All posts by csb10.top

There was no shortage of incident on the first day of this match, althoughnothing could match the drama of the downward spiral that marked the end of theHighveld Strikers’ first innings.In a minor and somewhat meaningless competition for those teams which didn’treach the Super Eight phase of the Supersport Series, in which all threematches thus far have been drawn, a result seems inevitable after 17 wicketsfell on day one, unless the weather gods intervene.The home side, put in by Griquas captain Wendell Bossenger, had progressedrelatively uneventfully to 170 for four when the carnage started, withoff spinner Martyn Gidley getting a touch as Marthinus Otto drove onestraight down the pitch and running out Geoffrey Toyana, who was backing up,for 10.Two runs and a handful of overs later, the Strikers were back in the hut andGriquas’ paceman Zahir Abrahim had a devastating spell of five for two infive overs under his belt, including the scalps of Brendan Horan, NeilFusedale and Johnson Mafa, all bowled for ducks in the space of five balls,to end the innings.As undignified as that collapse was, though, Griquas didn’t fare muchbetter, with opener Gidley holding his end up while wickets tumbled aroundhim as the visitors were reduced to 93 for seven. Mafa took four for 22 in ahostile nine-over spell after tea from the Golf Course End, the same endfrom which Abrahim had earlier sown destruction.Abrahim continued his major contribution, however, helping Gidley arrest theslump as he hit Mafa out of the attack and at the close, he had 28 out of anunbroken stand of 33 with Gidley, who was on 56, leaving Griquas on 126 forseven, 46 behind.

While trying his best to ignore the chorus predicting him to be the first batsman to find his way out of the Australian Test team this summer, Ed Cowan is out to change a few perceptions.Chief among these is the view that he is a defensive batsman, a “one-pace plodder” good only for holding up one end while David Warner and others prosper.Cowan admits that at times over his first seven Tests he was unable to find the balance between attack and defence that allowed him to produce the compelling sequence of scores – 91, 4, 134*, 145, 10, 65, 145* and 109 – that vaulted him into the national team.This time around he wants to play his shots a little more freely, batting with the kind of instinct he showed in a recent domestic limited overs game for Tasmania against Victoria at the MCG.”That’s really important for me,” Cowan told ESPNcricinfo. “I’m at my best when I’m defending well but I’m still an attacking batsman, rather than a defensive batsman who’s defending well and trying to fashion runs any way they can. When I’m playing well I’m putting away the bad ball but leaving and defending the good ball.”It sounds simple but it’s sometimes easier said than done. Sometimes in Sheffield Shield cricket, on a few of the wickets we do play on, you can sometimes get a bit defensive. But to trust your instincts on good Test match wickets was a big lesson I took out of the West Indies, particularly that last innings [55 in Dominica], just backing myself to score around the ground as I know I can.”That performance at Windsor Park, in which he outpaced Ricky Ponting on a sharply turning surface, demonstrated the sort of quality Cowan’s team-mates and the national selectors value. Yet his inability thus far to go on to a major score is the prime reason for doubt about his place and criticism of his method. Cowan is entering the South Africa series without the runs he made a year ago, but with greater familiarity for international cricket’s demands, both from the other end and the other side of the fence.”One thing was coming in with runs last year and probably being a little disappointed to not score more,” Cowan said. “This year I feel like I’ve been playing well but not got the big runs, but as frustrating as that is, I’ve known the judgement will come from here on. I feel like I’m in a good place technically and mentally to make runs, having seen what is required.”I don’t think anyone that has criticised me on how I’m playing this season has seen me bat, so I’m not particularly worried about that. I feel like my game is suited to Test cricket, particularly Test cricket in Australia and hard, fast pitches. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion and the only way to really prove your point is to score, and make runs the currency that really counts.”To give himself the best chance of making those runs, Cowan has worked on conserving mental energy. He admitted to wasting some of his sharpness on over-training last summer, and also while bouncing around the Australian team room in his efforts to “fit in”. Tasmania have seen a subtly more reserved Cowan this season, as he kept half an eye on the battle ahead.”In a new group that’s always a risk of trying to, not impose yourself on a group, but fit in,” Cowan said. “You go to every length to make sure that you’re doing absolutely everything at full tilt, which is important in terms of preparation but I was probably at some stages maybe going over the top with that. Not necessarily in preparation but on game days sometimes, like doing lots of fielding before a fielding day.”The trick is knowing when you can conserve a little bit of energy, and that’s not in the lead-up days, but around the Test match there are