Kevin Pietersen’s superb 142 in the second Test against Sri Lanka at Edgbaston has lifted him to a career-best tenth spot in the ICC Test rankings for batsmen. Pietersen had moved into the top 20 only a couple of weeks back after his 158 in the first Test at Lord’s. England now have three batsmen in the top 20 – Marcus Trescothick is in 11th place – down one slot – while Andrew Strauss is in 15th.Among the bowlers, Matthew Hoggard and Andrew Flintoff remain in fifth and sixth positions, though Hoggard’s tally of 795 points is his highest ever.It was a forgettable match for Sri Lanka, though Muttiah Muralitharan further strengthened his position at the top of the bowlers’ list with a match haul of 10 for 115. Kumar Sangakkara slipped two places to No.13 while Mahela Jayawardene dropped five slots to No.18 after disappointing performances with the bat. Michael Vandort’s hundred helped him break into the top 100 – he moved up 47 places to 78th.

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With a number of Australia’s top internationals nearing the end of their careers over the next couple of years, the forthcoming Top End series takes on greater importance as an opportunity for younger emerging players to stake their claim to the national side. So believes Allan Border, recently restored to the national selection panel.The series, due to begin shortly, is being played between A teams from India, Pakistan, New Zealand and hosts Australia in Darwin and Cairns and according to Border, it could not have come at a more opportune moment.Border believes performances over the next couple of years will help determine whether some of Australia’s older stars will be pushed out or go of their own accord. “That depends on the performance of the team generally and how good our young players are, and whether they’re pushing these guys,” Border told .Some of the A team players have already played Test cricket, all in the aftermath of the Ashes loss last year. Brad Hodge, Phil Jaques, Dan Cullen, Stuart Clark and Michael Hussey all toured Pakistan with the A team last October and have made their Test debuts since. Some – such as Hussey and Clark – have been immensely successful and become regulars.And, with the summer’s Ashes and next year’s World Cup expected to be among the last great challenges for Australia’s champion team, there can hardly be a better chance for Australia’s emerging players to make themselves irresistible.Others such as Shaun Tait, Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson will also be keen to put forth their international credentials. Border, at least, takes heart from the strength of Australia’s back-up.”I’m very excited about the talent pool we’ve got. What we realise is that Warne, (Glenn) McGrath, (Adam) Gilchrist … and all these players, they’re in our best ever sides. But when Shane Warne started playing, I don’t think we envisaged a 700-wicket Test cricketer, and I played in his first Test match.”There are probably players out there right now that maybe fit that bill and we don’t know it yet. That will be the exciting process over the next couple of years.”

Kenya have announced a 13-man squad for the forthcoming Intercontinental Cup and one-day matches against Canada in Toronto.The squad is a mix of youth and experience. Hitesh Modi, who has not made a one-day international fifty for four years but averaged 48 in the 2005 Intercontinental Cup, and Brijal Patel are included, as is Kennedy Otieno, was dropped after the series whitewash in Bangladesh and subsequently threatened to retire.Timothy Muange and Hiren Varaiya, who are both uncapped, have been drafted in, and Tanmay Mishra, the 19-year-old who was so impressive in Bangladesh, is also included.Kenya will leave for Canada next Wednesday, and Steve Tikolo, their captain, will join them on Sunday after completing his club commitments in the UK. Modi, another overseas-based player, will fly straight from London to Toronto.Kenya, who drew their opening Intercontinental Cup match with Holland, need to beat Canada to maintain their interest in the competition.Squad – Steve Tikolo (capt), Thomas Odoyo (vice-capt), Brijal Patel, Kennedy Otieno (wk), Tony Suji, Tanmay Mishra, Collins Obuya, Peter Ongondo, Nehemiah Odhiambo, Timothy Muange, Jimmy Kamande, Hitesh Modi, Hiren Varaiya

