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Jamie How will lead New Zealand A against England Lions for the first of two four-day matches in Queenstown. How, 27, was dropped from the New Zealand squad for the final two matches of the home ODI series against West Indies last following his extended run of poor form.How disappointed in his last three ODI series, scoring 105 runs at an average of 21 in the five-match series in England last year, and 80 at 21.33 in Bangladesh. In the series against West Indies, he managed only 27 runs in two matches. In the 18 Tests he has played, How has scored 771 runs at 23.36.The focus will also be on James Franklin, returning from a long injury lay-off following knee surgery last year. He featured in the West Indies series but didn’t make an immediate impact. He also played the one-off Twenty20 in Australia, bowled one over and scored three runs. The performances were not good enough to warrant him a place in New Zealand’s Twenty20 squad to take on India.Glenn Turner, New Zealand’s chairman of selectors, said the series would provide an opportunity to both established and younger players to get time in the longer form of the game.”Jamie How has agreed to captain the side, and this will give him an opportunity to find some form in a four-day setting,” Turner said. “James Franklin also has a good chance to show whether he can regain the form he’s shown in Test cricket previously with the ball and also show his improvement with the bat.”In James Franklin, Trent Boult and Mitchell McClenaghan, the side would have three left-arm fast bowlers. “That’s a bit unusual – and a good place to be in given that we have not had many left-arm quicks performing at this level in recent years,” Turner said.New Zealand A play the England Lions in four-day games in Queenstown, from March 1 to 4, and in Lincoln from March 7 to 10. The series finishes with two one-dayers at Palmerston North on March 13 and 16, and a Twenty20 at New Plymouth on March 19.Squad: Jamie How, Brent Arnel, Trent Boult, James Franklin, Peter Ingram, Mitchell McClenaghan, Tim McIntosh, Bruce Martin, BJ Watling (wk), Kane Williamson, Luke Woodcock, Reece Young

The face-off between the IPL and overseas players’ associations has intensified with representatives from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa joining their English and Sri Lankan counterparts in seeking direct involvement in the league’s security management through the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA).Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman, has said the IPL would not talk directly to the FICA or the players’ associations on the issue and suggested that they direct their queries or concerns through their respective home boards. The IPL has already rejected a request from FICA to be involved in the tournament’s security management process.However, the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) termed it a “poor decision”. The New Zealand Cricket Players’ Association (NZCPA) said it was “disappointing” and “not normal practice elsewhere in the cricket world” while the South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) said its players wanted the FICA to be involved in IPL security.All the three players’ associations confirmed that their players would be seeking their advice before deciding to participate in the IPL, especially after last week’s attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore. They also suggested that the home boards may not have a significant role to play in the process as the IPL does not involve national teams.Paul Marsh, the ACA’s chief executive, and Heath Mills, his New Zealand counterpart, said they would not advise their players to participate in the tournament if the IPL did not revise its position. Tony Irish, SACA’s CEO, said he failed to understand why the IPL wouldn’t want the FICA to be involved in planning security for the event.”Without this engagement, I’m not sure how we could look our players in their eyes and say that we believe it is safe to play in this year’s event,” Marsh told Cricinfo. “Not involving player associations in the security assessment process would be a poor decision by the IPL. While we are able to assess the general security threat without IPL cooperation, we simply cannot assess the security measures that will be in place around the event without the IPL engaging us in the process.”Mills warned that New Zealand players would be uncertain about participating in the IPL if the deadlock continued. “If FICA is not involved, the players will be uncertain about their participation in the IPL and will not be as confident and comfortable about the security situation as would otherwise be the case,” Mills told Cricinfo.Irish said he had spoken to the South African players who have demanded that FICA be involved. “We don’t really understand why IPL would not want to work with FICA on this if that’s what is going to bring the greatest degree of comfort to players,” Irish told Cricinfo. “Yes, they (South African players) want the comfort of knowing that FICA is involved in dealing with the IPL on security and that they can rely on expert independent advice both on the environmental risks and security plans.”Asked if they would sort out the issue through their home boards, as suggested by IPL, the players’ association chiefs suggested that the boards do not have a significant role to play in this situation. “I have spoken to Cricket Australia (CA), and whilst they want players to play in the safest possible environment, they see this as an issue for the ACA and the players involved,” Marsh said.”There is little New Zealand Cricket (NZC) can do to help as it is not their event,” Mills said. According to Irish, it is a similar situation in South Africa: “SACA works very closely with Cricket South Africa (CSA) on security issues relating to the Proteas team. But this doesn’t involve the team so the dynamic is different.”

