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Scorecard
Only former England batsman Mark Ramprakash displayed the required application to fashion an innings worthy of note as Surrey limped into a 110-run lead at the mid-point of their Second Division match with Gloucestershire.Having finally dismissed the visitors for 261 on a sporting Oval pitch, to concede a first-innings lead of 35, Surrey reached 145 for 5 before rain led to a premature close. Ramprakash remained on 61 from 92 balls but his team-mates had failed to match his graft to leave the hosts in trouble.On an overcast afternoon in SE11 that favoured seam bowling, the hosts lost two wickets even before clearing the first innings deficit. But Ramprakash showed the mettle to dig in by adding 49 in tandem with Zander de Bruyn (13) then 42 with Steven Davies (14).The home reply started miserably when Jason Roy, off balance and playing around his front pad, went lbw to Ian Saxelby and 13 runs later Rory Hamilton-Brown aimed an expansive back-foot force against the same bowler only to drag the ball onto his stumps. De Bruyn padded up to Will Gidman’s last ball before tea to go leg-before and Davies was unlucky to see his backfoot defensive push bounce back up from the crease and onto the top of leg stump.In fading light Ramprakash posted the 147th first-class 50 of his career with a leg glance for four against Saxelby, but lost Tom Maynard for a 10-ball duck – bowled when looking to drive on the walk against the same bowler. Four balls later the umpires took the sides off for bad light and rain soon followed.Resuming on their overnight score of 171 for 4 at the start of the second day, Gloucestershire lost their last six wickets for 60 in posting a modest first-innings lead of 35. Their lead might have been even smaller had Surrey taken early chances, but Alex Gidman, on 32, then Payne, with five, were both dropped at second slip by Maynard and De Bruyn respectively.Neither batsman took full advantage, however, and both were soon undone by Tim Linley the pick of the Surrey attack with 3 for 66. Gidman fenced a legcutter to the keeper then Payne was squared up by an away swinger and shovelled a low catch to short extra cover.Just before lunch, left-hander Will Gidman edged a push drive against De Bruyn to see Davies pull off a stunning catch diving in front of first slip to make it 239 for 7 at the interval for a slender advantage of 13. Surrey needed a further 10 overs after the break to polish the job off. Ed Young was run out from mid-on by Yasir Arafat having been sent back to the non-striker’s end, then Saxelby went for a third-ball duck giving Davies his fourth catch of the innings.England one-day prospect Jade Dernbach finished off the innings by bowling last man Jonathan Lewis for 17 to return figures of 2 for 35 and see Surrey batting again by 2.30pm on day two.

Scorecard
New Zealand opener Martin Guptill found his form at the right time to fireDerbyshire to a five-run Friends Life t20 victory over Durham at Derby.Guptill hit 60 off 43 balls and Wayne Madsen made his first half-century in thecompetition as the Falcons scored 183 for three to set up an opening win in theNorth Group.Gordan Muchall led Durham’s chase with 62, but after Derbyshire’s spinnersremoved the dangerous Paul Collingwood and Ian Blackwell cheaply, the Dynamoscame up short on 178 for five.Guptill looked in good touch from the start as he dispatched the second andthird balls of the innings from Graham Onions to the mid-wicket boundary.The Durham seamers tended to pitch too short and Guptill and Wes Durston tookadvantage until Gareth Breese stemmed the flow with his off-spin.But Guptill still reached his maiden 50 for Derbyshire off 35 balls beforelaunching Ian Blackwell over mid-wicket for six.The opening pair put on 88 in 11 overs, but when Durston tried to reverse sweepBreese he was caught behind for 25 and Guptill followed in the spinner’s nextover caught at extra cover off a full toss.Chesney Hughes hit Breese over long off for the second six of the innings butBreese took a fine running catch to remove him when he pulled Onions to deepmid-wicket in the 15th over.The Falcons were in danger of falling short until Madsen improvised well toreach 50 from only 28 balls as 53 came from the last four overs.The South African ensured Durham faced a challenging chase but Mustard andMuchall quickly moved into overdrive despite Falcons skipper Luke Suttonrotating his bowlers.Muchall reached his half-century off 30 balls and the pair equalled the Falconsopening stand before Mustard gave Hughes the charge with rain falling and wasstumped for 36.Hughes varied his pace intelligently to restrict the batsmen to just oneboundary in his four overs and with young spinner Tom Clarke also keeping ittight, the pressure told on Blackwell who drove the teenager into the hands oflong on.Durston then landed two big blows as Muchall skied to cover and Collingwood’sattempt to clear the ropes landed in the hands of deep mid-wicket.The Dynamos needed 56 off the last four overs and despite Dale Benkenstein andDavid Miller plundering 18 from Durston’s third over, the advantage shiftedtowards the Falcons when Benkenstein pulled a Steffan Jones full toss to deepmid-wicket.Although Breese pulled Tim Groenewald for six, 15 off the final over was toomuch for Durham as Jones used all his experience to seal victory.