Andrew Strauss has backed Marcus Trescothick to play a full part in the Ashes series despite his withdrawal from the Champions Trophy squad, although he is likely to give up his place against Pakistan. Trescothick pulled out of the India trip to continue treatment for a stress-related illness he has suffered since England’s winter tour.”Australia is going to be a big test for all of us and it’s going to be a big test for Tres as well,” said Strauss as he prepared to lead England in the fourth one-day international against Pakistan. “He hasn’t got to the stage he’s at in his career without being able to overcome tests and I see no reason to see why he can’t do it again.”It’s so hard to put a value on how important Tres is to the team because he does so much off the pitch – he’s always helping out people when he can, he’s always trying to provide a good atmosphere in the dressing room and tries to set an example for other players to follow.”That has never changed and I don’t think it ever will do because it’s such an important part of who he is and the type of cricketer he is, but there are issues he has to address and I have no reason to suspect he won’t make a full recovery and be back for the Ashes and be raring to go.”Trescothick has had a poor summer, following a century in the first Test against Sri Lanka, and fell for a first-ball duck in the third ODI when he was bowled by Shoaib Akhtar. But Strauss says he has noticed very little difference in Trescothick, on the field, throughout the season.”From a personal point of view I haven’t seen any difference in the way he’s batted this summer. I know he hasn’t had the best of summers but in terms of what he’s been like out in the middle, I haven’t seen a problem.”I think it’s very much an off-field thing for him. On the field he can apply himself, but off the field there are problems which he needs to keep working on.”Trescothick is expected to be named in the Ashes squad, when the announcement is made on Tuesday, but Strauss couldn’t guarantee him his place for the remaining two matches against Pakistan.”There is a chance he won’t play, but we haven’t decided that yet. One side of the argument is to give someone else some experience, but Tres is a very experienced player for us and we want to win every game we play.”The selectors are likely to take the chance to have another look at Alastair Cook, who played two matches against Sri Lanka earlier in the summer, or hand Ed Joyce a belated opportunity in the side after his ankle injury during the Twenty20 against Sri Lanka. The other possible change, following the two-wicket defeat at the Rose Bowl, is a debut for Graham Onions in place of the erratic Sajid Mahmood.Pakistan’s problems, on the other hand, are of an altogether more prosaic nature. Inzamam-ul-Haq has urged his side to improve their fielding, which many felt was shambolic in the third ODI at the Rose Bowl, but which many others will recognise was hardly their worst. “We want to win this series comprehensively but to do that our fielding has to improve. We’ve been good with the bat and the ball but the fielding is simply not up to the mark. I’ve told the boys that the only way we can keep on winning ODIs is through better fiedling.”Bob Woolmer has urged his team not to get ahead of themselves despite being 2-0 up in the series. “One-day cricket is a lottery, we all know that,” he said. “England played very well at the Rose Bowl so we will have to be on our mettle if we are to win this game.”We need to lift that intensity level and do better than we did – and I think we can. Particularly in international cricket now any result is possible. We have to play better than we did there, where we were grateful to a fine innings from Younis Khan. But if you can win playing badly it’s not necessarily a bad thing.”England (probable) 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Ian Bell, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Jamie Dalrymple, 7 Rikki Clarke, 8 Chris Read (wk), 9 Jon Lewis, 10 Stuart Broad, 11 Graham OnionsPakistan (probable) 1 Shoaib Malik, 2 Mohammad Hafeez, 3 Younis Khan, 4 Mohammad Yousuf, 5 Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), 6 Shahid Afridi, 7 Abdul Razzaq, 8 Kamran Akmal (wk), 9 Naved-ul-Hasan, 10 Shoaib Akhtar, 11 Mohammad Asif

ScorecardIndia Under-19s combined a massive batting performance with incisive bowling to put Pakistan Under-19 between a rock and a hard place on the second day at the Arbab Niaz Stadium in Peshawar. Piyush Chawla weighed in with a century as India declared on 611 for 9. Facing a daunting total, Pakistan withered to 109 for 6 and needed another 303 runs to avoid the follow on.Resuming on 393 for 4 on the second morning, India lost Tanmay Srivastava, who added only seven to his overnight score for 220. However, Chawla ensured that Pakistan’s misery did not end there. He formed the mainstay of partnerships for the sixth and seventh wicket that added 57 and 115 runs respectively. Chawla’s hundred pushed India past 600 and the only Pakistan bowler to emerge with some sort of credit was Mohammad Naved who ended with 5 for 118 from 32 overs.After spending ages in the field, the Pakistan batsmen returned to the dressing-room in a hurry as the top order crumbled. Vijaykumar Yo Mahesh removed Ahmed Shehzad before Pakistan had scored a run and Ishant Sharma soon reduced Pakistan to 16 for 2.All the Indian bowlers managed wickets and Chawla capped an excellent day by dismissing Moinuddin who was the only batsman to offer any sort of resistance during his 53.India had won the first match by a whopping 271 runs and unless Pakistan pull out all the stops a larger defeat is surely on the cards.

