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Another former Australia bowler has lined up his target for the Ashes with Rodney Hogg predicting Andrew Flintoff will be “found out technically” by Shane Warne. Earlier this week Terry Alderman dismissed Ashley Giles as negative and Hogg expects Warne to dominate Flintoff like Glenn McGrath controlled Mike Atherton.”In a perfect world if I was Flintoff I would like Shane to be playing in the one-dayers so I could have clubbed him for a few sixes and at least had some psychological advantage over him,” Hogg told AAP. “At the moment it’s a nil-all situation – no-one’s got any psychological advantage over either – but I just know Shane will be someone who will really hone in on Flintoff and I’m sure there’s a weakness there with Flintoff.”Hogg, who ran into England with 41 wickets in 1978-79, said Flintoff had been troubled by spinners who drifted the ball into him and spun it away. “I think he’ll be found out technically against Warne whether he faces him 100 times or doesn’t face him at all,” Hogg said. “Look at how many times Atherton faced McGrath, and it didn’t do him much good.”McGrath collected Atherton’s wicket on 19 Test occasions, but Flintoff said he was not scared of Warne. “He’s obviously a fine bowler, he’s got 580-odd Test wickets so he’s obviously very good, but there’s no trepidation,” Flintoff told AAP. “You’re going out there and you’re playing against the best, that’s something you want to do and something you look forward to.”

Northerns 183 and 189 for 6 (Kemp 57*) need 84 more runs to beat Easterns 306 and 149
ScorecardA strong fightback from Northerns, particularly from Justin Kemp, balanced the scales and set their match against Easterns up for a close finish at Centurion. Bowling Easterns out for 149 Northerns gave themselves an outside chance of the win, and the 10 points on offer. Kemp, maybe back to the best form of his career, took 3 for 25, and then ended the day on 57 not out, as Northerns reached 189 for 6 in their chase of 273.Boland 279 and 143 for 1 (Sanders 65*, Strydom 62*) beat Gauteng 228 and 193 (de Lange 5-68) by 9 wickets
ScorecardCon de Lange took a liking to the Randjesfontein pitch, as he walked away with the Man-of-the-Match award after completed match analyses of 12 for 116. Starting the third day with a slender 22-run lead, Gauteng was once again bowled out cheaply, with de Lange’s legspin rewarding him with his second five-for of the match. Derek Crookes showed some token resistance with 48, but setting Boland a target of 143 was never going to be enough. A second-wicket partnership of 127 between Mark Sanders (65) and Gerard Strydom (62) saw Boland home by nine wickets inside three days.

