Eagles, Rhinos clinch easy wins

Mashonaland Eagles 182 for 2 (Matsikenyeri 77, Raza 46) beat Mountaineers 179 for 9 (S Masakadza 52*, H Masakadza 49) by eight wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

A 102-run partnership between opener Stuart Matsikenyeri and No. 4 Sikandar Raza sealed Mashonaland Eagles' eight-wicket win over Mountaineers in Harare. This was after their collective bowling effort helped restrict Mountaineers to 179 for 9, an innings which featured a half-century from lower-order batsman Shingi Masakadza, and a near half-century (49) by his brother Hamilton. But besides the two knocks, Mountaineers couldn't offer much resistance to the bowling.

Their innings was full of small partnerships, but none progressed beyond 42 runs. The most productive stand, between Shingi Masakadza and Donald Tiripano was for the eighth wicket, after they were in trouble at 104 for 7. Towards the end of the innings, the last-wicket pair added 33 in 3.3 overs to boost their total. But that didn't prove to be a difficult one to chase, as Matsikenyeri, scoring 77, featured in productive partnerships with three other top-order batsmen to clinch victory in the 43rd over.

Mid West Rhinos 302 for 6 (Taylor 134, Sibanda 106, Musoko 3-67) beat Southern Rocks 113 (Masvaure 40, Nkala 5-35) by 189 runs
Scorecard

At the Kwekwe Sports Club, another one-sided contest took place. Centuries by opener Vusi Sibanda and Brendan Taylor, and an effective spell of 5 for 35 from seamer Mluleki Nkala ensured a comprehensive 189-run win for Mid West Rhinos over Southern Rocks. After being put in to bat, Sibanda and Taylor scored 204 runs together to lead their side to a strong 302 for 6, after which seamer Richard Muzhange, by taking early wickets, laid the base for fellow seamers Ed Rainsford and Nkala to ensure a clinical win.

Sibanda's knock of 106 contained nine boundaries and a six, but the more aggressive innings was played by captain Taylor, who scored 134 off 106 deliveries with the help of 15 boundaries. When their mammoth stand was broken in the 43rd over, their team was a strong 247 for 2. Towards the end there was slight stutter, but they managed to reach 300. In reply, only middle-order batsman Prince Masvaure resisted, with his knock of 40, as the seamers ran through the line-up.

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Shakib ties knot with US-based girl

Bangladesh allrounder Shakib Al Hasan has married Umme Ahmed Shishir, a US-based software engineer, in Dhaka on Wednesday. The private ceremony was held at a five-star hotel where the couple completed their Akhd, the Islamic marriage formality.

The media wasn't allowed inside the hotel, and when the couple arrived to find photographers and cameramen trying to capture them, it resulted in a melee. It is the most talked about wedding in the country given Shakib's superstar status. Local newspapers have reported that the couple will host the traditional Bangladeshi ceremonies in March, but a date for it hasn't been made public.

The duo met in 2010 in United Kingdom, where Shakib was playing county cricket for Worcestershire. Shishir is a software engineer based in Minnesota, USA. She is originally from Narayanganj, a small town south of Dhaka.

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Sri Lanka seek first win in Australia

Match facts

December 14-18, Bellerive Oval
Start time 1030 (2330 GMT)

Big Picture

For Australian cricket fans, it will be difficult not to think that the main course has been served before the entrée. The battle with South Africa for the No.1 Test ranking has come and gone, all before the most popular part of Australia's international cricket season, the Christmas and New Year period. But as New Zealand showed with their victory in Hobart last summer, classic Test matches can pop up at any time, against any opponent, and now it is Sri Lanka's turn to attempt to produce the unexpected.

It is not that Sri Lanka are a weak Test team, far from it, but their record away from home is disappointing. Leaving aside Bangladesh, Sri Lanka have won only two away Tests in the past five years, and they are yet to win a Test in Australia. But they will take inspiration from their most recent Test in Hobart, when Kumar Sangakkara was driving Sri Lanka towards an incredible chase of 507 when he was wrongly given out caught off his shoulder. Had the DRS been around, it might well have become one of the greatest Test victories of all time.

Sangakkara is back, and along with Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan forms a formidable batting line-up. Sri Lanka's main issue is finding a way to take 20 wickets. But for all the talk of their less-than-threatening seam attack - Rodney Hogg said this week that ''Sri Lanka have the worst new ball attack that has landed on our shores ever" - Shaminda Eranga showed against the Australians on debut in Colombo last year that he is a bowler to watch out for, and he should enjoy the Australian conditions far more than those at home. Much will also depend on how Rangana Herath transfers his home form to the Australian pitches.

