BCCI rewards Ashwin with Grade A contract - dawn

MUMBAI: Rising Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Friday replaced out-of-form senior tweaker Harbhajan Singh in the top bracket of BCCI’s list of central retainership contracts, while struggling pacer Ishant Sharma was also demoted from Grade ‘A’ to ‘B’.

Harbhajan and Ishant have spent the better part of this year out of the team struggling for form in whatever chances they have been handed.

The elite Grade ‘A’ features nine players this year, three down from the last season.

With the retired duo of Rahul Dravid and Vangipurappu Laxman out of the equation Ashwin was only new name in the top bracket, the players in which are paid an annual retainership of Rs1 crore.

The likes of Sachin Tendulkar, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir and  Zaheer Khan retained their Grade ‘A’ contracts. Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh completed the top category, all three retaining their contracts.

In Grade ‘B’, the BCCI has offered contracts to eight players, three more than last season with Rohit Sharma being the only one to have retained his contract.

Irfan Pathan has been given a contract along with young players such as Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara and Umesh Yadav, all of whom have been elevated from Grade ‘C’.  The players in Grade ‘B’ are entitled an annual retainership of Rs50 lakh.

In the Grade ‘C’ list, a demoted Ravindra Jadeja has replaced S. Sreesanth. Yousuf Pathan, Lakshmipathy Balaji and Ashok Dinda have come in replacing the likes of Jaydev Unadkat.

In all, the BCCI has offered contracts to 37 players, which is the same as last year.

Contracted players:

Grade ‘A’: Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Zaheer Khan, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh,

Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin.

Grade ‘B’: Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Irfan Pathan, Umesh Yadav.

Grade ‘C’: Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra, Vinay Kumar, Munaf Patel, Abhimanyu Mithun, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Wriddhiman Saha, Parthiv Patel, Manoj Tiwary, S. Badrinath, Piyush Chawla, Dinesh Karthik, Rahul Sharma, Varun Aaron, Abhinav Mukund, Ashok Dinda, Yusuf Pathan, Praveen Kumar, Lakshmipathy Balaji.—Agencies

England will get back what they gave us, warns Virat Kohli - cricketnext

New Delhi: Prolific Indian middle order batsman Virat Kohli reckons that it will be absolutely fair if India take advantage of home conditions and make the visiting English side play on rank turners during their upcoming tour. "Why not? We were given flattest of tracks during practice matches in England and Australia and then suddenly presented with a green-top during Tests. During practice matches, we would face those 120 kmph bowlers," a candid Kohli said during a freewheeling chat after a net session with the Delhi Ranji Trophy squad here on Saturday.

"If they [England and Australia] wanted to be fair to us, they could have provided us with same kind of tracks for practice matches like what were used in Tests, especially when they knew that visiting teams get very less time to practice. Now they would be playing on turning tracks and definitely would know where they stand," he said when asked about the fairness of playing on turners. 

Kohli also sought to play the mind game ahead of the series by stating that Kevin Pietersen will be "under a lot of pressure to perform well" as he is one of their key players who has a good record against quality spin attacks. "There will be huge pressure on KP as he has been playing in India for quite some time and considered to be a good batsman against spin. You may say that the senior England cricketers have an understanding of these conditions but let me tell you, it's not that easy. You might feel they would like to hit spinners but end up doing exactly opposite."

The prolific batsman cited the example of England's Test series against Pakistan in UAE. "Come to think of that particular series, there wasn't much of turn on offer but England couldn't negotiate one quality spinner [Saeed Ajmal] as they lost the battle in their heads," he said.

For someone who has always played the horizontal bat shot well enough, Virat Kohli doesn't endorse the popular perception that Indians are susceptible against short-pitched stuff. "I have never really understood this theory. Are people like Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag poor players of short-pitched bowling? Show me how many Indian players were out to short-pitched deliveries in Australia?" he questioned.

