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In a well contested game, Gujarat defeated Saurashtra by 24 runs inthe West Zone Ranji Trophy one day match at the GSFC ground in Barodaon Friday.Put in to bat, Gujarat thanks to valuable knocks by opener AmrishKotecha (42), Kiran Damani (45) and Bhavin Mehta (38) scored 218before being all out in 49.4 overs. Wickets fell at regular intervalsthanks in the main to some good bowling by Niraj Odedra who took fourfor 50 off ten overs.Saurashtra started well and were 55 for one in the 14th over. ButLalit Patel and Tejas Varsani caused a collapse and Saurashtra were107 for six. A seventh wicket partnership of 64 runs off 11.4 oversbetween Hitesh Parsana (39) and Sudip Mehta (42) revived Saurashtra’shopes but the late order succumbed meekly and Saurashtra were all outfor 194 in 47 overs. Lalit Patel (3 for 35 off ten overs) and Varsani(2 for 26 off nine overs) caused the main damage.

Daniel Vettori, the New Zealand captain, feels Stephen Fleming may not be easily swayed out of thoughts of an early retirement. Fleming, a former captain, was tipped to quit Tests after the forthcoming tour of England but recent reports have suggested he could retire sooner, after the third Test against England in Napier next month.”If you know Stephen, he doesn’t get his arm twisted on too many things,” Vettori told the . “Stephen has always been strong in his thoughts and decisions. I don’t think it will be my place to try and twist his arm. It’s his decision. We’d love to have him as long as we can.”People at 34 or 35 start reflecting on their careers and other things they may want to do. We’ll just sit tight and wait for Stephen’s decision.”It was reported that Fleming’s decision was prompted by family reasons, with his wife expecting their second baby in June. He quit one-dayers after the World Cup last year and was relieved of the Test captaincy in September. He is also one of the contracted players of the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) set to commence in April.Though yet to confirm the retirement plans, Justin Vaughan, New Zealand Cricket’s chief executive, confirmed he was in discussions with Fleming on his future.”We all know he’s coming to the end of it,” Vaughan told the paper. “We are discussing exactly where he draws the line. Obviously he has made a fantastic contribution.”Fleming’s exit would be the latest in an exodus of senior players over the last year, with the likes Nathan Astle and Craig McMillan quitting all forms of the game. Scott Styris recently quit Tests to focus on his limited-overs career and question marks still remain over fast bowler Shane Bond’s future after signing up with the Indian Cricket League, a league not sanctioned by the ICC or cricket boards across the world. As a result, Bond lost his contract with the New Zealand board.Vettori, however, put a positive spin on things and said New Zealand only had everything to gain, with opportunities aplenty for the youngsters, echoing coach John Bracewell’s comments recently that it was time to look to the future.”And the guys who’ve come in so far, like the Jesse Ryders and Tim Southees, do give me a lot of excitement for the future,” Vettori said. “And it’s not just going to be us rebuilding all the time, we’ve actually got players who can compete at international level.”

The sight of empty stands at a limited overs match in India, played underlights, in Mumbai, thought to be the spiritual home of Indian cricket, wasa first. Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Robin Uthappa were up against each other, in coloured clothing, and apart from a few Cricket Club of India members and their enthusiastic grandchildren, one match observer, some officials and a handful ofjournalists, there was no one watching a game specifically designed todraw audiences to cricket.It was a bit of a first to see Yuvraj, arguably the best fielder in thecountry, fielding at third-man instead of his customary position at pointor cover, but then Twenty20 is different. The strokes batsmen play aredifferent, the intentions of the bowlers, their plans to take wickets, aredifferent from what you see in 50-over cricket. But what even more of afirst was someone in the pavilion yelling out to Yuvraj, asking who wasplaying. “Punjab against Karnataka,” he yelled back, “Punjab are fielding.”The matter of the show-cause notice has been declared closedby the board but Yuvraj was still wary about talking to anyone from themedia. He did, though, share a few thoughts about this new form of the game.”It is a big challenge. You have to go out there and score quickly, but,like one-day cricket, it’s not just about slogging the ball. It’s not aseasy as it looks,” said Yuvraj. “Playing here will helpus acclimatise for the Twenty20 World Championship. This is a format whereallrounders and utility cricketers will have a bigger role to play.”Barring a few of India’s big names, who’ve played domestic cricket at ahigh level in England, Twenty20 cricket is new to most. And given that this is thefirst edition of the tournament, there’s bound to be a fewstatisticians in business, recording the time somethinghas occurred in this form of the game in India.Indeed, there was a first of a different kind on April 7 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.Indian cricket saw its first bowl out when the match between Gujarat and Saurashtra ended with the scores level. For most of the players, the bowl out – where bowlers attempt to hit the stumps off a normal delivery with no batsman there toprotect them – was a new concept. You would think that men whocan swing the ball and cut it, flight it and spin it, beat batsmen withvariation and guile, should find the job of hitting unprotected stumps relatively easy. Yet it’s not so.Parthiv Patel, captain of the Gujarat team, though, had seen it before. “Iwas playing for a Combined XI in England in 2005 in a competition that had the champion Twenty20 sides from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, besides England,” said Patel, after the event. “”Itwas a rained-out encounter and had to be decided by a bowl out. Unlikeagainst Saurashtra when only five bowlers were given a go, we had 10bowlers, and we won.”Of course, the team Patel was playing for in England was a far moreaccomplished one than the Gujarat side that took the field againstSaurashtra. “My side was quite an experienced side with New Zealand’sStephen Fleming, Phil de Freitas, the former England seamer, our ownRobin Singh and Rohan Gavaskar playing.”And Patel was happy to pass on to his teammates, before the bowl out, what he had learned from his first experience. “I just toldthem not to swing the ball and to try and make things simple. It is not aseasy as it looks from outside. The pressure is high in a bowl-out,” Patelsaid.There are bound to be many more firsts, of various kinds, cricketing andotherwise, but one can only hope that this phenomenon of cricket beingplayed without television coverage or people in the stands watching, isnot a first but a last.

