ScorecardAfter two days of keenly contested cricket, Zimbabwe A mustered up some batting courage to go five runs ahead in their second innings with all ten wickets intact. Brendan Taylor and Stuart Matsikenyeri scored half-centuries in an unbeaten 126-run stand as Zimbabwe A cleared a 121-run first-innings deficit. South Africa A had earlier made 307, a score that looked unlikely given the precarious position they were in midway through their innings.On the first day, Zimbabwe were in deep trouble. They had been bowled out cheaply, with Paul Adams and Albie Morkel eking out eight wickets. To make matters worse, the South Africans notched up 88 runs pretty quickly. Only Mark Vermuelen and Edward Rainsford stood their ground, but even their contributions were quickly beginning to pale with this overpowering South African display.But on the second next morning, Rainsford ransacked the batsmen. An overnight score of 88 for 1 became 115 for 6, and Rainsford had his hand in four of those dismissals. Abraham de Villiers scored 91, but the middle order couldn’t take the heat. The Zimbabweans were well and truly back, but not for the last time, the game turned. Morkel (76), Adams (35) and Garnett Kruger (55) took the team past 300. The last four wickets added nearly 200 runs.You’d expect the Zimbabweans to crash after such an energy-sapping time in the field. To their credit, they shrugged off the setback and went about building their innings and tried to put themselves in a position to win the game. This game has already had plenty of excitement, and the next two days will probably make for decent viewing.

Just a couple of days after hogging the headlines at the ICC awards, Rahul Dravid insisted that he was ready to continue with his dual role – key batsman and wicketkeeper – in the Indian one-day side. “I’m extremely delighted at these awards but it hasn’t really sunk in, to be honest,” he said. “As for my cricket, there is a lot more I can still do.”A report in the quoted Dravid as saying that he would be willing to do whatever the team required, brushing aside speculation that he was unhappy with donning the wicketkeeping gloves. “It is not for others to presume that I like it or don’t like it,” he said. “Sure, it puts extra physical effort but I have been able to cope with it because of my improved fitness. To be honest, it is not so difficult to do it in these conditions compared to say Sri Lanka where the conditions can be hot and oppressive.”But according to a report in Kolkata’s , Dinesh Karthik was back in the wicketkeeping frame despite earlier hints from Sourav Ganguly that his appearance at Lord’s against England had been a one-off. Karthik missed the first 45 minutes of India’s training session on Thursday after getting the departure time wrong, but it’s unlikely to cost him in the run-up to India’s first match against Kenya.

Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie have come out in favour of ICC’s new rule regarding bowling actions. After comprehensive testing, the ICC recommended that bowlers could straighten their arm up to 15 degrees and both supported having a common limit for all variety of bowlers.”I think it’s a great thing,” Gillespie told the . “It’s one universal law, rather than having different degrees of flexation, which I think is near impossible to police.”McGrath was also in favour of standardising the testing procedure and said, “At least you’ve got a benchmark. I know they go into the lab afterwards, which, to me, is nothing like a match situation. You can do whatever you want and change your action. But when you’re out in the middle, if they can have a standard testing procedure … I’m all for it.”When I found out that the testing could be done in match situations with high-speed cameras, and a few of us had already been tested, I started thinking it was a good idea. It already shows that people like myself and Shaun Pollock who people say have pretty sound actions, that we have a bit of a flex of 10-12 degrees.”Stephen Fleming, the New Zealand captain, said it was important that the players could see the evidence and “knee-jerk reactions” were avoided. “It shouldn’t be secretive and names [of suspected bowlers] shouldn’t be put up without basis,” he said. “There’s a lot of emotion around chucking and I’m very conservative on this topic.”Fleming was due to meet today with Tim May, a member of the ICC’s cricket committee which endorsed the recommendations, while May spoke to Ricky Ponting yesterday. “I think it’s a bit clearer now,” Ponting said. “It’s good to hear it from Tim but we still need to know a bit more about it.”

