Jacques Kallis, the South African captain, has said that they are expecting to field their strongest team for the series decider against India on Sunday. The three-ODI series is currently level at 1-1.South Africa were without Dale Steyn, who had the flu, and Justin Kemp, who was sidelined by a leg injury, during their six-wicket defeat against India in the second ODI on Saturday. “Dale’s come a long way, Justin Kemp has been having treatment and hopefully by Sunday we’ll have a full squad to choose from,” said KallisHe praised Morne van Wyk, the opener who replaced Graeme Smith for the series and scored a career-best of 82 in the second ODI. “He’s done well. Graeme’s been the one in the spot but when you’ve got guys putting pressure on other guys there’s no spot in any team that should be taken for granted.”van Wyk, who waited four years to return to the ODI squad after making his debut against England at Lords in 2003, said, “The cricket back home is quite competitive and, like Jacques said, I’m still fairly young. You don’t know if it [international cricket] is going to come around but you keep on hoping with performances you can get a look in.”Kallis was also impressed with Thandi Tshabalala, the offspinner who took the prized wicket of Sachin Tendulkar, and finished with 1 for 42 . “We wanted to have a good look at Thandi. With the next World Cup being in the subcontinent [in 2011], we realise we have to find a spinner and that is what we are trying to do. It was between me and him to be the fifth bowler and he did well.”Kallis’s opposite number, Rahul Dravid has been heartened by the resilience his side have shown in the run-up to the deciding encounter. On the eve of Tuesday’s opening match more than half the India squad were ill with flu and they went down to defeat before bouncing back on Friday.”The victory is a big boost to the side – the boys have fought really hard. Our preparation for this tournament wasn’t exactly ideal. We’ve had a tough few days, and the boys have responded really well. They have not complained – we have gone on and done what we needed to do and played good cricket – and we fully deserve to be level in the series.”Dravid added his side were the underdogs even though South Africa have also been hit by the same flu virus. “The rankings do definitely say we are the second-best team here. But one-day cricket is how you play on the day. It’s not really about rankings or numbers. We knew we could give them a good run for their money – and we believe if we play some good cricket we can end up with the right result.”Pace bowlers Ajit Agarkar and Sreesanth have both yet to feature in the series because of flu but this has allowed India to play their two slow bowlers in Piyush Chawla and Ramesh Powar. Chawla has been particularly impressive in cold, overcast conditions more conducive to seam rather than slow bowling.”One of the really gladdening things for me is to have seen how these young spinners have bowled, especially in these tough conditions,” said Dravid. “They are used to playing in India, where it is warm and sunny and the ball grips and turns. But they have come here and immediately adjusted.”South Africa (probable) 1 AB de Villiers, 2 Morne van Wyk, 3 Jacques Kallis (capt), 4 Herschelle Gibbs, 5 JP Duminy, 6 Justin Kemp, 7 Mark Boucher (wk), 8 Andrew Hall, 9 Andre Nel, 10 Makhaya Ntini, 11 Dale SteynIndia (probable) 1 Sourav Ganguly, 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 Gautam Gambhir, 4 Rahul Dravid (capt), 5 Yuvraj Singh, 6 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 7 Piyush Chawla, 8 Ramesh Powar, 9 Ishant Sharma, 10 RP Singh, 11 Zaheer Khan

