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The headlines when New Zealand landed for their tour of England were more about the players who hadn’t arrived than those who had. Five of their key players are in India taking part in the IPL, raising questions about how focused the tourists will be. However, two of them who spoke to Cricinfo, Jacob Oram and Ross Taylor, were firm in dismissing the notion of being distracted and added they are happy to be the underdogs.Oram recalled the scene back in New Zealand, just before the first IPL auction. “We had a big team meeting, everyone was there. We had a lengthy discussion about the whole situation,” he said. “Not only from a playing point of view but even off the ground. Whether someone would feel left out, about the emotions and about going to England a little late. Everything was in the open and in the end everyone was okay and decided we would support whoever gets selected.”Taylor added: “Jac [Oram], Dan [Daniel Vettori] and Brendon [McCullum] were picked up and since we had already discussed everything before we were all happy for them. Later, [Kyle] Mills and I got selected.”Both players stressed that being part of the IPL has been a beneficial experience and, in a way, better preparation than if they were in New Zealand. “I am playing on the grass while the players in New Zealand will have had to do with practising indoors,” said Taylor.”We should still be there in England for two first-class games and I have 17 days of build-up before the Test match [at Lord’s] and if that’s not enough then nothing will be,” Oram said. “We are not on a holiday here. We are playing competitive games. There is no distraction.”Moving onto the series itself, both readily admitted that England are the favourites. “We are always the underdogs, we tend to play our best cricket like that,” said Oram. “They beat us in New Zealand and this will be the first [Stephen] Fleming-less team in years. The bowling looks pretty okay though it’s obviously a blow that Shane Bond can’t play and James Franklin would have been handy with his left-arm swing bowling.”For Oram, the key to New Zealand doing well will be the performance of numbers one to four in the batting. “One of the issues in the recent times has been the top-order batting. If we can nail two or three guys who can score big runs we can go a long way,” he said. “With Fleming gone and recent retirements of Nathan Astle and Scott Styris we are pretty light on experience.”Jamie How has played nine Test games and Ross Taylor only five but they will be vital. It’s amazing how Taylor has become one of the senior batsmen. But I guess this needs to be looked at as opportunity. He had a great home series against England and he has to carry on his form here.”For his part, Taylor is looking forward to playing on the history-laden grounds around England. “You talk to any cricketer, he would love to play a Test match at Lord’s and to get their name on the honours board. The top-order batting has been our Achilles heel; in the last decade we have gone through lots of openers. Hopefully the arrangement of How and me will do the job. If we can see off the new ball, we will have given us a good chance of making a big total, which will the crucial.”

Taylor has been speaking to his Bangalore team-mates like Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis on the experience of playing in England conditions. “The ball will swing traditionally early in the summer but its going to be same for both sides,” Taylor said. “It is something to be wary off but not get too caught up in it. Chanderpaul talked about the basics: playing close to the body and late. The others shared with me some good tips.”Taylor believes while the top order is the “unknown” the middle-order is strong. “We have got Oram, Brendon and Dan coming in. Hopefully the top order can score runs and support them.”Some experts have felt that the likes of Vettori and Oram should bat higher up the order, but Oram believes in maintaining the status quo. “It’s difficult. I know Dan has batted well in the lower order but we know that the guys batting higher up have a much harder job than the guys further down. It is our strength – the lower-middle order – and I am not sure we should rock the boat there but should look to improve our top order.”Oram is also happy with Vettori’s captaincy and compared him with the style of Fleming. “He captained for so many years and was obviously an outstanding captain. But Vettori is doing a great job. Being a bowler himself he probably understands the bowlers’ psyche better. Not that Flem wasn’t clued on.”The New Zealand media have been critical of coach John Bracewell but Oram believes he is still the right man for the job. “I have read and heard those criticisms but I really like playing under John. I think he has done great things. I know you can look at records and say he has not, but if you ask most of the players they enjoy playing under him.”On a personal level, all Oram is hoping for is that he remains fit for the entire tour and he has not set any targets. “I don’t set goals at all. There is already enough pressure in playing at this level, adding individual goals adds unnecessary pressure.”

