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Gerhard Erasmus’ resilient half-century resurrected a faltering Namibia chase, lifting them from 65 for 7 to a thrilling two-wicket win in their pursuit of 166 against Oman at the Wanderers Sports Club.Oman seemed well on course to victory as Bilal Khan cut through Namibia’s batting order with his maiden List A five-for. But Erasmus and JJ Smit survived the left-armer’s spell of swing bowling, and constructed a 92-run eighth-wicket stand to pump life back into Namibia’s hopes of promotion into the World Cup Qualifier.Oman had been under pressure when they batted as well, falling to 10 for 3 in the fifth over after being sent in in seam-friendly conditions. As he did a day earlier, when Namibia bowled out Kenya for 83, captain Sarel Burger had a minimum of two slips in place for nearly the entire innings.Jatinder Singh ground out a top-score of 29 off 71 balls – one of five 20-plus scores in the innings – to settle Oman’s early nerves, before a late flurry from the lower order hauled them to a modest total.Oman’s fielding was sloppy early on – and it cost them later as well – as several chances went down, allowing Namibia to reach 44 for 1. Lohan Louwrens had been driving Namibia’s chase early, but should have been out for 23 when he was spilled over the third man rope off Bilal for six. Bilal persisted with a short-ball plan until Louwrens was cramped for room and fended a catch behind to end the 12th over. Bilal struck for the second time in the 14th, beating JP Kotze for pace to send his off stump cartwheeling back.Erasmus entered after Nico Davin fell lbw to offspinner Jay Odedra in the 15th over, with the score on 61 for 4, but could only watch helplessly from the non-striker’s end as Bilal took three more wickets in the space of five balls in the 16th over. Craig Williams flashed an edge through to wicketkeeper-captain Sultan Ahmed, Jan Frylinck was beaten for pace to be trapped leg before, and Sarel Burger edged a drive low to first slip.With storm clouds hovering overhead, Namibia were well behind on Duckworth-Lewis, but Erasmus and Smit calmly blocked out the rest of Bilal’s initial eight-over spell. The pitch slowed down as the innings wore on, offering little to Oman’s spinners as Erasmus resurrected the chase with ones and twos. As the target whittled down to less than 50 in the 39th over, Sultan tossed the ball to Aqib Ilyas for his part-time legspin, but Erasmus swept him for four as the 300 fans in attendance sensed a home victory.A crunching pull from Erasmus off Fayyaz Butt in the 47th over brought up his fifty off 95 balls, and brought the equation down to 12 off 21 balls. Kaleemullah conceded just two in the 48th over, before Smit finally buckled in the 49th, pulling Butt to mid-on and leaving Erasmus to get nine off 10 balls with the tail.Three singles put Erasmus on strike with six to get off the final over. Pacer Mohammad Nadeem was tasked with defending it, bowling with the wind at his back. Erasmus then premeditated a scoop to clear fine leg inside the circle, but he didn’t get the desired elevation. The fielder reached up for the chance, but the ball burst through his hands, and had enough momentum to go for four. Another single to fine leg leveled the scores, before No. 10 Bernard Scholtz slapped a single through cover for the winning run.Sompal Kami’s 4 for 30 helped decimate UAE for 114 as Nepal scraped to a four-wicket win in a weather-affected match at United Cricket Field. Following a two-and-a-half-hour delayed start due to a wet outfield from overnight rain, Nepal won a crucial toss with play reduced to 34 overs a side and sent UAE in on a pitch that has heavily favored early seam movement throughout the tournament.Sunday was no different as UAE were behind the eight-ball throughout the match following Sompal’s opening spell. The short but whippy fast bowler struck with the third ball of the match, bowling Ashfaq Ahmed for a golden duck. Two more strikes by Sompal and Karan KC had UAE 25 for 3 in the eighth over before teenage legspinner Sandeep Lamichhane and captain Paras Khadka tore through the middle order to take 3 for 30 and 2 for 20 respectively. Sompal then returned to finish off the tail as UAE were bowled out in 31 overs.Nepal, who had struggled to chase Namibia’s 138 on day one before creeping over the line by one wicket, needed a half-century from Khadka after another top-order collapse saw them slip to 20 for 3 in the seventh over. Khadka counterattacked with five sixes in his 51 off 48 balls. Sompal then helped out with the bat too, smashing a six off his third ball before ending the match with a three to finish unbeaten on 10 off five balls.Opening batsman Ruvindu Gunasekera overcame a thumb injury to produce a gritty 83 off 99 balls and set up Canada‘s third straight win of Division Two with a 59-run victory over Kenya at Affies Park.Canada had been coasting early at 58 for 1 after being sent in with Gunasekera leading the way on 38 off 28 balls when he received a blow to the left thumb from medium-pacer Nelson Odhiambo that caused his fingernail to nearly come off. After leaving the field for treatment, he returned at 90 for 3 in the 23rd over and proceeded to anchor the rest of the innings, lasting until the third ball of the 49th over before he was eighth out to a rare hit-wicket dismissal trying to swat Nehemiah Odhiambo.Gunasekera’s innings ensured Canada had plenty to defend against a brittle Kenya batting line-up, who crossed 100 for the first time in three attempts at Division Two but still fell well short of the target. Captain Rakep Patel kept hope alive for a comeback with his 32 off 76 balls, but he was run out attempting to steal a single to short third man off Nikhil Dutta’s offspin; he couldn’t beat Navneet Dhaliwal’s relay to Hamza Tariq behind the stumps, and Kenya were 123 for 8. Dhaliwal also took 3 for 15 in eight overs of part-time medium pace to hasten victory.

