India 203 (Harbhajan 37, Kabir Ali 4-45) beat England 164 (Pietersen 46, Harbhajan 5-31) by 39 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Harbhajan Singh bounced back from his disappointing Test series with an allround performance to savour, as England were sent tumbling to a 39-run defeat in the first one-day international at Delhi.Having managed just eight wickets in 148.4 overs in the Tests, Harbhajan at last showed a glimpse of his true colours with the second five-wicket haul of his one-day career, as India successfully defended a meagre total of 203. And that was not all – had it not been for his hard-hitting 37 in the latter stages of a disappointing batting performance, that total would have been considerably less defendable.After being asked to bat first on an improbably grassy pitch, India’s innings started aggressively, stuttered timidly as Kabir Ali and James Anderson got the better of the top order, and had slumped to a nadir of 147 for 7 before Harbhajan got stuck in with his unique brand of willow-wielding.His 46-ball effort included three fours and a vast six off Liam Plunkett, and lifted his side past the psychologically significant 200-barrier. For all that England had performed creditably – Ali in particular who bowled a fast, full length that invited a reckless response – their failure to chase similar totals in Pakistan before Christmas was a warning of problems to come.Sure enough, England’s reply got off to the worst possible start, as Irfan Pathan burst out of the blocks in the manner that had reaped him a first-over hat-trick against Pakistan in the recent Karachi Test. Andrew Strauss and Owais Shah were his victims this time, bamboozled by fast, full, swinging deliveries that in one instance grazed the edge of the bat, and in the other, arced into the knee-roll for the most plumb lbw imaginable.When Matt Prior, who has not yet convinced as an opening batsmen, swept loosely to backward square-leg to give Harbhajan the first of his five victims, England had slipped to 57 for 3, and it was clear that they had a serious battle on their hands. Even so, with Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff in harness, and a meagre target in their sights, India were soon forced onto the back foot by a range of exquisite attacking strokes.For eight overs, it seemed there could be only one winner. Pietersen set the tone with a series of six boundaries in three overs, including five trademark whips through midwicket and a thumping cut-drive for four. Flintoff, after a circumspect start, followed his team-mate’s lead with two massive sixes and a lofted drive for four off Sreesanth, but no sooner had he moved past 40 for the seventh international innings out of seven, the performance started to unravel.Unsurprisingly, it was India’s spinners who scrambled England’s brains and turned a walk in the park into a tiptoe through a minefield. Yuvraj Singh made the key breakthrough as Pietersen hoisted a full-toss to deep midwicket, but when Flintoff followed without addition as missed an attempted sweep off Harbhajan, there was no looking back. One over later Geraint Jones’s poor tour with the bat had been compounded by a now pumped-up Harbhajan, who deceived him with a beautifully flighted yorker.England had lost three wickets for three runs, and at 120 for 6, their performance was in freefall. Ian Blackwell was expertly caught on the boundary as he too fell victim to the dreaded sweep, while Paul Collingwood was brilliantly snaffled by Mohammad Kaif at short leg, as Harbhajan tweaked another one out of the rough. Anderson and Liam Plunkett added 22 composed runs for the tenth wicket to give England a glimmer of hope, but Pathan returned to finish what he had started, ending with the superb figures of 3 for 21.Earlier in the day it had been India’s batsmen who were hell-bent on self-destruction, with Ali and Anderson combining with the new ball to reduce them to 68 for 4. Virender Sehwag was once again undone by the bouncer, Gautam Gambhir spoiled a feisty innings with a limp prod to the keeper, and when the middle-order of Kaif and Yuvraj mustered five runs between them, all eyes fell on India’s captain, Rahul Dravid, who had been dropped on 0 by Shah at first slip.He had ground his way to 34 when Plunkett burst through his defences with a high-kicking length ball, and though Suresh Raina and Irfan Pathan repaired some of the damage with a painstaking partnership of 58, it wasn’t until Harbhajan came to the middle to produce the highest score of the innings that India truly believed they had a total they could fight for. With Harbhajan himself at the forefront of the defence, it proved in fact to be more than adequate.

