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South

Surrey maintained their 100% record with a thumping defeat of Kent at The Oval in one of the most one-sided match in the competition’s history. James Benning led Surrey’s charge with 88 and Mark Ramprakash chipped in with 58 as they posted a daunting 198 for 6. Kent started well, reaching 40 for 0 before collapsing to 91 in 11.4 overs as Nayan Doshi and Ian Salisbury shared five wickets in less than four overs.While England were in freefall, Darren Gough, who many think should still be in the side, helped Essex to a resounding 87-run win over Sussex at Chelmsford. Set a target of 197, Sussex were on the ropes from the first over when Gough took two wickets with successive balls, and Andy Bichel (4 for 23) ensured that there would be no fightback, although Sussex’s tail at least saw them to three figures.

Midlands/Wales/West

Glamorgan were another side to maintain a winning start with a six-wicket win over Warwickshire at Edgbaston. Glamorgan had seemed to be slipping to defeat when they slid to 15 for 3 chasing the home side’s 170 for 9, but then David Hemp (60*) and James Franklin (69*) saw them home with ten balls in hand in an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 106.

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Durham subsided to their second defeat in as many days as they never challenged Nottinghamshire’s 175 for 7 at Trent Bridge, going down to a 52-run loss.

Matthew Hayden says beating India, especially in front of their own crowds, ranks high among his favourite cricketing moments. In an interview with , Hayden said defeating India almost matched the experience of defeating old rivals England.”I think India is close on being my favourite side to beat,” he said. “They’ve almost taken the No. 1 seed off England in a lot of ways. It’s a side that within its psyche has amazing highs and amazing lows. So it doesn’t take long to realise they’re at a low when you’re standing in front of 70,000 people at a stadium and you can hear a pin drop. It’s a great position to be in and you know you’ve got them beat.”Hayden and the Australian team had plenty of those moments on their tour earlier this month. Though they lost the last two games, including the one-off Twenty20 game in Mumbai, the Australians dominated the first six ODIs and eventually sealed the series 4-2. Hayden had a good time too, scoring 290 runs in five innings, including three successive half-centuries.Hayden said he had nothing personal against the Indians. “Our ambition is to keep their crowd as quiet as we possibly can and just play good cricket. It’s not a personal thing.”The series in India was also highlighted by plenty of verbals from players of both sides, and Hayden said India’s aggressive approach had fired him up for their return visit to Australia, which includes four Tests and a triangular one-day tournament also featuring Sri Lanka.Denying the criticism of aggression directed at the Australian team, Hayden said: “I think it’s one of the greatest misconceptions of this side ever, that it’s aggressive. I think what we are, it extends from our culture, is just having a great mateship and camaraderie within any kind of team.”You put any 12 blokes together and you’ll get a job done. Whether it’s getting a bogged four-wheel-drive off the beach or standing in front of a cricket wicket and making sure we’re in a dominant position. It’s the same dog, different leg action, so to speak. I think it shows an insecurity to do anything else other than that. All it really does is just amp up the intensity of the way we play our cricket. It’s a good thing for us.”You never want an Australian with his back up against the wall. We saw that last summer against England, you’re seeing that now with this verbal jousting that’s happening between India and Australia. And that’s exactly where we want to be. We’re very comfortable in that position. We want to get into that position because that’s when we play our best cricket.”Looking ahead at his own career, Hayden, who will turn 36 on October 29, said: “I almost feel like it’s an undying passion at this stage. And until that starts to waver, I can’t see myself finishing. And I know that’s a ridiculous thing to say but at this stage I’m not going anywhere.”