India have a new captain for the seven-match home ODI series against Australia, but they are “extremely unlikely” to have a new coach by then. Although the Board of Control for Cricket in India had initially hoped to appoint a coach before the series, the chances of that happening now appear slim and the appointment of a cricket manager is more likely.The BCCI advertised for the post of coach on leading cricket board websites on August 27 and set September 15 as the deadline for interested candidates to write in. Cricinfo has learnt that the BCCI has received close to 20 applications in all, both from India and abroad, for the post.However, the committee constituted to decide on the next course of action to be taken in appointing the coach may not be able to meet on September 27, the date earlier fixed for this purpose. The committee – comprising former Indian captains Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and S Venkataraghavan, the board secretary, Niranjan Shah, the joint secretary, Mohinder Pandove and the treasurer, N Srinivasan – was constituted to pick the next coach. However, Gavaskar and Shastri are both in South Africa, commentating on the ICC World Twenty20, and are only likely to return to India on September 26 or 27.A top board source said it is already on the look-out for a cricket manager for the seven-match series. Even if the committee meets on September 27 and reviews the applications it has received, and short-lists candidates for the post, it will not be able to complete the interview process before the Australia series, which begins in Bangalore on September 29.”We will probably have to appoint someone as cricket manager for the home series against Australia,” the source said. “We are looking for likely candidates and could consider some of the Indians who have applied for the coach’s job.”The most prominent among the Indians who have applied for that job is Chandrakant Pandit, who had successful coaching stints with Mumbai, India A and Maharashtra. Recently, though, he was not released from his duty at Maharashtra, and was replaced as India A coach by Paras Mhambrey.With India enjoying considerably more success than was expected in some quarters at the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa, the possibility of Lalchand Rajput – doing the job of cricket manager – getting an extension for the home series cannot be ruled out. However, there have been rumblings in some sections of the board that too many plum posts are going to former cricketers from the West Zone. With Sharad Pawar, the president, Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of selectors, and Ratnakar Shetty, the chief administrative officer, all coming from West Zone, it has been whispered that former players from Mumbai are getting more opportunities as managers and coaches than others. The BCCI is keen to show that it is not parochial in its appointments.Richard Done, Tim Boon, Kepler Wessels, Terry Oliver, Dave Nosworthy and Martin Crowe are some of the applicants for the coaching position from overseas.Done was once head of the Queensland Academy of Excellence, and took over as an ICC High Performance manager in 2004 when Bob Woolmer joined Pakistan and left the post vacant. Done recently interviewed for the job of Pakistan coach but lost out to fellow Australian Geoff Lawson.Oliver succeeded Bennett King as the Queensland coach in 2002 after King took up the West Indies job, but it appears that his candidature will be ruled out as the advertisement issued by the BCCI stipulates that candidates should have played “at least first-class cricket.” Oliver, who played club and grade cricket in Australia, never played first-class cricket.There’s also Tim Boon, the former Leicestershire batsman, who has served as assistant coach of the England team, who now coaches Leicestershire. A while ago the BCCI received an application from Boon, although Paul Maylard-Mason, the chief executive of the Leicestershire County Cricket Club, issued a statement saying Boon was not in the race for the India job. Maylard-Mason insisted that Boon was committed to Leicestershire. Sources indicate that Boon has personally indicated his genuine interest in the India job, but the Indian board will be wary given their recent experience with Graham Ford.Wessels, the former Australia and South Africa international, it is learned, reached Indian officials through a senior Indian cricketer, expressing an interest in the job. Wessels has coaching experience in England, with counties including Northamptonshire but has not coached an international team.Nosworthy, who coaches Canterbury, has in the past coached teams in South Africa, where he played first-class cricket for Border and Northern Transvaal.Crowe’s case is a curious one. His application was first forwarded to the BCCI by “a well-wisher” and Crowe said he had no idea that his CV had reached the BCCI. Later, though, he conceded he could be interested in the job under favourable circumstances.

