Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

India closed in on an emphatic victory in the second Test at Harare, despite their stuttering against an immaculate examination against medium-pace, on a day when no batsman came to grips with the bowler-friendly conditions and discomforting swing. Zimbabwe turned in an exceptional performance in the field, inspired by Heath Streak’s superb six-wicket haul, his best in Tests, but their batsmen were yet again reduced to bumbling novices against the moving ball later in the day.However, Zimbabwe were a different side today. Streak and his understudies, Blessing Mahwire and Waddington Mwayenga, enjoyed a fantastic day with the ball and effectively reduced India to 171 for 9 – based on today’s performance alone. Rahul Dravid, arguably the best current player of the moving ball, was forced to work exceptionally hard against canny seam bowling and none of batsmen could break the shackles against a nagging attack. None of this was ever going to change the outcome of the match – Zimbabwe had fallen too far back yesterday – but they will surely take a lot of heart from their spirited effort.Barring torrential downpours, India should complete a crushing triumph and seal their first series victory outside the subcontinent since 1986. The main reason for that drought has been their batsmen’s inability to come to terms with the lively pitches, quality fast bowling, swing and seam and India fell right into the same trap again. Faced with disciplined medium-pace with the ball moving both ways, batsmen after batsmen were frustrated into indiscretions – Gautam Gambhir flashed at one after being bogged down; Yuvraj Singh and Dravid paid for playing across the line against full swinging deliveries; and Sourav Ganguly poked at one after being tied down by accurate bowling.Streak’s exceptional control of swing and length – he upped his pace at times too – left all the batsmen clueless and he was duly rewarded with his seventh five-wicket haul in Tests. The bowlers stuck to a fine channel all day and the batsmen, who appeared to be waiting for the loose ball, were ultimately undone with the run-rate reduced to a labouring crawl.Unlike Zimbabwe’s sensational collapses, this was more of a gradual disintegration. Dravid played some gorgeous drives amid a lot of groping and poking but the rest of the batsmen weren’t even allowed those liberties. Zimbabwe didn’t even use their spinner as the medium-pacers responded beautifully in conducive conditions. Both Gambhir and Dravid missed out on hundreds and only a lively knock by Irfan Pathan helped India stretch the lead past 200.

Once India were bowled out, Pathan and Zaheer Khan went about blasting Zimbabwe’s top order with some alarming swing, helped by some fantastic catching in the close-in cordon. Dravid, Yuvraj and Anil Kumble made difficult chances look ridiculously simple while Brendan Taylor was unlucky to leave after a ridiculous decision, when the ball appeared to be heading way over the stumps. Zaheer was a much more menacing force today and, along with Pathan, left Zimbabwe floundering in another whirpool.Swing, more than anything else, has dictated this series and Zimbabwe’s batsmen would do well to dwell on their shortcomings. Based on today’s performance, despite standing on the verge of a comprehensive series triumph, the Indian batsmen will need similar introspection.

Gautam Gambhir c Taibu b Mahwire 97 (198 for 2)
VVS Laxman lbw b Streak 8 (219 for 3)
Sourav Ganguly c Taibu b Mwayenga 16 (245 for 4)
Yuvraj Singh b Streak 25 (306 for 5)
Rahul Dravid b Mahwire 98 (306 for 6)
Dinesh Karthik b Streak 12 (318 for 7)
Anil Kumble c Ebrahim b Streak 8 (342 for 8)
Irfan Pathan c Coventry b Streak 32 (361 for 9)
Zaheer Khan c Taibu b Blignaut 2 (366)
Zimbabwe
Terry Duffin c Dravid b Pathan 10 (13 for 1)
Brendan Taylor lbw b Pathan 4 (18 for 2)
Dion Ebrahim c Yuvraj b Zaheer 3 (18 for 3)
Tatenda Taibu c Kumble b Zaheer 1 (21 for 4)

Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the West Indies captain, has said his side would have preferred more playing time ahead of the first Test against Australia, which starts from November 3 at the Gabba in Brisbane.Chanderpaul said the West Indies’ only warm-up match – a four-day game against Queensland starting from Thursday – was not ideal preparation.”Probably we needed two warm-up games.” West Indies, said Chanderpaul, will field a full-strength team for the opening match against the Queensland team, which has Australian Test players Matthew Hayden and Shane Watson.”We want everybody to have a go, and there is only one game before the Test match. You want everybody to have a shot at it, and a little bit of time before the game. But it’s okay. We have another one after the first test.”The first Test will be followed by a three-day match against Victoria state and then the second Test at Hobart.

