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Scorecard

Wickets tumbled on the opening day of the Provincial Tournament final, with Ruchira Perera first jogging the memory of the selectors with a five-wicket haul that included a hat-trick and helped Central Province bowl out North Central Province for just 175. Nuwan Kulasekera, an emerging talent, then struck back in the evening with a four-wicket spurt to leave the match evenly poised in the evening with Central Province still 91 runs adrift on 84 for 4.North Central Province, the form team of the group stage, struggled from the start after being put into bat by Kumar Sangakkara, the Central Province captain. Priyankara Silva, a 28-year-old right-armer, chipped in with three wickets to leave North Central 83 for 6. But Upul Chandana (37 not out) and Kumar Dharmasena (42) stopped the freefall for a while with an 89-run stand before Tharanga Lakshitha bowled Dharmasena.Perera, still trying to rebuild his career after his action was called into question during Sri Lanka’s Lord’s Test in May 2002, then took centre stage with a dramatic hat-trick. Farveez Maharoof was caught and bowled and then Kulasekera and Channaka Welegedera were both adjudged leg-before.Fortunately, for North Central, Kulasekera struck back in the evening with the important wickets of Sajith Fernando (16), WMB Perera (5), Kumar Sangakkara (0) and Thilan Samaraweera (4), the in-form double centurion in the last game. Opener Nishad Paranavitana was unbeaten at the close on 27 with Hasantha Fernando on 21.

As the dust settles on the Super Series, the world’s media have had a chance to assess what has gone on. And by and large, their assessment won’t go down too well in the hallowed halls of the ICC HQ in Dubai. After all, even the tournament’s official website wrote that the Super Test became a “Super Farce” – but this was the same site that steadfastly referred to Muttiah Muralidaran and Nathan Wade (Nathan Bracken to his close family) throughout.In the Daily Telegraph, Simon Briggs wasted no time in slamming what he saw as little more than a money-making exercise. “The original theory was that the Super Series could run alongside the World Cup (quadrennial) and Champions Trophy (biennial), so filling in the one year in every cycle that does not feature an ICC cash cow. But as the scale of the World XI’s latest defeat sank in, ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed did everything he could to distance himself from this pledge. “There is no commitment to play every four years,” he said last night. As the ICC are reluctant to let a single year go past without a money-making opportunity, the latest theory is that the Super Series will be replaced by a ‘Grand Final’, in which the top two teams in the Test and one-day rankings play off in a pair of winner-takes-all contests.”Gideon Haigh in the Guardian continued the theme. “The ICC’s decision making looks as though it might bear some scrutiny, too. Speed reminded everyone yesterday that the Super Series had been “profitable” for member nations, and that he was “very happy with the things under our control”, even though he “shared the disappointment” of the World XI players. Disappointment, however, will not do: Super Series Returns will need to leap a big credibility gap in a single bound.”Some solace came from Peter Roebuck in the Independent. “No harm has been done, though,” he wrote. “No one can be blamed for trying something. Much the same applies to the referring of appeals. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”But Roebuck’s views were not shared by too many others in Australia. In the Sydney Morning Herald, Will Swanton was less than welcoming. “Waiting for another Super Series? Don’t hold your breath. Speed has done a backflip over the concept in the aftermath to the hopelessly lopsided contests between a resurgent Australian team and the badly misfiring Rest of the World. In all likelihood, this is the end of the World XI as we know it.” He concluded: “It might not have been do or die for the players, but it was for the concept. No need to go to the video umpire. It’s out.”Waleed Aly, writing in Melbourne’s Age admitted that he was a supporter of the concept … until now. “The cliche runs that in sport it is best to play like there is no tomorrow. Unfortunately, that is exactly what the World XI did.”

