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Sri Lanka interim coach Jerome Jayaratne has called Sri Lanka’s abject defeat in the second ODI “humiliating” in an analysis that was sharply critical of the team’s batsmen. Sri Lanka were all out for 117 on Monday. The top order had also collapsed to 65 for 6 in the first ODI.”Today was a really humiliating day actually,” Jayaratne said. “It was a bit disappointing. We didn’t expect a performance of this sort. At least in the Test series we were in a position to save a game, as well as in a position to win a game. But then when you look back at the two ODIs in Christchurch, it’s been a humiliating performance.”Jayaratne said the plan for Sri Lanka’s innings had been to play conservatively in the first ten overs, while New Zealand’s seamers bowled with the new ball, before consolidating that start later. However, the top three have been out in the Powerplay in both matches. On Monday, opener Danushka Gunathilaka and no. 3 Lahiru Thirimanne had been caught playing aggressive shots, while Tillakaratne Dilshan was out advancing down the track to Matt Henry, though he eventually checked his shot.”Mentally it’s difficult for us in the pavilion to control their thoughts,” Jayaratne said. “We can only make them aware and speak about it. We can say there was a lack of experience in the Test team. But in this team, apart from two or three guys, all the others have played 50 to 100 games. Without any management even they should put on a better performance. It was very amateurish.”In the first ten overs we lose our way and get into a rebuilding phase all the time. We lose three or four wickets in the first overs. Even if we don’t get many in the first ten, the plan was to capitalise later in the innings. That didn’t happen in both the games.”In addition to the top three, Milinda Siriwardana had also picked out point with an expansive shot. “The way we played is not the way we really planned to operate,” Jayaratne said. “We know the New Zealanders have one of, if not the, best fielding sides in the world. I feel that we keep the ball a little too much in the air when we’re batting. New Zealand always grab hold of the half chances.”The ODI top order is presently rebuilding following the loss of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara to retirement after the World Cup. Jayaratne said the players who have replaced them are currently repeating mistakes.”It was really Lahiru Thirimanne and Dinesh Chandimal who were groomed to fill their shoes at no. 3 and no. 4. Of course, you can see there’s still a long way to go before they can fill those shoes. The lack of experience is showing somewhat. You can see the requirement at international level. The batsmen are just not tight enough in their game. We’ve spoken about this over and over. When you lose a couple of wickets, you want two people to dig deep, put up a partnership and then build it from that point onwards. That’s not happening at the moment.”Sri Lanka’s attack has also been walloped in the last two matches. On Saturday they went at over nine runs an over, but worse was to come. A Martin Guptill assault had New Zealand hurtling towards their small target at almost 15 runs an over, but Jayaratne said the blame still lay largely with the batsmen.”We batted first and didn’t give the bowlers a fair total to bowl at,” he said. “We know that New Zealand are a very good batting team, but you can’t measure the bowlers with the scores we gave them to bowl at.”

Wasim Akram is set to hold another coaching camp for Pakistan’s fast bowlers at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Lahore later this month.Akram overlooked a similar camp last year in Lahore, where he fast-tracked a number of promising young fast bowlers into national selection. Sohail Tanvir was the most prominent find from last year, though Akram also rated highly Mohammad Aamer, the left-armer who has been impressive for Pakistan U-19s recently.The camp is expected to get underway from May 26 and a PCB official told that Akram will train several young pacers who are either a part of the Pakistan team or are knocking at the doors of international cricket.Mudassar Nazar, a former Pakistan opener and head of the NCA, is currently finalising the details of the camp that is expected to last around six days. All leading pacers of the country, except for the ones currently competing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) will take part in the camp, just a few days before the Pakistan team leaves for Bangladesh for a tri-nation ODI series also involving India in June.Akram’s media commitments since he retired in 2003 have taken priority over his coaching work, though as a travelling, freelance bowling guru, he has had considerable success, especially with young Indian fast bowlers such as Irfan Pathan. Last year’s two-week camp was the first time Akram had officially worked in a coaching capacity and though he enjoyed the experience, he wasn’t sure whether it would be a full-time commitment.

