Scorecard

Brad Haddin’s highest one-day score was not enough for New South Wales to steal a win after Daniel Marsh’s 106 set up Tasmania’s 50-run victory. Marsh had plenty of batting support but Haddin’s 138 not out was a solo effort as he tried to rein in a ballooning required run-rate after the top order struggled in chasing 326.Haddin played some fiercely powerful straight drives in his 116-ball innings and cleared the ropes twice but Nathan Wegman’s 4 for 45 and a tight opening spell from Brett Geeves (2 for 27) made the task too difficult. Wegman, the fast bowler who was making his debut aged 30, removed Grant Lambert for 38 and Simon Katich (0) in consecutive balls to have the Blues at 4 for 72.None of Haddin’s team-mates seemed to warm up in the freezing Hobart conditions – the temperature fell as low as nine degrees – and the bowlers also had trouble restricting Tasmania. Marsh justified his decision to bat by scoring his first limited-overs century since 2004-05 and he made Peter Forrest pay for dropping him at square leg on 3.Marsh had good support from Travis Birt, who opened with 79, and George Bailey, who was typically innovative in striking 65 from 47 balls to help the Tigers reach 5 for 325. Nathan Hauritz finished with 1 for 35 from his ten overs, remarkable figures given that all the Blues fast bowlers went for at least six an over.Last year the Tigers were the team to beat in the Pura Cup but struggled in the one-day competition; this season they have shot to the top of the FR Cup table with three wins and three bonus points. The Blues are yet to win a match with two losses and a no-result.

Ray Price, the Zimbabwe left-arm spinner who was part of Heath Streak’s rebel strikers in 2004, is to return to international cricket after being handed a call-up for Zimbabwe’s series against the West Indies later this month.Price returned from England two weeks ago after rejecting a new contract with Worcestershire where he spent four seasons. In 2004, he was one of 15 players who went on strike to oppose Zimbabwe Cricket’s (ZC) regime. But despite his apparent wish to one day play for England – he is three years into a four-year qualifying period – Price is rejoining the country of his birth.He has taken 69 wickets in 18 Tests at 35.86, but he was most productive in the 2003-04 season, taking 33 wickets at 22.42 from five Tests.He is understood to have been given a contract by ZC after consulting Streak, Trevor Gripper and other former team-mates.

After picking up four wickets to help England’s Performance Programme (EPP) side beat an MRF XI yesterday, Graham Onions, the Durham fast bowler, is confident he can push for a spot in the senior Test side in the next 12 months.Onions, who only played 11 Championship games last summer, was the pick of the attack on Friday as he claimed 4 for 41 in EPP’s 111-run win and is convinced his time spent with the development squad in India can help him earn higher honours.”I actually feel that I’m closer than I’ve ever been and although it sounds daft, I also thought I was very close last year, when I went to Bangladesh with England A and I had a very good winter,” Onions told the . “I came into the English season and picked up some good wickets and got 8 for 101 against Warwickshire, which obviously stood me in good stead.”But then unfortunately I got a call from the selectors saying they were going to go with Ryan Sidebottom, which was a bit of a blow. In the end though, you think well at least I’m getting a call. Now, from doing a lot of hard work I like to think I’ve improved and that I’m a step ahead from where I was last year.”Onions first caught the selectors’ eyes in 2006, earning himself a call-up to England’s provisional 30-man squad for the Champions Trophy. He was later called up as a replacement to Darren Gough in September 2006 for the final three one-dayers against Pakistan, but has yet to make his debut.

Ponting’s pitch glitch
Australia didn’t make batting look too difficult at the MCG, even thoughthe pitch was uncharacteristically slow. But India’s struggles to post adecent score – they made 196 and 161 – gave a strong hint that it wastough going. Ricky Ponting explained just how awkward it was to get theball away. “That’s probably the hardest wicket to score on that I’ve everplayed a Test match on in Australia,” Ponting said. That’s a big call,considering Ponting has played 65 Tests at home. But it’s perhaps not ahuge surprise – after all, Ponting was out for 4 and 3.A grand total
Cricket is a statistical game but even this one might have slipped underthe radar of some enthusiasts. When VVS Laxman turned Mitchell Johnson fora single to midwicket to take India’s score to 33 it was the 100,000th runscored in Tests at the MCG. Anyone who needed to reach for the calculatorto work out the average aggregate per Test might need a primary-schoolmaths refresher course. It was the ground’s 100th Test, making the averagemighty close to a nice even 1000 runs a game. And how many runs were madein this match? Pretty darn close to the average – 1051.Sealed in the field
India’s poor ground fielding was a talking point and the difference between the sides was never more obvious than when Harbhajan Singh was run out without facing a ball. Sourav Ganguly pushed the ball to cover where Michael Hussey pounced and hurled it back to the bowler Brad Hogg, who ricocheted the ball onto the stumps to have Harbhajan millimetres short after backing up too far. Ponting was a happy man. “Our fielding in both innings of this game was outstanding,” Ponting said. “We took nearly every chance that came our way and the run-out towards the end of today’s play really summed up one of the major differences between the two teams.” Anil Kumble defended his side’s catching but conceded their ground fielding was poor, although with so many over-35s in the team he didn’t think any extra zip would spontaneously appear.The no-ball curse
Thirty seven wickets fell in this game but there were three instances that the scorecard won’t tell you about. Mitchell Johnson and Zaheer Khan had been frustrated by wickets with no-balls and Brett Lee might have had a good appeal against Wasim Jaffer today. Jaffer fended at a short one that appeared to have caught his glove but Billy Bowden’s arm was outstretched by then.

