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Pakistan got back into their winning ways with a commendable 28-run victory over Sri Lanka in the second game of the Morocco Cup Wednesday.Pakistan, beaten by South Africa Monday, earned their success through a disciplined performance that displayed their firepower with the bat, athleticism in the field, and bite and penetration in bowling.Put into bat by Sanath Jayasuriya, Pakistan rode on excellent half centuries from Saeed Anwar,Inzamam-ul-Haq and Man-of-the-Match Younis Khan to post an imposing 279 for five.Waqar Younis’s men restricted Sri Lanka to 251 for eight after they had made a breezy start by putting on 82 for one in the first 15 overs. Pakistan were, however, fined five per cent of their match fee for slow over-rate.Saeed’s return to his majestic best or Inzamam’s ability to carry the innings through or Younis’s and Abdul Razzaq’s whirlwind finish with a ruthless slaughter of Sri Lankan bowlers in the death overs was no big surprise because they all are well capable of doing this.Usually lethargic and lazy fielders were on their toes throughout the 50 overs. They backed their bowlers by cutting off ones and twos, held all the catches that came their way except Inzamam, who dropped Upal Chandana when the ball was lost in the sun, and Imran Nazir who grassed a sitter of Atapattu in the fifth over.Also impressive was Pakistan’s bowling in the absence of Shoaib Akhtar. After Jayasuriya (36 off 33) took the attack to Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, the young guns in Sami, Razzaq and Shahid Afridi rose to the occasion and bowled intelligently, according to the field.Sami’s inclusion gave the attack the option that was missing in the absence of Shoaib Akhtar. Sami bowled almost regularly at 143kph that made it difficult for the batsmen to adjust and throw their arms around. Shahid made full use of a bouncy track by bowling to a teasing line and length while Razzaq was as mean as ever to end up with three for 36.It was this young trio that tightened the screws around Sri Lanka when they conceded 111 runs from their 30 overs. Such was the accuracy of the three that when Chandana hit Shahid was a six in the 35th over, it was the first boundary in 81 balls. For a change, it was Wasim and Waqar who got the hammering. The two old war horses gave away 133 runs between them, with the skipper being hit away for 77 after grabbing five for 38 only a couple of days back.In the batting, there was purpose, planning and strategy evident from the way they handled spin king Muthiah Muralitharan. None of the batsmen took chances against him and concentrated on keeping their wickets intact but missed no opportunity to punish bad balls.Saeed showed his class and wristy elegance with some exquisite stroke-play. But he must be regretting the opportunity of missing his 20th century, his first in two years, when he was bowled by Chandana while trying to manufacture a single after having hit a six and four in three balls. Saeed scored 70 off 77 balls that included seven boundaries and a six.Inzamam played the role of the most seasoned player with perfection while contributing 63 off 95 balls that included five fours and a six. But it was Younis Khan’s clean hitting that helped Pakistan collect 99 off the last 10 overs, including 55 from the final five overs. The best stroke of the match also came from the willow of Younis when he swept fast bowler Dilhara Fernando for an incredible six over square-leg. Younis slapped five fours and two sixes in his unbeaten 39-ball 56.Together with Razzaq, who scored 29 off 11 balls with two fours and as many sixes, Younis put on 50 runs for the unfinished sixth wicket from 22 balls. The two were also responsible for spoiling Chaminda Vaas’s figures when they hit him for 35 runs in his last two overs, including 25 in the final over of the innings.

SYDNEY – Matthew Hayden has gone top of the PricewaterhouseCoopersratings of Test cricketers for the first time.After scoring 119 runs in his seven-hour innings in Sharjah last week -more than the Pakistan team scored in the whole match, Hayden hasclaimed the top place from team-mate Adam Gilchrist.India’s Sachin Tendulkar is in third, Pakistani Inzamam-ul-Haq fourthwhile West Indian Brian Lara rounds out the top five.Australia’s Damien Martyn has moved three places to number 10, whileAustralian captain Steve Waugh is in 18th as his average slipped below50 to 49.39 after scores of 31, 0 and 0 on his current tour againstPakistan.

