ScorecardWilden Cornwall, the Leewards allrounder, led from the front to bring up his highest first-class score of 98 and take his team to a strong position at 346 for 5 against Jamaica. After winning the toss, the Leewards batsmen destroyed Jamaica with splendid performances by Shane Jeffers, who made 67, Sylvester Joseph (60) and the long-standing Stuart Williams, who made 51. The Leewards batsmen were particularly harsh on Odean Brown, who conceded 77 runs from 14 overs, and Nikita Miller, who took two wickets for 80 from 32 overs. Cornwall, who batted for 117 minutes, struck 11 fours and a huge six off Marlon Samuels. Williams looked set for a bigger score when he mistimed a delivery from Miller and gave the bowler a simple return catch.
ScorecardRyan Ramdass brought up his second consecutive century to take Guyana to a comfortable position at 254 for 4 against Trinidad and Tobago on the opening day of the round six Carib Beer Series in Guyana. Ramdass, on 112, was well-supported by Narsingh Deonarine (59) as the two put on a formidable partnership of 127 after the loss of early wickets. Guyana, electing to bat after winning the toss, lost Sewnarine Chattergoon, the opener, cheaply for 3 and Ramnaresh Sarwan – back in the squad after playing the VB Series – shortly after for 19. Ramdass, who hit 11 fours and a solitary straight six, was offered two chances before he miscued and skied Amit Juggernath to mid-off. For T&T, Jaggernauth was the pick of the bowlers as he bagged 3 for 82. At stumps, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, on 32, and Assad Fudadin (20), were the not out batsmen.
ScorecardDwayne Smith’s sparkling century added some respectability to the Barbodos total as they were all out for 304 against Windward Islands at St.Vincent. Smith’s 104 took the initiative away from Windwards, who made early inroads into the top order, and had Barbodos reeling at 60 for 3. Ryan Hinds, who made 31, was involved in a century stand for the fourth wicket with Smith. Courtney Browne hit 45 and valuable contributions from Patrick Browne (38) and Ryan Layne (32), making his debut, helped the total past 300. Kenroy Peters was the most successful of the Windwards bowler with 3 for 52. Darren Sammy, with 2 for 59, and Deighton Butler, with 2 for 77, gave him good support.

Hampshire County Cricket Club has received permission from Eastleigh Council to erect permanent floodlights at the Rose Bowl near Southampton, thereby improving the ground’s chances of becoming the premier venue for day-night internationals in England.Last season, the Rose Bowl was chosen alongside The Oval and Edgbaston as the venues for the ICC Champions Trophy, although it did not attract rave reviews, with access to the ground for England’s key fixture against Sri Lanka proving extremely difficult, as 16,000 spectators descended on the area.But Rod Bransgrove, Hampshire’s chairman, retains mighty ambitions for the ground, which hosted its first first-class match in 2001 and will this season host England’s first Twenty20 match, against Australia on June 13.Hove, Chelmsford and Derby are the only current grounds with permanent floodlights, although none of these has the capacity to host a one-day match, a fact of which Bransgrove is keenly aware. “I am confident we are offering the ECB something it both wants and needs,” he said, during the Champions Trophy.The plan is for six floodlights to be in place for the start of the 2006 season, although the county is taking something of a leap of faith, seeing as income from county cricket alone is not sufficient to meet the running costs of the ground. “Give us the opportunity to compete on the world stage,” Bransgrove concluded, “and make the Rose Bowl an international [cricket] centre.”

