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ScorecardHamish Bennett’s seven-wicket haul helped dismiss Wellington for 188 on a rain-affected third day at Basin Reserve and gave Canterbury a slender 27-run lead in the first innings of the State Championship final. Canterbury ended the day on 10 for no loss.Rain delayed the start until 3.15 pm local time and when play resumed Brandon Hiini broke the 48-run stand for the seventh wicket by having Dewayne Bowden caught behind by Kruger van Wyk for 22. The innings folded quickly thereafter – the last three wickets fell for 11 runs – with Bennett taking the three remaining wickets to add to his four on the second day. Luke Woodcock remained unbeaten on 35.Canterbury’s openers, Todd Astle and Michael Papps, batted for seven overs and remained unbeaten on 3 and 6 respectively.

Send us your viewsNearly three months after the ICC charged West Indies with the responsibility of helping to resolve the bitter infighting which led to the USA Cricket Association being suspended from world cricket, Cricinfo can reveal that no progress has been made.With the ICC’s AGM due at the end of June, a mere six weeks offers scant time in which to make any headway into resolving the situation, leaving USA facing an indefinite period in international isolation.”We’ve had some preliminary discussions with some people in USACA and a meeting with the president a few days ago,” Bruce Aanensen, WICB’s chief executive, told Cricinfo. “We have come up with what we feel is the best approach to [help] the United States. While we have been given this mandate by the ICC, we can’t simply walk into another country if they don’t want us there. And therefore we are trying to break some ice, to find out the best way to find a resolution to this problem.”The ICC suspended the USACA at the beginning of March after hotly-disputed elections and a controversial new constitution left two factions claiming to control the game. In one corner USACA, headed by Gladstone Dainty, in the other the rival Council of League Presidents.The ICC asked the WICB to intervene and the USA will not be considered for readmission to the fold until the West Indies board are satisfied all is well. But, as Aanensen implies, there is little they can do until the USACA become more transparent.”Gladstone Dainty is merely [on] one side of the fence; the USA factions and leagues are on the other, and we just want to get both parties to agree,” Aanensen admitted. “We have been asked by the ICC to help. We would like to come in and hear [from] all parties concerned to understand the issues involved, and then move to help them resolve them.”It is actively on our agenda,” Aanensen said. “We are trying to sort an agreement, within a month at the latest, to talk to all parties to see how we can help.”

The battle for the National League ends this weekend when Midlands square up against Manicaland at Kwekwe Sports Club on Sunday.Manicaland, with an unbeaten record from the qualifiers, remain favourites to lift the 2006 National League Championship. In Tinotenda Mawoyo and Paxton Chatora, they have the best opening-bat partnership in the league. Their right hand-left hand combination has been a nightmare to bowlers. But they will have to face the young and vicious pace attack of Mike Chinouya and Alex Mavhiko. Legspinner Remembrance Nyathi, who had a dream semi-final against Matabeleland 2 at Queens Sports Club, taking 6 for 15 in 8.5 overs, could prove to be a handful for the Manyikas.Mawoyo is currently leading the National League batting rankings with an average of 173.50 after five matches. His best is 138, scored in the semi-final against Uprising Cricket Club from Mashonaland.Alongside Mawoyo, the former Zimbabwe Under-19 captain, will be the three Soma brothers- Leon, Andre and Daniel. The Soma boys are capable of doing damage with both bat and ball.Although Midlands carry the underdog tag, they are capable of producing Houdini acts as they have done so twice during the qualifiers. Against Masvingo, Midlands were reeling on 21 for 4 after seven overs, but went on to make 230 to win the match. In the other escape act, while defending a paltry 121, the Midlands managed to dismiss the Matabeles for 92.Inspired by player/coach Walter Chawaguta, who is also the Zimbabwe Under-19 coach, the Midlands have in their ranks a wealth of experience coupled with their never-die-spirit. Friday Kasteni, who served his country with the bat at the U-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka earlier this year, also stars for the Midlands. However, he is still to show what he is capable of after following up on a good century in the opening game with a string of disappointing performances.The Midlands track, always known to be a batting paradise, is likely to offer a high-scoring match.

