Matthew Hayden’s undefeated 96 took Northamptonshire to victory by 4 wicketswith nine balls to spare over Leicestershire at Grace Road. It was his firstNational League half-century of the summer and the Australian left-handercelebrated by hitting three sixes and eight four from 110 deliveries in thechase for 188 runs.The target was less than it had appeared it would be at one time – however Leicestershire’s last six wickets toppled for 26 runs in seven overs.Quick bowlers Darren Cousins and Tony Penberthy took three wickets apiece insnatching away the advantage Phil DeFreitas and Aftab Habib had seemed togain by putting on 73 in 16 overs. Habib hit 70 from 109 balls with a sixand four fours, but his dismissal brought about the collapse. In the nextover DeFreitas was run out for 40, and then the remaining batsmen followedeach other out in procession.The batting jitters continued into Northamptonshire’s innings with AdrianRollins caught magnificently before he had scored by Darren Maddy in JamesOrmond’s opening over. The same bowlers had Mal Loye taken at slip. And ifany of the three chances offered by Hayden had been taken they would havebeen in serious trouble.He and David Sales pulled the game round with a 70 runs stand for the third wicket. Although few other batsmen stayed with him Hayden lasted the distance to make his highest score in the National League in a summer and a half with Northamptonshire. He took 72 balls to reach his half-century with six fours, and hit three sixes to win the match.

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).

Northern Districts was 91-3 at the end of day three of the opening round of the Shell Trophy. They require 82 tomorrow if they are to open their defence of the title with a win.This was a day characterised by tense, no quarter given, cricket, both sides aware that small mistakes could cost them the game.The tension was reflected in some aggressive appealing and over reaction to umpiring decisions which resulted in a complaint from the umpires to ND skipper Robbie HartThe first hour of the day saw yet another batting collapse, with four key wickets falling to ND’s pace trio. Joseph Yovich continued to bowl fast and short, while Simon Doull and Graeme Aldridge concentrated on accuracy, letting the pitch do as much of the work as possible.Tama Canning and Aaron Barnes led a fightback with a fifty partnership. They combined caution with a willingness to get after the bad ball. Each hit a six off one of the spinners, Bradburn and Martin.An otherwise quiet phase of play was enlivened by a warning for verbal abuse after umpire Barry Frost had refused an appeal for a catch at short leg by Hood off Bradburn, even though the ND players had begun their celebrations for the fall of the wicket.A mid-wicket conference between Bradburn, ND skipper Robbie Hart and the two umpires was convened a couple of overs later when the officials felt the need to express their displeasure at comments made following the decision. There may be repercussions in terms of disciplinary action, depending on the contents of official reports.On several occasions during this game players on either side have run to congratulate those involved in the `dismissal’ without bothering to wait for official judgment.Umpires see this as intimidation. In the next English season players will be required to stay in their fielding positions until the outcome of an appeal is known. This may be an idea that will spread to the game worldwide.The Canning/Barnes partnership ended just after lunch, the three remaining wickets following in fairly short order. Richard Morgan struck a few blows to take the Auckland total over 200, setting ND 173 to win.Aldridge finished with four wickets, giving him nine in the match. This, along with his last wicket heroics yesterday, means that he is now firmly established as a member of the ND first class squad. When Darryl Tuffey returns from South Africa and Scott Styris is back to full fitness the depth of ND fast and medium fast bowling will be formidable.Yovich has looked impressive throughout the game, generating real speed from a responsive surface. He deserved more than the four wickets that were his match haul.Doull also performed well, a bowler insufficiently fit to go to South Africa, but who is fitter than than those who are there…He has cut down his pace, but more than compensates with guile and experience. His international career may have been written off prematurely.The spinners, Bradburn and Martin, also took wickets at important times, though Martin gave away a few more runs than ND would have wanted, given the low-scoring nature of the match.ND suffered the early loss of Michael Parlane, lbw to Morgan. Marshall and Bailey put on 62 for the second wicket before Marshall failed to clear midoff. Neal Parlane also went quickly before Bradburn joined Bailey to see ND through to the close.Bailey is the key figure for ND. He faced 145 balls for his unbeaten 43, surviving numerous lbw appeals from Haslam, unflustered. Haslam bowled unchanged from tea to the close, conceding just 20 runs from 17 overs, but was unable to make the breakthrough.ND remain favourites to take the game, but the pitch continues to be less than totally reliable, so Auckland will remain confident that the match can still be theirs. Tomorrow promises to be a gripping, if short, day’s cricket.

