Off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq warmed up for the second Test against theWest Indies next week with a six-wicket haul against the West Indies’A’ team yesterday.The hosts struggled to 160 all out, and Pakistan replied strongly toreach 154 for two off 40 overs in the final session.Saqlain, despite sending down ten no-balls, took six for 48 as hefamiliarised himself with Kensington Oval and probably removed anydoubt the selectors might have had regarding his place in the team forthe Test.There was little to suggest such lucrative returns for Saqlain whenDarren Ganga and Ramnaresh Sarwan took the ‘A’ team to lunch at 92 forone.Ganga completed his half-century just before the break and was on 52in partnership with Sarwan who was unbeaten on 27.The pair had come together just 22 minutes into the day’s play afterAzeemul Hanif had fallen victim to Waqar Younis with the score oneight.The first hour’s play produced just 35 runs but Sarwan and Gangastepped up the tempo towards the break, scoring 39 in 46 minutesleading up to lunch.The first 50 of the innings took 74 minutes, in contrast to the secondwhich came in only 43 minutes.This second landmark ushered in the start of the ‘A’ team’s dramaticslide after lunch.The second-wicket stand had put together 92 in 103 minutes when Sarwantouched a delivery from pacer Mohammed Akram to wicketkeeper MohammedWasim.Sarwan faced 68 deliveries and struck four fours in his 32.Just three runs later Ricardo Powell, who many believe was unfortunateto miss out on the tour of England, became Saqlain’s first victim whenhe was bowled for one at 103 for three.One run later Imran Nazir dived forward at forward short-leg to snapup Sylvester Joseph off Saqlain as the ‘A’ team lost three wickets forfour runs, but the trouble wasn’t over as yet.Ganga, who showed tremendous enterprise in reaching his 50 beforelunch with eight fours, including two in one over from Waqar, in 118minutes, laboured a further 40 minutes on resumption in adding two.Trying to free himself, he miscued a hook off Akram to provide astraightforward catch to Arshad Khan at square-leg which he almostmuffed.SlumpedCaptain Courtney Browne started positively, but he too was bowled bySaqlain as the score slumped to 118 for six an hour after lunch.Mahendra Nagamootoo joined Marlon Samuels, who had started to showsome defiance, and the two took the score to 130 before Nagamootoo wascaught and bowled by Waqar Younis.The bowler had earlier dropped an easy catch offered by Nagamootoo offSaqlain.Samuels excited the faithful spectators located mainly in theKensington Stand with a few handsome strokes in a fluent knock of 31off 43 balls in 87 minutes, but he too was snared by Saqlain, caughtat square-leg by Shahid Afridi.Mohammed Wasim and Wajahatullah Wasti gave the Pakistan innings anideal launch pad with a stand of 54.Wasti contributed 19 before edging left-arm pacer Pedro Collins towicketkeeper Browne.Yousuf Youhana, searching for form and runs, raced to 45 off 44 ballsas Pakistan’s 100 came in 108 minutes off 136 deliveries.Having provided himself with the type of start needed for a meaningfulinnings, he adopted a more watchful approach.He reached his 50 in 74 minutes off 65 deliveries with seven fours,and just when it appeared the partnership would reach three figures,Youhana was run out by the full length of the pitch as he foundhimself in the same crease as Wasim.Youhana’s 58 was made in 89 minutes off 73 balls and included sixfours.Wasim remained unbeaten on 74. His 50 came in 105 minutes off 65 ballswith six fours.He has so far batted 180 minutes facing 113 deliveries while countingseven fours.

