ScorecardNorthamptonshire survived an awkward second innings to claim a draw against Nottinghamshire after a three-wicket burst from AJ Harris threatened to open up a final-afternoon result. Facing a deficit of 160, Northamptonshire slumped to 18 for 3 before Chris Rogers and Rob White added 134.Nottinghamshire batted aggressively during the morning session, Mark Wagh taking his century to 152 until being caught behind of Johann van der Wath. The middle order all contributed useful runs at a decent pace, but Mark Ealham was forced to retire hurt for 25.Harris then struck with the new ball, having Stephen Peters edging to Chris Read and both David Sales and Alex Wakely taken at slip by Stephen Fleming. However, Rogers found his touch after a lean run and White struck 12 boundaries before everyone shuck hands on a draw.

The Jade Stadium in Christchurch has been renamed AMI Stadium following a new sponsorship deal. The agreement with the insurance company aims to increase the capacity to 43,000 ahead of the 2011 Rugby World Cup and the 2015 Cricket World Cup, which will be hosted with Australia.The stadium was originally known as Lancaster Park before Jade bought the naming rights in 1998. AMI and the venue management company Vbase are reportedly getting the community to help come up with a new name for the East Stand.The venue, which is home to the domestic side Canterbury, has hosted 40 Tests and 43 ODIs. Being a multi-purpose ground like Auckland’s Eden Park, it has used drop-in pitches for international matches.

Australia will ditch their light-hearted Twenty20 outlook as they prepare to treat the inaugural World Championship as seriously as the successful Caribbean campaign earlier in the year. In its previous five matches the team has looked at the game as entertainment, but Ricky Ponting outlined the changes as he chases a hat-trick of global limited-overs trophies in South Africa next month.When asked if Australia would tackle the tournament with the same intensity as the 2007 World Cup Ponting said: “We will, definitely. It’s cricket for us, and we’ve got to prepare as best as we can. We’re preparing trying to win the Twenty20 World Championship.”The mood change since the first international in 2005 is significant and Ponting seemed disappointed the status had been upgraded from exhibition to must-win contests. In New Zealand the opening game was a retro tribute with the players sporting big hair and sweaty headbands, and since then matches were played as a warm-up to the main one-day internationals.In South Africa, Australia’s first match is against Zimbabwe on September 12 and Ponting expects some of the smiles to disappear. “One of the best things about the game was it was fun and you play your best cricket when you are getting out there and having fun,” he said. “Now we’re playing a World Cup the players will be worried about stats and that might lose a bit of the beauty about the game.”Australia, who also hold the Champions Trophy, have won three of their Twenty20 matches and the fringe players in the squad will be in a better position than their senior team-mates. “It’s a young game for us, especially for the international guys who only played a few games,” Ponting said. “The guys in the states and the counties have played more than we have.”Being tactically unaware is a strange position for the squad and it will be working on methods to conquer the condensed game during its week-long camp in Queensland. In an unusual pre-season training move Ponting’s batting over the next week will involve “hitting every ball as hard as I can, as far as I can”.The 25 contracted players arrived at the Sunshine Coast town of Coolum on Sunday and will be involved in detailed planning sessions during the week before practice matches in Brisbane at the weekend. While the Twenty20 tournament is the immediate high-profile priority, the squad will also be building for a one-day tour to India, Test series against Sri Lanka and India and an Australia A trip to Pakistan.The six home Tests form part of a rescheduled summer for Australia – Sri Lanka play two games in November and India open the four-match series in Melbourne on Boxing Day – and Ponting felt India would form the greater challenge. “Sri Lanka probably rely on Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene with the bat and Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas with the ball,” he said. “India probably have more depth than Sri Lanka in Test cricket, but India have historically been very poor travellers.”Ponting said India’s series win over England earlier this month would give them confidence but he expected his team to prevail even without the retired Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer. “With both those sides, if we perform at our best, we should be able to win pretty easily in Australia.”

