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Pentasoft ousted Canara Bank by two wickets to enter the semifinals of the Moin-ud-Dowlah Cup in Hyderabad on Friday. With ONGC having withdrawn from the tournament, this Group D encounter was a cut throat game at the ECIL ground, both protagonists having beaten Hyderabad Districts, the only other team in the group. Brothers S Ramesh and S Mahesh were the leading participants in the Pentasoft run-chase as the Chennai based software company reached their target of 200 with seven balls to spare.In the morning session, the bankmen after being put in to bat, made 199/9. This was a palpable recovery for they had been lost four wickets for 30 at one stage, including the important scalp of Vijay Bharadwaj for 11. But the lower order applied themselves to the task of batting out the full 50 overs. Sunil Joshi (29) and Somasekhar Shiraguppi (31) commenced the rearguard action. And it was completed with gusto by Srinivas Murthy who remained undefeated on 46 (53 balls, 4 fours) and skipper Venkatesh Prasad who revealed some hitherto unrevealed flair with the bat with a run-a-ball 24. S Mahesh and S Satish both had identical figures of 2/30.In reply, Openers M Arvind and S Ramesh added 62 for the first wicket and skipper Ramesh in the company of SS Das compiled another 58 for the second. At 134/2 Pentasoft were sitting pretty but the loss of three wickets (Ramesh, Kanitkar and Jaffer Ashiq) in the space of four overs left them slightly perturbed at 139/5. Ramesh’s 59 was a quickfire effort, coming off 71 balls and inclusive of eight boundaries. Although C Raghu (4/30) kept Pentasoft on their toes, Mahesh (43 not out, 60 balls, 4 fours) retained his composure to see Pentasoft home from the last ball of the penultimate over and round off a good match for him.

ScorecardFifties from Arindam Das and Abhishek Jhunjhunwala saw Bengal close the second day at Kolkata 90 runs behind Railways’ first-innings 259. Ranadeb Bose was the star performer for Bengal earlier in the day, putting a poor season behind him by bagging a five-wicket haul that saw Railways collapse before lunch. Vineet Saxena top-scored with 65 before he fell leg before to Bose, while Yere Goud pulled his weight for a vital 47. Railways, who were relegated to the Plate Group following a draw with Maharashtra last week, have only pride to play for in this match.
ScorecardSachin Rana led Haryana’s reply to Services’ first-innings 241 with a gritty half-century before Siddharth Verma and Joginder Sharma safely negotiated the final session of play on the second day at Palam. Services, 226 for 5 overnight, were unable to add much to that total as Joginder and Rana ran through the tail following Sarabjit’s run-out for a well-made 89. Following a four-wicket haul with the ball, Rana turned in a credible showing with the bat. Coming to the wicket with Haryana on 77 for 4, Rana shouldered the responsibility of building an innings admirably. Following his dismissal, Verma and Joginder have added 58 runs for the seventh wicket and Haryana will look to the duo to extend that partnership into a sizeable innings lead tomorrow.
ScorecardDelhi, troubled by a crucial spell from Aashish Kapoor, the veteran offspinner, trail Tamil Nadu by 396 runs after Subramaniam Badrinath’s maiden double hundred allowed TN to declare it’s first innings on 481 for 6 at Chennai. Badrinath and Hemang Badani, the former TN captain, added 196 for the third wicket before Badani was dismissed by Chaitanya Nanda six short of a deserved century. Vital contributions from Dinesh Karthik, the wicketkeeper, and Sridharan Sharath aided Badrinath in his marathon innings. Delhi, at the lower half of the Elite Group A points table and with little going their way this season, have their task cut out in the two days remaining in this match.
ScorecardBaroda returned from an indifferent batting display yesterday to completely outclass Hyderabad on the second day at Vadodara, dismissing them for just 131 and then extending their lead to 244 at stumps thanks to Connor Williams’s second fifty of the match. For Hyderabad, it was a poor showing with the bat as nine wickets fell for the addition of just 103 runs. Shekhar Joshi, the medium fast bowler, and Yusuf Pathan, who got Baroda out of trouble with a vital fifty yesterday, shared seven wickets between them. Kiran Powar, who fell for a seven-ball duck in the first innings, was at the wicket unbeaten on 46.
ScorecardUttar Pradesh backed up a fighting lower-order contribution earlier in the day by restricting Andhra to 155 for 6 on the second day at Anantapur. Krishna Singh, Venugopal Rao and Ambati Rayadu all got starts but fritted away the initiative as UP’s bowlers turned in a tight spell in the second half of the day. With UP 217 for 5 at the end of yesterday’s play, Andhra would have been looking to dismiss them for under 300. However, UP’s lower order had other ideas and combined for an invaluable 148 runs in the first two sessions. Gyanendra Pandey extended his overnight score to 88 while P Kumar went on to smash a career-best 78 off 68 deliveries, complete with four sixes. D Kalyankrishna, though often bearing the brunt of the UP innings, collected figures of 5 for 105.
ScorecardFive wickets from Munaf Patel dismissed Mumbai for 175 – despite an unbeaten 78 from Ramesh Powar – as Maharashtra tightened their grip over the opposition on day two at the Wankhede Stadium. Resuming the day on 20 for 2, Mumbai were soon reeling on 47 for 6 as Patel produced a fine opening spell. Vinit Indulkar (40) and Powar resurrected much of the damage in a 94-run stand for the seventh wicket before Patel and Suyash Burkul returned to mop up the lower order. In their second innings, Maharashtra have progressed to 73 for 3 and will hope that Mansigh Nigde – unbeaten on 27 – can carry on the good work on day three.
ScorecardContrasting fifties from Hemal Watekar and Asif Makda gave Gujarat an 84-run lead earlier in the day, but Karnataka had whittled that down to just 16 by stumps at Ahmedabad. With Gujarat precariously placed at 67 for 6, Watekar was forced to put his head down and graft for 226 minutes and 164 balls for an unbeaten 64. His partner in a vital 85-run stand for the eight wicket was Makda, clubbing three sixes in a 49-ball 62, a career-best innings for the Gujarat fast bowler. Karnataka, for their part, have batted with much more composure than in their first innings, and with Robin Uthappa at the wicket as play resumes tomorrow, fireworks are never far away.

