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The West Indies cricket team arrived in South Africa on Monday evening and Chris Gayle is promising a “fight” in the upcoming series.Speaking after the team touched down at the OR Tambo Airport, Gayle said that the West Indies were full of confidence and believed they could win when the sides meet in three Tests, five one-day internationals and two Twenty20 internationals.”We respect the South Africans but we don’t fear them. They are a good team and are playing good cricket at the moment, so we know the challenge at hand. “But we are confident and we believe in our ability. We played well in Zimbabwe and we are here in South Africa to continue the good work. They will be in for a fight.”Gayle hoped to be fit for the first Test against South Africa on December 26. “My injury is coming on very well, hopefully I’ll be ready for the first Test, but I need to work with the physio.”He believed that the absence of retired Brian Lara and the injured middle-order batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan could serve as motivation for the members of the team to prove their worth.”Brian is no longer in the team and Sarwan is injured and with this in mind we expect to see some of the younger players taking the opportunity to make a big contribution and possibly make a name for themselves. This is a big series and full of big opportunities.”

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Twenty wickets fell in a day at Jammu as the hosts secured a 28-run first-innings lead against Jharkhand, which may prove crucial in the low-scoring encounter. Jharkhand, opting to bat first, crossed the 100-run mark, thanks only to a 30-run last-wicket stand between Kuldeep Sharma and Sandip Roy. Kuldeep scored 24 and stayed unbeaten. For Jammu & Kashmir, the new-ball bowlers did all the damage, with Vijay Sharma taking five and Samiullah Beigh taking four wickets.The two were not done, though, as they put on 48 for the eighth wicket to take J&K past Jharkhand’s total. Beigh stayed unbeaten on 33, while Vijay scored 26. For Jharkhand, Kuldeep followed up on his batting performance with 3 for 57, while SS Rao took 3 for 56.
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Haryana never really recovered from the early blows Sanjay Bangar dealt them, and were bowled out for 193 on the first day at Rohtak. Railways made a bright start and reached 80 without loss by stumps.Bangar struck in his second and fourth overs to start the rot for Haryana. Sanjib Sanyal joined in the demolition job and soon Haryana were 71 for 6. Amit Sharma and Sandeep Singh took them to 100 with a 29-run stand, but three quick wickets followed. That’s when Gaurav Vashisht, the offspinner, came up with a timely half-century to provide some respectability to their total.Siddharth Joshi and Amit Pagnis, the Railways openers, came out with an aggressive mindset and hit 13 boundaries in 20 overs.
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S Suresh scored a crucial half-century to take Assam to 198 and then took two wickets to help reduce Kerala to 23 for 5 at Guwahati. Dhiraj Goswami, Suresh’s new-ball partner, took three wickets for five runs in seven overs. Scoring, generally, happened as an afterthought as Kerala scored 23 runs in 22.3 overs.Earlier, it was Suresh’s 57 at the top of the order, along with wicketkeeper Rajdeep Das’s 30, that held the Assam innings together and took them to a total, which by the end of the day, looked huge.
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At Margao, the Madhya Pradesh batsmen punished the Goa bowling to end the day at 334 for 6. They were led by a century by Jatin Saxena and half-centuries by wicketkeeper-opener Naman Ojha and Murtaza Ali.Jatin, who came in at No.3 and shared an 87-run stand with Ojha, scored his second first-class century, in his fourth match. Ali finished the day unbeaten on 75, his maiden first-class half-century. For Goa, Saurabh Bandekar, the former India Under-19 medium-pacer, stuck to the task and took four wickets for 98 runs, even though he bowled eight no-balls.
ScorecardNiraj Patel scored his 10th first-class century to take Gujarat to a comfortable 230 for 3 in Delhi. Niraj’s unbeaten 107 came off 192 deliveries and featured 18 boundaries. Niraj joined opener Nilesh Modi when Gujarat were at a tricky 50 for 2. Modi scored a cautious 51 and put on 75 for the third wicket with Niraj. Bhavik Thaker scored an equally cautious 35 in an unbeaten stand of 105 for the fourth wicket.
ScorecardFaiz Fazal’s second first-class century and Alind Naidu’s 87 put Vidarbha in a commanding position against Tripura, at Nagpur. The two shared a 160-run stand after Vidarbha had lost their first wicket for two runs. Fazal hit 19 fours and a six in his innings of 110.Tripura, though, struck with Naidu’s wicket in 83rd over of the day, after which Vidarbha scored only 11 runs.