The Sri Lankan attack will be coming up against an evolving batting order. Australia's first Test in the post-Ponting era will also be their first with Phillip Hughes at No.3 and Shane Watson at No.4. It is an order they hope can take them through all of next year and a pair of Ashes series, but if there are any cracks in the plan or nerves amongst the batsmen, it is up to Sri Lanka to find them. Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey at Nos.5 and 6 could hardly be in finer touch, so it is all the more important that Sri Lanka don't let Australia's top order feast.

Form guide

(Most recent first)
Australia LDDWD
Sri Lanka LWDDW

In the spotlight

Phillip Hughes is only 24, but he has already had a number of incarnations in Australia's Test team. The previous one ended in Hobart last December, when he couldn't avoid edging to the cordon off Chris Martin, a recurring theme in that series against New Zealand. His return will come at the same venue, albeit batting at No.3 instead of opening, and facing one of Test cricket's less imposing seam attacks. All the more reason he must make use of this opportunity. Over the past year, Hughes has worked hard to improve his leg-side play and widen his scoring areas, but whether he can translate that to Test cricket is one of the big questions to be answered in this series.

Who is the leading Test wicket taker over the past 12 months? Graeme Swann? Vernon Philander? James Anderson? No, no and no. It's Rangana Herath, who since this time last year has collected 64 Test victims at 20.64. Although it is true that much of his success has come in home conditions - he took 20 wickets in the two recent Tests against New Zealand in Sri Lanka, and 12 against England in Galle - he will still be a challenging opponent for Australia's batsmen. In his newspaper column on Thursday, Michael Clarke wrote that Herath's accuracy and clever variations made him a difficult prospect, and in his first Test in Australia, in Hobart this week, Herath should take note of Shane Warne's oft-quoted advice: "If it seams, it spins".

Team news

Hughes has replaced Ponting in the side and will bat at No.3, with Shane Watson moving down to No.4. Australia's only real question was which bowler to leave out, and Michael Clarke announced on the day before the match that Mitchell Johnson would carry the drinks.

Australia 1 Ed Cowan, 2 David Warner, 3 Phillip Hughes, 4 Shane Watson, 5 Michael Clarke (capt), 6 Michael Hussey, 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 Peter Siddle, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Ben Hilfenhaus, 11 Nathan Lyon.

Dimuth Karunaratne has a strong chance of partnering Tillakaratne Dilshan at the top of the order, with Tharanga Paranavitana having struggled for his best form for some time now. Nuwan Kulasekara is expected to play after sitting out of the tour match in Canberra, where Shaminda Eranga was the best of the bowlers. They should be joined by Chanaka Welegedara, with Dhammika Prasad only an outside chance for inclusion.

Sri Lanka (possible) 1 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 2 Dimuth Karunaratne, 3 Kumar Sangakkara, 4 Mahela Jayawardene (capt), 5 Thilan Samaraweera, 6 Angelo Mathews, 7 Prasanna Jayawardene (wk), 8 Nuwan Kulasekara, 9 Rangana Herath, 10 Shaminda Eranga, 11 Chanaka Welegedara.

Pitch and conditions

There are showers forecast for the first four days of the game, which won't make conditions easy for the batsmen, especially on a Bellerive Oval surface that has been relaid this year and has resulted in some awfully seam-friendly conditions in Sheffield Shield matches. In the three games there this season, the totals in the first innings for the team batting first have been 112, 95 and 67. However, the curator Marcus Pamplin is confident that the Test won't suffer the same fate.

"With such a major restoration of over 70 cubic metres of soil of new black soil into the wicket table, the process of the clay to settle down will take time, but we believe we are in a far better position for a more consistent surface than at the start of the season," Pamplin said. "On the back of a good cricket pitch for the last Sheffield Shield game we think the Test pitch should play better and provide a good contest."

Stats and trivia

• Sri Lanka have only beaten Australia once in a Test match, in Kandy in 1999. The only remaining player from either side who was part of that game is Mahela Jayawardene
• Sangakkara needs another 107 runs to reach 10,000 in Tests and become the 11th man to the milestone
• This will be Australia's first Test in Hobart without Ricky Ponting since 1995, when David Boon was the only Tasmanian in the side against Pakistan

Quotes

"None of us will be taking Sri Lanka's bowlers for granted even though they may be largely unknown in Australia. It was our batting which let us down during the last Test in Perth."
Michael Clarke

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Jayawardene to step down as captain after tour

Mahela Jaywardene has confirmed he will step down from the captaincy at the end of Sri Lanka's tour of Australia - a move he had hinted at for some months now. Jayawardene's second stint at the helm began in January, when he was called in to replace Tillakaratne Dilshan, and he committed to a 12-month tenure, which expires at the end of the current tour. The second Twenty20 at the MCG on January 28 will be his final match as captain.

