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Sri Lanka Under-19 captain Bhanuka Rajapaksa scored his third hundred in three games against England Under-19 to set up a 31-run win, on the Duckworth/Lewis method, in the first of five Youth one-day internationals

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Jan-2011
ScorecardBhanuka Rajapaksa clips into the leg side on his way to a hundred•Manoj Ridimahaliyadda

Sri Lanka Under-19 captain Bhanuka Rajapaksa scored his third hundred in three games against England Under-19 to set up a 31-run win, on the Duckworth/Lewis method, in the first of five Youth one-day internationals. Rajapaksa, who cracked centuries in both drawn Tests at Colombo and Galle, raced to 130 at a-run-a-ball before being dismissed by opposing captain Lewis Gregory as Sri Lanka reached 290 for 8.With rain a constant threat, England’s chase never really got going and they had reached 143 for 6 when the weather closed in decisively to bring an end to the game.The rain had arrived for the first time during the break between innings, resulting in a revised target of 231 in 33 overs that was always going to be a challenging task for the English. Sam Wood, who was in sparkling form during the Tests, launched the innings with a flurry of boundaries but an ephemeral knock was soon ended by Rajapaksa’s medium-pace. The Sri Lankan captain completed a fine all-round performance by bowling Adam Rossington in the same over as England slipped to 31 for 2.Sri Lanka’s spinners then took control, keeping a lid on England’s run rate and picking up wickets at regular intervals. Bright innings from Gregory, Ateeq Javid and opener Daniel Bell-Drummond were swiftly cut short, with Supeshala Jayathilake striking twice and Amila Aponso and Shehan Jayasuriya picking up a wicket apiece. Adam contributed a bellicose 28 but England were well short of their target when the rain set in for good.It could well have been a different story for the visitors had they exhibited better control with the ball after Gregory won the toss and sent Sri Lanka in. An erratic attack gave away a total of 45 extras – the third highest contribution to the innings – with fast bowler Matt Dunn the worst offender as he picked up two wickets but also sent down six wides and two no-balls.Sri Lanka were 57 for 3, Gregory striking twice in his first spell, before a 57-run partnership for the fourth wicket between Rajapaksa and Dhananjaya de Silva steadied the innings. England took the upper hand once again when medium-pacer Shiv Thakor removed de Silva and Angelo Jayasinghe in quick succession, but Rajapaksa found an able partner in wicketkeeper Lasith Abeyratne and together they compiled the most impressive stand of the innings.They had put together 139 at better than a-run-a-ball before Rajapaksa finally departed. Abeyratne followed him to the pavilion two balls later, run out for 46, but Sanitha de Mel helped boost the total before he fell to the final ball of the innings.

Lasith Malinga, the Sri Lanka fast bowler is available for selection for their World Cup, Group A game against Kenya on Tuesday, according to the team’s coach Trevor Bayliss

Sa'adi Thawfeeq in Colombo28-Feb-2011Lasith Malinga, the Sri Lanka fast bowler is available for selection for their World Cup, Group A game against Kenya on Tuesday, according to the team’s coach Trevor Bayliss. Malinga, who created a world record at the 2007 World Cup by capturing four wickets off four balls in Sri Lanka’s game against South Africa, missed his team’s first two matches in this edition due to a sore back.But at the media conference on Monday, Bayliss said: “Malinga is available for selection. His physio told us that the first two weeks were the most important and those are up tomorrow. Malinga is fit and it is up to the selectors to pick him or not for tomorrow’s match.”Malinga’s absence in the bowling line-up was clearly felt when Pakistan ran up 277 for 7 and went on to beat Sri Lanka by 11 runs on Saturday.Sri Lanka team manager Anura Tennekoon said Malinga would play against Kenya to give him much-needed match practice ahead of a crucial game against Australia on Saturday. If Malinga does play, either Thisara Perera or Nuwan Kulasekara will have to make room.Coach Bayliss said Sri Lanka did not play to their potential against Pakistan and they would come out in full force to prove a point. “I thought the other night against Pakistan we played some very good cricket for lots of the match. There were a couple of periods where we didn’t play as well as we would have liked. Our guys know we can play a lot better than that. I am sure they will be out to show how good they can play in the match against Kenya tomorrow.”Lasith Malinga has been bowling in the nets, but did not feature in Sri Lanka’s first two World Cup games•AFP

