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ESPNcricinfo previews the first ODI between South Africa and India in Durban

The Preview by Siddhartha Talya11-Jan-2011

Match Facts

An impressive show in the Twenty20 match and strong batting skills could help Wayne Parnell make the final XI•Getty Images

January 12, Durban

Start time 14:30 (12.30 GMT, 18.00 IST)

Big Picture

The Test series between the top two teams in international cricket was meant to be this tour’s biggest draw, but the ODI series that starts on Wednesday is almost as significant. Bilateral one-dayers are an after-party to a grand event, though not in this case with the World Cup just over a month away and with the teams required to finalise their fifteen-member squads for the event by January 19. Three of the five games in this series – the last official 50-over preparation for the two sides ahead of the World Cup – will be played out before the deadline and they are likely to influence the composition of the final squads.Injuries to Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir have led to call-ups for Rohit Sharma and M Vijay for the ODI series, though Virat Kohli appears to have done enough in the middle order for his place to be in any risk. There is more competition in the bowling, with a possible tussle between Sreesanth and Munaf Patel for a spot alongside Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar and Ashish Nehra in the fast-bowling attack. Praveen’s eleventh-hour injury gives Ishant Sharma, who had an ordinary Test series, another go at the one-day level, though he is almost certain to miss the first game. Piyush Chawla returns to the 50-over format after more than two years, but R Ashwin is the favoured second spinner in the squad, while Harbhajan Singh will look to build on his performance in the Tests.South Africa have roped in legspinner Imran Tahir and left-arm spinner Robin Peterson, as potential slow-bowling partners to Johan Botha; Colin Ingram, who scored a century on ODI debut, fills in for the injured Jacques Kallis at No.3, and could be in the running for a top-order spot in the World Cup, while David Miller will possibly be fighting for a middle-order slot along with the leg-spinning allrounder Faf du Plessis. The battle for the third seamer’s position will be between Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Wayne Parnell, though Ryan McLaren, not playing this series, has also done the job in the past.South Africa, at home on lively tracks, go in as the favourites. The team coming on top will go into the World Cup on a high, but individual performances in this series could be just as important as the scoreline itself.

Form guide

South Africa: WLWLW
India: WWWWW

Players to watch out for…

Virat Kohli: One of India’s in-form batsman, Kohli comes into this series with two centuries and two half-centuries in his last six matches. Almost a certainty in India’s World Cup squad, given a successful 2010, an impressive performance in tougher conditions – his only ODI series outside the subcontinent has been in Zimbabwe – should further reaffirm his chances.Faf du Plessis: He was signed up for US$120,000 at the IPL auctions and will be eager for an ODI debut here. An impressive List A batting average of 44.37 and his abilities as a legpinner makes him a strong contender as an all-round option in South Africa’s middle order.

Team news

The teams could shuffle their line-ups for the first few games. Sachin Tendulkar returns to the 50-over format after a self-imposed break – his last ODI was in Gwalior, where he scored that record-breaking double-century against the same opposition.Praveen’s absence puts Munaf in the frame for the third seamer’s spot, but India will want to take a good look at the conditions before taking a call on whether to go with two spinners and two fast bowlers.India (possible): 1 Sachin Tendulkar, 2 M Vijay, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Suresh Raina, 6 Yusuf Pathan, 7 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 R Ashwin / Munaf Patel, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Ashish NehraParnell’s impressive show in the Twenty20 match will make it tough for Smith to ignore him. Tsotsobe was in good form against Pakistan in the UAE when Parnell was injured, and the latter’s batting credentials could be the clinching factor.South Africa (possible): 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Colin Ingram, 4 AB de Villiers (wk), 5 JP Duminy, 6 Faf du Plessis / Robin Petersen, 7 David Miller, 8 Johan Botha, 9 Dale Steyn, 10 Wayne Parnell / Lonwabo Tsotsobe, 11 Morne Morkel

Stats and trivia

• India’s have won only three matches and lost 16 against South Africa in South Africa – their worst record in any country
• Sachin Tendulkar has scored 1422 one-day runs in South Africa, but only 522 of those have come against the hosts, at an average of 26.10

Quotes

“It’s something that I have dreamt of throughout my captaincy.”South Africa captain Graeme Smith is excited at the prospect of having an attacking spinner in Imran Tahir in his squad

