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Easterns 196 for 3 (Seymore 73, Booysen 54*, de Bruin 51) beatKwaZulu-Natal 195 for 9 by 7 wickets
ScorecardAfter losing the first class match, Easterns turned the tables on KwaZulu-Natal at Willowmoore Park to win by seven wickets. Set to make 196 in 45 overs Easterns finished the game off with 7.2 overs to spare. KwaZulu-Natal dug themselves into a hole at the top of the innings and never recovered, with wickets falling at regular intervals. Showing the importance of partnerships in the shorter form of the game Easterns set off at a cracking pace with Andre Seymore driving firmly at every opportunity. His 73, nearly in equal time, set the tone of the innings. Pierre de Bruyn after his century in the three-day game scored good 50 while Jaco Booysen tried hard to secure the bonus point, failing by a few balls. One player to keep an eye on is the Easterns opening bowler Shiraaz Abrahams. With the right support, hard work and coaching he may turn out to be the find of the season.Gauteng 250 for 8 (Otto 124) beat Northerns 241 for 8 (van Woerkom 86, van Wyk 59) by 9 runs
ScorecardGauteng took the double at the Wanderers as they squeezed out neighbours Northerns by 9 runs in a tense 45-over affair. Having scored 250, thanks to a magnificent hundred from Marthinus Otto, Northerns clawed themselves back into the game falling short by nine runs when the overs ran out. Otto showed no mercy as he carved the ball around the ground, striking 12 fours and 6 sixes as he dominated the Gauteng innings. Northerns made the worst possible start and, struggling at 58 for 4, seemed to be well out of the game. Nic van Woerkom (86) and Kruger van Wyk (59) got the innings back together again with Pierre Joubert dancing in with a quick 48. Having lost too many wickets at the top of the innings and with too much to do at the end Northerns struggled, as they finished on 241. Nic van Woerkom, of Northerns, is clearly a man on a mission, and now has two hundreds and an eighty in his last three one-day innings.

Day 2 of 4 Western Australia 335 and 3 for 62 lead South Australia 300 (Cosgrove 144, Deitz 51) by 97 runs
ScorecardWestern Australia squandered the advantage of a narrow first-innings lead when Shaun Tait took three cheap wickets late on the second day of the Pura Cup match at Adelaide Oval. At stumps, after leading by 35 on the first innings, WA were 3 for 62 in their second innings, an overall lead of 97, with Tait having taken 3 for 26.For South Australia, Mark Cosgrove made his highest first-class score of 144, helping his team to 300 in the first innings in reply to WA’s 335. Speaking to the media after the day’s play, he was optimistic about his team’s chances. “It leaves us with a massive chance in the game, we’re not out of it,” Cosgrove said. “It’s pretty much a line-ball game so far, Taity came out and got us three wickets, which is great, and it can go any way at the moment. Another two quick ones tomorrow morning, as you know you can get, and they’ll be 5 for 100, so anything can happen.”Murray Goodwin was unbeaten on 37 at stumps, with Marcus North, who made an unbeaten century in the first innings, on 8.Earlier, SA crashed from 2 for 191 to be all out for 300. Cosgrove, 19, played almost a lone hand, with his dashing innings including 20 fours and two sixes. He was caught and bowled by Brad Hogg, who finished with 3 for 66. North’s part-time offspin fetched him 2 for 17, his best figures of the season.Cosgrove’s previous-highest first-class score was the 118 he made against NSW in November.The loser of this match will finish the season on the bottom of the Pura Cup table.