Mumbai failed to deliver the knock out punch to Baroda, as Baroda managed tohold out Mumbai to a Draw in the West Zone Ranji match at MIG, Bandra onTuesday. Baroda ended the day at 360 for nine off 112 overs chasing a target of464. The hosts took away five points and the visitors fought hard for theirthree.Mumbai began the day needing nine wickets for an outright victory and Barodaneeded to survive 90 overs. The latter doing the same on a match saving inningsby stumper Mongia. Nayan Mongia proved the hero of the day battling for 203minutes for his unbeaten 41 runs. He played 117 balls with seven hits to thefence. Mongia and Valmik Buch added 48 runs off 12.3 overs for a crucial eighthwicket partnership. Buch lost his nerve in the 107th over and called for a nonexisting single, Mongia sent him back but it was too late as an accurate throwfrom Paras Mhambrey caught him short of his ground.Zaheer Khan joined Mongia at the fall of Buch’s wicket. He hung around for 3.4overs and looked to save the game. Mumbai bowlers toiled the whole day but wereunable top get the break throughs. The turning point of the match was providedby Sachin Tendulkar who bowled the second last over of the day. He cleaned outZaheer on the first ball, turning the tables around for Mumbai. It became aquestion of getting one wicket for Mumbai and surviving eleven balls for Baroda.Last man Sukhbir Singh held his nerve and Mongia saw the last over through toguide Baroda to a draw.Earlier in the day, Baroda resuming on 75 for one at the start on play on thelast day were comfortably placed at 249 for five off 79 overs at the teainterval. Opener Connor Williams played a patient and sensible innings. Hescored 81 off 193 balls. One drop Himanshu Jadhav was the other steadycontributor to the Baroda score card.Jadhav’s 41 came off 110 balls. Tushar Arothe chipped in with 59 off 100 balls.Ajit Agarkar had figures of three for 66, Robin Morris was the pick of thebowlers bagging four for 64 in the second innings. Morris ended with matchfigures of eight for 91.Sachin Tendulkar was awarded the Man of the Match award by MCA president ManoharJoshi at the prize distribution ceremony.

Vasbert Drakes bowled Warwickshire to an improbable ten-wicket win as Gloucestershire’s fragile batting again let them down at Edgbaston.A draw appeared the most likely outcome when Warwickshire declared at their overnight total with a lead of only 88 but it proved more than enough for Gloucestershire who tumbled to 106 all out.Drakes took five for 37 in 19 hostile overs, his first five-wicket haul for Warwickshire, and Gloucestershire had no reply to his aggression and accuracy on a pitch that offered some sideways movement.But there was little excuse for Gloucestershire’s timid approach as they slipped to 17 for four in the first 45 minutes which effectively sealed their fate.Dominic Hewson lost his middle and off stumps after he deflected a rising delivery from Drakes via his elbow and Matt Windows then fell leg before shuffling across his stumps to Melvyn Betts.Chris Taylor gave Warwickshire a helping hand when he shouldered arms and went leg before to Drakes and Kim Barnett then edged Betts to wicket-keeper Keith Piper with a loose push outside off stump.Mark Alleyne and Jermey Snape prospered for a time while Drakes and Betts were recharging their batteries but Alleyne fell to the first of three catches by Ian Bell at short leg as he pushed forward to Dougie Brown.Bell held another bat-pad catch to account for Snape when Drakes returned at the City End and he then produced a stunning effort, diving to his left, to get rid of Reggie Williams off a full-blooded stroke.Martyn Bell played on to Brown, Drakes took his fifth wicket when James Averis offered no stroke and lost his off stump but belated belligerence from Tim Hancock and Jon Lewis ensured Gloucestershire avoided their lowest-ever score at Edgbaston and ensured that Warwickshire had to bat again.But Warwickshire needed only 19 to record their third win in four Championship matches and openers Bell and Piper needed only four overs to knock off the runs.

