Nottinghamshire fought gamely in their one-day match against Zimbabwe before going down by 5 wickets as the tourists warmed up for the forthcoming Tri-Nations Series against England and West Indies.Put in to bat Notts reached 207 before being bowled out in the final over of their innings with opener Guy Welton being the last man out for a splendid 94.Craig Wishart and Guy Whittall got the Zimbabwean reply off to an explosive start as they rattled up 19 runs in the first 3 overs. Wishart in particular looked in fine form until David Lucas, in an expensive opening burst, managed to find the blockhole and bowl him for 16.New batsman Murray Goodwin must have relished the prospect of a return to Trent Bridge having hit a century against England on the ground last month had to play second fiddle for a while. Whittall was dropped by Read on 9 but then set about the bowling crashing Tolley over midwicket for 6 to add to a couple of spanking pulls off Mark Bowen.With the score on 69 Notts picked up their second wicket thanks to a brilliantboundary catch by Usman Afzaal. Goodwin had hit Tolley to deep square leg but diving at full length Afzaal clutched the ball inches from the rope.Whittall’s entertaining knock camc to an end shortly aFterwards following the introduction of Andy Harris into the attack from the Pavilion End. A mistimed pull looped for an easy catch to Chris Read. The tourists were momentarily rocking at 79–3 and their snoring rate dropped alarmingly as Alastair Campbell found himself marooned on 1 for 11 overs.Andy Flower, though, was going along nicely until Richard Stemp trapped him lbw for 26 to make it 114-4. Grant Flower added 13 before being dismissed Giles Haywood’s first over. That brought Neil Johnson to the crease and he rapidly took the contest away from Notts, crashing four boundaries in an over off Richard Stemp on his way to 40 out of a 50 stand with Camphell.Zimbabwe reached their target with more than eight overs to spare.

Rawalpindi, Oct 30: Spin wizard Saqlain Mushtaq bowled Pakistan totheir first one-day series victory over England in 26 years when theywon the third and final one-dayer six wickets at the Pindi CricketStadium here on Monday.Saqlain captured five for 20. This was the sixth time that he achievedthe feat, as England were spun out for a paltry 158 in 42.5 overs.In their target chase, Pakistan top order almost made a mess of thingswhen the three top order batsmen returned at the score of 51. ButInzamam-ul-Haq and Yousuf Youhana held the innings together beforeAbdur Razzaq finished the match in 43.3 overs with a little cavaliernine-ball 17 with four boundaries.Inzamam hit an elegant but punishing 60 while Youhana nudged andpushed the ball before losing his off stump to Craig White with 31still needed. The two featured in a 77-run third wicket partnership.England paceman Andrew Caddick picked up Imran Nazir and Shahid Afridion the last ball of his first over and first ball of the second overrespectively to be on a split hat trick which was thwarted by Inzamam.Later Ashley Giles accounted for Salim Elahi to give an intriguingturn to what looked like a calkwalk victory for Pakistan. But the twomost experienced Pakistan batsmen batted professionally, responsiblyand defiantly to shatter the Englishmen’s dreams.While Pakistan, for the second successive match, exposed England’svulnerability against quality spin bowling, the tourists also hadsomething to gain from the third match. The three inexperienced butpromising Pakistan stroke-makers struggled against a fired-up Englandbowling led by Caddick on a placid track. Imran, playing for a sickSaeed Anwar, was caught in the second slip and Shahid Afridi wasbeaten by the swing to be caught by Nasser Hussain at point. Bothfailed to show any resilience against controlled swing bowling fromthe visitors.Salim, an in-form batsmen, could have easily been third victim toEngland pacers had Graeme Hick held on to a regulation catch offDarren Gough with Pakistan reeling at 20 for two.From then on, Inzamam and Youhana took control of the proceedings withsome excellent but at times risky strokes. Youhana was cool andcalculated by rotating the strike, Inzamam batted by mixing cautionwith aggression with some fluent carpet drives that yielded sevenboundaries.England fielding also let them down when they failed to convert threehalf chances and also missed the sticks thrice to run out the batsmen.Inzamam was dropped by Ashley Giles off White when 50.Abdur Razzaq also had a memorable day when he became the 12thPakistani to capture 100 wickets while pushing back the off stump ofMark Ealham. Razzaq’s 99th victim was Alec Stewart who was caughtbehind the wickets.England were in dire straits when they slumped to 86 for six afterMoin Khan won the third successive toss and put England into bat. ButGraham Thorpe and Ealham (23) saved England from completeembarrassment by adding 47 for the seventh wicket.Thorpe was the last man out after scoring 39 while Trecothick scored36.However, the poor leg before decision by Mian Aslam against Englandcaptain Nasser Hussain took the gloss off a comprehensive Pakistanvictory. Wasim Akram’s delivery had pitched nearly six inches outsidethe leg stump but Aslam, who is in the ICC panel, raised his fingerstowards heaven to stun the England captain as well as experts of thegame. In Karachi, Riazuddin had given a shocking decision against AlecStewart off Akram. Both are in the ICC panel.England will now stay in Rawalpindi and play a four-dayer againstPatron’s Eleven at the KRL from Wednesday.

