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Somerset Head Groundsman Phil Frost was busy spiking the outfield at The County Ground at Taunton this morning.Phil, who recently won the coveted Groundsman of the Year award for a record breaking fifth time in seven years told me, “The ground is looking better now than it did back in April at the start of the season.”It was bright and sunny this morning at the Cidermen’s headquarters and the conditions out in the middle looked almost good enough to play on.”The wickets seem to be getting better each year, “Phil told me, and went on, “I’m cutting the outfield every week, and today its being spiked.For the first time since I have been here I’ve cut the square with a cylinder mower well before Christmas.”All of this bodes well for 2002 when no doubt Phil Frost and his team will once again prepare wickets of the highest quality at Taunton.

ScorecardRailways lost 15 wickets on the third day in Mohali, and were in serious danger of an innings defeat after being asked to follow on. While Punjab’s seam-bowling pair of Brainder Sran and Siddarth Kaul accounted for all the batsmen in the first innings, left-arm spinner Varun Khanna picked up each of the five wickets to fall in the second.Resuming the day on 14 for 0, Railways didn’t lose a wicket until the 37th over of the day, as Ashish Singh and Saurabh Wakaskar raised 150 runs for the opening wicket. The visitors’ slide began when left-armer Sran had Wakaskar and Rohan Bhosale trapped lbw in successive deliveries. Two overs later, Sran dismissed captain Mahesh Rawat and Arindam Ghosh in the space of two deliveries to reduce Railways to 153 for 4. Kaul then had Ashish lbw, and thereon Railways lost their last five wickets for 29 runs in 6.3 overs.Following on, Railways lost Wakaskar in the seventh over after Khanna had him caught behind. Having slid to 54 for 3, the visitors were partially revived by a 62-run alliance between Prashant Awasthi and Arindam Ghosh before Khanna had Awasthi and Rawat caught behind off successive deliveries.
ScorecardHalf-centuries from opener Aditya Shrivastava and Naman Ojha helped Madhya Pradesh muster a solid response in Moradabad after Uttar Pradesh declared their first innings on 684.The visitors, though, were dealt with a blow early on, as seamer Ankit Rajpoot bowled Jalaj Saxena in the sixth over. Udit Birla (32) and Shrivastava attempted to patiently rebuild the innings, putting on 65 in 32 overs. Rajput, however, trapped Birla lbw to end his 82-ball effort. Shrivastava and Naman Ojha then joined hands to raise 157 runs in 44 overs before Ojha, whose innings included eight fours and three sixes, was dismissed by Kuldeep Yadav off what eventually turned out to be the last ball of the day. Shrivastava remained unbeaten on 99 off 254 balls.In the morning, Uttar Pradesh declared after 5.1 overs, adding 30 runs to their overnight total.
ScorecardSiddhesh Lad’s unbeaten half-century held Mumbai’s reply together after seamer Balwinder Sandhu’s five-for triggered Andhra Pradesh’s collapse in their first innings in Vizianagaram.Coming in at 61 for 4, Lad, whose innings included 10 fours and a six, added 97 runs with Nikhil Patil, who knuckled down for a 110-ball 27. Patil, however, was bowled by CV Stepen, who had earlier dismissed captain Aditya Tare for a duck, with 14 balls to go for stumps.In the morning, Andhra Pradesh, resuming on 213 for 4, scored only 31 more runs before folding up. Captain Mohammad Kaif added one run to his overnight score of 89 before being dismissed by Sandhu off the seventh ball of the day. During the course of the next five overs they slipped from 214 for 4 to 218 for 8, before B Ayyappa and KV Harish put on 22 runs for the ninth wicket. Seamer Shardul Thakur supported Sandhu’s efforts with three wickets.Tamil Nadu v Baroda in Chennai – Rahil Shah seals thrilling win for TN

