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Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik has warned his players not to get carried away by the four-wicket win against West Indies in the first ODI in Abu Dhabi

Cricinfo staff14-Nov-2008
Shoaib Malik: “It is always hard when you play some big time cricket after a long time but the guys did really well. It was a team effort” © AFP
Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik has warned his players not to get carried away by the four-wicket win against West Indies in the first ODI in Abu Dhabi.”We have to be consistent,” Malik told the Dubai-based daily . “We lack that and we need to improve on it. I told the boys after the match that though it is one match down, don’t look at it that way. We need to look at it match by match. I told them to treat every match as the first match.”In a thrilling finish at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Pakistan needed 17 runs to win off the last over. Kamran Akmal smashed two sixes off Jerome Taylor and Fawad Alam completed the victory with one ball to spareThis is Pakistan’s first one-day international series since the Asia Cup in July. The last tournament they took part in was a Twenty20 quadrangular in Toronto featuring the hosts, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.”After a long time, we are playing a big team. Some of our guys have played the [domestic] Pentangular matches as well so most of them were match fit. We hope to carry this form into the next few games. It is always hard when you play some big time cricket after a long time but the guys did really well. It was a team effort.”Malik said it was tough to contain Chris Gayle, who scored 113 off 106 balls on Wednesday, but had confidence in his spinners. “I was hoping that Gayle gets out because West Indies were going at six an over. [Ramnaresh] Sarwan too kept the scoreboard ticking. When you bring on the spinners, it is always hard for the batsmen. It would also slow down their run-rate.”Malik, who batted at No. 5, felt the target of 296 was gettable. His 50-ball 66, with six boundaries and a six, was crucial but he was dismissed with Pakistan needing 33 runs from the last three overs. “I was looking at the situation as one boundary and five singles,” Malik said. “When I was batting with Fawad [Alam], I was quite relaxed looking at the way he was batting. He has seven or eight hundreds in domestic cricket. He has the talent and I knew he could do it. I also knew Akmal was capable of pulling it off.”He said the conditions in Abu Dhabi were different and it was tough chasing under lights. “Chasing is difficult under lights because the ball does a bit because of the dew. In the UAE, during the first seven or eight overs, the ball swings a bit. So, we had to pace our innings well.”Pakistan will be hoping to wrap up the three-match series with a win in the second ODI on Friday. However, they are still uncertain about the fitness of Shoaib Akhtar, who missed the first match due to a calf injury. “We will see how it goes. He had a fitness test over a sprint on Wednesday and Thursday. Let’s see how he shapes up by Friday,” Malik said.The third match will be played on Sunday.

Derby County could benefit from Will Hughes’ potential move to Crystal Palace this summer, due to a sell-on clause when he left the Rams.

The Lowdown: Hughes could join Palace

The 26-year-old made a name for himself at Derby as a youngster, scoring 12 goals in 189 appearances and looking a class act in midfield.

He eventually departed for Watford back in 2017 and is now being linked with a summer move to Palace, with new Eagles manager Patrick Vieira eyeing him up after he rejected the offer of a new deal at Vicarage Road.

The Latest: Derby could be boosted by transfer windfall

It turns out that Hughes’ potential move to Selhurst Park could work in Derby’s favour, with The Derby Telegraph reporting that the Rams’ 15% sell-on clause for the midfielder could see them receive a ‘transfer windfall’.

Hughes moved to Watford for £5m four years ago, with the deal potentially rising to £9m if add-ons were triggered. If the latter figure is the eventual cost of any such transfer, the Rams could stand to earn a seven-figure fee due to the sell-on clause.

The Verdict: Financial boost for Rams

Derby find themselves in a tough period in their history both on and off the pitch – they sit 18th in the Championship table after two matches and have endured a horrendous few months in terms of the club’s finances – so this could be a welcome boost for them.

While the money they could receive for Hughes may not be overly substantial, it could help raise much-needed transfer funds for Wayne Rooney before the transfer window shuts, as they look to give themselves the best possible chance of enjoying a successful season.

Liverpool, and by extension their transfer chief Michael Edwards, have been hailed as a ‘very savvy’ by a football agent after loaning Ben Davies to Sheffield United, The Athletic’s Simon Hughes writes.

The lowdown

Liverpool brought Davies to Anfield from Preston North End in January in the midst of an injury crisis. Three centre-backs – Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip had all been ruled out for the remainder of the campaign.

