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Shahid Afridi, the Pakistan limited-overs captain, has said his team was “not really” affected by the bizarre disappearance of wicketkeeper Zulqanain Haider on the morning before the fifth ODI against South Africa, and expressed hope that the ICC and PCB could sort out the problems affecting the team. South Africa beat Pakistan by 57 runs to take the five-match ODI series 3-2.”We are trying from the start to get the team back to shape before the World Cup but something or other is coming up,” Afridi said. “I hope that ICC and PCB solves the problem and sort these things so we can work towards building a good team, and ensure that there are no such problems in every match.”Afridi agreed that the turning point in the game came when Jacques Kallis took three wickets in three overs, including Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf, but said it was not easy chasing huge totals “every time especially when we lose wickets quickly”. He added he was was happy with the mental toughness Pakistan showed to get back in the series and win a couple of games.”We played fairly well. We did not take pressure on ourselves, and every game we tried to motivate ourselves, which is a positive thing.”While acknowledging that his own contribution in the series was “very average”, Afridi said the team needed to improve its overall fitness and fielding before the World Cup. “We have to improve a lot on fitness and strengthen the middle order when it comes to batting. We have one more series against New Zealand before the World Cup, so we must step up in some areas before the big event, and that is very important for us.”

North Zone

Delhi made it two in two, beating Jammu and Kashmir by 19 runs at the Model Sports Complex. Opener Chetan Sharma top scored with 47, an innings laced with five fours and a six, and was supported by Rajat Bhatia in a 56-run stand for the third wicket. However, the J&K bowlers, led by medium-pacer Raman Dutta (3-28) and captain Abid Nabi (2-21), struck back to keep Delhi down to a chaseable 142. J&K appeared to begin in encouraging fashion, with the openers adding 25, but things soon began to worsen. Medium-pacer Kapil Yadav made inroads to reduce J&K to 35 for 5 at one stage and had it not been for Javed Ahmed’s 47, his team would have struggled to get past three-figures. They had to eventually settle for 123 for 9, with Yadav taking 4-15 in only his second Twenty20 game.Hemang Badani’s 42 off 30 deliveries took Haryana to a six-wicket victory against Services in Delhi•Hamish Blair/Getty Images

Punjab held their nerve to prevail over Himachal Pradesh in a thrilling finish at the Model Sports Complex in Delhi. Set a target of 129, they were bolstered by a strong opening stand of 41. However, Punjab experienced a scare when Karan Goel and Ravi Inder Singh fell in a space of three deliveries with the score on 77. When Rahul Sharma fell, the fourth wicket with 95 on the board, 34 were needed off four overs. It was Mandeep Singh who stepped up and guided his team to a nerve-wracking win, scoring a boundary off the final delivery of the game off which a single was needed. He remained unbeaten on 33 and was supported by Bipul Sharma, who made a run-a-ball 8. Earlier, VA Indulkar had provided some impetus to the Himachal innings with 41 but it proved inadequate.A half-century by Dhruv Singh who received support in a 68-run stand from Hemang Badani helped Haryana to a six-wicket win over Services at the Model Sports Complex in Delhi. In their chase of 133, Haryana were struggling at 32 for 3 but Badani, whose aggressive approach took the pressure off Dhruv, put his team back on track. He struck four fours and a six in his 42 while Dhruv held firm at the other end and eventually saw Haryana through. A three-wicket haul from left-arm seamer Sanjay Budhwar had restricted Services, though captain Yashpal Singh had set up a competitive score with 54.

Central Zone

Dishant Yagnik’s half-century and some disciplined bowling took Rajasthan to a 16-run win against Uttar Pradesh at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. Yagnik hammered six fours and two sixes in his 54 off 40 deliveries after his opening partner Aakash Chopra was run out for 22. However, Sudeep Tyagi and Ali Murtuza struck to reduce Rajasthan to 100 for 5 from 97 for 1. Vineet Saxena slammed an unbeaten 39 off 27 to help his team to a competitive 155 for 7. Medium-pacer Afroz Khan then picked up 3 for 28 as none of the Uttar Pradesh batsmen could score quickly enough to pose a threat to Rajasthan. Uttar Pradesh finished on 139 for 6, Ravikant Shukla top scored with 35 off 32.Railways scraped to a one-wicket win off the last ball against Vidarbha at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. Chasing Vidarbha’s 155, Railways were given a rollicking start by PM Madkaikar, who hammered 27 off 14 deliveries as his side raced to 51 without loss in the fifth over. However, Vidarbha led by offspinner Akshay Wakhare hit back to leave Railways tottering at 89 for 6. Karan Sharma slammed 30 off 15 to bring his side back on track, and captain Murali Kartik held his nerve as Railways scampered home. Himanshu Joshi’s 64 off 43 had earlier set up Vidarbha, but his dismissal off JP Yadav in the 19th over meant they managed only 13 off the last 10 deliveries, which made all the difference in the end. Yadav finished with 3 for 21.

