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It’s an intriguing battle on cards in Indore. The two teams have taken slightly contrasting routes to reach the semi-finals. While Baroda cruised in the initial half of the season before spluttering a touch in the end, Delhi started off in a hurry, slowed down in the middle and then peaked again. The weather that washed out their penultimate game against Karnataka threatened to spoil Delhi’s party, but they won convincingly against Tamil Nadu to storm into the final four with confidence.The absence of key players from both teams has levelled the field. Baroda lost Irfan Pathan to the national team mid-way during the season while Delhi, who were already without Ishant Sharma and Virender Sehwag, will lose the services of the promising left-arm seamer Pradeep Sangwan and the middle-order batsman Virat Kohli for the game as both are away playing for India Under-19.Rahul Sanghvi, the veteran left-arm spinner, and the former Haryana medium-pacer Sumit Narwal have been drafted in as replacements. “When we play Baroda we have a left-arm spinner in Rahul and a leg-break bowler in Chetanya Nanda. Our team has the right balance of experience and youth.” Vijay Dahiya, Delhi’s coach, told Indian Express. “This entire season we were without a left-arm spinner and we thought why not give him a call for this crucial encounter. We have got an opportunity to be the best domestic team in the country and Rahul will be of a great help.”But it has to be watched whether Delhi go with a double-spin attack as the pitch has some live grass on it. Both teams are yet to decide the final eleven as they want to have a final look at the pitch on the morning of the match. “The wicket looks pretty good,” Dahiya said. “There is some grass on the track.”Baroda will look to their openers Rakesh Solanki and Connar Williams, who have each piled over 500 runs this season, to give them a good start. The middle-order has a few consistent performers – Yusuf Pathan, Pinal Shah and Azharuddin Bilakhia.The spinners have shouldered the burden for Baroda. They have been the strike-cum-stock bowlers. Yusuf has bagged 25 wickets while Rajesh Pawar, the left-arm spinner, has taken 20. Sumit Singh, with 15 wickets, has done his best to cover the absence of Irfan, but it has to be seen whether the attack can keep the strong Delhi batting line-up in check. Apart from the consistent opening pair of Aakash Chopra and Gautam Gambhir, they have the likes of Mithun Manhas, Mayank Tehlan and the allrounder Rajat Bhatia. The presence of Bhatia, who has claimed 20 wickets at 10.30, and has a century this season, gives Delhi the right balance.You would have to pick Delhi as the slight favourites but in a season of surprise, where the previous year’s finalists have been forced to eat the humble pie, you can never be sure.

Mahela Jayawardene, whose 153-run third-wicket partnership with Kumar Sangakkara helped Sri Lanka post a competitive 238, believed the team had themselves to blame for the loss. “We still couldn’t get the finish I intended, losing wickets in the end,” a visibly disappointed Jayawardene said. At 3 for 161 after 38 overs, they had an excellent launching pad, but only scored 77 in the last 12 despite having plenty of wickets in hand. He also thought India were gifted runs by his side’s sloppy fielding.But Jayawardene praised Sangakkara, his vice-captain and long-time friend, with whom he has been involved in several big partnerships in the past. In the scorching heat, the pair came together with Sri Lanka struggling and performed an admirable rescue act. “The role that Kumar and I have is to bat the majority of the overs. Kumar batted extremely well, one of the best I’ve seen him play for quite some time,” he said. “Credit to Kumar to (help the team) get to 238 from the situation we were in.”India’s chase got off to a dreadful start which had them stuttering at 3 for 35, but three crucial partnerships swung the momentum their way and prevented Sri Lanka from making further inroads. “When we picked up wickets we got the opportunity to put pressure, but Yuvi took chances and started hitting the ball. Our line was not consistent and our fielding wasn’t up to the mark,” Jayawardene said.”You shouldn’t take anything away from Yuvi’s innings, but we contributed to that as well.” He said that both Yuvraj and Dhoni had played really well in different situations, and refused to pick one innings as more important than the other.With their third loss in five games, Sri Lanka are at the bottom of the table, six points below second-placed India. “I haven’t done my maths yet but I know we need to win two out of our three games and India need to lose all their remaining games,” Jayawardene said. “Every game is like a semi-final.”

