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Mashrafe Mortaza, the Bangladesh allrounder, has said his lucrative IPL contract is a reward for hard work and a consistent season. Mortaza, 25, was picked up by the Kolkata Knight Riders for $600,000 after a protracted bidding war with Kings XI Punjab that saw his value shoot up to 12 times the base price.”Obviously I am pleased. I feel this is a result of all the hard work I have put in over the years and also a reward for being consistent this season,” Mortaza told PTI.Mortaza’s value to Kolkata was no surprise, both in cricketing terms – the Knight Riders are without Shoaib Akhtar and Umar Gul – and as a “local hero”, given his ethnicity. What did raise eyebrows was Punjab’s relentless bidding, and Mortaza offered one explanation for that. He said Yuvraj Singh, the Kings XI Punjab captain, had promised him to take him on. “I often had conversations with Yuvraj and he said he would take me in his side,” Mortaza, who figures at No. 8 in the ICC ODI rankings, was quoted as saying.That Punjab’s pursuit of Mortaza was not just a red-herring to catch Kolkata off guard was confirmed by franchise stake-holder Preity Zinta. “Mortaza is a great player, an all-rounder and we wanted him. But you win some, you lose some,” she said.Mortaza is excited about playing in Kolkata, and under Sourav Ganguly. “I have lots of friends and fans in India. I love being there and it is a pleasure to play in India, he said. “Kolkata is just next door and I know how much people there admire Bangladeshi cricketers… my challenge is to go over there and prove my worth.”Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman, said he thought Mortaza’s signing made great business sense for Kolkata. “We were all very surprised (at Mortaza’s price tag), but it makes great sense for them. Bangladesh falls in Kolkata’s catchment area under a new proposal we are discussing on letting franchises stage matches overseas. This could work well for KKR later.”Mortaza’s windfall was acclaimed by his captain, Mohammad Ashraful – who himself was signed up by the Mumbai Indians. “I am very happy for Mash [Mortaza] as he has been outstanding day in and day out for us.”The one Bangladesh player who surprisingly didn’t make the cut, though, was Shakib Al Hasan, and Mortaza spared a thought for him. “I would have been a lot happier if Shakib had got a team because he truly deserved it for his sensational form with the bat and ball,” he said.

Combined Campuses and Colleges squandered a dominant position and collapsed to 227 for 9 against Windward Islands on a rain-affected first day in Barbados.Opener Simon Jackson and Nekoli Parris, who made 54, added 90 after the first wicket fell without a run on the board. Jackson was caught and bowled by legspinner Shane Shillingford but Parris and Floyd Reifer, who top-scored with 92, consolidated. However, medium-pacer Kevin James triggered a slide and CCC lost eight wickets for 85. Only three batsmen managed to reach double figures as the bowling attack, led by Deighton Butler, who took 3 for 21, chipped away at the CCC batsmen.However, CCC were fortunate to get as far as they did as Reifer was dropped by Mervyn Matthew and Andre Fletcher before he had reached 20. He was eventually out, agonisingly close to his 11th first-class century, holing out to deep midwicket off Kenroy Peters, before play ended with 11 overs still remaining.The match between Leeward Islands and Guyana in Nevis followed a similar script. Leewards were bowled out for 225, losing seven wickets for 54 to spinners Veerasammy Permaul and Davendra Bishoo, after being in a position of advantage at 171 for 3.Leeward openers Shane Jeffers and Montcin Hodge started soundly and their team raced to 98 for 1 at lunch. They then lost two wickets in a space of 11 runs: Hodge edged to wicketkeeper Derwin Christian while attempting a drive off Esuan Crandon, and captain Runako Morton was caught at forward short leg off Steven Jacobs.Omari Banks did for Leewards what Floyd Reifer had done for CCC. Batting solidly, he struck six fours and two sixes amid a middle-order collapse, and was unbeaten 65. None of the final six batsmen scored more than 6. At the close, the Guyana openers Christopher Barnwell and Shemroy Barrington had scored 20 off nine overs.Barbados and Jamaica were involved in a more closely fought encounter in Kingston. Unlike the other two games, Barbados averted a collapse, and their middle and lower-order batsmen made useful contributions to help them reach 293. Jamaican spinners Odean Brown and Bevon Brown took four wickets between them and fast bowler Andrew Richardson picked up 3 for 41.Barbados started well after winning the toss, openers Jason Haynes and Rashidi Boucher adding 41. Boucher played on to Richardson and the Jamaican bowlers got into their groove quickly to prevent a threatening partnership from taking root. No subsequent stand yielded more than 47 as the Barbados batsmen, despite getting starts, failed to consolidate. Ryan Hinds made 47 while Jonathan Carter top-scored with 49. Rohan Nurse and Kevin Stoute steadied the innings after their team had been restricted to 164 for 5 and the last five wickets added 129 runs.In response, Jamaica batted seven overs to reach 31 for 0.

