Sri Lanka 139 for 1 (Jayantha 74*) beat Zimbabwe 136 (Vaas 4-38, Murali 4-32) by nine wickets
Scorecard
The harsh realities of international cricket caught up with the new,enthusiastic but very raw Zimbabwe team, as Sri Lanka overwhelmed them by nine wickets shortly after lunch in the second one-day international at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo. It was Chaminda Vaas who set the ball rolling by taking the first four Zimbabwean wickets, and then a dominating innings of 74 not out from Saman Jayantha sealed the match with 29.4 overs to spare.It was men against boys. After Zimbabwe had been bowled out for 136, Sanath Jayasuriya and Jayantha plundered the hapless Zimbabwean seamers, producing an array of dazzling strokes including a sliced six over cover by Jayasuriya off Hondo. The shell-shocked bowlers were quite unable to find their line and length, and their only breakthrough came on the stroke of lunch, when Jayasuriya (31) grew a little over-confident and skyed the suffering Tinashe Panyangara to mid-off (84 for 1).The scoring rate slowed for a while as Marvan Atapattu settled in, but with the dominant Jayantha still going strong, there was no repeat of Tuesday’s close encounter. Zimbabwe’s bowlers were totally outclassed, and only Prosper Utseya, who conceded 11 runs off his 17 balls, could claim to have escaped severe punishment. The Zimbabwean bubble, apparently, had been well and truly burst.On a hot, sunny morning, Sri Lanka won the toss for the second match running and again put Zimbabwe in to bat. Their opening partnership lasted a mere four balls. There was not a run on the board when Vusi Sibanda moved awkwardly across his stumps and was trapped lbw by a delivery from Vaas that straightened. His opening partner Brendan Taylor, who is generally more comfortable off the front foot, struggled for two runs in 29 minutes before fending a short ball from Vaas into the slips (20 for 2).Vaas was bowling superbly. He removed Dion Ebrahim for 16, via a gloved catch to leg gully, and Elton Chigumbura for a duck, as he drove a low catch to short extra cover. At 27 for 4 the situation looked bleak, and much rested once again on Tatenda Taibu. A couple of his early strokes bore a hint of desperation, but he was not prepared to let the bowlers call the tune.Taibu received good support from his former schoolmate, Stuart Matsikenyeri, although they relied mainly on drives and quicksingles, as the Sri Lankans gave them little to pull or cut. But the partnership came to a disappointing end as Taibu swept Jayasuriya, tried to take a second run to a misfield, and was caught just short of his crease by an accurate return from the substitute fielder Rangana Herath. He made 35 and Zimbabwe were 76 for 5.After that, it was a steady decline for Zimbabwe. Matsikenyeri was stumped for the second match running, as he charged down the pitch to Muttiah Muralitharan for 18, while Alester Maregwede made10. He hit Murali for a six over long on, but was deceived next ball and trapped lbw by a top-spinner.Utseya drove Murali for six to record his first runs in international cricket. He went on to make a creditable 25 not out, and shared a lively ninth-wicket partnership of 26 with Douglas Hondo, who was eventually given out lbw by a massive spinner from Muralitharan that hit him on the back pad.Vaas returned to finish off the innings, but Murali did the job for him, despite being treated with considerable confidence by youngsters who perhaps were less aware of his reputation than many of Zimbabwe’s batsmen of the past. Apart from that pair, Sri Lanka’s bowling lookedrather thin, but in this match it scarcely mattered.

Rameez Raja can rest easy. Shaharyar Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, has said that the board had no immediate plans to change its chief executive. Media reports led to speculation that Abu Shamim Arif, a former bureaucrat, was set to replace Rameez. However, reports that a statement issued by the chairman’s office had cleared the air. “The PCB emphatically denies reports that refer to imminent changes in the PCB hierarchy,” it said. “The Board also denies speculations of differences between the Chairman and chief executive.”This comes in the wake of speculation that suggested that Shaharyar was unhappy with the fact that Rameez continued to do television commentary despite being the chief executive of the board. “The Chairman himself wanted to have the situation cleared after several reports on this issue,” said the report.These statements come just ahead of a scheduled hearing before the senate working committee for sports and culture. Shaharyar, Rameez and Wasim Bari, the chief selector, will appear before the committee to explain the reasons for Pakistan’s recent series loss against India. But, the chairman’s office was quick to add that this was a routine exercise. “This also happened after the 2003 World Cup. It is a routine exercise to which the board gives lot of importance.”Meanwhile, it was also announced that the PCB would soon make the budget statement for the Indian tour public. It will also advertise for certain executive posts within the board.

