White 145 sets up huge Victoria win

ScorecardCameron White’s 10th List A century helped Victoria amass 343•Getty Images

Cameron White’s 130-ball 145 helped Victoria amass 343 and thump South Australia by 135 runs in their Matador Cup match in Perth.South Australia’s chase crumbled to 208, propped up only by a maiden List A century by Cameron Valente and a fifty from Tom Cooper. The rest of the line-up could muster only 44 runs between them.White and Marcus Harris gave Victoria a promising start, adding 70 in a little over 13 overs. White then forged two stands of exactly 100 – with Victoria captain Peter Handscomb for the third wicket, and with Marcus Stoinis for the fifth.White’s knock included 12 fours and four sixes and his partnership with Stoinis helped Victoria plunder 109 runs from the last 10 overs. Stoinis finished unbeaten on 59 off 45 balls with four sixes and two fours.South Australia’s chase had fallen apart by the eighth over as strikes from left-arm spinner Michael Beer and fast bowler Jackson Coleman left them at 5 for 35. Beer took a hat-trick spread across two overs in this period, dismissing Jake Weatherald, Jake Lehmann and Sam Raphael. Valente, who had made his List A debut in the tied match against Western Australia last week, and Cooper averted the possibility of the side being bowled out for less than 100, adding 101 for the sixth wicket, but once Cooper fell, South Australia crumbled again. No. 10 Nick Benton struck 21, and helped Valente push the score past 200 before Victoria wrapped up the match in the 43rd over.

Voges 90* steers Western Australia home

ScorecardAdam Voges struck an unbeaten 90 to lift his team to third place in the Matador Cup•Getty Images

Western Australia beat Tasmania by four wickets in Sydney to pip New South Wales and move to third place in the Matador Cup points table. Captain Adam Voges scored his third fifty of the campaign, an unbeaten 90, as he saw his team through in a 268-run chase.Voges’ decision to put Tasmania in seemed vindicated when Jason Behrendorff, the left-arm fast bowler, and part-time offspinner Ashton Turner, accounted for both the openers’ wickets, while also keeping things.Tasmania were 36 for 2 at the end of the 12th over, when Alex Doolan joined Dom Michael to lift them out. The pair put on 148, before Michael was dismissed for 89 in the 39th over.Tasmania struggled to get a move on, as the next 8.2 overs fetched only 39 runs with the loss of four wickets, including Doolan for 93 and James Faulkner for 13. However, a late flourish by Beau Webster and Xavier Doherty, where they took 27 runs off Andrew Tye in the 49th over, saw Tasmania finish on 267 for 8. Tye ended with 2 for 83 as a result. Ashton Agar was the pick of the bowlers, with 2 for 46.Western Australia started with a 58-run opening stand between Hilton Cartwright and Shaun Marsh. Medium-pacer Hamish Kingston removed Cartwright and quickly followed it with Cameron Bancroft’s wicket to reduce Western Australia to 64 for 2. But Marsh, who scored 70, and Voges steadied the innings with a 69-run stand for the third wicket.Tasmania managed to take four more wickets in the game, but couldn’t do so regularly as Voges took his team along steadily. The defining partnership was the 71 he added for the sixth wicket with Turner, who scored 42 off 30 deliveries, which took them to within 20 runs of victory. Kingston broke that partnership as well, but his 3 for 44 wasn’t good enough, as Western Australia won with 9 balls to spare.

Raval and Williamson seal solid eight-wicket win

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsJeet Raval hit the winning runs to cap off a memorable debut•Getty Images