Easterns scrambled to a 108-run victory over a defiant KwaZulu-Natal in their four-day Supersport Series match at Willowmoore Park on Monday.With a lead of 334 runs at the start of play and Natal on 73 for three, Easterns seemed to be heading towards a comfortable second victory in as many weeks over the Dolphins.But the unheralded Goolam Bodi arrived at the crease for Natal and quickly changed all of that with his 104 runs off only 94 balls, including 11 fours and six sixes.It easily eclipsed his previous first-class best of 33 for Transvaal B against Western Province B in the 1996/97 season.”There was lot of chirp out there and it got quite abusive at times, but I’m glad I’ve got that 100 now,” Bodi said.Bodi was also the backbone of a 131-run partnership with Ross Veenstra for the eighth wicket that took Natal to within 139 runs of their target.But the home team were eventually bowled out for 298, giving Easterns a deserved – albeit belated – victory.”We didn’t bowl as well as we wanted to in the second innings. We got the win the hard way, but it’s still a win,” said Easterns skipper Deon Jordaan.Bodi’s innings was a rare display of batting proficiency amidst four days when Natal have batted poorly to say the least.For an Easterns side that has a red rose as its emblem, the diminutive Bodi was truly the thorn in their side on a day when rain also threatened their hopes of victory.Twice Easterns thought they had the better of Bodi, and twice the third umpire had to confirm this.The first occasion was when Bodi reached his century off a controversial six.The catch was taken by Gareth Flusk at deep mid-wicket, with the fielder perilously close to the boundary rope.Bodi stood firm while Flusk claimed the catch. But the third umpire declared that Bodi was not out, with Flusk admitting at the drinks break that he did indeed step on the rope.The second and decisive decision came with Bodi returning to the middle shortly after a rain delay and on 104.Andre Nel had been frustrated in his attempts to dismiss Bodi, but finally made the breakthrough when the batsman edged a delivery to Derek Crookes in the slips.Bodi was again unconvinced. The replay was also hardly conclusive, but Bodi’s luck in this fickle game clearly did not stretch that far, and he was given out with Natal on 248.Natal added 50 more runs before Easterns could raise their arms in triumph, claiming their second victory in as many weeks over Natal after their Standard Bank Cup win here as well.Easterns keeper Dylan Jennings capped a fine match with eight catches behind his name – only two short of his father Ray’s shared record of 10 catches in a first-class match.

I do feel it’s strange – we are playing only the 2nd Test but it will spell the end of the series! Nevertheless, I do hope the Pakistan Team is better mentally prepared for this game than the 1st at Lord’s.

In between the Tests they have done very little physically, to improve their standard of play. In two practice games, barring Saleem Elahi and Faisal Iqbal not many batsmen have spent much time at the crease. Saeed Anwar who failed in both the innings at Lord’s did not even participate in any of the games. In my whole professional career I have never seen a specialist batsman miss as many games as Saeed Anwar has. In fact, during all his playing career he’s been plagued by injuries and illness. The only bonus is, he always performs better after a lay-off. Maybe he’s superstitious and misses out on games at will.To win at Old Trafford, Pakistan needs Saeed Anwar to be at his best because I fear we are putting a lot of pressure on Inzamam. In reality, I believe all the specialist batsmen should make a sustained effort to pull Pakistan out of the mire. It won’t be an easy task but nothing is impossible in cricket. All we need to do is to cast our mind back at the recently concluded series between India and Australia. We need all our senior players to set an example to our junior players.Talking about senior players, I hope Wasim has put the nightmare of the last test match well behind him and with renewed vigour, is looking forward to the game at Old Trafford. He has some very fond memories of this ground and I hope playing in front of Lancastrians will spur him to help win this test match for his country.Waqar Younis will need to Captain well in this match because his handling of five fast bowlers could have been better in the last one. For example, he could have unleashed Shoaib Akhtar at the tail-end batsmen rather than bowling himself and Wasim. He should remember when at his peak how quickly he used to dispose off the lower order batsmen with his lethal yorkers.Azhar came into the Lord’s test after a long lay-off and bowled well but was given a two-hour spell which stiffened him up for the evening session and was not as productive.There is talk about Razzaq opening the batting for Pakistan. I have no problem with it as long as it is only a short-term policy. He has a strong defence and if encouraged can attack the new ball bowlers as well. My only problem would be if he plays a major innings for Pakistan, it would limit his bowling later in the game. In the long run Pakistan needs him to take three or four wickets in every game.Manchester’s inclement weather is more than well publicised. In one whole month, Lancashire has managed to play only one one-day game at home. The pitch has been under cover for most of the month so we can only guess how it’s going to behave.After signing-up Wasim Akram in 1988 Lancashire started preparing very dry pitches to help Wasim achieve reverse swing. The square was also left extremely dry so that the ball would rough up very quickly. It also meant the pitch would be conducive for spin and this is the main reason why Muralitharan is employed by Lancashire County for this season.I have played three games at Old Trafford in the last four years and on each occasion the ball turned sharply, almost from the start. I expect Saqlain to play and will not be surprised if Mushtaq Ahmed is also in contention. Even though it has rained a lot during the last month in Manchester and the square at Old Trafford will be green, I still feel it is hard to change the nature of the pitch.Therefore, it should help seam as well as spin but I cannot imagine Pakistan playing an extra spinner at the expense of a batsman when even against a weakened Leicester, they scored only 294 runs in their only innings.Faisal Iqbal scored runs in New Zealand and has performed well in England so far. He deserves his chance in the Team and, providing he is careful against Caddick at the start of his innings, he should prosper and help Pakistan’s more aggressive batsmen by occupying one end. Inzamam, Yousuf Youhana and Younis Khan desperately need Pakistani openers to give them a solid start so that they can pile up enough runs to put English batsmen under pressure.I hope Shoaib Akhtar is back to his full fitness as I think he poses the biggest threat to England. But, in order to bowl England out twice in this match he requires lots of extra support from Wasim and Waqar. Both are coming towards the end of their glittering careers but are still capable of outperforming most bowlers in the world.Let’s hope both of them have a better game this time.

