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Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jaywardene has said that his side will look to capitalise on Andrew Flintoff’s absence when they take on England in the five-match one-day series starting at the Rangiri Dambulla Stadium on October 1.Flintoff was forced to pull-out of the series due to a troublesome left ankle. He also missed the last bilateral one-day series between the two teams in 2006 where England were walloped 5-0 at home.”Andrew is a top-class allrounder,” Jayawardene told , a Colombo-based daily. “England have a more balanced attack with him in their side because he is a batting allrounder who bowls really well. He is a matchwinner and his absence is obviously an advantage for us.”Jayawardene indicated that the England one-day side was stronger than the one they faced last year. “They have got some really good allrounders coming through,” he said. “We met them in the World Cup and it was a very close game. England will be a good challenge for us. It’s a big season ahead and we need to make sure we start on a very good note.”They also have some quality batsmen who play different roles, some we haven’t seen. We need to understand what those are and try to counter-attack them.”Commenting on the Sri Lankan squad, Jayawardene said it was a tough call for the selectors to pick allrounder Kaushal Lokuarachchi ahead of fellow legspinner Malinga Bandara.”Loku’s been performing really well in one-day internationals. We know what Bandara is capable of doing. Thinking of the future, you never know how long Sanath [Jayasuriya] is going to continue playing. We might have to fit in a spinning allrounder in the middle of our batting line-up. It’s good for us to try a few things right now, see what Loku has to offer and how we can have different combinations going forward.”On Muttiah Muralitharan, Jayawardene doubted whether he would be fit for the series. Muralitharan is recovering from a strained right bicep which he sustained while bowling long spells during his county stint with Lancashire.”It’s good to have Murali around but the reality is that he won’t be around for a long time. He won’t be playing all the matches. We need to give him adequate rest. Even the workload on [Chaminda] Vaas must be limited. When opportunities arise we have to try out new blood. There are a few guys we have earmarked. We will them bring slowly into the system.”Chanaka Welagedera, Mahela Udawatte and Dilruwan Perera are some of the players in the short list.

Daryl Tuffey’s first-class comeback has hit the buffers after he broke down during Northern District’s match against Canterbury in the State Championship.Tuffey, 28, has been out of the New Zealand side since February 2005 because of a long-standing bicep injury. He bowled 24 overs in the first innings against Canterbury, but could only manage five second time around before limping off with an Achilles tendon strain.Andy Moles, the Northern Districts coach, told the : “His body has got to get used to the workloads after his long layoff. We’ve got to manage him for the whole season so there’s no point risking it.”Tuffey has played 22 Tests and 76 one-day internationals but has struggled with a series of injuries over the past couple of years.

Scorecard

New South Wales’ top order all chipped in with useful contributions, helping them pip South Australia by three wickets with just one ball to spare in an ING Cup match at the Bankstown Oval in Sydney. Needing 246 for victory, no-one scored more than Michael Clarke’s 55, but all the batsmen made handy additions to the score, ensuring that New South Wales walked away with four points.Simon Katich, the NSW captain, won the toss and chose to field, and his decision immediately paid off when Matthew Elliott was dismissed by Brett Lee for a fourth-ball duck. Graham Manou, though, held firm, scoring a useful 52, while Darren Lehmann propped up the innings with an enterprising 75, scored from just 83 balls. Lee finished up with 2 for 61, and also struck Jason Gillespie on the ribs, forcing him to go for a precautionary e-ray, while Glenn McGrath was at his stingy best, conceding just 30 from ten overs.New South Wales’ run chase got off to a fine start, with Phil Jacques and Simon Katich adding 80 for the opening wicket in less than 15 overs. Both were dismissed in quick succession, but Clarke kept the chase going with his half-century, while the rest of the batsmen all added vital contributions. Clarke hit six fours in his knock, but got two lucky reprieves – on 17 he was put down by Gary Putland at long-on, while Manou, the wicketkeeper, dropped him on 49. Things got uncomfortable for NSW when Jason Gillespie bowled a superb 49th over, conceding just two runs and taking the wicket of Lee. That left the team needing seven for victory off the final over, and after the first four balls produced five, Nathan Bracken finished it off with an edged four off Mark Cleary.After the game, Clarke expressed his delight at his innings, but expressed his disappointment at the manner of his dismissal, a hoick down to long-off. “I definitely enjoyed yesterday and I enjoyed today, but I was disappointed with the way I got out today,” Clarke said. “I would have liked a few more today, but I feel like I’m hitting the ball pretty well. I’m working as hard as I can.”Lehmann, the South Australian captain, put the defeat down to poor fielding. “They played very well [but] we missed a couple of chances, and dropped Clarke. If we had held our chances and fielded a bit better we would have won the game quite comfortably.”The win was the second one for NSW in as many games, and took their points tally up to ten.

