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Yorkshire crushed Lancashire by seven wickets in the Roses battle at Headingley to preserve their 14-point lead at the top of Division One of the CricInfo Championship.Set a victory target of 157 in 78 overs, Yorkshire needed only 33.5 overs in which to score their runs and take a maximum 20 points from the match.Openers Matthew Wood and Craig White wasted no time in getting Yorkshire off to a cracking start, putting on 55 before White was bowled by left-arm spinner Gary Keedy with the second delivery after lunch.Wood went on to make 51 with ten fours off only 74 balls but this was slow compared with the onslaught that followed from Darren Lehmann.The Australian, who made a Roses record score of 252 in the first innings, plundered 48 from just 24 balls with seven fours and two sixes, both the big hits coming off Keedy.Lehmann gave a sharp chance to Mark Chilton at short leg before he had scored – a firm clip at Keedy hitting the fielder on the shoulder – but he again made batting look a simple operation and when he moved on to ten it gave him 1,000 Championship runs for the season.Keedy dismissed both Wood and Lehmann, who was clean bowled having a big swing, but he suffered when skipper David Byas blasted him for 14 runs in an over to end the match.Lancashire had set out on the final morning on 280 for eight with a lead of 122 and the ninth-wicket pair of Peter Martin and John Wood took their stand to 68 in 18 overs before Wood was run out for 35 by Gary Fellows’ direct hit from cover as the batsmen failed to complete a quick single.Martin reached his 50 off 79 balls with six fours but soon afterwards White had Keedy caught behind with the score on 314.Byas said afterwards: “This ranks as one of the most satisfying wins in a long time because Lancashire are a good side and for us to make 531 after they had reached 373 in the first innings was an excellent effort.”Darren Lehmann’s contribution was absolutely magnificent and stands head and shoulders above everything else but Matthew Wood batted beautifully in both innings and Darren Gough’s 96 was also a fantastic knock.”We have not talked about winning the Championship yet but with a game in hand it is in our own hands and if we can beat Surrey in the next match starting at Headingley on Wednesday it will be a step nearer.”

