Thanks to a 96 run fourth wicket partnership between opener N Ranjan(53) and Sunil Kumar (77), Bihar made an excellent recovery but endedthe opening day in a spot of bother at 190 for 6 in their East ZoneRanji Trophy match against Orissa at the Keenan Stadium in Jamshedpuron Sunday.Put into bat, Bihar were pegged on the back foot by the dismissal ofopener Javed Khan (5) caught by skipper Parida off A Barrick in the12th over of the day. Then with the score on 32, Debasish Mohanty sentback skipper Rajiv Kumar (7) caught by Y Mohanty. Bihar were infurther trouble when the first change bowler Jai Chandra had T Rehman(8).This brought in Sunil Kumar who arrested the slide in the company ofRanjan with some sedate batting. By the time he departed, Ranjan hadbeen in the centre for 288 minutes and faced 201 balls and managed tofind the boundary ropes 7 times. Sunil then took the score on to 179when he was bowled by Barrick. Three balls later, A Hashmi (17) fellfor a catch to Jai Chandra off Mohanty. At stumps keeper MS Dhoni (8)and Vikash Kumar were at the crease.

Outplaying their opponents in all departments of the game, Uttar Pradeshdefeated Vidarbha by an innings and 175 runs, 24 minutes before lunch on thefourth and final day of the Central Zone Ranji Trophy league match at the VCAstadium in Nagpur on Sunday.Vidarbha, who resumed at 109 for three, were all out for for 222 in 58 overs,enabling UP to gain eight points from the match.Debutant Harshal Shitoot top scored with 44. D Sharma (30) and P Gandhe (31)gave him able support, but in vain. UP skipper Gynendra Pande with five for 49was the wrecker-in-chief. He was well supported by Salabh Srivastava (4 for 90).

Bat again dominated ball on the second day at West End where Hampshirefinished the day 92 for one from 42 overs in response to the Sussex firstinnings total of 500 for seven declared.As on the opening day, it was the Zimbabwean batsman Murray Goodwin who provided the impetus with a career-best score of 195 made in a patient eight hours 41 minutes.Goodwin, who was 132 overnight, found a willing partner in nightwatchman JamesKirtley who helped him add 100 for the fifth wicket against a depletedHampshire attack. Overseas all-rounder Neil Johnson was unable to bowl andEngland’s Alan Mullally retired from the fray with a slight groin strainafter a few overs in the morning session.Goodwin’s vigil came to an end at 390 when he fell leg before attempting to sweep occasional bowler Giles White. His innings included 20 fours mainly off the backfoot or punched square on the offside and came off 421 balls.Sussex acclerated during the afternoon session thanks to a stand of 79 between Umer Rashid and Robin Martin-Jenkins who was 56 not out at the declaration from 81 balls.Hampshire, after a day and a half in the field, needed 351 just to avoid the follow-on. But Giles White and Derek Kenway made a confident response in an opening stand of 59, ended when Kenway was lbw only half-forward to Martin Jenkins – and with White 45 not out at the close, Hampshire were moving towards safety.

For the third consecutive day Gloucestershire held the upper hand in theirChampionship match against Notts at Trent Bridge.After Mark Alleyne set the home side an improbable victory target of 472 hesaw his bowlers make immediate inroads, picking up three wickets beforeclose of play.With just the fourth ball of the innings Guy Welton drove wildly at JamesAveris and smeared the ball to gully, where Jeremy Snape took a good, lowcatch – a duck to add to Welton’s poor recent run of form.Darren Bicknell and Greg Blewett looked to have seized the initiative backtowards the batamen as they added 36 but then, for the second time in thematch, the Australian tried to crash Averis through the covers and wassmartly taken by a jubilant Jack Russell behind the stumps.David Lucas came out to bat as a nightwatchman, having made a competent 41in the first innings, but before he’d faced a ball Bicknell had been trappedlbw on the back foot by Michael CawdronThe day ended as it began with Lucas and Usman Afzaal together at the creaseand Notts in crisis.When Gloucestershire had batted for a second time Kim Barnett (45) and Dominic Hewson(51) put on 81 for the first wicket and then Matt Windows with 73, Chris Taylor (19), Mark Alleyne (17), Jeremy Snape(16) all made useful contributions as the home bowlers laboured.The declaration eventually came at 265-5 as Martyn Ball (22no) and JeremySnape (21no) were trying to outgun each other in an entertaining and rapidstand of 30.For Notts Gareth Clough (3/69) and Creg Blewett (2/20) shared the wickets inan otherwise disappointing bowling performance.During the morning session Usman Afzaal was the final man out, for 88, asNotts were dismissed for 267. Gloucestershire, with a first innings lead of 206,elected not to enforce the follow-on and batting for a second time theystretched their advantage to 471.Notts will have to bat significantly better on the final day and still hope for intervention from the weather if they are to have any chance of avoiding a heavy defeat.

