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England 411 for 8 dec (Strauss 147, Key 83, Vaughan 82*, Ntini 4-111) and 332 for 9 dec (Trescothick 180, Vaughan 54) beat South Africa 419 (Gibbs 161, Boucher 64, Hoggard 5-144) and 247 (Gibbs 98, Smith 67*, Hoggard 7-61) by 77 runs, and lead series 2-1
ScorecardDay 5
Bulletin – Hoggard’s super seven launches England to victory
Verdict – Swing, shape, and an appetite for labour
Quotes – Vaughan: ‘A very special win’
Quotes – Smith: ‘A tough defeat to accept’
The Big Picture – Rudolph bowled neck and crop
The Big Picture – Kallis’s first-ball duck
Day 4
Bulletin – Trescothick’s ton boosts England on a fluctuating day
Verdict – England face final-day headache
Roving Reporter – Wandering around the Wanderers
The Big Picture – Flintoff’s despairing dive
Quotes – Boje braced for final-day chase; Trescothick says ‘We can win’
News – England call up Jon Lewis as cover
Day 3
Bulletin – Gibbs frustrates weary England
Verdict – Exhaustion fights two-fingered resilience
News – Vaughan fined his whole match fee
Quotes – Gibbs recovers his balance
Quotes – Hoggard reflects on the wind of change
The Big Picture – Down and out
Day 2
Bulletin – England fight back in final session
Verdict – Vaughan batting from memory
Quotes – Vaughan blasts inconsistent umpires
Quotes – Pollock rues lost initiative
The Big Picture – Take that
Day 1
Bulletin – Another century for Strauss before a late flurry of wickets
Verdict – Cash in while you can
Quotes – Strauss rides the wave
Quotes – Jennings: ‘England will be disappointed’
The Big Picture – Driving carefully
Preview Package
Preview – A question of momentum
News – Flintoff passed fit to play
The Big Picture – England going around the bend

Division One

Points TableJonathan Trott moved on to a double-century as Warwickshire ended their first innings on a dominant 475. Trott was last man out for 210. Sussex got off to the worst possible start, losing Richard Montgomerie first-ball to Makhaya Ntini. Mike Yardy, with 75 and Murray Goodwin, with an unbeaten 103 steadied a wobbling Sussex ship as the visitors ended the day on 244 for 3, trailing by 231 runs.Middlesex batted for a further 22 overs this morning, allowing Paul Weekes to register his hundred and Peter Trego to reach a blistering half-century, in their declaration of 400 for 8 against Kent. In reply, Robert Key and David Fulton put on 283 for the first wicket, both striking centuries before Key was run out for 142, his fourth hundred of the season. Fulton fell just before the close of play to leave Kent on 290 for 2, trailing by 110 runs.A sporting declaration by Hampshire has brought the possibility of a result in their match against Surrey. Hampshire, starting the day on 28 for 2, declared on 361 for 6 with Shane Watson hitting 88 and the wicketkeeper, Nick Pothas, striking an unbeaten 100. In what is essentially now a one-innings match, Surrey had five overs in which to survive, which they managed without alarm.Alex Wharf took 6 for 59 for Glamorgan, to bundle Gloucestershire out for just 133 and give the visitors control of the game. Glamorgan, who are still searching for their first win of the season, were bowled out for 382 before their seamers got to work. David Harrison got things going by dismissing Craig Spearman, as he and Wharf decimated Gloucestershire’s batting. At one stage, the home side were 37 for 6; they were indebted to Stephen Adshead, who made 36 and Jon Lewis with an unbeaten 36 at better than a run a ball. Glamorgan lost five wickets in their second innings, including two to Ramnaresh Sarwan’s leg-breaks, but they lead by 400 runs.

