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Geoff Miller, the national selector, called for Ian Bell to show even more passion about earning an England recall and there was certainly emotion from Bell as he responded to his omission from the Test squad to face West Indies at Lord’s.Bell started the season with scores of 172 and 108 for Warwickshire, after being told to go back and score big runs following his axe on the tour of the Caribbean, and has now been left wondering what he needs to do after Ravi Bopara was preferred at No. 3.”The message I got coming back from the West Indies was to score big hundreds and make sure you hit the ground running, which is what I thought I’d done,” he said. “So I thought I was in a good position, but I now have to keep working and keep scoring runs in county cricket.”The selectors are clearly of the view that Bell’s break for the Test arena hasn’t been long enough for him to show that he is deserving of another chance. There is a lingering suspicion that he lacks the temperament to be a No. 3 and he has always been more at home in the middle order.Bell now needs to score a mountain of runs at domestic level, beginning with the current tour match for England Lions against the West Indians, and also needs Bopara to flop at his new position, to have a chance of a recall later in the summer. But he is fearful that the county schedule will work against him with one-day cricket dominating the calendar for much of May.”The problem I have now is the way the fixtures are set out,” he said. “I have this four-day match with the England Lions, we have a Championship match against Yorkshire next week and then there is a month of Twenty20 cricket.”So there’s not a lot of time and opportunity to go and score big hundreds in four-day cricket and push to get your place back in the Test team.”He will have a late chance to push for Ashes selection when the Championship resumes in June while the World Twenty20 is taking place and certainly hasn’t given up on taking his place at Cardiff on July 8.”It’s a long summer and there’s a lot of cricket coming up. Just because I’m not picked in this Test match now doesn’t mean I won’t be playing in the Ashes and I’ve got to keep believing that I can and believe if I keep scoring the runs then I’ve got a chance of playing.”

The final round of matches in the Super Eight stage of the ICC World Cup Qualifiers are the most important in the four-year cycle of Associate cricket.The top four countries will gain entry to the 2011 World Cup, the top six will gain ODI status for the next four years as well as entry to the 2009-2010 ICC Intercontinental Cup. These six teams will also make up the ICC World Cricket League Division 1 in 2010. The top ten teams have already qualifed for the ICC High Performance Programme grant funding in 2009 and 2010 (the Super Eight plus Bermuda and Uganda).So what is at stake for the eight sides on Friday and what do they need to do?Ireland – nothing but glory at stake for them against Kenya, although defeat would mean they could still be pipped at the top of the table by Canada, although they are guaranteed to be in the 1st/2nd play-off and a place at the 2011 World Cup.Canada – a win over Netherlands will guarantee them at least second place and World Cup qualification. Such is their NRR that a loss would still see them finish in the top four unless there were some remarkable results elsewhere and they were to lose heavily.Kenya – it will be interesting to see what the effect of Wednesday’s humiliation at the hands of Namibia will have, and from what seemed like a stroll to the World Cup, they now have to beat Ireland to ensure they make it. If they lose, then it is quite likely they will miss out, although their ODI status seems safe barring another catastrophic performance.Netherlands – a win will almost ensure them a top four finish as Kenya and UAE, the only sides who could overtake them, have considerably inferior NRR. If they lose then they will be left sweating on other results, but they are at least guaranteed ODI status for the next four years.UAE – the crucial match, against Scotland. If they win, they are guaranteed ODI status, and if one of Netherlands or Kenya lose then it’s a World Cup place as well. But so narrow is the margin that if they lose then their NRR is so bad that they are likely to miss out on even ODI status.Namibia – if they lose to Afghanistan then they miss out altogether. If they win then they need two out of Kenya, Netherlands and UAE to lose to bring it down to NRR for the remaining World Cup place, but ODI status would be assured.Afghanistan – after a remarkable year, they are within one win of completing the fairytale. A loss to Namibia and it’s all over, but a win and, like Nambia, they need two out of Kenya, Netherlands and UAE to lose to bring it down to NRR for a World Cup place. Theirs is not as good as Namibia’s, however, and the win will need to be convincing. But the headlines would still be made as they would gain ODI status.Scotland – the real surprise, and for all the wrong reasons. Such is their NRR that a World Cup place is almost certainly beyond them, but if they beat UAE then they will salvage their ODI status at least. A loss and their dreams of professionalism, not to mention lucrative ODIs against England and other touring sides, will disappear for the next four years. Whatever happens, the inquests are likely to start almost as soon as the players leave the field.

