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Punjab ended the opening day of their third round match against Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) on a healthy 325 for the loss of 4 wickets at the National Bank of Pakistan Sports Complex.Winning the toss and batting first, Punjab rode on a 115-run opening partnership between Pakistan internationals Mohammad Hafeez and Imran Nazir. Hafeez scored an aggressive 88 including 12 fours and two sixes before being dismissed by Saeed Ajmal. Nazir scored a characteristic 41-ball 60 with nine fours and a six before being caught behind off Bilal Asad.While Bilal Khilji scored 41 coming in at number three, Misbah-ul-Haq, the returning Punjab captain, shared a useful 79-run fourth wicket partnership with another Test discard Naveed Latif. In sharp contrast to Punjab’s aggressive opening partnership, Misbah battled for nearly three hours over his 43.Punjab will resume their innings with Mohammad Ayub (17*) partnering Naveed Latif who has faced 146 balls for his 64 that includes 11 fours and a single six.Medium pacer Bilal Asad was the pick of the bowlers on a placid pitch as he picked up three wickets in 18 overs while giving away only 44 runs. Saeed Ajmal, the other wicket-taker, gave away 110 runs from his 25 overs.Sind recovered from a dismal 73 for six to post a decent 234 on the first day of their match against North West Frontier Province – Baluchistan at the National Stadium, Karachi.The day ended with the combined NWFP and Baluchistan team scoring 84 for the loss of opener Shoaib Khan (24) in reply. Yasir Hameed was unbeaten on 48 while Raiz Kail was batting on 9.Earlier, the opening bowling pair of Shakeel-ur-Rehman and Nasir Jalil picked up the first four wickets with only 27 on the board, including that of captain Faisal Iqbal for one. Rizwan Ahmed (58) steadied the innings slightly with a 35-run fifth wicket partnership before adding 51 with Mohammad Sami who scored 27.But it was Tahir Khan, better known for his off-spin, whose brilliant 70 helped Sind recover. He added 43 for the eighth wicket with Sami and 60 for the ninth wicket with Farhan Ayub before being running out of partners.Nasir was the pick of the bowlers with four wickets for 60 runs while Shakeel and Faisal Irfan both picked up three wickets each.

Nasim Ashraf, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, has said that Pakistan would not back down as hosts of the Asia Cup, scheduled in June. Ashraf has reacted to an offer by his Sri Lankan counterpart Arjuna Ranatunga to host the tournament due to the security situation in Pakistan following former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.”There is no way we would withdraw as Asia Cup hosts, then I don’t know why they [Sri Lanka] had to make such an offer,” Ashraf told the in Karachi.Ranatunga confirmed that Sri Lanka was willing to act as a back-up should both sides agree on a neutral venue but left that decision to Pakistan.”We have written and asked Pakistan if we can host the Asia Cup,” Ranatunga told in Colombo on Thursday. “It’s a sensitive issue, but we will understand if Pakistan refuse us.”The PCB had earlier ruled out hosting Australia in a neutral venue for the home series in March and April. General elections were due to be held in the country on January 8, but have now been postponed to February 18. A security delegation from Australia is expected to arrive after the elections and Ashraf has expressed confidence that both series would go on as planned.

