ScorecardFile photo – Stuart Binny claimed four wickets and was twice on a hat-trick•AFP

Karnataka’s only opposition on the fourth day came in the form of rain which almost washed out an entire session in Mysore before Odisha folded for 104 in just 36.1 overs. The innings and 64-run win – the hosts’ second straight victory – helped them surge to second in the points table.Trailing by 168, Odisha had already lost a wicket in the second innings before stumps on the third day, and their quest to secure a draw was helped by some inclement weather on the fourth. However, when play resumed, Govinda Poddar, the centurion in the first innings, was the first to fall on the fourth day for 7. Natraj Behera (19 off 43) and Anurag Sarangi (44 off 75) provided a period of brief resistance before Stuart Binny sparked a flurry of wickets by bowling Behera. Binny wreaked havoc on Odisha’s middle order as he picked up four wickets, and was twice on a hat-trick. Shreyas Gopal polished off the tail to finish with seven wickets in the match.
ScorecardAssam required 16.1 overs on the fourth day to knock off the 38 required to complete a six-wicket win against Haryana in a low-scorer in Rohtak. Haryana needed to strike quickly at the start to have any hopes of a comeback but the overnight batsmen Amit Verma and Gokul Sharma remained unbeaten and guided Assam to their second outright win of the season.
ScorecardBengal bowled Vidarbha out for 191, in their chase of 297, to secure their first win of the season in Kolkata. Beginning the day at 3 for 0, Veer Pratap Singh dismissed both the openers; Wasim Jaffer was trapped in front in the the second over of the day and Faiz Fazal was caught. Ganesh Satish and S Badrinath brought Vidarbha back into the game with a solid 67-run stand before Pragyan Ojha had Badrinath caught behind, initiating a collapse as Vidarbha slumped from 82 for 2 to 111 for 6.Satish waged a lone battle with his 96, an innings that featured 11 fours and a six, but with wickets falling regularly at the other end, Vidarbha never really stood a chance. Ojha picked up four wickets, to go with seven in the first innings.

South Africa’s final group game was abandoned at 1.30pm in extraordinarycircumstances. Heavy rains meant that the outfield was unfit for play.This leaves South Africa on three points. However in an interview withCRICINFO the South African manager revealed that they are not resigned toa place in the Plate League. They have contacted the ICC and BCCSL toclarify whether they have a zero run rate.It had been previously believed that South Africans could not have a net runrate at all due to the use of Duckworth Lewis method in their match againstNepal. If you don’t have a net run rate then you can surely not have a zeronet run rate.It appears that this new interpretation of the rule, has been accepted bysomeone in authority. The Kenyan cricket team has been informed that theyhave to score the 107 in a stipulated number of overs to have a positive NetRun Rate.The situation is bound to lead to controversy. If the Kenyans lose theirmatch against Nepal the sudden change in the tournament rules will haveplayed a part. The Kenyans have lost quick wickets by trying t score the runsin the stipulated time period and are presently 60-5 off 11 overs.Whatever the outcome the situation the confusion is unacceptable in aninternational tournament.Latest: Nepal beat Kenya by 14 runs, thus relegating both SouthAfrica and Kenya to the Plate competition, and qualifyingthemselves. Given the circumstances of the win, with Kenyachasing what appears to be a net run rate target set underdubious circumstances, both African countries will be extremelyunhappy at the turn of events.

Glamorgan have started well in their quest to score 309 to defeatNorthamptonshire at Cardiff and attain their fourth consecutive championshipvictory.The task had not appeared to be so easy when the visitors stood at 277-6 halfway through the afternoon, but Northamptonshire’s last four wickets fell in 27 deliveries without addition to the score.
When the home county set out to score the highest total of the match to win Matthew Elliott and Steve James gave them a flying start by hitting 36 runs from the first six overs. Darren Cousins then had Elliott lbw causing Elliott and Mike Powell to be more cautious for a time (while still punishing the badball).The Australian reached his second fifty of the match from 86 deliveries and included seven fours. He was given fine support by Powell with whom he took the total to 125-1 at the close. The Welshmen still needed 184 runs to win but Elliott (66 n.o.) and Powell (37 n.o.) were in good form. When Northamptonshire resumed in the morning on 110-2 Robert Croft took the first three wickets to go down and finished with 5-108 from 46 overs: it was his second five-wicket return of the summer but the first in the championship.Mal Loye had not increased his overnight 42 when he snicked a ball from Croft in the day’s first over and Elliott held the catch. After Jeff Cook was l.b.w David Sales batted responsibly towards his fifty but when he tried to drive Croft he skied the ball to be caught by Darren Thomas over his head.With Graeme Swann’s departure l.b.w the hosts seemed to have the upper hand only for TonyPenberthy and David Ripley to halt their progress. The latter, who was batting with a runner because of an ankle injury (leading to David Sales having to keep wicket for the first 13 overs of the Glamorgan innings), hit 33 of the 64 runs they put on in 28 overs. Ripley swept at Thomas and was caught by Adrian Dale coming in from the boundary, after which Northamptonshire collapsed dramatically.