The rules and regulations

• The most wins in all of the matches throughout the competition against the other Super Eight stage qualifiers will be placed in the higher position.
  
• If there are teams with equal points and equal wins in the Super Eight stage then in such case the team with the higher net run rate in all matches played against the other Super Eight qualifiers (in both the Group stage and Super Eight stage) will be placed in the higher position
  
• If still equal, the team which was the winner of the head to head match played between them will be placed in the higher position.
  
• If there are teams which are still equal, then the team with the higher number of wickets taken per balls bowled in the Super Eight stage in which results were achieved will be placed in the higher position.
  
• In the highly unlikely event that teams cannot be separated by the above this will be done by drawing lots.

It is just three months since Peter Moores was unceremoniously sacked as England coach but he hasn’t had long to dwell on that crazy week in early January that rocked the national team. A matter of days after he was made jobless the phone rang and it was Mike Watkinson, Lancashire’s new cricket director, and a few weeks later Moores was unveiled as the new coach.Now he is eager for his latest challenge as he puts the finishing touches to pre-season plans with the county that he grew up watching as a kid. The England departure clearly still rankles with him, but the chance to put his energies into something constructive has been a blessing. Lancashire fans always expect trophies – even if their last Championship came in 1934 – and the long success-starved period doesn’t sit well around Old Trafford.”It was a bit of fatalist, it came along at the perfect time in some ways for me,” Moores said. “If someone had asked me in December if I thought I’d be Lancashire coach now you’d never have guessed that. Mike phoned me up and asked if I’d be interested, at the time you were still reeling a bit, but as I went through the interview process I knew it was a great club having played against them and been brought up around here. The chance to be involved with moulding some success here was very exciting.”County cricket does seem a perfect home for Moores. It is where he made his coaching name with Sussex before moving to the England Academy set-up and finally to the top job after Duncan Fletcher left following the 2007 World Cup. One of the reasons cited for the relationship with Kevin Pietersen falling apart was that he was too demanding of the players to do things his way. However, that system can work better in the domestic game where player development is a much more focal aspect of the coaching role.”County cricket to international cricket is different because of the amount we play,” he said. “The game is still the same, the basics are the same, as a coach you are trying to create opportunities for people to play but still remembering it’s about the player. If we win it’ll be because Glen [Chapple] has led a team of players who have played well. The coach can input to a degree but then the players have to do the stuff. That’s the same whether you play for your country, county or league side.”The one thing about international cricket is that it’s all about preparation. County cricket is a playing-based culture, but you still need to find time to work on your skills and fitness to make sure you can maintain form throughout the season.”Clearly Moores’ coaching style didn’t fit with the England set-up as Michael Vaughan had also struggled to develop a relationship with him. However, he isn’t going to re-think the way he goes about his job and once again insisted he had no regrets.”All my experiences are about reflecting, that’s how you get better,” Moores said. “I certainly look back on things I might have done differently, but I have no regrets at all about it. It didn’t make me think ‘oh, we’ve done that fundamentally wrong’. I know I gave it everything I’d got and committed fully to it. It didn’t work, okay, because of a certain set of circumstances and that’s life.”Moores could have been guiding England into a huge summer of action that includes the World Twenty20 and Ashes but he refuses to linger on thoughts of a lost opportunity. “It’s like most things when you lose a job like that,” he said. “At the time it hurts but I’ve moved on pretty quickly. When you work with a new group of players and see their passion you aren’t looking back any more. You only look one way and that’s forward.”

