Kiwi Ronchi warms up with ton in drawn tour game

Opener Luke Ronchi scored a blistering century as New Zealanders were bowled out for 235 in their second innings against Mumbai in the drawn tour game in New Delhi yesterday. Ronchi, who opened the innings for the visitors, struck a 112-ball 107 to counter Mumbai’s spin bowling that dominated the third and final day’s play at Feroz Shah Kotla.
Ronchi’s opening partner Martin Guptill fell for nought as the Kiwi batting suffered from lack of partnerships on a pitch that seemed to be taking vicious turn. New Zealand innings folded in the fourth of the mandatory 15 overs in the last hour of play, but Mumbai did not take up the chase of 96 in nine overs.
The Aditya Tare-led Mumbai, who started on their overnight score of 431 for five, declared their first innings on 464 for eight with Siddesh Lad unbeaten on 100. Earlier the visiting batsmen also got some crucial batting practice on the opening day with skipper Kane Williamson and Tom Latham registering half-centuries.
The two sides played with 15 members each, with 11 allowed to bat and field in the only warm-up tie before the first of the three Tests starting September 22 in Kanpur.
Brief Scores: New Zealanders 324/7 dec and 235 all out in 66.4 overs (Luke Ronchi 107, BJ Watling 43; Parikshit Valsangkar 3-41) drew with Mumbai 464/8 dec (Kaustubh Pawar 100 retired out, Suryakumar Yadav 103, Siddhesh Lad 100 not out; Ish Sodhi 2-132)

BCCI opens tender bids
for IPL broadcast rights
India’s cricket board yesterday opened the tender process for allocating broadcast rights of the cash-rich Indian Premier League in the hope of securing billions of dollars. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the designated rights would be a 10-year period for television and five for digital platforms.
The board’s current deal with Sony Pictures Network India (SPNI) expires after the 2017 IPL edition. BCCI president Anurag Thakur called the bid ‘historic’ as he presented the layout of the tender bid’s terms and conditions.
“IPL is the most popular cricket league in the world...so it is very important for us to make it transparent when we announce the next tender process,” Thakur told reporters in New Delhi. World Sports Group bagged the IPL television rights in 2008 for a 10-year period for $918mn.
It signed a deal with Multi Screen Media Pvt Ltd (MSM) making Sony the official broadcaster. The contract was redone before the 2009 IPL, with Multi Screen Media working out a $1.63bn deal for nine years with the BCCI.
The IPL has emerged as one of the most popular Twenty20 leagues in the world with international stars participating in the tournament played between April and May.

Radford returns as Windies
batting coach for Pak series
The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has recruited the services of former Middlesex and Sussex batsman Toby Radford as batting coach for the series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
WICB CEO Michael Muirhead has said Radford has been hired just for the series against Pakistan, which involves three T20Is, three One-Dayers, and three Test matches from September 23. The T20 players, who have already arrived in Dubai, start their tour with a warm-up game against Emirates Cricket Board XI tomorrow.
Radford worked as assistant coach under former head coach Ottis Gibson when the West Indies first won the World T20 in 2012. He will work alongside Henderson Springer, who has been appointed caretaker coach after the controversial dismissal of Phil Simmons last Tuesday.