1st one-dayer
A Standard Bank National Academy side completed a 2-0 limited-overs series win over Australia’s Commonwealth Bank Centre of Excellence at the University of Pretoria’s High Performance Centre. In the first match, the South Africans chased down 275 with two wickets to spare while in the second they trumped the tourists by 111 runs.On Sunday, the Australians won the toss and thanks to impressive fifties from Adam Voges (66) and Cullen Bailey (63), finished on 274 for 8 in 50 overs. Voges and Bailey put on 121 for the fourth wicket but following their dismissals the lower order failed to build on the momentum. For the home side, Pepler Sandri was the most successful bowler with 3 for 61. Robert Frylinck and Keegan Africa, both KwaZulu Natal bowlers, finished with two wickets each.In response, the South Africans lost Riel de Kock (7) and Heino Kuhn (4) before Gauteng’s Blake Sniman smashed 60 from 65 balls to wrest the initiative. Farhann Behardien (62) and Corne Linde (54) chipped in to help the hosts over the finish line. For Australia, George Bailey and Ben Edmondson took three wickets a piece.2nd one-dayer
The South Africans chose to bat this time but lost the openers cheaply again to Brett Dorey and Edmondson. Dean Elgar, the East State left-handed batsman, came to the rescue with 77 from 100 balls while Behardien continued his good form with a powerful 112, comprising ten fours and three sixes. South Africa finished on 268 for 8 with Edmondson returning a fine 6 for 32 from his ten overs.In response, Australia could only limp to 157 after Hillroy Paulse’s superb 5 for 28 kept the batsmen in check. Voges (57) was Australia’s top scorer but not even his batting could prevent South Africa from winning the match.The Australians’ next fixture is a four-day match starting on Thursday.

Steve Harmison’s return to action has been delayed after his wife went into labour. He was due to line-up for Durham in their County Championship clash but withdrew at the last minute.Harmison has not played since the second Test against India at Nagpur after picking up a shin injury, which forced him to fly home. He had been especially keen to get back with an eye on returning to the England squad for the second Test against Sri Lanka at Edgbaston.”I’m really looking forward to playing,” Harmison, 27, said after the ECB gave him the all-clear. “The team have put in some great performances so far this season and I can’t wait to contribute to what should be a pretty exciting match.”Martyn Moxon, Durham’s coach, was excited by the prospect of Harmison’s return. “He’s been bowling over the last week or so and just building up to playing in a game. The good news is he’s had no reaction so far, so he’ll definitely play against Middlesex.” However, Moxon did not expect Harmison to take part in Durham’s Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy one-day match against Lancashire on Sunday and remained uncertain of his chances of making the national side.”We’ll just have to take it day by day,” he said. “We’ve got another four-day game next week, and the second Test is the week after that, so we’ll just have to wait and see.”Harmison apart, England take on Sri Lanka in the first Test at Lord’s tomorrow without Simon Jones and James Anderson, out with knee and back injuries.

ScorecardFile photo – Shreyas Iyer’s 90 took his tally of fifty-plus scores in Ranji Trophy 2015-16 to nine•K Sivaraman

A brisk 90 from Shreyas Iyer and complementing fifties from captain Aditya Tare (68) and Siddhesh Lad (57*) led Mumbai to a strong 327 for 7 on the first day of the semi-final against Madhya Pradesh in Cuttack.Medium-pacer Chandrakant Sakure took 4 for 102, accounting for Mumbai’s top three but the side recovered through a string of fifty-plus stands to pull Mumbai out of trouble.MP won the toss and Sakure got a breakthrough with Akhil Herwadkar’s wicket in the 11th over, but Mumbai still forged on through an 88-run second-wicket partnership between Iyer and Bhavin Thakkar. The side suffered a wobble when Thakkar and Suryakumar Yadav were dismissed in successive overs with the score at 112 for 3 but recovered as Iyer added 57 runs with Aditya Tare.Iyer fell 10 runs short of his fourth hundred of this Ranji Trophy season, his 103-ball stay at the crease yielding 13 fours and a six. It was his ninth fifty-plus score in this season, a tally second only to Vijay Bharadwaj [1998-99] and Abhishek Nayar’s [2012-13] 11 in a season. A 65-run partnership for the fifth wicket between Tare and Lad, followed by a breezy 75-run partnership between Lad and Abhishek Nayar kept Mumbai in control.After Tare’s dismissal for 68, Nayar and Lad lifted the tempo of the innings, the former scoring a 48-ball 43 that included seven fours. His partnership with Lad progressed at a rate of 5.17 and took the side past the 300-run mark. Lad saw Mumbai through to close of play with an unbeaten 57 off 115 with 11 fours.