From the IPL’s point of view, overseas players are not bound to go by their respective associations’ opinion on the security aspect as long as their home boards give them the green signal. In fact, some players such as Brett Lee and Nathan Bracken have already confirmed that would be participating in the tournament.According to Modi the IPL is utilising the services of Nicholls Steyn and Associates, the ICC’s security consultants, who will ensure the security of overseas players “from the minute they reach India for the IPL to the minute they leave”. He also said that the IPL has increased its security budget “ten-fold from the last year”.However, if the IPL is not able to bring these players’ associations on board, it is likely to affect the participation of several cricketers, including New Zealand’s Jacob Oram and England’s Kevin Pietersen, who have said they would go by independent security assessments.All the three players’ association chiefs admitted that some players may be tempted to participate in the IPL despite security concerns because of the large amount of money involved. “For some this may happen but one only needs to see what happened to the Sri Lankan players last week to give some proper perspective on things,” Irish said. “Many players recognise this.”

ScorecardMandeep Singh slammed eight sixes in his 151 off 113 balls•Getty Images

Massive centuries by Mayank Agarwal and Mandeep Singh helped India Under-19 completely outplay Australia Under-19 in the second one-dayer at the Bellerive Oval. Agarwal’s 160 and Mandeep’s unbeaten 151 powered India to an unassailable 371 for 4 and the contest was so one-sided that the hosts failed to reach 200.The Indian batsmen took full advantage of the flat batting wicket and sunny skies after winning the toss. Alister McDermott struck in the ninth over but Australia had to wait till the 45th for their next breakthrough, by which time Mandeep and Agarwal had added 270. Agarwal slammed five sixes and 18 fours in his 142-ball knock before he was bowled by Jackson Coleman. Mandeep was equally harsh on the bowlers, hitting eight sixes and ten fours.The Australians got off to a poor start, losing two wickets for 13 and they struggled to build partnerships even close to what the Indians achieved, the highest being 77 between Tom Beaton and Tim Armstrong for the fourth wicket. Beaton top scored with 73 off 79 balls before he was stumped off the offspinner Kundan Singh, who took 4 for 38. Adam Coyte was unable to bat after suffering a bicep injury while fielding and the innings ended on 184 for 9. India now lead the three-match series 2-0. The teams will stay back in Hobart for the first Test starting Saturday.”It was awesome to see the Indians batting today and going so hard at us and bat so well,” the Australian captain Tom Triffit said. “They play so differently to us, they’ve got different strengths and they utilised the short boundary so well and we probably didn’t bowl quite as well as we would have liked.”I thought McDermott’s first five overs were unreal. He actually bowled the player that got 160 but the bails didn’t come off and Luke Doran showed again that he’s a really good spinner and can tie it down. We dropped a couple of chances which didn’t help our cause, so we can build on that from here.”

