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Centuries by SS Das and Sanjay Raul put Orissa in an imposing position by stumpson the second day of their Ranji Trophy East Zone tie against Tripura at theMaharaja Bir Bikram College Stadium in Agartala on Saturday. Having declaredtheir first innings at 378/4 for a lead of 264, Orissa made an earlybreakthrough in the Tripura second innings as the hosts finished at 29/1.Overnight batsmen Das and Raul extended their third wicket association to amassive 223 before being separated. Skipper Das was the first to make his exitfrom the proceedings – in the day’s 56th over – but not before belting amediocre attack for 178 (260 balls, 25 fours, 3 sixes). After he fell at 304,Raul continued to punish the bowling until he was run out for 134 (212 balls, 11fours, 2 sixes). Three overs later Das mercifully declared the innings closed,leaving their opponents to play out the remaining 15 overs. Fifteen-year-oldleft arm seamer Tushar Saha took two of the three wickets that fell to thebowlers.Although Debashis Mohanty packed off opener RP Chaudhuri in the fifth over,skipper S Dasgupta and RN Ghosh survived the efforts of five different bowlersto take Tripura safely through to stumps. Tripura goes into the third day onSunday needing a further 235 to avoid the ignominy of an innings defeat.

Mark Chilton and Glen Chapple joined forces to save Lancashire from the threat of following-on in what is developing into a fascinating Division One fixture against Northamptonshire at Wantage Road.Opener Chilton battled his way to an unbeaten 102 – his only previous Championship century was also off the Northants attack, at Old Trafford in 1999 – and his patient knock guided the visitors to 251-8 at the close.They still trail the hosts by 147, but the situation would have been very much worse but for the efforts of Chilton and Chapple, who came together at 191-7 and posted 59 crucial runs in 17 overs together.Chapple departed for 31 just before the close, becoming Tony Penberthy’s 200th first-class wicket, but Chilton was undefeated after a five-and-a-quarter hour stay featuring ten fours.Chapple had made his mark with the ball earlier in the day, snapping up Northants’ last four wickets as they subsided from 365-6 to 398 all out and missed out on a fifth batting point.But apart from Chilton, none of the Lancashire batsmen stayed for long with off-spinner Jason Brown dismissing Andrew Flintoff (17) and Neil Fairbrother (23) in a telling post-lunch spell.John Blain forced Tim Roberts to play on for three, making it a disappointing Championship debut for the Northants-born batsman, and when Warren Hegg and Chris Schofield followed after tea it needed something special from Chilton and Chapple to keep Lancashire in the game.Fortunately for John Crawley’s men, they proved equal to the task.

The Tasmanian Selectors have today announced the squad to travel to Adelaide on a pre-season tour to prepare for the 2001-2002 Season.

• Ricky PONTING (Captain)
• Jamie COX (Vice-Captain)
• Graeme CUNNINGHAM
• Michael DIGHTON
• Michael DI VENUTO
• Sean CLINGELEFFER
• Scott KREMERSKOTHEN
• Adam POLKINGHORNE
• Josh MARQUET
• Daniel MARSH
• David SAKER
• Brad THOMAS
• Shane WATSON
• Damien WRIGHT
• Shaun YOUNG
• Greg SHIPPERD (Coach)
• Darrin RAMSHAW (Assistant Coach)
• Laurie MCGEE (Physio)

Michael Dighton has been selected to represent the Cascade Tasmanian Tigers for the first time.The Team departs on Saturday 29th September from Launceston.