The match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan was a close affair, and along with the thrilling tie between India and England on Sunday, gave the World Cup a much-needed lift after a dour start. “Both teams I think probably thought that they should have won,” Bayliss said of Saturday’s game. “Both teams at different stages probably thought they might lose. It was a good game; one of those good games to be involved in. It was very good for the tournament as a whole.”Sri Lanka are overwhelming favourites for the match against Kenya, who have looked out of their depth in the World Cup so far. But Bayliss ensured his team were not taking anyone for granted. “I am sure they [Kenya] will like to put in a better performance than they have done in the last couple of games. Certainly our guys will not be taking Kenya lightly. That’s for sure.”One of the key areas Sri Lanka will concentrate on is building partnerships, the absence of which resulted in their defeat to Pakistan. Their batting line-up is unlikely to change but they may rest Muttiah Muralitharan and play the other two spinners: Rangana Herath and Ajantha Mendis.Bayliss also praised the Premadasa pitch and said that it was the best pitch he’s seen in the four years he has been coach.

South Africa allrounder Ryan McLaren has been signed by Kings XI Punjab for IPL 2011

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Mar-2011South Africa allrounder Ryan McLaren has been signed by Kings XI Punjab for IPL 2011. Punjab were seeking replacements following injuries to Stuart Broad and Dmitri Mascarenhas, and have settled on McLaren.McLaren’s IPL assignments made him unavailable for South Africa A’s matches against Bangladesh A next month. Andrew Birch of the Warriors and Kyle Abbott of the Dolphins were called up to the South Africa A squad as replacements. Birch will take his place in the four-day squad and Abbott will play in the one-day matches.McLaren was with Mumbai Indians in the two previous editions of the IPL.

ESPNcricinfo previews the game between Chennai Super Kings and Pune Warriors

The preview by Sidharth Monga24-Apr-2011

Match facts

Monday, April 25, Chennai
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)The two will be on opposite sides on Monday, trying to arrest their respective IPL team’s slides•AFP

Big picture

How many times must a team fall before it is considered to be in freefall? Two? Maybe not. Chennai Super Kings and Pune Warriors, both on two-match losing streaks after good starts to their competition, are not yet in freefall, but by midnight on Monday one of them will have lost three in a row, and will have a lot of worrying to do.

Chennai will be more desperate to stop the slide having lost three out of their five matches. A loss on Monday will leave them needing at least five wins out of their last eight. Pune, who have lost two out of four, are one defeat short of moving into the situation Chennai find themselves in. They’ll want to avoid it.

Form guide (most recent first)

Chennai LLWLW (8th in points table)
Pune LLWW (7th in points table)

Team talk

Chennai have two choices to make. The first one is simpler, picking one out of Tim Southee and Suraj Randiv. The other choice is difficult: both Shadab Jakati and Joginder Sharma have struggled so far. Will they make a choice between the two or pick a new bowler, perhaps Sudeep Tyagi or Yo Mahesh?
Pune will need to tweak their line-up as Manish Pandey is now available after serving his four-match ban. Pandey could come in for Graeme Smith, who is struggling for form and fitness. It will be interesting to see if they persist with Tim Paine if Smith can’t make it. Paine made 2 off 9 balls against Mumbai Indians on his IPL debut.Predict the playing XIs for this match. Play ESPNcricinfo Team selector.

In the spotlight

None of the Pune bowlers features in the top 12 wicket-takers in the tournament so far. Yuvraj Singh is their leading wicket-taker with four strikes. They will be looking for a bigger effort from the specialist bowlers.

South Africa’s national team doesn’t want him, but MS Dhoni finds enough work for Albie Morkel, who bowls ahead of Doug Bollinger and has delivered Chennai’s only maiden of the tournament.

