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A round-up of the matches on day three of the Emerging Players Tournament

Cricinfo staff23-Jul-2009
ScorecardTwo days after belting a match-winning century, Steven Smith followed up with a three-wicket haul that again helped set up a comfortable victory for the Australian Institute of Sports. Guided by a half-century from Tom Cooper, the AIS had no trouble overhauling India Emerging Players’ score of 139 with nearly 15 overs remaining.Despite economical bowling from Amit Mishra, Dhawal Kulkarni and Sudeep Tyagi, India had little chance of restricting the AIS following their below-par batting effort. Cooper finished unbeaten on 72 and had support from the 17-year-old Mitchell Marsh, the brother of Shaun, who made 29.The triumph had been set up when the home team refused to let any hefty partnerships build during the Indians’ innings. Virat Kohli posted 35 before becoming one of two wickets that fell to the Kerala medium-pacer Nizar Niyas, who was playing for the AIS.The real damage came via the Australians’ spin, with Jon Holland picking up 2 for 39 from his ten overs. The legspinning allrounder Smith, who two days earlier had scored 125 against the New Zealanders, helped finish off the Indians in the 42nd over as he ended up with 3 for 13.
ScorecardSouth Africa Emerging Players continued to roll on with defeat of New Zealand, whose batting woes continued to let them down in pursuit of a small target. Tim Southee and Neil Wagner were impressive with their seamers as South Africa were dismissed for 203, but New Zealand’s top order was quickly in trouble at 3 for 26 and could not fight back.Wagner and Colin de Grandhomme hit at South Africa’s top order but Rilee Rossouw carried the innings with a composed 67 and Heino Kuhn contributing 44 from 51 balls. Wanger and Southee checked the lower order well and South Africa were dismissed in 48.2 overs.Then CJD de Villiers and Thandi Tshabalala, who took 4 for 41, confounded New Zealand as South Africa continued their unbeaten run in the tournament. BJ Watling went for 8 and de Villiers found the edge of de Grandhomme’s bat for 10, after which New Zealand slumped to 4 for 49. Anaru Kitchen (37) and Nick Beard (41 not out) found little support along the way as Tshabala struck with his handy and accurate spin. He cut off Kitchen before scalping lower-order wickets, including Southee who swung his bat for 17 off 12 balls.

With Valerien Ismael’s West Bromwich Albion side having bounced back from their first defeat of the Championship season with a 1-0 win in their last outing, the Frenchman will have undoubtedly been hoping for yet another positive result from the trip to Swansea City on Wednesday evening in order to keep the Baggies’ hopes of a top-two finish moving in the right direction.

However, despite taking an incredibly early lead through Karlan Grant’s first-minute strike, Albion failed to capitalise on their first-half dominance, with second-half goals from Joel Piroe and Jamie Paterson turning the game on its head, and seeing Swansea take all three points at the Liberty Stadium with a 2-1 win.

As is to be expected after such a result, a number of the West Brom players did not enjoy the finest game of their respective careers, with eight of the Baggies starting XI – including the likes of Darnell Furlong, Kyle Bartley and Semi Ajayi – receiving a SofaScore match rating of 6.9 or below.

However, rather than any of the initial lineup, it will undoubtedly be second-half substitute Jordan Hugill who most disappointed with his display against the Swans, as the centre-forward was once again abject upon his introduction to the game.

Completed four passes

Since his arrival at The Hawthorns on a season-long loan deal this summer, it is clear for all to see that the Norwich City striker has not been in the best form of his life in a West Brom shirt, having failed to score a single goal, provide an assist or create a big chance over his eight Championship appearances prior to the Swansea game.

These are statistics that did not change on Wednesday evening, with the 29-year-old failing to even have a shot – either on or off-target – over his 34 minutes on the pitch, let alone find the back of the net.

Furthermore, the £1.8m-rated man also had just nine touches of the ball, completed a mere four passes, failed with his one attempted dribble and lost 75% of his duels against Russell Martin’s side.

