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Scorecard

Andrew Strauss became only the fourth player to score a Test century on debut at Lord’s to put England on top in the first Test. After New Zealand were bowled out for 386 shortly before lunch, boosted by a whirlwind innings from Chris Cairns, Strauss scored a memorable 112 on his home ground, and put on 190 with Marcus Trescothick as England closed on a healthy 246 for 2.Apart from that thumping thunderbolt of a knock by Cairns – 82 from 47 balls – in which time he went past Viv Richards for the most sixes ever hit in Tests, it was unquestionably England’s day. Stephen Harmison helped wrap up the tail with three quick wickets in the morning, and then Trescothick and the impressive Strauss put their side in control with a commanding batting display.It couldn’t have gone much better for Strauss, who joined several exclusive clubs. He became the first England player to score a hundred on Test debut since Graham Thorpe in 1993, and the first Middlesex player to do so for England at Lord’s (indeed no Englishman had ever scored a Test-debut century on his home ground before). He also became the second Englishman, behind John Hampshire, to score a debut ton on this ground, and the second Middlesex cricketer to make a century in his first Test match, after Pelham Warner against South Africa at Johannesburg in 1898-99.Strauss must have had a few extra nerves jangling when he came out to bat shortly before lunch. However, he was in good touch from the off and looked like an old hand. He was surprisingly assured for a debutant, driving well through the off side, and also quick to pick off anything on his legs. He was positive from the start, smacking Chris Martin through the covers, and then lifting him over gully for his half-century.His confidence then grew and grew, and Martin, in particular, came in for punishment as Stephen Fleming was left scratching his head for ideas to break Strauss’s impressive partnership with Trescothick. Strauss did have one spot of bother when, on 74, he was nearly run out by Mark Richardson at short leg after coming down the track to Daniel Vettori. He continued to make good progress towards his century, but became stuck in the nervous nineties – and also survived an enormous slice of luck at 91, when he inside-edged Martin firmly onto his off stump, but the bails miraculously stayed put as the ball flew for four.He spent all of 40 minutes scratching around in the nineties, but it was worth the wait when he stroked Martin through the covers to start the celebrations. Strauss punched the air and took off his helmet as the crowd rose to their feet. He even got a handshake from Fleming, the New Zealand captain and a former Middlesex team-mate. His adventure finally came to an end, though, when he clipped Vettori, via his pad, to Richardson at short leg with four overs remaining (239 for 2).Strauss’s enthralling entrance to Test cricket rather overshadowed the captain Trescothick’s innings, which was all about timing and placement. As usual, he didn’t move his feet much, but waited for the ball to come to him. He got going by punching Daryl Tuffey down the ground for four, and then cut Jacob Oram to the boundary in the next over. Not even Cairns could repeat his earlier heroics with the ball, as he was cut and driven with ease. Trescothick then signalled his half-century, and the hundred partnership, with a crunching cover-drive off Martin. Trescothick received the applause, but he was quick to thank Strauss at the other end.However, Oram finally put a smile on the New Zealanders’ faces when Trescothick nibbled at an awayswinger through to Brendon McCullum, the wicketkeeper, for a captain’s innings of 86 (190 for 1).Mark Butcher survived a few close shouts for lbw before the close, but he played an important part in helping Strauss before finishing on 22 not out at the end of a good day’s work for England, started by Harmison under early gloomy skies. Harmison struck on his fifth ball of the day when Oram nicked him through to Geraint Jones for 67 (287 for 6). But just when England managed to get rid of one big hitter, another one, in the form of Cairns, strode to the crease with intent.