The feud between Digicel, the sponsors of the West Indies cricket team, and their rival telecommunications company, Cable & Wireless, was no closer to a resolution last night, after an attempt by Dr Keith Mitchell, the prime minister of Grenada, to instigate an arbitration process was blanked. As a consequence, the prospect of Brian Lara and six of his team-mates being selected for next month’s Test series against South Africa is receding. They have signed personal endorsement contracts with C&W that are in direct competition to Digicel, and were last week dropped from the team pending a resolution to the dispute.According to a report in The Trinidad Express, the two companies met last Monday with representatives of the West Indies Cricket Board and the Players’ Association, in an effort to salvage a situation that is fast becoming the most divisive yet to affect the troubled fortunes of cricket in the Caribbean. In a radio address on Friday evening, Dr Mitchell appealed for the recall of the seven key players – Lara, Dwayne Bravo, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle, Fidel Edwards, Ravi Rampaul and Dwayne Smith – but according to Digicel, this is not acceptable in the current climate.In his address, Mitchell had indicated that a possible formula to end the impasse has been reached, claiming that the players’ contracts had been scrutinised by WICB lawyers and that concerns had been dealt with. “In light of the above,” said Mitchell, “the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on Cricket hope that the West Indies Cricket Board will no longer exclude the seven players with Cable & Wireless contracts from the squad selected to prepare for the impending tours.”This, however, has cut no ice with Digicel, who released a media statement to make plain their displeasure with C&W, who had been West Indies’ principle sponsors for nearly 18 years, until they chose to withdraw their support last year. “[C&W] decided not to match the unprecedented five-year US$20m sponsorship package which Digicel was prepared to undertake,” read the statement, “and while negotiations were taking place, [they] deliberately signed six players to personal sponsorship contracts coinciding with Digicel taking over as title sponsor of West Indies cricket team. C&W did this in the full knowledge that their actions would create great difficulty for the WICB, the six players and the title sponsor, Digicel.”Digicel added that, with regard to Lara and his special status in terms of endorsement deals, they had attempted to offer an enhanced personal contract to replace his existing one with C&W that was due to expire in September 2005. “This approach to representatives of Mr Lara was made in an effort to solve the contract issue and in the interests of West Indies cricket,” read the statement. “Unfortunately these efforts were not responded to and in 2004 Mr. Lara extended his C&W contract to a period beyond 2005.”Consequently, Digicel have rejected outright all attempts at arbitration, accusing C&W of jeopardising the future of West Indies cricket by investing US$500,000 on a select group of individual players. Nevertheless, with the Test series against South Africa – Digicel’s first as title sponsor – fast approaching, they remain hopeful that a resolution can be reached. “[The series] promises to be a rewarding, fun and memorable experience for the team and fans and our commitment to the entire team is unwavering.”

SehwagOn his inningsIt was difficult, because it was very hot and humid in the morning. I just wanted to bat until the 40th over so that we could get a decent total on the board. We were very tired by the 30th over, but determined not to throw our wickets away. The plan was to get to the 35th over and then play some shots.On how he rated his inningsWhen you make runs in such tough conditions, it makes you very happy. It gives you a different kind of confidence.On whether he was in the form of his lifeOf course. I’ve got over 600 runs in just the last three Tests and this ODI.GangulyOn another bad day for him, and a good one for the teamThis Indian team has had many good days over the past three or four years. It’s not like it’s the first.On the turning pointI think it was Inzamam’s wicket. We knew we’d win from there.On his formSomething’s letting me down. But I’ll go out and be positive. I need to play to get back in touch. Sitting at home or taking a break won’t help.On whether the morale had been affected by the Bangalore defeatWe didn’t lose the series, we drew it. We’d dominated the previous game in Kolkata, and also in Mohali. Leaving Australia aside, I don’t think any team can say that they win every match. Our morale was not low, and I think we proved today how confident we were.On whether he would contemplate going back to open the inningsI don’t think batting at number three is very different from opening. We’ve got a guy performing at the top and there’s no question of changing things right now.On playing three seamers as opposed to an extra spinnerIt was the seamers that did the damage early on. And we knew that apart from Harbhajan, we had Sachin, Sehwag and Yuvraj who could bowl spin.On whether he was surprised by Tendulkar’s spellHe has always been a wicket-taking bowler, and he’s taken five wickets once before here in Kochi.On whether he was disappointed by only 41 coming from the final nine oversThey bowled very well. And when you have two set batsmen getting out, it can be difficult, especially in this heat. We knew a total like 282 would be defendable because it’s not easy to chase in these conditions.

