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Manish Pandey smashed an unbeaten 203 off just 191 as South Zone raced to 416 on the first day of their match against Central Zone at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. Central had made a terrific comeback against East Zone in the quarter-finals, and seemed to carry some of that momentum into the match against South, getting rid of Robin Uthappa and Subramaniam Badrinath early.But they were thwarted by a 174-run third-wicket stand between Karnataka’s Pandey and Tamil Nadu opener Abhinav Mukund. Mukund scored 105 off 146 runs. Pandey was dropped when he was on 127 by Pankaj Singh off the bowling of RP Singh, and then carried on the destruction after Mukund fell. Wickets fell at regular intervals at the other end and South were eight down by the end of play. Their quick scoring rate, however, means they already have a strong total on the board, and could add to it on the second day with Pandey still at the wicket. Pandey’s double-century included 19 fours and seven sixes.

North Zone also managed to score at a fairly brisk rate against West Zone at the Moti Bagh Stadium in Vadodara, reaching 315 for 5 at the end of the first day. Nineteen-year-old Punjab batsman Mandeep Singh led the way for North with a century, while Delhi’s Mithun Manhas and Punjab’s Uday Kaul got half-centuries. Kaul was unbeaten at the end of play, and his 86-run partnership with North’s captain Amit Mishra was also unbroken. Saurashtra seamer Jaidev Unadkat had given West an ideal start, dismissing Sarul Kanwar in the first over of the match after North chose to bat, but the batsmen dominated after that and have put North in a strong position.

Dale Steyn has said the preparation of result-oriented pitches will be the key to South Africa maintaining their supremacy against India at home during the upcoming Test series. South Africa begin their home summer against India at Centurion on December 16, their first assignment after a drawn series against Pakistan in the UAE.”It will be really sad if we have similar wickets to the ones we had when we played Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates,” Steyn told ESPNcricinfo. “This is a big series between two good sides and we need results to keep people interested.”The battle between the No. 1 and 2 ranked Test sides is expected to be influenced by the conditions in South Africa, with the visitors warned to anticipate bounce and pace from the pitches. Steyn saw the playing field as more level with India’s batsmen, whose traditional weakness on tour has been the short ball, becoming more experienced in dealing with lively surfaces.”Everybody has played enough around the world now for no conditions to be totally unknown,” he said. “The Indian batsmen have proven themselves over the years and the pitches will be a test for both of us: our bowlers against their batters and their bowlers against our batters.”That’s not to say Steyn doesn’t think South Africa hold a slight edge. “I still think that our bowlers tend to bowl better in these conditions. And it’s the same with our batsmen. They are more used to these conditions.” India already know that and are preparing for the barrage of bouncers that will be hurled their way at a week-long training camp at Gary Kirsten’s academy in Cape Town. The memory of Steyn’s career-best match haul of 10-108, which included 7-51 in the first innings on a particularly responsive pitch in Nagpur in February, will be fresh in their minds.Although that type of wicket is Steyn’s favourite, he doesn’t expect to see a strip as inviting as that all the time. “Every bowler wants a green top but we don’t get them that often. Pitches around the world favour batters these days, I don’t know if it’s because they get used so much and they are worn out. The truth is that you rarely find a wicket that offers bowlers enough to get 20 wickets quickly. We have to work for our wickets.”Steyn singled out the Indian opening partnership as the one that will take the most toil to break. “A guy like Sachin, with the reputation that he is has, is always going to be an important wicket. But for me, their opening pair is terrifying, with Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag.” Without giving away any of the strategies he has been working on, Steyn hinted that South Africa have been brainstorming their bowling tactics . “The important thing for us will be to bowl to plans and to stick to those plans.”A big part of those plans will be the role of the two new-ball bowlers, Steyn and Morne Morkel. “We know if we do well, the team has a good chance of doing well,” Steyn said.Steyn has enjoyed success against India, taking 32 wickets in seven Tests. Morkel has 15 from six against India and together they’ve shared 206 wickets in 24 matches. “We’ve played a lot of cricket together at the Titans and now with the national side and we are always fighting between us for wickets. That really helps us because we are each motivation for the other.” The competition between the two is stiff with Steyn currently lying third on the 2010 list of wicket-takers, with 45 scalps, and Morkel sixth with 37.Steyn has no clear favourite among the three surfaces the Tests will be played on, although he does lean towards his home ground, Newlands, as the one that will offer the best cricketing experience. “All three wickets are great. I grew up playing in Pretoria, so I know exactly what to expect from that pitch. Now I live in Cape Town and it’s just an unbelievable place to play cricket. South Africa’s record is great at Newlands and to have the third test here will be good.”Steyn may be surprised to learn that, of the 45 Tests South Africa played at Newlands, they’ve won 17 and lost 19. Since readmission, which is probably the period Steyn was thinking about, South Africa won 14 out of the 21 matches played there, losing only three.

