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Lightning struck twice in a week as a thrilling last wicket partnership between James Manning and Giles White again rescued the Academy from enbarrassment; failing to secure a winning draw by less than .1 of a run.South Wilts won an important toss and elected to take first use of a pitch that didn’t play as well as it looked; often subjecting the batsmen to “tennis ball” bounce. Having lost opener Rowe in the first over with no runs on the board, South Wilts made steady, if unspectacular, progress against a persevering Academy attack.Jamie Glasson rather rode his luck in making a valuable 74 (136 balls, 11 fours), supported in the main by Paul Draper (34) and latterly Tim Lamb with a well-organized 47 who became the second man to be run out taking on the arm of Mitchell Stokes on the deep cover boundary. South Wilts used the maximum number of overs allowed; Matthew Metcalfe (4-54) being the pick of the Academy bowlers, well supported by the leg spin of Ian Hilsum (2-56), having his first long bowl of the season.Again the young Hawks made a disastrous start, being at various stages 27-3 and 58-6; only Tom Burrows (22) achieving double figures. However, a 7th wicket stand of 37 between Hilsum (37 in 47 balls, 1 five, 6 fours) and David Griffiths pushed the Academy towards respectability.When Hilsum was brilliantly caught at short third man Hampshire were soon back in deep trouble at 114-9. Again the impressive Giles White joined his junior partner James Manning in another match-turning partnership; White mixing aggression with defence and farming of the strike in the, by now, somewhat cold and gloomy conditions for the first week in July. This was carried out so successfully against the tiring opening bowlers Senneck (4-66) and Seeary (3-48), who bowled 36 of the 54 overs between them, that the last over -bravely bowled by spinner and captain Draperwas reached with the Academy requiring another 8 runs to achieve a winning draw.White took 3 off the first ball before Manning used up another 3 balls in securing another single. The Academy Captain managed to again paddle-sweep 2 more runs off the fifth ball before only succeeding in on driving a single off the last in scenes of great excitement.Having put on 79 runs for the tenth wicket Manning and White lived to rue a decision of “one short” given by umpire Harrison as the Academy pair attempted a swift 2 early on in their partnership; a decision that meant the extra 5 points for a winning draw went to South Wilts.

With the Champions Trophy in Sharjah just around the corner Avishka Gunawardene looks to have hit form at just the right time after a blistering century in a practice match between the Sri Lanka national side and A team at the Nondescripts Cricket Club Grounds in Colombo today.Batting first, the A team scored 193 runs thanks to a well compiled 60 by skipper Thilan Samaraweera off 86 balls, which included a six and five fours. They had been in grave trouble at one stage having lost seven wickets for 92 runs before a late rally from lower order batsmen Gayan Ramyakumara, Prasanna Jayawardene and Muttumudalige Pushpakumara.Skipper Sanath Jayasuriya picked up four wickets for 45 runs. Senior squad newcomers Prabath Nissanka and Charitha Buddika impressed with two wickets apiece.In the reply, the Sri Lankan team cruised to their target in just 39.4 overs for the loss of just two wickets. Opening partners, skipper Sanath Jayasuriya and Avishka Gunawardene, led the assault. Jayasuriya reached his 50 off only 37 deliveries while Gunawardene got there in 34 balls. Gunawardene went onto make 109. His century came off just 70 balls and he hit eight sixes and 10 fours in all.Though the Sri Lankan national side reached the target in 39.4 overs with just two wickets down, they continued to bat on, to allow all the batsmen some batting practice. They finished up with 291.Summarised scores:Sri Lanka A 193 all out (49.2 overs)T. Samaraweera 60, M. Vandort 25, G. Ramyakumara 18, M. Pushpakumara 18.S. Jayasuriya 4-45, P. Nissanka 2-10.Sri Lanka 291 all out (43.3 overs)Gunawardene 109, S. Jayasuriya 51, M. Atapattu 38, Russel Arnold 32.Dinusha Fernando 2-46, R. Herath 2-52.

