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ScorecardA 21-ball blitz from Phil Mustard put Durham on course for a five-wicket win against Middlesex, which was eventually achieved with three balls to spare, in a match reduced to 19 overs per side by rain. Mustard sped to 49 with nine boundaries and Durham’s middle order kept up the required rate.Michael di Venuto fell to the first ball of Durham’s chase, trapped lbw by Chaminda Vaas, but this didn’t put Mustard off. He and Kyle Coetzer added 73 to bring the requirement down to a run-a-ball. Further heavy showers scudded across the ground to make life tough for the fielders, but the umpires stayed on throughout.Murali Kartik produced a tight four-over spell, removing Mustard, and kept Middlesex in the hunt while Tim Murtagh’s three scalps made Durham think. However, Gordon Muchall and Dale Benkenstein took their side most of the way.Middlesex’s innings fell away after a rollicking start from Eoin Morgan and Ed Smith. Morgan, the Ireland batsman, held his team together with a 46-ball 52, but Durham held their nerve with the ball and produced some electric fielding. The highlight was a stunning, running catch from Gary Park at long off to remove Murtagh.

Ashok Malhotra, the former Indian selector, has reacted to John Wright’s criticism of India’s selection policy by saying that he was a “spineless character”.In his book, , Wright had said, “The first six or seven selections were straightforward but when it got down to the marginal selections – those last three or four spots [which] determined the balance of our team and your ability to develop new players – the zonal factor kicked in and things would get interesting.”Malhotra said that Wright did not have his own opinion and would often tow the selectors’ line. “In the end we had to remind him that there were only 14 players and he had to suggest names,” Malhotra was quoted as saying by UNI . “Where do you think so many young players came from if the selectors were not doing their work? Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and their lot came in because of the selectors. He [Wright] knew 20 players but we knew 290 and so there would be a difference.””I am really sorry to say that these foreign coaches come to India to earn million dollars and go back to write books criticising the country. When they are here they tow the line, and only when they go back they find so many faults.”Pranab Roy, another former selector, said that if this was the situation then more than one player would have played from Bengal. “However, I would not like to comment anything regarding this matter further without reading the book.”

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Darren Lehmann, who selflessly offered his Test place to Michael Clarke, is Cricketer of the Year. The award is recognition of Lehmann’s belated, unlikely and romantic international purple patch, which is currently on hold after he injured his hamstring in the third Test at Nagpur.The 2004-05 edition of , published today, is a history-making edition: the front image of a roaring Shane Warne is the first full-colour pictorial cover in 141-year history. mourns the modern trend towards “McCricket”, calling for a stop to “back-to-back Tests, whistlestop tours, two and four-Test series and all other dunderheaded attempts to jam Test cricket into a polystyrene carton and shove it down our throats as quickly as possible”. For its first 125 years, the five-Test series was cricket’s prestige forum. But Australia have played only one in the past three years and India one in the past seven. New Zealand last played a five-Test series 33 years ago, Pakistan 12 years ago and Sri Lanka have never played one. new editor Christian Ryan writes in his Editor’s Notes: “Only when Australia play England are we now assured the unique thrill of a five-Test series. And beware the hardheads: with their calculators for brains and cash registers for hearts, they are plotting to take even that away from us. Cricket tampers with its own crazy, bewitching rhythms at its peril.”The disappearance of the five-Test series is one of several troublesome issues confronted by a feistier, revamped edition. Cricket Australia (CA) comes in for the fiercest criticism. Of the board’s eagerness to play against a race-based Zimbabwean side, and its description of this year’s tour to Zimbabwe as “a tick in a box”, wonders: “Have Australian cricket administrators no heart, no moral existence at all?”Of the Sri Lankan offspinner Muttiah Muralitharan’s refusal to come to Australia last July, it says CA did not try hard enough to change his mind. “Anything, everything should have been done to make sure he felt comfortable … Australia is the only cricketing nation Murali has felt compelled to stay away from. History will judge us accordingly.”Kerry Packer’s Channel Nine network, the long-time broadcaster of Australian cricket, also comes under attack for televising its quiz show at the moment Shane Warne equalled the world bowling record in Darwin. It was Channel Nine, again because of rival scheduling commitments, who insisted on the bizarre 9.30am starts to this year’s Tests in Darwin and Cairns.”Packer’s priority has only ever been his own prosperity, not cricket’s,” it says. “But so long as the two went hand in hand, all was hunky-dory. In the past year, Packer has appeared happy to suck the game dry and give very little back … It makes you wonder whom cricket belongs to: Packer or the people. Maybe it’s time Cricket Australia reminded a certain billionaire who’s really Boss.”The 2004-05 edition of is at 976 pages the biggest ever and the first – in Australia or England – to incorporate balls faced and boundaries hit in Test scorecards. Among several innovations is a new section called “Farewells”, women’s player profiles, a beefed-up back half and two new tables listing the full career records of every Australian Test and one-day player in order of appearance.

