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Lions 165 for 6 (McKenzie 35) beat Dolphins 164 for 4 (H Amla 56, Pollock 44, Bacher 3-14) by 4 wickets
ScorecardSome poor cricket from the Dolphins at Kingsmead in Durban allowed theLions to snatch a last-ball win and top the Pro20 Series table. Set to make 165, the Lions struggled upto a point where 54 were required in four overs. Two wayward bouncers from Lance Klusener decided the fate of the game. It was an unexpected mistake from an experienced campaigner.After scoring 80 runs in nine overs, the Dolphins threw away a golden opportunity to post a large total and finished on 164 for 4. Hashim Amla (56 off 39) and Kylie Smit (27 off 24) gave the Dolphins the platform to launch from with only Shaun Pollock taking advantage as he smashed 44 off 22 balls. Ahmed Amla managed 24 off 26 while Klusener could only score six as the Dolphins limped through the final five overs. Then David Terbrugge, Garnett Kruger and Adam Bacher pulled it back for the Lions, with Bacher finishing with the amazing figures of 3 for 14 in his four overs.Bacher and Matthew Harris gave the Lions a steady start after some tightbowling from Klusener and Russell Symcox. Neil McKenzie then struck 35 off 31 as the Lions clawed back into the game, leaving it to Marthinus Otto (30 off 14) to see the Lions home off the last ball of the innings.

Thilan Samaraweera, whose century rescued Sri Lanka from a dicey 99 for 6, said the key to securing a win in the second Test at the Queen’s Park Oval would be how the visitors utilise the new ball.”The pitch is still allowing the bowlers to seam the ball around, and the bounce is up and down,” he said. “If we can get two or three wickets with the new ball, we can put some pressure on them, since we have a world-class spin bowler (in Muttiah Muralitharan). Chris Gayle was getting the ball to turn a little bit, but the new ball will be the key.”Samaraweera’s 138-run partnership with Chaminda Vaas for the seventh wicket left West Indies chasing a challenging 253 for victory. “My approach when I went in to bat was to play as straight as possible,” he said. “I played a bad shot in the first innings – a ‘nothing shot’ – and found playing straight and playing off the front foot was the key.”My strategy was to bat through the innings, but I think Chaminda (45) helped a lot since he was batting so well at the other end. When I came to the crease, we were 32 for 3 and I felt that we could still get a good score since Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chamara Silva, and Vaas were still to come.”Besides shoring up Sri Lanka’s fortunes, his sixth Test century is also likely to guarantee him an extended run in the side. “This innings is important for me, since there is a lot of Test cricket coming for us this year – we have about six Tests remaining – and I feel strongly that I can establish myself in the side again,” he said. “I have a key role to play in the side. I have to play among a host of stroke-players, and I can play the long, patient innings which I did a few years ago when we were in a similar situation and I scored a hundred against Pakistan.”I also thought this innings was crucial because I had set myself the goal in this series to take the pressure off Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, since they have been tremendous for Sri Lanka over the last three or four years.”Looking ahead to the fourth day’s play, and a possible series win, he said: “We want to create history by becoming the first Sri Lanka team to win a Test series in the Caribbean, and whitewash West Indies in a series at home for the first time in their history.”

Bangladesh have picked three uncapped players in their 16-man squad for the upcoming tour of England. Habibul Bashar has been retained as captain for the tour, in which they will play two Tests before competing in the one-day NatWest Series against England and Australia.Shahadat Hossain, the fast bowler, Shahriar Nafees Ahmed, a middle-order batsman, and Mushfiqur Rahim, the reserve wicketkeeper, were the three new players picked. The rest of the squad was on expected lines, with Mohammad Rafique and Enamul Haque junior picked as the main spinners.The naming of the squad came a day after Dav Whatmore signed a new deal that extended his contract by another two years, up to the 2007 World Cup. Faruque Ahmed, the chief selector, felt that Whatmore’s experiences with coaching Lancashire will hold the team in good stead during the trip: “The tour will be a tough experience for our boys because of the completely different conditions in England,” Ahmed told the Sky Sports website. “But we are now spirited by having our coach for another two years.”Bangladesh squad
Nafis Iqbal, Javed Omar, Habibul Bashar (capt), Mohammad Ashraful, Rajin Saleh, Aftab Ahmed, Khaled Mashud (wk), Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Shahriar Nafees Ahmed, Mohammad Rafique, Enamul Haque jr, Mashrafe bin Mortaza, Tapash Baisya, Anwar Hossain, Talha Zubair, Shahadat Hossain.

