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Australia would have employed similar stalling tactics to England’s final-wicket pairing in Cardiff had they been the team fighting for a draw, according to Nathan Hauritz. As Australia pressed for victory and England scrambled to save the match, the hosts sent 12th man Bilal Shafayat, and physiotherapist Steve McCaig out to the centre in the 102nd and 103rd overs in an apparent time-wasting tactic described by Ricky Ponting as “pretty ordinary”.Ponting suggested Jeff Crowe, the ICC match referee, should review England’s final session tactics, however umpires Aleem Dar and Billy Doctrove have effectively ended the matter by not filing a code of conduct report. Hauritz, the Australian spinner, also sought to defuse the situation by stating that he would also have attempted to delay proceedings had he been in a similar situation to Anderson and Panesar.”I wouldn’t be facing up as quickly every ball,” Hauritz said. “It’s an extremely nervous situation and that one wicket determines the 1-0 or 0-0 scoreline. They did their job. If I’m in that situation and I call for gloves, they won’t care.”Hauritz did not feel England breached the spirit of cricket guidelines. “Definitely not,” he said. “At the end of the day they had to last, to survive for the last 60-odd balls and they faced out the overs. People could say we were rushing through our overs to get more at them. So I don’t think anything has been made out of it by us, it’s dead and buried.”There were a couple of heated exchanges on the final day, which started with Kevin Pietersen and Mitchell Johnson having a run-in during the warm-up. Stuart Broad, the England batsman, also bumped shoulders with Peter Siddle during the afternoon and there were more verbal exchanges between Ponting and Shafayat over his running out of batting gloves to Anderson and Panesar.”I think it’s fantastic,” Hauritz said of the intensity of the first Test. “In 2005, Australia said they were too chummy with the English at times, and people said the English got under our skins. I think it’s fantastic for the game to see the battle on the field. You’re going out there to win the urn and it’s an amazing adrenalin rush when you’re in front of the crowd. It’s great for the game. Those battles will continue through the series.”Michael Hussey, meanwhile, was undecided when asked whether he would have resorted to time-wasting tactics if placed in a similar situation to that which England found themselves on Sunday. “I hope not … but strange things happen under pressure and in intense situations,” Hussey said. “It’s one of those things that just happens. At the start of an Ashes series, under immense pressure, certain things happen. From our point of view I think it’s important we don’t worry about it anymore; put it behind us and focus on Lord’s.”England’s chairman of selectors, Geoff Miller, on Monday launched a staunch defence of the spirit in which his team contested the first Test in Cardiff. “It wasn’t a time waste at all,” Miller said. “The overs situation was very difficult to actually work, so we had to keep delivering messages to our batters to let them know how long they were going to have to bat out there. Our discipline over the last two or three years has been fantastic. We’ve got a very good record from the ICC and we don’t work along those lines at all. We just had to make sure that our batsmen knew what the job at hand was and consequently the messages went out.”It’s an international match. We’re talking about Test cricket here. It was a very hard, strong match. We had to make sure that the batsmen knew excactly what the job at hand was. I have the greatest respect for Ricky Ponting as a player and every aspect. He knows it’s a tough Ashes series.”

