Report

Western Province edge closer to final

CAPE TOWN, Dec 27 - Western Province's newfound ability to defend a total saw them edge ever closer to a Standard Bank Cup semi-final place with a 50-run victory over Free State although their ultimate fate rests in the hands of others

MWP

27-Dec-2000

Their 244 for five was too much for Free State and once opener Kosie Venter was fourth out for a well made 80, the visitors' Christmas goose was well and truly cooked.

Province's success in claiming the last Free State wicket with two balls to spare also gave them the bonus point that may yet prove crucial.

Mind you, Province were prepared to give Free State a life or two to make it more entertaining for a 5 000-strong crowd which was quite as healthy as that for the Durban Test match.

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Wellington win a slow affair

Wellington and Auckland put in a performance for most of this fourth-round Shell Cup match that can give one-day cricket a bad name - and then found something in the last 10 overs to return some semblance of respectability to the match

Chris Rosie

27-Dec-2000

The records will show that Wellington scored 218 for eight off their 50 overs and Auckland were bowled out off the last ball of their 50 for 213, Wellington recording their first win in four matches by five runs.

The match started promisingly enough after Wellington got over their worries about being put in first on a green pitch and losing Chris Nevin in the second over. They went along comfortably enough at a little over fours courtesy of Matthew Bell, Auckland transplant Richard Jones and a regular supply of four balls from the bowlers.

Bell contributed 61 and Jones 42 as they put on 81 for the second wicket. But that was the end of the substatntial partnerships as only Jason Wells with an unbeaten 50 contributed anything more of substance. The innings meandered along as the Auckland bowling, particularly that of Kyle Mills (10-2-37-1) and Mark Haslam (10-0-37-2), did not provide any leeway to batsmen who did not seem interested in looking for it.

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Otago break horror historical run with powerful win at Alexandra

With rain sweeping the ground at Molyneux Park, Alexandra early this morning a huge doubt existed as to whether the Shell Cup game between State Otago Volts and Canterbury would see a completion

Warwick Larkins

27-Dec-2000

With rain sweeping the ground at Molyneux Park, Alexandra early this morning a huge doubt existed as to whether the Shell Cup game between State Otago Volts and Canterbury would see a completion.

Play started almost an hour late and the game was reduced to a 47 over contest with Otago winning the toss and putting Canterbury into bat.

The Red and Blacks started slowly and were initially on the back foot until Chris Cairns and Gareth Hopkins came together in a partnership of 65 for the fifth wicket. Cairns innings was a mixture of some aggression but mainly some calculated twos and singles. He scored 44 from 50 balls with three four's and one six.

Hopkins got 60 (from 68 balls with five fours and one six) in a similar type of innings to Cairns). At the end of the Canterbury innings Warren Wisneski and Shane Bond put on 37 for the ninth wicket and this took Canterbury through to 224-8 from their 47 overs.

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Long haul ahead of Sri Lanka at Kingsmead

Just two days into the Castle Lager/MTN Test series and Sri Lanka's strengths and weaknesses in South African conditions have been sharply illuminated

Peter Robinson

26-Dec-2000

Just two days into the Castle Lager/MTN Test series and Sri Lanka's strengths and weaknesses in South African conditions have been sharply illuminated.

The tourists ended the second day of the first Test on 62 for two in reply to South Africa's 420 all out and while Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara batted bravely into the evening to put on 60 in an unbroken stand for the third wicket, the Sri Lankans still have some way to go to reach the follow-on target of 221.

It will not be easy on a Kingsmead pitch that has offered uneven bounce and which is likely to become even more two-paced as the match wears on. The South African seamers are well-equipped to exploit the conditions while Sri Lanka have struggled all through their tour to come to terms with the bounce.

They were in terrible trouble just four overs into their innings after Makahaya Ntini had run out Marvan Atapattu for nought and Sanath Jayasuriya had also gone without scoring, brilliantly caught by Neil McKenzie at point off Mfuneko Ngam.

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Steve Waugh takes control as the West Indies wilt

Overall, the first three hours of the first day were good for the West Indies

Colin Croft

26-Dec-2000

Overall, the first three hours of the first day were good for the West Indies. At 105-4, Australia looked vulnerable. The West Indies had achieved some good results, with uncharacteristic help from the Australian batsmen. From a technical point of view, however, the West Indian fast bowlers, except Courtney Walsh, were not really as good as the score suggested.

In every over from Nixon McLean, Merve Dillon and even the Test debutante Colin Stuart, there were at least two bad deliveries. In some overs, there were as many as four of these stinkers. When the part-time off-spinner Marlon Samuels was used, he too got the treatment, since he too was off-line.

The Australian batsmen, especially Steve Waugh, took toll by hitting almost all of these bad balls for boundaries. Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting and later Adam Gilchrist seemed to have made the decision that despite the early West Indian success, all they had to do was to "take on" the bowlers, thus putting the pressure back on the fielding team. Simply, it worked.

To be perfectly honest, only one of the five Australian batsmen dismissed in the first two sessions was out to a good ball. Indeed, the best ball of the day, from Dillon to Slater, did not take a wicket, though it should have done. The ball moved away a bit from the batsman, with some extra bounce and was edged to, and badly dropped by, Sherwin Campbell at second slip.

