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Australia 432 and 135 for 1 (Langer 72*) beat New Zealand 433 and 131 (McCullum 24, Warne 5-39, Gillespie 3-38) by 9 wickets
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4th dayBulletin – Australia surge to convincing win
Verdict – The relentless Baggygreen bowling machine
Big Picture 1 – Warne the Ripper
Big Picture 2 – Resurgent Gillespie
News – Oram and Styris out of series
3rd dayBulletin – Honours even after Gilchrist and Vettori heroics
Verdict – The importance of being Gilchrist
Big Picture 1 – The Gilchrist show
Big Picture 2 – Gilchrist and Katich shake it up
Big Picture 3 – Vettori strikes
Big Picture 4 – Warne turns predator
2nd dayBulletin – Kiwis storming despite six McGrath blows
Verdict – A McGrath special at the Jade Stadium
Big Picture 1 – The centre of Australia
Big Picture 2 – Through the legs
Big Picture 3 – King of the castle
1st dayBulletin – Marshall’s ton puts New Zealand in control
Big Picture – Nathan Astle congratulates Hamish Marshall
Preview packagePreview – When good neighbours become foes
Team news – Kasprowicz edges out Lee for opening battle

Twelve months after the death of Bob Woolmer, former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq has admitted that he will never forget the inspirational coach.”Pakistan cricket will always be indebted to Bob Woolmer for his contribution to the game,” Inzamam told AFP. “I want to forget the tragedies of the World Cup, but I can never forget Bob. He was not only an excellent coach, but also a very good human being.”Woolmer, who had also coached South Africa, was found dead in his hotel room in Jamaica on March 18, 2007, just a day after Pakistan had been sensationally knocked out of the World Cup following a shock defeat to Ireland. The tragedy was initially treated as murder but after the biggest manhunt in Jamaican history and following months of wild speculation, an inquest jury in October eventually returned an open verdict on Woolmer’s death.Inzamam was so shattered by the events that he quit one-day cricket in tears immediately after Pakistan’s last game in the World Cup.”He [Woolmer] was helpful to all and very accommodating. He always thought about the team and saw to it that we kept improving,” said Inzamam, who also quit Test cricket in October last year. “After the defeat to Ireland we were all depressed but Bob was trying to console everyone and was trying to convince us that it was just a bad day and things would improve for the team.”He asked me what were my plans. I told him that my mind was not working and we would talk the following day, but that opportunity never came and we got the shocking news of his death.”Mushtaq Ahmed, the former legspinner, said Woolmer was an inspiration for all those he coached. “Bob was successful at county level where he coached Warwickshire, then lifted South Africa and was hoping to build Pakistan into a great team before he met a cruel fate.”The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has dedicated their indoor cricket school to Woolmer, which was inaugurated by both the Pakistan and South African teams. “Bob will be remembered in Pakistan cricket and hopefully his legacy will continue,” said PCB chairman Nasim Ashraf. “His memory is still fresh because his contribution to Pakistan cricket was immense.”Both Inzamam and Mushtaq said they were willing to help at Woolmer’s academy in South Africa.”I feel for his family because they are the real sufferers. Whenever they need me to coach at Bob’s academy, I will be more than willing to go,” said Inzamam. “Perhaps through this we can pay back for what he did for Pakistan.”