DravidOn getting a century It’s nice to get a hundred, the wicket was very good. It was really flat once you got set. It was really a question of batting till you made a mistake.On the Bangladesh bowling I thought they bowled well initially. There wasn’t much in the wicket for the bowlers. I think they tried hard throughout the day. They put in a lot of effort. It was a first day wicket, we batted well and made good use of the conditions.On how much longer he hoped to bat We’ll have to see how we go tomorrow. We have got to get them out two times, so we have to assess the game session by session.On batting with Gambhir He is a positive player and he played really well. Runs were coming at a fairly decent clip. So it gave me an opportunity to settle in and bat the way I generally I tend to bat. I could set my stall out and try and bat the whole day. It’s good to see him score his first hundred, I’m really happy for him and I hope it is the first of many.On whether the Indians were worried about bowling Bangladesh out twice on a flat track We have four quality bowlers who are bowling well at the moment. If we have a big score on board, whatever kind of wicket you are playing on, and keep the opposition on the field for over five sessions, you are going to have them in trouble. It takes a lot to come back after you have been on the field for five sessions. It might start turning later on, there are some cracks and it might get interesting for Harbhajan and Anil.On scoring a Test hundred against every Test nation, and in every Test nation It’s nice to score a hundred against every Test-playing nation. It’s good company to be in. Steve Waugh, Gary Kirsten, Sachin Tendulkar – elite and respected company. It’s nice to have completed the set. To have got a hundred in every Test-playing country is important. It’s not what you play for but when these things do come along you sit back and fell quite happy about it.I’m sure people have done it before but a lot of great players in the past would not have played [Bangladesh]. You can only look at it from the time in the era in which people played; a lot of people didn’t play Bangladesh or Zimbabwe and some great players didn’t even tour South Africa. You can only look at it based on the number of tours people could make at that time. Having said, that from my point of view, I had to score a hundred here to complete the set.I’ve always been very aware of my overseas record; as a young kid I’ve been brought up to believe when you score runs abroad that is the real test. I’ve been very conscious of that throughout my career.GambhirOn reaching three figures for the first time in Tests Honestly I am very, very happy. Obviously, it is a dream to get a first hundred.On being run out in the last Test It was part of the game. I was more determined (here) actually because it is a good wicket to bat on. I wanted to see off the new ball. The whole team motivated me actually. Rahul helped me a lot. They gave me a lot of confidence and I am thankful to them.On whether he was nervous in the 90s I was still nervous because it was my first Test hundred. Thank God that I got my first hundred.

The worst-kept secret in cricket is finally out in the open. It was confirmed this morning that Andrew Flintoff will return to England after the fifth Test against South Africa at Centurion. He will see a specialist on Friday, with a view to naming a date for surgery on his troublesome left heel. The timing of his departure is designed to leave Flintoff with as much time as possible to prepare for the Ashes series, which begins in July.In Flintoff’s absence, Matthew Hoggard – England’s leading bowler in the Test series – will be retained in the squad, and can expect to play his first one-day internationals since the tour of Australia in 2002-03. Simon Jones will also be staying on as cover for Steve Harmison, whose damaged calf prevented him from taking the new ball in South Africa’s second innings last night.Flintoff’s participation in the final Test had been in some doubt, but he played after a cortisone injection had eased some of the pain, and was England’s most penetrative bowler, with figures of 4 for 44 in the first innings, and two early strikes on the fourth evening as well.While England will miss a formidable presence in the one-day game when the seven-match ODI series begins, the surgery should ensure a fit attack in time for Australia’s tour, where England will attempt to win a series against the Aussies for the first time since 1986-87.

