Half centuries from Jyoti Yadav and Mohammed Kaif took Uttar Pradeshwithin hopping distance of the first innings lead at the end of thesecond day of their Ranji Trophy quarter final match against Hyderabadat the Green Park in Kanpur today. Having bowled out the visitors for291, UP had progressed to 206/3 from 76 overs at stumps.Three successive half century partnerships in the UP innings put themfirmly on course to overtake Hyderabad’s none too imposingtotal. Yadav and Mohammed Saif put on 69 for the first wicket beforeSaif was trapped in front of the wicket by Vanka Pratap for 18. Yadavthen added exactly fifty for the second wicket with Kaif beforeKanwaljit Singh dismissed him for 61 (127 balls, 9 fours). And thenKaif and Rizwan Shamshad continued the good work with a workmanlike 59run partnership for the third wicket. At stumps captain GyanendraPandey (18) was holding the fort along with Kaif. The latter wasunbeaten on a stolid 66 off 169 balls, that included three boundaries.Earlier Hyderabad added another 45 runs to their overnight tally of246 /8 before they folded up for 291 thirteen overs into the day. VVSLaxman was ninth out for 128 (263 balls, 13 fours and a six), castledby Ashish Zaidi with the score at 268. NP Singh and Kanwaljit Singhthen put on a further 23 for the last wicket before Zaidi bowled NPSingh for good measure to finish with figures of 3/70.

After their poor batting performance of the morning Surrey’s nerves were setjangling further by a good opening stand between Stubbings and Sutton – whowas standing in for Lacey. Both players did well to keep out Bicknell whilescoring rapidly at the other end. Gary Butcher was introduced to the attackto try for five in five, he too was unable to break the partnership thoughand Derbyshire seemed on the verge of playing their way back into a gamethey had been comprehensively played out of on the first day….. UntilSalisbury joined the fray around a quarter past three to deliver thetwentieth over of the innings. At that time the score stood at 65 for 0 anda further three runs came from the first part of his over, one hour,thirteen and a half overs and twenty-nine runs later it was all over.Shahid and Hollioake’s close catching combined once again with anotherdemostration of wonderful spin bowling and some baffled and terrifiedbatting to wipe out a second innings, Saqlain – who’s figures stood at2-0-5-0 when his partner in crime joined him in the attack took adevastating seven for six in the next seven and a half overs while at theother end Salisbury, who’s turn it was to have less luck with the edgebagged 3-25.Dowman sought, for a brief time successfully, to survive and Munton, takingan intelligent view of his long term survival prospects, swung the batgamely for thirteen runs, entertaining in classic tailenders fashion beforeoffering a dolly caught and bowled to Saqlain but the rest of the team fadedaway so fast that it might have made some of their hosts feel undeservedlybetter about the morning’s batting effort.In the end eighteen wickets had fallen in less than two sessions of play ona blameless surface, it started to rain forty minutes after the close,drawing a veil over procedings. Surrey will be glad for innings win andtheir seventeen points and hope that the three batting points dropped do notcost them dearly while Derbyshire are now almost certainly destined fordivision 2.Saqlain was delighted with his short day’s work and season’s best figures.He has now overtaken Martin Bicknell once more in their private two horserace to be CC1’s leading wicket taker with 57 wickets to Bicknell’s 56,Bicknell will hope to retake the lead at Scarborough.

