ScorecardPoor weather in Dunedin forced an early finish to Sri Lanka’s drawn warm-up game against Otago. Mahela Jayawardene and Tillekaratne Dilshan both scored half centuries as the Sri Lankans opted for batting practice, declaring at 404, setting Otago an improbable target of 542.Overall it was a good outing for all the Sri Lankan batsmen as nine out eleven players managed to spend quality time in the middle. Jayawardene, who missed his half century in the first innings, made a fluent 67 off 78 balls before he was bowled by Nathan McCullum. Dilshan – unbeaten on the same score – and Chamara Silva took the score past 400, before the declaration. Otago finished at 46 for 2 before bad light forced the players off the field at 2.30 PM, shortly before the tea interval.This is Sri Lanka’s only warm-up match before the first Test at Christchurch starting December 7.

Group BShoaib Malik led Sialkot Stallions, the defending champions, into the semi-finals with a comfortable seven-wicket win against Hyderabad Hawks. Malik’s astute 53, helped equally by breezy thirties from Shahid Yousuf and Qaiser Abbas, saw the Stallions reach their target of 144, with an over and seven wickets to spare. Though Rizwan Ahmed top-scored for the Hawks with 42, disciplined Sialkot bowling all round, restricted their final total, with Tahir Mughal picking up two for 22.Group CFazl-e-Akbar, former Pakistan paceman and perennial domestic giant, took 3 for 9 as Peshawar Panthers thrashed the Islamabad Leopards by 65 runs to advance to the semi-finals. The Leopards were never in the chase for 147, as Umar Gul and Akbar reduced them to 31 for 5. Only Shoaib Akhtar, top-scoring with 14 took them to 81. Earlier, Shoaib had gone for over ten an over in return for a solitary wicket as middle-order forties from Riffatullah Mohmand and Wajahatullah Wasti saw the Panthers recover from an iffy start.Group AA 60-run partnership between Shadab Kabir and Fawad Alam took Karachi Dolphins home to a comfortable eight-wicket win over the tournament’s weakest links, the Abbotabad Rhinos. Chasing only 114, both batsmen took advantage of a weak bowling attack, Kabir’s 40 coming off 34 balls. Alam’s 35 complemented a fine bowling performance earlier in the piece, his two key middle-order wickets, helping restrict the Rhinos. Shahid Afridi, captaining the Dolphins, continued his good leg-spinning form, picking up three wickets for 23 off his four overs.Group DLahore Lions edged out the Rawalpindi Rams by only two runs in what turned out to be, comfortably, the day’s most exciting game. A blazing fifty from Kamran Akmal, with six fours and six, set the Lions on their way to a healthy total. Mohammad Yousuf, who has taken runs from the best this year, could only make 19 here and it was left to a manic 28-ball 51 from Adnan Raza to lift the Lions to 178. The Rams began as if to finish the game in ten overs, and Babar Naeem and Mohammad Wasim brought the fifty up in only fourth over. Thereafter though, they lost wickets at regular, brief intervals with Imran Ali, Kashif Sadiq and Sulaman Qadir (off-spinning son of leg-spinning Abdul) picking up two wickets each. And despite some lusty hitting by Akhtar Ayub and Sohail Tanvir at the death, including a four off the last ball, the Rams fell just short.

Scorecard
Scotland suffered an inauspicious start to their tour of Bangladesh, going down by 33 runs to a Bangladesh Cricket Board Academy XI in a warm-up match at Chittagong. Scotland’s lack of firepower with the ball cost them dear, with young opener Tamim Iqbal striking a century in the hosts’ formidable total of 252 for 6.Navdeep Poonia of Warwickshire scored 63 in Scotland’s reply, with Dougie Brown and Neil McCallum also contributing, but it was not enough and they fell well short of their target. Mosharraf Hossain took 4 for 32, and although McCallum’s late hitting had given Scotland hope, with his dismissal went their chances of victory.Iqbal had earlier reached his century off 133 balls before being dismissed for 105. He received valuable support from the captain Nadhif Chowdhury, who scored a rapid 76-ball 68 to help rebuild the innings after Scotland captain Craig Wright had struck twice in quick succession early on.Scotland used eight bowlers in a match where they used 13 players and the hosts 12, and while things did not go to plan they will see it as valuable acclimatisation to the conditions ahead of the first one-day international against Bangladesh tomorrow. However, the comments made by Chowdhury after the game are bound to be of some concern: “They [Scotland] lacked real strike bowlers and as a result failed to pose any threat for us”.

