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Close of 2nd day Central Zone 532 for 7 (Khoda 156, Yadav 80, Prakash 73, Bundela 72, Saxena 69*) v West Zone
ScorecardWest Zone spent another day on the field, while Central Zone batted them out of the game. A run rate of 2.74 fetched the batting side 255 runs for the day, and at close of play, the score read 532 for 7. The 108-run stand between Gagan Khoda and Devendra Bundela was ended when Rakesh Patel bowled Khoda for 156. Shortly after, Bundela fell for 72, but Saxena and Jai P Yadav accumulated more runs, adding 68 for the sixth wicket. Two sixes and seven fours laced Yadav’s innings of 80, and when he was finally dismissed by Sairaj Bahutule, it was left to Saxena to take his team to a more formidable total. Assisting him with the task was Harvinder Singh, on 24, and they shared an unbeaten partnership worth 53 runs.Close of 2nd day South Zone 93 for 3 (Ramesh 57, Rao 12*, Prasad 2*) trail East Zone 388 (Das 120, Shukla 84, Arindam 55, Singh 4-66) by 295 runs
ScorecardA rescue act by East Zone’s lower order kept South Zone at bay, and took the team to 388. By the end of the day, South Zone were in a shifty position at 93 for 3, still 295 runs away from taking the first-innings lead.The overnight batsmen, Shiv Sunder Das and Rajiv Kumar, fell to Narender Singh early on the second day, and when Sunil Joshi removed Saurasish Lahiri for a blob, the end was quite close. But the last three wickets put up 105 runs between them, and Laxmi Ratan Shukla led the way with 84. He was helped by Utpal Chatterjee (25) and Debasish Mohanty (26), who played out valuable overs, and kept the runs coming.South Zone got off to a start, but two wickets in quick succession set them back. Barrington Rowland was dismissed after contributing 15 in a 52-run stand with Sadagoppan Ramesh, who blazed away to 57 off 91 with nine boundaries before getting out. And in the middle of all this, Shukla ran out Sridharan Sriram. At the end of the day, Venugopal Rao was at the crease at 12, with Mannava Prasad for company on 2.

Derbyshire continue to bolster their squad with the signing of Chris Rogers, the Western Australia batsman. He has plenty of county experience including a previous stint at Derbyshire and spells at Leicestershire and Northamptonshire and will provide back-up for Mahela Jayawardene in two blocks.Rogers will start the season as Jayawardene is involved with the Indian Premier League and the Sri Lankan captain is then away again on international duty for Sri Lanka from mid-July.Derbyshire’s head of cricket John Morris said: “It is great news to have another player of the quality of Chris Rogers joining our playing staff for the coming season. It was important that we again identified and got the right type of character and player in our dressing room.”As the counties are only allowed one overseas player from next year, Rogers is only able to be a fill-in, but with a weight of domestic runs under his belt, he is a tidy back-up. He is also still pushing for a Test opener spot, but an untimely appendix problem ruled him out of contention for Australia’s Tests against Sri Lanka, when Phil Jaques weighed in with a century, sealing his place there for now.Morris added: “Mahela will leave us around July 10 to play in Sri Lanka’s series against India and Chris will again take over at this point. After that date Mahela’s international commitments are yet to be confirmed but whenever he is not here, Chris will be and that is great position to be in.”At this point it seems as if Rogers could be playing more than the overseas player he is scheduled to fill in for, with Jayawardene’s commitments possibly ruling him out for more than half of the county season.

Ric Charlesworth has quit as New Zealand Cricket’s high performance manager after two years in the job. Charlesworth, who played 47 first-class matches for his native Western Australia, has decided to pursue other opportunities outside of New Zealand.”This has been a difficult decision because I have greatly enjoyed living in New Zealand and working with NZC,” he said. “I am optimistic that NZC has the people and structure in place in high performance to challenge the world’s best during the next decade.”Justin Vaughan, the chief executive of NZC said Charlesworth had been a vital member of the team’s off-field staff since his arrival in August 2005. “I am certain that many of Ric’s changes will be long-lasting both from a structural aspect but also, and more importantly, from a cultural perspective,” Vaughan said.”He has impressed upon the organisation that we must aspire to be truly world-class in all that we do. We cannot attempt to consistently win on the international stage without the highest standards and frameworks underpinning our premier teams.”Charlesworth has had a wide and varied career, nearly earning a Test call-up for Australia as an opening batsman, appearing in four Olympics as a hockey player, coaching the Australian women’s hockey team to two Olympic gold medals, working as a doctor and serving as an MP for nearly a decade. In April he turned down overtures from the South Australia cricket team, who were looking for a coach, but said he did not know what his future held.

