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Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo: John Mooney struck a fifty and put up a crucial stand with Kevin O’Brien•ICC/Sander Tholen

Half-centuries from Kevin O’Brien and John Mooney ensured that Ireland held on for a draw against Zimbabwe A in Harare. Zimbabwe A, who began the day at 320 for 6 in their second innings, added just 26 more runs to that total before declaring. It set Ireland a target of 386 and meant the hosts had more than 80 overs to take 10 wickets and seal a victory.Those hopes were further raised when regular blows from Brian Vitori (2 for 51) and Tatenda Mupunga (2 for 52) reduced Ireland to 141 for 5, with at least 35 more overs left in the day. However, Kevin O’Brien and Mooney held firm, batting together for more than two overs to shepherd their team to safety. Kevin O’Brien hit nine fours for his 56 not out, while Mooney’s unbeaten 65 featured 11 fours. The pair’s unbroken 130-run stand took Ireland to 271 for 5 before stumps were called.

Group DIndia Under-19 opener Rishabh Pant had the fastest recorded U-19 international century comfortably in his sights when he was dismissed for 78 off 24 balls, having blown Nepal Under-19 away in a small chase. Pant did break the record for the fastest recorded U-19 fifty though, getting there in 18 balls, one faster than the previous mark. He added 124 in 9.1 overs with his captain Ishan Kishan, who scored 52 off 40 balls. India eventually chased down Nepal’s score of 169 with 179 balls to spare in Mirpur.Pant attacked from the start, slogging the first ball of the innings to the midwicket boundary, and did not relent. He targeted the arc between deep square leg and long-on with a series of pulls and lofts, paying little heed to whether the delivery demanded caution. Nepal were rattled and fed him shorter lengths at hittable pace and Pant feasted. Kishan had been quieter initially, but once the spinners came on he used his feet superbly, stepping out of this crease to get to the pitch of the ball and swinging without inhibition. Pant began to drive, slap and loft over the off side too as his range expanded against a wilting attack. His strike rate of 325 meant that had he scored 22 more runs in singles Pant would have still broken the record for the fastest u-19 hundred by seven deliveries.India’s seven-wicket victory was set up by their bowlers, though, who restricted Nepal to 160 in a match shortened to 48 overs a side because of early-morning fog. Opener Sandeep Sunar top scored with 37 but the rest of the top four batsmen were dismissed in single digits. They had also slogged at India’s attack but had no success. Seamer Avesh Khan took 3 for 34, while left-arm spinner Mayank Dagar and offspinner Washington Sundar took two apiece.New Zealand Under-19s ended the group stage with a consolation win, as a 141-run partnership between Finn Allen and Dale Phillips steered them to a four-wicket win over Ireland Under-19s in Fatullah. Phillips joined Allen after seamer Rory Anders had picked up four wickets to reduce New Zealand to 45 for 4 in pursuit of 213.The pair got the chase back on track with a brisk partnership spanning 20.4 overs, with Phillips scoring 58 off 66 balls (7×4) before falling lbw to Fiachra Tucker. Then, with New Zealand a mere seven runs from victory, Tucker dismissed Allen for 97 off 76 balls (9×4, 4×6), before Rachin Ravindra and Nathan Smith took them home with 47 balls remaining.Sent in to bat, Ireland got to 100 for 1, thanks to an 85-run second-wicket stand between Jack Tector (56 off 83) and Adam Dennison (46 off 56), before spinners Ravindra and Josh Finnie picked up three wickets apiece and engineered a slump that saw them lose their last nine wickets for 112 runs.Group BA half-century from Tariq Stanikzai gave Afghanistan Under-19s their first win of the tournament, lifting them to a four-wicket win in a low-scoring match against Canada Under-19s in Sylhet. Stanikzai scored 56 off 48 balls, with nine fours and a six, as Afghanistan chased down a target of 148 in only 24.1 overs. They lost a few wickets while doing so, though, with left-arm spinner Shlok Patel and offspinner Miraj Patel sharing five wickets between them.Having chosen to bat, Canada lost three of their top four for ducks and slipped to 31 for 4 before their captain Abraash Khan (33) and Arslan Khan (38) put on the only substantial partnership of their innings, 62 for the fifth wicket. Wickets fell steadily thereafter, with No. 9 Kurt Ramdath’s 20 the next-highest score of the innings, as Canada were bowled out for 147 off the last ball of their allotted 50 overs. Medium-pacer Muslim Musa and offspinner Shamsurrahman picked up three wickets each for Afghanistan.

