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Havant’s reward for beating South Wilts by three wickets in the south zone final is a plum home draw at the opening national round stage of the ECB Club Championship.They will entertain Optimists & Clifton, the powerful West of England Premier League club, in the sixth round at Havant Park on Sunday week, July 14.A century partnership between Bevis Moynan (65) and Steve Snell (53) set up Havant’s victory after South Wilts had totalled 207-9.Tom Caines (44), Jon Nash (38), Rob Wade (35) and Andrew Haywood (26) top scored for South Wilts, with Mark Copping taking 3-35.Despite a four-wicket spell by Adam Smith (4-32), Havant reached 208-7 with time to spare, skipper Dominic Carson (39) making a key contribution.

Central Districts, with patience and careful application, bowled themselves to a 116-run win over Wellington in a State Championship match which ended near the middle of its final day at sunny McLean Park in Napier today.Wellington, chasing a burdensome 320 for victory after giving up first innings points, began the day 71/4 and were finally all out for 203 in the 88th over.Wellington’s retreat from victory was a fighting one. Four players today made 20 or more and participated in a series of middle-order partnerships which delayed Central’s win but were insufficient to save the match.Wellington has been plagued through the second half of the season by poor batting performances but has repeatedly managed to fight its way out of tight corners – to five outright wins in succession.Central, with steely determination, put a stop to that today. They gained a dominating position in the match from the first day on which they had batted and Wellington’s request, and they gave Wellington no avenue to fight their way back into the game.Central scored 218 batting first – a moderate total but one which loomed larger when Wellington was out for only 180 runs in its first innings, giving up a 38-run lead.Central capitalised when they scored 281 in their second innings, constructing an overall lead of 319, and Wellington were backed into a tight corner – one from which they could not emerge fighting – when they were 71/4 overnight.The decay of their second innings today was slow but inexorable. Leighton Morgan was out nine runs after the resumption and the remaining wickets followed at steady, though widespread intervals.Grant Donaldson and Morgan shared a partnership of 35 for the fifth wicket and Morgan, who batted soundly in both innings on debut, was 22 when he was caught by Mathew Sinclair off Andrew Schwass’s bowling. Schwass was Central’s leading wicket-taker with 3-38.Donaldson put on 52 for the sixth wicket with James Franklin in the largest and most resilient partnership of the day but he was finally out in the 55th over, after an alliance spanning 22 overs, caught by Glen Sulzberger off Jacob Oram for 40. Donaldson gave Oram his only wicket of the innings but he bowled 14 overs of needling medium pace and conceded only 13 runs.Franklin made 33 and was out, after putting on 41 with Mark Jefferson, when Wellington was 176. Jefferson followed for 23, three runs later and Wellington were 179/8. The innings finally expired 24 runs and seven overs later when Iain O’Brien was dismissed by Michael Mason.In addition to Schwass and Oram, Mason took 2-29 and Lance Hamilton 2-57.Wellington now face Auckland in their last Championship match at Eden Park from Monday while Central, now only a point behind Wellington, return to McLean Park to meet Otago.

England were deprived of valuable batting practice by a violent thunderstorm in Matara shortly before tea today. Within minutes of bad light stopping play, the outfield was awash and, with no cricket possible for the rest of the day, the crowd were treated to the dubious pleasure of watching three rotund Englishmen playing cricket in the briefest underwear imaginable.Although the bloated supporters may have begged to differ, the focus of attention today remained the fitness of Ashley Giles and, 24 hours after complaining of increased stiffness of his Achilles tendon, it remains unclear whether England will be deprived of their premier spinner in the First Test Match in Galle.The left arm spinner practised gingerly this morning and is expected to bat in the second innings. Dean Conway, the England physiotherapist, refused to rule out the possibility of him bowling in the second innings, but does not expect to be able to make a final decision on his fitness for the Test match until Tuesday.Conway does not believe the injury to be a long-term concern and has thus not recommended that a replacement be called for at the present juncture. This being the case and with just six days remaining until the Galle Test Match, the England management are clearly optimistic that the Warwickshire spinner can bowl through the injury, like he has done on occasion in the past three years.The injury news on Graeme Hick was more positive and Conway expected him to be fully fit in time for the Test. Muttiah Muralitharan meanwhile is receiving treatment twice a day on his groin and although Dav Whatmore said today that, “I would be very surprised if he didn’t play”, the uncertainty is likely to continue until Monday or Tuesday when he returns to the nets.In the 53 overs of play that were possible today, England impressed with a solid batting performance on a pitch that may be crumbling, but is turning very slowly. They ended the day on 174 for two, thanks largely to a battling 74 not out from Michael Atherton.

