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The Indian board has welcomed the removal of umpire Steve Bucknor from the third Test against Australia in Perth but has said the bigger issue is the three-Test ban on Harbhajan Singh. The focus now shifts to the meeting of the board’s working committee in New Delhi on Tuesday evening – that, the board president, Sharad Pawar, said is where the next course of action would be decided on.”We are watching the Harbhajan issue more closely,” the board secretary, NiranjanShah, told PTI. “It is more important that the umpiring issue because he has beenaccused of racism and we will never tolerate any such thing. We have already made anappeal against his ban and we are waiting for the process to start.”His words were echoed by the board’s chief administrative officer, Ratnakar Shetty.”For us, Harbhajan’s case is more important at this point of time,” he said. “Themanner in which the hearing was conducted, that itself has been challenged.”While speculation is rife over the future of the tour to Australia the thinking inthe board appears to be focussed on the “battle of nerves”, trying to get theirdemands without taking any extreme step like boycotting the tour.The emergency meeting of the board on Monday involved officials speaking to AnilKumble, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Chetan Chauhan, the team manager. Allnarrated first-hand accounts, including Ganguly and Tendulkar talking about whatwent on when they were in the middle.The board it is learnt, felt that priority should be given to sorting out theumpiring matters instead of quitting cricket. A pull-out, it seems, is being seen asa last resort, especially given the implications of such an action. Apart from heavyfinancial losses, which the board can probably absorb, there is also a matter ofAustralia and India set to play quite a number of bilateral series in the nearfuture.There was a bit of debate about the team staying on in Sydney, considering that theywere booked only till January 7, but the board decided to pay for the team’s stay incase Cricket Australia had a problem. It is still unclear if CA is bearing the costsfor the stay but the team has decided to stay put till receiving furtherinstructions from the BCCI.

New Zealand’s captain, Daniel Vettori, was predictably despondent as he reflected on his side’s 126-run defeat against England at Wellington, a result that levelled the series and gave England the momentum going into next week’s decider in Napier. The match was played on the liveliest pitch that the teams are likely to encounter on this trip, and Vettori believed that New Zealand’s failure to capitalise on their first-day breakthroughs was the decisive moment of the match.On the first afternoon England’s middle-order, visibly lacking in confidence after their horrific display at Hamilton, had been on the ropes at 136 for 5 after being asked to bat first. But the carefree Tim Ambrose, playing in only his second Test, counterattacked gamely in a superb 149-ball 102. England never looked back after that, and though their catching went awry in the second innings, a brace of five-wicket hauls from James Anderson and Ryan Sidebottom cemented their dominance of the game.”Obviously it’s a very disappointed dressing-room,” said Vettori. “If we reflect back on the Test match it was a pretty even one expect for the third session on the first day. We let Tim Ambrose get away through some poor bowling and by feeding his strengths, and if you analyse the rest of it, it was a pretty even contest. But because of that [first day] we left ourselves too much to do on the last day.”It wasn’t immediately apparent just how significant Ambrose’s efforts would be to the end result. Vettori had no qualms about bowling first at the Basin, a pitch that traditionally plays at its best on the second and third days, but admitted that New Zealand soon came to rue their missed opportunity of that first day.”We didn’t reflect on it at the time but as the days went on I suppose we started to realise how important that lost session was for us,” he said. “We knew the wicket was pretty sporty, but for us to have made inroads and for them to post the score they did, we knew we had to bat very well and we didn’t. But it just all comes back to that session. We fed [Ambrose’s] strengths and he capitalised. He played very well too, and probably took the game away from us.”After the total team effort that New Zealand put together at Hamilton, the Wellington Test was something of a reality check for Vettori and his men. Although the selectors made no changes to the batsmen for Napier, definite shortcomings among their top-order were exposed on a pitch that aided England’s younger, faster, seam attack. Their senior seamer, Chris Martin, was also visibly off the pace after his exertions in the first Test, while Kyle Mills finished the match with pain behind his left knee, a development that earned a precautionary call-up for the 19-year-old paceman, Tim Southee.”I thought Jacob [Oram] and Kyle Mills were outstanding in the way they bowled on this wicket,” said Vettori. “Chris may be a bit disappointed but we will give the seamers a bit of a rest before the final Test. They’ve had a huge workload over the last two Tests and hopefully they can get a rest and come into the third Test on a wicket that we know will be extremely flat, and a tough ask for our bowlers.”Even so, the Napier pitch is likely to suit New Zealand’s adhesive style of play. Their success in Hamilton stemmed from the patience they were willing to show on a flat, lifeless deck. England contributed to their downfall by scoring at barely two runs an over, but they received an exclusive diet of wicket-to-wicket deliveries and were offered none of the width that Ambrose in particular was able to exploit in this Test.”The Napier pitch will be very flat, we know what to expect,” said Vettori. “It’ll be a good deck and tough work for the bowlers but it was like that in Hamilton and we expect the same thing from them in Napier. It always does [have more pace than Hamilton] but if you get a couple of days of sun then it will tend to slow down a little bit. It’s generally quite a good cricket wicket, because if you’re prepared to put something in then you’ll get something back.”