Dave Mohammed, the West Indies and Trinidad and Tobago chinaman bowler, will miss the forthcoming regional KFC Cup limited-overs series due to an injury which doctors say will not heal in time for the start of the tournament. The national selectors have named a 17-man preliminary T&T squad, with the final squad set to be announced on October 8.”Dave’s situation is that his injury needs three more weeks to heal properly, which will take us into the start of the tournament and that has put him out of consideration by the selectors,” said T&T team manager Omar Khan.The squad, captained by Daren Ganga, has seven allrounders including Samuel Badree, whose batting and bowling efforts in the T&T trials had ensured he could not be left out. He was consistent with the ball, picking up a five-wicket haul as well as hitting a blistering half-century in one of the trials.The manager is very pleased with the selectors’ decision as there is no shortage of talent in the T&T squad with West Indies players Ganga, Denesh Ramdin, Dwayne Bravo, Rayad Emrit, Keiron Pollard, Lendl Simmons and Ravi Rampaul all included in the strong line-up.”It was a very difficult task for the selectors (Dudnath Ramkissoon, Raphick Jumadeen and Bernard Julien), to narrow down the squad to a preliminary 17, but they picked a team they felt was well balanced and I am very happy with the squad,” Khan told the . “We have a lot of quality players and, with this squad, I think we can make T&T proud.”Speaking on the absence of youngsters Adrian Barath and Darren Bravo, Khan said they will be missed in the line-up, with both representing the West Indies Under-19 squad.”They are two young, exciting batsmen who have proven their worth and have done well for T&T at the junior and senior level and now they have earned a place in the West Indies Under-19 team. We will have to use what we have and try our best.”The preliminary squad will continue training at the National Cricket Centre and the final squad will be announced on October 8. The team will depart for Guyana on October 13 for the preliminary stage of the tournament which begins on October 16.Trinidad and Tobago preliminary squad: Daren Ganga (capt), Denesh Ramdin, Dwayne Bravo, Rayad Emrit, Richard Kelly, Mervyn Dillon, Amit Jaggernauth, Ravi Rampaul, Nicholas Ramjass, Magnum Nanan, William Perkins, Mario Belcon, Keiron Pollard, Jason Mohammed, Lendl Simmons, Sherwin Ganga, Samuel Badree

Graeme Smith has voiced concerns about the exodus of leading players from South African cricket. Several cricketers including Jacques Rudolph and Vaughn van Jaarsveld have signed Kolpak contracts while others such as Andrew Hall have recently quit international cricket.”The main concern is that players who can still mean a lot to the national team are turning their back on South African cricket,” Smith told news24.com, a South African news website. “Those are the ones we have to keep and whom the administrators should think about.”Guys of 21 and 22 years are leaving because they just do not have the patience to play their way into the national team,” Smith said. “Some players who are near the end of their career are also taking that route.”It is hard to stop them because the money they will earn in the Indian Cricket League (ICL) is a major consideration. But it does prove that there are other problems in our cricket that have to be solved. The administrators have a major task and I just hope they take it seriously.”Lance Klusener and Nicky Boje have signed with the ICL while Hall is almost certain to join once his contract with Cricket South Africa comes to an end in April next year.Though Jacques Kallis, who resigned from the vice-captaincy after being dropped for the ICC World Twenty20, is back in the side for the Pakistan tour, his replacement as vice-captain has not been announced. “I wish I knew. I’ll let you know when I find out,” said Smith. “But it seems that sort of information is not meant for me.”The South African team is currently in Pakistan on a two-Test and five-ODI tour.

Nasim Ashraf, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, says the emergency in Pakistan will not have any bearing on the team’s current visit to India.”The imposition of emergency will not affect our team’s tour of India in any way,” Ashraf told the , a Karachi-based daily. “Our team will remain in India and I’m confident that the players will give their best in the series.”The decision by Pervez Musharraf, the president of Pakistan, to declare a state of emergency in the country initially cast doubt over whether the tour would continue as scheduled. The Pakistan players had returned to their hotel in Delhi after a practice session at the Feroz Shah Kotla when they learnt about the political situation back home.The tour, which includes a five-match ODI series followed by three Tests, is set to get underway tomorrow with the first one-dayer in Guwahati.

Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene expressed disappointment after his team lost both matches of the two-Test series against Australia.”We had a bit more to offer than this as a team. We had a lot of talented guys in the group and unfortunately we couldn’t get all that talent together in a couple of games. That was the most disappointing factor for us,” Jayawardene said at the end of the second Test, which his team lost by 96 runs.”I felt that we had a very good bowling attack but the way we played wasn’t very consistent. We could not penetrate through the Australian top order which was very disappointing. The way we batted in the first innings of the two Test matches was also disappointing. That alone gave us a lot of problems in the whole series because we put ourselves under pressure.”Especially against a side like Australia, you want to challenge yourself and see how far you’ve come and need to improve. But looking back at the series there are a lot of areas where we definitely need to improve. We have to sit down and talk about where we need to improve and show a lot of character to get back as a group.”What we have to realise is that we played against the best team in the world right now and they were in form – all their top-order batsmen. We came across a very good side. We challenged ourselves and we tried a lot of things but the way we lost was the most disappointing factor. We just need to refocus and get ready for the three Tests against England.”Questioned whether there would be major changes in the team for the series against England, Jayawardene said: “You just can’t chop and change players because they fail in a couple of games. That won’t help us in the long run. We just have to make some sensible decisions when we go back home.”We tried a few guys and extended their periods in our line-up but no one’s actually been very consistent. We have to be a bit more patient and wait for the right people to come in. We are heading into a transitional period and we just need to make it smooth and make sure the guys who are coming are comfortable and not under pressure to perform.”Our domestic structure underneath is not that strong for them to step into international cricket straight away. You have to be with them for quite some time and give them that encouragement to come up to the standard because they are not being challenged underneath. For them to step into international cricket straight away is a huge leap. It’s a big bridge for them to leap. You have to be patient.”Sri Lanka’s next Test series is at home against England starting on December 1.

