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As the Indian domestic season kicked off with a revamped Ranji Trophy league structure, many eyes turned to the Ray-Ban domestic cricket ratings after the first month of play to assess the relative merits of the batsmen and bowlers slogging it out.Delhi opener Gautam Gambhir found himself at the top of the batting ratings with a net 626 points, only two more than Hyderabad star Ambati Rayudu. Abhijit Kale (Maharashtra), Yashpal Singh (Services) and Thilak Naidu (Karnataka) make up the rest of the top five. (Click here for the top 25 batsmen.)For somebody who has played only four innings, Gambhir’s feat of notching up a double-century (233) and a big hundred (157) in that period is remarkable – the main reason he is at number one in the ratings this month. Young turk Rayudu finds himself at second for much the same reason; in three of his six innings, Rayudu had scores of 210, 159 and 55.Consistency-wise, however, Thilak Naidu – as the graph shows – is the man to plump for. Four innings saw him cross 50 all four times; on one occasion he made 167, while he got close to a century with 98 and 86 on two other occasions. The lack of more centuries sees him miss out on a higher rank, just as the tally of three centuries in eight innings sees Kale come in at number three. The real flash-in-the-pan performance is perhaps that of Amay Khurasiya; aside from his one steep double-century score, his graph shows few remarkable displays of batting.Indian one-Test wonder and Madhya Pradesh leg-spinner Narendra Hirwani notches up 560 points in the bowling sweeps, as does Railways off-spinner Kulamani Parida. Hirwani, however, gets the edge by virtue of tallying up more five-wicket hauls than Parida. KN Ananthapadmanabhan (Kerala), Pritam Gandhe (Vidarbha) and Madhusudan Acharya (Vidarbha) come in at three, four and five respectively. (Click here for the top 25 bowlers.)In fact, Hirwani and Vidarbha offie Gandhe are also neck-and-neck in the bowling department, but the former sticks his own ahead on the basis of playing two more innings and thereby picking more wickets. Gandhe struck form in all of his four innings, taking five wickets in three of them and four wickets in the fourth.Gandhe loses out unfortunately to a few players with more innings – and thereby more wickets – under their belt. Parida at second has played as many as seven innings, but his tally of 23 is not appreciably more than Gandhe’s 19. Scraping into the top six is Mumbai off-spinner Faisal Shaikh, who does so on the strength of one eight-wicket innings haul; his other five innings reaped only eight wickets put together!

The race for the Norwich Union title is hotting up after the defeat of leaders Worcestershire Royals. It means they now lead by just four points from Warwickshire Bears who have played a game more, and their conquerors at New Road, Glamorgan Dragons, who have played a game less.Dominic Ostler scored an unbeaten 103 to help Warwickshire Bears record a seven-wicket win over Leicestershire Foxes at Edgbaston. Earlier Iain Sutcliffe had fallen narrowly short of a well-deserved century as he put on 107 for the third wicket with Michael Bevan (32). The stand came to an end when Sutcliffe was caught short attempting a tricky run, but Phil DeFreitas (44*) batted until the end as his side made 250 for seven five off their 45 overs. Warwickshire got off to a miserable start in reply. Nick Knight was dismissed early by DeFreitas (two for 36) who then claimed his second wicket when Ian Bell edged to wicket-keeper Neil Burns. Ostler and Jamie Traughton (66) then ploughed into the bowling as they put on 139 to reach their revised target of 203. The home side finished on 206 for three to move into second place in Division One, trailing Worcestershire by four points.Glamorgan Dragons recorded an unlikely win after rain brought an early end to their clash with Worcestershire Royals. The Welsh side were 108 for three when play was interrupted. Earlier Australian Shane Lee, making his debut for the home side, top scored with 41 on a bowler-friendly pitch. Stephen Peters (29) and Ben Smith (25) were the other main contributors as their side made 202 for nine. Adrian Dale (three for 32) was the main wicket taker. Robert Croft (15) again began brightly in reply but was bowled by Australian-born Matthew Mason (two for 27). Mason took his second wicket when Michael Powell (4) was caught by Lee. Matthew Maynard (32*) and Steve James (41*) led the recovery but then the heavens opened with Glamorgan requiring 95 for victory. When play was called off after persistent rain the Duckworth/Lewis method denied Royals their eighth Norwich Union win, as Glamorgan were crowned victors by seven wickets.In Division Two, 22-year-old opener William Jefferson scored an unbeaten 111 as Essex Eagles’ batsmen were unable to overcome Middlesex Crusaders’ bowling at Lord’s. Abdur Razzaq (two for 51) and Chad Keegan (two 42) both made early breakthroughs as Essex collapsed to 131 for seven. Essex were 194 for eight when the rain came down. After the interruption, the home side needed 74 off ten overs for victory. Then came pure nail-biting cricket. Ashley Cowan (two for nine) bowled Razzaq for four. Graham Napier took three wickets in his first over to remove dangerman Shah (25), Aaron Laraman (11) and Simon Cook (0). Jamie Middlebrook (two for five) then dismissed Ed Joyce (8) with his first delivery and bowled Jamie Dalrymple (16) with his fourth. Andrew Strauss (5) had his stump uprooted by Cowan in the final over as did Sven Koenig (0) who was run out. Paul Weekes (5*) hit the winning boundary with a ball to spare.Darren Cousins (three for 36) and Graeme Swann (two for 14) helped Northamptonshire Steelbacks dismiss Hampshire Hawks for 133 at the County Ground as they recorded a ten-wicket win under the Duckworth/Lewis method in yet another rain-affected match. Earlier wicket-keeper Nic Pothas (34*) and John Crawley (33) had been the main run-makers as the visitors put on a poor batting display. Rain intervened with the home side on 54 without loss, well ahead of their required 37 for victory. The Steelbacks lie in second place after their second win in two days and their third in succession.

