has given them time until April 28 to file their written responses.While Laxman is Sunrisers Hyderabad’s mentor, the Mumbai Indians website mentions Tendulkar as their icon.This is the third case of conflict of interest allegation being filed during this IPL after former India captain Sourav Ganguly was summoned by Justice Jain for his triple role as the CAB president, CAC member as well as advisor of Delhi Capitals. The three former batsmen were part of the CAC that had picked the India coach Ravi Shastri in July 2017 in their last meeting.In his notices sent to Tendulkar and Laxman, Justice Jain also stated that he had also asked the BCCI to file their response by April 28.”A complaint has been received by the Ethics Officer of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (for short “the BCCI”) under Article 39 of the Rules and Regulations of the BCCI, regarding certain acts, allegedly constituting as “conflict of interest” on your part,” Justice Jain wrote in the notices.”You may file your written response to the accompanying Complaint, supported by duly executed affidavit, on or before 28th April 2019, with the Office of the Ethics Officer, BCCI, Mumbai for further proceedings in the matter.”The ombudsman stated that their failure to respond to the notices would result in them not getting any further opportunity to file a response.”On your failure to respond to the present notice, the Ethics Officer shall be constrained to proceed in your absence, without giving any further opportunity of filing a response to the Complaint, to you.The complaints were filed by Sanjeev Gupta, a life member of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association.

The former chairman of selectors has accused N Srinivasan and MS Dhoni of favouring the Chennai Super Kings player S Badrinath

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Mar-2018Dilip Vengsarkar believes he paid a hefty price – his job as chairman of selectors – for selecting a young Virat Kohli, Under-19 World Cup winner, ahead of S Badrinath, domestic stalwart, back in 2008. At an event to felicitate sports journalists, Vengsarkar accused N Srinivasan, the then BCCI treasurer, and then captain MS Dhoni of favouring the Chennai Super Kings and Tamil Nadu player Badrinath.Vengsarkar went on to accuse Srinivasan of costing him his job as the chairman of the selection committee and replacing him with former India and Tamil Nadu player Kris Srikkanth. However, at the time, Vengsarkar could have qualified for an extension of his term if he had given up a conflict of interest that arose from his being vice-president of the Mumbai Cricket Association.In July 2008, when Sharad Pawar was the president, the BCCI working committee approved a new criteria concerning any conflict of interest pertaining to a selector. The clause, which was ratified at the AGM later that year, said a selector could not hold a dual post. Vengsarkar refused to stand down as MCA vice-president despite having served only half of his four-year term.The selection that Vengsarkar spoke of was for the limited-overs leg of the 2008 tour of Sri Lanka, incidentally the first year of the IPL. Super Kings captain Dhoni had been the limited-overs captain for a year. Asked which of his roles – player, captain, chairman of selection committee – was the toughest, Vengsarkar picked selector and went on to explain.”There was an Emerging Players tournament between Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and India in 2008,” Vengsarkar said. “We decided to send only Under-23 players for this tour. That