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Wasim Akram XI will play Shoaib Akhtar XI on the opening day of the first Twin City Cricket Academy Under-15 championship starting Tuesday at Rawalpindi Stadium.The matches will be limited to 20-over-a-side because of Ramazan.The promising boys from Rawalpindi and Islamabad have been divided into six teams that have been named after the greats of the game.”We are proud to be staging this tournament with the specific aim of promoting cricket at the grassroots level,” president of the academy said.Teams: Wasim Akram XI- Zohaib Ahmed (captain), Sajid Ali, Tahir Manzoor, Muhammad Junaid, Kamran Shah, Ahmed Bilal, Mehtab AHmed, Muhammad Asif, Hasan Shah, Muhammad Saleem, Awais Ashraf and Kamran Malik.Shoaib Akhtar XI: Zahid Mansoor (captain), Adeem Arif, Syed Qamar Abbas, Anis Rehman, Rizwan Ahmed, Hasan Ali Khan, Taimoor Sohail, Mansoor Afzal, Adil Hasan, Asif Ahmed, Sohail Aurangzeb and Shahid Khan.

Nottinghamshire 46 for 2 (Voges 19*, Wagh 5*) trail Sussex 277 (Prior 131) by 231 runs
Scorecard

The England selectors rarely forgive their discarded wicketkeepers, especiallythose whose glovework has been embarrassing, but Matt Prior clearly does notintend to go gentle into the not-so-good night. On the opening day of Sussex’s crucial match atTrent Bridge, he rescued his team from disaster with a fighting century afteranother destructive new-ball spell from Darren Pattinson, enabling his team tofinish the first day on fairly even terms.This is a key match in Division One, with Nottinghamshire, the current logleaders, hosting Sussex, the reigning champions. The visitors won the toss anddecided to bat, though within an hour they were probably regretting it.Chris Nash and Carl Hopkinson opened against the now highly respected new-ball pairing of CharlieShreck and Pattinson. They began well, with Nash sweetly driving twoboundaries through the covers off Pattinson’s opening over. In the bowler’s next over, another full-length delivery enticed him – but this was the decoy, and heplayed it on; out for 13, and Sussex were 17 for 1.Sussex’s early tribulations were caused by a mixture of good but notoverwhelming bowling, and faulty batting. Michael Yardy (0) half-heartedlydrove at a ball moving away from him and edged to the keeper; Hopkinson (12)skied a cramped pull to mid-on; and then Chris Adams (0) lunged outside the offstump and was superbly caught by the flying Swann – Graeme – at first slip.Sussex had plunged to 33 for 4, and three of the scalps went to Pattinson.Murray Goodwin and Prior steadied the ship, though most of their runs came through boundaries and few through keeping the score ticking over by rotating the strike. Their team-mates were just beginning to relax as the total doubled to 66, when Goodwin swatted a short ball straight to backward point. He was followed by Luke Wright (7), driving loosely to cover, and just before lunch Sussex were in deep trouble at 74 for 6.For Prior, the buck stopped there. Bogged down after the departure of Goodwin and almost run out backing up too far, he took control again during the afternoon and batted with increasing authority, scoring most of his runs square of the wicket with pulls, cuts and cover drives. Robin Martin-Jenkins proved the ideal partner, content to play second fiddle until he tried to swing Swann over midwicket for six and skied the ball to cover for 44. The partnership realized a vital 142 runs.Prior’s century came with a trademark cut to the point boundary, off 115 balls. He scored 99 runs during the afternoon session, and found another determined partner in Jason Lewry, who played some impressive strokes for a No. 10, including a six over midwicket off Swann, as the pair put on 47 together.Prior finally fell for 131 (174 balls, 19 fours), bowled behind his legs trying to sweep Swann, while Lewry was stumped and the innings closed for 277, a total that looked unlikely at lunchtime. Pattinson, less effective when the ball grew older, had his figures spoiled by Prior and finished with 3 for 77, while Swann had 3 for 52.When the home side went in, they soon had a struggle of their own. The openers both fell relatively cheaply, Matt Wood (6) playing across a straight ball from Lewry, while Will Jefferson’s poor run continued as he tried too late to shoulder arms and played on to Martin-Jenkins for 14 (25 for 2). Things would have been worse still had Mark Wagh not been dropped twice in the region ofgully and backward point; as it was, the match finished very nicely balanced with a result likely.