These returns saw the £36k-per-week forward receive a predictably disappointing SofaScore match rating of just 6.5, ranking him as the Baggies’ joint third-worst performer on the night.

As such, with the player who Daniel Farke dubbed a “leader” still yet to have any real impact on West Brom’s season, Ismael’s patience with the striker must surely be starting to run out – as the 29-year-old once again failed the 46-year-old against Swansea.

In other news: Forget Hugill: Ismael could save WBA millions by placing trust in 20 y/o “star boy”

Many Aston Villa fans were livid with Dean Smith’s decision to bring on Ashley Young as a midfielder against West Ham United on Sunday.

The Villans hosted the Hammers  on Sunday but was a bad day at the office for the Midlands outfit – they lost 4-1, with Ezri Konsa receiving a red card and Jacob Ramsey being forced off injured within the first 15 minutes. As it stands, Villa are 15th in the Premier League table and just three points above the relegation zone (Sky Sports).

By the time of Ramsey’s substitution, Villa were already 1-0 down, and it only got worse from there. Instead of bringing on a natural central midfielder to replace Ramsey, Smith instead decided to call upon 36-year-old wide man Young, and it was a decision which did not turn out as he probably would have hoped.

Many Villa supporters were vocal about their displeasure with Smith’s call, and they took to social media platform Twitter to share their thoughts. One called for the manager to be shown the door and replaced by Graham Potter, who is currently excelling at Brighton.

Let’s see what these fans had to say about Smith’s substitution

“Can’t wait for Smith to get sacked so we can continue our progress as a club with our new owners. He deserves it purely for subbing Ashley Young on then leaving him on the pitch after the red card and subbing Buendia. Get Potter in ASAP”

Credit: @VillaWatch1

“Not just the players suffering from confidence crisis. That Ashley Young sub shows how little Deano has himself. Terrible decision. Not that Young was bad. Just shows his mindset.”

Credit: @delconnolly

“Bringing Ashley Young into midfield when you have apparently the best young centre midfielder in the country on the bench… That’s panic.”

Credit: @avfc_stef

“Bringing Ashley Young on to play in centre midfield is such a bizarre decision especially when Villa had the option to bring on the younger and more energetic Aaron Ramsey or Carney to try and press West Ham more while also offering a threat going forward, poor from Smith..”

Credit: @ElDeano_96

“If these kids aren’t a better option than a 37 year old Ashley Young playing in midfield then why are we bothering with them. I thought that was a strange decision.”

Credit: @PutinAVFC

“It didn’t take an expert to to know we needed a real good CM, not only to improve us but to strengthen to cover injuries etc. Ashley Young playing CM? It wouldn’t even happen in Championship. We bought good individuals but we didn’t buy for the team … I’m worried”

Credit: @beechy0202

In other news, ,any Aston Villa fans slammed this man’s performance against West Ham

