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Scorecard

With a forcing cut off David Wainwright for four, Mark Ramprakash finally became the 25th man in history to score 100 first-class hundreds when he notched three figures for Surrey against Yorkshire.The last player to achieve the milestone was Graeme Hick, in 1998, and the other 23 names include the grand figures of WG Grace, Don Bradman, Denis Compton and Wally Hammond. For all Ramprakash’s remarkable form since 2006, he has struggled this season: his last hundred, the 99th of his career, came at the start of May against Sussex. Today’s knock was his 11th innings since hovering on a mere 99 hundreds, during which agonising time his top-score was 48.The wait is now over, however, as Ramprakash reached his third century of the season from 196 balls with nine fours and a six.”When I started out I never dreamed about making that many hundreds but I’ll certainly take it now,” he said. “I feel honoured to join such a high calibre of names who have also achieved the feat. It’s definitely something I’ll cherish for the rest of my days. I’d like to dedicate this to my mum, dad, sister, wife and daughters.”Without their love and support I could not have achieved this milestone.”Ramprakash starred in a second-wicket stand of 259 with Scott Newman and remained unbeaten on 112 as the match petered out into a dull, but far from insignificant, draw.

David Morgan, the ICC president, believes Twenty20 could fit neatly into the Olympic schedule, but has warned the sport to think carefully about a push for a spot at the 2020 Games. Adam Gilchrist started the campaign earlier this month and Morgan has been in Beijing this week seeing how the event works and meeting with officials.Cricket gained recognition status from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) last year and Morgan said Twenty20 would suit the Olympic timetable “without any difficulty whatsoever”. However, fitting the tournament into cricket’s already-crammed international schedule could be a concern.”It is something that cricket has to think about very carefully,” Morgan told AFP. “This visit, these few days, give us the opportunity to assess the potential for cricket becoming an Olympic sport.”Cricket Australia’s James Sutherland and Creagh O’Connor have also been in Beijing and there has been a strong push from Australia for cricket to seek a spot at the 2020 Games. The issue is expected to be discussed at the ICC’s chief executives committee meeting in Lahore on September 10 and is seen by supporters as a way to secure a truly global future for cricket.”2020 must be the earliest realistic date but I must emphasise the ICC has to consider its position just as the IOC has to consider its position,” Morgan said. For cricket to gain a spot at those Games it must be approved by the IOC in 2013.

Darren Pattinson has said he disagreed with his surprise selection for the second Test against South Africa at Headingley. To the astonishment of almost everybody he was called up at the last minute to replace the injured Ryan Sidebottom, after 11 first-class matches, but was promptly dropped and hasn’t even been named in England’s Performance Squad for the winter.”I don’t think I’d be picking someone to play the one Test when they haven’t really played that many first-class games and weren’t in the squad,” Pattinson told . “It was a left-field selection. If I was in [the selectors’] situation, I wouldn’t have picked me to play for England when there were guys like Steve Harmison – who I know has had his problems – waiting in the wings and ready to go. It’s really an astonishing story, when you think about it.”Pattinson didn’t disgrace himself on the field, claiming the scalps of Hashim Amla and Ashwell Prince, as England were hammered by 10 wickets. A few weeks later he played for England Lions as South Africa warmed-up for the one-day series, but now he is preparing for pre-season with his club, Dandenong, and Victoria before resuming the Sheffield Shield.”If I never played another international, I’d be OK with that,” he added. “As far as the England players were concerned, they were nice and very welcoming. I guess [Michael] Vaughan was coming to the end of his captaincy at the time, so there might have been a few issues there. I didn’t get all the stuff he said, but I take it, it was mostly to do with the selection.”Pattinson came within one win of finishing the season with a Championship medal, but Nottinghamshire were beaten by Hampshire in the final game. However, Pattinson ended with a very respectable 47 wickets at 24.65 even though he was carrying a groin injury by the final weeks of the summer. But he still hasn’t quite come to terms with his England experience.”The whole England thing was unexpected and I was certainly more than happy to get the opportunity to play international cricket,” he said. “But with all the stuff that came with it, it’s hard to say just how I view the whole experience right now. I’m sure I’ll look back in a few years and be happy I played a Test, but there are a few mixed feelings at the moment.”

