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Friday Kasteni was the only surprise name in Zimbabwe’s 15-man squad for the World Cup.Kasteni, an 18-year-old left-hand batsman, made his debut against Bangladesh last weekend, and while he only made 9, the selectors seem to have been impressed by his A-team performances and even if he does not get a game in the Caribbean, they see him as a player for the future. His inclusion is at the expense of Hamilton Masakadza who made only 42 runs against Bangladesh and was dropped for the last match of the series.Tawanda Mupariwa, Zimbabwe’s leading fast bowler, was included even though he did not play against Bangladesh. He was left out of the tour to Bangladesh last year because of a knee injury but has since recovered. Brendan Taylor, who continues to try the patience of the selectors both on and off the field, was retained even though he made only 23 runs in three matches.Blessing Mahwire, who was expected to be included, was left out after falling ill with pneumonia, while hard-hitting batsman Charles Coventry ruled himself out of contention after failing to report for camp ahead of the Bangladesh series.Zimbabwe Squad Prosper Utseya (capt), Gary Brent, Chamu Chibhabha, Elton Chigumbura, Keith Dabengwa, Terry Duffin, Anthony Ireland, Friday Kasteni, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Christopher Mpofu, Tawanda Mupariwa, Ed Rainsford, Vusi Sibanda, Brendan Taylor, Sean Williams.

It hasn’t rained in Malaysia for the majority of the Under-19 World Cup but the luck has turned as we approach the business end of the tournament. There were short but sharp showers during the semi-final between India and New Zealand and it rained heavily throughout the afternoon on the eve of the second semi-final between Pakistan and South Africa.The coaches of Pakistan and South Africa, Mansoor Rana and Ray Jennings, said the rain, if it came in the evening, would favour the side batting under the lights. Although the batsmen will have to cope with sighting a muddy ball and grapple with a slower outfield, it’s the bowling side that would suffer more with a slippery ball, especially their spinners. Rana felt India would have had a tougher chase against New Zealand had it not rained, while Jennings cited England’s comfortable chase against Sri Lanka because rain interrupted play.”You need a bit of luck when the weather’s going wrong especially with the timing of the rain interruption,” Jennings told Cricinfo. “Sometimes it’s in your favour and sometimes it is not. It can play havoc on preparations and the chances of the best side coming through. There’s a definite advantage batting second if it does happen to rain”Rana said Pakistan had game plans for any eventuality but given the inexperience of the players in high-pressure situations, it will be hard to adjust quickly should the weather intervene in a big way.Head-to-head it’s hard to choose between the two sides. South Africa have qualified from the toughest group, which included India and West Indies, and they crushed Bangladesh in the quarter-final. Their strength lies in their pace attack, led by captain Wayne Parnell, which is backed up by an agile fielding outfit. Their strategy has been to create pressure in their middle overs through the tight lines bowled by their medium-pacers, with wicketkeeper Bradley Barnes standing up to the stumps.A chink could be their batting against quality spinners but Jennings brushed it off. “I think a lot of people are underestimating our batting,” Jennings said. “We have a mix of left and right-handers in our middle order. In these conditions the opposition will be using three or four spinners and our middle-order plays spin well. Against India we lost wickets to the seam bowler [Pradeep Sangwan] up front, who our guys obviously lost focus against. Beware of our middle-order players, they can play spin.”Pakistan have an assortment of spinners to attack South Africa with. Imad Wasim, the captain, bowls left-arm orthodox, while their opening batsmen Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Akmal bowl legbreaks and offspin respectively. However, it is their pace attack that has caused the most damage in the tournament so far and the South African batsmen better be wary of Adil Raza, who struck twice in his first over in the quarter-final against Australia.The weakness for the defending champions has been their batting. Pakistan played their group matches in Johor where the wickets were damp and did not make 200 even once. Their first hit on a good batting track was against Australia and they chased 129 comfortably after a minor top-order wobble. Akmal hasn’t fired at as opener so far in the tournament – his highest score is 17 – but Rana wasn’t overly concerned.”Our openers scored a lot of runs in Sri Lanka,” he said. “My concern was the middle order and that was the reason we batted first against Zimbabwe on a difficult pitch [in Johor]. We had already qualified for the quarters and wanted to test the batsmen. Ali Asad scored runs.”The tournament has boiled down to a fitting finish. Pakistan are unbeaten in the tournament so far while South Africa have lost only to India, who have already qualified for the final. The teams are highly skilled and a tense contest awaits. All that is needed is for the rain to stay away.