Ireland have named their squad for the World T20, adding batsman Kate McKenna to the 14 who secured a place at the tournament by winning the ICC Qualifier late last year.Isobel Joyce will captain the side, who have been drawn against Australia, the reigning champions, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka in Group A.”We’ve gone with the fourteen who performed so well out at the qualifying tournament in Thailand, with Kate McKenna also coming into the squad,” head coach Aaron Hamilton said. “Kate is an electric fielder, which is so important in the T20 game, and she will also bolster our batting line-up.”Cricket Ireland has also made a further coaching appointment for the World T20, which takes place in India in March, by bringing in former Australia wicketkeeper Julia Price – who played 10 Tests and 84 ODIs between 1996 and 2005 – as an assistant alongside Alex Cusack.”It’s great to have Julia joining our support staff for the World T20,” Hamilton said. “Julia brings a wealth of knowledge and coaching experience to the group.”Ireland women squad: Isobel Joyce (capt), Catherine Dalton, Laura Delany, Kim Garth, Jennifer Gray, Cecelia Joyce, Shauna Kavanagh, Amy Kenealy, Gaby Lewis, Robyn Lewis, Ciara Metcalfe, Kate McKenna, Lucy O’Reilly, Clare Shillington, Mary Waldron.

Shane Warne has said he would be keen to spend time bowling with Yasir Shah in the nets while he is on a brief visit to Dubai this week.There is a vast amount of mutual respect between the two legspinners – Yasir, who has climbed to No.2 in the world Test rankings, counts Warne as a hero and he in turns says Yasir is a “fantastic, wonderful bowler” – and Warne, who is due to leave on Friday, suggested he would try to join a Pakistan net session ahead of the final Test in Sharjah.Warne has previously met Yasir in Adelaide during the World Cup and has chatted with him again since – although admitted a few language issues – and as he prepares for a return to cricket in his All Stars venture in the USA he was enthused about forming a legspin pairing, however briefly.”I would love to have another session with him,” he said. “If I can find some time this week I’d love to go down and have a bowl with him. I’m looking to get as much practice as I can.”Warne, who was in Dubai to launch the Icons of Cricket golf event, was flying as Yasir took four wickets, including the last one of Adil Rashid with just 6.3 overs remaining, to clinch the second Test but had seen enough to be further impressed, although he did have some words of advice.”I think he’s a fantastic, wonderful bowler,” Warne said. “Sometimes, from what I’ve seen, he looks a bit impatient – he has all the toys, he just needs to slow down a little bit, take a breath. Just chill out and set a batsman up a little bit more rather than just ripping legbreaks, wrong ‘uns, straight ones, going around the wicket, over the wicket. He just needs to toil away a little more.”Warne also had further words of encouragement for Rashid who claimed just 2 for 191 in Dubai after almost conjuring a remarkable victory for England in Abu Dhabi with 5 for 64 in the second innings.”They are completely different bowlers, Yasir is a real hustle-and-bustle legspinner, to me he’s the best in international cricket at the moment, and Rashid will hopefully get better. He’s not as fluent as someone like Yasir, but that doesn’t mean he’s not as effective. If he gets his confidence up I think he can be a real handful.”Rashid has twice been thrust into bowling first with Alastair Cook losing both tosses so far and Warne said that the role was something even he had to learn during his career.”I ended up doing it a lot,” he said. “I had to learn, it’s all the subtleties of a legspinner, patience, changing position on the crease, not bowling the same ball twice, don’t attack too much with the field, basically try to tie up an end – especially here where it’s so hot, so the quicks can rotate.”It’s about trying to beat them in flight, get them driving. My line would change a bit, you’d go a bit wider, then you’d use the faster, straighter one as a major weapon. But the hard spun legbreak is the real key and you just had to try that as much as you could. That was basically it for the first two days.”

ScorecardFile photo: Pieter Seelaar top-scored for Netherlands with a crucial 49•Peter Della Penna

Late innings resiliency with both bat and ball ensured Netherlands escaped with a six-run win over UAE at Abu Dhabi on Friday to wrap up a two-match WCL Championship sweep for the visitors on Friday. The latest victory vaulted Netherlands past Hong Kong to the top of the WCLC table with 10 points to Hong Kong’s nine. The Dutch are currently undefeated in six games with 10 points coming from four wins and two no results.Netherlands scratched their way to 216 after being sent in thanks to Pieter Seelaar, whose 49 at No. 7 helped the Dutch rebuild after the double-blow of losing Roelof van der Merwe and Wesley Barresi in the space of three overs reduced the visitors from 108 for 4 to 112 for 6 in the 30th. Seelaar added 76 for the seventh wicket with Michael Rippon in the biggest stand of the innings and hung around until the final over before he was ninth man out but not before giving his side a defendable total.In reply, UAE were cruising at 158 for 3 after 37 overs, needing 59 more to win at a little more than four per over, when Timm van der Gugten shifted momentum in the match by removing Shaiman Anwar for 71, ending a 103-run partnership with Mohammad Usman. Van der Gugten struck again later in the over to nab Saqlain Haider for 1 and Usman was dislodged for 52 by Mudassar Bukhari off the first ball of the 42nd to make it 178 for 6.Still, UAE only needed 39 to win off 53 balls, but the run rate was choked successfully by Bukhari, Rippon and Ahsan Malik. In his first tour back since being reported at the World Twenty20 Qualifier for a suspect bowling action, Malik’s impact continued to show as he claimed 2 for 18 in his second spell of 3.3 overs at the death.Entering the final over UAE needed 13 to win with the last pair of Rohan Mustafa, on 21, and Manjula Guruge at the crease. A dot was followed by a six from Mustafa to bring UAE within one shot of leveling the score but Malik struck on the next ball, having Mustafa caught by Bukhari to end the match.

