Having been given the perfect platform to build a monumental innings, Surrey squandered the opportunity with a performance which totally lacked application.After losing their second wicket on 171 with Ian Ward falling lbw to Matthew Hoggard for a patient, three-hour 63, they lost their next three wickets rapidly to be reduced to 222 for five.The damage was inflicted by off-spinner Andy Gray, an Australian with a British passport who had been playing club cricket for Scarborough and has impressed enough to be included for his second Cricinfo Championship match in addition to a few one-dayers.Gray produced an inspired ten-ball spell which brought him three wickets for one run. He had Adam Hollioake caught at short mid-wicket, driving uppishly, then two overs later, took a return catch from Ally Brown and bowled Alec Stewart for a first-ball duck.Mark Ramprakash with his fifth first-class half-century this season steadied the innings. Having been dropped on one by Gray off Matthew Hoggard, he was not out on 53 along with Ben Hollioake whose 43 included six boundaries and two sixes. They saw Surrey to 291 for five at stumps, a lead of 56.The London side had been given a marvellous start by their opening batsmen Mark Butcher and Ward after dismissing Yorkshire in the first innings for 235.Butcher, who has been in excellent form both in international and domestic cricket this seaso,n continued his run spree with a brilliant knock which ended ten short of a well deserved century, ten minutes before tea, which was taken on 167 for one.Ward, playing an equally good innings although at a slower pace, was 61 not out at the end of the second session having reached fifty from 93 balls and hitting five boundaries. It was his first, first-class half-century in 24 innings, having hit fifty in early May at Northampton.He had shared a stand of 164 in 44 overs with Butcher whose fifty had come with some speed from only 54 balls and with the help of eight fours. None of the six bowlers used by Yorkshire was able to make an impression on him until Anthony McGrath, who top-scored for Yorkshire earlier, came on to bowl.He succeeded in getting the breakthrough, having Butcher caught at slip as he edged his drive. He had faced 153 balls with 52 of his runs coming from boundaries.Yorkshire had lost quick wickets in the morning session with the five remaining from overnight falling in just over an hour and a half’s play for the addition of 56 runs to the 179 that they scored on the first day.Ian Salisbury began the slide, taking the wicket of Richard Dawson in his first over without a run being scored and then in his fourth over he had Gray caught for three and Yorkshire were 197 for seven.It was then Saqlain Mushtaq’s turn to get among the wickets after his fine long spell yesterday without a dismissal. He sent back Simon Guy from a bat/pad catch without scoring ,despite facing 25 balls, and then trapped Steve Kirby, who had taken 30 balls to get off the mark, leg before wicket for two, from 49 balls.Yorkshire were 234 for nine and a run later the innings was wound up with Salisbury claiming his fourth victim, for 49, as Hoggard fell lbw.While wickets tumbled at the other end, McGrath progressed confidently, taking his overnight 69 to an unbeaten 116, nearly half of his side’s total. It came from 272 balls and included 11 boundaries and the only six of the innings which he hit over wide mid-wicket off Saqlain whose two wickets today cost 24 runs.It had been a most responsible innings from McGrath, spanning nearly five and a half hours at a time when Yorkshire urgently needed it.

India’s veteran new-ball bowlers Javagal Srinath and VenkateshPrasad returned to what could be called their finishing schoolon Friday.It was at the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai that Australianpace bowling legend Dennis Lillee fine-tuned the bowling ofthe Karnataka duo who have rendered yeoman service to Indiancricket. Indian coach John Wright’s suggestion at theselection committee meeting meant that the twosome, alongwithnew boys Reetinder Singh Sodhi and Harvinder Singh, were againlearning at the feet of their old master.Lillee watched Srinath and Prasad in action before dispensinghis tips. “Sometimes when you play international cricketwithout a break, you can develop the odd bad habit. It couldbe due to the different types of wickets, different kind ofballs, or even loss of form. Often small things that can beset right,” he told .The Australian pace legend, who at one time held the worldrecord for most number of Test wickets, was reported to be”very impressed” with Harvinder’s progress. The Punjabipaceman is rumoured to be among the five stand-bys for theSouth Africa tour.”He looks compact. Technically he is better now than what I’veseen of him before. Good action, sharp pace. He was knockingthe batsmen over with good outswingers. But you got totranslate your bowling at the nets into a match situation,”Lillee told the paper.The ‘Pace Guru’ felt that Sodhi though needed to “work hard”.Meanwhile, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra were both expected toland in Chennai on Saturday. It will then be the first timethat India’s whole pace battery will be in action right underLillee’s eyes. As Cricinfo originally argued, Indiancricket can only be richer from the experience.

