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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.

Old Georgians shrugged off Mutare Sports Club’s dominance of club cricket this season to win the Castle Lager National First League knockout final by 12 runs under the Duckworth-Lewis method at HarareSports Club on Sunday 17 March.The victory was, in a way, a consolation for OGs after they had narrowly missed out on the National First League title. They finished equal on points with champions Mutare but lost out by virtue of an inferior net run rate.The environment at the international venue made a mockery of the final. There was a small crowd of not more than 100, with the majority housed in the new VIP stand while a few were having drinks at the Keg. A `Jumping Castle’ mounted for the kids was largely deserted for the better part of the day and there was no need to operate the big scoreboards at the ground which were last used during the one-day series against England in October last year.In the field all-rounders Gus Mackay and Craig Evans set up the Old Georgians victory with an outstanding display with both the bat and the ball. Evans, batting at number four, hit a six and six fours in making his 53. He had looked comfortable until the first ball of the 36th over when he was brilliantly caught by a diving Taylor at long on while attempting a six.Mackay provided entertainment for the small crowd with an aggressive batting display that saw him score 87 off just 59 balls, smashing six sixes and three fours. Off the first ball of the 45th over, bowled by Guy Whittall, Mackay smashed a big six that landed on the roof of the VIP lounge, and it took almost five minutes for a groundsman to locate the ball. The umpires were already making arrangements for a new ball.When play resumed Mackay smashed another huge six, which disappeared behind the VIP lounge but this time it was located quickly. When he tried another big shot off the third ball he only managed to reach IanCoulson at deep fine leg to leave the score on 237 for eight. OGs were eventually bowled out for 248 after 48.4 overs.Richard Sims claimed three wickets for 32 off 10 overs while Whittall finished with expensive figures of 10-2-62-2.Mutare’s innings was then interrupted by a heavy downpour, which pounded the capital in the afternoon, resulting in 13 overs being lost. Their target was then revised to 213 off 37 overs.The visitors lost wickets regularly with all-rounder Richard Sims being the only defiant batsman. Batting at number three, he scored 84 runs off 85 balls while the second-best contribution came from opener Neil Ferreira, who scored 31.With Evans taking four wickets for 43 off eight overs, Mutare Sports Club could only reach 201 for eight off their allotted 37 overs to concede the match by 12 runs. The result meant that they could not emulate former champions Old Hararians’ feat of claiming both the league championship and the knockout title.While the game marked the end of Mutare’s domestic club season, OGs still have a chance of grabbing another title when they take part in the Mashonaland Knockout Shield which starts on 20 April. OGs will take on Takashinga in the first round while Universals meet Harare Sports Club.Old Hararians will meet the winner of the Universals/HSC match while Alex will play the winner of OGs/Takashinga in the semi-finals on 27 April. The final will be held on 4 May. The first round and the semi-final will be played over 35 overs while the final will be played over 40 overs.NATIONAL FIRST LEAGUE KNOCK-OUT FINALMUTARE SPORTS CLUB v OLD GEORGIANS SPORTS CLUB
Played at Harare Sports Club on 17 March 2002Old Georgians won by 12 runsOld Georgians
248 all out in 48.4 overs
Lance Malloch-Brown 29, Barney Rogers 30, Craig Evans 53, Angus Mackay 87, Glen Barrett 20
Leon Soma 1 – 17, Jonathon Brent 2 – 42, Justin Lewis 1 – 59, Guy Whittall 2 – 62, Richard Sims 3 – 32Mutare
201 for 8 wickets in 37 overs
Neil Ferreira 31, Richard Sims 84, Andre Soma 25, Jonathon Brent 17
Angus Mackay 1 – 31, Wadington Mwayenga 2 – 27, Craig Evans 4 – 43, Barney Rogers 1 – 26
Rain interrupted play when Mutare had score 99 for 4 wickets off 21.4 overs. 13 overs were lost due to the interruption and Mutare were given a revised target of 214 runs.

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.

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.

