Zimbabwe A 293 and 295 for 3 (Williams 85*, Chibahaba 70) drew with Bangladesh A 380
ScorecardZimbabwe A ended their short tour with a draw against Bangladesh A at Fatullah on a day where both sides agreed to forgo the final session as the match meandered to stalemate.The only chance of a result was for Bangladesh A to take quick wickets, but on a batsman-friendly pitch only one wicket fell in 59 overs on the final day, that of Chamu Chibahaba. Resuming on 106 for 2, 19 runs ahead, Zimbabwe A made steady progress with few alarms as Chibahaba and Sean Williams added 138 for the third wicket. By the time Chibahaba was beaten by an Alok Kapali legbreak for 70, the game was dead.Williams finished on 85 not out, adding to his 82 in the first innings, while Stuart Matsikenyeri finished the afternoon session with a quickfire 32 off 37 balls which included three sixes. Play was called off by mutual agreement at tea.Zimbabwe were happy to end the tour with a draw as all their previous ODI and first-class matches had finished in defeat. Despite the result here, the trip highlighted the major problems facing the Zimbabweans as they prepare for their return to Test cricket next November.

Gold League
Sialkot beat Peshawar by two wickets inside three days chasing 221 after they had conceded a first-innings lead of 50 on the third day of their fourth-round Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Cricket Championship Gold League match at the Arbab Niaz Stadium in Peshawar.Resuming on their overnight score of 137 for 8 Peshawar only added 33 more. Sialkot’s bowling hero was Tahir Mughal who took 5 for 65 and finished with a match haul of 10 for 121.Sialkot got off to a sound start with 63 from the opening pair but Waqar Ahmed, the left-arm seamer, with 4 for 29, and Peshawar’s other bowlers appeared to have swung the initiative their way when Sialkot were at 162 for 7 needing 59 more. Mohammad Ayub, however, scored a fighting unbeaten 55 off 99 balls. The unbroken ninth-wicket stand between Ayub and Asim Butt was worth 61 and proved to be match-winning in the end.Peshawar will now meet last season’s runners-up Faisalabad at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad in their fifth-round match from February 1. Sialkot, who took only six points from this win, will host Lahore Shalimar on the same day.Karachi Harbour set Lahore Shalimar a target of 383 after declaring their second innings at 242 for 6 at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.Having already piled up a first-innings lead of 140, Karachi Harbour pushed towards victory as Khalid Latif, the opener, made 103 and added 124 with Naumanullah for the fifth wicket.This was Latif’s second first-class century and his 103 came off 201 balls while Naumanullah made 64 off 102 balls. Sarfraz Ahmed, the wicketkeeper, followed his 75 in the first-innings with an unbeaten 36 that came off 52 balls with four fours.Junaid Zia, Lahore Shalimar’s right-arm medium-fast bowler, took 4 for 69 to match his first-innings figures of 4 for 82. At stumps Lahore Shalimar were at 44 for no loss with 339 more needed on the final day.Despite a 50-run stand for the last wicket Faisalabad conceded a first-innings lead of 51 to Rawalpindi who then extended their lead to 328 by the end of day three of their Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Cricket Championship match at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad.Misbah-ul-Haq, unbeaten on 93, added 31 for Faisalabad’s tenth wicket with Asad Ali who stayed with Haq for nearly an hour making only four.Babar Naeem, the Rawalpindi opener, who had made 55 in the first innings, top-scored in the second innings with 75 while Mohammad Wasim, the Rawalpindi captain, followed his first innings 62 with a score of 57. Saeed Ajmal and Asad Ali took three wickets each for Faisalabad while Ahmed Hayat took two. At stumps Rawalpindi were at 277 for 8 with Sohail Tanvir and Yasim Murtaza at the crease.Silver League
Lahore Ravi won by an innings and 53 runs after they bowled out Quetta for 107 inside 48 overs on the third day of their Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Cricket Championship Silver League match at the Lahore City Cricket Association (LCCA) Ground.Quetta didn’t put up a fight at all, following on 260 runs behind after being bowled oyt for 248 in the first innings. Their second innings began on an encouraging note with a second wicket stand of 69 between Shoaib Khan and Umar Javed. But then they lost the last nine wickets for 30 runs.Wasim Khan, Kashif Siddiq and Waqas Ahmed took three wickets each. Khan, a right-arm fast-medium bowler, ended with a match haul of 7 for 89 while Siddiq got 5 for 12 with his legbreak bowling.While Quetta will next play in Hyderabad, Lahore Ravi will host Abbottabad in the fifth round starting February 1.Trying to remain in contention for the Silver League final, and a possible return to the Gold League, Multan were 71 for 3 chasing a target of 321 against Abbottabad at the Multan Cricket Stadium.Multan seemed to have the game in their grasp when the first five Abbottabad wickets fell for 101 but the last five then added another 121 more to give them a total of 222.Zafar Janoon and Nasir Jalil added a crucial 50 runs for the eighth wicket. Jalil remained unbeaten on 39 off 75 balls. Abdur Rauf, Multan’s right-arm medium-fast bowler, took 6 for 66 and Mohammad Irshad took 2 for 39. Multan lost three wickets for 71 when stumps were called and need another 250 to win.