Test batting looks too easy when Michael Hussey is doing it. While Phil Jaques set the base on another rampaging day for Australia, Hussey constructed the walls during a thrilling race to his century, which he achieved with four balls remaining in the day.As the Sri Lanka attack tired, Hussey took charge and smacked 81 in the final session as Australia finished at 3 for 329. He started to sprint once Jaques fell for 150, but it was only with four overs to go that reaching three figures became a possibility.”I didn’t think I was going to get there,” he said. “I was 82 and didn’t think I was a chance. When I hit two fours off Lasith Malinga I thought maybe I’m a silly chance. It was probably only in the last two overs I thought about it.”A couple of boundaries from Farveez Maharoof moved him to 96 and meant he could reach the target as long as he remained in control and was given the strike by Michael Clarke. There were a couple of nervous moments as he tried to force the pace, but he eased the stress of a night in the nineties with a crisp pull and finished on 101 not out.”I’d be lying if I said it didn’t worry me,” Hussey said. “The crowd was geeing me up and clapping each ball. I was trying to put it out of my mind, but was keen to get there. The pitch was so good, I was in and I felt pretty good. Maybe I took a couple of unnecessary risks at the end, but I was delighted to get through.”A pull was a suitable shot for the milestone as he had taken advantage of the short bowling throughout the innings. He struck 15 fours, including a string of crisp cover drives, during his 173-ball stay and it was his seventh century in 18 matches. The incredible record includes a live average of 87.19.”I’ve convinced myself it’s going to come down at some stage, but I’m happy to keep it like this for as long as possible,” he said. “I just want to enjoy it while it’s lasting and keep a level keel, not get too excited when things are going well, or too low when they’re not going well.”Hussey’s back-to-back centuries were matched by Phil Jaques and his former mentor Trevor Bayliss is finding him impossible to tame. “As his coach over the past ten years, especially the last three in first-class cricket, he gave me a few heart flutters and the opposition a few chances,” Bayliss said. “In the last two innings he’s still giving me heart flutters even though he’s in the opposition.”He’s been a lot more selective in the way he’s played in the last two matches, cutting out the riskier shots and making it a difficult package to get out. He fully deserves his success.”Jaques felt more relaxed after getting through a tough first hour, when the Sri Lankans “bowled a couple of balls that I wouldn’t have hit in a hundred years”. “I wanted to back myself and show a bit more intent,” he said. “I could express myself better and it worked out pretty good.”After posting 100 in Brisbane, he continued his liking for neat scores. “I really wanted to make a big hundred today and really cash in,” he said. Was 150 enough? “It’s never enough. I have to learn from it and cash in next time.”

South Africa 270 for 7 (Smith 105, Gibbs 50) beat England 267 for 8 (Solanki 66, Nel 3-49, Ntini 3-58) by three wickets – series level at 1-1
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Click on the underlined links in the text for more pictures South Africa levelled the series at one match apiece, after another tense and enthralling affair at Port Elizabeth. Following their last-ditch failure at Bloemfontein on Wednesday, when they needed three runs from six balls and failed, this time the requirement came down to a similarly enticing requirement – two from six, with three wickets in hand. But at the second time of asking, South Africa held their nerve. Ashwell Prince hoisted Darren Gough over the top for four, and the crowd celebrated their first victory against senior opposition for 14 matches.It could so easily have gone the other way, however. This was another nervy performance from a side that has forgotten how to win, and South Africa owed their victory to a selection of very untimely English errors with both bat and ball. The linchpin of their performance was the captain, Graeme Smith, who recorded his maiden one-day century, 105 from 131 balls, and in doing so laid the ghost of his run-out on 99 against Sri Lanka two years ago. But he was badly dropped on 53 by Marcus Trescothick, and then reprieved by a fumbled run-out one over later. Had either chance been taken, England would surely have won.South Africa’s innings was yet another roller-coaster affair. Chasing 268 for victory after Trescothick had won the toss, Smith stood firm as the top-order wobbled, moving along to his first one-day half-century for exactly 12 months. On a slow and low pitch, England thrived through their lack of extreme pace, and the first of several turning-points came when a subdued Jacques Kallis carved Paul Collingwood’s medium-pacers to point. At that point, South Africa had slipped to 89 for 3 in the 20th over, and were in serious danger of losing their way.Within five overs, however, South Africa had been given renewed focus, as England this time fluffed their lines. Collingwood, whose full-length dobblers were proving remarkably tricky to get off the square, tempted Smith to heave across the line, and a swirling chance looped up to Trescothick, running round from mid-on. Inexplicably, he muffed the chance, and England were still ruing that reprieve when Geraint Jones behind the stumps failed to gather a shy from the covers, with Smith floundering a yard short of his ground.

