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The playing return of XXXX Queensland Bulls pace bowler Adam Dale hasbeen postponed until next month.Dale has withdrawn from the Queensland Academy of Sport squad that willcontest the Australian Institutes Challenge in Darwin next week,electing to delay his comeback until the first round of Brisbane one-dayclub cricket in September.XXXX Queensland Bulls coach Terry Oliver said the decision was purelyprecautionary.”When we had a good look at his overall rehabilitation schedule andwhere he was at the moment, we felt it was better to be safe rather thansorry, even though the coaching staff has been very pleased with hisprogress,” Oliver said.Dale underwent major surgery to his right shoulder in November last yearafter playing the first Pura Cup match for Queensland.Rookie Sandgate-Redcliffe pace bowler Nathan Rimmington has replacedDale for the Darwin tournament, one of three changes to the originalsquad selected.Sunshine Coast batsman Aaron Maynard has replaced spinner Scott O’Leary(hamstring) while Bulls rookie-contracted paceman Steve Magoffin (backsoreness) has also withdrawn.The QAS squad will have 13 players rather than the 14 originallyselected.Queensland Academy of Sport team: Chris Simpson (c), Duncan Betts, LukeDavis, Ben Edmondson, Cameron Glass, Chris Hartley, Nick Kruger, AaronMaynard, Daniel Payne, Matthew Petrie, Craig Philipson, Peter Reimers,Nathan Rimmington. Coach: Richard Done.

WESTERN Australian cricket selectors, in conjunction with the Australian Cricket Board, today confirmed the ACB Chairman’s XI to play England at Lilac Hill next Tuesday.The match officially launches England’s Orange Test series tour of Australia for the 2002-2003 season.Former Test stars Kim Hughes, David Hookes and Wayne Clark have accepted invitations to play.The team is:Ryan Campbell, Michael Clark, Kade Harvey, Brad Hogg, Michael Hussey, Scott Meuleman, Matthew Nicholson, Marcus North, Callum Thorp, Paul Wilson, Kim Hughes, David Hookes and Wayne Clark.A captain and vice-captain for the team will be named before the match.Former Test bowler Paul Wilson, 30, and Callum Thorp, 27, will be making their first appearances with a representative team since joining the Western Warriors senior squad.Wilson moved from South Australia for the new season. Thorp has been a prolific wicket-taker on the WACA club scene for several seasons.

Wide-brim sunhat wearer of the dayThere were plenty of Shreks, Green Giants and lifeguards paradingunselfconsciously around Trent Bridge today, but one of the fewsunhats was found on Michael Vaughan’s head. In fact, curiously, evenwith all the rain and gloomy conditions to have blighted this series,Vaughan has worn a hat throughout while his team-mates don thestandard England caps. It was easy, therefore, to spot him lurking atthe unlikely position of deep backward point towards the end of play,his fielding orders falling on deaf ears.Bowling change of the day
Ten overs into a day which was delayed by gloom, the spotlight waswell and truly on James Anderson. With six wickets to his name, therewas the enticing prospect that he might become only the third bowlerin history to take all ten in an innings. Unfortunately, his radar wasfor the most part lacking, as was Ryan Sidebottom’s at the other end.Into the attack strode Stuart Broad and, with his third ball, sent onea little wider of the off stump to lure Kyle Mills into slapping himstraight to Kevin Pietersen at backward point. Two balls later, Broadfound one to move off the seam to Iain O’Brien, knocking over his offstump – a delivery that would have accounted for far more accomplishedbatsmen – to complete a superb double-wicket maiden and, soon after,New Zealand were dismissed for 123 and forced to follow on.Tough chance of the dayBroad’s first ball in New Zealand’s second innings was wide yetspooned by How off a thick outside edge. Paul Collingwood leaptspectacularly high at second slip, somehow getting a hand on it, butnot enough of a hand. It was reminiscent of his gravity-defying leapat backward point to pluck a scorching Matthew Hayden drive, duringthe one-day series prior to the 2005 Ashes. Collingwood had anotherhalf-chance at second slip towards the end of New Zealand’s firstinnings when Gareth Hopkins edged Anderson just short.Snorter of the dayWhile Anderson and Sidebottom both struggled with theirlines, Broad rarely strayed from a probing off-stump line, anda length which had batsman unsure whether to lunge forward or creepbackwards. He saved his best for Brendon McCullum, though, the ball rearing upoff a length and leaving the batsman’s fishy waft outside the offstump. All of England begged Darrell Hair to raise his finger but theAustralian refused to oblige. In fact, Hair has been very much anot-outer since his return to top-flight umpiring in the second Testat Old Trafford, and has again officiated withShowmanship of the dayAt 33 for 2, out strode Ross Taylor to join McCullum – NewZealand’s two star batsmen. After stepping over the boundary rope, hemarched to the crease by shadowing a lofted drive, playing a savagepull and flashing several apparently wide balls through the covers.New Zealand were in dire straits, still trailing England by 208, butTaylor is no shrinking violet, even before reaching the crease. It wasa brief but entertaining insight into the mind of New Zealand’s youngdazzler who soon departed for an undazzling 14.Lucky misjudgement of the dayNew Zealand had slipped to 58 for 3. Only McCullum stood in England’sway, but a near-fatal misjudgement almost cost him his wicket on 20.Facing Anderson and expecting an outswinger, the bowler produced a bigindipper to which McCullum shouldered arms. The slips barely botheredappealing, racing forward in anticipatory expectation of Steve Bucknorraising his finger. Famously slow to lift his right arm, the playersand crowd waited and waited, while McCullum shuffled nervously withhis bat under his arm. But Bucknor remained unmoved, and New Zealandcontinued to defy England’s attack.

