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Islamabad, Nov 22: Out of favour Test batsman Mohammad Wasim announcedhis return to form with a valiant 112 (133 balls) studded with 15boundaries to help Rawalpindi reach respectability in their firstinnings total of 283 for 7 against Gujranwala here on the first day ofQuaid-i-Azam Trophy fixture at Pindi Cricket Stadium.The top order batsman saved Rawalpindi from complete dire straits asthe hosts were perilously placed at 134 for 6. For the seventh wicketWasim and wicket-keeper Nadeem Abbasi (59 not out 89 balls 8×4, 1×6)added 149 runs 113 minutes to raise the total to 283.Wasim who slammed his first ton of the first class season againstBahawalpur ten days ago, was in punishing form to reach his secondhundred. The right-hander however, had one life when at 21 a thickedge was dropped by the slip fielder off pacer Mubashir Nazir.Afterwards Wasim batted effortlessly. Trying to glace pacer Basit Butthe was caught off Khalid at 112, he consumed 189 minutes during stayat the crease.Put into bat, the hosts found themselves in deep waters with threebatsman back in the pavilion at the total of 43. Opener Asif Mahmoodfailed to open his account on nine balls whereas all rounder YasirArafat sent up fell for 5 to leave Rawalpindi tottering at 16 for 2.The hosts struggling to stabilize their innings received another joltwhen debutant pacer Adnan Farooq struck for the second time dismissingwell set opener Naveed Qureshi at 23 (42 balls, 3×4).

Bangladesh Under-19 cricketer Nihaduzzaman, who was injured in a bus accident earlier this month, has been passed fit to play for Rajshahi Division in the side’s first match of the National Cricket League 2015-16 against Barisal Division on Friday. Nihaduzzaman had suffered head injuries and needed 12 stitches to his skull and forehead after a bus he was traveling in, from Bogra to Rajshahi, suffered an accident on September 9.According to the BCB’s chief physician, Dr Debashish Chowdhury, Nihaduzzaman’s CT scan did not show any reason for concern. “He stayed back in Rajshahi because he got the medical support there. The CT scan didn’t show anything of concern so he can resume playing,” Chowdhury said.Nihad’s stitches were taken off earlier this week and he resumed practice soon. Rajshahi manager Akbar Amin confirmed the left-arm spinner will be considered for selection.”He has made an excellent recovery after the horrific accident, and feels a lot better. He will be ready for selection tomorrow,” Amin said.

The BCCI is contemplating appointing separate head coaches for Test and limited-overs formats for the India team. Its official position, as revealed by board secretary Anurag Thakur, was that it would appoint a coach before the South Africa series in October and the cricket advisory committee has been given the freedom to decide on the structure of the coaching staff, but ESPNcricinfo understands the position may be split.According to board insiders, the BCCI over the last month has approached at least half a dozen overseas candidates. None of them have been forthcoming to accept the full-time role, primarily for two reasons: most of them are associated with a Twenty20 franchise or league and wouldn’t like to part ways with a lucrative short-term assignment.The other factor that has worked against attracting an overseas candidate is the BCCI’s emphasis on not letting a foreign coach get assistants of his choice. Instead, the BCCI has stressed that the head coach will have to work with Indian assistant coaches.It has resulted in eligible overseas coaches being apprehensive of taking charge. The BCCI is understood to have been in touch with three recently-retired cricketers – all of whom have assumed coaching responsibilities with T20 franchises. The high-profile cricket advisory committee comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman is likely to interact with them over the coming fortnight.Thakur hinted that team director Ravi Shastri would remain in contention, but stressed it would be up to the advisory committee to formalise the structure and the number of coaching staff required.”I think it is very important to have a full-time coach for any team. We have taken some time to decide and most probably in the month of September, we will finalise the coach,” Thakur said in a chat with Sanjay Manjrekar and Sunil Gavaskar during the lunch break of India’s second Test against Sri Lanka on Thursday on .”[Ravi] Shastri is holding the position of the director for the last few months and he has done well with the Indian cricket team, the boys have given us a good feedback about him, so the only issue is if we want a full-time coach then what would be the set-up. We can’t be having 10 people with the Indian cricket team.”So we have left it to the cricket advisory committee to decide how many people will be required, how many coaches will be required, whether a bowling coach, a batting coach, a full-time coach or a director. Let them take a call, come back to BCCI in September and before the South Africa series, I can assure you that we will take a call on that.”Shastri continues to be a contender for one of the positions. Thakur and Shastri, team director for almost a year, are believed to have discussed the roadmap in a meeting in Colombo on Thursday. With Shastri having developed a good rapport with India Test captain Virat Kohli, he could well continue to look after the Test team while the new coach may be in charge of ODIs and T20s.

