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Pakistan won the First Test match against Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club by 119 runs on the fourth day, but Zimbabwe did lose with honour. Their 310 easily beat their 246 for four to draw against New Zealand in 1995/96 as their highest fourth-innings total in a Test match.Perhaps Pakistan were initially a little overconfident, and there seemed arelaxed atmosphere over the ground as Zimbabwe resumed on 19 for one, needing 420 to win. It steadily dissipated during the day as the home batsmen made them work very hard for their wickets.Alistair Campbell, nine not out overnight, began the day with some fluentstrokes, but he is not renowned for permanency, and when he had 30 he failed to cover a ball outside off stump from Mohammad Sami and edged a catch to the keeper. This brought in Grant Flower, with Zimbabwe again keeping their best batsman Andy Flower well under cover at number five.Dion Ebrahim suffered some uncomfortable moments early in the morning, and on 24 was dropped low at third slip off Sami, but he stuck to his task and shared a valuable century partnership with Grant Flower. Runs came freely, as they did for most of the day, with Pakistan maintaining an attacking field and bowling with variable accuracy. The hundred came up in the 21st over.Once settled, Grant played with more confidence and authority than he has done for several years. He played some especially pleasing drives through the covers, and Zimbabweans will be hoping that he has finally turned the corner again. The Pakistanis were now showing increasing frustration, and the appealing reached unacceptable levels. The stand was broken soon after lunch, when Ebrahim (69) unwisely shouldered arms to a ball from Shoaib that pitched only just outside off stump, but the reserve swing brought it in to hit middle. Zimbabwe were 162 for three.Grant was to fall for the same score, and also quite unexpectedly. It was an uncharacteristically soft dismissal, the keeper holding a snick from a ball well down the leg side from Saqlain Mushtaq, who bowled for most of the day from the city (south) end. Guy Whittall only made two before he totally misread the ball that went the other way and edged Saqlain to slip, reducing Zimbabwe to 203 for five.Tatenda Taibu then played another fine, confident innings in the company ofAndy Flower, and it seems he has now found his feet with the bat in Test cricket. Starry-eyed optimists were again beginning to talk of Zimbabwe pulling off a surprise victory, which would have meant breaking the world record of 406 for four by India against West Indies in 1975/76, when umpire Venkat’s finger of doom struck again. Taibu was sent on his way, lbw for 28 to a ball from Waqar Younis swinging prodigiously down the leg side, and that, at 256 for six, was the end of Zimbabwe’s significant resistance.Blignaut recorded a first-innings fifty by hitting straight; this time hispolicy was to swing across the line, and he was lucky to make as many as 12before he miscued a sweep against Saqlain so badly as to be caught in thebackward point area. Blessing Mahwire (3) did not last long, but Raymond Price, who finished with 3 not out, hung on gallantly with Andy Flower.Flower finally fell for 66, trying to pull Shoaib and skying the ball towards midwicket, for the bowler to run round and complete the catch. He was held up by the last pair of Price and Henry Olonga for a while, and had to resort to the second new ball in the end; his second delivery bowled Olonga for five and the match was over.Saqlain took three for 98 off his 31 overs, while Shoaib returned the bestfigures of four for 75. He was involved in controversy, though; mutteringsabout the legality of his action are resurfacing, and he was twice warned bythe umpires for alleged ball-tampering.The second Test starts in Bulawayo on Friday. If Zimbabwe are to have hopes of victory, they will have to find some bowlers who can put pressure on thePakistani batsmen.

Shane Warne is on target for the record haul of wickets by an Australianin a three-Test cricket series.Warne has bagged 19 wickets in two Tests against Pakistan and, if hebowls in a similar vein in the final Test starting in Sharjah onSaturday, it will take him past Hugh Trumble’s century-old record of 26wickets in a three-Test series set against England in 1902.Warne has completely bamboozled the Pakistan batsmen so far in thisseries and there’s no reason he won’t take another bagful of wickets inthe final Test, which will send him into the Ashes series with themilestone of 500 wickets in his sights.Warne, who currently has 469 wickets, is adamant he’s bowling betterthan at any stage in his 11-year career and it’s a feeling backed up bythe figures.Since claiming his 400th wicket in his 92nd Test, Warne has taken 62wickets in his past 11 Tests.If he keeps going at his current rate of 5.5 wickets per Test, he willbecome just the second man to reach 500 wickets after West IndianCourtney Walsh during the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney.

