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How they were out

Shane Bond completed his five-for by taking the final wicket of the match © Getty Images

After the tug-of-war of the first four days, New Zealand ensured that there would be no final West Indies comeback by taking the last two wickets for 17 runs to go up 1-0 in the series. Shane Bond, the architect of New Zealand’s final surge, fittingly took the last wicket and bagged a five-wicket haul in his first home Test since December 2002.New Zealand began the day with two tailenders to dismiss and 44 runs to defend. Daniel Vettori prised out Ian Bradshaw, caught by Stephen Fleming at bat-pad. Bond followed up by bowling Jerome Taylor, who had struck two boundaries off Vettori to give a flutter of hope to the dressing-room, off the inside edge to end the match in the tenth over of the day. This 27-run win was New Zealand’s narrowest in terms of runs, beating their 40-run victory against South Africa at Port Elizabeth in 1962.Bond was adjudged Man-of-the Match for his matchwinning spell but New Zealand’s win was a result of several fightbacks over the course of the match. Scott Styris bailed them out of a first-innings debacle with a hundred and Brendon McCullum staged a recovery with Vettori in the second before Bond’s onslaught sealed the result.For West Indies, it was a familiar tale of what could have been. They had the perfect opportunity to win their first overseas Test, other than in Bangladesh or Zimbabwe, since beating England at Birmingham in 2000. But every time they wrested the advantage, their inability to build on it and shut New Zealand out of the game let them down. However, they can take heart from Ian Bradshaw’s performance on debut. With Jerome Taylor unable to bowl more than nine overs in the match because of a hamstring injury, Bradshaw shouldered the extra burden and bowled 57.1 overs, sometimes unchanged through an entire session, and picked up six wickets. In the second innings, Chris Gayle and Daren Ganga showed, during a 148-run opening partnership, that the Bond threat could be overcome. However, the middle order didn’t follow their lead and wilted against Bond’s pace, collapsing spectacularly to a 27-run defeat.

Ian Bradshaw c Fleming b Vettori 10 (251 for 9)
Jerome Taylor b Bond 13 (263 all out)

Jeremy Snape, the former England off-spinner, has signed a new three-year deal with Leicestershire. Snape, 31, who played in ten ODI’s from 2001 to 2002, joined Leicestershire in 2003 after playing for Northamptonshire and Gloucestershire.”He is a very valuable and experienced member of our squad,” James Whitaker, their former captain and now director of cricket, told the official club website. Snape will be a busy man this summer; he is continuing his studies for a Masters degree in sports psychology at Loughborough University, and hopes to open up a practice when he retires from cricket.Snape played an important role in Leicestershire’s Twenty20 success last summer, with his flighted off-spin and useful lower-order batting, hitting the winning runs in the final against Surrey at Edgbaston.

Jonty Rhodes has stepped down as president of the South African Cricketes’ Association. The announcement follows his retirement from playing earlier in the year.”I am leaving an association which has the backing of virtually every professional cricketer in the country,” said Rhodes. “I am proud to have been part of SACA’s formation. It is an extremely important part of the future of professional cricket in South Africa.”He will be replaced by Mark Boucher, the current South African vice-captain. “I am happy and honoured to be elected by the players as president of our own Association,” said Boucher. “I believe that we have chosen an exco [executive committee] that is experienced, determined and respected by players. These are very important times for all of us and we intend to ensure that all players are treated fairly.”We are committed, and look forward, to our involvement in constructive work with the board and the provinces in dealing as thoroughly as possible with all aspects of the new structure relating to players and making the professional game as strong as it can be.”

