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File photo: Ashok Menaria’s 84 led Rajasthan to their best batting effort of the season so far•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Jaipur crowds are known for their colourful heckling. RP Singh always draws a crowd here because there is an on-going feud with one particular fan who brings a group of people with him. Samad Fallah, the Maharashtra bowler who is known for his ability to bowl long, controlled spells, was cut to size when the crowd, all 10 of them, shouted, ” [Hey bowler, increase your pace].” They don’t spare their own either. Ashok Menaria, their captain who has plateaued over the last couple of years after a bright start as an Under-19 player, is called Malaria here. There were no such calls on the first day of Rajasthan’s match against Maharashtra as Menaria led the home team’s best effort with the bat of the season with 84.Rajasthan’s problem this season has been their batting, to counter which they have employed the experience and solidity of Rajat Bhatia. The pitch still was the usual green Sawai Mansingh Stadium one. And when Menaria lost the toss, Kedar Jadhav had no second thoughts asking them to bat first. There would have been concern around, but the pitch didn’t misbehave too much and the batsmen batted with the maturity that has been missing so far this season. All of the batsmen made starts, but Menaria and Bhatia – making a new start on his 36th birthday – went past 50 to take Rajasthan to 258 for 5.Suryaprakash Suwalka, playing in only his third first-class match, made an ideal opening pair with the resolute Vineet Saxena. The two added 46 for the first wicket before the pitch played its first decisive trick. There had been some movement earlier, but this time medium-pacer Shrikant Mundhe got one to seam in from outside off. Suwalka had shouldered arms, and had his off stump pegged back. Ten runs later, one of those things that happen in domestic cricket happened. Saxena went to pull Fallah, bowling round the wicket. There was an appeal for a catch at the wicket down the leg side. The umpire didn’t make a decision immediately, Saxena strolled towards square leg and when he was about to reach his stance, with the appeal still going on, the umpire raised his finger.Vaibhav Deshpande and Menaria then thwarted Maharashtra’s momentum. Deshpande was decisive at leaving outside off, and Menaria looked to keep using scoring opportunities. It was an innings of spurts. Just after lunch the Maharashtra bowlers began to bring pressure by drying up the runs. Finally Menaria got a leg-side half-volley, which heralded three boundaries in three balls to ease the pressure. One of them was a thick edge between slip and gully, but that was how the innings was: two-thirds punchy shots, one-third streakiness.Menaria enjoyed some luck when a diving Ankit Bawne dropped him at cover off Fallah. Deshpande didn’t enjoy such luck as an offbreak from Chirag Khurana – in his second over – didn’t turn and bowled him for 37. Bhatia came out at 136 for 3, and announced his arrival by dancing down seventh ball and hitting Khurana for a six over long-on. The field went back, and the two got down to accumulating runs, 86 of them for the fourth wicket.The pitch was slow, which showed in how Menaria cut three boundaries in front of square, and even pulled spinner Khurana through mid-on for four. His progress towards a hundred was brought to a stop through miscommunication with Bhatia. He steered behind square and set off for a run, which Bhatia thought called for waiting for the ball to pass backward point. Khurana made a diving stop there, Menaria was stranded, but he didn’t make any effort to go back, which gave Khurana time to aim. He hit direct, and set off on a celebratory run.Bhatia and Puneet Yadav then nearly saw Rajasthan through to stumps with a 36-run partnership, but with what turned out to be the last ball of the day, Fallah brought Maharashtra back into the contest by drawing an edge from Bhatia. And he didn’t need to his pace for that. His accuracy did it for him.Fallah reckoned that last wicket put Maharashtra slightly ahead in the contest. He said the pitch looked like it would healp seam bowlers, but it didn’t. It also turned out to be slow. Menaria was disappointed he and Bhatia couldn’t convert their half-centuries into a big century. He said that had been the story of the last two seasons where they narrowly missed making it to the knockouts.

