Scorecard

When India A lost their third wicket and Rahul Dravid strode out to bat, a buzz went around the ground, travelling like a swarm of bees. As he approached the crease, the crowds started chanting “Draa-vid, Draa-vid”, which was ironic, considering that for years, Indian crowds have cheered when Dravid has been , and they have chanted “Suh-chin, Suh-chin”. But the passing of the years has revealed Dravid to be one of India’s greats, and he has, in this tournament, shown himself again to be India’s best batsman, bar perhaps an absent man. And here, in a tense situation in the final of the Challenger Trophy, he duly shepherded his side to a win.The generous pitch at the Wankhede – the previous first-innings scores in this tournament were 280, 275 and 294 – turned miserly today, as India Seniors, after Sourav Ganguly won the toss and chose to bat, made just 211. They would have finshed with less, had it not been for a responsible 51 from Ganguly and a spirited 65 by Neeraj Patel. India A began badly, losing their first three wickets for 38, before Dravid and Dheeraj Jadhav made measured half-centuries in a century stand to end India Seniors’ hopes.Dravid did not dominate the bowling as he had in the previous two games, but he had it on a leash. Ganguly’s bowlers did not appear quite as threatening against him as they had against the other batsmen, and if his strokeplay wasn’t fluid, his innings was solid, and solidity sufficed. L Balaji bowled a nippy spell at the start of the innings, and Ranadeb Bose and Gagandeep Singh also did well, but while the early wickets they lost had taken away India A’s momentum, they never lost their composure.Jadhav, who had set the platform for India A’s win the first game with a composed 79, again showed that he has both the game and the temperament to merit opportunities at a higher level. Jadhav’s strokeplay possesses a lazy elegance – why do those two words go together so often? – but his demeanour today was workmanlike, and his 50 took all of 104 balls to come, and contained only four boundaries. But his job was to keep his wicket intact, and he patiently let many balls pass outside off, as if he was auditioning for the opener’s spot in the Test side. Once in a while he would charge out, normally with an anticlimatic end. He was finally out when he gave Ganguly the charge, missed, and was stumped by Mahendra Dhoni for 58 (139 for 4).Mohammad Kaif then joined Dravid, and though for a while India A needed to score at a run a ball, they kept their cool and got there comfortably, with a flurry of delightful strokes at the end. They had, to India Seniors’ credit, been made to sweat, but Dravid and Kaif come from a tropical land, and they kept their cool throughout.Dravid had been impressive in the field as well, captaining with focus and energy, applauding his fielders when they did well, marshalling his field placings well, and not hassling his bowlers with too much advice, as his India captain tends to do. The fielding was feisty, the bowling was disciplined, and India Seniors quickly lost early wickets.Zaheer Khan was the sharpest of the bowlers, but it was Rudra Pratap Singh, the 19-year-old left-arm medium-pacer from Uttar Pradesh, who made the early breakthroughs. He dismissed Dhoni and Suresh Raina in his first over, and Shikhar Dhawan a few overs later. Ganguly made a responsible 51, adding 37 with Dhawan and 39 with Venugopal Rao. He stroked some lovely fours in the arc between cover and backward point but was eventually run out trying to steal a quick bye. India Seniors were then 113 for 6, and an early finish to the game looked likely.Neeraj Patel counter-attacked superbly, though, showing both orthodoxy while driving in the V, and inventiveness as the innings wound down. He hit sixes off Yousuf Pathan and RP Singh, and eight fours besides. His enterprise took India Seniors’ score to 211, but the young man would have known that with a certain great batsman from Bangalore on the other side, it was unlikely to be enough. Had Patel been in the crowd, he too would perhaps have chanted “Draa-vid, Draa-vid” when India’s A’s third wicket fell. And he would have got his money’s worth.

