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Test reject Saeed Anwar struck a whirlwind 87 off just 55 deliveries to help Tapal CC score a crushing nine-wicket victory over UBL Academy in the opening tie of the 8th Tapal Trophy Ramazan Cricket Festival here Thursday.Guest player Saeed is in the city these days, tending to his critically ill father-in-law, who is suffering from renal failure.Man-of-the-Match Saeed set the UBL Sports Complex alight with a series of blazing strokes, striking 10 fours and five sixes after a cautious start.Hanif-ur-Rehman also batted well to make 41 off 21 balls in the opening stand of 84 as Tapal CC made light work of their target of 141.Earlier, UBL Academy, led by former Test batsman Mansoor Akhtar, were restricted to 140 for six in 25 overs with opener Usman Farhat hitting four fours and three sixes in a well-made 63.Summarised scores:UBL ACADEMY 140-6 in 25 overs (Usman Farhat 63; Kamran Umar 2-24);TAPAL CC 144-1 in 15.3 overs (Saeed Anwar 87 not out, Hanif-ur-Rehman 41)

In the face of the criticism that has been levelled at domestic English cricket in the aftermath of the Ashes defeat Somerset chief executive Peter Anderson has once again spoken out in it’s defence.At the County Ground in Taunton he told me: "It is not exactly a good time to be an English cricket supporter and the only solace I personally get is to remember that in the last two years England have performed much better and had good series both at home and away."Mr Anderson continued: "If you set that against what Australia have done to both Pakistan and South Africa it tends to prove that rather than us being poor Australia are very good."The Somerset boss went on: "The usual suspects are saying that the cause of England’s demise is the standard of county cricket and that too much cricket is played. This ignores the fact that with the central contracts system it is actually the England coach Duncan Fletcher who controls the amount of championship cricket played by centrally contracted players."The chief executive concluded: "The question that Duncan Fletcher has to answer is why is it that English batsmen and bowlers do not perform with the same technique as the Australians. That is his job, but the evidence out on the pitch is that either he can’t coach or that our players can’t adapt to his methods. It is certainly not the fault of the English county game."

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.

There’s two points in it at the top of Southern Electric Premier League, Division 2 with United Services continuing to hold off Easton & Martyr Worthy’s challenge.The pair both romped to easy win – US crushing Trojans by ten wickets, and Easton thrashing neighbours Winchester KS by 124 runs.Only Simon Williams, who battled 41 overs for his 37, put up much resistance as Damian Carson (6-15) helped skittle Trojans for a disappointing 129 at Burnaby Road. Pete Andrew (64) and Mark Toogood (60) swept US to 130-0 in 28.3 overs.Easton were wobbling at 25-3 and reached an uncertain 99-5 before Steve Green (62) and Francis Gill (51 not out) took control at River Park. Their stand helped Easton to 208-6 – a total far beyond WKS, who crashed to 84 all out, with Andy Birch (4-7) removing the tail.Old Tauntonians & Romsey were eyeing a total batting disaster as Hampshire’s James Schofield (5-16) and David Griffiths (2-10) reduced them to 41-8 at the Rose Bowl.Jeremy Ord (23 not out) spared their blushes, but OTR only managed 73 after the Hampshire Academy had scored 212-8 off 50 overs.The Young Hawks were 94-5 (Iain Brunnschweiler 31) until Hampshire 2nd XI debutant David Wheeler cracked 70 to put the county fledglings in a powerful position.Ian Stuart was the hero of Sparsholt’s nervy two-wicket win over Hungerford at the Norman Edwards Memorial Ground. He staved off a late collapse, striking a match winning 45 not out to see Sparsholt past Hungerford’s 173 (Steve Wyatt 83).Andy Lang (5-13) and Ian Ellis (3-32) got amongst the Hungerford batsmen, but Sparsholt suffered two batting collapses before a last-over victory was achieved.Owen Dawkins (3-34) and Paul Warren (3-28) sent four Sparsholt wickets tumbling for eight runs after Ollie Kelly (32) and Tim Richings (27) had provided a 63-run start.Then, after Stuart and Andy Heyes (35) had eased Sparsholt to 155-4, four more wickets fell before victory was achieved.Lymington held their breath and clung on to a narrow six-run victory to thwart a remarkable comeback by basement side Rowledge. The New Forest visitors appeared to have the game in the bag when Rowledge, chasing Lymington’s 238-4, dipped to 146-8 (Jeff Annings 61).But ninth-wicket pair Darren Mitchell (60) and Chris Yates (38 not out) added 80 to repair the damage caused by spin duo Danny Peacock (5-35) and Aaron Heal (3-46).Trevor Phillips broke the stand at 226-9 before Rowledge, requiring 12 runs from Glyn Treagus’s final over, suffered a fourth ball run out and conceded defeat at 232 all out.Treagus earlier featured with the bat, hitting a long overdue 82 in a century second-wicket partnership with Peacock (60).Lymington progressed to 210-4 (Ben Craft 29) and went on to post 238-4, with Martin Hunt (20 not out) and Neil Trestrail (19 not out) enjoying a last-over romp.

