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Australian batsman Matthew Hayden hopes to feast on his favourite dishin Trinidad this weekend when the West Indies send a little-knownAnguillan off-spinner into his first cricket Test.Omari Banks, from the tiny Leeward Island, will walk into a trap ifHayden unloads the punishment that has floored some of the world’s bestspinners in the second Test at Queen’s Park Oval from Saturday.Hayden is due for a century, by his lofty standards, because he hasn’treached triple figures in his past five Test innings.The Queenslander is second only to Don Bradman on the list ofAustralia’s most frequent century-makers in Tests, with a ton aboutevery five knocks and a Test average of 50.40.Hayden expects his average to increase if he faces more spin this seriesafter the Windies relied on four quicks in last week’s nine-wicket lossto Australia in the first Test.”It’s going to come, but I think it’s going to come a little bitdifferently for me this time. I am looking to just bat length of timethroughout the Test matches here,” he said.”Getting to face spin I think that’s going to be huge, that’s going toultimately reveal some massive scoring opportunities for me throughoutthe series.”I kind of missed the boat in some ways not really facing (two part-timespinners). I don’t think they have got a real quality spinner in theirside.”But Hayden and the Australians were impressed by Banks when the lanky20-year-old claimed three wickets for the Guyana Board President’s XI inthe opening tour match in Georgetown two weeks ago.Hayden was satisfied with his batting in that match but not as happywith his innings of 10 and 19 in the first Test.He lost his ranking as the world’s best Test batsman this week toEngland’s Michael Vaughan, but the laid-back Hayden was hardly bothered.The merits of the ranking system are debatable and Hayden remembers thatAustralian team-mate Adam Gilchrist jumped into top spot last year afternot playing a match in one ranking period.”It shows the fickle nature of our sport and of this particular rankingsystem as well,” Hayden said.”It’s a nice tag to have, the number one ranking, and I think it’ssomething to aspire to as well. It’s now a battle to get it back againand I am sure it will be pretty close.”But it’s not something I play the game for. My passions are ourpartnerships and the way we demonstrate in playing for Australia.”Australian selectors are yet to decide whether to stick with the rarecombination of five specialist bowlers after the experiment worked inGeorgetown.The wicket at Queen’s Park Oval, with a greater covering of grass, maysway selectors but there was some speculation today among the team thatthe beefed-up attack may remain.

Heath Streak, Ray Price, Trevor Gripper and Sean Ervine have been included in the Zimbabwe A team that will take on Sri Lanka in a three-day tour match ahead of the first Test.Streak, the former captain of the Zimbabwe team, and 14 other cricketers who had rebelled against the Zimbabwe Cricket Union, returned to training on Friday. This effectively ended a boycott that began on April 2.However, Streak will not be leading the team. Alester Maregwede has been named the captain of the team. Streak, however, is just happy to be playing cricket once more. A report quoted him as saying, “I’m elated, very excited. I’m looking forward to getting back on the park, and I hope the ZCU is serious about resolving our grievances.”Meanwhile, the rebel players have demanded that Streak be reinstated as captain of the national team, and that a two international mediators are appointed to break the deadlock between the ZCU and the players. The players have submitted these demands to the ZCU in a letter, and Chris Venturas, their lawyer, who speaks of a "mechanism to resolve the issue."Earlier the ZCU had suggested a similar process of mediation, but the players had rejected it on the basis that the process would take too long. Two major points remain unresolved. The first is the reinstatement of Streak as captain, which the ZCU has repeatedly refused. The second is the removal of one member of the selection panel. This matter is not even up for discussion, according to the board.The ZCU has till Thursday to accept or reject the proposal, but Venturas is not optimistic. "I feel they will turn us down," he said. Vince Hogg, the chief executive of the ZCU, confirmed receiving the letter but would not comment on the matter. The rebel players will practice alongside their one-day replacements in the lead up to the two-Test series against Sri Lanka. However, they would walk out if their demands were not met, said Grant Flower.Zimbabwe A team 1 Trevor Gripper, 2 Mark Vermeulen, 3 Stuart Matsikenyeri, 4 Alester Maregwede (capt), 5 Vusi Sibanda, 6 Elton Chigumbura, 7 Sean Ervine, 8 Heath Streak, 9 Prosper Utseya, 10 Blessing Mahwire, 11 Ray Price.

