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.

The second warm up game for the Indians touring Zimbabwe, playedagainst the CFX Academy side, was heartwarming and at the same timeset off some alarm bells at the back of the mind. Playing against aninexperienced side, the Indians showcased their batting might toperfection. Shiv Sunder Das (110 retired), VVS Laxman (100 retired),Hemang Badani (112 not out) all notched up tons and had an opportunityto spend time out in the middle in Zimbabwean conditions. SouravGanguly retired after making a half century, suggesting that he toowas comfortable out in the middle. It must be remembered that he didnot have a particularly memorable run with the bat in the three Testseries against Australia that concluded recently.However, all this is not source for any worry. If anything, it bodesextremely well for the touring side. But a look at the batting orderin the second innings is cause for minor concern. Opening the inningswith Sadagoppan Ramesh was statemate Badani, another southpaw. Havingdone well in the first innings, Badani is seen by some as aprospective candidate for higher honours. However, with Laxman, SachinTendulkar, Ganguly and Rahul Dravid forming the middle order therereally is no place for Badani in the playing XI. Unless of course, hereplaces Ramesh at the top of the order.Although it might be premature to speculate on the possibility ofBadani being asked to fill in as a makeshift opener, the rumblingshave already begun in Zimbabwe. Ramesh, looked upon as the dashing andeven reckless half of India’s opening partnership ‘needs to provehimself’ says a report. Ramesh’s scores of 42 and 52 (retired) in thesecond warm up game have not inspired enough confidence it seems.Although there is enough truth in the statement that Ramesh does havea somewhat cavalier approach to opening the innings, often chasing atballs that are best left alone, it would be a touch unfair to suggestthat he has failed at the highest level. In the 15 Tests and 29innings that Ramesh has played, he averages a healthy 40.17 and hasnotched up a score of 50 or more almost once in three Tests. What hasgiven detractors fuel for fire is a recent lack of consistency inRamesh’s batting. The last eight innings in Test cricket have yieldedscores of 13, 0, 48, 2, 44, 0, 30, 61 and 25.Through the recently concluded Australia tour of India, there werecries from all quarters to replace Ramesh. However, coach John Wrightbacked Ramesh to the end. The focus however seems to be a bitdifferent on an away tour for India. In recent interviews, Wright, aleft handed opening batsman himself, has stressed the need for a solidopening partnership.”We need a bit of consistency in the opening position. I would be veryhappy if we could go to lunch with only one or two down in the firstsession,” he said, speaking to the Press Trust of India. “Just getthrough the first session and see the new ball off and we have got themiddle order to take advantage of that situation,” added Wright.It goes without saying that Das is seen as the calming influence andthe more solid of the two openers. Ramesh himself is not one to runaway from things. “We start with the basic advantage of a right and aleft-handed opening pair. There is another advantage which comes withour batting techniques. While Das is defensive, I tend to go for myshots. It doesn’t allow bowlers to settle down,” said Ramesh.In recent times however, India have experimented unsuccessfully withmakeshift openers on more than one occasion. The last time India werein Zimbabwe, in 1998-99 stumper Nayan Mongia was asked to open theinnings. As it happened Mongia made 1 and 0 as India slumped to a 61-run loss in the one-off Test match. Another foreign tour and anotherscapegoat was found going back to India’s disastrous tour ofAustralia in 1999-2000. MSK Prasad, sent in at the top of the order inthe Sydney Test scored 3 and 5. It must not be forgotten that VVSLaxman opened in four Tests during the tour of the West Indies in 1997when India lost the series 0-1, failing to get 120 in the famous gameat Barbados. Fortunately, wisdom has prevailed in the end and Laxmanis now firmly ensconced in his rightful position in the middle order.Yet another foreign tour has come about and the rumours have startedonce more. If they remain rumours for the duration of the tour, Indiawould have done right by two talented left handed cricketers oneopener and one middle order bat.

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.

Uday Karavadra of Saurashtra will lead the West Zone Cricket Academy(WZCA) in the Zonal Academy tournament to be held in Bangalore fromJune 28 to July 2.WZCA’s head coach and former Indian captain Nari Contractor told PTIin Mumbai on Friday that two other West Zone trainees Nikhil Rathod ofSaurashtra and Yogesh Takwale of Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA)have been included in the Combined team, which would be the sixth teamto play in the tournament. Teams from the five zonal academies are theother participating sides in the five day competition.The team: Uday Karavadra (capt) and Padmanabh Jadeja (bothSaurashtra), Vimal Joshi, Rakesh Solanki and Yusuf Pathan (allBaroda), Sahil Kukreja, Paul Valthaty and Vinit Indulkar (all Mumbai),Kiran Adhav from Maharashtra, Swapnil Patel, Siddharth Trivedi, TimilPatel and Hardik Parmar (all Gujarat).The team would be accompanied by Contractor and physio-cum-trainerVaibhav Daga.

The Cheltenham and Gloucestershire quarter final match against Glamorgan at The County Ground on Wednesday is “Somerset’s last chance to gain one-day recognition this season,” Chief Executive Peter Anderson told me after seeing his side lose to Nottingham Outlaws.”Our team did not play with confidence today, and the crowd at Taunton have seen another disappointing home defeat. Confidence is a mystery, and despite all of the training we can’t get that extra bit of confidence that will help us to win games like today. A few wins however will rectify that situation.”With regard to Wednesday’s big match his advice is to arrive early.