Intikhab Alam, the Pakistan coach, has been asked by the PCB to get inputs from national team players and draw up recommendations before the board hands out its central contracts for this year. The board also strongly denied reports of the players being unhappy with certain terms in the contracts.”We have given him (Intikhab) an outline of what we feel should be the terms and conditions of the new contracts and he will add the players’ info to these,” Salim Altaf, the PCB’s chief operating officer, said. “But so far nothing has happened. So there is no question of players being unhappy as yet.”Their had been reports in various sections of the press that senior players were unhappy with terms of the new contracts; captain Shoaib Malik is alleged to have spoken to several senior players in an effort to stop them from signing new contracts and holding out for better terms.But Altaf rubbished the claims. “The question of players revolting or not being happy with the new terms of the contracts does not arise. Because as yet nothing has been formalised regarding the new terms and conditions of the contracts.”The reports have an interesting context in that they come at a time when talk of forming a players’ association has been mooted for the first time in many years. Pakistan has never had a players’ association of any credible standing, though Asif Iqbal, former captain, and some players in the late 70s did try to set one up. In recent months, both Malik and vice-captain Misbah-ul-Haq have spoken of the need to set one up in Pakistan.But Altaf acknowledged that the financial crunch the board is facing will force it to rationalise the benefits given to cricketers. “There is a suggestion that while special bonuses for individual performances be cut, the match fees of players be increased specially for Test matches to balance things.”But the players have to understand we are facing a financial crunch and we are taking measures in the board administration and expenses also to rationalise things,” he said.The central contracts for 2008 have already expired, on the last day of the year, and the new ones, with a tenure of one year, will be announced only after receiving the approval of the board’s general council meeting later this month. The drafts of the central contracts were handed over to the chairman PCB Ijaz Butt today and the process of making a final draft out of them will begin now.

South Australia are looking to employ another Pakistani by having Sohail Tanvir involved in their Twenty20 campaign, but the move depends on his international commitments. Tanvir starred for the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League earlier this year and if the short-term deal goes through he will step in for Younis Khan, who is helping out the struggling Redbacks in 2007-08.Tanvir, 24, was the most successful bowler in the IPL with 22 wickets and hit the winning runs while batting with Shane Warne in the final. South Australian officials are excited by the prospect of Shaun Tait working in tandem with Tanvir and said the deal was “cheap”.”That was one of the real beauties of the deal … this guy is really coming for the opportunity,” Jamie Cox, South Australia’s high performance manager, told Sportal. “It’s a very, very cheap deal for us. He was a bargain basement price for the IPL and took more wickets than anyone else … we believe he’s quality in this form of the game.”Australia’s domestic Twenty20 competition starts on Boxing Day and Tanvir will be available only if he is not picked in Pakistan’s squad for India’s tour – or the series is cancelled due to security concerns. Tanvir has appeared in two Tests, 27 ODIS and 10 Twenty20 internationals. South Australia are currently bottom of the one-day competition and second last in the Sheffield Shield.

Mohammad Ashraful expects the pitches for the two Tests against South Africa to be similar to the one in Bangladesh’s warm-up match in Kimberley. Bangladesh drew their two-day game with the South African Airways Challenge XI but Ashraful was happy that some of the top-order batsmen got runs and his bowlers bowled out the hosts in two sessions.Mushfiqur Rahim top-scored in the game with 89, while youngster Imrul Kayes, yet to make his Test debut, made a patient 86 after opening the batting with Tamim Iqbal. Ashraful was pleased by their performances but felt they should have gone on to make centuries. “It was a good wicket to bat on but movement was available to the seamers throughout. The weather in both Kimberley and Bloemfontein has been brilliant which is also very good for us.”Bangladesh could start the series without their strike bowler Mashrafe Mortaza, who missed the warm-up game because of a sore back, but Ashraful said Shahadat Hossain, who took five SAA Challenge XI wickets, had stepped up impressively in Mortaza’s absence. “We need all the bowlers to keep hitting the right areas which did not happen consistently in the two-dayer. Hopefully we will have Mash [Mortaza] back for the Test match because you need your best bowlers to fire in big matches.”Our goal was to play sessions and we achieved that. It is a whole new ball game when you face South Africa but scoring runs against a side which had decent first-class players also helps when you prepare for sterner tests.”Mortaza said the stiffness in his back was gradually reducing and he hoped to complete on full practice session on Tuesday before a decision was taken on his availability for the first Test starting the next day.