Shane Watson will on Thursday take a small step forward in his bid to prove his fitness and regain his place in the Australia team, having been recalled to Queensland’s one-day team. Watson will line up for the Bulls in their Ford Ranger Cup match against Western Australia after returning to Brisbane club cricket on the weekend.Watson, who originally hurt his hamstring in a state game before the Ashes started and then re-injured it in a Pura Cup match in mid-December, will be keen to impress as Australia’s top-order line-up remains uncertain ahead of the World Cup. He will be joined in his return by Michael Kasprowicz, who was last week set to play his first game for Queensland in 2006-07 after recovering from back and groin injuries but was a late withdrawal due to the birth of his second child.Western Australia will regain the services of Brad Hogg, who has been temporarily released from the Australia squad for Thursday’s game. Hogg, who has not played in the CB Series and faces a battle to take back his place in the national team from Cameron White, has replaced Aaron Heal in the Warriors’ 12-man outfit.The Australia selectors are keen for him get some time in the middle and he will fly to Adelaide on Friday morning in time for Australia’s next match against England. Western Australia have named an unchanged squad for the Pura Cup match against Queensland at Brisbane starting on Saturday.Queensland FR Cup squad Jimmy Maher (capt), James Hopes, Shane Watson, Craig Philipson, Clinton Perren, Aaron Nye, Michael Buchanan, Chris Simpson, Chris Hartley (wk), Andy Bichel, Ashley Noffke, Michael Kasprowicz.Western Australia FR Cup squad Justin Langer (capt), Luke Ronchi (wk), Shaun Marsh, Marcus North, Adam Voges, Luke Pomersbach, David Bandy, Darren Wates, Brad Hogg, Brett Dorey, Ben Edmondson, Steve Magoffin.Western Australia Pura Cup squad Justin Langer (capt), Chris Rogers, Marcus North, Adam Voges, Luke Pomersbach, David Bandy, Clint Heron, Luke Ronchi (wk), Aaron Heal, Brett Dorey, Ben Edmondson, Steve Magoffin.

Paul Collingwood’s match-winning century at Melbourne was not your typical one-day starring role. He struck at less than a run-a-ball and managed only seven fours and one six but his mastery of a difficult situation earned him lavish praise from his captain Andrew Flintoff.Collingwood’s unbeaten 120 has put Australia on the back foot, needing to win the next two games to win a CB Series they never looked like losing. Flintoff said that, combined with the tough circumstances Collingwood found himself in – he came to the crease at 3 for 15 in the sixth over chasing 253 – made it a near-perfect innings.”In all my time playing one-day cricket for England, wearing the blue shirt, I think that’s the best innings I’ve seen,” Flintoff said. “The way he paced it, his stamina, his concentration was a lesson for everyone watching.” Flintoff, smiling occasionally but missing the slightly bewildered grin he wore permanently after leading England to their previous win over Australia, said it had also been Collingwood who rescued his team in the field.At 1 for 170 in the 31st over, Australia looked set for a mammoth total when a sensational diving catch by Collingwood at cover removed Ricky Ponting for 75. “That sparked us, that catch,” Flintoff said. “At that time Australia were on top of us, the bit of magic seemed to turn it around for us.”New Zealand might be out of the competition but Jacob Oram was still haunting the Australians. Collingwood credited Oram’s dropped caught and bowled on Tuesday with helping him find form again after a lacklustre opening to the series. Collingwood went on to make 106 against New Zealand and turned it into consecutive centuries at the MCG.”It’s amazing once you have a bit of luck out in the middle,” Collingwood said. “Jacob Oram dropped us on 18 the other day and just managed to get up to 30 and 40 and felt really comfortable in the middle again.”Luck was something that deserted Australia but they had nobody to blame but themselves for their below-average fielding and bowling performance. Ponting said it could have been game over had Glenn McGrath held a simple chance when Ian Bell was 18 and the score was 3 for 33. “He’s usually pretty safe under those high balls,” Ponting said.Ponting said the last 70 overs of the match were disappointing after Australia’s excellent start and he and Matthew Hayden, who made 75 and 82, “need a rap over the knuckles” for failing to convert their half-centuries into triple-figures.”You want to play your best cricket in finals,” Ponting said. “We probably played our worst game for a long time in a final tonight.” But Ponting would not concede the series was lost, pointing to last year’s come-from-behind 2-1 tri-series win over Sri Lanka as proof his team could yet claim a prize they considered rightfully theirs.

