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Scorecard

South Australia’s poor season continued as they failed to reach the 193 required to take first-innings points against Queensland at Adelaide Oval. The Redbacks crashed to be all out for 171 and by stumps had allowed the Bulls to skip away to a 159-run lead thanks to a Clinton Perren half-century.South Australia’s batting continued to look fragile – only Darren Lehmann and Shane Deitz have scored centuries this season – as the Queensland bowlers all chipped in to defend their small total. Deitz was again the shining light with 51 batting at No. 8 but he had little support.The home side were proceeding nicely at 1 for 39 but three wickets in the space of four overs put the Bulls back on top. Ashley Noffke recorded the best figures of 3 for 48, while Shane Watson, Andy Bichel and Mitchell Johnson made two breakthroughs each. But the news was not so good for the visitors when Watson left the field after bowling three overs, having re-injured his left hamstring.Queensland, whose key batsmen have also struggled recently, found form in the second innings as Perren and Jimmy Maher added 128 for the second wicket. Perren’s 78 not out was only his second half-century in nine innings this season, while Maher fell just before stumps for 49, one short of his first fifty in 2006-07.

Senator Enver Baig, a member of the Standing Committee on Sports that is currently probing the bank accounts of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has accused its chairman Nasim Ashraf of ‘deliberately avoiding’ a meeting with the committee in Islamabad on Thursday.”He [Ashraf] was supposed to appear before the committee and answer important questions but he conveniently proceeded to Dubai to avoid us,” Baig told .”The worst part is that we were given a false excuse for his absence as a top PCB official told us that Ashraf had gone to Dubai to meet ICC president Ray Mali. But I’ve confirmed with the ICC headquarters in Dubai that no such meeting took place. In fact Mali had left Dubai two days ago for South Africa,” said Baig, who has been a major critic of the PCB top brass in recent years.Baig added that Shafqat Naghmi, the PCB’s chief operating officer, told the committee during an “on-camera” session that Ashraf had to rush to Dubai to meet with Mali and discuss some important issues related to the ICC Champions Trophy which Pakistan are to host this September. “He [Naghmi] told us that Ashraf had to leave in a hurry because Mali had told him that he was in Dubai just for a day on Thursday.”Baig said that it all turned out to be a “pack of lies”. “I believe that Ashraf flew off to Dubai to avoid the committee that was supposed to ask him some probing questions.” Baig also said that he and some Senators had requisitioned another meeting next month to discuss the PCB’s finances and have asked the Senate committee to make Ashraf’s presence mandatory.The committee, according to Baig, found out an “astonishing” fact from the details of the PCB bank accounts provided by the board that the it spent Rs 1.2 billion (US$17,788,340) during a short span of the last six months. “We were really surprised because that means that the PCB has been spending 12 crore a month. We’ve asked them to provide details and now they are supposed to submit balance sheets within the next three weeks.”

Cricket Kenya has secured a sponsorship deal worth Sh7 million (US$105,000) with East African Breweries Limited.The four-year deal, which runs to 2011, will mean the national side wearing shirts with the Tusker branding. In anticipation of this tie-up, Kenya’s players have been using Tusker-logos on kit since before the ICC World Twenty20.Although the official launch of the contract is not expected until next month, Tom Tikolo, the board’s CEO, told The Standard that some of the income from the deal would be used to pay players and the remainder for development, including an ambitious schools’ programme.Kenyan cricket has been without a major sponsor since before the 2003 World Cup.