Scorecard

Manchester’s weather in the last few days has been more akin to the bleak midwinter than the summer solstice that recently passed, and so it came as no surprise when today’s opening NatWest Series fixture was abandoned without a ball being bowled.”After last night’s battering of rain, we were hopeful that the skies would clear this morning,” said Peter Marron, Lancashire’s head groundsman. But further belts of bad weather swept in throughout the afternoon, and it would have taken at least two hours of clear conditions to enable the mopping-up operation to be completed.The umpires did attempt several inspections throughout the day, although the sight of Daryl Harper’s umbrella being blown inside-out was a apt commentary on the state of the conditions. The high winds would have been a factor later in the day as well, as the temporary floodlights around the ground would not have been allowed to be erected to their full height.On the plus side for England, Marcus Trescothick, who had been passed fit to play after overcoming a sprain in his left ankle, will be given a couple of extra days to fully recover, while the captain, Michael Vaughan, spoke for his squad when he admitted he wasn’t too disappointed at being freed up to watch the European Championships quarter-final against Portugal.In a masterful stroke of PR, the ECB had announced that the latest that play could have started was at 7.47pm, exactly two minutes after the start of that game, but in the end there was no conflict of interests for the smattering of spectators who remained to the end.For England’s one-day team, however, it is business as usual. They have been phenomenally unlucky with the weather ever since their pre-Christmas tour of Sri Lanka, and of their last nine scheduled one-day matches, five have been abandoned as washouts (four of them without a ball being bowled) and a sixth was restricted to 30 overs a side.This latest abandonment is particularly hard luck on Yorkshire’s Anthony McGrath, who has tagged along with the squad since the tour of Bangladesh, without once getting a game. Now, in the absence of Andrew Flintoff, he had been inked in to start, but once again, he has been left to watch and wait.

England’s leading run-scorers Charlotte Edwards (Kent) and Claire Taylor (Berkshire) will lead their Super Fours teams to the final round of matches next weekend with just one point separating them.With additional points awarded for match-winning and superior batting and bowling performances in the domestic competition for elite women’s cricketers, the title is still in the balance.The Knight Riders, captained by Edwards, must beat The Braves – last year’s winners captained by Clare Connor – and hope The V Team cause an improbable upset in the last round of matches by beating Taylor’s Super Strikers.The teams contested the penultimate round in Nottingham today, with The Knight Riders defeating The V Team by six wickets and The Strikers beating The Braves by 31 runs.The Super Strikers faced The Braves and, after a slow start, reached 156-7, scoring two thirds of their runs in the final 15 overs. England and Yorkshire all-rounder Laura Spragg performed a characteristic entertaining cameo with the bat, racing to 21 before being dismissed by fellow England bowler Laura Harper.Spragg then took two wickets for just 15 runs and with Laura Newton taking 3-26, The Strikers sealed victory in the 45th over.Despite miserly bowling from Isa Guha and Beth Morgan in their opening spells, Hannah Lloyd and Salliann Briggs built a solid partnership, allowing young England bowlers Spragg and Shaw (24 not out) to accelerate the run-rate at the end.The Knight Riders exerted their authority on The V Team immediately restricting them to just 95 runs; Marsha Davies taking 4-16 from an 8 over spell with Helen Wardlaw and Jenny Gunn taking two wickets each. The V Team remain without a victory in the 2003 competition.England’s U19 batters Rosalie Birch and Lydia Greenway chipped away at the 95 run lead, with another young England and Yorkshire bowler, Helen Wardlaw, finishing the chase scoring 17 from 7 balls, including the winning runs.A full scorecard and points table can be found at www.Super4s.play-cricket.comMatches will begin at 12 noon on Saturday 21st June, and be played at The Parks and Radely College, Oxford.

