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Quetta were staring at the possibility of an innings defeat after their batting line-up wilted for just 45 on the first day against Khan Research Laboratories in Rawalpindi. It was a disastrous batting performance from Quetta with only two of their batsmen, Bismillah Khan and Manzoor Ahmed, reaching double-figures. The bowling heroes for KRL were seamers Yasir Arafat, with 4 for 26 and Mohammad Irfan with 6 for 19. In response, KRL ended the day comfortably placed on 193 for 2 with Bazid Khan and Mohammad Wasim unbeaten on 76 and 85 respectively, a lead of 148.The match between Lahore Ravi and Peshawar at the Gaddafi Stadium was evenly poised at the end of the first day. Peshawar made early inroads through their seamers Riaz Afridi and Imran Khan. Opener Abid Ali top-scored with 78 but none of the other Lahore batsmen were able to support him as they were bowled out for 193. Peshawar lost opener Mohammad Fayyaz early. Israrullah resisted with 45, but Ali Raza struck with a couple of quick wickets towards the close of play as Peshawar ended the day on 82 for 4, still trailing Lahore by 111 runs.Usman Salahuddin’s unbeaten 63 carried Lahore Shalimar to 190 for 6 at the end of the first day against Hyderabad at the Lahore City Cricket Association Ground. Sent in to bat, Lahore lost openers Hamza Paracha and Mohammad Hamza with only 37 runs on the board. A half-century partnership between Rana Adnan and Salahuddin steadied the innings before Aslam Sattar dismissed Adnan. Afzal Shahzad (27) and Kashif Mahmood (21) added some handy runs. Lahore’s hopes of reaching a substantial total now depend on Salahuddin.Awais Zia’s unbeaten double-century propelled Pakistan Television to a commanding 372 for 6 against table-toppers State Bank of Pakistan at Marghzar Cricket Ground in Islamabad. SBP won the toss and elected to bowl and got off to a good start when Rizwan Haider had Umair Khan lbw with just 12 runs on the board. That brought Zia to the crease and he and Raheel Majeed carried PTV past 100. PTV then lost a flurry of quick wickets, but Zia finally found some support in No. 7 Naeem Anjum who made 36 as the duo added 103. At stumps, Zia was unbeaten on 216 and giving him company was Yasim Murtaza on 49.Karachi Whites were comfortably placed at 256 for 3 against Abbottabad at the end of the first day at the Abbottabad Cricket Stadium. Asif Zakir, with an unbeaten century, and Rameez Aziz, with 75, were the batting stars for Karachi after they lost a couple of early wickets. At the close, Zakir was on 106 and giving him company was opener Kahlid Latif who had retired hurt with the score on 11, but returned to bat at the fall of Aziz’s wicket. Abbottabad tried eight bowlers, the most successful was Ahmed Jamal with 2 for 58.

