Ricky Ponting shrugged off his Ashes blues to make a long overdue and superbcentury at Headingley to give Australia another sizzling success tocelebrate in the Fourth npower Test Match.It was the fifth Australian century of the Ashes series but for Ponting, whohas been through one of the most miserable phases of his career with just 50runs from five Test innings, it was a spectacular return to form and showedboth courage and ruthless spirit in his bid for a century.It was courageous because he arrived at the crease with Australia in anunusually tentative position at 42 for two after Adam Gilchrist’s decisionto bat first on a pitch that looked to favour the bowlers, was in danger ofbackfiring.With so few runs in his tank this summer, it was a pressurised situation forPonting but his destiny became almost preordained when the third delivery ofhis innings from Andy Caddick flew off his bat and carried to MarkRamprakash at third slip.Or did it? The umpires were unsure and referred to their third set of eyes,Neil Mallender who watched the catch over and over again and ruled that theball had not in fact carried to the fielder.It was an impossibly close call but from that point, Ponting, who was yet toget off the mark, was ruthless in his pursuit of runs, grabbing theopportunity as the Australians do in lucky breaks, with unrestrained zeal.By tea nine overs later, he had already notched up 32 runsThe hundred was not long in coming. Less than three hours later, havingfaced 113 deliveries, he flicked Alan Mullally to square leg and ran thesingle. He had struck three sixes, one off each of England’s frontlinebowlers, as well as 11 fours, most of them immaculately and deliciouslypulled through the leg side.He shared a magnificent double hundred partnership with Mark Waugh whodeparted for 72 at the close having continued his rich vein of form thatstarted pretty early into the tour.Looking at Australia’s total at the close, 288 for four, one would neverhave guessed that 23 overs had been lost from the scheduled day’s play. Heavyrain had greeted a large Yorkshire crowd first thing, postponing play untilafter lunch.Australia are no longer fighting to retain the Ashes after their triumph atTrent Bridge but are now battling to make it a 5-0 ‘greenwash’. As a result, they started cautiously until they had a better measure of the pitch, a green top with patchy brown ends, that at the toss had everyone guessing.England dropped two catches to help Australia’s openers on their way.Matthew Hayden was missed by Marcus Trescothick at gully, which marked theend of Trescothick in that position for the day. Mullally then missed Michael Slater for 11 at square leg which would have made the score 23 for two.Neither miss proved particularly expensive with both openers departingshortly afterwards to Andy Caddick, who proved the most attacking bowler inEngland’s otherwise ragged effort.But the loss of Hayden leg before brought together Waugh and the mightyPonting. The entertainment became enthralling, as both were allowed to playtheir shots and Nasser Hussain struggled to find the best option forbringing the show to a close.None of his pace bowlers responded with any great commitment to accuracy orplanning and so he turned to his bit parters, Mark Butcher and MarkRamprakash who unwittingly may have set up the opportunity for Alex Tudorten overs from stumps.Having made a sparkling 144 from 154 balls, Ponting finally edged Tudor toAlec Stewart and an excellent third-wicket partnership was over, finishingeight runs short of Australia’s record at Headingley, set in 1930 by Sir DonBradman and Alan Kippax.By this time, the bowlers were looming in the shadows and many of the crowdhad dispersed, possibly disheartened by another frustrating Englandperformance but they missed a remarkable last innings setback for thetourists.With three balls left of the day’s play, Caddick surprised Waugh with a ballthat lifted and the squirted up and came down in the hands of Ramprakash, tobring an amazing day’s play to a close.

Sri Lankan off-spinner, Muttiah Muralitharan, was the star of the show at the end of day three of the second Test at the Asgiriya International Stadium, Kandy, after his batting put his side in a strong position in the Test.He usually excels with the ball or in the field, but this time surprisingly it was with the bat. At the end of the day’s play, Muralitharan, who made an entertaining 67 runs in 64 balls, declared, "This is my best innings by far."With side struggling on 157 for nine, Muralitharan and Ruchira Perera put up a crucial 64-run partnership for the last wicket, Sri Lanka’s best partnership for the last wicket against India. Speaking about the partnership the Tamil speaking off-spin bowler said, "Nothing was going on in my mind. I was taking my chances and just hitting the ball and the runs kept coming. So I thought that I will keep going in that way and at the end we got a good partnership."That last wicket partnership helped Sri Lanka set India a victory target of 264 and Murali himself feels it’s a good one, "I feel that is a winning total."Ruchira Perera though made only six runs gave Murali marvelous support from the other end by staying in the middle for 76 long minutes, "Ruchira gave a marvelous support. It can turn out to be a crucial partnership at the end of the match. If not for his support we’ wouldn’t have gone past the 200 mark."When CricInfo asked him about the improvement he has made in his batting, he modestly said, "I don’t think there’s any improvement at all."He further said, " I don’t bat at the nets at all. So there’s no improvement whatsoever. But it’s just that I can play some shots. I just attack rather than defend and the runs flow."Murali ended the day on a high note claiming the only Indian wicket to fall. The bowler who’s playing at his home venue, Kandy, while speaking about his home ground wicket said, "It’s seaming a bit and provides some assistance for the fast bowlers, but not a bad wicket at all. We got to keep things tight on Saturday."" Definitely it would have been good if we had got a couple of more wickets, but at the end I think one wicket was good enough."When asked whether this is the first of many Test fifties, the 29-year-old Murali said, "Don’t know. I can’t predict myself at the middle."

