Saturday 28th January, 2012 Four new faces for NZ England ‘A’ take lead Sevens as Gear wings in New Zealand Sevens Coach with 68-run win Gordon Tietjens has named four new caps in his 2012 national contracted By Revata S. Silva in Dambulla squad of 15 who are preparing for SCOREBOARD next weekend’s Hertz Sevens tourna- England ‘A’ thrashed their Sri Lankan ment in Wellington. counterparts recording a scintillating 68- England ‘A’ innings B Rajapaksa ct. Hales b. Patel 44 Wellington’s 18-year-old Ardie run win in the first one-dayer in the five- Joe Root ct. Janith b. Thushara 18 Thilina Kandamby c. Patel b. Buck 54 Savea, the younger brother of match series at the Rangiri Dambulla A Hales ct. Kulasekara b. Prasanna 94 Kusal Janith b. Patel 20 Hurricane and former New Zealand International Cricket Stadium yesterday. James Taylor ct. Janith b. Thushara 05 Kosala Kulasekara b. Buck 00 Sevens player Julian Savea, has been In spite of the early expectation that the Jonny Bairstow lbw b. Kulasekara 47 K Alvitigala ct. Hales B. Woaks 32 named in Tietjens’ squad for the first team winning the toss would have batted C Kieswetter ct. Randiv b. Thushara 53 Suraj Randiv lbw b. Patel 33 time. Savea was nominated for the first on what looked like a placid track, Sri Jos Buttler not out 102 Seekkuge Prasanna b. Dernbach 06 New Zealand Rugby Union Age Lanka ‘A’ skipper Thilina Kandamby put Samit Patel not out 05 Thilan Thushara not out 01 Grade Player of the Year at last England in firs and saw the visitors pile Extras (nb 3, w6, b1, lb 1) 11 Extras (lb8, w13) 21 year’s Steinlager Rugby Awards and up runs at will. England ‘A’ scored a mas- Total (for 5 wkts in 215 mins.) 335 Total (all out in 191 mins.) 267 he also captained the New Zealand sive 335 for five wickets in their 50 overs Overs: 50 Overs: 45.3 Schools side in the same year. and in reply the hosts made only 267 all Fall of wickets: 1-35, 2-45, 3-165, 4-173, Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-63, 3-78, 4-139, 5- Other new caps include Hawke’s out in 45.3 overs. 5-279 180, 6-182, 7-200, 8-244, 9-262 Bay’s Mark Jackman, Taranaki’s For the Englishmen, the 23-year-old Did not bat: Danny Briggs, Nathan Buck, Bowling: Dernbach 8.3-0-60-2, Woaks 7- Waisake Naholo and 19-year-old Nottinghamshire right-hander Alex Hales Jade Dernbach, Chris Woaks 0-52-1, Buck 8-0-39-4, Briggs 10-1-52-0, Lolagi Visina from Auckland. made a solid 94 in 103 balls before Jos Bowling: Kulasekara 10-0-59-1 (1w), Patel 10-0-52-3, Root 2-0-4-0 The squad includes plenty of Buttler, 21, whacked a stunning 56-ball cen- Thushara 10-1-72-3 (3nb), Prasanna 10-0- Result: England win by 68 runs experience with senior players Lote tury which included 13 fours and five sixes 74-1 (1w), Randiv 10-0-40-0 (1w), Alvitigala Toss: Sri Lanka ‘A’ Raikabula, captain DJ Forbes and to see his team pass the challenging 300- 9-0-78-0 (1w), Warnapura 1-0-10-0 Series: England ‘A’ lead 5-match series 1- playmaker Tomasi Cama all heading run mark. 0 into their seventh season with the The Lankans looked dumbfounded as Sri Lanka innings Umpires: Ranmore Martinesz and Tyrone side, and the likes of Tim Mikkelson, Buttler, an England T20 International play- Dimuth Karunaratne ct. Taylor B. Buck 23 Wijewardene Solomon King and Toby Arnold also er, raised his personal score from 76 to 102 Jos Buttler M Udawatte ct. Hales b. Dernbach 04 Reserve Umpire: Maurice Zilwa seasoned campaigners. by scoring a whirlwind 26 runs –a six and Malinda Warnapura ct. Hales B. Buck 29 Match Referee: Basil Perera. “DJ, Lote and Tomasi have played in over 40 tournaments and there are quite a few players in this squad that Our bowling let us down – Kaluwitharana five fours—off the final over of their beyond the hosts’ reach. travelled to every tournament in the innings bowled by Kanishka Alvitigala. The early exit of Mahela Udawatte, Series last year, which gives them Following are excerpts of what Sri team over Malinga Bandara because the Sri Lanka ‘A’ clearly looked short of Malinda Warnapura and Dimuth invaluable experience to pass down Lanka ‘A’ coach Romesh Kaluwitharana former is still an up-and-coming player. another bowler as three of them –Thilan Karunarate for a total of 78 put the to the younger players. said after his team’s 68-run defeat in the ‘A’ team is the place for emerging play- Thushara, Seekkuge Prasanna and Lankans on the back foot early on. “There are some young