Points Table
Scorecard
KP Appanna wrecked Andhra with a maiden five-wicket haul as the hosts, sitting pretty at 187 for 2, collapsed dramatically to 224 for 9 by the end of the opening day’s play at Anantapur. Appanna, the 18-year old left-arm spinner playing in his first season, induced Venugopal Rao, who was involved in a 125-run partnership with Satya Kumar Varma, to edge behind in the 80th over to trigger the collapse. He picked a wicket in each of his next three overs to push Andhra to the brink before coming back to claim the ninth wicket in the last over of the day. Both Andhra and Karnataka have 10 points and are vying for the top spot in the Group.
Scorecard
Ajit Bhoite and Rakesh Patel snared seven victims between them as Haryana’s batting caved in, yet again, easily. Patel struck in the first over to set the tone for the day. Haryana batsmen couldn’t stitch together a purposeful partnership – 47 was the highest – as Bhoite, the offspinner, spun out the middle order. Joginder Sharma grabbed two wickets as Baroda reached 41 for 2 by the end of the opening day. Baroda are placed third in the group with nine points while Haryana are behind them with seven points.
Scorecard
Sourav Sarkar starred on his debut with a four-wicket haul as Maharashtra were reduced to 171 for 7 before bad light curtailed play at Eden Gardens. Opting to bat first, Maharashtra struggled from the onset, losing the openers within eight overs. Ranadeb Bose supported Sarkar and the two seamers left Maharashtra tottering at 71 for 6. The visitors rallied back through a patient 99-run partnership between Sridharan Sriram, who moved from Tamil Nadu this season, and Satyajit Satbhai. Slowly they lifted Maharashtra out of the hole but Sarkar came back to trap Satbhai and put Bengal on top at the end of the first day.
Scorecard
Rohit Sharma hit his maiden first-class ton, an unbeaten 102, to propel Mumbai to a comfortable 283 for 5 at the Wankhede Stadium. Amol Muzumdar and Sahil Kukreja also compiled half-centuries as Mumbai chugged along merrily towards a big total. Mumbai are wallowing at the bottom of the group and stand on the brink of being relegated to Plate.
Scorecard
Vikram Solanki and Nikhil Doru hit patient half-centuries to push Rajasthan to 217 for 5 at the end of the first day’s play in Jaipur. Rajesh Sharma, the offspinner, grabbed four wickets as Punjab didn’t allow Rajashtan to run away with the game. Both Solanki and Doru applied themselves, consuming 360 balls between them for 127 runs. Though Dinesh Mongia didn’t pick up any wicket, he supported Sharma by sending down 26 miserly overs and giving away just 34 runs. Sharma ended up with figures of 4 for 67 in 30 overs.
Fuelled by an unbroken 150-run partnership between Shitanshu Kotak and Cheteswar Pujara, Saurashtra reached a position of strength at 284 for 3. While Kotak’s was a cautious effort, his 92 coming in 258 balls, Pujara raced along to 85, with the help of 14 fours, in 130 balls. Ashish Nehra claimed two wickets in succession to leave Saurashtra at a wobbly 58 for 2 but Kotak stitched together two purposeful partnerships, with Sagar Jogiyani and Pujara, to lift the hosts out of trouble. Jogiyani made 61 and added 76 runs with Kotak before falling to Ishant Sharma.
Scorecard
An unbeaten hundred by Ramaswamy Prasanna rescued Tamil Nadu from a struggling 167 for 6 to reach a respectable 267 for 8 by the end of the opening day’s play at Chepauk. Rudra Pratap Singh and Praveen Kumar picked two wickets apiece to leave the hosts tottering but Prasanna added 90 runs with Yo Mahesh to pull them out of trouble. However, RP Singh came back to remove Mahesh as UP ended the day on an advantage.

Canada 285 for 7 wickets (Qaiser Ali 72, Ashif Mulla 66*, Chumney 45, Kamyuka 3-34) beat Uganda 176 for 7 by 109 runsCanada earned a substantial 109-run win over Uganda in their final match before the World Cricket League Division 1, which starts on Monday.Canada began slowly but Desmond Chumney helped increase the scoring rate against accurate bowling from Uganda’s opening pair. The innings gained momentum with a sixth-wicket stand of 115 runs between Qaiser Ali and Ashif Mulla. Ali before Sunil Dhaniram’s late cameo of 23 runs in three overs. Opening bowler Kenneth Kamyuka took 3 for 34 runs in 10 overs, but Junior Ruyange bowled well even though he conceded 16 wides and a no-ball.Uganda’s openers both fell to Umar Bhatti, who took 2 for 17. Salem Hamza and Junior Kewbhia moved the score to 69, but the innings began to founder and although Richard Okia showed defiance with consecutive sixes off Kevin Sandher, but the eighth-wicket pair settled into a pattern of playing for a respectable total, adding 57 in the last 16 overs. Don Maxwell bowled 10 overs for just 14 runs, with Sunil Dhaniram conceding just 12 from seven overs and taking a wicket.Ashish Bagai captained Canada to this win as John Davison and George Codrington sat out the match. Bhatti returned after an ankle injury.

