Kevin Pietersen has lost his No.1 ranking in one-day internationals after a lean series against West Indies. He made 42 runs at 14 in the three matches and has been replaced on the top spot by Ricky Ponting, even though Australia haven’t play since the World Cup.Pietersen slips to second place, with Mike Hussey in third, but a strong series for him against India in August came lift him back to the head of the list. Mahendra Singh Dhoni continues his progress up the rankings and is now fifth overall. He has moved past the injured West Indies captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, who was unable to take any part in the series against England.Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s golden tour has lifted him four places to 13th after a Man-of-the-Series performance of 202 runs, including an unbeaten 116 at Edgbaston. In the bowling, Daren Powell’s 4 for 40 at Trent Bridge has pushed him into the top 20 for the first time. Their efforts helped West Indies close the gap on England in the one-day rankings to one point.West Indies now have the opportunity to heap further pressure on England as they travel to Ireland to take part in a quadrangular series with the Netherlands, Scotland and Ireland in Dublin and Belfast. A win over Ireland on July 14 will edge them even closer to England.With every game in the quadrangular series carrying ODI status, there is an opportunity for the players from those top Associates, as well as the West Indies, to make moves up the rankings.That means the likes of Scotland’s Ryan Watson, Ireland’s Kevin O’Brien and Darron Reekers of the Netherlands will be hoping to make advances in the batting ranklings while Majid Haq of Scotland, Kyle McCallan of Ireland and the Netherlands’ Billy Stelling will want to make progress in the bowlers’ equivalent.Also, Scotland can join its Associate rivals Kenya and Ireland on the ODI Championship table if they beat West Indies in Dublin on July 12. Already boasting the requisite win rate in excess of 60 per cent against the top Associates, the Scots will secure a place on the main table by beating a Full Member.

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Scorecard

If the opening semi was a forthright one-sided affair, this one was a steamily unpredictable battle of heart and soul, with a steely Kent finally emerging triumphant over Sussex in the last over. Kent will now meet Gloucestershire in what promises to be a tight battle, after the fielding of both finalists had a massive part to play in their success.A polished Kent stifled Sussex’s early charge to dismiss them for 140 but despite another dominant opening stand of 65 between Joe Denly and Rob Key, some smart Sussex bowling threatened to upset the cart. Key’s huge hits, though, were the other decider as he posted an unbeaten 68 to lead from the front and take them to the final. He picked off three boundaries in the penultimate over from James Kirtley then Rana Naved-ul-Hasan’s two no-balls in the last sealed the result.Denly continued to prove his class, with some clean cover-driving the highlight. He eventually holed out sweeping Saqlain Mushtaq at midwicket for 31, and was quickly followed by Martin van Jaarsveld for 2, sweeping Mushtaq Ahmed onto his stumps (69 for 2). Matthew Walker’s 18 then proved very useful as Kent continued their final push.”It’s the mark of a good side that you can struggle and come back strong again later on,” said Sussex captain Chris Adams beforehand. This attitude saw them to their first finals day, but this time, as they slipped from 59 for 0 to 140 all out, it was not enough – despite never giving up. That total was way short of what they could have expected, losing their last nine wickets for 59 runs off 58 balls.It was all so different first up. A confident decision to bat looked to be paying off when Murray Goodwin and Chris Nash were going great guns early on. But when Nash miscued a pull high to mid-on for 37, his highest Twenty20 score, his dismissal punctured the momentum.Once Goodwin lost his new partner, Luke Wright, early the pressure was very much on, and he fell one run later. Wright – much like Andrew Flintoff earlier – came in amid much hype, didn’t get going, had a let-off early (in case on 2, backing up) and then fell for 3, Darren Stevens the bowler. Stevens conceded 13 runs from his four overs.Goodwin was next, the first of three tight run-outs, with Chris Adams and Robin Martin-Jenkins the other victims. Matt Prior was another to feel the heat – his desperate sweep to deep midwicket off James Tredwell another effort to boost his flagging side. Tredwell picked up a second when Michael Yardy was stumped, then Malinga cleaned up, with three wickets.A Kent/Gloucestershire final was an unlikely one on paper, not least because Lancashire and Sussex have four each of the nine England Twenty20 squad members today. However, that squad was even criticised by one of its members – Jon Lewis saying “I think they should pick the best players” – and the two finalists showed the class of their own.Kent won the mascot race – the Spitfire bombing past a sorry Lanky the Giraffe at the last – and, with a little batting firepower, they will compete for the real prize.

Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Stephen Fleming have made themselves available for the Indian Premier League (IPL), an officially-sanctioned domestic Twenty20 competition to be held in India in April 2008.”Warne, McGrath and Fleming have signed contracts to play in the IPL,” Lalit Modi, the BCCI vice-president, told . “The trio will be a part of our centralised pool of players and available for signing by the franchises.”The said Warne had accepted the IPL’s offer of “significantly less” than the US$700,000 a season that the Indian Cricket League (ICL) was reportedly prepared to pay him. The ICL pursued Warne for more than four months but he was reluctant to commit as that group was not approved by the ICC.The IPL is modelled on the system of franchises used by the American NFL and NBA. Each franchise will pay a fee to the BCCI, which will give it access to shared revenues and the right to exploit exclusive revenue. There will also be a draft, similar to the one used in the US, which will allow the buying and selling of players.McGrath and Fleming were present at the launch of the Champions League – the proposed international tournament featuring top teams from four countries – in New Delhi on September 13. According to the report, Fleming, who was on the verge of signing with the ICL, made himself available to the IPL for a lower fee. McGrath, who retired from all forms of cricket at the end of the World Cup, had said he was tempted by the ICL offer but now he could be playing for an Indian domestic team by April next year.The ICL, backed by the Essel group in India, is also a Twenty20 league – though not recognised by the ICC or any of the national boards – that has signed at least seven international players including Brian Lara, Mohammad Yousuf and Inzamam-ul-Haq, as well as more than 50 Indian domestic players. In its first year the ICL will feature six teams with two Indian internationals, four overseas players and eight juniors in each side. They play their first tournament next month.The newspaper reported that Warne would play for Hampshire until the end of the English season and then go to India and join one of the IPL teams. If his team qualified for the league final he would play in the Champions League, where he could possibly be traded to the highest bidder.

There’s just one match to go in the Super Eights stage of the WorldTwenty20 Cup, but Group E still holds plenty of interesting possibilities:South Africa, New Zealand and India all have a chance of making it to thesemi-finals, but none of them have secured a place in the last four yet.With two wins in their first two games, it seemed New Zealand might haveassured themselves of an early entry into the semis, but their two winswere both by very narrow margins, which gives them a net run rate which isvery narrowly positive: +0.05. Both South Africa and Indiahave a higher NRR than that, which means that India – who are currentlytwo points behind New Zealand and South Africa – only need to win, by anymargin, to make it to the semis. South Africa can get there even if theylose to India, but the margin of defeat has to be narrow enough to ensuretheir NRR doesn’t slip below 0.05.For example, if India bat first and score 170, South Africa will have toscore at least 143 to ensure their NRR is better than New Zealand’s, whowill then miss out on the last four. If South Africa bat first and score170, India will have to chase it down in less than 16.4 overs to eliminateSouth Africa from the tournament.Of course South Africa can avoid all the arithmetic if they beat India,in which case they will top the group and stay in Durban for thesemi-final on Saturday. And there’s no question about who New Zealand willbe supporting in this game: all they need to make the cut is for SouthAfrica to beat India and push them out of the tournament.

DrawnIn the Southern Districts’ first innings, Bennett and Sadlier added 80 for the second wicket, while later Sly, driving well, made a capital 67 not out. The MCC batsmen all hit freely, Brown getting his runs in an hour.The weather was most unpleasant on the second day. There was a dust storm and red dust almost obscured the players from view. One whirl-wind of dust blew the bails off. Later on tons of dust from Broken Hill were blown on to the ground and the names of the players on the scoreboard were ripped off by the force of the wind. Finally, there came thunder, lightning, and a few drops of rain which held up play for half an hour at one period.

