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Barely four days back, the Indian team was in another continent, playinganother series, in another format of the game. Their hectic schedule andlack of preparation, coupled with their lack of experience in the Twenty20format, means not many are giving them much chance of making it into thelast four. That could work to their advantage, though, and a win in theopener against Scotland on Thursday will ensure they make it to the SuperEights. It was a hurdle they couldn’t surmount in the Caribbean earlierthis year, but it’s highly unlikely that Scotland can do aBangladesh on India.Bat play: Mahendra Singh Dhoni didn’t reveal much about teamcomposition in the pre-match talk, which means guessing the XI is a bit ofa hazard. The batting line-up will surely consist of Virender Sehwag,who’ll have plenty to prove after his recent absence, Robin Uthappa,Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Dinesh Karthik might get a look-inahead of Gautam Gambhir, while Irfan Pathan and Joginder Sharma couldbolster the lower order.Scotland’s top order, bar Fraser Watts, the opener, misfired badly, butthey have another opportunity to make amends.Wrecking ball: India do have plenty of bowling options, but in theabsence of Zaheer Khan, the challenge is for one of them to rise andtake up the mantle of being the leader of the pack. Ajit Agarkar has beentoo inconsistent to inspire any confidence, while Sreesanth has beenblow-hot, blow-cold throughout his short career. That leaves themuch-improved RP Singh as the potential leader, while Irfan Pathan willwant to make a strong statement on his return as well. It remains to beseen how much of an influence the spinners will have.Scotland’s new-ball bowlers were very impressive against Pakistan, andaided by their top-class fielders in conditions that could help thebowlers, they could ask a few searching questions of the Indian batsmen.Keep your eyes on: Virender Sehwag. The exclusion from the teamwould have hit him hard, and he’ll want to take every opportunity to provehe is still one of the most destructive batsmen in world cricket.Shop talk: To bat first or to chase is the perennial question forthe captain winning the toss, but Dhoni had little doubt about what hewould do if the coin fell his way. “A lot depends on the conditions but wewould probably love to bat first. It’s always better to bat first, andsince batting is also our strength, we would like to give the opponents abig total. Also there is a lot more pressure when chasing big totals.”His other mantra is to keep it conventional and simple. “If you’ve seenlast evening’s game between South Africa and the West Indies, they playedproper cricketing shots. I think it’s important to play it as a normalcricket match. The stress would be on playing conventional cricket and notdoing anything extraordinary.”Pitching it right: The weather should be fine, but strong windscould help the bowlers move it around a bit, though control could be anissue here. The track has shown a tendency to hold up occasionally, makingstrokeplay a trifle difficult.Teams
India (from): Virender Sehwag, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir,Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt &wk), Joginder Sharma, Irfan Pathan, Yusuf Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, PiyushChawla, Harbhajan Singh, RP Singh, Sreesanth.Scotland (from): Ryan Watson (capt), Fraser Watts, Dougie Brown,John Blain, Gavin Hamilton, Navdeep Poonia, Gregor Maiden, Neil McCallum,Qasim Sheikh, Colin Smith (wk), Craig Wright, Dewald Nel, Gordon Drummond,Ross Lyons, Majid Haq.

At least four England supporters suffered minor injuries on the final day of the first Test at Kandy, when the corrugated-iron roof of their stand blew off in high winds and landed on the seats below. According to eye-witnesses, one male supporter was taken to hospital with a gash to his chest, while three others suffered minor cuts and bruises.”To be honest, I’m feeling nervous sitting here,” said Steve Lindley, an England fan out here for all three Tests, who was hit in the small of the back by the falling sheets of iron. He and his fellow fans had been sitting in the special enclosure at the Hunnasgiriya End of the ground, which was quickly evacuated after the incident.”There was no real sign that they were going to come off,” Lindley told Cricinfo. “We were looking towards another stand where they were starting to blow off, but then there was a gust and three sheets all came off together. They came straight down onto the group of us sitting there.”One girl was taken for a medical check-up after receiving a gash to her shin, while another male supporter cut his leg on a concrete support in the rush to clear the seats. None of the injuries arebelieved to be serious, but Lindley intended to get a check-up during the lunch interval. “My back is quite sore now, and if at any point it gets worse … you never know with bruising.”The area was soon cleared, as local maintenance men set about removing the other loose sheets on the roof. “They went up there with bare feet, no safety equipment, and just dropped them down,” said Lindley. “One lad nearly dropped a sheet on his mate. There was no regard forsafety. “

