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Former South Africa batsman Neil McKenzie has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. McKenzie had already retired from first-class cricket in March, but continued playing limited-overs cricket for his franchise Lions.The franchise has agreed to release McKenzie from his contract with immediate effect. The batsman is currently a part of the Virgo Super Kings franchise in the Masters Champions League, a tournament for retired players, and played his first match in the tournament on January 29.McKenzie scored 8571 runs at an average of 37.92 in his 298 List A matches and 3357 runs in his 155 domestic T20s. The Lions have agreed to release McKenzie from his contract with immediate effect.”Cricket has given me a career, passion and terrific memories. Few players can say that they have been able to play at a professional level for this long and I am grateful for the opportunities, friendship and memories that I can take away from my playing career. The Bullring will always remain my home away from home and I hope to still be involved in the game at some level,” McKenzie told .

ScorecardWest Zone made easy work of a target of 226 against East Zone in Hyderabad, finishing the match within 40 overs to secure the bonus point. Wasim Jaffer began the chase with an aggressive knock, Ajinkya Rahane kept East at bay during the middle overs, before Abhishek Nayar sealed the deal with a 27-ball 49.East, after opting to bat, started steadily with the openers Sourav Ganguly and Arindam Das adding 63 in 14 overs. Ganguly scored five fours in his 30 before falling to a tame pull and the rest of the top order failed to carry on after making starts. At 124 for 4, East were in need of a revival and it was Saurabh Tiwary who led the way with his second consecutive half-century, adding 65 for the fifth wicket with Laxmi Ratan Shukla. Tiwary, known for his aggressive batting, showed a lot of urgency in his 65, hitting four fours and two sixes.East lost their way in the slog overs after Venugopal Rao struck twice to send back Shukla for 25 and then Wriddhiman Saha for 3 with the score reading 198 for 6. There was no late-innings surge from the lower order to boost the total as East settled for a middle-of-the-road target.Jaffer began the chase in earnest, dealing almost entirely in boundaries. His 43-ball 48 contained ten fours and looked set for more before the seamer Shib Paul knocked back his middle stump. Parthiv Patel and Rahane added 57 for the third wicket to help West coast towards the target. When Rahane fell for 60, in the 31st over, West were well ahead of the required rate and an unbeaten stand of 69 for the fifth wicket between Nayar and Venugopal Rao finished things off in a hurry. Nayar smashed seven fours and a six in his knock.East face Central Zone at the same venue on Sunday while West head to Visakhapatnam to face North Zone in three day’s time.

Ishank Jaggi’s unbeaten 62 helped Jharkhand round off a relatively straightforward chase against Haryana by nine wickets after Rahul Shukla, Varun Aaron and Shahbaz Nadeem chipped in with vital contributions with the ball.Haryana’s 133 was achieved largely on the back of Rahul Dagar’s 38, even as five other batsmen who got into double figures couldn’t convert their starts. Aaron, the captain, dismissed the openers, with Shukla and Nadeem scything through the middle and lower order as Haryana’s innings ended in 33 overs. Harshal Patel picked up the wicket of Anand Singh, but Jaggi and Kumar Deobrat (38 not out) ensured MS Dhoni wasn’t required to bat as Jharkhand registered their third win in four matches.Kerala bounced back from their loss to Jharkhand on Sunday by consigning Jammu & Kashmir to their third successive loss. The stars for Kerala were Fabid Ahmed, the offspinner, who picked up three wickets to bundle out J&K for 130 before Nikhilesh Surendran, the opener, hit 12 fours and a six in his unbeaten 85 to see Kerala home in 29.5 overs. Kerala’s second win in four matches kept their knockout hopes alive.Manish Pandey’s unbeaten 94 helped Karnataka beat Gujarat by 15 runs (VJD method) at Alur. Chasing 234, Gujarat, courtesy Priyank Panchal’s 52 and Chirag Gandhi’s 43, were 160 for 5 in 40 overs when bad light stopped play. Set a revised target of 205 in 44 overs, Gujarat now needed 45 in 24 balls. They only managed 29, losing three more wickets to finish on 189 for 8.Sent in to bat, Karnataka lost KL Rahul and Sadiq Kirmani cheaply, before Mayank Agarwal (58 off 77) and Pandey added 72 for the third wicket. None of the lower middle-order contributed substantially, barring a 24 from Stuart Binny, and it was left to Pandey to manoeuvre Karnataka to a decent total. He managed this, remaining unbeaten on 94 off 123 balls (6×4, 1×6), to steer Karnataka to 233 for 8.

