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Mithun Manhas and Reetinder Sodhi scored blazing centuries to help North Zone retain the Deodhar Trophy title beating East Zone by 52 runs at Jaipur. With rain intervening, East reached 146 for 6 in 30.4 overs and once play failed to resume by the cut-off time, North were declared winners by the VJD method. It was another forgettable day for Sourav Ganguly, this time with the bat, dismissed for a first-ball duck, edging the ball to Pankaj Dharmani, the wicketkeeper, off Joginder Sharma.Batting first, Sodhi joined Manhas with the score on 82 and the pair added 155 for the third wicket. Manhas scored 11 fours in his innings of 105 off 128 balls while Sodhi’s undefeated 108 came at very nearly a run a ball, striking three sixes. North finished with 284 for 3 off 49 overs, with one over being reduced owing to damp conditions. The rain intervention made the task harder for East, faced with a much higher asking-rate. Abhishek Jhunjhunwala stood out for his undefeated 77 but was hampered by the lack of support from the other end. North were buoyed by the three-wicket haul by Vikram Rajvir Singh, the fast bowler who was excluded for the Mohali Test against England.South Zone held their nerve, beating West Zone narrowly by two runs in a rain-curtailed Deodhar Trophy match at Udaipur and finishing runners-up in the tournament. Ajit Agarkar’s fiery knock down the order gave South a real scare, but wasn’t able to pull off any last-ball heroics, run-out off the last ball of the match. Agarkar finished with 76 off 40 balls with four boundaries and four sixes.Overnight rain reduced the match to 33 overs per side and West’s decision to insert the opposition backfired from the start, with openers Dinesh Karthik (66) and S Vidyut (56) scoring at a frenetic pace, bringing up the hundred in the thirteenth over. Ramesh Powar later struck back with two wickets in two balls to leave South at 145 for 4 but Hemang Badani (68*) and S Badrinath (47) played positively, adding 108 for the fifth wicket. Chasing 278, West looked out of contention at 145 for 7 before Yusuf Pathan (56) started the fightback. Zaheer Khan and Agarkar propelled their team close to the target with some lusty blows but fell short.

New South Wales 3 for 200 (Cunneen 56, Keightley 49, Goszko 43*) beat Victoria 179 (Edwards 64, Hayes 4-31) by 21 runs
ScorecardNew South Wales Breakers can wrap up their eighth Women’s National Cricket League trophy in nine seasons tomorrow, after beating Victoria Spirit by 21 runs in the opening match at Bankstown Oval in Sydney.Julia Hayes, the captain, led her side to victory with 4 for 31 from 10 overs, while Kate Blackwell was involved in two run-outs as the Victoria chase regularly stumbled. The Spirit began badly when Belinda Clark and Mel Jones were gone by 23, and the target proved too difficult despite Sarah Edwards’s half-century.New South Wales began brilliantly with Lisa Keightley (49) and Shannon Cunneen, who made 56 from 82 balls, putting on 103 for the first wicket after being sent in to bat. The decision further backfired for Victoria when late hitting from Michelle Goszko and Martha Winch steered them to 200.The best-of-three series continues at Bankstown Oval tomorrow, with a third match slated for Sunday if required.

Mohammad Rafique has been fined half of his match fee for taunting England batsman Mark Butcher on the first day of the second Test at Chittagong.Rafique was reprimanded by Wasim Raja, the match referee, after television replays showed him angrily pointing Butcher towards the pavilion after bowling him.It was the second fine of the series, following a similar punishment handed out to England’s Rikki Clarke after he was found guilty of swearing at Bangladesh’s Mushfiqur Rahman during the first Test at Dhaka.

