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Western Province completely dominated the opening day of their SuperSport Series match against Boland at the picturesque PP Smit Stadium in Bellville, ending the day in a commanding position at 347 for 3.The bulk of the day’s play was taken up by a huge 2nd wicket partnership between the left-handed pair of Gary Kirsten and Ashwell Prince, both challenging for places in the Test team. Their stand was worth 253, a new Western Province record.WP won the toss and took first use of a slowish pitch. The batting was equally slow, before Lloyd Ferreira fell to a good catch by wicket-keeper Steve Palframan. The Bolander’s joy turned to despair as the two diminutive WP batsmen then took the game away from them. Prince batted attractively, while Kirsten was at his gritty best.Kirsten reached his 38th First Class hundred in just short of 5 hours, off 217 balls; and Prince recorded his 6th FC century in 4 hours off 184 balls.Fittingly, their centuries were recorded off successive deliveries. Kirsten’s innings of 5 and a quarter hours came to a tame end when he holed out to Vinod Kambli’s tame off spin, and Prince followed shortly afterwards hooking Jacques van Wyk’s first delivery with the new ball straight to fine leg, having equalled his highest FC score.Captain HD Ackerman and Zimbabwean Neil Johnson raised another fifty partnership before close of play. The Boland attack was workmanlike without ever really threatening the talented home batsmen. Andrew Cyster impressed with his fielding on what was a demoralising day for the bowlers. Their overstepping was another headache, conceding no fewer than 26 no-balls during the day.WP scored 4.82 batting points, and Boland a single bowling point.

Stephen Fleming has expressed his concern for New Zealand’s chances in the forthcoming NatWest Series, saying his bowlers lack the penetration to bowl teams out and restrict the runs.New Zealand crashed to a 3-0 loss in the recent Test series, and came unstuck in their first warm-up limited-overs match against Derbyshire. A host of injuries have not helped matters, and Fleming was not upbeat about the bowling situation: “You do need variation through the middle, and to take wickets through the middle, otherwise teams score 250-300 quite regularly.”He added, “Going into the tri-series, one of my concerns is the ability to take wickets, that’s the best way to hold a run rate. Our bowling’s still flat, it lacks penetration on flat wickets.”The New Zealander’s fielding against Derbyshire was suspect as well, with Fleming himself dropping Hassan Adnan before he went on to win the game for Derbyshire. “That gave them a platform, I dropped a catch and he got a hundred which doesn’t help. I hate it … you want to do well and get on the winning side.”He added: “They’re only little things, we’re so close to having a good tour, but that’s just enough to be getting hurt. We’ve got to be careful we don’t get too dejected, there were some good things and it was our first hitout one-day wise, but we still should knock over county sides.”New Zealand face Essex in a day-night game at Chelmsford today, and are boosted by the return of Chris Cairns, who was rested for the game at Derby. Daniel Vettori, meanwhile, has been bowling in the nets and is slowly recovering from his injured hamstring. He has targeted the next warm-up match, against Northamptonshire this Sunday.

Gary Kirsten has been appointed as Western Province captain for the forthcoming season, with Ashwell Prince named as his deputy. Arthur Turner, the chief executive of Western Province Cricket Association, announced that a youthful squad of 21 players had been contracted for the season, with some being offered two-year contracts.Kirsten’s half-brother Peter has been given a two-year contract as coach of the senior side, while Barney Mohamed has also been given a two-year contract, to coach the B side and academy teams.Turner admitted that Gary Kirsten would not always be available for all matches because of his international commitments, but on those occasions, Prince would set up to the role, with Thami Tsolekile acting as vice captain.

Indian batting star Sachin Tendulkar, who pulled out of the threematch Test series in Sri Lanka because of a toe injury, will notattend the Indian Cricket Board’s (BCCI) Technical Committee meetingto be held at Baroda on Saturday.BCCI Executive Secretary, Sharad Diwadkar, told PTI here today thatTendulkar decided not to attend the meeting as he wanted to rest hisinjured toe. Tendulkar was one of the invitees along with leg spinnerAnil Kumble and former Test stars Krishnamachari Srikkanth and ArunLal.The meeting, to be chaired by former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar,will discuss the Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy formats.

