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Somerset were left facing an uphill struggle if they are to salvage anything from their championship match against Worcestershire after ending the second day of the Bath Festival still needing 281 runs to avoid an innings defeat with all of their second innings wickets remaining.Resuming on 422 for 5, Andy Hall who was unbeaten on 30 overnight helped the visitors add a further 116 to their total before he was the last man out after becoming the third centurion for his team as Worcestershire were eventually all out for 538.The South African who was dismissed LBW by Keith Parsons after batting for a further twenty nine overs this morning, scored 104 runs that came from 115 balls, and included six sixes and eleven fours.There were two more wickets for Ian Blackwell today to give the slow left armer final figures of 4 for 131 from his 45 overs.The Cidermen’s opening pair of Piran Holloway and Mast Wood saw their first wicket partnership put on 40 runs before Wood was out for 8. Two runs later Holloway who had contributed 30 runs followed him back to the pavilion.James Bryant and Jamie Cox then seemed to have played themselves in and saw the Somerset hundred up before they both were out, Bryant becoming the first of Gareth Batty’s victims after he had scored 28 and Cox who was LBW to Hall for 37.Skipper Mike Burns followed shortly afterwards at which point tea was taken with the score on 138 for 5 wickets.After the break Blackwell scored 28 before he fell LBW to Batty, Rob Turner 23, Keith Dutch 17 and Nixon McLean was still at the wicket unbeaten on 35 as Somerset slipped to a disappointing 238 all out.Following on, Holloway and Wood remained unbeaten at the close by which time they had taken the score onto 19 without loss.At the end of the day Somerset coach Kevin Shine said: "This was not a good day for us. We just haven’t played the sort of disciplined cricket today that has taken us to the top of the table which was very disappointing, because conditions haven’t changed out there. They put together a formidable total and we should have done a lot better than the 238 runs we scored."He continued: "However at the close of play we have sat down and been very honest with ourselves about how things have gone today. We are top of the table and they are right behind us. We want to fight very hard and try to hang onto the credits that we have got ourselves so far this season."Meanwhile back at the County Ground in Taunton, Somerset seconds are also struggling to save the game against their Surrey counterparts.Chasing a formidable 600 for 8 declared the Second’s were all out for 248, with Antiguan policeman Anwar Prince top scoring with 129.Following on Somerset had moved onto 201 for 3 by the close, with Wes Durston unbeaten on 76 and triallist Ben Moore from Liverpool 30 not out. Earlier Cornishman Carl Gazzard had made 60.

Pakistan’s final practice session prior to Sunday’s ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 match against Namibia will be held on Saturday at 10:00 hours at the De Beers Diamond Oval, Kimberley.Pakistan captain Waqar Younis will later hold a pre-match press conference at the Stadium, at approximately 1200 hours. All media are invited to attend the press conference. There will also be an opportunity for vision and pictures during training (10:30hrs – 12:00hrs approx).Saturday, Feb 15: Nasser Hussain will hold a press conference at 1 pm (Meeting Room 2, Holiday Inn Garden Court, East London) ahead of Sunday’s match against Holland.England will practice from 2-5 pm at Buffalo Park, East London.The West Indies team will conduct a coaching clinic with the Easterns Academy under 19 players on Sunday 16th February 2003 at 14h00-15h30 at the Lords Cricket Ground, Mayet Drive, Actonville, BenoniThe players and management will be available to the media after the clinic.A South African media conference will be held at 13h00 on Saturday 15th in the Jacaranda Room at the Sandton Sun, Johannesburg.A free, broadcast-quality radio interview with Australian captain Ricky Ponting, ahead of his side’s second World Cup match against India tomorrow (15 February 2003), is available now on the Australian Cricket Board’s official online news agency,www.mediagame.com.au.

