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New Zealand coach Mike Hesson knows they have a tough task on their hands in the Pakistan series in the UAE next month

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Oct-2014New Zealand haven’t beaten Pakistan in a Test series since 1985, and their coach Mike Hesson knows they have a tough task on their hands in the series in the UAE next month. One of the main challenges will be adapting to the heat in the UAE, where the mercury rises to the 30s while in New Zealand the temperatures are mostly sub-20 degrees.”Temperatures will be in the mid-30s with a dry heat that really saps your energy,” Hesson wrote on his blog on the New Zealand Cricket website. “They don’t call Test cricket a war of attrition for nothing, so the warm-up match against Pakistan A starting on Monday will be critical to acclimatising to those conditions.”We now have a lot of experience both within the players and the management group in terms of dealing with the heat, but we’re not in denial that it’s going to be extreme.”Hesson set two main targets for his team in the Pakistan series: “The first is our ability to take wickets on unresponsive surfaces, and the second is that our batsmen all have a method to cope when the ball starts turning, to both defend and to score. If we can achieve those two tasks, we’ll go some way to improving our poor record against Pakistan.”New Zealand have just seven wins and 23 defeats in 50 Tests against Pakistan, who are currently dominating a two-Test series against Australia in the UAE.

A century from Northamptonshire’s captain Stephen Peters helped them to a slim advantage at the halfway point of a keenly contested match against Kent

Alan Gardner at Canterbury02-May-2013
ScorecardStephen Peters registered Northamptonshire’s first hundred of the season•Getty ImagesNorthamptonshire may not be Division Two leaders straight out of left-field, to slip into baseball parlance, but their hot streak has caught plenty by surprise. A century from their captain, Stephen Peters, and a by-now-familiar flick of the tail helped them to a slim advantage at the halfway point of a keenly contested match against Kent, as they pursue a third win out of four that would only fuel promotion talk on the bleachers.Northants have been here before and, having missed out by a single point in 2009 and 2011, they might be forgiven for fearing what Yogi Berra, the marvellously muddled former Major League catcher, once called “déjà vu all over again”. David Ripley, who succeeded David Capel as coach last year, was involved with the club on those previous occasions but said “choking” was not a problem he is worried about this time around.”Promotion is a target we think is achievable, especially with the start we’ve made,” he said. “The belief is there that we can do it. I’m confident we can. It’s partly a relief to come out and play well, when you’ve put the work in. Having got those wins in the bank, got ourselves at the top of the table, that’s great – we didn’t envisage being where we are but we’ll take it because we’ve played well.”Ironically, Northamptonshire’s preparations for the season focused on improving a disappointing recent record in one-day cricket – an area in which Ripley felt they “had the most to gain” – and one of the signings who has done so much to help them top the table, Steven Crook, was brought in with that aim in mind. Here, Crook hit 63, his third half-century in four innings since returning from Middlesex, to go with three wickets on the first day, as Northamptonshire recovered from 150 for 6 to post 303.”It ain’t over, til it’s over,” is another Berra aphorism and one the Northamptonshire lower order appear to have taken to heart. In four first innings, their last four wickets have added 648 runs – more than doubling the score on two occasions – although the picture at Canterbury was distorted slightly by Rob Newton batting at No. 11 after suffering a groin strain while fielding on Wednesday. That meant they fielded a last man with an average of 38.95, rather than the usual 21.07 of Trent Copeland.Crook’s contribution was second only to Peters, who recorded his 30th first-class century and the first by any Northamptonshire player this season. While their bowling attack has regularly treated the opposition like skittles, top-order runs have been a little less forthcoming. In April in England, that is not altogether unsurprising but this was the third time Peters has passed fifty and his batting, as well as his leadership, is likely to be crucial if Northants are to stay the course.”He’s been outstanding, he really has,” Ripley said of Peters, who is in his first season as captain. “His example batting, you’ve only got to see how dearly he sells himself in games like we’ve seen today. He’s steely, competitive, loves it when it’s tough. He’s spoken very well with the team, tactically he’s been very good and a lot of the impetus we’ve built, he’s helped us get it going.”The engine required a little turning over at the start of the day and it would be inaccurate to say that the morning session took place under a blanket of cloud only in that a blanket suggests a degree of warmth. That didn’t stop Peters from batting in shirt sleeves and, if the goose pimples helped focus the mind, it certainly wasn’t a bad idea.Peters was involved in the two most substantial stands of the innings – putting on 63 with both David Sales and Crook – but it was his temperament and focus in the face of testing spells from Kent’s raggedy old stagers, Charlie Shreck and Mark Davies, that really set the tone.Ripley said Northants had expected a tough encounter and an important test of their credentials in this fixture and, by the time the sun finally came out in the late afternoon, they had stolen a few more bases. “We’ve always had good four-day skills,” he said. “We’ve been there and gone close before and there’s a feeling that we can be there again.”

