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Scorecard
Anirudh Singh produced a fighting 92 but the rest of the Hyderabad batsmen capitulated around him on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy semi-finals in Delhi. Hyderabad might have gone on to rue thier decision to bat first as Harvinder Singh, the former Indian seamer, struck four crucial blows and spearheaded the Railways’ effort. He was well supported by Jai Prakash Yadav, who continued his fine bowling season with 3 for 55, while Murali Kartik chipped in with two wickets.Anirudh’s patient innings spanned more than three and a half hours but he had his aggressive moments with 13 fours and two sixes. Only two other batsmen managed double figures and Anirudh couldn’t manage to string together vital partnerships.Pragyan Ojha, the left-arm spinner, made a fantastic debut and led the Hyderabad fightback with 4 for 29 in the final session. He removed all the four Railways batsmen to fall,including Amit Pagnis who raced along to 42 at a rapid pace. Yadav was at the crease when stumps were drawn having made 23 off 29 balls. However, Railways, with their potent seam attack, still held the edge in what was turning out to be a low-scoring thriller.

Glenn McGrath may have taken Brian Lara’s wicket 14 times in Tests, but the legendary fast bowler is deeply respectful of the the West Indian’s talents. McGrath’s dominance over Lara is almost double that of the next most successful bowler, Andre Nel, who has taken his wicket eight times.McGrath, who often nominates his batting “bunny” in the opposing team – for the Ashes this summer, he targeted Michael Vaughan and Andrew Strauss – but he chose his words carefully today before the second Test on Thursday at Hobart.”I think he is different now, he seems a little bit different to when I first played. I think there is more a mental aspect when I am bowling to him these days,” he said.”But once he gets set, he is still a great striker of the ball and can score very quickly, so I think a lot of times I have knocked him over, I have knocked him over quite cheaply. If I get him out early, then great, if not he sometimes goes on to make a great score.”Lara, who has scored 10,903 runs in Test cricket, needs just 25 runs to overtake the former Australian captain, Steve Waugh (10,927), and become the second all-time leading run scorer in Tests behind Allan Border.His form has been a concern, however, with a run of poor scores for the West Indies, and the World XI. However, it has been his determination to occupy the crease that has the Australians cautious of Lara.”I think on his day he still can be [as good as ever], it depends on how he is going, how much he wants it, and how things go out in the middle. He is still a dangerous batsman,” McGrath said.Lara’s Test record in Australia is 1,168 runs at 37.68, well below his career average of 53.45.West Indian opener Wavell Hinds, an outside chance of playing in Hobart after damaging a finger earlier in the tour, felt Lara was ready to produce a big innings.”Brian has been batting pretty well in the nets and is hitting them well, but he just needs some time at the wicket as he tried to do in the first Test,” Hinds said.”It did not come off, but I back him to come out and pull off a very good performance. Brian is obviously the best batsman in the world. He is a great motivator in terms of scoring runs and setting a platform for our team to follow.”