With his old opening partner, Herschelle Gibbs, for company, however, Smith began to steady South Africa’s nerves, and while they were adding 107 for the fourth wicket, it was England who began to search for inspiration. He has not enjoyed many moments to crow about in his tussles with Matthew Hoggard in this series, but by taking 15 runs off his seventh over of the innings, Smith shifted the momentum squarely in South Africa’s direction.But this is South Africa v England 2004-05, and no match is complete without at least a dozen twists and turns. No sooner had Gibbs reached his second fifty of the series than he was gone, trapped lbw by the returning Darren Gough. It was the first of three wickets in 21 balls that culminated in the big scalp itself, as Ashley Giles turned one into Smith’s pads, and from 196 for 3, South Africa were again floundering at 214 for 6 as the required rate rocketed to more than eight an over.However, with Mark Boucher in residence, the tail retained sufficient chutzpah to overcome their anxieties, and when Hoggard was again the victim of a brutal onslaught – disappearing to all parts for another 14 in an over – the momentum shifted decisively back to South Africa. Gough did his best to salvage the situation, removing Boucher lbw for 33, but Prince had enough mental strength to put Wednesday’s indignities out of his head.England’s innings had earlier been anchored by a timely 66 from Vikram Solanki, who made the most of Vaughan’s absence to leave the selectors with a headache ahead of the fourth match at Cape Town on Sunday. But that total might have been even better but for a typically wholehearted effort from Andre Nel, who dismissed the dangerous Kevin Pietersen for just the second time in his one-day career (and in the process reduced his average to a mere 133.50) en route to the impressive figures of 3 for 49.England’s effort was built on solid contributions all the way down the order, with Solanki the only man to reach a half-century. He made an even 100 in his last one-day innings, against Zimbabwe earlier on the tour, but would not have been playing in this game had it not been for Michael Vaughan’s absence with a stomach bug, an ailment that had kept him off the field for the second half at Bloemfontein.With more than 10 overs remaining, England might have expected a total in excess of 280, but the innings failed to ignite, as Makhaya Ntini, whose sharp opening burst had gone unrewarded, struck back violently with three late wickets in six deliveries. In a series as evenly matched as this, it proved to be a vital intervention.Andrew Miller is assistant editor of Cricinfo.