Karachi, March 13: Muttiah Muralitharan continued to be an enigma forthe Pakistan batsmen as Sri Lanka pulled themselves back intocontention of the third and final cricket Test being played here onMonday at the National Stadium.Muralitharan pushed Pakistan on the backfoot when he picked up twocrucial wickets on Monday evening after the home team appeared to runaway with the match after Shahid Afridi and Mohammad Naveed Qureshihad provided them with the best opening start of the series by scoring70 in 18 overs.But Muralitharan trapped Naveed in front of the wickets and thenearned a controversial decision against Ijaz Ahmad to restrictPakistan to 88 for three at stumps on the second day.Ravindra Pushpakumara had provided Muralitharan the inroad by sendingShahid Afridi’s off stump cartwheeling.Pakistan had earlier dismissed Sri Lanka for 227 to secure a 29-runfirst innings lead. It was the first time Pakistan snatched the firstinnings advantage after surrendering a 171-run lead in Rawalpindi and69-run lead in Peshawar. Sri Lanka won both the Tests by two wicketsand 57 runs respectively.Pakistan, who have never lost a Test here in 33 matches, lead thetourists by 117 runs with seven second innings wickets in hand. Thematch, which was heading Pakistan’s way 14 overs before close, is nowevenly balanced.Nevertheless, Pakistan bowlers aggressive approach was undone byMuralitharan’s menace who now has taken his tally of wickets in theseries to 24. When Sri Lanka won the series here in 1995-96,Muralitharan had picked 18 wickets.Interestingly, most of Muralitharan’s victims in the series havefallen to bat and pad catches which proves the Pakistan stroke-makersinability to counter his spin and overcautious approach.Muralitharan, the undoubtable spin king, achieved a personal milestonewhen he reached 250 wickets in 51 Tests by accounting for Naveed. Theopener, who was looking compact in defence while scoring 27, foundhimself a bit unlucky to be declared leg before as the ball wasapparently spinning down the leg-side.But it was heartwarming to see Shahid Afridi stroke the ball on meritand show patience. He played sizzling drives until he was beaten by areal beauty from pacer Pushpakumara. Afridi’s 59-ball 34 was spicedwith six boundaries.Until Pushpakumara dismissed Afridi and Muralitharan got his actstogether, the Sri Lankans, for the first time, appeared a disjointedunit. Their shoulders were drooped and the body language showed thatthey had run out of steam.The reason maybe that they had already clinched the series inPeshawar. The other reason might be that they are at the fag end of awonderful tour and consequently keen to return home early.Sanath Jayasuriya’s leadership also came into question for the firsttime in the series when he delayed the introduction of Muralitharanuntil the 17th over. A bowler, who has mentally destroyed the Pakistanbatsmen, should have been brought into the attack much earlier.Nevertheless, Sri Lanka’s belated fightback on the second day’s cannotdiscredit Pakistan who dominated six of the seven hours play. Day’splay was extended because Pakistan’s over-rate was well below therequirement. Only a miracle can save them from being penalized bymatch referee Brian Hastings.Waqar Younis showed his experience of bowling on a green top track bypitching the ball upto the batsmen while Shoaib Akhtar displayed hisspeed with controlled line and length. Shahid Afridi exhibited hisutility by snapping up two wickets.The double change in the team management was also evident as thereappeared a set plan and purpose behind the bowling. The Sri Lankanbatsmen were not given much width or room to play their trademarkextravagant shots. Field placings were near perfect while the bowlingchanges were timely and calculated.But Pakistan’s strategy was nearly pierced by pint-sized RomeshKaluwitharana who punctuated nine boundaries in his 29-ball 42. Butalert fielding restricted the little dynamite from inflicting furtherdamage when Naveed’s accurate throw from square-leg beat the SriLankan wicket-keeper by yards who tried to steal an impossible secondrun.Jayasuriya was deliberately fed outside the off-stump before theskipper perished when Ijaz took a sharp catch off Shoaib Akhtar. WaqarYounis kept the ball on the right spot until he found the outside edgeof Mahela Jayawardena’s bat after having trapped Marvan Atapattu infront of the wickets off a sharp banana-like inswinger.Russel Arnold, who missed a century by one run in Peshawar, was notgiven free strokes on his favourite leg-side. He eventually lost hispatience and slashed a wide delivery off debutant Irfan Fazil to besmartly caught at third slip by Younis Khan.Indika de Saram, who had just two scoring shots in his 22-ball five,tried to take liberty against Shahid Afridi and was caught at mid-on.Tillekeratne Dilshan tried to cut a ball too close to his body andcaught by Moin Khan who had given him a life three runs earlier.Dilshan masterminded Sri Lanka’s revival after they had slumped to 46for three in the first hour. He added 54 runs for the fourth wicketwith Arnold and remained a silent spectators in another partnership of54 with Kaluwitharana.Waqar Younis finished as the most impressive bowler with two for 39but Shoaib Akhtar was the most successful bowler with three for 52.Shahid Afridi bagged two for 40 but Irfan Fazil had a nightmare debutwhen he was hit for 35 runs from his four overs for a solitary wicket.

Haryana were in command of their Ranji Trophy North Zone clash againstServices at the Air Force Station ground in Delhi after the latterbegan their first innings disastrously in reply to their opponents’tally of 389. Services lost three wickets without a run on the boardbut recovered to 84/4 by stumps.After Haryana resumed on the second day at 234/3, Ishan Ganda, on 83overnight, completed his century in the morning. His fourth wicketstand with Rajesh Puri had reached 120 when he was stumped by wicketkeeper Sarabjit Singh off medium pacer Sudhakar Ghag for 122 (282balls, 16 fours). Puri fell eleven short of the three figure mark,being sixth out, in identical fashion as Ganda, for 89 (142 balls, 14fours). When Ghag removed Ajay Ratra to terminate the innings, he tookhis tally of scalps to seven in a marathon 50.1 overs at a cost of 122runs.Haryana opening bowlers Vineet Jain and Feroze Ghyas scattered theServices top order as D Sehrawar, HK Bhaskar and Sarabjit Singh wereall back in the dressing room off the sixth, seventh and eighth ballsof the innings. Ghyas took his third scalp by taking out M Reddy at 33but skipper Sanjay Verma (40) and KK Dixit (25) prevented any furthersetbacks, restoring a semblance of order at 84/4.

