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South Africa will be looking to depose New Zealand at the top of the table with a victory in this Group E match. Having lost their only international encounter against this opposition almost two years ago, Graeme Smith will be hoping for a better performance with the bat, especially with his team being restricted to 154 against England. Herschelle Gibbs’ inclusion, fitness permitting, will only benefit the home side in their bid to make the semis.New Zealand might well decide to rest a few aching bodies after theirclose win against England, especially a struggling Jacob Oram who took a knock on his left hand while dropping a return catch. However, Daniel Vettori, the New Zealand captain, will want nothing less than a win to take the momentum through to yet another semi-final appearance for his team.Bat play: South Africa’s top order has, bar their last match, been in great form. JP Duminy, opening in place of Gibbs, failed to score in his second match after an impressive tournament debut against Bangladesh. Much will depend, as always, on Smith, AB de Villiers and Mark Boucher before the power-hitting of Shaun Pollock and Justin Kemp steps in.New Zealand’s top order, however, failed miserably in their final matchand it came down to Craig McMillan and Scott Styris to play the rescueact. However, Ross Taylor, who already has a half-century to his name in the tournament, and Brendon McCullum have both played mini-cameos in the opening round but will need decent support in what will be a tougher bowling attack.Wrecking ball: Shaun Pollock has been in form of late, picking up five wickets in the last two matches while being as miserly as ever. Makhaya Ntini has not been as successful and it will be down to the likes of the Morkel brothers and Vernon Philander to provide support.New Zealand have fast bowling problems of their own. Mark Gillespie, after a four-wicket haul in the opening match, has failed to pick any wickets. Shane Bond, although economical, was not penetrative in the last match while either Chris Martin or Jacob Oram look set to make way for Jeetan Patel, the offspinner, who will partner Vettori, the joint highest wicket-taker in the tournament.Keep your eye on: Albie Morkel and his long-range efforts with the bat. Already boasting a few of the tournament’s longest hits, Morkel has a 20-ball 43 against his name and will fancy the pace of Gillespie and Bond to add to his tally of sixes.Shop talk: According to Vettori: “It [captaincy in the Twenty20game] is not easy … because you don’t know what you will run into. You might have the best of plans but they may all have to be discarded at the spur of the moment.” While he sits and plans the next match, Smith will know that his team really do not want to leave qualification for the semi-final for the last match against India and would want to wrap up things under the Durban sun.Pitching it right: The Durban pitch has already witnessed two close encounters; Pakistan v India and England v New Zealand. It will be South Africa’s first match here and with conditions probably favouring pace and swing, the home team will want to make first use of it.TeamsSouth Africa (probable) Graeme Smith (capt), Herschelle Gibbs, AB de Villiers, Justin Kemp, Mark Boucher (wk), Vernon Philander, ShaunPollock, Johan van der Wath, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Makhaya NtiniNew Zealand (likely) Lou Vincent, Brendon McCullum (wk), PeterFulton, Ross Taylor, Scott Styris, Craig McMillan, Jacob Oram, DanielVettori (capt), Shane Bond, Mark Gillespie, Jeetan Patel

Murali Kartik will join Lancashire this week and could feature in Saturday’s C&G Trophy final at Lord’s on Saturday.Kartik is due to arrive in Manchester later today and will play in the floodlit Asda Challenge Match at Old Trafford tomorrow.”I will get to play three championship games and five one-day matches,” Kartik told . “The last championship match will be against Shane Warne’s Hampshire.”Kartik had a stellar outing with Lancashire last year, becoming the first overseas player representing Lancashire to have bagged ten wickets on debut when he snapped up 10 for 168 against Essex, a game where he dismissed Andy Flower twice. He ended up with16 wickets, including six from two one-day matches and finished at the second position behind Muttiah Muralitharan, the Sri Lankan offspinner, in the averages table.Kartik played a huge role in Lancashire’s promotion from division two of the Frizzell County Championship and earned praise from Mike Watkinson, their coach. “He bowled magnificently. He’s a lovely lad. He arrived in the dressing-room without knowing anyone but now he is bosom buddies with all the players.”

Worcestershire have signed Chris Gayle for the remainder of the season as a replacement for Zander de Bruyn, the South African allrounder, who has been selected for their A team. Gayle, who has yet to play county cricket, will play his first game against Lancashire in the National League on August 24.He will be available for five National League matches and four County Championship games and joins Shoaib Akhtar, who is mid-way through his spell at New Road. Gayle’s flamboyant batting will boost a strong top-order which already includes Graeme Hick and Vikram Solanki. His flat off-spin will also be a useful weapon, especially in the closing stages of the National League season.Worcestershire are currently fifth in Division Two of the County Championship and still very much in contention for a promotion place. However, in Division One of the National League they are rooted to the foot of the table and struggling to avoid relegation.