Left out of India’s Test squad, Suresh Raina nudged the national selectors with an attacking century on the opening day of Uttar Pradesh’s second-round match against Baroda at Moti Bagh

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Nov-2013
ScorecardFile photo – Suresh Raina hit 12 fours and four sixes•Associated PressLeft out of India’s Test squad, Suresh Raina nudged the national selectors with an attacking century on the opening day of Uttar Pradesh’s second-round match against Baroda at Moti Bagh. Raina’s 123, off 154 balls, helped UP to 291 on an evenly-matched day. Baroda struck with quick wickets on the final session and had all but wrapped up the innings before stumps.The pitch at Moti Bagh wasn’t as tranquil as the surroundings, though. There was bounce and plenty of turn for the spinners as the day wore on and Raina did well to overcome those challenges, and in particular the left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt, who took 5 for 98.UP lost all nine wickets to the spin duo of Bhatt and the offspinner Utkarsh Patel. Bhatt had Mukul Dagar caught at backward short leg before Utkarsh got one to turn square to induce a thin edge off Tanmay Srivastava to the wicketkeeper Pinal Shah. It was the first of five dismissals for Pinal, who was impressive behind the stumps off the spinners.Mohammad Kaif and Raina settled in after lunch to add 85 for the third wicket before Kaif was caught behind trying to cut Bhatt. Raina and Parvinder Singh played aggressively in their stand of 110 for the fourth. Raina smashed four sixes and one of those, over long-on, brought up his century.Raina is among several possible contenders for a Test spot, one of which will be vacated by Sachin Tendulkar at the end of the West Indies Tests. Rohit Sharma was given a chance thanks to his splendid limited-overs form and he grabbed the opportunity with century on debut in Kolkata in a pressure scenario. Simultaneously, across the country, Raina scored a century to give the selectors something to think about before they pick the team to South Africa.Aggression, however, got the better of both Raina and Parvinder. Parvinder gave Bhatt the charge and was stumped, before Raina charged the same bowler and was caught at deep cover. UP lost their way after tea and Bhatt brought up his five-wicket haul with a swagger, taking a low return catch that rocketed towards him. As a send-off, Bhatt showed five fingers to the departing Praveen Gupta, as West Indies fast bowler Fidel Edwards does. UP collapsed from 249 for 3 to 291 for 9 at stumps.

Some stern words from the leadership pair of Brendon McCullum and Kane Willamson helped New Zealand to bounce back against England