Scorecard

Australia’s batsmen, barring Simon Katich, may have struggled on the first day but their bowlers were clinical in routing Rajasthan Cricket Academy’s Centre for Excellence for 122 on the final day of their warm-up match in Jaipur. Five of the six bowlers used, Mitchell Johnson being the exception, picked up wickets and the game was called off after RCA were dismissed about an hour after lunch.Brett Lee and Stuart Clark had collected a wicket each to reduce RCA to 38 for 2 by stumps on the first day and Lee struck first on the second morning, trapping the captain Venugopal Rao lbw for 20. The Victoria fast bowler Peter Siddle had the other overnight batsman Gagan Khoda caught behind for 33 to reduce RCA to 57 for 4.Offspinner Jason Krejza and left-arm fast bowler Doug Bollinger mopped up the rest of the batsmen. Bollinger finished with figures of 3 for 9 off 9.2 overs while Krejza picked up 3 for 35. The Australians had a practice session after the game was called off and Siddle said the whole package had given the team a strong warm-up.”We had a bit of a bowl, and they (the batsmen) had a bit of a hit and just adapting to the wickets so just warming into it and getting ready for the series,” Siddle told . “The week here has been excellent, an opportunity to acclimatise, get used to the weather, get used to the wickets, there was a good range at the academy.”Siddle finished with 1 for 7 from his six overs and he was pleased to get a run in the opening game. He said his right shoulder, which was reconstructed following last season’s Pura Cup final, was not causing him any problems.”The shoulder’s feeling great, it’s been about seven months now and it’s just good to be out there and having a bowl and getting back into it,” he said. “I’ve played a few matches now so it’s feeling good and I’m feeling really confident that it’s going to hold up and go well.”Australia’s next tour match is against a Board President’s XI in Hyderabad from October 2 to 5. The first Test starts in Bangalore on October 9.

ScorecardA last-wicket stand of 61 between Usman Saeed and Shoaib Akhtar pushed Federal Areas to 322 in Karachi, but at the end of the second day Sind were in with a good chance of taking the first-innings lead. Rizwan Ahmed, the legspinning allrounder, was unbeaten on 40 as the hosts finished at 288 for 7, trailing by 34.Saeed had led the a fightback on the first day, and he frustrated Sind, adding 33 to his overnight score of 103. Shoaib was last man out for 18; the fast bowler, though, bowled only nine overs to the Sind batsmen out of the 78 they faced in the day. Shoaib’s only wicket was opener Khalid Latif, who fell for 31 after adding 60 with Khurram Manzoor.Manzoor, the Pakistan Academy captain on their unbeaten tour of Kenya and Zimbabwe, scored 59 off 132 deliveries. The rest of the batsmen failed to build on starts as well: Naumanullah scored 15, Faisal Iqbal 32, Fawad Alam 34 and captain Shahid Afridi hit a quick 21-ball 17. At 211 for 6, there was a chance Sind would fold up quickly but wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed hit five fours in a 33-ball 36 and Rizwan pushed to 40 to tick the score along. Sarfraz fell with the score on 262, but Anwar Ali and Rizwan remained unbeaten till stumps.For Federal Areas, Sohail Tanvir was the most successful, with 3 for 72 off his 20 overs. Iftikhar Anjum took 2 for 59 off 19, while Umar Amin got the wicket of Manzoor in his six, which cost 30 runs.
ScorecardThe run-fest continued for North West Frontier Province and they took three Baluchistan wickets to take firm control of the game in Quetta. Adnan Raees scored his first first-class double-century, and Shoaib Khan snr made an unbeaten 81 before NWFP declared at a commanding 550 for 5.Resuming on 293 for 2, NWFP did not lose a wicket till Riaz Kail fell for 29 – an innings that needed 77 deliveries. Raees and Shoaib added 107 for the fifth wicket. Raees was stumped by Saeed Anwar jnr after he completed his double. Umar Gul promoted himself to push the scoring; he hit two sixes in his 14-ball 21 before he was caught behind off Anwar. Shoaib, whose 81 came at a strike-rate of nearly 56 despite only six fours, pushed them to 550, with Aftab Alam making 32.Gul bowled Shoaib Khan jnr with the score on 28, and left-arm fast bowler Junaid Khan removed Usman Tariq. Legspinner Yasir Shah removed Anwar. At 66 for 3, Baluchistan’s hopes will largely rest on captain Misbah-ul-Haq.