The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association on Friday named their squad forthis year’s MJ Gopalan Trophy. India-discard Robin Singh leads a 16-member squad that includes Ashish Kapoor, S Sriram, JR Madanagopal andT Kumaran, among others.Robin Singh will also captain the side for the one-dayers. Fourteen ofthe members playing in the Gopalan Trophy have been retained. VikramKumar and G Vignesh are the only two changes.The winners of the one-day tournament, which will see the sides clashagainst each other thrice, will receive the FC De Saram trophy. Thetrophy had earlier been named the Vernon G Prins trophy after thecaptain of first Sri Lankan side that contested for the GopalanTrophy.The one-day matches will be held at CPT-IP Ground, ICL-Guru NanakCollege Ground, and the IIT-Chemplast Ground. The four-day match forthe MJ Gopalan trophy will meanwhile be played at the MA ChidambaramStadium.Squad for MJ Gopalan trophy:Robin Singh (Captain), Aashish Kapoor, S Sriram, S Suresh, S Sharath,Rajat Bhatia, JR Madanagopal, TR Arasu, S Badrinath, MR Shrinivas, TKumaran, S Mahesh, L Balaji, R Ramkumar, S Vasanth Saravanan, C HemantKumar.Squad for FC De Saram Trophy:Robin Singh (Captain), Aashish Kapoor, S Sriram, S Suresh, S Sharath,Rajat Bhatia, JR Madanagopal, Vikram Kumar, G Vignesh, MR Shrinivas, TKumaran, S Mahesh, L Balaji, R Ramkumar, S Vasanth Saravanan, C HemantKumar.Colombo District Cricket Association squad:Thilan Samaraweera, Upul Chandana, Avishka Gunawardene, MichaelVandort, Ian Daniel, Upeka Fernando, Akalanka Ganegama, T.M Dilshan,Gayan Wijekoon, Rangana Herath, Prasanna Jayawardene, KaushalyaWeeraratne and Muthumudalige Pushpakumara. Coach: Roshan Mahanama.Manager: Bandula Disannayake Asst. Manager: ARM Aroos

Baroda, with eight second wickets in hand, require another 163 runson the final day to win their Ranji Trophy tie against Gujarat.On Friday, Gujarat, who resumed their second innings at 26 for one,were bowled out for 211. Tejas Varsani and Kirat Damani engineeredtheir side’s recovery after coming together when the scoreboard read59 for six. Their 103-run partnership meant that Gujarat set Barodathe task of scoring the highest total in a low-scoring match. ForBaroda, Irfan Pathan and Shekhar Joshi claimed three wickets each.The defending Ranji champions, who lost both their openers, reached 72for two at stumps. Importantly for them, their first-innings topscorer Nayan Mongia was still at the crease. Atul Bedade on nine waskeeping him company.

A fighting knock of 94 from captain Reetinder Singh Sodhinotwithstanding, Punjab found itself struggling at the close of playat 269/9 against Jammu and Kashmir in their Ranji Trophy league tieagainst Jammu.The home side, with their wider knowledge of the conditions, opted tobowl first; they struck immediately with the wicket of Manish Sharmawith the score on six. Yuvraj Singh fell soon, but the onlysignificant partnership of the innings then developed between RavneetRicket and Sodhi.Ricky fell for 68, with the score on 165. Wickets then fell at regularintervals, with Ashwani Gupta (3-72) and Jagtar Singh (2-74) cleaningup the middle-order.At stumps, Gagandeep Singh was unbeaten on 28 and Sanjay Dhull on one.Only one wicket remains to fall in Punjab’s first innings, and theywill have to bowl well to avoid losing face to a less-endowed opponent.

