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Scorecard
Points TableWarwickshire’s clash against Surrey at Edgbaston petered out into a tame draw on the final day. Mark Ramprakash helped himself to another century but with Warwickshire’s first division status confirmed yesterday they will not have been too bothered by the outcome. The draw leaves Surrey needing a win in their last game of the season, against Middlesex, to avoid relegation.However, Warwickshire will have sensed an outside chance of forcing a win after they snapped up two early wickets. Mark Butcher fell to Alex Loudon – the young offspinner who is interesting the England selectors with his bowling – and Saqlain Mushtaq was caught off Makhaya Ntini, leaving Surrey 70 for 3, still 43 behind.But Rikki Clarke made a forceful 45, adding 93 with Ramprakash, and taking Surrey into the lead. Ramprakash had few problems reaching his century from 174 balls and as the draw became assured he and Jonathan Batty eased their way to a stand of 150.When Ramprakash fell Warwickshire were set an impossible 201 and play was called off after 11 overs, leaving Surrey on the brink of relegation.

With the tour of Pakistan around the corner, Andrew Strauss believes that England are weakened by the absence of Simon Jones, the Glamorgan fast bowler. Strauss should know: he and Jones were together at the England Cricket Board (ECB) Academy and later their paths often crossed when playing for Middlesex and Glamorgan.Strauss remembers a young, very aggressive Jones striking him in the nets during their time at the ECB Academy, and playing alongside the tall fast bowler during the past season he feels Jones has become a force to be reckoned with. “Simon was absolutely brilliant in the Ashes series,” Strauss told . “He played a vital role in us winning the Ashes and his ability to reverse the ball in the sub-continent is going to be greatly missed. It’s sad for him to miss out on a personal level, and we’re definitely a weaker side without him.”The conditions England will face in Pakistan have historically been conducive to reverse swing, as is evident in the number of wickets shared between Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, both exponents of this art. Strauss realises this and rues the fact that Jones will not be there to exploit the pitches at venues such as Faisalabad and Lahore. “The thing is Simon’s put a lot of hard work into the art of reverse swing. He’s worked hard on trying to achieve that control, and it’s going to be a tough ask for all of us without Simon there.”Whether Strauss, who has already compiled over 1,700 runs with seven hundreds, can maintain his prolific run-scoring in the dustbowls of Pakistan remains to be seen. He will certainly be put to the test against bowlers such as Shoaib Akhtar, Naved-ul-Hasan, and Danish Kaneria. “It’s going to be a novel experience for me as I’ve not played in Pakistan before. Learning how to bat in that heat and humidity is going to be difficult and they’ve got some high-quality bowlers as well.”

