After the run feast that happened in the early part of the day, therewas nothing much to look forward to as Pakistan took the field. MaybeWasim Akram would charge in and make the ball talk. Even that did nothappen. At the end of the day, it made absolutely no difference to theresult. Pakistan go through to their next encounter in the Asia Cupagainst India tomorrow, having beaten Bangladesh by 233 runs at theBangabhandu stadium on Friday.The crowd went silent as wicket after wicket fell on what was asdocile a wicket as you would see. Habibul Basher who made a halfcentury against India provided the lone resistance. Even that was onlya token resistance. His 23 provided the crowd with some relief from aseemingly unending list of soft dismissals.For Pakistan, the wickets were shared around. Abdur Razzaq bowled thestraightest of the lot and was the most successful, bagging threewickets. Bangladesh ended on 87 all out. Shariar Hossain could not batafter as he was seriously dehydrated earlier in the day and left thefield. This was Bangldesh’s lowest total in limited overs cricket. Toadd insult to injury, this was also the largest margin of victory in alimited overs match beating the 232 run thrashing that Australiahanded out to Sri Lanka in 1987.When cats run around among pigeons, mayhem is the only result. ImranNazir was licking the cream off his whiskers as bowler after bowlertried his luck at stemming the rot. Fortunately for the hosts SaeedAnwar was motoring sedately along at a run a ball. Driving the ballwith more elegance than the rampaging Nazir, Anwar found the gaps withconsummate ease.Nazir showed no restraint and his onslaught was so overwhelming thatthe crowd was on its feet in excitement. When the ball was up for thedrive it disappeared over either mid off or mid on. If the ball wasshort it was anybody’s guess where it disappeared. Even deliveriespitched well outside the off stump disappeared over mid wicket. Naziropened his shoulders and unleashed raw power. The fact that he wasdropped twice did little to deter the youngster.The man took the brunt of the bashing was roly poly Khaled Mahmudwhose two overs disappeared for 31 runs. Needless to say, he wasquickly removed from the attack by an embarrassed captain.Saeed Anwar walked across after one such dropped catch and cautionedhis opening partner. The next ball Anwar faced, the first of the dayfrom Naimur Rehman uprooted his off stump. Coming a bit down thetrack, Anwar played down the wrong line and lost his off stump. He hadcontributed 31 to a total of 83.Yousuf Youhana who more than helped Pakistan save one Test match inthe West Indies came in at one drop, much ahead of his customarynumber five position. His presence at the crease brought a semblanceof normalcy to the proceedings. Although he smacked the second ball hefaced to the fence, he was in principle at least more selective inshot making.With temperatures rapidly approaching the mid forties, and humidity atover 80% it was but natural that things slowed down. And at thehalfway mark of their innings, Bangladesh had lost one man to theweather. Shariar Hussain holding his thighs and calves fell flat onthe ground and simply could not get back up. He was soon half carriedoff the field by his team mates.There was no stopping Imran Nazir. Playing strokes all around thewicket, the youngster was going along merrily when a bit of badrunning between the wickets stopped him dead in his tracks. Afterstarting and stopping and starting again he was found short of hisground by a neat bit of fielding by Aminul Islam.Youhana was joined by Inzamam ul Huq out in the middle and from theword go neither were in any manner of strife. All of a sudden, aglance at the scoreboard revealed the fact that Youhana had helpedhimself to 80 runs. Against the grain of play, Nazir was dismissedwhen he looked good for a century. The same happened with Youhana.Overbalancing against left arm spinner Enamul Hoque, Youhana was a tadlate getting back to his ground and Khaled Masud behind the stumps hadthe bails off in a flash.The hugely popular Shahid Afridi walked out to a generous round ofapplause from the crowd. After playing and missing at a good manyballs, Afridi finally connected. And the result was the same each time- the ball went crashing to the fence. Having adopted the mid wicketfence as his preferred destination, Afridi clouted everything that wasbowled at him in that direction.At the other end Inzamam was all smiles as he toyed with the bowling.Standing tall, the man from Multan drove superbly through both off andon side. If Afridi was the beast, Inzamam was the beauty. Using defttouches, a dab around the corner and a tap past short third manInzamam gathered runs at a good pace. As the innings drew to a closehowever, no one was in the mood for anything delicate. Taking turns,Afridi and Inzamam clouted the ball round the park. Even when they didhit the ball straight to the fielder the catches were grassed.The two remained unbeaten as Pakistan posted 320, the highest score inthe Asia Cup competition. Inzamam was on 75 and Afridi 45 when theumpires ended the action and took the players off the field. Fiftyovers of maximum viewing pleasure had come to an end.One must however spare a thought for the Bangladesh side. Pushing hardfor Test status that they will in all likelihood attain in the nearfuture, the team was helpless and often clueless. Taken most to taskwas mediumpacer Khaled Mahmud whose 10 overs cost him and Bangladesh81 runs.

