Matches (35)

NZ vs WI (1)

PAK vs SA (1)

AUS vs IND (1)

IND-A vs SA-A (1)

Ranji Trophy (19)

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Hong Kong Sixes (9)

New Zealand

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Today

12:15 AM

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Schedule Series

143

PAK

(25.1/50 ov, T:144) 144/3

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Schedule Report Series

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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.

Full post

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.

Kirsten and Gibbs made their intentions clear from the very first over and Ganguly was made to realise that captaincy is not a bed of roses. The medium pacers Agarkar and Kumaran were hit out of the attack and the spinners were in action much earlier than they would have wanted. Such was the domination of Gibbs and Kirsten that Ganguly sought the counsel of his predecessors when hardly ten overs were bowled. Runs were freely scored on either side of the wicket though the ball beat the outside edge on a couple of occasions.

The way Kirsten and Gibbs complemented each other was simply superb. At one stage, Kirsten overtook his partner, without any apparent effort. Gibbs carried on braving exhaustion and was definitely helped by Sameer Dighe's shoddy work behind the stumps. Gibbs and Kirsten went on to complete centuries and provided a platform for a score of about 350 to 370. The Indians on their part did well despite things not going their way to restrict the score to around the 300 mark. Rahul Dravid's success as a bowler should either reflect on the bowling strength or should be hailed as a great discovery by the new captain.

"Collective effort" was the theme Ganguly wanted to emphasise to his teammates. The chase was always going to be difficult and it was imperative that the Indians were positive collectively. Ganguly led by example starting off with panache and Tendulkar for once was left to watch the proceedings from the other end. The partnership between Jadeja and Azharuddin proved to the crucial one as they collected runs without taking any chances. The big shots were unleashed with precision and at the right time before Kallis dismissed Azharuddin. Robin Singh, the quiet and effective performer joined Jadeja and they relish batting in the one-dayers. The singles were taken at will and they put the pressure on the fielders in the deep by running hard. Jadeja in the meanwhile clouted a couple of sixes off Crookes but a magnificent innings came to an end just eight runs short of a well deserved hundred. Robin Singh, in the company of Kumble, ensured that the Indians won amidst high drama in the end.

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Muralitharan spins Sri Lanka into winning position

Peshawar, March 8: Muttiah Muralitharan captured two wickets off successive deliveries to swing the balance of the second cricket Test and the series towards Sri Lanka's way as Pakistan were left reeling at 222 for eight at stumps on the fourth day

Samiul Hasan

09-Mar-2000

Pakistan struggling to level series despite Youhana's 88

Pakistan, chasing a target of 294 to keep the series alive had recovered from a precarious 145 for five to 222 for six and were progressing smoothly with Yousuf Youhana belting the Sri Lankan bowlers at will.

But in the closing moments of the day, Muralitharan trapped Youhana in front of the stumps and then had Waqar Younis caught at silly point off the next ball to change the entire complexion of the game.

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No joy for Bulls as downpour washes out day one

Queensland team: (from) *SG Law, JP Maher, TJ Dixon, ML Love, A Symonds, GI Foley, +WA Seccombe, AJ Bichel, AC Dale, SA Muller, JH Dawes, MA Anderson

Lawrie Colliver

09-Mar-2000

After considerable overnight rain and a number of inspections, no play was possible at Allan Border Field

Queensland team: (from)
*SG Law, JP Maher, TJ Dixon, ML Love, A Symonds, GI Foley, +WA Seccombe, AJ Bichel, AC Dale, SA Muller, JH Dawes, MA Anderson.

South Australia team: (from)
*DS Lehmann, SA Deitz, DA Fitzgerald, BA Johnson, JM Vaughan, DJ Harris, BE Young, +GA Manou, JN Gillespie, P Wilson, BA Swain, PE McIntyre.

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Bushrangers batsmen struggling against Tigers

After a one days play at the Bellerive Oval honours are even after Tasmania ended the day at seven without loss in reply to Victoria who closed at 9 for 279

Lawrie Colliver

09-Mar-2000

After a one days play at the Bellerive Oval honours are even after Tasmania ended the day at seven without loss in reply to Victoria who closed at 9 for 279.

On a chocolate-brown pitch Tasmania had the luck with the coin, sending Victoria into bat and they immediately struck with Jason Arnberger going in the first over as edged behind to Damien Wright without scoring.

Matthew Elliott was bowled four overs later for 12 to give Damien Wright his second wicket to have the visitors reeling at 2/16 inside the first half hour of play.

Mark Ridgway in his last game for Tasmania struck in his fourth over having Brad Hodge playing on for 7 and the visitors had their problems being 3/27.

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Blues recover from shaky start on rain-shortened day

At the Sydney Cricket Ground in a match with no bearing on finals placings, New South Wales recovered from a mediocre start to be 5/205 at stumps against Western Australia

Rick Eyre

09-Mar-2000

At the Sydney Cricket Ground in a match with no bearing on finals placings, New South Wales recovered from a mediocre start to be 5/205 at stumps against Western Australia. Play began at 2.30pm after surface water from two days of steady rain was cleared from the outfield.

Wicketkeeper Brad Haddin was clearly the standout in a NSW lineup where three batsmen, including captain Michael Bevan (21) and Shane Lee (25 from 22 deliveries) failed to make it past the twenties. Brad Williams (2/45) was the most successful of the WA bowlers.

Six months ago Corey Richards was playing for Australia A and was being touted as the next number three batsman in the Test team. Today he was named twelfth man for New South Wales, this year's Pura Milk Cup woodenspooners.

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India win amid scenes of low farce

Sankhya Krishnan

09-Mar-2000

India won the first ODI against South Africa in a grandstand finish at Kochi's Nehru stadium which ended in a grotesque manner after the teams had walked off thinking the match was over and had to be called back to complete it a second time. The final over bowled by Pollock, with eight needed, saw frayed nerves as Pollock was called for overstepping by umpire MR Singh with his foot a clear two centimetres behind the line. It was left to Anil Kumble to streak the ball down to the third man boundary as Kallis made a despairing effort to save it. The match ended with the three that the batsmen ran being changed to four on communication from the 3rd umpire, as the players were preparing for the next ball. Or so we thought.

What happened next was utterly bizarre. The players left the field, the South Africans looking shattered and the Indians, especially Robin looking flustered by unwelcome attention from the fans who surged onto the ground. The dais for the presentation party was brought out onto the outfield. And just as quickly withdrawn. There was something fishy in the air and total confusion reigned before it slowly dawned on the crowd that the 3 which was ruled 4 was actually a 3. The stumps were put back, the umpires hovered on the edge of the field before finally deigning to step in. And sure enough the players soon followed.

Would the South Africans be motivated after having been emotionally drained? Would the Indians get over the extreme disappointment? Robin Singh managed to get bat on ball and the batsmen scampered through before the field could react. The disgruntled South Africans trooped off after losing the match a second time and the two batsmen did not even make a cursory display of emotion. At the end of the it all India had won by 3 wickets with 2 balls to spare.