Cricket Australia will wait at least eight weeks before deciding whether Australia will tour Pakistan in March. The assassination of the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi on Thursday raised further concerns about the series, but James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia chief executive, said the shooting and subsequent violence in the country had not changed the organisation’s view.”During February we’ll have a look at the circumstances that are relevant to the tour,” he said. “Right now playing in a neutral venue is not something that’s under consideration. There’s a commitment to tour Pakistan and we’ll be pursuing every avenue we can for that tour to go ahead.”Sutherland said Cricket Australia was not at the stage of “looking too deeply into this”, but it would remain in contact with the federal government and take advice from its security experts. “The tour is nearly three months away,” he said. “The appropriate time for us is really eight weeks away.”A delegation of officials from Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association is due to visit the country in February to make a decision on whether the trip will proceed. Sutherland said the safety of the players and the advance party was paramount.Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd was confident the tour would go ahead as he felt that cricket is a tool to improve diplomatic relations between countries. “I think we’ll sort that all out with Cricket Australia as the time approaches,” Rudd said in a radio program. “It’s always hard, it’s always difficult, but (cricket) is a great international game. It’s a great language of international diplomacy.In response to that, Nasim Ashraf, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, said he was happy with Rudd’s positive statement. “We are happy that the Australia prime minister has taken a very positive approach on the issue,” Ashraf told . “The Australian team will be safe in Pakistan, which is a nation that loves sports. In addition, we will be providing them a fool-proof security cover here.”Michael Clarke said the team was confident with any choice made by Cricket Australia. “We’ll all be leaving it to them, we’re out of our depth,” he said. “I certainly don’t know enough about it. Cricket Australia will let us know when we get closer to touring there and I’ll go on whatever they say.”Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, said if Australia’s investigation concluded that touring would be too dangerous the ICC would complete its own report. “If ultimately it’s decided it’s unsafe, the next step is a neutral venue and the next step is to defer the series and fit it in to the schedule,” he told ABC radio. “There will be no decisions in the next week or the next month.”Pakistan staged the 2002-03 series against Australia in Sharjah and Sri Lanka, but Speed said the ICC could not force the next contest to be held at a neutral venue. “That’s another option for Pakistan,” he said. “We need to wait and see how things settle down.” The Pakistan Cricket Board has said the matches would not be played outside Pakistan.Wasim Akram said the PCB could do nothing at the moment to ensure the Australia tour occurred. “First the country has to settle down into some state of normalcy,” he said. A previous Australian delegation visited Pakistan in July before the Australia A and Under-19 tours that were held without any problems.

ScorecardPoints tableStephen Peters guided Northamptonshire to a comfortable eight-wicket win against Glamorgan to keep their hopes of the title alive. Peters and Usman Afzaal added an unbeaten 113 for the third wicket as their team cruised to the target with 23 balls to spare after rain reduced the match to 36 overs.Northamptonshire had early bowled and fielded impressively despite being hampered for stages by a damp ball as play continued during drizzle. Robert Croft held the Glamorgan innings together with 54 off 84 balls, but lacked support with the next highest score being 17. Lance Klusener, Jason Brown and Monty Panesar each took two wickets.David Harrison hit back with a brace of his own at the start of the Northants reply, but none of the Glamorgan attack could do anything to stop Peters and Afzaal. They are now level on points with Essex but have played a game more.