The stage is set for the clash of the titans at Lord’s tomorrow when Australia meet Pakistan in a re-run of the 1999 World Cup final.With both teams in tremendous form – although Steve Waugh claims his side are still not firing on all cylinders – a sell-out crowd expected and even decent weather forecast, the prospects for a final to remember are excellent.However, everyone was expecting an exciting game when the sides last met at Lord’s, only for the match to result in a terribly one-sided affair as Australia won by eight wickets in 20 overs to lift the World Cup trophy.But Pakistan coach Richard Pybus says that on this occasion, things will be very different.”It will not be the World Cup final on Saturday but we have some bittermemories from 1999 and we played incredibly poorly in the final.”That was not a reflection on the way we had performed in the tournamentbefore that, when some of our cricket was outstanding.”The Australians actually started off poorly in that competition and builtmomentum as it went on.”But in the final we played so badly whereas the Australians just playednormal cricket – and we have to re-address that on Saturday.”As any coach will tell you, it’s about performance on the day. If we play toour potential we can beat anybody. It’s as simple as that.”Pakistan will claim that they already have the psychological advantage over Australia after beating them at Trent Bridge on Tuesday. Although Australia rested Glenn McGrath and Ricky Ponting for that game, Pakistan were without Inzamam-ul-Haq through illness.Pybus said: “To beat Australia, like on Tuesday, is always sweet, although weknow they will come back hard in the final at us.”But Australia skipper Steve Waugh said: “If Pakistan think they’ve got a psychological boost from Tuesday, then they’re going to be mistaken.”In that game we weren’t with it from ball one. We were slipshod with ourfielding and bowling and we had ourselves to blame for the loss.”I know people say it didn’t matter because both teams were in the final, butit still hurts to lose and we were disappointed to lose our unbeaten recordagainst Pakistan.”But it will be different on Saturday. We’ve got good memories. We played andwon the World Cup final at Lord’s and we’ll be confident of winning again onSaturday.”If Australia are to win they must find a way of countering Waqar Younis who has suddenly struck an incredibly rich vein of form.The Pakistan captain has taken 13 wickets in the last two games and Pybus said: “Waqar has bowled magnificently in this competition. A couple of years ago people were writing him off and he did not play in the World Cup final.”Shoaib was in the pound seats then and bowling brilliantly – but anyone whoever doubted Waqar Younis has been answered handsomely. He bowled superbly inthe Second Test and in this one-day competition.”Now he wants to help Pakistan win this tournament especially after whathappened in the World Cup final two years ago on the same ground.”Waqar said: “We have to play aggressive, positive cricket. If we put things together there’s no reason why we can’t beat Australia. Australia are playing good cricket and are very professional. But we are capable of beating any side in the world. We have the potential to beat them.”Pakistan expect to have a full-strength squad to choose from. Inzamam should be fit while Yousuf Youhana is expected to have recovered from the twisted ankle sustained at Trent Bridge.Australia are keeping nothing under wraps in terms of selection; Shane Warne,Damien Martyn and Jason Gillespie will replace Andrew Symonds, Matthew Haydenand Damien Fleming from the side which trounced England at The Oval on Thursday.Teams:Australia: Steve Waugh (capt), Mark Waugh, Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting, Michael Bevan, Damien Martyn, Ian Harvey, Shane Warne, Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie and Glenn McGrath.Pakistan (from): Waqar Younis (capt), Saeed Anwar, Salim Elahi, Fazl-e-Akbar, Shahid Afridi, Abdur Razzaq, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Yousuf Youhana, Younis Khan, Azhar Mahmood, Rashid Latif, Wasim Akram, Saqlain Mushtaq.

