Matthew Elliott, the South Australia batsman, will return to full training next week as he recovers from a knee injury. Elliott has been suffering from inflammation in his right knee during the past couple of weeks and missed this week’s ING Cup and Pura Cup matches against Western Australia.After receiving a cortisone injection last week and consulting an orthopedic specialist, as well as the team physiotherapist, Elliott has made significant progress and will return to full training with the State team next week.The 34-year-old batsman will be rested from Grade cricket this weekend to enable his knee the best possible chance of recovery and resume full practice from Monday. It is anticipated that he will be available for selection for the upcoming Pura Cup match against Victoria, starting on November 26 at the St Kilda Cricket Ground.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

You cannot accuse Sri Lanka of letting things drift in this game: forall three days so far, they were switched on, positive, and played withunrelenting intensity. But, yet again, they were outplayed by adetermined Indian side. First, Tillakaratne Dilshan, with an assured65, helped them to 206, thus saving the follow-on. Then they tookregular wickets to restrict India to 100 for 5. But Yuvraj Singh, witha commanding 75 off 83 balls, and Ajit Agarkar, with 48 off 43,attacked them out of the game. India finished the day on 287 for 9,479 ahead.The most exhilarating passage of play came when Yuvraj was at thecrease. He has always been suspected of weakness against spin, but theway he batted today, you’d have suspected him of a weakness the thing. Whether rocking back to cut or pull or stepping out to thepitch of the ball, he was completely in control. He drove and pulledwell, but his sweep was his most memorable shot today, powerful anddevoid of risk. Time and again he went down on his knees as if topropose, but proceeded to dispose.After he was out, chasing a wide ball from Malinga Bandara and edgingit to the keeper, Agarkar took over. He batted with controlledaggression, and his intent was evident in the way he looked at thebowler while in his stance: jaws taut, eyes wide open and focussed,head unmoving, balanced. With full backlift and followthrough, he keptthe bowlers worried and the fielders exercised, hitting six fours anda six in his innings.He was out with the score on 247, when Bandara cunningly held one backand Agarkar’s drive ended up in a tame return catch. Anil Kumble andHarbhajan Singh then continued playing positively, hitting a six each,as India’s lead climbed well past 450.While the day ended in flamboyance, it had begun with attrition. SriLanka had battled hard to avoid the follow-on, and despite Dilshan’seffort, Sri Lanka’s lower order were never likely to resist the Indianbowlers, who thrive in such conditions, for long. Harbhajan Singh wasparticularly destructive, finishing up with 7 for 62.Jehan Mubarak was the first to go in the morning, bowled through thegate by a ball from Kumble that turned into him (144 for 6). Shortlyafterwards, Harbhajan picked up his fifth wicket of the innings,taking a one-handed return catch to his right after Farveez Maharoof,intending to drive, merely pushed the ball up towards mid-on (155 for7).Dilshan and Bandara then added 43, removing worries of having tofollow on. Dilshan batted with composure and control, and his footworkand shot selection were immaculate. Bandara, meanwhile, was not averseto giving the ball a thump, slog-sweeping Harbhajan for six, and thenstepping out and tonking another six over long-on.But it was a false dawn. Dilshan was out with the score on 198, beatenby Harbhajan’s turn and bounce, caught by a diving Mohammad Kaif atshort leg. It was similar to how Lasith Malinga was out later, fendingthe ball off for a diving leg slip to catch it. In between, MuttiahMuralitharan was stumped off Kumble, after Kumble saw him charge downthe track and pitched it short.Sri Lanka struck off the first ball they bowled, which hardly deserveda wicket. Malinga’s ball was very wide and very short, and VirenderSehwag lunged out to tip it up towards third man, where Maharoof tookan easy catch. But Maharoof doesn’t just catch: he took the nextwicket, bowling a beautiful good-length ball to VVS Laxman that seamedaway, and took an edge on the way (5 for 2). Wickets feel regularlythereafter – Sachin Tendulkar was a trifle unclucky to be adjudged lbwoff a ball that hit him high on his leg – but the tempo of run-scoringstayed high. A certain player who is reputed not to like spin wasresponsible for that. So much for reputations.How they were outSri LankaJehan Mubarak b Kumble 13 (144 for 6)
Farveez Maharoof c and b Harbhajan 4 (155 for 7)
TM Dilshan c Kaif b Harbhajan 65 (198 for 8)
Muttiah Muralitharan st Dhoni b Kumble 3 (201 for 9)
Lasith Malinga c Sehwag b Harbhajan 0 (206)
IndiaVirender Sehwag c Maharoof b Malinga 0 (0 for 1)
VVS Laxman c Sangakkara b Maharoof 5 (9 for 2)
Sachin Tendulkar lbw Dilshan 19 (34 for 3)
Gautam Gambhir c Sangakkara b Muralitharan 30 (81 for 4)
Mohammad Kaif lbw Bandara 9 (100 for 5)
MS Dhoni lbw Muralitharan 14 (134 for 6)
Yuvraj Singh c Sangakkara b Bandara 75 (174-7)
Irfan Pathan b Muralitharan 27 (198 for 8)
Ajit Agarkar c & b Bandara 48 (247 for 9)