Prime numbers

• With five catches and a stumping, Robin Uthappa has statistically been the second-most successful wicketkeeper, behind Kumar Sangakkara with eight dismissals
• S Anirudha has taken six catches this season, the most for a fielder other than a wicketkeeper

The chatter

“We have won two home games, so if we win the rest of the home games, we are going to be close to the play-offs. We have to keep winning matches and not worry about the run-rate. If you have one good week, you find yourself at the top of the table.”

ESPNcricinfo previews the IPL match between Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Daredevils in Dharamsala

The Preview by Sriram Veera14-May-2011

Match facts

Friday, May 15, Dharamsala
Start time 1600 (1030 GMT)Can Adam Gilchrist thrill us again?•AFP

Big Picture

After Indore, it’s time for Dharamsala, which owns the most picturesque cricket ground in India, to make its IPL entry. Kings XI Punjab need to win all their remaining games to stay in the hunt for a place in the final four. Their captain, Adam Gilchrist, is familiar with this feeling. During his tenure as captain of Deccan Chargers, he had to lead his side out of the depths and take them to the semi-finals. He has to do it again. Back then, he was leading from front with the bat but he hasn’t been able to reproduce that kind of form this year. As he himself put it, in a lighter vein, reacting to being hit on the helmet by a bouncer from Lasith Malinga, “He has come of age; I have just aged.”You can’t rule him out yet but the onus shifts on to the other batsmen in the side to do the job – that might even allow Gilchrist to relax and re-discover some batting joy. There are couple of good signs for Punjab. Dinesh Karthik, who didn’t have a great time with the bat in the first half of the tournament, has found his mojo and Shaun Marsh continues to be consistent.Delhi struggled with Virender Sehwag and were absolutely listless without him. They are left with that eternal cliché in sport of ‘playing for pride’. Only time will tell whether they have any fuel left in them.

Form guide (most recent first)

Punjab: WWLLL (sixth in points table)
Delhi: LLWLW (ninth in points table)

Team talk

Under pressure, David Hussey hit an unbeaten 21 to lend the finishing touches to Punjab’s win over Kochi Tuskers. Will that knock give him some breathing space, or will Punjab consider David Miller or Ryan McLaren?Roelof van der Merwe could replace Colin Ingram in the Delhi XI.Predict the playing XIs for this match. Play ESPNcricinfo Team Selector.

In the spotlight

Venugopal Rao has always proved to be a valuable contributor with the bat. The crowd might not scream his name, the media might not shower their arc lights on him, the bowlers might not have sleepless nights thinking about him and yet, he has nearly always played the bit-part role really well.It’s amazing how consistent Shaun Marsh has been in Twenty20. He has ten fifties and one hundred from 26 games in the IPL. The technique is simple: he stays still on the leg-stump line, nearly always remains adjacent to the line and plays late. It has worked like a charm.

Prime numbers

• Shaun Marsh has the highest average (51.31) in IPL history. Michael Hussey (49.83) comes second. With 11 fifties, he ranks third in the list of batsmen with most fifties
• Adam Gilchrist comes third in the list of players with most matches as captain. He has played 51 matches as a leader; Dhoni is at the top with 55 games

The chatter

“It depends on the situation; I try and see the field – if I can get away with it, then I try all those silly shots.”

Eoin Morgan has been unexpectedly named in England’s squad for the first Test against Sri Lanka at Cardiff