“You have to start respecting the bowlers right from the very start.”India captain MS Dhoni knows conditions in South Africa are different from the ones the India team is used to at home

Andrew Strauss has admitted England fielded the wrong bowling attack in Hobart but accepted that his team should still have been able to chase down a modest target to level the one-day series

Andrew McGlashan at Bellerive Oval21-Jan-2011Andrew Strauss has admitted England fielded the wrong bowling attack in Hobart but accepted that his team should still have been able to chase down a modest target to level the one-day series. Instead they subsided to 184 all out despite Australia losing two frontline bowlers to injury, and now face a tough task to get back into the series.England twice had the home side on the ropes when they batted. Firstly the new ball reduced them to 4 for 33 after Strauss inserted Australia following heavy morning rain. However, he lacked a fourth seamer to ram home the advantage – instead having to use Jonathan Trott, James Tredwell and Michael Yardy – and the problem occurred again towards the end of the innings when Australia lifted themselves from 8 for 142 through a record ninth-wicket stand of 88 between Shaun Marsh and Doug Bollinger.”In hindsight we should probably have got the fourth seamer in our side, that was a mistake,” Strauss said. “We probably didn’t think it was going to be quite as slow and stodgy as it was. A [Luke] Wright or a [Chris] Woakes would have been a good addition to side, but things are always clearer at the end of the game than the start.”The first sign that Strauss was a frontline quick short came when Trott and Tredwell found themselves operating in tandem by 20th over with Australia still 4 for 56. “That’s the problem with only three seamers, we were probably a little light of a fourth seamer to bowl at that stage,” Strauss said. “The biggest regret is that Doug Bollinger got 30 and put on all those runs with Marsh.”Still, England should have been capable of chasing 231 but, as at the MCG where they managed to post 294, too many wickets were handed to the opposition rather than bowlers having to work for them. Trott pulled a long hop to midwicket, Ian Bell carved to backward point and Michael Yardy was run out. Eoin Morgan was also caught as he tried to clear mid-on having opted to take the Powerplay.”It was a very poor day, there’s no doubt about it,” he said. “When you are chasing that score you need one guy to get 80-odd and none of us did that. There we lots of 20s and 30s, too many early wickets and ultimately it wasn’t good.”A lot of us made poor decisions today. There were quite a few soft dismissals,” Strauss added. “The one thing I’d say is that we aren’t in the business of handing out huge recriminations to our batsmen. We want to see them play positively, that’s the most important thing for us. It’s worked well for us in the past and that last thing we want to see is batsmen going into their shells. In that sense it won’t be all doom and gloom, we just have to play smart cricket and we didn’t do enough of that today.”England are also able to point to the absence of James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann. The two quick bowlers are rejoining the squad in Sydney, but Broad isn’t expected to play during the series and Swann is out for up to two weeks. They now have an added concern about Tim Bresnan who picked up a calf problem and needed a runner when he batted, but Strauss said an early comeback for Anderson, who isn’t scheduled to play until Adelaide, wasn’t being considered.

West Indies allrounder Dwayne Bravo is certain of his team’s qualification for the quarter-finals of the 2011 World Cup