But the Englishman wouldn’t set foot on the pitch for the Reds, with Jurgen Klopp preferring Nathaniel Phillips, Rhys Williams and loanee Ozan Kabak. Davies was only included in the matchday squad on eight occasions.

He did at least feature for the Reds in pre-season, lining up alongside Joel Matip in a mini-game against Austrian outfit FC Wacker Innsbruck.

Having sealed his season-long loan move to Bramall Lane on Monday, he’ll look to help the Blades regain their place in the Premier League.

The latest

Hughes says Liverpool have been left ‘delighted’ with their business after securing a £500,000 loan fee from Sheffield United, recouping their initial outlay on Davies and winning external admiration. He adds that they’ll be entitled to a further £500,000 if Slavisa Jokanovic’s side win promotion.

What’s more, it’s understood that his temporary employers are covering the entirety of his wages, which lie somewhere between £25,000 and £40,000 per week.

Liverpool are confident that they’ll be able to turn a significant profit on Davies eventually. Indeed, they chose not to insert an obligation to buy into their loan agreement at this stage because they believe he can still increase his value.

The verdict

In a way, you feel for Davies. Joining the club of Liverpool’s stature when they were so depleted, he might have sensed a career-defining opportunity. Instead, it looks as if he was brought in solely to make up the numbers, and he’s been viewed as more of a commodity than a viable squad option.

He may never made an official debut for the Reds, but a left-footed English centre-back in his mid-20s, who’s still on a long contract, should definitely fetch a healthy fee.

If he thrives on loan – and perhaps even leads the Blades to promotion – this could turn out to be one of Edwards’ savviest moves yet from a solely business perspective.

In other news, a Ligue 1 expert has given his verdict on the Renato Sanches links.

Debasis Mohanty is a notable absentee from the East Zone squad, to be captained by former Test opener Shiv Sunder Das, announced for the Duleep Trophy

Cricinfo staff10-Jan-2009
A successful Orissa duo has been separated for this year’s Duleep Trophy © Cricinfo Ltd.
Debasis Mohanty is a notable absentee from the East Zone squad, to be captained by former Test opener Shiv Sunder Das, announced for the Duleep Trophy. Debasis was Orissa’s joint highest wicket-taker this Ranji Trophy season with 28 wickets at 16.53, but was overlooked in place of his pace partner Basanth Mohanty.The side has three other players from Orissa – the wicketkeeper Haladhar Das, Basant – who tied with Debasis on 28 wickets at 21.28 – and allrounder Niranjan Behera. “It’s good that we have four players in the squad. However, Debashish should have been in the side. He did pretty well in Ranji Trophy this season,” Orissa Cricket Association (OCA) secretary Ashirbad Behera told .Bengal’s wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha has been named as a batsman, and joins statemates Ranadeb Bose, Ashok Dinda, Manoj Tiwary and Dibyendu Chakraborty. The Bengal captain, Laxmi Shukla, has not found a place. Bengal’s Utpal Chatterjee has been named the coach.The East Zone selectors, Raja Venkat and Sambaran Banerjee, appointed the Assam middle order batsman Rashmi Parida as the vice-captain.This season’s Duleep Trophy will be played on a knock-out basis. South Zone and Central Zone, the teams placed at the bottom of their respective groups last season, will play a qualifying match in Bangalore from January 22. The winner will take on defending champions North Zone in the first semi-final, while East Zone clash with West Zone in the second. The final, scheduled to begin on February 5, will be played in Chennai.

Speaking exclusively to The Transfer Tavern, former Premier League midfielder Carlton Palmer believes Raheem Sterling could leave Manchester City before the transfer window closes if a big bid comes in.

Sterling, who was not always a starter for City last season, faces tough competition for a spot from the likes of new signing Jack Grealish and Phil Foden.

Various outlets, including the MailOnline, have also claimed that the 26-year-old is one player the Premier League champions have been open to selling this summer.

On top of all of that, City are, of course, still chasing Tottenham’s Harry Kane, who is going to cost a lot of money if he is eventually sold and will take up another attacking spot in Pep Guardiola’s starting XI.

Ultimately, considering everything, Palmer is refusing to rule out the possibility of Sterling still leaving before the end of the month in a potential £70-80m deal. The ex-Leeds United player told TT:

“It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Sterling. I can’t get my head around Pep letting Sterling go after the way he played in the Euros, but you never know.

“He’s signed Grealish. If he believes that Harry Kane’s the final piece in the jigsaw, then he might decide to let Sterling go. Sterling, you would think, would be valued at about 70 to 80 million.”