A three-run win over Easton & Martyr Worthy has given Bashley (Rydal) a place in tomorrow evening’s (TUE) Southern Electric Contracting Cup semi-final.They play BAT Sports at Southern Gardens, 6pm.But it was a close run thing for Bashley, who recovered from losing Luke Ronchi for a duck by reaching 94 all out (Andy Sexton 24).Shaun Green hit 37 not out for Easton, who suffered three run outs before needing eight runs off the last two balls of the game.They hit the penultimate ball for a boundary, but managed only one run off the last ball to finish at 91-7.Burridge visit Rowledge in a twice-postponed quarter-final, also tomorrow evening.The winners are away to South Wilts in the semi-finals.

An intriguing battle looms when PIA clash with Habib Bank Limited (HBL) in the final of the National One-day Cricket Championship at Gaddafi Stadium here Thursday.The day-night fixture pits together no less than eight of the nine members of Sharjah-bound Pakistan squad.The odd man out is PIA’s Yousuf Youhana. The Test right-hander is nursing a groin injury. There are also doubts on the participation of opener Ghulam Ali. Ghulam injured his hand while attempting to catch Imran Khan Tuesday. Initial reports said Ghulam had a hairline fracture.PIA and HBL scored contrasting victories in their respective semifinals against National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and Wapda Tuesday night to set up a repeat of their Group-I final round tie. Last Thursday, HBL were comfortable winners over a depleted PIA side, who were without seven key players.HBL, who trounced Wapda by 139 runs in the Karachi semifinal, have been national one-day champions on eight previous occasions.Shahid Afridi, the explosive one-day specialist, and the in-form Taufiq Umer make a formidable opening pair who tore apart Wapda’s feeble attack Tuesday in spectacular fashion by scoring 90 and 86 respectively. Their stand was worth 153 off 129 deliveries. But they will expect a stern test against PIA’s equally formidable pace trio of Wasim Akram, Azhar Mahmood and Abdul Razzaq, backed up by spinners Saqlain Mushtaq, Shoaib Malik and Asif Mujtaba.It was the PIA’s bowlers who tilted the semifinal against NBP in their favour. The seven-time champions won by nine runs after taking the last seven wickets for 44 runs.The match, which begins at 2:30pm, brings down curtains on a hectic domestic season which began as long ago as Sept last year.The winners will be richer by a cash award of Rs 100,000 while the runners-up get Rs 50,000.Teams (from):PIA: Moin Khan (captain), Ghulam Ali, Faisal Iqbal, Yasir Hameed, Asif Mujtaba, Abdul Razzaq, Azhar Mahmood, Shoaib Malik, Wasim Akram, Saqlain Mushtaq, Fazle Akbar, Sohail Jaffar, Mahmood Hamid, Nadeem Khan.HBL: Ijaz Ahmed (captain), Taufiq Umer, Shahid Afridi, Saleem Elahi, Imran Farhat, Younis Khan, Atiq-uz-Zaman, Abdul Rehman, Sajid Shah, Kabir Khan, Danish Kaneria, Hasan Raza, Farhan Adil, Shahid Nazir, Irfan Fazil.Umpires: Salim Badar and Mian Aslam.Match referee: Sultan Rana.

