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Rob Newton and James Middlebrook dug Northamptonshire out of potential trouble at West End with an unbroken stand of 72 after hosts Hampshire had threatened to get on top.

15-Aug-2012
ScorecardRob Newton and James Middlebrook dug Northamptonshire out of potential trouble at West End with an unbroken stand of 72 after hosts Hampshire had threatened to get on top.Only 48 overs were possible because of morning rain, with the visitors reaching 170 for 5 after Hampshire captain Jimmy Adams decided to field first on a green wicket which helped his seamers early on.Niall O’Brien was first out for 20 in the sixth over, chasing an out-swinger from left -arm pace bowler James Tomlinson and giving wicketkeeper Michael Bates an easy catch. From that moment Northants went through a difficult period slumping to 98 for 5 before Newton and Middlebrook began the rescue with a defiant late partnership.Experienced second-wicket pair of David Sales and Stephen Peters took the score to 59 before David Balcombe, another bowler for whom the conditions were ideal, bowled Sales. Peters was third out at 87, held at slip by Liam Dawson off Chris Wood at the start of a spell in which three wickets fell in four overs.Peters had held up Hampshire with a brave 47 from 74 balls but in the next over Alex Wakely followed him back to the dressing room after edging Balcombe to Adams in the slips.Tomlinson came back to remove Andrew Hall to another edge into the slips, Adams again the catcher, and suddenly Northants were struggling. Then Newton and Middlebrook came together and although they had some uneasy moments, managed to survive until stumps on the first day of the Championship clash. Adams used six bowlers in a bid to prise them apart including left arm spinner Dawson but they held on to the close.Newton struck a six off Sean Ervine and six fours in his unbeaten 46 while the circumspect Middlebrook was 26 not out as their sixth wicket stand gleaned from 20 overs.Tomlinson took 2 for 27 and Balcombe, rediscovering his early-season form, had taken 2 for 16 from 12 accurate and testing overs.Hampshire, in second place and seeking an instant return to Division One, left out injured Dimitri Mascarenhas and batsman Bilal Shafayat from their squad to accommodate pace bowler Wood.

Anna Harris, Yvonne Dolphin-Cooper set to officiate this weekend in what is believed to be a first for the league

ESPNcricinfo staff12-May-2021Two women are set to stand as umpires in an ECB Premier League match this weekend in what is believed to be a first for the league.Anna Harris and Yvonne Dolphin-Cooper will umpire Downend’s home West of England Premier League clash with Bedminster in Gloucestershire. The pair will also stand in the South Wales Premier League match between St Fagans and Pontarddulais the following weekend.After searching record books and speaking to people involved in the game across England and Wales, the ECB could find no record of an all-female duo officiating an ECB Premier League match.Gloucestershire County Cricket Board hoped that the two appointments would “highlight the fact that a growing number of women are now umpiring, and to encourage even more women to consider officiating at all levels of the sport”.Related

• Claire Polosak becomes first woman to officiate in a men's Test in its 144-year history

• Anna Harris is flying the flag for women umpires everywhere

Dolphin-Cooper, 64, is well known as an umpire on the WEPL circuit as well as for officiating in visually impaired cricket, including an international between England and India. Harris, a 22-year-old Cardiff-based medical student who also plays cricket for Wales, has stood in the Thames Valley League for three summers and completed a season in Melbourne. Both umpired during last year’s inaugural Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy.Yvonne Dolphin-Cooper will stand with Anna Harris as umpires in an ECB Premier League Match this weekend•Getty Images

In March, Harris told ESPNcricinfo about her experiences of umpiring men’s matches just a couple of months after Australian Claire Polosak became the first woman in 144 years to officiate in a men’s Test match when she was the fourth umpire for the third Test between Australia and India in Sydney.Chris Fortune, West of England Premier League vice-chair, said the league was proud to have Dolphin-Cooper and Harris stand in this weekend’s game.”Congratulations to both of our on-field officials, and for all of their hard work and commitment to their roles over a number of years,” Fortune said. “Our thanks also go to Downend CC and Bedminster CC for facilitating this momentous day.”