probably places. The preparation over the last six weeks has been about knowing it is going to take a lot of mental energy to perform over the coming weeks, so while I’ve been pouring every effort into helping Tasmania win, just knowing there’s a big series around the corner.”Even if he has been described as being in a battle with the debutant Rob Quiney for retention beyond the Gabba, Cowan is happy to have been joined by another left-hander who has had to push his way into the Test team through weight of runs over the past two summers. Cowan reckoned his new team-mate had benefited from being given a consistent opening role with Victoria, much as he had grown from doing the same with Tasmania.”It’s another win for people who can add to the culture of teams and not detract from it,” Cowan said. “Talking to any domestic player you’d know how talented Rob is, and it was just a question of him finding consistency. It probably came about through getting a job, which in his case was opening the batting for an extended period of time.”He was one of those guys who batted at six or five, opened for a game and was then back to six, and I saw it myself moving to Tassie, how much that can improve your game just knowing that you’re playing and you’ve got a job to do. I don’t think anyone was surprised by his last 12 months or so. He’s been a good player for a very long time.”

Lahore Blues moved into the final of the National One-day Junior (Under-19) Grade-I Cricket Tournament with an easy six-wicket victory over Fata at Gaddafi Stadium Friday.Lahore Blues’ second win in the triangular series was set up by pacer Wahab Riaz’s four wickets and an unbeaten 54 from Asim Ijaz.Set a modest target of 152, Lahore Blues occupied the crease for 46.5 overs with Asim striking four boundaries in his 120-ball innings. Earlier, Fata, who lost the toss, were bowled out for 151 in 40.3 overs.Left-arm pacer Wahab, who gave away 31 runs for his four wickets was ably supported by leg-spinner Raheel Abbas.Raheel was economical as he conceded just 16 runs while snapping up three wickets.Mumtaz Afridi, who was left high and dry on an undefeated 36 and opener Johar Hussain (29) were the only Fata batsmen to make significant contributions.

Cornwall 254/9 & 157/2 (CM Gazzard 65, PCL Holloway 80*)
Berkshire 260 (S Wyatt 84*, CE Shreck 5-97)Norfolk 239-8d & 136/3
Buckinghamshire 138Cheshire 229
Oxfordshire 0-0Devon 388/8 & 182/7 (JJ Williams 61, RI Dawson 55, A O’Connor 6-66)
Shropshire 166 (D Williamson 53*) & 29/2Herefordshire 348/6. Wales 7/1 no play today – rainLincolnshire 295/7d & 46/1
Staffordshire 330/5d (SJ Dean 133)Wiltshire 183 (KR Blackburn 59, SR Woolbridge 6-38) & 76/2
Dorset 392-8.

PERTH, Aug 14 AAP – Australian vice-captain Adam Gilchrist hopes player threats to boycott next month’s Champions Trophy and next year’s World Cup over a sponsorship wrangle can be quickly resolved.His comments today came as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) indicated it would send a second-string team to the Champions Trophy if its players didn’t sign International Cricket Council (ICC) agreements for the Sri Lankan tournament.Plans for the two major international one-day tournaments are up in the air after leading players associations, including the Australian Cricketers Association, advised members against signing player agreements for the Champions Trophy starting September 12.The World Cup to be held early next year in South Africa faces a similar problem as the International Cricket Council will not budge on its efforts to protect major sponsors.The stand-off could create a major headache for the sport’s biggest names if players’ personal endorsements conflicted with those of ICC-backed events.Gilchrist, the 30-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman, said it was a delicate situation.But he didn’t think any cricketers truly wanted to boycott such major events and felt a viable solution would be found.”I don’t know the individual status on sponsors, but it is fair to say any cricketer doesn’t like the word boycott in regards to any issue,” he said.”That is something that can hopefully be avoided.”And as I said the administrators are there working through it so I’m sure we will come out with an equitable result.”Though the BCCI is officially falling in line with the ICC, there does seem to be an undercurrent of sympathy for the players according to India’s Hindustan Times.It said Indian players had met this week on tour and decided to continue to defy the BCCI.Former Indian captain Ravi Shastri said the Indian cricketers should protect their interests.”It is high time the players stand up for themselves,” he told the Hindustan Times.”As far as India is concerned it should send an under-19 team to the ICC Cup. That way the first casualty will be the ICC itself.”India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are the only three Test playing nations which don’t have player associations.One of the major grievances over the agreements is they restrict players’ endorsement prospects up until 2007.ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said it was vital to protect against ambush marketing tactics because of the $1 billion worth of rights at stake at ICC events.Speed has said national boards had agreed to certain personal endorsement and sponsorship restrictions for ICC events until 2007.