Former Australian Test cricketer Dean Jones is set to embark on yet another charity walk, this time from Cairns to Sydney in 37 days. He will join 10 former rugby league greats, to be announced next week, for the inaugural Legends of Origin relay, with all proceeds donated to the children’s charity, the Make-A-Wish Foundation.in 2003 Jones walked from Sydney to Melbourne as part of a lingering bet with former England allrounder Ian Botham. Botham challenged Jones and Allan Border to walk for charity because he had “never seen an Australian walk during his career”. The pair, along with David Boon, have raised over Aus$2 million from their walks. The 3,500km Legends of Origin walk begins in Cairns on May 10 with the finish coinciding with State Of Origin 2 in Sydney on June 15.Jones said the idea came about over “several beers” with Laurie Daley. But they won’t be walking the entire way. They are planning to enlist the help of yachts, hot rods, Harley Davidson motorbikes, road trains, bicycles and jet skis for the relay team. “I don’t think they could walk all the way because they’d need a bit of preparation for that, but having 80-odd events in 37 days is bloody hard work,” Jones said.He added that he hoped the experience would help bring the fierce former foes closer. “There’s still that rivalry, you can feel it, which is great. But at the same time, while the older blokes have got to pump the game up, they need to relax a little, enjoy what they did, how good they were and create more friendships between the two teams.”

Shoaib Malik, the Pakistan allrounder, has been advised to undergo elbow surgery in his right arm if he wants to start bowling again in international cricket. Malik, 23, who was reported by the umpires after a one-day match against Sri Lanka in October 2004, has only been used sparingly as a bowler since, though he did bowl in four of the six ODIs against India in the recently concluded series.According to a report in , Malik, who returned from South Africa on Monday after getting his arm examined, has been feeling pain while trying to straighten his arm for bowling. The report said that Joe de Beer and Basil Veretos, the specialists, offered Malik two options – either use painkillers prior to a match, or to go in for surgery. “There are bright chances of solving the problem permanently if the player undergoes surgery,” the newspaper quoted them as saying. “However, the surgery is sensitive and the bowler has to spare around three months for the purpose.”Pakistan are scheduled to tour the West Indies for a Test and one-day series over the next couple of months, but thereafter they have no engagements lined up till October. Malik could thus undergo his surgery after the series in the West Indies and regain complete fitness in time to play against England at home later this year.

Sourav Ganguly has revealed that Mohammad Kaif will play in the second Test against Australia at Chennai, and that Yuvraj Singh is likely to open at the expense of Aakash Chopra.”Mohammad Kaif will get a chance to prove his skills on the field,” said Ganguly. Kaif last played a Test three years ago, when India lost by an innings and 77 runs to Sri Lanka. He scored 19 runs in that game. But his selection for the second Test is indicative of his current good form: he is perhaps the only Indian batsman in good touch at the moment. Kaif enhanced his chances by scoring a hundred in a warm-up game against a full-strength Indian bowling attack before the series began.Ganguly also added: “There is a possibility that we may go with Yuvraj as opener.” In recent times, Ganguly had expressed his preference for Yuvraj over Chopra, who was dropped for the last Test against Pakistan earlier this year, when Parthiv Patel was asked to open. Chopra did his cause no favours with scores of 0 and 5 at Bangalore.

Shabbir Ahmed is set to play the second Test against West Indies despite being reported for a suspected illegal bowling action. Saleem Altaf, the Pakistan team manager, confirmed that Shabbir will feature in the XI. “I think he will be in because he can continue to play during the period his action again undergoes remedial measures,” Reuters reported him as saying. “We might also ask for the assistance of the ICC in our endeavour to correct his bowling action.”Shabbir had a reasonably good match in Barbados, taking 5 for 136 even as Pakistan were thrashed by 276 runs, but the problems for him came later when David Shepherd and Darrell Hair, the on-field umpires, and Ranjan Madugalle, the match referee, reported him for his suspect action. Shabbir’s international career has been dogged by this problem – he had earlier been reported in September 1999, and then again in January 2004. Under the revised bowling-review process, Shabbir’s action will now be analysed by a member of the ICC’s panel of human-movement specialists, who will then submit a report to the ICC confirming whether Shabbir’s action falls within the 15 degrees of elbow-straightening.Meanwhile, Altaf also said that Pakistan were trying to ensure Yousuf Youhana’s return for the second Test in Jamaica, which starts on June 3. Youhana returned home before the first Test as his father was unwell. “We are trying but I can’t confirm if he would be able to make it back in time for the match.” Youhana has previously indicated that he wouldn’t be able to make it back to the West Indies in time for the match.

