Kasim Farid, the captain of Scotland at the recent Under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka, has been named in the Scotland squad for their warm-up matches against Durham next week.In preparation for the C&G Trophy they are playing two matches at Chester-le-Street before their opening game of the tournament against Warwickshire on April 30. Craig Wright leads the team, which includes the former England, Yorkshire and Durham allrounder Gavin Hamilton.Squad Craig Wright (capt), Kasim Farid, Gavin Hamilton, Paul Hoffmann, Omer Hussain, Douglas Lockhart, Ross Lyons, Gregor Maiden, Dewald Nel, Colin Smith (wk), Ian Stanger, Ryan Watson, Fraser Watts, Sean Weeraratna.

South Africa 427 for 5 (Amla 149, Prince 70*, Boucher 26*) trail New Zealand 593 for 8 dec by 166 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Hashim Amla pushed his maiden Test century up to 149 as South Africa worked their way past the follow-on at Cape Town, virtually assuring them of safety. Jacques Kallis aided him during the morning session and Ashwell Prince ensured that two quick wickets before tea were nothing other than a blip on another bat-dominated day. The New Zealand attack plugged away manfully, but it was hard work for little reward.The match only threatened to come alive when Daniel Vettori and Jeetan Patel struck in quick succession, leaving South Africa 33 short of the follow-on with five wickets in hand, just about keeping New Zealand’s interest in squaring the series alive. Vettori trapped Amla with an arm ball – although there was the thinnest of inside edges – and Patel’s strike to remove AB de Villiers on the stroke of tea had opened a small window for the Kiwis. But it was slammed, or rather eased shut, by Prince and Mark Boucher. At no stage did the conditions hint at a clatter of wickets and that was the only way New Zealand were going to be able to force a result.For the majority of the morning it was one-way traffic as Amla and Kallis bedded in on a surface that offered precious little encouragement to the bowlers. There was a hint of turn, but the pitch has not broken up as had been expected.Vettori was disappointing, dropping too short and allowing the batsmen to pick him off for ones and twos. Kallis creamed a series of delightful drives which left the fielders motionless, and led to a change of tact from Stephen Fleming. As soon as the new ball was available it was taken and James Franklin found a hint of movement and maintained a probing line.

But there was nothing to frighten the batsmen and Kallis clicked over to another fifty – off 142 balls – and also nudged his way beyond 8000 Test runs. Amla was quick onto any wayward deliveries and the nineties did not cause him any undue nerves. A sweet drive carried him to 99 before he forced a brace through the covers off Vettori to reach three figures, off 242 balls, a fine return to the team especially in the tough No. 3 slot.By this point Kallis had departed in a somewhat tame manner, scooping an attempted pull to mid-on after the ball held up off the surface. However, Amla pressed on with the knowledge that it was not about how quickly South Africa scored – it was all about occupation of the crease. He continued to knock away the loose deliveries with Patel showing the first signs of tiring as he approached 40 overs on his debut. But when Vettori got the benefit of Amla’s decision, and Patel was rewarded for preservence, South Africa would have had a twitchy tea interval.However, as with Kallis, it was a situation made for Prince and he went about making the most of chance of a sizeable score. New Zealand needed a quick strike in the final session, but Boucher was quickly into his effective counterattacking style, sweeping and nudging the spinners to distraction. Once the pair took the deficit below 200 a collective weight was removed from South African shoulders.The zip clearly vanished from the Kiwis allowing Prince and Boucher to ease along in what has become a quest for personal milestones. The daily dose of bad light arrived on cue to allow some aching bodies to head for the dressing room. Prince will know a fourth century is there for the taking tomorrow and, after a season of battling away on tough pitches, the South Africans will want to eke every last run from this surface. It will be one for the purists.

How they were outSouth AfricaGraeme Smith c and b Patel 25 (36 for 1)
Boeta Dippenaar b Patel 47 (108 for 2)
Jacques Kallis c Martin b Oram 71 (252 for 3)
Hashim Amla lbw b Vettori 149 (344 for 4)
AB de Villiers c Papps b Patel 13 (361 for 5)

