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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.

Northern Districts is top of the Shell Trophy table after two rounds of the competition, the only team with a hundred per cent record.An eight wicket victory over Central Districts was completed shortly after lunch on the final day. It was ND’s seventh successive victory in the Shell Trophy.CD resumed this morning on 180 for eight, a lead of 97.Any lingering hopes of victory for CD were ended when the last two wickets managed only two runs between them. The first wicket was the run out of Ewan Thompson following hesitation over a short single, a disastrous start to the day.Needing exactly 100 to win, ND lost two early wickets to left-armer Thompson. Mark Bailey and Neal Parlane remained together for the rest of the innings, Bailey finishing one short of his half century.A note of drama was added at the end, as thunder and lightening appeared around the Taupo area and rain began to fall. It is possible that had Parlane not hit the winning runs when he did, a long delay might have ensued.ND Coach Chris Kuggeleijn was understandably happy with his team’s performance. He cited the performances of Neal Parlane with the bat and Grant Bradburn with the ball as being key to ND’s success, but stressed that it was a good all round team performance.”All the bowlers got wickets and most of the batsmen contributed too.”Kuggeleijn’s only worry was that the thunder and rain would end the game before the win had been sealed.ND’s next Shell Trophy game is against Canterbury in Rangiora. As Kuggeleijn says, “that’ll be a big one.”The decisive passage of the game was CD’s descent from 240 for two to 289 all out on the first day. Kuggeleijn’s judgment that CD left themselves at least seventy short on first innings was proved correct. The visitors wasted the advantage given them by some top class batting by Ben Smith and Mark Douglas, whose 130 was the only century of the match.ND had to fight for its lead, having given away wickets early on. Neal Parlane played a disciplined innings of 89, well supported by Grant Bradburn. Even so, it was left to the resilient ND tail to take the team to a significant lead.CD made heavy work of batting in the second innings, falling exactly a hundred short of coach Dipak Patel’s idea of a fourth innings target that would test the home side.Apart from the batting of Douglas and Smith there were a number of positives for CD to take away from the game. Its young attack stuck to its task well, with off-spinner Haydn Morgan impressive on debut.Ewan Thompson showed himself to be an accurate fast medium bowler who has the ability to bring the ball back into right-handed batsmen. Michael Mason proved that it is an unfair world by bowling superbly for one wicket.The game at Rangiora will be Grant Bradburn’s one hundredth for ND at first class level. Later this season he will expect to break Andy Roberts’ record of 104 appearances. His contributions in this match were typical of his career as a whole; unflashy, understated, but vital.His off-spin slowed CD down when Smith and Douglas were racing away, while his first innings partnership with Neal Parlane was the core of ND’s first innings. Three wickets followed in the second innings.Bradburn takes the unofficial CricInfo MVP award.This has been a fine game of cricket in which Central Districts has shown itself to be a talented young team. But the experience and all round talent of Northern Districts was decisive in the end. It will be hard for any of the other five teams to beat them to the Shell Trophy this season.

Rangers won 2-1 in their last Premiership match ahead of the international break on Sunday as the Ibrox giants remain in the race to win the title this season.

The Gers are currently three points behind their arch-rivals in the table as it stands and face off against them in their next league outing in just under two weeks.

Gio van Bronckhorst’s side let a lead slip at the Premiership summit in recent months but still have a chance to turn it back around before the end of the campaign.

Difference-making

One player who played a part in the club dropping off the top of the table was veteran goalkeeper Allan McGregor, who has been at fault in the league of late.

Ross Wilson played a disasterclass in January as he failed to provide van Bronckhorst with a replacement for the experienced Scot. The club were linked with a pre-contract swoop for Benjamin Siegrist, who could have then been signed on a bargain deal in the winter market, but failed to secure a deal for his services.

He has only made one error leading to a goal in the entire campaign for Dundee United and has averaged an excellent SofaScore rating of 6.96 across 27 appearances – making 3.0 saves per game at a success rate of 72%.

McGregor has, meanwhile, made three errors leading to goals and one error leading to a shot whilst averaging a SofaScore rating of 6.80. He has made 1.8 saves per game at a success rate of 68%, which suggests that the United man has been the superior – less error-prone – shot-stopper out of the two.

Although, it is also worth noting that these statistics do not encompass all aspects of goalkeeping. For example, Dundee FC’s goal on Sunday would not go down as a direct mistake by the 40-year-old despite some fans potentially seeing it as one as he watched a cross sail across his six-yard box before being bundled in as he watched on.

