South Africa Win Sri Lankan Dead Rubber

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Hashim Amla hit an unbeaten 56 as South Africa closed the Super 10 stage of the World Twenty20 with an eight-wicket win against Sri Lanka in Delhi.

A dead rubber between two eliminated sides was never likely to produce spectacular cricket but South Africa were comfortable victors at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium. They took all 10 Sri Lankan wickets for 120, with the 39-year-old Tillakaratne Dilshan top-scoring with 36, before Amla broke the back of a gentle chase.

The only two wickets to fall were down to good fortune, Quinton de Kock dawdling towards his crease as he was run out for nine and Faf du Plessis given out lbw to a rotten decision. Amla would not be moved, though, dropping anchor for 52 balls and hitting five fours and a six.

AB de Villiers (20), whose presence attracted many of the 16,000 fans who attended, ended things with a six off Suranga Lakmal.

A win here will be cold comfort for South Africa, whose fabled under-performance at global events has gained another chapter, while their opponents look to have a long rebuilding phase ahead.

Sri Lanka were missing their captain, Angelo Mathews, who injured a hamstring during his brilliant one-man stand against England, but began their innings well with a bright opening stand of 45.

The left-arm spinner Aaron Phangiso broke that up by bowling Dinesh Chandimal through the gate and then cleaned up Lahiru Thirimanne with his next delivery.

Dilshan put on another 30 with Milinda Siriwardana before the latter was carelessly run out and that represented the best Sri Lanka could muster.

By the time Farhaan Behardien had Dilshan lbw on the sweep the innings had lost its spine. Sri Lanka’s next five wickets fell for 35, with the last man, Lakmal, run out with three balls left to bowl.

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No KP at Twenty20 - Captain Morgan

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Eoin Morgan has unequivocally ended any faint hopes Kevin Pietersen might have had of being selected in England’s ICC World Twenty20 squad on Wednesday.

Pietersen’s exile from the England team since the end of the 2013-14 Ashes has been well documented, with the England and Wales Cricket Board director, Andrew Strauss, citing a “massive trust issue” in ruling out a return last year.

The batsman’s outstanding form for Melbourne Stars in the Ram Slam T20 in South Africa and Australia’s Big Bash League led to speculation of a recall for the 35-year-old in the shortest format of the game.

But limited-overs captain Morgan told the Daily Mail: “That door is completely shut. Kevin will not be picked. That’s from me.”

Pietersen responded on Twitter: “Interesting he’s saying it’s HIS call! Very interesting! Hmmmmm...!”

Earlier, Pietersen championed the cause of his Melbourne Stars team-mate Luke Wright, who has not played for England in nearly two years but also impressed in the recently-concluded BBL.

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Windies Chris Faces Another Gayle

West Indian cricketer Chris Gayle, who on Tuesday half heartedly apologised and was fined for inappropriate remarks he made to a female TV interviewer, is now facing accusations he exposed himself to another woman.

The big-hitting left-hander received an angry backlash for his comments and was branded “disrespectful and simply inappropriate” after he asked journalist Mel McLaughlin for a drink in a live television interview during a Big Bash League clash in Australia.

He said to her: “I wanted to see your eyes for the first time, hopefully we can win this game and then we can have a drink after as well. Don’t blush, baby.”

Gayle, 36, offered a half-hearted apology to McLaughlin, saying his remarks were meant as a light-hearted joke. However, the BBL took a dim view of his comments and fined him £5,000.

Now it has been alleged that he exposed himself to a female member of staff attached to the West Indies squad during last year’s World Cup in Sydney.

The Sydney Morning Herald claims that the woman went into the West Indies dressing room, believing it was empty, as she looked for a sandwich. She encountered Gayle and another player, and the former West Indies captain reportedly allowed his towel to drop, revealing his genitals, before saying: “Are you looking for this?”

She complained to the West Indies management, who have so far declined to comment.

Gayle’s own management team have also not yet given a comment.

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Cool Hand Luke Stars at MCG

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 Cricket fans turned out en masse at the MCG and Luke Wright stepped up on the big stage with a century as Melbourne Stars scored a seven-wicket win over Melbourne Renegades in front of a record Big Bash League crowd on Saturday.

The 80,883-strong crowd easily eclipsed the previous record of 52,637, set at Adelaide Oval, and created an electric atmosphere, with the superb unbeaten innings of 109 off 63 balls from the English import guiding Stars home with five balls to spare.

As much as Wright dazzled, many of those fans came for the tantalising match-up between big-hitters Chris Gayle and Kevin Pietersen. But it failed to live up to the hype with Gayle making just four runs and Pietersen out for six. Having won the toss and sent the Renegades in, the Stars restricted their cross-town rivals to 161-7, then overcame the early losses of Marcus Stoinis and Pietersen to notch their second win from four matches in the tournament.

In a pivotal moment late in the Stars run chase, a dropped catch by Tom Beaton rolled to the boundary for four when Wright was on 64. The Englishman then rubbed salt into the wounds with a pair of towering sixes off the next two deliveries from Xavier Doherty.

Former Star Cameron White marked his first match against his old side with a well made 54 from 39 balls – the highlight of Renegades’ innings. Skipper Aaron Finch passed 4,000 career runs in Twenty20 cricket, but he was dismissed after making 36 off 29 balls. Gayle spooned an easy catch to Pietersen at mid-on off the bowling of John Hastings. Amazingly, Pietersen was speaking to Channel 10 commentators on the live telecast as Hastings came in to bowl to Gayle.

“I will be very happy if that bloke who is down there who is currently batting knocks one up in the air here,” Pietersen said. “We’ve all seen him start slowly but he can explode.” Hastings was the pick of the Stars bowlers with figures of 4-29 from his four overs.

