Report

Dodgy half century by Jayasuriya against PCB XI

Islamabad, Feb 21: A dodgy half century by skipper Sanath Jayasuriya helped Sri Lanka recover from early setbacks against a spirited Pakistan Cricket Board XI on a rain-effected opening day of the three-day match at the KRL Stadium on Monday

22-Feb-2000

Jayasuriya scored 60 as Sri Lanka reached 162 for five when bad light forced an early closure with 12 overs still to be bowled.

Former captain Arjuna Ranatunga (19) and wicket-keeper Romesh Kaluwitharana (8) will resume Sri Lanka's first innings on Tuesday morning. The play will start 30 minutes early to recover some of the lost time.

In the morning, the start of the proceedings were delayed by 155 minutes because of overnight rain. The play was halted again at 2:00pm when Jayasuriya complained of a dangerous spot in the middle of the pitch. An early tea was taken but 25 minutes were lost as the groundsmen used heavy roller to dry the patch.

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West Indies Domestic: Rose pulls Guyana up short

Kingston, Jamaica - Franklyn Rose grabbed six wickets and even though West Indian team-mate Shivnarine Chanderpaul cracked a hundred, Jamaica easily ecured first innings points over Guyana in their Busta Cup semifinal match yesterday

21-Feb-2000

Guyana, replying to Jamaica's first innings' 348, were dismissed for 242withcaptain Chanderpaul hitting a fine 112 - his 17th first-class century.

Rose ended with six for 71 in 20 overs and now has 20 wickets in the season.

West Indies fast bowler Reon King bowling with great hostility in an 11-over spell in late afternoon then grabbed two quick wickets including first innings centurion Chris Gayle to leave at Jamaica 39 for two.

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Match ends in a tame draw

The third day's play opened up with the faint glimmer of hope that a result would be possible

Anand Vasu

21-Feb-2000

The third day's play opened up with the faint glimmer of hope that a result would be possible. If Hansie Cronje and Pieter Strydom had a dash at the bowling, then a declaration might follow. Even if a result was not on the cards, Hayward and Donald steaming down the wicket would infuse some enthusiasm in the match. Murali Kartik, recently selected as part of the Test squad was introduced into the attack. In a concerted attempt to demoralise the young spinner, both Cronje and Strydom went after him from the first ball. Even Strydom who had not played the spinners with and degree of felicity came down the track and flat batted the ball straight back over Kartik's head for four.

Soon after Kartik was hammered, he was removed from the attack and the pacemen were brought back on. Cronje got to his fifty early on, but it was of little importance given the situation of the game. He attempted to pull a short ball from Mohanty and was deceived by the lack of bounce. The ball kept low and rapped him on the pads. The umpire had no hesitation in sending him on his way.

Lance Klusener who made a duck in the first innings did not look his usual self in the second essay even. After middling the all regularly and not finding the gaps, Klusener pulled a Bhandari short ball straight to Kaif at mid wicket.

Strydom continued to motor on and about half an hour before lunch brought up his fifty with a huge six over long on off Harbhajan Singh. His fifty came off 102 balls and included three boundaries in addition to the six that brought up the landmark. There was very little left to play for before lunch for the Indian Board President's XI and Amit Bhandari used the opportunity to test out the batsmen with some short pitched bowling. Strydom was well up to the task as he waited for the right ball and pulled it away powerfully.

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Another Pollock to the fore

KINGSMEAD had another Pollock to honour last night, although it was not to the advantage of the KwaZulu-Natal Dolphins who were the victims of his flashing blade

Patrick Compton

21-Feb-2000

KINGSMEAD had another Pollock to honour last night, although it was not to the advantage of the KwaZulu-Natal Dolphins who were the victims of his flashing blade.