Muthumudalige Pushpakumara’s timely century helped the Sri Lankanunder-19 team to recover and post a fighting second innings total. SriLanka ended the third day at 268 for eight in the second `Test’against the England under-19s at Northampton.Pushpakumara’s unbeaten 125, which included 13 boundaries, came at atime when the visitors were in dire straits as the Englishmen reducedthem to 74 for six. With Kausbal Lokuarachchi (63), Pushpakumara added129 for the seventh wicket and helped the tourists recover and put SriLanka in command.Sri Lanka made a disastrous start in their second innings losingDaniels for 0, Gajanayake for 4, Kandamby for 1, Mubarak for 0, Pererafor 33 and Weeraratne for 10. For England Murtagh was the successfulbowler taking 3 for 36. The Sri Lankan team now leads by 291 runs, atotal which looks challenging for the England side. The pitch alsoseems to be offering some assistance to the spinners.Earlier, England resuming at their overnight score of 222 for sixadded further 4 runs before being all out for 263. For the Sri Lankanteam, Dhammika ended with figures of 5 for 59. He was ably supportedby Pushpakumara (2 for 36) and Kandamby (2 for 40).

Opting to bat, Saurashtra ran into trouble in the Ranji One-Day WestZone League facing the formidable Mumbai at the Motibaug Ground,Baroda. Saurashtra crept their way to 205 in 46.2 overs. SkipperShitanshu Kotak (53) and Prakash Bhatt (38) put on a partnership of 57for the third wicket. Paras Mhambrey (35/4) and Sairaj Bahutule (31/3)nailed the Saurashtra line up.In reply, Mumbai openers Robin Morris (41) and Wasim Jaffer (61) tookthem to a flying start. The batsmen entertained the crowds with somelusty blows, Robin hit seven boundaries while Wasim sent the ball tothe fence on eight occasions. Amol Mazumdar (55) returned unbeaten toguide Mumbai to a comfortable six wicket victory in the 42nd over.Mumbai registered their second consecutive win of the tournament andare unbeaten so far.

Brilliant West Indian batsman Brian Lara came to the Bellerive Oval in Hobart today battered and bruised and he left it in similarcondition. But surely not feeling nearly as crippled as an Australia ‘A’ attack that met him at close to the height of his powers onthe third day of the teams’ match.Records, previous poor form on tour and manifest discomfort were all swept aside as the masterful left hander gave a crowd of988 a wonderful reminder of innings and seasons of old. With only two fully fit limbs no less, he conjured a sparkling doublecentury and featured in an astonishing, record-breaking stand for the sixth West Indian wicket. It all made recent losingencounters with nemesis Glenn McGrath – in the short term at least – seem a distant memory.Under the duress generated by a hamstring injury that has afflicted him persistently for five months, Lara (231) had been forcedas low as number seven in the batting order before he began his masterpiece late yesterday. At different times in an innings whichbrought him the fourth-highest score in a prolific first-class career, he appeared so beset that he had barely been capable ofbreaking into anything more than a trot. To make his injury woes even more acute, he then strained the infraspinatus muscle in hisleft shoulder during the early part of today’s post-lunch session as well. His need to flex it and to receive treatment disrupted playon at least four occasions through the first forty-five minutes after the interval.If it is possible for a batsman to play this well when so incapacitated, then heaven help any attack which is forced to spar withhim on a similarly placid pitch when he is fully fit. By any stretch of the imagination, this was a remarkable exhibition of attacking,contemptuous batting. Through 342 minutes, he slammed forty boundaries, two sixes and a five and played with a wondrouslevel of skill.Before he was finally dismissed as he top edged a cut at part-time off spinner Brad Hodge (who went on to claim a first-classcareer best of 4/17) in its last over, Lara cracked ninety-six runs from his flashing blade in the middle session alone. His fortiethfirst-class century was phenomenal; it was murderous.As if the power of his three boundaries in the day’s opening over had not been sufficient in themselves to offer a hint of what wasto come, then the tone of Lara’s batting was certainly underlined when he crashed six boundaries in succession off the bowling ofpaceman Andy Bichel (2/148) in the second over after the lunch break. The first was flayed through cover; the second superblydriven through mid on; the third pulled imperiously over square leg; the fourth was smashed high and hard over mid off; the fifth,off a top edge as he tried to pull again, flew over wicketkeeper Brad Haddin’s head; and the sixth was powered along the groundthrough mid wicket.He survived one strong lbw appeal from the bowling of left arm spinner Brad Oldroyd (0/75) at 193 and appeared to bedropped low to the ground by Simon Katich at square leg off the same bowler with his tally at 216. Otherwise, he was rarely inbother. It was a measure of his command that he slammed twelve boundaries as he raced from the 100 to the 150 mark and thathe raised his second century from as few as eighty-two deliveries.That he topped it off by figuring in a 365 run partnership with Ridley Jacobs (131) that made theirs the most productive stand forthe sixth wicket in the history of first-class matches in Australia (surpassing Don Bradman and Jack Fingleton’s compilation of346 for Australia against England in the 1936-37 season) only applied icing to the cake.”He’s a class player and he was always due for runs,” said opposing captain, Damien Martyn.”It was (a) great (innings). He’s one of those batsmen who’s very good to watch if you’re not the fielding captain! He’s fantasticonce he gets going.””His running between the wickets … well, sometimes he was normal, sometimes he was slow. There’s definitely somethingwrong. But it didn’t seem to worry his batting,” he added when pressed about whether it was possible to assess from up-closethe extent of the champion batsman’s injury problems.For his part, Jacobs also played aggressively, albeit not nearly as dominantly. His preoccupation was to seize upon anythingshort, and he unleashed a succession of forcefully struck cut, pull and hook strokes. To an extent, though, it was almost cruel thathe played such a fine innings yet was relegated to playing a very clear second fiddle to his teammate.For the record, the West Indians were dismissed on the stroke of stumps for a total of 492 – giving the tourists a first innings leadof fifty-three and, needless to say, easily their highest score in an innings to this stage of their visit. But this was a day on which thefate of the match itself was swept aside, lost even, in the wake of a breathtaking individual performance. What that individualmade of it all and how he felt is anybody’s guess in the wake of his refusal – not for the first time on this tour – to speak to themedia after play. Cricket has an inimitable way, at times, of producing days like these.

