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The Team Management in South Africa confirms that Sanath Jayasuriya has recovered sufficiently to play against South Africa ‘A’ in a warm-up game scheduled for tomorrow (Saturday 23rd November). However, this would be confirmed only at this evening at 7.00 p.m (11.00 p.m. Sri Lanka time).Meanwhile we have also got confirmation that Muttiah Muralitharan would be under-going surgery on Tuesday 26th November 2002. Dr. Peter Nottle (Leading Laprocopic Surgeon from Melbourne) will be the surgeon operating on him and will also monitor his recovery thereafter.The well-known Dr. Peter Nottle was incidentally in Sri Lanka recently to train some Sri Lankan doctors on surgery.

Pakistan already beleaguered team suffered another blow when all-rounder Abdul Razzaq was ruled out for six weeks after his wrist X-ray revealed transverse fracture of left styloid.Razzaq was struck by a Brett Lee thunderbolt in Pakistan’s second innings when he ducked into a short-pitched delivery.On Friday wicket-keeper Rashid Latif was incapacitated by a hamstring injury which forced the team management to ask Taufiq Umer to don the gloves.Rashid came in to bat Saturday with a runner but lasted few balls and was out for a duck.It is also reported that even skipper Waqar Younis is not fully fit and was doubtful for the third and final Test.Whether he will be fully fit for the Test starting from Oct 19 is anybody’s guess considering the past experience of Pakistani players who are unfit one day and then declared by themselves or the team doctors unfit during the Test match.Although there has been no official confirmation of sending replacements but it is reported that the tour management had asked for Yousuf Youhana and might possibly also request for all-rounder Shahid Afridi to replace opener Imran Nazir and middle order batsman Misbah-ul-Haq as they were fully exposed in the two Tests despite ideal batting conditions.

The Western Australia Cricket Association has named the following squads:Saturday, 14 September 2002 – Aquinas College, Mt Henry Rd, ManningBlack Team: Marcus North (c), Sean Cary, Geoff Cullen, Sam Howman, Andrew James, Ryan Phillimore, Matt Nicholson, Luke Ronchi, Brett Jones, Mark Woodhead, Peter Worthington.Gold Team: Chris Rogers (c), Beau Casson, Matt Johnson (TBC), Stuart Karppinen, Shaun Marsh, Stephen Mason, Scott Meuleman, Wes Robinson, Craig Simmons, Michael Thistle, Callum Thorp, Paul Wilson.Sunday, 15 September 2002 – Aquinas College, Mt Henry Rd, ManningBlack Team: Marcus North (c), Beau Casson, Kade Harvey, Stuart Karppinen, Shaun Marsh, Scott Meuleman, Wes Robinson, Luke Ronchi, Michael Thistle, Callum Thorp, Darren Wates, Paul Wilson.Gold Team: Chris Rogers (c), Sean Cary, Michael Clark, Geoff Cullen, Steven Jacques, Andrew James, Brett Jones, Christian Moir, Matt Nicholson, Craig Simmons, Adam Voges, Peter Worthington.Friday 20 September 2002 – Lilac Hill Park, CavershamBlack Team: Marcus North (c), Beau Casson, Michael Johnston, Stuart Karppinen, Chas Keogh, Shaun Marsh, Stephen Mason, Scott Meuleman, Michael Thistle, Callum Thorp, Adam Voges, Paul Wilson.Gold Team: Chris Rogers (c), Sean Cary, Michael Clark, Geoff Cullen, Kade Harvey, Adrew James, Brett Jones, Matt Nicholson, Luke Ronchi, Craig Simmons, Mark Woodhead, Peter Worthington.