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.

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.

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.

The teams may say otherwise but it is hard to imagine Auckland and Wellington going into their final State Championship match believing anything other than that the hosts only have to turn the key to lock the 2001/02 silverware away in their trophy cabinet.It could so easily have been otherwise. The one-off final for the four-day competition may have been dropped but the efforts of Auckland and Wellington to lift themselves clear of the rest of the field coupled with a schedule that brought the two teams together in the last round looked to be guaranteeing a de facto final.However, Central Districts put an end to that delectable scenario. In the penultimate round, Wellington failed to produce the Houdini act that had stood them in such good stead when they looked in danger of crumbling in previous matches. Having gained no points at Napier while Auckland undid Canterbury in Christchurch, the best Wellington can do now is tie the Championship, all the time knowing that those close calls – albeit winning ones – have left them with an average net runs per wicket rate far behind Auckland’s.As the hosts go into this match at Colin Maiden Park (the rugby season having already ejected cricket from Eden Park Outer Oval) with a 6.669 differential against Wellington’s 2.574, both teams can reflect that this Championship has not just been about winning but winning well. And, for Wellington to achieve a clean-sweep of the summer trophies, they will have to produce a performance of Nathan Astle proportions – and they do not come around too often.Even if the tantalising prospect of a final has in effect disappeared, both sides will be intent on proving plenty while the prospect of national call-ups adds spice to the individual contests as such aspirants Rob Nicol, Andre Adams, Brooke Walker, Matthew Bell, Chris Nevin and James Franklin look to their futures.Auckland had planned to keep the team that pulled themselves back into the match against Canterbury but the debutant Bradley Nielsen injured the webbing between his fingers and had to be replaced by Matt Cairns.The teams are:Auckland: Brooke Walker (captain), Tim McIntosh, Reece Young, Nick Horsley, Llorne Howell, Tama Canning, Rob Nicol, Andre Adams, Matt Cairns, Sanjeewa Silva, Gareth Shaw and Rob Lynch.Wellington: Matthew Bell (captain), Richard Jones, Luke Woodcock, Leighton Morgan, Grant Donaldson, Matthew Walker (subject to fitness test), James Franklin, Chris Nevin, Andrew Penn, Mark Jefferson, Jeetan Patel and Iain O’Brien.

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".

England’s return to the historic P. Saravanamuttu Stadium, 19 years after SriLanka’s inaugural Test Match, is proving to be a gainful one. Yesterdaythere was Nasser Hussain shaking off the shackles of poor form, the temperedclass of Vaughan and further confirmation of Craig White’s growing statureas a batsman. Then, today, we witnessed a disciplined bowling performance insapping heat and an encouraging signs that Robert Croft can play aninfluential role in the Test series.That is not say that England have had it all their own way in this four-daygame against a Sri Lankan board President’s XI. Indeed, the match isintriguingly poised after a gleaming century by Tillakaratne Dilshan.England eventually dismissed the Sri Lankans for 265 and will start theirsecond innings tomorrow with a lead of 64Robert Croft’s bowling figures of three for 77 from 19 overs may not havebeen his most economical performance ever and he admits that he “still needsto elimate the one bad ball an over”, but his action is looking morecomfortable with each over he bowls. For a man who, in the words of Hussain,”has spent the last four months sitting on his backside back home”, he isadapting well to Sri Lankan conditions.Having been dropped from the Test side last summer and after a public showof petulance, in which he openly considered making himself unavailable forEngland, he buckled down to work on his action with Tom Cartwright in anattempt to rediscover the form that brought him success when he first playedfor England in 1996/7.The hours spent in the Cardiff indoor nets appear to have paid off. He hasshortened his delivery stride, slowed his pace and as a result the ball isonce again dipping in the air and gripping the pitch.”I have been spinning the ball hard and there is a fair amount of variablebounce in the pitches. It’s a building process for me but I think I am goingin the right direction,” he said afterwards. He realises though that it’sgoing to far from easy against Sri Lanka’s fleet footed batsmen. “Thebatsmen in these parts of the world are very quick on their feet. You haveto vary the pace of the delivery and put fielders in different positionsbecause of some of the unconventional shots that are played.”He will never spin the ball like Muralitharan and Saqlain Mustaq, but on thebiscuit-dry surfaces of Sri Lanka he has an important role to play withAshley Giles. He took three crucial middle-order wickets today. First he hadthe gangly Michael Vandort snapped up at short leg with his very firstdelivery. Then, in his second spell, he trapped both Chamara Silva andPrassana Jayawardene lbw with successive deliveries.Croft’s double strike left the President’s XI on 143 for six and Englandwould have had high hopes of securing a sizeable first innings lead.Tillakaratne Dilshan came into this match, however, with a point to prove. Hedid little wrong in South Africa with the national side, but became thescapegoat for the top order’s failures and was dropped for the one-day squadfor New Zealand.Nevertheless, he remains the most technically accomplished batsman of SriLanka’s young crop of reserves and went a long way towards booking his berthfor the First Test Match in Galle with his hundred today. He came to thecrease at the fall of the second wicket, batted for 250 minutes in all forhis 121 and rescued an innings that could have gone into freefall.Dilshan’s footwork against the spin of Giles and Croft was simplybreathtaking. Dancers would have marvelled at the speed with which he movedinto position and the balance that he then retained for the stroke. He hitsixteen crisp boundaries in all and, a missed run out apart, hisinnings was unblemished.Take away the innings of Dilshan and the performance of the Sri Lankans wasdecidedly average. Three players – Jehan Mubarak, Michael Vandort andChamara Silva – threatened to play major innings, but all failed to go on tomake a half century. Fortunately for them, Thilan Samaraweera supportedDilshan stoically and the pair added 93 runs for the seventh wicket.A largely satisfactory day, in which the bowlers had stuck manfully to their tasks throughout, was suddenly being threatened. Then, Craig White had Samaraweera caught by a sprawling Croft at square leg and Gough, bowling with impressive speed in such draining conditions, brushed the glove of Dilshan as the right hander tried to glance down the leg side. Michael Vaughan chipped in with the wickets of Ravindra Puspakumara and Sujeewa de Silva and the Sri Lankan’s had slumped from 236 for six to 265 all out.