Michael Vaughan is expected to return for the second Test against Pakistan at Faisalabad on Sunday. Vaughan suffered a recurrence of a knee injury in England’s warm-up match against Pakistan A which ruled him out of the first Test defeat at Multan.Despite rumours at the start of the first Test that his tour was over, Vaughan has been batting in the nets and jogging on the last three mornings before play.”He seems to be coming along fine. There’s a very good chance he could play in that Test,” Duncan Fletcher, England’s coach, told BBC Sport. “We’re pretty confident that given another couple of days of work on it he will be ready.”Ian Bell replaced his captain in the first Test, but Bell’s good form – he struck a gritty 71 in England’s first innings, and took an outstanding catch at short-leg – could force Paul Collingwood to make way for Vaughan. Collingwood made just 13 runs in the Test, and his medium-pace was sparsely used by his acting captain, Marcus Trescothick.”The knee is improving. It’s always been a bit of a problem and it might still be,” Fletcher added. “But he feels comfortable, he’s running around and feeling no pain.”

Earlier reports that Peter Chingoka, the Zimbabwe Cricket chairman, and Ozias Bvute, the managing director, had been removed from office have been fervently denied by Bvute himself.Speaking to Cricinfo, Bvute said that the rumour that his house had been raised by police at 4am was “simply not true” and that, contrary to reports, both he and Chingoka were still in Harare and in full charge of ZC.The original suggestion that the pair had been removed from office was made by Tatenda Taibu, the former Zimbabwe captain, in an interview with the BBC. He suggested that Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president, had stepped in and had them removed from office. “The president said, ‘Enough is enough, they had to go’,” Taibu claim. “But when they looked for them, they couldn’t find them.”Bvute said factions opposed to the ZC board had “found it convenient to tell these malicious stories to discredit us. I was asleep at 4am and left my house at 8am this morning to go to work. I have not been raided and I don’t believe anyone has raided Mr Chingoka’s house either.”

ScorecardPowered by Vineet Jain’s five-wicket haul, Tripura left Himachal Pradesh tottering at 111 for 6 and were on course for their historic first win in a Ranji game by the end of the third day at Agartala. Jain rocked the top order before Rajeev Nayyar and N Verma lifted HP from 17 for 4 to 111. But Jain came back to remove Verma and the next man in P Lath to put Tripura back on top. Rajib Dutta had earlier guided the tail enroute to a fighting 71 and steered Tripura to 203, setting a target of 287. Tripura played their first Ranji game in the 1985-86 season and this will be their first win after playing for 21 years.

Rahul Dravid has admitted that he had decided to open the batting “the night before the game”, adding that it was a move made with the interests of the team at heart. Adding that it was not a long-term solution, Dravid said that this decision, like all others, was taken to give his side the best chance to win the game on hand.”I’m not trying to make too many statements to my team,” he said in the post-match press conference. “My team-mates know me pretty well by now. There’s strategy involved and I am thinking of the best chance we have to get the right result. It’s not false bravado out there. It’s about who I think are the best people to play in different positions and situations. It’s about what is best for the team. I may not get all my decisions right, but I’ll try and take all of them so that it gives my team the best chance.”Though he revealed how much he had enjoyed the partnership, Dravid echoed Greg Chappell’s view that the opening situation would be reviewed on a match-by-match basis. “I enjoyed the partnership,” he continued, “but we’ll have to see on what happens in 3-4 days’ time to see who opens. I don’t think it’s a long-term solution. We have to try and see to pick a side to win a game. We’ll assess that when we go to Faisalabad after seeing the wicket.”Hailing Virender Sehwag’s effort as an “special” innings, Dravid spoke about the joy in watching such an aggressive batsman at the other end. “The pace at which Veeru scored was pretty exceptional,” he added. “Some of the shots he hit were a joy to watch from the other end. Even thought it was a flat wicket, some of the shots he hit against the spinners were special. It’s hard to match Veeru. He sometimes plays an incredible shot to a ball which I would have defended. It’s important not to get carried away. I needed to ensure I didn’t get out and put pressure on him.”He wasn’t too perturbed with Sehwag getting out, with the duo falling agonisingly short of the world record opening partnership. “Veeru plays that way – attacking and positive. He played a similar shot to get from 199 to 200. Lot of times, when people get out, it looks like why did they play that shot .. but when he’s on song there is some exceptional batting.”While not revealing about the composition of the bowling line-up for the next Test, Dravid, while not complaining about this pitch, hoped they would get a more sporting surface. “We need a good wicket that helps both batsmen and bowlers,” he said. “I won’t criticise the pitch as it’s not easy to prepare one. It’s tough to know what it will do, who it will support. I would like to think that the groundsman also wanted to prepare a good pitch. There are lot of factors involved – nature, soil, binding, clay, rolling … it’s not an exact science.”