Matthew Hayden, who broke his finger last week, suffered further, if bizarre, misfortune when he was attacked by a dog while out jogging.As a result he now has a gashed ankle though tests have revealed no tendon or ligament damage. Hayden said the wound, about five centimetres long, would remain open for several days to minimise the risk of infection before being stitched.”It was a vicious attack,” Hayden told Brisbane’s . “I was was out for a leisurely run. You are always a bit shocked by that sort of thing but I was more disappointed than anything. It just hasn’t been my week.”Hayden was already out of cricket for a couple of weeks after breaking a finger taking a catch in last weekend’s Sheffield Shield match against Tasmania in Brisbane.”The hand injury would have kept me out for longer than this one (gashed ankle) anyway,” said Hayden, who added there was no doubt surrounding his fitness for the first Test against England at the Gabba on November 23.

Scorecard
Sri Lanka completed a facile nine-wicket win over Bangladesh, following up a tidy display in the field with a professional chase of a paltry 121 with with 145 balls remaining.Sri Lanka chose to field first, and had Bangladesh in early trouble. Janakanthy Mala removed Shukhtara for a nine-ball duck and added Shathira Jakir in her next over, and left-arm spinner Suwini de Alwis struck to make it 29 for 3. Ayesha Akhter stuck around long enough to top-score with 30 from 75 deliveries but nobody else crossed 20 and Bangladesh were all out for 120 in 49.3 overs. Janakanthy Mala finished with the most excellent figures of 10-6-9-3 and was backed up by Shashikala Siriwardene’s 3 for 28.Rumana Ahmed struck early to dismiss Chamari Polgampola for 14 in the 15th over of Sri Lanka’s chase but that would be Bangladesh’s only moment of success. Dedunu Silva remained unbeaten on 66 from 82 balls, with the help of 12 boundaries, and added 81 in 11.4 overs, at 6.94 runs an over, with Siriwardene (23 not out) to wrap up victory.
Scorecard
India trounced Pakistan by 207 runs in the final league match after rattling up the highest total of the tournament so far. Three Indian batsmen got half-centuries after which Neetu David and Snehal Pradhan took three wickets each to bowl out Pakistan for a miserable 76.India, who have got four of the five 200+ totals in the tournament, were given an impressive start by the openers, Karuna Jain and Jaya Sharma, who added 114 in 20.4 overs. Anagha Deshpande and Mithali Raj put on 53 more before Raj and Rumeli Dhar added an unbeaten 90 to take India to 283.An out-of-depth Pakistan lost their first four wickets for 44 runs. Snehal Pradhan, a medium-pace bowler making her debut, removed Bismah Maroof off the second ball she bowled. Pakistan had crawled to 62 when left-arm spinner David took two wickets in one over to reduce them to 66 got 8. The misery lasted six more overs before India ended it ruthlessly. India will now play Sri Lanka in the final.

The ECB has announced the six host teams for the inaugural Women’s Cricket Super League which will take place during the English season.There will be three teams in the south – one based with Surrey at The Oval, another with Hampshire and a third in the South West – two in the north with Lancashire and Yorkshire and one in the Midlands run by Loughborough University. The South West features a joint bid between Somerset and Gloucestershire, while a joint Middlesex/MCC bid missed out for the one London-based team.The six teams have been awarded hosting rights for the period 2016-19. To begin with it the WCSL will feature just T20 but 50-over cricket will be included in the future.John Stephenson, MCC’s head of cricket, said: “Having submitted a joint bid with Middlesex, naturally MCC is disappointed with today’s outcome. Hopefully the club can play an active part in the tournament in the years ahead.”Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive, said: “This is a key day in the creation of the Women’s Cricket Super League – we have now secured the six hosts for the start of the competition this summer.”It is pleasing to see so much diverse and innovative partnership working across the cricket and educational landscapes and that the six chosen hosts provide such a strong geographical spread. To have seven First Class counties, five Non-First Class counties and three universities involved, demonstrates how collaborative, imaginative and wide-ranging this project is.”