A study of New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming in the nets these days reveals a skipper working hard at adapting to new elements in the one-day game, new elements that may have a big say in just who will be holding the World Cup aloft in South Africa next year.Fleming would no doubt like to be that man.He’s getting used to holding trophies aloft. The trophy for the New Zealand-England Test series in 1999 and the ICC KnockOut in Kenya in 2000 are the two occasions he has savoured.He led the side into a position of advantage that could have seen New Zealand steal the Trans-Tasman Trophy – wouldn’t the Hadlee-Border Trophy be a better name for that prize – from Australian noses after that fine Test match in Perth, and he could have been excused for thinking the VB Series trophy might have had New Zealand’s name on it at the halfway stage of the event.That was before the side moved onto Suicide Alley when facing four games in seven days in the last stages of the competition – two in Adelaide, one in Melbourne and the last in Perth.However, the arrival of the sanctioned one bouncer an over has changed the shape of one-day cricket. While good scores can still be achieved in the first 15 overs of games, the bowlers have an extra weapon, and that is what Fleming is attempting to counter with his own batting.He held New Zealand’s innings together in the third ODI against England in Napier and finished on 76 not out, possibly a vital innings in terms of his summer.For the two days before, Fleming had looked out of sorts in the nets, several times being cleaned out by the bowlers and was nowhere as much in control as he likes.That’s what made his innings all the more impressive in the match. He didn’t bat as fluently, or as quickly, as he would have liked but neither was he out.However, there were signs in those moments when the big Fleming shots – the straight drives, in the air and along the ground, the powerful pull to mid-wicket and the occasional cover drive – were unleashed that the fluidity was not too far away.He has not been helped by different pitches on the various New Zealand grounds. The miserableness of the summer this year has been reflected in slower decks than usual, and it may well be Dunedin before the work he has put in sees the timing return to his strokeplay.”I’m not hitting the ball as crisply as I have in the past,” he said.Fleming is trying to adapt his play to the unpredictability of the bowling resulting from the bouncer rule.That involves trying to playing more shots off the back foot, scoring faster yet at the same time wanting to spend more time at the crease to bat through the innings more.Fleming has had a good success rate in working out his problem areas in the past. Chances are that the formula is not too far away from bearing fruit.”I’m having to grind more than anything. That frustrates me a little bit at times. When you are losing wickets, there is a certain amount of responsibility to keep going.”The nature of bowling these days is not as predictable. We need to get a platform at the top of the order so these guys [New Zealand’s strokeplayers] can come in and play more freely,” he said.Fleming has absorbed the demands of the captaincy in impressive style after some unfortunate criticism of his taking command.Chances are that similar results could be seen from his one-day batting as New Zealand builds toward the World Cup.Now that would be a very significant extra string to the side’s batting bow should it happen.

The KSCA Diamond Jubilee Tournament saw yet another strong side from Chennai advance as Chemplast beat ONGC by 4 wickets at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. When ONGC won the toss, skipper Vadhera opted to bat first. His decision looked like the right one when openers Gagan Khoda and Manoj Mudgal put together a 50 run opening partnership. Mudgal (31) was castled by Balajee and soon after the wickets began to fall at regular intervals.Left arm spinner Diwakar Vasu got his act together, trapping his opposition captain LBW with the score on 76. Rizwan Shamshad and Virendra Sehwag both failed to make significant contributions. With the score on 143, Khoda, who was holding one end up was dismissed one run short of his half century. Vasu then scalped three quick wickets, getting rid of the tail. He ended with 4/36 off his 10 overs. 202 was all ONGC could muster before they were all out in the last of their allotted 50 overs.In response, Chemplast began badly, losing Badrinath before he could open his account. Punjab cricketer Dinesh Mongia played a solid knock, making 59 in the middle order. Batting around him, Jacob Martin (27), Vasant Saravanan (32) and Ajay Kudua (36) took Chemplast to a four wicket victory with a little more than an over to spare.

Yerson Mosquera could finally be ready to return the Wolves squad and provide competition to the likes of Romain Saiss and Willy Boly – who himself has just returned from injury, bolstering an already solid defence.

The West Midlands club have conceded the fourth-least goals in the league this season, but with Saiss turning 32 this month and Boly turning 31 last month, 20-year-old Mosquera could receive plenty of playing time alongside Max Kilman, with Conor Coady between the two, towards the end of this season to develop him further.

Having experienced pros all around him will only benefit him going forward, but it might not be long before he leaves them in his dust in the centre-back pecking order, with just Coady and Kilman nailed on starters right now – despite Saiss’ excellent form this season.

Mosquera, a centre-back who is “very fast” and has been described as a “wonderkid” by Carlos Aleman, a Colombian football expert to The Athletic, suffered an unfortunate ‘high-grade’ hamstring injury during their Carabao Cup defeat at home to Tottenham, and has only just started playing football again at youth team level.

On Monday, the Colombian, who was signed from Atletico Nacional for £4.6m, leapt highest to head home a Luke Cundle corner against Reading for the U23 team, in the same Premier League 2 match that promising forward Chem Campbell bagged a perfect hat-trick.

Wolves boss Bruno Lage spoke highly of him as he was stepping up his recovery from injury, saying: “We believe a lot in him. Even in pre-season, the fans and I knew we had the right player with us.

