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Bangladesh A 311 and 277 beat Zimbabwe A 201 and 197 by 190 runs
ScorecardBangladesh A completed a convincing victory in the second Test beating Zimbabwe A by 190 runs on the final day at Bulawayo. Zimbabwe A resumed on their overnight score of 36 for 2, chasing an unlikely 388 for victory. Saqibul Hasan took five wickets with his left-arm medium pace to put paid to their hopes of saving the match, as they slumped to a heavy defeat.Victory for Bangladesh was a matter of when, not if, and they took wickets at regular intervals throughout the day. Craig McMillan was the first to fall, sending Hasan to Raqibul Hasan on 29 (70 for 3). Dion Ebrahim also struck 29 but his was a slower innings – 113 balls – borne of the necessity to defend. But he eventually fell, also to Hasan, as Bangladesh continued to turn the screw (107 for 4). Wickets tumbled steadily from then on – although Donald Samunderu and Justice Chibhara each posted 32 – and Bangladesh went on to coast to a deserved victory as they removed Zimbabwe for 197.

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.

Ranga Reddy, the vice president of the Indian boart (BCCI), has invited a select team from the USA’s Central-East Zone (Chicago and Midwest region) on a tour of Hyderabad, where they will play a series of matches against state and district teams. The side will arrive in India on March 6 and will stay until March 15.There are six matches on the schedule. One of them will be a day/night game, and a two-day fixture is also in the cards. Three of the matches will be played in the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium (the regular Test and ODI venue in Hyderabad), and the remaining three games will be played in the newly-built stadium at Uppal, also in Hyderabad. The new Uppal stadium is supposed to be among the top five in the world and the US team will be the first overseas team to play there.The US side has not been named but it is likely to include top players from other regions than the US Midwest as well. Among the names mentioned are allrounder Duane Nathaniel of Florida, an U-19 Allstar at the US Nationals in 2004; opening batsman Amer Afzaluddin, former U-19 All-Americas captain in 2002 who played for USA in 2003 and 2004, and Amjad Khan from New York, former first-class cricketer who is the only person to have scored a triple century in an official limited-overs league match anywhere in the world. Other players who may make the trip are Nasir Javed and Roy Weekes from Florida, Rashid Afzal from New York, Jignesh Desai and Hitesh Patel of New Jersey, and Dawood Ahmed and Zaheer Chano from Maryland.This may not be the strongest team that could be selected to represent the USA, but it has an interesting blend of youth and experience. Amer and Nathaniel are youngsters who have shown promise in recent years, and veterans Amjad Khan and Nasir Javed (who had the best bowling performance for Team USA in the Champions Trophy) lend needed experience to the squad. Conspicuously missing are many senior players who have played for the USA in recent years, and who earned the "geriatric" label that has haunted Team USA since the Champions Trophy.Now it remains to be seen whether this younger and less experienced team from the USA will at least be able to exorcise that image by how they perform in India. That, more than how many matches they win or lose, will be the acid test of their temperament.

Sourav Ganguly, India’s captain, has stoked the rivalry between his team and the touring Australians ahead of the first Test, which starts at Bangalore on October 6.”The Aussies know that we are the only side that comes hard at them, and that will be a huge psychological advantage for us,” Ganguly told AFP. “I am certain they are worried about playing us. We are always formidable at home and they know it. I am not saying we will certainly win the series – you can’t predict that – but it will be a very, very close contest.”The Aussies bring out the best in us,” Ganguly continued, “and I am confident the same will happen again despite a very ordinary start to the season, where we played poor cricket.”Australia, who last won a Test series on Indian soil in 1969 under Bill Lawry, have lost five of the last seven Tests they have played there since 1996. In 2001, India fought back from a drubbing in the first Test to win the next two and grab a stunning 2-1 series victory in the final match. When they toured Australia last year, India managed to hold them to a 1-1 draw.”Maybe you are only as good as the team you lead, but I have never shirked away from the responsibility given to me,” he added. “It’s my job to lead from the front. There will always be a lot said when we are not doing well, but in the end what matters is that the captain and the team are willing to stand up and be counted.”When asked whether Sachin Tendulkar’s likely absence from the first Test due to a tennis elbow injury would give Australia the edge, Ganguly countered: “I think the Aussies will be hurt more by the absence of captain Ricky Ponting. It affects the team when the captain is not around, and the Australians are no exception. It will put them under a lot of pressure.”Ponting has been ruled out of the first two Tests of the four-match series with a broken thumb. He suffered the injury while fielding during Australia’s defeat to England in the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy last month. Adam Gilchrist has been named as the stand-in captain during his absence.