The unluckiest dismissal
By inducing an edge, Pakistan’s bowlers nowadays enter a lottery. Kamran Akmal may catch it, he may not. Shoaib Akhtar started perfectly, put one in the channel, got Sourav Ganguly to commit to the shot, got his edge, celebrated prematurely, saw Akmal do that thing he does, turned and looked at Shoaib Malik, his captain, saying in effect: “I can’t play this game, man.” The wildchild of the old would have reacted a bit differently, one can be sure.Sachin Tendulkar, though, could not see the irony as he was disgusted that he edged one to Akmal and was acrobatically caught. That’s two in a row now for Tendulkar. He’ll do well to stay away from casinos.Wily old
On a difficult wicket, Sourav Ganguly used his bag of tricks perfectly. The start he provided, along with Tendulkar, helped India put up the total they did. Making room, stepping out, he used every trick to unsettle Umar Gul. But the real trick came out when Sohail Tanvir had a big shout for lbw going against him. The ball was full and it was headed towards the stumps. It had hit the pad first, but Ganguly ran with his bat lifted to suggest he had hit the ball. The umpire obliged and gave it a run. Amid the fearlessness of youth, Ganguly showed that experience helps.Boom boom too brief
Back to the haunt where he had scored his last century, ShahidAfridi was sent in to open again, chasing a big target on a tricky wicket. Sure enough the first ball he faced, he hit RP Singh back over his head for four. Three balls later, he crashed RP through the covers. A sense of guarded déjà vu took over, fielders ran hither and thither, conferences took place. And then – boom boom – anti-climax. Afridi swung mightily, Irfan Pathan swung gently, the ball kept low and crashed into the off stump.Brilliance, by chance
This has to be the conglomeration of the worst 22 fieldsmen one can possibly assemble on a field. The London Bridges, the butterfingers, the Gateways, the mosquito nets, have all arrived. And although they have been putting up their wares for the last two games, they reached their absolute crescendo in RP’s fourth over. When Salman Butt punched the first ball, Ganguly first dived over it at short cover, and Yuvraj Singh, at point, instead of diving tried to stop it with his foot, which lost all the gravitational pull and arrived late. Immediately, Ganguly was moved to mid-on.The next ball RP bowled was full and driven straight to Murali Kartik at mid-off. Kartik went down in slow motion, the ball came at live speed and RP had given eight runs off two balls for no fault of his.It was fitting that the only piece of brilliance turned into a run-out by chance and not by design. When Yuvraj Singh dived to save a sure boundary, Mohammad Yousuf had taken off for a run. Zaheer Khan, running to collect the throw [slow and loopy], missed it completely and somehow it hit the stumps.

Carlton Baugh, the wicketkeeper-batsman, has been dropped from the WestIndian one-day squad for five-match series against Pakistan startingDecember 5. The selectors have decided to retain Denesh Ramdin, who is partof the Test team, instead.The other players to miss out are Fidel Edwards, the fast bowler and WavellHinds, the opening batsman. Hinds had failed to make the Test squad, whileEdwards, had yielded his Test spot to Daren Powell in the second Test.Powell has made to the one-day squad as well.Lendl Simmons, the 21-year old opening batsman from Trinidad, is the onlynew face in the 14-member squad. Simmons was part of the Test squad and scored 40 in a tour match against the PCB Patron’s XI. Dave Mohammed, the chinaman bowler, whobowled creditably in the second Test is the lone specialist spinner.ODI squad
Brian Lara (captain), Ramnaresh Sarwan (vice-captain), Chris Gayle,Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Runako Morton, Marlon Samuels, Dwane Bravo, DwayneSmith, Lendl Simmons, Denesh Ramdin (wicketkeeper), Ian Bradshaw, Dave Mohammed, DarenPowell and Jerome Taylor

The Dolphins made the most of winning the toss and a good pitch to reach 308 for 3 by the close on the first day of their match against Cape Cobras at Paarl. Hashim Amla (118*) and Ahmed Amla led the way with a third-wicket stand of 205, ended shortly before the close when Ahmed Amla fell to Paul Adams, missing out on his fourth first-class hundred by two runs.The Eagles found the going tough after batting first against the Lions at Potchefstroom, Andrew Hall’s 5 for 39 doing much of the damage as they were bowled out for 181. The Lions made a solid reply, but two late wickets by Thandi Tshabalala gave the Eagles renewed hope as the Lions closed on 124 for 4.The Warriors closed on 277 for 5 against the Titans at East London, with half centuries from Mark Bruyns and Carl Bradfield underpinning their innings. Albie Morkel and Dale Steyn kept the Warriors in check with two wickets apiece.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has announced outline details of a forthcoming three-way one-day series, also involving Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, to be played in Pakistan from September 30. There will be seven one-day internationals in all, plus two Test matches against Sri Lanka.In a sponsorship deal worth over Rs17million, the mobile-phone provider Paktel has been awarded the title sponsorship of the series, while Super Asia are the co-sponsors. Transmedia Advertising has won the rights to in-stadium advertising. Prizemoney, totalling over a million rupees, will come out of the Paktel sponsorship.Akbar Khan, Paktel’s national marketing manager, said: “Paktel is sponsoring this mega-event because we understand the love that this nation has for this game and for us the people of Pakistan are more important than anything else. This is our way of thanking the people of Pakistan for the huge support they have given to Paktel over the years. Cricket is the first love of every Pakistani and watching three countries of the cricketing arena is a sure treat for all of us.”Paktel was the first cellular mobile service operator in Pakistan, and for a long time the word Paktel was commonly used as another word for mobile phone.