Phil Simmons, Zimbabwe’s coach, dismissed criticism aimed at him following the 3-2 one-day series defeat by Bangladesh and said that the loss was a result of complacency on the part of the players and the technical team.Simmons was lambasted by Richie Kaschula, a member of the national selection panel and a former national player, in the aftermath of the defeat. “Phil must be held responsible for what has been happening in Bangladesh,” Kaschula said. “Phil was left in charge and we, as selectors, are not happy with what has been happening. Phil was in charge of the team and he was doing his own things in selecting the teams that played, ignoring some of the things we told him."But Simmons mounted a spirited defence on his return to Harare. “We played beyond expectations in the first two games and I think when we took the 2-0 lead in the one day series against the hosts the guys were surprised by the results and that led to the guys being excited," he said. “I think I was also excited by the result that the guys had posted and we seemed to have lost direction. Because of that and I believe that is where we got it all wrong.”The batsmen let us down in the third game and that was the major reason we lost but we could have done better. The batsmen failed to reach 240 runs in the last three games."Kaschula had slammed Simmons for his team selections, especially picking the out-of-sorts Dion Ebrahim. “Dion had not performed well in the third game and I thought of dropping him from the team for the fourth game but there is more that I as the coach saw in the young man than just playing on the field," Simmons argued. “I didn’t drop him in the fourth game as he had impressed me during the practise sessions as he showed a lot of confidence in batting and seemed as if he had finally settled and I thought of including him in the team.”

West Indies may have had a reasonable start to their tour of England results-wise (the hiccup against Ireland notwithstanding) but, according to a report on a Caribbean website, they didn’t receive the warmest of welcomes to the UK.According to CaribbeanCricket.com, no-one from the ECB turned up to welcome them after they had touched down at Belfast airport, and they had to collect their luggage for themselves. Once outside the airport, there was no transport arranged to take them to their hotel, and they had to hang around for over an hour before a coach arrived to pick them up.Things were then made worse the following week when their coach journey to a warm-up match in Kent was caught up in heavy traffic following a road accident. The bus was not given a police escort to get them to the game on time, something which, the article claimed, would have happened for a touring side in the Caribbean.In response to the article, Andrew Walpole, the ECB’s media relations officer, said that both boards had jointly agreed there would be no press conference on the West Indians’ arrival at Belfast, hence the ECB didn’t send anyone there to meet them.Tony Howard, the West Indies team manager, refused to comment on the report, adding that the team were totally focussed on the NatWest Series. West Indies’ first game of the tournament is against New Zealand at Edgbaston on Saturday, June 26.

It is a question that comes to haunt Pakistan every now and again. It rears its head once again during this Test. Is Abdul Razzaq really worth a place in the Test side as an allrounder?From his contribution here, over three days, tottering as it has somewhere between damaging and utterly irrelevant, the question isn’t even worth asking. As Pakistan tumbled yesterday morning, runs were the hour’s need. Razzaq proceeded then to make possibly the strangest unbeaten 16 in Test cricket. Off 92 balls, in over two hours, it was almost exactly what West Indies, not Pakistan, needed. He achieved the doubly difficult task of neither farming the strike nor scoring any runs. Singles were refused, yet the tail was still left with entire overs to face, it was inexplicable.It was not a stray incident. At Melbourne in 2004-05, he made a painful, unbeaten four from 76 balls, though it was said he was unwell. In Colombo, also against Australia two years earlier, an excruciating four, from 52 balls, allegedly set the platform from one down for a 300-plus chase. Each time, it was so at odds with the surrounding context that you could only ask why. People say he knows only two gears in his batting – first andfifth – but an experienced ex-Test player and coach also observed that “he gets locked into the two modes, unable to switch between the two.”Move on: he’s an all-rounder, so you expect some compensation with the ball. Except today, Umar Gul and Shahid Nazir might have received more support from West Indian batsmen. Nominally as a third seamer, Razzaq bowled a piddling ten overs all day, many without a purpose other than allowing us to appreciate the breadth of Brian Lara’s off-side game between cover and third man.Waqar Younis disagreed with reporters at a press conference later in the day that Razzaq wasn’t a regular bowler. “All four are regular bowlers. Razzaq isn’t in great form but his batting gives us a big edge.”Ninety-five wickets from 45 Tests at near 40.00, with one five-wicket haul are figures that would concern part-time bowlers. And a circle has more edge than his batting, if just two fifties in his last 25 Tests are anything go by.Whichever angle you look at his Test career from, it doesn’t make for pretty reading. Arguably, on only one Test has he had a genuine all-round influence – against India at Karachi recently, where seven wickets were complemented by innings of 45 and 90. Centuries, a hat-trick, occasional four-wicket hauls he has as well but they’ve been stretched out so much over an entire career it almost isn’t worth noting.Pakistan could have done with either a specialist batsman or a specialist bowler in this Test and currently Razzaq is neither. His place in the ODI side is the subject of less debate and rightly so, for he serves a purpose there but in Tests, increasingly it seems he is there on reputation and hope alone, neither of which is the right criteria. He is a big name in Pakistan cricket but as the West Indies showed with Ramnaresh Sarwan, theyare not indispensable.To be fair, Razzaq isn’t the first, nor will he be the last, to look ordinary when the mood grabs Lara. Certainly not Danish Kaneria, who if he didn’t know it already in his fourth Test against Lara, must know by now that the man can play spin. It’s not as if Kaneria bowled badly and even Lara acknowledged that. He got sharp spin and bounce on occasion and troubled almost everyone else. Sure, the good balls didn’t come consistently enough but he wasn’t as bad as four an over from 41 overs, with only three wickets, was he? Though he rarely seems to bowl a genuinely poor spell, it just isn’t happening for him right now, which can be either cause for worry or frustration. Time will tell.Sometimes though, like Waqar chose to do, you just have to applaud genius. “It isn’t the easiest pitch to bowl on. The bowlers tried their hardest but you also have to give full credit to their batsmen. Lara is a genius and you won’t find many cricketers in the history of the game like him.”