Ricky Ponting, Australia’s captain, and Daniel Vettori, his New Zealand counterpart, believe the Chappell-Hadlee Series has the potential to become cricket’s equivalent of rugby’s Bledisloe Cup. “It’d be great if we can get it to that level,” Vettori said in the .”If you keep coming up with it every year, we’ll get a better feel for playing Australia and knowing what we need to do as opposed to meeting them every two to three years. And therein lies more chance to beat them.”Ponting was also in support of the idea, although he said the long-term success would depend on scheduling. “The cricket has been fantastic, and as long as we can get the timing right for everyone involved, this concept has got a great future,” he said. “The overall concept is great. Any time you get Australia and New Zealand playing any sport, it’s a great contest, as we’ve seen both times we’ve played the series. All I’ll say is it wouldn’t be ideal if it was in the middle of an Ashes series.”The series was awkwardly placed between Australia’s Test campaigns against West Indies and South Africa and Australia host England over five Tests next summer. “It’s not ideal for us as far as getting prepared for a Test series but it’s just what you have to do these days,” he said. “It’s professional cricket.”New Zealand, who won the third game at Christchurch after losing the first two, continue their season with a home series against Sri Lanka later this month. Australia begin the three-Test contest against South Africa at Perth on Friday.

Australia 9 for 564 (Clarke 141, Gilchrist 126, Martyn 70, McGrath 54*, Ponting 51, Gillespie 43*, Martin 4-141, Vettori 4-154) lead New Zealand 353 by 211 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

After two days where neither side took control of this match, Australia finally grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and by the close on the third day at Brisbane were in a commanding position. Michael Clarke and Adam Gilchrist, who both cracked excellent hundreds, revived the innings and then, improbable as it might seem, the batting of Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie left New Zealand on the ropes. Australia closed on 9 for 564, a lead of 211 runsThe morning belonged to Clarke. He made a hundred on debut at Bangalore last month, and registered a glorious double on his home debut with a fierce pull off the final ball before lunch to bring up his century. His innings was on the whole sublime, with drives and pulls of precocious class – there were also the odd moments to forget, as when inside edge off a leaden-footed drive sneaked past his off stump. But they were rare, and he showed more than enough aggression to keep a small crowd entertained. To Stephen Fleming’s clear frustration, New Zealand’s bowlers fed his strengths time after time, and even the introduction of the new ball shortly before lunch just brought about a spate of boundaries.Gilchrist in contrast, struggled for a good hour, his initial attempts to assert dominance over Daniel Vettori failing dismally. Vettori recently picked up 20 wickets in two Tests in Bangladesh. Today he had to wait until the kettle had started to boil for tea before he got any reward, but bowled far better. Exploiting a cracked pitch, he used flight and turn to great effect but it just wasn’t to be. He had a supremely confident leg-before shout against Gilchrist turned down (the all intrusive replays showed the ball hitting middle and leg) and a pad-glove chance from Clarke, then on 74, evaded the grasp of Mark Richardson at silly point.Gilchrist, who limped to 9 off 39 balls, eventually found his touch, and after the break really cut loose with some thrilling strokeplay as New Zealand wilted. Their bowlers failed to find a consistent line and length, banging the ball in too short. More than once Fleming had cause to jog up to the offender and remind him of the value of pitching it up. Fleming’s face remained placid throughout, but inside he must have been fuming.

Clarke finally fell to the deserving Vettori for 141, giving him the charge and playing all round a straight one, and Gilchrist followed in the next over for 126, flaying Martin for three successive leg-side fours before he was well held by Scott Styris in the deep going for a fourth. Between them, Gilchrist and Clarke, who came together with Australia wobbling on 5 for 222, added 216 at more than a run-a-minute. Vettori got his fourth wicket soon after when Shane Warne fell leg-before for 10.New Zealand’s evaporating morale was almost totally extinguished by an unbeaten last-wicket stand of 93 between Gillespie and McGrath. Ricky Ponting allowed his rabbits their moment with bat in the knowledge that the fading light meant they wouldn’t be allowed a chance with the ball.McGrath had a field day, his grin as broad when he pull-swept a six off Vettori as it was when he was dropped twice in four balls – down the leg by a tumbling Brendan McCullum and off a skyer by a flailing Richardson – off a furious Jacob Oram. At the time those let-offs didn’t seem too important. Some 70 minutes later McGrath had taken his career batting average over the magical seven mark, and New Zealand were a shambles. By the end, men were even posted in the deep for the McGrath hook, and the cheers when he brought up his fifty were every bit as loud as they had been for Clarke five hours earlier.

The McGrath-Gillespie cameo came long after Damien Martyn’s early dismissal had seemingly left Australia facing a first-innings deficit. His demise for 70 came out of the blue at a time he looked set for his hundred. He aimed to cut a wide delivery from Chris Martin, found the top edge, and Craig McMillan, two yards in on the wide third-man boundary, didn’t have to move. By the time the next wicket fell, the whole complex of the match had been turned on its head.Martin Williamson is managing editor of Wisden Cricinfo.

