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Railways finished with 153/7 on the opening day of their Central ZoneRanji Trophy encounter against Uttar Pradesh at Meerut. Yere Goud’sfighting half century propped up an innings which never recovered fromthe loss of early wickets. UP’s pace attack of Ashish Winston Zaidiand Shalabh Srivastava struck the early blows but Railways recoveredfrom 65/4 thanks to a 63 run stand between Goud and Prahlad Rawat.All the good work was undone later in the day as three wickets fell tothe spinners in the space of 12 runs. Mohd. Kaif took two wickets inone over with his off breaks, plunging the visitors to 141/7. Atstumps, Goud was still unbeaten on 75 (211 balls, 8 fours). The matchhad started 60 minutes late due to a wet pitch, only 80.4 overs beingbowled during the day.

Before the series Virat Kohli had promised aggression, and he got this from his opening bowlers. Dimuth Karunaratne was the first man out, edging a short one from Ishant Sharma to Ajinkya Rahane at gully for 9.The other opener, Kaushal Silva, followed two balls after Karunaratne, attempting to hook Varun Aaron. But he might have been unlucky – it wasn’t clear if there was glove involved and it seemed he was given out caught off the arm guard.For obvious reasons, the spotlight was on Kumar Sangakkara, but even he could not last long – he became R Ashwin’s first victim courtesy a fine reflex catch by KL Rahul at silly point.Ashwin also claimed Lahiru Thirimanne, this time Ajinkya Rahane plucking an impressive low catch to his left at slip.It was 60 for 5 after Ashwin got Jehan Mubarak for a duck.Angelo Mathews counterattacked with a brisk half-century, but even he eventually fell to the fired-up Ashwin. And again, the offspinner was aided by a great piece of work in the field – this time from Rohit Sharma.Dhammika Prasad became Ashwin’s victim No. 5 – it took him just 10.3 overs to claim his fifth, his fastest five-for in Tests.Amit Mishra, playing his first Test in four years, accounted for Dinesh Chandimal, who had been given an early life.Mishra had two in two when he dismissed Tharindu Kaushal next ball with a googly.Rangana Herath was the last man out, and Ashwin’s sixth victim, but not before he added 23 quick, valuable runs.

Bangladesh opener Imrul Kayes believes a draw in the first Test against South Africa, the No. 1 ranked Test side, in Chittagong, will be a “big achievement” for Bangladesh. The hosts beat South Africa for the first time in an ODI series last week and Imrul hoped the team could take the confidence gained from the ODIs into the Test format as well. The first Test in Chittagong starts from July 21.”I think a batting-friendly pitch would be best for us,” Imrul said in Chittagong. “If we can score over 400 runs and they match us, the game will go towards a draw. Against the No 1 Test team in the world, a draw would be a big achievement.”The team is in a good rhythm. We won the last four ODI series at home. I think that if we can replicate our ODI form into the Tests, there will be something good for Bangladesh.”Imrul’s wish for a batting track could come true as Zahid Reza Babu, the pitch curator of Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong, has traditionally delivered pitches that favour the batsmen heavily. Imrul, however, admitted that the spinners will ultimately be required to do most of the work.”Our spinners take more wickets in almost all our home series,” he said. “We don’t have pitches on which pace bowlers can take five-six wickets. So the spinners will once again need to pick up wickets. Shakib and Taijul will have to lead the way, bowl well and take wickets.”Bangladesh’s reliance can be gauged from the fact that in the eight home Tests since January 2014, their spinners have taken 91 of the 110 wickets to fall to bowlers. Shakib Al Hasan leads the way with 33 wickets in eight Tests, with Taijul contributing 27 wickets in six Tests.Among Bangladesh’s Tests specialists, Imrul has been in good form. He made 150 in the second innings against Pakistan in the Khulna Test and also struck 72 against India in Fatullah. Imrul said he was confident he could handle the South African pace attack, which will include Dale Steyn – who had been rested for the limited-overs leg of the tour – and Vernon Philander in addition to Morne Morkel.”Opening the batting is definitely challenging. The first spell is bowled by the best bowlers and whatever help there is from the pitch is at the start of the game,” he said. “If the openers can fight through this early period and score runs, it makes life easier for the rest of the batting line-up.”Almost every bowling attack in the world has guys bowling 140-145kph regularly. But we cannot think too much about it. We are playing positive cricket and by being consistent, we can handle their pace attack. I made my debut in South Africa and I have played Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel. It was in different conditions but I hope here I won’t have any problems.”Both Bangladesh and South Africa will not train over the weekend due to the Eid holidays. In the Bangladesh team, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Rubel Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Litton Das and Taijul Islam have stayed back in Chittagong while the other players have gone home to celebrate Eid.

