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After surviving a dropped catch, a couple of airy wafts outside off stump and some inside edges, Mohammad Yousuf guided Pakistan out of trouble in the afternoon to something approaching level footing.He arrived to the crease at 12 for 2, after Shoaib Malik and Asim Kamal were sent back just before lunch. He got off the mark immediately after lunch, with a flick off his hips square on the leg side for four. An hour into the session and he had reached his second fifty of the series, with a boundary, driven through the covers on the up and on the walk. By the close of play, having lost Inzamam-ul-Haq to injury and Hasan Raza to a loose shot, Yousuf was unbeaten on 84.”Inzamam was injured and so I became the senior player and there was extra responsibility on me,” said Yousuf.” He’s the best player in the team without a doubt but I just willed myself to concentrate even harder after he left the field. Before he left he said `just concentrate on staying out there till the end’.”As the afternoon set in, Steve Harmison roused himself and England with a hostile spell, in which he struck Inzamam on the wrist, dismissed Raza and was unlucky not to have picked up more wickets. Yousuf said the spell was among the best he had ever faced. “Harmison bowled superbly today. I have only faced bowling of this quality from Ambrose and Walsh in the West Indies in 2000. This was one of the best spells I have faced in my career. I played according to the plan I had and I am happy that I played well against them.”Harmison, unlike other bowlers, found steepling bounce during his spell, something Yousuf attributed to the inconsistent nature of the pitch. “The pitch is not that difficult to bat on and still okay for batting. The thing is, one side of the pitch has bounce and the other one doesn’t have as much. But if you concentrate then it’s good for batting and bowling.”It is still unclear, meanwhile, how serious Inzamam’s injury is and whether or not he will be able to resume his innings tomorrow. Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach, said, “He’s gone to the hospital for an X-ray. We think it is just a precautionary measure and it is just a bad bruise. The swelling had gone down after we put ice on it. But I can’t confirm whether or not he will bat tomorrow. Obviously we hope he will.”Inzamam, as he has done through the series, looked in regal form today in compiling an untroubled 35. In the first over after tea, however, with Pakistan on 148 for 3, he tried to fend off a rising ball from Harmison, which struck him on his wrist. Having completed the single, Inzamam underwent considerable treatment on the field before reluctantly heading off, in some visible discomfort.Still 103 runs behind, with Shoaib Akhtar at the crease and the lower order to come, Pakistan will nervously await the results of Inzamam’s x-ray and hope that he is fit to resume tomorrow. In a landmark series, Inzamam has yet to be dismissed for under 50, has scored over 300 runs with twin centuries in the second Test and become the highest century maker for Pakistan in the process. He is also now just 10 runs short of becoming only the second Pakistani after Javed Miandad to score 8000 Test runs.