England’s second warm-up match was abandoned due to a wet outfield•Getty Images

England’s preparations for the one-day series against Sri Lanka were cut short as their second warm-up match was abandoned without a ball bowled due to a wet outfield at the P Sara Oval.Morning showers left the field saturated and even though the weather cleared during the day, and a decision was delayed until the last minute, there was not enough time for the under-foot conditions to become suitable although shortly after the match was called off England underwent an inter-squad game in the middle.The abandonment means there are four players in the squad – Alex Hales, James Taylor, Ravi Bopara and Harry Gurney – who will not have had official match time ahead of the one-day series. Hales was the most notable omission from the first practice match when Moeen Ali was preferred as Alastair Cook’s opening partner and Moeen proceeded to strike a 21-ball fifty alongside taking three wickets.Taylor, meanwhile, remains desperate for the chance of a run in the one-day side after his prolific domestic season while Bopara is aiming to regain the spot he controversially lost for the series against India earlier this year. Gurney is probably in competition with Chris Jordan for the final pace-bowling spot in Wednesday’s opening ODI.The impact of the weather on the early days of the tour does not bode well for the start of the one-day series although five of the matches have reserve days available.

SYDNEY – All-rounder Andrew Flintoff will return home from England’stroubled cricket tour of Australia after failing to overcome a groininjury.The 25-year-old underwent a double hernia operation in September anddespite playing England’s three one-day warm-up matches, he failed toprove his fitness.Flintoff will return home to work with the England Cricket Board’s chiefmedical officer in a bid to regain his fitness in time for next year’sWorld Cup in South Africa.Flintoff has had numerous scans in Australia but experts have failed topinpoint what is wrong.

Canada have confirmed they will take partin the four-nation Twenty20 which is being held in their country after finally signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the tournament sponsors, Sports International Marketing of Pakistan. The Bangladesh Cricket Board confirmed the dates for the competition last week, but the host country were waiting for the MOU to be signed by the marketing company.Pakistan, whose board are organising the competition, are also definitely participating, while West Indies are still to confirm.There had been question marks over whether the tournament could go ahead when the original organisers backed out but a new company came to the rescue recently. The competition will take place over four days from 14 August. Each team will play each other once, meaning three matches, ahead of a final and a third-place play-off, both matches on 17 August. Bangladesh and West Indies will kick off the tournament by facing each other on the morning of 14 August, while the hosts Canada will face Pakistan that afternoon.

Hernia surgery for Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan before next month’s triangular one-day cricket series in Australia will rule him out of playing here.Team management favours immediate medical treatment to ensure Muralitharan is fit for next year’s World Cup to be held in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya.The Sri Lankan cricket board today officially announced Muralitharan has a hernia and could miss the tour of Australia.”We know that he has hernia problem. The issue is how serious it is,” said Charnika Munasinghe, a spokeswoman for the sport’s national governing body. He will have more medical tests, and “when he will undergo surgery will depend on the findings,” she said.Muralitharan first reported hernia problems during the first Test in South Africa last week, but Munasinghe said the champion spinner wasn’t in much pain and would compete in the second Test against South Africa before going home.Any surgery would be pre-emptive, but would rule Muralitharan out of the limited overs series in South Africa and the subsequent three-nation tournament in Australia against England and the world no.1 Australians.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball commentary

Bermuda took the lead in the three-match ODI series after beating Canada by three wickets in a closely-fought game, reduced by rain to 36 overs-a-side, at the Maple Leaf North-West Ground in King City.Bermuda needed nine runs from the final over after debutant Chris Foggo had set up the chase with a watchful 60. Jakon Edness, the No. 7 batsman, had taken strike after tail-ender Ryan Steede managed to scramble two runs at the end of the previous over. Edness played out the first ball from medium-pacer Henry Osinde for no run but sealed the game with a six and a four off the next two deliveries.Foggo, the Man of the Match, and Steven Outerbridge, began the chase slowly, adding only 17 in the first seven overs before Outerbridge was caught behind off Osinde for eight. After that Fogoo started pushing for the runs, while Oronde Bascombe stayed cautious at the other end. In their partnership of 59, Bascombe only scored 19 and was caught by Osinde in offspinner Qaiser Ali’s first over.Qaiser picked up a second wicket in his next over as Bermuda’s required run-rate shot up to more than seven an over. It was captain Irving Romaine’s cameo 13-ball 21 that gave the chase a much-needed boost – in 2.5 overs he added 34 with Foggo – and when he fell Bermuda needed 42 off 44 balls. Having gone for 14 runs in his third over, Qaiser came to repair the damage in his fourth by removing Foggo when Bermuda needed 33 off 38 balls. While the required run-rate had come down to over five an over, Bermuda were steadily losing wickets – they lost two more by the 34th over. But Edness and Steede held their nerves to steer their side to victory with three balls remaining.Earlier, Ashish Bagai’s half century went in vain for Canada. Though, in going for runs, they lost five wickets for 37 in the last five overs, it was Canada’s third-wicket partnership between Ian Billcliff and Bagai that prevented them from posting a more competitive total. The two added only 27 runs in 9.1 overs. So even while none of Bermuda’s batsmen played a substantial attacking innings, the visitors were able to chase down Canada’s 155, suffering only a few scares in the process.

