Wilfried Nancy will soon have the opportunity to make his first signings as Celtic manager when the January transfer window opens for business next week.

The French head coach has lost four of his five matches in charge of the Hoops in all competitions so far, although he did win his first game against Aberdeen last weekend.

He will have learned a lot about his squad in those five matches and that could shape what he wants the club to do in the next transfer window, which is why Johnny Kenny may be in trouble.

Why Celtic need to replace Johnny Kenny

The Ireland international’s performances in the Scottish Premiership this season suggest that Celtic need to replace the striker when the January transfer window opens for business.

Celtic’s biggest xG underperformers

25/26 Premiership

xG

xG performance

Johnny Kenny

7.45

-3.45

Hyun-jun Yang

2.14

-2.14

Shin Yamada

1.47

-1.47

Kelechi Iheanacho

3.41

-1.41

Adam Idah

0.98

-0.98

Stats via WhoScored

As you can see in the table above, Kenny has been the most wasteful finisher in the entire squad, by some distance, with four goals from 7.45 xG this season.

The 22-year-old star has started the last two matches in the Premiership against Dundee United and Aberdeen, with Kelechi Iheanacho missing through injury, and struggled in both games.

In those two outings, the young Celtic centre-forward missed a whopping four ‘big chances’ to find the back of the net, from nine shots in total, and failed to score a single goal, per Sofascore.

Ultimately, Kenny has been incredibly unreliable in front of goal as the main man for the Hoops in the number nine position, which is exactly why the Scottish giants must replace him in January.

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Now, Celtic can ensure that the Irish flop does not have to start another league game for the club by adding a reported target to their squad next month.

Why Celtic should sign Evan Ferguson

Earlier this month, it was reported that the Scottish giants have been offered the chance to sign Evan Ferguson on loan from Brighton & Hove Albion, as his loan from Roma may be cut short.

Whilst it is not yet confirmed that the Irishman will be available next month, the Hoops should be pushing hard to bring him in if that aforementioned report is accurate and his loan in Italy does come to an end.

Ferguson, who has a £34m purchase option in his loan, has only scored one goal in 12 Serie A matches for Roma, per Sofascore, in what has been a frustrating spell for the young centre-forward, but he did showcase his quality in the Europa League against Celtic.

The Ireland international proved to be too hot for the Celtic defence to handle on the night, with the clip above showing that he was too sharp for Liam Scales to deal with.

Vs Celtic

Evan Ferguson

Minutes

69

Shots

3

xG

0.81

Goals

2

Touches

28

Passes completed

10/16

Key passes

1

Stats via Sofascore

Ferguson scored two goals from just 0.81 xG against the Scottish giants, which shows that he can be a clinical finisher, and that is backed up by his Premier League record with Brighton.

Prior to loan spells with West Ham and Roma, the 21-year-old number nine scored 13 Premier League goals from 10.30 xG for the Seagulls, per Understat.

The Roma loanee, who was hailed as “absolutely mustard” by U23 scout Antonio Mango, has shown that he can finish chances at an impressive rate at the top level, in the Europa League against Celtic and in the Premier League.

Subscribe for incisive Celtic transfer analysis Looking for smarter takes on Celtic transfers? Subscribing to the newsletter unlocks focused analysis of target players, finishing and xG data, and how signings would alter squad roles — valuable reading for anyone tracking Celtic recruitment and striker options. Subscribe Subscribe for incisive Celtic transfer analysis Looking for smarter takes on Celtic transfers? Subscribing to the newsletter unlocks focused analysis of target players, finishing and xG data, and how signings would alter squad roles — valuable reading for anyone tracking Celtic recruitment and striker options.

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Unfortunately, it has not quite worked out for him at Roma, with intense competition from the likes of top-quality forwards Artem Dovbyk and Paulo Dybala, but he has shown enough in his career so far to suggest that he could be a phenomenal signing for Celtic.

Ferguson is a striker who has the finishing qualities to come in and take advantage of the high-quality opportunities that the Hoops have been creating for Kenny this season.

This means that he could come in as an instant upgrade on his international teammate, who has been far too wasteful in front of goal, which would provide Nancy with a new regular starter up front.

Related Bad news for Scales: Celtic opens talks to sign "immense" star in January

Celtic have reportedly opened talks to sign a star in a deal that could spell bad news for Liam Scales.