The Indian cricket team’s participation in the three-match limitedovers series against Australia in September was yet to be approved bythe Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).BCCI secretary JY Lele, who was in Mumbai on his way to Chennai, toldPTI that a decision whether to accept the invitation from theAustrailan Cricket Board (ACB) to play would be taken at the Board’sworking committee meeting to be held in the third week of July."We had asked for a change in the dates from the ACB as they clashedwith the Asian Test championship tie with Pakistan from September13-17 and the ACB has acceded to our request," he said. "However,the final decision whether to send a team for the series rests withthe working committee+, Lele said.The ACB announced from Australia yesterday that the three matchesagainst India will be held on September 21 and 23 (Colonial IndoorStadium in Melbourne) and September 26 at the Gabba in Brisbane.

National Cricket Academy XI completed a second trouncing in successivedays of the Combined Zonal Academy team at the RSI Ground in Bangaloreon Wednesday. NCA’s 115 run victory was built around a rollickingcentury by opener Deep Dasgupta, ably supported by lusty efforts fromGnaneswara Rao and Ishan Ganda. In a game that was reduced to 45 oversa side due to overnight rain, NCA piled up 303/5 and then rolled overtheir opponents for 188.NCA skipper Ajay Ratra won the toss and elected to take first strike,opening the batting himself with his fellow stumper Dasgupta. Ratra -playing as a specialist batsman – fell to Mihir Diwakar for 22 butDasgupta and Rao (67) proceeded to compile a 134 run second wicketpartnership. Dasgupta, who was among the probables for the Zimbabwetour, hoisted a 98 ball ton, advancing to 122 off 115 balls, before hebecame spinner Abhishek Sharma’s second victim. A late onslaught fromGanda who belted an unbeaten 66 off just 48 balls saw NCA top the 300run mark. Neither Gautam Gambhir nor Gulzar Inder Singh who put on a204 run opening stand for NCA on Tuesday got to bat. Sharma was by farthe best bowler on view with 3/40 in nine overs.The Combined XI never appeared remotely in the hunt, offering only afew pockets of resistance in the form of opener SM Dholpure’s 57 andAmbati Rayudu’s 43. Stuart Binny smacked three sixes in his 28 beforebeing ninth out and the game meandered to its desultory end shortlyafterwards. Six bowlers shared the wickets for the victors withManinder Singh, SG Yadav, Mulewa Dharmichand and Ishan Ganda scalpingtwo apiece.

The National Squad is taking the service of two pace bowlers from Bangladesh-A for their net sessions in BKSP and Dhaka. Monir from Surjatarun Club and Tareq Aziz from Dhanmondi Club are practicing with the Bangladesh team without a break.It happened when Mohammed Sharif got himself injured and had to take some days off. The team felt that they are lacking enough pace bowlers for batting practice. So, they went for Monir and Tareq Aziz to help them out.Sharif is still out of the field, therefore, the pace duo is still with the team.Monir’s domestic performance was good enough to get him a call from Bangladesh-A. He captured 22 wickets from 11 matches in Premier Division 2000-2001. A tall and lanky Monir acted as a new ball operator for Surjatarun Club with Ahmed Kamal at the other end. He is going to have a training tour in Australia in October 2001. Wayne Philips, the present coach of Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy of Australia, will guide a five-member team where Monir is the only fast bowler. Two of them are from Bangladesh-A and the rest are members of Under-19.Tareq Aziz could not play that well in the Premier League, yet he was called in for the A-team. Alike Monir he is a pace bowler who used to open for Dhanmondi Club.The practice sessions with the national side is tough but very exciting, they acknowledged." It is really thrilling to have Trevor Chappell just behind when you are bowling in nets. Besides, we are bowling against the best batsmen of the country, which is helping a lot to reveal the weaknesses we have," they said.The 29-member Bangladesh-A team run their practice in BKSP, four days a weak under coach Dipu Roy Chowdhury and Golam Farooq Suru.

