Report

Yusuf Pathan stars in big Baroda win

A summary of the third day in the latest round of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group

Cricinfo staff
12-Jan-2006
Baroda wrapped up a comprehensive rout of Hyderabad inside four days at Vadodara, with Yusuf Pathan, the offspinning allrounder, bagging career-best bowling figures. Baroda, 150 for 3 overnight, were boosted by valuable knocks from Connor Williams and Kiran Powar despite a superb spell from Pragyan Ojha, the left-arm spinner, who also picked up his best analysis. Set 371 to get, with the entire fourth day remaining, Hyderabad hardly offered a fight and folded meekly for just 150. Pathan, who had earlier bailed Baroda out of trouble with a fine 72 in the first innings, ran through the lower order with his offbreaks after Irfan Safi Pathan rocked the top order.
Delhi 366 for 8 (Bhatia 152*) trail Tamil Nadu 481 by 115 runs
Scorecard
Powered by a superb unbeaten 152 from Rajat Bhatia, Delhi managed to avoid the follow on- effectively dashing Tamil Nadu's hopes of making it to the semi-finals - and reached 366 for 8 at the end of the third day at Chennai. Bhatia first put up a 94-run stand for the fifth wicket with Mithun Manhas to propel Delhi before Aashish Kapoor clean bowled Minhas to trigger a minor collapse - 3 wickets fell for 17 runs as Delhi reached 228 for 7. But Bhatia stood between TN and a spot in the final four as he combined with Chaitanya Nanda to put on 102 runs for the eighth- wicket and guided the tail to charge Delhi past the follow on-mark.
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Awesome Australia off to a flier

Australia overcame an indifferent start to crush Sri Lanka by 116 runs in the opening match of this season's VB Series at Melbourne's Telstra Dome



Andrew Symonds: cut loose with a 61-ball 66 to sink Sri Lanka © Getty Images
Australia overcame an indifferent start to crush Sri Lanka by 116 runs in the opening match of this season's VB Series at Melbourne's Telstra Dome. Only briefly, when Australia struggled in their first 15 overs, was this even a contest but from the moment their batsmen cut loose, it became an increasingly one-sided affair. There was more than enough entertainment to keep a decent crowd amused, but it left a suspicion that Sri Lanka will struggle to retain a foothold in the competition.
The game's watershed came in the 16th over when Damien Martyn was caught off a no-ball from Chaminda Vaas. He certainly did not hear the call and was trooping off before he became aware of the reprieve. He celebrated by smacking Vaas for a massive six over cover and never looked back. With Simon Katich, he added 74 in 11 overs and Australia disappeared into the distance.
Sri Lanka began brightly after putting Australia in, dismissing both Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting for 13 in a rather low-key beginning, Gilchrist missing an attempted heave over midwicket and Ponting, after an indifferent stay, gave Ruchira Perera the charge and missed. At the 15-over drinks break, Australia were 2 for 64 and Sri Lanka, coming into this match in dreadful one-day form, sniffed the slightest of openings.
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Rana stars with bat and ball as Haryana fight back

A summary of the second day in the latest round of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group

Cricinfo staff
11-Jan-2006
Fifties from Arindam Das and Abhishek Jhunjhunwala saw Bengal close the second day at Kolkata 90 runs behind Railways' first-innings 259. Ranadeb Bose was the star performer for Bengal earlier in the day, putting a poor season behind him by bagging a five-wicket haul that saw Railways collapse before lunch. Vineet Saxena top-scored with 65 before he fell leg before to Bose, while Yere Goud pulled his weight for a vital 47. Railways, who were relegated to the Plate Group following a draw with Maharashtra last week, have only pride to play for in this match.
Haryana 221 for 6 (Rana 59) trail Services 241 (Sarabjit Singh 89, Rana 4-47) by 20 runs
Scorecard
Sachin Rana led Haryana's reply to Services' first-innings 241 with a gritty half-century before Siddharth Verma and Joginder Sharma safely negotiated the final session of play on the second day at Palam. Services, 226 for 5 overnight, were unable to add much to that total as Joginder and Rana ran through the tail following Sarabjit's run-out for a well-made 89. Following a four-wicket haul with the ball, Rana turned in a credible showing with the bat. Coming to the wicket with Haryana on 77 for 4, Rana shouldered the responsibility of building an innings admirably. Following his dismissal, Verma and Joginder have added 58 runs for the seventh wicket and Haryana will look to the duo to extend that partnership into a sizeable innings lead tomorrow.
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Five-star Wise too shrewd for Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka got their preparations for the VB Series off to a woeful start, losing by seven wickets to Victoria

