Queensland 4 for 285 (Maher 116) v New South Wales ScorecardJimmy Maher put Queensland in control against their arch-rivals New South Wales with a finely-crafted century on an uncharacteristically low, slow Gabba wicket. Mixing patience with slick strokemaking, Maher grafted his way to 116 to provide the backbone of Queensland’s first-day total of 4 for 285.New South Wales need maximum points from this match to keep their Pura Cup hopes alive, and the y toiled manfully, using eight bowlers in the energy-sapping conditions. But Steve Waugh let slip NSW’s best chance of taking control when he dropped Maher at midwicket on 39.Maher admitted he expected Waugh to snaffle the overhead chance. “Having said that I would have been pretty angry had he caught it because I couldn’t have hit it any harder,” he said after recording his 13th century for Queensland. It was a fine riposte to the Australian selectors, after he was overlooked as Michael Bevan’s replacement for the VB Series.But Maher denied that he was fuelled by his omission. “As far as I’m concerned today was just about playing well for Queensland,” he said. “You don’t have to answer questions from anyone, just those from yourself. I’m very happy, it was a tough day. The runs never came easy at any stage.”Stuart Clark, with 2 for 39 from 19 overs, was the pick of NSW’s attack, and it was he who ended Maher’s five-hour stay by inducing an edge behind from a widish leg-cutter. Maher received great support from Martin Love (68) and Stuart Law (67 not out) in two key partnerships.Two late wickets renewed NSW’s hopes, but Law, who belted eight fours and a six in 119 balls, remains a huge obstacle as he searches for his first Pura Cup century in three years. On 49, he became Queensland’s highest first-class run-scorer when he pulled Stuart MacGill to the square-leg boundary, passing Sam Trimble’s mark of 9465 runs.
The Australian media have made much of another England team facing theirdominant sports-stars this week. England’s veteran bowler, Clare Taylor,warned, that although Australia’s recent record in Test matches wasimpressive, “Underdogs can cause upsets as football fans saw this week”.Knowing they were expected to be the next England team to succumb, thevisitors made a solid, if slow, start to their Test match innings at TheGabba today. Openers Sarah Collyer and Kathryn Leng reached an openingstand of 53 before Collyer was caught by Rolton from the ever impressivebowling of the world’s leading wickettaker Cathryn Fitzpatrick.Fitzpatrick produced a fiery opening spell and contained the Englishopeners, returning figures of 0-9 from her initial twelve over spell. ButTerese McGregor was expensive, going for 23 in her six overs, includingconsecutive boundaries from Collyer who pulled and drove the Australianseamer.Australia Captain, Belinda Clark, won the toss and elected to bat. It beganto look as though another decision at The Gabba to send the opposition in toopen their Ashes account would prove ill founded as the home side went tolunch wicket-less.But the interval broke England’s momentum, and they slumped to 75-5 in thesubsequent twenty overs. Having survived the pace and venom of Fitzpatrick,and begun to look in control, England’s top order relented to the gentlerpace of Karen Rolton. Rolton is better known for inflicting torment on theEngland bowling attack, but she managed to find good movement for her threewickets.Fitzpatrick admitted after the game “we were confident that when one wicketfell we would be able to pick up the rest, and we didn’t have any pressurefrom the scoreboard”.Adam Dale, former Australia One-Day and Queensland bowler advisedFitzpatrick not to get carried away with the extra bounce on offer at TheGabba and be patient, and she admitted that the advice was gratefullyreceived, and executed.Rolton had Kathryn Leng trapped lbw on 26 and in her next over accounted forArran Thompson in the same way. Leng was unfortunate to be given, as wasCharlotte Edward’s in the over between, also given lbw to Emma Twining.Lydia Greenway, making her England debut, was caught by a spectacular divingcatch from Melanie Jones at short cover, just as she began to score runs.With a slow outfield and a long boundary, fours were always a premium, butEngland’s running between wickets was sharp when they could dispatch theball.The collapse brought the more experienced pair of Claire Taylor and EnglandCaptain, Clare Connor to the wicket. Taylor has resumed wicket keeping dutyfor England in this Test Series following a stress facture to MandieGodliman’s foot, and England welcomed her experience in the middle of theinnings.The last time Taylor faced Australia in a Test match, she reached 137 atHeadingley. Today, although she looked composed and was timing the ball aswell as she has for England this winter, she managed just 14, caught by asuperb diving catch from ‘keeper Price in front of second slip.Laura Harper, who had an average of 26 against Australia in the last AshesSeries provided some resistance at the tail, reaching 20 not out with LucyPearson playing intelligently to assist the teenager.Australia regained the upper hand in the second and third sessions of theday and improved bowling and exceptional fielding saw England finish on124-9.The tourists will need to sharpen their teeth if they are to leave anyimprint on this Ashes Series.