Australia inflicted on Pakistan the country’s first-ever defeat in less than two days by winning the second Test by an innings and 198 runs to take an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three-Test series at the boiling Sharjah Stadium Saturday.And for the second day running, Pakistan were bowled out for lowest-ever total of 53 with Abdul Razzaq unable to continue his innings due to a fractured wrist.As the mercury soared to 51 Celsius inside the stadium Pakistan batsmen found out both the surroundings and the Australian attack too hot to handle as the second innings lasted just 24.5 overs.In the first innings Pakistan batted for 31.5 overs in making 59.In two innings Pakistan occupied the crease for a mere 56.4 overs which shows the total capitulation of batting.To describe Pakistan’s display especially by the batsmen anything but shameful, gutless and nothing better than a club side would not be an exaggeration or outlandish. It was simply pathetic that too on a wicket favouring batsmen.It was a similar story in the second innings. The rot started with a horrendous run out of opener Taufiq Umar, who in the process bagged a pair. To set the tone for worse to come after Pakistan bowlers did a commendable job to restrict Australia to 310, conceding a lead of 251.From then on it was a procession as the wickets fell like nine pins as only Misbah-ul-Haq and Imran Nazir managed to reach double figures.Pakistan for the second time failed to come to terms with either the Australian pace attack or the spin wizard Shane Warne who repeated his first innings performance grabbing four for 13, two more runs than he conceded in the first innings, off just 6.5 overs. He had match figures of eight for 24 which illustrates his dominance over the leaden-footed and abject Pakistani batsmen.Warne was simply unplayable and none of the Pakistan batsmen possessed the technique to counter his mixed-bag of flippers, googlies and sharply turning leg-breaks.In two Tests so far Warne has captured 19 wickets and he is likely to haunt the Pakistanis in the third Test starting from Oct 19.Earlier, the Australian innings was dominated by opener Matthew Hayden who went on to score his first century against Pakistan in his second Test against Waqar’s men. The attractive left-hander was out for 119 having batted 255 minutes hitting nine fours and one six in a stay of 433 minutes. He was rightly named Man-of-the-Match.Off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq again bowled well and was the only bowler to contain the Australians as he claimed the third four-wicket haul of the series. His four wickets this time cost him 83 runs in 34 overs. Razzaq captured three for 22 as he cleaned up the tail.But the biggest disappointments were ‘self-proclaimed best fast bowler of the world’ Shoaib Akhtar and leg-spinner Danish Kaneria.Shoaib at times reduced to bowling fast off-breaks took the wicket of Adam Gilchrist for 42 runs from 14 overs while Kaneria was too expensive as he gave away 116 runs for his one wicket off 26 overs.With the series already decided and Australia having proved beyond a shadow of doubt, to be several notches better it will require something extraordinary from a demoralised and decimated Pakistan to come back and put up a decent fight in the third Test.

