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The Central Districts v Wellington Under-19 pre-tournament match at McLean Park, Napier was abandoned without a ball being bowled yesterday. The teams will take two points each from the game.

An ICC security assessment team, led by CEO David Richardson, has arrived in Dhaka to assess arrangements for the Under-19 World Cup in January next year. The team includes ICC’s head of events, Chris Tetley, and security consultants Sean Norris and Reg Dickason.On Thursday, the team will meet the High Commissioners of UK and Australia before the BCB presents its event security plan. They will leave for Cox’s Bazar on Friday and upon returning to Dhaka, they will meet two security agencies, the country’s home minister and have a final wrap-up meet with the BCB.During their October meeting, the ICC ratified Bangladesh as the Under-19 World Cup host. BCB media committee chairman Jalal Yunus said the board is confident the ICC delegation will leave Bangladesh satisfied with the arrangements.”This is a regulation inspection,” Jalal told ESPNcricinfo. “These take place before every big event. They also came before the ICC World T20 last year. It is quite obvious to require a security assessment. We are very much confident that they will be satisfied with our preparation. I am also confident that the event will be held properly in Bangladesh.”The Richardson-led security assessment team is scheduled to leave on November 7.

Scorecard

Matthew Elliott’s tenth one-day domestic hundred fired South Australia to third in the table, a leap from fifth, as they closed out a 70-run win against Western Australia in Perth on Wednesday. Elliott struck 146 from 141 balls, the highest one-day innings for a South Australian, to take the visitors to 3 for 329, their largest one-day total, and was backed up by a disciplined bowling performance which ensured the Warriors fell away.Elliott moved past his previous best this season of 133 and then overhauled Darren Lehmann’s 142 in 1994-95. He rode his luck, dropped on 11 and out to a no-ball on 97, but overall his was an entertaining innings, and one which consigned the Warriors to their fourth successive defeat.Mark Cosgrove added a weighty 70 while Daniel Harris made 46. Daniel Christian continues to reward his new side, posting a quickfire 32 not out and then bowling tidily, although without a wicket.Justin Langer fell early in the Warriors’ chase, Jason Gillespie trapping him with an inswinger, before Shaun Marsh and Luke Ronchi led the reply, though their half-centuries were in vain. Paul Rofe bowled well and got the vital wickets of Marsh and Luke Pomersbach that broke the back of the Warriors’ batting.Nathan Adcock then replaced the wayward-but-wicket-taking Dan Cullen, and grabbed three of his own to complete the job. The Redbacks continued a good run of one-day form that was punctured only by Queensland’s recent win in the rain-affected match at the Gabba. They will hope to get a further Christmas bonus on Sunday when they host the Bulls.

When the first ball of the final match of this four-ODI series is bowledone side will be attempting to answer several questions for itself whilethe other is in a position where there’s little to lose and yet plenty togain. India are still trying to find their best possible combination forthe World Cup while West Indies are just looking for a symbolic win – itwould be good to begin their campaign in the big tournament, still sometime away, with a win under the belt.The conditionsThe Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ground has produced some fierypitches in the past, with the ball darting about sharply off the seam anda predominantly mediumpace Vadodara attack, whose home ground this is,making life miserable for visitors. This is not going to be one suchpitch. Despite the intermittent rain, the pitch appears to be afairly typical one-day strip, loaded in the favour of the batsmen. Ifthere’s more rain about there could well be a case for going into the gamewith only one spinner.The personnelWest Indies have, despite going 1-2 down, enjoyed the chance to give theircricketers a run, and some have grabbed the opportunity with both hands.But, going into the final game, they have injury concerns for two vitalplayers – Dwayne Bravo (left shoulder) and Marlon Samuels (left indexfinger). Samuels was taken for precautionary x-rays on the eve of thematch but a final decision on fitness would only be taken on the morningof the match. For India, the four who missed out straightaway were SureshRaina, Gautam Gambhir, Sreesanth and Ramesh Powar.Combination conundrumEven after having narrowed their pool down to twelve, India have some trickydecisions to make before they decide who will carry drinks. Robin Uthappaand Sourav Ganguly will open, with Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid tofollow, and Yuvraj Singh, coming back from injury, must play. The factthat India are keen to find out if Irfan Pathan – a key component ofbringing flexibility and balance to the side – is back in good enoughbowling form, means that Dinesh Karthik might just miss out. If Karthik isbenched, then both spinners can play alongside Ajit Agarkar and ZaheerKhan, covering for the eventuality that Pathan’s bowling isn’t up toscratch yet. It would be hard to drop one of the spinners, for Anil Kumbleneeds a game or two under his belt before the World Cup.Momentum?With India and West Indies having played each other a fair bit in therecent months, there has been incessant chatter about who has thepsychological edge at what point and whom the momentum was with. WestIndies first had it, winning 4-1 at home, then reinforcing it when India lost to the West Indies inthe Champions Trophy in Ahmedabad. Now India are up 2-1. But, the resultof this series, coming as it does just before the World Cup, means thatthere are few brownie points to win one way or the other. The result ofwhat happened at Vadodara on January 31 will be long forgotten if and whenthe two teams were to clash again in the second half of the World Cup.Squads
India (from) 1 Sourav Ganguly, 2 Robin Uthappa, 3 Rahul Dravid(capt), 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Yuvraj Singh, 6 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), 7Ajit Agarkar, 8 Anil Kumble, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 IrfanPathan, 12 Dinesh Karthik.West Indies 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 3 RunakoMorton, 4 Brian Lara, 5 Marlon Samuels, 6 Dwayne Bravo, 7 Dwayne Smith, 8Denesh Ramdin, 9 Jerome Taylor, 10 Ian Bradshaw, 11 Daren Powell, 12 RayadEmritt, 13 Devon Smith, 14 Lendl Simmons.

