ScorecardVirender Sehwag struck 15 fours in his 92•PTI

While highlighting the need for their batsmen to apply themselves, Haryana coach Surendra Bhave had on the eve of their Ranji Trophy season-opener pinned his hopes on two individuals. While Virender Sehwag was expected to lead by example in his first match for Haryana, Bhave had earmarked teenager Himanshu Rana as “one to watch out for”.Sehwag and Himanshu both lived up to their reputations, as they kept Haryana in the hunt for a sizeable first-innings total on the opening day of their Group A tie against Maharashtra at the Maharashtra Cricket Association’s stadium in Gahunje. Thanks to Himanshu’s stubborn knock of 138 not out on his 17th birthday, and Sehwag’s breezy 92, Haryana escaped from a precarious 32 for 3 to end the day at 303 for 6.Sehwag and Himanshu had to first see off Samad Fallah, who was swinging the ball both ways and scalped three of the top four batsmen to leave Haryana in a spot of bother. Once the wicket had eased out, the two batsmen got among the runs. While Sehwag, who batted at No 3, was the star of the first half, Himanshu took over once Sehwag was dismissed, in the 46th over.Seventeen years ago, Sehwag scored a century the first time he batted in first-class cricket, and right from when he punched Fallah for four off the first ball he faced today, Sehwag appeared to be on course to also mark his Haryana debut with a big score.With a four-pronged Maharashtra pace attack testing Sehwag’s patience by bowling outside off stump, the boundaries did not come frequently. But whenever Fallah, Nikit Dhumal, who was preferred ahead of Anupam Sanklecha, and Shrikant Mundhe bowled close to off-stump, Sehwag’s drives and slashes came into play. Once Domnic Joseph started extracting bounce off the wicket, Sehwag targeted the third-man region with his upper-cutsWith Himanshu playing the second fiddle, Sehwag had raced to 72 by lunch, and he continued to accelerate even after the break, hitting Mundhe for two early fours. Sehwag’s first mistake came when he was on 87. He slashed Domnic outside off, but Kedar Jadhav could not pouch the resulting edge at first slip. Jadhav did not have to curse himself for long, though.In the next over, Mundhe managed to jag one back in just a little bit, and Sehwag’s tired waft was a bit late. The off-stump was uprooted, forcing a visibly disappointed Sehwag to take the long walk back. Sehwag missed out on a hundred, but Himanshu ensured there was a three-figure mark on the opening day for his team.Himanshu found an able ally in wicketkeeper Nitin Saina after the debutant Rahul Dagar was run out by Chirag Khurana at forward short leg. Himanshu played a risk-free innings, focusing on singles, but also not letting a scoring opportunity go. The shot of the day came in the second session, when his straight-batted backfoot punch off Mundhe raced through the covers.The nervous nineties could have hit Haryana hard had Khurana caught a lofted shot off Himanshu’s edge at midwicket . Himanshu was on 95 then. He went on to reach his century, but soon after, had another lapse in concentration. However, an edge off Khurana went begging as Maharashtra’s captain-keeper Rohit Motwani spilled a regulation catch. Then on, Himanshu put his head down and ensured he carried his bat into the second day, keeping Haryana’s hopes of crossing 350 alive.

