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It was the perfect one-day performance by Pakistan. If Bob Woolmer had written an over-by-over script for how this match should go, he would have struggled to come up something to beat this display.For a start, they put in a clinical batting performance. It isn’t often that such an adjective is used for Pakistan, but today their discipline stood out as much as their flair, and no-one epitomised it more than Salman Butt, who recorded his second one-day century against India in four matches. In both the earlier matches, Butt had thrown it away attempting audacious strokes after getting starts; here, free of the pressure of batting in a run-chase, he did the sheet-anchor’s job superbly, eschewing risks, finding the gaps, and running like a hare.Butt’s exclusion from the side for the last two Tests was one of the more inexplicable decisions taken by the Pakistan team-management in recent times, but here was proof, once again, of his ability. Performance in a one-dayer might not necessarily indicate much about a player’s Test-match ability, but he has shown his skills in the longer version too, against Australia, no less. Pakistan’s selectors would be fools not to give him an extended run in both forms of the game.For a long time in Pakistan’s innings, it seemed they had missed a trick by not forcing the pace earlier. The first 27 overs yielded just 14 fours and 134 runs in all, fractionally less than five an over. Going by the trend in the series, that was well below par. However, by constantly nudging the singles and taking no chances, Butt and Shoaib Malik laid a solid foundation upon which an explosive middle and lower order could build on – the last 23 overs disappeared for 185, with 16 fours and three sixes.The real surprise of the day, though, came from Pakistan’s bowlers. Pummelled to all parts in the earlier games, here they obtained pace, bounce, and, quite amazingly, appreciable seam movement, something they’d struggled to achieve throughout the Test series. Naved-ul-Hasan, another highly under-rated player, performed like a champion, striking the early blows from which there was no comeback for India. The curator at the Keenan Stadium deserves plenty of praise for preparing an excellent pitch. It had pace and bounce to facilitate strokeplay, but it also offered joy to the pace bowlers who were prepared to bend their backs – how often do you see Rahul Dravid get out fending a short ball in Tests, leave alone ODIs – and to spinners, who obtained turn and bounce.One-dayers have been reduced to a bowler-bashing extravaganza far too often, rewarding batsmen with little skill. Pitches like this one redress the balance somewhat, but the sad part is that this track might be the anomaly – Ahmedabad, Kanpur and Delhi, the venue for the last three games, are all likely to be heartbreakers for bowlers.For the Indians, this result, especially their debacle with the bat, was a disaster waiting to happen. The 2-0 lead they held coming into this match owed a great deal to Virender Sehwag, Dravid and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, but their huge scores had hidden the failures of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif – the four had contributed 53 from eight innings in the series before this match. It was only inevitable that the three Indian batting stars would fail at some point – they did today, and the rest of the cast were found badly wanting.Not only was the Indian batting effort lamentable, they were also shockingly lackadaisical in the field, bringing to light once again a problem which keeps rearing its head, and about which the team management seems to be doing absolutely nothing. With nine overs to go and just 13 minutes to bowl them in, Sehwag ambled towards the umpire to hand over his hat, while the rest of the fielders walked towards their fielding positions without the slightest bit of urgency. The stifling heat is clearly a factor, but that might excuse a delay of five, maybe ten minutes; when a team is 25 minutes late, it shows an utter disregard for rules. Ganguly will be lucky to get away with anything less than a suspension.For now, though, it’s time for Pakistan to savour the win. It should go down as one of Pakistan’s finest all-round performances, one that should be canned and pulled out whenever the players needs reaffirmation of just how good they can be.