Vice-captain Angelo Mathews is the most likely successor, and Jayawardene said his decision to step down was largely borne from a desire to assist Mathews with leadership in Mathews' first phase as captain. Jayawardene will continue to be available for selection in all forms of cricket.

More to follow

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Services maintain lead at top

Services 473 (Yashpal 166*, Chaterjee 103, Jakati 4-100) and 99 for 2 (Gupta 62*, Bandekar 1-7) drew with Goa 381 (Asnodkar 83, Shukla 78, Yashpal 4-12)
Scorecard

Services dismissed the last five Goa batsmen in time to take the points for first-innings lead in Porvorim and maintain their position at the top of the Group C table.

They broke the 119-run fourth-wicket partnership between Ravikant Shukla and Rohit Asnodkar in the first over of the day and then took the remaining four wickets for 60 runs. Continuing with his overnight score of 52, Asnodkar added another 31 which took the team total to 381 in reply to Services' 473. Right-arm medium bowler Yashpal Singh finished with figures of 4 for 12.

Services came out to bat for 39 overs in the second innings and were 99 for 2 when the match ended in a draw.

Assam 354 (Das 90, Sinha 53, Dhawan 4-60) drew with Himachal Pradesh 316 for 5 (Dhawan 114*, Bhalaik 57*, Mohammad 2-62)
Scorecard

Himachal Pradesh and Assam ended up sharing one point each after only 50 overs were possible on the last day of the Group C tie in Guwahati. Himachal started the day 158 behind Assam's first innings total, lost only one wicket and ended the day on 316 for 5, only 38 short of Assam's total. Amit Kumar was out in the 10th over of the day, but Rishi Dhawan and Aatish Bhalaik shared an unbeaten 143-run stand.

Allrounder Dhawan continued his good form scoring his third century of the season and taking his total to 460 runs. He earlier took four wickets in the match which made him the highest wicket-taker of the season so far with 32 wickets.

Jammu & Kashmir 215 (ID Singh 117*, Shahid 8-51) and 151 (Prasanth 5-16) beat Kerala 163 (Rassol 3-66, Mudhasir 3-15) and 129 (Rassol 5-43, Gupta 5-26) by 74 runs
Scorecard

Seventeen wickets fell on the third day at Malappuram and at the end of it Jammu & Kashmir had beaten Kerala by 74 runs. It was the first time J&K had won a second Ranji Trophy match in a season since 2000-01.

The day had begun with J&K on 68 for 3 in their second innings, leading by 120. They were dismissed for 151. Padmanabhan Prasanth took 5 for 16 in 14.4 overs, while KR Sreejith claimed 3 for 56.

Chasing a target of 204, Kerala had reached 44 for 0 before they began to collapse. They lost five wickets for 21 runs, and their last four wickets for 15. Apart from the openers, no one else got past 20 and Kerala were dismissed for 129. Parvez Rassol took 5 for 43 in 18 overs and Manik Gupta claimed 5 for 26 in 9.4

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Vinay bullish about reaching quarters

It took five games for a struggling Karnataka to get their first win of the season, but with only 11 points on the board their captain Vinay Kumar is bullish about making the quarter-finals, if they can make the most of their three remaining games. Playing in familiar surroundings at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, Karnataka picked up six points from their victory over Delhi on Tuesday which meant they were no longer the bottom-placed team in Group B, jumping to sixth. With their next two games also at home (in Mysore and Hubli), Vinay felt two more wins would help them get a foot in the door in the quarter-finals.

"It was a good win and there were some positives to take from the game," Vinay said. "Now we've got 11 points. In the next three games, two are home games, one's away. Hopefully we'll get another two outright wins and make the quarter-finals."

The pitch had a crucial role to play. Karnataka were desperate for a result to arrest their slide, and a grassy pitch was prepared to encourage a win. It was a sort of pitch suited for the seamers to make a mark on the opening day, but Vinay took the gamble of batting first. You had to ask why a team struggling for runs through the season would throw its batsmen in the deep end at a crucial stage in the tournament.

