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East Zone Under-16s were 219/3 at close of play on the second day against North Zone Under-16s in the final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy at the Rajinder Singh Institute Ground, Bangalore, on Friday.North Zone resumed at 398/7 and played on for another 23 overs, before being bowled out for 491. Gaurav Gupta remained unbeaten on 177 made off 250 balls including a six and 24 boundaries.Captain A Iqbal claimed the wickets of Abhishek Sharma (25) and Ankur Jund (0). Gupta and Sharma shared an eighth wicket partnership of 98 runs in 21.1 overs.Last man Puneet Sharma (0) held on for 15 balls before being trapped lbw by SK Ray. Iqbal was easily the best of the bowlers with the figures of 33-10-110-5.East Zone got off to a steady start with R Mohanty (48 with 8 fours) and M Biswas putting together 68 runs for the first wicket. A Garai and Biswas then added 56 runs for the second wicket, before Biswas was bowled by A Bali. Biswas made 45 off just 49 balls with the help of nine boundaries.SP Priyadarshan (38) struck five fours and a six in his 94-ball innings adding 65 runs for the third wicket with Garai. At close of play Iqbal (7) was batting with a resilient Garai (66). Garai has so far faced 193 balls, striking nine fours in his 206-minute stay at the crease. Bali has been the most successful bowler, taking 2/59.

With a 5-1 lead and one eye on the plane home, South Africa’s cricketers could be excused for taking preparations for the seventh and final one-day international against the West Indies a little easy. In fact, they have the perfect excuse – none of their training kit had arrived on the island by Monday night and practice was set to be little more than a chance for the players to familiarise themselves with the Arnos Vale ground and have perhaps the final touch rugby game of the tour.No matter how low key the preparations, the game will have particular significance for one member of the squad. On Wednesday, Jonty Rhodes will become the first South African to play in 200 One-Day Internationals.”I haven’t been big into milestones and statistics in my career and may be that’s a fault of mine,” Rhodes said as he relaxed on the beach outside the team hotel. “Maybe I wouldn’t have been left out of the Test side for a season and a half if I had a higher average.”Especially with a guy like Hansie around who was always going to play every game, it wasn’t as if I was ever going to be the most capped player. 200 was never really a milestone, the next World Cup is my goal. But there are 25 year-olds in the team who have already played 120 or 140 games – they’ll be playing 250 or 300, so it’s not that big a deal. I’m just grateful to have played 2, let alone 200.”I always thought through the years of sports isolation that I would end up like a Clive Rice or a Jimmy Cook or a Peter Kirsten, just playing county cricket and that was the extent of your international exposure,” Rhodes said.Rhodes admits his decision to retire from Test cricket has added an extra burden of pressure to perform when he pulls on his international colours these days. But if there were any doubts at all of the extra dimension he adds to the South Africa team, he has emphatically erased them since joining the tour in Jamaica a month ago.He is averaging comfortably over 50 with the bat and his standards in the field remain the highest in the world. A blinding catch to dismiss Chris Gayle in Jamaica and the match-winning run out of Brian Lara in Trinidad are only two of the highlights of a display which has had local fans and journalists alike slapping their thighs and exclaiming to the heavens in astonishment.Nothing short of the Arnos Vale ground slipping into the sea (which is not entirely impossible – it is perched between the airport runway and a palm-fringed beach!) would seem to be able to prevent Rhodes winning his 200th cap on Wednesday. Andre Nel is less likely to earn his second after pulling up lame during his impressive debut in Trinidad, but Boeta Dippenaar has made a full recovery from the twinge which forced him off the field in the same game.The desire to rotate roles within the side could also present JustinOntong with an opportunity to bat higher up the order – a chance snapped up by Justin Kemp in Trinidad whose 46 in a partnership of 92 with man of the match Neil McKenzie was the backbone of the South African effort.

