Division One

A superb 172 from Darren Lehmann took Yorkshire to the heights of 302 on the opening day of their encounter against Kent at Headingley. The next highest score was from Anthony McGrath (41) as Simon Cook (5 for 38) ran through the lower order to dismiss Yorkshire for 310. Lehmann was last man out when he fell to Min Patel; in 189 balls he hit 19 fours, clearing the boundary four times, and it was his fifth hundred of the season, taking his haul to 1272 runs in 12 matches. Yorkshire ended the day on top when Deon Kruis removed David Fulton shortly before the close.Hampshire’s Chris Tremlett served up a timely reminder of his abilities, grabbing a six-wicket haul including two in the first over of the match – Ian Westwood and Jonathan Trott, both clean bowled. That left Warwickshire reeling at the Rose Bowl. But Mark Wagh came to their rescue with a superb 128, his second and highest century of the season. He added 173 for the third wicket with Nick Knight, who made 78, as Hampshire struggled for further inspiration in the absence of their captain, Shane Warne. Tremlett, however, was not to be denied, and returned with more wickets in his second spell, as Knight fell lbw and Alex Loudon was caught behind for 10.Andrew Caddick top scored for Somerset with a typically boisterous 68 to frustrate Glamorgan on the opening day at Taunton. After Huw Waters continued his impressive form, picking up five Somerset batsmen to leave them reeling on 227 for 8, Caddick set about the recovery to take his side to 330. He cracked nine fours and two sixes in a 10th-wicket partnership spanning 44 minutes with Charl Willoughby worth 67. In reply, Glamorgan set off in a hurry with Gareth Rees and, in particular Mark Cosgrove, belting the Somerset bowling with an opening stand of 101. Willoughby and Caddick hit back, though, to remove both openers before stumps.Sussex are on course for a big total on the first day against Durham at Hove after four of their batsmen made confident half-centuries. None has yet gone on to make a hundred, although Chris Adams remains unbeaten on 92. Richard Montgomerie and Carl Hopkinson stroked the ball around during their 140-run opening partnership before Mick Lewis removed Montgomerie and Michael Yardy in quick succession. Matt Prior batted with his customary forcefulness and pugnacity, crunching several fours as he and Adams went on the attack.

Division Two

Surrey’s batting struggled in the absence of Mark Ramprakash, who was forced to sit out of their trip to Chelmsford for personal reasons and so missed the chance to go for an incredible sixth score of 150-plus in consecutive innings. With Andy Bichel leading the charge, Essex’s bowlers tore through the top order, leaving Surrey reeling at 147 for 6, before Ian Salisbury steadied the innings from No. 7 with 74, his best score of the Championship season. He was ably supported by Neil Saker, whose 58 more than doubled his fledgling career tally. Azhar Mahmood ripped out Varun Chopra and Mervyn Westfield shortly before stumps as Essex limped to 32 for 2.Fresh from their triumph in the Twenty20 Cup, Leicestershire found their return to four-day cricket to be an arduous one, as Worcestershire’s Stephen Moore and Steven Davies made them work hard for their wickets at Grace Road. Moore made 97, and was unlucky to miss out on his first century of the season when he was bowled by Claude Henderson. Following the dismissal of Graeme Hick, Worcestershire were 121 for 4, with Stuart Broad having accounted for a possible future England team-mate, Vikram Solanki, for a seventh-ball duck. But Moore and Davies, and later Davies and Gareth Batty turned the innings around with singular resolve.

With the rain pouring down in the morning, South Africa’s plans for the first game of the tri series against Sri Lanka were thrown into disarray. Both Shaun Pollock, who has lower back trouble, and Makhaya Ntini, who has a hamstring strain, were scheduled to undergo fitness tests, but the wet and swampy conditions prevented that. At his press conference, Mark Boucher, the South African captain, reckoned that Ntini might just make it, though he was less sure of Pollock.Pollock was also slated to bat at No.5, and if he doesn’t convince the physio by tomorrow morning, Ashwell Prince, who led in the Tests against Sri Lanka is expected to come in. When asked whether the inclusion of Prince might affect the power play strategy, Boucher said: “No, in one-day matches these days, everyone needs to be able to hit the ball out of the ground.”He also preferred not to focus on South Africa’s atrocious record in Sri Lanka – one win dating back to 1993. “We have to put that behind us,” he said. “We’re ranked No.2 and we’re proud of that. Our last series win was against the World Champions [Australia], and I think our one-day cricket has certainly taken a step forward.”We went over to India last year, to play against a team that was in very good form. Everyone wrote us off, but we managed to draw the series [2-2] and even had the opportunity to win it.”Looking ahead to the Sri Lanka game, Boucher said that he expected the toughest of tests. “I’ve spoken to some of the other senior players as well, and we think that Sri Lanka is the second-toughest place to tour. They’re a great team in their own conditions, and they’re in very good form.”Boucher added that both his batsmen and bowlers would have to adapt to make the most of conditions that are poles apart from those in the highveld. “The batsmen try to play a positive attacking brand of cricket, and the bowlers have to realise that the area in which they have to land the ball is so much smaller than it is when they’re playing at home.”As their performances against India last year, and the famous 3-2 series win against Australia, showed, the team coached by Mickey Arthur are far from being a soft touch. And though injuries have reduced South Africa to outsiders in a three-team race, neither Sri Lanka nor India are likely to make the mistake of taking them lightly.

