It was not, Stephen Fleming conceded, quite as heartbreaking as losing a series off the last ball of a match, but it still wasn’t that great a way to go down. Lance Klusener has made something of a habit of wrenching games away from New Zealand and he did it again on Saturday, crashing Shayne O’Connor through midwicket for four to give South Africa victory by three wickets in the sixth and final Standard Bank one-day international at Newlands.On Wednesday Klusener hammered 41 off 21 balls to beat New Zealand at Kingsmead. On Saturday he was positively sluggish by contrast, taking 41 balls for his 59. But then again, his timing could not have been more perfect as New Zealand were again left to curse the sight of him.Fleming said afterwards that plans had been mooted to contain Klusener in such circumstances, but, he acknowledged, they simply hadn’t worked. And New Zealand, he added, weren’t the only team still to come up with a foolproof method of stifling the left-hander.The victory gave South Africa a 5-0 victory in the series, but, as South Africa’s Shaun Pollock conceded, the gap between the two sides wasn’t quite that wide, particularly in the last three matches. As Fleming noted: “You could point out in most games the moments when one player has taken the game away from us and that was the difference at the end of the day.”At Newlands New Zealand probably produced their best cricket of the series, built around a 150-run partnership between Chris Cairns and Roger Twose. Cairns hit the ball every bit as well, if not better, than Klusener for his 84 off 72 balls and Twose finally nailed down the one-day century that had eluded him in 74 previous matches.Cairns’ straight hitting was awesome in its timing and on most days it was an innings good enough to have won a match. Twose’s century, too, was well crafted and welcomed by its fashioner, but as he noted ruefully: “It just doesn’t mean as much if you don’t win the game.”The pair lifted New Zealand out of a mire at 39 for three, but after both had gone the tourists did not kick on well enough, particularly in the last five overs as they added only 19 and lost four wickets.Still, 256 for nine looked a decent enough score and seemed even better when Shayne O’Connor ripped out the first three South African wickets for just 30, the mini-collapse starting when Daryll Cullinan again failed clearly out of position as an opener.When Gary Kirsten was deceived and caught and bowled by Chris Harris at 65, South Africa were wobbling badly, but Jonty Rhodes and Mark Boucher put the innings back together again with a partnership of 106 for the fifth wicket.Even so, New Zealand still had a grip on the match with South Africa needing 71 off the last 10 overs and, more pertinently, 49 off the last five.That, however, was the signal for Klusener to bring the big gun out of his holster. He needed someone to stay with him, however, and the support came from Shafiek Abrahams playing in his first ODI.Abrahams made only 16, but he passed the strike back to Klusener at every opportunity and with the short straight boundaries at Newlands beckoning, Klusener went over them four times. It was studied hitting, but all of it still left South Africa needing seven off the last two balls. No problem. He hit the first two fours of his innings and South Africa were home and dry, if a little sweaty.The tour now turns itself towards the three-Test series, with South Africa able to take a few days off to celebrate while New Zealand bid farewell to their one-day specialists and welcome the Test match reinforcements.Fleming says that it will be easier now for the tourists to make the switch from the one-day game to the serious stuff, given that they will all welcome a change of pace. They have two warmup matches before the first Test in Bloemfontein. How well Fleming can regroup his warriors remains to be seen.

ScorecardSam Billings helped take Kent home for a seventh win in ten T20 Blast games•Getty Images

Young guns Sam Billings and Alex Blake led the way with the bat as Kent crushed Sussex by seven wickets in front of a Hove full house to leapfrog their local rivals and go top of the NatWest T20 Blast’s South Group table.Blake finished 52 not out from 32 balls and Billings was unbeaten with a 24-ball 39 in an unbroken fourth wicket stand of 91 in 8.3 overs as Sussex’s 136 for 8 was made to look totally inadequate. Kent’s seventh victory in ten group games arrived with a thumping 5.4 overs to spare.But it was also a good night under the floodlights on the sultry south coast for James Tredwell and Darren Stevens, who combined to take three wickets for 40 runs from eight skilful mid-innings overs after Sussex had been put in.A 6500 crowd were frustrated that Sussex’s batsmen underperformed on a blissful evening but at least they were entertained royally by Billings and Blake, who between them collected 11 fours and two sixes with some exhilarating hitting.

