After winning the toss and electing to bat first at the Karnail Singh stadium in Delhi, Punjab were in some manner of strife at the end of the day against Railways

13-Mar-2000

After winning the toss and electing to bat first at the Karnail Singh stadium in Delhi, Punjab were in some manner of strife at the end of the day against Railways.

Captain Vikram Rathour was the first to go after the scored just 3 runs. Caught by Goud off the bowling of opening bowler Rawat, Rathour gave way to young sensation Yuvraj Singh. Coming off a successful tournament in Sri Lanka, Yuvraj joined another youngster who is making waves in Indian cricket - Ravneet Ricky.

Between them the two youngsters put together what was to be the only useful partnership of the day. Ricky batted slowly, not hurrying himself in any manner. At the other end, Yuvraj, a natural stroke maker went about things in a much quicker manner. As is often the case, the faster scoring batsman perished first. Yuvraj was dismissed soon after he made his fifty, being cleaned bowled by Devendra Singh when he was 54.

After that, it was very much a one-man show as Ricky attempted to bring some semblence of decency to the Punjab innings. Pankaj Dharmani made a first ball duck and the rest of the Punjab batsmen did not show much initiative. Dinesh Mongia and (31) and wicketkeeper Jagnu (30) got starts but could not go on top play innings of substance. When Ricky was dismissed just three runs short of what would have been a well deserved century, Punjab were in trouble at 216/6.

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Orissa bundle out Haryana but lose quick wickets in response

Haryana with just 3 points have no chance of qualifying for the knock out phase

13-Mar-2000

Haryana with just 3 points have no chance of qualifying for the knock out phase. Perhaps this explained their lacklustre batting effort against Orissa at Cuttack. What would have hurt more is the fact that Haryana won the toss and elected to bat.

A combination of some effective bowling by leg spinner Jagannath Das and a couple of run outs at the top of the innings stunned the Haryana innings. Only Padamjeet Singh (51) and Parender Sharma (40) were up to the task. The rest of the batting did not make scores worthy of mention. Being knocked out for just 206, Das was easily the pick of the bowlers with 4/62 off his 19.5 overs.

However, the drama was not over just then. After bowling Haryana out for a small score, it would have taken only a steady batting performance on Orissa's part to put them in command on the first day. However, they failed to do just that.

Orissa were required to play out just eight overs, and in that short period they suffered three causalities. Captain Shiv Sunder Das who has had a good season with the bat succumbed to Jain after he had made just 4 runs. P Das failed before he reached double figures and Orissa were in serious trouble at 12 for 2. In an attempt to stem the rot, Debashish Mohanty was sent as a nightwatchman. After surviving 15 balls without scoring, Mohanty was trapped LBW by Sonu Sharma adding to Orissa's woes. At the close of play Orissa were 17/3, not a position they would have envisaged after bowling the opposition out for 206.

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Shahid Afridi, Inzamam save Pakistan's blushes

Karachi, March 12: Shahid Afridi, Inzamam-ul-Haq and a gutsy rearguard action saved Pakistan's blushes on the opening day of the third and final cricket Test against Sir Lanka at the National Stadium here on Sunday

Samiul Hasan

13-Mar-2000

Shahid stroked a punishing 74 with 13 boundaries and a six, Inzamam hit a painstaking 86 with 10 hits to the fence and featured in invaluable partnerships with Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar worth 83 runs to help Pakistan managed a respectable 256 before being dismissed just before stumps.

Sri Lankan openers, skipper Sanath Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu, safely negotiated two remaining overs of the day to finish on 10 for no loss.

Pakistan's brittle middle-order once again remained clueless against the magician spinner Muttiah Muralitharan who defied a green top pitch to finish with figures of four for 89. He now has raised his tally of wickets to 22 in the series as compared to 18 he had taken in 1995-96.