Crisis follows crisis with unrelenting frequency in West Indies cricket and the latest, already formed, has become more pressing three days before the first Test against South Africa on Boxing Day.As their feeble batting crumbled to their second meagre total and three-day defeat in East London against South Africa’s second-string team on Friday, there remained doubt over whether captain Chris Gayle would regain fitness by then and be able to lead the team for the first time in a Test.Media manager Philip Spooner said on Friday that the decision would be delayed until the eve of the match after day-by-day assessments by the medical staff, physiotherapists Jacqui Mowat-King and recently arrived Australian, CJ Smith. Gayle, who tore his right hamstring muscle in the second ODI in Zimbabwe on December 2, has returned to batting practice in the nets and resumed catching, running and stretching exercises, Spooner said.But Gayle was realistic in his assessment of his injury. “I’ve been getting better and I’m really looking forward to playing in Port Elizabeth,” he added. “Physically I’m feeling strong again and mentally I’m there. I have been doing work in the nets and trying to get back in the groove again.”Gayle is not only captain, albeit in place of the injured Ramnaresh Sarwan, but even more significantly the only available batsman apart from the perennial Shivnarine Chanderpaul with more than 50 Tests (68) and an average better than 35 (38.28). His handy offspin would also be missed in an attack based around pace.He has thrived on his previous trips to South Africa, with two hundreds in three Tests and an average of 61, plus an unbeaten 152 in the final ODI, four years ago and 117 against the home team in the ICC World Twenty20 Championship last September.The seriousness of his absence at the top of the order was simply emphasised by the double failure of the two openers, Devon Smith and Daren Ganga, in the East London match, the only one prior to the three back-to-back Tests. The left-handed Smith was out for ten and five, making a grand total of 51 runs in eight innings in matches in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Ganga, who played the first of his 45 spasmodic Tests here nine years ago, fell for 10 and 0, his first innings on tour since he was not in the ODI squad in Zimbabwe. For both, such setbacks would be psychologically shattering. Both struggled in the last series in England last summer, and must be aware they have all but exhausted their chances.The only other opener in the team is Brenton Parchment, the one newcomer, whose highest score in his four knocks on tour have been 15, 25, 5 and 10.Ironically, injury also kept Gayle inactive during the 2003-04 tour. He pulled a calf muscle on the first day of the first Test in which he batted at No.9 with a runner and missed the second. On his return, he blasted a 78-ball hundred (eventually 116) in the third Test, 145 in the next match against Easterns, 77 and 107 in the fourth and final Test and 152 not out in the final ODI.

Scorecard

A whirlwind century from Yusuf Pathan took West Zone to a strong 349 for 7 at stumps on the first day against Central Zone in Rajkot. Opting to bat first, West were off to a confident start as the Mumbai pair of Ajinkya Rahane (50) and Sahil Kukreja (72) forged a 124-run partnership. Central then fought their way back into the match as Sanjib Sanyal removed both of them before Sanjay Bangar dismissed captain Parthiv Patel. Pathan walked in at the fall of the fourth wicket on 174 and blitzed a 66-ball 107 to give West the upper hand. He carted 13 boundaries and five sixes during his 88-minute stay and made all his runs in a 136-run stand with Chetheswar Pujara, who made a sedate 44. For Central, Bangar and Sanyal finished with three wickets each, but Sanyal was expensive conceding five runs an over.
Scorecard
Fifteen wickets tumbled on a dramatic first day as North Zone seized the advantage in their encounter against South Zone in Ahmedabad. Medium-pacer Vikramjeet Malik tore through the top order while Delhi’s Rajat Bhatia cleaned up the tail as South were bundled out for 157. After being put in to bat, South were off to a solid start with openers Ravi Teja (41) and Swapnil Asnodkar putting on 37, before Malik snared five wickets, including the big one of captain S Badrinath, in a five-over burst, to leave them tottering at 69 for 5. South lost three more quick wickets before a 68-run partnership between Vinay Kumar (41*) and Kalyankrishna (31) brought in a semblance of respectability to their scorecard.North’s reply started with a 58-run opening stand before they had a collapse of their own: they lost four wickets for seven runs to Karnataka’s duo of Vinay Kumar and NC Aiyappa and lost Bhatia shortly before the close to finish the day on 104 for 5.

