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Middlesex captain Justin Langer maintained his fine run of form with an unbeaten 76 on the first day of the County Championship second division match with Gloucestershire at Bristol.The Australian batsman came into the game on the back of two successive championship hundreds and a third is now within his sights.Langer elected to bat first when he won the toss, but soon found himself having to revive the innings after the early loss of Andrew Strauss, Mike Roseberry and Mark Ramprakash had left the visitors on 24-3 in the 12th over.He found good support from fellow left-handers Ed Joyce and Ben Hutton, who scored 31 and 22 respectively, as Middlesex reached 151-5 from 53.5 overs.Unfortunately, half the day’s play was lost to rain. Only an hour’s play was possible in the morning session, then no action could take place after tea.In theory, this is a clash between the bottom two sides in the division. But such is the incredible congestion within the league that promotion is a possibility for both counties.Gloucestershire stand just eight points behind Sussex, who occupy the third promotion place, while Middlesex are a point closer.The home county decided not to risk opening batsman Kim Barnett and wicketkeeper Jack Russell ahead of Saturday’s NatWest Trophy final with Warwickshire at Lord’s.Barnett has been hampered in recent weeks by a knee problem, while Russell has a side strain.Reggie Williams, Russell’s deputy behind the stumps, played a hand in the first dismissals of the morning as Strauss and Roseberry edged deliveries from Mike Smith and Jon Lewis into his gloves.Lewis then bowled Ramprakash with a fine delivery that hit the seam and found the gap between bat and pad.Middlesex were 27-3 when the first rain interruption arrived, but they accelerated smoothly when play resumed.Langer took four successive fours from one Lewis over, all struck through the off-side, and hit 11 in total.His fifty came from only 62 balls, but he then became becalmed to the extent that his next 26 runs have taken 68 deliveries.It needed the occasional medium pace of Tim Hancock to prise out Joyce. The Dublin-born batsman fell lbw to a ball which kept slightly low.Lewis then returned to break up a stand of 54 between Langer and Hutton, as the latter flicked a legside catch to Williams.Lewis finished the day with 3-61 from 16.5 overs, which took his tally of first-class wickets for the campaign to 54 at 22 runs apiece.

Darren Gough finally shook off his poor bowling form by grabbing three wickets in four balls in the Roses match at Headingley.Lancashire looked like ending the first day in complete control when they stood on 346 for six off 100 overs but Gough was then thrown the new ball with dramatic results.His first delivery was driven straight to cover by Warren Hegg and his second clean bowled Peter Martin. The hat-trick ball to John Wood went off his pads for a leg-bye and the next had Glen Chapple snapped up at third slip by Anthony McGrath.Lancashire had suddenly dipped to 349 for nine but they were still handily placed when their last pair took them to the close on 358 for nine.For most of the day, there was little for England coach Duncan Fletcher to enthuse about as he watched on but Yorkshire’s new bowling sensation Steven Kirby gave Lancashire an early fright after they had won the toss, bowling Mark Chilton before he had scored and finding the edge of Michael Atherton’s bat to give Wood a catch at second slip.Lancashire then took charge until Gough’s late blast with skipper Mark Crawley (73), Joe Scuderi (56), Hegg (76) and Chris Schofield (58) all taking full advantage of a tiring Yorkshire attack.Crawley faced 137 balls and struck 13 fours before giving a return catch to off-spinner Richard Dawson while Scuderi included ten firmly hit boundaries in his maiden Championship half-century.Crawley’s dismissal left Lancashire on 173 for five but they quickly prospered again with a 115 stand between Hegg and Schofield which ended when Schofield was caught at slip by David Byas off Sidebottom, his 58 including eight fours and a six and coming off 101 balls.When Hegg departed to Gough, who finished with four for 60 from 22 overs, he had hammered five fours off the 165 balls he received.

