New Zealand A have fought back to have victory within their grasp overHampshire at Portsmouth. Set to score 337 (the biggest innings of thematch)the tourists need to score only 144 more runs with 8 wickets in hand.Mark Richardson (85) and James Marshall (69) punished a below-strengthcounty side. The former hit eight boundaries in 163 balls at the crease. Themore sedate Marshall was missed twice and was out to the next-to-last overof the day after batting for 255 minutes with seven boundaries in hishighest score of the tour to date.The visitors closed at 193-2 after Hampshire had been put out for 285 with Kendall hitting 92 and Udal 85 in the face of effective bowling – Lance Hamilton (4-85).

The encounter between Haryana and Orissa at Cuttack took aninteresting turn on Day 3. Resuming on 95/3 the visitors could musteronly 279 at the end of the day. Middle order batsmen Jasvir Singh(82), I Gainda (40) and S Dalal (62) all batted with extreme caution,not taking any risks at all. There was not much the bowlers could doin terms of dislodging the batsmen. However, Orissa with just 3 pointsdo not have a realistic chance of qualifying for the next phase of thetournament. Having reliquished the advantage to Orissa by conceding afirst innings lead, only an outright win is of any use to the Haryanaside. What approach they adopt tomorrow remains to be seen.

Baroda kicked off their West Zone Ranji One-Day tournament on awinning note with a 102 run win against Maharshtra at the MotibaugPalace grounds in Baroda. Baroda picked up two points from theirvictory.Maharashtra won the toss and put Baroda in to bat. The hosts startedoff on a disastrous note losing former India South paw Atul Bedade inthe fourth over of the innings. H Jadhav was soon to follow on a duckcaught by wicketkeeper Amol Ghag off veteran all-rounder IqbalSiddiqui. Jacob Martin 36(2×4) and Connor Williams 49(5×4) steadiedthe innnings before stumper Ghag caught Williams short of his ground.T Arothe returned unbeaten on 79(4×4,2×6) helping Baroda to a score of238/8. Iqbal Siddiqui was the most successful bowler returning figuresof 3/31.In turn the visitors, during the course of the innings kept losingwickets at regular intervals. Maharashtra batsmen never lookedcomfortable playing the Baroda attack. The top order collapsed and wassalvaged by a quick fire innings by all-rounder Iqbal Siddiqui (44 notout 1×4, 4×6). Maharshtra ran out of steam in the 35th over with thescore line reading 136. The wreckers-in-cheif were R Patel (3/8) and ABhoite (4/28).

Canterbury has batted itself into a position of dominance at the completion of the first day’s play at the Village Green, scoring 301 for the loss of only three wickets.Centuries to captain Gary Stead (100) and Chris Harris (122 not out) have put Canterbury in a position that Stead hopes will see it bat only once in the match.”That’s always the plan whatever game we go into. But I think we’ll be looking to post a big first innings total and then hopefully bat only the once. But it’s going to be hard work out there. Auckland have toiled away all day and I don’t think that wicket is going to change much,” said Stead.Opening the Canterbury innings and scoring a century Stead was in a good position to assess the pitch. He said it moved sideways off the seam early on and swung throughout most of the day. The good sole of grass on the pitch would hopefully result in swing for the bowlers throughout the entire match.Auckland toiled away in the hot Canterbury sun largely without reward and a lack of success saw the fielders wilt late in the day. The Aces played without luck; two sharp chances went down in the gully and umpire Bowden’s usual reticence in giving decisions may have cost Auckland on two further occasions.Andre Adams was the pick of the Aces bowlers picking up the wickets of Doody and Englefield during a fiery spell in the first session. But Adams was perhaps the victim of a lack of variety in the Auckland attack which allowed Chris Harris to comfortably get his eye in, the result being a two over demolition of Adams late in the first session which cost the bowler 28 runs.Auckland must be regretting the decision to leave a spinner out of its squad and it faces the prospect of another long day in the field tomorrow.Stead said achieving a result on the batter friendly pitch would depend on Canterbury’s ability to “grind Auckland into the dirt”, by posting a big first innings score.On a personal note Stead was happy to have scored his fifth first-class hundred but disappointed not to have gone on with the job. “It’s great to get a hundred and I was conscious of trying to go on and score a big one. But it was my day today. I got one low on the bat and missed out but that’s cricket.”