Just one week after raising the issue of “fancy fixing” in a letter to the International Cricket Council (ICC), exclusively published on Wisden Cricinfo, Rashid Latif has apologised to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for his action. Samiul Hasan, the PCB spokesman, said: “He [Latif] has written to the PCB saying he committed a mistake by writing that letter without consulting the Board. He regretted his decision and said he would not do any such thing in future without prior clearance from the board.”Hasan clarified that despite the apology, the board might yet take disciplinary action against Latif. “We have asked the ICC to explain if any procedures were violated. If the ICC says yes, then the matter would be referred to the PCB disciplinary committee, which comprises two judges, one legal advisor and a former Test cricketer.”While admitting that the letter had put the board in a “very awkward position”, Hasan was quick to point out that the PCB fully understood Latif’s concern over matchfixing. “He has been a front-runner in exposing matchfixing activities and has even put his career at stake,” said Hasan. “He has not named any cricketer in his letter. Also, nowhere in his letter does he say that matchfixing was still taking place. So whatever he has written are his personal views. He has a right to his views as captain of the team.”In his letter to the ICC, Latif had raised concerns about the occurrence of “fancy fixing” – a form of matchfixing where bets are placed on various smaller aspects of the match. According to a report in The Independent, the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit had noted this phenomenon too – Lord Condon, head of the ACU, had listed nine specific aspects in his draft report two years ago, terming them “occurrence fixing”.The ICC is likely to ask Latif to raise his concerns at the annual international captains’ meet, which takes place in September.

Charl Langeveldt has been released from the South African squad for the first Castle Lager/MTN Test match against India in Bloemfontein starting on Saturday and will be available to play for Boland in their Western Cape derby against Western Province at the weekend.According to a United Cricket Board media release, Langevedlt would not have been among the 11 playing in the Test. Selection convener Rushdi Magiet is quoted as saying: “It is important for South African cricket that he play as much cricket as possibleand this would not be the case were he to act as 12th man in Bloemfontein.”Members of the Free State team who have a bye this weekend will do duty as 12th man.The South African Test team is: Gary Kirsten, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Neil McKenzie, Boeta Dippenaar, Lance Klusener, Shaun Pollock (capt), Mark Boucher, Nicky Boje, Makhaya Ntini, Nantie Hayward.

The former Gloucestershire wicketkeeper, international umpire and professional footballer Barrie Meyer has died in Durban aged 83.Meyer stood in 26 Tests and 23 ODIs, including the 1979 and 1983 World Cup finals, following a career where he played 406 first-class matches and 44 List A games. He stood in the famous 1981 Ashes Test at Headingley where Ian Botham and Bob Willis turned the match on its head.He was an all-round sportsman having played football for Bristol Rovers, Plymouth, Newport County and Bristol City. For Bristol Rovers he scored 60 goals in 139 league matches and scored against Manchester United in the 4-0 FA Cup victory in 1951.Meyer umpired his first international in 1977, an ODI against Australia at Old Trafford, and his final match was also against Australia, a Test at The Oval, in 1993.

Umaid Asif picked four wickets in two overs•PSL

Pace trio Waqas Maqsood, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Umaid Asif took nine wickets between them to skittle New Zealand A for 65, before the batsmen shrugged off the paltry target with more than seven overs to spare, as Pakistan A romped to an eight-wicket win in the first unofficial T20I in Dubai.New Zealand lost three early wickets to the opening combination of Maqsood and Afridi, finding themselves at 11 for 3, with the latter on a hat-trick at one stage. First-change Asif then tightened the noose, snaffling five in quick time to finish as the pick of the bowlers with 5 for 20, his best T20 figures. Only captain Corey Anderson and wicketkeeper Tim Seifert offered a modicum of resistance. But once they were separated by Asif, with a slower ball that Anderson dragged on to his stumps, the innings went into a steep nosedive again. Despite Seifert’s 26, which included five fours, the visitors folded up inside 13 overs.In response Pakistan lost their openers early, Sahibzada Farhan run out for 1 and Umar Amir hit wicket for 20 off Kyle Jamieson. But there were no hiccups thereafter as the third-wicket pair of Iftikhar Ahmed and Hussain Tallat stitched together a partnership of 44 off 51 balls to see the hosts home.