FULL NAME: Ryan Jason King
BORN: At Kwekwe, 6 March 1979
MAJOR TEAMS: Matabeleland (1998/99 and 2000/01), CFX Academy (1999/2000).Present club side: Queens Sports Club (Bulawayo)
KNOWN AS: Ryan King. Nickname: Jumbo (inherited from his father).
BATTING STYLE: Right Hand Bat
BOWLING STYLE: Right Arm Off Breaks
OCCUPATION: CFX Academy studentFIRST-CLASS DEBUT: Matabeleland v Mashonaland A, at Bulawayo AthleticClub, 19-21 January 1999
TEST DEBUT: Still awaited
ODI DEBUT: Still awaitedBIOGRAPHY (updated April 2002)Ryan King was one of the few 2000 Academy students to have had first-class experience before the start of the 1999/2000 season, having opened the innings for Matabeleland in a Logan Cup match the previous season. He was also the Academy team vice-captain, and led the side in their victorious Logan Cup match against Midlands in the absence of the injured Paul Strang.Ryan’s father John played cricket for Plumtree and the Matabeleland Under-19 team. He first introduced Ryan to the game at home. "My dad was a real big influence in my cricket," Ryan says, describing how they used to play on the family tennis court.The family lived in Kwekwe until moving to Bulawayo when Ryan was aged nine, when he was already in the small Goldridge school first team. He still remembers the `close unit’ they had at the school, when all ages were friends together and used to practise together in their spare time.In Bulawayo Ryan first attended Whitestone Primary School, where he captained the school team in his final year. He played for the Matabeleland team in the national primary schools cricket week for two years, and in the second was selected for the national side. His best school performance was a century opening the batting against Petra School, with a couple of eighties. He also bowled at times, mostly off-spin with a few leg-breaks.He moved to Falcon College for high school, a contemporary of Neil Ferreira, and the two opened the batting together throughout their school careers from the primary schools week onward. They also opened the batting together in the national schools sides at Under-13, Under-15 and Under-18 levels. "We really know each other’s batting, and running between the wickets as an opening partnership is very important, running the singles, and we enjoy batting together," he says. They travelled to Bloemfontein for the Under-13 and Under-15 sides and Benoni at Under-18 level for the South African schools weeks. His most successful tour was at Under-13 level, when his record included 67 against Natal.At Falcon, Ryan’s highest score was 114 against Christian Brothers College in Bulawayo, closely followed by 108 against Plumtree. That year his average was 42.2, and he was one of the few to score 1000 runs for the school, alongside such school heroes of the past as Dave Curtis and Glen Bruk-Jackson. He captained the side during his final year, but says, "I didn’t perform as well as I did before because of the pressure of being captain and thinking of the team. But I really enjoyed the challenge of captaincy overall." In a match against St John’s he also took five wickets for 42 runs with leg-spin.After leaving school at the end of 1998 Neil Ferreira joined the Academy, but Ryan went to Australia for a year, playing in two cricket seasons there. His uncles live in Australia, so he stayed with them on the Gold Coast near Brisbane, where they run a golf course. They arranged for Ryan to play in a club there while he repaid them by working for them at various jobs – "construction to labour to barman to cleaning toilets – pretty much anything!" Ryan played for the local club Palm Beach and also for Dolphins who play in the Brisbane competition, captained by Andrew Symonds and also containing Queensland players Scott Muller and Matthew Mott. The club president at the time was Craig McDermott.Ryan played first-grade cricket for Palm Beach and second-grade for Dolphins. "It’s very competitive," he says, and thinks first-grade cricket there and Logan Cup cricket in Zimbabwe are similar in standard of play. His best score was an eighty in the second grade.Ryan returned to Zimbabwe for Christmas 1998 and was quickly selected for the Matabeleland Logan Cup side. He scored 41 in the first innings and impressed national coach Dave Houghton enough to be encouraged to apply for the Academy. While still at school he played club cricket at times for Bulawayo Athletic Club, scoring a few fifties for them, but joined Queens on his return to the country. Just before moving up to the Academy in Harare he scored his first club century, 108 against MacDonald Club."I think the Academy has been very well organized and if you’re a hard worker you can really get some valuable points out of