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Although this match has not been afforded first-class status, the first day of the Hampshire v Loughborough UCCE gave the sparse crowd some excellent entertainment as the visitor’s amassed 371-5dec in just 92 overs.Hampshire fielded a young side, and Nic Pothas was drafted in as a late replacement for Lawrence Prittipaul who was ill.Three Hampshire hopefuls, returning from college next week were on show in the UCCE side, James Adams who hit a dogged half century, John Francis who edged leg-spinner Ian Hilsum to slip on 5, and Chris Benham and all-rounder who supported his captain with 54* in a partnership of 171*.Mark Powell the Loughborough captain played a sparkling innings, striking 21 fours and two sixes in scoring 124*, his innings was the mainstay of the Loughborough task. 47 extras also contributed to the score as the Hampshire bowlers toiled. Ian Hilsum took two wickets just before the lunch interval, after Adams and Atri had put on 106 for the first wicket, then Powell dominated the afternoon proceedings.Hampshire were given half an hours batting before the close, but the visitors luck was out as Kenway was dropped before he scored by the wicket-keeper, he then advanced to 16 not out, and Laney smote two huge sixes to finish the day 21*.

For techno lovers the ICC Champions Trophy will offer a glimpse of cricket’s brave new world.But romantics are less enthused as the game braces itself for a radical and controversial experiment with television technology.For the first time field umpires will be allowed to refer a multitude of decisions to the television umpire, including lbw and bat-pad appeals, as well as suspected bump balls and even catches to the wicket-keeper.Despite some opposition, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has identified the tournament as the perfect opportunity to move the “technology” debate forward.ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said when announcing the plan: “The ICC is going about it with an open mind. We don’t want to make umpires robots, we are only offering the best use of technology to assist them in their decision-making. Everyone wants to see the right decisions are made. If it is not successful, we will discontinue it.”In consultation with the broadcasters and umpires, the ICC has drawn up guidelines, detailing what aspects of particular decisions can be referred.The ICC cricket operations manager, Dave Richardson, said: “We have prepared a detailed guide on which aspects can be referred and the television producer knows what replay will be required for different decisions.””For lbw decisions the third umpire is not there to decide whether the ball is going to hit the stumps, only to judge whether the ball pitched outside leg or whether the batsmen nicked the ball,” he said. “This will help eliminate most of the mistakes made.”For catches at the wicket, the umpires should only refer when trying to decide whether the ball touched bat, body or clothing. If they don’t believe that the ball hit anything then they should rule ‘not out’ without recourse to the television umpire.The one area where television has proven limitations is catches close to the ground. Even with super slow replays it’s often impossible to tell whether the ball has kissed the ground. The ICC now wants the field umpires to be the sole judge of whether such catches are cleanly taken.The experiment is welcomed wholeheartedly by the South Africans, the pioneers in the use of television replays.Captain Shaun Pollock argued: “At some stage we have to try it and see how well it works. From the players’ perspectives we want to see the best decisions made and if technology can do that without taking too much time, I’m all for it. This is a good chance to find out.”But other players and captains have concerns. “Now it’s ‘howzat!’ – it will become just a plain ‘how is that?’ The beauty of appealing, that will be gone,” worried Wasim Akram, one of the world’s great appealers.”Guys like Shoaib (Akhtar), Brett Lee, going up in full flow, that will finish.”West Indies captain Carl Hooper is troubled about its effect on the umpires.”In lbw decisions, I want umpires to have a say. I hate to see umpires being pushed to one side. We should not be totally dependent on technology.”The ICC, though, argues that the umpire remains in charge.”They cannot shirk responsibility and become dependent upon the television umpire. When they refer they should be 90 per cent sure that the batsman is out and when replays are inconclusive they will have to make a decision.”Moreover, Richardson envisages a time when viewers could listen in to the communication between the umpires, adding another dimension to the cricket watching experience.”The umpires would be happy as people would gain an understanding of the thought processes that went into the decision,” he said.Australian skipper Ricky Ponting and Pakistan’s Waqar Younis are concerned that the increased use of the third umpire will slow down play even further.”As it is, it’s hard to get through 50 overs in time,” Ponting said.The ICC realises that there is a danger of slowing down the game and is demanding that decisions are made quickly, requiring a maximum of two replays and 20 seconds.Richardson denies that the time scale is ambitious.”We think it is pretty realistic now that we’ve worked out exactly what aspects of particular decisions can be referred and what camera angle to use.”Even if successful during this tournament, Richardson believes such a wide use of technology would be difficult outside of ICC managed tournaments.”I have my doubts over whether it will be feasible or practical throughout international cricket. During this tournament we can do it because we control the broadcaster but what happens during a series where there are only three cameras?” he said.Likewise, he does not expect the use of technologies such as Hawk Eye in the near future.”Hawk Eye is a great coaching aid for the umpires and provides excellent entertainment. It’s probably more accurate than a person but it’s very expensive and you have to draw the line somewhere – we still want the skill of the umpire to come through.”Richardson is hopeful that the experiment proves successful but warns against unrealistic expectations.”We are not going to solve the problem for those who want definite answers all the time – they will not be satisfied. But the crux of the matter is whether the umpires came to the right decision.”