Roar of the day
Michael Hussey hasn’t been shouting from the rooftops about how good he’sbeen feeling during his run drought of the past year. But the noise hecreated when he reached his century showed how much it meant to end it. Ashe clenched Brad Haddin for a celebratory hug, Hussey yelled his reliefloud into his partner’s ear. It was Hussey’s first hundred since Januaryand it might take until the New Year’s Test for the ringing to leaveHaddin’s head.Near miss of the day
Hussey was five runs from his first Test double-century when he aimed ahook shot to push him closer to the milestone. The pull had been his mostprofitable shot during the innings, but Finn’s ball bounced a littlehigher than Hussey wanted and he found Alastair Cook at deep square leg.Even though the innings saved his career, Hussey didn’t allow himself asmile as he left the ground. That will come later, but first there was thefrustration of a near miss to overcome.Spell of the day
England knew that the third day was their day of reckoning, and no-oneknew it better than their bowler of the moment, James Anderson. He hadgone to bed knowing he would be armed with a pristine new ball come themorning session, and in eight exceptional overs in the space of an hourand ten minutes, he strung together a spell that deserved to transform thegame. Had he managed a breakthrough, his challenge to the tail would havebeen immense, but Hussey’s two referral-based let-offs strangled thatprospect at birth. On 82, he successfully overturned an lbw that pitchedoutside leg; on 85, Aleem Dar said no to a shout that England themselvescould have claimed, had they not wasted their lives on day two. StillAnderson refused to be bowed, beating the edge at will while concedingjust 14 runs in his spell, and by the time he took a blow, Australia hadstill not quite chiselled their first-innings lead.Drop of the day Mk 1
The lead was still a surmountable 39 when Paul Collingwood was thrown theball. The decision raised eyebrows among the Channel Nine commentators,although his tidy offcutters have become a significant part of England’sone-day plans in recent months. Sure enough, Brad Haddin’s first reactionwas one of over-confidence. He climbed into a first-ball drive but scoopeda steepling chance down towards the Vulture Street sightscreen, where Cookbackpedalled for all he was worth. The chance, however, burst through hisoutstretched fingers, and Haddin didn’t make the same mistake again. Threeballs later he measured his drive to perfection, and thumped Collingwoodhandsomely for four.Drop of the day Mk 2
As the afternoon wore on, the sense of despondency seeped into every facetof England’s game. The ground fielding developed leaks, the bowling lostits focus, and a once-moderate lead grew as inexorably as the noise amonga raucous Saturday crowd, a crowd that knows no other fate for visitingteams than large and thumping losses. Hard as they tried to keepthemselves chipper, the nadir of their fortunes came in the 130th over,with Haddin’s century already in the bank and Australia’s 400 just aroundthe corner. A bouncer barrage from Stuart Broad finally paid off as Haddinpulled uncomfortably to mid-on, but Anderson – one of the best outfieldersin the team – didn’t get close to the chance.Mop of the day
Steven Finn’s two-wicket burst gave England a shot at parity on the secondday, and while he was as helpless as any of his team-mates while Husseyand Haddin were in harness, the manner in which he cashed in after finallyluring Hussey into a false stroke was a pyrrhic victory that may yet proveinvaluable for future engagements. After 32 wickets in eight previousTests, he collected a five-for at the first attempt against Australia,with none of Australia’s lower-order comfortable with his nagging accuracyfrom a cloud-snaggingly high release point.

Group AR Ashwin was in his element on the second day•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Rohit Sharma may have been demoted in the BCCI contracts lists that were announced today, but he hit back, pounding his third first-class double-century as Mumbai bossed over Bengal at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Resuming at 287 for 4, Mumbai suffered early setbacks when Abhishek Nayar and Ajit Agarkar fell within the first eight overs of play. Rohit was in no mood to relent though, and found a willing partner in No. 8 Iqbal Abdulla to take the game away from the hosts. Abdulla fell 18 short of his second first-class ton, after swinging 12 fours in an aggressive effort. Rohit had looked ominous in his brief stay on the first evening and carried on in the same vein, stroking 23 fours and three sixes to push Mumbai towards 600. Butter-fingered Bengal let themselves down in the field, with Shreevats Goswami, Wriddhiman Saha and Ashok Dinda dropping easy catches off Rohit. Ramesh Powar and Dhawal Kulkarni chipped in to help Rohit reach 200 at which point Wasim Jaffer declared. There was more trouble for Bengal before stumps, with Aavishkar Salvi removing opener Arindam Das cheaply, leaving them facing a mountain on day three.