Brad Williams, the Australian fast bowler, has been ruled out of the two-Test series against Sri Lanka which begins in Darwin on July 1. Williams, who was sent home early from last month’s Zimbabwe tour with a lower-back injury, has not recovered sufficiently and though he was named last week in a 13-man squad, his selection was subject to a fitness test which was due to be held in Brisbane this week.Trefor James, Australian team doctor, said, “Brad has not recovered enough from the back injury he sustained in Zimbabwe to resume full training and has therefore been ruled out of the forthcoming series against Sri Lanka.”Williams now hopes to recover in time for the ICC Champions Trophy, to be played in England in September. “It’s a disappointing result,” said Williams. “I really haven’t played that much cricket over the last couple of months and I was looking forward to rejoining the team in Darwin.””I was confident I’d be available for selection and had started some light training but it doesn’t look like I’ll be in a position to increase my intensity levels for another couple of weeks. I’ll continue to work on my rehabilitation with the guys here in Perth and I’m sure I’ll be ready to go in time for the ICC Champions Trophy.”The Australian selectors had not yet made up their mind on a replacement, and would name one in due course.

Recently appointed as the Pakistan coach for his technical expertise, Bob Woolmer is keen that the Pakistan fast bowlers shorten their run-ups in one-dayers. During the week-long training camp in Lahore, Woolmer concentrated on the run-ups of Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Sami, Shabbir Ahmed and Umar Gul and came up with the suggestion, which, he pointed out, will help conserve energy as well as improve Pakistan’s over rate. quoted Haroon Rashid, the manager, as saying, “Shoaib in particular has become very comfortable with his shortened run-up which he will use in the Asia Cup. Woolmer’s concept is that in a version of the game that is tailormade for the batsmen, this is the best way for the bowlers to conserve their energy, focus, and at same time also ensure a healthy over rate.”The Pakistan bowlers were guilty of sending down a number of no-balls in the recent one-day series against India, which they lost 3-2. They were also responsible for the penalty imposed on the team for slow over rates.Haroon added that the appointment of Woolmer and Murray Stevenson, the fitness trainer, has already had a salutary effect. “From the evidence of what I have seen in the camp and by what Woolmer and Stevenson believe that this Pakistan team will undergo a major change in attitude and performance within six months’ time.”During the camp Woolmer had a one-on-one interaction with each player, which included preparing a questionnaire for all. “After getting back these questionnaires he met with each player individually and discussed a lot of things openly with them. Team meetings were also organised to put things into place.”Haroon also explained Woolmer’s input on the technology front. “He has introduced new technological innovations in the Pakistan team’s training and preparation patterns, and the stress has been on any cricket-related exercise being carried out by the players. He also saw each player batting for about 90 minutes in the nets in different modes.”Woolmer, who had to rush to England for a short trip, will now join the team in Colombo on July 14 before the start of the Asia Cup.

Scorecard

Two Championship wins in two games and Surrey are suddenly displaying some of the strut that we’re used to. Irresistible bowling, insistent fielding, and all that on-field chatter – it’s like they’ve never been away.Still, there was one person who refused to let the brown hats have all the glory. Dominic Cork doesn’t like sharing the limelight, let alone losing it, so it was characteristic of him that while all around him were falling under Surrey’s sway, he should choose the moment to launch a blistering attempt on the record for the season’s fastest first-class century.He came to the crease at 104 for 6, Lancashire down and only a spider’s thread from out. Immediately, Azhar unleashed two short balls, one that Cork hooked uncontrollably into open space, the second a snorter that was past his nose before he could so much as sneeze at it. But soon the rain was falling and the players hurrying in for an early lunch. You can only assume that Cork guzzled Weetabix and Lucozade.Because from the moment he reappeared he seemed to have only one thing on his mind, and that was heaving the ball over the boundary as many times as he could. He hit three sixes and six fours on his way to 50, two of the sixes (and one of the fours) coming off a single Martin Bicknell over. And then, incredibly, he upped the pace. Nayan Doshi’s entry to the attack proved a particularly juicy dish – two consecutive full tosses were smashed to mid-off, earning 10 runs. Cork brought his hundred up – in 81 balls – with two more sixes off Doshi, and although Doshi eventually had him caught nonchalantly on the boundary by Murtagh, it proved something of a Pyrrhic victory. Doshi had already been hit for 50 runs off 40 balls.However, Cork’s frenzied hitting only delayed what had been inevitable since Carl Hooper edged behind for 51. He had been the only Lancashire batsman to apply the virtues of caution and confidence to his batting, which made it all the more surprising that, after scarcely acknowledging his half-century and getting his head back down, he should edge the next ball behind with a half-hearted prod. Glen Chapple then sauntered a single only to see Tim Murtagh’s throw from fine leg reach the stumps before him. The moment the last wicket eventually fell, a thunderstorm broke and rain poured down for the next two hours. That just about seemed to sum up Lancashire’s day.