The Sri Lankan team have great respect for Atherton’s grim determination and unflagging patience and, despite being clean bowled twice in the first practice game of the tour in Moratuwa, he has looked in prime form so far on the tour.Playing with soft hands, the trio of spinners, who bowled the majority of overs today, rarely troubled him and although he hit only four boundaries in his 245-minute innings, he was quick to score whenever they erred.Atherton was well supported by Marcus Trescothick, who scored an authoritative 38 from 85 balls before driving a low catch to Pushpakumara off the left arm spin of Niroshan Banadaratillake. The opening pair added 68 runs for the first wicket.Nasser Hussain looked a more confident player after his 81 in Colombo, but the ball after he had shimmied down the track and clumped Puspakumara to the long on boundary for four, he was caught at mid on as he tried to repeat the shot.Hussain’s wicket proved to be the last of the day as Graham Thorpe clipped and nudged his way to 31 off 88 balls and added 81 runs with Atherton for the third wicket.

PCB happy with Muthiah’s explanationThe Asian Cricket Council secretary Zakir Mohammad Sayeed on Fridaysaid that the Test playing countries in Asia have agreed in principalto a system by which a side failing to honour contractual obligationsto play in a series has to offer compensation to its rival team.Talking over the phone from Lahore to PTI, Sayeed said “the presidentsof the Cricket Boards of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh,who met during the two-day ACC meeting that concluded on Friday,agreed that such a system was desirable but left the details to beworked out later by a sub-committee.”Sayeed and the PCB appeared to be happy with the explanation given bythe BCCI president AC Muthiah. Welcoming the explanation, Sayeed said”the Pakistan officials had not made an issue of the Indiangovernment’s decision to skip the bilateral series.” He added “We arevery happy about it (that India and Pakistan can play in multi-lateraltournaments).”Meanwhile, the PCB proposed a quadrangular one-day tournament nextyear to be jointly hosted by both India and Pakistan to cement cricketties between them. “The Indian authorities have shown flexibility infurthering cricket ties with Pakistan and have taken initiatives inthis regard by agreeing to allow their team to play Pakistan in multilateral tournaments. The PCB welcomes this,” PCB chief Lt Gen TauqirZia told reporters in Lahore after the completion of a two-dayconference of the Asian Cricket Council. “West Indies is visitingPakistan early next year and Zimbabwe will be in India. It is a goodopportunity to organise a tournament involving all the fourcountries,” Zia said, adding that the tournament can be played in boththe countries.Chauhan bans use of mobile phones in dressing roomFormer Indian opener and team manager Chetan Chauhan has said he wouldnot allow mobiles phones within the dressing room area. Chauhan saidhe would take all steps to ensure that no betting or match-fixingtakes place. Talking to PTI, Chauhan said “There is no need to have acurfew on the boys as such since they are well-behaved and understandtheir role vis-a-vis the Board and the nation.”Indian captain Sourav Ganguly said he was confident of his team mates.”I don’t really need to tell them what is expected of them. They arevery well-behaved and know exactly what is expected of them,” he said.Binny not in favour of selection of five seamers for ZimbabweThe junior India coach Roger Binny on Friday said the selectors shouldhave picked an additional spinner instead of five seamers for theupcoming Zimbabwe tour. Talking to reporters in Kolkata, Binny said “Iam not in favour of five seamers for the tour. I think we should havepicked one or two more spinners to make the bowling attack morebalanced. I would have preferred two more spinners.”Asked about the prospects of the Indian team in