Dan Marsh, the Tasmania captain, will be out of action for three weeks after tearing his calf muscle on the weekend. George Bailey will lead Tasmania for their last limited-overs match in 2006-07, against South Australia at Adelaide on Wednesday.Marsh, who hurt his leg taking off for a single during the Tigers’ loss to Victoria on Saturday, is likely to miss at least one of Tasmania’s two remaining Pura Cup matches. However, Tim Coyle, the Tasmania coach, conceded it could be a season-ending injury.”It is a calf injury that we think is three weeks,” Coyle told the . “Three weeks should be a really good turnaround, but they are really big calf muscles, they take a bit of repairing. He is feeling pretty good at the moment. He thought he had done something pretty serious, but it looks OK.”The Tigers have included Chris Duval, the fast bowler and Matthew Wade, the uncapped batsman, in their 13-man squad. Jason Krejza, who transferred from New South Wales mid-season, is also in with a chance of his first game for his new state.South Australia recalled Mark Cleary to replace Shaun Tait, who is in New Zealand with the Australia one-day team. Neither the Redbacks nor the Tigers can make the Ford Ranger Cup final, which will be between Victoria and Queensland on February 25.Tasmania squad Michael Di Venuto, Tim Paine (wk), Michael Dighton, George Bailey (capt), Dane Anderson, Travis Birt, Matthew Wade, Jason Krejza, Xavier Doherty, Luke Butterworth, Brendan Drew, Ben Hilfenhaus, Chris Duval.South Australia squad Matthew Elliott, Daniel Harris, Mark Cosgrove, Callum Ferguson, Darren Lehmann (capt), Nathan Adcock, Simon Roberts, Graham Manou (wk), Mark Cleary, Ryan Harris, Jason Gillespie, Dan Cullen.

Tim May has attacked the upcoming glut of games between Australia and India by saying it devalues cricket. May, the head of the international players’ association, warned the 21 Tests and ODIs the two sides will play against each other from June revealed money-grabbing motives of administrators.”It’s getting completely out of control,” May told the . “We’re very seriously worried that a few countries are playing too much cricket.”It’s our ongoing battle with the ICC. Australia will play India 21 times in the eight months from June this year. From the perspective of players and spectators, it’s going to dampen your interest. And it detracts from the commercial value of the product. Vision has been lost about what’s important and what is not.”Until the 2005 Ashes series an Australia-India series was considered one of cricket’s headline events. The sides clashed in three gripping Test series between 2000-01 and 2004-05, each winning one with the other drawn.Australia are due to play seven ODIs in India in October, before a four-Test series in Australia the following summer and seven tri-series ODIs. To this list has recently been added a three-match ODI series in Ireland in June.”They were already playing each other 18 times and now they’ve thrown in another three (in Ireland),” May said. “We’re concerned about that. Players have a passion for the game and want to maintain that passion every time they play. But it’s becoming harder to play every game as though it’s their last.”No one wants a two-bit product where blokes are only giving 75% because that’s all they’ve got left. Or because they need to pace themselves for more games coming up.” May, who has criticised the heavy workload on players in the past as well, also took a shot at the upcoming World Cup, arguing that it dragged on purely because of TV broadcasters.”Our World Cup is too long,” he said. “Everybody bar the people who sell the TV rights believe we could compress it. The ICC sells the rights for significant amounts of money and obviously the broadcasters want to get their money’s worth. We have to develop the game in some countries but there are arguments about whether the World Cup is the place for them.”

