Michael Vaughan has declared himself fit and ready to resume the England captaincy in the second Test at Faisalabad, which gets underway tomorrow morning, after coming through a fitness test on his injured right knee. Though heavily strapped and still in some discomfort, Vaughan declared he was “confident he could get through the game”, as England seek to draw level in the three-match series.”I can still feel it a little bit but surely not enough to miss the game,” Vaughan told reporters on the eve of the match. “It’s been a good week for me and day-by-day I feel I’m progressing and getting better. I don’t feel it’s a massive risk, but the most important thing is that I’m confident and that’s really all that counts, if the individual feels he can get through.”Vaughan damaged his knee while running between the wickets during England’s second warm-up match at Bagh-e-Jinnah 12 days ago. At the time it was feared his tour could be over, for it was the recurrence of a long-standing cartilage problem that required surgery ahead of the 2002-03 Ashes tour, and then reoccurred in the nets at Lord’s in May 2004.But having sat out England’s defeat in Multan, Vaughan was adamant that he would be back for this match, even going so far as to claim his decision was reached three days ago, at a time when his movement in England’s practice sessions was still severely limited. He insisted, however, that his return was not influenced by the final-day batting collapse that handed Pakistan a surprise 22-run victory.”I put myself up for selection because I feel I’m ready to play a Test match,” said Vaughan. “I’m comfortable I can get through and I don’t think the result [at Multan] plays a part. I was always going to try and make myself available for the second one.””I’ve had a good recovery,” he added. “I’ve worked hard with Kirk [Russell, the physio], and day-by-day I’ve been doing more running, more twisting and turning. I’ve come through that, which is a good sign. Hopefully it will never happen again, but I’m confident I can get through the game.”Vaughan’s return meant that England would be left with a tricky selection dilemma ahead of the Faisalabad match. “It’s pretty obvious it’ll be Paul Collingwood or Ian Bell who misses out,” he confirmed. “The selectors will liaise today but it’s a tough one. Belly played well, while Colly’s only just got into the team.”There was no doubt, however, about the challenge that awaits his team. “It’s massive,” said Vaughan, adding that he would not be satisfied with just a share of the series. “We went 1-0 down against Aussies but we had four games to pull it back. It takes a hell of a lot of hard work to get into a winning position, and we’ll need to work equally as hard, if not harder, to come back from here.”

Everton Weekes, the legendary West Indian batsman, believes Brian Lara should be reinstated as Windies skipper despite his two lean spells in charge.”I would think that Brian Lara would be the one to captain the side at this stage with his experience and so on,” Weekes told the Trinidad Express. “Frank Worrell was captain of the side when he was 36, 37 or even older and he is still accepted in the view of many as the best West Indies captain we’ve ever had.”And Brian Lara can do that chore I believe. He’s an intelligent player, he’s an intelligent person, and if I were the selectors, I would offer him the job. You’ve got be a thinking player to perform like he does.”Lara, 36, was West Indies captain twice before but was replaced as skipper earlier this year by Shivnarine Chanderpaul who has so far won one Test match and lost seven in 11 games. Lara has also fallen foul of the West Indies authorities in 2005 after sitting out last July’s tour to Sri Lanka as well as the first Test in South Africa in March after a row over sponsorship.Lara, who is the top run-maker in Test history with an aggregate of 11,187 runs at an average of 54.04, has hinted that he wants to play in the 2007 World Cup before he calls it a day.

ScorecardSunil Joshi turned in a stunning performance to spin out Delhi, comfortably placed overnight at 213 for 2, for 258, gaining a vital first-innings lead before Sujith Somasunder and Thilak Naidu propelled Karnataka to 196 for 5, 221 runs ahead by the end of day three at Bangalore. Joshi was assisted by Anil Kumble who picked two wickets but it was the left-arm spinner who donned the wrecker-in-chief role today. Joshi, the former India player, removed Virender Sehwag and Aakash Chopra, the two well-set overnight batsmen, cheaply to engineer a collapse. Sehwag, the captain, was castled by Joshi but came back with the ball, picking up two wickets including that of the half-centurion Somasunder. It’s a crucial tie for Delhi as they have only 6 points in five games and need at least 2 points from this tie to avoid relegation.