	Darrell Hair, who umpired in Nairobi last year, will be back in the big league after being reinstated by the ICC © Ian Jacobs/Cricinfo Ltd

Darrell Hair has admitted he can be “stand-offish” and has vowed to improve his communication skills after being reinstated as a Test and one-day international umpire. Hair is back after being demoted following his role in the forfeited Pakistan-England Test in 2006, but he believes it is time to “move on”.”Well it caused me a lot of stress, I suppose it caused a lot of people some stress along the way,” Hair told Sydney radio . “The laws now have been changed to take those decisions out of the hands of the umpires and I fully support the way that that’s going to happen in future. So, it’s time to move on.The ICC ruled Hair’s “rehabilitation”, which included a course at Sydney University, has been completed and he remains contracted for another 12 months. “Every day in life you like to pick up something and move forward,” he said. “So I won’t say my whole attitude to umpiring has changed but I think I have picked up a few things that are going to be very helpful to me in the future.”Probably just … having a broader understanding of what everybody else is thinking and the old communication issue of making sure that what you say and what you want is understood by the other people. I’ve always been a little bit … stand-offish in that I’ve always preferred to let them play the game themselves and only get involved when things go overboard but maybe there’s a case to be made for a little bit more work in that area.”The ICC will keep Hair away from games involving Pakistan, who are upset with the official’s elevation. “I’ve got no comment on anyone else’s reaction really,” he said. “I’m just going to look after my own patch and go out there and umpire the matches that I’m appointed to and do that to the best of my ability, which is what I’ve always done.”

Northamptonshire have signed Davey Jacobs, the South African batsman, as a temporary replacement for Chris Rogers, one of their overseas players. Rogers is out for at least a month after breaking his left thumb in the Friends Provident Trophy match against Nottinghamshire last week.Jacobs, 24, is a team-mate of Johan van der Wath with the Eagles, who are based in Blomfontein. In 44 first-class matches to date he has scored 3,229 runs at 41.39 including a career-best 218 in 2005. In 2006 he toured Australia with South Africa’s Emerging Players team.”We looked at a lot of options and now we’re very pleased to have Davey with us until Chris is fit again,” said David Capel, Northants’ head coach. “I’m sure he can do a job for us, and at the same time it’s a good showcasefor him in county cricket.”Jacobs is expected to make his Championship debut this Tuesday, in the home match against Somerset.

On debut Owais Shah made amends for all the missed opportunities © Getty Images

Owais Shah, the England debutant included in the team after Alastair Cook’s eleventh-hour withdrawal, said the last-minute call didn’t induce any butterflies. “I never thought I would play in the series after Alastair’s century on debut,” he told a press conference. “Since he was scheduled to play over the last two or three days there was no chance of becoming nervous on the eve of the match as I was told I am playing only a few hours before the match.”On his team’s strategy, Shah said, “the basic plan was to keep them on the field as far as we can.” He said batting in the second innings would be a tough ask, although the wicket had not yet showed any signs of affording turn to the slow bowlers.”But what will happen over the next two days cannot be predicted,” he added. “It will be a tough task to bat against the two world-class spinners [Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble]. But our first task is to try and force them to follow on.”Shah said the batting lessons he received from the former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin when he came to India in 2004 had helped him launch his Test career with a flourish. Shah, who made 88 in England’s first innings score of 400, said Azharuddin’s tips were invaluable and he had stuck to them diligently. “I came down to India after hearing Azhar was opening a cricket academy,” he said. “He put me up in a hotel for ten days and gave me batting lessons and after going back to England I stuck to these. They helped me here.”He added that the example of Australia’s Mike Hussey, who made runs by the tons in domestic cricket to force his way into the national squad, was an inspiration to him. “I have seen people like Mike Hussey not getting a chance to play for Australia for years together. He scored heavily and got into the team. I knew that I would get an opportunity to play for England one day and that I should try and get as many runs as I can [in English county cricket]. The selection is not in my hands.”Shah had to retire yesterday owing to cramps in both hands and he said the experience had taught him to take more fluids today to avoid getting dehydrated. “I sweat a lot and get cramps in my hands. I learned the lessons of yesterday and made sure I was high on hydration today.”He dismissed the pleasantries exchanged with Indian pacers Munaf Patel and Sreesanth as light banter. “It was all in good spirit.”