Division Two

Points TableA blistering 82 by Glen Chapple, from just 67 balls, gave Lancashire the honours on day two of their match against Worcestershire. Mal Loye could only add a further 17 runs, ending on 187, but Lancashire’s lower-order denied Worcestershire’s bowlers as they reached a formidable total of 562. In reply, Worcestershire lost Chris Gayle, Graeme Hick and Stephen Moore to leave the visitors struggling on 111 for 3, some 451 runs behind Lancashire.In Essex’s match against Somerset, which has been heavily affected by rain, James Foster’s first hundred of the season allowed Essex to reach a comfortable total of 400 for 6 declared. Foster and Ronnie Irani put on 157 for the sixth wicket, with Foster’s hundred coming off 196 balls with 13 fours and a six. The match is already into its last day, tomorrow, and despite Andre Nel picking up Matthew Wood and Arul Suppiah for ducks, the game is heading for a draw.Darren Robinson’s 19th hundred of his career, and his third of the season, was the highlight for Leicestershire who ended the day on 390 for 6. Leicestershire’s middle-order all got starts, but failed to convert them into substantial innings; Northamtonshire’s Damien Wright took four for 83 to leave the hosts struggling on 292 for 5. However, Ottis Gibson and Paul Nixon combined in a partnership worth 98, with Gibson ending the day unbeaten on 63 as the home side reached 390 for 6.Dale Benkenstein struck a century for Durham, whose first innings closed on 414 against Yorkshire. They lost wickets regularly, however, with Deon Kruis picking up 5 for 106, his third 5-wicket-haul of the season. In reply, none of Durham’s front-line seamers could force a breakthrough, but Paul Collingwood took 2 for 25 to leave Yorkshire on 129 for 2, trailing by 285.

The revised itinerary for Zimbabwe’s tour of Bangladesh has been revealed by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).Zimbabwe will fly to Dhaka on December 28, two days earlier than planned, and they will then go on to Chittagong the same day for the start of a 33-day tour. This will be Zimbabwe’s first full tour since the International Cricket Council temporarily suspended them in April this year.Two Tests and five one-day internationals are scheduled against the hosts Bangladesh. Zimbabwe will open their tour with a three-day warm-up game against a BCB XI at the newly built Chittagong Divisional Stadiumon January 1 ahead of the first Test at the MA Aziz Stadium which starts on January 6.The first Test was originally scheduled to be held at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium, but the venue was switched as there were insufficient broadcast and media facilities.Zimbabwe’s 16-man squad includes Hamilton Masakadza, who hasn’t played Test cricket for more than two years. The rest of the squad is fairly predictable, with only Terrence Duffin and Graeme Cremer new to a set-up which is beginning to look more settled after the shake-up earlier in the year.The Test series in Bangladesh is a real watershed for both sides. For Bangladesh, it represents a chance for them to prove that they have what it takes and end their dismal record of 29 defeats and no wins in 32 Tests. Zimbabwe need success to prove that the new-look side is not a threat to the integrity of Test cricket, as critics have claimed. Zimbabwe’s squad will be whittled down to 13, and will be announced on January 2.Zimbabwe squad Dion Ebrahim, Hamilton Masakadza, Brendan Taylor, Barney Rogers, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Mark Vermeulen, Tatenda Taibu (capt/wk), Elton Chigumbura, Tinashe Panyangara, Edward Rainsford, Douglas Hondo, Christopher Mpofu, Mluleki Nkala, Graeme Cremer, Prosper Utseya, Terrence Duffin.

