Both teams retain realistic chances of victory in the first Test between SriLanka and West Indies at Galle, but the pendulum swung towards the home teamafter their batsmen carried on the fight-back started by MuttiahMuralitharan on Wednesday.The Sri Lankan top order exposed the under prepared West Indian bowlingattack, scoring 240 runs in the day to finish on 343-3, when bad light andthen rain stopped play 23 overs early, for the second day in succession.Wicket-keeper batsman Kumar Sangakkara, who has only been off the field for27 minutes during the first three days of play, marshaled the inningsthroughout the day as he scored an unbeaten 126 from 308 balls, his secondTest century in a hugely promising young career.Sangakkara, a 24-year-old scholar of law, displayed great application as hedropped anchor to play a supporting role to the effervescent MahelaJayawardene in a 162 run all-wicket partnership record between the twosides.Jayawardene came to the wicket after the fall of Marvan Atapattu, who wascaught at first slip off the leg-spin of Dinanath Ramnarine shortly beforethe luncheon interval, and looked destined for his fourth consecutivecentury in Tests before being cruelly run out for 99.It was skillful batting – especially by Jayawardene, who was simply serene -but the West Indian bowlers of yesteryear would hang they head in shame if they bowled as plentiful a supply of bad balls as were served up today.Mervyn Dillon was persevering and threatening throughout and Ramnarine wastesting in periods, but Colin Stuart and Neil McGarrell were less thanordinary, right from the first ball of the day, which Sangakkara slappeddisdainfully to the square fence.Stuart and McGarrell were, of course, woefully short of match fitness.Stuart has bowled 12 first class overs in three months, whilst NcGarrell’sbowling in Sri Lanka had been restricted to the nets prior to this openingTest – hardly the recipe for success on a bland pitch.The bowlers were particularly guilty of dropping short, which is a cardinalsin against the wristy Sri Lankans, who love the shot like no other. Hooperpacked the field square of the wicket, but Jaywardene and Sangakkara stillthreaded it through time and again.Sri Lanka scored 27 boundaries in the day. If the outfield had not beenslowed by the heavy rains the night before, then they would have scored manymore.Sri Lanka remain confidant that, weather permitting, they can press forvictory. A remarkably fresh-faced Sangakkara, speaking to the media straightafter unbuckling his pads, said: “We have a target in mind and all we needto do is carry on tomorrow like we have done today.”Whilst admitting that the pitch remains “very good for batting” he believesthat: “Murali is going to be more effective in the second innings, as he isgoing to get more turn and bite. We will have to see how the West Indianshandle him.”They would be in far better position if Jayawardene had remained at thewicket. The pace with which he was scoring his runs (99 from 134 balls) wasquickly shifting the initiative towards Sri Lanka. Whilst he was at thecrease Sri Lanka were ticking along at four runs per over.When an under-pressure Russel Arnold came to the crease the run scoringslowed (35 runs in 17.1 overs). Sangakkara had lost his rhythm and appearedfocused on survival till the close, whilst Arnold was given a tremendousworking over by an animated Dillon.However, Jayawardene, just 24-years-old, on the verge of his ninth Testcentury and his fourth in consecutive Tests, made a fatal misjudgment as hetried to scramble the last run and Marlon Samuels – partially making up fordropping Sangakkara on 72 – threw down the stumps.Sri Lanka, 105 runs behind, would not reveal their target, but we can assumethat we will want to draw level at the latest by lunch tomorrow and thenquickly extend it to 50-100 before a declaration.Of course, all is not lost for the West Indies. As they showed on Wednesday,when they lost their last five wickets for 25, this game can change veryquickly. This has all the makings of a classic Test.

