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Western Province were again unable to follow-up their early inroads into the KwaZulu-Natal second innings, and by close of play on the third day the visitors had extended their lead to 365 with three wickets still in hand and no declaration in sight.Overnight batsmen HD Ackerman and Claude Henderson kept their partnership going for 45 minutes against the second new ball before Henderson’s defence was penetrated by McLean. Roger Telemachus soon followed, and Charl Willoughby’s presence at the crease eventually persuaded Ackerman to play some of his rarely seen aggressive shots, hitting three fours and a five in an entertaining last wicket partnership. They finished the innings with 3.50 batting bonus points, ensuring that they must win this match to qualify for the Final in April.Trailing by 99 runs, the home team fought back gamely. Telemachus had Doug Watson lbw and Willoughby dismissed Ahmed Amla to a slip catch for the second time in the match, but WP were struck a cruel blow when Willoughby was injured shortly before lunch. His dislocated shoulder ended his participation in this match. Henderson, opening the bowling after lunch, dismissed Jonty Rhodes with a ball which kept low, and also had Dale Benkenstein caught behind, at which stage KZN were in trouble on 41 for four. Hashim Amla and Jon Kent restored the balance with a partnership of 55 before Amla was dismissed by part timer Jonathan Trott, the second dubious lbw decision of the innings.Kent and Lance Klusener continued to turn the screws with a partnership of 81 for the 6th wicket. Kent played some elegant strokes, while Klusener, true to reputation, treated Henderson with the utmost respect but belted all of his 6 fours and 3 sixes off the seamers from the Wynberg end. Both departed in quick succession, at which point WP had some hope of fighting back, with KZN 289 ahead with just three wickets in hand.That was the last success for the home team. Duncan Brown dug his heels in, playing a gritty innings interrupted only when he pulled a Henderson long hop over the mid wicket boundary. Goolam Bodi played with his normal aggression, punishing all the bowlers as he included ten boundaries in his unbeaten 50. The umpires allowed WP just one over with the second new ball before offering the batsmen the light with seven overs still to be bowled, but already 26 minutes into overtime. Henderson was the best of the bowlers, bowling 32 overs unchanged from the Kelvin Grove end.

SYDNEY, July 31 AAP/Reuters – Glenn McGrath’s lack of ability in wielding the willow may eventually affect his career, new research reveals.McGrath is one of the world’s worst Test batsmen, with an average of 6.52 an innings, even less in one day internationals where his high score is 11.Now researchers including Dr John Orchard of the University of NSW say McGrath’s lack of time in the middle with the bat, especially if his team bats first, makes him a prime candidate for injury.In a report released in The British Journal of Sports Medicine this week, Orchard said the chances of suffering hamstring strains, groin injuries and damage to the wrists, hands and back are greater according to the batting/bowling order.”Bowlers are more likely to be injured when undertaking big workloads and when bowling second (after batting),” said Orchard.Fast bowlers in cricket have the highest risk of being injured but bowling first and batting second increases the odds even further, the report said.About 14 per cent of fast bowlers receive injuries, compared to four per cent of spin bowlers and batsmen, and two per cent of wicket-keepers.The scientists suspect bowlers may be more susceptible to injury when their team bowls second in a match because they warm up in the nets at the start of the first innings but in other innings they are more likely to start bowling immediately after batting.McGrath is usually the last man out, and then the man to bowl the first over when Australia takes to the field.Overall, cricket is a relatively safe sport. But after studying the type and number of injuries to Australian first class cricket teams during premier and one day international matches the researchers believe it could be made safer.The scientists said the average injury rate for the 20 matches played in a season in Australia was 19.2 injuries for every squad of 25 players. One day internationals resulted in the highest number of injuries.If a bowler bowled more than 20 match overs in the week before a game, he had almost double the risk of injury and bowling second after batting first raised the injury risk to 60 per cent.The fastest bowlers had the greatest risk of injury and players colliding with the boundary fence while fielding were a major cause of injury.”The most important potentially reversible risk factor is bowler workload. The sporting activity most similar to bowling is pitching in baseball, for which workload is monitored much more closely than bowling,” said Orchard.The biggest injury concerns for fast bowlers were accelerated degeneration of the lumbar spine over the course of their career, as well as disc degeneration, shoulder injuries, foot and ankle injuries, knee tendon injuries and side strains.

