Michael Kasprowicz is set to return from a back injury as Queensland play two one-day matches in the Top End Series next month. Kasprowicz, who was dropped after the 2005 Ashes, was forced home from the South Africa Test tour with the problem and missed the two-match Bangladesh series in April.Queensland will play a one-day game against Pakistan A in Cairns on July 22 and are due to face New Zealand A in a Twenty20 fixture. Australia A and India A are also appearing in the series that will be based in Darwin and Cairns and starts on July 5.Trevor Barsby, the former Bulls opening batsman, will coach the Queensland side in the absence of Terry Oliver, who is overseas, and the squad includes the young fast bowlers Grant Sullivan and Ben Cutting. Sullivan earned a full contract with Queensland for 2006-07 and Cutting, an Australia Under-19 representative, won a rookie deal.Queensland squad Ryan Broad, Ben Cutting, Daniel Doran, Chris Hartley, Shane Jurgensen, Michael Kasprowicz, Brendan Nash, Ashley Noffke, Clinton Perren, Nathan Reardon, Nathan Rimmington, Lachlan Stevens, Grant Sullivan.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Darren Maddy and Jim Allenby inspired Leicestershire to their second Twenty20 title as they held their nerve to claim a last-over victory, by four runs, against Nottinghamshire at a packed and excited Trent Bridge. With heavy rain falling in the closing stages it was anyone’s game, but Leicestershire’s experience in tight situations counted as Allenby stayed calm in the final over.Maddy and Allenby shared a stand of 133 as Leicestershire made the highest total in a final, but Stephen Fleming, with a 34-ball fifty, and David Hussey were threatening to replicate that stand as they added 57 for the second wicket. But they fell in consecutive overs; Fleming to a fine running catch from Ryan Cummins from deep square-leg and Hussey to the continually impressive Stuart Broad.When Hussey was caught at cover, Nottinghamshire needed 69 off 38 balls with two new batsmen at the crease but they never gave in. The task got harder when Chris Read top-edged a sweep to short fine-leg, but Mark Ealham – who earlier in the season took 30 of an over against Leicestershire to win a group match – helped dispatch Cummins for 19 off the 17th over.The requirement was down to 37 off 18 balls and Leicestershire’s decision to play Cummins in place of Adam Griffith, their Tasmanian overseas seamer, was looking costly. But Leicestershire know how to win these matches. Allenby was brought on for the 18th over and was taken for two early fours, but Ealham then lofted to Maddy at long-off to swing the contest.Paul Franks and Samit Patel kept on going for it, but 17 from the final over proved one blow too many. However, the match ended in a hint of controversy as Allenby’s final ball – a full toss sent for a towering six by Will Smith – was perilously close to being called a no-ball. It wasn’t and Leicestershire launched into their celebrations, with Allenby and Maddy the central figures.”It was amazing – not the conventional route – and we’d thought lost it at onestage but the guys were brilliant towards the end,” said Jeremy Snape, the Leicestershire captain. “We’ve worked really hard this year and put in great performances throughout thegroup and knockout stages.”Maddy, the first player to pass 1000 runs in Twenty20, claimed the man-of-the-match award and he’d played a central role throughout the game. As in their semi-final, against Essex, he and HD Ackerman were cautious at the start against the testing seam bowling of Ryan Sidebottom and Charlie Shreck. The Nottinghamshire opening pair bowled their overs straight through but only managed one wicket, when Ackerman dragged Sidebottom into his stumps.After a brief period of consolidation, Maddy – dropped via a tough chance on 13 – began to work through the gears as the slower bowlers came into the attack. He peppered the legside by clearing his front leg and swinging across the line, while both he and Allenby sprinted between the wickets as Nottinghamshire’s fielders began to look slightly ragged. Maddy’s fifty came off 42 balls and Allenby soon followed off 36 balls and the century stand came off 63 deliveries.Cheered on by a vocal sell-out crowd, with a large proportion of home support, Nottinghamshire pushed Leicestershire every inch of the way. However, Twenty20 cricket is decided by the finest of margins and the smallest moments. Leicestershire know how to win those moments and have confirmed themselves as the domestic kings of Twenty20.

