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ScorecardA battling unbeaten century by opener Khurram Manzoor kept Karachi Urban afloat against Mumbai as the hosts ended the third day of their Nissar Trophy tie still 284 behind the visitors’ mammoth first innings total of 623. Manzoor’s sixth-wicket partnership of 175 with Saeed Bin Nasir rescued the home team from a possible follow-on position after a shaky start.Resuming from an overnight total of 30 for 1, Karachi lost their second wicket in the fifth over of the day as Amin-ur-Rehman was trapped in front by Aavishkar Salvi for only 9. Asif Zakir did not last too long either as he edged an outswinger from Abhishek Nayar to be dismissed for 11. Hasan Raza, Karachi’s captain, and Asim Kamal, who has played 12 Tests for Pakistan, failed to provide any support to Manzoor and gave away their wickets cheaply as well. Raza was run out for 12 while Kamal could only manage 25.Nasir then joined Manzoor with half of Karachi’s side already back in the pavilion for only 163 runs. Their 175-run stand, off only 51 overs, brought some stability to the innings. Nasir, the more aggressive of the two, smashed 12 boundaries and looked all set for three figures before being run out on 92 three overs before stumps.Anwar Ali, more renowned for his bowling skills than batting, failed to protect his wicket and was the last man out on the third day. Manzoor, who faced 340 deliveries for his 167, will resume tomorrow with the tail, hoping to take as much strike as possible and ensure the match heads towards a draw.Nayar and Salvi picked up two wickets each while debutants Vikrant Yeligati and Iqbal Abdulla grabbed one each.

Sachin Tendulkar has returned to India following a successful operation on his right shoulder.He was assessed prior to leaving London by the surgeon, Dr Andrew Wallace, who was reported to be very happy with his progress to date. His stitches were removed prior to departure, and an initial management plan for recovery has been put in place.Following ten days of Phase 1 recovery, which is designed to allow the tissue to fully heal and bind, Tendulkar will begin to initiate more movement through light jogging and swimming, under the supervision of the team physio, John Gloster. It is expected that he should be able to pick up a bat by the beginning of May.

The MCC and the ECB will have urgent talks to discuss worries that Lord’s may lose one of its summer Tests in 2009, when the new staging agreements take hold.Lord’s has traditionally received two Tests each summer, owing to being the home of cricket and its grandeur, but with increasing competition from other grounds, there are worries that one of the two Tests may be in jeopardy.The MCC needs to make a good case to the ECB as to why they should continue to stage the amount of internationals that they do. Part of that will be capacity increases, which could be part of the redevelopment proposals.Iain Wilton, the head of communications and public affairs, confirmed to Cricinfo that imminent talks were planned, but said that the £100million rumoured to be the cost of the planned redevelopment was “entirely speculative” at this stage.He said: “The MCC Committee has yet to decide on how, for example, the ground’s capacity should be increased – or by how much. When it has developed its thinking further, the club’s first priority will be to consult its members.”Lord’s is not the only traditional ground to think about redevelopment amid worries of increasing competition. Earlier this week, Surrey unveiled plans to overhaul The Oval in a £35million revamp.

The Indian board (BCCI) has given its players the go-ahead to give a percentage of their prize money to the Federation of International Cricketers (FICA) after Rahul Dravid reportedly wrote to the board last week seeking its permission to do the same.”We have told the ICC that we will distribute the entire prize money among the players,” Prof Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI’s Chief Administrative Officer, told the . “After that, it is up to the players to do as they wish with that money. All we are concerned about is that we cannot transfer the money to FICA on players’ behalf.”Shetty said that the board would not act as an intermediary since it was not affiliated to the FICA. “The players will have to do it themselves,” he said. “We have our players’ association which tackles players’ issues. So I am not sure whether this initiative will really take the players’ movement forward.”

A fire believed to have been caused by workers’ welding torches has caused an estimated A$50,000 damage to the Melbourne Cricket Ground.The fire, which was soon put out by Melbourne’s Metropolitan Fire Brigade, damaged a small area of seating in a new stand under construction, as well as window panels and a section of the roof.”It could have been a lot worse,” a spokesman for the fire brigade said. “Our crews arrived four or five minutes after the fire and quickly got a couple of lines on and got it under control very quickly. The roof is damaged. Not majorly, but there is quite a bit of damage.”Up to 300 workers and other staff were evacuated from the ground while the fire was put out.

