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It was actually a pretty decent day for Australia. According to the coach John Buchanan the bowlers did well as a group, especially Brett Lee and Shane Warne,and Australia will just have to score 700 and dismissEngland for 150 on the last day to win.England were actually the ones who made the major mistake by batting Kevin Pietersen at five instead of higher up the list. “Rather than have other playersblunt the new ball for him, I can’t understand why he’s not up the order,” Buchanan said. Pietersen got 158 and Paul Collingwood, who holds the No. 4 spot, claimed a maiden double-century.Taking a look at the old-fashioned Adelaide Oval scoreboard, Australia are definitely suffering after England declared at 6 for 551 before Andrew Flintoffremoved Justin Langer to maintain the impressive drive. Glenn McGrath and Warne both earned records they would be wishing to forget, McGrath giving up more runs without a wicket than in any time in his career and Warne collecting his most expensive figures against England.Despite the one-sided nature of the opening two days Buchanan was upbeat. “When I look at all the bowlers I’m very happy with what they did,” he said, “the strategies that they chose, the execution of them.”McGrath spent time off the field fixing his boot inthe opening session to ease a heel problem. Althoughhe has not been complaining about the injury, hiseffectiveness was limited and his speed has droppedsignificantly on the flat surface. “He pounded down20-plus overs,” Buchanan said, “so, so far so good.”He returned 0 for 103.Warne gave up 167 runs for the wicket of Geraint Joneswhile Brett Lee also won praise from Buchanan for his1 for 139. “I think Brett’s bowled exceptionallywell,” he said. “He’s held his pace and bowled goodlines. It’s encouraging for the second innings and therest of the series.”The measure of Shane’s bowling is how many bad ballsthere were. He bowled a couple late yesterday when hegot tired and maybe a few today. His control has beenexcellent, he hasn’t got the rub of the green, a bitlike Brett.”Stuart Clark was the only bowler not to wincompliments from Buchanan and he was the man whoperformed the best. Throughout the first two days hetroubled England with short and full deliveries andadded three victims to continue his strong series.When Australia resume at 1 for 28 on day three theywill have heard Buchanan’s plan for success.”Hopefully we get a foundation partnership going,minimise risks and therefore your error rate issmall,” he said. Buchanan was realistic enough to noteit will not be his team dictating the terms.

Australia’s selectors will rely on medical advice before deciding whether the opening batsman Justin Langer will play with a fractured rib in Thursday’s first Test against West Indies. Langer was adamant that he would play in the first of three matches against the tourists at the Gabba despite breaking a rib while playing for Western Australia in an ING Cup match on Saturday.But John Buchanan, the coach, said that the decision would be taken out of the strong-willed hands of Langer on Monday. “He’s a very tough little nut,” Buchanan said on Sunday. “He’s a vital member of our side. For him personally and for us as a team, we want to make sure we make the right decision. It’s like everybody else understands, that if he was unfit, he wouldn’t be playing. I know that he desperately wants to play and we desperately want him to play.”Mike Hussey, Langer’s Western Australian team-mate and the one-day international batsman, is the likely stand-by player. But Langer was in no mood to give someone else a crack at his hard-earned opening spot. “I’ve never had a broken rib before,” he said. “I am certainly feeling it at the moment but I’m sure by Thursday it will be okay.”Asked how confident he was of playing he said: “No doubt, 100%. I’ll probably be a bit sore for a while. I’m not trying to be a hero but it’s only pain, mate.”Buchanan said: “It’s going to be pretty important that we try to settle the side as quickly as we can. The selectors are discussing it. There isn’t an official stand-by player because we still don’t fully understand the extent of the injury, apart from the fact that we know it’s a broken rib and he’s pretty bloody sore. The selectors will take that all into account and have a decision [Monday].”Langer was one of the few batting successes in the failed Ashes campaign against England last month, topping Australia’s averages with 394 runs. With 22 centuries and 7,023 runs in 94 Tests at an average of 45.90, he is Australia’s eighth-highest scorer.