Orissa, who are enjoying a very good season, continued their fine formon the opening day of their East Zone Ranji Trophy league matchagainst Assam at the Tinsukia District Sports Association Stadium inAssam on Thursday. After dismissing Assam for 167 runs, Orissa were 99for two off 27 overs at stumps.Electing to bat after winning the toss, Assam made a bad start losingopener Parag Das for a duck. Subharajit Saikia (31) and skipperZakaria Zuffri (66) steadied the innings with a second wicketpartnership of 63 runs. Saikaia made 31 off 57 balls while Zuffri topscored with 66 off 147 balls. But the rest of Assam batting offeredlittle resistance and Assam were bowled out in the 58th over. SanjaySatpati was the pick of the bowlers with 3/41 in 12 overs.Orissa too made a poor start, losing Pradeep Das leg before to ZavedZaman for a duck. A second wicket partnership of 93 runs betweencaptain Shiv Sunder Das and Rasmi Ranjan Parida saved Orissa fromfurther trouble. Das was dismissed after making a stroke filledinnings of 54 off 77 balls. He smashed nine boundaries in his 104-minute stay at the crease. At close of play, Parida was unbeaten on 44off 78 balls which includes three boundaries and a six. SanjaySatpathy remained unbeaten without opening his account. Play wasstopped five minutes before the scheduled close because of bad light.

Well the time has come for us to get stuck into our winter programme. On Thursday, in Bulawayo we start off our two Test Match Series against India, who on paper, and on recent performance look a very formidable unit.I read through their team sheet the other day, and the thought struck me that on their day, every member of their team could be a match winner. Not many other teams in the world could boast such strength and depth.India’s batting has always been its strength, and with players likeTendulkar, Dravid, Laxman, and Ganguly it is no surprise why. But with Srinath fit again, Zaheer Khan, Agarkar and of course Harbhajan Singh bowling for them, the balance of their side has never looked better. With John Wright at the helm they have gone from strength to strength. I feel it is going to take a lot of good gutsy cricket from us to get one over the Indians.Having said all of this, though, there still hangs over their heads the fact that their away record is nothing short of “a few unprintable four letter words”.They have been described as Tigers at home and Lambs abroad, and I am sure that they will be going all out to try and change this particular title as well as their record.This however could work in our favour, as they get to a stage where they start pushing too hard to achieve results, we will be there, hopefully, to cash in on any errors and mistakes they may make.It promises to be a fascinating contest, something I can’t wait to start and get my teeth into. I think people will enjoy the battle between the two teams no more so than the individual duels we are going to witness. Heath Streak against Sachin Tendulkar, and Andrew Flower against Harbhajan Singh promises to be a great contest between great players – Let the action begin!

“I haven’t seen too many of those games,” was Kevin Shine’s reaction to Somerset’s 10-over victory over Surrey in the Norwich Union National League on Sunday at the Oval.”It was an excellent all round performance, and we were very happy to come away with four points. All the bowlers performed well, particularly Ian Jones who came in at the last minute to replace Richard Johnson who went down Sunday morning with food poisoning. Rob Turner was also missing with food poisoning and Mike Burns had to keep wicket.”When it came to the batting he said: “there was some pretty brutal hitting from Ian Blackwell who made an unbeaten 33 to help us home with more than three overs to spare.”

