Plate Group Points Table
ScorecardDeepak Mangaraj ripped apart the top order with his medium pace, while S Sehgal tore into middle order and Sanjay Satpathy, the offspinner, spun out the tail as Orissa shot out Vidarbha for a paltry 87 to register a stunning victory on the final day at Nagpur. Earlier, half-centuries from Subit Biswal and Pravanjan Mullick allowed Orissa to declare their second innings after gaining a 261-run lead. by 5 wickets
ScorecardSyed Abbas Ali’s breezy 93 not out and 50 from Nikhil Patwardhan steered Madhya Pradesh to an outright victory over Jharkhand at Indore. Shahbaz Nadeem, the 16-year old left-arm spinner, struck twice to push MP to a wobbling 120 for 5 when Abbas Ali, the captain, decided to impose himself on the proceedings carting three sixes and eleven fours in a 79-balls knock.ScorecardA good allround performance from Shadab Jakati got Goa close to an improbable victory but in the end they had to settle for two points as Tripura hung on to draw the game at Margoa. Jakati reached his maiden hundred and Swapnil Asnodkar his double-century as Goa declared after stretching their lead, overnight on 7, to 119. Jakati and Robin D’Souza, the right-arm medium pacer, grabbed two wickets apiece to leave Tripura tottering at 96 for 5 in the 47th over.
ScorecardKerala earned two points from a drawn game as Rajasthan, having resumed at 23 for 0, batted out the final day at Jaipur. Anshu Jain hit 71 as he added 68 runs with Dishant Yagnik to lift Rajasthan to 231.
ScorecardHalf-centuries from Sajjad and Arshad Bhatt saw Jammu & Kashmir bat out a draw to give Assam two points in the Plate match at Guwahati. J&K, overnight on 12 for 0, settled for some batting practice on the final day.

A soggy outfield, caused by persistent rain, has resulted in the abandonment of the opening day of the Carib Beer Series match between the Windward Islands and the Leeward Islands at Mindoo Phillip Park. The area just off the pitch was soggy and major part of the outfield had small puddles of water which would take a great of sunshine to dry up. The prospect of an early start on day two seems unlikely.Eddie Nicholls and Lawrence Thomas, the umpires, made the decision just before the scheduled tea time interval at 2:40pm local time as intermittent drizzles had the grounds staff pulling the cover off and on the pitch which seems to be unaffected.

The dispute between South Africa and Australia surrounding Shane Warne’s vociferous appealing promises to continue, with Andre Nel suggesting the South Africans are to match their opponents with their own enthusiastic questioning of the umpires.”If they can get away with it, why can’t we try and get away with it too,” Nel told reporters at Sydney airport. “Maybe we can try and put pressure on umpires, inexperienced umpires, which they do very, very well. Maybe we can learn from them to do that better.”Despite the South African’s protestations about Warne’s aggressive appealing in this week’s second Test at Melbourne, he wasn’t reported by the umpires. Mickey Arthur, the South Africa coach, said Warne was a master at pressuring the umpires but Chris Broad, the match referee, rejected suggestions that he should face disciplinary action for his robust appealing, particularly to rookie Test umpire Asad Rauf of Pakistan.”I think they are very, very clever about the way they do things with umpires,” Nel added. “They put a lot of pressure on the umpires and sometimes it counts in their favour. Maybe we can learn something from them in a certain way by doing this. But sometimes they go a bit overboard and it gets a bit annoying, but that’s the way they do it and it’s working for them.”Meanwhile, newly-arrived Johan Botha was shielded from the media at the airport. Off-spinner Botha, 23, who has yet to play a Test, joined the team last Thursday and could partner established spinner Nicky Boje in the third Test on the spin-friendly Sydney pitch. Nel described Botha as ‘a surprise package,’ but South African officials didn’t want to subject Botha to undue media pressure.Nel added that he was looking forward to opening the fast bowling attack alongside Pollock.”It’s always nice to get the chance with the new ball and to bowl with Polly,” he said. “If I can fill the boots Makhaya has filled the last few years, I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

