Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya speaking after a hard day’s work in which his side took six Indian wickets in perfect batting conditions praised his bowlers for bowling tightly. "It’s not easy to get wickets, but we had to bowl a good line and length. The bowlers did just that," he said.When asked whether he expected to finish off the Indian innings on the fourth day itself, he said, "No. I never expected to finish them off today. It’s difficult to get them out, but the bowlers bowled really well."Speaking on the conditions in middle he said: "It’s very hard. The bowlers had to have patience. Luckily we got a bid lead in the first innings. We just bowled at the right line and allowed the batsmen to make the mistakes."Most of the Indian batsmen got starts, but failed to convert them into big scores. "They are getting out after getting good starts and you can’t afford to do that. I think it’s the lack of concentration. We were, however, putting them under a lot of pressure as well"He singled out Rahul Dravid’s wicket as the crucial one, "That was the important wicket. Rahul (Dravid) is batting well at the moment and he’s the man we had to get out early."

The England selectors have been forced to make two additions to the England squad scheduled to leave for the short tour of Zimbabwe on Wednesday (26th September).Leicestershire pace bowler James Ormond had already withdrawn in order to allow time for his injured knee to recover before the trip to India in November. He is suffering from patella tendonitis. Last week, Yorkshire all-rounder Craig White, whose season was severely hampered by injury, twisted his right knee in training and will also miss the trip.Into the party come Yorkshire fast bowler Chris Silverwood and Graham Thorpe, the Surrey batsman who gets an early chance to return to international cricket having been left out of the original touring party. It was feared that he would need longer to recover from the broken bone in his hand sustained at Lord’s in the Second Test against Australia, but he has now been deemed fit.Silverwood for Ormond is a straight bowler for bowler replacement, whereas some questions might be asked about Thorpe’s substitution for all-rounder White. However, chairman of selectors David Graveney said that there had been plans to utilise White’s experience high in the order, where he has enjoyed considerable success for Yorkshire, and so this was an ideal opportunity to bring Thorpe back to add similar experience.Thorpe himself was delighted with the news and is eager to take the chance to get back into the swing of cricket. Had he not gone on this trip he would have spent the time getting back to full fitness. In Zimbabwe he will be able to do that in far more meaningful circumstances with a bat in his hand.England’s other injury doubt, Andrew Flintoff, has convinced the management that he will be fit to take his place in the party. Extensive examinations have revealed that his injured right thumb is not broken and he proved his fitness by having a net at Lilleshall on Saturday, supervised by England’s assistant coach for the tour, Tim Boon.This gave an opportunity for Boon to confirm that Silverwood was fit as well. The Yorkshireman bowled at Flintoff, confirming that he has fully recovered from a rib problem that troubled him during the latter part of the season just passed.The party is now back to a full-strength complement of 16 for the five one-day internationals and the warm-up match that precedes the serious part of the two and a half week itinerary.

Nashua WP lost the toss at Newlands this morning and are fielding in their Supersport Series match against De Beers Griqua Diamonds.WP decided on a dual spin attack of Claude Henderson and Paul Adams this morning.

