The third day’s play was hardly a battle between bat and ball. It wasmore of an exhibition on how the willow should be wielded. From ShivSunder Das to Rahul Dravid to Sachin Tendulkar there was no joy forZimbabwe. The only saving grace was the fact that Das is playing justhis second Test match, and therefore was a bit more reserved than wasreally necessary. On the other hand, neither Rahul Dravid nor SachinTendulkar exhibited any shyness. If anything, Rahul Dravid was moreforceful than ever. It was a big day for the young man. He not onlynotched up his seventh Test hundred, but also crossed the milestone of3000 runs in the longer version of the game. In doing so, he propelledIndia to a strong position of 275/2 at stumps on the third day of thefirst Test at the Kotla on Monday. John Wright said earlier that hecould not work any magic. If he can inspire Dravid to approach thegame as he did, no miracles will be needed.Resuming on nine for no loss, openers Sadagoppan Ramesh and Das madeyet another beginning. Having safely played out the few overs on offerthe previous day, the openers once again set their sights on posting agood response. This however, wasn’t to be. Ramesh played all over aquick straight ball from Heath Streak and was trapped plumb in front.This brought Dravid and Das together. Assuming a role not usuallyassociated with him, Dravid was the aggressor even as Das playedquietly and solidly at one end.A flurry of boundaries from the blade of the Karnataka stylist’s batsaw the pair push the scoring rate. Henry Olonga did the Zimbabweancause no good by bowling all over the place. Striving for pace, Olongawas in turns either too full or too short. Either way, the result wasthe same, the ball being dispatched to the fence with disdain.After making a good half century, Das too found himself trapped legbefore. Perhaps this was the only time in the day when Olonga landedthe ball in the right place. Das had impressed in his knock of 58.Striking the ball hard for a man his size, the Orissa opener sent theball to the fence six times.The large crowd roared as Sachin Tendulkar walked out to the middle.To an Indian crowd there will never be anyone closer to the heart thanTendulkar. When he made his way to the middle, Dravid already had awell made 58 to his credit. And yet, the roars that greeted Tendulkarwas deafening. Dravid certainly cornered his fair share of theapplause in the overs that ensued. Tendulkar started off a bittentatively, by his high standards anyway. Not timing the ballperfectly, and a bit anxious running between the wickets, Tendulkarmoved cautiously on.Dravid was never troubled. The Zimbabwe captain rotated his bowlersaround as much as was effective, but none could trouble Dravid. Takinga leaf out of the Zimbabweans’ book, he used the sweep at will againstthe spinners. Even going down the wicket when the ball was given a bitof air brought success for Dravid. However, he was truly magnificentagainst the mediumpacers. When the bowling was a tad short, or wideenough to allow him to open his shoulders, Dravid rocked onto his backfoot and crashed the ball away. Peppering the ropes in all parts ofthe ground, Dravid cut and pulled in domineering fashion.While Dravid marched on, Tendulkar too found his golden touch andZimbabwe’s misery was complete. Playing copybook shots, the maestropresented the full face of his very heavy bat to anything that wasbowled at him. Taking three consecutive boundaries off Olonga,Tendulkar raised the level of batsmanship to a very high standard.The second new ball was taken just as the day was coming to a close.It hardly made any difference to the Indians. When the umpires tookthe players off the field, Tendulkar had made a solid unbeaten 70 (164balls, 10 fours), even as Dravid had 118 of the finest runs to hiscredit. Although he didn’t hit a single ball over the ropes, his 17boundaries went a long way in demoralising the Zimbabweans. At 275/2with VVS Laxman and skipper Ganguly yet to come, India are sittingpretty in this Test match. The Zimbabwean bowlers will have to pull uptheir socks in a hurry if they are going to trouble India’s batsmen.The bowling section of the scoreboard was a pathetic sight… if youare a Zimbabwean. Olonga went for 51 runs in 14 overs, Paul Strangconceded 40 from 13 overs and Murphy in turn was ineffective enough togive away over 50 runs from his 20-odd overs.

A strokefilled 94 by Anoop Pai helped Hyderabad take the vital firstinnings lead over Rajasthan in their Vijay Merchant Trophyquarterfinal match at the Deshbandhu Park in Calcutta on Saturday. Atstumps on the second day, Hyderabad were 290 for four in reply toRajasthan’s 254, compiled on Thursday.Resuming at two for no loss, the Hyderabad openers Prasanth Peter (89)and Imran Khan (47) put on 70 runs in 29.1 overs. Imran was the firstto be dismissed, caught by B Ranjan off S Godara. Hyderabad skipper ATRayudu (7) did not last long and in the 32nd over was caught by VivekYadav off Naresh Bhati.Anoop Pai then joined Prasanth Peter and the pair put their heads downto add 159 runs for the third wicket off 40 overs. Peter was thefourth batsman to be dismissed when he offered a catch to V Mathur offG Tanwar. During a 287-minute stay at the crease, Peter faced 213balls and hit nine fours and three sixes.Anoop then fell leg before to V Mathur with the score at 263, afterhelping Hyderabad cross the Rajasthan total. At stumps Abhinav Kumar(18) and Niranjan (14) were at the crease