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Half-centuries from Billy Godleman and captain Tom Westley guided England to an eight-run D/L victory at Royal Selangor Club. England next take on the winner of Thursday’s Australia-Bangladesh clash in the fifth place play-off final.Sri Lanka, after being put in, got off to a disastrous start and were reduced to 10 for 2 in the fourth over. However, powered by an unbeaten 97 from Sachith Pathirana, who is currently the tournament’s leading run-scorer, they posted a competitive 241. Pathirana smashed five boundaries and two sixes in his 91-ball effort. There were also significant contributions from opener Lahiru Thirimanne (47) and captain Ashan Priyanjan (54).In reply, England’s openers put on a brisk 75 before Pathirana removed James Taylor for 30. Godleman (57) was the next to go, stumped off the bowling of offspinner Roshen Silva with the score on 106. Westley (58) and Sam Northeast were involved in a patient 90-run stand for the third wicket which left England needing 46 at a run-a-ball. However, with the score at 204 for 3 after 44.1 overs, the rains came down and England were adjudged winners by the D/L method.
Scorecard
West Indies shot out Papua New Guinea for 89 and cruised to victory with six wickets and nearly 35 overs to spare. They now face Nepal on March 1 in the ninth place play-off final.PNG had a torrid time after opting to bat with none of their batsmen making more than 14. Even their measly total was achieved because of some wayward West Indies bowling, which conceded 27 extras, including 22 wides. They would have collapsed for even less if not for a 26-run ninth-wicket partnership, the largest of their innings. West Indies spinners Veerasammy Permaul, Steven Jacob and Sharmarh Brooks turned in impressive performances, giving away a mere 35 runs in 24 overs while sharing four wickets.Though West Indies lost four wickets – including three for one run – in chasing down the target, breezy knocks from Kieran Powell (37) and Adrian Barath (26) ensured the result was never in doubt. The lone bright spot for PNG was medium-pacer Loa Nou, who picked up the wickets of Powell and Barath in his three overs.

Boeta Dippenaar will lead South Africa A on their tour of India beginning on September 13. Ashwell Prince and Hashim Amla, the other candidates, have indicated that they preferred to concentrate on their batting without the responsibility of captaincy.Lions offspinner Werner Coetsee, Cobras allrounder Rory Kleinveldt and Dolphins left-arm seamer Yusuf Abdullah were the new faces that have been picked for the tour.South Africa A are scheduled to play two four-day games and three limited-over games against India A. However, changes will be made to the squad after the four-day games because some of the players would be needed for the Test tour in Pakistan.South Africa A: Morne van Wyk, Alviro Petersen, Robin Peterson, Boeta Dippenaar (capt), Hashim Amla, Justin Ontong, Ashwell Prince, Werner Coetsee, Dale Steyn, Thami Tsolekile, Friedel de Wet, Yusuf Abdullah, Rory Kleinveldt, Charl Langeveldt.

Andy Flower, the Essex batsman and former Zimbabwe captain, has yet to receive a confirmed date for his comeback following the surgery to correct his injured hip.”I’ve had my treatment in Germany to accelerate the healing of the cartilage,” Flower told Essex’s website, “and I’ve had two injections over the last two weeks, with one more to come. At present we can’t put a time on my playing return.”Following the appointment of Peter Moores as England head coach, a promotion from his time as director of the National Academy, there has been speculation that Flower might assume the Academy role.”Having been out of the country I’ve not seen the recent press speculation but at the moment all I am thinking about is playing,” he said. “That said, it is fair to say coaching is an area I am looking into for my future once I retire from playing.”

Mark Ramprakash has been awarded a testimonial by Surrey for his endeavours both on and off the pitch. The county usually rewards ten years’ service, but Ramprakash has made such an impact that he will be the beneficiary of the honour in only his seventh year with the club.This fact, coupled with his usual modesty, left him an astonished recipient. “It was a complete surprise,” he told Cricinfo. “I’m really, really chuffed and obviously really pleased.”But it was an award that was richly deserved after his prolific form, and tireless dedication to the club in marketing and PR matters. Even during the final stages of Strictly Come Dancing during December, he would regularly give up his own time to present awards for the club.Ramprakash is keenly aware of how players’ form can dip during a benefit or testimonial year – with the extra pressure of events – and has vowed to remain ever-professional. He says he will also use the experience of his benefit year at his former county Middlesex, when he organised a lot of events, to make sure he does not lose his on-pitch focus.”It’s not an easy balance,” he admits, “but it depends on the individual. The players want to make the most of the opportunity, but if you’re one of the main players, you’re still aware of the responsibilities. I will hopefully do some good functions, but not as many as in my benefit. I have to use the time wisely, and rely on my wife [Van] to be understanding. But hopefully I will have some fun with it, too.”I still have things I want to achieve. I’d still love to get to a final and win one. I haven’t given up on that. Success is still important. Personally, I’m aiming for the 100 hundreds. It would be a fantastic thing to achieve before I retire.”Ramprakash has reached 93 first-class centuries to date, and has every chance of succeeding in his latest personal goal, given that he has signed with the county until 2009, and could – like Graeme Hick who has recently extended his contract with Worcestershire at 41 – carry on and on. “Hick has done brilliantly. I’m not saying when I’m going to finish. I’m still enjoying my cricket.”Besides, he’s got no clear plan of what he will do after cricket, another reason he is thrilled with the testimonial. “These are very important years for cricketers, financially. I really don’t know what I will do next – I don’t really have a career; it’s not like I’ve studied.”Surrey have also announced that their head groundsman, Bill Gordon, will be awarded a benefit for his hard work in the last four years in the role at The Oval. Gordon is the three-times winner of the Groundsman of the Year award for both the four-day and one-day categories – and has also won the four-day category in 2004.He has been on the Surrey staff since 1964 and became Head Groundsman in 2003. He will retire at the end of the 2010, having completed 46 years of service to the club. “I am happy to receive this honour,” he said, “as it makes me feel very appreciated.”