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has acknowledged the success of the recently concluded Stanford 20/20 tournament and sought to clear the air after reports suggested that the board was not supportive enough of the venture.The WICB has claimed that it was not aware of the dates of the one off 20/20 international between South Africa and a Stanford 20/20 Super Star team, which was to include a host of West Indies players. In March, the ICC gave the green signal for the match to take place on November 10 after meeting with the organisers of the Stanford 20/20 and even authorised the two countries, namely West Indies and South Africa, to release its players to participate in the match. However, the WICB claimed that they were not informed of this.”At no time did the WICB agree to the possible dates of the Super Star Match with the representatives of Stanford 20/20″, a board media release stated. “The possible dates for the Super Star Match came to the attention of the WICB when the ICC wrote to the WICB advising its approval of the Stanford 20/20 event for 2006 only.”With West Indies scheduled to tour Pakistan in November, there are chances of the dates clashing with the 20/20 match. The representatives of the Stanford 20/20 contacted the WICB to have the dates changed. The WICB wrote to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in June to amend the dates but the Pakistan board rejected the request, stating that it had commitments with the Future Tours Programme (FTP). The presidents of both the WICB and the PCB discussed the issue during an ICC meeting in London in July, but the parties failed to reach an agreement. The WICB has now sought the help of Malcolm Speed, the ICC”s chief executive, and are awaiting a reply.”A further request for reconsideration of the dates and reopening the matter with Pakistan was sent to the CEO of ICC as recently as August 14th 2006”, the release continued. “We await a reply. “Earlier, Clive Lloyd resigned from his post as the chairman of the Stanford 20/20 board citing concerns over how the future of the tournament would affect West Indies cricket. Unconfirmed reports have indicated that West Indies are scheduled to arrive in Pakistan on November 7, just two days after the final of the Champions Trophy.

Northants 148 for 9 (Mushtaq 5-25) beat Sussex 110 (Crook 4-20) by 33 runs (D/L)
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Northamptonshire’s title hunt was kept alive and Sussex’s dented after the home side eased to a 33-run victory in a rain-affected pro40 match at Northampton.Sussex appeared well on course when they skittled Northants for 148, Mushtaq Ahmed doing to damage with 5 for 25 in his eight overs. At one stage, Northants were 65 for 1 as Usman Afzaal (37) and Chris Rogers (33) got them off to a decent start, but that became 119 for 9 before some late hitting from Matthew Nicholson and Monty Panesar.That stand proved crucial as Steve Crook, who finished with 4 for 20, triggered an even more dramatic collapse, Sussex crashing from 42 for 1 to 65 for 6, eventually losing their last nine wickets for 68.Sussex could rightly claim that they were not helped by faulty floodlights at Wantage Road which led to the start of their innings being delayed because three of the four retractable pylons could not be raised. They also had the worse of the conditions as the pitch had sweated while covered during afternoon downpours.Sussex remain in second place, one point behind leaders Essex, while Northants move into fourth but could join Sussex in second place if they win their game in hand.

For all practical purposes the Champions Trophy will finally get under way at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday. Brian Lara’s West Indies will be battling an in-form Sri Lankan side for the right to not face Australia in the next round of the Champions Trophy. With all due respect to Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, they haven’t exactly stretched the qualifiers in the early stages, and it is from here on that the going gets tough.For West Indies, it’s vital that the tough get going. Chris Gayle is on fire, and Lara looked in sublime touch for the few minutes that he batted against Zimbabwe. But West Indies are still heavily dependent on these two, if they’re in a crunch situation. The likes of Wavell Hinds and Runako Morton have shown a propensity to fold meekly once the big guns are silenced, but Lara strongly opposed the suggestion that his team was over-dependent on one or two players.”We’re not over-dependent on anyone. Recently in the Caribbean it was Sarwan who controlled the series,” said Lara on the eve of the match against Sri Lanka. “We have the likes of Chanderpaul and Bravo, a good mix of people. It’s always very important that the first two guys out in the middle stabilise things and make sure we don’t lose too many wickets. A setback troubles any team. Most times when a side struggles their top four batsmen have not performed.”That might well ring true, but it would be untrue to totally deny how dependent West Indies are on Lara and Gayle. Lara did agree that a move was on to clearly delineate roles for different players. “We have stressed the importance of each person playing a role. We’ve moved away from names and wanting a particular name to play in West Indies cricket,” he said. “We need people to fulfil the various roles we have developed and the guys are all aware of the different roles. We have a very good plan and we’re still improving.”But when the lights come on, and the glare is at its harshest, some people lift themselves and others look for cover. Lara has always been the sort to relish a pitched battle, and the manner in which he handles Muttiah Muralitharan will be crucial. If he can set the tone with a strident innings, others less gifted might be able to chip in and build around him. “It’s been great over the years,” Lara said of his battles with Muralitharan. “We’ve had some good contests – some I’ve won and some he’s won. We’ve really enjoyed playing against each other. And having Murali as a team-mate in the World Series was excellent. We’ve got a very good friendship and that will always continue even though there’s a fierce battle between us. At the end of the day he’s a world class bowler. On his day he can get any batsman out. I’ve been lucky to have batted well against him and this is another opportunity, and it’s not going to be an easy test. It’s not so important who wins the battle between Murali and Lara, what’s important is who wins the battle between West Indies and Sri Lanka.”

