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Bangladesh romped to a nine-wicket win over Malaysia in the third-place play-off in the CLICO International Under-15 tournament in Trinidad. Malaysia collapsed from 47 for 2 to 73 all out, with offspinner Khaza Khairuddin taking 4 for 15 and Naseef Ahmed 4 for 9. Didar Hossain (41*) led the chase and Bangladesh knocked off the runs in the 12th over. Despite the loss, Malaysia have performed tremendously considering they only entered the competition at the last minute following the withdrawal of Zimbabwe.Ireland defeat ICC Americas by two wickets in the fifth-place play-off in Tobago. Ireland appeared to be heading towards defeat as they slid to 77 got 6 chasing 139, but Barry McCarthy (44*) and Jonathan Andrews (16) added a vital 52 for the seventh wicket to guide the Irish to victory with three overs in hand. ICC Americas should have posted a bigger score, but from a platform of 110 for 3 they fell away, with Andrews and Ben Wylie taking three wickets each. ICC Americas’ lack of discipline also told as their bowlers gave away 24 wides and five no-balls.Netherlands finished in seventh after a 60-run win over the very poor Kenya side. Stefan Ekelmans’ 51 was the anchor as Netherlands made 172 for 8 in 50 overs, Kenya’s bowlers contributing 21 wides. But Kenya’s batsmen, as has been the case throughout, were simply not good enough, with Irfan Karim’s 50 one of only two scores in double figures as they limped to 112 in 44.2 overs.

Scorecard

Half-centuries from Mohammad Kaif, Piyush Chawla and Praveen Kumar put Uttar Pradesh in a position to press for an outright win after they had shot Bengal out for 149 on the first day. They ended the second day with a lead of 288 with three wickets in hand.Resuming at 128 for 2, UP lost Suresh Raina, who started the day on 55, for the addition of only eight more runs. Kaif got good support from Ravikant Shukla and Chawla, as he added 92 and 86 with them for the fifth and sixth wickets. Kaif fell nine short of a century, while Chawla scored 53. Praveen took the lead close to 300 with an unbeaten 50 off 71 deliveries.
ScorecardHimachal Pradesh suffered two mini collapses, struggling against Mumbai in Dharamsala. They were reduced from 56 without loss to 78 for 4 and then from 156 for 4 to 164 for 7 before bad light intervened and stopped play early. Debutant Hemant Dogra, Paras’s elder brother, had given Himachal a good start in partnership with Manish Gupta, but Himachal went on to lose wickets in bunches, as has been the case with them earlier this season too. Maninder Bisla and Paras resurrected the innings with a 78-run fifth-wicket stand, but they lost three wickets in a hurry again. Murtaza Hussain took four wickets for Mumbai.Earlier Vinayak Samant, in partnership with Hussain, had taken Mumbai from their overnight score of 324 for 9 to 370. Samant stayed unbeaten on 60.
Scorecard
Shitanshu Kotak scored a painstaking century – his 11th in first-class cricket – to secure Saurashtra a 117-run first-innings lead against Maharashtra in Nagothane. Maharashtra lost one wicket in 15 overs before stumps to end the second day 83 runs in deficit with nine wickets in hand.Kotak’s 108 off 277 deliveries was a crucial knock as the second-highest score for Saurashtra was Cheteshwar Pujara’s 35. Resuming at 73 for 2, Saurashtra were in trouble at 100 for 5 when Kotak and Ravindra Jadeja took them past Maharashtra’s 136 with a 59-run partnership. Kotak shared a 55-run ninth-wicket stand with Sandeep Jobanputra, who followed his four wickets with 24 runs.
ScorecardAndhra continued with their slow but solid progress in Visakhapatnam against Baroda as half-centuries from MSK Prasad and B Sumanth took them to 434 for 8. After Andhra had lost overnight half-centurion Gnaneshwara Rao without any addition to their score, Prasad and Sumanth added 115 for the sixth wicket to further frustrate Baroda. Wickets didn’t come quickly even after Sumanth’s dismissal for 72, as Prasad found able partners in Marripuri Suresh, G Shankara Rao and D Kalyankrishna. The seventh and eighth wickets cost Baroda 35 and 30, while Prasad and Kalyankrishna had added 40 for the ninth wicket when stumps were called. Prasad ended the day five short of his century.
Scorecard
Basanth Mohanty took four wickets to put Orissa in sight of a sizeable first-innings lead as they dismissed eight Punjab batsmen for 207 on the second day in Mohali. This is Basanth’s second match and he had taken eight wickets in his first game.In reply to Orissa’s 323, Punjab made a solid start to reach 46 without loss, but lost five wickets in a hurry to be reduced to 91 for 5. The Mohantys – Basanth and Debasis – took two wickets each in that burst. The resistance put by Ankur Kakkar was cut short by Basanth, as he dismissed him for 53. Things could have been much better for Orissa but for the 22 no-balls they bowled. Earlier Orissa’s last two wickets added 50 more to their overnight 273 for 8.Karnataka 0 for 0 trail Delhi 538 (Kohli 169, Manhas 124, Vinay Kumar 5-121) by 538 runs
Scorecard The run fest continued for Delhi in Bangalore as Mithun Manhas became the third batsman to score a century to lift his team to 538 in their first innings. Virat Kohli, 154 overnight, fell early but Manhas made sure the batting didn’t come apart. All three centurions scored their second hundreds of the season. Manhas hit 20 fours and a six in his innings of 124. R Vinay Kumar had to toil for 40.5 overs for his five wickets, while Sunil Joshi bowled 42 overs for three. Bad light brought an early end to the day, as Karnataka faced only one ball.
ScorecardNo play was possible on the second day in Chennai because of persistent rains. On the first day, S Badrinath and M Vijay had scored centuries to put Tamil Nadu in a commanding position against Rajasthan.