The lengthy saga over the inclusion of the Kochi franchise in IPL4 has stretched into its second week, with BCCI president Shashank Manohar telling ESPNcricinfo that the board’s lawyers would give them advice about the next course of action by the end of the week. The franchise’s warring factions asked for a ten day extension to sort out their ownership disputes on Wednesday.”Kochi’s reply was received by our lawyers yesterday and will advise us accordingly,” Manohar said, adding that the case against Kochi had no similarities with that of either Rajasthan Royals or King’s XI Punjab teams whose franchises had been terminated at the end of the IPL’s governing council meeting in Mumbai on October 10.”Kochi have not breached any agreement, our issues with them are different,” Manohar said. “They have huge differences between two groups of people in the franchise. They can’t seem to agree on a central head and when the season begins, when we go into auctions and player agreements, we can’t have two voices coming from one team, which is why they have been asked to sort out their issues.”Despite the anxiety of other IPL franchises over the league’s future course of action, Manohar said the governing council had not decided when to meet to take a decision on the Kochi impasse. When asked whether the number of teams that would take part next season, and whether the termination of the Kochi franchise would mean a new auction, Manohar said, “You can speculate on anything, seven teams, eight teams, we will take the decision when the matter regarding Kochi has been settled.”The board president did not seem to believe that the player auction was an issue of any urgency. “An auction can take place at any time – all that has to be ensured is that players are available and signed on seven days before the first game.”The Kochi franchise has been controversial from its very inception in March. Rendezvous Sports World, a consortium of five companies, became the tenth IPL franchise after a successful bid of US$333.33m, but almost immediately ran into trouble over the composition of its ownership, after the discovery of a few “secret partners” in the consortium. A new agreement was then signed by both the parties but fresh controversy broke when Lalit Modi, the then IPL chairman, made the ownership details public on his Twitter feed.Six months after the auction Kochi has still failed to resolve its various internal disputes, which revolve around the distribution of shares in the consortium. The investors are unhappy with the promoters, who do not want to give up the rights to lead the franchise. Despite several lengthy meetings over the past few days, the two factions remain at loggerheads.

The ECB have decided to retain the Twenty20 fixture list for next summer despite the fears of dwindling interest, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph.The Friends Provident t20 lasted an eye-watering 151 matches in the 2010 season and was widely criticised for failing to draw the big crowds earlier versions of the Twenty20 Cup had brought.Yet the smaller counties rely on the income generated from the long fixture list and won their battle to resist change at a meeting at Lord’s on Tuesday.The counties have been hoping the ECB could resolve the scheduling issue soon in order to begin their marketing campaign for next summer, and there is a growing dissatisfaction over the lack of leadership shown by the ECB over the matter.The counties suffered poor financial returns last season which has made the fixture problem more acute. Many grounds are in the expensive process of upgrading their facilities in the search for lucrative international hosting rights. Almost all of last season also suffered the interruption of the football World Cup dominating the summer as well as the neutral Test series between Pakistan and Australia. The hope is that without these distractions the 2011 season will be easier to sell to the public.