Darren Gough is preparing to play international cricket in the Caribbean for the first time in his long career, after winning a recall to England’s one-day colours for the seven-match series that follows the Tests against West Indies. Also back in the fray is Steve Harmison, England’s star bowler from the Jamaica and Trinidad Tests, who won the second spare fast-bowling slot ahead of Simon Jones.Gough was Man of the Match in his last one-day outing, the final of the 2003 NatWest Series against South Africa in July, but was controversially overlooked for the pre-Christmas trips to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He has since completed a high-profile move to Essex in a bid to relaunch his international career, and has successfully convinced the selectors that the dodgy knee that forced his retirement from Test cricket will not hamper him in one-dayers.”Darren has proved his fitness to our medical team,” said David Graveney, England’s chairman of selectors. “His inclusion will give us valuable experience and knowhow within our bowling attack. He is a proven international performer, and I’m sure that he will be relishing the prospect of his first England tour of the Caribbean.”Harmison’s inclusion follows a stunning coming-of-age in the first two Tests against West Indies, in which he has taken 16 wickets, including a record-breaking 7 for 12 in the second innings at Kingston. “Stephen has performed superbly against West Indies in the Test series,” said Graveney, “and we hope that he can carry this rich vein of form into the one-day arena.”Harmison travelled to South Africa for last year’s World Cup, but his accuracy was not able to match up to his pace and he was a peripheral member of England’s set-up. Since then, however, he has worked on his rhythm and approach to the crease, and has established such a psychological hold over the West Indian batsmen that his inclusion was virtually guaranteed. “He is an important part of our plans for the future,” added Graveney, “in both forms of the game.”England squad for one-day series
Michael Vaughan (capt), Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss, Paul Collingwood,Andrew Flintoff, Anthony McGrath, Rikki Clarke, Ashley Giles, Ian Blackwell, Chris Read (wk), Gareth Batty, Darren Gough, Stephen Harmison, James Kirtley, James Anderson.

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Venugopal Rao, who has distinguished himself for Andhra Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy, scored a fine century, and added 162 runs for the fifth wicket with Parthiv Patel as Rest of India consolidated their already considerable gains on the third day of the Irani Trophy match against Mumbai at Mohali. Rao’s 205-ball 113 left Mumbai pondering an improbably run chase over the final two days if they are to wrest back the trophy.Resuming at 84 for 2, Rest of India lost three wickets in the first session. Dinesh Mongia, one of those pushing for a place in the Indian squad, did himself no favours with a second low score in the match, caught behind off Aavishkar Salvi for just 12 (103 for 3). And fellow Test aspirant Aakash Chopra soon followed, caught and bowled by Sairaj Bahutule for 41 (126 for 4).When Joginder Sharma followed three balls later, caught by Ramesh Powar, Mumbai glimpsed an opening, but that was rudely shut in their faces as Rao and Patel dominated the second session, wearing down the bowlers. They batted on till after tea before Patel edged one from Salvi to Vinayak Mane. His 68 came from 150 balls, and having made 60 in the first innings, he is now virtually a certainty to keep his place behind the stumps for the first Test against Australia.Rao duly brought up his ninth first-class century before hitting a Powar delivery to Salvi (311 for 7), and Mumbai’s misery was complete when Zaheer Khan smacked an unbeaten 41-ball 46 in the final hour, including four big sixes. With both Zaheer and Shib Sankar Paul in excellent bowling form, Mumbai could be on a hiding to nothing tomorrow.