Points tableMatabeleland, the odds-on favourites, sat out the third round of matches in the Faithwear provincial one-day tournament, and the absence of several leading players as a result of their dispute with Zimbabwe Cricket meant the standard of cricket was fairly low.Although recent heavy rainfall has left grounds wet, one local said the consistently low scoring owed more to the lack of the batsmen’s technique. In five completed matches to date the highest team score has been 118 and no batsman has reached fifty.Mashonaland’s stand-in side beat Midlands by two wickets in a low-scoring tie at Harare Sports Club. Midlands struggled after being put in to bat, taking almost 37 overs to score 91, and the run rate was equally dire when Mashonaland chased. When they slipped from 56 for 3 to 78 for 8 it seemed they were on course for another defeat, but they crawled across the finishing line in the 42nd over.It was an even more low-scoring affair at the Academy where Manicaland were bowled out for 86 by Msvingo, who eased to a five-wicket win thanks to a gutsy 41 from Marumisa, the highest score of the day.

Younis Khan, Pakistan’s vice-captain, has admitted that pressures from the crowd distracted him and affected his batting during Pakistan’s 4-1 one-day series loss to India.”People need to understand that every player has his own style of playing,” Younis told the . “I’m neither Shahid Afridi nor Mahendra Singh Dhoni; I like to bat more in the mould of Rahul Dravid: staying around, accumulate runs and hit out at the right time. That’s the way I play my game.”Younis, the star of Pakistan’s 1-0 Test victory with 533 runs, said that he was sick of hearing taunts from the crowd yelling for him to get on with it. “Unfortunately throughout the series against England and India I’ve been constantly disturbed by the crowds passing personal remarks and making demands for big hitting,” he said. “I would like to appeal to the people to understand that I like to bat my own way and so far it has paid off for my team.”Younis also made it clear that he had no problems batting at any position in Tests or one-day internationals. “I want to clear this misconception that I like to bat at No.3 in Tests but not at the same position in the one-dayers,” he added. “I will bat wherever my captain or coach wants me to; I have no problems with that at all. My job is to make runs for my team. There are no personal preferences involved.”Inzamam-ul-Haq and Bob Woolmer have been derided by critics for ‘shielding’ Younis down the order in the one-day series, but Younis remained supportive of the decision. “Look, I agree to what Imran Khan says; the theory is simple: Tests and one-dayers are totally different in nature,” he said. “In one-day matches the game plan should be the in-form players should go up and play maximum overs. But if the captain and coach think otherwise I’ve no problems with that. And to be honest Shoaib Malik did get runs at number three. Now that we’ve started losing everyone is raising this issue.”On Pakistan’s dismal performance in the series, Younis maintained that the absence of Shoaib Akhtar was key. I think the biggest factor was the injury to Shoaib Akhtar. It cost us a lot,” he said. “If you look at the way Shoaib bowled against England and then in the Tests against India he was our main striking force. His injury did allow the Indians some breathing space. “No matter what the Indians say but we know they were not comfortable facing Shoaib. He didn’t take too many wickets but the pressure created by him allowed the other bowlers to break through.”He also added that there was pressure on the team and the management from critics and the media. “I think that sort of pressure leads nowhere because after all the common aim is the team should do well. I think the management should be left alone to take its decisions,” Younis said. “The team does not turn bad overnight. This very team has been performing well in the last one year or more. But yes we need to sit down and see where we went wrong. I think we need just one good match to turn things around and it should happen in Sri Lanka. We need to regroup strongly and quickly.”