That wasn’t quite the case at Wellington, and in the build-up to the Test, Vettori was openly critical of the surface that Brett Sipthorpe, the curator, had prepared for this Test. But he refused to use it as an excuse in the aftermath of defeat. “If you want to be a good side then you have to adapt to all conditions and have to win in all types of conditions,” he said. “You can’t turn up in Sri Lanka and ask for the type of deck you want, so you have to be adaptable.”Vettori added that he doubted whether England would have wanted such a sporting track either, although the way in which their bowlers fared would suggest otherwise. England were devoid of both their most experienced men, Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison, but Anderson thrived in the first innings, Sidebottom starred in the second, and Stuart Broad played a vital enforcing role in both innings, on a pitch far removed from the lifeless horrors of his Colombo debut.”You have to look at the way Anderson bowled,” said Vettori. “For us to be bowled out for 198 in the first innings was purely down to him. He hit the right lengths early on and did a really good job. I suggest Hoggard would have done a similar job but to have fresh legs to do some very good work can only lift a team. New players coming in bring in enthusiasm and it lifts a team.” They were sentiments that suggested that Southee could yet feature in the final match.The spotlight, however, will be on New Zealand’s batsmen when the third Test gets underway. Not only will it be Stephen Fleming’s swansong after a record-breaking 14-year international career, it will also be a chance for Mathew Sinclair and Matthew Bell to repay the selectors’ faith after sketchy starts to the series. Bell received a further boost after the game when he was awarded a Cricket New Zealand contract, but with a series top-score of 29, he’ll need to keep up his interest payments.”The top five didn’t get the runs we required but thought Mathew [Sinclair] batted well in the second innings,” said Vettori. “I enjoyed how positive he was in trying to get on with the job. That was exciting to see. In saying that, you still need to keep getting the runs to keep getting selected. The selectors have to ask some questions but hopefully those guys have a lot more runs in them, and more chances to score those runs.”

