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Ageless Tikolo turns back the clock

Kenya cruised to a 104-run run victory in the third and final ODI at Mombasa Sports Club, completing a series whitewash over Bermuda to give their World Cup preparations a major boost

Kenya cruised to a 104-run run victory in the third and final ODI at a sunny Mombasa Sports Club, completing a series whitewash over Bermuda to give their World Cup preparations a major boost. For Bermuda, however, the upbeat mood which has been a hallmark of their game ever since they qualified for the tournament 16 months ago has given way to the reality that they are far from ready to compete with cricket's big guns.
The game was as good as over by the halfway mark. For much of the last decade Steve Tikolo has been widely accepted as the best batsman outside mainstream international cricket. He is now past his best - and Kenya's recent international isolation has also dulled his cutting edge - but he turned back the clock with a majestic hundred which enabled Kenya to post 305 for 8.
Dropped early on, Tikolo cut loose against some mediocre bowling to record his second - and highest - hundred in an ODI. Both in Nairobi and in the first two matches here, the pitches were damp and made run-scoring hard work. Finally, this match was played on a hard, fast and true surface and Tikolo gorged himself.
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North Zone pile on the runs

Led by Aakash Chopra's 188 and half-centuries from Yashpal Singh, Mahesh Rawat and Joginder Sharma, North Zone pummelled a hapless Sri Lanka A into the ground on day four of the Duleep Trophy final at the Eden Gardens

Cricinfo staff
14-Nov-2006


Aakash Chopra fell short of a double century, but his team-mates ran home the advantage © Getty Images
Led by Aakash Chopra's 188 and half-centuries from Yashpal Singh, Mahesh Rawat and Joginder Sharma, North Zone pummelled a hapless Sri Lanka A into the ground on day four of the Duleep Trophy final at the Eden Gardens. Sittting comfortably on 627, a lead of 331, North Zone held all the aces going into the fourth day's play.
Chopra, overnight on 135, continued in the same watchful groove, though he did take a liking to Rangana Herath's left-arm spin, picking up most of his boundaries before lunch off him. Herath finally got him, leg before in the 129th over, but there was little respite for the Sri Lankans. Next, Yashpal and Rawat added 81 and then Joginder joined Rawat to frustrate Sri Lanka A with a 126-run stand for the sixth wicket.
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Hodge and White tame Tigers with centuries

The spectacle of Shane Warne bowling to Ricky Ponting will have to wait, but Brad Hodge and Cameron White put on a show for the handful of spectators at the MCG



Cameron White scored 64 in the final session © Getty Images
The spectacle of Shane Warne bowling to Ricky Ponting will have to wait, but Brad Hodge and Cameron White put on a show for the handful of spectators at the MCG as Victoria finished on 5 for 329 against Tasmania. Hodge, one of the forgotten men during talk of Ashes berths, made 153 in front of the national selector Merv Hughes and White was unbeaten on 100.
The pair added 223 for the third wicket after Victoria, who won the toss and batted, were troubled by the new ball. Hodge played a controlled innings as he hit to his strengths, whipping the ball off his pads and driving when he could. One of his least convincing shots was a thick edge past first slip that raced to the boundary, bringing up a 172-ball century. Hodge fell six overs before stumps when he was caught at backward point by Michael Di Venuto from his 251st delivery.
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Pakistan coast home by nine wickets

Brian Lara's brilliance shone brightly at the Gaddafi Stadium, but as has happened so often in his career, the final outcome was yet another Test defeat for West Indies, as Pakistan eased to a nine-wicket win to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series



Brian Lara's ton went in vain as Pakistan were the clear victors, thanks to their allround performance © Getty Images
Brian Lara's brilliance shone brightly at the Gaddafi Stadium, but as has happened so often in his career, the final outcome was yet another Test defeat for West Indies, as Pakistan eased to a nine-wicket win to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. Lara stroked a classy 122 and, with Shivnarine Chanderpaul (81), threatened a West Indian revival, but his dismissal sparked a familiar collapse, as Umar Gul finished with a match haul of nine wickets to leave Pakistan with the formality of scoring just 13 to seal the victory.
When play started this morning, West Indies' fortunes were always likely to hinge on Lara's performance, and that's exactly how it transpired. While Lara was going strong, with Chanderpaul offering him solid support, the pitch seemed to be a batting paradise and runs were scored at a canter. The moment Lara left, though, regular service resumed, though Chanderpaul offered dogged resistance despite being unwell. Had it not been for some sloppy work by the close-in fielders and Kamran Akmal, the wicketkeeper, the match would have finished even earlier than it eventually did.
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Anderson and Clarke tune up in draw

James Anderson produced an important spell ahead of the first Test while Michael Clarke made a final push for Australian selection in the drawn tour game at the SCG

Cricinfo staff
14-Nov-2006


Kevin Pietersen moved swiftly to three figures in the first session and finished with 122 © Getty Images
James Anderson produced an important spell ahead of the first Test while Michael Clarke made a final push for Australian selection in the drawn tour game at the SCG. On a day that was little more than glorified practice, Clarke reached his second half-century of the game, Anderson was on a hat-trick in the final session and New South Wales were 6 for 194 when play ended 30 minutes early.
While Anderson will line up in Brisbane next week, Clarke is battling with Shane Watson and Andrew Symonds for the No. 6 spot, but it is hard to know what David Boon, the selector on duty, made of his efforts. Clarke was reprieved by a missed stumping from Geraint Jones in the over after tea and he was dismissed for 68 when bowled by Ashley Giles.
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Chopra & Ricky give North the lead