He walloped Harmison, Matthew Hoggard and Simon Jones all round Lord’s with some outrageous and extravagant strokes. But the fun really started as he approached a lightning half-century, which he notched up from only 37 balls by flicking Jones over midwicket. Jones was then deposited into the Mound Stand for six, and then Cairns somehow squirted Harmison over point for another. That shot took him to 84 Test sixes, equal with Richards at the top of the list.The six which took him clear was probably one of the highest of the 85, over square leg. For good measure, he hit the next one into the crowd over point. Andrew Flintoff did get his man the third time, when Cairns went for another big one, but scooped it down to fine leg, where Harmison took a good running catch to close the innings.Cairns’s cameo was all the more important considering the tumble of wickets around him. Tuffey, the nightwatchman, was bowled all ends up by Harmison (324 for 7), McCullum inside-edged a Jones half-tracker into his stumps (329 for 8), and Vettori also played on, to Harmison, for 2 (338 for 9).

North Zone
Unbeaten centuries from Aakash Chopra and Shikhar Dhawan gave Delhi a massive ten-wicket win over Punjab at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi. Ravi Inder, Uday Kaul and Ankur Kakkar scored half-centuries to take Punjab to a competitive 274. But Chopra and Dhawan scored at more than six an over to chase the total with 39 balls to spare. Punjab used six bowlers and none of them conceded less than five an over, with Manpreet Gony and Kakkar going for more than seven each.Vishal Bhatia took 4 for 32 with his left-arm spin as Himachal bowled out Haryana for 193 and chased the target with six overs to spare at the Harbax Singh Stadium in Delhi.Jammu & Kashmir collapsed to a 96-run defeat against Services in Delhi’s Palam A Ground. After Jasvir Singh (73) and Soomik Chatarjee (71*) steered Services to 281 for 6 in 50 overs, Rakesh Kumar removed the openers in the first over. Ian Dev Singh and Huwaid Ronga led a brief recovery of 59 runs but after Ronga was run out for 21, J&K kept losing wickets at regular intervals. A Kush, playing in only his second List A match, took 3 for 37.East Zone
Bengal needed only 29 overs to wrap up a nine-wicket win against Assam at the North-East Frontier Railway Stadium in Guwahati. S Sharath scored an unbeaten 80 from 148 balls but with absolutely no support from the rest of the batsmen – the next highest score being 14 – he could only push Assam’s total to 147. Arindam Das and Anustup Majumdar added 89 runs in 19 overs but after Majumdar’s dismissal, Das and Wriddhiman Saha knocked off the remaining 59 required from 60 balls to gain a bonus point for Bengal.Sourav Dubey’s 106-ball 93 wasn’t enough for Tripura to get their second win in a row as Orissa chased Tripura’s 260 with four wickets spare at the Nehru Stadium in Guwahati. Pinninti Jayachandra and Preetamjit Das took three wickets each as no other Tripura batsman scored more than 39. Three half-centuries from top-order batsmen – Bikas Pati, Payas Ranjan Sinha and Halhadar Das – gave Orissa their second win of the tournament.West Zone
After chasing 358 against Baroda at the same venue just a day before, Mumbai fell 46 runs short of Gujarat’s 307 at the Deccan Gymkhana Ground in Pune. Mumbai bowlers Ajit Agarkar, Rohan Raje and Murtuza Hussain went for more than six and a half an over as four Gujarat batsmen helped themselves to half-centuries. Medium-pace bowler Abhishek Nayar was taken for 19 runs in his two overs. Mumbai were in trouble when they lost four wickets for 94 runs. Anup Revendkar and Aditya Tare got fifties but having lost those early wickets Mumbai couldn’t pick themselves up for a fightback.Kedar Jadhav ensured Maharashtra successfully chased Saurashtra’s 327 by hammering a 97-ball 124 at the PYC Gymkhana Ground in Pune. Cheteshwar Pujara added 68 with Sagar Jogiyani and 107 with Shitanshu Kotak to take Saurashtra to a big total in their opening game of the tournament. Maharashtra scored at 6.8 runs an over and lost only five wickets in getting to the target.

