One-day bests from Robert Croft (92) and Andrew Davies (5-39) were thebackbone of Glamorgan’s 178–run Norwich Union League Division Twovictory over bottom-placed Essex at Sophia Gardens.Croft plundered his runs off just 82 balls with two sixes and five foursto help set Essex 290 to win in a match reduced to 41 overs each becauseof rain.Promotion hopefuls Glamorgan were given a whirlwind start after winningthe toss thanks to pinch-hitter Keith Newell whose 53-ball 50 helped hisside to 111-1 in the first 15 overs.After Newell and Matthew Maynard perished in quick succession, Croft andMike Powell ensured the impressive run rate continued adding 101 in 14overs before the England off spinner was bowled by Andy Clarke eightshort of what would have been a deserved and robust 100.Some of the Essex bowling figures didn’t make particularly good readingwith Clarke going for 79 from eight overs.The first maidens of the match came in the opening two overs of theEssex innings to put the visitors under more pressure after beingrequired to score at 7.07 an over from the start.Essex soon found themselves 54-3 with Darren Robinson brilliantlystumped by Adrian Shaw off Owen Parkin after Davies had dismissed bothRichard Clinton and Graham Napier.Davies struck again to claim the wickets of Stuart Law and Paul Grayson with consecutive balls as Essex’s dwindling chances were all but extinguished.The rest of the Essex batting crumbled to 111 all out with 16.4 oversremaining.

Hampshire Second XI go into their last ECB County Championship match of the season, against Warwickshire at Bournemouth Sports Club, knowing that to clinch the title they will need just 8 (eight) points, and that is surmising Yorkshire would get 20 points from their last match against Durham at Darlington.Both 3-day matches start on Wednesday 5th September.Hampshire have remained unbeaten all season, winning seven of their ten matches, Yorkshire who have played 12 games, have lost two.Tony Middleton, Hampshire’s second XI coach is confident his side can win the title. “They deserve to, the players have all given 100%, and despite first-team injuries during the summer, we have always brought in players ready to fill the gaps. In truth winning the Championship would be nice, but it is the development of the team, and seeing the young players, and one or two older ones vying for first XI places that is more pleasing. We have watched the likes of John Francis, James Schofield and Chris Tremlett all doing well for the firsts, and that is what 2nd XI cricket is all about”.Hampshire eleven: Jason Laney, Andrew Sexton, John Stephenson, Lawrence Prittipaul, Damian Shirazi, Iain Brunnschweiler, Irfan Shah, James Hamblin, Simon Francis, James Schofield.Full match details will be posted on the Hampshire web site each evening, and wicket-keeper Iain Brunnschweiler will be posting a daily report (www.hampshire.cricket.org).

A new Function Room on the 3rd Level of the Bradman Stand at Adelaide Ovalhas been named the Gil Langley Room.While a number of prominent people who have made a contribution to sport,sport administration and Adelaide Oval were considered, there was aunanimous decision by the SACA Board in the naming of the new room.Gil, who died recently, made his first class debut for South Australia in1945-46 as a specialist batsman and donned the gloves during the 1947-48season. He was selected for Australia as wicket-keeper in the 1951-52 seriesagainst the West Indies, and played regularly for Australia until 1956. Hewas recognised as one of five “Cricketers of the year” by Wisden in 1957.Gil was also a successful footballer, who played for, and captained Sturt,as well as South Australia.He entered politics and became the Member for Unley for 20 years, he wasalso elected as the Speaker of the House.

The chairman of the West Indies selectors, Mike Findlay, has come to the defence of a controversial decision to include Brian Lara in the party to tour Sri Lanka in November.Lara has been hampered by hamstring injuries for almost a year and was unable to participate totally in training last week because there are still fears that he has not yet fully recovered from the injury. He was forced to return early from the recent West Indies tour of Zimbabwe when the problem flared up once again.Findlay said: “Brian still has a future in West Indies cricket and he can still make a significant contribution to West Indies cricket. We are not going to allow history to condemn us that we hadn’t given one of the best batsmen in the Caribbean and best in the world every assistance we could in sorting his problems, whether they are mental or physical. What appears to some people to be leaning on the side of Brian Lara is not that at all.”Lara proved during the recent Red Stripe Bowl competition that, injured or not, he could still score heavily. He came close to establishing himself as the leading batsman in the competition’s history after a prolific season.There is no doubt that the requirement for a fit and in-form Lara became even greater when a back injury forced Shivnarine Chanderpaul to withdraw from the squad earlier this week.