After completing his transformation from out-of-favour allrounder to national hero with a match-winning century, Craig McMillan said New Zealand could go to the World Cup without fearing any target. McMillan was a crucial figure in the final two Chappell-Hadlee Trophy matches as New Zealand overhauled scores of 336 at Eden Park and 346 at Hamilton to secure the country’s first cleansweep over Australia.Back-to-back performances of 52 off 30 balls and 117 off 96 were also hugely satisfying for McMillan, who was dropped from the squad in 2005 and not offered a New Zealand contract. “Hopefully, I’ve shown people I can still bat and I’ve still got something to offer this side,” McMillan said in the Dominion Post. “I’ve always had the ability but at times that belief gets knocked when you are not going as well as what you want. But I suppose the key for me was the knock in Sydney [last month] when I got 89, that gave me the belief that I can foot it.”New Zealand were in severe trouble at 4 for 41 at Hamilton when McMillan walked out to perform a brilliant rescue and collect the fastest century in the country’s history. Partnerships of 75 with Peter Fulton (51) and 165 with Brendon McCullum (86 not out) pushed them towards their aim before McCullum finished the match with one wicket and three balls to go. The series result and the manner in which New Zealand achieved the whitewash will give them extreme confidence heading into next month’s World Cup.”From 40 for 4 we didn’t have a lot to lose and sometimes teams can be dangerous from those situations,” McMillan said. “We got a couple of partnerships going. It’s special and the icing on the cake was winning the game. Now we can head to the World Cup believing we can chase down anything.”

ScorecardNick Compton continued his fine form with a grafting 92 to hand England A a 99-run lead on the third day against Bangladesh A at Bogra.Saghir Hossain added a further 17 to his overnight 30 to become Stuart Broad’s fourth wicket while his partner, Enamul Haque jnr – with whom Hossain added 66 for the ninth wicket – fell for a gutsy 24.England’s reply started shakily, however, with Will Jefferson falling for 13, Michael Yardy run out for just a single before Michael Carberry was trapped leg-before by Nadif Chowdhury. Meanwhile, Compton was resolute and, with Matt Prior, began to build England’s lead with a fourth-wicket stand of 74. Shortly after Compton passed his 99-ball fifty, Prior was caught in the deep, but Steven Davies helped add a further 56 for the fifth wicket.Eyeing his hundred, and eyeing a reverse-sweep off Mehrab Hossain, he was bowled for 92 as England’s lead nudged up towards 100.”Scoring was difficult,” he told PA. “I think everyone found that. That [reverse sweep] is a shot you play when runs are needed. Like others you play in that position, there’s an element of risk, but it can be useful. Overall, I’ve got to be pleased with my own performance and all the batters [sic].”With Adil Rashid and Stuart Broad at the crease tomorrow morning, England still have time to build a substantial lead. But with the first day washed out, time is of the essence.”I think the players have done superbly to put themselves in a winning position in a Test match after four sessions of play having lost the first day completely,” Peter Moores, the England A coach, said. “This is not dissimilar to the position in the first Test and we’ll go about day four in the same positive fashion.”