Shahid Afridi, Pakistan’s limited overs captain, has hinted at differences with his coach Waqar Younis after arriving in Karachi from the West Indies where he led the side to a victorious, but ultimately deflating 3-2 series win.Speculation has grown in the last two days about problems between the pair, specifically over issues of team selection. Both, along with team manager Intikhab Alam, are members of the on-tour selection committee which decides on a playing XI. It has been reported that Afridi was unhappy with what he has seen as Waqar’s interference in selection; ahead of the fourth ODI against West Indies, one report claimed Afridi almost walked out of a selection meeting and had to be persuaded by Intikhab to come back.”Although the differences in team management are not such which could not be solved, I feel everyone should do his job and need not interfere in other’s work,” Afridi told reporters on arrival. He also said he would be meeting the board chairman Ijaz Butt in Lahore next week to discuss the issue.Board officials have downplayed the matter; one source telling ESPNcricinfo that “no such incident as described in those reports [Afridi walking away from a meeting] occurred during the series.” He did concede, however, that there may have been “long-standing issues” over selection matters.Another senior official confirmed to ESPNcricinfo, however, that differences between the pair had widened during the Caribbean trip. “They did have issues. Afridi believes he should have final say in the XI as he takes the heat when he goes out on the field and Waqar feels strongly that a coach should have input.”The official also confirmed that Intikhab did try to mediate between the two and stressed the need to keep matters within the team rather than leak them to the media as ultimately happened.Afridi and Waqar went through the World Cup without huge problems but there are longer-term issues. For example, it is widely believed that before the World Cup, before a decision had been made on who would captain Pakistan in the tournament, Waqar was in favour of Misbah-ul-Haq ahead of Afridi as captain.The matter is complicated by the recent threat to resign by chief selector Mohsin Khan. Although he eventually relented after resolving the matter with Butt and never publicly disclosed who he was having problems with, some reports suggested that he was also unhappy with Waqar’s role in selection, especially of the Test squad for the current tour.The board official believes though that the problems are not something that cannot be resolved. “It is something that has happened before and does crop up every now and again. I don’t feel they are irreconcilable differences between the two. Afridi has requested time with the chairman so let’s see what happens beyond that.”Pakistan lost the last two games of the series, the last one by ten wickets, having given chances to a number of untried young players such as Hammad Azam, Usman Salahuddin and Junaid Khan through the matches. Afridi regretted his team lost a good chance to win all the matches, calling once again for the involvement of a batting coach with the side.”We should have clean-swept West Indies but the defeat in the last two matches left a bad taste in the mouth; we flopped in batting and that’s why I must say we need a batting coach,” said Afridi, who also admitted he was below par in the series.”I played average cricket because I was tired after the World Cup and only played the series on the advice of some friends and former players.”

