Musings about sports in general, & Cricket in particular. With baseball season coming up, will look into that, too. And lots of good cricket in 2007, including the World Cup.
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This is where you stick random tidbits of information about yourself.
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20030624
Leicestershire clinched a Twenty20 Cup semi-final spot with a thrilling one-run win over local rivals Derbyshire at Grace Road.
Set 172 to win, the visitors stayed in the hunt thanks to a half-century from Mohammed Kaif and 43 from Chris Bassano. But, needing a six off the final ball of the match, tailender Neil Gunter could only manage four. And, as their hosts celebrated, the Scorpions discovered that they had been eliminated from the competition.
Warwickshire's 54-run win over Northants gained the Bears the final qualification place as best runners-up.
Asked to bowl first, Derbyshire took wickets at regular intervals, but Leicestershire's lower order all contributed to keep the tempo high despite their parlous state. Brad Hodge top-scored with 37 from 30 deliveries before he was caught pulling Nathan Dumelow to deep square leg. Dominic Hewson took his wicket haul for the competition to 10 with the scalps of Phil DeFreitas, Trevor Ward and Paul Nixon.
But wicket-keeper Nixon's 27 from 13 balls proved to be the deciding factor. DeFreitas' experience gained him two crucial wickets at the death for figures of 3-39.
9:07 PM
20030623
Trescothick scored an unbeaten 108 off 145 balls, a different knock to the brutal one that helped square the series at The Oval but one that served an even greater purpose.
Fittingly, it was left to Trescothick to seal the victory with a towering six off Azhar Mahmood in the 49th over. He was dropped on 35 and 93, but deserved some luck after most of his fallen team-mates had threatened to undo his good work with appalling shots.
At 89-1 with 30 overs left, England conspired to lose skipper Michael Vaughan and the rest of the middle order in next to no time with spin duo Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik excelling. But, like England, Pakistan had their chance to win the game, only they threw it away. Aside from reducing England from 129-2 to 154-6 and still contriving to lose, Pakistan missed four clear run-out chances and dropped three catches inside the first 20 overs. Younis showed great control to get Pakistan out of a tight spot. Trescothick's heroics also negated the fact England allowed Pakistan to rack up 91 runs in the last 10 overs of their innings, having restricted them to just 138 in the first 40. Reduced to 61-4 early on, Pakistan came back from the dead thanks to a smart 63 from Younis Khan and a deadly 64 from Abdul Razzaq late in the innings.
Andrew Flintoff excelled in another impressive display with the ball, returning 4-32, but elsewhere England's attack was punished for its complacency.
Bowling first was an obvious course of action for Vaughan to take after showers, which delayed the start for an hour, left behind high levels of humidity. Both James Anderson and Darren Gough swung the ball prodigiously early on, but their efforts bore no fruit as Pakistan chancily played and missed their way to 29-0. But the introduction of Flintoff reaped instant rewards as Imran Nazir was caught off the all-rounder's first ball, sparking a slide that saw four wickets fall for 32. Flintoff was clearly the pick of the England attack. Temporary relief came in the shape of Younis and Shoaib Malik, the pair patiently taking the score along to 117. In reality, poor England fielding swelled the partnership with Vikram Solanki missing two clear run-out chances and dropping a simple chance offered by Malik. Malik eventually fell to the returning Flintoff in the 34th over but the dismissal did nothing to stifle Younis's progress. And after he fell, Mahmood and Razzaq stepped on the gas in no uncertain fashion, piling on 60 runs in 37 balls at the death. England's first wicket realised 24 runs before Vikram Solanki was caught behind driving indecisively to Mohammad Sami. A promising second-wicket stand of 65 was then ended when Vaughan was suckered into an ill-conceived pull shot and holed out in the deep. England still looked on course for victory when they moved along to 129-2, but perplexing strokeplay from Jim Troughton, Flintoff, Anthony McGrath and Rikki Clarke swung things Pakistan's way. But in Chris Read Trescothick found a mate willing and able to hang around, the pair putting on 77 unbroken runs - the highest partnership of the match - to win the series for England.
1:27 AM
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