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Elite Group Points Table
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Shankara Rao, the left-arm spinner, picked up career-best figures to pummel Gujarat on the final day in Delhi, giving Railways an emphatic 193-run victory. Gujarat, 57 for 2 overnight, lost Niraj Patel on the fifth ball of the morning with Rao snapping up the return chance off his own bowling. From this point on, Rao spun a web around Gujarat’s batsmen and barring a defiant 48 from Parthiv Patel it turned out to be a shambolic performance overall. With just two points from three games, Gujarat have an ardous road ahead if they harbour thoughts of a semi-final berth. The win, though, came as a welcome relief for Railways after two disappointing outings in the opening two rounds.
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Gagandeep Singh’s five-wicket haul enabled Punjab to complete a thumping innings-and-151-run win on the final morning at Mohali, with Hyderabad collapsing for 199 in their second innings. Ibrahim Khaleel, Hyderabad’s wicketkeeper, had batted exceptionally well to delay the inevitable, scorching 102 off just 119, but Gagandeep had the final say, snapping up three wickets in the morning to make it nine in the match. Punjab picked up a bonus point to put them level with Baroda at the top of the Group B points table.
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Haryana’s middle order finally made an appearance in their match against Baroda at Sirsa – Siddharth Verma, Pardeep Sahu and Mahesh Rawat all hitting crucial fifties to complement Sachin Rana’s efforts – but the match meandered to a draw even as the home side totaled a mammoth 451. The focus of the morning session had been on Rana, who looked good for his second hundred of the match – and his career – but he fell agonisingly short, nicking one from Zaheer Khan when on 99. His dismissal capped a fine 156-run partnership with Verma, who batted 299 minutes for his 66, but thereafter Rawat and Sahu added a further 135 to further frustrate Baroda. In the end, Baroda took two points owing to their first-innings lead, giving them top honours with Punjab atop the points table.
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Jasvir Singh’s dogged fifty helped Services secure a draw against Uttar Pradesh at Lucknow, finishing on 161 for 6 despite testing spells from the spin duo of Piyush Chawla and Avinash Yadav. Earlier, a brilliant 102-run stand for the final wicket between Gyanendra Pandey, the captain, and Ashish Zaidi had given UP a shot at victory. This was a match in which the better half of was dominated by UP’s extended batting line-up, and in the end their first-innings 436 was enough to give them two points.
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Rohan Gavaskar’s 17th first-class century and Nilesh Kulkarni’s seven-wicket haul were the highlights on the fourth day at the Wankhede Stadium as Mumbai drew with Bengal. Gavaskar’s gritty knock included 13 hits to the fence, and was instrumental in staving off the threat posed by Kulkarni in the morning session; by the time he fell to the same bowler, Bengal were well set in their second innings. Set an improbable 310 from just 39 overs, Mumbai were given a cautious 50-run start by Sahil Kukreja and Wasim Jaffer, before Ashok Dinda’s medium pace accounted for Jaffer. Mumbai took two points after scoring 244 in its first innings, and now sit behind Bengal in the points table, with 6. 370 for 9
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Hrishikesh Kanitkar top-scored with an unbeaten 73 as Maharashtra salvaged a draw at the Jamia Millia Cricket Ground in Delhi, but the hosts still walked away with two first-innings points. Chaitanya Nanda, the legspinner, triggered a middle-order collapse with three key wickets, but Kanitkar found able allies in Dhruv Mohan and Munaf Patel, his opening bowler. Patel showed admirable defiance in adding 51 with Kanitkar after Maharashtra hiccupped in the post-tea session. Maharashtra have no points to show from three matches played this season, and will have to show immense improvement if they are to progress up the table.
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WIth wet conditions hampering play throughout the four days, the game between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka was called off without a ball being bowled on the final day. Only 22.2 overs were possible throughout the game, a period when Tamil Nadu’s openers, S Vidyut and Hemant Kumar, put on 80 without being seperated. Both teams collected one point apiece.