ScorecardHemang Badani’s 157 charged Tamil Nadu, overnight on 164 for 3, to a commanding 423 declared before Rajamani Jesuraj grabbed three wickets to leave Bengal, chasing 497, struggling at 109 for 3 by the end of the third day at the Eden Gardens. Badani, who stepped down from captaincy ahead of this tie citing the need to concentrate on his batting, played a fabulous hand in TN’s revival. He lost Sridharan Sriram, his overnight partner, and the next man in Sathish early in the day but put on a 126-run stand for the sixth wicket with K Vasudevadas, the 20 year old left-hand bat, that allowed Tamil Nadu to declare. Dinesh Kartik, ignored for the Pakistan tour, did himself no favours, getting out for a duck but MR Srinivas, the No. 9 batsman, hit a breezy 41 to increase the target.Jesuraj, who rocked Bengal with a five-for in the first innings, hit the top order hard again in the second essay leaving them tottering at 51 for 3 before Sourav Ganguly and Ashok Jhunjhunwala took Bengal past the 100 run-mark at stumps. Bengal, with nine points from five games, will be looking to Ganguly, batting on 25, to engineer a minor miracle and hope to eke out some points to secure a semi-final spot while Tamil Nadu will do its best to go for an outright victory or at the least grab two points to avoid being relegated to Plate.
ScorecardUttar Pradesh require another 26 runs to claim their first win of the season after Piyush Chawla’s third five-wicket haul in as many games saw Hyderabad bowled out for 277 on the third day at Lucknow and left UP just 29 to win. Arjun Yadav, Hyderabad’s captain, top-scored with 49 but Chawla and the rest of the UP bowlers proved too much for the middle order. Should UP go on to win by 10 wickets, they will gain 5 points and replace Haryana to take the fifth spot in the Group B table.
ScorecardRajesh Sharma’s first five-wicket haul and three wickets from Dinesh Mongia, Punjab’s captain, skittled out Andhra for just 237 to give Punjab the upper hand on the third day’s play at Visakhapatnam. Sharma, a 21-year-old offspinner, shared the spoils with Mongia after MSK Prasad and Venugopal Rao, the overnight batsmen, forged a 146-run stand for the third wicket. A shocking eight Andhra wickets fell for just 41 runs as Sharma made a mockery of the middle order after the senior duo of Prasad and Venugopal had done so well in the morning session. At 98 for 3, Punjab have a commanding 177-run lead going into the final day.
ScorecardRailways, with only 4 points in five games and facing relegation, were rocked by Munaf Patel who grabbed a six-wicket haul to bowl them out for a paltry 140, gaining a vital 97-run first innings lead for Maharashtra. Munaf, the right-arm medium pacer, ripped Railways apart in their own backyard before Maharashtra reached 76 for 3, 173 runs ahead by the end of the third day at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi.
ScorecardPinal Shah, Baroda’s wicketkeeper, made his maiden first-class hundred a fine unbeaten double as Jacob Martin declared his side’s first innings on 449 for 4 and then restricted Services to 194 for 3 at stumps on day three at Palam. Shah’s 512-minuted effort consumed 355 deliveries and was laced with 25 boundaries, and ensured Baroda cannot lose this match. Martin, with 53, and Yusuf Pathan, with a breezy 25 not-out, added to Services’ woes. Madhusudhan Reddy then scored a dogged fifty as Services began their reply, but he was the second wicket to fall as Services ended the day 262 runs behind Baroda. Jasvir Singh was not-out on 63, and much of Services’ hopes rest on him as the final day begins.