When Yuvraj Singh cracked a sensational 358 in the final of the Cooch Behar Trophy – an under-19 tournament – in 1999-2000, his father is supposed to have admonished him for not going on to make a quadruple century. He expected another call today, talking about a double-hundred, but one which came with heartfelt congratulations as well.”One hundred and sixty-nine is a lot of runs,” said Yuvraj, talking about his third Test hundred, all of which have come against Pakistan. “I should have got 200, and I am disappointed from a personal point of view that I did not. But I am delighted that Sourav and I hauled the team out of a tough situation, from 61 for 4. What is most important for me is that the team is in a good position.”It’s been nearly 18 months since Yuvraj last played in a Test and he admitted to the frustrations during the intervening period. He was also aware that he could miss out when India walk out to the park in Melbourne to take on Australia on Boxing Day. “It feels bad to sit out, but you must see how many great players we have in the middle order,” he said. “Rahul, Sachin, Laxman and Sourav all have very good Test records. Going out to bat today, I wasn’t worried about the Australia tour and whether I can secure my place in the XI. I wanted to play for the team, to help the team win the Test.”Was he hurt at being left out for so long, despite staking his claim so emphatically in the one-day arena? “I had a very bad Test series in the West Indies, and after that, the rest of the batsmen all played well,” he said. “I have myself to blame. I stayed motivated, worked hard on my game, and was determined to take my chance when it came my way again. I always knew that I could do well in Test cricket. You have time to settle down and play yourself in. To me, Test cricket is the main thing.”

Yuvraj walked in with India in a pickle. Yasir Arafat, the debutant medium-pacer, had made a mess of the top order by surprising a few with zip off the pitch. The pitch assisted him, as Arafat himself admitted, but it still required a good spell to remove three prized scalps. Hailing from Rawalpindi, he doesn’t possess the furious pace of his city-mate Shoaib Akhtar but makes up with accuracy. In fact one Pakistan newspaper recently referred to him as the [in contrast with the more speedy ].Arafat had to first come to terms with making his debut. By the first session, he was enjoying a fairytale start. “I was playing domestic cricket in Pakistan and I didn’t think I will be called up,” he said. “People consider me as an allrounder suited to one-dayers. I was surprised I got a call up. I didn’t think much about Tests. But I got a chance because of injuries. And now I’ve made a debut. The pitch was supporting the fast bowlers early on. I wanted to bowl on and outside off and got wickets because of that. But I didn’t think I’ll get such important wickets so early.”The rest of the day wasn’t as rosy. “After lunch it became a good wicket. It was playing very easy, like a good batting track. It was very frustrating for me and the team. But again, they played well. But credit to the batsmen. Yuvraj is a very talented cricketer and his innings was tremendous today.” Yuvraj might have hogged the headlines today but Arafat’s chance will come. With a name like that, headline writers will struggle to control the urge.