Sussex closed in on their third Championship in five years after enforcing the follow on against Worcestershire at Hove and reducing the visitors to 190 for 5 at close, still 129 runs short of making Sussex bat again. It had appeared that the match would be done and dusted inside three days when Mushtaq Ahmed grabbed three wickets in as many overs to reduce Worcestershire to 117 for 5, but Moeen Ali (72*) and Gareth Batty (32*) put on an unbeaten 73 for the sixth wicket to take the game into a fourth day. Earlier, Mushtaq took 6 for 93 and Jason Lewry 3 for 44 as Worcestershire lost their last seven first-innings wickets for 61. With the weather forecast good for tomorrow, Sussex will fancy polishing off proceedings in the morning.Durham put themselves top of the Championship – if only for a day – with an eight-wicket win over Kent at Canterbury. Kent, who resumed on 99 for 3, offered little resistance, losing their last seven wickets in the morning session. Paul Wiseman, who finished with 4 for 45, and Ottis Gibson, who took his season tally to 80 wickets, polished off the tail. Durham took 10.1 overs to knock off the 52 runs they needed, although Kent, who bowled Robert Key and Geraint Jones – Martin Saggers kept wicket – hardly pressed them.

Lancashire entered this match with hopes of their first outright Championship victory since 1934, but to achieve that they will first need to complete the highest run-chase in their 150-year history, after Mark Ramprakash batted them to a virtual stand-still with his second century of the match at The Oval.Ramprakash, who had put the skids under Lancashire’s title challenge with his first-innings 196, was once again unstoppable as Surrey appointed themselves king-makers at the end of an unproductive season. After bowling Lancashire out for 234, a deficit of 193, Mark Butcher opted not to enforce the follow-on, and Ramprakash capitalised on a demoralised attack with 130 not out, his second century of the match, his tenth of the summer, and his 97th in first-class matches.It was the sixth occasion in his 401-match career that Ramprakash had made two centuries in the same game, and with his 104th run he reached 2000 runs for the second season in a row. By the time Butcher had declared with a massive lead of 488, Ramprakash’s average for the summer was sitting pretty on 101.30 from 25 innings. In reply, Paul Horton and Mark Chilton reached the close untroubled on 27 for 0, but with Durham already home and dry against Kent, and Sussex well placed in their home match against Worcestershire, Lancashire have no option but to go for glory and take on the 462 runs still required.Ramprakash did not have to wait long to get back into the action, as Scott Newman fell to Dominic Cork with just two runs added to Surrey’s overnight score. Thereafter he and Jonathan Batty rumbled towards an indomitable position, and Batty had designs on his own landmark of 1000 runs in the season before he mistimed a pull to midwicket off Oliver Newby for 45. Butcher and Ramprakash then added 77 in even time for the third wicket to push the lead up past 350.Butcher was caught behind for 47 off Glen Chapple, who also induced a miscued pull when Ramprakash was on 79. It was the closest he came to being dismissed all innings. He went to tea unbeaten on 99, and reached his hundred soon afterwards with a tucked single through midwicket. James Benning got off the mark with a six over long-on as Surrey pressed towards a declaration total, leaving Lancashire with ten overs to negotiate before the close.There was no play between Hampshire and Yorkshire at Headingley.

