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ScorecardRory Hamilton-Brown responded to a difficult situation with a dashing hundred•PA Photos

Rory Hamilton-Brown kick-started his first season as Surrey captain by hittinga blistering hundred off only 96 balls and going on to make 125 to lead his sideto an imposing 415 for 6 against Worcestershire.Steve Davies, who left Worcestershire for Surrey at the end of last season,joined Hamilton-Brown in a fourth wicket partnership of 177 before completing acentury of his own. And – to rub salt into Worcestershire wounds – Gareth Batty, who took the same route, helped Davies add another 77 for the sixth wicket in this County Championship Division Two match.Surrey supporters were questioning the wisdom of making Hamilton-Brown captainat the age of 22 with only nine first-class matches behind him when they wereheavily beaten by Derbyshire and Sussex in their first two championshipmatches. His own contributions with the bat were nine, eight, 36 and 11 and it did notlook like getting any better when he won the toss on a good pitch and sawStewart Walters, playing his first game of the season, edge the fourth ball ofthe day from Alan Richardson to first slip.Arun Harinath and Mark Ramprakash promised better things by putting on 82 forthe second wicket but Surrey were wobbling again at 82 for 3 when Ramprakashand Usman Afzaal perished in the same over from Imran Arif.Ramprakash, who averages 92 on the school ground at Whitgift, seemed to be onhis way to another big score when he fell leg before wicket for 40 and Afzaalslapped his fifth ball to gully.It was a testing time for Hamilton-Brown and he needed a huge slice of luck toget through it. He had made only one when he edged his sixth ball from RichardJones to second slip where Daryl Mitchell put down a straightforward chance. Hamilton-Brown made Worcestershire pay a heavy price for that.He went boldly for his strokes as the visitors’ bowling went to pieces, racing to 50 off 56 balls and needing only 40 more to reach his third first-class century and his first for Surrey. Three times he hit three fours in an over, once he struck four and he had 20boundaries to his name when he drove a skimming catch to mid-off.He had lost Harinath when he was caught behind down the legside off JackShantry for 45 but Davies played with great fluency from the start. He finishedunbeaten on 119 off 167 balls with 15 fours and a six while Batty weighed inwith two sixes and seven fours in his 47.

The IPL has been caught in a controversy over details of the ownership structure of the Kochi franchise being made public by Lalit Modi, the league chairman. The franchise owners, who bought the team last month, are believed to feel this is a breach of faith and have reportedly taken up the issue with the Indian board which, Cricinfo has learnt, is also unhappy with the situation.Modi has denied any breach of confidentiality. “All team owners of the IPL have been revealed in the past,” he told . “I don’t think there is anything to hide in it. We’re a public body.” Asked whether the BCCI had been in touch with him on this, he said, “That’s an internal matter – I don’t want to reveal what we discussed at the board level.”The ownership details were posted by Modi on his Twitter feed on Sunday afternoon, in response to questions from the public. According to his posts, the Kochi consortium break-up is: Rendezvous Sports 1%, Anchor 27%, Parinee [Developers] 26%, Film Waves Combine 12%, Anand Shyam 8%, Vivek Venugopal 1% with Rendezvous having an additional 25% free equity. That equity is held by Kisan, Shailender and Pushpa Gaikwad, Sunanda Pushkar, Puja Gulathi, Jayant Kotalwar, Vishnu Prasad, Sundip Agarwal.In his Tweets Modi has also posed questions about the Kochi stake-holders. “Who are the shareholders of Rendezvous. And why have they been given this 100’s of million dollars bonanza?”, read one tweet. Another read: “25% of Kochi team is given free to Rendezvous sports for life. The same equity is non-dilutable in perpetuity.What does that mean?”Modi’s revelations have clearly hurt the owners of Kochi. “It was not expected from a body like the IPL,” a senior member of the consortium told Cricinfo. “The documents are very clear that information submitted is confidential and cannot be revealed by either side.”The franchise now wants the IPL to reveal the ownership details of the nine other franchises. “What we are trying to say is the documents we have submitted to him are supposed to be kept confidential. But if he is letting out the information on our consortium then we would like to be informed of the details of all the owners of the IPL teams, including the individual shareholders, as he has done for us,” the source said.This is not the first time Rendezvous Sports World Private Limited, which bagged the ownership of the Kochi franchise last month for a bid of US$ 333.33 million, have run into trouble with the IPL. Last week they were asked to list the names of all the owners after the IPL found out that there were a few “secret partners” in the consortium. Consequently a reviewed agreement was signed by both the parties in Bangalore on Saturday night – and it was in this context that questions were put to Modi by the public on Twitter seeking the details.The Kochi consortium has worked hard over the past month to dispel the notion that they are a disparate team of individuals; they had worked on the plan for the last six months before deciding to make the move. The seriousness of their intentions can be gauged from the fact that no one backed out of the deal despite the original tender process being cancelled and rescheduled from March 7 to 21. The face of the bid the first time around was the Jaypee Group, but two weeks later Jaypee decided to opt out, forcing the other partners to re-organise things.

