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Sri Lankan seamer Nuwan Pradeep has been ruled out of the tour of South Africa and will return home to recover from a hamstring tear. Pradeep sustained the injury after bowling 10 deliveries in the tour match against the South African Invitation XI in Benoni on Saturday and will be out of cricket for almost a month.An MRI scan was done and after examining it, physiotherapist Stephen Mount is of the view that Nuwan will be unable to play for another three to four weeks,” said Brian Thomas, Sri Lanka media manager. “Team management have requested a replacement player.”With injuries to four other seamers before the tour even started, Sri Lanka have limited options over who to bring into the squad. Two of the wounded, Dhammika Prasad and Nuwan Kulasekara started bowling again recently and former captain, Kumar Sangakkara said they “stand a good chance of coming back on the tour.”Sangakkara himself joined the injured ranks when he tore the webbing between the first and second finger on his right hand during the tour match. He left the field on the second day’s play and took no further part in the match and had three stitches put in. After play on Sunday, Sangakkara said he would be monitored but would not play in the Test unless he was fully fit.Although he has not been cleared to play, there is some positive news after he was examined on Monday. “Doctors feel the injury will heal enabling him to play in the first Test,” Thomas said. The first Test starts on Thursday at Centurion.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were outThat man again: Shivnarine Chanderpaul scores his seventh century against India•AFP

Two old nemeses turned up against India on the first day of the series. A typical slow and low Kotla track broke the bowlers’ backs, and Shivnarine Chanderpaul continued his torture of Indian bowlers with his seventh century against his favourite opposition, making it two in the last two Tests. Attrition remained the order for the day, as is evident from West Indies’ run-rate of 2.81, but Chanderpaul scored at close to four per over. India, though, kept chipping away at the others with accurate spin bowling to make sure the honours were shared on the first day.Chanderpaul drew support from a man who was two years old when he began using the bail to mark his guard in Tests. Kraigg Brathwaite, who became only the second West Indian to score two fifties before his 19th birthday, has similar reserves of patience, idolises Chanderpaul, and uses the bail to mark his guard. For 37 overs and 108 runs today, the youngest and the oldest members of the side did all that together. Except that the youngster played the old-fashioned watchful innings and Chanderpaul turned the momentum with quick runs.You couldn’t quite blame the teams for the slow cricket, though. When the third ball of the match doesn’t carry through to the wicketkeeper, and when it happens four more times in the next seven overs, it’s best not to expect attractive cricket. Effort balls went through waist high, and strokes found little value. On this pitch, Syed Abid Ali and Eknath Solkar would have been as effective as Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav. When India bowl 91 overs in a day’s play, it has to be either during a push for a win on the final day or when the pitch has nothing in it for the quicks. While the latter was true, the way the West Indies top order went into a shell the former didn’t seem incorrect either.

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• Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s century is his seventh against India, bringing him joint-second on the list of players with the most Test centuries against India. Garry Sobers and Viv Richards are on top with eight centuries each.

• The century is also Chanderpaul’s 24th in Tests. He is now level third with Viv Richards on the the list of West Indians with the most Test centuries. Brian Lara and Garry Sobers, with 34 and 26 centuries respectively, are the top two on the list.

• MS Dhoni went past Syed Kirmani’s tally of 198 wicket-keeping dismissals to become India’s all-time leader. He now has 200 dismissals in 62 Tests.

• Dhoni also became the 13th wicketkeeper to reach the landmark of 200 Test dismissals. Mark Boucher is on top with 521 dismissals.

• Chanderpaul’s strike rate of 66.46 in his innings is the third-highest for a 100-plus score in his career (all other completed knocks). The highest strike rate is 138.88 during his 100 off 72 balls against Australia in 2003.

• The 108-run stand between Chanderpaul and Kraigg Brathwaite is the ninth century stand for the fourth wicket for West Indies in Tests in India. It is also the third-highest for West Indies in Tests in Delhi.