Richie Benaud will commentate his last Test in England at The Oval next week. Benaud, who has been cricket broadcasting’s most comfortable armchair for the past 42 years, will hang up the microphone when Channel 4’s contract with the ECB expires after the fifth Test. He has ruled out a switch to Sky, who control the rights from next season.”It is time to say goodbye because I won’t be doing any more television in the United Kingdom,” Benaud told in an exclusive interview. “I’ll still be doing free-to-air in Australia. I’ve got a three-year contract with Channel 9 which will probably be extended.”Benaud, 74, said he knew the time was right to retire, just as he did when he ended his Test career in 1964, but he regretted the loss of C4’s coverage. “From the production and direction point of view, they’ve been quite magnificent in the six years that they’ve been doing it,” he said.While international cricket will be available only on subscription television in England from next season until 2009, Benaud refused to challenge the decision. Instead he praised the Australian government’s move in March 2004 to produce legislation that ensured cricket remained on free-to-air and hoped the game would again be available on terrestrial broadcasts.”There are only two groups of people who have control over that,” he said of the ECB’s decision to give the rights to Sky. “The first is the government of the day and the second is the ECB. It’s the ECB who persuaded the government to take cricket off the restricted list.”Admired throughout the world, Benaud was last month voted the runaway winner in commentators’ poll. “It’s a great compliment from the people who have been watching over the years and I very, very much appreciate it,” he said. “One of the reasons is that I’ve been coming over to England for 42 years. I spent a long time with the BBC and then with Channel 4, all on free-to-air. And a lot of the stuff I have done with Channel 9 in Australia has come back to England as well. It’s something that I’ll treasure.”Despite deserving a long rest, Benaud quickly rejected talk of total retirement and is currently promoting his book . “What I won’t be doing is television in the United Kingdom,” he said. “Daphne, my wife, and I will be over in England in the next couple of years. I want to keep writing if I can. I love writing because it’s the first thing I did before I did any television.”

Australia’s cricketers have donated their prize money from the Melbourne Test to the disaster relief funds of the tsunami and earthquake victims in South-East Asia.Ricky Ponting, who hit an unbeaten 62 to lead his side to a nine wicket victory over Pakistan at the MCG, indicated that Australia had more fund-raising projects in mind. “We’ve got a number of things in the pipeline as a team that we’re looking at that haven’t been finalised yet,” he told reporters after the Test. “One thing that we have decided to do from today’s game is to donate all of our winning prizemoney from this Test match, which is about $13,000, which the team has decided to donate to the fund.”Bob Woolmer, Pakistan’s coach, was also sympathetic. “I think the two teams have signed shirts and they’re being auctioned somewhere to help them,” he said. “It’s a tragedy that puts everything into perspective as far as cricket goes. We understand that and it’s very sad for all the people who have suffered and are still suffering.”More than 56,000 people so far have been killed, and many more left homeless by the effects of the massive earthquake and tidal waves that hit shorelines of all round the Indian Ocean.

West Indies 284 for 6 (Marshall 106) beat South Africa 250 (Rampaul 3-41) by 34 runs
ScorecardXavier Marshall scored a fine 106 from 133 balls to book West Indies’ place in the semi-finals of the Under-19 World Cup. His effort, plus crucial contributions from Tishan Maraj, Lendl Simmons and Jonathan Augustus, guided the Windies to 284 for 6 in their 50 overs, a total that proved to be too much for South Africa, who slumped to a 34-run defeat.Both sides began the day with one win and one defeat under their belts, so the game was effectively a straight knockout. South Africa won the toss, but were soon made to rue their decision to bowl first, as Marshall and Maraj raced to a 93-run opening partnership in the 17th over. But their eagerness eventually got the better of them, and Maraj sacrificed his wicket after they both found themselves at the same end of the pitch.Marshall knuckled down after his reprieve and with Simmons providing good support, the pair took the score along to 161 in 30 overs. Simmons then became the second run-out victim, and Marshall the third, but a late scoring spree lifted the West Indies to an imposing total.No side had successfully chased down such a large target, but South Africa’s top order made a positive start. They reached 100 in 19.4 overs for the loss of only two wickets, but from that point onwards wickets began to fall at regular intervals. Their lower-order fought gamely to the end, but they were still well adrift when Ravi Rampaul bowled Mpumelelo Silwana for 42 with the final ball of the match.Rampaul, who made his senior international debut in South Africa last month, had missed most of West Indies’ pool matches because of illness. But he finished with 3 for 41 – all three clean-bowled – and had found his rhythm for the first time in the tournament.West Indies’ manager Roland Sampath was pleased with his side’s positive attitude. “We treated today like a quarter-final and we’re all delighted to get through,” he said. Their captain Denesh Ramdin, however, believed there was room for improvement. “We still need to work on our batting, our bowling and our fielding,” he admitted. “It was a good contest today. There was something in the wicket for the bowlers if they did well, but there also runs there for batsmen if they didn’t.”South Africa’s captain Divan van Wyk was philosophical in defeat. “We are obviously disappointed with today’s result but we have learned a lot,” he said. “This has been the best-run tournament I have ever been involved in.”West Indies will face the winner of tomorrow’s match between England and Pakistan in the second Super League semi-final on Tuesday, March 2.