At the moment the Kenya Cricket Association is embroiled in a court case which, in essence, revolves around its creation of three new provincial associations in 2002. Opponents of the board claim that the move was unconstitutional, and furthermore that it was done to ensure that the existing committee and officials retained control.These allegations have all been denied, and on August 31 the KCA issued a press release addressing recent criticism, and naming a number of clubs which it claimed formed the basis of the new Central region.At a council meeting in May, Sharad Ghai, now the KCA’s chairman, referred to a letter he said he had received from Thika Gymkhana, Thika Sports Club, Ruiru Sports Club and Makuyu Club stating that they wished to form a provincial association. It was decided there that there should be such an association in Central, provided the clubs concerned were cricket clubs, although the minutes of the meeting make no mention of this at all.Wisden Cricinfo decided to take a closer look at these four clubs, and so we sent representatives, all of whom are deeply involved in Kenyan cricket, to investigate. This is their report:”Thika Sports Club has golf, swimming and tennis as its sporting activities. The groundsman showed us a field on which there were two rugby goalposts, and told us that this was the former cricket ground. He explained that cricket was last played there in the 1980s, and when this died out it became a rugby ground – until that also died out about four or five years ago. There is no club cricket team, nor is cricket of any description played there.”Thika Gymkana is a small club with a pool and a gymnasium. Land at the back of the clubhouse is used for informal cricket, which was being played there by children when we visited. It is tiny, and the kids batted on one side of the wicket only. The club has no team, nor does it take part in any representative cricket at all. It is largely a social club. The children begged us for kit and pleaded that they could raise an Under-15 side, adding that they really wanted to play in Nairobi. Some of them played for other division four teams in Nairobi at weekends.”The youngsters did confirm that there had been elections in the province, and that Joshua Kiragu had been elected chairman. But they explained that these elections did not even take place in Central province. They took place at the KCA’s offices at the Ruaraka Club in Nairobi, and we were told that only two clubs attended. As the KCA constitution demands a minimum of three clubs, and the elections were not even held in the province itself, the validity of the meeting must be dubious.”How Makuyu could ever be treated as a cricket club defies comprehension. It is a golf club which is virtually dying following the loss of its main sponsor, Kakuzi Limited, a large horticultural company in the area. It has no facilities to play cricket at all, and its groundsman was totally baffled when we asked him about cricket. The club’s facilities are pretty spartan.”Ruiru is a golf club (and a nine-hole one at that) and is struggling to survive. The immediate past golf captain of the club confirmed that it had no facilities, let alone any desire, to play cricket.”The way that cricket clubs function in Kenya is that they are generally part of larger all-encompassing sports clubs. So, often while there is provision for there to be a cricket club, there is no separate organisation or committee.When we put our findings to the KCA, Sammy Obingo, the general manager, insisted that at no stage was it indicated the clubs named were playing organised cricket.”It should be noted that a number of clubs in both Mombasa and in Nairobi do not have cricket clubs – eg Memon, Patel, Union and Simba Union in Mombasa – do not have their grounds and use other clubs grounds, and in Nairobi, Swamibabpa do not have there own ground and they use Premier club’s ground,” said Obingo. “The issue of clubs owning their own cricket grounds should not be the only criteria to determine weather a club can play cricket or not.”The clubs cited by Obingo do, however, fulfill other criteria, such as all having at least 25 active cricket-playing members and all played at least one year of fixtures before being allowed to enter a league. And, while ground sharing is a viable proposition in the main centres of Nairobi and Mombasa, in the more remote regions it becomes less viable.But there have to be serious questions asked when clubs, some of which have been cited in the board’s own press release, do not play the game and appear to have little inclination to do so.

Western Australia 0 for 2 trail Tasmania 258 (Cox 54, Birt 52, Magoffin 4-70) by 256 runs
ScorecardSteve Magoffin picked up four wickets on debut as Western Australia bowled Tasmania out for 258 on the first day of the Pura Cup match at the WACA.After winning the toss and electing to bat, Tasmania were cruising at 1 for 134 on an ideal batting track before Magoffin (4 for 70), who crossed over from Queensland in the off-season, claimed three scalps in 12 balls to drag the home side back into the contest.The Test bowler Brad Williams (2 for 48), who had been troubled with hamstring soreness before the match, got the first breakthrough after the openers Jamie Cox and David Dawson put on 80 runs for the first wicket. But the Tigers then faulted badly, losing nine wickets for 124 runs to be all out in the penultimate over of the day. Western Australia were 0 for 2 at stumps.