Western Province and Griqualand West will make their way to Newlands on 15 January to contest the Standard Bank Cup limited overs final after winning their respective semi-finals against Border and Boland.In East London the Border Bears made the perfect start, after losing the toss, when they had Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs back in the pavilion inside three overs. Gibbs giving Makhaya Ntini a return catch without scoring and Smith mistiming a pull to midwicket off Monde Zondeki for three.Jacques Kallis and Gary Kirsten, on a difficult pitch, set about the bowling bringing up the 50 partnership in 81 balls and 56 minutes. Increasing the run rate the 100 came in 144 balls and 102 minutes, while the 150 appeared in 190 balls and 128 minutes.Kallis, having accepted a live from Mark Boucher standing up to Liam Graham when on 24, went on make 88 with Gary Kirsten getting another brilliant 103. Their partnership of 187, in nearly 37 overs, had brought Western Province back into the game.In the chase for runs a collapse followed with Western Province finishing on 228/7 after being 203/2 with four overs remaining. Only Kirsten and Kallis able to get into double figures.The wickets were shared with Zondeki ending with 2/37.Border made an even worse start than Western Province did. Five wickets down with only 35 runs on the scoreboard signalled their doom. Burton de Wett (13), Mark Bruyns (0), Stephen Pope (9), Mark Boucher (2) and Pieter Strydom (0) all failed as Charl Willoughby and Kallis took two wickets each.Tyron Henderson (39) and Craig Sugden put on 49 for the sixth wicket before Sugden and Laden Gamiet brought Border right back into the game putting on 64 runs for the seventh wicket.Once Sugden was out for a well played 50 in 63 balls and 92 minutes, Gamiet (33) and Graham (32*) fought hard but with the overs running out Border was bowled out for 205, 23 runs short.Kallis took the man-of-the-match award after his 88 and three wickets.In Paarl, Griqualand West decided to bat first and almost immediately was in trouble with Loots Bosman dropped off the first ball of the innings by Con de Lange fielding at first slip from the bowling of Henry Williams.The drop turned out to be expensive for the home team with Bosman going to score at better than a run a ball, going to his 50 in 43 balls including six fours and two sixes.Bosman went to 70 before he was run out with Griqualand West losing their first wicket on 125.Having just gone to his 50 in 81 balls Gidley had a big swing at de Lange only to succeed in lofting it to a delighted Williams at backward square leg taking a good catch with the visitors now two down for 140 in the 27th over.Building on the foundation that had been laid, Griqualand West found them in a very strong position at 243/6 when the 45 overs were completed.Pieter Koortzen (29), Brett Tucker (20) and Johann Louw (27) all contributed to the winning score.Charl Langeveldt with 2/36 was the leading Boland wicket taker.Boland, thanks to an ever-improving Chad Baxter (85) and veteran Steve Palframan (30), managed to cling onto a hope of winning, but with no other batsman able to get into double figures their hopes of reaching the final died a slow death, losing by 66 runs, after being bowled out for 178.Griqualand West had pulled off another match winning performance with the bowlers all sharing in the wickets. The only negative for the men from Kimberley was giving away 31 extras, something they will have to improve on before meeting Western Province in the final at Newlands.