Pakistan proved the tag of bad chasers of wrong for the second time inless than seven months when they overhauled New Zealand’s 277 withthree wickets and 17 balls to spare to clinch the One-dayInternational series at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium Wednesday night.The victory in the second One-day International gave the Asianchampions an unassailable 2-0 lead over the ICC Champions Trophywinners with the last match scheduled at Lahore Saturday.Pakistan, who successfully chased 272 against Sri Lanka at Sharjahlast October, looked dead and buried when they lost Imran Nazir andYousuf Youhana in the first eight balls. But then two usefulpartnerships of 73 for the third wicket and 93 for the fourth turnedthe match in Pakistan’s favour. And though there were minor hiccups atthe end, Rashid Latif ensured that Pakistan didn’t let the initiativeslip with a priceless unbeaten 28.The architects of Pakistan’s victory were, however, Younis Khan, whostroked a flawless 70 off 91 balls, and Abdul Razzaq who clobbered 10fours and a six in his superb 84-ball 86.The flamboyant Shahid Afridi gave the initial impetus to the inningswith a rapid 36-ball 40 before perishing to a premeditated sweep offScott Styris.Both Younis and Razzaq justified the decision of skipper Waqar Younisto promote them ahead of the experienced Inzamam-ul-Haq. But thedecision also left a few questions unanswered. If Inzamam was demotedbecause of bad form, why he was retained as Pakistan, for the seventhstraight match, kept faith in the same side that started its SharjahCup defence earlier this month. And if he was selected in spite of badform, why he was not sent at No 3 which would have provided him ampletime to settle down and come out of a poor patch.Inzamam scored 26 but he faces the axe for the third match,particularly after Pakistan is expected to make changes.Younis, who hit his fourth half century in five matches, played a wellcontrolled innings. The 25-year-old Pathan showed good defensivetechnique to good balls but at the same time punished anything losethat fetched him seven boundaries. The high point of Younis’s inningswas his excellent timing and perfect placing.Nevertheless, despite doing all the hard work, Younis threw his wicketby attempting to cut Walker only to get his stumps rattled.Despite losing Younis, Razzaq kept his composure and continued toplunder runs all over the park through his unorthodox style. He showednice wrist work by playing delicate leg glances and off his toesstrokes.When Pakistan needed 26 off 45 balls for victory, Styris foxed Razzaqwith a slow off-spinner. But the Middlesex-bound all-rounder had donehis job to perfection though it would have been nice if he hadreturned undefeated.New Zealand had their chances to dismiss Younis and Razzaq. But one ofthe finest fielding sides failed to pounce on the opportunities. LouVincent and Walker needed direct throws to run out both but failed tohit the stumps.Overall, it was a collective and team effort by the Pakistan batsmenwho have repeatedly buckled down while chasing big totals. There wascommitment, discipline and purpose behind their batting thatthoroughly entertained a full house of 18,000 spectators.Earlier, Craig McMillan scored his second One-day Internationalcentury to propel the Black Caps to an imposing 277 for five.McMillan, whose other century was also against Pakistan last year atChristchurch, was out in the last over after hitting a 116-ball 105.But it was sad that he ended up on the losing side, chiefly becauseNew Zealand didn’t have the fire and penetration in their bowling.McMillan slapped eight boundaries and a six and featured in twofruitful partnerships. For the second wicket with Matthew Horne, headded 96 runs from 125 balls and then for the third wicket, he put 92runs off 83 balls with Adams.Horne chipped in with a fluent 62 – his fifth half century in 49matches – that included seven boundaries from 91 balls. Adams,promoted to use long handle after the platform was set, contributedrun-a-ball 45 with six hits to the fence.It was McMillan who maintained New Zealand’s steady run-rate. Afterthe visitors collected 141 for two from the first 30 overs, McMillanmade sure that his side added almost an equal number of runs in theremaining twenty overs.With New Zealand reaching 210 for two from 40 overs, prospects of ascore of more than 300 looked on cards. But the Pakistan bowlers, whofailed to make a good use of the new ball by allowing McMillan andcompany build partnerships, pulled things back in the death overs bybowling in the block holes. The end result was that New Zealand couldmuster only 67 runs.The pace trio of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar bowledtheir hearts out on a strip full of runs. Shoaib, who wanted toperform well before his home crowd, finished with wicketless for 51while Wasim recovered after giving away 22 off his first four overs toend up with two for 58. Waqar was the pick of the bowlers with two for46.