Andhra Cricket Association skipper Amit Pathak won the toss andelected to bat first against Indian Oil Corporation in their fourthround clash. However, things did not go too well for them as theskipper was trapped in front of the stumps by left arm seamer ZaheerKhan. With just 23 on the board, LN Prasad Reddy and Gnaneshwara Raocame together and steered the hosts towards a good total. Prasad Reddycompiled a steady 59 (114 balls, 3 fours, 1 six) while Gnaneshwara Raopicked the bowlers off for runs.Rao made a 78 ball 60 that included two hits that cleared the ropesbefore being caught behind off Iqbal Siddiqui. The pair had takenAndhra Cricket Association to a position of relative stability, beforethey were separated with 140 on the board.Stumper MSK Prasad, recently discarded by the national selectors,cracked an unbeaten 39. Perhaps he was making a point or two to theselectors. Young all rounder Venugopal Rao missed a half century byjust 3 runs as he became Zaheer Khan’s second victim. The speedstermade it a 3 wicket haul when he got rid of YS Ranganath before hecould open his account.At the end of their allotted 50 overs, the Andhra Cricket Associationside had compiled a more than useful 249. This left Indian OilCorporation chasing 250 at an even 5 runs an over.They were however not up to the task. Despite a 100 plus partnershipfor the second wickets, Indian Oil Corporation could manage only 221.Promising young opener from Karnataka, Mithun Beerala helped himselfto 52 as Abbas Ali hurried to 51.After the fall of the Beerala and Ali, no one stayed at the wicketlong enough to score more than 36. Raj Mohan snared 3/48 and sawIndian Oil Corporation slip to a 28 run loss.

Black clouds scudding over New Road put another dampener on Worcestershire’s slender hopes of escaping to victory over Second Division champions Northamptonshire.Needing a win to have any chance of promotion, the home side could ill afford a complete wash-out for the second day in succession following downpours overnight and again this morning.Already facing an uphill task at 50 for five in reply to Northants’ 260, they were close to accepting their promotion challenge is over when the umpires abandoned the third day after lunch.Coach Bill Athey said: “It’s looking less and less likely because we really needed a couple of batting bonus points as well as a win.”The bad weather also knocked Glenn McGrath’s prospects of becoming the leading wicket-taker in the County Championship.Tied on 68 with Shane Warne after the first innings here, he lost ground when his Australian team-mate struck twice in Yorkshire’s second innings at Southampton on Thursday.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsPakistan were circling a wounded opponent as the fourth day in Sharjah drew to a close with England two wickets down in pursuit of a seemingly distant target of 284. A century from Mohammad Hafeez had underpinned Pakistan’s fightback after conceding a first-innings deficit and only the presence of Alastair Cook and Joe Root, England’s two best batsman, at the crease gave the tourists slender reason to hope for an historic victory.Hafeez’s outstanding 151 laid the sturdiest of foundations and left England facing a battle to avoid a 2-0 defeat in the series. Although the scores have gone up in each innings so far in this match, the chase was much steeper than anything England had previously achieved in Asia and Pakistan’s spinners looked far more adept than their English counterparts at taking advantage of a wearing pitch.The injury suffered by Ben Stokes on the first day, effectively reducing England to 10 fit men and a bloody-minded No. 11 with a strapped-up shoulder, has added to the challenge. Even getting close would represent one of England’s greatest achievements in the UAE, where they have yet to win a Test in five attempts and counting.Pakistan are the masters of their domain, for all that England have run them hard throughout the series. Endeavour can only get you so far, however, and a skills deficit in certain areas – spin bowling, most notably – has allowed Pakistan to exert themselves at key moments. Several missed chances in the field on the fourth day, most damagingly a stumping before Hafeez had added to his overnight score, also served to undermine what was an admirably wholehearted effort.England began their chase with a degree of elan. Moeen Ali overcame what looked a nasty blow to the back of a the helmet when ducking into a Wahab Riaz bouncer to help take 23 off the opening four overs from Pakistan’s quicks. But the battle was only really joined when Misbah-ul-Haq turned to his spinners. This was where the Test would be won and lost.Zulfiqar Babar’s second ball snaked menacingly past Cook’s off stump, the low bounce amplifying the sense of danger, and the cries of the men around the bat, led by the ever-excitable Sarfraz Ahmed, began to echo louder and louder around the Sharjah Cricket Stadium as England’s momentum dissipated. It took 18 overs of spin for England to double their score.For the second time in the match, Moeen fell to the offspin of Shoaib Malik, a review failing to save him after being caught on the crease by one that would have skidded on to hit leg stump. Malik, on his farewell Test appearance after announcing his retirement at the close of the third day, then breached Ian Bell’s defences in his next over.Mohammad Hafeez’s century was the backbone of Pakistan’s innings•Getty Images