To widespread frustration, Cricket Kenya has postponed the three-day part of its Elite League on the eve of the first round of matches.Originally, the three rounds of three-day matches were to have started earlier, but the whole event had to be delayed because of the domestic upheaval which followed December’s presidential elections. The one-dayers, which should have been played over two weekends, then had to be extended to a third because of a conflict with Nairobi’s 45-over competition.In a media release, CK said that onset of the Long Rains had led to the tournament being postponed until June. The first round will now take place between June 6 and 9 with the second and third rounds starting on the following Fridays.”The rains which have pounded the city heavily over the last one week have left most of the grounds waterlogged and the groundsmen have found it difficult to prepare for these matches,” Tom Tikolo, the board’s CEO explained.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsCameron Delport blasted his third half-century of the season and also picked up three wickets•PSL

Cameron Delport slammed his third half-century of the season and picked up three crucial wickets, setting up a four-run win for Lahore Qalandars against Peshawar Zalmi in Sharjah. Chasing a stiff target of 165, Peshawar recovered from a top-order wobble through some big hitting from Dawid Malan, but the team did not have enough to get over the line. However, despite the defeat, other results in the tournament meant that Peshawar were through to the playoffs.Lahore, after being inserted, lost Chris Gayle for a first-ball duck, but Delport put up fifty-plus stands with Azhar Ali (25) and Umar Akmal to seize the advantage. Delport’s partnership with Akmal for the third wicket yielded 101 runs; Delport hit six fours and three sixes for his 78, while Akmal’s 31-ball 52 featured six fours. Their efforts ensured that Peshawar needed to chase at more than eight an over right from the off.Just as he had done in the previous game, Tamim Iqbal kept the runs flowing for Peshawar with a quick 30, but the team lost wickets in a cluster to soon fall to 95 for 4. Peshawar needed 70 runs from 46 balls at that time, but Malan blew new wind into his team’s chase by blasting a 35-ball 42 with three sixes. His blows brought the equation down to 18 off the last two overs, but Malan was trapped lbw by Kevon Cooper off the first ball in the penultimate over, tilting the contest back Lahore’s way. Peshawar needed 16 off the last over, and despite a six from Wahab Riaz, they could only muster 160 for 7. Cooper (3 for 25) and Delport (3 for 18) were the pick of the bowlers for Lahore.

In what turned out to be a low-scoring semi-final round, Tamil Nadu imploded for 59 to hand Bengal a 55-run win at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.Chosing to bat, Bengal began poorly, being reduced to 8 for 2 in the fifth over. Coming in at No.4, captain Manoj Tiwary counterattacked, stroking five massive sixes in an innings of 69 off 44 balls. He did not find a reliable partner though, as wickets continued to tumble at the other end. The second highest contribution of the innings came from wicketkeeper, Wriddhiman Saha, with 19. Lakshmipathy Balaji was the pick of the Tamil Nadu bowlers, picking up two wickets at 4.50 runs an over.Chasing a target that required them to score at less than a run a ball, Tamil Nadu fell behind right away. Ashok Dinda was on a hat-trick in the first over of the innings, after bowling Anirudha Srikkanth and getting Ganapathi Vignesh to edge to the keeper for a golden duck. Tamil Nadu never recovered, losing three wickets with the score on 11, to be reduced to 11 for 6 in the seventh over. The only sizable contribution came from Arun Karthik, who was unbeaten on 35 off 26 balls when the innings folded on 59. Medium-pacer Sayan Mondal wrecked the middle order with four wickets and a run out.Bengal will meet Madhya Pradesh in the final at the same venue on March 16.Madhya Pradesh set up the final clash with Bengal, defeating Haryana by two wickets with one ball to spare in a thrilling second match of the day at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.Being asked to bowl, Madhya Pradesh knocked over the top half of the Haryana line-up in a hurry, to leave them 23 for 5 in the seventh over. Cameos from Nitin Saini, Joginder Sharma and Amit Mishra made sure Haryana played out their 20 overs though, finishing with 115 for 9. Madhya Pradesh’s pace trio of TP Sudhindra, Anand Rajan and Amarjeet Singh shared the wickets around.Madhya Pradesh’s reply was built around a 47-run fourth-wicket partnership between Udit Birla and Harpreet Singh, after Sharma and Kuldeep Hooda made early inroads. There was no much resistance otherwise, but Madhya Pradesh did just enough to edge out Haryana in a nail-biting last over that included Birla’s wicket, a run-out and a first-ball boundary from No. 10 batsman Sudhindra to seal the victory.