Faisalabad’s Iqbal Stadium provides one of the more festive cricket-watching experiences in Pakistan. With a capacity of 19,000 – packed even during bore run-fests such as the India-Pakistan 2006 Test – it is no heaving amphitheatre of sport, but its openness provides a delightful personal interaction with the contest.If you sit right, you can ask a fast bowler at the top of his run what he’ll bowl next; as a spectator you are expected to double as a fielder anywhere around the ground. The amusement park within the complex helps with the merriment. If the swing is timed right, the pirate ship should allow a decent if intermittent view of the game. Next door is an auditorium named after one of Faisalabad’s most famous product, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan; a stadium named after a poet and an auditorium next to it named after a means the venue must be one of the more artistically-inclined around the world.What happens on the field tomorrow, between South Africa and Pakistan, should add to the festivities. If we ignore last year’s ODI against West Indies (when Pakistan lost eight wickets chasing 152), the pitch is traditionally partial to runs. Mickey Arthur, South Africa’s coach, didn’t see anything in the 22-yard pale brown strip contrary to that belief. Add small boundaries and big hitters to the mix and a typically modern, run-heavy ODI awaits.”It looks like a very good deck. Much fresher than the last wicket we played on and we’re quite happy about that,” said Arthur. Criticising a pitch that produced over 500 runs and a century is a peculiarly contemporary condition but middle-overs spin, on a used surface, stumped South Africa as much as six wickets between two fast bowlers.But that has been South Africa’s only aberration through a commanding tour. And despite the loss, there remain few real concerns with morale or personnel. “We played really well through the tour and we had a little stutter at Lahore,” said Arthur. “We’ve set ourselves extremely high goals through this competition. We’ve set our team high standards and we need to maintain those standards. Lifting the boys after that loss will be no issue.”Arthur admitted, at a push, that only one position is under scrutiny, without revealing further, but also added, “we’ll probably given them a chance again.” Such is the mood that not even poor returns from Jacques Kallis and Justin Kemp (1 and 8 in the two ODIs) is a worry just yet. “I don’t foresee too many changes. We want to be pretty consistent. Our top order has been good. We didn’t get the start we wanted in Lahore. Everybody has performed their roles to their abilities.

“We’ve asked Kemp to bat at 5. It’s a role he knows and he can fulfill. He is wasted down the order as he gives us major impetus if he bats a long time. He’s done really well for us of late and we’re going to give him every opportunity to cement that position.”Despite levelling the series, a few issues remain to be resolved for Pakistan. From the top, Yasir Hameed is likely to replace Imran Nazir as a partner for Kamran Akmal, the third different combination in three matches. A more deserving change is hard to imagine: 41, 57, 71, 41, 10, 50 and 22 are Hameed’s last seven ODI innings (at number three admittedly) for Pakistan and yet, bewilderingly, the appearances are stretched out over 30 months.If picked, however, an opportunity presents itself for Pakistan are thinking long-term. “We have made so many changes because we have an important tour to India coming up,” said Shoaib Malik. “We are trying to find the right combination before then.”Apart from probably being without Mohammad Asif (he is to undergo a late fitness test), which is a sizeable headache, Pakistan’s other problem far predates the opening worry. As a unit, their ground fielding has been noticeably sharper but they dropped five catches in their win on Saturday.”Straight after we got here yesterday, we came and worked on our fielding,” Malik said. As well they should for winning games after fluffing that many chances happens about as often as a fair and free election in Pakistan.The series is now primed to tilt one or the other way; a win here could well be decisive with only two to play after it. “This is a vital match,” Malik acknowledged. “Whichever team wins it will take a definite edge for the remainder of the series.”Teams:
Pakistan (probable) Yasir Hameed, Kamran Akmal (wk), Younis Khan,Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Malik (capt), Misbah-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, Abdur Rehman, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Umar Gul.South Africa (probable) Herschelle Gibbs, Graeme Smith (capt), Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, Justin Kemp, Mark Boucher (wk), Shaun Pollock, Albie Morkel, Johan Botha, Makhaya Ntini, Charl Langeveldt.