Kumar Sangakkara was driven by a “healthy rivalry” with Mahela Jayawardene, former Sri Lanka coach Tom Moody has said. Both men have retired as Sri Lanka’s two highest Test run scorers – Sangakkara sits atop the list with 12,400 runs.The pair had bloomed during Moody’s stint as coach, and memorably struck a world-record 624 runs together against South Africa in 2006. Sri Lanka drew Test series in England and New Zealand, and progressed to the final of the 2007 World Cup under Moody.”There’s a very strong bond between Mahela and Kumar, but I also think there was a healthy rivalry between the two,” Moody said. “It never really came to the surface. It was underlying. It was there in a positive way where one would drive the other with their performances. That’s why they were so formidable as a partnership in the middle.”Moody described the pair as a “coach’s dream” because of their leadership ability and tenacity. Jayawardene became captain during Moody’s tenure, during which the Sri Lanka team also moved away from a strongly hierarchical team culture.”Mahela and Kumar really sang from the same hymn sheet with regards to trying to improve the professionalism around the team, and trying to improve the mindset of the team playing outside of Sri Lanka. One of the great challenges we addressed during my tenure was to look at the way we play away from home and look at the technical and mental aspect of how we play outside Sri Lanka. Mahela and Kumar ran with that idea because they saw it as a great challenge for them both. Once you have players of that quality on board, you very quickly gather momentum within the team. “Sangakkara also made a definitive career move under Moody. He had been the Test side’s wicketkeeper batsman through the early noughties, but gave up the gloves ahead of that series against South Africa in mid-2006.”I remember Kumar having a conversation with me about halfway through my time with as a coach,” Moody said. “He was seeking my advice about his role as the wicketkeeper-batsman in the side and his career ambitions. I said to him at the time that the team wanted him to do everything, but at the same time that batting and keeping wicket in all formats wasn’t something he could do for a long period, and do it as successfully as he would like.”I just asked him, ‘What’s your ambition as a batsman? Do you want to be the best batsman in the world?’ He basically said he wanted to achieve that milestone – he didn’t say he wanted to be the best batsman in the world, just that he wanted to be the best he possibly could be. So I said to him, ‘The team’s going to benefit either way. If you’re going to have that ambition to be the best you can be by handing the gloves in in Test cricket, the team’s going to be the beneficiary of that.’ We’ve seen over the last seven years that he has been the most consistent Test batsman over that period.”Moody also said Sangakkara was “right at the top” of players he has coached “with regards to how thorough his preparation was”. Sangakkara was not captain during Moody’s time with the team, but had become a leader within the group.”The standout leadership skill with Kumar was setting the great example on and off the field. He was very thoughtful and articulate as well. A lot of players would gravitate towards him naturally and learn from his mature outlook on the game and on life. That has been one of the important features of Sri Lanka cricket – that they’ve had Kumar and Mahela as those godfather figureheads to guide the team and the next generation through.”

Sri Lanka Board President’s XI took control of the West Indians’ three-day warm-up encounter at the SSC, as two young batsmen struck centuries. Udara Jayasundera remained unbeaten on 124 at stumps, by which time the hosts had whittled out a 24-run lead, with seven first-innings wickets in hand. Jayasundera had shared a 214-run stand with 20-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman Minod Bhanuka, who hit an attractive 101 from 160 balls.The partnership was all the more impressive for the state of the scoreline at its beginning. They had come together third ball after Kemar Roach had dismissed two batsmen from the Test squad in successive deliveries; Kusal Mendis was caught at point, and Lahiru Thirimanne offered an edge to the wicketkeeper. As Sri Lanka have picked only eight batsmen in its Test squad, Thirimanne’s failure is unlikely to force him out of the Test XI, but it does put further pressure on the batsman, who has had a modest home Test season so far.Jayasundera was largely the more secure of the two batsman, and Bhanuka was the strokemaker who occasionally rode his luck, with thick edges either passing between or over the slips. Bhanuka was especially quick on the short ball, pulling and hooking the West Indians’ seamers, while Jayasundera relied more on his drive. They were circumspect against Roach and Jason Holder, who were the most disciplined of the quicks, but scored freely off the wayward Shannon Gabriel. Jerome Taylor was rested on Saturday, and did not bowl.The West Indian spinners were unable to make a breakthrough on a pitch that had slowed down considerably. Frontline spinners Devendra Bishoo and Jomel Warrican both traveled at more than 4.5 runs an over. Holder removed Bhanuka late in the day, and the President’s XI went to stumps at 233 for 3.Earlier in the day, Suraj Randiv had completed an impressive five-wicket haul when he removed Shai Hope and Holder on consecutive deliveries. Denesh Ramdin’s dismissal for 20 left West Indians at 166 for 9, but some big-hitting from Carlos Brathwaite, who struck four sixes and four fours in his 54, took the visitors to 202 all out.