Despite his success as an opener, Virender Sehwag has said he still belongs in the middle order and would love to bat there if he got the chance. Sehwag said he had asked the team management to push him down the order when he felt he was out of form but had been told he would contribute better as an opener.”I was a middle-order batsman who was asked to open and luckily for me, things went really well,” Sehwag told . “In fact, till date, as an opener I am just doing a job given to me by the team management. Given a choice, I would happily slide down and play in the middle-order because that’s where I belong. But right now, I have a job entrusted to me and I love the responsibility, so no regrets at all.”In eight Tests in which he batted between No. 4 and No. 7, Sehwag averaged 41.55, with one century and two half-centuries. As an opener he averages 51.21 from 64 Tests.Sehwag also said he and his opening partner Gautam Gambhir motivated themselves by placing bets on who would score faster. “I believe that a sense of competition always helps achieve your best and so we indulge in these little games. I really teased him when I outscored him in the one-day series and he told me he would get back at me. After the Test series, he’s teasing me about how many more runs he scored than me.”Sehwag felt he was going through the best phase of his career as his performances had translated into wins for the team. “There are several factors surrounding these statistics — the dressing-room atmosphere, the team-mates, coach, captain — it’s everything you could dream of.” Sehwag has scored a triple-hundred, a double-hundred and five half-centuries in the 15 Tests since Gary Kirsten took over as coach in March 2008. India did not lose any of the matches in which he scored fifty or more.

After defending champions Rajasthan Royals, it is now the turn of the Chennai Super Kings to send back five from their IPL squad in South Africa. Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, Srikkanth Anirudha, Suresh Kumar, Abhinav Mukund and Napoleon Einstein have been trimmed from Chennai’s 28-man squad.By axing batsmen Vidyut, who played nine games last year for 145 runs, and Anirudha, the son of Indian chairman of selectors Kris Srikkanth, it appears Chennai’s strategy is to have more bowlers on their bench.On his blog on the Chennai website, VB Chandrasekhar, the team’s cricket manager, said it was a “tough” decision that could not be helped. He credited Chennai’s coach Stephen Fleming for delivering the hard news to the players in smooth fashion. “Flemo played a big role and he handled the situation quite well. I am sure it wasn’t an easy task to break the news to the five youngsters, but we thought it was better to retain the bowlers as a cover for our frontline attack.”With the IPL being forced to squeeze 59 games in 37 days, and the tournament being forced to move to South Africa at the last minute, teams have been under pressure to trim their squads in order to meet the logistical challenge.”The schedule is pretty hectic with a lot of travel thrown in. As such, those carrying or suffering injuries will have little time to recover and the stress would be particularly more on our bowlers,” said Chandrasekar. “Hence the decision to have sufficient cover for them and send back five batsmen.”

The South African board has decided to resume bilateral ties with Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) in light of the change in the nature of the government in Zimbabwe. The decision was taken at a Cricket South Africa (CSA) board meeting on Friday that was also attended by ZC president Peter Chingoka, CEO Ozias Bvute and ZC board member Wilson Manase.The move overturned a decision taken by CSA last year to suspend the bilateral agreement with ZC because of the general deteriorating social environment in that country.Since then, Zimbabwe has had a government of national unity and the ICC has sent a task team to the country to assess the situation. The draft report has been presented to the ICC’s executive board and it has asked the members to assist the development of cricket in Zimbabwe.CSA president Mtutuzeli Nyoka sent a memorandum to all affiliates and associates as well as the CEOs of the franchises and there has also been a request from the ZC to restore the previous relationship.The board decided that a co-ordinating committee be set up to do a joint needs analysis with Zimbabwe that can be implemented over the next three to five years to enable ZC to achieve its goal of returning to Test cricket. The analysis will cover all areas of Zimbabwe cricket from primary school upwards.The co-ordinating committee will comprise Gerald Majola (CSA CEO, chairman), Colin Beggs (chairman of CSA audit committee), Ray Mali (vice-president, CSA, representing the board of CSA), Tony Irish (CEO, SA Cricketers’ Association) and Jacques Faul (representing the franchise CEOs).