Cricket Kenya has announced new 20 and 50-over domestic competitions aimed at bolstering the standard of cricket in the country. The inclusion of two Ugandan sides in the six-team set-up will also provide a valuable boost to their up-and-coming neighbours.The gulf between the NPCA league, Kenya’s premier competition, and the national side has been a worry for a long time. In 2009 an attempt was made to establish a four-team elite event in both three-day and limited-over formats, but it floundered because of a lack of finance and poor support from players.The latest initiative will feature four Kenyan sides – two from Nairobi, one each from Coast and Rift Valley – as well as two Ugandan teams. Each side will play ten games over weekends, with a Twenty20 match on a Saturday followed a day later by a 50-over contest. The leading four teams in each event would then progress to play-offs and a final.Nationally contracted players will be split between sides to ensure a fair balance between the competitors, and Tom Sears, Cricket Kenya’s chief executive, told ESPNcricinfo there were also plans to bring in overseas players from the subcontinent. “I believe by bringing in players from abroad we have the best chance of our players improving their game,” he said.Original plans had been for all six sides to come from within Kenya, but Sears admitted that “the level of competition was such that we could not offer enough strength in depth to provide strong enough cricket”. He added that as Africa’s leading Associate, it was Kenya’s responsibility to help the progress of Uganda. “They have good players,” he said. “That’s why we opted to give them a chance to take part.”It was also revealed that a media deal had been agreed with Supersport for them to cover the semi-finals and finals of each competition.

India have been fined for maintaining a slow over-rate during the World Cup final in Mumbai against Sri Lanka on Saturday. Sri Lanka opted to bat and match referee Jeff Crowe ruled that India were one over short when time allowances were taken into consideration. In accordance with ICC’s Code of Conduct regulations governing minor over-rate offences, players are fined 10% of their match fees for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time, with the captain fined double that amount.As a result MS Dhoni was fined 20% of his match fee while the rest of the team were fined 10% each. India played three fast bowlers in the match and the innings break had to be reduced to twenty minutes as a result of India’s over-rate. India won the match by six wickets.

USA Cricket Association President Gladstone Dainty is attempting to arrange another set of matches involving New Zealand later this year that could potentially be played in New York.”We’re very seriously looking to do something in August,” Dainty told ESPNcricinfo. “We don’t have another [team] yet, but we’re looking to do something in August.” USA hosted New Zealand and Sri Lanka in Florida last May for a pair of Twenty20 games that took place shortly after the conclusion of the World Twenty20 in the West Indies.While matches might be played in Florida, New York could also become a viable option after Dainty revealed plans to install a turf wicket at Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field. A USA XI played two matches against a West Indies XI captained by Brian Lara at the same ground in 2006. Floyd Bennett Field also shows up in the 2008 Joseph O’Neill novel , a fictional story about a man who uses cricket to help piece his life back together after 9/11.”We’re still working on getting this facility in New York going,” Dainty said. “I’m hoping that it’ll be ready by August.” Dainty would not reveal how much money it would cost to make upgrades including the turf wicket at Floyd Bennett Field. It is also unknown if the costs would be covered by the group of investors behind Cricket Holdings America or if the money would be coming from a different source.Dainty feels that the turf wicket would be ready for immediate use once it’s put in place while the long term viability of the facility would be achieved by utilising the site for a domestic Twenty20 league in the USA. Dainty told ESPNcricinfo in December that CHA was hoping to start the proposed league by the summer of 2012.USA played Jamaica in a series concurrent with the Sri Lanka and New Zealand matches in Florida last year, but Dainty did not know if something similar would be planned to involve USA for the next time around. Speaking about the team’s fortunes at the ICC WCL Division Three in Hong Kong, Dainty acknowledged that the squad was underprepared for the tour and that it played a part in USA’s last-place finish.”The team to me didn’t do very well in Hong Kong,” Dainty said. “I’m not going to be the one that’s blaming the team alone. For all of us, I would say that the team was not a very well prepared team. In terms of when they were playing, it was their offseason for most of them. Even during the national championships, I didn’t see the energy from a lot of the players.”I really think that when we did not get [Neil] McGarrell in the team that it hurt us a lot,” Dainty said, in reference to the former West Indies Test spinner who was originally included in USA’s squad. McGarrell had to be replaced when the ICC ruled him ineligible to play for USA based on residency requirements. “What happened in Hong Kong is not a failure of 14 or 17 guys; it’s the program as a whole because they were not well prepared. It was US cricket as a whole. We needed additional funding for them to play some more.”Even though there is a significant amount of funding that USACA is set to receive from signing the deal with CHA, the bulk of it will not trickle down until later in the year.”We have sources of funding now. I wouldn’t say we have all the money right now, but we have sources now,” Dainty said. “We’ve got enough funding to do what we want to do, but remember we didn’t have a lot of funding to run the national championship, even the Under-19 tournament we had to put off. Since then we had one camp and then the funding came in.”Dainty was unhappy that Howard Johnson, the team’s 46-year-old assistant coach, was inserted into the starting XI for the match against Papua New Guinea. Johnson was added to the squad after batsman Aditya Thyagarajan went down in the second game against Denmark with an injured knee. Johnson last played for the USA at the 2005 ICC Trophy in Ireland prior to his one-off appearance in Hong Kong.”Based on what I knew in terms of Howard being included in the squad, we had a player who was injured and because of the logistics, we were more concerned about somebody emergency fielding,” Dainty said, indicating that it did not make sense to fly in a replacement player from the USA. “And then you know … never did I think he would be put there as a player. If we knew that Howard was such a strong candidate to play, we should have known that before. I was as disappointed as anyone else.””That should not be a reflection of Howard. Howard is a very nice and decent man and I don’t think he should have been asked to do that at all. I don’t know who should take responsibility but I hope it won’t happen again. I’ve never been a micromanager, but this type of situation certainly needs more managing.”