The touring English team will take on an Indian Board President’s XI, ina three-day match at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium in Hyderabad,starting on Thursday.Most of the top English batsmen have run into some good form in theirlast game, played in Mumbai. Two batsmen who didn’t have a good gameagainst Mumbai Cricket Association Board President’s XI are Mark Butcherand Michael Vaughan and they would be hoping to use this match to regaintheir touch.The English squad had a net session in the morning. They have though notgiven any clue about the composition of their final eleven. The latestaddition to the squad, Andrew Flintoff, has not arrived in Hyderabad andlooks set to play only in the match against India ‘A’ at Jaipur. Englandwill possibly play wicketkeeper Warren Hegg ahead of James Foster.The pitch at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium looks to be a sleepingbeauty. The young fast bowler from Kerala, Tinu Yohannan lamented,”There is not even a blade of grass on this track.” Meanwhile, theweather here is crisp and slightly warm, nothing like the sultryconditions one encounters in the coastal cities like Mumbai and Chennai.Madan Lal, the Manager of the Board President’s XI, who incidentally isalso a national selector, was at the nets with his boys in theafternoon. He had a close look at Rohan Gavaskar and Murali Kartik amongothers. Speaking to , Madan Lal said that the finaleleven had been more or less decided, and Rakesh Patel, Irfan Pathanand RV Dhruv will miss out. The team is still awaiting the arrival ofoff-spinner Sarandeep Singh and the medium-pacer from Jammu and Kashmir,Surendra Singh.Tinu Yohannan was working up impressive pace in the nets; the tall andlean fast bowler has caught the attention of Madan Lal, a former Indiafast bowler himself. Madan Lal, as a matter of fact , shared ten secondinnings wickets with Kapil Dev against Keith Fletcher’s England in theMumbai Test and took India to a Test Victory, some 19 years ago.Madan Lal was of the opinion that none of the players are on trial inHyderabad, “Sarandeep Singh has been amongst wickets this season and hisform has been phenomenal, there is a good chance that he will be thethird spinner in the Indian Test team against England.”The former India coach was of the opinion that Rohan Gavaskar is a verygood batsman and it is a matter of time before he starts scoring heavilyand is in contention for a place in the national squad. Sridharan Sriramwho had a wonderful time with the bat against a visiting Sri Lankan XIin the MJ Gopalan Trophy will also try to press hard for the opener’sslot in the national side. Madan Lal says, “The opening position and anextra spin bowler’s slot has been vacant in the national side for quitea while now, it is for the players to grab the opportunity.”Pankaj Dharmani and Murali Kartik will have to prove their mettleagainst the visitors to be in national reckoning, given the competitionfor positions in the national squad.The controversy surrounding the disciplinary action taken against sixIndian players in South Africa has evoked strong emotions in this sportloving city too.Incidentally, Mike Denness the ICC match referee who is caught in theeye of the storm in South Africa, played in a three-day match againstIndian Board Pesident’s XI in 1972 (Dec 2-4) at Lal Bahadur ShastriStadium in Hyderabad. In those days, the top players in the countryrepresented the Board President’s XI and a 22-year-old Sunil ManoharGavaskar scored 86 to take Board President’s XI to 317/5 decl. In reply,the England XI made 321/7 declared, Denness making a sparkling 95 and DLAmiss making 81 against a bowling attack that comprised of Abid Ali(2/74) and EAS Prasanna (3/109).England (from): Nasser Hussain (capt), Usman Afzaal, Martyn Ball, MarkButcher, Marcus Trescothick, Graham Thorpe, Michael Vaughan, MarkRamprakash, Richard Dawson, James Foster, Ashley Giles, Warren Hegg,Richard Johnson, Matthew Hoggard, James Ormond, Craig White.Board President’s XI (from): Jacob Martin (capt), Irfan Pathan, RakeshPatel, Wasim Jaffer, Sridharan Sriram, Dinesh Mongia, Pankaj Dharmani,Sanjay Bangar, Murali Kartik, Rohan Gavaskar, Tinu Yohannan, SharandeepSingh, Surender Singh.

