Chris Gayle was a satisfied man after scoring his first triple-hundred in Tests, and credited Sir Garry Sobers for assisting him with his technique and making this achievement possible. West Indies ended the day on 565 for 5, thanks primarily to Gayle’s 317.”You can’t complain after scoring 300 runs man. I’m really happy for that,” Gayle was quoted as saying in The Trinidad Express. “A lot of pressure was on me, having played two Test matches and not scoring any runs. In this one, I told myself I really had to dig deep and cash in on this wicket. I’ve been working hard with Sir Garry and it really paid off today.”Gayle’s 317 was the fourth-highest individual score in Tests by a West Indian. Elaborating further on Sobers’s help, Gayle said, “Basically, it’s all about balance and trying to get your momentum going. I’ve done a lot in the indoor nets, myself and Wavell [Hinds]. The three of us [Gayle, Hinds and Sobers] worked together. He taught me a lot of things and they paid off here and thanks to him.”Gayle also admitted that he had tried to correct his footwork prior to this match. “In the last two games, I was trying to move a lot,” he said. “What I tried to do in this game is try and be as still as possible. I tried to widen my stance a bit to feel a bit more balance out there.”However, his ten-and-half hour innings was brought to an end when he was caught at first slip off Monde Zondeki. “I was looking to hopefully come tomorrow and build on it or try to get as close as possible to 400 today, but I was really tired yesterday, having been on the field for two days and coming back in to bat just before lunch [on the third day]. It was very hectic to have to go out there and bat under those conditions and I really pulled myself together.”

Northamptonshire 149 for 5 (Shafayat 76, Hossain 3-67) v Bangladesh
ScorecardAfter their two-and-a-half-day debacle against Sussex earlier in the week, Bangladesh enjoyed a much improved day in the field at Wantage Road, albeit against a significantly weaker opposition, as Northamptonshire were limited to 149 for 5 by the time the rains rolled in midway through the afternoon session.Bangladesh’s star performer was their seamer, Anwar Hossain Monir, who picked up 3 for 67 on his first outing of the tour. His efforts ensured that Northants would not be able to gallop away with the game in quite the same manner that Sussex – and Michael Yardy – had done at Hove.In fact, that mismatch had been so emphatic that Northants saw fit to rest the bulk of their first-team squad, with only Bilal Shafayat and Usman Afzaal, deputising for David Sales, retained among a team of rookies. One familiar face for the Bangladeshis was the South African student, Matt Friedlander, who had played against them for British Universities in their opening fixture at Fenner’s. He is not even on the Northants playing staff.Rain delayed the start by 75 minutes, but once Northants had won the toss and chosen to bat, Shafayat was quickly into his stride, striking 14 fours as he clattered along at nearly a run a ball. Wickets continued to fall at the other end, however, with Monir and Tapash Baisya both breaking through with the new ball.Monir grabbed his second when Tim Roberts was caught-behind for 16 (93 for 3), but it was the spinner, Enamul Haque jr, who struck the big blow in his second over, as Shafayat was caught by Nafees Iqbal for 76. One run later, Riki Wessels became Monir’s third victim but before they could make any further inroads, the rain came to Northants’ aid.Bangladesh were hampered by the continued absence of their captain and leading batsman, Habibul Bashar, who was felled by a Jason Lewry bouncer at Hove and did not take part in the remainder of that match. In his absence, the wicketkeeper Khaled Mashud took over as captain, with the 16-year-old Mushfiqur Rahim retained in the side after his brave half-century against Sussex.Northamptonshire 1 Thomas Huggins, 2 Bilal Shafayat, 3 Robert White, 4 Tim Roberts, 5 Usman Afzaal (capt), 6 Riki Wessels (wk), 7 Matt Friedlander, 8 Andrew White, 9 Charl Pietersen, 10 Richard King, 11 John Wolstenholme.Bangladesh 1 Javed Omar, 2 Nafees Iqbal, 3 Rajin Saleh, 4 Mohammad Ashraful, 5 Khaled Mashud (capt, wk), 6 Aftab Ahmed, 7 Mushfiqur Rahim, 8 Mohammad Rafique, 9 Enamul Haque jnr, 10 Anwar Hossain, 11 Tapash Baisya.