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.”

Brendan Taylor, the Zimbabwe captain, said a lack of match practice will not be an obstacle to success in the World Twenty20, ahead of their first match – the tournament opener against Sri Lanka in Hambantota. Zimbabwe have not played any international cricket since their tour of New Zealand in February, but Taylor said practice matches among the Zimbabwe squad and an unofficial tri-series against South Africa and Bangladesh had been adequate preparation.”I don’t think a lack of matches will hinder us,” Taylor said. “We have enough players back home to choose from and have played some competitive matches amongst us. Our training camp was really good. We had good success against South Africa and Bangladesh in an unofficial tri-series in Harare two months ago. So no excuses, we’re all in good form. Obviously a bigger stage now, and it’s time to come out and perform.”Zimbabwe defeated a South Africa XI that included Richard Levi, Hashim Amla and Lonwabo Tsotsobe among others, to win the tri-series in Harare in June. The hosts won four out of five matches in the tournament, defeating both other teams twice. However, they lost both their World Twenty20 warm up matches, going down to Ireland by 54 runs and to Bangladesh by five wickets.”It’s not ideal, but we were trying out different combinations, so we didn’t have our strongest side out there. We were outplayed by Ireland and Bangladesh, but our first game is what’s important and we’ve prepared well for that. There’re no excuses.”Taylor said that although Zimbabwe were glad to be playing Sri Lanka in a venue less familiar to the home side than the grounds in Colombo and Pallekele, the conditions would take his own side some getting used to as well.”We know Sri Lanka probably rather be at the R Premadasa Stadium or in Pallekele,” he said. “This is new for all three teams [South Africa, being the third team]. We don’t know what really to expect. We know we’re on a really big field, and with the wind blowing, and we’re not really used to that. It will make it tough to score in certain areas.””Looking at the wicket it doesn’t look like it will turn a lot. But we have three spinners who will bowl well even on wickets that don’t turn a lot. Sri Lanka will have very good spinners too, but it’s not just down to spin. You have to control 90% of the game to come out on top.”Taylor said Zimbabwe had also prepared specifically for Lasith Malinga’s bowling, and were confident of defusing the threat he posed. “We’ve talked about [Malinga] a lot. He’s a threat to anyone, really, but he’s only human. He can have a good day or a bad day. He’s someone we’ve monitored closely and tried to replicate certain aspects of his bowling in practice sessions. We’ve all faced him before so he’s not too unfamiliar.”