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Pakistan’s convincing win against Sri Lanka means their match against Australia – their first game of any kind against them for two and a half years – on Tuesday could well decide which team takes top spot in the group. Australia have bounced back superbly after their shock defeat against Zimbabwe, but that was hardly unexpected, considering the quality in their team. Pakistan’s comprehensive win against Sri Lanka was an unexpected result, and it sets up Tuesday’s game perfectly.Australia have the momentum, and usually in important tournaments they’ve shown a tendency not to let go once they get on a roll. Pakistan, on the other hand, tend to blow hot one day and cold the next. Anything less than a near-perfect performance won’t be enough.Bat play: Pakistan’s openers continue to be a worry, and while the team recovered in style against Sri Lanka, it might be more difficult to come out of a poor start against the Australians. The good news is Younis Khan and Shoaib Malik have run into form, and Misbah-ul-Haq has shown himself to be breathtakingly innovative and consistent at the same time. And perhaps the better news is Pakistan have done well without a significant contribution from Shahid Afridi.Australia, meanwhile, have had two games where most of their batsmen haven’t needed a hit. Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist have been in terrific form, but there could be questions asked of the rest if the openers fall early.Wrecking ball: Both teams have an impressive bowling attack. Mohammad Asif and Umar Gul have proved themselves in the past, but Sohail Tanvir has been the surprise package. He troubled the Indians with his awkward action and his ability to swing the ball away from the right-hander, and Mahela Jayawardene admitted the Sri Lankans had trouble picking him too. Add Shahid Afridi to the mix and Pakistan have a more than competent bowling line-up.The same can be said for the Australians as well. Brett Lee is fresh from a hat-trick against Bangladesh, while Stuart Clark has succeeded in staunching the runs and taking wickets. In his 12 overs in the tournament so far, he has figures of 5 for 59.Keep an eye on: Ricky Ponting. He is a big-match player, and can be expected to seize the moment and the game.Shop talk: Clark’s statements on the eve of the game showed the frame of mind the Australians are in. “I don’t think the Australian cricket team fears anyone. They [Pakistan] are a very good team with very good players, [but] we’re starting to get into a bit of a rhythm. We’re enjoying it and the guys’ skills are slowly getting better.”Pakistan have lost more than one World Cup game against Australia, and Salman Butt, their vice-captain, admitted that they’d be up against a better team than Sri Lanka, who they beat so convincingly.Pitch talk: If it’s Johannesburg, it has to be a belter. The bowlers could be in for another tough day in the office.Australia (probable): Adam Gilchrist (wk), Matthew Hayden, RickyPonting (capt), Andrew Symonds, Brad Hodge, Mike Hussey, Michael Clarke, Stuart Clark, Brett Lee, Nathan Bracken, Mitchell Johnson.Pakistan (probable): Salman Butt, Imran Nazir, Mohammad Hafeez, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik (capt), Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal (wk), Misbah-ul-Haq, Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul, Sohail Tanvir.

Dilip Vengsarkar, India’s chairman of selectors, has sounded out a warning to the senior players following the team’s second consecutive defeat to Australia in the seven-match series.Vengsarkar made it clear that the seniors needed to raise their game, especially in the wake of the World Twenty20 triumph engineered by a young side. “There are many players like S Badrinath and Suresh Raina who are performing with the India A side,” Vengsarkar told , a Mumbai-based tabloid. “These guys are waiting for their chance and you cannot ignore them. It’s a professional set-up and nobody can take their place for granted.”India made one change for the fourth and fifth one-dayers, bringing in left-arm spinner Murali Kartik for offspinner Ramesh Powar. Powar bowled only 11 overs in the first two ODIs, failing to pick up any wickets and conceded 7.27 runs an over.Vengsarkar justified the move. “If you get picked as a frontline bowler, then you have to bowl 10 overs. Plus, if your fielding is found wanting and you do not contribute with the bat, the team is obviously at a disadvantage. Ramesh has to get fitter and field better. He also has to improve his bowling.”Vengsarkar also justified Kartik’s selection over promising Hyderabad left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha. “Ojha is very young, just 21. It is not fair to unleash him against a side like Australia. We need to groom youngsters. Kartik is experienced and offers us better variation than two offspinners.””We are not a great fielding side anyway,” he said when asked for an assessment of the series so far. “Australia saved about 25 runs on the field. If we had fielded that way, the match would have been much closer.”