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Ameya Shrikhande fell five short of a double-century as he took Maharashtra towards a creditable draw against Tamil Nadu in Nasik. Playing only his second first-class match, he frustrated the Tamil Nadu bowlers for 83 overs on day two and converted his overnight half-century in to a maiden hundred. Maharashtra were replying to the visitors’ mammoth 648 and Shrikhande’s innings which lasted nearly eight hours makes a Tamil Nadu win an unlikely possibility; to do that they have to take three first-innings wickets, set a target and then bowl Maharashtra out, all in one day.Rohan Bhosale (43) and Kedar Jadhav were involved in century stands with Shrikhande but at the fall of Jadhav’s wicket (63), Maharashtra still trailed by 346 runs. When Suresh dismissed Nikhil Paradkar off the next ball, Tamil Nadu may have hoped to soon enforce the follow-on – their double-centurion opener M Vijay called up to the Test side last night – and skip batting again. But Shrikhande pushed on, aided by Ankit Bawne, who batted 106 balls for his 22. He finally fell to offspinner R Ashwin with the score at 389 for 5. Two more wickets fell with five more added to the score but Rohit Motwani and Aditya Dole batted out the few overs before stumps.
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The match in Bangalore also headed for a draw as Railways ended day three with a 25-run deficit to Karnataka’s first-innings 365. Yere Goud’s unbeaten 109, against the side he captained last season, and Raja Ali’s half-century at No. 8, revived the innings Sanjay Bangar’s dismissal.Bangar added 31 to his overnight 53 before he was run out by KB Pawan. He had added 75 with Goud, who upped the rate at the end of the stand. Though Mahesh Rawat only added 11 to the 46-run stand, his partnership with Goud ticked over at more than three an over. Goud took a more cautious approach once Rawat was bowled by offspinner Sunil Raju. But Ali looked comfortable in the 109-run stand, hitting six fours and a six in his 128-ball 52. He fell on the last ball of the day which means Railways could still be bowled out with a deficit and thereby concede points on a first-innings lead.
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A victory seems evident for Gujarat, who need only five Saurashtra wickets on day four to pull off an innings win over last year’s semi-finalists in Rajkot. Offspinner Mohnish Parmar took 3for 6 and Saurashtra stil trail by 354 runs to Gujarat’s 581.Siddharth Trivedi added another wicket to his four on yesterday when he bowled Cheteshwar Pujara, who scored two triple-centuries in a week last month, in the first over of day three. Sandip Maniar’s half-century partnerships with Pratik Mehta and Ravindra Jadeja gave Saurashtra a brief respite from the wicket-falling but it took only 10 overs after Maniar’s dismissal for the innings to fold.Considering their appalling start in the first innings, where they were 8 for 4 in 10 overs, Saurashtra’s start to the second innings was almost decent. In 9.4 overs they were 52 for 3, with Parmar removing Jadeja and Pujara off consecutive balls. He dismissed captain Jaydev Shah two overs before stumps and ended with figures of 13-9-6-3.
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Despite useful contributions from lower-order batsmen Pinninti Jayachandra and Rakesh Mohanty, Orissa failed to gain a first-innings lead over Hyderabad in Cuttack. The visitors extended their advantage to 83 runs after bowling out Orissa for 269.Amol Shinde and Shoaib Ahmed picked up three wickets each.The two combined to trigger the middle-order collapse when Shoaib had Preetamjit Das caught off Shinde in the fourth over of the day. Shiv Sunder Das, the innings’ top scorer, was run out two overs later, having added only five to his overnight 75. Halhadar Das was caught behind for 8 before the lower order pitched in.
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Centuries from Tanmay Srivastava and Mohammad Kaif ensured Uttar Pradesh take points from a first-innings lead against Andhra in Meerut. UP ended the day needing five more to gain the lead but with six wickets in hand that should be managed in the first few overs of the final day.A draw is the most likely result as Andhra’s bowlers struggled to take wickets or keep the scoring-rate in check. Srivastava and Kaif added 285 at nearly three runs an over. Srivastava hit 16 boundaries in his 154, while Kaif managed two more in his 144. DP Vijaykumar, who had dismissed Suresh Raina on day two, had to wait for more than 96 overs for his second wicket – he trapped Kaif leg before with the score on 333. Stumps were drawn at Srivatasva’s fall five overs later.
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The Delhi middle-order batsmen helped themselves to half-centuries as their match against Punjab meandered towards a draw at the Roshnara Club Ground in Delhi. Rajat Bhatia fell just short of a hundred as he helped his side overhaul Punjab’s 391. His valuable stands with Mithun Manhas and Puneet Bisht ensured Delhi ended the day 43 runs ahead of Punjab.Aakash Chopra and Shikhar Dhawan had given the hosts a solid start yesterday but their dismissals, along with Virat Kohli and Aditya Jain, early on day three left Delhi in a spot of bother at 172 for 4. Manhas and Bhatia turned their fortunes by adding 73 at more than five and a half an over. After Manhas was trapped leg before for 58 by Siddharth Kaul, the run-rate dropped to three and a half, but Bhatia’s 150-run stand with Bisht took Delhi past Punjab.
ScorecardRohit Sharma cracked a century in one session to put Mumbai in pole position for chasing 409, Rajasthan tottered at 63 for 4 at stumps on day three. With a cushioning first-innings lead of 103, Mumbai extended it further on the back of Rohit and Sahil Kukreja’s 171-run stand and declared at tea. Read the full report here.

