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Contrasting centuries from Brian Lara and Daren Ganga gave WestIndies a handy lead by the end of the third day at Bourda. Some moreapplication is needed, though, as the pitch is benign and the new ball,just a few overs old, is swinging appreciably. Australia, who will have asecond bite of that new ball tomorrow morning, are still slightfavourites, although their fallibility in fourth-innings run-chases will beunder scrutiny again.Lara’s was the innings of the day, studded with trademark whippedstrokes and some savage sweeps. He took a good look at the bowling,taking 73 balls to reach 40, but then cut loose ­ sweeping orpull-driving the spinners ­ and sprinted past Ganga, his partner in astand eventually worth 185. It was Lara’s 19th Test century, and one ofhis finest, played under pressure from the match situation and thecrowd, which again gave him a mixed reception when he came out tobat, because he has replaced the local hero Carl Hooper as captain.For a while it was Trinidad v Australia, as Lara and Ganga battedthrough the middle session without being parted. Lara passed 2000runs against Australia on his way to his seventh century ­ and hisfourth in successive home Tests ­ against them. He had reached alyrical 110, with 20 sumptuous fours, when he was out in a peculiarway. He tried to sweep the left-arm spinner Brad Hogg, but the balllooped up off his forearm and was caught by Matthew Hayden, runninground from slip. The fieldsmen appealed for that, but Adam Gilchristhad noticed something even more final: Lara had lost control of his bat,which just brushed the stumps and dislodged a bail (295 for 3).Marlon Samuels didn’t last long, edging Stuart MacGill low to a divingRicky Ponting at second slip (303 for 4). Samuels then nearly featuredin an even odder dismissal than Lara’s. While acting as ShivnarineChanderpaul’s runner, Samuels dozily wandered over the line asGilchrist whipped off the bails with Chanderpaul firmly rooted in thecrease. But the TV cameras were watching the batsman, not the runnerat point, and the case was not proven. Chanderpaul, the first-inningscenturion, lived to fight another day.Shortly after that Ganga’s long vigil came to an end after 511 minutes.Ganga had underachieved in his previous 17 Tests, making only threefifties and sometimes struggling to get the ball off the square. Buttoday, in his first home Test, he found his feet and moved them smartlyto the pitch of the ball. He happily played second fiddle to Lara, butoccasionally unrolled a classic cover-drive or perky pull. He extendedhis maiden Test century to 113, with 19 fours and a clunking six off aMacGill long-hop, before he tired of being tied down by Lehmann andchipped to midwicket (295 for 3) ­ a rare case of Darren bewitchingDaren.Lehmann was only bowling because the Australian attack ­ lackingthose 400-wicket men McGrath and Warne ­ had an off day. Therewere more no-balls than usual ­ 18 in all, 10 of them from Brett Lee ­and even the fielding was uncharacteristically leaky. Waugh had atrundle himself, despite having to leave the field for a while to havestitches in the webbing of his left hand after a misfield in the covers.The batsman who inflicted that injury was Devon Smith, the 21-year-oldGrenadian playing in his first Test. A toothy left-hander with a tendencyto forget his feet-movement, Smith’s aggressive 62 included a dozenmeaty fours, the pick of them a perfect straight-drive that whistled backpast Lee before he could react.Smith eventually feathered Jason Gillespie to Gilchrist (110 for 2). Hehad put on 58 with Ganga, and earlier had dominated an openingstand of 52 with Wavell Hinds, who plodded to 7 in 55 balls beforeMacGill turned one across him. He was adjudged lbw by Asoka deSilva although the ball seemed to be turning a long way down the legside. He didn’t have too much to complain about, really ­ in the firstover of the day he was trapped plumb in front by Lee, but de Silvashook his head that time.West Indies are not out of the woods yet: an early wicket or two with thenew ball will expose the injured Ridley Jacobs and that oh-so-flimsytail. But honour has been restored, and at a pretty fair lick of more than3.5 an over. The scoring rates have been so fast in this match that it’shard to believe there are still two days to go. It all means that thereshould still be a result, if the weather holds.