It must be demoralising being one of the better players in a New Zealand outfit whose depth is questionable. Not that Ross Taylor batted especially well on the second day in Wellington, where he edged to slip for 21, but he didn’t have much of a base to build on. He arrived at the crease at 14 for 2 and watched his partner depart to leave the score at 31 for 3.The feeling has become frustratingly familiar for Taylor over the past few years as the makeup of New Zealand’s top order has been as unpredictable as the state of Daniel Vettori’s facial hair. Openers have been whisked in and out with barely time for their form to be considered a slump. Remember Matthew Bell and Craig Cumming? Jamie How and Aaron Redmond?The current top three of Tim McIntosh, BJ Watling and Peter Ingram looked shaky leading in to the Test and so it proved. Watling couldn’t get his bat in front of a ball that pitched and straightened in the first over, McIntosh edged to slip when the ball nibbled away and Ingram was unlucky to be run out, but has suspect footwork and hadn’t looked like scoring many runs until that moment.”In the ideal world that would be great,” Taylor said of the desire to come in with a healthy total already on the board. “But we lost a couple of early wickets and you’ve got to get out there. I’m disappointed that I got out, I would have loved to have still been out there. But hopefully in the next innings we can get a better opening stand than a wicket in the first over.”Once again it was left to Vettori, now New Zealand’s No. 6, to put things right and his unbeaten 65-run partnership with Martin Guptill stopped the chaos. However, it wasn’t just the top order that failed to deliver for New Zealand – the bowlers struggled for impact as well.Chris Martin and Daryl Tuffey have horrible records against Australia and their figures didn’t improve, Tim Southee rarely looked threatening and the debutant Brent Arnel was consistent but couldn’t add to his two wickets from the first day. Too often the workload is dumped on Vettori, and without much assistance in the pitch for a spinner, Australia were able to cruise to 459 for 5 before declaring.”We looked pretty tired towards the end there last night and this morning,” Taylor said. “We just couldn’t put any pressure on them, [if we had] any two- or three-dot strings then we’d bowl one down legside, or with Clarke and North being right- and left-handed, we weren’t able to put any pressure on them and it showed with the way they both batted.”You’ve got to give credit to Australia, the way Harris and Bollinger bowled at the start, not only did they pick up a few wickets but they bowled economically as well. They bowled very well on what’s quite a flat deck but if you can extract a little bit of bounce and a little bit of sideways movement on any cricket wicket [you can succeed].”By stumps on the second day, the immediate challenge for New Zealand was first to push past the follow-on target, for which they needed a further 152 runs. But the hosts were hanging their hats on the late fight from Guptill and Vettori, who must stay together for much longer to rescue the match.”We are behind the game now,” Taylor said. “The way Dan and Guptill started showing some fight towards the end there was giving us a bit of hope. Tomorrow’s going to be an important first session. If we can get out there and not lose a wicket or one at the most, we’re back in the game.”