ScorecardRamesh Powar’s five-wicket haul reduced Gujarat to 181 for 6 after the Mumbai tail had earlier eked out a few runs to earn a nominal first-innings lead. Powar ran through the middle and lower order after Aavishkar Salvi had removed the openers but Niraj Patel shored up the Gujarat innings with a fighting 72. Mumbai, having resumed the day with two wickets in hand and still 6 runs behind, were steered by Nilesh Kulkarni (14 off 82 balls) to a seven-run lead.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Two magnificent innings by Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist, and a late strike by Brett Lee, allowed Australia to loosen the stranglehold that South Africa had imposed on the third Test at Sydney, leaving the game intriguingly poised after three days. Ponting struck a glorious 120 while Gilchrist roared back to form with 86 to help Australia recover from 7 for 226 to 359. Then, Brett Lee struck in the last over of the day as South Africa closed on 1 for 4, an overall lead of 96.Eight wickets fell and 309 runs were scored in a day which produced some frenetic and compelling action despite a gloomy start, when an hour’s play was lost in the morning due to rain. Fortunes swung wildly too: resuming at a precarious 3 for 54, Australia took the honours for the first couple of hours, thanks primarily to a superb knock from Ricky Ponting, who became only the sixth batsman to score a century in his 100th Test. Then, South Africa fought back strongly just before tea, taking three wickets for four runs. A huge deficit seemed on the cards when Adam Gilchrist was joined by Brett Lee.Gilchrist’s start didn’t inspire much confidence either. He squirted a couple of edgy drives through gully, and it was only Graeme Smith’s strangely defensive strategy – there were fielders protecting the boundaries right from the start despite Gilchrist’s last eight innings fetching him a sum total of 105 – that allowed him to get over the early jitters. The start was entirely uncharacteristic, with Gilchrist’s first 25 runs coming off 60 balls, but there were signs – a sweetly struck off-drive, a well-timed pull – that the golden touch was gradually coming back.After Lee left, the ominous signs became full-fledged warning signals, as Gilchrist latched on with a flourish that has made him the most-feared batsman in Test cricket. The line and length of the balls made little difference to the outcome – fractionally short balls were flat-batted to the midwicket fence or carved to point with ferocious power, length balls were dismissed over long-off with a swagger and a sashay, and, just to show he wasn’t all about power, a deft upper-cut off Andre Nel over the slips left both batsman and bowler amused.For the South African bowlers, who had suffered at the hands of Mike Hussey at Melbourne, it was a case of déjà vu. Graeme Smith spread his fielders all over the park, yet the rate of boundaries only increased in frequency. And the bowler who fared the worst was the one with the most experience – Shaun Pollock’s 36 balls to him disappeared for 39 as Gilchrist smashed 66 from his last 48 balls. With MacGill swatting away fours at the other end in his 20-ball 29, the SCG crowd had plenty to cheer before the party ended with Nel nailing Gilchrist to return with richly deserved haul of four wickets.Gilchrist’s blitz overshadowed a classy century from Ponting, who ensured that the South African seam attack was on the back foot despite overcast conditions which should have favoured them. He began the day with a sumptuous drive wide of mid-on off Charl Langeveldt, and that set the tone for the day. Langeveldt bore the brunt of the onslaught: in his attempt to get the ball to swing he often pitched it up, and Ponting accepted the challenge, crunching drives through cover or crashing them down the ground. And when Langeveldt shortened the length, he was carved through point and then magnificently pulled over square leg for six.At the other end, Michael Hussey played second fiddle perfectly. In a rich vein of form