Nagraj Gollapudi at Lord's18-May-2013If not for some stern words from the leadership pair of Brendon McCullum and Kane Willamson during the final drinks break on Saturday, New Zealand might have found it hard to stop England from marching away with a massive lead. That was the moment Tim Southee pinpointed when asked to reveal exactly what had helped New Zealand bounce back late on the third evening of an exciting first Test.”The first half of the session we just ambled,” said Southee, who bagged three wickets in 17 deliveries to swell his match tally to six. “Brendon pulled the guys up during the drinks session and Kane gave us a few stern words. That did mean something because we were meandering along in the field.”Until that final hour of the day, England had imposed themselves completely. Their bowlers made amends for the errors of Friday, by bowling fuller lengths to earn a first-innings lead. And even when Alastair Cook and Nick Compton had departed in quick succession having made good starts, England recovered through the diligence of the impressive Joe Root and the rock solid Jonathan Trott, who was enjoying playing on one of his favourite grounds, where he has now eight successive 50-plus scores.Beset by the twin problem of having to keep wicket, after BJ Watling walked off with an injured knee, and losing his lone specialist spinner in Bruce Martin to a calf injury, McCullum threw the ball to Southee, who had gone wicketless in his first spell of the innings. Factors such as a slow pitch, warm sunshine, lack of swing and a pair of batsmen playing aggressively to build England’s lead made Southee’s task daunting.His fellow fast-bowling pair of Trent Boult and Neil Wagner had struggled with their lengths and he had seen the England bowlers Stuart Broad and Steve Finn falter the previous afternoon. Perhaps that might have helped him realised quickly that the key was to pitch on the right lengths. “A touch fuller,” he said. “There wasn’t a hell of a lot of swing there for us throughout the whole of today. We had to try something else before it started to do a little bit during the last session. It was a touch on the slower side but there are still ways to go about it and we had to adjust our lengths.”Southee’s patience paid off as he beat the defence of Root, who had shown remarkable composure until his fall. Then Southee earned the distinction of getting Matt Prior for a duck in successive innings of the same Test. “He had a great series in New Zealand,” Southee said. “He can take the game away with his destructive nature. He is a big wicket because of the way he can come out and play aggressively and score quickly.”Southee had returned to active cricket after recovering from a thumb injury during the home series against England earlier this year but six wickets at an average of 56 in three Tests – though he bowled better than that suggests – showed he was still regaining fluidity. He admitted that the presence of a strong unit of fast bowlers, including Boult, Wagner and Doug Bracewell, had helped bring out their competitive nature.Asked to predict which way the match was heading, Southee played it safe, saying that New Zealand could not afford to get too far ahead of themselves because the England tail was still capable of hurting them badly.

Clarke was once again Australia’s standout batsman but the innings crumbled either side of his hold-it-together stand with Matthew Wade to leave India in control

The Report by Siddarth Ravindran02-Mar-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsBhuvneshwar Kumar struck three times in his opening spell•BCCIBefore the start of the match, the local organisers performed a religious ceremony in the middle and if, like bowlers around the world, they had asked for answers on how to dismiss Michael Clarke, they had no luck. Clarke was once again Australia’s standout batsman, top scoring with 91, but the innings crumbled either side of his hold-it-together stand with Matthew Wade to leave India in control.And if his batting wasn’t enough to leave connoisseurs raving, Clarke sprang a surprising and enterprising declaration just before stumps – the first time a team had declared on the opening day since 1974 – to give his bowlers a shot at India.The first day of the Hyderabad Test was a seesaw affair, with India dominant in the first and final sessions, and Australia unshakeable in the second. After tea, India’s spinners again proved too difficult to read for the visiting batsmen, and the home side reclaimed the advantage after Clarke and Wade had levelled the game with a century stand. The pair had to do a repair job due to seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s new-ball breakthroughs.Bhuvneshwar had made his debut on a dustbowl in Chennai, the worst sort of surface for a quick bowler. He didn’t even get to bowl in the second innings, and the speculation was that he could make way for left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha in this Test. Not only did he play, though, his skiddy bowling accounted for three top-order batsmen in the first session. Those strikes were his first wickets in Test cricket, and the first for an Indian seamer in this series.Smart stats

This was the first time a team declared their first innings on the opening day of a Test since Pakistan did so against England at Lord’s in 1974.

The lowest first-innings total a team declared on and went on to win is 200 by Australia against England at the MCG in 1936-37.

Michael Clarke was dismissed in the 90s for the fifth time in his career. It was also the third time (second against India) that he fell on the score of 91.