After some dramatic moments on the final day at the Aziz Stadium in Chittagong, Zimbabwe made the ten runs they needed before lunch to secure an eight-wicket win in the second and final Test, to take the Coca-Cola series against Bangladesh 1-0.The home team, 227 for 4 overnight, lost their last six wickets while adding only 74 runs. Douglas Marillier created mayhem in Bangladesh middle order, dismissing four batsmen for 55 runs. Bangladesh were all out for 301, leaving Zimbabwe just 10 runs to win, which they achieved for the loss of two batsmen, neither of whom troubled the scorers.Trevor Chappell, optimistic by nature, could hardly take a sip of his morning coffee before one of his overnight batsmen had departed. Travis Friend, against whom the Bangladeshi batsmen showed courage in this Test, dismissed the most dependable, Javed Omar, trapping him lbw with the first ball of the morning.Friend did the trick with swing in the light breeze. Javed’s departure may have had a negative impact on Ashraful, the youngster who had shown commendable patience the previous day, scoring just one run from 53 deliveries. After smashing Marillier for a boundary, he was tempted by a clever leg-break to go for an ambitious shot that fetched up in the hands of the deep mid-wicket fielder.With hopes of avoiding an innings defeat looking remote, Naimur Rahman failed again. Although he hit three fabulous boundaries in his 24, he was then trapped lbw by Marillier. Bangladesh had lost their seventh wicket with the score on 267.Enamul Haque was dismissed for duck as he offered a return catch to Marillier, the hero of the morning. Mashrafe-Bin-Mortaza followed next ball, stumped by Andy Flower as gave Marillier the charge.Mohammed Sharif provided some light relief, hitting Grant Flower for two huge sixes in the same over. With Khaled Masud also scoring two boundaries, the innings defeat was narrowly avoided. Bangladesh finished with 301, leaving Zimbabwe just 11 runs to win.Mashrafe, the fastest of the Bangladesh pacers, clean bowled Dion Ebrahim for a duck with the fifth delivery of the first over, to a roar from his home crowd. Stewart Carlisle then edged a catch to Akram Khan at slip. Travor Gripper then hammered two boundaries and Zimbabwe had won by eight wickets.Grant Flower was adjudged man of the match for his sparkling bowling, which accounted for eight wickets in the match.

Cricketers from Zimbabwe have provided much pleasure to cricketfollowers during their short and infrequent visits to this country. Asthey have illustrated during their first decade of playing Testcricket, they possess many of the qualities required for the longergame but at the same time have also displayed the effervescence thatis associated with limited overs cricket. At least a couple ofZimbabwe players have provided the kind of sparkling cricket thatwould rank their performances alongside the many outstanding featsnotched up by visiting players in India.The first such performance was Dave Houghton’s 141 against New Zealandin a Reliance World Cup encounter at Hyderabad in October 1987. It isa knock that is fondly remembered by those lucky enough to have seenit. Both teams were playing their opening encounter in the tournamentand few gave Zimbabwe any chance of even giving their experiencedopponents a scare. New Zealand led off with 242 for seven in 50 oversand seemed to have sewn the match up by dismissing seven Zimbabwebatsmen for 104 runs. Houghton was in good touch and had reached hishalf-century but he had little support. Now, at last he found an ablepartner in Ian Butchart and the two brought Zimbabwe back into thematch with an eighth wicket partnership of 117 ­ then the highesteighth wicket partnership in one-day internationals.Houghton dominated the stand with some dazzling shots and he gotZimbabwe to within 22 runs of their target in the 47th over. By thistime, he had raced to 141 from 138 balls with three sixes and 13fours. It took a great running catch by Martin Crowe almost on theboundary line to dismiss him. But when he was out at 221, Zimbabwestill had a chance of pulling off an upset victory. They wanted sixfrom the final over but Butchart was run out off the fourth ball andNew Zealand squeaked home by three runs.When Zimbabwe, within months after playing their inaugural Test, cameover to India for a short tour of one Test and three one-dayinternationals, they were given little chance to do well in the faceof a formidable batting line-up and an in-form spin trio bowling ontailor-made pitches. But one player stood out in the Test match.Andy Flower gave an early indication of why over the years he wouldtake his place among the world’s leading