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Danny Law hit a six and four off consecutive balls to help keepEssex’s hopes of promotion from the National League Division Two.Essex needed 12 in the last over with one wicket left against Durhamat Chester-le-street.Law swung two full tosses of Neil Killeen over square leg for six andfour to seal Essex’s victory.Earlier Durham made 188 for 8 in 43 overs. Simon Katich (63) and PaulCollingwood (50) were the main scorers with Ashley Cowan taking 3 for51. As rain interrupetd the match twice, the target for Essex wasrevised to 167 in 33 overs. Essex were at one stage 92 for 2 in the21st over and were making merry. Nicky Phillips then removed RonnieIrani (23), debutant Will Jefferson (50) and Steve Peters (2). Essexrecovered thanks to the stand of 30 in four overs between Law and PaulGrayson.When 31 were needed in 5 overs, Killeen removed Grayson (18), JamesFoster (10) and Ashley Cowan (0). In the penultimate over, Ian Hunterremoved Ricky Anderson (1) and just gave two runs with Law not gettingthe strike.But Law batted superbly in the last over to end with 27 not out in 20balls.

Left-arm orthodox spinner Sijomon Joseph took his maiden five-wicket haul to help Kerala notch up their second win of the season, a 131-run win against Rajasthan in Thumba.Rajasthan were set 343 to win after Sachin Baby’s counterattack – 30 off 16 balls – lifted Kerala’s score from 217 for 2 to 250 for 5 in less than five overs on the morning of the final day. Overnight batsman Jalaj Saxena was unbeaten on 105 when Kerala declared; Sanju Samson couldn’t add to his overnight score of 72, falling in the first over of the day.Rajasthan’s innings was plagued by recurring collapses. They had lost both openers withing seven balls of the start of their innings, before a 63-run stand between Robin Bist (70) and Rajesh Bishnoi (35) brought stability to the innings. But Joseph broke that stand and followed it up with the wicket of Ashok Menaria to reduce Rajasthan to 64 for 4 with more than 70 overs still to play. Nearly 40 of those overs were absorbed by the fifth-wicket pair of Bist and Mahipal Lomror (53) but the former’s wicket brought yet another collapse – they fell from 160 for 4 to 190 for 9. Deepak Chahar and Aniket Choudhary then attempted a final resistance, batting out 62 balls and bringing Rajasthan close to pulling off a draw. But Joseph trapped him in front in the 84th over to seize the win for Kerala.Jalaj, who made scores of 79 and 105* in the game, took two wickets in the second innings to also finish with a ten-wicket match-haul.Jharkhand walked away with a bonus-point win against Haryana in Ranchi, after chasing their 80-run target without losing any wickets.The win was set up by Shahbaz Nadeem, whose six-wicket haul inflicted a collapse on Haryana, who had begun the day on 141 for 4. Overnight batsmen Rajat Paliwal (93) and Rohit Sharma (71) added 107 runs on the final day before Nadeem dismissed the former, seven short of a 14th hundred. Haryana lost the rest of their wickets for the addition of only 48 runs and were bowled out for 296, having conceded a first-innings lead of 217.Jharkhand promoted wicketkeeper-batsman Ishan Kishan, who struck an unbeaten 46 off 45 balls and took them home in the company of Nazim Siddiqui (24*).

Match facts

Saturday April 19, 2008 Start time 15.00 local time (10.00 GMT)

The Big Picture

The series predictably stands at 4-0 with Bangladesh perched on the edge of another series whitewash. They showed stiff resistance in the third match in Lahore, nearly upsetting the home side in a high-scorer, and in Multan, showed the hunger to bat out the 50 overs after tottering at 109 for 8 in the 29th over. These performances, however, weren’t enough to keep the series alive. Shakib Al Hasan’s batting has been their biggest gain but he has lacked support from an inconsistent top order.The series may be already in the bag for Pakistan, but they need one more win to break their existing 18-year-old record of ten consecutive victories. The dead rubber will be witnessed by the President Pervez Musharraf, and that should be an added incentive for the home team, who said before the series they wouldn’t settle for anything less than a 5-0 sweep.