Ireland’s physiotherapist, Iain Knox, has quit, citing the team’s increased playing schedule as the reason behind his decision. Knox also acted as the squad’s strength and conditioning coach, among various other roles, and he said being part of last year’s breakthrough World Cup campaign was the highlight of his three years with the team.”I was blessed to have the World Cup experience,” Knox told . “We were all full time, 100% professional in the four months leading up to and during the World Cup.”It allowed me to experiment with different training techniques and the players did everything that was asked of them. The 15 players gave energy, enthusiasm and determination and to a man they deserved the success they achieved. It’s been a part of my life I’ll never forget.”Since then Knox has juggled private practice with his Ireland position and the difficulty of keeping up both roles has led to his departure to take up a job with his family’s car-parts business. Ireland, currently playing in the Friends Provident Trophy, have trips to Scotland, Netherlands, Kenya and Namibia scheduled this year.

ScorecardFile photo – Pant hit nine fours and two sixes•PTI

Opener Rishabh Pant stroked his second successive fifty while Washington Sundar followed up his two wickets with a fifty of his own to help India Under-19s secure a berth in the Tri-nation tournament final, after three wins in a row.Chasing 223, India had a rapid start with Pant and Ishan Kishan adding 67 in 5.4 overs. The partnership, however, ended when Kishan was run out by Nazmul Hossain Shanto. Pant was dismissed 14 balls later, as Bangladesh Under-19s put the skids on the chase. Captain Virat Singh and Amandeep Khare managed only 32 in 13 overs before Virat and Sarfraz Khan were out in a space of three balls. Sundar then anchored the chase with 50 off 75 balls, including six fours. Though Sundar gave a return catch to Nazmul, Mahipal Lomror and Mayank Dagar guided India home with four wickets and eight balls to spare.Mehedi Hasan Miraz took two wickets after making a 90-ball 87 with the bat but his all-round effort only offered scant consolation for Bangladesh. Having opted to bat, the visitors were reduced to 81 for 4 in 30.1 overs. Miraz then launched a counterattack, aided by contributions from Mohammad Saifuddin and Saeed Sarkar, pushing his side past 200, but Bangladesh eventually slid to their second loss in three matches.

New Zealand’s hopes of upsetting India’s World Cup campaign will hinge on how quickly their medium-pace attack – especially new-ball bowlers Tim Southee and Trent Boult – adjust to unfamiliar conditions at the Kinrara Oval in Kuala Lumpur. The semi-final will be New Zealand’s first game at the venue, having played all their group matches in Johor and the quarter-final at the Royal Selangor Club in Kuala LumpuSouthee is the leading contender for Man of the Tournament, with 13 wickets, while left-arm medium-pacer Boult has ten including the best figures of the competition, 7 for 20 against Malaysia. Dav Whatmore, India’s coach, singled out the pace attack as New Zealand’s strength.”We [India] have a sense of understanding why New Zealand have made the final four. It’s because they have a strong medium-pace attack and their fielding. We’ve got a very good economy-rate as a group [bowling attack] but they are better than us. They consistently bowl better in terms of economy.” None of New Zealand’s regular bowlers have conceded more than four runs per over. Southee and Boult, who are both from Northern Districts, have gone forless than three.However, New Zealand’s games in Johor were on pitches that were damp earlyon and assisted the fast bowlers. Boult felt that the ball swung a lot more in the air in Malaysia while back home the assistance was primarily movement off the pitch. Southee agreed, and said that getting accustomed to the swing was the only major adjustment that the bowlers had to make.”Obviously with the white ball and humidity here, it swings around more than it does in New Zealand,” Southee told Cricinfo. “The wickets have generally been pretty good though the one yesterday [against Sri Lanka at Royal Selangor Club] was quite slow and quite low. It was quite uneven as well: I got the odd one to kick through but there were a few that kept low. I bowled the opening batter with one that crept under his bat. I think we had the better of the batting conditions yesterday and it got tougher to face the pace bowlers in the afternoon.”None of the New Zealand players, apart from Southee, have played under lights before and that could prompt them to bat first so that their batsmen don’t have to face a run-chase for the first time under lights. If that is the case, Southee and Boult could avoid bowling in the searing heat and gain additional assistance with the white ball moving around in the evenings.Dipak Patel, the New Zealand coach, said the team that handles the “mental pressures” of such a tense encounter better would emerge victors, while pointing out that for most players on both sides, the stakes have never been higher. Southee, however, has played on a larger stage – two Twenty20 internationals against England in front of packed houses in Auckland and Christchurch. He held his nerve and did well for himself – taking 1 for 38 and 2 for 22. How he, and Boult, fare against the Indian top-order could make or break it for New Zealand.