Peter Bowler and Mike Burns inspired Somerset to a four-wicket victory over Surrey in the floodlit NUL relegation tussle at Taunton.Belligerent batting from Ali Brown (98) and skipper Adam Hollioake (70) guided the visitors to 236-8 in their 45 overs.But Somerset openers Ian Blackwell and Peter Bowler put on 44 in six overs and they always kept on top of their run-rate thereafter.Bowler led the way with his fifth half-century in the competition this season.He received good support from Matt Wood in a third wicket stand of 49, which ended when Wood cut a catch to wicketkeeper John Batty off Tim Murtagh.Then Burns helped Bowler put on 87 in just 12 overs as Surrey’s attack, who had to contend with a wet ball for part of the innings, were taken apart.Burns twice reverse swept Gareth Batty to the boundary on his way to 53 from 47 balls, with seven fours.Bowler finally fell for 86, with eight fours and a six, when he was caught behind off Ed Giddins in the 39th over.Earlier Ali Brown and Adam Hollioake had taken charge for Surrey with a third wicket partnership of 155 in 24 overs, after Steffan Jones had claimed a double-wicket maiden in the 8th over when Ian Ward was caught at slip and Gareth Batty edged to wicketkeeper Rob Turner.Hollioake struck five fours and a six over the Ian Botham stand, in his 77-ball innings of 70, before Dutch had him stumped by Turner.Brown was on course for his second century in the competition this season when he fell for 98 to a good return catch by left-arm spinner Ian Blackwell.His 89-ball innings included five fours and four sixes, three of which were driven straight over the short county ground boundaries.Surrey, who looked on course for 300 at one stage, ended on 236-8 as Blackwell, in particular, restricted the runs in the closing overs.Blackwell also bowled Gary Butcher behind his legs and had Ben Hollioake caught by Dutch at long off in a six over spell of 3-16.

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.

Scorecard
The left-arm spin duo of Suhrawadi Shuvo and Mehrab Hossain jnr captured seven wickets between them to lead the Bangladesh Cricket Board Academy to an innings and 68-run win over the South Africa Cricket Academy in their four-day match at the Shamshul Huda Stadium in Jessore.The South Africans were left to bat out a little less than two sessions on the final day after Bangladeshis declared their first-innings on 507, but they folded up an hour after tea. Nazmul Hossain trapped Sammy-Joe Avontuur, after which Shuvo claimed three wickets in succession as the South Africans fell to 39 for 5. Wicketkeeper Bradley Barnes scored a 59-ball 54 and added 61 runs for the sixth wicket with Richard das Neves (21) but once das Neves was bowled by Mehrab, the Bangladeshis quickly wrapped things up.Earlier, Naeem Islam, who began the final day on 96, extended his innings to 136 while Mushfiqur Rahim struck an unbeaten 53 off 63 balls to take Bangladesh past 500. Dolar Mahmud, batting at No. 9, ensured some late-order fireworks by blasting three sixes in his 26.Bangladesh were in total command on the third day, as they rode on Imrul Kayash’s 151, which featured 25 fours and a six, to amass 319 runs for the loss of four wickets in 92 overs.Prior to that, the South Africans put up 311 in their first innings after the entire first day’s play was washed out. Reeza Hendricks did the bulk of the scoring with 131 off 188 balls and was partnered by Shadley van Schalkwyk (54) in an 84-run fifth-wicket stand. Nazmul, the right-arm seamer, stood out with figures of 4 for 63.

