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Five Sri Lankan women’s cricketers, including captain Shashikala Siriwardene, have claimed that their refusal to give up their pursuit of the game has cost them their jobs.Siriwardene, a human resources assistant for clothing firm Slimline, told the BBC: “They told me to choose either cricket or the job.” Chamari Polgampola, Shiromala Weerakkody, Chamika Bandara and Dilani Manodara were among the other members of the team who were employed by Slimline.”For over two and a half years, the company helped me – offering duty leave, transport, medicine and sports facilities,” Siriwardene said. The Sri Lankan women’s team, unlike the men’s team, does not get any assistance from the Sri Lankan board or sponsors. Arjuna Ranatunga, the Sri Lanka Cricket chairman, though, has offered to find employment opportunities for the out-of-job players she said.An HR director at Slimline, Shanaz Freena, said the players had given in their resignations voluntarily. “They submitted their resignations saying they got some other job offers and the team wanted to stay together,” he said. We just accepted their resignations.”Sri Lanka are preparing for five ODIs against West Indies women at home to be played from November 5 to 12. “Money is not the main concern,” Siriwardene said. “We are currently focused on winning against international teams and developing ourselves. We would like to see Sri Lankan fans come out to support us against West Indies.”

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has said India had achieved the target they hadaimed to set Australia despite suffering a severe middle-order collapse onthe fourth day of the final Test in Nagpur.At tea India were reeling at 166 for 6 after a disastrous middle sessionduring which they lost six wickets for 68 runs. The dire situation wassalvaged by Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh who added 108 for the seventh wicketand led India to 295, leaving Australia with 382 to win.”That was a tough situation, all of a sudden we lost four-five wickets,”Dhoni said. “We got off to a good start and we were looking to capitalisebut at the end of the day we are quite happy with the amount of runs wehave got. That was the target – around 360 in 90 overs – and I think weachieved it.”A major factor in India’s recovery was Australia’s slow over-rate.Mitchell Johnson bowled only one over at the start of the final sessionafter which Ricky Ponting used a part-timer at one end along with JasonKrejza at the other. The combination of Cameron White, Michael Hussey andMichael Clarke eased the pressure and Dhoni and Harbhajan were given morescoring opportunities. Dhoni said it was a significant passage of play.”It is really great when you are not in a good situation and all of asudden you see they [Australia] are supposed to bowl close to 25 or28 overs in one hour and 15 minutes,” Dhoni said. “You know thepart-timer bowler will bowl because they have one specialist spinner. Thatwas the time we really took on the spinners and got some runs.”It [the over-rate] is always a concern if you are playing with too manyfast bowlers. At the start of the day if you don’t have the over-rate inyour mind then you know after 4.30 pm, when the guys are tired and youhave too many overs to bowl, the opposition can really capitalise.”To win Australia will have to score at four runs per over and Dhoni saidthat sort of a run-rate would be hard to achieve and maintain for 90 oversbecause of the rough areas on the pitch and the reverse-swing that wouldcome into play once the ball was older.”The match changes quite quickly on the fifth day in Indian conditions,”Dhoni said. “As you saw today, we lost six wickets quickly so that always plays on yourmind when you are chasing around four runs per over. It is not that youhave to bat only for 40 or 50 overs, you have to bat for the 90 overs.After a few overs the ball also gets soft and there is a lot more wear andtear on the pitch. It will be interesting tomorrow, a lot will depend onwhat kind of start we get, or the opponent gets.”Dhoni had exerted unbelievable control over Australia’s run-rate onSaturday by placing an 8-1 offside field and by instructing his fast bowlersto keep the ball wide outside off stump. As a result Australia scored only42 runs in the first session and 49 in the second. The fields didn’t makefor attractive cricket but it restricted Australia’s runs and broughtIndia wickets.”It is about winning the game,” Dhoni said when asked whether his fieldswere defensive. “There have been strategies that have not been liked byopposition captains. But the thing that you want to do is to go out thereand look to win games.”Maybe they [Australian batsmen] could have done something different if wewere bowling a bit away from them. We never saw anything like shuffling ortrying to hit the ball on the on-side. There was no real effort fromthem.”India have 369 runs to defend on the final day to win the Border-GavaskarTrophy. Don’t be surprised if Dhoni packs the off-side field with eightmen when Australia’s left-handers are on strike.