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Cinderella province of Manicaland earn victory

The anticipated exciting finish to the Logan Cup match between Manicaland and Matabeleland duly materialised, with the final result in doubt until the last few minutes of the match

John Ward

12-Mar-2000

The anticipated exciting finish to the Logan Cup match between Manicaland and Matabeleland duly materialised, with the final result in doubt until the last few minutes of the match. When the end came, it came quickly, with a few lusty blows eventually giving the Cinderella province of Manicaland a well-deserved victory by four wickets.

The third morning dawned comparatively clear, but there had been heavy rain during the night which delayed the start of play for 30 minutes while the outfield dried. Manicaland were 117 for three overnight, their last seven wickets needing another 93 to win the match, no easy task the way the match had gone on the first two days. They soon lost their night-watchman Terry Denyer, who had not scored when, failing to get quite in line to a delivery from Matthew Townshend, he was bowled, the ball just flicking the bottom of the off stump enough to remove the bails on its way through to the keeper.

He was replaced by Steve Lawson, who played one or two unorthodox strokes but concentrated well. Overnight batsman Patrick Gada hung in with great determination and showed more confidence in attacking the bad ball. When spinners Ian Engelbrecht and Stephen Brown came on the pressure increased on the batsmen, but they handled it well until Lawson, who batted patiently for a long time, decided to try to get on top of them. There was no real need to do so, as the fifty stand had been passed and victory was in sight at 180 for four. He swung once too often at the off-spin of Brown and lofted a catch to Wisdom Siziba near the leg boundary. He scored 24.

Three runs later, on the stroke of lunch, Gada (44) fell after an admirable innings. Padding up to Engelbrecht, he was given out lbw when well forward, a delayed decision in answer to a far from unanimous appeal. He had shown great determination and concentration, although beaten at times and having a lucky escape on 31 when he skyed a ball into a gap in the cover field. As the players trooped in, Manicaland were 183 for six and the match was in the balance once again.

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Ridgway's farewell as Tasmania and Victoria draw

On an increasingly benign wicket, Victoria settled for batting practice today as their match in the Apple Isle petered out to a draw, with the Vics 331 ahead with five wickets in hand when stumps were called

Lawrie Colliver

12-Mar-2000

Victoria were never in any threat of outright defeat today as they lost only three of their batsmen today, with Tasmania's bowlers unable to gain any success in the opening session and thus unable to apply any pressure on their northern neighbours.

Mark Ridgway took his last first class wicket in the fifth over after lunch trapping left handed Matthew Mott in front for 86 after over four hours resistance.

An hour later, Laurie Harper after a brisk 40, was bowled by a ball from Andrew Downton.

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Queensland prepare for final with win over Redbacks

Queensland will go into Friday's Interstate Cup Final against Victoria raring to go following their 56 run victory at Allan Border Field over South Australia

Lawrie Colliver

12-Mar-2000

Queensland will go into Friday's Interstate Cup Final against Victoria raring to go following their 56 run victory at Allan Border Field over South Australia.

In what was effectively a three day match, both sides whould be congratulated for gaining a result, but I suppose Darren Lehmann should receive the majority of the plaudits for declaring 115 runs behind on the first innings yesterday. The gesture opened up a game and also gave his team a chance of winning a match that could well have petered out to a draw.

The South Australians had their chances to win as well after they were set 274 to win in two sessions, when they reached 3/151 with still enough time remaining to force a win. At that moment, innings backbone Shane Deitz edged Matthew Anderson through to the keeper after making 85 and from there the Southerners subsided to lose in all 7/66 to be out for 217. Andy Bichel did the early damage getting mainstays David Fitzgerald (3) and Darren Lehmann (13) to complete the match with six wickets and Anderson's other two victims were Jeff Vaughan (56) and Bradley Young (23) as he finished with 3/79 from twenty overs.

Earlier in the day, Jimmy Maher found form to make an unbeaten century and set the eventual target of 274 as Queensland declared at lunch. However at the start a couple of run outs and two wickets to Paul Wilson (2/16) had Queensland at 5/69 in strife in the first session. Wade Seccombe joined the little leftie and alleviated the situation with an unbeaten 30, in an unbroken stand of 89 in 70 minutes.

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Vanka Pratap fights alone for Hyderabad

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.