Lions 134 for 4 (van Jaarsveld 64) beat Western ProvinceBoland 129 (Duminy 43, Terbrugge 4-20) by six wicketsLions eased to a six-wicket victory against Western Province Boland in a low-scoring PRO20 Series match at the Wanderers in Johannesburg. Western Province got off to a brisk start after choosing to bat, scoring 28 off the first three overs.But three wickets then tumbled before another run was added to put them on the back foot as David Terbrugge got the ball moving around. They recovered, though, JP Duminy (43) and Thami Tsolekile (35) bringing them back into the game with a stand of 62 – then the match swung again, as they lost their final seven wickets for 39 runs. Terbrugge finished off the innings with two furtherwickets to end with 4 for 20 in his four overs.With a moderate target, the Lions paced themselves well to record the win inthe 19th over. Man of the match, Vaughn van Jaarsveld 64 off 49 balls with five boundaries and a six. Neil McKenzie finished the game off, hitting a four and a six off the final two balls to give Lions the five points.The match between the Warriors and the Titans was declared a no-resultwithout a ball being bowled at St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth.

Scorecard

Jimmy Maher celebrates his astonishing hundred ©Getty Images

Jimmy Maher belted himself, and Queensland, into the record books in their crushing ING Cup win against Western Australia at the Gabba. Maher struck 187 off only 129 balls to help his side charge to a whopping 4 for 405 from their 50 overs, and then storm to a 207-run victory.Maher’s breathtaking knock broke the record for the highest individual score in domestic one-dayers, while Queensland’s total was the biggest team innings in the 35 years of the competition. Western Australia, meanwhile, were consigned to the blackest Friday of all.Queensland smashed records and set countless milestones on the way to becoming the first team in the ING Cup to score two victory bonus points by doubling their opponents’ total.When Chris Simpson scampered a quick single off the last ball of the 49th over Queensland became the first team to pass the 400 barrier in Australia. The previous best total was New South Wales’s 4 for 397 against Tasmania at the small Bankstown Oval two seasons ago.Queensland’s astonishing score, the fifth-highest in any 50-over match at first-class level, was built on the back of discarded Australian one-day batsman Maher.In a day when everything he touched turned to gold, Maher blazed 26 boundaries and three sixes in oppressive heat before taking three key catches.Maher passed the previous-best individual domestic one-day innings, Murray Goodwin’s 167 against NSW in Perth at 2000-01, in fine style when he belted successive sixes off Michael Hussey. But Goodwin only had himself to blame for his mark being eclipsed after dropping the simplest of catches at cover off Paul Wilson when Maher was on 105.The only Australian to have scored more runs in a one-day match was Darren Lehmann, who blazed 191 for Yorkshire against Nottinghamshire in Scarborough, England in 2001.Queensland’s run glut was also a perfect one-day send-off for Stuart Law, who launched proceedings with 95 from 69 balls. Law belted 13 fours and three sixes in his knock and threatened to break his own record for the fastest domestic one-day century (69 balls, set this season against Tasmania) before cutting Aaron Heal to backward point.He brought up his half-century in only 37 balls and produced a swashbuckling opening with Maher to reap 138 runs from the first 15 overs, including 79 runs from 30 balls between the ninth and 14th overs.WA didn’t help their cause, with some loose bowling and poor fielding assisting Queensland. Things went from bad to worse for them when Andy Bichel had Justin Langer caught by Maher at second slip in the first over. Only Hussey had the better of the bowlers and when he fell at 6 for 170, the Warriors were only batting to deny the double bonus point.

In one of two opening matches of the 2003 edition of the Deodhar Trophy, East Zone comprehensively dominated West Zone to win their tie at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, by nine wickets.Winning the toss, West Zone opted to take first strike, but they could not maximise the advantage. Apart from Vinayak Mane, who came in at number three, no batsman could really get going, and Mane’s 43 (67b, 3×4) was consequently the highest score of the innings.For East Zone, veteran spinner Utpal Chatterjee took three wickets from nine tight overs that conceded only 25 runs. He was well backed up by Rohan Gavaskar and Pravanjan Mullick, who took two wickets apiece.Bowled out for 173, West Zone did not have the runs to defend, but even if they did, Debang Gandhi may well have chased those down too. Gandhi was in good form, hitting a sparkling 109 off just 112 balls, with 12 fours and two sixes. He was given good support by opener MS Dhoni (55, 97b, 1×4, 1×6), and the pair took East Zone to a nine-wicket win in 35 overs.