Includes all points up to the close of play

New Zealand will be without Shane Bond – easily their best bowler – for their first match of the Champions Trophy, against South Africa. And so the sorry tale of the Champions Trophy rolls on. One sided games have dominated the early stages, and there seems to be a moratorium on tall scores. After West Indies’ collapse against Sri Lanka, it was England’s turn, folding for only 125 against India on a pitch with uneven bounce at Jaipur. We’re still waiting for a big game, and hopefully South Africa and New Zealand – perhaps the two teams without a genuinely big star of the stature of a Sachin Tendulkar or an Andrew Flintoff – can provide that.The interesting thing is that even though Bond has been such a stellar performer for New Zealand – 87 wickets from 45 matches at 18.63 with four or more in a game four times – they still have the bowlers who can do the job in the conditions that have been served up in the Champions Trophy so far. The pitches have been slow and low, and with the ball not coming onto the bat, bowlers who can vary their pace, roll the fingers on the ball and send down cutters, are proving increasingly hard to get away from. The likes of Scott Styris, Jacob Oram and Nathan Astle, if they put the ball in the right areas, could be a handful.With the ball not coming onto the bat as nicely as some batsmen would like, it’s not been easy to drive on the up and find the boundaries. This has meant that batsmen have been forced to graft – although some have barely been in long enough to be successful – and run hard between the wickets. The rising temperatures of the second summer, the month of October, have not made this task any easier.What could work in New Zealand’s favour is the fact that their squad has not played international cricket it in seven months. It was in March that they last played – against West Indies at home – and a lay-off of this kind is fast becoming a rarity in international cricket. “We’re fresh,” said Stephen Fleming, the captain, discussing the seven-month break from international cricket. “Apart from Shane Bond, which is obviously disappointing news, the other players are extremely fresh and ready to go and that gives you an enthusiasm and eagerness which can often wane when you’ve played a long season.”Fleming also took the opportunity to send a rather sharp barb at certain cricket boards – and it doesn’t take much guessing who he’s talking about – as he said, “We’re in a lucky position where our Board considers breaks to be very important. Other Board look at breaks as an opportunity to make money. Our breaks are well measured and well calculated. We only have two Tests and potentially 19 one-dayers, with a view to the World Cup being the most important tournament.”But there is a downside to long breaks, and that is that players can be rusty when they get back to top-flight cricket, and it could take a while for them to hit their straps. “You miss the edge of international competition,” said Fleming. “It certainly is an edge that develops when you’re playing regularly and we need to pick that up as soon as we can. You can’t replicate that in warm-up matches so we know that starting well against South Africa is important.”South Africa, meanwhile, have been in Mumbai long already, and with more than one practice match under the belt, should be quite acclimatised to the conditions. Graeme Smith, the captain spoke of how his team prided themselves in their fitness, and did not put an undue premium on either the heat being a bother or the slow nature of pitches being a problem. Instead, he spoke of how this team were a tight unit, and how this was one of South Africa’s big strengths. “We’re a well drilled team. There’s a good team environment and we get on well,” said Smith. “Our success has been that players have contributed throughout the eleven. We haven’t just relied on one player to dominate a game for us. It’s an advantage that we have had players who have won games from all different situations.”In the lead-up to the tournament you would not have picked South Africa v New Zealand as a marquee clash. But with matches unfolding as they have, some gritty, dour cricket might just bring about the best contest. And these two teams are certainly known for just those attributes.

An Australian coaching delegation is in Beijing in a bid to fast-track China as a competitive cricket nation, Cricket Australia said today. CA officials and the coach John Harmer have organised a six-day course for 30 coaches from Shanghai and Beijing, who all work at university level in various ball sports.China, who were admitted as an associate member of the ICC last year, have ambitions to play international one-day cricket. CA joined forces with the Asian Cricket Council in 2003 to assist Asian countries develop their own coaching set-up to help with their talent identification structure.Ross Turner, CA’s international development program manager, said the delegation’s visit was to provide coaches the necessary skills, resources and capacity to build the game among the 1.3 billion population. “China, unlike Australia, is not a nation where cricket is an ingrained part of its culture,” Turner said. “Cricket is fresh and new in China and we have an opportunity to work with the Asian Cricket Council to help build the game from the basic foundations, and share our skills and knowledge in coach education.”Syed Ashraful Huq, the ACC chief executive, said it was China’s ambition to compete in a World Cup. “Developing a cricket culture takes time, but one thing we can be sure of is that China is now ready, willing and able to make the great leap forward into cricket,” Huq said. “China is the next frontier for the game’s expansion. Coaching, funding and facilities are in place to fast-track China into playing one-day matches against other ICC associates within the next few years.”