Chris Cairns’ match-winning century in Brisbane tonight highlighted the sheer quality of his batsmanship under the severest pressure.This was an innings to savour.His fourth ODI century, the first against someone other than India was achieved under outstanding circumstances. It ended a six-game losing streak to South Africa. It took New Zealand to the head of the VB Series and one game away, with four games remaining, from a place in the finals.New Zealand were in strife when he arrived at the wicket, the top order having failed to get a good start yet again. Just how much Nathan Astle is central to New Zealand’s opening play in ODIs has never been clearer.But there was something about Cairns’ attitude from the minute he strode to the crease. Whether it was intentional or not, there was an air of a job needing to be done and him being the man to do it.It is the sort of approach he showed during his last ODI century in the ICC KnockOut won by New Zealand over India in Kenya. It has been seen on other occasions as well, such as when he scored his maiden Test century, against Zimbabwe in the summer of 1995/96.When the mood takes him, and the elements of his batting come together, he is fit to rank among the highest order of stroke players to have graced the game. There was nothing of the bludgeoner about this innings. It was classical in its execution, timing and pacing as the overs wound down.His control in the dying moments of tonight’s game was especially outstanding.Having earlier added 62 runs by sensible, and unpanicked accumulation for the sixth wicket with Chris Harris, who scored 24 off 42 balls, Cairns then combined with Adam Parore, playing the sort of support role that was ideal under the circumstances, while 84 unbroken runs were added. Parore fed the strike to Cairns as often as he was able while making the odd decisive blow himself.As the pair got the required runs down to parity with the balls left, there was an inevitability about the win, especially with the wickets in hand.However, New Zealanders have been too long denied consistency of excellence under pressure in these matches in Australia to ever take anything for granted.They needn’t have worried. The coolest person in the middle was Cairns.In the space of 20 balls, he raced from 67 to 102 with nonchalant ease. A four to long off from Mikhaya Ntini warned the South Africans that the charge was on.In the 46th over, bowled by Steve Elworthy, the first ball he faced, the fifth of the over, was speared to third man where Boeta Dipenaar committed himself to trying to catch the ball. He didn’t get to it, nor did he cover it, and the ball went for four – a bonus from a calculated risk.A four off Jacques Kallis in the 47th over to midwicket took him to 84. Shaun Pollock bowled an eight-run over then off the fifth ball of Kallis’ next over, the issue was put beyond doubt – a straight six, the Cairns special, back over the bowler’s head.Cairns pinched a single off the last ball to face the next over from Pollock. He was on 98 when he faced Pollock for the last over.A four to wide long on from the first ball gave him his deserved century, New Zealand the win and further cemented Cairns’ place among the genuine matchwinners of the game.Cairns hit three sixes and nine fours in his innings and provided his side with an example that must surely see a strengthening in the batting approach in the latter half of this series.The batting came on top of an outstanding effort by the bowlers earlier in the game to pull South Africa back from a galloping score that looked capable of getting close to 300.The South Africans lost six wickets for 37 runs as Cairns and James Franklin broke through and then allowed Shane Bond to come in and tidy up the tail with a fiery spell.This New Zealand side is shaping impressively. It hasn’t fired all its shots yet and has plenty to aspire to. If it can arrive at the finals tuned to a peak then better things can yet be expected of this side.And if that means more batting of the quality exhibited by Cairns tonight, then this already outstanding series has yet more heights to scale.New Zealand have broken through the South African psychological barrier they have built up. But the real test is to do it consistently and reverse the process so the South Africans feel the heat.

Fine bowling by medium pacer Robin Singh helped Delhi to gain a firstinnings lead of 32 runs on the second day of their North Zone RanjiTrophy league match against Services at the Ferozeshah Kotla in NewDelhi on Tuesday.Resuming at 24 for one in reply to Delhi’s 256, Services despite apatient 46 by opener H Bhaskar who batted 229 minutes, faced 130 ballsand had four boundary hits, lost wickets at regular intervals. RobinSingh, a former India bowler, caused the early damage as Servicesslumped to 70 for six. But S Ghag, coming in at No 8, turned theinnings around with a bright 62 off 46 balls. He hit 13 fours and asix. S Javed at No 10 contributed a valuable unbeaten 25 beforeServices were all out for 224. Robin Singh finished with five for 61.By stumps Delhi had consolidated their position by scoring 91 for onein 26 overs. After Ashu Dani (2) fell at four, P Chawla (57) and AChopra (25) added 87 runs for the unrboken second wicket. By closeChawla, much the dominant partner, had faced 75 balls and hit eightfours.

Frank McAvennie has suggested that Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou should look to rest Cameron Carter-Vickers and Carl Starfelt. 

The lowdown

The Hoops looked in good shape defensively straight after the winter break, conceding just two goals in six matches between 17 January and 6 February. However, in their subsequent five games, they have shipped nine goals, and their only clean sheet has come against Championship side Raith Rovers.

Last weekend, the Premiership’s bottom club Dundee breached them twice, with Giorgos Giakoumakis rescuing the Bhoys by scoring a hat-trick, including an 86th-minute winner.

Starfelt is on a run of eight straight Premiership starts, while Carter-Vickers hasn’t missed a league game since the clash with Hearts at the start of December.