WestpacTrust Park in Hamilton will become an even brighter jewel in the New Zealand cricket crown next summer, thanks to the needs of the Waikato rugby team.Heavy delays to the re-development of Rugby Park in Hamilton – caused by the delay in the arrival of very necessary steelwork – have meant the Waikato Rugby Union must look for another venue or venues for its five home NPC matches against Counties-Manukau, Wellington, Taranaki, Bay of Plenty and Otago in August-September.Yesterday a meeting of the Waikato stadium trust, which administers the development of both WestpacTrust Park and Rugby Park, gave the WRU permission to play on WestpacTrust.John Turkington, the Northern Districts cricket chief executive and a member of the stadium trust, said the dual use of WestpacTrust Park would be of great benefit to both sports.”We are now going through the resource consent process toward installing floodlights at WestpacTrust Park. There has been one objection, which is not unsurmountable.”If consent is obtained the lights could be up in time for the first rugby match on August 24.”Floodlighting would make WestpacTrust an ideal venue for day-night matches, one-dayers or tests, from next summer onward.”The planned lights will be on four towers and will produce the best day-night cricket viewing in New Zealand.”In England they work on a basis of 1250 lux as satisfactory for cricket. Carisbrook are, we think, about 2000 lux, while the new lights at WestpacTrust are designed to give us about 2810 lux,” said Turkington.The park groundstaff were confident that winter sporting traffic would not damage WestpacTrust’s reputation of being one of the best cricketing surfaces in New Zealand.”The last rugby match is scheduled for September 29, and the provisional Shell Trophy draw has the first match at WestpacTrust starting on November 29,” said Turkington.”The ground staff are confident there will not be a problem getting the ground ready for cricket in the nine-week gap after rugby finishes.”Other improvements at WestpacTrust, such as increasing spectator amenities and developing practice facilities would be fitted into the new programme.Turkington said the stadium trust had much of the funding already in place, as the trust had received strong backing from the Hamilton City Council, Trust Waikato, the Lotteries Board and other community interests in the Waikato area.The building of new terrace spectator areas at WestpacTrust – using fill from the re-shaping of Rugby Park – last summer gave the park more spectator-room, without detracting from its traditional tree-and-grass tranquillity.Now the addition of more seating, and floodlights, must promote WestpacTrust higher in the New Zealand Cricket scheme of things.There was additional impetus for greater use of grounds such as WestpacTrust yesterday from Stephen Fleming, the New Zealand captain, playing the English season with Middlesex.In the latest of his regular columns on CricInfo, Fleming commented on England’s sweeping defeat of Pakistan in the first Test at Lord’s last weekend – when the England seam bowlers Andrew Caddick and Darren Gough demolished the Pakistan batting – as the classic case of a home team prospering on a pitch designed to aid the home bowlers.In the sub-continent, wrote Fleming, you expected dry pitches that gave spinners a lot of help. In Australia they prepared pitches that gave bounce and pace, and suited their style of fast-medium bowlers and wrist-spinners.England and New Zealand, said Fleming, should be ideal for the preparation of pitches that had some pace, and assisted the seam bowlers.This was the case when New Zealand thrashed Pakistan at WestpacTrust Park in the third Test last summer, after New Zealand lost the first Test on an experimental “drop-in” pitch in the first Test at Eden Park, and played a tiresome draw in the second at Jade Stadium.The WestpacTrust pitch at Hamilton, said Fleming, was ideal for New Zealand purposes.He cited Carisbrook as another pitch which suited the New Zealand style of game, and said New Zealand should play more often on such grounds that favoured them, and not take the risk of experimenting with “drop-in” pitches.With WestpacTrust Park moving up to the front line of New Zealand international venues, Fleming may have his wish granted sooner than he might have expected.