Innings of the dayIt really speaks volumes for the quality of Tillakaratne Dilshan’s performances that today’s masterclass was arguably the most frill-free innings he has produced thus far in the tournament. The scoop shot barely needed to be unfurled – the closest he got was the over-the-shoulder dispatching of a Jerome Taylor full-toss – because his touch was so magisterial that regulation cricket shots were all he needed. West Indies fed him far too many full-tosses, but the glee with which he dispatched the lot revealed a cricketer whose stock has never been higher. By the time he had cracked 96 not out from 57 balls in a total of 158, he briefly held the record for the highest percentage of a team’s runs in any Twenty20 international …Over of the dayIn the build-up to this contest, all the focus had been on the threat posed by Sri Lanka’s three M’s – Muralitharan, Mendis and Malinga, a trio of the most unorthodox cricketers imaginable. Nobody thought to mention the fourth M, Angelo Mathews, but today he was the destroyer, and the weapon he used was his normality. Facing line and length with a hint of assistance off the pitch, first Xavier Marshall, then Lendl Simmons and finally Dwayne Bravo all found differing methods to deflect the ball onto their stumps. Marshall and Bravo favoured the inside-edge, Simmons chose an assist from the thigh-guard. All Chris Gayle could do was stand at the far end and gawp – he might reflect that the single he took from the first ball of the run-chase was the most misjudged he’d ever taken in his life.Defiance of the daySo much rested on the shoulders of Gayle. Not least after that devastating opening salvo. But he bore the burden with as much sang froid as he could he could muster – and that’s saying something for a man quite as cool as he. For his first 15 deliveries, which spread deep into the fourth over, he was as stunned as his team-mates – so nearly playing on to Isuru Udana, and finding the boundary twice through thick edges. But by the end of a sorry performance from his team-mates, Gayle had carried his bat as the only man to reach double figures in the innings, and one of only two men to reach the boundary as well. And surpassed Dilshan’s peculiar record to boot.Stodge of the daySanath Jayasuriya might still have an innings up his sleeve for the final, but with a week to go until his 40th birthday, something undoubtedly wearied him today. His 24 from 34 balls was a fussy, fidgety, uncharacteristic affair, totally removed from his revolutionary style of yesteryear. He changed his bat on four or five occasions, seemingly incapable of finding one with a middle, and when he eventually fell in the 11th over, scooping limply to Jerome Taylor at short fine leg, he had faced 23 dot-balls from 37 deliveries. The rest of Sri Lanka’s batsmen faced 27 from 83 between them. And Dilshan faced only 15.Hiccup of the dayIf Jayasuriya’s departure was greeted with uncharacteristic relief by Sri Lanka’s fans, then what followed immediately afterwards filled them with dismay. Kumar Sangakkara played out a solitary dot-ball before rifling his second delivery into the covers where he was superbly caught by Kieron Pollard on the point boundary. Then, in the very next over and with three singles and a wide added to the total, Mahela Jayawardene also fell, this time to a casual clip off the pads. Three wickets had tumbled for four runs in seven balls. Sri Lanka’s engine-room had been disassembled with remarkable haste.Commitment of the dayEvery run counts in Twenty20, especially when Gayle’s at the crease. And so Chamara Silva produced Sri Lanka’s second stunning innovation in the outfield, to all but save a certain boundary. When these two teams met in the group stages at Trent Bridge, Angelo Mathews had rescued a six from Ramnaresh Sarwan by patting the ball back into play while leaping in mid-air. This time it was all about the groundwork as Silva slid round beneath the scoreboard, kicked out a boot as he crashed into the rope, then in a bunny-hop movement, slapped the ball with his fingertips as he threw himself back into play. A four was given in the end, but not through lack of effort.Stand-in of the dayIn consecutive innings at the top of West Indies’ order, Andre Fletcher made a second-ball duck against India, a fifth-ball duck against South Africa, and a third-ball duck against England. Today, apparently, he didn’t make the starting line-up. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to tell for sure. Apparently Marshall stood in as his replacement, but whoever it was, he came and went for a first-ball duck, bowled by Mathews to spark that manic first over. Thanks for coming.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
Hello, is it me you’re looking for? Charl Langeveldt struck with his first ball of the IPL•Associated Press