Where dem hats?
Charl Langeveldt didn’t get his chance, picking upwickets four and five with the last two balls of his spell, while MuttiahMuralitharan was denied by Justin Kemp deflecting one off the pad to shortleg. Lasith Malinga though got it right, even if it was hat-trickinterruptus. Shaun Pollock was cleaned up by a slower ball – by Malinga’sstandards anyway – and Andrew Hall lobbed the last ball of his eighth overto cover. Chaminda Vaas gave up a single to Kallis in the next over, andafter a toe-touch and stretch, Malinga ran in to spear one outside offstump. Kallis went for it, got the edge, and tried to con the umpire bystanding there. No cigar. Hat-trick for Malinga, and it got even better aball later.Anything coach can do
Chamara Silva’s judgement of a run wasn’t quite the best, but few were prepared for what followed. Herschelle Gibbs picked up the ball and started to sprint to the stumps, with Silva onlyslightly quicker to turn than the QE II. Within range, and with Silvacomfortably adrift of the crease, Gibbs dived into the stumps like a rugbywinger over the try-line. Up in the players’ balcony, a fielding coach waswatching. His name? Jonty Rhodes.Oranges are not the only fruit?
You hear of peaches, but it was a Jaffa that Vaas came up with early in the South African innings. Pitched outside the line of off stump, it had AB de Villiers poking forward hesitantly. He never had a chance. The ball jagged back so sharply that it brushed the pad on its way to clipping the top of middle stump.Bring it on
No matter how awry his direction may be at times, Malinga rarely compromises on pace. His thunderbolts were expected to play a major part in Sri Lanka’s campaign, but thus far it hadn’t quite gone to plan. Having already got some tap from Graeme Smith, he hurled one down at88.2 mph. Another foot further, and it might have been the perfect yorker. As it was, it was right in Smith’s hitting zone, and the ball raced to the sightscreen even before Malinga had uncoiled himself from his follow-through.An edge will do
By the time Malinga stepped up for his final over, it was time to bring out the Imodium in the South African dressing room. And seldom will have an outside edge been celebrated quite like it was when Robin Peterson just about managed to get bat to another expressdelivery. The ball streaked to third man and Peterson demolished thestumps at the bowlers’ end in celebration, leaving Sri Lanka to pondertheir own late collapse.

Plastic eyesore
It’s easy for an outsider to watch on TV and passjudgement on the abysmal crowds at some of these World Cup games. This wasthe first match to be played at a new stadium, and a near-full house mighthave been expected. But when the cheapest seats in the house cost US$25(5000 Guyanese dollars) – those on the grassy mound, which was fairly full- and the next lot cost either US$75 or 100, you can’t really blame theaverage Guyanese for staying away. The three big stands were largely hugeswathes of shiny plastic, and if such eyesores are to be avoided, the ICCand the local organisers need to take a long hard look at prices thatwould put a tout to shame. For the record, 5,220 trooped through thegates.Seen and heard
As the wickets tumbled, the few South African in the stands and the media enclosure looked dazed. Cricket’s consummate chokers have crumbled under pressure before, and there was a certain macabre thrill in witnessing the latest episode. Perhaps it was appropriate that a fringe player hit the winning runs, instead of those who have been there and choked that.

It’s fair to say that a two-day one-day game was not what Brian Larahad in mind when he won the toss and chose to bowl under heavy cloudcover yesterday morning. With a tricky tussle against New Zealand fastapproaching on Thursday, it was with some dejection that he faced themedia at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua this afternoon.His personal success, a fine back-to-the-wall 77, couldn’t mask acollective team failure. Australia’s eventual margin of 103 runs wasby no means flattering.”They look like a team that have come here for one purpose,” Lara said, breathing a quiet sigh of relief that his players would not haveto face them again in their bid for a semi-final slot. Australia havenow won 22 of their last 23 matches in World Cup competitions datingback to 1999 – a run that has been interrupted only by that famous tieat Edgbaston. That blip against England and New Zealand at thetail-end of the Australian summer now looks like a greater anomalythan ever.”Two weeks ago everyone said we weren’t frightening, now all of asudden we are again – it’s a funny game,” Ricky Ponting said in a gleefulattack on his team’s critics. “Our squad hasn’t changed in that time.You hear about other sides saying they don’t fear us, and don’t fearanything we have to offer. Well, it’s all right saying that, but youhave to go out there and play a certain brand of cricket to back thatup. So far they haven’t done that.”West Indies were never in the contest today. Realistically there wasonly one man in the side with both the batting position and the rangeof strokes to mount an assault on Australia’s towering target – ChrisGayle, whose booming left-handed strokeplay has the potential to cutany new ball to ribbons. But, as if to underline what a superlativeinnings Matthew Hayden had played in the first innings of this match,Gayle emulated only the very start of that performance. After grindinghis way to 2 from 16 balls, he lost his rag and his wicket, and holedout to cover the moment Glenn McGrath entered the attack.