Sachin Tendulkar has picked legspinner Imran Tahir as one of the bowlers to watch during South Africa’s upcoming tour of India. Speaking at an event in Mumbai, Tendulkar said India’s batsmen would have to handle him well, and he was “looking forward” to the contest between two balanced teams.”AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla are strong players, and don’t forget Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel,” Tendulkar said. “Then when you talk about the googly, Imran Tahir is one of the good bowlers. We have to play against him properly. Possibly he can be one of the leading bowlers.”Tendulkar said he knew the Indian players would be fully committed to giving their best and that, coupled with South Africa’s consistent fine performances, made the Test series an exciting prospect.”I think the Indian team is fantastic. They are extremely talented and committed. A lot of things are said about the players but I know them very closely, and when it comes to cricket there are no shortcuts. The guys are committed.”It will be an exciting series. The Test series is something I am looking forward to. Great team balance, both sides of the fence. The visiting South African team is a quality side, I never played against a South Africa side which I can say is just an okay side. They are always a strong side and it is no different right now.”The tour’s international games begin on October 2, in Dharamsala, with the first of three Twenty20s. Five ODIs follow, before four Tests in Mohali, Bangalore, Nagpur and Dehli, ending on December 7.

Rain affected more than half a day’s play as Tamil Nadu and Hyderabadsettled for a tame draw in their KSCA Coca Cola Under-25 Tournamentmatch at the Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wodayar Sports Complex inBangalore on Saturday.Play started only at 14.15 hours on the third and final day due to acontinuous drizzle in the morning. Resuming at the overnight score of262 for 8, Hyderabad’s first innings folded up at 290. Ravichandra(104), who was stranded at 97 overnight, completed his century in notime. However he was the first to go when he was caught at square legby K Velmurugan off DS Doss. Then Fatima Reddy (17 notout) andMallikarjun (6) took the score on to 290 when Mallikarjun foundhimself stranded out of his crease.Tamil Nadu in reply made a disasterous start to their second inningslosing opener Ravindra John (0) off the fifth ball of the innings whenhe offered a catch to Saberwal off Ghouse Baba. Then the other openerS Badrinath (3) and N Lokesh (19) took the score upto 26. Badrinathwas the next to be dismissed when he gave a chance to Fatima Reddy atmidwicket off the bowling of Ghouse Baba. Ghouse Baba claimed histhird wicket of the innings, that of Lokesh, when he shattered thebatsman’s defences.C Hemanth Kumar (11) and R Satish (10) then took the score on to 49for 3 when play was called off for the day. Tamil Nadu got 5 pointswhile Hyderabad had to be content with three. Tamil Nadu now take onKarnataka in the finals which is to be played at M Chinnaswamy Stadiumin Bangalore from October 9 to 11.

In almost every global tournament in the last eight years, Sri Lanka’s batting has had the structure of an expensive chocolate. The top is sturdy, even attractive, but the outer shell hides a pliant, squishy centre that opposition bowlers salivate at the thought of sinking their teeth into.Sri Lanka had appeared to be overcoming this long-standing weakness when Lahiru Thirimanne and Dinesh Chandimal formed productive partnerships with Angelo Mathews towards the end of 2014, but a familiar softness returned in the seven-match ODI series against New Zealand. Between Jeevan Mendis, Thisara Perera, Dinesh Chandimal and Dimuth Karunaratne (who played at No. 5 or lower after losing his opening slot), the lower middle order managed a top score of 26.Some combination of those players is likely to follow Mathews at No. 5, during the World Cup, with Thirimanne now reinstalled atop the order. But while runs have not flowed late in Sri Lanka’s innings, the team can’t begin to doubt their personnel now, according to Kumar Sangakkara, who top-scored in the New Zealand series.”You have contributions from various parts of your batting line up,” he said. “If failures happen consistently you can worry about it, but at the same time, you’ve got to trust the guys to do their best, because they are the best players. They’ve been picked for this World Cup because they are the best 15. The worst thing you can really do is start doubting each other and start doubting yourself. We’ve learned that from our past tournaments.”Sangakkara himself had been part of an inexperienced middle order in the 2003 World Cup, when he had had a worse average and strike rate than Chandimal, at a similar stage of his career. He said the challenge to all Sri Lanka’s batsmen was to be both productive and flexible with their approach.”There are some players who can get a 20-ball 50, and others who will bat 40 overs and get a hundred. You need both. In these conditions we have to understand when to attack and when to be able to batten down the hatches and really concentrate on the long haul. It will be interesting to see how we manage that and how we switch between those two states mentally.”Sri Lanka play their first match against New Zealand on Saturday. While