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A fine first-innings showing from Trinidad & Tobago‘s spinners on the back of a team performance with the bat left Leeward Islands following on in Basseterre in the opening round of the Caribbean first-class tournament. T&T followed up with a team showing with the ball in the second innings, leaving Leewards 24 short of making them bat a second time. They took 17 points from the innings and 23-run win.It was legspinner Imran Khan and left-arm spinner Kavesh Kantasingh who did the most damage in Leewards first innings, taking four wickets apiece to bowl them out for 118. Their efforts came after a series of half-centuries from T&T’s top and middle order took them to 325. Steven Katwaroo was the top scorer in that innings with 71. The second time round Leewards improved but hardly so, getting to 184 as every T&T bowler who bowled claimed at least one wicket.

Bengal’s hope of making it to the quarter-finals of the Ranji Trophytook a back seat as Mumbai bundled them out for 117 only to take afirst innings of lead of 65 runs. As a result, Bengal will get onlythree points from this match if it ends in a draw. That would taketheir tally to 16 and if Karnataka manage a first innings lead againstDelhi then it would also make their tally same. In that case, lastyear’s champions will qualify as they have one outright victoryagainst Bengal’s none.However, as far as a draw is concerned, it is a distant proposition inthis match. On a pitch where the ball is jumping and turning square itwill require tremendous technique and courage to survive even a fullday. Mumbai failed to do it in the first innings and the Bengalbatsmen were no exception today. Except for skipper Utpal Chatterjeewho was the highest scorer with 27 with a fractured right thumb andRohan Gavskar (23) none of the other batsmen were able to cross15. Mumbai in their second innings were 102 for the loss of AmolRane’s wicket.Even though there was appreciable turn for the bowlers it wasslow. However, the Bengal batsmen were not ready to play a waitinggame. Devang Gandhi, who was the main hope for the home side perishedearly on, falling leg before to Abey Kuruvilla. He made the mistake ofgoing back to a ball which he should have played forward to. Gavaskarbatted against his father’s team with a lot of grit. His 23 came in120 minutes. However, both he and Srikkanth Kalyani got out trying tocut balls that they could have well avoided. For Mumbai, Kuruvillatook three wickets while Nilesh Kulkarni, Rajesh Pawar and RomeshPowar finished with two wickets apiece.Whatever hopes Bengal had of making a comeback were dashed byJaffer. He is unbeaten with 64 of 97 balls. Of the 12 boundaries thathe has so far struck, seven have been hit off Chatterjee. The Bengalleft-arm spinner looked a demoralised bowler today. Maybe, theperformance of his batsmen had influenced his bowling. Mumbai now arein a very healthy position leading by 167 runs with nine wicketsremaining.

• It was the 1719th One-Day International match in cricket history.
• It was England’s 326th and Pakistan’s 495th ODI match.
• It was the 47th match between these two sides. The record now reads :Pakistan 18, England 28, abandoned one.
• It was the 21st match between these two sides in England. The recordnow reads : Pakistan 6,England 15.
• Umpires Barry Dudleston and John Hampshire were officiating in theirfourth and 19th match respectively.
• Paul Collingwood (a 25 years old right handed batsman and right armoff break/ medium fast bowler) became 162nd player to representEngland in ODIs.
• Rashid Latif was making a comeback into Pakistan side after aboutthree years. He had last played for Pakistan against South Africa atCape Town on 23-04-1998.Latif thus missed 92 matches in between twoconsecutive appearances. Only Sajid Ali (154), Sikander Bakht (117),Aamer Malik (93) and Manzoor Elahi (93) have missed more matches inbetween two appearances for Pakistan.
• Inzamam-ul-Haq (79),when on 74,completed his 8000 runs in One-DayInternationals. He was playing his 244th match and 231st innings.Inzamam became second Pakistani and seventh batsman overall to achievethis landmark. Inzamam joined the august company of two Indians SachinTendulkar (10179 runs in 268 matches) and Mohammad Azharuddin (9378 in334), one West Indian Desmond Haynes (8648 in 238),one Sri LankanAravinda de Silva (8432 in 275), one Australian Mark Waugh (8245 in232) and fellow teammate Saeed Anwar (8162 in 224).
• Inzamam has now aggregated 2623 runs in 80 matches on opponents’ soils(excluding matches at neutral venues). He has now surpassed JavedMiandad’s Pakistani record of most runs in such matches. Miandad had atally of 2573 runs from 76 matches on opponents’ soils. IncidentallyWest Indian Viv Richards with 3921 runs from 88 matches holds theworld record in this category of statistics.
• The third wicket partnership of 150 runs between Anwar and Inzamam isPakistan’s best for this wicket against England. This obliterated theprevious highest of 145 between Ijaz Ahmed and Inzamam at Sharjah on07-04-1999.
• The wicket of Younis Khan was 56th for Darren Gough on English soil.With this he has equalled Ian Botham’s tally of most wickets at homesoil. However Gough needed only 33 matches as against Botham’s 47.
• The catch of Alec Stewart was seventh for Shoaib Malik as asubstitute. He has now equalled New Zealander John Bracewell andcountryman Shoaib Mohammad’s tally of catches. Only Sri Lankan UpulChandana (8) has taken more catches as a substitute.
• The victory margin of 108 runs was largest for Pakistan againstEngland in all matches. The previous biggest win for Pakistan overEngland was by 90 runs at Sharjah on 07-04-1999.
• The defeat was England’s second worst for England at home soil. SouthAfrica had registered a 122 run victory at The Oval on 22-05-1999 in aWorld Cup game which still remains England’s worst ever defeat at homesoil.
• Saeed Anwar was winning his 27th Man of the Match award. He has nowequalled Sri Lanka’s Aravinda de Silva’s tally of MoM awards. Now onlyIndia’s Sachin Tendulkar (38) and West Indian Viv Richards (31) havewon more awards than Anwar.

