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England are facing an innings defeat in the second Test at Adelaide after Australia’s bowlers ripped out three of their top batsmen for just 36 runs in the final session of the third day. It followed Steve Waugh’s declaration on 552 for nine, a lead of 210 runs.A partnership of 242 between Ricky Ponting and Damien Martyn set up a commanding position for Australia. They started the day watchfully to build on the foundations laid by openers Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer. Ponting crafted a magnificent 154 to put Australia into the lead, and in doing so proved how mature a batsman he has become. His innings up until his century included just four boundaries against accurate bowling.The two batted through the first session, putting on 94 runs. Martyn played a supporting role, until just five runs short of century he got a short one from Stephen Harmison which flicked his gloves and went via his thigh into the waiting hands of Nasser Hussain. It gave Harmison his first Ashes wicket and England the breakthrough they needed. The right-hander had been troubled with the short ball all day. Andrew Caddick had hit him on the helmet and Harmison struck him twice on the upper body.His departure brought Steve Waugh to the crease. The Aussie captain started briskly at better than a run a ball, prompting Ponting to raise the tempo as well. Trying to match his captain, he fell victim to Craig White, who dug in the first ball of a new spell for Ponting to pull, finding Richard Dawson on the mid-wicket boundary. White then dismissed his brother-in-law, Darren Lehmann, the hometown hero who was looking to justify his position at number six. The left-hander slashed to Andrew Flintoff, who was subbing for Hussain, in the slips. He juggled the ball before claiming the catch.Waugh, after making 35 off 39 balls, mistimed a cut for Mark Butcher to take a great catch in the gully. Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne then survived until tea. Warne made 25 before he tried to drive Dawson and the 22-year-old off-spinner caught him in his follow through. Andrew Bichel, hoping to keep his place over Brett Lee for the next Test, crafted a decent 48 with some magnificent shots off both the front and back foot, giving Gilchrist good support. Eventually, trying to push a Matthew Hoggard delivery to leg, he edged the ball back on to his stumps. His dismissal gave Hoggard his first wicket of the series after toiling hard through Brisbane and Adelaide.Jason Gillespie came out to a thunderous roar but Gilchrist, trying to force the pace, was immediately caught behind off Harmison, prompting the declaration.Showing signs of tiredness after a day’s fielding, Marcus Trescothick was trapped lbw by a Gillespie special without scoring. It was the seventh time the 27-year-old had fallen to Gillespie, and the bowler’s 50th Test wicket in Australia. Glenn McGrath then snared Butcher, plumb lbw for four. McGrath was so confident of the wicket, he did not even turn to see Steve Bucknor’s decision.As he had done on day one, Waugh called up Bichel to bowl the last over of the day. After beating Hussain with his first ball, he dismissed the England captain with his second, a beauty which clipped the top of the off stump. Michael Vaughan remains unbeaten on 17. Rain is forecast overnight and for tomorrow, but with two days of the match remaining England’s chances of survival look slim indeed.

Kent County Cricket Club today announced that David Fulton will captain the County in 2003. Fulton shared the captaincy role with Matthew Fleming during the 2002 season but will captain the Club in all forms of cricket next season.Commenting on his appointment Fulton said:”I am delighted to take on full responsibility for captaining Kent in all forms of cricket in 2003. I learned a great deal from Matthew Fleming last season and our partnership worked well. I now look forward to leading the Club in all competitions. We have an excellent squad of players and I am sure we can do well next season.”More good news today for Kent came with the announcement that Martin Saggers has been selected to play for England in the Hong Kong Sixes on 2/3 November. Saggers recently signed a new long-term contract with the Club and was the Country’s leading wicket taker in 2002. He has claimed over 200 first class wickets in the last three seasons. David Graveney will manage the team which is to be captained by Glamorgan’s Matthew Maynard. The rest of the team consists of: Glen Chapple (Lancashire), Paul Collingwood (Durham), Adam Hollioake (Surrey), Ronnie Irani (Essex) and Chris Silverwood (Yorkshire).The Club also announced today that Peter Trego, the 22 year old Somerset all rounder, will be joining Kent on a two year contract. Trego, who has been with Somerset for the last three seasons played for England at under 19 level in 2000 and hit his highest first class score this summer ~ 140 for Somerset against West Indies A.Commenting on both developments, newly appointed Captain, David Fulton said:”I am thrilled that Martin has been selected for the Hong Kong trip. It’s good news for Kent that he has committed his long-term future to the Club and I am sure that it will not be long before his achievements of the last three seasons earn him full honours at International level.Peter Trego joins Kent at an exciting time. I have played against him on a few occasions and he has shown himself to be a talented and competitive cricketer. I am sure we will be able to give him the opportunity to make the most of his undoubted talent.”