Zimbabwe wrapped up their first Test victory at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo 15 balls into the afternoon session of the fourth day, beating Bangladesh by an innings and 32 runs. Their pacemen did the damage, despite bowling too many loose deliveries, and their only serious obstacle was opener Javed Omar, who carried his bat through the innings for 85, the first player to do so on his debut for over 100 years and only the third in history.Play started 25 minutes early due to the early stoppage on the third evening, with Bangladesh 91 for two. Javed Omar, helped again by too many inaccurate deliveries from Zimbabwe’s pace bowlers, soon moved from 47 to the second 50 of his Test debut.Aminul Islam, though, was not content to feed off the diet of leg-side balls coming the batsmen’s way and, lashing at a short ball from Streak outside the off stump, he was caught for 11 by Ebrahim running in from third man. Akram Khan scored a laborious eight before flicking Andy Blignaut behind square leg directly at the same fielder who made a very sharp chance look easy. Naimur Rahman (six) soon followed, pushing a return catch to Mluleki Nkala, and Bangladesh were 129 for four, still 71 behind, and with Khaled Mashud not expected to bat with a broken ankle.The tail was now in, and Mushfiqur Rahman made only two before being caught in the slips off Brighton Watambwa, while Hasibul Hussain (six), determined to do or die, managed both before snicking the third ball he faced to third slip off Heath Streak. Mohammed Sharif (eight) lasted just 12 balls before being out to a sharp catch in the gully by Grant Flower off Blignaut, when perhaps the tail-enders should have made more effort to support Javed, who was approaching a debut century.Last man Manjural Islam (six) also showed little desire to knuckle down and see Javed through to his century, and after being dropped by Andy Flower, a very difficult chance off a skied hook, he pushed a return catch to Blignaut, leaving the opener stranded on 85. He did, however, have the consolation of entering the record books and winning a rare Man of the Match award for a player from a team that had just suffered an innings defeat.Bangladesh, despite their innings defeat, were not humiliated, while Zimbabwe were perhaps flattered by the margin of their fourth victory in 49 Tests. They would be wise to seek more consistency in all departments of the game in the second match due to start at Harare Sports Club on Thursday.

Trevor Bayliss, the Sri Lanka coach, has praised his bowlers for their consistency and discipline on a flat SSC pitch after they captured five wickets to reduce India to 669 for 9 on the fourth day in Colombo.”What we are happy about is that we stuck to our game plan and have been able to bowl to those fielding plans,” Bayliss said. “Everyone knows it’s been a very good batting wicket and a very difficult one for the bowlers to bowl on. We’ve been striving for over a period of time to be consistent and have discipline and we’ve shown that.”Some of the plans may not have worked, but at least we bowled according to those plans and made it as difficult as possible for the Indians to score. It’s not often that you can get the Indians for less than 300 for two days in a row. Hats off to our boys, they’ve done pretty well to actually take nine wickets. It’s a great effort. On the wicket out there, every time you pitch it up, it went for four. It was pretty silly to keep pitching the ball up, so we thought we make it difficult for them to score and hopefully they make a mistake and get out.”Bayliss said the game would have taken a different turn had wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene held on to a catch off Sachin Tendulkar, when the batsman was on 29. He went on to score his fifth double-century and ensured India averted the follow-on. “When we took those three quick wickets, and if we were able to take another one or two, the game could have been different,” Bayliss said. “We put one catch down when he [Tendulkar] was on 29 and, when we looked back on it, it was a reasonably easy chance. By no means blaming the ‘keeper, who is one of the best in the world, he’s a done a great job for us in the past.”If we had been able to take that catch who knows what might have happened. The great players probably don’t get any more luck than anyone else. They take advantage of that luck and he’s [Tendulkar] certainly done that in this match.”Bayliss also said that it was unfair to compare the bowlers comprising the present bowling attack with Lasith Malinga and Muttiah Muralitharan. “It’s a bit hard to judge the bowlers on their performances in this match. We played on this wicket before. It’s been flat and the great Murali has struggled to take wickets as well.”Sri Lanka won’t take as many wickets in a hurry like they have done in the past with Murali in the team. This is a very flat wicket on the last two days and we got two young bowlers [Ajantha Mendis and Suraj Randiv], who bowled extremely well with two and four wickets, which is a good performance.”Bayliss said a bit of extra grass on the pitch would have been ideal for the bowlers. “You will be surprised how much the ball will turn, there might be a little bit of movement and pace for the fast bowlers, and the batters would enjoy the ball coming onto the bat a little more. The wicket will have a little more for the spinners to grip on to.”Bayliss said Sri Lanka would go out and get some batting practice on the final day and keep the Indians on the field for as long as possible ahead of the deciding Test at the P Sara Stadium.