Virender Sehwag, the Indian vice-captain, has voiced his gratitude to Sourav Ganguly, the former captain, and admitted that the team missed him. Sehwag, who was one of a crop of youngsters that flourished under Ganguly’s captaincy, acknowledged that he could still make a comeback to the national side.”He [Ganguly] supported me a lot. He backed Yuvraj [Singh], Harbhajan [Singh], Ashish [Nehra], Ajit Agarkar, Mohammad Kaif,” Sehwag told Press Trust of India. “He is still playing first class cricket and hopefully he will get a chance again. It will be good if he gets back because he has got 10,000 one-day runs, 5,000 Test runs and 22 ODI hundreds. Most of the time India won when he got a hundred. He is a fantastic player and sometimes we miss Ganguly.” Sehwag added that Ganguly was his favourite captain after Steve Waugh.Sehwag also spoke on Rahul Dravid’s leadership, Chappell’s abilities and the coming generation of Indian cricketers. “Dravid is a very good thinker, someone who never panics in a pressure situation,” he said. “Maybe, hopefully, Dravid will be the best captain by the end of his career.” On Chappell, Sehwag said that he was a great player with a great knowledge of the game. Comparing him with John Wright, India’s coach before Chappell, Sehwag pointed out that the difference between them was their attitude. “Someone who has been aggressive in his batting is also aggressive in his coaching,” he said. “Wright would be tense and unhappy if we did badly whereas Chappell is very cool and calm because he knows all players face pressure situations.”When quizzed if Chappell was a control freak, Sehwag denied this. “That’s not true. As the coach he is the head of the family,” he said. “He can instruct you, guide you but he is not forcing us to do this and that. I do not think he controls the players too much.” Of the coming generation, Sehwag singled out Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the next superstar. “He is handling pressure very well and in tough situations he adjusts his game very quickly,” he said. “India have very good finishers now in Dhoni, Yuvraj, Suresh Raina and Irfan Pathan. These four are match winners. They play ball-by-ball. If they play 50 balls, they will get 50 runs… They are very cool and calm.”Sehwag remained confident of India’s ability to continue their winning streak in one-day internationals. “Our confidence is high as we are winning matches. We have won two or three series continuously,” he said. “We are trying to build a team for the World Cup. Hopefully we will do well in the West Indies. This series is important for us because of next year’s World Cup there.”

Jonty Rhodes has arrived in Lahore to begin his two-week stint with the Pakistan team as well as the junior teams and Academy cricketers as a fielding consultant.Pakistan hired Rhodes for a 15-day period after some increasingly ragged displays in the field during the last international home season, culminating with disastrous performances in the field against India in the ODI series in February.Rhodes, who played 52 Tests and 245 ODIs during an illustrious career, is regarded by many as the best fielder of his generation and easily among the best to have ever played the game.According to a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official, the more important aspect of his stint would be to inspire youngsters during his short stay in Pakistan.”Rhodes is an icon in the cricket world and we believe he could inspire our younger generation of cricketers to work harder on their fitness,” said Abbas Zaidi, PCB’s Director of Board Operations.Rhodes too spoke encouragingly about the abilities of the Pakistan players and hoped to instill a more positive approach towards fielding. “We are talking about some of the world’s best players,” Rhodes told . “They make a top-class team and I am sure they can be very good fielders.”After arriving in Pakistan, Rhodes is scheduled to work with the Pakistan team players for almost a week during a camp starting at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore from June 12. He will also work with the Pakistan A players bound for Australia in July.

Lance Gibbs, the legendary West Indian offspinner, spent some time with Harbhajan Singh, advising him how to bowl the straighter one without changing his action. In what could turn out to be a crucial half-an-hour session in Harbhajan’s career, he was taught how to use the index finger judiciously during his delivery process.”He wanted to know about bowling the straighter one without any change of action,” Gibbs told Cricinfo, “and I showed him how I bowled it without my spinning finger [index finger] touching the seam. We generally discussed about the basics of offspin bowling.” Gibbs didn’t get the opportunity to demonstrate how it was done but he revealed that he planned to have a session during the fifth day of the match.Harbhajan’s career has been dogged by allegations of a suspect action, resulting in him being called twice. He was last cleared in May 2005, when the International Cricket Council said he could continue to bowl provided he used an action consistent with the one he exhibited in the biomechanical tests conducted at the University of Western Australia in February.Gibbs, who ended with 309 Test wickets in 79 games and even held the world record for a short while, was known for his lethal drifter, one which he bowled with hardly any change of action. “I used to bowl it differently,” Gibbs said about the ball that left the right-handed batsmen. “I could take my spinning finger away from the seam of the ball and get the ball to go in straight or let it drift a little.”The interaction with Harbhajan was one Gibbs expected to have, considering the friendship he shared with Greg Chappell, India’s coach. Gibbs had played along with Chappell at both Glenelg, at club level, and South Australia, at state level. While chatting with Cricinfo on Sunday, Gibbs had said, “I haven’t yet met Chappell but I’m certain that he would want me to have a chat with Harbhajan.”Gibbs isn’t the first expert to work with members of the Indian team on this tour. Rudi Webster, the famous psychologist, too had spent some time with the players, including a two-and-a-half hour session with Virender Sehwag, while Andy Roberts, the legendary fast bowler, offered some valuable tips with regard to Irfan Pathan’s run-up.