Lahore-B beat Karachi by one wicket in a thrilling encounter to lift the Quaid-e-Azam (Grade I) Trophy as the five-day final concluded within three days, mainly due to the sporting nature of wicket prepared especially for the final at Karachi’s National Stadium.The outcome of the match remained uncertain right up to the last moment as Lahore, chasing a target of 184 for victory, had lost their ninth wicket with 179 runs on the board. The match could have gone Karachi’s way but the last wicket pair of Waqas Ahmed and Adnan Naeem negotiated some fiery bowling by Shahid Iqbal and Mohammad Sami in the closing minutes of the third day. However, luck favored the visitors. They squeaked through and the winning hit was a chance! The ball, after taking the outer edge of Waqas’s bat flew just wide of Sami fielding at third man for four, bringing up instant joy in the Lahore camp.Irrespective of the outcome, the match was evenly contested throughout the three days, as a number of players – both young and experienced – from either side displayed memorable performances for their sides. The match had an added appeal for cricket fans, as some frontline cricketers of the country took part in it. Apart from the presence of names like Shahid Afridi, Asif Mujtaba and Shadab Kabir, Moin Khan, the skipper of the national team, donned the wicket-keeping gloves for Karachi. Lahore-B, on the other hand, boasted of the inclusion of Wasim Akram and Abdur Razzaq in their ranks.Helped by a magnificent hundred by Shahid Afridi, Karachi scored 297 in their first innings on a pitch that had a fair amount of grass on it. The bowling squad of Lahore, led by the Pakistani all-rounder Abdur Razzaq, bowled really well considering the fact that the home side had reached 286 for six at the end of the first day. However, some accurate bowling from the visitors ensured that the home side did not go past three hundred.Razzaq finished the innings with figures of 6 for 79, whereas Wasim took three wickets for 67 runs.The start to Lahore’s innings was quite confident, they had reached 111 for the loss of just one wicket. Imran Farhat played beautifully for his 67 but the fall of his wicket saw them reduced to 156 for five at tea. Abdur Razzaq showed his all-round skill to the utmost as he rescued his side from complete disaster. He made a fine half-century at a stage when wickets were tumbling at the other end. It was mainly due to his efforts that Lahore managed to pass two hundred runs and their innings was closed at 218.For Karachi, the young right-arm fast bowler Mohammad Sami took five wickets for 64. Afridi, bowling not so gentle medium pacers with Moin standing back to him, took three for 75.After taking a first innings lead of 79 runs, Karachi looked well set to win the match comfortably, the idea of chasing anything in excess of 200 in the fourth innings of the match looking very remote. However, Wasim Akram and Abdur Razzaq had their own ideas and helped tilt the match towards Lahore.The duo exploited the conditions at the National Stadium to their utmost advantage. Both bowling with enthusiasm, one with the savvy of variety as a seasoned campaigner and the other of youth and fire, completely unsettled the strong batting line-up of Karachi. Out of the total 43 overs played by Karachi, they bowled around 39 overs between them, to bundle out the home side for a paltry 104 in their second innings, with none of the batsmen getting past twenty runs.Razzaq took ten wickets in the match as he bagged four wickets for 54 runs in the second innings. Wasim, rediscovering his rhythm and stamina, bowled 18 overs in the second innings taking six for 36.Requiring 184 to win, Lahore started their second innings cautiously, with the first three overs being maidens because the Karachi attack, led by the new pacer, Mohammad Sami and Shahid Iqbal bowled very tightly.The visitors lost their first wicket with the total at 20. This led to a flurry of wickets as the Lahore batsmen found it really hard to cope with this accurate bowling by Karachi.At 66/6, the match seemed pretty much over for Lahore, but Humayun Farhat, the hard-hitting wicket-keeper batsman, came to his team’s rescue, adding 63 valuable runs for the 7th wicket with left-hander Mohammad Hussain, and then 49 more for the 8th wicket with Wasim Akram.Humayun was out at last when the visitors were just five runs away from a superb victory. He made a valiant 63 off just 48 balls, before the match was wrapped up by the winning, though somewhat streaky shot from Waqas Ahmed.The credit, however, goes to The Management of the match who prepared an excellent wicket for the final of the biggest domestic tournament in Pakistan. Sympathies for cricket lovers all over the country who were deprived of live telecast or radio broadcast of the match for reasons best known the concerned people. However, credit to PCB and CricInfo for efforts to bring internet live ball-by-ball coverage of this final on their websites www.pcb.cricket.org and www.cricinfo.com so that a vast worldwide audience could participate in a thriller.

