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Karachi, Nov 10: Sheikhupura made a mockery of Karachi Whites skipperAsif Mujtaba’s decision to field first by closing the opening day ofthe Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Grade-I Cricket Championship clash atthe UBL Sports Complex in a healthy position here on Friday.The visitors reached 250 for four in their first innings, building onan excellent opening partnership of 142 between Majid Majeed anddebutant Tahir Usman.On a pitch which nothing but a featherbed for the batsmen, Mujtaba’sdecision is mystifying especially in the sense that the home team hasplumbed for three frontline spinners and a solitary pace bowler.Athar Laeeq, the former Pakistan pacer, will take sometime to get intothe groove after coming off a long lay-off. He was awfully rusty inhis bowling stride.As it transpired, the Sheikhupura’s openers gratefully accepted theunexpected opportunity to score freely. The first wicket did not falluntil the final ball of the extended session of 180 minutes when Majidperished to off-spinner Tahir Khan for a well-compiled 88 off 163deliveries with 10 fours.Part-time leg-spin of Hasan Raza got rid of left-handed Mohammad Javedafter the lunch-cum-prayers break before Zulfiqar Haider made hispresent felt.The 25-year-old bearded leg-spinner, filling in for Danish Kaneria,earlier made an inauspicious entry into first-class cricket by beingcarted for boundaries off his opening two balls. His bowling action isquite remarkable because it has a mixture of both Shane Warne andStuart MacGill – the Australian Test champions.Zulfiqar, who had his fair share of long hops, was fortunate to claimstwo wickets in his final spell of 9.5 overs because both Usman Akram(bowled behind his legs off an attempted sweep) and Waqar Ahmed Khan(losing his wicket while trying a cut in the day’s final over).Adnan Malik, the slow left-armer, was perhaps, the pick of the bowlersand was desperately unlucky to end the day wicketless. Tahir wassteady and bowled the most overs.Tahir Usman, the right-hander, was a model of concentration as hebatted patiently for his unbeaten 83 off 308 balls. His 330-minutestay at the crease was laced with five boundaries.

Manchester United have held talks with Paris Saint-Germain boss Mauricio Pochettino, according to The Daily Star.

The Lowdown: Four-man shortlist?

The Red Devils appear to be making a head start when it comes to searching for Ralf Rangnick’s replacement in the summer.

Ajax manager Erik ten Hag had ‘positive’ discussions with the United board last month, who also have Pochettino, Julen Lopetegui and Luis Enrique on their radar.

It now looks as if Pochettino, who doesn’t currently have an agent, has become the next target United have spoken with ahead of the club’s meeting with Leicester City this evening.

The Latest: Pochettino talks

The Daily Star shared a story on Thursday evening, revealing that the club are making rapid progress in their pursuit of a new long-term manager.

Senior United figures have spoken with Pochettino this week after talks with Ten Hag. The former Tottenham boss is keen on the Old Trafford position and has the backing from Sir Alex Ferguson.

The Verdict: Two-horse race?

Although Lopetegui and Enrique have also been name-checked as potential candidates, it does feel as if it is starting to become a two-horse race between Ten Hag and Pochettino.

Pochettino has plenty of experience in the Premier League with Southampton and Spurs, however, it seems to be a matter of time until Ten Hag takes over a new side after two more approaches for the Dutchman following his initial United interview.

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If United are after a completely fresh start, then perhaps the Ajax boss could be better suited, but if the Red Devils feel experience is key, then Pochettino may well be their man – only time will tell.

In other news: Man Utd source now drops worrying Cristiano Ronaldo update just before Leicester – report. 

	Dwayne Smith cleaned up the Guyana lower order to finish with figures of 3 for 66 © The Nation

Scorecard
Seamer Tonito Willett took a career-best 5 for 31 to help Leeward Islands to a 34-run victory against Windward Islands in St Georges. Overnight on 183 for 6, chasing 289, Windwards were dismissed for 254 shortly after lunch. Allrounder Liam Sebastien scored a defiant unbeaten 54 but ran short of partners. His stand of 43 with captain Deighton Butler for the eighth wicket took Windwards closer, before Willet ran through the tail. The victory was sealed when Willet trapped Nelson Pascal lbw, swinging across the line. It was the second loss for Windwards after their nine-wicket defeat against Barbados. Leewards are now tied at third spot with Trinidad & Tobago on 12 points.
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Suleiman Benn and Dwayne Smith shared seven wickets between them to help Barbados to a comprehensive innings-and-57-run victory against Guyana at the Kensington Oval. Captain Ramnaresh Sarwan found form with a half-century and his 87-run partnership with Assad Fudadin defied Barbados till lunch, but it wasn’t enough to make Barbados bat again.The overnight pair of Sarwan and Leon Johnson buckled down and took the overnight score of 85 for 3 to 122 before Benn dismissed Johnson. Sarwan survived a very confident appeal for a catch on 36 off Kemar Roach and proceeded to his half-century. Fudadin, who provided solid support to Sarwan in his 33, fell shortly after lunch, caught by wicketkeeper Carlo Morris after the ball rebounded off Jason Haynes at short leg. Benn returned to dismiss Sarwan for 82, caught at forward short-leg while Smith cleaned up the lower order to finish with figures of 3 for 66. Benn, who bowled 36 overs, ended with 4 for 96. The defeat left Guyana at the bottom of the table with the Combined Campuses & Colleges and Windward Islands.Points table

Team	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	Draw	Aban	Pts
Barbados	2	2	0	0	0	0	24
Jamaica	2	2	0	0	0	0	24
Leeward Islands	2	1	1	0	0	0	12
Trinidad & T	1	1	0	0	0	0	12
Comb CC	1	0	1	0	0	0	0
Guyana	2	0	2	0	0	0	0
Windward Islands	2	0	2	0	0	0	0

ScorecardBengal held their nerve and staved off a spirited Orissa onslaught to sneak to a ten-run win, their second victory of the Ranji One-Day Trophy. In a match restricted to just 22 overs per side, Bengal powered their way to 175, thanks to a 44-ball 55 by opener Wriddhiman Saha, plus useful contributions by Subhomoy Das (36 off 35) and a late blitz by Laxmi Ratan Shukla. Needing to score at exactly eight an over, Orissa mounted a superb charge despite losing Biswa Mohapatra to the second ball of the innings. Bikas Pati, the other opener, hammered 51 off just 41 balls, while Pinninti Jayachandra’s 28-ball 38 and Subit Biswal’s 24 kept them in the hunt. At 127 for 4 in the 17th over Orissa had a fair chance, but Bengal struck at regular intervals, with Ranadeb Bose getting two late wickets to finish with impressive figures of 3 for 33. Orissa needed 23 off the last two, but with just a couple of wickets in hand that proved to be too stiff a target.
ScorecardIn a match dominated by the openers of both teams, Assam’s support cast performed just a little better to help them sneak to a 13-run win. Sauran Bhagawati and Parvez Aziz put together an opening stand of 86 in just 17.2 overs to provide the perfect launching pad after Assam chose to bat first. Bhagawati made 60 while Aziz missed his half-century by just one run, but the rest of the batsmen frittered away that start, with no-one getting more than 27 as Assam finished on 224. If that was a poor middle-order display, then Jharkhand went one better during their run-chase. Subroto Ghosh (52) and Manish Vardhan (84) added 111 for the opening wicket in 25.4 overs, only to see the rest of the batsmen fluff their lines completely. Of the nine remaining batsmen, seven managed single-digit scores as Jharkhand added exactly 100 more runs before losing all ten wickets, with Vardhan being the last man to be dismissed. This was Jharkhand’s second loss in three games, while Assam have now won two out of three.

Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) are sure to chase an outright victory on the final day of their Carib Beer Cricket Series match against Jamaica at the Sir Frank Worrell Ground in St Augustine.When play was called for the day, Trinidad had compiled a lead of 371 runs innings and were likely to declare overnight. After bowling out Jamaica for 193 in reply to T&T’s first innings of 386, their second innings stood at 178 for 7 when Richard Kelly and Rayad Emrit walked off to the pavilion at stumps. It is a commanding position, which did not necessitate the enforcement of the follow-on, and puts Jamaica on the back foot when play gets underway on the final day.A combination of good, disciplined bowling and a massive first-innings advantage proved too much for the visitors. When play resumed, Kelly and the probing spin of debutant Sanjeev Gooljar gave the Jamaican batsmen a lot to ponder. Except for Carlton Baugh, their wicketkeeper, the batsmen’s pondering led to hesitation, and hesitation and good consistent line and length bowling led to wickets.The first hour of play saw Tamar Lambert and Nikita Miller struggle to get any momentum against Kelly and Gooljar. In fact, in the first hour of play, the T&T bowling was plain stingy. Twenty three runs trickled from 17 overs and that sort of persistent tight bowling had Miller (8) playing away from his body only to snick an edge through to Denesh Ramdin, the wicketkeeper, who took a comfortable catch with the score on 119. Jamaica were reeling with four wickets down and a huge T&T score staring them in the face.The sustained effort of the T&T bowlers ensured the pressure would not be released. Lambert, who faced 86 balls for his 26 runs and was dropped by Mohammed at point off Kelly on 19, was deceived by Gooljar to give him his first wicket in the regional tournament. Dave Bernard, a former West Indies player, also struggled, facing 66 balls in 70 minutes for his meagre eight runs.It was only Baugh (30) who looked like ever getting on top of the T&T bowlers with his confident driving and quick running between the wickets. But once Dwayne Bravo enticed him to pull a delivery that came onto him quicker than expected and it looped high for Lendl Simmons to take a very good catch running back to long on, the few hundred spectators knew it would only be a matter of time before the Jamaican innings folded.Gregory Mahabir grabbed a spectacular two-handed catch inches from the ground when Gareth Breese (3) would have felt he deserved a boundary after playing a well-timed drive to mid-wicket off Bravo. Dave Mohammed accounted for Jerome Taylor (19) and Andrew Richardson to bring the innings to a close.T&T, according to the tournament rules, had the opportunity to enforce the follow-on. In the end, it did not matter. Despite a reckless shot from Simmons (22), attempting to pull a Jermaine Lawson bouncer to mid-wicket but only able to pick out Richardson at mid-on, and the quick fall of Daren Ganga (4), bowled by Bernard, and Bravo, who edged a wide delivery to Baugh from Richardson with the score on 45, T&T got some positive impetus from Jason Mohammed (21, 2x4s) and Kelly, whose most impressive shot was an immaculate lift off Richardson to beyond the long-on boundary for six. Kelly also banged six fours to rush T&T to their dominating advantage.

Pakistan’s two-member team which is currently in India to check the arrangements before their team’s tour, has expressed concerns about the spectators’ facilities in Kanpur, which is scheduled to host one of the one-day matches.According to a report in The Times of India, Zakir Khan, the PCB’s general manager (operations) and Sohail Khan, the special superintendent of police, were worried about the condition of certain sections of the stands at the Green Park. Asking the local authorities to spruce up the galleries, Zakir said: "It is the responsibility of the local administration to ensure that no untoward incident happens. If anything happens, people may be injured or other incidents could take place."Earlier, the two PCB officials visited Ahmedabad, which will host one of the Tests. While they were tight-lipped about their opinion of the facilites there, Narahari Amin, the chief of the Gujarat Cricket Association, was confident that Ahmedabad would get the green signal for the game. “We briefed them about the security arrangements all along the Pakistan team’s itinerary, from the airport to the hotel to the stadium and inside the venue," Amin told Indo-Asian News Service. "They are very satisfied. I am confident that the city will host the match.”Mohali and Bangalore are the venues for the two other Tests, while Visakhapatnam, Kochi, Jamshedpur and Delhi will host the one-dayers.

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Scorecard

Ray Price: three important wickets which turned the game Zimbabwe’s way

Zimbabwe enjoyed another day of surprises and success after a battling bowling performance, led by Ray Price, shattered the West Indian middle order and left them reeling at 241 for 6 by the close on the third day’s play – and still needing 67 to avoid the follow-on.Price took three late wickets to give Zimbabwe the edge and leave West Indies with a tricky morning session tomorrow which could decide which way the game will go. But the bowlers had to wait for a frustrating 90 minutes before play started due to a freak incident involving a heavy roller. It’s not often that a hole in the pitch stops play, but that’s what happened this morning.As the wicket was being rolled before play, a practice ball got jammed right underneath the roller and left a deep indentation in the pitch at the City end. To make matters worse, it was just short of a good length outside the left-hander’s off stump, and considering West Indies have five left-handers, they were understandably keen to make sure the problem was solved. An auger was borrowed from the neighbouring golf club to replace the small area of turf, and the umpires finally decided it would be possible to start play one and a half hours late.When play did get underway, Heath Streak, eager for wickets, began with an attacking field and openers Chris Gayle and Hinds were quick to exploit the gaps, galloping along at almost a run-a-ball, mainly through well-placed ones and twos. Streak was surprisingly expensive for a while, but then settled down and found movement under the overcast skies, severely testing the batsmen.Hinds scored the quicker of the two, alternating bursts of superb stroke-play with periods of solid defence. But after they had put on fifty, Gayle tried to turn a straight ball from Streak to leg and missed and was correctly given out lbw for 14 (50 for 1). Daren Ganga then immediately settled in with Hinds, who reached his fifty off 70 balls, and they brought up the hundred in the 25th over.Hinds began to play with more aggression, attacking the bowling with gay abandon and smashing 14 fours. He had a century in his sights, but he became a little too reckless and miscued a pull off the accurate Blessing Mahwire to Andy Blignaut at mid-on for 79 (127 for 2).