New Zealand’s aggressive last session batting under artificial light at Eden Park tonight kicked down the English barricades to tying the National Bank Test series with England and set up a superb final day to the series tomorrow.England attempted to slow down the over rate, bowling 12 overs in the first half of the extended last session, but the tactic rebounded on them when the lights at the ground kicked in and lit up the scene as New Zealand plundered the bowling.An amazing 417 runs were scored on the day and in the 41.2 overs of the last session New Zealand scored 216 runs.They finished the day on 269/9, a lead of 311 runs.It was another amazing day of cricket as New Zealand’s batsmen enjoyed rare plunder as Chris Harris (43), Nathan Astle (65) and Craig McMillan (50 not out) feasted on a situation that gathered in momentum and allowed them open slather.Astle’s 65 off 51 balls was a mini-Jade Stadium as he hit two sixes and eight fours. Harris was dismissed for 43 halfway through a whirlwind period when 118 runs were added in 14 overs. When Harris was dismissed at 166/4, it was around that time that the light became marginal.England captain Nasser Hussain was clearly angered that his fieldsmen were disadvantaged in the light conditions, although that didn’t stop Mark Butcher taking a boundary catch to dismiss a rampant Astle nor wicket-keeper James Foster taking a catch to dismiss Daniel Vettori.England’s Graham Thorpe later commented that the decision to use the lights had favoured New Zealand and gave them an advantage because it had been tricky in the field.”One side should not have an advantage over the other,” he said.It was not a good day for the English and the umpires, especially local umpire Doug Cowie and his decision to give Andrew Flintoff out, caught when his bat was nowhere near the ball.But as New Zealand dismissed England for 160, to enjoy a lead of 42 runs, a lead which was purposefully extended by Mark Richardson and Adam Parore before the later onslaught. They put on 53 runs before Parore was out in the last over before tea for 36 and New Zealand coach Denis Aberhart couldn’t compliment the pair of them enough afterwards.They had set the later run-scoring up by getting on top of the new ball which has seen many wickets taken in this game so far.”It was important that Richardson and Parore got us away to a good start and they did.”We probably got more runs than we expected to get by stumps tonight and that was the result of good batting through the middle from Harris, Astle and McMillan, who built on that start,” he said.Stephen Fleming was out just after the resumption for one and then Richardson was caught for 25 when trying to up his scoring rate.That saw Harris and Astle come together in what developed into the crucial period of the game. After slowly building up, the rumble of Astle getting his artillery primed soon became a roar when he started to get into Andy Caddick’s bowling with successive cover driven boundaries.Harris wasn’t excluded from the hitting frenzy and played some lovely drives, straight and through the covers.Hussain introduced Ashley Giles to try and keep New Zealand’s scoring genie in the lamp but it was to no avail.Butcher was hit for successive boundaries by Harris, and then Astle hammered Giles’ replacement Flintoff onto the second deck of the West Stand, a big hit under any circumstances, and then to backward square leg, a much shorter distance, although the six was dropped over the boundary by Usman Afzaal.It was entertaining cricket as New Zealand created the chance for a fascinating conclusion to the series tomorrow.Aberhart said: “We need as much time as we can to bowl the English out, the wicket is still doing a bit, there is a bit more uneven bounce and our bowlers are starting to hit their straps.”It is important that we do give ourselves enough time to bowl them out, we’ll have a look in the morning and see what we want to do.”We were the team that had the opportunity when given the light for the first time and we’ve got to win this match being 1-0 down in the series so we may be more pro-active in some ways in carrying on.”Aberhart said that if the tables were reversed tomorrow and England were looking for the runs for victory, New Zealand would play the game.”It was a great advertisement for Test cricket. We have lost a lot of time in this game and if we weren’t able to play under lights it would have finished at 150 tonight and we would have missed something special.”So if it is the same situation tomorrow night and we need two wickets and they want a few runs, hopefully they’ll carry on and we’ll take the last two wickets.”I think it’s far better to be able to play in those conditions and carry on to give the public cricket because, really, that was a good day’s cricket.”

