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Royal Challengers are coming off two successive wins while Kings were drubbed in their last outing

S Sudarshanan12-May-20222:25

How can Kings get the best out of Rahul Chahar?

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It’s not just cricket anymore. It’s mathematics.At the core of it all, the equation for Punjab Kings is pretty simple – they need to win their remaining games to stay in with a chance of making the playoffs. As for Royal Challengers Bangalore, they are already in the top four with 14 points, but their poor net run rate leaves them with less room to work with. They still need two wins to be assured of qualification.

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In the IPL, Royal Challengers’ captain Faf du Plessis has not scored more runs against any other team than Punjab Kings; he has 702 runs in 13 innings against Kings and the next best is his 432 in 14 innings against Kolkata Knight Riders. True to the numbers, du Plessis hit a stroke-filled 88 against Kings earlier this season. As the season has progressed, Royal Challengers have fitted their jigsaw puzzle better.In their last game against Sunrisers Hyderabad, four of the top five batters scored 30 or more while their bowlers, led by Josh Hazlewood, put on a clinical show. One of the key players in the past few games, the usual suspects aside, has been Rajat Patidar, who was brought in belatedly as a replacement player.Patidar is fourth among the Royal Challengers players in terms of player rating score as per ESPNcricinfo’s MVP ratings, among those who have played a minimum of four matches this season, after Glenn Maxwell, Wanindu Hasaranga and Hazlewood. In fact, Patidar’s batting impact score of 39.75 is the best for his side – tenth overall, closely followed by Dinesh Karthik’s 34.96.Their opponents, Kings, are yet again hovering in the lower half of the table after having a strong start. They are returning after a five-day break, having lost against Rajasthan Royals in their last outing. Jonny Bairstow’s promotion to the top of the order seems to have done him good and with Jitesh Sharma finding his feet lower down, Kings would be confident of putting up a good show, irrespective of whether they are batting first or chasing.Related

• Jitesh Sharma: 'The responsibility of finishing is huge and not everyone has the capability'

However, with an economy rate of 8.65 this season, Punjab Kings have been the second-most expensive bowling side behind Mumbai Indians and how they use Kagiso Rabada and Arshdeep Singh, two of their key bowlers, could well dictate how the contest flows.

Likely XIs

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Faf du Plessis (capt), 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Rajat Patidar, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Shahbaz Ahmed, 6 Mahipal Lomror, 7 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 8 Wanindu Hasaranga, 9 Harshal Patel, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Josh HazlewoodPunjab Kings: 1 Jonny Bairstow, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Mayank Agarwal (capt), 4 Bhanuka Rajapaksa, 5 Liam Livingstone, 6 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 7 Rishi Dhawan, 8 Rahul Chahar, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Sandeep Sharma

Strategy punt

• Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli have fallen to Sandeep Sharma a combined nine times and to Kagiso Rabada on six occasions in T20 cricket. That could perhaps be best new-ball combination for Kings.
• Both Shikhar Dhawan and Bairstow have been quiet against Wanindu Hasaranga, having a strike rate of 85 and 67 respectively in T20 cricket. With Liam Livingstone and Bhanuka Rajapaksa having superior strike rates against the legspinner, there could be a case for Royal Challengers to open the bowling with Hasaranga and Josh Hazlewood.

Stats that matter

• Twenty-seven sixes were hit in the Royal Challengers-Kings game earlier this season – the most in a game in IPL 2022.
• Arshdeep has given away just five sixes off the 38 overs he has bowled this season, the least for a bowler with a minimum of 35 overs.
• Kohli has been dismissed in the first 15 balls on eight occasions in IPL 2022, the most by a batter batting in the top six.
• Rabada’s 18 wickets are the most by a pacer in IPL 2022

“It is too taxing for the boys, asking them to travel to Brisbane and be in the jail for another five days”

Nagraj Gollapudi07-Jan-20211:35

Rahane: ‘Being in quarantine definitely has its own challenges’

The BCCI has told Cricket Australia that India will not be able to travel to Brisbane for the final Test of the ongoing series if they will have to undergo another round of hard quarantine. ESPNcricinfo understands the BCCI mentioned that point in its latest communication sent to CA on Thursday.The Brisbane Test, scheduled between January 15 and 19, will mark the end of India’s long tour of Australia, which started with the white-ball segment last November. A senior BCCI official confirmed an email had been sent to CA, and said that a hard quarantine was “immaterial” when the India squad had already spent the first two weeks upon arrival in Australia isolating.The official pointed out that while normal life in Australia continued without too many restrictions, asking players to be confined to their rooms in team hotels, put down as a condition by the Queensland government, did not add up.Related

