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On the acceleration after lunch when 55 runs were scored in just seven oversWe discussed it at lunch. Decided to bat on for 10 overs after lunch, and look to be positive.On missing out on a possible centuryI’m not disappointed. I did what was needed for the team. We’re in a good position to win the game now, and I’m very happy.On the slow progress early in the morningWe started slowly, but there were also some good stops. It can get frustrating, but I wanted to carry on through to the end. That helped. It was important that Sourav [Ganguly] and I carry on.On how the pitch behavedIt’s not easy to bat on. The ball is staying low. It’s important to spend some time in the middle to be comfortable.On tackling MuraliHe’s a very experienced bowler. Our intention was to be as positive as we could against him, while also being aware that he has got the most wickets. I think I played him quite well.On whether he had made things difficult for the selectors, with Virender Sehwag due to come back for the next TestI have. Let’s see what happens. I’m not thinking of that now. I just went out there and did my best.On the turning point of the afternoonWhen Atapattu got out.On what his innings meant to himIt’s a very good feeling to perform in Tests, because that’s rated very high. If you can do that, then you’re there as a player. It’s given me a lot of confidence.

Mithali Raj, who led India to their fourth successive Asia Cup title, has said the squad, which includes four Under-21 players, was picked keeping in mind the World Cup in Australia next year.”I am happy to say that we have a good pool of players with whom we will work over the next nine months not only to give them the required experience but also to find the combination which will help us in Australia,” Raj said. “We wanted to provide the right platform for the youngsters to show their talent and Sri Lanka was the best place because of the similarities in the Asian subcontinent conditions which made it relatively easy for the new players to show their skills.”Among the new players who did well in the tournament are offspinner Pujare Seema, left-arm spinner Gouher Sultana and batsman Priyanka Roy. While Seema led the wicket-taking list with 14 from five matches, Sultana picked up six, and Roy scored 116 runs in six games. But keeping in mind the hard and fast tracks of Australia, India also gave chances to medium-pacers Snehal Pradhan and Devika Palshikar.Their next assignment is a tour of England in August-September and according to Raj, India had to be careful with their preparations as each tour is played in different conditions.”Our next assignment is in England and the conditions in England are different as compared to Sri Lanka or Australia. But the basics remain unchanged and the bottom line is that we have to train and work hard in every single match we play in the lead-up to the World Cup. We have a talented pool of players and over the next nine months I would like to see improvement in fielding and match planning.”Raj reached 3000 ODI runs during the tournament and became the first Indian woman to reach the landmark. “I didn’t give it a thought while I was batting in the final as my focus was on collecting as many runs as possible in the final overs until I got a message from the dressing room that I was close to the 3000-mark. To be in the top five leading run-getters’ list is a big honour and I hope to score many more runs for India.”

ScorecardA fighting but fluent 95-run partnership for the sixth wicket between Rizwan Ahmed and Test discard Asim Kamal carried Patron’s XI to safety after a mid-innings wobble and ensured the tour match against the South Africans ended in a draw at tea on the final day.Kamal and Rizwan came together after Patron’s XI lost their overnight batsmen to the pace of Makhaya Ntini and Andre Nel. Kamal shrugged aside his omission yet again from the Test squad, mixing some delightful drives with a couple of slog sweeps. His timing, particularly square of the wicket, was exceptional but his scoring was curbed by a heavy outfield.He batted with ease, driving the seamers and cutting the spinners, Paul Harris and Graeme Smith, and fell against the run of play. Chasing a wide delivery from Smith, Kamal top-edged a cut to backward point where Hashim Amla took a low catch. He lingered at the crease, his disappointment at another missed opportunity evident.Rizwan, with a first-class average of over 36, punctuated his defensive game with a few classy cover-drives in his 56. He was especially severe on Harris, pulling him to the midwicket boundary and on one occasion smashing him out of the ground.Two wickets in three balls – including that of Rizwan – from Harris caused a brief panic but Sarfraz Ahmed (29*) counterattacked with two boundaries in the following over to ease the pressure.Harris was the pick of the South African attack with Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn going wicketless. Morkel picked up a foot injury earlier in the day and bowled two overs, putting his participation in the first Test in serious doubt.Mickey Arthur, South Africa’s coach, was satisfied with his team’sperformance and said the team was in good shape for the Test. “Ourpreparation was outstanding, we got what we wanted – bowlers having twospells each and batsmen spending time in the middle.”He reserved special praise for Harris who finished with figures of 3 for75. “Harris started off slowly yesterday but improved as the matchprogressed. He varied his pace well and will add a new dimension to theattack that we have not had for the last couple of years.”

