Keeping it simple the key: Virat

Colombo: Virat Kohli is in sublime form. The right-hander notched up his second century of the series to guide India to a series-clinching six-wicket win in the fourth one-day International on Tuesday.

The Indians now lead the series 3-1. Virat and Suresh Raina shared an unbroken partnership of 146 off 112 balls. In the process, Virat also completed 1000 runs in a calendar year.

Asked the reason behind his tremendous form, Virat said: “Keeping things simple is the key to my form.”

The following are excerpts

Mahendra Singh Dhoni: The part-timers bowled really well in this game… The pace was very important and they bowled to their field to create trouble for the batsmen. What also mattered is the kind of variations you have at your disposal… Manoj gave me an extra option. We requested him to bowl a lot in the net sessions… Today, he bowled brilliantly and I’m quite happy with his effort.

Even when Manoj is not there, we have Virender Sehwag and Suresh Raina who can bowl. Virat can bowl his medium pacers with the ’keeper up. That is the sort of quality we have. So even if we don’t get a perfect all-rounder, we are comfortable playing seven batsmen.

Virat has improved a lot… He’s someone who doesn’t like to throw away his wicket. He may get off to a very slow start. But once gets set, he is very difficult to get out. He’s very hungry to get runs. Raina has also shown a lot of improvement. The time has come for him to bat at No. 4 or 5. But the problem is you have to see what’s best for the side… For the last one or two years, we haven’t found anyone who can fit in his shoes. I think batsmen have taken the responsibility in this series… It was important that the batsmen don’t throw it away after getting off to a start… I think they did that.

Mahela Jayawardene: India have a great batting line-up… To restrict the batsmen from scoring runs, you need to pick up wickets. But that’s where we lacked in the last few games. Even after taking wickets early, the bowlers failed to keep up the pressure on their batsmen. Our fielding was also poor and dropping catches didn’t help our cause. The wicket was a bit slow… We didn’t bat well and were 30-40 runs short…

When you are defending a target like that, you set attacking fields and try to take wickets from the beginning. We got those wickets, creating pressure on India. India needed to get through that period without losing any further wickets. They did that… They batted patiently and it became easy for them in the end.

Clarke delighted after signing for Big Bash team Sydney Thunder

Australia captain Michael Clarke has signed for Twenty20 Big Bash team Sydney Thunder, and believes it's a brilliant opportunity for him to play along international stars like Shahid Afridi and Chris Gayle.
"Playing for Sydney Thunder is a great opportunity for me to play for a team rooted in Sydney's western suburbs as well as to support Cricket Australia in building on last year's Big Bash success," The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Clarke, as saying.
"I am really excited about playing a part in the Big Bash, particularly as it will be against the other Sydney team. Not only do I get to play alongside superstar T20 internationals like Chris Gayle and Shahid Afridi but also with a bunch of great young guys just starting to make their mark, many of whom grew up in the west," he added.

Sangakkara, Sachin, Philander, Kallis, Anderson nominated for LG People's Choice Award

The third LG People's Choice Award this year sees two former winners nominated alongside three other international cricketing stars in a bid to win the only award voted for by the public.
Those nominated include Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara, India's Sachin Tendulkar, South African duo Vernon Philander and Jacques Kallis and England's James Anderson.
Both Sangakkara (2011) and Tendulkar (2010) have won the LG People's Choice Award in the past.
For the third time in the history of the LG ICC Awards, fans will have the opportunity to decide the winner, this time by accessing an application on the ICC's official Facebook page: www.facebook.com/cricketicc.
Voting was opened until midnight UAE time on 31 August with the winner to be announced on 15 September at the LG ICC Awards in Colombo.
The short list, nominated by an elite panel of cricket experts headed by former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd, along with Sri Lanka's Marvan Atapattu, England's Clare Connor, West Indies Carl Hooper and Australia's Tom Moody was selected using criteria set out by LG and the ICC.
This dictated that the nominees should have displayed some of the attributes regarded by LG as in line with their corporate qualities such as innovation, dynamism, strength in decision-making, performing well under pressure and executing a plan to distinction.
ICC Chief Executive David Richardson said: "This is the third year of the LG People's Choice Award and it is proving to be hugely popular among fans across the globe and continues to highlight how much voting for their cricketing heroes means.
"This year sees the two past winners nominated again alongside three other extremely deserving candidates, I'm sure the public will choose wisely as to who will be the 2012 winner of this prestigious award at the LG ICC Awards 2012."

