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Hampshire’s Academy team remain top of Southern Electric Premier League, Division 2 after Chris Benham’s unbeaten century secured a 31-run win over Winchester KS at the Rose Bowl.Benham hit an undefeated 119 as the Academy established a slender four-point lead on United Services, who struggled to beat lowly Rowledge.Ironically, the Loughborough University batsman didn’t arrive at the crease until Iain Brunnschweiler (37) and Jimmy Adams (49) had eased the Academy to 95-3.But Benham, whose century included 15 fours, and Kevin Latouf (35) pushed on as the county youngsters amassed a formidable 281-5. Under-17 hero David Wheeler notched 24 off 14 balls.Winchester certainly made a creditable reply, with Raj Naik (73) and Jimmy Taylor (57) scoring at seven runs an over and easing their score to 143-3 before James Manning removed both batsmen.Irfan Shah took over after that, taking 5-51 as WKS reached 250 all out, with Brunnschweiler snapping up three stumpings.Second placed United Services survived a late collapse before sealing a two-wicket win over battling Rowledge at Burnaby Road.They appeared pretty satisfied with their afternoon’s work after Guy Lewis (3-32) had helped peg Rowledge to 153 all out (Ricky Yates 33).Chris Yates senior (3-19) had US in difficulty at 53-3, but Gary Hounsome (38) and Damian Carson (29) appeared to have averted serious problems as the title chasers reached 105-3.But US collapsed 128-8 before veterans Paul Barsby and Kelson Brooks add last 26 runs and take the Portsmouth side home.Lymington’s four-wicket win over Old Tauntonians & Romsey was almost entirely due to Western Australian teenager Aaron Heal, who struck a match-winning 67.They bowled OTR out for 148, but got themselves in a pickle before clinching victory.Danny Peacock’s gamble to give himself the new ball paid dividends when he had run-happy left-hander Charles Forward (15) caught behind.Indeed, when OTR slumped to 61-6 – with only Paul Longland (40) battling it out – it looked as though Lymington might be on an early bus home.Pacey left-armer Martin Hunt (4-28) carved through the middle-order.But the Romsey tail wagged, initially through Ian Tulk (16) and Keith Trodd (17), but more significantly with last pair Nick Wood (21) and Mukesh Morjaria (16 not out) adding 27 and taking the total to 148.When Ben Craft (26) helped Heal ease Lymington’s reply to 97-2, it looked curtains for OTR.Heal survived a confident run-out appeal midway through his innings, and averted a clatter of middle-order wickets fell before clinching victory.Shaun Green was the star of Easton & Martyr Worthy’s 87-run win over Hungerford, who are teetering close to the relegation zone.Green hit 49 and then took 5-16 as Hungerford tumbled to 111 all out after Easton had posted 198-5.Easton’s top order all batted soundly with Ian Butcher (54), Green (49) and skipper Steve Green (27) fending off David Pryke (3-25) to seal the visitors’ position.Hungerford lost their first three wickets for only one run – two of them to Mark Stone (2-22) before Owen Dawkins (53) and Danny Williams (27) launched a fightback.But Green’s five-wicket spell reduced Hungerford to 111 all out.Trojans relegation fight took a positive turn with a six-wicket win over Sparsholt at Stoneham Lane.Ian Stuart (65), supported by Ollie Kelly (26) and Dave Tonge (24) helped the visitors reach 211-6 (Simon Williams 3-60).But, led by Mario Mohamed (65), Trojans motored along. Nigel le Bas (32) gave admirable support before Jamie Donaldson’s 56 – and a huge helping of 42 extras – took Trojans home …. and off the foot of the table.