New Zealand Cricket has reported an annual net surplus of NZ$23.7 million for the 2014-15 financial year, after the annual general meeting on Thursday in Wellington. The considerable surplus was a consequence of the board co-hosting the World Cup 2015 along with Australia.NZC’s chief executive Dave White praised an extraordinary year for the board, as significant gains were made both on and off the field, including New Zealand’s performances, a strong financial result, and agreement on a lucrative FTP programme, an NZC release said.White, however, stated that the nature of ICC’s funding model meant NZC would face difficult financial challenges over the next two or three years, and the board is forecasting a loss of $5 million for the year 2015-16.”The 2015-16 surplus is critical for NZC in terms of our long-term viability, especially with the next two of three years promising to be financially demanding,” White said. “Having said that, I’m delighted to report that NZC has achieved, or is in the process of achieving all our Cricket World Cup legacy goals, including improving the playing infrastructure, growing attendances and viewership numbers, and improving participation numbers – especially at junior level.”NZC chairman Stuart Heal stated that New Zealand’s performance in the past year helped raise the profile of cricket, and created a surge in the interest for the sport, including women’s cricket.”Seldom has cricket in New Zealand been celebrated in the way it has over the past twelve months.” Heal said. “In reaching the Cricket World Cup final – and soaring up the Test and ODI rankings, the BLACKCAPS helped lift the profile of cricket to unprecedented heights, and create for us an excellent springboard into the future. We are noticing a profound upturn in interest in cricket.”The WHITE FERNS’ success in winning crucial Women’s World Championship points against England, India, and more recently Sri Lanka, has only reaffirmed cricket as a game for all New Zealanders.”Three NZC directors – Martin Snedden, Don Mackinnon and Geoff Allott – were re-elected to the board, while Heal returned as the board chairman.

Ex-Comets batsmen Mark Higgs and Brad Haddin returned to Canberra to givetheir former teammates a lesson as New South Wales won by 118 runs in a rainshortened Mercantile Mutual Cup match at Manuka Oval today.Haddin, who last year scored 133 off 124 balls for the Comets againstVictoria on the same ground, began in a similar aggressive mood and raced to50 off 38 balls, the fastest half century in domestic one-day competitionthus far this year. The innings was punctuated with a variety of superblytimed drives lofted safely in the area over mid off and mid on, and fromfront foot drives through cover and mid wicket.Although former NSW paceman Anthony Stuart took 3-24 in a seven-over openingspell for the Comets, he lacked an effective partner from the other end,with the Comets minus injured regular bowlers Jason Voros and Lee Hansen.With the base provided by Haddin’s blistering innings, man of the match MarkHiggs was able to take advantage of occasional loose deliveries by the restof the attack and his 77 from 75 balls was risk free until he ran himselfout at the end of the innings.With half an hour lost to rain during the Blues innings of 9/252, the matchwas reduced to 47 overs per side and the Comets’ target increased to 255under the Duckworth/Lewis system. With the target a forbidding 5.42 runs perover, the accurate unchanged ten over spell of NSW opening bowler Don Nashyielded 3 wickets for 31 as the Comets batsman tried and failed to increasethe run-rate. Only captain Rod Tucker was able to briefly lift the rateagainst NSW spinners Jamie Stewart (in his first match since transferringfrom Western Australia) and Gavin Robertson, and the Comets crashed to theworst defeat in their brief existence.The inability to keep talented players such as Haddin, Higgs, and MichaelBevan will make this competition a continued struggle for the Comets. It isdifficult to see how they can be competitive if players must leave to playthe extended game and achieve their dream of playing Test Cricket.

