Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Robert Key and Andrew Flintoff sealed England’s sixth consecutive Test victory of the summer, and the ninth in their last ten matches, as a spirited West Indian side was overwhelmed in the final session at Old Trafford. Despite grabbing two early wickets and holding the upper hand for much of the day, West Indies were left to rue their untimely collapse on Sunday afternoon – a target of 231 never seemed likely to trouble this confident England team, even in the absence of their pacemaker-in-chief, Graham Thorpe.Thorpe, whose finger was broken by Fidel Edwards during his heroic first-innings 114, was only ever likely to bat in an emergency. But at 27 for 2 with both openers back in the pavilion, and then again at 111 for 3, that emergency seemed just around the corner. But Key and Flintoff ended all such notions, first with some thoughtful resistance against a fiery spell from Fidel Edwards, and then with a glorious finale, in which Flintoff the home hero reached his fifty – his seventh in consecutive Tests – with a vast straight six, before tickling the winning runs to third man.Though Flintoff stole the limelight, it was Key who took the bulk of the plaudits. His place in the side had been under scrutiny after a couple of loose dismissals at Edgbaston, but with neither Thorpe nor Mark Butcher available for Thursday’s fourth Test, he was this time able to relax and play his natural game. And for that, his team-mates were extremely grateful.Key’s confrontational approach had impressed many observers during his debut series in Australia two winters ago, and it was to the fore once again today, especially during his running duel with Edwards, which involved several skiddy 90mph bouncers and a considerable amount of mid-pitch banter and eyeballing. Key took it all in his stride, and as his innings progressed the West Indians wilted. The final nail in their coffin came in the very first over after tea, when Sylvester Joseph dropped Key on 58, a catchable chance to his left at second slip. After that, it was England all the way.Such a comprehensive victory had seemed an eternity away earlier in the day. Although Steve Harmison had needed just six balls in the morning to wrap up the West Indian second innings for 165, England in reply lost both openers in a jittery pre-lunch session. Marcus Trescothick was bowled through the gate by a beauty from Collymore that clipped the top of off, while Andrew Strauss played an uncharacteristically rash pull against Pedro Collins, that skidded low to Shivnarine Chanderpaul at midwicket for 12.

Collymore nearly cleaned up Key with another jaffa that curled round his outside edge and over the top of off stump, and without Thorpe to steady the run-chase, England were decidedly edgy. Much was resting on Michael Vaughan, and it showed in an innings of untypical nerviness. He had a huge letoff on 1, when he top-edged an Edwards bouncer just out of Carlton Baugh’s reach as he sprinted towards square leg, and he later inside-edged Collymore for four past his leg stump. Though he showed glimmers of his best form with a selection of those dreamy cover-drives, Vaughan was very much playing from memory.In the end, it was Chris Gayle’s offspin that made the break. His very first delivery exploded off a length and took the shoulder of the bat on the way to Brian Lara at slip, and Vaughan trudged off for 33 hard-earned runs. The cheer that greeted Flintoff’s arrival could have been heard back up in his old watering holes in Preston, but it was as nothing to the one that awaited him later in the day, as the crowd’s anxiety gave way to a carnival atmosphere.Even so, it would be a while before Flintoff or his adoring fans could contemplate partying. At 111 for 3 and with Edwards in full flight, survival was the primary objective. Even with two men back for the hook, Flintoff was sorely tempted, but for the most part he resisted, taking one blow to the shoulder and another firm rap on the gloves. Key, meanwhile, continued to wind Edwards up with a running commentary, and together they carried England to tea at 146 for 3 – still 85 runs adrift but, one sensed, with the bulk of the job done.Key drilled Collymore’s first ball after the break for four, but when that catch went down in the same over, the fight went out of the West Indian attack. Ramnaresh Sarwan was belatedly introduced to tempt Flintoff into self-destruction – which, after a couple of wild swings, led to the improbable sound of a Lancashire crowd cheering a Flintoff defensive shot. A couple of huge sixes later, however, and it was all business as usual. England’s bandwagon just keeps on rolling.