Cricket: Flower confident that England can come back

England coach Andy Flower said on Tuesday he was confident England could come back strongly in the second Test against South Africa at Headingley after their innings defeat in the first Test at the Oval last week.
"They outplayed us," said Flower about the South African performance, which saw them make 637 for two declared in their only innings, inspired by an unbeaten triple century from Hashim Amla.
"They played outstanding cricket. We fought hard but we weren't good enough. We get another opportunity on Thursday."
Asked how England could recover after a comprehensive defeat, Flower said: "We get ourselves into the right frame of mind by doing the things that we have been doing very well for the last couple of years."
"I have every confidence in our players that we can come back and play good cricket."
"Part of our make-up has to be to deal with those ups and downs," added Flower, in an admission that big swings in fortune were part and parcel of international sport.
He said the momentum in the first Test changed when England failed to capitalise on a good start in the first innings, as they collapsed from 251 for three to 385 all out.
"On a pitch like that you need a significant score and after some outstanding performances on the first day we didn't capitalise and the South Africans bowled well that second morning," he continued.
England have won four and lost five of their last ten Tests, but Flower rejected comments that their performances had been "dismal" since they claimed the number one Test ranking.
"We have had some really good results over the last couple of years," he said.
"You've got to look a little deeper than that. The series (against Pakistan) in the United Arab Emirates was played under specific conditions and we struggled against their two spinners.
"You can't compare that at all to the first Test against South Africa."
He denied that England's confidence had taken a knock because of the way they lost the first Test and said his team's preparation remained methodical.
"We try to make every Test special. We practiced hard this afternoon. Each individual has his own methods of preparation and we do certain things as a team that have stood us in good stead in the past," he said.
"After one Test loss you don't throw your methods out of the window.
"We've got a group that is very confident and quite rightly so.
"Sometimes you are outplayed regardless of the attempts at dismissal or the strategy that you implement and you have to give credit to the opposition.
"It's very easy after a loss, especially a heavy loss, to attribute it to any number of things."
Flower added that Ravi Bopara's withdrawal for personal reasons was disappointing for the player but said it did not close the door on his chances for future selection.
But Bopara's replacement, James Taylor of Nottinghamshire, now has a chance to prove himself.
"I don't know James very well," said Flower. "We had him down to the odd net with us. I've seen him working with (England batting coach) Graham Gooch.
"I watched him play against Sri Lanka last year at Derby and he played very well. He looks like a young man who understands his game very well and he knows how to score runs in his way."

Headingley pitch may suit Philander's style of bowling

The Headingley pitch may suit South African pacer Vernon Philander, who had a rare, "quiet" outing by his standards over the past few months, in his team's first-Test thrashing of England at The Oval.
The pitch for the opening Test was less than ideal for his brand of bowling, slow and abrasive, as it was played unusually without the aid of cloud cover.
Headingley is famous for aiding seam bowling, whether exponents of it are of the genuinely express variety or not, and especially when low clouds install themselves, as they so often do over the northern county of Yorkshire, Sport24 reports.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with Philander's economy, discipline or durability at The Oval, although that was the first of his eventful eight Tests thus far where he has not managed to grab a match haul of five wickets or more.
South Africa may well be required to bat rather deeper than they did in the first Test, where nobody from AB de Villiers downward even got a knock, but it is handy to know that in Jacques Rudolph, the probable No 6, lies someone with an intimate knowledge of the requirements at the Headingley crease from his successful years with Yorkshire.