Hosts South Africa were knocked out of the World Cup in bizarre and cruelcircumstances after a rain affected tie in their crunch clash against SriLanka at Durban on Monday night.Sri Lanka scored an imposing 268 after a superb century from opener MarvanAtapattu and then restricted the Proteas to 229 for six in 45 overs beforethe soaked players were forced from the field by sheets of rain.According to the Duckworth Lewis method used to decide weather affectedmatches, the scores were tied when the umpires called on the covers withSouth Africa needing 40 runs from the last 30 balls of the innings.With time fast running out till the 10.45 cut off time, a slight lighteningof the rain encouraged a brief burst of activity from the ground staff,cheered on by a desperate partisan crowd. But the umpires prevented thecovers being hauled off and play had to be abandoned.With the points shared between the two sides, Sri Lanka’s place in the SuperSixes is confirmed and they top the Pool B table with 18 points. Kenya andNew Zealand take second and third place respectively with 16 points.Sri Lanka will not, however, carry through their maximum quota of pointshaving suffered a shock defeat against surprise qualifiers Kenya in Nairobi.Indeed, bizarrely, Steve Tikolo’s team, by virtue of that crucial win andNew Zealand’s forfeiture, carry through 10 points, and possibly 11 if theydefeat the West Indies, meaning they could be one upset away from a place inthe semi-finals. Sri Lanka carry through 7.5 and New Zealand four.South Africa, one of the favourites before the competition commenced, paidthe penalty for earlier defeats against West Indies and New Zealand andsuffer the similar ignominious exit suffered by the 1999 tournament hostsEngland.Contrary to the pre-game predictions of the swing bowlers dominating thegame, especially under the lights during the second innings, it was SriLanka’s spinners that caused the most problems for South Africa’s batsmen.Herschelle Gibbs, South Africa’s top scorer with 73 from 88 balls, aninnings studded with some glorious pulls, nullified the threat of ChamindaVaas’s left arm swing bowling expertly.With fellow opener Graeme Smith (35) also batting positively, the SouthAfricans rattled along at a run-a-ball against the new ball adding 65 runsin 11.1 overs.But Sri Lanka skipper Sanath Jayasuriya’s decision to employ his spinnersearly brought instantaneous success as the left-hander smashed Aravinda deSilva’s first ball straight down the throat of a kneeling Pulasthi Gunaratneon the mid-wicket boundary.De Silva then mopped up Gary Kirsten (8) after the left-hander missed asweep and was bowled behind his legs to leave South Africa on 91 for two.However, despite the early wickets, and even the loss of Jacques Kallis, whowas uncorked by a fizzing delivery from Jayasuriya, South Africa looked tobe in control whilst Gibbs was at the crease.The 29-year-old batted serenely, cleverly opening his stance against Vaasand playing the ball as late as possible. He was ruthless and clinicalagainst the loose delivery and looked set to carry South Africa home.But Muttiah Muralitharan recovered from an expensive first over to claim thekey wicket as the right-hander stretched across his stumps and missed anattempted sweep.Next over, Boeta Dippenaar was given his marching orders by umpire Venkat asa quicker delivery from Jayasuriya thudded in to his pads.Mark Boucher and Shaun Pollock (25) revitalised local hopes with 63 runs in13.1 overs before, just when the initiative looked to swinging to SouthAfrica, a reflex back-hand flick from Muralitharan ran out Pollock.With 57 needed from 45 balls, new batsman Lance Klusener struggled with histiming, scoring just one run from eight balls, and the run rate crept upuntil Muralitharan’s ninth over, the 45th of the innings.Muralitharan conceded five wides and was then slammed for a magnificentstraight six by Boucher, who was 45 not out from 50 balls when play theplayers left the field. Cruelly, for South African fans, had Boucher taken asingle off the last ball of the over and not tapped the ball straight tomid-wicket, South Africa would have won the match.Earlier, Atapattu had scored his maiden World Cup century and the ninth ofhis career, rescuing the Sri Lanka’s after a nervous start.The innings was precariously placed on 90 for three after the loss of SanathJayasuriya (16), whose innings was cut short by some doleful running, HashanTillakaratne (14) and Mahela Jayawardene (1).But the 32-year-old batted magnificently – his powerful and crisp drivingthrough the cover region a feature of his innings -stroking 18 boundaries inhis 124 from 129 ballsAravinda de Silva provided solid support, showcasing his big match pedigreewith a perfectly paced 73 from 78 balls, an innings that included six foursand two glorious leg-side sixes.The experienced pair accelerated after a period of consolidation andeventually compiled a 152 run stand – a fourth wicket record for Sri Lankaagainst South Africa.

Muttiah Muralitharan has returned to Sri Lanka after his second season inLancashire with a point to prove. Doubts have been raised by a decliningstrike rate and there is a young pretender stalking his crown as the bestoff spinner in the world.Indeed, Murali’s duel with Indian off spinner Harbhajan Singh is one of themost keenly anticipated aspects of India’s seven-week tour of Sri Lanka. Sofar, honours remain even – Singh threw the Sri Lankan innings into a spinafter a solid start whilst Muralitharan throttled the Indian batsmen in theclosing stages of Sunday’s gripping clash.

