Steve Elworthy’s nine-wicket haul spearheaded the Northerns Titans’ 139-run victory over the Highveld Strikers in their Supersport Series match at the Wanderers on Monday.Elworthy swept through the Strikers’ batting order with 5-81 on a final day when the Strikers, chasing a victory target of 421, were bowled out for 281 with 16.5 overs to spare.Elworthy took 4-34 in the first innings, and a consummate bowling performance by the Titans veteran was matched by an equally impressive display with the bat in the Titans’ first innings. Elworthy scored an unbeaten 75 in the innings, earning him the man of the match award.”I think the 75 runs gave me more pleasure than the wickets. It was great to do that in a Derby like this against the Strikers, and I’ve always been lacking with the runs in the past,” Elworthy said.This is the Titans’ second successive victory in the Supersport Series, after they beat the Griqua Diamonds the week before. But while Gerald Dros could not have asked for a better start to their season, his captaincy in this match was called into question. Dros was criticised for an elaborate waste of time in compiling a lead of 420 runs on Sunday, a decision that nearly came back to haunt him on the final day.The Strikers resumed on 30 for one, and put on only 90 runs in the first session. Daryll Cullinan’s dismal performance in this match continued – he was dismissed for 12 on the back of his duck in the first innings. Andre Seymore fared only marginally better with 16 to see the Strikers at 120-3 at lunch.But Zander de Bruyn began rattling the first ghostly chains in Dros’ ear with a defiant 66, including 13 fours off 138 balls and in 182 minutes. De Bruyn and Andrew Hall put on 72 runs for the fifth wicket to further frustrate the Titans.There were still a few flicks of the Strikers’ tail to come. Nic Pothas added a valuable 60 runs off only 97 balls, and shared in a 65-run stand for the eighth wicket with David Terbrugge. But when his wicket fell, Elworthy wrapped up the tail with ease and his captain could breathe again.”We’re still a young side and we’ve got a way to go,” said Dros, preferring not to focus on whether this could turn into a championship season for a side that is one the rise. “If the youngsters can continue to learn as quickly as they have, then I’m sure we’ve got a chance,” said the skipper.

It’s finally time for the best venue in India to host internationalTest cricket. The rotation policy adopted by the Indian Board bringsthe touring England team to the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium atMohali for the first Test match. With temperatures dipping to thelowest the England team have experienced on this tour, they should beextremely happy on the eve of the Test. Nasser Hussain has enjoyed allthe attention his team has received so far but acknowledges that theaction will not be easy out in the middle.For his part, the Indian skipper too looks fairly relaxed. The factthat the team has been on the road in South Africa and returns after abit of a thrashing does not weigh too heavily on the Bengal lefthander. Everyone is resigned to the fact that India are two sides -one that take things quite lightly and yet comes out right on top athome, and yet another that can’t seem to put a foot right abroad.That, perhaps, has more to do with the conditions than anything else.And in that regard, England certainly get their Test series off to acomfortable start. The wicket at Mohali was once easily the quickestin the country, before curator Daljit Singh re-laid the topsoil in1996. The hard clay however still retains much of the pace and bounceof old. Overcast conditions will assure that the ball moves around abit early on. However, the lack of much live grass on the wicketsuggests that it will ease up into a good batting strip on the secondand third days, before taking a bit of spin.The pitch in turn dictates the kind of teams that will be chosen. Inkeeping with recent times, there is a big question mark at the top ofthe Indian batting order. While Shiv Sunder Das has cemented oneopening slot, the other remains wide open. The Indian team could stickwith regular opener Connor Williams, who impressed in his last essayin South Africa. There is word however that in the interest ofaccommodating another bowler Sanjay Bangar might open. Bangar opensfor Railways and averages more than 35 with the bat, having scoredfive hundreds and fifteen half-centuries at the first-class level.The Indian middle-order of course is packed with Rahul Dravid, SachinTendulkar, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly all queuing up to have a batin familiar home conditions. Deep Dasgupta dons the gloves and there’sa bit of a toss up in the bowling department. Harbhajan Singh and AnilKumble are sure to play. Depending on composition, the Indians couldgo in with either two or all three medium-pacers from Sanjay Bangar,Tinu Yohannan and Iqbal Siddiqui.The English have their team almost lined up, although the captainHussain did not say so in as many words. Mark Butcher and MarcusTrescothick will open the innings, with Michael Vaughan being out ofform. Nasser Hussain, Graham Thorpe and Mark Ramprakash form thenucleus of the batting with all-rounders, Craig White and AndrewFlintoff, to follow. James Foster looks likely to make his Test debutbehind the stumps. The bowling department has Matthew Hoggardpencilled in, with James Ormond likely to share the new ball honourswith him. Richard Dawson looks set to roll his arm over bowling offspin. Martyn Ball has an outside chance of making the eleven but thatseems unlikely at best.Hussain, speaking to scribes, described India as the “best sideplaying at home” and reminded colleagues of the treatment Australiareceived earlier this year. While one rated Australia’s chanceshighly, it would be unfair to afford this England side the samerespect. Predicting a whitewash at the beginning of the series isnever too clever, but it has to be said that England’s best chance ofavoiding the same begins and ends at Mohali.