Somerset survived a late scare against Sussex to secure a 35-run victory at Hove. Sussex began the day needing 180 more with six wickets in hand and started well as Chris Nash and nightwatchman Jason Lewry carried their stand to 60 before Lewry fell to an inside edge. Nash, who moved to career-best 134, fell to a sharp catch from Craig Kieswetter and Somerset appeared on course for a comfortable success as wickets continued to fall during a collapse of 5 for 52. Andrew Hodd was leg before not offering a shot and Luke Wright was caught at backward point for the second time in the match. However, Sussex batted very deep – Piyush Chawla, at No.11, scored a century last week – and the last two wickets chipped away at the total Dwayne Smith fell for 23, but Chawla and Robin Martin-Jenkins made the visitors sweat as they added 43 until Martin-Jenkins finally drove to gully to give Charl Willoughby his fourth wicket.Azeem Rafiq struck a maiden century asYorkshire’s game against Worcestershire Worcestershire at New Road ended in a draw. John Ward watched the action.Graham Onions followed Steve Harmison’s lead with seven wickets as Durham went top of the Championship table with victory against Warwickshire. George Dobell reports from Edgbaston.3rd dayDimitri Mascarenhas struck a fine 108 as Hampshire compiled a useful lead against Lancashire at Liverpool before the home side ended the day with a small advantage themselves. When the eighth wicket fell Hampshire were only 27 ahead and Mascarenhas was on 31, but he farmed the strike so effectively that he contributed 69 of the ninth-wicket stand of 78 with James Tomlinson. With Mascarenhas safely to his hundred, Imran Tahir slammed 24 off nine balls to close the innings. Lancashire responded with their best opening stand of the season, as Paul Horton and Mal Loye added 83, before Chris Tremlett struck. Andrew Flintoff, who earlier took two wickets in two balls, was dropped by Tahir but started to play more confidently to remain unbeaten on 36 although Loye was removed late on.

Danish Kaneria claimed six wickets to spearhead the Essex victory charge against Kent at Tunbridge Wells although the home side put up plenty of resistance. Joe Denly moved to 123 and Martin van Jaarsveld hit 73, but when he was removed the final six wickets fell for 43. Kaneria struck in the second over of the day to snare James Tredwell at short leg, but Denly and Geraint Jones added 69 in 37 overs of solid resistance, but that ended when Jones was bowled by a superb googly. Denly reached his second consecutive Championship ton with a run of boundaries before suffering a major loss of concentration as he drove the very occasional offspin of Alastair Cook to cover. The lower couldn’t withstand Kaneria and the final wicket went to Graham Napier.Glamorgan captain Jamie Dalrymple was left to rue a cautious declaration as Northamptonshire struggled to 140 for 6 after being set 326 in 56 overs on the final day at Sophia Gardens. Gareth Rees’ first Championship hundred of the season, which included two reverse-swept sixes off Nicky Boje, built Glamorgan’s lead while Dalrymple played positively for his 62-ball 70 but didn’t fancy offering too much of a challenge in chase. Northamptonshire were soon 10 for 2 when James Harris took two in two balls and wickets fell steadily. Adam Shantry struck twice after tea and it was left to Andrew Hall and David Willey to play out 15 overs to secure the draw. It was another disappointing game for Monty Panesar who ended with match figures of 2 for 149 at the venue for the first Ashes Test.South Africa are still licking their wounds after exiting the World Twenty20, but two former internationals produced a record stand to help Leicestershire fight back for a draw against Surrey at Grace Road. Boeta Dippenaar and HD Ackerman added 314 in 83 overs, Leicestershire’s highest stand against Surrey, and were especially impressive during the first session as 151 runs came off 32 overs to build a strong lead. Ackerman’s hundred took 121 balls and Dippenaar joined him from a far more sedate 233 deliveries. Dippenaar eventually lofted to long-on, but by then the match was safe.2nd dayMiddlesex are facing defeat against Gloucestershire despite a maiden five-wicket by seamer David Burton at Bristol. The visitors closed the second day on 129 for 5, still 60 behind, after Owais Shah was caught at slip late in the day for 57. Andrew Strauss earlier fell for a duck when he shouldered arms to Jon Lewis – who also made an important half-century – as Middlesex tried to respond to the home side’s lead of 189. James Franklin, the New Zealand allrounder back from Twenty20 duty, bolstered the middle order with 67 after countryman Craig Spearman – captain for this game – was caught behind for 57 to give Burton, a former Gloucestershire player, his first wicket. Burton’s day got better when he trapped Chris Taylor lbw and returned to mop up the innings but not before Franklin and Lewis (54) had added 103 to build a vital lead.