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If Celtic can agree a deal to sign Ferguson on loan and manage to keep Iheanacho fit for the second half of the season, Kenny may never get the chance to start again if he ends up being the third-choice option, which would be fair based on his struggles this season.

The clatter of three Western Australian wickets shortly before stumps has continued to afford Tasmania the whip hand by stumps on the second day of the sides’ Pura Cup match in Hobart. At the game’s midway point, the Warriors are at a mark of 4/137 in reply to the Tigers’ first innings tally of 9/446.Led by Shaun Young (2/20), the Tasmanian attack took until the final hour of the day to display the penetrative qualities which had hitherto been missing from both teams’ bowling line-ups. It was the medium pace of Young which did the major damage, his clever variety accounting for a spooned return catch from a well-set Simon Katich (38) and the departure of a very scratchy Murray Goodwin (3) to a leg before wicket decision. On his return after a long absence from the first-class arena, Gerard Denton (1/51) also made a crucial strike when he induced opener Mike Hussey (35) to play a mistimed pull and present Dene Hills with the opportunity to complete an excellent running catch behind square leg.But the presence at the crease of the clean-striking Damien Martyn (46*) and the determined mindset of Warriors’ captain Tom Moody might combine to ensure that the encounter yet develops into a tight battle for first innings points. On a placid pitch, Martyn played the most aggressive cameo of the match during the concluding stages to continue a romance with Bellerive that might well reach even more intense heights tomorrow. He could have been caught, either by wicketkeeper Sean Clingeleffer or first slip Daniel Marsh, when he top edged a cut at Denton with his score at a mere eight. But the two appeared to leave the potential chance to one another and, with the miss, went the Tigers’ opportunity to nip in the bud a rapid acceleration of the Western Australian run rate.”There’s a lot more batting left in our line-up and hopefully we can resurrect it tomorrow,” said Moody after play.And despite conceding that Tasmania was definitely in the box seat, the Western Australian skipper remained upbeat about the possibility that his team could still claim at least two points from the match.”There’s nearly two hundred overs left so who knows what can happen? It depends on how well we bat and how it all pans out late tomorrow and early on the fourth day.”Moody also hinted that he was slightly surprised by opposite number Jamie Cox’s decision to delay his declaration until seventy-seven minutes after lunch.”We were out there a bit longer than I expected; maybe they should have pressed on a bit quicker.”The Warriors’ bowlers and fieldsmen could have accepted at least some of the blame, though. The complexion of proceedings certainly might have been very different if they had capitalised on an excellent opening thirty minutes to the day. It was in that period that spinner Brad Oldroyd (4/90) snuck an arm ball through the defences of Young (43) and Brendon Julian (3/94) encouraged Marsh (110) to waft at an outswinger shortly after he had reached the landmark of three figures for the sixth time in his first-class career.The most crucial moment of the day loomed not long afterward when all-rounder Scott Kremerskothen (81) edged another Julian delivery to Moody at second slip with his score at six. The catch was grassed, and the visitors were left to pay a hefty price as Kremerskothen and fellow youngster Clingeleffer (50) set about adding a priceless 122 runs for the seventh Tasmanian wicket.Oldroyd finally removed Kremerskothen with a brilliant low return catch and Clingeleffer, two deliveries after raising an accomplished maiden first-class half-century, spooned a catch to cover off the bowling (the off spin bowling, no less) of Moody (2/82). By then, though, significant damage had been inflicted.”It was terrific, wasn’t it?,” said Cox of the pair’s alliance. “‘Kremer’ fell only one short of a career best and it was ‘Clinger’s first fifty, which was a good milestone … he’s done an excellent job in the first three games and we’re very pleased with the way he has come on.”Following a generally unpleasant nine hours in the field, the Western Australians encountered further annoyance when dashing opener Ryan Campbell (8) was trapped shuffling back and across his crease by David Saker (1/32). Hussey and Katich then added sixty-eight in fine style, and Martyn hit out brilliantly, but Young and Denton countered to leave the Warriors facing a big challenge to restore parity.