The SACA have contracted 22 players to the 2001/2002 Southern RedbacksSquad. The players are:

• Ben Higgins
• Ben Johnson
• Brad Young
• Brett Swain
• Chris Davies
• Daniel Harris
• David Fitzgerald
• Graham Manou
• Jeff Vaughan
• Luke Williams
• Mark Harrity
• Michael Smith
• Mick Miller
• Nathan Adcock
• Paul Rofe
• Paul Wilson
• Peter McIntyre
• Ryan Harris
• Shane Deitz

Rookies

• Cameron Borgas
• Mark Cosgrove
• Matthew Weekes

These players join the ACB contracted players Jason Gillespie, DarrenLehmann and Greg Blewett in the South Australian Team.This year the ACB have set down a rule for Rookies allowing young up andcoming players to be included in the squad in order for them to continue todevelop in the game.Under player movement regulations set down by the ACB, States must havesigned a minimum of 14 players by June 8th, allocating 90 percent of theirplayer payment pool. All states must finalise the complete list ofcontracted players and fully allocate their player payment pool by September30.Newcomers to the Redbacks squad are fast bowler Mick Miller, batsmen BenHiggins and Nathan Adcock (previously in the 1999/2000 squad) as well asRookies Cameron Borgas, Matthew Weekes and Mark Cosgrove. All three Rookieswere members of the South Australian Cricket Academy last year and have beenincluded in the Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy Squad this season.

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Loads of Liverpool fans have been reacting to the latest transfer rumour, and they don’t seem all too happy about the links to Kerem Demirbay.

According to Bild, Liverpool have sent scouts to watch Demirbay, who has been in superb form for Hoffenheim this season.

The 25 year-old has been linked with a move to Liverpool in the past, and the report claims Jurgen Klopp is a still a big fan.

The Reds have scored four goals in each of their last two games, but were definitely struggling for creativity before that.

[brid autoplay=”true” video=”310054″ player=”12034″ title=”Rafa’s Pub Facts Fake Madrid & Ross Barkley Emulates… David Ngog”]

Philippe Coutinho was perfect for playing just off of the Reds’ ferocious front three, and the workhorse midfield of this season hasn’t quite given them the same service.

Demirbay could be the perfect fit for that advanced role on the left of Klopp’s midfield trio, but fans don’t seem too convinced.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

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The German did miss most of last season through injury, and fans are split on moving for him to solve their midfield creativity issues.

You can find some of the best Twitter reactions down below…

	An in-form Wasim Jaffer will lead West Zone © AFP

Wasim Jaffer and Laxmi Ratan Shukla have been named captains of the West and East Zones, respectively, for this season’s Deodhar Trophy.Jaffer, after a dismal Test tour of Australia, has been in solid form during the Ranji Trophy one-dayers. His 349 runs at 116.33, with a best of an unbeaten 178 from just 132 balls, are a main reason Mumbai top their group.The West team comprises names such as Rohit Sharma, who scored 235 runs in ten innings during India’s CB Series triumph, Ajit Agarkar, Parthiv Patel, Yusuf Pathan, Under-19 winner Iqbal Abdullah and Munaf Patel, who also featured in the tour of Australia.Sourav Ganguly and Manoj Tiwary have been named in the East team, as has another victorious U-19 player, Saurabh Tiwary.The limited-overs tournament will be played at four centers in South Zone from March 14.Teams
West Zone: Wasim Jaffer (captain), Ajit Agarkar, Ajinkya Rahane, Parthiv Patel, Venugopala Rao, Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Abhishek Nayar, Mohnish Parmar, Iqbal Abdulla, Munaf Patel, Sandeep Maniar, Siddharth Trivedi, Kedar Jadhav, Pinal Shah.East Zone: Laxmi Ratan Shukla (captain), Sourav Ganguly, Anustup Majumdar, Arindam Das, Manoj Tiwary, Ranadeb Bose, Wriddhiman Saha, Shib Shankar Paul, Ireash Saxena, Haladhar Das, PR Sinha, Saurabh Tiwary, Ishank Jaggi, Manish Vardhan, SS Rao, Deeraj Goswami, S. Purkayastha.