Mohammad Akram, Pakistan’s National Cricket Academy head coach, has resigned from the post due to family reasons, three months before his contract expires. The resignation is yet to be accepted, but Akram is committed to quitting a full-time job to be around his family who is based in England.”I have resigned with no regret,” Akram told ESPNcricinfo. “I have enjoyed every moment working with Pakistan cricket. I have done a lot to the best of my ability and I see the players now started to bloom. I worked so hard to get the system going and the result of my efforts is quite evident. I am leaving the set-up in safe hands.”Akram, 41, had joined the set-up as Pakistan bowling coach three years ago and since then had worked in various capacities including selector, head of illegal bowling committee, Pakistan A coach, and is the man responsible for imposing the fitness clause on Pakistan cricket. His other big achievement was reviving the youth and A team tours to other countries and to make a second-string team at every level.According to Akram, he had been thinking about resigning over many months. His family is based in England and he was based in Lahore in National Cricket Academy. He said living away from his family and not seeing his kids growing up was a painful thing for him.”I am a family man but with this job from 9 to 5 in Lahore, living away form family, it isn’t working for me. Earlier, when I was a bowling coach, I still had a time to visit my family frequently, but since then I have shifted to an in-house job I was not able to make it. I came here to contribute for cricket but at the same time my family is much more important.”Akram is also presently under immense pressure over his part-time job as an analyst with the host broadcaster during the ongoing Pakistan-England Tests. He was given all the due permissions from relevant PCB authorities, including media director Amjad Hussain and the director NCA Aizad Hussain Syed, but in the media his job was questioned.”I am not bothered at all about any undue criticism because I am here with the permission,” he said. “Back home at NCA, I didn’t have much to do as head coach as these are the idle months. I am not stepping down due to criticism but the main thing taken precedence in my resigning is just my family as I want to reconnect with my kids and my family back in England.”

Despite an entertaining 90 by Mohammad Kaif, the India Seniors teamedged past India B by six wickets with eleven deliveries to spare inthe Challenger Trophy at Ahmedabad on Friday night.Batting first, the India B team put up a much better show than theIndia A team had the previous day. Kaif enjoyed a good run of formthroughout the recently concluded Under-19 World Cup, but could notmake a big score there. On Friday however, there was no stopping himas he shared a 115-run partnership with captain Ajay Jadeja and sawIndia B through to a score of 274 off their allotted 50 overs. Jadejawas his innovative self and made a half century in quick time.When Kaif tried to push the scoring rate towards the end of theinnings, he fell just 10 runs short of the century mark. Robin Singhgot a ball to stop on Kaif and the youngster went through with hisshot. The ball skied up in the air and Nikhil Chopra pouched thecatch.Nikhil Haldipur made a useful fifty at the top of the innings butprobably did not do enough to stake a claim for selection.Although India B lost quick wickets towards the end, it was of noconsequence as they still managed a challenging total.The India seniors bowlers took some stick from Kaif. The spearhead ofthe Indian bowling attack Anil Kumble went for 57 runs off his 10overs.In response, the Indian senior team went about the job with a rarelydisplayed air of professionalism. Shiv Sunder Das coming off a goodknock in the previous match fell quickly. After he was dismissed, VVSLaxman and pinch hitter Sunil Joshi took the attack to thebowlers. Joshi’s quickfire 16 included a four and a six. ReetinderSingh Sodhi pulled off yet another bit of good fielding as he lungedlow and took a sharp return catch to dismiss Joshi.Rahul Dravid then got into a good rhythm and kept the scoringgoing. He was joined by Vinod Kambli at the fall of Laxman’swicket. The resurgence of Kambli’s career took yet another positiveturn as the Mumbai southpaw made a solid unbeaten 78. When Dravid toowas dismissed, the required rate was mounting and Robin Singh used thelong handle to good effect. Some surprising bowling changes by AjayJadeja proved costly. Jadeja brought Dodda Ganesh and himself on atthe death and they conceded 12 and 17 runs off their oversrespectively.The experience of Singh and Kambli saw the seniors through to victorywith not much to spare. This victory means that the seniors havequalified for the final. On Saturday, the lesser teams of thetournament will clash and that will decide who takes on the seniors inthe title clash.