Kenya is to take part in the ICC’s Intercontinental Cup and has been drawn in the same group as Uganda and Namibia. Together, the three countries represent the African region of the competition, with the Americas, Asia and Europe making up the other regions, it was reported today by the .The matches, which last three days, have been awarded first-class status by the ICC, which wants to speed up the process of enlarging the number of Test-playing nations.While Kenya, who have had significant international experience, are expected to top their group and move into the semi-finals, the opposition they will face from then on will be a different matter. Their opponents will be any one of USA, Canada, UAE, Nepal, Scotland or Holland. After the semis, the finals will be held in the United Arab Emirates at Sharjah.Kenya will play Uganda on July 23-25 and will take on Namibia on October 1-3.The pools
Kenya, Uganda, Namibia
UAE, Nepal, Malaysia
USA, Canada, Bermuda
Scotland, Holland, Ireland

May 8 down the years 1970
One of the world’s best one-day batsman is born. Michael Bevan introduced the word “finisher” into the cricket dictionary with a series of performances as cool and calm as his nudging, scampering style is frenetic. A visitor from Mars might find it extraordinary that such a run-machine does not get near Australia’s Test team, but after a promising start (82, 70 and 91 on the anaesthetised Pakistani pitches in 1994-95) his weakness against the short ball was exposed by Darren Gough and Dean Headley in particular. In fact, in the longer game, Bevan’s trump card has often been his erratic, but potentially deadly, skiddy slow-left chinamen: he bowled West Indies to defeat with 10 wickets at Adelaide in 1996-97, and skittled South Africa with six more in Johannesburg two Tests later. It was destructive stuff: of those 16 wickets, nine were out for 2 or less.1938
If Pakistani batsmen are renowned for their swashbuckling flair then Javed Burki, who was born today, was the exception that proved the rule. Burki, the first cousin (and childhood hero) of Imran Khan, was stoic in defence, and his three Test centuries were fairly painstaking affairs. They all came against England in a five-Test, nine-month period in 1961-62. He captained Pakistan in England in 1962 when he was only 24, but they were hammered 4-0 and Burki lost his job. He later became an ICC match referee.1942
Birth of an Englishman who smashed a century off 45 balls against Australia. The genial Robin Hobbs was playing for Essex in a tour match when he pummelled Jim Higgs and Ashley Mallett all round Chelmsford. Hobbs’s day job was as a legspinner, the last such specialist to play for England for over 20 years before Ian Salisbury in 1992, although he struggled for penetration in his seven Test appearances.1908
No Northants player reached double figures as they were demolished for just 27 and 14 by Yorkshire in their County Championship match at Northampton. George Hirst, whose match figures were 12 for 19 off 20.1 overs, also managed more runs in one knock (44) than Northants mustered in both innings. Their aggregate of 42 was the lowest in first-class history at the time, and remains the second-lowest.1896
Another good day for Yorkshire, who made the highest total in County Championship history. From the relative depths of 448 for 7, they reached the lofty heights of 887 against Warwickshire at Edgbaston, with four batsmen making centuries, then promptly reduced their hosts to 31 for 5. Not content with bashing 85 from No. 10, George Hirst then took 8 for 59. But though Warwickshire followed on 684 runs behind, Yorkshire, not entirely surprisingly, ran out of time.1873
Birth of Henry Leveson Gower (pronounced Loosen Gore), who only played three Tests, in South Africa in 1909-10, but who had a big role in the development of the game in England. He played for Surrey, and was later their president, as well as chairing the England selection committee for a time. He also ran the Scarborough Cricket Festival for nearly 50 years. Leveson Gower was knighted for his services to cricket in 1953, and died in Kensington a year later.1923
Nobody has scored more first-class centuries than Jack Hobbs’s 197, and on this day at Bath he made the 100th of those 197, for Surrey against Somerset. Hobbs had gone for 0 in the first innings, when Surrey were skittled for 91, but his 116 not out was enough for Surrey to win a thriller by ten runs.1985
A dramatic collapse in Jamaica put the seal on another comfortable West Indies series win. New Zealand had to win the match to square the series, an unlikely prospect as soon as they followed on 225 behind. But when they closed the third day on 211 for 1, anything was possible. Sadly for New Zealand, what happened was a Malcolm Marshall-induced slide from 223 for 1 to 283 all out, which left Gordon Greenidge and Des Haynes to knock off the 59 needed for a second consecutive ten-wicket victory.Other birthdays
1902 “Curly” Page (New Zealand)
1961 Riaz Poonawalla (UAE)