year, we had won the U-19 World Cup as well, and Virat Kohli was the captain of that team. We included him in that team.”I went to Brisbane to watch those matches. This match was against New Zealand, and they had a stronger side than us. They had a few Test players too. In that match he scored 123 not out, and I knew we needed to play him in the Indian team. I felt he was mature as a batsman.”Kohli did score an unbeaten 120 as an opener in the match Vengsarkar spoke of, helping India chase down a target of 249 set by a New Zealand side that included Jesse Ryder, Martin Guptill, BJ Watling, Corey Anderson and Hamish Bennett.”I felt the ODI leg of the Sri Lanka tour was an ideal situation to include him in the squad,” Vengsarkar said. “The other four selectors told me, ‘Dilip we will do whatever you say. There is no problem at all.’ But Gary Kirsten and Dhoni were reluctant because they said they hadn’t seen Kohli before. I told them, ‘You haven’t seen him but I have. This boy needs to play.'”I knew that Badrinath was from the south and he was from Chennai Super Kings. From N Srinivasan’s team. He would have to miss out if Kohli had to be picked. And that happened. I picked Virat Kohli, and Badrinath went out.”As it turned out, Sachin Tendulkar missed the ODIs with injury, which gave Badrinath an opportunity to play. Kohli played all five matches, Badrinath three. Kohli averaged 31.50, scoring a half-century too. Badrinath averaged 19.5 in the three innings he got. India won that series, their first bilateral success in Sri Lanka.However, Vengsarkar said the selection committee meeting was not the last of the resistance he had to face. “Next day Srinivasan asked me, ‘How could you leave Badrinath?'” Vengsarkar said. “I said I had seen the Emerging tour, and that Virat Kohli was an exceptional player. He said, ‘But Badrinath has scored 800 runs for Tamil Nadu.’ I said he will get his chance. Srinivasan said, ‘When will he get his chance? He is 29 [27, actually].’ I said he will get his chance when he gets it. I cannot make guarantees.”The next day he took [Kris] Srikkanth to Sharad Pawar – the BCCI president – and sent me home. That was the end of my career as a selector.”The decision to disqualify state officials from being national selectors was ratified at BCCI’s AGM in September 2008, where Srikkanth was appointed chairman of selectors, and where Srinivasan and Shashank Manohar took over as the board’s secretary and president respectively.The contentious selection was made in early August that year. Incidentally Badrinath had called the rejection a “crushing blow” that left him numb. “Forget Emerging Players Trophy, I have scored heavily during the A series against Australia and South Africa earlier and the only player to have done better than me in domestic competitions is Gautam Gambhir,” Badrinath told then. “When Manoj Tiwary went for the tri-series in Australia earlier this year, I was intrigued. Still, I tried to keep my cool. Now it’s Virat Kohli. This is really going nowhere.”Vengsarkar is not the only selector to have spoken of Srinivasan’s influence on selections. Mohinder Amarnath, the chairman of selectors in 2011-12, has in the past accused Srinivasan of blocking a move to remove Dhoni as the limited-overs captain after India had been whitewashed in successive Test series in England and Australia. However, Srinivasan was the president of the board then. The BCCI’s constitution said all captaincy changes had to be ratified by the board president. This one wasn’t, and Dhoni went on to captain India until after the 2015 World Cup.