How they were out

India
Virender Sehwag c Plunkett b Anderson 7 (17 for 1)
Defeated by yet another short ball, top-edged pull to midwicketGautam Gambhir c Jones b Ali 25 (56 for 2)
Good-length delivery, faint edge to defensive pushYuvraj Singh b Ali 1 (58 for 3)
Forcing off back foot, inside-edge onto stumpsMohammad Kaif run out 4 (68 for 4)
Quick single, bat airborne at moment of impactRahul Dravid b Plunkett 34 (80 for 5)
Perfect length, inside-edge onto back leg then stumpsSuresh Raina c Collingwood b Plunkett 24 (138 for 6)
Hitting over the top, skewed drive to mid-onIrfan Pathan c Plunkett b Anderson 28 (147 for 7)
Swipe across the line, fine low catch off leading edge at mid-offMahendra Singh Dhoni c Collingwood b Plunkett 20 (201 for 8)
Short and wide, slapped to pointHarbhajan Singh c Flintoff b Ali 37 (203 for 9)
Driven low to coverSreesanth c Pietersen b Ali 0 (203 for 10)
Slower ball driven high into the coversEngland
Andrew Strauss c Dhoni b Pathan 0 (0 for 1)
Grazed edge to keeperOwais Shah lbw b Pathan 4 (4 for 2)
Booming inswinger, struck on knee-rollMatt Prior c Gambhir b Harbhajan 22 (57 for 3)
Top-edged sweep to backward square legKevin Pietersen c Gambhir b Yuvraj 46 (117 for 4)
Hoisted full-toss to deep midwicketAndrew Flintoff lbw b Harbhajan 41 (117 for 5)
Sweeping, struck in lineGeraint Jones b Harbhajan (120 for 6)
Yorked by flighted deliveryIan Blackwell c Gambhir b Harbhajan 10 (137 for 7)
Swept high to deep midwicket, superbly judged catch inside ropePaul Collingwood c Kaif b Harbhajan 8 (141 for 8)
Flicked to leg, brilliant take under the helmetKabir Ali lbw b Yuvraj 0 (142 for 9)
Topspinner fizzed into padsLiam Plunkett c Dhoni b Pathan (164 for 10)
Thin steer to keeper

Today’s third one-day international match between West Indies and Zimbabwe in Guyana has been cancelled due to heavy rain since Tuesday.Chris Broad, the ICC match referee, made the announcement late yesterday after an inspection of the Bordua ground. It was decided that the outfield was too wet for any possible play but Broad added that officials were “hoping that the weather improves enough to get play on Sunday”.The fourth match is set for the same venue on Sunday but more rain is forecast and that fixture looks bleak as well. The West Indies leads the seven-match series 2-0.Chetram Singh, the long-standing president of the Guyana Cricket Board and a director of the West Indies Cricket Board, admitted officials had taken a chance with the scheduling of matches. Only once has an international match been scheduled in May in Guyana. Six years ago, Pakistan had the last two days of a Test against West Indies washed out.Singh noted the reason for this is that May is traditionally one of the wettest months of the year in Guyana. “We all knew it was risky, but the schedule of this year’s international fixtures has been changed so many times,” he said. “Initially, India were to start our international season in mid-April when Guyana was slated to have the first Test, but the Indians changed their fixtures, so then it was Zimbabwe which came first and they were to play the two ODIs on April 29 and 30.”Meanwhile, Brian Lara declined to write off a struggling Zimbabwean side ahead of the remaining matches. “They are playing decent cricket. I think they’ve got a couple of very good, talented players in the team and something that they can work on for the future,” he told Reuters. “I still think they are an international team, we expect them to compete and that’s what they are doing.”An out-of-form Shivnarine Chanderpaul was hopeful that tomorrow’s ODI would go on as scheduled. The venue is one at which he has had much success and Chanderpaul was keen to get back into form here. “It brings back a lot of good memories,” he said. “Over the years I’ve done pretty well at Bourda. At a time when I’m struggling and hoping to regain some form, with the support and everybody behind you, you need something like that to help you go out there and perform well.”The West Indies had to cancel their Thursday afternoon net session at the Everest Club and Friday’s planned training was also washed out. For Sunday’s match, the hosts omitted Dwayne Bravo and Ian Bradshaw to bring in Sewnarine Chattergoon, the uncapped opening batsman, Dave Mohammed, the left-arm spinner, and Tino Best, the fast bowler.