Sourav Ganguly was remarkably relaxed for a man whose team had just suffered a sound thrashing against an A team. He, more than anyone else, knows the fickle nature of cricket, especially the shorter version. There was an unreal air about the Karachi one-dayer, with the Indian team being cocooned throughout their stay by security of the highest intensity. Yet this gives the team a chance to stay focused on the cricket. After all, they have little choice. As Ganguly put it, his tourism in Karachi has been limited to the airport, his hotel room, the cricket ground and, lo and behold, one swimming-pool.The last time India were in Pakistan for a series – in 1997 for three one-dayers, not quite 14 years ago as everyone parrots – Karachi proved to be a happy hunting ground. That fateful day, when India won by four wickets, is remembered for Rajesh Chauhan’s last-minute heroics, but it was Ganguly who laid the base with a confident 89. And, from Ganguly’s relaxed smiles, it’s clear that the warm-up match hasn’t dented India’s confidence significantly. “Morale is pretty much up. That was a warm-up game yesterday but there is no excuse. They played better than us when they batted. Tomorrow is an international game, it is a different ball-game.” One journalist began to suggest that Ganguly was worried about the bowling, and he nipped that in the bud with a quick quip: “Nothing is worrying me.”The National Stadium, like many others in Pakistan, is a big one. The boundaries are long, the surroundings wide-open. The drive to the stadium is a long one, and the heat is oppressive. That, more than anything else, will be a factor in the series opener. India’s bowlers have consistently suffered injuries, and Zaheer Khan’s performance (1 for 78 from nine overs with 22 extras) will have to be a concern, whatever Ganguly might say notwithstanding. Ashish Nehra, more out of the side than in it, is yet another worry, but he might still get the nod ahead of either Irfan Pathan or Lakshmipathy Balaji.Normally India never announce their team the day before a game, so it came as no surprise when Ganguly said that key decisions on the composition of the side would be taken only on the morning of the match. The batting line-up, if not the actual batting order, is well set, with the only choice being between Hemang Badani and Mohammad Kaif.This series has been preceded by so much talk about security, inter-country politics, goodwill et al, that it’s a massive relief that the games are finally about to begin. Finally there is talk about bat and ball, Pakistan’s fast bowlers versus India’s batting and, of course, Shoaib Akhtar v Sachin Tendulkar. Inzamam-ul-Haq was to the point, Javed Miandad chatty and witty, Sourav Ganguly laid-back, and John Wright measured, when they spoke to the press in the last two days. But none dropped any pearls of wisdom. With the number of press calls happening at the moment, that is hardly surprising.Yet, for India’s fans several key questions still remain unanswered. Is this bowling attack disciplined enough to hold down Pakistan’s batsmen? Will the batting line-up consistently put enough runs on the board to put pressure on the opposition? Will Tendulkar bat with the unfettered aggression he displayed at Centurion during the World Cup? Will Murali Kartik step up to the plate and be counted in the absence of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh? When either Simon Taufel or Nadeem Ghauri calls “play” and the first match of this series gets underway all questions will be answered.Pakistan (probable): 1 Imran Farhat, 2 Shahid Afridi, 3 Yasir Hameed, 4 Yousuf Youhana, 5 Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), 6 Abdul Razzaq, 7 Moin Khan (wk), 8 Shabbir Ahmed, 9 Saqlain Mushtaq, 10 Shoaib Akhtar, 11 Mohammad Sami.India (probable): 1 Sachin Tendulkar, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 SouravGanguly (capt), 4 Rahul Dravid (wk), 5 VVS Laxman, 6 Yuvraj Singh, 7 Mohammad Kaif, 8 Murali Kartik, 9 Irfan Pathan, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Ashish Nehra.

