Angelo Mathews, an allrounder from St. Joseph’s in Colombo, has been retained as captain of the Sri Lankan under-19 team for next month’s Afro-Asia under-19 tournament in India. The national selectors named a 14-member team for the tournament, which takes place at Visakhapatnam from November 17-25.Mathews, an outstanding allrounder, had led the side on their tour to England earlier this year and is tipped to lead Sri Lanka in the forthcoming under-19 World Cup tournament which is scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka in February 2006.Lalith Kaluperuma, the chairman of selectors, said that the squad of 14 players and six reserves named for the tournament would form the nucleus of Sri Lanka’s World Cup squad next year. “We have to submit the names of 30 players by December 5 and prune it down to the final 14 by January 5. It is an ICC requirement,” said Kaluperuma. He said that in addition to the 20 already picked for the Indian tournament his committee would include another ten players to make up the initial 30 based on talent and form.”We have identified certain players as future prospects, but it all depends on their form at the time of selection,” said Kaluperuma. “We picked the 14 to India taking into consideration performances based on the five practice matches and performances in the under-17 schools tournament among other things.”Kaluperuma said if the picked 14 players perform to potential his committee would probably think of retaining the same team for another one-day under-19 tournament, which takes place in Bangladesh soon after the Afro-Asia tournament.”We want to give the players some continuity leading up to the World Cup and depending on how they perform suitable changes will be made,” he said. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe are the other countries participating in the nine-day Afro-Asia tournament.Squad
Angelo Mathews (capt), Ashan Peiris, Chathupama Gunasinghe, Dilan Cooray, Dimuth Karunaratne, Sameera Soysa, Hans Fernando, NLTC Perera, Rajeeva Weerasinghe, Rishan Kavinda, Sachitra Pathirana Sachitra Serasinghe, Shalika KarunanayakeReserves
Charles Fernando, Chathura Herath, Malinda Pushpakumara, NR Perera, Pramuddha Perera, Umesh Karunaratne

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Travis Birt and David Dawson rescued Tasmania from a disastrous start as they ended a wind-swept opening day of their Pura Cup match against Victoria on a respectable 5 for 299. Gerard Denton, the right-arm fast bowler, snaffled both openers, Jamie Cox and Michael Di Venuto, for ducks, but Birt (93) and Dawson (73) put together 171 for the third wicket to steady the Tasmanians at Bellerive Oval.After the early success, Victoria had to wait more than 50 overs for their next wicket, when Cameron White, their captain, nailed Birt. White claimed two more dismissals as well, ending the day with fine figures of 3 for 48, but Tasmania continued to build useful partnerships – Scott Kremerskothen and Sean Clingeleffer added an undefeated 71 for the sixth to frustrate the Victorians. At the close of play, Kremerskothen was on 32, with Clingeleffer unbeaten on 44.”It would have been nice to get three figures up on the board … as it turns out we’re in a fairly strong position,” Birt said. “We were going to bat first anyway but how it turned out … me and ‘Daws’ really stuck together and really fought it hard out there and yeah, we’re pretty happy with that.”The strong winds may have been to Dawson’s advantage as the umpires were forced to remove the bails after they kept blowing off. At one stage, Dawson appeared to play the ball into his stumps, but neither umpire could be sure that it had actually struck the wicket.