so far this season, this was hardly his most fluent innings – he was extremely lucky to survive an lbw shout on 9 off Nel – but he hung in and helped Ponting add a crucial 130 for the fourth wicket. Hussey was finally done in by a straighter one from Johan Botha which gave him his first Test scalp. Ponting, then on 97, quite fittingly brought up his 27th Test century with his staple shot of the innings – a flick wide of mid-on, but soon after, the South Africans hit back.Ponting had been lucky to survive an lbw shout off Langeveldt when on 95, but his tendency to fall over and force straight deliveries through the on side finally proved to be his undoing as Jacques Kallis trapped him in front. On a day of iffy umpiring decisions, more of them followed soon – Andrew Symonds first survived a couple of close shouts, and then was sent on his way by Aleem Dar off a Nel yorker that was clearly sliding down the leg side. When Shane Warne fell first ball, Smith would have been eyeing a 200-run lead. However, Gilchrist cut that figure down drastically, and with Lee unleashing a super quick delivery to trap AB de Villiers in front, Australia will go into the fourth day with more hope than seemed likely.How they were outMike Hussey c Boucher b Botha 45 (4 for 184)
Ricky Ponting lbw b Kallis 120 (4 for 222)
Andrew Symonds lbw b Nel 12 (6 for 226)
Shane Warne c Boucher b Nel 0 (7 for 226)
Brett Lee c Smith b Kallis 17 (8 for 263)
Stuart MacGill c Nel b Pollock 29 (9 for 322)
Adam Gilchrist c Boucher b Nel 86 (all out 359)
South AfricaAB de Villiers lbw b Lee 1 (1 for 3)

In a thrilling contest that went down to the wire, the New South Wales Breakers held their nerve to clinch a two-run victory over the Queensland Fire and take the best-of-three finals 2-1 at the North Sydney Oval.Charlotte Anneveld, the right-arm medium pacer, snapped up 4 for 29 to dismiss Queensland for 144 in the 48th over after Jodie Purves and Julie Price had put on 59 for the sixth wicket. Chasing 147 to win, Purves and Price had come together following a collapse from 0 for 47 – thanks to Belinda Matheson (24) and Melissa Bulow (25) – to 4 for 58 at the hands of Lisa Sthalekar, the NSW captain, and Julie Hayes. Anneveld, taking a cue from her captain, then proceeded to wreck Queensland in a four-wicket burst.Winning the toss and electing to bat, NSW were struggling at 4 for 40 after quick blows from Kirsten Pike (1 for 21), Tricia Brown (1 for 36) and Matheson (1 for 18). Sthalekar top-scored with 39 before Jane Wallace, the wicketkeeper, hit 31 as NSW were bowled out for 146 in 48.4 overs. Jude Coleman, who starred with 5 for 26 in Queensland’s finals-levelling win yesterday, ripped through the NSW middle order with 4 for 28.

Scorecard
Points table

Shane Warne’s five wickets sparked a Victorian recovery as he and Matthew Hayden completed ideal warm-ups for the South Africa Test series. Queensland, who will seal a spot in the Pura Cup final if they win outright, were in perfect shape with a 153-run opening partnership between Hayden and Jimmy Maher before Warne upended the top order and they wobbled to 7 for 286.Warne added Maher (67), Martin Love (11) and Clinton Perren (7) in 28 balls before tea – each batsman was caught at slip by Cameron White – and he collected Hayden lbw after the break for 89. Hayden had scored only 38 at lunch, but he moved freely in the second session, hitting Warne for six to mid-on and finishing with 11 fours, and will head to South Africa next week in good touch for the opening Test at Cape Town on March 16.Hayden’s dismissal was immediately followed by the departure of James Hopes, who was caught and bowled by White, leaving Queensland flapping at 5 for 182. The second-placed Victoria, who want a victory to overtake their rivals at the top of the table, struck again with the wickets of Brendan Nash (25) and Chris Hartley (40) before stumps to conclude an impressive second half of the day. Warne was strong through 27 overs and was rewarded with 5 for 71, his first major haul for the Bushrangers in five years.