Insights

It was the young ‘uns who eased home in the chase – providing Kent with a timely NRR boost – but it was the salty old seas dogs Darren Stevens and James Tredwell who won this game for Kent. The pair bowled seven overs straight from the close of the first powerplay, before Tredwell took a one-over break to swap ends to complete his four. Between them, they squeezed out 15 dot balls in a period of the game when singles are offered everywhere, and conceded just two boundaries, all with clever changes of pace and length. Oh, and they picked up with the crucial wickets of Machan, Cachopa and Bailey.

Both batsmen reverse-swept Will Beer for fours of remarkable power, and 25-year-old Blake drove Mike Yardy witheringly for four before slashing Tymal Mills and lofting Beer for further boundaries. The left-hander then topped the lot by swinging Beer for a mighty six over wide long on.Billings, 24, who had warmed up by pulling and extra cover driving Chris Liddle for fours in the seventh over, welcomed the left-arm seamer’s return to bowl the 13th by smashing him high over long-on for six as the youthful pair made light of coming together with Kent on 46 for 3.Daniel Bell-Drummond leg-glanced the first ball of Kent’s reply for four but top-edged to deep midwicket at the end of the over, and Sam Northeast slapped an Ollie Robinson long hop to extra cover on 13 in the middle of a fifth over that still cost the bowler 16 runs as Fabian Cowdrey, promoted to open because of Joe Denly’s side strain, struck him for a six and two fours.Cowdrey, however, slogged Beer’s legspin to mid-on after reaching 23 from just 11 balls and it was left to Billings and Blake to hurry Kent to their modest target.Sussex lost the wickets of openers Luke Wright for 12 and Chris Nash for 13, and never really got going. Wright lofted Mitch Claydon straight for six, survived a hard chance to deep mid-on off the next ball – his powerful drive still went for four – and then mishit the next ball to Stevens coming in from long-off, while Nash flicked a ball from seamer Ivan Thomas straight to short fine leg.The early loss of captain Wright, in particular, so far their chief source of runs in the competition this season with 430 from 11 innings, seemed to deflate Sussex and, despite Matt Machan’s 32-ball 39, they struggled in the middle overs against accurate bowling from the wily pair of Tredwell, 33, and Darren Stevens, 39.As they have done so often before, Tredwell and Stevens put a stranglehold on the scoring rate, while also taking three wickets between them as Sussex limped from 44 for 2 at the end of the six-over Powerplay to 82 for 5 in the 13th over.Craig Cachopa did manage to swing Tredwell to midwicket for four but, next ball, top-edged to short long leg to depart for 11. George Bailey, the Australian overseas signing, made just 2 before being deceived by Tredwell’s offspin and stumped, while Machan hit Stevens to long-on after a good contribution containing five fours.It got worse still for Sussex when Beer, on 6, picked out long-off in Cowdrey’s first over of low-slung left-arm spin, and it was 112 for 7 in the 18th over when Claydon returned to see Robinson flip a reverse lap to Adam Ball at short fine leg.Harry Finch, 20, hit Matt Coles straight for six and also included two fours in a useful 35 not out from 28 balls, and Yardy pulled the penultimate ball of the innings for four to go to 9 before having his stumps spread-eagled by Claydon trying to flick the final ball to long leg.