Form Guide – Tracking ESPNcricinfo’s players to watch this season

• R Ashwin: Came into his own on the second day, running through Delhi with his ninth first-class five-for

• Rohit Sharma: Made the most of three dropped chances and scored a fluent double-ton

• Virat Kohli: Could not convert his century into a mammoth effort and his untimely exit gave TN an opening

• Piyush Chawla: Scored a sparkling 79, but the real challenge will come when he bowls tomorrow

• Ravindra Jadeja: Failed with the bat in the first innings, but will hope to make it up with the ball

• Jaidev Unadkat: Made an instant impact before stumps and will want to make further dents on the third day

• Abhinav Mukund: His cheap dismissal heralded a top-order collapse for TN

Delhi ran into an inspired spell of offspin from R Ashwin to stumble from a position of strength, before their bowlers wrested back the initiative against Tamil Nadu on an intriguing day of cricket at the at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The slide began early, with centurion Virat Kohli driving Ashwin straight to midwicket after adding 20 to his overnight 119. His exit gave TN an opening and Ashwin pushed through with purpose, registering his ninth five-wicket haul at the first-class level, as Delhi lost 7 for 23 to fold up for 318. The hosts held the upper hand when they came out to bat, but they had to contend with Delhi’s fired-up attack. Pawan Suyal removed Abhinav Mukund cheaply and, despite holding firm for a 45-run stand, neither Srikkanth Anirudha nor Arun Karthik could kick-start TN’s reply. Dinesh Karthik and R Satish fared even worse as left-arm spinner Vikas Mishra got into the groove, reducing the home side to 82 for 5. Delhi bowled to a plan, with Suyal and Parvinder Awana bowled fast early on and used the short ball to good effect before Mishra dried up the runs with a good line and length and forced the batsmen into mistakes. S Badrinath responded with a mix of caution and aggression, striking two sixes and three fours in his unbeaten 45 off 127 balls, to take his side to stumps without further loss.Assam got themselves back into their match at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi, reducing Railways to 164 for 8 by stumps on the second day. Resuming their innings at 174 for 7, Assam added only 13 more runs in the hazy morning before being bowled out. Dhiraj Goswami, the fast bowler, then struck twice in his opening spell as Railways stuttered to 33 for 4. TP Singh scored 41, but Assam continued to take wickets at regular intervals and it took a 30-run eighth-wicket partnership between allrounder JP Yadav and left-arm spinner Murali Kartik to get Railways close to Assam’s score. While it was the spinners who had taken the bulk of the wickets for Railways, the seamers did the damage for Assam, with Goswami taking 4 for 43 and Ranjitkumar Mali finishing with 2 for 31. Railways will start day three 23 runs behind in a match that looks destined for a result.Gujarat seamer Ishwar Choudhary picked up four wickets as Saurashtra folded up for 262 in their first innings at the Lalabhai Contractor Stadium in Surat. Rains stayed away after washing out the opening day, and Gujarat dominated from the outset after choosing to field. Opener Bhushan Chauhan resisted with a doughty 41, but regular strikes at the other end reduced the visitors to 104 for 4. Captain Jaydev Shah counterattacked, hitting three sixes and eleven fours in his 94, and repaired the innings in a 119-run stand for the fifth wicket, with Sagar Jogiyani. The lower order, however, could not contribute much and Gujarat wrapped up the innings with six overs to stumps. Seamer Jaidev Unadkat made a breakthrough in the final passage of play, leaving Gujarat at 20 for 1 and the game evenly poised going into the third day.Group BRobin Uthappa celebrated his 25th birthday by marching to his 11th first-class ton as Karnataka seized the first-innings lead against Punjab at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali. The visitors finished the day at 346 for 6, 103 runs ahead of Punjab who were bowled out on the opening day. It was a tough day for the home bowlers after the early hope fuelled by the cheap dismissals of Karnataka’s openers. Ganesh Satish blunted the attack with a half-century and added 130 runs for the third wicket with Uthappa as Karnataka assumed control of proceedings. Uthappa was in his usual attacking mindset, caning 16 fours and two sixes in his 149 that came off 182 balls. After Satish was run out, Manish Pandey joined in the fun, scoring 49 off 61 balls. After conceding the lead, Punjab managed to pull things back marginally with three late wickets, but Karnataka held all the aces going into the third day.Yusuf Pathan piled up the misery on Haryana with a typically brutal 195 off 138 balls as Baroda took a 343-run first-innings lead at the Bansi Lal Cricket Stadium in Rohtak. Haryana had been bowled out for 127 on day one and had an equally disastrous start to the second day, with Yusuf and opener Connor Williams (114 off 316) adding another 192 to their overnight stand of 87. Haryana captain Rahul Dewan was forced to use nine different bowlers before eventually dismissing Baroda for 470. Yusuf bashed nineteen fours and ten sixes, before he was bowled by part-timer Nitin Saini, five short of his second first-class double century. Thanks to Yusuf, Baroda maintained an innings run-rate of 4.12, giving them ample time to push for a win.Parvinder Singh and Piyush Chawla scored contrasting half-centuries for Uttar Pradesh as they reached 403 in their first innings against Orissa at the Dr Akhilesh Das Stadium in Lucknow. While Chawla scored at a strike-rate of more than 70, middle-order batsman Singh took 206 balls for his 78. It was slow progress for UP who only marginally improved on their slow first-day run-rate, getting 229 runs at 2.65 on day two. Orissa were left with just one over to face, which they negotiated safely.