Matthew Fleming, the former Kent and England allrounder, will travel to Afghanistan this week to try to identify ways in which Marylebone Cricket Club can help to further develop the sport in the region.Fleming, who sits on the main MCC Committee, is being sent by the club to investigate how MCC can strengthen its links with cricket in Afghanistan in accordance with its worldwide remit to help promote the game.The MCC-Afghanistan relationship began with an historic fixture between the two sides in Mumbai in March 2006, where an MCC team led by former England captain, Mike Gatting, were thrashed by 179 runs. Two members of that successful Afghan team – Hamid Hassan and Mohammad Nabi – subsequently spent time at Lord’s as MCC Young Cricketers. In 2007, Hassan – a fast bowler – made history when he became the first Afghan cricketer to play at Lord’s, for MCC against Europe.Speaking ahead of his trip, Fleming said: “Having enjoyed playing cricket for England in Pakistan and Bangladesh, I know the passion that exists for cricket in the region. I’m looking forward to seeing for myself how cricket in Afghanistan is developing, and how MCC can help with this process.”With my experience in the Armed Forces [he served as an officer in the Royal Green Jackets], I am all too aware of the effects a conflict has on a country’s people. If the sport can help to become a positive, motivating factor for the increasingly cricket-loving population of Afghanistan, that can only be a good thing.”MCC’s secretary & chief executive, Keith Bradshaw, said: “Developing cricket worldwide is a core remit of MCC, and it’s one we take very seriously. Matthew is the perfect ambassador for us to send out to Afghanistan. With his knowledge of the region, and of course his cricketing experience, he’ll be able to investigate the ways in which the club can demonstrably help to develop cricket in the country.”Fleming’s visit to Afghanistan has been co-ordinated by Nick Lockwood, Counter Narcotics and Rule of Law, at the British Embassy in Kabul. The four-day trip will culminate on Sunday, November 18, with a visit to the National Training Camp at the Afghanistan National Cricket Academy.The sport’s popularity in Afghanistan has surged since many of the refugees who fled from the country in the early 1980s, after the Soviet invasion, started to return from Pakistan – where they saw the game and started to play and follow it.

Scorecard
Haryana took 15 Jammu and Kashmir wickets on the third day to inflict an innings defeat on J&K. Resuming their first innings at 92 for 5, in reply to Haryana’s 174, J&K could add only 82 and were asked to follow-on. Irshad Hassan scored 44 of those runs and ended up with 51. Amit Mishra took three wickets today to end up with a four-wicket haul in the first innings.An even more abject cave-in followed in the second innings as the 30 extras were the highest contributors in the total of 107. Gaurav Vashisht took five wickets and Jitender Billa took his second three-wicket haul of the match to hasten what always seemed an inevitable rout.
ScorecardIn a remarkable day’s play, Vidarbha lost their last six wickets for 6 runs, then skittled Gujarat out for 121 and made a steady start in pursuit of 226 runs to win the match outright. Resuming the day at 189 for 4, Vidarbha reached 202 without any further loss, but the next six fell within eight overs, the last four scoring ducks.Niraj Patel scored 71 out of Gujarat’s 121 as they folded up in 54.1 overs. Alind Naidu bowled 13.1 overs for 18 runs and took four wickets to bring Vidarbha back into the match. Sandeep Singh took three wickets. At stumps, Vidarbha had scored 31 runs without any loss, setting up an exciting last day’s play.
Scorecard
Manish Vardhan, the Jharkhand captain, carried on from his overnight 113 to ensure Jharkhand went past Goa’s 336 and by stumps, Jharkhand had attained a first-innings lead of 69, which might not prove enough to force an outright result on the last day. Vardhan scored 179, while Saurav Tiwary and Arun Vidyarthi scored half-centuries. Vidyarthi ended the day at 72 not out. The scoring was surprisingly slow as only 188 runs were added during the 90 overs, even though they lost only three wickets.
Scorecard
A good start by Madhya Pradesh came apart in the middle and they were asked to follow on by Railways after being bowled out for 221. MP had made 100 runs for the loss of one wicket when Sanjay Bangar and Madan Yadav struck twice in two balls. After that MP never really recovered, as Harvinder Singh and Karan Sharma took three wickets each to bowl them out with a day and eight overs left to force a result. Naman Ojha top-scored for MP with 44.
ScorecardServices attained a comfortable 147-run first-innings lead over Assam, but could not enforce a follow-on that could have allowed them go for an outright win. Assam, resuming the day at 92 for 3, never really got going, as the highest contribution in their innings came from Services, by the way of 59 extras. Rakesh Sharma, the left-arm medium-pace bowler, took a five-for on debut, and Arun Sharma and Ashish Mohanty took two wickets each.