"No batsman in world cricket is comfortable against a good bouncer. If you get a good bouncer, give credit to the bowler rather than finding chinks in batsman's armoury. When someone gets out to cover drive, no one raises questions about your technique but it only happens when you get out to a short ball. A good bouncer will remain a good bouncer."

Although he thinks that it is important "to stay one step ahead" of the opposition, the 23-year-old batsman feels that over-analysis can complicate matters. "I would like to react to on-field situations rather than do a homework and find that my rivals have changed their gameplan. I believe in doing things my own way and being in that zone," he said.

The talented batsman also doesn't like comparisons between Gary Kirsten and Duncan Fletcher. "Gary was much more involved in practice sessions but Duncan is also a thorough professional. He would quietly stand in one corner and observe. If he needs to say something, he would come up and give a suggestion. He believes international cricketers know their jobs. And if we have lost eight Test matches, blame us and not the coach."

Kohli also backed skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni saying that just eight Test defeats doesn't make him a bad captain. "Under him, we have won the World Cup, been No. 1 in Tests. He has also encouraged the juniors."

Talking about the Ranji Trophy game against Uttar Pradesh, Kohli said that it would give him the necessary "game-time" and also help him switch back to "Test mode" from Twenty20. "Last time against New Zealand at Hyderabad, I was trying to hit every ball and thus missed out on big hundred. The UP match would give me sufficient game time and help me get back to Test match mode," he added.

Chennai crunch Rajasthan

TOSS: Chennai won the toss, and elected to field

RESULT: Chennai won by 4 wkts

MOM: BEN HILFENHAUS

Chennai Super Kings have perfected the habit of making even the most regulation run chase appear formidable, and still finding a way of getting out of jail. Even by those standards, the two-time defending champions made a complete meal of a most modest total of 126 for six posted by Rajasthan Royals, and looked set to play themselves out of contention for the knockout stages of IPL V until, dramatically, Albie Morkel and S Anirudha got them out of jail on a tense, low-scoring but action-packed Thursday night.

Playing his first game of the season, Anirudha turned out to be the unlikely hero, smiting Shane Watson and Shaun Tait, until then the two most impressive Royals bowlers, for massive sixes to play an equal partner in an astonishing stand of 43 off just 12 deliveries that propelled the Super Kings to a four-wicket victory.

Having needed 47 off the last four overs after having dawdled during the middle part of their reply, the Super Kings eventually won with 11 deliveries to spare in a sensational turn of events that catapulted Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men to fourth in the standings.

On a stop-start day when rain interrupted the Royals' innings thrice, the Super Kings seemed headed for a comfortable victory with Suresh Raina blazing away, but once the left-hander was well caught by Ajinkya Rahane attempting one big hit too many, the innings went into an inexorable tailspin. The experienced trio of Michael Hussey, Dwayne Bravo and Dhoni struggled to get the ball off the square as the Royals medium-pacers made capital of the swing and seam on offer, imposing a stranglehold that appeared decisive.

It was Morkel's arrival, with 47 needed off 24 deliveries,  that turned the course of the match. The South African left-hander exploded in a flurry of boundaries, then watched from the non-striker's end as Anirudha smashed Watson and Tait around. Victory came courtesy five wides from Tait in an anti-climactic end to a contest that ended well past midnight and had the capacity crowd on the edge of their seats.

The Royals looked set for a hiding to nothing after being stuck in by Dhoni, deprived of momentum all the way through. Ben Hilfenhaus bowled an exceptional spell, sending down four overs on the trot with the new ball for incredible figures of 2 for 8, while the rest complemented him beautifully, R Ashwin's sensational catch running in from third man and diving forward to snaffle Watson typifying the resolve and grim determination of the holders.

Only when Stuart Binny laid into Bravo did the Royals obtain any impetus, but the Super Kings pulled things back beautifully. Strangely, Dhoni didn't requisition Ashwin's off-spin till the 17th over and asked the profligate Bravo to bowl the final over when Morkel had one up his sleeve. On another day, these might have been crucial errors, but with Morkel and Anirudha in awesome boundary-clearing mode, the champions lived to fight another day.

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