The West Indies Players Association (WIPA) has issued a release stating that it is greatly concerned about recent decisions taken with regard to Dwayne Bravo and Brian Lara.Recently, the WICB announced that retainer contracts were being given to seven players including Lara, but not Bravo. The board had excluded Bravo because of a contract he recently signed with TSTT, a competitor with the board’s sponsors Digicel. The WICB took a decision to ignore Lara’s personal contact with Cable & Wireless because it was signed prior to the WICB’s contract with Digicel.WIPA is contending that the recent ruling by the ICC allows Bravo and other players to pursue their personal sponsorship deals, regardless of who sponsors the WICB.”We say this against the background of a FICA/ICC ruling on the issues pertaining to the respective commercial and promotional rights and obligations of players, the WICB and its major sponsors, a ruling the WIPA and the WICB agreed would be binding on both parties,” WIPA’s release said.

South/West Division

Chris Benham blasted Hampshire to their first win of the season as they chased down a mammoth total with three balls to spare against Gloucestershire at the Rose Bowl. Alex Gidman’s career-best 105 helped guide the visitors to a towering 350 for 5 and Hampshire’s hopes of opening their account were looking slim. Marcus North belted 85 from 73 balls, while Hamish Marshall (64) and Christopher Taylor (53 off 23) contributed to the carnage. The tall target was reduced to 240 from 30 overs after rain affected Hampshire’s innings, and Michael Carberry got them away to a strong start with 60. A 98-run stand between Benham and Nic Pothas pushed them closer but when Pothas fell for 43 from 32 balls the victory was far from secured. Jon Lewis chose to bowl the final over himself, a decision he might regret as he finished with an unflattering 0 for 49 from 4.3 overs as Benham ended up unbeaten on 54 from 27 balls and Greg Lamb clubbed 8 from three deliveries.Glamorgan survived a late scare from Steffan Jones, who clattered 42 from 36 to nearly take Somerset to an unlikely win at Taunton, but the visitors crept home by 19 runs with more than three overs to spare. Glamorgan’s 221 was set up by a fine 95 from David Hemp, including 11 fours, but there was little else from his team-mates apart from Mike Powell’s 32. Somerset struggled in reply, with Marcus Trescothick (15), Craig Kieswetter (18) and, crucially, Justin Langer (7) all falling cheaply. Ian Blackwell muscled 42 from 36, but when Somerset slipped to 163 for 9, there appeared little hope for the home side. Jones, though, gave them genuine belief with a blistering 42 – lifting three sixes – before he was last man out to David Harrison.

North Division

A career-best 75 from Navdeep Poonia was not enough for Scotland who fell to Derbyshire by six wickets in a rain-affected match at Derby. Charl Langeveldt collected 4 for 28 and troubled Poonia’s team-mates, none of whom passed 16 as Scotland battled to 169. Chris Rogers, who recently lost his Cricket Australia contract as he was not considered a one-day player, guided Derbyshire’s chase with 57 from 73 balls while his opening partner Steve Stubbings laboured for 53 deliveries for his 24. And although both fell, Dominic Telo (15*) and James Pipe (4*) took Derbyshire home with 14 balls to spare.Click here for John Ward’s report from Old Trafford where Lancashire pulled off a stunning win over Durham.