The number of Hawke Cup challenges each summer will be reduced if a recommendation to a forum of district associations of New Zealand Cricket is accepted this weekend.The reduction will affect the South Island which until this year had two challengers.However, with only eight districts, five in Canterbury and three in Otago – compared to eight in Northern Districts and seven in Central Districts – it has been recommended that the winners of the Canterbury and Otago elimination series play off to decide the South Island challenger.Up until this year there had been five annual challenges, one from each of the zones, and the fifth from a play-off between the second-placed sides in Northern Districts and Central Districts.Manawatu is the Hawke Cup holder at the moment.The thinking behind the reduction of challenges is to free up more resources for associations across the board.

A century from Nasser Hussain and a partnership of 145 for the fourth wicket with John Crawley put England into a commanding position after the first day of the first npower Test against India at Lord’s. India had enjoyed early success in taking three wickets, but they then had to toil on an increasingly flat pitch so that, by the close, England were solidly in control at 257 for four.Mark Butcher opened the innings with Michael Vaughan in the absence of Marcus Trescothick with a broken thumb. Trescothick’s absence accounted for a much slower scoring rate than usual, but the openers faced considerable movement with the new ball, with Ashish Nehra in particular getting the ball to go up the slope. He sometimes actually got too much movement, as when he bowled a big wide that had wicket-keeper Ajay Ratra scrambling across to prevent more extras.Zaheer Kahn was accuracy personified so it was not until his fifth over that he conceded his first run. By that time he had accounted for Michael Vaughan who was trapped right in front before either he or England had opened their account.Nasser Hussain took some to get going with his emphasis on survival, but he gradually began to extend his ambitions with a searing square drive off the bowling of Zaheer. Butcher too began to appear more comfortable and this pair reached a fifty partnership, albeit off 108 balls.They appeared set to go through until the interval, but Anil Kumble, bowling the penultimate over before lunch, found a ball that turned onto Butcher’s pad off the inside edge of the bat and Wasim Jaffer stretched out to his right at short leg to hold onto a smart catch. Butcher was out for 29 at exactly the wrong time from the side’s point of view.Graham Thorpe announced himself at the crease by square driving his first ball through the off side for four, while Hussain was content to remain until the interval at which point he had 37 and England were 76 for two.Just as England had lost a wicket in the second over of the day, so they lost another in the second over after lunch. Zaheer was the bowler again, finding a peach of a ball that went down the hill enough to beat Thorpe’s tentative push and clip the off stump.Once more, Hussain had to rebuild the innings, this time in company with John Crawley. He went to a necessarily laborious fifty from 128 balls, but it was punctuated with some quality strokes producing nine fours. Crawley, meanwhile was batting with a certain freedom and fluidity that was good to see in a player returning to Test cricket after a lengthy absence.After Thorpe’s dismissal, the afternoon proved to be a good one for England. The 101 runs added in the session came from 30 overs, with both batsmen gaining in fluency. Crawley was particularly successful through the off side, off both back and front foot, while Hussain went about his business in a thoroughly professional manner so that by tea he was on 82 and Crawley 48 out of a total of 177 for three.Hussain had scored a century against India during the NatWest Series final on this ground just ten days ago and now he repeated the feat with what, it has to be said, was a much better innings. His third Test century against India and his eleventh in total came from 192 balls with 17 fours – some caressed through the off side, and others thumped back past the bowler.He received excellent support from Crawley in a partnership that was blossoming into one of sizeable proportions. After the initial movement, the bowlers were struggling to contain the batsmen to the extent that Nehra was operating with a sweeper on the cover boundary in an attempt to stem the flow of runs.Saurav Ganguly’s options were becoming limited with his attack toiling on what was now a flat pitch so he resorted to the somewhat occasional off-spin of Virender Sehwag. As so often happens in these circumstances, it was Sehwag who made the breakthrough. The partnership was worth 145 and Crawley was on 64 when he cut at a ball that bounced a little more than he expected and he chopped it to Rahul Dravid at slip.This was the cue for extended applause as Alec Stewart made his way to the middle in his 119th Test – a record for England. With his radiantly proud parents looking on, Stewart eased himself into his task of keeping his captain company through until stumps.That task was accomplished as Hussain managed to keep his concentration just about intact to close on 120 with Stewart still there on 19 and both ready to press home England’s hard-won advantage on the morrow.