The latest

Speaking to Football Insider, McAvennie said that Celtic’s recent defensive trends were a ‘worry’ and called for Postecoglou to freshen things up in the heart of the backline.

He stated: “For me, in the last few games, the defence has looked jaded. That can happen.

“When that happens, great teams still manage to grind out a result. We saw that at the weekend when it took a Giakoumakis hattrick to win the game because the defence weren’t at it.

“That’s a worry for me. I would rather win 1-0 than 3-2 all day.

“The two centre-backs have barely changed all season so maybe they need a bit of a rest.”

The verdict

Perhaps the time is right to turn to Christopher Jullien.

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The Frenchman played the last 16 minutes against Raith Rovers earlier this month, making his long-awaited comeback from injury, but Postecoglou left him on the bench for both legs of the Europa Conference League play-off tie against Bodo/Glimt and also against Dundee.

Although there’s a need for patience with a player who has been sidelined through injury for more than a year, surely the best way for Jullien to get back to his former level is to get back into match action. Now may be the time to get him going in that regard.

In other news, Celtic clearly liked what they saw from this Bodo/Glimt player

	Ricky Ponting: “There was some pretty poor batting today, 159 on that wicket was justnever enough.” © Getty Images

Two days after praising the variety in his bowling arsenal Ricky Pontingagain applauded his attack, which this time featured four frontline fastmen and no specialist spinner in a five-wicket loss to India. James Hopeswas a late withdrawal with hamstring tightness and it left Australia in atricky situation, deciding whether to replace the allrounder with a bowleror a batsman.They chose to bring in Stuart Clark for his first game of the series andalso replaced Brad Hogg with Brad Haddin in an effort to restore somebalance and add depth to the batting. That part of the gamble didn’t work- Haddin made 5 in Australia’s 159 – but Ponting said his pace attack hadadapted well to their altered roles and the result was not their fault.”There was some pretty poor batting today, 159 on that wicket was justnever enough,” Ponting said. “But the way we stuck at our task with theball and particularly in the field I thought we gave ourselves half achance of winning the game.”When Yuvraj Singh departed at 5 for 102, mistiming a Clarkslower ball, Ponting felt Australia needed to pounce and he went for brokeby reintroducing his strike bowlers Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson. “Wejust had to get a breakthrough then,” he said. “I don’t know how manytimes we went past the outside edge and there were a couple of nicks thatwent in the gap or fell just short.”Lee was fast and furious and his 1 for 42 did not reflect the threat heposed on a bouncy pitch, while Johnson’s ten overs brought 2 for 24 andClark collected 1 for 26 from ten. However, Ponting was left without atop-class slow option and waited until the 34th over to use MichaelClarke.”As it turned out today the part-timers didn’t matter because the gamewasn’t going to go that far,” he said. “But having an allrounder out ofyour side does change the balance.”Clark is third on the ICC’s Test bowling rankings but finds himselfconstantly on the fringe of the world-champion ODI side. Ponting praisedthe pressure that Clark applied, although he still referred to him as “aback-up bowler”. He might be used again if Australia rest their top fastmen later in the series but Ponting said they were handling the workloadwell at the moment.”Mitchell and Brett are both ultra-fit guys,” he said. “Brett bowledprobably one of his quickest spells of the summer tonight. He’s holding upreally well.”We’ll have a look at an opportunity somewhere to give both those guys agame off where we can. But at the moment they’re going well. We’re goingto Perth now, we’re going to need our best bowling attack over there.”The Melbourne result leaves India and Australia each with a win, while SriLanka will search for their first victory in Canberra against India onTuesday. Ponting said Australia would need to stay on top of their game toensure they reach the finals of what will be the last tri-series inAustralia in its current format.”The last few years in Australia there’s been a bit of concern of theseries not being very close,” he said. “But right now we’ve got a reallytight tussle on our hands. All three teams have obviously a very goodchance of playing off in the finals.”