David Sheppard, the former England batsman who became an ordained minister and rose to become the Bishop of Liverpool, died yesterday, the night before his 76th birthday.A graceful driver, Sheppard came to the fore on Cyril Coote’s pluperfect batting pitches at Fenner’s. For the strong Cambridge University side of 1950 Sheppard (227) and John Dewes (183) shared an opening stand of 343 against the West Indian tourists – in response Everton Weekes hammered an unbeaten 304 out of 730 for 3 after Cambridge declared at 594 for 4. Later, in front of Sheppard’s home-county crowd at Hove, he and Dewes (212) improved on that with a stand of 349 against Sussex.Such form won Sheppard a place in the 1950 Test Trial, a match rather ruined by Jim Laker, who found the Bradford pitch to his liking and bowled out The Rest for 27 before lunch on the first day, taking 8 for 2. Sheppard only made 4, but he did escape Laker’s clutches (Trevor Bailey got him instead). But he was in the selectors’ thoughts, and made his debut in the final Test of the summer, scoring 29 and 11 at The Oval as England lost again to go down 3-1 to West Indies.Sheppard toured Australia that winter, with Freddie Brown’s young but outgunned side, and played in three of the Tests with little success. He fell out of favour for a time, but returned in 1952 with 119, his first Test century, in the final Test against India at The Oval.The following year he captained Sussex, and spirited them up to second in the table, equalling their best performance until that long-awaited first Championship triumph in 2003. He also led England in two Tests in 1954, but Len Hutton returned to take charge of the Ashes tour in Australia.It was two years before Sheppard, by now an ordained minister, returned to the Test side, scoring 113 in Laker’s Match at Old Trafford. It was the middle one of an impressive hat-trick of hunches from the selectors – Cyril Washbrook (who actually was one of the selectors) was brought back for the third Test, his first for five years, and scored 98 after England had been 17 for 3; then in the final Test at The Oval Denis Compton made a comeback after a knee operation and made 94.Sheppard continued to make occasional appearances for Sussex, but his Test days appeared to be behind him – until 1962, when there was some debate about who should captain England on that winter’s Ashes tour. Ted Dexter was the man in possession, but Colin Cowdrey captained in one Test against Pakistan that summer, and the waters were further muddied when Sheppard emerged from semi-retirement. He scored 112 for the Gentlemen against the Players at Lord’s and then, in his next match, 83 in the fourth Test. He was heavily tipped for the captaincy in Australia – but in the end it went to Dexter.

Sheppard did go to Australia for his second tour there, and scored 113 in the second Test at Melbourne, and 66 in the fifth at Sydney. In between, some fallible catching irked Fred Trueman, who reportedly advised him to keep his hands together a bit more often in the field. Another possibly apocryphal story has Sheppard eventually clinging on to a spectacular catch in the outfield, and showing the ball to the crowd who had been hooting his errors … only for Fred Titmus to run over from his fielding position and ask for the ball back “as it was a no-ball and they’ve already run five”.Sheppard wrapped up his first-class career with the three Tests that followed in New Zealand. He finished with 1172 runs (37.80) in 22 Tests, and 15,838 runs in all first-class cricket at the useful average of 43.51, with 45 centuries.Concentrating on the Church, Sheppard worked for a time at the Mayflower Centre in London, before becoming Bishop of Woolwich in 1968, and moving up to Liverpool in 1975. He retired in 1997, and was made a Life Peer in 1998. He wrote two volumes of autobiography: Parson’s Pitch in 1966, and Steps Along Hope Street in 2002.He kept in touch with cricket over the years, being one of the main voices opposing the South African tour in the apartheid days of 1970 (and being disappointed that previous friendships were ruptured by his views), while in 1995 he gave an entertaining speech at the annual launch dinner of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.His wife of 47 years, Grace, survived a skirmish with cancer early in their married life, but Sheppard himself contracted bowel cancer in 2001. The early signs were encouraging, but he eventually succumbed to the disease after a relapse.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has distanced itself from the scathing comments Wasim Bari, the chairman of selectors, made against David Shepherd. Bari lashed out at Shepherd for a poor performance in the final of the Videocon Cup in Amstelveen, which Pakistan lost to Australia by 17 runs.”We have no comment to offer on this issue. Whatever Bari has said are his personal views and don’t reflect that of the board,” said a PCB spokesman, according to a Reuters report. Bari, a former Pakistan captain, who played 81 Test and 51 one-day internationals, had said that Shepherd was too old and that he should step down from umpiring in international cricket.Meanwhile, Bari stood by his remarks. “I don’t think I said anything different from what people are talking about after the final,” said Bari, in the full knowledge that the International Cricket Council frowns upon its members making negative comments regarding umpires or officials who run the game.The report goes on to say that a source in the board revealed that Bari had been reminded not to make comments about umpiring in the future.