Arjuna Ranatunga, Sri Lanka’s outspoken former captain, has followed his resignation as cricket committee chairman with a stinging public attack on the Jayantha Dharmadasa-led interim committee running cricket in the island.Ranatunga – joined by Sidath Wettimuny, one of Sri Lanka’s most respected former players and administrators – resigned in protest from the cricket committee, claiming that his six months in charge had been a “waste of time” because Dharmadasa’s committee routinely ignored the recommendations of the cricket committee.”We had a long term plan with the aim of developing cricket but the way things were going I decided that the atmosphere was not conducive and decided to quit,” Ranatunga told the . “It is absurd hanging on to the committee if nothing is going to happen. They only wanted to keep the big names in the committee and we had nothing to do. It has been six months of wasted time.”Ranatunga is most upset by the controversial decision to expand Sri Lanka’s already weak first-class cricket championship from 16 to 20 teams as part of a post-Tsunami compromise due to the cancellation of the promotion and relegation stages last year.”We being in the committee were not informed that the teams in the Premier League cricket tournament were going to be increased from 16 to 20. I am fully against this as at the most we need eight or 10 first-class teams.”Ranatunga also criticised the selectors, lambasting them for the appointment of Chaminda Vaas as vice-captain and several other recent selections. “I totally disagree with this set of selectors. I don’t want to interfere with selections but the system is completely wrong. There are some players who should have been in the team and the selectors must think about the 2007 World Cup. I endorsed his [Vaas’s] selection but not when a tour is on and by disheartening another player.”Ranatunga now worries for the future. “We can see from our own eyes the problems — losing to the Bangladesh Under-19 team on three occasions is not a joke. All our top coaches are in charge of teams abroad and they come and beat out national teams. It is pathetic to see this happen. “I am very sorry and dejected and hereafter I will never get involved with cricket in Sri Lanka unless I am in some position where cricket can really be promoted.”

England will be grouped with Kenya and either Sri Lanka or New Zealand in Pool 3 in the first round of the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean. The final groupings will be determined by the rankings of the teams on April 1, and there are two series to be concluded before then: Australia play New Zealand and South Africa face Zimbabwe.Sri Lanka will be in England’s pool unless Australia whitewash New Zealand in the current five-match series which they lead 2-0. But Australia, the reigning World Champions, be grouped with South Africa regardless of the result of South Africa’s series with Zimbabwe which starts this week. South Africa, currently ranked fifth, cannot move higher even if they whitewash Zimbabwe 3-0.And, although South Africa would fall down the table if beaten, a pre-seedings policy means that the World Cup groups would remain unaffected. Australia, England, India and the hosts West Indies have been pre-seeded into different pools for the World Cup because of logistics: they will attract the largest support at the venues.More teams than ever will take part in the World Cup: 16 teams will be split into four pools of four, with the top two teams progressing to the Super Eights ahead of the semi-finals. The competing teams comprise the 11 who currently have one-day international status, while the top five teams in the ICC Trophy, to be held in Ireland in July, will form the remainder.”The LG ICC ODI Championship has proved to be a robust mechanism for rating teams since it was introduced in October 2002,” said Malcolm Speed, the ICC’s chief executive, “so it’s the obvious base from which to determine the seedings for the ICC Cricket World Cup.”