Lou Vincent, who ended a run of noughts at the World Cup with 101 in New Zealand’s comfortable win over Canada, has thanked his wife for making the difference.Vincent rediscovered his touch with an entertaining century in New Zealand’s final league match at St Lucia. Asked what had changed on Thursday, Vincent replied: “My wife’s on tour.”Vincent, 28, had to survive a torrid first over from Anderson Cummins before getting off the mark in style, with a crisp six over cover. “It’s been an interesting start to the tour,” Vincent said. “I really haven’t enjoyed it too much. It’s been good to put my hand up today and get through a tough stage and then cash in with the boys scoring at the other end which made it easier to anchor an end.”Vincent’s innings was the centrepiece of a New Zealand score of 363 for 5 – their highest World Cup total. “Whenever you’ve missed out a few times, it’s natural to feel that you are not very good but the confidence from the boys around me and the season I’ve had so far, there’s a lot of confidence within my game at the moment so I just knew it would come right if I hung in there and batted some time. When I was about fifty or sixty I felt the pressure release a little bit.”Reflecting on a third convincing win, after a six-wicket victory over England was followed by a 148-run success against Kenya, New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming said: “I couldn’t really have asked for much more. There’s no area where we have been found out, no area ticked that hasn’t been ticked off. We move away from here pretty comfortable but also pretty confident.”One concern for New Zealand, who rested the regular new-ball duo of Shane Bond and James Franklin, was the way in which Canada, despite a daunting target to chase, attacked Daryl Tuffey and Michael Mason to the extent that 43 runs came off the first four overs. The charge was led by the Canada captain John Davison, who scored the fastest World Cup hundred (off 67 balls) in the previous edition of the tournament against the West Indies. This time around he made 52 off 31 balls.Fleming added Davison was a hard man to contain. “He’s a very good hitter, we’ve seen John’s talents before. We could have been better, but we weren’t as accurate as we could have been. The positive out of today is we learned a couple of things, especially about those first two bowlers.”Fleming added that Tuffey had sustained an arm injury which prevented him bowling a second spell. He joined batsman Ross Taylor (calf) and seam bowler Mark Gillespie (shoulder) as fitness concerns for New Zealand heading into the Super Eights.

Sacrificial lamb of the Day
Luuk van Troost, Holland’s amusingly outspoken captain, decided aftertwo barren outings that he hadn’t been putting his money where hismouth was, and dropped himself – Mike Denness-style – for this, thefinal World Cup outing of his career. It was an act of supremeselflessness that paved the way for one of the most memorable momentsin Dutch cricket history. Not that there’ve been a whole lot of those,of course.Unknown entity of the Day
At Graeme Smith’s press conference on Wednesday, and to much amusementfrom the assembled scribes, a question from the veteranIndependent correspondent, Stephen Brenkley, was interruptedwith an “excuse me, but who are you?” from the South African mediamanager, Gordon Templeton. Today, there very nearly wasn’t a pressconference. The “excuse me” question was this time addressed to RickyPonting, who was briefly refused admission to the briefing roombecause he wasn’t wearing the correct accreditation.Wrecker of the Day
The Netherlands’ opening bowler, Billy Stelling, missed their gameagainst Australia because of a back problem, but he looked none-the-worse for his lay-off today. He struck with the second ball of thematch, and then twice in two balls to dismiss two former Englandinternationals, Gavin Hamilton and Dougie Brown. By the start of hisseventh over he had conceded just four runs for three wickets, andScotland were down and out.Shot of the Day
Ryan ten Doeschate was described by his captain as “too important” torely on for runs, but he didn’t seem to be buckling under the burdenall the while he was giving Scotland’s bowlers the run-around. Hismatchwinning 70 not out included six fours in eight balls as the endcame swiftly, but the highlight was a wonderful straight slap offGlenn Rogers that landed on the roof of the pavilion and couldn’t beretrieved.Butterfingers of the Day
Daan van Bunge has had an eventful World Cup. There was thatover against Herschelle Gibbs, of course, followed by a bold 33against Australia on Friday, and he even picked up his first wicket ofthe day today, when Scotland’s No. 11, Paul Hoffmann, ballooned adrive to mid-off. But the one thing he couldn’t pick were his slipcatches. Two of them went down today – Majid Haq and Neil McCallum -which slightly undermined the claim made by his coach, Ian Pont, thatthe Netherlands’ fielding was in the top four for this tournament.