“We believe a lot in him. Even in pre-season, the fans and I knew we had the right player with us.

“After that injury, he came back and everything was good. We thought Tottenham could be a good challenge for him to start playing for us and he picked up another injury, so it was very hard.

“He has a big spirit. He’s always happy and the club is helping him to return stronger. We are now waiting for him, and when he comes [back], he comes without problems.”

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When Mosquera does come back to the Wolves first team, what is for sure is that he will bring energy, pace and intensity to that wide centre back spot on the right-hand side of defence, slotting in well for whoever drops out should he get the opportunity to start.

In other news: Forget Coady: “Incredible” 24 y/o “revelation” is now Lage’s biggest hero at Wolves – opinion

	Lord Malloch-Brown: ‘We have decided that the government can make their position clear, but that it is not for us to intervene directly in this matter’ © Getty Images

The British government appears to have ended speculation that it will step in to prevent Zimbabwe from touring England in 2009 and has reiterated its policy of leaving the final decision to the ECB.It had been believed that a harder line towards Zimbabwe under Gordon Brown could lead to the government refusing to grant visas to the Zimbabwe team for the bilateral Test and one-day series. But speaking in a debate in the House of Lords, Lord Malloch-Brown made it clear that no such action would be taken.”The Foreign Secretary and others in this government have made it clear that we do not encourage the ECB to allow Zimbabwe to tour England in 2009 or England to tour Zimbabwe in 2012 if the situation in the country is as it is now,” he said. “We continue to speak to the ECB about these issues but it remains a decision for the board. We have decided that the government can make their position clear, but that it is not for us to intervene directly in this matter.”Lord Morris of Harmsworth, the former TUC leader Bill Morris, was unimpressed. “I was proud that our Prime Minister declined to attend the EU-Africa summit in Lisbon because he did not wish to be in the same room as Mugabe. That was a good start. But if the Prime Minister does not want to be in the same room as Mugabe, is it right to expect our sportsmen and women to be on the same field of play as representatives of that regime? John Howard, as Prime Minister of Australia, gave a clear lead. He said that Australian cricketers would not play against Zimbabwe. If that is good enough for Australia, it should be good enough for the United Kingdom.”Kate Hoey, the former sports minister and chair of the parliamentary all-party committee on Zimbabwe, told Cricinfo that she was surprised at Lord Malloch-Brown’s statement. “It does not seem to reflect the views of Downing Street earlier this year,” she said. “It would be a travesty if we gave visas to any Zimbabwean cricket team to tour and I want to see the prime minister clarify the situation.”I think it would be a good idea if we asked to meet Giles Clarke [the ECB chairman] so that we can exchange views on sporting links with Zimbabwe.”If the government maintains the line suggested by Malloch-Brown then it makes it likely the tour will proceed. It forms part of the ICC’s Future Tours Programme, and were the ECB not to honour its commitment then it would face multi-million pound fines from the ICC. However, were the series to be scrapped because of government intervention, as happened in Australia and New Zealand, then there would be no such fine.

Kevin Curran: playing up the underdog factor © AFP

Zimbabwe are pinning their faith on the unpredictable nature of one-day cricket as the 2007 World Cup prepares to get underway in the West Indies. Zimbabwe’s coach, Kevin Curran, told Cricinfo on the eve of the squad’s departure from Harare: “Anything can happen in one-day cricket, and when it does it’s up to your players to perform on the day, we’ve had the players to do so in the past.”Although they have been perennial underdogs and have won only eight of their past 42 World Cup games, history shows Zimbabwe have a knack of upsetting more fancied opponents. They beat Australia by 13 runs in their debut World Cup match in Nottingham in 1983, thanks to the exploits of their captain (and current England coach) Duncan Fletcher, not to mention Curran himself, who scored 27 and picked up the valuable wicket of Allan Border.And in 1992, after losing 18 consecutive World Cup matches over a nine-year period, Zimbabwe beat the eventual finalists, England, by nine runs at Albury in Australia in 1992. They then followed that by beating South Africa by 48 runs in Chelmsford in 1999, a result which was instrumental in South Africa’s elimination after they tied their semi-final with Australia.At this year’s World Cup, Zimbabwe are pitted in Group D and will take on Ireland before facing Pakistan and West Indies, with Curran hopeful his team will prove competitive. “We won’t be taking Ireland lightly because they have guys who have played at a decent standard of cricket,” Curran said, “but I’d like to think we could beat them on our day.”West Indies have great players like Brian Lara and Chris Gayle, but they can’t fire every time. And as we’ve seen in Pakistan’s series in South Africa [which South Africa won 3-1], they can be very average. We know we have to win two games to have a realistic chance of reaching the Super Eight round.”Disputes with administrators have drained most of the experienced players out of Zimbabwe, and as a result, the batsman Stuart Matsikenyeri is the only member of the squad who has featured in a previous World Cup. Curran tried to impart a positive spin to Zimbabwe’s lack of experience saying: “Sometimes you can use that to your advantage, West Indies and Pakistan will be under pressure to play well against us, while our guys can go out and play with a bit of flair and hopefully produce the goods.”Zimbabwe play two warm up games at Arnos Vale in St Vincent prior to the main tournament which starts on March 13. The Zimbabwean’s first warm-up is against the wounded Australians on March 6, followed by Bermuda on the 8th. Zimbabwe leave for the Caribbean on Wednesday.