being here," he says. "We’ve had Bob Woolmer and Carl Rackemann come and talk to us, and if you just listen and take in the information you can improve your game. I felt it was an honour to captain the Academy side against Midlands, and we won, which I was very happy about."During the 2000 English season Ryan signed a contract with Liverpool Nalgo, who play in the first division of the Merseyside competition, his first experience of playing in that country. "That went very well and I learned a lot there," he said, "with the different pitches and facilities and how they played a different game. I got used to the pitches, which were much slower, and I scored a lot of runs; I top-scored for the club side."For his hard work and positive attitude Ryan won the `Academy Student of the Year’ award for 2000, a Gray-Nicholls cricket bat. He was posted back to Matabeleland to play and coach, but found it difficult to put large innings together for a while. "I do gym and practise in the mornings, coach in the afternoons and practise in the evenings," he says. "I’m learning a lot through playing with people like Heath Streak and Mluleki Nkala." He finally reached a maiden first-class fifty opening the innings against the CFX Academy, a dour but determined effort that laid a firm foundation for a match-winning total.The 2001/02 season became a further struggle for him with the bat, and many were questioning his place in the Matabeleland team. He was appointed captain for the first match, but then superseded by Colin Williams, still without finding his form."I think it’s mental, to be honest," he said. "I try and protect my wicket too much when I should be out there playing my shots. I’ve got to overcome that. I’m a pretty positive person so I think I’ll get through that. But I’m really enjoying my cricket, and I really love the sport and I want to make more of all the opportunities I’ve been given. I set very high standards for myself and I don’t think I’ve lived up to them. I need to perform better if I am to keep cricket as my career."Ryan feels his main strength is his front-foot driving, while he also likes to hook and cut. He is working at present to improve his back-foot play. "I love the challenge of opening, getting the shine off the new ball, working ones and twos, getting a nice base on the scoreboard and then we can play our shots," he says. He generally fields in the cover or midwicket area and is working very hard on this area of the game.Naming the coaches who have helped him the most over his career, Ryan names his father first of all, along with Bill Flower, who coached him at Under-13 level and still gives him regular advice. He also names Noel Peck, former national pace bowler and groundsman at Queens. "Every lunchtime he would come and bowl to me, or get a bowling machine, and tell me what to do," Ryan says. "He’s a big help to me, always preparing pitches for me and giving me good advice." Also providing valuable advice were Graham Mackie, the Dolphins coach in Australia, and he had a session with Jimmy Cook once.He has also found Dave Houghton an inspiration as a coach. "Everything he tells me is so worthwhile," said Ryan. "Other people can tell you things, and you can either take them or throw them away, but when Dave tells you something, it is so true. I think I need to come back and get more advice from him as I did when I was at the Academy."Ryan continues to play and coach in Matabeleland and hopes to continue under contract to the Zimbabwe Cricket Union in the future.Cricket heroes: "Grant Flower. I really admire the way he works out his game and how hard he trains, how much he puts into preparing for a game. He’s a really hard worker, and we’re both opening batsmen. Also Steve Waugh for mental toughness; I think he’s brilliant. Sometimes he never looks like getting anything, but he’ll end up getting a hundred. And Sir Donald Bradman."Toughest opponents: "Raymond Price and Bryan Strang. Bryan Strang I find very hard to read; he disguises his balls very well. I’ve played a lot against Adam Huckle; he turns the ball a lot and he’s a very good bowler."Immediate ambitions: "My main ambition is to play for the national side. I managed to get into the squad for the development side playing in the ICC tournament here, and by the end of the year my ambition is to represent either the Zimbabwe A side or the Board team."Proudest achievement: "Whenever I contribute with my batting to a good team score, when I get an eighty or 100 and I know I’ve done my job and the team has won because of it. I can name one when I got an 80 against Peterhouse at school, when everyone was going out and I had to stay there and try to save the game. I batted with our last batsman (Ian