Mohammad Yousuf and a few other Pakistan players may be heading towards a tricky legal wrangle with the ICL after reports have emerged that they are planning to end their association with the unauthorised Twenty20 league and return to international cricket.Yousuf, Abdul Razzaq, Imran Farhat, Imran Nazir, Mohammad Sami and Naved-ul-Hasan are the players who might walk away from the ICL, the reported. The Pakistan establishment, led by Younis Khan, the captain, is keen that Yousuf, in particular, returns to the national team as early as next month for the one-day series against Australia starting on April 22 in Abu Dhabi, the report said.Yousuf had rejoined the ICL last year after developing serious differences with Shoaib Malik, the then Pakistan captain. But the situation appears to have changed after Younis, known to be close to Yousuf, became Pakistan captain this year. The quoted sources as saying that “the breakthrough was achieved following a series of meetings between Yousuf and Younis”.When contacted by Cricinfo, ICL officials said they have had no contact with Yousuf in this regard but added their contract with the Pakistan batsman enables him to play for the national team. The problem, of course, arises if Yousuf and the other players insist on cutting all ties with ICL, which is what the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has insisted on if they are to be considered again for the national team. In such a situation, the ICL might take the legal route, officials suggested, particularly because Lahore Badshahs, the ICL team for which these cricketers play, is one of the main attractions of the league.Another reason why the Pakistan players are said to be considering such a move is that the ICL has suspended its March-April tournament and is looking at restarting their international programme only in October. The ICL took this step in February due to the deepening economic recession and the Pakistan government’s refusal to let any player from that country play in India following the Mumbai terror attacks.The players fear that the current freeze in political ties between India and Pakistan would prevent them from playing in India in the near future.The report also claimed that if the Pakistan players part ways with the ICL, they could be immediately included in the national team for the one-day series against Australia – the squad is expected to be named early in April.Yousuf, in particular, has had a troubled relationship with the ICL after initially signing a three-year-contract with the league and then trying to pull out in favour of the IPL. However, he was not picked up by any IPL team and returned to the ICL on a fresh contract after both sides agreed to call off a legal case that had been lodged on the issue. “It’s a personal call that he has to take now,” an ICL official said.Players associated with the ICL have been barred from all official cricket in most countries, especially in India where the BCCI has adopted a hard-line stance against the private venture, and the league’s request for recognition is still pending with the ICC.

Aston Villa crashed out of the Carabao Cup after a penalty shootout defeat to Chelsea on Wednesday evening.

And a number of Villa supporters hit out at Anwar El Ghazi on social media during the match for his display at Stamford Bridge.

The 26-year-old, who impressed in the previous round against Barrow, returned to the side for his fifth start of the campaign.

Villa managed to take the tie to penalties after youngster Cameron Archer cancelled out Timo Werner’s opener in the second half.

El Ghazi netted Villa’s first penalty, with Ashley Young and Marvelous Nakamba missing, but struggled in normal time, losing possession on 13 occasions. [Sofa Score]

The Dutchman also completed just 62% of his passes in London and failed to make a successful cross or long ball. [Sofa Score]

Villa fans react

His poor display resulted in a number of Villa fans taking to social media to talk about the winger, with one labelling him ‘a mess’.

“El Ghazi is clearly the worst player at our football club, the man lives off the penalty spot, such a wimp”

Credit: @matty__jeff

“El ghazi passenger, shock”

Credit: @tom_mills06

“El Ghazi a mess, Buendia giving the ball away too much, Sanson injured again, Traoré ouchy…need to tighten it up at halftime.”

Credit: @ConnorMcBride

“El Ghazi has been terrible”

Credit: @kconners10

“No bigger bottle job in world football than el ghazi when it comes to putting a foot in, Buendia clearly not impressed with him either”

Credit: @AmbitiousVillan

“If someone wanted him I’d happily let him go, just nowhere near consistent enough, seems to have an odd attitude, that’s the impression you get anyway”

Credit: @NeilPugh5

In other news: ‘Magical’, ‘Love to see it’ – Lots of Villa fans react as Sky Sports share ‘excellent news’.

Leeds United could sign an ideal Kalvin Phillips alternative in Spurs’ Harry Winks amid David Norris’ recent transfer claim.

What’s the story?

The Athletic’s Phil Hay had recently revealed that Marcelo Bielsa’s side rejected the opportunity to bring the England international to Elland Road on loan this season, but Norris believes that the midfielder would have been a success with the Whites.

The former Leeds midfield exclusively told Football FanCast: “I think so yeah, he’s a quality player and we’ve said before that Leeds need a little bit more back-up in that area and with what he’s done at Spurs I would have thought that would have been a good fit, a good move.”

Kalvin Phillips alternative

The £18m-rated ace has previously drawn rave reviews from his former Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino about his style of play, with the Argentine even comparing him to a couple of Spanish icons.

