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Bangladesh can expect no respite from a charged up Sri Lanka when they confront them in a series of three Tests starting Monday at the SSC grounds.”One thing we’ve realized is that whether we play Australia or Bangladesh whoever it is, even Zimbabwe we are going to treat every game as top priority for us,” said Mahela Jayawardene.”That’s the attitude we’ve been having and its part of our success we’ve had in the last 2-3 years. We treat each and every game very seriously and make sure we put in more than 100 percent on every game. Attitude-wise, the enthusiasm, the aggression everything will be the same. The only thing we have to switch would be from one day cricket to Test cricket,” he stated.Sri Lanka will be greatly strengthened by the return of Kumar Sangakkara, Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan. All three have been playing county cricket in England and will return after the series against Bangladesh. “They are all keen to get back into playing Test cricket.”Sri Lanka will be playing a home Test after nearly 12 months. The last Test played at the SSC against South Africa in July 2006 was a memorable one for Jayawardene and Sangakkara. The pair shared a world record partnership of 624 runs for any wicket in Test cricket. Jayawardene went onto compile Sri Lanka’s highest score in Test cricket, a monumental 374, while Sangakkara hit a career best 287. Sri Lanka piled up 756 runs and beat South Africa by an innings.Bangladesh is keeping a close eye on experienced opener Javed Omar after he was laid ill with a virus. “Omar is coming through well and we hope he will be fit for the Test. Mehrab Hossain has been named as standby in the twelve just in case Omar fails to pull through,” said Bangladesh coach Shaun Williams.Williams who is standby coach until Bangladesh finds a successor to Dav Whatmore said that playing a full Test series of three matches would benefit Bangladesh a lot. “We are happy to have a three-Test series. It will give this young group in terms of experience a chance to educate themselves to get better at this level,” said Williams.”It’s a learning curve for every player in the side as they strive to achieve success. I wouldn’t at this stage set any goals for winning and losing. The more we face strong opposition the better it is for us to get to know how well we can play,” he said.

Although there has been a lot of rain in the past few days the pitch looked firm and Jayawardene assessed that it would be a great wicket to bat on. “The ground staff has done a brilliant job to keep it dry. It looks a very good wicket. There will definitely be something for the fast bowlers and the spinners will have bounce and probably turn in the latter part of the Test. It will be a great wicket to bat on because the ball will definitely be coming on,” said Jayawardene.Sri Lanka will go into the Test with seven batters and four bowlers. Jayawardene said there will be a toss up between Dilhara Fernando and Farveez Maharoof. “Both of them are bowling really well, absolutely brilliantly. It’s unfortunate that we have to keep one of the guys out. That’s the choice we have to make. Whoever gets left out here will get an opportunity to come back and play one of the other Test matches,” Jayawardene said.”One of the reasons we are going with seven batsmen is that the line up we have is a bit inexperienced,” he said. Sri Lanka are without experienced openers Sanath Jayasuriya (rested), Marvan Atapattu (unavailable) and Upul Tharanga (injured). They go into the Test with left-handers Michael Vandort who’s played in six Tests and Malinda Warnapura who will be making his Test debut at the age of 28.Jayawardene insisted that there would be no complacency on his team’s part. “We will not take it easy. It’s going to be 100 percent from the first ball. Bangladesh do show a lot of weaknesses in Test cricket. But then you’ll never know. They keep improving and they could be a surprise package. You shouldn’t leave them any room to come back at you. From the first ball onwards whether we are batting or bowling we are going to go after them and make sure we put them under pressure,” he said. Bangladesh has lost all seven Tests played between the two countries.Sri Lanka (from): Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Michael Vandort, Malinda Warnapura, Kumar Sangakkara, Chamara Silva, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Prasanna Jayawardene, Chaminda Vaas, Lasith Malinga, Muttiah Muralitharan, Dilhara Fernando, Farveez Maharoof, Malinga Bandara, Sajeewa de Silva.Bangladesh (from): Mohammed Ashraful (captain), Mashrafa Mortaza, Abdur Razzak, Habibul Bashar, Javed Omar, Khaled Mashud, Mohammad Rafique, Rajin Saleh, Shahadat Hossain, Shahriar Nafees, Shakib Al Hasan, Mehrab Hossain.