Zimbabwe, Binny said”I really can’t say. I don’t have much idea about the conditions inZimbabwe. It should be a good series.” He added "But going by theperformance during the home series against the strong Australian team,I think we should do well there. The series win against Australiashould have given a lot of confidence to the team.”Binny mentioned Haryana’s Ajay Ratra and Bengal’s Deep Dasgupta asfuture prospects. “Both are talented youngsters and they are shapingup nicely for the future. They will give a tough fight to the seniorwicket keepers soon”. On the players chosen for the NCA, Binny said”These youngsters are all very keen. We are emphasizing on physicalfitness and fielding, the two areas where we need to improve. We willhave players who are physically fitter and better fielders in thefuture.”Ganguly favours appointment of media manager for the teamIndian captain Sourav Ganguly has mooted the idea of appointing amedia manager for the team, saying it would ease the pressure on thecaptain and the players considerably. “Most of the teams have a mediamanager these days which makes the job much easier for the team. Onlythe teams in the sub-continent don’t have one. I think it is verynecessary”, Ganguly said in an interview to Doordarshan telecast onFriday.In a joint interview with his wife Dona, Ganguly said the need hasarisen as the captain has to meet and brief the press very often.”When statements are distorted, people who read the reports have adifferent idea of the situation. If we have a media manager, it willease the pressure on the captain, coach and the manager,” he said. Headded “the series of controversial articles and misreporting in recenttimes has prompted me to be more reticent and choosy while handlingthe media in the country….after some time, you come to know who isdoing the right thing and who is not doing. You have to judge foryourself.”On the recently concluded Australian series, the stylish left-handersaid “Everything was part of a strategy. They (Australians) dideverything they wanted and often crossed the limits. I think it wasnot correct on their part. We just gave them back”, the Indian skipperdisclosed.Dona said that though life had changed a lot after her husband becamethe national captain, many things still remained the same. Going tothe movie halls has become a big problem for Indian cricket’s starcouple. “He enjoys going to the movies. We generally go for the lastshow. If there is a lot of crowd, Sourav joins us after the showstarts when it is dark”, she said.Orissa government comes down heavily on OCAThe crisis between the Orissa government and the sporting bodies inthe state deepened following the government’s refusal to withdrawcertain guidelines to the state sports associations for holdinginternational and national sports events in the state. Rejecting theallegations that guidelines were intended to empower the government toexercise control over the sports bodies, the Minister of State forSports and Youth Services, Ranendra Pratap Swain, told reporters inBhubaneswar on Friday that the government only wanted to avoid anyunpleasant situation, including law and order problems during a sportsevent. The minister made it clear that the government’s move wasprompted by the chaotic scenes witnessed during the India-Zimbabwecricket match held at Cuttack last December.Severely criticising the Orissa Cricket Association (OCA) for themanner in which the match was organised, Swain said that free passesand complimentary tickets accounted for more than sixty per cent ofthe official capacity of stadium and spectators were allowed to sitjust outside the boundary line creating a law and order problem. Hetermed the allegations against the government as “politicallymotivated” and said that the government would not like to interfere inthe autonomy of the sports associations, but at the same time wouldnot tolerate commercialization and politicization of sports.