Retribution is expected to be swift and bloody tomorrow, when Australia take on the side that humbled them so dramatically at Sophia Gardens last weekend. Bangladesh’s magnificent victory – only their third against senior Test opponents in almost twenty years of trying – will live long in the memory for both teams, not to mention their incredulous supporters. But, with an emphatic victory against England to their name, it will be a renewed and improved Australian unit that steps out onto the pitch at Old Trafford for the sixth match of the NatWest Series.”That win changed everything,” admitted Bangladesh’s captain, Habibul Bashar, as he addressed the press ahead of the rematch. “We have had a lot of calls since last weekend, the people back home are really happy.” Bashar has been a mainstay of the side throughout their first five years as a Test nation, but there has been nothing to compare to the glory of that afternoon. It was in the early hours of the morning in Bangladesh when the game finished, but the result prompted spontaneous celebrations in the streets.The downside of the victory, of course, is that it galvanised Australia into some serious action, and Bangladesh’s coach, Dav Whatmore, was particularly wary of what might lie around the corner for his squad. “You can almost feel their spark and improvement,” he said after watching Australia’s 57-run win over England at Chester-le-Street. “Being on top of your game all the time is not easy, especially when you have suffered a couple of losses and we can now expect a rampant opposition team.”Australia’s competitiveness was hiked up several notches by the return of two of their key performers, Andrew Symonds and Brett Lee, and Symonds was particularly eager to make amends for his absence at Cardiff. He was withdrawn on the morning of the game when he turned up drunk after an all-night drinking session, and Australia felt his absence almost as much as he felt it himself.”It’s the worst I’ve ever felt sitting out that game in Cardiff,” admitted Symonds while receiving his Man-of-the-Match reward at Chester-le-Street. “It felt like I’d had my insides ripped out – but on the flip-side of that it’s a great feeling to be back.”Symonds top-scored against England with a measured 73 out of Australia’s total of 266 for 5, then followed up with seven probing overs of medium-pace and offspin, picking up 1 for 37 in the middle overs. But, with England having set the benchmark for the competition by rattling up a vast total of 391 for 4 in their last match against Bangladesh, one can expect Symonds to be a rather more free-scoring mood at Old Trafford.Nevertheless, Bangladesh’s batsmen aren’t exactly in a shy and retiring mood at present. Mohammad Ashraful has clobbered 194 runs from 153 balls in his last two innings, including an astonishing 94 from 52 against England after surviving a freak let-off from his first delivery, when the ball landed on top of the leg bail but failed to dislodge it.With Aftab Ahmed in a similarly carefree vein of form, and Javed Omar providing a steady presence at the top of the order, there is no guarantee that Australia will be given a completely stress-free ride. But, then again, Bangladesh have yet to come up against anyone with quite the same pace and point-to-prove as Lee.Lee is currently languishing outside the first-choice Test XI, but his venomous showing against England on Thursday was ample proof that he wants his baggy green back. Bangladesh have been warned. On this occasion, once bitten is unlikely to be twice shy.

John Dyson, Sri Lanka’s coach, has praised his team for pulling off a nailbiting one run victory against Australia, a result which he believes will be a major confidence-booster for the rest of the series.He said, “All along I’ve said that if we play as well as we can, we can beat theAustralians. To come out on top on Sunday, when the Australians had at onestage looked like finishing off the match, is just a great confidencebooster.”Dyson was all praise for Chaminda Vaas, who kept his cool in the dying moments. “The bowlers stuck to their task beautifully and were well supported on the field. Vaasy’s last over in particular will go down as a textbook over. He showed us how to finish off a final over under pressure.”The main thing in one-day cricket is not to lose heart, but to keep the fielding performances as high as you can possibly can. I thought that if you get a wicket and it happens quite often that when one wicket falls not long afterwards another goes and all of a sudden you are back in the game. That’s what happened yesterday [on Sunday]. We got a couple of important wickets Damien Martyn, Matt Hayden and all of a sudden we were right back into the game. The boys stuck at the job. They didn’t throw it away and go through the motions. They kept fielding and bowling well and kept looking for opportunities.”About the Australians, Dyson had this to say: “I don’t think Australia lost focus of where they were going. We just played well enough to stop them achieving it. They worked out their batting plans very well. At various times in the past, someone like Bevan has been there towards the end to get the runs for them. He was there again and in the second last over he hit a six off Murali. There aren’t many who could do that. And all of a sudden they were back in the game. It came down to a tight last over and Vaasy showed his class with his experience bowling the perfect over.”Dyson was all praise for the Sri Lanka’s effort and said, “I thought the boys played extremely well. There was this terrific opening stand between Sanath [Jayasurya] and Marvan [Atapattu]. Then Mahela [Jayawardene] and Sanga [Kumar Sangakkara] did a good job. There was a little bit of disappointment in the rest of the batting. It is because they haven’t played many one-day matches in the past six months or so. We’ll have to talk it out.”He spoke about two turning points in the match which caused it to swing towards Sri Lanka – the dismissals of Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden. “All dismissals were important because they slow the run-rate straight away and puts extra pressure on the next guy coming in. To me Ponting and Hayden’s dismissals were very important or we could have been in trouble.”Dyson also praised the pitch on which the two matches were played on. “The wicket was very good on both days. Brett Lee got a ball through Sanga and hit him on the helmet. The ball carried all day and it didn’t spin viciously.”He said that it was a gamble to go with only one fast bowler but added, “but on this occasion it paid off. It does not mean that in every game we are going to do that. We took the decision to suit the wicket.”

