Pakistanis tighten grip with big lead

Pakistanis 329 (Safraz 93, Harmer 5-88) and 240 for 5 (Hafeez 83, Jamshed 51, Misbah 51*) lead South African Invitation XI 257 (van Jaarsveld 92, Vilas 62*, Ajmal 3-66) by 312 runs
Scorecard

The Pakistanis put themselves in prime position to record a first victory on their visit to South Africa as they bowled the hosts out and built a significant lead on the third day in East London. Nasir Jamshed and Mohammed Hafeez were among the runs again, while Saeed Ajmal, Junaid Khan and Umar Gul all flexed their wicket-taking muscles.

Pakistan's latest sensation, the 2.03 metre tall Mohammed Irfan, only bowled 12 overs in the first innings as team management called for fast-bowling reinforcements to be sent to South Africa. He was not needed on the third morning as it took Ajmal and Junaid just 13.1 overs to get rid of the South African Invitation XI's tail. Both finished with three scalps, while only Mohammed Hafeez went wicketless.

For the second time in the fixture, Pakistan's opening pair appeared solid. Hafeez and Jamshed put on a century stand with both making half-centuries. Hafeez was the more aggressive of the pair - his 83 coming off 109 balls before he was caught behind off the innocuous bowling of part-time medium pacer Stiaan van Zyl.

Jamshed was more circumspect. His spent four minutes short of three hours at the crease to compile his 51. Even though he seemed well set, he departed the over after Hafeez, bowled by Kyle Abbot.

Jamshed's performances in the match give Pakistan an interesting problem ahead of the Test series. Should they open the batting with the in-form debutant or, fitness permitting, return to the tried and trusted Taufeeq Umar? Taufeeq was forced to sit out the practice match because of a leg injury. He was assessed by a radiologist on Friday in East London and is awaiting the results before a call is taken on his availability.

Pakistan may consider using both players, with one batting at No.3, after Azhar Ali, Younis Khan and Asad Shafiq all failed again to leave the middle order looking shaky. They were all caught behind suggesting that some adjustment still needed to be made for South African conditions and the Invitation side would have sniffed an opening at 191 for 5.

But Misbah-ul-Haq came good and reached a half-century as stumps loomed. Sarfraz Ahmed was with him at the crease. Having already scored 93 in the first innings, Sarfraz may not need too much more practice time and the Pakistanis will look to let their bowlers have another run on the fourth day. The Pakistan squad will travel to Johannesburg on Tuesday to begin preparations for the first Test, which starts on Friday.

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Barnard hundred leads England rally

England Under-19s 277 for 7 (Barnard 107*, Williams 4-61) v South Africa Under-19s
Scorecard

Ed Barnard made an unbeaten century to lead England Under out of trouble on the first day in Cape Town. Batting got easier as the day went on and Barnard relished the better conditions to put England in a fair position at the close.

Barnard, a 17-year-old from Shropshire, struck 11 fours in a composed innings of 168 balls. His innings was vital because the top order had been blown away by the new ball after South Africa won the toss and chose to field.

Coming in at 89 for 5, Bernard shared stands of 63 with Callum Jackson and 60 with Oli Stone to prevent his side from falling well behind in the Test match. Kishen Velani had earlier made 49 as England finally got some runs on the board but he was the third of four wickets for opening bowler Lizaad Williams just after lunch.

Williams had put South Africa in firm command in the morning session, reducing England to 14 for 3 in the fifth over. Jonathan Tattersall went caught behind for 2 and Harry Finch was trapped lbw for 9, both after Dominic Sibley fell to Craig Kirsten for a second ball duck. Kirsten later left the field with a stress fracture of the lower back, an injury that could rule him out for two months.

Williams went on to bowl Jackson for 49 as England's recovery was trimmed, but with the second new ball not as threatening and Barnard in good touch, England ended the day in positive shape, adding 109 after tea.

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Captains hope for strong crowds

Jhulan Goswami, along with a couple of her India Women team-mates, sauntered through the lobby of the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai. Not one of the few people present turned her way to acknowledge they were watching the second-most successful bowler in women's cricket. Outside the hotel, the Sunday crowd continued to throng the seafront alongside the Gateway of India. A few stopped to take photographs. Not of Goswami, but of the landmark hotel, completely unaware that seven international teams were staying there.