ScorecardSialkot Stallions celebrate their five-wicket win in the RBS Cup final•Shakir Khilji

Sialkot Stallions confirmed their status as the pre-eminent Twenty20 side in the land, beating Faisalabad Wolves at a packed National Stadium in Karachi to lift their fifth consecutive RBS Twenty20 Cup.A raucous 30,000-plus crowd – thousands of fans were left outside the stadium trying to get in and roads leading up to the stadium were choked full – turned up to watch what should have been a tense encounter between the two best sides in the country, but once Sialkot’s opening bowlers had crippled Faisalabad’s start, the result was never in doubt, the defending champions ultimately cruising to a five-wicket win.Having won the toss and chosen to bat, Faisalabad’s troubles began early, the in-form and ever-dangerous Asif Hussain inside edging Asif onto his stumps. That set the tone for an exemplary spell from Asif, honing in on a typically difficult length and getting the usual cut. He was unlucky not to get at least one more wicket, eventually conceding only nine runs in his four overs.The pressure paid off at the other end, Mohammad Salman and Ali Waqas falling in quick succession to Abdul Razzaq, both to poor shots; Waqas had been lucky to survive that far, given not out for a clear edge off Asif. Nineteen for 3 after four overs meant Faisalabad were desperately looking towards man of the moment Mohammad Hafeez to come through.Hafeez had been outstanding in the semi-final with the tournament’s first hundred and looked set for another big hand when lofting two big sixes over the on side off a Razzaq over. But just when things were looking up, misfortune struck. Khurram Shehzad patted a stroke back to Abdur Rehman, who had just come on to bowl. Smartly Rehman turned the ball back on to the non-striker’s stumps, with Hafeez, backing up, well short.That turned the innings and Rehman trapped Shehzad off the last ball of the same over with a lovely arm ball. The arm ball struck again in his next over, Zeeshan Butt sent back this time, caught brilliantly by Shoaib Malik at cover diving to his left.At 56 for 6, Sialkot were right on top and the fall of wickets suffocated the opposition – they managed only one boundary in the next four overs. Misbah-ul-Haq tried to steer his side to some kind of total and with Shahid Nazir at least ensured they didn’t lose more wickets. But he fell eventually, trying to cut loose and holing out to deep midwicket off Sarfraz Ahmed for 27. Rana Naved-ul-Hasan uprooted Mohammad Talha’s middle stump with a yorker in the final over as Faisalabad ended with an unsatisfactory 109. That they didn’t get bowled out was the only saving grace.Imran Nazir began the chase like he wanted to finish it off in five overs, hitting a four and a six off the first two balls. But as is often the way with him, the cameo was shorter than it was sweet and he was back in the pavilion after the third ball, spooning it straight to cover.Mansoor Amjad fell the next over to spark a little hope in Faisalabad, but Rana, fresh from a near-hundred at one down, pinch-hit his way to 27 with five fours and a six. Even when Malik fell to leave Sialkot 56 for four, the result wasn’t really in doubt, so strong is their line-up. Razzaq, who joined them this season after snubbing his home team Lahore, continued his contributions, smacking four consecutive fours off Talha to hasten the victory march.The only blip came by way of some crowd trouble in the 15th over when Hafeez threatened to take his team off the field after some bottles were thrown from a boisterous crowd. He didn’t go off and soon after, Adeel Malik, Shoaib’s younger brother, sealed the deal with a succession of boundaries to maintain Sialkot’s supremacy in this format. With the team that they have, the PCB may well rue their decision to not allow a local team to represent Pakistan in the Champions League.

Match Facts
Friday, February 5, MCG
Start time 19.35 (08.35 GMT)Pakistan are the Twenty20 world champions but will be without Shahid Afridi in Melbourne•Associated Press