A 109-run opening stand between D Mohan (63) and G Gambhir (64)helped Delhi to take command of the proceedings on the first day ofthe North Zone Cooch Behar (Under-19) Trophy match against Jammu andKashmir at the Molana Azad Stadium in Jammu on Sunday. Earlier, J&Kwere bowled out for 124 in their first innings.Opting to bat first, the J&K innings lasted just 47.2 overs. Onlythree batsmen, M Ashraf (17), A Mongotra (31) and P Mahajan (27 notout) could get past the double figure mark. The batsmen had no clueabout tackling the off spinner Y Sachdeva (3 for 26) and leg spinnerTarun Gupta (4 for 35).In reply, Delhi openers put on a partnership that lasted 25.5 overs.Gambhir was the first to be dismissed, when he was bowled by Mongotra.During a 108-minute stay, Gambhir faced 65 balls while finding theboundary ropes 9 times and succeeding to clear it once. Then R Uniyal(29 not out) joined Mohan and they put on 52 runs for the secondwicket in 14 overs. Mohan was the next to be out, caught by Mongotraoff Sathyajit Singh. He batted 164 minutes, faced 131 balls and hiteight fours. Stumps were drawn at the fall of Mohan’s wicket withDelhi at 161 for 2.

When Otago began this the second day’s play in the Shell Trophy match against Canterbury at Molyneux Park, they were chasing a Canterbury score of 201 to gain first innings points.This they achieved with an eventual lead of 78 runs mainly due to the 16th first-class hundred of New Zealand representative Matthew Horne who although was the saviour of Otago went through periods of inactivity during his hundred. At times his feet did not seem to be moving the way he would have liked and how he has been seen in past innings. He was assisted by Craig Cumming with a solid fifty, Chris Gaffaney a classy 44, and Andrew Hore a timely 22.Bowling for Canterbury, Stephen Cunis, the son of former New Zealand representative Bob Cunis, captured 5-59 and was assisted by Warren Wisneski (2-69) and Shane Bond (3-52). Cunis bowled with the characteristic grit that was often shown by his father for Auckland and New Zealand. His line and length were impressive on a day which was none too cool for the main part.Canterbury began its second innings in cautious fashion and were progressing well when in the 14th over Harley James was adjudged lbw to Shane O’Connor with the score at 17. Cunis came in as nightwatchman and survived with Robbie Frew until stumps when the Canterbury total was 41-1. This meant Otago had a lead of 37 and Canterbury still has nine wickets in hand.Basically the game is on even terms, but Otago has lost International spinner Paul Wiseman to New Zealand duty at the WestpacTrust Stadium tomorrow and this will obviously weaken the Southerners’ attack. Any prediction of a possible victor at this stage would be crass and we can only await developments on day three.

Traditionally a low-key affair – a one-day game with no restrictions or limitations – Sri Lanka’s opening match in South Africa against a Nicky Oppenheimer XI at Randjesfontein ended utterly inconclusively because of bad light, but not before Andrew Hall had brightened up an ever darkening afternoon.With Sri Lanka having batted through until a declaration at 296 for six brought about an early tea, the NFO would have had around 42 overs to reply. With a draw possible, the home side might have been expected to bat out time.Not Hall, who went for it as if pursued by wild dogs. He smashed 10 fours and six in a 41-ball innings which produced 61 and took the NFO to 80 for no wicket in 10.4 overs before the umpires took the players off.He was particularly severe on Dilhara Fernando, who went for 26 in two overs, and Chaminda Vaas (41 in five), but it was all to prove in vain as the weather closed in on Nicky Oppenheimer’s charming private ground.Earlier, the Sri Lankan batsmen had enjoyed what amounted to a middle practice against a decent NFO attack. Sanath Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu put on 123 for the first wicket with the captain getting 66 and the vice-captain 52 before Mahela Jayawardene helped himself to 70 and Russel Arnold made 53 before retiring.It was very pleasant, but the Sri Lankans will probably have learned little they did not already know. They move on now to Port Elizabeth for a three-day match and a one-day warmup, both against Eastern Province, before the first one-day international in PE on December 15.

