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Reflecting on his career-best performance of 7 for 87 on the third day in Napier, Fidel Edwards, the West Indies fast bowler, said his ploy of bringing in variations to his bowling helped keep the New Zealand batsmen in check.West Indies fought back to restrict New Zealand to 371 after they were cruising at 316 for 4. Jerome Taylor and Darren Powell struck early blows before Edwards, who took the first two wickets to fall in the opening session, returned to mop up the tail and keep New Zealand’s first-innings lead down to 64. Edwards’ performance also surpassed his previous best first-class figures of 5 for 22.”It is still a good batting pitch so I tried to mix up my deliveries as much as possible,” Edwards said. “You had to do something to get wickets out there and I looked at all my options. Using the short ball was just part of the plan to unsettle the New Zealand batsmen and it worked some of the time.”I felt really good with the way the ball was coming out and obviously I’m thrilled to get my career-best figures. You could say it was my day and I decided to make the most of it. Hopefully it was the kind of performance that could see my team go on to win the Test match and with it the series. That would be wonderful for us.”Edwards had earlier passed the 100-wicket mark with the dismissal of Daniel Flynn on the second day. In the process, he joined his half-brother Pedro Collins in the 100-wicket club.”I was giving him (Flynn) some short stuff so I decided to slip in a slower ball to see how he would handle it. He pushed it back and I was happy when I took the catch.””We are the first brothers to each take 100 Test wickets so that added a bit extra to the moment. I spoke to Peddy (Collins) before the match and he told me it was a chance to create history so that was a bit of added motivation as well.”

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Rahul Dravid took them out of troubled waters, Thilak Naidu consolidated their position before Sunil Joshi’s breezy knock allowed Karnataka to seize the advantage by the end of the second day in Bangalore.Though Naidu played a fine innings and Joshi played an enterprising knock, it was Dravid who laid the platform with an assured 83. The pitch eased out during the afternoon as the sun came out but it was still doing something in the morning when Dravid took charge. Overnight on 26, he looked at ease during his stay today.He repeatedly took positive strides out to the seamers and started off with an on-driven boundary against Salim Veragi. Spin was introduced in the form of Rajesh Pawar and Dravid started using his feet. He went right back to play the shot of his innings – a gorgeous punchy on drive through wide mid-on – off Pawar before he chipped down the track to lift the offspinner Utkarsh Patel over long-on.A couple of trademark cover drives against the spinner saw him move along nicely before the first moment of self-doubt arrived on 75. Ajitesh Argal, the best Baroda bowler, got one to shape away late and Dravid was committed on the forward prod but the edge was spilled by Satyajit Parab at first slip. But it didn’t prove costly as Dravid fell to the same bowler in the next over. Connor Williams set a 7-2 off-side field and Dravid dragged an intended extra-cover drive off the very next ball to his stumps.Thilak Naidu, one of the most colourful personalities in the domestic cricket today, made sure Dravid’s effort wasn’t wasted. The ball was still turning, albeit a touch slow, and he displayed a tight technique: He stretched well forward to smother the spin and he showed excellent judgement of the amount of the turn and his off stump to let the ball through to the keeper on other occasions.He played quite a few delicious cover drives against the spinners. He cover drove Patel for couple of boundaries before repeating the dose against the left-arm spinner Rajesh Pawar. The field thickened on the off side and he deployed the sweep shot to good effect. A slog sweep fetched him a six, two fine sweeps pinged the fine-leg boundary.A re-adjustment to the field saw the cover drives come back. So it went along rather nicely before tea intervened and Naidu slowed down appreciably upon resumption. And Pawar got rid of him on 90. Naidu shaped to late cut, the wicketkeeper collected and the appeal was upheld.However, by then, Naidu had shared a 103-run partnership in 122 minutes with Joshi to seize the advantage. It was Joshi who took the pressure off after the fall of Dravid with a refreshingly positive knock. He flicked Argal for his first boundary before turning his attention to the spinners. Despite the presence of a deep wide midwicket fielder, he slog swept Pawar for two huge sixes over that man before sweeping Patel over deep square leg and lofting one over long-on.But his best shot came against the mediumpacer Ketan Panchal: He simply knifed through the line of a length delivery to clear long-off. He fell against the run of the play to Argal as he shaped initially to leave the ball before trying to get his bat in line but it was too late; the ball had rushed through the bat and pad gap to clean up the off stump. B Akhil, playing his first game of the season, and Sunil Raju ensured there wouldn’t be further damage. Akhil used his height well to reach out to the spinners and played a few drives when the opportunity presented.By the end of the day, Baroda were staring at defeat. The first-day collapse and the resistance of the Karnataka batsmen have left them with too much to do. Perhaps, had Shatrunjay Gaekwad held C Raghu’s catch in the fourth over of the day when Karnataka were on 71 for 3, things could have been different. Raghu eventually departed 45 minutes later with the score on 99. The morning dampness had evaporated by then and Naidu joined hands with Dravid to ease Karnataka to a commanding position.