Otago made rather a sandwich of their first innings of only 241 when they won the toss and batted first on the opening day of their State Championship match against Auckland at Colin Maiden Park today.The sandwich had a substantial and hearty filling built round a marvellous 111 by the 26-year-old captain Craig Cumming, supported by a solid and patient 39 by the No 6 batsman Craig Pryor.These two put on 106 for the fifth wicket. Sadly, the outside parts of the Otago sandwich were soggy bread. The first four wickets were lost for 81 runs. The last six went for 54 runs.There were few demons in the pitch, as Auckland showed in the 19 overs before stumps when they scored 56 without loss from 19 overs. Mark Richardson was 43 not out (eight fours) and promised, or threatened, depending on the point of view, to do some substantial damage to his old Otago team-mates tomorrow.Otago also face the prospect that another southern favourite Matt Horne has been in wonderful form this summer, and only a bruised foot (a temporary injury) prevented him from joining Richardson in the entree this evening.Otago lost Robbie Lawson for one in the fifth over, but once Simon Beare had made a nervous start (his three previous innings were ducks) and Cumming quickly settled in Otago prospered.These two went steadily along to 62 before Beare, 98 minutes over his 22, misjudged the line of Gareth Shaw’s medium-fast line, and shouldered arms while his middle stump was being knocked out. Chris Gaffaney went quickly, also to Shaw and when Andrew Hore gave Chris Drum his second wicket without scoring Otago were 81 for four, and had wasted good batting conditions.With Pryor showing poise and good judgement, Cumming was able lead a counter-attack of quite splendid quality. The Otago skipper’s fifth first-class century was not an affair of sparkling stroke-play from some fancy batting manual. Rather Cumming batted with quite marvellous efficiency, and with the rare ability to make the most of any ball that did not threaten his castle.Pryor gradually joined in the counter-thrust, and while the first 50 of their partnership was a solid foundation, the second 50 produced a flow of firmly-struck boundaries by Cumming, and with Pryor occasionally lending an attacking hand.Cumming sailed past the 100 in 216 minutes, from 157 balls and there seemed the prospect that he and Pryor would completely dominate an Auckland attack without any sharp teeth left.Unfortunately for Otago Pryor lifted a solid drive at Tama Canning’s bowling and at a shortish cover Llorne Howell took a brilliant two-handed catch. All a sudden, the face of the game changed. Cumming seemed to be half-forward when given out lbw to Canning – Otago 194 for six.Martyn Croy played some solid blows, but he, too, fell to a fine catch by Howell, and the door was open for the Auckland bowlers.Suddenly Brooke Walker, the Auckland captain and leg-spinner, began to confuse the Otago tail-enders with the ball which went quickly and straight through. This brought him three lbw victims, from Barry Frost, the umpire, which took the last three Otago wickets at 232, 236 and 241.So Otago, which probably needed a first innings of 300-plus to justify batting first in favourable conditions, fell seriously short of their target, and they must have had the worry beads out tonight as they regarded the mastery that Richardson enjoyed before stumps.

No surprises featured in the New Zealand women’s cricket team named today to tour Australia for a one-day series.Eleven players were named, and all were members of the team originally selected for the pre-Christmas tour to India which was cancelled as a result of terrorist attacks in the United States and the subsequent war against terrorism in Afghanistan.Three of the 14 players named for that tour, Sarah Burke, Emily Travers and Erin McDonald, have missed selection, although they will be competing for the one spot left open.They have each been included in a New Zealand A team which will also have a tour to Australia. Also included in the A team are three players who will return with the CLEAR White Ferns later. They are Anna Corbin, Aimee Mason and Paula Flannery.Unavailable for consideration was Canterbury all-rounder Fiona Fraser who had scans today for a back injury. Fraser was selected for the tour to India and has yet to make her international debut.The New Zealand team is: Emily Drumm (captain), Kathryn Ramel (vice-captain), Anna Corbin, Paula Flannery, Aimee Mason, Anna O’Leary, Nicola Payne, Rachel Pullar, Rebecca Rolls, Haidee Tiffen, Helen Watson (one to be added).They will play practice matches in Adelaide on February 17-18, before One-Day Internationals against Australia at the Adelaide Oval on February 20-21 and the Melbourne Cricket Ground on February 23.The New Zealand A team is: Emily Travers (captain), Aimee Mason (vice-captain), Victoria Brown, Nicola Browne, Anna Corbin, Maria Fahey, Paula Flannery, Frances King, Beth McNeill, Louise Milliken, Kate Pulford, Natalie Scripps, Nicole Thessman.The A team will have two practice matches at Geelong on February 6-7 followed by two matches against Australia Youth at Camberwell in Melbourne on February 10-11, Caulfield on February 13 and Ormond on February 14.