Paceman Stephen John razed Lahore Greens with seven for 54 on Wednesday sending the visitors crashing to 132 all out as Islamabad gained the advantage in their Cornelius Trophy match at KRL Stadium.Islamabad batsmen Ashar Zaidi and Hammad-ul-Haq then took centre stage helping their side to a healthy 246 for one, a lead of 114 by the close of the first day of this three-day game.In a ruthless display, Ashar scored an unbeaten 112 off just 88 balls, his marvellous innings comprising 14 boundaries and two sixes.Hammad, no less impressive, was closing in on his century and stood at 96 when play ended for the day. His knock was also laced with 14 hits to the ropes. But had it not been for John’s excellent show with the ball, the complexion of the game may well have been quite different. He tore Lahore Greens batting apart, three of his victims going for nought.The tourists were in such hopeless form that their top scorer, not surprisingly, was Mr Extras with 30.Summarised scores:*At KRL Stadium, Rawalpindi:LAHORE GREENS 132 (Imran Qadir 29; Stephen John 7-54; Muhammad Altaf 2-28);ISLAMABAD 246-1 (Ashar Zaidi 112 not out, Hammad-ul-Haq 96 not out).At Nawabshah Stadium, Nawabshah:NAWABSHAH 142 (Nasir Khan 28, Shahid Hussain 21, Abid Ali 20; Ariz Kamal 3-28, Zeeshan Essa 3-28, Faraz Ahmed 2-14, Adeel Malik 2-29);KARACHI GREENS 173-3 (Rashid Ali 73, Mir Rashid 60, Ariz Kamal 27 not out).*At PCB Regional Academy Ground, Karachi:QUETTA 331-8 innings closed (Javed Iqbal 123, Naseem Khan 110, Abdul Rehman 25, Abdul Wali 20 not out; Mohtashim Ali 3-73, Shahbaz Bashir 2-49); SIBI 19-1

A fluctuating day’s cricket left the crucial CricInfo Championship game between Surrey and Lancashire at The AMP Oval evenly-poised at stumps on the second day.Surrey had time to face one over at the end of the day as they began their second innings 28 runs in arrears after fighting back throughout the afternoon; possibly a vital contribution with the pitch taking spin and the world’s best off-spinners on either side.Lancashire had begun the day in determined mood in reply to Surrey’s first innings total of 248. They reached lunch on 82 without loss after 29 overs in a rain truncated morning session.With Tudor and Bicknell bowling to an aggressive field of four slips and a gully, the Lancashire openers concentrated on survival, but grew in confidence as the partnership wore in.First to go was Jamie Haynes. Having justified his inclusion in the side in the absence of Atherton (on England duty) and Chiltern (injured), the former second team ‘keeper played back to Saqlain and was given out lbw having completed his second first-class half-century.It was a crucial breakthrough. The opening stand between Haynes and his captain, John Crawley, had yielded 100 but Surrey soon struck again. Crawley misjudged a Bicknell delivery and was dismissed lbw shouldering arms, while Fairbrother swept Saqlain to Ramprakash at deep square leg.Scuderi was deceived by the infamous Saqlain mystery ball and could only top-edge the ball to gully and Graham Lloyd could not keep down a short ball from the swift Tudor.Andrew Flintoff was in forthright mood, and benefited from a let off when Butcher put him down at slip off Tudor. Eight cracking boundaries followed before Butcher made amends as Flintoff snicked another ball from Tudor.Warren Hegg proved to be more obdurate. His 74 not out helped guide the tail into vital partnerships that eventually earned a lead of 28 runs. He hit three boundaries in a row off Bicknell and reiterated his worth to Lancashire following his recent century at Northampton.No-one else could find an answer to Saqlain who finished with 6-89, trumping Muralitharan, who took five wickets in the Surrey innings.Afterwards John Crawley admitted that the game was evenly poised and suggested that both teams should have scored more runs.”Having won the toss they would have hoped for more runs but at 110 for no wicket we would have hoped for the same,” Crawley reasoned.”It’s the kind of wicket if you get one or two then a few more follow but if you get in on it there are runs to be had. The pitch is a good four-day pitch, there is a bit in it for everyone but the spinners have had to work for their reward.”If it continues to play well and it doesn’t disintegrate we would be hopeful of scoring somewhere around 240 on the final day. Our game plan for tomorrow is to attack them early on and see if we can bowl them out cheaply.”