The Northern Territory batsman Ken Skewes has been called up by South Australia, his adopted state, for the ING Cup match against Western Australia at Adelaide Oval tomorrow.Skewes, a 20-year-old in this year’s Cricket Academy intake, arrived at the Redbacks last year on a SACA traineeship after moving through the Northern Territory’s under-age teams. Mark Higgs, the slow-bowling allrounder, has also been added to the squad as the pair replaces Ben Cameron and Paul Rofe.Luke Williams, the 24-year-old opening batsman, will return to the South Australia side for the first time in four seasons after being picked for the Pura Cup match against the Warriors, starting on Sunday. Williams played two first-class matches in 2000-01 and was chosen after scoring 172 in the Cricket Australia Cup match against the ACT this week.South Australia ING Cup squad Graham Manou (capt, wk), Nathan Adcock, Greg Blewett, Mark Cleary, Mark Cosgrove, Daniel Cullen, Callum Ferguson, Ryan Harris, Mark Higgs, Ken Skewes, Jack Smith, Shaun Tait.South Australia Pura Cup squad Graham Manou (capt, wk), Paul Rofe, Nathan Adcock, Greg Blewett, Mark Cleary, Mark Cosgrove, Daniel Cullen, Callum Ferguson, Tom Plant, Jack Smith, Shaun Tait, Luke Williams.

Canterbury Cricket reported a disappointing $NZ96,937 loss during the last financial year, $NZ42,706 worse than the previous year. The situation was compounded when an investigation revealed that income believed due of $80,345 was unrecoverable.David Shackleton, the chairman of the Canterbury board, commented: “Very late in the financial year the board became aware that some financial information presented to it on a regular basis was inaccurate. A thorough investigation occurred and a report was commissioned seeking an external review of the Association’s financial position and systems.”This report highlighted that there were significant accounting errors in the presentation of reports to the board. This meant that the breakeven position that the board had been advised would occur in the year ended May 31, 2003 was subsequently determined to be a loss of $NZ96,937,” he said.Part of Canterbury’s accounting processes will now be handled by New Zealand Cricket which would allow for more reliable information to be presented to the board each month. Shackleton did say that since the balance date, the financial position of the association had improved substantially.The Jade Stadium connection is still troubling Canterbury Cricket. Shackleton said it was paramount that Canterbury retain the right to play cricket at Jade Stadium. Negotiations between the two parties have been protracted but were close to finality. However, no Test play has been allocated to the ground next season, although there will be two one-day internationals at the ground.Canterbury has been looking for an alternative ground, and while the extensive work that has gone into the ground at Queen Elizabeth II Park was a vast improvement, there was still a desire for another ground.”We have been able to identify an alternative second-tier ground, and a number of meetings have been held with interested parties in an effort to reach a win-win outcome for all concerned. Once a Heads of Agreement is concluded we will be in a position to make a joint announcement concerning this venue. The board is confident that all involved in cricket will agree that this proposal, when announced, will be in the best interests of cricket,” said Shackleton.Richard Reid, the CCA chief executive, hinted further that the venue would be close to the central city, somewhere at Hagley Park. He said: “Following the success of the 125th jubilee match at Hagley Oval it was obvious, to me as an outsider, that the long term venue needed to be somewhere within the confines of Hagley Park. I am hopeful that we will be in a position very shortly to publicly state our intentions with regard to our preferred option as to a long term venue for Canterbury Cricket.”Canterbury have also been undergoing a change to their metropolitan club structure in time for the season of 2004-05. Shackleton commented on the change: “We consider that if the status quo remained there was little likelihood that there would be any improvement in the quality of club cricket at the top level. It is important that clubs take full advantage of all the opportunities that are available to develop their resources in order to enhance their opportunity to either remain in the premier competition or to advance to that level.”Reid also reported that the intended coaching and development plan for the province was underway in what will be a three-to-five year plan. He said that the Association’s new indoor centre, which is part of its office complex, had been a revelation. “It makes me wonder how we did things beforehand,” commented Reid.

Less than 24 hours before the start of the triangular one-day international series involving West Indies, Zimbabwe and host Sri Lanka, it has been confirmed that the West Indian fast bowler, Mervyn Dillon has been sent packing from Sri Lanka.The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) today confirmed that the fast bowler has been sent home for what it calls “disciplinary reasons”. It was widely reported here in the Caribbean that Dillon, fearing for his personal safety on 5th December (general elections in Sri Lanka), did not attend the team’s practice session and incurred the wrath of the tour’s disciplinary committee.The incident was reported to the WICB, who, after reviewing the facts surrounding Dillon’s action, have accepted the tour disciplinary committee’s recommendation that Dillon be sent home immediately.Dillon is the fifth player to return to the Caribbean from the tour of Sri Lanka. The others are Reon King, Dinanath Ramnarine, Leon Garrick and Wavell Hinds, all of whom have returned for injury of one kind or the other, with the exception of Hinds, who had a death in the family.The West Indies selectors called hard-hitting batsman Ricardo Powell and Trinidadian all-rounder Darryl Brown into the squad.