Sri Lanka’s new T20I captain might be forced to miss at least a part of the series against West Indies

Andrew Fidel Fernando23-Feb-2021A delay in processing his transit visa to the United States of America has meant that Sri Lanka’s new T20I captain Dasun Shanaka was unable to leave for the Caribbean with the remainder of the squad on Monday.Shanaka did have a proper US transit visa – valid for five years – on a previous passport. But as he had lost the passport containing that visa two years ago, visa officers for the US have told him they must do additional checks, meaning they were not able to greenlight the visa for this tour in time for him to make the flight.”I’d lost that passport two years ago, so I think they need to check whether anyone has used that lost passport and visa to travel in the time since,” Shanaka told ESPNcricinfo. “And there was also a delay in my submitting my visa application this time, because the team had to isolate after Thiri (Lahiru Thirimanne) tested positive for Covid-19. I missed my initial appointment and had to take a later appointment.”Related

• Angelo Mathews to be Sri Lanka's stand-in captain for T20I series in West Indies

• SLC says Chaminda Vaas 'holding the game to ransom'

• Jayawardene says no Sri Lanka player in IPL 2021 is 'disheartening'

Although the wording of a Sri Lanka Cricket release suggests Shanaka did not make the flight because he had lost his passport recently, Shanaka himself suggested the delay was largely unavoidable. In any case, it is hoped that he receives his US visa over the next few days, and could potentially fly out to the West Indies as early as Friday.However, even if he arrives in Antigua – where Sri Lanka play their T20I series – ahead of March 3, when the first game is scheduled, it is not clear if he will be available to play, as he will need to undergo quarantine.Shanaka was named Sri Lanka’s T20I captain on Monday, with a view to him leading the side in the T20 World Cup later this year. But it is now possible he will miss part of his first assignment as the permanent leader [he had been stand-in captain for one previous series].

Since Yuvraj has played in overseas leagues, the BCCI has to clear him to participate in the T20 tournament

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Dec-2020Yuvraj Singh could be back in the Indian domestic circuit early next year, after being named in Punjab’s 30-man list of probables for the 2020-21 Syed Mushtaq Ali (T20) Trophy, to be played in January.Related

• Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2020-21: Teams divided into six groups, Ahmedabad to host knockouts

• Prospects of Ranji Trophy fading, Mushtaq Ali from January 10

• Faiz Fazal, Parvez Rasool want to begin with T20s; Jalaj Saxena, Abhimanyu Easwaran bat for Ranji Trophy

• 'Door is open' for Sreesanth to play for us – Kerala coach Tinu Yohannan

• Domestic transfers: Arun Karthik returns to TN for 2020-21 season

Singh, now 39, had announced his retirement from international – and IPL – cricket in June last year, but was requested by Puneet Bali, the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) secretary, last month to come out of retirement and play for Punjab in all formats. As things stand, with Singh having taken part in the Global T20 Canada and the Abu Dhabi T10 tournaments since retirement, his participation for Punjab will have to be cleared by the BCCI, because the board considers players to have officially retired before providing them NOCs for overseas leagues.A final decision is expected after December 20, the deadline date set by BCCI for state associations to finalise the transfers and granting no-objection certificates.Bali confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that Yuvraj had been training with the Punjab squad and would perform the role of the mentor-cum-player once BCCI gave the green signal. “No he hasn’t been (named in the squad) because we are just waiting for the nod from the BCCI to come yet,” Bali said. “He has been selected in the camp, but it is subject to approval and confirmation from BCCI.”The BCCI plans to host the national T20 championship from January 10 to January 31, with the venues to be announced in a few days’ time, and the teams would need to assemble at the respective bio-secure hubs across the country by January 2. Sran returns to Punjab fold too
Barinder Sran, the 28-year-old left-arm seamer who played six ODIs and two T20Is in 2016, has also been included in the probables’ list, after having switched to Chandigarh last year.Prior to the start of the last season, Sran finalised his transfer to Chandigarh after being left out of Punjab’s Vijay Hazare Trophy (50-over competition) squad. At the time, he had said that he did not want to “waste the entire season” because of the snub, and opted for the switch instead.Punjab have lost a number of key players to other states in recent years. Among them are Manan Vohra, who had moved to Chandigarh like Sran, Jiwanjot Singh (Chhattisgarh) and Taruwar Kohli (Mizoram).Punjab probables: Mandeep Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Abhishek Sharma, Salil Arora, Gitansh Khera, Ramandeep Singh, Sanvir Singh, Karan Kaila, Rahul Sharma, Krishan Alang, Sandeep Sharma, Arshdeep Singh, Ikjot Singh, Naman Dhir, Abhishek Gupta, Himanshu Satyawan, Gurkeerat Singh, Anmolpreet Singh, Prabhsimran Singh, Nehal Wadhera, Anmol Malhotra, Aarush Sabharwal, Abhinav Sharma, Harpreet Brar, Mayank arkande, Baltej Singh, Siddharth Kaul, Barinder Sran, Gurnoor Singh, Harjas, Abhijit Garg, Kunwar PathakSreesanth finds place in Kerala longlist
Sreesanth has moved a step closer to a return to competitive cricket after being named in Kerala’s 26-strong probables’ list for the Mushtaq Ali trophy, reported.Thirty-seven-year-old Sreesanth, whose BCCI ban for spot-fixing ended earlier this year, had resumed training in June, including with the Kerala Under-23 team and a few senior players at a KCA facility in Ernakulam.Giving Sreesanth company in the list of probables were star players like Sanju Samson, Sachin Baby, Jalaj Saxena, Robin Uthaapa and Basil Thampi.