East Zone

Orissa‘s bowlers led by offspinner Rakesh Mohanty defended a modest target of 130 at the Sunshine Ground in Cuttack, dismissing Assam for 107. Mohanty took 3 for 18 after medium-pacer Santosh Jena had struck twice in three balls to reduce Assam to 10 for 2. Gokul Sharma resisted with an unbeaten 31 off 20 deliveries, but ran out of partners as wickets fell regularly. Mohanty and Niranjan Behera had earlier helped Orissa to 129 for 7, after offspinner Gokul and fast bowler Dhiraj Goswami had taken two wickets apiece to reduce them to 69 for 6 in 12 overs.Legspinner Subal Chowdhury’s 3 for 19 set up a comfortable six-wicket victory for Tripura against Jharkhand at the Ravenshaw College Ground in Cuttack. Jharkhand were dismissed for a paltry 96, which Tripura chased down with 13 deliveries to spare. Put into bat, Jharkhand had begun well, reaching 40 without loss in the seventh over. However, Rameez Nemat’s run-out triggered a collapse, and Chowdhury snapped up three wickets to leave Jharkhand struggling at 48 for 5. Keshav Kumar and Shahbaz Nadeem took the score to 81, but Jharkhand again lost wickets in a heap to be dismissed for 96. Tripura’s batsmen knocked off the runs without much fuss.

West Zone

Abhishek Nayar’s half-century led Mumbai to a five-wicket victory against Gujarat at the Moti Bagh Stadium in Vadodara. Opening the innings, Nayar smashed four sixes and as many fours in his 57 off 43 deliveries, as Mumbai reached the target of 146 with an over to spare. Mumbai were in some trouble at one stage as they slid to 115 for 5, but Siddharth Chitnis came in at No. 7 and hammered three sixes in his unbeaten 27 off 11 to settle the matter in Mumbai’s favour. Niraj Patel’s unbeaten 41 had earlier helped Gujarat to post 145 for 5. Several Gujarat batsmen got starts but fell without making substantial contributions.Samad Fallah inspired Maharashtra to a 14-run win over Saurashtra in a low-scoring encounter at the Moti Bagh Stadium in Vadodara.Saurashtra, led by Jaidev Unadkat, skittled the defending champions for 81, but left-arm medium pacer Fallah struck early and often to reduce Saurashtra to 3 for 14 in the fifth over, taking the prize wicket of India Test batsman Cheteshwar Pujara, trapped leg before for one, in the process.Pratik Mehta led Saurashtra’s fightback, making 28 from 32, the highest score of the match, but it was not enough as he got no support from anyone else; only two other Saurashtra batsman got into double figures, while there were six scores of 2 or less. Fallah finished with sparkling figures of 3 for 7 from his four overs, and was ably backed up by the other Maharastra bowlers, all whom took at least one wicket.

Merissa Aguilleira, the West Indies women’s captain and wicketkeeper, is confident her team can give a good account of themselves in the inaugural ICC Women’s Cricket Challenge.”We had a wonderful camp,” said Aguilleira. “We know this is just the start of what will be a long journey and we are confident it will be a successful journey.”The last time we played as a team was in the ICC World Twenty20 and we made some big steps forward – reaching the semi-finals. This time around we will aim to continue the improvement and make more steps forward.”South Africa is hosting the ICC Women’s Cricket Challenge, which will see the hosts, West Indies, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Netherlands and Ireland – all ranked between fifth and tenth in the world – competing in a series of one-day and Twenty20 games from October 6 to 16 in Potchefstroom.”We don’t have a lot of time when we reach to get acclimatised so we have to buckle down from early,” said Aguilleira. “We are playing against teams that are ranked below us, but they are all very good teams and we can’t take anything for granted. We have to make sure we are at our best.”We had some tough battles with South Africa in recent years and they always come hard at us. Pakistan and Sri Lanka are also very competitive so the upcoming series promises to be exciting for the players and the fans.”Aguilleira who last played for West Indies during the World Twenty20 in May, will be making a comeback after knee surgery.”I want to say a special thanks to the West Indies Cricket Board for looking out for me and making sure I had the surgery. I also want to thank the doctors and therapists who worked with me when I was away from the game. As a wicketkeeper I had to make sure that everything was fully back in place before I made my comeback and I was really touched by the assistance I got from so many people.”West Indies play their first ODI on October 6 against Netherlands. They play South Africa in their first twenty20 game on October 14.