English cricket will receive around £30 million from the ECB over the next five years to help improve facilities and boost club cricket.The plans include a desire to install floodlights at every county ground, which will account for about £9 million of the total. “We feel we need considerably more experience playing day-night games,” Giles Clarke, the ECB’s chairman, said. “Secondly, the spectators have considerably greater ease coming to watch cricket in the early and late evening. If we’ve got floodlights, we are in a position to do that.”A further £6 million will be put towards improving drainage at international venues. The remaining sum, in the region of £14 million, will be given to more than 2,000 community clubs.The additional money on offer will come from increased revenue from broadcast deals as well as escalating monies from gate receipts. “This is a major commitment to invest in all areas of cricket,” Clarke said. “Cricket in England and Wales has never seen this level of financial support. Our resources are being targeted to build the continuing affection of the nation with its summer sport and to give people of all ages and walks of life the chance to play and watch in the best surroundings.”The five-year strategy includes the following projects:

Scorecard and ball by ball details3:14

‘Still a lot of work to do in India – Borren

A dream start in the field for Netherlands set up a tight chase as the Dutch booked a spot in the ICC World Twenty20 for the third time with a four-wicket win. Namibia held out hope for an unlikely victory after Bernard Scholtz spun through Netherlands middle order with 3 for 14 to leave the them at 103 for 5 in the 15th over, needing 136 to win. However, Max O’Dowd and Roelof van der Merwe put on a 30-run stand before Mudassar Bukhari hit the winning boundary through cover with four balls to spare.Netherlands now to move on to the semifinals against Ireland on Saturday while Namibia will have a second chance to qualify for the World T20 when they take on Oman in an elimination match on Thursday.Namibia’s nerves made for a nightmare in the first two overs, as both openers were gone with only five runs on the board. Gerrie Snyman hared hopelessly from the non-striker’s end on the second delivery of the match and a throw from Bukhari at square leg to the bowler Michael Swart dismissed Namibia’s most explosive player without facing a ball.Stephen Baard skied a short ball from Timm van der Gugten to van der Merwe at cover and the group stage’s leading scorer was out for just 4. Craig Williams and Raymond van Schoor remained positive, though, with Williams striking four boundaries in the Powerplay to take Namibia to 37 for 2 after six overs.The pair added 57 for the third wicket in eight overs before Williams holed out to midwicket for 43 off Peter Borren and at the halfway mark Namibia were 62 for 3. Van Schoor was lured out of his crease pushing forward to van der Merwe and stumped for 16 off 25 balls in the 12th. Borren, Bukhari and Pieter Seelaar continued to tie down the Namibia lineup through the 16th with Gerhard Erasmus caught in the deep off Bukhari for 5.Only 30 runs were added from overs 11 to 16, but captain Nicolaas Scholtz gave Namibia a fighting chance with his late 37 off 23 balls. He struck two sixes over long off against van der Merwe in the 17th and another 13 runs were taken in the 19th off Bukhari. His stand with Sarel Burger ended at 52 