Lancashire began the final day of this match needing 399 to win, but more conceivably knowing that they had survived one hundred and forty overs to achieve a draw against Somerset recently. The pitch was good, the sun was out and the loss of nearly a day to rain had ensured that the wicket had not dried out as much as it might at this point in the game. Lancashire were also able to call on a batting line-up which with Fairbrother and Flintoff on form and Crawley having scored centuries in two of the last three matches, they also have the services of a Ganguly top Indian batsman who set last year’s world cup alight and the Australian Joe Scuderi and the rugged Warren Hegg who scored ninety five in this fixture last summer.Unfortunately that was the end of the good news for the visitors, they were up against a bowling attack that averages under seventy five overs to get a side out this summer and against which they had capitulated, chiefly to the pace of Alex Tudor, for just 120 yesterday. Tudor made the early breakthroughs disposing of makeshift opener Chapple early and then last week’s centurion Flintoff with the power of his pace alone (although he was ably assisted by the almost black hole like catching of Ben Hollioake on both occasions) while Bicknell remained unlucky, but almost impossible to score from at the other end. Cricket may not have a ladies day, but the last day at Kennington remains firmly enshrined as spinners day, and Saqlain came into the game early on. Lancashire in the usually spin resistant persons of Fairbrother and Ganguly resisted well initially after the loss of Crawley to yet another catch to Adam Hollioake at his customary loopy mid off position. They stayed together until shortly before lunch when Salisbury’s box of tricks supplied a ball to slice through Ganguly’s defences bowling one of the worlds best players of spin to leave Lancashire four down at the lunch interval.Lloyd departed to yet another Hollioake catch (Adam this time) to give Saqlain yet another victim before Scuderi emerged to begin a prolonged pause in the home teams progress. Each played well, as they had in the first innings, but each fell making the fatal mistake of believing that Salisbury is still the same fragile bowler he was when he first came to the Oval and tried to get at him. A few loose balls were dispatched to the boundary by each of them through the huge gaps in the attacking field, but Fairbrother swept hard to send up trivially simple looped catch – this time, novelly, to Ali Brown before Heggs momentary visit to the crease gave Sali his second victim of the over to put him ahead of Saqlain head count for the first time in the innings. Chris Schofield was winkled out by Saqi a few overs later to leave Scuderi with the support of just the two non-batsmen Keedy and Smethurst. The Australian managed a couple of clubbed fours as a swan song before he too surrendered to the inexorable march of the spinners and supplied a catch at the wicket to Batty. This left little to the contest apart from the question of who would take the final wicket, Smethurst who kept Lancs in the game initially with his excellent first innings bowling, cracked first and sent a high looping edge to the capable waiting hands of Martin Bicknell at mid off, Bickers raised his hands theatrically in triumph, Salisbury had netted another five bag to take Surrey’s total to 13 fivefers in the season to date.Lancashire will return to Old Trafford for three of their remaining four games in the hope that they will be ready to turn the tables on the champions who so comprehensively massacred them here, on a pitch their coach described as an excellent track, in the last game of the season. Whatever happened here they are still a good side (as they proved in the natwest trophy), but they will be eagerly looking forward to getting Martin back fit, and they and Yorkshire will do all they can to take the championship down to the wire.Surrey march on towards a second consecutive title with just the considerable hurdles of their two away matches against Lancs and Yorkshire seemingly in their way, in their seven consecutive wins they have beaten both roses counties by over two hundred and humbled fourth and fifth placed Somerset and Leicestershire by even greater margins. All five of their bowlers are now looking near unplayable on good pitches and their batsmen are at last delivering regular runs. If they are to be unseated their great rivals will almost certainly have to combine their efforts inflicting unfavourable results at both Scarborough over the August bank holiday and Old Trafford in the final game of the year, both have yet to travel to Leicestershire’s stronghold where it is notoriously difficult to worst the midlands on their own excellent pitches.