ScorecardSteven Welsh completed outstanding match figures of 12 for 93 as Canada powered to an-innings-and-228-run victory against UAE in Toronto. The visitors showed precious little resistance on the final day as they fell from 59 for 1 to 110 all out.The second-wicket stand of 59 between Arshad Ali and Shadeep Silva was UAE’s best of the match. Arshad fell in unfortunate style when he gloved Henry Osinde down the leg side and was well taken by Asif Mulla. From then on it was one-way traffic.Welsh was again the dominant force following his seven wickets in the first innings with another impressive performance. He removed top-scorer Shadeep Silva for 43 as UAE’s last eight wickets went down for 25 runs. Durand Soraine, a medium-pacer, chipped in with three cheap wickets and he collected the final scalp when Naeemuddin Aslam was caught at long on.Canada’s interim coach Pubudu Dassanayake, said: “The guys were so determined to win here – they were not going to settle for anything less than an outright victory. Against the Netherlands we lost just when we thought we had it in the bag, which was really disappointing. But the way they bounced back from that was very encouraging for me.”Welsh bowled beautifully on what was a good track for batting,” he said. “At times I would say he was unplayable as he has a great action and can swing it both ways. He and Henry [Osinde] did very well for us.”Canada take maximum points from the match and sit top of the table, a fine way to end their short home international season, while UAE leave after a chastening experience.

It was as emphatic a result as everyone expected, West Indies rolling Netherlands over at a decidedly chilly Clontarf, in Dublin, by 10 wickets. They were led by their captain, Chris Gayle, whose rollicking 51 took West Indies home in just the 15th over – on a low, slow, peaty surface with the Dublin Mountains looming in the distance.”Yeah it was a slow track. Daren [Powell] has been bowling with a lot of pace in England and the adjustment did take a while here today. It was frustrating at the start, but regardless he came back well and he’ll now know what is required for the rest of the games.”Powell wasn’t quite as slippery as his 90mph performances in the recent one-day series against England, and struggled on a boggy pitch. Instead, it was Dwayne Smith’s medium-pace wobblers which proved most effective, picking up 4 for 8 from his six overs. After restricting Netherlands to 80, Gayle was content with his side’s performance.”I’m happy, because we wanted to maintain the discipline in this game, and I thought the guys really lifted their standard,” he said. “They did really well to restrict [Netherlands] to 80 and to get a 10-wicket win was superb.”Coming from the intensity of England, playing in front of large crowds and against an unpredictable team, the contrast here at Dublin couldn’t be greater. A poor side, lacking confidence, and a crowd of no more than 50 die hard Irish fans (and one lone Jamaican). But Gayle said there was no danger of West Indies slipping on a potentially huge banana skin.”No danger at all. When you look at the conditions – the wicket was really slow – the guys had to make adjustments and it was quite difficult at times. But they did well.”West Indies now face Scotland – a team Gayle admitted he knew precisely nothing about – on Thursday, and are still buoyed by their performance against England last week. “Yeah, looking forward to it. We’re not taking anyone for granted; we’re just here to play some good cricket and keep the standard very high.”It’s done a lot for us [beating England] and we just want to keep [the momentum going],” he said. “It’s been a while since we’ve been in a winning mood – we have just won three games straight – so hopefully we can capitalise on the start and look forward to the future. We’re just enjoying it – two more to go.”West Indies are clearly in no mood to let up their intensity. And while the opposition may not test his side’s mettle to the limits, Gayle is continuing to prove he has more than sufficient nous as a captain, not to mention the support of his entire team. How often has it been possible to say that about a West Indian skipper?