It is the issue that dares not speak its name, but is nonetheless bubbling away beneath the surface of the South African team at present. The question of quotas – whether to play your best side regardless of race, or whether to compromise the short-term quality of the team to enable society to reap the long-term benefits – is a uniquely South African debate, and one that was intensified at the start of the England series, when Thami Tsolekile was controversially retained as wicketkeeper ahead of the vastly experienced Mark Boucher.The Tsolekile experiment was shelved for the second Test, because the return of Herschelle Gibbs, coupled with Hashim Amla’s home debut, enabled the selectors to keep up their non-white numbers while improving the balance of the side. But the debate still rages, with several pundits and former players having their say on the matter – not always entirely constructively. But the former South African opener, Andrew Hudson, is an exception. Now an SABC commentator, Hudson is universally regarded as one of the good guys of the game, and he gave Cricinfo a candid assessment of South Africa’s dilemma.”It’s difficult to strike the balance,” admitted Hudson during a break from his commentary duties. “People who don’t live in South Africa find it difficult to understand the concept of transformation. We’ve got to be careful about saying ‘We’re just going to select on merit’ and to hell with it, because with everything that’s happened in this country over the last couple of years, opportunities have to be given to players of colour.”I’m certainly not a politician,” he said, “but it seems to me that this generation has to pay for the sins of our forefathers. It will take some time to strike the right balance, and it’s unfortunate for sport that it has to happen this way, but we do have to try to normalise society.”After missing out for the first Test at Port Elizabeth, Amla – the captain of Dolphins, formerly known as KwaZulu-Natal, – was a shoo-in to make his debut in front of his home fans for this match. “There’s so much potential and talent in all communities in South Africa,” said Hudson. “There’s a big Indian community here in Durban – they are passionate about cricket and always have been, and I’ve no doubt there will be several Indian cricketers representing South Africa in the future. Likewise there’s a strong black community in the Eastern Cape, and a strong coloured community in Cape Town. These are the communities where resources need to be spent, so that players can come through and be selected on merit.”But these things take time,” he added, while pointing out – quite reasonably – that there are very few societies in the world where equality of opportunity has been achieved. “You find disadvantaged communities in other countries all round the world. In South Africa it was caused by politics, but elsewhere it can be a natural state. You get disadvantaged communities in India, England, West Indies … are those cricket unions pumping in huge amounts of resources to help? I don’t think so.”Although he is unequivocally in support of the transformation process, Hudson sounds a note of caution as well. “I just hope that the process ends sooner rather than later, and is not something that drags on into the future. I’m looking forward to the day when there’s a line drawn in the sand, when we’ve given a lot of opportunities to all different race groups in South Africa, and a stream of raw talent starts to come through the system, irrespective of colour.”At present, with all these quotas and things, what we are actually doing is reintroducing the colour issue back to our children. The sooner we get to the point where we go back to merit, and treat everybody as individual human beings, the better it will be for the game of cricket.”Andrew Miller is assistant editor of Cricinfo. He will be following the England team throughout the Test series in South Africa.

In the July issue of Wisden Cricket Monthly Stuart Hess talks to Makhaya Ntini

When Makhaya Ntini stepped on to the international stage, he carried an extra political burden of having to show that black South Africans could live with the likes of Donald, Pollock, Waugh and Warne. As far as South African cricket was concerned he could not afford to fail.”Yes, I was definitely aware there was a lot of talk about transformation,” Ntini says. “But I could not let myself be worried about that. I knew I had to improve as a cricketer. I realised I could also do the things Donald, Pollock and Kallis did and I always believed that if I performed well they could not keep me out of the side.”He had shown plenty of self-belief just to get that far. From humble beginnings tending cattle in his home village of Mdingi in the Eastern Cape, Ntini overcame not only the hardships of rural poverty but also the cultural difficulties of being a black kid, barely able to speak English, entering an environment where he had to build bonds with urban white contemporaries. He had to overcome the doubters, including team-mates.”I realised what a big task it was to play international cricket,” he says. “When I came into the team there were a lot of experienced guys around, big names like Brian McMillan, Shaun Pollock and Allan Donald. I saw it as a learning curve and any time I got the opportunity to learn something from those guys, I took it.”Bowling fast and wide of the crease, angling the ball in to the right-handed batsman, Ntini played only a couple of one-day internationals on his first tour to Australia in 1997-98. A few weeks later, against Sri Lanka, he became the first development player to play in a Test. He toured England later in 1998, playing in the third and fifth Tests, but he faced his greatest test the following year when he was convicted of rape. Though subsequently acquitted he looked as if he might live forever in the shadow of that incident. But he poured everything into his cricket, becoming stronger, fitter and wiser.Ntini’s stamina won particular admiration during the 2000-01 visit from New Zealand, when on a flat-track and a blazing hot day at Bloemfontein he bowled 31 overs and took six wickets for 66 runs. At the start of the summer of 2001-02 he was named one of South Africa’s cricketers of the year, only to suffer such a drop in form that he was excluded from the Test series in Australia. While his team-mates were being pummelled there Ntini regained confidence. “Being dropped wasn’t a big problem for me,” he said at the time. “It forced me to find out where I went wrong. I think I came back a better player.”The return series in South Africa confirmed his status as a senior player. Replacing the injured Shaun Pollock with the new ball in the first Test at Johannesburg Ntini took Matthew Hayden’s edge in his first over, only for Jacques Kallis to drop a simple chance at second slip and Hayden to score 122. But Ntini still finished as the only South African to have enhanced his reputation in a record defeat. With better luck in the second Test at Cape Town he finished the three-match series with 11 wickets and new-found responsibility. “I realise I have to set an example for the younger players. As a senior player you must go out and put the ball in the right areas and be professional,” he says.Ntini, who will have his 26th birthday during the summer series, is one of only six players who toured England in 1998. Since then his angle of delivery has changed, enabling him to straighten the ball off the seam and making him much more dangerous. He also appreciates the significance of this England tour in establishing the direction South African cricket takes.”There are a lot of new guys in the side and it is important we show how good we are as a team. We can’t compare ourselves with teams from the past; the circumstances are different. It’s like people comparing [former South African president] Nelson Mandela and [South African president] Thabo Mbeki. You can’t.”Click here to subscribe to Wisden Cricket Monthly

