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New Zealand will bank on a more specialised bowling attack for the series against South Africa than they have in the past. With a four-pronged pace attack for the Tests, and four spinners to choose from in the limited-overs matches, stand-in captain Brendon McCullum said New Zealand’s current make-up is perhaps the strongest it has ever been.”We’ve got a nice balance between our seam bowlers and our spinners. In the past we operated with a few more fiddly bowlers rather than specialists,” McCullum said ahead of the first Twenty20 in Wellington. “I think that’s one of the things we do possess at the moment: legitimate seam and legitimate spin bowling.”New Zealand’s spinners – three may feature in the first match – are being talked about as a trump card. Canterbury’s slow bowlers restricted South Africa’s batsmen in the tour match, and although the visitors have performed well against spin in recent times, a residue of their reputation for struggling against spin remains.McCullum watched the tour match and took someimportant lessons from it. “The Canterbury spinners bowled really well,” he said. “It was a little bit different for the South Africans as well because, having [had] such a good start they tried to push the run-rate, so maybe they became a little more susceptible to changes of pace.”South Africa scored only 52 runs in the last eight overs of their tour match and McCullum said he expected them to show greater intent in the internationals. “They will go up a gear from yesterday. They looked like they were just trying to blow a few cobwebs out.”McCullum hoped the trio of Rob Nicol, Nathan McCullum and Ronnie Hira will be able to repeat that success. “That [spin] is one of the areas we think we are reasonably strong,” McCullum said. “Hopefully if we can give our spinners the opportunity to get into the game early, they’ll be able to settle into their work and put them [South Africa] under some pressure.”There’s a couple of things that we think we might be able to exploit. “Across the board they are a pretty solid team and we know we will have to execute at our best to succeed. There’s some areas where we think we may be able to expose them.”Before looking to exploit South Africa’s weaknesses, McCullum said he will impress on his group the need to lay foundations first. In the second Twenty20 against Zimbabwe, New Zealand were tested for the first time in the series and looked rushed and even vulnerable at times. McCullum said they could not repeat such “giddy execution,” and he will make sure there is an air of calm before they take the field against South Africa.”We have to make sure we execute the basics before we get too tactically funky. If we do the basics well it will give us the opportunity to try and exploit some of those areas that we think we can target.”Like South Africa, New Zealand also have one eye on the World Twenty20 later in the year but McCullum was not looking too far ahead. “You do have to look at what’s down the track but our focus is on making sure we start the series well. It’s a big series for us.”

ScorecardIreland recovered from their first defeat in the WCL Championship, and gained revenge over the team they lost to at the weekend, with a dominant 117-run victory in the second ODI against Kenya. Led by 88 from Ed Joyce – the only man to pass 30 in Mombasa – Ireland compiled a competitive total on a slow pitch and then dismantled Kenya’s batting with a disciplined display from their bowlers.Trent Johnston, Alex Cusack, George Dockrell and Paul Stirling all took two wickets apiece as the hosts’ line-up slowly disintegrated. Kenya staggered to 37 for 5 and then 74 for 7 and were well behind the run-rate when Shem Ngoche initiated a miniature fightback, putting on 40, the best partnership of the innings, with Nehemiah Odhiambo. Ngoche was eventually the last man out, having top-scored with 28 – a tally that beat his previous one-day best of 7 not out by some distance.Ireland’s seamers had done the initial damage, with Boyd Rankin removing Duncan Allen in the third over and Kenya’s matchwinner in the first ODI, Tanmay Mishra, falling for 2 soon after. Following a double strike from Cusack, Ragheb Aga and Alex Obanda combined for a 36-run stand but the recovery was checked when Dockrell removed them both in his second over.Thereafter it was just a question of how many overs the tail could survive as Ireland consolidated their position at the top of the table, in pursuit of one of two automatic qualification spots for the 2015 World Cup.Ireland’s batting effort was built around a composed effort from former England ODI player Joyce, who steadied the innings after his side lost their first three wickets with less than 50 on the board – a slump that followed captain William Porterfield’s decision to bat. Joyce put on consecutive half-century partnerships with Kevin O’Brien and then Andrew White and, having reached his fifty off 93 balls with a six, stepped up through the gears to add a further 33 off 32 deliveries before becoming Hiren Varaiya’s third victim in the 47th over.White departed four balls later but John Mooney jolted the total along further with a colourful cameo as Ireland added 24 from the final three overs. Kenya had chased successfully at the same ground on Saturday but it rapidly became clear that this time the target was beyond them.