A brilliant century from opening batsman Akash Chopra (109 off 132 balls) took India A to a convincing five-wicket victory over Sri Lanka A in the deciding fifth one-day match played at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium, on Thursday. India A thereby won the five-match series 2-1, after rain had washed out the first two encounters.In the morning, Sri Lanka A elected to bat first but found the going tough against a resilient visiting side. Most of their batsmen got to double figures yet failed to convert those into even a fifty. Only Romesh Kaluwitharana (34 off 43 balls) and Tillakaratne Dilshan (47 off 79 balls) made mentionable contributions.A late flourish from Chamara Silva (29 off 24 balls) and Akalanka Ganegama (16* off 18 balls) however helped Sri Lanka A post 223/8 in 50 overs. Lakshmipathy Balaji and Irfan Pathan Jr picked up two wickets each. Earlier, Sarandeep Singh (7-0-27-1) had applied the screws in the middle overs of the Sri Lanka A innings.Chasing a modest target of 224 in 50 overs, India A were never in trouble and emerged victorious with 2.2 overs to spare. Chopra, a 24-year-old right-handed batsman from Delhi, applied himself to the task admirably, striking eight boundaries while compiling a match-winning hundred.India A lost the wicket of Gautam Gambhir (5), early in their run chase. Skipper Hrishikesh Kanitkar (24) and Rohan Gavaskar (16) could not capitalise on their good starts and India A were 98/3 in the 29th over.Chopra then found an ally in Jai P Yadav with whom he added 116 runs for the fourth wicket in just 16.5 overs. The partnership all but took the match away from the home team. Yadav made a whirlwind 55 off just 52 balls, striking three boundaries and a six.Even though India A lost the wickets of Yadav and Chopra with just a few runs needed to seal the win, Parthiv Patel (3*) and Sridharan Sriram (1*) ensured the emphatic victory.

One of the finest days weather wise for weeks, brought out the worst of this new format Frizzell County Championship at Grace Road, when Leicestershire and Hampshire played out a dull draw, but not before a vintage hundred by Robin Smith took him into third place on the All-Time Hampshire century list.Hampshire started the day on the defensive, with a small lead and six wickets in hand, so it took skipper Smith and prodigy John Francis the whole two hour pre lunch session to save the day, and ensure a large enough margin to stave off the possibility of defeat.Smith showing much of his vintage best, pulling and cutting with some verocity, particularly against two old adverseries in Devon Malcolm and Philip deFreitas. Francis playing his first championship match of the season, and his third overall was more circumspect, waiting for the bad ball and accumalating a career best 82. Smith was finally out for 104 smiting 18 fours in the process, and Francis who shared a 124 fifth wicket partnership with his skipper, had hit 13 fours when he fell to a slip catch off Malcolm.Set 295 in a basic minimum of 36 overs, Leicestershire surprised the sparce Grace Road crowd by opening with deFreitas and Ward, but after flattering briefly, they realised their task was futile, and settled in to watching 8 Hampshire bowlers ply their trade, with Francis picking up a career best 1 wicket for one run, to add to his batting one.Robin Smith completed his 49th first-class century for Hampshire, passing the illustrous Gordon Greenidge in the process to become the clubs third highest century maker.The list now reads:

C.P.Mead 138R.E.Marshall 60R.A.Smith 49C.G.Greenidge 48C.L.Smith 41B.A.Richards 38G.Brown 37V.P.Terry 37J.Arnold 36

