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	Nasir Jamshed’s 182 put Patron’s XI way ahead © Getty Images

Nasir Jamshed scored an entertaining 182 to help Patron’s XI gain a 152-run lead at the close of day two against the Zimbabweans in Karachi.Jamshed’s 240-ball knock rounded off a disappointing day for the tourists, who failed to impress with the ball and dropped crucial chances. Hitting 16 fours and seven sixes – most of which landed in the region between midwicket and long on – Jamshed shred a poor Zimbabweanattack to pieces. He made his intentions clear right from the start as Elton Chigumbura was guided to third man for a boundary in the first over followed by a straight-driven four off Christopher Mpofu in the following over.While Khalid Latif and Afaq Raheem – who shared a 204-run partnership with Jamshed – adopted a sedate approach, Jamshed mixed aggression with defence. After five consecutive maidens were bowled in the first hour, he smashed Chigumbura down the ground followed by a pull to midwicket boundary. Jamshed was particularly severe on Ray Price, the left-arm spinner, who he lofted him over midwicket for a four before smashing two consecutive sixes in his following over, with the latter taking him to 97.Jamshed brought up his century off 128 balls with a guided four to third man, before slowing down – no boundaries were scored for eight overs. He changed gear by dispatching Price over long on for his fourth six. Jamshed keenly took the singles with Raheem, who was solid in defence – occasionally pulling seamer Timycen Maruma’s short deliveries past midwicket – to keep the scorecard moving and bring up the century partnership in 35 overs.The attack was sustained, with slogs being employed on occasion. Jamshed smashed his fifth six to bring up the 150 partnership before Raheem joined in the action by ferociously cutting Mpofu past point. But the Zimbabweans got some respite after two more sixes went over the long-on fielder’s head. Jamshed, perhaps too eager to get to his double century, tried turning Chigumbura down the leg side and the resulting leading edge was taken at mid-on by Gary Brent.Naumanullah – voted the best batsman of the recently-concluded Quaid-e-Azam Trophy – and Fawad Alam put on 68 for the fourth wicket, to keep the scoreboard ticking. Patron’s XI will look for attacking strokeplay from both batsmen in the third day’s morning session, and with Shahid Afridi, their captain, yet to bat, the Zimbabweans may be in for further punishment. However, with the pitch expected to deteriorate and take turn, Price might have a say in proceedings.

Sibanda was outstanding – Utseya © AFP

Zimbabwe’s captain Prosper Utseya was impressed by the way his young side leveled their series against Bangladesh with an eight-wicket win at Harare Sports Club.Utseya believes his side are now in an excellent position to overcome their main rivals in the remaining matches after breaking their losing run of 14 games.He made special mention of the two match-winners Vusi Sibanda, who hit an unbeaten 93, and seamer Gary Brent who took four wickets. “That was a very big morale booster for the side and we must keep our guns blazing for the remaining games, we cannot afford to relax,” said Utseya. “Sibanda was outstanding today, as was Brent. But it was essentially an all-round team effort.”Vusi played well up-front, and that is something that has been lacking in our side in the past few games, and it is good that we have our confidence back.”We lost the first game but we came back strongly, showed character and did our homework to correct our mistakes of the past. The trick to winning was that we just stuck to the basics.”Habibul Bashar rued his side’s batting collapse to 153, which left the bowlers with too much to do. “We did not play well enough today and that is why we lost the game. We lost too many wickets in the early stages of the match, we tried all we could but in the end a score of 153 was never going to be enough on that kind of a wicket.”Zimbabwe did well in their bowling today and it is now up to us to do our best in the next game to get a win. We needed to take wickets and get more runs on the board, which today we failed to do.”