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.

Marcus Trecothick continued his impressive early-season form with hissecond hundred against Glamorgan in the space of five days.The England opener followed up his 147 in the CricInfo Championship match with a 118-ball hundred today that was the backbone of his side’s six-wicket victory in the opening Benson & Hedges Cup zonal match.Trescothick’s performance was all the more impressive as he wasSomerset’s captain for the day in the absence of the injured Jamie Cox.And the left-hander’s form will have given the England management great encouragement with the Test series against Pakistan starting in just over a fortnight.Replying to Glamorgan’s 233-6, Somerset reached the winning line withthree overs to spare.Trescothick, who won the Gold Award, was given fine support by KeithDutch who supplied a Benson-best of 55 in a second-wicket stand of 121in 25 overs.Glamorgan, last season’s B&H finalists, won the toss but a solidstart was marred by three unnecessary run-outs of top-order batsmen.Steve James was run out by 10 yards in a mix-up with Mike Powell, whowas also involved in the dismissals of Adrian Dale and Matthew Maynard.Powell and Maynard looked to have rescued the Glamorgan innings with 84in 15 overs before the former county captain was out of his groundattempting a third run.Darren Thomas and Adrian Shaw added 43 in six overs to post acompetitive total on a slowish Cardiff pitch.But Glamorgan’s bowling was too wayward at the start of the Somersetinnings and Trescothick punished anything with width until he was outfour overs from the end.

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.”

It wasn’t quite the home-run derby that the Americans had been led to expect, but Daniel Vettori and Kumar Sangakkara hope cricket’s Florida experiment will continue. The two-match Twenty20 series in Lauderhill over the weekend was drawn 1-1 but the result was of little consequence.This series was more about the chance to gain exposure for the sport in the world’s third most populous country. But the first two international cricket matches in the USA proved to be dour affairs, with a slow, low pitch and only two sixes hit in each game, and the Sri Lankan captain Sangakkara hoped the nature of the contests didn’t turn American fans away.”That’s one of the subtleties of cricket, that a low-scoring game can be exciting if you analyse it properly,” Sangakkara said. “The wicket wasn’t conducive to big hitting but ideally it should have been a high-scoring two games, 180 to be chased down would have been great out there on a ground like this with fans watching cricket for the first time.”For the players and the die-hard fans the excitement is the same but probably for an introduction maybe we could have had a lot more scores. The ground facilities are pretty good, there’s great seating, the atmosphere is brilliant to play cricket in. You just need to keep playing cricket on tracks like this, the more you play the better the tracks become.”In the first game, New Zealand battled to 120 for 7 from their 20 overs and then dismissed Sri Lanka for 92, while in the second match New Zealand never recovered from losing four wickets in the first three overs. Their final score of 81 was New Zealand’s lowest in a Twenty20 match but the captain Vettori said apart from some improvement in the pitch, there were few other problems with the Lauderhill venue.”Most international grounds probably need those off-field facilities where you can train while the game is going on, it makes it a little bit easier,” Vettori said. “There’s not too much more. The standard of the wicket could improve a little bit but apart from that I think the ground has everything going for it.”It’s certainly given USA cricket a profile, and I think that’s the biggest thing to come from that. Both teams really enjoyed coming here and in the future, when we talk to other players from around the world we’ll tell them how good a time we had and how good the facilities are, and you’ll get other teams coming along and enjoying it just as much as we did. USA cricket has come along way just from this week.”New Zealand now have a two-month break before they tour Sri Lanka for a tri-series also involving India and Vettori was hopeful of a better performance next season.”I think all the guys are ready for it. They’ve been going non-stop for about nine to10 months so everyone’s due a break,” Vettori told . “We’ve got to make sure that we use this break to try and improve as a side and when we go to Sri Lanka we’re ready to try and win over there.”