It was a day of the Roses in Kingston today. The best of the White Roses, Ryan Sidebottom and Chris Silverwood, shared eight wickets and Jamaica’s new ball bowler Franklyn Rose put paid to Ian Ward’s sensational run of form.

The early departure of the Surrey opening batsman who has made three centuries and accumulated a table topping 579 runs from seven innings, came as a shock after he had added just two runs to his tally, but the extra pace and bounce extracted by the West Indies and former Northamptonshire pace man Franklyn Rose saw him edge the ball to second slip with a mistimed shot.Michael Powell also went cheaply and by the close of the first day’s play in this fifth round Busta Cup match, England A were trailing the home side by 130 runs with the score 44 for two.The skies above Sabina Park were full of cloud when play got underway and on a pitch that promised early pace and movement, the toss was not such a bad one to lose for Mark Alleyne who has a success rate of three good calls in five matches.But at lunch, the England A seamers were still to make an impression, allowing Jamaica opener Chris Gayle to establish himself with some superbly executed shots to the boundary. His reputation in question after he was dropped for the tour of Australia on account of temperament problems, the 21 year-old opening bat took command early on, making good use of his feet to punch the ball hard to the boundary.His running between the wickets was kept to a minimum following difficulties in the last match when he had to leave the field twice, suffering a recurrent heart murmur condition.By lunch, he had completed a half century in 69 deliveries, eight of them leaving England A’s frustrated bowlers with hands on hips as they watched the ball scurrying across a fast outfield to the boundary.The second ball after lunch, bowled by off-spinner Graeme Swann who was making his debut on this tour, saw Gayle push tentatively and edge the ball to Vikram Solanki in the slips and having made 56 Jamaica’s leading run scorer was on his way, to the delight of the bowlers.Wickets came thick and fast for England A seamers after that with Chris Silverwood adding to his one wicket of the morning with a further two in the afternoon, helped perhaps by a sudden spell of strong winds which caused the Busta Cup logo mat to flap viciously, distracting the batsmen.Groundsmen were summonsed to the bowlers end to secure the mat but by then Jamaica had fallen to 139 for five and Sidebottom was gearing himself up for a demon spell after tea which effectively wiped out the final five Jamaica wickets for 14 runs.He had help too but this time from the England A fielders, most notably Ian Ward who pulled off a magnificent finger tip catch diving to his left to dismiss Wayne Cuff when he was just four runs short of his fifty.Using the overcast conditions, Sidebottom was able to swing the ball markedly and in his latter spell found the line and length he had struggled with in the morning session. He ended the innings with 5-31 from 17.5 overs to wrap up Jamaica’s first innings for 174 but afterwards said it was a good return from a mediocre effort.”I got the ball to swing around in the morning but my line was not very good so I was pretty upset but we had a talk in the dressing room at lunch and the coach told me to get my basics right and follow through properly and after that, it went really well,” he said.”We thought it would be a good cricket wicket and it would seam around a bit because it was overcast so it was a case of getting the ball in the right area and it worked for us. Later on it became even more overcast and it swung around more. I was also quite lucky. I didn’t think I bowled particularly well so I’ll take that and am quite pleased,” he commented.