The Gloucestershire quick bowler Steve Kirby has been found guilty of altering the condition of the ball during the County Championship match against Glamorgan, at Cardiff, on May 8, and given a suspended three-day ban from all ECB cricket.An ECB disciplinary hearing was held a Bristol today to consider the two separate allegations that Kirby knowingly and deliberately rubbed the ball on concrete and tarmac after it was hit into the car park.The panel, which included the former Warwickshire seamer Tim Munton, found enough evidence to prove both charges and imposed the three-day suspension, which itself will be suspended until September 30, 2005 providing Kirby doesn’t commit any futher offences.Kirby issued a statement through the PCA and said: “I understand that I was in breach of Law 42.3 (b) but I am an honest player who has never intentionally altered the condition of the ball and I never will. I’m looking forward to putting this issue behind me, and concentrating on getting back on the field for Gloucestershire.”His sentiments were echoed by his employers. “We note that the penalty imposed is at the bottom end of the scale,” said Tom Richardson, Gloucestershire’s chief executive. “We are a team that always takes pride in playing within the rules, we are glad that a line has now been drawn under this affair and we now wish to move on”.PCA chief executive Richard Bevan commented: “The umpires are duty bound to change the ball as set out in Law 42.3 (d) (i), if the condition of the ball has been altered, as was alleged of Steve Kirby in Law 42.3 (b). According to the umpires report, there was no clear evidence that the match ball had been tampered with and the match ball was not changed.”Normally, interfering with the ball would be considered a very serious offence which would attract the maximum penalties a panel could impose. However, in arriving at its decision, the panel was not satisfied that on either occasion damaged was caused to the ball which materially altered its condition. Kirby was ordered to pay £125 towards the costs of the hearing.

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

Parsimonious spells from Prosper Utseya and Hamilton Masakadza combined with Gregory Strydom’s hard-hitting fifty powered Zimbabwe to victory in the fourth one-day international against Bangladesh at Harare. This was Zimbabwe’s 12th series win since their entry into the international fold in 1983 and their fourth in a bilateral series against Bangladesh.Zimbabwe outperformed Bangladesh in all departments to win the series with a match to spare – their spinners restricted Bangladesh to 206 for 9 before Vusi Sibanda and Strydom marshalled the run-chase superbly to achieve the target in the 42nd over. Despite winning the toss for the first time in the series, Bangladesh got off to another poor start. In earlier games they lost their first wicket for 15, 17 and 4; today they managed 21 before Rajin Saleh, who replaced the out-of-form Javed Omar, pushed one straight to Stuart Matsikenyeri off Ed Rainsford.There was a brief revival as Aftab Ahmed flung his bat around. Having scored 40 off 24 balls and 53 off 39 in his last two games, Aftab smashed four fours off Rainsford in the 11th over. However, the rush of blood eventually worked in Zimbabwe’s favour and Aftab’s innings ended on 27. Bangladesh had added 52 in 44 balls during Aftab’s stay and his dismissal in the 15th over prompted Utseya to take the third Powerplay immediately.Shahriar Nafees had played a steady hand at the other end after surviving a testy spell from Anthony Ireland. However, it was his indiscretion – ball-watching in the direction of mid-off – that led to Mohammad Ashraful’s run-out. Thereafter Utseya and Masakadza took centre stage. Utseya, fast aquiring a reputation for his miserliness as explained in S Rajesh’s Numbers Game, started uncharacteristically with a short and wide long-hop that Ashraful promptly cut for four. Thereafter normal service resumed. Overs zipped by in double-quick time and runs came at a trickle. Utseya compounded Bangladesh’s woes when Alok Kapali lobbed a tame shot to midwicket.Zimbabwe struck a body blow when Masakadza breached Nafees’s defences. He finished with 2 for 36, Utseya 2 for 25 and Stuart Matsikenyeri none for 18 after five overs. Between them they had conceded just two boundaries between the 20th and the 38th over – a period in which Bangladesh managed only 61. Farhad Reza had just struck a six when he was wretchedly stranded a few balls later. Such was the nature of Bangladesh’s effort. There were several spurts of intent but they were just that – spurts, as they allowed Zimbabwe to make frequent inroads.

