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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.”

Middlesex have signed Australian fast bowler Ashley Noffke on a two-month contract to cover for Murali Kartik who will not be able to join the county until June 9.”We were obviously disappointed not to have Kartik for the start of the season, but we’re delighted to have signed Noffke – he’s a high quality opening bowler,” said , Vinny Codrington, Middlesex’s chief executive. “It’s great to have Noffke come back home to where he played his first English county season back in 2002. He knows Lord’s and he’ll add a bit of extra fire power to our already very strong attack at the start of the season when the ball should be nipping about.”Kartik had been expected to be available earlier but he was prevented by the Indian board from playing the first couple of months of the season.

Scorecard

Rain ruined the final day of a closely-fought top-of-the-table contest at the MCG where Victoria and New South Wales played out a tame draw. The Blues declared early, setting Victoria a tough chase of 321 from 90 overs but rain arrived before the Bushrangers could begin and another interruption later meant a draw was almost inevitable.Victoria were 0 for 28 from ten overs when their progress was halted by the second delay, which lasted nearly two hours. In the end the skies cleared and Nick Jewell (49) and Rob Quiney enjoyed some batting practice, guiding the Bushrangers to 2 for 117 from their 42 overs.Quiney finished unbeaten on 52 and Brad Hodge was lbw to Matthew Nicholson from the final ball for 4. Beau Casson collected his first wicket for the game when Jewell tried to force his half-century and lobbed a catch to Greg Mail at mid on.New South Wales began the day with a lead of 278 and batted for 20 minutes, adding 42 to their total and giving Bryce McGain his third first-class five-wicket haul. McGain ended up with 5 for 112 after Stuart Clark advanced and ambitiously aimed to send McGain over long on but misread the legspin and was bowled.Dominic Thornely added a quick 28 to his overnight score and was 76 not out when the declaration came at 7 for 323. But the first rain appeared just when Victoria’s batsmen were getting into position to begin their chase and the innings did not start for another two hours.The draw was a disappointing finish to a match that, while low-scoring, had provided some interesting battles and excellent individual performances. Simon Katich’s opening-day 141 from a total of 253 was the standout, although other highlights included David Hussey’s 95 to get Victoria first-innings points and Nathan Bracken’s tight and testing bowling effort when he collected 4 for 40 on the second day.New South Wales and Victoria remain in the top two spots on the Pura Cup table, a game clear of the resurgent South Australia. Western Australia can jump into third if they win their match against Tasmania, which is under way in Hobart.

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.

Ian Smith, the former South Africa legspinner, died at the age of 90 on August 25. Smith represented South Africa in nine Tests between 1947 and 1957 and picked up 12 wickets. His career-best match figures of 7 for 189 came in his debut in Nottingham, where England were forced to follow-on.The presence of spinners such as Athol Rowan, Hugh Tayfield and Tufty Mann resulted in Smith not being able to add a few more caps to his Test career. However, Smith, who turned out for Natal, had an impressive first-class record, picking up 365 wickets in 97 matches at an average of 22.55″On behalf of the CSA Family I extend our deepest condolences to his family, his friends and his cricketing colleagues”, CSA chief executive Haroon Lorgat said.

Another day of heavy drizzle interspersed with spells of more persistant rain meant thatonly 25.2 overs were possible on the final day of Glamorgan`s tour match against IndiaA at Swansea. With the loss of so much time over the three days, it was predictablethat the game should end in a draw, but not before the clatter of 7 wickets today as theseam bowlers found the moist and overcast conditions much to their liking. Had it notbeen for this intervention by the weather, this game would surely have had a positive outcome.Morning rain meant that play did not start until 11.30 a.m.,and during the hour`s playbefore lunch, the Welsh county lost a further four wickets whilst adding 32 runs in 13overs, including a spell of three wickets in consecutive balls from Amit Bhandari andLakshmipathy Balaji.Adrian Shaw was the first man to go as in the fifth over he touched a lifting deliveryfrom Balaji to wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel after adding 56 in 19 overs with Mark Wallacefor the fifth wicket. The new batsman Dean Cosker did not last long as he edged the fifthball of Bhandari`s tenth over into the hands of first slip, and then next ball DarrenThomas was yorked. Balaji then bowled Mark Wallace with the next delivery from theMumbles Road End as Glamorgan collapsed to 117-8.But Robert Croft and David Harrison then added 19 runs in the next four oversbefore another heavy squall sent the players into the St.Helen`s pavilion for an earlylunch, and further drizzle meant that there was a further delay of 65 minutes.To the third ball after the resumption, David Harrison drove Bhandari to Amit Mishra atbackward point, and then in his next over Bhandari bowled Owen Parkin to finish withfigures of 6-38 – the best on the tour so far, and the seamer`s second five wickethaul against county opposition.With just 42 overs remaining, it seemed there would be an opportunity for the visitors to have furtherbatting practice, but Satyajit Parab was caught at first slip off the fourth ball of the innings,bowled by David Harrison. Then seven overs later another shower drifted in from Swansea Bay with IndiaA on 13-1, and the players left the field for an early tea.The precipitation caused another twenty minutes to be lost, and then when the players returned,another shower came in after a further 17 balls had been bowled, bringing an end to a contest where theweather was the only winner.

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.