Straight up
Straight boundaries come easy to Sachin Tendulkar, with drives that look so simple and neat. But it was surprising to see him go for the slog. Stuart Clark pitched it short outside off, the ball was about 132kph, but Tendulkar, instead of pulling it square, swatted it straight over the umpire’s head.Bhajji cools down
After the tirade of hostilities he’s faced on this tour, Harbhajan Singh’s had enough. While Tendulkar made the Australians sweat in the Brisbane heat, Harbhajan cooled himself down by sitting on an ice box. That must have surely helped him walk sedately to the crease amid the boos at the Gabba, home to Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds.Tackling Tendulkar
Australians love bodily contact, and among their favorite sports are Australian rules football and rugby. Michael Clarke might be slim but he made use of his rugby skills to pin down the unstoppable Tendulkar. Gambhir pushed the ball towards mid-on and Clarke tried to stop it in his followthrough. One hurdle: Tendulkar was standing to his left . Clarke ended ramming straight into Tendulkar, who was turning back, and pinned him to the ground. Good ‘n you mate, the Aussies might have said; however, it didn’t stop Tendulkar from making runs.What might have been
Ricky Ponting ordered his men into an onfield huddle before the match to outline his plans for the do-or-die encounter. The inspiration might have passed on to his players, but it wasn’t grabbed by the captain when Tendulkar fired a square drive on 7. Ponting had placed himself at a catching position in front of point and the ball sped to his right at a comfortable height, but it was going too quickly and didn’t stick. An amazing catch would have lifted the team; Ponting’s men had to look elsewhere for the spark.Paying the price
Irfan Pathan was turning out to be ineffective against the Queenslanders Hayden and Symonds, who were steadily repairing the early damage done by Praveen Kumar. As Australia neared the 100-run mark, Pathan offered room and Hayden drove it hard towards cover. The batsmen ran for a tight single. Suresh Raina at short cover tried to intercept but it was Yuvraj who picked the ball at mid-off; he had a aim at the stumps but missed, and the throw beat Dhoni and headed to the boundary.