Kieran Powell and Kirk Edwards, who scored 29 off 80 balls between them, allowed Pragyan Ojha and debutant R Ashwin to bowl wherever they liked to. What started as one slip and one short leg soon became a spinner’s umbrella field. The result was a period of 14.3 overs that went for 20 runs and consumed both the batsmen. Both fell to Ojha, whose figures then read 7.3-4-8-2. Darren Bravo tried to disturb that state of affairs, but gave Ashwin his first Test wicket when he went manufacturing a cut off a length ball.When Chanderpaul walked in, at 72 for 3, the man at the other end was going at the strike-rate he himself often does. He would have known if two men did that, sooner or later one might pop up to one of the many catching men. Thus began his shuffle, nurdles, deflections, late-cuts, chips, stolen singles, and two sixes down the ground. Mid-on and mid-off had been deep earlier too, sweeper-cover had been in place too, but the field looked much more porous now.There were three shots that very Chanderpaul. The second ball of spin he played he dragged it from outside off for a single through midwicket. Later on in the piece, he moved well across into a wide delivery from Umesh Yadav, and it was like just the momentum of the shuffle and the wrists forced the ball between mid-off and extra cover. That four took him to 62, level then with Brathwaite, who was 30 when Chanderpaul walked in. In the next over, he danced down to Ojha, was beaten in the flight, but nonchalantly flicked him for his second six over long-on. He was working the singles, he was forcing the fours, and even when he was beaten in the flight it was not proving good enough.Brathwaite might not have taken similar liberties, but was good at running the ball to third man or helping it around the corner on the leg side. Behind square on the off side he scored 26 runs, including four boundaries, all of them intentional. Ojha, though, continued his toil and finally got one to dip, which made Brathwaite drag his back foot as he tried to play the forward-defensive. It wasn’t a big drag, nor did it take him long to get back, and he might have possibly survived with other keepers, but MS Dhoni’s no reverse-follow-through stumping left him no chance.That was one fine way to reach 199 dismissals, beating Syed Kirmani’s Indian record in 26 fewer Tests. No. 200 came soon when Marlon Samuels, always one to camp back against spin, edged a length ball from Ashwin. With two wickets for 20 runs, India now looked to build more pressure. Chanderpaul took 11 runs in the next over. Four overthrows followed in the next over, and Chanderpaul was in his nineties. With a gentle paddle sweep he matched Viv Richards’ 24 centuries, and there hardly seemed any pressure.Even as Carlton Baugh remained circumspect with stumps approaching, Chanderpaul made sure the sixth-wicket partnership of 56 runs chugged along at 4.1 per over. Chanderpaul walked back with Indian players rushing to shake his hand, and no one to nag him, telling him how to bat.

Chris Gayle, the former West Indies captain, has been named in the Jamaica squad for the Regional Super50 competition in the Caribbean.Gayle and the WICB have been at loggerheads for a good part of this year. He hasn’t played for West Indies since the end of the 2011 World Cup. He participated in the IPL that followed the World Cup, after being left out of a training camp ahead of the home series against Pakistan. In a hard-hitting interview with KLAS Sports, he had questioned his treatment by members of the board, including chief executive Ernest Hilaire, and the coach Ottis Gibson, after he had picked up an injury during the World Cup.He was subsequently involved in negotiations with the board but the dispute is yet to be resolved. As a result, he was also left out of the West Indies squad for the tour of Bangladesh.It is still unclear as to whether Gayle will lead the Jamaica side. The appointment of a captain, reportedly, needs to be ratified by the WICB. Jamaica will not have the services of batsman Marlon Samuels and wicketkeeper Carlton Baugh, who will be away on national duty.”This is a balanced team when you look at it. We took into consideration the venue in Guyana and the state of the pitches,” Junior Bennett, the Jamaica coach, was quoted as saying in the .Allrounder Andre Russell and Danza Hyatt are expected to join the Jamaica squad after finishing the limited-overs leg of the Bangladesh tour.The tournament will begin in Guyana on October 19.Jamaica squad: Chris Gayle, Shawn Findlay, Tamar Lambert, Chadwick Walton, Nikita Miller, Yannick Elliott, Odean Brown, Andrew Richardson, Jerome Taylor, Krishmar Santokie, Xavier Marshall, Simon Jackson, Jermaine Blackwood, Kenar Lewis.

