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Monday’s Australia-New Zealand clash will be the 10th one-day international at the Nehru Stadium in Pune. Both Australia and New Zealand have played once each here, with contrasting fortunes: Australia beat India by eight wickets in 2000-01, while New Zealand suffered a five-wicket at the hands of India in 1995-96.

The past record at this venue suggests that bowling first is clearly the way to success: seven of the nine previous ODIs have been won by the team chasing a target. Winning the toss isn’t necessarily a blessing here, though: only four times has the team winning the toss gone on to win the match as well.

One of the two occasions when the team batting first won was in a 1996 World Cup match, when Kenya pulled off a stunning upset against West Indies. Kenya batted first and managed just 166, but then bundled West Indies out for a mere 93 to win by a convincing 73-run margin.

Only once in nine attempts has the team batting first scored more than 250 here. India achieved that feat, making 286 against Sri Lanka in 1998-99, and ended up winning the match by a comfortable 51-run margin. In the next match played at Pune – against Australia in 2000-01 – the Indians came close again, notching up 248, with Hemang Badani scoring his maiden ODI hundred. It wasn’t enough, though, as Mark Waugh struck a delightful unbeaten 133 to ease Australia to a comprehensive eight-wicket victory with 29 balls to spare.

New Zealand will hope Chris Cairns recovers in time for Monday’s ODI. The only time New Zealand played here, Cairns thumped 103 off 87 balls, with 10 fours and four sixes, and then took 3 for 37 from 10 overs. He won the Man-of-the-Match award, despite New Zealand losing the game.

John Scholes, who coached the Victorian Bushrangers to two Pura Cup finals during his tenure as coach from 1996-2001, died of a heart attack earlier today. He was 53.John “Barrel” Scholes played 62 times for Victoria, compiling 3201 runs at an average of 30.78. He captained Victoria for the first time when just 21, one of the youngest to do so. After his retirement as a player, he achieved much success as a coach, leading the Bushrangers to the Mercantile Mutual Cup in 1998-99 and consecutive Shield finals (1999-2001).Ken Jacobs, Cricket Victoria’s Chief Executive Officer, said that Scholes was aunique person who would be sadly missed. “I think today Victoria lost one of its greatest ever cricketing sons. John’s contribution as a player, junior andsenior coach, as well as mentor to many young Victorian cricketers, will quitesimply never be matched.”Scholes leaves behind his wife, Diane, and children, Shannon and Adam.

Bashley (Rydal) cricketers have been nummed by the loss of their 23-year old team-mate Dale Middleton, who was found dead at his Lymington home on Friday evening.Middleton was an talented and extremely likeable all-round sportsman, who also played soccer for Pennington in the Bournemouth League. He had been due to play for Bashley 2nd XI at New Milton on Saturday.He represented Hampshire Under-17s and Under-19s as a left-arm spinning all-rounder and in recent seasons had developed into a useful `pinch-hitter’ in limited-over matches.”Dale was hugely popular around the Bashley club and in his Pennington footballing circles,” said club captain Matt King.”We talked about postponing the South Wilts and New Milton games on Saturday as a mark of respect, but the players felt they just had to go out and play.”All the Bashley teams – and their New Milton rivals – wore black armbands as a mark of respect to Dale this weekend.

