The match could not commence at the schedule time on account of heavy rain that flooded the ground. After hectic efforts put in by the ground staff to turn the ground and the pitch fit for play, it was possible to start the game at 4:30 p.m. local time.Only 2.4 overs were bowled when the game had to be suspended on account of sudden drizzle. During this period, Atapattu was, however, able to complete his well-cherished double century. The play was called off for the day with Sri Lanka at 467 for 5. Atapattu was batting at 207 while Dharmasena was at the crease with 12 runs.

Australian Glenn McGrath, Worcestershire’s pace man, produced an outstanding one man show against Warwickshire at Edgbaston.McGrath, who is not available next summer for the New Road club, finished with impressive figures of 6-90 when Warwickshire declared at 407-7 – a first innings lead of 144.Warwickshire decided to bat on for their maximum five batting points which they achieved in the last bonus over.In the process they lost three wickets when Anurag Singh, Neil Smith and Alan Donald became McGrath victims.In his 4.4 overs during the morning session his three wickets cost just ten runs.Singh was caught at first slip by Stuart Lampitt for 46, while Smith (5) fell to a catch to Vikram Solanki at first slip and Alan Donald (16) gave wicket-keeper Steve Rhodes a catch behind.In reply Worcestershire made a slow start with openers, Philip Weston and Elliott Wilson, putting on only 20 runs in 12 overs and at lunch were 32-0.

Delhi managed to quell Haryana’s spirited challenge for the firstinnings lead on the final day of their North Zone Ranji Trophy leaguetie at Gurgaon. Spinners Rahul Sanghvi and Virender Shewag managed tohustle out Haryana for 339, just ten runs short of Delhi. The visitorsthen leisurely proceeded to 147/2 in 55 overs as the match descendedinto a soporific draw.Resuming at 300/7, Haryana’s hopes were pinned on Ishan Ganda,unbeaten on 54 overnight. He and Feroze Ghyas took the score to 338,at which moment the hosts would have thought they had five firstinnings points in the bag. But they lost three wickets in the space of3.5 overs for the addition of a solitary run.Ganda was last out, bowled by Sanghvi for 62, the left arm spinnerfinishing with 3/61. Akash Chopra (65 not out) and Ashu Dani (54) tookthe opportunity to indulge in some useful batting practise, adding 113for the first wicket. Dani fell for 54 and Pradeep Chawla soonfollowed in the only dents Haryana were able to make in almost fourhours on the field.Earlier on the third day, Haryana had moved from 98/2 to 300/7, mainlyon the efforts of skipper Parender Singh and Ganda. One-drop JasvirSingh fell for 68 in the tenth over of the day to Ashish Nehra. Theleft arm seamer grabbed one more wicket later in the day, finishingthe innings with figures of 4/93.All four victims were caught by skipper and wicketkeeper Vijay Dahiya.It was another good outing for Nehra after having mopped up eightwickets in Delhi’s earlier victory over Services. Parender shoulderedthe Haryana innings with a manful 73 (199 balls, 8 fours, 1 six)before being trapped leg before by Robin Singh jr.

Uttar Pradesh were propelled into the semifinals of the Vijay MerchantTrophy (under-16) tournament by a brutal batting display by Tahir Abbas andRahat Ilahi in the knock-out match against Bengal at Narendrapur, nearKolkata on Monday. Resuming at the overnight score of 197/3, UP batted onfor the whole of the last day. Needing just 11 more runs to grab the allimportant first innings lead when they resumed, UP ended up at 597/4 atclose of the match in 155 overs.The day belonged to Abbas and Ilahi who were associated in a fourth wicketpartnership that produced 396 runs. Abbas got himself run out, the only waya dismissal looked possible on a day when Bengal bowlers could never make abreakthrough as the two batsmen went on a run riot. Abbas made anentertaining 246 runs off 381 balls. He was at the crease for eight hoursand 46 minutes smashing 24 boundaries. Ilahi batted on through the day toremain unbeaten on 212. Ilahi was the more aggressive of the two as heenjoyed the run feast, hitting a six and 23 fours in his 281-ball innings.Ilahi was at the crease for five hours and 45 minutes making the Bengalbowling look listless. Alok Singh who came in at the fall of Abbas remainedunbeaten on 1 as the match came to an end. UP will meet Punjab in the threeday semifinal to be played at Kolkata from January 9.