Steve Harmison completed an eight-wicket match haul as Durham made short work of Worcestershire on the final day at New Road. With just four wickets left, it was only a matter of time before the home side folded. When Gareth Batty fell to the brotherly combination of the Harmison’s – Steve’s fifth wicket – the tail didn’t hang around long. Callum Thorp wrapped up the innings with three wickets and Durham bagged 20 points.It took Sussex less than 19 overs to knock off the 56 runs they needed to comprehensively beat Kent at Hove and open their Championship defence with a 22-point win. Richard Montgomerie completed an outstanding match, finishing undefeated on 33.Yorkshire showed their winter problems are well behind them with a crushing 346-run win over Surrey at The Oval. Scott Newman offered the lone resistance, falling 11 short of his second century of the match, although he benefited from the attacking fields as plenty of his runs came down to third man. When Newman was seventh out the other batsmen had contributed just 36 runs. Darren Gough took another three wickets, including Rikki Clarke who shouldered arms, but the leading performer was Matthew Hoggard as he found movement to remove the middle order. A decent crowd had turned out, but the Surrey fans among them will have left disappointed. Life back in the top flight hasn’t started well. “We could surprise a few teams this year along the way if we play this sort of cricket,” Gough said. “The body language was excellent throughout. I’m not saying we’ll play like that every game. We’re going to lose games but hopefully we’ll win games also.”Mal Loye’s century ensured Lancashire left Edgbaston with draw despite Warwickshire‘s dominance of more than half the match. After not enforcing the follow on yesterday Gary Keedy had opened up the chance of a turnaround, but Warwickshire’s lower order extended the lead on the final morning before setting a target of 347 with Tim Ambrose’s half century. Alex Loudon struck early with his off spin, but a stand of 91 between Loye and Stuart Law guided Lancashire through the final session.

Nottinghamshire, the division two favourites, laid down an early marker with a nine-wicket win against Leicestershire at Trent Bridge. The visitors led by 67 with five wickets remaining at the start of the final day, but any hopes of building a significant lead vanished when Tom New fell to the fifth ball of the day. The wicketkeeper hadn’t added to his 57 when he edged Mark Ealham low to second slip where David Hussey took a fine catch. Ryan Sidebottom then wrapped up the tail with 3 for 18 in five overs, leaving a target of 111. Although Jason Gallian fell for 37, top-edging Claude Henderson, Bilal Shafayat and Mark Wagh completed the formalities.A match dominated by the bat ended with more records as Somerset and Middlesex completed a run-feast at Taunton. Justin Langer was finally yorked for 315, 27 short of the Somerset record that he holds, but the home side set a new record for the highest score on the ground. Their 850 beat Lancashire’s 810 set in 1895 and was also the highest total in any match involving Somerset. Peter Trego helped boost the total with a run-a-ball 130, his fifth first-class ton. Middlesex, 250 behind despite scoring 600, needed to bat out just over two sessions and Ed Smith’s 103 ended the match in fitting style.Essex comfortably survived two sessions to share the spoils with Derbyshire at Chelmsford. After the visitors batted on for 20 overs, Essex were set 376 but there was never any chance of them attempting the chase. Varun Chopra batted for two-and-half hours after both openers fell to leave Essex 36 for 2.

Trevor Bayliss will be interviewed by Sri Lanka next week as a potential replacement for Tom Moody as the country’s head coach. Bayliss is competing with at least one other Australian, Terry Oliver, who is in charge of the Queensland team and has already met with Sri Lankan officials.Bayliss, the coach of New South Wales since 2004-05, told The Sydney Morning Herald he was due to be interviewed in Colombo on June 14. The paper reported Bayliss was likely to take the role if it was offered, although he recently rejected overtures from Bangladesh and Australia’s Centre of Excellence.”It’s a job with an international team, and one of the better international teams, so you’d be nuts not to hear them out,” Bayliss said. “And if something was offered, you’d be silly to knock it back. I spoke to Tom [Moody] about a week ago just to find out what I can expect in the interview. So now it’s just a case of going over and seeing what they have to say.”Bayliss played 58 games as a middle-order batsman for New South Wales during the 1980s and ’90s. He was the state’s Second XI mentor before taking over from Steve Rixon in the senior job. He guided the Blues to the Pura Cup title in his first season at the helm.Dave Gilbert, the chief executive of Cricket New South Wales, said the state would have no problems with Bayliss leaving to take on an international position. “We won’t be standing in the way of Trevor,” Gilbert told the paper. “If he wants to prove himself on the international stage, we will stand aside.”We don’t want to lose him, but we realise he is very ambitious, and in the long term he wants to coach Australia. Coaching another international side would be a big step towards that goal. Just look at the way it catapulted Tom Moody to the upper echelons of world cricket.”