Barisal captain Shahriar Nafees put Khulna in to bat in Bogra and his bowlers Talha Jubair and Sajidul Islam struck immediately, removing the openers with 25 on the board. Six runs later it got dodgier for the hosts when Bashar had to leave the field following a muscle injury. From that point however Shakib-Al-Hasan dictated terms. In a 128-run stand with Tushar Imran, Shakib’s contribution was 81, off 105 balls. Shakib, the leading run scorer in this year’s NCL also went past 400 runs during the course of his innings. When he departed, Imran kept things under control and at stumps was unbeaten on 122 as Khulna ended the day at 312 for 6. Ziaur Rahman compounded the misery for Barisal with 58 and Khulna were finally bowled out for 396 after Imran had fallen for 165. Within five overs, Barisal lost Nafees and Hannan Sarkar, both lbw to Syed Rasel before Imran Ahmed (60) and Raqibul Hasan (38) staged a fightback with a stand of 96. However, they weren’t prepared for Murad Khan who clinically dismantled Barisal with his offbreaks. Grabbing the opportunity to play as Razzak’s replacement, Khan returned figures of 7 for 53 off 31 overs as Barisal were shot out for 206. Following on, their openers Nafees (0) and Sarkar (15) were again sent packing by Rasel. Raqibul (57) was run out and Khan chipped in with two quick wickets in the middle order as Barisal went into the last day on a hopeless 133 for 6. Rasel and Mashrafe Mortaza needed just over an hour in the final morning to wrap up the tail as Khulna won by an innings and three runs.At the Rajshahi Stadium, Dhaka captain Mohammad Ashraful sent the home team in on a lively track that had a distinct shade of grass and some true bounce. Despite that, Dhaka’s three seamers weren’t effective enough, as Rajshahi ended the first day on 257 for 5 on the back of half-centuries from Farhad Hossain (55), captain Khaled Mashud (68*) and allrounder Mushfiqur Rahman (65). Mashud fell early on day two, but Farhad Reza’s unbeaten 32 took to score to 298. Dhaka stumbled to 96 for 4 as seamer Alamgir Kabir took three wickets. Mehrab Hossan Jr. (43) and Shamsur Rahman (55) steadied the innings with an 88-run partnership for the fifth wicket but Dhaka denied the opposition full bonus points by declaring overnight on 205 for 9 on day three. Mahbubul Alam, Dhaka’s main wicket-taker in the NCL, then brought some excitement in the match by taking the wickets of Junaid Siddique, Farhad Hossain and Mushfiqur to reduce the opposition to 66 for 6. Reza single-handedly altered the course of the game, with an unbeaten 98 at stumps as Rajshahi stretched the lead beyond 300. Reza unfortunately fell short of his ton, lbw off the first ball from Alam on the fourth day, finishing with figures of 5 for 47 and a match haul of nine wickets. Dhaka depended on Ashraful (58) to chase the target of 323 but Reza again made a decisive contribution by dismissing him, while left-arm spinner Saqlain Sajib did the rest. He cleaned up the lower middle-order and the tail to finish with 5 for 92 as Dhaka were humbled by 70 runs.Opening batsman Gazi Salahuddin’s 136 helped Chittagong to a six-wicket win against Sylhet in Chittagong. Aftab Ahmed’s 46 was the only other innings of note but Salahuddin’s effort enabled Chittagong make 308 after they had opted to bat first. Sylhet then collapsed, quite inexplicably, on a decent batting track as Chittagong’s pacers and spinners shot them out for 127. After following on, defeat loomed for Sylhet when they ended the third day on 76 for 4. Wicketkeeper Golam Mabud made a defiant 110, adding 87 for the sixth wicket with Bangladesh wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim (43) and then the tail wagged to set Chittagong 161. Left-arm spinner Enamul haque Jnr bowled an effective spell on the final day and got rid of Salahuddin, Nafees Iqbal, Nazimuddin and Aftab but captain Ehsanul Haque (34*) and Dhiman Ghosh (47*) steered their side home.

An unbeaten 99 by Imran Ahmed and a half-century by Hannan Sarkar (70) helped Barisal to a comfortable four-wicket win against Khulna in Bogra. Imrul Kayesh made 55 and the other specialist Khulna batsmen all got good starts but failed to push on as they finished on a disappointing 240.An unbeaten 73 by Naeem Islam rescued Rajshahi from 156 for 7 to a match-winning total of 224 against Dhaka at the Rajshahi Stadium. Junaid Siddique made 59, while Dhaka’s left-arm spinner Mosharraf Hossain kept a check on the scoring rate in the middle overs by taking 3 for 18 from his ten overs. In front of an intimidating local crowd, the Dhaka chase never took off after Shafaq Al Zabir accounted for openers Javed Omar (9) and Al Sahariar (11). Ashraful (55) played a lone hand but the match was effectively over when he was the sixth man out with the total at 150. The 21-run victory enabled Rajshahi to maintain their unbeaten record.An attacking half-century by Tapash Baishya in Chittagong, belting four sixes, rescued Sylhet from 109 for 6 to post a winning score of 210. In reply, Aftab blazed to 32 off 21 balls it looked as if Chittagong were going to run away with the match but the steady fall of wickets at crucial moments led to their undoing. Enamul Haque Jnr took 3 for 23 as Chittagong fell short by 25 runs.Player of the Week – Farhad RezaThough team work has been the main ingredient behind Rajshahi’s success in both forms of the NCL, allrounder Reza has managed to distinguish himself. As a batsman, he has fitted in in all positions in the middle order, and is his captain’s trump card to bowl in pressure situations. His fielding has always been an asset as well. A dasher by nature, Reza’s 98 in the second innings against Dhaka was however a mark of his growing maturity as he left no stones unturned in an effort to occupy the crease. Then with Dhaka just beginning to look threatening chasing 323 he took three wickets including the most crucial one of Ashraful.