On the eve of his side’s opening match against West Indies, Rahul Dravid suggested that India wouldn’t be following the Australian way, and experimenting with their line-up ahead of the Champions Trophy. Australia left out five regulars on Tuesday, and still managed to beat West Indies by 78 runs, thanks largely to a stunning collapse that saw nine wickets fall for 29 runs.”We’re probably going to be playing what we think is our best XI, based on the situation and the conditions,” said Dravid. “Selection is never easy. You have to choose 11 from 14, and benching three guys is always difficult. But we’re not going to be thinking of the Champions Trophy orthe World Cup while picking a team to win a match here.”He said that the quality of the opposition meant that India would have a good tune-up ahead of the bigger challenges that lay ahead. “It’s good preparation leading into the Champions Trophy. We’re playing against two very good teams. The standard of cricket yesterday was really high, and we’re going to have to play really well and hit the ground running.”After South Africa’s pullout and torrential rain ruined the triangular in Sri Lanka, Dravid said that the team couldn’t wait to get on the field and get the season going. “We had a tournament where we couldn’t even play one match, and we’ve had a lot of practice since,” he said. “Obviously,everyone’s eager to see if the things we’ve worked on in practice work for us in a match.”Looking ahead to the India game, Brian Lara had spoken of having a psychological edge over the Indians. Dravid, though, suggested that the series defeat in the Caribbean – West Indies won 4-1 after losing the opening match – wouldn’t have any impact on proceedings here. “It’s not playing on our minds,” he said. “They played well against us, and there’s determination and keenness to try and do well, but it would be the same against any team irrespective of previous results. You have to forget about success or failure that’s in the past.”Not having watched much of the opening game, Dravid declined to say much about the West Indian performance. “I didn’t see them bat. Obviously from what I’ve read in reports, they were in a very strong position at one stage and then Australia did very well to come back. It was shaping up to be a good game, but they couldn’t build on the partnership that they got.”He also insisted that he wouldn’t be influenced solely by Tuesday’s events when it came to team selection. “I think you’ve got to view most games based on what we see, but we’ll have a different pitch tomorrow,” he said. “It looked like it was a bit damp this evening and it’s got a few cracks,so I’d like to see how much it dries out tomorrow before making a final call on the one or two places that we have yet to decide on.”And while admitting that Yuvraj Singh would be missed, he said that he was focussed on the personnel available. “Yuvraj is obviously a very important player for us. He’s been a crucial finisher for us, but it can’t be helped. He’s not around, and it gives someone else an opportunity to put their hand up and do a job for us. Hopefully, someone will show the responsibility that he [Yuvraj] has shown for us in the last year in one-day cricket.”There was the obligatory question about Irfan Pathan’s struggles, with most people forgetting what an outstanding performer he has been in the one-day game over the past season. “He’s had a lot of success in the one-day game, and there’s never been an issue about him when it comes to that,” said Dravid. “He went through a bit of a tough period in the Tests, and people tend to forget that he’s only 22 years old. Because he’s had a lot of success so quickly, they forget that he’s still learning his trade. He’s looking at different areas of his game, and looking to improve. How he gets over this little blip is going to be good to see.”There were also words of encouragement for Sreesanth, who is part of the squad but out of the 14 for the Champions Trophy. “He’s taken it quite well and is working hard. These are ups and downs that you face as a young cricketer. Until you have a proven track record, you’re going to face such situations. That’s what I tell young kids, that you have to get yourself in a position where your selection is never in doubt. All of us go through that. It’s how you come back and what you learn from these experiences that will finally decide how successful you are in international cricket.”The easiest thing, and I’m not saying he’s like that, is to moan and complain. People will give you sympathy and try to give you advice blaming other people, but the most important thing is what sort of realistic assessment you have of your own ability. We try and be as honest aspossible with our young kids. In this day and age, people can get over-hyped and over-criticised, and we’ve got to keep things in perspective.”