Midlands Division

HD Ackerman’s 103 and a fine all-round performance Jim Allenby took Leicestershire through to a comfortable 39-run win over Ireland at Grace Road. Ravi Rampaul, Ireland’s recently-signed overseas player, couldn’t inspire his new team-mates – conceding 49 from his 10 overs – but he bowled Dillon du Preez late in the innings for 3. Ackerman dominated his opening stand of 103 with Tom New (31) before he and Allenby put on a further 87 for the second wicket. Chasing a sizeable 252 Ireland slipped to 68 for 5, with Garnett Kruger picking up two early wickets, but Andrew White (52) and Gary Wilson (58) staved off Leicestershire’s march to victory with a fine sixth-wicket stand of 109. However, once Allenby removed Wilson, the rest folded quickly and Allenby ended with 4 for 44.Nottinghamshire had the better of a rain-affected day at Trent Bridge, where Darren Pattinson helped them account for Northamptonshire in a Duckworth/Lewis result. Pattinson, the Victorian fast bowler, picked up 3 for 39 from ten overs in his first one-day match for Nottinghamshire as the visitors struggled to support Stephen Peters, who made 90. They wobbled to 64 for 5 before Peters finally found some support from Lance Klusener, who made 60 from a very un-Klusener-like 109 deliveries. Northamptonshire ground out their 50 overs to reach 189 for 7, but later rain meant the home side’s target was reduced to 143 from 30 overs. Nottinghamshire’s other Australian player, Adam Voges, completed the six-wicket win with 42 from 40 balls after Will Jefferson set the platform with 36.

South East Division

Click here for Brydon Coverdale’s report on Surrey’s win over Middlesex at Lord’s.Kent won a nailbiting match against Sussex at Hove, with Justin Kemp (68*) and Ryan McLaren (17) squeezing them home to a four-wicket win with one ball to spare. Sussex’s 246 was set-up by four thirties from Matt Prior, Chris Adams, Luke Wright and Carl Hopkinson, with Michael Yardy making 50 from 78 balls. Kent began solidly, with Joe Denly making 43 and Martin van Jaarsveld cracking 58 from 55, but Wright hit back with three quick wickets to check Kent’s run-chase. Geraint Jones and Azhar Mahmood both fell in the dying overs, but McLaren held his nerve and smacked 17 from 14 balls to help Kemp and Kent through to victory.

Nasim Ashraf, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), has reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to a zero-tolerance policy on doping in the wake of criticism from Percy Sonn, the ICC president, over the board’s handling of the doping cases of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif.The bowlers were initially handed bans by a committee set up to investigate their cases, only for the judgment and punishments to be totally overturned by a subsequent appeals committee. The findings of the appellate committee raised questions about the PCB’s anti-doping regulations and it prompted Sonn to remark, in an official statement, that “the judgment highlights inconsistencies in the PCB’s anti-doping processes and regulations.”But Ashraf, speaking to Cricinfo, defended the role of the PCB in the matter. “We remain totally committed to a zero-tolerance policy on doping. I cannot stress that enough. But the verdict of both commissions also has to be honoured and respected. The board has nothing to do with the commissions. They were completely independent; they proceeded and arrived at their conclusions in an open and transparent manner.”What appears to be a particular concern is the seemingly wide divergence between the PCB’s anti-doping regulations and those of the ICC and WADA (World anti-doping agency). As a result of the disparity, the original committee found both players guilty and punished them based on ICC and WADA regulations but the appellate committee exonerated them of all charges under PCB regulations, further arguing that the first committee was wrong to have referred to an international code in the first place.Ashraf explained that the discrepancy existed because the PCB had framed their policy in 2002, much before the ICC adopted the WADA code. And in response to Sonn’s call for member countries to align their regulations with those of the ICC and WADA, Ashraf said the process had already begun in Pakistan.”We have already started aligning our policy to the WADA code and we will make sure that this process happens as quickly as possible now. Our policy should be as close to possible as their’s. Pakistan is one of only four members that has an active anti-doping policy at the moment and ours was framed back in 2002.”Though drugs have crept into cricket through a number of incidents in recent years – international players have been fined for smoking marijuana and first-class cricketers banned for more serious abuse – Shoaib and Asif are the only players to test positive for a banned anabolic steroid. Shane Warne tested positive for a diuretic which is used to mask the presence of steroids and was banned for a year.And Ashraf reasoned that from this incident, there was an opportunity for cricket to learn as well. “This unfortunate incident has created mass awareness of doping issues in cricket. That is something we can all, as a sport, now learn from and try and prevent such cases from occurring again. This is a good lesson for all players because the responsibility ultimately is theirs for what goes into their body.”We will also take greater pains to ensure that all players are properly educated about doping matters and fully understand the issues at stake. And we will do this while being completely committed to zero tolerance on doping. That is something the board, and I personally, will not compromise on. I believe in zero tolerance and I will implement this belief.”