Steve Waugh, the former Australian captain, has declared that Ricky Ponting is the batsman most likely to go past Brian Lara’s record of most Test runs.Ponting, with 1544 runs, ended the calendar year at the top of the International Cricket Council’s Test player rankings, and led his team to consecutive Test wins over a World XI and West Indies, before hitting a first-day hundred in Australia’s Boxing Day triumph over South Africa.However, when it comes to discussing Australia’s most prolific run-scorers, Ponting has rarely been mentioned alongside Allan Border and Waugh. Waugh has changed this, though, stating his thoughts on Ponting ahead of his 100th Test at the SCG tomorrow. “You can never know for sure how long you’re going to play for. Age and fitness come into it as well as form. There are a lot of variables but it’s hard to see him slowing down for a while yet,” Waugh said in . “There’s still a long way to go for him, but the way he’s going at the moment, if you were going to pick someone to take that record, I’d say it would have to be Ricky.”Ponting, with 7,990 Test runs, is still a long way behind Lara’s record of 11, 204. However, Lara is expected to retire after the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean, and Ponting has time on his side.Ponting’s most damning moment as captain and cricketer came when Australia lost the Ashes after 18 years to England last summer, but Waugh, who never lost an Ashes series as captain, maintained that such losses were a chapter of a cricketer’s journey. “That’s part of the job,” he said. “It just comes with the territory. When it’s all going well, there’s credit coming your way but when things are going badly, you start getting a lot of scrutiny,”Waugh faced much criticism after his first series as captain resulted in a disappointing 2-2 draw with West Indies, followed by a nightmare start to the 1999 World Cup. Ponting, on the other hand, was hailed as a masterful captain when he guided Australia to victory at the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, and his first three Tests as captain resulted in a 3-0 clean sweep in Sri Lanka.The loss of the Ashes changed all that, with Ponting facing heightened animosity from the Australian press for a failure to marshall his men in the face of adversity. “You can’t get away from that. You just have to take the good with the bad,” Waugh said. “They’ve come back after the Ashes and done well. As a captain you just have to have confidence in your ability, which I think Ricky has.”Tomorrow’s third and final Test against South Africa will be Ponting’s 11th at the SCG, a venue at which he has made 918 runs at 70.61, including his maiden hundred as Test captain – a fine 207 against Pakistan last summer. “He’s easily in the top two or three Test batsmen in the world, but what he’s doing is dominating in both forms of the game,” Waugh said. “No one else is really doing that, so you’d have to say he’s the most valuable batsman going around at the moment.”

Kent have reported a loss after tax for the year ended October 31, 2005 of £309,998. This compares with a small profit of £5,548 in the previous 12 months.”This is clearly an extremely disappointing outcome for the year,” admitted Carl Openshaw the county chairman. “There were two main contributing factors to the results: a seriously adverse outcome from our caterers, whose contract with us has now been terminated, and an increased investment in cricket which did not yield the hoped for additional return in gate receipts and commercial income.”Despite the enthusiasm generated by the Ashes, finances for most county clubs remain precarious,” he warned. “Only those counties which benefit from the substantial revenue derived from staging Tests can look forward to making profits on a consistent basis, and there is increasing concern amongst non-Test match counties about the widening gap in available resources.”We are, nevertheless, determined to try to remain competitive both on and off the field and we have plans for the St Lawrence Ground which are aimed at providing a sustainable future for the club.”Kent are currently working with commercial partners and the local council on plans to redevelop the ground with a view to producing vital non-cricket revenue from conference and leisure facilities.

Inzamam-ul-Haq has said his sore back has been troubling him for a whilebut is hopeful of playing in the final Test at Karachi, beginning in threedays’ time. On course to his third successive hundred at Faisalabad,Inzamam first retired hurt and then batted with a runner on the secondday. He didn’t take the field for the final two days.”My back has been hurting for quite a while,” he added, “There are threedays left. I’m taking treatment from the doctor and physio and am hopefulthat I can be fit enough for the Test.” His absence had paved the way forYounis Khan to lead the side and Inzamam had a few good things to sayabout the on-field tactics. “I think Younis captained very well,” hecontinued. “He changed the bowlers around and set good fields. But on thiswicket, it was tough to get a well-set batsmen out. We managed fivewickets but Dhoni and Irfan batted well.”Inzamam defended Pakistan’s decision to not declare, saying that theydidn’t have the required safety net. “At lunch we had 58 overs left andthe score was around 237. If we had more than 300, there was a chance ofus declaring. But it was tough to declare on such a track without anyhelp.”He echoed Rahul Dravid’s sentiments with regard to the quality of thepitches, and hinted at the sort of pitch that one might get to see inKarachi. “The previous two series had good pitches, and especially inPakistan we had quick wickets. We were hoping for some help for the fastbowlers. Hopefully in Karachi, where the weather is fine, we will get tosee a good pitch.” He wasn’t too harsh on his bowlers and felt that theyhad managed a better line and length here compared to what they had doneat Lahore.