In an order with far-reaching implications, the RM Lodha committee has suspended India Cements and Jaipur IPL, the owners of the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals teams, for a period of two years. The committee has also banned for life Gurunath Meiyappan, a former team official of Super Kings, and Raj Kundra, a former Royals co-owner, from any involvement in cricket matches.The committee’s order effectively leaves the two companies with teams that cannot play. Super Kings have twice won the IPL, and are perennial tournament favourites, while Royals won the inaugural edition. The onus is now on the BCCI and the two companies to work out the way forward, to decide whether the teams will be in a two-year limbo or play under different ownership.The news sent officials of the two franchises, and also of the BCCI, which owns the IPL, into a series of meetings as they began to make sense of the judgement. The IPL governing council is likely to meet over the weekend, and the BCCI’s working committee might meet before that. In a brief statement Jagmohan Dalmiya, the BCCI president, said it was “committed to honour and respect judicial decisions and it would give its observations after the entire report is read and a collective decision is taken.”Among the franchises, the initial sense was that both would appeal against the decision, though the sheer composition of this committee – Lodha is a former Chief Justice of India and Ashok Bhan and RV Raveendran are retired judges of the Supreme Court – suggests any court would be wary of overturning the decision.The committee, which made its report public in a 45-minute session in New Delhi, said its ruling was based on disciplinary grounds, on behalf of the BCCI. It refused to accept the argument that the acts of Gurunath and Kundra were personal, and that the franchises could thus not be held responsible.”Disrepute has been brought to cricket, the BCCI and the IPL to such an extent that there are doubts abound in the public whether the game is clean or not,” Lodha, a former Chief Justice of India, said.”Jaipur IPL claims it is highly celebrated as a nursery of players. But three of its players have accused of alleged spot-fixing. This shows that all is not well in their handling of affairs. The position of Raj Kundra with the Rajasthan Royals franchise – part owner and team official – means his actions brought the game, BCCI and IPL into disrepute.”Kundra responded on Twitter by saying, “Many inaccuracies…Have requested for a copy of the judgement. Obviously very shocked and disappointed…”Gurunath Meiyappan has been suspended for life from any involvement in cricket matches•Hindustan Times

The panel came down hard on Gurunath, who they felt had caused “huge injury” to the image of the game, and said that India Cements had not shown to have taken any action against him.”Any agony suffered by him because of media coverage or any hardship that may have been caused to him is too small in comparison to the huge injury he caused to the reputation and image of the game, the IPL and the BCCI. If the reputation and image of the sport are lost, what remains? Being 40 years of age, he is not young but middle-aged. It is difficult to accept that he has passion for the game.”Not only that no urgent action was taken by India Cements against Gurunath Meiyappan but as a matter of fact no action has been shown to have been taken against him. The order of suspension passed by the BCCI against GM after his arrest is not an action by India Cements against its official.”Former High Court Judge Mukul Mudgal, who was part of the three-member probe panel which conducted an independent investigation into the corruption allegations, called the verdict a “temporary setback” for the IPL, but one that was taken for the “greater good” of cricket.”I’m sorry, but if the franchise is banned, how can the team escape? So this has to happen,” Mudgal told the news channel. “It’s a consequence of some wrongdoing and it also sends a message all across, right to the top, don’t indulge in any wrong doing.”Please remember however great it may be, however popular it may be, it’s about the game of cricket. And therefore in the long run it will benefit the IPL. There is a current feeling that all matches in the IPL are fixed, which is a totally wrong feeling. I can only think that this step will restore people’s confidence in the game of cricket and in the IPL.”