The stand-off between the 15 rebel cricketers and the Zimbabwe Cricket Union may be nearing an end, after it was announced by the ZCU that the players would be returning to training on April 30, and that they were back in consideration for selection. The possibility of a breakthrough had earlier been raised with the news that the players were prepared to accept the appointment of Much Musunda to act as mediator.Musunda, a prominent businessman, was the choice of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union and Heath Streak. But despite rumours to the contrary, so far there have been no talks between any of the rebels and the board, and none will take place until the banned players have met with their lawyer.There are, inevitably, many stumbling blocks. Musunda is not in the country at the moment, and nothing will happen until he returns. Even when he does, the rebels are not holding out too much hope that the ZCU will offer any meaningful concessions. “We have to see what the ZCU come back to us with,” Grant Flower said. “And so far they have come back with nothing. If it’s not settled by mediation — and I don’t think it will be on an amicable basis — it would have to go to arbitration.” So far, the ZCU has ruled out arbitration.They rebels stated that they are all keen to play again – although an obstacle is that they clearly have no faith that the ZCU will honour any commitments, and so they will do nothing until they see actions rather than words. “The guys are only going to make themselves available for selection once that process has happened,” Flower told The Times. “If we did it the other way round, the ZCU wouldn’t take it seriously; they would draw it out, keep us playing while we were still in dispute with them and not resolve this until we are at the end of our contracts.”But the rebels are prepared to start training again as an act of good faith, and in the hope that the mess will be sorted out sooner rather than later. In the meantime, the ZCU has named an unchanged side for the fifth and final one-day match in Harare on Thursday.

What started out as a dream turned into a nightmare as the Australia’s clinical opening bowler, Glenn McGrath, took seven for 15 to demolish the Namibian batting, bowling them out for 45 in 14 overs and ensuring a win by 256 runs on a good batting pitch at the North West Stadium in Potchefstroom.McGrath wrote his name into the record books. It is the best return in all World Cups (previous: 7/51 WW Davis, West Indies v Australia at Leeds, 1983). It is the best bowling by an Australian in an one-day international (previous: 6/14 GJ Gilmour v England at Leeds, 1975), and he became the leading wicket-taker for Australia in all World Cups (previous: SK Warne 32 wickets). A truly remarkable and historic performance.The 45 all out equals the second-lowest total in World Cup history, while the 256-run win becomes the biggest margin of victory in all one-day internationals, beating the 245-run win Sri Lanka had over India in Sharjah, 2000/01. England’s 202-run win over India at Lord’s in 1975 was the previous biggest victory margin in the World Cup.Australia’s win was also their 11th consecutive victory, equalling the recordfor most consecutive victories in one-day internationals, held by West Indies.The pace of Brett Lee and the guile of McGrath were something that theWorld Cup debutantes would never before have encountered. Lee, bowling wellinto the 150 kph, was just a yard too fast and the movement and line fromMcGrath proved unplayable as wickets continued to fall.A third-ball four off McGrath from Jan-Berry Burger got the Namibian innings off the ground, but the fourth found the edge of the shuffling Burger’s bat to give Ponting a simple waist-high catch at second slip.Brett Lee was quick, bowling well into the 150-kph zone, swinging the ball away, with Adam Gilchrist standing well back. Stephan Swanepoel found the pace too much for him, and an edge duly came in the third over, a flyer with Ricky Ponting taking a great catch way above his head at second slip.Morne Karg did not last long, getting a lifter from McGrath that he gloved away for Adam Gilchrist to do the rest. Karg may have been unlucky, as it did notlook as if his hand was on the bat when he gloved it.Bryan Murgatroyd was trapped leg-before by McGrath without scoring, and Danie Keulder, on three, gave McGrath his fourth, again a regulation catch to Gilchrist off a faint edge. Deon Kotze was McGrath’s fifth, also edging to Gilchrist.McGrath’s sixth wicket, and Australia’s seventh, was another edge as Louis Kotze followed the procession. Bjorn Kotze had his bails dislodged as McGrath became only the second World Cup player to take seven wickets in an innings.Andy Bichel replaced Lee and struck first over up, having Melt van Schoorcaught by Gilchrist and wrapped it up also having Rudi van Vuuren caughtbehind. Six catches by Gilchrist gave him the most by a wicket-keeper in a World Cup match.Namibia had been bowled out for 45 in 14 overs that took 75 minutes.For 43 overs in the morning session Namibia had however done a sterling job.They bowled well, with the exception of van Vuuren, going for 92 in 10overs, and fielded with more pride than many of the teams in the tournament.They chased down and brought off diving saves that not only helped the bowlers but added a little pressure on the Australians.Matthew Hayden was again magnificent. He paced his innings well after Gilchrist had been bowled for 13, upping the rate the longer he stayed at the crease. Three big sixes and nine fours helped him to 88, his highest World Cup score, before he was bowled trying to work the ball across the line.Michael Bevan, apart from one glorious cover drive, found it difficult topierce the field and became the first wicket of Louis Burger, deceived by a slower ball to be caught and bowled for 17.The hard-hitting Andrew Symonds was again impressive. Two fours and twosixes in an innings of 59, which would have been a lot more but for the excellent fielding and a ridiculous run-out that had him and Damien Martyn running for the same end. The 84-run partnership is a record for the fifth wicket on this ground.Apart from this aberration, Martyn showed the Namibians what running between the wickets means. Almost unnoticeably he ran his way to 35 before he was bowled, setting the stage for Darren Lehmann.Lehmann and Brad Hogg came together at the end of the 43rd over with Namibiahaving done extremely well to restrict Australia to 231/6, but a seven-over onslaught from Lehmann saw Australia finish on 301/6 with his 50 coming off 31 balls. The undefeated 70-run partnership is also a record for the ground. The last over had brought 28 runs to Lehmann, a record for a single over in a World Cup match and for Australia in all ODIs.For Namibia, Louis Burger returned his best international figures of 3/39while Gilchrist was Burton van Rooi’s first international wicket.

