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Darren Lehmann will miss South Australia’s Pura Cup opener against Victoria next month after tearing a hamstring last week. Lehmann had only just started training following an off-season interrupted by surgery on his achilles tendon and a case of deep-vein thrombosis.He told the that at 37 it would be a challenge to make it through a 21st season of first-class cricket. “It is disappointing breaking down again but I guess it’s a case of finding the best way to manage my body,” Lehmann said.Nathan Adcock, the new captain of South Australia, will not be able to call on Lehmann for advice in their first Pura Cup game at Adelaide Oval starting on October 14. Lehmann has also confirmed he will be on the sidelines for the KFC Twenty20 competition in January, giving the Redbacks’ less experienced batsmen a chance to shine.”Twenty20 is probably a young man’s game now,” he said. “It will be good for some young guys to get some more opportunities.”

Ricky Ponting will need to take a big risk if Australia are to equal the world record of 16 consecutive wins. The mark set by Steve Waugh does not bother Ponting, who refuses to be swayed by statistics, but winning matters a lot to him.India’s impressive first innings has shorn Ponting of time, which has been one of his greatest assets since the drawn match against South Africa in 2005-06. Now he has to dictate proceedings with a declaration that has many consequences.A victory would retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, continue the streak and evaporate the confidence gained by the tourists over the first four days. If India overcome the total set by Ponting suddenly the series is level and the captain will have lost his fourth Test in 40 games. The disruptions caused by rain and bad light on Saturday, which cut 12 overs from the day, did not help Australia’s momentum and a draw remains the most likely result even though play will start half an hour early on the final day.Australia will begin with a lead of 213 that was secured by Matthew Hayden’s 123 and Michael Hussey’s 87 not out. Ponting’s dilemma over how many runs to set India is an unusual one for him. For most of his rule there have been a couple of days to dismiss his opponents rather than the limited opportunities that will be available on day five. This time he has to weigh up his tunnel-vision for victory with the reality of miscalculating a total and suffering defeat. A target of 320 would probably be out of India’s reach, but 270 over two-and-a-bit sessions might be enticing. It is a tricky call.The next Test starts in Perth on January 16 and Australia will be confident of a quick success if the pitch delivers the same steep bounce that was a feature of Australia’s Twenty20 victory over New Zealand last month. India’s discomfort against the short ball will be on display and the series is likely to be decided there if the home side’s fast bowlers perform. It could be a reason for Ponting to play it safe in Sydney.During one of the handful of rain breaks a video of Waugh’s unbeaten run from 1999-2001 was shown to entertain the remaining spectators. It could have stirred the Australians as they sheltered in the dressing room. They spoke about the record only once in the lead-up to the game – Ponting told them to ignore it and concentrate on this match – but it must be hard to avoid getting excited by the chance to equal a world mark.The sense of history and the push for new limits was a feature of the partnership between Waugh and the coach John Buchanan. Buchanan was overseeing the team for the first 12 victories of this streak, but his replacement Tim Nielsen does not motivate the players with the same sort of carrots. When the declaration comes it will be Ponting’s decision and it will show how much he is willing to gamble on victory.

Mombasa will stage its first one-day international next month when the Mombasa Sports Club hosts three matches between Kenya and Bermuda. The games will take place on November 11, 12 and 14.The venue was given full ODI status in August following an inspection by ICC officials including Mike Procter.Cricket Kenya received another welcome boost with news that Petro Kenya Limited had been signed up as a series sponsor. The income from the deal – believed to be around 400,000 Kenya Shillings (US$ 5,500) – will be used to cover the costs of staging the matches.Prior to their visit to Mombasa, Bermuda play Kenya in an Intercontinental Cup fixture at Nairobi Gymkhana starting on November 5.