ScorecardSteve Tikolo and David Obuya hit half-centuries•Thota Sreenivas

Steve Tikolo rolled back the years with a dominant all-round show as Kenya surged to an easy six-wicket win against UAE in the first of four one-dayers in Mombasa. Tikolo snared 4 for 18 in seven overs of tidy offspin before sealing the victory with an unbeaten 69 off 77 balls after David Obuya set up the chase of 183 with 72.UAE’s decision to make first use of the pitch ran into rough weather early as Arshad Ali was run out by Hiren Varaiya for one. Amjad Ali, the other opener, found the going tough in his 17 off 40 balls before falling to Thomas Odoyo. Swapnil Patil hend the innings together and his fifty-run stand with Saqib Ali, who contributed a quick 33, set UAE up for a good total. The innings, however, ran into a rut in the middle overs as Tikolo took charge.UAE’s listless running was another issue they had to contend with – there were four run-out victims in all – and it was down to Amjad Javed’s late hitting to lift them close to 200. Javed contributed 30 with five fours and a six, before Tikolo had him caught by Nehemiah Odhiambo as the innings folded in the 47th over.Kenya lost Alex Obanda early in the chase, but David and Collins Obuya ensured UAE could not make any further quick inroads with a partnership of 46 for the second wicket. Tikolo, who came in at the fall of Collins’ wicket, then added 83 with David in a productive phase that gradually put the game out of UAE’s reach. David struck eight fours in his innings that came off 98 balls, and though Maurice Ouma departed cheaply after his exit, Tikolo ensured he was there till the end.