Michael Bevan (166) and Richard Montgomerie (133), hitting respectivelytheir highest scores for the county, put Sussex in a strong position againstNottinghamshire at Hove.In spite of being put in to bat the hosts made 404-5 in their Division Two championship match. The visiting bowlers got none of the expected help from the green-tinged pitch on a fine summer’s day. Bevan and Montgomerie came together when Toby Peirce was out at 45 off an inside-edge to Andrew Harris. They put on 292 runs in 68 overs before getting out in consecutive overs.After 213 balls with 20 boundaries in some 300 minutes batting Bevan was bowled by David Millns: his season’s total in all competitions is 1493 with 533 in his last seven innings. His second successive century came on the heels of his 151 n.o. against Essex last week.Unfortunately for Sussex the Australian will be away for ten days in August playing for his country in three one-day internationals against South Africa in Melbourne. Montgomerie had made only three half-centuries this summer, and batted almost flawlessly before he was caught at slip off Richard Stemp.His innings of some 390 minutes contained 19 fours. From that platform Chris Adams (35 n.o.) continued the attack on the bowling with 63 runs for the fourth wicket. Paul Reiffel had Cottey play on, and two balls later had nightwatchman James Kirtley out without scoring. Nottinghamshire missed Paul Franks who is in the England squad, and Reiffel’s 23 overs cost 2-63.

Whoever thought that Bangladesh would run away with the match after a brave showing with the bat saw them score 232 for 8 in 50 overs had to eat his words as England proved their superiority in the match by achieving the target with 6.1overs and eight wickets still intact.The man of the match, Alec Stewart, and the England skipper, Nasser Hussain, shared a 175 run partnership for the second wicket to steer their side to the quarter-final of the of the ICC KnockOut. Both batsmen played shots to all parts of the ground to make a mockery of the target set by their opponents.Alec Stewart, who did the most of the scoring after the departure of Marcus Trescothick at the total of 33, was all patience after completing his half-century. He was content in watching most of the proceedings from the non-striking end, as Hussain hit all the Bangladeshi bowlers with strength and vigor. Hussain was particularly harsh on spinners, especially the off-break Muhammad Rafiq, as he hit 5 sixes and 8 fours for his 95 scored in 120 balls. However, he was unlucky not to get his first ODI century as trying to steer the ball to the leg side, he top edged an easy catch back to the bowler, Muhammad Rafiq.After the departure of Hussain at the total of 208, it was an easy going for EnglandGraeme Hick making a quick-fire 23 off 19 balls to take his side to victory. Stewart remained not out on 87 off 112 balls.Earlier, a confident looking Bangladesh side cashed in on some below par bowling and sloppy fielding by England to post a respectable total on the board. The opening batsmen, Javed Omar, scored 63* and the skipper, Naeemur Rehman, contributed with 46 studded with two sixes after Bangladesh had been reduced to 96 for 4 in the 29th over. Javed, returning to the crease after a rising delivery from Gough had earlier forced him to retire hurt, grafted his inning sensibly to enable his side to a total past 200, which looked a bit difficult at one stage. It was mainly because of his efforts that the Bangladesh team could collect 83 in the last 10 overs of their innings.For England, Mark Ealham was the most successful bowler taking 3 for 48 in his ten overs. Andrew Caddick and Craig White took two wickets each, whereas one batsman was run out.England now play South Africa in the quarter-final which would be played on Tuesday.