Resuming on 152, Sriram continued to be in solid touch. Batting almost through the second day, he helped himself to another 136 runs before he was dismissed on 288, the third highest score by a Tamil Nadu batsman ever in the history of Ranji Trophy cricket. Helped along by a hundred from another Sridharan – Sharath Tamil Nadu ended the day on 599 for 4.It was more hard work for the Uttar Pradesh bowlers on Day 2. There was no joy for the bowlers as almost all batsmen made merry. JR Madanagopal (85) added just 5 runs to his overnight score before he was dismissed by young medium pacer Shalab Sriwastava.S Sharath who has been in national reckoning for a few years now, and scored consistently in the Challenger Trophy, joined the party. Batting fluently, the two southpaws took the game well away from Uttar Pradesh.Nearing his triple hundred, Sriram slowed down considerably after tea. However, the triple hundred proved to be elusive. Falling just 12 runs short of the mark, Sriram was caught by Sriwastava off the bowling of Raza. His innings lasted just over eleven hours and included a mammoth 38 boundaries.In the meantime, Sharath was motoring along steadily and remained unbeaten on 128 at stumps. Rajat Bhatia, known for his hard hitting, played an uncharacteristically slow innings and was not out on 7 off the 36 balls when stumps were called.

Warren Hegg and Graham Lloyd hit glorious centuries to put Lancashire on thetrack of a 20 points championship win over Somerset at Old Trafford today.But the scent of failure was in the air after Surrey’s demolition ofDurham at the Foster’s Oval.Even if Lancashire go on to beat Somerset tomorrow, they look destined tobe runners-up for the third year on the trot. Theoretically Surrey would needone point from the last match of the summer at Old Trafford next week but,practically, there is no way Lancashire can stop them.Hegg, acting captain, hammered 128, only six short of his career best, andhis first century since 1996. He reached 100 with 13 fours off 171 balls.Lloyd, who has struggled for top form, also claimed his first hundred ofthe campaign, and it was a thrilling performance with 100 runs before lunch.He finished on 126, and there was a six and 19 fours in his century whichcame off 132 balls.They linked up with Lancashire at 160-5 and piled on 152 before Lloyd wasadjudged lbw, perhaps a little unluckily, to a delivery from Michael Burns.Hegg kept going, receiving solid support from Glen Chapple and MikeSmethurst, and when he was out, hoisting Adrian Pierson to long-on, hedeclared at 463-9.Somerset, 331 behind, looked daunted by their task and slipped to 63-4 inthe face of some potent seam bowling from Peter Martin, Glen Chapple and MikeSmethurst who nabbed Jamie Cox for the second time in the match.Lancashire are still waiting to see if they will suffer a points penaltyfrom the pitch inspectors. Mike Denness, A C Smith, and Tom Flintoff were atthe ground today and planned to interview head groundsman Peter Marron, thecaptains and umpires before reaching a decision.