New Zealand’s latest Test cap Jacob Oram might have had a dream start to his career, two Test victories, 11 Test wickets at an average of 11.09 and an example of batting under pressure, but he’s not lifting his feet off the ground.He knows that the tailor-made conditions in Wellington and Hamilton for the National Bank Series against India, will be far from those that might be struck in New Zealand’s next Test cricket excursions to Sri Lanka and India next year.But when he went out to bat today, as New Zealand were in danger of letting a winning opportunity slip from their grasp at 105/5 with India at peak confidence, it was another aspect of his cricket that was on display – his batting.Through this first series it has been his bowling that has been most important for New Zealand but after a first Test duck and a three in the first innings in this Test, he was determined to show the Indians he could bat.”I was more nervous than I have ever been. I thought I was nervous before my first Test innings last week and it probably showed in my batting.”But, I tell you, today was the most nervous I’ve ever been, and I honestly mean that.”Just the whole situation with the game in the balance. You can either win, or you can draw the series, and wickets were falling pretty regularly.”I just wanted to hold the ship steady for awhile and have positive intent,” he said.Oram was satisfied to achieve his goal of showing that he could bat under pressure. He acknowledged that the majority of times that he has “performed” in cricket, it has been in favourable conditions. But, in the 50/50 situation this match had become, he had pulled through.”I showed my peers, who I respect the most and whose opinions I hold in high regard, that in pressure situations I can come through,” he said.It was all a little unbelievable as an introduction to Test cricket. Bowling had been a priority for him after his selection, a selection that he thought had come a little early for him. But conditions had suited him well. He had been able to put the ball in the required spot and he’d been backed by some good fielding and had shown the selectors had got it right.Oram didn’t think New Zealand were home in their quest for 160 to win, until they were in single figures left for victory.”We were on 12 to win for a couple of overs and I remember thinking one wicket with three to go and Harbhajan [Singh] turning it, that it could be tricky.”But once there were six or seven to go, I realised we had it and you could tell that once we needed only singles figures, the Indians dropped their heads and it was game over.”I just wanted to be out there when the winning runs were hit,” he said.One shot, a cover driven boundary of Harbhajan had not been executed quite as he would have liked, but he had enough power in the shot to stay out of trouble.He thought to himself: “This is turning out to be a good innings, let’s have a not out and enjoy the moment when you are out here and hit the winnings runs.”It didn’t quite turn out that way as Oram had to concede that right to home town boy Robbie Hart.It is certain, however, that the Indians will go into the one-day series, knowing that Oram is more than just a bowler who has to be watched while Oram is looking to carry on, knowing that tougher times are ahead, and he’s looking forward to the challenge.

Marcus Trescothick was back batting at the County Ground at 9.30 this morning only a few hours after Somerset had been defeated by Gloucestershire in their opening championship match of the season.Trescothick who failed to score in the first innings in Bristol and was dismissed for just ten runs after occupying the crease for thirty eight minutes in the second, is obviously determined to make amends for the Cidermen judging by the way he was treating the net bowlers.The England star gets an early opportunity to set the record straight when he faces Durham in the four day match that starts at Taunton on Wednesday and following of from Mondays disappointing result knows that nothing short of a victory will do.The county championship new boys finished bottom of Division Two last season with only a single win and eleven defeats from their campaign.Somerset on the other hand were relegated from the top division at the end of last season, after having finished runner’s up in 2001, and will feel confident of beating the north east county at Taunton.The two sides have met in the west country on five occasions, Somerset winning three times, with the other two being drawn. The last time the pair met in August 2000 was rain affected and ended as a high scoring draw.Somerset make two changes to the team that played against Gloucesterhire. Ian Blackwell is missing as a result of damaging the webbing between the fingers of his left hand taking a catch at Bristol, so Keith Dutch is brought into the twelve to give the attack some variety along with Keith Parsons who scored an impressive century for Somerset Seconds last week.The Somerset twelve have been named as: Marcus Trescothick, Peter Bowler, Mike Burns, Jamie Cox, James Bryant, Rob Turner, Aaron Laraman, Keith Parsons, Keith Dutch, Richard Johnson, Nixon McLean and Simon Francis .Chief executive was philosophical about the Cidermen’s defeat when I spoke to him at the County Ground on Tuesday morning. The Somerset boss said: "Whilst it was a disappointment to lose our match at Bristol we take some satisfaction from the fact that it was a highly competitive match and a very good advert for county cricket."He continued: "We now look forward to our first home match of the season and hope that our members will come out in force and support the team. The weather looks set fair and we are all keeping our fingers crossed that the new swipe card turnstile system will operate without a hitch. Miracles sometimes happen!"One entrance that members will not be able to use for the match is the new Riverside Turnstile, that has been built on the riverside walk near to the Brewhouse Car Park, alongside the River Tone, to replace the old entrances at the back of the Colin Atkinson Pavilion and the Coal Orchard entrance.Mr Anderson told me: "The new Riverside Entrance will not be in use, and people will have to access the ground either using either the Sir Vivian Richards gate on Priory Bridge Road, or the Jack White Gates in St James Street."He continued: "We are extremely disappointed that the project was held up as a result of an objection by the Environment Agency who were apparently concerned that people queuing or leaving the ground might fall into the river."He concluded: "This is the ultimate in nanny state gobbledegook because the ground has been in existence since 1875 and I am unaware of anybody falling into the river accidentally-although I’m not sure that in the past some of our members might have felt like jumping in!"