Desperately wanted – an all rounder.This is the kind of an advertisement Indian cricket coach John Wright would love to put in newspapers as his search for a genuine all rounder continues. But he knows all rounders cannot be located that easily. The genial New Zealander, now with the Indian team in Mutare, says, “We are desperately needing someone who is an all rounder, someone who can be a genuine number six..we do need a balance”.Wright believes a couple of players in the team could turn the course of a match but the need was to have more of them. “I think the captain (Sourav Ganguly) is in a better position in this area. He probably has to bowl a bit more, he is a very capable bowler. We need people like that. Even Sachin (Tendulkar). These two players, the main batsmen on their day, can turn a cricket game. If they can expand their roles, they can help us to become a better cricket team,” the coach said in an interview to PTI.In fact, Wright believes the present players have got it all in them and he was trying to extract more out of them. “Zaheer Khan can become a better batsman. Harbhajan can become a better batsman. Ajit Agarkar is capable of lot more with the bat. And that’s my objective – to get more out of them,” the former New Zealand opener and captain said.Juggling the batting order to suit various situations can also bring about good results, feels the coach, as it happened in the Kolkata Test against Australia when VVS Laxman was sent in to bat at number three. “You have to be a bit flexible. I think we have learnt that from the last series. Changing Laxman to number three made all the difference. We may have to look at moving Dravid or one of them up again if we find the team needs it.”I know psychologically Laxman doesn’t want to open. I think that is the question you always ask yourself as a captain or a coach. What is the best the team members have to do which does not really suit them but is in the interest of the team. You have got to do that,” the coach said.To work out a strategy for India, eyeing an elusive away win since the last decade and a half, is what keeps the coach pre-occupied in this African country. Having guided the Indians to a great Test series win against Australia, he knows expectations from him have increased to break the jinx this time.Wright is hoping for a lot from the seamers, who he feels, have a “a good opportunity to keep the ball up, make the batsmen come on the front foot when the ball is moving around a bit”.The seamers’ inability to bowl longer spells, of course, is a point ofworry. “At present stamina is quite a problem. They probably need a bit more strength. They need to be fit after bowling long spells or coming back after lunch or tea. That’s the area we need to develop.”Wright knows that to do well in international cricket India needs at least two quality strike bowlers. “We can’t expect Harbhajan knocking over the sides on the first day of a Test when we are touring abroad. So we have got to work hard on that”.The coach expects the cricket academies would help spot fast bowlers “who are different from batsmen in the sense that while batsmen take time to mature, fast bowlers just turn up one fine day.”So, next on Wright’s priority list, after all rounders, are fast bowlers.”There is some promise but we need performance. We need to be on the look out for fast bowlers. Javagal Srinath at the moment is looking sharp. And there is quite a bit of battle for the other two medium pacers’ slot”.No team is perfect but Wright asserts the team he handles comprises a bunch of players who are “hungry” and willing to work very hard. “They are great boys to work with. They want to work hard. I don’t think they are afraid of hard work. Sometimes, with some of the blokes, you have to use a word or two but they work hard and they want to learn, that’s the big thing. If we can learn, we will be a formidable team,” he said.A lot also depends on the hunger of the boys to excel, said Wright. “Away from home a lot depends on hunger. I have this funny feeling that their best is yet to come..I hope their best is yet to come”.The gruelling international schedule ahead for India will also work in favour of the team in that it will help it develop as one family and unit. “The coming six months will be good for us because we will be away from home and will develop as a unit. We have to keep it tight together in victory or defeat,” Wright said.”It is a young side. And I can tell one or two older players that if they want to be great individual players, they would become one. But also, wouldn’t it be great if they could be a part of the great Indian team,” he asked.On suggestions that players tend to group on regional lines, Wright said, “It is natural for players to move with those they know but if these barriers are broken down, it would be better. I don’t belive in distinction. I am not too big on seniors and juniors and where you come from. The team is a team. There is no ‘I’ in the word ‘team'”.This should be a big boost for a side that now has a coach unaffected by regional affiliations and not having any prejudice.All said about the team, does the coach himself get weighed down by the heat, dust, expectations and crisscross travelling? “I don’t feel weighed down. I believe in the process of working. Win or loss does not matter. As long as you keep doing things you believe in, hopefully things would go your way.”

