Former England Test batsman Rob Bailey highlighted the West Indies’ bowling problems leading up to next Thursday’s Fourth Test at Headingley.Bailey became the first Derbyshire batsman to score a hundred against a touring West Indian team, remaining unbeaten on 112 against an attack which looked ordinary without both Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh.Derbyshire declared their first innings closed yesterday on the second day of the tour match at 242 for five, a deficit of 148. This represented an impressive fight-back from 32 for 3.The West Indies, who declared on their overnight score of 390 for nine, were 110 for 3 from 18 overs in their second innings at the close of the second day.The tourists must, however, be concerned that Reon King and Franklyn Rose show no sign of finding their best form. King again struggled with his run-up and both tended to bowl too short on aflat Derby pitch.King and Rose are nonetheless expected top retain their Test places next week. Nixon McLean and Corey Collymore were given only seventeen overs between them while leg-spinner Mahendra Nagamootoo was erratic and expensive.Bailey lofted Nagamootoo for six over long-off, hitting a spectator who needed hospital treatment although he was not seriously injured.Bailey completed his century shortly after tea and would have found this one against the West Indies, the 46th of his first-class career, somewhat satisfying.The former Northants skipper was dropped from the England after being on the end of a bad decision in the Bridgetown Test of the 1990 tour.Bailey, who was chanceless in 277 minutes at the crease, shared stands of 83 with Mathew Dowman and 95 with Luke Sutton. Matthew Cassar provided some late acceleration before Bailey declared.Bailey came to the crease at 12 for two when Stephen Titchard was lbw toKing in the sixth over and Steve Stubbings was caught behind off Rose. He quickly lost James Pyemont, who was caught behind in Collymore’s first over, looked in no difficulty afterwards.Bailey declared as soon as the follow-on was avoided, but Adrian Griffith and Sherwin Campbell were soon launching into the county’s attack, weakened by injury.Griffith smashed 36 from 19 balls before he was bowled aiming a big pull shot at Dowman, and Campbell completed a half-century before he drove spinner Lian Wharton to extra cover.Ramnaresh Sarwan failed late in the day, bowled aiming a loose drive at Cassar before he had scored.

New Zealand completed its preparation for the CricInfo Women’s World Cup, starting next week, in Timaru today with its second convincing win of three in its clean sweep over England.The eight wicket margin fairly demonstrated the difference between the two sides on the day.England, who batted first, should have made more of the good start they made to their innings. But just when they needed batsmen to build on the positive start, the middle and lower order faltered in the face of some quality New Zealand bowling.It was as if a tourniquet had been applied to stop the flow of runs. As the runs dried up the panic level in the England batting increased and it was dismissed in the 41st over for only 109, its lowest total of the series.Katrina Keenan polished off the lower order to finish with 3-15 as the last seven England wickets fell for 29 runs.Earlier, Rachel Pullar took 2-21 from seven overs while most encouragingly for New Zealand, given her return to the side after nearly two years out of the game, Clare Nicholson bowled eight overs and took 1-12.Catherine Campbell continued her quest for the world record for most wickets in ODIs. She took two wickets in the series to finish on 71 wickets, two behind Australian slow left-armer Lynette Fullston.Chasing her for the honour however, are Australia’s Cathryn Fitzpatrick and Charmaine Mason with 61, England’s Clare Taylor 59, New Zealand’s Keenan 58 and Zoe Goss of Australia on 57.New Zealand made a superb start to its chase and was quickly in front of what had been a lively England assault.Rebecca Rolls was belligerent at the start and while out for 13, it was in the third over. Anna O’Leary took the chance to play a longer innings than in the first game in Oamaru when she scored eight.She chanced her arm and got reward as the ball flew at good speed over fieldsmen in the gully area and her six from Laura Harper’s bowling was a sweetly-timed shot, the only six of the series.While offering a chance on 29, she went on to score 40 in an 80-run partnership with skipper Emily Drumm.Drumm, after the disappointment of her dismissal for 10 on Tuesday, was unbeaten on 43 at the end and had the satisfaction of scoring the winning runs.”There was no way today they were going to get me,” she said. “My downfall is often because I don’t value my wicket enough.”But she was in full control and was delighted with the series win.”Today’s game was the best chase out of the eight games we have played against England this year. And we have played better against England in this series than we did earlier in the year,” she said.England captain Clare Connor said that as a stand alone series the 3-0 series loss to New Zealand was very disappointing but as preparation for a big tournament it had been useful.”There have been several positive things to come out of it. Some of our bowlers are bowling better than they ever have before. It is disappointing the way we are approaching our batting.”We showed aggressive intent early on.”It is a case of everyone believing in what we have been practising all year,” she said.She was delighted with the side’s effort in the second game when defending 134.”It was fantastic and showed fantastic spirit and we showed some heart and soul. It took a big commitment and it is that which will pull us through the tournament and into the semi-finals,” she said.Both teams have a few days off now. The New Zealanders are going to their respective homes until reassembling on Sunday while England will be doing some sightseeing.