players in 1st one-dayer against England ‘A’ at ers. Bandara is a veteran who can play Alvitigala—went over 70 in their quota of However, young Bhanuka Rajapaksa’s 43- this squad showing great promise Dambulla yesterday: in the National side at any time. 10 overs. That happened, sadly, as their ball 44, which included three fours and two which bodes well for the future as we We were in the match till the 40th Both teams didn’t know much about bowling all-rounder Malinga Bandara too sixes, lit up an otherwise lousy reply. Sri head towards the 2016 Olympics,” he over of the England ‘A’ innings, but after the Dambulla pitch before yesterday. was restricted to the benches. Lanka, though, were in contention till said. we allowed them to score as many as 126 Then we thought to make use of the Sri Lanka still had the possibility of Suraj Randiv and Alvitigala hammered Meanwhile, new Highlander and runs in their last 10 overs, things became early life in it, after winning the toss, by restricting the opponents to around 300 quick knocks of 32 and 33 respectively in All Blacks winger Hosea Gear will difficult for us. bowling first. The failure is not because runs even after Hales departed following a 28 and 14 deliveries to get the total pass 260 join the New Zealand Sevens squad We hoped for at least two big partner- of the fact that we didn’t bat first, but 120-run stand for the 3rd wicket with in the 45th over. Skipper Kandamby con- in Wellington on Friday. ships from our top-order when we bat- it’s because we didn’t bowl well, at the Jonny Bairstow. But Buttler’s hurricane sumed 73 balls for his 54, the highest score Gear has made himself available ted. But they didn’t come. Without such right places. knock at the death proved decisive in the for Sri Lanka ‘A’ as right-arm pacie Nathan for selection for the Hertz Sevens and partnerships, it’s difficult to chase a tar- There is a possibility of some changes final analysis. He shared 106 in just 12.2 Buck took four for 39 to grab the bowling will be released by the Highlanders get of over 325. in our side for the 2nd game, to be played overs with Craig Kieswetter and another honours for the visitors. for the tournament should he be Seekkuge Prasanna was picked for the on the same pitch in Dambulla. unfinished 56 in a mere 3.5 overs with The next match will be played at the selected. Samit Patel to carry the game almost same venue tomorrow, Sunday. The New Zealand Sevens team will be holding a public training ses- sion at Porirua Park on Saturday 28 January at 10.00am. Members of the public are invited along to view the training session and players will be Autralia four wickets from sweeping India available to meet and greet fans. (www.irb.com) BY IHITHISHAM KAMARDEEN ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) — India SCOREBOARD 2012 New Zealand Sevens Squad: slid toward another embarrassing innings Toby Arnold - Bay of Plenty; defeat as its top order capitulated again on Australia 1st Innings 604-7 declared Virender Sehwag c Ponting b Lyon 62 Tomasi Cama - Manawatu; Scott Friday, putting Australia just four wickets India 1st Innings 272 Rahud Dravid c Hussey b Harris 25 Curry - Bay of Plenty; DJ Forbes - away from winning the fourth test and Australia 2nd Innings Sachin Tendulkar c Cowan b Lyon 13 Counties Manukau; Frank Halai - completing a series sweep. (Overnight 50-3) VVS Laxman c Marsh b Lyon 35 Waikato; Bryce Heem - Auckland; At stumps on the fourth day at Adelaide David Warner c and b Ashwin 28 Virat Kohli run out 22 Mark Jackman - Hawke’s Bay; Oval, India had slumped to 166-6 chasing a Solomon King - North Harbour; Tim Ed Cowan lbw b Ashwin 10 Ishant Sharma not out 2 500-run victory target. Shaun Marsh lbw b Khan 0 Wriddhiman Saha not out 0 Mikkelson - Waikato; Waisake Australia claimed two wickets just Ricky Ponting not out 60 Extras: (3lb, 1w) 4 Naholo - Taranaki; Kylem O’Donnell before stumps, removing the last of the - Taranaki; Charles Piutau - specialist batsmen, V.V.S.Laxman and Michael Clarke c Saha b Yadav 37 TOTAL: (for 6 wickets) 166 Auckland; Lote Raikabula - first-innings century maker Virat Kohli to Michael Hussey lbw b Sharma 15 Overs: 56. Batting time: 230 minutes. Wellington; Ardie Savea - Wellington; a brilliant run out. Brad Haddin not out 11 Still to bat: Ravichandran Ashwin, Zaheer Lolagi Visinia - Auckland Australia declared its second innings on Extras: (6lb) 6 Khan, Umesh Yadav.