From an armchair critic's perspective, it was a surprising decision but Karnataka saw things differently. It was a question of seeing off the new ball and waiting for the afternoon session to start piling on the runs. However, the decision was questioned on the opening day when Karnataka were bowled out for 192.

Their bowlers did a decent job to not allow Delhi run away with an imposing lead, keeping it to 66. Karnataka's openers, Robin Uthappa and KL Rahul got their heads together to build a stand of 140. Delhi hit back with quick wickets but the hosts' middle order ensured a more than handy lead, enough to ensure they couldn't lose.

If given a similar pitch, Vinay said he would still opt to bat. "It was a good wicket to bat on," he said. "In any wicket, the first one hour will be crucial. We lost three wickets in the first hour. So, if we get the same kind of wicket, we're definitely going to bat first."

The pitch had eased out for the batsmen on the fourth day, and with the Mithun Manhas-Rajat Bhatia duo standing in the way of Karnataka's plans of chasing a win, Vinay realised he had to try something different in the field to force mistakes. He continued to attack, and persisted with his seamers from both ends.

Manhas' untimely dismissal, caught off a top edge, gave Karnataka a big opening, but Vinay felt that Bhatia's wicket, caught brilliantly by Kunal Kapoor at silly point, turned the game.

"Till tea, we tried many things, but nothing happened," he said. "The catch that Kunal took was amazing. That's where the game turned. The fourth-day wicket was very good to bat on. We knew when the new ball was due, we would have a chance."

While Karnataka can toast their success, there's still plenty to be done if they are to be contenders for the quarter-finals. They need bigger contributions from their batsmen. So far, the team has only two centuries, both scored in a high-scoring draw in Chennai. In this game, both Uthappa and Stuart Binny were in sight of centuries but fell in the eighties.

Their performance against Delhi was a big improvement from their previous game against Odisha, where none of the batsmen passed fifty. Having made 475 in the second innings, Vinay acknowledged the improvement but felt it was time his frontline batsmen started converting their scores. He said the bowling attack had a more settled look, and wasn't in favour of going with four frontline seamers, given that the lone spinner KP Appanna was underused in this game.

"It (playing four seamers) means that one will be underbowled. If it's the three of us and Stuart (Binny), it'll be easier for us to rotate the bowlers. Appanna is also there, he got three crucial wickets in this game. So, we don't think four seamers is a good option."

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India will come out fighting, warns Swann

Graeme Swann has urged caution ahead of England's final Test against India, warning that the hosts will be desperate for a victory in Nagpur that would tie the series.

Back-to-back wins in Mumbai and Kolkata have put England on the verge of their first series victory in India since 1984-85 and, while Swann expects to play a prominent role alongside Monty Panesar on another spin-friendly pitch, he recognises the danger of playing a team looking to salvage their eight-year unbeaten run at home.

"It is tough, but sometimes it's a good position to be in," Swann said of India's situation. "If there's only one possible result you can get, you can go all out fighting. The last Test of a series, if you know the result hangs on it, is normally a very exciting one."

India have rung the changes ahead of the final Test, which starts on Thursday as they look for a response from their under-fire squad. Batsman Yuvraj Singh and seamer Zaheer Khan have been dropped, while spinner Harbhajan Singh misses out despite playing no role in the defeat in Kolkata.

"I'm sure India will come out fighting because they have to win the game," Swann said. "Equally so, I'm sure we'll approach the game thinking attack is our best form of defence. I think that's what has proved crucial in the last couple of games."

Swann and a number of his England colleagues have been in a similar position before, winning the final Test in Sydney in 2011 to claim a 3-1 Ashes victory in Australia, England's first triumph Down Under in almost a quarter of a century.

"Back in Australia, we didn't get carried away before that Sydney game," Swann said. "We spoke of how important it was to keep our feet on the ground. That's all we're doing here. We're not taking anything for granted, we don't sit down and pat ourselves on the back and say 'Look how well we have played the last two games'. That's a very dangerous place to get in.

"On Thursday morning we'll assess the pitch, play accordingly and hope to win this game, because we obviously want to get home for Christmas having won this series 3-1. Whatever the pitch is we've got to try and win the game, that's all we ever try and do."

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Brad Young signs with Adelaide Strikers

Brad Young has become the latest veteran spinner to join the Big Bash League after signing with the Adelaide Strikers. Young, 39, has been confirmed as the team's replacement for his fellow left-arm orthodox bowler Jon Holland, who will miss the entire BBL season while recovering from shoulder surgery.