BRISBANE – Queensland paceman Ashley Noffke emerged as the bolter when the Australian Cricket Board released its annual list of contractedplayers today.The 24-year-old Noffke was one of three new faces in the list, with Queensland team-mate Martin Love and New South Wales quick Nathan Bracken also winningcontracts.Noffke came of age with a man-of-the-match performance in Queensland’s Pura Cup win over Victoria in March after he had been in line for 12th man duties.His promotion to an ACB contract came at the expense of team-mate Michael Kasprowicz, who lost his contract, as did batsmen Matthew Elliott and Mike Hussey.Otherwise, the list was predictable with one-day players Shane Lee and Darren Lehmann earning another deal despite missing out on selection at different times in the last 12 months.The ACB squad is: Michael Bevan (NSW), Greg Blewett (SA), Nathan Bracken (NSW), Damien Fleming (Vic), Adam Gilchrist (WA), Jason Gillespie (SA), Ian Harvey (Vic), Matthew Hayden (Qld), Simon Katich (WA), Justin Langer (WA), Brett Lee (NSW), Shane Lee (NSW), Darren Lehmann (SA), Martin Love (Qld), Stuart MacGill (NSW), Damien Martyn (WA), Glenn McGrath (NSW), Colin Miller (Vic), Ashley Noffke (Qld), Ricky Ponting (Tas), Michael Slater (NSW), Andrew Symonds (Qld), Shane Warne (Vic), Mark Waugh (NSW), Stephen Waugh (NSW).

Match facts

October 16, 2012
Start time 1730 (Start time 1530 GMT)Neil McKenzie was in sparkling form against Mumbai•Getty Images

Big Picture

Both Chennai Super Kings and Lions had contrasting results at the Wanderers on Sunday. In the first game of the double-header, Chennai failed to keep Sydney Sixers to a par score and couldn’t overhaul the target of 185. Later in the evening, the Lions did well to keep Mumbai Indians to 157, and came out victorious in a chase that ebbed and flowed. Both captains chose to chase because of the view that South African grounds are difficult to defend scores. It proved to be a good decision in the end for Lions. The action shifts to Cape Town tomorrow and both teams may have an eye on the Auckland-Kolkata Knight Riders game on Monday to gauge the conditions.Chennai went in with their strongest batting line-up but left out the allrounder Albie Morkel. Ben Hilfenhaus and Doug Bollinger were the overseas picks and the pair came in for some stick in the end overs. Morkel would have been useful given his knowledge of South African conditions. Spin is Chennai’s strength and the Lions will be tested, particularly Gulam Bodi who struggled to get going on Sunday. From the Lions’ point of view it was pleasing to see two youngsters, Quinton de Kock and Aaron Phangiso, make telling contributions with bat and ball respectively.

Watch out for…

Sohail Tanvir is fast establishing himself as a sought-after Twenty20 bowler, freelancing for clubs like Lions and Kandurata Warriors. He was one of the most penetrative bowlers in the SLPL, picking up 11 wickets and can be quite a handful in seaming conditions. His round-the-wicket angle seems to work against the right-handers, as Kieron Pollard found out on Sunday when he failed to dig out a yorker swerving in from wide of the crease.R Ashwin has opened the bowling in Twenty20s with a lot of success. The Lions top order wouldn’t have seen too much of him so it wouldn’t be a bad idea for Dhoni to toss the new ball to his best spinner and create early pressure.

Quotes

“Where we lacked was the death bowling. We gave away about 15 runs too many.”
“In big games, it’s the senior players who must be counted. I don’t want to put pressure him at this stage.”

Match facts

Friday, December 20, 2013
Start time 1500 local (1100 GMT)Sohaib Maqsood’s 68-ball 73 was as mature as it was skilful•AFP