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A consistent batting performance, led by Graeme Hick, put Worcestershire in a promising position, although they were made to work by the Derbyshire attack who fought back well during the latter part of the day. A second wicket stand of 120 between Hick and Stephen Peters enable the visitors to reach 150 for 1 before three wickets fell for 25 runs during the afternoon session. That included Vikram Solanki, the new captain, who was bowled for a duck by Graeme Welch. But an aggressive 47 from Gareth Batty and obdurate 48 from Ben Smith meant the good start was not completely squandered. Welch was the pick of the attack, working his way through 22 overs for his 2 for 51. The oddest dismissal of the day was that of Stephen Moore who held his defensive pose during a shout for leg-before,, oblivious to Jon Moss who sneaked in behind him and ran him out.
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Will Jefferson put the Yorkshire attack to the sword to make them regret their decision to field first. Jefferson, who was unlucky not to get an Academy place over the winter after averaging 52 in 2004, hit 24 fours in his 219-ball innings, until succumbing to the part time medium-pace of Michael Lumb three balls before bad light stopped play. It was his third Championship hundred in a row, after finishing last season with two consecutive tons and marked him out as another young Essex batsman of great potential. He had two early let-offs – he should have been easily run out on 0 but Richard Dawson missed the stumps from ten feet with Jefferson stranded, and then he was dropped by Chris Silverwood when on 6. Grant Flower was much more restrained, but played a valuable supporting role with a battling 55 off 203 balls. Alastair Cook, after his superb performance for MCC, fell for just 11 this time when he was caught behind off Ian Harvey.
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After Muttiah Muralitharan failed a fitness test on his shoulder, Lancashire’s batsmen wasted a series of solid starts as Somerset showed it will be a hard fight to get of the second division and justified Marcus Trescothick’s decision to bowl first on a slow pitch which did a bit. The top five all played themselves in but could not convert into a really sizable score. Mal Loye struck nine fours in his 53 and Stuart Law reached 38 until he was undone by Andy Caddick. Loye’s dismissal triggered a slide in which four wickets fell 15 overs before Mark Chilton, the new captain, took the total past 200 before falling to Ian Blackwell late in the day but Dominic Cork played a useful innings to boost the Lancashire total.
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Mike Hussey showed that a change of county has done nothing to quell his thirst for runs. He put Durham into a strong position by hitting a century on his county debut – and the first Championship ton of the season – sharing stands of 93 with Jon Lewis and 166 with former England U-19 batsman Gordon Muchall. Paul Collingwood missed the chance to impress the England selectors when he was caught off Ottis Gibson. Leicestershire’s bowlers struggled to make an impression – their new-ball pair of Gibson (36) and Phil DeFreitas (39) are hardly an advertisement for youth cricket – although Gibson worked hard through 30 overs and Claude Henderson did his best to keep a lid on the scoring rate with his left-arm spin.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has downplayed reports of a rift that has emerged between the national selection committee and the team’s management over a number of issues, mostly revolving around the make-up of the team.The schism first emerged on Pakistan’s tour to India, with what appeared initially to be a miscommunication over the identity of a replacement player. The selectors, in apparent agreement with the coach and captain, had initially agreed on calling up Abdur Rauf as replacement for the injured Umar Gul.Having announced it officially during the second Test at Kolkata, the board changed tack later that evening and decided to send Rao Iftikhar Anjum instead. It is now understood that Shoaib Malik, the captain, and coach Geoff Lawson had wanted Iftikhar Anjum all along and convinced the board directly later, thus bypassing the selection committee.Since then, Cricinfo has learnt, there have been continuing disagreements over the playing XI in the current series against Zimbabwe. The selection committee has been keen to use the opportunity to blood new players in various positions. In particular, they were adamant that Nasir Jamshed should make his debut as opener; the team management, as well as Malik were instead eager to use Kamran Akmal as opener and play an extra bowler in place of Shahid Afridi.Before the series began, a heated debate is said to have taken place between Salahuddin Ahmed, chairman of selectors, and Geoff Lawson, the coach, over the matter. But as a result of a recent policy shift, it is now the selection committee that decides on the final playing XI during a home series.Jamshed has thus played and made an immediate impact in his first twoODIs. But Pakistan have also appeared a bowler short in both games, struggling to bowl out Zimbabwe with only three specialist bowlers and five realistic bowling options in total.Nasim Ashraf, chairman PCB, didn’t deny the reports, but sought to play them down instead, claiming them to be nothing more than everyday professional tussles. “Everyone is operating within their sphere of responsibility,” he told reporters in Hyderabad.”Both the selection committee and team management have separately told me in the last few days that they have a good relationship. If they don’t disagree on matters during meetings, what is the point of having these meetings at all? This is healthy debate and not signs of a rift.”Sources close to the matter maintain, however, that the issue is swiftly developing into more than just professional differences in opinion. One source adds that there has been another run-in with Malik following Pakistan’s win in the first ODI at Karachi. The last selection committee, headed by Wasim Bari, was widely thought to be little more than a rubber-stamp for Inzamam-ul-Haq’s choices while he was captain, particularly towards the end of its tenure. The current committee, the first in Pakistan’s history to employ full-time, paid selectors, is understandably keen to avoid a similar situation with Malik and eager to assert its authority.Ashraf also played down the contents of a report by manager Talat Ali following the tour to India, in which, according to a couple of local newspapers, the contributions of Younis Khan, Gul and Shoaib Akhtar have come under fire. The report is due to be discussed at a meeting of the board’s governing committee in Karachi on January 25.”We expect everybody to give an honest opinion in a respectful way,” said Ashraf. “We expect the manager and the coach to do this in their reports. The governing board is looking at the issue and the report will be discussed professionally. The idea of these reports is not to apportion blame but to learn from mistakes on future tours.”