A counterattacking hundred by Nurul Hasan was the highlight of Khulna Division‘s drawn game against Dhaka Division in Fatullah. Khulna remained on top of the Tier-1 tournament standings with 39 points, followed by Dhaka Division on 34 points.Khulna batted first and were bowled out for 117, with Dhaka’s seamer Nuruzzaman Masum taking four wickets in his first NCL match in nearly two years. But any hopes of a sizable lead came crashing down as Mustafizur Rahman picked up four wickets of his own to restrict the lead to 37.Mahedi Hasan and Anamul Haque then added 148 runs for the second wicket to drive Khula forward – Mahedi making a run-a-ball 104. Two quick wickets fell thereafter, but Anamul and Hasan’s 153-run stand for the fifth wicket took the team out of troubled waters.Anamul made 100 off 267 balls, while Hasan went on to make an unbeaten 182 off 223 balls. Hasan and Ziaur Rahman added 154 for the sixth wicket, with the latter hammering 89 off 113 balls in the team’s 506 for 7. Dhaka needed to bat out time, and they did by surviving 40 overs on the final day. Saif Hassan top-scored with an unbeaten 67, and Abdul Mazid made 60 in the drawn contest.Tanveer Haider came up with fine all-round display in Rangpur Division‘s draw against Dhaka Metro at the Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in Khulna.Batting first, Dhaka Metro were bowled out for 242 with Tanveer taking four wickets with his legspin. Shamsur Rahman and Asif Hossain wasted strong starts, and were dismissed for 51 and 56 respectively. Rangpur took a 57-run lead in the first innings, with Tanveer making a patient 78 thanks to support from the tailenders. Sharifullah took four wickets.Dhaka Metro were then helped by Mehrab Hossain jnr’s 109 as they declared the second innings on 352 for 7. Tanveer got into the act again, picking three wickets, but Rangpur managed to walk away with a draw. They finished with 72 for 3 in chase of 296 when the game ended.In Tier-2, Barisal Division crushed Sylhet Division by 150 runs at the Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogra.What started as a low-scoring game turned dramatically courtesy a 230-run fourth wicket partnership between Salman Hossain and Al-Amin in Barisal’s second innings, after they conceded a 17-run lead.Al-Amin made 157 off 197 balls with 16 fours and three sixes, while Salman’s 146 came off 284 balls. Barisal declared on 464 for 7, leaving Sylhet a target of 448. Zakir Hasan apart, none of the other Sylhet batsmen offered resistance. Zakir brought up his maiden first-class hundred, remaining unbeaten on 137 with 20 boundaries. Offspinner Sohag Gazi took five wickets in the second innings to take his match haul to 8 for 156.Chittagong Division took the honours in their drawn game against Rajshahi Division at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.Batting first, Rajshahi were bowled out for 208 runs after offspinner Iftekhar Sajjad took five wickets. Chittagong then took a lead of 142 courtesy Tasamul Haque’s second consecutive first-class hundred. He batted for nearly eight hours on his way to an unbeaten 134. Sunzamul Islam took eight wickets for 106, his second best first-class innings bowling figure.Rajshahi had to bat out for over five sessions to walk away with a draw. Nazmul Hossain Shanto rose to the occasion and made 101, his second first-class century, after batting for more than 80 overs. Shanto had earlier top-scored in the first innings too by making 63.