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There were four wickets apiece for L Balaji and P Amarnath – and five catches behind the stumps for wicketkeeper-captain Dinesh Karthik – as Tamil Nadu bundled out last year’s finalists, Uttar Pradesh, for 150 after fielding first in Ghaziabad. The visitors ended the day at 78 for 2, and will fancy their chances of taking a considerable lead.Uttar Pradesh’s openers played out the early overs, but Tanmay Srivastava was caught by Karthik off C Ganapathy for 29. No. 3 Prashant Gupta was only the second of three batsmen in the innings to pass 20. He was bowled by Balaji – UP were 70 for 3 – and Amarnath struck in successive overs to leave them at 85 for 5. Piyush Chawla provided some resistance with his 28 not out. He added 26 with wicketkeeper Amir Khan and 30 for the eighth wicket with Imtiyaz Ahmed. Karthik pouched his fifth when Ahmed was caught behind off Balaji, who trapped the last two batsmen leg-before in the same over – the 57th of the innings.TN did not get off to the best of starts – Abhinav Mukund was dismissed first-ball -and Bhuvneshwar Kumar made it 41 for 2 when he removed Arun Karthik, Mukund’s opening partner. S Badrinath scored an unbeaten 41, with captain Karthik was on 19 not out, to take their team to safety.
ScorecardDelhi’s defence of the Ranji Trophy had not got off to the best of starts, and there was not much for them to cheer on the first day of their third-round game at the Feroz Shah Kotla. Group A leaders Mumbai showed no signs of slipping up, with an unbroken 207-run stand between Ajinkya Rahane and Amol Muzumdar putting them in control.Mumbai made a slow start after choosing to bat, and lost Sahil Kukreja in the 15th over. Captain Wasim Jaffer then added 49 for the second wicket with Rahane. Jaffer fell for 29, and at 72 for 2 the match was evenly poised. However, Rahane scored his second century in the tournament, and Muzumdar his second half-century, to help Mumbai wrest the initiative. Rahane finished the day at 151, and needs 22 more to get his career-best first-class score; Muzumdar needs the same number of runs for his 24th first-class ton. Delhi were without left-armer Ashish Nehra, who strained a hamstring during their previous game.
ScorecardGujarat, who were trounced by Mumbai in the second round, began confidently in Ahmedabad, scoring 235 for 1 in 90 overs on the first day. Choosing to bat at the Sardar Patel Stadium, Gujarat made a sluggish but steady start, with their openers putting on 108 in 43.4 overs. Priyank Kirit Panchal was the first to go, dismissed by medium pacer Syed Quadri for 48 – he played 145 deliveries. Nilesh Modi and Niraj Patel ensured Gujarat didn’t lose a wicket for the rest of the day. Modi made an unbeaten 118, with nine fours, and Niraj was gave him company till stumps, not out on 60.