Alastair Cook admitted England would have to reflect on the selection of their side after succumbing to a nine-wicket loss against India in the first Test in Ahmedabad.England’s bowling attack, with three frontline seamers and one specialist spinner, looked ill-suited for a Test played on a low, slow wicket, with the seamers claiming 1 for 254 in the match.Their batsmen also struggled and, in eight innings between them, England’s middle-order of Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell and Samit Patel contributed just 68 runs. By contrast, Cheteshwar Pujara scored 247 runs in the match without being dismissed and India’s two spinners claimed 13 wickets between them.While Cook admitted the problem, in part, was simply that several players had underperformed, he also conceded that the team management would have to reconsider the make-up and balance of the side ahead of the second Test which begins in Mumbai on Friday.”Clearly we’re going to have to look at our selection,” Cook said. “There are some good people making decisions in this England team and we thought we were doing the right thing for the side. The result showed we might have got it wrong. When you get beaten by nine wickets, you have a look at a lot of areas and we have to look at what we could have done better. There will be a lot to ponder. We’ll have to look at our squad for the next game.”The omission of left-arm spinner Monty Panesar has been highlighted as a key error by many critics but Cook felt the failure of England’s batting line-up in the first innings was more of an issue. He refuted any suggestion that England had been underprepared, but accepted that they would require far more of the team to contribute if they were to fight their way back in the series.”Our batting, especially in the first innings, didn’t deliver enough runs,” Cook said. “I thought it was a very good cricket wicket. There was a little bit in it for the spinners, but if you applied yourself with the bat it held together probably better than we thought it would. It was turning, yes. But runs were able to be had out there, as we showed in our second innings.”If we’re going to win out here, everyone in the game has to contribute. We need everyone to stick their hands up at certain times. The lads who haven’t performed as well as they would have liked in this game will be very disappointed. We showed a lot of character in that second half of the game. There are a lot of quality players in that dressing-room, with very good records who have scored hundreds against every attack in the world. They didn’t deliver in this game, and they know that. The middle order didn’t score enough runs. Everyone has to have a look at themselves if we want to take something out of this series.”The defeat means England have lost five out of six Tests in Asian conditions this year, leaving Cook to agree that mental scars might be as large an impediment to progress as technical deficiencies. “I’d say it’s a bit of both. Clearly, there are always technical issues before the mental ones kick in. We’re doing the right things. It’s now getting it right out in the middle and trusting our method there. We can only continue working as hard as we are doing, and I can’t fault the lads for that. It’s a case of working as hard as we can in the nets, and trusting our method out in the middle.”Cook also said the result had soured the memory of one of his finest innings. “I’m very happy with the way I batted,” he said. “To score any hundred for England is very special and to score one in that situation probably made it even more special for me.”Technically, it might have been a good innings. But you always get more satisfaction when you do it in a winning cause or to save a game. Maybe the 230 in Brisbane, in a similar match situation, is a better innings. But the result is what really matters and we weren’t good enough over the five days to win. I’d have been even prouder if I’d survived and dragged a draw out of it. I’m bitterly disappointed.”