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ScorecardFile photo: Usman Ghani’s 69 steered Afghanistan to 159 for 8•AFP

Usman Ghani’s 69 set up Afghanistan’s 27-run win over Oman in the first T20 fixture in Abu Dhabi. Ghani’s innings helped Afghanistan post 159 for 8 after they were asked to bat first, following which Afghanistan’s bowlers dismissed Oman for 132 in 18.1 overs.Ghani anchored Afghanistan’s innings, striking nine fours and one six, before he was dismissed in the 18th over. Karim Sadiq (26) and Samiullah Shenwari(17) contributed with handy scores in the middle order, after which Gulbadin Naib 8-ball 14 helped Afghanistan cross 150 in the death overs.Afghanistan’s bowlers kept chipping away at the wickets in the chase, reducing Oman to 98 for 7 at the end of the 15th over. Sayed Shirzad was the pick of the bowlers with returns of 3 for 16 in just three overs, while Yamin Ahmadzai, Rokhan Barakzai and Shenwari claimed two wickets apiece. Adnan Ilyas’ 34 was the top score for Oman, but it was not enough as Oman struggled to build partnerships from the start.

Johmari Logtenberg is the only prominent name missing from South Africa women’s squad announced to participate in the World Cup qualifiers in Stellenbosch during February after quitting cricket.The 18-year Logtenberg was vice-captain for the team that was to tour Pakistan for the qualifiers in November. However, unrest in Pakistan saw the tournament being postponed; subsequently, the ICC decided to shift the matches to South Africa.Now Cricket South Africa (CSA) has confirmed to Cricinfo that Logtenberg, one of two players nominated by CSA for the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year award in 2007, has opted to stop playing cricket in order to pursue other sports. Allrounder Alicia Smith replaces Logtenberg in the 14-member squad, while Claire Terblanche will be the deputy to captain Cri-zelda Brits.Logtenberg burst on the scene with an impressive 74 on her Test debut in 2003, when she was just 14. She was named Women’s Cricketer of the Year at the South African Cricket Awards in 2006.South Africa are one of the favourites to qualify from the tournament, where the top two sides go through to join the major nations who will contest the World Cup in Australia in 2009. South Africa are in the same group as Bermuda, Netherlands and Papua New Guinea.The qualifiers will be held from February 18 to 24.South Africa squadCri-zelda Brits (capt), Claire Terblanche, Olivia Anderson, Susan Benade, Trisha Chetty (wk), Dinesha Devnarain, Mignon du Preez, Shandre Fritz, Ashlyn Kilowan, Marcia Letsoalo, Sunette Loubser, Annelie Minnie, Alicia Smith, Daleen Terblanche.

Former international umpire Ram Babu Gupta has died in London, aged 72. He officiated in 11 Tests and 24 ODIs from 1985 to 1990.Conveying his condolences, BCCI president Sharad Pawar said, “He was one of our best umpires ever. It is an irreplaceable loss.” Gupta remains the only Indian to have umpired a World Cup final; he stood in the 1987 final in Kolkata along with Pakistan’s Mahboob Shah.Rajan Mehra, a Test umpire during the mid-eighties, told the , “Gupta made remarkable progress as an umpire. I was his senior but always admired his officiating. He was very popular and quite a competent umpire. He was known to make fewer mistakes.”Gupta also officiated in the famous Chepauk Test in 1988 when legspinner Narendra Hirwani took 16 wickets against West Indies on his debut. Gupta’s last international appearance was in a one-dayer in Sharjah in May 1990.He was also president of the Delhi District Cricket Association for one year and served as its treasurer for eight years.

Brendon McCullum will play for Middlesex for part of next summer’s NatWest T20 Blast and the Royal London One-Day Cup. McCullum, who this week announced his retirement from international cricket, will be available to play for Middlesex from the moment his commitments at the Indian Premier League finish through to June 25.During this period Middlesex CCC are scheduled to play seven NatWest T20 Blast and four Royal London One-Day Cup matches. Middlesex are also hopeful that McCullum will be able to return to the UK if they qualify for the knockout stages of either of these tournaments.McCullum’s decision to join Middlesex represents a blow for Warwickshire who had hoped to follow-up his brief but successful stay in 2015 – including a record 158 in 64 balls against Derbyshire at Edgbaston.Middlesex are delighted by the signing, even for only half of the T20 season, of a player they hailed as “one of the most respected and dynamic cricketers in the modern game.”Angus Fraser, Middlesex’s managing director of cricket, said: “Signing a player of Brendon’s undoubted quality is a huge coup for the club. He is one of the most respected, capable and dangerous cricketers in world cricket and will create a great deal of excitement around the club. When he walks out to bat everybody stops what they are doing to watch.””Brendon’s involvement highlights Middlesex’s commitment to white ball cricket and we are all looking forward to working with him both on and off the field. His presence will ensure that Thursday evenings at Lord’s will be ‘must see’ events.”McCullum became one of the most popular opposition players in England for many years last summer when his aggressive batting and captaincy was at the heart of arguably the most crowd-pleasing New Zealand side ever seen in the country.Middlesex were somewhat overshadowed by their neighbours across the river, Surrey, as the NatWest Blast attracted record crowds in 2015 and they have failed to make an impact in the competition despite the presence in their ranks for much of the season of England’s one-day captain Eoin Morgan.But London has still led the growth of T20 cricket in England and they will hope that McCullum will help provide the impetus they need. They have also signed James Fuller from Gloucestershire to stiffen their bowling ranks.

