March 25, 2001
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The second (day-night) one-day international between Sri Lanka and England will be played today at the Premadasa Stadium, Colombo. The visitors, after tasting success in the Test series will be hoping to get even with the hosts in the shorter version of the game. Acting skipper Graham Thorpe will be looking to raise the team's morale and performance in the absence of skipper Nasser Hussain. Thorpe was made captain for the one-day series after Alec Stewart turned down the offer of captaincy saying he already had two important roles to play as keeper and opening batsman. Sri Lanka's star bowler Muthiah Muralitharan has been fined and handed out a three-match suspension following a show of dissent in the first one-day international against England at Dambulla. The Indian ICC match referee Hanumant Singh has also fined the bowler 65 percent of his match fee and handed out a suspended ban for two one-day matches and one Test match. The action followed when Muralitharan kicking the air after an lbw appeal was turned down. Interestingly, Muralitharan (4-29) won the man of the match in the first one-dayer, while his team won by five wickets. The England opener Michael Atherton who returned home after the Test series in Sri Lanka has blamed the ICC for the decline in umpiring standards. He said the game because of its popularity is able to generate so much of money and felt therefore the ICC is obliged to do something about the standards of umpiring. Atherton will take a break before gearing up for the Ashes series.  After being set for an exciting finish Pakistan's three day match against Wellington ended in a tame draw. The home team made 340-7 in the second innings and Pakistani youngsters Faisal Iqbal (82), Misbah ul Haq (51) and Humayun Farhat (74) held the batting together till the very end. The third and final Test match begins at Hamilton on March 27, with Pakistan leading the series one-nil. Australia and India clash again today, this time in the one-day internationals. For the first one-day international match at Bangalore, a day-night affair, Australia will be looking to the fresh faces of Ian Harvey, Michael Bevan, Darren Lehman, Andrew Symonds, Nathan Bracken, and also Shane Lee to lift their team performances after the Test series defeat. The skipper of New South Wales all-rounder Shane Lee will replace Jason Gillespie in the one-day internationals in India. It was decided to give Gillespie sufficient rest before Australia fly to England for the crucial Ashes series. Pace bowler Michael Kasprowicz will also return.
In a surprise move South African skipper Shaun Pollock who was to be rested for the three-day game at Bridgetown, led the side against a strong West Indies Cricket Board XI that began yesterday. Mark Boucher was expected to lead the side while Pollock rested. Opening batsman Boeta Dippenaar, fast bowler Andre Nel and all-rounder Justin Kemp who have not yet appeared in a match during this tour have been included in the side. At stumps South Africa were dismissed for 271 and with hosts reaching 17 for no wicket. The visitors were helped by scores of 81 from Pollock, and 58 from Neil McKenzie. Pace bowler Colin Stuart took 4-57 for the home team. The memorial service for the Australian Legend Donald Bradman will be held this evening exactly one month after he passed away. The service will be held at St Peter's Cathedral, Adelaide at 7 pm (local time). It will be presided over by the Archbishop of Adelaide, Reverend Ian George. It is estimated that about 650 guests from all over the world will attend, including the Governor-General of Australia, Sir William Deane, the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, South Australian premier John Olsen and former state premier John Bannon. Five members of that famous team of 1948 are also scheduled to attend. Former India captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, along with his wife, will represent India and the BCCI at the memorial service. Test cricket's prolific wicket taker West Indian paceman Courtney Walsh may retire from Test cricket at the end of the ongoing series against the touring South Africans. However Walsh made it clear that his priority is to help his team won the five-match Test series. After finishing the first match at Georgetown on an even note, the home side had lost the second by 69 runs at Port of Spain. Leg-spinner Narendra Hirwani, who was a part of the Indian team, although not in the playing eleven, for the first and second Test matches at Mumbai and Kolkata, created a furore at Gwalior, where his team Madhya Pradesh was playing Orissa in the quarter-final of the Ranji Trophy. During the course of the match, on the third day, a journalist, Sanjay Tripathi, jokingly asked Hirwani, who was then fielding in the third man boundary area as to whether the wicket was taking spin? This happened when the bowler had been just hammered for a six and a four by Orissa's Pravanjan Mullick in the previous over. Immediately the leg-spinner retorted by abusing the journalist. Hirwani, then along with team-mate Jai Prakash Yadav, went into the press box and man-handled Tripathi by unleashing a few blows on his body. The other journalists covering the match initially wanted to boycott the coverage of this match but decided against it after Chandrakant Pandit, the Madhya Pradesh skipper, apologised on Hirwani's and Yadav's behalf. It would be interesting to see what action will the BCCI take against these players. RANJI TROPHY ROUND UP Mumbai vs Punjab 1st quarter-final at Mumbai (5th day and final) Punjab: 383 (Ankur Kakkar 46, Pankaj Dharmani 68, Yuvraj Singh 135, Reetinder Sodhi 46; Paras Mhambrey 5-77, RV Pwar 3-115) 322 (RS Ricky 55, Manish Sharma 93, P Dharmani 73 not out, Yuvraj Singh 33; RV Pawar 6-109) Mumbai: 285 (V Mane 97, Jatin Paranjpe 68, AA Muzumdar 48; Gagandeep Singh 3-51, RS Sodhi 3-63). 213 (V Mane 56, W Jaffer 51, J Paranjpe 59; Sarandeep Singh 6-38) Result: Punjab won by 207 runs to enter the semi-finals. Punjab handed Mumbai, the reigning Ranji Trophy champions, its 13th out-right defeat. Mumbai playing its 353rd Ranji match since 1934-35 has now lost 'out-right' to all the top three North Zone teams - Punjab, Delhi and Haryana (twice). The list below provides the 13 defeats for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy.
Baroda vs Tamil Nadu 2nd quarter-final at Baroda (3rd day) Baroda: 324 (SS Parab 110, J Martin 34, Ajit Bhoite 78t; MR Srinivas 4-80, AR Kapoor 4- 64) 184 (CC Williams 47, NR Mongia 61 not out, RB Patel 39; AR Kapoor 7-59) Tamil Nadu: 185 (S Sriram 51, S Badrinath 38; Valmik Buch 6-54) 50-3 (S Sriram 25, C Hemant Kumar 18 not out, T Kumaran 3 not out: AP Bhoite 2 -2) Tamil Nadu need 324 to win on the final day. Madhya Pradesh vs Orissa 3rd quarter-final at Gwalior (3rd day) MP:437 (HS Sodhi 57, DS Bundela 78; Jai P Yadav 64, Rajesh Chauhan 36, Y Golwalkar 41 not out; P Mullick 3-45) Orissa:369-5(Suresh Kumar 35, RR Parida 159 not out; SS Raul 40, P Mullick 51, P Jaichandra 35 not out) Orissa need 68 runs with five wickets to take the vital first innings lead Railways vs Karnataka 4th quarter-final at Delhi (3rd day) Railways: 451 (Sanjay Bangar 46, TP Singh 80, SN Khanolkar 64, Santosh Sahu 122, KS Parida 48; SK Vadiaraj 4-94, Vijay Bharadwaj 3-44). 106-0 (Sanjay Bangar 53 not out, Amit Pagnis 47 not out) Karnataka: 237 (J Arun Kumar 55, BR Rowland 35, VST Naidu 46; TP Singh 4-64, KS Parida 4-62)  Yesterday's News
Compiled by: Mohandas Menon
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