Stuart Law overshadowed another dismal batting display by Nasser Hussain as Essex took control of their County Championship Division One match at Kidderminster against Worcestershire.The Australian right-hander struck a superb 189 after the England captain, struggling for form this season, made just 10.Essex finished the day on 461 for 9 from 114 overs in reply to Worcestershire’s 302.Hussain, nine not out overnight, added just a single to fine leg before he pushed forward to a Kabir Ali delivery which he edged to wicketkeeper Steve Rhodes.With Hussain’s departure came the arrival of the rampant Law. He and Paul Prichard, who was 10 not out overnight, added a solid partnership of 166 in 37 overs.The partnership was ended when 19 year-old paceman Kabir tempted Prichard into playing a loose drive, the batsman being caught at backward point by David Leatherdale.Prichard, who dislocated his left thumb while fielding a shot from Worcestershire centurion Paul Pollard, made 74 from 171 balls (nine fours, two sixes).Despite the departure of Prichard and Ronnie Irani, who was removed by paceman Stuart Lampitt for 14, Law continued in to his fourth championship hundred of the season, the 100 coming from 136 deliveries with 17 fours.It was his 25th first-class hundred for Essex and the 47th of his career. It was also his second ton of the season against Worcestershire, having smashed 133 not out against them at Chelmsford last month.Law did inject a few scares into the Essex camp before reaching his ton. A couple of shots wentclose to Graeme Hick in the slips.Nevertheless, once into three figures he continued to hog centre stage.In tandem with Stephen Peters (67), Law added 185 in 41 overs – an Essex fifth-wicket record against Worcestershire. Peters eventually played on to left-armer seamer Alamgir Sheriyar after having made his best score of the season.Sheriyar made it two in the over by bringing Law’s magnificent innings to an end, with the assistance of an excellent one-handed catch by Vikram Solanki low down at cover. Law’s 189 included 30 fours off 243 deliveries in 338 minutes.After that Essex steadily began to subside, but 76 extras helped their account nicely.Kabir Ali, with 4/114, was Worcestershire’s best bowler.

The West Indian camp sounded confident of a win ahead of the final day ofthe Test at Old Trafford, needing 154 runs with five wickets remaining tocomplete the highest fourth innings run-chase in the history of Testcricket.”I think we’re in it,” said David Moore, the West Indies coach. “They [England] have only taken two wickets in the last two sessions [on day four]. We batted very well and we’ve got twoquality batsmen in at the moment.” Moore hoped that Denesh Ramdin and Shivnarine Chanderpaul could keep batting for as long as possible to get West Indies as close to the target and then leave it up to Darren Sammy and the tail.Daren Ganga, captain of the West Indies, also sounded pleased with the day’sproceedings. “This has been a very good day,” he said. “The mere fact that we onlylost our wickets today was definitely a positive for us.” Ganga felt hisbatsmen had stuck to the task in the uphill battle to chase a score ofover 400. “Shivnarine Chanderpaul led the way with his knock and all theother guys supported. Runako Morton laid that foundation, Dwayne Bravo andDenesh Ramdin all contributed.”Looking ahead to the final day’s play, an optimistic Ganga said, “The gamewould be over probably in two sessions. If we can bat for two sessions Iam sure we will win the Test match.”Shivnarine Chanderpaul, unbeaten on 81, is the man on whom West Indianhopes will be pinned on to finish the job. Talking about the approach ofthe batsmen on day four, Chanderpaul said, “We were looking forpartnerships and to take it session by session and that was how webasically approached it.” When asked about the approach for the final day,he added, “We will go out and continue doing the same thing and look tobat out the first two sessions. If we do that we will be close to winningthe game.”Moore justified the confidence in Chanderpaul by saying he was a classic Test batsman as he loved batting with his back against the wall. “He is underrated and underestimated and people do that at their own peril, Chanderpaul is a world-class cricketer.”Moore felt the West Indian lower-order could provide able support toChanderpaul. “Sammy is very gutsy as you can see with theball, he’s very passionate and certainly he has the ability to supportShiv. We’re looking forward for 9, 10 and 11 to contribute if they have tobut we’re looking forward to knock it off before that.”Expressing his view about chasing the record, Moore said, “It would befantastic if we can do it. In retrospect if we had scored more runs in thefirst innings and batted a little longer we would have been a lot closerthan we are already so we’ve got those things to contemplate later on butat the moment we certainly looking to chase down the target.”Incidentally, West Indies hold the current record for the highestfourth-innings total to win a Test, having scored 418 for 7 against Australiain 2003 at St John’s, Antigua. Chanderpaul had scored a century in that match as well.