The 20-year-old Singh shot into the headlines during Australia’s tour ofIndia when he spun the home side towards a Test series victory with record32 wickets, including a memorable hat trick in the second Test at Kolkata.The aggressive off spinner from Jullunder may have a long way to go beforehe can claim Muralitharan’s world off spinning crown, but he has made anencouraging start in his 13 Test career, taking 66 wickets at an impressiverate of a wicket every 60 balls.In comparison, Murali, now 29 years old, was the second fastest ever to the300 Test wicket mark after Dennis Lillie, has taken 317 wickets in 62 Testsand boasts a career strike rate of a wicket every nine overs.Some argue though that Murali’s lethal powers are waning as fast as Singh’sstar is rising. During England’s tour of Sri Lanka his strike rate plummetedto a wicket every 17 overs.Murali though is quick to defend his reputation: “I don’t think that 14wickets in a three-Test series is a poor performance. It is wrong for peopleto think that I will take 25 wickets every series. Nobody in the world canperform like that.”People should not only expect me to take the wickets,” he said. “We havefour or five bowlers and they also have a job to do. We all have tocontribute to win matches.”Look at Australia – they have four good bowlers, who contribute in each andevery match and that is why they are the best side in the world at themoment.”If people think that I an going to take 25 wickets every series then I willtake over 800 Test wickets in my career and that’s not going to happen.”Then in England, where he was playing his second season for Lancashire, thewickets failed to tumble with frequency of his first, when he grabbed anastonishing 66 from just nine games.This time he took 44 in his six games, which would be excellent for mostmortals, but seemed strangely under par for Murali, who bowled an average of74 overs per game.He feels that the improved standard of first-class cricket in England madeit hard to repeat the astonishing exploits of his first season: “They havenow spilt the championship into two divisions and the sides in the firstdivision are getting stronger and stronger with more competition.”The wickets were also a little bit wetter than on my last visit and theconditions were more suited to the seam bowlers,” he said. “Consideringthat, I thought I bowled quite well.”It is clearly premature to right Murali off. Right throughout his career hehas shown an appetite for overcoming adversity.In fact he started his school career as a wayward medium pace bowler, whoonly started to bowl spin when his coach, Sunil Fernando, pulled him to theside and gently pointed out that his medium pace was not going secure him aplace in the team.He accepted Fernando’s advice and quickly established himself a slot in theUnder 15 side, as a spinning all rounder. Soon he was in St Anthony’sCollege First XI and claimed a countrywide record of 100 wickets inconsecutive seasons.St Anthony’s College was a private school and his father Muttiah Sinnasamywas a wealthy confectioner, but life was no breeze and his progression intothe national team was by no means assured after his schoolboy heroics.Cricket was still dominated by the Colombo schools and selection wassometimes a fickle process. This situation was worsened by the fact thatMurali is a hill country Tamil and thus positioned at the lower rungs ofColombo’s elite. It turns out that he was simply too good and too determinedto be ignored for long, even if his early days in the national team were notprejudice free.

Perhaps his greatest challenge, however, was when Darrel Hair decided toplay God in the 1995 Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. Cruelly barracked by thesections of the public throughout that tour, the mob eventually persuadedHair to no ball the off spinner for throwing. Ross Emerson followed shortlyafter in a one-day game.Murali returned to Sri Lanka distraught, but determined. According toPrabagaran, his youngest brother: “When Murali returned from Australia hewas determined not to give in. I remember him saying that if he didn’t passthe tests then he would bowl leg spin. He honestly believed it would onlytake him only three weeks to get back in the side.”In the end he passed the Tests and was cleared by the ICC. He had had anundiagnosed physical deformity in his right elbow since birth and thatprevented him from straightening his arm. His rubber like wrist wasfreakish, but not illegal, and Murali moved on a stronger player.Having overcome so many obstacles en route to his modern day success, a dipin his strike rate is unlikely to mark the beginning of the end. He remainstremendously fit despite an overbearing workload and boyishly keen – alwaysthe first to practice and last to leave.Nevertheless, he has to adapt to the new techniques employed successfully byEngland’s stubborn batsmen. They opted for a simple policy of ‘kick him orhit him,’ but actually much more of the former. Stretching their front padoutside the line of off stump, whilst craftily keeping the bat behind thepad, they managed to keep him out, even if they did benefit from a strictinterpretation of the lbw rule by the umpires.He admits to being frustrated by the killjoy tactics, but rightly points outthat there is more to cricket than survival: “What can you do? You just haveto keep bowling. They can’t keep padding away all the time, as you have toscore runs as well.”His duel with the Indian batsmen is a mouth-watering prospect. They are nothandicapped by the cloddish footwork of the England and thus have greaterattacking options at their disposal. Whether they have the courage to usethem remains to be seen.Murali plays down the duel with Harbhajan Singh, simply saying: “There is nocompetition. If he bowls well he will take wickets and if I bowl well I willdo the same.” Nevertheless, during the time of the Australian tour of Indiahe was ribbed gently by his colleagues that Singh was pinching his mantle.Murali has too much pride not to be spurred on by the competition.In the end, one suspects that they will both succeed, as they are clearlyhead and shoulders above their colleagues. The big question will be, whichbatsmen cope best with the finger spinning assassins, and that will decidethe Test series, if not the Coca Cola Cup.

