Powered by a fine century by opener Mayank Sadana on the opening dayfollowed by some disciplined bowling, Delhi completed an emphaticinnings and 125 run win over Himachal Pradesh in their North ZoneUnder-14 tournament match at the Indira Stadium in Una on Sunday.Delhi took home 8 points from this outright win.Electing to bat on the opening day, Delhi piled up 311 thanks to amore than run a ball 192 by their opener Sadana. He was involved in a90 run fourth wicket stand with his skipper Gaurav Chabra (32). Soonafter he was joined by stumper Rohan Sehdev (33) and the two forged afurther 90 runs for the sixth wicket. Sadana was the sixth batsman tobe dismissed, stumped by V Sood off Pankaj Lord.In reply the Himachal innings lasted just 40 overs in which they werebundled out for 88 runs. Sandip Karki (4 for 14) and Vikram Mahajan (3for 10) shared the spoils for Delhi. Following on 223 runs behindHimachal fared no better and were all out for just 98. Pradeep Maan (3for 8) and Mahajan (3 for 22) shared the wickets the second timearound.

With the top order in crackling form, South Zoneproceeded to the semifinals of the Deodhar TrophyTournament with an easy seven wicket win over EastZone at the Green Park stadium in Kanpur onFriday. South are now slated to take on North Zonein the semifinals at the same venue on Sunday.It is never an easy task to chase a target of 274but the South Zone openers J Arun Kumar (89) andAS Pathak (66) took the game away from theiropponents by authouring a 160-run partnershipwhich came in 30 overs. It was Debang Gandhi,coming on to bowl very late in the innings, whomade the first inroads into the South Zone lineup, with two quick wickets. Arun Kumar was thefirst to be dismissed caught by Sanjay Raul. Eightballs later, Pathak also departed, caught by ShivSundar Das.Arun Kumar, during his 111-minute stay, faced 95balls during which he essayed eight boundarieswhile managing to clear it twice. On the otherhand, Pathak was in the middle for close to twohours and needed 93 balls for his 66. He found thesignboards on seven occasions. Then VVS Laxman (32not out) and S Sharath (11) came together to takethe score to 190. Sharath after a brief stayreturned to the pavilion, caught behind by Dhonioff Jai Chandra.South Zone skipper Robin Singh entered at thisstage. With another 88 runs to be scored in 13.3overs, Robin Singh hammered an unbeaten 63 off 52balls to take South Zone home.Earlier opting to bat, East Zone’s inningsrevolved around a fine 108 by Test discard DebangGandhi. Coming in at the fall of opener NikhilHaldipur (16), Gandhi forged a 79-run third wicketstand in 12.2 overs with RR Parida (26). Thedeparture of Parida saw Rohan Gavaskar (58) joinGandhi and the two took the score to 233. With a122-run fourth wicket partnership which came offonly 19.3 overs, the two ensured that East Zonewould pile up a fighting total. Gandhi, who faced131 balls and hit 14 of them to the ropes was thefourth batsman to be dismissed. East Zone’s totalof 273 for seven in 50 overs was inflated by 40extras.