Having already threatened to pull out of the ICC Champions Trophy from 2008 onwards, the Indian cricket board is on a collision course with the ICC over the 2006 event, which they are scheduled to be hosting in October.At the heart of the matter, as ever, is the thorny issue of advertising revenue. Under a multi-million dollar agreement between the ICC and the Global Cricket Corporation (GCC), all ICC-owned events – such as the Champions Trophy and the World Cup – have to be contested at “clean” venues where no trace of unofficial sponsorship can be permitted.However, two of the three proposed venues – Mumbai and Delhi – have their own agreements with various corporates. “The grounds must be free of any ad signages so that we can maximise the revenue for our sponsors,” said Malcolm Speed, the ICC’s chief executive during a meeting with Sharad Pawar, the president of the BCCI in New Delhi.The two boards are putting up a united front at present, with both sides showing willingness to resolve the impasse well in advance of the event. “The BCCI and the ICC now have a clear understanding of each other’s point of view,” said Pawar. “We hope to solve the issues as soon as possible so that we can concentrate on the preparation for the 2006 Champions Trophy.”Delhi has had a long-standing contract with ITC, a cigarette and manufacturing company who have been supporting Indian cricket for several years. Similarly, Mumbai has a lucrative agreement with the Tata Group, although Speed said such problems had been overcome during past events.”We had similar problems in 2002 [Champions Trophy] in Sri Lankaand the 2003 World Cup [in South Africa] as well. If we cannotresolve the issues, we look at a different venue. That is why lasttime in England [in 2004 Champions Trophy] there were no matches atLord’s. We had it at The Oval.”He, however, refused to speculate on whether the matches could be moved out of Mumbai and Delhi. Asked how the ICC had decided on the three venues, Kolkata being the third, Speed said: “we made a decision based on the recommendations of the previous [BCCI] administration. Obviously, new issues have cropped up.”Speed said the ICC was open to the option of using more than three venues “without increasing the production cost”, but Pawar distanced himself from comments by IS Bindra, the BCCI’s former president, that the event had become a burden on the host nation. “That is his personal view,” said the BCCI chief. “Our whole approach has been to find a way as to how organise the event efficiently.”Ian Fiykverg, director of GCC, said his company was happy with the association with the ICC. “There have been issues. Obviously it would be fine if there was none, but life is life, we hope to sort it out.”

Clare Connor, the England women’s captain, has announced her retirement from international cricket after a ten-year career, including six years at the helm. One of her final acts as captain was to help England regain the Ashes after 42 years.Connor played 93 one-day internationals and 16 Tests, the last of which was when England won the Ashes in August. However, she was forced to miss this winter’s tour to Sri Lanka and India due to injury.She took over the captaincy in February 2000 during the series against New Zealand and as captain she won five series. In 2004 she was awarded an MBE for her services to women’s cricket and then in 2005 she was awarded an OBE for her services to sport.Connor took a two-year sabbatical from teaching at Brighton College to focus on her cricket and worked extensively in the cricket media. She will now return to teaching English and PE and will head up Brighton College’s PR department.Reflecting on the decision to bring an end to her international career, Connor said: “After a decade of playing for England and six years leading the side, I have come to the decision to retire from international cricket. I have spent the last six months undergoing an agonising decision-making process and actually penning these words is the hardest moment of it all.”I have fulfilled the dream I had as a young girl: I have played for my country, led my country and we have won the Ashes. I firmly believe that women’s cricket in this country, at every level, is in the healthiest state it has ever been in and I am so proud to have played a part in that success and rise in profile.