Jonty Rhodes, the former South African batsman, has slammed South Africa’s selection policy and asked the selectors to take the blame for South Africa’s downslide in the world rankings due to the flawed process.Rhodes, currently in India for promotional campaigns, told , "The development of South African cricket is a concern. Unlike in Australia where the focus is on excellence, our focus is still on transformation. You cannot become the world’s best if your focus is on transformation alone.""Our selection policy too has to change a lot if our team wants to be the best in the world. Chopping and changing the players very frequently has not helped the cause." In the recently-concluded Test series against England, South Africa used 18 players.Rhodes remarked that talented players like Lance Klusener and Kevin Pietersen, who migrated to England now, had a love-hate relationship with the South African selectors despite performing very well.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has taken a major step towards tackling the problem of illegal bowling actions, by giving the go-ahead for a new biomechanics laboratory to be set up in Lahore.Pakistan has been beset by allegations of chucking, from Shoaib Akhtar and his hyper-extensive elbow, to the spinner Shoaib Malik, whose action is currently being examined by the International Cricket Council. Now, the plan is for the PCB to tackle the problem in-house, with a laboratory – the fifth of its kind in the world – to be established at the National Cricket academy at the Gadaffi Stadium.Pakistan’s former captain, Fazal Mahmood, has been appointed as bowling advisor to the PCB’s Illegal Bowling Action Commission, with five others named as domestic bowling advisors: the former Test fast bowler, Aqib Javed; two international spinners in Farrukh Zaman and Iqbal Sikander; Khizar Hayat, a Pakistani umpire, and Dr Sohail Saleem, a medical commissioner.In the short term, the PCB plans to install Quintic 9.03, a biomechanical analysis software that enables 2D analysis of a bowler’s action, by filming the players in action and then reducing the video to a stick-figure animation. A specialist in biomechanics, Dr Paul Hurrion, is to fly out to Lahore to install the software and conduct a two-day seminar that aims to instruct and guide the members of the committee.

Waqar Younis’s spell as Pakistan’s bowling coach has ended before it even began. Waqar, who failed to reach an agreement with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) over his desire for a long-term assignment, has lashed out at the board saying that they did not have the courtesy of informing him about their decision not to appoint him. He claimed that he came to know of the PCB decision only when the newsmen called him for his reaction.”I am disappointed that we could not strike a deal,” Waqar told the Press Trust of India. “I wanted to serve the country and I will certainly work in future if provided with an opportunity. But what has saddened me more is the attitude of the PCB. I never initiated the move of a bowling coach for the Pakistan team. It was the PCB that started it all and when they decided they didn’t want me, they did not have the courtesy to telephone me and inform me of their decision.”Waqar had earlier mentioned that he wanted the role in the long term as it would be a waste of time if it was only for the India series. But that cut no ice with the PCB, which rejected his suggestions, insisting that the appointment was for this series only.The board was keen on hiring Wagar for the National Cricket Academy. Shaharyar Khan, the PCB chief, told AFP: “We would still like Waqar as a bowling coach for the national academy on a long-term basis.”This isn’t the first time that the board has dumped a player halfway. Last year, Javed Miandad was sacked as the coach of the national team before the expiry of his two-year contract. Apart from him, Haroon Rashid was recently ousted from his managerial position, four months prior to his expiry.The PCB issued a press release explaining the position. It said that there had been concerns about a possible conflict of interests if Waqar was going to be a TV commentator, but that he had confirmed that he would not take up a commentary assignment if he was appointed as a coach. The PCB then claimed that Waqar rejected a contract just for the India series, and that “The chairman replied that PCB’s offer was for a short-term contract and if Waqar Younis insisted on a long-term appointment, the issue would need to be discussed again.” It was felt that a number of candidates should be evaluated for a long-term post.

Close South Africa 130 for 6 need another 214 runs to avoid the follow-on against West Indies 543 for 5 dec
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