Shamsa Hashmi hits out against India U-21: The Pakistan captain and secretary of women’s cricket says women’s cricket is progressing in Pakistan © AFP

Male spectators, except those attending with family, will be banned when Pakistan hosts the eight-team Women’s World Cup qualifiers in November, officials said.But officials hailed the decision to stage the matches in this conservative Islamic republic as a sign that the country is becoming more moderate and making efforts to allow women to play sport.The qualifiers will be played in Lahore between November 19 and 25, the ICC said in a statement from its headquarters in Dubai. Besides the hosts, teams from Zimbabwe, Papua New Guinea, Bermuda, Ireland, South Africa, Scotland and the Netherlands will all vie for the two available slots in the 2009 ICC Women’s World Cup.Defending champions and hosts Australia, India, England, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and the West Indies have all earned automatic qualification following their top-six finish in 2005 when the World Cup was held in South Africa.”The decision proves that women’s cricket is progressing in our country and through this event we would promote a softer and moderate image of Pakistan,” said Shamsa Hashmi, secretary of the Pakistan Cricket Board women’s wing.Players will wear the standard international dress code, unlike earlier matches in Pakistan that have been played in the traditional uniform of baggy trousers and long shirts, she said.But she added: “Males can come to watch only as part of families of those that are playing.” Male officials may also be allowed. Pakistan held its first national women’s championship two years ago and the national team toured South Africa last month, losing the five-match series 4-0. The fifth match was rained off.Hashmi said the Pakistani team would put on its best show against some experienced opponents. Zimbabwe, making their debut, qualified from Africa, Papua New Guinea from East Asia-Pacific, Bermuda from the Americas, Scotland and the Netherlands from Europe.The top teams have launched their preparations for the 2009 World Cup, Australia, India, England and New Zealand competing in a quadrangular series currently underway in Chennai.Betty Timmer, chairwoman of the ICC Women’s Committee, said she was delighted with the interest shown by Pakistan in hosting the qualifiers. “We are very pleased with Pakistan’s involvement in the organization of the event. We are looking forward to this tournament in Lahore,” said Timmer.The 2009 World Cup will be the first to be played under the auspices of the ICC since its merger with the International Women’s Cricket Council in 2005.

Kent and the London Borough of Bromley have announced an agreement that secures the staging of county cricket at Beckenham for the next three years. This year’s programme will see the launch of Kent’s Twenty20 campaign with matches against Essex, Hampshire and Middlesex on June 27, July2 and 4.”There is now a commitment by the County Club to play at Beckenham over the next three years,” Paul Millman, Kent’s cheief executive, said. “The agreement is, however, a wide-ranging one. We plan to use the ground as a centre for sports development in the area. We will be running programmes throughout the year with the aim of attracting youngsters into sport, and cricket in particular. Hopefully, as a result, we will be producing Kent cricketers of the future.”As well as running the activity programmes we will be working with the ground’s owners, Leander Sports and Leisure Limited, to develop the facilities over the three-year period. Both Leander and the county club are now committed to turn the ground into a dynamic centre for sport in the area.”

Scorecard

Daniel Vettori had shone with the bat in earlier matches, but it was his captaincy that won the day in the final © Getty Images

What should have been the showpiece of New Zealand’s domestic cricket, the State Shield final, turned into another damp squib as a result of the pitch at New Plymouth’s Pukekura Park.The two best teams qualified for the final, and after some of the cricket they had played this year, it was reasonable to expect a high-scoring contest. But it wasn’t to be. Overnight rain meant the pitch favoured the medium-fast bowlers and batsmen rarely had an opportunity on the slow, holding pitch.Too often in New Zealand the conditions have dictated, and this was yet another example. Under the circumstances, Daniel Vettori, the ND captain, demonstrated his knowledge of the captaincy craft in an emphatic manner that left no doubts his future prospects as a leader of his county. To defend 190 against a team that has made run-scoring the feature of its campaign this year, on a ground that he had never played on before, was an exceptional effort.ND were asked to bat first and would have been concerned over their lowly total, but it didn’t show in the field. Of their batsmen Alun Evans, the Glamorgan professional, played a watchful innings that grew in stature the further the innings went. He scored 39, but in the end it was worth much more. So too, were the lower-order contributions by Peter McGlashan (19 not out), Joseph Yovich (17) and Daryl Tuffey (13)CD made a calculated start in their chase for their target with Jamie How (14) and Craig Spearman (10) getting them through the first stages. But Vettori’s decision to bowl his spearheads, Graeme Aldridge and Daryl Tuffey, for longer than usual proved worthwhile and they got the breakthrough which left CD 32 for 3.Mathew Sinclair batted well, but while his captain attempted to see the side through, he lost partners too regularly and was left on 40 not out at the end. Aldridge again did the damage, taking four for 38 off nine overs, and in the process he broke the record for most wickets in a domestic summer in New Zealand. He ended with 30, two more than Andre Adams’s old record.