A day after the Indian Premier League (IPL) banned Harbhajan Singh for slapping Sreesanth after a match in Mohali on Friday, it has emerged that the behaviour of both players had come under the scanner during the recent South Africa series in India, too.Harbhajan had to apologise to Ashwell Prince, the South African batsman, for abusing him during the third Test of that series in Kanpur last month and the South Africans “lost a lot of respect for Sreesanth” when he went after AB de Villiers, Mickey Arthur, the South Africa coach, told Cricinfo.Asked about the IPL incident, Arthur said he was not surprised because “when there are two such volatile players on the field, anything can happen.”Harbhajan was banned on Monday from the first season of the IPL after Farokh Engineer, the match referee, found him guilty of slapping Sreesanth. The BCCI has initiated a separate probe into the incident.”At the end of the day, we are not squealers,” Arthur said. “We strongly believe that what happens on the field stays on it. Besides, we were very happy with the general spirit in which the series was played in, and we left with very pleasant memories of the tour, especially the cricket that was played.”However, Arthur admitted that the behaviour of Harbhajan and Sreesanth during the India series “was not great” and said that the South Africans took up the Kanpur incident because Prince felt very strongly about it. “There was an incident in Kanpur. There was a hearing by the match referee (Roshan Mahanama) during which Harbhajan apologised to Prince. It was settled and we were happy with the apology. I am not 100 per cent sure what was said. But Ashwell felt very strongly about it at that time and that’s why we took it up,” Arthur said.”Sreesanth was just Sreesanth. Perhaps our players lost a lot of respect for him on the tour. He constantly abused AB de Villiers and it was very personal. But considering the general spirit in which the series was played, we didn’t feel strongly enough to complain,” he said.South Africa’s three-Test tour of India ended in a 1-1 draw after the visitors won the second Test in Ahmedabad by an innings and 90 runs before India came back strongly to level the series in Kanpur.

In the remaining two Championship matches, there was an early finish at Hove, where Sussex showed signs of last year’s Championship winning form by polishing off Kent by an innings and 45 runs, while at Trent Bridge, Hampshire and Notts played out a high-scoring draw, with Michael Clarke scoring 103.Resuming at 99 for 3, Kent always had a tough ask on their hands, but once they lost Michael Carberry for the addition of only nine runs, it was near impossible. Mushtaq Ahmed and Mark Davis collected four wickets each, as Kent’s innings petered out to 243, with Matthew Walker top-scoring with 62.There wasn’t such an exciting finish at Nottingham, however. After Notts were bowled out for 612 in reply to Hampshire’s first innings of 641 for 4 declared, with Mark Ealham scoring 113 not out, Hampshire closed at 295 for 6. Clarke scored his first hundred in the Championship, while Dimitri Mascarenhas chipped in with 41 not out.

County Championship Division One

Scorecard
Day 1 report: Fulton and Smith take their lead from Key – The Times Online
Day 2 report: Dozy day by the sea for Kent – The Sunday Telegraph
Day 3 report: Sussex turn the screw – The Daily Telegraph
Day 4 report: Spin pair bolster Sussex fortunes – The Daily Telegraph

County Championship Division Two

Scorecard
Day 1 report: Crawley returns to his fluent best – The Times Online
Day 2 report: Crawley rolls back the years – The Independent on Sunday
Day 3 report: Batsmen hit back – The Daily Telegraph
Day 4 report: Notts sitting pretty – The Daily Telegraph

ScorecardSri Lanka A made it six wins out of six on their tour of England with a convincing win over Sussex at Hove. After Jehan Mubarak and Ian Daniel helped Sri Lanka A to 251 for 7, Sussex folded to 156 all out in 40.5 overs, with only Tony Cottey providing any resistance as Sussex went down by 95 runs.After Sri Lanka A were put in, they stuttered to 42 for 2 before Mubarak and Daniel put on a lively stand of 130. Mubarak scored 71, including nine fours and a six, while Daniel compiled a run-a-ball 68. Malintha Gajanayake chipped in down the order with 29 not out to help the total to a respectable one. James Kirtley, leading Sussex in place of Chris Adams, used eight bowlers in all, with Jason Lewry taking 3 for 39.In their reply, Sussex lost Matt Prior early on for 1 before Richard Montgomerie and Murray Goodwin steadied the ship. However, Ranga Dias then turned the match on its head with three wickets in quick succession as Sussex lost three batsmen for one run. Goodwin was the first to go, bowled for 14, Robert Martin-Jenkins completed a dismal game when he was bowled for a duck, and then Montgomerie was caught for 32 as Sussex spluttered to 50 for 4.Carl Hopkinson was soon run out for 5, but Tony Cottey and Mark Davis put Sussex back on track with a fighting stand of 55 before Cottey was stumped for 53 – and that was that. The tailenders failed to make any impression, as the last three wickets fell for six runs with Davis left not out on 36.