India have a chance to regroup and reorganise over the next four days in the sleepy seaside town of East London where the tourists meet a South African A team at Buffalo Park.It’s probably the ideal venue for a team that needs a little soul-searching if it is to establish exactly what went wrong in Bloemfontein earlier in the week. To put in bluntly, there’s not an awful lot to do in Bloemfontein, as past touring sides have discovered.Two years ago when England were in East London, the man from the Daily Telegraph likened the town to an open prison. This, perhaps, was a little harsh (after all, locals claims with some pride that the ratio of women to men in this part of the country is nine to one), but the point is that not a lot, barring elderly couples out strolling along the promenade, seems to happen here.So if the Indians wanted some sea air and a chance to rethink their approach, then they could scarcely have asked for better surrounds, always providing that the band of rain currently sweeping across South Africa stays away from this part of the Eastern Cape.The opposition facing the Indians this weekend should test the tourists. Although the South African A team has suffered a spate of injuries, some would argue that the call-ups of Daryll Cullinan and the diminutive Northerns Titans wicketkeeper Kruger van Wyk have actually strengthened the team.From a South African point of view, the performances of Cullinan along with Jacques Rudolph, Paul Adams and Charl Langeveldt will all be closely watched. Cullinan is in the frame possibly for the third Test and the subsequent tour of Australia as is Rudolph, while Adams is desperately trying to prove that he has recovered some of the spark that brought him 96 wickets in 34 TestsLangeveldt, meanwhile, was in the squad for the first Test before being abruptly discarded. Exactly where he fits into the selectors’ thinking is something of a puzzle, but, clearly, he’s in there somewhere.For the Indians, though, the match provides an opportunity to sort out one or two vexing problems, most particularly an opening partner for Shiv Das. Rahul Dravid was used there, without success, in Bloemfontein and it is hard to believe that the tourists will again sacrifice one of their senior batsmen again in Port Elizabeth.Connor Williams should get a game in East London – it will be his first bat in the middle on South African soil – and the other option for the Indians, of course, is to try out Virender Sehwag at the top of the order. The argument against using Sehwag as an opener is that he had just scored a century at number six, so why change him. At the same time, Sehwag must be brimming with confidence and, in scoring his hundred in Bloemfontein, he demonstrated that he has the stomach to take on the South African seamers.Harbhajan Singh will get an outing in East London after sitting out the Test match with his unfortunate affliction and while India might want to give their left-arm seamers another run, they surely will also let Ajit Agarkar loose once again. Indian coach John Wright as much as admitted that it had been a mistake to leave Agarkar out of the first Test and now that he’s had two weeks off, he surely needs a run out in the middle.

Australia’s vaunted bowling attack moves onto centre stage in the first Test with New Zealand at the Gabba over the next two days.Only 87 minutes of play were possible on another rain-affected day today in Brisbane, and in that time Steve Waugh was able to declare his innings closed at 9/486, leaving New Zealand the immediate job of reaching 287 to avoid the follow on and the prospect of defeat.But with more rain forecast tomorrow the prospects of enough time being available may ruin the match.What time was available did see Adam Gilchrist carry on and score his deserved fourth Test century. It was a fine innings, although he must have had a difficult lunch when sitting on 98.He had survived a run out chance not long into the day, which was delayed by nearly two hours due to the rain, when New Zealand twelth man Lou Vincent narrowly missed a direct hit at the batsman’s end when Brett Lee hit the ball behind point and called the single.It was Lee who was first man out on the day for 61, having added only one more run to his overnight total. He was given out caught by wicket-keeper Adam Parore from Cairns’ bowling, although the replays suggested he hadn’t hit the ball.Jason Gillespie proved the right man to support Gilchrist as he built toward his century, and he contributed mightily with some lusty blows of his own, especially after Gilchrist had reached his century.That came in the first over after lunch when he cut the ball behind point and ran two. It came after 143 balls and included 14 fours and a six.With as many quick runs as possible before the declaration, the pair hit out finishing on 49 runs in 43 minutes before Gilchrist skied a shot to deep mid-on where a diving Vincent held a good catch to give Cairns his fifth wicket, his 11th time in Test matches.It was a tough return to Test cricket for Cairns. Playing his first match since Zimbabwe in September, he bowled 37 overs for his five for 146. He has never bowled more overs in an innings and he has never conceded more runs.He had bowled 36 overs twice, at Brisbane in the 1993/94 Test series, and at Bulawayo against Pakistan in 1997/98.In the last Test match he played, at Harare against Zimbabwe last year, he bowled 33 overs.Clearly he still remains a formidable force in the New Zealand bowling armoury.The New Zealand openers came into the match under pressure, after some poor performances in the lead-up matches. However, when rain ended the day’s play they had seen the score through to 0/29 with Richardson on 10 not out and Bell on six not out.