Ashley Giles: still struggling after hip operation © Getty Images

The England & Wales Cricket Board today bowed to the inevitable and ruled Ashley Giles out of next week’s tour of India. Giles, 32, was forced to head home early from England’s pre-Christmas tour to Pakistan to undergo treatment on a long-standing hip injury, but has failed to recuperate in time. His place will now go to the Somerset allrounder, Ian Blackwell.The news is a big blow to England’s hopes of pulling off a series win in India, a country where they have not won a Test series since 1984-85. But David Graveney, England’s chairman of selectors, remains optimistic that Giles, who took five wickets at Ahmedabad on England’s last tour in 2001-02, could yet join the squad at a later date.”We are disappointed to lose a player of Ashley’s calibre but we wish him well with his recovery and remain hopeful that he will be able to play some part in the tour,” said Graveney. “Ian Blackwell is a talented player who performed well in the one-day series in Pakistan and this is a terrific opportunity for him to show that he can fulfil his potential against top-class opposition.”Blackwell, whose naggingly accurate spin bowling reaped its rewards with three key wickets in the final one-day international at Rawalpindi before Christmas, is a hard-hitting lower-middle-order batsman as well, and as such is more of a like-for-like replacement than the Northamptonshire spinner, Monty Panesar, who was drafted into the squad at the end of last month. Should the conditions favour two spinners, it is highly likely that he could make his Test debut at Nagpur in three weeks’ time, as a sidekick for Shaun Udal.Explaining the decision to replace Giles, the ECB’s chief medical officer, Dr Peter Gregory, said: “Ashley has been working extremely hard on his recovery programme and is making steady progress but he has not yet reached the stage where he is able to resume bowling again. The advice we received from Ashley’s specialist is that it will take time to derive full benefit from the surgery he underwent in December and the medical team is working closely with Ashley to achieve this end.”The operation Ashley required was more extensive than we originally anticipated which is why we are taking his rehabilitation steadily. At this stage, we cannot put a time frame on when Ashley might be able to join the England team. He will continue with his rehabilitation in the UK under the supervision of the Warwickshire medical team and a further assessment of his injury will be made in due course.”Blackwell had been preparing for a trip to the Caribbean with the England A squad, but Graveney added that no replacement would be called upon for that trip.

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
Scorecard
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

PointsTable
Scorecard
After their match was washed out in East London earlier in the week, Natal managed only nine overs at the crease when rain chased the players off the field, leaving the frustrated Natal and Boland teams watching from the pavilion.
Scorecard
Free State got their innings off to a flyer with the opening pair of Morne van Wyk and Jonathan Beukes putting on 99 for the first wicket. Boeta Dippenaar then showed that he has not lost any of his form with 76 off 65 balls. However, the run out of Ryan McLaren by Ashwell Prince started a collapse leaving Free State on 232 for 8 at the end of the 45 overs.The Western Province top order proved to be far too strong with Graeme Smith undefeated on 114 and ably assisted by Neil Johnson, who scored 42. Only Gary Kirsten failed, caught behind off the first ball he faced. Cliff Deacon, the Free State left-arm fast bowler, was the most successful, picking up all the wickets for a career-best 4 for 39.
Scorecard
Two 50-run partnerships between the hard-hitting Dumisa Makalima and Robin Peterson, and then Arno Jacobs and Wade Wingfield, set the tone for Eastern Province’s 250 for 7. Jacobs, in particular, showed scant respect for his old team-mates, scoring 62 off just 44 balls.North West, thanks to 55 from Grant Rowley, made steady progress, but were always behind the run rate and eventually fell short by 39 runs. James Louw, nominated as Man of the Match, finished with 3 for 31.

