Scorecard

Jason Gillespie, the Australian Test discard, rocked Victoria with stunning figures of 7 for 35 – his best bowling return in five years – as they were dismissed for only 149 on the first day of the Pura Cup match in Melbourne. South Australia were in control at 2 for 58 at stumps, but their bright position was disrupted by a serious hand injury to their captain Darren Lehmann.Gillespie started the rot by reducing Victoria to 4 for 11 in seven overs, dismissing Michael Klinger (1), Lloyd Mash (4) and David Hussey (1) – all caught behind – after Cameron White elected to bat in cool conditions. Paul Rofe chipped in with the wicket of Jason Arnberger for 2.Victoria fought back thanks to a 74-run partnership between White (41) and Nick Jewell (26), but Gillespie returned after lunch to have White caught at the wicket and he trapped Jewell leg before in consecutive overs. He added another scalp when Adam Crosthwaite nicked one behind, giving Graham Manou, the wicketkeeper, his sixth catch of the innings. A valuable 60 runs from Jon Moss (33) and Gerard Denton (22 not out) helped Victoria limp to 149.This was Gillespie’s first major haul since his 5 for 56 in the third Test against India in Nagpur almost a a year ago, and he obtained similar pace, bounce, and movement that had him ranked as one of the game’s best bowlers before a dismal Ashes series. Gillespie even found himself on a hat-trick after removing Moss and Mick Lewis in successive balls, before Dan Cullen struck to dismiss the last man Allan Wise.South Australia overcame the loss of two early wickets to Gerard Denton, who had Matthew Elliott and Greg Blewett leg before in successive deliveries, but their worries eased despite Lehmann’s injury when Shane Deitz and Mark Cosgrove put on an unbeaten 57. Lehmann has been ruled out for six weeks following an injury to his right thumb sustained while diving at short midwicket to stop a full-blooded White shot 90 minutes into the day’s play.Lehmann will have an operation for a ruptured ligament and will bat only if necessary. The injury is a severe blow for South Australia, who rely heavily on their leader’s batting, and he will see a specialist in Adelaide on Wednesday.

Northamptonshire have signed Matthew Nicholson, the New South Wales quick bowler, as a replacement overseas player for Damien Wright. Nicholson, who played one Test for Australia against England in 1998-99, will add some much-needed fire power to the Northants attack following the departure of Johann Louw.Nicholson said he can’t wait for the challenge: “I’m really pumped about getting a full time contract with Northamptonshire. There have been a fair few enquiries over the years from counties but I feel now is the right time to commit to a full season in England. I’m looking forward to working with Kepler Wessels and all the guys in making 2006 a successful year for Northants.”The Northants chief executive, Mark Tagg, added: “We were disappointed to initially learn of the injury of Damien Wright who was tremendous for us last season taking 53 Championship wickets and 33 one-day wickets. Damien was a top guy off the field as well as on and will be missed by all at the club and his many supporters.”We believe that in Nicholson we have a more than able replacement who is capable with both bat and ball and will be a key member of the team as we continue to move forward.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball commentary

Rain and gloom ensured that just 14 balls were possible on the final day at Lahore as the curtains came down on a record-filled Test. Virender Sehwag completed a supreme 254 off 247 balls, the highest-ever Test score at over a run-a-ball, but his dismissal soon after meant that a 50-year-old record, for the highest opening partnership, stayed intact. It was an anti-climactic end to a dazzling run-fest, one where the weather and the pitch had a big part to play.It was a day when little could happen. Overnight showers delayed the start; bad light forced an early finish. In between, they managed to squeeze in 2.2 overs, under floodlights, and there was only one incentive left to play for – beating the 413-run opening partnership set by Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy against New Zealand, at the quaint Corporation Stadium in Madras. Sehwag got closer, bringing up his 250 with a flicked couple to deep square leg, and then threatened to race towards it with an almighty slap through the covers, burning the grass on the way to the cover fence.Three balls later, he was gone, trying to carve a short one from Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, who he had smacked to smithereens yesterday, and edged to Kamran Akmal behind the stumps. It was strange to see him walk back to the pavilion disappointed, having swished a most astonishing knock. Only John Edrich, in his 310 at Leeds in 1965, had managed more fours and Sehwag had managed as many as Don Bradman had in his never-to-be-forgotten 334. When put in historical perspective, and considering that India were up against a monumental total, it was one hell of a riposte. But it will ultimately be judged by the surface it was clattered on, as well as the context of the match.Dravid didn’t manage to add to his overnight score, remaining unbeaten on 128. If analysed in isolation, factoring in the opening dilemma, it was a tremendous knock, but when put alongside the five other hundred-plus scores in the game, three of them stunningly over a run-a-ball, it may just be seen as one more century. With intermittent threat of rain at Faisalabad, and light likely to be as bad, the two teams may have to wait till Karachi to even contemplate a result. Until then, young kids in Pakistan, traditionally keen on picking up the ball, might just try their hands at whacking a few with the bat.