After the success of online ticketing for the recent Indian tour of Pakistan, the Pakistan Cricket Board has again launched an online service for fans in and outside Pakistan for purchasing tickets for the Paktel Cup and the Test series between Pakistan and Sri Lanka.Tickets are available for online ordering: purchasers will be able to pick up their tickets at booths located near the venues.The Paktel Cup is a seven-match triangular series featuring Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, starting with a match between Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe at Multan on September 30. The final, at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium, is on October 16.Pakistan’s two-Test series against Sri Lanka begins at Faisalabad on October 20.The initiative, in partnership with Wisden Cricinfo, produced sales on the very first night, as fans gear up to follow their teams.The Pakistan Cricket Board has allocated a substantial number of ticketsto online buyers, and their online service is open to all-comers.Click here to order your tickets online

Day 2 report
Frizzell County Championship Division One
Division One Table Lancashire 130 for 2 trail Kent 602 for 6 by 472 runs
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Carl Hooper was Lancashire’s only source of hope as his former county Kent took absolute control on the second day at Blackpool. Ed Smith had been the star of day one with a superb 203, but Matthew Walker came close to matching him, easing to 150 with 19 fours before mistiming Hooper to long-on. Lancashire’s misery wasn’t over even then – Mark Ealham joined the rout with 95 as Kent declared on 602 for 6, their ninth-highest total in history, and the highest at Stanley Park. Hooper had already bowled 51 overs in the match, but his day’s work wasn’t finished. Rob Ferley grabbed two quick wickets with his offspin, and it was left to a pair of half-centuries from Hooper and Mark Chilton to prevent a bad day for Lancashire getting any worse.Middlesex 58 for 2 trail Warwickshire 496 by 438 runs
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Ashley Giles continued his annus mirabilis with the bat – and then took a wicket with his third ball – to leave Middlesex with it all to do at Southgate. Giles’s 96 from 139 balls made the difference between an average total and an excellent one, as Warwickshire’s last three wickets added 187 between the showers to reach 496 all out. Neil Smith and Melvyn Betts contributed a brace of 30s, and Giles had seemed set for a century until he holed out to Abdul Razzaq at long-on. Middlesex’s captain, Andrew Strauss, started brightly with 37 from 40 balls, but Giles had him caught at short-leg, before Dougie Brown cleaned up James Dalrymple for a duck. Sven Koenig was left clinging on at the close.Sussex 340 for 5 lead Leicestershire 320 by 20 runs
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Phil DeFreitas added three wickets to his first-innings century, but it was Sussex who finished the day in command thanks to an unbroken 125-run stand between Tony Cottey and Matt Prior. Cottey finished on 138, his third century in consecutive innings, and Prior on 68, as Sussex recovered from a jittery period to finish the day 20 runs ahead of Leicestershire’s first innings 320, with five wickets in hand. DeFreitas struck early in the day to remove Murray Goodwin, then returned with two wickets in three balls, whereupon Charlie Dagnall added a couple of victims of his own. At 215 for 5, the match was in the balance, but by the close the scales had tilted south.Frizzell County Championship Division Two
Division Two Table Derbyshire 163 and 27 for 4 trail Worcestershire 301 by 111 runs
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Kabir Ali overcame a family tragedy to put Worcestershire firmly in charge against Derbyshire at New Road. Kabir had been due to attend the funeral of his two-week-old nephew, who died at the weekend, but he was given the blessing of his father to continue playing and responded with a match-turning 68 from No. 9 and a trio of lbws in a rapid six-over spell with the new ball. Worcestershire had been teetering at 190 for 7 in reply to Derbyshire’s 163 when Kabir joined Steve Rhodes (84*) in adding 104 for the eighth wicket, and he then reduced Derbyshire to 27 for 4 in their second innings. Rain brought an early end to the day, by which stage Worcestershire well in sight of victory.Yorkshire 448 and 2 for 0 lead Durham 327 by 123 runs
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Craig White’s unbeaten 135 was the difference between the sides on a run-feast of a day at Chester-le-Street, in which 437 were scored. Shoaib Akhtar had threatened to tear through Yorkshire’s tail when he dismissed Andy Gray for his overnight 60, and Darren Gough and Ryan Sidebottom didn’t last too long either. But Steve Kirby hung around long enough for White to play a few shots, and Yorkshire’s total of 448 was more than satisfactory. Durham in reply managed a healthy 327, but a first-innings deficit of 121 may come back to haunt them. Three Durham batsmen made half-centuries, but none exceeded Gary Pratt’s 54, as Kirby followed his good work with the bat with 4 for 93. Gough, with a Test recall up for grabs, was lively in his 18 overs, but managed just the one wicket, that of his namesake, Michael. Hampshire 185 and 114 for 4 trail Glamorgan 437 by 138 runs
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Hampshire surrendered 14 wickets in a single day’s play to leave Glamorgan in sight of an innings victory at the Rose Bowl. Mike Kasprowicz was the first-innings destroyer, with 5 for 48, as six Hampshire batsmen passed 20, but none exceeded John Francis’s 27. Hampshire followed on 252 runs adrift, whereupon it was Robert Croft’s turn to take centre stage. He picked up all four of the second-innings wickets to fall – to add to his two from earlier in the day. Simon Katich did at least reach a half-century, but he spoiled the effect by wafting Croft to Alex Wharf at long leg in the final over of the day. At 114 for 4, Hampshire were still 138 runs from asking Glamorgan to bat again.