Sui Northern Gas and Pipelines Limited (SNGPL), who retained the Quaid-e-Azam trophy earlier this week, have dedicated their title to Ali Waqas, their middle-order batsman who collapsed last year due to kidney disease. Waqas missed the 2015-16 season to undergo a successful kidney transplant in Rawalpindi.Waqas, 26, was among the leading run-scorers with 1065 in the 2012-13 season and almost made his way into the national side when he was selected for a Pakistan A tour to Sri Lanka last year. But, ahead of the 2015 national T20 Cup, he suffered kidney failure in Rawalpindi due to hypertension. He underwent initial treatment in the USA but doctors suggested an immediate transplant, for which he had to move back to Pakistan for surgery and to find a donor.”It was tough as I was seeing my whole cricketing career going down,” Waqas told ESPNcricinfo. “But doctors suggested to me that I can easily come back into cricket after the transplant. I googled a lot to find out who are the sportsmen who have returned after such a transplant and I got ample examples to gain encouragement.”US basketball player Sean Elliott was the first professional sportsman to come back after a kidney transplant, in 2000. Former New Zealand rugby star Jonah Lomu, who died last year, continued to play at domestic level after a kidney transplant in 2004.”I can’t play cricket for at least the next eight to nine months but sometimes in cricket injuries take more than a year,” Waqas said. “I am determined to return by next season. It really hurts so much inside to know that I am not competing, as I was close enough to make into the national side. I don’t see myself without cricket and thinking about making a comeback all the time makes me strong. My only wish from life is to play for Pakistan and I’m going to make this possible in any case.”The transplant procedure is expensive in Pakistan and Waqas’s main strength was his team-mates at SNGPL, as almost the entire team including the national players helped him financially. His donor was a stranger and, as per the guidelines, they are not allowed to meet each other. “I had a little look on my donor luckily before I went to operation theatre,” Waqas said.SNGPL captain, Misbah-ul-Haq, was very optimistic about Waqas’ comeback and paid tribute to one of the most important members of the team. “He is one talented batsman with a full range of shots,” Misbah told ESPNcricinfo. “He was best against the fast bowlers and his square cut was a delight to watch. To me he is a complete modern player and a solid prospect for Pakistan. He was the top-scorer in domestic some two years ago and I had no doubt about his potential. Had he kept on playing he could have easily made into the side by another year and half.”Waqas was born in Sargodha, known as the “City of Eagles”, situated 170km from Lahore towards the northwest. He moved to Lahore to play cricket but is presently based in Islamabad for the clean atmosphere required after surgery.

Match facts

Saturday, May 17, 2008
Start time 20.00 (local), 14.30 (GMT)

The Big Picture

More than a battle for northern pride, this encounter will have a big bearing on who finishes where in the tussle for semi-final spots. After this game, both sides will have two home games to play, and victory at the Feroz Shah Kotla will smooth the path to the Promised Land. Sportsmen these days dislike talk of revenge, but Delhi are still smarting about the nine-wicket hammering in Mohali, and a spot of retribution will be most welcome as they look to recapture the form of the first fortnight, when they won four of their first five.Kings XI Punjab’s fortunes have waxed as Delhi’s have waned, and six wins from their last seven makes them the form side of the competition along with the Rajasthan Royals. The emergence of Shaun Marsh and the improvement shown by a chastened Sreesanth has enabled them to shrug off the disappointment of losing Brett Lee and Simon Katich to Australia’s tour of the Caribbean.Delhi’s recent losses have largely been the result of top-order collapses, and it hasn’t helped that only three batsmen, the first three in the batting order, have more than a 100 runs in the competition. The format isn’t ideal for middle-order batsmen, but the likes of Manoj Tiwary, AB de Villiers and Dinesh Karthik will need to do much more when they get the opportunity.