South African batting star Jacques Kallis continued a rich vein of form when he made a century against Western Australia in the cricket tour match here.Kallis was out on the stroke tea for 120 as South Africa reached 3-278 – an overall lead of 45.The South Africans indicated they may declare late in the day to give Test spearhead Allan Donald a handful of overs after he missed a day’s bowling on Sunday with a foot injury.Donald had a hole drilled in the big toenail of his left foot to help ease bruising caused by a new pair of boots which didn’t fit properly.Kallis arrived in Australia after scoring 590 runs at an average 295 in South Africa’s four home Tests this summer.He showed every sign of continuing that form with an effortless ton.His century took 199 minutes but 60 of the runs came in boundaries – 13 fours and three sixes – as he batted patiently and waited for the bad balls.He was eventually caught behind off Brad Hogg, the ball hitting his pad and bouncing off his glove as Ryan Campbell took a good reactionary catch.In favourable conditions, Kallis and Neil McKenzie, who was 81 not out at tea, made sure they had a decent innings ahead of the Test match against Australiastarting in Adelaide on Friday.They smashed 157 runs in the middle session, as they added 161 for the third wicket.Earlier, opener Gary Kirsten blew a chance to gain some valuable practice on the last day, getting out for 59 six minutes before lunch when he spooned a returncatch to the left arm wrist spin of Hogg.Kirsten’s fellow Test opener Herschelle Gibbs, after making only two in the first innings, had been unable to bat so far today because of a groin strain.Kallis revelled against Hogg, hitting two sixes and a four off one over with brutal strokeplay.Earlier, Jacques Rudolph was caught behind off Gavin Swan without adding to his overnight score of 12.The WA attack was missing pace spearhead Matthew Nicholson, who made his maiden first-class century yesterday after taking five wickets in South Africa’s firstinnings.He was unable to bowl because he was struck a painful blow on the toe while batting.

*North ZoneKavaljit Singh scores a doubleJammu & Kashmir batsman Kavaljit Singh notched up a double centuryagainst Services in their Ranji Trophy league match at Delhi.Services, in reply to their rivals’ first-innings total of 350, scored287, led largely by fifties from Jasvir Singh, Arun Sharma, and CDThomson; Jammu bowler Jagtar Singh picked five wickets. The close ofplay on Day Three saw Jammu & Kashmir at a score of 133/4.At Rohtak, Himachal Pradesh bowler Shakti Singh scalped five batsmenin dismissing Haryana fpr 264, giving his side a lead of 74 runs. AjayRatra, fresh from his match against the visiting English side atJaipur, top-scored for Haryana with an unbeaten 72. In their secondinnings, Himachal Pradesh were 108/2 at stumps on Day Three.At Amritsar, Punjab made a strong reply to Delhi’s first-innings totalof 499. After Mithun Manhas (193) and Pradeep Chawla (142) hadslaughtered the bowling, Punjab’s batsmen looked like they wouldfollow suit when opener Manish Sharma fell for 1. The next threebatsmen, however, scored centuries – Ravneet Ricky made 100, YuvrajSingh 102, and Dinesh Mongia 102. Punjab were 385/7 at stumps on DayThree. For Delhi, Amit Bhandari picked five wickets.*South ZoneShock collapse for HyderabadInspired perhaps by one of their ilk breaking into the national squadfor the first time, Kerala’s bowlers ripped through a strong Hyderabadbatting line-up, dismissing them for only 117 on Day One of theirRanji Trophy league match at Cochin.With Suresh Kumar and Rejith Kumar picking up four wickets each, onlyDaniel Manohar could make a significant score – 35. Kerala, in theirreply, were 80/3 at the close of play.In the other South Zone match, Karnataka batsman Barrington Rowlandwaged a lone battle against Tamil Nadu, striking 113 off 221 balls.His fellow batsmen, however, could not display similar application,and Karnataka could only notch up 215 in their first innings. TamilNadu, in reply, were 39/1 at stumps on Day One.*East ZoneBihar batsmen make merrySkipper Rajiv Kumar and Saurav Shukla both notched up centuries,propelling Bihar to a total of 412 in their Ranji Trophy league matchagainst Tripura at Agartala.Kumar (113) and Shukla (120) shared a huge partnership for the fifthwicket in reply to Tripura’s first-innings total of 394, ensuring thatBihar would not lose the match and, in all probability, would pick upfive points from the likely-to-be-drawn tie.Tripura were 50/3 at the close of Day Three, and Bihar could very wellnotch up a win if they can bowl their rivals out and then make theremaining runs for victory.In the other East Zone match, Bengal’s batsmen notched up a fifty-runfirst-innings lead over Assam at Kolkata. Sukhvinder Singh, for thevisitors, picked six wickets, hastening the end of the innings. Forthe home side, skipper Rohan Gavaskar top-scored with 86. After making299, Bengal had Assam at 147/6 at stumps on Day Three.*West ZoneMumbai complete comprehensive winputting on a mammoth first-innings total of 553, Mumbai bowlers thenwreaked havoc with Baroda’s batting line-up, winning their RanjiTrophy league match at Vadodara by an innings 141 runs.After Ramesh Powar disheartened the Baroda bowlers by scoring 110 off134 balls coming in at number nine, Paras Mhambrey (3-27), NileshKulkarni (4-15) and Avishkar Salvi (3-41) then dismissed Baroda forjust 89. Nayan Mongia was the only resistance, scoring 17 off 100balls. When they followed on, Baroda could only muster up 323, handingtheir rivals a comprehensive triumph.At Rajkot, Gujarat opted not to take advantage of a sportingSaurashtra declaration, playing for a draw and picking up three pointsfrom their match. Saurashtra, declaring their second innings closed at157/7, set an eminently achievable victory target of 270 off 50 overs.Gujarat reached 138/2 by the close of play on the last day.