A blistering knock by Virender Shewag rescued North Zone from anembarrassing position as their battle for the first innings lead againstWest Zone spilled over into the final day at the PCA Stadium in Mohali. Thehosts ended the penultimate day of this Duleep Trophy clash on 217/5, still67 short of West’s 284. For once, the fog did not interfere markedly withthe proceedings, with 85.4 overs being flung down.North seamers Ashish Nehra and Surendra Singh struck thrice in quicksuccession in the morning after they resumed at 174/5. Nehra bowled skipperNayan Mongia for 10 in the day’s second over. The new ball which was takenafter 81 overs hustled out both Niraj Patel and Zaheer Khan to leave Westin a pickle at 211/8. Sairaj Bahutule led a tailend rally that fetched 73runs for the last two wickets, including a 47 run ninth wicket associationwith Iqbal Siddiqui in just 8.2 overs. Bahutule was last out, trapped legbefore by the third seamer Gagandeep Singh for 42. Both Nehra and SurendraSingh ended with four wickets apiece.Zaheer Khan made the breakthrough in the 11th over of North’s reply,trapping skipper Vikram Rathour leg before. From 63/1, North lost threewickets in less than six overs as the West seam attack mercilessly probedtheir weaknesses. After hitting three boundaries in a forty minute longvisit to the middle, Yuvraj Singh was caught behind by Mongia off Siddiqui.Last week’s double centurion Dinesh Mongia barely troubled the scorers ashe had his stumps rattled in Siddiqui’s next over and when Santosh Saxenamarched back Reetinder Sodhi into the dressing room for a five ball duck,North were 75/4.Opener Akash Chopra had survived the onslaught, but shortly after postinghis half century he became Siddiqui’s third victim, trapped leg before for54 (121 balls, 9 fours). Shewag and wicket keeper Pankaj Dharmani proceededto frustrate West with an unbroken 105 run stand in 22.4 overs. Havingstruck 110 balls and struck 15 boundaries, Shewag ended the day twelve runsshort of his second successive ton in the competition, while Dharmani hadnotched up 28. The three West speedsters had bowled 54 of the 60 overs withSiddiqui returning figures of 3/79.

ScorecardWilliam Porterfield played a captain’s innings to lead Ireland to a notable victory against Warwickshire. He made a well-paced 69 off 110 balls as they reached the target of 212 with 20 balls to spare.The result adds to Warwickshire’s problems, the team have struggled badly in this year’s Friends Provident trophy and this defeat won’t help to appease the unhappy members who made their feelings known following last week’s loss to Northamptonshire.Instead of the trip to Stormont being a chance to get back to winning ways Warwickshire came unstuck as the top order collapsed to 93 for 5. Tony Frost’s 56 and an unbeaten 47 from Michael Powell hauled them over 200, but the home side paced their chase expertly.Reinhardt Strydom’s 30-ball 35 provided the ideal start, allowing Porterfield to anchor the innings. Warwickshire chipped away and when Gary Wilson fell to Neil Carter the match was still in the balance at 132 for 4. But Andrew White and Kevin O’Brien offered important support to Porterfield, who fell 16 runs short of victory. O’Brien and Kyle McCallan finished the job without any further alarms and Warwickshire will fly back home with their tails between their legs.

ScorecardA destructive early burst from Yasir Aarfat consigned Essex to a crushing 106-run defeat at Chelmsford. He ripped out the top order to leave the home side floundering and his scalps included Ravi Bopara for a first-ball duck.Essex sank to 80 for 8 as Robbie Joseph and Simon Cook played their part and the innings came to end in the 26th over.Kent’s 230 was built around a series of useful performances, lead by Justin Kemp’s 86-ball 51 and 41 from captain Robert Key. Bopara and Graham Napier shared six wickets, but the total proved more than enough.