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L Balaji celebrated his return to first-class cricket with a five-wicket haul to help Tamil Nadu sink Uttar Pradesh by an innings and 238 runs in Ghaziabad. The captain, Dinesh Karthik, made his highest first-class score (213) to push Tamil Nadu past 500 before Balaji and C Ganapathy combined to bundle out UP for 119.Resuming on 356 for 4, Karthik strengthened Tamil Nadu’s position by adding 66 for the sixth wicket with R Ashwin. Karthik was eventually dismissed by Praveen Gupta, the left-arm spinner, who was the most effective bowler for UP with figures of 4 for 123. Faced with a daunting deficit of 357, UP began cautiously as their openers added 36 in 17 overs. Ganapathy broke through for Tamil Nadu, sending back Shivakant Shukla and that’s when the slide began for the home side. Only four players managed double figures and the resistance was feeble as Balaji and Ganapathy pegged away at the wickets, finishing the formalities in just 43 overs and a day to spare. Balaji finished with 5 for 42 while Ganapathy was equally threatening with 4 for 21.The win has pushed Tamil Nadu to the top of the Group B points table with 12 points.
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After gaining a first-innings lead of 35, Mumbai took further control over Delhi at the Feroz Shah Kotla with their openers, Wasim Jaffer and Sahil Kukreja, ending the day unbroken on 149. Mumbai extended their overall lead to 184 and with a draw likely, Mumbai should profit from their first-innings points unless something dramatic happens on the final day.Resuming on 176 for 4, Delhi looked to their overnight pair of Mithun Manhas and Rajat Bhatia to push them past the visitors’ 330. The score progressed to 225 but Mumbai clawed back, picking up five wickets for 33 runs. Manhas fell two short of his hundred and Bhatia fell for 81 and the chief wicket-takers were the spin duo of Sairaj Bahutule and Ramesh Powar. The last-wicket pair of Chetanya Nanda and Parvinder Awana resisted for just over 15 overs but the innings eventually ended at 295. Kukreja and Jaffer batted out 37 overs and scored 70s, rounding off a good day for the visitors.
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Hyderabad were staring at defeat on the third day after being asked to follow-on against Gujarat in Ahmedabad. The star for the home team was Siddarth Trivedi, the right-arm seamer, who took four wickets to restrict Hyderabad to 225 and later took all three wickets to fall in the second innings. Hyderabad ended the day at 45 for 3, needing a further 250 to make Gujarat bat again.The top order failed to contribute substantially contributions and wickets fell at regular intervals. They were 132 for 3 in the 48th over and soon lost four wickets for 18 runs and never recovered from that position. Syed Qadri offered some resistance with a half-century but the rest collapsed to Trivedi and Mohnish Parmar, who shared seven wickets between them. Trivedi finished with 4 for 44 while Parmar took three wickets for the same number of runs. Hyderabad fell 295 short of Gujarat’s 520 and their situation worsened when they stumbled to Trivedi again. Arjun Yadav and T Suman were unbeaten at stumps with their team needing to bat out the entire day tomorrow to save the match.
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A seven-wicket haul by Dhiraj Singh helped Orissa snatch a vital first-innings lead of 11 against Rajasthan in Sambalpur. Dhiraj, the left-arm spinner, ran through the middle order to bowl out Rajasthan for 270. The visitors ended the second day at a strong 172 for 2 and looked set to obtain a lead but Dhiraj spoilt their plans.Gagan Khoda helped push the overnight score to 228 and reached his 19th first-class century but the slide began after he was dismissed. Dhiraj took the next five wickets to fall and in the end finished with 7 for 83. Shiv Sundar Das scored an unbeaten 57 to extent Orissa’s advantage to 120 with seven second-innings wickets in hand.
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It was another luckless day for Railways as Baroda, led by centuries by Azharuddin Bilakhia (157) and Connor Williams (137), stretched the lead to 236 at the Karnail Singh Stadium. The pair added a mammoth 278 for the second wicket, more than what 11 Railways players could manage, before Karan Sharma ended Williams’ resistance. Murali Kartik took two quick wickets and Baroda suddenly lost three wickets against the run of play. However, the home side failed to make further inroads as Baroda frustrated them with two partnerships with 50 and 43 respectively. Shatrunjay Gaekwad scored a patient 47 while Irfan Pathan chipped in with 40 off 52 balls to push the score past 400. With a day left, and Railways yet to dismiss the opposition, a draw looms.
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Cheteshwar Pujara is on a roll. After scoring two triple-centuries in the lead-up to the Ranji season, he scored a blazing 189 off 182 balls today and with the dour Shithanshu Kotak for company, took Saurashtra close to Punjab’s 482 in Rajkot. Kotak, who scored 102 off 287 balls, played second fiddle in a mammoth stand of 258 for the third wicket. Punjab began the day on a good note, dismissing Bhushan Chauhan for 45 but had to wait nearly 60 overs for their next breakthrough. Pujara smashed 31 fours in his knock and looked set for a double-century before edging Charanjeet Singh to Pankaj Dharmani. Manpreet Gony later accounted for Kotak and he was the last wicket to fall as Saurashtra trailed by 77.
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Seventeen wickets fell on a dramatic third day in Mysore, but there was no change in overall match situation, with Karnataka retaining a firm grip. Andhra fought back after falling 148 runs short in the first innings through medium-pacer P Vijaykumar’s six-wicket haul. But their top order’s failings, on a pitch with a hint of variable bounce, put Karnataka back in charge. . Read the full report.

