The Indian goose is as good as cooked and South Africa, wanting itwell done, batted throughout the third day of the second Test at theChinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on Saturday. In scoring 472 for eightby stumps and obtaining a first innings lead of 314 runs, the visitorshave certainly sharpened the nails. After all, that’s all South Africaneed to do now. Put the lid on the coffin and slam the nails home.Resuming with a lead of almost a hundred, South Africa made steadyprogress. Daryll Cullinan showed his aggressive intent yesterday andtoday he continued in the same vein. After getting to his halfcentury, Cullinan lost his wicket. The fall of Cullinan’s wicket wascompletely against the grain of play. Just when things were lookinggood for the Gauteng batsman, he was undone by a Kumble delivery. Asis becoming customary on tracks like these, the ball bobbled off thebat to the fielder standing close, Wasim Jaffer in thiscase. Cullinan’s 53 included five boundaries and that unforgettablestraight six off Kumble.Lance Klusener, who has not looked at ease with the bat all tour camein next. Indian bowling ‘attacks’ have a habit of bringing strugglingbatsmen back to form. Today was no exception. Klusener got a goodmeasure of the Indian bowling on a wicket that was slow andlow. Though the ball was turning, it was along predictable lines andKlusener had no difficulty in picking his spots and scoring fluently.At the other end, Kallis brought up his half century with a bigsix. Kallis has played the sheet anchor role to perfection on thistour.Having waited all day for Klusener and Kallis to reach theircenturies, and following that the South African declaration,spectators had more waiting to do. In tragic fashion, both Klusenerand Kallis fell short of the mark.Having done all the hard work, both batsmen fell to thespinners. Klusener was the first to go, driving a ball from Kartikstraight to Tendulkar at mid off. In the end it was a soft dismissal,after what had been a fighting innings from a man who struggled withthe bat in recent innings. Klusener’s 97 came off 169 balls.Kallis was easily the more solid of the pair that put on a 164 runpartnership for the fifth wicket. However, his caution might just havedeprived him of a Test century on Indian soil. Dabbing at a ball fromKumble, that perhaps did a little more than he expected, Kallispresented Jaffer with a simple catch under the helmet. Kallis felljust five runs short of his hundred.After the two well set batsmen were dismissed, the wickets fell inquick succession. Having bowled long spells without reward, Kumble andKartik finally got their names on the scoreboard for the rightreasons. Having done the lion’s share of the bowling, Kumble ended theday with figures of 67-15-136-5. Kartik was less successful and49-10-123-2 would have hardly been the returns he hoped for.An overnight declaration is inevitable. This will mean India have toscore 314 to avoid innings defeat. With such a massive lead, it wassurprising that the South Africans even batted as long as theydid. However, one thing emerges strongly from this exercise: theIndians, with three spinners, on a spinning track, will have toproduce a batting miracle to save this match. All is not well withIndian cricket.

Following the awesome nights of Rugby, the sedate world of cricket is about to be Varsified. Six matches with a wide variety of locations from county grounds, big hand to Somerset and Gloucestershire, to famous ‘out grounds’ St Helens and The Saffrons, one thing is for sure this is going to be the outdoor summer party to end them all. Outdoor disco’s, swimming pools, BBQ’s fancy dress and a bit of cricket in the middle of it all, does represent an awesome opportunity to say goodbye to University life with a big day out!So be sensible, have a great time and leave yourself and the ground in one piece as we invite you to get on down to the following:WHY VARSITY CRICKET?We’ve had four years of winter rugby, which have seen students across the UK raise over £100,000 for Oxfam. It’s been a roller-coaster ride, which has seen great advances made in student sport. Despite the many pitfalls, the ego’s, the politics www.oxfam.org.uk/rugby/ tells an impressive tale about what can be done with Student Sport. Awesome occasions abound.Can a University rise above itself to support what many consider to be a sport on its last legs? Student cricket is stuffed annually by educational demands. The chance to play on a big stage has been offered. The chance for cricket to let its hair down and entertain a young audience that can actually decide for itself to buy tickets, instead of asking their parents, is also offered.WHY OXFAM?Since November 1996 Oxfam have been working with Universities to help promote the charities work and in the process have helped create some impressive showpiece occasions for student sport. This work has been extended to the cricket field and also the rugby fields of New Zealand.The Oxfam Varsity Cricket Matches were instigated as a response to the disaster in Mozambique, the funds raised will be going towards the rehabilitation of the flood hit country. Its not all about reacting to disasters, Oxfam is about helping people working towards a better life. A new Millennium brings new challenges. Whether in Education, where 125 million children don’t see the inside of a classroom or in trade where Oxfam campaign for greater distribution of the selling price direct to the producer, the charity relies on the support of people to help make a difference.