Andrew McGlashan22-May-2011Eoin Morgan has been unexpectedly named in England’s squad for the first Test against Sri Lanka at Cardiff. The strong tip had been for Ravi Bopara to earn a recall to fill the No. 6 spot vacated by Paul Collingwood but Morgan, who hit 193 for the Lions this week, has stepped up after being the spare batsman in Australia. Steven Finn has also pipped Ajmal Shahzad to the reserve pace-bowler’s slot, but is unlikely to play with Stuart Broad fit again after missing three Ashes Tests and part of the World Cup.For the last few weeks the momentum has grown behind Bopara’s potential recall, so Morgan’s selection is a surprise. It had been thought that Bopara’s decision to opt for Championship cricket ahead of the IPL – while Morgan played for Kolkata Knight Riders – earned him plenty of credit and coupled with two first-class hundreds for Essex would see him add to his 10 Test caps.However, in terms of consistency the selectors have followed the next-cab-off-the-rank policy they favour and Morgan was one injury away from playing at any stage during the Ashes. The fact that the 10 balls he faced against Victoria on that tour made up his only first-class innings for nine months made his 193 against the Sri Lankans on Thursday and Friday even more impressive.He had only flown back from the IPL last Saturday and had three days preparation with Middlesex and England Lions before walking to the middle with the score 162 for 4 on a green pitch at Derby. He responded with a superb innings and looked set for the second double ton of his first-class career until falling lbw. Bopara, meanwhile, had struggled to 17 while the ball was nipping around in helpful conditions.”Ravi has been getting a lot of runs for Essex, but the controlled innings that Eoin played just gave him the nod,” Geoff Miller, the national selector, said. “That innings really just showed us what he is capable of doing. It shows his strength of character.”Morgan has six Test caps under his belt having played throughout last summer, firstly as a replacement for the resting Collingwood against Bangladesh then for the injured Ian Bell against Pakistan. At Trent Bridge, against Pakistan, he struck his maiden Test hundred having come to the crease with England wobbling on 118 for 4.His century came up with a straight six and he looked right at home. However, as the ball moved away during the rest of the series he didn’t make another significant contribution and questions were asked as to whether his technique – drilled heavily in the one-day game – could stand up Test cricket. Now he’s got an extended chance to silence any doubters because the place is his to lose.With the big decision made there will be some small alterations to England’s batting order. Bell, who enjoyed a superb Ashes series and crowned it with a hundred at Sydney, is expected to move up to No. 5 to take Collingwood’s spot while Morgan will slot in at No. 6 where he has played all his Test matches. The preference of Morgan over Bopara means that Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen can expect to do some bowling.The other significant decision in the squad was who replaced the injured Tim Bresnan. Given Bresnan’s role of providing a pitch-up, swing option Shahzad had been favoured but the selectors have returned to Steven Finn who played the first three Ashes Tests.”He was in the Ashes and again it’s consistent,” Miller said. “He’s bowled well this year, he bowled well here against the Sri Lankans, and he’s part of our squad. We are in a very nice position where we have a lot of quality seamers and it’s hard to make that choice.Finn hasn’t taken huge hauls of wickets, but after the third day of the Lions game said he was feeling as good as ever about his game. “The figures don’t suggest that I bowled particularly well, but this is probably the best I’ve felt this season,” Finn said. “This season I’ve felt a lot better than before, and a marked improvement on where I was in Australia.”Finn is unlikely to make the starting eleven, however, with Broad set to resume his position having been injured in the second Ashes Test at Adelaide. Broad is a favourite of the England set-up – although his Test bowling average of 35 needs to start coming down – and it would be harsh to drop Chris Tremlett after his performances in Australia. And as the selectors have shown by naming Morgan, once someone in this England set-up they don’t cast them aside quickly.England squad Andrew Strauss (capt), Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Eoin Morgan, Matt Prior (wk), Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, Chris Tremlett, James Anderson, Steven Finn.

Cricinfo previews the first ODI of Sri Lanka’s tour of England

The Preview by Andrew Miller27-Jun-2011

Match facts

Tuesday, June 28, The Oval

Start time 1300 (1200 GMT)