While the somewhat more brash members of this confident England team have been grabbing the headlines Ian Bell, England’s quiet man, has been busily preparing himself for the biggest test of his career so far – his first appearance against Australia, on Thursday at Lord’s.Bell has calmly – almost anonymously – gone about his business for Warwickshire and England this season, and tops his county’s Championship averages. The media have spent considerable time debating the side to face Australia, and further more time on Graham Thorpe and Kevin Pietersen – yet Bell barely got a mention in the press. Indeed, his captain Michael Vaughan suggested Bell’s place was cemented prior to the Bangladesh Test matches, a sentiment Bell himself didn’t subscribe to: “I felt I had a lot to [prove] against Bangladesh,” he told reporters during England’s media day in London.”Despite the form I had for my county, I still needed a bit against Bangladesh, especially with the amount of batting competition there is at the moment – which is getting stronger all the time.”He hasn’t missed the media glare which has shone on other members of the side, recently. “It was obviously quite nice, not having seen my name mentioned for a while – it’s been nice to be in that position, so I can just play my game,” he said. The excitement of his first Ashes series isn’t daunting him either: “I feel up for it and confident, and eager to see where I am in my game. When you play the best in the world, you really do see where you are in your game, and I’m really excited to be playing against these guys for the first time. I just want to get started.”Having had his talents and potential lauded for so many years, he is understandably pleased that the focus and pressure of expectation isn’t so intense. “At the start of the season, when places were up for grabs, I had to score as many runs as possible for Warwickshire,” he said. “And fortunately, with the way KP played in South Africa, a lot of the publicity and press were off me and I was able to go about scoring runs for Warwickshire: luckily I was able to do that.”Despite the achievement of making a Test hundred this summer already – an undefeated 162 against a lacklustre Bangladeshi team – Bell hasn’t played a four-day Championship match since June 15, almost five weeks ago. As befits his batting style, his response to this was calm and phlegmatic: “It does feel a long time ago since I last played a four day game,” he agreed. “Warwickshire have played a lot of one-day cricket, a lot of Twenty20 – but even on Twenty20 days, there is plenty of time to be spent practising. When you start at 5.30 in the afternoon, there’s a lot more you can do in the daytime before the game starts, so I’ve been trying to make the most of that.”While he is keen not to be labelled as a direct replacement for Graham Thorpe, he admitted to sharing similarities in their method of batting. “I’m not really a power-player, so I do see myself as being in the mould of Thorpe, really – and I will go about my batting in the same way he did.”England will hope Bell emulates Thorpe’s success against Australia and makes the No. 4 position his own this summer.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has, as expected, rejected a claim for compensation totaling around £800,000 lodged by the ECB in relation to the abandonment of the Oval Test in August.The ECB was looking to recoup losses it incurred resulting from Pakistan’s forfeiture of the match. It had to reimburse people who had bought tickets for the final day, and it also handed a 40% refund to ticket holders who attended the curtailed fourth day.The ECB declined to comment on the grounds that its correspondence with the PCB was confidential. However, a spokesman for the PCB told The Times: “We have decided to contest the claim legally as the Pakistan board was not responsible for the Test not being completed.”The PCB has maintained ever since Inzamam-ul-Haq was cleared of ball-tampering that the blame for the early end to the Test lay with the umpires, especially Darrell Hair, as it was their decision which set in motion a chain of events that led to the forfeiture. As a consequence, the PCB argues that, as Hair’s employers, the ICC is ultimately responsible.The ECB’s position is that whatever the rights and wrongs of the original action, Inzamam was to blame for Pakistan refusing to take the field – an offence he was punished for following the hearing – and that makes the PCB liable to make good losses.The matter is now likely to be raised when the ICC executive board meets in Mumbai early next month. It an agreement cannot be reached then, the likely next step is arbitration, months of deliberation and quite possibly more legal bills.