Sri Lanka cricketers Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Sanath Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga are to be honoured by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) at a gala dinner at the Cinnamon Grand hotel on Sunday, November 19 for their recent achievements on the international fold.Jayawardene, who took over as captain from Marvan Atapattu, was named the captain of the year in the recent ICC Awards held in Mumbai. His excellent leadership and batting, especially during Sri Lanka’s tour of England and in the home series against South Africa, helped him win the prize. He established a world-record partnership of 624 with Kumar Sangakkara in the first Test against South African at the SSC, the highest partnership in Test and first-class cricket history for any wicket.Jayasuriya and Tharanga also figured in a world-record stand when they put on 287, the highest opening partnership in ODI history, against England at Leeds last summer. Jayasuriya scored 152 and Tharanga 109.”We must honour the players who bring glory to the country with their achievements on the cricket field,” said K Mathivanan, the Sri Lanka Cricket secretary. “This sort of recognition will motivate not only the national cricketers further but others as well.”The 400 guests will include past presidents and secretaries of Sri Lanka Cricket, the 47 clubs affiliated to SLC and former national cricketers. Among the honoured guests expected to grace the occasion are Arjuna Ranatunga, the former Sri Lankan captain, Aravinda de Silva, Jayantha Dharmadasa, SLC’s interim committee president and Jeevan Kumaratunga, the Sports Minister.

Ravi Bopara, the allrounder, insists England need to be at their best if they are to win their Super Eights clash against Ireland. “Ireland have been playing some good cricket,” Bopara, 21, said. “I’ve been watching a few of their games and they look a good side.”The neighbouring countries will play for the second time in less than a year when they walk out in Guyana on Friday. “They’ve already proven they can beat some of the top sides in the world and the main thing for us is to be on top of our game when we face them,” Bopara said. “We may be expected to win, but we all know that cricket doesn’t work like that.”Ireland produced a shock by defeating the former champions Pakistan in the first round and tying with Zimbabwe. England, who like Ireland carry no points from the opening stage, qualified with wins over Kenya and Canada and will appear in the second phase for the first time since 1996.Bopara, who played against Canada when Andrew Flintoff was suspended, said England were targeting a place in the semi-finals. “We played well in the last couple of games in the group stages and we are feeling confident going into the Super Eights,” Bopara said. “It’s always a great feeling to go out and play some games and I am feeling good, I am feeling confident and I am just enjoying myself.” Bopara, who has appeared in three ODIs, scored 29 and picked up 2 for 43 against Canada before bowling only one over against Kenya.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