Instead of perfect beach weather, it’s been a damp squib so far for the two teams that arrived in Chennai on Sunday. Undone by the slow and low pitch at Bangalore, Graeme Smith and South Africa arrived here intent on absorbing that lesson and teaching India a few of their own. As for the Indians, victorious in seven of their last nine matches, Chepauk afforded the opportunity to further probe South African frailty against spin, and take a potentially decisive lead into the tinder-box atmosphere of the Eden Gardens.Another Chennai match, another delugeAfter the TVS Cup match against New Zealand (2003) and the final day of an eventful India-Australia Test match (October 2004) were ruined by rain, it’s now the turn of the South Africans to be subjected to the vagaries of the North-East monsoon. The rain gods have been in angry mood over the past month, and a torrential downpour in the early hours denied the South Africans an opportunity to practise in the morning. In such a scenario, predicting pitch behaviour is fraught with risk. In the event of clear skies tomorrow, bowling first would be the sensible option. Even without accounting for the dew factor, both sets of pace bowlers would love to take advantage of any moisture-induced life on a fresh pitch.Time to set the record straight?On the day when he goes past Wasim Akram to become one-day cricket’s most capped player, Sachin Tendulkar will no doubt be keyed up for a memorable contribution. Incentive may also come from the fact that South Africa are the only team against which he averages less than 35. The man who manages 49 an innings against Australia – not to mention seven centuries – has just three hundreds in 43 matches against South Africa. What price a reversal of fortune on a ground where he has frequently been at his resplendent best?Hit them hard…and earlyAfter the debacle in Bangalore, South Africa may well toy with the idea of sending Justin Kemp in early so that he gets more of a look-in before unleashing that frightening array of big hits. Since returning to the side against England last January, there has been no more destructive batsman in world cricket, and there were enough hints in the opening two games as to the damage that those immense shoulders can do. For those enamoured of trivia, Kemp is the cousin of Dave Callaghan, a fine batsman of early-to-mid-1990s vintage, who, till Gary Kirsten (188*) broke it, held the record for the highest score by a South African in an ODI – 169.The Prince in exileInnuendo has it that Sourav Ganguly’s return could well depend on the result of this match. If India win, the rumours suggest that his long cold winter will continue. If they lose, however, his backers – and there are several powerful ones – could well engineer a return for the final two ODIs against South Africa and the three Tests against Sri Lanka. The very fact that one-day results may influence Test selection tells you all you need to know about the palace intrigues in Indian cricket. The Greg Chappell-inspired new wave of professionalism is sadly restricted to the field, and shows no sign of making an appearance in the corridors of power.Turning a cornerThe Bangalore match, where Johan Botha and Justin Ontong certainly didn’t disgrace themselves with the ball, may have given South Africa valuable pointers with regard to team selection. AB de Villiers has been in wretched form this season, and this team is clearly missing the experience and class of Herschelle Gibbs and the sub-continental nous of Boeta Dippenaar. Expect Robin Peterson, who bowls slow left-arm spin while having an eye for the big shot, to get a look in.A stage for heroesIt’s not just Tendulkar who has lit up Chepauk in recent times. This was also the venue for Saeed Anwar’s glorious 194 against India in the Independence Cup eight years ago. The pitch has always been kind to fluent stroke-makers, and aficionados will also remember Mark Waugh’s scintillating century in the 1996 World Cup quarter-final when Australia made light of chasing a formidable New Zealand total.

Under fire Zimbabwe cricket chairman Peter Chingoka’s bid to head off a rebellion by most of the country’s first-class cricketers appears to have been dashed with an announcement by senior players that they would not play until an investigation into the board’s activities by the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) had been completed. The probe could take weeks.A number of the players met on Monday in the aftermath of Tatenda Taibu’s resignation as captain and his retirement from the national side, and Blessing Mahwire and Clive Field, the players’ representative, told reporters that they had decided to continue to refuse to play for Zimbabwe pending the outcome of the investigation.”We are standing down until two things are resolved by the board,” said Mahwire. “First they have to pay the players their match fees for the India and New Zealand fixtures. The second thing is Chingoka and Ozias Bvute [the ZC managing director] have to step down.” And Mahwire made it clear that the players were in no mood to compromise. Either Chingoka and Bvute go, or they go. “We will all walk away from Zimbabwe Cricket,” he warned. “We have made a stand and we stand by that. Its now or never. Basically what this would mean is the end of cricket in Zimbabwe.”Mahwire also slammed Chingoka and Bvute for their handling of Taibu. “They gladly accepted his resignation. That was a sign that they are only concerned with their survival and not the welfare of players. These guys are simply not doing anything good for the sport.”The news means that Zimbabwe will in all probability have to withdraw from a proposed A-team tour to Bangladesh scheduled for January. The selectors were due to announce a side later this week, but faced without any credible players to pick from, they appear to be backed into a corner.Chingoka met with SRC officials on Monday and was grilled for more than three hours. Taibu was due to be questioned, but Chingoka’s examination took longer than expected and he had to return today. Chingoka and Bvute have also been investigated by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe about foreign currency dealings.