“Whilst it has never been my job, playing for my country has been my life. With the Ashes now back in their rightful home at Lord’s, I feel it is the right time for me to turn to pastures new and for my successor to take the team, a wonderful team, to the next level.”Richard Bates, the England coach, said: “This has obviously been a very difficult decision for Clare to make as playing for England has been her life for the past 10 years. She has played a huge part in the progress we have made in recent years and will of course be missed in the England camp both on and off the field. It has been a pleasure to work alongside Clare over the past three years; the highlight of course was her leading us to Ashes victory in the summer.”Charlotte Edwards, the current vice-captain, has been named as England’s new captain, after standing in for Connor on the winter tour. Edwards said she was thrilled by the honour, but that Connor will be missed.”It is a great honour for me to be asked to captain my country and something I will do with great pride. It is something I have always dreamed of and will relish the role. We will all miss Clare as she was such an inspirational leader, but we must now look to the future and take women’s cricket to the next level.”Gill McConway, the executive director for women’s cricket, said: “Clare has been a wonderful ambassador and captain for England. She will be very much missed on and off the field by her colleagues and everyone involved in the game. Clare took over the captaincy when England was at its lowest and through her inspiration, dedication and love for the game she helped build the England side and team ethics to what it is today. I wish her the very best of happiness and success in her new world outside of cricket.”England is most fortunate to have someone of Charlotte’s talent and leadership skills to take over the reigns. I have every confidence that Charlotte will do a wonderful job in leading England to the next World Cup challenge in 2009.”Bates added that he believes England have a natural successor in Edwards: “We are delighted that Charlotte has accepted the captaincy. Charlotte has all the credentials needed to be a successful captain and has proven when she has stepped in to cover for Clare that she has what it takes to get the best out of her team mates. She has a very good understanding of the game and I’m sure she will take us to the next level.”

Day 1
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

It swung one way, then the other, then back again only to be further prodded and nudged back and forth on an intriguing first day at the Asgiriya Stadium in Kandy. Every moment one side sensed an advantage, the other seized it back and as play came to an end, it settled neither here nor there. Mohammad Asif’s first five-wicket haul, backed by Danish Kaneria’s wiles, was cancelled out by another stirring hand from Kumar Sangakkara and some Thilan Samaraweera stodge and meant neither side would be too ecstatic or too despondent at the close with Sri Lanka 267 for 8.It would be cute to suggest that Asif swung the match Pakistan’s way in the morning, but it wasn’t so much swing he relied on as seam. Asif bowled as if on a different pitch, with a different ball to different batsmen than his medium-pace partners, Umar Gul and Rao Iftikhar Anjum. His 12-over spell, unchanged and five minutes short of two hours, was similar to that of a spinner’s in its duration, perseverance and probing. The speed gun betrayed tiredness, possibly from an increased burden, but luckily for him speed guns don’t measure movement and cut, the real currency of his bowling. That remained and by the time he finished, it was too late already for Upul Tharanga, Sanath Jayasuriya and Mahela Jayawardene.The first innings of Jayasuriya’s last Test promised, with an upper-cut boundary, a pulled six and a dropped catch, all the ingredients for a gargantuan special. Asif disagreed, cleaning him up with one that nipped back subtly but sharply. Tharanga had already fallen by then and when Jayawardene, beaten thoroughly just before, was finally good enough to touch one but only to slip, Sri Lanka were 61 for 3; not in as much trouble as in Colombo, but in strife nonetheless.The first shift in balance came with Sangakkara and compared to much of last week’s century, this innings was luminescent throughout. Rao might have thought, after a maiden debut over, that Test cricket wasn’t such a difficult thing but as Sangakkara took three boundaries off his next over, he understood otherwise. One more arrived in his next over, on one knee, as Sangakkara began numerically on 0 but mentally on the 185 from Colombo.Sangakkara glided through the morning untroubled, picking on Rao and Umar Gul for his many boundaries and smartly leaving Asif alone. With the firm belief that the knee has been given to him to rest on while driving, Sangakkara scored between third man and straight relentlessly. Three overs after lunch, with his 10th boundary, he brought up a stirring 20th fifty. Two overs later, as Pakistan’s medium-pacers toiled to make any impression in the afternoon sun, he hit his first boundaries on the leg side, and that too only marginally, driving an errant Gul just past mid-on.At that stage, Sri Lanka were coasting and Thilan Samaraweera was more than just propping up. He had been lucky not to edge his first ball before lunch, even luckier that it didn’t clip his off-stump but survived with typical adhesiveness. After that, he picked up the pace as both Rao and Abdul Razzaq struggled to emulate Asif. He announced his intentions with a punched boundary off the back foot and soon after, as the fifty partnership with Sangakkara was registered, Sri Lanka were scoring at four an over since the break.Immediately after the drinks break in the afternoon, the balance tipping in favour of the hosts as Samaraweera clipped Rao through midwicket and then drove straight for four, Kaneria finally emerged and, fittingly, another twist. His results were both immediate – Sangakkara fell third ball of the over to end a valuable 81-run stand – and more embedded, as he tied up Sri Lanka’s scoring over the afternoon. Tillakaratne Dilshan survived Asif’s cut and, on 22, soon after tea, was suggesting pugnaciously, another counter thrust to match that in Colombo.But in the third over after tea, Kaneria, who had been scheming away, struck with a ball that many choose to cut for four; short, wide and spinning wider, Dilshan chose to edge it to Kamran Akmal. Farveez Maharoof fell soon after to a Kaneria googly, unlucky and unsure as to whether he was leg-before or caught off his forearm. With Gul finally providing worthy support at the other end, Pakistan tightened their grip. Imran Farhat unfortunately didn’t do likewise around a chance Malinga Bandara offered at gully when he hadn’t scored and considering it was the second chance he had spilled off Gul – the first was Jayasuriya – a soft drink might await the lanky Pathan, courtesy the stocky Lahori.Samaraweera was still jealously guarding one end although having brought up his 13th fifty in over three hours and from 123 balls, he was nudging, rather than yanking the balance away from Pakistan. Bandara, reprieved further in a close run-out call, was providing a comic lower-order cameo until the new ball arrived, bringing the tireless Asif and a final shift in the day’s fortunes. Samaraweera was bowled in the first over and Bandara provided Asif with his first bowling landmark. That Asif and Kaneria shared the wickets won’t have escaped the attentions of Maharoof and Muttiah Muralitharan.How they were outUpul Tharanga c Younis b Asif 10 (18-1)
Sanath Jayasuriya b Asif 14 (27-2)
Mahela Jayawardene c Farhat b Asif 4 (61-3)
Kumar Sangakkara c Iqbal b Asif 4 (142-4)
Tillakaratne Dilshan c Akmal b Kaneria 22 (178-5)
Farvez Maharoof c Younis b Kaneria 7 (195-6)
Thilan Samaraweera b Asif 65 (238-7)
Malinga Bandara c Akmal b Asif 42 (256-8)