West Indies’ fast bowling great Michael Holding is urging Caribbean cricket fans not to be too critical of gifted young Guyanese batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan who has constantly failed to convert several fifties into a maiden Test century.The stylish 21-year-old right-hander flattered to deceive yet again when he was out for 65 on Saturday’s opening day of the fifth and final Cable & Wireless Test against India at Sabina Park.It was fourth occasion in the series Sarwan had been dismissed for a half-century and the 13th time in his career that he has passed fifty without going on to a hundred."People might say that Sarwan is continuously frustrating by getting half-centuries and not going on to a century (but) it was a similar story with Shivnarine Chanderpaul," Holding said. "Chanderpaul has now matured and is getting centuries on a much more regular basis. He already has three in this series and possibly more to come."It might be the same story with Sarwan. Perhaps, he will mature a bit later on because he is still a very young man."Batsmen, in particular go on until 36 to 38 (years old) so he has 16 years infront of him so I don’t think we need to be too critical of him," urged Holding.Holding, who is covering the series as a Television commentator for TWI (Trans World International) said the West Indies, batting is no longer fragile."We are in good hands as far as our batting is concerned. We are still having a few problems with the opening position. I don,t that is totally settled (but) the middle order, from number three to number six, we have absolutely no problem with that," Holding asserted."I think of (Brian) Lara, (Carl) Hooper, Chanderpaul and Sarwan, a very solid middle order. The top order, we now have to try and get that as solid as we can."Wavell Hinds and Chris Gayle, they did a reasonably good job in the first innings of the Antigua fourth Test (and improved on that with a century-stand on the first day of the final Test)," Holding noted."First time that we’ve had such a good opening partnership. Perhaps that opening partnership will blossom in time to come as well," Holding said.The "Rools Royce" of fast bowling who took 249 wickets in 60 Tests at an average of 23.68 said there is still a lot of work for the current generation of West Indian bowlers to do."As far the bowlers, you can see that we are struggling a bit with the bowlers. We haven,t got a spinner that you can say is a match-winner and of the fast bowler, we haven,t got on single bowler that you can say is a match-winner either," Holder said."It is trying to be a combination of the three or four guys going out there and getting wickets to try to win Test matches. Well, that is good, fine but you still need to be at least be able to point on one match and say, `that man can win you a Test match any day’. At the moment we haven,t got that," Holding said.He said one of the problems facing the fast bowlers, especially in the current series against India, is "the surfaces on which they are being asked to perform".

Australian coach John Buchanan has warned his team that they will face a stern test from the English seamers during this summer’s Ashes series.Andy Caddick and Darren Gough have been at the forefront of the English revival in recent times, and Buchanan knows that the Australian batsmen will require good techniques if they are to cope with the pair in English conditions.”We’re going to face a pace bowling attack that can swing and seam the ball,” he said. “In the right conditions they will be very difficult attack to handle. Just as in India, where it was spin bowling in the right conditions that troubled us, our batsmen will need a technique appropriate to the conditions.”Swing and seam will be the major thrust of the England attack and we have to make sure we have our techniques ready.”Buchanan has urged his team into further practise sessions so that they can make the most of all the available time when they arrive in England. They depart on May 26th.”We’ve asked the players to have a minimum of four batting or bowling sessions a week,” he explained. “Nothing too serious, just hitting some balls and rolling their arms over,” he said.”That’s so when we get to England we’re not in a situation where we’re not getting as much out of the first 10 days or so because people are sore.”

Somerset Sabres might already be relegated from Division One of the Norwich Union League, but they are not going down without making their presence felt. They won their penultimate match of the season by three wickets and in the process made it unlikely that Leicestershire Foxes will finish in the top three.The Foxes were boosted by a fine hundred from their captain, Iain Sutcliffe who hit three sixes at the end of the innings to take him to three figures, including one off the last ball of the innings. Damian Brandy contributed 35, but it was not until an enterprising ninth wicket partnership with Charlie Dagnall that added 51 runs that the Foxes appeared likely to get anywhere near two hundred, let alone past it.It appeared as if the Sabres would make easy work of overtaking 215, with Jamie Cox leading the charge early on. The Sabres, however, lost wickets with Darren Maddy taking four for 36 from his nine overs and the wobble was on until Keith parsons and Peter Bowler added 92 for the fifth wicket. Both fell in quick succession and it went right into the last over before victory was sealed.

At a routine press conference before India’s ICC Champions Trophy final against Sri Lanka, Indian captain Sourav Ganguly confirmed that veteran medium-pacer Javagal Srinath would make a comeback in all forms of the game.Srinath had recently retired from Test cricket and was subsequently ignored by the selectors for the one-dayers.”He didn’t want to play Test cricket. I thought we needed him in both versions of the game. We all feel that he’s still good enough,” said Ganguly.The Indian captain went on to add, “We were really disappointed that he backed out in England where we needed him the most. But that is in the past.”Praising Srinath’s contribution to Indian cricket, which has yielded 508 wickets in Test and one-dayers, Ganguly noted, “He’s been a true performer for India. I’ve always told him that we needed him to play Test cricket and I believe he’s done fantastically well for Leicestershire.”It must be remembered that Ganguly has repeatedly asked for Srinath’s return, only to be denied. This time, however, there has been a change of heart. “He said he’s going to play Tests again. He’s told Brijesh (Patel) and he’s told us that he’ll play again,” Ganguly said.Only recently, the chairman of the selection committee, former Karnataka and India cricketer Brijesh Patel, had said that he would try to persuade Srinath to change his mind and return to both Test and one-day cricket.Ganguly acknowledged Patel’s role in making Srinath reconsider his earlier decision, saying with a chuckle, “Probably a change in the selection committee has helped in Srinath’s coming back.”Srinath arrives in Colombo, from England on Saturday afternoon and his first assignment will be the Champions Trophy final where he replaces Ashish Nehra who injured his bowling hand when he attempted a run out off his bowling against South Africa. The Delhi medium-pacer split the webbing between his index and middle fingers and required five stitches.”Srinath is coming in this afternoon and is very much in contention for the final,” said Ganguly.