Despite trouncing England with some awe-inspiring batting in the recently concluded Test series in Pakistan, Inzamam-ul-Haq wants to play county cricket in the country of cricket’s birth.”I would like to play once in county cricket; that is something I have not done as yet,” Inzamam, the Man of the Series in Pakistan’s 2-0 Test series win, told ABC Sport. “Last year there was an offer from a county but I was not in a position to accept it.”Inzamam, 35, has been in prolific form this year, hitting 1,000 runs in his last eight matches at the superb average of 83.33. Against England, he scored fifties at Multan, two hundreds in Faisalabad – breaking Javed Miandad’s record of 23 Test centuries for Pakistan – and a crucial 97 in Lahore to see Pakistan clinch a thriller.”I have always said that I don’t plan ahead, I go step by step and series by series,” Inzamam added. “But playing in the World Cup is an ambition and so is playing for some county.” It is probable that he is eyeing a rest period in May of next year, following Pakistan’s tour of England in which they will play four Tests and five one-day internationals.A number of Pakistan cricketers have played county cricket in 2005 – Younis Khan, Mushtaq Ahmed, Saqlain Mushtaq, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Azhar Mahmood and Danish Kaneria. In the past, former greats such as Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Zaheer Abbas, Mushtaq Mohammad and Asif Iqbal enjoyed long stints playing county cricket in England.

A galaxy of former and present Sri Lanka Test and one-day international players will line up at the R Premadasa International Stadium today to pay homage to the late Anura Ranasinghe, former Nalanda and Sri Lanka cricketer. They will participate in a day-night encounter between Ananda and Nalanda – leading Buddhist institutions and alma mater of sorts to so many of the island nation’s top cricketing talent.The fact that all these prominent cricketers have agreed to break away from their busy schedules to play in this 40-overs a side contest bears testimony to the character of Ranasinghe. Arjuna Ranatunga, the former Sri Lankan captain, has agreed to lead the Ananda team despite his official duties as deputy minister of tourism. Two past Nalandians Asanka Gurusinha, who appeared for the country in 41 Tests and 147 ODIs, and Keerthi Ranasinghe , who played in four ODIs, are flying across from Australia and England respectively to play in this match.Ranasinghe was the very epitome of a modern-day Keith Miller, fearless and a fighter to the core. His never-say-die attitude is what drew so many cricketers and friends around him. That he was lost to Sri Lanka cricket after just a handful of appearances (2 Tests and 9 ODIs) was due to the poor financial situation that prevailed at the time, when the players received only a pittance compared to what they get at present.The situation forced him to seek greener pastures, but instead of going to a country that his board would have been comfortable with, Ranasinghe took the wrong turn and went to South Africa, who at that time were banned from international cricket because of their apartheid policies. In that period it was anathema for sports teams to tour South Africa. The repercussions were so harsh that it virtually meant the end of the road for any sportsman defying the ban.Ranasinghe, who was 26 then and at the prime of his career, found the 25-year-ban imposed by the Sri Lanka Cricket Board too harsh and his life simply disintegrated from there onwards. Cricket was his life and for Ranasinghe there was no life without cricket. He passed away at the prime of his life four days before his 42nd birthday on October 9.It was a pity that the best years of his cricket were confined to the school and Under-19 level. Those who were fortunate enough to have seen him in his formative years saw the emergence of an allrounder of immense potential. But his career was, oh, so brief in the international sphere that cricket was the ultimate loser. They say the good die young. So it was with Ranasinghe.At today’s match the two schools will also honour three other former stalwarts who shaped Nalanda cricket – Gerry Gunaratne, Sunil Jayasinghe and Roshan Guneratne. The match will be telecast live by Rupavahini’s Eye Channel and live commentary will be broadcast by the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation.The event is organised by the Nalanda Junior Old Boys’ Association jointly with the Past Cricketers’ Association. Tickets priced at Rs.2500 have already been sold out, according to the organisers. Still available are tickets priced at Rs.350 (for family of five), Rs.300 and Rs.50. All proceeds are towards the Nalanda College gymnasium project with part of it going to the family of Ranasinghe.The teamsAnanda (from): Arjuna Ranatunga, captain (93 Tests/269 ODIs), Sidath Wettimuny (23/35), Ajith de Silva (4/6), Brendon Kuruppu (4/54), Marvan Atapattu (85/231), Chandika Hathurusingha (26/35), Sanjeewa Ranatunga (9/13), Avishka Gunawardena (4/60), Dinuk Hettiaratchi (1/0), Tilan Samaraweera (30/15), Thilan Wijesinghe, Oshadi Weerasinghe, Nishantha Ranatunga (0/2), Hemantha Wickremaratne (0/3), Akalanka Ganegama (0/2), Thilina Kandamby (0/4), Muthumudalige Pushpakumara.Nalanda (from): Bandula Warnapura, captain (4 Tests/12 ODIs), Lalith Kaluperuma (2/4), Roshan Mahanama (52/213), Asanka Gurusinha (41/147), Gamini Wickremasinghe (3/4), Kumara Dharmasena (31/141), Mahela Jayawardene (71/184), Shantha Kalavitigoda (1/0), Jayantha Seneviratne, Hemantha Devapriya, Keerthi Ranasinghe (0/4), Susantha Karunanayake, Sudharman de Silva, Ishara Amerasinghe, Shammi Silva.Umpires: Asoka de Silva and Ranmore Martinesz TV umpire: Sagara Gallage