The Pakistan Cricket Board has warned contracted players against turning out for the Indian Cricket League (ICL) and said if they did, they would be putting their future appearances for Pakistan at risk. Nasim Ashraf, chairman of the board, was responding to reports in several local newspapers that up to seven active, centrally-contracted Pakistan players had been approached by the ICL.”If someone decides personally, we cannot stop them. But if the ICL is not approved by the ICC, then it could have a negative impact,” Ashraf said. “If any current player does join, he will not play for Pakistan.”Ashraf said the board was unaware of any approaches but stressed that the new central contracts the players are set to sign included clauses which prevented them from taking part in such leagues without the permission of the board.”There are clauses such that allow the board to stop players from playing county cricket for example. Umar Gul and Mohammad Asif were not given permission to play for counties this year though some others were. Even for commercial work they have to take permission. I hope every Pakistani player would put national interest above anything else.”Ashraf played down the impact of the ICL, claiming it wasn’t “a big issue”. He echoed BCCI president Sharad Pawar’s comments that only players who had retired or were about to retire would be interested in the league.”It is not ICC-approved and until it is, no cricket board will support it. Our policy is based on our own interests and we have to see what is good for Pakistan cricket. We have to manage our teams and resources; with so much cricket, so many injuries how can we support this?”Hypothetically, if the ICC approves it we can re-look at our policy as well. As of now, we cannot allow our assets, our resources to play for this.”The first player who has confirmed being approached is Inzamam-ul-Haq, the former captain, who has retired from ODIs, faces an uncertain Test future and is no longer contracted to the board. This, Ashraf said, was no issue with the board. “It is a personal decision for past players and we have nothing to do with it at all.”The other is allrounder Shahid Afridi, though he admitted he was guarded on taking up the lucrative offer, keeping in mind the long-term implications.”Yes I have been approached to sign for ICL,” Afridi told the . “But it is too early to say whether I will accept it or not. No doubt the offer, although not yet in writing, is very attractive. However, there are lots of issues to consider before taking a final decision on the offer.”

James Anderson has been called into England’s ICC World Twenty20 squad as a replacement for Ravi Bopara, who was ruled out earlier this week with a broken thumb sustained during the fifth ODI against India.Anderson’s impressive one-day form in the current series will have counted in his favour as the selectors opted for a strike bowler instead of an allrounder. Anderson currently holds the record for the most expensive figures in international Twenty20, his four overs against Australia at Sydney costing 64.It had been expected that Dimitri Mascarenhas would slot into Bopara’s place, especially after hitting five sixes in five balls against India at The Oval. However, England may need another replacement with Andrew Flintoff’s position still uncertain as his ankle problem is assessed.The ICC later clarified that they had given permission for the call-up to go ahead.

Tim May, the chief executive of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA), will discuss Andrew Symonds’ complaint about the racial taunts by the crowd in Vadodara with James Sutherland, Cricket Australia’s chief executive. “I will be quizzing James as to what happened and the positions Cricket Australia and the ICC are taking,” May told the .Symonds said he was disappointed by the local authorities’ denial that any monkey chants had been directed at him, but according to Peter Young, CA’s public affairs and anti-racism officer, Symonds decided to move on from the issue. “Andrew’s observations to James were that it was best to just ignore these things and move on,” Young said.Niranjan Shah, the BCCI secretary, was confident it would eventually turn out that the whole issue was a misunderstanding. “Nobody has pinpointed anything,” Shah said. “He [Symonds] shouldn’t be disappointed. The truth is the truth. What can you do?”There have been rumours that relations between CA and the BCCI had soured following the incident. But Young discounted them. “I am not aware that we have spoken to the Indian board at this stage,” he said. “The Indian board and Cricket Australia and the other eight nations all voted for and supported this policy when it came to the ICC table.”Young also said it was difficult to control crowd racism and added that CA itself had a problem when South African players complained of being abused by spectators in Afrikaans during their tour of Australia two years ago. “It can undeniably be difficult with spectator comment,” Young told . “Most of the time you don’t get to hear it. When South Africa were here two summers ago no one from CA or any of the state associations ever heard the comments and it made it very hard to locate the alleged offenders and then take action.”All we could do was go through the policy and reinforce all those things that we were able to reinforce the training of venue staff, ensure the communication to spectators was clear and the like.” Last year the ICC adopted the amended anti-racism code which includes penalties like imposing life bans on spectators found guilty of racial abuse and revoking the international status of the venue where the incident took place.