The Duleep Trophy, Indian domestic cricket’s inter-zonal tournament, begins on Thursday with two four-day matches: South Zone take on West Zone in Indore, while Central Zone do battle with East Zone in Gwalior.Sourav Ganguly, the former Indian captain, will lead East Zone. After his failure in the recent Challenger Trophy, the tournament is another opportunity for Ganguly to prove his form for a return to the national side. Meanwhile, VVS Laxman, who missed the Challenger Trophy due to a hamstring injury, has been appointed captain of South Zone. Wasim Jaffer, the Test opener, will lead West Zone.Zaheer Khan, the left-arm fast bowler, has also targetted the Duleep Trophy for a comeback. India tour South Africa for five one-day internationals and three Tests from November, and thus the tournament provides ample opportunities to impress.The Duleep Trophy tournament consists of six teams, divided into two pools, which play each other in four-day matches. Five of the competing teams are Indian, while the sixth is an overseas side. This season, Sri Lanka A has been included after conflicting playing schedules forced the Nashua Dolphins to pull out.The 2005-06 competition was won by West Zone after they beat East Zone by five wickets in the final.For the full schedule of the 2006 Duleep Trophy, click here.Squads
East Zone: Sourav Ganguly (capt), Lakshmi Shukla, Deep Dasgupta (wk), Subhomoy Das, Shib Shankar Das, Ranadeb Basu, Debasish Mohanty, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Sourashish Lahiri, Ashis Sinha, Pravanjan Das, S S Rao, D Mohan, S Saigal, P Mallick and Ashoke Dinda.South Zone: VVS Laxman (capt), Venugopal Rao, Anil Kumble, S Badrinath, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Ambati Rayudu, Robin Uthappa, Sreesanth, L Balaji, Pragyan Ojha, Gnaneshwar Rao, Arjun Yadav, Ibrahim Khaleel, Swapnil Asnodkar, Vijaykumar Yo Mahesh.West Zone: Wasim Jaffer (capt), Parthiv Patel (wk), Dhiraj Jadhav, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma, Amol Muzumdar, Kiran Powar, Sairaj Bahutule, Vinit Indulkar, Rajesh Pawar, Zaheer Khan, Siddharth Trivedi, Ravindra Jadeja, Suyash Burkul and Sanjay Maniar.North Zone: Mithun Manhas (capt), Gautam Gambhir, Akash Chopra, Ravneet Ricky, Sachin Rana, Yashpal Singh, Mahesh Rawat (wk), M Bisla, Ashish Nehra, VRV Singh, Gagandeep Singh, Joginder Sharma, Rajesh Sharma, Virat Kohli, Vishal Bhatia.Sri Lanka A: Thilan Samaraweera (Capt.), Jehan Mubarak, Michael Vandort, Mahela Udawatte, Jeevan Mendis, Malintha Warnapura, Kaushal Silva (wk), Upul Chandana, Rangana Herath, Chamara Silva, Dhammika Prasad, Tharanga Lakshitha, Akalanga Ganegama, Ishara Amarasinghe, Kosala Kulasekara.

Australia 288 (Symonds 88, Clarke 63, Agarkar 6-42) beat India 270 (Ganguly 82, Tendulkar 63) by 18 runs
Scorecard