Tournament position

Delhi Daredevils: P10, W5, L5, NRR +0.331
King’s XI Punjab: P9, W6, L3, NRR +0.458

Form (last five matches, most recent first)

Delhi Daredevils: WLLLL
King’s XI Punjab: WLWWW

Watch out for …

Simon Katich says he has no hard feelings towards the Australia selectors after spending nearly two and a half years out of the Test side. Katich finally earned his recall in a 15-man squad to tour the West Indies following a record-breaking domestic summer during which he made 1506 Pura Cup runs at 94.12.It might take an injury to one of the established top six for Katich to play his first Test since late 2005, however he is just pleased to be back in the mix. “The last time I was dropped I knew I deserved to be,” Katich told the . “I wasn’t playing well enough. I had a poor Ashes series and I was bitterly disappointed.”I do know my game a lot better now. I have experienced a lot in that time. Having been in and out of the team has taught me a lot of lessons. This time around I probably appreciate it a lot more. I know that the older you get, the more you realise that you just never know when the end is near.”Despite his outstanding year Katich was still surprised to receive the call, given the quality of players in the Test frame in recent years. It is fair to say he was not half as shocked as his New South Wales team-mate Beau Casson. The left-arm wrist-spinner moved from Perth to Sydney last season and struggled with a shoulder injury, collecting seven wickets at 72 before improving in 2007-08 and being chosen as the back-up for Stuart MacGill in the Caribbean.”I’m a little bit hazy,” Casson said while sitting beside Katich and Michael Clarke, Australia’s vice-captain, at an SCG press conference after the announcement. “I feel on cloud nine. I’m not sure if it’s actually real. Just sitting next to those guys was a huge thrill. I idolise those guys.”Casson said he had taken a little while to settle in at New South Wales but was now confident with where his cricket was heading. “In the first year in a team, you are a little bit timid, not showing your full personality and lacking self-belief,” Casson said.”But it’s been great with Simon [Katich], he has given me a chance and given me the confidence to be Beau Casson. My girlfriend has made it incredibly easy for me. It’s been a fantastic ride. I was down in the dumps last year with the shoulder and Sally kept me up through all the down times.”The same elation was not so evident when Ashley Noffke reacted to his inclusion in the Test squad. Although he was pleased to take another step towards a baggy green that eluded him during the 2001 Ashes tour and his 2003 trip to the Caribbean, Noffke had other things on his mind when the team was announced and he spoke to the media outside a hospital on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.”My three-year-old daughter Breanna was going in to get her tonsils out this morning so the focus was on that really and how she was going to react,” Noffke told . “I didn’t even know when it was being selected. It was a pretty traumatic thing for her to go through. Even though it is minor in the scheme of things I didn’t really enjoy today very much.”After collecting a sensational double of 51 wickets at 19.03 and 741 runs at 46.31 in the Pura Cup, Noffke is likely to be Australia’s first-choice reserve fast man in the West Indies. That means Ben Hilfenhaus, who was also picked, is unlikely to see any Test action. But after a summer that brought a disappointing 28 wickets at 43.82, the Cricket Australia-contracted swing bowler was simply pleased to be considered.”It shocked me at first, and probably still is,” Hilfenhaus said in the . “I thought I would spend the winter playing some golf and working out in the gym. It’s obviously a real buzz. It tells me the selectors have real faith in me.”