John Bracewell admits he did not match up to expectations during his tenure as New Zealand coach. Bracewell, whose last series in charge saw New Zealand slip to a 2-0 defeat in Australia and No. 8 in the ICC Test rankings, said he would miss the team he coached for over five years.”I feel as though I’ve given it a honest shot but in terms of pure statistics or results New Zealand Cricket wanted us to be No. 1 in world cricket in both forms of the game and we didn’t reach that, so if you look at it like that I’ve been a failure,” Bracewell told the . New Zealand won 61 of the 106 ODIs when he was coach, but only 13 of the 41 Tests and lost 20.”In Test cricket our planning has been very, very good in that we often get ourselves in a position to win but often we run out of steam trying to fulfil that,” he said. “That is disappointing, but there are not too many Tests that we don’t put ourselves in a position to win at some stage. We just lose critical moments too often.”During his stint, Bracewell was also on the receiving end from the media. “At times both the media and myself weren’t the best of friends but that is the nature of the business,” he said. “If it’s a kiss-arse business, you are in the wrong one, both from a media perspective and a coaching perspective.”You’ve got to cop it and sometimes you’ve got to give it and you regret that you’ve given it because the media always have the last shot.”He believes the team he leaves in the hands of Andy Moles has the ability to become world-beaters. “These guys are enormously talented and when they harness it and realise it and get into it they will play some really exciting cricket,” he said. “They live in the highlights, they play in the highlights and that is what the public want to see.”There will be some high and lows, I suspect, but, man, when they get it right some of these batters will be absolutely outstanding” he said. “I’m very close to them, it’s been a long association. It’s a family unit with extremely high team spirit. They are close to each other and I will miss them.”