Two partnerships, both involving Jon Dakin, saved Leicestershire’s blushes after they had declined to 88-6 in mid-afternoon, the first, with Neil Burns, yielding 59 and the second, with Carl Crowe, putting on 92.There was some early life in the pitch, which had spent the first two days under the covers, and Ed Giddins soon had Iain Sutcliffe lbw with an inswinger before finding Darren Maddy’s outside edge with one that left him.Ben Smith and Aftab Habib brought about a partial recovery that ended when Smith chipped Martin Bicknell tamely to mid off. Bicknell followed up by having Habib and Darren Stevens caught in the gully and Daniel Marsh lbw.Bicknell’s burst of four for five in 11 balls left Leicestershire dismally placed but Burns and Dakin counter-attacked boldly, their 50 partnership containing 11 fours, six of them to Dakin whose first 24 runs came entirely in boundaries.When Ian Salisbury came on Burns immediately drove a full toss to mid on but Crowe quickly established himself, playing skilfully wide of mid on. Dakin, meanwhile, controlled his aggressive instincts as Leicestershire moved steadily out of trouble.Giddins returned to have Crowe caught at cover, Dakin caught at mid-wicket hooking, and James Ormond caught behind to finish with 5-48 as Leicestershire were dismissed for 246. Surrey raced to 46 without loss in the seven overs remaining, Nadeem Shahid being missed at slip by Habib when 17.

Somerset Second Eleven enjoyed the best of the second day of their rain interrupted championship match against Glamorgan today at the County Ground in Taunton.After winning the toss Glamorgan asked their hosts to bat first, a decision that they may well have regretted as the day wore on and the wicket became easier paced.Scott Cunningham, a triallist from Yorkshire, was the star turn for Somerset. Coming in at number five the right handed batsman shared in two century partnerships, putting on 115 for the 6th wicket with James Hudson (74) and then adding 102 with Martin Dobson (48) for the seventh.Cunningham eventually moved to his own century and remained unbeaten on 125 when Somerset declared on 351 for 9. In all the young man from Yorkshire faced 217 balls and hit 17×4’s.For Glamorgan former Millfield School pupil Dean Cosker took 4 for 44.Glamorgan faced a testing twenty overs before the close of play and lost their first wicket with the score on 12 when Pete Trego claimed one of the openers LBW in the fourth over.The match continues tomorrow

A gripping final day in the second Test between West Indies and SouthAfrica seems certain after the home side, chasing 232 for victoryand a 1-0 lead, closed on 32-1 after dismissing the tourists for 287 in theirsecond innings.Shaun Pollock, Allan Donald and Jacques Kallis tried desperately toengineer a breakthrough in the 11 overs the West Indies were required toface at the end of day four and it was Kallis who succeeded by trappingWavell Hinds (2) lbw in the seventh of those overs.Chris Gayle played with his usual freedom, despite the pressure of theoccasion, cutting and driving Donald for a pair of boundaries in his thirdover to reach 18 not out while nightwatchman Dinanath Ramnarine survived,somehow, to reach 11.The day began superbly for the tourists who had fought back from 38-2 onday three to reach 130-2 at the close, a lead of 74. Daryll Cullinan andHerchelle Gibbs again began positively when play began on day four,collecting 42 runs in the first hour as Carl Hooper attacked in search ofearly wickets.The third wicket stand had reached 149 before Cullinan aimed a wild slogat Ramnarine’s leg spin but succeeded only in carving the bowler to BrianLara at cover to depart for an otherwise brilliant 73 from 178 balls. Butenormous credit must go to Hooper’s ingenious field placings and tacticsthat saw the normally fluent Cullinan score just six boundaries.Gibbs departed in the fourth over after lunch after five hours and 50minutes at the crease and, once again, it was cunning and guile thatdefeated him as Courtney Walsh persuaded him to shove the umpteenth “ribdelivery” to square leg where substitute Shivnarine Chanderpaul held a neatcatch diving forward. Gibbs faced 275 balls in his 87 and was also limited,by his standards, to 11 fours.A period of such intense pressure then followed that South Africa scoredjust 10 runs in the hour after lunch and a mere 45 in the afternoon sessionas Walsh produced a spell of 6-5-1-1. When he made way for Merv Dillon thewicket followed first ball as Lance Klusener (5) lashed out a Dillon’s wideloosener and edged to Gayle at slip.An out of form Neil McKenzie’s excruciating sojourn finally came to aend when Dillon flicked an inside edge to give Ridley Jacobs the catch andsend the batsman on his way for 25 scratchy runs from 134 balls.Mark Boucher produced a typically aggressive counter-attack but on 38 heattempted to pull a Dillon delivery that kept low, nipped back and rattledthe top of middle stump.The final three wickets, usually so productive for South Africa,scrambled just 23 more runs as the irrepressible, ageless Walsh pounded infrom the pavilion end for over after over to finish with 6-62 in 36 overs,as inspiring a performance as one could see in Test cricket.The home side may have been less well placed by the close had Cullinanheld a sharp catch at slip off the bowling of Pollock when Gayle was on 17and Ramnarine carved a Kallis delivery toward Boje in the gulley but thefielder failed to pick the flight of the ball and never moved.Although the pitch is playing almost as well as it has throughout thematch, 200 runs on the final day – with tension and nerves bound to play apart – seems certain to produce a thriller.