ScorecardDave Mohammed took a career-best 7 for 48 to confirm the formality of a Trinidad and Tobago victory 45 minutes into the fourth day and secure their passage into the final of the 2006 Carib Beer Challenge.The overwhelming 391-run win over opponents who had embarrassed them at Shaw Park in Tobago in late January was highly pleasing to captain Daren Ganga and coach Dave Williams. It was also T&T’s largest-ever margin of victory in the regional four-day competition.But the win was even sweeter because some of the key contributors were young players. “We had the youngsters coming through,” said Ganga, “with Jason Mohammed getting a hundred, [Richard] Kelly coming and playing an excellent [first] innings as well, [Amit] Jaggernauth and Dave Mohammed the two spin twins doing their job, so it’s good to see the youngsters pulling the team out of a situation that was very, very dicey.”Jason Mohammed, the middle-order batsman and recent West Indies Under-19 representative, deservedly pipped his namesake Dave for the Man-of-the-Match prize. Jason’s unbeaten first-innings 124 was the difference between T&T getting into a position of authority and being forced to chase the game.But spinner Dave’s match haul of ten for 92 further enhanced his best-ever season for T&T and underlined his credentials for higher representation. His work and the collective effort of the others prompted Williams to say: “All along we’ve been playing good cricket. This is just the continuation of the hard work that we have put in. So as the coach I’m pretty satisfied and I’m sure that we are going to go on and win this final.”Ganga, who did his part with a second innings 161, was pleased with the collective effort and then turned his attentions to next week’s final at home. “We played like champions today,” he said after the game. “To be able to beat a team in three and a little bit days, it’s very important for us to send the right message.”Attentions turned to next week’s final at home. ” We’re not going to get complacent. We know this is an opportunity for us to make history and to set a path that no other Trinidad and Tobago team has achieved. So it’s something that we are all hungry for. We know that whoever it is, whether it is Barbados or Guyana, it’s going to be a tough task. It’s a final, so everybody is gonna be coming with their A game.”But premier batsman Brian Lara is expected to rejoin the squad after missing this match, although Jason Mohammed should be retained, according to Ganga. “Playing in his second game, he has showed a great amount of maturity. I’m definitely sure he’s going to be involved in the final, so he’s just got to go from strength to strength.”In his team’s quest to complete the four-day double of Carib Beer Cup and Challenge titles come Saturday at Guaracara, Williams would like to see one thing improve. “We dropped a couple catches, but that’s how it goes sometimes. We probably need to do a bit more work in terms of our fielding.”

County Championship
Two-up, two-down is the right balance for two leagues of nine teams. So, 2005 was a good season to get promoted back to the top flight as Lancashire, Yorkshire and Durham managed, but not such a great time to go the other way like Glamorgan, Surrey and Gloucestershire. The points system remains the same, but there should be some attacking cricket in the second division with just two promotion spots up for grabs, although safety in division one is now even more attainable with high-scoring draws.C&G Trophy
This is an interesting one. Previously the premier one-day tournament has been a knock-out format, under various sponsors, and dubbed the ‘FA Cup of cricket’. Now it has been changed into a league format, with two groups, leading straight to a Lord’s final. Each group – tagged North and South – consists of 10 teams. Scotland join nine counties in the north while Ireland take their place with the south. Each team plays each other once and the top team in each group progresses to Lord’s on August 26. But the changes appear to not have really been thought through. The idea was to give more 50-over cricket, the international standard, to county sides before the Natwest Series starts, therefore giving players a chance to hone skills and press claims for selection. However, because there are no quarter or semi-finals there will be a lot of dead matches with many teams out of the running for the final early on. In a busy season, counties could see these games as a chance to rest players therefore defeating the object of high-standard 50-over matches. C&G are not thrilled about the changes, apparently: they have already pulled their sponsorship for next season.Twenty20
This is quickly becoming the lifeblood of the domestic game and will again form the major entertainment in mid-summer. However, it will have to compete with the football World Cup so the attraction of Twenty20 will be given a eral – and tough – test. The group matches will be played from June 27 to July 11, with the quarter-finals two weeks later and Finals Day at Trent Bridge, the inaugural venue in 2003, on August 12.Pro40
If in doubt, stick ‘Pro’ somewhere near a one-day tournament and people will come flocking through the gates. Well, maybe not, but the ECB haven’t been able to find a new sponsor for the re-jigged, and in many ways downgraded, National League. It has been shunted to the back third of the season, following the C&G and Twenty20, and reduced to a 40-over contest where each team plays the others once. There are still two divisions with promotion and relegation and like the Championship this has been amended to two-up, two-down. However, a play-off between the seventh-placed team in Division One and the third-placed team in Division Two has been added and will provide the finale to the county season on September 24.Now, if you understand all that, you are ready for the 2006 season.