Match facts

Saturday, April 7, Visakhapatnam
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)Deccan Chargers will look to their bowling to put pressure on Chennai Super Kings in their first game of the season•Associated Press

Big picture

Deccan Chargers open their campaign against defending champions Chennai Super Kings. In the absence of Kumar Sangakkara, that is going to be a tough challenge. Super Kings were a bit rusty when they played Mumbai Indians two days ago, especially in their batting, something that the Chargers think-thank would have made notes on. Apart from Suresh Raina, no other batsman allowed themselves time to settle in. Super Kings will be eager to score their first points tomorrow.Chargers captain Cameron White has an experienced group of bowlers at his disposal. Amit Mishra and Dale Steyn led the wickets tally last year for the team. Steyn bowled with a lot of pace and was well supported by an equally menacing Ishant Sharma, who created problems with his bounce. However, with no Ishant this year, Steyn will need to guide someone like Manpreet Gony to raise his game.Gony appeared to be in good form in the knockouts of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, the domestic Twenty20 competition, in which he picked up eight wickets in three games. A tall man, he has the ability to extract bounce from any surface.Super Kings’ batsmen, however, have the ability to run in top gear throughout the innings and much will depend on how Steyn, and later Mishra, keep them under control.Chargers will be boosted with Parthiv Patel coming in at the top of the order with Shikhar Dhawan, Chargers’ top-scorer from last season. Super Kings create pressure with their spinners, and a lot will depend on how Chargers handle the spin menace. The trio of R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Shadab Jakati failed to make an impact against Mumbai Indians, and MS Dhoni would hope that last performance was a blip rather than a sign of things to come.

Players to watch

Amit Mishra stands fourth on the leading wicket-takers list in the IPL with 61 victims, including a hat-trick last season. Although Steyn will lead the fast bowling, Chargers’ fortunes will revolve around Mishra’s spin.The most expensive buy in this year’s auction, Ravindra Jadeja, failed to make an impact with bat and ball in the first game. But the value that he brings to all aspects of cricket is something that Chargers are well aware of, after missing out on securing his services in a fiercely fought auction battle with Super Kings.

2011 head-to-head

Chargers lost their only match against Super Kings last year, as they faltered in a tall chase.

Stats and trivia

• Super Kings’ batting is powered by Suresh Raina – the leading run-scorer in IPL history with 1849 runs. However, their top wicket-taker – Albie Morkel with 56 scalps – is ninth on the table.
• Chargers have scored more than 200 runs in an innings only once in IPL history. Super Kings have crossed that barrier five times.
• Chargers and Super Kings have played eight games against each other and the head-to-head record is 4-4.

Quotes

“We were rusty. I think boys showed glimpses of form and glimpses of the Chennai that you know. We were losing wickets at regular intervals. We just did not allow ourselves opportunity to get partnerships.”

“I would like to continue from where I left last season, during which I was the highest wicket-taker for the Chargers. I will push myself to doing better this time around. The challenge is to contain the runs, which leads to wickets.”

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Former Derbyshire all-rounder Wayne White punished his old club again with another career-best performance to put Leicestershire on top on the third day at Derby.Two years after making his first-class best with the bat on the same ground, a maiden century, White took his first five-wicket haul for the Foxes to bowl Derbyshire out for 180. That gave Leicestershire a first innings lead of 144 and White – a day before his 27th birthday – finished with 5 for 54, eclipsing the 5 for 87 he took for Derbyshire against Northants in 2007.Derbyshire needed a few timely blows from number 10 batsman Tony Palladino to avoid being asked to follow on and, by the close, Leicestershire had moved on to 76 for 1 in their second innings, a lead of 220. Matt Boyce was 43 not out and Jacques du Toit 25 not out.The bowlers had the better of the day after conditions seemed to favour the batsmen on the second day and the pattern was soon set. Leicestershire resumed on 318 for 7 but, within 23 balls, Robbie Joseph and Claude Henderson had their middle stumps sent flying and Nadeem Malik lost his off stump. Mark Footitt took two of those wickets to finish with 3 for 43 and Palladino the other to give him 3 for 66.At 324 all out, Leicestershire had lost their last five wickets for seven runs but Derbyshire were soon in trouble at the start of their reply. Joseph’s fourth ball had Paul Borrington caught behind without a run on the scoreboard and Wes Durston was caught at short leg to give Joseph a second victim in his next over.Wayne Madsen and Dan Redfern repaired some of the damage with a stand of 55 for the third wicket, but they fell to slip catches on either side of the lunch interval and that was 70 for 4.The follow-on loomed when Malik took the wicket of Ross Whiteley and White removed Martin Guptill, who had to come in down the order at four because he spent time off the field for an ankle injury on the second day, and Jon Clare, to make it 115 for 7.Spinner Claude Henderson had been made to wait for his first bowl of the season as the Leicestershire seamers dominated but, with his first ball, he had David Wainwright caught behind.Derbyshire were still 24 short of the follow-on target when Tom Poynton was ninth man out at 151, but Palladino hit 29 off the next 16 balls he faced, including a pulled six off White, before the bowler was able to complete his five-for.