A day of fluctuating fortunes and majestic cricket saw one player hold centre stage for much of a wind-blown but thankfully relatively dry day. Inzamam-ul-Haq counter-attacked against England’s renowned pace attack of Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick with princely power.The Pakistan vice-captain is often the butt of less than complimentary comments about his size, poor running and a diffident demeanour. But when handed a perfect batting pitch, with the ball coming on, Inzamam ranks among the very best.After Waqar Younis had won the toss, Gough and Caddick ruthlessly exposed Pakistan’s inexperience at the top of their order. Abdur Razzaq was thrust in to open with Saeed Anwar. Saeed always looked comfortable, driving and pulling with panache, but Razzaq lasted just three balls, dropped first up by Michael Atherton at slip and perishing two balls later playing on to Caddick.Next the 19-year-old Faisal Iqbal found Gough’s bouncer too much for him and he fended tamely to Michael Vaughan at short leg. This followed a brief rain interruption, with the blustery showers also causing a delayed start by half an hour.But Inzamam and Saeed took the fight to England, runs flowed and the England bowlers quickly lost their early control. Matthew Hoggard struggled in particular, bowling too short at both players but on the stroke of lunch Caddick got Saeed to fend to slip and Atherton redeemed himself with a good catch.After lunch, Pakistan suffered an early blow with Yousuf Youhana snaffled at slip by Nick Knight off Caddick. It was 92-4 and England smelt blood.Pakistan though were still fearlessly putting bat to ball and rattling along at more than four runs an over. Part-timers Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick came and went, primarily over the boundary for four and six. Inzamam was peerless and he inspired Younis Khan in a partnership of 141.It was batting of the highest order and the England bowlers were verging on ragged. Hoggard, though, kept going and lightning struck twice for England with the last ball before a break. Younis padded up offering no stroke, and Hoggard had his first Test wicket to leave Pakistan 233 for five at tea.The fun continued into the last session. Inzamam was gorging himself on some loose stuff but finally over indulged on Hoggard, aiming for an expansive drive and slicing to Ian Ward at backward point. There was a standing ovation for his wonderful 114.Rashid Latif and Azhar Mahmood maintained the run flow in another dashing partnership of 50 but Hoggard pitched one up to Azhar after being thumped square the previous ball, and Knight took his second catch at slip, and Hoggard’s third wicket was in the bag.Wasim Akram, both a Pakistan and Lancashire hero, emerged to a warm reception and he stayed with Latif who completed another enterprising half-century. Gough went for 15 off one over to show that even Dazzler can be out dazzled. Gough though responded, forcing Wasim to nick one to Stewart and having Saqlain missed at slip by Knight. Fabulous entertainment and a simply classic first day at the Old Trafford Test.

A number of members have asked Chief Executive of Somerset, Peter Anderson, whether or not Somerset are going to recruit Mali Richards, the 18-year-old son of Sir Viv Richards.The Chief Executive said: “Following his visit to The County Ground at Taunton for indoor nets earlier this year, Peter Robinson, who was a great friend of Viv’s during his playing days, is in contact with Mali, and if he wants a trial with Somerset it can be arranged.”

India did not enjoy a very testing warm-up for their first One-Day International in the triangular tournament, against Zimbabwe on Sunday.Zimbabwe A put up a dismal batting performance, allowing the Indians to romp home to an all-too-easy ten wicket victory in this match played at Sunrise Sports Club, in the heart of the Harare Indian community.Zimbabwe A suffered a poor start after winning the toss and batting. They lost both openers for 18, but then schoolboy Stuart Matsikenyeri (38) and Craig Wishart (22) overcame keen bowling backed by some superb fielding to improve the position with some bold strokes.Both fell in quick succession, together with Barney Rogers (0), and the score plummeted to 78 for five. It soon became 84 for seven as Tatenda Taibu ran himself out for four and captain Paul Strang was caught at the wicket first ball.Dirk Viljoen (12) briefly held up the tourists, but the miserable display continued to a total of 103 all out, off only 32.4 overs. Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Zahir Khan and Hemang Badani took two cheap wickets each.Virender Shewag got the Indian reply going with some lusty blows, and Sourav Ganguly soon began to find his form, hitting a huge six over long-on.Shewag generally took the eye, though, playing his strokes with gay abandon, and finished unbeaten on 75 (two sixes, 10 fours), with Ganguly 31.Only Bryan Strang was able to keep the score within reasonable bounds as the Zimbabwe A bowlers appeared as outclassed as their batsmen. They could and should have done much better, but it wasn’t easy to believe on this showing.