The current Paris Saint-Germain coach said: “Harry has the profile of the perfect midfield player. His characteristics are perfect. When we talk about midfielders like Xavi and (Andres) Iniesta, he’s like this type of player. He has this capacity but he needs to take my words in a very positive way — he needs a lot of work.”

While that Xavi comparison certainly seems far-fetched given how the Spurs midfielder’s career has stalled, Winks still hasn’t lost his calmness in possession and has averaged a superb career passing accuracy of 89.4% – better than any Leeds player who featured for more than 90 minutes last season aside from the rarely-used Jamie Shackleton.

Former Leeds goalkeeper Paul Robinson has previously suggested that Winks could be a superb alternative to Phillips.

He said: “One player I would love to see at Leeds in the Kalvin Phillips role is Harry Winks. He’s not been given his opportunity at Spurs, I think he is a fantastic player. Not only can he do the Phillips role, he can play in midfield as well,

“Someone with Winks’ quality would really add something to that Leeds side. He is able to play more advanced but can do the Phillips role when he’s not available. I would love to see Winks at Elland Road next season.”

Dean Windass has also previously thrown his weight behind a potential Leeds move for Winks, saying that Bielsa’s coaching ability could be exactly what Winks needs.

Speaking exclusively to Football FanCast, he said: “I think if Bielsa does stay and brings in his own players, they will be a top four or top six side, and Harry Winks could get into any of them teams. He’s Bielsa’s sort of player.”

If there’s an opportunity for the Whites go back in for him in January, then they should certainly do so.

Meanwhile, this Leeds ace has seen his market value decrease dramatically…

Bruno Lage’s time as the manager of Wolves has been a perplexing state of affairs so far.

The Portuguese hasn’t done a lot wrong but the fact of the matter is, the Old Gold have only won one of their opening five league matches.

On the chalkboard

Wolves have played some vibrant attacking football this term without gaining many rewards for their efforts.

Raul Jimenez is yet to find the net while Adama Traore and Trincao are also struggling with their end product.

Lage’s men did witness an upturn in form in the Carabao Cup, however, demolishing Nottingham Forest 4-0.

They have a sterner test in round three against Tottenham where it’s likely the manager will make changes.

One area he should look at making an alteration is at left-wing back.

Marcal has played well this term but has let the manager down in some key moments. He let Mason Greenwood get by him too easily when Manchester United beat Wolves and gave away a strange penalty against Brentford.

The defender grappled Ivan Toney to the floor and the referee had to point to the spot.

The solution

If Marcal does miss out on Wednesday evening then Lage must turn to the vibrant young face of Rayan Ait-Nouri.

The Frenchman joined Wolves on loan last season and then made his move permanent over the summer.

However, he’s struggled for game time and has only started once this term – in round two of the EFL Cup.

That said, Ait-Nouri could provide his team with plenty this week, especially in the final third.

The 20-year-old’s performances were inconsistent last season but at his best, he’s an incredible weapon that Wolves have in their armoury.

That theory is back up by his former manager Stephane Moulin.

He said: “He [Ait-Nouri] also made a lot of progress athletically. I also like his way of evolving, he is a modern player, able to eliminate his opponent and make assists. He creates play and danger. Now, he takes on another dimension because he begins to defend well collectively while being interesting individually.”

With that in mind, the £16.2m-rated defender could be game-changing when the Molineux outfit take on Spurs this evening.

After all, he completed a whopping six dribbles against Forest last month and also won nine of his 13 defensive battles.

If he can show similar form against Tottenham this week, Wolves supporters could be in for a treat.

AND in other news, Lage must unleash “ridiculous” £46k-p/w Wolves beast this week, he’s a game-changer…

Crystal Palace are reportedly pushing to bring in Arsenal forward Eddie Nketiah as Patrick Vieira eyes striking reinforcements, according to Sky Sports.

Playing his part last term, the 22-year-old managed to notch seven goal contributions in 29 appearances for the Gunners with six goals and one assist [Transfermarkt].