Zimbabwe had a lot of hard work to do as they resumed on 31 for threeafter dismissing India for 237. This they did with a lot of credit,thanks mainly to a gutsy innings of 80 not out from Grant Flower, wholifted his team from a shaky 110 for five to a lead of 64 runs at theclose with two wickets still in hand. At stumps on the second day ofthe second Test match at the Harare Sports Club ground on Saturday,Zimbabwe were 301 for eight.In the morning, Dion Ebrahim began with confidence, playing someparticularly impressive drives, although he played and misseddangerously at times. Andy Flower though only occasionally showed hisbest form and was perhaps fortunate to survive an lbw appeal by AjitAgarkar when on 18. Despite that, he passed 1000 runs in Test cricketagainst India alone.The primary aim was clearly to occupy the crease during the firstsession. India stuck to their pace trio for more than 90 minutes, withAgarkar perhaps the best, restraining Flower and enjoying no luck.They kept an attacking field and, with the slow outfield, threes weremore frequent than boundaries.When Harbhajan Singh belatedly came on, Flower immediately came tolife. He reverse-swept him for four, and then swept and glanced afurther ten runs off the next three balls. But his eagerness to seizethe initiative proved his undoing, as off the final ball of the overhe pushed a catch to forward short leg and was dismissed for 45. Itwas another good catch by Shiv Sunder Das. This was only the secondtime India had ever dismissed him for less than 50 in a Test; on theprevious occasion he made 30.Ebrahim sadly fell on 49, trying to hit across a quicker ball fromHarbhajan and being trapped lbw. At lunch Zimbabwe were back introuble at 113 for five, and Harbhajan had the interesting figures of3-1-16-2.Grant Flower and Heath Streak dug in with determination after lunch,but both were free enough to play the odd powerful stroke, and werenot afraid to attack Harbhajan. With India maintaining an attackingfield with four close catchers, it was enthralling cricket.Streak, on 11, became the first Zimbabwean to achieve the Test doubleof 1000 runs and 100 wickets. They batted until half an hour beforetea until Steak (40) suffered an unlucky dismissal similar to that ofSachin Tendulkar the previous day – when Steak was the bowler. Theroles were reversed now, as Streak misread Tendulkar’s googly and paidthe penalty for padding up, the ball ricocheting from his pad on tothe stumps. Zimbabwe were now 175 for six.Grant Flower, hitherto quiescent, now opened up with the aggressiveAndy Blignaut as his partner, and a flurry of runs ensued. Just aftertea, Flower celebrated his 50th Test match with a fifty, the first ofthe innings after three forties. India were frustrated by the umpire’srejection of an appeal for a catch at the wicket against Blignaut offHarbhajan when he was on 29, and television replays seemed to indicatethey were unlucky. Blignaut celebrated with a remarkable six overextra cover, taking Zimbabwe into the lead, but then moved down thepitch to be stumped for 35.Travis Friend, in his maiden Test innings, scored a valuable 15 beforebeing bowled by Ashish Nehra, while Brian Murphy (17 not out) also dugin to give Flower invaluable support. India spared no effort, butfound the Zimbabwean tail much harder to shift with the second newball than the top order had been with the first. They fielded superblyand bowled well, with Javagal Srinath the only bowler who seemed belowform.

Injuries and retirements notwithstanding, South Africa might still be able to field both Allan Donald and Mfuneko Ngam in the same team during the 2001/02 summer.The prospect of the country’s most experienced fast bowler lining up alongside the quickest young gun in the country may seem a little remote just at the moment, but there are more than a few who believe that Donald’s "retirement" from Test cricket may be less permanent than it appeared at first sight.Ngam, meanwhile, is still recovering from a stress fracture of the right thigh and a shoulder operation. The injuries kept him out of South Africa’s Caribbean tour this year, but he has made steady progress towards recovery and was examined by the United Cricket Board’s medical staff this week.Donald became the first South African to take 300 Test wickets last summer, but a variety of injuries restricted his appearances in the series against New Zealand, Sri Lanka and the West Indies.A combination of frustration and the desire to play in the 2003 World Cup appear to have persuaded Donald that his future as an international bowler lay in the one-day game.He has, however, agreed to consider playing Test matches if required, and South Africa Graham Ford suspects that the last has not yet been seen of Donald in the Test arena."The door’s still open," said Ford this week. "I think we might still see him bowling in a Test match. He gives us so much, both on and off the field, and with two series against Australia coming up it would be a huge boost for us if he was in the team."At least one senior South African official intends to sit Donald down and talk to him."He’s not a stubborn man," said the official. "He’ll listen to reason."Ngam, meanwhile, broken down with his stress fracture after playing in his first two Test matches last summer. In a type of bulk purchase deal, it was decided to operate on a rotator cuff injury in his right shoulder while his leg was being given time to recover."The way I understand it his leg’s just about fine, but the shoulder’s taking a while to heal fully," said Ford. "I believe he’s been out on the road and I think that he might be able to bowl by September when we go up to Zimbabwe. Throwing’s apparently the problem, but if you remember, he couldn’t thrown properly when he played his Test matches."The medical people are being conservative with him, but you can’t blame them. They want to get him fully fit before throwing him into a Test match, and if they’re going to err, it will be on the side of caution."And yes, it would be great to have them bowling in tandem, but we’ve got a few useful guys around anyway, people like Shaun Pollock, Jacques Kallis and Makhaya Ntini, and that’s not forgetting about Andre Nel and Nantie Hayward. So we’re not that badly off," said Ford.