There is a World Cup in town, a cricket World Cup at that. It has been in the news because some people didn't want a particular team coming over while other people wanted a particular stadium for their own use, to the exclusion of the women. Over the next three weeks, the tenth Women's World Cup, to be held in Mumbai and Cuttack, will strive to make headlines for the cricket played by the eight participating teams.

The captains of four of them, hosts India, England, Sri Lanka and West Indies, were present at the tournament's first press event, attended by a generous gathering of journalists and cameramen.

The general public may remain largely ignorant, or indifferent, but the players know how much progress has been made on the ground. Charlotte Edwards, captain of defending champions England and one of the game's greats, spoke of how far women's cricket had come from the time she scored 173* in Pune a day before her 18th birthday, in the 1997 World Cup.

"My first time was when I was 17, a quite memorable one, first time I think I had been out of England," Edwards said. "Now with the ICC and the professionalisation that has come in, is fantastic. I think it is safe to say that the game today is unrecognisable from when I played back in 1997. The games are televised now, which they weren't back in 1997. Very proud of where the game is at the moment.

"Recent ICC events have shown that the game is becoming popular. I have heard we are attracting loads of young girls who want to play the game. That is the most important thing for us as players. I think we have changed people's perceptions about women's cricket a lot. Hopefully this tournament will be another step in hammering that message home."

Mithali Raj, the India captain and another big name, was hopeful of substantial turnouts at the grounds. "It is a great moment," she said. "It is the first time after 1997 that we are hosting a World Cup, [and] under the BCCI. The kind of media attention and awareness is great. So I am hoping a lot of people will turn up for the matches."

Raj said the best way to popularise the women's game was to have matches on television. Not only World Cup or World Twenty20 matches, but also bilateral games. "Lot of people question me about the follow-up of women's cricket. It would be nice if more games are televised when we tour abroad," Raj said. "Most of them follow Star Cricket, ESPN, where, if women's cricket is televised, then gradually it will catch people's awareness. Some of the girls are definitely known faces. Not only the ICC tournaments, but also two-nation series like England v India or Australia v India should be televised on good cricketing channels for them to follow women's cricket."

This World Cup will be broadcast live on television alright. Now only if those grounds could be filled.

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Gibson calls for climb up ODI ladder

Ottis Gibson wants his West Indies side to use their Twenty20 success to help improve their one-day cricket. They go into the series in Australia ranked seventh in ODIs and Gibson is looking for them to move up the ladder.

West Indies open their tour against a Prime Minister's XI in Canberra on Tuesday with speculation surrounding Gibson's future. He will almost certainly be in charge for the five-match ODI series and the one-off T20 - West Indies first match against a major nation since winning the World T20 in October.

"We are the T20 world champions and we are proud of what we achieved in that tournament but that doesn't put any added pressure on the team," Gibson said. "Hopefully with that victory and what we achieved more people will come and watch us.

"It's something we have to move on from and think about moving up the ladder in one-day cricket and getting ourselves in the mix with the best teams in the world. We believe we're a top team but we now have to show it with the way we play."

West Indies welcome back Ramnaresh Sarwan into their squad, which Gibson described as having a "good mix" of young and experienced players. They prepared with the Caribbean T20, which Gibson saw as a positive with all his players getting game time and playing themselves into form.

"We're hoping we can hit the ground running," he said. "The Prime Minister's XI is our one opportunity for preparation and it gives us a good chance to get some practice. Hopefully we put on a good show but the main aim is to get our preparation right for the one-day series on Friday."

West Indies captain Darren Sammy echoed his coach's sentiment on getting their preparation right. "The guys have been playing a lot of cricket back home and hopefully we can get this series off to a great start here. As an individual and as a team we have just got to get the basics right and execute if you want to win."

West Indies lost their last ODI series 3-2 in Bangladesh, and the series against Australia comes less than 12 months after the sides drew 2-2 in the Caribbean last March.

"It will be competitive out here, that's for sure," Sammy said. "I see it as a continuation of what happened in the Caribbean. We want to play hard, competitive cricket. It's always a challenge to play Australia anywhere in the world, but even more so in their own backyard. We believe we can come here and if we can execute our plans and play to our strengths, we can be successful."

West Indies have a poor recent record to overcome. They have not won an ODI in Australia since January 1997 - 13 completed ODIs ago - and their last series victory came in 1992, when they won a tri-series also involving Pakistan.