The Pakistan Cricket Board has decided to stick to the best possible team for the ODI series against Zimbabwe that is scheduled to get underway next month. It was widely anticipated, and planned by the national selection committee, that new faces will be tried in the relatively low-key series in order to assess Pakistan’s backup resources.”We cannot take Zimbabwe on any other team lightly,” Nasim Ashraf, chairman of the PCB, told the . “That is why we will ensure that our best possible team plays against Zimbabwe and wins the series five-nil.”Salahuddin Ahmed, the chief selector, had earlier planned on introducing young blood into the team during the series.”We will definitely try out some new faces in whichever department we need them in,” Salahuddin had told Cricinfo. “That’s not to say that we are taking Zimbabwe lightly, but we need to assess players on the fringes of the national side and this is a good opportunity.”However, after Ashraf attended a couple of domestic matches on Thursday, he had a meeting with Salahuddin where a decision to hold a three-day exercise to test several upcoming cricketers was taken. The camp is scheduled to take place in Karachi from January 9 and will include 22 to 24 promising youngsters in action.”We will call around 20 to 24 youngsters for a few trial matches ahead of the series against Zimbabwe,” Ashraf said. “The players will be selected on the basis of their performance in domestic events as well as during Under-19 assignments.”We will spot players who can be a part of the national team in the future but will bring them in step by step. This is because we have to make it sure that the team’s performance is not affected by too many rapid changes.”We have a four-day and a three-day game against Zimbabwe and they would provide us with excellent opportunities to check out the youngsters who are knocking at the doors of international cricket.”We need solid players who can be groomed into world class Test cricketers.”The tour is scheduled to start on January 14 with a four-day match in Karachi. However, yesterday’s assassination of Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister, has thrown the immediate fate of the series in doubt.

Sarfaraz Ahmed, the former Pakistan captain and current mentor of the Under-19 side, said he had urged his players to celebrate their Asia Cup triumph over India with respect and sportsman’s spirit, and not behave as their opponents had done.Sarfaraz was responding to a question about a video from the final that went viral, in which he was heard telling his players not to be uncivil even if India’s players crossed lines. The teams did not shake hands during the final, as has become the norm between the two sides at all levels, ever since the military confrontation between the two countries in May. Vaibhav Suryavanshi was involved in one heated on-field moment when, after being dismissed by Ali Raza, he gestured towards his shoe when walking off.Related

• Sameer Minhas 172 powers Pakistan to Under-19 Asia Cup title

• Stats – Sameer Minhas eclipses Quinton de Kock with blazing knock

Sarfaraz referred to that incident in his response. “I played against those Indian teams who took cricket for cricket [and nothing more]. I happened to see from the outside that their behaviour towards the game wasn’t good. And one of their players did a gesture which all of you saw on the screen. I think that was inappropriate. If you have any issues… we’ve played a lot of cricket and you can respond if things are said on the field… but that was an inappropriate response.”As for the video, I just said to my players we should celebrate but with decorum. What they are doing, we shouldn’t be doing. We must show sportsman’s spirit. We should stay calm and back our team and let them do what they are doing.”Pakistan won the final in Dubai by 191 runs and have been feted since their return, meeting with the Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who announced a PKR 10 million reward for each player in the squad. The opener Sameer Minhas was player of the final – as well as the tournament – scoring a 113-ball 172 as Pakistan posted 347. Raza then took 4-42 as India were bowled out for 156.Farhan Yousaf, the captain, praised the environment the team management created for the triumph. “The management really backed us and told us to play fearless cricket. They spoke to every single player and said, just play your natural game, do not be afraid of anything, we will back you. One of the big things the management said was that they would take responsibility for any losses but that the credit for wins would be to the boys.”Sarfaraz is no stranger to youth set-ups, having come through the U-19s pathway himself and, famously, led Pakistan to the U-19 World Cup title in 2006. He has been mentoring domestically and was appointed to the U-19 side earlier this month.”The team had a lot of potential,” he said. “When I joined the camp in Multan it was clear the coaching staff had done a lot of hard work with the boys already. The way the management backed them and the way the kids responded, I said to them, try and fulfil your potential, and don’t be nervous about anything. We gave them the confidence that you are the guys who are going to play for Pakistan for the next 15-20 years. Play your natural games and play a game that you will remember for the rest of your lives.”