Pakistan have refused South Africa’s request to split their tour to the country early next year before the World Cup in the Caribbean. A report in South Africa had said that the board was keen on splitting the tour and playing seven ODIs instead, as final preparation before the World Cup, and postpone the Tests until after the tournament.Shaharyar Khan, the PCB chairman, confirmed that such a request had been made but that Pakistan was not in favour of splitting it and wants to play three Tests and between three to five ODIs in one stretch.Shaharyar told Cricinfo that the schedule was reviewed after Bob Woolmer and Inzamam-ul-Haq insisted they wanted time to rest. “Our management wanted to be back in Pakistan from the tour by February 12. Inzamam and Bob Woolmer both wanted to be back in Pakistan by then to make sure they had enough rest before going to the Caribbean.”We asked the South African board to reduce the series by one Test or one ODI. It suggested splitting the tour and playing the Tests later. But I am not in favour of splitting tours so it sent a counter-proposal suggesting three Tests and between three and five ODIs. The tour now ends around February 15.”Shaharyar also spoke about problems in drafting the Future Tours Program (FTP) which schedules international series and tournaments between now and 2012. Pakistan are scheduled to play up to 54 Tests and 143 ODIs in that period though that is much less than countries such as India (74 Tests and 208 ODIs), Australia (73 Tests and 178 ODIs) and England (76 Tests and 157 ODIs).Despite ongoing concerns about cramped schedules, Pakistan’s problem actually lies in an uneven spread of commitments. For example, while they are due to play as many as 10 Tests between now and April next year and 13 Tests between May 2009 and April 2010, they will have a period between May 2008 and April 2009 when they play only three Tests.Additionally, they are due to play at least five two-Test series in this period. The board has publicly spoken of its dislike of two-Test series in the past, as have a number of players (including Inzamam) but with apparently little success.Shaharyar argued, however, that the FTP wasn’t a final, binding document and that there was room for manoeuvre within it. “There was lots of compromise on the final program. It was only the 10th draft that everyone agreed on and it is a difficult process. Now as far as the two-Test series are concerned and the distribution of matches, I will say that there is scope within the FTP to negotiate with boards themselves. Nobody likes two-Test series so we hope to work with individual boards and maybe tinker around a few things, change the schedule a little.”