New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori was taken to hospital during the final session of the second day against Essex after injuring the index finger on his left hand while backing-up in the field. He required two stitches for a soft tissue injury and is almost certainly out of the final warm-up match against the England Lions next week, although should be fit for the first Test at Lord’s on May 15.He immediately ran off to the dressing room after backing up a wild throw from Brendon McCullum and was soon being driven to A&E for treatment. “There was a bit of blood, but we thought maybe he might have done some other damage – so we wanted to get it x-rayed to see maybe whether there was a problem with the tendon or bone,” said Lindsay Crocker, the New Zealand manager.”Daniel looked at it straight away and ran off the field straight away and feared the worst for a little while. But the worst would have been some injury to the bone, and that is not the case. It’s just a soft-tissue split – and he’s had two stitches,” Crocker added. “He should have the stitches out in about a week and should be fine, which will leave him short of a gallop before the Test. He wanted to play both these two games to get quite a few overs in. He’s not going to get that opportunity now but should be right to play in the first Test.”Vettori only arrived in the country two days ago after his stint in the IPL. He made 22 on the opening day then produced a tidy spell of bowling which included the wicket of Ryan ten Doeschate, caught at short leg. However, that 11-over spell is now likely to be his only first-class bowling before the Test series starts. Being his major spinning finger, Vettori won’t be allowed to wear any protection that touches the ball when he bowls.”They [the doctors] did a very thorough job on him. We explained very carefully the importance of Daniel to us – and particularly that left forefinger,” Crocker said. “They took that on board. The doctor went to great lengths, cleaned it out really well and did a microscopic job.”New Zealand do have spin-bowling cover on the tour with Jeetan Patel, the offspinner, part of the squad. He played two Tests during the recent series against England and impressed with his control and character.Vettori’s injury comes the day after Alastair Cook suffered a dislocated little finger, but he was able to open the batting as normal for Essex.

South Africa’s build-up to their two-Test series against Bangladesh has hardly been ideal. Firstly there was the selection row before the team left home, then the bowlers took a hammering during their warm-up match against a Bangladesh Cricket Board XI.The Test attack was taken for 412 in a little more than 100 overs with only Johan Botha coming out with anything like complimentary figures. However, coach Mickey Arthur believes his side are shaping up nicely ahead of the first Test on Friday despite Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini and Morne Morkel returning combined figures of 5 for 219 from 57 overs.”We had a long chat soon after we arrived from Fatullah Stadium. We opened up to speak about all aspects of our game and that included the plans for the two Tests that we are heading into from Friday,” Arthur told the . “We have come to the realisation that Bangladesh will not roll over and die in their conditions. They will be a difficult batting side to dislodge if we approach the Tests in the manner we played their Board XI.”Arthur said the team’s fast bowlers will have to adapt and can’t expect to run in and blast sides out as they might do on the surfaces back in South Africa. “We spoke about our bowling and have decided that we have to be a little more defensive in our approach to field placings. The bowlers will have to be a lot more circumspect about their lines and lengths and the channels they bowl to gain success.”Although there wasn’t time for South Africa to gain much of a second innings, Arthur was pleased with the warm-up match. “I believe we got a lot out of the game, but there’s still a lot to do. We’ll be working hard over the two remaining days before the Test to get to where we want to be.”Andre Nel, recovering from a hamstring injury, was restricted to eight overs against the BCB XI as he recovers from a hamstring injury and Arthur said he will be assessed closer to the start of the Test.