Any fielding side which misses six chances in a day deserves harshcriticism. The exception was yesterday.On a day in which Jamaica kept the hosts at bay on a pluperfectbatting strip to reach 243 for seven, Barbados were unable to hold ona handful of agonisingly sharp offerings which came their way.Four came in the final session, and the only ones which could havebeen described as straightforward were Floyd Reifer’s at slip from adefensive prod and wicket-keeper Courtney Browne’s mis-stumping.Had any of the others been clutched onto, they would have required thelikes of a Hershelle Gibbs or a Mark Waugh. They were well wide of thefieldsmen and neither could have been faulted. Barbados manager TonyHoward, however, reckoned too many got away.”I thought the fielding improved a little over the last match, butjust a little. “The chance that Philo (Wallace) tried for was anexcellent effort, but on the other hand, we had some very simpledropped catches,” he told the Saturday Sun.”In cricket, it is not the ones that you drop, it is the ones that youtake and surely those are the ones you have to take if you are goingto make the difference in the game.”I am not saying that the majority of them should have been taken. Iapplaud the effort but I would like to have seen them taken.”The Barbados manager was hoping Jamaica could have been limited to atotal of under 200 after the defending champions chose to bat first.”We could have done a lot better,” Howard said. “They (Jamaica) havealready passed my restricted total. We need to get them out as quicklyas possible and try and get what I consider to the best part of thewicket.”Barbados will be also keen to have a positive report from the medicson their experienced batsman Roland Holder, who spent most of the dayin the pavilion with stomach problems. It was a second blow followingthe late withdrawal of Ryan Hinds with a groin problem.The first two sessions were almost identical, each producing just over70 runs, two wickets and missed catches of a similar nature in asimilar position.Between the start and lunch, the Jamaica casualties were Chris Gayle,last season’s MVP, whose defensive prod was pierced by CoreyCollymore, and Leon Garrick, spectacularly hauled in by Browne.Garrick, however, gained a life when Holder, stationed at gully,failed to hold on to a difficult diving chance.An nearr-carbon-copy occurred in the second session when left-handerWayne Cuff benefited from Dave Marshall’s inability to cling onto theball in another tumbling effort in the same position.Cuff, a slim left-hander who has never distinguished himself atregional level, made some use of the chance to reach a solid, if notspectacular, half-century.He looked assured against Marshall’s leg-spin, but every Barbadian onthe field was certain he edged a catch to the keeper off the samebowler before he passed his previous best first-class score of 35.By tea, he reached 59, but Barbados had managed to remove teenagerBrenton Parchment and captain Robert Samuels during the pre-teasession.Parchment, a West Indies youth team representative at the 2000 WorldCup in Sri Lanka, was shaping well for his 23 when Bryan trapped himlbw for 23. It was the first of four successive dismissals in whichthe Jamaicans were guilty of playing across the line.Samuels, too, was in no bother when he attempted to sweep Marshall andwas a clear lbw victim ten minutes short of the tea break, which wastaken at 149 for four.Within the first 45 minutes on resumption, Barbados took a slightadvantage by claiming the wickets of Cuff and Gareth Breese.Cuff, who made 65 from 136 balls, dragged an intended pull into hisstumps off fast bowler Dayne Maynard and without addition Breese waslbw swinging across a Marshall full-toss.Jamaica were then 161 for seven before Barbados lost their grip.Browne missed another diving leg-chance before Nehemiah Perry scoredthe first of his 37 runs and Keith Hibbert, unbeaten on 32, was putdown by Reifer when he was six.

ScorecardOn the day Tillakaratne Dilshan officially announced his retirement, Kusal Perera made a play at his vacated opening position, slamming 150 from 142 balls on a rain-effected day three of the four-dayer at the P Sara Oval. Development XI could not offer much else with the bat though, as they finished the day on 299 for 9, in response to Board XI’s 575.Offspinner Sachithra Senanayake took three wickets in the day, while medium-pace bowlers Nuwan Kulasekara and Suranga Lakmal took two apiece. Board XI will struggle to push for an outright win however, after 49 overs were lost to rain early in the day.Perera began the day on 70, and though he lost overnight partner Shehan Jayasuriya in the first over, he continued to score briskly, as he had the previous evening. Development XI lost four batsmen to pace bowling in the first 12 overs of the day, during which Perera scored all but six of the runs to come off the bat. He hit12 fours and six sixes in his innings, and was eventually trapped in front by Senanayake.Niroshan Dickwella was the only other batsman to make more than 15 on day three, hitting 42 before giving Ajantha Mendis his only wicket. Malinda Pushpakumara and Vishwa Fernando finished unbeaten at stumps.

Faisalabad Wolves, Pakistan’s domestic Twenty20 champions, will travel to India to take part in the Champions League T20 after the Indian Embassy in Pakistan granted the players their visas following days of uncertainty.The Faisalabad players had dispersed on Thursday evening from their training camp and went home assuming they would need time to pack if the visas were issued. The PCB had also told ESPNcricinfo that the visas had neither been issued nor denied. On Friday, the PCB asked the players to report at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore because the visas had been obtained, a Faisalabad player told ESPNricinfo.The players are scheduled to depart in two batches; those in Lahore are due to leave on Saturday while three players in the Pakistan national team – Misbah-ul-Haq, Saeed Ajmal and Ehsan Adil – are due to fly from Zimbabwe on the completion of the current series. The last day of the ongoing second Test in Harare is on Saturday.Faisalabad will be only the second Pakistan team to take part in the Champions League and the first in India – Sialkot Stallions competed in the 2012 tournament in South Africa. They play their first match on September 17 in Mohali against Otago Volts.A team from Pakistan had been invited for the first edition in 2008 but that tournament was postponed because of the terror attacks in Mumbai and no further invitation was issued to Pakistan until 2012.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAndre Fletcher’s brisk knock helped St Lucia reach their highest total in the CPL so far•Getty Images