The much-ridiculed underdogs of this year, Kolkata Knight Riders, have ended the tournament for the original underdogs, but not before they almost made a mess of the chase. Laxmi Shukla was the saviour for Kolkata, after they had stumbled to 45 for 6 in 11.3 overs. They had Charl Langeveldt to thank as well for pinning down Rajasthan Royals, and his 3 for 15 exposed Kolkata’s blunder of not playing him throughout the tournament.The lesson to learn was not to write off Rajasthan till the end. Not even when they are defending just 101 in a must-win game. At the half-way mark, after a frenzied innings during which they added just 79 to the 22 they got from the first over, the tournament seemed all over for Rajasthan. One final twist remained.Even that seemed to be flattening out soon after Brendon McCullum hit two boundaries off the first two balls of the chase. The final figures of Munaf Patel after those two fours, 4-0-14-2, epitomised the comeback.Munaf got Sourav Ganguly in that first over, and Amit Singh sent back McCullum with the first ball he bowled from the other end. That was the piece of fortune Rajasthan needed, as the half-tracker rose only as high as McCullum’s knees. On a cracking pitch, Shane Warne’s innovative field placings, and smart bowling by his bowlers worked superbly after that. Even Brad Hodge and David Hussey, the pair who was key during Kolkata’s chase of 189 against Chennai Super Kings, found it extremely difficult to score.Naman Ojha did superbly to dismiss Brad Hodge, who looked to run after dropping Johan Botha’s first delivery at his feet. He had barely taken a step, but couldn’t make his way back. More pressure and smart bowling followed. Botha and Warne followed the first seven-over spell of 30 runs by the medium-pacers with a five-over spell of 17. And wickets fell consistently throughout.Hussey got a top-edge thanks to Botha’s extra bounce, and Shoaib Shaikh ran himself out. But when Shukla, was dropped on 6 off a Warne flipper by Ojha, the final turnaround started.Shukla batted sensibly, choosing well when to go bog, and when to accumulate. He knew he needed only two or three big hits, which would be enough to set the cat among the pigeons. His first break came when he went after Warne in the 13th over, and cleared the wide long-on boundary easily.

His next assault came in Ravindra Jadeja’s second over, the 16th of the innings. Shukla went over extra cover first ball, and managed three more couples through that over. It was indeed a tough match for Jadeja, who was involved in two run-outs, failed to make up for those run-outs, and then bowled one over too many.Shukla’s turnaround finished as it started, with some luck from behind the wicket, as Ojha missed on two run-out opportunities as Shukla and Ajit Agarkar stole two byes in the 19th and 20th overs, with five and four still required respectively.Spare a thought for Ojha, though. Apart from that brilliant run-out of Hodge’s earlier in the piece, Ojha had got Rajasthan off to the best start a team could have imagined. It was Hodge who suffered at his hands then too. He slogged and lofted Hodge’s first over to take 22, the most expensive first over of the tournament. But as he had Shukla to spoil his good work in the second innings, there was Langeveldt in the first.How fitting it was that when Langeveldt finally got a game he was not given the first over. But the first ball Langeveldt bowled was a bouncer that hurried Rob Quiney up, got the top edge and nestled in wicketkeeper Shoaib Shaikh’s gloves. The extra pace and bounce was obvious and the away movement lethal. In his next over, Langeveldt removed Ojha, with one that kicked off from just back of a length, and moved away too. In between these two strikes, Swapnil Asnodkar ran himself out when going for a single. From 22 for no loss, Rajasthan had slid to 28 for 3 in 15 balls.Kolkata then hustled Rajasthan with quick bowling and athletic fielding. When Langeveldt came back to remove Niraj Patel’s wicket, Rajasthan had stumbled to 62 for 5 at the half-way stage. Two disastrous run-outs followed. When Yusuf Pathan dug a yorker out, Jadeja called him for one, then realised the ball had traveled too fast towards Shukla, the bowler. Jadeja didn’t go through, and the most dangerous batsman in the team was left stranded. Jadeja’s face told a story of guilt. Three balls later, when Jadeja called Tyron Henderson for a quick single, he found to his horror that Henderson was too slow, and that Hussey had hit the stumps direct.None of Dinda, Agarkar, Sourav Sarkar or Shukla provided Rajasthan any respite later, and the last 3.4 overs got Rajasthan only nine runs. The last over, from Agarkar, went for 21 less than the first.