Kerala and Tamil Nadu picked up three points each in their South ZoneUnder-14 Tournament match at the Municipal Stadium, Tellicherry onFriday after the third day was washed off without a ball being bowled.Kerala, batting first, fizzled out for 144 in 87.5 overs. RI HariKumar top scored with 40 and RN Suraj chipped in with a patient 34.Guru Kedarnath bagged four wickets for 30 runs.In reply, Tamil Nadu openers did well to put up an unbeatenpartnership of 56 runs off 17.1 overs before play was interupted byrain. H Gopinath (32) and K Srikkanth (17) were at the crease at closeof play. The match was affected by the wet conditions and the postlunch session was called off on the second day due to wet conditions.The match thus ended in a tame draw.

Tendulkar’s tips benefit Indian playersIndian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar is in a different role these days – offering tips to some of the Indian players on their game. Some of the cricketers to have benefited from his advice have been Shiv Sunder Das, Sadagoppan Ramesh, Rahul Dravid, Harbhajan Singh and his Mumbai team-mate Sameer Dighe. Talking to PTI after making a century in the first innings against the CFX Academy, Das said “He (Tendulkar) told me a few things about my foot movement and body position in the nets,” said the little opener from Orissa. “I put it into practice in the middle and had immediate results.” Time and again Tendulkar has taken Das aside at the nets and given him practiceagainst rising deliveries.Ramesh who has been reaching for the balls outside the off stump said “In this innings (of 42) against CFX, I was committing this mistake in the first hour. Sachin offered a fairly valuable piece of advice. He told me how I should look to play shots off my pads and also those cuts behind square. I had a far better stay thereafter.” Stylish right-hander Rahul Dravid said “I check him out on little things, when I feel he could offer a valuable piece of advice”. Dighe said “He is always there when you need him. I remember the Chennai Test, my debut game. When I went into bat in the second innings, Tendulkar asked meto wear a elbow guard. Usually I never go for it. But I was lucky I heeded his advice.”Harbhajan who is one of Tendulkar’s fans said the little master helped him bowl with the new ball. “I also seek him out to test myself in the nets, as often as I can. I want to test myself and do my best when bowling to him. It is a great confidence booster if I do well against him,” said Harbhajan. On his part, Tendulkar modestly said, “I only try to do what I observe, the little things I notice.” Bangladesh will produce fast bowlers in five years, says SekharBangladesh will possess some world-class pace bowlers in five years, according to TA Sekhar, head coach of the MRF Pace Foundation. He was talking at a press briefing arranged by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Sunday at the end of a five-day visit to Dhaka.During his brief stay, the former Indian fast bowler conducted a clinic at a couple of places. Among the 28 bowlers, four have donned the national cap.”It’s good to see so many youngsters wanting to be fast bowlers. Ten among the lot are really good. The BCB has selected four of them for a month’s training at the MRF Pace foundation later this month,” said Sekhar, now 45.Sekhar, currently a national selector said that he tried to teach the trainees some basic techniques and they quickly grasped the lessons. He cited national left-arm seamer Monjurul Islam. “He had a problem with positioning of the arm before delivery. I gave him some tips and the next morning he was a different bowler,” he said.To assist local coaches, Sekhar distributed a fast bowling manual. “These players have all the qualities to become international standard fast bowlers. However, what they lack is adequate knowledge on recent developments in this department. Fast bowling is rapidly becoming scientific and unless bowlers have a correct action, they are bound to get injured. This is an area which our foundation has been trying to rectify for the last 14 years,” Sekhar said.High level CBI team to leave for LondonThe Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will send a team to London this week to hold discussions with the International Cricket Council (ICC) officials in connection with the probe into the alleged bungling in allotment of television rights of sports events between 1996 and 1999, including the last edition of the World Cup.Agency sources revealed on Saturday that “a high-powered team will leave for London later this week to probe the multi-crore TV scam. It will concentrate on the allegations of bungling in acquisition of TV rights for the 1999 World Cup played in England.” The agency officials are also likely to talk to ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit chief Paul Condon about his investigation into the allegations of corruption in granting of telecast rights to various companies.The team is also expected to collect information about the operations and activities of WorldTel, headed by sports promoter Mark Mascarenhas, who had been in the eye of storm ever since the CBI conducted raids at his residences and business establishments in India in connection with the probe.Orissa clubs, associations want new cricket stadium in BhubaneswarLeading local cricket clubs and associations have appealed to the Orissa government to provide land to the Orissa Cricket Association (OCA) free of cost to build an exclusive cricket stadium. Talking to reporters in Bhubaneswar on Sunday, Sanjay Satpathy, a former state Ranji pace bowler along with two other state players said they had come together to realise their goal of having the stadium in Bhubaneswar, the only state capital which despite having allfacilities lacked a proper sporting facility.It would be difficult for Orissa to host Test matches in future as Cuttack, where the Barabati Stadium – the state’s only sports complex of international repute – was located, did not have a five star hotel, they said. If the stadium was built in the capital, it would go a long way in harnessing the budding cricketing talents in the state and would also create a positive environment for the future of the game, they said.Replying to a question on why the OCA insisted on availing the land free of the cost from the government, they said the OCA was not a profit making organisation. “If the land was given to the OCA free, other expenses could be met from their own funds. Once we have two facilities for cricket in the state, it would help groom new talents,” they said. Former Ranji captain Ashok Jena, Dev Mohapatra and the secretary of the Mukteswar Cricket Club Asit Mallick were present at the press conference.