Air India hardly broke into a sweat in romping past South Zone byseven wickets for their third successive victory in the CricInfo RaniJhansi tournament at the SRMC ground in Chennai today. South Zone putin a richly soporific display with the bat, scraping together 84/9 in50 overs after winning the toss and batting. Opener Vanita Viola wasthe lone lass who managed to stay put at the wicket for any length oftime but her 46 not out (129 balls) in 50 overs was just a shadebetter than Sunil Gavaskar’s infamous 36 in 60. In the post noonsession, GS Lakshmi again bowled her heart out, grabbing two earlywickets, but a 54 run fourth wicket partnership between Mithali Rajand Anju Jain steered the Air India women home with 22 overs to spare.Keeping in mind the formidable batting reputation of Air India, Southdared not tempt fate by putting them in and the match as a spectaclewas killed at that very moment. The openers just did not make anyeffort to score. At the very least they could just drop the ball attheir feet and run but here they were patting the ball straight to thefielders, refusing to be hurried. New ball bowlers, Smitha Harikrishnaand Kusumlatha gave away just 15 runs in the first twelve overs beforeoff spinner Seema Pujare was brought on from the pavilion end.She struck with her third ball to as Karuna Jain stepped out to oneoutside off stump and missed the line to be stumped by keeper AnjuJain. New batswoman Harsha was brilliantly caught by Mamtha Ranade atslip in Seema’s third over as she drove lazily at one outside offstump. And Sejal then gifted a dolly catch to Smitha at mid off togive Seema three out of three and leave the score at 23/3 in the 19thover. Kusumlatha had bowled out her ten overs on the trot to finishwith the fabulous figures of 10-6-6-0, which speaks as much for heropponent’s ineptness as much for her own skill.Left arm spinner Usha Bogade was introduced in the 22nd over whilePurnima Rao’s off breaks were seen in action from the otherend. Vanita Viola and Sudha Rani then added 32 runs for the fourthwicket before Purnima got rid of Sudha Rani, caught behind by AnjuJain. Amsavalli hit a full toss into the arms of backward square legand Kamakshi ran herself out going for an ambitious second run throughthe covers. There was a spell between the 40th and 45th overs when norun came off the bat for 29 balls and the last ten overs produced allof 17 runs. Seema finished with 3/13 in 10 overs and Usha, 2/17 butthe most successful was Purnima Rao who mopped up the tail to bag ahaul of 4/29. There was not a single boundary in the innings, not evena three, although on one occasion the batswomen ran two byes off awide to get three runs from the delivery.The batting order was turned over its head once more by Air India,with Anjum Chopra and Smitha Harikrishna opening the innings. Anjumstruck the first boundary of the match in the fourth over, with astraight drive off Mamtha. But South captain GS Lakshmi had not thrownin the towel yet, and sent back Smitha Harikrishna and Manju Nadgodain successive overs with the score stationary on 16. Mithali Rajjoined Anjum and the scoreboard began to tick away once more but notwith the usual fervour that Air India bring to their game.With the score at 31 in the 15th over, Anjum hit a full toss fromNooshien to midwicket and was run out by an accurate throw fromShobana as she scrambled for a third run. Anju Jain, the regularopener for Air India, came in at No.5 and the urgency in her approachhelped instil some much needed life into the game. Brisk runningbetween the wickets produced twos and threes in profusion as the fiftywas posted in the 21st over. Sejal was brought on in the 22nd over andher flighted donkey drops were taken for ten runs including four widesand the second and last four of the match, struck straight down theground by Anju Jain. It was all over six overs later as twosuccessive misfields off Nooshien spelled finis to themismatch. Mithali was unbeaten on 25 (68 balls) and Anju on 26 (35balls).

Two days out from the Oval Test, a familiar figure looked on amongst the usual assortments of players, coaches, photographers and journalists. The former captain Mark Taylor was at the ground to see Michael Clarke and wish him a fond farewell from the game ahead of his 115th and final Test match, 47 of them as captain.Taylor has long been a defender of Clarke, whether it be in television commentary or in the Cricket Australia boardroom. A few days have passed since Clarke announced his retirement, and in that time the mix of reaction has been more varied than for any Australian captain in recent memory.Irrespective of what the detractors had been storing up, Taylor said Clarke’s legacy as a champion of bright, aggressive cricket was undeniable. He also viewed Clarke as a man of his times, and an advocate for greater individualism and freedom of expression within the Australian team at a time when the weight of earlier eras had been heavy.”Looking at his legacy to this team, it’s aggressive, entertaining cricket, and that’s a great thing to have said about you,” Taylor told ESPNcricinfo. “That’s what the game’s about at the end of the day, to have people a) enjoy playing and b) enjoy watching, and I think Michael has done a very good job with that.”He’s had his critics and we’ve heard from them over the last couple of weeks, but all in all he’s definitely his own man, but he’s provided excellent entertainment for his team and the people who’ve watched them.”He’s been a different sort of captain. That’s where people I think have struggled sometimes to understand Michael. He’s not your typical Australian captain, conservative and boring like me, Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting. You knew what you were going to get from us, and with Michael you knew what you were going to get from him, but you’ve got a different sort of guy.”He was unmarried when he first took over, most of us have had a wife and kids when we take over the captaincy. So Michael was more your 21st century captain, he was single, he was flashier, lived a different life to some of us in the past, but that doesn’t make him a bad person, nor a bad captain. What people have seen through his career is he’s a very fine captain, and I’ve enjoyed watching him captain the Australian cricket side.”Michael Clarke is retiring from the game at the age of 34, just as Mark Taylor did in 1999•Getty Images