As the champagne flowed at New Road, there must have been very different emotions at Chelmsford. It will not have gone unnoticed by Essex that two of the architects of Warwickshire’s 2012 Championship triumph were former Essex players: Chris Wright and Varun Chopra.Chopra has been the only Warwickshire man to register 1,000 first-class runs – he was also just the fourth man in the country to reach the milestone – in 2012 while Wright has bowled with pace, skill and consistency to claim 58 wickets in 14 Championship matches. Both have gone from being fringe players at Essex to England possibles.While Essex had wanted to retain the services of Chopra, who left for Edgbaston at the end of the 2009 season, they released Wright a few weeks before the end of the 2011 season. Neither man had come anywhere near realising his potential at Essex, which perhaps raises as many questions about the environment at Chelmsford as it does the one at Edgbaston.”I didn’t think I would get released,” Wright said after Warwickshire wrapped up the Championship title with a crushing victory over Worcestershire. “I maybe thought I would have another year. It was a bit of a shock.”I was released during the Colchester festival, which is when they normally decide on the contracts. But we were playing against Gloucestershire at the time and I knew they were interested, so I had a day in mourning, as it were, but then I had to shake it off because it was set up for me to come here on loan by the following evening. So there wasn’t much time to sulk.”Whenever you get sacked it’s a bad time, but the silver lining was coming here.”I honestly think that, if I’d be given the opportunity before, I’d have enjoyed the same success. I was bowling well last year, but I was doing it in second XI cricket. I just don’t feel I had a chance to show what I could do at Essex. If you look how things have gone, it would suggest they made a mistake in not recognising what I can do.”They key to Wright coming to Edgbaston was Graeme Welch, the bowling coach at Warwickshire. Welch had previously filled the same role at Essex and had long been an admirer of Wright. When Warwickshire suffered some injury problems towards the end of the 2011 season, he suggested Wright was the man to fill the void. Wright arrived on loan, claimed two five-wicket hauls in his first four games and was soon signed on a three-year deal.”It has been a pretty amazing 12 months,” he said. “But Graeme Welch had been at Essex for two years and that coincided with my first two years. He was in Ashley Giles’s ear a lot about getting me to come and, in end, Ashley came round.”It’s difficult to say what has been different here, but I always wanted to play more Championship cricket and I never had the opportunity to do that at Essex. Here I have played every game and I have been trusted with some important overs. I’ve felt I was backed 100 per cent.”Wright also credited his bowling partnership with Keith Barker, the left-arm swing bowler who graduated through Lancashire’s system before pursuing a career in football. Barker offered first refusal to Lancashire for his services when he returned to cricket but has blossomed under Welch’s tutelage at Edgbaston. The pair found themselves sharing the new ball only after Boyd Rankin and Chris Woakes suffered injuries in the run-up to the season.”It has been brilliant bowling with Keith, who is a left-armer swinging it back, so in that respect we have complimented each other well,” Wright said. “But it was a partnership that wasn’t necessarily going to happen until Woakesy turned his ankle over badly in Barbados on our pre-season tour and Boyd had a stress fracture in his foot. So it was thrust upon us really. Happily things went well.”The odd thing is that, while Wright and Chopra struggled to make an impression at a club that has played much of its cricket in the second division, they have now played significant roles in one that has won a Championship. In four seasons at Essex, for example, Chopra never passed 650 first-class runs; in three at Warwickshire he has surpassed 1,000 twice.”Sometimes you need a change of scenery,” Chopra said. “Maybe I just needed to get out of my comfort zone. It is no slight on Essex. But even when he was there, Wright showed signs of being a special bowler.”Ashley Giles is quite a hard taskmaster. A few weeks, ago, during the Middlesex game, he said – after some pretty strong words – ‘we need you now’ and I’ve started to hit the ball pretty well.”I know there is an opportunity for someone now that Andrew Strauss has retired, but my focus is just on Warwickshire. The set-up here is good. It’s strong and it’s disciplined, but maybe a change is all me and Chris needed.”

