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When Allan Donald took his 300th Test wicket on the third day of the first Castle Lager/MTN Test match against New Zealand in Bloemfontein on Sunday, his thoughts turned immediately to disgraced former teammate and captain Hansie Cronje.On a day when New Zealand were bowled out for 229 in the first innings and followed on to reach 82 for one in reply to South Africa’s 471 for nine declared, Donald took centre stage. But even in his moment of triumph South Africa’s finest fast bowler could not help wondering what might have been.”My mind went out straight to Hansie,” Donald said afterwards. “I felt that it would have been great for him to have been there at mid off. I almost felt like looking round to see if he was charging towards me. That’s something that stuck out immediately – that Hansie wasn’t there next to me. Always when we’ve taken wickets or broken partnerships or reached milestones, he was always the one there first to congratulate me. I shall ring him tonight, but I’m sure he’ll ring me first.”It was, said Donald, a milestone that had started to preoccupy him a little and he had felt relief when it finally arrived. He intends to go on, but said he might wait for more responsive pitches, perhaps in Port Elizabeth or at the Wanderers before setting 350 or possible even 400 wickets as his next goals.Donald conceded that it would not be easy to bowl New Zealand a second time on a pitch that has steadily played slower and lower. But South Africa have two days to do it in, two days during which New Zealand will have to mount an heroic rearguard action if they are to avoid going one down in the series.The tourists started the day at 54 for two and lost wickets steadily throughout the next two sessions. Craig Spearman went to Shaun Pollock in the eighth over of the morning before Stephen Fleming and Nathan Astle mounted the only worthwhile partnership of the innings, 79 in 71 minutes for the fourth wicket.But shortly after Fleming had reached his 25th Test fifty – the significance being that he has only twice kicked on to three figures – that man Nicky Boje reappeared to bedevil New Zealand once again.He bowled the Kiwi captain between bat and pad for 57 and three balls later Makhaya Ntini had Astle superbly caught by Jacques Kallis diving across in front of first slip for 37.New Zealand were to lost another wicket when Craig McMillan was caught at the wicket to become Donald’s 299th victim, and two quickly after the interval as Pollock accounted for Adam Parore and Daryl Tuffey.Then Brooke Walker, the young legspinner playing his first Test innings, and Shayne O’Connor stuck it out for 22 overs. Pollock used all his bowlers except Donald, who was kept back for the second new ball. And when it came due, it worked immediately as Donald bagged O’Connor with his first delivery to the left-hander.The armoured car boomed out three times and the crowd rose. The only disappointing feature was that there weren’t many of them. Fewer than 6 000 turned up to watch one of Bloemfontein’s sons become only the 15th bowler in the history of the game to reach 300 Test wickets.Kallis ended the innings when Chris Martin was taken by Mark Boucher, leaving Walker unbeaten on 27, and Spearman made only 15 before splicing a pull off Ntini to have New Zealand 33 for one in the follow on.With Mark Richardson making 50, the tourists survived to the close without further mishap, but they are still 160 in arrears with two days to play. It is not, as Donald pointed out, a pitch that affords the seamers a great deal of help now, but it is starting to come through low and it won’t get any better before the end of the match.And Boje did manage to get one or two to turn on the third day. He had a terrific one-day series against New Zealand and it is entirely possible that he hasn’t finished with them yet.

Ed: Maria Naureen is our correspondent from Karachi, a FM 101 radio talk-show host, cricket radio commentator and sports journalist

Warren Dugmore from Rand Afrikaans University will captain the South African Students XI against Kenya at the University of the Western Cape on October 20.The full team is: Warren Dugmore (capt, RAU), Andrew Cyster (Stellenbocsh),Lazola Dipha (UPE), Bruce Fredericks (UPE), Graham Grace (PE Technikon), Darren Helwick (Wits), Francois Herbst (RAU), Mathew Holmes (Potch Uni), William Motaung (Wits Technikon), Pieter van Niekerk (Potch), Mario Wilson (UPE), Eric Wyma (UPE).Manager: Mike Gardiner (Cape Tech; Coach: Riaan Osman (PE Technikon)