Debutant opener Jeet Raval batted with focus to overcome a testing period against the new ball and took New Zealand to an eight-wicket victory in Christchurch. He had his captain Kane Williamson, who made 61 off 77 balls, for company for most of the chase of 105 and hit the winning runs shortly after lunch to seal a 1-0 lead in the series.Raval finished unbeaten on 36 to go with his first-innings 55, the highest score of the Test. New Zealand’s other debutant, Colin de Grandhomme, was Man of the Match for taking seven wickets in the Test; his 6 for 41 in the first innings was a New Zealand record on debut.What could have been a tricky chase had New Zealand lost early wickets on the fourth morning turned into a cruise as Raval and Williamson added 85 for the second wicket. Once the new ball had been dealt with, both batsmen were able to play shots, though Raval remained cautious while Williamson was more attacking. While runs had been difficult to come by on the second and third days, the pitch had eased out considerably on the fourth, with little seam, swing or spin on offer.Williamson played firm cuts and delicate, late dabs before falling when the scores were level. Raval hit the winning runs by pulling Yasir Shah to the midwicket boundary as New Zealand ended a four-match losing streak. Yasir ended the match with figures of 0 for 61; his first wicketless Test after taking 116 in 19 matches.That the match went into the second session was due to some adventurous lower-order batting from Pakistan in the first hour. Sohail Khan, who has only one half-century in 115 first-class innings, had begun throwing his bat around on the third evening, and he continued to do so first thing this morning by taking seven off the first two balls. When there was width, Sohail slashed, and when it was full, he drove, contributing 40 to an eighth-wicket stand of 53 with Asad Shafiq.He was eventually caught pulling to backward square leg in the seventh over of the day, after Pakistan had added 29.Shafiq, on 8, had survived a caught behind appeal while attempting an expansive drive off Neil Wagner. Though the appeal wasn’t spontaneous, there was a sound as the ball passed the bat, but New Zealand couldn’t refer the decision because they had no reviews left.After Sohail’s dismissal, Shafiq took his chances to get as many runs as possible and did not shield the tail. He was out pulling to Raval, who ran in from deep midwicket and dived forward to take the catch just before the ball hit the turf.Rahat was the last man dismissed when he tamely lobbed a catch to short leg. Wagner, who had become the second-fastest New Zealand bowler to 100 Test wickets, finished with 3 for 34.

Shehzad hits 68 as Habib Bank take title

ScorecardFile photo – Ahmed Shehzad finished the tournament with three centuries and three half-centuries in nine matches•Getty Images

Ahmed Shehzad struck a 51-ball 68 in a 105-run partnership with opener Imam-ul-Haq – after Fakhar Zaman retired hurt – to help Habib Bank claim the title in the Departmental One-Day Cup. They recorded a five-wicket win against Sui Southern Gas Corporation in Karachi, their fifth victory in a row in the tournament.Chasing 233, Habib Bank’s first wicket fell only in the 24th over after Mohammad Irfan dismissed No. 3 Shehzad after his innings that included nine fours and one six. The team’s score was 143 for 1 then, and although a mini-collapse did have them slump to 174 for 5 in the 33rd over – Zaman tried to return to bat but had to leave again – an unbeaten sixth-wicket partnership of 61 between Zohaib Khan (29) and Fahim Ashraf (34) took them through with 14 balls to spare.Earlier in the match, Habib Bank’s bowlers kept Sui Southern’s runs in check with regular wickets at the top. By the 17th over, they were 31 for 3 and took about 30 overs to reach 100. Shoaib Malik held up one end with a 92-ball 93 – his innings included nine fours – but with wickets constantly falling at the other end, doubled with the sluggish start, Sui Southern could manage only 232 for 7 in their 50 overs.