batsmen, a player difficultto dislodge and one with an insatiable appetite for runs. In the faceof an imposing Indian total of 536 for seven declared, the pugnaciousleft-hander led Zimbabwe’s defiance with a century of character. Withbrother Grant (96) he added 192 runs for the fourth wicket, dominatingthe stand in scoring 115. He batted 289 minutes and got his runs from236 balls. Despite his courageous knock in trying circumstances,Zimbabwe were forced to follow on.In the second innings, the Indian spin trio of Rajesh Chauhan, AnilKumble and Maninder Singh found it impossible to dismiss Andy Flower.In a more subdued innings, he batted 214 minutes and 191 balls for anunbeaten 62. Zimbabwe were all out for 201 to lose by an innings and13 runs. But displaying defence of a high calibre on a wearing wicket,Flower batted almost eight and a half hours in all to ensure thatZimbabwe, though beaten, were far from disgraced.But even this stout-hearted performance almost pales intoinsignificance when placed alongside Andy Flower’s own feats on the2000-2001 tour of this country. By this time, he was recognised as thecountry’s leading batsman who did not let the additional duties behindthe stumps affect his batting. And he proved this in spades with asuperb showing in the two Tests. His intense concentration, singleminded dedication towards the pursuit of runs and insatiable appetitefor big scores saw him set a record that stood alongside those ofother great batsmen who have visited India. In the first Test at NewDelhi, he came in when the score was 134 for three and this soonbecame 155 for five. By expertly farming the strike, Flower with thehelp of the tail saw the total reach 422. This great rearguard actionculminated in a last wicket partnership of 97 runs in about 2-1/2hours with Henry Olonga (11).Flower remained unbeaten on 183 for which he batted 466 balls andfaced 351 balls, hitting 24 fours and two sixes in the process. In thesecond innings, in a total of 225, he again top-scored with 70. In thesecond Test at Nagpur, Flower continued from where he left off at theKotla. In the first innings, his contribution was a modest 55. Butwhen Zimbabwe followed on 227 runs behind, Flower was defiancepersonified. After three wickets had fallen for 61, he and AlistairCampbell (102) added 209 runs for the fourth wicket. The final day wascompletely dominated by Flower and there was never any chance of himbeing dismissed. When the match ended in a draw with Zimbabwe 503 forsix, Flower was still unconquered on 232. This time he batted 544minutes, faced 444 balls and hit 30 fours and two sixes.His aggregate of 540 runs in two Tests gave him a mind-bogglingaverage of 270.00. In all, he had batted 1331 minutes and negotiated1021 deliveries in the two Tests. It certainly rates as one of thegreat endurance feats in Test history.

Victorian cricket coach John Scholes resigned today, just six days before the state team starts its season with a one-dayer in Sydney against New South Wales.The former state batsman, who had coached the Bushrangers for five years, cited personal reasons for the shock decision.The Victorian Cricket Association faced a long board meeting tonight as it tried to work out how to replace Scholes so quickly.”The timing’s not perfect, although I think the environment and culture that exists will be able to cope with that,” Scholes told Channel Seven.Scholes had just signed a new contract to coach the team for the summer, but it is understood he had been under increasing pressure away from cricket for more than a month.”I just felt to go into the season personally, not being 100 per cent – I’ve just been struggling a little bit and been a bit flat – I didn’t think that was fair to Victorian cricket.”Scholes spoke to each member of the squad after breaking the news this morning to VCA chief executive Kevin Jacobs and chairman of selectors Shaun Graf.”It is a bit of a shock, I haven’t heard a great deal, but certainly it’s disappointing for our team,” said batsman Brad Hodge.Jacobs knew Scholes had been experiencing some problems, but said this afternoon: “It obviously shocked us no end. He said it was something he’d been thinking about for a while.”Jacobs also stressed the resignation had nothing to do with cricket issues.He conceded it was likely Victoria would re-work its current coaching staff, with Mick O’Sullivan and Brian McFadyen the two assistants under Scholes.The team is due to train again on Wednesday, ahead of Friday’s season launch.”We hope to make a decision fairly quickly,” Jacobs said.Jacobs praised Scholes’ contribution to Victorian cricket as a player and coach.”We would welcome him back in some manner,” he said.