New Milton’s Southern Electric Premier League, Division 3 promotion bid has received a severe setback. An unexpected eight-run defeat by 13th placed Leckford – on probably the club’s farewell appearance at the Ashley Sports Ground – has left Milton with a huge task in the final three weeks of the season if they are to grab the second promotion slot.Leaders Purbrook have taken a firm grip of the championship race after whipping Waterlooville by eight wickets at The Heath.The maximum 22-point win took them well clear of St Cross Symondians, whose visit to third-placed Hursley Park was one of seven Premier 3 matches to fall to the weather.Those two results mean that New Milton will have to win at Purbrook this Saturday – and beat Waterlooville and Hursley Park in their other games.Skipper Steve Watts blamed New Milton’s out-cricket as the prime reason for the defeat. "That’s probably as poorly as we’ve bowled and fielded for some time," he lamented.New Milton’s fielding stint had barely got under way before key all-rounder Iain Griffiths suffered a recurrence of a long standing back injury."He dived to stop the ball in the field and his back went," Watts explained. "It meant that Iain could neither bowl nor really bat, which effectively reduced us to ten men."Ben Neal (2-48) and Andy Snellgrove (2-48) achieved two early breakthroughs for New Milton, but left-hand opener Martyn Isherwood proved immovable for Leckford and produced a match-winning knock."Martyn dug in and batted very well in trying conditions," Watts added.Isherwood hit a match winning 90 and, with support from Andy Cattle (27), doubled the Leckford score at the crucial mid-innings stage. Eighth-wicket pair Simon Reeves and Steve Bolshow added a precious 25 before tea to take Leckford on to 198-8.Although Ryan Beck went cheaply to the economical Steve Hicks, New Milton got themselves in a good position at 55-1 through Steve Watts (25) and Richard Wilson (28), who both departed in quick succession.But Lee Beck, with his best innings of the season, kept New Milton’s victory bid alive."Lee batted superbly at a stage when we needed seven or eight runs an over," praised Watts.But when he perished – to a Reeves stumping off Nigel Marriott (4-53) – for a splendid 82, Milton’s prospects effectively ended."We needed 27 off about 21 balls at that stage and, with Iain (Griffiths) injured, it was game up," the New Milton skipper admitted. New Milton eventually finished eight runs short at 191-9.Purbrook, meanwhile, took a firm grip at the top, after reducing Waterlooville from a comfortable 56-0 (Chris Baumann 27) to 126 all out at The Heath.Left-armer Mark Stanley (4-29) triggered a top order collapse, Ville plunging to 67-5 and 84-7 after Purbrook had won a key toss.Seasoned off-spinner Kelvan Finch bowled a miserly 12-over spell in mid-innings – and was bowling when Ville’s Mick Hamson was bizarrely dismissed Handled the ball !Ville’s modest tally was never likely to test Purbrook, who romped to an eight-wicket win inside 32 overs, with South African Will Prozesky hitting 64 not out.The other seven Premier 3 matches were called off after the Friday afternoon storms.