Zimbabwe Cricket has signed an eight-year deal with Total Sports Marketing (TSM), a Bangladesh sports marketing agency, for the marketing rights and live television coverage of all of Zimbabwe’s home international matches.The agreement, which both parties claim to be a “zero-cost deal” as of now, was signed in July and could conceivably end ZC’s partnership with Indian firm Ten Sports, whose parent company Taj Television holds the television rights for Asia and the Middle East. Due to their association with Essel Group, an Indian conglomerate company said to be eyeing an extraordinary takeover of world cricket, Ten Sports have fallen out of favour with cricket authorities.Only last month, India’s tour of Zimbabwe was initially called off due to the unresolved issues between the BCCI and Ten Sports, though the tour eventually took place after crunch talks after the two boards worked out a deal.Moinul Chowdury, the TSM’s chief executive, told ESPNcricinfo that his company was ready to operate at a loss until Zimbabwe started attracting significant corporate interest. Chowdury claims that ZC saved at least $2.5 million in television production costs when the country hosted India and New Zealand over the last two months. He added that the board retained the $3.8 million in revenue generated from the India series alone.”The ZC leadership convinced me to invest and I’m confident that around 2016-2017 we will start operating at a profit,” Chowdury said. “Zimbabwe was the only Test nation that was meeting its own television production costs and it took a huge toll on the board. They’ve shown us a good blueprint, and we are happy to be in business with them.”ZC interim chairman Wilson Manase said under the deal, Zimbabwe are guaranteed at least 50 days of home international cricket in all three versions of the game until the 2023 World Cup.”Under the FTP, we were supposed to play just 58 ODIs outside the ICC tournaments. That was going to decrease our chances of improving rankings. The onus is now on us to make ourselves marketable and repay the confidence and faith shown in us by TSM,” Manase said.

Romance and drama. Gloucestershire’s Royal London Cup victory had great big dollops of those two vital ingredients. As they inexorably undermined Surrey’s run chase to secure the prize in the final over, it was tempting to imagine that the competition had regained, if only temporarily, some of the prestige the domestic one-day cups enjoyed during Gloucestershire’s period of dominance between 1999 and 2004.There were stories aplenty on both sides. Jade Dernbach’s hat-trick and career-best figures, the bowling of 40-year-old Azhar Mahmood and, at the other end of his career, 17-year-old Sam Curran’s valiant attempt to get Surrey over the line. For the victors, Geraint Jones’ fairytale send-off, the all-round contributions of Jack Taylor – who was banned from bowling two years ago and faced the uncertainty of having to remodel his action – and the stunning triumph of an unheralded collective.Gloucestershire had been glibly characterised as a one-man team in the build-up, dependent on their captain and opening batsman Michael Klinger. The Australian’s personal tale is also a stirring one but his dismissal in the first over of the match meant Gloucestershire had to win their ninth Lord’s final out of ten the hard way.The manner in which they scrapped their way to a par score, based around the nous of an old-stager in Jones, and then throttled their opponents in the field was reminiscent of the Gloucestershire teams led by Mark Alleyne more than a decade ago. Klinger, who has agreed another two-year contract with the club, now has the chance to try and create a dynasty of his own.

Victory ‘surreal’ admits Dawson

Gloucestershire head coach Richard Dawson said it would take a while for his team’s dramatic victory over Surrey to sink in. Gloucestershire held on in a tight finish to win by six runs and claim their first trophy since 2004.
“It is brilliant, it is an amazing feat from the players,” Dawson said. “They take a lot of credit, in fact they take all the credit.
“It was one of those things where you get on a roll and you think get past the quarter-final, get up to Yorkshire, get past Yorkshire and you end up here. It is all a bit surreal. I’m sure it will sink in the next few days.
“There is a lot of talent in the changing room. Being led by Michael especially, leading from the front with the bat and showing commitment coming back from Australia. We have had to call on the squad when there was injuries and people stood up and performed.
“That has been the best thing about the whole tournament, we have asked people to do a job and they have come in and nailed it away.”

