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Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out – England
How they were out – Australia
Short cuts

Australia built a commanding position on the second day at the WACA, extending their first-innings advantage of 29 to an imposing 148 with strong innings from Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting. Their five-man attack had shared the success in dismissing England for 215, and without Kevin Pietersen’s 70 and a tail-end rally Australia’s advantage would have been even greater.England only momentarily managed any momentum during the period when their last three wickets added 87 precious runs and then Matthew Hoggard removed Justin Langer with his first ball. But either side of that, it was a day of Australia gradually tightening their grip on the match and the Ashes.Hayden and Ponting played intelligently and with a determination not to let England back into the contest. Both survived some testing moments against the new ball as Hoggard again found swing, but as the hardness disappeared the pair produced the most comfortable partnership of the match.England had found batting a far from comfortable task as Australia hit their mark from the early overs. Runs were scarce but England were intent on continuing their positive attitude from the first day and this resulted in the first two wickets. Paul Collingwood slashed to gully before Andrew Strauss was sent on his way by a dubious caught behind decision as replays suggested daylight between bat and ball.If ever there was a time for the Pietersen-Andrew Flintoff partnership to fire for England this was it, but both players found it difficult to play at their natural tempo as Australia’s main three pacemen held sway. As is often the case in such situations, it was a lesser bowler who benefited from the pressure as Andrew Symonds showed his all-round worth.His first ball to Flintoff had the England captain edging low to Shane Warne at first slip and with him went the last realistic chance of establishing a decent lead. Geraint Jones’s miserable series continued with an airy drive to gully, and Ponting’s hunch had reaped rich dividends. It isn’t often Warne stands through a session without having a bowl, but he wasn’t required by his captain until midway through the afternoon.At one stage, when Sajid Mahmood had fallen to reduce England to 7 for 128, he wasn’t looking like being needed at all, but Pietersen remained defiant and the lower-order refused to cave in. To begin with Pietersen’s tactics with the tail were curious as he opted for singles early in the over leaving Hoggard to block four or five deliveries … and the scoreboard wasn’t moving.However, the approach changed following a message from the dressing-room, and Pietersen took the attack to Warne. He benefited when McGrath made a hash of a catch at long-off when he was on 53, and to rub salt in Warne’s wounds he then majestically drove a six over extra cover. Pietersen fell trying to launch another ball into the stands as Symonds, who’d replaced McGrath at long-off, safety held on.

Still, though, England refused to cave in as the unlikely alliance of Steve Harmison and Monty Panesar added 40, the highest stand of the innings. Panesar showed the value of hours in the nets – and that he has plenty of natural ability – by twice lofting Warne over midwicket and then on-driving Stuart Clark to the rope. While their partnership was valuable to England – both in runs and morale – in the cold light of day it showed that the top order failed to supply the goods.For a brief moment one of those occasions where a last-wicket frolic leads to a burst of wickets from the opening bowlers seemed a possibility. Hoggard located the perfect spot with his first ball as Langer was bowled between bat and pad, and a number of deliveries whistled past the edges of Hayden and Ponting.But the pair showed that the surface has more runs on offer than have been scored so far as their stand increased in tempo and fluency. Hayden was still far from his thumping best, but finally managed to kick on after making a start. The powerful sweeps he has often unfurled in the sub-continent made Panesar less of a threat than the first innings, and his first half-century of the series came off 77 balls. Ponting made up for a rare failure first time round with a steady 85-ball fifty and there was a spring in the step of both batsmen as they left the field.Heading into this match Australia had one hand back on the Ashes urn. After today you can add a few more fingers to that grip.