Clarke also became only the second Australian captain, after Kim Hughes, and the sixth overall to be dismissed in the 90s against India.

The 145-run stand between Clarke and Matthew Wade was Australia’s highest fifth-wicket stand in Tests in India and their sixth-highest fifth-wicket stand against India overall. Six of the century stands came after the fourth wicket had fallen for fewer than 100.

Wade’s 62 was his fifth fifty-plus score in Tests. He has scored 592 runs so far at an average of 39.46 with two centuries and three fifties.

The pitch was dry, there were puffs of dust when the ball bounced, and it had plenty of cracks that should excite the spinners as the match progresses. Ishant Sharma’s first ball jumped off one of them and swerved dramatically away from Ed Cowan, but Ishant didn’t pose much of a threat otherwise with the new ball.Bhuvneshwar did all the damage, using his ability to get the ball to snake back towards the left-hand batsmen. David Warner inside-edged after looking to play across the line, and speculation over Cowan’s place is set to resume after he was adjudged lbw for 4, though the ball pitched just outside leg.Two potential contenders for Cowan’s place, Shane Watson and Phillip Hughes, set about bringing some stability to the innings. Watson began by middling plenty of deliveries, while Hughes got going with boundaries in his favourite point area. The pair had been together for about an hour, when Watson misjudged how much a Bhuvneshwar delivery would bounce and attempted a powerful swipe to midwicket. He missed, and the stroke that served him so effectively in Twenty20s, left him looking like he lacked patience on the first morning of a Test. Hughes had begun briskly, moving to 17 off 21, but was again skittish against spin, playing out several maidens to R Ashwin. He scored only two runs off his next 36 deliveries before being caught behind.Facing another crisis, Clarke was in prime form, twinkle-toed as usual against the spinners and assured against the fast bowlers. There were two standout shots early on – a dance-down-the-track loft over Ashwin’s head for six, and a clip off Bhuvneshwar for four that bisected two short midwickets.Ashwin had looked good in the morning session, tossing the ball up and bowling accurately, waiting for the pitch to play its part instead of attempting too many variations too soon. Australia were helped as India held back Ashwin for more than an hour after the break, instead turning to Harbhajan Singh, who was again below his best.It wasn’t a flawless innings from Clarke. An edge off Bhuvneshwar dropped well short of the keeper, a surprise legcutter from Ishant confounded him, but the biggest chances were a close lbw shout on 32 that the umpire deemed to be sliding down and a drop on 52 as Cheteshwar Pujara put down a bat-pad chance at short leg.While Clarke was all confidence right from the start, his partner Wade, who was deemed fit despite a suffering a cheek fracture on Friday, was more circumspect early on. Wade began to feel comfortable following a drive over mid-on off Harbhajan after almost an hour. He didn’t sweep much, a shot that caused him problems in the first Test, and was harsh whenever the bowler dropped short, picking up several boundaries past point on his way to a half-century.Just when Australia seemed to be capitalising on their decision to bat, things went awry. Wade slapped a short ball to a diving Bhuvneshwar at point, ending a 145-run partnership and starting a collapse. Moises Henriques was far less certain than he was in his debut Test, and was bowled by a peach from Ravindra Jadeja. Henriques was looking to play to the leg side but the turn beat the bat and hit the top of middle. The debutant Glenn Maxwell didn’t last long either, edging behind for 13, and when Clarke missed a sweep to be bowled Australia had lost five wickets for 28 runs.With the ball turning and bouncing, Clarke decided that the final pair wouldn’t last too long and chose to test India’s openers before stumps. There was no reward for the innovative move, though, as Virender Sehwag and M Vijay played out the final three overs.The batting failure will hurt, but what made it worse for Clarke was that the changes Australia made meant their bowling was weaker than in the previous Test. Xavier Doherty, playing his first Test in two years, is the lead spinner instead of Nathan Lyon, and the two allrounders, Henriques and Maxwell, are both better batsmen than they are Test bowlers.