The BCCI has asked Sudhir Nanavati, its probe commissioner, not to go public with his observations during his investigation into the controversial incident after an Indian Premier League match last month when Harbhajan Singh slapped Sreesanth, his India team-mate and IPL rival.Nanavati has also been asked to refrain from commenting publicly on the issue even after he has submitted his fact-finding report to the BCCI next week, a senior BCCI official told Cricinfo.Nanavati had told reporters in Mumbai on Tuesday that he was “shocked” after viewing the video clipping of the incident after the match between Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab in Mohali on April 25. He had also reportedly said that he thought Harbhajan’s action “looks pre-meditated”.”The inquiry commissioner especially should not be going public about his observations during the probe. This is a fact-finding mission for the BCCI and the observations of the one-man probe panel are not for public consumption,” the official said.Nanavati, who is also vice-president of the Gujarat Cricket Association and chairman of the BCCI’s finance committee, is expected to submit his report on the incident to Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president on Monday. Pawar will refer the findings to a disciplinary panel, which he heads, for action against Harbhajan, if any.Harbhajan, who was leading the Mumbai franchise in the absence of Sachin Tendulkar, was banned for the first season of the tournament by the IPL after Farokh Engineer, the match referee, found the off-spinner guilty of slapping Sreesanth, the fast bowler for the rival team.However, the BCCI ordered a separate investigation into the incident as Harbhajan is a contracted player with the Indian board, and asked Nanavati, the probe commissioner, to submit his report within 15 days.

Brad Hogg is a better bowler than when he last figured in a Test because he has added patience to his repertoire, according to Adam Gilchrist. Hogg’s chances of playing against India on Boxing Day grow with each episode of the Stuart MacGill injury saga and Gilchrist has been impressed with his form.”He’s more patient,” Gilchrist told AAP. “He doesn’t feel he has to produce the big deliveries to get a wicket, it’s going to be a build-up.”Often even in his one-day cricket he has proven that. In that first-class game I kept to him in Melbourne a few weeks ago, he definitely showed that patience and better understanding of what he can do to go about getting a wicket.”Hogg captured 8 for 83 in the Pura Cup match with Gilchrist behind the stumps, but he went wicketless against South Australia last week. Strong performances in the one-day side have kept Hogg in with a chance of reviving his four-Test career, which was last updated against Zimbabwe in 2003. At the World Cup he earned 21 wickets and on the tour of India the locals struggled to cope with his variation.”A lot of batsmen around the world can’t pick him,” Gilchrist said. “The Indians are definitely fine players of spin but certainly he has got a lethal wrong’un that is very difficult to pick.”

Ramnaresh Sarwan says West Indies have been done no favours by a Providence Stadium pitch more typical of Sri Lankan grounds than Caribbean conditions. Sri Lanka have dominated the first Test in Guyana and Sarwan, who battled through 199 balls for his 80, said more pace and bounce would have been welcome.”The surface here is very similar to the ones they play on in Sri Lanka,” Sarwan said after the third day’s play. “When I toured Sri Lanka a few years ago it was the same sort of surface, Mahela [Jayawardene] seems to know the conditions pretty well with the sort of field placements that he has been putting forward to us.”You have to take into consideration the opposition you are playing against, whether you want a track that is faster and bouncier. So probably we want the opportunity to play on something that has more pace and bounce but that didn’t happen so we have to try and continue working hard as a team and try to work through that.”It has not been an easy task in the first three days and West Indies need their last pair, Jerome Taylor and Daren Powell, to add eight more runs on the fourth morning to avoid the follow-on. Sarwan was the only man to score a half-century as the home team finished the day at 269 for 9, and he said he never felt ‘in’ against Muttiah Muralitharan, who grabbed three wickets, while Chaminda Vaas also collected three.”Obviously they have the experience of Chaminda Vaas who has been doing this year in year out for them, especially on the flat surfaces they play on in Sri Lanka,” Sarwan said. “So basically it wasn’t a surprise to me because they know the conditions here pretty well.”You have to give credit to Sri Lanka. Their bowlers were pretty patient and the fact that they were bowling on one side of the wicket, they were having an attacking and a defensive field so it was pretty hard to get runs and also the discipline they showed.”Sarwan conceded poor shot selection contributed to West Indies’ poor showing but he was confident they were not yet out of the match. “First of all we have to save the follow-on then analyse it and put ourselves in a decent or good position,” Sarwan said.”There is still a lot of time left in the game. We have to make sure we play well as a team and continue to have a lot of partnerships going whether we’re bowling or batting.”