The immediate fate of Zimbabwe’s tour to Pakistan hangs in delicate balance following the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, an incident that has sparked violence throughout the country.Zimbabwe are due to arrive in Pakistan on January 12 and are scheduled to play two warm-up matches as well as a series of five ODIs, beginning January 26. But that schedule was thrown into doubt following yesterday’s suicide attack which killed Bhutto shortly after an election campaign rally in Rawalpindi. Since then, the main urban centres of Pakistan – including Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad – have witnessed heavy rioting and violence.Understandably, given the proximity of the incident, no decision has been taken yet. The nation is in official mourning for three days, a stance echoed by Nasim Ashraf, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). “This is a huge national tragedy and a time of mourning for the whole country. I feel it is not appropriate to talk about cricket just now. We will look at the situation in 2-3 days,” Ashraf told Cricinfo.Another senior board official said the Zimbabwe board had not been in touch yet. “Nobody from the Zimbabwe board has yet got in touch with us about the situation,” the official told Cricinfo. When asked specifically whether the tour would go ahead, he said, “As of this immediate moment, it is on. But ultimately your guess is as good as mine.”Zimbabwe play their first ODI in Hyderabad, another city particularly badly hit by a night of rioting; they are also scheduled to spend considerable time in Karachi, before playing in Multan, Faisalabad and Sheikhupura.Clouding the matter further is the fate of the general elections, which were scheduled to be held on January 8, days before the tourists arrive. In the aftermath of the assassination, there are suggestions they may be postponed. In either case, however, reports are warning that further violence in coming days may be inevitable, extending a year of already tremendous political tumult in the country.Australia, who are due to tour Pakistan in March, have adopted a wait-and-see policy. They are due to send a security delegation to the country in February, after which they will decide on the tour.

Uttar Pradesh

Round 1, v Orissa in Cuttack

ScorecardSeamer Sudeep Tyagi made a golden debut as he had dismissed half the Orissa side by lunch. He followed-up the three wickets in the first session with three more as UP bowled Orissa out for 216. From 35 for 3, Suresh Raina revived UP with a blinder – a big one at that, 203 off 201 balls – and UP had attained a huge lead with lots of time to spare. Tyagi continued the dream debut with four more wickets in the second innings, as UP won by an innings and 10 runs.Points at the end of the round: 6Round 2, v Andhra in Anantapur

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With Praveen Kumar reinforcing their attack, UP had Punjab at 17 for 3. But Uday Kaul, Pankaj Dharmani and Ravi Inder came up with good rearguard knocks that took them to 381. Raina made another whirlwind century – 123 off 130 balls, Kaif made a quick half-century, but the rest of the batsmen failed again. In a tense battle, which included a 17-run last-wicket partnership between Kumar and Tyagi, UP fell short by six runs. Chasing 358 in less than two sessions, UP gave it a shot but it was too tall an order and had to settle for a draw.Points at the end of the round: 8Round 4, v Baroda in Lucknow

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The first complete failure for Tyagi as Baroda get a challenging total of 334, despite none of their batsmen going on to make a hundred. Their batting failed again, as Yusuf Pathan took five wickets to get Baroda a 125-run first-innings lead. The spin twins, Piyush Chawla and Praveen Gupta, took charge in the second innings, sharing nine wickets between them, bowling Baroda out for 148 and bringing UP back into the contest. When it came down to chasing 274 on a turning track, the UP batting wasn’t up to it and despite a 40-run last-wicket stand, fell short by 48 runs.Points at the end of the round: 8Round 6, v Bengal in Kolkata

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Fighting to avoid relegation, they went to Kolkata but were helped by the fact that Bengal, too, needed an outright win desperately. The track was sporting and the UP medium-pacers immediately got into the act. Praveen Kumar, debutant Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Piyush Chawla got three wickets apiece to bowl Bengal out in two sessions. UP batted big, five of them got half-centuries, as they batted Bengal out of the game with a 355-run first-innings lead. Tyagi and Gupta combined to bowl Bengal out cheaply again and secure UP the momentum they would take with them into the knockouts.Points at the end of the round: 14Round 7, v Hyderabad in Hyderabad

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If they didn’t keep their eye on other matches, they would want to come out of the match with an outright win. Batting first, half-centuries from Tanmay Srivastava, Piyush Chawla and Amir Khan took UP to a total in excess of 300 to enable the bowlers to do their thing. Chawla and Gupta took four each and Hyderabad just about avoided the follow-on. Kaif scored an unbeaten century to set Hyderabad an imposing target of 438, and despite a blistering century by Ravi Teja, Praveen Kumar proved to be too good for Hyderabad, and UP threw out all permutations and combinations to finish as group leaders.Points at the end of the round: 19Semi-final, v Saurashtra in Vadodara
The liveliest wicket they had played on so far had them seven-down by lunch on day one. Kaif scored 81 on a tough wicket to get UP to 188, which would prove to be a big total. Before stumps on day one, Tyagi, Praveen Kumar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar had taken eight Saurashtra wickets and it was clear the match wouldn’t run even half its stipulated duration. On the second day, UP were bowled out for 100, but the 162-run target proved too much for Saurashtra as Praveen Kumar and Tyagi took four wickets each to take UP to the final.