Rawalpindi were strongly placed despite a valiant fight back by Karachi Blues on the second day of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Grade-I Cricket Championship match at the UBL Sports Complex here on Monday.The home side ended the day on 106 for three in their first innings in reply to Rawalpindi’s 360. Opener Maisam Hasnain batted responsibly for an unbeaten 27 in almost three hours. Giving him company at the crease was skipper Farhan Adil with 15.Karachi Blues, however, dominated the first half of the day when they claimed Rawalpindi’s remaining seven wickets for 94 runs after the visitors had resumed at 259 for three.Test reject Mohammad Wasim was undone by a fine outswinger from Tanvir Ahmed, who had the upright right-hander caught at the wicket with the second new ball. Wasim added only four to his overnight score of 38.Shahid Javed, the other overnight batsman, collected another 19 runs before he was deceived by an armer from Salman Fazal and was bowled for 82 with the total on 323. Shahid, whose knock lasted 306 minutes, faced 250 deliveries and hit seven fours.All-rounder Yasir Arafat made a brisk 36 off 44 balls with five boundaries in 71 minutes until he edged Salman Fazal to Faisal Iqbal at slip. The other notable scorer on Monday was ex-Test spinner Shakeel Ahmed with 20.Tanvir Ahmed and Tabish Nawab captured three wickets apiece while Imranullah and Salman took two each.Karachi Blues were off to a poor start when left-handed Zafar Jadoon was taken at first slip by Shahid Javed off left-arm pacer Mohammad Ghufran for five.Shortly afterwards Ghufran took his second scalp of an impressive opening spell. Asim Kamal, the left-handed one-down batsman, played away from his body to a widish delivery and was superbly held in the gully by Tasawwar Hussain for 16.Faisal Iqbal, fresh from his double century against Sargodha last week, was a victim of the unpredictable behaviour of the pitch. He tried to play left-arm spinner Shakeel Ahmed off the backfoot but was shocked to see the ball skidding through just above ankle height to strike his pad right in front of the stumps. He made 23 off 55 balls with a solitary boundary.Luckily for Karachi Blues, Maisam and Farhan negotiated the remaining 74 minutes of play to lift the score from 69 for three without being parted.

South Australia will offer four New South Wales players contracts before the end of the week in a bid to boost the struggling state’s batting stocks. Greg Mail, Aaron O’Brien, Tom Cooper and Grant Lambert could all be heading to Adelaide if the Redbacks coach Mark Sorell, who flew to Sydney on Monday for talks, has his way.South Australia deliberately targeted players on the fringe of the Pura Cup-winning New South Wales squad that includes ten Cricket Australia-contracted players. “We’re feeling pretty confident,” Sorell said. “They’re at a very strong state where lack of opportunity has been an issue and we think they will fit in very nicely here.”Mail, 29, played only four Pura Cup matches for the Blues last season despite making nearly 300 runs. Lambert, a useful 30-year-old allrounder, was used six times for 163 runs at 27.16 and nine wickets at 30.77. O’Brien did not feature at all, following semi-regular appearances over the previous six seasons, and Cooper is an uncapped rookie. Sorell said Cooper, 21, would be an investment for the future.South Australia must also find a captain for next summer after Nathan Adcock lost his Pura Cup position mid-season. However, none of the New South Wales players have been offered the job. “We have some good internal candidates at the moment,” Sorell said, “and we’ll address leadership when they sign.”The Redbacks have already picked up Michael Klinger from Victoria and are not chasing any other players. However, Sorell was disappointed to have lost out to the Bushrangers on Chris Rogers.Sorell also wants to keep the spin duo of Dan Cullen and Cullen Bailey even though squeezing both of them into the side in 2007-08 was almost impossible. “I’m confident that that will happen,” Sorell said. “It’s a priority, there’s no doubt about that.”He is also hoping to retain Ryan Harris, the allrounder, but questions over his status have been raised after he used his British passport to sign as a local player with Sussex. South Australia want to speak to Harris over his intentions for the next Australian season.

Shane Watson is not concerned at overburdening his injury-prone body despite increasing his workload with extra cricket commitments during the off-season. Watson has signed up for a Twenty20 stint with Hampshire and he is hoping to be part of the Indian Premier League, which kicks off next month.His fitness worries continued this season with further hamstring problems, the latest of which occurred during a four-day game in late January. He did manage seven Pura Cup appearances, although he has had no international action since the ICC World Twenty20 in September.Watson said the best way to put his injuries behind him was to keep playing as much cricket as possible. “I’m probably most excited about the prospects of continuing to play some cricket,” Watson said. “I’ve enjoyed the past month or so with Queensland and would like to keep that going.”I’ve missed a fair bit over the past two seasons so I’m keen to keep playing for as long as I can during the off-season. Hopefully all going to plan, I can play in the IPL, head off to Hampshire and then have a break before enjoying a good pre-season with the Bulls.”His Hampshire stint is locked in and he is set to be part of the second IPL auction, to take place on Tuesday in Mumbai. Watson will be joined in the sale by his Queensland team-mate James Hopes, who says playing in the Twenty20 tournament would give his cricket a boost.”It can’t help but make you a better player, especially with the quality of teams they seem to be assembling,” Hopes said. “Hopefully there’s a spot somewhere for me.”