Shoaib Akhtar has been included in Pakistan’s team to play against the Western Australian 2nd XI in a three-day match at the James Oval starting on December 1. Mohammad Sami and Mohammad Asif, the medium-pacer, will also get a chance.Matthew Petrie, the former Queensland fast-bowler, was included in the Western Australian side. Petrie moved to WA in the off-season in a bid to further his chances of selection to the state side. James Sprague will also feature in his first representative match for WA.Play is scheduled to begin at 10.30am each day and the match will be played under the same conditions as a Cricket Australia Cup match where all 12 players can play but only 11 may bat and bowl.Pakistan
Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), Yousuf Youhana, Shoaib Akhtar, Younis Khan, Mohammed Sami, Danish Kaneria, Yasir Hameed, Imran Farhat, Kamran Akmal (wk), Mohammad Asif, Shoaib Malik.Western Australian 2nd XI
Adam Voges (capt), Justin Coetzee, Liam Davis, Sean Ervine, Aaron Heal, Sam Howman, Scott Meuleman, Matthew Petrie, Luke Ronchi (wk), Craig Simmons, James Sprague, Peter Worthington.

David and Adam Harrison will stay at Glamorgan until 2007 after signing extensions to their contracts. Both players still have one year to go on their current deals.David, 23, was voted Glamorgan’s young player of the year for the second successive time last summer after taking 57 first-class wickets. His brother, Adam, who is four years younger, has played for England U-19s, and has recently flown out to Malaysia for in preparation for their tour of India. Adam is yet to play for the Glamorgan first team, but he opened the bowling for MCC against Sussex in the opening first-class match of 2004.”We’re delighted that both David and Adam have committed to the Club for the next three seasons,” said Mike Fatkin, Glamorgan’s chief executive. “Both are highly regarded within the game and it’s great news for us that they have agreed to sign new contracts. Glamorgan remains strongly committed to the development of home-grown players and with an excellent Academy, a team of very capable coaches and a group of very talented emerging players just below the full time staff we are confident that this policy will continue to bear dividends.”

A formal Twenty20 competition between the states will be held next January in a rapid response to the bite-sized game’s success. Cricket Australia today announced a six-match interstate tournament with each state hosting one clash between the end of next summer’s Test program and the VB Series.CA is also finalising its international fixture list for next year and the MCG has been stripped of its VB Series final, Hobart has been given a West Indies Test and Perth has a South Africa Test.James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia chief executive, said Twenty20 had made a good first impression in trial games at Perth, Adelaide and Hobart, particularly with young people, families and females. “The Australian public has told us they love Twenty20 and we want to offer fans in each state a chance to see it,” he said. “We also believe it is possible that players, once they get some experience with this new format, might learn skills that transfer to the ODI arena in the same way that skills learned in 50-over cricket have transferred to longer forms of the game.”The ICC is still determining whether Twenty20 will become an international fixture, and CA warned of the crowded calendar and its heavy commitments to the Future Tours Program. CA said an interstate final will be held, but the finer details of the competition were still being finalised.A revamped VB finals series is planned for next year with Adelaide and Sydney given the first two finals and Brisbane the third. Melbourne has been overlooked as it is the venue for the three ICC Super Series one-day internationals between Australia and an ICC World Xl in October.

Andy Bichel, who won the State Player of the Year award at last night’s Allan Border Medal, has not given up on an Ashes place and hopes a strong end to the domestic season will strengthen his claims. Dumped from Cricket Australia’s contract list last April, Bichel is the Pura Cup’s leading wicket-taker with 46 at 19.43 and is on track to beat his career-best first-class season of 60 in 1999-2000.”My goal is to represent Australia and if the opportunity came for that to happen again then I’d be delighted,” Bichel said. “An Ashes tour would be a wonderful bonus, but I know that the most important thing I can do is to keep working hard and performing for Queensland. We are in the hunt for both finals and there is a lot of hard cricket coming up in the next two months.”Bichel will lead the attack in the ING Cup match against Victoria at Ballarat on Sunday as the Bulls finalise their preparations for hosting the final at the Gabba on February 20. Victoria, who need a win to stay in touch of the second-placed Tasmania, have made one change with Andrew McDonald, the allrounder, replacing Tim Welsford after successfully recovering from thumb surgery.Victoria Cameron White (capt), Adam Crosthwaite (wk), Matthew Elliott, Ian Harvey, Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Brad Knowles, Michael Lewis, Andrew McDonald, Jon Moss, Graeme Rummans, Shane Warne.Queensland Jimmy Maher (capt), James Hopes, Martin Love, Clinton Perren, Craig Philipson, Brendan Nash, Wade Seccombe, Andy Bichel, Nathan Hauritz, Ashley Noffke, Mitchell Johnson, Shane Jurgensen.