In between, Cook narrowly avoided being dismissed by Yasir Shah for the fourth innings in succession, when hit on the pads trying to sweep; Pakistan reviewed, with the on-field decision upheld via umpire’s call. They resorted to the DRS again, searching for another lbw decision against Root off Babar, with the same result. Given the amount of chances created, the loss of both reviews did not look like being a major hindrance.For England, it was a day of might-have-beens. Hafeez was nearly dismissed twice in the first over but he escaped to record his ninth Test hundred and strengthen Pakistan’s grip on the Test. Although England steadily worked through the line-up, taking the last four wickets for 43 after Hafeez was sixth man out, the chase had already ballooned beyond manageable proportions. A fifth-wicket stand of 93 between Hafeez and Misbah was pivotal.Only three batsmen have managed to pass 50 in three completed innings but Hafeez rode several moments of fortune to post by far the most significant individual contribution of the match so far, almost double the next best score. This was his fourth hundred in the last 12 months and made him the fifth Pakistani to record a three-figure score in the series; England still only have one, Cook’s monument to concentration in Abu Dhabi.England needed a steady trickle of wickets, if not an outright torrent, but although the nightwatchman, Rahat Ali, was sent back in the second over, their hopes evaporated during the morning along with a succession of half-chances. In a session that seemed crucial to the direction of the match, England’s luck was of the desert variety.It has supposedly been cooler in Sharjah but the breeze was blowing Pakistan’s way. Hafeez had survived a review for lbw from the first ball of the morning and that seemed to trigger a rare bout of nerves, perhaps recalling his dismissal for 98 on the first day of the series in Abu Dhabi. Adil Rashid’s opening delivery trapped Hafeez in front but Hawk-Eye adjudged it to have pitched outside leg stump; his third was a well-disguised googly that beat the batsman’s charge, turned past leg and left Jonny Bairstow grasping at thin air with Hafeez yards from safety.Finally, having faced 16 deliveries and lost his partner, Hafeez was able to sweep the single required to bring up his first Test hundred against England. He gave another clear chance when on 109 but Stuart Broad was unable to grasp a reflex caught-and-bowled low to his left off a leading edge.While Hafeez forged on, Misbah erected a wearyingly familiar roadblock at the other end and it was a surprise when he fell to the second new ball for 38, failing to post a half-century for the first time in five innings. Broad set him up for the short ball with a cluster of leg-side fielders before trapping him in front of the stumps with a full, straight delivery.Asad Shafiq marshalled Pakistan’s tail to set England a daunting 284•Getty Images

England might – that word again – have dismissed him without scoring, had they posted a short leg during James Anderson’s opening spell. When Misbah strode out, Anderson having speared another precision inswinger through Rahat’s defences, Pakistan’s lead was 80 and England could sense their opportunity. But Misbah was able to fend away a pesky bouncer and settle into his rhythm, clobbering Rashid over long-on for his 12th six of the series.England removed both batsmen within four overs, Hafeez chipping Moeen somewhat lackadaisically to long-on, but there was more in the tank, as Asad Shafiq and Sarfraz added a scurrying 55 in short order. That took the target beyond England’s highest successful pursuit in Asian conditions, 209 to beat Bangladesh in Dhaka five years ago.Cook’s spinners could not offer any control and the dismissal of Sarfraz by Samit Patel with a sharply turning delivery during an over that also leaked three boundaries summed up their problems as well as the challenge to come.Patel should also have removed Shafiq for 29 but Anderson, normally one of England’s most reliable catchers, unsuccessfully juggled a straightforward chance at mid-on. The dismissal of Yasir finally gave Rashid a wicket on the stroke of tea and Broad then castled Shafiq shortly after the resumption before a run-out in the following over brought England’s toil to an end.