Jonathan Dakin’s innings of 179 totally dominated Leicestershire’s easy victory over Wales at Swansea.Man-of-the-match Dakin thrashed 10 sixes and 15 fours in a score that is the fourth highest ever in the competition.He was pushed up the order as a pinch-hitter but outdid the other batsmen so well that only Ben Smith passed the half-century mark. Smith helped Dakin add 161 in only 15 overs for the fourth wicket.Dakin was particularly strong against Lyndon Jones as he struck him for five sixes. He reached his century from 108 balls before adding his other 79 runs from only 37 more deliveries.With Smith reaching his fifty from 39 balls and finishing unbeaten on 64, it left Leicestershire on a total of 332-4 which was far too much to ask of Wales.The Welsh bowlers were without Phil George as the medium-pacer injured his back and retired during the sixth over of the day. Yorkshireman David Towse worked hard to knock out the off stump of Vince Wells, and Nathan Gage clean bowled Aftab Habib.Wales lost their skipper and former West Indian all-rounder Phil Simmons after he played a lazy shot to point to leave Wales on 39-3.They were revived by Kristian Bell who was run out after scoring 33 but Ryan Sylvester then hit a six and nine fours in a knock of 73 off 99 balls before he holed out to Devon Malcolm in the 47th over.Wales ended with the respectable total of 199-8 and at least batted out their overs but still lost by 133 runs.

Goa Cricket Association (GCA) president Dayanand Narvekar and threeother GCA officials were arrested and subsequently released by Margaopolice last evening, police sources said in Panaji on Tuesday.Narvekar, GCA secretary Vinod Phadke, former treasurer Rama Shankardasand a member Vivek Pednekar were arrested under section 336 of IndianPenal Code (IPC) on charges of endangering human lives during theIndia-Australia ODI on April 6, they said. They were subsequentlyreleased on bail bond of Rs 10,000 each, sources said.Narvekar, a former deputy chief minister, Phadke and Shankardas are onbail in another case connected with the fake ticket scam. Achargesheet in the case was likely to be filed by the police thisweek, they said.According to police, around 15,000 ticket holders had to be deniedentry fearing a stampede on the day of the ODI as the stadium waspacked to capacity. It had to then resort to a lathi charge todisperse the crowd.

Somerset made the most of Kent stage fright to canter through to next month’s Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy semi-finals with a 52-run quarter-final win in steamy Canterbury.Kent followed their slipshod performance in the field with a naive batting display that saw them dismissed for 211 as they chased Somerset’s 50-over total of 263 for eight.Only Rob Key’s stoic 106-ball innings of 58 and David Fulton with 31 put in the required performance with the bat as Somerset’s military-medium seamer Keith Parsons bagged three for 38 and Andrew Caddick two for 35.Once Caddick bowled out his 10 overs the hosts attempted to paper over the cracks with some lusty late hitting from Kent skipper Matthew Fleming and Min Patel (27 not out), but it was all too little too late and failed to make up for a generally nervous and slapdash performance.The final nail in Kent’s coffin came five overs from the end when Fleming, having scored 40 from 41 balls, lost his leg stump in trying to paddle a full-length ball from Richard Johnson into the gaps in the leg-side field.The end for Kent followed within five balls with a missed slog by Martin Saggers and the run-out of last man Ben Trott as he attempted a ridiculous single to see Somerset through to a home semi-final tie with Warwickshire.Kent’s quarter-final nerves were clear for supporters and the television cameras to see as they put in their worst fielding display of the summer.The hosts dropped vital catches, notably Marcus Trescothick when on eight, missed a run-out and then two stumpings which, coupled with numerous misfields and over-throws, helped boost the Somerset total beyond a par-for-the-course total.Bowling in overcast conditions after Somerset elected to bat, Kent were given a good start through Saggers who sent back Peter Bowler and visiting skipper Jamie Cox to perfectly pitched out-swingers.Trescothick scratched around for eight runs from 27 balls before Trott found his outside edge only to see Patel down a waist-high chance at second slip.After the let-off Trescothick clubbed three of the next four balls to the boundary on his way to 43 from 54 balls, before England colleague Mark Ealham squeezed one through the left-hander’s gate to make it 84 for three.With Kent appearing edgy, Somerset took full toll of numerous fielding slips to up their run rate through man-of-the-match Michael Burns (71) and all-rounder Ian Blackwell, who hit 50 from 49-balls, to post a respectable 50-over total.Saggers and Ealham each claimed two wickets apiece, as did Andrew Symonds who sent back Blackwell and Johnson in the penultimate over of the innings.