Tasmania and Queensland have fought out a dawdling six hours of play on the third day of the teams’ Pura Cup match at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane today. But, after the visitors finished at a second innings score of 5/177 (and in the lead by 291 runs overall) at stumps, the action off the field did not prove so restrained – both captains firing parting shots at their rivals’ tactics.The Tigers still appear well placed to press for outright victory on the final day. But skipper Jamie Cox was seething after watching as his batsmen were held to their score of 177 runs from as many as eighty-five overs.”You’re not going to hit it far when you’re trying to score runs against a 10-1 field and they’re bowling two foot wide of off stump,” said Cox.”If they had bowled at the stumps and tried to get us out we would have scored a lot quicker, I’m sure.”The Tasmanians’ struggle for quick runs was typified by the containment of Test star Ricky Ponting, who was forced to labour over 187 deliveries before a dubious caught behind decision down the leg side ended his innings at 61. Cox, similarly, found many of his normal avenues to scoring blocked off as he constructed an innings of 44. And, most noticeable of all in the funereal march, Dene Hills (2) was able to score from only two of the fifty-three balls that he faced.Cox’s opposite number, Stuart Law, played down such claims, suggesting that the Bulls had no option but to stem the run flow and force the Tasmanians into error.”They could have taken a few more risks and it might have been a different picture. But we were in no position to do that because we could have been six hundred runs behind if we came out and went really hard at them,” Law argued.As for Hills’ approach, Law said that it was indicative of the Tasmanians’ second innings mindset.”He was letting cuts and cover drives go … but it was obvious that they just wanted to grind us into the turf.”Earlier in the day, there was no disputing the Tigers’ right to open up their Pura Cup scoring account for the season with the two on offer for a first innings win. The Tasmanians established a 114-run lead when they initiated a spectacular late collapse to end the Bulls’ innings at a mark of 289. Spinner Daniel Marsh (3/50) and paceman Andrew Downton were the architects of the slide, four wickets tumbling for the addition of a solitary run in the space of nineteen balls as they combined to share the spoils. Accordingly, they two left armers had put the seal on a very fine overall bowling performance from the visitors on what still remains a true batting wicket.

Yorkshire 237 (Marshall 4-47) beat Lancashire 196 (Flintoff 51, Chapple 51, Wainwright 3-31) by 41 runs
ScorecardYorkshire ended Lancashire’s unbeaten run in the Pro ARCH Trophy, winning the Good Friday Roses clash at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium by 41 runs.Yorkshire’s 237 was about par for the course. They should have scored more but none of their batsmen were able to build a major innings, stand-in skipper Anthony McGrath top-scoring with 41. Andrew Gale (32) and Craig White (29) got Yorkshire off to a good start with a first-wicket stand of 66 before legspinner Simon Marshall accounted for White, the first of his four wickets. Yorkshire seemed well set for a late salvo but lost their last five wickets for 28.Lancashire lost early wickets to Deon Kruis and Ajmal Shahzad and at 80 for 5 they appeared on course for a heavy defeat. But Andrew Flintoff and Glen Chapple revived the innings and raised hopes of victory before Flintoff holed out to midwicket soon after reaching his fifty. Left-arm spinner David Wainwright finished off Lancashire with 3 for 31.Flintoff bowled four overs in taking 1 for 22 and said afterwards: “I would love to play a Test match at Lord’s, but the one thing that I am not going to do is get carried away. I know that if I want to play for England, then I have got to be fit. I won’t be able to just walk back into that side.”I have got to focus all my energies on playing for Lancashire. If I can stay fit and perform, then I would hopefully be in the shake up on May 15. It wasn’t too taxing, and I am happy with the way things are … how the ankle is standing up to the rigours of bowling. I am certainly not hitting the crease as hard as I would like, but it feels good and easy.

Ricky Ponting is confident Australia’s strong record in big matches will help them through the semi-final with South Africa in St Lucia on Wednesday. The teams are set to play for a place in the decider after South Africa thrashed England on Tuesday.”It was a big game for them, but not as big as a World Cup semi-final or final,” Ponting said in The Australian. “We have a great record in those games and we are looking forward to playing them. It’s a little way off. We have a good game to play against New Zealand first, but we are very excited about the prospect of playing South Africa.”Australia’s most famous success against South Africa came in the 1999 World Cup semi-final when they tied the game at Edgbaston and went through to the final on a superior run-rate. However, Australia lost the most recent series 3-2 when South Africa overhauled Australia’s 434 to take the trophy. “They have been good rivals of ours,” he said. “They have played excellent cricket of late against us as well.”Ponting is wary of the depth of South Africa’s side and considers them a threat on the Caribbean surfaces. “By the looks of things they might have got conditions to suit them a little bit with their bowling early on, but their batting was very good,” he said. “They are a dangerous side.”