Michael Vaughan has pinpointed the second session of day four as the time when England let the game slip from their hands in Chennai. England scored 57 runs and lost five wickets between lunch and tea on Sunday and declared on 311 for 9 three overs after tea, which gave India nearly four sessions to chase the record target of 387.”We probably let the momentum sway back towards India when we could have nailed home the game,” Vaughan told . But he praised the team for its performance after it went in to the Test as the underdog. “For three-and-three-quarter days they dominated the Test and that is something which is very difficult to do in India.”It was a great game of cricket. Both teams played to an incredible standard in terms of what they’d gone through in the previous two weeks.”Vaughan said it would be difficult for England to repeat their efforts in the second Test in Mohali starting on Friday. “We’ve just lost a real big game, a game that all the lads would have expected to win on that fourth evening. It’s going to be a real task of mental strength. The boys are pretty drained and emotionally tired from what they’ve been through in the last few weeks. But if they win the toss, and bat, and get put runs on the board they can put India under a lot of pressure.”One thing with the England team is we do have a ‘bulldog spirit’, a fighting spirit. We proved that in this game.”Vaughan said he was eager to return to Test cricket after watching such an absorbing game. “My mind is very refreshed and … I’m desperate to get out there and make decisions, play and score runs.”

Prime Minister’s XI 4 for 272 (Bailey 107*, Langer 72) beat New Zealanders 5 for 271 (McCullum 114, Fulton 53) by 6 wickets
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Brendon McCullum eased any major concerns over a hip injury by blasting a century in the New Zealanders’ warm-up defeat to the Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra. McCullum was used solely as a batsman after being hit at training on Wednesday, but showed few problems ahead of Sunday’s opening Chappell-Hadlee Series match in Perth by scoring 114 as the tourists registered 5 for 271 in 50 overs.McCullum, who arrived in Australia early to play for New South Wales, stayed for 130 balls and picked up nine fours and a six during a powerful display. Peter Fulton also displayed some form with a cautious 53 and Ross Taylor chipped in with 38. Clint McKay’s 3 for 52 were the best figures while Moises Henriques and Jon Holland gained a wicket each.George Bailey’s unbeaten 107 set up the home team’s success while Justin Langer, who captained the side, compiled an important 72 in a rare home outing. The openers Phillip Hughes (22), a serious contender for Matthew Hayden’s Test spot, and Michael Klinger (6) had departed by the time the score reached 52, but Langer and Bailey put on 153 and the six-wicket win was sealed with 13 balls to spare. Ryan Carters, an Australia Under-19 representative, took the gloves for New Zealand in the second innings to give McCullum a rest.While the result was a blow to the New Zealanders, their officials are confident Jesse Ryder will be ready to play in the second match of the Chappell-Hadlee Series in Melbourne next Friday after scans cleared him of major damage in his left shoulder. Ryder has swelling and pain in the joint but there is hope the injury will settle in a week following an injection. Gareth Hopkins, the Auckland wicketkeeper, will be in Perth as cover for McCullum while Craig Cumming, the Otago batsman, will also be there in case Ryder doesn’t improve.

North Zone

Amit Mishra picked up career-best figures to bowl Haryana to a 125-run win over Jammu & Kashmir at the Jawaharlal Navoday Vidhyalay Stadium. Given a total of 302 to defend, Haryana’s new-ball pair struck early but it was Mishra who laughed all the way home. He struck immediately to dismiss Ian Dev Singh (42) and then bowled Feroz Ahmed for a duck next ball. With the rest of the attack maintaining the pressure on J&K, Mishra snapped up four wickets down the order to finish with 6 for 25. Haryana had made first use of the track and piled up a large total that was rather top-heavy. The No’s 3 and 4, Sunny Singh and Sumit Sharma, scored 82 and 84 respectively. Those were crucial knocks because the next best was 34 from Dhruv Singh. Samiullah Beigh, who had removed the openers for cheap and trapped Sharma lbw, took 4 for 57.Another six-wicket hero was India Under-19 fast bowler Siddarth Kaul, whose success set up Punjab’s victory over Himachal Pradesh in Dharamsala. Kaul was extremely difficult to face in the morning and quickly had the home side – who were already assured of a quarter-final berth – 16 for 4. Further blows left them 17 for 5, but Ajay Mannu’s 72 and former India offspinner Sarandeep Singh’s unbeaten 50 got the total to 205. That would prove a breeze for Punjab. Vishwas Bhalla, in his first game for Punjab ever, hit an unbeaten 108 from just 109 balls as the visitors eased home by eight wickets. He shared a 116-run stand for the second wicket with Uday Kaul (50) and collected 15 fours and two sixes.Aakash Chopra, Delhi’s captain, led from the front with a fine 95 to help defeat Services by six wickets in Una and book a berth in the quarterfinals. Chasing 232 to win, Delhi were given a winning hand from Chopra, who held up one end until he was dismissed short of a century. Along the way he was assisted by Virat Kohli (45) and Mithun Manhas (54). Earlier, Services scored 231 for 8 after winning the toss, riding on half-centuries by Yashpal Singh (57) and Tahir Khan (55). Yogesh Nagar was the pick of the bowlers for Delhi, claiming 3 for 55.Delhi and HP, with four wins each, have qualified from North Zone for the last-eight stage of the competition.