Virat Kohli walked into the post-match media briefing and, clearly and emphatically, pinned the onus of India’s defeat at the hands of the batsmen. They were, he said, “tentative” and minus the fearlessness he believed that was required to chase down a total of 176 against Sri Lanka.India’s 63-run defeat after lunch on day four of the Galle Test, which they had controlled for the better part of two days and a session, came about after a horror morning session. India lost six wickets for 55 runs in the space of 28 overs and Kohli said that India were not able to “counter what was being thrown at us. We should have been more smart with how we should have gone about playing the spinners in the second innings.”India came in to bat one wicket down with 153 more to win, for only their fifth victory in a Test in Sri Lanka and Kohli said the team had been, “Let down by our batting. There are no excuses there. The need of the hour in the second innings was to take calculated risk when you are chasing a small total in the fourth innings. Our intent was lacking. We let the opposition in today,” Kohli said. He said in the dressing room, “everyone is disappointed” as, “throughout the game we dominated and it is disappointing to be on the losing side.”Kohli cited the example of the Sri Lankan second innings when five down and trailing by more than 100, saying their response was, “a classic case of people going out there and being fearless and our display was a classic case of people going out there and being tentative.” He said that approach was the “major difference is us losing the game because we only had, apart from the way we batted today, an hour and a half which was bad in the game for us yesterday. Throughout the game, we dominated and it feels strange to be on the losing side but that is, sadly or unfortunately, Test cricket. You play one bad session and then you could be lagging behind in the race.”He would accept neither the controversial umpiring decisions, the absence of the DRS nor the state of the wicket to couch his reasons for India’s defeat. “I don’t think the wicket had too many demons in it, cricket is a game of pressure, when the pressure is mounted on you, the wicket looks difficult. If it’s not, it looks easy. The wicket did not really change much in all the four innings, to be honest. The turn and the bounce was pretty consistent throughout.”It was a case of us not playing fearless cricket – we were tentative.” Kohli said. He would not talk about umpiring decisions just before lunch on day three. Nor did he agree that the three decisions, two against Man-of-the-Match Dinesh Chandimal and one against Lahiru Thirimane, that helped Sri Lanka set up a partnership to eat up the Indian lead had proved, “dispiriting.””Well, not at all,” Kohli said. “I don’t want to speak about things that we cannot control, we kept bowling in the right areas and their batsmen took calculated risks and some risks that had some chances came off. Credit to them, they were able to think clearly.”About the DRS he said, “We are not using DRS in this series. It is not an issue I want to debate on.” When the series was over, he said, “we will sit down and figure out how important is it or how much we want to use it. As I said, we only have ourselves to blame. I don’t want to get into the debate of DRS or any other issues in this particular game. We should keep the questions to how badly we played today rather than things that are completely out of debate as of now.”The team management was not about to regret their decision to go with five bowlers and Kohli said he did not, at any stage, think he was a batsman short either, as India went down in a heap in 49.5 overs. The intention of playing five bowlers was to keep each man fresh to bowl four or five overs full tilt at every stage of the match and that he had no complaints from his bowlers.”If I have said I am going to play with five bowlers, I cannot go down after a performance like this and say I wish I had an extra player, you cannot play with 12 players. If I have chosen to play with five bowlers to take 20 wickets then it is our responsibility to bat in a better way which we did not do today. So I am not bringing up any excuses or wishing that we had an extra batsman. We should have done this better with six batsmen.”The difference between the batting in the two innings, he said, had nothing to do with external conditions but just mindset. “Nothing changed in the wicket, the changes that happened [were] in our mindset. Today we were a bit nervous in our approach and that is the only other difference that happened in our approach between the second day and the fourth day.”The specialist batsmen, Kohli said, could have learnt from Amit Mishra, who, other than Rahane, appeared the “most confident batsman out there. He was reading the spinners well and backing himself to get runs while the other batsmen failed.” Mishra batted for over 45 minutes, holding his own against the Sri Lankan spinners, spending more time at the crease with greater reward than all but two of the batsmen before him.Kohli defended Rohit Sharma’s inclusion in the XI: “You have to back your best players”•Associated Press