Big Picture

Alastair Cook has a tough challenge lying ahead of him•Getty Images

This time last week, Andrew Strauss was England’s man at the helm. On Saturday, for a perfunctory 37.2 overs, Stuart Broad took over as national captain, and at 12.30pm tomorrow afternoon, Alastair Cook will line up at the toss as England’s third skipper in eight days. The policy of separate leaders for all three formats always looked like a bit of a gamble, but right at this moment, following the most anticlimactic coronation imaginable for Broad at Bristol, there’s an additional layer of scrutiny pending.On the bright side for Cook, his first game as full-time ODI captain is unlikely to go quite as badly as Strauss’s last in the role, in Colombo three months ago. England’s ten-wicket drubbing in that fixture was inflicted by Upul Tharanga, who is currently serving a suspension for the use of a prohibited substance, and Tillakaratne Dilshan who, although passed fit, is still feeling the effects of his broken thumb. Nevertheless, there was a yawning gulf in class on display at Bristol. In the 50-over format, England have four years in which to get their act together ahead of the 2015 World Cup. Few people are expecting them to pull it off at the first time of asking.There will be other factors at play at The Oval. After a handy cameo with the ball, if not the bat, at Bristol, Sanath Jayasuriya is preparing to sign off from international cricket at the ground where, in 1998, his blazing double-century set the stage for Muttiah Muralitharan’s 16-wicket masterclass in the one-off Test against England. The circumstances of his recall have been controversial, even though with Dilshan missing for a week his experience has not been unwelcome. Meanwhile off the pitch, Stuart Law has confirmed he will be moving on to become coach of Bangladesh. Distractions abound for Sri Lanka, but they are pretty accustomed to such things.But the major focus will be on a left-handed opener with a somewhat different reputation in short-form cricket. The success of the three-captain policy requires each of the leaders to display personal form while producing the victories expected of them. So far this summer, Strauss has won a Test series without scoring runs, while Broad has been hammered in his solitary outing without showing much evidence of a return to his best. Cook, meanwhile, has been scoring runs for fun in Test cricket, but struggled to raise his game in an ODI scenario at Lord’s last month, where he was stumped for the first time in his first-class career. He will know, better than anyone, how much he has to prove.

Form guide (most recent first)

England LWLWL

Sri Lanka LWWWW

The spotlight

Where else to look but Alastair Cook? Stuart Broad may have had a tough time on his captaincy debut at Bristol on Saturday, but at least his value as a limited-overs performer has rarely been called into question. Cook, on the other hand, wasn’t deemed worthy of a place in England’s 30-man squad for the World Cup earlier this year, and yet has now been parachuted back straight back into the set-up as skipper. In his defence he performed admirably in a stand-in capacity in Bangladesh last year, but the doubts about his suitability have been voiced already, with the former England captain Mike Atherton denouncing him as a “plodder” on Sunday morning. “Takes one to know one,” was Cook’s wry reply.Lasith Malinga’s four overs at Bristol were as perfect as one could hope to witness in Twenty20 cricket. His first Powerplay over cost just three runs, his second accounted for the vital wicket of Eoin Morgan, his third leaked five singles as England tried and failed to up the tempo, and his last resulted in two wickets, three scrambled byes and not a single run off the bat. His absence from the Test series was understandable given the nature of his role and the workload required in five-day games, but this was a hint as to what exactly Sri Lanka had missed.

Team news

Andrew Strauss’s ODI retirement means there will be no change more notable than the one at the top of the order, where Cook will be reunited with his opening partner from last year’s tour of Bangladesh, Craig Kieswetter. Of the two rookies who opened the bowling in the Twenty20, Chris Woakes seems the likelier to make way for the returning James Anderson, which means Jade Dernbach should make his ODI debut on his home ground. Tim Bresnan’s late inclusion in the squad could squeeze Samit Patel out of the starting XI, despite his five-wicket haul on this ground against South Africa in 2008.England (probable) 1 Craig Kieswetter (wk), 2 Alastair Cook (capt), 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Eoin Morgan, 6 Ian Bell, 7 Samit Patel/Tim Bresnan, 8 Graeme Swann, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 James Anderson, 11 Jade Dernbach.Sri Lanka had good news late on Monday when Tillakaratne Dilshan was passed fit after his broken thumb and he’ll open with Sanath Jayasuriya, meaning Mahela Jayawardene reverts to his middle-order role. Angelo Mathews is still doubtful to bowl and Dilshan may not be risked with the ball, either.Sri Lanka (probable) 1 Sanath Jayasuriya, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan (capt) 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Thilina Kandamby, 6 Angelo Mathews, 7 Thisara Perera, 8 Nuwan Kulasekera, 9 Suranga Lakmal, 10 Suraj Randiv, 11 Lasith Malinga,

Pitch and conditions

London’s dank June has given way to a mini-heatwave in the two days leading up to the start of the match, although that is all set to end with thunderstorms forecast for Monday evening. The wet weather should have cleared sufficiently to allow a prompt start at 1pm, but the clouds may still be lingering.