The kite climbs higher and higher, like a bird in the sky at the Wankhede Stadium. The string is held by couple of Delhi players who are egged on by their team-mates. Some distance to their right, the Uttar Pradesh players are indulging in a bit of fun as well. The relaxed atmosphere belies the fact that come tomorrow, and both these teams will be fighting for the coveted Ranji Trophy.Eleven years have flown by since Delhi last reached, and lost, the final while Uttar Pradesh are back in the summit clash after two years. Both teams are, obviously, desperate to win. Delhi want to forget their recent sordid past, when political machinations and faulty selection processes used to hog the headlines. Surprisingly, cricket has been the sole topic of discussion this season. It’s a refreshing change for some of the senior players, who only a year back were considering switching states to get away from the mess.For the last few seasons, players from Delhi would make it to the national team, but at the domestic stage the team struggled. “Many players went on to play for India but the team was not winning anything,” says Vijay Dahiya, the coach, who played in that 1996-97 final. “That has hurt the players. They want to set that record right. If you talk to anyone this season, you will realise their focus is entirely on doing well for Delhi.”The senior players like Gautam Gambhir and Aakash Chopra concur. It is their first Ranji final and both want to make it memorable. “We want to experience that feeling of winning the Ranji Trophy, that’s the greatest motivation,” says Gambhir, Delhi’s captain. “I was always passionate about playing for Delhi. It has given me the platform to play for India and at one stage you have to give back to your state as well. This is my chance.”Mohammad Kaif, the UP captain, has tasted that winning feeling before and wants more of it. “Winning the title is the key focus and not individual selections for the national side. That will come when we win this. The last time we won, a few players went on to play for the country. But the focus was right – win the title and reap the rewards. Not the other way around.”If Delhi want to leave behind the past, Uttar Pradesh want to create a new future. Their success story has been despite the system. They have bypassed the infrastructural speed-breakers – poor practice facilities, the substandard gyms – to repeat the story of 2005-06. Like that year, they have come from behind to enter the final. They hope a victory here will help in sprucing up the system.One of the biggest challenges for both teams is the wicket that has been laid out by curator Sudhir Naik. The surface has a fair sprinkling of grass and promises to offer bounce and movement. Both teams, while praising the “international quality track” are pretty wary of it. Unless things change dramatically overnight, it’s almost certain that the captain winning the toss will choose to bowl. Naik, relieved of the pressure of producing a lifeless track for the usual hosts Mumbai, has laid out a wicket which should produce a decisive result. “A few players from both teams did come to me, enquiring whether the grass would be removed. I had to disappoint them,” Naik says with a chuckle. “It is definitely going to help the pacers and I won’t be surprised to see a team getting bowled out on the first day.” Dahiya admitted he would bowl first and Kaif hinted at the same.The pitch is hardly a greentop, but considering how domestic batsmen from all teams have repeatedly folded up whenever the wicket was a touch difficult – the semi-finals are the most recent examples – Naik’s assessment could well turn out to be right.