Karnataka players will have to live with “appalling” crowd behaviour in Mysore when they take on Odisha in their Group A Ranji Trophy match starting Saturday. Robin Uthappa had said after the team’s last home game against Haryana that “a lot of us felt” the game against Odisha should be moved out, but Brijesh Patel, the secretary of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), stated that the venue for the match starting on November 7 will not be changed.Close to 1500 spectators turned up on the opening day of Karnataka’s clash against Haryana on October 22, with several players heckled and booed during the course of the day in which Virender Sehwag made a swashbuckling century.”Murmurs were going around in the media, but no official request was made by the team management to change the venue,” Patel told ESPNcricinfo. “These incidents will happen from time to time. Fans can get excited sometimes when they see a great player in action. Legends like Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble have always found support when they have played at other venues. They [Karnataka] have to just get on with it. We need to just focus on the cricket.”Uthappa, who was at the centre of it all while fielding in the deep in the first innings, expressed displeasure at the abuse hurled at him and the team. HS Sharath and David Mathias, the pacers, also faced taunts from the crowd occasionally.”A lot of us feel like we’re playing an away game when we come here,” Uthappa had said. “Most of the boys want the next game, which is supposed to be in Mysore, to be shifted elsewhere because you don’t want the atmosphere to be like this when you are playing in a home game. You want it to be an advantage, not a disadvantage.”It is disheartening but you perceive it differently and you take it in your stride. It doesn’t really bother us because we are professionals. But if you look at it from an emotional perspective or a support perspective, it’s just appalling, to be very frank.”The game against Odisha will be Karnataka’s last in Mysore this season, after which they are slated to play their final home game against Delhi in Hubli from November 23.

ICC chief executive David Richardson has said that profitability of fixtures for broadcasters has been a stumbling block for getting top Associates Ireland and Afghanistan fixtures since their inclusion in the ICC ODI rankings table earlier this year. However, he said that the possible creation of an ODI facilitation fund could help alleviate these obstacles.”It’s a fact that even matches between the lower-ranked Full Members, like Zimbabwe versus Sri Lanka for example, don’t make revenues so that the series are making a profit or if it does it’s making a very small profit,” Richardson said at the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in Malahide. “You can imagine series between Afghanistan and the West Indies also cost a lot and the revenues might not necessarily be enough to cover those costs.”One of the talking points or suggestions that is being considered, and in October we’re having a joint meeting between our chief executives committee and the board on which there will be six representatives from the Associate members taking part in that discussion, will be trying to make sure that Full Members take some responsibility in scheduling fixtures against Associate members and if finances are a problem that we think of introducing an ODI fund similar to the Test fund that was introduced to help subsidise the costs of those series.”Richardson also said it is possible for Full Member countries to be forced to participate in future World Twenty20 Qualifiers. If Bangladesh or Zimbabwe finish outside the top eight spots on the ODI rankings table by September 2017, they will have to compete in the 50-over World Cup Qualifier with Associates for the final two spots in the 10-team event for 2019. That could be the case in the future for the ICC’s flagship T20 tournament as well.”When we put the package together for this next eight-year cycle, it was envisaged that we raise the profile of these qualifying tournaments, number one by making it crucial for qualification but also involving the Full Members, not excluding them from having to participate in these qualifying tournaments going forward. The objective to that is not only to make them self-sufficient and generate some more revenues for everybody for the development of the game but also just to raise the profile of these countries.”Before, for Holland, if they got to the World Cup they got a bit of profile.  If they just missed out, they lost out on that.  If we can raise the profile of these tournaments, and you’ve seen evenly matched teams provides for good entertainment, it will raise that profile. It is good for cricket in those countries as well, even if they don’t end up going to the tournament itself.”As for the ODI rankings table, if Zimbabwe were to dip below Afghanistan or Ireland, they may still be protected due to their Full Member status while the lower-ranked Associate would have a play-off with the top team in the WCL Championship for promotion into the ODI rankings table. Richardson conceded that this wasn’t meritocratic but that Zimbabwe had earned their status through historical performances, which needed to be taken into consideration.”At this stage the board, all they’ve agreed to do is say that it’s the lowest ranked Associate member who would play-off,” Richardson said. “At this stage we have got this distinction between Full Members and Associate members. I think long term, that distinction will eventually vanish but its really long term and not in the foreseeable future. A proper promotion and relegation would mean that the bottom ranked team would have to play off but that’s not the situation we’ve got. I think it’s a process and we’re working towards something.”Explaining the decision to move the World Twenty20 from a two- to a four-year cycle, Richardson argued it was done so as not to “kill the golden goose”. The increasing popularity of other domestic T20 tournaments such as the IPL, Big Bash and Caribbean Premier League were also factors.”I think the World T20 is valuable and if you play it too often it will become less valuable,” Richardson said. “We also have to recognise that around the world we have these domestic Twenty20 leagues which are high profile, are very attractive to broadcasters and it’s a case of there’s premium content out there and probably less is more.”A reduced tournament cycle means Associate nations will have fewer competitive and funding opportunities in a quadrennial World T20 cycle than the biennial tournament structure that was previously in place. However, Richardson claimed Associates will be better funded in other ways to make up for the loss in playing opportunities.”When it comes to funding for Associate members, it needs to be looked at not only in respect of participation fees,” Richardson said. “The bottom line is that a country like Ireland, with the projected revenues that the ICC is hoping to achieve over the next eight-year cycle, a doubling of the participation fee will be dwarfed by the increased funding Ireland will receive as one of the top Associate members.”Richardson commended the two host countries Ireland and Scotland for the job they have been doing in hosting the World Twenty20 Qualifier over the past two weeks. When asked what it would take to assign the World Twenty20 itself to an emerging market, similar to what World Rugby has done in awarding the 2019 Rugby World Cup to Japan, Richardson said that profitability would be the most important factor both from a gate revenue and television rights standpoint.”I don’t think it’s impossible to imagine. What we have to consider when awarding events is number one, will it at least optimise the revenues. So is it in the correct time zone, will sponsors want to get involved knowing that there’s an event in these particular places in the next four or five years? So that’s a factor that needs to be taken into consideration. At the moment we are too reliant on revenues generated out of India. It’s a problem for the game. Everybody says it.”If we can open up new markets, be it the USA, Europe or whatever, then there’s no reason we can’t take major global events to those regions. The other aspect of course is facilities. Cricket is difficult. We’ve got to have great facilities. We’ve tried Malaysia before for Under-19 events and yes everyone did their best and it wasn’t too bad but it wasn’t really good enough. So when we’re deciding whether to go to Kenya or Ireland, Ireland could probably manage it. But a major global event needs 40,000 to 50,000 seat stadiums. Those factors have to be taken into account.”