Marcus Trescothick continued his tremendous start to the season with a fourth century in six innings to lead Somerset to a 108-run Benson andHedges Cup victory over Gloucestershire at Taunton.Without the injured Mark Alleyne and Ian Harvey, the Gloucestershire attack could not contain the England opener, who blasted 112 off 99 balls, with 12 fours and a six, as Somerset posted 262-9 after winning the toss.Despite a bright start in reply, which saw them 70-1 in only the 14th over, the visitors subsided tamely to 154 all out, using up just 38.2 overs.While both teams qualify for the quarter-finals, Somerset do so as group winners, having overtaken their previously unbeaten West Country rivals.Skipper Jamie Cox’s only concern will be the way his side slumped from 215-2, with ten overs remaining, when a 300-plus total looked possible.Two run-outs and a succession of loose shots meant they fell well short, with Jeremy Snape collecting 4-32.Trescothick had been in prime form from the start. He hit three boundaries in an over off both Jon Lewis and Mike Cawdron, who was also deposited for an enormous six over mid-wicket.Peter Bowler provided solid support with a 94-ball half-century in an opening stand of 138. Then Ian Blackwell hit a brisk 35 to further strengthen Somerset’s position.Despite the middle-order collapse, it was a sizeable total andGloucestershire needed a good start in reply. They got it through TimHancock, Kim Barnett and Rob Cunliffe.Andy Caddick was seen off, but Jason Kerr came on to prove a more than adequate replacement, varying his pace intelligently in an accurate six-over spell that brought 2-13.Kerr was also responsible for the key run-out of Hancock for 30 with a fast throw from third-man, which reduced Gloucestershire to 75-4. The result was never in doubt from then on.Trescothick weighed in with 3-30 with his medium-pace and took a sharp slip catch to cement the gold award.

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Phillip Hughes made his first century for South Australia•Getty Images

A sturdy century by Phillip Hughes and a striking all-round display from Johan Botha lifted South Australia to a bonus-point victory over Tasmania in Hobart, the Redbacks’ second consecutive limited overs win.On a sluggish pitch, the off-season recruits Hughes and Botha guided the visitors to 8 for 248, a tally that was to prove far too steep for the Tigers as the Redbacks delivered a beguiling combination of pace and spin.Hughes survived a difficult chance to the Tigers’ wicketkeeper Tim Paine on 24 but otherwise showed power, poise and a wide stroke range on a surface most other batsmen found difficult to get comfortable on.Botha’s stand of 76 with Hughes ensured SA would post a strong total after the innings had slipped to 5 for 142 against a decent spin spell from Jason Krejza. Ben Hilfenhaus shared the new ball with Krejza and nipped out Michael Klinger early but was hit about Bellerive by Hughes in later stints at the crease.Tasmania’s reply began well enough, but turned when Tim Paine’s flat pull shot was smartly held on the midwicket fence by Hughes. Two balls later Jake Haberfield pinned George Bailey on the crease, and added a critical third when Ricky Ponting drove to wide mid off.Botha, Dan Chrisitan and the economical Nathan Lyon constricted the remainder of the innings, wickets falling regularly as the Tigers’ chase petered out well short.

India allrounder Ravindra Jadeja has been fined 10% of his match fee for using offensive language against Shane Watson, after the Australia batsman was dismissed during the final ODI in Bangalore.Watson, who had scored a quickfire 49 off 22 balls during the chase of 384, was caught at short third man off Jadeja, before the bowler gave him a send-off. The match referee Andy Pycroft ruled that Jadeja had breached Article 2.1.4 of the ICC code of conduct. Jadeja had apologised for his actions, though, so there was no formal hearing or heavier penalty – such a level one breach could draw a reprimand and a fine of up to 50% of the match fee.After his ruling, Pycroft said: “Mr Jadeja’s reaction after dismissing Shane Watson was clearly in breach of the code as the players are always expected to respect their opponents, no matter what the match situation. Mr Jadeja apologised for his action when on-field umpire Nigel Llong spoke to him immediately after the incident and reminded him of his responsibilities.”There was some tension in the air all through Watson’s stay at the crease in Bangalore. He seemed to have done damage to a hamstring halfway through his bowling spell and had to leave the field, and then came out to bat only at No. 8, when Australia were 138 for 6. Watson punched his first ball into the covers, where Shikhar Dhawan fielded it and hobbled exaggeratedly, seemingly mocking Watson and drawing several shakes of the head from him. There were also words exchanged between Virat Kohli and James Faulkner later, with the umpire having to intervene and MS Dhoni having a word with his players.

Jos Buttler, England’s one-day wicketkeeper-batsman, has his sights set on Test cricket after sacrificing a settled life with Somerset to move to Lancashire.Buttler hopes the switch from Taunton to Old Trafford will allow him to escape his typecast as an aggressive one-day player and establish himself in all forms of the game to put pressure on England’s incumbent Test wicketkeeper Matt Prior.Born and bred in Taunton, Buttler, 23, has already played 19 one-day internationals and 25 Twenty20 internationals with his powerful batting lending itself to the limited-overs formats. But he believes that with the guidance of Peter Moores, Lancashire’s coach and himself a former wicketkeeper, he can improve sufficiently to challenge for a place in England’s Test side.He became irritated at his lack of opportunities as wicketkeeper in Championship cricket at Somerset, where Craig Kieswetter – who Buttler replaced for England in one-day cricket – became their established man behind the stumps.”I was a little bit concerned about being pigeon-holed as a one-day player and I’m keen to get rid of that tag,” Buttler said at his unveiling as a Lancashire player at Old Trafford. “I’m more ambitious than that and I want to play Test cricket.”I want to become a wicketkeeper. When you’re keeping wicket for England in one-day cricket and not doing it at Somerset, there’s bound to be a bit of frustration. I think that’s obvious to anyone that if you want to keep wicket for England, you’ve got to be keeping day in, day out. I think I’d been doing myself a disservice and taking a huge risk if I wasn’t plying my trade in county cricket as a wicketkeeper while trying to perform at international level.”Buttler was taken to Taunton from the age of 9 and since making his first class debut for Somerset, ironically against Lancashire in 2009, he has averaged 31.73 in 48 matches, including nine half centuries and three hundreds. He is aiming to improve those figures in the coming years with Lancashire, where he hopes Moores’s coaching expertise can also help him develop his wicketkeeping skills.”I know your numbers have to stack up and that’s down to me to turn myself into a consistent run-maker in first-class cricket,” Buttler said. “Now I’ve made the decision to leave Somerset and come here and further not just my wicketkeeping but further my cricket as a whole. It’s an exciting place to be, there are some great people to work with and I’m excited where my cricket can get to both batting and wicketkeeping.”Buttler admitted the last year had become difficult for him at Somerset while his contract situation became such a hot topic. The speculation over his future finally ended when it was confirmed within hours of their last match at Trent Bridge, when they secured their future in Division One, that he would be leaving and the worst kept secret in county cricket was ended when Lancashire revealed they had signed him despite interest from Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire.”It’s been a tough year,” he said. “The easiest place was just focusing on playing cricket. It’s when I wasn’t playing when people were asking questions and at the end of the day, you’ve got to do what’s right for your career, and this is the right move. I’m excited about it, and am excited about where I can get to as a player. This is a great place to be doing it.”Having met with Peter Moores and Mike Watkinson, the ambition they’ve got at this brilliant venue is exciting. That’s something I want to be a part of. It is a massive club. As I walked in with my agent Neil Fairbrother, I realise this is a huge place. Coming from Somerset, which is quite a small club, you realise this is a big club, and I’m excited to be a part of it.”Buttler’s Lancashire debut may have to wait. He is expected to be required by England for their one-day series in the West Indies in March followed by the World T20 in Bangladesh at the start of April. Before then Buttler has a month-long trip with the England Performance Programme to Australia, alongside new Lancashire team-mate Simon Kerrigan and is likely to be selected on England Lions’ tour of Sri Lanka in January.

With the Lalit Modi episode set to conclude in Chennai on September 25, the BCCI is likely to initiate disciplinary proceedings against Inderjit Singh Bindra, the man who helped Modi make headway into cricket administration.Bindra, a former BCCI president and ICC principal advisor, has emerged as Modi’s only supporter as a special general meeting is set to act upon a disciplinary committee report and ban the latter from cricket administration for life. Bindra has opposed the board’s handling of the spot-fixing scandal in a working committee meeting on June 2 and has been critical of board and its policies in his blogs and on his Twitter page.”BCCI is as usual in fixing game… trying to fix Lalit Modi to cover up exposure of 10,000 crores,” Bindra tweeted on Thursday, attaching a few confidential documents, including minutes of a few BCCI meetings.It wasn’t the first time that Bindra had criticised the board and as a result, the BCCI is contemplating disciplinary action against him. The first step will obviously be to issue a show cause notice to him for having “tarnished the BCCI’s image”. However, a BCCI insider said: “It’s unlikely that the action will be initiated before the AGM.”To add to his criticism – including writing an open letter in June to ICC Board members to “disallow Srinivasan from attending any ICC meeting” until the enquiry against his son-in-law’s alleged involvement in the IPL spot-fixing scandal was complete – Bindra publicly endorsed Haroon Lorgat’s candidature for the post of Cricket South Africa chief executive.While Srinivasan and his top executives had categorically spelled out their “concerns” to CSA officials during a meeting in Chennai in March, Bindra, who doesn’t hold a position in BCCI anymore, went ahead and endorsed Lorgat, allegedly in a capacity that extended beyond his position as Punjab Cricket Association president.”He has supported Lorgat on behalf of BCCI. It’s a serious breach of BCCI rules and the whole episode has irked everyone in the BCCI, especially the president,” an official said.While Bindra has clashed with the current Srinivasan regime, he has been in controversies much before Srinivasan or Modi entered cricket administration. In 2000, during the match-fixing scandal, Bindra claimed, in an interview with CNN, that Manoj Prabhakar told him it was Kapil Dev who had offered to bribe him for throwing a match.The BCCI had issued a show cause notice to Bindra at the time, but he didn’t heed it. Though he wasn’t suspended, the issue was resolved after the Punjab Cricket Association assured the BCCI that he would not attend any board meeting for two years.

Cricket South Africa will host its first transformation ‘indaba’ (conference) in Johannesburg in more than a decade this weekend to review the progress of its ability to reach out to previously disadvantaged groups. The meeting will focus on the transformation policy and assess where it can improve in providing facilities, resources and access in previously disadvantaged communities, with particular emphasis to black African areas.The organisation admitted that in the past they, “might have been policy complaint without achieving real transformation” and there is evidence of such in the numbers. Since South Africa’s readmission in 1991, 81 players have played Test cricket, of which only five – Makhaya Ntini, Mfuneko Ngam, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Thami Tsolekile and Monde Zondeki – are black Africans.Last season was the first time a black African was in charge of a franchise. Geoffrey Toyana was appointed at the Lions and had a successful debut season winning the domestic T20 competition and sharing the one-day cup in 2012-13. In an attempt to increase representation, earlier this year, Linda Zondi, a former black African KwaZulu-Natal wicketkeeper, was appointed to the national selection panel.The indaba will focus on seven broad streams, including governance, procurement of goods/services and appointment of staff, professional cricket, amateur cricket, funding, transformation legacy/history, selection of teams/appointment of officials.”Transformation: ‘time to do the right thing’, will be the theme behind our indaba,” said CSA President Chris Nenzani. “”We should remind ourselves that it is also a constitutional imperative and we owe it to all the people of our country to make sure that the playing field is level for everyone. In the past we might have been policy compliant without achieving real transformation and the time has arrived for that to change.”Haroon Lorgat, CSA CEO, said that one of the first steps he had taken since assuming office was to appoint a dedicated transformation manager, Max Jordaan, in his executive team.”Transformation must be in our hearts and minds and I have noticed a willingness from all stakeholders, in particular, the Proteas who have been a driving force in recent times,” Lorgat said. “As our senior role models they would also be the ultimate beneficiaries of all the good that we intend to achieve.”There have also been some fantastic initiatives recently such as the Momentum eKasi Challenge and I hope to develop this across the country before the start of every new season.”The last conference on transformation took place in 2002.

Scotland Saltires player Ruaidhri Smith has been deemed ineligible for next month’s Europe Under-19 Regional qualifier by the ICC.Ruaidhri Smith, who played for Scotland in the 2012 U-19 World Cup and made his debut for the Saltires this season, was ruled out due to ICC’s development criteria in the player eligibility regulations. According to the criteria, which players must meet to participate in development events, a cricketer must have played a certain percentage of cricket in his domestic league. In Ruaidhri Smith’s case, his family moved to England when he was young so he doesn’t meet the criterion. If Scotland qualify again for the U-19 World Cup, however, then Ruaidhri Smith could play the tournament.Cricket Scotland chief executive Roddy Smith termed the decision “ridiculous” and said the board had appealed to the ICC: “We applied for an ‘exceptional circumstances’ exemption on the basis that Ruaidhri has already represented Scotland at last year’s U-19 World Cup. The ICC acknowledged this but basically told us ‘rules are rules’.””In fairness, I think the ICC realise there are anomalies in their qualification rules,” Roddy Smith said. “We don’t think the development criteria should apply to a player who was born in the country. It is also ridiculous that different eligibility rules apply to the qualifying event and the main World Cup itself.”The ICC defended its decision. “As per the ICC’s player eligibility regulations, the development criteria apply to a range of ICC development events,” an ICC spokesperson said. “Therefore only players that meet the development criteria (as well as the core criteria that all players in all events must meet) can participate in the upcoming ICC Europe U-19 Regional Qualifier. Although Mr Smith played for Scotland in the U-19 Cricket World Cup in 2012, he does not meet the development criteria and therefore is unable to participate in this regional qualifier.”