National Cricket League

National Cricket League one-day

Elections to the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), due on September 8, could see changes at the top with Vijay Mallya, the Bangalore-based industrialist, offering his support to a campaign against the ruling faction. The campaign, headed by Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar, seeks to remove the bloc led by Brijesh Patel.Mallya, whose businesses include Kingfisher Airlines and United Breweries, takes the first step towards his direct involvement with cricket by being made president of the Select Cricket Club, of which AV Jayaprakash, the former international umpire, is secretary. Mallya has used his financial clout in other sports, including horse racing and football.At the moment it is unclear if Mallya can hold office but, should he wish to make an entry into cricket, his home state of Karnataka – and the Select club – would be an obvious starting ground.Mallya’s declaration of support for Wadiyar has been welcomed by former cricketers Erapalli Prasanna and Syed Kirmani, who have been pushing for a change of guard saying the present administration lacked transparency. Wadiyar, in a statement where he also referred to having received Mallya’s backing, promised to better the administration of the association in all aspects and spoke about delinking team selection from private cricket academies or coaching camps.Patel, KSCA secretary and a former Indian Test batsman, has been part of the board’s ruling bloc for nine years. He refused to comment on Mallya’s stand.

Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lanka captain, says his team will not sit back on its 1-0 lead and will aim for a 2-0 result when the Test series concludes in Port of Spain from Thursday. “It is important that we go for a win in the second Test,” Jayawardene told . “This is the way we play cricket. We want to win every match in which we play. This is the attitude with which we play whether we are playing at home or away.”Sri Lanka won their first Test in the West Indies with a 121-run success in Guyana and Jayawardene said the desire to succeed had helped his team post overseas triumphs in recent years “This is the attitude that has helped us in the last few years, and this is why we have been winning Test matches away from home, and we will not move away from this attitude,” he said.”We want to get accustomed to the conditions in Trinidad. We’ll make sure we do all the hard work and challenge West Indies, and see if we can win this Test series 2-0.”A victory would make Sri Lanka the first visiting side to complete a cleansweep in the West Indies. Australia came close five years ago when they won the first three Tests, but a record-breaking chase in the final match in Antigua ended their hopes of a whitewash.Chris Gayle, the West Indies captain, said his side needed to be optimistic and tougher than in Guyana. “I believe that if we can remain positive and focus, we can win the Test,” Gayle said. “It’s a must-win situation for us to square the series. We’ll try and see what Sri Lanka has to offer a second time around both in the batting and bowling, so it is just for us to return to the drawing board, and come up with a plan, and come prepared to play a tough Test.”Jayawardene said there would be no let-up in intensity from his side. “We are going to pay attention to all areas of our game, and see where we can tighten-up,” he said. “This is how we work. The first Test is finished, and the next venue is totally different, and conditions will be totally different.”The visitors will be boosted by the familiarity of the Queen’s Park Oval, which reminds them of Muttiah Muralitharan’s home ground. “It is definitely Kandy,” Jayawardene said. “We always enjoy playing in Kandy because the bowlers have a little bit of help, but once the batsmen put up the initial hard work it’s going to be a good batting surface.”Sri Lanka are expected to make one change with Prasanna Jayawardene likely to be forced out with a hamstring injury. “He is struggling, he’s probably 80% fit but he’s a wicketkeeper, he needs to do a lot of work in a Test match, so we have to make a decision,” Mahela Jayawardene said.”We’ve got an adequate replacement. Kumar is a wicketkeeper who can do the job for us, so I don’t think we need to take too many risks in that department. We’ve got the extra batsman, Chamara Silva, who has been scoring runs, it’s a bit unfortunate to leave him out of the first Test team. He will get his opportunity to play and I’m sure he is looking forward to that.”