ScorecardVineet Jain and Timir Chanda grabbed two wickets apiece to bowl out Himachal Pradesh for 156 to register a historic first win for Tripura in the Plate encounter at Agartala. This win ends a drought of 21 years; Tripura played their first Ranji game in the 1985-86 season. Jain removed Rajeev Nayyar, the overnight batsman, in the third over of the day before Chanda got rid of the next two batsmen. Appropriately, the final historic blow involved the two Tripura heroes of the game. Jain, who finished with a seven-wicket haul, combined with Rajib Dutta, who had earlier made a valiant 71 to set up a big target, to remove Rajinder Thakur and usher in their first victory.

England XI 220 for 3 (Solanki 82, Bell 51) beat Namibia 219 for 8 (Snyman 75, Karg 39, Anderson 3-36) by 7 wickets
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A spirited 82 from Vikram Solanki carried the England XI to a seven-wicket victory against Namibia at Windhoek in their last warm-up match before the one-day series against Zimbabwe starts on Friday (Nov 26). Namibia had recovered from an early wobble to post 219, but an England win was never in doubt after Solanki and Ian Bell put on 110 for the first wicket, before Geraint Jones and Kevin Pietersen steered them home with more than six overs to spare.Deon Kotze eventually broke the opening partnership as Bell, having just brought up his fifty, was caught by Morne Karg, but this proved a rare moment of cheer for him in a nine-over spell which cost 59. Sarel Burger claimed the only other wickets to fall for England, as Solanki was stumped and then Matt Prior (17) offered a catch to Namibia’s batting star, Gerrie Snyman (157 for 3).Snyman had earlier carved 75 to lift Namibia to the realms of respectability as he and Louis Burger shared a stand of 70 after Karg had stabilised the innings with a quickfire 39. But they had got off to a terrible start as James Anderson struck twice to reduce them to 6 for 2. Wickets tumbled steadily, and Namibia found themselves in trouble at 45 for 4 before a spirited fightback, but one which proved too little, too late as England eased past their total relatively untroubled.

England kick off their tour of India tomorrow with a three-day warm-up game at Mumbai and Andrew Flintoff says he’s now better equipped to play spin than he was on his last tour here in 2001-02.Flintoff aggregated just 26 runs in five Test innings on his previous tour and was dismissed by a spinner each time. “When I came in 2002, I had just got back into the England side. My bowling improved no end but the batting didn’t quite go according to plan. I think now I’ve got a better knowledge of my game,” he told reporters at the team hotel in Mumbai.”I’ve got a basic technique and method of playing now which I trust, slightly more patient and my shot selection is a lot better than it used to be. It’s by no means perfect but I feel I approach an innings or even practice a lot better. Yes, I’ll be keen to score a few more runs than I did last time. Twenty six won’t be too hard to beat.”Though he failed with the bat, as a bowler Flintoff matured in India. Prior to the 2002 tour, Flintoff averaged 66.42 per wicket and though he took just six wickets in three Tests in India, he conceded just 2.05 runs an over and since then, he averages 30.42. “Before I used to just run in and bowl quite negatively, just trying to bowl maidens and keep the runs down. Although I did that a little bit out here, I think in Bangalore I came in and bowled and took wickets and from there I think I kicked on as a bowler.”Citing how England had a varied and complete pace attack, Flintoff downplayed the absence of a proven spinner in their squad. “There’s the swing of Hoggard, the pace, bounce and movement of Harmison. We’ve got Simon Jones who is able to swing the new ball and reverse the old one and then what I do. So I think on the seam front we’ve got most bases covered. And on the spin front, you know we’ll have to wait and see, we have got two left-arm spinners and an offspinner. We’ve got every confidence in them as a side. And so we’ll just have to see what happens over the next few weeks.”