Ed:Mudassar Nazar is a veteran of 76 tests and 122 ODIs. He is currently the chief coach of Pakistan’s National and Regional Cricket Academies. In view of the overwhelming interest of users in CricInfo’s articles, we have invited him to write for us.

Reports of bad weather over the next fortnight or so have forced the Sri Lanka Interim Cricket Board to move the venue of the first unofficial cricket Test against Pakistan A from the NCC grounds to Dambulla Cricket Stadium.Cricket Board officials said the weather pattern was very bad and that they were forced to change the venue of the first match in the interest of cricket and to ensure there was maximum playing time. The four-day ‘Test’ will commence on June 13.The controversial Dambulla stadium is situated in the dry zone where it hardly rains.NCC will host the second ‘Test’ from June 19 and Galle, the third from June 25.Pakistan A’ will also play three unofficial One-Day Internationals on June 30 at De Soysa Stadium, July 2 at Sara Stadium and July 4 at the R. Premadasa Stadium.The 18-member side captained by Hasan Raza arrives in Sri Lanka on June 10.

The Zimbabwe cricket team stepped up their preparations for the Second Test against India at Harare, the match venue, with both the captain Heath Streak and coach Carl Rackemann confident that the side will put up a more polished performance than they did in the First Test.The side had extensive practice in the nets with the ball and bat, and also did a lot of fielding practice. Zimbabwe batted woefully in the first innings of the Queens Test and were dismissed for a mere 173, a record low for the venue. The bowlers then struggled with the Indian tail, resulting in the tourists taking a commanding 145-run lead. India went on to win the match by eight wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the two-match Zimbabwe Sun series.It was India’s first away win in 15 years and also their first Test win in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe lost two frontline bowlers, Streak and Henry Olonga, a last-minute replacement for Travis Friend, in the match and had only three bowlers for India’s second innings.Streak and Friend are back in the squad for the Second Test which starts on Friday. Streak was confident that he would be in a position to play. “I am giving it one more day of rest before I go flat out in the nets. It should be fine. Our physiotherapist (Amato Machikicho) is quiet confident and I also had an orthopedic surgeon have a look at it in Bulawayo and he was pretty certain that it should be fine.”Streak added that Friend had responded well to treatment after suffering a muscle strain, which forced him to pull out of the Bulawayo Test on the eve of the opening day.”Friend looks good. He was in the nets today and he is bowling with some good pace. It looks as though he is fully fit for the game. Hopefully he wakes up tomorrow feeling good and we won’t have a similar problem like we had in Bulawayo.”Streak said that although they had always played under pressure, this time they were under more pressure to try to level the series. “Being 1-0 down we are under more pressure to try and pull it back. We realised where we had our downfall and the guys are working very hard in the nets to try and rectify that. We batted badly in the first innings. We hope to put it right in this Test and we are ready to go.”He felt that they could have restricted India to a smaller first-innings total than the 318 they made. India had slumped to 178 for six after the dismissal of leading batsman Sachin Tendulkar in the 53rd over. But they were allowed to bat for another 36 overs in which spinner Harbhajan Singh, coming in at number nine, made his highest Test score of 66. It was India’s second highest contribution after the 74 by Tendulkar.”Obviously we always realised that their top order was the danger and we really worked hard but I think that the loss of Henry Olonga put an extra load of work on the bowlers. We let Harbhajan Singh get away with a bit more than we should have, which allowed their tail to wag. Hopefully we won’t let that happen again with a better balanced side, without any injuries.”Carl Rackemann was impressed with his side’s preparations. “Firstly these practice wickets are the best I have seen them and that’s a good start for us. And our worries of injuries: Henry is going to be out but Heath Streak is coming back. Travis Friend has had a good bowling session today and he looks good.”So we look like going into the Test without any injury or fitness worries. Skillwise today has been a very good day in batting, bowling and fielding. On Thursday we will spent a little bit of time talking about the game and the last match in Bulawayo. Our first innings batting is high on the list of the things to be discussed. It won’t be as physically demanding, especially for the bowlers playing in the match.”The Australian coach said that they had learnt a lesson from the Bulawayo Test. “I think the batting in the first innings was filled with poor shot selection, playing a wrong shot to the wrong ball and lacking patience while at the crease and we were also not positive. We are going to address that. In the Second Test we have to bat like we did in the second innings at Queens in both innings.”Rackemann was also disappointed with the way Harbhajan Singh was allowed to score his 66 from 125 balls, hitting 10 fours and a six. “Principally Harbhajan Singh was the man who did most of the damage and we have to make sure that it does not happen again. We will have to bowl differently to him than the way we did in Bulawayo and make sure that there is no repeat of that."