Shoaib Malik, the Pakistan captain, needs a further three weeks to recover fully from the ankle injury that curtailed his tour to India. It also means that he faces a race against time to be fit for Pakistan’s next assignment, an ODI series against Zimbabwe, which begins from January 26.Malik missed the final two Tests against India recently after injuring his ankle during a post-Test warm-up and now begins an injury rehabilitation programme at the National Cricket Academy.”Doctors have removed the plaster from Shoaib Malik’s ankle today and have advised him to undergo a rehabilitation programme for the next three weeks,” Ahsan Malik, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) spokesman, told .Malik will be working with Sohail Saleem, the PCB’s chief medical officer, and trainer Abdul Saboor. “He (Malik) is feeling much better and is confident of regaining full match fitness ahead of the series against Zimbabwe,” Ahsan said.Another vital player, Mohammad Asif, also begins his comeback from the elbow injury that has nagged him over the last year. Asif underwent surgery in Australia earlier this month to rectify the problem and is now hoping to recover in time for the home series against Australia to be held in March-April.”Asif will work at the NCA according to plan prepared for him by David Dwyer (the Pakistan team trainer),” said Ahsan. He added that Asif will undergo physical training sessions for several weeks before he even begins to bowl. Fellow fast bowler Umar Gul has also recovered from his back problem and will start bowling in the nets at the NCA from January 1.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is planning measures, including staging additional Twenty20 internationals, to keep the country’s top players from being lured towards the Indian Premier League (IPL). England’s stars earn basic salaries of approximately ₤ 400,000, in addition to endorsement deals, but stand to gain enhanced win bonuses and appearance fees from additional Twenty20 internationals that the board plans to arrange, the reported.It is also believed that the 18 counties and leading venues, who have also been warned against hosting unofficial events, stand to gain financially. In an attempt to prevent players from flocking overseas to profitable Twenty20 tournaments the ECB has urged the counties to put their players on 12-month contracts rather than season-long ones. The ECB may also accept an offer from Allen Stanford, the American billionaire and brains behind the lucrative Stanford 20/20 in the Caribbean, who is reportedly willing to pay big bucks for a match between England players and his all-star XI.The ECB chairman, Giles Clarke, arrived in New Zealand after a meeting of the 12-man management board in London on Wednesday and is expected to brief the touring party on the details of the plans.The news came a day after Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman, indicated that dates for future events could be altered to accommodate England players. Nobody from the country has joined the IPL yet because it clashes with their domestic season. The ECB however, has decided to prevent that scenario from cropping up.Another idea under consideration is that the ECB changes the one-overseas-player-per-country rule to four for the next year, where Twenty20 matches are considered.Kevin Pietersen has reiterated his commitment to England and Matthew Hoggard, who said the IPL was a topic of discussion within the team, followed suit. “There’s a lot of stupid money flying about and I understand why a lot of people have gone to India to ply their trade,” he said. “If you are getting four or five times your salary for six weeks’ work, it can’t be a bad job.”But I want to play for England and play as many Tests as I can. Most of the guys want to play as much as they can for England, so I don’t think it’s going to be a massive draw on talent. But the IPL has got a lot of clout and maybe the International Cricket Council has realised that fact.”

Sussex were in trouble at the end of the second day closing at 112 forfive in reply to Glamorgan’s mammoth first innings total of 718 forthree declared. Sussex made a poor start losing their first wicketsinside the first five overs for 11 runs. There was a brief revivalwith a stand of 66 between Chris Adams and Richard Montgomerie (23)before the latter was out caught behind by Maynard of Dean Cosker.Sussex lost a further two wickets when Robert Croft took a brilliantcatch at first slip to dismiss Will House and Robin Martin-Jenkinsfell to a reckless hook shot. But Adams, playing a lone hand, made ahalf century for Sussex and remained unbeaten on 55 at close of play.Earlier Glamorgan’s Steve James made an unbeaten 309, the first triplehundred by a Glamorgan batsman and erased the 61-year-old record heldby Emrys Davies (287) against Gloucestershire at Newport in 1939. Histriple century was made of 440 balls in 602 minutes which included 41hits to the fence. His lone chance was on 285. There were a fewmilestones during the course of the innings. First, James helped theWelsh county to post a record total of 718 – the county’s highest inthe championship since they were admitted in 1921. And when Jamescompleted his 200, he also became the first batsman to score fivedouble hundreds for the county.James shared a few partnerships during the course of his unbeateninnings of character and concentration. He shared a record firstwicket partnership of 374 with Mathew Elliot (177), then a secondwicket partnership of 123 with Mike Powell (64), a stand of 134 withMathew Maynard (67, three 4s, five 6s) for the third wicket andfinally an unbeaten 87-run partnership with Dale for the fourthwicket.At the end of the day, talking to the media, a relaxed and satisfiedJames said “It was a great honour to pass the best Glamorgan scoreever made. I did not think about it when I continued my innings thismorning. I treated every ball on its merits and did not think aboutthe milestones because the next ball could have got me.”James added “I was only tense when I reached 287 (set by the lateDavies) and was pleased to get that single to pass his score. But thenI never thought too much about reaching 300 until it came along. I nowfeel very tired but very relieved.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

