CLT20 squads confirmed

The Nokia Champions League Twenty20’s return to India will be headlined by the biggest names in world cricket after the confirmation of the 13-team squads.The participating teams are overflowing with cricket’s established and emerging stars, among them MS Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Daniel Vettori, Chris Gayle, Jacques Kallis, Mike Hussey and Shane Watson.More than 100 players named across the squads have experience at international level.Players from 10 nations will be represented, including a pair from Ireland for the first time in dual Ireland/England international Eoin Morgan and 19-year-old young gun George Dockrell.A number of teams will be able to field virtual international playing XIs, among them the Chennai Super Kings, NSW Blues and Cape Cobras.Not far behind in terms of international playing strength is South Africa’s other representative, the Warriors, as well as the IPL’s Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders.The 13 teams invited to this year’s tournament have consistently shown over the past three years they are the world’s elite at home and on the CLT20 stage.Among them are former CLT20 Champions (NSW 2009 and Chennai 2010), finalists (Trinidad & Tobago 2009 and Warriors 2010), and semi-finalists (Cape Cobras 2009 and South Australia 2010).England’s Leicestershire and Somerset were the last of the 13 teams to qualify last weekend after both won thrilling one-over eliminators in their respective domestic T20 semi-finals.It will be Leicestershire’s first appearance in the CLT20 while Somerset will make a return visit after playing in the inaugural event in 2009.During that tournament they defeated Deccan Chargers in their opening match before bowing out at the group stage.After its success in South Africa in 2010, the CLT20 returns to India with a new naming rights sponsor, more teams, more prize money and participation fees, and the world’s best T20 talent.CLT20 commercial rights holder ESPN Star Sports and its broadcast partners will beam the action live into lounge rooms and bars around the world as a record number of teams battle to claim the world’s most prestigious prize for domestic cricket.This year’s event features a six-team qualifier for the first time that will determine the final three participants in the group stage.The qualifier will be played in Hyderabad from 19-21 September while the 10-team Nokia Champions League Twenty20 starts in Bengaluru on Friday 23 September and ends with the final on Sunday 9 October in Chennai.

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Vaughan expects England to win the 2015 World Cup

Former captain Michael Vaughan : is highly impressed with England's current pool of cricketers and said he expects the three-time finalists to win their first World Cup in 2015. "I expect them to win in 2015. England will have the group of players and strength in depth - they'll be the team to beat," Vaughan told 'BBC England have a pool of 20-22 players they can rotate. Five years ago they didn't have that many that could play international cricket. Now if you dropped or rested three or four players the ones coming in would be of a very good standard," he added.Till date England have never won the World Cup, even though they have reached the finals thrice. Infact, they have not progressed beyond the quarter-finals since 1992. But the last two years have seen England rise, winning the World Twenty20 in 2010, securing an Ashes victory in Australia and achieving the top Test status recently by whitewashing India 0-4 in a recently-concluded series. The 36-year-old Ashes winning captain also backed England's decision to rest Kevin Pietersen from the ongoing ODI series against India and said the star batsman will be an important part of 2015 World Cup campaign."I think the selectors are trying to find any little formula to get the best from KP. They are trying to find that spark that gets him back to how he played in South Africa on his first tour. The last two years have not been his best," said Vaughan."I think in 2015 we'll need [Somerset batsman] Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes [the player in the side in place of Pietersen] and [leg spinner] Scott Borthwick. They will be the core of the team," he added

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England had abandoned ODI in their grasp: Cook