Sangakkara believed no drastic improvements are necessary to defeat the opposition who beat then 4-2 in the recent series, he felt special performances from the more experienced cricketers will be required to progress through the knockouts, should Sri Lanka get there.”Once you get into that big game, you always look to see if two or three of your players can deliver something a bit more than your normal stock, so you can take a game away from the opposition,” he said. “But for us, I don’t think there’s a huge amount of work to do other than understanding what cost us the games against New Zealand. They’re going to be our opening game, but we also have to understand that we have to play different opposition through the tournament. For us it will be about being flexible, being able to do our training and our planning properly, and have the personnel playing in that XI who can execute that out in the middle.”Sri Lanka’s spinners have been the best slow bowlers outside Asia since 2013, but Sangakkara also suggested the team would not be shy of playing four frontline seamers, should the conditions suit a pace-heavy attack.”You’ve got to be open to your options. You might be able to play your three genuine fast bowlers, and we’ve got two genuine allrounders in Thisara and Angelo, so they can contribute in a five-fast-bowler combination. If the pitch offers turn, then we have the best current spinner in the world, in Rangana Herath. And then we have Sachithra Senanayake to support him. But then again wickets that turn enable someone like Dilshan, who has been bowling well, to be even more effective. It’s interesting the combinations that we will have to play. We can’t always stick to tradition and say, ‘We’ve got to play a spinner.'”

If the sky hasn’t quite fallen in on Brisbane, there has been more than enough rain to place Saturday’s fixture between Australia and Bangladesh at the Gabba in grave doubt.An A-League football match scheduled for Friday evening at Suncorp Stadium has been called off, while the southern hemisphere rugby body SANZAR was also debating whether or not to cancel a Super Rugby fixture set for Saturday night at the same venue.Given that neither football nor rugby need cricket’s rain-free weather to take place, the prospects for Brisbane’s only glimpse of the home team at this tournament look very grim indeed. Australia’s captain Michael Clarke, due to return on his February 21 deadline to prove he has recovered from hamstring surgery, was thinking primarily of the Queenslanders currently having their homes battered by the dual cyclones Marcia and Lam.”Our main focus as a team is with the people of Queensland,” Clarke said. “So as much as we would like to get out on that field and continue our form in the World Cup, we need to realise how bad this cyclone is and care most about the people of Queensland, make sure everybody is healthy and safe and our prayers are with a lot of people throughout the State.”Then we’ll worry about the cricket tomorrow. If we get on, we’ll be 100% ready there’s no doubt about that.”Australia have chosen an XI for the match and shared the news with the team on Thursday afternoon, but Clarke declined to announce it lest a shortened fixture tempt the selectors to reconsider. In addition to Clarke for George Bailey, Pat Cummins was in contention to replace Josh Hazlewood. Clarke wanted his men to remain optimistic about getting on the pitch, having seen the Gabba’s highly efficient drainage at work in the past.”I spoke to the boys briefly about that in our team meeting yesterday,” he said. “The fact that I’ve seen it a number of times in my career when you look outside the window, especially in Brisbane, and it looks like you’re not going to play. I think we saw that against England in the first Ashes Test as well, and then an hour later you’re on the field so I think that’s credit to the people that look after the ground here.”The drainage facility here is as good as anywhere in the world. My mindset and the team’s mindset is to make sure we’re as well prepared as we can be, and then tomorrow our mind is the game is going to go ahead. Up until we’re told that the game is off, we’re expecting to play. Whether that’s a 50-over game or a Twenty20 doesn’t bother us. We are, and will be, as well prepared as we can be.”The World Cup’s local organising committee released a statement on Friday afternoon concerning doubts over the match going ahead.”ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 organisers are working closely with authorities in Queensland regarding tomorrow’s match between Australia and Bangladesh given the extreme weather situation in the State and the forecasts for ongoing rain in Brisbane,” a spokesman said. “Our thoughts are with the people affected.”However as there is no reserve day for pool matches, we will continue to prepare in the hope that the match can go ahead. The ICC match officials will make a decision on the match tomorrow based on conditions at the time. A match can be successfully completed if each side has minimum of 20 overs which means that it is still possible to achieve a result with a start after the scheduled innings break.”A no-result would be a considerable boost to Bangladesh’s chances of progressing from Group A, particularly after England’s dismantling by New Zealand in Wellington on Friday.