For the second time in five days, New Zealand’s well-oiled bowling attack turned in a clinical bowling display, beating Bangladesh by nine wickets, and giving their team a foothold in the semi-finals of the World Cup. A target of 175 was never going to pose too many problems, not with Stephen Fleming sealing the nine-wicket win with an assertive century, his second in World Cups and eighth overall.Carrying on from where they had left off against West Indies, New Zealand’s varied pace attack refused to let up. Shane Bond’s incisiveness was complemented by Jacob Oram’s awkward lift and Scott Styris’s dibbly-dobblies as they snaffled ten wickets between them. Bangladesh’s batsmen came unstuck for the second match in a row – a frenzied collapse against Australia was followed by a lacklustre capitulation today – despite enjoying their best opening stand of the tournament. None of the top four converted their starts, giving it away when set, and left the underbelly exposed to the incisive New Zealand attack.Javed Omar, making his World Cup debut 11 years after his first ODI, and Tamim Iqbal, the youngster, provided Bangladesh the unhurried start they required, adding 55 in 16.4 overs. But Oram’s double-strike instigated a steep slide. Oram stuck to a back of a length, extracted uncomfortable bounce and hardly gave the batsmen room to maneuver. Tamim was once struck on the chest, being followed by a short one after trying to charge down the track, and, barring one aggressive crack across the line, couldn’t break free that often. He fell trying an overambitious scoop-paddle, dragging his back foot out of the crease and watching Brendon McCullum, standing up, whip off the bails in quick time. Omar edged a short one a couple of overs later and all their good work began to come apart.Bond opened up the floodgates with a couple of wickets on returning for his second spell before Styris, who bowled Mason’s quota of overs after he was injured, mopped up the tail with his nagging seamers. Aftab Ahmed’s dismissal typified Bangladesh’s day: mistiming a loft off Styris when well set, and holing out to long-off. Habibul Bashar joined in operation surrender, attempting a non-existent second run and being beaten by a direct hit from Oram, a sharp flat hit from deep third man.Saqibul and Mushfiqur had no answer to Bond detonators, losing their stumps by playing around full deliveries, before Mohammad Ashraful and Mashrafe Mortaza fell to Styris. It took a 34-run tenth wicket stand between Mohammad Rafique and Syed Rasel to lend the total some respectability.A target of 175 was always going to be within New Zealand’s range and they went about hunting it down with the ease associated with a stroll in the park. Fleming went about his business in a composed manner, putting away the wayward deliveries, clipping effortlessly off his pads and handling the left-arm spinners with ease. He shimmied down the track towards the latter part of his innings, lofting three sixes with minimum fuss.Giving him support was Hamish Marshall, in the side for the injured Lou Vincent. He took some time to get into his stride, especially against the fastish left-arm spin of Abdur Razzak, but finished with a flurry of fours. He grew in confidence as his innings went on and completed the match with a big six off part-time legspinner Ashraful .Their 134-run partnership had taken just 20 overs and was similar to the hammering Bangladesh received at the hands of Australia just a few days ago.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:08