Spinners Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar bowled Northamptonshire to a stunning 202-run victory over Leicestershire at Wantage Road – a result that keeps alive their hopes of staying in Division One next season.Set 288 to win, the visitors reached 62-3 at tea with a draw looking comfortably the most likely outcome.But the slow men were not to be denied on a pitch offering them plenty of fourth-day help, and Leicestershire lost their last seven wickets for 23 in the final session to be dismissed for 85 with half-an-hour to spare.Swann snapped up a season’s-best 5-34 while left-armer Panesar, the 19-year-old making his first-class debut, claimed 4-11 from 20 overs for an outstanding match return of 8-131.Jason Brown also played his part, capturing the key wicket of Vince Wells. The Leicestershire skipper had survived 79 deliveries for his five runs but then padded up to Brown and saw the ball dribble back on to the stumps, dislodging a single bail.Northants pressed on at the start of the day and David Ripley was able to declare on 302-8 shortly after lunch. Openers Mike Hussey (82) and Alec Swann (113) posted 164 in 41 overs, while Richard Davis was the main beneficiary of the hosts’ urgency as he snapped up 6-73 to round off an excellent Championship comeback.The result gives Northants a chance of avoiding the drop, although they must round off their campaign with difficult away trips to play Kent at Canterbury and Somerset at Taunton.

Left-arm spinner Paul Grayson returned career-best figures of five for 20 against his former county as bottom club Essex pulled off a remarkable victory over CricInfo Championship winners Yorkshire on the final day of the season at Scarborough today.Essex triumphed by 51 runs with 20 overs to spare after Yorkshire had been set a 319 target off a minimum of 65 overs.It looked as if Yorkshire were cruising it as Michael Vaughan and Anthony McGrath thrashed 204 together for the third wicket after openers Chris Taylor and Matthew Wood had been dismissed without a run scored.After taking a few overs to play themselves in, Vaughan and McGrath produced every shot in the book with Essex using seven bowlers in a vain attempt to stop the carnage.Vaughan just beat his partner to the 50 mark before he took complete charge, dashing to his century from 80 balls with 15 fours and three sixes.Grayson, who did not join the attack until the score was 186 for two, eventually broke the stand by having McGrath caught on the boundary edge for 70 from 86 balls with eight fours and a six and he struck again in his next over to send back Vaughan for 113 with 16 fours and four sixes from 89 deliveries.Vaughan was out on the stroke of tea when Yorkshire were 212 for four and needing a further 107 but Grayson continued his demolish job after the interval along with paceman Joe Grant, the last five wickets tumbling for nine runs in three overs.Having started out in the morning on 48 for three and leading by 194, Essex worked their way steadily to 172 for eight before declaring to bring forward the lunch interval.Captain Ronnie Irani provided the backbone to the Essex innings, making sure that too many wickets did not go down too soon.Irani completed his half century off 77 balls with seven boundaries and he was unbeaten on 51 when he made his declaration upon the dismissal of Ashley Cowan.Steven Kirby and off-spinner Andy Gray each claimed three wickets and the other two were taken by Hoggard who had career best figures of six for 51 in the first innings.