A five-wicket haul by Abdur Razzak helped Bangladesh gain anunassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match one-day series, as they beat Zimbabweby 26 runs in the third match at Bogra. Zimbabwe gave themselves a shot atgaining their maiden victory of the series after a committed display in the field,restricting the opposition to 220. However, the batsmen, barring SeanWilliams, failed to respond to the task as they were bowled out for 194.Razzak, continued his purple patch in this series with superb figures of 5 for 33, his best figures in ODIs.As has been the trend in this series, Bangladesh rode on the performance of their spinners and an impressive opening burst by their fast bowlers, who gave little away.Brendan Taylor was the first to go, beaten for pace by Shahadat Hossain. Stuart Matsikenyeri wasn’t afraid to free his arms, and that approach fetched him a few powerful boundaries through the off side off the seamers. But Zimbabwe’s struggles against spin continued as Razzak – brought in as early as the 10th over -struck with two wickets in his first over. Matsikenyeri failed tocapitalise on his start and was bowled trying to swing across the line, while twoballs later Chamu Chibhabha was sent packing, trapped in front. HamiltonMasakadza went soon after, slashing hard at an outswinger, and at 48 for4, Zimbabwe were in dire trouble.They nearly lost a fifth when Shahriar Nafees dropped a sitter atthird man, giving Williams a reprieve on 2, and his 75-run stand withElton Chigumbura gave Zimbabwe hope. Both though, were forced to graft itout, with spinners operating from both ends. The pair managed just threeboundaries in a space of ten overs as the asking rate mounted. Razzak,Saqibul Hasan and Mohammad Rafique managed to combat the dew and stick toa restrictive line, not allowing any width as the trio conceded just 116runs in 30 overs. Mashrafe Mortaza, brought back for a second spell,rocked Zimbabwe further as Chigumbura gloved one down the leg side for 31,with his side still 98 adrift of the target. Williams and Keith Dabengwadid, however, revive Zimbabwe’s fortunes with a fluent 58-run stand, but it was too little too late. Razzak returned for his second spell and claimed two wickets to seal Zimbabwe’s fate.

It was a pitch which tested the batsmen from both teams – Bangladesh’s batsmen struggled too after getting off to a flier. Put in to bat, Bangladeshlooked set to post a tall score as the openers, Nafees and MehrabHossain, exploited the wayward offerings by the Zimbabwe fast bowlers, who struggled to control the early swing. Nafees’s dismissal, caught brilliantly by GaryBrent at leg gully, brought Aftab Ahmed to the crease and he wasted notime in stating his intent, charging down the pitch against Ed Rainsford,picking up a streaky boundary down to third man, followed by a morecontrolled loft over midwicket. Unfortunately for Bangladesh, it ended upbeing one of his typical cameo knocks, as he top-edged a sweep to shortfine leg for 16, immediately after Prosper Utseya brought himself on.Zimbabwe then clawed back as several batsmen were guilty of hurrying into theirstrokes on a sluggish pitch.Bangladesh were comfortably placed at 100 for 2 at the end of the 20th over, but the next ten yielded only 25, owing to miserly spells by Utseya and Williams, the left-arm spinner. The reintroduction of Christopher Mpofu,the medium pacer who had a nightmare opening spell, yielded immediateresults as he accounted for Hossain and Habibul Bashar in quick succession- both dismissals characterised by the ball stopping on the batsmen.Mpofu later cleaned up the tail to pick up a four-wicket haul.With runs hard to come by, Ashraful finally broke the shackles with acouple of boundaries and showed more urgency with his running. Dabengwa, the third specialist spinner – who was held back by Utseya tillthe 42nd over – struck soon, with three quick wickets, accounting forKhaled Mashud, Rafique and Ashraful. The body language of the Zimbabweansreflected in their sprightly performance in the field, as they pouched some sharpcatches. Mashrafe Mortaza’s late-innings fireworks proved crucial as itlifted Bangladesh to 220, giving their bowlers a competitive total todefend.

