All posts by csb10.top

The following media release has been issued by the ICC, through the tournament’s media relations manager. It aims to clarify what can and cannot be taken in to venuesWhy have certain items been prohibited and restricted from being taken into the stadia?
The safety and security of everyone at the stadia on Match Day is of paramount importance. Fans must be able to enjoy the game in the safest and most comfortable surroundings. Likewise those who are working at the venue must be able to do so in similar circumstances.What are the Prohibited items for ICC CWC 2007?
They are:
Firearms, knives, dangerous and imitation weapons
Explosives, incendiary devices, fireworks and flares
Alcohol, illegal drugs or narcotics
Cans, tins, or PET (plastic) bottles of any size or description, other than insect repellent or sun screen
Mace or pepper spray
Megaphones, compressed air or gas-operated horns
Flag polesWhat are the Restricted items for ICC CWC 2007?
A: They are:
Aerosol cans – which are not permitted, other than those containing deodorant, prescription medication or insect repellent
Animals – only guide-dogs permitted
Bands and musical instruments – which are permitted with written permission from the appropriate Local Organising Committee
Banners & flags – which are permitted up to a maximum size of 1.5 x 1m (5′ x 3′) provided that, in the opinion of CWC 2007, they are not vulgar, political, racial, discriminatory, sexual in nature, or display advertising which may in any way impinge or will be in conflict with the rights of the partners/sponsors/suppliers/vendors of the event (in any language) or deemed to be offensive to other spectators
Cooler boxes – these are permitted provided they are not larger than 12″X12″x12″; must be soft and collapsible; no hard or rigid cooler boxes of any size are permitted
Glass containers – are not permitted, other than those containing perfume, prescription medication or insect repellent
Radios – small transistor radios with ear – or headphones are permitted
Umbrellas – only collapsible personal umbrellas are permitted. Large umbrellas (e.g. golf, beach) are not permitted
Any other objects or items or substances that may be deemed in the discretion of ICC CWC WI 2007 Inc. to be offensive, disruptive, dangerous or likely to infringe any party’s rights or any party’s safety or security or any dangerous article or substance not referred to above.What’s the difference in the two lists – those things which are prohibited and those which are restricted?
Prohibited items cannot be taken into a stadium at all – unless officially authorised – while restricted items can be taken in under various conditions. A number of items on the prohibited line-up are customarily banned for air travel and at world-games events, such as the Olympics, and therefore the public would be familiar with many of them, including weapons, firearms, explosives and alcohol.In the latter case, there is an ICC policy which prevents alcohol from being brought into any ICC match, which has been in effect for some time and was implemented in the Caribbean during last year’s home series. As a Full Member of ICC, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) must abide with this regulation.Alcohol is sold by concessionaires within the grounds.Why have flag poles been banned when they have been allowed in the past?
What’s important to note here is that, while flag poles are not allowed, flags of a particular dimension are permitted to be brought into a stadium and CWC welcomes that. It adds to the atmosphere to see fans openly supporting their respective teams. Flags can be a maximum size of 1.5 x 1 metres or 5 ft x 3 ft each.However flags on poles could disrupt the view of other spectators and the poles themselves are potentially dangerous and can cause an obstruction.Is it true that fans cannot bring coolers to CWC matches?
No, this is not true. Coolers are a restricted item – not prohibited. Fans can bring them once they adhere to the relevant guidelines. Coolers must be soft and collapsible and a maximum size of 12″X12″x12″.They can contain food, fruit, snacks etc. and provided they don’t bring in glass containers or tins or PET bottles, drinks too. It should also be noted that water can be brought in a PET bottle provided the top is removed.These types of coolers are acceptable as they will be able to fit under seats and not impede anyone walking through rows of seats.What about umbrellas, can they be brought to CWC matches?
Collapsible, personal umbrellas can be brought. However, large umbrellas – for example, beach umbrellas – cannot be brought to CWC matches.Is it true that musical instruments cannot be brought to CWC matches?
Musical instruments and items of cultural expression – such as conch shells and shak-shaks – can be taken to CWC matches as long as persons secure permission the Local Organising Committees (LOC).Anyone who wants to take any musical instrument to a CWC match must get written permission from the LOC in the Host Venue where the particular match is being played.Has the enforcement of the list of Prohibited & Restricted Items affect the traditional atmosphere at CWC matches across the Caribbean?
To date those in attendance at matches have definitely created the usual party atmosphere. There are thousands of people at each match and it is important, especially in such a crowded and festive environment, that the necessary precautions are taken to ensure maximum safety and security for all patrons.How can fans find out more about the Prohibited & Restricted Items?
Fans can contact the Local Organising Committees in the Host Venues. The list is also available at Ticket Centres and is displayed at the grounds. In addition, the list is included in packages containing match tickets so that persons attending CWC games will be able to become familiar with the regulations. –Editors note:
The official name of the tournament is the “ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007”. The following versions of the Event name are also acceptable:
ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 (preferred use)
ICC Cricket World Cup
ICC CWC 2007 (in prose or paragraph context only)
CWC 2007 (in prose or paragraph context only)