It is not very often that a drawn rubber of two Tests is termed as anear disaster for one side. But from the Indian viewpoint, there islittle doubt that the 1997-98 tour of Sri Lanka comes very close tosuch a description. Add to it the fact that India lost all three oneday internationals and went down in the final of the Asia Cup and onehas a fair idea of a trip, during which little went right for India.The tour seemed to be doomed right from the start. For beginners,Sachin Tendulkar was quoted to have said that the selectors did notgive him the team he wanted. Even though he denied this, thecontroversy did not die down. Then in the early days of the tour camea bombshell from London with Rashid Latif, the former Pakistan wicketkeeper, alleging that four Indians – Navjot Sidhu, Md Azharuddin,Nayan Mongia and Venkatapathi Raju – were involved in a bettingscandal. And even as the dust from this controversy had not yetsettled down, coach Madan Lal came down heavily against his own sideat the end of the tour with a series of personal comments that were inbad taste.Under the circumstances, the Indians could not have been in a properframe of mind to tackle the Sri Lankans, who only a year ago had wonthe World Cup and even in the Test arena had made giant strides sincethe 3-0 whitewash the visitors suffered in India in early 1994. But noone could have bargained for what actually happened.In the first Test played at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, Indiawon the toss on a batting paradise and hit up 537/8 declared on thesecond evening. Centuries by Sidhu, Tendulkar and Azharuddin were thehighlights of the innings. When Sri Lanka batted, they lost MarvanAtapattu to the last delivery of the second day, bowled by debutantleft arm spinner Nilesh Kulkarni, who thus became the first Indian totake a wicket with his first ball in Test cricket.What followed thereafter was beyond belief. Sanath Jayasuriya andRoshan Mahanama batted for more than two days in adding 576 runs forthe second wicket. They broke all sorts of records – not to mentionthe bowlers’ hearts. The partnership was not broken till the morningof the fifth day when Mahanama was out for 225. Jayasuriya, who had inthe meantime, become the 13th batsman to get a triple hundred in Testsadvanced towards Brian Lara’s record score of 375. But on 340, at thesame total that Mahanama was dismissed, Jayasuriya was out. There wasno respite for the exhausted Indian bowlers even after the two wereback in the pavilion for Aravinda de Silva (126), Arjuna Ranatunga(86) and M Jayawardena (66) rubbed salt in their wounds and even asthe match headed for a tame draw, interest was sustained as Sri Lankafinally overtook the highest total in Test cricket of 903/7 declared,notched up by England against Australia at the Oval in 1938. Sri Lankafinally ended with 952/6. The Indian bowling made for sorry readingwith the three spinners Rajesh Chauhan, Anil Kumble and Kulkarnisending down 78, 72 and 70 overs to bag one wicket each for 276, 223and 195 runs respectively.The second Test, played at the nearby SSC ground, was also marked byhigh scoring, though not of the kind that one saw at the Premadasastadium. Aravinda de Silva hit a century in each innings, giving himthree consecutive three figure innings in Tests. Jayasuriya got 199 inthe second innings as Sri Lanka scored 332 and 415/7 declared. Indiaalso had their share of the run feast and replied with 375 and 281/5,thanks to centuries by Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly in thefirst innings and Azharuddin in the second.By now, a jaded Indian side were obviously not in the right frame ofmind to take on the world champions in three ODIs. But they did godown fighting in the first game. Chasing a formidable target of 303,India got to 300 for seven thanks to centuries by Ajay Jadeja andAzharuddin who shared a record 223-run partnership for the fifthwicket. Despite a stroke filled 113 by Ganguly, India lost the secondODI tamely by seven wickets with 8.5 overs to spare. The third gamewas affected by rain and replayed and in this Sri Lanka emergedtriumphant by nine runs to make a clean sweep of the series and adismal tour for the Indians ended on a fitting note.In February, 1999, India were back at the SSC, Colombo to play theAsian Test Championship game against Sri Lanka. On a placid pitch, thebatsmen of both sides had a whale of a time. Put in to bat, India ledoff with 518/7 declared. Sadagoppan Ramesh (143) and Rahul Dravid(107) added a record 232 runs for the second wicket. Tendulkar (53),Ganguly (56) and Azharuddin (87) followed with valuable contributions.The Sri Lankan reply was sustained by a monumental 242 by MahelaJayawardene. His career best knock lasted 677 minutes, spread overthree days, and 465 balls with 30 fours and two sixes. Coming in whenthe first wicket fell at 18, he was last out at 485. The pitchremained a batting beauty even on the final day, emphasized by thefact that India closed at 306 for five with Tendulkar (124 not out)getting his 19th Test century. India got five points and Sri Lankafour from the game but with India having already lost to Pakistan,this was hardly sufficient and the subsequent drawn Test betweenPakistan and Sri Lanka at Lahore meant that Sri Lanka edged out Indiafor a place in the final, which was won by Pakistan.