East Zone

A pair of Das’, batsman Rashmi and new-ball bowler Preetamjit, starred in Orissa’s 29-run win over Assam in Eden Gardens. Rashmi’s unbeaten 96 from No. 6 helped smooth over a top and middle order wobble and get the total to 245 for 7. Backing his team-mate’s stellar effort, Preetamjit took four wickets to help bowl Assam out for 216 inside 48 overs. Having opted to bat, Orissa’s line-up was checked by Assam’s medium-pacers, especially Dhiraj Goswami. They were 66 for 4 before Natraj Behera (49) and Rashmi formed a small stand. After Behera’s dismissal at 111, a 102-run stand followed between Rashmi and Rakesh Mohanty (37). Rashmi finished on 96 from 98 balls, with 12 fours and a six. Assam were not allowed to form sizeable stands up front, but contributions from Deepak Sharma (88), Sarupam Purkayastha (32) and Goswami (37) appeared to have them back on track. Then Preetamjit dismissed Sharma and Goswami and Assam collapsed.Jharkhand picked up their second win of the tournament, defeating Tripura by three wickets with just four deliveries remaining in Kolkata. Their chase towards 237 had begun with a 118-run opening stand between the debutant Siddhartha Sinha (62) and Rameez Nemat (80), but Tripura struck blows to stem the momentum. Jharkhand lost Saurabh Tiwary first ball and slipped to 215 for 7 after 47 overs. It took some serious focus from No. 3 Ishank Jaggi, who remained not out on 46 from 50 balls.

A proposed tri-series involving Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in Dubai, scheduled potentially for late March, has been cancelled. It is thought the unavailability of Sri Lanka in that period scuppered the plans. Though it now stands cancelled, it isn’t certain whether it was ever officially on.”The event will not go ahead,” a senior PCB official told Cricinfo. “We were told Sri Lanka could not make it in that time but no reason has been given.”The event was part of a deal which the PCB signed with Dubai Sports City, but which has been the subject of some contention and confusion. The deal was brokered – but not apparently signed – last year by the PCB at a time when Nasim Ashraf had resigned as chairman of the board and there was considerable administrative chaos within the organisation.Finally, a deal was signed by Ijaz Butt, the present board chairman. For Pakistan, faced with uncertain commitments at home due to the unstable security situation that has seen several sides refuse to visit, the deal was a pragmatic path to playing and gaining financially.At the time, Shafqat Naghmi, then chief operating officer, said the three-year deal was worth US$9 million to Pakistan, who would be required to play a set number of matches through the year. It is understood, however, that the deal is not an exclusive to Pakistan and similar plans have been made with other subcontinent countries.Pakistan, the official said, stood to earn US$2.9 million from the event, money which would have come in handy for a financially-strapped administration.