England’s cricketers are facing a ban from using Twitter and Facebook while on England duty, according to the Mail on Sunday.Twitter has become a prominent part of international cricketers’ off-field presence with England’s Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Kevin Pietersen and Steven Finn attracting almost 150,000 followers between them.But while most tweets vary between mundane updates about things such as eating habits to more amusing banter between players, the England management see them as a potentially divisive influence which could lead to dressing-room secrets being revealed.Yorkshire’s Azeem Rafiq stirred controversy when he reacted on Twitter after being dropped from the England Under-19s side by writing that coach John Abrahams was was a ‘useless w****r’. The outburst led to a £500 fine and a one-month ban from all cricket and the England management clearly don’t want to risk similar embarrassments.The Professional Cricketers’ Association has defended the tweeters, arguing that the existing regulations are sufficient but the England management has the support of captain Andrew Strauss, and appears determined to write a clause in the new central contracts for 2010-11 banning players from tweeting while on England duty.The ECB will also insist that, in order to qualify for an England contract, players must sign for a county club, forcing Pietersen to find a new home in time for the next domestic season or go freelance.

Scorecard
Warwickshire beat Scotland by seven wickets in their Clydesdale Bank 40 clash at Titwood in Glasgow. After winning the toss Scotland decided to bat but a disastrous innings saw them all out for just 95.Chris Woakes started impressively for the visitors, taking the first three wickets of Fraser Watts, Preston Mommsen and George Bailey to initiate a rapid decline for the home side.Matthew Parker was top scorer for Scotland with 22 but quickly ran out of partners as the wickets tumbled.It did not take the visitors long to get the 96 runs required, even though Neil Carter was out for only four, bowled by Parker and caught by Mommsen.His partner Darren Maddy racked up 43 not out and despite Keith Barker out for 12, followed by Jim Troughton on 28, Ian Westwood came in to take Warwickshire over the line.It was the second home defeat of the weekend for Scotland who lost by 47 runs to Durham on Saturday.

Nicky Shaw, the England fast-bowler, has retired from international cricket at the age of 28.Shaw was the Player of the Match in the 2009 World Cup final for taking 4 for 34 to help England defeat New Zealand in Sydney. It was the highlight of a career that brought 46 wickets in 70 ODIs, in addition to 11 wickets in five Tests.”Whilst I have enjoyed my time playing, I feel it is now time to retire from the international game ahead of my move to Australia,” she explained. Isa Guha replaced her for the ODI series against New Zealand which began on Saturday.Shaw made her debut in 1999 aged 17 and also featured in England’s Ashes-winning side in 2008 and the team that won the World Twenty20 at Lord’s last year.Yet the 50-over World Cup final was her dream performance as she only came into the side as a late replacement when Jenny Gunn suffered a calf injury on the morning of the match. Her four wickets helped England sink New Zealand and take the title. “I started the day crying, and I finished the day crying,” she said.

Netherlands fast bowler Mark Jonkman has been reported for a suspected illegal bowling action during the ICC World Cricket League Division 1 tournament. Jonkman will have to undergo testing within 21 days and, if necessary, remedial action. However, he will be allowed to continue bowling in international cricket until the results are out.Jonkman, who missed the third-place play-off against Afghanistan on Saturday after taking 10 wickets in five matches, was reported by on-field umpires Kumar Dharmasena and Buddhi Pradhan after the final group match against Ireland.In their official report, the umpires said: “When Netherlands took the field for the first innings of the match with Ireland batting, Mark Jonkman bowled in two spells, one from each end, and we were both able to observe his bowling action from square leg. With the naked eye we have concerns with the legitimacy of Mark’s bowling action in general and consider it worthy of report under current ICC regulations.”Jonkman is now required to submit to an independent analysis of his bowling action which will be conducted by a member of the ICC panel of human movement specialists. If he is found to have bowled with an illegal action during the independent analysis then he will be suspended from bowling in international cricket until he undertakes remedial action and is reassessed.