And so begins Brendon McCullum Month. It is not officially marked on calendars in New Zealand, probably only because they were already printed when he announced his decision just before Christmas. But expect February to be a month of celebration of McCullum’s career, beginning with his final ODI series, continuing with his 100th Test in Wellington and ending with his Test finale in Christchurch. By the end of it, he hopes to hold the Chappell-Hadlee and Trans-Tasman Trophies.Not that his back would necessarily stand up to holding them at the same time. McCullum has missed the past month with a back injury and returned against Pakistan on Sunday, in New Zealand’s victory in the third and final ODI at Eden Park. It was hardly the perfect comeback for McCullum, who was caught hooking for a golden duck, and he said that while he felt the effects of nearly 50 overs in the field, he was confident he could stand up to another month of cricket.”I was a bit stiff and sore on that first game out, and it was incredibly heavy as well which a lot of guys commented on which has it demands anyway, let along if you’ve coming in with a bit of a sore back as well,” McCullum said on Tuesday. “But I’ve got three or four weeks left of international cricket and I want to get out there and compete and try and do as much as I can to make a contribution to the team.”The fact that you’re a bit stiff and sore, you try and play through and hopefully it will be fine. But also you don’t want to be to the detriment of your team, you’ve got to make sure you’re at a level where you think you’re able to operate as well and we’ll certainly make an honest assessment of that as we head into each game.”But you get the sense McCullum would have to be physically unable to walk to miss any of these matches against Australia, the one-day and Test series being “certainly the one that we’ve been waiting for,” in his words. The teams last met in one-day cricket in the World Cup final at the MCG but from that side Australia will be missing the retired Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson, the injured Mitchell Starc and Aaron Finch, and the overlooked Shane Watson.”We had our opportunity in the World Cup and we ran second, but we’re really proud of how we played throughout that World Cup,” McCullum said. “But it’s a year down the track now and both teams have changed quite substantially. For us it’s a three-match series with the Chappell-Hadlee on the line and our chance to test our skills against the best.”Well, against most of the best, anyway. Arguably Australia’s most in-form batsman at present is Usman Khawaja, who since the start of the home Test series against New Zealand has averaged 123.28 across all formats at all levels. But Australia’s selectors are still unable to squeeze Khawaja into the ODI side, preferring Shaun Marsh to open with David Warner in Auckland.”I was a bit surprised to be honest,” McCullum said of Khawaja’s omission. “He’s been the in-form batsman of the Australian summer across all forms of the game. He’s in incredible touch … the guy replacing him Shaun Marsh is a very good player as well and we saw that in Adelaide. Australia have so much depth they can afford to have guys missing but they’ll be replaced by guys who are equally as strong.”Khawaja is a certain starter for the first Test in Wellington, though, and his presence in the ODI squad means that he now misses out on the chance for a red-ball warm-up: he would otherwise have been playing this week’s Sheffield Shield match for Queensland. Australia’s captain, Steven Smith, said he expected Khawaja to play at some point in the Chappell-Hadlee Series, with the Tests following so closely.”I think he will play one of the games, at least,” Smith said. “He does need a hit going into what is a big Test series for us, and he is batting extremely well, so he is unlucky to miss out. But Shaun is going to get the first opportunity as he played well in Australia and he is batting extremely well as well, so he’s getting the first opportunity.”Australia also decided against picking the legspinner Adam Zampa and instead opted for just the one spin option, allrounder Glenn Maxwell, despite the fact that New Zealand have included legspinner Ish Sodhi in their squad for this game. The spin extracted by Pakistan’s part-time legspinner Azhar Ali on the same pitch on Sunday showed New Zealand that Sodhi could be a good option, but Smith said Australia preferred to trust their pacemen.”We think that the wicket might swing around a bit, we saw that in the World Cup game we played here, the ball swung around for a good 30 odd overs or whatever we lasted with the bat and whatever New Zealand lasted with the bat chasing,” Smith said. “So, we suspect it will swing around a little bit and we’re going to make use of that. So no surprises they’ve brought in a legspinner, he can play and he’s got some good skills. If he gets an opportunity hopefully we can go after him a little bit.”