Thandi Tshabalala is one out of seven promising spinners picked by Cricket South Africa (CSA) to be sent to India for a 12-day coaching camp starting June 3. The players will be accompanied by national selector Shafiek Abrahams and Dolphins coach Yashin Ebrahim.Jonathan Vandiar, a Dolphins legspinner, who took four wickets in six World Cup Under-19 matches, will also be making the trip to Mohali where the players will attend a training camp under former Indian legspinner Narendra Hirwani and other coaches.The trip is being funded by Shyam Bhatia, a Dubai-based Indian businessman, who is keen to develop spin bowling in South Africa. Your [South Africa’s] strength is in fast bowlers, ours [India’s] because of the conditions is in the spinning department,” Bhatia told supercricket website. “I hope this sponsorship will lead to more people from other countries contributing to changing the lives of young talented and often under-privileged cricketers all over the world. India is the perfect place for young spinners to learn their trade.””This venture helps us complete the spinners’ programme we have set up with the national coordinator Shafiek Abrahams, who will be going with the spinners to India in June,” said Vince van der Bijl, the CSA general manager. “It is ideal – we will not only learn from the experienced masters of spin but our young bowlers will be given the opportunity of playing in the intense heat and on the very different wickets. That experience, too, for the future tours of the subcontinent is very much part of this plan.”Spinners:
Corbyn Dolley, Keshav Maharaj, Daryn Smit, Aubrey Swanepoel, Thandi Tshabalala, Roelof van der Merwe, Jonathan Vandiar.

The battle between two of the pre-tournament favourites went to the penultimate ball as holders Kent sneaked a six-wicket over Sussex at Canterbury . Rob Key surprised a few people by sticking Sussex in, but the move paid off as they lost three of their big guns early on. Chris Adams (57) and Dwayne Smith (27) appeared to have rescued things, but Smith’s dismissal, caught at long-on, triggered another collapse, Yasir Arafat mopping things up with 4 for 17. Key (34) and Joe Denly (47*) gave Kent a rollicking start, aided by some indifferent fielding, and although Adams did his best to make things tough by calling back his pace bowlers in the fading light. The move made life hard for the batsman, especially Darren Stevens who was struck attempting to hook Luke Wright, forcing him to retire hurt with blood pouring from his nose. The tactic appeared to have worked as Kent stalled, but with 25 needed from 17 balls, Azhar Mahmood smacked a straight six and a cover-driven four to swing it back their way. With two needed from two, the keeper came up to the stumps but missed a leg-side Yorker which raced for four byes.Surrey offered little against Essex, losing by seven wickets with five overs remaining at The Oval. Click here for Andrew McGlashan’s report.Middlesex’s 190 for 7 proved beyond Hampshire under lights at The Rose Bowl even though the home side included Kevin Pietersen and Dimitri Mascarenhas in their ranks. Put into bat. Middlesex scored at almost 12 an over in the first third of the innings with all but one of their top six making contributions, although Pietersen the bowler with 3 for 33 pegged them back at the end. While he was in the middle the home fans remained confident, but when he became the first of former Hampshire favourite Shaun Udal’s three victims for 43 the momentum switched and Middlesex ran out easy winners.

Paul Collingwood warmed up for Friday’s international against New Zealand by taking 5 for 14 as Durham beat Derbyshire by five wickets in a rain-blighted match at Chester-le-Street. The impressive Shaun Pollock took 1 for 11 as Derbyshire were kept in check, and then Collingwood strangled the middle order either side of the first rain interruption. Another delay left Durham needing 48 off seven hours in virtual darkness – the game did not finish until almost 9.30pm – and they were taken to the wire by Nayan Doshi who grabbed a hat-trick in the penultimate over. Pollock’s experience proved vital as he clipped a three off the fifth ball of the last over.

Click here for John Ward’s report from Leicestershire against Lancashire at Grace Road.

Six sixes by David Sales in an unbeaten 71 steered Northamptonshire to a 25-run victory over Somerset at Taunton. Northants smashed 201 for 4 after being put in, with Andrew Hall (54) and Rob White (45) also chipping in. Marcus Trescothick (69 off 32 balls) and Justin Langer (32) got Somerset off to a flier with an opening stand of 104 in just over eight overs, all after Trescothick should have been run out before he had scored. But Jason Brown removed them both in successive overs and the innings lost its way. Somerset finishing on 176 for 7.Rain meant that there was no result between Glamorgan and Warwickshire at Cardiff where Warwickshire made 140 for 7 in their 19-over innings.