Well, the winner of that battle will have earned the right to play in Group B, comprising South Africa, New Zealand and Pakistan. That means staying away from those big bad Aussies, for a while, at least. “We’d like to win tomorrow. So obviously the preference would be Group A,” Lara admitted. “In a tournament like this no team wants to have to pick themselves up and dissect a loss. We play every single game to win. If things don’t work out then we have to look at the opposition which may be Australia, India and England. We just want to win each and every single game.”Tom Moody, when asked the same question, was a touch less candid than Lara, in saying. “At this stage I don’t personally have a huge preference. To win a tournament like this you need to be prepared to beat every team in the tournament. If you start hedging your bets and think I’d rather be here because I want to keep away from this team or that you’re defeated before you even enter the contest,” he said. “Our approach is – let’s win this game of cricket that we’ve got before us. Australia are comfortably the favourites. The pundits would be thinking that’s the group to steer away from. But, why can’t we beat Australia? They’re a good side but they’re beatable.” Yes, but no-one is in any hurry to find out just how beatable Australia are.

What started off as an experiment, and what many believed could set a trend for the cricket-ball industry in India, appears to have descended into farce. The Indian board decided to try out Kookaburra balls during the ongoing Duleep Trophy but it’s learnt, even as the final looms, that the execution of the plan went completely awry.What’s left several players sour is that no Kookaburra balls were provided when the teams practiced before the games, requiring them to get used to the new cherry in match conditions. Bowlers were left to practice with the traditional Sanspereil Greenlands (SG) balls prior to the games, only to be confronted with the Kookaburra when the game got underway.”Only today, just a day before the final, we were provided with two Kookaburra balls for practice,” a North Zone player told Cricinfo. “Just two but this is a huge improvement, considering that we were only given balls during match before in this tournament. There are not enough old balls available. With SG each association had not only the new balls for the match but also enough old balls for practice. But they have not been given any Kookaburra balls and we have all suffered. Imagine practising with a different ball [SG] and then going into match to play with another brand which is completely different.”At Guwahati, the venue where East Zone took on North, events took a bizarre turn when there weren’t enough balls during the game. As a result it was decided not to change the balls even if they went out of shape. Players from the South and Central Zones, teams that didn’t make it to the final, also endorsed the same view. “Luckily, I had couple of Kookaburra balls with me,” said a Central Zone player, “and we used it for practice.” Another player, this time from South, mentioned how the bowlers took some time to adjust to the ball on the first day, struggling to get their rhythm going. “We would have loved to get Kookaburra balls for practice,” he said, “but luckily most of us knew what we can expect. So we managed to adjust quickly.”The Indian board, though, has rubbished these complaints. “The players are talking nonsense,” said Ratnakar Shetty, the recently appointed chief administrative officer. Shetty, however, refused any further comment.The tournament has had more problems as well. Lack of practice pitches have meant that some players have entered games without any chance to gear up. At Guwahati, East Zone players suffered because one of the practice pitches was unfit for use while the other was being used by a local team. Their opponents, North Zone, were scheduled to practice at the evening and luckily got to play on that “decent” strip.The staying conditions have not been satisfactory either, even for the final. At Kolkata, there is power shortage at the team hotel where North Zone are staying. And the back-up only powers up a fan and tubelight which means that the players have to do without television and, of course, air-conditioning.And in case you forgot, this is one of the premier domestic tournaments in India.