The MCC has backed Australia’s decision not to tour Zimbabwe and has called on the ICC to suspend Zimbabwe’s Test and one-day status due to the sharp decline in their playing standard. The MCC’s World Cricket committee, chaired by Tony Lewis, was reluctant to comment directly on the political situation in Zimbabwe but said the rebuilding of cricket infrastructure was needed for Zimbabwe to again become competitive.”[The committee] believes the standard of cricket played by Zimbabwe, a full member of the ICC, has deteriorated to such an extent that its Test and one-day international playing status should be permanently suspended until such time as the cricket infrastructure is rebuilt,” the group said in a statement.”While it is not for the MCC World Cricket committee to make judgments on the politics of any particular country, the committee believes the decline in the standard of cricket in Zimbabwe is directly related to the political situation there, and that an improvement is unlikely while the current regime is in place.”The committee, therefore, welcomes the decision of the Australian government in preventing its cricket team from touring Zimbabwe later this year. Once the social unrest has been addressed, ICC should, by means of regular review and guidance, assist the Zimbabwe Cricket Union in rebuilding as a serious cricketing nation.”The committee includes six former England captains as well as international representatives such as Andy Flower, Steve Waugh, Courtney Walsh, Rahul Dravid and Barry Richards. Although the MCC does not have an official role in running world cricket, it is responsible for the game’s laws.

Danish Kaneria is ready to take over as Pakistan’s main strike bowler in the absence of Shoaib Akhtar who was dropped from the squad because of injury.Kaneria took 11 wickets when the sides met in Pakistan late last year and though he was wicketless in Faisalabad, his spells in the second innings at Multan and Lahore were crucial in securing Pakistan wins.In his exclusive diary for Bigstarcricket.com, Kaneria said, “I will try 101 percent to step into Shoaib’s shoes and lead our attack. I do not mind the pressure of being our main strike bowler. I will work hard and try to take wickets for my country and make my captain proud. I think my two years playing for Essex will be a great help to me, knowing how to bowl on English wickets.”Kaneria can take heart from recent England displays which reveal that though they have improved against spin, they are still suspectible; Shane Warne in the last Ashes series, Kaneria himself in Pakistan, Anil Kumble in India and recently Muttiah Muralitharan have revealed this weakness.”Warne took 40 wickets against England in the Ashes last year and Murali spun them out at Nottingham a few days ago so it shows me that their batsmen are not too comfortable against the top-class spinners,” he explained. “Murali and Warne are easily the best two spinners that ever lived and I want to prove that I can also be as good as them even though I still have a lot to learn. They are much more experienced than I am, but I will try my best to make things difficult for England as they did.”But he acknowledged that despite their weakness and a long injury list, England at home will be a demanding prospect. “It will be a tough series for us because England are difficult opponents in their home conditions, but we have been playing very good cricket over the last couple of years and we are confident about what we can achieve. Each and every player wants to perform at the highest level and we are determined to win over there.”Kaneria is hoping to take his wife and daughter along with him to England. He said, “I’ll be bringing my wife and daughter over for the first couple of weeks, so she will see me fulfil my lifelong dream of playing a Test match at Lords. I am just hoping it can coincide with a victory.”