There was frustration and disappointment for Kenyan cricket officials andfollowers on Saturday with the abandonment of the third day’s play in the fourday match between Kenya and the touring West Indians.Early morning rain in the coastal town of Mombasa seeped through the covers ofthe Sports Ground pitch, leaving the umpires no alternative but to abandon theday’s play before the scheduled 10am start.The four-day game, the closest thing the Kenyans have yet experienced to Testmatch cricket, is now destined to fizzle to a draw on Sunday. The West Indiesare 118 without loss in their first innings in reply to Kenya’s 290.The main interest in Sunday’s action will be to see how far not out batsmenChris Gayle (61) and Daren Ganga (53) can extend their individual scores, andto see what sort of form the remaining West Indian batsmen, including Hinds,Sarwan and Samuels, can display.With a three-match series of official one-day internationals to commence onWednesday, Kenya are facing some injury worries. Sandeep Gupta, making hisfirst appearance for Kenya in eighteen months, has a fractured finger afterbeing struck by a delivery from Reon King in the first innings. Thomas Odoyobowled just one over on Friday, suffering a recurrence of a knee problem.Gupta and Odoyo join batsman Ravindu Shah on Kenya’s injury list.

England are aiming to look to the future rather than the past when the fourth test against Australia gets under way at Headingley tomorrow.With the country inundated by articles, features and television specials about the exploits of Ian Botham and Bob Willis on this ground 20 years ago, thepresent England team are aiming to stop Australia’s momentum and claim a consolation prize from this one-sided Ashes series.With the Ashes already gone beyond recall, the back-to-back Tests at Headingleyand The Oval are seen more as a chance to evaluate form and availability as the selectors look towards the tour of India later this year.That squad will be announced on August 28th, together with the one-day party tovisit Zimbabwe for five one-day internationals in September, if the politicalclimate there allows it.”We can’t afford to keep losing – we’ve got to put a performance in again andstart the ball rolling once again,” stressed the England captain Nasser Hussain, back after missing two Tests with a broken finger.”Everyone tends to look back to the glory days, but we have to be careful wedon’t do that. We are looking to the future and not backwards, which even goesfor this side – there’s no point going on about the last 18 months when we’vebeen successful if we rock up and keep losing.”English cricket has to carry on. We’ve competed against everyone else butnot this Australian side, but we have important tours coming up and we have tothink about the future.”Hussain and the Chairman of the England selectors, David Graveney, will have further discussions with England’s two senior players, Alec Stewart and Michael Atherton, before England finalise their tour parties.Hussain said: “They have two important weeks making up their own minds becausewith the tour selections coming up soon after the Oval we would hope both ofthem and anyone else would have made their minds up by then.”I have great respect for those two, they have both played over 120 Testmatches, both average around 40, Stewie does little wrong behind the stumps andAthers is still catching well and still gutsy – for me there is no doubt whatAlec Stewart and Michael Atherton have done for this country cricket wise.”If players wanted to miss part of the winter we would have to review it witheach individual. I’ve been in that situation before with Graham Thorpe knockingon my door asking for the winter off and I know the coach has strong opinions onthat.”Hussain faces a motivational task to lift a side already 3-0 down in the series and facing the prospect of a 5-0 whitewash.”We have to get better – it’s as simple as that,” he insisted. “We’ve shown signs of recovery and competed against every other side in the world but we just haven’t done it against Australia.”The road doesn’t just end because the Ashes are gone, we’ve got to carry onand try and continue to get better.”Hussain admits he is badly short of match practice. “I don’t feel I’ve had a summer yet. We’ve got 10 very important days coming up which are no more or lessimportant to me than what has just gone.”In an ideal world I’d have played a couple of championship games for Essexbefore I came back but they were not there and with Australia over here and backto back Test matches coming up, I as captain have to come back and get stuckin.”Hussain is undecided about selection, with spinner Robert Croft retained in the 13-man party. If they decide to choose an all-seam attack, the final place alongside Alex Tudor, Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick will presumably rest between Richard Johnson and Alan Mullally.