The ICC has found no evidence to support claims of racism in the Zimbabwe Cricket Union, following the conclusion of an inquiry, instigated in the wake of allegations made by 15 white “rebel” players, who claimed that they had been driven out of the game in their country.”We do not find any evidence of racism within Zimbabwe cricket,” the panel decided, and that conclusion has been accepted by the ICC, which believes that the inquiry was able to get to the root of the issues in Zimbabwe, despite the early end to the oral hearing phase, after the lawyers for the players and the board failed to agree on whether testimony should be heard in front of members of the ZCU board.The inquiry was conducted by India’s Solicitor General, Goolam Vahanvati, and the South African High Court judge Steven Majiedt, and their long-awaited 73-page report was presented to the ICC’s executive board in Lahore today.The two panel members acknowledged that there had been a “complete breakdown” in the relationship between the board and the players, but believed nonetheless that they had been successful in reading between the lines of the affair. “We had every reason to believe that we would be able to ascertain the truth,” says the report. “We believe that we have been able to do so.”Ehsan Mani, the president of the ICC, described the report as a “vital piece of work”, adding that it should prompt people to reflect carefully on the allegations that have been made. “These allegations … invoked one of the most serious and damaging claims that can be made against an individual or an institution,” said Mani. ” I believe that anyone who has made these allegations … is now obligated to study this report and to respect and take heed of the findings.”The report attempts to lay the blame for the affair at the feet of the former captain, Heath Streak, who threatened to resign back in April if his demands were not met. The ZCU, the report claims, had no option but to take his threat at face value, thereby setting off the chain of events that led to the 15 rebels withdrawing their services in support of their captain, in the mistaken belief that he had been sacked.”In giving the board an ultimatum that he would resign if his demands were not accepted, he [Heath Streak] put his own future on the line,” the report finds. “Streak obviously did not anticipate (and was not advised) that given the ultimatum that he would retire by April 5, 2004, the board would take the position that it had no option but to reject his demands and accept his retirement. They did precisely that.”As to the allegations of institutional racism in the ZCU, the report found that their policies for the integration of cricket in Zimbabwe were based on sound principles and were generally accepted by all stakeholders in Zimbabwe cricket. However, there were some aspects of selection and the functioning of some ZCU directors which needed to be “seriously addressed”.In conclusion, the report made eight recommendations, most of which centred around issues of selection and integration. In particular, the establishment of a players’ association is high on the agenda, so that future grievances can be channelled more effectively.

India will face Pakistan in England next year in a group match in the ICC Champions Trophy, which is to be played in September 2004. For the first time, the ICC’s official one-day rankings were used to determine the make-up of the four groups of three.The draw was made earlier today, at which point Pakistan were in third position in the table. Had they lost to New Zealand in their match at Lahore today they would have dropped to fourth, and would have been drawn against England – but they won (Mohammad Sami took 5 for 10), remained third, and set up an intriguing clash against their neighbours. Kenya complete that group.England, who are currently fifth in the table, have group games against Sri Lanka (fourth) and Zimbabwe (ninth). Australia, the top-rated team, will play New Zealand and the winners of the forthcoming ICC Six Nations Challenge in the United Arab Emirates in February and March next year.In the final group. South Africa (ranked second) will play West Indies and Bangladesh. The four group winners will progress to the semi-finals.The tournament will run from September 10 to 25, with all the matches to be played at The Oval, Edgbaston, or the new Rose Bowl in Southampton. The exact schedule will be announced later this month, but all the matches will have a reserve day to allow them to be completed in the event of bad weather.