England have now had over a day to rue the first innings collapse that allowed the Indian batsmen to get on with the job of slowly overtaking the inadequate total. The way those batsmen have gone about their task, there is no reason to believe that England will not have a considerable length of time yet to contemplate further the folly of losing six wickets for 14 runs.That is to take nothing away from the discipline of their bowling that, formuch of the day, kept the scoring rate hovering just above the two an over mark. To say that all they had to show for their efforts were the wickets ofa nightwatchman and a makeshift opener is not giving due credit to for a brave performance.Anil Kumble played the role of nightwatchman to perfection. The opening overs of the day are reckoned to be the time when conditions are most favourable for pace bowling. Kumble navigated his side through those dangerous times and, with every ball he faced, he was drawing fire from the bowlers and helping the ball itself to deteriorate from its pristine condition.Matthew Hoggard, James Ormond, Andrew Flintoff and even Mark Butcher had been given a go with the ball when Nasser Hussain made a double change. Craig White made an appearance in the attack at one end, debutant Richard Dawson at the other.Dawson saw no great degree of turn, but did see the ball bounce to his liking as a 6′ 4″ off-spinner. It was his twelfth ball in Test cricket that Kumble attempted to cut, got a thickish edge and James Foster, also making his first appearance in a Test match, safely did the rest. There was much jubilation in the England camp. It was as well that they could celebrate then, for the next opportunity to do so was a long way down the track.Rahul Dravid joined Deep Dasgupta, the wicket-keeper who only took the opening berth in an emergency and who continued in his slow and careful way. He had no need and possibly not the repertoire to force the pace. Dravid too was watchful, with the English bowlers displaying an admirable discipline.Hoggard got a ball to lift and come back to strike Dravid a painful blow on the elbow when he had three and, with 30 added to his personal tally, there was every reason for Dravid for leave the field for good. The batsman played at Flintoff as the ball went down the leg side, touched it through to Foster’s left glove and from there to the floor. The tariff has yet to be finalised.Dasgupta had moved to a cautious fifty from 159 balls. It was an invaluableinnings if not, perhaps a memorable one for the quality of attacking strokes. But who would question the value of a sound defence in an opener? That defence faltered when he had 75 when Flintoff was again the bowler and, this time, Butcher the culprit in the slips.By now, after tea, the batsmen were beginning to lift the tempo. Dravid moved to his fifty from 126 balls with a glorious straight drive off Hoggard. Dasgupta’s response was to slice the same bowler to the third man boundary to bring up his hundred. Playing in only his third Test and his first on home soil, the 24 year-old had taken 82 overs to get there but he was the hero of the hour as the scoreboard showed him on exactly 100.The concentration might have slipped for a moment at this point, entirelyunderstandably it should be said, for that scoreboard had no reason to change before White found a straight one that might have come back just a little to bowl Dasgupta. Makeshift opener or not, he had done a wonderful job for his side and deserved the generous applause from a crowd that could have been thanking him for his efforts and for getting out when he did.The fall of his wicket allowed Sachin Tendulkar to come to the middle. Hussain had not taken the new ball, delaying it until there were nine overs of the day remaining. Flintoff had the thrill of seeing the outside edge of the little master passed twice, and with consecutive balls, no less.However, as the natural light faded and the floodlights were brought on, they only served to illuminate India’s firm grasp on the game. Although the bowlers kept going valiantly to produce a set of highly commendable figures in terms of economy, the thought of Dravid resuming on 78 and Tendulkar on 31 on a fine surface for batting should give them food for thought.An inexperienced attack might well be in position to learn an awful lot on the third day unless it strikes quickly and consistently. India lead by 24 with seven wickets in hand, Dravid and Tendulkar at the crease and power to add.

Canterbury’s success in winning the national Under-19 tournament which finished in Auckland today, was borne out with its players winning four spots in the New Zealand team to play in the ICC Under-19 World Cup tournament here later this month.Canterbury won the national tournament with 17 points, Central Districts 15, Wellington 14, Otago 11, Northern Districts six and Auckland five.Close runners-up Central Districts were also rewarded for their excellent performance in having five of their players selected in the tournament team.The New Zealand Under-19 team is: Ross Taylor (captain, Central Districts), Simon Allen (Wellington), Michael Bates (Auckland), Peter Borren (Canterbury), Neil Broom (Canterbury), Leighton Burtt (Canterbury), Brook Hatwell (Northern Districts), Stephen Murdoch (Wellington), Rob Nicol (Auckland), Iain Robertson (Canterbury), Jessie Ryder (Central Districts), Ian Sandbrook (Central Districts), Jordan Sheed (Otago), Richard Sherlock (Central Districts).The world tournament will start with an opening ceremony in Christchurch on January 14. Teams will then have warm-up games before the tournament’s opening game between New Zealand and Sri Lanka on Bert Sutcliffe Oval at Lincoln on January 19.