Rahul Dravid sent out an ominous signal to Sri Lanka, saying his young team were better prepared to reverse their dismal record there. Dravid, India’s captain, said his teammates had worked hard on some of the problem areas which should stand them in good stead for the tri-series which includes South Africa and begins on Monday.”It’s a great opportunity for us to go to a place where we have not done well,” he told a press conference in Bangalore, prior to departure. “We have worked hard and we would like to get better there.”He added that the series would be challenging for them as they would take on two other good teams in their title hunt. “This is an important series.” he said, and identified the hosts Sri Lanka as a big threat for them, given their current form. “Sri Lanka are playing well – they even play better at home. So we have to play well there.”However, he refused to divulge India’s gameplan. “I cannot tell you the strategies before a week of the series. Strategy will be known on the match day. But, it is important to play according to the potential.Dravid would not disclose who will open the innings. “A lot of players have opened earlier. It is not an issue who plays up – rather it is important how we play.” Rather, there were other priorities. “We talked about batting in the middle overs on slow wickets, how to create best chance for scoring a lot of runs in that part of the match.”He added that the team must not rest on their laurels. “We need to keep doing better. We need to play better against all oppositions in all situations. That’s what you play cricket for.”Greg Chappell, India’s coach, added the experience of playing on slow wickets in the West Indies would come handy during the tri-series. “In Sri Lanka the wickets would be similar. It is about putting pressure on the opponents and resisting pressure. It’s about executing our plans well.”Chappell expressed hope that the innovative training the players were put through during the conditioning camp would benefit them in the long run. “You should not expect a miracle. They did different activities and met with many challenges which may help them.”Dravid said he did not consider the absence of a genuine allrounder in the team as an issue. “We don’t have a Flintoff or Kapil Dev, it’s true. But players like Irfan, Viru, Dhoni, Mongia and Raina are developing their skills and trying to compensate for that.”He added that he had no fears over security issues in Sri Lanka. “The Sri Lanka Cricket board is putting everything place.”

Ricky Ponting will join the Test squad in India and is hopeful of being fit for the fourth Test after X-rays confirmed that his injured thumb is healing well.Dr Trefor James, the medical adviser for Cricket Australia, said that Ponting’s broken thumb, which he injured in the Champions Trophy, has shown significant improvement since an examination last week. “His grip is a lot stronger than what it was, and while he will fall a few days short of being right for the third Test, we are hopeful that he will be fit for the final Test of the series.”Ponting said he was encouraged by the latest diagnosis. “Obviously I’m not certain to play, but I have a lot more strength and movement in my hand, and I’m certainly hopeful to be right for Mumbai,” he said. “I should be OK to start hitting balls by the end of this week, and will continue to work on it when I join the squad later this week.”Ponting said he was looking forward to rejoining the team in India as soon as possible. Australia are currently 1-0 up in the four-match series. The third Test will be played at Nagpur from October 26, while the fourth one Test starts at Mumbai on November 3.

Bruce Patterson, 39, has been called up to play for Scotland in their Intercontinental Cup match against Holland at Mannofield, Aberdeen, next week. Patterson’s last international game was against Ireland in the home countries tournament in 2001. He is an opening batsman with three first-class hundreds to his name, and a wealth of experience.Stewart Bruce, the 34-year-old left-arm pace bowler, has also been named in the side. Bruce was forced to postpone his Scotland debut earlier this season, as he was serving in Iraq as an explosives expert. Majid Haq, the 20-year-old offspinner, is also in the squad for the Intercontinental Cup. Scotland’s success in the tournament could determine their future prospects in world cricket.Scotland captain Craig Wright said: “All the players for the Intercontinental Cup have to be Scotland-qualified, so neither Sriram nor Arafat is eligible. Instead, we are fortunate to have both Bruce Patterson and Stewart Bruce, with whom we were greatly impressed during the winter, available for this game.”Scotland C Wright (capt), S Bruce, A Butt, C. English, M Haq, P. Hoffmann, S. Knox, B Patterson, C. Smith, I. Stanger, R. Watson, F. Watts.

Glamorgan progressed to the fourth round of the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy with a comfortable 86 run victory over the Durham Cricket Board XI at Darlington.The Welsh county, who were put in to bat by the Board captain, Marcus North, amassed 312-9 in their 50 over allocation with Ian Thomas making a career best 93 from 103 balls and Matthew Maynard adding yet another century to his tally with a typically majestic 115 from 86 balls.The pair shared a third wicket stand of 135 which took the game well beyond the reach of the Durham side. Despite 59 from opener Allan Worthy, and 46 from the Australian North, the task of scoring in excess of six runs an over was never achieved, and the Board side were dismissed for 226mid-way through the 48th over.Robert Croft took three wickets and both Adrian Dale and Alex Wharf took two apiece as Glamorgan maintained their unbeaten record in limited over competitions this year.