A five-wicket haul from India seamer Iqbal Siddiqui helped Maharashtra reduce Saurashtra to 288 for nine on the opening day of the West Zone Ranji match between the two sides at the Nehru Stadium, Pune.The fact that most of the visiting batsmen failed to build on their starts after Maharashtra had put them in proved to be the former’s undoing. RV Dhruv who made 50 off 82 balls and opener PP Joshi who made 47 off 64 balls were the top two scorers for Saurashtra.For Maharashtra, Siddiqui, a left-arm seamer who made his Test debut for India in the recent Mohali Test, claimed 5 for 92, while Hrishkesh Kanitakar, claimed 2 for 41, with his gentle off-spinners. Suyash Burkul, the 20-year-old right-arm medium-pacer making his Ranji debut claimed the other wicket to fall on the day.Bahatule and Agarkar rescue MumbaiA 97-run seventh wicket partnership between Sairaj Bahatule and Ajit Agarkar saw the powerful Mumbai Ranji team recover to 286 for eight at the end of the first day of their Ranji four-dayer against Gujarat at the Sardar Vallabhai Patel stadium, Bulsar.Bahatule made 69 and Agarkar 34 to help the former Ranji champions gain some respectability after they had been reduced to 134 for six in the 45th over. An unbeaten 43-run partnership between Paras Mhambrey and Ramesh Powar then saw Mumbai end the day on a hopeful note.Most of Mumbai’s early woes were inflicted Gujarat’s right arm medium-pacer Shyamlal Bhatt who claimed the first four wickets to fall. He also returned later in the day to snare Ajit Agarkar to end up with excellent figures of 22-8-40-5. His fellow right-arm medium-pacer Lalit Patel provided admirable support claiming three for 56.