As a child, Nasser Hussain was diagnosed as having a stigmatism of his left eye, a condition that causes blurring. In that proud manner that would later become his trademark, he refused to wear his glasses, and carrying on using his perfect right eye to keep his cricket on track. It was only in the mid-1990s that he bowed to advice from his ophthalmologist, and took to wearing a solitary contact lens on the weaker eye.In 2001, however, after five years of fiddling around in dusty dressing-rooms and leaving his eyewear lying in the wrong place, Hussain decided it was time to opt for a more permanent solution. So, at the end of that year’s Ashes series, he underwent corrective laser surgery in central London.Hussain took little time to demonstrate the benefits of his new 20/20 vision. He scored a typically defiant century on a wickedly seaming pitch in Christchurch, followed up with another big hundred against India at Lord’s, and in the final years of his career, he helped cement England as one of the leading sides in the world.His penultimate stroke in Test cricket summed up his attitude. England were five runs from victory and Hussain was on 98, when he cracked Chris Martin through the covers for a glorious four, before sealing the win with his very next delivery. Two shots of absolute majesty to put the seal on England’s victory, and provide the perfect epitaph to his career. No doubt he was seeing the ball like a football.

This has been a Test match of two pitches – one for Virender Sehwag, and one for everybody else. While his less-cavalier team-mates and opponents played with excessive caution and a distinct lack of initiative, Sehwag blazed away with the insouciance that has come to be his calling-card. While the watch-and-wait set eked out 747 runs from 1600 balls, Sehwag’s thrilling 164 occupied just 228 deliveries, with 56 coming from only 35 balls after lunch.After withstanding probing spells from Makhaya Ntini and Shaun Pollock in the morning, Sehwag teed off with élan once the second-stringers came on. Three overs from Andrew Hall, Zander de Bruyn and Robin Peterson disappeared for 46, as shots started to streak past the fielders – and over them. And like Sachin Tendulkar in his pomp – who can forget that 114 at the WACA in 1992 in a match where India were eviscerated? – the match situation didn’t faze him one bit.With the afternoon blitz, he also became the seventh batsman past 1000 runs in the calendar year, though his 1020 runs at 72.85 against top-notch bowling – he has only played Australia and Pakistan – puts him a country mile ahead of his rivals, some of whom have filled their boots against the likes of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, in the quality stakes.It’s the 13th time that an Indian has surpassed the 1000-barrier, with Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar both doing it four times. And Sehwag now has three more Tests – one against South Africa and two against hapless Bangladesh – to overhaul Sunil Gavaskar’s Indian record of 1555 runs, set in 1979, a year immortalised in song by the Smashing Pumpkins. Sir Vivian Richards’s tally of 1710 appears to be safe, though you can never take anything for granted when Sehwag is in the mood.But while Sehwag will justifiably take the plaudits, due credit must go to Gautam Gambhir, who kept pace with him for all but the last half-hour, when nerves induced by the nearness of a century paralysed his hitherto dashing strokeplay. There was also an interesting little cameo from Sourav Ganguly, who remains the favourite whipping boy of the Indian media despite averaging 50.16 over the past nine Tests he has played.It won’t stop the conspiracy theories or the innuendoes about likely prospects being kept out because of the captain’s insecurity, but it should remind the men that matter that Ganguly – for all his flaws, and every batsman has them – still has plenty to offer with the bat alone. If nothing else, he still times the ball with a sweetness that others can only envy: the shot to the long-on fence that raised his fifty was little more than a defensive tap, and there was one scorching square-drive off Pollock which was as gorgeous as anything he ever produced in his heyday.Interminable time, rather than timing, characterised Rahul Dravid’s effort, as he chiselled out perhaps the ugliest half-century of a career epitomised by laid-back elegance. It’s a mark of the man’s bloody-mindedness, and refusal to be enslaved by the vagaries of form, that he’s still there after four hours of playing, missing, edging, prodding and strokes of luck.South Africa certainly won’t whine about Dame Fortune, though. Simon Taufel’s decision to give Sehwag out off a borderline call allowed them to regroup after a manic post-lunch phase when the dark and murky sky above appeared to the only limit for a shotmaker who is currently superior to every other when it comes to consistency and entertainment value.