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Life in Sydney, the venue for the ongoing third Test, while not completely normal, is less restrictive than the biosecure environment the players have been put in. Parts of Northern Beaches where the latest Covid-19 outbreak occurred remain in lockdown, but people are generally free to move about. However, the players have been kept in stricter restrictions because the border between New South Wales and Queensland, which will host the next Test, has been locked down as Greater Sydney is still a “hotspot”.According to the official, the Indian team management has told the BCCI that the players had cited it was becoming “too stressful” to be restricted to the team hotels.As reported earlier on Thursday, CA had booked the team hotels at both Sydney and Brisbane. Players are allowed to mingle outside their rooms in the communal areas within the hotel. The one difference is that the restrictions in Sydney are CA protocols while those in Brisbane are imposed by the Queensland government as the terms to allow exemptions to be granted.According to the BCCI official, in case the CA was “so particular” about the restrictions they could conduct the final Test also in Sydney, where the third Test is taking place this week. “It is too taxing for the boys, asking them to travel to Brisbane and be in the jail for another five days,” the official said.

Tallawahs’ home stretch ended with another defeat, their sixth in seven games

The Report by Sreshth Shah20-Sep-2019Jamaica Tallawahs ended their series of home games with another defeat, losing by 20 runs to St Kitts and Nevis Patriots at Sabina Park. Patriots rode on Fabian Allen’s 27-ball 62 to reach 176 for 6 from 82 for 6, after which their bowlers combined to strangle Tallawahs, dismissing them for 156.Glenn Phillips was the only Tallawahs batsman to make a worthy contribution, scoring a 49-ball 87 to become the highest run-getter this season, but, with eight single-digit scores in the innings, Phillips had little chance to make a difference. Tallawahs’ defeat was their sixth in seven games, while Patriots, with eight points, are in the battle for a top-two finish with Trinbago Knight Riders, who have played three fewer matches.Honours shared in first ten overs
Having been put in to bat, Patriots lost openers Evin Lewis and Devon Thomas by the third over, but a tidy 46-run third-wicket stand between Laurie Evans and Mohammad Hafeez helped them recover. The Tallawahs’ bowlers rode on the back of some early swing with the new ball, and Dwayne Smith, particularly, troubled the batsmen early on, his lack of pace forcing them to manufacture shots.Hafeez then struck four fours off Shamar Springer in the seventh over to break the shackles. At the halfway stage, Hafeez had crunched five fours and a six, but fell in the next over toe-ending a drive to cover after scoring 37. At that stage, the scoreboard read 76 for 4.Allen rescues Patriots after middle-order wobbleOver the next two overs, Shamarh Brooks was trapped lbw by Zahir Khan, and Carlos Brathwaite was out slicing a catch to cover. At 82 for 6, the Patriots innings seemed destined for a quick finish, but Fabian Allen, batting at No. 7, had other ideas.Batting alongside No. 8 Keron Cottoy, Allen took on Afghanistan left-arm wristspinner Zahir Khan, smashing 16 runs off the 16th over. The next two overs – off Jade Dernbach and Springer – yielded 13 and 18 runs respectively, and included two fours, two sixes and a dropped chance to reprieve Cottoy.Dernbach’s final over, the penultimate of the innings, went for another 20 runs, with Allen reaching his half-century off 23 balls. The run spree of the final overs was capped by a 14-run over to end the innings, and from 82 for 6, Patriots had climbed to 176. The unbeaten Allen-Cottoy partnership was worth 94, of which 81 runs came in the final five overs.Varied fortunes for Phillips and TallawahsThe 22-year-old New Zealand batsman took charge of the Tallawahs chase after opener Chris Gayle was out in the third over, trying to pull one over cow corner. The very next ball, Phillips crunched Sheldon Cottrell for a drive through the covers and followed it up with three more boundaries off successive deliveries to collect 18 off the over. Phillips did not slow down even after Tallawahs lost Chadwick Walton, and had raced to a half-century by the eighth over, taking 25 balls to reach the landmark. When Phillips reached 50, his team’s score was 60 for 3, headlining the ease with which he scored, even as his team-mates struggled.Phillips then raced into the 60s by hitting Brathwaite for a four and two sixes in the ninth over, taking 17 runs off the Patriots’ captain. However, Tallawahs were tied down again by tidy second spells from Hafeez and Joseph. Imran Khan, the leg-spinning allrounder, was having a difficult time rotating the strike, and Hafeez prised his wicket out with a caught-and-bowled dismissal in the 14th over. He ended the innings with remarkable returns of 1 for 13 in four overs. The next over saw Andre Russell fall for a first-ball duck, trying to pull Rayad Emrit, and the pressure of the chase and lack of support finally took a toll on Phillips.Looking to target Cottoy in the 16th over – with the required run-rate around 12 – Phillips holed out to long-on for a 49-ball 87 that included eight fours and five sixes. At that stage, he had scored 71% of the Tallawahs’ runs.At 123 for 6, Tallawahs needed a near miracle from their lower order to pull off the chase, especially with the pitch slowing as the evening progressed. Springer entertained with a few lusty blows, and Tallawahs entered the final over with 25 needed and three wickets in hand. But Brathwaite’s accuracy stifled them, and they lost all three wickets, including a run-out, in five balls.