Form guide – Pakistan

Last five matches – WWWWWPlayer to watch: Salman Butt has topped the run charts among both teams with 315 at an average of 78.25 which makes him the obvious trump card for Pakistan. The bowling may not be of the highest quality, but to his credit Butt has made the most of it. He has scored at a strike rate of 92, and Bangladesh have struggled to keep him in check. His last three knocks, all above 50, have been the deciding factors in Pakistan’s dominance.

Form guide – Bangladesh

Last five matches – WLLLLPlayer to watch: Shakib Al Hasan has run into some excellent form of late: before his 75 in Lahore, he had registered four single-digit scores in his previous games. Not the quickest of scorers, unlike his more flaboytant peers at the top, Shakib took the attack to Pakistan with a 73-ball knock that night and gave his side some hope of pulling off an upset. His 108 in Multan showed his determination to push the score to some respectability, when many would have imagined an early finish to the innings at 109 for 8. With 187 runs in four games, Shakib tops the table for the highest run-getter for Bangladesh.

Team news

With the series already in the bag, Pakistan are likely to give an opportunity to Naumanullah, the 32-year-old batsman who has been prolific in the domestic circuit but hasn’t played an international game yet. Wahab Riaz, the left-arm fast bowler, will play instead of Sohail Khan. Bangladesh are likely to play the same team which lost in Multan.Pakistan (likely) 1 Salman Butt, 2 Kamran Akmal (wk), 3 Mohammad Yousuf, 4 Shoaib Malik (capt), 5 Younis Khan, 6 Misbah-ul-Haq, 7 Naumanullah, 8 Shahid Afridi, 9 Mohammad Asif, 10 Wahab Riaz, 11 Umar Gul.Bangladesh (likely) 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Junaid Siddique, 3 Aftab Ahmed, 4 Mohammad Ashraful (capt), 5 Shakib Al Hasan, 6 Mahmudullah, 7 Mashrafe Mortaza, 8 Farhad Reza, 9 Dhiman Ghosh (wk), 10 Syed Rasel, 11 Abdur Razzak.

Pitch and conditions

The pitch looks like a typical subcontinent track which should offer plenty of runs. The captain winning the toss will want to bat first and put the runs on the board.

Stats and trivia

After 20 days of cricket including five ODIs and three Tests, several injuries and rumours about captaincy, Pakistan leave India with little to show in terms of hard results. They won two ODIs, one of which was a dead rubber, and were playing catch-up in each of the three Tests. Shoaib Malik, their captain who missed the last two Tests because of injury, thought otherwise however, suggesting their performance wasn’t as bleak as the 3-2 and 1-0 scoreline in the ODI and Test series suggested.”We were competitive in all the three Tests,” he said after the final day’s play. “If you look at it, we played badly in the morning session on the third day of the Delhi Test, and that cost us the series. There were a lot of positives to emerge. India scored more than 600 runs not once but twice in a row and we replied with 500.”A significant reason behind Pakistan’s competitiveness in the Tests was the form of Misbah-ul-Haq. He scored 464 runs in six innings and his centuries in Kolkata and Bangalore played crucial roles in Pakistan drawing the last two Tests. Malik had high praise for the batsman who stepped in to fill the gap left by Inzamam-ul-Haq.”He was tremendous throughout the series,” said Malik. “He and [Kamran] Akmal played a big role in us saving the Kolkata Test. Here also, the same pair put on a very good and important stand, and that augurs well for us.”Akmal, after a poor one-day series, struck form in the Tests. His century in Kolkata complemented Misbah’s and he scored an aggressive fifty in Bangalore to help Pakistan past the follow-on mark. However, his keeping in the ODIs was poor and didn’t get much better in the Tests.But Pakistan’s biggest disappointment was perhaps the form of Danish Kaneria. He picked up 19 wickets in three Tests on his last visit to India and played a vital role in the series-levelling win in Bangalore. This time he hardly troubled the batsmen and, although he took 12 wickets, they cost him 52 apiece. Malik defended Kaneria saying that “like a batsman has a bad patch, a bowler too sometimes can go through it.”The other main concern would be over the fitness of key players, an issue that hampered them through the Test series. Malik acknowledged that “problems with physical fitness” significantly affected their competitiveness and stressed that it was an area they needed to improve upon.Mohammad Asif was ruled out of the series before it even began and their bowling attack was further weakened by Umar Gul’s back injury and the illnesses that affected Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami before the second Test in Kolkata. Shoaib’s back injury during the Bangalore Test left them with a three-man bowling attack in the first innings, allowing India to pile up an impregnable first-innings total.Pakistan now have a long gap before their next Test series in March. It provides an ideal window to get their first-choice fast bowlers match-fit and as it is Australia who are visiting, how Pakistan fare in the series could well hinge on the fast bowlers.