Auckland kept alive their hopes of defending the State Twenty20 title with a six-wicket win over Wellington at Eden Park., but they left it late, squeezing home with only two balls to spare when Gareth Hopkins slashed a six over extra cover.Auckland’s experienced attack was unable to peg back Wellington who reached 182 for 7, an innings built on Jesse Ryder’s 27-ball 66 and then given a late boost by Graham Napier’s 48 from 19 balls.Wellington had to restrict Auckland to under 105 to have any chance of reaching the final themselves, but on a batsman-friendly pitch that was never likely. Scott Styris and Lou Vincent added 96 for the third wicket off 9.2 overs, but Styris’ dismissal checked what was until then a routine chase. Auckland needed 20 from two overs and 11 off the last, bowled by Napier, but Hopkins clobbered a four and then the match-winning six.At the weekend, Northern Districts slipped to second place after losing by 19 runs to Canterbury in Christchurch, Johann Myburgh’s 68 – the only fifty of the match – the difference between the sides in a low-scoring contest.Central Districts took over at the top of the table with an easy six-wicket defeat of bottom side Otago in New Plymouth, coasting to the target of 173 with four overs in hand.

Auckland now need to beat Central Districts in the last match on Wednesday, and do so convincingly enough to lift their net run-rate above that of Northern Districts. If they manage that then they will again meet Central Districts in the final next Sunday.

Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, has given Brad Hogg a Boxing Day boost by saying the Australian team has better balance when it has a spinner. Hogg is the next slow-bowling option following Stuart MacGill’s withdrawal for wrist surgery, but the case for playing four fast men has been considered by the coach Tim Nielsen.Hilditch said they would look at that option only if the wicket was suitable. The MCG drop-in pitch played low and slow in the Victoria-New South Wales Pura Cup game and a similar surface would further improve Hogg’s prospects.”Test cricket is generally better with a make-up of a quality spinner, particularly going into a third, fourth or fifth day,” Hilditch said in the Courier-Mail. “But I don’t think we’ve ever been adverse to the concept.”I don’t think it’s any secret that Australian cricket generally would prefer to go in with a spinner to give us the balance we need. Brad Hogg will do an excellent job if he is chosen.”Nielsen said Hogg had the best claims on a spot in the final XI because he was in the squad for the first Test against Sri Lanka. “That is an indication and you would expect he is the next cab off the rank,” Nielsen said in the Sydney Morning Herald. “But Hoggy needs to keep working hard.”It’s the four best bowlers for the conditions we are faced with. In the ideal set-up, we have got a frontline spinner and we would certainly like to have one in the squad, I’m sure, but we will have to sit down in Melbourne and see what the wicket looks like.”

Sandeep Patil, the former India coach, and Dinesh Mongia, the former India batsman, have cited ill-treatment by the Indian board and the selectors respectively as reasons for their decision to join the Indian Cricket League (ICL).Patil said he was given “false assurances” of being made the India A coach but, eventually, nothing materialised. “I still have a copy of the e-mail that I was asked to send by Sharad Pawar [the president of the BCCI] expressing my willingness to be India A team’s coach. Nothing moved after that,” Patil told the Times of India. In fact, once Pawar called Ratnakar Shetty [the chief administrative officer of BCCI] and secretary Niranjan Shah in my presence, telling them to make my appointment, yet nothing materialised.”Mongia blamed the selectors for not giving him a proper run and said he was dropped despite some good performances. “Before the World Cup, I was given a break against Australia in Malaysia where I scored 63 not out. But after that I was dropped,” Mongia told the Indian Express. “I think I was dropped because I was scoring runs or I played well, that is the signal I got”.”Later too, I got a chance against Australia [in the Champions Trophy], where I failed. I did tour South Africa, played in Durban, where I disappointed, but everybody else also failed. Later I played in the Twenty20 game and was instrumental in winning the match against South Africa , and again the same old story: I was dropped.”Mongia did play in the 5th ODI against South Africa, two days after that Twenty20 game, and scored an 89-ball 41. He later made a comeback in the tour of Bangladesh and made 17 runs in each of the two ODI games that he played.”If you see a team like Australia, Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh and Michael Hussey, they all are treated as equals,” Mongia said. “It’s the performance that matters there, not the name. One thing has be to understood, when you are the boss, you have to give due importance to everybody. You can’t just concentrate on the big names and ignore the lesser players.”