Tushar Imran, the dashing batsman from Dhanmondi Club, looked very joyful yesterday and there are reasons. He and four other boys from different age group got the rare chance to undergo a four-week training session in Commonwealth Bank Academy of Cricket in Australia (CBCA). It is noteworthy that CBCA toured Bangladesh in January 2001, to play some exhibition matches.Tushar is famous for his crushing knock against the champions of the Premier League 2000-2001. He slammed an unbeaten 131 against Mohammedan Sporting Club, which ended up with a surprising victory over their gigantic opponents. After the League had finished, he was called in for Bangladesh-A camp. Tushar thinks he has some problems relating to his temperament and he wants to work on that. He played a three-day match against the CBCA squad in BKSP early this year.Anwar Hossain Monir, the pace bowler who was summoned to practice with the national squad, is also very optimistic about this training tour. He thinks that there are a lot of things he should learn from the Academy. He has identified few of his problems and is hopeful that the Australian experts would help him to prevail over those. Monir played for Surjatarun Club in this year.Hasibul Haq was in the under-17 squad that took part in the Asian U-17 tournament held in Dhaka, 2001. He played the First Division 2000-2001 for Gopibagh Friends Club and scored a little more than 750 runs, which is an outstanding achievement for a kid like him. He is known as the little prodigy of First Division. He is reliable behind the stumps and aggressive in the front. His friend Arif, who also played the Asian U-17 as a specialist leg-break bowler, is going with him. Both are students of class ten and they still have not crossed sixteen.The boys will play five practice matches in Western Australia. The former wicket keeper-batsman Wayne Philips now coaches for CBCA.

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

Shaun Pollock led a stand-out seam-bowling performance as the Mumbai Indians notched up the most convincing win of the tournament, and their fifth in a row, handing the Kolkata Knight Riders an eight-wicket drubbing at the Wankhede Stadium. None of Kolkata’s batsmen came to terms with the seamer-friendly pitch, crumbling to an embarrassing 67 all out – the lowest score of the tournament and the fifth-lowest in all Twenty20 matches – before Sanath Jayasuriya hastened the finish with a 17-ball 48, as Mumbai sailed home with 87 deliveries to spare – a record in all Twenty20 games – significantly boosting their hopes of a semi-final berth.The visitors were put in by Sachin Tendulkar, who won his second toss in a row, but even he wouldn’t have dreamed of the display his bowlers served up. The pitch helped significantly, offering bounce and plenty of seam movement to each of the five bowlers who were used – in fact, so good were the conditions for seam bowling that Rajesh Pawar, the left-arm spinner who made his IPL debut, wasn’t even pressed into the attack.The start was deceptively normal, with Salman Butt moving away to club Pollock down the ground for four, and then carving Ashish Nehra for the 400th six of the IPL. From then on, only one team did all the celebrating.Pollock led the way, bowling with impeccable control, seaming the ball both ways from a perfect length, and giving the batsmen no chance. Against a top four that has an equal mix of right- and left-handers, Pollock kept his line around off stump against both, extracting bounce and seaming the ball away to induce the edge. Butt was the first to perish to the movement, getting a leading edge while trying to flick, offering Tendulkar the first of four catches.Thereafter, the slide was swift. Kolkata made the situation worse when Aakash Chopra was involved in his second mix-up with Sourav Ganguly in three games, charging down the pitch even as Ganguly didn’t respond. Another perfect delivery in the corridor from Pollock accounted for David Hussey, and when Tendulkar decided to bowl his four overs on the trot, Pollock responded by inducing an edge off Mohammad Hafeez, which was snaffled by Robin Uthappa at a wide second slip.Pollock was done, finishing with figures of 3 for 12, but there was no respite for Kolkata, as Dwayne Bravo continued from where Pollock had left off, getting exaggerated seam movement in both directions. Wriddhiman Saha was defeated by the bounce and movement, and slashed to Tendulkar, and Kolkata had lost half their side for 29.With the conditions so friendly for the seamers, Tendulkar cleverly decided to use Dominic Thornely and Rohan Raje, both medium-pace bowlers, and the results came almost instantly. Raje removed the dangerous Laxmi Ratan Shukla with a superb delivery which pitched on middle and seamed away to take off stump.