The allrounder won the Man of the Match award for his four-wicket haul in India’s first innings and then a brilliant 63 from 65 balls to rescue England from calamity

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Aug-2018A pulsating Edgbaston Test may have been lit up by a masterful batting contribution from an all-time great in Virat Kohli, and sealed on the final morning by a three-wicket burst from England’s premier allrounder, Ben Stokes. And yet, the Man of the Match award went to a 20-year-old rookie in only his second Test – and the recipient, Sam Curran, found it hard to believe what he had been a part of.”I can’t take it in,” Curran said during the post-match presentations. “It’s all so special, it feels like I’m dreaming. I’m sure I’ll sleep well tonight as I didn’t sleep last night!”In spite of his tender years, Curran grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck twice in as many days. First, he routed India’s top order, claiming three wickets in eight balls en route to first-innings figures of 4 for 74.Then – after Kohli’s brilliant 149 had hauled India back into the ascendancy – he rescued England’s second innings from calamity at 87 for 7 with a counterattacking 63 from 65 balls.It was a precocious display from a player whose temperament has been well known on the county circuit since his Surrey debut as a 16-year-old. But even for a player used to taking the big stage in his stride, this was a step up in intensity.”I tried to take it as another game but it is quite hard when the Barmy Army is chanting down there, and you’ve got world-class players on show, and I’m just on my second game, trying to learn my way. But it’s awesome., I’m just taking it in.”He is, however, well used to gleaning advice from the senior men around him, and Curran admitted that he followed the example of two all-time greats in producing his vital maiden half-century – Kohli on the one hand, and Kumar Sangakkara, his former Surrey team-mate turned Sky Sports commentator, on the other.”To be honest, I was trying to learn a bit from Virat in the first innings, when he batted with the tail,” Curran said. “But chatted with Kumar in the hotel the other day and he also told me a few things about batting with the tail. A few came out of the middle and I was lucky enough to get a few runs.”Joe Root, England’s grateful captain, was full of praise for the manner in which Curran rose to the challenge in the most intense atmosphere of his young career, but also warned that expectations should be tempered so early in his career.”He played a brilliant game, with a huge amount of skill, and he didn’t seem to feel any sort of pressure there,” said Root. “He loves the occasion, it’s like having two Ben Stokes, which is a great thing. But two Tests in, it’s very easy to get carried away.”Stokes himself, whose three wickets on the final morning sealed England’s victory, also credited Curran’s impact as the decisive moment of the Test.”I thought we are a bit behind with the lead but Sam Curran took them out of play,” he said. “The way that he played at such a young age, that was the big turning point of this Test match.”The world is clearly at Curran’s feet at the age of 20, with IPL contracts doubtless in the offing after impressing India’s huge viewership throughout the first Test. But, he said, the chance to win a Test match for England was the ultimate fulfilment of his ambition.”I have dreamt of this growing up,” he said. “Playing Test cricket, in front of these big crowds, with all these players I’ve seen growing up. Stokesy, Jimmy, Broady, I’m just trying to learn a bit every day.”Asked if he’d felt any nerves in what, personally speaking, had been a nerveless display, Curran responded: “Obviously Jimmy getting that first one of [Dinesh] Karthik, that gave us a bit more confidence, but whilst Kohli was there it was obviously going to be nervous. But luckily Stokesy got an awesome spell this morning and turned the game around.”