Australia took the winner’s points yesterday and New Zealand the loser’s lessons to apply before they achieve their aim of meeting again in the final of the CricInfo Women’s World Cup at Christchurch’s Lincoln University.The tournament defied the weather of the previous 12 hours and started only an hour late, largely due to the attentions of the ground staff who, during the night, moved 10,000 litres of water from the BIL Oval.What made the start time even more incredible was the fact that the ground is not a sand-based one.That such a fine pitch, with the potential for some high scoring before the tournament ends on December 23, was available for play was little short of amazing.New Zealand was required to bat first, but the only real handicap it suffered was the lack of value for outfield shots due to the slightly damp conditions.Australia’s bowling allowed little room for manoeuvre and Therese McGregor produced a man of the match performance which belied the fact she was playing in her first World Cup game.Her 4-18 off 10 straight overs at the start of the innings completely knocked the stuffing out of New Zealand’s aspirations.But the work put in by New Zealand over the summer was rewarded with a fightback from the perilous position of 48-5.The injured skipper Emily Drumm returned, once her elbow recovered from a blow which knocked the feeling from her arm for 10 overs, and took the bowling by the scruff of the neck to revive the innings.She was finally out for 74.”We were 20 runs shy of what we should have got. It was disappointing to get into such a weak position to start with.”We had nothing to lose when I came back. You don’t spend months training over the winter to lie down,” she said.However, she always knew the 166-9 her side scored was not going to be enough.Apart from McGregor’s effort, Cathryn Fitzpatrick took 0-26 from her 10 overs bowling at good pace while Charmaine Mason took 2-29.”Therese bowled an amazing spell,” her skipper Belinda Clark said.McGregor said she normally bowls in five or six over bursts and while it had been hard to adjust to bowling into the wind to start with she soon adjusted and felt good.Clark didn’t think there was any special advantage in winning the first game against the side considered Australia’s most serious rival and she wasn’t too concerned about the target the side faced.”Whether its 160 or 250, that’s what we’ve got to chase. We’ve had a lot of contests in the past when targets have been around that score of 160 and we knew it would be close,” she said.Australian coach John Harmer said he was delighted with the efforts of his pace bowlers but that his spinners showed they hadn’t bowled enough recently when the side fell into a hole at one stage.He was disappointed that the batsmen didn’t work the ball around enough when under pressure from New Zealand’s bowlers.Australia showed the depth of its batting however when its top order took control of the chase.Drumm commented: “Their top five are very strong and we know that if we can make inroads we can put them under pressure. A total like 166 is not defendable against a quality side.”Our objective is to go back to the drawing board a little bit. It’s not a disaster,” she said.Lisa Keightley and Karen Rolton gave a great example of how to accrue runs. Keightley, operating at the top of the order scored 44 off 83 balls while Rolton took a swashbuckling approach as New Zealand probed for victory.She hit the winning runs and also brought up her half century in that act to finish 51 not out off 54 balls. Her power was Bothamesque and could see her become one of the star players of the tournament such is her brutal finesse.Sharing the burden through the latter stages was Cherie Bambury who was run out eight runs short on 38.New Zealand coach Mike Shrimpton believes there are three or four overs, or 20-30 runs, difference between the two teams.”This really lays a very good base of what we need to do. We took a lot of information out of this game. Had we had this sort of game later, it might have been detrimental to us,” he said.

Hosts Tamil Nadu lost their opening match of the P Subbiah Pillay Trophy,Ranji Trophy South Zone One-Dayers against Karnataka by 33 runs at the MAChidambaram Stadium at Chepauk. After a damp outfield delayed the start ofthe game by 190 minutes, Tamil Nadu skipper Robin Singh won the toss andput Karnataka in to bat.The decision turned out to be a good one as Thirunavukarasu Kumaran reducedKarnataka to 0/2 at the end of the first over. A quick yorker got rid ofJAK Arunkumar and off the very next ball, the fifth of the innings, stumperTilak Naidu dragged the ball back onto his stumps. With two batsmen back inthe hut and no runs on the board, Mithun Beerala and India One-Day discardVijay Bharadwaj came together.Mixing occasional clean hits with some precise running between the wickets,the pair blunted the Tamil Nadu attack. The mediumpacers gave way to thespinners and there was still no respite for Tamil Nadu. Former Testoffspinner Aashish Kapoor was welcomed to the attack by sixes over long onfrom both batsmen. At 101/2, a half hearted shot from Bharadwaj saw himpresent a simple catch to Sadagoppan Mahesh and Kumaran had his third scalpof the match. Bharadwaj had made 47. In the company of Beerala, he hadadded 101 runs to the total.Just 2.4 overs later a very tired Beerala was run out by a good bit offielding from Robin Singh and it looked like the balance might swing inTamil Nadu’s favour. Beerala’s run a ball 53 included three boundaries andthe solitary six.Dodda Ganesh (31) added a late in the innings charge that included twolusty sixes and Karnataka ended their 32 overs on a healthy 171/9. Inresponse, the strong on paper Tamil Nadu batting line up lost its waycompletely. Barring a promising 24 from Ramesh and a steady 25 from RajatBhatia at the top of the order, no one in the top five made it to doublefigures. The two put on 48 for the second wicket and this turned out to bethe largest partnership of the innings. At 77/6 after 21.1 overs there waslittle hope for the home side. A lively 32 from Sridharan Sharath delayedthe inevitable even as Tamil Nadu ended on 138/9 after 32 overs. The hostsplay Goa tomorrow and need to get their act together in a hurry.