Allan Donald allayed concerns over his fitness with a strong display in South Africa’s opening tour match against the ACB Chairman’s XI at Lilac Hill today.The Proteas opened their account with a strong bowling performance, winning by 47 runs.Donald, 35 and out of Test cricket since March through illness and then an abdominal muscle strain, stretched out nicely in two spells of six overs and two overs and took 2-42.He is most likely to play against WA in a four-day match starting on Friday with South Africa indicating it will play close to a Test strength line-up.South Africa made 9-256 in 50 overs against what amounted to the West Australian side minus its Test players but with some ring-ins – Andy Bichel, Michael Slaterand former Test stars Bruce Reid and Dean Jones.In reply, the Chairman’s XI was bowled out for 209 in the 45rd over.Donald made an inauspicious start to the match, with Ryan Campbell blazing shots around the ground.His first two overs cost 23 runs but he struck back in quick time, removing Campbell for 29 (off 20 balls) caught behind by Mark Boucher.Slater went soon after, caught at point by Herschelle Gibbs for 14 to have the home side 2-49 in the eighth over.The Chairman’s side was soon in deeper trouble, with captain Simon Katich falling to Steve Elworthy (4-27) for five as his side slipped to 3-68.Mike Hussey (56) kept his side in the contest and was joined by an evergreen Jones, who responded to his fanclub in the bleachers by making a dashing 38 off 41 balls.But the pair departed in the same over from Lance Klusener (2-15) as the home side dipped to 6-188 in the 41st over, Hussey providing Herschelle ‘you’ve justdropped the World Cup’ Gibbs with his fourth catch of the day.Earlier, Klusener and man of the match Neil McKenzie saved South Africa from some blushes when they provided some substance to the tourist’s innings in apartnership of 98 for the fifth wicket.McKenzie made 76 off 88 balls, hitting 12 fours and a six while Klusener took 75 balls for his 63, with seven fours and a six.Bichel, after serving as 12th man for Australia in the Test series against New Zealand, relished the chance to have a bowl and in an aggressive opening spell captured two early wickets before coming back to remove Boucher (26) late in the innings.He took 3-28 off eight overs.