Adam Gilchrist’s retirement from international cricket will be short-lived after he confirmed he would appear in the Indian Premier League in India during April. Gilchrist will step down from Australian duties in March, but will be back in action for the lucrative Twenty20 series.”I’m signed up like most of our players have,” he said. “I see that as an amazing entertainment package.”Eleven players contracted to Cricket Australia have IPL deals, but the Test team is due to be in Pakistan when the tournament begins. The crowded schedule no longer bothers Gilchrist and he will be free to take part alongside Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, his fellow retirees.The new format has grown on Gilchrist, who was a reluctant Twenty20 participant when it was first played internationally four years ago. “I was a bit of a traditionalist,” he said, “and wasn’t so sure about this short version of the game.”But over time, and having played more of it and seen the way it works, I’ve realised it’s an important part of the cricket structure now. It is entertainment and I feel like I’ve tried to be entertaining all through my career, but I’ve done the real serious hard yards and enjoyed that and loved all the sweat and the tears and the laughter.”While the huge sums of money being reported will add to Gilchrist’s retirement package, he is also excited to be involved in the innovative concept. “I hear guys talk about World Series Cricket and how exciting it was to be a part of that,” he said. “I see this IPL situation being very similar to that. Who knows where it could grow to? To be part of that founding group would be a huge thrill.”

Scorecard

Western Province-Boland claimed victory in the final match in the preminary stages of Standard Bank Cup after winning the toss and batting against the Titans at Newlands. But it wasn’t enough for them to progess any further in the competition.Herschelle Gibbs, who had been recalled into the national team and hadn’t played any competitive cricket since early November due to a finger injury, lasted just five balls before he was trapped leg-before for 4. Andrew Puttick’s woeful season continued when he was caught in the slips for 16. Derrin Bassage and JP Duminy then put on an 82-run partnership with Bassage falling two short of back-to-back fifties. Duminy and Ashwell Prince continued the recovery with a 101-run partnership for Western Province Boland to end on 219 for 3 with Duminy scoring 85 and Prince 55.The Titans’ chase never got the impetus that it needed, with both openers out inside the first 10 overs. Martin van Jaarsveld struggled to 20 before Daryll Cullinan and Gerald Dros put on 86 for the fourth wicket. Cullinan was run out for 47, three balls after Alviro Petersen came out as a runner for him, and Dros fell for 41 off the very next ball flashing at a one outside the off. Albie Morkel smashed a six before top-edging to third man for 8.With the game well out of reach, Kruger van Wyk (34 not out) and Alfonso Thomas (27 not out) decided to block out the final overs, taking the Titans to 205 for 6 and a second spot in the table. Despite the win, Western Province finished at the bottom of the pile at the end of the preliminary stages of the Standard Bank Cup.The semi-finals, which will take place in February, are both day-night games. Eagles and Lions play each at Bloemfontein on the 17 Febrauary, and two days later Titans take Dolphins at Centurion. The final will be played at the homeground of whichever finalist finished with the most points in the preliminary stages.Franchises now have a Christmas break before the recess before SuperSport Series, the four-day competition, resumes on January 6.

Tino Best has been recalled to the West Indian squad for the second Test against Pakistan at Kingston, as a replacement for his fellow Barbadian Fidel Edwards, who suffered a strained hamstring during their 276-run victory in the first match at Bridgetown.Best is the only change to the side that ended West Indies’ run of 10 defeats out of 12 in all forms of the game this season. Edwards will be sidelined for at least ten days, but Ian Bradshaw has fully recovered from the viral infection which ruled him out of the first match. Dwayne Bravo, meanwhile, is undergoing treatment on an ankle injury.West Indies’ convenor of selectors, Joey Carew said he was “very elated” about the first-Test victory and hoped that it was a sign of better things to come. “The team played hard and got the rewards for their efforts,” he said. “I agree with coach that a lot of work still has to be done but there is a little light at the end of the tunnel.”West Indies squad Chris Gayle, Devon Smith, Wavell Hinds, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul (capt), Dwayne Bravo, Courtney Browne (wk), Corey Collymore, Daren Powell, Reon King, Ian Bradshaw, Tino Best.