New South Wales 7 for 373 (Haddin 154, Katich 78, Krejza 57*) lead Victoria 235 by 138 runsScorecardBrad Haddin blasted a career-best 154 from 162 balls in a brutal display to earn New South Wales first innings points against Victoria at the Junction Oval. Haddin, batting at No. 7, hit 22 fours and four sixes in a stunning counter-attack that lifted the Blues from 5 for 105.Haddin, who dominated a century stand with Simon Katich, was dropped by Matthew Elliott on 52 and by the time he departed New South Wales had a lead of 105. While the offspinner Jason Krejza moved to his maiden first-class half-century, Haddin added his third fifty from only 38 balls.New South Wales lost 3 for 7 before lunch, including the nightwatchman Nathan Bracken, who was lbw to Cameron White. White ended day two with 3 for 102 from 25 overs.

Waqar Younis, the former Pakistan captain, has publicly criticised Shoaib Akhtar’s bowling performances in the NatWest Challenge.Pakistan failed the challenge 2-1, and Shoaib, who missed the first match while serving a ban for ball-tampering, returned figures of 2 for 69 and 0 for 40 in the last two matches – both of which Pakistan lost.According to a report in The Independent, Waqar didn’t mince his words, coming up with a stinging attack on Shoaib. “It’s ridiculous Shoaib coming out in the papers saying he’s going to do this or do that. He’s been doing it for a few years now and he never lives up to it and it looks pretty ugly. He performs to his ability once a year – and then he has the nerve to compare himself with Glenn McGrath. He was saying last week that if he’d been born Australian, he’d have taken more wickets. It might have been better for Pakistan if he had been born in Australia.”I’ve always helped Shoaib and tried to make him a better bowler, but I don’t know what’s wrong with him. Pace isn’t everything. What’s the point doing 100mph if you can’t put the ball in the right place?”Shoaib thinks he knows it all already – but in cricket you’re always learning. I’m still learning after all these years. Shoaib is a good bowler. I wanted him in the World Cup squad. But he just doesn’t do what he says. He bigs himself up beyond what he’s capable of. He likes to be in the papers and be flash – but he just doesn’t deliver on the field. Look at Friday [the second ODI against England, at The Oval]: it was painful to see the way Pakistan played. It was painful to see the way he was bowling.”Fair enough, you fight and you lose. But he’s always saying, ‘I’m going to do this or I’m going to do that.’ Just bowl, mate. Just stop talking and bowl.” Waqar was responding to an interview where Shoaib attributed Pakistan’s dismal performance in the World Cup to the fact that Waqar and Wasim Akram were “declining forces”.To be fair, Shoaib bowled much better in the last match at Lord’s, but with little luck, something which coach Javed Miandad pointed out in his defence. “He knew he had bowled badly in the second game and he came with me to Lord’s on Saturday voluntarily and bowled for one-and-a-half-hours – it was a different bowler yesterday to the last game.””The past is past,” added Javed. “Everybody has seen here that his behaviour was excellent. He looked like a team man, he was encouraging all the youngsters, he was fighting and trying his best.”While Waqar plays out the rest of the English season with Warwickshire, Shoaib has promised to work wonders for his new county Durham. While Warwickshire are in Division One for both the Championship and National League, Durham are in Division Two for both formats, so it’s probably just as well that they won’t clash.

The Tripura Cricket Association General body meeting has named the coach and manager for the upcoming Ranji season. While Rajat Kanti Sen will be the coach, Arindam Ganguly shall be the manager.

The members passed other resolutions also in the meeting during which a one-minute silence was observed in memory of the departed soul of late Samar Choudhury, Former Minister and Chairman of Tripura Sports Council and M.P.

Other decisions:

Under-22 : Coach – Chira Ranjan Paul, Manager- Dhiraj Debbarma
Under-19 : Coach – Biswajit Paul, Manager – Sri Rajat Debbarma.
Under-16 : Coach – Sri Habul Bhattacharjee, Manager – Sri SubrataDutta Choudhury.
Under- 14 : Coach – Sri Alok Debroy, Manager – Sri Pradibesh Nath.