ScorecardFile photo – Mithun Manhas continued his good form, ending day three unbeaten on 95•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Karaparambil Monish snatched a victory for Kerala as his five-wicket haul helped Kerala bowl out Saurashtra for 69 in their final-innings chase of 115. Monish claimed 5 for 46 as he ran through Saurashtra’s middle-order. Sandeep Warrier and Akshay Chandran supported him as they picked up two wickets apiece, giving away just 6 and 3 runs respectively.Saurashtra started the day at 16 for 1, requiring 99, but were soon reduced to 34 for 6 within the first 12 overs in the day. Saurya Sanandia and Jaydev Unadkat were the only players that crossed double-digit scores, providing Saurashtra with some lower-order resistance, with scores of 17 and 15 respectively.Monish’s 6 for 81 in the first innings, had him end the game with career-best match-haul of 11 for 127,
ScorecardThe run-feast at Jammu continued as Ian Dev Singh’s 115 and Mithun Manhas’ unbeaten 95 drove Jammu Kashmir to 325 for 5 on day three, in their reply to Goa’s 552 for 5 declare in the first innings.Ian Dev Singh shared a 100-run partnership with Pranav Gupta for the third wicket, reviving Jammu Kashmir from 9 for 2 to 109, before Gupta was bowled by Shadab Jakati. Mithun Manhas then combined with Ian Dev Singh to share a 156-run partnership, before Jakati once again broke a threatening partnership by having Ian Dev Singh caught behind.His captain, Parvez Rasool, soon followed as Jammu & Kashmir slumped to 300 for 5. No more wickets fell in the day with Manhas ending the day on a resilient 95.
ScorecardPacers Ravi Kiran and Chama Milind placed Hyderabad in a commanding position, as Tripura were asked to follow-on after being bowled out for 237 in response to the hosts’ mammoth 548 for 5. Both pacers picking up three wickets apieceArindam Das anchored Tripura’s innings, as they kept losing regular wickets, with a patient 73 before he was dismissed with the score at 158 for 7. Manisankar Murasingh’s lower-order 51 took Tripura past 200, before they eventually folded for 237.Tripura’s openers Virag Awate and Arindam Das ended the day at 25 for no-loss in their second innings.