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Left-arm spinner Nikita Miller took seven out of the 18 wickets to fall on the second day in St Elizabeth as Jamaica crushed Windward Islands by 10 wickets to win the 2008 Carib Cup.Miller had remarkable figures of 4 for 6 off 8.2 overs as Windwards collapsed for 61 in the first-innings, surrendering a lead of 171. He took 3 for 60 during Windwards’ follow-on as they were dismissed for 187, despite Andre Fletcher’s unbeaten 103, leaving Jamaica a target of 17 to win the championship. Jamaica’s openers Chris Gayle and Brenton Parchment knocked off the runs in the third over. The win gave Jamaica a regional double, and the 12 points they gained against Windwards took their tally to 58, which cannot be overtaken by any other team.”It is a great feeling to end this game within two days and to take thetitle with such authority,” Gayle told reporters after the match. “I have to say well done to the team.”
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Rain curtailed play on the second day between Guyana and Leewards Islands but Ramnaresh Sarwan’s unbeaten 89 and Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s 82 helped Guyana move on to 299 for 6, with a lead of 95.Guyana resumed their innings on 138 for 4, 66 runs behind Leewards’ 204 in the first-innings. Chanderpaul and Sarwan steadied the innings with a 145-run stand for the fifth wicket, which gave Guyana the lead. Chanderpaul attacked offspinner Steve Liburd, hitting him for a four and a six, before edging to Runako Morton at first slip. Derwin Christian joined Sarwan and had scored 13 when offspinner Anthony Martin trapped him leg before wicket at 279 for 6. Sarwan was on 89 and Esuan Crandon on 15, when rain halted play.
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Simon Jackson and Chadwick Walton scored half-centuries to lead Combined Campuses & Colleges’ (CCC) fightback against Trinidad & Tobago on the second day in Bridgetown. Having conceded a massive first-innings lead of 240 after being dismissed for 97, CCC’s batsmen regrouped to post 185 for 3 in the second innings and trail by only 55 runs.Jackson scored 11 fours during his 83 off 173 balls while Watson struck seven fours and a six, during his unbeaten 52 off 74 balls.Earlier T&T had secured a sizable lead after resuming on 224 for 5. they were eventually dismissed ten minutes before lunch after Ravi Rampaul took advantage of some mediocre bowling to score his second first-class fifty.T&T’s wickets were shared by offspinner Kevin McClean and captain Shirley Clarke, who took 4 for 54 and 4 for 53 respectively.

A match dominated by the bat ended with more records as Somerset and Middlesex completed a run-feast at Taunton. Justin Langer was finally yorked for 315, 27 short of the Somerset record that he holds, but the home side set a new record for the highest score on the ground. Their 850 beat Lancashire’s 810 set in 1895 and was also the highest total in any match involving Somerset. Peter Trego helped boost the total with a run-a-ball 130, his fifth first-class ton. Middlesex, 250 behind despite scoring 600, needed to bat out just over two sessions and Ed Smith’s 103 ended the match in fitting style.Nottinghamshire, the division two favourites, laid down an early marker with a nine-wicket win against Leicestershire at Trent Bridge. The visitors led by 67 with five wickets remaining at the start of the final day, but any hopes of building a significant lead vanished when Tom New fell to the fifth ball. The wicketkeeper hadn’t added to his 57 when he edged Mark Ealham low to second slip where David Hussey took a fine catch. Ryan Sidebottom then wrapped up the tail with 3 for 18 in five overs, leaving a target of 111. Although Jason Gallian fell for 37, top-edging Claude Henderson, Bilal Shafayat and Mark Wagh completed the formalities.Essex comfortably survived two sessions to share the spoils with Derbyshire at Chelmsford. After the visitors batted on for 20 overs, Essex were set 376 but there was never any chance of them attempting the chase. Varun Chopra batted for two-and-half hours after both openers fell to leave Essex 36 for 2.