Batsmen the world over must be whispering to each other in hushed,worried tones. Word is spreading that Mitchell Johnson has found . The second top wicket-taker in Tests last year, Johnsonpicked up his 63 breakthroughs without the key weapon of swinging the ball in to right-handers. Observers wondered how good he could be if he ever mastered that skill. The world is about to find out.When he took the new ball in the first Test in Johannesburg, Johnson surprised the South Africans immediately with his newfound ability. Where once he had relied almost exclusively on his speed and bounce as the ball followed his natural angle, Johnson moved the ball in to NeilMcKenzie and then found an outside edge from the left-hander Graeme Smith to give Australia the perfect start to the series.”I don’t know if it was the first or second ball that swung back into McKenzie,” Johnson said. “My first two balls to Smith swung and obviously the second one got him. Being a left-armer bowling to a left-hander you’ve more chance of swinging it but it was actually really nice to see it swing back into the right-hander and swing back as much as it did.”It put a bit of a smile on my face when it came about. I knew I’d done all the hard work in the nets. It wasn’t like it just happened out of the blue. I’d been swinging it in the nets and it had beengoing well, and had my opportunity with the new ball and really wanted that chance to go out there and bowl with the new ball and swing it.”The opportunity to take the new ball was given to Johnson during last year’s tour of the West Indies and was then withdrawn because he battled to control the swing. His existing armoury was enough to cause chaos every now and then, like when he skittled South Africa in Perthand grabbed 8 for 61. There haven’t been any quite so devastating spells on the return tour but he is still the leading wicket-taker in the series with 12 at an average of 21.Other breakthroughs were more telling in securing Australia’s wins but few would have had Australia’s coaching staff licking their lips like the perfect inswinger at Kingsmead that angled across Hashim Amla, pitched in line and straightened so dramatically that he was plumblbw. Johnson said the key to discovering his new talent was relaxing and going back to basics.”In the game situation I probably pushed a little bit too hard at times,” Johnson said. “Now I’ve pulled it back just slightly and tried to be nice and tall in my action and tried to swing that ball. It does help when you get the new ball. I had my opportunities in the West Indies and I didn’t swing it there.”So I went back to the drawing board. I have worked a lot with Troy [Cooley] and he keeps in close contact with Dennis Lillee. Ben Hilfenhaus has given me a few tips as well because he can swing the ball. It’s good when young guys like that can come through and have the confidence to speak to, I guess you could call me a more experienced member of the team.”It’s easy to forget how experienced Johnson has become in a short space of time. He made his Test debut two summers ago but in a changing attack has quickly become its spearhead in South Africa. Few would call Johnson a senior bowler compared to the injured Stuart Clark but the two have exactly the same number of Test wickets – 90.

It’s Johnson the Australians will look to as they aim for a 3-0 series clean sweep when the third Test begins on Thursday in Cape Town, where he will take the new ball against a fresh opening pair, Ashwell Prince and Imraan Khan. Incredibly, he has never bowled to the veteran Princebut has recent memories of the debutant Imraan, who made 100 againstAustralia in the tour match in Potchefstroom.”In the first innings [Imraan] batted quite well,” Johnson said. “In the second innings we tried a bit of a different tactic towards him, bowling a few more shorter ones and getting him stuck on the crease a little bit. We’ll have a bowlers’ meeting in the next day or so, and talk about those two players. It’s going to be exciting for him in his first Test and hopefully we can make it hard for him.”I haven’t played against [Prince] and I haven’t seen a hell of a lot of him but I know he’s got a good record and he has been performing very well recently so you’ve still got to be wary of that type of player. He can probably bat anywhere. Maybe in the back of mind there’s a little bit of hope that he doesn’t want to be out there and maybe we can exploit it a little bit.”

Match facts

Tuesday, February 10
Start time 1.45pm (03.15 GMT)

The Big Picture

Australia avoided handing back the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy in Sydney but a New Zealand win in Adelaide would be enough for the prize to change hands, while Australia could level at 2-2. Ricky Ponting’s impassioned plea to the selectors to allow him to return to the side instead of resting indicated how seriously he takes the series and after Australia lost the prize in 2006-07 when he also sat out, he was desperate for the situation not to repeat itself.The batting began to click at the SCG, where Brad Haddin and Michael Clarke were thrust together as a makeshift opening pair and put on 135 for the first wicket. It was Australia’s best opening partnership since the World Cup final in 2007, when Adam Gilchrist destroyed Sri Lanka’s hopes of winning the title and took Matthew Hayden along for the ride.New Zealand have relied on their spinners Daniel Vettori and Jeetan Patel to dry up the runs in the middle overs but the plan didn’t work in Sydney and there will be no margin for error in Adelaide, where the short boundaries attract hungry batsmen. At that venue three months ago they were soundly beaten in a Test but the memories will be quickly forgotten if they wrap up a series win and take back the trophy.