Supreme Court names administrators to supervise BCCI

The Supreme Court has appointed four eminent personalities from varying backgrounds to a panel of administrators to oversee the running of the BCCI until the board can hold fresh elections for office bearers as per the recommendations of the Lodha Committee.The panel, which will be chaired by Vinod Rai, the former Comptroller and Auditor General of India, consists of Ramachandra Guha, the historian and cricket writer, Diana Edulji, the former India women’s captain, and Vikram Limaye, managing director and CEO of IDFC (Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation).The committee of administrators will take charge with immediate effect and liaise with BCCI’s chief executive officer Rahul Johri, who will oversee the daily administration of the board. Johri had been put in charge of the board until this committee was appointed in an interim order on January 20.The court had originally suggested that the amicus curiae Gopal Subramanium and senior legal counsel Anil Diwan draw up a list of people who could serve on the committee. But during the last  hearing on January 24, the court expressed reservations about the presence of some names on the submitted list because they were over 70 years old.The court then asked the BCCI, some state associations, and the federal government – represented by Attorney General of India Mukul Rohatgi – to submit three names each by January 27 in a sealed envelope. All four members appointed today were part of the nine-person list submitted by Subramanium and Diwan on January 20. The court rejected Rohatgi’s suggestion that the secretary of the Sports Ministry be appointed on the committee of administrators because the one of the Lodha Committee recommendations was no government servant should be an administrator.The need for such a committee came about after the Supreme Court removed BCCI president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke from their posts on January 2 for not implementing the majority of the Lodha committee’s recommendations, despite being told to do so by a Supreme Court order on July 18, 2016.In that January order, the court also ordered the other office bearers of the BCCI and state associations, who did not meet the eligibility criteria set by the Lodha Committee, to step down. The criteria, as laid out in the Lodha Committee recommendations, stipulated than an office bearer should be a citizen of India, should not be 70 years or older, should not be a government servant or minister, should not hold office in another sports organisation, should not have held office with the BCCI or state association for more than nine years, should not be insolvent or of unsound mind, and should not have a criminal record.As they have done through the case, the BCCI continued to put up resistance on Monday. Datar told the court that several of the Lodha Committee recommendations had already been implemented. But Gopal Shankaranarayan, the Lodha Committee secretary, countered and told Datar this was not the case, that the BCCI and many state associations had ignored the original timelines within which the recommendations were to be implemented. It was consequent to this, Shankaranarayan said, the Lodha Committee submitted a status report recommending the BCCI be run by court-appointed administrator.The court asked Shankaranaryanan to provide the timelines to Datar, who would pass them on to Johri. The court directed the committee of administrators to seek a compliance report from Johri within a week.The court also asked the committee of administrators to submit, through a status report, the extent of implementation of the Lodha Committee recommendations at both BCCI and state level since the original judgement on July 18 last year, which approved the recommendations. “The Committee shall scrutinise the compliance and submit a status report before this Court within four weeks from today,” the court said in its order. The court will hear the matter at its next hearing on March 27.Shankaranarayanan checked with the three-judge bench whether BCCI office bearers would cease to play a role now that the committee of administrators had been appointed. “The court says very clearly there will be committee of administrators and the CEO will report to them,” Shankaranarayanan told ESPNcricinfo. “The administrators are replacing the office bearers.”The Lodha Committee was formed in January 2015 to determine appropriate punishments for some of the officials involved in the 2013 IPL corruption scandal, and also to propose changes to streamline the BCCI, reform its functioning, prevent sporting fraud and conflict of interest.In January 2016, the Lodha Committee released its report, which recommended an exhaustive overhaul of the BCCI’s governance and administrative structures. On July 18, the Supreme Court approved the majority of those recommendations and directed the Lodha Committee to supervise their implementation by the BCCI. However, the board did not cooperate because its state associations objected to the recommendations. The impasse eventually culminated in the removal of Thakur and Shirke and today’s appointment.

Lodha wants ticket revenue, pass allocation to be made public

The head of the Lodha Committee, RM Lodha, has called for state associations to make public revenue from ticket sales and ensure transparency in the distribution of complimentary passes for cricket matches.He pointed out that the report of the Lodha Committee – which recommended an exhaustive overhaul of the BCCI’s governance and administrative structures on the court’s bidding – had asked for steps to be taken to make sure tickets to cricket matches were available to the public at reasonable rates. The culture of passes, according to him, is an easy method to “oblige people who matter”.”Let us remember that complimentary passes reduce the availability of tickets to the public and revenue from their sale,”Lodha, a former Chief Justice of India, was quoted as saying by the . “It instead goes to friends, government department, and others. A lot of them get these free passes. There is no account of where these go, no disclosures, and facts are not brought to public domain. We all know that complimentary passes are a largesse by the cricket association concerned, given as entitlement to certain sections of society.”Lodha said his committee had raised the following questions to the BCCI: “What is the basis of free tickets and passes being given for games? What proportions of tickets are available to the general public and how is that transparently ensured? What is the policy for giving tickets and passes to governmental and statutory authorities? We have also specified that the ombudsman must redress grievances of the public concerning ticketing.”While Lodha felt doing away with the practice of handing out free passes should be the eventual goal of state associations, he said they could make a “good beginning” towards transparent functioning by providing details of allocation of passes on their websites. “With RTI [the Right to Information Act] not being applicable here, associations must take the initiative to inform the public about distribution of passes, the categories of people who got them, and revenues from ticket sales,” he said.The allocation of complimentary passes has always been a thorny issue for state associations. During the IPL in 2012, the Karnataka State Cricket Association invited the wrath of Bangalore’s municipal corporation officials for turning down their request for 450 free passes. More recently, according to reports, Biswarup Dey, the former secretary of Cricket Association of Bengal, alleged that Sourav Ganguly’s administration had “unethically” denied him the “allotted quota of complimentary tickets”.