Daren Ganga, the victorious Trinidad & Tobago captain, has attributed the Carib Beer Series double-success to an all-round team performance. In the aftermath of a comprehensive 125-run triumph over Barbados which saw them win the Carib Beer Challenge at Guaracara Park, Ganga explained that hard work by the entire team had reaped due rewards.”I thought the Bajans played a good game, they pushed us to the limits, and we were able to come out on top,” Ganga said. “So this shows the character of our team, of Trinidad and Tobago’s team, and it just shows the way that we’ve been playing cricket throughout the entire season. And it’s justice for our hard work, coming out with a double in this competition.”Ganga also paid tribute to lower-order allrounders, Man-of-the-Match Rayad Emrit and Richard Kelly, the series’ Best Allrounder, for holding together both T&T innings at crucial times. “I think it was the allrounders that really pulled us through in this game. If you look at the performances of Richard Kelly and Rayad Emrit, you would see that they definitely helped us when we were in dire straits. It shows the depth in our batting, it shows the depth in our ability as players, and it’s just a wonderful feeling to be leading a team with such calibre as this one.”Ganga felt the turning point of the match for his team was when Emrit earned his maiden first-class hundred. “I think that was the session that really set the game up for us, a good first innings total was always going to put us in front,” he said. “I think all in all it showed we’re a team. It showed that where (there are) situations or problems somebody’s putting their hand up and coming out and delivering it for Trinidad and Tobago.”Ganga felt Barbados were worthy finalists in the way they fought during the match, but said T&T deserved the title, having played the better cricket. “They’ve pushed us to the line on several occasions, and we’ve just shown more character, more determination and more guile in terms of our strategy, in terms of our experience as a team, and we’ve come out on top.”David Williams, the former West Indies and T&T wicket-keeper and national coach, was also elated at his side’s achievements this season. “This is very special. Having one trophy in the bag and doing the double, that’s really fantastic,” Williams said. “There’s a saying “every dog is bad in his backyard”. We knew what we have here, we had home advantage, and although we did beat Barbados in Barbados, it was a pretty good wicket… we backed ourselves, and we just did it.”

Division One

TableAn impressive bowling performance secured Essex a 39-run win over Worcestershire. As Stephen Moore and Graeme Hick were adding 66 for the first wicket, Essex’s 203 for 9 did not look like being enough. However, the part-time medium-pace of Will Jefferson claimed two scalps – including Hick – while James Middlebrook weighed in with three. Earlier, Jefferson top-scored for Essex with 39, as none of the Essex batsmen could convert solid starts.Northamptonshire eased to a five-wicket win against Gloucestershire after an opening stand of 166 between Martin Love and Tim Roberts. Love remained unbeaten on 97 and guided Northants through a mini wobble as the winning line approached. Gloucestershire had been rescued from 69 for 5 by Mark Hardinges’ 63 after Ben Phillips had taken three quick wicketsMiddlesex made the most of the flat Southgate pitch to amass 314 for 5 against Nottinghamshire, enough to give them a 31-run win. Paul Weekes hit a run-a-ball 106 and Scott Styris gave the innings real momentum with 82 from 64 balls. Ed Joyce added the final flourish as his unbeaten 41 came from only 18 deliveries. Notts were forced to play their shots and lost wickets at regular intervals. Samit Patel’s 82 was entertaining but came too late to change the course of the matchHampshire cruised to a seven-wicket win against Glamorgan with more than seven over remaining. Nic Pothas gave their run chase the ideal base with an aggressive 76 and Craig McMillan guided Hampshire home in style with a rapid 49. Shaun Udal and Shane Warne had restricted Glamorgan’s innings, following a positive start from Robert Croft and Matthew Elliott. Croft top-scored with 88 but was short of support.