With the 2007 World Cup a little more than a year away, both New Zealand and Sri Lanka have an eye on future targets going into the third one-day international at Wellington on Friday. For John Bracewell, the New Zealand coach, the objective is to develop depth ahead of next year’s World Cup while the desperately out-of-form Sri Lankans would look to team up with a sports psychologist for much-needed mental analysis.The Sri Lankans are still struggling for self-belief after coming to New Zealand off a 1-6 hiding in India, and they have turned to Sandy Gordon, the South African sports psychologist, for help. Gordon will spend time with the team when they arrive in Australia next week to prepare for the tri-nations series there.”We’ve let ourselves down with some bad basics,” Marvan Atapattu, the Sri Lankan captain, said. “It’s a matter of winning one game. We are better than this and if we can win the whole thing changes.”From the New Zealand squad which won the second match at Christchurch, Nathan Astle has been dropped to make way for returning captain Stephen Fleming, while Jeetan Patel, the offspinner, has been brought in for James Franklin, the fast bowler.The surprising decision to drop Astle, New Zealand’s most successful one-day batsman who ground his way out of a batting slump with an unbeaten 90 on Tuesday, was part of the “squad mentality”, according to Bracewell. Heading towards the 2007 World Cup, player development across all positions took precedence over the individual.”They’re always tough decisions, but we need a squad mentality and I want to continue with the long-term planning towards the World Cup, which is developing a strong competitive squad in all positions,” Bracewell said.Meanwhile, New Zealand Cricket has announced their team for the third National Bank series match against Sri Lanka at Wellington.New Zealand squad Stephen Fleming (capt), Daniel Vettori, Shane Bond, Chris Cairns, James Franklin, Peter Fulton, Jamie How, Hamish Marshall, Brendon McCullum (wk), Jeetan Patel, Scott Styris, Lou Vincent .

Ahead of this Test series, there are some things that don’t require special powers of prognosis: like Makhaya Ntini taking wickets – he has 176 from 35 home Tests at an average of 22.83 – and Rahul Dravid making runs. But you sense that the clinching factor could well be how some of the other big names go in head-to-head tussles. South Africa will start overwhelming favourites,but, as Dravid reiterated at the pre-match press conference, there’s enough quality in the Indian dressing room to hurt any team. Here, Cricinfo takes a look at some of the key contests that might well decide the fate of the three-match series.Graeme Smith v Zaheer KhanIf you went by numbers alone, you’d be inclined to scoff and ask: Whatcontest? Zaheer has just three wickets, all from one innings at Kolkatatwo seasons ago, in three Tests against South Africa, and the average isan unflattering 92.66. Since returning to the side at the start of theone-day series, though, he has bowled as well as he did before the hamstringinjury in Brisbane (2003) sent his career off the rails.Smith has 155 runs at 38.75 in two Tests against the Indians, including abrave 71 in a lost cause at the Eden Gardens, but he was as hapless as adrunk on ice when faced with Zaheer’s incoming deliveries in the one-dayseries. The opening hour or two of each innings could well set the tonefor the series, and a rejuvenated Zaheer currently has the upper hand.Smith: 2 4 0 155 71 47 37 38.75 0 1Zaheer: 3 97.4 278 3 3/64 3/86 92.66 2.84 195.3Sachin Tendulkar v Dale SteynThis is the ultimate clash – the weather-beaten old champion against theeager young pretender. Tendulkar has little left to achieve in the game,but his record against South Africa suggests in no uncertain terms thatthey have troubled him more than any other side. He did play two of thefinest knocks seen on South African soil, the breathtaking 169 at Newlands(1996-97) and the delightfully inventive 155 at Bloemfontein (2001-02),but in 16 Tests overall, he has just 1003 runs at 37.14.Steyn has just eight Test caps, but his unbridled pace makes him theperfect shock tactic. He can be wayward and erratic, but when he gets itright, no one likes it. He combined with Ntini to rout New Zealand atCenturion earlier this year, taking 5 for 47, and worried the Sri Lankansin Colombo, taking 5 for 82 in a 13-over spell that veered fromsensational to atrocious every so often. Tendulkar has been hit on thebody and helmet a few times this past season and, if the South Africansscent a frailty against genuine pace, it will be Steyn who they send infor the kill.Tendulkar: 16 29 2 1003 169 155 111 37.14 3 3Steyn: 8 271.5 1124 32 5/47 7/134 35.12 4.13 50.9Jacques Kallis v Anil KumbleKallis is South Africa’s answer to Dravid, a solid technician with theability to play strokes all around the wicket. Seldom found wanting in acrisis, he has frequently thwarted India, averaging 82.71 over six Tests.Even the small contributions, like the 36 not out in Mumbai (1999-2000),have been invaluable ones. While the likes of Herschelle Gibbs and AB deVilliers might look to give Kumble the charge, Kallis is likely to beentrusted with the task of wearing him down.Kumble himself is the master of the slow choke, applying pressurerelentlessly until the opponent submits. He has 66 wickets at 31.57 from16 matches against South Africa, and he first gave glimpses of his uncannyability here 14 years ago, taking 6 for 53 from 44 overs of non-stopprobing. With both men possessing the gift of patience in abundance, itwill be fascinating to see who blinks first.Kallis: 6 579 121 82.71 1 4 10 3/30 28.70Kumble: 16 906.2 2084 66 6/53 8/113 31.57 2.29 82.3Sourav Ganguly v Shaun PollockOn the face of it, considering Ganguly’s mediocre displays against SouthAfrica (522 runs at 27.47) and Pollock’s stellar performances againstIndia (39 wickets at 20.84), this should be a mismatch. But, as he showedin Potchefstroom in the tour game, Ganguly is a man with everything toprove, most of all to himself. The South Africans have been using thewounded tiger phrase glibly, but some are pretty wary of what this proudman might be able to achieve if his strength of will can overcomeperceived weaknesses against fast bowling.Down the years, no one has exploited those frailties as ruthlessly asPollock, who has dismissed Ganguly six times (in addition to scalpingDravid four times and VVS Laxman thrice). His 10 for 147 won South Africathe Bloemfontein Test in 2001, despite centuries from Tendulkar andVirender Sehwag, and if India cannot deal with deliveries that shape away andjag back from just short of a length, their litany of woe in the Cape willonly continue.Ganguly: 11 522 73 27.47 0 3 5 2/36 42.00Pollock: 9 349.5 813 39 6/56 10/147 20.84 2.32 53.8X-factor: SehwagThat seems to be a funny thing to say about a man who could barely put batto ball in the one-day games, but Sehwag the Test player is a differentcreature. Since his debut here five years ago, Sehwag has seldom had apoor series, and even this relatively lean year has seen stunningcenturies at Lahore and St. Lucia. When he bats with trademarkhigh-voltage intensity, he can eviscerate any attack. The problem now isto find the switch and flick it on.