Close Pakistan 301 for 5 (Yasir 170, Youhana 46) lead Bangladesh 288 by 13 runs
Scorecard Day 1 bulletin

A scintillating 170 by Yasir Hameed on his Test debut powered Pakistan to 301 for 5 at close of play on the second of the first Test, at the National Stadium in Karachi. Yasir became the ninth Pakistan batsman to score a hundred on debut, and the second to achieve the feat against Bangladesh. His innings was largely instrumental in ensuring that Pakistan finished the second day with a 13-run lead over Bangladesh’s first-innings total of 288.Coming in to bat when Pakistan’s innings was just three overs old, Yasir showed exemplary technique and temperament, striking 25 fours and scoring 63% of the total runs while he was at the crease. He got off the mark with an exquisite back-foot cover-drive, and proceeded to play with supreme authority on both sides of the wicket, and off either foot. Two hundred partnerships – with Taufeeq Umar and Yousuf Youhana – meant that despite a minor blip in the afternoon session, Pakistan were always in control.Bangladesh’s bowlers were rarely threatening, except for a brief spell by Mashrafe Mortaza and Tapash Baisya at the start of the innings. Mortaza’s pace and bounce unsettled Mohammad Hafeez – also playing in his first Test – and he spooned a catch to Javed Omar at gully in attempting to draw away from a pull stroke (5 for 1).Yasir and Taufeeq Umar – the other Pakistan batsman to score a century on debut against Bangladesh – eased the dressing-room nerves with a 114-run partnership for the second wicket. They were aided by the lack of depth in Bangladesh’s bowling attack. Khaled Mahmud, the first-change bowler, served plenty of wide half-volleys, most of which went for boundaries. Mahmud’s only Test wicket had, before this match, cost him 406 runs, and his bowling today showed why his stats are so modest. To make matters worse, he bowled most of his overs without a third man. Yasir took full toll, guiding him past gully for consecutive fours.

Pakistan were in cruise control when Bangladesh struck back with two wickets against the run of play immediately after lunch. First, Taufeeq (38) charged down the pitch to a wide ball from Mohammad Rafique and scooped the drive to Omar at point (102 for 2). Inzamam-ul-Haq was accorded a rousing welcome by the Karachi crowd, but lasted just five balls before flicking lazily at a Baisya delivery. Rajin Saleh pouched the chance at short midwicket, and Inzamam trudged back for a duck.Yasir and Youhana averted a further slump with a 131-run stand. Youhana struggled for fluency, but playd the second fiddle as an increasingly confident Yasir went after the bowling. A swept four off Alok Kapali brought Yasir his hundred as Mahmud was forced to resort to his spinners in an attempt to staunch the runs. With the grass on the pitch drying out, there was little help for the bowlers as Bangladesh toiled away on a clear day.Youhana became Saleh’s first Test wicket, patting a full-toss back to the bowler just four short of his fifty (234 for 5). Yasir’s long vigil finally ended when he slapped a short ball from Mortaza to Rafique at midwicket, but Rashid Latif and Misbah-ul-Haq made sure that Bangladesh’s bowlers could not breathe easy quite yet.

Ricky Ponting, Australia’s World Cup-winning captain, has joined Somerset on a one-year deal. Ponting, 27, has scored 4856 runs in 69 Tests, and enjoyed a stellar year in 2002-03, scoring seven centuries in 13 Tests, plus a fantastic unbeaten 140 in the World Cup final against India.Ponting had been one of several big-name batsmen on Somerset’s shopping list after a disappointing season, and according to Peter Anderson, the chief executive at Taunton, he will be available to play for the club during the second half of July and the whole of August.”It is an honour for the county to have such a prominent Australian playing for us,” said Somerset’s chairman Giles Clarke, the driving force behind the deal. “This announcement is likely to be the first of many to show we mean business.”As far as Somerset’s players are concerned, they already know that Clarke means business – at one stage last summer, he threatened put the entire playing staff on the transfer list unless they improved their performances.Somerset missed out on the signature of Surrey’s ex-England batsman Ian Ward, who went to Sussex despite been offered the captaincy as an incentive. They have also been making inquiries about Rahul Dravid’s availability next season, although Dravid himself has expressed a desire to return to Scotland in 2004.Ponting’s arrival means that the future of Jamie Cox, Somerset’s former captain and regular overseas player, will be under some scrutiny. Cox, a Tasmanian team-mate of Ponting’s, had been keen to return to Taunton, and it may be that the two will share their duties.

This time 12 months ago Sussex were poised to secure their first County Championship title. A year later and things at Hove are a little different with a top-three finish the best the county are likely to achieve after a poor start to the summer.But the enthusiasm of Chris Adams, in his eighth year as Sussex captain, remains undiminished, and he has ended speculation that he was about to stand down by telling the local newspaper that he is keen to continue – if he is wanted.”Last year took a lot out of me,” he told the Sussex-based Argus newspaper. “I did seriously think about going out on a high. But that wouldn’t have been fair on the players or the club who have backed me and deserved some loyalty in return.”I have said to the club that I see myself doing the job as long as they want me to,” Adams continued. “If someone else stepped forward then I’d happily stand down, but at the moment I’d be delighted to carry on next year and maybe beyond. Who knows?”As there is nobody at Sussex who stands out as a rival, and budgetary restrictions rule out a big-name signing from another county, Adams’s position seems secure.”It can be very stressful at times, but it’s also hugely rewarding,” Adams added. “I love doing it and would be delighted to carry on. Obviously, in a year’s time if someone stood out we’d have to take a look at it again.”