Danish Kaneria was delighted with his comeback Test performance andpromised to maintain the standard he has now set for himself.”I can’t be more delighted and satisfied with my performance. It wasmy comeback Test and I required to do something special to reclaim myplace in the squad,” the 20-year-old told reporters after the draw ofstumps on the first day.Danish was dropped after two Tests against England before he earnedthe selectors’ nod following a good performance on the tour to SriLanka with Pakistan ‘A’.”It is flattering to play in company like this and then steal thelimelight when champions like Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis are sharingthe new ball. You don’t get this opportunity everyday,” the Karachiitesaid.He termed his success to his training at the National Cricket Academyin Lahore and then the tour to Sri Lanka. “These were immense learningexperiences. But the senior players also assisted me during the camp.Overall, it has been a pleasing performance and I am looking forwardto maintain the standards I have set. But not everyday will I be ableto pick six wickets though I will persist hard to be among the wickettakers,” Danish said.Saeed Anwar, who perhaps got the right opponents to slam a crackingcentury, said he was keen to get the three figures for which heconcentrated very hard.”Although the bowling was relatively moderate, but one still needed tostay in the centre and concentrate. It has been a good innings underhot conditions which confirms how much I am keen to perform andcontinue to play for the country,” Saeed said.Saeed said his knees did bother him while emphasizing that he had beenstruggling in the past to play innings because of injuries to both theknees.He said completing 4,000 runs and joining the company of JavedMiandad, Salim Malik, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Zaheer Abbas and Mudassar Nazarwas a great honour. But added that he had not set any goals forhimself.”My priority is to play for Pakistan with distinction. My job is torun and I am keen to score as many runs as I can. I know myresponsibilities at top of the order and am looking forward tofulfilling the job to the best of my abilities.”

If Australia and New Zealand are the big brother and little brother across the ditch, they have certainly mastered the art of the sibling insults. You’re immature. No, you are. I know you are but what am I? Such is the niggle that has crept in between the teams this year, a year in which they not only faced off in a World Cup final, but have clearly approached their cricket in different ways.New Zealand under Brendon McCullum are all about the spirit of cricket. No sledging and send-offs for them. By comparison, Australia have been widely viewed as the villains of the rivalry, the masters of the on-field verbals, the send-offs, of playing to win at all costs. They say they try not to cross the line, but in the words of David Warner: “We’ve head-butted it a couple of times”.A key case of carping this year was McCullum’s column in September, when he said that Australia’s captain Steven Smith had “showed his immaturity” by not withdrawing an obstructing the field appeal against England’s Ben Stokes in an ODI. McCullum argued that it was a chance for Smith to make a statement about the way he wanted his side to play.It was a comment that was not well received by the Australians, who in the lead-up to this week’s first Test in Brisbane have clearly not forgotten McCullum’s words. Smith told this week that he was “a little bit disappointed” and that he felt it was none of McCullum’s business; his vice-captain was less polite in his words when asked about the incident on Tuesday.”In my opinion it was something that was quite poor and immature on his behalf, to actually make the comment about Steve,” Warner said. “For one, as an international cricketer I don’t see the need or the right for a current cricket captain to write columns on another series. After I read the first one I didn’t really pay attention to what he was saying.”His opinion is going to be heard worldwide but you can’t be talking about the players the way he did. At the end of the day he’s the captain and you’ve got to respect Brendon, he’s done a great job with the Kiwis and he’s trying to make them the world’s politest team, and well done to him.”Warner was critical of what he considered to be the hypocrisy of McCullum by having his team play as the “Mr Nice Guys” of world cricket on the field, yet criticise Australia’s captain off it. New Zealand have been regular winners of the ICC’s Spirit of Cricket Award, but that is not something that interests Warner.McCullum had written that Smith had shown his immaturity by not withdrawing an obstructing-the-field appeal against England at Lord’s•Getty Images