Somerset Sabres entertain Gloucestershire Gladiators in the Norwich Union National League at The County Ground tomorrow.Somerset Coach Kevin Shine is only too well aware of the importance of the match for his side after they lost disappointingly against Nottinghamshire Outlaws at Trent Bridge last weekend.”This is a big game for us, a local derby in front of a large crowd, and it’s on Sky television,” the coach told me on Saturday morning.The last time the two sides met in a one day match was at Taunton on May Day Bank Holiday Monday, when Somerset were the victors. On that occasion Gloucestershire were without Mark Alleyne and ‘Jack’ Russell, and their return to the team will no doubt add an edge to the fixture.”The squad will be the same as we had at March against Cambridge on Wednesday,” the coach said and went on. “It’s very likely that Jamie Grove, who bowled beautifully on Wednesday will retain his place and play on Sunday.”

Northants have revealed that they made an approach to former England all-rounder Chris Lewis in an attempt to lure him out of retirement.The club are currently missing fast bowler Darren Cousins, who is likely to miss the remainder of the season with a foot injury.”Chris was one of the options we looked at. Unfortunately we couldn’t come to an agreement financially,” admitted Northants’ Director of Cricket, Bob Carter.Lewis, who played 32 Tests and 53 One-Day Internationals for England, retired during the winter citing a long-term hip injury as the cause. But Carter believes that he could have still performed a valuable short-term role for Northants.”I saw him bowling in a Masters game on television and he looked good,” Carter continued. “But he would have needed to prove his fitness if we were going to take the thing further. In the event, it never came to that.”At the end of the day we can look at a short-term signing or even at getting someone in on loan. But at the same time we have other bowlers at the club and it’s a chance for them to show what they can do.”The club will be boosted by the news that John Blain will return from international day as part of Scotland’s ICC Trophy squad.

A tiny hole in one of the Old Trafford covers caused the Norwich Union second division clash between Lancashire and Durham to be abandoned without a ball being bowled.Heavy overnight rain leaked on to the pitch leaving a wet patch.”It is unfortunate, but there is nothing we can do about it,” said headgroundsman Peter Marron.”The hole was probably caused by a player’s stud and would have beenimpossible to detect.”It was the tenth full day’s cricket lost at Old Trafford this season. It followed two abandoned CricInfo Championship matches against Surrey andGlamorgan and another Norwich Union League fixture with Hampshire Hawks.In all the previous wipe-outs, a waterlogged outfield was to blame.

Wisden has defended the non-inclusion of Sachin Tendulkar in theWisden top 100 Test Innings, saying the master blaster has not yetscored an innings that merits his inclusion in the list."There is no omission (of Tendulkar) as such. He has not yet scoredan innings that merits inclusion in the top 100," Wisden On-LineDirector Anthony Bouchier told PTI in Bangalore on Friday night.Wisden had launched in Mumbai on Thursday Wisden 100, a new analysisto assess a Test cricketer’s individual batting and bowlingperformances spanning 138 years of cricket history.Noting that more than 54,000 Test innings had been covered in Wisden100, Bouchier said Tendulkar had played some wonderful innings but wasyet to actually come up with an innings that great enough to be inthe top 100 of Wisden."So, it’s not an omission," he said. "Tendulkar has a long careerahead of him and I am sure he will get there in the end."Defending the list, he said it is completely objective and there wasno bias. "Wisden has always been a definitive, statistical record.Tendulkar is the greatest batsman in the world. He is a wonderfulplayer to watch but he just has not produced an innings like BrianLara’s 153 or Ian Botham’s 149," he said.Bouchier noted that GR Viswanath has been included in the list for hisunbeaten 97 against the West Indies at Chennai in 1975, and quipped:"That’s the whole story."