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Steve Magoffin’s first ten-wicket haul in first-class cricket ensured a gettable chase for Western Australia despite defiant half-centuries from Greg Mail and Dominic Thornely. Magoffin followed up his first-innings collection with a six-wicket haul that left the Warriors chasing 223 and by the close they made an excellent start with Liam Davis on 30 and Shaun Marsh on 10.Resuming on 2 for 62, New South Wales lost their nightwatchman Beau Casson in the second over to Magoffin before Thornely joined Mail for a crucial 78-run stand. The Warriors could have ended the association earlier had Brett Dorey held on to a regulation catch off Thornely at gully four balls after lunch. Thornely was on 16 at that time and the Warriors didn’t see the back of him until he had added 81 more.Marcus North broke the stand when he had Mail caught by Dorey for a patient 77 off 213 balls. Steve Smith was bowled soon after by Magoffin with the score on 175 and the Blues were in a spot of bother. Thornely was involved in another crucial stand, this time yielding 81 with Grant Lambert and the lower order supported the captain to extend the lead past 200.Thornely fell three short of a century as he edged to Adam Voges at first slip off the debutant Arron Crawford and Magoffin cleaned up the tail to finish with 6 for 66 and match figures of 10 for 102. With both openers still at the crease, the Warriors had the upper hand ahead of an intriguing final day on a pitch that had offered something for batsmen and bowlers alike.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has said that Indian’s senior batsmen – Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman – are under pressure more due to their own high expectations than that of the fans and the media. With age catching up (Laxman, who turns 34 next month, is the youngest of the middle-order veterans) and all four of them in poor form during the recent Test series in Sri Lanka, their places have come under scrutiny.Dhoni, however, insisted that the seniors still have a lot to offer. “There is more pressure on them because of their own expectation level and because they have set the benchmark so high,” he told . “There is more pressure that comes from within.”I don’t think you can really write them off, they have plenty in them. But at the same time you have to look into the future. It’s all about transition, making a respectful last few years in their international career.”He also said that the seniors could still hold their own despite the presence of talented youngsters who are pushing for Test spots. “We definitely have players who are talented and can make it big, but at the same time, it’s not really about talent. Their adaptability and preparation matters.”He also said that Australia will find the going tough in the Tests if the pitches assist the spinners. “If it is a normal Indian wicket that starts to turn may be from the tea session [of the first day], then it will be tough for them. They will have to apply themselves to get the runs.” Spinners accounted for ten of the 12 Australian wickets that fell during their four-day game against a Board President’s XI in Hyderabad last week.

Bangladesh’s batting woes have been well documented but their main fast bowler Mashrafe Mortaza said the attack must also lift if the team is to avoid another drubbing on Wednesday. They lost the opening ODI against Australia by 180 runs after falling for their lowest one-day international score but Mortaza knows the bowlers need to help out by restricting Australia more.Early in the innings Shahadat Hossain could not keep the openers tied down and then through the middle overs Shaun Marsh and Michael Hussey easily picked off ones and twos while taking few risks. It let Australia build a solid platform that in turn allowed Hussey to pick up his rate in the final overs and guide Australia to 254.”In the last game I was bowling tight from one end but Rajib (Shahadat Hossain) was leaking runs,” Mortaza said. “Against Australia it is mighty important to bowl a high percentage of good balls. We had a chat with the AIS bowling coach Damien Fleming during our warm-ups and he also stressed on making scoring difficult and said that you win yourself a point with every dot ball you bowl against Australia.”But even if the bowlers do their job on Wednesday, the batsmen must also show far more concentration to challenge Australia. In the opening game they were bundled out for 74 with nearly half their overs still available and Mortaza hopes the top order can show more confidence the second time around.”I personally thought that two or three of our top-order batters did not look confident in that game,” Mortaza said. “I am not giving excuses but the drop-in track was difficult for run-scoring and we did not look like working our way out of pressure at any time.”We have to be more than twice as good, play our natural game and get near 220 or 230. That’s the only way we can get over Saturday’s poor show.”