The Western Australian Cricket Association (WACA) has failed in its bid to stop Beau Casson, the left-arm wrist-spinner, from switching to New South Wales. The WACA complained to Cricket Australia about the recruiting process used to lure Casson, the state’s No. 1 first-class slow bowler, but a grievance tribunal hearing in Melbourne today rejected any breach of the transfer laws.Ron Beazley, the Cricket Australia code of behaviour commissioner, Steven Skala, a Cricket Australia representative, and John McMullan, the Australian Cricketers’ Association’s representative, heard the matter and a Cricket Australia spokesman said the “charge was not proven”. The issue centred around rule four of the 2005-09 Memorandum of Understanding: “A state association must not (and must ensure that its constituent clubs do not) hold discussions with a CA contracted player or state contracted player who is bound to another state association concerning the possible transfer of that player without first informing the player’s home state association.”Casson is now free to move to the Blues and will battle with Stuart MacGill, Jason Krejza, Aaron O’Brien, Steve O’Keefe and Nathan Hauritz for the spinning berths next summer. Western Australia’s main slow man is again Brad Hogg, who was used mainly in the ING Cup last season as Casson was favoured for the Pura Cup competition.

Brian Lara comes out with startling revelations while speaking to the media after the Jamaica Test
Download MP3 (right click and select “save target as”; 2.9 mb
Streaming Audio: Real :: WMA
Audio length: 6.49 minsThe events over the four Tests left Brian Lara dejected for more reasons than one and nothing stopped him from venting his true feelings. The team selection and pitches were hardly to his liking, prompting him to rethink his immediate future as captain. He revealed that he was indeed appointed as one of the selectors before the first Test, something he was aware of only before the series decider in Jamaica. However, he praised the commitment shown by his side, and also admired Rahul Dravid’s tremendous skills on a difficult wicket for batting. Cricinfo’s Siddhartha Vaidyanathan reports from Sabina Park.Listen on.Download MP3 (right click and select “save target as”; 2.9 mb
Streaming Audio: Real :: WMA
Audio length: 6.49 mins

Nottinghamshire 111 for 2 trail West Indies A 211 (Footitt 5-45) by 100 runs
ScorecardMark Footitt, the England Under-19 left-arm seamer, produced the best display of his fledgling first-class career to put the skids under West Indies A in their tour match against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.Footitt took 5 for 45 in 12 incisive overs, surpassing his previous best figures of 4 for 45, which he took on debut against Glamorgan at the end of last season. He was ably supported by his seam-bowling colleagues, Andy Harris, Paul Franks and Gareth Clough, who shared the other five West Indian wickets.It was a fine way to bounce back from their disappointment in the Twenty20 final on Sunday, when they were pipped to the post on home ground by Leicestershire. For West Indies, only Devon Smith at the top of the order produced an innings of any substance. He made 51, but was the third man out at 126 when he was caught by Will Smith off Clough.At 169 for 3, West Indies seemed on course for a competitive total, but they lost their last seven wickets for 42, with Footitt needing no assistance from his fielders at all – all five of his wickets were either bowled or lbw.In reply, Nottinghamshire were given a flying start by Jason Gallian, who made exactly 50 out of an opening stand of 73 with Darren Bicknell, before Darren Sammy made an overdue breakthrough for West Indies.