While the cricket world concentrated on the first Test at Lord’s, a few miles to the south, one of domestic cricket’s oldest rivalries was attracting an unforeseen outbreak of handbags at two paces.Middlesex against Surrey does not come close to being in the top flight of sporting rivalries. Often spectators have to pinch themselves to remember that what they are watching is an all-London battle rather than just another county game.Fred Titmus’s move from Lord’s to The Oval at the end of the 1976 season was greeted with a few tuts and general surprise (he redeemed himself by returning home in 1979). But Mark Ramprakash’s defection at the end of 2000 was far more acrimonious, and on his return to Lord’s he was booed to the wicket. The rancour persists. When he reached his fifty at Lord’s earlier this month one member turned to another and asked if Ramprakash had been forgiven. A cry of “bastard” aimed in Ramprakash’s direction from nearby in the pavilion seconds later answered that.After that match – which Surrey lost – Middlesex reported what they viewed as suspicious treatment of the ball by Surrey’s bowlers to the ECB. The authorities ruled that there was no evidence to support the claim, but the ill-feeling was there for all to see when they meet last week at The Oval.Tempers spilt over in public on Friday. Play had been delayed by a combination of heavy overnight rain, a broken water super-sopper, and then in the penultimate over of the day words were exchanged between Jon Batty, Surrey’s captain, and David Nash, the Middlesex wicketkeeper. As the pair squared up, the eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation was ended by the swift intervention of Jeff Evans, the umpire, who zoomed in from square leg.The match ended in a draw, and the ramifications of the standoff will no doubt become clear in due course. But there will be an added element of spice when the two sides meet again in front of around 15,000 at Lord’s in July 15 in the Twenty20 Cup.

When Steve Waugh said Australia would come hard at India, he wasn’t kidding. A team scoring 400 for 5 in a single day was not something the Adelaide Oval had experienced before. Australia went on a run-riot and overtook the 387 they scored against West Indies on the second day of the fourth Test of the Frank Worrell Trophy in 1968-69.A closer look at the scoring pattern lets slip an interesting ploy.

Australia played to put India on the defensive as soon as the game began, and once the pressure was on, the batsmen could step off the gas, play a relatively safer game, and still end up with a huge total on the first day.