England 286 for 6 (Vaughan 63, Strauss 43, Pietersen 42, Collingwood 41*, Martin 2-53, Vettori 2-60) trail New Zealand 470 by 184 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball commentary
How they were out

On a day that was the antithesis of Twenty20’s thrill-a-minute cricket, England’s progress was, at its most exciting, pedestrian and at times they almost ground to a halt. They closed on 286 for 6 with Paul Collingwood and Tim Ambrose well set, still 184 in arrears, and in 93 overs they managed only 199 runs. Is it any wonder that crowds for Tests in New Zealand are so poor?While England got dogged defence down to a fine art, they forgot that to defend successfully, you need to score runs as well. For almost an hour in the afternoon the run-rate hovered at around one an over. Incredibly, that was while Kevin Pietersen was at the crease. The result was that although New Zealand only took four wickets, their lead remains large enough that if they can bowl England out cheaply tomorrow and score quick runs, they will have at least a day for their bowlers to win the match.New Zealand bowled superbly until weariness took hold in the last hour. The seamers offered little, the spinners tormented the batsmen, and Daniel Vettori tightened the noose with intelligent field placing that choked England’s usually aggressive middle order.Resuming on 87 for 2, England pressed on for much of the morning as Michael Vaughan and Andrew Strauss made slow, steady and untroubled progress, and when Vaughan brought up his half-century with a deliberate steer to third man off Vettori, the chatter was all about how a draw was almost inevitable.Even when the breakthrough came from Jeetan Patel, it seemed only a brief hiccup. Patel, who visibly grew in confidence as the day progressed, found a modicum of turn outside off stump and Vaughan feathered a sharp chance through to Brendon McCullum behind the stumps. Three balls after lunch and Strauss fell, undone by a sublimely-flighted ball from Vettori which fizzed out of the footmarks outside off and ripped through a loose drive.Vettori then turned the screw. When not bowling himself, he placed his field to choke the batsmen’s strengths, especially when Pietersen was on strike, reducing one of the game’s great strokemakers to a plodding grafter. Pietersen thumped the third ball of his innings before lunch for a towering straight six; in the entire afternoon he managed 26 runs, and eight of those came off the last two overs of the session. It wasn’t until the brink of tea that he hit his second boundary.

Ian Bell, seemingly untroubled by the injury to his hand sustained on the first morning, never really settled, and with Pietersen rendered almost impotent, runs almost totally dried up – 56 came off 31 overs in the afternoon session. So effective were the spinners than Vettori delayed taking the new ball for almost an hour. When it did arrive, Kyle Mills nipped one back between bat and pad to bowl Bell, and the possibility of a follow-on, until then at the back of the mind, became a real possibility. Whether Vettori would have enforced it is another matter.Pietersen’s uncharacteristic vigil – he was at one stage given an ironic cheer for a single – ended soon after tea when a thin edge into his pads carried back to a diving Vettori, but as the shadows lengthened Collingwood and Ambrose finally started to hit out, their unbeaten seventh-wicket stand of 41 coming at heady two an over. The diminutive Ambrose showed no sign of nerves in his debut innings.England should have done enough to ensure that unless this pluperfect surface suddenly falls apart, this game will end in nothing other than stalemate. But watching the way Vettori and Patel whirled away in the afternoon, and imagining how many more questions they will ask on a wearing fifth-day pitch, it would be foolish to write New Zealand off quite yet.