Little Flamingos came within an ace of landing a massive Southern Electric Contracting Cup quarter-final shock, losing by only two runs to Premier Division 1 side Andover at The Holt last night (Tuesday).Andover looked to have the tie in the bag after Sam Miller (61), Marc Kavanagh (42) and Neil Staddon (35) piled up an awesome 168-6 in 23.2 overs.But Flamingos hit back through Richie Manthorpe (49) and Shane Merkel (38), and at 158-5 – needing 11 runs off the last 14 balls of the match – were favourites.But Kevin Brewster (32) was run out off the penultimate ball, leaving Flamingos 166-9 at the close.Lymington scored 38 runs off the opening three overs at Southern Gardens and went on to pull off an unexpected 12-run win over BAT Sports.Brian Clemow (24) and Glyn Treagus led the initial assault and, after five overs, Lymington were 52-3.Daniel Peacock (42) guided Lymington to 142-9 in 23 overs.BAT lost three early wickets, fought back well through Richard Kenway (53) and Adam Hayes (29), only to lose their way after reaching 101-3 with six overs remaining.Treagus (3-26), Peacock (2-23) and, crucially, Wayne Smith (2-13) reduced BAT to 130-8 by stumps.Shawn Gillies (98) and Richard Hindley (56) swept cup favourites Havant to 191-4 and an eventual 46-run victory over Burridge.Dave Jackson (50) and Ian Williamson (40 not out) took the Burridge reply to 145-7 (Hindley 3-24).Chasing a Rowledge total of 135-8, Easton & Martyr Worthy faltered after reaching a challenging 71-2 in nine overs.They finished up five runs adrift at 130 all out, Chris Yates taking four wickets.