on the second-last ball of the innings when Nicolaas was caught behind swishing against van der Gugten.Though Malahide has been a low-scoring ground through the four days of matches so far, 133 never looked like it was going to be enough against a deep Netherlands batting unit. Snyman managed to snag Wesley Barresi on the first ball of the chase as the opener flicked a leading edge up to the keeper JP Kotze on a delivery that had been heading well down leg for a wide if left alone.Namibia needed to take all their chances in the field to keep pressure on Netherlands but the first of three was shelled in the third over off Snyman. Myburgh drove hard to Williams at mid-off on 9 but a lunging effort was spilled. He made Namibia pay in the fourth over by smacking JJ Smit for three consecutive boundaries. He hit his sixth four off Jason Davidson in the fifth, but the tall seamer came back with a slower ball to get Myburgh for 31, making it 45 for 2 after five.Bernard was brought on in the ninth over and his valiant Man-of-the-Match effort was nearly enough for Namibia. He extracted prodigious turn from outside off to beat Ben Cooper through the gate on his second ball to make it 70 for 3 and started the 13th by getting Borren to scoop one to Williams at long off. He should’ve had Swart stumped for 22 three balls later but a regulation chance was fumbled by Kotze. He managed to get Swart in the 15th, though, pushing a low return catch that withstood scrutiny from the third umpire, but with his spell done, Namibia’s attack was out of bullets.A six by van der Merwe to start the 17th over brought the required rate back under a run-a-ball and the Dutch looked certain to get across the line with just three needed off the final over. Van der Merwe tried to end it with a heave but was beaten in flight and bowled by Nicolaas. Bukhari coolly drove the winning runs off the following ball.

The Lahore City Cricket Association (LCCA) has launched an inquiry into the poor performance and alleged discipline issues during Lahore Whites’ campaign in the Haier Mobile T-20 Cup in Rawalpindi. Lahore Whites finished last in the league and had the poorest run-rate of the 12 teams despite having international players such as Ahmed Shehzad, Azhar Ali, Mohammad Hafeez, Umar Akmal, Wahab Raiz and Mohammad Irfan.The inquiry committee comprises former PCB CEO Saleem Altaf, LCCA secretary Shoaib Dar and former first-class cricketer Imran Bucha.”After watching the matches we have realised they have performed poorly,” Khawaja Nadeem, the head of LCCA, told ESPNcricinfo. “We understand there was lack of cooperation within the team and issues related to discipline, so we have formed an inquiry committee to find out why they haven’t performed to their level. We had the best team and this result is not what we expected.”I don’t see any problem with our other team [Blues], and we are only investigating Lahore Whites to bring all the facts in public,” he said. “The first meeting is on Monday and we will have a report to decide what is in our jurisdiction.”Lahore fielded two teams in domestic cricket because the city’s population is over 10 million. Whites were led by Pakistan ODI captain Azhar while Blues were captained by Adnan Akmal. Players like Nasir Jamshed and Kamran Akmal, who were with Lahore for the last nine years, left the team to join Rawalpindi and Multan. Mohammad Hafeez left Faisalabad Wolves to join Lahore two years ago.