New Zealand completed a stunning final-day win in Wellington, after Bangladesh slumped to 160 all out in their second innings

The Report by Alagappan Muthu16-Jan-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:42

Isam: Latham innings turned the tide in the game

A gruesome day for Bangladesh was highlighted by Mushfiqur Rahim being taken off the field in an ambulance after being struck on the helmet by a bouncer from Tim Southee. The fact that he was batting in the first place, having injured his hand, was a sign of how desperate the situation was for the visitors. They were eventually bowled out for 160 seven overs after lunch. Set 217 to win in 57 overs, a quickfire Kane Williamson century saw New Zealand home in 39.4 overs; the hosts’ seven-wicket win also broke a record that had stood for 122 years.Overnight on 66 for 3, Bangladesh’s day began with Shakib Al Hasan’s awful heave barely seconds after the start of play. When the focus should have been on survival, he popped a catch to mid-on off Mitchell Santner. The man who had set Bangladesh up with the possibility of beginning an overseas series with a win, hitting their highest ever individual score of 217, had fallen for a duck. They were reduced to 96 for 5 when Mominul Haque did not anticipate a fuller delivery from Neil Wagner. His feet were pinned to the crease, hinting he was expecting a bouncer, and was caught in the slips.Adding to Bangladesh’s woes were the injuries to key batsmen: opener Imrul Kayes had retired hurt on the fourth day during Bangladesh’s second innings due to a thigh injury, and Mushfiqur’s innings was cut short on day five. The end to Mushfiqur’s innings came at a time when he seemed to be dealing with the short ball quite well. A ball that kept low from Southee hit him on the helmet just behind his left ear. There would be outcry over how often the bowlers targeted the fingers on Mushfiqur’s bottom hand – which might well be broken – but he would have known what he was in for when he decided to bat with a target on him. Mushfiqur was taken to the hospital, where scans indicated he was out of immediate danger, and returned to the ground to watch his record partnership for Bangladesh with Shakib – they had added 359 in the first innings – become the second-highest one to result in a defeat.Bangladesh still had hope of something face-saving while Sabbir was at the crease. A naturally aggressive batsman, Sabbir spent 51 minutes without scoring – during which he could have been caught and bowled – and batted sensibly with the tail until lunch. After the break though, perhaps worried by Kamrul Islam Rabbi and Subashis Roy’s batting abilities, he began taking a lot more risks and was caught behind for 50 while attempting an on-the-up square drive. Imrul came out to bat again at the fall of Kamrul – the seventh wicket in the innings – and added 12 more as Bangladesh lost their last four wickets for 23 runs. Trent Boult picked up 3 for 53, bowling Roy and Taskin Ahmed with reverse-swing.New Zealand’s chase was a contrast to the manic day that it was for Bangladesh. Williamson reinforced his reputation as a fourth-innings master. He reached a hundred off only 89 balls, the fourth-fastest in the final innings in all Tests. And yet there were no pyrotechnics. The most he did was meet a few lifters in mid-air and paste them through cover though there was no room on offer, or alternatively work his wrists over them and find the midwicket boundary.Mehedi Hasan, given the new ball again, dismissed Jeet Raval and Tom Latham before tea, beating the first man with flight to earn himself a return catch and the second with turn as a half-hearted defensive shot led to an inside edge onto the stumps. But Bangladesh bowled poorly thereafter, drained by their injury worries and shocked by how wildly the match had turned. Even as late as tea on the fourth day neither team had begun their second innings. By 5.47pm on the fifth, the visitors were beaten. Badly. They couldn’t get the simple disciplines right. The quicks were too short, the spinners bowled leg stump and outside and while that was meant to slow down the scoring, it had the opposite effect. In a 10-over after the second wicket, they leaked 77 runs.New Zealand’s overall run-rate – 5.47 – was the third-highest in the fourth innings as Williamson, with his 15th century, and Ross Taylor, with his 24th fifty, put on their eighth hundred partnership and ensured the fans who packed the Basin Reserve – it was free entry for the final day – witnessed history.

Zimbabwe will play ODIs and T20s against Bangladesh in November, BCB president Nazmul Hassan said, instead of the two Tests announced last week

Mohammad Isam16-Oct-2015Zimbabwe will play ODIs and T20s against Bangladesh in November, according to BCB president Nazmul Hassan, instead of the two Tests announced last week.”It has been decided [on the sidelines of the ICC meeting] that Zimbabwe will fill up the slot that opened up due to Australia’s postponement,” Hassan said. “We have to finish the series by November 18 or 19. They have to come by the first week of November. Zimbabwe have confirmed they are coming. It will be ODIs and T20s. There will be four to five matches, though that hasn’t been decided.”The Bangladesh-Zimbabwe series was originally scheduled for January 2016, when the sides were supposed to play two Tests, three ODIs and three T20s. But after Australia postponed their tour earlier this month, the BCB contacted ZC to bring forward the tour to early November. And with the Bangladesh Premier League set to start on November 22, the window for the series is about three weeks. ODIs and T20s would better fit that window, some in the BCB believed, hence the change in plans.Hassan also said that Cricket Australia have committed to playing in Bangladesh in the near future, even if it is during a tour to India or Sri Lanka. The two Tests could likely be shifted to late 2016 or sometime in 2017.”Australia regretted the postponement repeatedly, at one point in front of everyone. They postponed because the Italian national was killed. When everyone started saying IS was involved, they became worried.”But they said they will make it up to us. The problem is, they have a very busy schedule. They can’t come to play a Test before the end of 2016 or in 2017. They confirmed this in front of everyone. In addition, they said when they will tour India or Sri Lanka, they will play a couple of matches in Bangladesh to show that they want to come.”Hassan added that Cricket South Africa have asked the BCB to send over fresh schedule for the women’s tour that was also postponed earlier this month. “Cricket South Africa told us that they will send the women’s team. They have asked for a new schedule, which we sent yesterday. They will let us know soon.”