The July 2003 edition of Wisden Cricket Monthly is on sale at all good newsagents in the UK and Ireland, priced £3.40.

The Mercantile Cricket Association (MCA) will conduct a double wicketcompetition this weekend at BRC Grounds in Colombo. Sixteen leading businessinstitutions and the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) havesubmitted teams.The tournament will include a number of international stars. Chaminda Vaasand Mahela Jayawardene play for Seylan Bank. Russel Arnold and KumarDharmasena play for Hatton National Bank and Test discard TillakaratneDilshan and Kaushalya Weeraratne will be representing the BCCSL.The tournament has been revived after 20 years and will be sponsored byAccess International Pvt. Ltd.The regulation stipulate that each side will have eight overs per inningsand each player has to bowl four overs. There will be no declarationsbecause each time they are dismissed ten points will be deducted from theirscore.D. S. Senanayake College First XI will be performing the fielding duties.

Surrey 560 (Ansari 106, Burke 79, Wilson 72, Durston 6-113) lead Derbyshire 313 by 247 runs
ScorecardZafar Ansari recorded the least-slow hundred of his first-class career•Getty Images

First-class cricket is the most meritocratic of sports. Played as it is over a matter of days, the best team will win, or at the very least dominate proceedings, more often than not. There is charm to such an egalitarian contest perhaps unmatched by any other sport. Quality will out.And so it was on day three at the Kia Oval as Surrey’s skill finally supplanted Derbyshire’s stoic resistance to take charge of this match. A day that began with the possibility of Derbyshire perhaps forcing a first-innings lead ended with them trailing by 247 runs after Surrey plundered 560.It was not that Derbyshire played particularly badly, although they did miss chances in the field, rather Surrey, specifically Zafar Ansari and James Burke, simply played very well. Having taken 4 for 61 in the first innings, Ansari’s typically obdurate 106 will only further intensify the growing calls for his international selection.After his four wickets came on a first-day pitch under cloudy skies, Ansari continued to confound conditions and challenges on day three by scoring his runs in spite of a turning pitch and a probing Derbyshire bowling attack. Although it was the fastest of Ansari’s three Championship centuries, to say so would be misleading; coming as it did off 213 balls, least slow would be more appropriate. His runs were earned as much as they were scored.On 21 not out overnight, Ansari was unflappable in the face of bowling that tempted temptation, but he refused to be drawn outside off stump, leaving with obsessive compulsion and defending with exaggerated due diligence. Boundaries – he accumulated ten – were as surprising as they were risk-free and never once did Ansari’s survival feel threatened.His 230-ball innings was made up of 168 dot balls – the equivalent to 28 maidens. It doesn’t take a man with a Cambridge degree like Ansari to decipher so many dots as essentially morse code for: I’m not going anywhere, you’re not going to bore me out, I’m going to keep batting. And keep batting he did. Through drinks, through lunch, through drinks, and through tea before he was finally dismissed by a quicker ball that skidded on from Wes Durston and trapped him lbw.Surrey’s brilliance extended beyond merely the anaesthetising blade of Ansari however. Indeed, the day began with comparatively reckless abandon as Gary Wilson struck six fours in the first eight overs to race past fifty before Mark Footitt found his edge to end a sprightly innings of 72. While Ansari will seize the headlines, and rightly so, Wilson’s contribution to Surrey’s day three riposte should not be forgotten or undervalued. Nor too should the contribution of