Division One

A trademark shot during Phillip Hughes’ third hundred in four innings for Middlesex in the Division Two clash against Surrey at The Oval•Getty Images

Durham’s Liam Plunkett just missed out on a maiden first-class hundred at Hove, left stranded on 94 as Steve Harmison failed to keep his end up for long enough, but he took three wickets as Sussex suffered a dramatic afternoon collapse. Seemingly cruising at 81 for 0 replying to Durham’s 380, Plunkett ripped out Chris Nash’s off stump, the first of five wickets which fell within the space of 28 runs. Normal service was resumed after tea as Luke Wright (67) and Andy Hodd (84*) posted 150 for the sixth wicket, Wright falling shortly before the end as Sussex finished on 269 for 6, still 111 in arrears.Glen Chapple followed his six-for yesterday with 89 to guide Lancashire to a first-innings lead of 180 over Worcestershire at New Road. Replying to 167, Matt Mason struck two early blows to reduce Lancashire to 181 for 7, with Mark Chilton caught at second slip and Luke Sutton playing on, before Chapple and Kyle Hogg (60) put on 123 in 28 overs, steering them into a commanding position. Chris Whelan polished off the tail to finish with 5 for 95, his first five-wicket haul. All of Worcestershire’s top three got starts but none were able to go on to build a major innings as they closed on 129 for 3, still 51 in arrears.For a full report of Warwickshire against Yorkshire at Edgbaston click here.For a full report from Nottinghamshire against Somerset at Trent Bridge click here.

Division Two

Phillip Hughes’ third hundred in four Championship innings was the highlight at The Oval as Middlesex reached 200 for 2 in reply to Surrey’s 388. Hughes’ 134 not out took his aggregate to 452 for twice out in four innings, and he was typically brutal in his driving and cutting. His most uncomfortable moment came when Andre Nel, who had been pulled away by Hughes with immense power, sent down an accidental high full toss. The batsman was angered, but Nel immediately apologised and at the end of the over put his arm around Hughes. Earlier, Mark Ramprakash, easily old enough to be Hughes’ father, only added seven to his overnight 126 before miscuing Steven Finn to mid-off, but Chris Schofield’s 47, made either side of a bad-light break, ensured Surrey’s innings didn’t completely fall away.Bad light brought an early finish at Canterbury as Kent and Glamorgan closed with honours even. Michael O’Shea (50), Mike Powell (65) and Jamie Dalrymple (79) had put Glamorgan into a commanding position at 239 for 3. Dalrymple looked set for his third consecutive Championship ton when his flick to the leg side rebounded off Sam Northeast at short leg, who then had time to compose himself and take the catch. James Tredwell took three quick wickets to put the skids under the innings, and in the end Glamorgan only managed 307, a lead of 25. Northeast and Rob Key had knocked that off by the end as Kent closed on 30 for 0.Fourteen wickets fell on the first day at at Bristol, but only four more were added on a slightly shortened second one as Gloucestershire reached 361 for 7, a lead of 228. Alex Gidman’s career-best 159, his first century since 2007, held the top half of the innings together, and he eventually found an ally in Steve Snell (60*) as the pair added 128 for the seventh wicket. Even when Gidman eventually fell there was no respite for the bowlers, Snell and Tom Stayt making the most of a tired attack to added an unbeaten 67 by the close.Half-centuries from Rob White (70), Riki Wessels (84) and Andrew Hall (58) gave Northamptonshire control against Essex at Wantage Road. Wessels benefited from being bowl off a no-ball by Graham Napier, who was the pick of the Essex attack. After Northamptonshire’s innings ended on 354, a strong lead of 133, they then reduced Essex to 41 for 2 by the close. Varun Chopra was caught behind off the last ball of the third over David Lucas cleaned up Jaik Mickleburgh to leave the visitors under pressure.

Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff will join the England squad is St Lucia for the series-deciding final ODI against West Indies after being passed fit following scans on their injuries in Barbados.Both players were nursing injuries during the fourth ODI at the Kensington Oval. Pietersen was forced to leave the field after bowling five deliveries because of a back spasm while Flintoff required heavy strapping on his left thumb after spilling a catch. Their injuries were scanned and the tests were then sent to London for further examination but revealed no significant damage.Flintoff had missed the final two Tests and the first two ODIs because of a hip injury.However, Kent fast bowler Amjad Khan, who had joined the squad in the West Indies as cover for Flintoff, was suffering from cartilage damage in the knee and was scheduled to fly home on Tuesday night. Amjad had made his Test debut in the final Test in Trinidad.

West Indies 117 for 2 (Gayle 80) beat England 117 (Bravo 4-19, Edwards 3-28) by eight wickets – D/L method
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsChris Gayle slaughtered England’s bowling at Bridgetown•Getty Images

Chris Gayle put West Indies’ off-field worries to one side and instead heaped ever more crippling levels of opprobrium onto the shoulders of England’s listless cricketers, as he pounded an astounding tally of five fours and eight sixes in 43 balls, to power his side to a brilliant eight-wicket victory in the third ODI at Bridgetown. Talk of impending strikes have been circulating the Caribbean in recent days, but today it was England who failed to turn up for duty, as they crumbled for 117 before being bludgeoned to defeat in just 14.4 overs.Nominally, the game was reduced to 44 overs a side because of a rain-delayed start, but that was entirely academic as the entire contest was done and dusted in 56.1. After winning the toss on a sticky track West Indies bowled superbly, with Dwayne Bravo and Fidel Edwards outstanding, and caught everything that flew their way as well, before Gayle, in a repeat of the blitzkrieg that roasted England in November’s Stanford million-dollar match, sent a packed crowd wild with a boundary-laden 80. By the time he was bowled by James Anderson with 19 runs still required, his opening partner, Lendl Simmons, had not reached double figures.It is a measure of England’s ineptitude in this contest that their humiliation could easily have been worse. On a wicket spiced up by heavy showers, England started cautiously, then collapsed in a frenzy of ill-judged shots, and had it not been for a five-minute rain delay at 71 for 8 in the 27th over, they could easily have been rolled over for their lowest ODI total in history. Instead, Dimitri Mascarenhas scraped them to three figures with a determined 36, aided by Gareth Batty who defied a career ODI average of 2.60 to post 17 from 47 balls, all but two of which came in singles.In total, England managed nine boundaries in their pitiful innings, none of which cleared the rope. They were given their customary hurry-up by Edwards, whose three wickets all came from muffed hook shots, while Bravo produced a typically inventive performance to star with 4 for 19. Lionel Baker, who shared the new ball with Edwards, bowled his nine overs straight off the reel for 21 runs, keeping the innings in check with five maidens before capping his spell with the wicket of Owais Shah.England’s captain, Andrew Strauss, was the first to fall. Having used up 17 deliveries for his two runs, he felt obliged to step up the tempo but picked the wrong delivery to climb into. A bouncer from Edwards got big on him, Gayle at slip ran 15 yards behind him to pocket a steepling top-edge, and before the over was out, Strauss’s partner Ravi Bopara was on his way back as well, again courtesy of a miscued hook that plopped into Ramnaresh Sarwan’s hands at mid-on.The unhappy Kevin Pietersen, bored of the tour and in no mood to rebuild, made it a hat-trick of hook victims when he swiped at Bravo’s first delivery and picked out Kieron Pollard on the deep midwicket boundary, and eight balls later Shah – who had scored three of England’s four boundaries to date – flapped loosely at a wide ball from Baker, and Sammy at backward point finished the job.Andrew Flintoff, back in the side after a month’s lay-off but with no batting form to fall back on after a pair in the Antigua Test, made it three ducks in a row in a sad six-ball stay. After diligently negotiating his first five deliveries, Flintoff swiped at a loose leg-side delivery from Bravo, but merely helped the ball straight into the hands of Edwards at fine leg.Paul Collingwood might have been England’s best hope of staging a rearguard, but he was then the victim of a poor decision as umpire Steve Bucknor upheld an appeal from Bravo even though replays suggested the ball would have missed leg. Matt Prior then slapped Pollard to point for 7, having missed out on a succession of off-side swipes, before Stuart Broad was drawn forward in the same over to feather his second delivery to the keeper.After rallying briefly in a ninth-wicket stand of 48, the end of England’s innings came quickly as Batty and Mascarenhas attempted to up the tempo as they took the batting powerplay, but ended up falling within seven balls of each other. England’s efforts were soon put in stark context in a first over from Broad that went for 17, including two bouncers that eluded the keeper, Prior, and the first of Gayle’s sixes, an uppercut over third man.Thereafter it was not a contest. As Simmons worked the singles to put his skipper back on strike, England were routed. Anderson’s second over went for 12 runs, Broad’s third for 15, as Gayle found new and inventive ways to belt the cover off the Kookaburra. His most brutal onslaught, however, came against Mascarenhas, whose first and only over went for 24 runs, including three sixes in the arc from cover to midwicket. The only bowler he treated with any respect was Flintoff, which is pretty much the case whatever format England are playing these days.Disappointingly for the partying Bajan crowd, Gayle was unable to complete what he had started, and England had further succour when Broad splattered Sarwan’s stumps with four runs needed for victory. Only twice in ODI history have England been beaten in fewer overs, and had it not been for John Dyson’s chart-reading aberration in the first ODI, the series would be over already. On this evidence, it is anyway.