The opening match of the VB Series didn’t quite produce the enthralling cricket which was on view during the Tests, but it was another close contest which, in the end, Australia nailed by 18 runs at Melbourne. After Andrew Symonds (88) and Michael Clarke (63) – both players who had missed out on the fun in the Tests – revived the Australian innings to take them up to 288, their bowlers just about managed to keep the in-form Indian batsmen in check.The Indians had a couple of heroes in the match: Ajit Agarkar kept the Indians in the hunt with a career-best haul of 6 for 42 to restrict Australia to a sub-300 total, while Sourav Ganguly led the run-chase with a superbly paced 82, but his run-out proved to be the turning point, as the Indian lower order fell away and handed Australia with the first points of the VB Series.The Indian run-chase got off to a splendid, if chancy, start. Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar put together 103 for the first wicket, but the partnership could easily have ended in a single-digit score, as both Sehwag and Tendulkar played and missed on numerous occasions. With Sehwag, a regular dose of play-and-miss was only par for the course, but more surprising was the way Tendulkar struggled to come to grips with the pitch and the bowlers.Gillespie was especially superb, homing in around the corridor and shaping the ball away from the right-handers. On more than one occasion, Tendulkar groped for the ball, which shaped away just enough to beat the outside edge. As if those near-misses weren’t enough to ruin the day for Gillespie, Tendulkar added to his misery, top-edging a pull over the wicketkeeper’s head for six, and then clipping one off his legs for four.Sehwag was rather subdued throughout his 59-ball 35, which finally ended when he dragged a drive off Ian Harvey back onto his stumps. The next three pairs all put together useful stands, but each time a pair seemed to have the measure of the bowling, a wicket fell. Tendulkar fell to a miscued pull off Symonds, which Ricky Ponting, at short midwicket, hauled down with a perfectly timed leap to bring off a one-handed catch (134 for 2). Tendulkar’s 63 came off just 69 balls, but he was nowhere near his best.VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid made 16 apiece, and fell attempting to force the pace, bringing Yuvraj Singh out in a familiar scenario – 94 required at over a run a ball. He immediately got to work, working the ball into gaps and running hard. In the process, he forced Ganguly, normally fairly slack between the wickets, to sprint the twos and threes as well.Ganguly struck the big blows well too, giving himself room to club the ball on the off side and over the bowlers’ heads. The pair had added 62 in just more than nine overs, when Australia dealt the fatal blow to the innings, dismissing both batsmen in successive balls. First, Clarke at short midwicket held on to a scorching drive from Yuvraj, whose 24-ball 25 included just one boundary, and next ball, Ganguly failed to regain his crease after being sent back by Sanjay Bangar (257 for 6). The lower order was ill equipped to deal with an asking rate which had climbed to well over eight.Earlier, Symonds and Clarke revived an Australian innings that was in danger of being bowled out well within 50 overs. After Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden had got the innings off to the customary frenetic start, four wickets fell in the space of 39 balls, as Australia slumped from 59 without loss to 89 for 4. Agarkar caused most of the damage, taking three of those wickets. He wasn’t particularly impressive in his first spell – in fact, Irfan Pathan, with his ability to swing the ball late, troubled both batsmen far more.However, Agarkar was the chosen one for the day, as Gilchrist flicked a leg stump half-volley to Pathan at fine leg (59 for 1), and Hayden slashed one to Yuvraj at point (70 for 2). Agarkar then nailed Damien Martyn first ball with a superbly directed shot ball, which Martyn pulled despite being cramped for room, and top-edged to Lakshmipathy Balaji at fine leg. When Ponting spooned a return catch to Balaji, a dream start for Australia was suddenly going sour, but Symonds and Clarke turned it around.Both were unhurried in their approach, putting the bad balls away in style, but without taking undue risks. Whenever given the opportunity, Symonds freed his arms to awesome effect – Balaji and Ganguly, especially, felt the heat. Balaji was slammed for six over extra cover and then square cut for four off consecutive balls, while Ganguly was tonked for consecutive sixes over midwicket when he pitched short.Clarke, on the other hand, was altogether more polished, essaying some superb flicks and cover-drives, and showing some twinkle-toed footwork against Anil Kumble, whom he pulled with exquisite timing for his only six. Kumble did finally nail him, when Clarke miscued a lofted shot to VVS Laxman at midwicket (232 for 5), but by then, the Australian innings was back on track.Even a rare failure by Michael Bevan, chipping a flick to Ganguly at midwicket for 1 (233 for 6), didn’t affect the momentum, as Ian Harvey chipped in with a vital cameo of 28 from 24 balls. Agarkar came back with a much-improved second spell, though, ensuring that Australia failed to bat out their 50 overs, and ended up with a score which was about 25 short of what seemed likely at the 35-over mark. As it turned out, the total proved enough to win the match for Australia.

