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Frizzell County Championship Division OneDay 1 ReportEssex v Leicestershire 471 for 5 at Southend
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It’s not often a side racks up over 400 in a day, but bottom-placed Leicestershire took advantage of an inexperienced Essex attack and a flat pitch to race to a whopping 471 for 5 – the most runs scored in a day this season. Darren Stevens smashed 24 fours in his 149, and he put on 108 with John Maunders (44) for the first wicket. Darren Maddy continued the assault with 41 followed by a rasping 74 from Brad Hodge, and that was just a taste of things to come for the hapless bowlers. Trevor Ward joined in the fun with a crucifying 103 not out from only 89 balls and Paul Nixon rubbed things in with an easy 30. Essex’s Zoheb Sharif, on his Championship debut, had a sobering day, as did all the bowlers. While James Middlebrook finished with 2 for 99, Sharif went for 80 from 14 overs, but he at least collected three hard-earned wickets.Lancashire 384 for 5 v Warwickshire at Old Trafford
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Stuart Law hit his 59th first-class century as Lancashire ended the day in a strong position against Warwickshire. Law scored a commanding 150 not out including 20 fours and two sixes, as Lancashire closed on a comfortable 384 for 5. Ian Sutcliffe set things up at the top of the order with 86 before he was bowled by Dougie Brown (2 for 70). And after Mark Chilton (30) and Carl Hooper (35) chipped in, Glen Chapple cashed in with 37 not out. Waqar Younis returned to the Championship side after a break, and although he only picked up one wicket, he was the most economical of the Warwickshire bowlers, conceding 58 from 19 overs.Surrey 375 for 9 v Middlesex at Guildford
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An unbeaten fifty-partnership from last pair Saqlain Mushtaq (40*) and Jimmy Ormond (32*), coupled with a rescuing 85 from Rikki Clarke overshadowed a bright start from Middlesex, who will be kicking themselves after having Surrey on the rack at 131 for 5. Simon Cook, who was overlooked for Middlesex’s last two Championship games, took three early wickets to put Surrey – who were without the injured Adam Hollioake and Azhar Mahmood – on the back foot. But Clarke showed his international class when he hit back with a classy knock featuring 13 fours. Graham Thorpe, who many expected to be warming up with England at Edgbaston today, had earlier notched up another first-class fifty before he was one of Cook’s victims. Cook finished with 3 for 60, and Chad Keegan and Ashley Noffke picked up three wickets each, but they let Surrey off the hook and suffered the prolonged frustration of Ian Salisbury’s quickfire 40 from 48 balls, not to mention Saqlain’s and Ormond’s last stand. Frizzell County Championship Division TwoGloucestershire 271 v Worcestershire 48 for 1 at Cheltenham
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Worcestershire’s Nantie Hayward and Matthew Mason took three wickets each as Gloucestershire were bundled out for a spluttering 271, and that thanks mainly to a enterprising knock from last man Jonathan Lewis, who top-scored with 47. It was a valuable effort from Lewis, as even though all the batsmen bar one reached double figures, none could go on to the big score needed. Mason (3 for 48) was the pick of the bowlers, and he eventually got Lewis, as well as Shoaib Malik, the Pakistan all-rounder making his debut. Worcestershire, who are boosted by the return of Graeme Hick, then finished off a good day’s work as they reached 48 for 1 at the close.Northamptonshire 325 v Somerset 26 for 2 at Northampton
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Two late wickets from Ben Phillips gave Northants the edge against Somerset at Wantage Road. Northants scored a sprightly 325 in which Ian Blackwell took 5 for 96 and removed the top four Northants batsmen, who all made contributions. Tim Roberts, in his Championship debut, hit an impressive 83, including 11 fours and a six, while Phil Jacques (41) and David Sales (38) kept the momentum going. And the lower-order put in their bit too. Graeme Swann scored 44, Adam Shantry, another debutant, hit 38 not out and Andre Nel chipped in with 22 on his return from the South African squad. In their reply, Northants were quickly shot down to 15 for 2 as Phillips removed Peter Bowler for 14 and James Bryant first ball.Yorkshire 326 for 5 v Hampshire at Scarborough
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Matthew Wood led from the front for Yorkshire with a dominating 155 against Hampshire, who made a late fightback inspired by Dimitri Mascarenhas. Captain and top of the order, Wood led by example with 19 fours in his five-hour innings, and with contributions from Victor Craven (47) and Michael Lumb (64), Yorkshire were riding high. However, when Wood was trapped lbw to Mascarenhas with the score on 303 for 3, Mascarenhas then removed Lumb and Craig White first ball with no score added to haul Hampshire back in the game.