Essex 278 for 4 (ten Doeschate 81*, Walker 50) beat Fly Emirates 277 for 6 (Arshad Ali 109*) by six wickets
Ryan ten Doeschate: in form for Essex•Getty Images

Essex were pushed to their limits by a team of amateur players representing the Pro Arch Trophy sponsors, Emirates Airline, but survived a double injury scare to go on and post a six-wicket win on a steamy evening in Dubai.Though temperatures reached almost 90 degrees at the start of the game, Essex edged home in much more temperate climes under floodlights just after 10pm local time, thanks to a cool, unbeaten 81 by Ryan ten Doeschate and 50 from the debutant, Matthew Walker, as they successfully chased down the Emirates total of 277 for 6.The Essex openers, Mark Pettini and John Maunders, added 64 at a steady rate of five-an-over until the introduction of medium pacer and man-of-the match Arshad Ali who, having scored an unbeaten century earlier in the day, then accounted for both in successive overs.Maunders (23) scooped a simple catch to Lalith Dananayake then, 12 balls later, Pettini followed suit; pulling lamely against the same bowler he picked out Kashif Khan at short midwicket to go for 41 off 23 balls. Some 56 runs on and Varum Chopra became the third Eagles’ victim, going leg before for 33 after he missed an attempted sweep against Yasin Sikander.But the experienced fourth-wicket pair of ten Doeschate and Walker, on his competitive debut for Essex, posted 57 in attractive fashion with ten Doeschate increasing the tempo with a crisp straight six and a lofted drive over the ropes at extra cover. The partnership proved a little confusing to the 30-odd local supporters, however, as both batsmen wore shirts belonging to absent allrounder Graham Napier.Despite suffering bouts of cramp that required treatment from physiotherapist Ashish Kaushik, Walker posted his first half-century since joining from Kent from 65 balls and in 78 minutes but was immediately forced to retire hurt with dehydration and was taken by ambulance for treatment at a local clinic.Adam Wheater fell in the late run-chase when chipping a return catch to the bowler and James Middlebrook also limped off with a foot injury, but ten Doeschate calmed the nerves and killed hopes of a giant-killing by carrying his side to victory with 18 balls to spare.Earlier, airline worker and part-time cricketer Arshad scored an excellent unbeaten 109 to ease Emirates to an excellent 50-over total of 277 for 6.Arshad, a 32-year-old visa services manager, posted seven fours and four sixes during his well-paced innings. A rangy right-hander who has played four ODIs for UAE, scored a flurry of boundaries at the start of his innings but, when wickets started to fall, dug in to ensure he batted through.He went two hours without scoring a boundary until, with overs running out, he revealed an array of strokes that took him to three figures in a rush. He took 14 off one over from seamer David Masters, made up of two fours though midwicket and a clipped six into the seats at deep square leg, as he posted his hundred in 204 minutes and from 123 deliveries.Masters, with 1 for 39 from his 10-over stint, was easily the most economical bowler in an inexperienced Essex attack that generally bowled too short after being asked to bowl first in temperatures approaching 90 degrees when the game started at 2.30pm local time.Young Essex pace bowlers Jahid Ahmed (2 for 57) and Mervyn Westfield (2 for 53) were possibly deceived by the appearance of the pitch at the dusty and somewhat ramshackle Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium. Cracked, dry and shiny in appearance and seemingly like a corker at the Recreation Ground in Antigua, the surface actually lacked bounce and carry and played more like a club pitch in Cork on a wet Wednesday evening.However Ali used all his local knowledge and nous to carry the Emirates’ side through to their very respectable total, aided by decent contributions from vice captain Amjad Javed (40), Saby Fernandes (44) and Kashif Khan (32).