With several of the leading contenders having ruled themselves out, Darren Gough has offered to captain England in the Second npower Test at Lord’s in the absence of the injured Nasser Hussain.Alec Stewart and Mark Butcher have both exclusively revealed to CricInfo that they would prefer not to lead the side.Alec Stewart told CricInfo that: “There’s been some speculation that I might become captain again, but I wouldn’t take the job back if it was offered. I think it’s time to move on. I only did the Old Trafford Test and the one-day series to help the side out in an emergency. I’ve been captain and done everything that’s been asked of me, and I think it’s better to look to the future now, so I won’t be putting my hand up for the job.”Mark Butcher expressed similar sentiments in his CricInfo diary. “I know some people have suggested that I might be the man to take over… To be honest, I wouldn’t be very happy about that. I might have been a little bit naïve the last time I took it, not realising what I was letting myself in for… Being England captain does not hold too many good memories for me.”The current favourites to stand in for Hussain are Mike Atherton and Marcus Trescothick. Graham Thorpe, having performed the job when Hussain was injured in Sri Lanka, is another possibility if he is fit.Atherton has previously been reluctant to return to the captaincy after his long stint in the job, specifically in 1999 when Hussain missed a Test against New Zealand. That leaves Marcus Trescothick as the favourite for the job.But Gough, whose web site www.darrengough.com is hosted by CricInfo, told Sky Sports that he may be the ideal man to lead England in one-off game. Gough has reasoned that the extra burden of captaincy might adversely affect the young Trescothick.”When you look at the candidates, Marcus Trescothick is the obvious one, but for a one-off Test there is a lot of pressure on him,” Gough said.”They could go that way or they could give it someone who would play with a smile and not worry about any pressure at all and just get on with the job,” Gough suggests.Gough does not have any captaincy experience and insists that he would not want to take the position permanently.”It is not something I would want to do full time, but for a one-off game while Hussain comes back, it would be a pleasure.”The way I look at it is that if you give it to a young lad in a one-off Test against Australia, there would be so much pressure on him. But I don’t think it would affect my thinking or anything.”I would just get on with it and think it an honour. But after that one game I would probably think it was only for one game. There are plenty of candidates and whoever it is I’m sure they will do a good job.”But I doubt that will happen” Gough concludes.While Trescothick, who skippered his country at youth level, believes he is capable of captaining his country, he won’t waste any time considering it, unless asked.”I am pretty sure I could handle the pressure but until such time as someonewants to talk about the situation with me, I’ll just concentrate on mybatting,” he said.”Captaining England in an Ashes Test at Lord’s is probably the biggest thingyou can do in the game. It’s certainly a bit different for skippering a juniorside,” he told the BBC.Other options for the England selectors are thought to include leading county captains Mark Alleyne, John Crawley and Adam Hollioake.However, David Graveney, speaking before the news about Butcher and Stewart became public stated that: “I don’t think we would bring anyone else in from the outside.”

• It was the 1737th ODI in cricket history.
• It was India’s 471st and Sri Lanka’s 357th match- 67th between thesetwo sides. The record now reads : Sri Lanka 28, India 34 and abandoned5.
• Umpires Peter Manuel and TH Wijewardene were officiating in their 33rdand fourth match respectively.
• Amay Khurasiya was making a comeback into Indian side after about 22months. He last appeared for India against West Indies at Singapore(Kallang) on September 5,1999 , thus missing 59 matches in between.Khurasiya became 14th Indian to have a gap of 50 or more matches inbetween two consecutive appearances. Others to do so for India areAshish Kapoor (157 matches),Robin Singh (146), Harvinder Singh(110),Saurav Ganguly (91), Harbhajan Singh (84), Arun Lal (74), ParasMhambrey (72), Rajesh Chauhan (71), WV Raman (71), Virender Shewag(66),Anshuman Gaekwad (64), Maninder Singh (52) and Salil Ankola (51).
• Avishka Gunawardene (67) made his highest score against India. Hisprevious highest was 52 (off 55 balls) at Sharjah on November 6,1998.
• The eighth wicket partnership of 49 runs between Kumara Dharmasena andSuresh Perera was Sri Lanka’s best for this wicket against India. Thisobliterated the previous highest of 39* between Arjuna Ranatunga andRumesh Ratnayake at Sharjah on April 25,1990.
• The partnership was also the highest for Sri Lanka for the eighthwicket against any country in Sri Lanka. The previous highest was 40run-partnership between Upul Chandana and Chamara Silva againstAustralia at this same ground on August 26,1999.
• The partnership also bettered the 47 run unbroken stand betweenAravinda de Silva and Hasan Tillekeratne against England at Sydney onFebruary 3,1999 which was then the highest stand for Sri Lanka foreighth wicket in all day-night matches.
• Saurav Ganguly has now aggregated 1199 runs in 39 day-night matchesunder floodlights (i.e.batting second). He thus surpassed MohammadAzharuddin’s tally of 1176 runs from 45 matches. Now only SachinTendulkar (2058 runs from 45 matches) is ahead of Ganguly for India.Incidentally Tendulkar’s aggregate is record in ODIs.
• The defeat by six runs was India’s joint second narrowest in a daynight encounter. It had lost to Sri Lanka at this same ground by 2runs on August 17,1997 and to Australia by six runs at Sydney onJanuary 20,1992. The following table lists India’s narrowest defeatsin daynight matches :

• Suresh Perera was winning his maiden Man of the Match award in his13th match.