As an inflammable mixture of naked ambition, aggression, determination and a never-say-die attitude, the Australian way is the mosttalked-about approach in recent cricketing history – yet you can’t quite define it or confine it in descriptive terms. "It really hasmore to do with the persona of an Australian rather than his approach to sports," says Bennett King, head coach at theCommonwealth Bank Cricket Academy, as he watches his side beat an XI comprising promising Indian cricketers under ablazing Chennai sun at the MRF Grounds in Pachaiyappas College."There’s much more to the Australian way than just an approach to sport. It’s got a lot to do with the things we’ve grown upwith – the two major wars, the ANZAC tradition, things like that," says King.And you have to believe him; the Academy side did not lose a single game during their stint in Chennai, a sojourn that wasdesigned to prepare players for the challenges of playing on the subcontinent comes to a close and one that lets several playerswalk away much wiser. Mike Hussey, who routinely takes tons of runs off English county bowlers in his spare time, led theside, having a good time with the bat by taking the time to play himself in. Damien Wright, who made the Australia A sideearlier this year, also made runs and picked up wickets, but the player to catch most eyes was young Tasmanian left-armspinner Xavier Doherty.Picking wickets in every game, admittedly on tracks helpful to spin, the man they call “X” is slowly but surely climbing thepecking order in Australian cricket. Although he’s played only five first-class matches and eight List-A one-dayers, Dohertycan be sure that plenty of cricket lies ahead. "This is the third time I’ve been to India, and each time I’ve tried to improve a bit.On previous trips I wasn’t nearly as successful because I was bowling the same way I would have back home," he explained."This time around, I’ve tried to find a way that works for me, and that’s helped a great deal,” says Doherty. “Instead of tryingtoo hard to go after wickets, I’ve concentrated on putting the ball in the right place, and this has paid off.” Doherty can takeheart from the fact that Bishan Singh Bedi, arguably the greatest left-arm spinner India has produced, has stated time and againthat a spinner is tested most on wickets that turn considerably, for that is when control and an ability to bowl within oneselfcome to the fore.Whether he does that or not, Doherty is the kind of cricketer Australia will need in the years to come. His friends say he’s thechirpy sort, and he certainly enjoys his time out in the middle, whether batting or bowling. "With the wickets much harder backhome, you tend to get a few balls dug in short by the quick men. It’s obviously different here," says Doherty, who smacked aperfect straight drive for four to end the last game that the Academy XI played on this trip to India.With Shane Warne out of cricket for a year and Stuart MacGill at 32 not getting any younger, Doherty is one of the spinoptions that the Australian selectors will look at closely sooner rather than later. "I’m still establishing myself in the Tasmanianside, but there are plenty of opportunities coming up for spinners in Australia," he says.Those opportunities, for Doherty and for others, have only gotten brighter with their experience in India. "I really don’t thinkthere’s a way to completely replicate the experience of coming to India while still in Australia," said King, visibly pleased withthe way the short tour had gone. "While we can make wickets that are dry and break up, it’s very hard to get wickets that areslow, dusty and turn a lot back home in Australia. Also, the way spinners approach bowling here is completely different. Theylike to give it a big rip and bowl attacking spells with fields that support them. Importantly, the captains use their spinners toattack all the time here, and you don’t see much of that in Australia."While he has not played cricket at the first-class level himself, King is not unique in this. "People who haven’t played at thehighest level watch the game at a different level. They tend to be deeper in their approach and work much harder on theprocesses that go into the game. Personally, I’ve paid a lot of attention to integrating sport with science and technology," saidKing.Having played rugby league at the national level for the erstwhile Gold Coast Seagulls, King is in a position to bring a widerrange of tools into his coaching. "Playing other sports certainly gives you a broader sense of the skills you use. In Australia,youth are encouraged to play as many different games as possible, and this can only help. For example, in sports like football,you’re far more likely to use your left and right sides equally. A background in other sports may also give you an edge when itcomes to anticipation and anything that involves peripheral vision," says King.That is all, of course, logical, you begin to think, but King pre-empts you, revealing a more intuitive understanding of sport. "Ifyou watch other games like basketball and football, players have a very good relationship with the equipment they use. Twirlinga ball on a finger and tricks like that tell you how close players are to their equipment. Imagine how much better cricketerswould be if the bat or ball was just a natural extension of themselves," he says, with eyes that you’re sure are gleaming behindthe dark glasses.No, thank you, Mr King. Most of the world does not want to imagine Australian cricketers being any better than they are atthe moment.