“You don’t want to look too far ahead but it could be the making of something special,” he said. “Each team will get better and we need to get better so there is a lot of hard work to do. In this comp, unlike sometimes in the T20, we’ve performed really well under the pump.”Knowing we can win in high pressure situations will serve the team well. It’s fantastic for the whole club – the supporters, the members, those who work in the office – 11 years without a trophy, this will lift everyone going forward. It’s a big achievement for the club and proud to be part of it.”Although Gloucestershire finished second in Group A, behind Surrey, their lack of recent success in limited-overs knockout competition meant they were largely unfancied. A narrow victory over Hampshire – winners of the 40-over Clydesdale Bank trophy in 2012 – in the last eight was followed by a more emphatic, Klinger-led triumph at Headingley against county champions Yorkshire to send them back to Lord’s.Success has come in Gloucestershire’s first season under the new coaching team of Richard Dawson and Ian Harvey, and while Klinger admitted it was perhaps ahead of schedule he sensed it was something the group was ready for.”You could probably say it’s come a little bit quicker, but I said to the boys before the quarter-final sometimes you win them before you are ready – sometimes it’s your time. I tried to put that message across, that it’s our time. Now it’s a great opportunity to build on that over the next couple of years and hopefully it will be a stepping stone. The previous coaching group worked really hard and now Richard Dawson and Ian Harvey have been brilliant and taken us to another level. The players have a willingness to work. It’s a very proud moment to see how we’ve progressed.”Despite making a duck Klinger still finished atop the run-scoring charts, as his players successfully muzzled Jason Roy, Steven Davies and, after a clinical half-century seemed to have put Surrey on their way, Kumar Sangakkara. Without his runs to rely on, it made Gloucestershire’s victory all the more impressive.”I was just disappointed I didn’t contribute at that stage,” Klinger said. “I pride myself on scoring runs in big games, but not today but that’s how cricket works. I was still very confident the boys would get the job done. They showed that 220 was just enough. To be honest I don’t think anyone would have cared who did well today, so long as we finished on top.”He also had special praise for Man of the Match, Taylor, whose punchy innings helped Gloucestershire up to what turned out to be a winning score. He then took the crucial wickets of Sangakkara and Rory Burns in his 3 for 43 and held on to the final catch as Lord’s erupted in an outburst of west country pride.”Not only today, but all year in all formats – particularly the T20 and one-day stuff. He’s won us games with the bat, his bowling has been very consistent and his fielding has improved a lot in the last two years. He’s a serious all-round package. Today, under pressure, he got the job done. That cameo he played got us a total we needed. Then to bowl like he did was fantastic.”