PERTH, Feb 26 AAP – A bowler who was playing on synthetic pitches just two years ago has Australian Test opener Justin Langer on the hop.That is the belief of Australian Test captain Steve Waugh who says 21-year-old New South Welshman Doug Bollinger will be starting to play on the West Australian captain’s mind before tomorrow’s Pura Cup cricket match at the WACA Ground.NSW, which hasn’t won the four-day title since 1993/94, needs to take all six points from the match to keep alive its chances of making the March final against frontrunners Queensland or Victoria.While 59-Test veteran Langer dismissed Waugh’s comments, the left-arm quick from Sydney’s western suburbs has dismissed him cheaply twice this summer, for five in the four-day match in Newcastle and in Sunday’s ING Cup final.Bollinger, whose debut season for the Blues has had its ups and down, had Langer all at sea before dismissing him for three in NSW’s seven-wicket win on the weekend with a corker of a delivery.And Waugh, who is always happy to gain any psychological advantage available, said national teammate Langer would have been thinking about Bollinger.”I’m sure he has got Lang thinking about him, he’s got him out a couple of times, he got him out in Newcastle and here with two very good balls and he feels very confident against Justin,” Waugh said.”We all respect Langer, he’s a great player but sometimes when you haven’t seen a bowler much and he gets you out a few times it just gets in the back of your mind.”But the 32-year-old Langer, who has scored 4077 Test runs at 44.31 including 13 centuries, scoffed at Waugh’s comments.”No trouble,” he said.”Look I have made four or five Test hundreds against Wasim Akram, I don’t think Doug Bollinger is in Wasim Akram’s class, so I think Tugga is just playing games with you,” he said.However Waugh rated the very raw Bollinger as a genuine wicket-taker, and despite stretches of waywardness, could be anything.”Because he’s come from nowhere and in some ways that’s great because teams have not seen him,” he said.”I don’t know much about him, he was playing park cricket 12 months ago and now he’s been picked in the Prime Minister’s XI, it’s been a great 12 months for him, he’s a real prospect.”Bollinger worked his way through Fairfield-Liverpool’s lower grades to become an integral part of the club’s first grade premiership winning side last season to finish in the NSW Second XI.Teams:NSW: Michael Slater, Greg Mail, Stephen Waugh (captain), Michael Clarke, Simon Katich, Mark Waugh, Brad Haddin, Nathan Bracken, Don Nash, Stuart Clark, Doug Bollinger, Stuart MacGill.WA: Justin Langer (captain), Michael Hussey, Jo Angel, Ryan Campbell, Beau Casson, Michael Clark, Murray Goodwin, Marcus North, Chris Rogers, Callum Thorp, Adam Voges, Brad Williams.

Graeme Hick has not ruled out returning to the England set-up – with his sights set firmly on the 2003 World Cup.The prolific Worcestershire batsman was not selected for either the two-Test series against Pakistan or the following NatWest Series. His form during the winter tours of Sri Lanka and Pakistan had been disappointing despite the team’s overall success.Hick made his England debut a decade ago and has been recalled to the England side no fewer than ten times – and he’s now holping to make it 11.Although at the age of 35 he admits the chances of any further Test appearances may be slim, he believes he still has something to offer the one-day side.”I can’t envisage myself playing Test cricket this summer againstAustralia with the way the side has been selected and the way they are nowlooking,” he said.”I accept that the winter was not the best for me personally although it wasstill one I enjoyed immensely because of the results and being part of anEngland team while it was successful.”Winning in Pakistan and Sri Lanka was special and not something you do veryoften.”I was disappointed to miss out on the one-day games against Australia andPakistan but I think there is still an opportunity or chance that I could stillbe playing in the World Cup next year.”That is my goal, to keep myself fit and be in with a fighting chance forthat, but any international cricket would be great. As long as I am playingcricket well and I am healthy then I will have those aspirations.”

Mohammad Yousuf will have to wait till April 30 to know whether he will be allowed to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The final decision of the arbitration panel hearing the case filed by the unofficial Indian Cricket League (ICL) to block Yousuf from participating in the IPL would not announce its final order till then, ICL lawyers said.The announcement is a setback for Yousuf as, with the IPL slated to begin on April 18, he is likely to miss a major chunk of the IPL even if the panel rules in his favour. ICL legal adviser Hitesh Jain was quoted by as saying that since the arbitration panel had reserved its order for final pronouncement the stay order on Yousuf from playing in the IPL remained.The ICL also challenged Yousuf’s claim that he had returned the advance payment amount he got from ICL to one of its agents in Pakistan.”Our case is that Yousuf has not returned the advance amount to ICL or to an authorised agent of ICL,” Jain said. “The person to whom Yousuf claimed to have returned the money is not ICL’s agent in Pakistan and therefore ICL has not received any money from Yousuf.”ICL still holds that there is a binding contract between ICL and Yousuf and he can’t participate in any competing league during the term of the contract.”The uncertainty surrounding Yousuf’s availability ensured that his services were unsold during the IPL auctions.