A round-up of the Dhaka Premier League matches that took place on May 24,2017

ESPNcricinfo staff24-May-2017Liton Das’ 73-ball 85 led a strong batting performance by Abahani Limited, who brushed aside Prime Bank Cricket Club by 60 runs in the 2017 DPL’s first Super League game – a rain-affected affair at the BKSP-4 ground in Savar.Das’ effort was complemented well by Nazmul Hossain Shanto and Mohammad Mithun, the Abahani captain, who both struck quick half-centuries of their own to lift Abahani to 321 for 6 in an innings curtailed to 47 overs. In reply, Prime Bank were snuffed out in 43.3 overs for 273.Das laid out a solid platform for Abahani with a century stand for the second wicket in the company of Saif Hassan who struck a more sedate 46. After Das fell, having struck eight fours and four sixes, Shanto and Mithun added 107 more for the fourth wicket. Atif Hossain and Manan Sharma then raced away to unbeaten cameos to shore up Abahani.Prime Bank’s innings was strewn with batsmen perishing after getting off to starts. Five of their top six made a score in excess of 20, but Zakir Hasan’s 55 was the highest score. Prime Bank captain Asif Ahmed mounted a late fightback, but ran out of partners. He struck 32 of the 44 runs his team scored after his arrival at 229 for 7, before becoming the last man to be dismissed. Manan led Abahani’s bowling efforts with 3 for 54, while Afif, Shuvagata Hom and Mohammad Saifuddin took two each.A 641-run slugfest at the Fatullah Cricket Stadium ended with Mohammedan Sporting Club prevailing by seven runs, consigning Gazi Group Cricketers to their third consecutive defeat.Mohammedan ran up 324 for 8 after half-centuries from Rony Talukdar (92) and Shamsur Rahman (74) at the top. Chasing a stiff target, Gazi Group were off to a flying a start, but ended up on 317 for 8.Anamul Haque and Munim Shahriar kicked off the chase with a 61-run opening stand in 6.4 overs. Kamrul Islam Rabbi struck in the seventh over to end Anamul’s burst on 36 off 22 balls. He had struck three fours and two sixes. Mominul Haque fell soon after, but Shahriar repaired the damage with identical stands of 64 for the third and fourth wickets, with Jahurul Islam and Parvez Rasool respectively.Shahriar fell for 88 in the 39th over, after which Suhrawadi Shuvo kept Gazi afloat with a 51-run seventh-wicket stand with Mahedi Hasan. Though Shuvo and Mahedi struck a combined 84 runs, they only managed three fours between them, and the lack of boundaries hurt Gazi in the end. Kamrul, Bipul Sharma and Sajedul Islam took two wickets each.When Mohammedan batted, they were lifted by a 148-run second-wicket stand between Shamsur and Talukdar. The stand ended with Shamsur’s dismissal for 74 that had one four and five sixes. Talukdar fell in the 35th over, after the score had crossed 200. Thereafter, Bipul (28 off 31) and Nazmul Hossain Milon (47 off 33) made handy contributions to propel them to a big total. Mahedi (1 for 49) and Rasool (1 for 51) impressed in their respective quotas.In another curtailed game, at the BKSP-3 Ground in Savar, Imtiaz Hossain’s career-best 128 vaulted Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club to a 40-run win over Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club.Imtiaz, who struck 17 fours and four sixes, made nearly half his team’s runs as Prime Doleshwar put up 274 for 7 in an innings shortened to 46 overs. In reply, Dhanmondi Club were bowled out for 251 after their batsmen failed to convert their starts.Imtiaz’s second-wicket stand of 176 with Shahriar Nafees (67) formed the bulwark of Prime Doleshwar’s total. Sharifullah later made a valuable late contribution through a 27-ball 35.Three of Dhanmondi Club’s batsmen made 40s, including Tanbir Hayder, who top-scored with 46, while Ziaur Rahman made 37. But none hung on to make a big score.Five of the six bowlers used by Prime Doleshwar were among the wickets. Chathuranga de Silva and Arafat Sunny were the most impressive of the lot with figures of 2 for 38 and 2 for 41 in their respective nine overs.