Uttar Pradesh won the Vijay Merchant Trophy (under-16) knock out tournamentat the Eden Gardens on Monday. The three day final against Delhi ended in a draw but UP, having taken a first innings lead of 82 runs, were declared winners.In fact, UP were on course for an outright win early on the final day. Opener Pritipal Singh was run out for one and then Vishal Francis bowled the other opener Shikhar Dhawan for 27 and had Niraj Sharma leg before for six. Delhi were 40 for three at this stage.But a fourth wicket partnership between Kuldeep Rawat and Himanshu Mehtathwarted UP’s victory bid. The two added 150 runs before Mehta was stumped by Md Amir off Praveen Gupta for 76. He faced 149 balls and hit seven fours and two sixes. The stand was broken just before tea and by this time, Delhi had made the match safe.Rawat and Abhishek Nag (19) then added 42 runs for the fifth wicket and the match was called off the moment Rawat got his century. For his unbeaten 100, Rawat batted 254 minutes, faced 212 balls and hit eleven fours and two sixes. Delhi were 245 for five off 86.3 overs when the match ended.

Australia’s one-day captain Ricky Ponting is convinced that Shane Watson’s progress is such that the search for a quality all-rounder is almost over for the world champions.Watson had been making progress in leaps and bounds, Ponting told a media conference at the Taj Samudra Hotel in Colombo on the eve of today’s ICC Champions Trophy semi-final with Sri Lanka.”That has been one concern for us – the all-rounder’s position. We have tried a few players over the last few years, they been rotated on different times. Nathan Hauritz has also been working hard over here and things are going along nicely for him,” Ponting said.Ponting also spoke about the Australian policy of having two different captains for the two versions of the game.”Knowing the way I am about my position and knowing the way Stephen [Waugh] is about his, I know there won’t be any sort of conflict. When the Test matches come around, I will obviously step aside and Stephen takes over as the boss of Australian cricket again, which is what he still is.”Ponting outlined the reasons for Australia’s overwhelming success over the last decade in international cricket.”We try to get the best out of the talent in our side. We play a fairly aggressive style of cricket, not only in one-dayers but in Test cricket as well. That is how Australian cricketers are brought up, playing that brand of cricket.”We have a talented side, and when you have a talented side, you always try to improve yourself and look ahead,” he added.Ponting does not believe that there is a big gap between Australia and the rest of the world when it comes to cricket.”So far the results have been good to us. We know that we are a good side, and we know that if we play to our best; we are going to be hard to beat.”Ponting also commented on the increased role of the third umpires in the ICC Champions Trophy: “I am very happy at the way it has worked. There have been minimal delays as well, which is very good as far as I am concerned.”It was during the 1996 World Cup that Australia decided to skip the games which were to be played in Sri Lanka. And most of the Islanders have not taken that issue too lightly. But, given the changing political climate in Sri Lanka and the road to peace becoming a reality, there is a sense of security all around.Even the Aussie one-day skipper seems to enjoy the new Sri Lanka.”This has been a fantastic tour so far. I am really surprised at the feeling and change in mood in the last few years. It is a great feeling at this moment to get around the shopping centres and the streets.”

Twin batting collapses by Khan Research Laboratories handed an innings win inside of two days to Port Qasim Authority, who had only made 195, in their President’s Trophy match in Lahore. Abdur Rauf was wrecker-in-chief, picking up ten wickets for the match.Having been invited to bat, KRL slumped to 17 for 6, with the first three wickets falling before the team reached double-figures. A brief lower-order resistance helped KRL get to 78, with only three batsmen crossing into double figures. Rauf and Mohammad Talha each took four wickets respectively.PQA enjoyed a better time with the bat with opener Khurram Manzoor himself scoring more than the runs required to claim a first-innings lead. His stroke-filled 80 laid the foundation for a big total, but after Ali Khan had him trapped in front, the innings flagged. Yasir Arafat picked up four wickets, while Sadaf Hussain claimed three to limit PQA to 195.KRL’s second essay fared none better, with only two batsmen recording double-figure scores. Rauf celebrated his 52nd five-wicket haul in first-class cricket, his 6 for 33 demolishing KRL’s batting as they folded for a score lower than their first innings – 71.