Sterling managed to score over the weekend in the 5-0 thrashing of Norwich City, showing that he still has a lot to offer at City.

Greg Mail registered his ninth first-class century and New South Wales needed the contribution as they struggled to 227 against Victoria

Cricinfo staff15-Feb-2009New South Wales 227 (Mail 101, McKay 3-29) v Victoria
Scorecard
Points table
Greg Mail kept the Blues together with 101 © Getty Images
Greg Mail registered his ninth first-class century and New South Wales needed the contribution as they struggled to 227 against Victoria. Mail stood out with 101 against the Bushrangers, who have a 12-point buffer over Queensland at the top of the table.Mail spent most of the day working towards three figures but shortly after getting there was lbw to John Hastings (2 for 40), the Sheffield Shield debutant called for extra work after injuries to Shane Harwood and Dirk Nannes. Harwood was out of the attack before lunch with a pectoral injury, but Nannes stepped up with 3 for 34 until he succumbed to a side strain after tea.McKay took on a heavy load and kept things tight, giving away 29 runs in 23 overs while grabbing three wickets. With two bowlers missing, he could be even busier in the second innings.Nannes waited until after lunch to land a double blow when he had Peter Forrest (4) edging a cut behind and Ben Rohrer (4) lbw. McKay, who claimed Phil Jaques for 29 in the first session, picked up Dominic Thornely for 24 to a take behind as the Blues stuttered to 4 for 123. Mail helped push them towards 200 before the lower order squeezed to 227.

West Ham manager David Moyes pulled the plug on the club’s pursuit of Fiorentina defender Nikola Milenkovic, reporter Jack Rosser has told Football FanCast.

Milenkovic became a target for West Ham after the east London outfit initially faced difficulties in trying to sign Kurt Zouma from Chelsea.

However, after agreeing a £29.8m fee with their London rivals, West Ham eventually managed to land Zouma on a four-year deal.

And Rosser has revealed that the Hammers turned back to the Frenchman after also encountering problems in their attempts to sign Milenkovic, who has since signed a new contract at the Artemio Franchi Stadium.

“When it comes to transfers, the money’s there. The board have given him [Moyes] the money,” the Evening Standard journalist said. “They’ve also given him the final say, so by the sounds of it, Milenkovic was an option they went to after Zouma.

“They tried with Zouma but it didn’t come off initially, went to Milenkovic and that sort of stalled and dallied a bit, had some problems with agents and Moyes then sort of had a change of heart. He decided to pull the plug and focus everything back on Zouma, which paid off.”

As he discussed Zouma in his pre-match press confrence ahead of West Ham’s recent 2-2- draw with Crystal Palace, Moyes stressed the need to add a fourth centre-back to the squad, so he will undoubtedly be delighted with the addition of the France international.

The Hammers’ new signing arrives with plenty of top-flight experience and an impressive honours list having won both the Premier League and Champions League during his time at Stamford Bridge.

Leeds United must return for Huddersfield Town midfielder Lewis O’Brien in the January transfer window amid Kevin Campbell’s transfer claim.

What’s the story?

Marcelo Bielsa’s side failed in their attempts to sign the 22-year-old in the summer, with The Athletic’s Phil Hay reporting that the Whites simply did not want to pay the money that the Terriers were demanding.

However, Campbell has now suggested that the Whites could well return for the midfield dynamo when January comes around.

He said: “The money is there. Sometimes these transfers are to fatten your squad up. The player might not go into the starting 11 straight away.

“£8million to fatten the squad when Leeds actually have players who can do a job, maybe it wasn’t the priority. Maybe they will bide their time and return for him in January.”

Could answer Marcelo Bielsa’s prayers

While Leeds addressed their need for a new senior left-back (Junior Firpo), and a winger to challenge the likes of Jack Harrison and Raphinha (Dan James), one area of real interest on which they failed to deliver was a new central midfielder.

The decision not to pay up for O’Brien now places an even bigger demand on the limited options Bielsa currently has, and the Leeds manager will be hoping and praying that the likes of Kalvin Phillips can stay injury-free.

A January move for O’Brien would go a long way to ensuring that the Whites are well protected in that department.

Huddersfield Town writer Steven Chicken has raved about the 22-year-old’s work-rate and ability to develop into a Premier League player despite only playing at Championship level thus far.