Avishka Gunawardene and Ian Daniel shared an opening partnership of 106 before rain washed out the final session’s play on the second day of the first four-day unofficial Test between Sri Lanka ‘A’ and the touring Kenyans at the Sara Stadium. Sri Lanka ‘A,’ replying to Kenya’s first innings of 292, had scored 122 for one by the close of play.Play is scheduled to commence half an hour early at 10 a.m. and end half anhour late at 6 p.m., but how many overs can be got in will largely depend on the state of the weather.Sri Lanka ‘A’ trail Kenya by 170 runs in the first innings with eight wickets and two days remaining. Gunawardene’s powerful half-century and Daniel’s patient knock of 48 in three hours were the high points of the rain-restricted second day.The chunky left-hander played in a manner that only he can, going after thebowling from the outset. He played and missed several times and was droppedbehind the wicket on 19 by wicket-keeper Kennedy Otieno, who took off to hisleft but could not hold onto a thick edge. Martin Suji was the unlucky bowler on that occasion.But luck continued to favour the brave, and Gunawardene went on to complete ahalf-century off 92 balls in 138 minutes with the aid of eight fours. But on 57, he departed, edging a catch to Otieno off the spin of skipper MauriceOdumbe, who had brought himself on in the 33rd over as the seventh bowler in anattempt to separate the opening pair. Gunawardene’s innings of 57 comprised nine fours and lasted 153 minutes, by which time he had brought his side’s total to 106 with Daniel.The right-handed Daniel, in contrast, played a largely passive role, content to take his time over his half-century. The rain interruption found him two runs shy of achieving that objective.When stumps were drawn for the day, Daniel was unbeaten on 48, having faced128 balls and in that period struck eight fours. Partnering him was MichaelVandort on six.Earlier in the day, the last two Kenyan wickets offered hardly any resistance, adding just 10 runs to their overnight total of 282 for eight. Kaushalya Weeraratne had Otieno Suji caught at mid-off by Upul Chandana for a well-made 32 off 99 balls (three fours).Ruchira Perera, the left-arm pace bowler, finished off the innings by forcing last man Lameck Onyango to edge a catch to wicket-keeper Prasanna Jayawardene for five, leaving Mohammad Sheikh unbeaten on 10. Sheikh and Suji had added 26 for the ninth wicket.Perera, who looked the most impressive of the three seamers on display during the Kenyan innings, finished with four wickets for 70 in 20.5 overs.

Matabeleland were forced to follow on as they failed to score the required 445 runs to make their opponents bat again on the third day of their Castle Lager Logan Cup match. In reply to the visitor’s declared score of 644, the home side were all out for 392 off 100 overs in their first innings and at the close of play were 109 for four after 49 overs.Matabeleland resumed at their overnight score of 197 for five, with Gavin Ewing and Mike McKillop leading the fightback. The pair put up 162 runs for the sixth wicket, staying at the crease for the entire two and a half-hour first session. The home side went to lunch on 349 for five with the two still unbeaten.Ewing however departed in the second over after lunch when he was trapped leg before wicket by medium pacer Blessing Mahwire for 83. His dismissal marked the collapse of the Matabeleland innings as it had centered on his partnership with McKillop. The middle order and the tail soon collapsed with four wickets falling for 33 runs. Colin Williams could not found his mark as he was dismissed the same way as Ewing, falling lbw to Angus Mackay without scoring.Mahwire came on to mesmerize the Matabeleland batsmen when he took the lastthree wickets of the innings. He grabbed the wickets of Matthew Townshend,McKillop and Tawanda Mupariwa to shatter the home team’s hopes for a bigscore.The last two men in, Mupariwa and Norman Mukondiwa, offered some resistancebut the innings eventually crumbled when Mahwire claimed the final wicket,bowling Mupariwa for 13. Mukondiwa was left unbeaten on 8 runs. Mahwire emerged as the pick of the visitors’ bowlers, taking four for 40 in just 10.2 overs with three maidens. Mackay and Matambanadzo took two wickets each while Rogers and Craig Evans took a wicket apiece.In their second innings Matabeleland suffered a setback when captain andopening batsman Ryan King was dismissed lbw by Mackay without scoring.Wisdom Siziba, Mecury Kenny and Warren Gilmour were to follow their captain.King decided to change the batting line-up, bringing in Mukondiwa, who was unbeaten in the first innings, at number six and this ploy worked out well as Mukoniwa played an anchor role, letting Strydom go for the runs. The two were left unbeaten at the close with Strydom on 40 while Mukondiwa had score 6 runs.The home side will be relying on their middle and tail-end batsman to batfor the whole day on Monday if they are to succeed in forcing a draw.