Coulson, I think) and I rotated the strike; I was on 30 when he came in, and we ended up winning, getting 145."Best friends in cricket: "Neil Ferreira – we’ve been together for so long that we know each other, and when one of us is going through a hard time we can help each other out. I’d like to get back and start opening the batting with him again."Other qualifications: "I did a sporting fitness course in Australia which got me a certificate. When I came back I did a lot of marketing with my father in his business, which is raw materials, and I did a few courses while I did that."Other sports: "I’ve represented the Zimbabwe Under-15 and Under-19 sides at hockey; I’ve played rugby in my junior years; I’ve played polocrosse for Zimbabwe Under-13; and I was captain of first-team tennis at Falcon."Other interests and hobbies: "I love reading about sportsmen. I’ve just read a book about Michael Johnson and found it very interesting: his goals, how he did it, what he’s achieved, how he goes about training, what he does to focus. I enjoy being social with friends, going out for a drink and getting away from the pressures."Views on cricket: "I think that what’s happening now in Zimbabwe is very good. As Dave Houghton was telling us last year at the Academy, he wants to try and get every province professional, and I think this is the first year that we have all the provinces playing and some ex-Academy batsmen, and you can actually see it is helping. I think in five years’ time Zimbabwe cricket will be very good. This longer game is very good and I think you need more of it, two rounds of the Logan Cup. I think we also need to play something like they do in South Africa, play a one-day competition between the provinces and then a four-day competition."

A quick look at the scorecard might suggest that this was another case of win the toss and win the match. In fact, the rapid Essex demise having been put in by Warwickshire had more to do with some indifferent batting against good bowling supported by efficient fielding. It appeared that Essex had an unquenchable belief in their invincibility as they produced a series of reckless strokes that could have carried them to glory, but it was the Warwickshire batsmen who called, and played, all the shots to bring an early finish to the last-ever Benson and Hedges Cup final as they won by five wickets.Warwickshire captain Michael Powell would have been more than happy to win the toss on an overcast morning. He was even happier when the second ball of the day from Shaun Pollock from the Nursery end saw Nasser Hussain, averaging over a hundred in one-day cricket at the time, nibbling at it as it went down the slope to be caught by wicket-keeper Keith Piper.Graham Napier came in with the intent of taking the game to Warwickshire, even from this early stage, and for a time succeeded. With Darren Robinson unfurling some elegant strokes, particularly through the off-side, and Napier on the charge, it appeared that Hussain’s dismissal might have been a momentary aberration on the part of Essex.Subsequent events proved otherwise. There was a touch of farce about Napier’s dismissal when it came in the eighth over. A shot to deep square leg went to Jamie Troughton, whose throw was on the way when Napier decided not to take the third run on which he had embarked. As he regained his ground without any undue urgency, the return hit the stumps, the batsmen went for an overthrow, but a television replay showed that Napier was out at the moment when the throw from Troughton hit the stumps direct.Next ball, from Neil Carter, John Stephenson got an inside edge and dragged the ball onto his stumps for his fourth duck in the competition this season. He might be keener that most to see the end of the competition.Three overs later, Robinson played a horrible swish against Carter and only succeeded in sending the ball high into the covers where Dougie Brown took a simple catch.Enter the talismanic figure of Ronnie Irani, captain, saviour and hero of all Essex. For a time he and Andy Flower stabilised the innings and there was the possibility of a revival. The pair had put on 21 runs that, in the circumstances, represented a major advance before Irani drove tamely at Brown to send a catch out to Neil Smith at mid-off.In Smith’s first over of off-spin, the 25th and scheduled halfway mark of the innings, Flower tried to glance down the leg-side, got an edge and Piper took the catch to leave Essex struggling deep in the mire at 86 for six.Aftab Habib was next to go, moving down the pitch to Ashley Giles and clipping a simple catch to Nick Knight at short mid-wicket that did not extend the former Essex player’s powers as one of the best fielders in the game. The