Stats and trivia

• England and Sri Lanka’s last meeting in 50-overs cricket was the World Cup quarter-final in Colombo back in March, which – thanks to their ten-wicket trouncing – also happens to have been England’s most recent ODI.
• Inauspiciously for England, their home record against Sri Lanka is scarcely any better in recent times. In 2006 they were thumped out of sight, five matches out of five, with Sanath Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga racking up an opening stand of 286 at Headingley. Only two England squad members remain from that game – the new captain Cook, and the returning Tim Bresnan.
• Alastair Cook averages 33.00 in 26 ODI appearances, with a solitary century against India in 2007, and a strike-rate of 71.38.
  

  Quotes

  “I just see myself as the one-day captain. I’m just concentrating on tomorrow’s game and doing the best job I can. We can worry about the other stuff later.”
  
  Alastair Cook presents a straight bat to questions about his Test captaincy ambitions.”Sanath won’t be staying on for the rest of the series. He has already decided to retire after the first one-day. That’s his call and we can’t help it.”
  Thilina Kandamby prepares to say farewell to Sanath Jayasuriya.

A round-up of the action from the third day of the second round of three-day matches in the Emerging Players Tournament

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Aug-2011An all-round performance from India Emerging Players helped them seal a comfortable nine-wicket win over New Zealand A at Endeavour Park No. 2 in Townsville. New Zealand, who were following on, were bowled out for 239, which meant India had to chase 108 runs for victory, which they did so with ease.New Zealand, who ended the second day still 84 runs adrift of India’s first-innings score, with seven wickets in hand, began strongly. Overnight batsmen Daniel Flynn and Dean Brownlie batted solidly, to put on 148 runs for the fourth wicket to lift their side to 174 for 3. Both batsmen made fighting half-centuries but once they were dismissed – both in their eighties – New Zealand’s fightback ended. They slumped from 205 for 5 to 239 all out with seamer R Vinay Kumar picking up three of the last five wickets to fall, to end up with figures of 4 for 33.India raced through the chase, despite losing captain Shikhar Dhawan with the score on 10. Ajinkya Rahane and CM Gautam forged an unbeaten 98-run partnership at close to six runs an over, to carry India home. With six points for their outright win, India are the top of the points table while New Zealand, who were docked three points for being three overs short of their minimum target of overs, are in third position.Half-centuries from Ryan Carters and Jon Holland helped Australian Institute of Sport draw their match against South Africa Emerging Players at Endeavour Park.Australia began the third day trailing South Africa’s first-innings score by 160 with 10 wickets in hand. They lost their openers early and while a third-wicket partnership of 43 between Tim Armstrong and Tom Beaton steadied the innings, Dale Deeb struck to dismiss both batsmen in quick succession to leave Australia struggling at 79 for 4. They lost two further wickets and at 135 for 6, South Africa looked like they could press for victory. They were, however, thwarted by a dogged 121-run seventh-wicket partnership between captain Carters and No. 8 Holland that lifted Australia for 256 for 6. Holland fell for 61 and Carters soon followed for 70, but the duo had done enough to haul their team out of trouble and ensure a draw. With two draws in two games, Australia are yet to earn a point and are second on the points table with South Africa placed fourth.

David Masters claimed his sixth five-wicket haul of the season in an innings as Essex moved into a commanding position on day three of their County Championship Division Two clash against Gloucestershire at Colchester