The decision to send Harbhajan Singh ahead of R Ashwin was, Kohli said, meant to launch a counterattack, help pick 20-30 runs off and put some pressure back on the home team. India had been in trouble far earlier, though, and Kohli countered questions about the selection of Rohit Sharma in the XI by saying that he had been picked because “you have to back your best players. People that you think can be match-winners for you, you have to back them.”He said Rohit had been given more chances again because “Cheteshwar [Pujara] was going through a phase where he wasn’t getting too many runs. So it was a case of giving another batsman a chance. Right now, Rohit has got three-four chances at No. 3. The idea has to been to persist with him.” Rohit’s miserable record in Sri Lanka, where he averages 14.31 in 21 matches across formats, may not instill much confidence in the batsman.Kohli did say, though, that there needed to be a discussion as a “batting unit as a whole about what guys are thinking, what the mindset as a whole is like and are they on the same page as far as executing the plans that we want them to. I think it’s a case of getting to know every particular batsman’s mindset at present and where he stands mentally and how comfortable or how relaxed they are to go out there and play free cricket because that’s what eventually the team needs.”You need people to go out there and play fearless cricket… Today everyone was tentative. You will have a couple of good catches taken, couple of good balls bowled but as long as the intent is there, you are always in the game. But if you are playing in a defensive way as a batting unit throughout the game, then you are always putting yourself under pressure.”

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Ricky Ponting enjoyed his return to the Pura Cup with 96 before conceding first-innings points in an effort to set up a final-day chase for Tasmania. Michael Di Venuto made 138 – his second century in two games – in Tasmania’s 6 for 363 and at the close South Australia had extended their lead to 290.The Redbacks were on 4 for 171 at stumps with Mark Cosgrove on 66 and the debutant Andy Delmont on 26 after Darren Lehmann chipped in with a quick 47 from 39 balls. South Australia’s top three struggled again, with Matthew Elliott, Shane Deitz and Nathan Adcock all falling in the first ten overs.The visitors began their second innings with a 119-run lead thanks to Ponting’s declaration, which gave both sides hope of victory after the Tigers opened their season with a draw and South Australia with a loss. Ponting looked set for a century when he feathered behind while trying to fend off a bouncer from Shaun Tait, who is hoping for a spot in Ponting’s Test team.That was Tait’s only success of the innings, however, as he conceded 11 no-balls in collecting 1 for 117. Di Venuto began the day on 99 and had no problems posting his 44th first-class hundred before becoming the first of Dan Cullen’s two victims.Di Venuto’s form in the past 12 months has been remarkable – he had his best Pura Cup year last summer with 961 runs at 53.38 and opened this season with 178 against Queensland to salvage a draw at the Gabba. In between, he was fourth on the county run-tally in 2007 with 1329 at 66.45 for Durham.