David “Butch” White, the former England and Hampshire quick bowler, has died aged 73. His international career was limited to two Tests on the 1961-62 tour of Pakistan, but he took 1,143 first-class wickets at an impressive 23.54.The majority of his 16-year career was spent with Hampshire and he was part of the side that won the Championship title for the first time in 1961. He formed a powerful new-ball combination alongside Derek Shackleton, who died less than a year ago, but after a decade of loyal service he was ignominiously discarded after an injury-blighted summer in 1971. He finished his playing days with one season at Glamorgan in 1972, but it’s his exploits on the south coast that he’ll be remembered for.A broad-shouldered bowler with a long run-up, his best figures were 9 for 44 against Leicestershire in 1966 and he took over 100 wickets on four occasions.The two Tests he played came on docile pitches in Pakistan, but he played his part on debut with 3 for 65 in the first innings at Lahore, as England went on to win by five wickets. Some attributed his lack of international recognition to the fact he had been no-balled by Paul Gibb twice in 1960, although team-mate Roy Marshall argued that White’s action made throwing an impossibility.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has accepted the request of paceman Wasim Akram, to release him from the two-Test series against South Africa starting at Durban from Dec 26.Wasim, who had confined himself for One-day cricket but suddenly made himself available for Test cricket after reaching Zimbabwe for the five One-day series last month, reverted to his earlier decision with the approval of the PCB.” The chairman of the PCB Lt Gen Tauqir Zia, spoke to Wasim over telephone yesterday (Tuesday), and after hearing him out, has agreed to accede to his request” acting director PCB Zakir Khan said. However, Zakir avoided to reveal any details of the conversation held between the chairman and the bowler.After Wasim’s omission a 15-member team will play the Test series as no replacement was being made, Zakir said.Wasim along with wicketkeeper Rashid Latif and Misbahul Haq will return home on Dec 20 while middle-order batsman Hasan Raza will join the team for the Tests on Dec 17. Rashid has also limited himself to One-day cricket.Former batsman, Hanif Mohammad, who is the batting consultant of the team will leave for South Africa Saturday.