The day before the First Test at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium, the one thing more uncertain than the weather is the Indian team composition. Much of it surrounds the batting line-up, from the opening pair down to the middle order, possibly even the choice of keeper.Their squad of 15 has only one specialist opener, Wasim Jaffer; partnering him could be any one of the experienced Indian middle order – Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, and Yuvraj Singh [making a Test comeback after his knee injury kept him out of Tests in South Africa] – or Dinesh Karthik. And if Karthik opens, only Jaffer and Dravid are the other certainties.Asked about the opening pair, Dravid said he would like to keep it a bit of a surprise.The bowling attack is similarly unknown, save the fact that Dravid may go in with five bowlers, given that it is going to be difficult to get 20 wickets on a flat wicket in the hot and muggy weather. “We do have the option of playing five bowlers in these conditions considering the weather, the wicket and what we are trying to achieve in this game,” Dravid said. Zaheer Khan and Anil Kumble look the certainties with the ball, while any two or three of the other bowlers might play.Bangladesh look more certain and announced their 12, the choice made easier by the elimination of Tushar Imran who is ruled out with fever. The selection could very easily have become difficult had Habibul Bashar not recovered well from the fever he had yesterday. Bashar said today he was confident of playing in the Test.One out of Saqibul Hasan and Mehrab Hossain jnr is set to make his debut. If they play two pacers, it will be the sturdier Shahadat Hossain and not the accurate Syed Rasel who will open the bowling with Mashrafe Mortaza.Dravid said that the conditions will be the same for both the teams. Yet, that does not take away the significance of the conditions in the build-up. “The wicket looks pretty bare. It should hold together for the first two- and-a-half or three days,” Dravid said, “It might break up as the game goes on. But initially I expect it to be pretty good and hold firm for a few days at least.”It may prove difficult to get 20 wickets here, and thunderstorms are never too far away either. India, on paper by far the stronger of the two sides, will probably attack the game from the off; therein lies Bangladesh’s chance. The longer Bangladesh deny them and stay in the game, the more likely India are to get frustrated and Bangladesh’s chances of causing a big upset will only get stronger. In Dav Whatmore’s last series as the coach, Bangladesh will need the one virtue they have lacked, one that Whatmore has been demanding all through his tenure: patience.Whatmore has been in the news in his own right, of course, having reportedly shown an interest in coaching India. Would such talk, even as the series is on, have any negative impact on Bangladesh? No, says Bashar. “We have never had such problems. He [Whatmore] is a professional; whenever he is on the field, he never lets his coaching suffer,” he said. “We are doing the same thing as a professional team.”The last time Bangladesh played India, their batsmen kept at bay the Indian bowling attack, which wasn’t weaker than the current one. But from 239 for 4, they collapsed to 333, even as Mohammad Ashraful, now the vice-captain, played the innings of that series, scoring an unbeaten 158. They ended up losing that match by an innings. That was three years ago, but the story was the same last year. At Fatullah, Shahriar Nafees had scored another breathtaking century and Bangladesh got 355 for 5 in the first day, but their next 15 wickets fell for 220 runs.This Test will most likely be a battle between the persistence of Indian bowlers and the will of the Bangladesh batsmen. There could be a twist in the tale: if Bangladesh manage to put up a considerable total, they can become the aggressors as they did against Australia at Fatullah.Squads
Bangladesh: Javed Omar, Shahriar Nafees, Habibul Bahsar (capt.), Mohammad Ashraful, Rajin Saleh, Saqibul Hasan, Khaled Mashud (wk), Mashrafe Mortaza, Mohammad Rafique, Enamul Haque jnr, Shahadat Hossain, Mehrab Hossain jnrIndia: Wasim Jaffer, Dinesh Karthik, Rahul Dravid (capt.), Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ramesh Powar, Anil Kumble, Rajesh Pawar, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, VRV Singh, RP Singh