The son of former South African great Graeme, Anthony Pollock of unfashionable Easterns maintained his team's unbeaten record in the Standard Bank Cup, and took them to the top of the log, when he clinched a nail-biting three-wicket victory for his team with three balls to go. With Easterns needing nine off the last over, chasing the Dolphins' total of 229-7, Pollock effectively wrapped it up when he casually flicked the first delivery from Keith Storey off his legs into the old West Stand. The stroke also brought up his own half-century in 53 balls and match adjudicator Denzil Bezuidenhout had no hesitation in making him man of the match.

Pollock, at 26 the same age as his more eminent cousin Shaun, showed great character under considerable pressure to take his team to victory. He may be a more limited batsman than his dad, but his father's flowing cover drives lived again in his son last night as the Dolphins fed his favourite stroke.

Easterns had made an explosive, almost Sri Lankan start to their run chase with opener Derek Brand playing the role of Jayasuriya with considerable aplomb, smashing a brilliant half-century in 45 balls and severely punishing Ross Veenstra, in particular, who eventually went for 61 in his nine overs.

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Sri Lanka make clean sweep of one-day series

Lahore, Feb 19: Sri Lanka outplayed Pakistan comprehensivelyin the third and final one-day international by a decisive margin of 104 runs at the Qadhafi Stadium here on Saturday to complete a clean sweep of the limited-overs series

Ilyas Beg

20-Feb-2000

It was an abject surrender by Pakistan, who failed to click as a team once again and allowed Sri Lanka gain their first 3-0 wipe out against them. Chasing an achievable 242 for a face-saving victory, Pakistan crashed to an abysmal 137 all out in 39.3 overs.

On an easy-paced pitch, which got easier to bat on with the passage of time, Pakistan's batsmen were out to atrocious selection of strokes. Skipper Saeed Anwar, who top-scored with 30, was out to a fine, tumbling catch by Russel Arnold at short mid-wicket while attempting a flick.

For the third time in the series, Saeed called correctly at the spin of the coin and like in the previous two games, elected to field first. His decision once again proved disastrous in the end as none of the Pakistani batsmen batted with application, determination and concentration.

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The same old story as England women lose again

The one day series between the New Zealand and England is taking the appearance of one of those tales that old cricketers tell: the same story a little more exaggerated each time

Peter Hoare

20-Feb-2000

The one day series between the New Zealand and England is taking the appearance of one of those tales that old cricketers tell: the same story a little more exaggerated each time. It goes like this. England bat first, fail to make enough of a score, New Zealand knock them off.

Given that this pattern was already apparent England's decision to bat on winning the toss was a surprise. Their team was unchanged from the defeat at Auckland on Thursday. New Zealand replaced Katrina Keenan with Helen Watson.

The first overs of the England innings set the pattern for what followed. The bowling was tight, the batting cautious. Only ten runs came from the first nine overs for the loss of Connor, lbw to one that nipped back off the seam from Rachel Pullar. Since being handed the poisoned chalice of the England captaincy in mid tour Connor has scored only 24 runs in four internationals.

The other opener, Claire Taylor, had scored only four by the thirteenth over when frustration overcame her. Attempting a cross bat swipe off Ramel, she spooned a catch to Campbell at mid on.

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Hayward runs through Indian BP XI batting

South Africa declared their innings closed overnight on a score of 293/6 there was everything to look forward to on the morning of the second day of the three day game

Anand Vasu

20-Feb-2000

South Africa declared their innings closed overnight on a score of 293/6 there was everything to look forward to on the morning of the second day of the three day game. In contrast to the first day, there was a sprinkling of cloud cover that gave the stadium a cool air. It was not only the weather that was different from the previous day. The pitch that afforded no bounce on the first day was suddenly responsive as the powerful South African opening bowlers steamed in. Allan Donald and Nantie Hayward gunned for pace and bounce against Arun Kumar and Wasim Jaffer.