The ICC Americas’ high performance consultant Tom Evans has said the ICC is hoping to encourage players from mainstream sports to give cricket a look, after two former National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletes – a baseball player and a lacrosse player – were included in a list of 83 names for phase one of the ICC Americas Cricket Combine in September.Kyle Netheary, who was offered an NCAA Division One baseball scholarship to Central Arkansas in 2008, and Ryan Carter, who played four years for Butler University’s lacrosse team from 2003-06, were two of the 83 names invited to the trial. Speaking to ESPNcricinfo after the list was announced, Evans said that although the pair might not have lengthy cricket credentials, he felt this trial was the perfect opportunity to think outside the box for player recruitment.”I think it’s probably worth taking a punt to see how the transfer of skills could potentially look and see how they go in some of the testing,” Evans told ESPNcricinfo. “Particularly with a baseball guy like Kyle some of the fielding testing we do and potentially the batting testing, although against a bouncing ball he may struggle a little bit. But it’s also to encourage that opportunities lie for people who have played college sports and have played other sports that they can make a transition to cricket if that’s what they want to do in time.”I think it’s exciting to see that someone is willing to take that step and hopefully it could be the first of many down the track. They were the only two really that we had that were sort of from left field and we thought that this was an opportunity to see some of that skill transfer and see how it might potentially go. But it’s nice to have a couple of guys who are interested in it from other sports.”Evans said he first discussed the issue with the six regional coaches who will be involved in the camp as talent evaluators and coaching development staff, and said the proposal received “near-unanimous” support from everyone. When asked if he thought it might rub some other players at the camp the wrong way, Evans said he hoped all invitees would keep an open mind regarding “skills transfer”.”I don’t know how some of the guys will react but even just in putting that to the coaching group that there were two guys from outside of the sport that I suggested might be worth a bit of a punt.”I think everyone agreed that it was a good idea to have a look at that and something we’d hope to see more of, particularly in North America but in other countries as well – the transfer from other sports to cricket – and hopefully that can be a bit of a trailblazer for other guys from other sports. It’s exciting to see how they track and how they go. They may be very raw but hopefully it’s something that could encourage some more of that in the future.”Separately, the first weekend of the tournament will feature 14 former national team representatives for USA at the U-15 and U-19 levels who haven’t yet been able to make the transition into the senior team. Evans was pleased with the number of applications he received from young talent and felt this may be an opportunity for them to show they haven’t been forgotten since the phasing out of junior cricket.”Hopefully it gives them a bit of incentive to feel like there is still an opportunity to impress. I think it’s hard sometimes in such a big country to get opportunities to impress with what’s happened in the past. So hopefully this gives them a little extra motivation and a bit of extra vision from a number of eyes as to what they have to offer.”I think it is relatively normal in most systems that there is a bit of a logjam after U-19s because there’s only 14 senior spots and every two years there’s an U-19 team picked. So it’s probably a little bit normal that there’s a few there but hopefully this gives them the added motivation to kick on and prove that they’re ready for the next level.”In addition to many of the fringe national players that have been floating around the USA cricket circuit for the last several years in the main playing areas like New York and Los Angeles, several players from neglected areas were also included in the trial. A host of players from Massachusetts – Sharaz Baksh, Jaideep Reddy and Pratik Dudhane – one player from Minnesota, Pavan Kumar Chakravarthy, and another from Kentucky, Mohsin Kapadia, have also been invited.Evans says it is the lesser known players that he is most eager to see at the trial. Rather than the established names who have been in and out of the national team, the wildcard selections more closely follow what seems to be the broad theme of this initiative in casting a wide net to see what talent the ICC might uncover.”We know there are some really good players in this list that we are pretty confident that would be close to the mark. But it’s probably more the players we don’t know so much about that I’m excited to see.”So I think there’s certainly some exciting talent there but you don’t know until you see them in a pressure situation and that’ll be exciting to have them tested on their skills and fitness but also tested in some game situations to see how they react under pressure.”