The third Mohammad Nissar Trophy, the annual fixture between the champions of the premier first-class tournaments in India and Pakistan, kicks off at the Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi on Monday, with Ranji Trophy champions Delhi taking on the Quaid-e-Azam winners Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL). No team from Pakistan has won the tournament, with Uttar Pradesh and Mumbai winning the earlier editions.On paper, the Delhi side appears much stronger, with the likes of Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Ishant Sharma available for selection. SNGPL in comparison lacks in star value, with Misbah-ul-Haq the only prominent player who holds a regular position in the Pakistan side. Mohammad Hafeez, the captain, and Samiullah Niazi are the three Pakistan players who have international experience.Vijay Dahiya, the Delhi coach, cautioned against taking this fixture lightly and hoped a good performance here will serve them well for a hectic season up ahead. Delhi play the Rest of India for the Irani Trophy starting in Vadodara on September 24, before the Ranji Trophy which commences on November 3.”Matches like these are very important and we have to take them seriously. Our season is starting ahead of other teams so it will be good for us,” Dahiya said after a practice session. “It will also help the team gain confidence at the start of the season. But we have to play aggressively.”Dahiya expected the pitch to behave like a typical Kotla track, which normally assists seamers on the first day. He didn’t name the final XI, but stated that Delhi will field three seamers, a spinner and an allrounder in Rajat Bhatia. He was also pleased with the return of the left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra, who’s back in the reckoning for Delhi after missing the entire 2007-08 season with an ankle injury. He was picked up by the Mumbai Indians IPL franchise and performed reasonably in the Twenty20 tournament, taking 12 wickets in 14 appearances at an average of 29.”Ashish is also fully fit and is raring to go,” Dahiya said. “He has been out of the team because of injuries and not because of performance. Ishant is looking well and he is very eager to play as well.”Hafeez hoped the results of the previous editions of the series would motivate his team-mates to chase their first title. He admitted his team didn’t feel weighed down by the pressure of facing a side with as many as seven internationals. “We are the champions of Pakistan and I hope my boys will give their best,” Hafeez said. “I am happy with the team’s combination. The boys have huge potential and I hope we will continue with our good showing.”His team-mate, Misbah, felt the team was shaping up well. “We have been training hard, so I don’t think lack of match practice will be a problem for us,” Misbah said. “I personally feel that everything is going well and lets hope that we’re going to perform well there.”The yearly clash, which commenced in 2006, is held on a home and away basis. Uttar Pradesh defeated Sialkot in Dharamsala to claim the inaugural title, while Mumbai took on Karachi Urban in Karachi the following season and regained the trophy based on a first-innings lead.Teams
Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited: Mohammad Hafeez (capt), Adil Raza, Adnan Akmal (wk), Asad Ali, Azhar Shafiq, Imran Ali, Imran Khalid, Khurram Shehzad, Misbah-ul-Haq, Saleem Mughal, Samiullah Niazi, Tauqeer Hussain, Umar Akmal and Yasir ArafatDelhi: Virender Sehwag (capt), Gautam Gambhir, Aakash Chopra, Mayank Tehlan, Mithun Manhas, Virat Kohli, Rajat Bhatia, Puneet Bisht (wk), Ishant Sharma, Pradeep Sangwan, Ashish Nehra, Chetanya Nanda, Amit Bhandari, Narender Singh, Gaurav Chhabra

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Lt Gen Tauqir Zia had ordered Pakistan team management to ensure Rashid Latif returns home from Johannesburg Sunday irrespective of injury or no injury.Rashid left with the Zimbabwe-bound contingent as number one wicketkeeper but reported unwell citing neck pains on arrival there.He ruled himself out of the Zimbabwe tour. Later he was flown to the South African city of Johannesburg for medical opinion on his injury.Tauqir on Friday here categorically stated that he had instructed the management to send Rashid back.Tauqir said that he would contact the team management once again to inquire about the results of Rashid’s medical reports.According to Pakistan tour management Rashid is on recovery path and would be fit for South African trip although earlier reports indicated the former skipper’s injury could be life threatening.This is not the first time that a Pakistani player has made himself available for a foreign trip but later becoming “mysteriously” unfit.Rashid’s saga is one of the many incidents that has not done any good to the cause of Pakistan cricket or the country’s image as a top cricket playing nation.Upon his arrival the former Pakistani captain will be subjected to several medical tests by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)’s own panel of doctors in accordance with the findings of the medical tests and opinions of the South African specialists, a PCB spokesman said Friday.Meanwhile, paceman Mohammad Sami has been held back by the team management after securing clearance from the selection committee.He will now be available for selection in the five-match One-day International series that begins in Bulawayo Nov 23.