SYDNEY, July 19 AAP – Steve and Mark Waugh are almost certain to be watching next year’s cricket World Cup from the sidelines after the national selectors sent a clear message to the unwanted pair today.The 37-year-old twins, dropped from the national side earlier this year, couldn’t count themselves among Australia’s top 28 one-day players after failing to make it into the Australia A one-day side to play seven one-dayers against South Africa A in September.The 14-man national side is the same as that which took on Pakistan in three one-dayers last month with the addition of Queensland spin bowler Nathan Hauritz.The 14-man A team is not an experiment with youth – it has its share of experienced players, including Justin Langer, Greg Blewett, Ian Harvey, Andrew Symonds and Simon Katich, who doesn’t even have an Australian Cricket Board contract.The fact the brothers weren’t included is a clear pointer to their future in limited overs cricket.Adam Gilchrist, vice-captain to Waugh in the Test side and deputy to Ricky Ponting in the one-day side, was surprised the twins weren’t in one of the teams.”It is a bit odd,” Gilchrist said.”Obviously … the Waughs could easily slot into any team and still do well.”Langer, who played his last one-dayer for Australia five years ago, will captain the A side.He refused to discount Steve Waugh’s chances of a recall to the national side but figured it unlikely.”There is no doubt he has got the ability to, (it is) whether the opportunity comes up for him to,” Langer said.”Having spoken to him recently, he still has the desire to do it and, if any person could do it against all the odds that are probably stacked against him to do it and make a return, he could.”Both Waughs are still counted among the world’s top-20 one-day players with the latest PricewaterhouseCoopers ratings having them at equal 19th.National selection chairman Trevor Hohns said he was “very, very comfortable” with the two sides, including an A side which included newcomers in 21-year-old NSW all-rounder Michael Clarke and Tasmanian pace bowler Damien Wright.”There’s a couple of guys there I suppose who are a bit of a look and see proposition – we are experimenting a little bit,” Hohns said in a statement.”These matches against South Africa A provide players with valuable experience at the international level and importantly, for those players who may eventually be selected for the World Cup, the familiarity of playing in South Africa.”Steve Waugh, through his manager Robert Joske, said he’d wanted to go on the tour.”I was more than willing to go on the tour if selected but that is not the case,” said Waugh, who will travel to India next week as part of his deal with sponsor MRF.Joske described Waugh as “stoic and strong”.Mark Waugh’s manager, Leo Karis, said he was “not overly surprised” the long-serving batsman had been left out of the A team.He said his client hadn’t given up hope of forcing his way back into World Cup calculations with strong performances in the domestic one-day competition.The national side will play Pakistan and possibly Kenya in a one-day series in Nairobi – pending a security report – from August 27 to September 7.Australia will then travel to Sri Lanka for the ICC Champions Trophy from September 12-29, where it’s drawn in the same group as New Zealand and Bangladesh.Four group winners advance to the knockout semifinals.ACB chief executive James Sutherland said Australia’s participation in the Kenyan tournament would be confirmed once the regular security and operational checks had been done.The tournament was originally to have taken place in Pakistan, and was to have involved New Zealand.But security concerns ruled out Pakistan as a venue and New Zealand said it wouldn’t play in Kenya because it had promised its players a full break in July and August.Kenya was likely to take New Zealand’s place in the triangular tournament.”The ACB has informed the Pakistan Cricket Board that the Australian team is available for the Kenyan one-day international series,” Sutherland said in a statement.”But participation is subject to our satisfaction that player security measures are in place and cricket facilities are adequate.”We need to go through some formalities before we confirm our participation.”Australia and Pakistan have to yet to sort out a venue for a scheduled three-Test tour of Pakistan in October.Bangladesh looms as a possible host after Pakistan was ruled off-limits due to on-going security concerns.Cricket in Pakistan has been badly hit in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the United States and the resulting war on terror in Afghanistan, as well as tension with neighbouring India.The two Australian teams named today were:Australia: Ricky Ponting (capt), Adam Gilchrist, Michael Bevan, Andrew Bichel, Jason Gillespie, Nathan Hauritz, Matthew Hayden, Brett Lee, Darren Lehmann, Jimmy Maher, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Shane Watson.Australia A: Justin Langer, (capt), Simon Katich (vice-capt), Greg Blewett, Nathan Bracken, Ryan Campbell, Michael Clarke, Stuart Clark, Ian Harvey, Mark Higgs, Brad Hogg, Michael Hussey, Andrew Symonds, Brad Williams, Damien Wright.