• It was the 1555th Test match in cricket history.
• It was India’s 342nd and Sri Lanka’s 112th Test.
• It was the 21st Test between these two teams. The record now reads:Sri Lanka 2, India 7, drawn 12. The Lankan win against India cameafter about 16 years. Sri Lanka’s only other win had come in September1985 at the P Sara stadium in Colombo when it defeated India by 149runs.
• Umpires Asoka de Silva and Steve Bucknor were standing in their fourthand 59th Test respectively while Cammie Smith was officiating as ICCmatch referee for the 34th time.
• India was without the services of Sachin Tendulkar for the firsttime in a Test since he made his debut against Pakistan at Karachi inNovember 1989. Tendulkar appeared in 84 Tests without a break – aworld record maximum consecutive Tests played by any player in Testhistory since debut. Tendulkar bettered the record of another Indian,Kapil Dev, who appeared in 66 consecutive Tests from his debut Testagainst Pakistan at Faisalabad in October 1978 to the Calcutta Testagainst England in 1984-85. Other players with 50 or more consecutiveTests since debut are Australia’s Ian Healy (64), West Indian RohanKanhai (61), New Zealander John Reid (58), England’s Tony Greig (58),Zimbabwean Alistair Campbell (54), South African Gary Kirsten (53),England’s Frank Woolley (52), Australia’s Rod Marsh (52), ZimbabweanAndy Flower (52) and Australian Greg Chappell (51).
• Tendulkar, however, seems to have missed the opportunity to make 100consecutive Test appearances in a career – the feat which has beenrecorded only by two players in Test annals. Australia’s Allan Borderplayed 153 consecutive matches of his 156-Test career while India’sSunil Gavaskar played 106 matches at a stretch out of 125 matches.Among contemporary players, Australia’s Mark Waugh with 94 consecutiveappearances might in all probability join Border and Gavaskar.
• Suresh Perera and Hashan Tillakaratne were making their return intoSri Lankan side. Perera had last appeared for Sri Lanka againstEngland at The Oval in 1998, missing 24 matches in between. Only DonAnurasiri (27) has missed more matches between two appearances for SriLanka. Tillakaratne, meanhwile, had last appeared for Sri Lankaagainst Pakistan at Dhaka in the final of Asian Test Championship,thus missing 21 matches in between.
• Sanath Jayasuriya, when he reached three in the first innings,completed 2,000 runs in Tests on Sri Lankan soil. He became the thirdbatsman after Aravinda de Silva (3084 runs in 43 matches) and ArjunaRanatunga (2851 in 48). At the end of this match, Jayasuriya has anaggregate of 2114 runs from 32 matches in home matches.
• Jayasuriya on 8 (in the first innings) also completed his 1000runs as Sri Lanka’s skipper in his 22nd match. He joined 55 othercaptains who have accomplished this feat. Ranatunga with 3118 runsfrom 56 matches is the only other Sri Lankan to aggregate 1000 or moreruns as skipper.
• Jayasuriya (111) made his eighth Test century in his 60th Test – histhird against India.
• Kumara Sangakkara (105*) became the fifth Sri Lankan wicketkeeper toscore a hundred. This was also the eighth instance of a hundred by SriLankan wicketkeeper. Romesh Kaluwitharana (3),Amal Silva (2),BrendonKuruppu and Hasan Tillakaratne (one each) are the others who have madehundreds. Sangakkara also became the second Sri Lankan wicketkeeper after AmalSilva to score a hundred against India. Silva had made 111 at the PSara stadium, Colombo in 1985-86. Interestingly Sri Lanka won on boththe occasions.
• The wicket of Tillakaratne was Javagal Srinath’s 100th wicket onforeign soil. He accomplished the feat in his 28 match abroad. He becamethe fifth Indian after Kapil Dev (215 wickets in 66 Tests), BishanSingh Bedi (129 in 37), Anil Kumble (101 in 30) and BhagwatChandrasekhar (100 in 26) and 38th bowler in all Tests to do so.Incidentally West Indian Courtney Walsh tops the list of bowlers withmost wickets in away matches with 290 wickets from 74 matches. He isfollowed by Pakistani Wasim Akram (260 in 62), New Zealander RichardHadlee (230 in 43), West Indian Malcolm Marshall (219 in 50), India’sKapil Dev (215 in 66), Australian Shane Warne (207 in 49) and WestIndian Curtley Ambrose (202 in 46).
• Srinath by not resuming his innings in the first innings after beingstruck by a Fernando delivery, achieved the dubious distinction ofbecoming the first batsman to retire hurt in an innings against SriLanka. He also became the 14th Indian to suffer this fate in a Test,incidentally it was the 16th instance of an Indian batsman retiringwith an injury – Dilip Vengsarkar retired on as many as threeoccasions.
• The following table lists all Indians who got retired hurt in an innings :