Karachi, Oct 21: Fast bowler Mohammad Sami gets a chance to stamp his potential in big cricket when he plays for Pakistan `A’ against England in a day and night fixture at the National Stadium here on Sunday.Sami, considered as quick as an out of commission Shoaib Akhtar, has captured 14 wickets in two Quaid-i-Azam Trophy matches this season at an average of 12.But the thing that makes the 18-year-old Sami different from others is that he generates pace from an unlike Waqar Younis long run-up. Sami is not only quick off the wicket, he has complete command over his accuracy, line and length as evident from the fact that out of his 14 wickets, six are bowled and as many leg before wickets.Sami’s appearance will surely help the England players have a close look at home as they are expected to face in the Test matches.England will be playing their last warm-up match before backto-back three one-day internationals on Oct 24, 27 and 30. England haven’t named the team but are likely to make just one change with Ashley Giles replacing Paul Grayson.Pakistan `A’ squad includes just two Test players in Hasan Raza and Ijaz Ahmad Junior, while seven have represented Pakistan at different levels. They are Bazid Khan (captain), Humayun Farhat (wicketkeeper), Salman Butt, Zahid Saeed, Yasir Hameed, Naumanullah and Fahad Khan.The match starts at 2:30 pm and is expected to draw more crowd because of holiday. They spectators turn-out was not good on Friday chiefly because of the high prices of tickets that ranged between Rs 100 to 400.Teams (to be selected from):England: Alec Stewart, Marcus Trescothick, Nasser Hussain (captain), Graeme Hick, Graham Thorpe, Andrew Flintoff, Craig White, Mark Ealham, Ashley Giles, Andrew Caddick, Darren Gough, Paul Grayson, Vikram Solanki, Mark Alleyne and Matthew Hoggard.Pakistan A: Bazid Khan (captain), Hasan Raza, Humayun Farhat, Salman Butt, Mohammad Sami, Shiraz Haider, Naumanullah, Ijaz Ahmad, Fahad Khan, Zahid Saeed, Zaheer Chauhan, Shahid Yousuf, Akhtar Ali and Yasir Hameed.Umpires: Feroz Butt and Islam Khan.

Match facts

Wednesday, April 9, 2015
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)2:46

Agarkar: Chennai’s nucleus well set

Big picture

Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Daredevils are possibly IPL’s two most contrasting teams. One from the south, the other from north. One with an enviable IPL pedigree, the other with one of the poorest tournament records. One a stable team with a stable leader, the other, constantly looking for their messiah. One in yellow, almost as confident in IPL as Australia are in their gold kit, the other, in blue, a bit lost like England. It’s not difficult to see which team will be more nervous when the two meet in Chennai.After finishing at the bottom of the points table for two consecutive seasons, Daredevils went on a head-turning shopping binge at the IPL auction. Record cash was splashed on one man in the hope that it would rejuvenate a side devoid of an icon. It will be, therefore, a huge challenge for the team, as well as for Yuvraj Singh, to make a statement in their first outing, specially with the absence of Angelo Mathews, who won’t be available to play as the match is in Chennai. A win would be perfect but even a good fight would ease Daredevils’ fans and management.However, that is not going to come easy. Super Kings, who made it to the play-offs last year without playing a game in Chennai, are going to love being back; Chepauk is their fortress. It’s hard to imagine that the first two times Daredevils played here, they comfortably beat Super Kings. Daredevils, however, lost their last three games in Chennai. Can 2015 bring in the change? Daredevils would certainly hope so.New outfit, same pressures on Yuvraj Singh•PTI