The PCB has taken charge of the Quaid-e-Azam stadium in Mirpur and has identified it as a potential venue for international cricket. Mirpur is the largest town in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), a self-governing state under Pakistani control to the north-east of Punjab, and is known as ‘Little Britain’ because of the large immigrant population in England from this area.The region’s cricket coordinator Fazal-ur-Rehman told ESPNcricinfo that the AJK sports development authority had handed over the stadium’s rights to the PCB on Monday. “The stadium has all the basic requirements for cricket but the PCB was keen to develop it and raise it to international standards,” Rehman said. “This part of the region is fine from the security point of view.”Pakistan currently has 25 first-class venues and four major Test venues. The Mirpur stadium has a capacity of 16,000 and has hosted eight first-class matches from 2005 to 2009; it has also hosted several Under-19 international matches against Australia in 2007.”It is a potential venue with a good law and order situation,” Intikhab Alam, the PCB’s director of international cricket, said. “We have scrutinised various venues around the country and this venue has all the features to be an internationally recognised stadium. There are things that obviously have to be improved and the PCB will ensure all the required facilities for international fixtures. The city has quality logistic facilities, including hotels.”

Ireland allrounder Kevin O’Brien has been signed by Somerset to play five Friends Life t20 matches, the first of which is against Warwickshire on June 13. The county’s other overseas players are South Africa’s Richard Levi and Albie Morkel.”Kevin is a very attractive batsman who can score his runs very quickly and will add to our already exciting batting line up,” Somerset’s director of cricket, Brian Rose, said.O’Brien, who scored the fastest World Cup hundred against England in Bangalore in 2011, represented Gloucestershire in the Twenty20 competition last year and scored a 44-ball century – the fastest in English cricket. He has scored 807 runs and taken 28 wickets in 56 Twenty20 matches so far.Phil Simmons, the Ireland coach, supported the signing. “This is another great opportunity for Kevin to improve his knowledge and skills in the Twenty20 format, which will no doubt help improve him further as a player and help prepare him for the upcoming Twenty20 internationals against Bangladesh in July and South Africa A in August, which all build up to the ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka this September.”

ScorecardFor the Division One leaders, it was a day of frustrating inactivity. Warwickshire had been put in to bat by Somerset on an overcast morning, one on which Peter Trego and Gemaal Hussain, making a rare first-team appearance, could gain some swing, but they faced only 10.4 overs. The likelihood is that the bowlers would have gained rather more than one wicket between them had play continued.Ian Westwood was the batsman out, nicely taken at second slip by Jos Buttler off Trego, no sooner than he had reached double figures. For Somerset, Max Waller was given a rare Championship appearance – his first at Taunton since August 2009. Quite how much assistance there will be for his legspin, or indeed whether he can wrestle the ball off the medium pacers in these conditions, remains to be seen. He has been unfortunate not to have played more first team cricket, especially given that his bowling in T20, both in England and in the Caribbean, has been impressive and fruitful.An abandonment for the day was made at 4.25 pm. Many a Somerset fan, member of the secretariat and journalist was keeping an eye on events at Coggeshall, where Marcus Trescothick was testing his damaged right ankle in their second XI match against Essex with a view to returning to the first team as soon as possible. It has been almost 13 weeks since the injury occurred but, after the first day’s play was washed out by rain, he took the field, at first slip and with no ill effects. Always assuming there is no further rain, he will have at least one innings.Back at the County Ground, Buttler, along with Craig Kieswetter, was in demand to talk about his inclusion in the provisional 30-man party for the World Twenty20. He says all the right things, albeit in the bland manner required by the ECB nowadays. “It is the pinnacle for me,” he said, “although I can’t take anything for granted until the squad is whittled down to 15 names.” There can be little doubting, though, that this is what will occur.For the time being, Buttler is focusing on Somerset’s FLt20 quarter-final against Essex next Tuesday. “They are a strong side who play similar cricket on their home ground at Chelmsford to what we do here at Taunton. And it’s funny to think of myself as one of the young players in our team when I didn’t make my Somerset debut until after I was 18. The Overton twins and George Dockrell all played [at a younger age than] I did.”What with playing their quarter-final at home and having not suffered like most counties from disruption or poor attendances during the T20 group stages, Somerset’s finances will be relatively healthy this year. They also stand to make a small profit from the Elton John concert here last month, although that too was rain-affected and the attendance was not as good as it had been on his previous visit. “We expect to make a figure in the tens of thousands,” said Guy Lavender, the chief executive, “and that is without attracting corporate hospitality as it was held on a Sunday.”