Sachin Tendulkar on Tuesday joined the group of legendary cricketers whose names embellish the Wankhede Stadium with the Mumbai Cricket Association deciding to name the MCA pavilion after the Indian battingmaestro.The proposal to honour Tendulkar after he became the first batsman to score 10,000 runs in one-day cricket, was cleared at the MCA’s marathon four hour meeting on Tuesday night which was chaired by vice president of the association Pravin Barve.Barve while making the announcement said, "the Mumbai star who achieved a milestone during the recent home series against Australia and was awarded the prestigious Maharashtra Bhushan award by the state government would be felicitated by the association on May 23 at the Wankhede stadium."The 28-year old Tendulkar, the recipient of `Padmashree’ and`Maharashtra Bhushan’ awards, will now join the ranks of former Indianstars Vijay Merchant, Vinoo Mankad, Polly Umrigar, Sunil Gavaskar and Vijay Manjrekar after whom certain sections of the stadium have been named.The East and West Stands have been named after Gavaskar and Merchant, while the two main gates of the stadium are known as Umrigar and Mankad Gates and the dressing room has been named after Manjrekar.

Overview

New Zealand are Twenty20 cricket’s Even Stevens. This year, they have won four T20 internationals and lost four. Their record at the World T20 is eight wins and eight losses. Overall in the shortest format they have won 25 and lost 25. It is a respectable enough record for a country whose talent pool is not the deepest. But the thing about breaking even is that while you don’t go bust, nor do you reap any kind of profit. And that’s the situation New Zealand find themselves in at this year’s World T20. It might be a case of stating the obvious, but if New Zealand want to add another major piece of silverware to sit alongside the 2000 ICC Knockout Trophy, they must find a way to win more than they lose. Does that mean taking more risks? Perhaps. Whatever the case, there is enough individual talent in their batting line-up to suggest that they can post some decent totals in this format. Remarkable as it may seem, New Zealand are the only team with two of the top five batsmen in the ICC’s T20 rankings: Brendon McCullum at No. 1 and Martin Guptill at No. 5. And only Australia have hit more sixes in T20 history than New Zealand. The challenge is to turn those figures into something tangible.Finding a way to bowl teams out cheaply could be New Zealand’s problem. In the past three years they have conceded three 200-plus totals, the same as India, while no other country has conceded that many more than once. It will help that Daniel Vettori has come out of retirement from T20 internationals for this tournament. His career economy rate of 5.50 is outstanding; among players in this tournament only Vettori and Ajantha Mendis have sustained such a low economy rate for any length of time. He and Nathan McCullum, who is fifth on the ICC’s rankings for T20 international bowlers, will form a tricky spin duo and should ease the burden on the seam attack. But the fast men cannot afford to leak too many runs, because to have any chance of reaching the final stages of the World T20, New Zealand need all parts of their game firing simultaneously.