India’s win-loss ratio of 0.625 at home

Kasun Rajitha, Dushmantha Chameera and Dasun Shanaka – Sri Lanka’s lanky seam-bowling labour force – came upon a thoroughly surprising green Pune deck, and wound up delivering their team a surprisingly thorough victory. The three quicks took eight wickets for 59 between them, to blow India away for 101. Sri Lanka’s inexperienced batsmen were rarely at ease in pursuit, but did well enough to get to the target with five wickets in hand and two overs to spare.Chameera had provided glimpses at his penetrative potential during the recent tour of New Zealand, but Rajitha and Shanaka had gone unheralded until today. If Binura Fernando – the left-arm quick – had not injured a hamstring ahead of this match, Rajitha might not even have debuted. Instead, he claimed two wickets in a tone-setting first over and finished with 3 for 29. Shanaka is in the team largely for his batting, but bowled magic deliveries through the middle overs, uprooting Suresh Raina’s leg stump with an in-dipper, and bouncing MS Dhoni second ball. He took 3 for 16.Fresh from Australian run-gluts, India’s route to defeat was paved with over-ambition. Even after the pitch had proved itself spicy, big shots continued to be attempted. Edges kept being collected. Wickets continued to tumble. The biggest stand of their innings was between R Ashwin and Ashish Nehra, who put on 28 for the eighth wicket. Without Ashwin’s 31 not out, their total might have been closer to 80.Sri Lanka’s innings appeared to be heading in the same direction at 23 for 2 in the fifth over, but Dinesh Chandimal and Chamara Kapugedera combined for 39 tension-relieving runs. Three late wickets fell, but the target was so small, even this scratchy batting performance was more than good enough. The victory puts Sri Lanka back on top of the ICC T20 rankings.It was Rajitha who first put the fire in a young Sri Lanka team. Barely heard of before he took five wickets in a tour match against the Indians in August last year, he delivered an immaculate first international over, seaming the ball sharply away from right-handers, and generating fine pace and carry. His first wicket came second ball. The length delivery stopped a little on Rohit Sharma, who hit aerially down the ground. Chameera moved across from mid-off to help a stick-thin fast-bowling brother out, diving feet off the ground to pouch that catch. Clearly excited by that scalp, Rajitha ended the over with a seaming short ball at Ajinkya Rahane, whose leading edge carried to an advancing cover.He had a catch dropped off Raina’s inside edge in between, but Rajitha soon had a third wicket, in the fifth over. Then Shanaka took over, bowling slower, but just as accurately. The Raina-Dhoni double blow in his first over put India at 51 for 5. It also doubled Shanaka’s wicket-tally in all T20s. He had played in 26 matches before this, and was called upon to bowl in less than a quarter of those games.Chameera troubled the middle order with raw pace until Ashwin picked India off the floor with a sensible approach and excellent timing. He smoked Chameera through the leg side for four first ball, but largely awaited the bad deliveries to play his big shots. In the end, Ashwin just ran out of partners – Nehra succumbing to Chameera’s pace and Jasprit Bumrah running himself out, in the 19th over.Nehra dismissed Sri Lanka’s openers, who were also guilty of attempting too many boundaries while the ball was still zipping around. Chandimal and Kapugedera were streaky but smart, looking for singles and twos, with the required rate always under a run-a-ball. Chandimal top-scored with 35, Kapugedera hit 25.MS Dhoni banked on spin through the middle overs, and the slow bowlers did remove Kapugedara, Chandimal and, later, Shanaka. But Sri Lanka had stacked their side with allrounders again, and batted deep. Milinda Siriwardana was on hand to apply the finish, hitting 21 not out from 14. Ashwin was the best of India’s bowlers as well, picking up 2 for 13 from his three overs.