Rahul Dravid, unusually aggressive when answering prickly or irritating questions at the post-match press conference after India beat Sri Lanka by 188 runs in the second Test at Delhi, laughed off suggestions that the Kotla was a lucky venue. Meanwhile Tom Moody found plenty of positives to take from the defeat, and Marvan Atapattu pin-pointed the first-innings collapse as the reason for his team’s defeat. Excerpts:Rahul DravidOn whether Delhi is a lucky groundI don’t think it is fair to call it a lucky ground. We are playing good cricket, and I am proud that we fought hard for this victory. This wasn’t a win that came easy or was totally one-sided. It was a hard-working win in a game of ups and downs, and all credit to the bowlers for taking 20 wickets on a reasonably good surface.On prospects at AhmedabadSri Lanka are a good side, and to beat them again, we will have to play well for five days in Ahmedabad too. We were very disappointed with our batting in Chennai, and even here in the first innings, we frittered a good position away on the second morning. But I am glad that in the second innings, we showed application. We have to do that every game, every innings. When you are up against quality bowlers like [Chaminda] Vaas and [Muttiah] Muralitharan, you can’t think of the previous innings. You begin every innings on zero and we need to bat with the same determination and concentration next time too.On whether he was able to declare when he did because he was comfortable with the lead or because he needed time to bowl out Sri LankaA bit of both. I was very comfortable with the fact that I had Anil [Kumble] and Harbhajan [Singh] in the side. They are two great spinners to have in the fourth innings of a Test match.On the selection dilemma caused by Yuvraj’s knockIt’s a happy problem to have, if it is a problem at all. It’s unfortunate that someone is going to miss out [with the return of Sehwag], and it will probably not be right on him, but that’s how international cricket is. It just shows us also that we can call on different players to do the job at different times, and it gives us a lot of heart.Tom MoodyWe have many positives coming out of this game. We let ourselves down in two small periods of the game. Late on the second evening, we lost numerous wickets from a commanding position in 45 minutes of madness. Then last evening, when we lost four wickets inside the last half hour, that’s when we sort of finally lost it. With more wickets in hand, we could have played out time, if not had a go at the target.

On Indians negating Muralitharan in the second inningsThe first hurdle we tripped at was not capitalising on our start in the first innings. We should have had a lead of at least 100 on the first innings. Murali is a wonderful bowler, but we can’t rely on him getting wickets every time. He tried everything he could, gave it his all but they played him very well. There is nothing to say he didn’t give hundred percent.On his team’s batting collapseWe weren’t the only side that collapsed. It was a good wicket, no doubt, but it was always going to be tough for the new batsmen coming in. It was the downfall for us in both innings, just as it was India’s downfall in the first innings, when they lost seven for 45 on the second morning.Marvan AtapattuOn the turning point in the matchThe two sessions where we lost lots of wickets were towards the close of the day’s play. That’s where we need to concentrate better. I won’t be too critical about shot selection, it is more to do with lapses in concentration.On the pitchThe pitch was not unplayable. But it was slow and strokemaking was not that easy. It called for patience and concentration. That’s why India did a lot better in the second innings than the first.On the batting collapse in the first inningsBatting collapses do happen. We dominated for most of the second day until the last session, but lost the grip from then on. From there, it was a long haul.On Murali coming to bat with a runnerHe had a slight thigh strain, nothing serious. He should be okay for the third Test.