Smith feels Australia are missing Glenn McGrath © Getty Images

The South African captain Graeme Smith says Australia do not have the strength in depth to rest key players and Arjuna Ranatunga believes the policy is “cocky and arrogant”.”From what we have seen in the past few games, they are more than capable of missing out on the final with the way Sri Lanka and South Africa have played,” Ranatunga told the . “You can see the way they crumble under pressure. When there is no pressure, they look really good and are tough to beat. But they panic under pressure and they looked awful and vulnerable the other night.”Ranatunga said Sri Lanka had a good chance to finish the VB Series on top after beating Australia in Sydney on Sunday. “I don’t think our players will worry if Australia are being arrogant. If they are cocky, that’s their problem, not ours.”Smith, whose side is preparing to take on Sri Lanka on Tuesday, said the Australian attack was exposed without their spearhead Glenn McGrath. Australia chose to rest McGrath at the SCG and Sanath Jayasuriya smacked 114 off 96 balls.”It shows how important McGrath is to their set-up … McGrath and [Brett] Lee,” he said. “I know McGrath hasn’t got many wickets but they’ve really bowled well up front this series and created pressure. It just maybe shows the depth is just like ours, it takes a while to get those guys up to a level they need to be.”The allrounder James Hopes was hammered for 65 runs off six overs by the Sri Lankans while Brett Dorey was substituted by Ricky Ponting after being smashed for 35 runs off four overs. Smith questioned why the Australians continued to ignore Jason Gillespie, despite his poor form in Australia’s Ashes tour of England. “I know he struggled through the Ashes but he’s a world-class bowler, and certainly it has been a surprise that he hasn’t even been spoken of much.”Smith was also surprised at the decision to rest Phil Jaques, who blasted an Australian one-day debut record of 94 against South Africa in Melbourne on Friday. “It’s a bit harsh on the boy,” he said, “but I guess they’ve backed Simon Katich from the start and it’s important to have a degree of consistency.”Consistency was a strength of ours through our success winning 20 games in a row in the last six to eight months, now we’ve lost a lot of those guys going home and it takes a while to build that experience and confidence at this level.”

Greg Chappell: ‘You’ve got to freshen up every so often’© Getty Images

The former Australian batting great Greg Chappell has warned that the dropping of Darren Lehmann may signal the start of a purge of players ahead of the next World Cup, in the West Indies in 2007.Lehmann’s international career seems to be at an end after he was left out of Australia’s one-day squad for next month’s tour of New Zealand next month. At 35, he is only two years older than Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden and Michael Kasprowicz, while Test stalwarts Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne are also well into their thirties.”I think it just puts everyone on notice,” Chappell, a former Test captain and selector himself, told the Sydney Daily Telegraph. “It doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past, it’s all about your performance now and looking to the future. A lot of guys in that squad will be on the wrong side of their thirties by the time the next World Cup rolls around, so there may well be other changes as well. They [selectors] can’t afford to make half-a-dozen changes in one go, so they’ve obviously looked at shoring up some gaps right now, and have got on with it.”The Australian selectors have proved ruthless in recent years, axeing the Waugh twins from the one-day team before the 2003 World Cup, and jettisoning Andy Bichel and Michael Bevan – until recently seen as the world’s best one-day player – before the current season. “History shows that they’ve tapped Allan Border, David Boon, Ian Healy, Steve Waugh and Mark Waugh on the shoulder and have basically told them ‘Right-ho guys, it’s time to move on and let the next generation through’, and I think this is pretty similar,” said Chappell. “You’ve got to freshen up every so often.”