Good form developed by Mark Richardson and Matthew Bell in New Zealand’s Test series against Pakistan last summer has seen them ensconced as the preferred combination for the return series next month.That means there is no room in the team announced today by selection chairman Sir Richard Hadlee for Matthew Horne.Horne batted with a broken hand while scoring a century in last summer’s first Test, a victory over Zimbabwe, then played the Boxing Day Test against Zimbabwe. He contracted a virus that forced him out of cricket before the start of the Pakistan series.Instead of Horne’s experience, the selection panel of Hadlee, Ross Dykes, Brian McKechnie and Denis Aberhart have decided the form shown on the New Zealand A tour of India by Lou Vincent is worth rewarding.The side is: Stephen Fleming (captain), Nathan Astle, Matthew Bell, James Franklin, Chris Martin, Craig McMillan, Shayne O’Connor, Jacob Oram, Adam Parore, Mark Richardson, Mathew Sinclair, Glen Sulzberger, Daryl Tuffey, Daniel Vettori, Lou Vincent.Hadlee said that as the incumbents, Richardson and Bell, had performed so well with three partnerships in excess of 50 last summer, including a stand of 181 in the 407/4 declared in the third Test innings victory over Pakistan, they would continue but Horne was “still very much in the frame.”He too had some good form on the Indian tour with NZ A but it was a case of easing him back into international play and he would be considered when the time was right.”Lou Vincent has been in magnificent form in India and his selection has been well advanced and the natural progression for him is to continue in the Test side,” he said.Hadlee pointed to the century Vincent scored in the Buchi Babu tournament against Indian Railways which secured the chance for victory and a place in the final. His 102 not out off 102 balls was backed up by a century in the final.”The team needed something special to win in that semi-final and he did it,” he said.Just where Vincent would fit into the batting line-up was not the selectors’ consideration. He was versatile enough to fit in from three to five but when his selection for a Test match became an issue it would be decided by the on-tour selectors.The selection of Vincent is clearly a rare chance for the selectors to put the pressure on middle-order incumbents, who have been largely unchallenged for their places in recent seasons.Jacob Oram is another whose international status has blossomed. The specially managed return of all-rounder Dion Nash to international play has allowed Oram the chance to build on his experiences and he is seen as a genuine contender for the No 3 bowling role in the side.”He has advanced from a No 4 bowler to a No 3 and has intimidated Indian batsmen in their conditions with the A side,” he said.Shayne O’Connor’s return to the side was no surprise. He is the most senior of the pace merchants available for selection, and his role of leadership in Africa last year in the absence of Chris Cairns, the now retired Geoff Allott and Nash was acknowledged today by Hadlee.”Shayne O’Connor did exceptionally well in Africa last year and was resilient,” he said.The continued advancement of Daryl Tuffey, with Chris Martin and James Franklin as supporting bowlers, meant the pace attack was experienced as it could be, Hadlee said.The selectors had been very impressed with Shane Bond’s work on the NZ A tour in India and he was considered very closely for the tour. Hadlee said he could well be a prospect for the next New Zealand tour, to Australia in November.Bond is the only paceman named among the six standby players also announced today. They are: Paul Wiseman, Brooke Walker, Bond, Chris Nevin, Hamish Marshall and Matthew Horne.Glen Sulzberger won the place as the back-up spinner to Daniel Vettori as the result of his successes on the NZ A tour where he has proven the best of the spinners.Hadlee said Vettori, who has been on a managed return to the bowling crease after a stress fracture in his back was diagnosed last year, was bowling 25 overs a day at the moment, and backing that up the next day.The side has been in camp in Christchurch as preparation for the tour and Hadlee had addressed those players in New Zealand on the selectors’ thinking for the season ahead.”This Test series [Pakistan] is the start of a long hot summer ahead where we play eight consecutive Test matches before the New Year including three against the best team in world cricket – Australia.”We will also play a further three Tests against England at home in March.”Pakistan is an excellent place to start the campaign. The environment is conducive to developing team unity and culture, agreeing a playing style, and setting goals for the summer ahead,” he said.The New Zealand-based players for the One-Day International series leave from Christchurch tomorrow.