Match Facts

February 25, Nagpur
Start time: 09:30 local time (04:00 GMT)
Where are the runs hidden?•Associated Press

Big Picture

It’s almost as if there is malicious glee that follows Australia’s so-called decline. Ashes lost? Yay! Ricky Ponting accidentally breaks a TV set? What irresponsible behaviour! Australia are struggling against spinners? Wonderful! In some ways, it’s human nature to gloat at Goliath’s fall. At the centre of the storm is Ponting, trying hard to regain his batting form, trying to hide the Ashes blot in his CV with another World-Cup triumph. In Australia’s previous victorious campaigns, Ponting has led from the front with the bat but this time a question mark hovers around that possibility. Australia’s campaign in this edition of the World Cup could well revolve around Ponting’s form at No. 3. He got couple of hard-earned fifties in the warm-up games and looked to be slowly progressing towards recovering his touch.The bowling is led by another ageing campaigner, Brett Lee, who is scripting a remarkable comeback. Much has been written about Australia’s attack which stands out for its naked violence. The feeling is that they will either scythe through the opposition or fail to control the run-flow on these batting tracks.On the other side, there is New Zealand, who are playing this game under the grim background of the Christchurch earthquake. “For a lot of the guys, coming to training has allowed them to take their mind off things,” Daniel Vettori said. New Zealand have had a poor build-up to the World Cup, but they started the tournament with a crushing win against Kenya. Their batting line-up looks quite strong with the likes of Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor and Scott Styris and it’s their bowling which looks a bit iffy. Will their seamers be able to adapt to these tracks? Much will depend on spinners Vettori and Nathan McCullum, who is likely to open the bowling with the new ball. New Zealand will hope that the pitch will take some turn and they can poke at Australia’s vulnerability against spin on these slow tracks. It should be an interesting battle.

Form guide

(Most recent first for the last five completed games)
Australia: WWWWL
New Zealand: LWLLL

Watch out for…

Shane Watson’s revival began here in India during the inaugural edition of the IPL. He adapted brilliantly and transformed himself into a smashing opener and took that form and confidence to the international stage. On Indian tracks, he likes to get on the front foot and scythe through the line. With Brad Haddin yet to learn the art of converting starts and with Ponting yet to get a regain his form completely, much will depend on Watson to set a solid platform.Nathan McCullum is not a bowler who causes sleepless nights to batsmen but he could play a crucial role if Vettori decides to give him the new ball. He is accurate and spins the ball just enough to pose some problems. How he handles the pressure of bowling against Watson, Haddin and co might well decide how New Zealand fare with the ball.

Team news

New Zealand have chosen their playing 12. Kyle Mills, Kane Williamson, and Luke Woodcock will miss out.New Zealand (probable): 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Brendon McCullum (wk), 3 Jesse Ryder, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 James Franklin, 6 Scott Stryis, 7 Jacob Oram, 8 Daniel Vettori, 9 Nathan McCullum, 10 Hamish Bennett, 11 Tim SoutheeAustralia (probable) 1 Shane Watson, 2 Brad Haddin (wk), 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Clarke, 5 David Hussey, 6 Cameron White, 7 Steve Smith, 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Jason Krezja, 10 Brett Lee, 11 Shaun Tait..