What is it about The Oval and England comebacks? In 1994, Devon Malcolm returned from exile with that blistering 9 for 57 against South Africa, and then, three years later, Phil Tufnell spun England to a pride-saving win against Australia. Today it was Graham Thorpe’s turn, and in a different context, Marcus Trescothick too.Thorpe’s 124 was as eye-catching and fluent as any of his previous 11 Test hundreds. He batted as if he had never been away: pulling, cutting and driving 17 fours with precision and flair. Not even an eye-watering shot in the box from Makhaya Ntini could put him off. He may have cut a cold and isolated figure in the past, but he certainly showed some heartfelt emotion when he cut Ntini for two to notch up his belated 12th ton. It was a familiar, and welcome, sight. The bat punched in the air, the helmet peeled off to reveal the trademark ’80s-style headband, accompanied by a hug from Trescothick, who gleefully jogged from his end to welcome Thorpe back with open arms.But, on the flip side, Thorpe’s innings also hammered home the fact that he should have been there from the start of the series. Thorpe, along with the magnificent Trescothick, have hauled England back into this game, but they still need something special to win it – Thorpe’s heroics are likely to be too late now. If England wanted to be regarded as the second-best team in the world, then they needed their best available players in there from the kickoff. And Thorpe showed he is one of them just when he needed to.A former team-mate wrote last week that Thorpe would be a disruptive influence on the side: a rotten egg in Duncan Fletcher’s Team England. But what the hell, that’s secondary. He isn’t a solid, uncomplicated mucker like Anthony McGrath, or an awfully nice chap like Ed Smith, but England need him, especially now he’s in the mood for runs. And his busy singles rubbed off on his reacquainted England team-mates, as Trescothick and Alec Stewart kept the ones rolling over into the afternoon sunshine.While it’s hello again from Thorpe, it’s goodbye from Alec Stewart. The King, or even the Queen Mother, of Surrey received the royal treatment from the South Africans with a guard of honour, and from his adoring home crowd. And he rewarded them with a reminder of the flowing fours that have been a feature of his career. And if you saw them, make sure you savour them, as there is only one more innings to come, unless any rain returns to spoil the party.But don’t forget Trescothick, even though he would probably quite like you to. While this Test will be remembered for the coming of Thorpe and the going of Stewart, Trescothick will be pleased his mammoth double-hundred won’t take all the limelight. Under increasing pressure from the media for his lack of runs, a career-best 219 isn’t a bad way to respond. It was a slower, more disciplined innings by his standards, and it paid huge dividends. There were no crooked wafts outside off stump and none of those nasty nibbles which have blighted his progress against the best. Not even that baiter-in-chief Shaun Pollock could prise him out of the water today. You could almost call his innings a comeback as well – back to his best.While England grew more and more dominant, South Africa gradually deteriorated into long faces and sloppy fielding. Jacques Kallis temporarily eased the pain with Thorpe’s wicket, and Pollock with Trescothick’s, but Graeme Smith, for the first time in the series, was bereft of ideas. And not even his fridge door could inspire him this time. Day 3 Bulletin: Thorpe and Trescothick put South Africa to the sword