World Cup officials will announce the replacement for the Brian Lara Stadium, which was dropped from the list of venues last month, on Monday. Work on the 15,000-capacity ground in southern Trinidad won’t be finished in time for the World Cup in March.It was scheduled to host warm-up matches involving Ireland, Pakistan, South Africa and Canada but Don Lockerbie, the venue development director, told PA Sport: “The Brian Lara Stadium is our casualty and obviously we would have liked to go through the whole of the World Cup without any casualties.”The government of Trinidad & Tobago took a risk that they were willing to take and we were willing to take with them. After Brian Lara scored his 400 runs against England in 2004 they decided to build a cricket stadium in his honour.”We stood by it as long as we could, but we made the decision that we didn’t feel it would be right for the Brian Lara Stadium to be a host.”It wasn’t a matter of not having some kind of a stadium there, in fact the pitch and field are ready to go and we could certainly put the grandstands around it. We just felt it would be too much of a construction zone because of the other things being built there.”We will name the site we are moving to on Monday. The government of Trinidad and Tobago will still play its warm-up matches in a sizeable stadium that will be customised just for the World Cup. People will be getting a world-class state-of-the-art venue, even in its temporary mode.”For the first time teams will prepare for the World Cup with matches against the other international sides, with a number of enticing games such as England-Australia and South Africa-Pakistan on the schedule.”The 2007 World Cup will mark the first time where teams will actually play each other in the warm-up stage,” Lockerbie added. “When the ICC changed that to have England playing Australia for example in a warm-up match, we looked at these as serious games because no team will want to go into these and lose their momentum.”

Scorecard
Amit Pagnis, the left-handed opening batsman, led the way with a breezy 35 as Railways romped home to a nine-wicket victory and wrapped up their second Irani Trophy title on the fourth day in Delhi. They needed just 15.2 overs to knock off the 50 required and completed the final rites of a one-sided contest.Railways had got themselves into a great position on the third day when Murali Kartik and Kulamani Parida, their two spinners, engineered a sensational collapse. Rest of India were cruising along at 98 for 2, with a lead of 10, when they lost the last eight wickets for just 39 and left Railways with a meagre target to chase. Barring Dheeraj Jadhav, none of Rest’s batsmen came to terms with the variable bounce of the Karnail Singh Stadium – a fact which the Railways bowlers exploited with skill.Kartik was the star of the show for Railways with five wickets in the game complementing his plucky 96 in the first innings – one that propped up Railways from a precarious 104 or 6. Yere Goud, the middle-order batsmen who scored a valuable half-century, and Kulamani Parida, the offspinner who ended with seven victims in the match, also made crucial contributions.The only silver lining for Rest of India was the splendid efforts of Ramesh Powar, the offspinner from Mumbai, who impressed with his seven-wicket haul in the first innings. Powar will get another chance to prove himself in the forthcoming Challenger Series, starting on October 10, but it remains to be seen if his consistent performances in the domestic level can earn him a recall into the national side.