ScorecardOrissa scored the same number of runs as Gujarat, but lost five more wickets on the first day against Rajasthan at the Veer Surendra Sai Stadium in Sambalpur. Orissa’s openers, captain Shiv Sunder Das and Bikas Pati, added 125 in 32.3 overs, but they failed to build on the start. Pati was out leg-before to Rajasthan captain Venugopal Rao, who bowled Paresh Patel in the same over. Sumit Mathur dismissed Subit Biswal for 3 to Orissa at 130 for 3. Das and Niranjan Behera led a brief recovery, adding 33 in 11 overs, before Mathur got Das out for 74. Behera and Halhadar Das ensured there was no collapse with a 64-run stand, but a double-strike from legspinner Vivek Yadav in the 81st over brought Rajasthan back into the contest. Halhadar was unbeaten on 45 at stumps.
ScorecardIrfan Pathan took 4 for 42 and his new-ball partner Salim Veragi finished with 3 for 51 as Railways were restricted to 224 in their first innings at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi. Railways chose to bat, but were rocked early on. They capitulated to 45 for 5: Veragi removed the openers within the first ten overs, and dismissed Sanjib Sanyal for 1, while Pathan had two lbws scalps.A 146-run stand between Karan Sharma and wicketkeeper Mahesh Rawat restored respectability to Railway’s score. Sharma’s 79 was his fourth score over 50 in nine first-class games, and Rawat made 67. A third lbw from Pathan took care of Rawat, and he got his fourth wicket – this time a caught behind – to get rid of Raja Ali. Harvinder Singh was run out, and left-arm spinner Rajesh Pawar took the remaining two wickets in a Railways innings that lasted 81.5 overs. Baroda’s openers then saw off the solitary over before close.
ScorecardA late fightback from Saurashtra kept Punjab to 291 for 5 after Ravi Inder Singh and Sunny Sohal scored centuries in Rajkot. Punjab, who chose to bat, lost Ravneet Ricky with 51 on the board, but the other top-order batsmen didn’t miss out. Sunny Sohal made his third ton in as many games, and Ravi Inder got his second first-class hundred to put their team at a commanding 216 for 1.The previous two games in Rajkot had seen teams batting first pile up totals in excess of 550. Punjab looked set to become the third, but Ravindra Jadeja struck thrice with his left-arm spin in his 15 overs. He removed both the centurions and Pankaj Dharmani, who made 25. Offspinner Kamlesh Makvana added a second wicket, to that of Ricky’s, when he had Uday Kaul caught behind in the 90th over of the day.
ScorecardRahul Dravid walked in to the roars of a nearly packed stadium – and his untimely exit left the crowds stunned – but it was Robin Uthappa, the Karnataka captain, who took the applause with his second century of the season at the Gangothri Glades Cricket Ground in Mysore. Uthappa ensured the first two sessions went his team’s way, but a late fightback from the Andhra bowlers helped them claim a share of the opening day honours. (Read the full report.)

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The contest between the Lahore Badshahs and the Ahmedabad Rockets was one of those rare occasions when the bowlers dominated a Twenty20 match. Lahore were restricted to 136 but their bowlers put in a disciplined performance and shot out Ahmedabad Rockets for 105 to clinch their first win of the tournament.Lahore went into the game without Inzamam-ul-Haq, who suffered from back pain, and were led by Azhar Mahmood. Their batsmen failed once again, setting a target that was neither here nor there, but their bowlers rose to the occasion.It was Sami and Azhar Mahmood who began the defense. Ryan Campbell, who had played an explosive innings in Ahmedabad’s last game, failed to connect with a slog and was bowled in the first over. Mahmood followed up with a low offcutter that breached Damien Martyn’s defences.Ahmedabad scored only 29 off the first six overs, their best batsmen were gone and, despite strong support from a vocal home crowd, the chase was always going to be tough. Naved-ul-Hasan struck with his first ball when Murray Goodwin flashed straight to point and more trouble awaited Ahmedabad in form of Saqlain Mushtaq.Saqlain’s doosra isn’t a secret anymore but tonight he produced another unique delivery. With his palm facing midwicket – as opposed to the off side when he bowls the conventional offbreak or doosra to a right hander – Saqlain rolled his fingers over the seam and delivered a ball that went straight through, and quickly at that. S Sriram was lbw while attempting a reverse sweep and Jason Gillespie was bowled.The match ended when Rakesh Patel holed out at deep square leg and Lahore got into a celebratory huddle as fireworks lit up the sky. The crowd trudged back home disappointed after having a great time in the first half of the game when Sumit Kalia, the left-arm spinner, ran through Lahore.Kalia’s only error today was his drop off Imran Nazir in the first over of the game. Everything else clicked seamlessly for him. His success with the ball began in the eighth over with Lahore comfortably placed at 62 for 1. Kalia got Naved-ul-Hasan stumped before striking twice in his next over: he lured Shahid Yousuf into a mis-hit towards long-off and used the arm-ball to trap Imran Nazir lbw for a run-a-ball 25. By the time he finished his spell – 4-0-19-3 – Lahore had lost their early momentum.Naved Latif and Khalid Mahmood tried to regroup but Parvez Aziz restricted the damage by removing both in the 17th over. At the innings break it looked like Ahmedabad’s bowlers had done enough. Unfortunately for them, their batsmen fell 31 runs short of doing enough to secure the victory.