The Ambassa and Kanchanpur Sub-Division have been granted affiliation.The following grants have been considered:

1. J.C. Memorial (playing 4 Clubs) : Rs 15,000/-
2. Super-Division (other 2 Clubs) : Rs 13,000/-
3. A-Division (8 Clubs) : Rs 11,000/-

Clubs qualifying for the Knockout tournament will be offered Rs 3,000/- in incentive.

The grant for the Sub-Divisions who will be participate in all the State Meet will be Rs 11,000/. In addition the Association will consider granting Rs 8,000/- to each sub-division for construction of concrete pitch for Practice.

Three concrete pitches for practice – two at Stable ground and one in R.C.C.will be prepared at Agartala.

ScorecardJake Ball – proof that Nottinghamshire can produce their own•Getty Images

With a third of the third day lost to rain and a forecast for more interruptions on day four, Nottinghamshire may be thwarted in their attempt to secure a fourth win in five in the Championship. Nonetheless, the transformation in their fortunes since late June has been notable.Since they were thrashed by an innings by Yorkshire at Headingley in June, Nottinghamshire have recorded a remarkable 11 wins from 14 completed matches across the three formats. Talk of relegation was in the air in the aftermath of the Leeds defeat; now there is a reasonable prospect of finishing second in the Championship, while a home quarter-final in the Royal London Cup on Tuesday offers the chance to move within one step of a second Lord’s final in three years.Much will be made of the improvement coinciding with the addition of Peter Moores to the coaching staff as a consultant. The future of the former England head coach beyond next month has yet to be determined. There will be a clamour, no doubt, among the members for him to stay.There are other factors at play, though, one of which is the emergence of a youthfully enthusiastic bowling attack, who are rising to the challenge presented by the two gaping holes left behind by Andre Adams and, latterly, Peter Siddle, and threatening finally to quieten the constant snipe that Nottinghamshire cannot produce their own players.Jake Ball, Brett Hutton and Luke Wood, who have shared seven wickets in this match so far and 74 between them for the Championship season, are all local boys. Ball is from Mansfield, while Hutton and Wood, although born in Doncaster and Sheffield respectively, played their club cricket in Nottinghamshire and developed through the county’s academy system.Although Wood is a relative newcomer, Ball and Hutton have had to wait several years for the opportunity to be regulars in the four-day side. Now they have made the breakthrough, they are finding that taking the field with trust behind them makes all the difference.”It is massive to have that,” Ball said after finishing with 3 for 35 after going for under two runs per over. “It is hard as a bowler when you go out there under pressure, thinking you must take wickets, because then you can strive too hard, bowl a bit fuller and go for a lot of runs.”It is nice to have that confidence, so you can just settle into a spell knowing you have a period of time in the team and that if you persevere with bowling the ball in the right areas then wickets will come.”There have been situations in the year when they could have left people out but they have stuck with us and it has given us the confidence to go out there are express ourselves and be positive.”Ball puts his own strides forward down both to that sense of security and a winter spent in the gym, working on his strength and fitness.”I was established in the one-day and Twenty20 teams but I wanted this to be a breakthrough season in the Championship,” he said.”I was meant to go to Sydney last winter but I took a decision to spend the winter working in the gym with the aim of getting stronger and it has paid off in that I’ve probably added a yard of pace.”I’ve only missed a couple of four-day games and the experience of playing at this level regularly has helped me improve.”I think we are all learning as a unit. Over the last couple of years we have lost some really experienced bowlers in Andre Adams and Darren Pattinson and last year Peter Siddle. This year we have had people coming in and out and found ourselves in situations where the youngsters have needed to play.”But we have come in and done a good job. I feel the younger bowlers are in on merit and that’s good to see. We would like to think we can develop as the Notts bowling attack for the future.”Ball’s bowling of Laurie Evans off an inside edge was an important early breakthrough after Warwickshire resumed on 100 for four, after which two wickets for Hutton and a second of the innings for Harry Gurney reduced Warwickshire to 171 for 8, Keith Barker and Chris Wright shoring things up with a stand of 65 before Barker perished reverse sweeping Samit Patel for an entertaining 71.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsShaun Tait produced a fiery spell of 3 for 16•Getty Images