Adam Gilchrist, the Australia vice-captain, says the Indian Cricket League (ICL) could be good for the game in the long run and hopes it will strengthen the relationship between players and their boards. “I don’t see it as a particularly bad news story,” Gilchrist told the media at the Sunshine Coast town of Coolum.”Competition in the marketplace is always healthy. And it’s great if that helps establish a better bond between players and the respective boards in the other countries.”Asked about Cricket Australia’s link to the ICL, Gilchrist said he wasn’t aware of any potential signings and emphasised that the relationship between the board and the players was strong. “I can’t comment on the other countries,” he said. “It may be a very different landscape there, but we are very well supported by Cricket Australia. There’s no doubt about that. Primarily they seem to be targeting retired players so I don’t know of any poaching attempts of current Australian contracted players.”Shaun Tait, the Australia fast bowler, also agreed with Gilchrist that the ICL was better suited to retired men trying to earn a living. “These guys who have retired, they can make up their own minds,” Tait said. “Young guys like myself, we don’t think about it too much, because we are striving to play consistent cricket for Australia. But that’s their decision and there’s obviously money to be made.”So far, the ICL has attracted interest from retired players such as Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne and others from around the world who have little hope of making comebacks. The league has signed up nearly 50 domestic players in India and the future of those players is still in question after the Indian board refused to embrace the league. The ICC today said they would not recognise the league if the Indian board did not.

The selection of India’s squad for the first two Tests against South Africa has been postponed from March 9 to March 17. The selectors will now meet in Bangalore instead of Mumbai.Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of selectors, had requested a postponement for picking a squad for the Tests starting March 26, so that players could take part in the Deodhar Trophy scheduled between March 14 and 26. “The Deodhar Trophy is a significant tournament on the domestic calendar and would have lost its value if we had announced the Test team on Sunday,” Vengsarkar told Cricinfo. “We want those who returned immediately after the Test series in Australia to appear in this tournament. But those who stayed back for the CB one-day series deserve these 15 days of rest.”Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, and Wasim Jaffer are expected to turn out for their respective zones in the tournament that marks a close to the 2007-08 domestic season. Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ishant Sharma are among those who will get a break before the South Africa series.In an earlier interview, Vengsarkar had pointed out that it was with the amount of international cricket being played, it was difficult to get players in the national side to play domestic cricket.South Africa will arrive in Chennai on March 21 for three Tests, the first of which begins at the MA Chidambaram stadium on March 26. The next second and third Tests will be played in Ahmedabad and Kanpur between April 3-7 and 11-15.Meanwhile India’s Test specialists will have to undergo routine tests at the NCA over the next three days in accordance with a BCCI policy, which states that players who have been out of action must undergo periodic check-ups prior to all selections. Laxman, Jaffer, Ganguly, Dravid, VRV Singh, Pankaj Singh and Kumble haven’t been part of the side since the Adelaide Test in January and will need to go through fitness tests before their names are cleared for selection. They will undergo tests under Paul Chapman, the trainer at the NCA, Paul Close, the physiotherapist, and Dav Whatmore. The NCA will in turn forward the reports to the board on Saturday.