Sharda Ugra in Delhi22-Feb-2011The group in which the West Indies finds themselves in this World Cup is not quite the football-esque Group of Death, but it could well be called a Cluster of Calamity. Where on any given day, a team that is highly-favoured, generously-rated, strongly-supported could find its plans, dreams and ambitions, upended. To whittle down the company that West Indies keep along with India, South Africa, England, Bangladesh, Ireland and Netherlands into four quarter-finalists is tougher than getting Sreesanth to separate his bowling from his bravado.West Indies’ allrounder Dwayne Bravo, though, has a different point of view, “I have no doubt in my mind we are going to qualify for the second round. And obviously, take it from there.” It is a declaration through which Bravo has painted a target on his back two days before he gets out on the Ferozshah Kotla to play West Indies’ first World Cup match against South Africa. Bravo did so by dismissing the idea that his team’s group was tougher than the one made up of Sri Lanka, Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Canada. “It’s an open tournament and both groups have teams who can spring surprises and that’s what the World Cup wants – one of the big teams being surprised by one of the under-rated teams.”West Indies are one of those under-rated teams, particularly since the last time they beat a Test team in an ODI was in June 2009. Since then, they have been beaten in their last two series at home by Bangladesh (0-3) and South Africa (0-5), both of whom they will meet in this group. It is as if the Gods are mocking the form book, destiny and whatever else can be mocked.The series against South Africa, says Bravo, could have been “4-1 in the West Indies’ favour” and in hindsight, it spelt out his side’s biggest flaw: “We had a lot of opportunities, a lot of key moments that could have won us the games. But it was simple mistakes that cost us. We have identified those mistakes. We have to come up with good game plans as to how if those those situations do occur again, we will be more prepared to facing them.”Bravo’s own form in the run-up to the World Cup has been iffy, with only one fifty in his last ten games, but he said he was now “confident and happy” after his brief run in the rain-drenched ODI series in Sri Lanka. “I am waiting for the tournament to begin, it will be a long one and I have a big role to play with bat and ball.” Two days ago, Chris Gayle said Bravo was a factor because he brought “fireworks” to the team. “He get that buzz around and bring that energy… Regardless of what is happening, I’m not too worried about him, he will be ready to go when the umpire says play.” For his part, Bravo says, “We can’t wait for Thursday to come.”Gayle and Bravo make up two of the trio who turned down central contracts offered to them by the West Indies Cricket Board, giving themselves the opportunity to be freelance Twenty20 players in leagues mushrooming around the world. They may be in the same corner of a debate, but Bravo believes they must also share a common load in the World Cup. Not just because they are IPL regulars but also due to their all-round abilities. “Allrounders are very important in this part of the world and we have four top-quality allrounders. The captain Darren Sammy is one, Kieron Pollard, myself and Chris Gayle. On any given day if two of us out of the four have a good day, the West Indies will be in a good position to win games.”The IPL’s insider information was not going to be enormous, Bravo said, because “it’s the same information that Graeme Smith or J P Duminy will have.” What could give the West Indians a slight advantage was the similarity of the conditions in the sub-continent to their home pitches, but this, too, only when compared to “some of the other teams who play on hard bouncy surfaces.”Once we play properly and execute our plans properly, that obviously is going to come into play… knowing India, spin and slow-medium play a big part and we will also take that into consideration.”The West Indies’ recent form and rankings were dismissed as ‘history’ with Bravo distilling the news, the noise and the predictions into one simple idea: “This is a new tournament in a different setting. Each team starts with zero points and every team has an opportunity to win the World Cup.”The match against South Africa will be the first ‘marquee’ contest of the World Cup not featuring any of the home teams. The West Indies would want to light a few fires under a few chairs in their group, “because we have to begin well…we don’t want to be in the middle of the tournament where we are trying to play catch up cricket. We are not in a position where we can take it easy at the moment as we are rebuilding and trying to get back into winning ways… this tournament is important to us and the people of the Caribbean.”The people of the Caribbean will no doubt also keep Bravo’s promise of a quarter-final spot in mind.

Cricket South Africa have announced the appointment of Russell Domingo as coach of the South Africa A side for both the four-day unofficial Test series and the one-dayers against Bangladesh A

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Mar-2011Cricket South Africa have announced the appointment of Russell Domingo as coach of the South Africa A side for both the four-day unofficial Test series and the one-dayers against Bangladesh A next month. This is Domingo’s second appointment as head coach of the A side, as he was also took the squad to Bangladesh last year.”Russell has emerged as one of the outstanding young coaches in our cricket structures,” said chief executive Gerald Majola. “He did a top-class job last year when he took a very young South Africa A side to Bangladesh where they won the four-day Test series and also a triangular one-day series that also included West Indies A.”Two of the players in that squad, Colin Ingram and David Miller, have gone on to represent the Proteas with distinction while the West Indies team they beat in the final included Devon Smith, Darren Bravo and Kirk Edwards of the current West Indies World Cup squad.”Russell has achieved great success with the Chevrolet Warriors both in terms of reaching and winning finals and in bringing young players through to maturity. This includes the likes of Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Wayne Parnell, Colin Ingram and Rusty Theron, who have become regular selections for the Proteas in the various formats, and the Smuts brothers who have just had outstanding Standard Bank Pro20 campaigns.”I would also like to thank the Chevrolet Warriors for making Russell available for this important position,” Majola concluded.