Match facts

November 15, 2008
Start time 7.30pm (1400 GMT)

The Big Picture

The script for the ICL 2008-09 finals has so far been a copy of last season’s so it won’t be a surprise, given that the Lahore Badshahs won the first of three matches, if the second game was tied.But the Hyderabad Heroes will be keen to alter it instead of letting a bowl-out decide the championship. It will be difficult for them to overcome a Lahore side that has dominated its last five consecutive wins – the narrowest margin of victory in those games was a 13-run win against the Chennai Superstars. Everything has clicked for Lahore since beating the Chandigarh Lions by seven wickets at the start of this month. They haven’t lost more than five wickets in four chases and scored a whopping 211 in the one game in which they batted first. Hyderabad also put in a couple of masterful performances – beating the Mumbai Champs by 79 runs and the Royal Bengal Tigers by nine wickets – but seemed to have lost some of their spark after just edging past Bengal in the semi-final.There’s no better time for Hyderabad’s openers – Jimmy Maher and Ibrahim Khaleel – to give their side a scorching start before Saqlain Mushtaq troubles them with his variations. They haven’t done so badly in the two matches they opened after Khaleel was promoted up the order – adding 49 in the first final – but in order to counter Lahore’s imposing batting line-up which includes Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf and the in-form Naved-ul-Hasan, Hyderabad will need something special from their openers.The two teams opened the tournament with a farcical match which Hyderabad won after the floodlights failed in Lahore’s innings. The organisers will hope that if Saturday’s game is the last one in the season, it turns out just the opposite.

Form guide (last five matches, most recent first)

Hyderabad- WWWWL
Lahore – LWWWW

Stats

• Justin Kemp has the most number of catches in the tournament, with eight from 10 games. His team-mates Maher and Inder Shekhar Reddy, with five each, can still race him to the eventual record.
• Khalid Mahmood’s 11 dismissals are the most by a keeper in the tournament. Bengal’s Deep Dasgupta has the same number from nine matches, one less than Mahmood. But Ibrahim Khaleel is close behind with eight.

Players to watch

Abdul Razzaq v Lahore: Razzaq was rankled by Naved’s send-off in the first final and angry words followed, after which he complained to Inzamam, who smoothed things with his customary calm. Razzaq top-scored for Hyderabad in the game and the sledging may spur him on against his former Pakistan team-mates.Naved-ul-Hasan: Lahore’s fortunes in their last five games have been tied to Naved’s form with the ball. He took 14 wickets in the matches and also scored two half-centuries batting at No. 3.Saqlain Mushtaq: How many Hyderabad batsmen will fall to his ? He has not gone wicketless in any of Lahore’s wins and conceded over eight runs an over in only one of those matches.Justin Kemp: He will be keen to fire for Hyderabad after scoring only 54 in 10 games. His hard-hitting approach can be very handy if the team is chasing a big total.Nicky Boje: His team will hope their top run-getter and second highest wicket-taker can stop Lahore in their tracks and give Hyderabad a chance to go for the title on Sunday night.