For the first time since 2011, India conceded more than 550 at home

Matt Roller06-Feb-20212:54

Gambhir: Staying low helps Root in sweeping the ball well

Joe Root’s second double-hundred in three matches helped England turn the screw on the second day in Chennai, as India conceded more than 550 in a single innings of a home Test for the first time since 2011.Dom Sibley’s dismissal in the last over of the first day had provided India with an opening, with England in danger of wasting an impressive start to the Test and with memories of their last visit to Chepauk – when they had racked up 477 and lost by an innings – still fresh.Related

• 2nd day, as it happened

• Joe Root: 644 runs (and counting) in three Tests

But Ben Stokes opted to attack as the pitch started to show signs of wear, racking up 82 off 118 balls to take England to lunch unscathed, before Root’s stand with Ollie Pope in the afternoon session helped them towards 500. India were eventually rewarded for their bowlers’ hard work, taking four wickets for 52 in the evening session to leave England eight down, but their focus may now be on saving – rather than winning – the Test.After driving the scoring rate on the first evening in partnership with Sibley, Root played second fiddle for most of his stand with Stokes. Having survived an inswinging yorker from Jasprit Bumrah early in the day, jamming his bat down late to keep it out via an edge into the boot, Stokes decided to put his foot down, and launched R Ashwin for a straight six inside the first half-hour.There were signs in the first session that the pitch was not quite as flat as it had seemed on the first day, with puffs of dust from the surface and variable bounce for the spinners. Washington Sundar found some trampoline bounce from the footholes outside Stokes’ off stump, while Ashwin was convinced he had trapped Stokes lbw reverse-sweeping, only to discover on review that the ball had hit him on the glove.India burned their second review five balls later, when Shahbaz Nadeem’s arm ball struck Root on the pad, but ball-tracking confirmed that it would have missed the top of leg stump. Stokes had two further lives, when Ashwin put down a half-chance off his own bowling and Cheteshwar Pujara, diving at full stretch, failed to cling on at midwicket. Stokes made his intentions clear by slog-sweeping Nadeem for six three balls after the second drop, before reverse-sweeping him for a pair of boundaries to bring up fifty.Joe Root is all smiles after getting to his double-century•BCCI

Stokes continued to score freely after lunch, clubbing Nadeem over long-on and clipping Bumrah’s slower ball through midwicket, but eventually holed out, slog-sweeping straight down square leg’s throat where Pujara clung on despite initially fumbling.Pope joined Root at 387 for 4 and unsurprisingly looked slightly rusty after six months out through injury. Kohli used India’s third and final review when Pope swept to leg gully, but replays showed it had clearly hit the forearm rather than the glove.Root, meanwhile, picked up where he had left off on Friday, happily milking Sundar and Nadeem for singles to keep the score ticking over. He was creative in playing reverse-sweeps and laps, but reached his double with a more orthodox shot, skipping down the wicket to swing Ashwin over the long-on boundary for six.Root has scored 644 Test runs in five innings over the past four weeks, and his run tally in 2021 is more than double that of his nearest challenger, Steven Smith. As Rohit Sharma came on to bowl his part-time offspin before tea – which included an impression of Harbhajan Singh’s action – it seemed as though India were becoming increasingly desperate in their bid to dismiss him. He also passed Alec Stewart to go third in the list of England’s all-time leading run-scorers.But the breakthroughs arrived after the interval. Having miscued an Ashwin full toss over Pant’s head two overs before, Pope was struck in front while playing down the wrong line to a ball that didn’t turn and was plumb lbw to leave England five down. In the following over, Root was pinned in front of leg stump by Nadeem, playing down the wrong line to one that skidded on, and while England warmly applauded his epic innings, India sensed an opportunity to expose the tail at 477 for 6.Jos Buttler and Dom Bess rebuilt with an unflashy stand, with Buttler rifling Ashwin for a pair of fours, cutting balls either side of point. He benefitted from Kohli’s enthusiasm to review when he got a thin edge behind off Sundar, which was given not out by umpire Anil Chaudhary to India’s chagrin. Ultra-Edge confirmed that the decision would have been overturned if India had been able to review.The stand took the total past 500 as India’s hard graft continued, before the tireless Ishant Sharma took two wickets in two balls, extracting prodigious reverse-swing with the old ball. First, Buttler left one alone that he thought would miss his off stump only to look back and see it pegged back, before Jofra Archer made a mess of a similar delivery and was cleaned up first ball. Ishant’s double-strike took him to 299 career wickets, though he could not complete 300 with a hat-trick after overstepping.Jack Leach joined Bess, who offered a straightforward chance to Rohit at midwicket only to be put down, and with India’s no-ball struggles returning in the final half-hour, they had added 30 together by the close. When they resume in the morning, it will be the first time in 20 years that England’s first innings has extended into the third day uninterrupted.