Sunny Sohal was like a millionaire spending the last night of his life in Las Vegas, but as it often happens in heist films, the casino owners withstood the brilliant early hand

The Bulletin by Sidharth Monga01-May-2011
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were outOne adventure too many: Sunny Sohal plays the fatal reverse-heave after the early onslaught•AFP

Sunny Sohal was like a millionaire spending the last night of his life in Las Vegas, but as it often happens in heist films, the casino owners withstood the brilliant early hand. Sohal’s 30-ball 56, full of extravagant risks, had turned a formidable chase into a regulation one, but Chennai Super Kings waited for the final fatal risk before closing in on the rest to deny them the required 95 off 79 deliveries.It was a night of madness, of silly dropped chances and missed run-outs, of Sohal’s extraordinary stroke-play; but the class in the Chennai attack brought the decisive sanity. It was difficult, though, to keep one’s wits when Sohal was going. It seemed he could do no wrong, even when he was like a deer in the headlights against bouncers from Doug Bollinger and Albie Morkel. Twice he nearly shut his eyes hoping for the best, twice the ball found some part of the bat to fly over the keeper.Sohal drove it home by making room often and lofting the pace bowlers over cover, and the spinners over long-on, cow corner and midwicket, wherever his arc took them. He hit six fours and four sixes in that spell of play. However, like an amateur gambler, he became too adventurous and tried three reverse-heaves off spin. Two he failed to connect, and the third took the stumps. At 71 for 1 in the seventh over, though, the situation called for sensible batting.MS Dhoni let Shadab Jakati and Suraj Randiv go through a few quiet overs that resulted in Shikhar Dhawan’s wicket. Jakati’s effort of 2 for 23 allowed Dhoni to hold back his best overs. Bollinger, R Ashwin and Morkel could now bowl the last seven overs between them. Fifty-eight were required off those overs, and Deccan were still slight favourites.Not for long. Morkel started the slide with a short ball that got Bharat Chipli’s wicket. Ashwin followed it up with a three-run over. Forty-eight off 30 didn’t sound quite that easy now. Kumar Sangakkara was forced to manufacture a flick over fine leg, and Bollinger hit the middle stump. Given the form Cameron White and JP Duminy are in, it was game over right there. And so it was as the duo duly holed out.Deccan’s effort in the field was almost a mirror reflection of their chase. On a surface as tired as the whole tournament, they stifled Chennai for the better part of their innings, but fielded poorly and bowled ordinarily at the death to let the hosts off the hook. Hussey enjoyed his fourth life in six IPL innings this year, Suresh Raina discovered two pleasantly surprising chances, and Morkel laid into gentle length balls in the 19th over to hurt Deccan.White’s 13 off 18 wasn’t his first mistake of the night. He had dropped a sitter from Hussey. Had he taken that catch, Hussey would have been dismissed for 10, Pragyan Ojha would have got his second wicket in his first over, and Chennai would have been 19 for 2. As it usually happens – ask Kamran Akmal and friends for more – Hussey went on to make them pay with 36 more.Harmeet Singh then proceeded to let Raina off, and he went from 25 off 21 to 59 off 35 when eventually caught after another life. There was some vengeful slog-sweeping and some leg-side bowling that helped his innings. Morkel, though, provided the exclamation to Deccan’s horror effort in the field when he hit Ishant Sharma for three back-to-back sixes. That 21-run over in the end provided Chennai with the buffer to absorb Sohal’s onslaught. And Morkel, with 3 for 38, played a significant part in the second half as well.

Stuart Law has expressed sympathy with Lasith Malinga’s decision to quit Tests but has also acknowledged that the lure of the IPL makes it difficult for players to continue playing international cricket