Following our debacle in Auckland about a week ago, when we lost to India, it was a nerve racking wait for our game against Canada two days later to try and qualify for the next round of the World Cup.Canada had suddenly started playing well and managed to tie against Bangladesh earlier in the week. We were also wary of the fact that the game may be rained out again and that would have been catastrophic for us at this stage of the competition.The players called a team meeting the night before the game to discuss why things had gone so wrong for us against India. A consensus was reached that we had not played to our full potential at all and that we were far better than the result against India suggested. With a strengthened resolve to rectify our previous errors we oozed confidence when we stepped onto the field the next day.Our frontline bowlers were outstanding and we managed to knock the Canadians out for 41 runs midway through their allotted overs. Once again Ryan Bailey was phenomenal with three wickets for five runs off only three overs. Brendon Reddy and Ryan Mclaren also contributed handsomely with their economical bowling figures.Our openers, Stephen Cook and Chad Baxter scored the winnning runs in about the eighth over. it was a welcome relief to know that we had qualified for the next stage of the competition. In fact it turned out to be a lot easier than we expected.Since the game finished early, most of the team decided to go into town and relax. We then traveled back to Christchurch to join the other teams for the super-league stage of the tournament. As we had lost to India, we came second in our preliminary group and therefore joined the Australians, New Zealanders and the English in the second round group. The other group included the teams from the sub continent, India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan and the 4th team the West Indies.We knew this was always going to be a tough group and that we would have to beat some of the better teams if we were to advance to the semis of the competition.Our first game two days later was against the Australians. We had a disasterous start and were two wickets down for three runs after four overs. Things did not get any better when our captain Hashim Amla soon went out for 17. A spirited fightback by Stepehn Cook and Riel de Kok brought us back into the game until Stephen was run out from a direct hit. The balance of the game swayed to and fro and we were accelerating steadily with Ryan Bailey and Ryan Mclaren at the wicket. Another direct hit was responsible for Ryan Bailey losing his wicket at a crucial stage. A late attempt at resurrecting our innings was made when our number 11 batsmen, Brendon Reddy came in at number 9 and smashed 27 runs off 13 balls. We ended on 236 after 50 overs and thought we were in with a chance to give the Australians a run for their money.Our bowlers toiled away, but crucial errors in judgement were responsible for us conceding a few very expensive overs and soon the opponents were controlling the run chase. They managed to pass our total with two overs spare. This was very dispiriting for the players and we did not enjoy our supper that evening.Nevertheless, today the sun was up and we trained well and prepared ourselves for the important match against the New Zealanders tomorrow. We know we have to play really well if we are to beat the hosts in their own backyard and stand a chance of qualifying for the semi’s.Our final group game on Friday, 1 February against the English together with tomorrow’s result will determine our fate in the competition. With this in mind, the players have all been meticulous with their last minute preparations and no doubt an early night will be had by all. The tournament is now becoming more competitive and the stronger teams are starting to reveal themselves.We hope we can be part of it.Shane Jabaar (fizzer)

Karachi Blues skipper Mohammad Javed claimed five wickets for 81 runs as Bahawalpur were dismissed for 237 on the opening day of the last round match of Quaid-i-Azam Trophy at the National Stadium Monday.Bahawalpur hit back when they picked up two early wickets to leave the home team at 17 for two at close.Javed sent down 23 tight overs to be highly deserved with a five-wicket haul. He was well supported by leggie Riaz Sheikh who picked up three for 34 and fell pacer Rajesh Ramesh who snapped up two for 75.For Bahawalpur, Bilal Moin was the top scorer with 65 that included nine hits to the fence. He faced 116 balls during his 145 minutes of batting.Together with Mohammad Rashid (32), Bilal added 42 runs for the third wicket while for the fourth wicket, he put on 64 runs with Rehan Rafique (26).The most enterprising innings came from No 8 batsman Faisal Elahi who clobbered a rapid 74-ball 51 with seven boundaries.Karachi’s both the wickets were picked by paceman Imran Adil who has the rare distinction of claiming all 10 wickets in an innings. Both the teams are playing for pride after having lost the race for final.

Queenslander Martin Love compiled a stylish century against South Australia as the Pura Cup leaders dominated the opening day of the top of the table clash here today.Love’s elegant unbeaten 120 steered the Bulls to a commanding 2-257 at stumps.The right hander was in complete control of the Redbacks from the moment he stepped on to a sweltering Adelaide Oval today – after just one ball of the match.Love strode to the crease after Redbacks paceman Mark Harrity trapped Bulls opener Jerry Cassell lbw for a golden duck with the initial delivery of the match.But SA had to wait more than three hours before experiencing success again as Love joined acting captain Jimmy Maher to thwart the home bowlers.Maher, assuming the leadership in the absence of Stuart Law (broken finger) and playing his 100th first-class match for Queensland, also appeared set for a biginnings before being dismissed for 66 from the bowling of emerging quick Paul Rofe.Inexperienced right hander Brendan Nash then joined the veteran Love and combined in an unbroken 119-run partnership for the third wicket.Love, who displayed immaculate placement and concentration during a patient innings, registered his century from 243 deliveries which included nine fours.He remained not out 120 at stumps with Nash unbeaten on 59.Rofe toiled manfully in hot conditions, sending down 21 overs for a return of 1-54 while Harrity claimed 1-57 from 17 overs.Queensland took a two-point lead over SA into this fixture at the top of the cup table.