Walter Hadlee, the former New Zealand captain and administrator, has died in Christchurch at the age of 91. He had been seriously ill ever since suffering a stroke after hip replacement surgery six weeks ago.For almost three-quarters of a century he was at the forefront of New Zealand cricket as player, captain, selector and manager, and three of his five sons – Sir Richard, Dayle and Barry – went on to play international cricket for New Zealand.”Spare, slight, angular, nimble and trim,” wrote Denzil Batchelor, “he wore white flannels as a fish wears gills.” An attacking batsman, Hadlee made his Test debut in England in 1937, but like many he lost his best years to the war, and with New Zealand not a major Test-playing nation, his chances were limited anyway. He was appointed captain immediately after the war, and even then he only played two matches in four years.In 1945-46 he hammered 198 out of 347 against the touring Australians, and a year later he scored his only Test hundred – 116 in two-and-a-half hours against England after New Zealand had been put in to bat at Christchurch in cold and difficult conditions.The highlight of his eight Tests in charge was the 1949 tour of England when he led a strong and popular New Zealand side which drew all four Tests, driving home the point to the English authorities that awarding only three-day Tests to the New Zealanders underestimated their abilities. The stalemates, however, did not reflect his adventurous approach to the role.Although his Test average was a modest 30.16, he was never dismissed in single figures. In a 19-year first-class career he scored 7523 runs at 40.44, including 18 centuries. He continued to play club cricket for 15 years.After retiring following the 1950-51 series against England, he maintained strong links with cricket as a leading administrator, and was a decisive president of the New Zealand Cricket Council during the Packer crisis. He was also involved in women’s cricket, rugby and hockey. He was awarded an OBE in 1950 and was honoured again in 1978 when he became a CBE.

“We deeply appreciate the public support that we have received in recent weeks and ask that we now be given time to come together as a family,” Sir Richard Hadlee said in media release. “This is a difficult time for the family and we do request privacy. Dad will be laid to rest at a family funeral next week.”A public memorial service will be held at Christchurch Boys High School at 11am on October 14 for those who wish to acknowledge dad’s innings of a lifetime and his contribution to sport, business and the community.”Sir John Anderson, chairman of New Zealand Cricket (NZC) and Martin Snedden, the chief executive, paid their tributes to Hadlee. “Walter was very much the patriarch of NZC and made an enormous lifetime contribution to cricket in New Zealand. He was one of the great figures of New Zealand Cricket and will have a long legacy in the sport.”Walter left his mark on cricket in New Zealand equally as a player and administrator,” said Snedden. “He will be remembered for his skill and dedication as a cricketer, selector, New Zealand manager, NZC Chairman and NZC President. Walter took an active interest in cricket right up until his death and will be greatly missed by NZC’s Board, management, staff and the wider New Zealand cricket community.”

The Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) has summoned Harbhajan Singh, the Indian offspinner, for a hearing on Thursday following his outburst against Greg Chappell, India’s coach.This came in the wake of Harbhajan’s statement where he backed Sourav Ganguly, the Indian captain, crediting him for the success of the team while accusing Chappell of creating “fear and insecurity” among the players.”Harbhajan Singh rang me up after this thing came in the media,” MP Pandove, the PCA secretary, told PTI. “We have asked him to come and meet us to give his version of what has been coming in the media.”He said Harbhajan has been called on Thursday, when the PCA’s Administrative Committee is to meet to review arrangements for the forthcoming Challenger Trophy, starting on October 10.Asked what Harbhajan had to say when he called up, Pandove said, “he told me that he will present his side when he meets us”. On whether Harbhajan had confirmed he would appear before the committee on Thursday, Pandove said, “we will like him to come on that date. Harbhajan is registered with PCA and is a part of the Indian team. The Administrative Committee has taken note of and considered the statements made by him. Only after talking to him, we would be able to put things in right perspective.”