Burke, who registered his highest first-class score in an innings of great maturity.Having trailed Derbyshire by 141 at 172 for 5 on day two, Ansari, Wilson and Burke put on 257 for the next two wickets. It took a tired Derbyshire attack a further 100 minutes, costing them 131 runs, to take the final three wickets as the Curran brothers and Gareth Batty smashed the ball around in the evening session. All Surrey’s batsmen reached double figures and their final five wickets reaped 388 runs.Despite never bowling terribly, the threat provided by Derbyshire naturally dissipated as the day wore on. Although the pitch took considerable turn and bounce, legspinner Matt Critchley, at just 19 years old, could hardly be expected to spin Derbyshire through Surrey’s middle-order, while nor could Durston, whose six wickets were not so much taken as they were received through sheer weight of overs. That he did finish with six is indicative of the challenge Derbyshire will face against Batty and Ansari on the fourth day.While day one and day two of this match exhibited the depth of the challenge presented by county cricket, day three showed the fine margins between those who succeed and those who do not. Patience was that margin. Surrey, in Ansari and Burke in particular, had it and with limited bowling options Derbyshire could do little but wait for the misery to end.

Thomas Rew, Somerset’s highly rated wicketkeeper-batter, will captain England at the forthcoming Under-19 World Cup, to be played in Zimbabwe and Namibia in January and February.Rew, 18, missed the recent tour of the West Indies, where England Under-19s were beaten 5-2, due to his involvement with England Lions in Australia. He made his first-class debut in the Lions’ game against Australia A earlier this month, making scores of 19 and 47, having played for Somerset during the summer while still 17.Thomas is the younger brother of James Rew, another wicketkeeper-batter, who was part of the Lions tour – though Thomas was preferred to take the gloves at Allan Border Field. He broke the record for the fastest England U19s century with a 73-ball effort against India in June.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Nottinghamshire offspinner Farhan Ahmed – younger brother of England international Rehan – will be vice-captain, having led the side in the Caribbean. The rest of the 15-player squad is largely the same, with uncapped Leicestershire left-arm spinner Ali Farooq the only new inclusion for the World Cup.”This is an amazing opportunity for the players we have selected to not only wear an England shirt at a World Cup but also to go out and try and do something special,” England U19s head coach, Mike Yardy, said.Related

• Thomas Rew's blistering century helps England U19s level series with India

• Simbarashe Mudzengerere named captain of Zimbabwe Under-19 for home World Cup

• Scotland call up Thaker and Tekale for men's Under-19 World Cup

• Farhan Yousaf to lead Pakistan at Under-19 World Cup

“We have a balanced squad with a core group of players who already have county experience and who have developed a camaraderie while playing together for the U19s that will serve them well during the tournament.”I really want the players to enjoy the opportunity to play at a World Cup, in a beautiful country like Zimbabwe, and to embrace the chance to compete against different countries and show their quality.”England are in Group C with Pakistan, Scotland and hosts, Zimbabwe, at the Under-19 World Cup. They will begin their campaign against Pakistan at the Takashinga Sports Club in Harare’s on January 16.England Men’s Under-19 World Cup squad: Thomas Rew (capt), Farhan Ahmed, Ralphie Albert, Ben Dawkins, Caleb Falconer, Ali Farooq, Alex French, Alex Green, Luke Hands, Manny Lumsden, Ben Mayes, James Minto, Isaac Mohammed, Joe Moores, Sebastian Morgan