Hamish Bennett, the New Zealand fast bowler, will miss next month’s tour of Zimbabwe due to a sore back.A lower back soreness has put Bennett out of contention. “It seems like the trouble is muscular, the scans show nothing. I’ve just got to stop bowling for a few weeks and become pain-free, then I can resume gradually again,” Bennett was quoted as saying in the . “It’s really frustrating obviously but could be a lot worse, I guess. Things should settle down fairly quickly, I’m told.””Unfortunately injuries are just part and parcel of being a fast bowler. I’m just due for a better run and hope I can get that over the remainder of the season.”Bennett, 24, has had a string of injuries since his surprise elevation to the national side last year. He suffered a groin strain on the opening day of his Test debut in India, ruling him out of the series. Earlier this year, an ankle injury put him out of the second half of New Zealand’s run to the semi-finals in the World Cup.

Daniel Vettori has been named an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit during the Queen’s Birthday Honours investiture ceremony in Auckland. The honour is awarded to outstanding people from various fields, which include philanthropy, music, local governance and community service among others. In his citation, Vettori was referred to as one of the world’s top left-arm spinners.”The first time I knew about [the royal honour], it was just a real surprise,” Vettori told the . “I couldn’t get over it.”Vettori, who made his international debut at 18, is the youngest player to represent New Zealand in Test cricket, and is one of only eight players to have the double of 300 Test wickets and 3000 runs – Vettori has 4167. In June, three months after leading New Zealand to the 2011 World Cup semi-finals, Vettori announced that he will be taking a break from one-day and Twenty20 cricket in an effort to prolong his Test career. With 345 Test wickets, he has Richard Hadlee’s national record of 431 wickets in his sights, while only Stephen Fleming has played more Tests – 111 to Vettori’s 104 – for New Zealand.

ScorecardNew Zealand opener Martin Guptill again turned on the style as Derbyshire crushed Yorkshire by six wickets in the Clydesdale Bank 40 at Queen’s Park.Guptill scored an unbeaten 103 off 83 balls to take the Falcons past Yorkshire’s total of 234 for 7 with 38 balls to spare. Gary Ballance scored an unbeaten 81 off 65 balls and Jacques Rudolph made 75 but Guptill smashed four sixes to give the home side a convincing victory in front of a 3,000-plus crowd.Rudolph had scored a century on this ground last season and he treated a big crowd to some sweetly-timed strokes, including a six over long on off Wes Durston in the second over.Yorkshire raced to 56 off the first eight overs but once Derbyshire took the pace off the ball, the run rate dropped and wickets started to fall. Joe Sayers was caught behind down the legside off the first ball from Garry Park’s medium pace and Adam Lyth was bowled by one that turned sharply from Greg Smith.Anthony McGrath failed in his attempt to launch Smith over long on and at the halfway stage, Yorkshire had been restricted to 109. Rudolph hit seven fours on his way to a 46-ball fifty, but he scored only one more boundary before he tried to come down the pitch to England Under-19 spinner Tom Knight and was stumped.When Gerard Brophy skied to mid off in the 34th over, Yorkshire were struggling to post a competitive total but Ballance changed that with a thrilling onslaught that broke Derbyshire’s stranglehold.He pulled Mark Footitt over deep square leg for six as 40 came from the batting power play and after surviving a missed stumping off Durston on 57, sent the next ball into the crowd at midwicket.A Tim Groenewald full toss was dispatched for another six and with 52 coming from the last four overs, Yorkshire had a decent total although Guptill soon made it look inadequate.He drove and pulled Oliver Hannon-Dalby for two sixes and although David Wainwright had Chesney Hughes caught at long on from his first ball, Yorkshire could not contain the Falcons.Guptill late cut the spinner for his sixth four to reach 50 off only 34 balls and although Adil Rashid beat Durston’s defensive push, it was not enough to stall the Falcons’ victory charge.Wayne Madsen drove Wainwright on to the roof of the radio tent and Guptill pulled the spinner out of the ground before Steve Patterson gave Yorkshire hope with two wickets in successive overs.Madsen skied a pull to mid on and Smith was deceived by one that popped on him but Guptill and Ross Whiteley settled the contest with some muscular blows.