Andhra v Haryana third day update

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Joginder Sharma picked up 7 for 47 – including a hat-trick to skittle out the tail – as Haryana dismissed Andhra for 168 and set themselves 242 to win at Rohtak.
A comprehensive bowling performance dismissed Haryana for 129 and gave Andhra the second day’s honours at the Bansi Lal Stadium in Rohtak. Syed Sahabuddin grabbed three wickets and Chandramouli Prasad , Gnaneswara Rao and D Kalyankrishna two apiece to run riot over a hapless Haryana, whose top and middle orders came a cropper after a good display with the ball on day one.Kalyankrishna, Prasad and Rao combined to nip out the top order, while Sahabuddin caused trouble down the order. Haryana’s top-scorers were Sumit Sharma, the opener, and Amit Mishra, the legspinning captain, with 27. Haryana came back well to reduce Andhra to 67 for 3 at the close, but with a 140-run lead and Haryana’s dismal first innings as evidence, Andhra were in the driving seat.
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Ranadeb Bose, Bengal’s opening bowler, picked up four wickets to reduce Punjab to 157 before Bengal took a 111-run lead at stumps on the second day of their Ranji Trophy clash at Mohali. Sourav Ganguly, Bengal’s captain, made amends for his first-innings 6 with a 65-ball 43 but fell nine overs before the close of the day as Punjab grabbed four wickets.Ravneet Ricky, the Punjab opener, resumed the day on 33 and progressed to 47 when Ganguly dismissed him leg before, his third wicket of the innings. Eklak Ahmid, the debutant partner to Bose, picked up two wickets to complement Bose’s strikes as Punjab took a slender 1-run lead. Bengal’s second innings didn’t get off smoothly as L Ablash quickly grabbed three wickets. Ganguly and Abhishek Jhunjhunwala (33 not out) added 70 before Gagandeep Singh returned to trap Ganguly leg before.
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Ravikant Shukla and Jyoti Prakash Yadav added 116 for the fifth wicket as Uttar Pradesh came within 83 runs of Saurashtra’s first-innings 342 at the Ordinance Equipment Factory Ground at Kanpur. A top-order wobble had left UP at 143 for 4 but a rookie-veteran combination buckled down to add some shine to the innings. Shukla was 11 short of a maiden first-class hundred at stumps. For Saurashtra, Pratik Mehta, overnight on 38, progressed to his maiden first-class half-century and was unbeaten on 63. Shalabh Srivastava, the medium-fast bowler, picked up 4 for 89 and Rudra Pratap Singh ended with 3 for 90.
ScorecardBaroda gained the upper hand by running away to a 172-run lead and prised out four quick wickets before Karnataka rallied through an 84-run partnership between Deepak Chougule and Thilak Naidu to stay afloat in the contest. Baroda were lifted by Ketan Panchal’s 72. The left-handed batsman making his debut, was involved in a 54-run partnership with Yousuf Pathan (33) and guided the lower middle order to boost Baroda to a healthy score. Robin Uthappa, who failed in the first innings, started off the Karnataka reply in a brisk fashion with a 30-ball 34 but failed to capitalise the good start. Both he and Bharat Chipli, his fellow opener, fell to the guile of Rajesh Powar, the left-arm spinner, who ended the day with three wickets.
ScorecardRajasthan established a stranglehold by bowling out Gujarat for 128 before Gagan Khoda extended the lead with an unbeaten 68. All the bowlers shared the spoils as Gujarat, overnight on 43 for 2, crumbled to 128. Only Nilesh Modi, the opener, offered any semblance of fight with a patient 135-ball 30. Khoda held Rajasthan together in their second innings, chugging alongmerrily with nine fours and a six to lift the side to a commanding position by the end of the second day.
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Overnight rain prevented a single ball from being bowled on the second day at the Chatrapati Shivaji Stadium in Karad. Anirudh Singh, Hyderabad’s No. 3 batsman, was unbeaten on 100, his third first-class hundred.