Stats and trivia

• Ricky Ponting is the player who has played the most World Cup games. He has played 40 matches, going past Glenn McGrath’s 39 appearances. He has also led Australia 23 times, the second-highest by any World Cup captain, after New Zealand’s Stephen Fleming (27). Australia are yet to lose a World Cup game under Ponting.
• In the game against Zimbabwe, Ponting became the fourth batsman in the World Cup to be run out on five occasions. The others are: Inzamam-ul-Haq (9), Asanka Gurusinha (6) and Javed Miandad (5)
• Australia have faced New Zealand 123 times and have won 84 games. In India, these two teams have played against each other seven times, with Australia victorious in all seven.
  

  Quotes

  “Nothing really changes from any team you’re playing in the subcontinent, you try and bowl straight at the wickets and you know you’re going to have to score a lot of runs. There’s no mystery to what we’re going to try to do, but the key when you come up against these big teams and big players is having the presence of mind to execute time and time again. That’s the toughest thing when you’re coming up against good players.”

Michael Clarke does not think Australian cricket is in crisis, but therecan be no other description after what has happened over the past sevenweeks. The elite game in the country has collapsed on and off the fieldduring a record Ashes thrashing, from coaching and selection to moremundane matters like batting and bowling.Despite all of this James Sutherland, the chief executive, is happy withthe head coach, the selectors and the players – just not the result.Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, is not resigning and ispleased with the form of the four decision makers. “I think we’ve done avery good job as a selection panel, but the reality is we were totallyout-played,” he said. He was being serious.Tim Nielsen, the coach, was reasonable enough to avoid praising himselfand settled on saying that he had tried his best. Nobody has been accusedof not trying, just of not being very good, or doing the right things. Yetnobody is resigning and nobody is being sacked.All the onwards-and-upwards generals are talking about moving forward, butthey have to hope Australia have hit the bottom first. Hilditch said theteam’s next two Test tours, against Sri Lanka and South Africa later inthe year, would be even tougher than this one. His contract is up afterthe World Cup and it would be a sensible time to resign.The three innings defeats have given Australia their worst thrashing ofany series. Twenty-four years ago, when England last raised the urn here,the hosts were also in crisis. On that occasion it was due to theaftermath of the Lillee-Marsh-Chappell retirements and the exits of therebels to South Africa. Everybody knew it was the worst of times.This time the Test team was at full-strength and the result was evenworse. Australia started the series as favourites but when the end came atthe SCG, in front of a bouncing Barmy Army, England finished with a 3-1victory. The innings-and-83-run triumph reverberated as much as thesinging of the tourists.For the Australians in the middle, it was a time to look at the ground.The pose has been a familiar one over the past two years, starting with ahome defeat to South Africa and continuing with losses to England, India,a draw with Pakistan, and now this.”I don’t think there’s a crisis in Australian cricket at all,” Clarke saidfirmly. He was in a difficult position as the stand-in captain followinghis first Test in charge. The Ashes were gone before he had stepped intoRicky Ponting’s shoes and his men did no better or worse than in the twoother defeats.”We need a lot of improvement in our game in all areas,” Clarke said. “ButI do believe we have the talent and potential in that change room to doit. We’ve seen through this series that guys have stood up at differenttimes, but we’re way too inconsistent to win a big series.”Like “disappointed”, “improvement” is another word that drops off thetongues of beaten Aussies. Nielsen, in particular, uses it a lot,especially over the past year. When asked, given the number of poor seriessince the 2009 Ashes loss, which of his players had improved over the pastsix months he took a long pause.”It depends on how you measure improvement,” he said. “If we sit back andlook at the series results it would be easy to say none of us have.” Afteroutlining the team’s trouble with “adjusting to game situations”, henominated Michael Hussey, Shane Watson and Peter Siddle as ones who hadimproved.Seventeen players were used in this series and only three of theAustralians were worthy of mention. Ryan Harris, who is now injured, wasthe only other one who deserved to be included in that tiny group. It isnot a glowing endorsement of the players or the coaching staff.So what should happen at the end of a non-crisis? Cricket Australia isplanning a review, which it does annually anyway, and Sutherland saidnothing should be discounted, even though he has faith in all the major departments. Unlike an Australian batting collapse, thepost-mortem won’t happen quickly. A structure has to be determined and ithas to be ratified by the board.”I’m firmly of the view that you can’t expect to get back on top by doingthe same things and just simply plugging away,” Sutherland said. “You haveto look at where you’re up to, how things are delivered and your approach,and that will certainly be part of a review that will happen in the comingweeks.”Clarke said the team was “as close to rock bottom as it gets”, but if heis asked to contribute to the review he will counsel against mass changes.”We’ve got to become better players, we’ve got to become a better team.”The answer nobody could give was how it would happen.Before all that there is the World Cup, in which Australia are defendingchampions. Ponting will be back from his broken finger to aim for a fourthconsecutive trophy. However, Hilditch wouldn’t endorse him as the Testleader for their next series against Sri Lanka in August. “I wouldn’t beblaming the captain [for the Ashes result],” Hilditch said. “They playedbetter than us. Unfortunately people have to accept that’s just whathappened.”Hilditch answered casually when asked how much of the result was hisfault. “I take responsibility for doing the best job I can possible forAustralian cricket,” he said. “It’s what I’ve always done, I have a greatpassion for it and still want to do it. I’m sure we’ll get through thisstage.”Despite admitting they were out-bowled, out-batted and out-thought,Cricket Australia’s top employees can’t bring themselves to say they arein a crisis. Or apportion any blame for a summer filled with disasters. Itwould be funny if it wasn’t so serious.