When England coach Duncan Fletcher spoke to the press at the end of the first day’s play in the Brisbane Test, he blamed missed opportunities for the fact that his side found themselves on the wrong end of a commanding Australian batting display.Three of the chances to which he referred involved Matthew Hayden who finished the day undefeated on 186. However, he was nearly caught when he had 40, but Simon Jones at long leg found his momentum taking him over the boundary as he held the catch.The opener had moved on to 102 when Matthew Hoggard made an aweful mess of getting in position under a skyer at mid-off and hardly laid a hand on the ball as it thumped into the turf. Next it was Michael Vaughan’s turn when Hayden had reached 132. Normally one of the safest fielders in the side, Vaughan grassed a straightforward chance off Craig White.Referring to those missed chances, Fletcher said: “Every opportunity that is given to you, you have to grab and we didn’t do that today.”He also defended Nasser Hussain’s decision to field first on winning the toss. “We thought it looked a little bit green and there was some softness and we thought we could help our bowlers but it didn’t really move off the wicket,” Fletcher said.”We thought the pitch would get better to bat on and we have to make sure when we get out there we bat the best we can.”Fletcher also commented on the sickening injury that befell Jones in the field. “The team were pretty upset about it. I don’t think they realised how serious it was, but there was some concern especially because he was just beginning to offer us something.”We believed he was the kind of bowler that Nasser has been calling for that can do something different to the rest of the attack.Kirk Russell, the England physiotherapist, said that there is no reason that the Glamorgan fast bowler should not make a complete recovery from his cruciate ligament injury after an operation.”Surgery is fantastic these days and so is rehabilitation. I know what he’s like and he’ll work very hard. He will get the treatment back in England and I’m sure he’ll be back as good as new.”Initially I was more worried about his left knee when I first saw it because he took a big divot out of the ground with that. When you see it so quickly and you’re there so quickly you think that maybe it’s a fracture because I’ve never seen this type of injury in cricket before – it’s a freak accident.”It was Ricky Ponting, who made 123, who drove the ball that Jones was chasing when he suffered the injury. He had been impressed by what he had seen of Jones before the accident.”It’s very disappointing for him and the England team what’s happened to him today. He showed a bit, he’s obviously got some good pace and Perth would have suited him down to the ground as well.”He showed early this morning by claiming a wicket in his first spell and it’s very bad luck for him.”

After staying in their London hotel overnight, the Somerset players set off at 11am this morning to make the long journey north to Scarborough in preparation for their third round Cheltenham and Gloucester match against the Yorkshire Board XI tomorrow.After their disappointing one day form so far this season Somerset coach Kevin Shine is not taking the opposition lightly.He told me earlier: "This is a tricky tie for us with a long drive to get there. We will be playing against a team of club cricketer’s who will be of a decent quality and who will know their wicket. We will not be underestimating them, that’s for sure."With Andy Caddick and Marcus Trescothick on test match duty for England the Cidermen have added opening batsman Matt Wood, and the experienced all rounder Graham Rose, both of whom spent Monday at a rainy Southampton with the Somerset seconds, to the squad to make the journey.In 2001 Somerset faced Cambridgeshire at March at this stage of the competition, and after a couple of early scares they progressed to the next round thanks to a century from Mark Lathwell, and four wickets from Jamie Grove, neither of whom are with the club this season.Assuming that the Cidermen beat the Yorkshire Board XI today and Hampshire dispose of the Kent Board at Folkestone the pair will meet at Taunton in the next round on June 18th or 19th.