The delivery
Shane Shillingford to R Ashwin. Being an offspinner himself, you would expect Ashwin to read his opponent’s hand better than most. But even Ashwin was confounded by Shillingford’s doosra, as he played forward to a well-flighted delivery that pitched on a length, on an off stump line, before straightening. Shillingford had bowled with a scrambled seam and imparted enough revolutions on the delivery to draw an appreciative glance from Ashwin, even as he got beaten. That it was him who eventually bowled Ashwin would have given Shillingford immense satisfaction, considering he had caused much distress to the Indian through the morning.The no-brainer
Want to get rid of the West Indies opener? Bowl him a bouncer. If it was Kieran Powell who attempted an unnecessary pull against Mohammed Shami in the first innings, today it was the turn of his opening partner Chris Gayle to try the same against Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Gayle had got off the blocks in confident fashion. He had already hit two boundaries in that Bhuvneshwar over, the second one slipping through a closely-knit off-side cordon comprising a short-extra cover, cover and mid-off. However on the final ball of the over, Bhuvneshwar sent down a short-pitched delivery that was wide of the off stump. But Gayle quickly moved to his left and attempted a suicidal pull. It was a poor shot and Gayle realised it even before his top edge landed safely in the hands of the square-leg fielder, Virat Kohli.Ojha knees one for four
Powell charged Pragyan Ojha, punching a powerful drive straight back at the bowler. The ball ricocheted off Ojha’s bent knee and sailed through the covers. Normally you would expect the ball to stop after travelling a short distance. However, to everyone’s surprise, the ball kept travelling quickly towards the ropes, forcing Sachin Tendulkar (wide mid-off) and Ashwin (deep square leg) to chase hard. The fast outfield beat the pair.The run that wasn’t
Powell pushed a fuller delivery from Ashwin into the vacant midwicket region and set off for a single confidently. However, he had to abruptly jump back into the crease because his partner, Darren Bravo, had raised the red flag straightaway. Bravo did not even take a forward step as he raised his hand to signal a firm no. Powell, annoyed, raised both his hands at missing out on what was an easy run. Perhaps Bravo was yet to recover from his run-out in the first innings, when he had attempted a careless single and was sent back by Shivnarine Chanderpaul.Llong and short shrift
Nigel Llong’s decision to send Sachin Tendulkar on his way on Thursday had already caused a furore in Kolkata, the story and picture of Tendulkar walking back shaking his head splashed across the front pages. On Friday Llong backed the bowler yet again in another doubtful decision. Shami swung the ball into the back pad of Marlon Samuels and appealed for an lbw; Samuels was looking down to adjust his thigh pad when he suddenly heard the roar go up around the ground and realised he’d been given out. He stood there, stunned, and then looked towards Llong, pointing to his thigh to indicate how high the ball had hit him. Replays showed the ball would also have gone down leg.Dhoni’s eagle eye
Veerasamy Permaul would have felt the tension and nervousness as he took the guard to face his first delivery from local boy Shami. The whole of Eden Gardens cheered as one as Shami started his run-up. He had already broken through the defences of Darren Sammy and Shillingford. And when Shami successfully curved the ball in for the third time in the over, to Permaul, the crescendo rose to ear-drum busting levels. As Shami and Kolkata appealed, pleaded with, begged umpire Kettleborough to raise his finger, Permaul had moved out of his crease. One man who did not get carried away was Indian captain and wicketkeeper, MS Dhoni, who sensing an opportunity threw the ball under-arm to break the stumps and run Permaul out. Both the Indian team and Eden Gardens enjoyed a laugh as an embarrassed Permaul walked back.