Toronto, Canada – Yet again so near but so far for the spirited Argentina cricketteam. A horrible bowling start saw the USA race into a commanding position before adetermined fightback and some characteristicly outstanding fielding, on the groundand in the air, saw Argentina bowl out the USA for 243 in 47 overs. Another resoluteand intelligent batting display saw Argentina on target nearly all the way through,until later in the innings when the pressure of runs and a sudden USA hat-trick sawArgentina’s innings end for 202 in the 49th over. Hero was Argentina’s Player of theSeries, Matias Paterlini, with a cultured 63, well-supported by 37 from skipperKirschbaum, and 34 from make-shift opener Perez Rivero. At one point 78 without loss,and later 142 for 1, too many careless runs, in my opinion in excess of 80, givenaway by untidy bowling, saw the task tantalisingly out of reach.

Having reached a score of 4/229 by stumps on a day shortened by a combination of rain and bad light, Victoria has made a solid start to its Pura Cup match against Queensland at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane today. Capitalising on first use of a benign pitch, the Bushrangers overcame inclement late afternoon weather and some persistent bowling from the home side to make their way to their score.Naturally, it did not bring with it quite the same sense of occasion (nor the same level of drama or emotion) but the day’s play shared many characteristics with some of those seen during the Pura Milk Cup Final between the same states at the same venue seven months ago. It was tough, it was combative, no quarter was given nor asked.The Bushrangers’ problems with both form and injury were acute enough to force them to accede to the unlikely idea of using the sadly out of form Shawn Craig (23) as an opening partner for Jason Arnberger (64). But, upon winning the toss, they looked suitably determined to put several lacklustre performances with the bat this season firmly behind them.Arnberger was given a life at 12 (when Stuart Law dropped a catch at second slip) and Craig made a rather tentative beginning but the two batsmen otherwise looked in little trouble through the majority of the opening session. In humid conditions, Arnberger looked especially comfortable. Happiest when given the chance to rock on to the back foot, he hit two glorious pull strokes – one for four and the other for six – in successive overs half an hour before lunch. Craig, meanwhile, played the majority of his scoring shots through the off side in an innings in which he strove to put the horrific memory of his last-match pair behind him. It was not until the latter glanced lazily at the very last delivery before lunch, and was brilliantly caught down the leg side by wicketkeeper Wade Seccombe off the bowling of Andy Bichel (1/59), that Queensland experienced any joy whatsoever.Duplicating the efficiency of their team’s start, Michael Klinger (37*) and Ian Harvey (35*) ensured that the Victorians also enjoyed a good finish to the day. Before bad light finally put an end to matters at 5:10pm local time – around ninety minutes after play had resumed following a separate forty minute break for rain – the two added an unbroken sixty-eight runs for the fifth wicket in enterprising style.The rate at which the pair scored offered quite a contrast, in fact, with the extent of their team’s progress in the period immediately following lunch. It was during that phase that the Victorians allowed themselves to be pinned down by some accurate bowling from Adam Dale (0/40) and Joe Dawes (2/75) in particular. Dawes struck twice in one spell in the hour before tea, luring both Arnberger and Brad Hodge (14) to edge low catches to Martin Love at slip. Before he was finally drawn into cutting at a wide ball from Andy Symonds (1/47), only to feather a catch through to Seccombe, Matthew Mott (31) had also struggled to work his way on top of the Bulls’ bowling through this period.