The chances of Sri Lanka’s spin wizard, Muttiah Muralitharan, being fit for the second Test against England at Edgbaston appear to be diminishing by the day.Although Murali turned his right arm on the outfield at Cardiff, where SriLanka are playingtheir tour match against Glamorgan, his action is still restricted by the injury to his left shoulder.Team manager Chandra Schaafter does not expect Muralitharan to be ready forEdgbaston, but still hopes he might be fit for the third Test at Old Trafford.”It seems very unlikely he will play in the second Test and we are only hoping he can play in the third,” he said.”There is nothing yet to indicate he will and nothing to indicate he won’t. It is just a matter of how quickly he gets back into shape.”Sri Lanka are also awaiting video evidence from the ICC of the suspect bowling action of their left-arm paceman Ruchira Perera, who was reported by the umpires after the drawn first Test at Lord’s.Perera, 25, is not playing in the current match. “We are waiting for the video tapes to arrive,” Schaafter said.”I have been promised them tomorrow or the day after by the ICC and after weget them we will start to work on what we see.”This problem never came up before. He has played seven Test matches and there has never been a hint of anything like this. It came as a big surprise toeveryone.”

Another day of the Pura Cup match between Tasmania and Victoria, another bizarre turn of events here at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart.It was novel enough that Tasmania secured its first outright win – by six wickets and with fifteen deliveries to spare – in more than a year and successfully pursued a fourth innings total in excess of 200 for the first time in more than three years. But drama and tension pervaded matters as well, the Victorians leaving the ground with their heads still spinning about a pair of incidents which they felt cost them their own chance to win.In the end, it was another day to savour for star Tasmanian opener Jamie Cox (139*). On a tense afternoon, his coolness under pressure was the difference between the teams and the rock around which the possibility of any kind of batting collapse from the home team was averted. After a slow start to the day – the Tasmanians conceded as many as forty-four runs to the last wicket pairing of Paul Reiffel (70) and Mathew Inness (3*) and then lost opener Dene Hills (2) early in the run chase – Cox joined with Michael DiVenuto (60), Daniel Marsh (35) and Shaun Young (29*) to see his team home.The innings also brought Cox the reward of 1000 first-class runs for the summer, a fact which surely can’t be lost on the Australian selectors as they weigh up the contenders for Ashes spots this winter.Having failed to score less than 860 runs in each of his last five Australian first-class seasons in a team which has often been struggling – and having added into the mix two fine seasons as captain of English county side Somerset – there is surely simply no more that the Tasmanian skipper can do to prove he is ready for a tour with the national team.”It’s quite a special one,” said Cox of the 1000 run milestone.”It’s my goal every year and it’s nice to get there again.”Of the victory itself, Cox said that the team could take several positives away from it.”It’s too little too late but it’s still nice to get wins at this time of year. Hopefully, we can crawl our way up the table a bit now.””The most satisfying thing is that we’ve finally remembered how to win again. It’s been a testing year. We played some horrible cricket in the middle of it – good at the start, horrible in the middle – and hopefully we can finish off with a bang and salvage something.”But, where Cox and Tasmania walked away rightfully satisfied with the result, their opponents walked away probably as nonplussed as at any time during a spell of unsatisfying first-class results in Tasmania that extends all the way back to 1981.In the wake of the Tasmanians’ heady display, the Victorians were left to rue the impact of what they had felt to be two highly dubious umpiring decisions. Both incidents provoked rancour from the visitors on the field and threatened to spill over into ugly scenes. Aware that they might have represented the difference between defeat and a four point lead at the head of the competition standings, the Bushrangers were seething by late afternoon.The denial, by Umpire Gus Jones, of a caught and bowled chance against Marsh, as Brad Hodge (1/39) ran and tumbled athletically to his right, raised the considerable ire of the Victorians. Marsh’s score was on 20 and the total at 3/176 (as the locals chased a target of 286 off a minimum eighty-three overs to win) as he pushed forward to a Hodge off break and ballooned the ball – exclusively off pad in Jones’ estimation – back toward the bowler.Tempers then verged close to boiling point when Umpire John Smeaton ruled invalid a beseeching leg side stumping appeal to him from wicketkeeper Darren Berry on the grounds that the Victorian gloveman had taken the ball in front of the stumps. The visitors weren’t only livid with that decision though: they believed that the delivery from Matthew Mott (0/38) had been edged by Cox (on 114 at the time) on its way into Berry’s gloves in the first place and later claimed that their appeal was for caught behind.Captain Reiffel and several of his players appeared to be spoken to by both umpires on a number of occasions throughout the remainder of the afternoon. Given that Michael Lewis had also squandered a half-chance to run Cox out early in his innings and that Michael Klinger and Matthew Elliott had missed catches with his score at 91 and 117 respectively, the Victorian skipper confirmed that his team’s sense of frustration hadn’t diminished by the end of the day.”Confusion, I think, is the word,” commented Reiffel. “I’m not allowed to comment on umpires but we certainly were confused.””The umpire at square leg said that the ‘keeper took it in front of the stumps. But if he (Cox) had hit it, then it doesn’t matter,” he said of the judgement that his opposite number had neither been stumped nor caught by Berry.”The umpire (at the bowler’s end) said he couldn’t give it out because it was a no-ball and so I said ‘Hang on, how does that work?'”, he added.Just to complicate matters, Reiffel said that Umpire Jones had indicated that he thought the ball had been edged. Cox, for his part, strenuously denied that he had hit the delivery.Had the ball been edged, then Smeaton’s decision about the placement of Berry’s gloves would have been irrelevant.”I thought the umpires might have (wanted to) discuss it. I’ve let them know my opinion on it.”In the end, it was a remarkable day’s cricket but one that took us no closer to establishing which two teams will play in the Final of this competition nor in which city.Tasmania’s win, while heartily welcome in a state starved of first-class successes over recent years, has little impact on the complexion of the Pura Cup standings. The Tigers remain last on the table. The second-placed Victorians, meanwhile, continue to be separated from ladder leader Queensland by quotient and remain ahead of third-placed New South Wales by six points with two rounds of matches still to be played.