Bryce McGain is used to waiting for his opportunities. This is a man who spent so long in the workforce before becoming a full-timeprofessional cricketer that he took not one but batches oflong-service leave. His banking career lasted 17 years so a couple ofmonths here or there doesn’t make a great difference to him.McGain turns 37 in less than a fortnight and for a player who is yetto wear the baggy green cap it’s a birthday that could cause a flutterof panic. Will the chance ever arrive? His first tour with Australiawas cut short in October when he was sent home from India with tendondamage in his armpit and on his second trip, to South Africa, he hasbeen overlooked for the first two Tests.The only member of the original touring party who now does not have abaggy green, McGain has been forced to watch on as debutants MarcusNorth, Phillip Hughes and Ben Hilfenhaus have thrived. It would havebeen easy for frustration to set in for the man who has been nominatedas Australia’s No. 1 spinner but he knows Australia’s all-seam attackis being determined by conditions and that all he needs is patience.”Of course I’d love to be playing – that’s what we all want to do andplay our role on the field – but if my role at the moment is runningdrinks around, that’s okay, I’m happy to do it at the moment,” McGainsaid. “As conditions change, the team make-up might change. Lookingforward it’s probably going to be hard to change a winningcombination, they’re doing so well.”But while McGain has accepted that he may complete his first full tourwithout playing a Test, the chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch hasgiven anindication that a specialist spinner will be strongly consideredfor Thursday’s third Test in Cape Town. Hilditch’s comments came afterSimon Katich’s occasional wrist-spin picked up three key wickets inthe second innings of the win in Durban, where McGain could onlywonder what his own legbreaks could have achieved.”I’m rapt for him. I’m as excited as he is,” McGain said of Katich. “Iguess that’s the way I am. If I don’t get a chance, well, I don’t geta chance. I can’t control that. But I know that if I do get the chanceI’m going to grab it with both hands and do the very best I can. I’llbe mentally nice and clear in my mind what I need to do.”That has been the case for all the players, young and old, duringAustralia’s tour. They have each known their roles and done what wasasked of them and McGain said while many people outside the squad haddoubted Australia’s ability to win the series, the players had alwaysbelieved in themselves.”We haven’t really been following the press back home but weunderstand now that there were some murmurings that maybe we were theworst group to go away,” he said. “I know that there was a lot ofbelief in the group before we went and it’s just a good bunch ofcricketers. We’ve played against each other domestically for a longtime. We knew everyone had the talent to put it all together.”If McGain doesn’t make his debut at Newlands his next opportunitywould be on the Ashes tour, where he deserves to be a certainty in thetouring squad if not in the first Test. One of the biggest challengesof McGain’s new travelling lifestyle is spending long periods awayfrom his nine-year-old son Liam, who spends half his time living withhis mother and half with McGain.”I obviously miss him a lot, hanging out and all those things,” McGainsaid. “But with technology these days like Skype, we keep in touchpretty regularly. He loves that and he’s chatting away. It gives me agood lift when I do it, so I do it as often as I can. Most days, everyother day, we’re in touch and it’s good to hear his voice and hearwhat he’s doing day to day. It’s just simple stuff but it’s goodhaving a chat.”Liam will perhaps be the only person in Australia more excited thanhis father if a Test debut arises. But for now, McGain is happy to besurrounded by other success stories.”It’s fantastic to be involved,” he said. “There are a lot of worsethings to be doing than being 12th man for Australia. I’ve reallyloved it.”

Former Pakistan batsman Ijaz Ahmed was remanded in custody for 14 days on Friday after a magistrate rejected his plea for bail in a forgery case. Magistrate Mohammad Younis Awan conducted a hearing for the case in which Ijaz was alleged to have issued false cheques worth Rs 10.05 million (approximately US$1.3 million) to two clients, reported to be property dealers.”The magistrate has put off Ijaz’s bail plea, remanded him for 14 days and directed police to provide him with medical facilities as he was unwell,” a court statement said.Ijaz, 40, last week had pleaded his innocence and said he would take the accusers to court. He was arrested on March 26, but was taken to hospital after suffering a bout of asthma and breathing problems.Kashif Javed, Ijaz’s lawyer, said his client would return to hospital. “We will continue to seek bail when the case resumes and hopefully police will send him to hospital later on Friday, as he was still unwell,” Javed told .Ijaz played 60 Tests and 250 ODIs and was a member of the Pakistan team that won the 1992 World Cup. Following his retirement from international cricket, he had been working as the fielding coach of the national team for the last few months. He was earlier on the selection committee and had also served as senior coach at the National Cricket Academy.