Shaun Marsh and Mitchell Marsh will join a group of fellow Test contenders to play for a Cricket Australia XI against New Zealand in a two-day tour match this weekend. The match in Canberra follows on from the Prime Minister’s XI game on Friday and Usman Khawaja will captain both outfits, with four changes to his team for the two-day game on Saturday-Sunday.The Marsh brothers will replace the Hussey brothers and use the match as a warm-up for a possible inclusion for the first Test against New Zealand at the Gabba, while wicketkeeper Sam Whiteman and fast bowler Billy Stanlake will join the side to replace Ryan Carters and Mark Steketee respectively.Shaun Marsh may find himself competing for a place in the Test line-up with openers Cameron Bancroft and Joe Burns, both of whom are in the CA XI as well as the PM’s XI. Adam Voges, Peter Siddle, Jason Behrendorff and Ashton Agar round out the side and will play in both Friday’s PM’s XI game and the two-day contest.”Similar to the Prime Minister’s XI squad, this two-day match will provide an opportunity for us to monitor a group of highly-rated players ahead of the first Test at the Gabba,” national selector Rod Marsh said. “Shaun, Mitch and Sam all are all very talented players and we’re keen to see what they can produce against New Zealand.”Billy Stanlake grabbed our attention when he made his debut in this year’s Matador Cup with an intimidating display against South Australia, taking 3 for 43 from nine overs.”This is also another good leadership opportunity for Usman Khawaja. He performed well when he captained Australia A side on the recent tour of India and this will allow him to build on that experience.”Cricket Australia XI Cameron Bancroft, Joe Burns, Shaun Marsh, Usman Khawaja (capt), Adam Voges, Mitchell Marsh, Sam Whiteman, Ashton Agar, Peter Siddle, Jason Behrendorff, Billy Stanlake, Ben Taylor (ACT, 12th man).

Sixty-six players were put through a full day of skills and fitness tests at Indianapolis World Sports Park in the initial evaluation process to compete for a spot in an ICC Americas Combined squad for January’s WICB Regional 50-over competition. ICC Americas High Performance Consultant Tom Evans was impressed by the way the candidates responded to some of the obstacles on the day.”I thought it was a really good day,” Evans told ESPNcricinfo. “It was a pretty long day. With a little bit of weather around, it made it extra challenging from a logistical standpoint but I thought the coaches and the players were able to adapt to that really well. To go to the indoor centre and do the fitness testing there and using St. Vincent Sport Performance (SVSP), who were excellent doing the testing, I think they showed that level of professionalism that we’re keen for these guys to strive towards.”The ICC brought four strength and conditioning coaches from SVSP, renowned for their training and testing methods to improve speed and agility in NFL, NBA and track athletes, to test all participants. Due to morning rain in Indianapolis, the players were brought to an indoor training facility and measured on a broad jump, a 20-metre sprint and a modified shuttle run to simulate three runs between the wickets.”When we look at this group today of cricket players, what impresses me is that when you challenge people to be athletic and they respond,” said Ralph Reiff, executive director of SVSP. “They were very attentive, they were ready to go, no one was an outlier on the backside of the bell curve so no one demonstrated that they don’t belong here so I was impressed by that. There was a very high level of athleticism within this group.”Rain cleared by the afternoon to allow the trial to shift back to the Indianapolis World Sports Park. The players were divided into seven groups, with one coach specifically assigned to track each group. Separately, the four specialist evaluators – Mike Young for fielding, Courtney Walsh for pace bowling, Venkatapathy Raju for spin bowling and Evans for batting – each ran a station checking on specific skills.”The love that these guys are showing in wanting to be here, the pride, it’s kind of blown me away a little bit,” Young said. “I didn’t know what to expect but they made me more excited as well. I was pumped up to start with but I’m like, man these kids want it so bad. Talking to Courtney and all the other coaches, they all agree. They’ve just been fantastic.”Though 83 players were invited to come to Indianapolis, 17 were absent from Saturday. Among those were four Canada players – Hiral Patel, Jeremy Gordon, Shaheed Keshvani and Srimantha Wijeratne – and two USA players, Japen Patel and Mrunal Patel, who were part of their country’s respective squads at July’s World T20 Qualifier. Evans said some withdrew due to injury and others might show up by Monday but may find it more difficult to make it into next weekend’s second phase.”There were a variety of issues why people didn’t come and we expected that when you ask people to get themselves here,” Evans said. “We really respect the fact that 66 did and even more wanted to but just couldn’t do it. But we were really pleased that people were willing to make that investment. In terms of the guys who might be late arrivals, they’ll be putting themselves under more pressure because they’re going to get seen less so they’ll probably have to do something outstanding when they get here.”Players will compete in trial matches on Sunday in the next step of the phase one evaluation process before more trial matches are scheduled for Monday.