Ricky Ponting threw his weight solidly behind Cairns and Darwin as Test venues despite criticism from some quarters about those centres.”We really enjoy these games we play in Darwin and Cairns and I think it’s important that we try and grow this game and take it to the more remote cricketing areas of Australia,” Ponting said. “The crowds in Darwin weren’t great last year but the facilities in Cairns are world class and we just really enjoy the experience of being here. Hopefully we’ll get a good crowd and a good turnout and they’ll see some good cricket and hopefully North Queensland and Darwin can keep growing as cricket communities.”If the two cities drift off the international cricket map in the near future, Ponting said the Australian players would be disappointed. “Pick any of the guys out of the side and ask them what they think about being here and playing these games and they absolutely love it. It’s a great part of the world to be, especially at this time of year.”But Ponting said he wouldn’t want to play cricket in the northern part of the country if it was at the expense of the established southern venues. “I wouldn’t like to see any of the big venues in Australia which have hosted Tests for a long time lose out on a game for the sake of playing one here. But for these winter series it’s absolutely perfect. To be able to play a couple of Tests here in the middle of winter is a bonus for everybody.”Marvan Atapattu also endorsed the move to play in the northern cities but said Darwin’s Marrara Oval needed more work. “I certainly don’t have a problem, I think cricket should be taken all around the world, that’s how our game will prosper. I don’t have a problem in playing anywhere.”On the Darwin pitch, he said: “I’m sure they’ll learn from it and the next team who goes there will get a better wicket than that.”However, there may not be a next time. Cricket Australia lost about A$1million on the two Tests and three one-day matches against Bangladesh last year and will lose about half that amount on this Test series against Sri Lanka. Australia’s Ashes campaign in England next year means that there will be no winter series in 2005. Also, with the ICC considering a two-tier format for Tests, there’s a possibility of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh being relegated, making future schedules much lighter.

Sri Lanka 243 for 7 (Atapattu 99, Jayawardene 35) beat Shell Academy XI 128 (Muralitharan 3-5) by 115 runsSri Lanka won an easy tour game against the Shell Cricket Academy to begin their tour of West Indies in fine style. Leading from the front, Marvan Atapattu, Sri Lanka’s one-day captain, made 99 and Muttiah Muralitharan returned figures of 3 for 5 as Sri Lanka won by 115 runs.Atapattu won the toss and opted to bat, after which Sri Lanka made 243 for 7 in their 50 overs. Atapattu’s 99 was the centerpiece of the innings, though worryingly, none of the other batsmen managed to convert their starts.The Shell Academy batsmen were never up for the chase, and had no answers to Muralitharan. Five of Muralitharan’s seven overs were maidens, and he stifled the Shell Academy batsmen completely in the middle overs, snuffing out all resistance.Prabath Nissanka was the first to strike for Sri Lanka, getting rid of Kurt Wilkinson for just 5. Krishna Arjune (17) and Dwayne Bravo (12) showed some spunk in a 32-run stand, but Arjune was out with the score on 40, and three more wickets fell on 44.After that, it was routine. Matthew Sinclair, the wicketkeeper, top-scored with 22, but the Shell Academy XI only managed to crawl to 128 for 9 in their 50 overs.The quality of the opposition notwithstanding, it was a good start to a tour which doesn’t allow much time for acclimatisation. The Cable & Wireless one-day series between Sri Lanka and West Indies starts this weekend.

Eager England fans have snapped up more than £70,000 worth of tickets for Trent Bridge’s international cricket programme next year.Ticket office staff arriving for work yesterday morning were greeted by a queue of customers as seats went on general sale for the first time.After the success of last year¹s international fixtures, where every ticket available was sold in advance, Notts are hoping for a repeat performance.Said Sales & Marketing Manager Lisa Pursehouse: “Both Sri Lanka and India will prove exciting and challenging opposition for England and it’s understandable that supporters want to reserve their favourite seats for the matches.”England take on the Sri Lankans in a floodlit NatWest Series One-day International on Thursday June 27 with the Second npower Test against India starting at Trent Bridge on August 8.Seats can be booked on the website at www.nottsccc.co.uk, by calling the ticket hotline 0870 168 8888 or at the Squash Club Reception.