catch to mid-on offered to Powell by Jon Dakin off Brown left Essex on 134 for eight in the 43rd over was equally simple.Paul Grayson, who had come in amid the carnage at eight in the order, and Ashley Cowan demonstrated what could be done with sensible application. They did not manage the boundaries that might have given Essex some sort of total to be defended, but to occupy the crease for the full 50 overs at least gave an air of respectability that at one time appeared unlikely. Cowan even managed a boundary in the final over – the previous one had been recorded in the 23rd – to finish on 27, while Grayson made 38 as they added 47 from 48 balls.Warwickshire began their reply at a rate of knots. Eight runs came off Irani’s first over of the innings. But the slender hopes of the men from the east were raised by the fall of two wickets in the space of six balls.Cowan struck first when he induced a catch behind by Powell when he had 11 and the score was 19. It had advanced by just two runs when Knight edged Irani through to Flower to elicit thoughts of a real contest that never quite materialised.Ian Bell demonstrated his burgeoning class while Troughton, the son and grandson of actors, displayed no nerves on the big stage as the pair launched into a third wicket partnership that made the game safe for Warwickshire. They added 84 in 12 overs with 14 fours. There had been but nine in the entire Essex innings.Irani switched and changed his bowlers, but to no effect. The Warwickshire pair went to a 50 partnership in 29 balls as the ball flew to all parts from all bowlers. There might have been the odd stroke that did not come off the middle of the bat, but the aggression of the partnership deserved a little fortune and the lack of quality in the bowling did not.It came to an end when the sixth bowler to be used, Napier, persuaded Troughton to chase a wide one to give Flower his third catch of the innings. There had been eight fours in Troughton’s innings of 37 off only 33 balls.Pollock joined Bell, who went to his fifty from 66 balls with seven fours with a push into the covers off Cowan. There was no stopping Warwickshire as soon as Pollock picked up the rhythm of the innings, even when Pollock drove Irani high to mid-off and Stephenson got Trevor Penney lbw in the next over.Warwickshire eased to the target with a minimum of fuss, thanks to the calm assurance of Bell which must surely have impressed the England captain, Hussain, who for once was forced to look on helplessly as Brown clipped the winning runs through midwicket off the second ball of the 37th over.

A patient unbeaten hundred from opener Akash Chopra and his undefeated 70-run seventh wicket partnership with Sarandeep Singh has kept North Zone in the hunt for the vital first-innings lead in their Duleep Trophy tie against Central Zone. When stumps were drawn at the end of the second day’s play at the Maharani Usharaje Trust Cricket Ground, Indore, North had reached 288 for six in reply to Central’s first innings total of 368.In the morning, Central Zone’s Devendra Bundela completed a well-deserved hundred. The middle-order batsman eventually reached 116 before running out of partners. North’s new ball bowler Vineet Sharma, who claimed the last two Central wickets, was the most successful bowler for the visitors, claiming four scalps. Sarandeep Singh also ended up with four wickets but he conceded 142 runs in the bargain.When North’s replied, Chopra and Vikram Rathour (33) added 62 runs for the first wicket before the latter fell. No. 4 Shafiq Khan was another batsman who was involved in a fruitful stand with Chopra at the top of the order. Khan, who made 28, added 51 for the third wicket with Chopra before finding himself out lbw.At 127 for three, North appeared to have the platform on which to build a healthy total. But the fall of their next two wickets for next to nothing plunged them into deep trouble.Fortunately for them, former India wicketkeeper Vijay Dahiya, who came in next, proved useful in helping Chopra mount the first stage of the salvage operation. Wielding the long handle to good effect, Dahiya clouted six fours and a six on his way to a rapid 33 off 45 balls before hearing the death rattle. His sixth wicket partnership of 50 runs with Chopra ensured that the North total regained a semblance of respectability.Next came an even better partnership, in fact the best of the North innings, as a cavalier Sarandeep provided the ideal foil to the steady Chopra. The duo put on 90 runs for the unbroken seventh wicket that also saw Chopra reach his 100 off 209 balls. At the end of the day’s play, Chopra was batting on 113 off 242 balls, an innings laced with 18 fours, while Sarandeep was on 48 off 69 balls.