Isuru Udana, the left-arm fast bowler, had a forgettable ODI debut. His opening over contained five wides and two boundaries and went for 16. It was also the over that was to completely alter the course of the game. With India racing to 31 for 0 in three overs and Udana struggling to cope with the stiff breeze across the ground, Mahela Jayawardene handed the ball to Thisara Perera in the fourth. Perera started with three wicket-maidens taking out Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina in each. Three successive wicket-maidens. Almost unbelievable. He could have had a double-wicket maiden but for a dropped catch. Almost ridiculous. India managed 138.Jayawardene said Udana’s waywardness turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Sri Lanka. “Isuru strayed all over the place in the first over,” Jayawardene said. “I felt he was a bit too nervous trying to fight with the wind. He bowled really well at practice yesterday.”The other experienced bowlers I had were Thisara and Angelo [Mathews] so I just gave him the ball because the other day he bowled well from that end and did the job for us. He’s improved quite a bit in confidence and I think the consistency is the most important thing which he is striving for. He’s been consistent for us in the last six months to one year. Every day he keeps improving and he is putting his hand up to play Test cricket as well.”Increasingly, there is hardly anything that Perera cannot pull off on a cricket field. He slams sixes so effectively that he has already been compared to Lance Klusener and Shahid Afridi, by no less than his coach and captain respectively. Increasingly, defending sides, even if they are ahead, don’t feel a total is safe against Sri Lanka till Perera is dismissed.Increasingly, he is turning out to be that deceptive kind of bowler who can seem innocuous as he runs in, but can easily run through sides. He already has a six-for in ODIs. And he is a big asset in the field. Sehwag fell to the latter quality today, as Perera hung on to an acrobatic return catch.There was not much swing in the air, but Perera bowled a difficult length, got bounce with his height, and managed some seam movement. Just enough to take Kohli’s and Raina’s edges.Perera is having a memorable 2012. He has won games with his batting and bowling, he was Player of the Series in the ODIs against Pakistan and he has shared the new ball in a Test. What has done the trick for him? Tips from Shaun Pollock, the former South Africa fast bowler and Mumbai Indians’ bowling coach.”I think he is a good learner but I will be correct if I say he has worked closely with Shaun Pollock on his action during the IPL time because he wasn’t playing much,” Jayawardene said. “Polly has given him some good tips with his action. Polly is a great bowler to discuss those kinds of things with. I think [it is] a great opportunity for him so with that and with fast-bowling coaches he has been working hard to get his pace, to get his accuracy.”Something that he lacked was accuracy in hitting the seam in that good area. He is a tall boy. If he can hit that good area he is always going to create opportunities so I think that’s been the change and at practices he is with the ball doing something or with the bat, batting nets, throw downs. He wants to learn so good to see young guys doing that.”Perera said Pollock had asked him to be more upright in his delivery stride so that he could put more force into his bowling and hit the seam with more control. As Jayawardene said, “The IPL sometimes does help some of the players.”