Scorecard

The second Under-19 Test at Taunton petered out in a draw after India declined to chase a stiff target of 363 at almost five-and-a-half an over. The result means that the sides head to the final Test at Shenley on Sunday with the series level.England resumed in a strong position, and Varun Chopra soon completed his second century of the match and then started to open up. With Adil Rashid – and it is these two who dominated the match for England – he added 73 for the sixth wicket. Chopra was eventually bowled for 164 by the persevering Shahbaz Nadeem, who finished with 4 for 146, and when Chopra gave Nadeem a return catch on 48, England declared.Neither side was prepared to risk defeat, and so Chopra’s safety-first declaration was match by India’s no-risks approach to their innings. The only wobble came when both openers fell in quick succession, but Sumit Sharma and and Tanmay Srivastava ensured there were no further alarms until the match was in its death throes.Rashid took two more wickets to give him a match analysis of 10 for 202 to go with his scores of 114 and 48.

Micky Arthur, South Africa’s coach, has said his team were not taking the three limited-overs matches against Zimbabwe lightly and that match practice was crucial ahead of the Champions Trophy. “I expect Zimbabwe to be very competitive but we are going to focus on our own performance,” Arthur said. “One could use these fixtures as practice matches but we would rather ensure that our combinations and match-plans are in place for India.”The South African team will also play against two domestic teams, the Lions and the Titans, according a report on the SuperSport website. “We are going to play these two matches according to international one-day rules,” Arthur said. “They are part of the training camp in Pretoria before we leave for India.”South Africa pulled out of the tri-series in Sri Lanka, and had scheduled matches against Zimbabwe in order to give them some time on the field ahead of the Champions Trophy. “One can practise in the nets as much as you want to but it’s not the same as out in the middle. I want the lads to train with consequences,” said Arthur. “If you play the ball down someone’s throat in the nets, you continue batting. If you do so in a match situation, you have to go take a shower. I want the players to train under pressure.”Zimbabwe, meanwhile, are fresh from a 3-2 series win over Bangladesh. Even so they are extremely unlikely to stretch a top-notch team like South Africa.

Sinhalese Sports Club won the Sri Lanka Cricket-conducted Under 23 Division One final by virtue of obtaining a first-innings lead over Nondescripts Cricket Club despite a late fightback staged by Sri Lanka pace bowler Lasith Malinga, who took a hat-trick on the third and final day of the 3-day final which ended in a draw at Maitland Place.Replying to SSC’s first innings of 308, NCC, who resumed the final day on 207 for 6, were dismissed for 285 to trail by 23 runs. Malinga then made a late attempt to seize back the initiative for NCC with a fiery spell of bowling that brought him 4 for 26 runs off 14 overs.Coming to bowl the eighth over of the innings, he sent back Shalika Karunanayake, Suraj Mohamed and Dunil Abeydeera with the second, third and fourth deliveries of the over. All three victims were bowled.SSC however survived the storm to end the match on 123 for 9 with opener Randhiv Fernando hitting a patient 34 not out in 232 minutes (162 balls) to make sure his club did not lose the first innings advantage.When play resumed on the final day a great deal depended on the NCC overnight pair Kosala Kulasekera and Tharuka Kottehewa who had added 77. But NCC suffered a big blow when Kottahewa was run out for 38. However, Udara Waruna stuck it out with Kulasekera carrying the score to 241 before Kulasekera’s fine knock of 80 was ended when he gave a catch to Abeydeera off Manjula Silva.Waruna and Komasaru added a further 37 runs for the ninth wicket before another run-out ended NCC’s hopes of overtaking SSC’s total. On this occasion it was Waruna who was the victim after scoring a valuable 39. Milinda Siriwardene of Sebastianites was named Player of the Tournament while the Best Batsman and Best Bowler awards went to Dimuthu Karunaratne (Colts) and A.V. Atapattu (Police SC) respectively.