Less than a fortnight after announcing a surprise retirement from Test cricket, Shahid Afridi has reversed his decision following talks with Shaharyar Khan, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman and Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach.Afridi told Cricinfo that both had been instrumental in him reversing his surprising decision. “Bob spoke to me in Abu Dhabi and was quite upset with me for making the decision. He told me that I am one of the main players in the team and squad and that Pakistan really needed me.”Afridi also spoke to Shaharyar a couple of days ago, having initially contacted him because he was about to leave for England. Shaharyar also persuaded him likewise. “I spoke to him initially because I was off to England to play for Ireland but he said to me that I should play on as well as the team needed me. After those two, as well as many other friends and advisors, I decided to take back my decision.”Shaharyar told Cricinfo he felt Afridi had initially decided to retire because of the pressure he was putting himself under every time he went out to bat. “I don’t think it was due to any differences within the team. I think he felt the pressure of having to perform for a crowd every time he went to bat. In Faisalabad and Karachi recently the ovation he has got has been absolutely phenomenal. Some English players told me when they played in Karachi they’d never seen the type of reception Afridi got when he came out to bat. In Faisalabad, people left the stadium when he was out.”Shaharyar added that from the moment Afridi announced his `retirement’, he was determined to speak to him to convince him otherwise. “I had it in mind from the beginning to speak to him and ask him to reconsider. Then we spoke and I said to him that while it is a personal decision and it must be respected, it is disappointing nonetheless. I reminded him that his Test form of late had been brilliant and that while he may not be an automatic selection in the eleven, he is an essential member of the playing squad.”Afridi originally said that he wanted to concentrate on one-day cricket ahead of next year’s World Cup because of an increasingly heavy playing schedule and the lack of family time it allowed him. He maintained that it is still an issue. “I still say there is too much cricket and that our schedules are packed. I think the key is now how we – the PCB and the players – manage it. We have to look at issues like increased rest between matches and tours maybe or ask for rest at the right time but it has to be handled.” Afridi is due to leave for England in a couple of days to play for Ireland in the C&G Trophy.Shaharyar added, “I understand playing schedules are very hectic now but we are trying to work on it with the players. Hopefully, everybody’s concerns will eventually be seen to.” Afridi’s turnaround thus brings to an end a bizarre chapter even in a career as unconventional as his, though it does at least ensure that the Pakistani cricketing tradition of players reversing retirement decisions – think Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram – is well and truly alive.

Venkatesh Prasad, who was one half of the most effective new-ball pairing that India have had in recent times, had expressed his desire to be India’s bowling coach. Prasad has just acquired an advanced coaching certificate from England and, with his own playing days now firmly behind him, would love to work with the new generation of Indian pace bowlers.Indo-Asian News Service quoted Prasad as saying: “If the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) approaches me, I would like to take up the job. If the Board considers me handy, I would love to work with the boys. There are fantastic fast bowlers in the team and it would be great working with them.”Prasad was at his best in the mid-1990s, in tandem with Javagal Srinath, his Karnataka statemate, but he was cast aside by the selectors in 2001-02 after losing both pace and efficacy. Since the switch to coaching, he admitted that he had learnt much about the mechanics that go into the making of a great bowler.”I never knew there was so much of science involved in bowling,” he said. “So much of thought goes into every action. I never understood that bio-mechanics had such an important role to play before I went to England. Now that I have learnt the art, I am ready to share it with the bowlers here.”Prasad was candid when asked about Irfan Pathan, India’s new-ball hope who endured a miserable second half of the season. “He is a young lad with a lot of potential,” said Prasad. “He is very talented and aggressive. But too much of media attention is being a deterrent to his budding career. After a couple of 50s, he is being projected as the next all-rounder after Kapil Dev. This creates pressure.”In his view, Zaheer Khan was still the standard-bearer for Indian pace. “Zaheer Khan is undoubtedly the best Indian fast bowler now,” he said. “He is the most promising and has a great future. He has a perfect run up, a good release and perfect seam position at the time of releasing the ball.”For much of his tenure, John Wright had acknowledged the need for a bowling coach to iron out glitches in the players’ actions and approach. Now, with a new coach poised to take over, the BCCI might well see the necessity of an experienced hand to guide a largely inexperienced pace attack.