Sri Lanka will now play Pakistan in the first game of the CBFS triangulartournament next week (October 26) following a last minute change to theitinerary.According to the previous itinerary, Sri Lanka were to face Zimbabwe in thefirst encounter.Friday is a holiday throughout the Middle East and traditionally attractsthe best crowds in Sharjah, most of whom are keen Pakistani fans. They willbe delighted with the change.The Zimbabwe-Sri Lanka match has been shifted to the following day.Originally, Pakistan were to play Sri Lanka on Saturday.However, there’s been no change to the rest of the matches.All the matches will be day-night encounters and will commence at 4:30 pmlocal time and end at 12:15 midnight.The Sri Lankan side will be leaving to Sharjah on Sunday.Fri 26 Oct – Pakistan v Sri Lanka
Sat 27 Oct – Sri Lanka v Zimbabwe
Sun 28 Oct – Pakistan v Zimbabwe
Tue 30 Oct – Sri Lanka v Zimbabwe
Wed 31 Oct – Pakistan v Zimbabwe
Fri 02 Nov – Pakistan vs Sri Lanka
Sun 04 Nov – Final

International Cricket Council match referee Mike Denness confirmed the punishments handed down to six Indian Test players relating to incidents in the second Test match against South Africa in Port Elizabeth, but refused to elaborate on his decisions at a press conference that rapidly descended into farce at St George’s Park on Tuesday.Amid accusations of bias and conspiracy, Denness sat tight-lipped next to United Cricket Board chief executive Gerald Majola in what amounted to little more than a puppet show as angry Indian and South African journalists sought vainly to establish exactly what Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Shiv Das, Deep Dasgupta, Harbhajan Singh and Sourav Ganguly had done to deserve their punishments.Five of the players received suspended sentences from Denness, but Sehwag has been banned from playing in the third Test match at SuperSport Park starting on Friday.Exactly why, however, remains a mystery with Denness claiming that he is not allowed to talk to the media by ICC regulations. Which, of course, begged the question of why he was at the press conference in the first place. There was no answer to this.To further raise the temperature, it was alleged at the press conference that Indian president, Jagmohan Dalmiya, has threatened to call off the remainder of the tour if Denness was not removed as match referee.According to a press release issued by Majola, Denness held four separate meetings with the Indian players on Monday relating to incidents during the South African second innings on Sunday.Majola apologised for the leak of the punishments on Monday night. It emerged that Denness had specifically asked the UCB not to make an official announcement until Tuesday morning, but at least one journalist was informed of the disciplinary by the Indian team management on Monday night.So reticent was Denness to say anything that at one point Indian commentator Ravi Shastri asked what he was doing there in the first place. “We all know what he looks like,” said Shastri.Majola said that he would talk to Denness after the press conference and try to obtain a more coherent explanation for the sentences. Two things, however, are abundantly clear: in the first place this matter is far from over; secondly, despite attempts to streamline it, the match referee system remains clumsy, inconsistent and, in this instance, incoherent.It might even be fair to say that Denness has done far more damage to the game than the six players he punished.

Western Australia has made a strong start to its Pura Cup match against New South Wales here at the Sydney Cricket Ground today. The visitorshad reached a first innings score of 2/147 by stumps in answer to the Blues’ modest tally of 215.It was a milestone 50th first-class clash between the two states and, from the outset, it was the Warriors who looked the most determined to createa satisfactory new slice of history for themselves. The Blues have won 27 of those past 49 battles but their opponents, conscious of the chance tonudge their way into second place on the Pura Cup table by the end of this one, established a good early position in a bid to let the record bookswrite this victory down to them.After their bowlers counteracted the effect of a loss at the toss, the Western Australians received a great start to their innings with openers ScottMeuleman (60) and Mike Hussey (55*) unfurling a calm, unhurried and, importantly, productive partnership at the top of the order.In the course of a 127-run liaison, Meuleman backed up last week’s century against South Africa with a polished half-century – a milestonesymbolically reached with a clattering off drive off opposing youngster Aaron O’Brien (0/42).And left handed Hussey was also in control, relying on a positive mindset and attractive footwork to carve a half-century of his own.Meuleman was eventually beaten by paceman Stuart Clark (2/31) and outside edged a catch to wicketkeeper Brad Haddin, and the position was furtherweakened when nightwatchman Kade Harvey (5) edged a catch to Mark Higgs, standing at second slip to the same bowler.But Hussey and Simon Katich (11*) encountered no further alarms and duly consolidated an excellent day’s cricket from their team.New South Wales, for its part, was on the back foot by as early as the first over of the day – when Greg Mail (0) was removed by Brad Williams(3/71) for a duck. The Blues’ cause was partially resurrected by aggressive contributions from Haddin (50), Michael Clarke (43) and Michael Slater(40) but the balance was never fully restored and the innings was wrapped up before even two full sessions had been completed.Despite surviving a huge early appeal for a catch, as a Williams delivery ended in the hands of Hussey at slip, Slater’s innings provided particularencouragement for the home team.As he added 66 in a partnership for the second wicket with stand-in captain Michael Bevan (26), it even looked like he was in the midst ofproducing a hand that would restore his very best form. As his team adjusted to the loss of regular captain Shane Lee to a knee injury, he found theboundary on five occasions – and even cleared it once – with a succession of crisp, clean strokes. But that was all before he drove a MatthewNicholson (1/31) delivery on the up to Brad Hogg at cover.Career-best first-class figures for Harvey (4/43), and similarly excellent contributions from fellow pacemen Williams and Jo Angel (2/68), layat the core of the Blues’ troubles. Williams and Angel combined to remove the bulk of the top half of the order, while Harvey swiftly put his previousbest analysis of 3/30 into the shade by snaring the wickets of Clark (15), Don Nash (15) and Nathan Bracken (2) at the end.