India and Pakistan have played a lot of exciting games in bothversions of the game. At the same time, both these teams can be asunpredictable as the English weather. The talent in both the sides isimmense yet sometimes the scorecards suggest that both these teamshardly play to their full potential. It was one of those kind of gamesat Sharjah with India making heavy weather of chasing a lowscore. Eventually the target was achieved after losing half the side,which was not convincing by any standards.Srinath, who has had very ordinary games on his return after a breakwas left out, which would help him in sorting out his problems. Thedecision deserves to be appreciated, as it is an indication that thecurrent form overrides either an individual?s reputation or pastdeeds. One can only hope that this criterion is followed consistentlyin order to produce the required results. Prasad replacing Srinathprovided the breakthrough by dismissing the dangerous Afridi whileAgarkar got rid of the talented Razzak. It has been a while since anearly breakthrough was achieved and the heartening thing is that theinitiative gained was not squandered away.The young opener Imran Nazir played with pluck and in the company ofInzamam looked like putting Pakistan in sight of a big total. He hitKumble over the top for boundaries with elan before his inexperienceled to his downfall when he played across the line to Joshi. Muchdepended on Youhana and Inzamam but a comedy of errors resulted inYouhana being adjudged run out. Yet another coincidence where Inzamamwas involved in a run out but at least on this occasion he was not atfault. Robin Singh had Inzamam snapped smartly by Karim behind thewicket who had a very good match.The lower order did not offer many problems despite some consciouseffort by Moin Khan and Wasim Akram. The low total of Pakistan canonly be attributed to their under par batting and some very ordinaryrunning between the wickets.Ganguly and Tendulkar had to get off to a decent start to ensure thatnothing untoward happened during the chase. Ganguly played a crispinnings and the departure of both the openers in quick successionprovided a glimmer of hope to the Pakistanis. Dravid and Azharuddinbatted resolutely as the required rate was not a demandingfactor. Akhtar worked up real pace even on a slowish track but he wasnegotiated safely by both Azharuddin and Dravid. Just as the matchwas petering to a dull finish the Indians lost quick wickets to evokesome interest in the proceedings.The target was achieved much later than expected and also by a lessernumber of wickets. The trio of Akram, Akhtar and Younis tried veryhard and it was due to their efforts that the match lasted as long asit did. The Indians will not grumble with the result but they have totry and work out a formula to gain and maintain overall consistency.This victory has given the Indians the advantage of knowing what isrequired of them before they get into their next round of leaguematches. It remains to be seen if Pakistan can make the tournamentwide open by winning against South Africa.

Against a side that contains close to half of the nation’s modern-day Test team, Tasmania’s two finest modern-day batsmen constructed a remarkable partnership to lead their side out of trouble on the opening day of the Pura Cup clash with New South Wales in Hobart. On a glorious spring day at the Bellerive Oval, Ricky Ponting (144*) and Jamie Cox (106) added a dazzling 242 run stand for the third wicket to pilot the Tigers to a mark of 5/279 by stumps.There has been enough talk of betting in cricket circles of late, certainly. But, on Melbourne Cup Day, it was probably fair to observe that, at a score of 2/0 early in the piece, the Tasmanians were at long odds of finishing in such a position. Set within that context, then, the stand between the two stylish right handers was significant in itself. The fact that the quality of the strokeplayembedded within it was of the highest class therefore only added to its appeal.Although Ponting was held scoreless for a relatively lengthy period on his arrival at the crease and again in mid-afternoon, his chanceless innings provided a more than ample demonstration of his talents. There was barely a false stroke in a hand in which shots were timed with almost complete perfection and despatched to virtually all parts of the ground.”It was hard work early,” said Ponting of the circumstances that confronted him when he walked to the crease a little over ten minutes into the day’s play.”The ball swung most of the day; even with the old ball, there was quite a lot of swing there.”Cox, still surely not out of the reckoning in the clamour for Test opening spots at present, also played a typically attractive innings. His driving through the off side was a particular highlight and his judgement of when to play and when to leave deliveries on and outside the line of off stump was impeccable.After weathering the pair’s onslaught, the Blues, and more particularly left arm speedster Nathan Bracken (3/85), did eventually strike back sharply in the last hour. Bracken beat a driving Cox with a yorker forty-five minutes before stumps. Five balls later, he wrought similar damage upon the castle of Daniel Marsh (0). And then, from the first delivery of his next over, he attracted a thickedge from the bat of the sadly out of form Shaun Young (5) as the all-rounder forced at one seaming away.Notwithstanding the complete absence of cloud cover, conditions were especially difficult for batting early, with the ball seaming and swinging noticeably. This was underlined when Dene Hills (0) and Michael DiVenuto (0) lost their wickets inside the opening three overs of the match. Both players were caught behind off the bowling of Brett Lee (2/68) – wicketkeeper Brad Haddin snaring a brilliant catch low and to his left to remove a defending Hills and then effecting a regulation dismissal as DiVenuto launched a loose slash at a shorter, wider delivery. At that stage, it looked as though the visitors had backed a winner bydeciding to insert the Tasmanians on the chocolate-coloured pitch.For the Blues, Bracken and Don Nash (0/30) were clearly the pick of the bowlers on a day when their more illustrious teammates in Lee and leg spinner Stuart MacGill (0/53) both struggled to impress. The luckless Nash’s line, in particular, was tight and unerring all day. He was unlucky not to finish with a wicket – indeed, a dropped catch by Steve Waugh at slip off hisbowling (when Cox had only 41 alongside his name) proved very expensive.