Essex paceman Ricky Anderson bowled his side into a winning position, returning figures of 5-79 to leave the home side requiring 209 runs for victory.That Surrey reached 306 in their second innings owed much to some resolute batting that saw three batsman reach half-centuries before defiant innings by Martin Bicknell and Ian Salisbury in the late order supported the earlier efforts.After a delayed start when six overs were lost to rain, Essex would have been pleased with their progress when they took three wickets to leave their opponents with a slender lead of 108 runs and four wickets intact at lunch.All three wickets were claimed by Anderson, those of Mark Ramprakash, 61, Adam Hollioake, 52, and Jonathan Batty with the final delivery before lunch.Anderson made it four victims when obstinate Gary Butcher edged a lifting delivery to the wicket-keeper but Bicknell and Salisbury stoutly resisted a number of bowling changes until Bicknell was bowled by Ashley Cowan for 24.Rupesh Amin fell immediately but Ed Giddins joined Salisbury in a last-wicket stand of 28 that frustrated Essex for 13 overs until Salisbury edged a ball from Anderson behind the wicket in the first over after tea to give the bowler his 34th first-class wicket of the season.Essex made a promising start but the loss of both Paul Grayson and Stephen Peters in the 13th over gave Surrey some encouragement before Stuart Law and Richard Clinton steered Essex to the close.They will start the final day requiring a further 144 runs with eight wickets intact to achieve their second Championship win of the season.

Opener Matthew Wood and left-hander Michael Lumb both plundered centuries at Headingley as CricInfo Championship leaders Yorkshire went on a run spree against third-placed Leicestershire after winning the toss on an excellent batting pitch.Scott Richardson, who used to play for Leicestershire Seconds, departed with only 12 scored but Lumb then joined Wood and the uncapped second-wicket pair savaged Leicestershire with a superb stand of 227 in 62 overs.Lumb, son of former Yorkshire opener Richard, was in tremendous form and he dashed on to his maiden first-class century off 165 balls with 16 boundaries.Wood completed his second consecutive Championship century from 193 deliveries, striking ten fours and a six, but five balls later he was bowled off his pads by Jon Dakin for 102.Yorkshire were 239 for two upon Wood’s dismissal and the score was kept moving briskly along by Lumb and Darren Lehmann, the Australian cutting a ball from Darren Maddy with sufficient force to kill a pigeon which was feeding at backward point, umpire Peter Willey putting the dead bird into the groundsman’s bucket to be taken away.Lumb had reached 122 with 20 fours when he played his first false shot, swinging round at Devon Malcolm to be caught down the legside by wicket-keeper Neil Burns.Captain David Byas and Lehmann moved Yorkshire on to 289 for three when rain lopped 20 overs out of the evening session and in the five remaining overs they added a further ten runs to leave Yorkshire needing only a single to gather a third batting bonus point.Matthew Hoggard was given permission to play in the match by England coach Duncan Fletcher in order to improve his bowling form but his Test colleagues Darren Gough, Craig White and Michael Vaughan were all sidelined.