On a day when his side produced a fightback brimming with spirit and courage, New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming suffered the bitter disappointment of failing to convert his 26th Test fifty to a third hundred.Fleming was given out, caught in the gully off Allan Donald, for 99. So close and yet so far as New Zealand doggedly kept South Africa waiting for victory. At stumps on the fourth day of the first Castle Lager/MTN Test match the tourists were 260 for five in their follow-on innings, 18 ahead with a day to play.Fleming’s innings – and its conclusion – was the centrepiece of an absorbing, if not quite thrilling day. He made 57 in the first innings before getting himself out a little softly, going down the wicket to left-arm spinner Nicky Boje.The circumstances of his dismissal in the second innings were far more dramatic. With the Goodyear Park pitch apparently having long since given up the ghost, Allan Donald produced a snorter of a ball that reared viciously up at Fleming. The batsmen fended it away from his throat, but only to Gary Kirsten, and umpire Arani Jayaprakash gave Fleming out.From the umpire’s perspective, the decision must have seemed straightforward, but repeated television replays cast doubt on the dismissal as it became less and less clear whether the ball had struck Fleming’s glove, bat handle or forearm.Fleming himself was unable to comment on the decision, but he did say how disappointing it had been. “You feel the excitement building up and I guess there’s just a feeling of being flat,” he said. “You don’t get the opportunity to experience the magic feeling of getting the hundred.”His view of the delivery was “a bit quicker than the slo-mo and I didn’t see too much of it. You can’t really comment on it. It’s just disappointing to get 99″.Especially so in the context of the match. New Zealand started the day one down for 82 and were quickly 93 for two when Lance Klusener took a stunning catch in the gully off Donald to get rid of Mathew Sinclair for 24.Fleming and Mark Richardson then added 52 for the third before Donald had Richardson LBW for 77 with a toe-cruncher and Nathan Astle did not last long before chopping Makhaya Ntini on for 8 with a poor shot.But Fleming and Craig McMillan kept South Africa at bay for a further 141 minutes as they added 72 for the fifth wicket. Fleming’s dismissal was a double cruel blow for both the man and his captain, and although the odds always favoured a South African victory, this wicket will make their task that much easier.New Zealand, though, still believe they can save the game.”We think so,” said Fleming. “We’re going to make it damn hard for them to win it and while we don’t like playing this type of cricket – we’d much rather be pushing for positive cricket and winning ourselves – I think we’re in a situation where we didn’t play well enough for the first two days. The thing about this team is we want to play quality cricket whatever we do.”But with Fleming gone, and only Adam Parore as a recognised batsman to come, it now seems that only the weather can save New Zealand. And that, given unsettled conditions around the country, is not entirely out of the question.

Pollock trumps his former captain
It was one of the mini-battles of the day: Shaun Pollock vs Graeme Smith. Having tied Smith down in his first over with accurate line and length, Pollock returned in the next over to deliver smartly disguised slower one. Smith came down the track to drive, missed the ball completely, and perhaps thinking that he was bowled, began to walk off without looking back. He did not realize that the ball had missed the stumps and the wicketkeeper Yogesh Takawale had fumbled it. Takawale had enough time to recover and stump Smith, who was walking briskly towards the bowler’s end. But Pollock’s excitement was multifold as he jumped in air and repeatedly swung his arms in child-like excitement.Keep it straight and simple
Ashish Nehra may not have Dale Steyn’s pace but he can swing the ball.Yusuf Pathan was facing his first ball from Nehra and attempted the ambitious slog over deep midwicket straightaway. He missed and Nehra swung the ball back into him and hit the stumps. A few overs later Shane Watson, who threatened to blast Mumbai away, also paid the price for a horizontal-bat heave against Dwayne Bravo, who had gone round the wicket to angle the ball away from the right-hander.Terrific Takawale
Tracking the flight of the ball, while running towards the boundary, is never an easy task for a wicketkeeper especially when he is squatting to begin with. Yogesh Takawale displayed agility and excellent judgement as he set off immediately with his eyes fixed on the ball after Ravindra Jadeja had top-edged Dhawal Kulkarni over his head. Takawale ran as close as he could and dived to cover the remaining distance to pouch an outstanding catch. It was one of the four dismissals he affected.No cause for cheer
One set of cheerleaders were unusually quiet today and it wasn’t because of crowd trouble or because they hurt some conservative politician’s sentiments. The three sets of Rajasthan Royals cheer girls, dressed in white, yellow and red, were left seated for the majority of the first innings as Rajasthan crashed and burned for 103, the lowest first-innings score of the IPL.The name’s Warne
Takawale was having a superb match until he came face to face with Shane Warne. He prepared to face the first ball, perhaps expected the leg break, and shaped up to pull. Warne ripped in the flipper on off stump, cramped the batsman for room and the ball brushed the pad on its way through to hitting off stump.