The Somerset Board XI were well beaten by Wiltshire in Swindon on Sunday, in the final match of the 38 County Competition.Batting first Somerset seemed well placed with Kevin Sedgebeer looking in good form. After hitting a six the Taunton St Andrew’s player tried to repeat the shot off the next ball and was out for 41.From 80 for 1 Somerset slipped to 161 all out with only Matt Bulbeck (41), who was playing as a batsman, making any headway against the Wiltshire attack.The home side made light work of their target and passed the Somerset total for the loss of one wicket with 24 overs to spare.Somerset Board manager Peter Robinson said after the match: “It was a disappointing performance, particularly when our side contained five members who play regualrly for Somerset Seconds.”
It is fair to say that some of Kevin Thelwell’s summer signings have failed to hit the ground running for Glasgow Rangers, which may have played a part in the club’s decision to part ways with the sporting director.
The English chief made a host of moves to alter the squad in the summer and the headline-maker was the £8m deal to sign Youssef Chermiti from Premier League side Everton.
So far, the Portugal U21 international has scored one goal in 18 appearances in all competitions for the Scottish Premiership giants, per Sofascore, as he has failed to show that he has what it takes to lead the line for Rangers.
Chermiti is not the only summer signing who has failed to make a positive impact at Ibrox this season, though, as the club should already be considering Thelo Aasgaard’s future in Glasgow.
Why Rangers should consider selling Thelo Aasgaard
Rangers signed the Norway international from Luton Town for a fee of £3.5m in the summer transfer window, and he has endured a difficult time in Scotland so far.
Aasgaard, who has played as a central midfielder or as an attacking midfielder, has only provided one goal and one assist in 24 appearances in all competitions for the Scottish giants, per Sofascore.
In fact, the former Wigan Athletic star has as many red cards (one) as goals scored (one) for Rangers, having been sent off against Celtic in the semi-final of the League Cup at Hampden Park towards the start of Danny Rohl’s reign.
Earlier this month, Heart & Hand content creator David Edgar suggested that Aasgaard should be sold because the team lacks “quality” and is too “slow”, whilst Chermiti and Danilo were named alongside him in that assessment.
Whilst it may seem reactionary to sell the attacking midfielder in the next transfer window, after half-a-season at the club, they run the risk of his value plummeting even further if he cannot turn his form around at Ibrox.
The Rangers player who could end Thelo Aasgaard's Ibrox career
In order to cash in on the £3.5m flop, though, Rangers will either need someone in the current squad to step up into his role or they will need to bring in a new signing in the January transfer window.
Chalkboard
Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.
Rohl could save the owners millions on a new signing by unleashing the rarely-seen Lyall Cameron in the coming weeks, because he has the potential to step up and offer more than Aasgaard in the attacking midfield position.
The Scottish midfielder is not available for the clash with Hearts on Sunday, unfortunately, but he should be given an opportunity to shine when he is back fit with games coming thick and fast in the next few weeks.