South Australia’s new leadership team of Michael Klinger and Callum Ferguson begin their summer this weekend knowing that the only way is up. The Redbacks finished on the bottom of the Sheffield Shield and Ford Ranger Cup tables last season and they have been the nation’s underachievers in recent decades, having won no titles since 1995-96.There was one glimmer of hope, when they made the final of the KFC Big Bash, and although they lost to Victoria it was enough to earn them a place at last month’s Champions League. Klinger, who has taken over as captain from Graham Manou, said the team would take heart from their fine efforts at the Champions League, where they reached the semi-finals.”Two games to go in both formats [last season] we were in contention to play the final and just fell away in our last few games,” Klinger told ESPNcricinfo. “We know we can play some really good cricket and we come into the season full of confidence after a good Champions League, so we’re hoping to kick-start our season well. Last year we had to play a bit of catch-up after starting the season quite poorly.”In a considerable shake-up to their playing list, the former internationals Mark Cosgrove and Dan Cullen were axed, Mark Cleary headed to Victoria and several fringe players were cut. Replacements were sought interstate, and the Redbacks have pulled together a squad that they believe can lift the team’s fortunes.The powerful limited-overs batsman Aiden Blizzard was signed up from Victoria, and with him came the fast bowler Rob Cassell. They had lost pace-bowling experience through the departure of Cleary and the retirement of Paul Rofe, so the fast man Ben Edmondson was enticed from Western Australia.It continued South Australia’s trend of acquiring players from other states – Klinger, Daniel Christian, Tom Cooper, Aaron O’Brien and Tim Ludeman have all arrived by that path in recent years. Ferguson, the new vice-captain, is happy with the recruits, while home-grown talents like James Smith and Jake Haberfield will also be watched with interest.”We’re thrilled with the list that we’ve got together at the moment,” Ferguson said. “To be able to bring some quality quicks in like Ben Edmondson and Rob Cassell, they’re fantastic inclusions for us and it gives our bowling some depth. Cossie [Mark Cosgrove] is a loss but we feel like our young players have really taken some good steps forward in the last 12 months. We’re really confident going in to this summer.”South Australia begin their Ryobi Cup campaign against New South Wales at Adelaide Oval on Saturday, before they follow with a Sheffield Shield match two days later. Blizzard and Edmondson are in line to make their first appearances for their new state in the one-day game.Ryobi Cup squad Michael Klinger (capt), Daniel Harris, Tom Cooper, Aiden Blizzard, Callum Ferguson, Cameron Borgas, Graham Manou (wk), Daniel Christian, Aaron O’Brien, Kane Richardson, Chris Duval, Ben Edmondson, Gary Putland.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsImran Farhat’s positive innings set the right tone for Pakistan’s chase, but nervous moments were to follow•Getty Images

From being down and out two weeks ago Pakistan kept the series alive but not without a few frayed nerves as they had to overcome a late wobble before securing a four-wicket victory at The Oval. During a tension-filled afternoon session outstanding bowling from James Anderson and Graeme Swann threatened to turn the match of its head, in an example of Test cricket at its compelling best, before Umar Akmal and Mohammad Amir carried their side over the line.Amir, having played a match-winning role with the ball as he claimed 5 for 52, showed calmness beyond his 18 years as he and Umar, a player not known for his restraint, struck a pressure-relieving boundary apiece after England had suffocated the scoring. Umar eventually tucked the winning single past short fine-leg to end the home side’s six-Test winning sequence.At lunch Pakistan needed 33 with seven wickets in hand and Mohammad Yousuf was entrenched at the crease. However, having shown a positive mindset during the opening session Pakistan went into their shells after the break and the scoring dried up. Azhar Ali’s run out sparked the wobble as he chanced a single to midwicket and was well short as Swann helped the ball onto the stumps. Seven runs later Yousuf received one of the balls of the series as Anderson uprooted the off stump with a yorker which straightened past the outside edge.Back in January, at Sydney, it was Yousuf’s dismissal that began their fateful collapse and for a while it looked like history would repeat itself. The Akmal brothers are known as shot-makers but couldn’t break the shackles as England sensed a chance. Kamran Akmal’s struggles with the bat continued when he padded up to Swann at which stage Pakistan still needed 16 then five consecutive maidens were strung together to ratchet up the tension.However, despite the late scare this was a remarkable success for Pakistan who, barring half the third day at Edgbaston, had barely given England a challenge in the opening two games. That changed here, though, as the batting resolve was stiffened by Yousuf’s comeback and the bowling attack was finally supported by some far safer catching.It was the combined performance of Amir and Saeed Ajmal the previous evening that set up the victory as they hustled though England’s batting order once Alastair Cook departed for 110. Amir became the youngest player to collect a five-wicket haul in England when he ended England’s second innings with the fourth ball of the morning as Stuart Broad clubbed his pull to mid-on to complete a collapse of 7 for 28.It meant the momentum remained firmly in Pakistan’s court, although England struck back quickly when Yasir Hameed edged his first ball to second slip where Swann held on at the second attempt. Anderson was fired up by the success, but England wasted the new ball while Andrew Strauss set some odd fields which allowed easy singles.Farhat led the chase with an aggressive innings which immediately put the bowlers on the back foot. He twice upper-cut the quicks over the slips and also thumped Swann’s third ball just over the head of mid-on. It was a calculated gamble, but ensured Pakistan made rapid inroads into the small target.Farhat’s positive mindset almost went too far when he came down the pitch at Steven Finn and inside edged past leg stump and he fell moments later against Swann when he went for an expansive sweep and was plumb lbw. It left the innings in Salman Butt’s charge and the Pakistan captain played his best hand of the series with a calm, mature approach.He has been an impressive leader throughout the series, but scores of 1, 8, 7, 0 and 17 were adding the pressure of a challenging role. This time, though, he put those problems behind him and became increasingly fluent as the target came into view. He took three boundaries off an over from Broad who persisted with bowling outside off stump which fed Butt’s cut shot.He took the target below 50 before edging Swann to slip and he will have known in the back of his mind that the job wasn’t finished. While Yousuf remained in the middle it was all under control for Pakistan but, in similar style to their victory against Australia at Headingley, the final push for victory proved the hardest. Again, though, a young side dug deep and it sets up a mouth-watering finale at Lord’s next week.