West Indies captain Jason Holder said that the fate of suspended head coach Phil Simmons lay “with Phil and the board” but added that he had been a “wonderful inspiration” during his brief time in charge.Holder hoped for a swift resolution that would allow Simmons to return to the squad in Sri Lanka after his position was put in limbo when he expressed discontent over West Indies’ ODI squad for the tour.Simmons has since apologised for his remarks, but has been asked to answer for “breaches of confidentiality” by the WICB and is currently awaiting at HR hearing.”The comments made by Phil were by Phil, and I can’t comment on those things,” Holder said in Colombo. “It’s down to him and the board. We can only control the cricket because that’s what we came here to do. Whatever his situation, his fate lies with him and the board. Hopefully he can deal with that and be back to us as soon as possible.”The timing of Simmons’ suspension has posed a significant problem for West Indies, coming as it did only days before the squad was scheduled to assemble in Sri Lanka, and less than three weeks before the first Test. Simmons was appointed West Indies coach in March and the Sri Lanka tour would have been his first international foray with the outfit. It is also Holder’s first assignment as Test captain.”No doubt [Simmons’ suspension] is a bit of setback for us, but at this present stage, all we can do is focus on the cricket. I just hope that the situation with him is solved quickly because we would love to have him back. He’s been a wonderful inspiration to our team thus far.”West Indies are scheduled to begin their tour with a three-day warm-up match which now begins on Friday, having been pushed back 24 hours due to poor weather, before moving to Galle for the first Test, which begins on October 14.SLC announced on Tuesday that the two-match Test series will be named the Sobers-Tissera trophy, after West Indies great Garry Sobers and Sri Lanka batsman Michael Tissera, who was among the island’s pre-eminent cricketers in the pre-Test era.”Having the trophy named after Sir Garfield Sobers is something truly special,” Holder said. “He was one of the greatest to play the game and he still makes a major contribution to the game. Only recently he joined us in Barbados and wished everyone the very best for this tour of Sri Lanka.”It is always good to see him and interact with him and it would be great for us to take home the trophy with his name on it. We got some pretty young faces in our squad and a lot of them look up to the past greats who played the game.”

Offspinner Sunil Narine has been included in the West Indies squads for the ODIs and T20Is in Sri Lanka in October, after having opted out of their 2015 World Cup campaign because of issues with his action. There were eight changes from the squad that travelled to Australia and New Zealand: Chris Gayle was out of both squads after having a back surgery, but Darren Sammy, Lendl Simmons, Sulieman Benn, Sheldon Cottrell, Nikita Miller, Kemar Roach, and Dwayne Smith were omitted from the ODI set up.The players included in the ODI squad were: Devendra Bishoo, Jermaine Blackwood, Carlos Brathwaite, Andre Fletcher, Jason Mohammed, and Ravi Rampaul. Narine and Darren Bravo, withdrawn from the World Cup squad, made comebacks. Bravo, who had injured his hamstring during that tournament, was also in the T20I squad.

Changes in the squads

ODIs
In: Devendra Bishoo, Jermaine Blackwood, Carlos Brathwaite, Andre Fletcher, Jason Mohammed, Ravi Rampaul, Sunil Narine and Darren Bravo
Out: Chris Gayle Darren Sammy, Lendl Simmons, Sulieman Benn, Sheldon Cottrell, Nikita Miller, Kemar Roach, Dwayne Smith
T20Is
In: Samuel Badree, Darren Bravo, Jonathan Carter, Johnson Charles, Sunil Narine, Ravi Rampaul, Jerome Taylor
Out: Sulieman Benn, Carlos Brathwaite, Sheldon Cottrell, Chris Gayle, Ashley Nurse, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith

Allrounders Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard continued to be kept out of the ODI set-up, a decision that was revealed beforehand by Phil Simmons, who was later suspended as West Indies coach for saying there had been outside interference in the selection of the squad. Both players, however, were included in the T20I squad.The selectors dropped a lot of the players who fared poorly in the World Cup, where West Indies struggled during the group stages and were beaten heavily by New Zealand in the quarterfinal.Allrounder Smith made only 93 runs in six matches during the World Cup and was hardly used as a bowler, while batsman Lendl Simmons scored 173 in five innings, of which 102 came in the defeat against Ireland. Allrounder Sammy also had an ordinary tournament – 177 runs in five innings and only one wicket in 28 overs. Simmons and Smith were also missing from the T20I squad, having been part of West Indies’ previous Twenty20 matches in South Africa before the World Cup.Fast bowler Roach and left-arm spinner Benn played three matches each in the World Cup. Roach took only one wicket and went for 6.81 runs an over, while Benn claimed two and conceded 6.34 an over. Miller, another left-arm spinner, played only the one game in the tournament, while fast bowler Cottrell had sat on the bench throughout the campaign. Cottrell and Benn were also cut from the T20I squad.Rampaul, a fast bowler, made a comeback in both formats after not even being included in the list of 30 probables for the World Cup; his last game for West Indies was during the aborted tour of India in October 2014. Legspinner Bishoo has not played an ODI or T20I for West Indies since October 2011, while wicketkeeper-batsman Fletcher has not played an ODI since May 2010. Allrounder Mohammed, who bowls part-time offspin, has played only one ODI, in December 2011.Blackwood has not yet made his ODI debut, while Brathwaite had been left out of the World Cup squad after playing the preceding series in South Africa in January. Brathwaite, however, was dropped from the T20I squad after having been part of the tour to South Africa. Offspinner Ashley Nurse was the other player dropped from the T20I squad.The four other players included in the T20I squad after missing the matches in South Africa were legspinner Samuel Badree, fast bowler Jerome Taylor, and batsmen Jonathan Carter and Johnson Charles.Narine has not played international cricket since he was reported for a suspect action during the 2014 Champions League T20 and barred from bowling for Kolkata Knight Riders in the final of that tournament. He underwent remedial work and was included in West Indies’ World Cup squad, but pulled out of the competition to give himself more time to work on his action. Narine once again ran into trouble with his action during the 2015 IPL after the World Cup, and was given a final warning, though sanctions during the CLT20 and the IPL are not applicable to international cricket.The limited-overs leg of the tour of Sri Lanka comes after the two-Test series and begins with the first of three ODIs on November 1. West Indies will be coached by the selector and former fast bowler Eldine Baptiste, after Phil Simmons’ suspension.ODI squad: Jason Holder (capt), Devendra Bishoo, Jermaine Blackwood, Carlos Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Jonathan Carter, Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher, Jason Mohammed, Sunil Narine, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Jerome TaylorT20I squad: Darren Sammy (capt), Samuel Badree, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Jonathan Carter, Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher, Jason Holder, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Jerome Taylor