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), at its extraordinary Board meeting last night in Barbados, decided not to appoint an interim chairman. Instead, the Board voted in favour of appointing an interim committee to run the affairs for the next seven weeks.The interim committee, which will be responsible for the administration of the Board’s affairs, is comprised of Richard De Souza (Trinidad), Stephen Alleyne (Barbados), Chetram Singh (Guyana), along with WICB’s CEO, Gregory Shillingford and WICB’s CFO, Richard Jodhan.The date for the election of the new WICB President and Vice President is Saturday, 21st July, 2001. However, no venue for the meeting was named. The WICB’s articles of association does not allow for the election or appointment of an interim chairman. The articles of association stipulates that there must be a nomination of candidates (complete with a seconder), along with the nominated person’s signature. These nominations must be lodged with the WICB’s Secretariat at least thirty (30) days prior to date for the elections.So far, several names have been touted to take over the top two positions in West Indies cricket. Among them is former West Indies fast bowler, and Barbados government minister, Wes Hall. Guyana’s cricket boss, Chetram Singh is also being named as a likely successor to Pat Rousseau, while Val Banks of the Leeward Islands is being named as a likely successor to Clarvis Joseph.Meanwhile, the recently re-appointed team manager Ricky Skerritt, rejoined the team in Trinidad today. The squad going to Zimbabwe and Kenya is expected to be named by Thursday.

James Foster scored a career-best 100 not out as Durham UCCE batted all day for a total of 238 for 6 in their third meeting with county opposition since granted first-class status this summer.The Essex prospect confirmed his position among the best of England’s younger wicketkeeper-batsmen with a composed but unspectacular performance against a Worcestershire attack missing Andy Bichel and Stuart Lampitt.An England A tourist in the West Indies last winter, he broke up barren periods with stylish driving for 18 fours in a little over five hours and made the made the most of a let-off at 25 when Vikram Solanki spilled a sharp chance at second slip.After rain-affected draws with Durham and Lancashire, the students concentrated on crease-occupation and allowed left-arm spinner Matthew Rawnsley to explore the realms of super-economy with figures of 38-20-37-2.Alamgir Sheriyar, the one regular paceman in the county attack, reached 32 wickets for the season by flattening James Rowe’s leg stump and finding the outside edge for Matthew Banes to be caught by Solanki.Rawnsley bowled Alex Loudon in his third over, but Michael Brown, an opener on the Middlesex staff, saw Durham through a tricky first session and then deep into the afternoon until a bat-pad catch ended a patient knock of 55.Foster continued in his unflustered style in stands off 55 with Hugh Loudon and 44 with Tim Phillips, who were both lbw to Chris Liptrot to brighten a day of frustration for Worcestershire.

Darren Lehmann spared Yorkshire’s blushing by steering them to a four-wicket victory over Bedfordshire at Luton in the third round of the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy.The Australian held the batting together with a faultless 88 off 98 balls with seven boundaries and he was only out when Yorkshire were nine runs short of their target.But it could have been a much different story without Lehmann’s expertise because Yorkshire were rocking on 62 for four at one stage and looked like plunging to a humiliating defeat at the hands of the plucky Minor Counties side.The man to do the early damage was paceman Shaun Rashid who took the first three wickets with only 41 scored and he later rounded off an excellent performance by clean bowling Lehmann.Yorkshire’s revival started when Lehmann found a reliable partner in fellow left-hander Vic Craven who helped him add 62 in 14 overs for the fifth wicket.When Craven was caught at mid-wicket off Will Sneath in came another left-hander in Gavin Hamilton who continued to ease the pressure with some well-executed shots.Lehmann’s 50 came when he cut Sneath for his third boundary and he increased the tempo until he went for a heave at Rashid and was bowled.Winning the toss, Bedfordshire chose to bat on a good pitch and played well for their 211 for nine but they were greatly assisted by a lot of inaccurate bowling which cost Yorkshire 24 runs in wides and 12 in no-balls.Skipper Andy Roberts and David Clarke laid a solid foundation with a 51 stand for the second wicket and James Knott and Andy Trott boosted the total later on with 48 in nine overs for the seventh wicket.Top scorer, with 34, was Oliver Clayson who was stumped going down the pitch to Lehmann while Ryan Sidebottom was Yorkshire’s best bowler with four for 39, despite sending down two legside wides which both sped to the boundary.Chris Silverwood and Lehmann each captured two wickets and there was a tidy 10 over stint from off-spinner Richard Dawson who went for just 39 runs in only his second competitive match.Yorkshire now look forward to a testing encounter with Surrey at Headingley in the next round.