Stephen Fleming has warned New Zealand not to take Bangladesh for granted in the upcoming ODI and Test series. Fleming, the former New Zealand captain, was leading the New Zealand Cricket XI that lost to the Bangladeshis in a charity Twenty20 game in Hamilton.”If we’re tentative, they’ll put up a fight,” he told the after the game. Fleming, who retired from ODIs after the World Cup but is still part of New Zealand’s Test team, highlighted the Bangladesh batsmen as the key threat. “They’ve got good strokemakers,” he said. “There’s not a lot of fear in some of their players and on their day they can come off – we’ve seen that in some of the upsets they’ve caused at World Cups.”Fleming also contrasted the approach of the Bangladesh batsmen with that of New Zealand. “Their batting is probably almost the opposite of where our batting unit is,” Fleming admitted. “They seem full of confidence, and they don’t really have a lot of fear. The consequence of them playing a bad shot and getting out doesn’t seem to be there.”New Zealand’s batsmen haven’t had a great run of late; Dale Steyn decimated the line-up with 20 wickets in the two Tests in South Africa, and barring one ODI in Port Elizabeth, their batsmen have generally failed to cope. “It feels very tentative with the batting unit – there’s been a lot of focus on it, the performances haven’t been great and with that comes a certain amount of tension.”Coming into the side, you could feel that, the ways the guys played. We have to get away from that and try and stamp some authority with the willow in hand.” The match on Sunday was Fleming’s first competitive game after the Tests in South Africa, during which he had dislocated his thumb. Fleming, who made 17, but was not his fluent self, said, “I felt like a fish out of water. It was all a bit foreign. I was pretty nervous after six weeks without playing so things are pretty green at the moment.”Bangladesh, who haven’t won an ODI or Test against New Zealand, play the first of the three-match ODI series on Boxing Day in Auckland. The two-Test series, in which Fleming is to play, begins in Dunedin on January 4.

Jesse Ryder is in line for his New Zealand debut after he was called up for their Twenty20 and one-day series against England. Paul Hitchcock, the medium pacer who last played for New Zealand in their ODI tour of Pakistan in 2003-04, has been recalled, while the uncapped Tim Southee was named in the Twenty20 squad.Ryder, a hard-hitting batsman and handy seamer, has been on the fringes of the national squad for some time but was frustrated by not being selected sooner. He didn’t turn up for Ireland last UK summer, was considering playing for England, and refused to attend the training camp for New Zealand’s initial 30-man World Cup group. He made himself unavailable for last year’s New Zealand A tour of Australia, but he has finally won an opportunity.”Jesse has the potential to provide an explosive start alongside Brendon McCullum at the top of the innings in both forms of the game,” Richard Hadlee, the selection manager, said. “Tim will join the squad for the Twenty20 leg only. He is an impressive young bowler and the Twenty20 internationals present an ideal opportunity for him to step into the senior fold. He will then rejoin the New Zealand Under-19 World Cup squad for the World Cup.””Off the field I have had a few problems in the past but this year has been great,” Ryder told the New Zealand Herald. “You have to grow up sooner or later if you want to make the big time. It’s taken me a little longer than I had hoped.”Southee, 19, a right-arm fast bowler, made his debut for Northern Districts late last season. In his most recent first-class match, in December, he collected 6 for 68 in a losing side. He will be joined in the Twenty20 attack by Hitchcock, 33, who played 13 ODIs from 2002 to 2003.”Paul Hitchcock is an experienced bowler whose style is well suited to New Zealand conditions and venues,” Hadlee said. “He also gives greater depth to the batting order and a versatile range of bowling skills. Michael Mason replaces Tim Southee for the ODI series, with Jeetan Patel bringing the squad to 13.”New Zealand play two Twenty20 matches against England, the first on February 5, and then five ODIs. The squad announced today will be reviewed after the third one-dayer.Twenty20 squad Brendon McCullum (wk), Jesse Ryder, Jamie How, Ross Taylor, Peter Fulton, Scott Styris, Jacob Oram, Daniel Vettori (capt), Kyle Mills, Tim Southee, Paul Hitchcock, Chris Martin.ODI squad Brendon McCullum (wk), Jesse Ryder, Jamie How, Ross Taylor, Peter Fulton, Scott Styris, Jacob Oram, Daniel Vettori (capt), Kyle Mills, Michael Mason, Jeetan Patel, Paul Hitchcock, Chris Martin.