* Karnataka take on Mumbai in Sponsors Trophy openerKarnataka will take on Mumbai in the opening match of the SponsorsTrophy (previously known as the Wills Trophy) at Mumbai on April 18,next year.The other two first round matches pit Railways Sports Control Board(RSCB) against Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) at Rajkot on April 18and Sponsors XI against Orissa Cricket Association (OCA) at Pune onthe same day, a Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) release said onThursday.Reigning champions Board President’s XI, who have got a bye directlyto the semi-finals will play either Karnataka or Mumbai in Mumbai onApril 21 while the second semi-final between the winners of RSCB vsPCA and Sponsors Eleven vs OCA would be held at Ahmedabad on the samedate, the release said. The final will be played at Baroda on April24.* BCCI wins legal battleThe Mumbai High Court on Thursday declined to stay the contractawarded by the Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) to the InternationalManagement Group towards clothing sponsorship for internationalmatches in the next three years. The order was delivered by Justice DKDeshmukh, who dismissed a notice of motion taken out by Gayatri Artsin a suit filed by the company against the Board for awarding thecontract to the IMG.Gayatri Arts claimed it had made the highest bid of Rs 90 crore andthe BCCI had issued a letter asking them to confirm the offer whichwas accepted in a reply sent to the BCCI. The plaintiff claimed thatBCCI’s letter constituted a concluded contract between the two. Thecourt, however, was of the view that prima facie it could not be saidthere was a concluded contract between the plaintiff and the BCCI.On June 13, Justices BN Srikrishna and Nishita Mhatre had disposed ofan appeal filed by Sham Dhumatkar, proprietor of Gayatri Arts,challenging the order of Justice Deshmukh who earlier refused to staythe contract to IMG-TWI. The bench had refused to stay the contractawarded to IMG and its subsidiary Transworld International. But thejudges gave liberty to the appellant to move a notice of motion forstaying the contract before Justice Deshmukh who had earlier rejecteda similar plea.* BCCI tour committee meeting at JaipurThe Board of Control for Cricket in India tour, programme and fixturescommittee meeting will be held at the residence of Kishore Rungta, theRajasthan Cricket Association secretary and treasurer of the BCCI, inJaipur on July 7.The meeting will take a final decision on India’s proposed tours toPakistan (for the Asian Test Championship) and Australia (for thethree match indoor series). It will also decide on the venues anddates of the Tests, one day internationals and first class matches forthe Zimbabwe tour of this country. Zimbabwe are scheduled to tourIndia early next year after England completes its tour. It is alsolearnt that Jaipur will get either a three day game or an ODI againstEngland in November this yearThe committee will also have a look at the domestic ca lender. Theconvener of the committee is the BCCI secretary JY Lele. Other memberswho will participate in the deliberations include GK Kelkar, SharadDiwadkar, MP Pandove and Venkat Rao.* Police file chargesheet against GCA chief, eight othersThe Goa police on Thursday filed a chargesheet against the Goa CricketAssociation (GCA) president, Dayanand Narvekar and eight others in thecourt in connection with the `fake’ ticket scam under various sectionsof the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including criminal conspiracy, policesources said.The names of GCA secretary Vinod Phadke, former treasurer RamaShankardas, ticket contractor Chinmay Fallari and his brother DevduttFallari, also figure in the chargesheet filed in the court of JudicialMagistrate First Class, Margao, they said.Eknath Naik, brother-in-law of GCA president, Gangaram Bishe,Venkatesh Desai and Joaquim Pires were the other four charged underdifferent sections of the IPC, including printing and sale of faketickets, criminal conspiracy and cheating the public, police sourcessaid, adding, the different IPC sections slapped against them were461, 465, 468, 471, 201 and 120 (b).About 200 persons, including those chargesheeted in the case had beeninterrogated since the police launched investigations about threemonths back into allegations of printing and sale of fake tickets forthe India-Australia One Day International on April 6 last in Goa.