Neil Johnson’s first Championship century for Hampshire re-kindled the promotion contenders’ hopes of forcing victory at New Road.The Zimbabwean all-rounder made 103 in almost four-and-a-quarter hours and enabled his hard-pressed side to match Worcestershire’s first innings total of 247.Hampshire then pressed hard for an advantage by capturing three early wickets and the home side will be looking for a big effort from Graeme Hick with their captain closing on 43 out of 88 for 3.Their openers had fallen to James Schofield, who attended Worcester Royal Grammar School and appeared in Worcestershire’s second team before finding a base in Southampton.Anurag Singh edged to slip in Schofield’s first over and Philip Weston drove to cover before Vikram Solanki top-edged Alex Morris for a sprawling catch by Jason Laney.At that stage, seven wickets had gone for 40 runs in the crossover of two innings since Johnson departed. The sudden return of batting problems only underlined the value of his performance in guiding Hampshire from 38 for 4 to 232 for 7 when he was caught at cover off Andy Bichel.The watchful left-hander had his moments with 14 fours and two sixes, but circumstances demanded that he should concentrate on survival.Will Kendall was first to provide substantial assistance by reaching 36 before edging David Leatherdale to slip and Robin Smith took over his role with 26 in a partnership of 76.Smith, coming in as low as No 7, gave a return catch to the accurate Chris Liptrot, who also removed Alex Morris for an impressive return of 3 for 43 in 22 overs.

The US$100 million deal between the ECB and Allen Stanford is in doubt after the MCC warned that it would not sanction Twenty20 matches featuring Stanford’s trademark black bats. Talks will continue today between the parties in an effort to rescue the plan for a series of Twenty20 games at Lord’s between an England XI, a West Indian All Star XI and two other international teams.Stanford wanted the matches to feature the black bats that have been used in the existing Stanford 20/20 tournament in the Caribbean. But MCC has revised the rules regarding the composition of bats, declaring that a bat must be wooden in colour, a regulation mainly aimed at ensuring modern materials to assist the batsman cannot be used in addition to willow.As well as the Lord’s games, Stanford’s proposal was to include matches between England and a West Indian All Star XI at his own ground in Antigua. One possible solution to the impasse could be to make the competition unofficial, and relax the bat rules in the Antigua games in return for using the more traditional equipment in the Lord’s outings.