Australia’s captain, Ricky Ponting, has been named as the Leading Cricketer in the World by Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, whose 141st edition is published on Thursday, April 8.Ponting is the first recipient of the new Wisden accolade, started as a counterpart to the traditional Five Cricketers of the Year award, which dates back to 1889. This year’s Five Cricketers include two Englishmen – Andrew Flintoff of Lancashire and England, and Chris Adams, the Sussex captain – two South Africans – Graeme Smith and Gary Kirsten – and the Australian Ian Harvey.No-one can be among the Five more than once and, with the arrival of the new honour, the Five are once again being chosen on the time-honoured criterion “influence on the English season”.But the Leading Cricketer award can be won an unlimited number of times. The almanack has also named The Wisden Forty, including Ponting and his 39 nearest rivals, based on their form in 2003. The list includes 14 Australians, seven South Africans, five Indians, four Pakistanis, three Englishmen – Flintoff, Marcus Trescothick and Michael Vaughan – three Sri Lankans, two New Zealanders and one each from West Indies (Brian Lara) and Zimbabwe (Heath Streak).Ponting shares the cover with his predecessor as Australian captain, Steve Waugh. This follows Wisden’s first-ever pictorial cover in 2003, which featured Michael Vaughan. This year, the front has been redesigned to re-incorporate the famous woodcut by Eric Ravilious. Readers who object to pictures on the cover (or to Australians) can write off to Wisden for a picture-free version.The Notes
Wisden’s Notes by the Editor, cricket’s traditional fire-and-brimstone annual sermon, breaks with precedent by praising the game’s administrators. Matthew Engel – returning as editor after three years’ absence, spent mainly in the US – says “the game has been better run for the past few years than at any time in history”.But Engel then attacks both the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) over the current crisis involving Zimbabwe and the Champions Trophy tournament, scheduled to be held in England in September.Describing Zimbabwe as a “wretched tyranny”, he says the majority of cricketing countries will earn “the contempt of thoughtful individuals across the globe” if sanctions are invoked against England for refusing to tour there. But he adds that the English position has been “incoherent and inconsistent” and says the ECB’s plans for the Champions Trophy look like producing something “between a squandered opportunity and a total fiasco”.

Engel points out that the competition is due to go on almost until October – far later than any major cricket has ever been staged in England – and that the final will be at The Oval rather than Lord’s. Even The Oval will not be properly ready: it is being rebuilt for the 2005 Ashes. He adds that the England team will be “knackered” after a non-stop six-month programme, thus endangering any prospect of a home win to build popular support for the game.Engel also criticises the ECB’s domestic opponents, the Cricket Reform Group, headed by the former England captains Mike Atherton and Bob Willis. After analysing their manifesto, which proposes a greater emphasis on club rather than county cricket to produce England cricketers, he concludes: “I am gobsmacked that Mike and Bob expect English cricket to be more competitive by becoming more amateur.”The Articles
The lead article of Wisden 2004 is a graceful tribute to Steve Waugh, the most successful Test captain of all time, by the former England captain Nasser Hussain. Another ex-captain, Mike Atherton, profiles Graeme Smith as one of the Cricketers of the Year.The other articles all add to the long tradition of Wisden as a repository for some of the best writing in sport. They cover such subjects as the future of wicketkeeping, Over-Forties in Test cricket, the role of players’ agents and a comparison of the lives of footballers and cricketers. (“I reckon the only advantage they have over us is that their game lasts 90 minutes not five days,” says Graham Thorpe, the former England Schools midfielder and current Test batsman.)There is a tribute to Sussex, the county champions, by their former captain, and trenchant journalist, Robin Marlar. The weatherman Philip Eden shows that 2003 was not quite such a long, hot summer as people believe. This year’s book reviewer is Barry Norman, who chooses No Coward Soul, the biography of Bob Appleyard, by Stephen Chalke and Derek Hodgson, as his book of the year.The Round the World section includes reports from inside one of Saddam Hussain’s palaces on the Baghdad Ashes (four for the first landing of the marble staircase, six for the second landing), from the salt plains of East Timor and the lava fields of Rwanda, where the players learned about volcanic bounce the hard way. The Chronicle section reports on Darren Gough’s debut in The Beano and on the player who missed most of the season after breaking his collarbone – in the fathers’ sack race.And Wisden also attempts to answer the one cricketing question the book has never tackled before: What