A team of Royal Marines were emphatically beaten today by the Afghan National Army, in a match to celebrate New Year and Eid.Members of 45 Commando Group, who are currently based in Helmand, southern Afghanistan, were bowled out for a paltry 56 in 14 overs. Their opponents knocked off the required runs in just 12 overs.”The skill level of the Afhans was brilliant,” Lt Rob Cooper told . “We soon realised we were in trouble when they opened the bowling.”Afghanistan enjoyed a successful tour of England last summer – their first – in which they also beat the Officer Cadets of the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. Cricket is enjoying a boom in Afghanistan, ever since the Taliban were overthrown in 2001, thanks to the refugees bringing the sport home from the camps in Pakistan. The game continues to be well supported by the government and has spread to over 16 provinces, where it was once banned by the Taliban to just four.”Obviously, we were disappointed to lose as badly as we did,” added Cooper, “but we still managed to enjoy the encounter. It certainly provided a good break from the operational work being done on a daily basis out here.”

Scorecard

A `Cullen’ special on the final day at the Adelaide Oval saw South Australia authoritatively dismiss Western Australia for 271, giving them a 129-run win. Bowling in tandem, the finger-wrist spin combo of Dan Cullen (5 for 93) and Cullen Bailey (1 for 46) in the morning session never let WA get into a groove, despite fighting fifties from Adam Voges (76) and Ryan Campbell (64).Cullen’s dismissals were a combination of suffocating bowling and impetuosity from the batsmen. After resuming play at two for 26, Chris Rogers and Voges, the overnight batsmen, survived the first hour, Voges striking a series of authoritative strokes. Rogers, however, was not as comfortable and soon after drinks he miscued a hit off a fizzing Cullen off-break, where Jason Gillespie at mid-on juggled the catch. Darren Lehman, the SA captain, returned to the field on the final day after recuperating from his marathon 488-minute innings of 301 and positioned himself at a very short mid-on after conferring with Cullen. Whatever was said between bowler and captain worked, for Voges soon flicked Cullen straight to a delighted Lehmann. Voges’s was an untimely dismissal, as a hundred looked there for the taking.Bailey, though only scalping a solitary wicket, provided the perfect foil to Cullen’s offbreaks. Impressive from the get-go, he was able to gain sharp bounce and turn from a fourth day Adelaide Oval wicket, and beat the bat on numerous occasions. His dismissal of David Bandy (1) at the stroke of lunch was classical legspinner’s craft: after beating Bandy with a series of enticing, flighted leg breaks, Bailey forced the batsman to play back to a flatter, straighter ball and had him plumb in front of the stumps.From a position of five for 118, Shaun Marsh (49) and Ryan Campbell, the wicketkeeper, put on 104 runs, but both fell in relative succession to Cullen (4 for 83) and WA were back in the drums. Marsh was caught at slip after an attempted sweep resulted in a tangle of pad, arm and possibly glove, while Campbell provided a catch to Lehmann in identical fashion to Voges. This was Campbell’s second rescue attempt of the match, his counterattacking 122 off just 129 balls taking WA to 281 in its first innings. In the end, it was not enough to sustain a successful chase, with Cullen and Gillespie (3 for 32) running through the tail.