Richmond Mutumbami played the anchor role in Zimbabwe’s six-wicket win, with a career-best 74, against Afghanistan in the third ODI for a 2-1 lead. The fifty and the win didn’t come easy for Zimbabwe. Mutumbami was dropped twice – on 36 and 68 – and the hosts’ middle order stuttered fleetingly before captain Elton Chigumbura steered them home in the last over.”Maybe they can say it was my day, it was my lucky day,” Mutumbami said cheerfully about the drops. “I just kept telling myself that I should keep going on and see where I get to. Every win is important for the team, I actually feel great about it.”

Our aim was to score 250 – Noor Ali

Afghanistan opener Noor Ali Zadran, who top-scored with 56 and gave his team a steady start, rued the loss of quick wickets in the middler order and said they were looking to score much more than their score of 223 for 8.
“[Our] target was to score 250 on this wicket and get them out,” he said. “[In] our first session we were 124 for 1, after second wicket fell we lost five wickets for only 17 runs (25 runs). We didn’t achieve the target [we wanted to set].
However, Noor Ali was not completely disheartened about trailing 2-1 in the series and said they were known to bounce back.
“We are very good in bouncing back because first match we lost, after that we bounced back. we will bounce back and win the series 3-2.”

Mutumbami came back to the Zimbabwe squad only recently, in place of Regis Chakabva, after he was dropped for the home series against New Zealand in August. A poor run of scores from Chakabva helped him back into the side, and Mutumbami started the series with scores of 30 and 35, before bringing up his third ODI fifty today.When asked if one could expect more match-winning performances from him, Mutumbami said: “Yes, I’m sure they are coming. I’m sure more such performances are on their way.”We had to bounce back and today the guys showed good character and I thought we played good cricket. The guys were calm out there and they executed their skills better than the last game, so hopefully we can do the same thing on Thursday. There’s one or two things that we can improve as well like in any game there’s always one or two mistakes that you do.”When Mutumbami was dismissed in the 29th over, Zimbabwe were still 107 runs away from their target. Chigumbura took them over the line with an unbeaten 49, and he was not unhappy about not reaching a fifty.”Obviously the team comes first,” Chigumbura said. “It’s good to have a win under our belt, at the end of the day that’s what you’d be looking for. Obviously, personal achievements can come after [that].”The way the foundation was set by Richmond and Sean [Williams] out there, it was good. Hopefully we can carry on with the good things that were done today and do the same thing on Thursday.”Chigumbura has not won a toss even once in the series and said he would rather focus on the things he can control, such as his team’s performance on the field.”I’m not really worried about the toss, it’s about how we go out there and execute our skills,” he said. “Obviously it’s one game at a time, it’s going to be important to win the series on Thursday and obviously finish well.”