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Zimbabwe picked up their first win of the tour when they overcame Bangladesh by 22 runs in the first one-day international at Dhaka, thanks to an impressive allround team effort. The victory was particularly sweet for Zimbabwe’s young side as it ended a 17-match losing streak, and also came as a relief after their defeat in the Test series.Zimbabwe’s batsmen posted a competitive total of 251 for 8, with contributions all the way down the order, and then the bowlers first stifled the Bangladeshi scoring rate and then initiated a middle-order crisis. There was no comeback under the lights, despite some late enterprise from the tail.Douglas Hondo, whose first five overs had gone for 21 runs, came back for a decisive second spell, breaking the Bangladesh backbone with three wickets for 15 in his next five. And Prosper Utseya, the 19-year-old offspinner getting his first game after missing the Tests, created all sorts of problems with his accuracy. Runs dried up, and between the 25th and 44th overs, not a single boundary was scored, just to emphasise the control the bowlers had exerted over Bangladesh’s batsmen.Zimbabwe where helped along by some rash shots, starting with the opener Nafis Iqbal. Coming off his match-saving 121 in the second Test just two days ago, Iqbal made only 12 here before charging Tinashe Panyangara. His away-from-the-body swipe took a top edge, and Hondo took the catch at mid-off (34 for 1). That rush of blood was out of the blue – and unnecessary, since runs were coming at the asking rate of five an over at the time.Rajin Saleh, the other opener, was going about his business in some style. He hit Hondo for three fours, driving through the line and cutting, but fell to another inexplicable shot. From the first ball of the 14th over, from Chris Mpofu, Saleh was dropped by Dion Ebrahim at point. Instead of making Zimbabwe suffer for the letoff, from the last ball of the same over Saleh tried clear midwicket, didn’t time it properly and was caught at mid-on by Stuart Matsikenyeri (70 for 2).Bangladesh’s captain Habibul Bashar and Mohammad Ashraful then consolidated after edgy starts. Bashar had a life on 9, when Matsikenyeri flung himself forward at wide mid-on but could not hold on to Bashar’s uppish drive. And Matsikenyeri was again at fault when he grassed Ashraful off his own bowling when he had made only 4.Bashar had reached 39 from 54 balls before, in an attempt to up the tempo, he reached for a wide one outside off and ended up giving a catch to backward point (119 for 3) after putting on 49 with Ashraful. That was in the 27th over, and three overs later Aftab Ahmed tried to hit Hondo past mid-off, where Barney Rogers dived to his right and pulled off an excellent catch.Alok Kapali came and went as Hondo induced an edge to the keeper, while Khaled Mashud was also snapped up by Hondo to leave Bangladesh tottering at 143 for 6 in the 36th over. It got even worse for Bangladesh when Ashraful, after an uncharacteristically laborious 41 – it took him 73 balls – holed out in the deep off Utseya (165 for 7).The veteran allrounder Khaled Mahmud (34 off 30 balls) and Tapash Baisya (33 not out off 24) led a last-ditch fightback – but once Mahmud was run out after backing up too far (207 for 8), Zimbabwe could breathe more easily. Baisya kept up the interest, clouting a six and a four off Utseya’s last over, but he could only watch as the last man Nazmul Hossain became the second run-out victim of the innings. There was drama towards the end when Elton Chigumbura was penalised for bowling two balls above waist-height and was not allowed to finish the 48th over, which was completed by Mpofu.Zimbabwe’s innings earlier on a superb batting pitch was marked by half-centuries from Brendan Taylor and Hamilton Masakadza, plus some useful late hitting from Chigumbura, whose 41 from 32 balls propped up the innings.Taibu won a good toss and not surprisingly decided to bat first. But Zimbabwe got off to a jittery start when Rogers tried to force the first ball of the second over towards midwicket, but played too early and offered Nazmul a return catch (3 for 1). Next over, Baisya trapped Ebrahim lbw (14 for 2).But Matsikenyeri and Masakadza counterattacked with an entertaining 80-run partnership to get Zimbabwe back on track. Masakadza clobbered the left-arm spinner Abdur Razzaq for 14 in his first over on his return to international cricket. Mahmud then provided the breakthrough, by sneaking one through Matsikenyeri’s defence. It was Mahmud’s 61st wicket in ODIs, taking him past Mohammad Rafique as the leading wicket-taker in one-day cricket for Bangladesh.Masakadza, who hit ten fours on the way to a classy half-century off 47 balls, could add only four runs from the next 16 before playing across one pitched on off from Mahmud, and dragging it back onto his stumps (107 for 4).Taibu and the impressive Taylor steadied the innings, and put together another fifty partnership, off 65 balls, but an unfortunate mix-up between the two ended the stand, with Taibu run out for 28. Taylor (58) showed good improvisation as he went over the infield a couple of times and also used his feet with assurance. But he was guilty of throwing it all away with more than eight overs to go, when he attempted to reverse-sweep Rajin Saleh and was bowled (188 for 6).Chigumbura then gave the tourists the thrust they needed, and threw his bat around in a breezy knock, which included the first six of the match, off Razzaq. Zimbabwe eventual total of 251 proved to be just enough.The second game in the five-match series is to be played at Chittagong on Monday (Jan 24).