Quotes

“Winning the first match gives you an edge and now that we have done it we would like to go full stretch and win the event 2-0 tomorrow. The toss will be crucial because of the dew factor. The ball will not swing much in the second half and it will give batsmen the advantage.”
.”Winning the first match can make you relaxed, so I feel we are in a good position because we don’t have anything to lose now. We don’t have any pressure and we will give our best and win the next two games.”
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Zimbabwe Cricket has hit back at claims made by former captain Tatenda Taibu that the board is attempting to discredit him.Taibu’s comments came after a court appearance in Harare over charges relating to an alleged assault on ZC’s general finance manager, Esther Lupepe, in October.But Lovemore Banda, ZC’s media manager, insisted that the action by Lupepe did not involve the board and asked ” how can the court then probe ZC finances in a personal case … how can ZC be ordered to open books for audit in a personal case?”Taibu said the incident came about following an ongoing dispute over payments which he insists were promised to him by the board. “The assertion that we promised to meet the cost of Taibu’s family accompanying him to Pakistan is one we have refuted already,” Banda maintained. “As we said, we could not have made such an undertaking as it would set a precedent.”The issue of poor remuneration of players is really a non-starter because each individual player negotiates their contract with the relevant committee and only signs when they are satisfied with the conditions.”The case has been deferred until February 6. Although Lupepe has been asked to provide financial information relating to ZC, it is unclear whether the board will make this available. If it does not, the court appears to have little authority to force ZC to reveal anything.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Ramesh Powar and Dhawal Kulkarni shared the five remaining Saurashtra wickets to clinch Mumbai’s place in the final of the Ranji Trophy on the basis of a first-innings lead. Kulkarni took two wickets in an over early in the day but Kamlesh Makvana and Rakesh Dhurv kept Saurashtra’s slim chances alive with a battling partnership. Offspinner Powar polished off the tail to ensure Saurashtra’s campaign ended in the semi-finals for the second season in a row.Kulkarni’s impressive debut season continued when he got rid of the Saurashtra captain Jaydev Shah, the last specialist batsman, in the day’s third over. Shah chased a wide delivery outside off and ended up slicing a catch to backward point. Three balls later, Kulkarni had Sagar Jogiyani nicking a delivery that straightened after pitching outside off to third slip and Saurashtra were reduced to 256 for 7.Just when it seemed like Mumbai would run through the tail, Makvana, who made his second first-class half-century, and Dhurv stitched together a 103-run stand to keep Saurashtra fighting. Makvana was particularly gutsy, taking several blows on the body during a barrage of bouncers from Ajit Agarkar. With two leg slips, and a short leg, Agarkar peppered Makvana (first-class average of 12.70) with short balls from both over and round the wicket, but the batsman survived, weaving his way out of a few and clipping some towards square-leg.At the other end, Dhurv was more comfortable against spin than pace. He started off with a confident off-drive against Zaheer Khan, but was fortunate to survive several streaky shots past the slip cordon. Dhurv carted the shorter deliveries from Powar to the boundary and watchfully defended the better ones.Dhurv and Makvana fought through the first session but Powar’s post-lunch spell finished off Saurashtra. Dhurv was the first to go, in the second over of the second session, trapped lbw for 44. Sandeep Jobanputra slammed a couple of eye-catching boundaries off Zaheer but an attempted sweep off Powar landed in the hands of first slip soon after. The final wicket wasn’t long in coming: Balkrishna Jadeja was caught behind to virtually signal the end of Saurashtra’s campaign.Mumbai opted against enforcing the follow-on and Rohit Sharma and Amol Muzumdar, two batsmen who spent little time at the crease in the first innings, helped themselves to some batting practice before play was called off due to bad light.Saurashtra were on the backfoot right through the match after losing the toss. The batting might of Mumbai, made even more formidable by the presence of Sachin Tendulkar, ran up a mammoth total and with Saurashtra’s batting stars failing to make an impact, there was little chance of Saurashtra making the title clash.