“We are a very good chasing team, but the most important thing about300-plus totals is that one of the top batters has to bat through,” Lara said. “To lose three wickets in under ten overs was a majorsetback. Myself and [Ramnaresh] Sarwan had to consolidate and rebuildand that used up a lot of balls. If Australia had made 50-60 runsless, or if there’d been a proper start from the West Indies, it couldhave been a different game.”Hayden, by comparison, had taken 18 balls to get off the mark, buthaving done so, he cut loose in a manner that led Lara, perhapsunfairly, to castigate the pitch for being far too flat forinternational cricket. Hayden and Gayle’s early travails against thenew ball suggested otherwise. “I think I was guessing where my nextrun was going to come from,” Hayden said afterwards, “becauseit was a pretty vast difference between the conditions in St Kitts and here.”If they do bowl well you’re not willing to take a risk. Iwas just trying to stay calm and make sure when I did take a risk it was going to bein my favour. I’ve had to show a lot of commitment and passion, firstto get back into the one-day side – and in particular, to representAustralia at the World Cup.”Australia have now posted 300-plus totals in each of their last sixone-day internationals, and Hayden, whose one-day career seemed to beover when he was axed after the 2005 tour of England, has played amassive part in that achievement, scoring three hundreds and a 60 inthose games, including a career-best 181 not out at Hamilton.”It took a lot to get [back] into this position – and I’m just verypleased for thesupporters, selectors and Ricky that it is paying off,” he said. “Isaid when I got dropped a couple of years back that I didn’t feel Iwas ready to let the game go – that world-class players play bothforms of the game. I’m just very happy that it’s coming off right now.It’s a special side to be a part of – and it’s never meant to be aneasy thing to play for Australia.”It certainly seems easier to play for them than against them atpresent. Witness the success of Brad Hogg, an unorthodox andunder-rated spinner, who has been widely perceived as the weakest linkin Australia’s attack. He was actively targeted by South Africa in StKitts last week, but has emerged not only unscathed but at the verysummit of the wicket-taker’s list, with 11 victims in four matches.

“I reckon I was bowling better before the tournament started than I amnow, but it’s just funny how the wickets drop for you,” Hogg said,whose haul of 3 for 56 today included the big wicket of Lara,who yorked himself as he went for a big charge down the pitch. Hisposition in the side owes plenty to the arm injury that has hinderedAndrew Symonds as a spin option, but on current form he is going totake plenty to budge.Ponting was adamant too that his team contained men for all occasions.The nagging doubts about the bowling (all of which stem from thosegargantuan run-chases in New Zealand last month) are assuaged withevery crushing victory that the team delivers, but he felt certainthat, come the crunch situation, he had the players in whom he couldtrust.”We’ve been able to beat teams pretty comfortably over the years, butone thing about us is that when the close games have come aroundthat is when we’ve been at our absolute best,” Ponting said. “Thereare a lot of champion players in this side who are at their best whenit gets tight.”Going back a year ago, we had some sort of record that sides chasing 220 orso against us didn’t get them. We’re bowling well againstgood batting sides, so you have to hang in there for an opportunity topresent itself – or create an opportunity. That is what we have donewell in the last couple of games.”Australia, freed from the surreal environment in St Kitts where theyplayed like great white sharks in a paddling pool, are lookingfrighteningly efficient and focussed. “They were impressive but wedidn’t put them under pressure at all,” Lara said. “I wouldn’t saythat they were tested.” More to the point, Australia didn’t permitthemselves to be tested. They were simply too dominant in all facets.