The ex-Hull ‘keeper’s failure to keep out a low shot at his near post in a recent 2-2 draw with Motherwell – costing the Gers two points – would also not count as an error, despite his mistake letting the side down.

Although, another game in which he cost the club two points did consist of two ‘errors’ leading to goals. He gifted two strikes to Ross County in a 3-3 draw at the end of January, which suggests that Rangers could be four points better off – and top of the table – with a better goalkeeper between the sticks.

This is why it was a disaster from Wilson in opting against a deal for Siegrist and deciding to keep 40-year-old McGregor as the club’s number one in both the Europa League and Premiership, as his displays in the latter have been letting the side down.

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The statistics suggest that the 6 foot 4 Swiss stopper would have been a difference-making signing that would have the Gers at the top of the table, as his form for United suggests that he would not have made the point-costing errors that the current Gers first-choice has made.

A costly one that got away but they will have the chance to swoop the SPFL gem, who Micky Mellon dubbed a “monster” and “one of the best in the country”, up for nothing at the end of the campaign if he does not sign a contract extension with Dundee United.

AND in other news,  Gvb must brutally axe £14k-p/w Rangers liability, he’s one of Wilson’s big “let downs”…

ScorecardScotland have a scent of victory against Namibia in Windhoek despite a career-best six-wicket haul from Kola Burger. Half centuries from Fraser Watts and Qasim Sheikh enabled Scotland to reach a lead of 236, then John Blain struck three blows late in the day to leave the home side struggling.After an opening day when 20 wickets fell it looked as though a similar pattern would unfold again as Douglas Lockhart fell in the first over. Watts and Sheikh then produced the first period of the match where the bat dominated, adding 111 in 41 overs.But the fall of Watts, lbw to Burger for 54, began another collapse as nine wickets went for 100 with Burger claiming the key duo of Ryan Watson and Gavin Hamilton in consecutive balls. Craig Wright, at No. 9, was the only other batsman to reach double figures.There was something in the pitch throughout, so chasing 237 was never going to be an easy task and Namibia made an unsteady start. Blain immediately set to work adding to his first-innings haul of 5 for 48 dispatching both openers and Gerrie Snyman with just 16 on the board. Sarel and Louis Burger managed to negotiate the final passage of play to leave a tense third day in prospect.

The Sri Lankan Under-19s are scheduled to play the U-19 squads from Bangladesh and India at home in July and August. They will first play Bangladesh in two U-19 Test matches before India arrive to take part in a triangular tournament after which they will also play two Tests against Sri Lanka.The Sri Lankan U-19 team, led by Sachith Pathirana, recently won a one-day tournament in Malaysia against the hosts and England.Ashley de Silva, the Sri Lanka U-19 manager, said that the focus of selection for the matches against India and Bangladesh would be on players who were eligible to play in the next U-19 World Cup which will be held in Malaysia in February 2008.

Sanath Jayasuriya – to return or not to return? © Getty Images

Sanath Jayasuriya has insisted that the president of Sri Lanka played no role in his decision to end his retirement from Test cricket.Jayasuriya, the 36-year-old former Sri Lanka captain, who arrived in England on Saturday, could only watch from beyond the boundary at Lord’s while his erstwhile team-mates followed-on in the first Test after being bowled out for just 192 in reply to England’s first innings 551 for 6 declared.It is less than a month since Jayasuriya said he was quitting Test cricket in order to concentrate on one-day internationals in the build-up to next year’s World Cup in the Caribbean. But he insisted his decision to make himself available again for the five-day game was down to the newly-appointed chairman of selectors Asantha de Mel and not Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka’s president .”Asantha de Mel is the chairman of selectors and he was the one who contacted me,” Jayasuriya said. “He was the one who changed my mind and after discussions with various people involved in my career I thought if the team and my country need me then my services are available.”Jayasuriya added that Tom Moody, Sri Lanka’s coach, was fully supportive of his change of heart even though Moody appeared to have played little role in his decision. “I had a long discussion with Tom and explained I wanted to return and he was alright” said Jayasuriya, while Moody commented: “Sanath’s obviously had some deep thought about his decision to retire. If he’s fit and back in form, it can’t be a bad thing can it?”He’s a devastating player, he has been for Sri Lanka for many, many years. He’s obviously still a very key component to our one-day campaign and he was due here anyway in two or three weeks’ time for the one-dayers.”Him coming early, the positive is that he’s going to get used to English conditions a little bit earlier for the one-day series if not before then.”Jayasuriya is set to play in Sri Lanka’s next match, a four-day game against Sussex at Hove starting on Thursday. But he was uncertain if he would play in the second Test of the three-match series which is due to get underway at Edgbaston on May 25. “I’m here to play the next tour match and we’ll have to see how it goes from there,” Jayasuriya explained. “I haven’t played the longer version of the game for a few months now and I will need to settle in here because conditions are different.”However, with opener Jehan Mubarak making 0 and 6 at Lord’s, Jayasuriya could be back in Test action sooner than he thought, although he said he would not like to take the place of a younger player.