Australia and South Africa will be given their first taste of the referral system at the Wanderers on Thursday and both captains said they hoped it would at least eliminate the most obvious umpiring errors. Each team has only two incorrect referrals per innings and Graeme Smith said he was resigned to the fact that the reviews could potentially be used up early.”I’m sure guys are going to make mistakes,” Smith said. “It’s a new system, you’ve just got to trust the guys that are out there. Batters have generally got a good feel of what’s going on.”More than anything else it’s more there to get the really bad decision out of the game. That’s never a bad thing. It will be interesting to see. I think both teams will probably make one or two mistakes but it’s more a nice option to have than anything else.”The captains who have already been part of the trials have given the system mixed reviews. Ricky Ponting is still undecided on whether referrals are good for the game but like Smith he was hopeful that it could remove the poorest calls.”The thing we’ve got to remember with it is there are still going to be incorrect decisions made,” Ponting said. “It’s not something that’s going to solve every incorrect decision that an umpire might make through the course of the game. But hopefully it will take out the really obvious bad decisions that are being made which are probably the most frustrating ones for players as well.”One man who was on the wrong end of a series of bad calls during the Australian summer was Michael Hussey, who was given caught off his helmet at the MCG and caught off his pad at the Gabba. Ponting said Hussey had already expressed his interest in the system.”Mike Hussey joked that he would question the decision every time he was given out,” Ponting said. “I had to remind him that he bats at No. 4 and the opportunities to refer anything would be used up by then. You have to trust that your players will do the right thing.”The referral system was first trialled internationally on India’s tour of Sri Lanka in July-August last year and was also tried out in the two-Test series between New Zealand and West Indies in December. A modification was introduced for the current series between West Indies and England, with the number of referrals per team in each innings reduced from three to two.The three officials in charge of the South Africa-Australia series are Steve Bucknor, Billy Bowden and Asad Rauf. Like the players, none of the umpires have been part of the previous trials.