A brilliant unbeaten century from Chris Cairns has guided New Zealand to a four wicket victory over South Africa in the countries’ VB Series match here at the ‘Gabba ground in Brisbane tonight. With his team chasing a target of 242 for victory, Cairns (102*) thrashed the first ball of the 50th over to the extra cover boundary to simultaneously win the match and raise a richly deserved hundred.The powerful all-rounder had arrived at the crease with New Zealand at 4/73 in the 19th over as it struggled to stay within touch of the total of 241registered by the South Africans earlier in the day. When Craig McMillan (6) lost his wicket five overs later to leave the total at 5/98, it seemed thatthe prospect of four points was all but slipping away from the Black Caps’ grasp.However, with Cairns in increasingly confident touch, the New Zealanders’ hopes never faded completely. His strokemaking became increasinglybelligerent and, with excellent support arriving from Chris Harris (24) and Adam Parore (21*), the Kiwis were duly able to claim an outstandingvictory with five balls to spare.”It’s nice to achieve something that I have always wanted to do and that’s score a hundred in Australia,” said an elated Cairns after the match.”We just wanted to get the win tonight. Sometimes you realise that, when you get into that situation, you have more time than what you might think.”(Our achievement) hasn’t sunk in yet.”The New Zealanders’ chase had begun disastrously as Mark Richardson (0) perished from just the second ball of the innings. And, when BrendonMcCullum (37), Stephen Fleming (23), Lou Vincent (9) and McMillan variously joined the list of victims in the pavilion through the middle stages ofthe pursuit, there looked few ways out for the Black Caps.Cairns, though, was not to be denied and his partnerships of 62 and 84 runs with Harris and Parore respectively defined the difference between theteams.He had also played a major role earlier in the day in a lower order South African collapse that laid a vital platform for New Zealand’s firstlimited-overs victory over South Africa since February 1999.Together with paceman Shane Bond (4/37), undisputed man of the match Cairns (2/44) triggered a remarkable slide that saw the South Africanssurrender an imposing position at 5/231 to be dismissed – with only a further ten runs added to the score – just four overs later. Bond’s involvementin the fightback was particularly impressive after he had conceded 16 runs in one over to the aggressive Jacques Kallis (65) in the midst of anexpensive first spell.”The way we fought back and denied them a 270 to 280 score was fantastic,” enthused New Zealand captain Fleming after the match.”What (Bond) is showing is good mental toughness (to come back well),” he said.With opener Gary Kirsten (43), Kallis added 115 runs in an excellent partnership for the second wicket and then another profitable associationbetween Mark Boucher (51) and Jonty Rhodes (44) offered further momentum. But the innings finished on the same note of wicket-taking as it hadstarted – opener Herschelle Gibbs (0) having perished from the very first delivery of the match – and none of the Proteas was ultimately able to rivalCairns’ ability to translate a start into a genuinely big innings.South African captain Shaun Pollock admitted he was disappointed by a defeat that now hands leadership of the competition to the NewZealanders. He expected that there would be some changes to the side that will take on the so far winless Australia in another important game heretomorrow.