Ricky Ponting was unbeaten at the day’s end, with a score of 176 in 246 balls with 24 boundaries. His strike rate of 71.5% suggests a poor bowling performance, but on closer inspection, it was Ponting’s frame of mind and the pitch’s true bounce that attributed more to his final score. Ponting had an in-control percentage of 87.4, compared to the team total of 84%. His back-foot strokeplay was authoritative, and the number of runs he scored off the front foot reveals how consistent the bounce was.

When Ponting reached his hundred, he achieved the rare distinction of scoring all 16 of his boundaries on the offside. It had a lot to do with the line the Indians bowled.

For a large part of the day, India bowled a good length, and just short of a good length. The arrival of Steve Waugh, unsurprisingly, brought a change in tactics. Of the nine bouncers bowled in the day, five were directed at Waugh. Ironically, it took a half-volley – just the delivery the bowlers were trying to avoid – from Ashish Nehra to dismiss him.

An outstanding innings by Tim McIntosh ensured that Auckland came away with an honourable draw at the Eden Park Outer Oval today. And McIntosh added his own touch of honour to the proceedings when he walked, after being caught by Chris Nevin, the Wellington wicketkeeper, after making a splendid 104. McIntosh batted for 329 minutes and hit 13 fours, in an innings that proved crucial to the final outcome. Rob Nicol scored 45 in 160 minutes, but it still required Reece Young and Paul Hitchcock to hold out for more than an hour to secure the draw that saw Auckland move back to the head of the points table. For Wellington, Mathew Walker picked up 3 for 55 in a fine display of controlled medium-pace. Luke Woodcock’s steady 86 in the third day had given Wellington the advantage.A determined batting performance by Northern Districts paid off in the rain-affected match against Otago at Carisbrook in Dunedin. Nick Horsley scored a useful 69, spread over 229 minutes, while Hamish Marshall and Bruce Martin shut up shop and added 97. Marshall, who had a great one-day series in Pakistan, was unbeaten on 65, while Martin chipped in with an undefeated 54. For Otago, Brad Scott was the most impressive bowler on show, and finished with 3 for 50.Palmerston North doesn’t enjoy the greatest reputation with regard to its weather, but Canterbury won’t be complaining after this match – they were better off for the wet weather that disrupted play on the last day. Some defiant batting from Gary Stead (44) and Aaron Redmond (29) kept the Central Districts bowlers at bay, before weather came to the Cantabs’ aid. Regan West, the left-arm spinner, snapped up three victims, but Paul Wiseman and Brendon Donkers defied them until play was called off. The draw left Canterbury in second place on the State Championship table behind Auckland. The next round of matches begin on December 27.

New Zealand A 224 for 9 (How 53) beat Sri Lanka A 178 (Mills 4-23) by 46 runs
Scorecard
Kyle Mills broke the backbone of the Sri Lanka A batting line-up, as New Zealand A coasted to a 46-run win in the first match at Lincoln. Chasing 225, the Sri Lankan batsmen couldn’t stitch up any sizeable partnerships as Mills pegged them back with four crucial wickets. They were bowled out for 178, with Bruce Martin and Chris Harris cleaning up the tail.The match was also noteworthy for the return of Shane Bond. Bond, who is recovering from a back injury, sent down nine overs, which included three no-balls and a wide, but couldn’t pick up any wickets.After winning the toss New Zealand A did not put up an imposing total, as they had done with regularity in the five-day games. Jamie How, the opener, anchored the innings with a steady 53, but wickets fell at regular intervals and the New Zealanders were shakily placed at 134 for 5. That was when Chris Harris and Gareth Hopkins put on 58 and lifted them to a competetive 224. In the end, it turned out to be a winning total.

The Durham allrounder Paul Collingwood is set to make his return to action after four months out with injury.Collingwood, 27, has played for England in one-day internationals, but missed out on a possible Test place this summer after dislocating his right shoulder while fielding in a pre-season friendly against Lancashire on April 16. But he is now fit enough to play in Durham’s second-team fixture against Warwickshire, which starts tomorrow.Collingwood said today: “I don’t think I’ve ever trained as hard in my life. It’s good to get back playing again and I can’t wait to get cracking.”