Boeta Dippenaar has been named captain of a South African Invitation XI for the four-day warm-up match against the New Zealanders in Bloemfontein, which begins on October 25.The South African board was forced to select an Invitation team, instead of an A team as originally planned. “The one-day international team is in Pakistan. We have a team playing in the Hong Kong Sixes and players from the Highveld Lions are not available because they have a match against Zimbabwe,” Joubert Strydom, the convenor of selectors, told the Johannesburg-based . However, Strydom said that the board would announce a “fully fledged” A team for the second warm-up match scheduled for next week in Potchefstroom.Monde Zondeki and Lonwabo Tsotsobe have been included on the back of their performances in the domestic season, which has just begun. Zondeki has remodelled his action, which reaped rewards in its first unveiling, as he took a five-wicket haul in Cape Cobras’ draw against Titans. Tsotsobe, the Warriors left-arm seamer, took a career-best 7 for 39 in the drawn match against the Lions.South African Invitation XI:
Boeta Dippenaar (capt), Morne van Wyk, Imraan Khan, Ahmed Amla, Davey Jacobs, Zander de Bruyn, Thami Tsolekile (wk), Thandi Tshabalala, Monde Zondeki, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Yusuf Abdullah, Ethy Mbhalati (12th man).

Northerns routed Free State by an innings and 91 runs at the LC de Villiers Oval, the game all but decided on the first morning as Pretoria were skittled out for 98 after being stuck in on a green track.Poor batting was also behind Zimbabwe Provinces’ 210-run defeat by Easterns at Bulawayo as they were bowled out for 81 and 130.Deon Carolus grabbed 9 for 103 in Griqualand West’s draw with North West in Kimberley. His career-best 5 for 37 ensured that North West had to follow on, but they batted better the second time round and almost pulled off a remarkable win as Griqualand West finished on 139 for 8, chasing 157 in 23 overs.Western Province eased to an eight-wicket win over South Western Districts at Oudtshoorn. Esmund Peter van Wyk set up the victory with match figures of 9 for 67.

SAA Provincial One-Day Challenge

Pool AA disciplined performance from Western Province’s bowlers handed them an impressive 86-run win over South Western Districts at Oudtshoorn. Western Province were indebted to Ryan Canning’s 67 in their 180, but William Hantam blew South Western Districts away with three early wickets before Esmund Peter van Wyk broke through the middle order with 3 for 20. Jonathan Beukes was left stranded on 50; the next highest total (other than extras, with 20) was Ntabyozuko Nobebe, the No.11, who made 8.Pool B
A blistering 71 from Niel Bredenkamp, the 20-year-old, led North West to an imposing 288 for 4 from their 45 overs, which proved too much for Griqualand West at Kimberley. Tianne Mostert got the innings off to a flyer with an 81-ball 74, combining well with Werner Coetsee who fell three short of a hundred when he was trapped in front by Jandre Coetzee. But it was Bredenkamp who gave the innings the injection they needed, smacking 71 from just 46 balls, heaving six sixes and four fours. Griqualand West fell 46 runs short, despite an unbeaten 93 from Wendell Bossenger. Etienne Gerber picked up 4 for 37.Northerns eased past Free State by 104 runs at Pretoria after dismissing them for 168. None of Free State’s batsmen moved out of first gear – Hancke van Rauenstein’s 31 came from 64 balls – as Mandla Mashimbyi, Roelof van der Merwe and Aaron Phangiso picked up two wickets each. Northerns’ 272 for 4 was led by Rushdi Jappie’s unbeaten 98 and a 36-ball 60 from Farhaan Behardien.A fine allround display from Geoffrey Toyana gave Easterns an easy four-wicket win over Zimbabwe Provinces in Bulawayo. Toyana’s 3 for 23 restricted the Provinces to 191 for 8, and he guided Easterns home with a slick 87.

Player of the Week

– Shaun LiebischAn impressive debut from Northerns’ 21-year-old Liebisch. The son of a retired umpire who has a reputation as a death bowler for the University of Pretoria, he moves the ball away from right handers and has a reputation for hitting the deck hard. He kicked off with remarkable figures of 12-8-7-4 with his accurate seamers and then top-scored with a three-hour 91 from No. 6 – he started his career as an opening batsman. His accuracy was again to the fore in Free State’s second innings as he finished with 16-6-38-2.