On the plan when he walked out to bat this morning
It was to get as much of a lead as possible. It was a bonus that Gillespie batted so long – three or four hours was fantastic. It would have been nice to set them 250-plus but history shows that it’ll be tough to chase on the last day here, and hopefully that’ll come true tomorrow for us.On whether the target of 229 is enough
I think so. We always want more. I think it’s about 200 that they need now, and it’ll be a great day of Test cricket tomorrow, which is what it’s all about. We’ve had plans when it comes to our bowling and hopefully they’ll come off tomorrow. We’ve got a great spin bowler in our ranks as well, and they’re going to have to bat very well.On whether he rated this innings better than the two centuries in Sri Lanka last March, and on what changes he had made to his technique for the subcontinent
It’s up there with my best hundreds in the sense that you had two world-class spinners bowling on the fourth day. It’s always satisfying as a batsman to test your skills against the best. Not much has changed [technique-wise]. We’ve played a lot of one-day cricket in India and Sri Lanka and all the batsmen over the last four or five years have had a chance to play on these pitches. That’s definitely helped us.On whether the pitch was less conducive to bounce when compared to the opening day
Yeah, but it varied a lot out of the footmarks. The centre of the pitch was playing well, but the natural variation out of the footmarks is getting all the wickets. If we can get a couple of early wickets tomorrow and throw the ball to Shane Warne, hopefully he can do well.On who out of Harbhajan and Kumble was more difficult to face
For the right-hander there were the left-arm bowlers’ footmarks for him [Harbhajan]. He doesn’t give you many scoring opportunities and you had to be patient out there.On whether Warne’s world record had been a source of solace on a rough day yesterday
It’s great that he broke the record but we were a long way behind on the first-innings score. I think it was a great fightback by us. We’d shown in Sri Lanka that we could come from behind, and we’ve done it again.On whether reverse-swing will be a factor tomorrow
It always happens over here when the shine goes off the ball after four or five overs.On the fielding lapses made by Australia earlier in the game
We had chances which were put down, but only a couple that you could say were easy. There were a lot of half-chances and we usually pride ourselves on taking those.On whether his Sydney experience of 1993-94 has had any influence on his batting in crunch situations
I don’t think Sydney has had an influence. I think it’s more about getting to know your game and being around international cricket for a long time. Look at someone like Michael Clarke who’s played one-day cricket for two years now, and been comfortable coming into Test cricket. The amount of cricket we play and the touring we do in different conditions helps you a lot.On whether he and Gillespie both being dismissed in the same over prevented a bigger total being scored
It’s disappointing, for sure. You have no trouble for almost four hours, and then ten minutes before tea, you lose two in four balls. But it’s part of the game.

Tino Best, the West Indian fast bowler, has been fined 75% of his match fee for breaching the ICC Code of Conduct during the first Test against Bangladesh in St Lucia, which finished yesterday.Best, 22, was fined after pleading guilty to breaching Level 2.5 of the Code, which relates to deliberate physical contact between players in the course of play. A Level 2 breach of the Code carries a potential fine of between 50 and 100% of the player’s match fee, and/or a ban from one Test or two ODIs.Best was reported by the umpires – Daryl Harper and Jeremy Lloyds, who was standing in his first Test – for an incident during Bangladesh’s second innings. After bowling the final ball of the 19th over, Best was deemed to have deliberately moved into the path of the batsman as he sought to take a run, ensuring that physical conduct occurred.The fine was imposed by Roshan Mahanama, the ICC match referee, in a hearing after the match at Gros Islet.

New Zealand Cricket’s web site, Wisden CricInfo New Zealand, had another record season over the summer.A total of 61,265,127 page impressions were made for the six months from October 1 to March 31.That was up from 47.5 million last year, and ahead of the record of 52.2 million of the summer of 2000/01.December’s traffic on the New Zealand site of 35,558,347 was a record month, ahead of the previous best of 23.2 million recorded in March 2001 when the Pakistan Test series was played here.The January figure this year of 20,452,633 was the third best month in the New Zealand site’s history.Both Test matches against India broke records for the matches most-followed in New Zealand. Previously the second Test against Pakistan at Christchurch in March 2001 with its 8.2 million impressions was the best.However, the first Test against India, at the Basin Reserve this summer resulted in 10,313,781 impressions and the second Test at Hamilton 12,383,355!The fifth One-Day International, played at Wellington and which saw 4,575,738 impressions broke the record for ODIs of 3.4 million for the fifth and deciding match against Pakistan in Dunedin in February 2001.A feature of the season was the 943,699 impressions for the World Series of Women’s Cricket.Each of New Zealand’s domestic association had increases on their sites during the summer which produced a net overall increase of 60%.Northern Districts increased by 174%, Wellington 66%, Central Districts 60%, Canterbury 59%, Otago 54% and Auckland 23%.The number of New Zealanders visiting the Wisden CricInfo site is also on the rise. An average of 51,000 unique users were recorded each month during the 2002/03 season, up 6% from 2001/02.