Captain Stephen Waugh admitted he had never played in such a complete Australian performance after his team surged to a record-breaking win against South Africa in Johannesburg today.The Australians celebrated into the night after beating South Africa by an innings and 360 runs in the first Test at the Wanderers.It was the second biggest win in Test cricket history, littered with team and individual records including Adam Gilchrist’s fastest Test double century.Waugh’s team also posted Australia’s highest total against South Africa while Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath moved into second and eighth spots on Testcricket’s all-time wicket-taking list.Waugh has played 146 Tests through good and bad times in Australian cricket, including the world record of 16 consecutive Test wins.But the 36-year-old said he could not remember a better team performance.”It was a great performance,” Waugh said.”We put them under enormous pressure and that’s what Test match cricket is all about – whether you can handle the pressure.”In this game South Africa didn’t. They may handle it better next game. It is certainly going to be very difficult to come back from here.”Stand-in South African captain Mark Boucher insisted the Proteas could come back in this series despite losing four Test matches to Australia this summer by 246runs, nine wickets and 10 wickets before today’s collapse.The Proteas scored just 159 and 133 in reply to Australia’s 7-652 declared, and the Test finished after tea on the third day.Warne took six wickets for the match, including 4-44 in the second innings, while McGrath’s match haul of 8-49 included 5-21 in the second innings.Warne now has 436 Test wickets – second to West Indian great Courtney Walsh (519) – while McGrath (385) moved past former England all-rounder Ian Botham(383).Waugh said he wasn’t surprised at the margin of the win even though this series will officially determine the International Cricket Council’s best team.”Our record has been pretty good over the last couple of years,” Waugh said.”You don’t win 16 Test matches in a row if you are not a pretty good side. We played some superb cricket.”We have excellent cricketers in this team and we all came together for this Test match and basically clicked.”Everyone played pretty well. Once again we put enormous pressure on South Africa and they didn’t respond.”It gives me great satisfaction the way we played that Test match, the level at which we played and the intensity. We didn’t drop off for any period at all.”The Australians will enjoy two rest days before travelling to Port Elizabeth for a four-day tour match against South Africa A, starting Friday.They will then head to Cape Town, hoping to wrap up the series when the second Test begins on Friday week.

I write as Zimbabwe have just started the First Test against India, at Nagpur, inexplicably the same venue where they played just over a year ago. I have not noticed anybody else mentioning the fact that their task is much harder this year than it was at the end of 2000, because last time they did not have Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh in the opposition.Kumble missed that last series with a shoulder injury, while Harbhajan had not yet come into the team to work his wonders against Australia. India’s leading spinner then was Sunil Joshi, who was felt to be disappointing by most critics. Zimbabwe did not have the greatest of tests against the Indian spinners then, but they will this time. Again it is realism rather than pessimism to suggest that they will do extremely well to avoid two overwhelming Test defeats.But it is how they lose, in such circumstances, which is important. This rolling over against the opposition from time to time was not a regular phenomenon of Zimbabwe’s Test cricket until recent years; in fact, I would say the first evidence of it came in New Zealand in 1997/98, when the team were mentally shattered after being robbed in their previous Test in Sri Lanka. Until then, even in Sri Lanka, there had always been something good to bring out of a Test – even if the batting had failed, at least our bowlers had been able to keep the opposition fighting for runs.Yet the slaughters we suffer at times nowadays bring us little or nothing to be proud of, and suggest a lack of the same spirit that we had in our earliest Test days, when we had little talent or experience but great hearts. When we first toured Pakistan in 1993/94, for example, with Wasim and Waqar at their peak and only four previous Tests behind us, we feared annihilation. Yet our gallant little team came out of the three Tests with great honour, leading on first innings in two of them, and our limited attack, spearheaded by Eddo Brandes and David Brain, and with Heath Streak in his first series, never allowed the potentially brilliant Pakistani batting line-up dominate them.We hope to see the same sort of spirit in India. The going will be tough, especially with two great spinners bowling in tandem. We hope to see the tough get going, and at the very least make India fight to the very end for victory.