Watch out for…

Brendon McCullum has the habit of setting the tone as an opener. Last year, he was the third-highest run-getter for Super Kings with 405 runs. Those came at a strike rate of 121.62. But if his World Cup form – 328 runs at a scorching rate of 188.50 – is an indicator, McCullum could be one of the most dangerous batsman for Super Kings in the first half of the tournament.The same can’t be said about Daredevils’ opener. Quinton de Kock had a brilliant start to his international career but had a poor World Cup, managing 145 runs in eight outings. There were others in the South Africa batting line-up to cover for his lack of form, but in the Daredevils set-up, he will have to lead the way.

Stats and trivia

• Delhi Daredevils managed five wins in 30 matches over the last two seasons, a massive dip in fortunes after finishing at top of the table in the 2012 edition
• Zaheer Khan hasn’t played competitive cricket for almost a year – Mumbai Indians’ match against Kings XI on May 3, 2014 was his last outing

Quotes

“Irfan Pathan is not fit and he will not be considered. Also, Andrew Tye is carrying a slight injury. These two players will have to be watched from day to day and my understanding is that they will not be available for selection for the first game.”
“We have Yuvraj Singh this time. Shreyas Iyer is an exciting cricketer. In all counts, we want to do well in this IPL and hopefully we will be the first team to make the top four and then go up in the ladder.”

Jhulan Goswami, India women’s vice-captain, has said top-order collapses led to India’s overwhelming defeats in the first two one-dayers against England. However she was upbeat about the side’s chances of turning around the 2-0 scoreline to win the five-match series.”The top-order batting are not playing as well as they can,” Goswami told the ICC website. “If they click it will be different for us. In one-day cricket you need runs on the board. It is difficult to bowl when you are defending a low total. But we can still do well and I believe we can come back and win the series as each and every game is different.”Only three batsmen in the top six have managed to get double figures so far, with Mithali Raj scoring 97 of India’s 226 runs in the two ODIs. India were bowled out for 102 in the second match, which they lost by 10 wickets, and four batsmen were out for ducks and four others for single figures.Goswami acknowledged the England side had improved a lot since the two sides last met in March 2007. “They are playing good cricket having won against Australia in Australia, beat New Zealand in New Zealand and beat South Africa but we can beat them.”The two teams will stay on in Taunton for the third ODI on Thursday followed by a Twenty20 game on Friday.

New Zealand are likely to tour Zimbabwe in 2009 unless ordered not to by the country’s government. New Zealand’s prime minister Helen Clark has said that she does not want a side from her country touring there next year but hasn’t intervened to stop them from travelling to Zimbabwe.”No ICC team has unilaterally pulled out because they haven’t agreed with the politics of the host nation; that’s always been a decision for the government of the day,” Justin Vaughan, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) chief executive, told . “It’s a political question and requires a political solution; it’s not a decision NZC should have to make.”We are a group of cricket administrators. We might have strong feelings about the situation in Zimbabwe but judging international politics is not what we’re about. There are other, far more qualified people to do that job, politicians for example.”The tour to Zimbabwe is a year away,” he said. “There’ll be another ICC conference before then; undoubtedly, a lot will change in Zimbabwe in the next year, and by that time the ICC sub-committee appointed to investigate ZC will have reported back, and we’ll have a clearer idea of the situation. You never know, we might not have to make a decision. Time is on our side at the moment.”New Zealand toured Zimbabwe for a Test series in 2005, and are due to return there in a year’s time, but Clark made it clear she was completely against the idea, arguing that Zimbabwe was not a fit country to play cricket against.The government stepped in to ban Zimbabwe from touring later in 2005 by refusing to grant their players visas, and it may well be that they will follow the lead given by John Howard who, when he was prime minister of Australia, prevented a team from his country visiting Zimbabwe.

Western Australia will always be Michael Hussey’s first choice, but he will follow the rules in the unlikely event he is forced to play for the Chennai Super Kings in the Twenty20 Champions League. However, Hussey’s availability for the lucrative tournament, which will include two teams from Australia, South Africa, England and India, is in major doubt due to his international commitments in September and October.Australia will spend a month in India for a Test series following the Champions Trophy in Pakistan. “I’m a Western Australia boy through and through, born and bred, so if I’m playing a competition I’d probably prefer to play for Western Australia,” Hussey said in the Sydney Morning Herald. “But if the rules state that I’m playing for Chennai, then I’m very happy to play for them as well.”Hussey originally thought he would be free to represent Western Australia, but Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman, said the Indian franchises would get the first pick on players. “To hear something different seems a bit strange to me,” Hussey said, “but obviously if that’s the rules, that’s the rules.”