The fate of the IPL’s Deccan Chargers franchise, which was terminated on Friday, is up in the air with the matter now in court and the BCCI saying it will wait for a ruling before deciding on floating a tender for a new franchise. The team’s owners challenged their expulsion from the IPL through a petition in the Bombay High Court, which will hear the matter on Monday.Though there was no official word from the Chargers, there was a rumour that the court had stayed the termination, prompting the BCCI to issue a brief statement: “The court heard both parties, and did not pass any order staying the termination. The matter has been placed for hearing on Monday.”Though the development has inhibited the board’s next course of action, it is understood that an alternative plan to get a new franchise has already been put in place by the board’s marketing committee, which met in Chennai on Saturday morning.”The matter is in court and sub judice. Everything is dependent on the court order. We cannot as yet finalise anything with regard to our future course of action,” a BCCI working committee official said.Another board official said Chargers were definitely not returning. “They are out. They are no longer in the IPL.” Asked whether plans were afoot to float a tender for a new franchise, the official said: “The BCCI is going ahead with a new tender for the ninth team. But that team will not be based in Hyderabad.”Though nothing has been finalised, officials said the board was thinking of having as many as nine cities on the shortlist, including Kanpur, Ahmedabad and Indore.Officials said the players who represented Chargers in IPL 5 would be paid their dues by the board: “The BCCI will take care of them.” But there was no clarity yet over what would happen to the players if a new franchise came into existence. That decision, officials said, would be taken at a later stage.The decision to scrap the contract of the Hyderabad-based franchise was taken late on Friday evening after the board called for an emergency IPL governing council meeting. Last month, taking stock of the financial troubles that Deccan Chargers Holdings Limited (DCHL), the franchise owners, had got themselves enmeshed in, the BCCI working committee set a deadline of a month for the company to settle all its issues. The deadline expired at 5pm on September 15.However, the Chargers, who had put the franchise on sale but rejected the sole bid received on Thursday, sent the BCCI a “lawyers notice” saying even if DCHL might have committed any “breaches” of the IPL contract, the BCCI should allow more time to settle its disputes.”By this, Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd has clearly admitted its inability to cure its breaches within the time stipulated in the BCCI notice, despite every bit of assistance from the BCCI,” a board release, issued late on Friday, said. “Since the month of May, BCCI has received repeated assurances that the overdue player fees would be paid; all of these promises have been unfulfilled.”Considering the stated position of the Deccan franchise to refuse to rectify the various defaults, including payments to players, foreign boards etc, as also the deleterious effect such conduct would have on the reputation of the IPL and the franchise itself, a decision was taken to forthwith terminate the Deccan Chargers franchise.”18:18 GMT, September 15: The article has been updated

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On a day when Ravindra Jadeja got his first call-up to the Indian Test squad, he extended his purple patch in the Ranji Trophy by troubling Bengal with bat and ball to put Saurashtra in command in Rajkot. He had already top scored with 70 on the first day, and he backed that up with a four-wicket haul to reduce Bengal to 112 for 9. The only Bengal batsman to resist was Manoj Tiwary, who made a battling 55 before being forced to retire hurt due to a muscle pull. Jadeja was not done yet. On a track where pretty much everyone else found it difficult to score, he walked out and slammed an unbeaten 57-ball 67 to increase the lead to 231, with six wickets still in hand. It leaves Bengal needing to score the highest total of the match to win the game.
Scorecard
Rajasthan captain Hrishkesh Kanitkar’s 28th Ranji Trophy century was the cornerstone of the first-innings effort of 294 against Gujarat. It was his second ton in two matches and it left him only behind Ajay Sharma and Wasim Jaffer in the list of most hundreds in the tournament. Gujarat’s left-arm spinner Rakesh Dhurve took six wickets to restrict Rajasthan, before Gujarat’s top order provided a solid start to the chase. Smit Patel, who was India’s wicketkeeper when they won the Under-19 World Cup earlier this year, and Samit Gohel, who was closing in on his third first-class half-century in three matches, put on 45 for the first wicket. Then, Gohel and Bhargav Merai stayed together till stumps, adding 59.
Scorecard
Madhya Pradesh held the advantage after the second day in Bhubaneshwar, as their bowlers nipped out three early Railways wickets. MP extended their first-innings total to 377 thanks to 22-year-old Rameez Khan’s maiden first-class hundred, and Anand Rajan’s first half-century of the season. The pair put on 94 for the sixth wicket, lifting MP from a slightly troublesome 210 for 5. Sanjay Bangar was the most successful of the Railways bowlers, taking four wickets, but his side will need him to contribute substantially with the bat as well if they are to get within MP’s first-innings total.