Scott Meuleman emulated his father and grandfather in making a first-class century as South Africa’s bowlers struggled in the cricket tour match against Western Australia at the WACA ground here today.Meuleman, 21, scored his maiden first-class century in his fifth first-class appearance for WA.At stumps, WA was 3-303 in reply to South Africa’s 367, with Murray Goodwin on 41 and Marcus North on 49.It was a hard day for the touring bowlers, especially Allan Donald, who was trying to build up some form and rhythm ahead of the first Test against Australia next week.Donald, with a new ball this morning and again in the evening, had a greenish pitch to bowl on but couldn’t trouble any of the WA batsmen.In a frustrating display, the man known as White Lightning struggled with his line and didn’t muster any real pace.The veteran paceman, who has 325 Test wickets but has been off the international scene since March, finished the day with 0-85 off 21 overs.Makhaya Ntini, whose Test spot is in jeopardy, responded by taking 2-36 in a strong display.The day belonged to Meuleman, who was making his fifth appearance for WA but with the weight of expectation on his shoulders given the deeds of his father and grandfather.Meuleman’s father Bob made 14 appearances for WA, making a highest score of 101 not out while his grandfather Ken played 117 state games for both Victoriaand WA, as well as one Test.Ken Meuleman, who once batted with Don Bradman – though not in a Test – finished his first-class career with 7855 runs at an average of 47.60 and a top score of234 not out.The latest in the Meuleman cricketing clan made his debut for WA last year but before today had made only 152 runs at an average of 19 with a high score of 46.He made 109 and featured in a partnership of 121 with captain Simon Katich (66).He was out when he edged off-spinner Claude Henderson (1-55) to wicketkeeper Mark Boucher with the score on 202.He lived a little dangerously this morning, edging more than once through the slips while a top edge off Donald, from an attempted hook, flew all the way over the boundary for six.His century featured 18 fours and a six.Ntini, who has taken only four wickets in his past four Tests, had Mike Hussey (21) caught in the slips and then removed Katich, who was caught behind when hechased a ball down the legside.It was a good display from a man under pressure – especially as he gave up only 36 runs off his 16 overs.

Debutant left-arm spinner Tendai Chisoro finished with impressive figures of 5-2-16-3 in Zimbabwe’s eight-wicket win in the first ODI against Afghanistan. His attention now shifts towards trying to keep up the good work and become a regular member of the team.”On your first match you’d like to do well and I wouldn’t have asked for something better and I’m very happy about it,” Chisoro said. “Hopefully I’ll keep doing well and be a permanent member of the team.”

We were looking to score 230-250 – Stanikzai

After his team’s eight-wicket loss, Afghanistan captain Asghar Stanikzai said that his batsmen played some “poor shots” as a result of which they made only half of the total they had in mind.
“Yes, 122 is a very low score and we thought if we would make 230-plus or 250 then it would be tough competition,” Stanikzai said. “But today was our bad day and we will try to come back strongly in the upcoming games. We have learnt a lot from this game, especially the batsmen [who] played some poor shots.
Stanikzai also credited the Zimbabwe spinners for their tight bowling.
“Today Zimbabwe have played outstanding cricket, especially [Wellington] Masakadza the left-arm spinner – he bowled brilliantly throughout his spell. They (spinners) bowled brilliantly with a tight line and length and did not let the batsmen to hit their natural shots.”

Chisoro had already been in good rhythm having played the three tour matches as part of the Zimbabwe Chairman’s XI against Afghanistan in Bulawayo. In those, he returned with figures of 3 for 43, 2 for 29 and 3 for 48 with a combined economy rate of 5.31 from the three matches. In last season’s domestic one-day tournament too, the Pro50 Championship, Chisoro had finished with an average of 25.88 and economy rate of 4.56 from eight matches.”I’ve been successful so far and I think last season I finished and did very well with the ball, and I think I have a bright future with my spin,” he said.Chisoro has not always been a spinner, though. He started out as a left-arm seamer and the switch happened not too long ago as a means to address some injury concerns.”In one of the games we played against Mountaineers Dave Houghton was our coach, he just asked me to bowl left-arm spinners in the net. And I did alright in the nets and he asked me if I could bowl them in the games – if I could bowl spin and then pace on pace-assisting wickets. So that’s how it started. I permanently tended to spin because I was struggling with my ankle and back so that’s why I’ve tended to bowl spin for good.”Chisoro’s day had not started well, though. He dropped Afghanistan batsman Najibullah Zadran while fielding at mid-off off the bowling of Wellington Masakadza. Wellington said he had forgiven his team-mate for a nervous moment in his first match.”Obviously he won’t feel good about that but playing in his first game we forgive that because it’s always hard to come in and do well especially with catches and stuff,” Wellington said.

