Report

12-Mar-2000

Hyderabad, needing an outright victory, did not do their cause any good on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match against Baroda at the Gymkhana Ground in Secunderabad on Sunday. The home team were all out for 204 and Baroda, who on the other hand require just three points from this game to qualify for the knock out stage, were two for no loss when stumps were drawn.

Winning the toss, Hydrabad were off to a sound start with openers A Nandakishore (31 runs of 56 balls) and D Vinay Kumar (27 runs of 78 balls) putting on 57 runs off 16 overs. But Hyderabad could not build upon this and were soon 71 for three.

Vanka Pratap, who had come in at the fall of the second wicket at 71, boosted Hyderabad's hopes with three valuable partnerships. First, he and P Satwalkar (13) added 36 runs from ten overs for the fourth wicket. This was followed by a fifth wicket stand of 33 runs off 10.2 overs between Pratap and NA Yadav (19). Pratap kept one end going and then with R Sheikh (24 runs of 108 balls) added 35 runs off 19.3 overs for the sixth wicket. Pratap was the sixth batsman dismissed when the score was 175. However his departure triggered off a collapse and the last five wickets fell for 29 runs.

For Baroda, Valmik Buch was the most successful bowler taking three for 60 while Rakesh Patel and Tushar Arothe had two wickets each for 38 and seven runs respectively.

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Campbell and Carlisle steady ship

Pointe-a-Pierre, Trinidad - Skipper Alistair Campbell and Stuart Carlisle shared a 134-run unbroken sixth-wicket stand to haul Zimbabwe out of trouble against the West Indies President's XI yesterday

12-Mar-2000

Pointe-a-Pierre, Trinidad - Skipper Alistair Campbell and Stuart Carlisle shared a 134-run unbroken sixth-wicket stand to haul Zimbabwe out of trouble against the West Indies President's XI yesterday.

They carried the touring team to 222 for five in reply to the President's XI's first innings 349 at the close of the second day of their four-day match.

Campbell, unbeaten on 72, and Carlisle (70 not out) came together with Zimbabwe perilously placed on 88 for five.

Campbell has faced 148 balls and struck eight fours, while Carlisle, dropped twice in off-spinner Rodney Sooklal's first over, has hit eight fours and two sixes in his 117-ball innings.

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Ganguly's hundred helps India coast to victory

India, with Sourav Ganguly in blistering form, coasted to a six wicket victory over South Africa with 17 deliveries to spare in the second one day international at the Keenan stadium in Jamshedpur on Sunday

Sankhya Krishnan

12-Mar-2000

South Africa were restricted to 199 in 47.2 overs and India made light of a comfortable target. It was India's first successful campaign at the Keenan stadium, surely the only international cricket stadium in the world named after an American, JL Keenan, former GM of Tisco. They had lost all the five previous games.

Kirsten and Gibbs had put on 235 at Kochi but here they made precisely nought as Ajit Agarkar, swinging it in to the left hander, knocked back Kirsten's off stump off his pads as the batsman tried to turn him onto the on side.

Agarkar got a second wicket a little later. Kallis, played away from his body, edged an outswinger to Dighe for 18. Lance Klusener got off the mark quickly with a single to midwicket but played a streaky shot to the third man fence, just wide of the keeper, from the last ball of the the over.

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Both planning and effort were lacking at Peshawar

The humiliation that tracked our team reaching the apex, Sri Lanka wrapped up with absolute grace, the test series against Pakistan

Col. (Retd) Rafi Nasim

11-Mar-2000

The humiliation that tracked our team reaching the apex, Sri Lanka wrapped up with absolute grace, the test series against Pakistan. A triumph immediately after the one-day series crown is a big honor won by the visitors. The test series that Pakistan could have survived with better planning and little dedication to the cause will remain a landmark in our cricket history. Those at the helm of affairs must realize that spell of gloom faced by the cricket lovers has prolonged rather too long.

It commenced four months back when our team was thrashed in the test series Down Under followed by the debacle in Carlton and United Series and then the shameful loss of one-day matches against Sri Lanka at home. The competition between the two teams having ended with Sri Lanka clinching the honors, the 3rd and final test at Karachi will be more of a consolation event, something like a trial of the skill of lambs to satisfy someone's obsession.