Hampshire field an almost full strength side to meet the Australians in a 3 day match starting at the Hampshire Rose Bowl on Saturday, 28th July.There are three genuine ommissions from the squad. Wicket-keeper Adi Aymes has a swollen cartiledge and has been advised by the club physician to rest. His place is taken by Iain Brunnschweiler playing only his second first-class match for the county. Alex Morris is still troubled by shin splints and is ommitted. Chris Tremlett is away on England Under 19s duties. The side play three one day internationals against their West Indian counterparts over the weekend.The twelfth player will be chosen between James Hamblin who has already shown great promise with the NUL team this season, and second eleven leading wicket taker James Schofield, the Blackpool born 22 year old, who learnt much of his cricket in Perth, Australia. Schofield on a summer contract with the club, is yet to make his first class debut for Hampshire.Tim Tremlett, Hampshire Cricket manager said, “The ECB would like to see counties putting out their best available sides, and this is what we have done. It is only fair to our members and supporters that we try and compete with the best team in the world, and some say the best Australian side of all time”.A large crowd is expected to see the return of Shane Warne and Matthew Hayden to the Rose Bowl, two Australians who graced the colours of Hampshire in recent years.Hampshire twelve: Derek kenway, Giles White, Will Kendall, Robin Smith (captain), Neil Johnson, Laurence Prittipaul, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Shaun Udal, Iain Brunschweiler (wicket keeper), Alan Mullally, James Hamblin and James Schofield.

Somerset County Cricket Club has been overwhelmed by the number of members wanting tickets for the Cheltenham and Gloucester Final at Lord’s on September 1st.The original allocation of 4,500 had all but sold out by late afternoon yesterday, and despite the office closing early, staff were at the County Ground until late into the evening to process all the applications that they had received from members during the day.The club has applied to Lord’s for a further 1,000 tickets, and if any of these still remain unsold early next week they will go on sale to the general public.Members of the public can also apply direct to Lord’s for their tickets by telephoning 0207 432 1066.According to a source at the Lord’s ticket office large numbers of Somerset fans have already obtained their tickets direct, which is likely to mean that when the ‘Cidermen’ walk out onto the pitch on September 1st they will be cheered on by as many as 9,000 of their fans.

Glamorgan comfortably ended Hampshire’s sequence of six successive National League victories with a six-wicket win of their own with more than 17 overs to spare.Hampshire supporters will be wondering why Robin Smith chose to bat first on a wicket which was lively, bouncy and difficult to bat on from the start.No batsman got on top of some tight and controlled Glamorgan pace bowling in which Andrew Davies was outstanding. His four for 18 from nine overs was a competition-best and he was well supported by Adrian Dale and Owen Parkin, who each took three cheap wickets, and Steve Watkin whose nine overs cost him only 16 even if he was not rewarded for his accuracy with a wicket.Derek Kenway and Smith himself, normally free-scoring batsmen, hung around without getting on top. Kenway made 22 and Smith’s 26 was equalled as his team’s top scorer by the same number of extras, made up of six leg byes and 20 wides.Conditions were a little easier when Glamorgan batted though Alan Mullally, recalled by England for the next Test, had Keith Newell caught at the wicket in his first over and then got rid of Robert Croft in his fifth.The crucial stand of the day was for the Glamorgan fourth wicket between Jimmy Maher and Matthew Maynard, which yielded a match-winning 61.They came together at 54 for three when Hampshire were still in the hunt and ended when Maher (36) was caught in the slips at 115 with only six runs needed for victory.Maynard, who pulled a six off Chris Tremlett, duly hit the winning runs in the 28th over to end a low-scoring affair which failed to grip the imaginations of the 1,000 crowd.At least Mullally had something to be pleased about. “I reckon I’m bowling as well as at any time in my career,” he said of his call to the England cause at Headingley. “I have taken 52 wickets this season including five in an innings against the Australians and even they wondered why England kept ignoring me.”

Weather is now starting to play its part again as we approach the last few weeks of the season.We’ve had a pretty strange schedule this season with the early months being very intense, at times playing nine days in a row, having a two-day turnaround before doing it again.Because we played so much cricket early on we now have long periods with no games. The Sunday League 45-over games break it up a little but, all in all, it’s been a fairly slow month.The weather last weekend was dreadful and the game was abandoned without a ball being bowled.This has left us without cricket for 10 days which at a vital time of the season is not ideal. The division two table has really closed up and there are now five teams scraping for three promotion spots.We are still lying second but have a huge game this week with fourth-placed Warwickshire. It’s going to be my last game at Lord’s for Middlesex and I desperately want to do well. It also looks like we will be without ‘the Cat’, Phil Tufnell, who has finally got the call up to the England squad to play the last Ashes Test at the Oval.While it’s great for Tuffers to get another call up, it makes the job of beating Warwickshire just that little bit harder.With the extra days off it gave me a chance to experience Britain’s favourite pastime – a football match.Angus Fraser is a staunch Liverpool supporter so we loaded up the car and made the three-and-a-half-hour trip to Anfield, the home of Liverpool FC. This is a ground with a lot of history and certainly we will never forget the disaster during the semi-final of the FA Cup when over 70 people were crushed as the massive crowd surged forward.Since then all premiership grounds around the UK have converted their terraces into seated areas to eliminate a repeat of those horrendous scenes.I continually chipped at Gus about how fanatical this country was about their soccer, he only took so much before comparing New Zealanders’ infatuation with rugby. He has a fair point and I guess this week things have been pretty intense after the All Blacks’ loss in Dunedin.The afternoon was great with Liverpool winning 2-1 over West Ham United. The winning goal was scored with only 10 minutes to go, much to the relief of the 45,000 fans. My lasting memory of the day would have to be the singing of the crowd and being involved with the Liverpool club song ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.I always enjoy watching top athletes perform no matter what sport, on Saturday it was football. Come the next three days I hope it’s my Middlesex team mates!(Editor’s note: Stephen Fleming scored his fourth century of the summer for Middlesex today on the first day of the game with Warwickshire)

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.