Auckland Aces may be one of the smallest fish in the Champions League T20 and the side that has traveled the furthest to compete, but as Sialkot and Hampshire discovered in the qualifiers, their bite can be just as fearsome as that of the bigger predators around. Auckland had failed to qualify for the Champions League main event in 2011, but have turned the disappointment of that failure into determination. They arrived in South Africa two weeks before the qualifying round to acclimatise and prepare after a wet New Zealand winter, and two emphatic victories first up suggests the extra investment was a worthwhile one.Auckland have the advantage of not having to surrender any of their best players to the IPL sides, and the explosive top order that was the bedrock of their HRV Cup success has already shown glimpses of form in South Africa. In Martin Guptill and Azhar Mahmood, Auckland have two of the more under-rated strikers of the ball, and although Lou Vincent only played a limited role in the HRV Cup because of injury, he has been a vital cog in the Auckland machine for years. Colin Munro, Anaru Kitchen and Colin de Grandhomme also pack plenty of firepower through the middle, with de Grandhomme having been elevated to the international Twenty20 side after he showcased a zest for finishing powerfully in the domestic competition.The bowling is spearheaded by Kyle Mills, and though it is not an attack that will daunt their Champions League opposition, it has the variety to expose an array of flaws. Left armer Michael Bates made a name for himself as a death-bowling specialist, but proved penetrative at the top of the innings in the last HRV cup, while Mills and Andre Adams have enough experience between them to defuse most crises. Azhar Mahmood is another steady seam option, and Ronnie Hira provides miserly left-arm spin as well. Like de Grandhomme, both Bates and Hira also earned international call-ups on the back of their HRV Cup performances. The bowling is supported superlatively in the field, and Auckland can claim to be among the best domestic fielding sides in the world.

How they qualified

Auckland won eight of the ten matches they played in the HRV Cup, and were effectively frontrunners for the entire competition. They had lost their last round-robin game to Canterbury, but regrouped beautifully to bury the same team by 44 runs in a one-sided final.

Key player

Martin Guptill was the HRV Cup’s top runscorer, and he carried that form into New Zealand’s home summer, in which he made five international fifties in a row. Brutal down the ground and almost as quick to dispatch short bowling, Auckland will almost invariably be competitive when he has a good day. He does tend to fall over to the offside, making him a candidate for LBWs on seaming pitches, but Auckland will expect him to overcome that weakness and provide the fillips they have grown accustomed to from him at the beginning of the innings.

Surprise package

Ronnie Hira‘s forte is his parsimony, but he topped the wicket-taker’s list in the HRV Cup with 14 scalps – most of which came when batsmen looked to attack him. He can also sustain a good strike rate over short bursts, and is one of the best fielders in a side littered with quick movers.

Weakness

Auckland’s batsmen have flourished against pace, but with precious little high quality spin going around in New Zealand’s domestic circuit, oppositions may want to test them with slow bowling early in their innings. The middle order in particular is limited in its range of strokes, and if spinners can force the batsmen to hit to less-favoured parts of the ground, they may expose flaws in their techniques.

Australia coach Darren Lehmann has, in an extraordinary outburst against England allrounder Stuart Broad, underlined his anger over Broad’s decision to not walk at a crucial juncture of the first Test by calling for Australian crowds to get at Broad in the return Ashes series later this year.”Certainly our players haven’t forgotten, they’re calling him everything under the sun as they go past,” Lehmann said in an interview to the TripleM station. “I hope the Australian public are the same because that was just blatant cheating. I don’t advocate walking but when you hit it to first slip it’s pretty hard.”Lehmann’s comments come a day ahead of the final Test at the Oval, with Australia striving to avoid an unprecedented fourth Test defeat in a Ashes series. It might have turned out to be a closer contest had Broad walked after edging into the keeper’s leg, with the ball then carrying to slip, in a tightly fought first Test. Instead, he stood his ground and was involved in a match-changing 138-run stand with Ian Bell for the seventh wicket.”From my point of view I just hope the Australian public give it to him right from the word go for the whole summer and I hope he cries and he goes home,” Lehmann said. “I just hope everyone gets stuck into him because the way he’s carried on and the way he’s commented in public about it is ridiculous.”He knew he hit it to slip. The biggest problem there is the poor umpire cops all the crap that he gets in paper and Stuart Broad makes him look like a fool. From my point of view it’s poor, so I hope the public actually get stuck into him.”Broad had re-opened debate about the incident by speaking unrepentantly and brazenly about it earlier in the week. “Yes, I knew I’d hit it,” he said. “But if you go through the series and look at the Australian players who have nicked it and not walked you could name several — Warner, Rogers, Khawaja, Smith, Clarke, Agar. I mean it’s quite a lot of players for it to be a big issue. Why are people picking on me? Well, it’s the way our media works I suppose.”It’s a bit silly when people say I edged to slip because it was actually an edge to the keeper that went off his gloves to slip. I went down the other end and Ian Bell said, “What’s happened there? I didn’t hear anything”. And Agar asked me if I’d nicked it because he wasn’t sure. It wasn’t as clear-cut as everybody thought.”By deciding to stand his ground, Broad said he had demonstrated the hard-edged attitude that Australia had used to great effect against England in previous years. “Australian cricket has a win-at-all-costs mentality whereas in England it can be ‘let’s shake hands and have a beer’,” he said. “Maybe that’s why they won non-stop for 20 years against us but there’s one thing for sure about this England team and that is we’re tough.”We’ve come through tricky times and have stood up to be counted. We do have a win-at-all-costs mentality. We’ve been accused of all sorts of things this summer, like the tripe about tape on our bats, but that’s not what the series will be remembered for. It’s winning that will be remembered.”