Shrugging off a poor start, Chemplast, Chennai completed a five wicketvictory over Roofit XI, Mumbai to win the Coromandel Cement Cup in theKSCA Diamond Jubilee invitation tournament at the MaharajaJayachamdaraja Wodayar Sports Centre in Bangalore on Wednesday.Roofit XI, who were 143 for eight in their second innings at close ofplay on the second day after gaining a first innings lead of 13 runswere all out without adding any run. Left arm spinner R Ramkumar tookboth wickets to finish with three for 24 off 6.4 overs.This left Chemplast a target of 157 in the allotted 40 overs. But theymade a a shocking start. Sujith Somasundar (2), S Badrinath (3) andAditya Srikkanth (0) were out with only 27 runs on the board. Howeverthe other opener Jinju Joseph and skipper Ajay Kudua put the inningsback on the rails with a fourth wicket stand of 91 runs off 19.3overs. By the time Joseph was out for 61 off 84 balls with seven hitsto the ropes, Chemplast were well on the road to victory. Kudua and JHariesh (29 not out) then virtually finished the job but with thescores level, Kudua was out for 54. He faced 74 balls and hit sixfours. Off the next ball, Hariesh got the winning boundary.

New Zealand will host cricket’s under-19 World Cup in January, 2002New Zealand Cricket said in Wellington on Monday.Sixteen teams – three to be determined in qualifying tournaments -will compete, with pool matches to be played at Christchurch andDunedin on the South Island and at Auckland on the North Island.The final will be played at Christchurch. India is the defendingchampion.The teams:Pool I (Auckland): India, South Africa, Bangladesh and Americasqualifier.Pool II (Christchurch): Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Zimbabwe and Namibia.Pool III (Christchurch): Pakistan, England and Asia qualifier, EastAsia-Pacific qualifier.Pool IV (Dunedin): Australia, West Indies, Scotland and Kenya.

BRISBANE – A knee injury has sidelined former Australian fast bowler ScottMuller for a month and he will miss Queensland’s opening trial game of thecoming cricket season.The Bulls will be back in action early next month in a City versus Countrytwo-day trial in Biloela, 350km north-west of Brisbane.International players Michael Kasprowicz (City) and Wade Seccombe (Country)will captain the respective teams for the match on September 8-9.But injury has forced Muller to postpone his planned comeback in the match,after undergoing minor surgery this week.Muller, who had knee surgery last season, was forced to have an arthroscopyon his “good” knee which was expected to sideline him for at least fourweeks.”It’s bad luck for Scott as he had made a successful return to bowling andwas beginning his pre-season build-up with us,” Bulls coach Bennett Kingsaid today.”Hopefully this setback will only be a brief one for him and he can get backinto the swing of things for the start of the season.”While Muller was not considered, fellow quick Ashley Noffke has been namedto make his return from the ankle injury that cut short his Ashes tour afterhe was called into the Australian squad to replace Nathan Bracken.Queensland’s other Ashes tourist, Test opener Matthew Hayden, will have abreak following his return home to Brisbane today.Bulls skipper Stuart Law, Martin Love, Jimmy Maher, Andy Bichel and AndrewSymonds are still in England playing county cricket and return home inmid-September.The trial teams contain several members of the Queensland Under-19 team thatwon the national championships last season as well as Cairns-basedAustralian Aboriginal Youth pace bowler Barry Weare and Townsville batsmanBrett Wightman.Both teams will boast a leg-spinner in their ranks – Beenleigh teenager LukeDavis, a member of the Queensland Under-17 and Under-19 teams last seasonfor City and Ingham-born Greg Chiesa, who recently attended the ACB SpinnersCamp at the Cricket Academy, for Country.CITY: Michael Kasprowicz (c), Ryan Broad, Jerry Cassell, Adam Dale, LukeDavis, Chris Hartley, James Hopes, Nick Kruger, Daniel Payne, MatthewPetrie, Craig Philipson, Nathan Rimmington.COUNTRY: Wade Seccombe (c), Greg Chiesa, Joe Dawes, Nathan Hauritz, MitchellJohnson, Lance Kahler, Damien Mackenzie, Brendan Nash, Ashley Noffke,Michael Sippel, Barry Weare, Brett Wightman.