Glenn McGrath 12th man?It hasn’t happened in quite some time but it’s one of the possible scenarios if the Adelaide Oval pitch lives up to its reputation when the first Test between Australia and South Africa starts on Friday.With Stuart MacGill recalled to the Australian team for the Test match, there’s every indication Australia will pick two spinners – MacGill and Shane Warne.Australia wouldn’t countenance a five-man bowling attack – especially with Mark Waugh’s part-time spin to call on – which means one of the three fast bowlerslooks like missing out.It would be hard on any one of McGrath, Brett Lee or Jason Gillespie to sit on the sidelines but national selection chairman Trevor Hohns said the best team for the conditions would be picked.”There’s no doubt it will harsh on whoever misses out but that’s always the case,” Hohns said.”We are committed to picking the team to suit the conditions.”He said the final decision on the team make-up wouldn’t be made until the match selection committee had taken a good look at the Adelaide Oval pitch.Early indications were it would be a spinner’s paradise.Given that Adelaide is Gillespie’s home town, there would be a near riot at the Victor Richardson gates if he was omitted.Despite his fine for churlish on-field behaviour in Perth, it would be equally hard to leave out Lee, who was the leading wicket-taker in the series against New Zealand.While McGrath maintains he is good form, he looked down on motivation in the final Test against New Zealand and also suffered from back spasms which kept himout of the action for most of day one in Perth.He is such a proven performer for Australia it would also be a tough decision to end his sequence of 41 consecutive Tests.The other option would be to go in with a five-man bowling attack, especially as Australia struggled to bowl out New Zealand in their rain-affected series.That would mean dropping a specialist batsman, like Damien Martyn, and using Adam Gilchrist at No.6. With Lee broaching genuine all-rounder class, the batting would still have some depth to it.However, Australian captain Steve Waugh is not a big fan of five-man bowling attacks and it seems the least likely outcome.Of course, MacGill could yet end up being 12th man if the pitch looks livelier than predicted.

The Ranji Trophy league match between Mumbai and Saurashtra fizzled out into a dull draw on the fourth day of the game at Mumbai on Tuesday.Mumbai, overnight on 384/6, were bowled out finally for 410, with Amol Muzumdar missing out on his century by seven runs. He was the seventh wicket to fall, with the score on 392. Thereafter, none of the tailenders could contribute significantly, and the innings folded within nine overs of the start of play on the fourth day.Saurashtra’s second-innings batting effort was nowhere near as impressive as its first-innings one. Only Sitanshu Kotak chipped in with yet another dreary, slow knock, making an unbeaten 42 off a mammoth 257 balls. The rest of the batting subsided meekly, and the visitors were reeling at 152/9 at the close of play.

Off-spinner Irfanuddin excelled in Pakistan’s 29-run defeat againstNew Zealand in a Under-19 World Cup warm-up match at Lincoln Friday.Irfanuddin captured four wickets for 43 to restrict tournament hoststo 233 for eight in 50 overs. However Pakistan’s young guns, probablyunused to conditions, were dismissed for 204 in a match in which eachteam was allowed 13 players but only 11 could bat and field.Skipper Salman Butt was Pakistan’s top scorer with 56 off 83 ballswith seven boundaries. Arslan Mir, batting at No 9, chipped in with a34-ball 38 that included four boundaries.New Zealand’s innings revolved around Jesse Ryder who scored a 67-ball74 with eight boundaries. He was instrumental in helping his teamcollect 81 runs off the first 15 overs. However, the runs dried downwhen Irfanuddin, Azhar Ali and Arslan Mir bowled in got into actionand allowed New Zealand to score only 84 in the next 24 overs.Nevertheless, the Black Caps picked up 70 valuable runs in the deathovers to post a decent score.