AGAINST Tests Won Lost Drawn Success%AUSTRALIA 3 0 3 0 0.00SRI LANKA 7 3 3 1 50.00WEST INDIES 5 2 1 2 60.00ENGLAND 5 1 2 2 40.00NEW ZEALAND 4 2 1 1 62.50BANGLADESH 3 3 0 0 100.00Total 27 11 10 6 51.85Individual performers in TestsBattingPlayer Inns NO 50s 100s HS Runs Ave Ct StInzamam-ul-Haq 42 2 9 9 329 2,472 61.80 16 0Yousuf Youhana 43 4 8 8 *204 2,133 54.69 27 0Rashid Latif 13 2 2 1 150 503 45.73 26 2Younis Khan 32 2 6 5 153 1,344 44.80 18 0Saeed Anwar 22 0 6 3 123 968 44.00 4 0Imran Nazir 7 0 0 2 131 294 42.00 1 0Taufeeq Umar 9 0 2 1 104 353 39.22 5 0Wasim Akram 23 4 3 1 100 628 33.05 8 0Shahid Afridi 14 1 3 1 107 426 32.77 4 0Abdul Razzaq 32 3 4 3 134 938 32.34 7 0Shadab Kabir 2 0 1 0 55 59 29.50 7 0Faisal Iqbal 8 1 2 0 63 201 28.71 3 0Saleem Elahi 9 0 1 0 72 253 28.11 1 0Humayun Farhat 2 0 0 0 28 54 27.00 0 0Mohammad Wasim 12 0 2 0 91 320 26.67 8 0Moin Khan 24 1 3 0 70 583 25.35 31 7Imran Farhat 5 0 1 0 63 115 23.00 4 0Ijaz Ahmed 11 0 1 1 115 252 22.91 4 0Azhar Mahmood 11 0 0 0 39 213 19.36 3 0Saqlain Mushtaq 27 6 0 1 *101 406 19.33 5 0Misbah-ul-Haq 2 0 0 0 28 38 19.00 0 0Shoaib Malik 2 0 0 0 21 34 17.00 1 0Naved Ashraf 2 0 0 0 27 32 16.00 0 0Atiq-Uz-Zaman 2 0 0 0 25 26 13.00 5 0Aamer Sohail 4 0 0 0 24 46 11.50 2 0Waqar Younis 31 4 0 0 39 306 11.33 10 0Shoaib Akhtar 18 5 0 0 37 142 10.92 2 0Naved Latif 2 0 0 0 20 20 10.00 0 0Wajahatullah Wasti 5 0 0 0 17 38 7.60 2 0Danish Kaneria 8 5 0 0 *8 19 6.33 3 0Mohammad Akram 6 3 0 0 *10 16 5.33 0 0Arshad Khan 4 1 0 0 *9 16 5.33 0 0Mushtaq Ahmed 9 3 0 0 19 31 5.17 3 0Irfan Fazil 2 1 0 0 3 4 4.00 2 0Qaiser Abbas 1 0 0 0 2 2 2.00 0 0Fazl-e-Akbar 3 2 0 0 *0 0 – 0 0Mohammad Sami 3 2 0 0 *0 0 – 0 0BowlingPlayer O M R W 5wI 10wM Best AveAamer Sohail 42.2 9 99 5 0 0 2/20 19.80Danish Kaneria 292.4 69 814 38 4 1 7/77 21.42Waqar Younis 639 109 2074 78 1 0 6/55 26.59Shoaib Akhtar 295.3 52 1091 41 3 0 6/11 26.61Saqlain Mushtaq 869.1 232 1953 72 4 0 8/164 27.13Arshad Khan 242 69 528 19 0 0 4/62 27.79Mohammad Sami 133.3 26 380 13 1 0 5/36 29.23Azhar Mahmood 129.5 27 398 13 0 0 4/50 30.62Abdul Razzaq 515 105 1427 44 0 0 4/24 32.43Irfan Fazil 8 0 65 2 0 0 1/30 32.50Fazl-e-Akbar 66.2 12 198 6 0 0 3/85 33.00Shahid Afridi 110.1 18 334 10 0 0 3/50 33.40Wasim Akram 471.5 115 1205 36 3 1 6/61 33.47Shoaib Malik 20.1 3 81 2 0 0 2/18 40.50Mohammad Akram 74 5 337 7 1 0 5/138 48.14Mushtaq Ahmed 279 41 963 14 0 0 3/91 68.79Younis Khan 33 7 115 1 0 0 1/47 115.00Ijaz Ahmed 2 0 8 0 0 0 – -Yousuf Youhana 1 0 3 0 0 0 – -Wajahatullah Wasti 2 2 0 0 0 0 – -Qaiser Abbas 16 3 35 0 0 0 – -Faisal Iqbal 1 0 7 0 0 0 – -Taufeeq Umar 2 0 6 0 0 0 – –

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) today confirmed that a 26-year-oldmale who came on to the playing area at Old Trafford during the final npowerTest Match against Sri Lanka appeared before Trafford magistrates on 18 Juneand pleaded guilty to the offence of ‘Aggravated Trespass’ (Section 68 ofthe Criminal Justice and Public Order Act). He was given a 12-month conditional discharge and was ordered to pay costs.Tim Lamb, Chief Executive of the ECB, said: “I am delighted that our hard work during the winter is paying off. It demonstrates the close co-operation and determination of the ECB, match venues, police and government in keeping spectators off the playing area.”In advance of the NatWest Series it sends the clear message that we will not tolerate supporters coming on to the pitch and that, if they do so, they will find themselves subject to criminal prosecution.”