Mike Young has been appointed as England’s fielding coach for a four-week stint before their tour of South Africa. Young will be the latest in the line of Australians working in the English set-up with Rod Marsh and Troy Cooley already playing vital roles.Young, the former baseball coach, was first engaged by John Buchanan to work with the Australian one-day side in 2002. Young, still involved intermittently with the Australians, was engaged by Rod Marsh to work with the England team.The reported Young as saying, “I’m looking forward to it. I’d love to be with the Aussies all the time, but that’s not to be, so to get the opportunity to work with other athletes is really pleasing.”I must admit it feels a little funny to switch over from Australia to England, but my first priority remains the Australian team. They’re good players, and I’m definitely going to do everything I can to help.”

South Wilts’ prospects of bowling BAT Sports off the top of the ECB Southern Electric Premier League at Lower Bemerton tomorrow, 11.30am, have received a double setback.Left-armer James Tomlinson, who played for the British Universities against India A in midweek, has been refused permission by his Hampshire employers to play.And skipper Rob Wade is out with a triple fracture of his collar bone – an injury sustained when he fell over in the father’s sack race at his son’s school sports day!"I’ll probably win the award for the daftest call-off of the season," groaned Wade, who hit 80 at Bashley last week.The third-placed Salisbury club expect to call up Jon Nash and Hampshire Under-16 all-rounder Lysander Wolf against BAT, who lead Havant, the defending champions, by three points.The rock-hard Bemerton strip is expected to produce a welter of runs, with both South Wilts and BAT packed with powerful top order batting.Damian Shirazi continued his impressive form for the MCC YC’s, hitting 79 and taking 2-41 against a strong Kent 2nd XI in midweek.Top dogs BAT make one enforced change, with KES captain Graham Noble replacing wedding-bound Chris Thomason.Title holders Havant face neighbours Portsmouth minus skipper Paul Gover, who is attending an open air Bon Jovi concert in Hyde Park."I’m a great fan and queued for hours in the pouring rain for this concert, so I’m afraid cricket has to be put on the back seat tomorrow," Gover said.Left-arm spinner Phil Loat, who missed the five-wicket win at Bournemouth last week, replaces Gover, with Andy Perry taking over as captain.Eager to avenge their midweek SEC Cup defeat, Portsmouth are without former Hampshire player Matt Keech, but fringe county all-rounder Lawrie Prittipaul is named in the squad."We boosted our confidence with a win against Calmore last week, but to beat Havant would be quite something," said skipper Lee Savident.Tom Webley returns from Cambridge UCCE to boost Bournemouth’s prospects in the long-haul visit to lowly Liphook & Ripsley.The left-arm all-rounder, who hit a First Class century against Northants earlier this season, is expected to open the batting alongside teenager Nick Park, with skipper Matt Swarbrick dropping down to four."Tom’s return gives us a couple of options, particularly in the spin department," Swabrick said.With Dave Kidner also back, Bournemouth leave out Matt Mixer and Charlie Holcomb, who will bolster a strong-looking 2nd XI who will be aiming to strengthen their Hampshire League promotion bid against Basingstoke & North Hants.Resoundingly beaten by champions Havant last week, Bournemouth will expect to beat second-to-bottom Liphook, although their ability to bowl the Surrey club out will be crucial."The toss could be all important. Liphook can be a difficult side to bowl out," Swarbrick says.Matt King wants Bashley (Rydal) to build on last week’s success against South Wilts, but knows the Rose Bowl meeting with the Hampshire Academy will be a demanding occasion."It’s noticeable how they have improved since the introduction of the all-day format," the Bashley captain said."The Academy players are bred on the longer game and, on their own Nursery ground surface, will be a very difficult side to beat."The other problem is that you never quite know who you are going to be playing against."Bashley’s form has noticeably improved since Western Australian Brad Thompson returned from injury.The Academy will choose from a 13-man squad, which includes Ventnor’s Ian Hilsum and Portsmouth teenager James Manning.Basement boys Calmore Sports, who trail Liphook & Ripsley by two points at the bottom, are desperate to win against Andover at Loperwood Park.Second XI captain Tim Keighley gets the call for Andover, whose 284-run captain Roger Miller lies third in the Premier batting charts.