New Zealand may be no nearer to configuring their frontline attack for the Test series against South Africa after the three-day game against Boland ended in a draw on Thursday, but, as coach David Trist acknowledged, at least two of the backup bowlers did their causes no harm in Paarl.The match wandered along to its inevitable conclusion in the early evening as Boland, set to make 357 in the last session, pottered to 53 for two before the game was called off 30 minutes early.Summing up, though, Trist said: “There were encouraging signs from one or two of the bowlers. That’s something we can take out of this game.”In particular, all-rounder Scott Styris and legspinner Brooke Walker, who might not have been in the frame a few weeks ago, have both wandered into it.Styris scored an unbeaten 73 in the New Zealand first innings and backed it up with three wickets as Boland replied while Walker bowled tidily in the Boland first innings for two for 38 and took the last wicket of the game on Thursday evening.”Nobody’s a certainty,” said Trist, “but certainly he (Styris) advanced his claims. He offers a batting/bowling option that’s worth looking at. I don’t think he’s there yet as a batter or a bowler at Test level, but it’s demanding times. He had a very good game and threw down the gauntlet and the challenge and may well sneak in. But he would have to back up the performances here to show that he really is deserving of a place.”Trist allowed that strengthening the New Zealand batting down the order “is a key to our success or survival” in the Test series.The coach had encouraging words, too, for Walker, who now seems to be New Zealand’s only spin option with Paul Wiseman’s sprained ankle likely to keep him out of the first Test.””I thought Walker had a good game,” said Trist. “He bowled well, got nice drift and basically used conditions that did not suit him quite well. But this was a warmup game. It’s not South Africa.”Of the three seamers given a run in Paarl, Chris Martin emerged as the man most likely to share the Test new ball with Shayne O’Connor, with three wickets in the Boland first innings and another on Thursday evening. But New Zealand will look again at their pace options in the three-day game against North West in Potchefstroom that starts on Saturday.As an exercise, Trist seemed happy with the Boland game, despite the tedium of the final day, played out in sweltering heat. He feels that Potchefstroom will provide conditions similar to Bloemfontein, where the first Test starts on November 17, and says the last warmup match will be “critical” to New Zealand’s preparations.And even though in one sense New Zealand’s cruel run of injuries may have made selection for the Test match more straightforward, Trist said that the business of choosing the side would still be “harrowing”.”It may be a bit simpler,” he said. “But it doesn’t take the stress out of the whole thing, does it?”