Jason Gillespie believes he has “no chance” of starting the first Ashes Test despite a double-century and Man-of-the-Series return in Bangladesh in April. Today signals the 100-day countdown to the series, but Gillespie said he has “not been getting a great vibe” and ranked himself as the country’s seventh bowler in line.”I know my one-day career is over,” Gillespie said in . “I still feel as if my Test career has something to offer but I am down in the queue. Stuart Clark, Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee are ahead of me. You’ve got Kasper [Michael Kasprowicz] who has been injured, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson. I see myself as below those guys.”Gillespie said the selectors were “dying to introduce” new life into the attack and admitted his international future was not bright. “I’ll be honest with you, I think I am no chance for the first Test,” he said. “I got Man of the Match and the Series with eight wickets at 11 and a double-hundred and won’t play the next Test … it will be a good trivia question.”In 71 matches Gillespie moved into fifth place on Australia’s wicket list with 259 at 26.13, but it seems he will be remembered more for his 201 not out as a nightwatchman against Bangladesh in his previous Test. “My only regret was I never got home for a week after it,” he said. “The amount of text messages and calls I got were amazing. I have my gear I scored my 200 with. The shirt, gloves and shoes are locked away in the cupboard and I am going to take them home and keep them in a nice safe place. The bat will never be used again.”Gillespie, who is playing in the County Championship for Yorkshire, said England would be worried about their injured bowlers, but their batting and wicketkeeping was looking strong. “They have finally made the change and picked the best gloveman in the country [Chris Read] so they are moving in the right direction there,” he said. “They are also playing a spinner who is actually trying to take wickets [Monty Panesar]. He is a spinner who gives it some flight and shape and is trying to take wickets. They are looking OK.”

Both Ricky Ponting and Glenn McGrath lavished praise on Sachin Tendulkar,but were confident that Australia would prevail when they meet India onSaturday in the third game of the DLF Cup. McGrath is representingAustralia for the first time since the VB Series last January, andrelished the opportunity to pit himself against both Tendulkar and BrianLara in the same tournament.”My whole career, I have enjoyed bowling to guys who are the best in theworld,” he said. “Sachin and Lara are two of those guys. I didn’t get achance to bowl at Lara the other night, now I’ll see how I go againstSachin. I am looking forward to it. Sachin is a class player, I havealways enjoyed bowling to him in the park. The way I started the othernight was a perfect length to a right-hander. So, we have a right-handerwho has got a 140 under his belt. He is due to fail in this game!”Ponting too was awestruck by the manner in which Tendulkar had announcedhis return to the fray, saying: “I have always said that Sachin is thebest player I have played against and seen. He is absolutely world-class.Having him at the top of the order makes the team look much moreformidable. He gets in there early, he has technique to play the new-ball,and he can be as damaging as anyone in the middle and end overs. He makesfor a pretty good package when he is at his best.”That said, he insisted that the game would not be about individuals.”India has always been the team that we respect, and they have lots ofmatch-winners in their team,” said Ponting. “On their day, they are asgood as anybody going around. We have got one win under our belt and thatshould help. As for India, this is a short series, so they will, I amsure, look at tomorrow as a game that they must win.”Rahul Dravid suggested that a positive mindset would be India’s biggestally. “We need to be at the top of the game to beat the Aussies,” he said.”They have maintained their status as the best side in the world, and wehave played some good one-day cricket in the last year. It should make fora good contest.”Like everyone saw, the West Indies were in control for three-fourths ofthe game, but then the Aussies fought back and won convincingly in theend. You must be in the game right till the end against Australia, youcan’t relax at any stage. We will look to be aggressive and positive.”India’s preparations weren’t helped, however, by rain that resulted intheir practice session at the Turf Club being called off, after onlyVirender Sehwag and Mahendra Singh Dhoni had got an opportunity to knockaround in the nets. “We have had just about enough of this bad weather,”said a visibly irked Dravid. “I think we have got our quota of rain for acouple of years in the last month or so! It is a bit frustrating, but itis something we can’t control. Yesterday was shaping up into a good game,and we were beginning to have good training session here today. Thefacilities were great and we had excellent practice pitches, but only twoplayers got to bat.”Dravid accepted that India’s bowling had been well below par against WestIndies, who were 141 for 2 from just 20 overs when the rain came down. “Wedidn’t bowl as well as we would have liked, and there is a lesson to learnthere,” he said. “We have worked out the areas that, if we bowl in, willbring us success. We have got plans in place, now it’s a question ofexecuting them.”Australia also struggled with the ball when Shivnarine Chanderpaul wassmashing it all over the place, but McGrath was coy when asked if he wouldbecome something of a mentor for the younger bowlers. “I don’t know if Iam good at it,” he said truthfully. “But I get along well with the youngquicks and they sort of keep me on my toes. I haven’t spent a great dealof time with them just chatting to them, so I am working their game outand seeing actually how much they know about their game.”Despite the fact that he’s now one of the game’s senior statesmen, McGrathhinted that the snarl, that has been just as much part of his game as hisaccuracy, wouldn’t go into premature retirement. “Being a fast bowler, oneneeds to be aggressive,” he said. “Even so, there is a line I have madethat I don’t cross too often. But Ricky wouldn’t want me skipping aroundafter bowling half-volleys and smiling when I get hit for four.”Both camps played down the significance of a Greg Chappell-coached Indiataking on Australia for the first time. “We don’t look at it that way,”said Dravid. “It doesn’t make a difference that Greg is an Aussie and weare playing Australia tomorrow. He is our coach, and Australia is justanother team. I don’t know if the fact that Greg has coached people likePonting in the past will make that much of a difference.”Ponting, who was part of the Australia A squad coached by Chappell in1994-95, agreed. “You might be right there,” he said with a laugh, whenasked to recall those long-ago days when he was trying to make his mark.”I have only heard good things about Greg as a coach. He has been with usat the Academy at different times, he knows a lot of our game reasonablywell. So he will have a fair deal of knowledge to pass on to the Indianteam about us.”When he [Chappell] was coach of South Australia, Tim Neilsen was with himthere as the assistant coach. Everything he has said about Greg ispositive, Tim said Greg is the best batting coach he has worked with. Hewould have brought a fair bit to the Indian team, and a fair bit ofknowledge about us too.”How that knowledge helps the Indians on Saturday remains to be seen.