Stratford-upon-Avon:
Lancashire 350-7 (RC Driver 208*)
WarwickshireHastings:
Somerset 341-5 (MJ Wood 82, PCL Holloway 73, JID Kerr 73)
SussexWorksop College:
Northamptonshire 238-9dec (R White 81, AJ Swann 67)
Nottinghamshire 5-0Chester-le-Street:
Gloucestershire 304 (RC Williams 75, M Kileen 4-73) and 55-1
Durham 86 and 163 (RJ Sillence 4-35)
Gloucestershire win by 9 wickets

* Brijesh Patel is Karnataka selection committee chairmanFormer Indian Test batsman Brijesh Patel is the chairman of theKarnataka State senior selection committee. The other members of thecommittee are another former Test player Roger Binny and former Statecricketers B Vijayakrishna and J Abhiram.The following are members of the other selection committees:Under-22: YB Patel (Chairman), H Surendra, K Sanath Kumar, AVVenkatnarayan and Vijay Prakash (from Mysore). Under-19 and Under-16:A Raghuram Bhat (Chairman), Kamal Tandon, R Ananth, Sanjay Desai andBaba M Bhushad (invitee from Zone). Under-14: K Jeshwant (Chairman),Rajesh Kamath, R Arun Kumar, BS Vishwanath and Sujith Bohra (inviteefrom Zone).Selection committees for SA Srinivasan Memorial Trophy tournament2001-2002: President’s XI and Combined XI: J Abhiram (Chairman), ARaghuram Bhat, MS Rajappa, PV Shashikanth, H Chandrashekar and AVVenkatnarayan. Bangalore City and Bangalore zone: YB Patel (Chairman),Sanjay Desai, Suresh Shanbal, K Sanath Kumar, B Siddarama and SPrakash.The KSCA secretary will be the convener for all the above committees.* CAB annual awards distributedThe annual prize distribution function of the Cricket Association ofBengal for 2000-2001 was held at the Eden Gardens on Saturday. MajorGeneral PJS Sandhu (GOC-Bengal Area) was the chief guest on theoccasion. East Bengal Club received the First Division LeagueChampionship Trophy while High Court Club collected the SecondDivision Championship Trophy. Kalighat Club won the Senior Knock-outChampionship while Victoria Sporting Club won the Junior Knock-outTrophy. Mohun Bagan Athletic Club received the P.Sen Memorial Trophy.Rohan Gavaskar of East Bengal Club received the Pankaj Gupta MemorialCup for the Cricketer of The Year along with a cash prize of Rs 1,500while Deep Dasgupta received the Gentleman Cricketer Of The Year(Pankaj Roy Memorial Trophy). This is a new trophy instituted onlythis year. Arindam Das received the Bata Challenge Cup and Rs 1,000for the Best Under-19 cricketer, Ajoy Garai received the NirodChowdhury Memorial Challenge Cup and Rs 1,000 for the Best Under-16cricketer and Samik Mukherjee received the CAB Challenge Cup and Rs1,000 for the Best Under-14 cricketer.Deep Dasgupta and Arindam Das were awarded Rs 1,000 each for beingselected in the National Cricket Academy. Sabir Ali, Shib ShankarPaul, Sujay Parui, Aurijeet Basu, Amitava Banerjee and Sanjib Sanyalwere each awarded Rs 1,500 for making their debut in the NationalChampionship. Sukanta Pathak, Aniruddha Banerjee and Susanta Pathakwere each awarded Rs 1,500 for making their debut in umpiring in theRanji Trophy. International umpire Subrata Banerjee won the SantoshKumar Ganguly Memorial Trophy and Rs 1,500 for being adjudged as “BestUmpire” of CAB.