Big Picture

The first ODI finished in circumstances that may have left both teams with a positive outlook for the upcoming matches. Pakistan will be buoyed by the mastery of their batsmen. Mohammad Hafeez’s return to form is a valuable boost to their top order, and it was not so long ago that Ahmed Shehzad made a ton against the best pace attack around, in South Africa.Even more heartening were Sharjeel Khan and Sohaib Maqsood’s innings. Both scored briskly, but responsibly – working attack out, manipulating the field and making fine judgements as per the bowling and the pitch. So many Pakistan batsmen have burned hot in their international honeymoon only to rapidly diminish after that, so their challenge is to make good on their obvious potential in the long term.Sri Lanka, however, will be pleased at the fight from the lower order. Seekkuge Prasanna and Sachithra Senanayake hit the highest eighth-wicket stand ever in Sharjah, reviving a chase that most would have felt was irredeemable. Prasanna, in particular, has been brought into the side with the World Twenty20 in mind and to that end, his all-round contribution on Wednesday could not have been any better. He was the most economical of Sri Lanka’s bowlers – the only one to go at less than five – and he again demonstrated an affinity for big-hitting that has blossomed in his game over the last 18 months.Somewhat surprisingly for both teams, it is the bowling that must improve for the second match. Faced with fluent batsmen on a very good batting surface, Sri Lanka’s bowlers were listless and unimaginative. Their fast men attempted so many yorkers between overs 32 and 50 that Pakistan’s batsmen learned to expect them and exploit the inevitable errors in length.Pakistan’s bowlers will aim to be less wayward in the second match, after having allowed indiscipline to creep in towards the later stages of Sri Lanka’s innings. Their fielding too, slipped from poor to abysmal in the last hour, much to the chagrin of Misbah-ul-Haq who had warned against exactly that kind of complacency before the match. They know now that Sri Lanka are among the more dangerous teams to ease off on.

Form guide

(last five completed matches, most recent first)

Pakistan: WLWWL

Sri Lanka: LWLWW

In the spotlight

Sharjeel’s 61 at the top of the order set the tone for Pakistan, but Sohaib Maqsood‘s 73 from 68 was arguably the more impressive innings. Maqsood not only prevented the scoring rate from waning through the middle overs, he embellished Pakistan’s advantage in an innings wrought from batting intelligence, as much as skill. He worked the field beautifully in step with Hafeez and his aggressive strokes were superbly calculated. If he can consistently play similar knocks, he will ease the middle-order burden on Misbah.At 37 Tillakaratne Dilshan‘s hand-eye coordination is not what it once was. Increasingly in the past year, he has missed big shots he would have connected with in his youth, and has often struggled for timing early in his innings. He has not only overcome these challenges though, he has found something within himself that has actually increased his output. He bides his time now, but when he pounces, he does so selectively and tellingly. He had averaged 134 in the five innings before his last match, and recently, he has not allowed failures to stack up in a series. He will be desperate to fire after a mediocre 30 in game one.

Pitch and conditions

Dew did not seem to have formed at Sharjah for the first match, just as Misbah had predicted at the toss. If another batting-friendly pitch is prepared, the team batting first will again have an advantage.

Team news

It is difficult to see Pakistan making more than one change to their XI, following the victory. Junaid Khan and Bilawal Bhatti were both expensive in the last match, but Junaid was also the top wicket-taker. may come into the team for the second game at the expense of one of the above.Pakistan (probable): 1 Ahmed Shehzad, 2 Sharjeel Khan, 3 Mohammad Hafeez, 4 Sohaib Maqsood, 5 Misbah ul Haq (capt), 6 Umar Akmal, 7 Shahid Afridi, 8 Bilawal Bhatti/Anwar Ali, 9 Sohail Tanvir, 10. Saeed Ajmal, 11. Junaid KhanNuwan Kulasekara’s absence from Wednesday’s XI remains a mystery. Over the past two years, Kulasekara has been Sri Lanka’s most reliable seam bowler in limited overs cricket, and moreover, his often prodigious inswing provides and edge that no other bowler can replicate at the beginning of the innings. He is likely to return in place of Suranga Lakmal.Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 2 Kusal Perera 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Dinesh Chandimal, 5. Angelo Mathews (capt), 6. Lahiru Thirimanne, 7. Thisara Perera 8. Seekuge Prasanna/Ajantha Mendis, 9 Nuwan Kulasekara, 10. Sachithra Senanayake, 11. Lasith Malinga

Stats and trivia

• Shahid Afridi has more wickets (62) and 50-plus scores (8) against Sri Lanka, than he does against any other nation.
• 2013 has comfortably been Tillakaratne Dilshan’s best year by average (67.20), but his worst in terms of strike rate since 2005 – before he began opening the innings.

Quote

“It’s extremely important to begin a series with a win. We know what it’s like to begin a series losing too. We did that against South Africa, and we did it against Sri Lanka when we toured there last year. It is important to draw first blood, albeit in a close game. But whether you win by one run or a hundred runs it’s still a win, and that was important for us.”
Pakistan coach Dav Whatmore