A near total batting failure has cost Andover top spot in the ECB Southern Electric Premier League. They crashed to 114 all out and a 73-run defeat by Portsmouth in their first full session of all-day `time’ cricket.Facing Portsmouth’s 187 all out – a total built around a splendid 80 by South African youngster Warren Swann – Andover sank to 58-9 before last wicket pair Lee Wateridge and Matt Hooper doubled the score.Disappointed Andover skipper Roger Miller had no excuses – only praise for Portsmouth’s performance."We thought we had got Swann early on, but to his credit Warren batted really well, with some smashing straight drives."When we batted, Naqeeb Ali Mohamed and Lee Savident bowled a very good line, and got the ball into the right areas. Portsmouth defended their total really well and our batting just fell to pieces against Raj (Maru) and Pete Hayward."Thanks to Lee and Matt at the end, our total reached some credibility," Miller said.Ironically, Andover fired the early shots, with Richard Taylor (3-41) sending three of Portsmouth’s "big guns" – Geoff Pike, Matt Keech and Lee Savident – back to the pavilion to have Maru’s men rocking at 35-3.Swann’s innings, supported by some useful contributions from the lower order, wrested the initiative away from Andover. Hampshire Under-17 prospect Michael Barnes (23), who later snapped up three victims despite suffering a painful blow on his left index finger, provided the initial support.But it was the tall Johannesburg teenager, recommended to Portsmouth by Hampshire coach Jimmy Cook, who played the match winning innings.Hitting two sixes and seven fours in an accomplished 80, Swann piloted Portsmouth into a winning position. Fellow South African Gareth Tate took 3-63 with his off-spin, but a useful late rally involving Ben Nolan and Pete Hayward saw Portsmouth reach 187 all out in 50.4 overs.It all went horribly wrong for Andover after that.Hampshire Under-19 pace bowler Naqeeb Ali Mohamed (2-21) ripped out the Miller brothers and Savident removed Martin Docis at the start of a near immaculate 12-over spell, which cost just 15 runs.Andover’s middle-order caved in against Maru’s flight and guile – the former Hampshire left-arm spinner taking 4-35 and bowling in tandem with Hayward, who helped himself to 3-18.The six-week long leaders were eyeing a Premier Division 1 lowest total at 58-9, but Wateridge (41 not out), with a series of powerful back-foot cover shots, and the teenage Hooper (25) spared their blushes.It appeared for a while as if the tenth-wicket pair might deny Portsmouth victory, but Hayward eventually ended the 56-run partnership when the left-handed Hooper provided Barnes with a third victim.

Somerset coach Kevin Shine has described the run out by Simon Francis yesterday as the `Champagne Moment’ of the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy semi final match against Kent.He told me: "That was the turning point of the match for us, because we knew that the only way that we were going to win was to bowl them out. Up until that point they still looked like they were going to beat us, but that run out by Simon gave the boys the adrenalin rush to lift their game and get the result that we wanted."He continued: "It was quite an amazing piece of fielding by Simon. He was off balance and jack-knifed on the ground the wrong way up when he threw it back at the stumps, but he hit them and we got the run out."The Somerset coach paid tribute to the young fast bowler who joined the club from Hampshire after being released by the south coast county at the end of last season.He told me: "Simon is a very fit young player who has worked hard at his game during the winter, and I knew that he wouldn’t let us down when he went out onto the field to replace Richard Johnson when he limped off with cramp.""During the nets in the winter evenings the players worked on a routine that involved them diving onto a mat fielding a ball and throwing it from the ground, which is almost exactly what Simon did yesterday, and he did it perfectly!"Simon Francis told me: “I just knew that I would have to go out there to field when Richard came off. The atmosphere was electric and I felt nervous. When the ball came towards me I tried to field it and threw it back off the ground and got the run out.”No doubt that ‘Champagne Moment’ will remain with Simon for the rest of his life, and for those who were at the ground yesterday he will always be remembered as ‘the man who made the run out’.