South Africa replaced New Zealand to occupy the fifth spot in the latest ICC Test team rankings, following their 2-0 win in the recently concluded series between the two sides. South Africa emerged victorious at Centurion and following a high-scoring draw at Cape Town, clinched the series at Johannesburg, quashing New Zealand’s chance of retaining their position.Among the bowlers, Makhaya Ntini retains his position at No.2 behind Muttiah Muralitharan, after finishing as the leading wicket-taker in the series with 20 wickets. James Franklin, who also had an excellent series with the ball, picking up 15 wickets, is at No.16, moving up by one notch.Among the batsmen, Rahul Dravid moved up one notch, replacing South Africa’s Jacques Kallis to occupy the second spot. Ricky Ponting is still sitting pretty at the top with 931 points, 89 ahead of Dravid.In the allrounders list, Shaun Pollock rose two places to bag the No.3 spot, overtaking Irfan Pathan and Daniel Vettori. Kallis, who became only the second player to achieve the double of 8000 runs and 200 wickets in Tests after Sir Gary Sobers, is ahead of Pollock and right behind Andrew Flintoff who retains his No.1 slot.For the full list of rankings, click here.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is keen on playing a scheduled tri-series in Sri Lanka between August 15 and 30 instead of September, as was originally proposed by the Sri Lankan board.The request follows India’s decision to play an ODI series against West Indies in September, comprising not more than five matches. The dates for that series have not been finalised yet.”We want the tri-series to be held in August rather than what has been proposed by the Sri Lankan board, which is in September,” Niranjan Shah, the BCCI Secretary, told PTI. “I am going to Colombo to attend the Asian Cricket Council’s Executive Board meeting on May 21 and would take the opportunity to discuss the matter with the Lankan board officials.”The triangular features South Africa as the third team and could be India’s first series of the new season following the ongoing tour of the West Indies.

Pakistan went into the opening Test here at Lord’s without three of their key players and it remains uncertain whether the injured trio would be fit in time for the second match at Old Trafford later this month.A Pakistan team official told that Younis Khan, the vice-captain and middle-order batsman, Shoaib Malik, the allrounder and Mohammad Asif, the medium pacer, were left out of the playing XI at the last minute because of fitness problems.Zaheer Abbas, the team manager, said the management was hoping to field Younis Khan in the opening Test but since he still complained of a painful knee and it was decided to replace him with Faisal Iqbal, the talented middle-order batsman.”Younis has been getting treatment for his knee problem for the last few days and we were all hoping he would be fit to play at Lordís,” said Zaheer. “But unfortunately, he was still in pain last night and we had no choice but to leave him out.”He added that Younis, who had torn a ligament under his knee, would continue to get treatment for the injury. It was still too early to say that whether he would get fit in time for the second Test scheduled to get underway from July 27.”Such injuries can be a bit tricky,” Zaheer continued. “But we are all hoping that Younis would be fine before the second Test.”He said Shoaib Malik was also struggling to recover from an elbow problem in time for the Old Trafford outing.Shoaib, who scored a superb century in a warm-up game earlier this month, has been batting in the nets but was left out because he is having problems in throwing the ball.Zaheer informed that he has talked to Malik about his injury, adding that the bowler is not sure how long will it take for him to get match fit.However, Asif, ruled out of the opening Test because of a tennis elbow, is hopeful of passing a fitness test before the team’s departure to Manchester.Zaheer stated that Asif has been recovering fast and has a good chance of becoming available for selection for the second Test.