Pragyan Ojha has revealed that he went “literally blank” when he was banned last December for chucking, but has come through the difficult period with a successfully remodeled action and is looking forward to the new season.”I was literally blank for a couple of days,” Ojha told ESPNcricinfo. “I really could not understand what to do and how to go about it.”Ojha credited the strong support system he had for helping him bounce back.”I felt this should not end like this,” he said. “I was very emotional about what happened but I was lucky to have great support and encouragement from my family and [VVS] Laxman . They connected to me everyday, they took my feedback, and also gave their feedback. The passion towards playing for the country pushed me.”Having confirmed his switch from Hyderabad to Bengal in a bid to compete in the top tier of the Ranji Trophy, Ojha is looking forward to winning games for his new team.”Mentally and physically I am in a good space now,” Ojha told ESPNcricinfo. “My aim is to take wickets, do well for the Bengal side, and win games for them.”Ojha became the third-fastest Indian to 100 Test wickets in March 2013 and eight months later went on to claim match figures of 10 for 89 in Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell Test. Soon after, however, his fortunes slid drastically.First, he was left out of India’s squads for the tours to New Zealand and England. Then, in December 2014, he was banned from bowling in competitive cricket, and was subsequently withdrawn from the Hyderabad squad.Ojha reported to the ICC-accredited testing facility at the Sri Ramachandra Medical College [SRMC] in Chennai, where former Tamil Nadu spinners D Vasu and M Venkataramana helped him correct his action. Vasu identified unwanted body movement that was breaking his ‘kinetic chain’, thereby affecting his action.”The training was pretty serious and intense,” Vasu said. “We focused on the wrist position. We have constant video feedback; it’s a live feedback the way you correct muscle memory. We have a software in SRMC when a bowler bowls, and after about six seconds he can come back and watch it. Right now he looks fine.”Ojha said his action was now more side-on, but he hadn’t made too many other changes. “Definitely [the action is more side-on],” Ojha says. “We tried different types of action to see which would suit me and helped me make things right. The unwanted body movement was corrected. It wasn’t like I changed everything completely.”Was there any specific method or exercise to correct his action? “No, there is no set or fixed pattern,” Ojha said. “It is an individualistic process, if I can say that.””Initially I used to do some visualisations but slowly and gradually [the correction] sunk in and I started doing well. After playing five-six domestic games, it become more of a natural thing.”On his return in February, after the BCCI cleared his new action, Ojha took three wickets in an over against Himachal Pradesh. He wheeled away for 42 overs in HP’s only innings and finished with a four-wicket haul. He picked up another four-for in the Irani Cup against Karnataka, before returning career-best T20 figures of 4 for 15, against Andhra, in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.Ojha also showed good form in the two-match unofficial Test series against Australia A, finishing with ten wickets. India A coach Rahul Dravid lauded Ojha for his control and bowling with a half-sleeved shirt.”He has taken the bull by the horns: ‘I have nothing to hide and I want to bowl with half-sleeves’. He must be applauded for that,” Dravid said. “Because he has gone out there [with the thought] that I’m confident in my action and bowling and confident enough to wear a half-sleeve t-shirt.”Asked if preferring to bowl in a half-sleeved shirt was an emphatic statement, Ojha said: “That is up to you experts. But the compliment from Dravid boosted my confidence. It really inspires me to do well.”Ojha’s immediate task is to fill a troubling hole in Bengal’s bowling attack. While Ashok Dinda and Veer Pratap Singh led Bengal’s pace attack last season with handy back-up options in Shib Paul and Sourav Sarkar, spin was an area of concern.Left-arm spinning allrounder Amit Banerjee, who made his debut last season, took nine wickets in four matches, while Iresh Saxena managed only two wickets. Offspinner Saurashish Lahiri, who led Bengal to the knockouts in 2013-2014, has tailed off and has been left out of the squad for the match against double-treble champions Karnataka. Ojha’s guile and experience add weight to a revamped bowling line-up that also includes the former India Under-19 offspinner Aamir Gani.Should Ojha solve Bengal’s spin quandary and bag a sizeable wicket haul this season, a national recall could follow. Ojha, though, emphasised that he was not thinking that far ahead. He said his immediate focus was to take wickets in the Ranji Trophy and maintain his fitness.”The only things in my control are my bowling and my fitness. If I keep these things right, everything will fall in place. Other things are not in my control. I want to keep it as simple as that.”

ScorecardA collective bowling effort followed by a brace of half-centuries from Heino Kuhn and Graeme van Buuren set up Titans’ seven-wicket win in a rain-hit game against Dolphins in Centurion.Chasing a D/L target of 174 in 37 overs, Titans lost their openers early and were struggling at 19 for 2 in 4.5 overs. Kuhn and van Buuren turned the innings around with a 137-run stand for the third wicket in 19.5 overs. Kuhn remained unbeaten on 63 off 68 balls after van Buuren had been dismissed for 84 off 71 and Titans achieved the target in 27.1 overs, with 59 balls to spare.That Titans had such a manageable target to chase was down to their bowlers, who had dismissed Dolphins for 171 in 32.2 overs. Having been put in to bat, Dolphins got off to a quick start, with Cameron Delport smacking 21 off 15 balls before being dismissed by Albie Morkel. They were 63 for 2 at the end of 10 overs and 88 for 3 when rain interrupted the game after 17.1 overs.The match was then reduced to a 37-over fixture and Dolphins collapsed shortly after the resumption. They slipped from 130 for 3 in 25 overs to 141 for 7 in 28.2, and were eventually bowled out for 171. Opener Vaughn van Jaarsveld top scored with 66 for Dolphins, while Henry Davids’ 3 for 30 were the best figures for Titans.