Shamsur Rahman has chosen the biggest stage in Bangladesh’s domestic cricket to re-launch his bid for a place in the senior side. His unbeaten century in the Dhaka derby tilted the result towards Mohammedan Sporting Club who beat Abahani by two wickets. The innings came at a time when the national selectors are looking at more top-order options ahead of a crucial series against New Zealand next month, and for the remainder of the 2013-14 home season.After the match-winning innings which also helped Mohammedan become the only side in the league to complete three wins out of three, Shamsur remained cautious of his chances ahead. He emphasised on his better fitness, which has been questioned lately.”Definitely the innings is one of the best in my career,” Shamsur said. “But I am not looking very far, as far as the national team is concerned. There are many matches for the national team ahead and I am sure that I will get my opportunity.”I think I am extremely fit because of the fitness training camp for the national members. The hard work is surely paying off. But along with that I also worked with my batting as I failed to capitalise the fifties into big score.”It was also comeback innings of sorts for Shamsur, who had run into poor form in the last few months. After a productive BPL 2013 where he averaged 42.10, scored six fifties and was second-highest Bangladeshi scorer, Shamsur’s tour with Bangladesh A wasn’t up to the mark. He batted at 27.71 in seven matches, with two fifties.Bangladesh will go into the New Zealand series with empty spots in the top-order, particularly No 3, after Mohammad Ashraful’s suspension. Shamsur has however opened the innings in the three Twenty20s he has played for the country so far. Jahurul Islam and Anamul Haque are incumbents in the job but Shamsur’s claim has become stronger after Sunday’s knock.Anamul missed the Zimbabwe tour in May, Bangladesh’s last assignment, due to college exams, but the young batsman is expected to take up the position against New Zealand in the limited overs matches. Jahurul looked compact in Sri Lanka, but he made only 91 runs in four innings in Zimbabwe. He is also without a Test half-century and will be under pressure to keep his place in the upcoming Test series. Shahriar Nafees and Junaid Siddique have played both as an opener and No 3, and batting positions are likely to give the selectors some headache.What would help Shamsur is his matured approach in this high-pressure contest, at least locally, where the battle of prestige takes precedence over everything else. He was batting at No 4, a position he is not too familiar with in any form of the game. And despite being overshadowed by Tillakaratne Dilshan and Mohammad Nabi during partnerships, it was his cool exterior that held Abahani at bay.”It was extremely pleasing to score runs in the biggest match of the competition. In the first half, the ball was coming a bit slowly but the wicket became flat in the second innings. I believed that if only I could bat till the end we would come as victorious,” he said.Mohammedan captain Mashrafe Mortaza praised Shamsur, particularly mentioning the two crucial partnerships after they lost two early wickets. “It was an unbelievable innings from [Shamsur Rahman] Shuvo. It was very important that he finishes the game while at the crease. He was supported by Dilshan and Nabi, who made up for a top-order failure. I thought it was a good chase,” he said.Shamsur is likely to feature in the three-day practice match against New Zealand early next month, and despite his caution, it will be a spot in the Bangladesh team that he will keep his eye on later this season.

European football had Bosman transfers, English cricket has Kolpak players, and now Australia has passed the Sam Robson rule. At a board meeting on Friday, Cricket Australia approved regulatory changes that will allow dual passport holders to play domestic matches in more than one country.This has effectively freed Robson from having to choose between New South Wales and Middlesex, allowing him to represent both as England and Australia compete for his international loyalties. The player is not thought to have made any written guarantees to England that he will commit his international future to them.It was not only Robson who had a new future opened up for him by the changes, as numerous cricketers who had given up their first-class careers in Australia to play as locals in England are once more eligible to play in the Sheffield Shield, limited overs and Big Bash League competitions.These include the West Australian seam bowler Michael Hogan the NSW batsman Phil Jaques and the Queensland teenager Sam Hain, who joined Warwickshire this year.”The Board has endorsed changes to the definition of an Overseas Player for Australian domestic competitions,” a CA spokesman said. “The changes are designed to allow Australian players who have dual passports to play in more than one domestic competition. CA wants as many quality cricketers playing in its domestic competitions as possible. These changes will allow Australian players with dual passports to play first-class cricket in more than one country.”A number of Australian-qualified cricketers currently playing in ECB competitions in particular are doing so as a local player, meaning if they play in Australia during the summer they need to do so as an overseas player to retain their ECB eligibility. However, CA’s current overseas player definition prevents someone born in Australia, or holding a valid Australian passport, from qualifying to play here as an overseas player.”Changes approved today will ensure state associations and BBL teams will be able recruit Australian players without them having to give up their eligibility to play overseas as a local player. It will remove the burden on these players to choose which domestic competition to play in.”Robson, whose mother hails from Nottingham, previously could not be chosen for New South Wales as a domestic player because although he was born in Australia he played county cricket on a British passport.While the changes have greatly enhanced Australia’s chances of being able to consider Robson in the future, England may also be able to offer him a chance to play first-class matches during the forthcoming southern summer. An outside chance to be named as a reserve opening batsman in the Ashes squad proper, Robson would be a likely choice for the England Lions squad scheduled to shadow the Test touring party over the course of the series.Alternatively, Robson may now head home to Sydney at the conclusion of the English summer and turn out first for the Blues’ Futures League team, and from there earn selection in the NSW Shield XI for the start of the season. In past seasons he has simply played club cricket while ineligible for first-class duty, but given Australia’s current lack of strong batting stock Robson would need only to replicate his consistent scoring for Middlesex to quickly enter international contention.England’s national team has benefitted considerably from the lure of their professional circuit, particularly to South African players who have gone on to qualify for England. The flood of Kolpak players, who are allowed to play county cricket under European Community free labour regulations, has been reduced, however, after a ruling in 2008 enabled the Home Office to introduce a four-year work-permit qualification on players outside the EU.

ScorecardWill Gidman returned career-best figures•Getty Images

Allrounder Will Gidman returned career-best bowling figures as Gloucestershire assumed the upper hand on the opening day against Leicestershire at Bristol.Extracting bite and movement off the seam, Gidman claimed 6 for 15 as the visitors were shot out for 117 in 41.2 overs. Openers Michael Klinger and Chris Dent then raised 163 in 35 overs to help Gloucestershire reach the close on 210 for 4, already 93 runs ahead with six first innings wickets in hand.Only opener Greg Smith offered any real resistance after Leicestershire were put in on a drying wicket. He made 54 made from 83 balls, striking eight fours and a six, and was one of just four batsman to reach double figures.Gloucestershire’s seam bowlers utilised early moisture in the pitch to fully justify Klinger’s decision to field. Benny Howell weighed in with 3 for 19 in 8.2 overs and there was also a wicket for teenage paceman Craig Miles, while left-arm seamer Matt Taylor bowled tidily on his first-class debut. But it was Gidman who did most to undermine the opposition in a new ball burst of 3 for 11 in nine overs during the morning session.Leicestershire opener Angus Robson had a first-class debut to forget, pushing at a ball of full length from Gidman and offering a catch behind without scoring. Two wickets then fell with the score on 37, Eckersley fending a sharp delivery to Dent at second slip and Matthew Boyce departing lbw for a duck. Boyce appeared to get more than a little bat on the ball and he trudged off shaking his head in disbelief.There was no doubting the validity of the next dismissal, Miles locating Thakor’s outside edge and Gareth Roderick taking a comfortable catch behind, while Howell pinned Josh Cobb on the front foot for 5.Not surprisingly, Klinger threw the ball to Gidman immediately after lunch and he again made his presence felt in an incisive burst of three for 4 in 16 balls. Having resisted manfully during the morning session, Smith departed for 54, held at first slip by Alex Gidman. The brothers then combined once more as James Sykes succumbed in identical fashion, while Ben Raine was trapped lbw for 12.Howell bowled Oliver Freckingham for four and then had Alex Wyatt held by Klinger at second slip, at which point Leicestershire had lost six wickets for the addition of just 26 runs.Klinger and Dent afforded Gloucestershire’s reply the perfect start and the home side were already 46 runs to the good when the latter cut a short-pitched delivery from Sykes to backward point for 77. Dent faced 106 balls, struck 13 fours and passed 1,000 first-class runs for the season before surrendering his wicket within sight of what would have been his fourth century of the season.Klinger fell 14 runs short of his hundred, driving loosely at a ball outside off stump from Thakor and edging to wicketkeeper Eckersley. Alex Gidman and Roderick then departed in quick succession, leaving Hamish Marshall and Howell to see out the final eight overs.