Somerset will have been heartened by the teams batting display at the Hampshire Rosebowl today, where they were 368 for 8, when the match ended in a draw.Resuming on 39 for 1, Piran Holloway was the first wicket to fall after the Cornishman had scored 48.Coming in at number four new signing James Bryant gave an impressive display, putting on 80 for the third wicket with Matt Wood before the opener was out for 57.Bryant played a patient innings before he was next man out for 78, which contained 3 x 6’s and 10 x 4’s, putting on 72 for the fourth wicket with Ian Blackwell.Playing his first innings for the county since returning from World Cup duty, `Blackie’ scored 69 runs from 81 deliveries, which included 2 x 6’s and 8 x 4’s.West Indian pacemen Nixon McLean came in towards the end of the innings and enjoyed himself at the crease against many of his former team mates hitting 16 runs from 15 balls, which included 1 x 6 and 1 x 4.Following the close of play Somerset coach Kevin Shine told me: “I set the team the challenge of batting through the day and they have met that well. There were some decent runs from Matt Wood and James Bryant, who is really starting to be comfortable in English conditions and looks a quality bat .Ian Blackwell also had his first innings in six weeks and it looked like he had never been away judging by the way that he batted today.He continued: “It’s our target to bat on wickets like the Rosebowl, that is very different to Taunton, so what has happened today has been a good preparation and I am very pleased with the way that things have gone for us.”

The Somerset Seconds one day final against Surrey at The County Ground on Monday will be the last match that coach Julian Wyatt will take charge of.Shortly after the end of the season Julian, who played for Somerset between 1983 and 1989, and who has been in charge of the Second Eleven since 1999, will set off on his travels.Initially he will spend sometime in Ireland, before going round the world, with a stop scheduled for New Zealand after Christmas where he plans to link up with former players Ricky Bartlett and Richard Harden, and England players Andy Caddick and Marcus Trescothick during the Test series.Meanwhile Julian Wyatt has named the following team to face Surrey at Taunton in the final of the Second Eleven One Day Competition:- Keith Parsons, captain, Matthew Wood, Pete Trego, Jason Kerr, Matt Bulbeck, Wes Durston, Arul Suppiah, Joe Tucker, Jamie Grove, Ian Jones and Tim Burt.Speaking earlier in the day the coach told me,” We are going into the match with the intention of winning. We have done well to get to the final and hope that we can take confidence from the example set by the first team at Lord’s on Saturday. We’ve got a lot of young players who can hopefully take inspiration from that victory.”Chief Executive Peter Anderson said, “This is a big occasion for the club, and the first time that this final has been played at The County Ground. We are expecting a large crowd to turn up, and catering facilities will be available all day. The match gets underway at 10.30am, with entry being free to Somerset and Surrey members, and £3 to non members.”