He said: “O’Brien is a left-footed, tough-tackling central midfielder. Former Huddersfield boss Danny Cowley often praised O’Brien as being ‘like having two players’, with the midfielder receiving particular praise from his manager and fans alike for his ability and willingness to rush back and win the ball with a clean sliding tackle whenever his side were caught on the counter-attack.

“He certainly has the potential to be (a Premier League player), if he’s not already.”

As per WhoScored, O’Brien averaged two tackles and one interception per game in the Championship last season, which is only slightly less than the 2.6 tackles and 1.6 interceptions that Phillips managed in the top flight.

The £5k-a-week ace should be a top target for Leeds once again when the January transfer window comes around in a few months’ time. Signing him would solve one of Bielsa’s big problems of not having enough depth in central midfield.

Meanwhile, Leeds must unleash this starlet who’s more exciting than Dan James…

Kris Srikkanth told Dinesh Karthik bluntly what he needed to do to get back into the national reckoning: Score a lot of runs and keep well

Nagraj Gollapudi13-Feb-2009
Dinesh Karthik’s back in India colours © AFP
Even before Dinesh Karthik got a chance to set a goal for the Ranji season this year Kris Srikkanth stepped in and did the job for him. The chairman of selectors told Karthik bluntly what the Tamil Nadu wicketkeeper-batsman needed to do to get back into the national reckoning: Score a lot of runs and keep well. “I knew what was expected right away,” Karthik said on Friday, minutes after he was named in the Indian squad for the New Zealand series.After disappointing in the first two Tests in Sri Lanka last year, Karthik was replaced by Parthiv Patel for the final match. Both were there because Mahendra Singh Dhoni had opted out but neither made an impression; nonetheless, they remained the front-runners for the second keeper’s slot.It was a close race but Karthik seems to have tipped the balance with the big runs he managed in the domestic game, even if the chinks in his glovework remained. He was No. 10 on the Ranji Trophy run-makers’ list and the highest scorer in the Duleep Trophy; he had five centuries in all – three in the Ranji, including a double, and two in three Duleep games for South Zone.It’s been quite a turnaround from the Sri Lanka debacle but Karthik, who at 23 has dealt with adversity before, wasn’t about to march off into the shadows. “I have been dropped before but it was tough when I returned from Sri Lanka. But you need to go through it and understand what you need to do to get back into the team.”He had lots of help. First, prompted by coach WV Raman, the Tamil Nadu selectors made him captain. “He has a restless mind and it would have rankled him after being dropped. And I wanted someone who would be constant through the season since [Subramaniam] Badrinath was going to be with the national squad,” Raman said.Karthik agrees. “To be part of the team as a player and to lead it are two different things. If I was just a player I wouldn’t have been part of a lot of decision-making and I probably wouldn’t have played as responsibly as I did as a captain. The captaincy meant that I had to lead a group of people who were looking to win the Ranji Trophy, and I had a coach who was backing me, and a set of selectors who believed in my thoughts. These things gave me the belief that if I did well on the domestic circuit my performance would be recognised and I might get another chance.”He worked hard on his batting with his personal coaches, focusing primarily on two aspects: strokeplay and defensive technique, and batted with far more application and purpose than before. And the results came. A fine example was his cavalier innings against Central Zone during the Duleep game when the other specialist batsmen had departed. At 86 for 6 Karthik felt the only thing he could do was go for broke. South ended up making a respectable 329.”The situation just happened and I couldn’t plan anything. I had to go out there and figure out how I could help the team. I went with the normal mindset of a No.7, but when wickets started falling I realised that if we had to win we had to up the run-rate, so I started to play my shots and it came out well.”It didn’t always come off. In the Ranji semi-finals against Uttar Pradesh he dropped catches at crucial junctures, which played a huge role in Tamil Nadu failing to make it to the final. Karthik accepts the blame squarely. “I was disappointed with my keeping in the semi-final but that can happen in a long season. But that is the thing with a wicketkeeper: I honestly had a good season till then and suddenly I dropped a few. After the dropped catches we were out of the Ranji Trophy, so people dependent on me were upset with me and I was upset with myself.”Raman has a word of caution. “There were will be a lot more deviation when he keeps to the likes of Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma on the seaming pitches in New Zealand. So he needs to ensure he does not trust the ball to come straight as an arrow as it does on Indian tracks. He needs to stay focused till the ball comes into his hands.”But Karthik seems to have picked himself up already. “The one thing you learn by sitting out is the fire inside increases to get back into the Indian team. India are now competing with South Africa to be the number one and you want contribute. That is what I want to do.”