Though it ended badly, with a 127-run hammering in Australian hands, BrianLara was fairly satisfied with West Indies efforts over the pastfortnight. And though they have to pre-qualify to defend their ChampionsTrophy crown, Lara was confident that those three matches would help theircause before they came up against the big boys.”I thought in the first half of the game, in the field, the guys workedreally hard,” said Lara, when asked for his thoughts on the match.”Unfortunately, we didn’t get things going in the second half. We lost toomany wickets early on, and put a lot of pressure on ourselves. We havecrumbled in the past in this tournament, and it happened again this timefrom the beginning.”Getting to the final was a plus. We’ve got a week in Malaysia beforegetting to the ICC [Champions Trophy], and we’re going to be trying ourbest there. We are the defending champions and we have to go into that full ofbottle, full of zest, and do ourselves proud.”Lara reckoned that the format might even play into West Indian hands. “Isee it as a good way of going into the tournament,” he said. “Australia,England, and Pakistan will arrive for their first game, but we willalready have had three games going in. That’s a slight plus.”Qualifying for the final here, ahead of a higher-ranked Indian team, wascause for satisfaction. “I do feel that being second-best against twoteams rated higher than us was a good effort,” he said. “I still haveconfidence in the guys, and it’s just a question of working on thephysical, mental, and technical aspects of our game.”It also pleased him that West Indies beat both Australia and India duringthe fortnight even with some players patently out of form. “Some guys arelimited in their skills, and they want to work and enhance their game asmuch as possible,” he said. “We have two or three coaches. We’ve gottrainers, physios, and everyone trying to gel together and ensure not onlythat we win tournaments, but that we get better.”Despite a brittle middle order, Lara was optimistic when asked whatpositives he took from the tournament. “I think Dwayne Smith – we justneed to get his batting together,” he said. “You can see he’s apower-hitter, but we need to get him to spend more time in the middle. Ithink Jerome Taylor improved as the tournament progressed. Chris Gayle hada pretty good tournament. We’ve got five or six in and around form. Thereare other players we have to massage and get together. I still believe inthem.”There was also no fuss over his own dismissal, given out caught after thebat had brushed the pad. “Of course I was disappointed to get out, but thesethings happen,” he said. And though he trudged back slowly, Lara suggestedthat he certainly hadn’t been angling for a recall to the middle. “Whenthe umpire gives me out, I’m not going to go back,” he said, perhapsreferring to the Sachin Tendulkar incident on Friday evening.They may have come up well short today, but on placid Indian pitches withlightning fast outfields, the West Indian batting remains capable ofshocking anyone. And if they can get Corey Collymore fit and into rhythm,they’ll be dangerous floaters in a draw that has several teams strugglingfor a semblance of form.

Umpire Billy Doctrove has said that he is relieved to be back into the international fold, after the controversial Oval Test in September. Doctrove will officiate in the five-match one-day series between India and South Africa which begins on Saturday.Doctrove partnered Darrell Hair at The Oval where Pakistan forfeited the Test after Hair accused them of ball-tampering. Doctrove and Hair were omitted from the Champions Trophy in India following an ICC hearing, and Hair was subsequently banned by the ICC. Doctrove described the period as “one of the most testing moments in his career”, and was determined to put the controversy behind him.”I have always been a positive person and it is my intention to go out there and continue to do what I have been doing and do my best so that I can make myself, my family and my country proud,” he told The West Indies Cricket Board’s official website. “What has happened has happened. The controversies are all behind me. I consider them as history.”Doctrove, who has umpired in nine Tests and 56 one-dayers, was confident that he wouldn’t be under intense scrutiny when he takes the field again.”I do not believe that there is any additional pressure placed on me because of what happened at The Oval,” he added. “You have to take your bruises in life and get up and fight. That is exactly what I am doing.”

Scorecard
A seven-hour 165 from Simon Katich was not enough to earn New South Wales the lead against Western Australia after Brad Hogg wrapped up the Blues’ innings with 38 runs still required. Katich and Matthew Nicholson put on 84 for the eighth wicket to give their side hope but the Blues lost their last three wickets for 13 to hand the Warriors first-innings points. At stumps Chris Rogers and Clint Heron had helped Western Australia extend their lead to 188.Katich and Beau Casson started the day with plenty of work ahead of them at 6 for 196, needing 352. Things looked even more grim for the Blues when Casson was caught behind off Hogg for 12 but Nicholson dug in with Katich for nearly two hours, advancing the score to 301 before he was bowled by Ben Edmondson for 38.Thirteen runs later Hogg effectively ended the New South Wales resistance when he lured Katich, who had struck 20 fours and one six, into giving Adam Voges a lofted catch at deep mid-off. In his next over, Hogg picked up the final wicket when Stuart MacGill (0) skied a catch to Shaun Marsh at cover.With just under a day-and-a-half to play, Rogers quickly set about establishing a target, racing to a half-century from 58 balls. It was the fifth time he had passed fifty in seven Pura Cup innings this season and reminded the Australia selectors that Phil Jaques was not the only opener knocking on the door for a place in the Test team. He was eventually out to Casson for 73, which included seven fours and one six.Marsh was run out for 2 but Heron and North continued to frustrate the New South Wales bowlers and took the score to 2 for 151 at stumps. North was on 29 not out and Heron was unbeaten on 45.