The Hampshire members have voted in favour of turning the club into a limited company. The decision to support the plan, put forward by chairman Rod Bransgrove, was taken at an extraordinary general meeting.”It’s a big step and over the next week or two, we’ll be making sure that all the other arrangements, with tax advisors, Sport England and others, are concluded satisfactorily,” Bransgrove explained.”It’s a complex structure at Hampshire County Cricket Club, which has evolved over many, many years.”We need to make sure we unravel this and restructure it in a way which doesn’t prejudice the company’s tax position and any individual’s financial position.”Hampshire are now based at their new Rose Bowl ground on the outskirts of the City at West End, having left their former Northlands Road home at the end of last season after 116 years.The club is still £9m short of the funding required to complete the Rose Bowl, but Bransgrove believes it will eventually become one of the best cricket venues in the world.There is a positive mood on the field as well, with Hampshire currently top of Championship Division Two.A brand new committee to oversee the running of the club as a PLC will be taken at next year’s annual general meeting.Bransgrove, meanwhile, is encouraging members and supporters to take the opportunity to buy a financial stake when the club is ready to issue shares.”It’s a little bit difficult at the moment because the documentation one has to produce to encourage investment is very carefully policed – and that takes an enormous amount of legal and financial advice, which is very expensive.”At this stage we want to try and get the company up and running in as inexpensive manner as possible, but nonetheless, the slightly longer term objective will be to list the business on the Alternative Investment Market.”At that stage, certainly, members will be able to participate.”

• It was the 1727th ODI in cricket history.
• It was West Indies’ 425th and Zimbabwe’s 185th match.
• It was the 16th match between these two sides. The record now reads:West Indies 12,Zimbabwe 4.
• West Indies was playing for the first time on Zimbabwean soil.
• Umpires Kevin Barbour and Russell Tiffin were officiating in theirseventh and 31st match respectively.
• Zimbabwe was without the services of Andy Flower for the first timesince 1991-92 World Cup game against Sri Lanka at New Plymouth. Andyhad played in all the 172 one-day internationals and 52 Tests — everymatch that Zimbabwe played since he made his international debut. Hissequence of 172 consecutive matches is second only to India’s SachinTendulkar who played 185 matches without a break in between 1989 and1998. Former South African captain Hansie Cronje is third on this listplaying in 162 successive matches before his career ended in disgracein March last year. The accompanying table lists the players with mostconsecutive matches in a career :

• Tatenda Taibu, while becoming 64th player to represent Zimbabwein shorter form of the game,also became the second youngestZimbabwean to make ODI Debut at the age of 18 years and 40 days.Only Mluleki Nkala has played ODI cricket at a younger age thanTaibu for Zimbabwe. Nkala was 17 years 179 days old on debut (vIndia at Bulawayo QC on September 27,1998).
• Taibu also became the youngest wicketkeeper in all ODIs. Theprevious record was on the name of Pakistani Javed Qadeer whowas 18 years and 229 days old on his debut against Sri Lanka atSharjah on April 11,1995.
• Grant Flower was captaining Zimbabwe for the first time in hiscareer. He became seventh player to captain Zimbabwe in One-DayInternationals.
• Grant Flower’s chance to captain Zimbabwe time came in his 155thmatch. Only two players- Australia’s Steve Waugh and West IndianDesmond Haynes – have appeared in more matches than Grantwithout captaining their respective sides. The accompanyingtable lists the players who captained their sides very late intheir careers :

• The partnership of 113 runs between Darren Ganga and Chris Gayle wasthe first for West Indies for the opening wicket in 35 matches. Thelast century partnership for the first wicket for West Indies had comeagainst New Zealand at Auckland on January 2,2000 when SherwinCampbell and Ridley Jacobs added 111 runs.
• Alistair Campbell now has an aggregate of 362 runs from 13 matchesagainst West Indiesmaximum for Zimbabwe. Campbell surpassed AndyFlower’s tally of 329 runs from 13 matches.
• Cameron Cuffy was winning his second Man of the Match award in 27thmatch. Interestingly his only other award had come in the previousgame for West Indies (v South Africa at Arnos Vale on May 16,2001).