A round-up of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy matches on March 30, 2013

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Mar-2013

Group A

In a one-sided match, Kerala were crushed under the weight of a dominant batting performance from Gujarat, led by Manprit Juneja, who scored a belligerent century, and Abdulahad Malik, to lose by 90 runs in Indore. The victory helped Gujarat qualify for the final of the tournament, to be played against Punjab, as they snatched the top spot via a better net run-rate than Kerala.Soon after being put in to bat, Gujarat were struggling at 31 for 3 in the fifth over, with the top three batsmen in their line-up having been dismissed. Juneja and Malik, then, shared an unbeaten 202-run partnership – the third-highest for any wicket in Twenty20s and the highest for the fourth wicket – in 94 balls to take them to a daunting 233 for 4. Juneja scored 108 off 50 deliveries, and Malik 84 off 46, both unbeaten. The two hit 25 fours and six sixes between them.In reply, Kerala lost wickets frequently. Except opener VA Jagadeesh (36), Sanju Samson (32) and Raiphi Gomez (26), none of the other batsmen put up much resistance. They were eventually bowled out for 143, with seamer Mehul Patel and offspinner Jesal Karia taking three wickets each.A quick half-century from Faiz Fazal helped Vidarbha beat Delhi by five wickets. Delhi, batting first, put up a strong 156 for 7, through a knock of 45 from Mohit Sharma and an unbeaten 39 from middle-order batsman Milind Kumar. Two significant partnerships, between Mohit and Jagrit Anand (worth 57 runs), and between Milind and Nitish Rana (40) helped Delhi get to the total, even though they kept losing wickets.Fazal set the tone in Vidarbha’s reply by dominating the opening stand of 31. He added 53 runs with Urvesh Patel, and when the stand was broken, Vidarbha were strong at 83 for 2. Three wickets fell for 31, but Shalabh Shrivastava, with a 14-ball 26, took them home in 19 overs.

Group B

A career-best, unbeaten 93 from Gurkeerat Singh helped Punjab beat Uttar Pradesh by 51 runs and gave them a berth in the final, to be played against Gujarat on Sunday. UP, after choosing to field, removed opener Mandeep Singh in the first over, and Ravi Inder Singh in the sixth over. But Gurkeerat struck useful stands with Mayank Sidhana, Chandan Madan and Amitoze Singh to steer his team to 161 for 5. His 58-ball knock consisted of eight fours and six sixes.UP’s innings never took off as seamer Sandeep Sharma dented the top order with quick wickets and spinner Rahul Sharma followed up by taking four wickets. Mohammad Kaif (46) and captain Piyush Chawla (29) provided resistance with a 46-run stand for the fifth wicket, but then they lost six wickets for 19 runs to be bowled out for 110.Half-centuries from Jyot Chhaya and Vishnu Solanki took Baroda to a tight five-wicket victory over Karnataka at the Holkar Stadium. In their chase of 168, Baroda’s top-order batsmen squandered starts, but at 75 for 4, Chhaya added 90 runs off 52 balls with Solanki to take them home in the penultimate ball of the innings.Karnataka’s innings revolved around a 34-ball 49 from opener Robin Uthappa, and contributions from Karun Nair (22), Manish Pandey (29), and K Gowtham (24). Spinners Bhargav Bhatt and Krunal Pandya took three wickets each.