Terry Jenner, the former Australian legspinner who mentored Shane Warne, has said while Sri Lankan spinner Ajantha Mendis is an exciting prospect, it is too early to assess him.Mendis, who picked up 17 wickets in the Asia Cup last month, including two five-wicket hauls, has had batsmen confounded by his mixture of googlies, offbreaks, top-spinners, flippers and legbreaks. But Jenner said it still had to be seen whether Mendis had the variation of pace to bowl in Tests.”We don’t know yet, but that’s where [Anil] Kumble has been fantastic, particularly over the last five years,” said Jenner, who was in Chennai for a coaching clinic for young spinners at the MAC Spin Foundation.Jenner, also said that though the Indian Premier League was fantastic for a lot of reasons, it did not help in the development of young players. “It’s a mature-age spinner’s game, not a developing spinner’s. When I watch Harbhajan [Singh] bowl yorkers at 100 kph, it’s clever, but where’s the development?”Switching between formats, Jenner said, was very difficult. “From my experience, when a spinner starts pushing it through, he starts to lose the ability to spin it. Twenty20 serves a purpose with the entertainment, but it mustn’t encroach on Test cricket.”

Peter Moores, England’s coach, has played down rumours of a rift between him and Kevin Pietersen, England’s new captain. While admitting they had differences in the past, Moores said all was resolved during an hour-long meeting at a Northampton hotel on Sunday following Michael Vaughan’s resignation as captain after England’s defeat in the third Test at Edgbaston against South Africa.”Coaches and captains are always going to have different views because they look at the game from a different angle,” Moores said ahead of the fourth and final Test at The Oval. “But I’ve always found Kevin fine. What I like about him is that he’s got his views, which can be pretty forthright. One of the first things I wanted to do when we were going to offer him the captaincy was to sit down and talk to him about where he was coming from and what his views were and whether they matched mine. By the end we both felt very confident that we were coming from the same place.”Moores said he was looking forward to Pietersen’s style of leadership and was confident he would be just as successful as Vaughan, despite their contrasting personalities. He singled out an encouraging sign that senior members in the team had welcomed Pietersen’s appointment, after batsman Andrew Strauss admitted his disappointment in losing out on the captaincy race. Strauss said he eyed the Test captaincy but agreed Pietersen was the best person for the job, given that he’s a regular in the XI in all three formats of the game.”He’ll be different to Michael [Vaughan] because he’s a different man,” Moores said. “Michael had his style and that was very successful. Kevin will bring Kevin Pietersen, which is crucial. He’ll be his own man and that’s going to be really important. What’s really promising is that the senior arm of the team is going to get behind him.”Moores, however, insisted he wouldn’t change his approach to coaching despite the change of guard. “Your coaching style changes with different people, but your coaching philosophy doesn’t change all that much,” he said. “I don’t particularly see my views on the game changing. The coach’s job is to try to take pressure off the captain.”Moores’ South African counterpart, Mickey Arthur, said his team will observe Pietersen closely when he takes charge for the first time in an official capacity on Thursday. He agreed that for teams to succeed, it’s essential for the captain and coach to think along the same lines.”The challenge is whether it affects his batting,”Arthur said. “What’s his vision going to be? I guess all those things will be answered in the next year or so. We can only wish him well from after the Oval Test match and we’ll watch with interest how it all unfolds.”As coach and captain you need to clarify the roles. It’s something Graeme [Smith] and I have done particularly well. You’ve got to back each other up in the roles you do. And you’ve got to have the same vision.”

Match facts

Sunday, August 31, 2008
Start time 10.45BST (9.45GMT)

Big Picture

And so, the Kevin Pietersen fairytale continues. England took an unassailable 3-0 lead at The Oval, but for England’s new and irrepressibly positive captain, he and his team have greater goals in their sights: a 5-0 whitewash. It may have seemed an implausible task before the series, but such has been England’s dominance that Pietersen’s ambition is perfectly achievable. Sunday’s match represents another chance for South Africa to turn around their short-term fortunes, yet the poor form of their senior players – Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher in particular – has prompted their coach, Mickey Arthur, to look ahead to the future. He wants the younger generation to stake a claim for their own futures, but also sees Lord’s as the beginning of a new era. It cannot come quick enough, as it seems unlikely England will take their foot off the gas in the last two games.