Accusations that Brett Lee is delivering intentional beam balls are “rubbish”, according to Ricky Ponting. Lee has received fierce criticism since bowling a waist-high full-toss to Brendon McCullum on Saturday, with John Bracewell suggesting it was the fourth he had sent to New Zealand’s batsmen this summer.However, Ponting claimed there had been an over-reaction and the wet surface had contributed to the loose ball, which hit McCullum on the hand as he shied away. Bracewell said it was the second similar delivery McCullum had received from Lee while others were directed at Chris Harris and Paul Wiseman.”If you’re singling him out as the only one who’s done it on more than one occasion that’s a load of rubbish,” Ponting said. “Abdul Razzaq hit him with two in one over [during the tri-series finals] and Lee actually received one in the first game, if memory serves correctly, on this tour.”Peter Roebuck, the former Somerset batsman and Sydney Morning Herald columnist, called for Lee to be dropped for the remainder of the tour. “[It] was merely the latest in a series of violent deliveries sent down by a pace bowler at best reckless in his approach and at worst utterly unwilling to remain within long-accepted parameters governing conduct on the cricket field,” Roebuck wrote.Ponting said there was a small margin for error for bowlers delivering balls at 150kmh. “Sure it’s happened a few times of late,” he said. “It’s the last thing I want to see and I know as far as Brett’s concerned it’s the last thing he wants to happen as well.”Lee will bowl alongside McGrath, Gillespie and Kasprowicz after Australia named a formidable pace line-up for the fourth one-day match at Wellington’s Basin Reserve tomorrow. Ponting has decided to rest from the game with a slight thigh strain and Adam Gilchrist will be captain. James Hopes, the Queensland allrounder, has been called up for his one-day international debut while Brad Hogg will be 12th man.Australia 1 Adam Gilchrist (capt, wk), 2 Simon Katich, 3 Damien Martyn, 4 Andrew Symonds, 5 Michael Clarke, 6 Mike Hussey, 7 James Hopes, 8 Brett Lee, 9 Jason Gillespie, 10 Michael Kasprowicz, 11 Glenn McGrath, 12 Brad Hogg.