Xavier Marshall is fresh from his world-record blast of sixes, but he has already switched his focus to the final of the Associates Tri-series against the home team Canada on Sunday. The No. 4 Marshall cleared the boundary 12 times in his 157, which came from 118 balls against Canada on Friday, to take the mark from Sanath Jayasuriya.There was another serious milestone for Marshall, which provided a boost ahead of the decider. “I feel really good to get my first international century, then to break a world record and also to help the team win the match,” he said. “It was great to go out there and back myself and perform for the team. I didn’t get a score in the first match [against Bermuda] so I was determined to get a big score in the second match.”It was not immediately clear to Marshall that the flurry of sixes had never been achieved before, and he was satisfied with the contribution in difficult conditions. “At the start of my knock the ball was not really coming on as the pitch here is a bit slow,” he said. “The medium-pacers were bowling quite well so I knew I had to be patient and smart about what I was doing. After I got in I began to feel better and better and the outfield was quick. I knew all I had to do was push the ball around and hit away the bad balls.”Finding form ahead of the Champions Trophy has pleased Marshall. “I’m getting to the level where I would like to be but I still have to keep putting in the hard work,” he said. “I want to reach that level where I’m consistently getting good scores and contributing to the team. I will use my first hundred as a stepping stone towards better things in the future.”Marshall said the undefeated team had trained well on Saturday and would be retaining its positive approach for the final. “We want to keep on winning,” he said. Canada earned their place in the final by beating Bermuda by 25 runs in the opening game of the four-match tournament.West Indies squad Chris Gayle (capt), Ramnaresh Sarwan, Carlton Baugh (wk), Sewnarine Chattergoon, Fidel Edwards, Shawn Findlay, Leon Johnson, Xavier Marshall, Nikita Miller, Dave Mohammed, Brendan Nash, Daren Powell, Kemar Roach, Jerome Taylor.Canada squad Sunil Dhaniram (capt), Abdool Samad, Rizwan Cheema, Manoj David, Karum Jethi, Ashif Mulla, Richie Kapoor, Henry Osinde, Eion Katchay, Sami Faridi, Kevin Sandher, Ashish Bagai (wk), Mohammad Iqbal, Harvir Baidwan.

Denesh Ramdin says having the former West Indies wicketkeeper David Williams in the team’s coaching group has been a major boost to his glovework, but he knows he must improve his batting to help the side challenge Australia in the second Test. Ramdin’s second-innings 36 sent some worries through the Australia camp in Kingston but he was disappointed to be run out when West Indies were gaining ground, after he did not score in the first innings.”My batting has been there or thereabouts,” Ramdin said. “I need to spend a couple of overs getting a start. I didn’t do well in the first innings but in the second innings I started off a bit shaky then I got in and everything looked smooth but then there was a little bit of complacency and I got run out.”Ramdin has not made a Test half-century since Lord’s last year but his work behind the stumps is definitely improving. Brad Hodge discovered that at Sabina Park, when he was caught behind in both innings, on each occasion to an excellent diving catch from Ramdin.Ramdin said he had put in a lot of training with Williams, the side’s assistant coach, prior to the first Test and the efforts were paying off. “I did a lot of work with David at the preparatory camp in Antigua,” Ramdin said. “I did a lot of diving, a lot of lateral movement and took a lot of catches from a lot of edges. He had me working really hard on my keeping so it is for my batting to come along now and going into the second Test I need to spend time at the crease.”West Indies should regain Jerome Taylor, the fast bowler, who missed the first Test with a back injury, while the captain Chris Gayle, who had a groin problem, could also return and is about 90% fit, according to the coach John Dyson. Ramdin said it would be a huge bonus if both men could play in Antigua.”Those two guys are world-class players,” Ramdin said. “Chris is important at the top of the order to give us a start and Jerome is crucial with the new ball to get early breakthroughs, they are match-winning players.”