Women’s Cricket Super League hosts

Hampshire Cricket with partners: Berkshire Cricket Ltd, Dorset Cricket Board, Isle of Wight Cricket Board, Oxfordshire Cricket, Southampton Solent University, Sussex Cricket Ltd, Wiltshire Cricket Ltd
Lancashire County Cricket Board with partners: Lancashire County Cricket Club, Lancashire County Cricket Club Foundation
Loughborough University
South West: Somerset County Cricket Club, Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, University of Exeter
Surrey County Cricket Club
Yorkshire County Cricket Club

Clare Conner, the director of women’s cricket, added: “Our vision for the Women’s Cricket Super League is to create an exciting, dynamic and high quality domestic women’s game in England, where the world’s best players come together to drive performance standards and to inspire women and girls to love cricket.”All six of the confirmed hosts have passionately demonstrated that they share this aspiration and we are now really excited to work with them to deliver this next stage in the evolution of women’s cricket in this country.”The WSL follows the introduction of the Women’s Big Bash in Australia. That tournament is run in conjunction with the men’s BBL, but the WCSL is not directly linked to the men’s domestic structure.”Whilst there are similarities in the drivers behind the Women’s Cricket Super League and Women’s Big Bash League – wanting to further raise standards of performance and encourage participation – they are very different in their identity and formation,” Connor said.”The WBBL is an extension of the men’s Big Bash League, and it has benefited in terms of infrastructure, operations, personnel and brand recognition, amongst other things. The WCSL is an entirely new proposition for cricket in this country. It’s a fresh chapter for the sport and we are all hugely excited that the women’s game is pioneering it.”Sussex claim to have given more opportunities to female cricketers in their Academy than any other first-class county. They said their decision to support Hampshire rather than put in their own bid was for “strategic reasons”.The tournament will be run from July 30 to August 14 with each team playing each other home and away with the top four sides reaching Finals Day.

West Indies 212 for 3 (Samuels 100*, Chanderpaul 60) beat Pakistan 209 (Hameed 71) by 7 wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball commentary
How they were out

Marlon Samuels and Shivnarine Chanderpaul helped West Indies cruise to victory by seven wickets and pull one game back in this series after the bowlers had done their bit in the first half, restricting Pakistan to only 209. There was little a weakened Pakistan team could do to halt West Indies’ march to victory and the scoreline is now 2-1 in Pakistan’s favour with one game to play.Samuels has given glimpse of his destructive ability in the past – especially in one magnificent century against India in Vijayawada that took West Indies to a 4-3 series win. On that day he was at his attacking best; today he had to fight hard to begin with, but once he had mastered the early movement, played with aggression and control to score his second ODI century and take his team to victory.When the innings began Pakistan were naturally pumped up, having ended on 209 after being 47 for 4. And they kept the momentum going when Rana Naved-ul-Hasan bowled a peach of an inswinger to the left-handed Chris Gayle who played an ambitious heave only to lose his off stump. Lendl Simmons, who began his ODI career with a duck picked up another one, this time a first-baller, as he shuffled across his stumps and fell over to a delivery that pitched in line and would have crashed into middle and leg stump had pad not been in the way (11 for 2).Samuels negotiated the hat-trick ball easily enough, and with the experienced Chanderpaul for company, began to dig his heels in. Mohammad Sami, in his return match, showed that little had changes in his approach, giving the batsmen two loose balls for every four good ones. He was guilty of spraying the ball around as well, and the pressure lifted off the shoulders of the batsmen.Chanderpaul didn’t so much score runs as collect them. With a dab here and a nurdle there he coaxed the ball into the gaps and before Pakistan could realise he’d entered the 20s. There was no panic whatsoever in his batting, two wickets in as many balls notwithstanding.Samuels played and missed more than once against Naved-ul-Hasan, who shaped the ball away consistently from the right-handed batsmen. But he settled down once the bowling changed and really moved it up a gear when the part-time spinners came on. Shahid Afridi’s legspin was dismissed with content, while the medium-pace of Rao Iftikhar Anjum disappeared to all parts. Samuels hit through the line beautifully, and the best of all hits was a pull shot off Rao that sailed high, wide and handsome over midwicket for six.