West Indies captain Darren Sammy has said Sunil Narine would be handy in Sri Lanka’s tracks for the World Twenty20

Andrew Fernando11-Sep-2012West Indies captain Darren Sammy has said his side would have a weapon in Sunil Narine in Sri Lanka for the World Twenty20. Sammy said the offspinner, among the best spinners in the world, has had an extraordinary introduction to international cricket, and that he expects Narine to play a crucial part in West Indies campaign on Sri Lanka’s dry, turning tracks.”By now [Narine] is a very experienced T20 bowler,” Sammy said. “He has done well in this format and won the [Golden Player award] in the IPL. I can see him playing a very big role for us in the tournament because of the pitches here.”Narine has taken seven wickets at 18.23 in Twenty20 Internationals, but perhaps his ODI average of 18.82 from 15 matches is a better reflection of his ability. Blessed with biting turn, a difficult knuckle-ball and a natural knack for guile, Narine has quickly become one of the world’s most promising talents, and fetched $700,000 at the IPL auction on that reputation. Sammy said he expects Narine to continue to impress, having had a successful start.”He has been a great performer for West Indies since coming into the team, so I think it will be more of the same in this tournament.”Sammy played down the notion that his team arrived as tournament favourites however, and said that although the shortest format was the forte of several West Indies players, there are other contenders for the title.”I have been asked a lot of times about how it feels to be the favourites. But I do not see us as favourites. There are a lot of good teams in this tournament. We just believe that we could come here and win. The calibre of the players we have means that once we go out there and play we can go all the way in this tournament.”Anyone can have a chance of winning in T20 cricket because the games are shorter and that brings the teams closer together. I don’t think you can say that we are favourites,” he said.West Indies swept the two-game Twenty20 series against New Zealand in June as well as comfortably winning the ODI leg of that tour 4-1. Sammy said his side’s preparation, which included a nine-day camp in Barbados, had been encouraging. The side had meshed well together, he said, and would approach the tournament with the sole focus of rewarding their fans.”We want to put all our resources into going out and winning. Our motto for the tournament is one goal, one people and one team. To win the tournament will mean a lot to us as cricketers. Cricket in our islands has been through a lot over the last few years.””Caribbean people are [now] pulling in one direction. The people come out and support us wherever we go. We as a team always want to keep the fans at the forefront of our mind. It is a wonderful opportunity to put a huge smile on the faces of our fans across the world for supporting us over the last few years. From speaking to everyone in the squad, I can see that they are all motivated and see this is as a massive opportunity.”

The players who arrive from the tour of South Africa are likely to be in quarantine until Christmas Day