Gloucestershire have become the second county in a week to be accused of ball-tampering, after it was alleged that their fast bowler, Steve Kirby, scraped the match ball on the surface of a concrete car-park during their seven-wicket victory over Glamorgan at the weekend.On Friday, Surrey were penalised with five penalty runs and threatened with further sanctions from the ECB, after it was found that the quarter-seam had been lifted during Nottinghamshire’s lengthy innings. Now it is Gloucestershire in the hot seat, after the umpires at Sophia Gardens, Nigel Cowley and John Hampshire, included these new allegations in their report.The alleged incident occurred on Sunday, the third day of the match, when Kirby went to retrieve the ball from the car-park after David Hemp had struck a six. Soon afterwards, John Derrick, Glamorgan’s coach, strode onto the pitch to complain about the alteration of the ball’s condition, although the umpires were unable to determine whether the scuffing had been caused by anything other than the initial bounce of the ball.Gloucestershire’s captain, Chris Taylor, was satisfied that nothing untoward had taken place, but his opposite number, Robert Croft, was supportive of his coach. “I know [his] integrity and the way he has conducted himself since taking over at Glamorgan,” said Croft. “For him to do that he obviously saw something that incensed him.”In an ill-tempered match, Kirby and Alex Wharf were both spoken to by the umpires for separate incidents, as Glamorgan slumped to their third consecutive defeat – their worst start to a county season since 1922.

The England Cricket Board has refused to play a Test match at Karachi on England’s winter tour of Pakistan owing to security reasons. While confirming this Shaharyar Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan board, said that England didn’t want to spend a week in Karachi but added that there was a possibility of staging a one-day international there.Karachi has been a contentious venue on several teams’ itineraries in the recent past, and the suicide bomb attack earlier this week and subsequent rioting by angry protesters might well have exacerbated England’s concerns. Australia, West Indies, South Africa, New Zealand and India had all declined to play a Test match in Karachi earlier, and since the 2002 bombing outside the New Zealand team’s hotel, which forced the tour to be abandoned midway, the only two countries to have played a Test there are Bangladesh (2003) and Sri Lanka (2004).Shaharyar, who met David Morgan, the ECB chairman, in London, admitted that it would be difficult to convince England to play a Test at Karachi. “They have conveyed to us that while they don’t feel there is any direct threat to their players in Karachi, they don’t want to be caught in a crossfire as they have reservations over the atmosphere in the city,” he was quoted as saying in , a Pakistan-based daily. “Their main concern is that if they play a Test it would mean they would have to stay for a week in Karachi and they are not comfortable with that prospect. We have started looking at the possibility of just hosting a one-day International against them in the city.”England’s tour to Pakistan, which includes three Tests and five one-day internationals, is scheduled to start from October 22 and the Pakistan board had sent the ECB a proposed itinerary in which they had suggested a Test and an ODI in Karachi but had left out Peshawar, another venue that several teams have shown reluctance to tour, out of the schedule. “The proposed venues were discussed with Morgan,” said Shaharyar, “and what we have suggested to them is they send a security delegation to Pakistan to see for themselves there should be no security concerns for their players while in Pakistan.”He added that the ECB would confirm dates of the delegation’s visit to Pakistan by Monday and said he had given all security assurances to the ECB about playing in Karachi. Shaharyar said that if Karachi was ruled out as a Test centre, the board would then choose from Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Multan to host the three Tests against England.