The most exciting batsman in world cricket says the best birthday gift he could have would be a series-levelling victory over India in the forthcoming third Test.Brian Lara told NATIONSPORT he was still not fully recovered from the elbow injury sustained from the collision with Sri Lanka’s Marvan Atapattu last year, but remained committed as ever to the West Indies’ effort.There is nothing more I would love than a hundred this week, but I am not fully there yet. I am now getting gradually back into the game, I am looking to peak soon, but it is going to take some time.Hopefully, my contribution to this match, whether it is a hundred, whatever it is, is going to bring success to the team, he said.India, without a series win outside the sub-continent since 1986, lead the five-Test series 1-0 going in to Thursday’s third Test here at Kensington Oval where they have had six defeats in seven matches. Lara, scorer of 18 Test hundreds including the world record 375, celebrates his 33rd birthday on Thursday.Lara, the only world-class player in the West Indies team, thinks his side has learned the lessons from the 37-run loss at the Queen’s Park Oval and are ready to hit back in Barbados where they have endured just two defeats since World War II.Hopefully, five days after my birthday we will be celebrating a win, that is most important. I think, it will be nice to win a Test match, I will be turning 33, and levelling the series is where it is at for us right now. It is going to be a very crucial match.It can turn the series our way and if things don’t go our way, India could be in full command, so I am looking forward to the game. I think we have assessed what went wrong in Trinidad and know what we have to do to square the series here, he said.Lara was greeted warmly by Barbadians on Sunday night when he attended the unveiling of the life-size replica of superstar allrounder and National Hero Sir Garfield Sobers.The Barbados Government has done a great job in recognising Sir Garry. The people of Barbados have a son they can be proud of.It was a very special occasion and the words of Sir Garry have given me added inspiration for this series with India. We sit down here, and we talk about scoring centuries and winning matches, but we have got to give due to Sir Garry, a very simple man who played the game with the class and hallmark of a champion, and at the end of the day, greatness was bestowed upon him, the champion left-hander added.

MELBOURNE – The magic number for pacemen Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar here tomorrow at Colonial Stadium will be 100, as in miles per hour.But for Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting, the key for Lee is the number five.Ponting, concerned about his fastest bowler’s economy rate in one-dayers, does not want Lee to give away more than five runs an over.The series is being billed as a speed test between Lee and Shoaib, regarded as the two fastest bowlers in world cricket.They will be part of the focus of a $75,000 promotion for the three-match series between the two teams, where a lucky fan in each match will win $25,000 if a bowler exceeds 100mph (160.9kph) or a batsman scores 100 in 100 balls or fewer.”I imagine he [Lee] would be pretty excited about it – I just hope he doesn’t get too carried away with it and try to bowl them too quick and spray them all over the place,” Ponting said.”The worst thing to come out of it would be if he had an injury.”He’s got to start getting his economy rate down.”Ponting said the drop-in pitch looked good for one-day cricket and should be conducive to big scores.The special pitch has the look of particle board and will be rock-hard.”If it’s anything like last time, it played very well,” he said of the pitch.”It wasn’t overly quick, but the bounce was very consistent, which is obviously what you need for one-day cricket.”He and Pakistan counterpart Waqar Younis are pleased with the stadium, although Waqar admitted to concerns about the outfield.The Pakistan skipper said the surface was slippery and bumpy, but added that might change before the match.”The groundsman said he’s going to cut the grass and roll it, hopefully it will be all right,” he said.

He is the new wonder-kid on the blocks as far as Bengal cricket is concerned. Arindam Das, according to many, is probably the best thing to have happened to Bengal cricket after Sourav Ganguly. The youngster has already proved his talent in the domestic season. Now he is all set to fly to the Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy at Adelaide in Australia for a stint of coaching. The Cricket Association of Bengal is sponsoring the entire trip.Das’ performance this season looks quite impressive. In 30 innings he played at various levels, Das has scored over 2,000 runs. He has an average of 100-plus in the Under-22 competition and 58.20 in the Cooch Behar Trophy. Nicknamed `Don’ by his colleagues the young Das is the first one to blush about it. “The name was given to me when I was three years old. It’s not meant to belittle anybody,” is his first comment. He has another one to offer after much prompting. “If Sourav Ganguly can make it to the top from Bengal, I am confidentthat I will also be able to do so. I am not one to crib about practice and other facilities.” Das started taking lessons in cricket when he was only six from former Bengal cricketer Pranab Nundy. He is also indebeted to Gopal Bose for giving him valuable batting lessons. As Bose said today, “Cricket is all about three Ts. Talent, Technique and Temperament. He has all the ingredients to don the national colours.”Das would have made his debut in the senior Bengal side this season itself. However his engagements with the Under-19 side in the series against England prevented him from earning his maiden Ranji Trophy cap. However, he has no regrets. “I will get it when the opportunity comes,” is his shy reply. He believes that the coaching stint at Australia will benefit him tremendously. “As an opener I will have the chance to play pace bowlers. Here one only gets the chance to play spinners on slow turners. So my confidence against fast bowlers will definitely increase.” He also feels that there is not much of a difference in the domestic and international cricket that he hasplayed. “As a batsman my job is to play each ball on its merit. It does not matter whether I am playing at Lord’s or at a local cricket ground in Kolkata.” The bottom line for him however is hard work. “I can only work hard, score as many runs as possible and then leave the rest to God. My aim at the moment, is just that,” he concluded.