As the West Indies face the humiliating prospect of their fourth successive series whitewash overseas in the third and final Test against New Zealand, starting here tomorrow (overnight eastern Caribbean time), the words of the old typewriting exercise are appropriate.”Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party” is the sentence forever used to assess proficiency on the keyboard. It is equally pertinent for beleaguered cricket teams, especially the ones depending as heavily as the West Indies on their ‘good men’, those with the experience and the statistics to render them leaders.In this case, they are Brian Lara, the most prolific of all batsmen, multiple record holder, twice captain and a veteran of 122 Tests; and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the current captain and a consistent campaigner with the healthy average of 45 in his 93 Tests. Neither has come to the party in the preceding two Tests and the West Indies have duly lost.Had each put together only half his average in each innings, the West Indies surely would not have let certain victory in the first Test turn to defeat by 27 runs. Their failures in the second Test were key moments in the middle-order collapses that opened the way for New Zealand’s triumph by ten wickets.Lara, scorer of one quadruple, one triple, six doubles and 23 single hundreds in his record 11170 Test runs at an average of 54, has scraped together only seven runs in his four innings. Chanderpaul managed 13 and 15 in the first Test, 8 and 36 in the second. Lara came into the series straight from the Caribbean, arriving a week prior to the first Test without a first-class match in six weeks.Chanderpaul has been so burdened with the leadership of a team deeply divided by the boycott of a tour of Sri Lanka last July, by most leading players, that he hasn’t registered a half-century in 13 Test innings since.With another key batsman and vice-captain, Ramnaresh Sarwan, forced to return home after the first Test because of a leg injury and the two promising young apprentices, Dwayne Bravo and Denesh Ramdin, severely short of the form and confidence that made them standouts in the series in Australia last November, the reliance on Lara and Chanderpaul has intensified.The simultaneous slump of the foremost batsmen of the past dozen years has been crippling but, in the 17 Tests the West Indies have lost since England’s 2004 series in the Caribbean, the two have rarely come to the party when most needed-in the second innings.The statistics are revealing. Lara appeared in 15 of those matches, reeling off one double and three single hundreds at an average of 69.6 in the first innings when he has seldom had support. In the second innings, when similar scores were required, he has totalled 212 runs, with a top score of 44 and an average of 14.13.In the 17 losses in that time, Chanderpaul accumulated 603 runs in the first innings at 37.68, with his unbeaten 126 at Lord’s in 2004 the highest. His overall 394 in the second innings have been at 26.26, with his unbeaten 97 in the same Lord’s Test the highest. The upshot was inevitable. Nine of the 17 all out second innings totals were under 200, including 47 at Sabina Park and 94 at Kensington Oval against England in 2004, and only one over 300.And if the good men don’t come to the aid of the party over the last few days, the series will end in yet another clean sweep by the opposition, of which there have been seven since the first of the modern era in Pakistan in 1997.

Robert Key has been named as captain of a strong England A side for their four-day match against the Sri Lankans at Worcester, as the preparations for the first Test at Lord’s on May 11 step up another gear.The fixture represents a radical departure from the established pattern for touring sides’ warm-ups. In the past, visiting teams would often face second-string county attacks with key players rested, but the ECB has rightly taken the view that a chance for their reserve players to take on international opposition should not be squandered.”This is the first opportunity an England A side has had to take on a touring side in this country,” said England’s chairman of selectors, David Graveney, “and it allows players who are currently on the fringe of the international arena to press for places in our Test and one-day sides.”The team includes six players who were selected for England’s winter tours: Alastair Cook, Alex Loudon, Sajid Mahmood, Liam Plunkett and Owais Shah, together with Chris Tremlett, who had to withdraw from the Pakistan tour through injury. Key himself might have been called up in India had it not been for shoulder surgery, while Middlesex’s Ed Joyce was mentioned in several dispatches after a successful season in 2005. Surrey’s allrounder Rikki Clarke, meanwhile, played two Tests against Bangladesh