Andrew McGlashan05-Nov-2020A significant number of the England players signed for the BBL are unlikely to be available to their clubs until after Christmas due to quarantine requirements following their tour of South Africa.Jason Roy and Liam Livingstone (Perth Scorchers), Dawid Malan (Hobart Hurricanes), Tom Curran (Sydney Sixers) and Tom Banton and Lewis Gregory (Brisbane Heat) were all named in the squads for the limited-overs trip to South Africa.However, Malan was only included in the T20 group so it may be possible for him to leave the tour ahead of the others.The final match of the series will be played on December 9, so depending on flight timings and the route taken they would be likely to arrive in Australia on December 11 when they would start their 14 days of hotel quarantine.The BBL fixtures confirmed on Thursday have all the teams playing three matches before Christmas, except the Hobart Hurricanes who will play four in Tasmania in that period.It would appear the earliest that players arriving from South Africa would be able to play would be Boxing Day, but with them unable to practice or train outside during their quarantine (under current regulations they will only have access to gym equipment provided in their rooms) that may be too short of a turnaround for them to be ready.The ECB is also able to hold back a contracted player from playing too soon after quarantine, as they did with Katherine Brunt in the WBBL for the Melbourne Stars, to reduce the risk of injury.A number of other English players not involved in the South Africa tour have been linked as replacements, including Will Jacks, Dan Lawrence and Joe Clarke as reported by ESPNcricinfo.”It’s been on the radar for a while, since that tour was earmarked, so our clubs have been planning around that,” Alistair Dobson, the head of the BBL, said. “Whether they are able to bring in another international for that specific window, it’s probably not as easy as a normal year.”Our clubs are expert list managers and have been planning for some of those players to not be available in that early window. We are also working really hard to make sure we can get those players from that tour into the BBL as quickly as possible.”Dobson added that the league was “hands on” in helping organise travel arrangements and that a chartered flight from South Africa was a possibility depending on the commercial options available.”We had great success with the WBBL [and we are] working really hard with relevant government authorities and the Australian Border Force to get overseas players in,” he said. “We are on track, but at the same time the landscape changes pretty regularly.”Most overseas players arriving into Australia for the tournament will have to quarantine, but currently it is only the England names that are impacted by a tour beforehand. Imran Tahir, the South Africa legspinner who has signed with Melbourne Renegades, retired from ODIs after the 2019 World Cup and while he never officially did the same in T20Is has not played since March 2019.There has been talk of making use of the Trans-Tasman travel bubble that exists between New Zealand and some states in Australia to bring in West Indies players who will be touring there without the need to quarantine although currently none of them have signed.However, the Sydney Thunder have signed New Zealand quick Adam Milne who may be able to take advantage of the arrangement.The tournament is likely to be without a number of big-name Australian players throughout. Earlier this week Steven Smith ruled out taking part due to the demands of moving from one bubble to another while it is expected that David Warner, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc will also sit out the BBL.However, it is hoped that Australia’s limited-overs players who will be involved in the ODIs and T20Is against India – including those who have come from the IPL – would be available for the start of the BBL and with various restrictions loosening around the country players may be able to have more freedom rather than being in a tight bubble.”We are certainly hoping they can get into the BBL and play those first few games,” Dobson said. “We are working closely with the national team division as to how we make that as logistically smooth as possible.””One thing we are working really hard on is that as the competition moves across the country, where medical and safety advice allows we want to give the players as many freedoms to enjoy the local environment [as we can].”The way things are trending at the moment we’d like to make sure it can feel as much like a normal BBL for the players as possible, albeit a different travel pattern. That said it’s incumbent on the league and CA to make sure players and the public are as safe as possible.”

‘Same mindset, less money’ is strategy for 2021 says new incumbent, as game braces for shortfalls

Matt Roller08-Sep-2020The ECB could be left facing “very severe cash constraints and a global game in crisis” if the 2021 season is disrupted significantly by Covid-19, according to new chairman Ian Watmore.Watmore, who took up his position as Colin Graves’ successor last week, said that the game in England and Wales would be able to recover from the impact of Covid on the 2020 season with “a mindset of ‘same ambition, just less money'” but warned that continued disruption next summer would be “much more serious”.Only one competitive fixture has been staged in front of a crowd this season, Surrey’s T20 Blast fixture against Hampshire last week. While the government has maintained that it should be possible for crowds to return in a limited way from October 1, there are concerns that a ‘second wave’ of the virus could mean that fans are unable to attend games until a much later date, particularly not at an occupancy level that would make it profitable.”Provided we can get cricket back to somewhere near normality next season… we have four years to recover one year’s losses, where each of those years has double the income of the recent past,” Watmore wrote in a blog post on the ECB’s website.”What is more concerning is the possibility that our next domestic season is severely disrupted by Covid too – with more cricket cancelled, played behind closed doors, or with very limited crowds. At this point, we will have two years of losses to recover with only three years left of the current funding cycle, coupled with very severe cash constraints, and a global game in crisis.ALSO READ: Cricket comes home as spectators make cautious return to Kia Oval“[The ECB’s] ambition would probably have to be reduced significantly, and many parts of our game could be genuinely at risk of going under financially. We must have a plan for this were it to occur, but the whole game and governments around the world must equally do everything we can to avoid this situation occurring.”Watmore admitted in his first virtual press conference in the role that redundancies at the ECB were “inevitable” and doubled down on that in his blog post, pledging that there would be “an obsessive focus on cash and cashflow, combined with a sharp period of cost reduction and efficiencies across the whole game, starting with the ECB itself” after this summer.”Measures such as judicious loans, advance payments, capital injections and other financial assistance from the ECB could give the game time to recover from its own shortfalls,” he wrote.Watmore also confirmed that the ECB has told counties and stakeholders that it has a guaranteed shortfall of at least £100 million this year, which could be as high as £180m, and that the whole game’s losses would be even higher.Tom Harrison, the chief executive, said at the start of April that an entire summer without cricket would cost the game in England and Wales “well in excess of £300m”, but that figure has been reduced on account of the full schedule of men’s international cricket – 18 games, six in each format – being played.But Watmore also warned that the wider landscape for international cricket is currently “gloomy”, citing the postponement and cancellation of ICC events and “several international boards struggling for revenue”.After the conclusion of next week’s ODI series against Australia, England are not due to play a men’s international until December’s tour to South Africa – a series which is currently doubtful.