ODI form guide

Australia – WLLLL
New Zealand – LWWWN

Team news

After a few more misses than hits in his short international career, David Warner has been left out of the squad and will return to New South Wales, where he has still not made his first-class debut. The success of Haddin and Clarke as an opening pair has hardened the top order and the main batting question is how long David Hussey and Cameron White will be given to justify their positions while Adam Voges remains in the squad. Peter Siddle has joined the group and after taking a one-day career-best of 4 for 27 for Victoria on Saturday he is a strong chance to make his ODI debut.Australia (possible) 1 Michael Clarke, 2 Brad Haddin (wk), 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 David Hussey, 5 Michael Hussey, 6 Cameron White, 7 Callum Ferguson, 8 James Hopes, 9 Mitchell Johnson, 10 Nathan Bracken, 11 Ben Hilfenhaus/Peter Siddle.Brendon McCullum was scheduled to have scans on Monday on his right shoulder after being struck by a rearing Kyle Mills delivery while standing up to the stumps. McCullum had pain-killing injections and dropped down to No. 9 but he was still able to strike a quick 36, giving the New Zealanders hope that he might be fit for Tuesday. The back-up wicketkeeper Gareth Hopkins has been flown in as cover and McCullum said that while he was desperate to play, he would leave the decision until his injury had been assessed. “I always want to play and take the aggressive attitude and take the field,” McCullum told on Monday. “But you’ve also got to do the sensible thing, and until such time as we get the actual information about what is going on, it’s hard to make any sort of judgment.”New Zealand (possible) 1 Brendon McCullum (wk), 2 Martin Guptill, 3 Peter Fulton, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Grant Elliott, 6 Neil Broom, 7 Kyle Mills, 8 Daniel Vettori (capt), 9 Tim Southee, 10 Jeetan Patel, 11 Iain O’Brien.

Watch out for …

Michael Hussey has not had his most productive summer but the runs are starting to flow and in his past four innings he has made 78, 49, 75 and 51. He has been especially valuable in a middle order that has struggled and, perhaps more importantly, Australia will be pleased he is finding form ahead of the tour of South Africa. For the time being, Hussey is a key figure in Australia’s bid to level the one-day series.If New Zealand were asked prior to the series to nominate the batsman likely to cause Australia the most trouble, Grant Elliott would not have been at the head of the list. He entered the tour with his only experience against Australia being a miserable contribution in the Gabba Test this season. A calm, unbeaten 61 at the MCG secured New Zealand’s 2-0 lead and his 115 in Sydney kept their hopes of a 3-0 victory alive.

Pitch & conditions

Less than a month ago, Adelaide was the venue of what Ricky Ponting described as his team’s worst performance of the summer. They were bundled out for 222 and then could do little as South Africa chased down the target in the 39th over. Most frustrating for Ponting was that it happened on a good batting pitch, as is nearly always provided at the Adelaide Oval. There should be plenty of runs available this time and the conditions will be comfortable, with 23C the top temperature expected.

Stats and trivia

• Brad Haddin is in form after making his first ODI century on Sunday and New Zealand will be concerned about him at Adelaide Oval, where he destroyed them in November’s Test match when he made 169
• Grant Elliott’s 115 in the SCG match was the second-highest ever by a New Zealand player in an ODI in Australia
• Nathan Bracken will be playing his 100th one-day international
• The teams have played each other eight times in ODIs at the Adelaide Oval for four wins each

Quotes

“We can’t afford to get carried away with one win, but hopefully a bit of confidence will carry over to Adelaide.”
Ricky Ponting“We know we’re in a good space, we know we’re playing some good cricket, and the only way we win against Australia is if we put all three components together. Unfortunately we didn’t do all three [in Sydney].”
Daniel Vettori

Doug Bollinger is unsure whether he will be part of the Test squad for the South Africa tour despite a useful debut in Sydney. Bollinger, a left-arm opening bowler, took two wickets in the SCG victory over South Africa but was overlooked for the Twenty20 and one-day international outfits.Gaining a place on the South Africa visit will become harder if Stuart Clark regains fitness for the trip following elbow surgery. Clark is looking to play Sydney grade cricket on January 24. “I am hopeful,” he said in the Sydney Morning Herald. “I haven’t got final clearance yet.”Bollinger was also uncertain of his playing prospects. “I don’t know,” Bollinger said in the Australian when asked if he would make the squad. “I’ve just got to keep doing what I’m doing and hopefully I’ll get a gig. I’d be really excited if I do, but we’ll just wait and see what happens.”I don’t think I did too bad [in the Sydney Test], as I said, I’ve just got to keep bashing away. My performance there, I thought I bowled all right. We’ll just wait and see how I go.” The squad is due to be named in the first week of February and the opening Test begins on February 26.