Sunil Gavaskar has turned down the BCCI’s offer to be part of the IPL’s governing council, saying he felt that the league was a commercial enterprise and those working for it should be remunerated. The Indian board had said on Wednesday that members of the reconstituted council would no longer receive a salary.”I have been contacted and I have declined because after yesterday [Wednesday] I had second thoughts,” Gavaskar told NDTV. “The IPL is a commercial enterprise and non-BCCI members, former cricketers included, should be remunerated for the expertise, experience and time that they bring to the table.”Gavaskar had, on Wednesday evening, said he was willing to work in an honorary capacity but said this was not a turnaround. “Let me tell you for Indian cricket I am always there, but the IPL is a commercial enterprise.” Under the old system, the three former cricketers on the council – Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi – were paid Rs 1 crore (approximately $220,000) for their services.Doing away with salaries was only one of the wholesale changes the BCCI made to the governing council at its annual general meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday. It dissolved the existing body and set up a new one with Chirayu Amin as the chairman. The council also included five other members – Arun Jaitley, Ranjib Biswal, Anurag Thakur, Ajay Shirke and Rajiv Shukla – and two former cricketers, one of whom was Shastri, who had agreed to work in an honorary capacity.Shashank Manohar, the BCCI president, had said that he needed to check with Gavaskar and Pataudi whether they were willing to serve on the council without remuneration.

Phillip Hughes has found out the hard way how Justin Langer sweated and fought to play 105 Tests. Hughes has just lived the Langer lifestyle for three days but now believes he could hardly be better prepared to return to the Test team after seven matches spread over four series and an imposing record of 615 runs at 51.25.Whether that happens in India in October, or during the Ashes campaign this summer, or in another series some time in the future, the decision is out of Hughes’ hands. He knows there is only one focus for him in the immediate future – to score so many runs for New South Wales that selection will take care of itself.At 21, Hughes knows that he has time on his side and a national selection panel eager to promote him after he was dumped during last year’s Ashes but he is not willing to risk being unprepared when his name is finally called. “He knows how to score runs but he has an outstanding work ethic and has a fighter’s attitude,” Langer said.”He has a run-maker’s instinct but he is also working to build a technical base for the next 15 years, not just the coming summer. He is only 21 and has a great record but he knows there are plenty of areas he can get better. How exciting is that?”Battered and sore after three gruelling days, Hughes was still elated by the experience. It involved dawn boxing sessions and beach running, three daily net sessions against a bowling machine pounding 150kph deliveries into his rib cage, Langer’s old favourite of a century of 20m sprints and then nights spent at the Langer dinner table where the philosophies of life and cricket were dissected. He paid his own way to Perth and stayed with the Langer family at their City Beach home.Langer remains Australia’s batting coach but has a job description that involves being as much a mentor and inspiration as technical adviser. “I’ve got to know Justin better and better over the past 18 months and given that my [dislocated] shoulder is now 100%, it was a good time to get over here and work on a few things and get some tough practice under my belt,” Hughes said. “It was pretty hard work, much harder than I anticipated, but Justin played 105 Tests so that shows there is a clear reward if you do the work.”Hughes will shortly travel to Hampshire to play the final three matches and while his sessions with Langer were to arm him for the county stint, his trip involved a broader range of experiences. “I worked on some specific things and just general batting but it was also just great to spend three days with him and talk about every day life,” Hughes said. “The passion that he has got for sport and life is simply fantastic.”For every question I asked him, he asked me one back. He played 105 Tests so there were plenty of things about that experience to talk about but he also reinforced how important it was to have a good balance off the field. It was not just about scoring runs but having respect for the game and respect for your opposition.”Hughes arrived with a bang against South Africa last year, scoring twin centuries in his second match, but like Langer and a host of other cricketers, was dropped and forced to address the technical and mental issues hindering his progress. Langer had several phases in his career but finished so strongly that he was one of only seven players to score 5000 runs in the final five years of his career.