Wavell Hinds: had no problems dealing with the repaired area of the wicket © Getty Images

Brian Lara, in his first Test innings against Zimbabwe, played forward firmly to his first ball from Mahwire and timed it so well that it beat the bowler and glided all the way to the boundary. Then followed a keen duel between Lara and Streak, in which Lara came out on top of. He played some handsome strokes, especially the flashing square-cut, but he then relaxed his concentration and tried to hit Price for a straight six, only for Mahwire to take a good running catch on the long-on boundary (179 for 3). The field then briefly resembled a scrum as the Zimbabwean players raced to celebrate with each other.Ganga, meanwhile, was steadily growing in stature, and was his usual cautious self, providing the rock of the innings. He and Ramnaresh Sarwan consolidated for a while, and passed 200 without any troubles. But two quick wickets by Price swung the balance of the match dramatically.First Sarwan played right across the line to a straight ball and was plumb lbw for 3 (211 for 4). Then Ganga, on 73, suffered a freak dismissal when he played a ball from Mahwire firmly down into the ground off the back foot, only for it to bounce up, hit his elbow and roll onto the stumps (215 for 5). Then Ridley Jacobs, who had not looked comfortable, especially against Price, was given out by Billy Bowden caught by Mark Vermeulen at bat-pad. The replay was not altogether convincing, but the ball appeared to kiss the face of the bat off the pad (240 for 6).West Indies were suddenly feeling the heat, and shortly after Jacobs’s wicket, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Vasbert Drakes eagerly accepted the offer of bad light and the day ended with Zimbabwe enjoying the unusual experience of being on top in a Test match.

The one-day cricket season that Auckland would rather forget came to its expected limp finish at Eden Park’s outer oval today when Wellington gained an easy win with 18 overs and about 90 minutes to spare.Wellington thus headed for the State Shield final at the Basin Reserve next Saturday (meeting either Northern Districts or Canterbury who will play off on Wednesday) and Auckland Cricket Association officials should have started a survey of what really went wrong with their one-day season.Today Auckland had the advantage of winning first use of their home pitch, but they were immediately in trouble against well-controlled and accurate Wellington bowling. Wickets fell with indecent speed and regularity as if to suggest Wellington were trundling hand grenades along a minefield.The early wickets fell at 8, 22 and 22. The seventh, eighth and ninth fell at 85 and to add to the incongruity of it all Richard Morgan (18) and Gareth Shaw (9) put on 30 runs for the last wicket – and the next best stand in the innings score of 115 was 19.Andrew Penn started brilliantly, cutting the ball back to bowl Matt Horne who did not play a stroke, and ripped out three quick wickets at the end – giving Penn five for 19 from 10 overs, three of them maidens. Ash Turner got three early wickets and had the glamorous figures of three for 20 from 10 overs.In sharp contrast Auckland could offer only one batsman Tama Canning (22) with a score above 20.With plenty of time, overs and sunshine making conditions still good for batting, Wellington did not race after their win. They lost Chris Nevin to the second ball of the innings, Richard Jones at 19 and Matthew Bell at 53, but David Sales (63 not out) made sure the win was achieved with comfort at 119 for three in the 32nd over.Tony Sail, the Auckland coach, said before play started today that he would not be available as coach next summer. He wanted to put his energies into coaching and developing the elite players coming through the schools and teenage ranks.The fact that Auckland should field several players below first-class ability in recent weeks shows that once past the upper crust Auckland cricket is not producing the outstanding young players. Sail maintained that while he wanted to fill in some gaps with leading Under-19 players he could not find any of suitable class.Auckland started the one-day competition at full strength, but with not quite enough polish to turn narrow losses into wins.Once Auckland lost six players, Mark Richardson, Lou Vincent, Adam Parore, Dion Nash, Andre Adams and Kyle Mills to the New Zealand side, the playing side began to rely too heavily on a small number of players. Injuries to Aaron Barnes and then Chris Drum meant that Auckland fielded a below-strength side today – and it showed.What it also showed was Auckland’s ability to lose players to other centres. Otago are doing very nicely with Kerry Walmsley and Craig Pryor, neither really encouraged by recent Auckland team managements.Welllington are getting along nicely with a couple of Auckland rejects, Jones, the batsman and Paul Hitchcock, the medium-fast bowler.Until Auckland can manufacture a new breed of talented teenage players they should try and retain the use of what might be called marginal first class players such as Pryor, Walmsley, Jones and Hitchcock.Otherwise Auckland will continue to suffer defeats equally as decisive and embarrassing as was the one-sided and dismal affair at Eden Park today.