Tama Canning’s half century wasn’t enough to lift Accrington’s place on the Lancashire League points table at the weekend.Batting first against Todmorden, Accrington scored 147, with Canning scoring 54 of those.Former Australian Test bowler Matthew Nicholson turned it on with the bat when Todmorden got into some strife. His 31 not out was enough to see Todmorden to victory with five wickets in hand. Canning went wicketless for Accrington.Meanwhile, Wellington player Ben Jansen had another good day for Liphook and Ripley in the Hampshire league. He scored 80 as L&R finished on 289/5 and then took three for 32 as Hungerford were all out for 158.

Alec Stewart has expressed his relief after being cleared of any involvement in match-fixing.The England stalwart had been living under a cloud of suspicion since 1 November last year when Indian bookmaker Mukesh Gupta alleged that Stewart had received £5,000 for providing information to a bookmaker about match conditions and team selection.Stewart had always vehemently denied the charges and yesterday was cleared of the allegations. Gupta had apparently refused to make a statement to Sir Paul Condon’s Anti-Corruption Unit or to appear at any disciplinary hearing or substantiate his claim.England’s wicket-keeper/batsman said: “I am obviously pleased it has all been cleared up. It has gone on for eight months, and there has been a lot of publicity on front and back pages.”Now I would like to think there will be the same publicity after Sir PaulCondon has made his comments which have cleared this matter up.”I wouldn’t not say I am relieved. The things which have been said have notbeen nice, but I am a pretty strong person,” he said.”In English law you cannot make those allegations public. But they were, so Ihad to live with that.”Now Sir Paul has made his comments and cleared me I can get on with mycricket. The eight months have gone on. But thankfully it has been a verythorough job.”The ECB have been very supportive, and so have the public.”Stewart said that it was public goodwill that helped him to keep going while bthe investigation was ongoing and that the vast majority of communications he received were designed to cheer him up.”I have had a lot of positive letters and I have had just two indifferentones. As always with those, no one signed them or put an address on them.”I would like to thank everyone who has written and said those supportivethings.”Stewart is the first high-profile player to be cleared of allegations made by Gupta. The Anti-Corruption Unit is still investigating allegations made about Brian Lara, Mark Waugh, Martin Crowe, Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda de Silva.It is understood that the findings over the allegations concerning Waugh are expected soon.According to AFP, the Australian Cricket Board said it had asked its anti-corruption investigator Greg Melick to wind up his report into Gupta’s allegations against Waugh.”Ten days ago, when Gupta decided not to co-operate with the inquiry, we wrote to Greg Melick and asked him to prepare the report for us,” ACB chief executive James Sutherland said.”We expect that report will be ready sooner rather than later.”