Spirited batting by the lower-order batsmen saw Railways rack up animpressive 497 on the second day of their match against the powerfulDelhi side at the Karnail Singh Stadium, Delhi. The home team openersthough provided their team with the ideal platform, putting up 61unbeaten runs before stumps were drawn.A patient 52 from Sudhir Wankhede and knocks of 42 and 45 not out fromMurali Kartik and Zakir Hussain repectively, were mainly responsiblefor Railways adding 156 runs before losing their final five wickets.Last man Harvinder Singh also contributed his mite, scoring 26 runs ashe and Hussain frustrated Delhi with a stand of 65 for the tenthwicket.The massive Railways score had made it imperative for the Delhiopeners to provide their team the ideal start and they did notdisappoint. Akash Chopra and Gautam Gambhir were batting on 31 and 28when stumps were drawn.

Having outplayed the Kenyans in the longer version of the game – thefour-day unofficial tests, Sri Lanka ‘A’ are gearing up to face Kenya in aseries of three unofficial one-day internationals beginning at theWelagedera Stadium here tomorrow.Sri Lanka ‘A’ coach and manager Roshan Mahanama is keen to strike firstblood and main Sri Lanka’s dominance over the tourists.”The first game of any series is important and we won’t be taking theKenyans lightly,” said Mahanama. “It is important that we continue toperform well as a team.”The overs game is something which the Kenyans are quite familiar with andthey are quite capable of giving Sri Lanka ‘A’ a good run, provided they canovercome the disappointment of their 3-0 whitewash in the ‘Test’ series andtheir batting, their strongest department, clicks.”The one-day version suits the boys more, it is just that they should gettheir disappointment out and start afresh. We have played a lot more one-daycricket and we are going to regroup ourselves, get the disappointment of thestring of defeats and rethink for a start of a new series,” said Kenyan teammanager Harilal Shah.One player whom the Kenyans will miss a lot is Thomas Odoyo who was forcedto return home due to a hamstring injury on his right leg.”We will miss him very much because he is a very powerful hitter of the balland he is a good bowler.quite quick. Odoyo recently went to South Africa forthe triangular between Kenya, India and South Africa and he ranked among thevery higher echelons of cricketers with ICC’s high performance manager BobWoolmer (the former England player and SouthAfrican coach),” said Shah.”We’ll miss Odoyo, but some players will have to play better thanthemselves, to compensate for his loss,” he said.>From the Sri Lanka ‘A’ squad of 14, batsman Anushka Polonowita and fastbowler Kaushalya Weeraratne are unlikely to play leaving the only change inthe side to be decided between left-arm spinners Rangana Herath and SajeewaWeerakoon. Herath with his experience will probably get the nod.Fast bowler Dulip Liyanage and all-rounder Gayan Wijekoon are likely to gettheir first game against the tourists. The rest of the squad figured in therecently concluded ‘Test’ series.Kenya will be hoping their captain Maurice Odumbe will strike form in thisseries. He managed only 72 runs in six innings in the ‘Test’ series gettingout on the last four occasions to his vis-à-vis Upul Chandana.They have a complement of 15 players to select their final 11.The pitch at Welagedera Stadium is generally slow and tends to keep low,which may not be the ideal one for a one-day game.The second game is scheduled for Saturday at De Soysa Stadium, Moratuwa andthe final one on Monday at the NCC grounds.SRI LANKA ‘A’ (from):Upul Chandana (captain), Avishka Gunawardana, Upekha Fernando, TillekeratneDilshan, Chamara Silva, Prasanna Jayawardene, Muthumudalige Pushpakumara,Rangana Herath, Pulasthi Gunaratne, Dulip Liyanage, Gayan Wijekoon, SajeewaWeerakoon, Kaushalya Weeraratne, Anushka Polonowita.KENYA (from):Maurice Odumbe (captain), Kennedy Otieno, Ravindu Shah, Steve Tikolo, HiteshModi, Otieno Suji, Collins Obuya, Lamech Onyango, Martin Suji, Brijal Patel,Joseph Angara, Josphat Sorengo, David Obuya, Thomas Odoyo, Mohammad Sheikh.UMPIRES: Gamini Silva and Jagath Nandakumara, Match Referee: Ashley deSilva.