Sri Lanka’s tour of Zimbabwe is in doubt with the SLC saying the hosts have sought a postponement. Sri Lanka were scheduled to tour Zimbabwe from October 6 to November 4 for two Tests, three ODIs and two T20s.”We received an e-mail from the Zimbabwe Cricket Union seeking a postponement of the tour and the reason given was ‘due to unavoidable circumstances’,” Nishantha Ranatunga, secretary of Sri Lanka Cricket, said. “No further reasons were given by the Zimbabwe Cricket Union and we are awaiting further clarification on this matter.”Wilfred Mukondiwa, MD of Zimbabwe Cricket, told ESPNcricinfo: “We are in negotiations with Sri Lanka. We are always talking to other home boards, that is the normal course of business. At the opportune time, and when I have heard back from my Sri Lankan colleagues, we will make an announcement.”According to recent reports, ZC, which hosted India in July and is currently hosting Pakistan, is not in the best financial position to host a third country within the space of four months. Following the threat of a player boycott before the Pakistan series, the board had also agreed to pay its cricketers match fees. Earlier this month, the boards had made a change to the schedule, adding two T20s to the existing Future Tours Programme schedule of two Tests and three ODIs.

ScorecardPakistan international Yasir Arafat blew Warwickshire away•Associated Press

Somerset’s supporters have had good reason to grumble on occasions this season. But all that another bumper crowd at Taunton needed to do today was lap up wall-to-wall sunshine and roar their approval at a near perfect performance.Championship cricket continues to be a real struggle for this team but when it comes to limited-overs stuff, they are now well and truly punching their weight – even without Marcus Trescothick, currently sidelined by an ankle injury.Warwickshire were on a little bit of a roll themselves before this afternoon with three consecutive Friends Life t20 victories to add to a sudden revival of four-day fortunes. But here, the Bears were completely and utterly flattened – knocked onto the ropes by a bowling and fielding performance almost without blemish and then floored with a ruthless batting display that saw victory achieved inside nine overs.There cannot have been many more one-sided games in the relatively short history of T20s – and none more embarrassing for Warwickshire, who had never before been dismissed for fewer than three figures.The visitors had won three games while batting second to ease themselves level on points with third-placed Somerset in this tight group. But here they chose to set a target and then saw only two players – Darren Maddy and Rikki Clarke – reach double figures on a pitch offering a bit of zip but nothing untoward.There was not a weak link for Somerset but three players best summed up their terrific performance: widely travelled paceman Yasir Arafat, wicketkeeper Craig Kieswetter and would-be stumper Jos Buttler.Arafat, the 31-year-old Pakistani who has appeared for Kent, Lancashire, Surrey, Sussex and now Somerset in this country, was a relatively late and fairly low-key T20 signing by the Taunton hierarchy. But he has been on song since the start of this competition and scarcely wasted a delivery here while returning the remarkable figures of 4 for 5 from three overs.Like all the bowlers, Arafat was backed up by some terrific catching. The best of the lot was plucked out of the air, just inches off the ground, by a diving Nick Compton at backward point. The ball, carved away by Chris Woakes off Alfonso Thomas, appeared to be past the fielder but it somehow lodged in his left hand.Not far behind that take was the skier held by Buttler at deep backward square leg – pouched on the run, diving forward, when Varun Chopra must have thought he had got away with a slightly top-edged pull against Arafat.In Buttler’s ideal world, he would be behind the stumps in this form of cricket, gaining experience to enhance his England ambitions. That is not the way it is working out at Taunton, leaving Buttler to decide whether to seek pastures new at the end of this season. But he is a more than handy outfielder, a fact beyond dispute.And as for Kieswetter, currently out of England favour, everything went right on both sides of the stumps. He held three catches, two of them routine takes and the other a splendidly well-judged effort on the run, and then dashed off an unbeaten 39 to put Warwickshire out of their misery.There is still a long way to go in this group – both these teams have three more games to play. But on the evidence of this performance, only one of them looks to be on course for the quarter-finals.