Scorecard

Wickets continued to tumble in Siliguri as Debasis Mohanty and Preetamjit Das, Orissa’s new-ball bowlers, shot Bengal out for 124 in the second innings to give their side a great chance of an outright win. Orissa had conceded an eight-run lead, in a low-scoring battle, but fought back splendidly in the second innings. Mohanty added four wickets to the two he had picked up in the first innings and Preetamjit, in just his fifth first-class match, ended with five for the match. For Bengal only Arindam Das, Sourav Sarkar, the bowling hero in the first innings, and Ashok Dinda, the No.11, managed double figures. Left to get 133, Orissa were solidly placed at 82 for 3 with Bikas Pati, Niranjan Behera, and Rashmi Ranjan Parida steering the chase. With 51 runs to get and seven wickets in hand, Orissa were favourites to wrap up their second successive win.
Scorecard
Bowlers thrived in Uppal too as MP Arjun’s stunning six-wicket burst allowed Hyderabad to storm back into the contest against Andhra. Resuming on 52 for 5, Hyderabad fell short of Andhra’s 159, with captain Arjun Yadav playing a lone hand with 49. Having gained a 27-run lead, Andhra would have wished to close out the contest but medium-pacer Arjun, in only his sixth first-class match, claimed all the wickets to fall. He trapped Hemal Watekar in his third over but it was really his next, the eighth of the innings, which wrecked Andhra’s innings. He bowled ASK Varma for a duck in the third ball before nailing AG Pradeep and Shankara Rao off the fifth and sixth deliveries.
Scorecard
Saurashtra’s new-ball bowler Sandeep Jobanputra, scythed through Karnataka’s batting line-up with a six-wicket haul, giving his side a great chance to gain the first-innings lead in Mysore. Having ground out 245 in the first innings, Saurashtra responded through their bowlers, striking at regular intervals. Jobanputra removed the top four, including the dangerous Robin Uthappa, before returning to knock off two tailenders. KB Pawan waged a lone battle, grinding out 110, and was still out in the middle with No.11 KP Appanna. Karnataka still needed 29 to gain the first-innings lead but Saurashtra should be favourites to gain the advantage.
Scorecard
Oblivious to the bowler-friendly matches around the country, Punjab amassed 496 for 8 by the end of the second day against Baroda in Amritsar. Ravi Inder, one of the overnight batsmen, brought up his maiden century, going on to post 142, while the rest of the order chipped in too. Karan Goel, who had brought up his century yesterday, fell for 127 in the fifth over of the day but Sunny Sohal, who smashed a 64-ball 55, and Ankur Kakkar (56) continued the good work. Baroda’s bowlers managed only eight wickets in two days with Sumit Singh and Sankalp Vohra, the opening bowlers, sharing five wickets between them.
Scorecard
Ramesh Powar’s four wickets pegged back Rajasthan on the second day’s play in Jhalawar, allowing Mumbai to eye an outright win. Having been kept down to 295 in their first innings, Mumbai fought back through Powar’s offspin, claiming wickets at regular intervals. Rajesh Bishnoi and Nikhil Doru managed half-centuries but Rajasthan couldn’t sustain the fight.
ScorecardVijaykumar Yomahesh and P Amarnath snared six wickets between them as Tamil Nadu sneaked out a slender 11-run lead against Himachal Pradesh in Chennai. Paras Dogra (49) and Manvinder Bisla (61) powered Himachal forward, with good support from Sarandeep Singh and Vishal Bhatia in the lower order, but Yomahesh broke the partnership and mopped up the tail.
ScorecardAakash Chopra and Mithun Manhas struck half-centuries as Delhi gained the advantage in Nagothane. Read the full report here.