Cricket in Hong Kong enjoyed perhaps its greatest moment to date,qualifying for both next year’s Asia Cup and Friday’s final of the ACCTrophy with a convincing 179 run win over Nepal in Sharjah on Tuesday.Hong Kong recovered from a disastrous early start to score 268-3 fromits 50 overs, before removing Nepal for 89 in just 25 overs in thesemi-final at the Sharjah Stadium.”I am very pleased,” Hong Kong coach, Adam Hollioake said. “That’swhat we came here to do – firstly qualify for the Asia Cup and makethe final of the ACC Trophy. We did the simple things well.”Captain, Stewart Brew, was equally happy.”It is the best Hong Kong team we have put out and I am really proudof the way the boys have played.”Hong Kong was in early trouble, at 11-2 in the sixth over after thedismissals of openers, Saleem Malik (3) and Charaparambil Manoj (4).However, Hollioake said he was unconcerned.”It was very early in the game and we tried to attack in first 15overs and this time it didn’t come off.”After taking 30.3 overs to pass 100, the Hong Kong batsmen, led byRahul Sharma, who remained unbeaten on 145 not out, thrashed 168 inthe last 20 overs to set Nepal a daunting target.Tight bowling, backed up by what was at that stage, sound groundfielding, put pressure on the Hong Kong openers, who were looking toattack in the first 15 overs.Malik, who had uncharacteristically scored three from 12 balls, wasstranded after hesitating when looking for a single and was run out byKiran Agrawal after trying to return to his crease.The situation worsened when Manoj advanced down the wicket to MehboobAlam and got an inside edge on to his leg stump.Nepal to that point, were bowling a good line, and fielding tightly.Hong Kong’s most experienced two batsmen, captain, Stewart Brew, andSharma, were now at the crease and they proceeded to patiently repairthe innings with singles and the occasional boundary.From about the 10th over, Nepal’s intensity seemed to drop with theoccasional misfield and wide creeping into their play.Without taking risks, Brew and Sharma accelerated the run-rate,doubling the score from 15-2 in the eighth over to 32-2 in theeleventh.Brew played the dominant role as the partnership developed, pickingoff singles with shots to fielders and waiting for the loose ball tohit.Sharma played more of a support role to Brew initially, scoring 19 toBrew’s 29 when the 50 partnership came up.Opening bowler, Raju Khadka, had bowled good line in his first spellconceding 15 from six overs, while the quickish Alam took 6-1-18-1,including Manoj’s wicket.The tempo of the innings began to increase with the introduction ofleft arm spinner, Pawan Luniya, into the attack. Luniya bowled a goodline and length but had little on his deliveries to test the Hong Kongbatsmen, and gradually the run-rate increased.Also, Nepal’s ground fielding, which earlier had been near faultless,began to feature the odd misfield.Brew went on to score his 50, including two sixes and fours fours from85 balls.On 63, the Queensland-born veteran played a shot totally in contrastto the rest of his innings when he advanced to smash Sharraf out ofthe ground, and was stumped by Ganesh Thaku, with the score at 135-3.The entire nature of the Hong Kong innings was changed when Alamdropped a sitter at the long off boundary. Rather than Hong Konghaving two new batsmen starting their innings’, the chance was thesignal for Sharma to launch an assault on the innocuous Nepaleseattack.Sharma had been joined by Mark Davies, and together the pair reached50 from 41 balls. Sharma, a former Ranji Trophy player, reached hiscentury soon after, from 124 balls, with three sixes and five fours.He had not scored a six before the chance from Alam, but would scoresix sixes in the last 10 overs in addition to 11 boundaries. Hong Kongbelted 114 runs in that time. Sharma scored 88 runs after the droppedcatch.Khadka, who had earlier been economical, had 40 runs from his lastfour overs, while Das, who was perhaps Nepal’s best bowler, had 38taken from his last two, including 25 from his last.Alex Davies (36 n.o) batted well to support Sharma during their 133run partnership.According to Nepal captain, Pewan Agrawal, the top order batsmendidn’t play to the team plan. “At the lunch break we said that weshould play positively but bat out the 50 overs. The players threwtheir wickets away,” Agrawal said. “I think they got carried away bythe occasion.”Paresh Lohani (0) edged a ball from Brew, bowling medium-pace, andapart from an over from paceman, Mohammad Zubair, who again hadtrouble controlling his inswingers, Nepal lost regular wickets.Zubair’s first over, the second of the innings, stretched to 16deliveries, due to eight wides and two no-balls.It was the biggest ‘partnership’ of the Nepalese innings, as itsbatsmen chased quick runs and threw away their wickets.Extras (26) was Nepal’s highest scorer, with middle-order batsman andall-rounder, Raju Khadka (18) hitting two fours in his 15 ballinnings.