Mark Wood has been told that he requires a second operation on his troublesome left ankle that is expected to rule him out for up to eight weeks of the 2016 season

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Apr-2016Mark Wood, the Durham and England bowler, has been told that he requires a second operation on his troublesome left ankle that is expected to rule him out for up to eight weeks of the 2016 season*.Wood, who flew home early from England’s tour of the UAE in November to undergo an initial operation on the ankle, was forced to pull out of his scheduled comeback for Durham’s second XI against Scotland, at Chester-le-Street on Tuesday, after suffering from more pain during pre-season training.After a cortisone injection failed to resolve the problem earlier this month, Wood today visited a specialist in the Netherlands who diagnosed a small piece of bone that is causing irritation and inflammation at the back of the joint.A keyhole procedure will take place either later this week or early next, and while the anticipated recovery time is less than the three to six months that would have been required after a full operation, it is still likely to rule Wood out of the three-Test series against Sri Lanka that gets underway next month.Wood, who played the most recent of his eight Tests against Pakistan at Abu Dhabi in October, was an important member of the England team that won back the Ashes last summer, claiming ten wickets in four Tests, including four in each of England’s wins at Cardiff and Trent Bridge.However, Wood himself has faced up to the increasing likelihood of surgery, admitting last week: “At some point, the back of my ankle will need to be operated on, that has been made pretty clear to me by England.”It would be the worst possible time, the worst possible feeling, the worst possible everything, but I would have to take it on the chin.”* 2pm BST: This story was updated with further information

The pitch was pancake flat and slow, the disheartened India A bowling a little listless, and the fielding poor. However, West Indies A balanced it out by throwing away wickets, not taking full advantage of three dropped catches, and failing to convert two

The Report by Sidharth Monga in Shimoga02-Oct-2013
Scorecard
The crowds came in huge numbers, but the action didn’t quite live up to their enthusiasm•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

An enthusiastic holiday crowd of over 10,000 packed under – and on – the trees that surround the cricket ground of Shimoga’s Jawaharlal Nehru College of Engineering, but what happened on the field of play didn’t match their enthusiasm. The pitch was pancake flat and slow, the disheartened India A bowling a little listless, and the fielding poor. However, West Indies A balanced it out by throwing away wickets, not taking full advantage of three dropped catches, and failing to convert two half-centuries into hundreds. They ended at 283 for 6 with Kraigg Brathwaite and Assad Fudadin scoring fifties, and Leon Johnson and Chadwick Walton cushioning the blow of two quick wickets with a 68-run partnership for the sixth wicket.The day began with pleasantries for West Indies A. First they won the toss on the benign pitch, and then as they waited to go out to bat they were treated to a rendition of “Rally Round the West Indies”. Similarly hospitable bowling followed from Mohammed Shami and Zaheer Khan, who couldn’t manage movement in the air. There wasn’t going to be much off the pitch anyway. The openers got through the quicks’ opening spell without having to play at many deliveries.Against spin, though, Kieran Powell and captain Kirk Edwards lost their heads. Powell holed out to cow corner, and Edwards walked past one soon after he was dropped and hit a six off left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt. Narsinh Deonarine played across the line to Zaheer, and was given out lbw.West Indies A had gone from 55 for 1 to 98 for 3, but Brathwaite wasn’t about to lose his mind. He ground the runs out with the spinners – Bhatt and Parvez Rasool offered enough cutting and driving opportunities, sometimes off successive deliveries. Fudadin wasn’t as alert as Bratwaite, but he was dropped by VA Jagadeesh and Mohammad Kaif on 12 and 27 at square gully and backward point. Abhishek Nayar and Shami were the unfortunate bowlers.Either side of tea, the two added 117 runs. After the drops, the game settled into a lethargic little stroll with easy runs for the two. Zaheer bowled a third spell, but wasn’t effective. After Zaheer was taken off after two overs in that spell, spin came on at both ends, and pretty much only a mistake was going to get any batsman out. The mistakes duly arrived. Fudadin fell lbw while sweeping Bhatt, and Brathwaite edged to the keeper while cutting Rasool.The twin breakthrough didn’t buoy India A enough to overcome conditions, and Johnson and Walton began to accumulate runs again. Both of them showed preference for clearing the infield, and kept managing to find vacant spaces to put the ball in. Johnson did that five times in one Rasool over, taking 20 off it. He ended the day unbeaten on 36.India A didn’t claim the new ball, but in the 88th over of the day Walton handed them fillip by trying to square-drive a wide ball and offering Uday Kaul an easy catch.