"We have a lot of respect for Australia, you can never count Australia out," Sammy said. "They're professionals and know how to dig themselves out of a hole. We won't watch the results of the Sri Lanka series but we'll look at some areas to implement in our game. I expect it to be a hard-fought battle and we're looking to play it very hard."

As might be expected, Sammy is looking to Chris Gayle to have a defining impact for them. West Indies played at the same venue against the Prime Minister's XI two years ago and made 399 for 5 off 45 overs. Gayle made 146 off 89 balls.

"I remember Chris hitting the ball all over the park," Sammy said. "I'm expecting Chris to have a good tour as a whole. When he came back home he looked really good and I think he almost had the most runs in the Caribbean T20 tournament after just a couple of games. We all know what he's capable of, but the strength for us is the way the team has performed together. We are getting stronger as a unit."

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Jaydev Shah confident Saurashtra can rally

Saturday was a thoroughly dispiriting day for Saurashtra. After all the excitement about their first final since Independence, their batting crumbled against a good but unexceptional bowling performance from Mumbai in the first session.

There wasn't much help for the spinners - quick bowler Shardul Thakur's figures of 12-2-31-0 hide how regularly he sprayed the ball wide of the stumps - while Ajit Agarkar took the new ball but bowled only three overs in the first hour. Only Dhawal Kulkarni posed a consistent threat, keeping the batsmen guessing around the off stump and choking the runs. Several wickets went down to poor strokes: Shitanshu Kotak played a loose shot off the backfoot, Jaydev Shah tucked a harmless delivery straight to midwicket and later, when much of the damage was already done, Kamlesh Makvana slapped a wide ball to backward point.

What made it worse for Saurashtra was that bowling is generally considered to be Mumbai's weaker department, with the hosts missing the experience of Zaheer Khan. Also, Saurashtra's success this season has been based more on their spinners than the quicks and the Wankhede pitch is unlikely to offer much for the slow bowlers this early in the match.

Just one day into the game and Mumbai already look to be certainties for the title. Saurashtra captain Jaydev Shah didn't share that view, though. "Of course, why not?" he said emphatically, when asked whether he had the resources for a fightback. "Today you can see they were also getting beaten very easily. It is cricket, they can get out for 100 or 200, though 200-250 would have been a better score [from us]."

Shah denied that his team was overawed by the occasion and said the toss played a crucial role. "First the pitch was damp, then it dried up, so the toss makes a difference. I have never seen Bombay, who have such a huge batting line-up, decide to bowl. They would not go and bowl, [unless] there is something in the wicket."

In the second session, with the pitch drying up, Aarpit Vasavada and Makvana seemed at ease in the middle, putting up Saurashtra's only significant partnership of the innings and perhaps pointing to better batting conditions on the second day. Shah disagreed. "It was not easy to score runs. We gave their batsmen eight overs and they just scored about 10-12 runs, so it was difficult for them, too."

For Saurashtra to compete, they will need someone to bowl like Kulkarni did. He cut out the loose deliveries, and generally probed around off, getting the odd one to kick up and others to snake around. It helped him that he got a wicket in his first over itself, when Sagar Jogiyani nicked the ball to slip. "I was confident, got five wickets before this game, so I just carried it forward," Kulkarni said. "I would have felt great if I had got that five-for [again]. I was bowling well throughout the season, the only thing missing was the wickets."

Like Kulkarni, Mumbai, too, can be pleased with their first day's efforts. And unless Saurashtra manage to pull off a dramatic turnaround, the whispers around their batting thriving only on the notoriously flat pitches of Rajkot will get louder.

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I would like to bat higher - Raina

Suresh Raina, whose unbeaten 89 in the fourth ODI against England in Mohali sealed a series win for India, has admitted that he would like the opportunity to bat further up the order. Raina has spent the majority of his 158-match ODI career coming in at Nos. 5 or 6, and it was from a position of three wickets down that he scored his 27th half-century on Wednesday.

"Definitely, I would like to bat higher up the order," he said, ahead of the fifth ODI. "If I am given a chance, I would like to give 100% as it will also give me an opportunity to play more overs. I have enjoyed batting at five, six, seven, where you need to bat till the finish."