It is not often in a series that one team starts favourites for the Tests and the other for the one-day internationals. But this will be the case tomorrow when India, who were heavily fancied in the Tests but could not prevent Pakistan from sharing the spoils, now find the onus of playing out of their skins on themselves when they take on a pumped-up Pakistan side heavy on allround talent and with the weight of recent history behind them.Having taken a severe barracking from all quarters after his miserable show with the bat in the Tests, Sourav Ganguly once again finds the familiar sense of being under siege upon him as he tries to rouse a team that has underperformed severely in one-day cricket in the last year.Ganguly put up a brave face at the pre-match press conference, uttering some of the usual platitudes about one-day cricket being a different ball game from the Tests, and about wanting to do his best with the bat since he had a special responsibility as captain.He would not reveal anything about team composition, but it is so hot in Kochi – the players will sweat it out tomorrow in 40-degree heat – that it is difficult to see India going in with more than two out of Irfan Pathan, Lakshmipathy Balaji, and Zaheer Khan. That would leave room to play both spinners, Harbhajan Singh and Murali Kartik.That said, it is difficult to see bowling keeping the batsmen quiet at Kochi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. A combination of a good pitch, short boundaries, oppressive bowling and fielding conditions, and two lineups heavy on high-quality batting should make tomorrow a game in which no first-innings score is safe. Indeed, two of the three international games to have been played at this ground have produced scores in excess of 300.Pakistan, who have won their last four games against India and boast of a 11-4 win-loss record against India India, have a lot of heavy-duty ammunition to throw at their opponents. In fact, the likely absence of Younis Khan, suffering from fever, solves some of their selection problems, because there are probably four or five good ways in which they could make up an eleven. Salman Butt, who made a dazzling century the last time the two sides met in an ODI, in the BCCI Platinum Jubilee game at Kolkata, should open, and Inzamam-ul-Haq hinted that the idea of using Kamran Akmal as an opener would be discontinued, allowing Shahid Afridi to return to the position from which he caused so much damage in the Tests.Shoaib Malik, Inzamam and Yousuf Youhana should follow, and be backed up by Abdul Razzaq and Akmal. That leaves place for two fast bowlers – almost certainly Mohammad Sami and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan – and two spinners from Arshad Khan, Danish Kaneria, and the allrounder Mohammad Hafeez. Were Malik allowed to bowl – he cannot currently because his action is under the ICC’s scrutiny – it would make for an even more powerful line-up.Inzamam asserted that the team’s morale was high after the win in the Bangalore Test, and agreed that conditions were inimical to pace bowling. He answered all the questions directed at him with a calm, pleasant air until some mischievous soul piped up to ask him if he was missing the services of Shoaib Akhtar. Not content with Inzamam’s deadpan “No,” the scribe then asked what the problem was between the Pakistani captain and Akhtar. “Nothing,” snapped Inzamam. The Shoaib issue is about the only thing that rankles with him at the moment.India have two form worries – that of Ganguly and of Irfan Pathan, who looked under the weather for most of the Test series after returning from injury, and appears to have temporarily lost his banana inswinger, rendering him vulnerable to the attention of hitters like Afridi. Ganguly defended Pathan, saying that he had bowled brilliantly for an extended stretch of time and could not be expected to be at his best in every game, but there is no denying that Pathan’s form is a serious concern. As for Ganguly himself, he may take some comfort in the fact that, with VVS Laxman having been dropped, he can now bat at No.3. But he will have to produce something mighty spectacular, against bowlers who know all his weaknesses, to ward off his detractors.But India also, while knowing more or les all there is to know about each member of their opposition, have an unknown quantity of sorts to throw at them – wicketkeeper-batsman MS Dhoni, who in a tournament in Nairobi last year took two centuries off a Pakistan A attack that included, of the current squad, Iftikhar Rao Anjum. A scintillating striker of the ball, Dhoni failed to do anything of note with the bat in his debut series in Bangladesh last December, but he will be itching to go here, and a surprise promotion up the order for him is not out of the question.Teams (probable)
India 1 Sachin Tendulkar, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 4 Rahul Dravid, 5 Yuvraj Singh, 6 Mohammad Kaif, 7 Mahendra Dhoni (wk), 8 Irfan Pathan, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Lakshmipathy Balaji, 11 Murali Kartik.Pakistan 1 Shahid Afridi, 2 Salman Butt, 3 Shoaib Malik, 4 Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), 5 Yousuf Youhana, 6 Abdul Razzaq, 7 Kamran Akmal (wk), 8 Arshad Khan, 9 Mohammad Sami, 10 Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, 11 Danish Kaneria.Wisden Asia Cricket

Sri Lanka Masters romped to a comprehensive 97-run win against India Masters in the first game of the Zayed Cup, a triangular tournament being held in Abu Dhabi as a benefit for tsunami victims. The Indian side was depleted, with none of their international superstars in the fray, while the Sri Lankan one had quite a few of their top-flight players.One of them, Kumar Sangakkara, made 52 as Sri Lanka Masters were bowled out for 252. Shantha Kalavitigoda top-scored with 69, while Tillakaratne Dilshan made 43. The pitch was slow and aided the spinners, but it was a fast bowler who set the Indians back.Lasith Malinga, at his slingshotty best, uprooted Shikhar Dhawan’s off stump with his second ball, and Hemang Badani, an India discard, was run out shortly afterwards. Two more run-outs followed, and the Indians slipped to 86 for 8. Sunil Joshi and Harvinder Singh added 64 for the ninth wicket, helping India to 155. It merely delayed the inevitable Sri Lankan victory.