Cameron has only played 419 minutes in all competitions since his move from Dundee in the summer, per Transfermarkt, and 19 players have played more minutes than him, including Aasgaard, who has racked up 1,210 minutes.
The 23-year-old talent, who has scored one goal for the Gers so far, proved his quality in the Scottish Premiership in the 2024/25 campaign, which suggests that he has the potential to offer more in the final third.
24/25 Premiership
Lyall Cameron
Rank vs CMs
xG
3.80
Top 7%
Goals
9
Top 4%
xA
4.78
Top 10%
Chances created
54
Top 4%
Assists
5
Top 9%
Successful dribbles
22
Top 12%
Stats via FotMob
As you can see in the table above, the rarely-seen Light Blues midfielder has the ability to score and assist goals at an impressive rate in the top-flight, as he proved himself last term.
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Former Rangers technical director Nils Koppen claimed that Cameron “has a lot of potential”, which is backed up by his impressive statistics for his former club in the Premiership.
On top of his league form, the attacking midfielder also scored five goals and provided four assists in eight cup matches for Dundee, per Transfermarkt, which took his tally for the season to 14 goals and nine assists.
Unfortunately, he has not had the opportunities and minutes that Aasgaard has been given in his position so far this season for the Scottish giants, but there is still time for that to change.
His impressive statistics for Dundee suggest that he can end Aasgaard’s career if given the chance to play regular minutes, because a return of goals and assists on a regular basis in midfield would allow the club to cash in on the Norwegian flop, knowing that they have Cameron in their squad.
Rangers star was a huge flop under Martin, now he's a bigger hit than Miovski
This Glasgow Rangers star who struggled under Russell Martin now looks like a bigger hit than Bojan Miovski.
Niall O’Brien, the Ireland wicketkeeper-batsman, has become the first player to play international cricket despite participating in the Indian Cricket League’s inaugural season in 2007-08. O’Brien played an Intercontinental Cup match for Ireland against United Arab Emirates from March 6 to 9.While Full Member countries had banned players who joined the ICL, Cricket Ireland (CI), which is an Associate member of the ICC, ruled that O’Brien and fast bowler Boyd Rankin, who also joined the unofficial league, could play international cricket.”I discussed this issue with both players and made them aware of some of CI’s concerns with the ICL, based on the information we had at the time, ie. the event [being] unauthorised by the BCCI,” Warren Deutrom, the chief executive of CI, told Cricinfo. “They assured me that their current commitment to ICL was just one season.”Due to financial constraints, the players do not have [in fact, no Ireland player has] full-time contracts with CI, therefore there was no legal recourse even if we wanted to go down that route,” Deutrom said, adding that both players agreed that an “important consideration” was that Ireland did not have any matches scheduled when they were in India.However, O’Brien and Rankin maybe be a source of contention if and when Ireland play India in the future. “If any player has played in the ICL and is now playing for his country, it is unacceptable to the Indian board and it goes against the understanding taken by all the cricket boards,” Niranjan Shah, the BCCI secretary, told Cricinfo when asked about the ICL players turning out for Ireland.Deutrom, however, elaborated on the financial situation of the players prior to them signing on with the ICL. “Since the players do not make much money from cricket, although both are county cricketers, it would have seemed unreasonable to have prevented them from taking part to maximise their earnings.”Since CI was unable to pay World Cup [appearance] prize money to the squad for a number of months after the event due to financial constraints, it would have appeared further unreasonable to have prevented the players from taking part in the ICL especially when it did not clash with any cricket that Ireland was playing.”O’Brien, who represented the Delhi Jets in the ICL, made a match-winning 174 in Ireland’s nine-wicket win over UAE in Abu Dhabi, while Rankin was not selected for the match due to an injury.