Form guide

England WWWLL
South Africa LLLWW

Watch out for…

Andrew Flintoff
How England have missed him. Although he continues to maintain he is a batting allrounder who occasionally bowls, the rest of the world coo with awe over his consistent venom with the ball. Yet, pleasingly for him, he has shown some of his best form since the 2005 Ashes with the bat. A cultured, mature 78 – his second of the series – at The Oval helped lift England out of a sticky position to post a challenging 296, and perhaps now that he is the oldest member of this young side, the added responsibility has made him a more complete player.Jacques Kallis
It was hoped, certainly for South Africa’s fortunes, that his elevation to captaincy might reverse his dismal form with the bat. Not so. He managed just 9 at The Oval in their 126-run defeat, yet it seems farfetched that one of South Africa’s most consistent run-scorers won’t make an impact come the end of the series. Should he need any inspiration, he might find it in the words of his coach, who has labelled the Lord’s ODI as the start of a new era. Kallis, a proud man of prodigious talent, will not fade away meekly. Or will he?

Team news

It seems perfectly reasonable to expect England to name an unchanged side from the one which walloped South Africa on Friday. Samit Patel took the plaudits for his 5 for 41 – the first England spinner to take a five-for since Ashley Giles in 2002 – yet he also struck an impish 31 from 33 balls, as well as taking two very smart catches. With Flintoff in form, and Steve Harmison bowling with accuracy and pace, England are a team united.England (probable) 1 Ian Bell, 2 Matt Prior (wk), 3 Owais Shah, 4 Kevin Pietersen (capt), 5 Andrew Flintoff, 6 Paul Collingwood, 7 Luke Wright, 8 Samit Patel, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 James Anderson, 11 Steve Harmison.It is difficult to know who Arthur will opt for, in light of his rallying call to the youngsters. JP Duminy is clearly one for the future, yet has looked overawed, while Morne Morkel has shown glimpses of his own prolific ability. His brother, Albie, has returned from injury, and briefly asserted himself with 16 from 17 balls in Friday’s game, but South Africa urgently need their wizened troops – Kallis, Boucher, Gibbs – to lean on their vast experience and produce the goods.South Africa (possible) 1 Herschelle Gibbs, 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Jacques Kallis (capt), 4 AB de Villiers, 5 Jean-Paul Duminy, 6 Mark Boucher (wk), 7 Albie Morkel, 8 Johan Botha, 9 Morne Morkel, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Makhaya Ntini.Umpires: Mark Benson and Simon Taufel

Pitch and conditions

Though summer has only briefly threatened to arrive, Lord’s has quickened up as the season has progressed. Yet it offers plenty of assistance to the bowlers – even more so when considering the humid, stormy conditions that are forecast for north London.

Stats and Trivia

• South Africa have only played once at Lord’s before, back in 2003, and were beaten by seven wickets. Andrew Flintoff and James Anderson, who shared five wickets in that game, are the only surviving members of England’s squad.
• Not since 2006, in the VB Series, have South Africa lost three ODIs in succession. The last time they lost four matches in a row was against Sri Lanka in 2004, a series that they lost 5-0.

Quotes

“That’s the sort of pressure we want. Pressure, I believe, is a privilege. If we win 5-0, which is a goal, then it takes us up to the top with Australia. If we keep delivering there’s no reason why we can’t do it.”
Kevin Pietersen’s confidence knows no bounds.“Everyone is under serious threat at the moment. We are going to need some big performances from them. It’s up to the youngsters in the next two games to put their hands up and stake a claim for places.”
Mickey Arthur maintains that no South Africa player’s place can be taken for granted