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Bengal marched to a ten-wicket win on the third day of its Elite group encounter against Delhi, after Saurashi Lahiri, the offspinner, shot the hosts out for a paltry 131. Needing just 69 to win with more than a day to spare, Subhomoy Das and Arindam Das, Bengal’s openers, knocked off the runs in 23.3 overs to take Bengal to its first outright win of the season. Delhi’s batsmen failed for the second time in the match, unable to better their first-innings score of 151 and capitulated to Lahiri’s probing spells either side of lunch. It was a poor batting effort from the hosts, with only Shikhar Dhawan, the opener, standing out with his 44 in 167 minutes. After nearly being relegated to the Plate Group last season, this has been a good turnaround for Bengal, with seven points – they claimed a bonus point today – in two matches.
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Karnataka were 158 runs behind Mumbai’s first-innings score of 344 when bad light forced the umpires to call stumps on day three at Bangalore because of bad light. Earlier, Vinit Indulkar’s second first-class hundred and useful contributions from Ramesh Powar and Omkar Khanvilkar had taken Mumbai past Karnataka’s 186. It was a consistent, if not threatening, display from Karnataka’s bowlers, with each of the six bowlers picking up at least one wicket.Scorecard
Two quick wickets before stumps gave Tamil Nadu the upper hand against Railways in Delhi, after Subramaniam Badrinath’s hundred and a dogged fifty from Hemanth Kumar took them to an imposing 371. Badrinath, 54 overnight, occupied the crease for 521 minutes and shared in a 113-run partnership with Kumar to wrest the initiative from Railways early in the day. Madan Yadav, the left-arm spinner, was the most successful Railways bowler with 4 for 94.
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Bad light stopped play with 21 overs left on the third day at Anantapur, with Hyderabad 14 for 0, 153 runs ahead of Andhra’s first innings 231. Ganeswara Rao top-scored with 65 but Kaushik Reddy, the opening bowler, claimed career-best figures of 4 for 43 to bowl Andhra out for an inadequate total.
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Jacob Martin led from the front in scoring an unbeaten 224, his 23rd first-class century, and Connor Williams hit a fine 138 to take Baroda to 562 for 7 at stumps at Kanpur, 216 runs ahead of Uttar Pradesh with only a day to go. Martin’s was a stellar effort as Baroda firmly wrapped their fists around a hapless Uttar Pradesh bowling attack to ensure that they could lose the match. Piyush Chawla, the legspinner, had figures of 4 for 177 from 46 overs, but Martin’s stubbornness was the deciding factor on a day in which Baroda walked away with the honors.
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Mahesh Rawat, Haryana’s wicketkeeper, needed one more run to complete his maiden first-class hundred as Haryana finished the third day on 332 for 8, a lead of 341 over Punjab at Mohali. Rawat was aided in a 111-run stand for the eighth wicket by Sachin Rana as Haryana reached a comfortable position and gave themselves a strong case for victory on the final day. Gagandeep Singh, the medium-pace bowler, had the best figures of 5 for 109, but it was the only shining effort from an otherwise insipid bowling display from Punjab.
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Vital contributions from the lower-order batsmen enabled Gujarat to gain the first-innings lead, all but ensuring themselves of two points in what should be a drawn encounter at Valsad. Suyash Burkul, the fast bowler, and Rohit Jadhav, the offspinner, shared six wickets but Maharashtra couldn’t prevent Gujarat reaching 258, with Bhavik Thaker, Hemal Watekar and Salil Yadav adding 80 between them. Dheeraj Jadhav scored an unbeaten 54 as Maharashtra ended the day with a lead of 90, but they will require a minor miracle to pull off a win tomorrow.

The Indian batsmen practiced at the Pakistan National Cricket Academy near the Gaddafi Stadium with synthetic plastic balls bounced at them from short distance on concrete pitches.Virender Sehwag, the vice-captain, revealed to reporters that he had practiced in similar fashion at home before reaching Pakistan to get used to the thunderbolts of the strong Pakistan pace attack led by Shoiab Akhtar and Mohammad Sami. The team also utlised the services of the bowling machine at the venue under the watchful eyes of coach Greg Chappell and the other support staff of the team. All the 16 players were seen at the practice venue.The team members are expected to visit patients at the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer hospital at the invitation of Imran Khan, the fomer Pakistan captain-turned-politician.

Pakistan’s chances of staging a fightback in the one-day series against India took a knock with Shahid Afridi being ruled out of the remaining two matches.Afridi aggravated a rib injury that he sustained before Monday’s third match at Lahore and has been advised to take two weeks’ rest, Pakistan’s team management said. Afridi opened the batting in Monday’s game and felt considerable pain while bowling three overs in India’s innings.Pakistan are already missing Shoaib Akhtar, who was ruled out of the series on Sunday after missing the first two matches with an ankle injury. Mohammad Sami was included in the squad as a replacement for Akthar but no replacement was announced for Afridi. Afridi is a local hero in Pakistan and his dismissals in previous matches have frequently triggered mass exodus of spectators from the ground.India lead the five-match series 2-1 after they won the third match by five wickets. Pakistan won the first in Peshawar by seven runs and India claimed the second in Rawalpindi by seven wickets. The fourth match of the series will be played at Multan on Thursday while Karachi will host the fifth match on Sunday.