South Africa will look to continue their successful run against New Zealand with a win in the second ODI in Port Elizabeth. The hosts almost faltered during theirrun-chase in the first ODI in Durban but a win on Friday will give them an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.Going by current form, South Africa are clear favourites and this iseven without considering their recordin day-night encounters at St. George’s Park – eights win out of tenODIs, with one no result.The hosts will be boosted by the return of Herschelle Gibbs, who hadmissed the Twenty20 international and the first ODI with a kneeinjury. Gibbs’ standby Morne van Wyk has been released from the squad toplay for the Eagles in the SuperSport series.The other dilemma facing the South African selectors surroundstheir pace attack. New Zealand’s batsmen were blown away by Dale Steynduring the two-Test series, and his inclusion in the playing XI coulddent the tourists’ confidence ahead of a must-win game.However, with Shaun Pollock conceding next to nothing in his ten oversand Andre Nel playing a pivotal role with both ball and bat in the firstODI, the axe could fall on Makhaya Ntini, who proved to be expensive,especially at the death in Durban. Johan Botha might play despite unimpressiveshowings in recent ODIs, since the pitch at St. George’s Park couldfavour the slower bowlers.Graeme Smith, the South African captain, hinted at possible changes inthe bowling line-up. “We’ve got to look at the wicket and theconditions, but obviously Dale [Steyn] and [Charl] Langeveldt come intothe equation,” he was quoted as saying on the website SuperCricket. “We’ll seewhat switches we need to make to suit the conditions.”

Smith’s opposition counterpart Daniel Vettori must be wondering what histeam needs to do to beat this South African side. New Zealand’smain worry through the Tests was the form of their batsmen, but afterthe Durban ODI, the team would be concerned over its bowling optionsas well, besides their poor catching, which Vettori highlighted as the main reason for the last-ball loss at Kingsmead.Kyle Mills’ 5 for 25 in Durban would have done Shane Bond proud but New Zealand could have done with somefirepower at the other end – Mark Gillespie, Chris Martin, ScottStyris and Vettori conceded 220 runs and picked up three wickets.Allrounder Jacob Oram will be a handy addition to the bowlingdepartment. Oram suffered a hamstring strain in thefirst Test, and Vettori indicated the team would play six bowlers.”Jacob’s probably the most important member of our team purely from theroles he fills, batting at number six and able to bowl 10 overs,”Vettori told SuperCricket. “It’s a luxury not many teams have and havinghim back means I can take six bowlers and we get a nice balance whenhe’s playing.”That means wicketkeeper-batsman Gareth Hopkins, who scored a first-ball duck at Kingsmead, is likely to be dropped. The New Zealand captain alsoindicated Jeetan Patel, the offspinner, could get the nod ahead of oneof the quicker bowlers. “The times I’ve played here, I’ve always foundit a low, slow wicket and the guys who’ve been able to take the pace offit have always succeeded here [in Port Elizabeth],” he said. “So seamersstill have an important role to play, but we’ll have a lot of emphasison the slow bowlers.”Vettori admitted his team would be under pressure to win the remainingtwo matches. “We need to win both matches to give ourselves a shot atthe series,” he said. “The way we play tomorrow will be with that inmind, and we definitely will not be playing defensively.”We’ll be chasing that win as hard as we can, but the key thing is thatwhen you are chasing a win, you maybe push a little too hard and forgetabout a few of the simple things you need to do.”However, Smith said he expected South Africa to up their game, and sealthe series. “We want to be more clinical come tomorrow. It would befantastic to close off the series tomorrow,” he said. “The guys get anice break after this weekend, so hopefully we can step it up and playsome really good cricket.”