Plenty of comparisons have been drawn between Taylor and Clarke over the past four years, and there is another in the timing of retirement. Clarke exits the game at the age of 34, just as Taylor did in early 1999 after finding he had lost the motivation to keep going. For that reason he believes Clarke’s final match will be a challenging one.”I wanted to wish him well, hopefully he can enjoy his last Test match,” Taylor said. “It hasn’t been a great series for him or the Aussies, and it’s not going to be easy for him to get up for the last game, and I know that from a personal point of view. I wanted to let him know I think most Australians want him to do well.”Clarke will finish his international career on the losing side in England for the fourth time out of four, and Taylor said there were plenty of lessons to be gleaned from the series, whether it be batsmen showing greater respect for the conditions or bowlers learning that the high pace they strive for in Australia is less important in England than nagging consistency and subtle movement.”On the pitches and conditions that have been presented here, we probably could have been a little bit more conservative with our play,” he said. “But we haven’t made enough runs either and I think if you look at the way we’ve bowled in this series we’ve generally tried to chase it too much because we haven’t got runs on the board.”I think you can still be aggressive to play over here, but being aggressive doesn’t necessarily mean scoring 400 in a day. With our bowling we can look back at the types of bowlers who’ve been successful here in past Ashes series – McGrath, Alderman, Ryan Harris – consistent line and length bowlers.”The bowler of the series to me has been Stuart Broad. Even early in the series when he wasn’t getting a heap of wickets, he still bowled the most consistent line and length of all the bowlers, and at the end he got his reward. Our bowlers, the Hazlewoods, Starcs and James Pattinson, who’s here now, they have to learn from what they see from Stuart Broad at the moment, so next time they come here in 2019, it’s not always about bowling 150kph, it’s about hitting the top of off stump over here.”Whatever has been learned by those young enough to return to England in 2019, they all know Clarke will not be among them. Once Taylor had finished speaking with Clarke he spent time with the next man Steven Smith – it is time for another generation to step up.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo – Joyraz Sheik put on 135 runs for the opening wicket with Pinak Ghosh•WICB

While the seniors lost to South Africa by 52 runs in Dhaka, away in Durban Bangladesh Under-19s beat South Africa Under-19s by eight wickets in the first Youth ODI, to win their fifth match in a row.Asked to bat first, the home side made 184 for 9 in 50 overs with Wiaan Mulder top-scoring with 62 off 102 balls with four fours and a six. Opener Rivaldo Moonsamy chipped in with 27. The team’s highest partnership of 48 runs came for the seventh wicket between Mulder and Aaqil Ebrahim (19). Medium-pacer Abdul Halim claimed three wickets while captain Mehedi Hasan Miraz picked up two wickets.Bangladesh’s chase began on the right note with openers Joyraz Sheik and Pinak Ghosh adding 135 runs, Sheik scoring 50 and Ghosh making 60 off 113 balls with five fours and a six. Dayyan Galiem and Dean Foxcroft took one wicket each.”I think our disciplines let us down, we got into trouble early on with the bat, but I think we did well to get 180-odd,” South Africa coach Lawrence Mahatlane said. “I thought we were in the game with that score but we let ourselves down with the ball, to concede almost 40 runs in extras is criminal.”We’ll be working hard to rectify what happened today and I believe we can redeem ourselves, it’s still a long tour. If we can get our disciplines right, then the results will look after themselves.”The second Youth ODI will be held at the same venue on July 7.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