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.

Brett Lee was at one corner of the ground, batting at a practice net, launching balls deep into the outfield, hitting repeatedly over cow corner. Brad Hogg and Nathan Bracken were sprinting right across the length of the ground. Adam Gilchrist was moving to his left and right, taking catches as someone glided the ball off fierce throws from Mike Young. Hogg was bowling at one stump with Troy Cooley gathering the ball.Looking at the Australian team practice, different people doing different things in all directions, you wouldn’t have a clue what they were up to. But they certainly do.Ricky Ponting, speaking after the win in Vadodara, put their win down to the preparation they put in soon after the loss in Chandigarh. Looking at their practice, there promises to be no let-up for the Indians. In the past teams have managed to sneak a few wins in against Australia in dead rubbers, but Sunday’s sixth ODI at Nagpur is anything but a dead rubber. It’s a chance for Australia to win the series, and equally it’s a chance for India to play freely, with nothing to lose and everything to gain, and enjoy the slight lessening of pressure, if such a thing exists in this cricket-crazy country.While Australia are relentless in their application of pressure on the opposition on the field, they are not machines in the manner in which they prepare. Given the heat in which they’ve had to play some of these games, and the travel that’s been involved, they’ve been careful to give themselves the right workloads at the right times.”Once we’ve got into this series, with only two days between games, we haven’t trained that hard physically. We’ve worked very hard on our skills and making sure we’ve got our skills right for each game and for the different conditions we’re playing in,” explained Ponting. “Today we had a team meeting back at the hotel and an optional training session.”It’s really up to the players to come down to training and get whatever they want out of training. The coach, physio and fitness trainer sit down a day in advance and map out what sort of training will be ideal for us. Then they leave it to the players to get what they want from the training.”The Australian team got Friday completely off, with only travel interrupting what would have been a day for rest and recuperation. And Ponting believed that days like this were crucial to preparation, but cautioned that it might not be the best thing for all teams in all circumstances. “It depends where you are as a team. If you’re struggling as a team and certain individual players are struggling then there probably shouldn’t be days off,” he said. “Those players [who are struggling] themselves should want to get out there and do something about their game.”If you do get a day off you should use it properly. Rather than sitting around and doing nothing it’s a chance to get to the gym or the pool and get some work done. As long as it’s in your interests and your best preparation for the game that’s all you should be thinking about.”

A critical factor in Australia’s success in this series has been the effectiveness of their new-ball attack. Mitchell Johnson and Brett Lee have left a gaping hole in the Indian top order in all but the Chandigarh match. It’s no coincidence that it was the only game India won. Johnson and Lee have 14 wickets between them, at an economy rate well under five an over.Some credit here must go to Troy Cooley, the bowling coach, who has put in the hard yards with both these bowlers, and Ponting acknowledged this. “Troy has been terrific since he’s been back in Australia, after spending a couple of years with the England team where he did a great job. I actually grew up with Troy and played all my club cricket with him so I know him very well and our relationship is very strong,” he said. “If you talk to any of the fast bowlers he has been associated with in the last couple of years they all say the same thing, that he’s very thorough, very professional, knows a lot about fast bowling. Mitchell Johnson will be the first to say that he’s got a lot of help from Troy in his career.”While preparation is a bare minimum, it’s execution of these plans that makes the difference between winning and losing. That said, the Indian board needs to take a hard to look at how they have allowed this team to prepare for success. Playing against the best team in the world the Indians have no coach, and a cricket manager who was only appointed for the series at the last moment. Fortunately the team has a settled support staff when it comes to physical fitness, some of whom work harder than the some of the players, but when it comes to skill training you have to ask if this Indian team has all the support it needs.To say that India won in England without a coach is neither here nor there. When they take the field for the last two games the Indians can still win and upset the pundits’ prediction. But it will be despite not having the best preparation, not because of it.