Mohammad Ashraful, the Bangladesh captain, has hailed his side’s five-wicket win over Sri Lanka in Mirpur on Thursday as their best victory. The match was the final league game of the tri-series and Bangladesh had to win in order to progress to the final.”There have been some great wins like the one in Cardiff in the NatWest Trophy (2005) and the 2007 World Cup wins over India and South Africa,” he said. “But I would rate this one at the top because there was a lot of pressure on us and it was a must-win situation.”Ashraful said the win was particularly satisfying because their critics had written them off after the loss to Zimbabwe in the tournament’s opening match. He was also aware of the significance of the result. “Recently the debate on our Test status has surfaced again and this win, although it is in an ODI, could not have come at a better time.”The architect of the victory was in-form Shakib Al Hasan, who slammed a 69-ball 92 to rally Bangladesh from 11 for 3. “I think it is the best ODI innings I have seen from a Bangladeshi batsman considering the situation,” Ashraful, who was involved in a game-transforming 91-run stand with Shakib, said. “He came in and started smashing the ball with great control. He took all the pressure off me and I could just take singles and give him the strike.”Shakib also rated it as his best knock. “The 96 in the first Test was the best before today. I thought I was in control and the timing was great,” he said. “Difference is today we won and the Test match innings was in a lost cause.”One of the stand-out features of his innings was the ease with which he handled the dangerous spin duo of Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis. “What I can say from my experience is that Murali probably struggles to settle into a line while bowling to me as I sweep him a lot,” he said. “Mendis usually bowls straight and a little quickly and there is small turn. My plan was to play him in the V as much as possible.”His batting also came in for praise from Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene. “Shakib showed a lot of maturity and we could hardly do anything to stop him after he saw off the difficult period with Ashraful,” he said. “We were probably 30-40 runs short but I don’t think even those runs would have mattered because of the way Shakib batted today.”Before Shakib’s heroics, medium-pacers Mashrafe Mortaza and Rubel Hossain had restricted Sri Lanka to 147 after fog reduced the match to 31-overs-a-side. Mortaza took three top-order wickets, including Kumar Sangakkara and Upul Tharanga for ducks, to jolt Sri Lanka early. “Mash [Mortaza] set the tone for us with that brilliant opening spell. We needed a good start and he provided that,” Ashraful said. “You will see that in almost all the famous wins of Bangladesh he has done something outstanding.”Rubel, who has a round-arm action, finished with 4 for 33, the best figures for a debutant Bangladesh bowler. “His bowling action can be difficult to pick at times,” Ashraful said. “We gave him a free license and he troubled the batsmen with pace and bounce. He did everything that was asked of him.”Bangladesh’s performance will fill them with confidence ahead of Friday’s clash with Sri Lanka in the final in Mirpur.

Thilan Samaraweera, the Sri Lanka batsman, feels Bangladesh will be unable to mount a Mirpur-like challenge in the fourth innings, with conditions in Chittagong not very conducive for batting.”The two wickets are totally different,” he said after ending the third day unbeaten on 72. “Here it is not easy to play shots, that is the important difference and you have to bat very straight from the start to the end. The Dhaka [Mirpur] wicket got better and better each day but this one is uneven and getting slower. There are cracks developing and if you bowl slowly then it gets very difficult to play strokes.”In Mirpur, Bangladesh scored 414 chasing an improbable 521 and another target in excess of 500 is on the cards for the hosts, with Sri Lanka having already raked up a 472-run lead with six wickets remaining in their second innings.”I think 400 is a safe score. We didn’t declare today probably because the bowlers needed a rest after bowling long spells. Someone like Murali [Muttiah Muralitharan] has bowled 70-odd overs already.”The lead was boosted by an unbroken 131-run stand between Samaraweera and Tillakaratne Dilshan. The two finished unbeaten on 72 and 81 respectively, but Samaraweera said it would be up to the team management on whether they are given the chance to reach their hundreds.Although the focus has been on the spin pairing of Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis, Samaraweera felt the new ball would play a vital role like in the first innings, when Chaminda Vaas and Dilhara Fernando gave the spinners a head start with early wickets.Samaraweera was not too positive about batting on the final two days, but his Bangladesh counterpart Raqibul Hasan felt patience was the key. “Just like we did in Dhaka we will try to play session by session without thinking about the target. The pitch is slow and some balls tend to keep low but it is not alarming.”