England last toured India in December when it is relatively cooler across the country but this tour coincides with the onset of the summer. “Coming from England where it is minus 2 to 38-40 degrees, it’s a bit of a shock,” said Flintoff. “But if you look at the side, I think most of us have played in conditions like this before. We’ve played in Sri Lanka, where in places like Galle and Colombo it’s 40-45 degrees so after the initial shock you kind of get used to it. We have been training now for five to six weeks, getting ready for the tough conditions ahead of us. So it might be uncomfortable but I don’t see it as a major problem.”England lost Andrew Strauss for the third Test in Pakistan in December 2005 because his wife was giving birth and they could face a similar situation with Flintoff in India. “My wife is four weeks away from giving birth again. It’s something I intend to be home for. But as I said before, with Holly, she was a month early so there is no plan at this stage. It could happen anytime. If it is halfway through the first Test match there is not a great deal I can do. I am not making any major plans at this stage. I’m going to see what happens.”England take on the CCI President’s XI tomorrow and will return to Mumbai for the final Test against India. The city will remember Flintoff for his shirt-waving celebration after his three-wicket burst in the final ODI helped England level the series. “It’s an amazing place to play. It was a one-day game, the last of six. I think I had a ten-second moment of madness. Coming back out here is great. Playing in front of 70000 people in a ODI was a great thrill. It’s a great place to be. It’s a great place to play cricket.”

Pakistan are planning to conduct dope tests on all 30 members of their provisional World Cup squad.The news is not unexpected, after the recent furore surrounding their two fast bowlers, Mohammad Asif and Shoaib Akhtar, who were originally banned from cricket after testing positive for nandrolone, but had their sentences overturned on appeal.According to The Dawn newspaper, the Pakistan Cricket Board has instructed its medical panel to obtain relevant kits from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accredited laboratory in Malaysia.A PCB official said: “Instructions have been issued to the medical panel doctors to prepare for the tests which will be carried out before the World Cup because we don’t want to take any chances before such a major tournament.”Pakistan must submit their final 15-man squad on February 13, but it would only be possible for the tests to be carried out after the team finishes its current tour of South Africa.”But we will get the results before the team leaves for the (World Cup) tournament,” the official continued.”We want to take precautionary measures ourselves and also reaffirm our commitment to a zero-tolerance policy towards any kind of drugs in sports.”The paper also speculates that the PCB might send officials to South Africa to conduct Tests on Akhtar and Asif, due to concerns that nandrolone might remain in their bodies by the time the World Cup is played and they could be targeted for random tests in the tournament by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and WADA agents.

Pakistan’s proposal to appoint neutral umpires and discuss the itinerary for the series against India early next year could not be discussed at the recent Asian Cricket Council (ACC) meeting in Kuala Lumpur because no representative from the Indian board was present.Saleem Altaf, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) director, who attended the meeting, told reporters that no official from the Indian board was present at the meeting. India are scheduled to tour Pakistan from January next year, although the itinerary is yet to be finalised. This, as well as a decision on neutral umpires for the ODI series, will now be taken after discussions on the phone between representatives of the two boards.Pakistan will be using two neutral umpires during the ODI series against England after they sought and received approval from the English board. Altaf also told reporters that an itinerary for the Asia Cup, to be held in Pakistan immediately after the series against India, will be finalised soon.

Rahul Dravid, the Indian captain, has refused to be drawn in to speculating about the World Cup pitches, most of which have been relaid for the tournament beginning on March 13, and has said that his team was “fully equipped” to deal with any conditions.India, he asserted, were motivated more towards winning their matches. “I don’t want to go there [to the Caribbean] with any pre-conceived ideas that wickets will be slow or fast. I believe that we’ve got the team that can do well in all conditions if we play to our potential,” he told reporters.Dravid said that the Indian team had the talent to take on the big challenge ahead: “Our chances in the World Cup are good. Hope we play to our potential. We have the talent and it’s only a question of our performance now. [The] World Cup is a unique event. If you get on a bit of a roll there you can crack whatever the opposition you are facing like we did the last time. It’s a question of performance in the two months that matters”.Questioned about a certain lackadaisical attitude in the side, Dravid replied: “Honesty is the best way to get the message across to a non-performer. I think we’ve to be honest to people. Not that we’re trying to find a solution for them. We always believe that we try to make every one a better player”.