New Zealand’s bowlers are being assessed by the latest technology in a bid to understand, and avoid, troubling back injuries in the future.A partnership between New Zealand Cricket (NZC), the New Zealand Academy of Sport (Northern) and Auckland University has resulted in bowlers’ actions being subjected to three-dimensional bio-mechanical analysis with the idea of understanding what is happening in the bowling actions.NZC’s sports science medical co-ordinator Warren Frost was emphatic the process was not about making changes for change’s sake.The process was a gold standard in international analysis and had significant potential for future assessment of bowlers.The ideal situation would be to have all junior bowlers recorded in the system so that whenever breakdowns occurred a reference could be made from the data held in the system.”This sort of system is increasingly essential for us. We have a small player stock and we have to look after our guys. This is one way of doing that,” he said.In the most recent analysis done, the players assessed included: Michael Mason, Warren McSkimming, Kyle Mills, Paul Hitchcock and Lance Hamilton.Earlier assessments were done on Shane Bond, Chris Martin, Wade Cornelius, Joseph Yovich and Ian Butler.Cornelius has been suffering from stress fractures to his back and the process had been useful in identifying adjustments he needs to make to his action.Interestingly, the first player put through the assessment process two and a half years ago was left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori. This was unusual because there is no literature available on assessing spin bowlers. But Frost said the process had been very useful in helping to organise a recovery for Vettori from his stress fracture problems.Similar systems have been used in Australia, South Africa and in England and while it was expensive, the use of the system was worthwhile.”You can see things on video, but this process gives you a clinical and definitive answer,” Frost said.The complete analysis process can take two or three weeks by the time all the graphs and information presented by the computer are studied and assessed.Another point of interest, Frost said, was that there is very little research into women’s cricket and women were having similar problems to those experienced by the men and it wouldn’t be resolved “until we can come to grips with the whole workload issue.”

Fast bowling, the architect of several victories for West Indian teams over Indian opponents in years gone by, was the pillar of yet another resounding triumph at the Windward Club ground yesterday.Red-hot Barbados, spearheaded by the energetic Tino Best and supported by Ian Bradshaw, Antonio Thomas and Dwayne Smith, completed an emphatic victory against India "A" with a day in reserve by the convincing margin of an innings and 77 runs.It was the second successive win for Courtney Browne’s men who have now jumped to an early lead in the Carib Beer Series.India "A"’, facing a big first innings deficit of 262, performed even worse than they did in the first innings and capitulated for 185 at 2:45 p.m.Once more, they were distinctly uncomfortable against the faster stuff and skipper Browne did not even bother to turn to either Sulieman Benn or Ryan Hurley for a single over of spin."The Indians are very good to spin bowlers. You could see from the first innings how aggressive they are to spin," Browne said."I know they enjoy batting against slow bowling and I wanted to keep the spin away from them," Browne said.His quartet of seamers admirably did the job and the Indians lasted only 50.1 overs.Best bowled with plenty of fire, especially between lunch and tea when he grabbed all five of his scalps against batsmen whom he unsettled with his raw pace.Two of his victims were palpably lbw, another had his off stump clobbered and another fended a catch to gully."Tino has a lot of pace. He is always willing to do well. Once he is used in short spells, he will always come good for you," Browne said about Best, who finished with five for 60 off 16 overs.There were two wickets each for Thomas and Bradshaw with the latter enjoying the distinction of claiming the prized scalp of India "A" captain for a duck for the second time in the match.The tall right-hander was bowled first ball to a delivery off fullish length to which he should have gone forward rather than back."Bradshaw is the work horse in the team. He works very hard and he is always talking to the younger bowlers," Browne said.With Browne keen to keep spin away from the Indians, he called on Dwayne Smith’s medium pace for 13 steady overs in which he removed one of the Indian’s most promising batsmen in the match, Ambati Rayudu.Barbados’ victory has carried them to 24 points, six more than their nearest rivals, Guyana."I am very happy. We set about to defeat the Indians. This is what we wanted," Browne said."We were hoping they would come to the Caribbean with a bit of jet-lag We wanted to get at them early and see if we could knock them off and get 12 points."Team work did it for us. We sit and we talk a lot about the teams we are playing."India "A" arrived in the Caribbean two days prior to the match and it is obvious they have not yet settled in.Their 201 was inadequate on the opening day and they were always going to be under pressure after Barbados replied with an imposing 463."We did not play to our potential and Barbados totally outplayed us," Laxman said."The India "A" is potentially very good. It’s disappointing, but at the same time, it’s not really confidence demoralising."It was a long flight from India. It might have had an effect, but I thought the Barbados team played very well in all the departments of the game."Laxman, however, is confident that his side will rebound and come good for their remaining matches."This is one of the best sides I have played with in the India "A" category and I am sure the guys will get their act together," he said.Some of their batsmen got starts yesterday, but none carried on.The topscore came from opener Akash Chopra, whose 43 off 97 balls was made in just under twoand-a-half hours. No one else reached 30, although Ruyudu and Jai Yadav both looked the part.

Haryana defended a meagre total and effected a comprehensive 71-runvictory over Delhi in their Ranji one-day match at Patiala on Monday.Winning the toss, Haryana posted only 217 in their innings. The firstthree wickets fell for 30, and the innings looked certain to crumble.But 42 from Shafiq Khan and a busy 73 off 80 balls from skipper AjayRatra took Haryana through past the 200-run mark. They reached 217/9,with Ratra unbeaten till the very end. For Delhi, Amit Bhandari took 4wickets.Mithun Manhas’ 41 notwithstanding, Delhi collapsed spectacularly intheir batting effort. Bowled out in 40.3 overs for just 146, Delhistruggled against all the Haryana bowlers. Only Manhas batted with anydegree of comfort, and when he fell with the score on 114, the matchwas all but over.

Northern Districts beat Auckland by five wickets with 13 balls to spare at WestpacTrust Park in Hamilton.An innings of 105 from opener James Marshall took ND most of the way to victory, but there were some nervous moments before an unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 53 between Marshall’s twin brother Hamish and Grant Bradburn saw them home.At the end of the third day’s play ND coach Bruce Blair told CricInfo that he felt confident about chasing 200 or less. That being so, a target of 248 looked uncomfortably challenging.Setting such a target was towards the outer limit of Auckland’s ambitions at the start of play. A blistering innings by Andre Adams made it possible. He scored 60 from 76 balls, hitting four fours and three sixes.His method was simple. If the ball was pitched up he aimed straight, short and it went square, both achieved with a minimum of footwork. As well as giving his team a chance to win the game it pushed Adams’ claims for selection in the CLEAR Black Caps one-day squad, following his 5-70 in ND’s first innings.Brooke Walker contributed three to the eighth-wicket partnership of 67 with Adams, but his contribution was far from negligible in other respects. He batted through the morning, taking over the attacking role after Adams departed and fell one short of a deserved half century. Auckland finished on 307.Joseph Yovich took 6/102 in the second innings, completing his first 10-wicket match haul in first-class cricket.James Marshall had not fielded in Auckland’s second innings because of a hand injury sustained batting in the first innings. The rest seemed to do him good, because from the start of his innings he batted with a level of rhythm, timing and confidence that he has not shown for two years.Marshall’s 105 came in 147 balls with eleven fours and two sixes, both lifted effortlessly over midwicket. He played confidently all around the wicket, but the timing and placement of his offside drives was particularly memorable.The ND management will be pleased that there were four half-century stands in the innings, as building partnerships had been identified as a priority.Speaking to CricInfo at the end of the match, ND captain Robbie Hart praised the contributions of Marshall and Bradburn, while emphasising that victory was achieved through an all-round team performance.”We needed Bradburn’s experience when it was tight at the end,” he said.ND are in second place on the State Championship table, one point above Auckland and four behind new leaders Canterbury. The State Championship now takes a break of five weeks while the one-day State Shield is played.Players and officials of both sides were full of praise for the job done by turf manager Doug Strachan and his team. They produced a surface that offered pace, consistent bounce, something for all the bowlers, but one that the batsmen always had confidence in.Even in ordinary conditions this would be an achievement, but in the primeval swamp that has been Hamilton for the past two weeks it is little short of a miracle. Strachan has had nine hours sleep in the last three nights as he has battled against the elements in the name of cricket.How will he celebrate New Year’s Eve?”I’m going to buy a curry, go home and fall asleep by eight o’clock,” he said.