With five days to go before the deadline expires for all parties in the US cricket disputes to jointly resolve their disputes and present a mutually agreed team to the ICC for the Americas Under-19 and the Intercontinental Cup tournaments, Major League Cricket Inc (MLC) has stepped forward with an 11th-hour proposal ensure that a representative team from the USA will be allowed to participate in the Americas U-19 tournament in Canada in August 2005.In its letter addressed to the US Council of League Presidents (CLP) and the USA Cricket Association (USACA), MLC notes that “…in the likely event of these matters not being resolved by July 8, the question is what to do with all the U-19 cricketers in the USA who will be denied an opportunity to play with their peers in Canada.”To resolve the situation in a timely fashion, MLC is offering its services as a “temporary USA contact and coordinator” whose main function will be “to work with the CLP, USACA and all other US- based parties to come up with a representative U-19 team from the USA that will be acceptable to ICC and the Americas Under-19 tournament committee.”MLC states in its letter that its offer is being made “with full respect towards, and without prejudice to, any of the parties or issues involved in the USA cricket disputes.” The letter explicitly states that MLC is “fully prepared to relinquish its role as USA contact and coordinator …as soon as agreement is reached between all parties on an appropriate procedure for conducting [future] US team selections.” MLC says that “[it] is aware of the complex issues underlying all the disputes in US cricket, and would like nothing better than to see these matters resolved by direct dialogue and open communication.” Its offer is intended to keep US cricket in the international arena while the issues in US cricket are being resolved by all parties, and is intended in the spirit of US cricket.It would clearly be in the interests of both CLP and USACA to accept MLC’s offer, since it would allow them more time to work out their differences and still enable the U-19 youngsters from the USA to participate in their Americas tournament. How the ICC will react is not clear at this point, but if CLP and USACA do not have any objections to the MLC proposal, MLC’s offer would fall within the guidelines set down by Malcolm Speed and there is reason to hope that ICC will allow a USA team to play in the Americas U-19 tournament under these circumstances.

New Zealand’s batsmen had their tactics well worked out when they came to face the Indian spinners on a fifth-day pitch. Play off the front foot, eschew strokes on the off side – especially shots against the spin – and sweep when in doubt.As the table below demonstrates, three-quarters of the runs scored off the bat on the final day came on the leg side. The stats were most stark in the first session, when only six runs were scored on the off side, and 43 on the on. It wasn’t as if the Indian bowlers strayed on leg stump either: out of the 540 balls bowled today, 400 pitched on or outside off, from which New Zealand managed 144 runs.

The sweep shot came in handy too: 35 of them were played in thefirst two sessions, fetching 47 runs. Craig McMillan might havebeen dismissed playing that stroke in the first innings, but thatdidn’t prevent him from favouring that stroke in the secondinnings: 25 of his 83 runs came from that shot.The New Zealand batsmen played forward almost 75% of the time -not surprising, considering the nature of the wicket – but apartfrom Lou Vincent, no-one was prepared to use their feet and comedown the pitch. Vincent did it nine times, the rest of the teamdidn’t step out even once.For India, Anil Kumble showed an encouraging return to form. Asthe graphic shows, 212 out of the 235 balls he bowled were ongood length or slightly short – that’s an impressive 90%. ForHarbhajan, the corresponding figure was a mind-boggling 95%. ThatNew Zealand held on despite such accuracy says much about thefortitude and doggedness of the batsmen.

Pakistan 292 for 7 (Inzamam-ul-Haq 73, Abdul Razzaq 107*, Shahid Afridi 58, Hondo 3-54) beat Zimbabwe 148 (Sibanda 57, Shoaib Malik 3-37, Shahid Afridi 3-18) by 144 runs
Scorecard and ball by ball details