Harris and Elliott earn coaching roles

Former Australia fast bowler Ryan Harris and batsman Matthew Elliott have been appointed to coaching roles at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane. Both men will work with the National Performance Squad and Cricket Australia XI youth squads, and their first task will be coaching Australia’s Under-19s in a home series against Sri Lanka in April.Harris has worked in coaching roles with Australia, Queensland and the Brisbane Heat since retiring as a player in 2015, following a career that brought 113 Test wickets at an average of 23.52. Elliott played 21 Tests from 1996 to 2004 and retired from all cricket in 2008, after which he has worked as a batting consultant and yout coach for Victoria.”We have undertaken a thorough process to find the best coaches to mentor Australia’s emerging talent, and we are extremely excited to have both Matthew and Ryan joining team performance,” Pat Howard, Cricket Australia’s executive general manager of team performance, said.”Both have come through the Cricket Australia coaching pathway, being involved in underage national championships, and have a strong understanding of the challenges that lie ahead in developing Australian cricketers to be ready for first-class and international cricket.”Ryan and Matthew join what is already an experienced and highly credentialed coaching team at the National Cricket Centre, led by Troy Cooley, and both will be instrumental in guiding the young talent within our ranks.”Graeme Hick, who had worked in a similar role at the National Cricket Centre, now serves as Australia’s batting coach, while the second coaching role has been newly created.

India take million-dollar prize for finishing No. 1

India have finished at the top of the ICC Test rankings for the second successive year after beating Australia 2-1 in the four-Test series. As a result of being No. 1 by the cut-off date of April 1, India will be presented with a cash award of $1 million by the ICC.India had gone into the home series against Australia needing to win one Test to guarantee their No. 1 ranking. The series victory also meant that India currently hold Test titles against all other teams, a feat previously matched only by Australia (twice) and South Africa.Virat Kohli received the Test mace and cheque at the post-match presentation ceremony in Dharamsala. “The longest format of the game really tests a team’s character and I’m proud that we have proved ourselves to be the best,” he said.The race to No. 2 is still on. It will be decided on the fifth day in Hamilton, where South Africa need to come away with at least a draw against New Zealand to hold on to the No. 2 ranking and claim the prize money of $500,000. If they lose, Australia will pip them to second place.The ICC also announced that India offspinner R Ashwin will be awarded the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for being the ICC Cricketer of the Year for 2016. Ashwin, who was also named ICC Test Cricketer of the Year for 2016, took 48 wickets and scored 336 runs in the eight Tests he played during the period under consideration – September 14, 2015 to September 20, 2016.

PCB's biomechanics facility set for ICC nod

The PCB’s independent biomechanics facility, installed at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), is in line to obtain accreditation from the ICC. The testing facility has been acknowledged by the world body after two officials from Pakistan underwent a two-day workshop in Pretoria last month.The facility has fulfilled the technical requirements in terms of equipment and expertise to procure official accreditation. It operates with 16 motion-capture high-speed infrared cameras and two high-speed video cameras in compliance with the ICC’s requirements. Other mandatory preconditions laid down by the global body include the availability of an indoor area with enough space to allow a player to perform their full run-up, a three-dimensional motion-analysis system with a minimum of 12 high-speed cameras, along with the recruitment of qualified personnel experienced in using such systems and implementing the ICC testing protocol.So far, LUMS has been implementing its own model of assessment on cricketers but the ICC required it to align with the governing body’s protocol that mandates quality checks and calibrated trials during assessment using specialised kit. Professor Mian Awais, Head of the biomechanics facility at LUMS, and PCB representative Hissan ur Rehman attended an exclusive two-day workshop – involving four sessions primarily aimed at introducing the ICC protocol regarding bowling assessment and data processing – at the High Performance Centre in the University of Pretoria, to oversee the administration of the test centre.The idea of reviving the biomechanics lab came up after Pakistan found themselves saddled with several cases of suspect bowling actions in the recent past. Among the high-profile internationals to have undergone reassessment for illegal action, Mohammad Hafeez has returned with a remodelled action, as has Saeed Ajmal – the latter, however, has been a diminished force and has not played for Pakistan since 2015. According to the PCB, the stock of offspinners available at the domestic level also includes a significant number with suspect actions.In 2015, the ICC accredited five centres around the world – in Brisbane, Cardiff, Loughborough, Pretoria and Chennai – as testing facilities for the global body with a view to reviewing bowlers reported for suspect bowling actions. The PCB initiated the process of establishing the biomechanics facility in the country by entering into a partnership with LUMS – where equipment worth USD 460,000 had been lying unused from 2008 to 2016 – as it needed to have an independent testing facility of its own.Pakistan could have been the first Asian country to have a high-profile biomechanics facility, but construction of the laboratory and financial mismanagement impeded its progress. LUMS, however, helped make up for lost time by re-gathering the equipment and making it functional by conducting tests on over 20 domestic cricketers so far. The centre has also tested the Kenya offspinner James Ngoche, whose bowling action was declared illegal by the ICC in 2015.