A traditional sentence that "We lost to a better side" uttered by the losing captains at the end of every match was somehow not heard, excuse me if missed it. Not taking away the credit that Sri Lanka deserves, the right compliment would be that, "Sri Lanka played better and outclassed us in all departments of the game". I suggest so with a firm belief that our team was no worse, it was only mishandled. Let us relish defeat at the hands of Australia considering that Pakistan was pitched against the strongest team of the world and that too on their soil. It was not so against Sri Lanka.

At the conclusion of the World Cup 99 not too far back, Pakistan emerged as Number-2 team of the world while Sri Lanka was eliminated from the competition much earlier. From their performance, Sri Lanka never appeared like the defending champions. The manner in which Sri Lanka has thrashed Pakistan on the pitches of our own choice, reflects the efforts put in by Sri Lanka's management to lift its team from the bay of depression and strengthen it further by choosing an outright aggressive approach to the game.

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Manicaland v Matabeleland: Exciting finish in prospect after two days.

John Ward

11-Mar-2000

This match is set up for what could be an exciting finish tomorrow morning, as Manicaland, set the highest total of the match for victory, 210, finished the day more than halfway there, on 117 with three wickets down. On the first day both innings had been dominated by one player; a third and less experienced player was to stand out in the Matabeleland second innings. Development player Wisdom Sibiza, making his first-class debut, held the batting together by carrying his bat throughout the completed innings.

The day's play began in sunshine, with Matabeleland having a 59-run advantage on first innings which looked likely to prove decisive unless they made a major hash of their second innings. Charles Coventry and Sibiza gave their team no immediate cause for alarm with the first double-figure opening stand of the match.

Gary Brent, though, struck back for Manicaland with three wickets in the morning session. Although still bowling the occasional loose ball, he found much more control, holding the ball down the seam for most of the time, and found good movement and occasional lift. Coventry (24), the more enterprising of the two batsmen, gradually found his confidence and was feeling quite comfortable, by his own admission, when he fended off a lifter from Brent to be caught by Steve Lawson in the slips with the total on 34.

Captain Mark Vermeulen came in but had only two to his name when he played forward to Brent and was adjudged lbw, possibly outside the line of off stump. Dion Ebrahim quickly received a flier from Brent and gave a low chance in the gully that was put down. Almost immediately a light shower of rain drove the players from the field.

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Sri Lanka win Peshawar Test to clinch

Peshawar, March 9: Sri Lanka needed just 10 deliveries on the final morning to remove Pakistan's last two batsmen and secure an impregnable 2-0 lead in the three-match series by winning the second cricket Test by 57 runs at the Arbab Niaz Stadium

10-Mar-2000

series

Saeed Anwar, nursing a sprained neck, miscued an on-drive to be caught by Pramodya Wickremasinghe at mid-on off Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan picked up his sixth wicket of the innings when Arshad Khan provided Mahela Jayawardena his fourth catch of the innings.

Jayawardena, in fact, equalled the world record of most catches in a Test with seven here. Only three others have taken similar number of catches - Greg Chappell of Australia, Yajurvindra Singh of India and Jayawardena's compatriot Hashan Tillekeratne.

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Bushrangers' hopes flag as Tigers surge to lead

After a two days play at the Bellerive Oval, Victoria's dream of hosting the Pura Milk Cup final has evaporated as Tasmania have the upper hand thanks to centuries by Andrew Dykes and Shaun Young

Lawrie Colliver

10-Mar-2000

After a two days play at the Bellerive Oval, Victoria's dream of hosting the Pura Milk Cup final has evaporated as Tasmania have the upper hand thanks to centuries by Andrew Dykes and Shaun Young. The Tigers lead by 72 runs with five wickets and one would expect them to bat on and attempt to gain a big lead.

Early on though it was all Victoria as they had Tassie reeling at 4/37 thanks to some good seam bowling and also thanks to helpful conditions.

Dene Hills went in the days sixth over, caught at the wicket off Paul Reiffel, but it apparent following the days play that Hills was not delighted with the decision outside the off stump. Four overs later Michael Di Venuto essayed a cover drive which also went through Darren Berry and off the very next ball Jamie Cox's attempted drive found the hands of Laurie Harper at first slip to make it 3/24.