Andrew Flintoff is set to make an early return to action in Lancashire’s National League match against Middlesex, at Lord’s on Sunday. Early indications were that he would not return to competitive action until mid-May and although he will only be playing as a batsman his comeback will be a boost to the England camp ahead of the Ashes.Flintoff underwent ankle surgery after returning from England’s Test series against South Africa at the end of January. He was originally given a timescale of around 12 weeks before he would be ready to play again, but he was worked intensively with Dave Roberts, the former England physio, and has been given permission to play by Dr Peter Gregory, the ECB’s chief medical officer.”I’m desperate to the back in action,” Flintoff told . “It’s over 10 weeks since I’ve had a game but I’ve felt in decent form in practice and I just want to get going again.”Dr Gregory visited Flintoff in Bolton and at Old Trafford where he bowled six overs in the nets. Mike Watkinson, the Lancashire cricket manager, said: “Dr Gregory spent time with Freddie watching him bat and bowl and there were no mishaps – he looks ready to play. It will be a boost for us but even more so for him because he has reached saturation point in his rehabilitation programme and just wants to get out there again with his bat.”If Flintoff gets through the National League match without any reaction he could make his first-class return in Lancashire’s County Championship clash with Worcestershire at New Road, starting on April 27. However, he will still miss England’s two Tests against Bangladesh.

After losing by an innings and 77 runs to Barbados in their opening match of the Carib Beer Cup, India ‘A’ bounced back in their second game, thanks largely to their batsmen, who saw them to a first-innings total of 450.Although the game is unlikely to be won by the tourists, who batted two whole days out of four, the runs are likely to boost confidence in the batting line-up ahead of the four games remaining before the semi-finals.Leeward Islands, surprisingly, asked India ‘A’ to take first strike at Grove Park, Charlestown, Nevis. They would have regretted their decision at the end of the first day, when their rivals reached 164 for one after rain interrupted play several times and finally ended it with only 47.4 overs bowled.The position was due in large part to openers Gautam Gambhir and Akash Chopra. Chopra hit 79 and was the first wicket to fall, caught behind off fast bowler Carl Simon. Gambhir continued into the second day with Connor Williams for company and was unlucky to miss out on his century, bowled by Adam Sanford for 98.Captain VVS Laxman, who made a duck in both innings against Barbados, did not do much better here, managing just four. When he fell, shortly after Williams did for 41, India ‘A’ looked to have squandered the advantage. But young tyro Ambati Rayudu hit up 84 of the best and brightest, and Abhijit Kale made 80, holding the lower middle order together.India ‘A’ were bowled out for 450, made in 139.5 overs, towards the end of the second – also rain-interrupted – day. For Leeward Islands, Simon and offie Omari Banks picked three wickets apiece.

After surrendering so meekly on the lively tracks in New Zealand,skipper Sourav Ganguly sounded philosophical about the dismalperformance by the Indian batsmen. Ganguly found support from theNew Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming, and even from the CEO of NZcricket Martin Snedden – about the nature of pitches prepared forthe one-day series.Granted that the conditions were not friendly for the Indianbatsmen in New Zealand. Even the most cynical Indian supporterwas willing to give them the benefit of doubt after that debacle.But what about looking like wannabes against the Dutch at Paarl?One could be forgiven for thinking that it was starting-troublefor the Indian batsmen against the Dutch.So they travelled to Centurion to take on the world championsAustralia. There were enough reasons to hope that India would putup a better performance at Centurion. We still had faith in theseven-batsman theory, though there were enough signals in ThePeople’s XI to suggest that Sourav Ganguly and Mohammad Kaif havebeen put on notice. Ganguly picked up only 76.69% of votes andwas placed at # 8, and Kaif finished at #11 – picking up 61.81%votes.<!–.sch {font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,MS Sans Serif;font-size: 10px;color: #000000;}.hah {font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,MS Sans Serif;font-size: 10px;font-weight: bold;color: #999999;}th {font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,MS Sans Serif;font-size: 10px;color: #FFFFFF;}

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View in graphic formatGoing by the vote pattern in The People’s XI, Ganguly and Kaifhad a lot to prove with their bat at Centurion. Ganguly failedagain after spending 27 minutes in the middle, hitting oneboundary in making nine runs. He was again caught behind,sparring at a delivery outside the off stump. When the skipperstruggles so badly, the rest of the team follows suit.