For the three months since the end of the home cricket season, all I have thought about has been building towards this tour to Sri Lanka.It is when all the gym work and preparation starts to pay off and I have always enjoyed touring Sri Lanka. I have had some success there in the past, it is a nice place. And I enjoy it more than anywhere else on the sub-continent.Because of the sheer nature of the pitches there I will be a major wicket-taking option. I am the No 1 spinner in our side and I am looking forward to forming a partnership with Grant Bradburn, my team-mate from Northern Districts.It is an important thing for a team to know that it can rely on the combinations among its bowlers. It provides a balance to the attack and the options available in a match. It is also important as we build up towards the World Cup in 2003.Every team in the world is now looking at South Africa, you would be silly not to. And we regard this as a build-up to our season overall, and to the World Cup.We are only one or two players short of being at full strength so we have no excuses about injuries.Personally, I am expecting some battles with the spinners taking part in the Coca-Cola Cup.I always like to match myself against the spinners whenever we play. Muttiah Muralitharan for Sri Lanka and Harbhajan Singh for India, who has come off a pretty amazing 18 months, will be a big challenge. You can learn so much from watching them in action as well.That was what was good about Saqlain Mushtaq being out here earlier in the year, there was so much to learn from watching him bowl.The hardest thing for us will be acclimatising. Going from frosts in Christchurch into the heat of Colombo. But it happens so often now that for a team like us, if we don’t adapt quickly we lose. Every cricketer realises that is the key to competing nowadays.The only thing about the absence of Sachin Tendulkar from the Indian side for the early part of the tournament is that it only slightly reduces the nightmares beforehand. If Sachin isn’t playing there is always an improvement by Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly.But the thing about Tendulkar is that it is not only his batting that is important. He has a big influence out on the field, helping the decision making, bowling and fielding. Everything he does makes him such a dangerous player.Physically, I am feeling fine. I have put in the hard work and while it is hard to gauge by bowling indoors all the time, you tend to find that if things aren’t clicking indoors, they soon sort themselves out when you get outside.It is just great to be getting back into action. I have missed it and I’m really looking forward to pitting myself against two very good teams in their conditions.

Yorkshire go into their C & G quarter-final clash against Warwickshire as strong favourites.They inflicted on Warwickshire their lowest ever one-day league score on Monday night, and will be strengthened further by the return of England players Gough and White – if selected.They beat a strong Surrey side in the previous round too, and are runaway leaders in the CricInfo Championship. But they are taking nothing for granted and are still looking to improve in some areas.”The lads have been buoyed by the result against Surrey, but we’re still conscious of areas of weakness,” David Byas, the captain said.”We batted brilliantly at the end, but the performance in the first half of that game, when we were fielding, was woeful. We’ll be hoping to cement our game, maybe we need to relax and chill out more.”But it will be a difficult fixture against Warwickshire. I’ve not seen much of them this season but they’re a wonderful one-say side and their record speaks for itself. It’s anybody’s game.”This is our last chance at a one-day trophy this year so we’ll be keen to succeed.”Meanwhile Warwickshire coach, Bob Woolmer, admits that Monday’s debacle is a factor in this game.”We’ll have to pick our strategy carefully as there will be a few factors involved, like the pitch, the weather and Monday’s result,” he reasoned.”It’s good to get to the quarter-finals in any competition and we’ve done pretty well in the Trophy in recent years. It’s a big game and we’re playing good cricket at the moment, which we want to carry forward into it.”And although Yorkshire have had something of an up-and-down season in the one-day game, they’re still a very good side. I thought they were struggling against Surrey in the last round, but in the end they cruised to victory.”Lancashire go into their C & G quarter-final game against Durham in confident form.”We’re going to approach the game in a very aggressive, very confident manner,” Lancashire coach Bobby Simpson said.”I think we’ve turned the corner now, we’re out of the maze in terms of the one-day game. We’ve started to play very well and we’re obviously growing in confidence. And once you get on a run in this competition, you fancy you can go all the way.”Lancashire’s headquarters, Old Trafford, is being used for a Robbie Williams concert, so the teams meet at Blackpool Cricket Club. But far from bemoaning the waste of home advantage, Simpson claims to be glad of a trip to the seaside.”It’s a good ground,” he insists. “There’ll be a good crowd up there who’ll provide some fantastic support. It should be packed out.”Durham coach, Martyn Moxon, acknowledged his side’s record against Lancashire this season, but refused to read too much into it.”We’ve beaten them twice already this year but that won’t have too much bearing on the outcome of this one. Like every other game we’ll start at 0 for 0 on the day. But we won’t be over-confident as we know Lancashire are one of the best teams in the country and their record in one-day cricket is very good, so we’ll have to play at our best.”Steve Harmison is out for the visitors with a chest infection, while Nicky Phillips is out with a broken finger.Kent host Somerset at Canterbury. Kent captain, Matthew Fleming, is an injury doubt for the game but believes that his side will pose awkward opposition for the West Country side.”We’ve already beaten Somerset once this season, and tied with them on another occasion so I’m sure they’ll be talking about us as much as we’ll be talking about them,” Fleming said.”It would be nice to go to Lord’s this year but we’re still two games away from that. We’re having a good season and it would be lovely to win. But we are near the top of the National League and doing well in the CricInfo Championship.”So although every game is important, if we lost this one it wouldn’t be the end of our season by any means.”Somerset are boosted by the return to county ranks of their Test players, Trescothick and Caddick.It was Trescothick’s brutal innings of 121 from 83 balls that eased his team into the quarter-finals and captain, Jamie Cox, is delighted to have him back.”He’ll be a key player in every side he’s in for the rest of his career,” Cox said. “And he’s a fantastic player for our side. We’re going okay at the moment, although we’ve dropped a few games we shouldn’t have this season.”It’s too early to start talking about silverware but we’ve certainly got a side capable of winning this competition. We’ve been close in the last couple of years and we’ve had nothing to show for it, so we’ll be trying like hell to put that right.”