With the India-Pakistan ODI series over, a lot of exciting players will come back to represent their Ranji sides in the matches starting tomorrow: Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir for Delhi, Rohit Sharma for Mumbai, Irfan Pathan for Baroda, Robin Uthappa for Karnataka, and Praveen Kumar for Uttar Pradesh. The flip side: Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble (Karnataka), Dinesh Karthik (Tamil Nadu), VVS Laxman (Hyderabad), Wasim Jaffer (Mumbai), and Munaf Patel (Maharashtra) have joined the Test squad. Here’s how the Super League matches stack up:Mumbai v Delhi at MumbaiThe joint leaders in Group A meet at the Wankhede Stadium. Delhi will be bolstered by the return of Sehwag and Gambhir, Mumbai by Rohit Sharma. Read Nagraj Gollapudi’s preview here.Hyderabad v Baroda in Hyderabad Baroda are on a high after having beaten Bengal by an innings, while a depleted Hyderabad side have held their own in their first two games too. Read Sriram Veera’s preview here.Himachal Pradesh v Maharashtra at Dharamsala Maharashtra have had a good start to the season, with an outright win against Rajasthan in the second match. Himachal, though, are looking to find their feet in the Super League, coming off an innings defeat to Karnataka.Rajasthan v Saurashtra at Jaipur Rajasthan are at the bottom of Group A without any points while Saurashtra have fought out two draws to get themselves four points. Rajasthan will want to open their account here, otherwise they will be prime candidates for relegation.Tamil Nadu v Karnataka in Chennai They are both traditional powerhouses in Indian cricket, but Tamil Nadu field a young, depleted side this year. Accordingly, they have had a fairly ordinary start to the season with only one point after two matches. Karnataka, riding high on the innings win against Himachal, have seven points from two matches and will look for the maximum points here.Orissa v Andhra at Cuttack Orissa are coming off a break after they were walloped by Uttar Pradesh in the first match, while Andhra have played out two draws to reach four points. Orissa will want to do better than Himachal, the other team to have been promoted to the Super League.Punjab v Uttar Pradesh at MohaliPunjab have been struggling with injuries to their strike bowlers – Gagandeep Singh and VRV Singh. Yet had they avoided a lower-order collapse against Hyderabad, they would have had six points from two games. UP, after a blazing start against Orissa, played a tame draw with Andhra. They currently leading the Group B, but they have played one game more than the second-place Baroda.

Mohammad Ashraful, Bangladesh’s captain, believes his young side can give New Zealand a run for their money in a three one-day international contest later this month. Bangladesh also play two Tests in New Zealand but its in the limited-overs format that their captain feels they can win, provided they get runs on the board.”Our bowling attack is reasonably good. If we can post a good total, it will not be impossible to win one or two games in the one-day series,” Ashraful told the before the team’s departure. “We are not too concerned about the Test matches right at this moment. First of all we will try to put a good show in the one-day series.”Bangladesh, who have only played two Tests previously in New Zealand, are scheduled to begin their tour with a warm-up match against Northern Districts starting on December 19. The first one-dayer is on December 26 in Auckland, followed by fixtures Napier (December 28) and Queenstown (Dec 31).”If we can do well in the one-day internationals, the spirit in the Tests will be high automatically,” said Ashraful. “No doubt it is going to be a tough tour … but we have confidence in ourselves. We are not going to be easy prey for New Zealand.”Mashrafe Mortaza has been named Ashraful’s deputy; the tenures of both the captain and vice-captain have been extended until December 2008. “As a bowler I might get some advantage from this kind of condition but overall it’s a very tough tour for us” said Mortaza, Bangladesh’s pace spearhead.Jamie Siddons, Bangladesh’s coach, kept it simple. “I have already talked a lot about this tour. Nothing could have been better then if we can win some matches. But my main desire is to see my boys playing as per their potential.”