TableIan Ward blasted 93 from 75 balls helping Sussex power to a seven-wicket win over Durham. Chris Adams supported him with 58 from 49 balls as Sussex won with more than 15 overs to spare. Durham’s batting stuttered along as James Kirtley took four wickets. Dale Benkenstein top-scored with 57 but their total of 195 was never going to be enough on a good batting strip at Arundel.Darren Maddy made an unbeaten 107 as Leicestershire beat Warwickshire by seven wickets with eight balls to spare. He added 100 for the first with with Tom New to put Leicestershire on track. They had reduced Warwickshire to 43 for 4 and would have expected to chase less than 200, but Jonathan Trott (93 not out) and Alex Loudon (51) led a recovery for Warwickshire. Ashley Giles made a successful return to action following his hip injury, taking 1 for 44 in his nine overs.Scotland earned themselves a thrilling tie against Derbyshire when Dewald Nel scampered a single from the final ball at Derby. Dougie Lockhart’s unbeaten 88 from 98 balls enabled Scotland to recover from 55 for four, but it wasn’t quite enough to get them past the winning post. Michael di Venuto’s 112 was the mainstay of Derbyshire’s 220 for 8 and Ant Botha scored a rapid 33 towards the end of the innings.

The KwaZulu-Natal allrounders Lance Klusener and Jon Kent have both been suspended for one match for dissent. They have been barred from playing the SuperSport Series Super Six match against Border which begins on March 19, after they were found guilty of dissent during KwaZulu-Natal’s recent match against Western Province.In addition, Kent was found to have contravened rule 1.4 of the South African Board’s code of conduct, which states that “participants shall not use crude or abusive language nor make offensive gestures to any other participant, official or the spectators”.Klusener and Kent have been given the right to appeal against the sentence.

Coach Education Administrator – Edgbaston
Attractive packageThe England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is the national governing body for cricket from schools to international level. Its Performance Department is responsible for identifying and developing the most talented young cricketers in the country, and the development and implementation of the national coach education programme.Working as part of a small team at our Coach Education Office based at Warwickshire County Cricket Ground, your job will involve contact with ECB National Coaching Scheme course organisers, registration of courses and arranging despatch of course resources as well as general administrative support.You must be a `team player’ with good communication skills and a confident telephone manner, a flexible attitude and have excellent computer skills including experience of working with databases. Some accounts experience would also be an advantage.For an information pack and application form please contact Natasha Mason, ECB el: 020 74321 171. E-mail: [email protected] date for applications is 6 March 2003.ECB is fully committed to developing policies to promote equal opportunities.

England spent a frustrating day battling with disruptions and distractions to give Australia the upper hand at the end of the first day of the Second npower Test Match at Lord’s.Bad light, rain and long-standing appointments with HM The Queen all played their part in challenging the batsmen’s ability to hold their concentration and the bowlers skill in maintaining their rhythm but by the close, England were 121 for four, three of the wickets falling after 5pm.Graham Thorpe showed what England had lacked in the middle order in the last Test at Edgbaston by making an unbeaten 16 including seven scampered threes, ruling out any doubts over the fitness troubles that have kept him out of cricket for two months.The Surrey left-hander was batting with his county colleague Alec Stewart when bad light forced the players off for the last time at 6.50pm having seen another county colleague Mark Ramprakash depart five balls earlier for 14.After a comfortable start Ramprakash, who was recalled as cover for the injured Nasser Hussain and Michael Vaughan, was bowled by a superb Brett Lee inswinger which had him completely bamboozled. On his old home track, Ramprakash played confidently, helping a scratchy looking Thorpe, who had not played Test cricket since the Second Test against Pakistan, find his feet.But his loss meant Australia took the honours on a day that fell 50 overs short of a normal playing day. Had England finished day one with only Marcus Trescothick, Mark Butcher and Mike Atherton back in the pavilion, those honours would probably have gone to England who had played the fiery Australian bowlers with confidence.Trescothick was the first to go in the 12th over with the score on 33 when he was caught behind off Jason Gillespie in the only dismissal of the day which was down to poor batting rather than good bowling.An edge from Butcher gave Mark Waugh his 157th Test catch which put him at the top of the table, equal with his former Australian colleague and captain Mark Taylor. It was not one of his most spectacular catches but it was a milestone, which pegged England back on 75 for two.After being at the crease for more than two and a half hours, Atherton was leg before to Glenn McGrath offering no shot having made a typically gritty 37 though he looked at the start to be setting out his stall in the first over of the morning by pulling McGrath cheekily to the square leg boundary.There were five boundaries in his innings and England would have been in a stronger position in the morning had he been able to overcome the bad light and rain disruptions. It was the 15th time McGrath had seen off Atherton and his wicket gave him figures of 2-29 for the day. Gillespie, quick but occasional wayward, finished with 1-43