It’s a long way from Nairobi to Wellington, and it has been just as long between One-Day International victories for New Zealand, but their eight-wicket win at WestpacTrust Stadium tonight was more like the form expected from the side by a discerning cricket public.The win set up the chance for a great series finale in Auckland on Sunday with the New Zealanders showing tonight what exciting potential they have, if they can get their match requirements on song.Zimbabwe scored 236/7 in its 50 overs after deciding to bat first and while captain Heath Streak felt it was 30 runs short of what was needed, the innings of 111 by Alistair Campbell, who scored the first century at the new stadium venue, had shown conditions were good for batting.New Zealand claimed the win with 28 balls remaining. Nathan Astle was 89 not out while Mathew Sinclair scored 85.

Coach David Trist said: “We produced an emphatic all round performance that was very pleasing, very necessary and obviously takes the side forward to Eden Park in a positive frame.”The greatest bonus was in getting a solid start with the batting, but there was much to savour in a tidier bowling performance.It is 32 matches since New Zealand has managed a century opening partnership in ODIs. That was the first ODI in India in November 1999 when Astle and Craig Spearman opened the innings.Tonight was only the third time Astle and Sinclair have opened the innings.It was Sinclair’s first half century in ODIs, his previous highest being 19 against Australia, while Astle scored his 25th half century.Sinclair raced to his 50 from 65 balls, hitting seven fours, while Astle took 67 balls and hit three fours and two sixes.They recorded the highest opening stand since the 115 against India and went on to better the 147-run record against Zimbabwe achieved by Llorne Howell and Astle at Napier in 1997/98.When parted at 153, they were five runs runs short of the all-time New Zealand ODI record of 158, scored against Bangladesh in Sharjah by Martin Crowe and John Wright.It was the highest ODI opening partnership since 1996/97 when Astle and Bryan Young scored 155 against Pakistan at Mohali.Sinclair was run out when on 85, scored off 120 balls with nine fours and a six. He was in control tonight and looked as free in his strokeplay as he has since his epic debut innings in Test cricket against the West Indies last summer.A century looked on the cards but momentary hesitation in the running allowed Guy Whittall to gather the ball back in and return it to Heath Streak who rebounded the ball onto the stumps to catch Sinclair well short.Trist said openers in the past have not taken the time to assess their options and were guilty of being bold and often not thoughtful enough before launching into their assault during the first 15 overs.Astle carried on to become only the second New Zealander to pass 4000 runs in ODIs. He achieved the milestone when reaching 64. Martin Crowe scored 4704 in his 143 ODIs.Today’s match was Astle’s 123rd.Trist said New Zealand had learnt from both matches of the series to date.”We respect Zimbabwe and we are pretty pleased to come out of the game with a result like that.”If we had a greater focus and desire to win then so be it. I don’t think our disicplines change greatly and our desire to win and produce good performances, we just had a shocker [in Taupo] and we don’t want to go back along that road again.”Skipper Stephen Fleming required order and partnerships from the side and James Franklin and Scott Styris had provided that when taking the ball to bowl at the start of Zimbabwe’s innings.”Later on everyone who stepped up to the plate bowled tidily and used the conditions pretty well and although we didn’t quite get the finish right, which has been a worry, there was an improvement in the all-round bowling and the fielding matched it,” he said.Scott Styris was also promoted to No 3 and hit a quick fire 48 off 43 balls.”He showed that if he sticks to quality cricket shots he’s a threat to be taken aware of by all international sides,” Trist said.Styris was regarded as a shaker by the side’s management.”He continues to flatter at times yet we know he’s got a lot to offer. We’re optimistic about where he is heading,” he said.New Zealand’s effort was most notably improved in the field and bowling where there was a greater sharpness in everything the side did. This seemed to set the trend for the rest of the day.