The England team might have got a first win under their belts on the tour of Australia, but that convincing victory over Sri Lanka in Brisbane has not signalled the end of all their troubles. Ian Blackwell has become the latest injury victim after being hit on the hand when facing Steve Harmison in the Perth nets while preparing for the next match against Sri Lanka in the VB Series.It was Harmison who struck Ashley Giles on the wrist, causing the fracture that put the left-arm spinner out of the tour. Blackwell, who has taken over the left-arm spinning duties from Giles in the one-day team, took a blow on his left hand and was immediately sent to the local hospital for an X-ray. Much to the relief of the England party – and Blackwell – there is no evidence of a break.Blackwell has made a thoroughly favourable impression since coming into the side and has been one of the few to enhance his reputation in Australia. However, the fact that he has been hit on his bowling hand might mean that he stands down from the match against Sri Lanka tomorrow with Adam Hollioake favourite to make his first appearance since joining the squad as a replacement for Andrew Flintoff.England physiotherapist Dean Conway was reasonably reassuring about Blackwell’s condition. "He didn’t think it was as bad as he first thought anyway, but he went off to the hospital for an X-ray just to check on the knuckle on his index finger to see if that was alright."Paul Collingwood, who is used to facing Harmison in practice as a Durham colleague, was also forced to duck and dive on net surfaces at the WACA by his team-mate."These pitches are quick and bouncy and in an enclosed net like that it can sometimes feel a bit claustrophobic and a bit quicker than it does out in the middle," he said."It’s very hard to hook and pull in the nets and you can get caught in two minds what to do, and unfortunately for Ian he took one on the hand, but we’re hopeful he’ll be alright."You expect the bowlers to come in at you in the nets, it’s just like a batsman trying to hit the bowler as hard as he can – you expect that."It’s fast out in the middle so we have to work at it because we’re going to get bouncers in the game tomorrow and we’re going to have to have a plan of how to deal with it."Harmison made his one-day international debut in Brisbane and proved to be far more effective than critics of his fast but sometimes wayward bowling predicted. He took two for 39 from ten hostile overs and is likely to be even more of a handful for the Sri Lankan batsmen on a pitch in Perth renowned as being one of the quickest in the world.

Berkshire failed to make use of first knock on a rain-affected wicket atThatcham. Openers Paul Prichard and Richard Howitt gave them a good start adding 54 for the first wicket before Howitt was run out taking a sharp single. Captain Julian Wood, David Morris and Chris Wright followed in quick succession.Steve Naylor(21) and Sameer Patel(20) batted sensibly to give the inningssome respectability but the Berkshire batsmen committed the cardinal sin offailing to bat out their overs.Berkshire failed to get an early breakthrough and it was not until offspinners Carl Crowe and Sam Patel came on that things started to happen.Crowe extracted considerable turn, dismissing James for 30 and Gladwin for 4but Cordingley batted resolutely for his 50 not out and with good supportfrom Pickett(21) the target was reached in 43 overs to give Herts acomfortable 7-wicket victory and a home tie with Cheshire in the 3rd roundof this Minor Counties KO competition.