Zimbabwe continued their fightback on a freezing day in Harare underincreasingly overcast skies with a steady Antarctic wind blowing. Theyrecorded their highest ever Test Match total before declaring to set WestIndies 348 to win.Coincidentally, this is exactly the highest fourth-innings score West Indies have ever made to win a Test, which they did by five wickets against New Zealand in 1968/69. When bad light ended play early, West Indies had scored 42 for one, leaving the prospect of an interesting finish on the final day, weather permitting.Zimbabwe began the day 108 runs ahead of West Indies in their second inningswith six wickets in hand. Hamilton Masakadza added only four runs to hisovernight 115 in almost half an hour before driving a tame catch to shortextra cover off Neil McGarrell. His innings of 119 is the highest by anyplayer under the age of 18 in Test cricket.Zimbabwe took a while to adopt the positive approach that had served them sowell the previous day, but Grant Flower and Heath Streak were just beginningto take control when Flower (14) cut Reon King, who had bowled raggedly, lowto backward point where Shivnarine Chanderpaul took a fine diving catch.Streak played a responsible innings, hitting the loose ball well anddepositing McGarrell over mid-wicket for a six. With Andy Blignaut generallyrestraining himself so as to support Streak, until he hammered threeboundaries off Marlon Black in the last over before the interval, Zimbabwepassed 400.A classical cover-driven boundary off Colin Stuart took Streak to his fiftysoon after lunch. Blignaut passed his previous Test highest of 35 and thenhit a six over long-on to reach his fifty off 79 balls. He then tried areverse sweep, to be caught by the ‘keeper apparently off the glove, but wasgiven not out by umpire Kevan Barbour.Blignaut overtook the more responsible Streak, but he too generally showedgood shot selection. Just before the 500 came up, the two all-roundersbroke the previous seventh-wicket record of 131 by Grant Flower and PaulStrang in Pakistan in 1996/97. The pitch was still good and the West Indianbowlers did not show the skill necessary to break through against qualitybatting.Finally Blignaut, perhaps unnerved by his approaching century, swung wildlyacross the line at Stuart, to be bowled for 92 off 118 balls, after apartnership of 154 with his captain. Zimbabwe were then 521 for seven.Streak had a narrow escape when a mistimed drive just cleared mid-off, whileTatenda Taibu hit 10 off nine balls before being yorked by Stuart.Soon after tea Zimbabwe passed their previous highest Test total of 544 forfour declared, against Pakistan on this ground in their first-ever Testmatch victory in 1994/95. Then, when Bryan Strang lobbed a catch tomid-wicket off McGarrell for 11, Streak declared at 563 for nine, with hispersonal score on 79. West Indies were left to make 348 to win, a scenariothey could never have envisaged two days earlier. It was not an impossibletask on a good pitch, but their morale in the field appeared low and theywill need to lift themselves considerably now to save the match.The injured Daren Ganga bravely came out to open the West Indian innings andguided the first ball past gully for four. The light, though, continued todeteriorate under the heavily overcast sky, causing concern to Zimbabwe.Chris Gayle showed the umpires he was having no problems with visibility, ashe hit two superb successive fours off Blignaut, a drive through extra coverand a cut. Ganga added only a single to have five when he tried to turn Streakto leg and skied a catch.Ramnaresh Sarwan came in for Chanderpaul, who hurt a hand in the field. TheZimbabwe bowling was steady rather than threatening. With nine overs stillto be bowled, bad light brought an early end to play, with West Indies 42for one (Gayle 17, Sarwan 11).