With three man of the match awards from four games in the ongoingtriangular series in Zimbabwe, Sachin Tendulkar says he is extremelykeen to “score more and more hundreds”, a statement certain to ringalarm bells for the other finalists, the West Indies.”I am not easily satisfied. I want to score many more hundreds,” saidTendulkar yesterday after his unbeaten 122 shaped up India’s sixwicket win against West Indies in the last league match.Tendulkar’s 29th one-day international hundred, was his first of thesix-week tour where he has played two Tests and four ODIs besides athree-day game. The genius said he was disappointed at not getting acentury in previous games.”One always goes out to score hundreds. I wanted to score a hundred inboth the Tests. But it happens to all the players. If it was not to beso, then all the great players wouldn’t have got out in the 70 and80s. When I had embarked on this tour, I had personally decided to tryand hang around as much as possible. And that is what I was trying todo. I had told myself not to play big shots, even though that meant Iwould have to suppress my natural instinct to hit the ball. Ibasically did it because of the wickets here. I think on these kind oftracks you can’t play the way you play in India or anywhere else.”But, that the batsman does not forget defeat easily was evident whenhe recalled how the one hour on the fourth morning of the second Testcost India the match.”The tour has gone on very well so far, except for the fourth morningof the second Test. That one hour cost us the match. I thought wedidn’t play good cricket and we allowed them to get back into thegame. If we had given them 200 or 210 runs to get in the fourthinnings it would have been a different story.”India lost the second Test to Zimbabwe by four wickets after they lostseven wickets for 37 runs on the penultimate day.”I thought losing those seven wickets for 37 runs was the key. If youlose so many wickets in no time, it is very difficult to win a Testmatch. Right until that moment I felt that we were in the drivingseat. I know it is very hard to express in words as to what we shoulddo and what we shouldn’t do. It just happens,” the former skipper saidphilosophically.”The only thing one could have done was to wait and hang around therefor the new ball to wear out. Such things are going to happen. Wecan’t pin-point each other. We all need to take responsibility for itand try and ensure that we don’t repeat it.”On the brighter side, Tendulkar said the team had now some very goodyoungsters. “All the youngsters we have are very talented. They arealso hungry to do well. They are prepared to work hard and that is agood sign. It augurs well because if you look at the average age ofthe team it is around 23-24 years. The team is young and if this lotcan stick together for years to come, I am sure we can produce betterresults.”However, Tendulkar said, it was the bowling where India had profitedmost. “All the bowlers show promise. All the guys have differentqualities and that is so important when you form a team. From everyend, you have variety. Harbhajan Singh is a top class off spinner andhe is only 21. It is an added advantage to the side. Somebody who isso young and done well against quality sides, we can only expectbetter things from him.”The 28-year-old stalwart from Mumbai was also very pleased with thefitness level of the team. “It has improved by leaps and bounds. Nowwe are a very good fielding side too”.Tendulkar said he is always keen to lend a helping hand to youngstersin the team. “I know I am the senior-most among the players here. If Isee something wrong or an area where somebody can improve, I just goand tell him that this is what I feel. Then it is up to the player totake a decision. But as a senior member, I feel I should tell themwhere they are going wrong.”

The Pakistan Cricket Board has exempted cricketers who are busy on the county or league circuit in England from taking part in the national training camp, which is to be held from August 1st at the Gaddafi Stadium.Saqlain Mushtaq is playing for Surrey, while Shahid Afridi and Azhar Mahmoodare employed by Leicestershire and Kent respectively for the remainder of the season. Shoaib Akhtar, Moin Khan, Mushtaq Ahmed and Atiq-uz-Zaman are engaged by various leagues.They have not been asked to abandon their counties and make themselves available becuase they are playing competitive cricket, divulged a PCBspokesman. But they are free to join if they want to, if they are released by their employers.

Charles Van der Gucht the young Hampshire left-arm spinner, is now totally out of danger and is well on the road to recovery.Charlie who was knocked over by a taxi a few weeks ago, visited the Rose Bowl today in his wheelchair to support the second XI in their 4 day match with Worcestershire II.”I am feeling good in myself,” said Charlie, “and it is great to be back amongst my mates [see picture]. It will be a long haul back, but I should lose the crutches within three weeks, and then a winter of extensive physiotherapy.”