South African officials have welcomed new measures introduced by Australia against spectators who make racist taunts during the remainder of South Africa’s tour.”Cricket South Africa welcomes this tough public stance taken by Cricket Australia in the fight against racism,” Gerald Majola, the chief executive officer of the South African board, said on Thursday. “Our players need to be protected against racism and we hope that these new measures will ensure this in Melbourne and Sydney,” Majola added.A statement issued by the South African team late on Tuesday said racial slurs and chants had been directed at Ashwell Prince, Garnett Kruger, Shaun Pollock, Justin Kemp and Makhaya Ntini on the third day of the first Test at Perth. South Africa’s management has officially complained to Chris Broad, the ICC match referee, and John Rhodes, the head of the ICC’s Regional Anti-Corruption and Security unit. The management has asked for security to be stepped up to help prevent any repetition of the abuse during the next two Tests in Melbourne and Sydney. The next Test starts in Melbourne on Boxing Day.Cricket Australia issued a statement saying it had a zero tolerance approach to racist behaviour by anyone involved with cricket, including spectators. It said spectators who made racist comments would be thrown out of the ground immediately. Ricky Ponting, the Australian captain, has spoken out against spectators making racist slurs, saying “there’s no room in sport for racism whatsoever”.

Andre Nel felt hopeless and desperate at lunch after dropping a simple catch from Ricky Ponting, but he was glowing at stumps with 4 for 58 as South Africa grabbed control on the opening day. While Ricky Ponting’s square-leg reprieve on 17 cost exactly 100 runs, the damage was stopped by Nel in a turnaround that dropped seven Australia wickets for 85.”I wanted to end myself at lunchtime but we came back nicely,” Nel said. “It was costly but I found the best way to get back.”Australian crowds have grown an immediate disliking for Nel and have booed him whenever he has thrown the ball at the stumps or stopped to stare or speak at the batsmen. There have been regular opportunities to make noise but instead of distracting Nel the attention as the pantomime villain drives him towards his best performances.”It’s my character that when people abuse me and put me down I like to prove them wrong,” he said. “If the crowd starts I get fired up. I expect it.”Nel was jeered shortly before dismissing Ponting and he was on a hat-trick after delivering a beautiful leg-cutter to Andrew Symonds, who could offer only an edge to Mark Boucher. Herschelle Gibbs then took his second catch as Adam Gilchrist followed Ponting in misjudging the bounce of the slow wicket and Nel wrapped up his haul with the wicket of Shane Warne to complete his part in the massive momentum shift.”We have been bowling as a unit well and the team fought back well,” he said. “Polly [Shaun Pollock] has been telling us that if we put in the work for certain periods things have to go your way,” he said. “Australia like to score quickly so if we put it in good areas and stay patient it will work well.”Despite the swift change in fortune Ponting refused to be concerned and was comfortable with the stumps position of 8 for 239. “It’s not a bad day for us,” he said. “The wicket was difficult and the outfield was not that fast. It was up to our batters to dig in and make sure of a big total but it’s not the end of the world. It’s a pretty good total.”Play was held up for half an hour in the morning because of the state of the pitch, which had been watered last night, and the damp surface worried Ponting, but it did not stop him from selecting Stuart MacGill instead of Nathan Bracken and batting when he won the toss. The bowler-friendly conditions increased the value of his 26th century, which included 13 fours and placed him alongside Garry Sobers on the list of most Test hundreds.”It was a special innings and I’m pretty proud of the way I played today,” he said. “I got a bit of luck but it was difficult. I’d chosen to bat and it was very satisfying staying out there for that long in those conditions and post a hundred in front of a huge crowd.”