Pakistan are scheduled to play four Tests and a triangular one-day series (also involving Sri Lanka) when they tour England next year. Pakistan last played a series of more than three Tests in 1992, which was incidentally against England, under the captaincy of Javed Miandad.They will also play a Twenty20 international against England on the long tour, according to a report in . The itinerary includes as many as eight side-matches against different counties. England will play seven Tests against Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a triangular one-day series and two Twenty20 Internationals.A Pakistan board official is also quoted as saying that Pakistan were keen to play five Tests, but since the itinerary was already fixed under the ICC’s Future Tours Programme (FTP), they would play four. Pakistan have a break at the moment, and then return to the action with a bang in October, with a home series against England from October 22, followed by an Indian tour in January and the Asia Cup in February. Before heading to England in May, Pakistan tour Sri Lanka for three Tests and three one-day internationals.The official said that Pakistan had asked the ICC to clear the dates for the Asia Cup as it was not included in the FTP cycle, and the final schedule is expected to be decided at the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) meeting in London later this month. Pakistan will be hosting the Asia Cup for the first time since the tournament was conceived in 1984. India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, UAE and Oman have confirmed their participation.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Sri Lanka made short work of Zimbabwe in the first encounter between the two sides in the Paktel Cup, finishing the match off in less than 52 overs, just over half the scheduled amount. Their victory was set up in the field: after winning the toss Marvan Atapattu put Zimbabwe in on a grassy Rawalpindi pitch and his attack, featuring four seamers, rolled them over for 104 in 33 overs. Sanath Jayasuriya produced some fireworks as Sri Lanka coasted to their target, and gave themselves an afternoon off with an early victory.Zimbabwe would have had no inkling of how quickly their innings would unravel while Stuart Matsikenyeri was batting in the first hour. Matiskenyeri ignored the early loss of Brendan Taylor, his opening partner, and played the game he knew best. Ball on bat sounded like a rifle shot as he fired off a string of boundaries in the first few overs, and Zimbabwe raced to 50 at nearly five an over. But having reached 37 out of a total of 54, Matsikenyeri grew a shade too adventurous against the accurate medium-pace of Farveez Maharoof, swung across the line, and was bowled.Thereafter the Zimbabwe batsmen gifted away their wickets with a series of ill-chosen strokes. Maharoof picked up a second wicket, that of Vusi Sibanda with a cutter, and Dilhara Fernando, out of the Sri Lankan side for a while, teased out Mark Vermeulen with the slower ball, bowled with a split-finger grip – one of his specialities. Atapattu saw his chance and brought back Chaminda Vaas for a second spell, a move that brought him another two wickets. Only Dion Ebrahim held one end up as the Sri Lankans easily finished off the tail, and Upul Chandana picked up some cheap lower-order wickets to finish with 3 for 15.With only 105 to chase, Sri Lanka threw their bats at the bowling and lost a couple of wickets in getting home. Saman Jayantha, who replaced Avishka Gunawardene at the top of the order for today’s game, again gave evidence of more than one chink in his technique – hard hands, and a tendency to play across the line of the ball – in making 21 before he miscued a flick horribly and skyed a catch to Tatenda Taibu. Jayasuriya was in better touch, and sent several deliveries searing through the infield on the way to 40, but Zimbabwe had the small satisfaction of picking up three wickets in all before Sri Lanka got home.The two sides now play each other a second time on October 11, and Zimbabwe will want to put this disappointing performance behind them, and try to demonstrate that they can indeed compete at this level.