Nick Knight was made man of the match and the man of series after England completed their five-match demolition of Zimbabwe with victory in the final one-day international in Bulawayo.Set 229 after Zimbabwe’s Grant Flower had scored a century, England coasted home by seven wickets with six overs and two balls to spare.Knight ended unbeaten on 80, and Paul Collingwood hit a rapid 56 from 46 balls, enabling England to romp home early.”It’s been a great series for me and a great series for the team,” Knight told Sky Sports.”We talked a lot about how we would play this series and it was good to makeit work. It’s been great cricketing weather and we’ve really enjoyed it.The England captain Nasser Hussain was full of praise for his players’ performance.”I was thoroughly pleased with the way we did it today,” he said.”The bowling, especially the last 10 overs, was great. The batting as well,the way we won in the last 10 overs was great. It was about a 250 or 260 wicket so we did what we wanted to by keeping them down.”Hussain is now looking forward to the forthcoming tour of India.”The hard task is to up ourselves an extra 25% for India,” he said. “We realise this is just a starting point. India will be difficult.”Zimbabwe’s stand-in captain Alistair Campbell admitted he was disappointed at the whitewash.”Who knows where we go from here,” he said. “We need to get together and plan our way forward, we need to turn things around. We’ve played non-stop cricket for about 18 months, it would have been great to have some time off.”

JOHANNESBURG, March 20 AAP – Damien Martyn is unlikely to play in the World Cup final against India because pain-killing injections will numb his right hand, making him ineffective as a batsman and a passenger in the field.Besides, Australia might be better off without him.There’s no guarantee Martyn will be chosen even if he passes a fitness test on Saturday.His absence gives Australia an extra bowler in the form of all-rounder Ian Harvey in a side already overflowing with run-raiders.Andy Bichel has a Cup average of 117 but he’ll come in at No.9.”I’ll be honest and see how it goes,” said Martyn.”I’ve got to be selected as well. If I’m fit I’ll make myself available to selectors and team management to see whether they pick me on the day.”I can pick up a bat, it’s just another thing swinging and hitting the ball.”I’ve had cricket balls in my hands, throwing them up and down and squeezing.”In that sense, I’ve had my hands around balls and bats but it’s a different story catching and batting in the game.”Pain-killers seem Martyn’s only hope of playing his first World Cup final but they come at a cost, according to team physiotherapist Errol Alcott.”They’re always an option but the trouble with injections is that you obliterate all the sensations so he mightn’t know where the ball is in his hand,” said Alcott.”You take away all that feeling. It’s an option but we don’t generally go down that track all that often.”Martyn and Alcott, who has engineered miracle recoveries before, like Steve Waugh’s comeback from a torn calf to play the final Ashes Test in England in 2001, have been working around the clock to ease the pain of the fractured right index finger Martyn suffered while fielding against Kenya last Saturday.”It’s one of those things you’ve got to take on the chin,” Martyn said.”It probably hit home at the end of the semifinal when you realise you’re in the final, and seeing the boys out there playing so well.”I’ve been a part of it for the last four years since the last World Cup final, so I’m disappointed but I’m still a part of it and I’m lucky to still be here.”There are a lot of guys at home sitting there watching – Jason Gillespie, Shane Warne, Shane Watson. I’m here at the moment. If I don’t play, I don’t play but I’m still a part of it on Sunday.”Alcott said: “I can’t do anything about fractures but all the soft tissue stuff we can deal with.”It’s only been a week so he will have some sort of pain, but I’ve known lots of players to play with fractures.”Martyn probably won’t be one of them.