UAE’s slow bowlers had tossed sugar into the fuel tank of the South African batting machine on a sluggish track at the Regional Stadium. But AB de Villiers’ rapid 99 had it purring in no time for Farhaan Behardien to step on the gas in the final overs with an unbeaten 64 off 31 balls to reprise their record of scoring 300-plus every time they have batted first in this World Cup, and thump UAE by 146 runs.You wouldn’t want to be the team that comes up against South Africa after a loss. They have gone down nine times in ODIs in the last 12 months and have won the next game with a vengeance on five occasions – the most recent being a caning of West Indies by 257 runs in Sydney and De Villiers was the clincher again. He repaired a minor top-order wobble by adding 108 off 107 balls with David Miller and built his own innings towards the crescendo that has become a day-to-day occurrence.De Villiers arrived in the 17th over as Mohammad Tauqir, the offspinner, and Amjad Javed, who may as well be called the offcutter, were in the middle of a productive spell. They gave away only 43 runs between the 11th and 21st overs and only twice did the ball reach the boundary. There were five times as many in the first 10, which highlights the skill of the two bowlers and South Africa’s uncertainty against slow bowling.Rilee Rossouw’s stint at No. 3 was a perfect case study. There was no swing for the UAE seamers and they pitched the ball on either side of the good length area for Rossouw to punch and pull. Kamran Shazad, who replaced Manjula Guruge despite a 4 for 56 against Pakistan, was hit out of the attack after twin fours in three of his five overs. South Africa cruised past 50 in the ninth over and Rossouw was 28 off 17. But he was beaten first ball by Tauqir’s offspin and was fortunate his off stump was left standing. The same theme continued for the 13 balls Rossouw faced from the UAE captain, which cost only three runs, and his wicket for 43 off 49.Even de Villiers was briefly tied down – 32 off 41 balls in the 29th over. But it was simply clever batting considering UAE’s death bowling stocks wouldn’t tempt a compulsive gambler and they conceded 101 runs in the final 10 overs.UAE could have bailed themselves out had Javed taken a return catch off de Villiers in the 38th over. Instead, he had to watch his next ball sail beyond the midwicket boundary. There was another six, and three more fours, as de Villiers peppered the fence like an impulsive shopper flicking things onto his cart because he felt like it. Thirty-two off 41 had become 90 off 75 with hardly a fuss.A fifth century in the last 25 innings beckoned, but one short of the mark, de Villiers sliced Shazad’s medium pace to short third man. A crop of school kids clutched their heads in disbelief, but the man himself walked off with a smile. It was his first 99 in 178 innings, and his wicket allowed just enough time for Behardien to stake his claim as a finisher. He doesn’t look powerful and there will be questions over his ability to handle better attacks, but his swipes and hacks were enough to secure five fours and three sixes in an unbeaten 31-ball 64. Mohammad Naveed had begun his spell with a beamer that nearly took down Hashim Amla, but he finished as UAE’s most successful bowler with 3 for 63.A target of 342 against the calibre of South Africa’s pace attack meant UAE’s only realistic aim was surviving 50 overs. There were spurts of brilliance – Amjad Ali’s instinctive pull off Dale Steyn in the first over, Shaiman Anwar’s vicious straight drives against Vernon Philander in the 26th over and Naveed hoisting Steyn into the stands behind long-on – but they were lost amid Steyn and Philander whizzing past the outside edge numerous times, Khurram Khan wearing a nasty bouncer on the ear and Andri Berenger helplessly fending a catch – a stunning one – to Rossouw at point.The latter two incidents epitomised the menace of Morne Morkel, who finished with 10-2-23-2 and conceded only one boundary. Anwar ‘s efforts frustrated South Africa for 64 balls to claim the record for most runs by an Associate batsman in World Cups and Swapnil Patil’s 100-ball 57 took them through to the 48th over. Some consolation during an innings that posed no threat to the target and a day on which they lost seamer Fahad Alhashmi to a knee injury on World Cup debut.South Africa will still be worried about Quinton de Kock, though. He averages 8.83 in the tournament so far and today, he misjudged the pace of 130-140 kph bowlers and appeared similarly unsure of his running between the wickets. His fifth boundary in as many matches took him to his highest score of the World Cup – 26 off 45 – and finally was undone by a canny offcutter from Javed. A tame format has allowed South Africa to carry out of form players and slip into the quarter-finals by beating only one top-eight side, but come the knockouts they will need all hands on deck to prove de Villiers’ claims of being the best team in the world.