Big Picture
Finally Pakistan’s drawn out, controversial and currently win-less tour comes to an end. At the start of the summer they were a chance of challenging Australia in the Test series. Then they were determined to topple them with a band of reinforcements in the one-day series. After losing eight internationals in a row, this is the last opportunity to do something successful.The good news is the tourists are the World Twenty20 champions after their triumph in England last year and they have won their past seven games in this genre. However, they will be without their captain Shahid Afridi, who was so hungry in the final ODI in Perth that he chomped on the ball. After admitting to tampering, he will miss two Twenty20s before being allowed back. That leaves Shoaib Malik in charge as the third leader of the trip.Australia should be confident given their form this season, but this is their weakest format and they have won only 11 of their 24 internationals. Michael Clarke is captain full-time after Ricky Ponting’s T20 retirement, but already there have been calls for Cameron White to have the top job given Clarke’s apparent unsuitability to the game.Form guide (Most recent first)
Australia ANLLL
Pakistan WWWWW
Watch out for…
Umar Gul didn’t have much fun in the one-day series and hasn’t played since delivering a nine-ball over that cost 23 in Adelaide. Those numbers should be ignored by the selectors because Gul is a Twenty20 master. He is the most successful bowler in the world in this format, with 39 wickets at 11.58 in 23 games.Steven Smith is a batsman-legspinner who is most exciting for his brutal shot-making. Only 20, Smith has immense power and has quickly proved he is ready for international action, although the rise may have come a little too quickly for his bowling. He had limited opportunities in the Big Bash with the bat, but took seven wickets at 10.28 in five games and has 310 runs and nine victims in seven one-day domestic contests.Team news
Australia have some strong fast bowlers to choose from, with Ryan Harris, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Tait and Dirk Nannes jostling for three spots. There is also competition at the top of the order with Shane Watson, Shaun Marsh and David Warner all preferring to walk out first.Australia squad Shane Watson, Shaun Marsh, David Warner, Michael Clarke (capt), Cameron White, Travis Birt, David Hussey, Steven Smith, Brad Haddin (wk), Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris, Dirk Nannes, Shaun Tait.Pakistan have to tinker to fill the various roles of Afridi and are also without Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan, who don’t play Twenty20s. There are still 15 players with the squad so the touring selectors have plenty of options.Pakistan squad Salman Butt, Kamran Akmal (wk), Fawad Alam, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik (capt), Khalid Latif, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Imran Nazir, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Umar Gul, Mohammad Asif, Saeed Ajmal, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Mohammad Aamer.Pitch and conditions
The surface in Melbourne is usually hard work for everyone in the longer forms of the game, but that can often be overcome in Twenty20s. The weather might also be tricky, with rain predicted in the morning before easing to isolated showers.Stats and trivia

• Australia have lost both times they have faced Pakistan in Twenty20s
• Shoaib Malik and Kamran Akmal have played 27 T20 internationals, four behind the leader Brendon McCullum, while Australia’s most experienced men are Michael Clarke and Nathan Bracken, who is not in the squad, on 19.
• Australia haven’t completed a T20 game since their first-round exit at the World Twenty20 in June. Their two games against England in September were wash outs.
• The MCG has hosted two of these internationals, with Australia winning each time

Quotes
“We have to win this game. We are professionals and not [just] looking forward to us going back to our country after 100 days. We’re just concentrating on tomorrow’s match.”
Shoaib Malik, Pakistan’s stand-in captain“They’re the best team in the world at this format of the game. We’ll have to play exceptionally well again to beat them.”

Australia’s aura may have vanished over the past year but the players’ self-confidence remains untainted, with Shane Watson insisting the team still has a chance of victory. Pakistan have controlled the second Test for three days and should level the series on Wednesday after the hosts scrambled to an 80-run lead by finishing at 8 for 286.Michael Hussey, who reached an unbeaten 73, is the last major hope and will have Peter Siddle (10) and Doug Bollinger as his only allies. “I definitely think we’re still in it,” Watson said. “It’s obviously not a day that we really were hoping for. It would have been nice to get 200 in front, but while Hussey and Siddle are there we are still a chance to get, hopefully, best-case scenario, 150 ahead. It would be a target that if everyone goes well and bowls well, it gives us an opportunity to win the game.”Watson was the standout batsman with his smooth 97 and after the strong performance showed he was a student of the history of his adopted home ground. He remembered the time in 1993-94 when a team was bowled out in the fourth innings for 111 at the SCG in a chase of 117. The only problem was that it was Australia doing the tumbling that day.”We’ve got to still give ourselves a chance to try and have a decent enough target to bowl at,” he said. “The wicket is still doing a bit, the new ball is still seaming and bouncing and some are keeping a bit low, there’s still enough there for the bowlers.”The legspinner Danish Kaneria provided the main trouble for Australia with 4 for 117 before hobbling off shortly before the end with cramp, but Australia have the bigger impediment. Starting their second innings 206 runs behind, their journey was always uphill, but after Watson and Phillip Hughes (37) put on 105 there was hope of the 400-plus total needed to scare the Pakistanis.While only three wickets had fallen when the deficit was wiped out, the problems began with Michael Clarke’s exit, lbw to Mohammad Asif on 21, and in 18 overs Australia lost 5 for 40. “The way Phil and I started I thought we were going to be able to bat the way we wanted to,” Watson said, “but we weren’t able to string the bigger partnerships together.”Unless rain or a Hussey-inspired miracle intervenes, the hosts will end their ten-match winning streak against Pakistan, the world’s No.6 side, and continue their recent trend of losing momentum as soon as they start looking good. The ruthless Melbourne win was last week, but it was also a year ago.