At the end of day two, Sourav Ganguly had said that South Africa’s collapse in the first innings, during which they lost nine wickets for 113 runs, boosted India’s confidence in the second. Perhaps he knew the bowlers had got the measure of the Green Park pitch, something Mahendra Singh Dhoni, captaining in his first Test, reiterated today after the dramatic win.”In the second innings, everybody knew what lengths to bowl, and from what spots they would get variable bounce,” Dhoni said, “The fast bowlers especially deserve a lot of credit in the second innings.”A major change from the first innings was that India opened with Harbhajan Singh and Ishant Sharma, neither of whom gave anything away. They made sure there were no free runs on offer to let off the pressure that a 60-run deficit would have put on the South Africans. India applied what Dhoni termed as ‘mindgames’ with that lead in their bags, and delayed its erasing as much as possible, knowing the wickets would just be a matter of time if they could push South Africa into a shell. The approach was rewarded fully, as South Africa had lost four of their best batsmen by the time they were only 12 ahead. “Although this was the third day of the match, this was not a third-day pitch,” Dhoni said. “The way Harbhajan and Viru [Virender Sehwag] bowled, we knew it was going to be just a matter of time. There were no easy singles on offer, so we put a lot of pressure on them. We made sure they didn’t take a single and go off strike.”This is where the efforts of Ganguly and VVS Laxman provide a stark contrast to the South African batsmen, and also proved crucial in the final equation, as they controlled the innings, consciously looking to score more often than they usually would. “To play positively on this wicket is very important,” Dhoni said. “You can get out irrespective of whether you are playing your shots or not, the way it happened to Rahul Dravid. So you have to keep scoring on such tracks. It was very crucial the way Sourav batted on this track, and the 60-odd lead was very crucial, because it changes the whole mindset of the team that is batting next.”Almost all the bowling changes he made seemed to work. In the first innings, Piyush Chawla got wickets in his first over on two occasions. In the second, Sehwag got a wicket with his first ball and Ishant got two in the first over of his second spell. But Dhoni said it was easier to captain on this pitch, especially with the way the bowlers bowled.”Viru is much more than a part-timer on this kind of wicket. He continuously kept bowling the right areas, in the rough. It was a deliberate move, and we knew that with him and Yuvraj in the team we would not need an extra spinner.”He had a pretty difficult job of replacing Anil Kumble as captain, and also playing without Sachin Tendulkar and Kumble for the first time since the latter’s debut. “It’s pretty hard to replace a man like Kumble, and especially on such a wicket,” he said. “Had he been playing, I don’t think this would have lasted three days.”Well we did well, but it doesn’t mean we are better off without Sachin or Anil. Who is there to replace Sachin? Who is there to replace Kumble? It is better to have them in the side than not, but the credit goes to the boys who stood up in their absence.”It was also an extremely difficult match for Dhoni the keeper, and to his credit he did himself no shame during the last three days. “The wicket was turning square, and most of our spinners were bowling in the rough,” he said. “So you find yourself keeping to some balls that would spin and some that wouldn’t. I was quite happy with the way I kept, because some balls were kicking and some were keeping really low. The way our fast bowlers were bowling, it could hurt your fingers pretty badly. It was good fun though.”This series was part two of a potential rivalry that India had started in South Africa last year. India needed a tailor-made track to come back on level terms on a series that they were expected to win easily. Dhoni, though, agreed with the South African coach Mickey Arthur that there was nothing wrong in playing to your strengths. “If we go to Australia, we get bouncy tracks; when we go to England, we get swinging tracks. When you come to India, you expect turning and bouncing tracks, and that’s what this one was. It’s better to stick to the specialties of certain places.”India fighting South Africa on a greentop at Kingsmead should make for an equally gripping a battle, if India can fight as hard as South Africa did at Green Park.

With 200 days to go before the start of the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies, all 12 stadiums in the region are looking in good shape – except one.There are great doubts over the readiness of the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba, Trinidad and Tobago, and officials have put authorities there on notice. The facility – which will host pre-tournament matches – is behind schedule. A Cricket World Cup (CWC) inspection team will visit the ground on September 7 and a decision is expected by mid-month.Organisers are looking at several options as backup in case the ground cannot meet the required standard for a global event the size of the World Cup. As it stands, the ground will now only be used for the four scheduled matches. It will not be used as a back-up venue as part of the contingency plan.It is understood that the problems are not with the actual development, but that the powers-that-be in Trinidad took a long time to decide on the scope and size of the project. As part of the rush to get ready, GL Events, the French firm contracted to build temporary facilities at all 12 venues in nine countries, might take on a major portion of the work at the stadium.In recent weeks Don Lockerbie, venue development director of the CWC, repeatedly expressed concerns over the proposed 15,000-seat facility.When asked about the situation, Lockerbie was direct. “It’s the one stadium we have concerns over as we reach 200 days to go”, he said at the Hilton Barbados. “The stadium will not be complete in legacy format. We are doing everything we can to get ready.”We want to make sure that pre-tournament matches remain in Trinidad and we are working with the local organising committee and the government to get it done. We are considering all options. It took some time to get the master plan in place to have the stadium ready in its most effective state. The time span affected the CWC schedule, but we are confident that with GL Events coming in, all will be ready.”Lockerbie added: “We have some issues in every territory, as we are still not precisely where we want to be with pitches and fields, but that’s one area we can catch up on.”