Ian Botham in disguise
Yusuf Pathan went into the match against Bengal with a highest score of 92* and three five-fors to his name. It must be the confidence that comes with having won the World Twenty20 on your international debut, because by the time the match got over he had taken two more five-fors, scored his personal best – 183 runs in 150 balls, and had almost single-handedly taken Baroda to an innings win. When he came in to bat, Baroda were 180 for 5 in reply to Bengal’s 370 (thanks largely to his effort after Bengal were 221 for 0 at one stage), and when he left Baroda were 86 runs in the lead. Then he opened the bowling in the second innings and struck in the first over, and then four more times as Bengal were bowled out for 86.The power of one
At the Roshanara Club Ground in Delhi, Cheteshwar Pujara scored a typical grind-to-save-the-match unbeaten 148 against Delhi. Set 327 runs in a day, Saurashtra were 33 for 2 when Pujara came in to bat in the seventh over. He saw the state worsen to 107 for 8 with more than 40 overs to play. That’s when he found able support from Sandeep Jobanputra. The partnership frustrated Delhi for 157 minutes and after Jobanputra got out, Sandip Maniar came in to do more of the same. Bad light helped too, as play was called off with five overs to go and a wicket still standing. So frustrated were Delhi they bowled five different bowlers for the last five overs.A year ago, Saurashtra would have got nothing for the fight they put up in the second innings. But a change in the points system, which awards one point for drawing a match even though the team has lost on first-innings basis, meant they were also playing for something on the final day. A good suggestion, then, by Sanjay Bangar in the pre-season captains’ conference.For more of Bangar’s thoughts, read his blog on Cricinfo on the train journeys he has made while playing domestic cricket over the years.Bundle of nerves
After eight years of having excelled in Indian first-class cricket, Ramesh Powar was nervous going into a second-round match against Tamil Nadu in Chennai. Dropped from both the Indian ODI and Test sides, Powar, according to team-mates, was upset, kept to himself and often cursed his fate, the reported.None of the nerves were on show, though, once the match started as he picked nine wickets to get Mumbai an outright win against Tamil Nadu. The performance followed his impressive show against Karnataka in the first round.Although the Indian team seems to have moved on, Pravin Amre, the Mumbai coach, can’t get enough of Powar. “Experience can’t be bought in a super market,” he reminded us. Lest we forgot it since the last time he said it, which can’t be more than a fortnight ago, at the most.

300
Sreekumar Nair became the first triple-centurion for Kerala and only the second in Ranji Trophy overall since the 2000-01 season. Nair’s unbeaten 306 against Services overtook the previous best for Kerala – 262 set by Balan Pandit in 1959.The Kerala Cricket Association was quick to recognise the effort and gave him a grand cash award of Rs1 lakh. The cash award was more than thrice what Shiv Sunder Das, the last triple-centurion got from his state association – Rs30,000.And before Nair starts splurging, may we remind him that Das was fined 25% of his match fee in the very next game, because he got the sightscreen to move a few times too many.The milestone man
Nair is not the only one raking in the moolah: Pankaj Dharmani, the Punjab captain and wicketkeeper, was also awarded for becoming the highest run-getter for Punjab in Ranji Trophy. After he became richer by a lakh during the lunch break on day one against Hyderabad, he showed more of the greed by getting his 8000th run in first-class cricket, when he scored his 42nd run during the second day’s play.And with 258 dismissals to his name, a little help from his bowlers will take him to 300 soon. The PCA better start saving.Baroda outdoes BCCI
Baroda gave the BCCI a gentle wake-up call last week. While the BCCI is still inviting applications for creating and managing its website, the Baroda Cricket Association (BCA) became the third state association in India to have a website of its own. Baroda follows the example of Mumbai and Punjab state associations: Sharad Pawar, the BCCIpresident is also MCA president, and MP Pandove, the BCCI joint secretary, is also the PCA joint secretary.We’re right behind you, captain
“Laxmi Ratan Shukla, incidentally, opened his account as a skipper. Having got out for two ducks in his previous two knocks, Shukla in his third innings as Bengal captain lasted two balls and scored one.” Thus read the Telegraph‘s match report after Bengal lost to Baroda. They are not missing anything, are the Telegraph?

Even before the match started, the paper had labelled it as a “battle of coaches”, keeping the captain aside. Paras Mhambrey, the Baroda coach, had coached Bengal to two finals over the last two year. And the Bengali papers had gone as far as to suggest that Bengal were up against the “Mhambrey factor”. Mhambrey had chosen a spin-friendly track and eventually the Baroda spinners did get 15 wickets, they even took the new ball in the second innings.Quote hanger
Turned out Karnataka coach Vijay Bharadwaj’s caution was unfounded as Karnataka beat Himachal Pradesh easily by an innings and 126 runs.