Andy Pycroft, Zimbabwe’s team manager, wants to put in the background the politics and the economics that have afflicted Zimbabwe’s cricket in recent times. Instead he wants to concentrate on developing their reconstructed, inexperienced side for their forthcoming trip to the Caribbean.”We’re looking at cricket not politics and trying to prepare this new side as quickly as we can.”As they prepare to head for the West Indies for a series of seven one-day internationals, starting on April 29, Pycroft is optimistic they will make the type of progress to ensure they return to Test cricket early next year.”We wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing unless we believe it was possible,” Pycroft said. “The time frame set to try and get back into Test cricket is February next year.”We’ve very much been focused on one-day cricket because we believe that’s the way to bring the side through and then get back into longer cricket once we’ve got the experience that we need.”Pycroft, who played three Tests and 20 one-day internationals for Zimbabwe between 1983 and 1992, was speaking from Harare during an interview with CMC CricketPlus during the third day of the Carib Beer Challenge final between Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados at Guracara Park on Monday.A series victory, he admitted, would certainly raise a lot of eyebrows. “A lot of people have written Zimbabwe cricket off with the problems they’ve had, but there is still a lot of potential there.”Their 16-man squad, led by Terrance Duffin, includes several players with very little international experience, but the manager is upbeat about the preparations.”The mood’s been very good. It’s a very young side. The average age is only something just over 20 years old, forced on us because a lot of players have given up in the recent past,” Pycroft said. “The side we’ve got together has been practising hard over the last five or six weeks. They are learning quickly and playing quite well. The strength of the side is more in the bowling department. The batting is quite inexperienced.”Prior to coming to the Caribbean, Zimbabwe played against Kenya and after the ODIs against the West Indies, they will remain for a triangular limited-overs series in Trinidad that also involves Bermuda and Canada.”We want these lads to get as much experience as possible. A lot of these guys haven’t played at international level,” Pycroft said. “They are getting better and better. The aim of this tour is to give them experience as quickly as possible and to be as competitive as possible. There is no doubt we can do it.”

Another Chennai Test, another Australia collapse. Those who were here three years ago could tell you that it wasn’t Harbhajan Singh’s 15 wickets or Sachin Tendulkar’s century that won India the series. No, it was Steve Waugh’s hand. When the man renowned for his steely temperament decided to play catch with a Harbhajan delivery that was spinning back towards the stumps, Australia were 340 for 3, and on course to give India the hiding to end all hidings. Matthew Hayden was at his intimidating best at the other end, and Waugh himself had seldom been troubled during his innings.But that momentary lapse of reason left the door ajar for Harbhajan, and a little over an hour later, Australia had subsided to 391 all out. The world champions don’t do anything by halves, and when they lose the plot, it can make the average B-grade Bollywood potboiler look coherent. At Kolkata a week earlier, with VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid having played the innings of their lives, Australia were handily placed to salvage a draw on the final day, going to tea at 161 for 3, with the Hayden-Waugh combination occupying the crease.But once Waugh was caught in the close-in cordon by Hemang Badani, the last seven batsmen were loath to make the scorers work unduly hard, adding only 46 more before subsiding to 212 all out. This penchant for stunning collapses hasn’t been restricted to matches in India either. In the series opener against India at Brisbane last year, Australia went from 268 for 2 to 323 all out. And in the Adelaide match, where they lost despite piling up an imposing 556 in the first innings, the last five second-innings wickets added just 13.Of course, only a foolish punter would write off Australia’s chances here. In Sri Lanka a few months ago, they conceded first-innings leads of 161 and 91 in the first two Tests, storming back to win both despite a certain Muttiah Muralitharan being in opposition. But the stumble from 189 for 2 to 235 today certainly gives India hope. Like the boxer who strives incessantly for a knockout despite being way ahead on points, Australia remain suspect to the sucker punch, and Anil Kumble’s haymaker certainly laid them out cold.

Farveez Maharoof, Sri Lanka’s Under-19 captain and a fast bowling allrounder, leads the Man of the Tournament standings at the end of the first group phase. Maharoof picked up points in all three of his matches for both bowling and batting to lead the standings with seven points. Maharoof, a Wesley College schoolboy who has played for the A team, is tipped to break into the national squad soon.Mahroof was one point ahead of a quartet of challengers including Chamith Kulasekara, a teammate, and Shikhar Dhawan, an Indian batsman who has hit two centuries and is the tournament’s leading run-scorer. The surprise inclusion near the top of the table is Nepal’s Shakti Gauchan whose patient batting displays against South Africa and Uganda have earned him two Man of the Match awards.