The West Indies have three matches to at least put a littlesilver lining on what has been an especially dark tour ofSri Lanka, collectively and for captain Carl Hooperspecifically.They must beat both Sri Lanka tomorrow and Zimbabwe onSunday in Kandy in their remaining qualifying round matchesof the LG Abans triangular One-Day series and Sri Lankaagain in the final in a day-night match at the PremadasaStadium here on Wednesday to carry back anything but painfulmemories from another overseas campaign.Contrary to earlier reports, victory in both weekend matchesis mandatory to go through. Under the playing conditions,teams tied on points at the end are separated first by theresults of their qualifying round matches against each otherand then net run-rate.In other words, even if the West Indies repeat their earliertriumph over Sri Lanka but lose again to Zimbabwe, it wouldbe Zimbabwe for the final.Sri Lanka are already through on the strength of the twobonus points earned from their convincing results againstZimbabwe.The effect of such an outcome on Hooper personally is nothard to imagine. As he has repeatedly observed, he regardedthe series of three Tests as the gauge that would measurewhere the team stood following the encouraging tour ofZimbabwe and Kenya four months earlier.He has been at pains to condition the successes in Africa byreferring always with respect to the quality of theopposition. Sri Lanka, stronger, more experienced and withhome advantage, obviously offered a more realisticassessment.What followed was another overseas disaster, the latestclean sweep by the opposition to follow those by Pakistan,South Africa, New Zealand and Australia in the last fouryears.The submission to a Zimbabwe side without several of itsmajor players in the first match of the triangular serieswas a further setback.Tuesday night’s hard-fought upset over Sri Lanka was atimely comeback that kept alive hopes of belatedconsolation.It is an opportunity for Hooper to contribute moresubstantially than he has so far done as a player.Only Wasim Akram and Steve Waugh of contemporary playershave been in international cricket longer than his 14 yearshe made his Test debut against in Bombay on this very day in1987 and few are blessed with his natural ability.Yet his true potential has never been realised. Hints,against South Africa and Zimbabwe, that it finally wouldwith the responsibility of captaincy on return from hisself-imposed exile have proved an illusion here.His Test series average of 27.83 and the mode of hisdismissals in key innings were unsettling reminders of theunderachievement of such a obviously talented cricketer.The end of his innings against Sri Lanka on Tuesday typifiedthe flawed judgement that has been his undoing so often overthe years.He was well set with 29 in the 41st over and was battingwith Ramnaresh Sarwan who was also going comfortably in astand of 58.The total was 209 and Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lanka’s keybowler, had just come back for his last three overs. Onething was clear: given the West Indies’ lengthy tail, thecaptain’s presence was crucial to ensure the total of around270 that beckoned.Instead, Hooper stepped forward to Muralitharan’s third balland chipped it high to long-off, as if he was giving prematch catching practice. The stroke was as improper as theexample it set.Within a couple of overs, Sarwan and Marlon Samuels followedsuit and suddenly West Indies were battling to bat out theirallocation as they eked out 41 from the last ten overs.If the charge of a lack of commitment could once be madeagainst Hooper, not any more. His comportment since hisreturn has shown an appreciation of what the captaincy meansbut there hasn’t been a corresponding responsibility in hisperformance.For someone with his experience, he must know he has threematches left here to put things right.

Somerset all-rounder Ian Blackwell is taking his preparations for the new season very seriously indeed. In addition to being on a strict diet since the end of last season, he has also given up drinking alcohol completely.Since the end of the festive season, during which he admits he “had a bit of a blow out” he hasn’t had a single drink.”This is a very serious business, and I’ve made a firm resolve that I will stick to it at least until the season begins and even beyond, although it might be difficult if I get a century in my first innings!” he told me.The former Derbyshire player enjoyed his best ever season in 2001, scoring nearly 800 championship runs, including four centuries, and taking 18 wickets. In addition he scored over 400 runs and took 12 wickets in the Norwich Union League.The 23-year-old told me: “Following the end of last season I trained twice every day before I went off to play for England in the Hong Kong Sixes. Since then I’ve continued to work to the same regime with Darren Veness and Andy Hurry, and I now run regularly.”I want to play for England so for the next three months it will be hard work, but it will be worth it because hopefully I will see the benefits for the next 15 years. It’s been a bit tough to begin with but it’s getting easier every day.”As an incentive, Somerset Chief Executive Peter Anderson has made a side wager with “Blackie” that he will be fitter than the player when the start of the new season comes. The club’s fitness instructors have been charged with setting an appropriate test that can be administered to find the winner.The prize for the winner will be a meal out for four at the other’s expense, and when I spoke to them recently both parties were confident of winning!

A Deodhar Trophy match between East Zone and North Zone at Ludhiana that started two hours 20 minutes late was abandoned at 2 p.m. due to rain, the points being equally shared between the two sides.East Zone, winning the toss, put their opponents in to bat. North Zone’s innings was restricted to a maximum of 33.3 overs due to the truncated nature of the game. As the situation warranted, the batsmen threw everything at the leather during that innings. Manish Sharma, coming off an unbeaten 99 in his previous match, made 64 off 74 deliveries, striking 10 fours before becoming the third wicket to fall.Mithun Manhas hit an unbeaten 22 off 19 deliveries that, along with a couple of other scores in the 20s from the middle order, took North’s total to 179/5 in their allotted overs.Another rain interruption revised the target for East Zone to 167 off 31 overs, a situation that guaranteed some exciting cricket. But when East were on 25/2 after eight overs, Ashish Nehra taking both wickets, the game was stopped due to further rain.