Khaled Mahmud, the former Bangladesh captain, has announced he is to quit international cricket. This isn’t the first time he has made plans to retire: he declared the same decision last October before quickly denying the rumour as speculation. Now, however, his decision seems more certain.”I will play the last match of my international career tomorrow,” he said. “I feel it is time to quit.”Mahmud, 34, played 12 Tests and 76 one-dayers for his country and made his debut in 1998 against India. On Monday, he will play against Sri Lanka for the first of three one-dayers.He made his Test debut against Zimbabwe in November 2001 and, in Tests, scored 266 runs and claimed 13 wickets. Although he hasn’t played in a Test since November 2003, he has been a regular fixture in the shorter version of the game; he took career-best figures of 4 for 19 against Zimbabwe in March 2004.After the three one-dayers, Sri Lanka face Bangladesh for two Tests, the first of which is at Chittagong on February 28.

Former Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Sami bowled National Bank to a 41-run win on the final day of their first-round Pentangular Cup match against Sialkot at Multan.Sami, 25 – who has appeared in 25 Tests and 76 ODIs for Pakistan – captured five wickets for 48 runs in 18.4 overs as Sialkot, needing 271 runs to win the match, were bowled out for 229 in their second innings.National Bank, after having gained a first-innings advantage of 102 runs, scored only a modest 168 in their second outing. As they resumed at their overnight 139 for 6 yesterday, Sialkot’s tall left-arm paceman Sarfraz Ahmed hastened their fall with fine figures of 5 for 33.Skipper Tahir Mughal, after having been hit for 179 runs in his 32 overs in the second innings, recovered to take 3 for 61 in the second. Teenage allrounder Mansoor Amjad contributed 35 in National Bank’s second innings, off 61 balls with three fours.Sami, whose last five-for was 22 first-class matches ago — for Kent against Northamptonshire in May 2004 – bowled impeccably either side of some useful batting by Ayub Dogar and Haafiz Khalid. Ayub remained unbeaten with 71, facing 133 balls and hitting seven fours. Wicketkeeper Khalid’s 37 came off 57 deliveries with three fours and a six.National Bank joined Faisalabad at the top of the table, as both have gained nine points each. The latter, however, are ahead on the basis of a superior net run-rate.Sialkot, the current national cricket champions, will now meet table leaders Faisalabad in a second-round match at the Gaddafi Stadium Lahore, from Wednesday (tomorrow). From the same day, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will be playing against Karachi Harbour here at the Multan Cricket Stadium.

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.

Bermuda have named a 15-man squad for their short tour of England and Guernsey.Absent from the team were Kwame Tucker and Azeem Pitcher. The selectors said that Tucker had not recovered from a torn groin while Pitcher, who endured a disastrous run of form in the Trinidad tri-series, had work commitments. Seamer Jim West was drafted in after recovering from a shoulder problem.Bermuda play two matches in England against Sussex 2nd XI and Lloyds Bank before flying to Guernsey for three games against a side they beat by six wickets in the lead-up to last year’s ICC Trophy.Bermuda squad Janeiro Tucker (capt), Irving Romaine, Saleem Mukuddem, Dean Minors, OJ Pitcher, Dwayne Leverock, Hasan Durham, Kevin Hurdle, Treadwell Gibbons Jnr, Delyone Borden, James West, George O’Brien Jnr, Daniel Morgan, Ryan Steede, Jekon Edness.Itinerary
May 31 v Sussex 2nd XI (East Grinstead CC)June 2 v Lloyds Bank (Beckenham CC)June 3 v Guernsey June 4 v Guernsey June 5 v Guernsey

India suffered an injury blow ahead of the second Test in St Lucia when their fast bowler, Sreesanth, was ruled out with a sore heel. John Gloster, the team physio, revealed that Sreesanth, who bowled the final over of the tense draw at Antigua, would need three to five days of rest before he gets back to full fitness.”Sreesanth pulled up sore in the [left] heel at the end of the last Test match,” Gloster observed. “He has got an inflammed bursar at the back of the heel. We saw a specialist this morning, and he has just taken an injection in that heel. The specialist is confident it will settle down reasonably quickly but at this stage, we are going to give him three to five days’ rest. We will then work him back to full fitness after that. At this stage, he will be unavailable for Saturday.”Sreesanth had missed the first matches of the recently concluded one-day series owing to a heel injury, but Gloster confirmed that the situation was slightly different this time. “This one came on during the last match, so it’s a little bit unfortunate for him. But we are pretty confident the injection he took this morning will get on top of the injury, and we will see how he goes over the next three to five days.”Gloster also said that the injury hadn’t affected Sreesanth’s bowling in the previous game. He added that there weren’t any other injury concerns. “Apart from him, at this stage everybody else is pretty fit. I think we are pretty fortunate to have got this far with just a little niggle.”At this stage, with a generous smattering of green on the pitch, it would appear that Irfan Pathan would be the obvious choice to replace Sreesanth.