ScorecardChris Read’s century put Notts into the lead•Getty Images

Chris Read helped himself to a second century of the season as Nottinghamshire dominated day three against Middlesex at Trent Bridge. Having passed three figures for the first time this summer in the four-day game between the sides at Lord’s back in April, the Notts captain was at it again, this time on home soil.Having been dropped on 54, Read, the 36-year-old former England wicketkeeper, went on to score 108 from 206 balls as Notts built a useful first innings lead.Resuming on their overnight score of 180 for 4, Notts found themselves in a spot of trouble when Samit Patel was bowled, in the third over of the day, at 184 for 5 and Steven Mullaney holed out to Tim Murtagh off Ollie Rayner 45 runs later. At that stage, they still trailed Middlesex by 145. But despite losing 15 overs to rain, Notts pushed on after lunch with Read and Brett Hutton adding 157 for the seventh wicket.Read, who missed six weeks of the season from the middle of May due to a hamstring injury, struck eight fours in reaching his half century, off 101 balls, and posted three figures for the first time since mid-April, off 190 balls. Having been dropped at slip by Ollie Rayner on 54 – a sharp chance to Rayner’s right hand – he eventually fell to Toby Roland-Jones, at 386 for 7.The captain’s job was made all the more easy by Hutton, who batted beautifully to post his highest first class score of 72. The 22-year-old bowling allrounder brought up his own half-century off 121 balls, with seven fours, and looked comfortable throughout against a Middlesex attack that offered precious little as the day wore on.Hutton continued to bat with due care and attention after his skipper’s departure and with Luke Wood, who was dropped on 0 off the bowling of Dawid Malan, he added 25 for the eighth wicket. But he finally departed at 419 for 9 and at that juncture Notts declared with a first innings lead of 45. Middlesex opener Sam Robson and nightwatchman James Harris successfully negotiated the final two overs of the evening and trail Notts by 38 runs with all 10 second innings wickets in hand.

Jagmohan Dalmiya, president of the Indian board, has confirmed that Ahmedabad will be the venue for India’s first Test against New Zealand, which starts on October 8. “The Green Park stadium in Kanpur is not fit to stage the Test, so we have shifted the match to Ahmedabad.”As had earlier been anticipated, the game has been shifted from Green Park in Kanpur due to poor ground conditions there. Kanpur has experienced heavy monsoon rains which have damaged the newly laid pitch and the seating area in the stadium. Jyoti Bajpai, secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UCPA), expressed his disappointment, but agreed that there was no other solution.”Even the pitches committee had refused to take any responsibility regarding the Green Park wicket. Besides, it is not feasible to rectify the problems in the available time of two months,” he clarified. “Though it was a big blow to Kanpur but sometimes such types of blows are a must for good things to happen. Despite the shifting of the Test, our number in the rotation list will remain on top.”The second Test of the two-match series will be played at Mohali from October 16 to 20.

The Indian board (BCCI) has told Cricinfo that it will be lodging a complaint with the ECB following confirmation that the PCB has issued No Objection Certificates to Mushtaq Ahmed and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, allowing them to play county cricket in 2008.The two players are involved with the unauthorised Indian Cricket League and Niranjan Shah, the BCCI’s secretary, told Cricinfo that “we have an understanding with the other countries’ boards that they can’t allow players who are associated with the ICL to be allowed to play at any level, regardless of the reason the player has a contract with his board or not.”If the news is true that the two players have been given NOCs by the PCB then we will take up the issue with the ECB since the two counties – Sussex and Yorkshire – come under the jurisdiction of the England board.”The ECB, however, is legally powerless to take any action in the light of the NOCs being granted and is likely to pass the matter back to the Indian board to sort out directly with its Pakistan counterparts.The situation is further muddied by confusion within the PCB about the issuing of an NOC to Naved-ul-Hasan. On Thursday, Shafqat Naghmi, the PCB’s chief operating officer, told Reuters that “the factual position is that some counties had asked the PCB to issue NOC’s for these players. But we’ve now informed them very clearly that since these players are not contracted to us nor eligible to play in Pakistan we don’t come anywhere into this issue at all.”But less than a day later, Naghmi gave Cricinfo an altogether different picture. “Our board’s policy on the ICL remains as it has always been and these players cannot play in Pakistan,” he said. “But the board also felt that there is no legal or moral reason in stopping someone from playing cricket in another country. That is subject to their laws. So, on this basis, we have sent an NOC, which maybe wasn’t as well-worded as planned, but the intention was made clear.”Stewart Regan, the Yorkshire chief executive, told Cricinfo that the NOC had in fact been received last week and was dated March 17. “We have a signed letter that is very clear in confirming they [the PCB] have no objection,” he said. This was then sent to the ECB, along with the player’s registration form, and was accepted by the board.Today’s news follows the revelations last week that the ECB had refused registrations for five players because of their participation in the ICL. But with Pakistan approving Mushtaq and Naved-ul-Hasan, and in so doing leaving the England board with no room for manoeuvre, there are certain to be some terse exchanges between the PCB and the BCCI in the coming days.