Michael Clarke is ready to step back in as Australia’s opener if Matthew Hayden fails to recover from a shoulder injury for Saturday’s third one-day match against New Zealand at Auckland. Hayden replaced Clarke for the opening two matches of the current series, scoring 71 and 114, but said he was not going to play “half-baked”.Cleared of bone damage, Hayden did not bat in the nets this morning and a decision will be made on his fitness tomorrow. If Hayden is missing it will be an opportunity to give Clarke another promotion after a great run as opener in the VB Series. Clarke scored 334 runs at 66.8 going in first in Australia, but has had limited opportunities since slipping back to No. 6 to accommodate Hayden.”What we’ve got to do now is get Clarke and Andrew Symonds a bit more time in the middle,” Ricky Ponting told the Courier-Mail. “They’re just a bit frustrated with the amount of time they have had to bat in the first couple of games.”Hayden said his right shoulder made a popping sound as he dived to take the catch from Chris Cairns on Tuesday, and he would not play if it had not healed. “I’ve got pretty good movement in it so I don’t think it’s going to be too bad an injury – although at the moment it’s pretty sore,” Hayden said. “I’m not going to play half-baked. That would hurt the side and hurt me.”Ponting also said Australia might experiment with some young players over the next couple of months with the 2007 World Cup in mind. “We’ve got 11 one-dayers before the Ashes and maybe there is an opportunity there,” he said. “There are enough games to start blooding those youngsters.”

ScorecardKeith Dabengwa starred with both bat and ball as Zimbabwe A beat Bangladesh A by five wickets in the first one-dayer of five at the Kwekwe Sports Club. Dabengwa took 5 for 19 to peg back Bangladesh’s lower order and then struck an unbeaten 50 as Zimbabwe strolled to an easy victory with more than six overs remaining.Bangladesh had got off to a steady start after their captain Sanwar Hossain chose to bat, and had reached 181 for 5 before they lost their final five wickets for 28 runs – with the inspirational Dagenbwa in the thick of the wickets. Zimbabwe A were never in trouble in their reply: although they lost wickets at steady intervals, solid forties from Terrence Duffin (43) and Gregory Strydom (46) ensured they were well on their way to victory, and it was left to the sixth-wicket pairing of Dabengwa (50 not out) and Mluleki Nkala (19 not out) to steer them home with an unbeaten stand of 71.