The reactions to Pakistan’s shock first-round elimination from the World Cup has, understandably, enraged passionate fans back home and drawn plenty of criticism. In a nation stunned by Pakistan’s three-wicket defeat to Ireland in Jamaica, there have been angry protests, calls for arrest and even Nasim Ashraf, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief, hasn’t been spared.”We will ask for his [Ashraf’s] resignation in the meeting which is due to take place before March 28,” Senator Mohammad Enver Baig, a member of the senate standing committee on culture, sports, youth affairs and tourism told AFP. “You lost miserably to a country like Ireland. There is nothing to compensate and the chairman must resign and go back to the United States.”The way the team has lost is the most disgraceful performance since the World Cup started. The entire nation is shocked.”Baig said Ashraf had no experience to head the PCB and that his “one-man show” management had resulted in the “shameful defeat.” “He is a crony of [President] Pervez Musharraf and the way he [Musharraf] is running the country, the cricket board is also being run in same manner. It is a one-man rule everywhere.”In Multan, Inzamam-ul-Haq’s home town, incensed youth held a protest rally, chanted slogans against Pakistan and demanded that police arrest the World Cup squad. The mob was heard chanting, “Death to Bob Woolmer , death to Inzamam, death to Nasim Ashraf – police should arrest them”.Sarfraz Nawaz, the former Pakistan fast bowler, said the shock was “unbearable”. “I am speaking with deep pain and this shock is becoming unbearable for me,” he said, demanding that those responsible be fired. “The captain, coach and the entire team should be held accountable. It seemed that the umpires also wanted that Pakistan should win, but the body language of the team reflected that they wanted to lose.”The defeat was Pakistan’s second after the 54-run loss to West Indies in the tournament opener. Ireland are provisionally at the top of Group D, with three points – one more than West Indies and two ahead of Zimbabwe – leaving Pakistan at the bottom of the table with no points.

Mickey Arthur, the South Africa coach, said his team felt “added pressure” to beat Ireland on Tuesday as they tried to set themselves up to progress past the Super Eights stage. Arthur also said South Africa wanted to avoid a rematch with Australia in the semi-finals.South Africa face Ireland and Bangladesh this week and need a more convincing performance than in their warm-up game when Ireland nearly pinched a shock victory. South Africa were in trouble at 91 for 8 before Andrew Hall led a recovery that inched them to 192. Ireland were on track to overhaul the total until they lost 18 for 6 in a late collapse.Arthur said beating Ireland and Bangladesh, which would give South Africa six points from three matches, was crucial. “They are huge games because when you sit down and make plans for the rest of the tournament, they are both ‘banker’ games and, with games like that, there comes an added pressure,” Arthur told .”If things go well, we would also hope to work a little bit on our net run-rate because, in the event of two teams finishing with the same number of points after the Super Eights, they will be divided by their overall run rate. But first prize is to leave Guyana with six points – if we can do that I’ll be a very happy man.”South Africa almost choked in their opening Super Eights match against Sri Lanka after Lasith Malinga’s four wickets from four balls. Arthur said the tense win had “taken quite a few years off my life”.”At five wickets down with four runs needed to win, I started packing away the kit bags, but then it suddenly became very hectic,” he said. “It was always going to take something extremely special to derail us from there and Malinga certainly nearly delivered it.”Arthur said South Africa’s best chance to make the World Cup final would be to avoid the defending champions. “Based on current form I wouldn’t mind staying away from Australia in the semi-finals,” he said. “Right now I firmly believe the last four teams will be Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and South Africa based on what I have seen but we still have an awful lot of work to do to be sure of our place.”