India Pistons set up a title showdown with Chemplast in the Moin udDowlah Cup in Hyderabad on Sunday with a comfortable 49 run win overIndia Cements. In the semifinal clash at the Gymkhana ground, Pistonswere dug out of a hole by the familiar crisis man Robin Singh whoshepherded the lower order to 218 with a priceless unbeaten 80. Inreply, Cements were never in the running, losing wickets at closeintervals and it was only a lone hand of 77 by Sunil Oasis whichhelped them to 169.In the morning, Tamil Nadu seamer J Gokulakrishnan bowled an incisivefirst spell of 5-0-26-3 to leave Pistons reeling at 33/3 after havingbeen put in to bat. Vikram Rathour and JR Madanagopal restored someorder with a battling 44-run stand before both fell in the space oftwo runs to leave Pistons in grave peril at 79/5. Pistons were missingReetinder Sodhi for this vital game, the Punjab youngster havingfallen ill after yesterday’s game and flown back home.Robin was thus the last hope and he responded with the typical gustoof a man who thrives under the challenge of a pressure cookersituation. Two more partners left him along the line after brief showsof solidarity to leave Pistons at 135/7. But although No’s 9, 10 and11 made precisely 13 runs between them, they helped Robin add 83 forthe last three wickets with the skipper running out of partners aftermaking 80 in 90 balls inclusive of six fours. Gokul finished top ofthe pack among the Cements attack with figures of 4/46.Robin led with the way with the ball too, dismissing Jesu Babu withhis first delivery. The other opener VB Chandrasekhar was not hisusual aggressive self, hanging around for 43 balls to make 19 beforeleg spinner Balaji Rao dismissed him. Balaji Rao delivered anothertelling blow by removing S Sharath for three and at 61/5, Cements werein dire straits. Left arm spinner Satyajit Medappa then stepped in andcleaned up the tail in spite of Oasis’ heroics. The Kerala Ranjiplayer was last out for 77 (106 balls, 6 fours, 3 sixes) as Cementsfolded up ignominiously for 169 with 14 balls to spare.

Hashan Tillakaratne, the former Sri Lankan Test Captain made a fleeting visit to Vienna on Monday. The surprise visit, which came about through personal contacts from the reformed Sri Lankan CC, was a fleeting one, although they were able to take him to see the facilities are Concordia CC’s ground in Markommannenstrasse in Vienna’s 22nd District, where he was able to meet with Concordia CC Chairman and ACA Cricket Development Officer, Siva Nadarajah, who presented him with a team shirt and cap.The ground was officially opened on Saturday 21st June, which some 400 people attending – including youth team players from Tegernsee CC, who have been frequent visitors to Austria for some three seasons now. It will also be used for the forthcoming ECC Notts Sport® Trophy.

Players who appear in unofficial events will have their contracts cancelled under policy guidelines announced by Cricket Australia. The conditions do not apply to the Indian Premier League (IPL), which is sanctioned by the Indian board, but they do affect those considering joining the Indian Cricket League (ICL).The decision follows ICC regulations and similar guidelines forced Shane Bond, the New Zealand fast bowler, to terminate his national deal. No current Cricket Australia contract holders have publicly expressed their desire to be part of the ICL, but there is potential for younger domestic performers to be attracted to the competition. Stuart Law and Ian Harvey took part in the original tournament in India in December, but both have finished their inter-state careers in Australia.In one of two conditions released by Cricket Australia it said “selectors will treat players who take part only in ICC-approved matches more favourably than those who do not”. The other clause stated “players will not be offered contracts or be permitted to continue to be a party to player contracts if, during the term of those contracts, those players take part in unofficial cricket events”.The ruling pushes Australians towards the IPL and the planned Champions Twenty20 competition that is due to involve domestic teams from Australia, India, South Africa and England.