It has got hotter and hotter in Chennai as this Test has progressed, but the crowd does not seem to be feeling it. Much of the time they sit, but it takes just a boundary or a wicket, or a dropped catch, and there have been many of those in this game, to get them going. Standing, swaying, shouting, and waving Indian flags, they show an energy that the players out in the middle can only envy. In betweens these pockets of energy, they sit, and watch intently.Every once in while, without any kind of apparent provocation, they burst into a cry of what sounds to the unfocussed ear as “Hoo ha, hoo ha”. Then you listen carefully, and realise that they are actually chanting, “We want sixer”. That’s a fair request when Virender Sehwag is batting, but rather improbable when Parthiv Patel or Jason Gillespie are. Perhaps they are not chanting this because they actually expect a batsman to get inspired and hit a six, but merelybecause they feel like shouting “Hoo ha, hoo ha”. It can be liberating.Indian fans can be fiercely partisan, but not in Chennai. The crowds that stream towards Chepauk to watch a Test match have been registered in cricketing folklore as one of the most knowledgable in world cricket. They have a keen sense of cricket history, they understand the dynamics of a match, and you’ll even catch them applauding a good maiden over by the opposition side, something you will not find at Delhi or Kanpur.There was no better place for Shane Warne to break the world record (again) than here, and when he duly went one ahead of Murali on the second day, the crowds gave him a standing ovation. It was not merely out of admiration, but also adoration. Later, when Warne went to field near the boundary, the loud cheers he got prompted him to turn around and do some showboating.First, he imitated Sachin Tendulkar’s stance, doing the double-squat perfectly but omitting the crotch rub. Then, he stepped out and went through the motions of hitting a six. He followed that with an imitation of Billy Bowden signalling a six, and the crowd went berserk. It wasn’t because Bowden is popular here.This crowd is colourful in a literal sense. In the morning, sitting in the press box, Arun Lal, the cricketer-turned-commentator, commented on how journalists are so drably dressed, “in whites and greys and blues. Where are the reds, the oranges?”In the crowd, Arun. The full spectrum of colours is there in the stands, with red trousers, parrot-green shirts and orange caps popping up intermittently – and that’s just the men. One fellow with an Indian flag wears a gigantic red Mexican cap, curved so that from above, it looks like a red potato chip with a wart.I saunter into the stands to sit there for a while and soak it up, and find that they are nowhere near as bad as other Indian grounds. Water-bottles are allowed, food stands are a short walk away and, wonder of wonders, there are toilets. They are well looked after. “There is no better place than this to watch cricket,” says a middle-aged gentleman in a brown t-shirt and black trousers sitting next to me. He is Mr Ganesan.”I have been watching cricket here for more than 35 years now,” he informs me. “I saw the only Test Australia have won here. Really, I am telling you, India should have won that match.” And then he launches into a critique of Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi’s captaincy in that match. ML Jaisimha would have been a better captain of India, he informs me.I tell him about the incident on the first morning of the Test, when the teams lined up for two minutes of silence for the memory of Keith Miller. The Australians had requested the ground authorities to make an announcement to join the teams in remembering Miller, but the men in charge had refused, citing the absence of a public address system as a reason. The crowds, thus, cheered loudly as the teams lined up, unaware of the moment.”That is terrible,” says Mr Ganesan. “I wish I had known. Keith Miller was a great player. I wish I had seen him play.” His eyes mist up as he remembers all that he has read and heard of Miller, replaying mental pictures of the Miller he has built up in his mind. Meanwhile, all around us, a cry of “Hoo ha, Hoo ha” begins again. The sun is shining, and there is a great cricket match on at the Chepauk. All is well with the world.

Australia 152 for 3 (Rolton 96*, K Blackwell 43*) beat England 151 for 7 (Edwards 42) by seven wickets
Scorecard

Karen Rolton produced a stunning allround performance, as Australia’s women finished their tour on a high with a seven-wicket victory in the one-off Twenty20 international at Taunton. Coming to the crease at a disastrous 6 for 3 in pursuit of England’s impressive 151 for 7, Rolton romped to an unbeaten 96 from just 53 balls, to seal victory with 14 balls of the match to spare.She was aided and abetted in her onslaught by Kate Blackwell, who opted not to mess around with victory in sight and hit the winning boundary to finish not out on 43, and deny Rolton a much-deserved century.The win followed hot on the heels of Australia’s series-clinching four-run win in yesterday’s fifth one-day international, and ensured that a host of Australian stars, including Belinda Clark, Lisa Keightley and Cathryn Fitzpatrick, completed their final tour of England on a high.Victory looked a long way off for Australia for much of the match. Laura Newton and Charlotte Edwards gave England the perfect start with an opening stand of 77, but Rolton then made the first of her interventions, picking up 2 for 13 in her last three overs to stifle England’s innings just when it seemed set to take off.Their total of 151 looked ample, however, once Katherine Brunt had got stuck in with the new ball. She took three wickets in quick succession as the top of the Australian order imploded, but Rolton soon made mincemeat of the rest of the attack to complete a memorable tour.