Oh dear, what can the matter be?For a nation which boasts of a rich cricketing tradition, Barbados are seemingly quickly trying to establish the same dubious records that the West Indies have set in recent years, especially on overseas tours.Seven hours after the West Indies sank to their 24th defeat in their last 27 Tests outside of the Caribbean, Barbados succumbed to a second successive Busta Cup defeat here yesterday in a match they subsided for less than 180 in either innings.Statisticians will have to turn back the pages several years to find such an instance. They will also have a hard time finding an occurrence of Barbados losing two successive first-class matches in the same season.And this defeat, inside three days, follows that against the Windward Islands last weekend when they were beaten by a team that had not toppled them at this level in 19 years.Over the last three days at Sabina Park, it was clear why the defending Cup champions were a distant second to Jamaica, the reigning Shield champions.We didn’t apply ourselves, captain Philo Wallace said after Barbados had crashed to their lowest total of the season in an innings that lasted only three-and-a half-hours and 46.3 overs.We played the extra batsman and it didn’t work and I think we are still searching for the right combinations to come up with the results we are looking for.Barbados, faced with a first innings deficit of 172 after enjoying a good first session in which they took Jamaica’s last six wickets for 75, were undone by a combination of disciplined bowling, a few rash strokes and maybe a couple of decisions at which they showed their displeasure.Kurt Wilkinson hit the topscore of 35 before he went in bizarre circumstances, while Sulieman Benn weighed in with 32 not out, but there was little else from anyone.This Barbados team, missing the experience and skill of some of their leading batsmen for varying reasons, depends heavily on Wallace, but even before the bowlers could remove their boots, he was heading back to the pavilion for a fifth-ball duck.For the second time in the match, the Barbados captain was undone by a peach of a delivery, one of fullish length from Laurie Williams which dipped and swung through the air at the last moment.We have young, inexperienced batsmen who are still learning the trade and we have three senior players. I am one at the top. I didn’t get any runs in this game, so I, too, have to take some responsibility for not getting among the runs, Wallace said.At the end of the day, we didn’t bat particularly well and we are still not taking wickets at the rate that I would like.Williams, who was given a rare chance to use the new ball, also responded by gaining the wicket of Wallace’s opening partner Shirley Clarke, lbw on the back foot to a break-back.With Wallace out of the way, Barbados would have been relying on Floyd Reifer and Courtney Browne to carry the fight, but once both were despatched within an hour-and-a-quarter after lunch, it was obvious the match would not go into the fourth day.Reifer fell to a loose stroke from a loose ball in the first over of a new spell from Darren Powell. A ball wide of off stump induced Reifer into an attempted cut which he edged to the keeper.Browne was prised out by a big inswinging yorker from Jermaine Lawson, but he might have done better had he attempted to block it rather than play the off-drive he inside-edged into his stumps.It was not yet 2 p.m. and the die had been cast.Barbados, 60 for four, rapidly deteriorated to 85 for eight in the first completed over after tea.Dwayne Smith succumbed to another soft stroke, providing a return catch to Gareth Breese, but poor Kurt Wilkinson could not be faulted for his freak dismissal.He flicked Breese into the chin of Leon Garrick at forward short-leg and the alert wicket-keeper Keith Hibbert dived to take the rebound. There was, however, a feeling in some quarters that the ball might have struck the turf before it hit Garrick.A hobbling Martin Nurse came out just before tea with an injured hamstring, but lasted only one ball which he prodded to silly-point to complete a disastrous match in which he bagged a pair. His injury seems almost certain to rule him out of Barbados’ fourth round match against Trinidad and Tobago, starting Friday in Port-of-Spain.Both Ryan Austin and Ian Bradshaw went the run-out route.In the morning period, Barbados were finally rewarded for their persistence of the previous day when they made early inroads into Jamaica’s batting.Tino Best, wicketless in an impressive six-over burst on Saturday when the Jamaicans in the stands were urging him on, suffered from early blows before claiming four wickets with awesome pace.Two of those scalps were catches courtesy of substitute Antonio Thomas. The first, which accounted for Breese, was at third man from an upper-cut, and the second, from Robert Samuels’ top-edged hook, was a spectacular effort, hauled in inches from the ground with a despairing dive after running in from the long-leg fence.