'In the final, there's 20 runs for nerves. Their nerves showed'

Sachin Tendulkar
“Amazing, simply amazing! At the break time, we got together and discussed few things. Mahela gave us a nice speech, which was needed. I can’t repeat it here. We needed to think right and when you do that, performance follows. We believed we could pull it off and that’s what Rohit and the team members did.”I always believe in the motto: once a champion, always a champion. Malinga is known for yorkers. He’s delivered for us for 10 years. I was sure he’d deliver tonight. He’s not had the kind of season we’re used to, but we knew he’s one guy who could change the game.”Mitchell Johnson
“It was well set up in the last couple of overs. We needed to get Smith off strike and get him out. He gave himself room. I was trying to get him to hit towards the leg side, the bigger side of the field. It was a good shot but not good enough at the end.”I wasn’t thinking too much, just wanted to be clear with my plan: bowl full at the stumps and get the guys hit leg side. Smithy, off side isn’t his strength, fortunate the shot went to hand. You play the game for these pressure situations. I told Bumrah that it helped me that he hit me for six off that second last ball. I felt like I was more clear then.”Mahela Jayawardene, Mumbai Indians coach
“The guys showed a lot of character, especially the senior guys who kept calm. It was a marathon. It’s not about how you start but about how you finish. In a big game, considering the wicket might play slow, we felt we had a senior group of bowlers who could handle pressure. That was the reason for batting first. In the final, there’s 20 runs for nerves. Their nerves showed.”Jasprit Bumrah
“The ball was reversing a bit, we needed a wicket at that time [in the 17th over]. We kept on fighting from the first over. To get Mahi wicket was crucial, he can be dangerous in these situations.”After the first innings, we wanted to fight. We were short of runs. The bowling effort was brilliant. We were backing each other at the end. We knew we had the experience. Fourth time lucky. I was a youngster in 2013, I was sitting on the bench then. To play with the guys and win with them is a brilliant feeling.”Rohit Sharma
“To be able to defend like that, it was a great effort. I couldn’t have asked for anything more. Whenever you’re defending a total like that, the first thing you need is to believe. I told the boys, the last game we played against KKR, the way we defended that, got them all out for 105, so why not here?”The pitch was assisting the bowlers so it was about exploiting those conditions. If everything happens together, it’s good, if it doesn’t, it feels bad. I had confidence in the bowlers who were going to bowl the last three overs. They’ve done the job for their respective countries, franchises. It was all about giving that freedom to them. Let them do what they want to, they’re the masters. I told them you do what you want, tell me what you’re planning, I’ll set the field accordingly.”Ambati Rayudu
“I couldn’t contribute with the bat, but the catch [of Steven Smith] will remain with me.”Mitchell McClenaghan
“I couldn’t sit still. I went up and down the stairs 15 times. Bumrah, I don’t know if Indian cricket realises how good this guy is going to be. Superstar.”Krunal Pandya
“When wickets were falling at the other end, I wanted to play till 20 overs because I was the only batsman left.”Kieron Pollard
“We’ve been playing team cricket. We haven’t had individual brilliance this season. The way Krunal batted to keep us in the game was fantastic.”Shane Bond, Mumbai’s bowling coach
“It was exciting, heart-wrenching all at the same time. We spoke about leaders stepping up in the field yesterday. When the pressure came on, all of them stood up. Jasprit, at 23, he continues to step up. Great to work with him, he stood up on the biggest stage.”Parthiv Patel
“I thought before the innings started, having played for Sunrisers, we could defend 150. I passed it on to the guys. They [Rising Pune] took the game too deep anyway because it was difficult to score runs at the end. We played very good cricket right through the tournament under pressure, the catch which Rayudu took turned the game around.”Nitish Rana
“We’re here because of the bowlers. This is a great experience, I hope to carry this on to the Ranji Trophy season. To win a second IPL title in three seasons, it can’t get bigger than this.”Lendl Simmons
“Runs on the board is runs on the board. Scoreboard pressure puts pressure on the batting team. The plan was to not give them boundaries. We have a lot of match winners in our team, they delivered.”

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