ScorecardFormer West Indies seamer Pedro Collins did the damage in more ways than one as Middlesex had the better of the first day of their County Championship clash with Glamorgan at Cardiff. Collins not only finished with figures of 4 for 55, as Glamorgan were bowled out for 198, but he was also responsible for breaking Jamie Dalrymple’s thumb on his right hand. The Glamorgan skipper is almost certain to miss the rest of the season.Responding to Glamorgan, who won the toss, Middlesex finished the day on 68 for 2 in their first innings, 130 behind with Scott Newman on 40. The leaders were soon in trouble after electing to bat when Mark Cosgrove went for a first-ball duck edging the perfect out-swinger from Collins behind.And matters did not improve for the Welsh county as they found themselves 8 for 3. Tim Murtagh broke through twice in consecutive overs. First, Gareth Rees was caught at short leg by Scott Newman and then Ben Wright edged to Dawid Malan at first slip. Murtagh produced a fine opening spell of 9-6-10-2.Dalrymple and Tom Maynard set about some repairs in a stand of 50 for the fourth wicket. Maynard was the dominant partner striking seven boundaries in his 37. But just before lunch the 21-year-old was adjudged leg before playing round his pad.Though Dalrymple and James Allenby attempted a second rescue mission either side of lunch the wickets carried on falling at regular intervals. Allenby was caught behind from a Collins out-swinger.From 90 for 5 Glamorgan were soon 117 for seven as Collins struck again twice in three balls claiming the wickets of Mark Wallace, who was out tamely, caught at fine leg, and Dalrymple who edged a lifting ball to Neil Dexter at second slip. It was a double blow for Dalrymple, as that was also the ball which broke his thumb.Skipper Dexter got in the action to take the wickets of James Harris, caught by wicketkeeper John Simpson standing up, and Robert Croft, well caught in the gully by Owais Shah. But after that the tail wagged impressively as Cosker and Harrison compiled their record stand.Harrison hit Dexter over long on twice for six and four as Glamorgan reached 150 and when the partnership went past 60 they had set a new record for the county beating the 10th-wicket partnership by George Lavis and Wilf Jones at Cardiff Arms Park in 1960.Glamorgan’s innings came to a close from the first ball after tea when Harrison was caught at point off Murtagh to leave his side stranded two runs short of a batting point.Glamorgan dropped both Newman, on 12, and Simpson at fine leg and gully respectively before fighting back to have Middlesex 39 for 2. First Simpson was leg before to Allenby and Shah was caught behind off James Harris.

With both sides weak in their respective fast bowling departments, Indian captain MS Dhoni and Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara have pledged to make the Test series more interesting and enterprising by aiming for results. The three-Test series beginning in Galle on July 18 is expected to be a very high-scoring one due to the imbalance between the batting and bowling strengths for both sides.India, currently the No.1 team in Tests, have been hit by injuries to opening bowlers Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth, both of whom have been ruled out of the series. Even their key spinner Harbhajan Singh is also struggling for fitness, battling with a bacterial viral infection which ruled him out of the ongoing three-day practice match against a Sri Lanka Board President’s XI.”Most of the teams playing today want a result in a five-day game. That intent is more than enough to make the game interesting. We are hoping we can get results in all the games,” said Dhoni. “It’s not about targeting just one bowler, we have to think about the whole bowling department of the opposition.”They’ve got experienced campaigners who are playing Test cricket for the past ten years or so. Our preparation level is quite good. When you are playing in the subcontinent and playing a side that has got a batting order that is really experienced and knows the conditions really well it always better to have fast bowlers who have played Test cricket under the circumstances and who have got plenty of experience under them and who know how to bowl in those conditions.”That experience always comes when you play more and more games. It’s a bit of concern that we are missing fast bowlers quite regularly in important series. The good thing is we have somehow been able to do well in all the series we have played. Hopefully we’ll have a bench strength of a minimum of five to six bowlers who are always available and who are at the top of their form.”Although Sri Lanka are not affected by injuries, their fast bowling line-up for the Galle Test doesn’t have much experience with Dilhara Fernando and Lasith Malinga, who is making a comeback to Test cricket after two-and-a-half years, being the most experienced pair with 33 and 28 Test appearances respectively. Another seamer who has performed well in recent home Tests, Nuwan Kulasekara, has been dropped. From the Indian side, Ishant Sharma, with 23 Test caps is the most experienced.”As a team we are going to play as hard as we can on the field to make sure that we come out on top. India will be doing the same so if that is not going to make it an interesting tug of war I don’t what is,” said Sangakkara. “We are looking forward to an interesting Test match and a result at the end of five days or even before.”The Galle Test marks the end of world’s leading Test and one-day wicket-taker Muttiah Muralitharan’s illustrious career who will be retiring after the match.