Sunil Gavaskar, the former Indian captain who is on the seven-man panel that will decide India’s next coach, has clarified that he wasn’t against having a foreigner as the coach of the national team.Gavaskar had a while back pointed out in a newspaper column that Habibul Bashar, the Bangladesh captain, hadn’t received enough tactical help from the think-tank during the recent home series against India, a statement that seemed to hint at his disapproval of Whatmore.However, Gavaskar, 58, denied any such disapproval and said that his decision with regard to India’s next coach would be in keeping with the team’s interests. “If I was anti-foreigner, how did Greg Chappell become coach? It was a unanimous decision (in 2005),” he told , a Mumbai-based tabloid.He reiterated that he would attend Monday evening’s meeting to select the coach with an open mind, and maintained that the thoughts put forth in his columns didn’t translate into rejecting anyone as a coaching candidate.”I am open to all kinds of discussion and anyone who makes a valid point will win the day. Ultimately, we have to do what we believe – rightly or wrongly – is best for Indian cricket. Don’t I have a right to express myself in my columns? Isn’t that what I am expected to do as a columnist?”I made the observation that Bashar did not always get the tactical input he should have. How does that statement translate into disapproving of Whatmore as coach? If people want to read between the lines, then good luck to them. I have expressed my views strictly as a columnist.”He also explained what transpired at the coach-selection meeting in 2005. “We discussed the pros and cons of the candidates that were invited for the interview. Venkat spoke about Tom Moody, Ravi mentioned Greg Chappell and I spoke about Mohinder Amarnath and Desmond Haynes. If Venkat had talked about the pros and cons of Mohinder, I would have talked about the pros and cons of Moody.”There was no particular reason for us speaking about A or B. We spoke because we had to discuss all the candidates. We as former players expressed our views and then it was up to the Board. Hands went up and Chappell was chosen unanimously as coach. So where is the issue?”
Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) has announced the interim committees of its 10 provincial associations.The new provincial set-up follows the adoption by the ZC of the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) recommendation for national sporting associations to devolve along the country’s administrative structure. In line with this recommendation, the ZC then affiliated the new provinces of Bulawayo Metropolitan, Harare Metropolitan, Mashonaland Central, East and West and Matabeleland North and South. It also dissolved the boards of its five old affiliates of Manicaland, Mashonaland, Masvingo, Matabeleland and Midlands as they were constituted under the old provincial set-up.Crispen Tsvarai will chair the new Bulawayo Metropolitan Provincial Cricket Association, which, together with Matabeleland North and South, was formed from the dissolution of the old Matabeleland. His committee members are Victor Mhlanga, Vumindaba Moyo, Tivington Ncube and Stanley Staddon.The Matabeleland North Provincial Cricket Association will be chaired by Brian Musumba, with Donald Khumalo, Brian Moyo, Alfred Ndlovu and Lazarus Ndlovu as committee members.Julia Ndhlovu will chair the Matabeleland South Provincial Cricket Association with Ruth Zulu and Thulani Gumbo, Arthur Maphosa and Sifiso Sibanda as the committee members.The new Harare Metropolitan Provincial Cricket Association, which is one of the four new provinces formed out of the old ZC Mashonaland province, will be headed by former Mashonaland Cricket Association chairman, Cyprian Mandenge. His committee members are Tendai Kuhlengisa, Elisha Kandi, Taurai Mapfunde and Mike Weeden.Lavert Zungunde will chair the Mashonaland Central Provincial Cricket Association, which is one of the new affiliates from the dissolved Mashonaland. His committee comprises Maxwell Dzumbunu, Cleopas Ngwenya, Norman Nyawo and Herbert Sithole.Mashonaland East will be chaired by Edward Matemai, with Jane Chimombe, Rhoda Gotora, Ben Rushambwa and Nicholas Tapfumaneyi as committee members.Mashonaland West, the fourth affiliate from the old Mashonaland, will be chaired by Temba Mliswa. His committee members are Exodus Makumbe, Brian Mugota, Eberhard Tapera and Trevor Vambe.Phillip Matiza will chair Manicaland, with Joyce Chizano, John Doka, Bill Taylor and Alistar Zowe as the committee members.Masvingo will be chaired by Josphat Mbanda, with the other members of the committee being Flavian Kondo, Fanuel Mahembe, Walter Maweni and Richmore Murape.Freddie Kapuya will chair the Midlands Provincial Cricket Association. His committee members are Liliosa Nyathi, Solomon Madzogo, Paul Mungofa and Charles Office.The 10 interim boards will run the game in their provinces until such a time as substantive committees are in place. Further, they have been given the mandate to draw up new provincial constitutions, in conjunction with ZC. This will be followed by the adoption of the new ZC constitution, and subsequent implementation of its structures.