Nottinghamshire cricket chief Clive Rice is hoping that South African all-rounder Nicky Boje will be confirmed as the county’s overseas player in the next 48 hours.Boje, 28, is the likely replacement for New Zealand’s Chris Cairns, who is now unavailable after sustaining a serious knee injury that is expected to keep him out of cricket for the rest of the year.Rice said: “In Boje we have a player who is really keen to develop his game by coming to England to play county cricket.”He is an excellent spin bowler who has made Test 50s and is also a very fineone-day player.”He will therefore be able to fill a lot of roles and bring considerableexperience and depth to our spin department.”Notts are still hoping that Cairns will play in the second season of his two-year contract at Trent Bridge next year.

New Zealand’s rescheduled cricket tour of Pakistan ended prematurely when the second and final Test was called off , barely hours before it was scheduled to start here at the National Stadium, after a bomb blast less than 50 metres from the team hotel.The blast, that killed 14 and injured 22, went off on the road adjacent to the hotel between 7:40am and 7:50am. Both the teams were scheduled to leave for the stadium at 8:00am for opening day’s play.None of the players from the two teams nor the officials were injured. But they were naturally anxious, distracted and horrified with whatever they saw or heard about the gruesome incident.As the New Zealanders preferred to take `shelter’ in open air and spent rest of the morning at the pool side, match referee Mike Procter officially called off the Test at a hastily arranged press conference at 11:30pm.”In consultation with Brig Munawwar Rana (director of the PCB) and Jeff Crowe (New Zealand team manager) and because of security reason, this Test match has been called off. So the tour is over,” Procter said.The Black Caps left for Singapore on their way to Christchurch by Singapore Airlines flight No SQ418 that took off at 7.25pm Wednesday evening. The match officials – Procter, Rudi Koertzen (both South Africans) and Steve Bucknor (West Indian) – also departed for Johannesburg and London respectively via Dubai on the same evening by Emirates flight No EK610 that flew 10.30pm.The New Zealanders were escorted to the airport with heavy security that was considerably strengthened after the blast. There were no less than 50 gun-totting commandos occupying a dozen or so police vans and motorcycles.It was the worst incident in the history of Pakistan sports that led to the cancellation of a foreign team’s official tour.In 1984, India returned home after the assassination of their Prime Minister Indra Gandhi in New Delhi. The second One-day International, which was in progress at Sialkot was immediately abandoned along with the remaining part of the tour. But New Zealand’s decision to abort the tour is not the only thing that is worrying the PCB. The dilemma now facing the PCB is that future events in the country are now in serious jeopardy.Pakistan are to host New Zealand and Australia for a tri-nation one-day series between Aug 27 and Sept 7 and then are scheduled to take on Australia in a three-Test home series between Oct 1 and 24.”We have hardly recovered from this morning’s shock and haven’t really thought what would happen in days to come. But I agree that security issues and foreign team’s future visits to Pakistan will surface,” Munawwar said.In a broad setback, the Pakistan government and PCB’s assurances and guarantees to the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Test world about players security, were also proven wrong.”I feel let down and low after today’s incidents. I had made big claims on the ICC platform that Pakistan was as safe as any country for cricket. But today, I feel sad, depressed and upset,” Munawwar said, adding: “I want to express my deepest regrets to New Zealand for the unfortunate incident.”The PCB spokesman further said that it would now require greater effort to convince the world to change their views on players security in Pakistan.Munawwar said the PCB did whatever it could for the smooth running of the tour. “But we are now the victim of circumstances.”Procter, Crowe and NZC’s security manager Reg Dickson endorsed the PCB official’s statement. “It has been an excellent tour until today. We got the security that was promised and we have no complaints against the Pakistan board,” they said.Crowe said it was a devastating blow “because both the PCB and NZC had tried their best to make the tour happen.” But he rejected claims that he had proposed to the PCB during the Lahore Test to shift the second Test to either Faisalabad or reschedule it in the Punjab metropolis. He also said the decision to cancel the tour was taken by the NZC and none of the players was consulted.”For NZC, players’ security is paramount and that was conveyed to the PCB who understood our position,” Crowe said, adding: “We feel sorry for the PCB who did their best and provided us the best hospitality.”