Chris Rogers, the Australia opening batsman, has stepped down as Derbyshire captain and handed the leadership to Greg Smith for the remainder of the season.Rogers has led the county since midway through the 2008 season but Derbyshire are currently bottom of Division Two in the County Championship with just two victories in the campaign. There is also a doubt as to whether Rogers will be able to return to county cricket next season because of the time lapse since he has played international cricket.”I have thoroughly enjoyed my time as captain of Derbyshire and there have been some fantastic moments along the way,” Rogers said. “Although I had every intention of captaining the team until the end of the season, both John Morris and I believe it is in the best interests of the club to give Greg this opportunity.”I will help him in any way that I can and will continue to act as a senior player and mentor for the younger players in our side as well as continuing to do my best for the team as a batsman.”Head of cricket John Morris added: “Chris has done a great job as captain of the team for the past two years and I thank him for his efforts and dedication to the role.”Having been vice-captain throughout the current season and experienced the captaincy during the Friends Provident t20 campaign, it is a natural progression that Greg now takes over as captain.”Smith, the South African-born allrounder, is having a solid season, scoring 585 runs at 32.50 in 12 Championship matches and taking 37 wickets and 30.59 with his mixture of medium pace and offspin.

Mushtaq Ahmed, England’s spin bowling coach, believes that Graeme Swann has “changed the game” in bringing an attacking outlook back to offspin bowling, and says that he will be England’s key weapon when they take on his native country, Pakistan, in the four-match Test series that gets underway at Trent Bridge on Thursday.However, Mushtaq also warned that Pakistan’s levels of confidence and self-belief will be as high as they have been for months after their thrilling series-levelling victory over Australia at Headingley on Saturday, and backed an exciting team with “lots of potential and lots of youth” to give England a run for their money in the coming weeks.As one of the great legspinners of the 1990s, Mushtaq claimed 185 wickets in 52 Tests and played a key role in consecutive Pakistan series wins in England in 1992 and 1996. However, it is as a mentor to England’s slow bowlers that Mushtaq currently makes his living, and in that regard, he believes he is working with one of the best talents in the game.”Swanny has changed everything in the last year or so,” Mushtaq told Cricinfo. “He’s singlehandedly won lots of games for England in all different conditions, and played a brilliant role for the art of fingerspin. One thing is for sure, not many offspinners have the potential like he has. You can see his variety – he’s a big spinner of the ball but he gets drift, and he has a repertoire of straight balls as well, and that makes him a very difficult bowler from a batting point of view.”Also, he is a very confident person, and confidence is everything for spinners,” added Mushtaq. “He got lots of runs in the Ashes, so he’s a good utility cricketer, and he’s a lovely man to have in the dressing room. He’s changed the game big time as a fingerspinner, and you’re going to find that lots of young people are going to follow Swanny and take up bowling offspin.”England’s strategy for the first Test is already in place after they named a 12-man squad that included just the one specialist spinner in Swann. However, with hot dry weather expected for the rest of the summer, and the prospect of two spinners playing at certain stages of the Ashes this winter, England may well find room for an extra slow bowler as the series wears on, and should that happen, then Monty Panesar – who now plays for Mushtaq’s former county Sussex – is inching his way back into the reckoning with a string of confident performances in the County Championship.Panesar has not featured for England since last summer’s first Ashes Test at Cardiff, when his bowling was off-colour but he helped save the match with the bat. He was omitted from the winter tours of South Africa and Bangladesh, and even left out of the England Performance Squad at the beginning of 2010. But according to Mushtaq, the time on the sidelines was an important part of Panesar’s personal development.”We have had some communication with him, but overall it is good for people to go and find out their own game sometimes,” said Mushtaq. “It’s important for them to learn for themselves what they are lacking, basically. Monty has gone back to Sussex, where he’s in good hands with an excellent coach in Mark Robinson, and where Michael Yardy is a friend and his captain. The last time I saw him he was happy and enjoying his cricket, and that’s why he’s performing.”Mushtaq Ahmed believes Monty Panesar will have benefited from his time away from the top level•Getty Images