ScorecardZander de Bruyn and Jason Roy scored half-centuries as Surrey overcame Glamorgan by 18 runs in their Friends Life t20 South Group clash at Cardiff.As soon as Glamorgan decided to bowl, Surrey became favourites for the win on a pitch that turned appreciably later in the game. They posted a challenging 169 for 4 thanks to Roy and then de Bruyn, who put on an unbroken stand of 92 with Zafar Ansari in 51 balls. In all 102 came from the last 10 overs – 65 from the final five.In reply Glamorgan were always behind the rate and could only make 151 for 7, although Graham Wagg made a valiant 46 from 27 balls.At the start of the match Glamorgan looked as if they were going to restrict Surrey to a much smaller total when they reduced them to 42 for 3 in the fifth over. Skipper Alviro Petersen gambled by opening the innings with his off-spin, but it paid off as he removed Steve Davies for a duck by pinning back his off stump.Two overs later Chris Cooke pulled off a fine catch at extra cover to dismiss Surrey captain Rory Hamilton-Brown to give James Harris a wicket with his first ball in this year’s tournament. Former Glamorgan batsman Tom Maynard struck Harris for six over long-off, but in the next over the bowler had his revenge when he was caught at backward square.Roy struck Croft, who only bowled two overs, for a straight six to bring up his half-century from 31 balls before he was caught at mid-wicket off Jones. But the turning point in Surrey’s innings was Gareth Rees dropping De Bruyn at long-on off Simon Jones on 27. He made the most of his let-off, sweeping Dean Cosker for a six and a four from consecutive balls as 49 came from the final four overs and he finished on 70 not out from 52 balls.Glamorgan’s reply was not helped by the fact they lost their overseas openers – Petersen and Mark Cosgrove – in the opening eight overs. Petersen was caught at extra cover and Cosgrove was stumped off Ansari. Glamorgan also lost Rees for just 2, caught and bowled by Gareth Batty as they were left a challenging 112 from the final 10 overs.Wagg tried his best to get his side back in it, but they were always going to finish second best after being required to score 50 from the final three overs.