* Indian is elected cricket union president in South AfricaA former cricketer of Indian origin, Logan Naidoo, has been electedPresident of the Kwazulu-Natal Cricket Union which is affiliated tothe United Cricket Board of South Africa. He is the second person ofIndian origin to be elected to a top position in cricket in theprovince. Cassim Docrat is the CEO of provincial cricket and theKingsmead Cricket Stadium in Durban.Naidoo, who at one time captained the old non-racial Natal Board team,has moved into the new position after serving as vice president of theunion, national selector of the Under-19 team and president of theDurban and District Cricket Union. He said in an interview that hisbiggest task was to bring back those who have lost interest in thegame.* Brijesh Patel honouredFormer Indian batsman and currently director of the National CricketAcademy Brijesh Patel was on Sunday honoured with a ‘Lifetime’ awardfor his achievement in the sport. A silver bat was presented to Patelby KH Shrinivas, Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka StateLegislative Council, at a function in Belgaum. The award has beeninstituted jointly by the Rotary International and Belgaum Sports Clubfrom this year.Shrinivas lauded the efforts being taken by Patel to develop necessarysports infrastructure for providing coaching to young talent insmaller towns and rural areas. Replying to the felicitations, Patelwho is the secretary of the Karnataka State Cricket Association, saidhis endeavour was to promote the game by creating infrastructure inrural areas as there was a lot of talent.* Nair, Haridas elected KCA president, secretarySK Nair and S Haridas were elected president and secretary of theKerala Cricket Association in the elections of the Kerala CricketAssociation at Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday. Nair, who is the chairmanof the Finance Committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India,has been elected president for the first time while Haridas was reelected to the post.The other members elected for a four year period (2001 to 2005) were:Vice Presidents : Dr KN Raghavan, GK Shetty, S Ramachandran Nair, andC Sneharaj. Joint secretary : Niaz Ahmed. Treasurer: TC Mathew

Avishka Gunawardene has been recalled to the pool of players, who are training to play in the triangular one-day series, against India and New Zealand. But it remains to be seen whether the selectors consider him worthy enough to get into the final squad of 15.”I have done quite well. More than they asked of me. You know it’s up to them,” says the tall left-hander with a smile.The selectors have to be commended for adding him to the squad, which is in training ahead of the tri-nation series after his brilliant performance against the visiting Pakistan ‘A’ side where he scored a hundred and two fifties, in two unofficial ‘Test’ Matches.After the recall was announced, he scored a match winning 74 in the first One-Day International at the De Zoysa Stadium, Moratuwa today that also earned him the man of the match award.Surely the Indians and the Kiwis would not want to see the left-handed duo of Gunawardene and Sanath Jayasuriya opening the innings to make use of the fielding restrictions in the first 15 overs.If you ask him are you looking forward to the triangular series he’ll say: “If they pick me to the squad, yes; very much so.”