The Pakistan Cricket Board does not regret allowing Mohammad Asif to play for the Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League (IPL), despite the latest injury the increasingly fragile pacer sustained in his right hand, which is likely to keep him out of the rest of the tournament. It is also possible that the injury keeps Asif from playing a full part for Pakistan in the tri-series tournament in Bangladesh from June 8.Asif split the webbing on his right hand in a game against the Deccan Chargers and has had stitches put in since. Virender Sehwag, his Delhi captain, said after yesterday’s game, that Asif split the webbing while fielding. “He’s getting fit. He has four stitches on his hand,” Sehwag said. “The doctors told us it would be a week before we could open them. Let’s wait and see.”The latest development is a further setback to Asif who has seen much of the sheen of a prodigious start in cricket taken away by a long-standing elbow injury. He has missed much of the last year, only returning to action against Bangladesh in the recent ODI series, having had surgery on his right elbow in Australia at the beginning of the year. Still, bowling with a protective brace on his right arm, there were concerns that he had returned too quickly, in an effort to be able to participate in the IPL in which he is the second-most expensive – and thus highly-paid – Pakistan player.If the new injury does prevent him from playing for Pakistan in the tri-series, the PCB is likely to bear the brunt of criticism for allowing him to play in India, though an official insisted there was nothing wrong with Asif going to India and that the injury could’ve happened “anytime, anywhere.””We have been in touch with the doctors in India,” Shafqat Naghmi, the PCB’s chief operating officer, told Cricinfo. “He has split the webbing but the stitches are in and will stay there for a week.”Naghmi insisted, however, that the board was fortunate that Asif’s elbow problem hadn’t been aggravated. “We’re lucky in that perspective that the more chronic problem – the elbow injury – hasn’t worsened. His elbow is fine.”He was fit when he went and we thought that the lighter workload of four overs per game would actually be good for him in terms of his comeback. This is just an accidental injury that could’ve happened anywhere, anytime.”The PCB’s approach to allowing their players to participate in the IPL appears to be in contrast to their approach towards county cricket. After a calamitous run of injuries to their fast bowlers last year, the PCB formulated a policy whereby they reserve the right to prevent a contracted player from playing for counties in England. Fast bowlers such as Asif and Umar Gul have not been allowed to take part in county cricket in order to protect them from potential injuries from a greater workload.No such problem exists with the IPL, however, says Naghmi. “The county workload, where you bowl 20 overs a day at times, and the IPL workload, where you bowl just four, is very different. There is not much chance of the workload being high in the IPL, so we don’t see a problem with that. Obviously if a player was injured or there is a real fear of injury, we wouldn’t allow a player to play in the IPL, but we don’t see a problem otherwise.”