ScorecardA bristling 54 from Maurice Ouma and a fearless 34 from Lameck Onyango, who remained unbeaten at the end, took Kenya to a three-wicket win over Bermuda in the second one-dayer at the Gymkhana. Encouragingly, Bermuda fought harder this time after their dismal effort in the first ODI and the game was not without incident, but they nevertheless face a 3-0 whitewash going into the final match tomorrow.Irvine Romaine, the Bermuda captain, called a halt to play while Kenya were chasing down 184 when a section of the crowd began chanting “policeman”. Four minutes were wasted while Romaine was appeased by the umpires, Buddhi Pradhan from Nepal and the South African, Ian Howell, together with Mike Proctor the match referee. The crowd’s target, Dwayne Leverock – a policeman back home – seemed far less bothered by the kafuffle.Romaine was Bermuda’s mainstay in their underwhelming total of 183, grinding out a laborious 61 from 131 balls. Thomas Odoyo broke through the top-order to finish with the remarkably miserly figures of 3 for 7 from seven overs.Given his team-mates propensity for collapses, Romaine’s anchor-like innings was all the more valuable – though Janeiro Tucker gave Bermuda a hurry-up with a more adventurous 49 from 71. Malachi Jones also cracked three leg-side sixes in his bristling 27.Kenya got off to a barnstorming start to their reply with Ouma creaming Jones twice through the covers and picking him off through mid-on for three consecutive fours. He lost partners at regular intervals, however, and when Steve Tikolo – playing in his 100th ODI – was bowled by Rodney Trott, Kenya were slipping at 113 for 4. Thomas Odoyo was trapped in front by Kevin Hurdle who then ran out Nehemiah Odhiambo, leaving Kenya in further trouble at 183 for 7.But Onyango waited patiently for the bad balls, flicking Hurdle for consecutive fours down to fine-leg, to take Kenya home. The third and final ODI is on Sunday.

Rahul Dravid was a downcast man after the embarrassing 157-run defeat atKingsmead, admitting that his team just wasn’t good enough in the face ofsome hostile and accurate fast bowling from South Africa’s quintet. From62 for 2, the downward spiral was spectacular and brief, with Andre Neland Jacques Kallis picking up 7 for 16 between them.Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni accounted for 67 ofthose runs, and Dravid was forced to admit later that the India’s fortuneson this tour may well rest on his and Tendulkar’s shoulders. “We are theexperienced players of the team; we are the ones who have been herebefore,” he said. “We’re pretty disappointed not to have put up a bettershow with the bat after we did well to restrict them to 248.”The bowling effort had been full of promise, with the runs kept downdespite a marvellous century from Jacques Kallis. “There were some goodsigns with the ball and some positives came out of our bowling,” he said.”I was pretty happy with the way the boys performed in the first half ofthe game. But we were just not good enough with the bat.”With Shaun Pollock bowling a superb opening spell, South Africa got theearly breakthrough they needed to defend 248, and once Charl Langeveldtand Nel produced beautiful deliveries to get rid of Dravid and Tendulkar,the descent into hell was mercifully quick. “Probably, our shot selectionagainst some of the fast bowlers is something we need to look at andreassess when we go into the next match,” said Dravid. “We will bedefinitely looking to perform much better with the bat. We have toimprove from here and put in some better performances if we want tocompetitive in the series.”This was India’s 13th one-day defeat in 17 games against South Africa inthese climes, and Dravid accepted that it would take an almighty effort toturn things around. “It’s going to be a challenge,” he said. “That’s whereyour ability and character are tested. And if you can come out of a tourlike this with some good scores and runs, it will give you a lot ofconfidence.”We will have to play better. After going through how we got out, we willhave to learn. I must say that the South Africans bowled well, and we didnot have a good day.”After a nightmarish start to the tour, he can only take consolation in thefact that it can’t get any worse. Or will it?