Kerala beat Karnataka comfortably by ten wickets in their Ranji TrophySouth Zone clash at the Nehru Stadium in Kochi to complete only a secondvictory against their northern neighbours in 46 encounters in thecompetition. Set a princely target of five runs in the fourth innings,Kerala’s win came in slightly bizarre fashion. Vijay Bharadwaj bowled ano-ball, which went for four byes, to finish with the unusual figures of0.0-0-1-0.Earlier Karnataka, resuming at 31/4, folded up for 133. Overnight batsmen,Bharadwaj (32) and AR Mahesh (31) waged a grim battle in the first sessionbut both were out in successive overs at the stroke of lunch to leave thevisitors at 93/6. Little resistance was offered by the tail with theexception of Dodda Ganesh who hung around for an hour and a quarter toproduce 22. The curtain came down when skipper Venkatesh Prasad knocked offspinner Ramprakash into Tinu Yohannan at cover, Karnataka labouring for79.2 overs to make 133. Left arm spinner Sreekumar Nair and leg spinner MSuresh Kumar finished with three wickets apiece.Kerala’s only other victory over Karnataka – by six wickets – came at theGovernment Victoria College Ground, Palakkad on 28-31 December 1996.CricInfo’s zealous scorer, Sudhir Aly also informs us that umpire Sanjeeva Raoofficiated in both Kerala triumphs. The result queers the pitch in the zonalstandings, lifting Kerala to 18 points from four games, ahead ofKarnataka’s 16.

Shrinking playing areas and the discolouration of white balls in one-day matches are some of the issues Mark Taylor hopes to raise with the ICC’s new cricket committee. One of four Australians one the committee – the others are Tim May, Tom Moody and Simon Taufel – Taylor believes it is a good move to have input from all sectors of the game.”The ICC wanted people a bit more involved in the game than just having two delegates from each member country,” Taylor told . “They want people who see it from different points of view.”The 13-member group will meet for the first time at Dubai later this month and Taylor anticipated lively discussion on several issues. “One thing we’re all trying to get right is the white ball in one-day cricket,” he said. “That is something I’m sure will spark a lot of debate.”There has already been quite a bit of chat in cricket circles about that. Whether we should use a new ball from each end or change the ball at a given time during the innings just to make it easier for people to see.”Taylor was also keen to address the perception that batsmen now had too much of an advantage because boundaries had been brought in more and more in recent years. “It seems to me we’re one of the very few sports I can think of where the venue has got smaller and yet the players are hitting the ball further,” he said. “If you look at golf they’re hitting the ball further, but they’re making the courses longer.”We seem to have gone the other way with ropes and the standardisation of grounds. We’re making the boundaries shorter and yet the players are faster and fitter than during my time in the game and are hitting the ball further. I’m not so sure that’s good for the bowlers.”Taufel, who has been named the ICC’s Umpire of the Year for the last three years, hopes to use his position on the committee to push for the removal of restrictions on umpires officiating in Tests involving their own country. Taufel said there was so much scrutiny of umpires these days that such a rule was no longer necessary.”We’ve now reached a stage where we’ve gone beyond the possibility of bias,” Taufel told the ABC. “We’re just as professional as we can be and there is no room for bias. We’re all judged on our performances by the video and so maybe that perception of bias can now be overlooked.”