Test opener Justin Langer is aiming to revitalise his summer in tomorrow’s day-night cricket match between Western Australia and South Australia in Perth.The ING Cup player of last season has failed to fire in recent Test series against minnows Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, scoring just 108 runs in four Tests at an average of 21.6.”I’m looking forward to kick-starting my summer. It has not been a great start to the summer. There are various reasons for that, but I am looking forward to kick-starting from a personal point of view with some runs under my belt,” he said.WA captain Langer said a lack of match practice heading into the recent two-match series against the Africans had not helped his cause.”It didn’t seem to trouble Matty Hayden or Ricky Ponting too much, but everyone’s preparation is different,” he said.”We had a long break leading into the Test series, I probably had 10 or 11 weeks before going straight into a Test match.”I think that is something that has to be looked at in the programming.”Meanwhile, Redbacks captain Greg Blewett said his players just wanted to start erasing memories of their disastrous ING Cup campaign last season, which netted just one win from ten matches.”Last season we just got into a bit of a rut. We were very competitive at the beginning of the season and then basically fell to pieces,” he said.”We were bowled out for scores of a hundred and things like that. I felt we completely lost confidence in that form of the game and it is the start of a new season and hopefully that is all forgotten.”Allrounder Mick Miller is in some doubt with a shoulder injury sustained in SA’s 56-run Pura Cup win over the Warriors at the WACA Ground yesterday.Blewett predicted all-rounders to be the major beneficiaries of Cricket Australia’s move this summer to reduce the number of players from 12 to 11 in the domestic one-day competition.”I think that is to get the allrounders back into the game because you could play the extra player with the 12, and that was generally a batsman or a strike bowler,” he said.”I think with 11 players now, that the allrounders are going to have to come back into it.”However, Langer and WA coach Wayne Clark thought the new “free-hit” rule would not be a major factor in the competition.Under the new rule which has been used in English cricket, if a no-ball is bowled the batsman can only be dismissed by run out or interference on the next delivery.”I am with Justin, it did not happen a lot when I was in England,” the former Yorkshire coach said.WA: Justin Langer (c), Michael Hussey, Jo Angel, Ryan Campbell, Beau Casson, Murray Goodwin, Shaun Marsh, Marcus North, Chris Rogers, Michael Thistle, Callum Thorp, Peter Worthington.SA: Greg Blewett (c), Mark Cleary, John Davison, Shane Deitz, Callum Ferguson, Andy Flower, Mark Higgs, Ben Johnson, Graham Manou, Mick Miller, Paul Rofe, Shaun Tait.

