BITS AND PIECES
Players floored as Aussie game turns ugly
SYDNEY: A cricket match in country Australia has turned ugly with a batsman shoulder-barging a celebrating bowler, knocking him over and sparking an onfield clash. The incident, which has gone viral online, came just days after cricket’s law-makers, the Marylebone Cricket Club, announced new rules to penalise bad on-field behaviour. Footage from the incident last weekend shows a paceman for Yackandandah in Victoria state running towards the Eskdale batsman after bowling him out. The celebration wasn’t appreciated with the batsman dropping his shoulder into him, knocking him to the ground. That prompted a fielder to charge at the batsman and push him over with fellow fielders rushing in to break up the melee. “I understand people are passionate about their sport and where they come from — they look after their hometowns — but this is overstepping the mark, and it’s a big overstep,” chair of the regional Albury Wodonga cricket competition Michael Erdeljac told Win News television. The bowler was slapped with a four-week suspended sentence, while the batsman and fielder were banned until January next year. The scuffle came in the wake of the MCC last week announcing that umpires would soon be given powers to send players from the field — temporarily or permanently — for a range of on-field discretions including acts of violence. Excessive appealing, showing dissent and intentionally making physical contact are among those offences umpires will be able to penalise under a new Code of Laws which will be issued this year. At the umpires discretion, they will be empowered to issue warnings, award penalty runs and send players from the field for bad behaviour.—AFP
South Africa to target Williamson’s wicket in second Test
WELLINGTON:With New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor ruled out of the second Test, South Africa will focus their attack on the wicket of Kane Williamson, who held his side’s innings together in the first match, said visiting captain Faf du Plessis on Wednesday. The hosts enter Thursday’s Test, the second of a threematch series, at the Basin Reserve without Taylor and leading pace bowler Trent Boult, who were both injured in the rain-affected drawn first match in Dunedin. Boult would be a ‘huge loss’, du Plessis said, but New Zealand had depth in the pace bowling department with Tim Southee coming back after being omitted from the first Test. The key was to target New Zealand’s batting and particularly the inexperienced middle order, putting added focus on the wicket of Williamson after the skipper delivered a composed 130 at University Oval to stabilise his side. “I said before the series that if we can get rid of Williamson and Taylor there’s a lot of pressure on the rest of the batting lineup,” du Plessis told reporters. “We couldn’t get rid of Kane in the first Test and they were successful as a unit. There lies the secret.” —Reuters