It was never expected to be a contest, and so it proved in the end, as Pakistan’s new improved unit overwhelmed the rookies of Zimbabwe by 144 runs in an echoingly underpopulated Multan stadium in the first match of the Paktel Cup. But for the first 40 overs of the match, Pakistan’s prospects were not quite as cushy as they seemed, and it required a blizzard of sixes towards the end of their innings for the prospect of an upset to be completely banished.After a woeful start to their innings and a cautious rebuilding process, Pakistan had slipped to 146 for 6 when Shahid Afridi came out to join a cautious Adbul Razzaq, whose 95-run partnership with Inzamam-ul-Haq had rescued the team from a sketchy 38 for 4. Without so much as a by-your-leave, Afridi set about the bowling with typical fury, smacking four sixes and five fours in a 26-ball 58, and Razzaq took up the cudgels as well, racing to his second one-day century – 107 not out from 114 balls – of which the second fifty came from just 21 balls.At 292 for 7, that was effectively that, although Vusi Sibanda did his best to hold up Pakistan’s victory surge with a spirited half-century, as Zimbabwe trickled to 148 all out in 38.3 overs. He received little meaningful support, however, apart from an adhesive 29 from Dion Ebrahim that, if anything, erred a little too far on the side of caution given the massive asking rate. Nevertheless, it was a useful learning experience for the Zimbabwe team, especially their bowlers, who could not have been expected to prosper on a typically batsman-friendly subcontinental wicket.But instead, they came storming out of the blocks. The last time Tinashe Panyangara had been called upon to bowl the first over of a one-day international – against England at Edgbaston in the Champions Trophy – he had sent down seven wides in a fretful performance. Today, however, he was right on the money immediately, as Yasir Hameed edged his first ball straight into Tatenda Taibu’s gloves behind the stumps (0 for 1).Matters got worse before they improved for Pakistan. Douglas Hondo struck with his fourth delivery, as Shoaib Malik attempted to whip across the line and was adjudged lbw to an inducker for 1, and even Yousuf Youhana couldn’t turn the tide. Youhana amassed 405 runs in five matches (average: 405) on Pakistan’s previous trip to Zimbabwe, but this time he feathered a good-length ball from Hondo through to Taibu, as Pakistan slumped to 6 for 3.Panyangara then struck for a second time to remove the debutant opener, Bazid Khan – son of Majid – for 12 (38 for 4), and all eyes were on the captain, Multan’s favourite son, Inzamam. He attracted immense criticism for that decision to bat first in the Champions Trophy semi-final, but this time he was utterly blameless for his team-mates’ shortcomings, even though he might have been a part of the collapse, had Taibu held onto a thin leg-side tickle when Inzamam had made 7.But surely and maturely, Inzamam set about rebuilding the innings, in partnership with the cool and collected Razzaq, who picked the gaps and stole the singles off Zimbabwe’s second-string pairing of Elton Chigumbura and Prosper Utseya. Razzaq had one moment of good fortune, when a checked drive burst through Stuart Matsikenyeri’s fingers and clattered him on the nose, but in the very next over, Utseya removed Inzamam for 73, courtesy of an unfortunate lbw decision.When Moin Khan was stumped off Brendan Taylor’s speculative spinners for 7, Pakistan looked set for a second wobble, but Afridi had other ideas. He and Razzaq launched into their brutal onslaught, and before long, Zimbabwe’s spirited start to the match was just a distant memory.Sibanda did his best to forge a reply, batting with great common sense for his 57 from 69 balls, which included a six over long-on to bring up his fifty. But the rest of Zimbabwe’s top order found survival rather harder to cling to. Matsikenyeri was pinned lbw by Naved-ul-Hasan for 0, before Brendan Taylor had his off stump plucked out by a fizzer from Shoaib Akhtar, that would have cleaned up many more experienced players (8 for 2).It was left to the spinners Afridi and Malik to wrap up the match. Afridi’s spell was particularly buoyant – he bowled Taibu for 3 with his very first delivery, and caused havoc among the tailenders as he whistled topspinners and legbreaks past cagey defensive shots. He even sent down a venomous 76mph bouncer, before wrapping up the match by bowling Hondo for 1.

Scorecard
In Durban, KwaZulu-Natal’s pace attack had Gauteng in early trouble, as they slumped to 36 for 5, but Derek Crookes hit them out of trouble with a fiery 77. He was well supported by Shane Burger, who finished with an unbeaten 53, as Gauteng managed to reach 228. Crookes, who has played 32 one-dayers for South Africa, smashed 15 fours and counterattacked when all looked lost. Zahir Abrahim and Ugeshan Govender were the most successful bowlers for Natal and both had the batsmen struggling against the moving ball. Both ended with three wickets apiece. In reply Natal made a solid start with Rivash Gobind (40 not out) and Mark Sanders (36 not out) sharing an unbroken opening partnership of 82.
Scorecard
At Newlands, a middle-order collapse triggered by Eugene Moleon, the medium-pacer, cost Western Province a few jitters. But they recovered well and declared after reaching 276 for 7 in 85 overs. Renier Munnik was once again among the runs with an undefeated 65 while Doug Worth scored his maiden first-class fifty and notched up 71. North West started off shakily and were reduced to 22 for 3 but they fought back grimly and finished the day at 76 for 4, with Werner Coetsee unbeaten on 43.