Scorecard and ball-by-balls detailsFast bowler Nathan Coulter-Nile and legspinner Cameron Boyce shared five wickets but South Africa A being restricted to 171 was largely a result of their own poor batting. The chase then was rather matter of fact. Australia A won by nine wickets with 19 overs to spare, earning a bonus point to boot.Most of the South Africa A players are coming together after an off-season and they did not look prepared. They had a 10-day camp at home in the hope of getting themselves game-ready and then a few hits in the nets in Chennai. But come game time, the slowness of the pitch provided too many problems.After South Africa A elected to bat, Dean Elgar and his opening partner Reeza Hendricks managed well enough, adding 71 runs. But the other nine could only cobble 77 more and needed a leg up from the 23 extras. There were no fifties and 186 out of the 292 deliveries they faced were dot balls. Only two batsmen managed a strike rate above 60 and they could not last the 50 overs. Not the most ideal audition with the senior team set for a 72-day tour of India in October.Australia A openers Usman Khawaja and Joe Burns, on the other hand, waltzed to their fifties and knocked 142 runs off the target themselves. They stroked 16 boundaries between them.Hardus Viljoen was smeared for a hat-trick of fours in the sixth over as Khawaja put away ordinary deliveries – a wide one driven through extra cover, one on leg stump whipped through midwicket, and a short one crunched through point. Lonwabo Tsotsobe was clattered for successive fours by Khawaja in the next over and in the eighth, bowled by first-change bowler Beuran Hendricks, Burns benefited from easy pickings: two short balls banished to two ends of the ground at point and deep midwicket. The bad balls, they kept on coming. The good times, they kept on going. Representative of that were the seven no-balls South Africa A bowled. Three of the resulting free-hits were smashed to the boundary.In contrast, Australia A bowlers gave nothing away. They had the advantage of playing in these conditions for two unofficial Tests and it showed in how tight a middle and off line Coulter-Nile adopted. His first spell read 5-1-13-0. With the rest of his team-mates keeping that pressure up, he had a more profitable second spell: wicketkeeper Dane Vilas was caught down the leg side. Four balls later Khaya Zondo’s edge was found. South Africa A, caught in a downward spiral, were 142 for 6 in the 39th over.But it was legspinner Boyce, who bowled 10 overs on the trot, and left-arm spinner Ashton Agar who initiated that downward spiral. Agar knew that with the batsmen already struggling to adjust to a slow pitch, his best chance was bowl even slower. Boyce, on the other hand, used the crease well, angling the ball on middle and leg, and created doubts in the batsman’s mind when a few turned sharply while most did nothing. Their 20 overs cost a measly 60 runs and yielded three of the top four wickets.So the story of the match ended up quite simple: In walked a South Africa A batsman, he couldn’t manipulate the field, he got bogged down, played a rash shot and off he went. Then Boyce and Coulter-Nile kept hitting repeat.

ScorecardPlans for a new pavilion (left) have been put on hold at Chelmsford•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Essex will not be rushed into appointing a new head coach but the successor to Paul Grayson will be asked to secure promotion to Division One of the Championship – with a largely homegrown squad – while also continuing to mount a challenge for silverware in limited-overs competitions, according to chief executive, Derek Bowden.Grayson left Essex earlier this month after eight years in charge, seven of which were spent in the Championship’s second tier. This season, they lost in the quarter-final stage of both the NatWest T20 Blast and Royal London Cup and failed to mount a promotion challenge – although consecutive wins under interim coach, Chris Silverwood, have lifted them to third in Division Two.Bowden told ESPNcricinfo on the washed-out first day of Essex’s final home fixture of the season against Lancashire that a “number of people” had expressed an interest in the job, which will be formally advertised next week. Essex expect to make an appointment before the end of the year with a view to the new head coach taking charge from January.While Grayson successfully brought through a number of young players – even if several, the latest being Reece Topley, have chosen to move on – Essex developed a reputation for falling short during his time in charge. Bowden said it was “time for a change” and suggested that a new coach might help the squad to deliver on its potential.”I think it has been disappointing because we’ve got a squad that’s capable of doing more than it has this year,” Bowden said. “We will finish third, I suspect, and having reached two quarter-finals, so it’s not a bad season but it would have been good to have progressed through the quarter-finals in either one of the competitions and, for once, to have finished first or second in the division.”The overall ambition for the club is to get to Division One and stay there. The focus is entirely that, by developing a youth strategy. We have a lot of good young players who come through the system, some stay, some move on – we want to keep them and we know that if we’re in Division One we’ve got a greater likelihood of keeping them.”We would like the head coach to pick up that plan, to get us from Division Two to Division One and stay there, while at the same time excelling in one or other of the two one-day competitions – probably T20, because that’s where the money is. As a Division Two side, and a non-Test ground, the best way to get that is through success in T20.”I think it’s time for some new thoughts and new ideas and getting the real potential from the players we have here, because we have some incredibly talented younger players and some very experienced older players. If we can mould them together into a high-performing team, we’ll achieve our objective.”With the promotion of Lancashire, Essex’s opponents in the final round of the season, and Surrey, at least seven of the nine Test-match counties will be playing in Division One next year, emphasising the scale of the challenge for those with smaller budgets. The possibility of an eight-ten split between the divisions, in order to reduce the number of games and allow the teams in Division One to still play each other twice, would exacerbate the difficulty.Discussions about changes to the domestic structure are ongoing but Bowden conceded that a reduction to 14 Championship games a season was “almost inevitable”, even though the ECB has deferred any such change until after the 2016 season.”It is less than ideal, because it is asymmetrical, but it’s almost inevitable given the amount if cricket we play here and the weather we have,” Bowden said. “It is very crowded at the moment. We have to find a way of playing a bit less cricket. I think if we went from 16 games to 14, personally I could live with that.”With the schedule as it is, a slight reduction and an asymmetrical split may be pragmatically the way forward. It’s not ideal and I can understand members not being happy about it but something has to give somewhere.”Essex have also put on hold plans to build a new pavilion at Chelmsford. The redevelopment of the ground, which began two years ago, has so far seen one block of residential flats constructed on land behind the Graham Gooch Cricket Centre, with two more due for construction. The club hope to finance the pavilion entirely through the sale of flats, rather than via a bank loan, but that will likely delay the project until at least the end of the 2016 season.