Alan Hunt has been named as the coach of Central Districts for the next two years. He replaces England allrounder Dermot Reeve who resigned as coach in April.Hunt averaged 24.45 with the bat, with one century, and 43.78 with the ball over 13 seasons for Auckland, and retired in 1992-93.”I am delighted to have the opportunity to coach the Central Stags and give my assistance to cricket in the Central Districts Association,” Hunt said. “The Stags are already a very good team. I am confident that with the management team now in place, and the planning skills and experience we offer, we can take them to a different level again.”New Zealand Cricket’s general manager Geoff Allott welcomed the appointment. “Alan is held in high regard at all levels of the game and I know that he will add real value to the Stags over the next two seasons,” he said.Reeve led Central Districts to the Plunket Shield four-day final in 2008-09 and won the Twenty20 competition last year, but his tenure was dogged by controversy. There were reports of disharmony between Reeve and the players, and New Zealand Cricket censured and fined him for accusing Auckland’s Ravi Bopara of ball-tampering after a one-day game in December.

Australia’s selectors have forgiven Michael Clarke for his poor form in Twenty20, naming him to captain Australia against Pakistan in England in July. Clarke will lead the side for the two Twenty20s in Birmingham on July 5 and 6 despite his struggles with the bat in the shortest format, where his strike-rate of 101 is well below par.Clarke was praised for his attacking captaincy at the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean, where he guided Australia to the final, but he needs to lift his scoring rate to justify his position as a batsman. He has been given virtually the same squad, with the only change being the omission of Tim Paine due to the reduced need for a backup wicketkeeper.”We don’t have any doubt that he [Clarke] has a definite role to play in Twenty20 cricket, which predominantly is a little bit different to some,” Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, said. “We’ll be looking for him to bat through an innings when we need it. He didn’t quite do that over there but we weren’t concerned about it.”The positive side was I think his captaincy was extraordinary and our tactics in Twenty20 cricket were far in advance of where they’ve been. Our field was I thought the best in the tournament so there were lots of positives. Obviously we lost the final so that was devastating but the other side of it is that we won six on the trot and if we’d won seven on the trot it would have been a record that maybe wouldn’t have been broken in Twenty20 cricket.”In the 50-over arena, Shaun Marsh has been chosen to make his comeback to international cricket after missing the tour of New Zealand in February with a back injury. Marsh has replaced Adam Voges in the ODI squad for the one-off game against Ireland in Dublin that kicks off the tour of June 17 and the five one-day internationals against England that follow.However, the squad to take on Pakistan in two Tests from mid-July won’t be named until several contenders have fronted up for Australia A late next month. The absence of Phillip Hughes due to a shoulder injury means Usman Khawaja, Michael Klinger and the Australia A captain George Bailey will be jostling for the role of backup Test batsman when they face Sri Lanka A in Brisbane.That series will also give Ben Hilfenhaus a chance to continue his steady return from knee tendonitis. Hilfenhaus has been chosen in the four-day Australia A squad and is hopeful of proving himself fit for the Tests against Pakistan, having not played for his country since the first Test of the home summer back in November.”Ben Hilfenhaus is making good progress with his knee tendon injury,” the physio Alex Kountouris said. “As part of his rehabilitation he has commenced bowling and has spent some time at the Cricket Australia Centre of Excellence during the past week. So far he has coped well and if his progress continues with an increasing bowling workload over the coming weeks, he’ll take his place for Australia A against Sri Lanka A in preparation for possible selection in the Test squad.”Peter Siddle is recovering well from a lower back stress fracture sustained during the Australian summer. However it was felt that there was too big a risk for his to return for the tour of England and Ireland, particularly with the important 12 months coming up. Peter remains on target to return to the playing field at the start of the Australian domestic summer. Brett Lee is recovering from the elbow muscle injury that he picked before the ICC World Twenty20 and is yet to commence bowling.”The Australia A squad also features Mitchell Marsh, the brother of Shaun and captain of Australia’s Under-19 World Cup-winning squad this year. He will be joined by another player with cricketing blood, James Pattinson, the Victoria fast bowler whose brother Darren played a Test for England in 2008.ODI squad Shane Watson, Shaun Marsh, Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey, Cameron White, Brad Haddin, Steven Smith, James Hopes, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Hauritz, Ryan Harris, Clint McKay, Doug Bollinger.Twenty20 squad Shane Watson, David Warner, Michael Clarke (capt), Cameron White, David Hussey, Michael Hussey, Brad Haddin, Daniel Christian, Steven Smith, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Hauritz, Ryan Harris, Dirk Nannes, Shaun Tait.Australia A four-day squad Ed Cowan, Usman Khawaja, Michael Klinger, George Bailey (capt), Peter Forrest, Andrew McDonald, Tim Paine, Mitchell Marsh, Steve O’Keefe, Ben Hilfenhaus, Josh Hazlewood, Peter George, Mitchell Starc.Australia A one-day squad Tim Paine, Usman Khawaja, Adam Voges, George Bailey (capt), Travis Birt, Aaron Finch, Andrew McDonald, Mitchell Marsh, Xavier Doherty, Brendan Drew, James Pattinson, Jake Haberfield, Josh Hazlewood.