(The following is the full text of joint statement, given at the conclusion of WICB’s AGM in Barbados. The statment is that of President Patrick Rousseau and Vice President Clarvis Joseph).THIS afternoon we advised the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) of Directors that we are resigning from the WICB effective Monday June 4, 2001.It is based on the unacceptable position in which we find ourselves based on the issue of the termination of Mr. Ricky Skerritt, the Manager of the West Indies Cricket Team.The Board has taken a decision to reinstate Mr. Skerritt which brings into question our integrity and we are therefore unable to continue as president and vice-president and have indicated our resignations.Mr. Skerritt was evaluated by Mr. Joseph and myself during a debriefingsession after each tour and specifically after the England, Australian and South African tours. We came to the conclusion based on those evaluations and the performance of the teams that he is not in our opinion a suitable person to manage the West Indies team at this time.The Board challenged the process of the evaluation and was concerned whether the evaluation constituted a formal or proper evaluation. They also questioned our authority along with that of the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Gregory Shillingford, to effect the termination without Board approval. We disagreed with that view.In our opinion the Board’s position directly challenged our competence and our integrity in carrying out the process. Since we are not prepared to carry out the directive to re-instate Mr. Skerritt we feel obligated to resign.When we started on the process of managing West Indies cricket we had set very clear objectives for bringing the management machinery of the Board to a state in which professionalism, efficiency and high standard of performance were to become operational norms. We stated clearly that this was going to be “a new dispensation”.The re-structuring, including the creation of new departments and theappointment of professional heads of department, has run into resistance and the process has gone slowly. The WICB must accelerate the process if the WICB is to operate successfully in the new situation in world cricket and meet the attendant obligations.

Hemantha Warnakulasuriya, the chairman of the probe committee appointedto look into the alleged mismanagement of funds at the Board of Control forCricket in Sri Lanka, handed over his initial report to the Minister ofSports, Lakshman Kiriella, yesterday.Warnakulasuriya and four others were appointed by the Minister ofSports to look into the alleged mismanagement of funds from the day theprevious interim committee ceased its function to the date the presentinterim committee was appointed.Priyantha Algama, a member of the probe committee, told CricInfo that his committee had looked into the alleged mismanagement of funds in building the Dambulla International cricket stadium in particular.However, Thilanga Sumathipala, the ousted president of the BCCSL, has saidhe will not co-operate with the committee as he has no confidence in themembers appointed to the committee.The report is expected to be published by the 21st of this month.The committe is expected to hand over its second report on the 31st ofAugust and the final report on the 31st of December.

Middlesex suffered the indignity of a three-wicket loss to Herefordshire at Kingsland – only the 11th time since the Gillette Cup started nearly 40 years ago that a Minor County has beaten first-class opposition.An opening stand of 129 off 170 balls between Harshad Patel and Nathan Round exposed the shortcomings of the Middlesex attack and gave the home side an ideal start as they chased 279 for victory.Angus Fraser went for 33 runs in his first four overs and Jamie Hewitt conceded 36 off his first five.Patel and Round hit 14 boundaries in the first ten overs at the end of which they had 79 on the board.The introduction of Phil Tufnell and Paul Weekes slowed the scoring but, after that start, the home batsmen were not under much pressure.When Round had gone for 66 and Patel for 68, the lower order did the rest and, mainly thanks to 34 by Ismail Dawood, they eventually got home with three wickets and one ball to spare.A key moment came in the 41st over when Dawood, on 14, skied the ball to long on but Robin Weston put the catch down.After winning the toss Middlesex batted first and lost Andy Strauss in the first over. Their main contribution was a fifth-wicket partnership of 87 in 15 overs between David Nash, who was top-scorer with 58, and Mike Roseberry, who did second best with 46.But in the end it was the bowling that let Middlesex down and, amid great excitement and much rejoicing, Herefordshire reached their target in the final over, Aamir Farooque scoring the all-important winning run.

Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda de Silva are the latest players to have beencleared of the match-fixing charges made by bookmaker Mukesh Gupta’s in theCentral Bureau of Investigation (CBI) report.According to Gupta, De Silva and former captain Ranatunga had agreed tounder-perform in the Lucknow Test Match against India in 1994 and de Silvahad been paid US$15,000 after the game. Gupta further alleged that the pairhad been willing “to do” other Tests.Desmond Fernando, however, appointed by the Sri Lankan board to investigatethe allegations in November last year, was unable to question or cross-examine Gupta and was therefore forced to accept the testimonies of theplayers.Fernando handed over his report to the Sri Lankan board this week and isbelieved to have recommended that no action be taken against the twoplayers.This follows the news that England wicket-keeper Alec Stewart, accused by Gupta of accepting US$5000 for providing pitch, weather and team information, was also cleared by the England and Wales Cricket Board after Gupta’s steadfast refusal to face legal cross-examination by the Lord Condon’s ICC Anti-Corruption UnitThe Sri Lankan enquiry focused entirely on the claims made by Gupta. Noindependent evidence was uncovered and cross-examinations were restricted tothe two players directly concerned and present captain Sanath Jayasuriya,who is believed to have turned down an offer of US$500,000 to fix aninternational game.Extracts from his report, published in the Sunday Times this weekend, revealthat Fernando described Gupta’s CBI statement as “inadequate and untested”and believed that there were “infirmities which rendered his statementimpossible to be acted upon”.”In my view, the inquiry held by me has a higher evidentiary value than themere statement of Mr Gupta. His statement lacked precision,” he argues,pointing to the failure to state where the conversations took place, wherethe money was handed over to de Silva and whether it had been handed over incash or otherwise.”On the other hand, I saw the two cricketers, I heard them giving evidence,and they also indicated their willingness to answer any question put by me.”De Silva admits to having established a relationship with Gupta andidentified him from a photograph during his interview. Ranatunga was not socertain, saying that he might have met Gupta, but he was not sure that hecould remember the face.Describing Gupta as a person with “an immense knowledge of cricket”, DeSilva reveals that he first met Gupta in India, but was not introduced tohim by Manoj Prabhakar, as is alleged. The first meeting was apparentlycasual and after that Gupta would sometimes phone de Silva in Sri Lanka.He categorically denies having agreed to under-perform or having acceptedmoney, claiming: “We did not perform as a team. We did not produce the goodsand that was the reason for our debacle.”De Silva does though refer an incident, “in 1996 or 1997,” when he wascontacted by Gupta and asked to meet an associate, who was trying toorganise a series of exhibition matches. When de Silva met this man in hishotel room the subject quickly turned to fixing the match the following day.De Silva claims to have ended the meeting immediately and contacted the teammanager, Duleep Mendis, who then ordered a team meeting to warn the players.Mendis has confirmed to Fernando that de Silva had approached him.After that incident, De Silva says: “Every time he called I used to say,’please don’t call’, because I had a little bit of doubt. I just wanted to tryand keep away from him.”Ranatunga has vehemently denied the allegations all along, which he arguedwere “based entirely on the wholly uncorroborated evidence of aself-confessed rogue”. In a characteristically abrasive letter shortly afterhis interview, he described the allegations as “patently ridiculous”, arguingthat Gupta’s statement was riddled with logical shortcomings.Most colourfully, he alludes to the apparent failure to set a price beforethe alleged under-performance, stating: “Even Judas Iscariot agreed upon aprice of 30 pieces of silver before he betrayed Jesus Christ!”In Fernando’s report Ranatunga explains away his and de Silva’s failure(both batsmen scored an aggregate of 33 runs in their four innings) as theresult of poor umpiring: “Both of us were two batsmen only. The umpiring hadbeen terrible. So I was one of the victims on this particular one.”After the disastrous tour the Sri Lanka board launched an internal inquiry,later called the Skanda Kumar report. The report, which was highly criticalof Ranatunga’s captaincy and de Silva’s attitude towards other team members,stated that: “There is evidence that a bookmaker of Indian origin hasattempted to make his presence felt in the national cricket scene.”Ranatunga denied to Fernando any knowledge of the bookmaker referred to inthe report.Fernando’s final report will now be analysed by the Sri Lankan board. Noofficial statement has so far been given and it is not known as to whetherFernando has recommended a general inquiry into matching fixing in SriLanka.