Worcestershire crushed Lancashire by 109 runs under the Old Traffordfloodlights to move four points clear at the top of the Norwich Union SecondDivision.The Royals compiled a daunting total of 236 for five in their 45 oversthanks mainly to a League-best 80 from opener Anurag Singh.Lancashire had slumped to 63 for five in reply even before the Old Traffordfloodlights had taken effect and were all out for 127, with three wicketseach for Kabir Ali and David Leatherdale.Graeme Hick won the toss for the Royals and chose to bat, but they lostPhil Weston in the 11th over, lbw to Peter Martin.Hick looked in good form as he struck two boundaries but he was then runout after a mix-up with Singh, giving Lancashire the wicket they wanted.But Singh made amends in a third-wicket stand of 71 in 17 overs with VikramSolanki.Solanki, Worcestershire’s leading scorer this season, took his tally to 293with a classy 45 from 52 balls including four fours and a flicked six offGary Keedy.Keedy claimed some revenge when he had Solanki caught by John Crawley atcover, but David Leatherdale then came in to hit a quick 24 includinganother six off Keedy.And Australian all-rounder Andy Bichel then provided extra acceleration in theclosing overs, ending unbeaten on 36 from 24 balls with a six and fourfours.Singh was the last man out, stumped off Chris Schofield in the 44th overafter ending a poor run of form which had brought him only 65 in eightNational League innings this season.Schofield had been the unlucky bowler when Singh survived a stumping chanceon 30 in the 22nd over, but otherwise the 25-year-old played sensibly andhit eight fours in a new League best off 121 balls, beating the 74 he scoredin his Warwickshire days.Lancashire were soon in trouble when they replied, with Bichel having MarkChilton caught behind.But it was Kabir Ali who fired the crucial blow, trapping Amdy Flintoff andJohn Crawley lbw with consecutive balls.Glen Chapple did his best for Lancashire with 34 from 47 balls but he alsowent lbw to Ali, who ended with three for 37 from his nine overs.And Leatherdale took three of the last four wickets at a cost of only 11runs to virtually end Lancashire’s hopes of bouncing straight back to theFirst Division.

After a humiliating loss, Indian captain Sourav Ganguly came up withsome brave words and predicted that India would come back into thethree-Test series against Sri Lanka just as they did against themighty Australians earlier this year.”We will come back as we did against the Aussies,” Ganguly said afterIndia suffered their first Test defeat to Sri Lanka in 16 years.”(Unfortunately) we have got injuries to a few key players,” he saidreferring to the absence of Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble and VVSLaxman from the side.”They (Sri Lankans) batted better (than us) and bowled a decent lineespecially on the third day,” Ganguly said conducting a post-mortem ofthe ten-wicket loss.Not ready to accept that India were a very different team outsidetheir own soil, Ganguly said that his team had won a match abroad,against Zimbabwe, in recent months.”(And) we have been in winning positions on a number of occasionsabroad but have not been able to capitalise… Now we have got thepotential and have a much better batting side. We have four or fivegood guys,” he said.A jubilant home skipper Sanath Jayasuriya, who was declared the manof-the-match for his brilliant century that set the tempo for histeam, lauded his bowling attack.”First Dilhara (Feranando) and then Murali (Muthiah Muralitharan)bowled well. I’am happy for Dilhara and we’ve got a host of fastbowlers coming up,” he said.