Match facts

November 20, 2015
Start time 1500 local (1100 GMT)
1:34

We’re desperate to win the series – Buttler

Big Picture

Such has been the force of England’s comeback after going 1-0 down, they would now be sorely disappointed not to clinch the series. Even allowing for the fact they won the ODIs 4-0 on their last visit to the UAE, victory would count as another significant staging post for Eoin Morgan’s young side on their journey to being considered genuine contenders in the 50-over format.They overturned a significant disadvantage after losing the toss and being asked to chase in Sharjah, with James Taylor and Jos Buttler showing commendable sangfroid to avert crisis in the middle overs and ultimately steer England to a comfortable win. Taylor is fast building a reputation as one of England’s most accomplished players of spin, while Buttler’s return to form with an unbeaten 49 could have wider significance.Pakistan’s collapse from 132 for 2 to 161 for 8 raised eyebrows and tempers – though why anyone would be surprised by such a performance from one of the game’s flakiest batting line-ups is perhaps the bigger mystery. Back home, some have questioned selection – the continued absence of Ahmed Shehzad particularly – while dissent against the coach, Waqar Younis, has increased, despite Pakistan’s rise to No. 2 in the Test rankings just a fortnight ago.While there had been signs of an upturn in their one-day form under the captaincy of Azhar Ali, any progress has apparently been checked. The top order remains in a muddle, with Babar Azam’s promotion to opener yet to bear fruit, while the running in Sharjah would have embarrassed the Keystone Kops. It is all the more galling to have stuttered against England, who were antediluvian at the World Cup eight months ago but have located a flux capacitor to arrive with a zap in the present day.Pakistan can still tie the series but they remain without a win over England in bilateral ODI contests since 2005. Lose in Dubai and it will be three series defeats in a row. The last time that happened, Pakistan were at least consoled by having the World Cup in their possession.Jos Buttler found some welcome form in England’s Sharjah victory•Getty Images

Form guide

Pakistan: LLWWL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
England: WWLLW

Players to watch …

He has overseen three series wins in a row (albeit two of them were against Zimbabwe) and is only just back from injury but Azhar Ali is quickly learning about the pressure of being Pakistan captain. Having taken over from Misbah-ul-Haq after the World Cup, Azhar resumed his ODI career after a two-year gap with two hundreds and three 70-plus scores in eight innings; that form has tailed off, however, and he has managed just 66 runs in three games against England, at an antique strike rate of 60.55. Needs a score almost as much as victory.James Taylor might finally have made himself an automatic selection, more than four years after his ODI debut. He impressed after getting an opportunity at No. 3 in Sri Lanka 12 months ago, before being dropped down the order at the World Cup and then dropped from England’s new-look side altogether (despite captaining the team against Ireland). Another chance came when Joe Root was rested against Australia – as did a maiden hundred – and his Man of the Match display in Sharjah ought to secure him a berth in the middle order for some time.

Team news

Will Shehzad finally get his chance? Haroon Rasheed, the chief selector, has said that his exclusion is not on disciplinary grounds and his proven quality at opener has been lacking. Mohammad Rizwan’s self-inflicted run-out was the dopiest of the lot and he could make way for Azam to return to No. 6, where he scored an unbeaten 62 in the first match. Doubts remain over Yasir Shah’s fitness but Zafar Gohar did provide something for Pakistan to be encouraged about with his debut performance.Pakistan (probable) 1 Azhar Ali (capt), 2 Ahmed Shehzad, 3 Mohammad Hafeez, 4 Iftikhar Ahmed, 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Babar Azam, 7 Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 8 Anwar Ali, 9 Wahab Riaz, 10 Yasir Shah/Zafar Gohar, 11 Mohammad Irfan.England have stuck with the same XI in all three games so far and seem likely to continue with that approach as they look to seal the series.England (probable) 1 Jason Roy, 2 Alex Hales, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 James Taylor, 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 David Willey, 11 Reece Topley.