England : captain Alastair Cook maintained his side were ready to go on and win the abandoned first one-day international against India until rain intervened.India appeared to have the upper hand after posting a score of 274-7 with Parthiv Patel making 95 and had England 27-2 in 7.2 overs.But Cook was confident his side - now aiming to add the world number one ranking in 50-over cricket to their Test status as top of the ranking - could have overhauled the Indians."Anything can happen," Cook told reporters after the premature end to the match."That was a very good wicket and a quick outfield - 275 was gettable.India looked like posting a score over 300 but Samit Patel's spin put the brakes on with his ten overs costing just 42 runs in the absence of Graeme Swann who has a virus.Cook added: "He was under pressure knowing we needed to get ten overs out of him against a side who play spin very well.praveen Kumar took both wickets - captain Alastair Cook edged onto his stumps and Craig Kieswetter was trapped leg before. But India are sweating on the fitness of Sachin Tendulkar who will see a surgeon on Monday about an old toe injury that kept him out of this game.Patel's 95 came from 107 balls with 12 fours and he shared a stand of 103 for the second wicket with Virat Kohli who made 55.Patel's well-paced innings looked like giving him his first three figure score for Indian until he was caught behind of James Anderson giving the England bowler his 200th wicket in one-day internationals.Suresh Raina added 38 from 29 balls before he was deceived by a slower bouncer from Jade Denbach and gave Alastair Cook a simple catch at leg slip and while captain MS Dhoni was there towards the end of the innings a total of 300 looked possible but the Indians stalled in the final overs as England snapped up three wickets in the last two overs.On a gloomy day in the north east of England Cook put India in after winning the toss but his bowlers struggled as the Indian opening pair of Patel and Ajinkya Rahane put on 87 for the first wicket.Rahane was first to go - caught in at fine leg by Samit Patel top-edging a hook from Stuart Broad - and Rahul Dravid went for just two.Dravid edged a ball from Stuart Broad to Craig Kieswetter but stood him ground when the England side appealed.The Hot Spot technology failed to pick up the edge but third umpire Marais Erasmus told the on-field officials he had heard a noise and that was enough for Dravid to be given out.But Indian captain MS Dhoni said: "There was nothing on hot spot and he was given not out - the benefit of the doubt always goes to the batsman. I still don't know how they gave him out."Kohli and Patel took the score on before Patel, sniffing his milestone, tamely edged behind and Rohit Sharma was hit on the hand first ball by Broad and retired hurt.Raina and Dhoni swung the bat - but the steady loss of wickets meant India could not get away from England and two wickets in the last over of the innings for Tim Bresnan put the brakes on.With Tendulkar missing the match his wait for his 100th international hundred goes on.

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Ponting celebrates 100 Test wins

Ricky Ponting : became the first cricketer to play in 100 Test wins after Australia defeated Sri Lanka by 125 runs in the first Test in Galle on Saturday.The former skipper, 36, was already Test cricket's most successful captain with 48 wins when he stepped down in April to make way for Michael Clarke.Ponting, who made his Test debut in 1995, has so far played 153 matches and his 12,411 runs make him the world's third highest run-getter behind the Indian duo of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid."His longevity in the game is amazing," said Clarke after Saturday's match. "For about eight or nine of our squad it was the first Test win, and here was Punter (Ponting) with his 100th.""He has played a hell of a lot of games, captained a hell of a lot of games and won a hell of a lot of games. Just an amazing cricketer.But Ponting will miss the second Test in Pallekele from September 8 to go home for the birth of his second child, but is expected to return for the final match in Colombo from September 16.The seven cricketers who have been part of most Test wins are all Australians, and have all been Ponting's team-mates at some stage.

List of players with most Test victories (name, wins):

Ricky Ponting - 100

Shane Warne - 92

Steve Waugh - 86

Glenn McGrath - 84

Adam Gilchrist - 73

Mark Waugh - 72

Matthew Hayden - 71

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Hansra to lead Canada in I Cup