Key Player

It’s no surprise that Brendon McCullum is the No. 1-ranked T20 international batsman in the world. He has scored more T20 international runs than any other player, he has passed fifty more times than anyone else, hit the most sixes and struck the most fours. In any team he would be the most important player; in a side like New Zealand, even more so. His ability to clear the boundary, and to sustain that throughout an innings, will go a long way to determining how far New Zealand can go in this tournament.

Surprise package

At the last World T20, James Franklin was not considered good enough to earn a place in New Zealand’s squad, and he promptly went away and reinvented himself as an excellent T20 batsman, sometimes as an opener and sometimes in the middle order. Only Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor and Scott Styris have scored more T20 runs among New Zealanders than Franklin, who has enjoyed playing in the subcontinent during his time with the Mumbai Indians in the IPL. He will also provide a useful bowling option if New Zealand go in to matches with a spin-heavy attack.

Weakness

There is firepower in New Zealand’s batting, but they must find a way to restrict their opponents when bowling. The problem is their fast men. Kyle Mills, Tim Southee, Adam Milne, Doug Bracewell and Franklin all have T20 career economy rates of more than eight an over. The only seamer in the squad with a figure below that is Jacob Oram. His economy rate is 7.99. Vettori and Nathan McCullum can only do so much.

World T20 history

New Zealand reached the semi-finals of the inaugural World T20, losing to Pakistan, but they didn’t make it past the Super Eights in 2009 or 2010. Their win-loss record at the World T20 is eight wins and eight losses.

Recent form

New Zealand’s tendency to break even has continued this year, as they have won four T20s and lost four. They beat Zimbabwe 2-0, suffered a 2-1 defeat at the hands of South Africa, lost 2-0 to West Indies in Florida and then beat India 1-0.

At the end of another eventful day, East Zone were scenting victory intheir Duleep Trophy match against South Zone at the Maharaja BirBikram College Stadium in Agartala on Friday. Eleven runs behind onthe first innings, South Zone were all out for 177 in their secondknock. Requiring 167 runs for victory, East Zone were 71 for two atstumps. With only 96 runs more required and eight wickets in hand,they must start the third day as favourites.Resuming at three for no loss, South Zone were again rocked byDebasish Mohanty who dismissed both openers Sridharan Sriram (14) andA Nandakishore (18) with only 42 runs on the board. However, SouthZone’s fortunes were, for a short while, in the safe hands of RahulDravid and VVS Laxman. The two India stars added 67 runs for the thirdwicket off 18 overs and at 109 for two, South Zone seemed poised for achallenging total. However Assam left arm spinner Sukhbinder Singh hadLaxman caught and bowled for 40 and there was precious littlesubstance in the South Zone batting thereafter. Laxman faced 66 ballsand hit seven fours.Mohanty came back to dismiss Vijay Bhardwaj (1) for his 13th wicket ofthe match. Sukhbinder then had VST Naidu leg before for eight. SunilJoshi became the third successive lbw victim when he was dismissed byMohanty. Aashish Kapoor and Javagal Srinath were dismissed offsuccessive deliveries from Sukhbinder and South Zone had slumped to138 for eight.Dravid was holding one end up and he now found an able partner in WDBalaji Rao with whom he added 35 runs for the ninth wicket off eightovers. However Sukhbinder brought the innings to a swift end when inone over he had the wickets of Dravid and Venkatesh Prasad. Dravid,who batted a shade over three hours for 66, faced 143 balls and hiteight of them to the ropes. But the chief honours were claimed bySukhbinder who finished with six for 57. Mohanty’s bag of four for 45gave him a match haul of 14 for 91.East Zone required only a modest target but were rocked by Indianpacemen Srinath and Prasad. While P Jai Chandra was bowled by Prasadfor three, RR Parida was bowled by Srinath for a duck. East Zone werein trouble at eight for two. But Indian opener Shiv Sundar Das andSanjay Raul weathered the storm with an unbroken third wicketpartnership of 63 runs off 29.3 overs. By close, Das was batting on 49compiled off 108 balls with seven fours. Raul was on 15.