Imran Khan, the former Pakistan captain, believes a revamp is needed in the domestic structure of the game in the country, with fewer teams in the fray and a more professional body at the helm.”Pakistani cricket needs to become truly professional; it needs to be made into an institution,” Imran said in an interview to pakpassion.net. “These departments [teams] are a cancer within Pakistani cricket, we need to get rid of them and replace them with a maximum of seven regional first-class teams.” Pakistan’s domestic first-class competition, the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, was contested by 13 regional teams and nine departments [SNGPL, the Gas department, won] in 2007-08.”These teams should be represented by regional associations with elected members and the chairman of the PCB should be someone who is elected by the same regional associations.”Under the current system, Pakistan’s president appoints the chairman of the PCB, one which Imran felt must be done away with. “We need to separate politics and sport. It’s unacceptable for the head of state to appoint the PCB Chairman. This ad-hoc system needs to stop, we need a full-time salaried head of the PCB who is selected solely on merit and not because of his connections. It’s not rocket science, it’s the same system in place elsewhere.”Imran did not, however, blame the PCB for the Champions Trophy postponement, nor the teams reluctant to visit the country. “I don’t think there was anything else they could have done to change the decision that was made,” he said. “The PCB are paying for the mess we made when we joined someone else’s war and made it into our war. Because of that decision we now have a domestic situation that understandably makes other teams reluctant to tour Pakistan. I don’t think we can blame the teams in isolation, they were just following the advice given to them by their foreign offices about Pakistan being a dangerous and unsafe place.”

The women’s Challenger Series has been postponed by over a week because of heavy rains in Ahmedabad. Scheduled to start on Sunday, the tournament will now be played from October 2 to 5 at the same venue.The season-opening Challenger Trophy features three teams and includes probables for the Australia tour next month. However three international players – Mithali Raj, Jaya Sharma and Neetu David – were rested because of assorted injuries.Now that the tournament has been postponed it is uncertain whether the three will be included if they recover in time. Raj, the Indian captain, said the matter would be clear only in a few days. “The physios at the National Cricket Academy are monitoring our condition and will have to inform the selectors of the same,” she told Cricinfo. “Then it is up to the selectors to pick us. Anyway I will be keenly following the tournament to keep a lookout for upcoming players.”

A change in their tour schedule means New Zealand have more time to acclimatise to subcontinental conditions before the ODI and Test series against Bangladesh. The team will arrive in the country on September 30, instead of October 4 as originally planned.The visit involves two Tests and three ODIs, and the revised itinerary gives New Zealand a week before their only warm-up game of the tour, on October 7. The ODI series begins on October 9, followed by the Tests from October 17-29.With the Champions Trophy in Pakistan postponed until 2009, New Zealand have no fixtures before the Bangladesh tour. New Zealand Cricket (NZC) had indicated they were in talks with other boards in order to fill the gap in the schedule. Since weather conditions in New Zealand wouldn’t be conducive to cricket, NZC were hoping to touring, however no matches have been confirmed.