Billy Doctrove insists he has no problems with being omitted from the list of umpires who will officiate at the Champions Trophy in India. Doctrove, who stood alongside Darrell Hair in the forfeited final Test between England and Pakistan, was absent from the names announced by ICC.However he was quick to play down the decision and said it was something that had been decided before the outcome of the ICC hearing at The Oval last week.”It’s not a surprise to me,” Doctrove told the BBC Caribbean Service. “I was told of that decision even before I went to the ball-tampering hearing in England two weeks ago.”Doctrove was noticeably absent as the main figures in the Test controversy faced up to the media at the conclusion of the hearing. Darrell Hair answered questions for 45 minutes and admitted it was easy to believe there had been just one umpire standing in the match.Hair was subsequently withdrawn from the Champions Trophy for, according to ICC, safety and security issues although this has since been questioned by the Indian Board.No reason has been given for Doctrove’s omission from the tournament but he says he is comfortable with want happened at The Oval and has been told it has nothing to do with not featuring in India”I was informed it was not and I trust the ICC,” he added. “I was informed that not all the elite umpires would be chosen. Not everybody can be chosen for every tournament or every series.”Darrell and myself acted in accordance with the laws of the game and when we took our decision we took it honestly and to the best of out ability. We are of the opinion that the adjudicator acted in good faith and to the best of his ability when he came to his decision.”It was a fair hearing as far as I’m concerned and we have to accept the findings and move on.”

Mahela Jayawardene scotched suggestions that Tuesday’s match against South Africa was in any way a “grudge match”. Speaking to the media in a pre-game briefing, he said: “Mark [Boucher] can call it anything he wants. For me, it’s not about revenge or grudge. We are all professionals and we are here to play cricket. The media can build up any type of hype,” he said. “I know teams who have been called worse things. I don’t believe Mark really means it. We players never responded to South Africa leaving the Sri Lankan shores. We never called them chickens. But if they want to treat this as a grudge match, I think we are in good hands. Their focus will not be on cricket then. So we’ll be happy about that.”Jayawardene was reacting to the comments made by Mark Boucher, who was captain of the South African team on the recent visit to Sri Lanka in Graeme Smith’s absence when the team prematurely pulled out of the tournament and returned home amid security fears following a bomb blast near the team hotel in Colombo. Complaining about the reaction by the Sri Lankan media, Boucher had said, “We were called ‘chicken’ and various other things, which was unfair and uncalled for. We have nothing against the any of the players, but the press in Sri Lanka were out of order. I am definitely one of those treating this game as a grudge match.”Jayawardene, however, dismissed any suggestions that his team had these matters in mind when looking forward to tomorrow’s game. He was merely interested in winning a game of cricket that was crucial to his team’s chances of progressing to the next round in this competition. “We are pretty serious about tomorrow’s game because it is a crucial game for us and we want to emerge winners in that,” he said. “We have already played a match here earlier and we are hoping to derive some positives out of it.”Spin played a huge role in Sri Lanka’s comprehensive win over New Zealand in Mumbai, with Muttiah Muralitharan and Sanath Jayasuriya taking 6 for 49 between them. But Jayawardene conceded that the South Africans were good players of spin. “South Africa play spin pretty well,” he said. “They showed in recent matches that they can handle spin as well as any other team. The advantage we have is that Sanath is an experienced player and Murali is exceptional, and that give us a lot of flexibility.”When asked that well-worn question on the pitch, the answer was along expected lines. “All the pitches in India will assist spinners, but it depends to what extent. The wicket here will differ to the ones in Mumbai, Mohali or Jaipur,” he said. “Fortunately we have the luxury of a lot of part-time spinners in the side and all of them are very experienced. They can adapt to different conditions. Until we play on the pitch, I cannot say it will suit us. But we have played here before against Zimbabwe, and the wicket did turn. Hopefully it will do the same.”Taking a charming little detour from the controversy of grudge matches and the dourness of the pitch conditions, Jayawardene spoke of Jayasuriya’s visit back home to Sri Lanka to be with his new-born child. “Sanath became a father just before our last game. He flew back and spent some quality time with his new-born. He got back last night and is in a good mood,” said Jayawardene. “In situations like these, the family always comes first. We were in a good position to release him and give him that extra bit of time to spend with his family,” adding, with a smile: “We have a boy who might play for Sri Lanka one day.”