Conventional wisdom states that the WACA gets easier to score on as the match progresses but South Africa will face a tall task to begin the series with a win after Australia extended their lead to 322. However, in a game that has had more changes of direction than a line-dancing class, South Africa’s ability to remain in the contest after three days has left the visitors in a confident frame of mind.They began the morning aiming to stop Australia’s momentum, created by Mitchell Johnson’s seven second-day strikes. They closed it hopeful of a chase of less than 350 – a gettable target in Perth – thanks to a disciplined bowling effort, although an unbeaten 66-run stand from Jason Krejza and Brad Haddin late in the day tempered their enthusiasm.”It’s pretty even at the moment, we’ve had an awesome day,” AB de Villiers said. “I think momentum was behind us, we slipped a little bit towards the last half an hour but there wasn’t a lot in the ball or the wicket in the last half an hour. We’ve got a few overs to go until the new ball and hopefully we can take three wickets in the morning.”Four times have sides have posted more than 340 in the fourth innings at the WACA and much will, therefore, depend on the efforts of Australia’s lower order early on the fourth day. A few more wickets in hand would have been useful for the hosts, who for the second time in the game lost Andrew Symonds and Michael Clarke to aggressive shots when they were set.”I’ve been pleased that we’ve kept looking to score,” Australia’s coach Tim Nielsen said. “We’re 322 runs in front in a Test match at the moment because we backed ourselves and we played positive cricket the whole way through.”South Africa’s bowlers maintained the pressure and, while Dale Steyn and Jacques Kallis collect two wickets each, nobody was able to produce a match-changing spell like Johnson. He finished with 8 for 61 after adding one wicket to his overnight tally and Nielsen said the remarkable effort had created a positive feeling in the Australian camp.”It’s been so terrific to see him do so well, the hard work he’s put in over the last 18 months and at different times there’s been questions about whether he might be good enough to do it or where he sits in the whole scheme of things,” Nielsen said. “I don’t think we’ve had any doubt about that.”He’s walking around a bit like a Cheshire Cat at the moment, which is nice. There’s a good feeling in the rooms for Mitchell and we think we can ride that wave tomorrow and further on.”The odd ball has behaved strangely – one Morne Morkel delivery that hit the footmarks bounced so sharply that it nearly cleared Mark Boucher – but there should still be plenty of runs in the pitch. de Villiers said it would be a major challenge chasing down any more than 350.”The wicket looks alright at the moment,” de Villiers said. “It’s very slow though and there’s a lot of patches of grass around which gives you that pace too so it depends which patch it hits. It’s two paced which makes it very difficult. It’s not an easy wicket to bat on, it’s also not an easy wicket to bowl on when the batter gets in so it’s a bit of both worlds.”

Match facts

January 14, 2008
Start time 9.00am (03.00 GMT)

Big Picture

The instruction is straightforward for Bangladesh – go forth and win. After conceding their opening game against Zimbabwe with an inept display of batting, the final league game of the series now assumes a knock-out scenario for the home side. Sri Lanka currently stand on top of the points table with five, having gained a bonus point, followed by Zimbabwe on four. Bangladesh are yet to open their account and will have to challenge their limits like never before to fill the seats for the final on Friday.A win will guarantee Bangladesh a place in the final: four points will put them on par with Zimbabwe, and their net run-rate, already better than Zimbabwe’s, will only improve.Mashrafe Mortaza disagreed with the criticism that Bangladesh only perform against big teams when the conditions favour them on a given day and not through the skills of the players. “To play good cricket we don’t need a good day,” he said. “We have pushed teams regularly but maybe haven’t had the results. The players have given their all and we rejoice or feel disappointed in the same way fans do in regards to the success and failure of the Bangladesh team. I hope people realise that it is the players who win games through hard work and should support us.”The crowds still flock to see Bangladesh perform, irrespective of their form. It’s up to the players to cut down on indiscreet shots and make an honest effort.

Form guide (last five completed ODIs, most recent first)

Sri Lanka WWWWW
Bangladesh LLLLL

Watch out for

A world record for Mahela Jayawardene. With 156 catches, he currently shares the record with the former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin for the most takes by a non-wicketkeeper in ODIs. While it took Azharuddin 334 games to set that record, it has taken Jayawardene only 289 matches to equal him. Jayawardene stations himself at slip and with two quality spinners bowling in tandem, the record shouldn’t be too far away.Plenty of spin from Bangladesh. Their seamers, with the exception of Mortaza, leaked runs in excess of six an over against Zimbabwe. It’s no secret that spin is Bangladesh’s forte and in a pressure situation like tomorrow, it would make sense to utilise their slow men to the maximum. They used four against Zimbabwe and didn’t concede more than three and a half an over and even Mohammad Ashraful, gaining a reputation as an innocuous partnership-breaker, was miserly in his four overs.