in 2003-04.Perhaps the most intriguing selection, however, is that of Chris Read – England’s former wicketkeeper who has already scored two hundreds this season, one for Nottinghamshire v MCC in the season curtain-raiser at Lord’s, and another in the rain-ruined match against Yorkshire at Trent Bridge last week.Read, the best gloveman in the country, was axed from England’s Test side two years ago after Duncan Fletcher voiced concerns about his batting, but another good show here and he could yet find himself pushing for Geraint Jones’s Test place, which remains in jeopardy after another mixed winter.A pace attack of Plunkett, Mahmood and Tremlett represents a three-way shootout between the likely lads of the next generation, and Sri Lanka’s batsmen can expect a hostile reception when the match gets underway. For Tremlett, it will be an important chance to test his problematic knee, which held together successfully in the C&G victory over Ireland on Sunday.Alex Loudon, the forgotten man of England’s winter, gets another chance to push his credentials in a match situation, an especially timely opportunity given that England’s leading spinner, Ashley Giles, is unavailable at least until the arrival of Pakistan.Graveney confirmed that these contests are intended to become an integral part of the English season. “We also look forward to England A hosting Pakistan at Canterbury later in the summer,” he said. “[They] will become an important yardstick for the selectors in measuring how our best young players shape up against top quality opposition.”England A Robert Key (capt), Alastair Cook, Owais Shah, Ed Joyce, Ravi Bopara, Alex Loudon, Rikki Clarke, Chris Read, Liam Plunkett, Chris Tremlett, Sajid Mahmood, Coach: Peter Moores, ECB National Academy Director

A Cricket Australia opinion poll has confirmed what has been evident Down Under since last September – that the Ashes loss to England hurt Australians more than any other sporting defeat.The survey of 1200 sports fans, conducted by pollsters Newspoll, found that 63% regarded the Ashes as the nation’s most-coveted sporting trophy, well ahead of the nearest contender, football’s World Cup, which recorded 8% of the votes.Cricket’s World Cup was next, with 7%, followed by the Davis Cup (6%) and the rugby World Cup, which polled 5%.”When it comes to Australian team sporting prizes, it’s clear that the public consider the Ashes to be the pinnacle,” Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said. “We expect the whole country will be gripped by Ashes fever when the Ashes series begins later this year.”An in-form Australia will attempt to avenge its first Ashes loss in 16 years this southern hemisphere summer when England travel Down Under for the five-Test series.

Ajit Agarkar, India’s most successful bowler in the one-day series against West Indies, is returning home even as the bowlers in the Test squad had a torrid time in the warm-up match in Antigua, conceding as many as 20 extras on the first day.India lost the series 1-4, but Agarkar finished on top of the Indian bowling averages with nine wickets at 18.11 a piece. Only Ian Bradshaw, the West Indies left-arm seamer, bettered his average, conceding 17.11 runs for each of the nine wickets that he got from the four matches he played.”That I got into rhythm straightaway made a big difference. My confidence, perhaps, would have been dented had I gone for runs in the first ODI [Kingston],” Agarkar told , the Kolkata-based daily.India will next play a one-day tournament only in August-September when they travel to Sri Lanka for a tri-series and Agarkar plans to spend the time in between playing some form of professional cricket, possibly in England, where he had played for Middlesex in 2004.”I will take a complete break for about a week and, then, explore possibilities of either playing for a county or in one of the leagues. Obviously, I’ve got to establish contact with an agent… I’m definitely going to play some form of cricket,” he said.During the series, Agarkar became the seventh allrounder and the second Indian after Kapil Dev, to score 1000 runs and take 250 wickets. He is the only fast bowler in the current one-day squad to have played previously in West Indies when India won the series 2-1 in 2001-02. He took six wickets in three matches, three for 33 being his best bowling figures.Agarkar felt the reason why other Indian bowlers were not as successful as him was because they couldn’t hit the right length – which is vital on the slow West Indies pitches. Experience, he added, also counted in overseas tours.To somebody who arrived on the international scene with such gusto, Agarkar seemed resigned to the seesaw nature of his career. “The past eight years have seen me in and out a number of times… I’m disappointed, but my selection or otherwise rests with others.”