Canada has won the inaugural Americas Cup with an emphatic seven wicketvictory over Bermuda at Toronto, Ontario, Canada on Saturday.Chasing a target of 186, Canada overtook the Bermudian total with sevenovers to spare.Astute captaincy from Canadian captain, Joe Harris, later named Man of theSeries, proved pivotal as the home team restricted Bermuda with thetargeting of key batsmen, Clay Smith and Charlie Marshall.After winning the toss and electing to bat, Bermuda put on 49 for the firstwicket, with Dennis Archer, who topscored for the visitors (59) leading theway.Smith and Marshall were then removed in quick succession, wickets whichshaped the size of the Bermudian innings.Harris brought himself on, straight away claiming Smith with hisoff-spinners in the only over of the spell.He replaced himself with Australian-based John Davison, who nabbed theinform Marshall in his first over. Davison bowled his spell straightthrough, also claiming Archer and Kwame Tucker (21), and generally stiflingBermudian batsmen’s attempts to pick up the scoring rate.Janiero Tucker helped consolidate the muiddle order with 43.On what was a good batting track, Canada cruised to the target of 187 withNicholas Ifill earning the Man of the Match award with an unbeaten 78 whileHarris scored 60.Herbie Bascombe, Archer and Smith shared the wickets for Bermuda.In the other match, the United States defeated Argentina by 41 runs.United States scored 243 all out with captain, Raymond Denny, topscoringwith 84.In reply, Argentina was allout for 202 with Matias Paterlini their best,striking 63.Today’s results means the teams finished in the following order: 1st-Canada(8pts), 2nd-Bermuda (6pts), 3rd-United States (4pts), 4th-Cayman Islands(2pts), 5th-Argentina (0pts).

Crystal Palace winger Michael Olise could be set for a spell on the sidelines after suffering a hamstring injury, which was initially described as “inflammation in his left foot” by the French Football Federation – after he withdrew from the France U21 squad.

Journalist Rahman Osman has revealed that the London-born 20-year-old could be potentially out for six weeks if the tests done on him come back with negative news.

Osman tweeted: “Michael Olise had a scan in the City [London] today. He was accompanied by the Palace team doctor, there is a feeling that it’s a hamstring problem.

“Tomorrow the results will be out, if it’s a full blown hamstrings – that is six weeks and Wembley gone.

“Good news is that he walked without support and doesn’t feel it too much so fingers crossed for tomorrow.”

If Olise and Palace’s nightmare outcome from the situation is realised, he will not only miss a London derby in the Premier League against Arsenal after the international break, but he will also miss the club’s London derby FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea, something that will undoubtedly leave the Eagles boss worried.

He may also miss league matches against, Leicester, Newcastle, Leeds, Southampton, and Watford, as the club looks to finish this season on as big a high as possible after an encouraging first campaign with manager Patrick Vieira in charge.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Vieira said about Olise: “What is important for Michael is that yes, at the moment he is playing well, but his focus and concentration has to be on Crystal Palace and how to work well in training and keep performing like he’s been doing in the last couple of games.”

After scoring two goals and adding five assists in 22 Premier League appearances, he has become an in-demand talent, with Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Lille and Bayern Munich all interested in him, according to the Sun.

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Among wingers and attacking midfielders in Europe’s top five leagues and continental competitions over the last 365 days, he ranks in the top 5% for crosses per 90 (3.71), top 6% for progressive carries per 90 (9.82) and top 2% for assists per 90 (0.46).

Not only has he become one of the top young talents in the world, but also a key player for Palace, and they will certainly miss him.

In other news: Vieira set for huge howler as CPFC plot bid for “terrible” £91k-p/w dud who’s “so bad”