Back to the original frontier. Back to first principles.Ultimately, they were deprived of the opportunity to complete the 5-0 whitewash that the trend of so much of this series promised. But Australia’s cricketers can return home secure in the knowledge that there has been precious little disruption to the trend of their country’s recent domination of the old enemy.It is salient to note that, with its crushing victory at The Oval yesterday, Australia has now won 25 of its last 40 Tests against England. Over the same period, England has triumphed in just six matches. Even more tellingly, only a single one of these has been won while the fate of the Ashes’ destination (metaphorical destination, anyway) was yet to have been decided.When the history books are written, they will show that there was nothing from the 2001 series to disturb a general pattern of Australian success that now extends all the way back to 1989. The only parts that were disturbing, in fact, were the portents for England in its continuing inability to challenge its most enduring foe.As this tussle began, it had been more than just an extension of its hold on an Ashes urn that Australia wished to secure from its tour. Confidence about its credentials as the world’s best Test team – partially undermined as it had been by events in its last series in India in March – required restoration too. The passions – and the fervour for victory – of a number of its leading figures were also always likely to be stirred by the prospect that this was to be their final visit as players to England.The team’s fielding was possibly not at its sharpest at various moments and Michael Slater and Brett Lee did not enjoy the individual success for which they would have hoped. But it remains difficult to pinpoint any other chinks that were vaguely discernible in the Australians’ armour over the course of the last two months.Its bowling, in particular, was magnificent. Few English batsmen inspired confidence in their capacity to resist the indomitable pairing of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne for prolonged periods. Respective averages of 16.93 and 18.70 from the five Tests they played give a pretty good idea of the duo’s potency. In the early matches of the series, paceman Jason Gillespie was also outstanding. Albeit that they were aligned against a number of batsmen with question marks over their recent form, England’s bowlers never displayed the same skill, commitment or inspiration.This is not to underplay the exceptional all-round contribution of Adam Gilchrist, nor the prodigious accumulation of runs in the middle order from the likes of Damien Martyn and Mark Waugh. That trio’s capacity to overwhelm England’s bowlers was also clearly central to Australia’s triumph.Before this series began, England’s recent successes at Test level had pointed to a potential reinvigoration and revival in the state of the sport within the country’s boundaries. Even to some sort of realignment in the balance of world cricketing power. Yet this had always shaped as the team’s biggest test, its sternest examination in recent memory.A tortured outfit for much of the 1990s, England has clearly made important advances over the course of the last year. Nasser Hussain’s captaincy, in particular, gives it a more positive and engaging outlook than it has enjoyed in some time. Its coaching staff and its administrators also bring to their roles greater professionalism than has been seen at possibly any stage in the past. But the exact magnitude of the turnaround, insofar as it exists, remains difficult to discern.The Englishmen have genuine cause to bemoan the loss of Graham Thorpe and Michael Vaughan to injury, yet also need to remember that their two best batsmen of the series – Mark Butcher and Mark Ramprakash – would probably not even have played but for those two absences. New ball pairing Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick struggled consistently; although able to pressurise Slater, Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting through the early stages of the series, they were manifestly unable to upset the progress of Australia’s middle order. Opening batting stalwart Michael Atherton appears to have said farewell to Test cricket and, at 38, Alec Stewart can surely not be too far behind.The speed with which the home press in particular jumped off the bandwagon was a measure of the extent of the gulf that continues to separate these two sides. Pre-series pronouncements that Australia would no longer remain the nemesis that it has been for the last decade were disowned with a haste resembling a Maurice Greene dash down the straight. Better measures of England’s current place in world cricket will emerge from forthcoming series against India and New Zealand.For Australia, meanwhile, a consolidation of its position at the head of the International Cricket Council’s Test Championship table is just reward for its performance. It remains the very model of a great Test team, one prepared to sense weaknesses in its opponent, to seize upon small openings and opportunities, to force a rival on to the back foot, and then to ruthlessly maintain control. Some of the heroes of past Australian tours of England are long gone – Allan Border and Mark Taylor chief among them – but the central epithet endures.The entire squad of 17 players that came to the Old Dart for this series can look back proudly on all of the sacrifices which they have made in the name of realising one burning ambition. They have performed their job expertly. Again.