Dinanath Ramnarine, the head of the West Indies Players Association (WIPA), maintained yesterday that money was not an issue in senior players rejecting contracts from the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and opting out of the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka.However, Roger Brathwaite, the WICB chief executive, insisted that it was.The two spoke on the ongoing impasse between the two bodies on BBC’s Test Match Special broadcast during the NatWest Series final between England and Australia at Lord’s. Ramnarine noted that the WIPA presented “a verbal figure” of US$200,000 as the sponsorship fee that covers players’ commitments such as appearing at the official sponsor’s functions, wearing the appropriate gear and signing bats and team sheets.”We moved to US$150,000 and moved again to US$125,000 but we never agreed that was what our final figure would be,” he said. “We were in negotiating mood and that is how you negotiate.”I want to make it absolutely clear that money for going on this tour was not the issue,” Ramnarine told interviewer Jonathan Agnew. “We were prepared to negotiate but we got a response in respect of the money value (for the sponsorship fee) from the board at 7.40 pm Thursday after we had already been informed at 2 p.m. that a new team would be picked, “he continued. “I want to make it absolutely clear that money for going on this tour was not the issue because there are far more important issues.”He charged that while the WIPA wanted all issues, including the WICB’s sponsorship agreement to go to arbitration before Justice Adrian Saunders, the WICB was seeking “very narrow terms of reference”. Brathwaite said he was “surprised” to hear Ramnarine say that money was not “at the heart of the issue.””Certainly if money was not an issue, the original team would have been in Sri Lanka,” he said. He repeated the WICB’s earlier position that, with a deficit of US$6 million budgeted for the year leading to an overall end of year deficit of US$17 to $18 million, it was “just not able to afford” what WIPA was seeking. Its offer was US$50,000. Asked whether, even at this late stage, the matter could be resolved so that the original, full strength team would make the tour, Brathwaite replied: “I never rule out anything. I’m the eternal optimist and I will keep on trying, based on the guidelines given by my board.”But, he acknowledged, the board had made a decision that the team on its way to Sri Lanka would be the one to play the two Tests and in the triangular one-day series also involving India.

Steve Harmison, the England fast bowler, has struck back at Geoff Boycott after the former opening batsman had launched a scathing attack at him in a column for .Boycott had virtually written off Harmison after his poor display in the first Test against New Zealand in Hamilton, urging the selectors not to give him a central contract. “Since the Ashes series of 2005 he has been poor, indifferent to bad. He’s not got enough wickets and been given so many chances,” Boycott wrote in his column. “There comes a point when the public and selectors get fed up and disillusioned with a guy not delivering. That time has come. If he gets a central contract this summer over some of the new kids, or any sort of central contract, then a lot of us will be screaming: favouritism and a total waste of money. England should forget him.”Harmison’s reply was equally cutting. In his column for , Harmison wrote: “No one can dispute the man could bat but over the years he has developed an equally well deserved reputation as someone who thrives on kicking a man when he is down … Enough is enough. His remarks about me this week have gone beyond what is acceptable and it is time someone stood up to him and told him so.”People who only have a passing interest in the game hear the famous Geoff Boycott Yorkshire accent and may think it gives some status to his opinions. But inside the dressing room he has no status, he is just an accent, some sort of caricature of a professional Yorkshireman.”Harmison went on to add that a couple of batsmen currently in the England team didn’t have a high opinion of Boycott either. “Their shared experience was that when things weren’t going well for them all they heard from Boycott was him nailing them in the newspapers or on radio or TV, then, if they made a century or played well, he would come up to them full of compliments and try to ingratiate himself with them. I’m not the only England player who has been forced to take it in the neck from Boycott and I won’t be the last.”Harmison also took a dig at Boycott for his comments on Australian fast bowler Shaun Tait’s decision to take a break from the game due to exhaustion. Boycott had said Tait’s decision had “lacked character”.”I wonder what Australia’s Shaun Tait thought recently, when, after announcing he was taking an indefinite break from the game due to physical and emotional exhaustion, Boycott reacted by claiming he should have shown more desire to work through his problems,” Harmison wrote. “You get the feeling that Boycott is an insecure man who needs to be heard.”As a parting shot, Harmison had this to say to Boycott: “You say that if England give me another central contract come October that would be waste of money. To me, you are a waste of space.”