Old age is going extremely well for Glenn McGrath. He doesn’t look like growing into a cranky retiree and is happy to poke fun at himself. As he left the field beaming at his stunning 6 for 50, he broke off from his ball-raising and grabbed at his lower back, pretending to be an aching grandfather. The crowd laughed as it cheered.”The boys were into me today for the number of times ‘old’ appeared in the headlines,” McGrath, 36, said. “I was having a bit of fun, I wasn’t having a go at anyone.”In two days McGrath has swept away the game’s version of the Zimmer frame and is walking proudly. England’s batsmen must wish he would limp off over the horizon as they again faltered against such a durable bowler. McGrath has 548 wickets and his opponents have severe trouble, facing a deficit of 626 runs with two days remaining.”To get that five-for, I couldn’t have hoped for a better Test comeback,” McGrath, who hasn’t played since January due to his wife’s illness, said. “When Ricky Ponting put down that chance off Ashley Giles I thought that was it, but he gave me a couple more overs than he probably wanted and I got the last two wickets.” Stuart Clark collected an impressive 3 for 21 and also exploited the conditions.McGrath’s excellent workout ended at 23.1 overs and he was given an extended rest when Ponting refused to enforce the follow-on. Looking fresh at the end of the day, McGrath said giving the bowlers a break and the widening cracks were behind the decision.”We’re only two-and-a-half days through the Test so it’s not about how quickly you can try to win,” he said. “We hit the cracks a few times and it will definitely be playing on the English batsmen’s minds. The longer the game goes the tougher it’s going to get.”However, McGrath was also quick to recognise the strengths of the surface. “To have lost 10 wickets for about 750 runs, you’d have to say it’s a pretty good deck.”

Stephen Fleming, New Zealand’s captain, has slammed the format of the NatWest Series, saying that it is unfair to expect top international teams to play back-to-back matches.The tight ten-match NatWest Series schedule means that 10 matches are played in 17 days, with back-to-back games on successive weekends. The visiting sides almost always draw the short straw and have a double-header over one of the weekends, while England play only the once with time to rest between matches.”I’m not happy full stop with back-to-back games. I’ve strongly stated that for some time," Fleming told reporters after the first game in the series at Old Trafford was abandoned. “The fact that it is the case in this tournament so be it, now is not the time to complain about it. But on principle, looking further ahead, I don’t think they should play a part because I don’t think it is realistic to expect high-class performances during a whole weekend.”Two teams do it and it tends to be one team that misses out. I’m strongly in favour of the scheduling having at least one day, even three days in between games. That’s just to make sure the paying public get the opportunity to see athletes at their best, not those that have had a big day before and are trying to repeat that which can be quite tough over 100 overs.”

Heath Streak, Zimbabwe’s captain, has insisted his side are not in the VB Series to simply make up the numbers. He is aiming to qualify for the finals, despite injury worries over Craig Wishart and Stuart Carlisle.On their one-day tour of Australia so far, Zimbabwe scraped home by eight runs against Australia A last week, but went down to Western Australia by 70 runs at the weekend, and were comfortably beaten by Australia A today.Their preparation hasn’t been helped by Wishart’s knee injury he suffered against WA, and by Carlisle’s blow to the thumb while fielding today. However, Streak is still confident Zimbabwe can make an impact. “We haven’t come here to be a third playing nation, we’ve come here to make the finals,” he told . “We’re going to be all out to win every game.”Streak also had a word to say regarding the Australian team, claiming that they were right to be introducing younger players into an ageing squad. “When you look at the Australian team, you know, they’re not the youngest now,” Streak said. “Some of them are getting a bit long in the tooth.”Someone told me that the Australian bowls team is a younger average age than the cricket team. I don’t know how true that is, but it’s good for them to have a look at the youngsters.”Obviously they’re being looked at and I think it’s a wise decision by the Australian selectors to start blooding some of the youngsters. I was very impressed with a lot of the youngsters. Obviously Shaun Tait had a good outing against us and we are very impressed – he’s got pace.”Zimbabwe’s first game of the VB Series is against Australia on Sunday, January 11, at Sydney. The opening game, between Australia and India, starts on Friday at Melbourne.