Worcestershire 186 for 6 (Solanki 53, Moeen 51) beat Glamorgan 83 (Batty 4-14) by 103 runs
ScorecardWorcestershire retained their Division One status in some style with a thumping 103-run victory over Glamorgan in Cardiff. After winning the toss, Worcestershire managed a decent but obtainable 186 for 6 in their 40 overs, thanks to half-centuries from Vikram Solanki and Moeen Ali, but their bowlers were the real stars of the day. Glamorgan’s top three were extracted for ducks, as they were rolled over for 83 in 23.5 crushingly efficient overs.It was Dilhara Fernando and his wicked changes of pace who started the rot for Glamorgan. He grabbed Robert Croft and the pinch-hitter David Harrison with consecutive deliveries, before AJ Harris – recently released by Nottinghamshire but more than proving his worth here – followed up with a spell of 6-1-7-3. His first victim was the captain, David Hemp, also for a duck, and by the time he had removed Tom Maynard and the dangerous Mike Powell – the latter via a superb one-handed catch by Stephen Moore at short midwicket – Glamorgan were 35 for 5, and completely out of the reckoning.Gareth Batty ensured there would be no let-up. Flighting his offbreaks to perfection, he rattled through the middle- and lower-order for Man-of-the-Match figures of 4 for 14 in five overs. Jamie Dalrymple was well caught at leg slip by Moore, as was Ben Wright who muffed an attempted reverse-sweep, while Mark Wallace and Alex Wharf were trapped lbw and bowled respectively. Fernando then applied a fitting coup de grace with the fifth ball of his second spell, as Dean Cosker’s off stump was sent cartwheeling.It was an anticlimactic end to the season for Glamorgan, especially after their morale-boosting Championship victory over Leicestershire on Saturday. Jason Gillespie, in what seems sure to be his final appearance in county cricket, gave them a great start by removing Steve Davies and Moore in quick succession with the new ball, but Solanki’s 53 from 89 balls held the top of the order together, before Moeen upped the ante with a frenetic innings of 51 from 52 balls that was notable for his running between the wickets – he managed a total of one four and one six.Wharf bowled both Moeen and Daryl Mitchell, while Glamorgan’s spin twins, Cosker and Croft, picked up a wicket apiece and kept Worcestershire honest in the middle of the innings. But in the final analysis, the team from the top division proved too strong for the pretenders, as the status quo was maintained for this season at least.

Cricket South Africa is set to review its decision to suspend bilateral relations with Zimbabwe Cricket in the light of Norman Arendse’s resignation as its president last week.Arendse was the instigator of the cutting of ties with ZC in June because of what he said was “the worsening situation in Zimbabwe”. At the time the move was greeted with surprise as CSA had been staunch supporters of Peter Chingoka and his board.While Arendse was openly critical of the situation inside Zimbabwe, other senior officials have steadfastly backed the Chingoka regime and have gone to great lengths to help Zimbabwe’s young players get as much exposure to quality cricket as possible.It is now believed that CSA will reconsider the decision when it meets on October 11 and it is quite possible that bilateral ties will be resumed almost immediately. The power-sharing agreement between Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangarai, assuming that it holds, makes a restoration of relations all the more likely.It is generally believed that any such about-turn will come too late for Zimbabwe to be admitted to South Africa’s provincial competitions in 2008-09, although they could be squeezed into the MTN Domestic Championship and Standard Bank Pro20.

Eleven of England’s 15-member squad for next year’s Women’s World Cup will be in India for a preparatory camp. The camp, to be held from November 3 to 12, will be held in Bangalore.The team will play two 50-over games during their stay, which also includes sessions on how to play spin. The camp will involve general net sessions, including ones for fielding, warm-up routines and yoga.Charlotte Edwards, England’s captain and the 2008 ICC Women’s Player of the Year, will be part of the team in Bangalore, as well as Claire Taylor, the No. 1 batsman in the recently-released ICC women’s rankings. Coach Mark Lane and assistant coach Jack Birkenshaw will accompany the players. The camp will be a useful boost for the players, since England have no international games scheduled till the World Cup in Australia in February 2008.Four players from England’s World Cup squad – Holly Colvin, Lydia Greenway, Nicky Shaw and Jenny Gunn – won’t be part of the camp. Colvin, Greenway and Gunn are playing club cricket in Australia while Shaw couldn’t take time off work to attend the camp.Mark Lane, the England women’s coach, said it was assistant coach Jack Birkenshaw’s idea to hold a training camp in India. “He thought it would be a great opportunity to do something different and Clare Connor [ECB head of women’s cricket] was totally supportive of the trip,” Lane told edcb.co.uk.”It’s a really full-on schedule with a couple of games too,” he explained. “It will be a fantastic experience for everyone involved. We want to see how they perform under pressure in a different environment. We want to take them out of their comfort zone. They are going to play on slow, low, turning wickets and will learn how to bat against spin bowling and hitting the ball into gaps. That’s important as rotating the strike is crucial in women’s cricket.”Squad for India camp: Charlotte Edwards, Caroline Atkins, Katherine Brunt, Isa Guha, Lauren Griffiths, Laura Marsh, Beth Morgan, Ebony Rainford-Brent, Anya Shrubsole, Claire Taylor, Sarah Taylor.