Cricinfo staff
11-Jan-2006


Kumar Sangakkara topscored for Sri Lanka ... with a modest 33 © AFP
These are woeful times for Sri Lanka. Fresh from losing - no, being trounced in - two ODI series, they were served their latest humiliation by Victoria, who raced to a thumping seven-wicket win at the Central Reserve.
Heavy rain reduced the match to 40 overs, a game which transformed from sluggish - Sri Lanka subsided for 120 - to sloggish when Victoria romped home with more than 15 overs to spare.
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Eight-wicket win sees Saurashtra to semis

A summary of the third day in the latest round of the Ranji Trophy Plate Group

Cricinfo staff
11-Jan-2006
Saurashtra have qualified for the Plate Group semi-finals following a comprehensive eight-wicket win over Himachal Pradesh on the third day's play at Rajkot. After Rahul Panta's 5 for 78 bowled out Saurashtra for 246 yesterday, Himachal had resumed the day on 97 for 3 - a lead of just 13 - but continued to lose their way in the face of a fine spell from Kanaiya Vaghela, who picked up his maiden five-wicket haul, and were dismissed for 157. Set just 74 to win, Saurashtra proceeded to secure a semi-final birth by knocking off the runs in less than 15 overs.
Earlier, Panta was assisted by Anju Thakur who, on his HP debut, picked up 4 for 65 with his legspinners. While no Saurashtra batsman crossed fifty in their first innings, decent contributions from Jaydev Shah, the captain, and Shitanshu Kotak saw their side to an 84-run lead on the second day.
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Badrinath and Badani propel TN to commanding total

A summary of the first day in the latest round of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group

Cricinfo staff
10-Jan-2006
An unbeaten third-wicket partnership of 193 between Subramaniam Badrinath and Hemang Badani took Tamil Nadu to an imposing 261 for 2 at stumps on the first day's play against Delhi at Chennai. Badrinath, the TN captain, brought up his seventh first-class hundred late into the day, while Badani, who only recently relinquished the captaincy, followed up a big hundred in his last game with a composed 91 today. Coming together with TN's score on 68 for 2 following the dismissal of Sridharan Sriram - bowled by Chaitanya Nanda for 43 - Badrinath and Badani defied the Delhi attack for the rest of the day to put TN in the driving seat.
Gujarat 6 for 0 trail Karnataka 163 (Chipli 76, Trivedi 4-49, Majmudar 4-34) by 157 runs
Scorecard
Siddharth Trivedi and Hitesh Majmudar, the Gujarat fast bowlers, shared the spoils of a poor Karnataka innings at Ahmedabad before Gujarat's openers took their side to six without loss at stumps. Both Trivedi and Majmudar were in good form on the opening day, striking key blows to reign in Karnataka's in-form batting order. Only Bharat Chipli, with a commanding 76 off 93 deliveries, and Stuart Binny (45), son of Roger Binny the former Indian allrounder, stood out for Karnataka. Subtract Chipli's counterattack, and this substandard total would have been a lot worse.
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Kruger and Dippenaar star in 94-run win

A day after their Twenty20 thrashing, South Africa warmed up for the VB Series with a resounding 94-run win against Queensland at The Gabba

Cricinfo staff
10-Jan-2006


Garnett Kruger helped reduce Queensland to 8 for 50 with a rapid spell of 3 for 18 © Getty Images
A day after their Twenty20 thrashing, South Africa warmed up for the VB Series with a resounding 94-run win against Queensland at The Gabba. The South Africa seamers tore the home side's batting to shreds with Garnett Kruger emerging as the surprise package by snaffling three scalps.
Kruger may not have been in the squad if Makhaya Ntini had been fit but, after his 3 for 18, he has now pushed himself forward for a starting place in South Africa's first game, against Australia on Sunday.
Graeme Smith indicated that Kruger and Monde Zondeki would get opportunities throughout the VB Series: "They're young boys but they've been around a while in domestic cricket," he said. "They'll get an opportunity during the VB series and tonight's a good start for them."
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Duckworth-Lewis and Hitchcock take Auckland to victory