Scorecard

Uttar Pradesh shot Bengal out for 149 within the first two sessions at Eden Gardens and then their batsmen proceeded to knock off those runs in a hurry. Bengal, who opted to bat, had a 40-run opening stand before twin strikes from the Kumars – Bhuvneshvar, the debutant, and Praveen. The big wicket of Manoj Tiwary followed soon as Bengal found themselves down at 43 for 3. Wickets fell regularly after that and only a 39-run ninth-wicket stand between Saurasish Lahiri and Ranadeb Bose took them past 100. Praveen, Bhuvneshwar and Piyush Chawla took three wickets each. They didn’t even require the services of Praveen Gupta, the specialist left-arm spinner.Rohit Prakash and Tanmay Srivastava gave UP a brisk start, which was taken forward by Suresh Raina at the fall of Srivastava’s wicket on 30. By the time Rohit fell for 58, just before stumps, UP were only 28 behind Bengal’s total. Raina, who batted at a furious pace, was unbeaten on 55 off 67 deliveries.
ScorecardS Badrinath scored his third century of the season and M Vijay his second, as Tamil Nadu took the Rajasthan attack apart to finish day one in Chennai at 302 for 3. Badrinath joined Vijay after Abhinav Mukund was dismissed in the second over, and by the time they were separated, TN were at 242. Rajasthan, without Pankaj Singh and Mohammad Aslam in this match, suffered while the two made merry.Badrinath fell for 138, while Vijay was unbeaten on 112. Badrinath has now moved on to No. 2 on the run-getters’ list in this year’s Ranji Trophy, and Vijay follows him at No. 6.
ScorecardAmol Muzumdar missed a century and Ashok Thakur stretched his lead at the top of the Super League wicket-takers’ list as Mumbai squandered a good start, and then came back with lower-order partnerships to finish the first day in Dharamsala at 324 for 9. After Ajinkya Rahane and Vinit Indulkar took them to 82 for 1, Mumbai lost both of them at the same score. Muzumdar then scored a majority of the runs, as wickets kept fell consistently at the other end.When Muzumdar fell for 90, Mumbai were 254 for 7, after which they lost two wickets and added 70 more runs by stumps. Vinayak Samant, who ended the day unbeaten on 31, added 55 for the ninth wicket with Iqbal Abdullah. Thakur, the left-arm medium-pacer, took 4 for 99.
Scorecard
Sandeep Jobanputra and Ravindra Jadeja ran through the Maharashtra batting order to give Saurashtra the perfect start at Nagothane. After having skittled Maharashtra for 136, Saurashtra recovered from early strikes from Samad Fallah to end the day at 73 for 2.Maharashtra’s opening woes continued as Jobanputra took out Vishant More in the third over. This was followed by the wicket of Hrishikesh Kanitkar four overs later, and Maharashtra never recovered from the early blows. Sairaj Bahutule’s 46 down the order took them to 136. Jobanputra and Jadeja took four wickets each.Fallah, Maharashtra’s left-arm medium-pacer, gave them a good start with two early wickets, but Sitanshu Kotak and Cheteshwar Pujara ensured Saurashtra ended the day right on top. Fallah bowled eight overs, and took two wickets for 7 runs.
ScorecardAndhra played out a solid day at Visakhapatnam as they scored 214 for 4 against Baroda. LNP Reddy and Y Gnaneshwara Rao scored half-centuries to keep the Baroda bowlers at bay. Gnaneshwara Rao was unbeaten at stumps, while Reddy was run out for 67 in the 55th over. Baroda were without Irfan Pathan and struggled to take wickets, but they managed to keep the scoring-rate down.

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Halhadar Das, Orissa’s wicketkeeper, scored his maiden first-class century as Orissa – reduced to 50 for 4 – finished the first day against Punjab in Mohali at 273 for 8. It was Rashmi Parida initially who stopped the rot with a 72-run fifth-wicket partnership with Pininti Jayachandra. Parida and Halhadar added 68 for the seventh wicket. Parida scored 52, and Halhadar fell to what turned out to be the last ball of the day to 17-year-old debutant Siddarth Kaul. Kaul took 4 for 58.Delhi 337 for 2 (Kohli 154*, Dhawan 148) v Karnataka
Scorecard Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli feasted upon a weak Karnataka bowling attack to put up 266 runs for the second wicket, as Delhi amassed 337 for 2 on the first day in Bangalore. Dhawan fell just short of 150, while Kohli, replacing Virender Sehwag, remained unbeaten on 154 at stumps. Both of them have scored a century each earlier in this season.Dhawan hit 24 boundaries in his brisk 148, which was scored at a strike-rate of 70.14. Kohli was more sedate, with 154 off 292 deliveries. The two had come together after the early fall of Aakash Chopra, who scored 6.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