“At the end of the day you’re not playing for the Spirit of Cricket Award are you, you’re playing for a series and for us that’s what our goal is, is to win the series,” he said. “Our goal is to be No.1 in all formats and we’re always going to fight for that. At the end of the day we try not to cross that line. A couple of times we’ve head-butted it.”Smith, for his part, said this week that if he had his time over again he would do nothing differently in following through with the obstructing the field appeal against Stokes. McCullum wondered in his newspaper column at the time whether Smith might live to regret the appeal, but Australia’s captain dismissed that suggestion this week.”I actually wouldn’t change a thing,” Smith said. “I think what happened, Starcy threw the ball and Stokes willingly put his hand out when the ball was going to hit the stumps, so for me it was just out. If I faced the same situation again you’d get the same result.”It was a nice little experience. Obviously the crowds can be quite vocal over in England, at Lord’s that day they were getting into you. That doesn’t happen too often but I think it was nice to look back and be able to say if that happened again I’d do the same thing. No regrets.”The New Zealanders can no doubt expect some choice words from the Australians when the Test series begins on Thursday, as was the case during the World Cup; after the final, Brad Haddin said he had wanted to get stuck into New Zealand because they had been so nice it made him feel uncomfortable. Fast bowler Trent Boult said sledging was not in the New Zealand make-up.”In terms of sledging, the Australians are known for that but I can’t see us wasting too much energy there and getting caught up in too much of that stuff,” Boult said. “We haven’t spoken about don’t sledge anyone or anything like that. It’s 38 degrees out there at the moment so we aren’t going to waste our energy trying to spray the Australians.”

Lee-thal
The first 10am start of the tournament at Cape Town always meant the toss would be crucialand after the coin fell in Australia’s favour, Brett Lee was on thespot straight away. His second ball swung back into Sanath Jayasuriya,cutting him in half, the next delivery was a touch fuller and didexactly the same. This time Asad Rauf raised his finger and Sri Lankawere immediately on the back foot. Meanwhile, Jayasuriya’stournament continued to nosedive with his last three scores reading 5,0 and 0.Catching on
Lee was at the centre of most of the early action. After removingJayasuriya he held onto Upul Tharanga’s top edge at third man beforehaving Mahela Jayawardene caught at mid-on from a ball which stoppedon the surface. Jayawardene could hardly tear himself away from thecrease, realising his side’s chances were slipping away. The problemsgrew when Lee, again at third man, but this time to aright-hander, made Chamara Silva’s outside edge appear a comfortablecatch. It used to be that fast bowlers didn’t make the best fieldersbut Lee is a supreme athlete – and confirmed it with a third catch, awell-judged running effort, to remove Chaminda Vaas.Clark and Clarke
Early on in the tournament the scoreboard at Newlands had a few issuesdeciding whether it wanted to show Michael Clarke or Stuart Clark.It’s a good job it was in full working order today as both combinedtwice to plunge Sri Lanka into deeper trouble. Kumar Sangakkara,trying his best to hold the innings together, slashed to backwardpoint where Clarke took a smart low catch, but his next effort was onanother level. Farveez Maharoof tried to drive through the covers,only to get an outside edge which flew in the direction of Clarke. Itwas skimming inches above the turf; Clarke flung himself to hisright and managed to get a hand underneath the ball for one of thecatches of the tournament.Six and ouch
The control Australia had throughout the innings was emphasised whenthe first six didn’t come until the 19th over – a meaty blow by LasithMalinga – but that wasn’t the real drama. Shane Watson, in his firstmatch back after recovering from a hamstring injury, followed throughand immediately clutched his left hamstring. Once again he left thefield distraught and more time on the sidelines beckons. It isbecoming a depressing pattern and creates further questions aboutWatson’s long-term future.Bullying batting
Australia barely had to break sweat during their run chase, but therewas still time for Matthew Hayden to show his brute force. Hisunforgiving strokeplay stamped Australia’s complete superiority onthe match, but it is no different to the way he goes about his inningsin ODIs and sometimes even in Tests. There isn’t anything gracefulabout how he plays, wielding his huge bat like a sledge hammer, but ithas served him well and lifted him top of the run-scoring table forthe time being.