North Zone 304 for 7 (Yuvraj 106, Mongia 84, Paul 3-65) v East Zone
Scorecard
Yuvraj Singh stroked a magnificent hundred, but North Zone frittered away their commanding position towards the end of the first day of the Duleep Trophy final at Mohali. Dinesh Mongia partnered Yuvraj in a 197-run stand and, at 285 for 2, North Zone were in cruise control. But Debasis Mohanty and Shib Shankar Paul triggered a middle-order collapse with the second new ball, and inside 20 minutes North were reduced to 288 for 6. After putting North Zone in and being carted to all parts by Yuvraj and Mongia, East Zone were relieved in the end to restrict them to 304 for 7.But the day belonged to Yuvraj, a surprise last-minute inclusion in the XI. He punched his very first ball confidently from the meat of the bat, a contrast to the openers’ patient approach. He survived a huge appeal for caught behind third ball – Paul had already begun wild celebrations before the appeal was turned down. But that was the only uncertain moment in Yuvraj’s whole innings, until the run-out that ended it, and he turned on the boosters immediately after lunch. A crisp sweep was followed by some booming back-foot punches as the ball raced to the boundary.Mohanty and Saurasish Lahiri, the offspinner, dried up the runs with some disciplined bowling but Yuvraj was willing to wait. He finally broke free, creaming one to midwicket, and soon reached 50 in 90 balls. The second half of the innings took only 67 balls, with Utpal Chatterjee the target of Yuvraj’s hammer. As he approached his century, his hitting became totally effortless and he reached three figures with a flicked three to midwicket. He finally fell in the 80th over, as Mongia pushed to the covers and sent him back, only for the direct hit to leave Yuvraj short of the crease (285 for 3)Mongia, who made 84, was hardly noticeable while Yuvraj was stroking away. But Mongia used glides and pushes to good effect. He chipped away the singles, and played the supporting role effectively. Once he had passed his half-century, he drilled some rasping drives, one of them lofted straight over the long-off boundary. He fell soon after Yuvraj, driving uppishly into the hands of Laxmi Ratan Shukla at cover (285 for 4). Mongia later said: “Considering the way I was dismissed, with the ball stopping on me, I expect the wicket to become slower as the match progresses. It will turn from the third day and I am happy we are bowling last.”Mithun Manhas soon fell, padding up without offering a shot, and Joginder Sharma edged one from Paul that was taken by a lunging MS Dhoni behind the wicket (288 for 6). Ajay Ratra and Gagandeep Singh survived a few nervy moments towards the end of the day, with edges falling short of the fielders and balls beating the bat a number of times. Gagandeep eventually fell to what became the last ball of the day, and North Zone will need some stiff tailend resistance tomorrow if they want to reach 350.The first session was a struggle too, but the openers, Aakash Chopra and Gautam Gambhir, hung on grimly. The first hour contained some raucous appeals, and the sight of both openers letting the ball go past them unimpeded. Mohanty and Paul found the right length on a few occasions, and Chopra was lucky to survive when he was caught half-cock in the second over and rapped on the pads. The first boundary came as late as the 13th over, when Gambhir pulled Mohanty to square leg.Appeals for lbw were never too far away, but East muffed three crucial opportunities in the field. Chopra was dropped at second slip when he was 13, trying to slap a slightly wide delivery, and two easy run-out chances were missed. East finally got both wickets in quick succession, inevitably leg-before: Chopra (27) missed a straight one from Paul, and Gambhir (46) was beaten by a quicker one from Lahiri that might have missed leg stump (88 for 2). Devang Gandhi admitted: “Our bowlers were a bit wayward in the morning,” although he quickly added, “but they brought us back into the game in the end.”Mongia was disappointed that his team had squandered a decent start, but was optimistic about his bowlers’ chances: “After being put in to bat at Mohali, a score of 304 is a really good effort,” he said. “The ball was keeping low towards the end, and that will encourage our bowlers. They have come back into the game, but we have put the runs on the board.”The first session tomorrow should be interesting. North Zone have four medium-pacers raring to go – among them Ashish Nehra, who is itching to prove his fitness.

"As James has said, I was shocked and absolutely devastated to be informed by ASDA yesterday that a test sample which was collected in Australia on the 22nd of January indicated the presence of a prohibited substance.The full process of analysing and testing procedures are not complete until my B sample is fully examined in Australia later this week.I am shocked because I do not take performance-enhancing drugs and do not condone them in any way shape or form.I am proud to be in the shape I am in at the moment and that is due to nothing other than hard work and looking after myself with diet.I did take a fluid tablet before my comeback game in Sydney which I did not know contained a prohibited substance.The tablet actually dehydrates you and gets rid of any excess fluid in your body, and as I understand, it is not performance enhancing.I have decided to return home in the best interests of the team in their World Cup campaign and to address the situation personally, which the ACB are very supportive of.As I said I have never taken any performance enhancing drugs and am confident that this matter will be cleared up very soon.ASDA has conducted random tests for a long time now in conjunction with the ACB and my previous tests have always come back negative. So will any future ones.I have spoken to my team-mates, and they are very supportive.I wish them luck for the rest of the tournament. Whether I play a part will be decided shortly.Once all the testing and analysing has taken place there will be a hearing with the Australian Cricket Board’s anti doping Committee.Until then I will just have to deal with the situation as best I can.I would like to thank the World Cup squad for their collective support and friendship.I believe that they have the talent and the spirit to retain the World Cup with or without me.I wish them luck.As James has said, it is not appropriate to go into further details at the moment and I apologise that circumstances mean that I cannot answer questions right now."