Mason Greenwood is willing to reject a move to Barcelona if he is given the chance to make a Manchester United comeback under Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

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Greenwood on loan at GetafeRatcliffe says United will take decision in the summerGreenwood has interest from major European clubsWHAT HAPPENED?

Ratcliffe has spoken of the desire to "understand the facts, not the hype", as a potential softening of the ground towards a potential return for Greenwood. The striker was not expected to play for United again after he was arrested in January 2022 on charges of attempted rape and several other offences. Now, reports that Greenwood would be unwilling to move to Barcelona if United were interested, as he feels he owes a "debt" to the Old Trafford club.

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Reports claim that both Barcelona and Atletico Madrid are interested in signing Greenwood. As a result, United have placed a new price tag on the striker of €40 million (£34m/$43m). United may face fierce criticism if they do pocket a major fee for the striker, given his previous behaviour.

Getty ImagesDID YOU KNOW?

Since joining Getafe, Greenwood has made 24 appearances, scoring seven goals and registering five assists. In his time at United, he scored 35 goals in 129 appearances.

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GettyWHAT NEXT FOR GREENWOOD?

The striker could next be in action for the Spanish club against Barcelona this weekend, in a fixture that could potentially be billed as an audition for his future employers. They will then face Las Palmas at home next weekend.

Ben Harmison was booed by Kent supporters at Tunbridge Wells as a last day run-chase against Hampshire run out of steam in near identical circumstances to last month’s pursuit in Canterbury against Northamptonshire.

Mark Pennell at Tunbridge Wells09-Jun-2012
ScorecardLiam Dawson’s century set up a Kent run chase at Tunbridge Wells but boos sounded when Ben Harmison was unable to escape a run of poor form•Getty ImagesThere was a sense of déjà vu amongst Kent supporters at Tunbridge Wells after watching their side’s last day run-chase against Hampshire run out of steam in near identical circumstances to last month’s pursuit in Canterbury against Northamptonshire.When the teams shook hands on a draw at 6pm, Kent had laboured to reach 220 for 6 and were a weighty 84 runs of their target, having agreed to chase 304 off a minimum of 70 overs.Having made a decent enough start through openers Rob Key and Sam Northeast, Kent’s attempts to keep up with an asking rate of 4.34 an over were quickly derailed after lunch. Both batsmen struggled to hit Hampshire’s wily allrounder Dimitri Mascarenhas off the square, let alone to the boundary, and by the time Key went leg before to Kadir Ali, the asking rate was already approaching 5.5 an over.Northeast, only recently restored to the side after Kent ended the loan stay of Middlesex opener Scott Newman, manfully tried to work the ball around in posting a 94-ball 50, but at the other end Ben Harmison was struggling to find form.Harmison, the winter recruit from Chester-le-Street, was branded the villain of the piece at St Lawrence in May when Kent also fell well short against Andrew Hall’s Northamptonshire, and once more, the likeable lad from Durham had to endure the scorn of Kent supporters.It might have been fairer to Harmison had Kent promoted the likes of Geraint Jones, Darren Stevens or Matt Coles at the fall of Key’s wicket. Instead, they sent in Harmison, a player fighting to retain his place in the side and a batsman out of sorts. Little wonder then that the asking rate soon rocketed to 6.2 an over.After hanging around for 32 balls for his 11 runs, Harmison – in a sad moment of sacrifice – clipped one straight to mid-wicket and trooped off to contemplate a probable appearance in the Kent second string.Too late perhaps, Kent sent in Stevens, but he perished for a cameo 28 when caught on the cover boundary, then Coles was also pushed up the order to bludgeon only to miscue his way to 18 from 27 balls before he too holed out to cover.Once Northeast perished to a low catch at cover, Kent’s last chance of success rested on the shoulders of overseas batter Brendan Nash. For a moment the former West Indies Test player appeared capable of pulling off the impossible but, with his score on 18, he leant back to cut against Kabir Ali to see Carberry pull off his third excellent catch.One-time Glamorgan stalwart Michael Powell then teamed up with honorary Welshman Jones to play out time for the draw with Kent taking five points to Hampshire’s six.The run-chase followed Hampshire’s declaration half-an-hour before lunch on 303 for 8 and with Liam Dawson still unbeaten on 134. That sparked a double forfeiture and hopes for a thrilling finale to the match but sadly, it all proved to be something of a false dawn.