Bob Woolmer, Pakistan’s coach, believes that Shabbir Ahmed’s suspect bowling action has improved sufficiently since he was reported to the International Cricket Council (ICC) during Pakistan’s tour of West Indies in May. Woolmer has been working with Shabbir over the last two weeks after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) decided to seek assistance at home rather than abroad to rectify his action.According to the Karachi-based daily, , Woolmer told Saleem Altaf, the PCB Director, that he was now satisfied that the bowler’s action was within ICC regulations. But the PCB will wait before sending videos of his remodeled action to the ICC Bowling Review Group for final clearance.Board officials are eager for his action to be checked one last time by Dr Paul Hurrion, the ICC-appointed bio-mechanics expert, before they send the videos to the ICC. This is due to new ICC regulations introduced in March this year, which state that a bowler who is reported twice within two years will face a one-year suspension from all forms of cricket.Understandably, the PCB are keen to avoid such a scenario and are prepared to wait until they are certain his action is rectified before they go to the ICC. A final decision on when to send him to Dr Hurrion will be taken by the ad-hoc committee which meets on September 12.Shabbir was reported for the third time in his career during the Barbados test against the West Indies in May this year. The two previous occasions were after his first ODI in 1999 and on the tour to New Zealand in January 2004.

Rod Marsh, the outgoing England selector and coach of the ECB Academy, has been appointed director of coaching at the ICC Global Cricket Academy in Dubai.Malcolm Speed, ICC’s chief executive, said: “Rod’s rich experience as a top-class international player and highly-respected academy coach in England and Australia will be an invaluable asset to this exciting project.”Marsh will initially provide input into the design and construction of the project before taking a hands-on role in running the academy once it is launched in 2007. The ICC Global Cricket Academy will be a focal point for the training and development of players, coaches, umpires, curators and administrators.

New Zealand 231 for 9 (50 overs, Fleming 100, Mills 47*, van der Wath 4-31) beat South Africa A 128 (33.5 overs, Ontong 37, Bond 5-37) by 103 runs
ScorecardAfter easing themselves to a 19-run win against South Africa A on Friday, New Zealand continued their good form in completing an emphatic 103-run win on Sunday at Potchefstroom. Stephen Fleming, leading from the front, made an elegant century and struck 16 fours in his 114-ball innings.His innings was all the more impressive considering the wickets that fell around him: Nathan Astle went without scoring, Lou Vincent for 14, Hamish Marshall for a duck and Jacob Oram and Craig McMillan fell for single figures. Fleming found support from Brendon McCullum (37) with whom he put on 51 for the sixth wicket. When Fleming was dismissed by the spin of Robin Peterson for exactly 100, Kyle Mills took up the attack and made a vital 47 at nearly a run-a-ball, to help New Zealand reach the respectable score – if not a dominating one – of 231 for 9.South Africa A were then undone by tight, disciplined bowling from New Zealand – initially from Jacob Oram and Nathan Astle. The pair both conceded less than three per over, and the pressure they created allowed Shane Bond to wreck the home side’s chances. Bond took 5 for 37 in five overs, as South Africa crumbled from 123 for 6 to 128 all out. Only Justin Ontong could reach the thirties and their captain, Jacques Rudolph, made just 20.”It’s too early to be concerned about the top-order,” Fleming told the New Zealand website , “because it’s pretty hot here and the guys have spent the last few weeks practising indoors.”It will take a bit of adjustment. Kyle Mills was cooked by the heat today; after bowling five overs he was in lala land and it was pretty important to get him off as soon as possible.”New Zealand play a Twenty20 international against the senior South African side at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on Friday. They play the first of five one-day internationals in Bloemfontein the following Sunday.