Pitch and conditions

The teams have moved to Dubai for the final match, where the Test surface was more receptive to pace. The last three ODIs between Full Members there have seen the chasing team win, suggesting that batting under lights won’t be such an issue.

Stats and trivia

• Eoin Morgan needs 47 runs to become the sixth England player – and first captain – to score 1000 ODI runs in a calendar year.
• England won both of their previous ODIs in Dubai, beating Pakistan by nine wickets and four wickets in 2012.
• Sarfraz Ahmed needs 18 runs for 1000 in one-day internationals.

Quotes

“Yes we have been making mistakes so we have to overcome that. England is playing well and we did not play to our potential, that’s why we lost but we have confidence that we can play well and win.”
“It was a magnificent win, we look to the next game to go on and win the series, we’ve earned the right to do that so hopefully we can produce another performance like that.”

Trent Bridge, lunchtime: West Indies 195 for nine; England to batEngland turned in a sound bowling and fielding performance in restrictingthe West Indies to 195 for nine wickets in their innings in the final groupmatch of the NatWest Series at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.Chris Gayle and Chris Adams got into the thirties, but the accurate, disciplined England bowlers allowed none of the batsmen to take charge. Craig White was the leading wicket-taker with three, but it was essentially a typical team effort.The only time their dominance was challenged was when Franklyn Rose lay about him for 29, but by then it was too late to change the course on the innings. Unless the West Indian bowlers can pull something unusual out of the bag, England should be able to record another victory on a good pitch.Sarwan’s freak dismissalIf Campbell could be considered unlucky to be out playing the ball on to his stumps via the body, it is hard to think of a word to describe the freak dismissal of debutant Sarwan (20). He mistimed a drive at White, which bounced up off the pitch behind him; as Sarwan followed through, the end of his bat met the ball just behind his head, and it ricocheted on to his stumps. He had been in the process of reviving the innings in partnership with his captain, only to be struck down freakishly just as he was beginning to settle in. West Indies 101 for four.Powell (1) fell in White’s next over, driving at a ball just outside off stump and playing it on to his stumps through the gate; 107 for five, and the West Indies were sinking deeper into trouble. England did miss an opportunity to press home their advantage further when Mullally failed to hold a sharp return catch from Jacobs, on 3. He had only two more to his credit, though, when he was slow starting off for a quick single by Adams near Thorpe at midwicket, and a fine throw led to a run-out; West Indies 132 for six. After such a fine series in South Africa last winter, Jacobs has had a hard time on this tour and may have to fight for his place.Entertaining play
Rose attacks bowlingWest Indian hopes of a revival even at this stage seemed to have ended when Adams (36) drove at Mullally and played the ball on to his stumps off the inside edge; 139 for seven. But in fact there followed the most entertaining partnership of the innings as Rose, partnered by Nagamootoo, opened up and attacked the bowling, helped by a few big swings, mishits and snicks. They added 31 before Nagamootoo (11) fatally checked a drive against Gough and was caught by Ealham behind the bowler; 170 for eight in the 47th over.Rose and Dillon continued to swing vigorously, the former hitting an entertaining 29 before holing out to Franks at long-on off White in the final over; 189 for nine. Dillon (14) and King (1) were not out as the innings ended on 195 for nine.