ScorecardTim Paine smashed 13 fours and five sixes•Getty Images

Australia A edged ahead of Pakistan A in a high-scorer at the Allan Border Field to take the one-day series 2-1. Opener Tim Paine cracked 134 to steer his team to an imposing 316 before his counterpart Khalid Latif responded with an exact 100, which wasn’t enough as Pakistan fell short by 15 runs.Pakistan’s decision to send the home team in to bat backfired as the first two partnerships cost 66 and 108 runs respectively. Callum Ferguson supported Paine in the second-wicket stand with 48. Paine’s century came off 124 balls and he smashed 13 fours and five huge sixes before being dismissed by Fahad Masood.The Australian innings got a real boost between the 34th and 40th overs when Paine and Adam Voges added 69. Moises Henriques and Jason Krejza then pushed the score past 300 with cameos towards the end.Pakistan got off to a quick start but lost two wickets before the fifth over. Two half-century partnerships, driven by Latif, put Pakistan on track but the chase lost momentum when Latif fell in the 33rd over to the left-arm spinner Jon Holland. Latif scored at more than a run-a-ball and his knock included ten fours and two sixes. Sheharyar Ghani made 53 before departing in the 40th over, but the steady fall of wickets hurt Pakistan’s efforts in keeping with the asking rate.Paine said he had expected a high-scoring encounter. “I enjoyed batting today and it was good to put on some solid partnerships, firstly with David Warner and then with Ferg (Callum Ferguson) after that,” Paine said after the match. “I thought 316 was a good score but we knew they would come at us hard, and we’re just happy to come away with the win.”He also praised Latif’s knock. “His (Khalid Latif) innings was first-class and really helped them through that middle part of the game and they got some momentum up so it was great when Dutchy (Jon Holland) was able to pick him up.”Pakistan round off their tour with a Twenty20 game at the same venue on Saturday. Australia took the two-match unofficial Test series 1-0.

Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara has said his team had expected Pakistan to crack as long as they remained focused on staying in the game, something they hadn’t done on the second day. Sangakkara termed his team’s seven-wicket win at the P Sara Oval, against the odds, a great achievement and credited his bowlers – Rangana Herath and Nuwan Kulasekara – for out-thinking the opposition.”From where we were yesterday and at lunch today to be here with a match won, I think it’s a great achievement,” Sangakkara said. “We should be mindful of the fact that we should have batted them out of the game in the first innings and never put ourselves in a position to have turned the match miraculously.”We’ve always known that about Pakistan. It’s just the case of how long we can continuously exert pressure on them. The key is not to give them too many runs but hold them in as much as possible until that one crack appears and then try and dominate. We were a bit loose yesterday in a couple of sessions, giving away too many singles and boundaries. Today, after a few discussions last evening, we managed to get the field a bit better for the day that helped the bowlers as well.”Sangakkara revealed that on Monday evening he had a chat with his father at home trying to find a way for his team to achieve a breakthrough.”Pakistan was in such a strong position where they could have gone on to dominate. But a false stroke let us into the middle order with two bowlers doing a fantastic job,” Sangakkara said. “Today it was a case where everything went our way. It would have been nice to win a Test match which sees absorbing cricket.”It was the second new ball, taken straight after lunch, that did the trick for Sri Lanka. At that stage Pakistan had lost their captain Younis Khan for 82 but were still strongly placed at 294 for 2 at lunch with Fawad Alam batting on 164. However, the entire complexion of the game changed when Sangakkara tossed the new ball to Herath, who trapped Mohammad Yousuf with his second delivery. From there onwards it was a downward slide for Pakistan.”We expected the spinners to get some bite off the new ball. If it lands on the shiny side it would slip through and hopefully hit the pads,” Sangakkara said. “We walked onto the ground thinking maybe having the two fast bowlers from both ends, but I tossed the ball to Rangana who came up with a wicket in his first over. No matter who bowled we needed someone to stand up and do something special for us. Luckily we had two people today, [Nuwan] Kulasekara and Herath, who bowled marvelously in partnership.”Rangana’s had a lot of success against Pakistan in Pakistan. It just goes to show it doesn’t matter whether you are a freak or an unorthodox bowler if you are patient and you bowl a good line and length. Trust yourself to do well, you can do wonders and win matches. Rangana not only bowled a very good line and length, but a lot of revolutions on the ball and put the ball in the right place.”For the amount of cricket that Rangana has played at home and abroad, he’s matured very well. I remember when I was playing my first years of Test cricket it took me a while to understand how I played and what my game was. Once you understand that things become a bit easier and you can do a lot more of what you have. Rangana’s really learnt those lessons well. The other thing is he is just hungry. He’s been in the wings and unfortunately fighting against two of the best spinners in the world, one of them the best ever. It’s unfair in one way.”Praising the bowling of joint Man of the Match, Kulasekara, Sangakkara said: “Nuwan is a bowler whose strength is accuracy and movement. [Chaminda] Vaas is very much the same. Nuwan has worked his butt off the last year and a half and he’s got to No. 1 in the world in ODIs so he can’t be a bad bowler if that’s the case. We picked him looking at the Galle wicket and you can’t do anything more than that to impress and press for selection. It’s tough for everyone sitting out, especially guys like Vaas who’ve played years and years and done wonders. The three guys who were picked in the two Tests really deserve their places and they’ve done a lot of good work.”Having won his first Test series as captain after taking over from his predecessor Mahela Jayawardene, he was wary of the obstacles that lie ahead of him.”When you are winning you’ve got to be very careful of the fact that you’ve got to enjoy the good times but also make sure that you are prepared and the team is prepared that when a bad time comes it doesn’t last long and we can bounce straight out of those. It’s going to get a lot tougher as the years go by but I think we have the depth and the ability to meet all those challenges.”

Former Pakistan captain Zaheer Abbas has criticised the selection of fast bowler Mohammad Asif for the Champions Trophy next month, saying the selectors are gambling by including a player with no international experience for more than a year.Asif is currently serving the ban imposed on him by the PCB last September after testing positive for the banned substance Nandrolone. It expires on September 22, a day before Pakistan’s first match of the tournament.”He has not played any cricket since last year and no one knows properly about his match fitness or general fitness condition,” Abbas told PTI. “It seems to me a big gamble taken by the selectors to rush Asif into the national team.”Asif was included in the 30-member probables for the Champions Trophy. He attended an Under-23 training camp in Karachi to assess his match fitness. He took 1 for 23 in a practice match during that camp, impressing Rashid Latif, who was overseeing it. Pakistan’s chief selector Iqbal Qasim was also satisfied with Asif’s progress and was confident his fitness would improve by 5-10% by the time the tournament starts.However, Asif wasn’t allowed to take part in Pakistan’s conditioning camp because his ban expires after the camp finishes. Abbas believed that the training camp was no substitute for first-class experience.”It would have been better if the selectors and the board had given Asif some more time to play domestic matches after the conclusion of his ban period and then consider him for the national side,” Abbas said. “It is a gamble considering the tough nature of the Champions Trophy and it is a decision which I feel will have a lot of influence on the performance of the team in the upcoming series.”