England v South Africa, 1st Test, Edgbaston, Day 5England leave Edgbaston with a gritty draw and a bowling headache.One-hundred and seventy-one overs, 728 runs and only nine wickets equals a big problem.Though the pitch was slow, it not as totally lifeless as it looked whenEngland were bowling. Plenty of balls skidded through low or seamed, but the pace attack wasn’t straight enough. Plenty of rough was created outside the right-handers’ leg stump, but Ashley Giles didn’t have the subtlety to exploit it. In this Test, England took a wicket every 114 balls, a strike rate only a shade better than Graham Gooch managed in a career bowling the dibbliest of occasional dibbly-dobbbers.Look harder and the problem is worse than it first appears. In the first innings, two wickets fell to tired swats that were caught on the boundary (Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs), one huge attempted cut caught at third man (Jacques Rudolph), and one to a struggling batsman trying to get on with it (Boeta Dippenaar). Only Gary Kirsten’s leg-side nick could be considered a proper wicket, and that came off a bad ball from Giles.Of today’s dimissals only Kirsten, again, was a genuine triumph for the bowler. Gibbs was bowled courtesy of a deflection off his elbow, and Smith and Rudolph perished giving Giles the charge. The net result is that only two or three of the wickets England took were not as down to South Africa’s search for quick runs.Darren Gough’s usual zip was missing, Steve Harmison could still not turn promising moments into consistent menace, and Ashley Giles and Andrew Flintoff did what they are in the team to do: block up an end. Impotent was not the right word.Not only did England lack a cutting edge, they also lacked a Plan B. Inrecent series, and in particular in 2001-02 against India, Nasser Hussain has quickly reverted to packing he off side, instructing his bowlers to bowl a foot outside off and waiting for the batsmen to make a mistake.But here England lacked the discipline to bowl on one side of the wicket. Anderson was the prime offender. Though he did finally manage a wicket, it was from one of very few decent balls he bowled. On Sunday morning he was out on the pitch before play bowling into a corridor of cones in a desperate attempt to hone his line and length. For once he looked what he is – a novice.Never was England’s desire for a frightening quick bowler or a mysteryspinner more keenly felt. But a quick glance at the county averages shows no obvious solution. The two leading wicket-takers who are eligible for England – James Kirtley and Jimmy Ormond – offer more consistency but less potency than Anderson. And the only mystery spinner in sight is Mushtaq Ahmed.Wisden Bulletin – Day 5

Centuries from Steve Tikolo and Ravindu Shah got Kenya out of trouble on the second day of the three-day match against Pakistan A at the Simba Union Club in Nairobi.Kenya replied with 254 for 3, after Pakistan A declared their first innings at 495. Taufeeq Umar and Faisal Iqbal smeared the Kenyan bowling to all parts of the Oval and Pakistan A declared shortly before lunch on the second day. Tafeeq made 144 and Faisal finished on 119.Kenya’s reply was rocked early in the innings when Kennedy Obuya and HiteshModi fell in quick succession. However, Tikolo and Shah engineered the fightback with a third-wicket stand of 216. Shah struck 23 boundaries and continued his great form, after his 135 against Uganda a week ago, and notched up his third first-class century.Tikolo brought up his fourth first-class hundred with a single off Salman Butt and spanked 15 boundaries in his 140-ball effort. Thomas Odoyo got in on the act too but bad light brought the day’s proceedings to a premature end.