Aided by a fine unbeaten 100 by Manish Kumar, Bihar ended their firstinnings at 240 on the opening day of the East Zone Cooch Behar Trophy(Under-19) Tournament against Assam at the NFRSA Stadium in Maligaonon Friday.Opting to bat, Bihar made a slow start with openers Ratan Kumar (20)and Sandeep Vig (39) putting on 35 runs in 19.2 overs. Ratan was thefirst to be dismissed when he gave a catch to Rabin Das off SBhattacharjee. Then Fardeen Khan (21) joined Sandeep to take the scoreon to 61 when Fardeen was bowled by Chandan Ruat in the 30th over.Amir Hashmi (15) was the next to be dismissed in the 36th over when hewas run out.Manish Kumar and Sandeep boosted Bihar’s hopes by adding 51 runs forthe fourth wicket in 20.2 overs. After Sandeep was bowled by ChandanRaut, Tej Pratap joined Manish to take the score to 160 when Rabin Dasheld a catch off Chandan Raut to dismiss Tej Pratap for ten.Thereafter Manish kept losing partners even as he kept scoring runs.Chandan Das, with figures of 5 for 49, ran through the Bihar lowerorder to leave Manish stranded at 100. During a 223 minute stay at thecrease, Manish faced 163 balls while finding the boundary ropes 7times.Earlier the match started with Assam protesting against some of theBihar players who they charged were overage. They had even sent a faxin this regard to the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Assam,who themselves were affected with the problem of overaged players,announced a fresh eleven the previous night after conducting medicaltests.

Having lost just one wicket during the final session of day one of their Pura Cup clash against South Australia at the Adelaide Oval, Western Australia will head into the second day comfortably placed at a score of 4/273.Star batsman Justin Langer said the match, played by two full-strength teams, was a good practice for Australian players gearing up to face an international season agianst the West Indies and Zimbabwe. And, for much of the day, it looked it – with Western Australia being made to work hard for its runs and the visitors finding it difficult to take wickets.After winning the toss and electing to bat, the Warriors scored at a solid rate, but lacked the extra edge to lead them to the three-hundred mark by the end of play. They will be hoping for a big score from Damien Martyn when play resumes tomorrow – the Australian Test hopeful having finished the day on 56.Martyn, who toiled for 186 minutes to post his 50 off 161 balls, struck six boundaries for the day. He will resume tomorrow with Tom Moody by his side, the captain on 47 off 97 deliveries.The pair were joined with the team on 4/190, when Simon Katich fell lbw to Peter McIntyre. Katich, one of Australia’s most exciting young batsmen, played a slow innings today – finishing on 25 from 60 balls, with two fours.Earlier in the day, the crowd of 900 was entertained by a breezy 60 from Langer, but not before he had endured an early scare.After scoring three ducks from three innings so far this season, Langer nearly departed for another today, when a Gillespie yorker went straight through him. “It was an absolute beauty,” he said of the ball that almost sent the speedster on his way to a hat-trick. “Most times when you get out in batting, it’s batsman error, but had I have got cleaned up that first ball, I’d definitely say that I could’ve done too much about it, it was a great ball,” he said.But the 29-year-old was glad the ball didn’t crash into the stumps after missing his edge. “Yeah it was good to get off the mark. You’re always a bit nervous when you come off a couple of ducks, but you know, for me, it was a bad week at the office really. Most people have a week at the officebut mine becomes public that’s all. I wasn’t too worried about it, I know I’ve been batting well. When you play every week of the year, you’ve got to have one bad one in 12 months, so I’d like to just put that behind me and get on and have a good season now.”In the first session of the day, Western Australia had fallen just shy of the one hundred mark, going to lunch at 1/99. The Redbacks then swung the momentum their way, with Jason Gillespie and Paul Wilson picking up the wickets of Langer (60) and Mike Hussey (48).Fittingly, Jason Gillespie, the hardest-working of the Redbacks today, was involved in each of the first three dismissals – snaring Campbell and Langer’s wickets and assisting Wilson with a regulation catch to end Hussey’s marathon innings.Looking sharp and dangerous, he was the pick of the South Australian attack today, finishing with a miserly 52 runs off his 26 overs, including ten maidens. Wilson was the next best, with one wicket, five maidens and 49 runs off his 20 overs. Blewett, with 24 runs from his three overs, and Young,with 62 from 21, were the most expensive. McIntyre also had a disappointing day (his only consolation Katich’s wicket in the last session) and was hit for 70 runs off 23 overs.