ScorecardA disciplined bowling effort enabled New Zealand to defeat South Africa by 21 runs in the opening match of the Emerging Players Twenty20 tournament in Brisbane.Chasing a target of 153, the South Africans were in control at 1 for 79 after 12 overs. However, left-arm spinner Luke Woodcock’s dismissal of opener JJ Smuts for 43 triggered a mini-collapse and three wickets fell for seven runs. The pace of scoring slowed down and the innings stuttered to 6 for 131 off 20 overs, with no New Zealand bowler conceding more than seven runs an over.The New Zealand total of 8 for 152 was possible due to Dean Brownlie and Shanan Stewart who shared a 62-run stand for the third wicket in 5.4 overs. Stewart hit three sixes in his 45 off 22 deliveries, while Brownlie hit five fours in 55 off 38. The rest of the batsmen struggled, with six of them dismissed in single digits. South African fast bowler Cornelius de Villiers took 3 for 25 in four overs.
ScorecardIndia’s bowlers kept their nerve in a tense finish as the Australian Institute of Sports finished two runs short of the target of 169 despite two batsmen scoring half-centuries and having five wickets in hand.At 137 for 5, the Australians needed 32 runs off 28 deliveries and had the chase under control. However, they could score only 29 of those 32 runs as Ajinkya Rahane’s over went for just four. Earlier, Jaidev Unadkat had reduced the Australians to 44 for 3 but they recovered through a 72-run stand between Luke Pomersbach and James Faulkner that came in 7.5 overs. Pomersbach was run out by Manish Pandey after making 59 off 36 balls with six fours and three sixes. Faulkner finished on an unbeaten 52 off 42 with four sixes but failed to take his side to victory as they finished on 166 for 5.The Indian innings had a quick start with Shikhar Dhawan and captain Parthiv Patel putting on 90 in 9.2 overs. Dhawan made 58 off 37 balls with five fours and a six while Patel got 39 off 27 with four fours and a six. Allrounder James Pattinson was the best Australian bowler, taking 2 for 30 off his four overs. Pandey hit two sixes in his unbeaten 32 as India scored 168 for 4.

The England & Wales Cricket Board could be asked to help revive cricket in the Caribbean after moving ever closer to a lucrative tie-in with the Texan billionaire, Allen Stanford, following a further round of talks at Lord’s on Monday.Stanford, whose multimillion-dollar Twenty20 tournament has reinvigorated interest in cricket in the West Indies, has reportedly offered up to $100 million for a series of five 20-over matches between England and a West Indies All-star XI, the first of which could be played as early as November this year.In a press release, the ECB said that the latest meeting between Stanford and David Collier, the CEO, “further developed the constructive and positive discussions” of the previous week. “I would be happy to make a five-year commitment,” Stanford told The Times on Saturday. “I said it could be an annual event, maybe we could come to Lord’s in 2009 and then alternate. The money is real and I think we will get a game.”Also present at Lord’s were the president and chief executive of the West Indies Cricket Board, Dr Julian Hunte and Donald Peters, as proposals were discussed to help provide a legacy to the development and infrastructure of cricket in the Caribbean, in addition to a series of international matches.It was the second meeting in the space of three days between representatives of the English and West Indian boards. On Friday, Hunte, Peters and Collier all met with the chairman of the ECB, Giles Clarke, in Bangalore during the opening match of the IPL.During his trip to Lord’s, Stanford also attended the pre-season lunch of the Lord’s Taverners, which provides support for community cricket – in particular for children with disabilities. During the luncheon Stanford made a donation of £50,000 to the work of the charity which was received by the President of the Lord’s Taverners, Mr Bill Tidy.

The security situation in Glasgow after a car crashed into the main terminal of the city’s airport on July 1 has not worried the Indian board (BCCI) or the team, Niranjan Shah, the BCCI secretary, said. India and Pakistan are to play a one-day game at Glasgow on Tuesday, the proceeds of the match going to the Prince of Wales charity trust.”We are not going to be worried by the situation in Glasgow,” Shah told . “We will leave it to the authorities over there to judge the situation and advise us.”Security is the responsibility of the home board and I’m sure they will take the necessary steps to ensure safety. The match will go on without any problem.”The Pakistan board (PCB) also confirmed that the security arrangements were satisfactory and that the match would go ahead as scheduled. “A match against India of any nature is always keenly anticipated and we are expecting a big crowd in for the match despite the security alert in Glasgow,” Zakir Khan, the PCB director of cricket operations, told cricketnext.com. “We are just keeping our fingers crossed the rains don’t hit the match.”The crash – suspected to be an attempted terrorist attack – has put Britain on its highest state of security alert and Glasgow airport remained closed overnight. But Shah said that the Indian team would fly into the city from Belfast, where they completed a series-win over South Africa on Monday, July 2.