They may be arch rivals on the cricket field but as fans they agreed on one thing: this World Cup was expensive and lacked the Caribbean flavour at the match venues.Diehard English fans, the members of the globe-trotting noisy Barmy Army, and their Australian counterparts, the colourfully outfitted and equally loud Fanatics, had a combined presence of around 2700 members in the region over the six-week period of the tournament. But both groups said the expense of travelling, accommodation and tickets prohibited a greater number of fans from taking in “calypso cricket”.In the case of the Barmy Army, the cheapest package available was £3000 (US$6000) for a two-week stay while other packages went as high as £5000 (US$10,000) for a 10-day stay. They were exempted from the US$100 visa requirement.”It’s been pretty expensive for people and that has been prohibitive to the younger people,” said Barmy Army spokesman Paul Burham. He explained that a lot of the English fans were just coming off the massive January Ashes series in Australia. However, he felt that there would have been many more fans if the price was cheaper, adding that the prices only dropped after organisers got desperate for people to come.But apart from the discouraging prices, Burham said that once here the unique atmosphere of a blend of warm tropical colours with rhythmic cheering and lively encouragement from characters at the grounds was missing. “I think the best game . . . was the West Indies-England game. The atmosphere there I think was probably the best, the best atmosphere I’ve seen in a game of cricket . . . It was a close game. The fans got along well and at the end everyone was shaking everyone’s hand and I guess that’s what they have been trying to achieve all along.”Steve Laffey, the spokesman for Fanatics, said that while outside of the cricket grounds hospitality was good, members were disappointed in the atmosphere at matches. “It is well below the atmosphere we were expecting at the grounds. We expected it to be a lot more lively, calypso cricket, the atmosphere usually associated with cricket in the Caribbean.”Australians shelled out an average of US$4100 for a seven-day trip that took in three islands, Barbados, Jamaica and St Lucia. Some of the packages went as high as US$15,000 for a ten-day trip and those prices, said Leffey, were quite expensive.

Middle-order batsman Malinda Warnapura and fast bowler Sujeewa de Silva are certain to be included in the upcoming three-Test home series against Bangladesh, starting later this month, while former captain Marvan Atapattu is set to make a comeback to Test cricket after a long lay off.Selection committee sources confirmed that Warnapura, who has been in prolific form for Sri Lanka A on the tour to India and in the home series against Bangladesh A, and Silva, who has bowled impressively in both series, will be tried out during the series.Warnapura, a nephew of Sri Lanka’s first Test captain Bandula Warnapura, is yet to play a Test has not played in a Test before but de Silva has played in two Tests against Bangladesh in 2002, managing seven wickets.”We may probably rest Chaminda Vaas and also Tillakaratne Dilshan to give these youngsters a break in the international circuit and see how they shape up,” said a spokesman for the selection committee.He also confirmed that Atapattu would be selected for the Test series instead of veteran opener Sanath Jayasuriya who is expected to be rested from the series. Atapattu’s last Test appearance was against India in 2005 before a back injury forced him out of international cricket. He returned to the team early this year, only to be left out of the playing XI.Atapattu’s omission from the World Cup and three match one-day series against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi created a furore, putting enough pressure on the national selection committee to include him for the Bangladesh series.The Test squad of 14 is expected to be announced on June 11 after the return of captain Mahela Jayawardene who is currently in India leading the Asian XI against the Africa XI in a series of one-day matches.

Craig McMillan, the New Zealand batsman, will captain MCC in their three-day match against Sri Lanka A at Arundel starting on July 10.McMillan has played 55 Tests and 191 one-day internationals and following a recall to New Zealand’s one-day side in January, he played at the World Cup. In his ODI career McMillan has scored over 4,500 runs and taken 46 wickets. He also holds the record for the fastest one-day century scored by a New Zealander – 117 off 67 balls against Australia earlier this year.Keith Bradshaw, MCC’s chief executive, said: “I’m delighted that Craig has accepted our invitation to captain MCC. His talent and international experience will surely be a great asset to the team.”McMillan is currently in England playing for Nelson Cricket Club in the Lancashire Leagues. The rest of MCC’s line-up will be confirmed in the next few days and the match marks the start of Sri Lanka’s tour which lasts for a month.

A three-man committee has been set up by the West Indies Cricket Board to consider what action is to be taken against Chris Gayle following critical comments he made about the WICB on the recent tour of England.Last month, the Board issued what West Indies media officer Imran Khan termed in a release, “a very strongly-worded letter of reprimand to Gayle advising him that his conduct is totally unacceptable and that the WICB will pursue this matter at the end of the tour”.At the start of the tour, Gayle voiced his disagreement with the implementation of a team curfew. And following a well publicised disagreement between the executive of the board and the selection panel over his nomination as captain for the one-day matches – for which he was eventually given the job – Gayle criticised the WICB over their handling of the matter and the late arrival of three players selected for the Twenty-20 and the ODI series.Having met with WICB president Ken Gordon and team manager Michael Findlay about his comments and been asked to make a public apology to the WICB, the player refused.Yesterday, at a media conference to give an account of his two-year term in office, Gordon said: “The West Indies Cricket Board met on this and a decision has been taken to have a three-man committee meet with Mr Gayle. It should be happening very shortly. So it is being pursued at the level of three people meeting with Mr Gayle.” Gordon gave no further details.