Scorecard
A career-best 90 from Shaun Marsh was not enough to set up a win for Western Australia as Victoria’s batsmen all contributed to their side’s last-over victory at Shepparton. Needing 235, the Bushrangers’ chase was led by David Hussey, whose 61 was his first one-day half-century of the season.The Warriors picked up wickets at regular intervals but were unable to spark the mini-collapse they needed to gain the upper hand. The openers Jon Moss, with 36 from 32 balls, and Michael Klinger (37) made important early runs before Cameron White kept his team on target with 33.Steve Magoffin (2 for 41) was the only Western Australia bowler to claim more than one wicket. He gave the Warriors one final chance when he bowled Hussey in the 48th over with 12 runs needed but Adam Crosthwaite brought up the win with a four from the first ball of the 50th over.Western Australia began poorly after electing to bat, and were 2 for 1 in the second over. But Marsh rebuilt the innings with help from Luke Pomersbach, whose 39 came from 46 balls, and Adam Voges (43). Marsh’s 90 included eight fours and one six but he fell in the 45th over and late wickets from Clinton McKay (3 for 41) restricted the Warriors to 234.

Having been spanked to most parts of McLean Park in Napier during the first ODI against Sri Lanka, New Zealand’s bowling attack are looking to improve on a bowling performance that saw them give up a hefty target 285 with ten overs to spare.With Sanath Jayasuriya leading the way with 111, from just 82 balls, Sri Lanka coasted to a comfortable seven-wicket win. It led Daniel Vettori, captain in place of Stephen Fleming for the first two ODIs and by some distance the most economical Kiwi bowler (only 36 runs from eight overs), to ask his bowlers to get the basics right, a fair demand given that his bowlers gave away 16 wides and no-balls.”The bowling plan is exactly the same, it’s just about the implementation, which we let slip in Napier,” he said. “Sri Lanka bat down to seven and eight, so you’ve got to take wickets at the top and try not to buy those wickets, which we tended to do in the first game.”John Bracewell, the Kiwi coach, also backed his inexperienced attack to come good for the second ODI, to be played at Queenstown tomorrow. “They were pretty positive by the time we left the dressing room [at Napier] in terms of what they were going to do about the next game,” he was quoted as saying in the . “The proof will be in the pudding – to see if they improve or go backwards.” New Zealand will be without Shane Bond again, who is sitting out the first two games, like Fleming, as part of a rotation policy.Bracewell said the performance was mainly down to younger bowlers getting carried away by the speed gun, especially after the second Twenty20 international, where some of the bowlers touched speeds of 140km/h and above.”The inexperience showed. A couple of young bowlers who can bowl reasonably fast got a bit red-eye with the radar. They were trying to run in a little too hard and bowl a little too fast in an effort to get wickets, rather than trying to control the game through good accurate, back-of-the-length bowling.”But Bracewell was adamant that the exuberance wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially if New Zealand were serious about developing a genuine pace attack. “If we want a pace attack, then we have to be prepared to give them some sort of leeway. I don’t want to knock their confidence. If you can find quick bowlers who can hit the back-of-a-length, then they’re going to be handy for you in the long run; much more useful rather than medium pacers we normally produce.”The other concern for the hosts is the condition of Nathan Astle’s bruised thigh, making him an uncertain starter for the Queenstown match. His experience, as Vettori admitted, is invaluable: he guided his side home chasing a mediocre total in the Twenty20 game on Boxing Day and in the first ODI, made an accomplished 83, passing in the process, 7000 ODI runs.New Zealand have called up Astle’s brother-in-law Craig McMillan as cover, though if he does play, it would be his first international action in over a year. “If we lose that experience and we lose that form it’s going to mean someone is going to have to step up to cover it,” Vettori said. James Marshall, who was out first ball in Napier, is likely to step into Astle’s opening position if he is ruled unfit though the final teams will only be announced on the morning of the match.Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene has few such concerns and is not expecting significant changes in the side. “We have to keep a combination, we need to keep confidence in the guys and have the senior group — the matchwinners — intact and in form as we build up to the World Cup,” Jayawardene said.