Consecutive boundaries to captain Heath Streak saw Zimbabwe squeak pastCanterbury’s 236 with three balls to spare, in a tense Jade Stadium finish.Heading into the last over Zimbabwe required seven runs with four wickets inhand. A Guy Whittall single from the first ball of Warren Wisneski’s overgave Streak the strike. Wisneski’s next ball was too wide, allowing Streakto carve it over point to the boundary.Canterbury Captain Gary Stead brought the field in, but Streak gave himselfroom and slashed the ball over the top and down to the cover fence to clinchthe victory for Zimbabwe.Whittall’s 35 not out proved crucial, holding the Zimbabwe innings togetherafter three Chris Harris wickets in the space of five balls allowedCanterbury back into the game.Harris’s second spell of six overs, three wickets for 10 runs, and AaronRedmond’s 10 consecutive tight overs from the Port Hills end, helpedCanterbury push Zimbabwe’s target above one per ball with 10 oversremaining.But in the end Canterbury couldn’t overcome the great start it had giftedZimbabwe with some poor bowling and shoddy fielding.Alistair Campbell and Trevor Madondo put on 109 for the first wicket.Madondo was especially impressive, striking boundaries to all parts of theground. But in a game characterised by poor fielding, dropped catches andmissed chances, none was more important than the goober dropped by GarryStead with Campbell on 36.With Zimbabwe coasting at 82/0 in the seventeenth over, Campbell mistimed adrive off Mark Hastings straight to the Canterbury skipper at cover, but hemuffed the simple eye-height catch and Campbell went on to anchor theZimbabwe innings with 72.When Campbell finally departed he was followed in quick succession by GrantFlower and Gavin Rennie – Stead must have wondered what might have been hadhe not displayed hands like feet.Chris Harris was back to his best with bat as well as ball, dominating thefinal overs of the Canterbury innings as he scored 39 from 35 balls to helpCanterbury post a challenging target.A target that could have been considerably higher had Streak not dismissedChris Cairns just as he looked to have the Zimbabwean attack at his mercy.Cairns had entered the fray with the sleepy Canterbury run-rate in desperateneed of an adrenaline shot. For a time both he and Stead seemed intent onpractising their lap shots off leg-spinner Brian Murphy – the fielders infront of the wicket resembling Liverpool soccer fans – mostly unemployed.Cairns struck some powerful boundaries and a huge one-handed six on his wayto 38. But he couldn’t go on, holing out to Henry Olonga on the long-onfence as he miscued a back-foot drive off Streak.Stead’s patient half-century anchored the Canterbury innings after Hastings,opening the innings, had taken advantage of some overdue luck to score anentertaining 32. Doug Marillier set the tone for the Zimbabwe fieldingeffort by dropping Hastings in the first over.Hamish Barton also benefited as Zimbabwe’s fielding deteriorated from shoddyto abysmal. First, Barton’s score profited by five when a needless throwfrom Henry Olonga deflected off the stumps to the boundary for fouroverthrows. Then Gavin Rennie dropped a sitter of a catch on the mid-wicketboundary when Barton swept a Grant Flower delivery straight to him.Harris’s fine knock made it look as if Zimbabwe might be punished for itssub-standard fielding effort, but Canterbury replied with an equallyincompetent display. A shortage of fingers made it impossible for thosewithout a calculator to figure out which side spurned the most chances.

Australia and Pakistan begin psychological warfare tomorrow in the first of two NatWest Series encounters rendered meaningless before the teams meet in the final at Lord’s on June 23.England’s run of defeats means that the remainder of the qualifying games are largely irrelevant although there will no doubt be some mind games played at Chester-le-Street tomorrow.And Australian coach John Buchanan has hinted that there could be some experimentation from both sides.”It is nice to be in the final. That being the case, there will be a littlebit of room for some experimenting along the way – but certainly we want to keepthe winning run going,” he said.”With the future in mind, it is important for us to continue to have a lookat Pakistan. I dare say they will put on the field a couple of players who we have not seen before, so that will be useful.”He added: “There is the luxury of having got to the final, which means wecan maybe look at one or two different things we would like to try.”We may take a few more liberties than we would normally do. We will betrying to play our best cricket but we will also have an eye on the future.”Australia’s renowned rotation system means tomorrow Glenn McGrath will be rested for the first time in the series, to be replaced by Brett Lee. Ricky Ponting is given a day off while Damien Fleming is back after a minor calf injury.Waqar Younis, who has said he believes it is essential his team wins at least one of the two clashes with Australia before the final, has a fully fit squad to choose from – but offered no further clues as to who would be taking the field.Australia: M Waugh, A Gilchrist (wkt), M Hayden, M Bevan, S Waugh (captain), DMartyn, A Symonds, S Warne, B Lee, J Gillespie, D Fleming.Pakistan (from): Salim Elahi, Shahid Afridi, Yousuf Youhana, Inzamam-ul-Haq,Abdur Razzaq, Waqar Younis (captain), Rashid Latif (wkt), Saqlain Mushtaq,Younis Khan, Wasim Akram, Azhar Mahmood, Saeed Anwar.