Andrew Flintoff has begun the slow path back to bowling fitness with a few gentle overs during Lancashire’s training and is targeting an England return as early as the first Test against New Zealand on May 15.Flintoff has been undergoing a very cautious rehabilitation since the ankle operation – his fourth – he had late last year and his four overs, off two or three paces, was the first time he’d bowled since the ICC World Twenty20 in September. His recovery programme has included a spell with the England Lions in India, where he played two one-day matches as a batsman, and he is now preparing for Lancashire’s pre-season trip to the UAE.”I’ve had a good few weeks, I was in India for three weeks with the Lions and the academy of Lancashire and this morning was the first time I’ve turned my arm over,” Flintoff told . “I bowled off about two or three paces for four overs and it feels fine, but I think the acid test is when I get back playing properly, probably halfway through the summer to see if stands up to what it needs to.”I’m hoping to start the season fully fit batting and bowling. I think the first game we’ve got is at the Oval for Lancashire.”However, a possible international return during New Zealand’s visit in May is a far more positive prognosis than had previously been suggested. Flintoff was expected to spend much of the summer with Lancashire with a possible comeback against South Africa for the second series of the season – at one stage the following winter tour was the target.”I’m going to have to perform for Lancashire to put my name in the hat for England,” he said. “So first and foremost I’m concentrating on this Dubai trip and starting the season well for Lancashire and hopefully I can be playing on May 15 at Lord’s.”If Flintoff’s pre-season trip with Lancashire goes to plan and he doesn’t suffer any reaction in his ankle he is also expected to play for MCC against Sussex in the season-opening fixture at Lord’s, starting on April 10.

After more than two decades and 164 Test matches, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, one of West Indies’ finest batsmen, has retired. Chanderpaul finishes as the second-highest West Indian Test run-maker, 86 runs short of Brian Lara: Lara got 11,953 (11,912 for West Indies and the rest for the ICC World XI), while Chanderpaul scored 11,867 (all for West Indies).Chanderpaul, 41, had not played for West Indies since May 2015; the West Indies selectors dropped him after a weak performance during the three-Test series at home against England. While Chanderpaul entertained hopes of a comeback, the selection panel, headed by former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd, had provided enough hints that they had moved past Chanderpaul as they ignored him for the various series in the last eight months. Chanderpaul was also not part of the 15 players handed annual contracts by the WICB in December.Last June Chanderpaul had said he would decide by the end of the year when he would exit the international scene. “Definitely, but I am on the outside, just waiting to see what is happening,” Chanderpaul told cricket365.com, when asked if he wanted to play Tests again. “Retirement isn’t on the cards at the moment. Not for now, probably the ending of the year maybe then.”That his desire to play on continued to be strong was evident from the fact that he remained part of the regional domestic tournaments and, in fact, played his last match just three days ago, in the semi-final of the Nagico Super50 one-day tournament for Guyana.The WICB said in a release that Chanderpaul formally notified the board “in an email that he will no longer be available for selection for West Indies”. “The WICB acknowledges the invaluable contribution Shiv has made to the game globally, and we wish him all the best,” WICB president Dave Cameron said.One big reason for Chanderpaul to re-think his international career could be his involvement with the Masters Champions League (MCL), a tournament for players who have left all professional forms of the game including domestic cricket, which begins on January 28 in Dubai. To participate in the MCL, players have to get no-objection certificates from their respective boards stating that they have retired from all forms of cricket. Incidentally, till Thursday the WICB had not been approached for an NOC by any player. Chanderpaul was signed for $30,000 to represent Gemini Arabians in the tournament.Chanderpaul is only the second modern-day player, after Sachin Tendulkar, whose career stretched over two decades. He might not have been as celebrated and revered as Tendulkar, but Chanderpaul had worked hard, quietly, to become one of the strongest pillars of West Indies cricket.He scored 30 Test centuries and averaged 51.37 in the format, and held numerous records that are likely to last for a long time, including batting for more than 25 hours in a Test series between dismissals – he did it against India in 2002, when he faced 1050 consecutive deliveries without losing his wicket.Unorthodox stance and great determination aside, Chanderpaul never allowed his emotions to overpower him or pour over on the outside. Perhaps that reserved nature of his explained why he led West Indies only 14 times in Tests. He also played 268 ODIs for 8778 runs at 41.60 (the last of which was during the 2011 World Cup), and 22 T20Is.