Nine players, including the fast bowlers Don Nash, Mathew Inness and Mark Cleary, have nominated for transfers after missing the first round of state contracts. The list is heavy on bowlers as they look for opportunities or ways to reignite domestic careers after injury.Inness had already signalled his intention to move away from Victoria, but Nash, the Blues fast man stuck behind Nicholson, Clark and Bracken, and Cleary, who played only four Pura Cup matches for South Australia last season, are also looking for a change. Scott Brant, Queensland’s left-arm swing bowler, and Michael Clark, the son of Western Australia’s coach Wayne Clark, have struggled in recent seasons with injury and have signed up for the transfer pool’s first round.One name missing from the list was Ian Harvey, who was considering leaving Victoria alongside Inness, Matthew Elliott and possibly Brad Hodge. The states will notify Cricket Australia of a minimum of 14 full-time and three rookie-contracted players by June 17 before the second round of the transfer pool. The squads must be finalised by June 30.Round one transfer pool Scott Brant (Qld), Mark Cameron (NSW), Michael Clark (WA), Mark Cleary (SA), Mathew Inness (Vic), Don Nash (NSW), Steven Paulsen (Qld), Craig Simmons (WA), Liam Zammit (NSW).
Cricket NSW Chief Executive David Gilbert has announced the SpeedBlitz Blues team to play the Queensland Bulls in an ING Cup Match in Brisbane on Friday January 30th, 2004.
Steve Waugh (c) Brad Haddin Dominic Thornely Simon Katich Phil Jaques Mark Waugh Grant Lambert Stuart Clark Nathan Bracken Matthew Nicholson Stuart MacGill Aaron O’Brien
England’s youngsters have done what they insisted they could do on departing for their tour of Australia – win.The Under-19s side triumphed in a thrilling finish to the first four-day youth Test at Adelaide after putting on an excellent display in the field.Set 284 to win, Australia fell just 14 runs short of their target. thanks mainly to a remarkable bowling effort from skipper Bilal Shafayat, who had already scored a century and a half century in his two innings. He added six for 54 in the final day to ensure that his batting efforts didn’t go to waste.England took just 44 overs to dismiss Australia, after Nick Thornicroft andTim Bresnan began the day with a priceless partnership of 72 for the last England wicket. Thornicroft was eventually stumped by wicketkeeper Adam Crosthwaite for 37.Australia’s batsmen began in their usual style, putting on 68 off 11 overs before Liam Davis became Shafayat’s first victim for 34. His opening partner Matthew Harrison followed two balls later, caught by Samit Patel off Bresnan for 32.When Greg Hunt went cheaply, caught by Liam Plunkett off Shafayat, Australia were in trouble at 76 for three.Keith Skewes and Theo Doropoulos took the score past the hundred mark before Skewes was lbw to Plunkett. Doropoulos fell lbw to Patel for 40, and despite an excellent 65 from Michael Bright, England were scenting victory.Bresnan accounted for Aaron Bird (30) before Shafayat had Crosthwaite caught by Ravinder Bopara. Darren Cullen was trapped lbw, but Luke Butterworth managed some last-ditch resistance with an unbeaten 24.When Shafayat had Matthew Gale caught behind by Andrew Hodd, England’s joy was unconfined. They are one up with two to play.