New Zealand have named two uncapped players in their team for Saturday’s deciding Test against England in Napier. The teenage fast bowler, Tim Southee, and the South Africa-born allrounder, Grant Elliott, have both been called into the side at the expense of Kyle Mills and Jacob Oram, who failed fitness tests on the eve of the game. In addition, the offspinner, Jeetan Patel, has been recalled in place of Mark Gillespie, on a flat and hard pitch that is expected to favour the batsmen.England, by contrast, are expected to name an unchanged side, although the captain, Michael Vaughan, said that they would wait until the morning to assess the fitness of Paul Collingwood and James Anderson. Collingwood was sent for a precautionary scan on the left calf that he bruised while fielding in the slips in Wellington, while Anderson was reportedly still feeling soreness in the left ankle that he twisted while playing football on the third evening of the Test.”The scans don’t show anything serious, so hopefully he’ll wake up and be fit to play,” Vaughan said when asked about Collingwood’s fitness. “We’re just checking on Jimmy as well. He’s still a little bit sore, but he’s had a good bowl today and he should be fine. It’s just a precautionary thing that we can’t announce the side today, but I expect us to play the same team if Colly comes through.”For New Zealand, Southee’s name had been in the frame ever since he was called into the squad as cover for Mills, who reported a minor tear at the top of his left calf in the aftermath of the Wellington Test. He performed impressively during the Twenty20 series against England that preceded the one-dayers, and then travelled to Malaysia for the Under-19 World Cup, where he was named Man of the Tournament for his haul of 17 wickets at 6.64, as New Zealand reached the semi-finals of the competition.”He only got the nod at training today, so he’ll be processing that now and he’s got a good chance to get ready for tomorrow,” said New Zealand’s captain, Daniel Vettori. “He is an exciting prospect for us and we’re looking forward to him starting a long career for us tomorrow. I just want him to play his natural game, because that’s what I was told when I first came into the team. It helped tremendously because sometimes when you step up a level you think you have to do something different.”Vettori knows full well what it is like to be pitched into Test cricket at such a tender age. In February 1997, he became New Zealand’s youngest international cricketer when he was picked to face England only days after his 18th birthday. “It all comes down to the person, age is irrelevant,” he said. “Tim has played four seasons of first-class cricket, and dominated the Under-19 tournament. The logical next step is Test cricket and one-day cricket.”The way he’s bowled in the past has led us to believe he can do a job for us,” Vettori said. “He swings it and he’s pretty consistent, and with those two things it doesn’t really matter what sort of a wicket you bowl on. He did a good job in the Twenty20s, and he’s got a good head on him. He’s a calm, mature guy and could be a huge asset for New Zealand cricket. He knows how to bowl a yorker on demand, and as he showed by dismissing [Kevin] Pietersen, he’s not fazed at going up against the big guys. We’ve seen something pretty special in him.”If Southee’s selection had been widely anticipated, Elliott’s debut was more of a surprise, especially seeing as it came at the expense of Oram, who was arguably the pick of New Zealand’s attack throughout the first two Tests. Although his batting never quite took off in the manner that it can in one-day cricket, his bowling was a revelation. With eight wickets at 14.87 and an economy rate of less than two an over, he was instrumental in strangling England’s run-rate, particularly in the victory in Hamilton.Vettori believed it was a hip injury that had ruled Oram out. “He was pretty sore during the Basin [Test], and in the second innings it got progressively got worse. He bowled quite well yesterday but he hasn’t shaped up too well this morning, and he couldn’t get through the warm-up drills. It was tempting to try and play him, but he’s not comfortable and not moving that well, and when you’ve got a guy in that sort of frame of mind, it doesn’t help him going into the Test.”Instead, the opportunity is there for Elliott to step into the allrounder’s role, and with the tour of England looming large on the horizon, there is plenty incentive for a command performance on debut. Though he was born in Johannesburg and still speaks with a strong South African accent, Elliott emigrated to New Zealand in 2001 and has been in the selector’s thoughts ever since he was named in the initial 30-man squad for ICC World Twenty20 last September. He was impressive during England’s three-day warm-up in Dunedin ahead of the first Test, making a cultured 28 and taking 2 for 12 from eight overs in an Oram-esque spell of fast-medium bowling.”It’s a big ask for him to slot straight into Jacob’s role, but he’s a guy who’s been earmarked for a while,” Vettori said. “Ideally I think you’d want your best eleven on the park, and we’re taking two very good players out of the side. But as the New Zealand side, we’ve been through a lot of injuries in the past and that’s given guys chances to step up. Both [Grant] and Tim both have a chance to push for a place on the England tour, and it would be a big honour if they could step up and take it.”Vaughan was cautiously pleased about the promotions of Southee and Elliott. “They’ll no doubt be very nervous but we’ll certainly respect them,” he said. “If there’s an opportunity to get on top of any bowler, we’ll try and take that. We always look to start very well and get ahead on day one, and that’s exactly what we’ll try and do, no matter who we’re playing against. It is an opportunity for us, but New Zealand are a canny team and play good street-wise cricket. It’s going to be a good Test.”Despite the injury blows, Vettori refused to accept that New Zealand were now underdogs for the deciding Test. “It’s going to be like Hamilton,” he said. “It’ll be a five-day Test match and whoever can grab the initiative at certain stages of the game can take the advantage. I think this pitch is very similar to every wicket we’ve played on here. It’s a good hard deck that will probably favour the batsmen, but having said that, we’ve seen bowlers put in performances on flat decks throughout the series. It all depends on whoever’s ready to take it on tomorrow morning.”New Zealand 1 Matthew Bell, 2 Jamie How, 3 Stephen Fleming, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Mathew Sinclair, 6 Grant Elliott, 7 Brendon McCullum (wk), 8 Daniel Vettori (capt), 9 Jeetan Patel, 10 Tim Southee, 11 Chris Martin.England (probable) 1 Alastair Cook, 2 Michael Vaughan (capt), 3 Andrew Strauss, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Ian Bell, 6 Paul Collingwood, 7 Tim Ambrose (wk), 8 Stuart Broad, 9 Ryan Sidebottom, 10 James Anderson, 11 Monty Panesar.