What is at stake for RCB and CSK ahead of their game on Sunday?

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Oct-2020Royal Challengers Bangalore – Played 10, Points 14
Chennai Super Kings – Played 11, Points 6
The IPL 2020 points table after the KXIP vs SRH game on Saturday, October 24•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

The Royal Challengers Bangalore have the opportunity to go to the top of the points table if they beat Chennai Super Kings on Sunday. A win would take them to 16 points, two ahead of the Delhi Capitals with both teams having played 11 matches. They will also be ahead of Mumbai Indians, and remain that way unless Mumbai win the second game of the day, when they take on the Rajasthan Royals.Two results in past week have worked to bridge the net run rate gap that the Royal Challengers have with the Capitals: while the Royal Challengers beat the Kolkata Knight Riders by a big margin, the Knight Riders in turn beat the Capitals, again, by a big margin. If the Royal Challengers now beat the Super Kings comfortably, they can narrow the gap even further and put themselves in a good position for a top-two finish.The Royal Challengers have matches remaining against the other top teams, Mumbai and the Capitals, and the Sunrisers Hyderabad, and therefore picking up two points against the badly out-of-form Super Kings will be significant for them.As for the Super Kings, for all practical purposes, they are out of the race for the playoffs. They can reach at most 12 points, but will need a lot of results to go their way and also overcome a massive net run-rate difference to then progress. However, the Super Kings can spoil the Royal Challengers’ plans and create fresh opportunities for others in the points table with a victory.

Kings XI Punjab captain David Hussey has said a lackadaisical approach from his side against Rajasthan Royals at Mohali led to their 43-run defeat

ESPNcricinfo staff06-May-2012Kings XI Punjab captain David Hussey has said a lackadaisical approach from his side against Rajasthan Royals at Mohali led to their 43-run defeat on Saturday. Kings XI, who are now sixth in the points table, have lost four out of the five home matches this season.Royals’ batsmen, who have tailed off after strong starts in the past, played attacking cricket from the start against Kings XI on Saturday, with Rahul Dravid and Shane Watson hitting a flurry of boundaries. Brad Hodge and Johan Botha ended their clinical display by hitting 27 off the last two overs, helping them post 177.All the Kings XI bowlers conceded 8 runs an over or more. “When we turned up in the bus today, I don’t think we were really switched on as we were still celebrating the win against Bangalore [on May 2],” Hussey said. “People got a bit carried away and when the first ball was bowled we were not switched on for the game.”Kings XI have won four matches on the road this season, but haven’t replicated that form at home. “It was disappointing as we’ve played good consistent cricket at home but we have not got the win, as a couple of close games have gone the other way. I guess we are an away team and play well away.”Hussey said that a poor all-round performance by his side gave Royals the advantage. “I thought it was a very good cricket wicket but we let 20 runs go in the field. I don’t think our bowlers were that flash, I don’t think our fielding was that flash. I think the batting needs a bit of work as well.”Hussey said that with the tournament reaching its business end, it’s time his side performs as a unit. “We must work hard to qualify for the finals, we got to win three out of five matches. Once we get to Hyderabad [on May 8] we’ll regroup, refresh and you see a very determined team play against Deccan,” he said. “There are still a few positives from the Bangalore game that we’re all focusing on, we had a brief talk tonight and we’re heading to Hyderabad with a lot of confidence and a bit of a spring in our step.”