Hard work developing his bowling action worked for Durham county all-rounder Paul Collingwood last night when he skittled Lou Vincent, Chris Cairns, Chris Harris and Andre Adams to help England to a deserved 43-run win over New Zealand at Napier.The win kept the National Bank One-Day International Series alive and was a reminder to the New Zealanders that, despite all the work they have put into advancing their game this year, they can still be undone by neglect of the basics of the game, especially partnership building.Collingwood had a previous best of one for 31 in his 16 ODIs and he had only three wickets at a cost of 101 runs apiece before last night’s effort.He finished with four for 38, the result of his finding the McLean Park environment and the settling dew suitable for his swing bowling.England were defending a score of 244/5, another score in the 240s that has dominated much of New Zealand’s one-day summer.But there were no heroics to get the CLEAR Black Caps out of this muddle.England built their total around the batting of Nick Knight. His 80 was a classic foundation-type innings which could only be faulted for the fact that he got out in the 43rd over when the chance was there to bat all the way through and make an even bigger total. He did take a blow to the face when pinned by a ball from fast bowler Ian Butler to sustain a cut that needed three stitches.As it was, part of the slack was taken up by Graham Thorpe who plundered with some success and brought up a half century off 48 balls. He produced some hard hit shots in the latter part of his innings and was only out to a fine leaping catch on the boundary’s edge by Nathan Astle.England had built their innings cautiously after getting to 71/1 in 13 overs, the same score as at the 15-over mark due to two maidens bowled when the players returned from the first of two rain breaks.But tight bowling, especially from fast-medium merchant Daryl Tuffey, whose 10 overs cost only 39 runs, and Harris, who took one for 29, kept the lid on any scoring outbreaks from the tourists.They kept their wickets too, although Marcus Trescothick departed for 41, off 50 balls, when hitting a ball from Cairns straight to Harris, while Nasser Hussain, the England captain, got it all wrong when trying to sweep Harris and was bowled around his legs for 24.New Zealand’s chase was not helped by quite possibly the umpiring blunder of the series to date when Brent Bowden gave Astle out for a catch that even had Hussain smirking at the after-match press conference and mentioning that Astle might do his pants up tighter next time. Television replays showed that Astle’s bat was nowhere near the ball.Chris Nevin scored 21 off 19 but New Zealand were 31/2 in the sixth and while Craig McMillan attempted to help Stephen Fleming recover the situation he set the trend for the big hitters in the New Zealand innings when his first real effort to get onto a ball went straight to hand rather than to free country.Similar fates befell Cairns and Adams who both departed to catches deep in the outfield.Lou Vincent did help Fleming add 58 for the fourth wicket before he was Collingwood’s first victim, caught by Craig White in the gully when he had scored 29.The run rate requirement was mounting against the New Zealanders at this time and the pressure was on the batsmen coming in.Fleming stood firm in an innings of 76 not out scored off 112 balls. There were some moments of outstanding strokeplay but there were other moments when he struggled.The score was his second highest of the summer and his best since he scored 85 against South Africa in Hobart in the VB Series.But Fleming needed much more scoring assistance than was forthcoming from his side and it would not surprise if New Zealand decided to bolster their batting in Auckland by bringing Brendon McCullum back into the side.Whatever happens, Napier will be remembered as a happy hunting ground for England on this leg of their tour and perhaps the first step towards achieving a victory in the series.Fleming has said New Zealand know what they have to do, and Hussain has said he expects New Zealand to come charging back at them.Fighting talk from both camps, and that could yet be the requirement that produces the thriller this series could do with.

New Zealand Academy had the better of the exchanges on the opening dayof their Buchi Babu pre-quarterfinal against Tamil Nadu Districts atthe MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai today. After inserting theDistricts side and rolling them over for 159 inside 78 overs, the NZAside had progressed to 34/1 at stumps.Left arm spinner Bruce Martin and leg spinner Aaron Redmond did mostof the damage with three wickets apiece. For Districts the firstwicket association of 40 between KN Riaz (24) and V Gautham (28)remained the most productive and after NZA captain, Jacob Oramdismissed the former in the 17th over of the innings, the last ninewickets tumbled for 119. P Muthupandian was the top scorer with 30 (66balls, 1 four).For the visitors, their only international bowler Andrew Penn, wasalso the only one of six bowlers used who went wicketless. SeamerDevendra Kumar despatched opener JAH Marshall for seven in the seventhover of NZA’s reply but Michael Papps (13) and Jarrod Englefield (12)ferried the visitors safely through to stumps.

A major update has emerged regarding the fitness of Sunderland defender Danny Batth…

What’s the latest?

Alex Neil has revealed that the centre-back is closing in on a return to action as he continues to deal with an ankle injury which has plagued him since he made the switch to Wearside in January.

Batth has not played for Sunderland since 22 February against Cheltenham and has only played four games since joining from Stoke in mid-season.

Neil told The Chronicle: “He’s been on the grass, he’s been doing running and he’s been in better nick. He’s not far away now. He’s not trained with us specifically but he’s been doing his own work in terms of changing direction and all that stuff.”

Delight

Neil will surely be delighted that Batth is close to making his comeback, as having him available will be a big boost to Sunderland’s squad heading into the final months of the season.

His debut against Portsmouth offered plenty of promising signs. As per SofaScore, the 31-year-old won nine of his 14 duels whilst making five clearances, one block, one tackle and one interception as the Black Cats won the match 1-0. He helped his side to keep a clean sheet with his impressive defending, and his form in the Championship suggests that there is more to come from him.

In the first half of the campaign in the second tier, he averaged an excellent SofaScore rating of 7.10 for Stoke as he won 68% of his duels and made 2.6 tackles and interceptions per game. This shows that he can excel in a higher division as he consistently delivered top-class performances for the Potters, which is why Neil will surely be keen to have him available for selection.

If Sunderland can get Batth back to his best, the statistics suggest that,he can have a huge impact at the Stadium of Light in the business end of the campaign. The Black Cats are fighting it out to land a play-off spot, and having another defender who can reliably perform to a high standard can only be a good thing for the club.