A world record for the fastest 50 in One-Day Internationals appears to have been achieved by New Zealand opener and wicket-keeper Rebecca Rolls in the World Series of Women’s Cricket match against India at Bert Sutcliffe Oval today.While records are sketchy, it seems that her 30-ball innings is the fastest recorded half century in the women’s game.She ended the innings with 59 runs off 37 balls including 12 fours with some controversy about whether she was caught behind by wicket-keeper Sulakshana Naik. The square leg umpire Jeremy Busby was called into play by bowler’s end umpire Dave Quested and he felt the catch had been completed.Rolls’ batting was more than a slog fest, it featured some cultured shots, with cover drives and sweep shots timed to perfection.”It was a bit like watching from outside yourself,” Rolls said.”In that situation you ride your luck and follow your instincts.”She said that she has been trying to ensure she stays at the wicket longer through the innings but she finds it very difficult to control her urges when getting on a roll like that she experienced today.While disappointed with the nature of her dismissal she said she shouldn’t have edged the ball in the first play.Then when donning the wicket-keeping gloves she picked up two key stumpings, the first to remove the troublesome Mithali Raj for her potentially game-breaking innings when she scored 82 off 98 balls, and then the last wicket to fall, Jhulan Goswami which allowed New Zealand to claim the bonus point to give it a place in Saturday’s final.She said that she had been standing up to the wicket deliberately to keep the pressure on Raj who liked to drive, and because the ball wasn’t carrying to her standing back. She also finds it good for staying focused.This was despite the loss of half a tooth in the first game against India which required some dental work in the evening. She suffered a blow in the face from a ball rebounding off a bottom edge.As far as the team was concerned she said it had still to put a complete performance together but the base of a really good team was there and because the side’s bowling stocks had been depleted since the 2000 CricInfo Women’s World Cup it was a case of patience for the side.

Indian captain Virender Sehwag has praised his bowlers for their performance in the third ODI against Sri Lanka in Cuttack. The hosts won comfortably by seven wickets to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series.After Kumar Sangakkara, his opposite number, opted to bat, a solid performance from Sri Lanka’s top order had put them on course for a massive total but India’s bowlers hit back to shoot out the visitors – who were 160 for 1 after 22 overs – for 239 in the 45th over.”The credit for this victory ought to go to the bowlers, especially Harbhajan [Singh] and [Ravindra] Jadeja,” Sehwag said. “The wicket was slow and it kept low at times and it helped the spinners a bit.”With the kind of start they got, I was praying they wouldn’t get 350 or 400 on the board,” Sehwag said. “But we were constantly looking to take wickets and Ashish Nehra did a fantastic job during the Powerplay.”Once he got [Tillakaratne] Dilshan out, Harbhajan and Jadeja did their job very well and the game turned on its head.”Sehwag then got India’s chase off to a lightning start with 44 from 28 deliveries, while fellow-opener Sachin Tendulkar remained unbeaten on 96 as India made light work of the target, getting home with 7.2 overs to spare.”My job is to give the team a good start and score as many as I can,” Sehwag said. “I was in good form and I utilised the first 10 overs very well. Tendulkar then played right through the innings and ensured we won. Overall, this was an excellent team performance.”His Sri Lankan counterpart blamed the defeat on the poor batting display after his side lost their last eight wickets for 74 runs. “We had everything going for us: a blazing start, a good partnership which I managed to put on with Tharanga which gave us a good base,” Sangakkara said. “But too many wickets lost and that was probably the story of the game.”We didn’t really have a target in mind at the start but the focus was on keeping rhythm, working hard and building partnerships. We just lost too many wickets and with it momentum.”Sangakkara said Sri Lanka had effectively lost the game in the early overs of the Indian reply. “We had to try and get something with the new ball but these are not the easiest of wickets to bowl on. The bowlers did a really good job and we were good in the field as well but we really had nothing to defend.”We need to take a good look at ourselves as individuals and take a lot more responsibility when we get out there again. We have got to keep fighting and we have got to come back.”