The D’Artagnan of world cricket is the apt phrase employed by former New Zealand captain Walter Hadlee to describe the renowned English batsman Denis Compton, whose life’s innings has ended at 78.Hadlee first crossed swords of willow with Compton 60 years ago, and the association was resumed on New Zealand’s memorable 1949 tour and twice on English team visits here. “It was almost impossible to set a field for Denis Compton,” said Hadlee. “I found I could set tight fields for Hutton, Washbrook, and Edrich, but Denis confounded us because he was so innovative. He would shape up towards cover, and then sweep the ball to fine leg. He was a delight to be on the field with, and we were always sorry to get him out.”Compton was the first of the post-war sports stars, and his brilliant batting for Middlesex and England did much to restore public spirits ravaged by the global conflict. In his golden summer, 1947, he made 3800 runs, including 18 centuries, and shared many big partnerships with Bill Edrich. “The wonder of it is that he scored all those runs with just one bat,” said Hadlee. “I have seen that bat, and there were no marks down the edges – just criss-cross marks across the face.”For all his fluency of stroke, Compton had one flaw as a batsman – he was a poor runner between the wickets. In fact, when he called for a run it was usually the basis for negotiation,according to a county colleague. “He might well have been the originator of the ‘yes-no-come-wait-sorry’ call,” chuckled Hadlee. There is a story that Denis ran out his brother Leslie in the latter’s benefit match.Compton was also inclined to be forgetful. In 1949 he arrived at the Oval for the fourth Test and discovered he was minus his cricket boots. So he fielded in sandshoes. Experienced Canterbury left-arm spinner Tom Burtt claimed Compton’s wicket five times, but, as Hadlee recalled, “after he got 100 anyone could get him.”He was England’s youngest cap when he was chosen for his Test debut, against New Zealand, in the third 1937 match at the Oval. Although only 19, he batted with assurance and was unlucky to be dismissed on 65.”Joe Hardstaff, batting at the other end, drove a ball which glanced off Giff Vivian’s fingers and on to the stumps,” said Hadlee. “Compton, backing up, was caught out of his crease.”The exceptional Englishman scored centuries in both the first and second Tests against New Zealand in 1949, plus a scintillating 148 for Middlesex against the tourists. Twice he played Tests on Lancaster Park, one in 1947 and the other in 1951, when he scored 79, and added to his reputation for affability by cheerfully signing autographs when fielding on the boundary.In the field he was fast, with a good throw, although bad knees slowed him down later. He had a sharp eye in the slips, but could field well anywhere.A more than useful left-arm bowler, he often broke a difficult partnership with a Chinaman or a wrong’un.Walter Hadlee remembers Compton as a man forthright in his views, but nonchalant and easy-going of demeanour. “He was a very special man,” he said.