Cricket Canada is pleased to release its 14 man touring squad for the ICC Intercontinental Cup and ODI tour of Ireland, which commences 13 September 2011. The squad, led by Amarbir (Jimmy) Hansra, will depart Toronto on September 8th for Dublin after playing a 2-day warm-up match in Toronto on September 6th and 7th at Maple Leaf Cricket Club, King City. In partnership with the Cricket Ireland and the International Cricket Council, both ODI's in the series (September 19th & 20th) will be streamed LIVE on gocricketgocanada.com. Back in the touring squad is 17-year-old batting phenom Nitish Kumar, who missed Canada's August home series with Afghanistan while representing Canada u19 at the Global u19 Qualifiers.Kumar, having relocated to the UK, where he will study at Repton School in Derbyshire, is joined by some of Canada's equally outstanding young talent in wicket keeper batsmen Hamza Tariq and Usman Limbada, both fresh off match winning partnerships in the Etihad Summer Festival. Making his first official senior team tour selection is 19 year old British Columbia seamer, Manny Aulakh. Aulakh was the leading wicket taker at the Global u19 World Cup Qualifiers in Ireland and recently helped lead his domestic provincial side to the National League T20 Western Division title in Edmonton. Aulakh will join the usual suspects of Canada's experienced seam quartet, consisting of Henry Osinde, Khurram Chohan, Harvir Baidwan, and batting all-rounder Rizwan Cheema. Chohan and Baidwan both spent much of their summer's in UK conditions playing league cricket in Yorkshire and Sussex respectively. TOURING SQUAD Amarbir Hansra (Captain) BC, Rizwan Cheema (Vice Captain) ON, Harvir Baidwan ON, Usman Limbada ON, Hamza Tariq AB, Henry Osinde ON, Hiral Patel ON, Junaid Siddiqui ON, Zeeshan Siddiqui MB, Ruvindu Gunasekera ON, Khurram Chohan AB, Maninder Aulakh BC, Nitish Kumar ON, Zahid Hussain ON. Interim Coach: Ingleton LiburdManager: Johnny BujanPhysio: Jason Israelski

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ICC monitors accuracy of ball-tracking and reviews

The International Cricket Council (ICC) today reiterated that it has always, and will continue to, monitor the accuracy of ball-tracking and all decisions whether referred or not under the Decision Review System (DRS).Following criticism of the DRS in some areas of the media, David Richardson, ICC General Manager - Cricket, re-affirmed that every decision made in Test match and ODI cricket is monitored at the ICC Headquarters in Dubai.He also acknowledged that such monitoring reveals a minute number of errors in technology and that technology is not always conclusive. However, he added what is widely recognized is that in the vast majority of cases an incorrect decision can be - and has been  rectified.David Richardson said: "The purpose of the Decision Review System is to get as many decisions correct as possible. The statistics show that, with the full DRS in operation, the number of correct decisions rises to almost 98 per cent and that is what we must focus on."Even if it is possible only to reach 98 per cent that has to be better than the average achieved without DRS of around 93 per cent."
The statistics from recent Test and ODI Series are:

	Correct % before DRS	Correct % after DRS
West Indies v Pakistan - 2 Tests	94.52%	98.63%
England v Sri Lanka - 3 Tests	92.35%	98.47%
England v India - 4 Tests **	93.35%	96.31%
Sri Lanka v Australia - 5 ODIs	100 %	100 %

** = Ball-tracking not used in this series

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First England-India ODI falls victim to rain