Scorecard

Saurashtra’s new-ball bowlers Sandeep Jobanputra and Sandip Maniar were the stars with the ball as Uttar Pradesh were bundled for 188, but by stumps, one of them was batting and the other – the last man – was padded up, as UP had Saurashtra tottering at 116 for 8.On a day when eighteen wickets fell – including four occasions when two fell in the same over – Saurashtra will rue letting UP recover after having them at 69 for 7.Saurashtra’s decision to field seemed to have paid off, with Maniar using the early morning freshness and the life in the wicket intelligently. He struck with the first ball he bowled, as Rohit Prakash opened the face and edged to wicketkeeper Sagar Jogiyani. A loose drive from Suresh Raina resulted in another edge to Jogiyani, before Amir Khan, playing in the absence of Tanmay Srivastava, was done in by one that pitched on the stumps and moved away. The first three dismissals had all come in similar fashion – caught Jogiyani bowled Maniar – as UP were reeling at 15 for 3.Mohammad Kaif and Ravikant Shukla then put together a sensible partnership, lifting the total to 69 in quick time. Kaif got a reprieve on 20 when he drove uppishly to wide mid-on; Rakesh Dhurv was late in moving and only got his fingertips to the ball. Shukla scored 29 off 28 balls with six cleanly struck boundaries, before he was out shouldering arms to Jobanputra off the first over after drinks.Piyush Chawla, promoted to No. 6, was caught on the crease to his first ball and Rahat Elahi didn’t stay long, edging a widish delivery off Maniar to Jogiyani. Praveen Kumar hit two fours before missing one from Kanaiya Vaghela as UP were reduced to 110 for 7 five minutes before lunch.The Moti Bagh wicket has a reputation for assisting the bowlers in the first and third sessions, and the first day’s play followed the script, as Bhuvneshwar Kumar, playing his third first-class match, hung around with Kaif after lunch. He stuck to his task of playing second fiddle to Kaif: his first run came off the 17th ball he faced, the second off 29th, and the third from the 38th. The two put together 28 runs as Saurashtra let the game drift, allowing Kaif to take singles even off the fifth or sixth ball of the over.Kaif top scored with 80, and the lack of a third seamer hurt Saurashtra as Jobanputra and Maniar operated for the majority of the innings. Kaif, the UP captain, finally fell to a good diving catch by Jaydev Shah, his Saurashtra counterpart. They were lucky to nail him immediately after he had been reprieved: off the previous ball, Firoze Bhambhania had spilled a chance at mid-off off Maniar. The eighth-wicket partnership cost Saurashtra 49 crucial runs, with Bhuvneshwar contributing 14. UP were finally dismissed for 188, with Bhuvneshwar unbeaten on 33. Maniar took 6 for 88 and Jobanputra 3 for 60.Saurashtra were on top after bowling out UP for a low score, but it was now their turn to struggle with the bat. Praveen and Sudeep Tyagi took three wickets each while Bhuvneshwar took two. Praveen struck first in the third over, when Kanaiya Vaghela edged one which moved away.Shitanshu Kotak, who had batted for 796 minutes without getting out against Mumbai in the previous match, spent only two minutes and two balls in the middle this time. He was superbly set up by Praveen: the first ball moved away, and Kotak let it pass, but the next one straightened and trapped him plumb in front. Sudeep Tyagi then scalped the big wicket of Cheteshwar Pujara, who played on to one that was quicker and rose more than expected. Saurashtra were reeling at 7 for 3.Shah, who in a surprise move opened the innings and was the best batsman of the day, then began to rebuild the innings. He played with soft hands, and didn’t miss out on any scoring opportunity.With Jogiyani, Shah added 31 for the fourth wicket before Praveen struck again as Jogiyani missed an offcutter. Shah dominated another brief partnership but Bhuvneshwar took two in two to pull Saurashtra down again. Soon after Shah reached his half-century, Mohammad Kaif brought Tyagi back into the attack and he delivered, removing Shah and Kamlesh Makvana off successive balls. Jobanputra survived the hat-trick and hit a few lusty blows in an unbroken 29-run ninth-wicket stand with Dhurv, who was not out on 21 at the close.

Match abandoned due to rain Scorecard and ball-by-ball details