An extended rain interruption kept St Lucia Zouks’ CPL hopes alive as they won by 17 runs (Duckworth-Lewis method) against Antigua Hawksbills on Thursday.Chasing a target of 180, and with the possibility of heavy rain, Johnson Charles gave Antigua a flamboyant start, hitting three successive fours off Garey Mathurin in the first over, before losing his wicket off the fifth ball. A couple of overs later, Kieran Powell was dismissed in a similar fashion, offering a simple return catch to Mathurin after hitting the bowler for two consecutive fours. Jahmar Hamilton playing his first match of the tournament, tried to stabilise the innings but was out after the first rain break. Heavy rain forced the teams off the field after Hamilton’s wicket. The umpires declared St Lucia winners as Antigua were 76 for 3, 17 runs behind the D/L par score of 93 after 10.4 overs.Earlier St Lucia Zouks posted their highest total of the tournament, scoring a formidable 179 for 4. Opener Andre Fletcher played a pivotal knock for St Lucia, scoring 76 off 53 balls and adding useful partnerships with the middle-order batsmen. Fletcher’s fourth-wicket stand of 59 off 34 balls with Darren Sammy took St Lucia’s total past 150. The pair hit a few big shots but rotated the strike well. Fletcher’s 76 included four fours and three sixes, while Sammy finished unbeaten on 35 off 20 balls with one four and three sixes.

AB de Villiers had marked out the ODIs in Sri Lanka as the beginning of South Africa’s approach to the 2015 World Cup, but South Africa’s captain conceded, after the fifth ODI in Colombo, that the 4-1 thrashing may trigger changes in personnel.His side had been beaten comprehensively in three matches – twice by well over 100 runs, and in the third by eight wickets – and comfortably in the other match, which had been affected by rain. The scale of their defeat led de Villiers to admit Sri Lanka had been out of South Africa’s league, at times, and that realisation will now lead to a period of introspection.”We will have to have a look at the squad again. There might be a few changes here and there – I’m not sure, but we’ll have to have a few meetings with the selectors and see what they think. I’d still like to think that most of these guys will be representing us at the World Cup in 2015, but we have quite a bit to think about. I don’t like to be too negative about it, but there are some areas we must improve and make some hard calls.”South Africa’s inability to defuse, or produce, good spin bowling was among their shortcomings in the series, as they failed to mount a score of over 250 and conceded 300 runs twice in sluggish conditions. Sri Lanka’s slow bowlers accounted for 24 South Africa wickets in the series, but the visiting spinners could manage only seven breakthroughs.”We’ll definitely have to work on some individuals who haven’t played spin well, including myself. The whole team didn’t do well, but then again, they are world-class spinners. They are strike bowlers, where our seamers are generally the strike bowlers. We played a different brand of cricket to them, but when we play in their conditions, we’ll have to improve on the way we play their brand. We’ll have to review some of the game plans and techniques against the spinners.”Though de Villiers said it was hard to search for positives from the series, he was hopeful the experience his players gained would be of value in the years to come.”As odd as it sounds, the biggest positive for me is that we went through this. An experience like this in the subcontinent is really irreplaceable. Guys will become better players. I went through it early on in my career and I had a lot of senior players to carry me through in those times, and I’d love to believe I’m one of those senior players now, to help some of these youngsters become better.”Lessons from the series would be carefully absorbed, he said, not least by him, having now captained in his first full series loss.”I feel like I’ve learnt so much as a captain in this series. I felt like my calls were getting better and better, controlling the team better and managing the team better. Unfortunately the results didn’t get any better as we went through the series. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but I feel like I made some metres as a captain.”