Mark Taylor has joined a growing number of Australian players to back Ricky Ponting as captain despite the “over-reaction” to the Ashes loss. Taylor, who was in charge when Australia became world champions in 1995, said the defeat “may be the making” of Ponting after Dennis Lillee called for his sacking.”We’ve seen Ricky Ponting and the Australian side winning everything,” Taylor told , “but sometimes you need a loss to sit down and say ‘what can I do, what can we do as a leadership group do to make things better?’ If you can turn it around you can bounce back and become a better leader.”As most of the squad returned to Australia yesterday, Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer and Michael Kasprowicz believed Ponting should continue as leader. A report in said Ponting also had the support of Bob Merriman, the Cricket Australia chairman, and at least five members of the board.The paper said a review of the tour had already begun with Taylor, Allan Border and Daryl Foster, the bowling coach, investigating all aspects of the trip as well as looking into Australian cricket at all levels. Taylor said there was always going to be an over-reaction to the series loss and was not surprised by the mood.However, Taylor said both Ponting and Michael Vaughan did not show enough imagination with their tactical decisions during the series. “To be critical, I thought both captains at times were either full-on or full-off,” Taylor said in . “It was either four slips, two gullies and a bat-pad or no slips, deep point, deep third man, deep backward square, deep fine leg.””One of the things you don’t want to do is panic in a situation like this,” Kasprowicz said in . While the future of Ponting is safe Kasprowicz, who played in two Tests and took four wickets, is waiting for news from Trevor Hohns, the chairman of selectors.”[Hohns] said straight: `I can’t tell you where things sit. We just don’t know yet’,” Kasprowicz said. Decisions will be made quickly as the Super Series starts in three weeks.

Matthew Hayden is proud of the way his team sticks together after Lou Vincent’s claims that Australian players are arrogant sledgers who “hunt like a pack of dogs”. “If he considers that to be the case, I’m not unhappy about it, to be honest,” Hayden said in Brisbane.”Regardless of what Lou says, it’s water off a duck’s back as far as Australia is concerned.” Hayden, who scored 117 against New Zealand on Sunday, said the comments reflected the competitive nature of Australian athletes.”It’s doesn’t matter what sport … we could be playing kick a cockroach from here to the wall and we’d want to be competitive,” he said. “In the heat of the battle New Zealand and Australia is one of the finest competitions you can play. They’re in our country and we’re very excited about the way we’re playing and we’re working exceptionally hard to what is ahead of us.”Hayden said one of the strengths of the Australian team was that they stuck together on the field. “We’ve had that mentality for as long as I can ever remember and it’s served us well,” he said. “We’ve been motivated by the fact we were under pressure, motivated by the fact that we needed to perform … we’re very proud of the fact that we stick by each other.”