India A wrapped up the series 3-0 after captain Jaydev Shah and Ashok Dinda shared eight wickets between them to bowl Israel Invitational XI out for 129 in Ashdod.Wriddhiman Saha’s unbeaten 85, supported by Cheteshwar Pujara’s 48, took India to 235 after the match was reduced to 40-overs-a-side so that the Indians could catch their flight home.Shah managed impressive figures of 4 for 4 in 3.2 overs with his offbreaks and Jason Molins top scored for Israel with 35 as they were dismissed with eight overs to spare. It was a disappointing series for Jonty Rhodes – dismissed for three – who aggregated 17 in the series.Despite the one-sided nature of the matches, Stanley Perlman, the chairman of the Israel Cricket Association, declared the series, organised to celebrate Israel’s 60th anniversary, a “brilliant success”. “We created history,” Perlman told the .

Jermaine Lawson widely acknowledges a couple of things about his sensational 15-ball burst of six wickets for no run that finished off Bangladesh in the first Test here Tuesday.One is that it gave him a headstart in his ambitious, if not far-fetched, stated quest to overhaul the record 519 Test wickets of one of his heroes and mentors, fellow Jamaican Courtney Walsh.It was not until his 33rd Test, when he was 27, that Walsh had his first return of six wickets in an innings – although he never had the benefit of bowling to opposition as inexperienced and weak as Bangladesh.Lawson is 20 and it was in his third Test.His second realisation is that his goal is a very long way off and that early success against a team hardly even first-class level doesn’t mean he has arrived. Quite the opposite."Now that I’ve taken six, I’ve got to lift my game every time I play," he says. "I want to carry on from here so that means I can’t relax or anything. I’ve got to keep my composure, keep my focus."Lawson states that he has always concentrated on his fitness. It’s evident in his sculptured, 6-feet-2-inch physique."I’d work out in the gym at least three times a week when I’m back home, along with the practice," he reveals. "I’ve got to be fit so that I can do well whenever I take the field.""You can’t go out there and bowl for two days if you’re not fit and certainly not if you want to be at the top level at all times," he adds.Potential spottedHis potential, first spotted when he was at Waterford High School in the southern parish of St Catherine, carried him into the Jamaica Under-19 team from where he graduated to the West Indies Under-19 team to the Youth World Cup in Sri Lanka in 1999.There was the advantage that Walsh and Michael Holding, two of the finest fast bowlers the game has known, were close by to offer encouragement and advice.Others like Jamaican coach Robert Haynes and Under-19 manager Linden Wright have also been solid supporters.Lawson was the leading wicket-taker in the regional youth tournament in Barbados in 1999 and attracted immediate attention at the World Cup in Sri Lanka later that year with a hat-trick against Zimbabwe.His speed, from a long, bounding run and loose-limbed delivery, marked him out as a definite prospect for a West Indies team needing to replenish the supply of fast bowlers that had worryingly dried up.He got his first senior call to the triangular series of One-Day Internationals in Sri Lanka last year.He had just a couple of matches but took the only two Sri Lankan wickets to fall in the second in Kandy, among them Sanath Jayasuriya, who was too late on a bouncer and lobbed a catch to mid-on.It was his 140 kph (90 mph) speed that secured his selection for the tour of India, traditionally not the most encouraging environment for fast bowlers, and Bangladesh.Chosen for the last two Tests in India, he managed only four expensive wickets (average 51.5). But they included Sachin Tendulkar twice and Rahul Dravid once and he got approving nods from thesit in judgement of their successors in the commentary box and in the Press.Such assessments were confirmed with his opening burst that accounted for Virender Sewag, V.V.S. Laxman, Dinesh Mongia and Dravid and virtually guaranteed a series-clinching victory in the decisive last One-Day International after the batsmen had amassed 315 for six.The yorker that flattened the left-handed Mongia’s off-stump and almost knocked him off his feet was a television image that excited every watching West Indian."Getting those four wickets in the final helped my confidence, no doubt," he says. "It made me work even harder on my game and I came to Bangladesh focused on doing well.""Doing well" is an understatement for his performance at the Bangabandhu Stadium that has placed him in the pages of Wisden.Record featNo other bowler has taken six wickets in a Test innings as cheaply as his three runs. Arthur Gilligan’s six for seven against South Africa in Birmingham in 1924 had been the previous mark.It was comparable, if only in statistical terms, with some of the bursts of the great Curtly Ambrose – his seven for one against Australia at Perth in 1993, his match-winning five for eight (final figures eight for 45) against England in Bridgetown in 1990, his six wickets as England tumbled towards their 46 all out in Port-of-Spain in 1994.Ambrose’s various bags included David Boon, Damien Martyn, Mark Waugh, Nasser Hussain, Mike Atherton, Alec Stewart, Graeme Thorpe and Robin Smith. Aminul Islam, Khaled Mashud, Alok Kapali and the other Bangladeshis don’t have quite the same ring about them.But Lawson already had big names in his book – Jayasuirya, Tendulkar, Dravid.The next challenges are imminent – the World Cup in South Africa in February and March, immediately followed by the series against the daunting Australians in the Caribbean in April and May."The World Cup is the biggest tournament in the game and the Australians the strongest team at present," he says. "That’s the kind of opportunity any cricketer looks forward to. I’m no different. I can’t wait."