Bangladesh A 214 for 4(Nazmus Sadat 90, Mehrab Hossain*) beat Zimbabwe A 211(Masakadza 45, Farhad Reza 3-29) by six wickets
ScorecardOpener Nazmus Sadat was the hero again after his half-century inspired Bangladesh to a six wicket victory in the third one-day match against Zimbabwe played at Queens Sports Cub. The result means that Bangladesh have secured the five-match series 3-0.Sadat followed his hundred in the opening match with 90 today, sharing in a third-wicket stand of 106 with Mehrab Hossain, who scored an unbeaten 65, as the visitors reached their target for the loss of just four wickets in 46.3 overs after restricting Zimbabwe to 210 in 50 overs.Zimbabwe A made one change, bringing in pace bowler Trevor Garwe for fellow seamer Admire Manyumwa, while Bangladesh named an unchanged XI.Stuart Matsikenyeri won the toss for the second time in a row and again elected to bat.Zimbabwe were in trouble as early as the second over when they lost Chamu Chibhabha. After realising the success that slow bowlers have enjoyed in this series, Bangladesh brought left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak into attack in the second over and he struck with his first ball when Chibhabha shuffled across to be trapped leg before wicket for 5.Hamilton Masakadza joined Mawoyo and the two shared in a stand of 63 which was broken when Mawoyo fell to Farhad Reza, playing a wild hook to be taken at leg gullyby Enamul Haque.Matsikenyeri joined Masakadza and the two most experienced batsmen in the team contributed 51 runs for the third wicket, broken soon after the second drinks break whenMasakadza was given out leg before wicket to Haque for 45. Matsikenyeri made 42 before he was bowled by Tushar Imran and the remaining batsmen only added 62 runs.Bangladesh got off to a fine start with their openers Sadat and Nafees Iqbal putting 71 forthe first wicket. Sadat was give his first life on 28 when he lifted a delivery from Garwe but Sean Williams appeared to have had his vision blocked by the sun as he dropped the catch at backward point.Bangladesh A lost their first wicket when Iqbal was bowled by Matsikenyeri for 28 with the bowler first appealing for leg before wicket before realising that the bails were down.Sadat was again given a let off on 47 off Bradley Staddon, Williams putting down the catch at backward point and the left handed Sadat went on to reach the half century markafter facing up to 50 balls, stroking eight fours in 95 minutes.Williams was introduced into attack and made amends for his poor fielding with a wicket with the third ball of his first over when he had Imran brilliantly taken in the deepby Ryan Higgins for 19 runs. Saqibul Hassan lasted six minutes at the crease before hefell to Staddon, caught by Williams for 1.With the tourists needing two runs to win the match, Sadat lost his leg stump trying to reverse-sweep Staddon, but Hossain drove Garwe four a straight four in the next over to seal the match and the series.

Scotland’s 47-run win over Ireland today in the ICC Trophy final in Ireland confirms the groupings for the first stage of the 2007 World Cup. The fixtures schedule for 2007 can now be finalised and, along with the tournament dates, will be announced on July 19 in Trinidad.Scotland’s reward for winning the ICC Trophy is a place alongside Australia, Holland and South Africa in Pool 1 in St Kitts. Ireland will be in Pool 4 with the host West Indies, Pakistan and Zimbabwe.In Pool 2 Bermuda will take on Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh in Trinidad and Tobago while Canada will be in Pool 3 in St Lucia with New Zealand, England and Kenya.Confirmed World Cup PoolsPool 1 – St Kitts Australia, South Africa, Holland, Scotland
Pool 2 – Trinidad Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Bermuda
Pool 3 – St Lucia New Zealand, England, Kenya, Canada
Pool 4 – Jamaica West Indies, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Ireland

ScorecardNew Zealand A swept to an innings victory on the fourth day against their Sri Lankan counterparts at Village Green in Christchurch, to wrap up a 2-0 series win. Sri Lanka had been up against it ever since a remarkable ninth-wicket stand of 209 between Paul Wiseman and Bruce Martin, but the end when it came was quick and to the point.Ian Daniel and Bathiya Perera could add just three runs between them to their overnight totals, before James Franklin and Kyle Milles tore through the middle order, with all five of the next batsmen recording ducks. Dinusha Fernando and Tharanga Lakshitha salvaged a modicum of pride from 94 for 9, adding 31 for the last wicket, but by then the game was well and truly up.