Mahela Jayawardene had no excuses after a shoddy performance with both batand ball that cost Sri Lanka the chance to win a bilateral series in Indiafor the first time. With the exception of Chamara Silva, no other batsmancrossed 28, and the Indians overhauled the 260-run target with ridiculousease as the shadows started to spread across the lush green outfield.Having taken a 1-0 lead in the series after a tense win at Rajkot, SriLanka batted poorly both at Goa and Visakhapatnam to hand India victory.”A lot of things went wrong, not just one,” said Jayawardene, when askedto assess a performance that he’ll hope has little bearing on the WorldCup encounter between the two sides on March 23. “Losing a lot of wicketsearly on was one of them. We knew the pitch was very good, and we probablyneeded 275 or 280 or even more. We knew there would be a little bit ofmovement early on, but we survived that. Then we lost wickets.”Having slumped to 56 for 4, Sri Lanka recovered to post 259 thanks largelyto the efforts of one man. “The only bright spot from the whole match wasChamara Silva,” said Jayawardene. “I thought he batted really well, with acouple of other guys chipping in.”Silva made a superb run-a-ball 107 in his first outing of the series,showing the sort of form that inspired Sri Lanka to a famous Test win atWellington last December. When asked if there had been a temptation toplay him earlier in the series, Jayawardene said: “Obviously, we wanted toplay him in at least two games. But unfortunately, the first game waswashed out, and our middle order couldn’t get a bat. We tried to givethose guys a couple of games, and also make sure that every top-order guygot a hit. We always knew the talent that he possesses, and the way hebatted in New Zealand. It’s brilliant to see the way he batted, and itgives us confidence for the World Cup.”Having put a competitive total on the board, Sri Lanka then let the gameslip with some woeful new-ball bowling. Farveez Maharoof started the rotwith a 10-ball first over, and though both Lasith Malinga and DilharaFernando were immensely quick, the radar was never switched on. “Onceagain, we didn’t start well with the new ball,” said Jayawardene.”Defending a total like 260 on a pitch like that, it’s crucial that we getearly wickets with the new ball, which we didn’t do. We bowled both sidesof the wicket, and too many wides and no-balls. We had no momentum fromthat point onwards. We played some poor cricket today, and India playedsome really good cricket.”If you have to control the Indian batting line-up, you have to do wellwith the new ball. You have to hit the right areas, which we didn’t. Ifyou take the whole series, we weren’t very consistent with the new ball.We gave away momentum and were always fighting to get back into the game.”

He himself was as culpable as any on the batting front, with an awfulheave that extended a fallow run without a 50 to 17 games. Consideringthat he had two centuries while averaging over 53 in the 16 games prior tothat, Jayawardene’s form is one of the team’s prime concerns heading tothe Caribbean. “Personally, I’m very disappointed with the way I’ve beenbatting the last couple of months,” he said. “I want to contribute to theteam, and I haven’t been able to do that. I’ve been hitting the ballpretty well in practice, but not spending time out in the middle.”It can’t be overlooked that Sri Lanka played this series without their twomost experienced bowlers, but for Jayawardene, that was no excuse. “Thelast time we came here, Vaasy played a few games, and so did Murali,” hesaid, referring to the series in 2005 when Sri Lanka were thumped 6-1. “Wealways knew it would be a tough task on Indian pitches. But these guyswill learn by playing on different surfaces. They didn’t bowl that well,but will learn from the experience. It’s good that the full squad isgetting prepared for the World Cup, and not just a few guys.”Though he was clearly disappointed with another poor top-order show,Jayawardene was pretty impressed by the manner in which India’s bowlersacquitted themselves on surfaces that were largely batsmen-friendly.”Throughout the tournament, the Indian bowlers did well with the newball,” he said. “To be fair to our guys, I thought they [the Indians] gotthe better of the conditions. The wickets had some moisture and were moreconducive [in the morning], but you can’t take credit away from them.”Our batting also contributed [to the defeat]. We played some really looseshots today and threw a couple of wickets away in tight situations. We hada poor game, you have to put your hand up and take responsibility forthat.”By contrast, India’s batsmen breezed past the target in just 41 overs,with Yuvraj Singh’s fabulous unbeaten 95 and Robin Uthappa’s breezy35-ball 52 providing most of the impetus. “Robin had the advantage ofbatting in the Power Plays,” said Jayawardene when asked to assess the twoknocks. “Yuvi had to play the spinners with the field out. We were tryingto attack and take wickets, and they had the opportunity to score freely.Both batted really well in different situations.”Unless Bangladesh play out of their skins in the Caribbean, these twosides will be tussling for top spot in their World Cup group. “It’s agreat combination with a lot of experience, and they’ll be toughopposition,” said Jayawardene, when asked about the Indians. “Obviously,playing in India, they cherish the atmosphere and you could see thattoday. But come the World Cup, it’ll be a different atmospherealtogether.”With a formidable Australian side suffering an almighty injury-hit wobblein the lead-up to D-day, both India and Sri Lanka, strengthened by theaddition of Vaas and Murali, will journey to the Caribbean with more thana smidgen of hope in the hearts. And on foreign fields halfway across theglobe, both will need to replicate the form that they habitually show onthe green, green grass of home.