Sydney Thunder, after a perfect three-from-three start to the Big Bash League season, had once more done plenty right. In front of a record Bellerive Oval crowd of 17,151 (1808 more than watched the entire Australia v West Indies Test match at the same venue last month), Hobart Hurricanes’ powerful batting line-up had been limited to 163, and Michael Hussey – who came to the crease after two first-over wickets – was rolling back the years to anchor the chase. But the 18th over, bowled by Jake Reed, turned things around as Hobart Hurricanes held their nerve to win by 11 run.The onus was on Hussey – who had lost Andre Russell the over before, to steer Thunder home from a position where they required 27 off 18 balls. But that wasn’t to be as Hussey slogged the opening ball across the line, and was brilliantly caught low by a sprinting Clive Rose at deep square leg. Next, Chris Hartley – coming back for a second – was run out by an outstanding direct hit from Dan Christian at long-on. Finally, Chris Green’s thick outside edge was snaffled by Tim Paine, diving full stretch to his right. Three deliveries, three outstanding pieces of fielding, three wickets, one game turned – and won.The Hurricanes, fresh from a pair of victories over Brisbane Heat, had failed to get going against Thunder’s stop-start, varied attack, as Hussey used seven different bowlers in the first eight overs. Ben Dunk edged and middled cuts for four off Green’s opening over, but skied a catch, attempting to heave Clint McKay’s first ball to leg.Five overs later, Kumar Sangakkara was caught down the legside to the first ball of McKay’s second over, and before the over was out, Paine was gone too, edging one that grew on him. Soon after, another moment of fielding inspiration, the best of the lot, saw Russell shove Hurricanes right on the ropes, diving to his left to take an extraordinary two-handed catch to dismiss danger man Dan Christian when the ball looked to have passed him.It was – as it so often is – George Bailey who wrestled Hobart back into the game. Bailey was away with a cut off McKay and two overs later sent Russell to the point and midwicket fence. Then Fawad Ahmed was lofted brilliantly down the ground for six. He shared 58 with Jonathan Wells, then a quickfire 33 with Darren Sammy – who hit one enormous leg side six off McKay’s last over before falling three balls later, in dragging Hurricanes to respectability. Bailey reached 50 – his second of the competition (this was his second not out, too) with a huge hoicked six off Andre Russell in the innings’ penultimate over 163 for 6.When Shaun Tait had Jacques Kallis caught at backward point and Shane Watson edging behind in the first over, Hurricanes’ total looked far better than just respectable. But first with Aiden Blizzard, then Ben Rohrer, Hussey quietly chipped away at the total. All the old classics were there – that swivelling pull, the on-the-move cover drive and the slog sweep to the spinners – in a masterful display. Perhaps his only false shot, an edge off Tait, past Paine for four, took him to 50.But the introduction of the brilliant Cameron Boyce – who looks set to make Australia’s World T20 squad in India – saw the Hurricanes put the squeeze on. In three consecutive games, the legspinner has bowled match-spinning spells in Hurricanes victories. His first two overs cost just nine, with a solitary Hussey slog-sweep finding the fence, and the third snared Rohrer, caught at long-on by Christian trying to accelerate the scoring.First ball of the next over, the 16th of the innings and Boyce’s last, was sent sailing into the top deck of the Ricky Ponting stand by Russell. Boyce responded with a looping, drifting, spinning delivery that beat the bat, then Russell hoicked the next to Wells who took a fine catch running in from deep cover.The rot had set in, and Reed’s triple wicket over – including that crucial dismissal of Hussey, saw the game’s turn go full circle. Tait bowled the 18th and castled Sandhu as Thunder’s tail were left with too much to do.Not so long ago, Thunder were a basket case and an embarrassment: 19 consecutive defeats and three straight seasons propping the Big Bash League up. Now, though, they have a new home, and are a fine side, who should make the finals. Don’t be surprised to see the men from Hobart – a resourceful and resilient mob – in the last four with them.