SYDNEY, Nov 16 AAP – Steve Waugh hit back at his critics ahead of next week’s second Ashes Test with a spirited century for NSW but he still handed first innings points to South Australia in the Pura Cup cricket match at the SCG today.Waugh’s dismissal after a confident 135 prompted the Blues and Australian Test skipper to close the NSW first innings at 9(dec)-296, well short of the SA’s 397.Another strong performance from Brett Lee then helped skittle the Redbacks for 181 in their second innings.After an outstanding third day in which 18 wickets fell and 404 runs were scored, NSW went to stumps at 2-11 needing another 272 runs to win with Michael Slater four not out.When Waugh reached his ton, an announcement came over the loud speakers that the canteen was giving away 100 free Drumstick ice creams to celebrate, scattering a large portion of the 2,144-strong crowd.His highest score against SA came off 199 balls, including 13 fours and four sixes, and was a welcome return to form after disappointing scores of seven and 12 in the first Ashes Test.He put on a solid 85-run stand in an hour for the ninth wicket with Nathan Bracken before he sent a top edge off paceman Paul Rofe to David Fitzgerald who ran from first slip to third man to take the catch, leaving Bracken not out 27.”I’ve been reading that a few people think I’m past my best and I’m certainly not past my best,” Waugh said.”I think I can get better. People want to read into a lot of things.”When you’re not scoring well, all of a sudden you’ve lost and you can’t play well anymore. It would be good for some people to show a bit of faith.”John Davison rewarded the Redbacks for his recruitment from Victoria in the off season with a career-best 5-81 to help contain the home side.The Canadian-born spinner, who helped the country of his birth qualify for next year’s World Cup, added to his one wicket from one over yesterday when Mark Waugh (one) scooped him straight to Ben Higgins at short leg for the easiest of catches.Three overs later, Nathan Pilon swept Davison to Mark Harrity at deep backward square leg to be dismissed for six and, two balls after that, Davison bowled Lee for no score.When Don Nash (10) was caught by Higgins, again at short leg, Davison had his first bag of five wickets.Lee, who took 10 wickets in last week’s win over Tasmania, again unleashed his firepower, bettering the feat by adding four wickets to his seven from SA’s first innings.Lee shared the spoils with legspinner Stuart MacGill, who took 3-4 in eight balls, including two in his first over, before finishing with 3-51.Quick Bracken also chipped in with 3-45, including the important wicket of former NSW representative Mark Higgs, who looked dangerous with 70 before he was bowled.Paul Rofe trapped Matthew Phelps (four) lbw in the first over of the Blues’ second dig and Ryan Harris dismissed night watchman Bracken in the same fashion for three with the last ball of the day.