Take away the pressure and Zimbabwe play better. They did much better forthree-quarters of their final World Cup match of 2003 against Sri Lankabefore collapsing to give Sri Lanka a rather easy victory in the end by 76runs.The turning point of the match, as so often but now for the last time, wasthe dismissal of Andy Flower. Zimbabwe were looking on course to challengethe Sri Lankan total of 256, with the Flower brothers together, but it wasone of those instances where an umpiring error turned the match. UmpireBrian Jerling gave Andy out lbw, failing to detect an inside edge on to thepad, and that brought Andy’s international career to an end. But it can besaid that a side that packed in so quickly after that error didn’t reallydeserve to win anyway.But at least Zimbabwe looked a better team this time that the sombre crewthat took the field against Kenya. Sri Lanka batted on winning the toss,but a combination of a slow East London pitch, not ideal for a one-daymatch, and accurate seam bowling, especially by Heath Streak, made scoringdifficult. Perhaps there was also for them the pressure of knowing theirfuture in this World Cup depended on the result. Against Zimbabwe they maywell have decided to play it safely, ensure a satisfactory total rather thangamble on a high one, and trust their bowlers to remove Zimbabwe’s fragilebatting.It was a policy that might have got them into trouble had it not been forthe Andy Flower dismissal. Zimbabwe did their best to give Andy a memorablefinale to his great international career with a victory and showed morevibrancy in the field than they did against Kenya – where they could hardlyhave shown less.They gave Travis Friend and Stuart Matsikenyeri their first games of thecompetition, but Alistair Campbell was one of the casualties expected tostand down. This meant yet another opening partner for Craig Wishart -believe it or not, his fifth in eight matches. He has opened in turn withMark Vermeulen, Guy Whittall, Vermeulen again, Dion Ebrahim, Campbell andnow it was Doug Marillier’s turn. Any comment on selection policies here issuperfluous.Wishart himself has not made the most of this tournament since his recordinnings against the weak Namibian team. Time and again he has done the hardwork, made a start and then lost his wicket: after 172 not out, his scoreshave been 12, 10, 21, 30, 5 and now 43. What a waste! He has been dumpedby the selectors numerous times during his career, and they may well takethe excuse to do so again. He has the talent to succeed against anybowling, but has only partially done so, and he may well regret his failureto make his place in the side rock-sure when he had the chance.Zimbabwe’s bowlers did a good job until the pressure mounted at the end ofthe Sri Lankan innings. Then the batsmen cut loose, with Kumar Sangakkarathe most outstanding, and they wilted. However they were not alone in thisas the New Zealand bowlers had nothing to be proud of when Streak took themapart two matches earlier.There seemed to be more vitality in the fielding, too. There were somegreat saves by several players, but on the debit side there were missedcatches.Zimbabwe began their run-chase superbly. Their batting against Kenya hadseemed quite brainless. If they had expected to go in and help themselvesthen, they were soon disillusioned, and if such a realistic Plan A existed,where was Plan B? Or maybe Plan B was simply ‘chuck your wicket away’.But now we had Wishart and Marillier taking the attack to the bowlers,driving with confidence even on a pitch not best suited to it. EvenChaminda Vaas, so long a thorn in Zimbabwe’s side, came under attack andtemporarily lost his accuracy. There was some good running between thewickets, another aspect of batsmanship that had apparently been thrown outof the window against Kenya.Travis Friend did a good, if brief, job at number three with 21 off 20balls, and with the Flower brothers in command Zimbabwe needed at one stage117 to win in 22 overs with seven wickets left. Then came the umpire’sfinger of doom, and Zimbabwe quickly subsided.Andy Blignaut was Zimbabwe’s hope when he came in at 150 for five, thenStreak at 178 for seven, but both fell quickly and tamely. Only GrantFlower and Sean Ervine held up the march of the Sri Lankans at all; theothers hastened back to the pavilion in no time.The post-Andy Flower era is upon us. It will be an era of unreliablebatting and sorry collapses – unless we can find specialist batsmen willingto put their hands up and take responsibility as Andy did. Perhaps somebodywill rise to the occasion, but at the moment there is no sign of it.Finally, how about this for an alternative Zimbabwe eleven? Johnson,Madondo, Goodwin, Hick, Andy Flower, Penney, Paul Strang, Andrew Whittall,Bryan Strang, Adam Huckle and Brighton Watambwa; twelfth man EvertonMatambanadzo.This now is a full team of players who should be available for Zimbabweright now but are not. Trevor Madondo (sadly dead) and Paul Strang(long-term arm injury) cannot play for reasons beyond their control; therest chose to leave over the years. We now need those who have remainedfaithful to Zimbabwe to make sure they use their talents to the full and donot let Zimbabwe down.This is not really happening at the moment. We may be short of talentcompared to eight other countries, but we have enough potential talent to bedoing far better than we are at the moment. At least there is someimprovement in that we were competitive for most of the match against SriLanka. It is sad we couldn’t have been competitive to the end. If we had,we might still have lost, but it would have been a thriller.Guys, we need players who relish the pressure, relish the fight, relish theresponsibility. Where are you?