The securing of first-innings points by Trinidad and Tobago late on the third afternoon had threatened to condemn the last day of this Carib Beer Series fixture to drudgery. For the meagre gathering of spectators at Guaracara Park yesterday, that is just how it turned out, until Daren Ganga and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the captains, agreed to call the match off at 4.30 p.m. with Guyana on 159 for 3 in their second innings.Ganga would have been the more satisfied of the two men, since his side had clinched first innings points in the drawn match, to go joint top of the standings with Barbados. That success, achieved largely through the 153 made by Man-of-the-Match Brian Lara, has allowed T&T to keep the momentum they established with their first innings victory on the road against the Leeward Islands in the first match of the competition last December, and built upon with their 282-run triumph over defending champions Jamaica in their second game at St Augustine two weeks ago.So Ganga was a pretty satisfied man yesterday. “We are very happy we got first innings points against Guyana,” he said. “We are looking forward against the Windward Islands. Our objective would be to win against Windward Islands.”That positive attitude T&T tried to maintain even yesterday when there seemed little to be achieved on a pitch still favourable to the batsmen. “We still thought we had a chance of winning this game outright,” Ganga said. “We were very happy with first innings, but we thought our performance today would really tell our character, our strength as a team .We didn’t really get much (wicket-taking) opportunities, but I thought the three wickets we got for 130-odd Guyana were under pressure and that’s what good sides do, when you are on top you put sides under pressure. Unfortunately, we were not able to force an outright win.”The general confidence T&T have built up with their good start to the season was also reflected in Ganga’s response to the failures of the opening pair of Lendl Simmons and Tishan Maraj in the three games thus far.Ganga said there would be no rush to make changes. “We’ve had a couple meetings with the selectors and with both openers,” he said. “We have every confidence in these guys that they can do the job for Trinidad and Tobago, so I think they will probably be given another shot. We are backing the guys all the way. What we don’t want to have is guys being timid in terms of their own playing on the team.”Ganga’s confidence in his unit was helped significantly in this game by the presence of Lara for the first time in two years. “Having Brian gives everybody confidence,” he said. “The Guyanese, they were always backed against the wall knowing that Brian is on our team. Having the opportunity to chase 340-odd Shivnarine Chanderpaul was always on the defensive, if you looked at his field placing. I thought Brian played really well. Hats off to him and the way he applied himself A lot of young players are feeding off his experience and I think that is going to do Trinidad cricket well.”As for Chanderpaul, he hoped that his men would be able to go to Jamaica for their next match and “come out on top of that game and get into the semis and take it from there.” And while he could not take away more than two points from this match, he at least was encouraged by the work of Esaun Crandon, whose seven-wicket effort almost got his side a first innings decision. “Right now he’s opening a few selectors’ eyes,” said the West Indies captain. “I had a good look at him, Brian had a good look at him also He has to keep on doing those things.”

Bangladesh have named an 18-man training squad to prepare for their series against Australia. The bulk of the party consists of the players who completed a 4-0 win over Kenya in the recent one-day series.The only notable omissions are Tushar Imran, the middle-order batsman, and Nazmul Hossain, the right-arm seamer, who have been involved in the recent series against Sri Lanka A.Faruque Ahmed, the chief selector, told the : “They were out of the list only because of their commitments with the A side to play three one-dayers. Actually it is completely an unchanged squad but this time I can assure you that we will be flexible. We can call one or two players out of the list if we feel the need to do so at any time during the tour.”Mushfiqur Rahim is retained in the squad after playing in the second Test against Sri Lanka and the selectors are confident is a important role to play in Bangladesh’s future. “He might have failed against Sri Lanka but we still believe that he has the potential to serve the country in the longer-version game,” explained Faruque. “We are trying to find a solid combination – that’s why we went for the same team.”True we were not fully successful against Sri Lanka in the home series but there were many positives. I think our one-day team has taken a shape following our performances in the last couple of months but we still have to work hard for the longer-version.”Habibul Bashar, the captain, said he was pleased to have an unchanged squad after the promising performances Bangladesh and produced in recent months. Prior to their win over Kenya they had showed signs of improvement against Sri Lanka, winning a one-day international at Bogra.”I think there is hardly any reason to bring changes in the team or call-up new players because we have been playing good cricket for the last few months,” said Bashar. “Yes, once again I want to say that it would have been nice if we had a very good off-spinner in the squad but there is no one to fill this desire.”Squad Habibul Bashar (capt), Khaled Mashud (wk), Nafees Iqbal, Mohammad Ashraful, Javed Omar, Rajin Saleh, Aftab Ahmed, Shahriar Nafees, Alok Kapali, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammed Rafique, Manjarul Islam Rana, Mashrafe Bin Mortuza, Tapash Baisya, Enamul Haque, Abdur Razzak, Syed Rasel, Shahadat Hossain.