The touring Bangladeshi cricketers have given their New Zealand Cricket liaison officer, John Bishop, a record who no other man in world cricket possesses.Looking after the Bangladeshi players’ requirements means that Bishop has completed a pat-hand of being official liaison officer for all Test cricket countries visiting New Zealand.Bishop began his liaison work soon after his friend Christopher Doig became NZC chief executive in 1995, and his first duties were with the 1995/96 Pakistanis. Since then Bishop had attended the needs of all the Test-match countries, sometimes two or three times.After retiring from his bank manager position at 50, and after a club cricket career mainly at second grade level with High School Old Boys in Christchurch – where he was also club captain – Bishop has mixed his annual liaison work, usually involving four or five months a year, with other duties at NZC.”I do not have any really favourite teams,” said Bishop, “although I could say that some sides, such as South Africa and Australia, are rather better-organised than the others.”But all the players in all the sides have been great. I enjoy doing things for them, the players appreciate it, and tell me they are grateful. I have never met a player who has not expressed his gratitude when I did something for him.”Bishop said the same compliment might not always apply to team managers, but they had other requirements that might have been hard to meet.Amid all the good memories Bishop said there had been a few mistakes, but possibly only one that had a noticeable impact – and the mistake was not entirely Bishop’s.When Zimbabwe were preparing for a Test at WestpacTrust Park in Hamilton, Bishop was asked to obtain a recording of the Zimbabwean national anthem for the opening ceremony.He had heard a recording of what was supposed to be the anthem, and mentioned this to a travelling newspaperman who shall remain anonymous, even if his initials were DJC.The helpful newspaperman phoned his wife in Auckland, asked her to play a CD containing many anthems, and when these were played back over the phone Bishop heard an anthem described as Zimbabwean, which was the same as the one he had first obtained.Thus armed with confirmation, Bishop provided the anthem, the opening ceremony went ahead, and only afterward was Bishop told the new South African anthem, not the Zimbabwean, had been played.The Zimbabwean players were not offended, but once the story got out and about Bishop’s Christchurch friends made a gleeful point of referring to the gaffe.Bishop says the Bangladeshis are already proving as amicable as all the other sides he has helped over the years – and this may be sufficient encouragement for him to try and complete a double pat hand, taking in two visits from the other nine sides.

Md Kaif celebrated his recall to the Indian team in the best possiblemanner. Coming in at No 3, he went on to make an unbeaten 199 as Oiland Natural Gas Corporation amassed 459 for four in the allotted 90overs on the second day of their Coromandel Cement Cup match againstIndian Airlines at the Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar SportsComplex in Bangalore on Thursday.The opening day’s play yesterday had been washed out. Put in to bat,ONGC were given a good start with openers Gagan Khoda (25) and SandeepSharma putting on 63 runs in 14 overs. Kaif then joined Sharma and thetwo proceeded to ground the Indian Airlines attack into the dust byadding 219 runs for the second wicket off 46 overs. At 282, Sharmafinally fell for 146. He batted 252 minutes, faced 201 balls and hit22 fours and a six. Airlines’ agony did not end with the dismissal ofSharma. Kaif and skipper R Shamshad (44) figured in a 99-run thirdwicket association that lasted 18.2 overs. Mithun Manhas (10) and Kaifthen slapped on another 50 runs for the fourth wicket off only 7.2overs. When the innings ended, Kaif had batted five hours. He faced208 balls and hit 18 fours and three sixes.Rearguard action propels MRF to 325A strong rearguard action enabled MRF to score 325 on the second dayof their Coromandel Cement Cup match against Hyderabad CricketAssociation XI at the Gangothri Gladers ground in Mysore on Thursday.At stumps HCA were 15 for one.It was another rain