The Oval Test forfeiture and the long-awaited constitution were on the menu of discussion as Nasim Ashraf, the new Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, faced a Senate committee on sports over the recent turbulence that has gripped Pakistan cricket.A member of the committee, Senator Enver Baig, said that a detailed discussion was held on the Oval Test and the chairman subsequently agreed to hold a thorough probe into the affair. Baig revealed to Karachi-based daily that Ashraf had initially refused to speak before the committee about the Oval incident but later admitted that the decision of staging the post-tea boycott on the fourth day was the sole decision of captain Inzamam-ul-Haq.”All the officials present at The Oval including myself, manager Zaheer Abbas and Bob Woolmer tried hard to convince Inzamam to return to the ground but he refused to comply,” Ashraf was quoted as saying. Inzamam had repeatedly stressed that he had the support of his team-mates in the decision.More damagingly, Baig voiced concerns over the result in light of reports that a leading British bookmaker was offering odds on an England win. “We informed him that the bookie was offering 14-1 rate in favour of England while the match was in Pakistan’s pocket.”Baig said he told Ashraf that the PCB should not overlook the bookies factor since match-fixing allegations have been levelled against the players in the past. “The matter is a serious one and you should consider all the aspects and an inquiry should be held into the affair.”Meanwhile, the long-absent constitution of the board was also discussed and Ashraf assured the committee that it would be in place by January 31, 2007. Ashraf said that the constitution is almost finalised and would be implemented following approval from President Pervez Musharraf, the board’s patron-in-chief.”For us, it is very important that the PCB has a constitution and is run according to it as soon as possible,” Baig told . “We have been told by the PCB chairman that the constitution would be ready soon and would be implemented by January 31 next year. We would get back to him on February 1 over this matter.”Baig also said that the constitution should lead to the board having a chairman who is elected by representatives of its provincial association and other affiliated units. “There should not be any direct appointments in the board by the president of Pakistan. The president is the patron-in-chief of the PCB but we believe he should not be involved in the working of the board.”This is not the first time the committee has called in the PCB chairman. Through his three-year tenure, Shaharyar Khan, Ashraf’s predecessor, was summoned to face questions on a number of occasions over the board’s finances and the team’s performances.

Allrounder George Codrington is captaining Canada for the first time on the current tour to South Africa. Speaking on Wednesday, as the side traveled back to Pretoria, he said “The trip is going pretty well The guys have worked really hard in the last couple of days and have shown great commitment to get acclimatised in about four days and play two pretty solid games.”The journey from Toronto via London was a long one, with many hours spent at Heathrow Airport. After arriving on Wednesday the team were soon undergoing fitness workouts around the University of Pretoria’s High Performance Centre grounds. Indeed, the squad was soon in the nets on Wednesday after the trip from Potchefstroom, about two-and-a-half hours south of Pretoria.Codrington was clearly disappointed that the hard work had not paid off with a win over Netherlands. “Extras could be seen as a source of defeat. If we could have cut the number of extras in half that would have made the [winning] total lower.” He also mentioned a couple of dropped catches, one that allowed young Alexei Kervezee to keep the Dutch innings going in the final seven or eight overs.”However, our commitment and thought processes were good.”He was “pretty happy” that the win over Bermuda meant the side had given “solid back-to-back performances. If we keep doing this we will have more success.” He certainly was optimistic. “I think once we put the next two-three games together with the same effort, we will go into the World Cricket League with a bit of confidence. As long as we stay consistent, we’ll be OK.”The Canadian squad went into this series without their overseas-based batting strength and Codrington held the individual highest ODI score of the squad with 45 not out. After two ODI’s there are now a number of players who have passed the 50 mark. Others came close and probably should have broken that mark, but there is a positive feel around the squad. Some, but not all, of the runs came from Canadian participants in the recent ICC Winter Training Camp. Ashish Bagai hit 50 in consecutive matches, and Sunil Dhaniram put in a stellar performance to push his side towards victory over Bermuda. Don Maxwell and Desmond Chumney did well with the bat, showing the shot selection against the Netherlands that coach Andy Pick has sought since his first match in May against Zimbabwe.”It is always encouraging to see personal bests,” said Codrington. “If we keep going that route, we can only improve as a team and our performances will be a lot more consistent.”