James Pattinson’s state coach David Saker has raised concerns that the fast bowler could be “underdone” ahead of a possible return to the Test team for the first time in more than 18 months. Pattinson was named in Australia’s 13-man squad for the day-night Test in Adelaide and may be competing for a place in the XI with Peter Siddle and Steve O’Keefe after the retirement of Mitchell Johnson.On Thursday, Pattinson admitted he was surprised by the call-up, which came after he collected four wickets in each of his first two Sheffield Shield matches of the summer. He is still adjusting to a newly remodelled side-on action after suffering from two severe back injuries over the past two years. Pattinson’s most recent Test was in Cape Town in March 2014, and he has played just five first-class games since then.After failing to take a wicket in two ODIs in England in September he was left out of the Test squad for the tour of Bangladesh, which was ultimately cancelled. Although Pattinson has shown some encouraging signs during the start of the summer his Victoria coach, Saker, said he would be worried about Pattinson’s ability to get through a Test if the conditions were as batsman-friendly as they were in Perth.”I would have concerns if they produced another wicket like they did in the week just gone,” Saker told the . “If he’s in the field for a really long period of time and bowling spells I’m not sure he’s ready for that yet.”I think their hand’s been forced a little bit by what happened to Mitch. I hope he goes well but I’m a little bit concerned he’s underdone. He hasn’t got any history of putting lots of games together. When you don’t have that you’ve always got questions, I’ll always doubt people who can’t play four or five Shield games in a row – how can they get through two or three Test matches?”However, Saker agreed that the selectors had little choice but to pick Pattinson due to the lack of other options around the country, with other potential Test bowlers such as Nathan Coulter-Nile and Jason Behrendorff battling injuries. Pattinson has played 13 Tests and has collected 51 wickets at 27.07, but those appearances have been punctuated by long injury lay-offs.Pattinson is now 25 and if his body has developed to the stage where he can string matches together, he could form part of Australia’s long-term Test attack with Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood. Asked on Thursday whether he could put his injury problems behind him, Pattinson was hopeful but said he would not stop himself bowling as fast as possible.”I hope so, I suppose I don’t want to put the mocker on myself,” Pattinson told reporters in Melbourne. “I’m doing everything possible to stop myself from getting injury. Most people who know me know that I go 100 miles an hour all the time. If I get injured, I get injured. There’s not much you can do about it. All you can do is prepare the best possible way.”But there is every chance that Pattinson will find himself carrying the drinks at Adelaide Oval, with his state team-mate Siddle also in the squad having been named 12th man for the first two Tests against New Zealand. There is also the possibility that a two-man spin attack will be deployed, with Steve O’Keefe’s outstanding pink-ball record earning him a call-up.”If I was Sidds and missed out I’d probably be pretty disappointed too,” Pattinson said. “It’s good that’s there’s good competition. I’m just really rapt to be in squad to be honest – I probably wasn’t expecting it. If I don’t get selected so be it, I’ll just keep pushing and putting my name forward.”

For the third successive day the weather had its say with the start being delayed until 12.15pm. But surprisingly there were no interruptions once it going.From England’s point of view, the initial interest lay in Michael Atherton scoring the four runs for which he had waited since the end of play on the first day. That amounted to seven and a quarter hours during which no play was possible.Despite having scored four hundred runs in the previous Test at Lord’s and near enough that figure in the innings completed today, there is no clear indication that all is well with England’s batting, going by the innings here.Atherton’s patient innings took him to his fourteenth Test century and the 50th of his first-class career. With it he also equalled Denis Compton’s record of five Test centuries on this ground and it was of no surprise to hear him say that this was his favourite venue and that he always enjoyed batting here. Indeed, his maiden Test hundred (151) was also at Trent Bridge, against New Zealand in 1990. With the exception of Pakistan and Sri Lanka, he has now scored centuries against every Test-playing nation.A cause of worry for England must be the failure of the middle-order batsmen. Graeme Hick, on the first day and Alec Stewart and Nick Knight today, were dismissed before even reaching double figures. All-rounder Andy Flintoff could only make 16 from 46 ba lls faced and although Chris Schofield hit a fine maiden Test half-century in only his second Test match, his job in the side is primarily to take wickets.At Lord’s England had good scores from four specialist batsmen and, for consistency, that is what was required here. After all, with the series against West Indies to follow shortly, England’s batsmen are being provided with the opportunity, by the weak opposition, of building confidence and getting practice at Test match level.Without the unexpected contribution of tail-ender Schofield and the 48 ‘extras’, England’s batsmen totalled 269 of which nearly 200 came from the opening pair. Bearing in mind that the bowling that they will face from West Indies will be at a much higher level than what the struggling Zimbabweans have had to offer, England will no doubt need to look at their batting carefully.Test debutant, 19-year-old Mluleki Nkala, finished with figures of 3 for 82, having taken 3 for 67 from 26 overs at one stage. A very commendable performance from the young lad.