Most people react to being dropped from a side with a shrug and a few muttered oaths. But Lance Klusener has not taken the news of his omission from South Africa’s touring side quite so philosophically – he is planning to sue the South African board for loss of earnings.Klusener’s argument is that he turned down offers of work with English counties after being assured that he would be included in the squad. He claims that he was told that he would be rested for the tour to Bangladesh, but would return for the England trip.”It’s like your boss calling you on a Saturday night and saying, ‘Sorry, old chap, but you don’t have to come to work on Monday. You’re fired. How would you feel if it happened to you?" Klusener told the South African-based You magazine. "Wouldn’t you also be disappointed? Some people may think it’s sour grapes, but that’s not true at all.”It was a shock and a disappointment,” Klusener admitted. “I was here at home and immediately went to tell my wife. England would have been a highlight for me. I wanted to play at Lord’s again. I played for South Africa with pride for eight years. I gave my all."And Klusener dismissed accusations made by Graeme Smith, South Africa’s captain, that the side was better off without him as he was not a team player. “I’m a private person,” Klusener explained. “I hate being around lots of people. It saps my energy. Now people are saying I’m a miserable sod. Why is it if you don’t want to be part of the crowd you’re always seen as different?”While Smith has told reporters that he regrets making the comments, Klusener said that he had yet to receive an apology in person. “Maybe he doesn’t have my number. The whole thing between Graeme and I is a shame. I read what he said in the papers and I still don’t know exactly what he meant."Klusener’s decision to take legal action is unlikely to endear him to the selectors and whatever the outcome of the court case, if it goes ahead, he will only gain financially if he wins. It is inconceivable that any court could force an organisation to pick a player, especially one whose record of late has hardly been outstanding.

The Cricket Victoria Board of Directors today endorsed the state selector’s decision to appoint Cameron White captain of the Bushrangers Pura Cup team to play the Bulls at the GABBA starting Sunday.White replaces the injured Darren Berry who broke a finger in a practice match against South Australia on Tuesday.Victoria’s youngest ever captain was delivered the news at a team meeting this afternoon as the Bushrangers prepare for tomorrow’s day/night ING Cup match. "It is a huge challenge for the guys, Victoria has not beaten Queensland in the four-day game up here since 1983," he said.He added "we will miss Darren’s leadership however I am confident that we have the team to beat Queensland".

The name “Bulawayo” means “place of slaughter”, which it was when the warlike Matabele ruled there in the 19th century. They were an offshoot of the Zulus, from South Africa, but were in turn subjugated by the white settlers in 1893, and massacred by Robert Mugabe’s notorious Fifth Brigade 90 years later.Joshua Nkomo, Mugabe’s comrade and rival in the fight for black majority rule (as distinct from freedom, which still has not been won), was a Matabele. But they are very much the secondary tribal grouping in Zimbabwe, where Mugabe’s Shona rule with an iron hand. To all appearances the Matabele, although strongly anti-government, have shed their warlike past and are friendly and easygoing, but with a reputation for harder work and greater efficiency than the Shona. Certainly Bulawayo is better maintained than Harare, the capital, where so many roads are riddled with potholes, to give just one example.Bulawayo considers itself to be Zimbabwe’s neglected city, and the inhabitants put it down to Shona prejudice. It is in the south-western, dryer area of the country, at a lower altitude than Harare and with more extreme temperatures. Several years back there were cries for help from a supposedly dying city, critically short of water after years of drought – although Dickie Bird, when he officiated in Bulawayo’s inaugural Test in 1992, did his bit by bringing a brief spell of heavy rain.There were calls for a pipeline from the Zambezi River, about 250 miles away, to bring water to this dying city. But there are periodic climatic changes in the country, and the last few years have brought better rains to this city – as the Bangladeshi tourists earlier this year can testify. But there will doubtless be more years of drought to come, and Bulawayo’s future will again be imperilled.A hundred years ago, Bulawayo was actually larger than and growing faster thanSalisbury, as Harare was then known. But about 50 years ago Salisbury surged ahead, as capital of the short-lived Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Since independence Harare has burgeoned like an untidy weed, and the city centre is now noisy, messy and over-crowded. Bulawayo was better-planned than the capital, with wider streets and more “green” areas, and generally exudes a friendlier and more relaxed lifestyle.