Victoria have been boosted by the inclusion of Brad Hodge and Mick Lewis in their 12-man squad for the Ford Ranger Cup match against New South Wales at the MCG on Wednesday. But the Bushrangers will be without Shane Harwood, who is expected to miss two to three weeks with a calf injury.Hodge has recovered from a quadriceps strain and Lewis from a hip muscle injury. Both found form immediately upon their return in the Pura Cup game that finished on Monday, with Lewis claiming eight wickets and Hodge scoring 88. Grant Lindsay has been omitted from the one-day team.New South Wales have named Matthew Nicholson and Aaron O’Brien in their squad, while Jason Krejza and Aaron Bird, who has been reported for a suspect bowling action, have been left out.Victoria pulled off a remarkable win when the two sides met at Canberra last Sunday, thanks to centuries from Cameron White and Michael Klinger. Both sides have three wins this season and victory on Wednesday will put one state a step closer to catching competition leaders Queensland.Victoria squad Michael Klinger, Jon Moss, Brad Hodge, Cameron White (capt), David Hussey, Aiden Blizzard, Rob Quiney, Andrew McDonald, Adam Crosthwaite (wk), Clinton McKay, Mick Lewis, Darren Pattinson.New South Wales squad Phil Jaques, Ed Cowan, Simon Katich (capt), Brad Haddin (wk), Daniel Christian, Dominic Thornely, Aaron O’Brien, David Warner, Nathan Hauritz, Matthew Nicholson, Nathan Bracken, Scott Coyte.

Garfield Sobers, Everton Weekes and Brian Lara led a list of outstanding past and present Test players who paid their final respects to Clyde Walcott on Saturday. Walcott was one of the most famous and revered West Indian cricketers, and several of those he played with, managed, and gave advice to, attended the funeral service at St Mary’s Church.Sir Clifford Husbands, the governor general, and Owen Arthur, the prime minister, topped the dignitaries who also included cabinet ministers Anthony Wood and Jerome Walcott. The congregation also included knights, Sir Richard Cheltenham, Sir Douglas Lynch, Sir Carlyle Burton, and prominent businessmen Geoffrey Cave, David Bynoe, and David Deane.Predictably, though, cricketers, some of them carrying bats, and administrators took centre-stage and formed their own team. These included Desmond Haynes, Robin Bynoe, Cammie Smith, Wes Hall, Joel Garner, Wayne Daniel, Richard Prof Edwards, Seymour Nurse, Stephen Camacho, Peter Lashley, Rawle Brancker, Lance Gibbs and David Holford were all present. Captain Peter Short and Owen Estwick were on hand to ensure that the administration was in order.Walcott managed Barbados youth teams in the 1970s and the two high-scoring schoolboys of that period, Winslow Ashby and Ricky Craig, were in attendance along with Emmerson Trotman, who is wrapping up a three-week holiday here.Gibbs, the first spin bowler to take 300 Test wickets, said no praise could be too high for Walcott. “Sir Clyde and I go a long way back. He was the best man at my wedding. He completely destroyed the myth that great cricketers can’t be great administrators,” said Gibbs. “Jeff Stollmeyer, Allan Rae and Wes Hall have also proven that. I personally think that most of our top cricketers should be associated with the board, so that we would be able in inculcate some of the habits of the great players.”Gibbs noted that outside of the former Test players, the attendance was disappointing. “If something of this nature had happened in India, England, or Australia, if one of their top men had passed away, all of the young players would have been there. West Indians are not very supportive. I thought I would have seen more of the young cricketers because I am sure that Sir Clyde at Spartan must have passed on knowledge to some of the fellas. It was mostly former West Indies players in attendance.””For example, autograph seekers are always around in England, Australia, and on the subcontinent. They stay outside of your room for days just to get an autograph. You don’t see that happening in the Caribbean. People tend to forget you in the Caribbean when you have finished playing.”Walcott, who passed away last week at the age of 80, played 44 Tests and scored 15 centuries, a record five in a single series against Australia in the 1955 home series.