Man has split the atom, landed on the moon and found the Titanic, but no team has ever scored 474 to win a Test match and the present West Indies team, with its glaring limitations, certainly wasn’t going to make history at Kensington Oval yesterday.Instead, history was written by New Zealand.They completed their first victory in 12 Tests in the Caribbean, since their first 30 years ago, sweeping aside their opponents for 269 to win the first Cable & Wireless Test by the resounding margin of 204 runs with 11 overs and a full day remaining.The last six West Indies wickets tumbled in familiar fashion for 65, three of them to the exciting Shane Bond, who generated pace over 90 miles an hour and whose overall return of five for 78 in his fifth Test was simply an indication of things to come.The relevant West Indies resistance came only at the top of the order and towards the end from a rampant Brian Lara when it hardly mattered.The outcome was neither flattering to New Zealand nor unjust to the West Indies.It was an utterly fair representation of the difference between the teams in purpose, intensity, all-round strength and sheer cricketing common sense and confirmed their respective ratings of third and sixth on the International Cricket Council Test championship table.As jubilant New Zealand supporters, who have flown in for the series, celebrated with their flags and their famous haka war dance in front of the team rooms, the few West Indians who stayed for the final rites were left to reflect on only the fourth defeat in 39 Tests on the ground.Although they, and everyone else, knew that it was an inevitable result, they had a right to expect more of a fight.They had watched in disbelief and disappointment as rank carelessness, unbecoming of a professional team of international repute, led to the first innings collapse to 107 that virtually determined the issue.Throughout the first session and 20 minutes into the second yesterday, there was gutsy resistance from openers Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds and then, for just over an hour, from Ramnaresh Sarwan that kept the anxious New Zealanders at bay.But then one of the several perceptive moves by captain Stephen Fleming and another of the thoughtless absurdities that continue to afflict this West Indies team changed the course of the innings.Daniel Vettori, the tall, bespectacled left-arm spinner, removed Hinds for 37 to a bat-pad catch at forward short-leg with his third ball, after a first-wicket stand of 63, and looked the likeliest wicket-taker on a worn pitch. But Fleming replaced him at the northern end with the pacy Bond on resumption.Bond had induced a limp hook shot that accounted for Sarwan first ball in the first innings and twice at the start of his innings Sarwan created a buzz around the ground by twice trying the shot against Ian Butler.The second went for four, after which Sarwan established himself in a partnership of 65 with Gayle. But the young Guyanese seems addicted to the hook and, as with most addictions, it once more proved his downfall.Bond is a few miles an hour quicker than Butler and Sarwan was in no position for the shot to a ball too close to him.The resulting catch spiralled to Vettori at mid-on, a replay of his first innings recklessness.Sarwan is a fine young player but, unless he overcomes the inexcusable indiscretions that have repeatedly brought his downfall, he won’t have the long and productive career indicated by his obvious talent.His dismissal provided an obvious charge for Bond and the New Zealanders who tenaciously went after their prize.Observing a fuller length than he managed before lunch, Bond bothered Gayle on the legs and, nine runs and six overs later, won umpire Rudy Koertzen’s clearcut agreement on an lbw appeal as he beat the tall left-hander for pace.Gayle had overcome an uncertain start to strike 12 certain boundaries from 131 balls in a stay that lasted 10 minutes short of three hours.The departure of the three young batsmen at the top of the order left the old hands to take on the New Zealanders.Only Lara made a fair fist of it and most of his 73 runs (119 balls, a six and 11 fours) came in a flurry of shots with the tailenders as his partners.Carl Hooper stayed with him for an hour-and-a-quarter, carefully adding 46, but he relaxed when Fleming brought back the wayward Daryl Tuffey.Tuffey is the least threatening of the three fast bowlers but induced one of those indiscretions from the captain that was once an annoying part of his game. It was an unnecessary cut to a wide, bouncing ball that found the top edge on its way to first slip.By tea, Lara and Shivnarine Chanderpaul had pushed the total past 200 but they represented the last of the batting. After Vettori accounted for the latter with a clever piece of deception, the end was swift and only enlivened for the small crowd by Lara’s strokes.Fleming starved Chanderpaul of early runs by blocking his favoured areas with a short mid-wicket and a leg gully. But the solid left-hander has been full of confidence all season and skilfully used his feet to clip Vettori to the mid-wicket boundary.When he moved down the pitch next ball, Vettori sent it wider and straighter and Chanderpaul edged it low to first slip, a quality piece of bowling.Ridley Jacobs soon repeated the stroke that got him out in the first innings by topedging a pull against Vettori. Nathan Astle didn’t have to move an inch to collect the catch then. Now he ran back 20 yards and made a sensational, tumbling take with the ball coming over his shoulder.It was a signal for Lara to open up, launching Vettori for a straight six and, when the new ball was taken, attacking Butler and Bond.But Bond had the last laugh, breaching Lara’s defence the ball after two rasping off-side boundaries to disturb off and middle stumps.Butler took care of Darren Powell to a slip catch, Bond had Pedro Collins lbw and Merv Dillon put a full stop to the match by slicing his first ball to gully.