Peter Borren, the Netherlands batsman, will replace Jeroen Smits as captain for his side’s Intercontinental Cup match against Scotland beginning on Thursday at Mannofield Park in Aberdeen. Smits, who replaced Luuk van Troost as captain after the 2007 World Cup, is missing the match because of work-related commitments.The Netherlands coach Paul-Jan Bakker, said that they could overcome Smits’ absence and draw confidence from their victory against Canada in June. Borren had scored 105, his maiden first-class hundred, in the second innings of Netherlands’ 45-run win against Canada.”I am sure that the boys will not be affected by this latest setback and will keep the momentum going,” Bakker said. “Peter [Borren] is an excellent batsman and has shown his talent on more than one occasion. But he can’t live on tales and will need to start all over again. While saying this, I am sure he is also looking forward to the new challenge [captaincy] and will try to make the most of it.”Bas Zuiderent and Ryan ten Doeschate both missed the game against Canada and remained unavailable for the match against Scotland. Netherlands were further depleted with medium-pacers Edgar Schiferli and Mark Jonkman and offspinner Adeel Raja pulling out due to injuries.”We can’t have a full-strength team all the time, which means there will always be opportunities for the youngsters,” Bakker said. “Now it is for them to take advantage of this and cement their places.””Scotland are a strong team and we respect them. But I understand that they will also be without some of their key players. I think we both are in a situation where we have to fill gaps and hope that the youngsters will raise their hands, take responsibility and fill those gaps.”Scotland’s Intercontinental Cup opener against United Arab Emirates in Ayr was washed out and the quadrangular series that followed, involving West Indies, Ireland and Netherlands, also affected by bad weather.Scotland captain Ryan Watson acknowledged the importance of the match against Netherlands. “We are keen to do well in this competition so it’s very important, after the UAE match was washed out, that we make the most of our remaining home games and take maximum points.””Obviously, as our preparations are already limited by player availability because of their work commitments, we have been somewhat handicapped of late. But the Dutch also fell foul of the weather [in the quadrangular series] and are in similar circumstances, while they also play a lot on matting.”Scotland recalled fast bowlers Richie Berrington, who has played just one first-class match, and Gordon Drummond, who has appeared in four first-class matches, for the game against Netherlands. Gavin Hamilton, Dewald Nel and Glenn Rogers will return to the squad for the third match against Ireland in Stormont from August 9.Despite their loss to Netherlands, Canada remained on top of the Intercontinental Cup table with 26 points from two games. Netherlands were second with 14 points from one game and, UAE and Scotland have three points from one game each. Bermuda, Ireland, Kenya and Namibia were yet to make an appearance.Netherlands: Peter Borren (capt), Mudassar Bukhari, Atse Buurman, Tom de Grooth, Alexei Kervezee, Geert Maarten Mol, Mongesh Panchal, Jelte Schoonheim, Pieter Seelaar, Nick Statham, Eric Szwarzcynski, Somesh Kohli.Scotland: Ryan Watson (capt), Richie Berrington, Fraser Watts, Craig Wright, John Blain, Gordon Drummond, Majid Haq, Omer Hussain, Paul Hoffmann, Ross Lyons, Qasim Sheikh, Neil McCallum, Simon Smith.