• Dilhara Fernando by returning figures of 5 for 42 in first innings,recorded the second best figures by a Sri Lankan against India. Thebest however still remains as Rumesh Ratnayake’s six for 85 at the PSara stadium in Colombo in 1985-86.
• By taking the catch of Mohammad Kaif in the second innings, HashanTillakaratne equalled Roshan Mahanama’s record tally of 56 catches inthe field for Sri Lanka.
• The five-wicket haul in the second innings was Muttiah Muralitharan’s25th in his 63rd Test bringing him level with Pakistan’s Wasim Akram.He still has some catching up to do – New Zealander Richard Hadleeachieved it a record 36 times and 27 of England’s Ian Botham.
• The five-wicket haul was also Murali’s second against India afterhis five for 162 at Lucknow in 1993-94. He became the third Sri Lankanafter Rumesh Ratnayake and Asantha de Mel to bag two separate fivewicket hauls.
• India’s first innings total of 187 was their lowest against Sri Lankain all matches obliterating the previous lowest of 198 at the P Sarastadium in Colombo in 1985-86. Later, India’s second innings total of180 took over the dubious honour.
• Sri Lanka has now played six matches at Galle and won four matches- three by an innings margin. Sri Lanka’s only defeat at this groundcame against Pakistan in June 2000.

Justin Langer made a heroic return to Test cricket making an unbeaten century on his first appearance for Australia in England before he was felled by a ball from Andrew Caddick and left the field, dazed and unsteady.He completed his century a few balls earlier after playing courageously for over four hours but he attempted to hook a 84.2 mph ball from Caddick and like all his previous attempts, the shot did not come off and the ball thudded into the side of his helmet, causing him to crumple to the ground.He wobbled off, aided by the Australia physio Erroll Alcott and a doctor who had been summoned to the crease to attend to a three inch gash above his ear, and received a standing ovation from a capacity crowd before being taken off to hospital for a precautionary scan.It had been a brave innings from the outset. He was left out of the First npower Ashes Test at the start of the summer after showing average form since arriving on tour and failed to regain his place until Michael Slater, to everyone’s surprise, was dropped after the Headingley Test.Normally a number three batsman, he opened with Matthew Hayden and despite a quiet start, when he looked out of touch and tentative in his shot selection, he stayed put, unwilling to take risks or be hurried.By the time he lost his partner, they had formed the highest opening stand of the summer. The broad shouldered Hayden was eventually caught at midwicket off Phil Tufnell’s bowling for 68, having used every ounce of his formidable power to blast nine boundaries.But at tea, Australia were starting to motor having gathered 203 runs in two sessions on a flat pitch that had always looked to favour the batsmen even when there was early cloud cover combined with high degree humidity. There was little that Nasser Hussain could do and with the exception of Darren Gough, who bowled without conviction, his bowlers stuck to their plan.But there were no wickets and apart from a couple of half chances in the morning when Usman Afzaal tried to run out Hayden with a lightning fast return from short leg and, when the ball bounced in front of Mark Butcher from the blade of Langer, there were no close calls either.Langer made 102 before he was struck on the head and his departure brought together Ponting and Mark Waugh, who despatched Gough for two consecutive fours, one gloriously to the cover boundary and the next even more elegantly to the square leg rope.The pair added 56 in 12 overs before Ponting was brilliantly caught by Mike Atherton at first slip for 62. It handed Jimmy Ormond his first wicket in Test cricket and it was well deserved after he had showed discipline and intelligence throughout his 18 overs, and few signs of first Test nerves.When Ponting left, the score was 292 for two and Waugh, accompanied by his brother Steve who made a startling recovery from injury to take his place in what could his last Test match in England, had taken the Australian total to 324 for two, with the skipper unbeaten on 12 and Mark just two away from his half-century.At 6.30pm, with eight overs of the day remaining, bad light took the players off the field. It was the third interruption of the day – around 40 minutes was earlier lost due to light drizzle but this time, with three lights on the board, the crowd started to disperse knowing that in the murky gloom, any more play looked distinctly unlikely.