Steve Harmison completed an eight-wicket match haul as Durham made short work of Worcestershire on the final day at New Road. With just four wickets left, it was only a matter of time before the home side folded. When Gareth Batty fell to the brotherly combination of the Harmisons – Steve’s fifth wicket – the tail didn’t hang around long. Callum Thorp wrapped up the innings with three wickets and Durham bagged 20 points.It took Sussex less than 19 overs to knock off the 56 runs they needed to comprehensively beat Kent at Hove and open their Championship defence with a 22-point win. Richard Montgomerie completed an outstanding match, finishing undefeated on 33.Yorkshire showed their winter problems are well behind them with a crushing 346-run win over Surrey at The Oval. Scott Newman offered the lone resistance, falling 11 short of his second century of the match, although he benefited from the attacking fields as plenty of his runs came from third man. When Newman was seventh out the other batsmen had contributed just 36. Darren Gough took another three wickets, including Rikki Clarke who shouldered arms, but the leading performer was Matthew Hoggard as he found movement to remove the middle order. A decent crowd had turned out, but the Surrey fans among them will have left disappointed. Life back in the top flight hasn’t started well. “We could surprise a few teams this year along the way if we play this sort of cricket,” Gough said. “The body language was excellent throughout. I’m not saying we’ll play like that every game. We’re going to lose games but hopefully we’ll win games also.”Mal Loye’s century ensured Lancashire left Edgbaston with draw despite Warwickshire‘s dominance of more than half the match. After not enforcing the follow-on yesterday Gary Keedy had opened up the chance of a turnaround, but Warwickshire’s lower order extended the lead on the final morning before setting a target of 347 with Tim Ambrose’s half century. Alex Loudon struck early with his off spin, but a stand of 91 between Loye and Stuart Law guided Lancashire through the final session.

There was confusion at Bulawayo’s Queens Sports Club last Sunday when a purported National League match organised by Zimbabwe Cricket could not be completed after Queens officials refused to allow the game to proceed.The row stemmed from the recent decision by leading club sides in Matabeleland and Mashonaland to boycott the official National Leagueand form their own competition. In a bid to salvage the National League, Terry Mumbwandarika, a ZC employee, was dispatched to Matabeleland to meetwith Victor Mhlanga, a former Matabeleland Cricket Association boardofficial, in a bid to get players to play in the league. It seems that effort cameto nothing.ZC coaches, players aspiring to go to the ZC Academy and youngsters whoare on the ZC scholarship scheme were brought in and two teams were put together to play against sides from Mashonaland. Local sources report that ashad been the case in the Faithwear Cup, the two teams from Mashonaland contained virtually unknown players, with the exception of Innocent Chinyoka, a medium-pace bowler who has played for Zimbabwe A.The matches started on Saturday afternoon and were supposed to becompleted on Sunday morning. The second match took place at Emakhandeni, astadium built by ZC, while Queens was the venue of the aborted match.Meanwhile, Queens had organised a friendly match against BulawayoAthletic Club and claimed to have notified ZC on the previous Wednesday that the ground would be unavailable.However, on Sunday morning, Queens and BAC turned up, as did the”official” teams to complete their match. Queens and BAC tossed, but when theQueens fielders walked onto the pitch, the National League sides marched tothe middle and sat on the pitch. The stalemate continued for almost twohours.Buster Pettican, a member of the local MCA board and cricket section chairman of Queens, eventually referred the situation to Ethan Dube, the MCA chairman.Dube then talked to Mumbwandarika and Sam Tsutsuru, the ZC-appointed Mashonaland general manager, and read out to them a section of thelease agreement between Zimbabwe Cricket and Queens Sports Club which clearly states that ZC only have first preference to the pitch for the purposesof staging international cricket only. Dave Everrington who was then the Zimbabwe Cricket Union vice-president, signed the lease on behalf ofthe union in 2000.The ZC-backed teams agreed that Queens had the right to use the groundbut asked to play at least 25 overs and use the Duckworth Lewis method toenable them to come up with a result. However, the Queens players refused andthe Queens and BAC match went ahead smoothly.A Queens official questioned the justification of ZC spending money istransporting the two sides from Harare – and putting them up overnight- to play in such a game. He said that in his opinion, the decision to playthe National League match was down to a desire to show that the rebellionby leading clubs had had no effect on the game, and that the situation wasnormal.A spokesman for ZC said that this “was an isolated incident that we have now put behind us.”Another potential row was brewing this weekend with another clash offixtures on the cards, but Queens moved to avoid confrontation bymoving their match against Bulawayo Athletic Club across to BAC’s ground.