Ravi Shastri, who has been appointed cricket manager for the tour of Bangladesh, admitted that the BCCI’s offer took him by surprise but said it was a good chance to contribute and felt he had the experience to do so.Shastri, a television anchor with ESPN-Star Sports, confirmed his appointment on Saturday after settling his other contractual obligations. Later in the day the BCCI announced the appointment – on an interim basis for the tour beginning early next month – at a press conference after the working committee meeting.”It did surprise me but, having said that, if you look at the state of Indian cricket at the moment, I thought it was a good time to put your hand up and asked to be counted,” Shastri said in an interview to ESPN. “For the years you have played the game and the years you have been part of the media, I do believe I have the experience to contribute.”However, Shastri reiterated that he will be available only for the Bangladesh tour. “No, it is just for Bangladesh and I am very clear about that in my mind and that will also give the Board the breathing space for a couple of months to identify the right kind of people, they need for the tour of England,” Shastri told the television channel CNN-IBN.When asked about the sudden dip in form for the Indian side, Shastri believed that there was no need to panic as yet, and that the team has the ability to bounce back soon. “You are not going to change the team overnight and I do not believe this Indian team can be bad in seven days,” he said. “I don’t think this good Indian team can be a very good team in 14 days.”Shastri also welcomed the BCCI’s decision to extend its working relationship with Greg Chappell, former coach, by offering him the post as director of the National Cricket Academy. Chappell made a presentation in the meeting suggesting measures to improve Indian cricket, which impressed Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president.”His presentation was outstanding,” Shastri said. “I am so happy that BCCI has offered Chappell a role in Indian cricket. The man has tremendous knowledge. He might not be happy with the way things have gone for the last year and half to two years. But I still believe he has still a lot to offer for Indian cricket.”Shastri was among seven former captains invited by the BCCI in Mumbai on Friday to suggest changes in the Indian cricket structure following India’s early exit from the World Cup and coach Chappell’s resignation. At that meeting, it was believed that he was the unanimous choice to succeed Chappell, given his good rapport with the Indian players. Shastri is also part of the Cricket Advisory committee set up by Pawar, which comprises seven former Indian captains.