Through the destruction at the other end, Ganguly hung on patiently, hoping to weather the storm and guide Kolkata to a respectable total. He came in to bat in the third over and stayed till the 13th, but was stuck at the non-striker’s end most of the time, facing only 20 deliveries as the batting line-up was destroyed at the other end. He finally perished in tame fashion, as Yogesh Takawale hung on to a catch with his second attempt as Ganguly tried to cut. With Kolkata’s last hope falling, the rest followed quickly.Kolkata’s only hope of avoiding complete embarrassment was for Shoaib Akhtar to do an encore of the previous game. He began with a fiery first over, having Jayasuriya dropped at slip off the first ball, and then winning his personal battle with Tendulkar, who nibbled one to the wicketkeeper, slightly dampening the spirits of the home crowd.Jayasuriya’s response to that dismissal was emphatic, as he waded into Ishant Sharma and Shoaib in the next two overs. After clipping Ishant unconvincingly over mid-on, he found his timing perfectly in Shoaib’s next over: a flick and a short-arm pull both sailed over the boundary, while two crisp drives raced through the covers in an over which leaked 23, more than one-third of the target.The Shoaib threat was over, and the end came soon after, as Jayasuriya flicked a no-ball off Ishant for his 17th six of the IPL, the highest for a batsman in the tournament, and then finished it off next ball. Mumbai now have the best net run-rate, and with ten points from nine games, have given themselves an excellent chance of making the last four.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsKieron Pollard struck five fours and three sixes during his unbeaten 37-ball 59•Caribbean Premier League

Kieron Pollard’s unbeaten 59 and Robin Peterson’s 3 for 13 set up a 17-run win for defending champions Barbados Tridents over Jamaica Tallawahs at Sabina Park. More importantly, the victory – Tridents’ fifth of the season – helped them pull clear of Tallawahs by two points at the top of the table.Tridents chose to bat and put on an opening stand of 31 before Jerome Taylor dismissed Dilshan Munaweera in the fifth over. Tridents lost three wickets for 33 runs during the middle overs and fell to 64 for 4, but Pollard and Jason Holder led a recovery be adding 58 runs for the fifth wicket, taking the team past 120. Pollard struck five fours and three sixes for his fifty, the batsman’s second of the season. Andre Russell dismissed Holder and Navin Stewart in the 19th over to leave the visitors on 124 for 6, but the final over of Tridents’ innings yielded 22 runs, with Pollard slamming two sixes and a four. His blitz meant that Tallawahs needed 147 for the win.However, the hosts’ chase did not begin well, as Ravi Rampaul dismissed the tournament’s top run-getter Chris Gayle early to end an 18-run opening partnership. Peterson then spun Tallawahs into further trouble, picking up the wickets of Chris Lynn, Mahela Jayawardene and Jermaine Blackwood all in the fifth over to reduce the team to 36 for 4.Chadwick Walton and Nkrumah Bonner revived the chase with a 67-run stand for the fifth wicket, but with the fall of Walton’s wicket in the 16th over, Tallawahs chances of a win were dented. Holder then dismissed Andre Russell and Rusty Theron in the 18th over to all but seal the game.

Confusion over the West Indies A tour of Zimbabwe remains more than a week after Cricinfo revealed that the players’ association (WIPA) had said that it was against the trip going ahead.In the six days since then, little progress appears to have been made. The West Indies board (WICB) has requested documentary evidence from WIPA to back up claims that it had been told that the players’ safety was a major concern.WIPA, in turn, has declined to provide this as much of the evidence it has gathered has been given on the condition of anonymity, especially from sources within Zimbabwe. Cricinfo has seen one mail from a senior politician which said: “While I personally would love to watch the West Indies A team play in Zimbabwe you will do more for the game of cricket generally and in Zimbabwe if you decide to decline the invitation.”The two sides remain firmly entrenched. WIPA is adamant that is has the full backing of players, and Cricinfo is aware of several who have already said they are not prepared to make the trip, although The Nation reported that it has spoken to others who were keen to go. The WICB has assurances from Zimbabwe Cricket that safety is not an issue.The relationship between WIPA and the board is almost non existent, as commented on in yesterday’s arbitration ruling, and this is hampering progress.Tony Deyal, the board’s corporate services manager, told The Nation that a decision was imminent. “Whatever decision is taken will be taken seriously and in the best interest of all the players,” he said. “We are waiting for [WIPA chief executive Dinanath] Ramnarine to get back to us. If he doesn’t, we have to make a decision and we hope to make it by tomorrow [Thursday].”We’ve asked WIPA for the sources of their information. This is not a competition. We are dealing with an issue where we are very concerned,” Deyal said. “There are not two sides in this thing. There is only one side. The question of safety of the players. What we are trying to ascertain is what information WIPA has that we don’t have. We have all the assurances of support and safety.”WIPA is also unhappy that despite claims from the WICB that a squad has been picked, it has not been named less than nine days before the side is due to land in Harare.”It is very unfortunate that the board will go to everybody else and then come to us last,” Ramnarine said. “We are the most critical people … the players, their safety. It really shows not just disrespect to the agreement, but a certain level of disrespect to the players and their own welfare. That is something that WIPA feels strongly about. We have a role and a responsibility to protect our members and we will continue to do so.”In Zimbabwe, Lovemore Banda, the board’s media manager, said that he was still optimistic. “We are just waiting to hear from them,” he said, “but we are hopeful the team will be traveling.”The Zimbabwe squad has been training for a few days in Harare. Brendan Taylor is a notable absentee – he is reported to be in London – while Elton Chigumbura is in South Africa on personal business and expected to arrive soon. A local source reported that a number of the players were waiting on the decision by West Indies before deciding what to do in the longer term.