Rob Turner and Richard Johnson rescued title-challenging Somerset with an eighth-wicket stand of 109 on an action-packed second day of the CricInfo Championsip match with Leicestershire at Taunton.Leicestershire’s total had reached the unlikely heights of 277 in the morning session after Devon Malcolm, with a run-a-ball fifty, and Scott Boswell had put on 69 for the last wicket.It was the second half-century of Malcolm’s 17-year career and the former England paceman was only one short of his highest score, made for Derbyshire against Surrey in 1989, when he cut a Steffan Jones delivery to Ian Blackwell on the backward point boundary.Somerset found their own lower order hero in Johnson, whose 70-ball innings of 68 dominated the partnership with Turner and included 12 fours and a six.He also fell within a run of his previous best, made for Middlesex against Essex last year, when he carved a ball from James Ormond to Trevor Ward at third man. Johnson had been given two escapes when he was dropped in the deep by Shahid Afridi and Ward on 38 and 48 respectively.But there was nothing fortunate about Turner’s 140-ball innings of 93, which contained 13 fours.He received more good support from Jones in a ninth-wicket stand of 46 before he was denied his second century of the season by Darren Maddy’s catch at mid-wicket off Boswell.Earlier, Somerset had lost skipper Jamie Cox for a duck when he was run out by Iain Sutcliffe’s direct hit from mid-wicket.Four wickets fell in seven overs soon after lunch and when Ian Blackwell was then caught at slip off Malcolm, Somerset had slumped to 84-6.But Keith Dutch helped Turner put on 57 for the seventh wicket, before being caught behind down the legside, and then Johnson took charge to swing the game slightly Somerset’s way.Johnson had the final say on an absorbing day when he bowled Sutcliffe in the last over to leave Leicestershire on 19-1.

Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya was happy about the way thingswent for his side on the first day of the first Test match at theGalle International cricket stadium on Tuesday,"I am happy about the way things went for us. If you look at thescore board at the end of the day we have sent back the cream of theIndian batting back to the pavilion without very much on the board,"said Jayasuriya.The Sri Lankan captain this morning having won the toss, put theopposition in said he was happy about his decision at the end of thefirst day, "There was a lot of grass on the wicket and any captainwho wins the toss would have had no hesitation to put the oppositionin. I am happy that finally we picked up five wickets." remarkedJayasuriya.The Sri Lankan captain didn’t manage to get any wickets in the morningsession and he gave credit to the Indian openers for playingwatchfully, "You have to give credit for the manner in which theIndian batsmen played. They put their heads down and playedwatchfully. The bowlers too kept things tight for them. But I knew ifwe got two or three wickets we can end up the day in top."Jayasuriya took the new ball only in the 82nd over of the match andthat brought immediate success as Dilhara Fernando struck with twocrucial blows. When asked as to why he didn’t take the new ball a bitearlier, Jayasuriya said, "Murali was bowling well. I knew I couldtake the new ball. But I thought I ought to give Murali a longerspell. But when I decided to take the new ball we got two wickets."Sri Lanka’s fielding was not exactly top class today as they missed afew close chances. Talking about the fielding lapses, Jayasuriya said,"We missed a few catches. Rahul Dravid could have been a bad lapse.But luckily we got rid of him before long. Those players don’t givethat many chances. We have to be more alert in the field."The Sri Lankan batsmen have not been doing well in Test matches butJayasuriya is confident that things can improve, "Yes, we have notbeen doing well, but I hope that this time around we can changethings. We have been batting well lately. The batting came up good inthe Coca Cola Cup final so we are in good nick."

Southland Boys’ High School teacher and sports co-ordinator Steve Jackson has been appointed coach of the Otago Sparks women’s cricket side this year.A qualified Level II coach, Jackson has coached the Otago third form boys’ team for the past two seasons and has also been the fitness advisor/trainer for the Southern Sting netball team for the past three seasons. He comes with an extensive playing and coaching background in club, high school and representative cricket.Otago Cricket’s coaching director Michael Hesson will also take a greater role with the team especially with winter training, now that additional coaching resources will be available to the Association through the appointment of Glenn Turner as full-time coach for the State Otago Volts.Chief Executive, Graeme Elliott said: “While coach for the past season, Billy Ibadulla worked tirelessly, this very young and inexperienced Otago team found it difficult to commit to the levels required for us to justify the reappointment of a professional coach.”We will be looking at alternative ways that Otago Cricket can utilise Billy’s specialist coaching expertise in the future” added Elliott.The appointment of Jackson is initially for a one-year period and commences immediately.Team selectors will be Michael Hesson and Steve Jackson.