Dwayne Smith, the West Indies allrounder, has joined Sussex for their Twenty20 Cup campaign after being signed as a replacement for the injured Mushtaq Ahmed. He is expected to make his debut in their opening match against holders Kent on Wednesday.”We are excited to have Dwayne join us,” Mark Robinson, Sussex’s coach, said. “We’ve had to move quickly on this following injury to Mushy, and at a day’s notice I feel very lucky, to have gained such a high-quality player.”Robinson said Smith’s addition will benefit the county when Luke Wright takes up his international commitments. “The fact that he bats, bowls and fields means he will, in theory, be a like-for-like replacement for Luke when he joins England.”Chris Adams, Sussex’s captain, also expressed confidence in Smith’s abilities. “I think it’s an exciting signing. I haven’t got a great knowledge of Dwayne but he is an outstanding one-day cricketer. He is a great fielder, hits the ball a very long way and he is an improving bowler,” he told the .Meanwhile, Adams said Mushtaq will re-join the squad for the County Championship. “The timing [of Smith’s signing] is right because Mushy needs three weeks of rest so he is ready to go for the Lancashire game in the Championship on June 29.”There’s no point in rushing him [Mushtaq] back, we need him back fully fit and refreshed and in the meantime we get an exciting young West Indian who will give us a great chance of doing well in Twenty20.”Smith joins the county after taking part in the Indian Premier League, where he represented the Mumbai Indians. He played four matches, but had limited success, with 45 runs and five wickets from four matches.

2003 captain Mike Burns accompanied by several other members of the Somerset staff were present at the Memorial Stadium in Bristol on Sunday afternoon to launch the joint venture that the Somerset Junior Sabres have entered into with the Bristol Junior Shoguns.As part of the arrangement that the two clubs have reached Somerset junior members can gain free entry to Bristol Shogun home matches and vice versa, and judging by the reception that the youngsters present gave the idea it looks like it could be a highly successful venture.During the half time break in the Heineken Cup match between Bristol Shoguns and Swansea, captain Mike Burns was introduced to the crowd whilst a new look `Stumpy’, the Junior Sabres friendly mascot, joined forces with the Shoguns mascot `Mitsu’ on a tour of the ground.Mike Burns then gave away some mini cricket bats that he signed for the delighted youngsters, and there was such an interest in the Junior Sabres tee shirts that stocks ran out in a very short time.Since the end of the cricket season `Stumpy’ the dragon has been away on holiday but he certainly gave the impression that he was pleased to be back, and despite the rain he appeared in fine form. He seems to have grown quite a bit taller and put on some weight since September, and is already counting the days till the start of the next cricket season.Membership secretary Jo Arnold, who was part of the Somerset party in Bristol told me: "This is a great link up for the Junior Sabres, and will enable the young members of both of our clubs to enjoy top class cricket in the summer and top class rugby in the winter."Whilst his new captain was in Bristol, Somerset all rounder Keith Dutch and his wife Emma were back in Taunton celebrating the birth of their son Thomas who weighed in at 8lbs 10 ounces this morning.I’m happy to be able to report that both mother and baby are doing well, so congratulations to everybody.There are so many new babies on the scene that it won’t be too long before Somerset can field a team of Mini Sabres!

Gary Stead, the former New Zealand opening batsman, has replaced Steve Jenkin as coach of the national women’s team. Stead, also a coach at the New Zealand Cricket High Performance Centre, takes over eight months before the World Cup in Australia.”With the ICC Women’s World Cup and Twenty20 just around the corner we were looking for the best quality coach as well as continuity moving into these tournaments,” Justin Vaughan, New Zealand Cricket’s chief executive said. “Gary is an outstanding coach and has been assisting with the coaching of the side. He is a natural fit for the position. I am confident that he is the right person to take the team forward and deliver results.”Stead played five Tests for New Zealand in 1999 before retiring from first-class cricket seven years later. He joined the high performance centre in 2004 and coached the Canterbury women’s team in 2007-08, when they won the State League.Stead said he was looking forward to his new assignment, with the women’s World Twenty20 in England to follow in June, after the World Cup. “This team has a very exciting period of cricket ahead with World Cup and ICC World Twenty20 in the next 10 months,” Stead said. “My focus will be for the team to win both of these.”I want to encourage the White Ferns to play an exciting style of cricket. There are some enormously talented players in this country and I believe I can assist in their game and match awareness to take them forward.”