Scorecard

The undefeated reign of the Lahore Badshahs came under threat on more than one occasion in the battle between the two new Indian Cricket League outfits in Hyderabad. It was the last match of the league stage for both teams, ironically at different ends of the spectrum; both had got off to winning starts in their first game of the tournament, but while the Badshahs had conquered all other teams on their way, the Ahmedabad Rockets had fizzled out after a successful launch.The Badshahs, who had rested a few key players in their previous game, were back to full strength for the final match ahead of their semi-final clash against the Kolkata Tigers on April 2. Inzamam-ul-Haq decided to bat at the toss, and though Imran Farhat fell early, Imran Nazir and Taufeeq Umar set up a solid foundation with a 60-run stand.Sumit Kalia then thrust the Rockets into ascendancy with three wickets in the tenth over – removing Umar, Nazir and Humayun Farhat for a first-ball duck – to leave the Badshahs in peril at 62 for 4. Kalia wasn’t done though and got the emperor, Inzamam, in his next over; his spell at close read 4-0-20-4. Hasan Raza led a revival with his 34-ball 43, but four wickets in seven balls meant the Badshahs were headed for a score around 140.However, Heath Streak’s sky-high confidence of having dismissed Azhar Mahmood and Mohammad Sami off the first two balls of the 20th over were quickly grounded when Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, who’s been given the green signal to play for Yorkshire, smacked two sixes and a four to push his team’s score to 151.The Badshahs bowlers began chipping away early, and by the seventh over, the Rockets were reduced to 43 for 4. Sridharan Sriram and Anshu Jain then strung together a 48-run stand. Mushtaq Ahmed got Sriram to tickle one to the wicketkeeper Humayan, and the Rockets needed a further 63 from 42 with five wickets remaining.Jain didn’t give up and Streak gave him company at the other end, and the equation came down to 22 off 12. Naved-ul-Hasan was entrusted the ball for the penultimate over, and there was no reciprocation of favours towards Streak, as only four runs were conceded, Streak having managed only two off four deliveries. Mahmood’s task of bowling the final over was made easier, and he didn’t make a mess of it as the Badshahs extended their winning streak to seven, romping home in a 11-run win, their closest match so far in the tournament.

There is still a month to go till the World Twenty20, but no side other than India can claim to know their first XI so much in advance. In the team that beat Sri Lanka 2-1, thus retaining its No. 1 ranking in T20Is, there will only be one change made – Virat Kohli replacing Ajinkya Rahane – barring an extraordinary pitch or an opposition full of left-hand batsmen, but MS Dhoni also knows the fickle nature of the T20 format. He knows his side will be difficult to beat, but he also knows his side can be beaten. Two of the areas that can derail India’s campaign are a big hitter in the opposition and India’s somewhat suspect lower middle order, which can struggle to play the big shots from ball one.”We are always a top contender when it comes to shorter formats,” Dhoni said after India beat Sri Lanka by nine wickets in Visakhapatnam. “Also with the World Cup to be held in India we know the spinners will come into action. It gives us the added benefit. Also the exposure of having played the IPL over here. Out of the eight seasons we have played seven seasons in India. We have got a lot of players, especially ones who are the part of the team, who have got very good experience of playing in India.”All of that will definitely count, but what the shortest format really does is, it narrows down the difference between the two teams. What you have to do is keep the [opposition’s] big hitters out of the game. Also the knockout games, you have to be at your best. Once the knockout stage starts it is more like lottery cricket. To be consistent is something that is very important.”Asked if any aspect of his side was untested, Dhoni spoke of the lower middle order. “Everybody has not got a chance to bat, but we will keep facing this problem,” Dhoni said. “Because also our batting line-up is quite deep. We will try to give batting to a few of the players who haven’t batted so far. But usually people who are batting close to 6, 7 and 8, will have to develop more of going in and straightaway play the big shot. That’s something that will certainly be very important for us. It is not about how many runs you score at that point of time. You may be facing just three or four or five deliveries. If you can get 10 or 12 runs, that will be of real benefit.”But overall, other than that everybody has got an opportunity to bowl, which is a good thing. I think, in the last three games, everybody has gone for runs a bit. If it is the spinners or the fast bowlers, to an extent. They were under pressure at some point of time, which is a good thing for them. Overall we are looking good, but a bit more batting to the middle order will help.”One of the final ticks is R Ashwin’s performance with the new ball after Dhoni had tended to bowl the six Powerplay overs with his quicks in Australia. Ashwin’s success – he has claimed eight wickets in the two matches that he has taken the new ball against Sri Lanka – takes away that predictability from India’s attack. “Ashwin is the pick of the bowlers when it comes to giving him the new ball, [with seven men] in the circle. He still flights the ball, asks the batsmen to step out and play the big shot. That is crucial in this format. At times you tend to bowl too flat, but he is somebody who mixes it up really well.”He gives us that liberty of using the fast bowlers in the middle overs, especially when you are playing with just two fast bowlers. Gives us the liberty of mixing up the bowlers at different levels. But it’s something we will keep doing throughout the coming games. We will see the conditions and the opposition at the same time, how many left-handers they have, and how many right-handers they have. Also what gives me that option is having Suresh Raina in the mix. You have literally two proper offspinners, especially when it is turning, and you have two left-arm spinners in [Ravindra] Jadeja and Yuvraj Singh in the XI so even if one of them has to bowl upfront it doesn’t really matter because the others can do the job.”