National Cricket Academy were unstoppable on the second day of their MRF-Buchi Babu tournament title clash with Oil and Gas National Corporation at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai today. Mohd. Kaif had little difficulty in completing his hundred in the morning as the NCA boys closed their first innings at 449. The NCA bowlers then knocked over ONGC for just 154. Indeed that figure would have been even more modest but for an entertaining 74 from No.8 Sandeep Sharma which rescued the oilmen from an embarrassing 76/8. NCA, preferring not to enforce the follow on, lost the wicket of SS Das in the only over they negotiated in their second knock before bad light stopped play.In the fourth over of the day, before a single run had been added to the overnight score of 360/6, Amit Bhandari got rid of Romesh Powar who top edged a pull behind the wicket which Virender Shewag, running to his left from slip, safely collected. Kaif played some lovely strokes off a wayward Sandeep Sharma and duly reached three figures off his 182nd delivery, by pulling a shortish delivery to the fence at square leg. His concentration seemed to flag a little after the landmark was posted, twice going down on one knee for cross batted heaves that failed to make contact. Rakesh Dhruve, who’d contributed precisely 2 out of a partnership of 47 with Kaif, hoisted Rahul Sanghvi high and straight down Mohd. Saif’s throat at mid on. Kaif fell soon after for 123 (212 balls, 15 fours, 1 six), a fierce horizontal thrust on bended knee going like a bullet to Gagan Khoda at mid wicket who almost had his hands dislocated.A most entertaining cameo from Mrityunjay Tripathy followed, the No. 11 making 28 of the 32 run last wicket stand with Rakesh Patel, including a lofted hit over long on, and five searing boundaries. Sanghvi who’d borne the brunt of Tripathy’s assault knocked out the batsman’s middle stump as the batsman made room to cut a fullish length delivery. The innings ended in the 118th over and Tripathy was nicely warmed up for the mayhem that now unfolded. The UP seamer sent back Radheshyam Gupte in the penultimate over before lunch. The batsman looked to deflect it to third man but Shiv Sunder Das scooped up the low chance at second slip. The umpires had to confer before serving marching orders.Soon after the interval, skipper Khoda drove loosely outside the off stump to present wicket keeper Rohit Jhalani with a straightforward offering. Virender Shewag, of short stocky build and wearing a pair of distinctively faded pads, began well, displaying felicity square of the wicket on the off side. But he played a pretentious drive which failed to connect and looked back to see his off stump clean out of the ground. That made it three out of three for Tripathy, a wiry chap, not really tough looking like fast bowlers of yore but able to generate surprising pace with a smooth action.Dhruve spilt a sitter at gully to let off Gautam Vadhera but he made no mistake when it happened again in Sodhi’s first over. Sodhi was bowling a probing line around off stump which drew the next two batsmen, Rizwan Shamshad and Mithun Minhas, into edges behind the wicket as ONGC dipped to 60/6. Rakesh Patel, having switched to the pavilion end, removed Saif just before tea at the same score and from the first ball after the break, Sanghvi was leg before to Tripathy.Then began the rearguard action by the two Sandeeps, Sharma and Dogra. Punjab all rounder Sharma who made a lusty 98 on his Ranji Trophy debut coming in at No. 10 and who frequently plays the role of pinch hitter for his state was in a combative mood. His 74 came off just 89 balls, including 12 boundaries and a pulled six off Dhruve. Just after reaching his half century, he singled out the same bowler for more punishment in a purple patch that produced three successive boundaries. Sodhi took a brilliant tumbling catch at mid on to finally nix the 78-run stand at 154. Four runs later Powar ended the innings with his first wicket. Tripathy (4/50), Sodhi (3/26) and Patel (2/27) all were in their elements.Despite a humongous lead of 289, NCA chose to give their bowlers some respite by declining the follow on option. SS Das edged Bhandari to stand-in keeper Shamshad off the third ball of the NCA reply and then had the mortification of seeing the players come off for bad light at the end of the over although the light was no better or worse. There were 11 overs left to be bowled when stumps were drawn at 5.00 pm and the match as a contest is decidedly buried.