ESPNcricinfo previews Delhi Daredevils in IPL 2012

Sharda Ugra03-Apr-2012

Big Picture

Constant revival is the historical motif of the Daredevils’ home city, but a more contemporary representation of Delhi would include high speed and road rage. Season five of IPL for the Daredevils will then naturally require not only brazen overtaking over hairpin bends, but navigational acumen to arrive at their destination.To finish at the bottom in 2011 after topping the table two years ago is evidence that what was previously fixed, had been broken. The Daredevils ended up with only four wins from 14 matches, trailing even the season’s two new teams. Maybe rejigging of the team after the auction caused the imbalance or maybe it was a brittle top order.Regardless of the explosive pair of Virender Sehwag and David Warner, the Daredevils’ opening partnership crossed 50 only three times in 14 innings, and it lacked an energetic middle order to carry on after repeated early setbacks. Their season opened with a home game in which the Daredevils were all out for 95 and of their four victories, only one was to come at home. By the end of the season, the Daredevils were left in shambles.The repair work for the new season has come in the form of the arrival of two quality middle-order men, Kevin Pietersen, who was brought in from Deccan Chargers, and Mahela Jayawardene, to follow the openers.Had Morne Morkel not broken Ross Taylor’s arm in Wellington, the Daredevils’ middle order would have had the perfect mix: batsmen of calibre combining with the game’s leading entertainers. Morkel himself leads a quick bowling attack with several options, and the presence of Indians among them gives the Daredevils room for flexibility. Along with New Zealand’s Doug Bracewell, who will get his first taste of Indian conditions, and West Indian allrounder Andre Russell, the Daredevils will also field a genuinely quick and now toughened Umesh Yadav. The experience of Irfan Pathan and Ajit Agarkar is valuable and Varun Aaron is said to be recovering from the injury that he picked up last year.Team mentor T A Sekhar who has been signed on again, after a couple of years with the Mumbai Indians, believes that the general gloom about the Daredevils’ lack of slow-bowling options is largely baseless. Twenty20 specialist spinning allrounder Roelof van der Merwe comes with more than useful promise.Along with its eye-catching star cast, a surprise performance from the Daredevils’ second line will be a bonus: whether through Australian allrounder Glen Maxwell, who scored a fifty off 17 balls, a record in Australia’s List-A or teenager Unmukt Chand, who is leading the India under-19 team in Australia during a two-week tour. The formula of a successful team, says Sekhar, comes from a high-profile core of performers and a handy supporting cast arranged around them.

Key players

Virender Sehwag: He was the only player the Daredevils wanted to retain in 2010, he is the captain from the 2008 ‘icon’ bunch still standing and he remains the team’s centrifugal force. He will be energised not only by the presence of many shot-makers around him, but by the quality all the way down to No. 6. Still, it will be Sehwag who will need to set the tone for how the Daredevils’ campaign turns out, especially, if he can get them to better starts than last year.Mahela Jayawardene: After Pietersen, the highest signing by the Daredevils from the 2012 auction, Jayawardene finds himself in his third IPL team in five years after being an asset for any franchise and a tough man to let go of. He found himself in the auction only because Kochi Tuskers Kerala got booted out of the IPL and will arrive into a set up that can do with his reassuring presence in the midst of extravagant talents. If he’s not worn out by Sri Lanka’s unending travels, Jayawardene can be the improvisational middle-order man who keeps his head when the big hitters go into turbo mode. His calmness at the crease belies his strike rate. His nous on the field will be of assistance to Sehwag’s leadership and he was quickly named as the vice-captain.

Big names in

Kevin Pietersen: Who else? The Daredevils were willing to spend up to half of their auction purse – $2.3m in fact – on signing Pietersen from Deccan Chargers in the January transfer window. The signing comes with the hope that Pietersen will become the Daredevils’ talisman like Chris Gayle for Bangalore. In theory, Pietersen and the IPL are made for each other – the attention-grabbing performer and the big-ticket stage. His record in the tournament though, is most unlike the man: modest. There’s far too few runs – 329 with two half-centuries – in 13 matches, despite having belonged to the bling-filled environment of Royal Challengers Bangalore. But Pietersen will arrive into the IPL after three weeks of acclimatising in Sri Lanka. What awaits him is a team looking for performers in cricket’s biggest showboat. It’s a match made in heaven.Andre Russell: Russell has pace, aggression, athleticism and star quality. Yet to prove himself internationally in the shortest form of the game, he has fitted well into the West Indies ODI squad and caught the eye when playing India in eight ODIs last year just after the World Cup. At the domestic level though, he has come to terms with the curious demands of Twenty20, churning out runs at a strike rate of 148. He has played in the Bangladesh Premier League for the Khulna Royal Bengals*, but now comes the big stuff. Over the next six weeks, Russell will have a chance to prove that he is cut out for cricket’s most lucrative event, the IPL, and therefore, worthy of a $450,000 pay cheque.