Tamil Nadu 71 for 0 (Srikkanth 47*) beat Rajasthan 70 (Krishnakumar 22, Suresh 3-20) by 10 wickets with 41.2 overs to spare
ScorecardTamil Nadu ambushed Rajasthan in 40.1 overs of absolute carnage, as a target of 71 was achieved in fewer than nine overs. Krish Srikkanth and Sivaramakrishnan Vidyut ran riot to give their side a 10-wicket victory, and a bonus point as well.After being put into bat, Rajasthan simply collapsed. The scorecard resembled a first-standard maths problem, and only Pudiyangum Krishnakumar playing a substantial innings of 22. He was involved in a 35-run partnership with Dewara (12), whose dismissal started another slide. Tamil Nadu’s bowlers kept a tight leash on the batsmen, and strangled them. No bowler conceded more than 20 runs and Somasetty Suresh, the most successful bowler on the day, took 3 for 20 in seven overs.And then, just when things couldn’t get any worse for Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu’s openers came out to bat.

Darren Sammy, the West Indian allrounder, was the only uncapped player to be named in the 15-man one-day squad to play England and New Zealand in the Natwest Series, which starts on June 24.Sammy, 20, was selected ahead of the more experienced Ryan Hinds after a successful domestic Carib Beer series in 2004. He was the fourth highest scorer for Windward Islands with 261 runs at 26.1, and his total of 22 wickets in the competition was the second highest for the sub-regional team. Should he play, Sammy will become the first player from St Lucia to represent the senior West Indies side, though he was a member of the Young West Indies team that reached the semi-finals of the ICC Youth World Cup in New Zealand in 2001. The selectors choice of Sammy over Hinds will have been influenced by Sammy’s experience of English conditions. He played for Barnes Cricket Club in the Middlesex Premier Cricket League last season, averaging 29.50 with the bat and 25.35 with the ball. He scored his runs at a strike rate over 90, and took 17 wickets in his 10 matches for the side.Neither Merv Dillon nor Corey Collymore has been named in the squad, having made little impression in the one-dayers against England in the Caribbean earlier this month. Dillon took only three wickets at an average of over 69 in the series, while Collymore failed to take a single scalp. Sylvester Joseph, who played against England and Bangladesh, has also been left out.Fidel Edwards and Tino Best, both 22, will lead the West Indies attack in the triangular series. Best recently battered Bangladesh into submission with his aggressive fast bowling, while Edwards has taken 12 wickets at 10.41 in the four one-dayers he has played in, though these were against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. Ravi Rampaul and Ian Bradshaw will play the role of back-up seamers. West Indies will arrive with a young and fairly inexperienced one-day side, 11 of whom are under the age of 25.West Indies squad for NatWest Series
Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Devon Smith, Ricardo Powell, Brian Lara (capt), Ramnaresh Sarwan, Dwayne Smith, Ridley Jacobs (wk),Dwayne Bravo, Carlton Baugh (wk), Ian Bradshaw, Darren Sammy, Tino Best, Fidel Edwards, Ravi Rampaul.

A maiden century from Neil Edwards took Somerset to within 61 runs of Hampshire’s first innings total by the end of a run-filled second day on a typically flat Taunton wicket.Hampshire added 95 more runs falling just five runs short of a rare maximum batting points with the limping Robin Smith posting an unbeaten half century (56*) from 95 balls including eight fours and a six as he and Shaun Udal (30)moved the visitors close to 400.Steffan Jones cleaned up the tail with 4-102.But as the wicket flattened out, bowling became more and more difficult although Hampshire, with Dimitri Mascarenhas and Lawrence Prittipaul the main culprits, bowling particularly poorly as Cornishman Edwards, in just his fourth first-class match and with a previous best of just 45, tucked in with glee.Edwards and James Bryant (73) added 147 before the latter became a surprise victim to Derek Kenway with his first ball of the season. It is just his fourth first-class wicket!The youngster hit 160 from just 184 balls – it showed how easy paced the wicket was and how poorly some of the bowlers had performed. Bournemouth-based Tom Webley and Ian Blackwell saw the home side to 338-4 by close of play.Neither side will want to give much away, so the draw could be the most likely result on this most placid of pitches.