Young played six one-day internationals for Australia in 1998 and 1999, and he also took a hat-trick against New Zealand in the semi-final at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, in a match that was not considered an official ODI. He has not played at the elite level since his last appearance for South Australia in 2003 but he impressed the Strikers coach Darren Berry, who trialled Young and Mark Higgs during practice matches last month.

"Brad Young is a great story coming off the surf beach at Grange," Berry told the Advertiser of Young, who has been playing cricket in the Adelaide Turf Cricket Association rather than grade cricket. "It was a tough call [between Young and Higgs], but we just felt Brad was better suited to what we are looking for. He will be a handy addition."

Young will be available for the Strikers' next game, against Brisbane Heat on Thursday. He joins fellow veteran spinners Shane Warne and Brad Hogg in this year's BBL - Stuart MacGill was also part of the tournament last summer - and Young believes his age and experience will hold him in good stead for a return to elite cricket.

"I played when Australia were the No. 1 side in the world, I look back with fond memories and hopefully there are a few more over the next few weeks," Young said. "I have a wiser head on my shoulders. I do feel ready, shed a few kilos, the ball is coming out well and I am just trying to get up to speed on the fielding and batting."

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Tiwary ruled out for six weeks

Manoj Tiwary has been ruled out of action for at least six weeks after suffering a back injury in the Ranji Trophy.

The injury means he will miss the Twenty20 series against England, the visit of Pakistan and could struggle to be in contention for the ODIs against England in January.

Tiwary, the 27-year-old Bengal captain who had been named in India's 15-man squad for the England T20s, picked up the problem during the first innings against Saurashtra on Sunday and retired hurt for 55. He was unable to return and underwent scans which showed the extent of the damage and he will now travel to the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore to begin his rehabilitation.

"The MRI report has come and I am leaving for Bangalore tomorrow," he told PTI. "I will follow what physio Nitin Patel tells me to do once he checks the report. As of now it looks like six weeks."

Tiwary has shown some good form this season, scoring 191 against Gujarat in the Ranji Trophy and also made 93 against England for the Board President's XI last month. This is the second injury he has suffered in quick succession after a wrist problem earlier in the season.

He has not been a regular in the India starting XI, playing eight ODIs and three Twenty20s, since his debut in 2008. His most recent appearance was the T20 against New Zealand, in Chennai, during September. He was part of India's World Twenty20 squad for the tournament in Sri Lanka.

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Sammy disappointed despite T20 win

The West Indies captain Darren Sammy admitted that their goal ahead of the Bangladesh tour had not been fulfilled after they won two out of the three formats. Their win in the one-off Twenty20 international ensured they left in good spirits, but the ODI series loss was still hurting the visitors.

"We won the same amount of series as we did last year so we haven't achieved what we set out to do," Sammy said. "Bangladesh played really well, especially in the ODIs. We are disappointed losing the ODI series."

However, Sammy was pleased to win the Twenty20 match, West Indies' first game as World Twenty20 champions after their back-from-the-head victory against Sri Lanka in Colombo. Marlon Samuels played a stellar hand in that game, with a superbly crafted 78, and he did a similar job in Mirpur as he held the innings together with an unbeaten 85 off 43 balls.

"The way Marlon was playing that innings, it surely reminded me the game against Sri Lanka," Sammy said. "This was our first game after the victory and we won. We won, that's all we had to do.

"We have guys who can be match-winners for us every day. It is good to see Marlon do well after two years out of international cricket. He has been brilliant for us."

Bangladesh started their pursuit of 198 in strong style, but Sammy said he was not too concerned when Tamim Iqbal cut loose in the first over which cost 17 followed by 26 from the next two.

"We expected them to come hard at us. You have to go hard all the time when the run-rate is ten an over. Although they only lost one wicket, they were short by 18 runs. I wanted to win and end the year in a good note."

Sammy pinpointed Bangladesh's achievement of keeping Chris Gayle quiet for ten innings in a row as a notable part of the tour. Gayle made 166 runs across all formats over the last four weeks, an aspect of the contests which the Bangladesh captain, Mushfiqur Rahim, called a "big achievement" for the hosts.

"They managed to keep Gayle quiet throughout the series, something that not many teams have done in his career," Sammy said. "They executed well against him. Every player goes out there to do their best. I know because I try and it doesn't happen all the time. It is up to the individual to go back and think about his game. Chris will come back as he is a world-class player."

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