Cricket: Sierra Leone, Liberia partner to develop game

Sierra Leone and Liberia have signed an agreement to coordinate the development of cricket in their countries and encourage their neighbours to take up the game, an official said Monday.
Emmanuel Pessima, development officer of the Sierra Leone Cricket Association (SLCA), said the two nations had agreed "to coordinate cricket development activities" and encourage other countries in the Mano River Union -- a four-nation bloc that also includes Guinea and Ivory Coast -- to develop cricket programmes.
Under the agreement, "the SLCA shall provide coaching and other resource assistance to Liberia including umpiring and groundmanship."
Sierra Leone will also advise Liberians on how to produce cricket equipment and introduce the Liberian cricket team to other cricket-playing nations in Africa.
The memorandum also calls for the "convening of biennial and annual conferences on a rotational basis and the launching of cricket series to be hosted rotationally for the Mano River Union trophy."
Cricket was introduced to former British colony Sierra Leone by the British Artillery Forces based there in 1898, and the popular game has experienced a resurgence since the end of a bloody civil war in 2002.
Sierra Leone has played in international tournaments with English-speaking countries in the sub-region as well as with Kenya, Namibia, Zambia and Tanzania.
Liberia, a country established by freed American slaves, is not a traditional cricketing nation. Neither are former French colonies Guinea and Ivory Coast.

Gibson pleased with 'total team effort' as Windies beat New Zealand

Lauding West Indies players for their commitment and hard work against New Zealand in the first Test, Coach Otis Gibson said the team's emphatic win was the result of a "total team effort".
Speaking after his side's massive nine-wicket win, Gibson noted that his team knew from the start they had to play "tough and smart" cricket and keep their "fitness levels up" to beat the Black Caps on a placid pitch at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground.
The home side triumphed, thanks mainly to superb knocks of 150 and 64 not out from Chris Gayle, 134 from Kieran Powell in the first innings; as well as five-wicket hauls from pacer Kemar Roach and spinner Sunil Narine, who won the Digicel Man-of-the-Match award.
This was the West Indies first victory in 11 Tests against New Zealand.
The previous victory came 16 years ago at the Kensington Oval in Barbados, when a Courtney Walsh-led side conquered Lee Germon's tourists by ten wickets.
"This win was a total team effort in every way. We did well in all departments. I'm happy for everyone involved. Before this match, our last win against New Zealand was way back in 1996. So, to come here and start the series with such a good result is pleasing. Everybody has the feel good factor - the players are smiling and the fans are happy. We are heading in the right direction and you can see the team is progressing. This is healthy. This is what we need," Gibson said.
"We looked good in this match. Chris Gayle was dominant with the bat and led us in the first innings. It was good to see the way he batted with Powell and set the platform for us. Powell played well and grew as a player. Narine got the wickets for us in the first innings and today Roach showed what a class act he is with the ball," Gibson added.
"The way we executed our plans was one of the most pleasing aspects for me. With the ball we were patient when we had to and aggressive when we had to. An example of that was today when Roach bowled very well in the morning session to build the pressure and Ravi Rampaul was aggressive, and that also applied pressure on the batsmen. When we got the chance to push we had to be incisive and we did just that.
"We batted very well, led by that amazing opening stand between Gayle and Powell. That really set the tone for the innings. It was also good to see Fudadin get his first Test match half-century, Deonarine played really well and Sammy also got a good score to keep the momentum going. Once we put 500 runs on the board we realised we could win."
The West Indies dominated the visitors during this tour. They won the Digicel Twenty20 Series 2-0, and took the Digicel One-Day International Series 4-1. Gibson said his team is eagerly looking ahead to the next match in Jamaica.
The two teams will travel to Jamaica on Monday for the second and final Digicel Test match, which bowls off on Friday at Sabina Park.