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Against Bangladesh at Chester-le-Street on Friday, Graham Thorpe is set to join one of cricket’s most exclusive clubs, when he becomes the eighth England cricketer to play in 100 Tests. The occasion will be marked by a presentation before the start of play, which will be attended by five of his fellow centurions – Alec Stewart, David Gower, Michael Atherton, Geoff Boycott and Ian Botham – and which may well help to confer some sense of grandeur on an event that promises to be another damp squib, if Bangladesh’s efforts in the Lord’s Test are anything to go by.Thorpe, however, has already been in the news this week, and not because of the excitement surrounding this landmark. His announcement, on the eve of the Lord’s Test, that he had signed a contract to play and coach in New South Wales this winter, effectively served notice of his impending international retirement, and called into question his commitment to the cause ahead of this summer’s Ashes.But Thorpe is nothing if not resilient, and after enduring countless ups and downs in the course of his 12-year international career, is all set for one final push for glory this summer. “I want to play in as many matches as I can,” he told reporters in Durham, “and to do that I have to stay fit and I have to keep playing well. But I think I’ve known that ever since I came back from South Africa last winter – if I don’t play well or I fall over in a heap I won’t get picked.”In the first Test at Lord’s, Thorpe made a chanceless 42 not out to keep the vultures at bay for another game, but he is well aware of the scrutiny that his New South Wales appointment has created, not least in the corridors of the England & Wales Cricket Board, where David Graveney, the chief of selectors, expressed his “disappointment” at Thorpe’s news. But, Thorpe added, he had no regrets about his decision.”I heard Grav’s comments and I understand what he means by the timing, but there was nothing untoward about that and I wasn’t holding anything back,” he insisted. “I can go back to my hotel room, look myself in the mirror and know I’ve done nothing wrong.”I don’t think I could have handled things any differently,” he added, having gone public on the news the very day that NSW confirmed the offer. “I don’t think it’s a huge surprise to anyone that I have been trying to plan something for the winter, because they may not have even taken me away this winter anyway.”Although the pressure is undoubtedly on, Thorpe has proved on countless occasions that he is equal to it. He demonstrated that with a century on debut against the Australians in 1993, and every one of his 16 Test centuries has been a nuggetty tribute to one of the greatest English batsmen of the post-war era. It is only in the latter part of his career, however, that his true ability has shone through, and much of that success has been fostered under the watchful guidance of Duncan Fletcher.”My first 40 to 45 Tests were quite tough,” Thorpe explained. “We were in a different set-up with a lot of player insecurities and before central contracts when the team was very inconsistent. But during the last four or five years under Duncan there has been a curve which has gone steadily upwards. Hopefully that will continue rising over the next two or three years.”Thorpe has played in just one Ashes Test in the past three series, due to a combination of injury and a much-publicised marital breakdown, but victory this summer would be Thorpe’s crowning achievement. Failing that, however, he has some fond memories to take Down Under with him, not least his achievements on the subcontinent in 2000-01, when his batting was central to back-to-back series wins against Pakistan and Sri Lanka.”The achievement in winning in Asia a few years ago was probably the best I have been involved in with a team,” said Thorpe, who scored a century at Lahore that included a solitary boundary, hit the winning runs in the thrilling twilight run-chase in Karachi, and went on to produce a pair of unbeaten gems to steal an amazing series at Colombo’s Sinhalese Sports Club later that winter. “The conditions were not natural to us so to win those series in Pakistan and Sri Lanka was something special.”The conditions on those tours were as unfamiliar to England as a damp Chester-le-Street will be to the Bangladeshis and so, for the time being, the focus returns to the task at hand, and the need for England to despatch their current opponents as clinically as possible. It is impossible, however, not to have one eye on the bigger picture this summer.

With less than a week to go until the new elections to appoint the board of the Kenya Cricket Association, the race to replace Sharad Ghai as chairman has boiled down to a three-way battle between Tom Tikolo, Salim Dhanji and Samir Inamdar.Dhanji, who heads the powerful Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association, and Inamdar, who runs the Coast Cricket Association, are both lawyers who have been instrumental in bringing down the Ghai regime. And both recognise that there is much work to be done to restore the fortunes of a game which has been run down through poor administration and a lack of funding.”Whoever goes in will be inheriting a mess,” Inamdar told the Nation. “He will need to overhaul the whole KCA structure and improve internal governance of the KCA. My development plan would work towards spreading the game out of Nairobi to bring out the talent that is there in the provinces.”Dhanji is equally aware that there are tough times ahead, and his immediate goal would be to restore good relations with the ICC, which has grown tired of the endless infighting, as well as establishing an effective and transparent committee structure. “These committees are the most important tools of operations and I intend to ensure they are made up of people from all the cricket provinces as a way of involving everyone in the management of the game.”Dhanji added that the country needed an effective structure of provincial leagues, and said that contact had already been made with the authorities in Zimbabwe and South Africa to discuss the possibility of Kenya participating in their leagues.Tikolo, the third candidate, has a superb playing and coaching pedigree, but it is that very closeness to the players that could count against him. There has been unease with the way the national squad has been selected, and also the task facing the new chairman is as much about politics as it is about cricket. It might be felt that this is the time for an experienced administrator to take the helm.