First of many
The opening success of a Test career that had been tipped a decade earlier came in Mitchell Johnson’s eighth over. Dennis Lillee discovered Johnson’s promise when the bowler was a teenager and after a bumpy journey he made it to the big time, picking up Thilan Samaraweera and Marvan Atapattu in Sri Lanka’s first innings. Johnson was mobbed by his team-mates after the first breakthrough. He did manage a small wave and fist clench to his girlfriend after escaping the throng.Sanath strikes
Sanath Jayasuriya was unlucky in the first innings and he quickly aimed his frustration at Brett Lee when Sri Lanka batted for a second time. A pulled six was followed by a flick to midwicket and a slash over slips earned a third breath-taking boundary in three balls. His late-afternoon attack of 39 from 49 balls provided entertainment and brief hope.Successful intervention
Governments are always attacked for ridiculous decisions so some praise is due for Gamini Lokuge, the Sri Lankan sports minister, who insisted Marvan Atapattu tour Australia. Without Atapattu’s gumption the tourists’ first innings would have fallen before tea and his 51 off 183 balls showed it was possible to hold off the Australians.Spills and MacGill
Adam Gilchrist had a chance to take catches for the first five dismissals when Chamara Silva cut an edge off Stuart MacGill. The ball rebounded from Gilchrist’s gloves and MacGill’s push to 200 wickets was delayed further when Michael Clarke spilled another Silva offering while lunging at square leg. MacGill performed well without reward until he bowled Chaminda Vaas, but still needs another wicket to reach the milestone.Sticking your neck out
A dive to beat an Andrew Symonds throw became a pain in the neck for Prasanna Jayawardene. The physio Tommy Simsek sprinted out to administer treatment immediately and at the following drinks break, but while Jayawardene was hurting it didn’t affect his batting. He battled to a gusty 37 before being lbw to Lee.Umpire or bowler
If Lee’s post-bowling career had not already been mapped out for Bollywood he might have been applying for an umpiring job when he had Prasanna Jayawardene lbw. Lee, who was in trouble last year for not appealing to the officials, turned to Rudi Koertzen as he screamed and they raised their fingers in unison.

Sidath Wettimuny, the former Sri Lanka opener and chairman of selectors, has been named as the new president of the Sri Lanka Cricketers’ Association (SLCA).”I am new on the job and it is an area quite new to me,” Wettimuny said. “I need to sit down and discuss it with my committee members. But it won’t require rocket science to get into it.”I don’t have immediate plans of what I would like to do. But there is a fair amount of work you can do for the welfare of first-class cricketers after they retire from the game,” he said. “We can act as an advisory body to cricketers who quit the game. Many of them have lost direction and are groping a bit financially. We need to get them involved and guide them along.”Wettimuny noted that the SLCA, whose membership is approaching 300, has done its bit for the welfare of cricketers by launching a pension scheme among other things. He also mentioned he has ideas of introducing a medical insurance scheme to all first-class cricketers.We can think of ways of improving the quality, especially of past cricketers and do something for them,” said Wettimuny. “As long as we have no conflict of interests with Sri Lanka Cricket we can work in close harmony for the welfare of all cricketers in general.”The outgoing president, Pramodya Wickremasinghe, was pleased with Wettimuny’s appointment. “Making Sidath our president has made our association strong,” he said. “He is a respected figure in cricket circles. He takes a neutral stance under any circumstance.Sidath has big plans for the betterment of Sri Lanka cricket like running provincial and district tournaments, but he is unable to implement any of it as long as there is a voting system in place.”Wettimuny, 50, scored Sri Lanka’s inaugraul Test hundred – 157 against Pakistan at Faisalabad in 1982 – and two years later set Lord’s alight with 190 against England which earned him a place as one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year, the first Sri Lankan to be honoured. For the past 19 years he has been in the garment trade, exporting mainly to the UK.

Dr Peter Gregory, the ECB’s chief medical officer, has conceded that Michael Vaughan’s chances of playing in the first Test against Pakistan, starting on Saturday, are “slim”. Vaughan, who has a history of cartilage problems in his right knee, pulled up abruptly during England’s second innings at Bagh-e-Jinnah when his knee locked up in mid-run, and he was taken to hospital for a scan.”Michael’s a bit fed up at the moment,” said Gregory. “He is still very sore and it’s going to be complicated because he’s had scans on that knee before, so we are going to have to make comparisons. We are going to need 24 to 48 hours to see how he pulls up clinically, and though I’m hopeful, whether that’s realistic or not we are going to have to wait and see.”Vaughan last suffered the knee problem at Lord’s ahead of the first Test against New Zealand in May 2004, and he underwent surgery on a meniscal cartilage tear ahead of the Ashes tour of 2002-03 as well. “He has a history of cartilage damage, so it’s very likely that that is the problem,” added Gregory. “At Lord’s a couple of years ago, he responded quickly and was back for the next Test match.”Gregory added, however, that if the scans revealed Vaughan had suffered a tear, that would be the end of his tour. “He would have to undergo surgery. Obviously it would have been particularly bad if he had had to be stretchered off, but he was limping and it was clearly sore.”England have not yet considered any replacement batsmen, although given the possibility that Andrew Strauss may miss the third Test to attend the birth of his first child, the likeliest option at present would be the new Kent captain, Robert Key, who can fill in as an opener or a specialist No. 3.