Zimbabwe allrounder Chamu Chibhabha admitted that the hosts were “hurting” after letting a dominant position slip to lose the opening T20 against Pakistan by 13 runs. Chibhabha’s own efforts with the ball had helped to keep Pakistan to 136 for 8 on a dry pitch, but Zimbabwe could manage only 123 for 9 in reply with left-arm spinner Imad Wasim taking 4 for 11.”There are so many ways you can look at it, but a lot of us got out to soft dismissals,” Chibhabha said. “We took the wrong options at the wrong time, and as a result we lost the game. I’m not going to sit here and make excuses, at the end of the day we were chasing 137 and, despite how well they bowled and how well their spinner bowled, it’s just a score that you need to get. We were supposed to get that score, with the kind of players we have.”Everyone is hurting. We want to improve quickly. We don’t want to be the same sort of players that always get close but don’t win matches. When we played the first match (ODI) against India, we lost by three or four runs. Today we lost by 13 runs. It’s not good enough. It’s time to start winning games, especially when you get opportunities like this.”Moving forward, it’s not every day that you get to chase 137 in a T20 game against Pakistan. It’s really disappointing from us as players, especially the batting unit. If you want to win games, we have to execute.”Chibhabha suggested that Zimbabwe had hoped they would be able to bat first, given the dryness of the pitch and the potential for spin, but it was Chibhabha’s seam bowling, rather than the spin attack, that caused most of the trouble for Pakistan. He removed Pakistan’s top three of Ahmed Shehzad, Mukhtar Ahmed and Sohaib Maqsood inside six overs.”In a way [the pitch suited me],” he said. “It was a bit slow, and it wasn’t easy to bat on. I just had to mix it up, change my lengths, and today it turned out well. The conditions suited me, but this also has a lot to do with hard work and practice paying off. I bring a bit of a balance into the team, I can bat and also bowl a few overs for the team. My bowling came right today. Hopefully I’ll have more days like this with the ball.”

The improvement in Milinda Siriwardana’s bowling may allow Sri Lanka to explore new combinations in their ODI side, vice-captain Lahiru Thirimanne said. It was largely Siriwardana’s batting that saw him elevated to the national team, but both Thirimanne and captain Angelo Mathews have now spoken of Siriwardana’s growing skill with the ball.Siriwardana has three wickets at an average of 26.33 in the five ODIs he has played so far. He was more impressive in the recent Test series against West Indies, in which he claimed seven wickets at 17.71. Tillakaratne Dilshan has provided a part-time spin option for Sri Lanka, but if both he and Siriwardana play, the hosts will have an offspinner and a left-arm spinner in their top seven.”I think the main thing we’ve been impressed with is Milinda’s bowling,” Thirimanne said. “We all knew he has got talent with the bat, but he has improved a lot in his bowling. It’s a big advantage when it comes to the one-day side. We haven’t had a spinning allrounder in the last few years.”In addition to Dilshan and Siriwardana, Sri Lanka also have frontline spinners Ajantha Mendis, Sachithra Senanayake and Jeffrey Vandersay in the squad. West Indies had lost 27 wickets to spin during the Test series, but Thirimanne expected stiffer resistance in the ODIs.”We are hopeful that our spinners and slow bowlers will give us the advantage,” he said. “But we can’t take the West Indies team lightly. They didn’t play the Tests well, but the one day team is quite strong overall. There are a lot of players who can change a match in that team.”Sri Lanka have three uncapped players in their squad, two of whom may play in the first ODI. Dinesh Chandimal’s one-match suspension may allow both Shehan Jayasuriya and Danushka Gunathilaka to enter the XI.”I think we’ll need to work out what our best combination is during this series,” Thirimanne said. “After the World Cup a lot of seniors left. We then played the Pakistan team, and if you take our batting line-up or our bowling line-up, we aren’t that settled. This series will help figure out a settled side.”Thirimanne himself had been dropped from the second Test in Colombo, after a long sequence of modest scores in that format. He will bat at No.3 on Sunday, however, having averaged 40.81 in ODIs this year.”I wasn’t successful in Tests. But if you look at my record, I’ve played very differently in Tests and one-dayers. I’ve done well in ODIs, but haven’t been able to replicate that in Tests. I don’t know why that is, but I’m expecting to go to the middle and score runs. There are times when scoring runs is difficult, but the best thing to do is enjoy the game.”