An attritional day of cricket at Lord’s on the third day of the rain affected CricInfo Championship match took Middlesex, with five wickets standing, into a one run lead over Worcestershire.Middlesex’s left-handed opener, Andy Strauss scored 125, his highest first-class score and was the common factor in two substantial partnerships, the first of them being an opening stand of 129 with Mick Roseberry, who made 63.Theirs was Middlesex’s first three-figure opening stand since Strauss and Mark Ramprakash put on 102 against Northamptonshire in the opening match of last season.After Roseberry departed, dollying a catch with a mistimed pull at Matthew Liptrot, Strauss and Owais Shah added 97. Again Worcestershire could manage to capture only one wicket in the session.Half way through it, Strauss, who had been in for 281 minutes and faced 253 balls, was caught behind cutting at Graeme Hick, bowling off-breaks. Shah, 30 at the time of his dismissal, got hopelessly bogged down and could scrape together only nine more runs in 17 overs before tea.Middlesex’s overseas player, Stephen Fleming, New Zealand’s captain, scored twenty of the 36 runs added in this time.He eventually fell for 42, providing the first wicket of overseas player Andy Bichel’s season as Middlesex stuttered in the final session. Shah fell just short of a painstaking half-century and Hutton, who hit the first first-class century of the season last week, found the going harder in the Championship, succumbing to Rawnsley for four.

Chris Harris’ selection for the Test team recognised all he has done for Canterbury, his coach Michael Sharpe said today.”It’s hard for us but good for Harry,” Sharpe said. He takes his team into the ninth round State Championship game against Auckland tomorrow still with a chance of taking the trophy.Warren Wisneski (hamstring strain) and Harris are replaced by Cleighten Cornelius and Marcel McKenzie in the Canterbury squad.”It’s an important game and we need to keep working hard,” said first year Canterbury coach Sharpe, who has seen his side win three times in the Championship this season after a two year spell without a win.”It looks a good deck (at Christchurch’s Village Green) and there should be a lot of runs. The Championship, which requires Canterbury to win its last two games and for other results to go its way is “definitely” still on, “but we need things to happen,” said Sharpe.Meanwhile, Auckland have been forced to make several changes from the team which beat Central Districts in Palmerston North last week.Chris Drum, Lou Vincent, Matt Horne and Mark Richardson are on Test duty while Sam Whiteman is still recovering from a back injury.Into the team come Tama Canning, Bradley Nielsen, Sanjeewa Silva, Rob Lynch and Nick Horsley. Nielsen, from the Howick Pakuranga club, and Lynch (Cornwall) make their debut for the State Auckland Aces.The teams are:Canterbury: Gary Stead (captain), Shanan Stewart, Robbie Frew, Michael Papps, Peter Fulton, Aaron Redmond, Marcel McKenzie, Gareth Hopkins, Paul Wiseman, Ryan Burson, Wade Cornelius, Cleighten Cornelius.Auckland: Brooke Walker (captain), Andre Adams, Tama Canning, Nick Horsley, Llorne Howell, Tim McIntosh, Rob Lynch, Bradley Nielsen, Rob Nicol, Gareth Shaw, Sanjeewa Silva, Reece Young.

Made his QCA first grade debut in 1995-96. He represented Queensland Under-19 in 1995-96 and 1996-97 and has since appeared for Queensland Colts and Queensland Academy of Sport. In 2000-01 he made his one-day debut followed by his first-class debut for Queensland. Schools – various primary in Perth and Cairns; Kooralbyn International (one term); Nudgee College.

ScorecardKaushal Silva and Janaka Gunaratne hit eighties to lead Sri Lanka A’s strong reply to South Africa A’s 419 on the second day. The hosts ended the day only 166 runs short with six wickets in hand.Resuming on 339 for 5, South Africa went past the 400 mark thanks to the well-set Heino Kunh who made 87 and stayed till the very end. Sachithra Senanayake, the offspinner, was the main wicket-taker for the hosts in the morning, not allowing the overnight pair to run away to a bigger score. He finished with 3 for 74 as Kuhn ran out of partners. Seekkuge Prasanna, the legspinner, ended the innings with the wicket of Kuhn, caught by Dimuth Karunaratne.The South African seamers struck early, taking the first two wickets for 35 by the tenth over. Gunaratne and Silva came together at the fall of the fourth wicket, at 120. Gunaratne scored at a quicker rate, hitting 13 fours and two sixes in his 89, off 103 balls. Silva remained unbeaten on 81, off 156 balls. Their unbroken 133-run stand ensured the hosts stayed on top on the second day.