It’s all a numbers game, really. Following four years of preparation, it comes down to just 100 overs between two teams for one World Cup berth – the fourteenth, and last, on offer for entry into the 2003 version of the event in South Africa.Scotland and Canada have each played in a World Cup before but barely will there have been more important matches of cricket in their respective histories than the one they will contest tomorrow at the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club. So high are the stakes in the World Cup Qualifying Final of this 2001 ICC Trophy tournament that the difference between the impact of a win and a loss is almost beyond even so much as contemplation.For the winner, it’s not only that berth in world cricket’s ultimate tournament that awaits but also the chance to harness all of the benefits that participation at the elite level delivers. For the loser, it’s precisely the same opportunity gone begging; the chance to accelerate the sport’s growth within its borders during the next two years and beyond seriously diminished.All associated with Scottish cricket well know the rigours, the emotions and the pressures of this day. They were in the same position four years ago in Kuala Lumpur when they dodged teeming rain and stifling tension to prevail over near-neighbour Ireland by 51 runs in what still ranks as their country’s greatest ever cricketing victory.This time, they come to the TCSCC with the adornment of seven players with experience from the last World Cup and a record that includes just two losses in Toronto. They also bring to the match a reputation as a side that has learned much in the way of professionalism and preparation during the last four years. A reputation that they will hope will be worth its weight in gold out on the field now.Wicketkeeper-batsman Colin Smith has clearly been one of the stars of the tournament; fast bowler James Brinkley and spinners Keith Sheridan and Gregor Maiden have led a consistent attack; and youngster Drew Parsons has given many indications that he is an exciting player on the rise. Where the side has not done so well is in providing batting support for Smith and in fully taking its opportunities in its biggest games.In Canada, they will find a team that will quickly expose any such weaknesses. This is the first time in six attempts that they have reached the last four of an ICC Trophy competition but the Canadians have tangible crowd support; a well-balanced team, the batting of Joe Harris; and the spin bowling talents of John Davison and Barry Seebaran to bolster them on this occasion.By necessity, the hosts’ game plan will hinge around resisting the Scottish bowlers and crashing through their opponents’ batting. Against arguably the most evenly balanced attack in the tournament, the Canadian batsmen might well face their sternest examination of the competition and any exercise in leaving the bulk of the scoring responsibilities to Harris, as has been done more than once already over the last three weeks, would be fraught with risk. The makeup of their upper order batting has undergone several changes of face already in this tournament; there is no better time than now to have it click.How much of a factor the crowd will play in the match is anyone’s guess. The game will be contested on a work day in Toronto but it’s likely that more than just the odd alteration will be made to employment schedules around the city. Support for the Canadians has been strong throughout the event and the momentum created by the side’s Super League successes has only added to the numbers of wellwishers uniting forces behind them.Conversely, there will be no Tartan Army here to support the Scots; moreover, the players will be lucky if they see any Tartan soldier at all straying so far from home. Instead, it will need to be eleven men banding together to produce a collective, committed performance. Albeit that they are light on for numbers, they simply have to win this one.

New Zealand team manager Jeff Crowe has given the all clear for his team’s safety in Sri Lanka after a team practice was cut short due to anti-Government rioting in Colombo yesterday.If anyone knows about the problems of touring Sri Lanka, it is Crowe, who was captain of the 1987 side which abandoned its tour of the island nation after a bomb blast in a Colombo railway station at the end of the first Test of that series.Ironically, it was his younger brother Martin who was captain of the 1993 team on tour when a suicide bomber completed an assassination outside the New Zealand team’s hotel.Several members of that side opted to return home despite the emergency dash made to Sri Lanka by then NZC chairman Peter McDermott. Crowe however, as a contracted player to NZC, stayed with the tour.He is also in Colombo at the moment as a television commentator.NZC general manager Tim Murdoch said Jeff Crowe had assured him that he had no fears for the team’s safety today.Crowe had reassured Murdoch that the CLEAR Black Caps were “very relaxed and entirely focused” on tonight’s match against India in the Coca-Cola Cup tri-series.Crowe was happy with the security arrangements for the team and had not asked for them to be increased after yesterday’s trouble.The reason the team had to call short its practice session yesterday was to ensure the team in order to meet the requirement of the dusk-to-dawn curfew that was in place.Crowe has asked that owing to New Zealand’s four-day break after tonight’s game the team be transferred to the less humid air of Kandy in order to take advantage of the better practice facilities. The change was not due to any security concerns.Murdoch said he would be keeping in touch with the New Zealand team on the latest developments.