Brendon McCullum knows New Zealand’s Test tour of England is more important, but he admits it will be difficult to depart the Indian Premier League after his final game on Tuesday. McCullum was an early star of the experimental tournament, smashing 158 in the opening contest, and is aware the atmosphere of the warm-ups in England will be significantly less than at the throbbing stadiums in India.”It’s going to be hard to leave this,” McCullum told the Dominion Post. “This is where it is all happening, but having said that I understand that there is a tour to England about to begin which is really important.”Five New Zealand players were given permission to arrive late and while the tourists start the opening game against MCC on Sunday, McCullum will be preparing for his final fixture for Kolkata on Tuesday. The first-class affairs with Essex and England Lions will be the only chances for the quintet to switch from Twenty20 to Test mode and adjust to the conditions.”The couple of warm-up games before the Test are going to seem incredibly low key when compared to what is going on here,” McCullum said. “The hype here is huge. The Kolkata fans are regarded as some of the more passionate and so we’ve not ventured outside the hotel very often.”McCullum said the opening week of the IPL had been “pretty special” and he compared it to a golfer making the cut at the US Masters. “The fanfare is quite amazing,” he said. “As a young kid I always aspired to play in front of big crowds, it was always something I wanted to do, but you don’t really imagine things like this.”After being bought for US$700,000 at the auction, McCullum felt the pressure before the opening game and classed his century as a career highlight. “At the World Cup you had to wait about two months until the semi-finals came around, but here it was only about two minutes,” he said. “I think it was because of the occasion … and probably most of all the expectation because of the value placed on me.”

South African opening batsman Herschelle Gibbs was arrested in the early hours of Friday morning for drink-driving in Cape Town.A police spokesman said that a 34-year-old man had been arrested after failing a breathalyser, adding “we are not at liberty to implicate people by name until they have appeared in a court of law.”However, Peter Whelan, Gibbs’ lawyer, admitted that his client was involved. “He was pulled over and breathalysed, but the police have yet to tell me what charge he was arrested on,” he said, adding that Gibbs was released on bail of R500 (US$63) on Friday morning. He is due to appear in court on June 27.Several indiscretions over the years have sullied Gibbs’ precocious talent as one of the most attacking batsmen of his generation. He came close to being sent home from the South African Under-19 team’s tour to the West Indies in 1992 after staying out all night, and he was suspended and fined for agreeing – and then forgetting – to under-perform in a one-day international against India in Nagpur in 2000.Gibbs, who was left out of the South Africa squad for the tour of India, recently signed up to play for Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League in a deal worth US$575,000.

Gloucestershire and Nottinghamshire were frustrated by the rain on the second day of their promotion tussle at Bristol.Only 16.4 overs were possible, during which time Gloucestershire moved from 13-0 to 73-1 in reply to Nottinghamshire’s 216.A draw is unlikely to be any good to either side in their bid to go up, and an unsettled weather forecast for the final two days of the game could force the captains to set up a contrived finish.No play was possible in the morning session. An attempt was made at 12 noon, only for the players to come off for bad light just as the first ball was to be bowled.The action finally started at 1.20pm and Nottinghamshire enjoyed success in the third over of the day.Dominic Hewson pushed forward at a David Lucas delivery and was caught by Guy Welton at short leg for three.That left the home county on 13-1 in the eighth over, but the next 13 overs produced 60 runs as Kim Barnett and Matt Windows cut loose.Barnett was the main aggressor with an unbeaten 41 from 65 deliveries, with six fours cracked through the off-side.All of them were taken off pace bowler Andy Harris, who was punished for offering too much width to his former Derbyshire colleague.Windows had a couple of boundaries, one off Lucas and one off Harris, in his unbeaten 18, which was good enough to take him past 1,000 first-class runs in a season for the second time.Windows has now scored 1,004 runs this campaign, with 14 of those scored for the First Class Counties XI against New Zealand A.