Stand-in England captain Michael Atherton has declared defiance in the face of Australian danger going into the must-win Third Test at Trent Bridge.England’s injury problems have been well documented, but Atherton insists that the spirit in the camp is good, saying: “I think we’ve been pretty upbeat going into all of the games. It was a bit of problem in the first game with people coming and going, but I felt the attitude was good at Lord’s and I think the attitude in the squad is fine here too.”Atherton’s Test debut came at Trent Bridge in 1993, though for the first day he could only watch as Geoff Marsh and Mark Taylor scored 301 for no wicket. EEngland’s failure to take 20 Australian wickets in either Ashes game this summer means that the home side will probably line up with five bowlers. “We thought the balance of the side was right at Lord’s given the history of the conditions there,” said Atherton. “We may feel we might need a slightly different balance of the team here.”The history of the conditions here is that it’s a normally a good pitch – although there looks to be a bit of grass on this one.”The England opener preferred to focus on his own side, rather than dwelling too much on the scintillating Australian performances in England this summer: “I don’t really think about the Australians,” he claimed. “I’m only concerned with our performance and there are clearly areas we can improve on.”We’ve shown over 18 months we are a good team and we can play some goodcricket. We’ve fallen short of those standards in the first two games and I’m only interested in seeing the side achieve those standards again.”Australian captain Steve Waugh expects England to come out “pretty hard: we know they are a good side, capable of beating anyone and we’ve got to make sure we are switched on. We’ve had to play well in the two Tests, we’ve had to play well to win. There have been moments when England have had an opportunity to take control of a match; they haven’t done that. But that’s not saying they won’t do it.”If England are to switch off the Australian run machine and take control, they will need to return to the sharpness of fielding they showed on their winter tours, rather than making sloppy mistakes as have happened all too often in the previous two Ashes Tests; Adam Gilchrist has been dropped six times in two matches.”We’ve been working hard in practice to put that right,” promised Atherton. “We always put in hard work in the slip catching. I don’t think anybody could say we dropped some catches because it is lack of preparation. We try to make sure our practice is intense and try to put good habits into practice.”It’s not rocket science practising to catch a cricket ball, but I think it’sthe way you go about it – making sure your practice is upbeat and intense andtrying to simulate the match conditions.”Catches may win matches, but England’s batting and bowling must also improve if they are to beat the Australians and keep the Ashes alive. Atherton is confident that England can put together the necessary performance: “We know they can be beaten, they were beaten in the last Test series they played (against India). If we get the performance right over the five days, you get a result out of it – be it a draw or a victory.”

Former captain Krishnamachari Srikkanth said that he feels the string of poor performances by the Indian team is because of a lack of foresight, planning and also failure in training youngsters.Srikkanth, who is currently touring the United States to popularise cricket among Non-Resident Indians and to promote ‘Champ Cricket’, a channel of the India-based web-portal ‘NumTV’, on Monday said that Indian players were being sent from one series to another without any analysis of what had gone wrong or without taking corrective steps.”Once a new series starts, the old one is forgotten and it becomes business as usual”, he said.”The game has become a big money earner for the Cricket Board, players, media and organisers. Even average Test players make up to Rs two crore a year. In the process, the quality has suffered,” Srikkanth added.Srikkanth, who along with Sunil Gavaskar formed what was probably India’s best opening pair, said: “Thorough planning is the need of the hour where promising youngsters are encouraged. The Board needs to plan for two or three years, set goals and work to achieve them.””When a player does well, he is put on a pedestal and then with one bad performance he is out of favour. Whereas the need is for consistency and encouragement to players with potential rather than passing judgment on them after one game,” Srikkanth said.

It was a day of anticlimax for a packed house on Sunday as the Ormeau ground inBelfast hosted its last major game of cricket. The international betweenIreland and the touring Australians was cut short when rain ended play afterjust 23.4 overs.In a game intended as a send-off for Ormeau before it is turned into a housingdevelopment, Australia had reached 86 for the loss of one wicket before raindescended on the ground after 100 minutes of play. As the rain became morepersistent, the match was finally abandoned at 3.30pm.Approximately 4000 people had turned up for this game, which had been a selloutwell in advance.The Australians were sent into bat by Irish captain Kyle McCallan, with MatthewHayden and Justin Langer opening the batting for the tourists. Hayden got awayto a brisk start, but Langer was struggling for form, and was out for 22,caught by Dom Joyce at point off the bowling of Conor Armstrong. This wasalmost certainly Langer’s final innings of this Ashes tour, with the Fourth andFifth Test the only remaining matches on the Australians’ itinerary.When the rains came, Hayden was unbeaten on 52 from 74 deliveries, while SimonKatich, who will almost certainly make his Test debut at Headingley on Thursdayin place of the injured Steve Waugh, was on 5.Most impressive of the Irish bowlers was 21 year-old right-arm seamer AdrianMcCoubrey who, despite bowling three wides, conceded just 15 runs from hisseven overs.With the Australians returning to England planning to extend their 3-0 Ashesseries scoreline to 5-0, Ireland have a busy, if more mundane, program ahead ofthem this month as they try to put the disappointment of missing out on the2003 World Cup behind them. The Irish, too, head off to England today to takepart in the oddly-titled Triple Crown tournament, an annual four-teamcompetition also including Scotland, Wales and an England Amateur XI. Theirfirst game will be against Wales at Horsham on Tuesday. Then, on August 29,Ireland will play Wiltshire in the first round of the new split-season formatof the C&G Trophy.