Sri Lanka A 227 all out (RP Arnold 69*) beat West Indies A 155 (Fernando 2-16) by 72 runs
ScorecardRussell Arnold struck a fluent 69, from 64 balls, to take Sri Lanka A to an easy victory over West Indies A in the fifth one-day match in Colombo. Sri Lanka’s score of 227 proved too much for West Indies, who were bowled for 155 with nearly seven overs to spare.After winning the toss and choosing to bat, Upul Tharanga and Arnold put together a crucial partnership of 62 for Sri Lanka, at a time when they were 20 for 2. Dave Mohammed, with his left-arm chinaman deliveries, was the pick of the West Indies bowlers, taking four for 23 from 8.4 economical overs.West Indies’ innings never recovered from the loss of Lendl Simmons, bowled by Nuwan Zoysa, with the fifth ball of their innings. Despite a brutal lower order assault by Dave Mohammed, who cracked six sixes and a four in his 43, Sri Lanka’s bowlers were too strong: Dilhara Fernando impressing with two for 16 from seven overs.

Scorecard
At the Wanderers, Free State took full advantage of batting first against Gauteng and declared after making 419 for 7, largely due to an unbeaten double-century from Benjamin Hector.Hector, who made 200 not out, was supported by Shane Summers, who matched him with some power hitting as the 85th over approached. Both Hector and Summers made their last 50 in just 38 balls as the two added 81 in the final 14 overs. By close, Gauteng replied with 36 for no loss.
Scorecard
At Kimberley, Western Province rode on a career-best 66 from VernonPhilander to help them to a less-than-competitive 173. They were rocked by a lethal spell by Jandre Coetzee, the left-arm medium pacer, as he finished with 7 for 42 in his 18 overs. Coetzee, in only his second first-class match, proved to be almost unplayable on a wicket that did offer the bowlers assistance. Griqualand West also struggled with the bat and were 127 for 6 at stumps. With Wendell Bossenger, their captain, retired hurt, they were effectively seven down.
Scorecard
Boland started their campaign well by restricting Eastern Province to 230 for 8 declared at Paarl. But they squandered the advantage when they batted and folded for a paltry 109. Grant Howell, son of international umpire Ian Howell, top scored for Eastern Province with an unbeaten 80. Wallace Albertyn (4 for 55) and Jacques van Wyk (3 for 44) were the most successful bowlers for Boland.However, the performance of the day belonged to L Tsotsobe, as his 7 for 44 helped bundle Boland out by the end of the day. This was Tsotsobe’s debut and he impressed with his pace and also got the ball to swing into the right-handers.
Scorecard
Border notched up 248 for 5 against KwaZulu-Natal at East London on a day when only 77 overs could be bowled as bad forced players to leave the field early. Carl Bradfield set the tone of the day with a patient 64. Burton de Wett followed suit with a 46 but it was the final pair of Dumisa Makalima (64 not out) and Warwick Hinkel (48 not out) who put on 114 as the Natal bowlers struggled on a good firm surface.

Ian Healy thinks Australia’s high-class bowlers have masked fielding inadequacies and the team is not working enough on catching. Healy, a meticulous trainer during his 119-Test career, told the the next generation faced a lot of hard training.”They won’t have the bowlers to create the chances we are getting now, so they will not be able to cruise on their talent,” Healy said. “To an extent Australia has got away with it because the bowlers have created so many chances but far too many catches have gone down.”Australia’s poor fielding was highlighted by seven missed chances in the third Test at Old Trafford. Healy began taking notes of dropped catches in the 2001 series and had Australia spilling as many as England – “I think it was 23 each”. “It’s been going on for a long time,” he told the paper of the missing intensity. “I just haven’t seen the repetition work going on before games for the last five years.”Under Bob Simpson fielding practice was a tight regime and the performance of the side improved markedly. The players also saw it as a chance to show off as they warmed-up for matches, or trained in places as strange as a grassy patch outside their hotel in India. On the New Zealand tour earlier this year John Buchanan spoke about time constraints cutting their catching routines.