Zimbabwe got off to a perfect start in a crucial run-chase. Sibanda and Duffin bucked the trend of poor opening partnerships by putting on 57 runs – the highest first-wicket stand in the series for both sides. Instead of approaching the target cautiously, both openers took on the opening bowlers – Shahadat Hossain and Mashrafe Mortaza – at every possible opportunity. The batsmen took turns at finding the fence and Hossain, the hat-trick hero of the previous game, leaked 26 runs in his first three overs. Bangladesh could ill afford runs to flow at such a pace – 43 had come off the first seven overs – and Khaled Mashud was forced to try Abdur Razzak’s left-arm spin as early as the eighth over. The drop in the run-rate that followed was dramatic.The first Powerplay had yielded 50 runs off ten overs but Zimbabwe struggled to score 12 runs off five in the second Powerplay. Both batsmen were clueless against Razzak and Mohammad Rafique who induced an edge from Duffin off his second ball. Sibanda, however, survived tense moments against the spinners and found his groove again in the company of Strydom.Strydom muscled his first few boundaries to get going and, once settled, took charge after Sibanda’s departure. He kept the runs flowing with regular boundaries and brought up his first ODI fifty – of 47 balls – with a lofted hit in front of square. By the time he fell, to a leading edge, Zimbabwe were on the threshold of victory. If Bangladesh thought they had a flicker of hope, it was quickly stubbed out by Matsikenyeri and Brendan Taylor, who fittingly sealed the series with another massive six over wide long-on.

BangladeshRajin Saleh c Matsikenyeri b Rainsford 11 (21 for 1)
Aftab Ahmed c Utseya b Masakadza 27 (73 for 2)
Mohammad Ashraful run out Duffin 6 (82 for 3)
Alok Kaplai c Sibanda c Utseya 10 (102 for 4)
Shahriar Nafees b Masakadza 45 (137 for 5)
Farhad Reza run out Utseya 30 (157 for 6)
Mohammad Rafique c Sibanda b Utseya (160 for 7)
Khaled Mashud c Rainsford b Ieland (190 for 8)
Mashrafe Mortaza b Ed Rainsford 23 (197 for 9)
ZimbabweTerry Duffin c Mashud b Rafique 24 (57 for 1)
Vusi Sibanda b Reza 46 (91 for 2)
Hamilton Masakadza retired hurt 19 (156 for 2)
Gregory Strydom c Ashraful b Razzak 58 (159 for 3)

Despite Sourav Ganguly’s plea that his ongoing spat with coach Greg Chappell should remain between the two men involved, his team mate, Harbhajan Singh, has spoken out in support of his captain – and accused Chappell of instilling “fear and insecurity” among the players. Ganguly’s team mates have remained understandably quiet – until now: Harbhajan is the first player to voice his opinion.Speaking to PTI, he urged that the controversy would reach its conclusion as soon as possible. “Whenever any controversy surrounds the team, the performance of team is adversely affected,” he said.”It will be good for the team if the controversy is immediately resolved so that every player can concentrate on his game instead of getting mental tension.”And Harbhajan denied the accusation that Ganguly wasn’t fit to captain the side, adding “…it may be the coach’s [Chappell’s] own observation but, as far as I am concerned, Ganguly has been proved as an excellent captain, which is evident from his match winning record.”The spinner also dismissed the notion that Ganguly was only interested in captaincy and creating difficulty among team members. “I have played for almost five years under the captaincy of Ganguly and never felt like that,” he insisted. “In fact, he takes personal interest to boost each and every player during practice as well as during a match.”Ganguly has rebuilt this team and whatever the team has achieved so far, credit goes to the captain.”

Vikram Solanki held up Warwickshire for a further 85 minutes today as Worcestershire topped 300 in a first innings at New Road for the first time this season.Solanki is a batsman who cashes in on his big innings. Resuming on 113 – thed ninth first-class century of his career – he went on to pass 150 for the seventh time.Three fours off Graeme Welch in the sixth over put him back in the groove but overnight partner Steve Rhodes was content to plod along with only five in the first hour.Solanki eventually collected 25 boundaries to reach 160 in 311 minues before a loose drive off Dougie Brown flew straight to substitute Stuart Eustace at mid-off.Rhodes contributed 28 to a partnership of 112 in 34 overs and added only 25 in 135 minutes this morning to reach 45 in a lunch total of 311 for six.

Sambit Bal on India’s Test match squad for West Indies
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Streaming Audio: WMATeam selection is one issue that always sparks off discussion. On Wednesday, India named their team for the Test matches that will begin in West Indies in early June. Ramesh Powar and Suresh Raina have been picked after their impressive performances in the one-day internationals. VRV Singh, the Punjab fast bowler, and Dinesh Karthik, the Tamil Nadu wicketkeeper, have also been included in the squad.Should Ajit Agarkar, who has bowled so well in the ODIs, have been included for the Tests? Are India one short of a specialist opener? To answer these questions and more we catch up with Sambit Bal, Cricinfo’s editor.Download MP3 (right click and select “save target as”)
Streaming Audio: WMA