A round-up of the first day of the Group A Ranji Trophy matches on December 7, 2014

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Dec-2014Group A
ScorecardFile photo: CM Gautam saved Karnataka from a collapse but fell six short of a hundred•K SivaramanFifties from Kunal Kapoor and CM Gautam revived defending champions Karnataka after they were struggling at 97 for 5 because of the Tamil Nadu pacers at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. J Kaushik and M Mohammed posed plenty of problems for the hosts early on before Kapoor and Gautam put on 96 for the sixth wicket to steer them towards 200.Put in to bat, the Karnataka openers were caught behind – Robin Uthappa (14) by L Balaji and Mayank Agarwal (9) by Kaushik in successive deliveries. Just when the score went past 50, Manish Pandey ran himself out for a brisk 24 by risking a second run after steering the ball to deep fine leg, and his dive could not undo Mohammed’s accurate throw.Kaushik dented them further with a double blow, getting rid of Karun Nair and Stuart Binny for single-digit scores, drawing edges off both batsmen. Kapoor resisted at the other end with a gritty 87, which featured 18 fours, and consolidated with Gautam. Karnataka were still going at four an over when Mohammed broke the crucial stand with an incoming delivery to rattle Kapoor’s stumps. Gautam got steady company from Shreyas Gopal as they stitched a stand of 56 for the seventh wicket as the team score went towards 250, and Gautam’s towards a hundred.Mohammed broke that partnership as well, with Gopal’s wicket for 24 and struck the stumps again when Vinay Kumar missed a slog in his next over. Batting with the tail, Gautam was only six runs away from his hundred when he handed a catch straight to M Rangarajan at cover for Balaji’s second wicket. Kaushik wrapped up the innings for 290 to finish with 4 for 53; Mohammed took 3 for 80 and Balaji 2 for 50.Tamil Nadu openers Kaushik Gandhi and Abhinav Mukund played out the 10 overs in the evening for 22 runs.
ScorecardDomestic stalwarts Mumbai were troubled by both pace and spin as they were dismissed by Jammu & Kashmir for 236 at the Wankhede Stadium. Pacers Ram Dayal, Umar Nazir and Samiullah Beigh had reduced the hosts to 100 for 4 and then 158 for 6, despite an opening stand of fifty, before newly-appointed captain Suryakumar Yadav rescued them with a fifty. J&K scored 88 for 1 to reduce the lead to 148 by stumps.Debutants Kevin Almeida and Bravish Shetty put on 51 for the first wicket after Mumbai chose to bat. But both fell in successive overs and Wasim Jaffer was bowled by Beigh for 15. Dayal rocked them further by sending Aditya Tare and Abhishek Nayak back for low single-digit scores to make the score 134 for 5. Suryakumar counterattacked with a 55-ball 57, with nine fours and a six. Dhawal Kulkarni fought back too by hammering four sixes and a four in his unbeaten 42 to lead the score past 200 as Parvez Rasool took two wickets and left-arm spinner Waseem Raza took 3 for 29.J&K lost opener Adil Rishi in the fourth over before Shubham Khajuria (47*) and Bandeep Singh (34*) put on an unbeaten 82 for the second wicket.
ScorecardAnureet Singh’s 10th five-for in first-class cricket put Railways on top on the first day as Madhya Pradesh were wrapped up for 181 in Delhi. Anureet’s five were complemented by three from Krishnakant Upadhyay which did not allow any MP batsman to score a fifty.Jalaj Saxena and Rameez Khan top-scored for MP with 41 each after they were put in to bat. They were at a comfortable 70 for 1 before losing four wickets within nine runs as captain Devendra Bundela and Harpreet Singh fell for ducks. Rameez and Zafar Ali revived the innings briefly with a stand of 48 for the sixth wicket. However, Anureet took three more wickets after Rameez and Zafar fell and finished the innings in 79 overs.Railways openers Asad Pathan and Abhishek Kaushik scored 21 runs together in the nine overs they faced before stumps to reduce the lead to 160.
ScorecardSudip Chatterjee’s composed, unbeaten 91 aided by vital contributions from opener Arindam Das and wicketkeeper Shreevats Goswami helped Bengal kick off their Ranji Trophy season on a decent note. Read the full report here.