As was widely predicted, Bangladesh have picked uncapped batsman Mehrab Hossain Jr in their 14-man squad for next month’s ICC Champions Trophy in India. Opener Javed Omar, batsmen Mushfiqur Rahim, Tushar Imran and all-rounder Alok Kapali were omitted from the final squad.Habibul Bashar, who missed six matches against Zimbabwe and Kenya in July and August due to a thumb injury, has been retained as captain, though he is yet to recover fully.Faruque Ahmed, chief selector, told reporters, “Mehrab Hossain Jr had some very good performances over the last two years and we hope he can do something good in the Champions Trophy.”Bashar’s selection had been confirmed by the selectors a few days ago. Ahmed told the Dhaka-based then that “Habib’s progress is satisfactory so he will definitely be included to lead the side in the tournament.”There was uncertainty over Bashar’s participation after he fractured the fifth metacarpel on his left hand during the second one-day match against Zimbabwe in July. He also missed the last Champions Trophy in England in 2004 because of a fracture to his right thumb. Bashar has said recently that his condition will only be confirmed once he starts batting from September 14.Bangladesh will play Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe in the qualifying phase of the Champions Trophy from October 7-14. The top two teams will qualify for the main competition from October 15 to November 5.Squad: Habibul Bashar (captain), Shahriar Nafees (vice-captain), Khaled Mashud, Mohammad Rafique, Mohammad Ashraful, Mashrafe Mortaza, Rajin Saleh, Abdur Razzak, Aftab Ahmed, Syed Rasel, Shahadat Hossain, Farhad Reza, Saqibul Hasan, Mehrab Hossain jnr.

Northerns’ win over Boland at Paarl took them well clear at the top of the Shield table:Shield – 4th day:Northerns 451 for 7 dec and 173 for 6 dec beat Boland 259and 218 (Strydom 52, Dros 5-17) by 147 runs
ScorecardBoland’s target of 366 proved to be far too high, as they were bowled out for 218 at Paarl. The last five wickets tumbled for 27, to spoil any cghance Boland might have had to force a draw. Gerald Dros, Northerns’ captain, who had bowled only 22 previous overs this season, brought himself on in the 69th over, and produced career-best figures of 5 for 17 in 4.1 overs as he ripped through the Boland tail. Gerard Strydom again top-scored for Boland, with 52.Gauteng 34 for 1 v Eastern Province
ScorecardFor the third day running no play was possible at the Wanderers. After just half-an-hour’s play on the first day neither team scored any points and had to be content with a soggy draw.

Pakistan will be aiming to seal their first home series win in five years when they take on Bangladesh in the second Test, which starts on Wednesday in the north-western border city of Peshawar.Once invincible in their own backyard, Pakistan have not won a series onhome turf since whitewashing West Indies in 1997-98. “We are heading in the right direction,” Rashid Latif, Pakistan’s captain, said today. “What happened in the past is past, and now the young team is progressing well as we aim to build for the future.”Pakistan have lost four successive home series, to Australia, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and England. Their first-round exit from this year’s World Cup prompted the selectors to induct fresh blood into the team, and one of those young players made a glorious debut in the first Test against Bangladesh at Karachi.Latif pinned the team’s hopes on new batting star Yasir Hameed, who marked his debut last week with a century in each innings. Latif said: “We have found a good batsman in Yasir Hameed to supplement the middle-order batting.”Hameed’s twin centuries led Pakistan to a seven-wicket victory over Bangladesh. Peshawar will present more of a problem for both sides, however. Both teams will have to battle oppressive monsoon heat and humidity, at a venue where Pakistan have lost two of their past three Tests.”Conditions are tough, but they should bring out the best from the tough,”Latif said. “Bowling long spells will be difficult. We hope to put up a big total and dictate the terms.” Latif also hinted that the 11 players from the first Test would be retained for the second Test.Dav Whatmore, Bangladesh’s coach, saw signs of improvement within his team’s loss in Karachi. “I hope the boys build further on that,” said Whatmore. Bangladesh, Test cricket’s 10th and newest nation, have lost 21 of their 22Tests, with one rained-off draw against Zimbabwe.Bangladesh are likely to bring in Mohammad Ashraful and Manjurul Islam in place of Sanwar Hossain and Tapash Baisya.Teams (from)Pakistan Mohammad Hafeez, Taufeeq Umer, Yasir Hameed, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Yousuf Youhana, Misbah-ul-Haq, Rashid Latif (capt, wk), Shoaib Akhtar, Shabbir Ahmed, Danish Kaneria, Umer Gul, Shoaib Malik.Bangladesh Hannan Sarkar, Javed Omar, Habibul Bashar, Mohammad Ashraful, Sanwar Hossain, Razin Saleh, Alok Kapali, Khaled Mashud (wk), Khaled Mahmud (capt), Mohammad Rafique, Mashrafe Mortaza, Manjurul Islam, Alamgir Kabir, Tapash Baisya.Umpires Steve Bucknor (WI) and Russell Tiffin (Zim)TV umpire Asad Rauf (Pak)Match referee Mike Procter (SA)