Facing a massive Gloucestershire first innings total of 603, Somerset resumed on the final morning on 214 for 4, still 89 runs short of making the visitors bat again.The Cidermen’s second string managed to pass the Gloucester total, and batted until mid-afternoon when they were all out for 388, thanks to a last-wicket half-century stand between Joe Tucker and Jamie Grove.Chasing 86, Gloucestershire reached their target just before five o’clock to gain a six-wicket victory

The second unofficial Test Match between Sri Lanka A and Pakistan A playedat NCC Grounds in Colombo today, like the first game in Dambulla, proved tobe a keenly contested affair and at the close of play the game remainedevenly balanced, with Sri Lanka claiming a marginal advantage.Pakistan, who looked well set on 102 for two at one stage, lost steadywickets throughout the afternoon, as the Sri Lankan fast bowlers started tofind their groove. The left-handed Toufiq Umer held the innings togetherwith a three-and-a-half hour 69. They were eventually bowled out for 229.Sri Lanka then survived a potentially dangerous eight over spell as theshadows started to stretch across this tree-lined ground. The Pakistaniopeners bowled with great fire and enthusiasm and managed to winkle outDammika Sudarshana, who was caught at third slip. Avishka Gunawardene,however, responded with typical disdain, smashing four boundaries before theclose.Sri Lanka, though delighted to have bowled out a talented Pakistan battingline-up through a combination of probing fast bowling and poor Pakistanirunning, will have been disappointed to have failed to fully exploit moistconditions during the morning session after winning the toss.They selected three fast bowlers – including Suresh Perera and IsharaAmarasinghe who did not play in Dambulla – so the decision to bowl first wasa fair one, even if Pakistan were unperturbed – they apparently wanted tobat.Unfortunately for Thilan Samaraweera, the captain, the openers, AkalankaGanegama and Ishara Amarasinghe, failed to find their radar and allowedPakistan to recover from the loss of an early wicket: Faisal Naweed in thefifth over, who was trapped leg-before wicket with a delivery from Ganegamathat looked gun barrel straight.Imran Farhat, a stocky left-hander, then played stylishly with Toufiq Umer,another left-hander, and the pair added 58 for the second wicket beforeIshara Amarasinghe, a strong-shouldered young prospect with genuine pace,trapped Farhat leg-before wicket for 27 in his first spell after theluncheon interval.Hasan Raza, who has been an up and coming player for an age, failed tofollow his hundred in the first match when he was caught behind off SureshPerera, who grew in confidence throughout the day. The Pakistan innings wasback in the balance at 102 for three.Qaiser Abbas and Toufiq Umer, who had by now completed a fine fifty, added afurther 35 runs, before Michael Vandort, a palm tree of a man, stretchedsmoothly down at second slip to catch Abbas for 23.The turning point of the innings came in the 56th over of the innings.Pakistan were 160 for 4 and looking strong with Touqir Umer on 69. He wasbatting with Misbah-ul-Haq, similar in style to his namesake Inzamann, butalso in his destructive running between the wickets. Within the space ofeight balls Umer and the wicket-keeper batsmen Humayan Farhat were back inthe pavilion having been run out.Pakistan’s tail had been opened and the Sri Lankan fast bowlers sensed someeasier pickings. Misbah-ul-Haq did his best to make up for the run outsthough with an entertaining 34, full of placid defensive strokes, delicatelate cuts, and lumbering clumps through mid on. Inzamann would have beenproud to share his name.After Yasir Arafat and ul-Haq had added 15 for the eight wicket Pakistanlost three wickets for 25, before Irfan Fazil (26) warmed up for his bowlingwith some entertaining blows at the death and added 17 for the final wicket.Perera, who bore the brunt of Fazil’s aggression, ended the innings whenTillakaratne Dilshan took his third catch of the innings behind the stumps.