Mehrab Hossain jr, one half of Bangladesh’s newest opening pair, is confident of his rapport with Shahriar Nafees. The duo added 104 in a six-wicket victory over Zimbabwe as Bangladesh took a 2-0 series lead in the second match at Bogra yesterday.”This was nothing new for me to open the innings with him [Nafees] because we have had experiences at different levels,” Mehrab told reporters after scoring his maiden ODI fifty. “We have a very good understanding, so we enjoyed the batting. My partner was in a good form and easily played the strokes and that’s why I had a different role in the match. I played a slow game but this is not my natural innings. I love to play according to the team’s demand.”Nafees, who scored a brisk 67, regretted not being able to score three consecutive ODI hundreds in a row. “I learnt about the record before the match and it would have been nice for me if I could score another hundred today,” he said. “But at the end I am happy that my team won the battle and it came quite convincingly.”It is not true that we scored runs because of weak bowling attack rather I must say we played good cricket. I really enjoyed today’s batting under lights because the ball came quite nicely on to the bat.”Nafees, who has hit three hundreds in a row against Zimbabwe, however, added: “We are only thinking about our next game and not about a series whitewash”.

Jacques Kallis today clarified that his alleged refusal to sing the national anthem was related to his father’s death with whom he used to sing the anthem. “Jacques recently lost both his parents, and he was particularly close to his father who was his cricket mentor. They would often sing the anthem together, and his father was very proud of his son playing forSouth Africa,” Gerald Majola, Cricket South Africa’s CEO, said after meeting the player.A report in South Africa’s had implied that Kallis’s silence when the rest of the team sang the national anthem had more than met the eye. “Jacques has explained why he is silent during the singing of the anthem before international matches and his explanation is completely acceptable to Cricket South Africa,” Majola said in a statement.”Jacques told me that he sings the anthem in his heart in a quiet momentin remembrance of his parents and in gratitude for what they did toallow him to be good enough to represent his country. He has great respect for the anthem and cherishes every moment he has represented South Africa around the world,” the statement added.On his part, Jacques Kallis said that “The questioning of my patriotismand commitment to South Africa can easily be answered by visiting mywebsite www.kallis.co.za and seeing theJacques Kallis Scholarship Foundation I have set up and this willclearly illustrate my passion and willingness to redress the imbalancesof the past.”I hope my personal and family wishes would be respected and this matterwould be settled.”

Nathan Hauritz has been recalled to the New South Wales Pura Cup squad to take on Tasmania as a late replacement for Beau Casson. Casson, the left-arm wrist-spinner, failed to recover after injuring his shoulder in last week’s loss to Victoria and was left out of the 12-man squad for the match to start on Saturday at Sydney.Hauritz has been in excellent limited-overs form but did not take a wicket in his only Pura Cup game this season. Since moving from Queensland he has found it hard to break into a New South Wales side already boasting Stuart MacGill and Casson.New South Wales squad Phil Jaques, Ed Cowan, Greg Mail, Simon Katich (capt), Dominic Thornely, Brad Haddin (wk), Grant Lambert, Nathan Hauritz, Matthew Nicholson, Doug Bollinger, Stuart MacGill, Mark Cameron.

Andy and Grant Flower are still not interested in returning to theZimbabwe cricket team as long as the present administration remains. TheEssex pair spoke to Cricinfo on Monday while turning out for the World XIagainst a West Indies All Star team as part of the reopening of theKensington Oval on Saturday.”I walked away because of the state of affairs and not much haschanged,” said Andy Flower, the former Zimbabwe captain. “Since then it hasgone further downhill. I don’t believe things will change unless thegovernment changes, so that’s the stage we are at.”The brothers left the Zimbabwe team in 2003, disenchanted withgovernment policies and how the ZC cricket body led by Peter Chingokawas rife with financial mismanagement, bias and infighting. Dozens ofnational players have quit the side since, and Zimbabwe stopped playing Tests morethan a year ago because it wasn’t competitive enough.It has a conditional return to Test status in November, but considering thecountry has had no first-class competition for two years the talk of areturn to Test cricket may be premature.Chingoka was reportedly trying to attract former players for the Zimbabwe squadfor next month’s World Cup in the Caribbean to avoid embarrassment. Grant Flower, two years younger than Andy, called for a change of administration in the country. Otherwise, he said, the game would perish.”As Andy said, a lot needs to be done to save the game of cricket inZimbabwe. We would love to help, but we can’t work under the presentbosses,” said Grant. He also predicted a tough time for the team in the WorldCup.”Zimbabwe has been forced to field a team of kids and we have all seenthe results. It’s not the players’ fault but I don’t see them doing verywell in the World Cup out here.”