*****More sad news for Zimbabwe cricket this week is that Paul Strang has been released from his contract, at his own request, and is now in India to commentate on the current series. It is not clear whether he is in effect retiring from all cricket in Zimbabwe, as his brother Bryan has done. The truth is that he has not been bowling well recently, with his recurring arm injury, and has been overlooked by the selectors for the tours to Sri Lanka and India.It would be very sad if this was to be a total retirement, as he still has much to offer. Even were he never to bowl a ball again, he is still a good enough batsman to be worth his place in a Logan Cup team, where he would make an excellent player-coach, and he has played one-day internationals as a batsman only.Besides both Strangs, Zimbabwe cricket has also this season lost Everton Matambanadzo (married and emigrated to the United States) and Ian Engelbrecht, while it seems Greg Lamb and Andrew Stone have chosen to remain overseas. Some may have reasons other than cricket for leaving the country, but perhaps the administrators here need to look carefully into reasons why players who should still be in their prime, and some with their best yet to come, should choose to walk out of Zimbabwe cricket.*****Defeat to Border B last weekend, in both the three-day and one-day matches. Without Alistair Campbell to hold them together, our Board XI has lost its chance of winning the one-day Bowl competition, as Border B now have an unassailable lead after playing all their six matches. They could still win the three-day competition, with everything hinging on this weekend’s match against KwaZulu-Natal in Durban.The pressure is on – but our players are not renowned for handling pressure well. This is their chance to break the mould. Considering the talent and experience of our team, though, it is difficult to call them anything but perennial under-achievers against the B sides of South Africa provinces that are already weakened by the absence of their Test players.Dave Houghton, who in this issue also talks about the Academy’s Logan Cup victory over Manicaland, presents his argument for withdrawing from South African competitions altogether, so as to strengthen our own cricket at first-class level. Guy Whittall, in a recent interview, believed that Zimbabwean players are simply not competitive enough when compared to South African cricketers.Last weekend saw quite a few records and remarkable events in the two Logan Cup matches, where CFX Academy beat Manicaland and Mashonaland beat Matabeleland. In both matches a young player, Glen Barrett of the Academy and Gavin Ewing of Matabeleland, scored a century on his first-class debut; Greg Strydom of Matabeleland became the second-youngest scorer of a first-class century in Zimbabwean history. In Bulawayo also, Gus Mackay of Mashonaland hit the fastest first-class century recorded in Zimbabwean history off just 45 balls, and we include an interview with him about that innings and the match in general.In our occasional guest column, we have a preview of the India-Zimbabwe Tests by Trishna Bose, of Trans World International.In one way it is good to see Tatenda Taibu playing in the Test in India, as he is a superb keeper and a batsman of great promise. On the other hand, Andy Flower was keeping wicket without any ill effects on his batting and without any desire to relinquish the gloves.To include Taibu means that we either have to play with a batsman or a bowler short; we chose to play only four bowlers. If one of them breaks down, we are going to be in serious trouble. Perhaps a better plan would have been to keep Taibu at home for the Logan Cup and concentrate on improving his batting in first-class cricket so that he can be worth his place in the Test team for his batting as well as his keeping.

UCB Bowl Tables 2001/02as at 21 February 2002Zimbabwe Board XI are in Pool BPool AThree-day P W L D Bat Bowl PtsEastern Province B 6 2 1 3 22.02 21 63.02Free State B 6 2 0 4 22.28 20 62.28Namibia 6 2 3 1 19.10 21 60.10Western Province B 5 2 1 2 18.80 18 56.80Boland B 6 2 0 4 16.60 18 54.60Griqualand West B 5 1 2 2 17.04 18 45.04KZN Inland 6 0 4 2 13.22 13 26.22Points deducted for slow over-rates:NoneBonusOne-day P W L Tied NR Pts Pts NRRFree State B 6 4 1 0 1 3 21 1.52Western Province B 5 4 0 0 1 0 18 0.33Boland B 6 4 2 0 0 0 16 0.19Namibia 6 3 3 0 0 1 13 0.44Eastern Province B 6 3 3 0 0 1 13 -0.40Griqualand West B 5 1 4 0 0 0 4 -0.44KZN Inland 6 0 6 0 0 0 0 -1.26Pool BThree-day P W L D Bat Bowl PtsKwaZulu-Natal B 5 2 0 3 16.36 17 53.36Zimbabwe Board XI 5 2 1 2 16.82 12 48.82Northerns B 5 2 0 3 17.70 11 48.70Border B 6 1 2 3 11.56 19 40.56Easterns B 5 1 1 3 13.08 13 36.08North West B 5 0 1 4 15.28 12 27.28Gauteng B 5 0 3 2 13.68 13 26.68Points deducted for slow over-rates:NoneBonusOne-day P W L Tied NR Pts Pts NRRBorder B 6 4 1 0 1 2 20 0.25Zimbabwe Board XI 5 3 1 0 1 0 14 0.13Northerns B 5 2 1 0 2 1 13 0.77North West B 5 2 2 0 1 0 10 -0.07Easterns B 5 2 3 0 0 1 9 0.08Gauteng B 5 2 3 0 0 1 9 -0.13KwaZulu-Natal B 5 0 4 0 1 0 2 -0.92Supplied by Andrew SamsonOfficial Statistician of the United Cricket Board of South Africa