Kent completed the ‘double’ over near-neighbours Essex with opening bowler Martin Saggers returning figures to influence another wretched batting display by the bottom-of-the-table side.The visitors had declared half an hour before lunch having built a first innings lead of 246 runs. Robert Key added another 23 runs to his overnight 100 before Justin Bishop ended his six-hour 45-minute vigil. That was one of four wickets for the 19-year-old bowler who returned figures of 4-120, a personal Championship best.Mark Ealham, with 44 which is his best CricInfo Championship score of the campaign, helped his side to their fourth batting point and a total of 353-7 before the declaration came.Although Essex negotiated the five overs before the lunch interval, they floundered in the next session losing eight wickets for 102 runs with only Paul Grayson appearing to relish the challenge.He eschewed any semblance of risk with an innings of composed restraint while his colleagues’ application fell wantonly short of the required application as a number of batsman brought about their demise with self-inflicted wounds.Spinner Min Patel provided the initial breakthrough, finding the edge of Richard Clinton’s bat where ‘keeper Paul Nixon took a uniform catch to start the Essex collapse.Saggers then made his striking intervention on proceedings as Darren Robinson became the first of his five victims, caught at short-leg for two runs. But it was the capture of two wickets in the space of three deliveries for the 29-year-old that tore the heart out of the home side as Stephen Peters was bowled for two and then Ronnie Irani completed a ‘pair’ after pushing feebly forward to be caught at second slip.Ben Trott offered chief support for his fellow paceman Saggers, initially accounting for James Foster for eight before he too grabbed two wickets in an over. Ashley Cowan and Bishop both fell in the penultimate over before tea and, with Tim Phillips having already been prised out by Matthew Fleming when he dabbed the Kent skipper to Nixon, Essex were facing another ignominious defeat at 110-8 wickets at tea.All the while, Grayson offered resolute resistance and seemed likely to become the first Essex opener since John Stephenson in 1991 to carry his bat through an innings but after losing Peter Such, who gave Saggers his fourth wicket, the former Yorkshire player’s model approach spanning almost three hours ended when the 136th delivery that he faced clipped off stump. That afforded bowler Saggers his best Championship figures of the season and his side victory by an innings and 132 runs earning them 19 points.Meanwhile Essex, with just two points, were left to lick the wounds of a fifth Championship defeat on their last six matches and they now look odds-on certainties for a return to Division Two at the end of the summer.

West Indies left-arm seamer Kenroy Peters was the tourists’ hero as he picked up five wickets in the second innings to help his side to 75-run victory in the First Under-19 Test at Leicester.Peters finished the game with match figures of 11 for 88 as West Indies managed to wrap up victory despite the showers.England had been set a target of 301 in 87 overs – the result of West Indies’declaration at 265 for nine.James Anderson had taken two wickets as the West Indies lost four for 11 runsin a hectic morning session and ended with five for 45 off 20 overs.When England batted, Kadeer Ali and Matt Prior produced innings of authority but the rest of the batting rather subsided with the only others reaching double figures being Gordon Muchall (37) and Nicky Peng (22).Prior (51) was caught behind driving loosely at Peters after he and Gordon Muchall had shared a sixth-wicket stand of 81 in 20 overs.That came after Birmingham-born Kadeer Ali had hit 15 fours in his 67 off 104balls. His straight driving was a delight until he too fell to Peters.England were eventually dismissed for 225 with 6.5 overs left.For the Second Test at Trent Bridge, starting next Wednesday, wicket-keeper Prior, Peng and left-arm seamer Justin Bishop will return to their counties – Sussex, Durham and Essex respectively.They will be replaced by Gloucestershire wicket-keeper Stephen Pope, Yorkshire’sJohn Sadler and Lancashire’s Kyle Hogg, the grandson of Sonny Ramadhin.Northamptonshire’s Robert Ferley makes up the 12.