Though he was reluctant to be drawn on the merits of Pakistan’s chief legspinner, Danish Kaneria, against whom he is doubtless helping England develop gameplans, Mushtaq was more forthcoming on the subject of Mohammad Aamer, the 18-year-old left-arm paceman who has been living up to his billing as the next Wasim Akram with a series of eyecatching performances against Australia. Wasim himself believes Aamer is a better-developed cricketer than he was at the same age, but Mushtaq – who played alongside the great man in his pomp – believed that it was too early to make such lofty comparisons.”It’s a long way to go to follow Wasim Akram,” he said. “Maybe Wasim was being modest in saying that, but sometimes we judge people too early. It’s a great honour for Aamer to have a legend like Wasim saying things like that, and I think overall he’s a very good talent, but he has to keep performing at that level if he wants to emulate Wasim. Hopefully he can do that because it will mean a great future for Pakistan.”Mushtaq was a fascinated bystander during the recent neutral series between Pakistan and Australia, and not merely because his current employers will be facing both teams before the year is out. Coming at a time when his home country is in crisis, and with no prospect of international cricket being played there in the near future, the opportunity for Pakistan to play a home series away from home, and to emerge with a share of the spoils after victories in the two Twenty20s and the series-levelling second Test, was invaluable.”It’s a great boost for the Pakistan nation,” said Mushtaq. “Cricket is the game in Pakistan and when the team wins anything, the fans really like to celebrate. They start believing in the players and the players start believing in themselves, and every team that wins against Australia in a Test match takes a great boost from it. It will give the players a lot of confidence, and especially after waiting for 15 years.”Though Mushtaq admitted he was surprised by the small crowds that turned out, especially at Headingley, he still believed that the concept of the neutral Test had been a success. “It works because at least Pakistan are playing cricket,” he said. “At least they are not sitting at home and waiting, so well done to the ICC on that issue, and well done to the ECB for providing places to come and play cricket against Pakistan. It’s a very good sign for Pakistan to have a place to play away from home.”But it’s important for Pakistan cricket to be able to go back home, for the peace of the region,” he added. “Many people in the world are united through a love of cricket, irrespective of where we’re from and whom we support, and an atrocity like the one that took place in Lahore last year has a terrible impact on the game we love. It affects everyone and everything – players, fans and morale – but hopefully visiting teams can get that confidence to travel as soon as possible, and go back to playing there.”Mushtaq Ahmed is an ambassador for the Not in My Game anti-terrorism campaign. For more details, visit notinmygame.com.