But there can’t be any excuses for the way Mohd Kaif has beenbatting lately. Today he scored just the solitary run beforefinding the fielder placed at deep backward square leg withuncanny accuracy – with a hook shot. That makes it 90 runs in thelast eleven outings at an average of 8.18Even though the selectors can’t give the failing batsmen a shocktreatment in the middle of a tournament, they have full right tocall up the team management and ask them to get things right – atthe earliest. As far as India’s chances in the World Cup go, theycannot afford to lose a game from here on.This was the playing XI at Centurion – and all they could gatherwas 125 runs, and the seven-batsmen theory was put to shame onceagain. For the tenth time in a row India failed to bat out thefull compliment of 50 overs. Now that is some dubious record!Here is your chance to make your opinion heard loud and clear.Even before the selectors get together and even decide to talk tothe team management, cast your votes for The People’s XI. It isthe people’s choice – whether the likes of Bangar and Agarkarshould play ahead of Kaif or even Ganguly for the next gameagainst Zimbabwe at Harare.India hold a 2-1 advantage over Zimbabwe in all one-dayers playedat Harare Sports Club. The last time India played a one-day gameat Harare, they lost to West Indies in the final of the Coca-ColaCup, with Sachin Tendulkar making a duck! Another battingcollapse at Harare is something India cannot afford.Vote for The People’s XI to play against Zimbabwe at HarareSports Club in Harare on 19th February 2003.The People’s XI for the India v Netherlands game at Paarl (Analysis)

New South Wales 4 for 255 (Bevan 110*, Katich 53) trail Tasmania 322 (Dighton 69, Clingeleffer 53, Mason 51, Lee 5-124) by 67 runs
Scorecard

A Michael Beavan hundred put New South Wales in a solid position at the end of the seocnd day of their Pura Cup match against Tasmania at the SCG. Bevan hit an unbeaten 110 to guide NSW to 4 for 255 in reply to Tasmania’s first innings of 322.As debate rages over whether Martin Love, Michael Clarke, Darren Lehmann or Brad Hodge should replace Steve Waugh in the Australian Test team next summer, Bevan proved he remained one of the most prolific batsmen in the country.He’s never even mentioned as a Test candidate these days, but with an average of 76 in the Pura Cup last season, a wealth of international one-day experience, more than 9,000 first-class runs, renowned calmness under pressure and limitless ambition, his claims are probably as good as anyone’s.Supposedly suspect against the short ball, Bevan pulled a bouncer from the sharpish Andrew Downton to reach his 59th first-class century. It was his 25th first-class ton at the SCG, three more than Sir Donald Bradman and Alan Kippax.Still a regular in the Australian limited-overs side, Bevan said at the start of the season he hadn’t given up hope of wearing the baggy green cap again. He’s probably on the wrong side of 30 years of age, though. While Steve Rixon, NSW’s coach, can count on Bevan in a mini-crisis, he must be pulling his hair out over Mark Waugh.Waugh, having one last season before retirement, came up with another frustratingly short but sweet innings when his side needed something more substantial. Blessed with all the natural talent in the world and a long and illustrious Test career, Waugh was expected to be a force to be reckoned with as NSW attempted to defend the Cup this season.Arriving at the crease at 3 for 99, Waugh got off the mark first ball with a trademark flick off his legs to the fence, then peeled off four more quick boundaries to reach 20 in a hurry. He didn’t have a hair out of place.But on 28, when he was making it all look so easy, he missed a seemingly innocuous ball from medium-pacer Adam Griffith to be clean bowled.NSW were rescued from the perils of 2 for 29 by Simon Katich (53) and Bevan in a 70-run partnership. Bevan and Waugh put on 61, then Bevan and Dominic Thornely conspired to put on 95 runs late in the day.Brett Lee finished with 5 for 124 from 30 overs in a promising effort ahead of his certain Test recall next week. Rightly or wrongly, there’s little hope of Bevan joining him.