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Public and players deserve much better from pitches

The players turned up, the crowd turned up, more than 7000 of them, but someone forgot to order a pitch for the New Zealand-Zimbabwe Boxing Day Test at Wellington's Basin Reserve

Lynn McConnell

26-Dec-2000

The players turned up, the crowd turned up, more than 7000 of them, but someone forgot to order a pitch for the New Zealand-Zimbabwe Boxing Day Test at Wellington's Basin Reserve.

Those who made the effort to shake off their post-Christmas Day torpor must have wondered why they bothered when the arrived at the ground for what has now become a New Zealand cricket tradition.

For all their efforts what greeted them was a grey-looking, lifeless pitch that was a far cry from the superior pitches that have been prepared in recent years.

Predictably, the play was dull with New Zealand crawling to a laborious 190/4 by stumps with Nathan Astle looking for a big score on 56 not out, off 174 balls and in 242 minutes, and Craig McMillan 20 not out.

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Parmar's ton guides Gujarat home

Gujarat posted a comfortable six wicket victory over Saurashtra on the final day of their Ranji Trophy West Zone clash at the Lalbhai Contractor Stadium in Surat on Tuesday

Sankhya Krishnan

26-Dec-2000

Gujarat posted a comfortable six wicket victory over Saurashtra on the final day of their Ranji Trophy West Zone clash at the Lalbhai Contractor Stadium in Surat on Tuesday. Chasing a fourth innings target of 212, Gujarat was almost single handedly guided to their destination by an unbeaten century from Mukund Parmar. The result fattened the victor's tally to 11 points from three games while defeated Saurashtra completed their engagements with six points from four games to settle at the bottom of the table.

The day began with Saurashtra's last pair of Niraj Odedra and Jolly Jobanputra resuming at 244/9. In the sixth over of the morning, the new ball was summoned by Gujarat skipper Pathik Patel and immediately produced the breakthrough. Seamer Lalit Patel broke the stubborn partnership, which had swelled to 40, with the total at 265. It was his fourth wicket of the innings and ninth of the match. Patel's match figures of 9/149 were only slightly inferior to his pace partner, Hitesh Majumdar's 9/131.

Set to score 212 in a minimum of 82 overs, Gujarat had a rocky start as both Vivek Gandhi and Niraj Patel were seen off by Jobanputra without crossing into double figures. But a 129 run third wicket stand between opening batsman and first innings century-maker Nilesh Modi and Parmar took the game firmly away from them.

After Modi fell shortly after tea to a return catch by Sitanshu Kotak for 43, Parmar soldiered on in the company of Bhavin Mehta and later Tejas Varsani. Gujarat coasted home with more than eight overs to spare, Parmar finishing on 126. His 208 ball knock, constructed over almost four hours, was studded with 18 boundaries. Currently placed fourth in the table, Gujarat play Baroda in their final league match at Ahmedabad from December 29 to January 1, needing an outright win to guarantee their progress to the knockout stages.

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Mongia saves the day for Baroda

Mumbai failed to deliver the knock out punch to Baroda, as Baroda managed to hold out Mumbai to a Draw in the West Zone Ranji match at MIG, Bandra on Tuesday

Waleed Hussain

26-Dec-2000

Mumbai failed to deliver the knock out punch to Baroda, as Baroda managed to hold out Mumbai to a Draw in the West Zone Ranji match at MIG, Bandra on Tuesday. Baroda ended the day at 360 for nine off 112 overs chasing a target of 464. The hosts took away five points and the visitors fought hard for their three.

Mumbai began the day needing nine wickets for an outright victory and Baroda needed to survive 90 overs. The latter doing the same on a match saving innings by stumper Mongia. Nayan Mongia proved the hero of the day battling for 203 minutes for his unbeaten 41 runs. He played 117 balls with seven hits to the fence. Mongia and Valmik Buch added 48 runs off 12.3 overs for a crucial eighth wicket partnership. Buch lost his nerve in the 107th over and called for a non existing single, Mongia sent him back but it was too late as an accurate throw from Paras Mhambrey caught him short of his ground.

Zaheer Khan joined Mongia at the fall of Buch's wicket. He hung around for 3.4 overs and looked to save the game. Mumbai bowlers toiled the whole day but were unable top get the break throughs. The turning point of the match was provided by Sachin Tendulkar who bowled the second last over of the day. He cleaned out Zaheer on the first ball, turning the tables around for Mumbai. It became a question of getting one wicket for Mumbai and surviving eleven balls for Baroda. Last man Sukhbir Singh held his nerve and Mongia saw the last over through to guide Baroda to a draw.

Earlier in the day, Baroda resuming on 75 for one at the start on play on the last day were comfortably placed at 249 for five off 79 overs at the tea interval. Opener Connor Williams played a patient and sensible innings. He scored 81 off 193 balls. One drop Himanshu Jadhav was the other steady contributor to the Baroda score card.

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Vidarbha claim five points in draw against Rajasthan

The Central Zone Under-22 clash between Rajasthan and Vidarbha at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground in Nagpur limped to a draw on Christmas, the third and final day of the match