Cricket Australia have apologised to fans stranded outside the MCG before the game after new security measures failed to cope with the record Big Bash League crowd. The previous BBL attendance record of 52,637 set at Adelaide Oval, was broken by the time James Faulkner bowled the first ball of Saturday night’s match, with 56,674 fans inside the ground.

But more than 24,000 people remained outside the venue as the new counter-terrorism fence and security checkpoints slowed entry to the facility. Cricket Australia, however, were quick to defend venue management. “The Melbourne Cricket Ground has been highly proactive in their security measures for major cricket events this summer,” a spokesperson said.

“The match tonight experienced an unprecedented record crowd for domestic cricket. We thank fans for their patience and apologise for the delays experienced entering the ground tonight. The safety and security of our fans, players and officials is always our number one priority and rest assured we’ll continue to work with the MCG to ensure everyone has a fantastic experience at any cricket event this summer.”

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Test Cricket Crowds Given Big Bash

The Big Bash League’s dominance over the summer of Test cricket has been highlighted with another crowd record tumbling.

Defending champions Perth Scorchers announced on Friday their remaining two home fixtures had sold out, making them the first franchise to sell out their full four-match regular season home match schedule in the BBL’s five-year history.

It means the four games at the 20,000-capacity Waca Ground will dwarf the crowd figures from the drawn Test match against New Zealand played at the venue in November.

Only 40,288 people turned out across the five days of the Test, at an average of just over 8,000 fans per day. In comparison, a combined 39,762 fans have already attended the Scorchers’ opening two BBL home games.

It is also anticipated that Saturday’s Melbourne derby between the Stars and Renegades could outdraw the 53,389 who attended the opening day of the Boxing Day Test against the out-matched Windies last week.

Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland has already acknowledged that the BBL has impacted on Test crowds.

“Look, the numbers would indicate that, yes,” Sutherland told ABC Grandstand recently. “The Big Bash League has changed the dynamic a lot, and let’s be open, all over the country it has cannibalised the demand for international cricket.”

Average BBL crowd figures have risen to 22,597 across the 13 matches so far this summer, more than the single-day attendance numbers at any of the Brisbane, Perth and Hobart Tests this year.

The lowest crowd figure at any of this summer’s BBL matches is the 14,868 for the Hobart-Brisbane match, which is still just 475 fans shy of the total attendance across the three days of the Hobart Test match.

CA has already hinted at the inclusion of day-night pink-ball Tests at the Gabba and Blundstone Arena next year to attract more fans, however there is no chance of a shift in Perth given the time zone difference to the east coast.

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Christian Hurricanes Survive Heat

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Hobart allrounder Dan Christian has belted his former Brisbane team-mates out of the Gabba – and probably the Big Bash League – on Tuesday. Christian smashed an unbeaten 56 off just 24 balls – including a massive 117m six which landed on the Gabba roof - to lift the Hurricanes to 4-194 in their 20 overs.

Heat skipper Chris Lynn smashed 101 off just 51 balls in reply to give the hosts hope of a first victory in this summer’s tournament. But Lynn’s dismissal with 16 balls remaining silenced the massive crowd of 29,876 as the winless Heat collapsed to finish 9-176.

Leg-spinner Cameron Boyce, a team-mate of Lynn in Queensland’s state team, was the man who picked up the vital breakthrough on his way to impressive figures of 2-22 off four overs.

The loss means the Heat must win all four of their remaining matches to even have an outside chance of reaching the semi-finals.

Earlier, Christian’s free-wheeling knock came after West Indies leg-spinner Samuel Badree fired for the first time this summer for the Heat. Badree removed Hurricanes openers Ben Dunk (27) and Tim Paine (25) as the visitors battled to 4-129 off 15 overs.

Christian, who played a leading role in the field during the Hurricanes’ win over the Heat in Hobart last week, teed off in the 19th over. The 32-year-old smashed three sixes of Luke Feldman’s (1-53) final over, including a giant hit to cow corner which not only cleared the fence but also the stands.

Despite his personal satisfaction at reaching triple figures, Lynn was gutted that his team had once again come away with nothing.

“Personally hitting the ball better than ever, confident with my body at the moment even though it’s not 100 per cent and enjoying the captaincy,” Lynn told AAP. “I’m hoping what’s in store around the corner is a couple of wins and just go that next level.”

Admitting his monster six was comfortably the biggest of his career, Christian said the thought pattern for his assault had been a simple one.

“I swung as hard as I could and it landed exactly where I wanted it to and came out of the middle of the bat,” he said. “I was waiting for it to come down in front of the sails and it kept going and that’s when I realised it was obviously a decent one.”

Hobart’s next game is against the table-topping Sydney Thunder in Tasmania on New Year’s Day while the Heat welcome the Thunder in their next match on Sunday.

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Windies Simmons Suspended

West Indies have suspended head coach Phil Simmons after his criticism of the selections for the tour of Sri Lanka.

The 52-year-old, who only took charge in March, questioned the omissions of all-rounders Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard from the one-day squad.

"It's disappointing from the fact that I haven't got the best 50-over ODI squad that we can select," he said. 

Eldine Baptiste, a member of the selection panel, will now take charge of the tour which starts on 14 October.

A media release from West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) said Simmons' comments appeared to "question the legitimacy of the selection process".

It added: "As a result, the management of the WICB has taken action to suspend the head coach, pending an investigation into the issue.

"The head coach will not now travel with the team on the tour of Sri Lanka."

Bravo and Pollard have not featured in the ODI squad since they were dropped for the tour of South Africa in December 2014 after a tour of India was aborted because of a pay dispute.

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