The contest will come down to how the either team’s batsmen measure up against the opposition fast bowlers. Both sides have a decent pace attack led by young promising talent. If it’s Sudeep Tyagi, who has the second-highest tally of the season with 39 wickets at 19.84, leading the attack for UP, then Pradeep Sangwan, with 24 wickets at 21.20 and fresh from a successful tour with the India Under-19 team, will be the spearhead for Delhi.If UP have Praveen Kumar, with 28 wickets at 16.28, to give able support to Tyagi, Delhi have Sumit Narwal and one of either Parvinder Awana or Amit Bhandari – Gambhir’s one selection headache will be which one of the two to select. In addition, both teams have a medium-pacer – the in-form Rajat Bhatia for Delhi and Bhuvneshwar Kumar for UP – to do the dirty job of performing as stock bowlers.The spin threat is posed by legspinners for both teams: Piyush Chawla – who was seen practising a lot in the nets, trying to bowl with a more round-arm action to get more fizz on the legbreaks – for UP and Chetanya Nanda for Delhi.The bowling attack balances out but what about the batting? Delhi outscore UP in this department, with three batsmen – Gambhir, Chopra and Mithun Manhas – who have scored almost 600 runs this season. In addition, they have Shikhar Dhawan with 502 runs and Bhatia with 386. UP’s batting has revolved around Kaif, who is in glorious form (670 runs) and Suresh Raina, with 582. However, the batting has dropped a notch after a fiery start. They will be happy to have Tanmay Srivastava returning from the India Under-19 outing in South Africa and will hope that he can give them a good start, something that UP have failed to produce consistently this season. However, Delhi clearly have the edge in batting, especially as their opening batsmen are of proven quality and can be expected to tackle the new-ball threat.What could work to UP’s advantage is the fact that they have played three consecutive pressure-cooker games and are battle-hardened as a result. They faced relegation before the game against Bengal but won by an innings and have rode on the momentum ever since. They swept aside Hyderabad by 132 runs in their last league game before clinching a low-scoring semi-final against Saurashtra.Considering they had taken a similar path in their championship year of 2005-06, UP also have the advantage of having been there and done that as recently as two years ago. Pitted against that bullishness is Delhi’s desperation to end the title drought. The stakes couldn’t be higher and the battle couldn’t be fiercer. It’s game on at the Wankhede Stadium.

In a tour that hasn’t gone to plan after a sparkling start, West Indies travel to a ground on which they posted both their wins on the tour so far against a formidable South African line-up.West Indies upset the hosts at St George’s Park in both the first Twenty20 international and the first Test, but have lost their way since. A loss in Sunday’s ODI would see them surrender the series, but the visitors are not the only team with a few worries.South Africa have done poorly in Port Elizabeth of late – their last win came in an ODI against India in November 2006 – and coach Mickey Arthur said the team were eager to perform.”I’m not a 100% sure why we haven’t played to the best of our abilities there, but all I do know is the team will be keen to put on a very good performance, because we’ve let Port Elizabeth down of late,” Arthur told the . South Africa, though, would take confidence from the convincing win in Cape Town, where West Indies never looked in the hunt while chasing 256.Herschelle Gibbs and Jacques Kallis failed in Cape Town, and it was the left-handed batsmen Graeme Smith and JP Duminy who did the bulk of the scoring. South Africa, however, were unable to pick up the momentum towards the close of their innings – perhaps falling 15-20 runs short – but it didn’t have a bearing on the final result.Arthur indicated there wouldn’t be many changes, given the series is still alive. The bowlers never looked in trouble against a brittle West Indian line-up. Shaun Pollock, playing his farewell ODI series, had impeccable figures of 10-5-13-2, while Morne Morkel’s career-best figures of 4 for 36 suggested he’d recovered fully from the injury that had ruled him out since South Africa’s tour to Pakistan last year.”Before we start looking to juggle the side too much, we want to try and get the series out of the way first, and then look to give our other squad guys an opportunity,” Arthur said. “We have quite a few niggles in the squad and we need to manage those. But I don’t foresee too many changes.”For West Indies, it’s the batting that’s the main concern. Shivnarine Chanderpaul was expected to play at No. 3 in Cape Town in order to provide much-needed momentum at the top, but a bruised knee meant he came in at No. 5 and batted with a runner. Chanderpaul’s 54 was the only significant resistance to South Africa’s attack and if he can’t take the field on Sunday, it would be another headache for West Indies, who are already missing the batting skills of Chris Gayle.Jerome Taylor and Fidel Edwards made a promising start in Cape Town. Taylor nipped out both Gibbs and Kallis, but his four-wicket haul was not backed up by his team-mates. Stand-in captain Dwayne Bravo, who bowled despite a side strain in the first ODI, might again have to send down a few overs himself. Bravo would also like to change his luck at the toss; he’s called it wrong the last three occasions, perhaps a right one could help bring about the right result.Teams (probable)
South Africa
Graeme Smith (capt), Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Mark Boucher (wk), Shaun Pollock, Johan Botha, Charl Langeveldt, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel.West Indies
Brenton Parchment, Sewnarine Chattergoon, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Runako Morton, Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Bravo (capt), Denesh Ramdin (wk), Darren Sammy, Daren Powell, Fidel Edwards, Jerome Taylor.