The Haryana Under-19 team completed an emphatic ten wicket win over Jammu and Kashmir in the North Zone Cooch Behar Trophy match at the MA stadium in Jammu on Tuesday. By virtue of this outright win Haryana collected eight points.Needing just 15 runs for a win on the final day, Haryana openers Manvinder Singh (9) and Bhuvnesh Sharma (6) needed just 1.5 overs to help Haryana canter home.Earlier, resuming at the overnight score of 31 for 2, J & K’s second innings folded up at 232. Opener A Jalani (73) and Imraz Thakur (52) took the score to 71 when Thakur was caught by Ishan off Amit Mishra. S Salaria (38) and Jalani then put on 54 runs for the fourth wicket in 18.3 overs. This was followed by a 69-run fifth wicket stand between Jalani and Sathyajit Singh (57) before the former was out leg before to Sumeet.Sathyajit Singh and Anoop Mangotra (9) took the score to 221 when Anoop was held by Bisla off Joginder Singh. Thereafter, Joginder ran through the J&K lower order to finish with figures of 3 for 28. Amit Mishra was the other successful bowler with figures of 3 for 61.

Scotland have picked fast bowler Gavin Main in their squad for the upcoming World Twenty20, which starts in India from March 8, the only change to the squad that recently toured Hong Kong and the UAE last month.Preston Mommsen will lead Scotland, while Kyle Coetzer has been named vice-captain. Main, 20, has replaced pacer Bradley Wheal, who played an ODI and two T20Is against Hong Kong.Main, who represented Scotland in the 2014 Under-19 World Cup, was unavailable for selection for the Hong Kong tour after opting to play in New Zealand in January and February. He has played three T20Is for Scotland so far, following his debut against Ireland last year. He also made his List A debut in 2015, in a World Cricket League Championship match against Nepal. Main made his first-class debut for Durham in May 2014 and was a part of the county’s Second XI squad in domestic season last year.The 15-member squad will depart for Pune on February 22 for a training camp before they head to Mohali for their warm-up matches against Oman and Netherlands on March 4 and March 6 respectively. Scotland are slotted in Group B in the first round of the tournament, with Afghanistan, Hong Kong and Zimbabwe. They will play their first match against Afghanistan in Nagpur on March 8. If Scotland top their group, they will join England, South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies in Group 1 of the Super 10s stage.Scotland squad: Preston Mommsen (capt), Kyle Coetzer (vice-captain), Alasdair Evans, Calum MacLeod, Con de Lange, Gavin Main, George Munsey, Josh Davey, Mark Watt, Matt Machan, Matthew Cross, Michael Leask, Richie Berrington, Rob Taylor, Safyaan Sharif

Division One

Worcestershire held on for a nine-run victory against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge after the home side nearly turned the match on its head. Graeme Hick’s 81-ball 93 propelled Worcestershire to 225 then Kabir Ali and Doug Bollinger reduced Nottinghamshire to 46 for 5. However, David Hussey (75) and Chirs Read (59) added 118 for the sixth wicket to keep hopes alive. But Ali returned to remove Hussey and claimed two more tail-end scalps for his five-wicket haul and send Worcestershire top of the table.

Division Two

Somerset notched their first Pro40 win of the season with a 32-run success against Derbyshire at Taunton. Charl Willoughby’s three wickets blew away Derbyshire’s top order and when Ian Blackwell bowled Simon Katich (34), to break a stand of 59 with Michael Dighton, Somerset had the result under control. A solid batting display led them to 251, as Marcus Trescothick (56) and Justin Langer (59) struck rapid half-centuries on the high-scoring ground.Eoin Morgan and Jamie Dalrymple produced a well-paced chase as Middlesex won the London derby against Surrey at Lord’s. Morgan fell four short of a century, but shared a match-winning stand of 129 with Dalrymple, who completed the win with an unbeaten 54 and 10 balls to spare. Owais Shah, waiting to find out if he makes England’s one-day squads on Monday, steadied the innings with a 51-ball 50 after both openers fell early. Surrey’s innings was based around a series of useful innings – Mark Butcher top-scoring with 50 – but although the top eight all reached double figures no one went on to produce a major innings.