The ECB is to look into the influx of South African players in the English county game.The bulk of those involved are playing by virtue of the Kolpak ruling, an EU loophole originally aimed at trade between the community and certain countries. The numbers have burgeoned since 2004, largely as a result of disenchantment at strict racial quotas in South Africa which have led to players looking to forge a career in England.The match between Northamptonshire and Leicestershire which started today highlighted the issue, with each side fielding five South Africans. Leicestershire also included a West Indian Kolpaker and an Australian playing under a UK passport, while Northamptonshire had an Irishman.David Smith, Leicestershire’s chairman, has defended his county’s position, explaining last week that the more experienced Kolpaks were being used to give his side backbone, enabling him to field up-and-coming English talent. But many have grown alarmed at the quantity of what are seen as cheap imports on county rosters.”There is great concern about what is happening,” an ECB source told the BBC. “The board will look at the situation of an almost doubling of non-English qualified players as a matter of urgency.”The ECB has tried to tackle the problem by imposing financial penalties. At present, if a county fields a Kolpak player they are deducted £1100 from their annual handout. But many counties have not been dissuaded by that and the numbers have continued to increase.At present, Kolpaks are limited to a few Caribbean countries, South Africa and Zimbabwe, but it is believed that there is a possibility that Australia and New Zealand could be included in the near future, opening the floodgates to even more Kolpak players.The ECB is unable under EU legislation to ban or impose limits on Kolpak players, although there are suggestions that the law could be reviewed as it was originally intended to apply to trade rather than labour.

The one remaining issue of the Division Two season was settled in the first hour of the day as Warwickshire secured the bonus points needed against Glamorgan for them to overhaul Worcestershire and clinch the title at Edgbaston.Glamorgan, a side whose finish to the summer on and off the field is taking on Devon Loch qualities, offered no fight once they had polished off the Warwickshire innings. Neil Carter continued the onslaught he started last night, so much so that another 21 runs had been added when Tim Ambrose was dismissed without adding to his overnight 86. Adam Shanty took two of the three wickets to fall to finish with 5 for 77.That left them needing three Glamorgan wickets, and they didn’t have to wait long as Chris Woakes tore through a flimsy top order. After removing Gareth Rees and Tom Maynard, the title was secured when Jonathan Trott caught Michael Powell, and the collapse continued as Glamorgan limped to 43 for 6. Jamie Dalrymple was the man to dig in, and his plucky 92 ensured there was no follow-on. He was last man out, caught at long-on as he tried for his hundred before running out of partners, falling to Woakes who finished with 6 for 68.Second time round, Warwickshire were, understandably, slightly less focussed, and as was the case yesterday, they lost early wickets to close on 55 for 3. The day was rounded off when Ian Salisbury was awarded the third county cap of his career, adding to the ones he gained at Sussex and Surrey.Middlesex made the most of a placid pitch at Wantage Road to amass 545 for 7 against Northamptonshire. Andrew Strauss fell early for 172, failing to beat his career-best score by five runs, but Owais Shah, 80 not out overnight, completed his hundred and then Eoin Morgan gorged himself in making an unbeaten 136. In the midst of plenty there was a rather unexpected mid-innings collapse as four wickets fell for 19, Ed Joyce, in probably his last innings for the county, making only 1, while Monty Panesar whirled away to finish with 5 for 143. Northamptonshire found things equally straightforward although their batsmen got themselves out after playing themselves in, and more application will be needed tomorrow if they are to avoid the follow-on. At the close, they were 128 for 3.Leicestershire’spolicy of fielding young England players among their Kolpaks is well documented, but it was Derbyshire’s 21-year-old Portsmouth-born offspinner Jake Needham who pulled his side back into the match at Grace Road. He took career-best figures of 6 for 49, and more impressively 5 for 24 after lunch, as Leicestershire slid from 152 for 4 to 208 all out, a lead of only 14. After that excitement the rest of a truncated day was fairly hard work for the Leicester diehards, Derbyshire grinding their way to 85 for 0 in 43 turgid overs on a pitch where the bounce remains variable.Essex were another side who decided to give they batsmen free rein on a flat pitch as they piled up 510 against Gloucestershire at Bristol. James Foster gave the selectors a nudge on the eve of them naming their Test squad for India with 122 while James Middlebrook chipped in with 75, the pair adding 107 for the seventh wicket. Gloucestershire were heartened by the performance of Rob Woodman who took a career-best 4 for 65 on his debut, but when it was their turn to bat, they found the going much harder. They slid to 49 for 3 in the 25th over, the umpires coming to their aid when they took the players off for bad light.