For India it was precisely the start they wanted; for Kenya there was little disgrace in defeat by eight wickets.Between them, the Kenyan Cricket Association and the ICC put up a good show in most respects. The Nairobi Gymkhana Ground looked a picture with a good and enthusiastic crown scattered around a collection of new stands. The pitch played well, the players entertained and the weather behaved itself.But for the sizeable media contingent who turned up for the opening match of the ICC KnockOut 2000, the facilities were far from ideal. Kenya hope to stage their games during the 2003 World Cup at home. If the present state of affairs persists, this dream cannot even be countenanced.Still, the rest of it was good value. Kenya didn’t really give themselves a chance by making only 208 for nine in their 50 overs, the major share of which came by way of an 81-run stand for the fourth wicket between Ravindu Shah and skipper Maurice Odumbe.Shah, compact and composed, looked a fine player during his 60 while Odumbe also bagged a half-century with 51 off 87 balls. But apart from Thomas Odoyo’s unbeaten 35, there was little support. Kenya desperately needed a substantial contribution from their best batsman, Steve Tikolo, but he made just 5. The three Indian seamers, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar and Venkatesh Prasad shared seven of the wickets with Anil Kumble taking two for 22 in his 10.India started cautiously, and Kenya had their best moment of the day when Sachin Tendulkar was adjudged leg before for 35 by Dave Orchard. But the home side had to bowl their most likely wicket-taker, Martin Suji, out – his 10 overs costing just 30 – and Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid seldom looked like getting themselves out.They added 88 for the second wicket before Ganguly rushed down the wicket to Odumbe only to be beaten by the turn and stumped, but Vinod Kambli, so often a wayward genius, came in and set about getting things over with quickly.Kamblie crashed seven boundaries in his 32-ball 39 and if Dravid was more leisurely in making his 68 not out, he was no less able to find the gaps as India picked up the pace.In the end the Indians got home with six-and-a-half overs to spare in what was a useful, if not unduly taxing, day at the office. Australia will no doubt provide a somewhat sterner test when the two teams meet in the first of the quarter-finals on Saturday.By then the ICC and the KCA might have found a way to make reporting on the match something less of a test for man and machine.

Harbhajan Singh faces a minimum ten-match ban from the Indian Premier League if an official hearing, in New Delhi on Monday afternoon, finds him guilty of having hit Sreesanth, his India team-mate.Harbhajan also faces separate action from the BCCI, which has asked him to explain, “as a contracted player”, his role in the incident after the IPL match between the offspinner’s Mumbai Indians and Sreesanth’s King XI Punjab on Friday. Niranjan Shah, the BCCI secretary, said on Monday that Sudhir Nanavati, a lawyer, has been appointed to conduct a “preliminary inquiry” and submit a report “within 15 days” to Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president, who will refer the findings to the board’s disciplinary committee for possible action.Sreesanth, meanwhile, faces either an official reprimand or a strong unofficial warning for his “provocative” actions leading up to the incident, which was captured on one of the host broadcaster’s on-field cameras.”I understand the BCCI is looking into the [Harbhajan] matter separately,” IS Bindra, a member of the IPL governing council, told Cricinfo. When asked about the possible penalty involved, Bindra, who is also president of the Punjab Cricket Association which hosted Friday’s match at Mohali, confirmed that Harbhajan faced a minimum ban of 10 IPL games.If the minimum ban is applied by Farokh Engineer, the match referee, it would still seriously affect Harbhajan’s chances of playing any further role in this edition of the IPL. Mumbai Indians, who lost their first four games, have 10 more to play in the home-and-away league format till the semi-finals.However, hectic efforts are on by some officials within the BCCI and IPL, run by the Indian board, to ensure that the “judicial principle of double jeopardy” is applied in this case, and Harbhajan is not “punished for the same offence twice”. This would mean that the offspinner could be punished by the IPL, which is officially a domestic event, but may not face any separate sanctions from the BCCI on playing for India.”Any action from the BCCI’s side could result in a further ban from playing in a specified number of Tests and ODIs. But that would run contrary to the basic judicial principle of double jeopardy. Normally, any person shouldn’t be punished for the same offence twice,” a senior official told Cricinfo.But another section within the Indian establishment, which has had its eye on Harbhajan ever since allegations of indiscipline were reported against him by the team management during the Greg Chappell era, is keen to see that “strong action” is taken to send out a “serious message” in the “larger interests of the game”.Officials from this hardline group were also not entirely convinced of Harbhajan’s version of events during the subsequent race row last year involving Andrew Symonds in Australia. “Once Sachin Tendulkar backed Harbhajan’s version of the race crisis in Australia, the BCCI had no option but to support him all the way,” said another BCCI official, who said he was strongly pushing for a strict penalty.However, officials on both sides of the Harbhajan debate agree it is time Sreesanth, the temperamental fast bowler who has crossed the line of accepted on-field behaviour often in his two-year career, is pulled up as well, either in the form of an official reprimand or a private warning. “The fresh video evidence might prove Harbhajan is guilty, but nobody should ignore Sreesanth’s history of on-field problems and provocative actions leading up to the incident,” an IPL official, who was present in Mohali, said on Friday.Interestingly, Harbhajan and Sreesanth told reporters on Saturday they had “sorted out the issue” and were now like “brothers of one family”. But Engineer, the adjudicator on Monday, said: “We are not going to sweep things under the carpet.”