New Zealand cricket holds its breath tomorrow as its most priceless asset steps gingerly back into what he does best – bowling fast. Shane Bond is set to play on the opening day of Christchurch’s cricket competition. But the breath may have to be held a little longer.Shocking weather is forecast for the second time this week and the most likely prospect is that players will be clubhouse bound watching the rain fall. Bond has been out of action since suffering a stress fracture in his bank during a one-day international in Sri Lanka in May.Bond plays for the Old Boys club in the Christchurch competition and has been quietly building up for club duty, working at 80-90% of capacity and bowling 10-over spells, indoors, three times a week. He did say that it was possible he might have been available for the tri-series between India, New Zealand and Australia next month, but it was thought a more managed build-up would be best for him in the longer run.He will not only play club cricket, but will also be involved in the pre-season programme of games played at New Zealand Cricket’s High Performance Centre at Lincoln University between the New Zealand Academy and the major association sides, starting later this month.Bond said his back had been coping well with the recovery programme and he had also been doing some strengthening work to help reduce the load on the injured area. It hasn’t been a lone programme, he has had another stress fracture sufferer Wade Cornelius, to work with. Cornelius damaged his back after a highly-encouraging debut season in first-class cricket for Canterbury two seasons ago, when he was shaping as a prospectively significant bowler in New Zealand’s future.

Close of 3rd day West Zone 163 for 1 (Kanitkar 78*, Jadhav 64*) trail Central Zone 549 (Khoda 156, Yadav 80) by 386 runs
ScorecardHrishikesh Kanitkar anchored a dreary effort by West Zone, who began their reply to Central Zone’s 549 intent on securing the first-innings lead without taking any risks whatsoever. Kanitkar made 78 not out as West Zone crawled to 163 for 1 off 82 overs, with Dhiraj Jadhav unbeaten on a Boycottesque 64 off 259 balls.Earlier in the day, Central Zone added just 17 runs to their overnight total, as Munaf Patel, who had been wicketless on the first two days of the match, cleaned up the tail to finish with 3 for 82. Vinayak Mane was out early in the West Zone innings, making 10 off 11 balls, with two fours, an innings that seemed like a thunderous cameo compared to the dour defence that followed.Close of 3rd day South Zone 304 for 8 (Ramesh 57, Joshi 51) trail East Zone 388 by 84 runs
ScorecardEast Zone took the upper hand against the more fancied South Zone, at Dharmasala, as South Zone ended the third day on 304 for 8, still a daunting 84 runs behind their opponents’ total. It representated a comeback of sorts, though. At one stage, they had been 159 for 6, before a 90-run partnership between S Sharath (48) and Sunil Joshi (51) brought them back into the game. Both batsmen were out with more than an hour left in the day’s play, but R Ramkumar (19 not out) and NP Singh (29 not out) kept their hopes alive with an unbeaten 46-run partnership.

Somerset Women’s Under-17 team quickly bounced back from their defeat last weekend when they were victorious over their Surrey counterparts at Kingswood School in Bath.Batting first Surrey were bowled out for 109, thanks to a fine spell of bowling from Annie Riccio who ended with the impressive figures of 8 overs, 2 maidens, 4 for 19, well supported by Colleen Ashbee who took 3 for 23 in her 8 overs.In reply Somerset reached their target with overs to spare, opener Lisa Pagett top scoring with 31. Coming in at number six , Izi Dragonetti hit an unbeaten 25 to help to see her side to a well deserved five wicket victory.Somerset take 28.5 points from their victory, whilst Surrey take 5.5 points.