Courtney Walsh and Michael Holding, bowling greats, differ on the chances of the West Indies making a fist of their three-Test cricket series against Australia, set to begin at Brisbane on Thursday.Walsh, till recently a wicket-taking world record-holder in Tests, believes the West Indies can spring a surprise by winning a Test in Australia, something they haven’t done since February 1997. “Definitely, I think the way they’ve started (the tour) would have given them a lot of confidence,” he said on Tuesday. “It’s the first time this team has played together in about two or three tours because of politics (over sponsorship).”These guys have a chance to gel here, and I’m sure that they’re going to play some good consistent cricket. They’re up against the best team. It’s going to be hard but if you want to make a mark you’ve got to play against the best.”Holding, another former West Indies great, disagrees and forecasts that the Caribbean tourists will be drubbed 3-0 by Ricky Ponting’s side, determined to prove they are still world cricket’s top team after losing the Ashes to England last September. “People don’t like to hear the truth, but this group does not possess the right attitude to win Test matches,” Holding said.”I’m concerned about their general focus. They aren’t focused on their game enough. They aren’t focused on representing the Windies enough.”The West Windies are the last touring team to win a series in Australia, winning 2-1 in 1992-93, but they were spanked 5-0 by the Australians on their last visit down under in 2000-01. The one-time powerhouse of world cricket have fallen on hard times and are looking to recapture lost glory under the coaching of Australian Bennett King, who went to the Caribbean last year with the pedigree of having coached Queensland and the Australian Cricket Academy. “I think you’ll see a change in their fortunes sometime, but certainly it’s quite young in their development,” King said.The Windies had the better of Queensland in the warm-up four-day tour match at Brisbane last weekend. Marlon Samuels was the stand-out with his highest first-class score of 257 and a best return of five wickets.The Caribbean tourists have a formidable battery of quicks in Jermaine Lawson (50 wickets in 12 Tests), Fidel Edwards (45 wickets in 17 Tests) and Tino Best (26 wickets in 12 Tests). Walsh likes what he sees in Edwards, a 23-year-old from Barbados. “He could be a handful if he can get things right,” Walsh said. “He swings the ball away and he’s got some good pace.”Australia will have a Test debutant this week when Mike Hussey opens the innings with Matthew Hayden, after Justin Langer pulled out with a broken rib. No Australian ever has made more first-class runs (15,313 runs at 52.8) before making his Test debut.

The West Indies Cricket Board is reportedly in a mess over its handling of player contracts and payments, against the backdrop of a complication between its new sponsor, Digicel, and its former sponsor of 20 years, Cable & Wireless, according to an article on the Caribbeancricket.com website.It is claimed that in 2003, Cable & Wireless signed an endorsement contract with Brian Lara, and later signed several other players, all with the Board’s co-operation. When the new deal was struck with Digicel, the Board then sought to buy out the deals through the retainer contracts negotiated with the West Indies Players’ Association.According to the website, “Two weeks ago, the board did an about-face on the agreed-upon buyout … One can only assume that they failed to get Digicel’s buy-in for their buy-out, and the new sponsor applied some pressure on the board to prevent its newly acquired rights from being diluted by the Cable & Wireless players. C&W, not surprisingly, is standing by its endorsement deals with those players and is not about to give them up.”It has led to an awkward situation, involving the Board, the players’ association, Digicel and C&W, with neither of the sponsors seemingly willing to back down. Whatever the outcome, it’s the players – particularly those with C&W contracts – who seem to be at risk the most.