Shoaib Akhtar: given a central contract despite injury-plagued year © Getty Images

The Pakistan Cricket Board has renewed the central contracts of all 17 national players for another year – and added a further three to its roster. Shoaib Akhtar is one of the players who has signed. A further 13 players have been offered retainers for a year, which will take effect from July 1. These players have been offered the contracts as it is believed they have the potential to represent Pakistan in the future.Pakistan’s top 20 cricketers were given a monthly salary of around $1,200 to $3500 under the first-ever national contracts introduced last year which expired after the team’s West Indies tour earlier this month. But contracts of all unfit players or those under scrutiny for illegal bowling actions would be reviewed after six months.Shoaib Akhtar, who missed both West Indies and Indian tours due to fitness problems also got a renewed contract, ending speculation he could be dropped from the list of contracted players. Akhtar was the last player to sign the contract after he raised certain objections over personal sponsorship.Inzamam-ul Haq, Yousuf Youhana, Abdul Razzaq, and Akhtar were offered A-category contracts and received a monthly salary of 200,000 rupees (around $3,500). Players in the B category got 125,000 rupees (around $2,100 dollars) while players in the C category received 75,000 rupees (around $1,200) a month.The contracted players were judged by points scored on their performance in international matches. “The committee has also decided to add some more points, like five points will be given on scoring a century in a Test or one-day match,” said a spokesman. A bowler will get five points on getting five wickets in a Test or four wickets in a one-day match while a fielder will get the same number of points on taking four or more catches in a match, he added. “Achieving a world record in any form will give a player ten points while five points will be given on achieving national record in any form.”The renewed contracts start from July 10. The Pakistan team now has a lay off until late October when they host England for three Tests and five one-day games.Players awarded central contracts
Inzamam-ul-Haq, Yousaf Youhana, Younis Khan, Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Sami, Danish Kaneria, Kamran Akmal, Asim Kamal, Salman Butt, Naveed-ul-Hasan Rana, Yasir Hameed, Shoaib Akhtar, Arshad Khan, Shabbir Ahmad, Rao Iftikhar, Umar Gul, Bazid Khan, Imran Farhat.Players awarded retainers
Misbah-ul-Haq, Hasan Raza, Faisal Iqbal, Muhammad Asif, Yasir Arafat, Najaf Shah, Mohammad Khalil, Shahid Nazir, Mohammad Irshad, Imran Tahir, Zulqarnain Haider, Asher Zaidi, Taufeeq Umar.

Available as DVD and VHS, running time 80 mins approx

Nasser Hussain used to be regarded as an angry young man. How times have changed. Now he is generally regarded as an intelligent, respected man of substance following his four-year – and reasonably successful – stint as as England captain.This visual account of Hussain, out at the same time as Stewart’s autobiography, allows a comparison between the two and it would not be unfair to Stewart to suggest that Hussain is destined to remain the more interesting character, likely to be written about and analysed for years to come.Focusing on his career’s main turning points – starting off as a spinner with England prospects, his double century against Australia at Edgbaston, England’s successful tours of the subcontinent and unsuccessful tour of Australia – the film offers a decent insight with lengthy, instructive interviews with the man himself, his father, brother and sister and former England captains David Gower, Mike Atherton and Alec Stewart.Apart from the footage of Hussain out with team-mates at a restaurant in Sri Lanka, which resembles the painful humour of TV sitcom The Office, this account of Hussain’s life is well-packaged and penetrative. It leaves you waiting for a substantial autobiography which surely must be just around the corner.

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.

Karachi, Nov 25: Karachi Whites moved another step towards the finalof the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Grade-I Cricket Championship witha six-wicket triumph over Sargodha at the Sports Stadium in Sargodhaon Saturday.According to a message received here, pace trio of Mohammad ZahidJunior (4-23), Mohammad Hasnain (3-12) and the explosive MohammadSami, who claimed three for 53 to complete a match bag of eight for105 routed Sargodha for just 102 in their second innings.Requiring 54 for their sixth victory, Karachi Whites, who had earlierdeclared their first innings at their overnight score, reached theirtarget for the loss of four wickets.