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India will be well pleased with their efforts on the opening day of the only Test at Adelaide. By the close they had reduced Australia to 8 for 230 with Jhulan Goswami and Neetu David doing the damage to knock over the top order. Goswami ended with an impressive 3 for 39 from 23 stingy overs of pace bowling. David grabbed 2 for 46 from her 15 overs of spin.Australia can take some comfort from the day, though. Karen Rolton’s first innings at the helm since taking over from the retired Belinda Clark proved a successful one – she made 63, and passed Clark as Australia’s leading runscorer in Tests at the same time, but will be kicking herself for not going on from there.So will Lisa Sthalekar, who made 72: together they shared the highest partnership of the day, with 56 for the third wicket. But Rolton’s dismissal, lbw to Goswami, triggered a collapse as Australia lurched from 2 for 110 to 7 for 169.Sthalekar and Jodie Purves – one of three debutantes – added some respectability late in the day, with an eighth-wicket stand of 44, before Sthalekar became Amita Sharma’s first victim. Purves strode on to an unbeaten 32 by the close.This may have been the first time that identical twins have played a Test for Australia on home soil, but the occasion wasn’t marked in fine style for Kate and Alex Blackwell. Both got ducks. Alex fell very early on indeed: the hosts had just 2 on the board when Goswami struck. Her sister fell to the same bowler later on.

Ricky Ponting, the Australian captain, believes that South Africa didn’t deserve to win any of the six Tests the two teams have played over the last four months in Australia and South Africa.South Africa had drawn the first Test at Perth but subsequently lost the next two at Melbourne and Sydney during their tour of Australia in December 2005. Australia’s two-wicket win at Johannesburg on Tuesday completed South Africa’s first whitewash at home in over a century.”Some of the Tests have been close, but I don’t think South Africa deserved to win any of them,” Ponting told SAPA. “I think we’ve been the ones who dictated the Test matches. We should have won at Perth, but South Africa put up a tremendous rearguard action to draw the match.”Sydney would be the one Test they could argue that they were probably in front of us and the weather, and the series the way it was, dictated their declaration – but still we got the runs, for two or three wickets.”However, Jacques Kallis, who replaced the injured Graeme Smith as captain for the third Test at Johannesburg, felt that the results did not reflect how closely the two series had been contested. “I think we had more opportunities in Australia and if we had held on to our catches, we could have done better in the Tests in Australia – but we’ve come a long way,” said Kallis. “We’ve made strides in Test cricket. We are still a long way behind Australia, but we are definitely moving forward.”You always want to play the best in the world. It’s been a long, hard challenge and to play against the best for four and a half months has been tough. You wake up, and you’re playing against the same guys, and you’ve got to be up and ready for the challenge and if you are not 100%, you get nailed.”New Zeland will tour South Africa for three Tests in April and May 2006. “We’ve got a new challenge with the series against New Zealand. It’ll be nice to see some black caps out there instead of the baggy green. So we’re looking forward to that challenge,” said Kallis. “There is the danger that we’ve been playing some very hard cricket, but we’ve got 10 days off, which means the guys can go away and get mentally prepared for New Zealand. It’s a huge series for us. I think it’s a series that could define our season. We’re going to be taking it very seriously – it’s a very big series for us.”

Bob Simpson, the former Australia captain and coach, has stated that Australia’s dominance in the past decade might have a detrimental effect on their future. Following their victory against South Africa in the second Test at Durban, Simpson has rejected claims that Australia are back to their very best, while adding that the regular absence of players representing their state sides is harming the domestic competition.”As a fervent Aussie, I am concerned about the future of our cricket,” Simpson wrote in the Indian magazine . “Over a long period we have rightly been lauded as a superb team. We have had numerous great players and still have.”However, they may have now reached the age and position in their careers, when, while they might perform fine deeds, there is little or no chance they will improve their game.”Simpson cited the decline in standards of other nations as a significant factor in Australia’s dominance in recent years.”Whether the team will produce the greatness of the last decade, I doubt. History has shown that once a great team loses key players and the rest get older, there are few, if any, ready replacements in the domestic competition,” he said.”This is just about where Australian cricket hovers right now. The final 2-0 result to Australia against South Africa earlier this year seems to indicate that they dominated the Test series. But was this so? No, for in two of the Tests, a very mundane South African team were in a dominating position to win,” he said.”The Australian selectors expressed their concern about our cricket by adopting a safety first policy for the South African tour. They were forced into this situation by the worrying realisation that there is a shortage of younger players with the skill and application to bridge the gap between the first-class and Test levels.”Although Queensland beat Victoria by an innings and 354 runs to win the Pura Cup final – they rattled up an astonishing 6 for 900 in their only innings – Simpson is nevertheless concerned at the standard of Australia’s domestic competition. With the lack of Test players representing their state sides, he argued that the younger players don’t have the benefit of wisdom an international player can offer.”Unfortunately for the Pura Cup players, the overall standard has slipped with the Test players playing so few domestic matches,” he said. “This has prevented the young promising players from testing their mettle against their tough heroes. They have also lost the benefit of watching and playing with them.”Australia are currently in action against South Africa in the third and final Test at Johannesburg, and lead the series 2-0.