Abdul Razzaq will not be playing for Ireland in the C&G Trophy, even though it was announced less than three weeks ago that he had agreed terms with the Irish board.”It appears that the player has simply had a change of heart,” a spokesman for the Irish board admitted. “Everything was in place, but at the last minute, he has decided to stay in Pakistan.”We are currently examining our options as regards to a suitable replacement, and indeed, we would be hopeful of announcing a high profile signing in the next 48 hours. We have of course already signed Saqlain Mushtaq, who is a quality bowler, so it’s no secret that we are targetting a batsman/allrounder.”Ireland will need to move quickly as their C&G Trophy campaign starts on April 23 with a game against holders Hampshire.

Bob Woolmer has suggested that Ricky Ponting’s unfavourable remarks against Shoaib Akhtar might just backfire on Australia in the third Test, which starts at Sydney on January 2.Responding to Ponting’s comments that Akhtar should have shown more aggression in the Australian second innings, Woolmer told : “He [Akhtar] is the one bowler that the Australian batsmen know can decimate them by his pace. We have to remember that, and I’m happy that Ricky is stirring him up. I think it’s good.”Shoaib showed a lot of guts during the game and at a particular stage he was just shattered, basically. He bowled more than he normally does because there were so few bowlers available. He gave it his all for a little bit, and then I think he was probably just tired. To criticise Shoaib is a little bit unfair, but Ponting is entitled to his opinion.”Woolmer reckoned that Akhtar was suffering from a lack of support at the other end. “Most fast bowlers hunt in pairs and when one part of the pair is gone it’s very difficult to expect one person to shoulder everything," Woolmer said, referring to Sami’s heel injury which severely hampered him during the second innings. "That’s why I think Shoaib should develop a short run-up and generate the same sort of pace. Running in so far, you are not going to be able to come back easily unless you’re a triathlete and you have that sort of fitness. Shoaib has been working very hard on this trip, and he needs a partner.”Akhtar bowled at only around 137 kmph as Australia easily chased the 126 they needed for victory, and Ponting later questioned his half-hearted attitude, saying: "I would have been very disappointed if I was the captain and that was my bowler running in and bowling like that."Justin Langer then joined in the debate, hinting that Akhtar didn’t go full pelt in that innings: “I don’t know whether he had niggles or was still tired from the first innings or they would save him up for Sydney. But Sydney comes and the series is over.”If we had got into a similar situation we would have had a red-hot dip to make it as hard as possible for them to score 125,” Langer stated, adding, “I am not saying they did not do that, but just by looking at Shoaib’s body language, it was different to every time I had played against him. From that point of view I am really surprised.”