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Apr-2011Stuart Law, Sri Lanka’s interim coach, has expressed sympathy with Lasith Malinga’s decision to quit Test cricket due to a knee condition, but has also acknowledged that the lure of the IPL – with its bumper signings and opportunities to secure oneself financially in quick time – makes it difficult for players to continue playing international cricket. He added it was important to keep India “sweet”, as that’s where a significant part of the revenue for several cricket boards lies.Malinga made himself unavailable for Sri Lanka’s upcoming tour of England and announced his decision to quit Tests because of a “long-standing degenerative condition in the right knee”. While the condition made it difficult for him to play in the longest format, he intends to continue playing limited-overs cricket, and is currently the leading wicket-taker in the IPL, where he represents Mumbai Indians.”‘It’s disappointing that he doesn’t want to play [the] longer [format cricket] but you can’t make [force] a guy who goes through hell every time he bowls a cricket ball,” Law told . “I can sympathise with him. I would love him to play every game for us but that’s impossible, no one does that these days.”It’s a tough one for the players because we’re not talking about $10,000 here and there. We’re talking about a million dollars and Malinga, when he bowls, he puts his body through hell, so … two more years of IPL cricket and he can put his feet up and not go through that pain again.”Apart from Malinga, there are three other prominent Sri Lanka players participating in the IPL – Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara. The tour of England clashes with the latter stages of the IPL, and there’s been confusion in Dilshan’s case about when he’ll join the Sri Lanka squad. He had said he wanted to join as early as May 10, ahead of the first warm-up game, but the BCCI and the Sri Lanka board are negotiating his release date. Sangakkara and Jayawardene, meanwhile, will join their squad ahead of the second warm-up fixture.”The IPL situation – we’ve got to be smart with that,” Law said. ”India, they are big brother, we’ve got to look after them, we don’t want to upset them. It’s where a lot of the world cricket boards make a lot of their money, so we’ve got to keep India sweet.”The financial incentive of the IPL was a major temptation for players, Law said. ”You want the best for your players and the best Sri Lanka can supply to the players at this stage is nowhere near what other international players are getting.”I think [better pay] will arrive one day but right now it is difficult to attract the players to continue to play international cricket when they can go to the IPL for six weeks and earn five years’ money.”Sri Lanka have undergone a change in leadership since finishing runners-up in the 2011 World Cup, with Sangakkara and Jayawardene stepping down as captain and vice-captain respectively – decisions Law could “totally respect and understand” – and their selection committee resigning. Dilshan has been named the new captain and Law has taken over from Trevor Bayliss, who he worked with as assistant coach.”Sri Lanka will go through a rebuilding phase now,” Law said. “But the amount of talent that is yet to play international cricket at this stage is amazing.”

ESPNcricinfo previews the IPL match between Delhi Daredevils and Pune Warriors in Delhi

The Preview by Dustin Silgardo20-May-2011

Match details

Saturday, May 21, Delhi
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)Robin Uthappa has not lived up to his billing•AFP

Big picture

It’s the first dead rubber of the IPL. Somehow, for six weeks the tournament has managed to not have a single match completely devoid of meaning. Even the eternal optimist will find it hard to squeeze an ounce of significance out of Saturday’s match between Delhi Daredevils and Pune Warriors though.There are a couple of individual players to watch. It may be the last glimpse of Sourav Ganguly as a cricketer, Robin Uthappa will be keen for one big performance to step up his bid for an India place and Varun Aaron won’t mind another opportunity to showcase his pace. For most though, it’s the kind of game they’ll want to end as soon as possible. There hasn’t been a match at the Kotla since May 2, so it’s difficult to know what to expect from the pitch.In a way, the match is almost an advertisement for a two-tier system in which the bottom two sides are relegated. As the IPL group stage peters out to a dull end, the English football premier league will see its relegation battle go down to the last day with five sides fighting for safety. An introduction of a similar system in the IPL will create interest in the tournament for the struggling teams till the end.

Form guide (most recent first)

Delhi: LLLWL (tenth in points table)
Pune: LLWWL(ninth in points table)

Team talk

Aaron Finch has gone back to Melbourne after hurting his shoulder, so won’t get the chance to improve his dismal IPL numbers. Both sides may as well give opportunities to their fringe players. Colin Ingram and Andrew McDonald have not been given enough of a chance for Delhi, while 18-year-old Unmukt Chand was given two games at the start of the tournament and was then dropped.Kamran Khan, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala and Mohnish Mishra have all disappointed for Pune, but may get another chance now that nothing is at stake.Play ESPNcricinfo Team selector.

In the spotlight

Curious Australian eyes will be on Callum Ferguson who has been starved of opportunities and runs so far. He could run into quite a few fellow Australians in the Delhi team.After a forgettable season, it’s Irfan Pathan’s last chance to prove his doubters wrong. His $1.9mn auction price has been a weight around his neck, and perhaps with the campaign drawing to a close he will be able to play more freely.