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

The opening day of this series turned into a nip-and-tuck battle between two sides aiming to consolidate mid-table respectability in the Test rankings. In the final reckoning New Zealand sneaked the points after four wickets for Kyle Mills and three for James Franklin, although they were balanced out by some gusty batting from South Africa on a surface that offered encouragement for the seamers.New Zealand’s attack was impressive, especially in the way they overcame the loss of Shane Bond to yet another injury before the match, but South Africa’s total could yet prove to be about par – the judgment will have to reserved until the Kiwis begin their reply. Given the way that Mills and Chris Martin got the second new ball to bounce and move the New Zealand top order will not have an easy time.However, Stephen Fleming could not have asked for much more from his bowlers after Graeme Smith opted to bat. The opening overs were well directed from Mills and Franklin, but South Africa weathered the early passage of play and would have been highly satisfied with their lunchtime loss of just the one wicket. Smith and Boeta Dippenaar had settled into their roles and begun to locate the boundary as the New Zealanders appeared low on firepower without Bond.Franklin changed the complexion of proceedings shortly after the interval when he removed Smith in a manner that won’t surprise anyone – falling across a straight ball. Smith’s dismissal continued his run without a half-century and, once again, he had done the hardwork before failing to press on. This would also become the story of South Africa’s day – batsmen and partnerships being terminated each time one threatened to develop. The first seven stands all reached double figures but none exceeded the 79 of Smith and Dippenaar.

Mills, who would have been the likely seamer to miss out if Bond had played, turned one person’s bad luck in another’s fortune with two further strikes during the afternoon session. Dippenaar’s pleasing half-century – studded with ten crisp boundaries – was ended by a limp pull then Ashwell Prince was undone by some extra bounce. That double blow left South Africa in a familiar position – relying on Jacques Kallis to steady the innings, something he is used to after 100 Tests.He needed a pain-killing injection into his troublesome elbow shortly after arriving at the crease, and with South Africa’s batting currently as creaky as Kallis’ elbow this was the crucial passage of play. He was struck on the helmet by Martin, but at the beginning of the final session crunched a series of powerful fours square of the wicket before Franklin made a timely intervention for New Zealand.With Kallis’s bat growing broader by the minute it was going to take something special to dislodge him and right on cue Franklin pulled out a stunning yorker. The Kiwis’ smiles grew wider when Franklin produced another peach to take de Villiers’ off stump.But this South African side certainly doesn’t give in easily. Even against Australia they fought every inch of the way and the lower order again played a vital role. Mark Boucher fell to a sharp piece of teamwork in the slips after a fast edge flew off the hands of third and Fleming clung onto the rebound at first. Shaun Pollock and Nicky Boje used the extra pace of the second new ball to strike some meaty boundaries and Dale Steyn, recalled in place of Andre Nel, unfurled a brace of legside flicks that belied his position at No. 10.New Zealand will be pleased with their tally of eight wickets, especially after their morning effort had produced a solitary scalp. Mills began his day by cleaning up Herschelle Gibbs in a manner that it is becoming an unwanted trademark. Gibbs had been returned to his traditional opening slot but the lack of footwork that haunted him against Australia was still evident and he heard the familiar rattle of timber. New Zealand continued to make life tough throughout but, after scrapping against the best for most of the summer, South Africa won’t give this up with a fight.How they were outHerschelle Gibbs b Mills 6 (21 for 1)
Graeme Smith lbw b Franklin 45 (95 for 2)
Boeta Dippenaar c Fulton b Mills (118 for 3)
Ashwell Price c Styris b Mills 9 (130 for 4)
Jacques Kallis b Franklin 38 (177 for 5)
AB de Villiers b Franklin 27 (197 for 6)
Mark Boucher c Fleming b Martin 18 (229 for 7)
Shaun Pollock c Styris b Mills 24 (233 for 8)