19-Aug-2011
Scorecard
David Masters claimed his sixth five-wicket haul of the season in an innings as Essex moved into a commanding position on day three of their County Championship Division Two clash against Gloucestershire at Colchester.The 33-year-old fast bowler took 6 for 75 as the visitors were bowled out for 264. That left Essex with a first-innings lead of 99 and they built on that by reaching 243 for 4 in their second innings before the close.Gloucestershire had resumed on 176 for 6 overnight and Masters was soon adding to his list of victims when he had Jack Taylor snapped up in the slips with only 13 added. And he was to bring the innings to a close by removing David Payne leg before to take his season’s Championship tally to 73, more than anyone else in the country.Ryan ten Doeschate and Graham Napier grabbed the other two wickets, the former getting rid of Jon Lewis, who scored 23 in a partnership of 32 with Richard Coughtrie to ensure his side were not asked to follow-on. Ian Saxelby had scored 27 when he was caught behind off Napier, who finished with three for 43 but no-one was able to remove Coughtrie, whose rearguard action saw him grind out 38 in 107 balls before he ran out of partners.Tom Westley was soon scoring freely for Essex as they set about building a substantial lead. Driving confidently, he smashed seven fours on his way to 30, at which point he was well caught at mid-off by Hamish Marshall.The tempo slackened considerably upon Westley’s departure with the total on 36 – Billy Godleman needing 28 balls to reach double figures. Owais Shah was soon following Westley back to the pavilion, trapped leg before wicket by Will Gidman, paving the way for Godleman and Jaik Mickleburgh to post a stand of 67 in 17 overs.It ended when Godleman, having batted with more fluency to gather seven boundaries in reaching 50, pushed forward against the spin of Jack Taylor and edged to slip. The tempo was to increase with the arrival of Adam Wheater, whose century on the opening day spearheaded an Essex recovery.He struck four fours and a six whilst making 38 in a stand of 63 with Mickleburgh before he was caught on the mid-wicket boundary to give Taylor another success. Immediately afterwards, Mickleburgh completed his half-century having faced 85 balls and will resume the final day on 68 as Essex go in search of a victory needed to keep alive their slim promotion hopes.

Hawk-Eye’s custodians have admitted the depiction of Phil Hughes’ second-innings lbw dismissal in the Galle Test was rendered inaccurate by “a tracking mistake”

Daniel Brettig06-Sep-2011Hawk-Eye’s custodians have admitted the depiction of Phil Hughes’ second-innings lbw dismissal in the Galle Test was rendered inaccurate by “a tracking mistake”.The visible discrepancy between Hawk-Eye’s graphic and television replays led to the incident being referred to the ICC by the officiating umpires, under the governing body’s conventions for the assessment of decisions made under the DRS.Steve Carter, the managing director of Hawk-Eye Innovations, said the mistake had been the result of several factors, one of which was the fact the ball had travelled less than 40cm between pitching and striking Hughes’ pad. Under Hawk-Eye’s configuration for the Sri Lanka series, ball-tracking cannot be deemed conclusive if the distance between pitching and impact is less than 40cm.”Yes, we made a tracking mistake, and the Hawk-Eye track didn’t deviate enough off the wicket. We informed the ICC immediately after the game to make them aware that this was the case,” Carter told ESPNcricinfo. “Despite the small distance from pitching to interception, and other mitigating circumstances that have been explained to the ICC, we should have done better. Lessons have been learnt from this instance and the probability of it happening again in the future is greatly reduced.”Our track record as part of DRS is very good. This is our first error in a long time, and the ability of Hawk-Eye to reliably provide accurate and definitive decisions compares very favourably with other technologies and replay angles that are used to assist the umpire in different parts of the DRS protocol.”Hughes was given out lbw on the second evening when he attempted to sweep Tillakaratne Dilshan. Replays indicated that the delivery had spun appreciably from around middle stump towards off, but Hawk-Eye’s prediction had the ball going straight on with the angle from round the wicket to strike leg stump. The decision was upheld not because of the errant Hawk-Eye tracking, but because the third umpire Tony Hill found insufficient evidence to reverse Richard Kettleborough’s original call.Carter said previous queries about Hawk-Eye’s accuracy in the circumstances of the Hughes dismissal had led to the addition of a graphic to indicate that the point of impact was less than 40cm away from the point of pitching, meaning the onus for the decision would return to the on-field umpire’s judgement. This graphic was not in place for Hughes’ dismissal, however.”There was less than 40cm of travel between the pitching point and the interception point,” Carter said. “This has been an issue that has been raised in the past, and led to the implementation of the 40cm graphic. We are currently under instruction that the 40cm graphic shouldn’t be displayed in the circumstances of the lbw appeal in question.”