Central Zone crushed South by an innings and 147 runs in the VijayHazare Trophy (Under-16) tournament quarterfinal match at the MaharajaJayachamaraja Wodayar Sports Centre in Bangalore on Friday. CentralZone now take on East Zone in the semifinals from February 4 to 6 atBangalore.The reality was that South Zone were well and truly beaten by aninspired Central Zone team in all departments of the game be itbatting or bowling. If the day was dominated by their skipper TahirAbbas’ (212 not out) willow, Central Zone’s new ball bowler DevendraSingh (5 for 40) was not to be left far behind as he demolished SouthZone for the second time in the match to pick up match figures of 9for 111.Resuming at 284 for 4, Tahir Abbas and Rahar Ilahi (84) took the scorealong to 316, when the latter was sent back to the pavilion, caught byNalin Reddy off I Varun. The partnership between Tahir and Ilahiextended to 142 runs for the fourth wicket. During a 141 minute stayat the center, Ilahi needed just 99 balls to score his runs, whichcame by mainly in the form of 19 boundaries. The dismissal of Ilahibrought Gaurav Tikkas (105) to the crease. But Tahir was not finishedyet and in the company of Tikkas he tormented the South attack for afurther 45.1 overs, plundering a 189 run stand.Tahir’s innings was studded with 29 boundaries in all while requiring374 balls during his near eight hour long stay at the crease. GauravTikkas gave ample company for his captain but more important was thefact that he scored his runs at will. He needed only 67 balls to reachhis fifty and a further 62 balls to bring up his century. Afterbatting for close to two sessions on the final day the Central Zone skipper declared the innings at the fall of Tikkas. After a 165 minute stay at themiddle Tikkas offered a return catch to Nalin Reddy in the 131st overof the innings.Set to score 226 runs for a win, South Zone never looked in the race.The first innings tormentor came back to bundle out South Zone for apaltry 79 in 27.2 overs. Vivek Yadav set the ball rolling for CentralZone when he got rid of Prasanth Peter (6) in the fourth over of theinnings. Then Devendra Singh got into the act and before long SouthZone were tottering at 49 for 6 at the end of the 17th over.Thereafter it was only a matter of time for Central Zone to ensure awell deserved win. Praveen Gupta (2 for 6) and Avinash Yadav (1 for11) shared the other wickets.

Nasser Hussain is to play his first competitive game since returning home from England’s triumphant Test series victory in Sri Lanka.

Hussain is named in the Essex squad to play Northants tomorrow in the first division of the CricInfo Championship. He is just one of a number of centrally contracted players to return to the county game as the competition enters full swing.Graham Thorpe is included in the Surrey squad for tomorrow’s clash with title contenders Lancashire at Old Trafford. Thorpe will further enforce an already strong batting line up, but Lancashire can at least take some solace in the fact that Alec Stewart is to miss the game. Martin Bicknell has a shoulder niggle, but is expected to play.Thorpe will face England team mate Mike Atherton, who is returning to the Lancashire team for the first time this season, while the off-spin of Muralitharan will boost the bowling attack.Muralitharan was positive about Lancashire’s chances of success this year: “I think Lancashire can do it this time,” he said. “I’m glad to be back and I will give 100%. It could be that county batsmen have more idea of how to play me now but I think I am a better bowler than I was two years ago.”Yorkshire have named both Michael Vaughan and Matthew Hoggard of the centrally contracted players in their squad to take on Kent. Darren Gough and Craig White enjoy some further rest prior to the rigours of a long international summer.Similarly for Somerset, Marcus Trescothick is expected to play while Andy Caddick is rested for their game with Glamorgan at CardiffDominic Cork also returns to captain Derbyshire in their encounter with Middlesex, but Ashley Giles is to sit out the first few weeks of the season in order to allow a troublesome tendon injury to heal.