A blazing 76 by Salman Butt led Pakistan to a comprehensive seven-wicket win in a rain-curtailed match at the Iqbal Stadium. Heavy rain after 48.2 overs in Bangladesh’s innings kept the players off the field for more than two hours and the target of 226 was reduced to 158 in 25 overs by the D/L method. Pakistan made easy work of the target, despite an asking-rate of more than six an over, and extended their lead to 2-0 in the five-match series.Despite the heavy defeat, Bangladesh had something to write home about, especially their lower-order revival. Mahmudullah’s unbeaten half-century pushed Bangladesh to a respectable score of 225 for 8 after a characteristic top-order wobble. Tamim Iqbal piloted the early charge with an attacking 60 but the excitement was rather shortlived, with half the side back in the pavilion by the 25th over. Mahmudullah then proceeded to add 37 with Farhad Reza, doubled that effort with Dhiman Ghosh, and those stands were significant in ensuring Bangladesh didn’t fold up before the allotted overs.Tamim set the pace with some gorgeous drives through extra cover and controlled flicks off the pads, making it fairly obvious from the start that the margin for error on this surface was minimal. The high elbows were a feature of his technique as he punched crisply through the off side and back past the bowler.Shahriar Nafees wasn’t as technically correct and like a repeat offender, perished in identical fashion to the Lahore game, swatting at a wide delivery away from the body. Aftab Ahmed’s dismissal was unfortunate as replays indicated the ball struck him above the knee roll off Gul, who picked up his 50th ODI wicket in the process.Ashraful walked in and went on the offensive with an exquisite cover drive off Tanvir to go past Habibul Bashar as the highest run-getter in ODIs for Bangladesh, before taking Gul to task with three fours in a single over. However, Bangladesh lost two quick wickets against the run of play – including Ashraful – and Tamim fell shortly after bringing up his fifty.Mahmudullah and Reza got together for damage control after Tamim’s wicket, and the pair brought some stability to the innings. With spinners bowling from either end, the pair grafted – staying back and waiting for the turn, pushing the ball into the gaps and fetching the odd boundary. The partnership was worth 37 before Reza lunged forward to Shahid Afridi and was trapped lbw just after a drinks break, in the 34th over.Luckily for Mahmudullah, he found an able partner in Ghosh and the pair strung together the most fruitful stand of the evening. In the five overs after Reza’s dismissal, Bangladesh added 34. Pakistan lost the plot, and the introduction of Younis Khan to break the stand only leaked more runs. Mahmudullah never got tied down at any stage, and shortly after the pair added 50 runs, he brought up his own half-century, giving Sohail Tanvir the charge and punching him through extra cover and then glancing one down to fine leg the following ball. Rain intervened with ten balls left, leaving Mahmudullah unbeaten on 58.The overcast conditions mattered little for Pakistan as the openers blazed away in a stand of 46 in just over seven overs. Butt took to Mashrafe Mortaza early, punching him through extra cover and followed it up with a pull over midwicket in the same over. His innings was a suitably classy affair, full of proper cricket shots, drives, cuts and the odd pull.The early pounding forced Ashraful to bring his slow bowlers on in the fifth over and the move worked as the left-armers, Abdur Razzak and Shakib Al Hasan, plugged the scoring for three consecutive overs. Nasir Jamshed fell after attempting one ugly heave too many, bowled by Shakib.Younis Khan walked in and carted Mahmudullah for a huge six over midwicket before a swing and a miss off Reza sent him back for 13. Yousuf joined Butt, and during his cameo knock of 32 became the second Pakistani to go past 9000 ODI runs behind Inzamam-ul-Haq. Butt brought up his fifty in the 18th over, launched Mahmudullah for a six over long-off before he was run-out off a direct hit for 76. His 72-ball knock had all but sealed the victory, with Pakistan needing just seven to win.