Rajasthan made a confident start to their reply after dismissing Railways for 384 on the second day of their elite group encounter at Jaipur. The hosts were 92-0 with openers Anshu Jain and Vineet Saxena, unbeaten on 38 and 46 respectively.Earlier, overnight not out batsmen Yere Goud (49) and Jacob Martin (27) fell early as the defending Ranji Champions only succeeded in adding 102 runs before being dismissed in their first essay. For Rajasthan, left-arm quick Pudiyangum Krishnakumar and left-arm spinner Mohammad Aslam, who claimed three wickets each, were the most successful bowlers.At Wankhede Stadium,Mumbai, a century from opener Wasim Jaffer (106) and a 69 from all-rounder Ajit Agarkar helped hosts Mumbai gain a 179-run first innings lead. The contributions of the duo ensured that the hosts made 302 all out in reply to Delhi’s modest first innings total of 123. By stumps on the second day, Delhi had managed to reduce the deficit to 127 runs; openers Akash Chopra (33*) and Gautam Gambhir (17*) guiding their team to 52-0 in the second essay.A 118-run seventh wicket partnership between Nayan Mongia (70) and Irfan Pathan (54), meanwhile, helped Baroda reach 381 all out in their first innings against Tamil Nadu at Chennai. Valmik Buch, who made 30, was the other batsman who made a useful contribution for the visitors. When Tamil Nadu replied, Sadagoppan Ramesh (45) and Shridharan Sriram (66*) forged a 97-run second wicket partnership to guide the hosts to 112-2 at stumps.At the famed Eden Gardens ground, hosts Bengal were in deep strife replying to Himachal Pradesh’s first innings total of 290. The Tamil Nadu-born of-spinner Aashish Kapoor, who claimed four wickets for twelve runs, was the man responsible for initiating a collapse that reduced the hosts to 128-7 in their first essay. This after Devang Gandhi (63) and skipper Rohan Gavaskar (39) had put on 79 runs for the third wicket. But once Gandhi fell, wickets began to fall in a hurry. Left-arm quick Ashok Thakur, making his fourth appearance in first-class match provided able support to Kapoor snaring three wickets.In another elite group match played at Secunderabad, Andhra skipper MSK Prasad kept his team in the hunt for the first innings lead against Hyderabad. Prasad made a stroke-filled 91 not out while Y Venugopal Rao and Amit Pathak, weighed in with 59 and 51 respectively, as their team reached 274-5 in reply to Hyderabad’s 353.The Punjab-Orissa elite group match at the Barabati Stadium, Cuttack, for its part, was poised interestingly at the end of the second day’s play. After the hosts ended their first innings on 301, Punjab made 141-4. Orissa’s Sanjay Raul, who made 72, and Punja opener Ravneet Ricky, who made 51, were thestand-out batsmen of the day.Karnataka on course for an outright win against BiharAll-rounder B Akhil made 68 and claimed four second innings wickets as Karnataka piled on the pressure on Bihar at Ranchi. In the morning, Akhil’s stroke-filled fifty along with an overnight not out batsman Thilak Naidu’s 86 secured the visitors a handy 188-run lead. Faced with the task of avoiding an innings defeat, Bihar were soon in trouble. But captain Rajiv Kumar (31*) and Manish Kumar (13*) ensured that hosts lived to fight another day.At Indore, Abhijit Kale followed in his skipper Hrishikesh Kanitkar’s footsteps, completing a patient hundred to guide Maharashtra to 334 in their first innings against Madhya Pradesh. Leg-spinner Narender Hirwani, who claimed four wickets, was the most successful bowler for the hosts.When Madhya Pradesh replied, it was the turn of their captain Amay Khurasiya to lead the way with an unbeaten 91. Khurasiya’s swashbuckling 112-ball knock, studded with 15 boundaries, ensured that his team were 141-2 at stumps, despite both the openers falling for low scores.Haryana, for their part, were in sight of an outright win in their low-scoring plate group match against Jammu and Kashmir. At the Molana Azad Stadium, Jammu, the visitors were 52-3 in their second essay, chasing 82 to win. Earlier, Haryana, who began the second day on 102-5, reached 168 all out – a lead of 47 runs – thanks in main to a 51 from overnight not out batsman Shafiq Khan. Spinners Jagtar Singh and Ashwani Gupta claimed four and three wickets respectively for the hosts.When Jammu and Kashmir, batted for a second time, middle-order batsman Kanvaljit Singh made 51 to guide his team to 128 all out on a difficult pitch, securing them an overall lead of 81 in the process. With medium-pacer Vijay Sharma claiming three wickets to reduce Haryana to 32-3 in the fourth innings, the hosts suddenly began to nourish hopes of a surprise win. But Haryana skipper Ajay Ratra walked in that stage and made an unbeaten 35-ball 21 to ensure that his team needed just 30 runs with seven second innings wickets remaining to complete their second win in second matches.

The speculation about Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s availability for the Test series in Sri Lanka has been laid to rest with the BCCI making it official that he has requested for a break. Ratnakar Shetty, BCCI’s chief administrative officer, said Dhoni, India’s limited-overs’ captain, had personally conveyed the message. “Yes, he (Dhoni) has told the board that he would like to rest for the Test series against Sri Lanka”, Shetty said.Till late on Monday night there was a question mark over Dhoni’s participation in the tour after his own public statements did not clear the air. Mid-way through the recent Asia Cup in Pakistan recently, Dhoni spoke about fatigue as a result of back-to-back-matches. On Monday, he welcomed the BCCI’s policy for allowing players the choice to sit out if they wanted some rest. “The board has done a good thing by saying that if someone needs rest, he can opt out”, Dhoni said.Gary Kirsten, India’s coach, had also expressed concern about packed schedules and how important it was for key players like Dhoni to take a break. Since 2007, Dhoni has played 14 Tests, 56 ODIs and eight Twenty20 internationals – 134 days of international cricket in a span of less than 20 months. He also captained Chennai Super Kings to the final of the Indian Premier League, and featured in all their 16 matches.In Dhoni’s absence, Dinesh Karthik is likely to take over wicketkeeping duties ahead of Parthiv Patel. Karthik last played in the Bangalore Test against Pakistan last December, which Dhoni had to skip due to an ankle injury. Karthik had played as a specialist opener in Test series in Bangladesh and England last year, and in the home Tests against Pakistan. He was picked in the squad for the Australia tour, but didn’t play any of the Tests.