It has been an article of faith ever since the squad for this Ashes series was announced. Regardless of what mood he might find himself in on tour, Steve Harmison was bound to have one matchwinning spell lurking somewhere up his sleeve. Surely. Maybe. Possibly …The longer this series has gone on, and the more he has struggled with his demons, expectations and assorted technical malfunctions, the further that assertion has slipped from view. Harmison’s horrible first delivery at the Gabba was so far removed from his frenzied assault on the Aussie batsmen at Lord’s last summer, it was tempting to believe that his mojo had been lost for good.Harmison has, after all, been an anonymous tourist almost throughout his eventful career. Aside from that fantasy tour of the Caribbean three years ago, he has travelled almost as well as a piece of illegal fruit through the customs at Perth Airport. He managed just nine expensive wickets on an enigmatic tour of South Africa in 2004-05, never made it to Sri Lanka a year earlier after succumbing to a back problem, and on this very ground four years ago, he had such an attack of stage fright, he completely lost his run-up.His fondness for the quiet life has become the stuff of cliché – a round of darts at Ashington working men’s club is said to be his idea of heaven – but it has a serious subtext. What did Harmison, whose role in last summer’s Ashes can never be erased from his records, have left to prove in a game he’s always seemed to tolerate rather than enjoy? Waiting for Godot was never as tedious as waiting for Harmy to locate his inner ignition key.Opinions were divided before the start of this Test. The “bin him now” camp were eventually shouted down by the residents of the last-chance saloon who argued, as Alec Stewart did earlier this week, that England had a match to win, and a matchwinner in their ranks. Even so, his series figures from the first two Tests were 1 for 288, and his spell in that despairing second innings at Adelaide had been so anodyne, that his eventual selection for this game can only have been borderline at best.Sensibly, he was not trusted with the new ball, as Andrew Flintoff hurtled in with the clarity of purpose that his closest friend so lacks, but when he did enter the attack in the 10th over of the day, he immediately located a patch on the pitch that offered his favourite thing in the world – bounce. You’d expect such goodies at the WACA, but amid all the mutterings about the declining standard of these pitches, it still came as something of a surprise.

Suddenly, Harmison was hunting with the alacrity of old. It brought to mind his Jekyll-and-Hyde showing at The Oval last summer. Before the match disappeared in a puff of litigation, Harmison went from abysmal (22-3-98-0) to respectable (30.5-6-125-4) in the space of 8.5 frenzied overs. Such is his way. As Stewart pointed out, confidence is the key for Harmison. Give him an inch and he’ll help himself to a mile.”He was bowling very well today,” said his partner-in-crime, Monty Panesar, afterwards. “It was fantastic to see the ball coming out of his hand and the bounce he gets off a normal natural length. I think he does help me when we bowl in tandem together, and it reminded me of Old Trafford.”Old Trafford? Oh yeah. That was a match that took place four months and a lifetime ago, in which Harmison and Panesar took 19 wickets between them to stun Pakistan. The attack that day also featured Matthew Hoggard and Sajid Mahmood – four bowlers who also wrapped up wins at Headingley and (by default) The Oval. Quite why England’s think-tank felt so compelled to change a winning team will remain one of the two great mysteries of this series. The other, of course, is Harmison himself.