The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) has decided to nominate Afghanistan, which currently holds Affiliate status, for Associate membership with the ICC

Umar Farooq26-Sep-2012The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) has decided to nominate Afghanistan, which currently holds Affiliate status, for Associate membership with the ICC. The ACC also confirmed that it had received and will work on applications from Tajikistan, Chinese Taipei and Cambodia regarding affiliation with the Asian and global governing bodies.The ACC development committee, headed by PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf, had met in Islamabad on Monday to confer on various agendas for the calendar year 2013. The committee also approved a budget of US$6.1m for the development of the 18 non-Test playing Asian nations, and decided that the four Asian Test nations will continue to aid the development of the others by inviting them to their national academies.”Perhaps our most significant decision [taken at the meeting] has been to substantiate the claim of Afghanistan to be an Associate member of the ICC,” ACC chief executive, Ashraf-ul-Haq said in Lahore on Tuesday. “Afghanistan has been the strongest side among the Affiliate members, so we are backing them for the promotion.”The ACC has already informed the ICC of their support for Afghanistan, but the request will be looked into only in June 2013, at the ICC’s annual conference. “The applications are in order and we are hoping that at the next ICC annual meeting Afghanistan will be given the status they deserve,” Haq said.The Afghanistan Cricket Board had sanctioned an organisational review earlier this year, in a bid to provide better leadership and find qualified staff to run cricket administration in the war-torn country in the long run, and help develop their domestic cricket infrastructure, thus working towards the outstanding playing-standards criteria required for promotion. On the field, the team has continued to impress, finishing second only to Ireland to qualify – for the second eition running – for the ongoing World Twenty20, where they stretched India in a group-stage match. Vanuatu was the last country elevated to Associate membership of the ICC in 2009.Haq said that while several Asian countries were keen on ACC membership, they would only be processing the applications of Tajikistan, Chinese Taipei and Cambodia. The development of Oman, he said, is high on the agenda.”We want cricket to be played everywhere,” he said. “We [the ACC] are here for the minnows, and are working to promote them. While Afghanistan have reached such heights, Oman will be next in line, as they have got all the facilities there.”I am also impressed with the development work in China and I’m hoping in the next ten years they will start playing a high level of cricket. I am not sure if they will be a Test nation by then, but surely they are somewhere near playing top-level cricket. Apart from the cricketing aspect, Chiana is a power-house of commercial values – if they come up, the value [of the game] would have climbed by 30 to 40%.”China had showed interest in staging the 2012 Asia Cup in Guangzhou, the venue that hosted the first-ever Asian Games cricket tournament in November, though it was Bangladesh who eventually hosted the event earlier this year. According to Haq, China is a potential venue for cricket, but holding the men’s Asia Cup there is not possible due to the lack of floodlights in the stadium.

The ECB may prevent counties from playing in the Champions League Twenty20 unless payments are made up-front, according to a report in the Telegraph

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Aug-2011The ECB may prevent counties from playing in the Champions League Twenty20 unless payments are made up front, according to a report in the UK’s Telegraph.The board insists that the two counties that qualify for the qualification stage of the tournament – which will be the winners of the two Friends life T20 semi-finals; Lancashire v Leicestershire, and Hampshire v Somerset – have to receive the money to cover their costs from the tournament organisers before they are allowed to compete in the tournament that starts in September.Many of the teams that played in the first two Champions Leagues have either not received their payment on time or in full. Somerset and Sussex played in the inaugural 2009 Champions League in India, while no English county played in the second event, in South Africa in 2010, after a dispute between the ECB and the tournament organisers over scheduling.Richard Gould, who was Somerset’s chief executive when they went to the Champions League in 2009 and is now Surrey’s, told the Telegraph: ”The payment was late but was paid eventually, within about five months, and it was paid in full minus about 20% Indian government tax.”The Champions League is currently given a window in the Future Tours Programme, unlike the Indian Premier League which is regarded purely as a domestic competition.The qualification stage of the third tournament starts in Hyderabad on September 19, with both English counties scheduled to play the following day. Only teams from India, South Africa and Australia have been given direct berths in the main stages of the tournament, with teams from all other countries having to qualify first.

The weather dealt another blow to Warwickshire and Essex with play called off at lunch on the second day of their Division One relegation clash in the County Championship at Edgbaston

26-Aug-2010
ScorecardThe weather dealt another blow to Warwickshire and Essex with play called off at lunch on the second day of their Division One relegation clash in the County Championship at Edgbaston.Umpires Rob Bailey and Jeff Evans made two inspections before taking the inevitable decision as steady drizzle continued to soak the ground following heavy rain over a 24-hour period.With nearly half of this game now washed out, there was further bad news for the teams – still the bottom two in Division One – when Hampshire improved their chances of survival by taking maximum bonus points against Yorkshire at Scarborough.Warwickshire will still be hoping to make up for the time lost since they took seven wickets for 90 on the first morning, but Essex’s situation is becoming increasingly bleak with only one more game to play against Durham at Chelmsford.