The BCCI-backed Champions Twenty20 League has been formally launched with a commitment from the men in charge that it would give priority to the ICC’s Future Tours Programme. The launch, which followed a meeting among top officials of the BCCI, Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa in Mumbai, confirmed most details previously announced but left the tournament’s venue yet to be confirmed.In a curious twist, there was also a feeler sent out to England, which in recent days appeared to have fallen out with this version of the Champions League in pursuit of its own. The doors are still open for England to join, IPL commissioner Lalit Modi said, and he remained “positive” with regard to their participation in the US $6 million event.The concession to the FTP allows Michael Hussey and Matthew Hayden to play Australia’s warm-up match from October 2 to 5 before the first Test against India begins in Bangalore on October 9. Hussey and Hayden are also part of the Chennai Superkings squad, one of the Indian teams in the Champions Twenty20 League.”One of the regulations of the proposed Champions League is that all international players who have FTP commitments at that time are required to play international matches and not the league matches,” Modi – who attended the meeting along with Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland and Cricket South Africa’s Gerald Majola – said. “There are one or two players impacted by that and those players will be excused from the IPL commitment.”In the new arrangement, Cricinfo has reliably learnt, Hussey and Hayden could conceivably play a few games for Chennai, then play the tour game for Australia, and return for the Champions Twenty20 League final if their team makes it that far.

There is still a question mark over the venue, however. Modi had earlier said the tournament would be held in Mohali, Delhi and Jaipur but that decision seems to have been put on hold. Instead Modi said he had no issue with a statement by IS Bindra, the principal adviser to the chief executive of the ICC, who said earlier this week that he would like the Champions Twenty20 League be staged in England because it would have “spectators from all different countries, multi-racial crowds for all teams, it is the most cosmopolitan place.””Ideally we would like to conduct the games at the venues announced originally but there are offers from other people and the members decided to examine all the options and not to decide right now,” Modi said. “September is a good time to be playing in England and I don’t think any of the partners would have any objections to that.”Ironically, there is still no clarity over the participation of an English team in the tournament, though the issue was discussed at the meeting. Middlesex are England’s Twenty20 Cup winners but if they reject the offer Modi said teams from New Zealand, Sri Lanka and West Indies were willing to complete the eight-team line-up – currently comprising the top two domestic teams from India, Australia and South Africa, along with Sialkot, Pakistan’s Twenty20 champions.”We’ve extended an invitation to the Middlesex and we are hoping to hear positively from the ECB”, Modi said. “We have always wanted this to be a global competition. England and the ECB have contributed to the game of cricket we would continue to endeavour to have England as part of the inaugural season of Champions League.” The BCCI had rejected an offer from the ECB to join England’s version of the Champions League to be held in Sharjah this October.

Paul Collingwood is relieved to be named in England’s squad of 13 for the Edgbaston Test, but he wants to return to the XI after being dropped to make way for Andrew Flintoff. A run of poor scores and Flintoff’s return to full fitness hurried Collingwood’s exit in Headingley, one he reckons as the worst moment of his career.”I worried about what this meant for me when I was left out of Headingley and it was without doubt the biggest disappointment of my career,” Collingwood told the . “The only thing that comes close to it was when I was left out of the second Test in Pakistan [in 2005] and I worried whether I would ever make it as a Test player. Thankfully, then I got back in when Straussy [Andrew Strauss] went home for the birth of his child and now I’ve got the chance to get back straight away now.”Collingwood’s Test sack came less than a month after he was banned for four limited-overs matches. He was penalised after England failed to bowl their overs in the required time, but he drew more flak for the controversial run-out of Grant Elliott. Collingwood chose to not withdraw an appeal after Elliott failed to make his crease after colliding with Ryan Sidebottom.”It’s nice to be involved immediately again but my priority now is to make the final XI,” he said. “After all that’s happened this year I just want to get things back on track now. It’s been a very difficult season for me but hopefully it will be a