Many psychological battles are raging ahead of India’s upcoming tour to Pakistan. While Sourav Ganguly has proclaimed that the Pakistan bowling attack is not as formidable as its predecessors, Javed Miandad and Rashid Latif have delivered counter-punches.Speaking at a corporate function in Delhi, Ganguly said, “They have a good bowling department. But just being fast doesn’t help. They should have quality. The present lot of Pakistani speedsters are not of the class of Wasim Akram who could swing the ball both ways. We have little to worry from them.” A few days back Ganguly had gone to the extent of saying, ” … even if we play [at] 60% of our game, we will win the Pakistan series.”But Ganguly has to contend with fierce salvos from the other side. Miandad has never been one to shirk a mental joust and the build-up to the series has him in the thick of things. When asked if the Pakistan team needed a bowling or fielding coach or a psychologist to assist them, Miandad said, “I don’t need anybody’s help now because I believe no one can perform miracle[s] in such a short time.”Miandad added, “All the cricketers have come through a process and now they don’t need training of a preliminary level.”Miandad is not alone in this regard. Latif, the former Pakistan captain, branded the Indian team as “under-achievers”. Latif told , “They are not the favourites for this series. If you look at their recent record, they have not achieved anything notable in Tests and in one-day internationals, they have choked in the big matches.”And he also said that the Indians, at times, tended to take a negative approach. “You can count the number of occasions when they have bowled out sides twice in a Test. Which is why they have not won many Tests or series. Plus they are prone to playing negative cricket.” He spoke about how India did not have the confidence to enforce the follow-on after scoring 700 runs at Sydney, “even though Australia was struggling with its bowling”.”In comparison, look at Pakistan’s record. It may be an unpredictable team but it has won more Tests and ODIs in the last four five years simply because it has had the bowling to bowl out sides twice. Secondly, Pakistan has no big superstar but plays like a unit with every player capable of turning in a match winning performance.”He finished with a flourish as he said, “Pakistan has another edge over them [India] — Inzamam-ul-Haq commands his place in the team on pure performance alone and not simply because he is the captain.”

Ricky Ponting, Australia’s captain, has called for an urgent review of security measures at grounds in New Zealand after some of his players were hit by missiles thrown from the crowd during the first one-day international of the current series at Wellington’s Westpac Stadium, which Australia won by 10 runs.Play was held up a number of times after some of the Australian fielders – among them Glenn McGrath and Simon Katich – told the umpires they had been hit by plastic bottles.”Someone’s going to get hurt,” said Ponting at the after-match press conference. “A full plastic bottle hitting someone in the eye or the back of the head – we don’t want that. You have to have more security guys around the players on the boundary. They’ve got to have some sort of power – get the police involved, whatever.”Katich got into a tense exchange with a section of the crowd at the Westpac Stadium after catching Brendon McCullum on the boundary. Holding the ball aloft in the direction of the crowd, Katich let out some verbals at those who had thrown full plastic beer bottles in his direction. That incident followed a verbal altercation between McGrath and a security guard after McGrath misjudged a catch on the third-man fence. That eventually led the guard being removed.McGrath, who was named the Man of the Match for his fine spell, admitted that he had over-reacted. “I had, an altercation might be the right word, with a security guard on the fence,” McGrath said. “But I was a bit fired up at the time, so I probably should accept 50% of what happened there myself.”Five years ago Steve Waugh, when he was Australia’s captain, threatened to take his players off the field after similar crowd disturbances in New Zealand.