Shane Warne has dismissed as “rubbish” claims that Australia were too friendly with England during last year’s Ashes series. Warne said it was ridiculous to believe his friendship with Hampshire team-mate Kevin Pietersen would affect the aggression he displayed on the ground.”I think it’s a load of rubbish,” Warne told the . “I haven’t been too friendly when I have played Test cricket for 15 years. That’s well and truly been documented. I wasn’t very friendly, but I showed sportsmanship.”When I took my 600th wicket at Old Trafford, Michael Vaughan came up and shook my hand when we were in the middle of our huddle. Andrew Flintoff came over to Brett Lee after we had just lost by two runs and said: ‘Well done, it was great, it was courage’.”I walked up to Kevin Pietersen on 150 and shook his hand and said to him: ‘Make sure you remember that and how it feels right now. It was a great knock’. When someone played well and scored a good hundred, we shook hands and clapped. I don’t see the big deal in that.”Warne, who picked up 40 wickets in the series at an average of 19.92, said displays of sportsmanship and the fact the Australians enjoyed having a drink with Andrew Flintoff would never affect their on-field efforts. “Out in the middle during play, there was gamesmanship, there was sledging, there was funny stuff,” he said.”I think you could tell by the way the teams played and the level of cricket that was on display. It was pretty high-standard cricket and that’s why everyone liked it..”

Stephen Fleming, the New Zealand captain, has termed the victory in the final of the Videocon Cup as “a perfect script” and hailed his team’s “tenacity” to claw back from a dangerous position. Understandably, his Indian countrpart, Sourav Ganguly, spoke about the “heartbreaking” nature of the defeat and was concerned about India repeatedly going down in crucial games.”I was always a little concerned about how things went in the first half-hour to on hour,” said Fleming after a memorable six-wicket victory at Harare, thanks largely to a fantastic century from Nathan Astle. “Things just didn’t go our way, we could have had a couple of wickets in that period. When it’s their day, they are very hard to stop, but we pulled them back through tenacity. It was a tenacious performance in the last half, and this side is experienced enough to know that if you hang in there long enough, you can turn things around.”Ganguly, though, could only rue India’s inability to seize the advantage. “We must be lacking something to lose finals even when seemingly in a good position,” he said. “We had a good start but probably fell 20 runs short. It is heartbreaking. We have been in such situations in the past but haven’t been able to finish it off. Once again we didn’t look good enough to win the finals. Everytime we lose a final, it will become more and more difficult for us to come good in another finals.”Ganguly pinpointed India’s middle-order stutter, when they slid from a formidable position at the halfway stage to 276, as one of the main reasons for defeat. “After being 150 for 1, we could add only 120 odd from the final 25 overs. And when we bowled, they were 90 for no loss in the first 10 overs. That’s where we lost the game. Kaif batted very well but he didn’t get support from the other end. If somebody had stayed with him at the other end, we would have been 300-plus.”But his main concern was the erratic nature of the Indian bowling attack, one that appeared toothless when Astle and Fleming were in a pillaging mood. “Just as we have to learn how to bat on seaming wickets, we also have to learn how to bowl on wickets which are flat,” he said. “Since our medium-pace bowlers don’t have the pace of a Shane Bond, Shoaib Akhtar or Brett Lee, they depend on little assistance from conditions to do well. Our bowlers didn’t bowl good line and length and generally bowled both side of the wicket.”Fleming admitted that it was a planned assault, when he and Astle plundered 81 runs in the first nine overs, and was pleased that Astle could bat right through the innings. “It felt good at the start,” he said, “we wanted to put pressure on their bowlers at the top of the innings. Of course, we had a guy who could bat through the innings, and Nathan’s 15th one-day hundred won the game for us. We wanted to be aggressive at the start and get away, what with the pitch being such a good one. We wanted to set the tone and take the pressure off chasing a big score, it was a very important start.”It has been a tough tour for a number of reasons, and it feels good to finish well. It’s good to take a trophy back home because there aren’t too many in our cabinet.”