* Yet another change in England tour scheduleThe Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was at their favourite game of making changes to the already announced India-England itinerary on Monday. The latest change sees the fifth one-dayer being shifted from Kanpur to Mumbai. The third one-dayer scheduled earlier to be held at Mumbai will (surprise, surprise) now be held at Kanpur.The change has reportedly been made to make it easy for the England team to take a direct flight to New Zealand where they will be touring next. Meanwhile, the opening tour game at Mumbai has also been changed into a two-day affair. That the changes have followed the visit of England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Tim Lamb is noteworthy.Warm-up games: Nov 18-19 Mumbai President’s XI (Mumbai), Nov 22-24Board President’s XI (Hyderabad), Nov 27-29 India A (Jaipur)Tests: Dec 3-7 First Test (Mohali), Dec 11-15 Second Test (Ahmedabad),Dec 19-23 Third Test (Bangalore) A break for ChristmasJan 17 Practice one-dayer (Mumbai), Jan 19 Practice one-dayer (Mumbai)One-dayers: Jan 22 First ODI (Chennai), Jan 25 Second ODI (Calcutta),Jan 28 Third ODI (Kanpur), Jan 31 Fourth ODI (New Delhi), Feb 3 FifthODI (Mumbai)* Give the players a fair run: GangulyIndian skipper Sourav Ganguly reportedly feels that players must be given a longer tenure at the international level if India has to have a better team. He made the comments while talking about the way the team has failed in crunch situations.”Definitely, it’s frustrating when hopes are not fulfilled. It is natural to be disappointed. But it is also true that if you want the best performance from a cricketer, you will have to give him a good length of time. If you keep changing and chopping players frequently, you cannot build a team,” the Press Trust of India quoted Ganguly as saying to Bengali newspaper ‘Ganashakti’.The Indian skipper also felt that the openers, who did a decent job in Sri Lanka, needed to translate good starts into big scores. He though was confident that with the injured five – Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath and Ashish Nehra – having returned, the team would measure up to the challenge in South Africa.”It is good that all the injured players have returned. There is no doubt it is the most difficult tour but we have a full strength team, so I am hopeful of doing well there”, he said.* Rameez Raja wields the stickFormer Pakistan captain Rameez Raja has come down heavily on India’s decision to pull-out of the Asian Test Championship (ATC).”I am sure history will see this (India’s refusal to play against Pakistan) as an immature step,” Raja told reporters. “Politics should stay away from cricket. There is no point in cricket boards making moral judgements.”The Board of Control of Cricket in India had decided to pull-out the Indian team of the tournament after the union government refused to let the team to play Pakistan in Pakistan.Raja also said that he did not see the two countries clashing on the cricket field in the immediate future. “Not in the near future… It’s a sad story… (Indian) Cricket Board is a toothless body. They want to play but are not being let to play. The problem before us in Pakistan (cricket establishment) is whom do we talk to (in India to resume cricket ties).”* Dev and Prabhakar head IT defaulters list says that the Income Tax (IT) department has found Kapil Dev, Manoj Prabhakar and Mohammad Azharudin among others to be guilty of concealing huge amounts.The magazine says that ‘Operation Gentleman’, which the IT sleuths conducted to flush out concealed income, assets and investments of cricketers, board officials, bookies and their “associates”, has yielded findings that make shocking reading.Kapil Dev’s undisclosed income reportedly works out to be close to Rs 2.5 crores, “which could cross Rs 3 crore once the assessment proceedings begin”. The report also discloses the amounts the others reportedly stashed away: the “James Bond of Indian cricket” Manoj Prabhakar – Rs 2.5 crore; Azharuddin – more than Rs 2 crores; Ajay Jadeja Rs 1.4 crores; opener-turned-commentator Navjot Singh Sidhu – about Rs 1 crore; former Indian off-spinner Nikhil Chopra – Rs 40-50 lakh); and Ajay Sharma – Rs 20 lakh.Current Asian Cricket Council president and strongman of Indian cricket Jagmohan Dalmiya too might have to answer charges of money laundering if the report is to be believed.

Sri Lankan fast bowler Nuwan Zoysa, who is nursing a stress fracture in hisankle, is expected to be available for selection for the forthcoming Sharjahtri nation one-day tournament in October.”He should be fit for the triangular tournament in Sharjah,” declared SriLanka physiotherapist Alex Kountouri on Monday.Zoysa broke down just before the three nations Coca Cola Cup in Sri Lanka inJuly and missed the tournament and then the Test series against India thatfollowed. He will also miss the Asian Test Championship match againstBangladesh, which starts Thursday.”The fracture would take 12 weeks to heal. He was in crutches for six weekswhich is over and now it’s the recovery part,” said Kountouri.”He says there’s no pain at all at the moment, but there’s no need to rushanything. He’s working out at the gym these days, but he can’t bowl yet,”revealed Kountouri.