In the last moments of the transfer window, he could now be set to swap north London for SE25 as the Eagles eye further attacking depth.

Crystal Palace are keen on the striker and have been embroiled in discussions over a fee, although no such breakthrough has come to light as of yet due to disparities in the clubs’ respective valuations of Nketiah [Sky Sports]. An unnamed German club are also mooted to be in the hunt for his services.

In light of this news, plenty of Crystal Palace diehards took to Twitter to discuss the links with the Arsenal marksman.

Crystal Palace fans react

Replying to multiple outlets on Twitter, here is what some Palace fans had to say about the “interesting” possibility of the Eagles signing Nketiah:

“Please get it done”

Credit: @joelcpfc_

“If I had to bet on which striker we’d end up with, I think it would be him…”

Credit: @e_crystalpalace

“I have a feeling a double swoop for him (buy) and Reiss Nelson (loan)”

Credit: @creasep

“Really impressed with him in Arsenal’s pre-season, he’s improving a lot and I think he could do really well given game time”

Credit: @CpfcDan_

“he’s suit the system better too, Benteke can be a super sub lol”

Credit: @cpfcbeast

“Interesting”

Credit: @JacobCPFC_

In other news, Crystal Palace have been linked with another striker. Find out more here.

Chris Waugh says Newcastle United’s summer business may not be done despite a report to the contrary. 

The lowdown

The Telegraph’s Luke Edwards tweeted earlier on Tuesday that the club had briefed him that no more senior signings would arrive.

Newcastle have only made one addition so far this summer, bringing in Joe Willock from Arsenal for a fee in excess of £20million.

And given that Willock spent the latter half of the 2020/21 campaign on loan at St James’ Park anyway, it could be argued that the Magpies have yet to truly strengthen.

The latest

Speaking on The Athletic’s Live Transfer Deadline Day stream at lunchtime, club correspondent Waugh refused to rule out further Newcastle incomings.

He stressed that ‘at the moment it isn’t looking like’ new faces will arrive but suggested that ‘the next 90 minutes could be crucial’.

He ‘still thinks there’s a chance’ that Hamza Choudhury, Steve Bruce’s primary defensive midfield target, will arrive on loan from Leicester City before the deadline. That deal is described as being ‘in the balance’.

The verdict

There’ll be some satisfaction on Tyneside if they can find the funds for this Choudhury deal, but it’s also worth noting that Bruce will ‘almost certainly’ (in Waugh’s words) fail to land both a midfielder and a centre-back.

Newcastle, then, will still be looking light, and once again only look to have the tools to compete for a lower mid-table finish.

Given that just mere months ago there was still hope of a takeover going through this summer, it’s fair to say this window has been a disaster for the Toon Army, despite the ray of hope Waugh has shared.

In other news, this teenager is poised to join the club.

David Norris reckons that Romelu Lukaku has been the signing of the transfer window.

Chelsea won the Champions League just four months after appointment Thomas Tuchel but were in desperate need of signing a striker following Timo Werner’s underwhelming first campaign in English football.

Whilst Werner contributed to 27 goals across all competitions, he scored just six times in the Premier League, which was just one more than defender Kurt Zouma and one fewer than Jorginho.

With that in mind, once Lukaku became available, Chelsea wasted little time in securing his return to Stamford Bridge in a £97.5m deal from Inter Milan earlier this month.

Lukaku, who Norris thinks could make the Blues serious title contenders, took less than 15 minutes to start repaying that fee by opening the scoring in a man of the match performance against Arsenal last weekend – his first ever goal for the club.

When asked who he believes is the best signing of the window, Norris exclusively told The Transfer Tavern:

“Lukaku for me. He has turned Chelsea from knocking on the door to being contenders now. Manchester City are really strong, but Lukaku has made a huge difference.

“That strength, power, he’s a finisher. He’s put them back in the race. Up until now, he’s the one that I’m thinking ‘that’s good business from them’.”