Big names out

James Hopes brought optimism when he was inducted into the Daredevils side. He was every inch an allrounder needed by a Twenty20 franchise – a bustling batsman anywhere in the order with handy medium-pace. Last season for the Daredevils though, Hopes played in ten games without producing the high-impact returns expected from him. In exchange for Hopes and Ashok Dinda, both players traded in with the Pune Warriors, the Daredevils had enough cash in hand to sign Pietersen onto their rolls.

Below the radar

Irfan Pathan: Irfan Pathan will always have his days, like his bigger hitting elder brother Yusuf. Now that injuries are behind him and he has had a satisfactory domestic season for Baroda, the Daredevils will hope for bigger performances from him. If things are going for Irfan with the bat, he can unleash a late charge or a recovery. When the ball is swinging, he has what is needed to disturb batsmen and check the flood of runs. If a player is only as good as his last game, then Irfan’s produced quite a signal: an allround performance in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final against Punjab that helped Baroda win the title.

Availability

David Warner will turn up in May after the end of Australia’s tour of the West Indies and Ross Taylor, when he has recuperated from his injury. Varun Aaron is building up towards recovery and should be ready by the third week. Unmukt Chand will be back from Australia in the second week but if he gets a game, he will have to make it count.

2011 in a tweet

Two semi-finals and a fifth-place finish followed by a crash landing. Law of averages be damned.* April 3, 2012, 16:05 GMT: The article earlier said that Andre Russell played for the Chittagong Kings. This has been corrected

Visiting seamer Ian Saxelby claimed career-best figures of 5 for 53 as 15
wickets fell on the opening day at Cardiff

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Apr-2011
Scorecard
Visiting seamer Ian Saxelby claimed career-best figures of 5 for 53 as 15
wickets fell on the opening day at Cardiff.The 21-year-old helped to reduce Glamorgan to 202 all out in 47.5 overs and
Gloucestershire themselves struggled to 76 for 5 before bad light stopped
play for the day.Despite winning the toss, Glamorgan had been 26 for 4 and 54 for 6 but
they were rescued by a seventh-wicket partnership of 138 from Ben Wright, who
made 83 on the day he was awarded his county cap, and Graham Wagg (58).They made a terrible start against the new ball as they lost Gareth Rees to
only the second ball of the game, lbw to Jon Lewis. And six overs later, despite striking three boundaries, Will Bragg fell in similar fashion. Glamorgan further capitulated to 20 for 3 when skipper Alviro Petersen was also trapped in front, this time by Liam Norwell in his first over.Mike Powell became the fourth lbw – the third for Lewis – playing down the
wrong line. The flow of wickets was stemmed briefly by Jim Allenby, who struck a run-a-ball
22 before he edged Saxelby to Ian Cockbain at second slip.Wright was dropped was dropped by Saxelby off Norwood’s bowling, but Saxelby
made amends in the next over when he had Mark Wallace caught by Cockbain at
second slip. Either side of lunch, Wright and Wagg launched a more than profitable recovery
in 22 overs.The pair took Glamorgan to 192 for six before Saxelby dismissed both in the
space of two overs. Wright went for 83 from 98 balls with 14 fours after being
bowled attempting a pull, while Wagg was bowled via an inside edge.Saxelby completed his first five-wicket haul by having Dean Cosker caught
behind as the last three Glamorgan wickets added just 10 runs. In reply, Gloucestershire were reduced to 49 for four despite Glamorgan losing Wagg to a hamstring injury after only one over.His replacement Adam Shantry had Richard Coughtrie caught behind by Mark
Wallace before Harris claimed his first wicket of the season when he bowled
Cockbain for 21.From 29 for 2, the visitors were further reduced to 37 for 3 as Chris
Taylor was trapped lbw failing to offer a shot to Harris. After tea Shantry took his second wicket, Jon Batty pinned leg before, and then Allenby dismissed Alex Gidman.