The Somerset Cricket Academy played two one-day matches against Sussex Cricket Academy at Taunton School on Thursday and Friday. Originally the matches had been planned to take place in April, but because of the bad weather had to be called off.On Thursday Sussex batted first and scored 287 in their 50 overs with Nat Price from Ilminster taking 3 for 25. In reply Somerset Academy side reached 191 for 8, of which Grant Hodnett, a South African playing cricket for Seaton made 60 not out and Cornishman Neil Edwards 36.On Friday Sussex again batted first and made 233 for 8, with Matt Bulbeck taking 3 for 20 and Jason Hall, another Cornish player 2 for 25. Somerset just failed to overhaul the target and with the last ball to be bowled required three runs to win. The last pair scampered a single so Somerset ended two runs short. For Somerset Neil Edwards made 70, Matthew Wood 41 and Chris Gange 27.

George Bailey believes Australia’s spin bowlers must find a way to be more effective on the subcontinent if the team is to have any chance of winning the next World Twenty20, to be held in Bangladesh in 2014. After returning home Monday Bailey also defended the form of the middle-order batsmen, who besides his own 63 in the semi-final loss to West Indies had little impact in the tournament as the top three carried the bulk of the workload.Three days after Australia’s tournament ended their exit might not have looked so bad, coming as it did against the eventual champions. However, one notable feature of the final was that both sides had outstanding finger-spinners with a mystery element: Sri Lanka’s Ajantha Mendis was the tournament’s leading wicket taker with 15 at 9.80 and the West Indian Sunil Narine was equal fourth with nine victims, including five in the semi-final and the decider.Another bowler of similar ilk, Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal, was also equal fourth on the wicket tally and all three were miserly as well. In contrast, Xavier Doherty leaked 8.63 runs an over – his 1 for 48 from three overs in the semi-final seriously dented Australia’s hopes – while Brad Hogg managed only two wickets in his six games and the allrounder Glenn Maxwell was equally ineffective. Bailey knows it will be almost impossible to win in Bangladesh in 2014 with a similar slow-bowling output.”One of the things we need to look at is the way we bowl our spin,” Bailey said. “I don’t know any other way to describe it than as a Western-type way of bowling, which tends to be to try and draw the batsman out of the crease, whereas all the teams who have had success at the World Cup, their spinners are bowling into the wicket, quite fast, hitting the stumps every ball, making it very hard.”We need to find a way to develop spinners like that, and the tough thing is maybe bowling like that doesn’t really suit conditions in Australia. But I think if you look at all the stats from the tournament that was probably one of the areas that if we’re serious about winning the tournament we’re going to have to find a way to improve come Bangladesh.”During the World Twenty20, Muttiah Muralitharan said he believed one of the reasons Australia would not produce such a spinner was that unorthodox bowlers would be encouraged at junior levels to change their style. Bailey said it was important that young spinners with potential were identified regardless of whether they fit the Australian idea of what makes a good slow bowler.”As a nation we still talk about whether guys have legitimate actions or not and at the end of the day that’s really not for us to be arguing about,” Bailey said. “If that’s the rules and that’s how bowlers are bowling now and having success in international cricket then we’ve got to start developing those players and developing them at 10-11 years of age and we start to have some bowlers who do bowl like Murali or Ajmal or