affected day’s play. Showers stopped play at 2.20and tea was taken early. Play resumed only at 4.40 and was called offbecause of rain at 5 pm.In between the interruptions, MRF made a strong recovery. Resuming at98 for three, they were soon 144 for five despite Amit Pagnis’watchful 66 for which he batted three hours. He faced 130 balls,hitting 12 fours.JP Yadav (59) and former Indian player Ashish Kapoor (36) initiated arecovery process by adding 54 runs for the sixth wicket off 10.5overs. The momentum was maintained with Yadav and another formerIndian player Thiru Kumaran (11) putting on 44 runs for the seventhwicket off 11.3 overs.Yadav fell soon afterwards after facing 113 balls and hitting sevenfours and a six but N Gautham who came in at No 9 kept the inningsgoing and remained unbeaten with a run a ball 52. He hit three foursand two sixes. With MR Shrinivas (10) he added 45 runs for the ninthwicket off 11 overs.Kumaran provided the breakthrough when HCA batted bowling skipperNanda Kishore (2). DS Manohar (6) and Anirudh Singh (3) were battingwhen rain ruled out further play.Unbeaten 106 by Thilak NaiduThilak Naidu hit an unbeaten 106 as Karnataka State CricketAssociation did well in scoring 343 for five in the allotted 90 overson the second day in their Coromandel Cement Cup match against Andhraat the RSI ground in Bangalore on Thursday.Resuming at 117 for two, KSCA lost Mithun Beerala for 61. FormerIndian player Vijay Bhardwaj contributed 62. But the innings reallygained momentum with Naidu and wicketkeeper RC Shanbal adding 134 runsfor the unbroken sixth wicket off 23.3 overs. Naidu faced 125 balls,hitting ten fours and two sixes while Shanbal remained unbeaten with46 off 75 balls.The Andhra reply was led by opener Amit Pathak who by close wasbatting with 68. He has so far faced 77 balls and hit elevenboundaries. He and YG Rao (17) added 67 runs for the second wicket off12.3 overs. Andhra at close were 98 for three off 28 overs and willdepend on Pathak carrying them past the KSCA total. The target now is246 runs off 62 overs.Frontline batsmen prop up Roofit XIValuable contributions by most of their frontline batsmen saw RoofitXI, Mumbai put up a challenging total of 341 for seven in 87.5 overson the second day of their Coromandel Cement Cup match against IndiaCements at the Central College ground in Bangalore on Thursday.Rain had washed out play on the opening day yesterday. Put in to bat,Roofit were given a good start with openers S Parab (94) and SAdhikari (47) putting on 96 runs off 33.4 overs. Parab was thenconcerned in a fruitful third wicket partnership of 84 runs withHrishikesh Kanitkar (76). Parab was third out at 182 in the 57th overafter facing 165 balls and hitting eleven fours. Kanitkar and skipperJatin Paranjpe (33) then maintained the momentum with a fourth wicketassociation of 68 runs that lasted 14 overs. P Patel then kept theinnings going with an unbeaten 43 off 56 balls with three boundaryhits. The first innings of each side is restricted to 90 overs.KSCA Colts in command against Kerala XIKarnataka State Cricket Association Colts were in a position ofconsiderable strength at stumps on the second day of their CoromandelCement Cup match against Kerala CA XI at the NRA ground in Bangaloreon Thursday. After scoring 321 for seven in the allotted 90 overs,KSCA Colts had taken six Kerala wickets for 123 runs by close.Resuming at 126 for two, KSCA Colts were bolstered by the twoovernight batsmen SK Ponnappa and B Akhil. While opener Ponnappa made88 off 207 balls with ten boundary hits, skipper Akhil went on to get56 off 118 balls with six fours. The two shared a third wicket standof 119 runs off 36.4 overs. The momentum was maintained with StuartBinny (27) and Affan Sheriff adding 58 runs for the seventh wicket off14.3 overs. And finally Sheriff and Sunil Kumar figured in an unbrokeneighth wicket partnership of 56 runs off seven overs. While Sheriffscored 50 off 63 balls with seven fours and a six, Sunil Kumar’sbreezy 33 came up off opnly 27 balls. SK Nair finished with five for82.Kerala lost wickets at regular intervals and were in a sad pickle atthe end of the day. Most of the damage was caused by opening bowler NCAiyappa who took three of the six wickets to fall for 44 runs.