Yuvraj Singh has occupied the No. 4 spot for India in recent years, although Raina has an impressive record batting there - albeit in just nine innings - averaging 58.85, with four fifties and his best ODI score of 116 not out. Raina has, however, been in good form in his current slot in the line-up, scoring half-centuries in each of his three innings against England so far to make him the leading run-scorer on either side.

Raina, 26, also said he hoped being able to bat for longer periods and building an innings would aid his chances of returning to the Test team. Raina's average from 17 Tests is just 28.44 and he has made six single-figure scores - including three ducks - in his last eight innings. After a year out of the side, he played in India's two Tests against New Zealand in August, scoring 3, 55 and 0 before being dropped in favour of the returning Yuvraj. "If you talk about my Test performance, I scored a fifty in one of my last three innings," he said. "I believe that I can make a comeback in Tests."

An impressive performance in the Irani Cup - a one-off Indian first-class match featuring the Ranji Trophy winners and a Rest of India side - which will begin on February 6, could push him back into the selectors' thoughts ahead of the arrival of Australia later in the month. But Raina was keen not to look too far ahead and hoped to help India secure another win over England in Dharamsala.

"Yes, Irani Trophy will be very important, but at this point I want to focus on doing well in tomorrow's match," Raina said. "Although, we have won the series, it would be nice if we can finish with a 4-1 margin."

Preventing that from happening is the priority for the tourists and Joe Root, a rare recent success story for England's one-day team in India, said the players were pulling in the same direction and eager to finish on a high. "We're obviously very disappointed as a team with the way the series has gone," he said. "It has been nice for me to score some runs and put in a few performances, but it always feels better when you're winning."

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Sarfraz, Gul lead strong Pakistanis display

SA Invitation XI 213 for 7 (van Jaarsveld 92, Gul 2-32, Ajmal 2-49) trail Pakistanis 329 (Sarfraz 93, Harmer 5-88) by 116 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

An all-round display by Umar Gul, who scored 49 runs and later picked up two wickets, and a plucky knock of 93 by wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed helped the Pakistanis have the better of day two of their four-day tour match against a South African Invitation XI.

The Pakistanis resumed on 178 for 6 at the start of the day but the lower order, led by Sarfraz, added 151 runs before they were dismissed. Sarfraz and Gul took their seventh-wicket partnership to 81 runs, before Gul was stumped by wicketkeeper Dane Vilas off Simon Harmer's bowling. The offspinner was the most effective South African bowler, dismissing both Gul and Sarfraz to end with figures of 5 for 88.

After Gul's departure, Sarfraz stitched together important partnerships with tailenders Junaid Khan and Mohammad Irfan. The right-hand batsman, who made his Test debut against Australia in 2010, began sedately but cut loose soon after reaching his 50 to take his side past 300. His innings included 12 fours and a six.

In reply, the South African XI got off to a quiet start before Junaid and Gul struck with quick wickets. Gul dismissed opener Davy Jacobs and middle-order batsman Cody Chetty in the ninth over, to leave South Africans at a shaky 31 for 3. The left-hand batting pair of Stiaan van Zyl and Vaughn van Jaarsveld then stabilised the innings with a partnership of 89, which was broken when Irfan effected a run-out to dismiss van Zyl. Vilas was the only other batsman to offer some support to van Jaarsveld before the latter was given out leg-before off Saeed Ajmal's bowling, seven runs short of a century.

The Pakistani bowlers kept the batting side in check, making regular breakthroughs. Gul and offspinner Ajmal each picked up two wickets while Junaid and Irfan also had dismissals to their credit.

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Thorpe appointed one-day batting coach

England have named Graham Thorpe as batting coach for the one-day international and Twenty20 series in New Zealand in a decision which moves closer towards separate coaching set-ups for the Test and one-day sides.

Thorpe replaces Graham Gooch, whose role as Test batting coach for next summer's Ashes series remains assured.

The reshuffle follows the appointment of Ashley Giles as England's new coach in the shorter formats of the game to reduce the touring workload on England's director of cricket, Andy Flower, whose day-to-day coaching involvement is now restricted to the Test arena.

England's managing director Hugh Morris has stressed the appointment of Thorpe, who has cut his teeth as batting coach for England Lions, will be reviewed at the end of the New Zealand tour, although his fulltime appointment seems inevitable.