Simon Katich believes Phil Jaques should partner Matthew Hayden in next month’s first Test, but the opener insists it is too early for him to be a certain selection. Jaques scored a second-innings 167 in the Pura Cup match against Western Australia this week to out-point his rival Chris Rogers, who made 9 and 17.Katich, the New South Wales captain, expects his “run machine” to be at the Gabba when Australia play Sri Lanka from November 8. “We’re going to find it hard to replace him if he gets picked, but obviously 160-odd thoroughly deserves selection,” Katich told AAP. “But not only that, what he’s done in the last four or five seasons. He’s been a run machine, both here and in England, so he thoroughly deserves his chance if he gets it.”Jaques, who has played two Tests, was more cautious about his prospects and said a promotion was “too early to call”. “It’s out of my hands,” he said. “I put a score on the board in the first couple of games, which I was asked to do, and we’ll just see what happens.”He will have another opportunity to impress when New South Wales host Queensland in the Pura Cup from October 26. Injuries will make Jaques’ task slightly easier as Andy Bichel, Shane Watson and Michael Kasprowicz will be absent. “Each of those players is making progress,” Ray Phillips, the Queensland selection chairman, said. “We expect them to come under consideration for the tour match against Sri Lanka.”The internationals Hayden, Andrew Symonds, Mitchell Johnson and James Hopes will bolster the Bulls after returning from the one-day series in India. They will replace Aaron Nye, Greg Moller, Chris Swan and Ben Cutting, who played in the first-innings win over Tasmania.Bichel missed the first round of Queensland fixtures with a shoulder problem and realises the injury could be career-threatening if it does not respond to treatment. “There is no doubt that is the worst-case scenario,” Bichel said in the . “But I am confident I can get back.”He said it could be two weeks before he is bowling again, putting him in danger of missing Queensland’s tour game against Sri Lanka starting on November 2. “It is a bit of a setback,” he said. “At this stage it is not as good as we would like it.”Martin Love has been chosen in Queensland’s 2nd XI squad to travel to Perth as part of his comeback from knee surgery while Watson (hamstring) and Kasprowicz (calf) are expected to be eased through the club system. The Bulls kept the same FR Cup side that lost the opening match to Tasmania for the contest with New South Wales at the SCG on Wednesday. The Blues also did not make any changes to their squad.Queensland FR Cup squad Jimmy Maher (capt), Ryan Broad, Aaron Nye, Clinton Perren, Craig Philipson, Michael Buchanan, Chris Simpson, Chris Hartley (wk), Ashley Noffke, Nathan Reardon, Scott Brant, Grant Sullivan.New South Wales FR Cup squad Phil Jaques, Ed Cowan, Simon Katich (capt), Peter Forrest, Dominic Thornely, Stephen O’Keefe, Daniel Smith (wk), Grant Lambert, Nathan Hauritz, Matthew Nicholson, Doug Bollinger, Mark Cameron.Queensland Pura Cup squad Matthew Hayden, Ryan Broad, Clinton Perren, Jimmy Maher (capt), Andrew Symonds, James Hopes, Chris Hartley (wk), Chris Simpson, Ashley Noffke, Mitchell Johnson, Daniel Doran, Grant Sullivan.

Match facts

Saturday, April 19, 2008
Start time 17:00 local, (11:30 GMT)

The Big Picture

The second match of the tournament features the Chennai Super Kings taking on Kings XI Punjab in Mohali – and it’s being touted as Royal Saturday. From an Indian perspective there’s a buzz around this game given that six of India’s ICC World Twenty20-winning squad, and some of the most expensive acquisitions, will be pitted together. No other match-up includes so many such players and that’s obviously a big draw. Chennai are lead by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who after the Twenty20 victory was snapped up for a whopping US$1.5 million. On the other side is Yuvraj Singh, he of the six consecutive sixes in the World Twenty20, leading a team of this magnitude for the first time. Punjab are a very young and promising team, with only three players over 30, whereas Chennai’s strengths lie in their batting. How each cope with the other’s strengths, and smooth over their own weaknesses – Chennai have solid batsmen but are thin in the bowling stakes, while Punjab lack a potent spinner – will determine the winner of this contest.

Watch out for …

Yuvraj has already spoken of the mini-battle that the contest is likely to throw up between him and Dhoni. “It’s a good way to build the hype (around the competition) by pitching it as a Yuvraj versus Dhoni contest,” Yuvraj said. “Maybe, I will share a joke with him after the game.” Dhoni, however, will play in the side as a specialist batsman with Parthiv Patel set to keep wicket.Matthew Hayden and Brett Lee have terrorized opposing teams for a few years now but now it’s going to be one versus the other. Hayden’s domination with the bat has extended into the Twenty20 format and it’s unlikely he will change his approach against Lee, who is at the top of his game. Lee will know Hayden’s penchant for walking down the track, so expect a few tricks.Another contest with the makings of a classic is Kumar Sangakkara versus Muttiah Muralitharan. Sangakkara has kept admirably to Murali all over the world, and has no doubt faced up to him plenty of times in the nets; but in front of a huge crowd, with so much at stake? Keep your eyes on Sanga v Murali.