Luke Ronchi, who has spent the past two summers playing for Bashley (Rydal) in the Southern Electric Premier League, has won a coveted place in Australia’s Cricket Academy.He had originally intended to return for another season with the New Forest club.”But once Luke knew he had been short-listed for the Academy, there was no way he was coming back to us, not this season at any rate,” explained Bashley skipper Neil Taylor. “Everyone at the club is absolutely delighted for him.”Ronchi is among 14 of Australia’s most promising junior cricketers to be awarded a scholarship at the Adelaide-based Commonweath Bank Academy, which is run by former Australian Test wicketkeeper Rodney Marsh.Selection is a dream come true for the talented Perth wicketkeeper-batsman, who has been nudging Western Australia’s selectors this past winter.Ronchi, a right-hand batsman with awesome back-foot striking power, scored 1,250 Southern League runs in his two summers at Bashley.He played several times for WA 2nd XI during the past Australian season.And with Perth CC clubmate Adam Gilchrist now firmly established in the Test arena with Australia, Ronchi has a great chance to stake his claim behind the stumps in the WA State team.Speaking from his Perth home, Ronchi said : “Being selected for the Academy has given me a great incentive to make a career in the game. “But it is down to me to make a success of it.”I know I’ve got a lot of learning still to do, but I’m a couple of rungs up the ladder now and don’t intend to waste the opportunity.”With Ronchi remaining in Australia this winter, Shaun Lilley and Chris Gates are expected to vye for the Bashley wicketkeeping slot this season.

• Murali Kartik,the slow left-arm bowler from Railways,became the 144th player to represent India in an ODI.
• The four wickets that Ajit Agarkar’s claimed in the Hyderabadon Saturday has made him India’s highest wicket-taker againstZimbabwe – he now has 35 wickets from 21 ODIs against thevisitors. He went past fellow teammate Anil Kumble’s aggregate of32 from 20 matches.
• The four-wicket haul was Agarkar’s sixth in his 91st onedayer and this puts him on par with Manoj Prabhakar. Now onlyAnil Kumble (nine) and Javagal Srinath (seven) have taken morefour-wicket hauls than Agarkar.
• Grant Flower by making 44 in the Hyderabad one-dayer hasexactly 1000 runs to his name in one-dayers against India. He wasplaying his 32nd innings in his 32nd match against the Indians.Grant became the third Zimbabwean after Alistair Campbell (1188in 36 matches) and brother Andy (1130 in 33 matches) and the 19thbatsman overall to do so. Incidentally, Pakistan’s Saeed Anwarholds the record of aggregating most runs in a career againstIndia; he has made 1901 runs from 49 matches.
• The fourth wicket partnership of 76 between Rahul Dravid andMohammad Kaif was India’s best for this wicket against Zimbabwein a floodlit match. This expunged the previous best of 70between Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammad Azharuddin at the Centurionon February 7,1997.
• The fifth wicket partnership of 94 between Mohammad Kaif andYuvraj Singh was India’s best for this wicket against Zimbabwe inall matches. This obliterated the previous record unbrokenpartnership of 84 between Ajay Jadeja and Robin Singh at Benonion February 9, 1997. Incidentally, India’s previous highest fifthwicket partnership in a floodlit match against Zimbabwe was apaltry 42 between Rahul Dravid and Robin Singh at Sharjah onOctober 22, 2000.
• Yuvraj Singh’s innings of 80* was the second highest by anyIndian at number six in a floodlit match – Ajay Jadeja’s 119 atColombo RPS on August 17, 1997 still remains the best.
• The win was India’s 50th in a floodlit match.
• The Man of the Match award was Yuvraj Singh’s third in his29th match.