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The last County Championship meeting between Sussex and Warwickshire was notable for two things: a Jonathan Trott double-hundred and the reporting of James Kirtley’s action after Warwickshire had filmed his bowling from several angles.The repercussions are still being felt. Having remodelled his action, Kirtley is rehabilitating and requested not to be selected for this match. Meanwhile Trott’s love affair with the Sussex bowling continued. His ninth first-class hundred was his third against Sussex. His first came on his Warwickshire debut in 2003.Trott, who turns 25 on Saturday, is endeavouring to follow the Kevin Pietersen route to fame and fortune. Born in Cape Town, he is the owner of a British passport and, although he has played for South Africa Under-19, qualifies for England at the end of this season. He has played for Boland in South Africa and last winter won the State Medal in New Zealand after a stellar season for Otago.He celebrated his hundred by kissing the badge on his helmet, just the sort of under-stated gesture so beloved of Pietersen. But seriously, Trott has been a league above any other batsman in this match so international recognition looks like a perfectly legitimate ambition. He looks polished, confident and has a tasty cover-drive. He is believed to be a distant relative of Albert Trott, the only man to hit a ball over the Lord’s pavilion.He seems to have his public relations sorted too: his girlfriend is Abi Dollery, granddaughter of Warwickshire legend Tom Dollery and the Bears’ press officer.Trott was dropped on 56 by Mike Yardy at slip off Mushtaq Ahmed, who also had Alex Loudon missed on four in similar circumstances. The unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 127 between Trott and Loudon put Warwickshire in the ascendancy. Their fourth-wicket partnership of 134 in 45 overs took Warwickshire to within seven runs of Sussex’s first-innings total before Loudon gloved an attempted hook off Luke Wright after completed a hard-earned fifty off 114 balls. Trott followed soon after for 109 to balance the books somewhat.Loudon’s innings started scratchily and he should have been run out on nought. But he stuck at it and the manner of his dismissal was out of keeping with a dogged innings. After a hundred for MCC in the season opener against Nottinghamshire, Loudon continues to show that he is a multi-faceted cricketer of some substance.While Ashley Giles continues to ail, England fret over the balance of the side. Loudon is not an immediate solution but middle-order runs will count highly on Duncan Fletcher’s scorecard.Sussex’s seam attack looks a bit light without Kirtley and it is a bit much to expect Mushy to bowl sides out in April. Wright bowled a sharp spell at the end of the day and started to reverse-swing the old ball. Duncan Spencer, though, bowled only four overs all day for 27. It was a disappointing sequel to the previous evening when he took a wicket in his third over after a 12-year absence from first-class cricket. Clearly Hans Christian Andersen had saved all his fairytales for Freddie Klokker.

Having saved the St Lucia Test with his marvellous 120, Brian Lara told the press after the fifth day’s play that he had been inspired by the Soca Warriors. Rahul Dravid, meanwhile, admitted that luck had gone against his side, with a day rained out, but said that he was happy that they’d excelled in whatever was in their hands.Listen in!Brian Lara’s press conference
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Streaming Audio: Real :: WMARahul Dravid’s press conference
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Australia’s fast-bowling line-up will be able to bounce back at the World Cup despite a lack of experience in the Caribbean, according to Jason Gillespie. None of Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Shaun Tait, Mitchell Johnson and Shane Watson have played international matches in the West Indies, leaving Glenn McGrath as Australia’s only frontline bowler with local knowledge.Gillespie, who has 28 Test wickets at 21.21 and six ODI dismissals from two Caribbean tours, said variation was the key to successful pace bowling in the West Indies. He said Shaun Tait could be seriously destructive on the Caribbean pitches.”On the tours I’ve been on, I’ve found the wickets to be reasonably similar to those on the sub-continent,” Gillespie told . “The outfields are fast and the wickets are low and slow. The guys have to hit the track hard and be patient.”They will have to make sure their line and length is right on the money and they need to hit their change-ups – the yorkers and slower balls. It will all come down to execution. I think Shaun Tait can be a revelation over there. Anyone who bowls 160kph will be a danger in the West Indies. You have to bowl Tait early. He may be a bit erratic but I’ll take that if he’s taking 3 for 55, rather than 1 for 40.”Gillespie said the popular view that Australia were losing their ability to defend big scores and nail their yorkers at crucial times was unfair. “The criticism of the bowlers has been overstated,” he said. “To suggest they’ve lost their aura of invincibility is a load of crap.”I know they will do well in the Caribbean. I don’t think their [inexperience] is a concern. The guys going over there have a bit of first-class and international experience. At the end of the day, you have to get experience in different countries at some stage and they may as well get it now.”Andy Bichel, who helped Australia win the World Cup in 2003, said Ricky Ponting must be prepared to use variety in his attack. “The team that has the most flexibility in their line-up will win the World Cup,” Bichel said. “The one-day wickets in the Caribbean can be a bit uneven, the grounds are small and the bowlers will face some pretty hostile crowds as well.”As the tournament goes on, the wickets will get lower and slower so Ricky needs to consider bowling blokes like Michael Clarke and keep other teams guessing. If Ricky is flexible, I know we have the skill and character to win it.”

A statement issued by Clive Field, chief executive of the Zimbabwe Professional Cricketers’ AssociationDespite a number of recent attempts to find a way forward with ZC regarding the various issues outstanding in the negotiations between ZPCA and ZC, I have not been able to provide ZPCA with any progress.ZPCA have thus instructed me to issue the following public statement on their behalf:1. ZPCA fail to comprehend how ZC can close its offices early and at short notice for its annual shutdown, when important operational issues still remain outstanding between ZPCA and ZC. To recap briefly on these:Contractual issues