After a strong showing in the warm-up matches, although the opposition was disappointing, India must go into the First Test match against Zimbabwe at Queens Sports Club tomorrow as favourites. Their batsmen have all scored runs, although Sadagoppan Ramesh was perhaps not very convincing, and their bowlers, Javagal Srinath and Harbhajan Singh especially, have struck good form.Zimbabwe, however, are unpredictable. When they are good, they are very, very good, but when they are bad they are abysmal. On their good days they can give any side in the world a good game, although they do have difficulty in putting five together for a Test match. In the one-day arena they have twice beaten South Africa and came within a whisker of beating Australia in Perth earlier this year. And the Indian tourists will not need reminding of what happened in the one-off Test in Harare in 1998/99 season.The problem is that nobody can be quite sure whether Zimbabwe will be good or bad. Team selection has caused problems with morale this season, as was seen against New Zealand, and there will doubtless be further discontent among the players who feel that their best team is not being selected.Zimbabwe have their usual middle-order batting line-up of Stuart Carlisle, Alistair Campbell, Andy Flower and Grant Flower, with Guy Whittall opening the innings again. Dion Ebrahim, despite his failures for the CFX Academy against the tourists, is given another chance, but he is not a natural opening batsman and appears far from confident. Gavin Rennie, who scored 130 runs in his last Test match, has been made twelfth man.In the bowling department, left-arm swing bowler Bryan Strang has again been overlooked, making it more difficult for the Zimbabwe attack to put the brakes on the rampant Indian batting. Heath Streak will be backed up by Brighton Watambwa, who made a promising debut against Bangladesh; unpredictable all-rounder Andy Blignaut; and Travis Friend, who is expected to make his Test debut. With all due respect, none has the experience or ability to tie up an end that Strang has so often shown.There is a surprise in the choice of spin bowler. Leg-spinner Brian Murphy played against Bangladesh in Bulawayo, only to be dropped in Harare, and his replacement, left-arm spinner Raymond Price, bowled superbly to take seven wickets. Now Price has been dropped and Murphy reinstated.The weather is likely to be cool and clear, and the Queens Sports Club pitch has a reputation for quality. Against Bangladesh it had more grass than usual, but was rather on the slow side and did not help the seamers unduly. It could well play the same this time.The match may hinge on how well the Indian batsmen cope with Heath Streak and his fellow seamers, and whether there is enough bounce in the pitch to disturb them. Streak’s fellow destroyer of the last tour, Henry Olonga, still not in best form or fitness, has been omitted, and his replacements, although talented, are probably not capable of shattering the powerful Indian line-up.Assuming the Indian batting continues its all-conquering path, the bowlers will then have to dismiss Zimbabwe twice to win the match, and in Srinath and Harbhajan they have potential match-winners for most conditions. Zimbabwe will need to be on the top of their form, combined with peak mental toughness and confidence, to match their visitors. It appears unlikely, but Zimbabwe can never quite be written off.

Last week’s drawn Test series between Zimbabwe and India hasconsolidated both teams’ existing positions in the ICC TestChampionship, according to an ICC media release.The 1-1 series result adds a single point to both countries’ totals,meaning the home team remains in ninth position and India in seventh.The effect of this is that Zimbabwe now has six points from 13 seriesand an average of 0.46 and India 10 points from 13 series and anaverage of 0.77.The fixture was the first series played between the teams in Zimbabwe,following one off Tests between them in 1992 and 1998.The updated Championship table now is as follows: