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Dayle Hadlee, the former New Zealand fast bowler and brother of legendary allrounder Richard Hadlee, has been appointed as New Zealand Cricket’s (NZC) head bowling coach. Hadlee had previously been in charge of New Zealand Cricket Academy programme and was a former coach of the New Zealand Under-19 side.”This is a new position that provides specialist bowling coaching, administration, direction and leadership within the NZC high performance programme,” Ric Charlesworth, the NZC High Performance Manager said. “Dayle will be responsible for setting up a network of specialist bowling coaches who will be aligned with the best talent throughout the country.”Charlesworth also announced the appointment of Steve Jenkin as NZC’s case manager. Jenkin is currently the coach of the White Ferns, New Zealand women’s team, and Charlesworth added that Jenkins would continue his existing role as coach, in addition to overseeing player development plans for select athletes in the NZC high performance programme.

Scorecard

A power-packed performance from Punjab, propelled by Salman Butt’s 290, put them in control of their match against Federal Areas at stumps on the third day. Punjab declared after amassing 599 for 7, and then reduced Federal Areas to 37 for 3.Punjab carried their momentum from the previous day, when Butt and Mohammad Hafeez added a 191-run opening stand. Butt, who resumed on 135, combined well with No. 3 Nasir Jamshed to pile the misery for the Federal Areas bowlers, led by Shoaib Akhtar. The two added 290 runs for the second wicket – 262 of which came today – before Shehzad Azam dismissed them both. Jamshed, who scored fifties in his first two ODIs for Pakistan during the Zimbabwe series, made 108.However, the star of the day was Butt, whose knock needed only 318 deliveries, and included an astounding 50 fours and and one six, perhaps a timely reminder to the selectors who dropped him during the Zimbabwe series. Mohammad Yousuf also helped himself to a fifty before Punjab declared on 599. Azam claimed three wickets, but he was carted for more than a run-a-ball in his 20 overs. The rest of the bowlers didn’t impress either, with the likes of Shoaib Akhtar, Sohail Tanvir and Yasir Arafat conceding more than four an over.Aizaz Cheema then removed both the Federal Areas openers cheaply, before left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman struck to leave the opposition struggling, still trailing by 179 runs.
Scorecard
Having conceding the first-innings lead to North West Frontier Province on the second day, Sind fought back strongly on the third day to still be in with a chance of victory.Leading by 200 runs with seven wickets in hand in their second innings and captain Younis Khan still at the crease, NWFP were done in by Danish Kaneria’s 5 for 62. Kaneria, who recently expressed his disappointment at being demoted in the central contracts handed by the Pakistan board, dismissed Nos 6 -10 as NWFP crumbled to 254 all out from 150 for 3 at the end of the second day.Younis’ 111 was the only substantial contribution, the next best was only 26. Shahid Afridi, the Sind captain, chipped in with the wicket of his opposition counterpart, while Anwar Ali ended with 3 for 66.Needing the highest total of the match to win the game, Sind were off to a buoyant start. Khalid Latif and Khurram Manzoor, two others jostling for the opening slot in the Pakistan line-up, scored patient fifties as their team finished at 130 for no loss. Sind need another 179 with ten wickets left, but given the propensity of batting collapses in this match, it is still anybody’s game.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball commentary
How they were out

Michael Vaughan called on his side to produce “aggressive, vibrant cricket” in the lead-up to the first Test at Lord’s, and his bowlers responded in kind to reduce New Zealand to 109 for 5 by tea. Such perilous positions are of little consequence when Brendon McCullum is at the crease, however, and his magnificent 97 – at a run-a-ball – took the sheen off England’s spirited display on a dank and chilly first day of the international season.Before McCullum missed a clever quicker delivery from Monty Panesar prior to bad light stopping play, he was threatening to completely transform New Zealand’s day, not just rescue them from the bowels of complacency. Coming to the crease with his side tottering on 41 for 3, he found little support in New Zealand’s typically fragile top six until Jacob Oram arrived at No.7, with whom he put on 99 exhilarating runs in 19 overs.His 97 beat the 96 he made at this same ground four years ago, and though he has again failed to reach three figures – he has yet to make a Test hundred against meaningful opposition – today’s innings was a microcosm of his growing international stature. Promoted to No.5 – he would like to be even higher than that – his first 30 runs were part scratchy, part defensive: a rescue act. Only once he’d passed his 65-ball fifty did McCullum the entertainer break free, creaming the disappointing Ryan Sidebottom through extra cover; lifting Panesar for a straight six before crashing Stuart Broad over mid-off into the Warner Stand for the day’s most extraordinary stroke. The difference in self-belief and class between McCullum and his colleagues is so stark as to be almost alien.Prior to McCullum’s derring do, it was England who owned the day. The morning session was washed out by English summer drizzle, providing Vaughan optimum conditions in which to insert New Zealand’s brittle top-order. Choosing not to call-up Matthew Hoggard – in spite of his nous in green-and-seaming conditions – the onus fell on James Anderson to provide the spunk with the new ball, and he justified the selectors’ belief in him with a fast and fiery opening spell of 2 for 27. Jamie How nibbled at a wide one while Aaron Redmond – son of Rodney, a one-Test-wonder in 1972-73 – fell for a five-ball duck on his Test debut.

Broad, who was later savaged by McCullum, supported Anderson superbly with a variety of fast legcutters to the right-handers, and coped well with Ross Taylor’s frenzied attack. Taylor still appeared hungover from his recent display in the Indian Premier League, and his innings epitomised New Zealand’s shaky confidence. Bangalore this was not; he took every opportunity to put England’s bowlers off with a squirted edge down to third man; a hectic single, for which he should have been run out when he finished at the same end as James Marshall, and a desperate slice over the slips off Sidebottom. At least New Zealand’s run-rate was moving, albeit with fraught intent. Taylor’s hectic innings ended with the day’s most careless shot, trying to pull Broad and skying him straight to Paul Collingwood, running back at second slip.Like Taylor, Marshall also batted in a frenzy. He was caught behind off a no-ball from Anderson when 9 and slashed the same bowler just over Kevin Pietersen’s head at gully before an ill-balanced drive sent an edge flying straight to Andrew Strauss at first slip. Four years ago, Strauss made his debut here against the same opposition, and – after a disappointing 2007 – there was tangible glee that his career has come full circle.Then, it was all about McCullum. His customary one-day shimmy down the pitch was only in evidence a few times, but such was his timing that no bowler – least of all Broad, whose spell from the Pavilion End was too full – was spared. His motionless reaction to Panesar’s wonderfully flighted quicker ball which squeezed through bat and pad screamed disappointment, yet his 97 has saved New Zealand from near capitulation.In fact, so much so, that the honours are just about even.

Premier Limited Over Tournament

On a rain-hit day, SSC and Moors qualified to meet in the Tier A final, beating fancied Bloomfield and Colts in the semi-finals. Both matches never went the full distance and were affected by bad weather.At the R Premadasa Stadium, in a match reduced to 41 overs-a-side, SSC made the highest total of the day reaching 174 for 9 against Colts, whose target was revised to 117 from 21.5 overs under the D/L rule. But Colts could manage only 93 for 6 in the allotted overs and lost by 24 runs. Former Sri Lanka fast bowler Nuwan Kulasekera picked up four wickets, but finished on the losing side. However another former fast bowler Nuwan Zoysa along with Shalika Karunanayake shared the six Colts wickets to fall between them.In the other semi-final at the Nondescripts Cricket Club, reduced to 45 overs-a-side, Moors put up a fighting display to defeat Bloomfield by four wickets. The match-winner for Moors was former Sri Lanka left-arm spinner Rangana Herath for his all-round efforts. He captured three wickets – including that of top scorer in the match Saman Jayantha for 45 – and shared an unbeaten seventh-wicket stand of 26 with wicketkeeper Dasun Randuka to help steer the side to victory after they slipped to 105 for 6 chasing 131. Bloomfield used eight bowlers in a bid to prevent Moors from topping their total. The two sides meet in the final on December 23 at the SSC grounds.The semi-finals of Tier B, at Bloomfield were both washed out without a ball bowled. One of the finalists, at Bloomfield, was decided by a toss of a coin because the two semi-finalists Burgher Recreation Club and Army SC were equal on the number of wins and also on the number of bonus points in the preliminary round. Therefore the third option to decide the winner was the toss. Burgher called correctly and went through to the final. Deciding the other finalist, at Colts, was straightforward as Lankan CC had more wins than Panadura SC in the preliminary round and sailed through. Burgher and Lankan play their Tier B final on December 21 at the NCC grounds.

Gary Kirsten, the newly appointed India coach, landed in Bangalore today for his first interaction with the players. Unperturbed by the crowd of reporters awaiting his arrival, he said it was great to be back in India and an honour to be chosen as the coach of the national team.Asked about his agenda during the visit, he said: “I’m going to meet the players and see how they play their cricket. I will also be taking inputs from the team’s support staff.”Earlier the Indian board secretary Niranjan Shah confirmed Kirsten will join as coach from March 1. “He will be briefly involved with the Test team as a consultant during the tour to Australia,” Shah said. Kirsten confirmed that he will be spending around 3-4 weeks with the team in Australia.Kirsten stressed the importance of the mental side of sport and is keen to have Paddy Upton, South Africa’s fitness trainer during the mid to late nineties and currently working at Kirsten’s academy as a mental conditioning coach.”Kirsten wants to have Upton in the support staff. But we have to discuss the issue with him once he is here but we don’t think he is required at the moment,” a top BCCI source told Cricinfo. It is learnt that the matter will come up for discussion in the Working Committee meeting in Mumbai on December 16.Kirsten will get an opportunity to watch the players in action when they take on Pakistan in the third and final Test which starts on Saturday.

Chris Dehring, the managing director of Cricket World Cup 2007, has suggested a professional league in the Caribbean, working outside the authority of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), to revitalise the game. The privately owned league, Dehring said, would serve the purpose of providing the WICB with young cricketers to pick for international series.The amateurish cricket setup in the region, Dehring said, meant that young West Indian cricketers were losing out on opportunities that were being enjoyed by their counterparts in other countries.Dehring, who was speaking at a ceremony to mark the end of the schoolboys’ season, compared Xavier Marshall, a Jamaican batsman with two Tests under his belt, who played in the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh in 2004 along with Alastair Cook, England’s Test opener with 18 Tests and six centuries to his credit. “Xavier comes back to a non-professional structure while Alastair goes back to his club where he was signed up from maybe 14, 15 years old – a professional structure – and he is trained and he is developed physically, mentally. A few years later, where is Xavier? Where is Alastair Cook?””We need to have it [cricket league] professionally owned, separate from the West Indies Cricket Board, who can then focus purely on the international sport and the West Indies team,” Dehring was quoted as saying by the . The league should be placed in the hands of a private board of owners who will invest money for professional gain.”They [professional franchises] would make sure [the players] are developed physically, mentally and professionally,” Dehring said. “That is what we [West Indies cricket] need.” He said England’s Football Association had a system that West Indies cricket could emulate. “The English FA doesn’t have to spend a cent developing players. They simply pick who they want from the clubs.”Dehring also pointed out that in terms of televised cricket West Indies was next door to the huge US market – “the largest pay-per-view market in the world”. After India, Dehring said, the USA was the biggest source of television revenue from the World Cup. He also criticised the WICB and the regional media for not exploring the option of getting revenue from sale of domestic rights.

It’s been a while since Andrew Flintoff has appeared to enjoy cricket, but a smile was back as he struck 66 on his return to Lancashire colours. The innings in the Friends Provident Trophy, against Northamptonshire, was his first half-century since the unbeaten 72 at Hobart against New Zealand in January.Following a week’s holiday after England’s exit from the World Cup, Flintoff was back in the Old Trafford nets trying to recover the batting form which had proved illusive for the past year. “I’m really pleased with the way the week has gone,” he said after his innings and a four-over spell which went for just nine runs. “I’ve been able to just get my head down and get back to working hard at my game and get back to where I want to be as a cricketer.”I’ve been working in the nets all week and getting better. I’ve spent a lot of time on the bowling machine with Neil Fairbrother [his manager] and a lot of time in the nets with Mike Watkinson [Lancashire coach] as well. Progressively through the week I’ve felt a lot better and going out to the middle was just an extension of that.”It was by no means the toughest examination Flintoff will have but after a steady start where he was content to work the gaps there were glimpses of confidence returning during the 84-ball innings. And although a packed international season starts soon he felt a return to county action could only help.”You can have a rest but I want to bat well and I thought the best way to do that was to get in the nets then get out and play. I’m pleased with the way it’s gone but now I’ve got to build on that going into the first Test at Lord’s.”He added that he always continued to back his ability. “I’ve got a good technique, I’ve just been going back to basics. The one thing I wanted to do was spend some time in the middle and have a knock.” Flintoff’s run-in towards the first Test gets tougher now, with a Friends Provident encounter against Durham and England team-mates Steve Harmison (“Harmy’s been telling me what he’s going to do to me,” said Flintoff), Liam Plunkett and Paul Collingwood on Monday, before the Championship clash against a Hampshire side that includes Kevin Pietersen and Shane Warne.

India Blue 330 for 8 (Sehwag 75, Yadav 65, Karthik 65, Raina 64) beat India Green 239 (Parthiv 53, Powar 3-45, Mishra 3-50) by 91 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Virender Sehwag’s prediction after winning the toss was spot on: India Blue racked up a mountain of runs, sparked by Sehwag’s 57-ball 75, and the spinners turned it on under the Motera lights to storm into the final of the Challenger Trophy. Parthiv Patel dazzled briefly but a succession of wickets jolted the prospect of a thrilling run-chase, as the Greens, attempting to chase down a target of 331 in 40 overs to qualify for the final, fell short by 91 runs.For the second day in a row India Green’s scarce bowling options were exposed as Sehwag, Arjun Yadav, Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik made merry on a flat Ahmedabad track. Sehwag backed his decision to bat with a blistering innings: no bowler was spared as Sehwag cashed in during the first and second Powerplays, hitting 14 boundaries and a six .With Sehwag in such an attacking mood, Parthiv didn’t a chance taking the third Powerplay, but as soon as Sehwag backed away a straighter one from Iqbal Abdullah and lost his leg stump, the Greens captain took it. The run-rate dipped just slightly during those five overs, but Yadav and Raina made sure to up the tempo again with an 85-run stand. Both used their feet to the spinners and relied on the width from the medium-pacers.In what was otherwise evidence of the Greens’ scarce bowling resources, Manoj Tiwary was brought on to bowl his legspinners in the 31st over and was successful in getting rid of Yadav, who miscued a short delivery pitched outside leg to midwicket. Raina, after a crucial 92 in the series opener, hardly batted an eyelid as he raced to his 64 from 51 balls before slapping a long hop from Piyush Chawla to Tiwary at midwicket.Dinesh Karthik, who recently told Cricinfo that he could bat at any number , slammed his first delivery for four and raced past his fifty – amid news of his axing from the Indian side – to get the Blues past 300.

A canny Joginder Sharma nipped out the Green openers in no time before Parthiv and Rohit Sharma cashed in on the second Powerplay, driving and cutting boundaries exceptionally. Anything even fractionally short and wide was pounced upon by Rohit, whose firm back-foot play was pleasing on the eye, while Parthiv whipped trademark boundaries with ease.As long as Parthiv was smashing the ball around the Greens appeared in with a slim shot, but his dismissal for 53, run out by a Joginder direct-hit from deep midwicket as he attempted a suicidal second, dented the side’s chances. Sharma kept up the momentum with a leant-in straight six off Saurabh Bandekar and seemed certain for more before he was smartly stumped by Karthik off a Ramesh Powar wide down the leg side.Tiwary was left to steer a sinking ship but after spanking a couple of boundaries even he couldn’t cope with the pressure, making room to hit Powar and losing his leg stump. The two experienced spinners, Powar and Amit Mishra, shared six wickets and with Abhishek Nayar and Cheteshwar Pujara falling cheaply, the Greens lower order flayed the bat around in desperation. Raina picked up the final wicket as Munaf Patel slogged into the deep, sparking wild celebrations among the Blues.With the highest total of this year’s competition, and their spinners turning in a second successful evening on a flat track, the Blues made the best of the occasion. They’ve already defeated the Reds, and are through to the final courtesy a bonus point from their 88-run win over the Greens. But the final will be minus the incentive of national selection.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out