The true strength of Pakistan’s line-up for the World Cup was at test against South Africa, and they fared poorly in the one-day portion of the tour. After a very successful tour in Zimbabwe, where the team made a clean sweep in both the series, the real challenge was South Africa, one of the top teams in international cricket. The main problem facing the Pakistan management is team combinations, with doubts about who to play and who to drop.The Zimbabwe ODI series was ideal to help blood the openers, a chance to cash in against somewhat weak bowling, and Saleem Elahi and Taufeeq Umar did exactly that. It appeared as if the opening combination may have finally settled.Sadly, the South African pitches exposed reality very quickly. Taufeeq Umar, though highly talented, looked totally out of sorts, while Saleem Elahi has a terrible habit of playing with the angled bat, making him a major candidate for a catch in the slips.Youhana, Inzamam and Younis Khan on the other hand, justify their place in the batting order, and are bound to fire sooner or later. That leaves the opening slots up for grabs.With Faisal Iqbal looking in good touch, he deserves an opportunity, and Afridi is desperately needed for his all-round skill. Pakistan does need some aggression at the top of the order to try throwing opposition bowlers off their line and length. Aside from that, Pakistan desperately needs a sixth bowler, as one saw in the first one-dayer, when Razzaq was not in form.The question however remains, which player is to be selected as the wicket-keeper for the World Cup. Rashid Latif although brilliant with the gloves, just isn’t a competent enough batsman, which means it is necessary for Kamran Akmal to be inducted into the team. The Pakistan think tank should seriously consider having Kamran Akmal in the lower middle order to lend much greater balance to the side.On the other hand, the bowling department does not require too many changes, with strike bowler Shoaib Akhtar likely to be fit, could be swapped with Mohammed Sami in the less important games and Sami could also come in to give some rest to Waqar and Wasim. Thus Wasim, Waqar, Saqlain and Razzaq are automatic selections in the squad. Although it was disappointing to see Razzaq a bit rusty after a long lay off, he can be excused. He however should not be asked to bowl at the death because Wasim and Shoaib Akhtar are fitter candidates for that job. Special mention must be made of the superb effort by Wasim Akram to get back into form. Hhe did prove that in the early games in South Africa, till he was hurt, and that is exactly why he is regarded as the best bowler in contemporary cricket. Waqar too led his team from the front in the later games to grab key early wickets and one hopes he continues to show a rejuvenated effort.

New Zealand are paying the price for their earlier success with the National Bank Series already in the bag.Captain Stephen Fleming said after tonight’s second to last ball thriller won by India by one wicket in Auckland that the New Zealanders had lost their oomph in the field and the bowling disciplines that served the side so well earlier in the series had departed them.He said it wasn’t a conscious thing but he felt the players knowing the series was in the bag had started looking toward the World Cup and that had resulted in a drop-off in performance.The positive to come out of the loss was that it had exposed more players to a last-over bowling situation and that could have benefits in similar circumstances at the World Cup.But he said it was the fielding that was disappointing because it was an area the side prided itself on and it was an area in which it would have to be much more successful if it was to perform well at the World Cup.”We know our fielding has to be top notch to beat sides,” he said.It was similar for the bowlers who, he felt, were in a “holding pattern”.There were disciplines to what the side was attempting to do and the loss of touch was more mental than physical.”We are in danger of losing our momentum,” he said.”There are some signs there that we are coming to the end of a campaign that we have won but we have got to be very sharp in the last game to go 5-2 up. We’re just missing on lines, we’re a little loose with the bat and they are signs that the edge is just off a little,” he said.The side was missing Jacob Oram who had performed a good role for the side with his bowling and who had been a good foil for the bowlers at the other end.”We gifted the game,” he said of New Zealand’s inability to take a fifth win from the series.Fleming had been happy with New Zealand’s score of 199 for nine wickets and said he could probably defend that nine out of 10 times.”We felt that was a very good score on that wicket,” he said.The side had responded well in the last few overs when they crept back into the game, but Fleming said the questions they were asking of themselves was where was the intensity in the previous 40 overs.”That is what we are focusing on now. We can operate pretty well when the team is under pressure, but creating that pressure is the key thing,” he said.