The West Indies coach, John Dyson, is normally a fairly mild-mannered person, but watching two of his key middle-order batsmen get dispatched by the referral system nearly tipped him over the edge

Andrew McGlashan in Barbados28-Feb-2009
The umpiring was in the spotlight on the third day in Barbados © Getty Images
The West Indies coach, John Dyson, is normally a fairly mild-mannered person, but watching two of his key middle-order batsmen get dispatched by the referral system nearly tipped him over the edge. Shortly after Brendan Nash was given out lbw for 33, Dyson marched down the steps with Omar Khan, the team manager in tow, on the hunt for the match referee. If Alan Hurst was hoping for a quieter Test after the controversy in Antigua that knock on the door changed things.It was bad enough that Shivnarine Chanderpaul had been given out despite the ball clearly heading over the stumps, but then Nash was also sent packing by a 50-50 call. With both decisions the system had failed to follow its brief. The aim of the trial isn’t to adjudicate on marginal decisions, but to correct glaring errors. Here it gave a marginal one, and failed to correct a clear error.”This is a trial system and some days you get good decisions and today we got two or three controversial decisions,” Hurst said. “We have to learn from this.”Dyson for his part struck a more conciliatory tone than may have been expected as he marched down the steps. “One of the great things about cricket is it teaches you to accept all decisions and just get on with the game,” he told Sky Sports. “I just went down the stairs to have a chat with Alan Hurst. We just wanted to clarify a few things.””I think we’re still getting to grips with the whole concept,” he added. “When you play your whole life with the umpires being in sole charge, but now sometimes find yourself in situations where you can question the decisions, it is hard to deal with.”That brings us to Chanderpaul. Even as Russell Tiffin gave him out the ball, only four overs old, looked to have struck him high on the pad and the first couple of replays confirmed as such. The key view was side-on with the Hawk-Eye graphic (stopped at the moment of impact) which showed the ball was already at bail height and still rising. No one would have argued if the decision had been overturned and the eventual full Hawk-Eye replay – which the third umpire doesn’t see – showed the ball missing by at least six inches.No wonder Dyson looked frustrated. His batsman had been the victim of two poor decisions in one ball. The irony is that if referrals hadn’t been in place everyone would have accepted Tiffin’s verdict as a rough one, but something that happens in cricket. However, since the TV umpire supported the mistake that made it pretty inexcusable.Ramnaresh Sarwan, who watched from the other end, understandably stayed clear of the debate but admitted he had reservations over the system. “I really and truly don’t want to comment on it, the umpire’s decisions are final,” he said. “Like I’ve said before, I’m not a big fan of it. At the end of the day, people make mistakes and I am strong believer that things balance out in the end, over your career. It takes up a bit of time as well.”The man at the rough end of the criticism will be Daryl Harper who was also in the hot seat in Kingston. In that game he made what seemed a glaring error when he upheld an appeal against Daren Powell for caught behind, despite clear daylight between bat and ball. However, it is believed he was given an unsuitable picture by the host broadcaster which obscured the ball for a crucial moment. On these latest occasions picture quality shouldn’t have been an issue, but what did come to the forefront was not allowing the third umpire use of Hawk-Eye.It would have shown, for example, that Nash’s lbw was barely clipping the stumps – the type that is correctly given not out because of the margin-of-error principle. Still, when Harper had viewed all the replays, and all the angles, and still none of them gave conclusive evidence that Nash was out the expectation was he would survive. Then Aleem Dar’s finger went up and Dyson went off to the match referee, although from England’s point of view it was business as usual.”I’m a bit bemused that it has been referred to as mad because it didn’t seem mad out in the middle,” Swann said. “We didn’t realise there was controversy until we walked off the pitch. As far as we are concerned we got given a couple of lbws. We felt aggrieved in Jamaica by a couple of decisions and West Indies feel aggrieved today. Obviously the system is not ideal if people feel aggrieved by it but personally I have no problems, especially if they go my way.”The problem, though, is a lack of consistency. This is a trial and teething problems have to be expected, but the fundamental basis of the system isn’t that complicated. The third umpire can over rule obvious errors, yet the game is getting the worst of two bad worlds. First there are the delays, some bordering on five minutes, while evidence is watched, then incorrect decisions are still being given. At the moment no one is gaining.”We were led to believe it was to eliminate the bad ones [umpiring mistakes]. But what we are seeing is all sorts of tactical decisions are coming in,” Dyson added. “The players are finding it challenging to get used to the system. I think the jury is still out.”