Scorecard
Joe Denly cracked four fours and a six in his 44 against Gloucestershire•Getty Images

Kent took an early lead in the battle to avoid the Friends Provident t20 wooden spoon by securing a 12-run win over fellow South Group strugglers Gloucestershire at Canterbury.In a re-run of the 2007 Twenty20 final, Gladiators soon lost their way when chasing Kent’s par-for-the-course total of 165 to suffer their eighth defeat of the campaign and allow Kent a fourth win in what has been a modest campaign.Gloucestershire lost their way in the chase as early as the sixth delivery when William Porterfield turned a leg-stump ball from Azhar Mahmood straight to Joe Denly at deep square-leg. The visitors re-gained some composure in reaching 42 before Alex Redmond drove the first ball of the afternoon from left-arm seamer Ashley Shaw, who was making his home debut, straight to mid-off.Hamish Marshall, having been dropped on six, added only 11 more before heaving across the line at a straight one from Simon Cook. Legspinner Malinga Bandara then took two wickets in three balls to cut down the Gladiators in full stride. Chris Taylor edged an attempted drive to the keeper before top-scorer James Franklin was deceived in the flight and picked out James Hockley at long-on. He had made 40 from 33 balls.Chris Dent chanced his arm against that of Denly to be run out for six then Richard Dawson miscued a sweep to deep square leg to give Bandara final figures of 3 for 27.Steve Snell (21) had two stumps plucked out after missing with a leg-side smear against Amjad Khan then, in the penultimate over Jonathan Lewis (26) holed out to long-off and, with 14 needed off the last over, Khan cleaned up Kirby to secure the win with four balls to spare.Batting first having won the toss, Kent initially made good use of the same firm pitch that they had used for Friday’s clash with Hampshire. Spitfires had 32 on the board within five overs before captain Rob Key (11) edged an attempted clip over midwicket to be caught at short fine leg.Denly survived a chance at mid-on when on 10 and raced to 44 from 31 balls with four fours and a six before he drove firmly to long-on where has was superbly caught on the run by Hamish Marshall to make it 89 for 2.Geraint Jones (8) soon perished when he slog swept straight down the throat of the man at deep square leg, then Alex Blake (5) naively skied a cover drive straight into the hands of Porterfield at deep extra-cover.After that, only Hockley with 13 at a run-a-ball and Martin van Jaarsveld, who top-scored with 59 from 40 balls, reached double figures as Kent, from 105 for 2, slid away to post 165 at an asking rate of 8.25 an over.Van Jaarsveld timed the ball superbly to collect six fours and a six until he drove over a full-length ball from Franklin to lose his off stump.In the Kent carnage that followed, left-arm seamer David Payne bagged 3 for 25 and Lewis 2 for 26 as Kent lost seven wickets for 60 runs in the pursuit of late runs.

Lancashire officials have ruled out screening England’s World Cup tie against Germany at Old Trafford on Sunday during the third one-day international between the hosts and Australia.England’s last-16 tie in Bloemfontein kicks off at 3pm which is right in the middle of the ODI. The match in Manchester is a sell-out with 22,500 set to fill Old Trafford, but a large number are now likely to leave the stadium in order to find somewhere to watch the football.Officials from Lancashire, England and Australia held a meeting to discuss options for showing the football at the ground, but crowd-safety factors have meant it won’t be possible. There was precedence for showing the game; in 2002 England’s second-round World Cup match against Denmark was broadcast on big screens around the ground during the third Test against Sri Lanka with Alec Stewart trying to catch glimpses of the action as he scored a century. Also, in 2006, a number of England’s World Cup matches clashed with NatWest series games and were shown on big screens.”Following detailed discussions between the club and relevant local authorities, it will not be possible for the England v Germany World Cup match to be screened in public areas at Old Trafford on Sunday due to safety reasons,” a statement said.”Every option has been explored, including the installation of large screens, but due to a number of crowd-safety factors, in particular because of the 22,500 sell-out crowd, it is simply not possible for the football to be shown.”However, if any cricket spectators do wish to leave the stadium, hopefully in order to see England’s footballers progress to the World Cup quarter-finals, their tickets will allow them to be scanned out and back in again at Old Trafford to watch England’s cricketers in action against Australia in the NatWest one-day International.”With England finishing second in their group and therefore playing on Sunday afternoon a host of counties have adjusted the start times to their domestic Friends Provident t20 matches so that crowds have the chance to watch both games, while a number of venues are showing the football on big screens before or after their t20 game.