Ramnaresh Sarwan has told his inexperienced team-mates they must be mentally strong to tackle Australia in their own backyard. Sarwan started his third Test tour Down Under with 73 on the opening day of the warm-up against Queensland, but both new openers missed out as the West Indians were dismissed for a below-par 271.Australia has been a hard place to visit for Sarwan, who has 218 runs here in six Tests, but his role has suddenly increased following the departure of Chris Gayle on Wednesday to be with his sick mother in Jamaica. The 15-man squad was already light on experience following the end of the drawn-out players’ strike and Sarwan, a former captain, has already taken on more responsibility.”We have been trying to do that, especially the senior guys like myself, Shiv [Chanderpaul] and Chris,” he said. “I don’t think nothing much will change [with Gayle’s departure], it’s important we help the younger guys as much as we can.”Nine years ago Sarwan started his first Test trip to Australia with scores of 0,0,2,1 and 0 before gaining his first half-century in the final match in Sydney. “It’s pretty tough here,” he said. “I had my first baptism here in 2000-01, but that made me mentally tough. I’ve said to the young guys you have to remain mentally tough in this part of the world. You guys play pretty hard and it will be a pretty good challenge.”Both Adrian Barath (0) and Travis Dowlin (2), the only specialist openers in the squad now Gayle has left, were dismissed by the time the score was 10 against a Queensland line-up containing two opening bowlers appearing in their maiden first-class games. “It wasn’t the type of start we wanted to get off to and we’re a bit disappointed,” Sarwan said. “But at the start the ball was doing quite a bit. Unfortunately we lost a few wickets, but myself and Shiv batted pretty well through that period, but it’s disappointing we didn’t bat through the day.”Chanderpaul made 41 before he was out pulling and Dwayne Bravo sparkled over 49 runs in 53 deliveries until he edged the legspinner Daniel Doran. Sarwan was closing in on a century after tea, but his stay ended when he was ruled caught behind to the debutant Luke Feldman.”I would have liked to have gone on and got a hundred, but nevertheless I got 73 and, most importantly, I spent some time at the crease because I haven’t played a four-day game for quite a while,” he said. “On the other hand as a team we’ll be a bit disappointed not to have scored 300.”

Michael Clarke remains hopeful of playing in the first Test against West Indies on November 26 and may be given as much time as possible to prove he has recovered from a back injury. Usually the selectors want the players to appear in a first-class match before a Test, but Clarke told the Australian there had been no demand that he turn out for New South Wales in the Sheffield Shield next week.”I’m very keen to have a hit to prepare for the Test,” the vice-captain Clarke said. “If I could play in the four-day match, that would be ideal.”Clarke was due to fly to Melbourne on Wednesday for a session with Alex Kountouris, Australia’s physiotherapist, to plan his way back from the degenerative condition. Clarke missed the Champions Trophy and India one-day tours due to the problem and has only returned to the nets this week.”That’s normal for him, to start batting about a fortnight before a Test series,” Kountouris said. “He’s been playing for about five months straight, so it’s not the skills we’re worried about.”Kountouris said it was important for Clarke to have a break after such a busy schedule. “He’s got some critical tests which have to be clear and hopefully we can go from there,” he said. “I expect to see [on Wednesday] that he’s very good and expect to give him the all-clear to start playing.”New South Wales face Tasmania in an FR Cup game on Sunday before their four-day match starts on Tuesday. While Clarke seems set for a more comfortable ride, Brett Lee will have to prove his fitness after an elbow injury during the Sheffield Shield contest to have a chance of joining the Test squad.