Narine.”You’re hoping that a few of our spinners are watching the tournament [World T20] and seeing the type of spinners that are having success. I think the way our coaching system is set up it’s going to be tough for some spinners to get through because the way a lot of the spinners who have had success bowl in the subcontinent, you’re probably not going to be playing much cricket in Australia if you bowl like that. There’s a balancing act there.”A lack of impact from the spinners cost Australia but there were also concerns about the imbalance in the batting order, with most of the runs coming from the openers Shane Watson and David Warner, and the No.3 Michael Hussey. Although opportunities were limited because of the success of the top three, there were still times when Australia needed runs from the middle order, notably in the semi-final.Chasing 206, Australia were 29 for 3 and it was the perfect time for the rest of the batsmen to step up and back the work of Watson, Warner and Hussey from earlier in the tournament. Batting at No.5, Bailey blasted 63 from 29 balls but had no real support – Cameron White was caught down leg side for 5, David Hussey chipped a return catch for a duck and Matthew Wade top-edged a sweep.”It’s a tough one. If you’re talking about winning the tournament, I think if you’re winning a World Cup you’re not talking about how well your four, five and six batted,” Bailey said. “Your one, two and three need to get you the runs. Four, five and six come in and either get you to a reasonable total or save your bacon. But if you’re winning the games it’s your top three you need to rely on.”I think whenever we’re progressing through to the back end of one of these tournaments we’re not going to be seeing much of the middle order. The challenge of the format is when you do get a chance you’ve got to be prepared to step up and make it your day.”Australia’s exit before the final was a disappointing way for Bailey to end his first tournament in charge, but he said the memories wouldn’t be all bad.”To knock out South Africa and India as we did was really pleasing,” he said. “I thought we played some really good cricket there. It’s just a matter of when you do get to the knockout stages you’ve got to be able to play your best cricket.”

Though the match meandered along to a tame draw, Central Zone entered thesemifinals of the Inter-Zonal CK Nayudu Trophy Under-19 tournament on thebasis of their 27-run first innings lead over East Zone in the quarterfinalencounter at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack on Sunday.Opting to bat first on the opening day on Friday, Central Zone progressedslowly to 158 for 7 at close of play. The highlight of the innings was apatient 66 by opener Surinder Singh. However, none of the other batsmenmade an impact. He was the seventh batsman to be dismissed at the fag endof the day, caught by A Hashmi off SS Lahari. During a 326-minute stay atthe crease, Surinder Singh faced 218 balls and hit nine boundaries. CentralZone lasted for 16 more overs on the second day before they were bowled outfor 178. SS Lahari (3 for 63) and S Ali (3 for 41) were the pick of thebowlers.But when it was East Zone’s turn to bat, Surinder Singh returned to tormentthe East Zone batsmen to finish with 5 for 41. East Zone fell shy of leadby just 27. Only four of their batsmen managed to reach double figures withA Hashmi topscoring with 42.Central Zone in their second innings fared slightly better, scoring 194.Surinder Singh (60) was again the mainstay of the batting. He was ablyassisted by opening partner SS Dholpure (31) and skipper A Kapoor (38). Setto score 222 for a win with not even a session of play left on the finalday, East Zone, in 15 overs, made 62 runs for three wickets.In the three day semifinals, which commence on January 24, Central playNorth Zone while West Zone meet South Zone.