Prime numbers

• Delhi have actually amassed the second-highest number of runs this IPL season; their 2031 is second to Kings XI Punjab’s 2108. However, the number of runs they’ve given way, 2073, is far more than any other team.
• Pune’s Mithun Manhas has the most ducks in IPL 2011 – four

The chatter

“We hope to make it to the semis. We have started on the next season. We are into a review process. We will bounce back strongly next year and things will change for us next season.”
“If you see he has taken around 17 [16] wickets in the tournament so far. We are also working on his batting and fielding; he is a bright candidate for one-dayers in the near future.”

Sri Lanka Cricket has rejected the BCCI’s claim that the Sri Lanka Premier League is a private-party organised tournament

Tariq Engineer19-Jun-2011Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has rejected the BCCI’s claim that the Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL) is a private-party organised tournament, saying that the SLPL is owned and approved by SLC – and so, automatically, by the ICC – and that Singapore-based Somerset Ventures only owns the commercial rights to the tournament. The BCCI had on Saturday said it would not allow Indian players to participate in the tournament on the grounds that it was a privately-run event but the reality is that there is little difference between the SLPL and the BCCI-run IPL.”This tournament is approved by SLC,” its secretary Nishantha Ranatunga told ESPNcricinfo. “And Somerset are the marketing arm, having won the rights through a tender process. Nobody can say it is owned by Somerset.”Somerset is responsible for the logistics and marketing of the tournament, a role similar to the one IMG plays for the IPL. And unlike in the IPL where the teams are owned by private franchises, it is SLC that owns the seven teams in the tournament and will determine which players are assigned to which teams, thereby giving them a substantial degree of control over the event.The BCCI had initially stated it had no problems with the proposed league and that Indian players were free to take part, as long as there was no conflict with India’s international or domestic schedule. However, on Saturday came the board’s announcement denying permission to the 12 Indian cricketers who’d sought No-Objection Certificates to participate in the SLPL on the grounds that it is Somerset who would be handling the contracts for international players, and that could lead to complications for the players should disputes arise.That sudden volte face has left SLC “surprised and hurt”, Ranatunga said, and the board will be meeting on Monday to discuss how to tackle the situation. “We need to explain the matter to the BCCI and whatever the concerns that they have, we need to give them an explanation. It is very important to have them [Indian players] as they add a lot of value and glamour to the tournament.”However, when asked whether he was hopeful a solution could be found, Ranatunga said, “I really don’t know. We will have to wait and see.”The SLPL will be played between July 19 and August 4 at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. Several foreign players including Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Shahid Afridi, Daniel Vettori, Kevin O’Brien and Herschelle Gibbs have already been signed for the tournament.

No play was possible in the Friends Life t20 game between Durham and Yorkshire at Chester-le-Street

08-Jul-2011
ScorecardNo play was possible in the Friends Life t20 game between Durham and Yorkshire at Chester-le-Street.Rain began to fall as soon as the players took the field just before 5.30pm and although it stopped around 90 minutes later the umpires decided at 7.45pm that the efforts of the groundstaff to mop up were in vain.Durham, who had sold 6,000 tickets in advance, remained on track for the quarter-finals, but Yorkshire’s hopes were as good as extinguished by the washout.

Uncapped pace bowler, Manny Aulakh, has been included in Canada’s squad for the upcoming Intercontinental Cup game against Ireland and the two ODIs that follow

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Sep-2011The uncapped pace bowler Manny Aulakh has been included in Canada’s squad for the upcoming Intercontinental Cup game against Ireland and the two ODIs that follow against the same opposition.The 19-year-old Aulakh was part of Canada’s Under-19 squad that played the recent ICC Under-19 World Cup Qualifier and was joint-highest wicket-taker with 21 wickets from nine games. The 14-man squad, led by Jimmy Hansra, also includes Nitish Kumar, 17, who makes a comeback to the side, after missing Canada’s recent home series with Afghanistan as he was part of the U-19 squad at the Qualifier.The team will play a two-day warm-up match in Toronto on September 6 and 7. The Intercontinental Cup game will be played in Dublin from September 13-16 and will be followed by the two ODIs on September 19 and 20.Canada squad: Jimmy Hansra (capt), Rizwan Cheema, Harvir Baidwan, Usman Limbada, Hamza Tariq (wk), Henry Osinde, Hiral Patel, Junaid Siddiqui, Zeeshan Siddiqui, Ruvindu Gunasekera, Khurram Chohan, Manny Aulakh, Nitish Kumar, Zahid Hussain.