There are similarities in Matabeleland cricket, too. During the first halfof the 20th century Matabeleland were more often than not stronger onthe field than Mashonaland, and provided most of the country’s top players.But as time went on there was a drift towards the capital, joined by thefamous Colin Bland, and cricket in the Bulawayo region has struggled.In recent years, though, Matabeleland cricket has fought back. They take a great pride in their provincial team, especially in their recent national hero Heath Streak, and there is widespread fury at the scurvy way he has been treated. They resent efforts by the national selectors to pad the team with Harare players, and they promote matches much more effectively. Bulawayo nowadays has perhaps less than a third of the population of Harare, but crowds are not much smaller at international matches, and number several hundred for the domestic Logan Cup matches – the same fixtures at Harare Sports Club are played out in front of empty stands.Township development is progressing well and, with such a superior attitude,Matabeleland may again become – and deserves to become – the strongest force in Zimbabwe’s cricket. Finance is a restrictive factor, though, and the localadministration is dependent on funds from Zimbabwe Cricket – which, of course, is based in Harare. Recently the Matabeleland Board gave the dictatorial Ozias Bvute a rough time when he tried to assert control at the provincial annual general meeting, and the relationship remains tense. But at least Bulawayo is given its fair share of international matches, and in the original England itinerary they were down to host three one-day internationals against Harare’s two, as compensation for missing out on the Australian tourists last June.Queens Sports Club was not used by the national team for more than ten years before it was revived to stage Test cricket in 1994, because of the inadequate facilities at Bulawayo Athletic Club, the other leading local ground. It looked a sorry sight, almost derelict, when it hosted Tests against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, but thanks to the efforts of the keen local administrators, the ground soon regained and surpassed its former glories.It lies just to the north of the city centre, and thanks to the broad streets vehicular access to the ground is delightfully uncomplicated – and there is plenty of room for parking on the nearby roads, in marked contrast to Harare. The northern and western sides of the ground, which boasts a larger and better scoreboard than the ones in Harare, is mainly grass terracing held together with brickwork, providing easy seating for spectators.The eastern side of the ground consists of a small embankment between theground and the main road to the airport. Because of this, the northern endof the ground is often called the Airport End, even though the airport isabout 20 miles away. Since the suburb adjoining the ground to the north is called North End, one local journalist maintains that it should really be called the North End End.The most attractive feature of the eastern side of the ground is that it isalmost all in the shade of a long line of wattle trees. The public can siton the embankment, or the stands under the trees in the shade, and watch thecricket, cool on the hottest days.Most of the spectators nowadays are black, and their chanting, singing anddancing have taken the place of the beery barracking that was more common inthe days of Castle Corner. Their usual habitat is the big stand on the western side of the ground, which is usually the most densely populated area. This is the most noisy, colourful and enthusiastic part of the ground, and the WestIndian horn-blowing custom has also taken root here. Slightly less appealingly, some of the women copy the Indian habit of screaming for boundary hits. While the home side is supported, there is no harassment of visiting players, and all the noise and activity is invariably in the form of good-natured celebration of cricket. And mercifully there is less fooling around with Mexican Waves than there is in Harare.For all that, watching cricket in Zimbabwe is basically a middle-classoccupation, and despite the low prices few from the townships are able orwilling to make the journey to town, in Harare or Bulawayo, to watchinternational matches. The urban middle class, mostly anti-government, arenot yet suffering in the same way as the peasants, but they do find cricketan enjoyable escape from the problems of everyday life. Three or four years ago most of the atmosphere at big matches was generated by large parties of schoolchildren who would be bussed in for the day, a major experience in their deprived lives. But the astronomical costs of hiring buses and the fuel shortages have put paid to all that. The township children are no longer able to come, and Zimbabwe cricket is the poorer for it.

The horns still blew as the rain poured down at the end of the lunch interval during today’s third one-dayer against England. Most of the spectators on the eastern side had fled, except for a few stoic individuals huddled under the trees, most without umbrellas. The others had packed into the covered stands, out of that rare Bulawayo phenomenon … rain.The vicissitudes of the game did not deter the partygoers, and they were asexuberant as ever while Vikram Solanki and Ian Bell were tearing apart theZimbabwean seamers. It would be wrong to suggest that they did not knowwhat was going on; they simply did not consider it sufficient reason todampen their spirits. They continued to roar their support for every littleZimbabwean success, and though registering disappointment at failures theyquickly put the culprits’ crimes from their minds.At the close the horns continued for a while, but the crowd faded away slowly. The rain had not returned, the Zimbabwean defeat had not devastated their day, and there was always tomorrow. Perhaps tomorrow will be better … but today was still an enjoyable day out for two or three thousand inhabitants of Zimbabwe’s second city.