Saudi Arabia inningsPlaying at the National Stadium Karachi, Saudi Arabia won the toss and elected to bat. Fahad Hameed the opener and Basit Butt, batted confidently raising the score to 40 when Fahad was bowled by Indran for 12. Basit Butt, who was run out after playing an enterprising innings of 41 in 41 balls, including 6 thrilling boundaries, followed him. Mudassar Farooq was the other batsman who contributed a useful 26 with four hits to the boundary. In 20 overs Saudi Arabia was 94 for 5.Rabea Zubair who came in to bat played a tremendous innings punishing the bowlers all over the field till Vickneswaran bowled him. He played a splendid innings of 55 runs scored in 62 balls with the help of 5 boundaries. Bilal Qureshi who kept his company at the crease was run out after scoring an exciting 39 in 34 balls with 5 hits to the boundary.Saudi Arabia was all out for a handsome total of 213 in 43.3 overs, Junaid Hasham remaining not out with 20. S. Vickneswaranwho launched the bowling attack for Malaysia ended up with a haul of 4 for 23.Malaysia’s inningsFacing a competitive target of 214 runs, Malaysia lost the 1st wicket at 22 when the opener Sathiswaran was run out after scoring 11 runs. His partner Hairul Ameer ud Din (17) was the next to go at the total of 59. B. Indran, however, faced the Saudi bowling with some confidence scoring 23 runs in 47 balls before he was out. Vickneswaran played real adventurous innings by scoring 23 runs in 24 balls. In 24 overs Malaysia was 95 for the loss of 4 wickets.The batsmen who followed could not face the accurate and penetrating bowling of Bilal Qureshi and were out one after the other. Except for Abdul Aziz (10) and Maroof Mohammad (14), the others did not face him with confidence. Malaysia was 128 for 8 in 32 overs.With the game fallen in the hands of tail enders, it was a tough march to the target of 214. The 9th wicket also fell with the addition of only 1 run. It was now a matter of touch and go. Malaysia was finally all out for 132. With 4 for 27 Bilal Qureshi was responsible for routing Malaysia. Saudi Arabia defeated Malaysia by 82 runs.

Paul Pollard – highest score for Worcester Photo © CricInfo

Paul Pollard and a determined innings by David Leatherdale took SecondDivision front-runners Worcestershire to 232-7 in their championship matchagainst Essex at Chelmsford. They came together at 75-3 and shared afourth-wicket partnership of 117n in 49 overs.
Pollard followed his two half-centuries in the previous game by making 77,his best score for Worcestershire since coming to them from Nottinghamshiretwo years ago. He was at the crease for 255 balls in 315 minutes beforefalling to 18 year-old fast bowler Andrew McGarry in his first championshipmatch. Leatherdale was equally adamant in scoring 62 with five fours and asix. McGarry had a happy debut – he had been brought into the team onlybecause Ashley Cowan and Ricaldo Anderson were injured – in bowling 16 oversfor just 29 runs. His first seven overs cost 11 runs during the course ofwhich he had Philip Weston caught and in his third dismissed Ryan Driver,and concluded by having Pollard l.b.w.”It was a superb effort by the lad” said Geoff Arnold, the Essex bowlingcoach. “He put the ball in the right areas and got his reward. Obviously hehas got the ability to make a name for himself in the game, but it is up tohim to work hard and make the best of it.”