The first one-day international between England and India was abandoned as a no result here on Saturday because of rain.India with Parthiv Patel making 95 made 274-7 from 50 overs but only managed to bowl 7.2 overs at the hosts before the rain came and the match was called off with England 27-2 with Jonathan Trott 14 not out and Ian Bell two not out praveen Kumar took both wickets captain Alastair Cook edged onto his stumps and Craig Kieswetter was trapped leg before But India are sweating on the fitness of Sachin Tendulkar who will see a surgeon on Monday about an old toe injury that kept him out of this game.Patel's 95 came from 107 balls with 12 fours and he shared a stand of 103 for the second wicket with Virat Kohli who made 55.Patel's well-paced innings looked like giving him his first three figure score for Indian until he was caught behind off James Anderson giving the England bowler his 200th wicket in one-day internationals.Suresh Raina added 38 from 29 balls before he was deceived by a slower bouncer from Jade Denbach and gave Alastair Cook a simple catch at leg slip While captain MS Dhoni was there towards the end of the innings a total of 300 looked possible but the Indians stalled in the final overs as England snapped up three wickets in the last two overs.On a gloomy day in the north east of England Cook put India in after winning the toss but his bowlers struggled as the Indian opening pair of Patel and Ajinkya Rahane put on 87 for the first wicket.Rahane was first to go - caught in at fine leg by Samit Patel top-edging a hook from Stuart Broad - and Rahul Dravid went for just two.Dravid edged a ball from Stuart Broad to Craig Kieswetter but stood him ground when the England side appealed.The Hot Spot technology failed to pick up the edge but third umpire Marais Erasmus told the on-field officials he had heard a noise and that was enough for Dravid to be given outKohli and Patel took the score on before Patel, sniffing his milestone, tamely edged behind and Rohit Sharma was hit on the hand first ball by Broad and retired hurt.Raina and Dhoni swung the bat - but the steady loss of wickets meant India could not get away from England and two wickets in the last over of the innings for Tim Bresnan put the brakes on.With Tendulkar missing the match his wait for his 100th international hundred goes on and for England Graeme Swann was suffering from a stomach virus leaving Samit Patel to take on the role of senior spinner.

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Pakistan on verge of victory after Zimbabwe collapse

BULAWAYO: Pakistan were on the verge of victory here on Sunday after an astonishing collapse by hosts Zimbabwe in their second innings of the one-off test match saw them go to tea on 56-5 It left the hosts just two runs ahead of the tourists, who had been dismissed for 466 just after lunch.The only consolation would have been that they had passed their lowest Test total, 54 against South Africa in Cape Town in 2005.The Zimbabweans had more than held their own over the first three days but it seemed to have taken its toll as their top order batsmen surrendered their wickets all too easily with captain Brendan Taylor out for five for his sixth successive failure.Tinotenda Mawoyo was the only one to even reach double figures as he went for 12, but that was as good as it got.Saeed Ajmal and Aizaz Cheema took two wickets apiece while Mohammad Hafeez delivered a heavy blow to the hosts when he trapped Craig Ervine leg before shortly before the interval.Earlier the Pakistani batsmen had thrown caution to the wind as they upped the scoring rate to go into lunch on 460-8.Beginning the session on 357-5 and looking for a big lead to put Zimbabwe under pressure, Pakistan lost three wickets, including the pivotal wicket of Younis Khan, who only added 27 to his overnight score of 61.He was caught somewhat fortuitously at first slip by Taylor off veteran spinner Raymond Price, the ball first bouncing off wicketkeeper Tatenda Taibu's pad.Umar Akmal survived a TV review of a run-out appeal but he failed to capitalise on that reprieve as he was caught soon afterwards by Taylor off Gregory Lamb for 15.Sohail Khan was then caught by Lamb on the mid-wicket boundary off Christopher Mpofu for 11.Khan had been dropped at gully by Hamilton Masakadza just beforehand the sixth spilling of the innings - and he punished Masakadza by hitting the next ball for a six Saeed Ajmal spent the last three overs of the morning scoring quick runs but was eventually out for 28 after lunch, bowled by the dependable Price.Zimbabwe's fielding in general cost them dear throughout the innings and it showed no change on Sunday as several elementary errors in the field cost them more runs

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Sri Lanka seek a batting revival