Yuvraj Singh has never been to Ireland but he’s confident that it’s where India can set the tone for a successful summer and where he can secure a permanent spot in the batting order. India play three one-day internationals against South Africa in Stormont before taking on England in three Tests and seven ODIs.”How the tour progresses is very important, so if we can do well against South Africa in Ireland I’m sure we’ll play good cricket,” he said at the end of day three of a four-day conditioning camp at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore. “For the last six or seven years I’ve been batting in the middle order, but it’s been tough finding my place, especially in Tests. It depends where I come to bat. If I come lower down then I have to go for my shots. If I get sent up the order then I can settle in and open up later.”Current form can’t be assessed in one or two series. At the World Cup I was in form but unfortunately we didn’t go far and in Bangladesh I couldn’t get started. In the Afro-Asia Cup I came in lower down, so if I can get a run for a five or six-match series at one spot then you can see how I perform. It’s going to be a tough tour so we have to focus on being mentally and physically fit, but I’m confident of doing well.”With his left knee still in a brace after he tore his anterior cruciate ligament before the Champions Trophy, Yuvraj said he didn’t feel uncomfortable on the field. “I’ve been working on it [the knee] three or four times a week, and obviously the brace is a precaution so I have to keep it on until I get properly fit. But when I’m playing a game I go 100% all out.”The focus of the day at the NCA was batting in pairs. Two batsmen went in at a time and had to chase 45 runs in eight overs. Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir failed, losing Uthappa in the process. Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid chased it down with ease and made 53 before Ganguly got out. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Rohit Sharma, batting against the spin of Piyush Chawla and Ramesh Powar, also succeeded as did Yuvraj and Dinesh Karthik.Sharma, a promising young Mumbai batsman who was included in the 30-member probables list for the 2006 Champions Trophy, used his chance to bat with the seniors. He was impressive against the spinners and hustled to make singles into doubles and once lofted Powar to long on where Sreesanth dropped a sitter. “Keep it up!” yelled a jaded spectator sitting alone in the stands.Yuvraj wasn’t confident against spin, often lunging forward and playing around his pad. Was it a worry, given that Monty Panesar, in fantastic form, would bowl a lot against India over the summer? “All of our batsmen play spin well, so I don’t see him as a threat. Obviously he’s doing very well so we have to look out for him.”Gregory King, the physical trainer, and physio John Gloster were overseeing the camp, the last of three conducted ahead of India’s tour of Ireland and England. Venkatesh Prasad, the bowling coach, stood at square leg and took notes for most of the time.”It’s going well, after just two days. Today we had some match practice which went well for all the batsmen and bowlers,” said Yuvraj. “We didn’t really feel the absence of a coach, as there was a bowling coach and a fielding coach [Robin Singh] and the team is looking really good. Everyone’s quite happy with the coaching camp.”

While few in the international community believe that Zimbabwe will be in a state to resume playing Test cricket when their self-imposed one-year suspension ends in January, until now the Zimbabwe board has bullishly maintained that they will be back.But in an interview with the local Independent newspaper, Ozias Bvute, Zimbabwe Cricket’s controversial managing director, gave the first indications that January might be too soon.”We have a road map of intensive tours for both the senior and Zimbabwe A teams to gain exposure and experience,” he told the paper. “We also have five standing squads formed on the basis of strength versus strength that will be playing against each other locally in between tours. Add to that all the activity in the 10 provinces, the school games and tertiary institutions programme we have initiated and you will see that we have the basis for continued growth and we will continue to re-evaluate ourselves to see if we are ready to resume Test cricket.”We are under no illusion about our quality and capability hence the decision to suspend Test commitments,” he continued. “Quality … we have what it takes. Experience … that is what we are looking for now in all these matches we are playing. It will not come easy but it has to come through performance and we appreciate that in the immediate future results may not come our way.”Critics are quick to point out that Zimbabwe’s cause is hardly helped by the fact that last season the Logan Cup, the country’s first-class competition, was shelved by the board. They also note that the provincial reorganisation has left the domestic set-up in chaos and claim it was only undertaken to ensure that the ruling board could not be toppled.Bvute, unsurprisingly, looked to shift the blame for the side’s form which has seen them lose their last 15 ODIs against Full Member countries. “We are mandated to run the game on behalf of the nation,” he explained. “However, the issue of poor Zimbabwe performances should be seen in context. When we are saddled with a situation of a narrow selection base that does not allow for competitive selection for national assignments should we be held responsible for the actions of previous administrators who failed to ensure continued throughput because they ran the sport along elitist lines as a preserve of the few?”Although Bvute was quick to blame previous administrators, that rather overlooks the fact that Peter Chingoka, the ZC chairman, has been in office for more than a decade. It is during his tenure that the mass exodus of players has taken place and that the fortunes of the national side have gone into freefall.Bvute ended on an optimistic note, insisting: “Since taking over we are redressing the imbalance and are up to the challenge of ensuring that the future is bright.”Zimbabwe take on Bangladesh in five ODIs over the next ten days and much will depend on their performances in those as, aside from the preliminary round of the Champions Trophy, they have no more matches scheduled until December. If they can acquit themselves well against Bangladesh then perhaps Bvute’s assertion that the future is bright might seem less hollow.