With Hansie Cronje’s life ban now confirmed by the Pretoria High Court, the right of cricket’s governing bodies to administer cricket has been reaffirmed. And not a moment too soon, some might believe.Whichever way it is seen, Judge Frank Kirk-Cohen’s judgement simply re-establishes the status quo. Even before argument began in the case, the United Cricket Board had acknowledged that the ban could not and did not extend to activities such as coaching children outside the ambit of the UCB’s structures, working in the media and buying a ticket to watch a cricket match.Crucially, Judge Kirk-Cohen took the view that the matter of accrediting Cronje as a journalist still lay with the UCB. In other words, it is still up to the UCB to decide if and when they see fit to allow Cronje to use their facilities.In other words, nothing has changed. It might be stretching a point to argue that the UCB “won” the case. Certainly, though, Cronje lost.And all of this does rather beg the question of exactly what Cronje believes he is entitled to. By his own admission he dealt with bookmakers over a number of years. So have other cricketers, his supporters have argued, and they haven’t been banned for life.But Cronje took it a step further. He tried to induce his team-mates, most notably Herschelle Gibbs and Henry Williams to underperform. That the plot failed is neither here nor there. The intention was there and if players deliberately set out to give of less than their best, then what we have, by almost anyone’s reckoning, is match-fixing. Certainly, if players give their wickets away or bowl badly on purpose, then they have deceived their team-mates, their supporters and anyone who has taken the time and trouble to pay attention to their performances.The UCB, no doubt, will heave a sigh of relief. And so, too, will the International Cricket Council. A crisis for cricket has been averted and although most people believe that the scourge of corruption has by no means been eradicated, at least the right of cricket to rid itself of cheats has been confirmed.The match-fixing saga has been a desperately sad affair, both for the game and for Cronje himself. It is to be hoped that he will go away and reflect on what has happened to him and to cricket during the past 18 months or so. What cricket still seeks from him are signs of genuine remorse. While he continues to say that he is sorry for what he has done, his challenge to the ban tended to suggest that what he was really sorry about was being caught.There may, in the future, be a place for him, some kind of role for him, in cricket. The door has never been completely slammed in his face. But he has to accept that any return will come by way of invitation, not by demand.

Former Sri Lankan Test cricketer, Roshan Mahanama, blasted the Australianmedia for blowing the “Glen McGrath incident” out of proportion at thelaunch of his autobiography “Retired Hurt” yesterday at the BandaranaiakeMemorial International Conference Hall in Colombo.In his autobiography “Retired Hurt”, Mahanama criticizes the Australiancricketers for the amount of sledging they do during play and refers to aparticular incident where Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath calls SanathJayasuriya a “Black Monkey”.However, Mahanama feels this was yet another incident of that tour and hefeels that the Aussie media blew the incident out of proportion after hementioned it on his autobiography.”I went to Melbourne to launch the book peacefully. But the Australian mediawere there with lot of cameras and focused on the Glenn McGrath incident. It’s sad. This is just one line in the book, which has 235 pages. They havetaken this out of proportion and there were threats by McGrath to take legalaction,” said a disappointed Mahanama.McGrath denies calling Jayasuriya a “black monkey” while Mahanama sticks tohis allegation. On the person of Glenn McGrath he further says, “Glenn is agreat bowler. But that doesn’t allow him to say whatever he wants to theother players”He’s also critical of the then Australian skipper Mark Taylor and thepresent captain Steve Waugh, who suggested that Mahanama’s comments were apublicity stunt.”If I wanted publicity I would have gone with the story to a publisher muchearlier. This is just a remark in the book,” he said.On this particular incident, the former CEO of the Australian Cricket Board,Malcolm Speed had questioned Mahanama as to how he knew about the incidentsince he didn’t play in that particular game,”Even if I had played the match, I wouldn’t have been in the middle when theincident occurred,” points out Mahanama. ” After getting out Sanath came tothe dressing room and told us on Glenn’s remark. That’s how I came to knowabout it”To prove his point, at the book launch Mahanama played some video clips ofthe 1996 World Series where it’s seen McGrath standing in Jayasuriya’s waywhile the batsman was looking for a run. The video footage also showsMcGrath using foul language at the Sri Lankan opener. It also goes onto showthe umpire, Steve Randol pointing the incident to the Aussie captain MarkTaylor.The book, which was initially launched at Melbourne, Australia, was launchedin Sri Lanka yesterday with the Sinhalese and the English versions. Theminister of sports Lakshman Kiriella was the chief Guest at the occasion.Cricketers of Sri Lankan, Indian and New Zealand teams, Internationalcricket commentators, members of parliament, cricket administrators, pastcricketers, foreign ambassadors and lots of Mahanama’s fans and familymembers participated.The book starts from Sri Lanka’s World Cup victory and goes onto speaks ofhis reasons to quit the game. He also deals at length on Australian tour of1995-1996, calling it the “the most controversial tour in my career.”