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming, speaking after India defeated his side to qualify for the final of the Coca-Cola Cup, paid tribute to Virender Shewag who took the game away from them with a sparkling 100 off just 69 deliveries, the seventh fastest hundred in One Day International history.”We scored the highest score of the tournament and were fired up to defend it, but just one guy took it off from us. Unfortunately it keeps happening to us. The other day Russel Arnold did it for Sri Lanka, today this guy did it.”Fleming went on: “It was not slogging, it was clean hitting. I tried various things at him, it just didn’t work out.”New Zealand put up a good performance in the morning scoring 264 runs thanks to fine 108 by Nathan Astle at the top of the order. Fleming was happy with the score his side put up.”It was a good target, no doubt about it. We had a few partnerships going for us in the middle and we added about 75 runs in the last nine overs and things went well for us. I feel the game was taken away from us more than we lost it,” reflected the New Zealand captain whose side beat the Indians on the two previous occasions in the tournament.Speaking about the positives that have emerged from this series aheadof a tough tour in Pakistan, Fleming said, “We had a very young squad. Guys like Darryl Tuffey and Kyle Mills, they’ve come a long way. I think Nathan Astle was brilliant in top of the order. We’ve been brilliant in fielding as well.”This also the last game of David Trist as New Zealand coach, Speaking about the outgoing coach Fleming said, “The two years he’s been in charge of New Zealand cricket has been a good one. It would have been a good thing to send him off with a winning note, but it’s not to be.”Indian captain Sourav Ganguly was delighted about his side’sperformance leading up to the final: “It’s absolutely wonderful. I amreally glad at what we’ve achieved. We lost three matches on the trotand bounced back to qualify for the final.”India lost the first three games but played good cricket to win theirlast three matches: “Today’s game was very much satisfying. Playing back to back matches in this heat and winning both is amazing.”India having put the opposition in conceded the highest runs recorded in the tournament so far. But they bounced back to get to that target with ease.”It was a good total, but once again it was a do or die situation for us and Shewag played one of the best innings I have ever seen,” said Ganguly. “I just told him to play his natural game. Not at any stage did I tell him to stop attacking. It was not slogging, it was clean hitting.”When India reached 100 runs before even the fielding restrictions ended in the 15th over, Shewag had gone past 80 while Ganguly was still on 20. Speaking about his sedate innings he said: “There’s nothing much you can do when a guy is firing all cylinders. I just gave the strike back to him and he kept hitting everything.”Shewag has been compared with Sachin Tendulkar for the way he plays. Speaking about this comparison, Ganguly said, “That man has got over 50 international hundreds. You just can’t compare anybody with him.”Looking ahead to the final, the Indian captain said, “It’s just a one off final. We’ve got a break of two days. We have to sharpen up a few things like our fielding.”Man of the match Shewag speaking about his knock, said, “Yes, this is the best innings of my career. I played my natural game. That’s what they told me to do when I went to the middle and I am happy about the way things went for us.”In this tournament, Shewag has played both as opener and in the middle order. Asked as to whether he likes the opening slot better than batting in the middle order, he said: “It depends on the team’s need and the situation. I would be happy to bat wherever I am asked to bat.”

Despite being ruled out of India’s two remaining Test matches against Sri Lanka, fast bowler Javagal Srinath is almost certain to be fit to tour South Africa in October.Srinath suffered a fracture in his left hand after being struck by a Dilhara Fernando delivery during the Galle Test match against Sri Lanka, but his orthopaedic surgeon Dr HPC Khincha said that the injury was not “serious” on Monday.”He may not be able to bat or field for three weeks,” Khincha told the Press Trust of India. “That he has bowled in a match after getting injured is a good sign. Srinath has a fracture of the left fifth metacarpal bone joining the little finger and the wrist.”Srinath did not bat again in the match but took five wickets in the first innings.Apart from Srinath, India are currently having to do without Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Ashish Nehra and Anil Kumble while captain Saurav Ganguly’s position has come increasingly under pressure.