Glamorgan CCC are pleased to announce a special `Buy One, Get One Free` ticket offer for forthcoming one-day matches at Sophia Gardens.If you buy a ticket for the National Cricket League game between the Glamorgan Dragons and the Essex Eagles at Cardiff on 13th July, you will get a ticket for the Glamorgan Dragons National League match at Cardiff against the Warwickshire Bears on 10th August ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!To book your tickets, call Glamorgan Cricket on 029 2040 9380

Bad weather and ground conditions at Kanpur have resulted in it giving up the Test it had been offered during New Zealand’s tour of India, and Ahmedabad has come into strong contention to host the Test.Local officials at Kanpur did not want to incur a bad report from the International Cricket Council (ICC), which now has stringent rules about the quality of grounds for Test matches.New Zealand Cricket are seeking confirmation of a news report that Ahmedabad and Mohali will be the venues. Officials at Ahmedabad have said that the Motera stadium will be in good shape for the Test.New Zealand’s players will be familiar with both venues as they were the site of drawn matches in their last series in 1999 while the only loss they suffered in the series was at Kanpur.

Reports that the International Cricket Council were going to refuse to pay out monies owed to countries in connection with the World Cup proved unfounded as its executive board meeting in Barbados said that funds would conditionally be handed over.The potentially explosive issue was diffused by some political cunning on the part of Ehsan Mani, president of the ICC. Several countries, spearheaded by India, had been demanding that the ICC hand over payments due from the tournament, but the ICC had been unwilling because of the possibility that it would be sued by the Global Cricket Corporation (GCC), its commercial partner in the World Cup, for loss of earnings. The compromise means that the payments will be made, but only if the recipients agree to sign a guarantee that they will return whatever sums are needed by the ICC to settle with the GCC.The meeting also agreed that there would be 16 countries represented at the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean, with teams divided into four groups of four with each side playing all its matches on the same island. It is expected that up to ten different countries in all, including the USA, will host games.Another area of concern, that of cancelled tours, was also high on the agenda, and the meeting announced that from now on an independent panel will have to be consulted before any tour or match is called off because of player safety.Several such incidents, the most recent being South Africa’s refusal to play a Test against Pakistan following a bomb blast in Karachi, had forced the subject onto the agenda. The panel, which would be advised by a team of security experts appointed by the ICC, would then file a report and if concerns still existed then a consultation process would be undertaken to try and resolve the situation.”Introducing this protocol is a sensible step in dealing with this issue,” explained Mani. “It provides the opportunity for all the parties involved to get a clear and fact-based assessment of the security issues before a decision is made. It recognises the right of each Board to determine when and where its team plays and allows all parties to have their views considered in the decision making process. The ICC will continue to remain independent of the two parties and act as a mediator or facilitator in this consultation process.”The growing power of players was also acknowledged with the ICC’s decision to recognise the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA). From now on FICA will be consulted on various matters including player safety, clothing regulations and the amount of international cricket played. At the moment FICA only covers the interests of players from Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa, West Indies and Zimbabwe.

Two bush clubs famed for producing two of Australia’s greatest cricketers are to go head-to-head next weekend in the final of the Highlands District Cricket Association 2002/03 first grade competition in rural New South Wales.Bowral United, the modern-day equivalent of the town club for which a young Don Bradman initially played his cricket, are to meet Wingello, the village Bill O’Reilly once played for.Bradman, the greatest Test batsman in history, was known during his playing days as the Boy from Bowral, having grown up in the Southern Highlands capital. And before Shane Warne’s rise to fame, many regarded “Tiger” O’Reilly as the best leg-spinner Australia had produced.Saturday and Sunday’s clash at picturesque Bradman Oval – a venue which in recent years has hosted numerous matches involving various international touring sides – will mark the first occasion that their old clubs have met in the Whyte Cup final since the Wingello Tigers reformed in the late 1990s.United was well beaten by Wingello in their semi-final encounter a fortnight ago, after making just 86 batting first – having also lost to the Tigers in the final of the HDCA’s separate one-day competition in December. However, the Bowral side won through to the season finale with a convincing seven-wicket first innings victory over arch rivals Moss Vale at the weekend.