Kenya’s coach Andy Moles is the favourite to be appointed as Scotland’s new coach according to a report in Scotland on Sunday.Moles made the four-man shortlist to replace Tony Judd, and according to the paper will travel to Edinburgh next week for a final interview.”The shortlist has been cut to Moles and one other,” a Cricket Scotland source told the paper, “but Moles has impressed from the start. It would be a surprise if he doesn’t get the job.””Andy had loads of success with Warwickshire and has developed a good reputation as a coach,” Dougie Brown, Scotland’s allrounder and a former team-mate of Moles’s at Warwickshire, said. “His big-match experience both as a player and a coach would stand him in good stead if he lands the Scotland job.”While the Kenyan board denies that Moles is going anywhere, it is an open secret that he has had enough of the infighting and disputes which have undermined his attempts to build on Kenya’s success in the World Cup.And while Kenya have no matches scheduled for more than six months, Scotland have a very busy summer which includes the ICC Trophy in August.

The denizens of Darwin were surprised yesterday: the sky, which hadbeen resolutely blue throughout the town’s inaugural Test, acquiredsome clouds. At first they were just cotton-wool jobs, straight out ofThe Simpsons, but towards the end of the second day’s play thesky was uniformly grey. At Derby it would have counted as a finesummer’s day, but at Darwin there were worries that the umps wouldgo off for bad light.Even my taxi-driver was fooled by the cumulative cumulo-nimbus.”Those clouds are too high for rain,” he pronounced, in a fineimpersonation of Michael “No Hurricane” Fish. “It never rains here inJuly. We might get a shower or two in September, then the rainyseason really starts in October.”But there’s an unwritten rule of cricket which states that when you puton a Test match you get rain too. At Bulawayo a few years ago a longdrought was broken by the deadly double of staging a Test andgetting Dickie Bird to umpire it. The Bird option isn’t available anymore, although it was rather a surprise not to find him somewhere inthe Marrara Oval, dabbing his eyes and telling the one about his dadwalking from Barnsley to Leeds every day to watch The Don.Anyway it did rain, during the night. Briefly. For about three or fourminutes, shocked Darwinians reported. It probably constituted half thetown’s annual average rainfall for July, which is one measly millimetre. The third day, though, dawned cloudless as Bangladesh resumed their hopeless struggle.On the field some arcane television regulation ensured that thesponsors’ logos, which had been placed in the conventional positionbehind the wicketkeeper at both ends, had been blotted out andrepainted at the sides of the square. After a change of sponsor forAustralian Tests this year that means there is a giant figure 3 at cover and midwicket. It looks a bit like the ever-expanding Merv Hughes has left his one-day shirts to dry on the outfield.The new sponsors are Hutchison 3G, a telecommunications company,and the big 3 is their corporate logo. This means, confusingly, that this is the 3 Test series, even though there are only two actual Tests in it. Later this year Australia take on Zimbabwe in another two-Test 3 Test series. And that’s followed by the 3 Test series against India, which actually contains four matches. It will be a relief when 3 finally get a three-Test series, but that won’t be until next year at least. In the meantime watch out for the second 3 Test at Cairns …Neatly, this 3 Test is going to end on the third day, which means acouple of days of sightseeing for the teams and the accompanyingmedia circus, which includes six journalists from Bangladesh, most ofwhom are valiantly searching for new slants on the phrase “lost by aninnings”. It’s a shame, though, that Darwin’s cricket lovers are beingslightly short-changed – the whole town has welcomed these strangewhite-clad visitors, and the weather is so perfect for cricket (theoccasional cloud excepted) that it’s a wonder no-one thought of playingup here before. It’s probably a good time to make your reservations fornext July, when Sri Lanka will be here.Steven Lynch is editor of Wisden CricInfo.More Roving Reporter
Digging up Darwin’s cricketing links
At Darwin, VIPs come in various sizes