Scorecard

Karen Rolton led from the front with an unbeaten 81, but Australia had to repel a fine New Zealand recovery to snatch the Rose Bowl with a two-run victory in Darwin. Australia’s defence of 198 was going well when the visitors were dropped to 6 for 81 by Sarah Andrews and Emma Samson before Nicola Browne intervened.With help from Rachel Priest (33), Brown edged towards the target and by the time she departed for 61 off 76 deliveries they needed 28 from 4.1 overs with two wickets remaining. Helen Watson chipped in with 16 from 19, Sophie Devine scampered to 11 and the No. 11 Sarah Burke reached six, but only a single to midwicket was managed from the last ball when three were needed.Andrews, who delivered the final over, finished with 2 for 34 from ten while the debutant Rene Farrell impressed with 3 for 36 at a tense situation. Australia’s total was set up by the experienced Rolton, who stayed for 115 balls and hit eight fours and a six. She received support from Melissa Bulow’s 41 while Sarah Tsukigawa provided some middle-order damage with 4 for 43.”It’s great to win the series, especially since we’ve had new players come in and with the injuries we’ve had here,” Rolton said. “It’s been good to play against a great team and have these close matches to increase the experience of the players.” The 3-1 result means Sunday’s final fixture will be a dead rubber.Rolton’s knock also made her the second-most prolific batsman in the history of women’s cricket. Rolton, who won the Women’s Player of the Year award at the ICC Awards in Mumbai last November, eclipsed New Zealander Debbie Hockley’s ODI aggregate of 4,064 runs while scoring her unbeaten 81.

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

The most significant obstacle to Pakistan’s continued domination of the final Test was the weather, with just 60 overs possible on the second day at The Oval, but the elements were about all that was going to stop Mohammad Yousuf’s remorseless accumulation. His third century of a record-breaking series built on the Pakistan bowler’s impressive showing and, coupled with attractive 90s from Imran Farhat and Mohammad Hafeez, set up a position from which there should be only one winner.While Pakistan’s cricket throughout the series has given plenty of material for those who talk about their mercurial nature, Yousuf has consistently gorged himself on the England attack. His latest century seemed almost inevitable and was as elegant and confident as the 202 at Lord’s and 192 at Headingley. And, unless the rest of the side suffer a collective implosion that would do even Pakistan proud – or the weather closes in for three days – this one will be in victory.Yousuf reached his century off 174 balls when he took Paul Collingwood for three fours in an over, having already set a new record for a Pakistan batsman in a series against England. It confirmed his standing as the in-form player of world cricket and the only semblance of a problem he encountered was against Monty Panesar, but even that wasn’t as pronounced as earlier matches.However, Yousuf’s credentials were known before this series, although he has clearly performed at the top of his game, so the aspect that will have pleased Bob Woolmer about Pakistan’s batting is the identity of the two men who provided supporting roles. Usually it has been a combination of Yousuf with either Inzamam-ul-Haq or Younis Khan, but here it was two different faces.Imran Farhat started Pakistan’s day in fine style, peppering the cover boundary with a series of rasping drives as the England bowlers again strayed too wide. The swing of the first day wasn’t evident and Farhat had the confidence to hit through the line. His aggressive intent was confirmed when he charged down the track to Panesar’s first ball and launched him many rows back over long on.He was within nine of his third Test century when he pushed out at Matthew Hoggard and Marcus Trescothick held on a first slip – but how England would have been wishing his hands had been as safe when Yousuf edged one the previous evening.Hafeez, who had been forced to retire hurt early in the innings with a knee tendon problem, resumed his innings and, although he couldn’t sprint between the wickets, was quickly into his stride with three fours in a row off Hoggard. Whenever England were threatening to create some pressure – and those moments were few and far between – the bowlers would lose their line and Pakistan cashed in.