Sanath Jayasuriya became the second Sri Lankan and 14th batsman in ODIhistory to be left stranded on 99 when he spooned a simple catch tohis Indian counterpart off the bowling of Shewag in the final of theCoca- Cola Cup. The only other Sri Lankan to suffer this fate isRomesh Kaluwitharana. This was also the fourth such instance againstIndia.Of the 14 batsmen who have missed their hundred by just one run, fiveremained unbeaten as either the innings was completed or the targetwas achieved.

Hampshire almost pulled off an incredible win, in their delayed NUNCL Division Two match at Southampton on Monday.Set 264 to win by Glamorgan, Hampshire wicket lost their ninth wicket at 205, but the next 53 runs (a Hampshire 10th wicket record) came from just 20 balls.The Hampshire bowlers were still recovering from their NatWest semi-final defeat as Glamorgan amassed 263 for 5 in their 45 overs, which included the highest first-wicket stand between the teams. Newell and Elliott were particular aggressive, with dark clouds over the ground threatening rain, which never came. Steve James became the third player to reach 50, and Hampshire’s task was awesome.Kenway and Smith gave the home side a good start, but the vital wicket of the captain fell to a spectacular slip catch by his opposite number.A partnership of 81 by Kendall and Mascarenhas brought them above the Duckworth/Lewis par score, but Mascarenhas was out to a well-flighted ball from Croft, and Kendall lost his partners at regular intervals.Tremlett joined Kendall with the home crowd drifting to the gates, but those who stayed were treated to a blow-by-blow attack, as Hampshire just fell short.Tim Tremlett, Hampshire’s Director of Cricket remarked about his son, “He has scored more sixes in that innings (3) than I had scored in my career.”This victory keeps Glamorgan in contention for a promotion place, as they move above Middlesex into fourth place.

ScorecardFile photo – Asghar Stanikzai smashed 13 fours and six sixes in his 127 off 163 balls•ICC/Helge Schutz

Coach Inzaman hails Afg’s come-from-behind win

Afghanistan coach Inzamam-ul-Haq has said the win against PNG was all the more significant given his team had been switching between formats a lot of late.
“The performance was exceptional and outstanding because this was the third different format they were playing inside four weeks,” he said, adding their aggressive approach after a poor start was important. “These are big, powerful and talented lads who play without fear. It requires a lot of guts and courage to hit the number of fours and sixes they hit in the second innings when they had their backs against the wall.
“These are positive signs and we just want to build upon these foundations without burdening them with too much information.”

Afghanistan completed a stunning comeback win as they overcame a 151-run first-innings deficit to thrash Papua New Guinea by 201 runs in Sharjah. Asghar Stanikzai (127), Mohammad Shahzad (116) and Hashmatullah Shahidi (112) all struck centuries as Afghanistan piled on 501 in their second innings – along with handy lower-order fifties from Gulbadin Naib and Mirwais Ashraf – to set PNG a target of 390.PNG were never in the chase at any point as they lost wickets in clumps to succumb for 188. Assad Vala struck his second half-century of the game and offered some resistance with his 81 but it was not close to enough. Zahir Khan and Yamin Ahmadzai both picked up four wickets to break the back of the PNG chase.Earlier, it was PNG that dominated with both bat and ball as they bowled Afghanistan out for 144, with Norman Vanua doing most of the damage with figures of 4 for 36, and then put up a total of 295 through Mahuru Dai’s 129 and Vala’s 62 to earn a lead of 151. Zahir and Ahmadzai were again the pick of the bowlers, taking three wickets apiece.