Matabeleland lost their first match in the Logan Cup to Mashonaland by eight wickets in a match where the result was probably decided on the first day with the loss of the toss. A gruelling first day took its toll on the young side and they never really recovered from there on.For most players it was probably the first time they had spent the whole day in the field and it certainly showed. However the main problem dogging the side is the current selection policies undertaken by the three selectors, none of whom have any playing experience at this level, and team selection is somewhat wayward, with the final teamprobably not as strong as it could be.13 players were named, with Hitz being omitted and Mukadam, whose father is a selector, being named as twelfth man. Here is a player, playing league cricket, who clearly is not good enough to make his provincial debut at this stage, being named as twelfth man ahead of Hitz who was desperately unlucky not to have played last season but who had made his debut the previous season with reasonable success. Hitz was later included in the side at the expense of Mukondiwa, a decision that reverted back to Hitz again being omitted and left out of the squad. This in some ways had an effect on the team, as it was only announced on the morning of the match, with Hitz expecting to play.For this weekend the team shows three changes. Out go Matthew Townshend, Jason Hitz and Munir Mukadam, with Keith Dabengwa and Clement Mahachi returning to the squad after injury. Probably the most important and totally unrealistic change is the dropping of Ryan King as captain and replacing him with the 40-year-old Colin Williams. One finds it hard to understand this move which certainly does not encourage youngsters and in particular a young and promising captain. Should Williams fail again as a player, are Matabeleland strong enough to play a captain who hardly warrants a place?The other surprise is leaving out an Academy player who admittedly did not perform well, but neither did the two players who played and are now replacing him. Are the selectors keen on blooding new players at the expense of experience and in so doing weakening the team? The current policies for selection will do little to help a side that has been hit with the loss of some key players so early in the competition.With the weather hot again and the wicket likely to play the same,Matabeleland could be in for another long period in the field.

THE Western Australian Cricket Association selectors today added wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi to a squad of players for this week’s Pura Cup match against the Southern Redbacks in Adelaide.The Warriors squad is:Justin LANGER (Capt), Mike HUSSEY (VC), Jo ANGEL, Ryan CAMPBELL, Beau CASSON, Michael CLARK, Murray GOODWIN, Brad HOGG, Chris ROGERS, Luke Ronchi, Adam VOGES, Brad WILLIAMS and Paul WILSON.Ronchi, 21, celebrated his first-class debut against Tasmania with 90 and 33 last week.

Yorkshire’s Australian first-team coach Wayne Clark has left the club by mutual consent after two years.Clark took over at Headingley after Martyn Moxon’s surprise decision to move to Durham in January 2001, and met with immediate success as the club won the County Championship.However, riches turned to rags for Clark last season when Yorkshire finished bottom of the First Division. Clark is understood to have turned down the position of bowling coach.Clark still had a year of his contract to run, and club president Robin Smith told the Yorkshire Post that he was in touch with Clark’s lawyers to work out the terms of his departure.Kevin Sharp is expected to be appointed full-time batting coach, while Arnie Sidebottom is likely to be become bowling coach.

If you are travelling to the Cricket World Cup think carefully about what you’re bringing back to the UK. There are strict controls on bringing meat, milk, fish, shellfish, plants, and their products into EU countries because they can carry animal and plant pests and diseases.Diseases such as Foot and Mouth Disease are endemic in parts of southern Africa, and you should bear in mind the disastrous effects of FMD on Great Britain in 2001.You MAY NOT bring back any meat, dried meat, milk, or their products for your personal consumption.You may bring back up to 2kg of fruit and raw vegetables (but not potatoes), a bouquet of flowers and five retail packets of seeds (but not potato seeds).There are penalties for breaking the rules that include an unlimited fine and/ or up to two years imprisonment.If you are in any doubt about what you can, or cannot bring in to the UK, please contact the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Helpline on:From the UK 08459 335577From outside the UK: +44 20 7270 8961 between 9-5 Mon-Friwww.defra.gov.uk/animalh/illegaliPlease stop, think and check the import rules carefully – IF IN DOUBT LEAVE IT OUT!