At the start of his cricket career, captaincy may have “definitely not been” one of AB de Villiers’ goals, but now that he has been appointed South Africa’s limited-overs captain, de Villiers is “prepared to give up everything to make it work”.de Villiers takes over from Graeme Smith, who stepped down as the ODI and Twenty20 captain after the World Cup, and will be Smith’s deputy in Tests. In an interview with Reuters, de Villiers confessed that while he didn’t enjoy his previous stint as captain when he was at school, those misgivings were now behind him. “I captained my team at school (Afrikaans High School, Pretoria) for a few games but I didn’t enjoy it so much,” De Villiers said. “I was more focussed on my batting then and playing other sports like rugby.”So what was it that brought about a change of heart? “Captaining South Africa was definitely not one of my goals,” de Villiers said, “but I started believing I could do it when Graeme Smith said I had a lot of leadership qualities. He said I should take more responsibility, act more like a leader and talk more in team meetings.””Henning Gericke [mental conditioning coach] and Corrie van Zyl [South Africa coach until the World Cup] said I could be a captain if I wanted to be one. That’s when I started to believe.”de Villiers rated his predecessor Smith as the best captain he has played under and said he was very keen to make his captaincy stint work. “I truly believe I have qualities as a captain and I have to make up my own mind – captain the team my way, not how Hansie [Cronje] or Graeme did it. As a captain, I can’t make the same mistake twice. As a player, you can get away with that, but if the captain does that then it affects the whole team.”He also said he respected the “passion, pride and fighting spirit”, that Gary Kirsten, South Africa’s newly-appointed national coach, showed during his playing days. “He’s shown the same qualities as a coach, especially at the World Cup, and I hope I’ll be able to help bring those into our side too. I’d like to be the same sort of captain, showing resilience.”I think we’ll complement each other a lot, Gary’s just a wonderful coach and a top-class human being.”Having played 66 Tests, 119 ODIs and 33 Twenty20 games for South Africa, de Villiers is not only one of the senior batsmen in the side, he is also keeps wickets in the limited-overs format. He acknowledged that with captaincy, the additional responsibility of keeping wickets will have to be re-examined. “We’re definitely going to have to discuss the wicketkeeping, although it doesn’t have to happen right now. But it is important to decide if there is too much on my shoulders.”de Villiers said one of his key objectives as captain would be to address South Africa’s history of failing to succeed in multi-team tournaments. “Obviously, we have a history of not performing well in big events. We didn’t play badly overall, but went down when the pressure was on us again.”But there’s a fresh look in the side now, which is good, and then it’s up to the leaders to work together with trust. But it’s an unbelievable responsibility.”

The secretary of the Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA), Ijaz Farooqui, has accused the PCB of deliberately neglecting players from Karachi when selecting the national team. “They have used different ways to overlook them and discard those already in the national team,” he told reporters.The KCCA had complained about the non-selection of Karachi players like wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed, Danish Kaneria, Khurram Manzoor, Faisal Iqbal and Mohammad Sami – each of whom has represented Pakistan – among others. “Sarfraz did so well and we all were thinking that he will be automatically selected for the longer format but shockingly Mohammad Salman was picked up [for the West Indies tour],” Farooqui said.The PCB issued a show-cause notice to Farooqui over his complaints but he was undeterred. “We will continue to raise our voices in order to provide justice to our players. We wrote letters to the PCB about our reservations over the selection but the board did not pay any attention on the issue, which has forced us to come out on the roads and protest.”As far as Pakistan cricket’s problems in the recent past are concerned, Farooqui held what he called the “dictatorship” of Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman, responsible for it. “Our cricket has suffered because of one man’s dictatorship. Once the dictatorship starts objectivity ends.”

India’s players will not feature in the Big Bash, Australia’s domestic Twenty20 competition scheduled to begin in mid-December this year, due to the BCCI’s policy of not releasing players during the domestic season in India – running from October to March.With the Big Bash now restructured as a city-based league, each team is expected to be allowed to pick four international players in the squad, and some of them were hoping to include some of India’s limited-overs specialists.”In fact last year some teams wanted Indian players and they were not available because of [the] domestic tournament,” Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI’s chief administrative officer, told the .India play a triangular ODI series in Australia following the Tests later this year, but none of their players would be able to use the Big Bash as a means of preparation for it. Shetty, however, said India’s players could participate in a Twenty20 league in Sri Lanka in July, provided they took permission beforehand.”It’s a policy decision of the board, and when there is a domestic tournament on I don’t think we will release any players,” Shetty said. “Sri Lanka now has some league in the month of July and it doesn’t clash with our domestic tournament so whoever wants to go with prior permission can participate.”Players from the West Indies have previously been prominent inclusions in the Big Bash, with Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo featuring in the league.The Big Bash has undergone a transformation after it was decided in October last year that the league – for 2011-12 – will involve eight city-based franchises with private investors allowed to buy a 33% stake.