An opening stand of 159 between Subhomoy Das and Sourav Ganguly guided Bengal to a nine-wicket win over Jharkhand at Dhanbad. Ganguly was dismissed for 72, but Das went on to score 126 not out off 139 balls. Jharkhand’s 245 for 9 was built around an unbeaten from Rajiv Kumar, with Ganguly, Shib Paul and Saurasish Lahiri each taking two wickets.Tripura clinched a low-scoring affair against Assam at Dhanbad by five wickets thanks to the steady hand of Manoj Singh (44). Winning the toss and electing to field, Tripura dismissed Assam for just 123 in 46.1 overs with Vinit Jain (3 for 33) and Timir Chandra (3 for 25) rocking the top order. Left reeling at 46 for 7, Assam recovered somewhat thanks to Anand Katti’s dour 29 from 89 deliveries, but in the end a total of 123 proved too little. S Tarafdar gave Tripura a run for their money initially, taking 4 for 41before they reached home in the 44th over.Hemang Badani’s 109 and tight bowling from Tamil Nadu’s bowlers saw them clinch a 66-run win over Hyderabad. Consuming just 77 deliveries in his thrilling innings – complete with seven sixes – Badani took TN to a commanding 264 before Ganapathi Vignesh and Sridharan Sriram picked up key wickets to rout Hyderabad for 198 in 45.3 overs. Badani also picked up the wicket of top-scorer D Vinay Kumar (58) as TN swept the hosts aside. The win, the third in-a-row for TN, gave them 14 points from three matches. It was Hyderabad’s third consecutive loss.Chandrashekar Raghu’s second hundred of the tournament and four wickets from Vinay Kumar powered Karnataka to a 66-run win over Andhra Pradesh and helped record their third straight win to pick 14 points from three matches. at Secunderabad. Batting first, Karnataka’s total of 273 was centered around Raghu’s 110 from 92 deliveries and Robin Uthappa’s 54 at the top of the innings. In response, Andhra never really got off the blocks as strikes from Kumar left them struggling at 28 for 3. Venugopal Rao, the Andhra captain, hit 72 to try and lead a fightback but was unable to sustain it due to a lack of partners at the other end.Vasudevan Jagadeesh’s unbeaten 52 and a breezy 41 not-out from Sreekumar Nair saw Kerala romp home by seven wickets against Goa at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. Dismissed for 175 – with only Swapnil Asnodkar (56) and Robin D’Souza (46*) offering any resistance – Goa struggled to contain Asnodkar, Nair and a rampaging PV Manikandan, who smashed 40 from 24, as Kerala claimed victory in the 37th over. Prasanth Chandran (2 for 34) and Nair (2 for 33) were the prime wicket-takers for Kerala.

Rudi Koertzen, the South African umpire, who officiated the first two Tests between India and Pakistan, has supported a change in the rules regarding calling off Test matches on the final day, in case a result is not possible.”There is nothing wrong if the ICC considers a change in laws that allows such Test matches to be called off at tea with the consent of both captains when a last-day result is not possible,” Koertzen told , the Lahore-based daily.Koertzen confirmed that he along with Simon Taufel, the Australian umpire, had spoken to both Inzamam-ul-Haq and Rahul Dravid at tea time on the final day at Faisalabad and both agreed to call off the match at that point. However, Ranjan Madugalle, the match referee could not act on it as the rules did not support such a move. He, therefore, had asked the two teams to carry on until eight overs remained in the game, Koertzen revealed.

Faisalabad Wolves stormed into the semi-finals of the Twenty20 Cup thrashing Rawalpindi Rams by 10 wickets. Imran Khalid cleaned up the Rawalpindi lower order picking up 4 for 21, bundling them out for a poor total of 105. The Wolves, led by Mohammad Hafeez, who scored 66 off just 33 balls, needed just nine overs to overhaul the target. Khalid also picked up the Man-of-the-Match award for his spell.Qaiser Abbas and Mohammad Asif propelled the Sialkot Stallions to the semi-finals as they continued their unbeaten run in the tournament, beating Multan Tigers by 66 runs. The Stallions justified their decision to bat first, piling up 189 for the loss of three wickets with Abbas remaining undefeated on 75. Asif continued his rich vein of form from the previous game, picking up four wickets and stifling the batsmen with his accuracy, conceding only 14 from his four overs. Bilal Khilji (46) lacked support from the rest as the Tigers were bundled out for 123. The Stallions will meet the Karachi Dolphins in the semi-final.Ashraf Ali led the Karachi Zebras to a three-wicket win over Lahore Eagles with an unbeaten 52. Choosing to bat first, the Eagles were dismissed for 150 in 19.5 overs. Imran Farhat, fresh from his century on Wednesday, managed 35 with two sixes and four fours. Kamran Sajid top-scored with 40 but the total of 150 was well short of what they would have expected. The Zebras were in trouble at 7 for 98 but Ashraf and Rizwan Saeed (32*) kept their cool and guided their team through.