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Therefore, Neil will be buzzing that the 31-year-old is not far away from being back in full training. It will then be down to Batth to get himself back to 100% and show that he can be a rock in defence for the club in League One, just as he was in the Championship earlier this term.

AND in other news, Possession lost 225 times: “Anonymous” Sunderland liability who’s lost 76 duels has been a letdown…

England 351 and 48 for 0 (Vaughan 28*, Cook 13*) trail Sri Lanka 548 for 9 dec (M Jayawardene 195, Vandort 138, P Jayawardene 79, Sidebottom 3-100, Harmison 3-111) by 149 runs
Scorecard
How they were out

Prasanna Jayawardene extended England’s toil with 79 © Getty Images

It wasn’t the most attractive day of Test cricket, but Sri Lanka’s batsmen put them in a dominating position on the fourth day at Colombo with a 197-run lead over a weary England, grinding their noses into the ground. As ever, Muttiah Muralitharan looms large but England’s openers took them to a position of relative comfort, racing to 48 before bad light curtailed the day’s play.It was another torrid, wearying day for England’s bowlers who battled in intense heat to pick up 5 for 169 before Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lanka captain, finally ended their misery with a declaration 30 minutes after tea. The ease with which Prasanna Jayawardene, the wicketkeeper, batted with his No.10, Dilhara Fernando, belied the consistent allround effort England’s bowlers showed – in particular Steve Harmison, who improved upon his encouraging display yesterday with a determined and disciplined performance on a lifeless pitch.It was he who gave England early hope of restricting Sri Lanka’s lead, too, removing Jehan Mubarak with a nasty lifter. Stuart Broad, England’s 6ft 7in debutant, also stuck to his task and was rewarded with his maiden Test wicket when Chaminda Vaas – no rabbit with the bat at No.8 – was too late on a pull, gloving a bouncer to Ian Bell at slip. It was just reward for Broad for what has been a daunting introduction to Test cricket.Jayawardene lacked the fluency and elegance he showed yesterday, and threw away his wicket with an ugly slog off Monty Panesar, top-edging a simple catch to Paul Collingwood at second slip. It was the first and last sign of any form of urgency from a Sri Lanka batsman who, from then on, blocked their way to the declaration, grinding England’s noses and spirits into the ground.Panesar hasn’t bowled with his magical, tantalising flight during this series but was much improved today and, after dismissing Jayawardene, bowled with greater control, trapping Lasith Malinga in front to briefly give hope to England of limiting Sri Lanka’s lead to under 100. However, with one Jayawardene dismissed, England were at the mercy of another, the wicketkeeper who was ably assisted by Dilhara Fernando. The pair put on a determined and turgid ninth-wicket stand of 98, just when England felt they had broken the back of Sri Lanka’s innings.It was grizzly cricket but hugely effective for Sri Lanka, as England’s shoulders dropped. Fernando, with a beaming smile and equally enthusiastic defensive technique, rode his luck against Kevin Pietersen, smacking a straight drive to bring up Sri Lanka’s 500 and the pair’s fifty partnership.Jayawardene might not share his captain’s elegance or range of strokes, but there was no denying his application. He rode the bounce of Harmison’s shorter deliveries and used his feet well to Panesar, flicking him through midwicket before slamming one over mid-off. His second Test fifty came from 109 balls.England didn’t enjoy much luck, however. Fernando back-cut Pietersen for four before he was rapped on the back leg, seemingly plump in front. And, off the next ball, Prior should have stumped him but the ball somehow lodged itself between his pad and leg. As tea approached, Sri Lanka’s lead went past 150, and England were on their knees.The declaration finally came when Jayawardene edged Harmison behind for 79, causing the bowler to roar his delight, justifiably, too, as he bowled with impressive energy and discipline for a man returning from injury. Nevertheless, Sri Lanka’s lead reached 197 and England had an hour of Chaminda Vaas and Muralitharan in which to survive.Impressively – particularly on a day in which the run-rate barely lifted above three per over – Cook and Vaughan were immediately into their stride, cracking 48 from 13 overs. Cook picked off two classy fours, showing impressive timing, while Vaughan continued his fine form, driving with aplomb to reach 28 by stumps.The pitch remains flat and true, and hasn’t cracked up nearly as much as England feared. But Muralitharan remains the big threat, and England have a big fight on their hands.

In the wake of the scandal surrounding Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif Pakistan are planning to drug-test all their players © Getty Images

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.