Australia’s new coach, Tim Nielsen, has outlined his plans for a pre-season bonding trip before next summer. Although the controversial military-style boot camp that Australia tried out last year has been put on the backburner, Nielsen hopes a four-day gathering in August will focus the team ahead of a hectic 18 months.Cricket Australia’s 25-man squad will meet on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast in August, where the players will be put through physical fitness work and Nielsen will outline his goals. It will be his first chance to address the whole group since taking over from John Buchanan after the team’s World Cup triumph.”It will be a different set-up, a chance just to get everyone back together in that we have had a long break from play,” Nielsen told the . “We will try and get our thoughts focused on where we are going to go over the next little while.”Nielsen’s first competitive engagement as the coach will be the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa in September. That starts a frantic period for Australia, who host Sri Lanka and India this summer and are expected to play 20 Tests in 2008.

ScorecardIn a thrilling Pro40 match at Scarborough, Yorkshire finished as victors over Somerset by nine runs with one over to spare, the target adjusted by Duckworth-Lewis. The highlights were outstanding innings by Jacques Rudolph and Ian Blackwell, and a marvellous coup de grace administered by Darren Gough.Yorkshire batted on winning the toss. Rudolph frequently opens the batting, especially in one-day matches, in his native South Africa, but rarely has he provided a team with such a rollicking start. In the second over of the innings, bowled by Peter Trego, he drove two superb fours, and then scored 18 off Trego’s next over, including a six over midwicket. He raced to his first fifty off 28 balls, hitting nine fours and two sixes.The first wicket put on 72 runs in eight overs before Craig White departed for 15. Four were down for 108, including the double-century maker of the previous day, Younis Khan, who was adjudged lbw to a ball that looked a little high without scoring. Rudolph now consolidated, along with Andrew Gale (53 not out), in a partnership of 111.When he departed, lbw attempting a reverse sweep, he had made 127 off 114 balls with seven fours and two sixes. A final blaze from Tim Bresnan (29 not out off 11 balls), including three successive big sixes off Gareth Andrew, took Yorkshire to 261 for five.Yorkshire struck a quick blow when Marcus Trescothick, with just a boundary to his credit, played on to Jason Gillespie. But Justin Langer came out and batted as if he intended polishing off the target single-handedly, with a stream of impressive boundaries. It was quickly obvious that this was the crucial wicket, but it took a little good fortune: he had 36 to his credit when Gillespie bowled him with a ball that kept strangely low.Some rather loose bowling, especially by Bresnan, kept Somerset above five an over, but wickets fell steadily. Gillespie finished with three for 35, bowling his eight overs straight through. Then Blackwell decided to climb in. He had played himself in steadily, but now began to look for the boundary and beyond. The sixes began to fly, both straight and leg-side, his fifty came off 41 balls, and Yorkshire’s second-string bowlers struggled. The balance of the match was swinging.As the match headed towards a thrilling climax, the sky clouded over and some rain began to fall, with Somerset just behind the Duckworth-Lewis rate. The players went off in the 32nd over with Somerset 203 for 6, just one run behind. Two overs were lost, and the target revised to 252.The break interrupted Somerset’s momentum, and Blackwell was not into his stride again when he was brilliantly stumped down the leg side by Gerard Brophy for 97. But Somerset continued to fight. Craig Keiswetter hit gallantly for 38, and with two overs left, the last two wickets needed to score 12 runs to win. Then came Gough to bowl the last two batsmen in his own inimitable style.