A round-up of the fifth round of Ranji Trophy’s Group B matches on December 9, 2012

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Dec-2012
Scorecard
After the bowlers had shot out Odisha for 181 on the first day, four of the batsmen hit half-centuries to consolidate on Baroda’s advantage in Vadodara. Baroda are still missing both the Pathan brothers due to injury, but they didn’t let that affect them much as they steadily built up a solid total. Opener Aditya Waghmode made his fifth fifty-plus score in six matches, and added 125 for the second wicket with Abhimanyu Chauhan. After that their stand-in captain Ambati Rayudu and their wicketkeeper Pinal Shah, returning after a month’s absence, put on 102 for the fifth wicket to swell Baroda’s lead. With Odisha in second place on the points table, and Baroda in third, an outright win for Baroda will be a huge boost with the Ranji knockouts only a few rounds away.
Scorecard
Uttar Pradesh’s batsmen built up a big score on the second day against Vidarbha. Arif Alam closed in on his second successive century and Piyush Chawla celebrated his Test call-up with an 85 that included three sixes to push UP past 500 in Nagpur. They might not declare overnight as Alam was still seven short of his hundred, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who was picked for India’s Twenty20 squad for the first time, keeping him company. It wasn’t the quickest of scoring, but UP will hope that the big first-innings total will put pressure on Vidarbha’s batsmen, who have already spent two full days on the field. UP are on top of the table despite having played a game less than their three closest chasers, and the three points from a first-innings lead should keep them in first place.
Scorecard
Haryana bounced back from a dreadful start to their season with a surprise victory over Delhi in the last round, but they looked set to be second-best again this time as Maharashtra comfortably took the first-innings lead in Pune. Sangram Atitkar, who reached 80 twice this season without going on to make a hundred, completed his century this time, and his 177-run stand with Ankit Bawne, who made his third half-century in three innings, put Maharashtra in charge. Maharashtra had lost only three wickets and were already 45 ahead.

Ryan ten Doeschate, the Netherlands allrounder, will play for Otago Volts in the HRV Cup this season

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Sep-2012Netherlands allrounder Ryan ten Doeschate will play for Otago Volts in the HRV Cup, New Zealand’s T20 league, this season. Ten Doeschate was declared the Most Valuable Player the last time he played in the tournament – for Canterbury in the 2010-11 season – with 284 runs from nine games to be the second-highest run-getter in the league.”I am really excited about having another opportunity to play in New Zealand. I really enjoyed the HRV Cup and the conditions that I encountered when I was last there a couple of years ago and can’t wait to come back. Otago has a strong side for this season and I am looking forward to getting over there and making a contribution,” ten Doeschate was quoted as saying by .Doeschate has represented Essex in the English domestic season this year, for the Clydesdale Bank40, Friends Life t20 and the LV County Championship. He was Essex’s fourth-highest run-getter in the Friends Life t20. He has also played for Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, Mashonaland Eagles in Zimbabwe, Impi and Western Province in South Africa and Tasmania in Australia.”We were looking for a player who can bat in the top order as well as being an option to us with the ball and Ryan fits that description perfectly. Ryan is an aggressive batsman which fits nicely with how our team wants to play this season,” Otago Volts coach Vaughn Johnson said.Ten Doeschate will arrive for the league in the middle of December and will be available for eight matches besides the finals.