Mohammad Aamer, Pakistan’s Man of the Match in their series-levelling win at Headingley, is confident that his team can rise to the challenge of taking on England ahead of the first Test which starts on Thursday.”Playing against England will present new challenges for me and the other bowlers, but I am sure we can do well,” he told PakPassion.net. “They are a strong team with a varied batting lineup, but if me and the other bowlers bowl well and consistently then I’m sure we can put up a good challenge”.Aamer picked up match figures of 7 for 106 – his best haul in the 10 Tests he has played so far – to inspire a thrilling three-wicket win over Australia in the second Test, and obviously enjoyed the experience. “I really enjoyed bowling at Headingley, I wish I could bowl here on this pitch every day,” he said.In helpful conditions on the first day Australia were improbably rolled over for just 88, but as the pitch eased out Aamer showed considerable patience and a maturity beyond his 18 years to nip out four second-innings wickets – including the vital one of Ricky Ponting, caught behind for 66 early on the third morning.”When the sun came out, it was tougher for the bowlers and we really had to be patient and consistent with our line and length,” he explained. “I knew I had to pitch it up and look for swing and not bowl short. The coach told me that if I bowled the nagging length where the batsman doesn’t know whether to come forward or go back, then that would really challenge them.”That’s what I concentrated on, the length. I felt that I could have bowled a bit quicker, but that may have affected the length, so I concentrated more on bowling the length that Waqar bhai had talked about.”Conditions are likely to suit the bowlers at Trent Bridge, where there is usually appreciable movement through the air, and a full length will once again be vital. Pakistan’s inexperienced middle order has not quite clicked yet, and it is likely that any further success will be built around the efforts of the three-pronged attack of Aamer, Mohammad Asif and Umar Gul.

It was a familiar refrain from West Indies captain Chris Gayle, as he put the blame squarely on his team’s batsmen after losing the first Test to South Africa by 163 runs at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain. “It is the batting to be honest with you,” Gayle told the . “We batted poorly in the first innings and that actually cost us the game very quickly.”Despite losing in three and half days, Gayle defended the make-up of the squad. “It is definitely the right selection. We have two guys out [Adrian] Barath and [Ramnaresh] Sarwan, and [Travis] Dowlin did well for us in the last series against Australia, and Brendan Nash was outstanding for us in the Test series as well.”We are in the rebuilding process and we asked a couple of batsmen to bat at positions they are not accustomed to, but it is something in cricket and, as batsmen, whenever you get a chance, you have to make the best use of it. But we are not going to use it as an excuse … we have to try and make the necessary adjustments for the next Test match.”There were a couple of bright spots for West Indies in the performances of Sulieman Benn and debutant Shane Shillingford. Benn, who was ordered to leave the field by Gayle in the one-day series for refusing to bowl over the wicket, picked up eight wickets and made his highest Test score – 42 – in the second innings, while Shillingford snapped up four wickets. “It was a good effort from the spinners and we always knew it was a spinning track,” Gayle said.Gayle expected the same squad to travel to St. Kitts and said West Indies could give South Africa more of a contest as long as the batting clicked. “This was the first Test and you want to give everyone a good chance, but I think it will be the same squad. I don’t know what condition Barath is in and we don’t know what cricket he has played.”Hopefully we can pick it up in the next Test match and put our best foot forward. If we can get the runs on the board … any first innings total over 350 is good, and it will actually put us in a position to challenge for the win.”Gayle also credited South Africa for playing good cricket. “There is no doubt about it, South Africa are a more experienced team … give credit to those guys, they kept running in hard,” he said.Meanwhile Graeme Smith, South Africa’s captain, was all praise for his bowlers. “Our bowlers were running on fumes there at the end, and it was not made any easier for us with them struggling with the run-ups from one end and a soft landing. It was another hot day, and we have had to work a little bit harder.”The pitch was not conducive to really exciting Test match cricket. It was about a long, hard graft, and we did that well, and we have won in three and a half days, so I am happy.”