Not for the first time this year England were back in the nets trying to find a way to solve their problems against spin. The net session at the P Sara Oval was not a direct response to the demise for 80 against India – they had been scheduled for a likely training session in any case – but the events of the previous evening gave a clear focus to what was required.Andy Flower and Graham Gooch, two outstanding batsmen of spin in their day, gave plenty of throw downs and shared plenty of advice as they have done throughout the year. On the evidence of how the current crop played Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla not all of it is being absorbed.The middle of a tournament is not the time to be trying to remodel techniques or radically change gameplans, but if England have serious ambitions of moving beyond the Super Eight stage they are going to have to adapt quickly. Their half of the draw has been termed the easier route to the knockout stage, yet each team they face will have bowlers to exploit their major weakness.Sunil Narine will be first, when they face West Indies on Thursday, followed by the more orthodox but no-less-effective Daniel Vettori then back to mystery with a four-over trial from Ajantha Mendis. Do not rule out Sri Lanka throwing in their wild-card, 18-year old Akila Dananjaya, either. It is those future challenges, rather than what happened on Sunday evening, that is now the focus of the England team.”It was a disappointing performance – we’re human enough to say that and realise that obvious fact,” Craig Kieswetter said. “We’ve played spin well; we’ve beaten Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan in the sub-continent before. It was just a bad performance.”We’re not getting too down about it. Confidence is still high; we’re still playing some great cricket and we’re pretty glad we’ve got that game out of the way at the best time possible.”Much like Stuart Broad’s assertion that England do not have a problem against spin it was not entirely convincing from Kieswetter, who top-scored in the 80 with 35 made largely before the spinners came on, but the quick-fire nature of the tournament does at least offer a chance to move on quickly. Kieswetter will also remember that England were far from convincing getting out of their group in 2010 – squeezing through without winning a game – before surging to the title.”What’s done is done. We did what we needed to do and qualified and now we’re through to the business part of the competition,” he said. “Now you’ll see the good teams put their hands up and actually put up performances that really matter.”But can England fine a way against spin? “You’ve got to be more streetwise, be prepared to score ugly runs. We’ve got to be adaptable to the wickets,” he said. “We played across the line a bit too much. We should have played a bit straighter.”We realise that; we’ve highlighted it and we’re obviously going to learn from that. It’s probably a good learning curve to have. It didn’t turn as much and we probably expected, and we played for a bit too much turn. The ball’s a bit more unpredictable here – it either spins or it doesn’t – it’s not as predictable as in England.”

At about 18:20 GMT on March 19, 2001, Courtney Walsh, the tireless Jamaica and West Indies fastbowler, made more history by getting that unprecedented 500th Test wicket. His victim was South Africa’s Jacques Kallis, LBW for no score. Walsh had earlier dismissed Gary Kirsten, brilliantly caught by wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs for 22, low down on the off-side, for his 499th Test victim. Wickets 499 and 500 both came with the score on 38.Considering that Walsh has already bowled over 4800 overs in Test cricket alone, not to mention over twelve years of playing for both Gloucestershire and Jamaica, it is very conceivable that Walsh has bowled almost 15,000 overs in first class cricket. At about 20 metres of a run up, that is about 1,800,000 meters, 1800 kilometres of delivering a 5.5 ounce ball over the years. Cars do not last that long sometimes, much less human bodies, which are more easily broken. Yet, Walsh has soldiered on since 1983/84. What longevity; what a warrior, what a survivor!At the close of day three of the Second Test at Port of Spain, Darryl Cullinan, who played flawlessly for 103 in the first innings, is again playing nearly as well, and is 41 not out. Opener Herschelle Gibbs, probably batting and battling for his team’s survival, has 57 not out, his fifth Test half century, as South Africa closed the day on 130-2, 74 ahead. South Africa must be looking for a further 250 runs to be in a favourable position to win this Test. Anything less, and they could well lose the game.Earlier, the West Indies, thanks again to Jacobs, the batsman this time, managed a useful 56 runlead. For the second time in Test cricket, Jacobs had been left standing high and dry in the 90’s, 93 not out this time, as the West Indies recovered from losing their 8th wicket for the overnight 250. Jacobs and fast bowler Merve Dillon put on 71 for the 9th wicket to allow the West Indies that small but significant lead, a lead that cost South Africa at least two wickets. Dillon was out in the last over before lunch, but Walsh and Jacobs did put on 21 runs for the 10th wicket before a mix up between the two robbed Jacobs of his first Test century.It was a hard for the South African bowlers, but Allan Donald persevered to get 4-91 from 30 overs. Shaun Pollock also managed 3-55 from 28 overs. It was difficult early day for the South African bowlers, and Pollock showed how frustrated the West Indies lower order batsmen had made him.South Africa still have much to do, to set the West Indies a challenging target, but day three was all about one man, Courtney Walsh, a great colossus, in his 129th Test, getting his 500th Test wicket.What a monumental achievement that is.