Donald was clearly bowling well within himself. Though he generated good lift off the wicket, Donald was appreciably slower than Hayward. Arun Kumar played a couple of handsome shots in Hayward's very first over, finding the boundary on both occasions. He assumed that batting against the South African quicks was not as difficult as it was cut out to be and paid the ultimate price. Arun Kumar was late on a straight full delivery and looked back to see his stump cartwheeling towards Mark Boucher.

Mohammed Kaif came in at one drop and his trial by fire began immediately. Hayward bowled at full tilt and got the ball to rise sharply to the youngster. Kaif took his eyes off the ball in the last minute and the bouncer struck him on the side of the helmet. Visibly disturbed by the blow, Kaif motioned to the dressing room and the helmet was given a fair bit of attention. In the end, Kaif seemed largely unhurt and continued.

Wasim Jaffer looked the part as an opener while he was at the crease. From the word go, he middled every ball he played. When the ball was even slightly out of reach he let the ball go, a sign of a batsman comfortable opening the innings. Jaffer settled down to a good rhythm and was not flustered by either the accuracy of Donald or the pace of Hayward. Donald's first spell of five overs cost him just three runs.

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Bengal fall just short of their target

Bengal came close to snatching an improbable win against Delhi on the last day of the Ranji Trophy Super League tie against Delhi at the Eden Gardens on Saturday

Sakyasen Mittra

19-Feb-2000

Bengal came close to snatching an improbable win against Delhi on the last day of the Ranji Trophy Super League tie against Delhi at the Eden Gardens on Saturday.

Needing 124 runs for an win in 13 overs, Bengal finally managed to get 82 for four wickets when the captains decided to call off play. Earlier, Delhi, in the face of some inspired bowling by Saurav Ganguly and Utpal Chatterjee, scored 261 in their second innings. Ganguly finished with five wickets and Chatterjee with four. But sans the two, the Bengal bowling looked ordinary. Had the others backed up Ganguly and Chatterjee to even some extent, Bengal would have finished with eight points. As it is, they had five for the first innings lead while Delhi finished with three.

Delhi were saved by a eighth wicket stand between Rahul Sanghvi and Nikhil Chopra. They added 59 runs, but more importantly they made the runs off 160 balls. Sanghvi however had two lives. When on seven, Saba Karim dropped a difficult chance of the bowling of Laxmi Ratan Shukla and then four runs later he was dropped by Chatterjee at point. The hapless bowler again was Shukla.

The match once more established Ganguly's prowess as captain. He led from the front and struck vital blows at the right moment to have Delhi under pressure. He changed his bowlers at regular intervals. The only blemish on his part was to use leg spinner Wrichik Mazumdar for only one over during the day. The manner in which he once more outwitted the rival captain Ajay Sharma was great to watch. Sharma, a compulsive puller and hooker, had fallen to Ganguly in the first innings in the square leg trap. This time, the moment, Sharma walked in, Ganguly had a man two-thirds of the way to the fence. However, with Sharma expecting a bouncer, Ganguly bowled him the perfect outswinger. Sharma, rooted to the backfoot, played away from his body, to be caught behind.

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First innings points for Hyderabad

19-Feb-2000

The Super League clash between Hyderabad and Bihar ended in a tame draw at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium in Hyderabad today, with the hosts securing first innings points and taking their tally to 8 points from 2 matches. Bihar opened their account in the points table with this draw and have 3 points from 2 matches.

Hyderabad declared at their overnight score of 440/8 in the morning and, with the match reduced to an academic exercise, Bihar meandered to 229/9 off 78 overs in their second innings before the match was called off. Bihar skipper Sunil Kumar (71 not out) and Aamir Hashmi (58) helped themselves to some useful runs while the persevering Sardar, Kanwaljit Singh, bagged 4/70 to take his tally in the Ranji Trophy this season to 36 wickets from 7 matches.

Bihar's next game is against Railways at Jamshedpur from February 24-27 while Hyderabad travel to Delhi to take on the same opponent in their following match from March 4-7.