Rain foreshortened the fourth day of the five-day game between South Africa and India at Centurion on Monday, raising the possibility that this contentious match – and the 2001 tour by India – could reach a soggy finale on Tuesday. In the circumstances, it is difficult to think of a more appropriate conclusion to one of international cricket’s most unhappy episodes.When the drizzle of the early afternoon hardened into rain around tea time, India were 118 for two in their second innings. South Africa had declared before the start of play at the overnight 566 for eight, leaving the touring side to score 334 to avoid an innings defeat. Depending on the weather – and widespread rain over southern African is forecast for Tuesday – India may well save this match. How much honour is salvaged from this affair, however, is entirely another question.In all India batted for 46 overs on the fourth day. On a pitch that has flattened out nicely for batting and with the South Africans struggling to find a consistent line, Shiv Das and Connor Williams were able to build a first-wicket stand that eventually yielded 92.They were unable, however, to take it through to lunch after an extended morning session with Williams eventually falling to Lance Klusener as Jacques Kallis held a waist-high catch at second slip. Williams made 42, the chief significance of which is that he finally reached double figures on South African soil after arriving in the country ahead of the first Test a month ago.Williams was down to play in the matches against the President’s XI and a South African A team, both of which were abandoned without a ball bowled, and made 5 in the Indian first innings. That he had a bat at all in what is currently not a Test match will, no doubt, intrigue collectors of cricket trivia in the year to come.India took lunch at 104 for one and returned for 25 minutes before the first break for drizzle. The players returned after 50 minutes, played out another 11 overs – during which time Das was bowled by Shaun Pollock for 48 as the South African captain came in off five paces – and that was it for the day.For India, there was one more bit of bad news. Fast bowler Javagal Srinath, struck on the left hand while batting in the first innings, has a broken finger and will be out of action until December 6. He will miss the first Test against England in Mohali as a result.

ScorcardNeil McKenzie was composure personified as he raced the Lions to a comfortable six-wicket victory with 14 balls to spare in the Pro20 final against the Cape Cobras at the Wanderers. The Cobras were always under pressure after superb Lions bowling ensured wickets fall at regular intervals as the visitors could muster just 147 for nine after being sent in to bat.Garnett Kruger was fast and furious as he took 3 for 32, setting the tone for a brilliant effort in the field by the Lions. Alviro Petersen led a faultless catching display with four catches, including a magnificent effort to catch JP Duminy off a full-blooded pull. Tyron Henderson then came on and took two wickets in his first over as Benji Hector (17) and Henry Davids (21) tried to hit out after they had consolidated the Cobras innings with a third-wicket stand of 30.A dodgy 45 for 4 then became a decidedly bleak 70 for 6 as Friedel de Wet and Eugene Moleon picked up the wickets of Wesley Euley (7) and Warren Swan (6). Vernon Philander and Rory Kleinveldt stemmed the flow of wickets as they scored freely in their seventh-wicket stand of 40 off 34 balls, before strike bowler Kruger returned to dismiss Kleinveldt for 19 and he quickly added the wicket of Con de Lange for a duck in the same over.Philander clubbed 32 runs off the last three overs, ruining star spinner Werner Coetsee’s figures in the process, to race to 56 not out off 47 balls and at least give the Cobras a respectable if mediocre score. After Kruger’s onslaught, Henderson gave nothing away to finish with brilliant figures of two for 19 in his four overs, while Moleon bowled three tight overs for 14 runs. de Wet provided penetration with two for 36.Alan Dawson struck early for the Cobras when he caught-and-bowled the quick-scoring Lions opener Alviro Petersen for two in the first over, before McKenzie and Blake Snijman took control with their stand of 79 off 63 balls. After such a quick start, and with so many wickets in hand, victory was always going to be a formality thereafter and McKenzie’s fine knock almost ushered the Lions all the way.He fell with just two more runs needed, scoring a classy 73 off 55 balls, with eight fours and a six. Adam Bacher struck twice for the Cobras by bowling Snijman for 23 and having Henderson caught in the deep for 9, but Vaughn van Jaarsveld belted him for successive sixes to break the shackles and he had raced to 28 not out off 14 balls by the finish.Left-arm paceman Charl Willoughby served the Cobras well up front with the new ball, conceding just 19 runs in his four overs, but the Lions scored briskly against all the other bowlers.