Match facts

Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Start time: 2000 (local) 1430 (GMT)

The Big Picture

The Deccan Chargers’ powerful batting line-up will quickly want to forget their experience on a volatile Eden Gardens surface, as they prepare to take on a confident Delhi Daredevils outfit at their home base, the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal. Hyderabad will be keen to live up to their billing as one of the title favourites, but Delhi are no pushovers, and are riding on the confidence gained from their nine-wicket mauling of the Rajasthan Royals at home.After Sunday’s match, the pitch will be under scrutiny, but Kanwaljit Singh, Hyderabad’s assistant coach, felt there were no worries of a repeat act. “It will be a fair wicket, and will be good for batting,” Kanwaljit told Cricinfo, suggesting it would not be as “disastrous” as the Kolkata minefield.

Watch out for …

… a closely-fought contest. Hyderabad will be banking on their batting as they head into the contest. Andrew Symonds is the team’s fulcrum, and his only previous outing at the ground fetched him rich dividends – he hammered 89 in Australia’s 47-run win over India in the ODI last year. Adam Gilchrist showed brief glimpses of his touch in Hyderabad’s opening match, and could make a real impact. Additional reinforcements come in the form of two big hitters, Herschelle Gibbs and Shahid Afridi, whose all-round prowess makes him a shoo-in for the game.Delhi have weapons of their own; Gautam Gambhir’s reputation grows with every outing, and he will be taking first-strike alongside the aggressive Virender Sehwag. Shoaib Malik can also clear the field with ease, while Dinesh Karthik can improvise effectively. Among the lesser-known names in the team, Shikhar Dhawan has displayed his attacking instincts in the domestic circuit, and looked solid at the crease during his unbeaten half-century in their first game. Besides, Delhi’s bowlers had a good outing against Rajasthan: Glenn McGrath showed he had not lost his famed accuracy, while Farveez Maharoof claimed the Man-of-the-Match award for his figures of 2 for 11. And to top it all off, they have the quality left-arm spin of Daniel Vettori at their disposal

Team news

Delhi will be bolstered by the arrivals of Malik and Mohammad Asif, but that in turn gives them a selection headache as they can only select four foreign players. They used four overseas bowlers in their opening match, and Brett Geeves, who conceded 41 runs without taking a wicket, is likely to make way for Malik.Delhi: (probable) 1 Gautam Gambhir 2 Virender Sehwag (capt) 3 Shikhar Dhawan 4 Shoaib Malik 5 Manoj Tiwary 6 Dinesh Karthik (wk) 7 Rajat Bhatia 8 Mithun Manhas 9 Daniel Vettori 10 Farveez Maharoof 11 Glenn McGrath.Hyderabad now have the full mix of their buys to choose from, and Chaminda Vaas might stand to miss out if the think-tank decide to go full throttle on the batting front. It is unlikely that any other changes will be made in the squad, though Hyderabad may need to be bold and reward promise instead of experience by bringing in young Ravi Teja instead of Arjun Yadav, who has an average of 22.50 from 60 List A games.Hyderabad: (probable) 1 Adam Gilchrist (wk) 2 Venugopal Rao 3 VVS Laxman (capt) 4 Andrew Symonds 5 Rohit Sharma 6 Scott Styris 7 Shahid Afridi 8 Arjun Yadav 9 Sanjay Bangar 10 RP Singh 11 Pragyan Ojha.