Division One

Robert Key struck a fine 169 for Kent who fought back on the second day against Durham at at Chester-le-Street. Key brought up his hundred from 177 balls, stroking 15 fours, and together with Matthew Walker put on 173 for the third wicket. But Liam Plunkett took 3 for 82 to destabilise Kent’s middle-order, although the visitors trail by just 46 – importantly, with Andrew Hall unbeaten on 37 going into the third day.Andrew Flintoff finally made it into the middle after the first day washout at The Rose Bowl but Lancashire were in deep trouble on 31 for 4 once Hampshire‘s new ball attack made the most of overcast conditions. James Bruce and Stuart Clark took two each as the top order struggled. Mark Chilton’s pull was perhaps not the wisest shot given the conditions then Mal Loye slashed to point. Clark won the battle of the Australia World Cup stars when Brad Hodge edged to first slip. A sign of the bowler-friendly environment was Stuart Law’s 75-minute 6 although Flintoff did manage two boundaries before the rain arrived once again with just 18 overs bowled.Surrey made the most of the limited play available at at The Oval removing Warwickshire’s last six wickets for 108. Matthew Nicholson led the way, starting with Alex Loudon’s wicket with the first ball of the day. He quickly followed this by ending Darren Maddy’s fine century (134), caught at extra cover, and later bowled Heath Streak for a useful 21. However, Surrey were stopped in their tracks by a rapid fifty from Dale Steyn who launched into the bowlers in his 46-ball 51. Chris Schofield eventually had Steyn caught at long-on, while Surrey only had time to face three overs before the rain closed in.Yorkshire continued to pile the pressure on Worcestershire at Headingley with Joe Sayers and Jacques Rudolph registering hundreds which powered Yorkshire to 521 for 7. Sayers, unbeaten on 86 overnight, moved to his second hundreds in consecutive matches at the ground before he fell to Dewald Nel, ending more than 20 hours at the crease on his home ground. Rudolph ensured Yorkshire built on their fine start with a 150-ball century adding 104 for the fifth wicket with Gerard Brophy. It was Rudolph’s second hundred in the Championship, following his Kolpak move from South Africa. Tim Bresnan and Darren Gough added useful runs and Nel could be highly satisfied with his 4 for 74 on Championship debut. Gough’s declaration left his side enough time to cement their advantage with Matthew Hoggard and Jason Gillespie taking advantage of the new ball.

Division Two

Just 34 overs were possible on the third day at Northampton, with the home side struggling to 130 for 3 in reply to Somerset’s vast 641 for 6. Andy Caddick took all three wickets to fall, removing Stephen Peters, Davey Jacobs and Riki Wessels, though David Sales remained unbeaten on 42.Derbyshire made short work of Leicestershire’s tail on the second day at Derby, before Steve Stubbings led their response with a solid fifty. Paul Nixon could only add a further 10 to his overnight 40 with Leicestershire’s final four wickets falling for 57. Derbyshire lost Phil Weston for just 5 and Chris Taylor for 4 but Stubbings and his captain, Simon Katich, led the fightback with an unbroken stand of 84 as the hosts ended the day on 111 for 2, trailing by 98.A quick-fire 92 from Paul Franks heaved Nottinghamshire to a once unlikely 336 against Middlesex on the second day at Trent Bridge, with the visitors stumbling to 60 for 3 in reply. Tim Murtagh was disciplined and economical, recording the excellent figures of 6 for 87, but Franks took the initiative away from Middlesex in his rollicking 117-ball innings. In reply, Middlesex lost Andrew Strauss for just 4, Billy Godleman for 6 and Owais Shah for a blistering 29. They trail by 276.

Ramnaresh Sarwan, the West Indies captain, has been ruled out of the rest of the England tour with the shoulder injury sustained last week, a spokesman has confirmed. West Indies were expecting the news, but nevertheless it’s a further blow following their drubbing by England in the second Test at Headingley, when Sarwan picked up the problem.”Unfortunately Sarwan’s injury will take approximately six weeks to heal and as a result he will not be able to take any further part in this tour,” the manager Mike Findlay said on Tuesday afternoon from the team hotel in Leeds.It’s not yet been decided who the replacement captain will be, although Daren Ganga will be strongly placed for the nod, after deputising admirably in Leeds. Findlay said: “As soon as a decision is reached we will make an announcement on who the player is.”Sarwan spoke of his understandable frustration. “I am very disappointed that I would not be able to continue on tour,” he said, “but I have spoken with the players and wished them well for the remainder of the Test series and the Twenty20 games and the One Day Internationals.”West Indies, who are trailing 1-0 in the Tests, have two further matches in a bid to turn their series around. The next Test begins at Old Trafford on June 7. Two Twenty20s at the end of June, and three ODIs in July, follow.”I have confidence that the boys will be able to rebound after the defeat at Headingley and give a better account of themselves and the team as a whole,” he added. Sarwan will leave London for the Caribbean on Wednesday May 30.