A summary of the fourth round State Shield matches

Cricinfo staff
10-Jan-2006
Auckland's win over Northern Districts highlighted a topsy-turvy day in the State Shield. Auckland was aided by Mssrs Duckworth and Lewis after the only black cloud in the country perched over Eden Park late in the day. In fairness, Auckland looked comfortable chasing, being 188 for 2 in 37.4 overs after Paul Hitchcock (108) posted a hard-hitting century in 99 balls. When the downpour came the revised target was 177 so Auckland won by eight wickets. Earlier, Northern posted a competitive 267 thanks mainly to captain James Marshall's stylish 87. He was run out on the last ball of the game attempting a cheeky bye. Twin brother Hamish looked untroubled getting through to 39. Mayu Pasupati was best of the bowlers with 4 for 46.
Peter Fulton fell from a great height yesterday as part of a Canterbury team thrashed at home by lowly Central Districts. Fulton, the player of the recently completed series against Sri Lanka fell lbw third ball to Michael Mason for no score. Canterbury was dismissed for 109 as Ewen Thompson and Lance Hamilton both finished with figures of 4 for 22. Central had no problems knocking off the total in 24.2 overs, with Ross Taylor (55) and Geoff Barnett (52) not out after an unbroken 91-run stand.
Wellington was taken for a wild ride at Carisbrook by Otago, which demolished the previously unbeaten team. Otago seamer Warren McSkimming took a match-winning 5 for 9 off 7.3 overs as Wellington was skittled for a paltry 81 in 28.3 overs. McSkimming dismissed Chris Nevin off the first ball of the match and things scarcely improved for Wellington thereafter. Otago passed the total in 19.3 overs with Neil Broom (18) and Jonathan Trott (7) the not out batsmen. Luke Woodcock top scored for Wellington with 20 while Aaaron Redmond scored 34 for the home team.
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Barbados gain lead but unable to complete victory

Barbados gained first-innings points but were unable to complete victory after trying to make a game of it on the final day of the Carib Beer Series match against Windward Islands at the Tanteen Recreation Ground on Monday

Cricinfo staff
10-Jan-2006
After dismissing the hosts for 241 shortly after lunch to gain a first innings lead of 124, Barbados opened up the match by declaring their second innings at tea on 109 for 4.
Following a 40-minute delay at the start, Windwards has resumed their innings on 182 for 3 but succeeded in losing seven wickets for 53, Ryan Austin's offspin and Ian Bradshaw's medium pace doing the damage. Austin, who finished with 4 for 99, added to his two wickets the previous evening by claiming the first two wickets on of the day. Bradshaw had 2 for 17 from 18 probing overs, including the wicket of top-scorer Craig Emmanuel for 60.
Barbados then scored at close to five runs an over and surprised some by declaring their second innings at tea. Windwards lost wickets at regular intervals - at one point being 52 for 5 - before Junior Murray (29), the former West Indies wicketkeeper, and Darren Sammy (15), the fast bowler, played out the remaining 50 minutes. Rawl Lewis, who took six wickets in the first innings, collected another two in the second to win the Man-of-the-Match award.
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Australia amble to 95-run victory

Australia cruised to a 95-run victory that was not really in doubt from the moment they posted a daunting 3 for 209 in their 20 overs



Damien Martyn lit up Brisbane and played some extraordinary shots in his 96 © Getty Images
Australia completely dominated their first home Twenty20 international against South Africa, with superb batting, dynamic fielding and brilliant catching. South Africa, who were never realistically in the game, fell 95 runs short in what was an utterly convincing and breathless performance by the hosts.
In front of a record crowd of 38,894 at The Gabba, the most for any sporting event at the ground, the home fans were treated to an electrifying performance from Australia, with all three facets of their game seemingly in perfect order for the upcoming one-day series. Batting first, on a deliciously flat pitch, they romped along. Damien Martyn - so often a calm, controlled batsman, combined his usual elegance with a flurry of belligerent shots; cutting deftly, pulling powerfully and launching five huge sixes into a raucous crowd.
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