ScorecardSussex followed up their C&G Trophy success with an impressive seven-wicket victory against Durham in the Pro40 to keep their hopes of a treble alive. Richard Montgomerie carried them most of the way towards their target after James Kirtley, riding high after his match-winning effort on Saturday, bagged three wickets.Kirtley and Yasir Arafat knocked the stuffing out of Durham’s innings as they slumped to 10 for 3. That became 40 for 4 when Ben Harmison fell to Luke Wright and, although Gareth Breese’s 50 led a recovery, Durham could only muster a modest total. Robin Martin-Jenkins produced a miserly spell with the ball, as his eight overs cost just 10 runs with four maidens.Matt Prior fell early in the chase, but Chris Nash added 66 for the second wicket with Montgomerie. Chris Adams was at the crease to complete the formalities and Sussex had a massive 82 balls to spare.

Geoff Marsh, the former Australian opener, feels that for Simon Katich to remain in the one-day team and play the sheet-anchor role, he must rotate the strike and build partnerships.”He’s got to get his confidence back as he can play all the shots and strike the ball nicely,” Marsh told the , a Melbourne-based daily. “At the end of the day, he just has to perform. That’s the nature of the beast at that level.”In the last 10 one-day matches, Katich has an average of 39.11 with only one fifty – scored against South Africa in the epic encounter at the Wanderers when South Africa chased 434 for a series victory.”When you’ve got players of the nature of [Matthew] Hayden and Phil Jaques breathing down your neck, it’s hard work. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Simon Katich or whoever in that role, when you’re getting pressure from outside it’s always going to be a talking point. He knows these guys are right on his heel.”The Champions Trophy will be the first time that Katich will play one-day cricket in India. Apart from two games against Bangladesh, he has had no ODI exposure in the subcontinent.

Lancashire have confirmed that Mark Chilton will continue as captain in 2007. Chilton, 30, is going into his 11th season at the county and has captained them for the last two years.”It is a great honour,” he said. “I have enjoyed the job thoroughly and I continue to learn and to improve. We were close to winning things last season and the objective now is clear, to go that one step further.”Lancashire’s manager Mike Watkinson added: “Mark works tirelessly on and off the field, and is respected throughout the game for his leadership qualities. He is a deep-thinking and courteous person, but he also has a steely inner nature and is never fazed by tough situations or bullish characters in the game and he never shies away from difficult decisions.”Out in the middle, Mark is determined to lead from the front. He remains hugely ambitious, for the club and for himself.”Lancashire were runners-up in both the County Championship and the Natwest Trophy last season, and have recently secured the signature of Muttiah Muralitharan for 2007.