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New South Wales scraped home by one run in a thrilling Ford Ranger Cup match against Western Australia at the SCG. A blistering century from Brad Haddin set up the Blues’ win before Brett Dorey holed out from the final delivery of the Warriors’ 50 overs with two runs still needed for victory.Chasing 268 to win, Western Australia looked out of the game with 24 balls remaining, needing 35 with two wickets in hand. But Dorey smashed 25 from 12 deliveries and with nine required off the last over the New South Wales captain Simon Katich threw the ball to Dominic Thornely, who had not bowled all night. Thornely took 1 for 1 from his first four balls before Dorey slogged a six over midwicket to make the equation two runs from the last ball. When he skied it to deep square leg, Daniel Christian held his nerve and took the catch to win the game for the Blues.Five days after Adam Gilchrist scored the second-fastest hundred in Australian domestic one-day history, Haddin reminded the nation that should Gilchrist, 35, decide to retire any time soon Australia will not need to look far for a replacement. Haddin’s 115 – his fifth century in domestic limited-overs games – came from 102 balls and included nine fours and three sixes.His 146-run partnership with Thornely, who made 60, gave the Blues hope of reaching of 300 but the Warriors staged a late fightback, taking 7 for 18 in 30 balls as New South Wales were all out for 267 in the 50th over. Steve Magoffin took 3 for 43 and together with Sean Ervine (4 for 51) bowled Western Australia back into the game, helped by two run-outs from Chris Rogers.Adam Voges made 68 for Western Australia but they lost wickets at regular intervals as the offspinners Jason Krejza (3 for 41) and Nathan Hauritz (3 for 42) extracted plenty of turn from the SCG pitch. Voges and Brad Hogg worked Western Australia into a winnable position before Hogg was adjudged stumped for 38, despite the fact that Haddin appeared to break the stumps without the ball in his gloves. Krejza, who bamboozled the Warriors’ middle order, had only come into the New South Wales squad after the allrounder Moises Henriques was ruled out with a leg injury.

The cricket world has been cautioned not to expect too much of the young spin bowlers who will be the long-term replacements for Shane Warne. Terry Jenner, Warne’s mentor, said the next generation of Australian spinners, including Dan Cullen, Cullen Bailey and Nathan Hauritz, could not be asked to immediately become matchwinners like Warne.”Because Shane has raised the bar so high people expect a lot of young legspinners now,” Jenner told the . “People are expecting them not only to be able to bowl like Shane but to do it from age 14 – they forget he had to battle when he first played Test cricket.”Jenner said in the short-term Stuart MacGill could fill the void left by Warne, which might allow the younger spinners time to develop before they are called into the Test team. “The bonus for the youngsters coming through is they will have 12 to 18 months grace while Stuey MacGill plays before they have to step up,” he said.”With the greatest respect to Stuey at least, for those who follow him and are compared to him, he is a normal human being who will have good and bad days. He will dominate on some days and will get hit out of the attack on others which didn’t really happen to Shane, who would be an impossible act to follow.”Michael Atherton said the England team of the 1990s suffered similarly when allrounders were compared to Ian Botham, who had recently retired. “There were many allrounders who suffered under comparisons with Beefy, all of them until Andrew Flintoff really,” Atherton said. “I suppose the thing to say is that you are not going to find many who stand up to the comparison. I guess the danger is every time a legspinner comes along, Shane Warne will be mentioned. That’s unrealistic.”Richie Benaud said although there were a number of promising slow bowlers in Australia, it was hard to predict how they would handle the pressure. “There are a lot of good young spinners around but just think for a moment what will be on the one who is chosen to replace Warne,” Benaud said. “It will all be the ‘new Warne’, you can be guaranteed that. There will be headlines five centimetres high. There are plenty around. It’s just whether they can handle it.”

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A 52-ball century from Michael Dighton buried New South Wales and earned Tasmania a place in the final as the Blues fell 37 runs short of the target. The Tigers will travel to Melbourne to play Victoria for the KFC Twenty20 title after Dighton pushed his side to 7 for 202 with one of the most impressive innings in the competition’s short history.He finished with 111 from 56 deliveries but only struck five sixes, scoring more through his 13 fours. Dighton used his feet to Aaron O’Brien, the left-arm spinner, repeatedly driving him in the air through cover. O’Brien’s four overs cost 55 and Dighton also took a liking to Dominic Thornely, whose four overs of medium pace were taken for 53. Dighton scored heavily through the midwicket to long on region and was eventually caught in the outfield.George Bailey continued his strong form, posting an unbeaten 40 from 19 balls and Dan Marsh’s 30 helped the Tigers break the 200 barrier. Early wickets cost New South Wales, with Brendan Drew and Ben Hilfenhaus, fresh from his Twenty20 international debut, proving difficult to put away. Simon Katich gave his side a vague chance with 48 from 26 but he became one of Marsh’s three victims.Later in the chase, all eyes were on Andrew Johns, the rugby league player, who came in at No. 9 and successfully pushed singles to roars of approval from the Sydney crowd, before he was caught at backward point for 9.