The Glamorgan Dragons opened their Norwich Union League season with a welldeserved 20 run victory against the Durham Dynamos at Sophia Gardens.Such a result though had seemed unlikely in the first hour of the game as Glamorgan slumped to 49-5. But an attractive 58 run partnership between Mike Powell and Mark Wallace restored the Welsh county`s fortunes, and by the end of their 45 over allocation, they had reached a more respectable total of161-8.In reply, the Durham batsmen never got into their stride as Mike Kasprowicz had a dream debut in the Dragons colours, with the Australian taking three wickets in a fiery spell with the new ball.With Andrew Davies in miserly form at the other end, Durham stuttered to 27-3 in the opening 12 overs – a start from which they never recovered.Spinners Robert Croft and Dean Cosker further contained the Durham batsmen,and a measure of their control over the visitors was that the two spinners onlyconceded three boundaries during their 18 over spell.Andy Pratt, the Durham wicket-keeper, made a belated bid to up the tempo, buthe fell to Andrew Davies who returned to pick up two wickets in a disciplinedcomeback spell which helped to settle the game in the Dragons favour.

During the first encounter of the recently concluded five-match one-day series between India and Zimbabwe at Faridabad, Douglas Marillier scored the fastest fifty for Zimbabwe in ODI’s off just 21 balls with the help of nine fours and one six.Marillier’s fifty was the fifth fastest in LOI’s. He joins two other batsmen (New Zealand’s Lance Cairns and India’s Ajit Agarkar) who have also achieved it in 21 balls. The record of fastest half century in one day internationals is held by Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya who reached his fifty off 17 balls during his 76-run knock against Pakistan at Singapore on April 7,1996.Marillier’s fifty was also the quickest against India, bettering the 23 ball fifty by Pakistani Salim Malik during his unbeaten 72 at Calcutta on 18-2-1987.Marillier also became the first batsman in ODI history to register a fifty while batting at number ten. The previous highest score was the 46 by Pakistani Abdul Razzaq against South Africa at Durban on 3-4-1998. The previous highest score by a Zimbabwean in this position was the unbeaten 19 by Eddo Brandes against Sri Lanka at Worcester on 22-5-1999. Interestingly, the previous highest score by a number 10 against India was also by a Zimbabwe batsman – 29 by Andy Whittall at Bulawayo on 26-9-1998.

For interest here are the details:

Fastest fifties in LOI’sBalls Batsman (score) Fixture Venue Date17 ST Jayasuriya (76) SL v Pak Singapore 07-04-199618 SP O’Donnell (74) Aus v SL Sharjah 02-05-199018 Shahid Afridi (102) Pak v SL Nairobi (Gym) 04-10-199619 MV Boucher (51*) SA v Ken Cape Town 22-10-200121 BL Cairns (52) NZ v Aus Melbourne 13-02-198321 AB Agarkar (67*) Ind v Zim Rajkot 14-12-200021 D Marillier (56*) Zim v Ind Faridabad 07-03-200222 Kapil Dev (72) Ind v WI Berbice 29-03-198322 V Sehwag (55) Ind v Ken Paarl 24-10-200123 Salim Malik (72*) Pak v Ind Calcutta 18-02-198724 Shahid Afridi (73) Pak v NZ Sharjah 12-04-200125 Richards (82) WI v Eng Port-of-Spain 04-03-198625 RB Richardson (52*) WI v Eng Kingstown 02-03-199425 ST Jayasuriya (68) SL v Ind Colombo (SSC) 23-08-1997All data updated to 29.03.2002

A sensational counterattack by Haider Ali, who smashed an unbeaten 91 off 53, upstaged Babar Azam’s hundred as Northern upset Central Punjab in a thrilling high-scoring match.Central Punjab won the toss and opted to bat, and their captain Babar assumed control right from the outset. His side got off to a flying start in the powerplay, with a 20-ball 37 from Ahmed Shehzad helping set the early tone. Once Shehzad fell to Mohammad Nawaz, Muhammad Akhlaq and Shoaib Malik lent support from the other end.Related

• Haider Ali and Asif Ali get Northern off to winning start

• Babar, Wahab, Qadir star in Central Punjab's win

Really, though it was all about Babar. After mellowing through the middle overs, he came to life once more at the death as Central Punjab pushed towards 200, and brought up his 100 in 58 balls with three successive boundaries.Chasing 201, Northern initially fell well behind the asking rate, with Ehsan Adil and Wahab Riaz accounting for the openers. It required Northern to throw caution to the wind, and in the out-of-form but very able Haider Ali, they had their answer. A blistering 84-run partnership at two runs a ball alongside Mohammad Nawaz dragged his side back into the game, and with Central Punjab’s bowlers wilting, he finished the job off alongside Asif Ali, putting Northern above Central Punjab on the table.