GALLE: Sri Lanka were Sunday searching for solutions to their batting woes after Australia hammered them by 125 runs in the first cricket Test in GalleThe hosts lost on a dusty wicket, apparently tailor-made for their spinners, on Saturday after being shot out for 105 in the first innings in reply to Australia's 273.Sri Lanka managed 253 in their second knock on in the back of a classy century from Mahela Jayawardene and 95 from young Angelo Mathews, but the target of 379 never looked like being surpassed.They have now gone nine Tests without a win since the retirement of world bowling record holder Muttiah Muralitharan in July last year, but it is the batting that is causing the main worry.In Cardiff in May, Sri Lanka were all out for 82 in just 24.4 overs, losing to England by an innings in a Test match that had been destined for a draw.Sri Lankan captain Tillakaratne Dilshan admitted batting failures had let the team down in recent months.Dilshan's carefree approach to batting at the top of the order contributed to his side's defeat, but the captain said he will never change his aggressive style.In the first innings, Dilshan drove debutant Trent Copeland's first delivery to the cover fence for a boundary -- but he was caught off the second delivery when he attempted a similar stroke.When Sri Lanka batted a second time, Dilshan played a few loose shots before he was bowled by Ryan Harris for 12.Except for Jayawardene and Mathews in the second innings, none of the Sri Lankan batsmen were able to Australia's spot-on bowling on the crumbling wicket.The seasoned Kumar Sangakkara fell for 10 and 12, while the usually prolific Thilan Samaraweera managed only 26 and 0.Dilshan said he hopes his team-mates will have learnt a lesson for the second Test which starts in Pallekele on Thursday.

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Pakistan gain lead over Zimbabwe

BULAWAYO: Pakistani batsmen threw caution to the wind here on the fourth day of the one-off test with Zimbabwe as they upped the scoring rate to go into lunch on 460-8 in their first innings, a lead of 48.Beginning the session on 357-5 and looking for a big lead to put Zimbabwe under pressure, Pakistan lost three wickets, including the pivotal wicket of Younis Khan, who only added 27 to his overnight score of 61.He was caught somewhat fortuitously at first slip by captain Brendan Taylor off veteran spinner Raymond Price, the ball first bouncing off wicketkeeper Tatenda Taibu's pad.Umar Akmal survived a TV review of a run-out appeal but he failed to capitalise on that reprieve as he was caught soon afterwards by Taylor off Gregory Lamb for 15.Sohail Khan was then caught by Lamb on the mid-wicket boundary off Christopher Mpofu for 11.Khan had been dropped at gulley by Hamilton Masakadza just beforehand - the sixth spilling of the innings and he punished Masakadza by hitting the next ball for a six.Saeed Ajmal spent the last three overs of the morning seeking quick runs and he is on 24 at the break.Zimbabwe's fielding in general cost them dear throughout the innings and it showed no change on Sunday as several elementary errors in the field cost them more runs.

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Pakistan batsmen dominate Zimbabwe on third day

BULAWAYO: Pakistan made 280 runs for the loss of only three wickets before tea on the third day of the one-off Test against Zimbabwe here at the Queen’s Sports Club ground on Saturday.Batting at the crease were veteran batsman Younis Khan with 30 and captain Misbah-ul-Haq with 37 as Pakistan were 132 runs behind Zimbabwe’s 412 with seven wickets remaining.Earlier, opener Mohammad Hafeez, who hit his third test hundred, made 119 and Azhar Ali scored a patient 75. They added 188 runs for second wicket after Pakistan lost Taufeeq Umar at only eight runs on the board.

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Hafeez, Azhar take Pakistan to comfortable 196-2

BULAWAYO : Zimbabwe: In-form Pakistan batsman Mohammad Hafeez had two lucky escapes on his way to his third Test century here on Saturday on the third day of the one-off Test with Zimbabwe.Hafeez's luck ran out though two balls from the lunch interval when on 119 he spooned the ball to Gregory Lamb off medium pacer Hamilton Masakadza.However, he and the more sedate Azhar Ali, who was 65 not out, had taken Pakistan on to a comfortable 196-2 at the break in reply, 217 runs adrift of the hosts respectable 412 all out in their first innings.Hafeez's 119 included a six and 17 fours and saw him pass the landmark of 1000 runs.Hafeez rode his luck throughout the innings as in his opening over of the day Chris Mpofu dropped a straightforward caught and bowled chance. He and Ali were also stranded at one end of the wicket but a fielding fumble let them off.Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor persisted with seamers through most of the morning, Mpofu bowling ten straight overs but finally opted for a change of tactics when he brought on medium pacer Masakadza and it duly paid off with Hafeez's rush of blood to the head.

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