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A record stand of 223 between Mark Chilton and Iain Sutcliffe gave Lancashire a brilliant start in their first innings response to Yorkshire’s 417 all out. In what was another gritty and hard-fought day at Old Trafford, Lancashire were made to work hard for their runs, as Yorkshire’s bowlers toiled valiantly, watched by a decently-sized crowd.Yorkshire bowled with admirable intent throughout the afternoon, and had to wait until the 74th over before Sutcliffe became their first victim. Tim Bresnan pushed one across Sutcliffe’s defence when he was seven short of his hundred, feathering an outside edge to a delighted Ismail Dawood. Sutcliffe and Chilton’s stand broke the previous best opening stand in Roses matches, 181 between Harry Makepeace and Reg Spooner, which had stood since 1912. Chilton, whose excellent innings was his second Roses hundred of the year and his third of the season, remained unbeaten on 130.Earlier in the day, Yorkshire’s tail wagged with typical obduracy to frustrate Lancashire’s bowlers. Starting the day unbeaten on 71, Yorkshire’s captain, Craig White, lost his overnight partner Richard Dawson to the ninth ball of the day. Glen Chapple, the pick of Lancashire’s bowlers, trapped Dawson leg before and consistently bowled a full length all morning.White then combined with Tim Bresnan, during a dogged partnership of 26. Bresnan’s wicket was quickly followed by Chris Silverwood’s, as Lancashire threatened to run through Yorkshire’s tail. But an entertaining and explosive stand of 56 for the tenth wicket, at better than a run a ball, between White and Deon Kruis, ensured the visiting fans had something to cheer.Kruis’s innings was particularly brutal, containing four fours and three monstrous sixes in a knock lasting just 28 minutes. One of his blows landed on the pavilion roof, smashing a tile which fell dangerously close to an unsuspecting Lancashire member. Kruis’s impetus assisted White into striking his first century of the season, and his third against Lancashire in his career. Notably, it was also the one hundredth century made between these two sides in Roses’ history.Kruis’s bold hitting finally got the better of him when he attempted to smite James Anderson over midwicket, but was well caught by Mal Loye at third-man for 35. White remained unbeaten on 110, as Yorkshire reached 417 from 125 overs.In what was to be the last ball of the day, Tim Bresnan cut one back to trap Mal Loye leg-before to leave Lancashire on 243 for 2, trailing by 174 runs. Yorkshire will seek early wickets tomorrow morning if they are to regain the initiative, but Lancashire hold the aces on day two.

Bangladesh’s cricketers landed in Harare after a grueling 31-hour trip from Dhaka which included a 12-hour stopover in Doha and a second stop in Nairobi. They have five days to acclimatise before the first ODI in Harare.The original schedule would have meant the side stopping over in Kenya for a few days but that was amended when a warm-up match in Zimbabwe on July 26 came up.Dav Whatmore, Bangladesh’s coach, was less bullish than he had been last week about the five-match series between one-day cricket’s basement sides. “I have noted that the Zimbabwean team are also keenly looking forward to this visit and they have sent their players to South Africa for three practice matches before Bangladesh come and I get the feeling that they are really keen to even up the score from when they played in Bangladesh last year. So it’ll be a hell of a contest.”Most judges would say that Bangladesh would start favourites and I would agree despite our ICC ranking in one-day format. Bangladesh have played some good cricket and are probably in all honesty are a little bit better than Zimbabwe but the conditions might put us back on a level playing field. I think both teams would feel that they have a chance of winning.”Asked about the dominance of spin in matches in Zimbabwe, Whatmore was equally open. “During the Bangladesh A tour of Zimbabwe our spinners have done well but if you are good enough as a quick then it is better to bowl there than here. I think we have the pace attack and if we need to lean towards the slower bowlers then we have the manpower to do that as well.”Zimbabwe have yet to name their squad, but the nucleus is expected to come from the side in South Africa. Terry Duffin, the captain, is flying in from the UK where he is playing club cricket, as is Brendan Taylor. What is less certain is whether others who are in the UK will return, and it is rumoured that Ed Rainsford, the team’s leading strike bowler, has not made himself available.The uncertainty is compounded by the fact that the Zimbabwe board’s media department repeatedly refuses to answer questions put to it by Cricinfo.