Scorecard

Last night was the mid-season meeting for Middlesex members and they would certainly have had plenty to moan about after their side’s feeble effort in the first innings against Lancashire. While the team will still lose sometime before lunch tomorrow, at least centuries from Ed Smith and Scott Styris showed some backbone and pushed this match into a fourth day that had appeared unlikely.Smith’s century was his second of the season and will have brought welcome relief for a player who has become more acquainted with single figure scores in recent matches. However, he lived a charmed life and was put down on 96 when Kyle Hogg dropped a sitter at mid-on off Brad Hodge as Smith got a leading edge. He also flirted with Lancashire’s deep-set field on the legside with a number of his pulls on just falling short of the fielders.Hogg’s drop came on a day when, on a rare occasion this summer, things didn’t go Lancashire’s way. At the start of the morning they needed to replace Luke Sutton with the second team wicketkeeper, Gareth Cross, after Sutton sustained a broken thumb on the second day. He had been struck by Mohammad Ali during his 72, but continued to bat and kept throughout Middlesex’s first innings and the start of the follow-on. However, overnight the injury was assessed – via a trip back to Manchester – and Sutton is expected to be out for around a month, which rules him out of the Twenty20 zonal round.For most of the morning session Cross and the rest of the fielders had watched Smith and the nightwatchman Chris Peploe. The bowling was not as impressive as the first innings and Smith was quick onto anything loose. Peploe showed an admirable defence although he could have been dislodged on 18 if Iain Sutcliffe had not been on his heels at short-leg.It took the introduction of Hodge to break a stand of 127 when People slogged him straight to mid-on in his opening over. Hodge should have had Smith, too, but the century arrived off 136 balls. After lunch, though, Lancashire appeared to have made the killer breakthroughs. Smith was well held at mid-on by Cork then Owais Shah fell to a stunning reflex effort by Sutcliffe, at short-leg, who clung onto half-volley that Shah clipped cleanly off his toes.

The collapse continued as Eoin Morgan was bowled round his legs by Gary Keedy then Paul Weekes was snapped up at silly point off the face of the bat. Keedy was rewarded for perseverance although he never actually bowled that well; too dragging the ball short and being easily dispatched.Styris found a stubborn partner in David Nash, who has made himself very hard to drop after two gusty innings, and they added 134 in nearly two hours as the bowlers tired. Nash survived a huge appeal against Keedy first ball, but Mark Chilton had to use seven different options to try and remove him. It took the second new ball, and Cork running on empty, to do the job as Nash edged a flashing cut to Cross, after Tom Smith had added to the fielding blunders by dropping him on 27 at second slip.Styris crossed to his first ton of the season off 113 balls and continued to play his shots with the bowlers for company. Chilton spilled him at point on 121 but he was finally removed by Cork during a commendable show of stamina on a flat pitch. Cork ended with a worthy four-wicket haul, and eight in the match, when he bounced out Mohammad Ali in the second over.Middlesex’s extra fight means Lancashire couldn’t quite secure the day off they would have liked ahead of their C&G clash against Warwickshire, but by lunchtime tomorrow they will have consolidated their position at the top of the table as the Championship takes its Twenty20 break.