The Lions ended day one on top against Cape Cobras after making 257 in their first innings before snaffling both the Cobras’ openers in their reply. Fifties from Alviro Petersen (52), Vaughn van Jaarsveld (55) and Werner Coetsee led the Lions to their respectable total, although the Cape Cobras did well to limit the Lions with Paul Adams picking up 3 for 54. The Lions turned a good day into an excellent one, however, when Friedel de Wet removed both the Cape Cobras openers with just 16 on the board.Fifties from Jonathan Beukes, Benjamin Hector and Morne van Wyk helped lay a solid foundation for the Eagles’ first innings of their match against the Warriors at Bloemfontein. While Hector (53) played the anchor role, Beukes (58) was the aggressor, taking just 60 balls to make his fifty and hitting six fours and a six. Meanwhile, van Wyk was patience personified and was the rock around which his team-mates could score more aggressively. He ended the day on 83 and put Eagles into the comfortable position of 273 for 5.On a rain-interrupted day at Centurion, the Titans limped to 121 for 5 against the Dolphins. Heino Kuhn top-scored with 45 and Martin van Jaarsveld made 36, but the other three batsmen could only muster a handful of runs between them. Jon Kent picked up 3 for 47.

David Collier, the ECB chief, came out in defence of the scheduling of international matches, citing the larger gaps between matches as the reason why the England players are not as overworked, compared to their other counterparts.His comments came in the wake of widespread criticism of the scheduling of England’s winter tours to India and Pakistan, which forced a few players to withdraw due to injuries and left others jaded. This prompted the coach Duncan Fletcher to rest Andrew Flintoff, England’s stand-in captain, for a couple of ODIs, with the series already decided. England were without the services of five of their key players in the Ashes series, namely Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan, Simon Jones and Ashley Giles and Fletcher expressed concern about more players succumbing to injuries and burn-outs.”There is a limit of 15 Tests and 30 one-day internationals around the world which was respected in the Future Tours programme,” he told the PA Sport news agency. “That is the guideline certainly England are sticking to and we are actually considerably less than that in terms of Test matches and one-day internationals.”We cannot do anything to lessen the impact of the tours but I think one of the things where England is different to every other nation is that we are playing more or less 12 months of the year. That means we do have bigger gaps between our games than other nations but there is not an extended period of break that some of the other teams have.”Flintoff led a depleted side in India, which exceeded expectations in the Tests, drawing the series 1-1 but were exposed in the ODIs, losing the seven-match series 5-1. Despite the result, Collier felt that some positives had come out of the tour, giving Duncan Fletcher, the coach, the chance to identify new players ahead of next year’s World Cup.He said, “Any side in the world would have struggled having lost five senior players but it has given Duncan an opportunity to look at the players who are on the fringes of selection for the World Cup and that will give us a much stronger squad going into the World Cup build-up.”Collier also had some encouraging news for England fans hoping to acquire sufficient tickets for this year’s Ashes series in Australia. He said that negotiations were on with Cricket Australia to provide for English fans, expected to turn out in large numbers following England’s thrilling victory in previous year’s edition of the Ashes.”We have had discussions with Cricket Australia about obtaining tickets. England fans are always tremendously resourceful and have managed to get contacts in Australia and certainly tour groups and the Barmy Army have got some tickets so some are being made available”, he said. “It is similar to this country last year when we had such a huge interest – a bigger interest than we have had in a series before.”