Dennis Lillee believes England’s fast bowlers will be licking their lips at the prospect of rattling an ageing Australian top order. Lillee, who enjoyed playing against England’s “Dad’s Army” team of 1974-75, said Australia’s senior batsmen could be the side’s undoing during the Ashes series.Justin Langer will be 36 when the first Test starts at the Gabba on November 23, while Matthew Hayden, Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist will all be 35. Writing in his column in the , Lillee said he welcomed the chance to bowl against ageing England batsmen such as Colin Cowdrey, who played in 1974-75 at the age of 42.”Over a period of time, as a fast bowler, you get to learn that a batsman’s reflexes definitely get slower as he gets older,” Lillee wrote. “Mark my word, the England pace attack, mentally buoyed and on faster Australian wickets, will this summer be at their absolute peak age-wise.”Lillee said batsmen found it harder to hide problems as they got older. “I’m not having a go at individuals, it’s just that this is what happens,” he said. “Australia have some great players but even the greatest players get tapped on the shoulder by Father Time at some stage. We’ve got to wonder if that time has arrived for some of them.”Lillee said Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey were at the peak of their powers, but the possible absence of Michael Clarke and Phil Jaques would hurt Australia. Although he expects Gilchrist to perform better than in last year’s Ashes, he said if the visitors could contain his explosive batting it would greatly harm Australia’s cause.He said Langer was another to face a significant challenge, having not played a Test since being hit in the head by a Makhaya Ntini delivery in April. Lillee expressed grave doubts that the home side could live up to expectations. “It’s worrying how Australia, after being outplayed in England, are going to turn things around with a decidedly older team,” he wrote.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer produced Australia’s first century opening stand of the series to give them the ideal base as they pursued England’s first-innings 373 on the second afternoon at The Oval. But their progress was halted after tea when bad light and surrounding thunderstorms took the players off. England’s tail had rallied at the start of the day, but their efforts only proved that this pitch is still full of runs and the Australians are determined to cash in.It was surprising when Australia took the offer of bad light as soon as the teams reappeared after the tea interval. They are the side that has to win the Test to hold the Ashes and England won’t be bothered how much time is taken out of the match. Although the downpours that hit the north and west of London skirted around Kennington, drizzle did arrive and the light never improved. Michael Vaughan would have been delighted to spend some time in the dressing-room to allow him and his attack to come up with some new ideas to tackle a new problem – a productive opening stand from Australia.Langer was by far the more fluent of the openers and, after carefully negotiating the first burst from England’s pace bowlers, he greeted Ashley Giles with two huge sixes, signalling his intent to dominate. Hayden, meanwhile, had to battle away as he strived to find the touch which has eluded him for the entire series. But the longer he stayed there the easier it became, and by the tea interval his footwork was more positive than at any stage this summer.

England did have the opportunity to force a breakthrough, albeit via an unlikely source. After Giles’s first over was dispatched for 14, Vaughan turned to Paul Collingwood, England’s fifth bowler in the absence of Simon Jones. Collingwood is by no means a frontline bowler but he surprised Langer with extra bounce and a flashing edge flew to the right of Marcus Trescothick at a wide slip. But Trescothick moved late and could only get one hand on the ball, parrying it to the boundary. Langer was on 53 at the time and was playing with ominous confidence.The difference in England’s attack from the previous four Tests was stark. It would be stretching the point to say Vaughan was searching for options but he was certainly missing a fifth frontline option – despite Collingwood’s impressive spell. Steve Harmison was not at his best and with just the four main choices Vaughan needed everyone firing.Giles switched ends and brought a modicum of control as well as creating the occasional moment of concern for Langer out of the footmarks, who was lucky to escape a close lbw appeal from an attempted sweep. But those areas will concern England too, with Shane Warne having already performed wonders in the first innings. However, there is a lot of work for England to do before they can consider batting again and they would gladly take a single breakthrough at the moment.The signs at the beginning of the day were that Australia were focused and up for the challenge. Brett Lee struck in his first over to dislodge the dangerous Geraint Jones with a delivery that pitched on the off stump and held its line to clip the woodwork.

With Jones’s demise adding to the late fall of wickets on the opening day, Australia were engineering a promising position and England were in danger of falling short of the 350 that was really a minimum. However, Giles has a useful habit of scoring runs when England need them most – his heroics and Trent Bridge will still have been fresh in his mind – and he began to play his shots once he was joined by the fast bowlers.Matthew Hoggard hung around for 50 minutes of resistance before he was fooled by a Glenn McGrath slower ball and spooned a catch to Damien Martyn at mid off. The Australians then felt rightly aggrieved when Rudi Koertzen missed an edge from Giles as he flashed at a wide ball from McGrath. Ponting was incensed by the decision, and Giles proceed to increase the Australian frustration by hitting out with Harmison.Both batsmen chanced their arm, with Giles giving himself room to hit over the off side and Harmison unleashing his powerful short-arm pull. Harmison them took three consecutive fours off Brett Lee, including a stunning straight drive. Warne, though, brought an end to the fun when he claimed his sixth wicket, but he had Billy Bowden to thank as the ball which struck Giles in front would have spun past the off stump. Australia will have felt it evened up the umpiring decisions after the earlier rough call.The bowlers – or more specifically Warne – had done their job and England’s total was no more than par on an excellent surface. It was then down to the Australia batsmen, who haven’t fired as a unit in this series when it really matters, to play their part by setting the foundations for a huge total. The batting may have spluttered so far but judging by the start made by Langer and Hayden they could well have chosen the most important moment of the summer to make an impact.

EnglandGeriant Jones b Lee 25 (325 for 8)
Matthew Hoggard c Martyn b McGrath 2 (345 for 9)
Ashley Giles lbw b Warne 32 (373 all out)