On a list of cricket’s most glamorous destinations, Bangladesh doesn’t rank highly – Andrew Strauss didn’t even bother going there for England’s Test tour this year. But fringe first-class players go where the opportunities arise and for Aiden Blizzard over the past month, that has meant domestic cricket in Dhaka.Even by the standards of journeymen Australian players, it was an unusual move. But Blizzard, who did not have his contract with Victoria renewed this month and has been snapped up by South Australia, relished the chance to learn in unfamiliar conditions, even if there were some problems during his stint with Rajshahi Division.”The pre-match addresses were interesting, because they weren’t in English,” Blizzard told Cricinfo. “I had to use my own game-plan because I didn’t know what our actual game-plan was. They understood that. I missed a training session too – I missed the team bus because I didn’t know it was on.”Despite the language barrier, he finished the National Cricket League Twenty20 competition as the fourth-leading run scorer and helped his team win the final. He was one of a handful of foreign players in the league, along with a couple of South Africans and a few Sri Lankans including Nuwan Zoysa.The slow, low surfaces provided an added challenge for Blizzard, who was recruited after a successful appearance in the Port City Cricket League, which featured Bangladesh teams and was played in Dubai. While the big bucks were flying around at the IPL, Blizzard was taking a chance that was about more than money.”It was more about the opportunity and the experience,” he said. “I really struggled to get many first-class games here in Australia, so if the opportunity came to play in a tournament I was jumping at it.”If the opportunity arises next year, I’ll definitely put my hand up to go and play. It did clash with the IPL, so fingers crossed I can get a crack in the IPL, but if the opportunity does arise again I’ll grab it with both hands. It was a great experience.”A week after battling traffic in Dhaka, Blizzard was back home in Melbourne, preparing to pack up his possessions and move to Adelaide to join the Redbacks. Like the Bangladesh deal, it was a decision based on opportunity: he had managed only one innings in two first-class games during his three seasons as a fully contracted Victoria batsman.There had been a couple of remarkable Twenty20 performances – twice in three years he was Man of the Match in the Big Bash final – but Blizzard wanted to play four-day cricket. When Cricket Victoria didn’t offer him a first-round deal for next summer, he made the choice to join his former team-mate Michael Klinger, who is the newly appointed captain of South Australia.”Michael Klinger has been a close friend of mine since I got to Victoria,” Blizzard said. “I had a good chat to him about moving before the start of last season, not necessarily to South Australia, but just how it was for him. He had a big influence on my decision to go to South Australia.”I’m really looking forward to a fresh start. I was pigeon-holed here as a slogger and South Australia were quick to stress that they didn’t see me as a slogger and they wanted to give me an opportunity to play in all three forms. I’m looking forward to getting that opportunity. Whether it’s at the start of the season or the middle is probably up to me, but it should be a great experience.”It will mean giving up the chance to play in the Champions League Twenty20 this year, where he would have been a key man for Victoria. But at 25, Blizzard knew he had to give himself the best chance of fulfilling his potential. Just like Rajshahi, it was another opportunity too good to pass up. At least this time he’ll understand the team’s game-plan.