season of two halves and the better half starts now.”I just want this to be the spark, the catalyst, whatever word you want to choose, to get me going again. It’s been the worse year of my career but once you have got over the hurt you look at it and realise that hope is just around the corner.”I think you could see from my face when I was told I was out what it meant to me but to be honest I’m glad I was so hurt because it proved to me that I still have the passion and want to play for England as much as ever. I’d been in the team for 30-odd Tests and it was hard to get my head round that I wasn’t in the team any more. “Collingwood returned to county duties with Durham since his England omission, and scored a quickfire 78, including six sixes, in their Pro40 win over Middlesex. However, he failed to take his side past eventual champions Middlesex in the Twenty20 Cup semi-final on Saturday. His Durham team-mate, Steve Harmison, also earned a recall to the England squad, and both might be competing for a place depending on the combination England choose to adopt: either six batsman or five bowlers.”I don’t know if I’m competing with Steve Harmison for a place but I’m as delighted for him that he’s back as I am for myself,” he said. “The key thing for Harmy is that he’s as hungry as ever to play for England, the ambition is really there after all he’s been through.”He could have settled for a quieter life with Durham, but he really wants to play for England, like me, and every time I have been back to Durham people have said to me ‘you wouldn’t believe how fast Harmy is bowling’,” Collingwood said. “I think he’s benefited from a break but I hope my break is restricted to one game and I’m back in the team for Wednesday.”Harmison himself is eager to get back into the Test fold. “I’m not naïve – I know if I play the spotlight will be on me. I know people will be watching my every move and waiting with bated breath when I run up to bowl my first ball,” Harmison said. “I know that it is going to be tough and I know that I am going to be nervous. I know that after what happened at Headingley last week, the pressure will be on England and on me and the level of expectation will be high. And I know I have a point to prove, that I can still bowl at the highest level and take wickets for my country against a fine batting side.”But I would rather be going to Edgbaston, putting myself to the test and dealing with all those issues, than not. I’d rather be playing in front of 20,000 than 2000 at Trent Bridge. With all due respect to my Durham team-mates, I’d rather be playing for England.”Harmison was left out of England’s Test XI after an lacklustre effort in Hamilton, and has been ignored for subsequent Tests. He forced his way back with 40 wickets at 23.10 in the County Championship this season.Geoff Miller, England’s national selector, was impressed with Harmison’s domestic performances. “People are now saying he is in a better place than he was, and he now looks like the bowler he was a couple of years ago when he was striking fear into opposition batsmen,” Miller told the Miller also shut out talk of the return being premature. “There’s no risk at all. We wouldn’t have put him in if we thought there was a risk,” he said. “We talk to all the players regularly and I have watched him bowl this year and talked to him myself.”

Dwayne Smith, the West Indies allrounder, has turned his back on the Caribbean after signing a two-and-a-half year Kolpak deal with Sussex and is aiming to qualify for England.Smith, 25, initially joined Sussex on a short-term deal for the Twenty20 Cup but has impressed during his stint at Hove. His stand-out performance was 72 off 27 balls against Hampshire.”We are delighted to have Dwayne on board as he has fitted into the dressing room really well over the last couple of weeks,” said Mark Robinson, the Sussex cricket manager. “Dwayne is the type of cricketer you would pay to come and see as he hits a long ball and bowls well. He is also one of the best fielders in the world. I’m sure the Sussex public will have a lot of pleasure watching his exploits in the next couple of years.”Smith, who struck a century on his Test debut against South Africa, has played 10 Tests and 71 ODIs for West Indies, but his ODI batting overage of 14 shows he has never fulfilled his ability. His last international appearance came against Ireland, in Dublin, last July at the end of West Indies’ tour.He was a late signing in the Indian Premier League when he joined Mumbai Indians having been overlooked for the series against Sri Lanka. Smith will primarily play one-day cricket for Sussex this year but will play a bigger role in both formats next summer.Unlike the volume of Kolpak players from South Africa giving up their international careers, there was been a more limited flow from West Indies. Smith follows Wavell Hinds (Derbyshire), Pedro Collins (Surrey), Omari Banks (Somerset) and Jermaine Lawson (Leicestershire).