Daniel Marsh added to the collapse being caught in the gully to give comeback man David Saker his first wicket. Tasmania went into recovery mode until lunch with Dykes and Young going slowly until the break, which was taken with Tasmania at a precarious 4/60.

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Manicaland v Mashonaland - excitement outstrips the quality

On the first day of the Logan Cup match between Manicaland and Matabeleland, the interest and excitement tended to outstrip the quality of the cricket

John Ward

10-Mar-2000

On the first day of the Logan Cup match between Manicaland and Matabeleland, the interest and excitement tended to outstrip the quality of the cricket. Two fine batting performances dominated, from the former Academy players Dion Ebrahim and Neil Ferreira. Otherwise the rest of the batting was pretty feeble, the bowling was sometimes good but basically erratic, the ground fielding often poor, but the catching frequently superb. Both teams completed an innings, with Matabeleland taking a lead of 59 runs.

This match, by mutual agreement, was played at a neutral venue in Harare Sports Club due to the distance between the two centres, although Matabeleland probably had second thoughts after a long airport delay saw them arrive in Harare after 2am on the morning of the match. Their captain for the match was former Academy player and Under-19 captain Mark Vermeulen, with Mark Abrams unavailable for family reasons. Also missing were Ross Craig and John Rennie for business reasons, while Manicaland had the same twelve as in their first match. The weather was hot and generally sunny, although there was some rain about. The pitch was inevitably a little slow and giving some movement to seamers, and with a little uneven bounce the batsmen did not find it easy to play their strokes.

Matabeleland decided to bat on winning the toss, and pace bowler Leon Soma soon struck for Manicaland with two quick wickets for 19 runs. Charles Coventry, now 17 but in the record books as the country's youngest ever first-class player at 15, fell in the third over without a run on the board. Perhaps with a touch of desperation at failing to get the board moving, he drove unwisely and skyed a catch to extra cover. Vermeulen came in and played some effortless strokes, apparently back to his best form after a lean period. The other opener, development player Wisdom Siziba, struggled for runs and eventually flashed at a ball outside off stump, and the resultant thick edge was well caught low down by keeper Neil Ferreira for 3.

Soma had opened the bowling with former national all-rounder Mark Burmester, who bowled well, moving the ball away from the right-hander. First-change Gary Brent had a terrible first two overs, bowling several wides. The only way he could resolve this inexplicable problem, he found, was to bowl with his fingers across the seam. Vermeulen enjoyed an escape when a thick edge just cleared gully, but then ran himself out unnecessarily. Dion Ebrahim off-drove a ball and called for a second, but Vermeulen (29) was unprepared and narrowly run out after quick fielding by Terry Denyer.

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Bulls make slow progress in rain-interupted match

After a losing day one due to a soggy outfield, play finally got underway at the Allan Border Field and Queensland had the good fortune to the win the toss and elected to bat

Lawrie Colliver

10-Mar-2000

After a losing day one due to a soggy outfield, play finally got underway at the Allan Border Field and Queensland had the good fortune to the win the toss and elected to bat. When the players left the field for the bad light they were 4 for 208 in a shortened day off 80 overs.

Andrew Symonds innings of 98 off just 99 balls with ten fours and four big sixes was the highlight of the days play following a slow start where the run rate barely crept above two runs an over. However Symonds had his luck, being dropped by Jeff Vaughan off Paul Wilson before he had scored.

Mind you the rain over the preceding days had an impact on the outfield which was mainly to blame for the run rate but nonetheless the visitors did bowl well in the early stages.

In the first session Jimmy Maher and Troy Dixon scored at a slow rate in the early stages and was Maher first to go, edging Swain to Bradley Young at first slip after taking nearly two hours over his 18.

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Victory may prove to be a turning point

The venue was Nagpur and the South Africans were playing India A on their last tour to India

Woorkheri Raman

10-Mar-2000

The venue was Nagpur and the South Africans were playing India A on their last tour to India. One youngster cover drove medium pacer Dodda Ganesh in a copybook manner and the ball landed right into the stands. That one shot was ample proof that he had come to stay. The batsman was none other than Herschell Gibbs who showed what attacking batting was all about at Kochi. Gibbs effortlessly smashed Agarkar into the stands over covers in the early stages, which was an indication of the things to follow.