• It was the 1554th Test in cricket history.
• It was Australia’s 617th and England’s 784th match and the 299thbetween these two sides. The record now reads : Australia 120, England93, drawn 86.
• Umpires John Hampshire and S Venkataraghavan were officiating in their17th and 46th match respectively, while Talat Ali was officiating asICC match referee for the eighth time.
• It was the 20th Test between these two sides on the Trent Bridgeground. Australia has won 7 and lost only three. 10 matches weredrawn. Australia had last lost a match on this ground back in August1977.
• Alex Tudor was making a comeback into the English side after twoyears. His last appearance was against New Zealand at Birmingham inJuly 1999.
• The wicket of Robert Croft in the first innings was the 100th forShane Warne against England. He became the 11th Australian and 16thbowler overall to achieve this feat. At the end of this match, Warnehas a tally of 106 wickets from 21 games against England. Thefollowing table lists the leading wicket takers against England inTest cricket:

• Mike Atherton, at the end of this match, has an aggregate of 7676 runsfrom 113 matches which takes him ahead of Colin Cowdrey who had anaggregate of 7624 runs from 114 matches. Now only Graham Gooch (8900runs from 118 matches), David Gower (8231 from 117) and Geoff Boycott(8114 from 108) are ahead of Atherton for England.
• The wicket of Andrew Caddick in the second innings was the 100th forJason Gillespie in his 24th match. He became the 29th Australian and121st bowler overall to do so.
• When Mark Ramprakash was stumped by Gilchrist in second innings, itwas the 19th time Shane Warne got a wicket in this fashion. With thishe moved ahead of India’s Vinoo Mankad and Bishen Singh Bedi andAustralia’s Ashley Mallett who each had 18 such dismissals againsttheir name. Now only Clarrie Grimmett (28) and India’s Subhash Gupte(20) are ahead of Warne.
• When Mike Atherton was dismissed by McGrath in the first innings, itwas the 20th occasion Atherton was getting out without opening hisaccount. He thus joined seven other batsmen who have suffered theignominy of recording 20 or more ducks in a career. They are: WestIndian Courtney Walsh (43 ducks), Curtley Ambrose (26), AustralianShane Warne (24), New Zealander Danny Morrison (24), India’s BhagwatChandrasekhar (23), Australia’s Glenn McGrath (22) and India’s BishenSingh Bedi (20).
• Brett Lee has now played in 10 matches without being on the losingside even once. He has now equalled West Indian Eldine Baptiste’srecord in this category of statistics. The following tables have thedetails :

Highest Percentage of Winning matches : (Min.Qualification : 10matches)

• Alec Stewart has now appeared in 47 `lost’ matchesmaximum by anyplayer in Test cricket history. He was earlier at level withAustralia’s Allan Border. The details :

• Australia has now played in 21 consecutive result matches winning 19and losing two. It is now only one short of equalling England’s alltime record of 22 consecutive matches without a draw between 1884-85and 1891-92 with 17 wins and five losses.
• The defeat was Mike Atherton’s 21st in 54 matches. Only Allan Borderhas lost more matches (22) than Atherton.
• The win was Steve Waugh’s 20th in 27 matches. He became the eighthcaptain to win 20 or more matches after West Indian Clive Lloyd (36wins in 74 matches), Australian Allan Border (32 in 93), South AfricanHansie Cronje (27 in 53), Viv Richards (27 in 50), Australian MarkTaylor (26 in 50), Greg Chappell (21 in 48) and Englishman Peter May(20 in 41).
• The victory in this match also sealed the series in Australia’sfavour. Australia has now won seven Ashes series in a row. The lastoccasion Australia lost a series to England was back in 1986-87 whenEngland defeated Australia on latter’s soil by a 2-1 margin.
• Shane Warne was winning his ninth Man of the Match award – his thirdagainst England. He had last won an award way back in 1997-98 againstSouth Africa in Sydney.