Kenya have retained the same squad that featured in the first two Intercontinental Cup matches against Bermuda and Canada in Nairobi last year, for their forthcoming matches against Namibia and UAE.Kenya had a squad of 24 which has been cut to 14 led by Steve Tikolo. The only real question was whether Kennedy Otieno, back from a coaching and playing assignment in Australia, would be brought back into the fold, especially given some ill-advised comments he made about Kenyan cricket last year. The selectors opted to stick with a settled side.The match against Namibia was scheduled to be played in Nairobi at the end of the month but Kenya has been rocked by civil unrest since the highly disputed presidential elections on December 27. More than 250,000 people have fled their homes and over 500 killed in ongoing violence.The team leaves for UAE this Saturday ahead of their first match against Namibia on January 29. Kenya are unbeaten in this season’s Intercontinental Cup, and lead the table with 40 points and top the standings.Squad Steve Tikolo (capt), Thomas Odoyo, Jimmy Kamande, Alfred Luseno, Alex Obanda, Collins Obuya, David Obuya, Nehemiah Odhiambo, Peter Ongondo, Lameck Onyango, Elijah Otieno, Maurice Ouma (wk), Tony Suji, Hiren Varaiya

With the Indian Premier League just days away from its launch, followed immediately by the conclusion of the Indian Cricket League’s second season, Twenty20 cricket has caught on like a virus. Sri Lanka will have its own version with its inaugural six-team inter-provincial tournament scheduled to take off on Thursday.With the national team away in the Caribbean, and a few seniors set to take part in the IPL, the tournament has opened the doors for many budding cricketers trying to make their mark at this level. The inter-provincial limited overs series which was held in December and January was, however, fortunate to have the full contingent of national players.Jehan Mubarak and Kaushalya Weeraratne will have big shoes to fill when they lead Kandurata and Wayamba respectively, which shared the inter-provincial limited-overs title. Weeraratne will be taking over from Kumar Sangakkara and Mubarak from Mahela Jayawardene. With the unavailability of Chaminda Vaas, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Sanath Jayasuriya (all to IPL) Basnahira North will be led by Thilina Kandamby, Basnahira South by Prasanna Jayawardene and Ruhuna by Indika de Saram respectively.However for the first two matches on April 17 and 18, both Mubarak and Weeraratne will not be available due to their commitments in the West Indies. In their absence, Wayamba will be led by Jeevantha Kulatunga and Kandurata by Thilan Samaraweera as the province’s vice-captain Chamara Kapugedera is also in the Caribbean. In addition, Ajantha Mendis, Mahela Udawatte and Ishara Amerasinghe (all Wayamba), Thilan Thushara (Kandurata), Nuwan Kulasekera (Basnahira North), Upul Tharanga (Ruhuna) who are all also in the Caribbean, will miss the first two games as they are due to return only on April 18.One unique feature is the introduction of a Schools Invitation XI, led by Dinesh Chandimal, which comprises as many as eight of the 14 cricketers who represented Sri Lanka in the Under-19 World Cup in Malaysia. Ashan Priyanjan, Thisara Perera, Dimuth Karunaratne and Sachith Pathirana – four from the World Cup squad – have been included in the Ruhuna, Wayamba and Kandurata teams.Sidath Wettimuny, the Inter-provincial committee chairman, said there would be mixed reactions to exposing a Schools XI to Twenty20 cricket, but reasoned that it would expose them to the domestic level and give an opportunity to play under pressure against the best cricketers in the country.Each team will play five matches in the first round before which the top four teams qualify to play in the Super Four round on a league basis. The top two teams in the Super Four will qualify for the final, whcih carries prize money worth Rs 2,250,000. The losing finalist will receive Rs 1,125,000.The Man of the Tournament carries prize money worth Rs 50,000 while the Man of the Final gets Rs 25,000.