Akash Chopra and Ravneet Ricky slammed centuries to put North Zone in an impregnable position in the Duleep Trophy final against Sri Lanka A at the Eden Gardens

Cricinfo staff
13-Nov-2006


Aakash Chopra notched up his 15th first-class hundred © Cricinfo
Aakash Chopra and Ravneet Ricky slammed centuries to put North Zone in an impregnable position in the Duleep Trophy final against Sri Lanka A at the Eden Gardens. Resuming on 51 for no loss on the second morning, North Zone finished on 321 for 2 with a lead of 25 with eight wickets in hand.
Chopra, who had raced away to 39 at stumps yesterday, lost his opening partner Gautam Gambhir to the second ball of the day - bowled by Ishara Amerasinghe for 7 - by but held his nerve to graft out his 15th first-class hundred. He picked up two fours off one Akalanka Ganegama over to get to 50, but then buckled down. Chopra spent a few overs in the nineties, but a brace off Rangana Herath's left-arm spin took him to the landmark. He finished the day unbeaten on 135.
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Love hurts Warriors with 186

Martin Love has left behind a poor start to his season and smashed 186 - including 105 in a session - to put Queensland in control of their Pura Cup match against Western Australia at the WACA

Cricinfo staff
13-Nov-2006
Martin Love has left behind a poor start to his season and smashed 186 - including 105 in a session - to put Queensland in control of their Pura Cup match against Western Australia at the WACA. Love, James Hopes and Matthew Hayden combined to help Queensland smash 414 runs on day two, leaving them at 7 for 480 in reply to the Warriors' 208.
Love struggled to find his rhythm in the first session, scoring 28 before lunch as Hayden (76) blitzed the bowlers, but he turned on a show in the second in which he plundered 22 boundaries. When he was finally caught behind off the part-time bowling of Michael Hussey, Love had hit 35 fours and one six, and become Queensland's most prolific batsman with 27 centuries - one more than Matthew Hayden - and 10,084 runs.
Love's 186 came after he accumulated only 15 in his first four innings of the season. His comeback from poor form echoed last year, when he had averaged 14.88 in his nine previous innings and then scored 106 and 50 in a Queensland victory at the WACA. This season's effort could not have come at a better time for the Bulls, who are on the bottom of the Pura Cup table with two losses.
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Yousuf leads Pakistan dominance

Mohammad Yousuf's monumental 192 put Pakistan in a position of immense strength at the end of the third day of the Lahore Test



Mohammad Yousuf was out in the 190s for the second time in as many series © AFP
Mohammad Yousuf's monumental 192 put Pakistan in a position of immense strength at the end of the third day of the Lahore Test. Yousuf's knock, coupled with half-centuries by Kamran Akmal and Shoaib Malik, powered Pakistan to 485 with first-innings lead of 279. They further strengthened that position by reducing West Indies to 74 for 3 in the 17 overs of play possible before bad light intervened.
Pakistan's innings had vital contributions from the middle and lower-order batsmen, but the effort that made the difference was Yousuf's. After Pakistan lost two early wickets in the morning - including Malik's for 69 - Yousuf found an ally in Akmal, and the pair completely shut West Indies out of the match with a 148-run stand for the seventh wicket.
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Pietersen stirs England on day of improvement

Three half-centuries to key batsmen provided England with their first good day of the tour, but there were concerns over Marcus Trescothick after he failed against New South Wales at the SCG

Cricinfo staff
13-Nov-2006


Brett Lee took care of Marcus Trescothick, but England recovered to finish the second day strongly © Getty Images
Three half-centuries to key batsmen provided England with their first good day of the tour, but there were concerns over Marcus Trescothick after he failed against New South Wales at the SCG. While Kevin Pietersen, Alastair Cook, Andrew Strauss and Andrew Flintoff gained valuable batting time, Trescothick fell for 8 when he played on to Brett Lee and the side was in more trouble at 3 for 95 when Stuart Clark struck twice in three balls before tea.
Experiencing a Test dress rehearsal from an attack including Lee, Clark, Glenn McGrath, Stuart MacGill and Nathan Bracken, England recovered from the damage and a strong partnership of 90 between Flintoff and Pietersen took them to 4 for 256 at stumps. The pair will have another chance to acclimatise on the third and final day, with Flintoff beginning on 48 and Pietersen resuming on 80.
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Old and young see Kenya home

Kenya took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the best-of-three one-day series with a seven-wicket win over Bermuda at Mombasa Sports Club

Cricinfo staff
12-Nov-2006
Kenya took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the best-of-three one-day series with a seven-wicket win over Bermuda at Mombasa Sports Club.
Bermuda's total of 184 for 8 always seemed below par, and that proved to be the case as Steve Tikolo and Tanmay Mishra added an unbeaten 103 for the fourth wicket to see Kenya home with almost four overs to spare.
It was a case of the old and the young. Tikolo, 35, has been the bedrock of Kenyan cricket for well over a decade, but Mishra, 19, has emerged this year and many believe he represents a fine prospect for the future. The pair came together with Kenya on 83 for 3, not exactly in trouble but aware that their middle order fell apart yesterday. In a perfectly-timed chase, which was dominated by the younger man, they ended Bermuda's hopes of getting back into the series.
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