From then on, the partnership for the third wicket burgeoned to 141, virtually settling the game in West Indies’s favour before Chanderpaul picked one off his hips and found fine-leg. It mattered little, though, as Samuels, in the company of Brian Lara, skipped past the finish line. Lara, in his brief stay, showed his class with a superb drive over cover for six. Samuels only got more confident, thumping the ball merrily along to reach an even 100.If the batting from West Indies was high quality, Pakistan’s was anything but in the first half of the day. Daren Powell, playing in his first match of the series, did the early damage, removing the dangerous Shahid Afridi with a ball that came in with the angle and straightened after pitching to peg back the off stump. Imran Farhat, who has shown signs of promise but often given it away with an expansive shot, was suckered into playing a big cut against a ball that was short and a wide. Unfortunately for him Gayle, at gully, stretched to his full height and plucked the catch out of the air.Mohammad Hafeez, who perhaps had one eye on the scoreboard when he came out to bat, played a defensive prod at an outswinger and was just inside the line of the ball. The edge was taken easily by Gayle at slip; 45 for 3 was bad, but it was about to get worse. Shoaib Malik played completely down the wrong line to Dwayne Smith, and the ball came in to trap him plumb in front of the stumps. At 47 for 4, with not much to come in terms of batting, Pakistan looked like they were heading for disaster.Fortunately for Pakistan Yasir Hameed, who last played an ODI against England almost a year ago, buckled down and sealed his end up. He put away his array of strokes, and concentrated on taking the ones and twos. Faisal Iqbal, perfectly relaxed at the crease, chipped in with 30. But it was Hameed, who moved on to his half-century, off 92 balls – uncannily similar to his last ODI innings where he had top-scored with a patient 57 – who gave the innings backbone.Today he made 71, before he fell trying to give the innings some impetus when he holed out to midwicket off Dave Mohammed. Abdul Razzaq, captaining Pakistan for the first time, clouted a few towards the end to pick up 33, but he could only push the score on to 209, and that proved to be a walk in the park for West Indies.

Left arm spinner Abdur Rehman took another five-wicket haul to help Habib Bank Limited (HBL) take a 79-run lead over the combined North West Frontier Province-Baluchistan team on the second day of the Pentangular Cup match at the NBP Sports Complex, Karachi.Opener Wajid Ali carried his bat for a fighting 131 as resuming on their overnight 14 for one, NWFP-Baluchistan were left clueless against the spin of HBL. None of the other batsmen managed to cross the 20-run mark as HBL, with the title already in the bag, dismissed their opponents for 236. The 21-year-old Wajid batted for over four hours, hit 19 fours and a brace of sixes in his 197-ball knock.For HBL, Abdur Rehman gave away 78 runs for his five wickets while Sulaman Qadir and Imran Farhat grabbed a couple each. At close of play, HBL had moved onto 117 for the loss of Rafatullah Mohmand, who grabbed a pair in the match, and Atab Alam (18). Farhat was not out on 58 and Qadir had moved onto 36.Sind allrounder Rizwan Ahmed hit his third century of the season as his team was finally dismissed for 379 on the second day of the Pentangular Cup match against Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) at the National Stadium, Karachi.In reply, KRL had moved onto 193 for five wickets with the help of useful knocks from almost all their batsmen. Openers Azhar Ali (33) and Mohtashim Ali (61) provided a stand of 66 and even though Saeed bin Nasir was out cheaply for four, captain Mohammad Wasim batted sensibly to be unbeaten on 21 at close.Earlier, Saeed Ajmal took six for 92 as Rizwan and Tanvir Ahmed (90) shared a 168-run sixth wicket partnership to guide bottom-placed Sind to a decent total.