Four run outs in 19 balls ended Sri Lanka’s hopes of being able to bat through 50 overs against New Zealand today in the CricInfo Women’s World Cup and the home team took a 122-run win.Sri Lanka showed remarkable resilience to battle all the way both with ball and bat after a 200-run thumping at Australia’s hands two days earlier.New Zealand’s batting was put through more of a test than might have been reasonably envisaged before the game.If the home team had done their homework they should have been prepared for tight Sri Lankan bowling at the start of the innings.Instead of playing out the two opening bowlers, New Zealand allowed themselves to get distracted and after 15 overs were 30/2 with no more satisfying moment for Sri Lanka than when Indika Kankanange caught and bowled the first lady of New Zealand cricket, Debbie Hockley, for 18 runs.It was left to younger players Anna O’Leary and Haidee Tiffen to turn the innings around. In the longer term it should have been a useful experience for the players and for the side.The lasting lesson for O’Leary and Tiffen to take from the 137-run stand they created was that positive running between the wickets can break up the field while keeping the score ticking over.”It was a bit nerve-wracking to start with but once we got going it was great,” O’Leary said.”We had some trouble to start with because we hadn’t batted together before. It is a hard balance, you want to get runs but not be too crazy about it. We had to be patient.”We set ourselves 210 once we were out there so we were quite thrilled to get it.”Sri Lanka bowled really well, but the difference for them is that their bowlers sling the ball so it goes along the track where our bowlers bowl into the track.”The ball was coming on so slow you had to make the pace yourself,” she said.The final total could have been greater but the Sri Lankans were not put under as much pressure as might have been the case had quicker running between the wickets, both for singles and for twos, been applied.At the same time it has to be acknowledged that the Sri Lankans lifted their game considerably after their first round loss to Australia. They were supportive of each other in the field and made more use of sweepers to protect the mid-wicket and cover boundaries.Both Tiffen (58) and O’Leary (91no) achieved their highest scores in ODIs. O’Leary batted for 137 balls for her runs while the innings was given a boost by Rachel Pullar and Nicola Payne who marked her recall to the New Zealand team with 19 runs from 12 balls, including a last ball six.Sri Lanka chose the tactic of moving its bowlers around and used eight bowlers with India Kankanange taking 1-27 from her 10 overs. The only other bowler to complete 10 was Chamani Seneviratne.When bowling, New Zealand was always in control. Katrina Keenan took 2-17 from her 10 overs while Haidee Tiffen took 2-21. And some sharp fielding absolutely destroyed the Sri Lankan lower order with the four run outs.Catherine Campbell, who led the team for the second time, was delighted with the batting recovery.”We got ourselves out of a tight situation. It was a great partnership between Anna and Haidee. They both scored their first 50s. Sri Lanka had some excellent fielders and I thought our batters weighted the ball and placed it quite well.”We bowled much better than we did in the Ireland game, it was a better all-round performance.”Our priority was to get two points for the win,” she said.