England 256 for 9 dec and 112 (Arafat 5-31) beat PCB Patron’s XI 211 and 105 (Plunkett 4-16, Giles 4-38) by 52 runs
Scorecard

Ashley Giles and Liam Plunkett dug England out of a great big hole on the final day at Rawalpindi, grabbing four wickets apiece to seal a nervy 52-run victory. Having eased to 50 for 0 in pursuit of 158, the PCB Patron’s XI lost all ten wickets for 55 in the space of 23 overs. It was left to Shaun Udal to complete the formalities after tea, wrapping up the last two wickets to complete a satisfactory bowling workout ahead of the second warm-up match, which begins at Lahore later this week.If the bowlers could be happy with their efforts, however, the same could not be said of the batsmen. Had it not been for the efforts of Marcus Trescothick, who took his match tally to 162 not out with an unbeaten 38 in the second innings, England would have been unable to set the Patron’s XI even the smallest of targets. They had been braced for an embarrassment after resuming on 39 for 6 this morning, but an important eighth-wicket partnership of 56 between Trescothick and Paul Collingwood enabled England to muster a defendable total, and in the event it proved to be more than enough.Thanks to Duncan Fletcher’s pre-match arrangement that all 14 squad members could be used, England’s batting line-up extended way beyond the normal limits. Collingwood and Ian Bell were the overnight incumbents, and both were seeking a big innings to push their claims for a place in the first Test at Multan. Bell, however, cut a sorry figure as Yasir Arafat pinned him on the crease for 1. It was his second failure of the match and, allied to the pair he recorded at The Oval against Australia, it seems increasingly likely to condemn him to the also-rans for this series.The real revelation in this match, however, was Arafat, who completed the impressive match figures of 9 for 76. He hardly needed the assistance of his fielders in producing a performance that recalled the feats of the great Waqar Younis. Seven of his nine victims were bowled, one (Bell) was lbw, and only England’s No. 11, Matthew Hoggard, fell to a catch, at third slip, as he skewed an attempted drive. His two seasons with Scotland have reaped an unremarkable 37 wickets at 29.10, but two days against England could yet have propelled him into the eyes of the Pakistani selectors.

By tea, the Patron’s XI openers, Asher Zaidi and Yasir Hameed, had knocked off 13 of the 158 runs they needed for victory, and when Kevin Pietersen dropped a regulation clip to square-leg when Hameed was on 24, it seemed England would struggle to save face. The pair brought up their fifty partnership in the 14th over, but no sooner had they done so than Giles struck to change the course of the innings.Giles had missed the second day of the match with a stomach upset and had earlier recorded a second-ball duck as England subsided to the wiles of Arafat, but by grabbing two wickets in two balls he turned the Patron’s XI innings on its head. First Hameed clipped a firm chance to a juggling Andrew Strauss at midwicket, and then Giles came round the wicket to trap Bazid Khan first-ball with a quicker delivery (50 for 2).Plunkett entered the attack and sprayed a series of rapid deliveries on both sides of the wicket. But he got it right before the over was out, as Asher chipped a leading edge to James Anderson at mid-on. Three balls later, Asim Kamal flashed hard and was caught by Trescothick at second slip for a duck, and at 65 for 4, the innings was in freefall.Faisal Iqbal didn’t hang around, swishing a rising catch to wicketkeeper Matt Prior, before Giles persuaded Shahzad Malik to chop onto his stumps for 3. Khaled Latif then hoisted a mighty slog straight into the hands of Strauss in the covers, and when the becalmed Misbah-ul-Haq edged Plunkett to Trescothick in the slips for 14, their last recognised batsman had fallen. Plunkett reached tea with the impressive figures of 4 for 13 for five overs, and at 88 for 8, England were just about out of jail.Udal, who had not featured in the first two sessions, then appeared after tea to push his Test claims, and he used his opportunity well, ending the resistance long before the last two wickets could cause England any alarms. It was a mixed performance in a mishmash of a game, and England now travel to Lahore to team up with their two missing talismans, Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison. Perhaps their arrival, and a proper first-class match at Bagh-e-Jinnah, can concentrate a few minds in the England camp.