Paul Nixon, the 37-year-old former England wicketkeeper, has signed for the Indian Cricket League.”This is an exciting opportunity to end what has been a remarkably eventful year for me,” Nixon said. “I would never have imagined 12 months ago that I would get the opportunity to go on two England tours, and I always saw that as a bonus and a tremendous honour to play for my country.”Nixon was selected by England for the one-day series in Australia following the Ashes, and also for the World Cup. But, at 37, he realizes his chances of further international recognition are probably over.”I now have two big goals to look forward to in my career, playing in this Twenty20 league and the captaincy of Leicestershire,” he said. “This is perfect timing because India is the Mecca of cricket and interest in the Twenty20 game is extremely high due to the success of the national team in becoming world champions.”The league, which begins on November 30, features the likes of Brian Lara and Inzamam-ul-Haq.

Match facts

Saturday, April 19, 2008
Start time 20:30 local time (15:00 GMT)

The Big Picture

Shane Warne and his Rajasthan Royals travel to Delhi, where the Daredevils await them for their opener under the recently installed floodlights at a refurbished Feroz Shah Kotla. Neither Rajasthan nor Delhi made any big purchases during the auctions; Virender Sehwag, the Delhi Daredevils captain, tops the payroll list for his franchise at US$833,750, while Mohammad Kaif is the most expensive player for the Jaipur-based franchise, at $675,000.Delhi start favourites for the clash, with a heady mix of aggressive batsmen, wily bowlers and athletic fielders, but it will be folly to underestimate the tactical acumen of Warne, the coach and captain.

Watch out for …

Some big hits. Delhi has in its ranks the explosive Sehwag, alongside Gautam Gambhir, a standout performer for India in Twenty20s, and Shikhar Dhawan, while Rajasthan have big hitters of the ball in Shane Watson and Yusuf Pathan. Warne’s battle with Sachin Tendulkar has been touted as one to watch in the IPL, but the contest against Sehwag will be no less engaging. After conquering batsmen the world over in unison, Glenn McGrath and Warne will be on opposing ends, though it’s unlikely they will bowl to each other.