Team changes

Bangladesh will field their debutant seamer Rubel Hossain, who bowls for Chittagong Division. Rubel has a sling action and his talents were discovered during a pacer hunt programme where he topped the speed gun. “The team management has told me to be my natural self and my target is to bowl in my natural style,” said Rubel. “I feel fit and strong and I am really excited. I haven’t told my mother about my debut match yet. She’ll be the happiest person when she sees me out there. “Rubel comes in at the expense of Nazmul Hossain, who did little of note in the first game. Mahmudullah, the middle-order batsman, replaces Mehrab Hossain jnr who has been named 12th man.Bangladesh: (from) 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2Junaid Siddique, 3 Mohammad Ashraful (capt), 4 Raqibul Hassan, 5 Shakib Al Hasan, 6 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 7 Naeem Islam, 8 Mahmudullah, 9 Masrafe Mortaza, 10 Mahbubul Alam, 11 Rubel Hossain.Sri Lanka didn’t name their 12 on the eve of the match. However, it’s an opportunity to give every member of the squad a game before the final.Sri Lanka (probable) 1 Sanath Jayasuriya, 2 Upul Tharanga, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene (capt), 5 Jehan Mubarak, 6 Chamara Kapugedera, 7 Angelo Mathews 8 Thilan Thushara, 9 Nuwan Kulasekara, 10 Muttiah Muralitharan, 11 Ajantha Mendis

Stats and Trivia

• Sanath Jayasuriya needs 24 runs to become the first to aggregate 1000 ODI runs against Bangladesh. In 19 innings against them, he had 976 runs at an average of 57.41.
• Sri Lanka play Bangladesh for the first time at this ground.
• Ashraful and Mortaza are the only survivors from Bangladesh’s only victory against Sri Lanka, at Bogra in 2006.

Quotes

“We have seen that a number of the batsmen have been getting out in the same manner repeatedly. Also, there is not enough support for someone who is well set and we would need a batsman or two to go on and play 50 overs.”
“I am sure they have had a few things to worry about because it was a game they were expected to win. I am also pretty certain that they would want to come out strong because this is a must-win match for them.”
.

Nur Aishah top scored with 47 – the tournament’s highest individual score so far – and took three wickets in Malaysia‘s 82-run win over Kuwait, one which pushed them to second place behind Nepal in Group B. She added 92 with Zoe Landry (38 not out) to take Malaysia to a tournament-high 144 at the Chiang Mai Gymkhana. A curious feature of the Malaysian innings was that all four dismissals were run-outs. Kuwait’s chase began poorly with Landry removing Alina D’ Silva off her first ball. Then Aishah struck thrice, including twice in successive overs, in a period of eight overs where Kuwait added only 15 runs. They limped to 62 in their 25 overs – captain Priyada Murali top scoring with 21 – helped on their way by 19 extras.It took Qatar 10.3 overs to overhaul Oman‘s 64 for their first win of the ACC Under-19 women’s tournament at the Prem Oval in Thailand. Shruthi Srinivasan, Safa Patel and Nahan Arif took three wickets each to bowl out Oman in 21.1 overs after which the Qatar openers set up the win with a 35-run stand. Srinivasan gave them the early breakthroughs with a triple-strike that reduced Oman to 16 for 3. They had barely recovered from that when Patel took two in two overs. She and Arif wrapped up the tail, with Arif dismissing top scorer Arzoo Sattikar for 14. Arif also chipped in with an unbeaten 17 and was named the Player of the Match for her efforts.Despite Wang Wenfei’s 4 for 11, China could not prevent Singapore from chasing down 75 at the Prem Oval. Wenfei took her wickets – all bowled – in her first four overs, including two in the space of four balls. But the target was too small for China to defend. Apart from Yu Miao (13), no other batsman reached double figures.

Zimbabwe will approach their four-day match against Sri Lanka as seriously as if it was a Test, according to head of selectors Kenyon Ziehl.Speaking to the Independent newspaper, Ziehl said the game, which starts in Bulawayo on Wednesday, was a key part of getting Zimbabwe readmitted to the Test arena. “They judge us on the longer-version and we need to play 12-38 first-class matches before resumption of Test cricket,” he said.”We are looking at batsmen that can occupy the crease. That’s where we need to sort of build on. On the bowlers’ side we are looking at guys who can maintain a good line and length consistently. That is very critical at this level of the game.”I hope they [Sri Lanka] will use their strongest team. It’s important to have a look at their leading bowlers like Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan before the ODIs.”Zimbabwe will field their best XI in the match, although they will be without Brendan Taylor and Sean Williams who have both decided to play abroad after becoming the latest players to fall out with the board.