Team news

Punjab will have to decide who among Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Ramnaresh Sarwan sits out. Sangakkara keeps wicket and Sarwan is due to fly back for an ODI series against Australia, so Jayawardene may have to sit out this one. There are no specialist international openers, so Sangakkara could partner James Hopes at the top, though Sahil Kukreja is an option. Karan Goel could slot into the middle order with Tanmay Srivastava, the Under-19 allrounder. Lee and Sreesanth are almost certain to share the new ball, with Hopes and Irfan Pathan to follow. That means Kyle Mills will miss out, with either the two Sri Lankans or Sarwan likely to come in to complete the overseas quota. Piyush Chawla, the legspinner, should make up the spin quotient.Punjab (likely) 1 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 2 James Hopes, 3 Sahil Kukreja, 4 Ramnaresh Sarwan, 5 Yuvraj Singh (capt), 6 Irfan Pathan, 7 Tanmay Srivastava, 8 Karan Goel, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Piyush Chawla, 11 Sreesanth.The team that spent the most money in the main auction has a host of talent. Dhoni has proved to be a smart captain in limited-overs cricket, and in Hayden and Stephen Fleming, Chennai have a couple of excellent, dominant batsmen. Jacob Oram has a key role to play with bat and ball, so he could be preferred to Michael Hussey. S Badrinath and Suresh Raina make up the Indian talent. Explosive allrounder Albie Morkel isn’t around till the third game, which means Joginder Sharma will fill that slot. R Ashwin and Manpreet Gony will back up Murali. Dhoni won’t be keeping in the first few games, which means Parthiv will fill that role.Chennai (likely) 1 Matthew Hayden, 2 Stephen Fleming, 3 S Badrinath, 4 Suresh Raina, 5 Jacob Oram, 6 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), 7 Parthiv Patel (wk), 8 S Vidyut, 9 Joginder Sharma, 10 Manpreet Gony, 11 Muttiah Muralitharan.

Stats and trivia

Selection of the day
All tour the question has been asked: why isn’t Shahadat Hossain playing? Bangladesh’s attack, Mashrafe Mortaza apart, has had all the venom of bubblegum thus far so the inclusion, finally, of Shahadat brought some bite. He went for runs and was particularly thoughtless with the shortball, but what is a fast bowler with brains? Pakistan still scored over 300 but without his overs at the start and at the death, it could’ve been much more.Are you Pakistani?
No matter how many times Pakistan rebuilds its side, as a fielding unit, they are rarely ever above mediocre. No different is Shoaib Malik’s side, though Fawad Alam stands out like a nun in a brothel. Similar in build to fellow Karachiite Asif Mujtaba, Alam is as nifty in the field, effectingtwo fine run-outs, one from out deep and one from the covers. He can bat, he can bowl and he sure as hell can field.Reverse curse
No one seems to have learnt from Mike Gatting’s reverse horror at the ’87 World Cup final. Aftab Ahmed reverse-swept almost everything he saw today and then some. He paid for it indirectly once, when Tamim Iqbal was run out going for a third run off an Aftab reverse-sweep. No matter, thought Aftab, I’ll try again. Three overs later he did and top-edged to the ‘keeper, effectively ending Bangladesh’s chase.Welcome to the club
Sohail Khan has, hopefully, many years ahead of him and many things still to learn. But he joined one not-so-exclusive club in only his second international match today: bowlers who curse Kamran Akmal. Khan had worked up considerable pace in his second spell in the middle of the innings when Shakib Al Hasan edged an outswinger to Akmal’s left. Promptly the chance was spilled. Khan smiled, but will learn in good time it’s not really that funny.Men of the match
The much-maligned folks at Water and Power Development Authority, who ensured that unlike the first ODI, the floodlights stayed on through the match. The odds on that happening,it is reliably learnt, were longer than those on Bangladesh chasing 309.