Team news

Both teams will miss some of their overseas players. Delhi will be without Pakistanis Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Asif, while AB de Villiers is back in South Africa playing the Standard Bank Pro20 Series. For Rajasthan, Graeme Smith is also away on domestic duty, forcing them to send an SOS call to 38-year-old Darren Lehmann after Mark Ramprakash turned down the offer. Also unavailable are the Pakistani trio of Younis Khan, Kamran Akmal and Sohail Tanvir, besides hard-hitting allrounder Dimitri Mascarenhas, the only English player in the league. Delhi are likely to open with Sehwag and Gambhir, with Tillakaratne Dilshan and wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik occupying middle-order spots. Manoj Tiwary, Dhawan, Mithun Manhas and Rajat Bhatia will vie for the remaining slots in the batting line-up, leaving space for four bowlers, spearheaded by McGrath and Daniel Vettori, one of the most effective bowlers in last year’s World Twenty20 in South Africa. An injury to Sri Lankan allrounder Farveez Maharoof means Tasmanian Brett Geeves, a surprise signing, might get a game, while it will be a toss-up between Yo Mahesh and Pradeep Sangwan, unless Delhi opt for a second specialist spinner in Amit Mishra.Delhi (probable) 1 Virender Sehwag (capt), 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 Shikhar Dhawan, 4 Manoj Tiwary, 5 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 6 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 7 Rajat Bhatia, 8 Daniel Vettori, 9 Brett Geeves, 10 Glenn McGrath, 11 Pradeep Sangwan.Rajasthan’s allrounders – Pathan and Watson – form the core group along with Warne and Mohammad Kaif. Taruwar Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja, two of India’s World Cup-winning Under-19 team, might get a look in, while Mahesh Rawat is expected to keep. Munaf Patel might seem to be a bit laidback for Twenty20 but, barring injury, he should be opening the bowling alongside Rajasthan’s very own Pankaj Singh.Rajasthan (probable) 1 Shane Watson, 2 Taruwar Kohli, 3 Mohammad Kaif, 4 Darren Lehmann, 5 Niraj Patel, 6 Yusuf Pathan, 7 Mahesh Rawat (wk), 8 Ravindra Jadeja , 9 Shane Warne, 10 Pankaj Singh, 11 Munaf Patel.

Stats and trivia

In his first year as editor of the 145th , Scyld Berry warns of the ever-increasing likelihood of on-field physical incident, while attacking the exorbitant and rising costs of watching an England Test.”I fear the day is approaching when a high-profile, televised cricket match will see an outbreak of physical violence on the field – and nothing could be more injurious to all concerned,” said Berry, who has replaced Matthew Engel as the Almanack’s editor for this year and 2009. “Preventing physical violence on the pitch – as more and more matches are played for more and more money – will require vision and leadership.”The worst example came in the Kanpur international when Gautam Gambhir ran straight down the pitch and straight into Shahid Afridi. As the bowler, Afridi was allowed to stay where he was at the end of his follow-through; it was up to the batsman to swerve and avoid him.”It is the ICC’s responsibility to police international cricket, Berry says, and he calls for an exact clarification on the rights of way between fielders and batsmen on the cut strip.Elsewhere in the wide-ranging Notes by the Editor – Wisden’s annual sermon on the state of the game – Berry laments the performances of England’s one-day side and takes aim at the ECB’s responsibility to publicise the game to as wide an audience as possible. “A family day out at an England cricket match is now for millionaires only,” he says. “Watching the England team, whether at a ground or on subscription television, is becoming an elite pastime for the affluent, like opera. To watch the whole Test match at Lord’s against South Africa this summer will cost a member of the public at least £300. Even a day of the New Zealand Test at Lord’s will cost £60, while the best ticket for a one-day international at The Oval has exceeded £100.”Jacques Kallis, the South Africa allrounder, was named the Leading Cricketer in the World for 2007 for his 1210 Test runs at 86.42 last year and 20 wickets at 25.75, labelled by Peter Roebuck as “the first indisputably great African cricketer of the post-apartheid era”. The five Cricketers of the Year were Ian Bell and Ryan Sidebottom for their England performances last year, Ottis Gibson for his outstanding season with Durham, Zaheer Khan – who enjoyed such a prolific tour of England – and Shivnarine Chanderpaul who defied England so resolutely.Berry also questions why the batsmen of today cannot hit the ball as far as their Victorian counterparts, in spite of their apparently brawnier bodies and bats. The biggest ever hit of 175 yards, or 160 metres, was recorded at Oxford in 1856 “from hit to pitch” by Walter Fellows; the Australian George Bonnor struck a ball 160 yards a few years later. Yet the biggest strike in last year’s inaugural World Twenty20 championship, by India’s Yuvraj Singh, was only 119 metres. Berry offers a possible explanation in a piece entitled “Hail Fellows, well hit”. also look at five great cricketers who were never selected as Cricketers of the Year – which include Abdul Qadir, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Wes Hall – and they introduce a new award, the Young Wisden Schools Cricketer of the Year.