CloseAfter pounding England into submission with a masterly century, Graeme Smith took the battle off the field, firing thinly veiled salvos at Nasser Hussain in a press conference. Smith’s unbeaten 178, along with Herschelle Gibbs’s 179, put South Africa in a commanding position at the end of the first day’s play, brushing aside Hussain’s earlier comments that the South Africans were “ripe for the taking.”Graeme Smith
On Hussain’s comments: That definitely played a role in motivating us. Wefobbed them off because we knew the comments were a load of rubbish. It gave us a bit more heart and it puts pressure on you when you make comments like that.On the record-breaking partnership: To be part of any pair that’s done that is a great feeling. We were a bit nervous up front. They bowled well. It was a difficultfirst hour but then we knuckled down.On Gibbs’s knock: After lunch Herschelle raced away to a hundred. It was a fantastic knock and it allowed me to settle down. With a player of his class, flair and talent we knew it wouldn’t be long.On Kallis’s bereavement: In some ways it was an emotional day. We wanted Jacques to know he was in our hearts. We’re playing for him.Duncan Fletcher
On the toss It was probably a good toss to win. You have to give the batsmen credit. Good batsmen are allowed to score hundreds.On England’s bowling effort: You have to remember our bowlers are very inexperienced. James Anderson’s not played in many Tests, Andrew Flintoff’s not bowled in many and Stephen Harmison’s inexperienced against batsmen at this level. They are all pretty attacking bowlers and maybe should have gone into a more defensive mode.

Fiery bowling from India left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan secured defending champions Baroda a 136-run win over Punjab as also a place in the Ranji Trophy final. Zaheer claimed 6-25 as Punjab were bowled out for just 82 in their second innings on Day three at the Gujarat State Fertilizer Corporation Ground, Baroda.Baroda, who began the day on 189 for eight, reached 233 in their second innings before being dismissed in their second essay. No. 7 Ajit Bhoite, who made a patient 66, was the batting star for the home team. Zaheer, also contributed his mite, making a hard-hitting 35 off just 33 balls, an innings laced with four fours and two powerful sixes. Left-arm pacer Amit Uniyal, who claimed four wickets, and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who claimed three wickets, were the most successful bowlers for the visitors.Punjab, by virtue of their 15-run first innings lead, had to only chase 219 for a win. But Zaheer’s six wickets saw the visitors crumble way behind that target in just 30 overs. Only four batsmen in the powerful Punjab line-up got into double figures; skipper Pankaj Dharmani top-scoring with 20.His opening partner, Rakesh Patel, for his part, claimed two wickets while medium-pacer Shekhar Joshi and spinner Valmik Buch shared the remaining two wickets.Baroda now await the winners of the Railways v Bengal tie being played at the Karnail Singh Stadium, Delhi.

Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya provided the perfect answer to criticswho 24 hours earlier had lambasted the team for their go-slow tactics on thefourth day.The home team chiseled out a 142 run lead on Friday after batted throughoutthe day at a miserly run rate. Critics argued that the Sri Lankan’s failureto push the pace had cost the side valuable time and runs.In the end, Sri Lanka had plenty of time as the West Indies collapsed forthe second time in the match and were bowled out for just 144 in 78.3 overs.”Different individuals have different opinions, but we knew that batting onthe fifth day was not going to be easy and we had 96 overs to bowl at theWest Indies,” he said.”The key was getting 590 in our second innings. The wicket was good forbatting and all the batsmen capitalised on that to give us a 142 run lead.”Our only worry was Lara and Hooper because they had the experience andknow-how to handle Murali.””We stuck to the basics against both players. We didn’t want to try anythingsilly, as the wicket was turning more. The bowlers just needed to be patientand concentrate on their line and length.”Sri Lanka chopped and changed the bowlers throughout the day.”The wicket was not turning as much as we have seen in the past at Galle andwe didn’t want the batsmen to settle against one bowler for a long time,”explained Jayasuriya. “We even wanted Murali to change ends regularly.”When Lara was eventually dismissed, caught at mid-wicket for 40 off ThilanSamaraweera in his first over of the innings. The wicket precipitated thefinal collapse, as the West Indies lost their final five wickets for just 13runs”Samaraweera is a good all-rounder and we wanted to try someone else, so wegave him a chance and that was the turning point today.”Sri Lanka have now won their last four consecutive Tests in Galle, but havealso lost their last three matches in Kandy.”Kandy is a problem for us,” he admitted. “It’s a different mood there. Onceagain I have to say that we will try our best. The players have to lifttheir game for the match.”