It’s a face-off that both India and Sri Lanka could have avoided, but they have only themselves to blame for turning their final encounter of the CB Series into a virtual semi-final for one and knockout for the other. Despite holding the edge on at least one occasion against Australia, both teams would envy Ricky Ponting’s men letting their hair down at tomorrow’s Allan Border medal presentation while they get into a dogfight at the Bellerive Oval.Such has been the nature of this series so far that, apart from Australia, no team has consistently capitalised on the weaknesses of the opponents. In the three previous games between the two teams, India and Sri Lanka have one victory each while their first encounter of the series, in Brisbane, was abandoned due to rain. Sri Lanka stand on the precipice and to pull themselves back they need to defeat India and then repeat that result against Australia on Friday. India, meanwhile, will seal their berth in the final if they win on Tuesday.”We wouldn’t like to wait for the result on February 29,” Mahendra Singh Dhoni said. “We would like to seal the match against Sri Lanka and not leave it to the last game between Australia and Sri Lanka. This game is very important for us.” The Indian captain has already alerted his troops about the task, terming Sri Lanka “very tricky” opponents.Sri Lanka have the advantage of having played at this venue twice this season. They lost a Test here in November and then Tasmania slapped a seven-wicket defeat on them in the practice game ahead of the tri-series. “The Test-match wicket was much harder compared to the practice match that was played on a different one, but we have a fair idea of the wicket. It depends on the conditions, which can be overcast here sometimes, so we’ll wait and see,” Mahela Jayawardene, Sri Lanka’s captain, said after a net session.The conditions played a huge role in the last one-day match at the ground, when Tasmania won a closely fought encounter on Saturday to lift the Ford Ranger Cup by one wicket after rain interruptions converted Victoria’s original target of 158 to 131 in 31 overs. The forecast for Tuesday is mostly sunny with temperatures in the range of 20°C. The wicket at the Bellerive Oval is likely to offer significant sideways movement, which could be a key factor for both captains when they sit down to choose their final XIs.Dhoni already has a couple of issues to tackle, one of which is the failure of his opening pair, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag. One option could be to push Robin Uthappa, who scored a 46-ball 51 down the order on Sunday against Australia, ahead of Sehwag. Dhoni doesn’t want to disturb an in-form Gautam Gambhir’s fine run at No.3 but felt he had enough options to choose from.The other matter is that of fatigue. Players like Dhoni and Ishant Sharma have been playing non-stop from the start of the Test series and India’s inability to qualify for the finals means these two have had no time to rest. “It’s tough on guys like Ishant and Gautam, but we have some time to recover and we need them,” was Dhoni’s response to whether a 36-hour break was enough for the team to bounce back after yesterday’s game against Australia.Without any indication of the combination he will opt for, Jayawardene’s focus was on tomorrow and not too far down the road. “We have to win both the games. If we get our batting sorted out, we have a very good chance,” he said. “We need to concentrate first on getting the victory on Tuesday.”Both teams have their share of top-order batting concerns and there’s an outside chance, given the Hobart conditions, that they both go in with five bowlers. If Munaf Patel recovers from a bout of food poisoning suffered on Saturday he might just sneak into the Indian XI. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, have dropped Farveez Maharoof and Chanaka Welegedara. Tillakaratne Dilashan is likely to continue in the middle order, with one out of Upul Tharanga and Dilruwan Perera opening with Sanath Jayasuriya. Depending on the conditions, they will choose from Chamara Kapugedera and Nuwan Kulasekara for the last spot in the XI.Teams
India: (likely) 1 Robin Uthappa, 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 Gautam Gambhir, 4 Rohit Sharma, 5 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Yuvraj Singh, 7 Irfan Pathan, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Sreesanth, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Munaf Patel.Sri Lanka: (from) Sanath Jayasuriya, Upul Tharanga, Dilruwan Perera, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Chamara Silva, Chamara Kapugedera, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ishara Amerasinghe, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga.

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.

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.

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.