Hafeez reached his second Test fifty in grand style, lofting Panesar effortlessly over mid off for six, and was equally impressive against the pacemen. He was called up to the Pakistan squad primarily as a one-day specialist, but has been far more impressive in the Test arena than either Salman Butt or Taufeeq Umar.The main alarms Yousuf and Hafeez had in bringing up their century stand was with the running and they kept flirting with danger, although England’s throws from the infield were as wayward as their bowling. Harmison bowled shorter and wider the more overs he sent down – cumulating in an embarrassing delivery with the second new ball that speared down the leg-side for five wides. For once, Panesar didn’t offer Andrew Strauss the control he wanted and that must be credited to the aggressive intent of the batsmen. He did, though, have a couple of close shouts for lbw denied.The third-wicket stand had reached 177 – after Hafeez survived a chance to Panesar at long-leg on 79 – and Strauss and gone through all his options to try and speed towards the second new ball. However, it was Hoggard – the man to suffer all England’s dropped chances – who made the breakthrough as he loosened up with the older ball. Hafeez chipped a catch to midwicket five short of a ton that would have completed a fine return to the Test side.That was almost the final action of the day as poor light drove the players off the field for the second time, but such has been Yousuf’s form that he could have scored runs in the dark. England have been handed brief respite, but will need plenty more help from the weather to save this match, against a Pakistan side that has dazzled for two days.

How they were out

Click here to read Cricinfo’s description of each wicket

Kenneth Gordon, the former media manager from Trinidad and Tobago, has been elected, as expected, as the president of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) at the sixth annual meeting held in St Maarten on Sunday. Gordon, who was the sole nominee for the post, replaces Teddy Griffith who had indicated last June that he would not accept nomination. Valentine Banks was elected the vice-president after defeating Clive Lloyd, the former West Indies captain.Gordon, 75, was in a one-horse race as two of his opponents, the former WICB president Pat Rousseau of Jamaica and the former WICB director Tony Marshall of Barbados, withdrew their nominations last month. He will now be at the helm of the regional association for at least the next two years and will oversee the West Indies’ staging of the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup, the first time the event will be hosted in this region.Gordon has had a long, distinguished career and a rather hefty resume: he has served as the chairman of Neal and Massy Holdings, a major Caribbean conglomerate, and was managing director of the and chief executive officer and chairman of Caribbean Communications Network (CCN). He was also instrumental in the establishment of a number of regional media houses in Guyana, Jamaica and Barbados. Apart from that, Gordon was also as a senator in parliament and a government minister in Trinidad and Tobago.Banks, 55, is presently serving as vice-president of the WICB. A banker by profession, Banks, who is from Anguilla, was previously the president of the Leeward Islands Cricket Association.

Shane Warne is confident of playing some part in the two-Test series against Sri Lanka, after earlier fears that a broken left hand would force him out of the entire Top End tour. The Australian reported that Warne was positive about his recovery, and felt that his chances of playing were better than 50-50 because he was “a very good healer”.”I would say my chances of playing in the first Test are now more than 50-50,” said Warne. “When the match begins, it would have been 20 days since I broke it so I am optimistic. The second Test in Cairns is a week or two after that, so I have to be very confident of playing in that. All I can do to aid the healing process is not bang it again, but I am happy with the way it’s going. If it continues to heal as quickly as it has done, I should be okay for Darwin. Normally I am a very good healer. I have never broken a finger before but I got over my shoulder and my knee injuries, so there is no reason why I can’t get over this.”Warne damaged his hand in a first-class game for Hampshire against Essex, and when x-rays confirmed a broken bone, it appeared that the showdown between him and Muttiah Muralitharan would not take place. But in a matter of a few days, there have been twists in that tale, with Warne likely to play at least one Test, and Murali opting out of the tour. If Warne does play, both Courtney Walsh’s tally of 519 wickets, and Murali’s record-breaking figure – 527 – will come under threat. But with his participation still in doubt, Warne wasn’t looking that far ahead.”I don’t want to say anything about Murali and if I get past Walsh, so be it,” he said. “My only aim is to get fit. I’m not worried about records. My job as a bowler is to take as many wickets as I can for Australia, whoever the opposition is.”