Scorecard

England comfortably won the final ODI at Dhaka and thus completed a 3-0 clean sweep in this short series. They were made to work a touch harder for it this time, but Bangladesh’s fighting total of 182, in which their lower order again helped them out, was still never going to be enough. Marcus Trescothick led the reply with a calm half-century before Paul Collingwood and that man Andrew Flintoff again led England home with 10 overs to spare, and to their third consecutive seven-wicket win.After Vikram Solanki, who scored only 11 runs in the series, again fell early with an angled slash outside off stump off Mushfiqur Rahman for 1, Trescothick and Michael Vaughan and took their time to build a winning platform – the first boundary of the innings, from Vaughan, didn’t come until the seventh over.The Bangladesh attack kept things tight, but only Rahman posed any real threat, and he trapped Vaughan lbw in the 16th over with one that moved in off the seam a touch and hit Vaughan plumb in front for 29 (66 for 2). Rahman bowled with good pace and movement, but after he finished his spell of 2 for 29 from his 10 overs, the game was all but over.Trescothick started to stamp a calm authority on the game, picking out the singles with ease and unleashing the odd big hit. He came down the track to Khaled Mahmud and smacked him over long-on for four, and then carved him over point for his fifth boundary. Collingwood, meanwhile, was happy to pick out the many gaps in the field, including a huge heave off the left-arm spinner Manjural Islam Rana over midwicket for four and a dazzling lofted cover-drive.Trescothick, just after reaching his fifty, then played around a straight one from Mahmud which kept low and bowled him (102 for 3). The under-fire Mahmud had some good news for once – but the sight of Flintoff striding out wiped the smile off his face pretty quickly.Flintoff waited for six overs to signal the charge. But after a quiet start he suddenly drove Rafique past mid-on for four and then deposited him over long-on to pass Ian Botham’s record of the most sixes by an Englishman in ODIs. That strike was Flintoff’s 45th maximum, beating Botham’s 44 in 65 matches. Then just for good measure, he smashed Tapash Baisya over midwicket for another four. And you know it’s your day when even the umpires don’t want you to get out. After missing a sweep against Manjural, Flintoff somehow survived a stumping which Akhtaruddin, the third umpire, decided wasn’t out.From then on, it was a stroll under the Dhaka lights for Collingwood and Flintoff, who collected his third Man of the Match award. He hammered a further three sixes to take it his tally to ten in the series, which he has dominated from the start. But at least the England batsmen were pushed a touch harder this time for their routine victory after Bangladesh made a much better fist of things to reach a respectable 182 from 49.1 overs.

After the hapless Moniruzzaman was caught and bowled by James Anderson for a second successive duck (6 for 1), Hannan Sarkar and Habibul Bashar, arguably Bangladesh’s best batsmen, did their best to keep up the a refreshingly competitive run-rate. Collingwood checked their progress with a spectacular throw off balance to run out Hannan (35 for 2), but unlike the previuos two games, there was no sudden wicket landslide. Habibul, with the help of Rajin Saleh, put on a sturdy partnership of 31. It wasn’t exciting stuff, but it represented a definite improvement.But in between the odd big hit, England slowly reasserted the pressure, and Rikki Clarke undid all the batsmen’s good early work with two quick wickets. He struck with his first ball when Habibul played right across the line to a dead-eyed straight delivery and was lbw (66 for 3). In the next over, Gareth Batty’s first, Saleh attempted to sweep a straight ball, but only gloved it over his head to Chris Read for 19 (75 for 4). Things got even worse when Alok Kapali was bowled by Clarke trying a horrible pull shot off a ball far too full, and lost his off stump (83 for 5).Then followed the farcical run-out of Mahmud, the beleagured captain. He and Rahman both ended up at the non-striker’s end, and there was a slight delay as the third umpire worked out who was actually out. England wanted the more dangerous Rahman to go, but the crowd wanted the head of Mahmud – and they got it (103 for 6).However, England’s bowlers again failed to polish off the tail. Rahman injected 36 valuable runs, with five boundaries, to the total before he was unluckily given out lbw to Flintoff (139 for 7). Flintoff’s yorker then again paid dividends when he cleaned up Mashud, who hung around for 16. Manjural and Rafique further frustrated England until two late strikes by James Kirtley ended their innings on 183 with five balls remaining.Vaughan and his side now head to Sri Lanka with a clean sweep in both the Bangladesh series, but it’s a different story for Khaled Mahmud, who may well have played his last match for Bangladesh.

Sandeep Patil, who has been coaching various India sides after quitting as Kenya coach in April 2003, has accepted an offer with Oman. The Indian board had not given assurances about his future.Patil, 48, spoke to reporters after the appointment. “I’m taking up this job to coach the Oman national team only because India A don’t have any schedule to look forward to,” he said. “It’s an unfortunate situation. But I have got no assurance from the board despite official reminders. I cannot continue in a scenario where my future is insecure.”Oman’s main target next year will be a good finish in the ICC Trophy, which will rank its participants. They qualified ahead of Hong Kong and Nepal after strong performances in the Asian Cricket Council Trophy – when Patil had coached them in a one-off assignment.