Roger Harper yesterday chided observers who described the West Indies’pre-tour camp as an army-type exercise which was not suited forcricketers.The West Indies coach, to the contrary, believed the two-week camp inTrinidad served its purpose in preparing the team for tours ofZimbabwe and Kenya.A lot of things have been said about the camp and wrongly so. A lot ofpeople from the Press have made some ill-advised and unresearchedstatements, he said on his return to the Caribbean yesterday after asuccessful tour.The West Indies coach lauded the effort of team sports therapistRonald Rogers and two physical training instructors from the Trinidadand Tobago Defence Force for their input at the camp.But he was critical of those who made negative comments about theexercise.I read things in the Press about an army-style camp. I have never beento an army camp and I don’t know what it’s like, Harper said.I doubt whether the people who made those comments saw any details ofthe programme of the camp.He added that Rogers’ assistants had previously worked with otherinternational sports teams.Certainly they are not army drill sergeants. The programmes they ran,as designed by Ronald, were specifically geared to getting our team inthe best physical shape and mental condition as well, Harper said.Judging from the results, obviously they have to be given some sort ofcredit.Harper was speaking to reporters during a welcome reception for theteam, hosted by British Airways in the Club Caribbean Lounge at theGrantley Adams International Airport.The reception was held following the success by the West Indies teamwhich returned from an overseas tour with positive results for thefirst time in six years.Carl Hooper’s men won the Coca-Cola Cup in a three-way limited-oversseries that also involved Zimbabwe and India, and followed up with a1-0 series victory in a two-Test series against Zimbabwe.On leaving Zimbabwe, the West Indies moved over to Kenya where theyeasily defeated the hosts in three One-Day Internationals.By no means have we arrived, Harper said, with the knowledge thatZimbabwe and Kenya are two of the weaker teams in internationalcricket.This is a process of development, a process of growing and we’ve shownthat we are learning.He said the success in Zimbabwe was significant because India had onlyrecently stopped the winning streak of mighty Australia but wereunable to defeat Zimbabwe in the preceding Test series.Winning in Zimbabwe was no mean feat. Defeating India in the (Coca-Cola) final was a significant achievement.We managed to overcome the adversity of losing a number of key playersto injury.The team stuck together well, fought very well and there was thedetermination and the will to win that process started way back in thecamp.The tour started with major injury worries for the West Indies whichresulted in champion batsman Brian Lara, leg-spinner DinanathRamnarine, and fast bowlers Cameron Cuffy, Mervyn Dillon and KerryJeremy having to return home early.If you look at the schedule of international cricket being playedaround the world, you will get injuries due to wear and tear, Harpersaid.What we have to try and do is to put together a process in theCaribbean of preparing our youngsters from early, making them fitterand stronger so that when they get to international level they arebetter prepared to take on the rigours of the sort of schedules wehave at the moment.The reception was attended by Barbados Cricket Association officials,including first vice-president David Holford, second vice-presidentOwen Estwick, board members Conde Riley and Bobby Goodman, consultantSelwyn Smith, as well as British Airways’ area commercial managerElvin Sealy.The West Indies’ party included Harper, Barbadians Courtney Browne,Corey Collymore and Pedro Collins, Guyanese Shivnarine Chanderpaul,Reon King, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Neil McGarrell and Trinidadian DaveMohammed.