West Indies’ bowlers carried on where their batsmen left off, in glorious critic-defying mood, reducing a quivering South Africa to 130 for 6 and in big trouble in the first Test in Guyana. Fewer than 37 overs were possible on the third day after heavy rains delayed the start and bad light brought an early finish, but West Indies more than made good use of what they had: after an impressive cleaning-up operation from the groundstaff came an even more outstanding mopping-up display as their pace bowlers applied the cosh.Pedro Collins and Daren Powell started the rot, each striking twice to set South Africa reeling at 30 for 4 in the hour that was possible before tea. Powell accounted for both Jacques, Rudolph and Kallis, and both departed without scoring as South Africa were rocked by an explosive display of devastating swing bowling. But it was the early departure of Kallis, the ultimate flat-track bully, that provided the biggest boost to a frustrated West Indies team who had been waiting patiently for play to commence.Kallis sought to exploit the bowling from the off on a docile pitch that should have favoured his accumulative style. Instead he hooked his second ball – a short one outside off stump – straight onto his stumps. It was an injudicious shot so early in his innings, particularly with his team in so much trouble. Their situation worsened when Collins trapped Herschelle Gibbs just before tea, and a buoyant West Indies further turned the screw in the final session.AB de Villiers and Mark Boucher stabilised the innings for a time, aware that the follow-on was looming, but de Villiers mixed edges with class shots and finally went too far, as the wayward Reon King strayed close enough to induce the edge.Boucher held firm and he was joined by Nicky Boje; they were unbeaten at the end of the day. But South Africa are still way short of safety: they need 214 runs to avoid the follow-on, with just four wickets remaining. The forecast for tomorrow is for more rain. It may be South Africa’s only hope of saving this game.How they were outSouth AfricaSmith c Browne b Collins 2 (15 for 1) Prodded regulation edge at one swinging away.Rudolph c R Hinds b Powell 0 (16 for 2) Thick-edged first ball to third slip for good, low catch.Kallis b Powell 0 (16 for 3) Looked to pick up short one on off-side, but slashed hook straight onto his stumps.Gibbs lbw Collins 0 (30 for 4) Trapped plumb in front.de Villiers c Browne b King 41 (71 for 5) Inside-edged through to keeper.Hall c Collins b King (95 for 6) Poor stroke to innocuous delivery – but an impressive tumbling forward catch at wide mid-on.

Scorecard
Worcestershire’s seamers put in an impressive performance as they took control on a rain-shortened day at New Road. Lancashire were indebted to a feisty innings from their former skipper Warren Hegg, after Andrew Flintoff’s first-class comeback resulted in a fifth-ball duck as he edged Kabir Ali to Graeme Hick at second slip, as Lancashire slumped to 81 for 4. That became 130 for 8 before a ninth-wicket stand of 66 between Hegg and James Anderson gave the score some respectability. Hegg smashed ten fours and a six from 64 balls, but Lancashire fell just short of a batting point. Ali, Matt Mason and Chaminda Vaas picked up three wickets apiece. Dominic Cork hit back immediately with the wicket of Stephen Moore for a duck, but Hick and Stephen Peters took Worcestershire through to the close with any further mishaps.
Scorecard
Bilal Shafayat struck an unbeaten career-best 156 as the Northamptonshire openers made hay while the lights shone at Derby. On an overcast day, the County Ground became the first English ground to use floodlights during a first-class match when the umpires signalled for them to be switched on just after 4pm. But they did nothing to brighten the Derbyshire bowling attack. After putting Northants in to bat they were made to chase leather for the 83 overs’ play that was possible. Shafayat, after his winter move from Nottinghamshire and in a new role as opener, hit 20 fours and two sixes, while Martin Love hit his second century of the season. None of Derbyshire’s five seamers or the left-arm spin of Ant Botha could make an impression as their tough start to the summer continued.Scorecard
Essex made good use of the 38 overs possible at Taunton as Somerset’s batting struggled once again. After the innings defeat against Yorkshire, Sanath Jayasuriya dropped down the order to accommodate the return of Marcus Trescothick, but he fell early to Alex Tudor, who struck again in an impressive spell to dismiss Michael Burns. Simon Francis (35) was trapped lbw by Darren Gough. then Graham Napier struck two huge blows in the same over. After his double failure against Yorkshire, Jayasuriya managed to get a start this time before he was caught behind, and two balls later Ian Blackwell was trapped lbw as Somerset slipped to 90 for 5. James Hildreth, one of most promising young batsmen on the circuit, held firm to the close and it will be down to him and the lower order to boost the total tomorrow.