Delhi

Round 1, v Rajasthan in Delhi

ScorecardOn a Manic Monday in Delhi, 20 wickets fell as Delhi were bowled out for 119 and still held a first-innings lead of 34. The medium-pacers all contributed after what seemed a start to another ordinary season for Delhi. Virat Kohli and Mithun Manhas scored centuries in the second innings to set Rajasthan an improbable target of 422. Although the bowlers weren’t as emphatic as in the first innings, they did the job to give Delhi a comfortable win.Points at the end of the round: 5Round 2, v Saurashtra in Delhi

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On the first day, Pradeep Sangwan and Sharma took three wickets each to run through the Mumbai batting before Gautam Gambhir scored 89 to secure a first-innings lead for Delhi on a wicket that became easier and easier as the match went on. Sahil Kukreja scored 199 for Mumbai to give them a bit more than a day to bowl Delhi out, but Delhi had too much class in their ranks for that to happen. During the 188-run opening stand between Gambhir and Chopra, it even seemed Delhi might just reach the improbable target of 387. Two wickets in two balls – those of Chopra and Virender Sehwag – and another in the next over laid those notions to rest, and Delhi played out a comfortable draw.Points at the end of the round: 11Round 4, v Himachal Pradesh in Dharamsala

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First a surprise, then a stunner. Himachal scored 343 after being down at 154 for 5, but that was just a thunderstorm when compared to the hurricane that would hit Delhi. In 23.3 overs, a line-up boasting of Gambhir, Chopra, Virender Sehwag and Manhas, was bowled out for 75 runs. Following on, though, Delhi made amends, riding on a double century by Chopra and a century by Gambhir to give Himachal 215 to win. Soon, Sharma wreaked havoc, as Delhi took out five Himachal batsmen in 16.5 overs, but Himachal hung on for the next 18 overs to enforce a draw.Points at the end of the round: 12Round 5, v Maharashtra in Nagothane

ScorecardPlaying the then group leaders Maharashtra, Delhi came up with a professional performance, bowling them out for 219 on the first day. Rajat Bhatia was the chief destructor with his first five-wicket haul in first-class cricket. Bhatia wasn’t done yet as he scored a century to ensure Delhi a 190-run lead on a tricky track. When it looked like Maharashtra might set them a testing target on the last day, Parvinder Awana struck with a hat-trick and turned the match in Delhi’s favour, who lost three wickets in chasing the 51-run target.Points at the end of the round: 17Round 6, v Karnataka in Bangalore
Karnataka 0 for 0 drew with Delhi 538 (Dhawan 148, Kohli 169, Manhas 124)
Scorecard More frustration for Delhi, but this time of the weather’s making, after Kohli, Dhawan and Manhas scored centuries to dominate Karnataka. But as the other contenders in the group moved closer, rain ensured there was little play over the least two days, robbing Delhi of the chance to go for the kill. They had to contend with one point, amid forecasts that it might rain in Chennai, the venue of their last league match, too.Points at the end of the round: 18Round 7, v Tamil Nadu in Chennai

ScorecardWith what had happened in the other matches, a draw would have been good enough for Delhi to ensure a place in the semi-finals, but they did it in comprehensive style. After bowling Tamil Nadu out for 268, the batsmen all contributed in Delhi getting a 70-run first-innings lead. Gambhir scored a fluent 87 and Chopra and Dhawan chipped in with handy half-centuries too. Chetanya Nanda got into the act in the second innings and took five wickets to dismiss Tamil Nadu cheaply and Delhi got the required 105 runs easily.Points at the end of the round: 23Semi-final, v Baroda in Indore

ScorecardWith Pradeep Sangwan and Virat Kohli gone to the India Under-19 side playing in South Africa, and Ishant Sharma representing the India senior side in Australia, the biggest challenge for Delhi was to get the pace attack in order. Amit Bhandari and Sumit Narwal, a former Haryana player, responded to the call and took four wickets apiece to bowl Baroda out for 199. Before the end of the first day, Delhi were out down at 5 for 3 themselves, but Mithun Manhas and Aditya Jain helped them recover. Manhas fell short of what would have been his third century of the season, but ensured Delhi got a 72-run first-innings lead.A solid innings by Rakesh Solanki and a whirlwind 113 off 81 balls by Yusuf Pathan set Delhi a challenging target, and Baroda looked like scripting yet another comeback from a first-innings deficit. A chase of 271 was going to be a tricky one, but Gambhir chose to get there in a dismissive fashion. Gambhir scored 132 off 179 balls as Delhi coasted, despite the absence of Chopra was in the hospital following a nausea attack.