National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) have all but won the 2005-06 Pentangular Cup Cricket Championship after gaining a first-innings lead of 178 against Karachi Harbour with two wickets in hand on the second day at the Gaddafi Stadium.After bowling out Karachi for 249 on the opening day, National Bank piled on the agony for their opponents with a splendid reply of 427 for 8 with Naumanullah, the captain, scoring a hundred. NBP resumed at their overnight score of 10 for 1, having lost Salman Butt cheaply again, and had slipped to 67 for 3 before Naumanullah lifted his side out of the doldrums with his ninth first-class hundred. His 134 off 168 balls included 19 fours and five sixes.With Akhtar Sarfraz (21), he took the score from 67 to 123 and then joined hands with Qaiser Abbas for a 93-run stand for the fifth wicket. Qaiser’s 63 came off 34 deliveries with 10 fours and three sixes.The sixth-wicket stand between Naumanullah and Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal (35) produced 61 runs. But the NBP batting display was not over as Imran Javed was still at the crease with 46. His eighth-wicket partnership with Mohammad Sami was worth 87 as the total went past 400.Sami, who has continued to take wickets and score runs since being dropped by the national selectors, made another useful 43 off 71 balls with six hits to the ropes.With two days still to go, NBP will obviously aim for an outright win and claim the Pentangular Cup in an emphatic manner. Even if they end level on points (27 each) with table leaders Faisalabad, in case they draw here, the trophy will be theirs as they have a better net run-rate and haven’t lost a match.Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) conceded a first-innings lead to Sialkot but set for themselves an opportunity to win by the close of the second day at the Multan Cricket Stadium.They surrendered a 69-run lead to Sialkot after getting bowled out for 209. But PIA ripped apart Sialkot’s batting and dismissed them for a pathetic 66 in their second innings. This left them a modest target of 136 and by close of play PIA appeared to be the team more likely to win as they need 119 runs with nine wickets in hand.This is an inconsequential match because neither team is in running for the eventual title. With a win here, PIA would get only six points though that will keep them at third place in the points table with a total of 15. Sialkot have collected six points.The second day belonged to PIA’s Jannisar Khan, who helped lift his team from a poor score of 112 for 6 with a 77-run stand for the seventh wicket with Imran Abbas. Imran’s 67 off 189 balls included seven fours. Jannisar took 122 deliveries to score 55 with six fours.PIA then demolished Sialkot for 66, with Jannisar using his medium-pace to full effect taking 4 for 11 in four overs. Sialkot’s new-ball bowler Asim Butt performed well again with figures of 5 for 65 in 30 overs.He was supported well by Kashif Daud, who captured 3 for 68. Only Inam-ul-Haq (26) reached double figures in Sialkot’s second innings. Najaf Shah picked up nine wickets in the match, following up with 4 for 26 after having taken 5 for 54 in the first innings.The experienced Fazl-e-Akbar, who has emerged as the top wicket-taker this season with 80 wickets in first-class cricket, took 2 for 23 to supplement his first-innings haul of 4 for 66 that also included a hat-trick.

Major-General Sina Ibn Jamali, head of the interim Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), has extended the contracts of the country’s selectors by a month. Though an emergency meeting has been scheduled for August 1, Jamali took the decision to give Faruque Ahmed and Athar Ali Khan until August 31 in order to name Bangladesh’s Twenty20 World Championship and National Academy squads.Jamali, the chief of general staff of the army, was briefed by Mahmudur Rahman, the BCB’s CEO, on the current situation. Among the priorities of the new leadership is appointing a new coach and physiotherapist.”I met the president this morning to inform him about the situation and he asked me to call an emergency board meeting on August 1. There are a number of pressing issues right now and there is a need for a quick decision about the two selectors,” Rahman told . “Our president has agreed to extend the two selectors’ tenure because we have hardly any time to make a new committee ahead of the ICC’s deadline (August 11) for the final squad for the Twenty20 meet. The most important thing is that now the new committee will not get enough time to think about the new selection panel.”Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu, a former Bangladesh captain and one of the members on the ad-hoc committee, added: “I think it’s a good decision and now the new board will get enough time for taking decision about the selection panel”.Rahman said that Jamali expressed interest in the national team and the Twenty20 World Championship. However, he did not have any details on the developments in the search for a new coach. “Everything is not clear to me about the coach selection process,” he said. “We all know there is a shortlist and the board was supposed to invite the coaches for their presentations from the last week of this month but everything has now changed.”As for the standing committees, Rahman said there was no clear guideline in the constitution as to whether they would be abolished once the board was dissolved.

Division One

Points TableJason Gallian was unbeaten on 191 for Nottinghamshire at the close of the first day of their game against Kent at Canterbury. An opening stand of 157 between Gallian and Darren Bicknell set the visitors up for a huge total, but Kent struck back with four quick wickets, including the captain, Stephen Fleming, for just 8. Nottinghamshire ended the day on 397 for 5, with Amjad Khan picking up 2 for 58. Nottinghamshire are top of the table, but Kent Hampshire and Sussex are all title contenders. Notts need to win this match and gain maximum points in order to secure the title.

Division Two

Points TableNorthamptonshire plundered 414 for 7 on the first day against Durham where there were centuries for Usman Afzaal and Riki Wessels. Liam Plunkett picked up 5 for 86 from 24 economical overs. Durham are on the verge of promotion to Division One, but need the secure as many bonus points as possible in this match – their last of the season.