Australia suffered a double injury blow today with Shaun Tait and Brad Hogg ruled out of the Super Series. Tait is expected to miss at least three months with a right-shoulder problem while Hogg suffered torn left-knee cartilage at training yesterday.Stuart Clark, the New South Wales bowler who was twice on standby during the Ashes series, will step in for Tait during the one-day series and Cameron White, the Victoria legspinner, replaces Hogg. Tait experienced pain while bowling for his Adelaide club side Sturt on Saturday and again during training this morning.A Cricket Australia spokesman said diagnostic scans and a review by the specialist Greg Hoy showed Tait had torn cartilage and he was expected to undergo surgery later in the week. “Cricket Australia’s medical staff anticipate that he will be sidelined for a minimum of three months,” the spokesman said.The injury is a severe blow for Tait after he performed solidly in two Tests during the Ashes series and was in line for a limited-overs debut at the Telstra Dome in Melbourne this week. He will have to recover ahead of schedule to play a Test this summer and will probably look to the South Africa tour in March for an international recall.Hogg, who is expected to miss between three and six weeks, was also disappointed to pull out of the three ODIs and will have surgery tomorrow. “I will get back to Perth tonight and get straight on the operating table tomorrow lunch-time,” Hogg told at the official tournament launch today. “It’s disappointing, but that’s the way it goes. I may never have an opportunity like this again, to be a part of such a prestigious event.”Errol Alcott, the Australia physiotherapist, said Hogg was in pain after a training session on Sunday. “MRI scans taken earlier today have revealed the cartilage tear,” he said, “but we are confident that with the correct surgery he will make a full recovery.”Ricky Ponting said White was likely to come into the team for the first of the three matches on Wednesday. “There’s a good opportunity for an up-and-coming legspinner to get a chance to play some cricket for Australia,” he said. “With a negative there always comes a positive, so that’s the positive side to it.”White, 22, knows the Australian set-up after touring India in 2004, and he picked up the wickets of Shahid Afridi and Chris Gayle in the World XI’s warm-up against Victoria on Sunday. He has played 39 first-class games for Victoria, who he has captained since 2003-04, and 38 domestic limited-overs matches.

James Sutherland, the chief executive of Cricket Australia, has said that he will call Ricky Ponting to hear his perspective of the incident that resulted in him being fined 25% of his match fee during the second Test against Bangladesh at Chittagong.Ponting was found guilty of dissent after the Bangladesh team management complained about his behaviour during the appeal made against Aftab ahmed in the first innings.”I wasn’t there so I haven’t got any context out of what I have seen on TV and read in the newspapers and I want to get Ricky’s perspective on that,” Sutherland told the . ” I am also concerned that an incident like this has occurred. He has been reported, albeit the report has been made by the Bangladesh team, but the ICC match referee has heard the case and found him guilty. I do know that Ricky is absolutely committed to the spirit of cricket and I do know that, generally speaking, the Australian team does get it right.”Responding to criticism over Australia’s demanding playing schedule contributing to their below-par performance in the first Test at Fatullah, Sutherland felt that the right amount of matches were being played. He said that the programme was worked out with the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA), the players’ representative body.”The reality is, in consultation with team management and the ACA, it was decided the appropriate course of action was to go from South Africa to Bangladesh without a tour match in between or any sort of a break. They wanted to get straight into it. They felt that they were in Test match mode and the appropriate course of action was to go straight there and get home sooner rather than later so they could enjoy a break – or go to county cricket.”