England look certain to ditch the seven-batsmen policy for the Third npower Test in the knowledge that they must bowl Australia out twice if they are to have any chance of winning the Ashes.So far England have captured only 22 of the tourists’ wickets in the first two Tests so know they face a tall order. Their task is made no easier by the absence of skipper Nasser Hussain who, as expected, failed to recover in time from his broken finger. Once again, Michael Atherton will lead the side.In order to lend variety to the support bowling for Darren Gough and Andy Caddick, the selectors have added the names of Alex Tudor and Robert Croft to the squad for the Trent Bridge Test.Chris Silverwood is again named in the squad so it looks like a toss-up between him and Tudor, though the latter’s batting ability – as scores of 116 and 86 in the CricInfo Championship this summer testify – might make him favourite.For the first time this summer, England are likely to field a spinner and it will be down to Croft to do the donkey work on a flat Trent Bridge wicket.There is a certain irony that on the day Croft was brought back into the squad, his spinning rival Phil Tuffnell captured his 1,000th first-class wicket. In addition, Croft’s record in England – his 13 wickets in 11 matches have cost him 73.23 apiece – is hardly auspicious.However, the selectors feel that Croft offers continuity – a watchword for the current England set-up – after some reasonable performances in Sri Lanka during the winter.”We did not want to make wholesale changes to the squad for this TestMatch,” said chairman of selectors David Graveney.”But we feel we will need more variety in our attack at Trent Bridge and theinclusion of Alex Tudor and Robert Croft will give more bowling options.”Dominic Cork misses out this time as we have decided to go for the extrapace of Alex Tudor, who has performed well for Surrey this season since comingback from injury.”We wanted to show continuity of selection by including Robert Croft as hewas included in the squad earlier in the season and also performed very well onthe winter tour of Sri Lanka.”On the batting side, Usman Afzaal could win the battle with Ian Ward for the number six spot on his home ground, Ward having posted a highest score of only 39 since coming in against Pakistan in May.With Graham Thorpe (broken hand) and Michael Vaughan (knee) both out untilthe Fourth Test at Headingley, Afzaal could stake his claim for an extended run in the side. He is in form, having hit a century for Nottinghamshire in their current Championship game against Derbyshire.Graveney added: “After the last Test match, you have to hold your nerve against a side like Australia.”If you hit the panic button, it not only affects the people you leave out,but other guys that are still in and looking over their shoulders.”Phil Tufnell is always in with a shout for selection, but you also have tolook at the continuity aspect.”Croft did very well in the winter and we brought him back into the squad atEdgbaston and may be with hindsight, we should have played him there.”It was a close call, as was Alan Mullally, but Tudor would have beenselected had he not been coming back from injury for the last Test.”As far as Croft is concerned, Nottingham is a pretty flat wicket and Croftcan beat the bat from both sides. He is likely to have to spend a lot of timebowling overs.”And the fact that the pitch will not spin so much is not something that weare unduly concerned with. He will enable us to use our quicker bowlers in shortspells.”We have to get runs on the board – when we are batting second we are notgetting to 200, and under those circumstances it is very difficult.”We are getting players out at vital times when they have made 30 and 40,they are getting out in clutches, and out before and after intervals.”If you look at the difference between the sides, they have already got twoor three 100s in every Test Match, and we are not getting those scores. At theend of a series, those tallies hurt you.”Graveney also spoke of the injuries which have disrupted both selection andfinal team make-up.He added: “It is up to other people to say how they have affected us, but itis a huge thing to lose your captain.”It is very difficult for guys like Alec (Stewart) and Mike Atherton to comein as captain and try to keep the continuity going.”The injuries are a factor. We have lost five guys for this series alone, andthat affects you in any Test match you play.”Squad: Atherton, Afzaal, Butcher, Caddick, Croft, Gough, Ramprakash, Silverwood, Stewart, Trescothick, Tudor, Ward, White.