It must be an exciting time to be Andrew Flintoff. Around a month ago he was handed the captaincy; last week he inspired his bunch of boys to a most unlikely series-levelling win; few days back he flew back home and savoured the moment with his newly-born son, who he “hadn’t seen for a while, in fact never”. Now he’s back, for the first of the seven-match one-day series, to the same venue where, in January 2002, he was “shot”.England’s last game at the Feroz Shah Kotla was a cliffhanger, one where they sneaked home by two runs. The reason why the game is remembered, though, is because of Flintoff’s startling remarks in his book, : “I felt something hit me and, looking down, saw pellets on the ground. You expect to have plastic bottles thrown at you when you are playing on the subcontinent, but you don’t expect to be shot … I think I should have made more of a stand because I wasn’t there to be shot at.”He was shot again today, in fact several hundred times. This time it was by an army of over-enthusiastic photographers, trying to get as many pictures of him and Dravid unveiling the TVS Cup. He couldn’t control smirking at the passion on show, as the photographers nudged, shoved and howled. Later, sporting a refreshingly relaxed air, he settled down to address the press and said he wasn’t going to break his head over crowd troubles – “We have other things to worry about than think of what happened four years ago” – and hoped his side would show the same ability to scrap against the odds – “What English cricket is all about”.Last Saturday, as Flintoff was back home “feeding the baby”, Matt Prior and Ian Bell warmed themselves up with fine half-centuries in the practice game at Jaipur. Both could find a place in the starting XI tomorrow but it would be the explosive skills of Kevin Pietersen and Flintoff – “impact players,” as Dravid called them – that could win the day.Statistically, though, England are up against huge odds. Their last overseas one-day series win, if one excludes Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, came way back in December 1997, when Adam Hollioke led a group of tyros to victory in Sharjah. India, on the other hand, are on a red-hot one-day streak, with thumping victories over Sri Lanka and Pakistan intercepted by a drawn rubber against South Africa. They have hunted down targets like panthers on a prowl, 13 successful run-chases in a row , and possess a flexibility that serves them in a crisis.Munaf Patel’s bruised heel during practice may rule him out of the game but India now have a medium-pace pool to pick from. Sreesanth’s skid, Ajit Agarkar’s nip and Rudra Pratap Singh’s discomforting lift blended beautifully in Pakistan. Vitally, they were backed up by innovative captaincy and an off-side cordon – Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif and Suresh Raina – that resembled a gymnastic crew. Something happens to India when they play one-dayers these days. It will take a mighty effort to stop this juggernaut. But again, Flintoff may well turn out to be that superhuman force.India (probable) 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 Rahul Dravid (capt), 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Mohammad Kaif, 6 Suresh Raina, 7 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), 8 Irfan Pathan, 9 Ajit Agarkar, 10 Harbhajan Singh, 11 SreesanthEngland (probable) 1 Matt Prior, 2 Ian Bell, 3 Andrew Strauss, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Andrew Flintoff, 6 Paul Collingwood, 7 Geraint Jones (wk), 8 Ian Blackwell, 9 Liam Plunkett, 10 Kabir Ali, 11 James Anderson.

India have announced proposals to play two triangular series, one in Sri Lanka and one in North America. The one in Sri Lanka will take place in September with South Africa as the third team.The more interesting development was confirmation that a series in the USA, featuring Australia and West Indies, was being considered, although Niranjan Shah, the BCCI secretary, said that “nothing concrete has been decided”.It had been widely reported at the weekend that Asia’s successful bid to host the 2011 World Cup had been secured thanks to a deal done with West Indies, but that was denied by Shah.”How can you say the West Indies have been bought over,” he asked. “Had they voted for Australia and New Zealand, would you say they were bought over by that group? Yes, their vote in our favour was important in clinching the bid.”The suggestions, however, were given more substance when details of the proposed series in the USA emerged. Ken Gordon, the West Indies board chairman, travelled to Florida at the weekend to meet with USA Cricket Association officials but it is not thought that anything concrete was agreed.

Kanwar Naved Jameel, Hyderabad district Nazim (mayor), said the management of the Niaz Stadium in Hyderabad would be handed over to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) completely after the completion of some official formalities.An MoU between the District Government Hyderabad and the PCB has already been signed, he said. He was speaking after inaugurating an exhibition cricket match between Journalists-XI and Photo Journalists-I in connection with the golden jubilee celebration of Hyderabad Press Club at the Niaz Stadium.Kanwar said the District Government has taken all possible measures within its available resources for the renovation of the Niaz\ stadium. He added that the local administration is in contact with the PCB constantly for accelerating cricket activities in Hyderabad at the national level. Kanwar stated that efforts are underway to have a five-star hotel in Hyderabad to ensure international sports events can be staged here in future.

Andrew Leipus on Sachin Tendulkar’s injuries
Download MP3 (right click and select “save target as”)
Streaming Audio: Real :: WMAIt isn’t easy coming back from injury, and nobody knows that better than Sachin Tendulkar, who, after injuries to his back and elbow, is now suffering from a shoulder injury. After he dropped out from the Test series in West Indies today, Cricinfo’s Nagraj Gollapudi spoke to Andrew Leipus to find out more about the injury. Leipus, once the Indian team’s physio, is now looking after Tendulkar, and explained how hard a toll such injuries take on cricketers.Download MP3 (right click and select “save target as”)
Streaming Audio: Real :: WMA