Cook fails as Kumar double hurts England

(#GNN)- #LONDON: #England captain Alastair Cook suffered yet another failure with the bat as #India seized control of the second Test at Lord´s on Friday.

Cook was out for 10, caught behind by opposing skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni off Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The same combination also did for Cook´s Australia-born opening partner Sam Robson (17) and at lunch England were 51 for two in reply to India´s first innings 295 -- a deficit of 244 runs.

Gary Ballance was seven not out and Ian Bell eleven not out, with Kumar having taken two wickets for 17 runs in 11 overs.

Cook´s exit meant it was now 26 innings since the left-hander had scored the last of his England record 25 Test hundreds, with his tally for the calendar years standing at meagre 107 runs in eight Test innings.

The 29-year-old Essex batsman´s poor run of form has also coincided with an England slump that has seen the team go nine Tests without a victory -- their worst winless streak for more than 20 years.

As if conscious he had had often been caught in the slips while struggling for runs, Cook met Kumar´s first ball of the innings with an exaggeratedly straight forward defensive shot. But having looked assured for 40 minutes, Cook´s 29-ball knock, including two fours, came to an end. Not moving his feet, Cook nicked a good length ball just outside off stump that swung away from Kumar through to Dhoni. And it was not long before England´s 22 for one became 31 for two in front of a capacity, sun-drenched crowd.

Robson, dropped in the slips on seven, squandered his reprieve by driving loosely at a ball wide of off stump, Dhoni making no mistake with the catch. Kumar had now taken two for four in 13 balls.

Meanwhile both Shami and Ishant Sharm, India´s other two frontline seamers, had also bowled a far more consistently challenging length than their England counterparts.

It took England just 10 balls to wrap up India´s innings after they resumed on their overnight 290 for nine, with Cook holding a juggled catch at first slip to dismiss Shami (19) off Ben Stokes.

India had been in dire straits at 145 for seven after being sent into bat by Cook on a green, seaming pitch that was the opposite of the bare, lifeless track in last week´s drawn first Test at Trent Bridge.

But England let India of the hook, the tourists doubling their total before stumps, with Ajinkya Rahane making a superb 103 in his maiden Test innings at Lord´s.

James Anderson led England´s attack with four for 60 in 23 overs in what was the Lancashire paceman´s first match since both he and India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja were charged with disciplinary offences under the International Cricket Council´s code of conduct for an alleged clash at Trent Bridge.

Both players must now wait on the verdict of ICC judicial commissioner Gordon Lewis, a retired Australian judge, to discover if they will be banned from any matches in the rest of this five-Test series. (GNN)(AFP)(AIP)

Australia, New Zealand push on with day-night Tests

SYDNEY: Cricket Australia said Monday it is pushing ahead with plans to stage an historic day-night Test match with New Zealand, possibly as early as the 2015-16 season.
CA chief executive James Sutherland and his New Zealand Cricket counterpart David White met in Melbourne last week during the International Cricket Council (ICC) annual conference to discuss the idea. They are devising plans to stage the match when New Zealand tour Australia in November 2015, with the venue to be determined, CA said.

The ICC gave its approval in 2012 for member countries to work together on staging Test cricket under lights. "We are serious about pushing ahead with the concept of day-night Test cricket," Sutherland said in a statement. "We feel it will only strengthen the position and possibilities for Test cricket in many parts of the world. There are many Test matches played during non-holiday periods when adults are at work and kids are at school and that´s not an ideal way to promote the highest form of the game."

Sutherland also said there was not a major team sport in the world that scheduled the majority of its premium content during the working week. "We´re not talking about playing the Boxing Day or New Year´s Test at night," Sutherland said. "The summer holiday period in Australia really lends itself to Test cricket, but at other times of the year it can be difficult for fans to attend or watch Test matches, be it here or in other parts of the world. That´s really at the heart of the issue. The challenge is to try to make Test cricket more accessible for fans."

White said his organisation was looking forward to contributing to the day-night Test concept, especially in terms of helping develop a new pink ball suitable for Test conditions.

"Australia continue to assess conditions to ensure they are appropriate to stage Test cricket at night, and we fully support that duty of care," White said in the CA statement.

Both governing bodies said they would continue to seek the opinion of players, spectators and broadcasters.

ICC chief executive David Richardson said he supported the idea. "I´m pleased that after the ICC board gave its thumbs-up during the 2012 annual conference and following extensive trials and debates, we are now at a stage when two of our members are contemplating playing the first-ever day-night Test".

Bangladesh says ICC let fixed matches go ahead

DHAKA: Bangladesh has accused anti-corruption investigators from the International Cricket Council of allowing a match in a scandal-plagued Twenty20 tournament to go ahead even though it knew it was fixed.

A report from a special tribunal set up by the Bangladesh board said the ICC´s Anti Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) was aware beforehand that a match in the Bangladesh Premier League was going to be fixed but decided to keep organisers in the dark rather than alert them. "The evidence is clear that the fixed match between DG (Dhaka Gladiators) and CK (Chittagong Kings) played in Chittagong on the 2 February 2013 was played with the consent of ACSU," the tribunal´s report said. "It is obvious that the focus of ACSU was on gathering evidence and not on prevention of (the) fixed match," the report added.

The report, a copy of which has been obtained by AFP, was handed to the ICC on June 8. The tribunal, headed by a retired judge, was set up by the board last September after the ICC brought charges against nine people over fixing.

Organisers had hired the ICC´s investigators to monitor the BPL after its inaugural edition in 2012 was tainted by similar allegations.

The tribunal has subsequently convicted one of the owners of the Dhaka Gladiators of match-fixing, while three international players pleaded guilty over the 2013 scandal.

Former New Zealand international Lou Vincent pleaded guilty to breaching the ICC´s code of conduct for failing to tell authorities when a bookmaker approached him about fixing a match.

Former Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful and Sri Lanka´s Kaushal Lokuarachchi have also pleaded guilty.

The report said Dhaka Gladiators coach Ian Pont alerted the ACSU that he had been approached by one of the team´s owners about fixing the February 2 match but was instructed to go ahead and play.

ICC spokesman Sami Ul Hasan declined to comment on the report´s allegations. "We are reviewing the written judgement and have no comments to make at this stage," he told AFP in an email.

The tribunal said ICC investigators were obligated to inform the BCB of any wrongdoing. "The chairman of ACSU, Sir Ronald Flanagan, expressed his regret about this failure to inform BCB of this significant matter and made a personal unreserved apology on behalf of ACSU for not involving BCB at that stage." (AFP)