Smith’s end-of-year party
Graeme Smith will spend the next couple of days celebrating South Africa’s historic series win but he also has a personal achievement to look back on. Smith was out for 75 in the second innings and it meant he finished 2008 as the leading run-scorer in Tests, with 1656 at 72. He had nearly 200 more than his nearest rival Virender Sehwag and only Mohammad Yousuf and Viv Richards have had greater collections in any calendar year.Lee’s pain, Hill’s gain
Brett Lee bravely charged in with a serious foot injury on the fifth morning as he tried to do his bit in pulling off a miracle. It wasn’t to be, and Lee was obviously in pain each time his left foot slammed down at the bowling crease. After seven overs to add to his three on the fourth afternoon, Lee gave it away and headed down to fine-leg – an ironic name given his situation. Eventually Lee left the field and the 20-year-old Victoria batsman Michael Hill took over the fielding duties.Glass half full
It’s hard enough to convince players to speak to the media when their side is losing, let alone when the player in question has just received devastating injury news. But Shane Watson is a talkative chap and when he discovered that he had stress fractures in his back that would keep him from bowling for up to six months, he was happy to do television and radio interviews to explain the situation. “I’ve been really happy with the way things have progressed over the last ten months to a year, the way my game has been able to improve,” Watson said. “I’m happy with the things that have been evolving and it’s just another little setback but I’m going to be really excited when I’m back bowling and back playing full pelt.” Talk about looking on the bright side.$20 too much?
When it became obvious late on the fourth afternoon that the match was likely to be over soon after lunch on the fifth day, Cricket Australia and Cricket Victoria announced that ticket prices would be slashed for the final day’s play. Well, cut to $20 at least. Several of the visiting South African journalists wondered why the authorities wouldn’t just open the gates and let people in for free. As it turned out only 6343 fans arrived to watch the conclusion of one of the most memorable matches seen in Australia in recent times.

India’s offspinner Harbhajan Singh, who will miss out on the forthcoming tour of Sri Lanka after picking up a hamstring injury, expects to come back fitter for the team’s next assignment, in New Zealand.Harbhajan, 28, is currently in Johannesburg, where he has been undergoing medical supervision for the last 10 days after suffering a tear in the tendon joining his hamstring and groin. He is, however, scheduled to return to India on Tuesday night.”I was fit enough to play without a break in any form of the game in the last two years and don’t see any reasons why it would be any different for New Zealand,” Harbhajan told . “More so when I have taken the required medical help in South Africa.”It was first detected in a scan during the tour of South Africa in 2006,” said Harbhajan. “It was then seen only as an inflammation. However, in Australia last year, another scan showed a little tear. The doctors then advised me to keep on playing and treat it whenever there was a long break from international engagements,” he said.With India’s tour of Pakistan, scheduled early in the year, called off, the team seemingly had no international commitments for a long duration and Harbhajan felt it was the best opportunity to deal with the issue.”I presently sensed a two-month window of no cricket in India’s international engagements and duly parked myself in South Africa for treatment,” he said. “Since then the Sri Lanka tour materialised and I could do little.”However, Harbhajan wasn’t required to endure an operation to get rid of the injury. “Fortunately, I wasn’t required to go through the surgeon’s knife,” he said. “There is a medical process through which your own blood is extracted and injected with white cells. Quite a few rugby players in South Africa have used this method of treatment. Even Graeme Smith, the South African captain, used this process to recover from his injury.”Harbhajan was a key figure in the squad during India’s previous tour of Sri Lanka in July-August last year. He was the highest wicket-taker for India in the Tests with 16 wickets from three matches at 28.12, followed by a slightly disappointing ODI series with six wickets from four matches at 18.83.This time around, India are scheduled to play five ODIs and a Twenty international on the tour, to be played out between January 28 and February 10.India’s tour of New Zealand begins soon afterwards, with the team arriving on February 20 for two Twenty20 internationals, five ODIs and three Tests.