Stats and trivia

Scorecard

Pakistan made the most of their only warm-up game ahead of the five-match ODI series against India by easing to a seven-wicket win over Delhi at the Feroz Shah Kotla. Shoaib Malik’s decision to exploit conditions suited for swing movement worked in his favour, as his bowlers, inspired by surprise package Younis Khan, restricted Delhi to 213 for 9. Salman Butt then led the chase with a stylishly brisk 83 before he retired hurt, but the middle order knocked off the runs with 44 balls remaining.Umar Gul dealt the first blow when he had Gautam Gambhir caught in his crease in the second over, but it was Younis, bowling gentle slow-medium pace, who extracted good swing and shocked Delhi. Younis trapped opener Aakash Chopra leg-before for a 42-ball 16 and bowled captain Mithun Manhas first ball with one that pitched and came in. Imran Nazir ran out Virat Kohli for 8 and the hosts were 46 for 4.Delhi rallied around a 91-run fifth-wicket partnership between Rajat Bhatia and Shikhar Dhawan but a slew of wickets down the order brought the visitors right back into the game. Dhawan was watchful but confident, and looked set for a big score when Younis hit back to run him out for 52 from 80 balls. From here the spinners, Fawad Alam and Shahid Afridi, nipped out the lower order. Bhatia played the fast bowlers well, hooking and cutting Shoaib Akhtar for powerful boundaries. He was run out going for a suicidal single to short third man and it was left to Gaurav Chabra’s slogging to get the score above 200.In reply, Nazir slammed 34 from 22 balls even as out-of-form wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal endured another poor score. After Nazir was removed by Amit Bhandari, the medium-pacer with national experience, Butt and Misbah-ul-Haq added 116. Butt, who did not play any of Pakistan’s five ODIs against South Africa recently, was strong either side of the pitch. His cutting and driving were especially good, and he opened up with a flurry of boundaries against the medium-pacers.He did not slow down much after his half-century but left the field when on 83 from 84 balls. With victory in sight Misbah drove Pradeep Sangwan towards mid-off, where Gambhir plucked off an excellent catch, diving backwards to his right as the ball was passing him. Yasir Hameed finished the affair with an unbeaten 30 as Pakistan cashed in on their only chance to acclimatise themselves before the first one-dayer in Guwahati on Monday.

Match abandoned
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsThe rain left the outfield too wet for play at McLean Park•AFP

The second ODI, in Napier, was abandoned without a ball being bowled, after heavy rain persisted until mid afternoon, and left the ground too sodden for play to begin. The skies had begun to clear well ahead of the game’s cut-off time of 7:19 pm, but with the outfield having received more than 24 hours of persistent rain, umpires Billy Bowden and Bruce Oxenford decided not to risk player safety.The game was called off just before 6:30pm. At that time, portions of the field still appeared waterlogged despite hours of drying withsuper soppers. Pakistan can now only draw the series at best, as the action moves to Auckland, for the final match of the tour, on Sunday.

Brett Lee is hopeful that the ankle trouble that forced him to miss the World Cup will help him play at the highest level for longer. Lee expects to be bowling within two months and hopes to play in Australia’s Twenty20 World Cup campaign in September.”Having a bit of a layoff is good for the body,” he told . “I’ve missed a little bit of time with cricket. I had 19 months when I was on the sideline carrying the drinks [in 2004-05], and now this. Although I’m 30 I still feel like I’m 27 as far as bowling age. The body still feels really young.”Lee injured his ankle while training during the Chappell-Hadlee Series in New Zealand in February and underwent surgery to remove bone fragments and scar tissue from his ankle and have his ligaments reattached. “The ankle’s good – it’s been about three weeks since the operation now and it’s full steam ahead,” Lee said in .”I’m back doing cardio work, I’m not back running as yet, that will be early next month. In July, I should be back bowling. There’s no reason why I won’t be playing the next match Australia does.”With the cancellation of the Zimbabwe tour, Australia’s next engagement is the Twenty20 competition in South Africa. It is hardly the World Cup, but Lee will simply be glad to be back on the field after a frustrating few months.”Initially it took me a while to get over the disappointment of missing the World Cup,” Lee told . “Once I pushed that aside, I definitely know that this is going to help me long-term. I see it putting another year and a half hopefully on my career. It gives a chance for my muscles and bones to relax and get a bit of time off. I want to be the fittest I’ve ever been, and there’s no reason why I can’t be.”