England entered the final one-day international against India in Dharamsala on Sunday 3-1 down with one to play, and with the series already lost, but suggestions that Gooch has been removed from the one-day set-up at Giles' behest because of another failure in an Indian ODI series are an overstatement of the case.

England are committed to developing distinct coaching set-ups in Test and one-day cricket and Thorpe's introduction, which has been built towards for some time, is a natural consequence of that and has Giles' full support.

Gooch, like Flower, has always had mixed feelings about the lengthy amount of time spent away from home in England's crowded international schedule. David Saker, England's bowling coach, was also briefly tempted by the Warwickshire director of cricket role for identical reasons before the lure of back-to-back Ashes series persuaded him that he had "unfinished business" with the England side.

Challenges will come thick and fast for Thorpe if, as everybody expects, he passes his probationary period. Following the ICC Champions Trophy in England this summer England face a World T20 in Bangladesh in March 2014 and a World Cup in Australia and New Zealand the following year.

Morris said: "Graham Gooch's work in India made a real step change to the way we played spin bowling and was a factor in us winning that Test series. We've got an enormous amount of very high-profile Test cricket and we want Graham to focus his attention on working one-on-one with our Test players.

"Graham Thorpe, who has been working alongside the Lions as one of our coaches for the last 12 months or so, will be going to New Zealand as one-day batting coach. He's made a good impression as a batting coach and he is looking forward to the opportunity to go there."

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Dravid to be honoured with Padma Bhushan

Rahul Dravid, the former India batsman, has been listed, among 24 others, for the Padma Bhushan award, India's third highest civilian honour. Now a television analyst, commentator and columnist for ESPNcricinfo, Dravid announced his retirement from international cricket last year, having scored 13,288 runs in Tests and 10,889 runs in ODIs during a 15-year career.

He is the only cricketer in the list of Padma Bhushan awardees. Indian boxer Mary Kom being the other sportsperson to be short-listed for the honour.

Dravid, who shouldered a large portion of India's batting burden during their period of strength at home and abroad in the past decade, was nominated for the Khel Ratna, India's highest honour in sports, six months ago. He won the Arjuna Award in 1998 and was given the Padma Shri in 2004.

He joins nine other cricketers, including Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar Vinoo Mankad and Lala Amarnath, to have had received the Padma Bhushan. Sachin Tendulkar is the only cricketer to have be awarded with the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour.

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Buttler admits mixed emotions after ousting friend

Jos Buttler has admitted to mixed emotions after replacing his friend and county team-mate, Craig Kieswetter, in the England one-day side in India.

Buttler was preferred to Kieswetter for the fourth match in Mohali and will retain his place for the final game of the series in Dharamsala, although he may yet lose his spot to Jonny Bairstow for the matches against New Zealand next month.

For now, though, Buttler is focusing on making the most of his opportunity with bat and gloves and knows he has to be ruthlessly professional despite the circumstances of his selection.

"My opportunity has come from the demise of a friend and that's not ideal, when your mate misses out, but it's a huge opportunity for me and one that I want to take," he said. "It is a bit tricky, because Craig and I are good friends and have been for a number of years... I don't think this will change that; this is the world of professional sport and there are only 11 spaces in the England side, that a lot of people want."

Buttler, who made his Somerset debut when Kieswetter was on England duty three years ago, has been taken a little by surprise by his elevation to the wicketkeeper's position. Having replaced the rested Jonathan Trott he envisaged competing for a batting slot but ensured he spent plenty of time working with Bruce French, the England wicketkeeping coach.

"I didn't really see wicketkeeping coming, but I've been working hard on it before Christmas," he said. "My keeping is still a work in progress, but I think that will improve as time goes on, especially with the amount of work I'm putting into it. It's something I think I'm developing and something I think can become a strength of mine.

Buttler gave a brief glimpse of his batting ability in Mohali with a nine-ball 14, which followed powerful cameo appearances in Twenty20, including two unbeaten innings against India before Christmas and a 10-ball 32 against South Africa at Edgbaston last September.

At some stage the ODI format will test his ability to construct a longer innings - something a List A average of 56.89 suggests he can do - but at the moment he is concentrating on giving some impetus to the latter stages of England's batting effort.

"The other strength of my game is trying to be destructive at the end of the innings," he said. "It's something I have done for Somerset in the last couple of years and hopefully it's something I can bring into the international game."

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