* Badani is TNCA Cricketer of the YearThe Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) celebrated its 71st AnnualDay at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, on Friday. AC Muthiah,the President of BCCI and TNCA welcomed the august gathering. Heexpressed great satisfaction in the success of the TNCA in hostinginternational matches and running the game in the state. JY Lele, thesecretary of BCCI who was the guest of honour said that TNCA was oneof the best administered associations. He was quick to add that theBCCI could learn a few things from the TNCA Annual Report, which is aperfect document.ME Vasu, Executive Director, Southern Region, Indian Oil CorporationLtd. presided over the function and gave away scholarships and awardsto leading players from the state. Hemang Badani was named Cricketerof the Year. Since Badani is away in Zimbabwe, playing for India inthe Coca Cola Cup triangular series, his father received the award.Other notable awardees: Anirudh Srikkanth (son of former India openingbatsman K Srikkanth) received the SW De Alwis Trophy for the JuniorSchool Cricketer of the Year. K Vasudeva Doss received the CSubramaniam Trophy for the School Cricketer of the Year. S VasanthSaravanan from Thiruvallur DCA was named as the Cricketer of the Yearfrom the districts. MR Shrinivas was named collegiate Cricketer of theYear and a special memento was presented to Vidyut Sivaramakrishnanfor his century in the Ranji Trophy pre quarterfinal against Delhi,coming in at No 11. For their outstanding performances in the RanjiTrophy, S Sharath (Highest Aggregate), S Mahesh (ConsistentPerformance) and S Sriram (Best Fielder) were also honoured.* Bengal umpires’ gesture to ailing JD GhoshThe Umpires of the Cricket Association of Bengal on Thursday presentedRs 10,000 to former Test and One Day International umpire Jiban DhanGhosh who is suffering from cancer. Ghosh said that he had written tothe BCCI and the CAB in this regard but the umpires association wasthe first to help him. Ghosh is the first Bengal umpire to officiatein an ODI. He supervised Four Test matches and three ODIs. He was theBoard Panel umpire from 1958-59 to 1991 which is a record. Hesupervised 38 Ranji Trophy matches including the final in 1980, nineDuleep Trophy matches including two finals and seven Deodhar Trophymatches including two finals.The AGM of the Umpires of the CAB was also held in Kolkata onThursday. Seventy seven umpires who are officiating matches for theCAB were present at the meeting. The umpires were presented two shirtsfor supervising matches in the coming season. Before the meeting, theyarranged a blood donation camp where 52 umpires donated blood. Thecamp was inaugurated by former international umpire, former ChiefJustice of the Rajasthan High Court and the chairman of The BengalHuman Rights Commission Mukul Gopal Mukherjee. Sekhar Chowdhury andArya Kishore Chatterjee were re-elected as the secretary and presidentof the Association.* Shivlal Yadav re-elected HCA selection committee chairmanFormer Test off spinner Shivlal Yadav has been re-elected chairman ofthe Hyderabad Cricket Association senior selection committee for2001-2002 at a meeting held in Hyderabad on Thursday. The othermembers of the committee are: V Manohar, MV Ramanamurthy and MosesNityanand.Moses Nityanand is the chairman of the state junior selectioncommittee. The other members are: Imran Mahmood, Surender Agarwal andFiazuddin.School Selection Committee: Fiazuddin (chairman), Satish Nelluri,Vidyut Jaisimha and P Venkatmurthy