Australia’s coach Darren Lehmann has described England’s big victory in the first Test as a “minor hiccup”, and has effectively challenged the Lord’s ground staff to produce a quicker pitch for the second match from Thursday.While Lehmann was happy to acknowledge England played the better cricket across the first four days of the series, he denied that his side had been surprised by the enterprise with which the hosts played, attacking at every reasonable opportunity and using relentless pressure and inventive fields to goad the touring batsmen into error.”They were better. Full stop. Better in all three disciplines – they caught everything,” Lehmann said. “Yes they attacked, we knew that was going to be the case. I think that’s the way everyone is starting to play which is great to see for the fans out there, I reckon it’s a great spectacle. From our point of view, obviously a little bit disappointing with the way we played, but we knew they were going to be quite aggressive.”Our preparation has been excellent considering we came off the West Indies and the wickets were very similar, then the two tour games so they’re good to go. It’s a minor hiccup and now we’ve got to get back to it in four days time and play better than we have and show the discipline you require to make big runs on these type of wickets and bat a lot longer.”There was some good bowling from England there’s no doubt about that, full credit to them. But our batters could probably stay in a little bit longer with shot selection I’d say, but having said that they’re quality players and they’ll come back well. From our point of view it’s more of a case of a good, short turnaround for us. I think that’s an excellent opportunity for us to get back in to it and learn from our mistakes and play better next Test match around. Yes they’re one-up, but it’s a long series as we know.”On the subject of conditions for the series, Lehmann did little to hid his distaste for the pitch prepared in Cardiff, even if there seems little evidence that it was anything other than a typical pitch at Sophia Gardens, or that the England management had expressly requested the type of surface they played on.”We know the conditions really well. We didn’t play them really well this game,” he said. “But the bonus is we’re going to places we’ve been to a couple of years ago, most of our guys, and know what we’re going to get in terms of wickets. Everyone talks about loving more pace. Yes, that would be true but we’re not going to get it so there’s no point asking.”Lehmann – “We didn’t play them really well this game but the bonus is we’re going to places we’ve been to a couple of years ago, most of our guys, and know what we’re going to get in terms of wickets”•Getty Images

Pointedly, Lehmann suggested that he expected the “home of cricket” at Lord’s to provide a pitch more in tune with how he views the game, and with how Australia’s spearhead Mitchell Johnson most often succeeds. “You’d hope so at the Home of Cricket,” he said. “I’d just like to see you be able to bowl a bouncer on day one. That’d be nice, but that’s okay.”I think Mitch got better as the game went on. I thought he was better in the second innings. The way he got Ian Bell out was quite exciting for us. And I think Lord’s has more pace in it than this one. End of the day he’s a class bowler. If he gets it right he can certainly run through sides. We have got an aggressive attack – there’s no doubt about that. But you’ve got to get 20 wickets to win the game and we’ve got to find ways to do it.”As for team selections and the place of Shane Watson in particular after another pair of lbw dismissals, Lehmann said there would be much discussion with the selection chairman Rod Marsh between now and Thursday morning about how best to bring the series back to level terms after the result in Cardiff.”He’d be disappointed with that, so are we, end of the day you don’t want to get out lbw all the time and you want to make more runs,” Lehmann said. “He’s doing everything he possibly can to rectify that and first innings was a tight call … so it’s one of those things you’ve got to find a way and that’s probably what we didn’t do as a batting group, not just Shane.”It’s going to be a tight call heading into the second Test. We’ll wait until we get to London and have a look at how everyone pulls up over the next couple of days. It’s a short turnaround and work out what we think the best attack is to take 20 wickets. The pleasing thing again is we took 20 wickets in a Test match – they probably got too many runs but we can get 20 wickets.”You’re 1-0 down in a five Test match series and I’m pretty sure there’s going to be five results, depending on the weather. It’s the same as last time. There’s always results in the game. The game moves forward when Australia play and now when England play it moves very fast. That’s a good thing for the fans.”Lehmann said he would wait on the fitness of Mitchell Starc after the left-armer needed painkillers to bowl on an injured ankle, but insisted he would only play if 100 percent fit. Australia physio Alex Kountouris said Starc would be monitored over the next few days.”Mitchell experienced some pain in the back of his right ankle during the Test match which is common with fast-bowlers,” Kontouris said . “He was in discomfort while bowling but since then has improved significantly. We will monitor him over the next few days but the plan is for him to take part in some light training and we are hopeful he will be available for selection for the second Test beginning on Thursday.”Peter Siddle’s chances of a return to the side are firming.