Peter Siddle and his team-mates are basking in Australia’s dramatic turnaround but realise the job of regaining the Ashes is far from complete. Australia have stormed back into the campaign with two days of excellent work in Perth, and require only five more breakthroughs to draw level at 1-1.England finished at an awful 5 for 81 in their pursuit of a now impossible 391 and Siddle said the locals’ performance had changed the feel of the series. “There was obviously a lot of pressure on us in this match to get a result. There’s still a lot of work to be done but it does make a big change for us.”Shane Watson set up Australia’s second innings with 95 while Michael Hussey’s 116 pushed them to 309. Mitchell Johnson and Ryan Harris then grabbed two wickets each and the only problem for Australia was a damaged finger for Ricky Ponting when he deflected Jonathan Trott’s edge to Brad Haddin.The fifth wicket came when Paul Collingwood was left to face the last ball after James Anderson, the nightwatchman, turned down a single from the penultimate delivery. Collingwood then edged Harris to third slip, where Steven Smith collected a sharp take. “It was a big point in the game for us to get five wickets at the end of the day,” Siddle said. “It was a massive moment for us.”England’s batsmen have been dominant over the first two games but Australia’s pace quartet has been so strong in this match that Smith and Shane Watson haven’t been used. “We just knew that if we played our best cricket that would put them under a lot of pressure,” Siddle said. “That’s what we’ve shown in this Test match, that we can play some good cricket.”We’ve shown everyone out here, batting and bowling, that we can fight and we can work hard.”

Queensland 2 for 27 trail South Australia 223 (Cooper 63, Swan 6-69) by 196 runs
ScorecardChris Swan enjoyed the best day of his career•Getty Images

Chris Swan made life easier for Queensland with six wickets but then watched two of his team-mates fall to South Australia before stumps. Swan’s career-best 6 for 69 on his return to the side helped dismiss the visitors for 223 at Allan Border Field before the locals went to stumps at 2 for 27.Wade Townsend (3) and Lee Carseldine (0) were the casualties on a difficult day for all the batsmen. Tom Cooper was the best for South Australia with a patient 63 and lower order contributions were needed from Dan Christian (30), Aaron O’Brien (22) and Gary Putland (21) to boost the total.Swan removed James Smith with the second delivery of the day, returned to upset the middle order with the wickets of Aiden Blizzard and Graham Manou in consecutive balls, and then finished off the innings. Scott Walter and Luke Feldman provided the support with two victims each.