Short cuts

Mystery of the day
Andrew Strauss’ caught-behind dismissal. The replays suggested he missed it, Strauss was not pleased, Adam Gilchrist went up straight away, the cordon followed and Rudi Koertzen was convinced.Charge of the day
Glenn McGrath wanted a dot-ball bouncer to keep Kevin Pietersen on strike, but as he delivered Kevin Pietersen was racing towards him and produced a tennis-style smash for a single.Dismissal of the day
Matthew Hoggard’s inswinger to remove Justin Langer with the first ball of the second innings. It was the second time in the game Langer had fallen to a ball sliding between bat and pad.Surprise of the day
The last-wicket partnership between Steve Harmison and Monty Panesar, which cut Australia’s first-innings advantage to 29. The pair put on 40 in the highest stand of the England innings.Bore of the day
The defensive fields Ricky Ponting used against Kevin Pietersen slowed the pace of the second session and England’s last three wickets added 87 while the tactic was being employed.

Past West Indies cricketers drank and were subjected to curfews but they respected their profession and would never go overboard. This admission was made by former captain Clive Lloyd at the launch of his new biography in England.Lloyd, who is now a director of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), said he never condoned indiscipline and the players he led to global dominance in the 1970s and 1980s knew where to draw the line.”If you have rules and people break them, they know they’ll get punished. I think you need curfews if you have young people in the squad,” Lloyd said. “Discipline has always been something that I’ve believed in and the guys in the West Indies team knew that from day one. They said that once they saw me annoyed, they knew they’d overstepped the line.””We always had curfews and we had respect – respect for one another, respect for your profession and respect for the people you represent,” he added. However, Lloyd said that curfews weren’t imposed for the tour matches as the players had their free time then.Lloyd, who is also a committee member at Lancashire, Andrew Flintoff’s county, explained how drinking was not the only way to build team spirit but it had been a part of professional sport for many years.”Respect has got to be earned. You have to do the right things and lead by example. If you do things like Andrew has done, then you let yourself down,” Lloyd said.But Lloyd said former England coach Duncan Fletcher was wrong to speak out about Flintoff’s behaviour during the Ashes tour and could have handled the situation better.Fletcher said, in a serialisation of his autobiography, he had to cancel a training session in Australia as Flintoff, who was captain in the absence of Michael Vaughan, was under the influence of alcohol. Although Lloyd admitted drinking had always been a part of professional sport, he accepts Flintoff overstepped the mark.”Sportsmen have been drinking for years, it is not something new, but you don’t want to overdo it. I think there’s a limit because you need to be fresh and you’ve got to be thinking straight. We went out drinking but the point is we never overdid it. We went out as a group and knew it was important to do the right thing.”

Ricky Ponting has admitted that Australia have little interest in playing against a below-strength Zimbabwe. Unlikely to be competitive against Australia even with everyone available, the Zimbabweans have 15 white players currently boycotting the side in a potentially disastrous dispute with authorities.Australia’s tour next month is shaping up as a complete farce unless a resolution is found. “It would be disappointing for the player group to go there and play a second or third string side,” Ponting said while promoting his charity dinners for the Children’s Cancer Institute Australia. “We’ll keep a close eye on it.”Asked if sub-standard opposition would be grounds for Australia to withdraw, Ponting replied: “That would be a decision that would be made by Cricket Australia. I think that will be left out of our hands. When you look ahead and think about it, there probably are some tough decisions that need to be made there.”Australia will definitely tour because the International Cricket Council decrees that security concerns are the only legitimate reason for the abandonment of any tour.Ponting said Australia would show no mercy if it ended up playing a Zimbabwean team full of unproven youngsters. “All we can do is play the side that’s put out on the park and the Australian team is not really noted for going easy on any opposition. As we saw with the Bangladesh Test matches here last year, we try to win the games and win them as well as we can. That’s every Test match we play in. That will be exactly the same when we go to Zimbabwe.”The troubles in Zimbabwean cricket began when captain Heath Streak stood down because members of the selection panel had no first-class experience.He also believed the side was being selected to satisfy a racial quota system rather than form.The rebel players are demanding selection on merit, Streak’s reinstatement as captain, changes to the selection panel and apologies for the Zimbabwean board’s “transgressions”. They have been given until May 8 to withdraw their requests and make themselves available for future tours. If they fail to comply they will be either suspended or dismissed, with the Australians scheduled to play their first match against Zimbabwe A on May 17.”We’ve still got nearly a month before we leave to tour there,” Ponting added.”I’d like to think they can get things sorted out over there, get things resolved before we tour. It is a little bit of a worry at the moment, but hopefully things will be resolved and we can go to Zimbabwe and play a full-strength team.”Streak has said Zimbabwe are heading for some of the biggest hidings in Test history if authorities refuse to back down and his country’s best players are not on the field against Sri Lanka and Australia.

Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, has been put on paid leave until his contract runs out on July 4.In a brief statement, David Morgan, the ICC’s president-elect, said: “This … is the result of a fundamental breakdown in the relationship between the CEO and a number of board members, including the president, over a variety of issues that include Zimbabwe.”David Richardson, the ICC general manager – cricket, will serve as interim CEO until Speed’s replacement, Haroon Lorgat, assumes the role at the ICC’s annual conference at the beginning of July.”Cricinfo has learnt that though Speed’s ouster was largely due to serious differences he had with Ray Mali, the ICC president, and Norman Arendse, the president of Cricket South Africa, over the Zimbabwe crisis, the chief executive’s recent comments on the unauthorized Indian Cricket League (ICL) had senior BCCI officials demanding that he leave the post.BCCI started pushing for Speed’s removal after he told reporters in Mumbai that the Indian board was yet to officially request ICC to ban the one-year-old ICL. Indian officials later claimed that the issue had been raised at various ICC meetings.Apparently, the decision to remove Speed was finalized informally during a meeting of some senior ICC board members, including a senior Indian official, on the eve of the Indian Premier League (IPL) launch in Bangalore on April 18.”There were many who were not happy with Malcolm’s confrontational style of functioning,” a BCCI official, who did not wish to be named, told Cricinfo.”We have removed him so what is left to say now,” said a senior official from the anti-Speed camp, who did not wish to be identified. “We were not happy with the way he handled the Zimbabwe situation, and his recent statements which implied that the ICL issue had not been raised officially within ICC.”Rumours had also been circulating for the last month that Speed had had a serious falling-out with Mali, following the ICC executive’s decision not to take any major action against Zimbabwe following an independent forensic audit carried out by KPMG, which the ICC has since refused to make available.Following the ICC’s meeting in Dubai in March, at which the decision to overlook the audit was taken, Speed refused to attend the traditional post-meeting media conference, explaining privately to the executive that he was not prepared to defend in public a decision with which he fundamentally disagreed. It had been the recommendation of the audit committee that senior ZC officials should have been referred to the ethics committee.In July last year, a confidential report by Speed and Faisal Hasnain, the ICC’s chief financial officer, was leaked, much to the ICC’s embarrassment and anger, in which Speed made a series of stinging attacks on Zimbabwe Cricket’s finances, concluding: “It is clear that the accounts of ZC have been deliberately falsified to mask various illegal transactions from the auditors and the government of Zimbabwe. The accounts were incorrect and at no stage did ZC draw the attention of the users of these accounts to the unusual transactions. It may not be possible to rely on the authenticity of its balance sheet.”Mali, who is a staunch supporter of Zimbabwe and of its officials, has not yet commented publicly on the situation it will be Morgan who fronts up at the press conference at Lord’s tomorrow.Mali is understood to have been incensed by Speed’s conduct and gained support from a number of board members as he successfully moved to have Speed sidelined for the remainder of his tenure. Although Zimbabwe has emerged as the key reason for the falling-out, it is understood that Speed’s recent statement that the rebel Indian Cricket League had approached the ICC seeking official recognition had also been used as an excuse to get rid of him.”At this point I am not in a position to respond to your question,” Mali told the when asked for the reasons the action against Speed had been taken . “But I will definitely do so in the near future.”Haroon Lorgat, South Africa’s former convenor of selectors, is lined up to succeed Speed as CEO, but said that it would not be appropriate for him to comment on the development as he is not involved with the ICC yet. “This is something I don’t want to get into right now,” Lorgat told Cricinfo.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has invited Zee Telefilms and ESPNStar for a final round of discussions regarding the telecast rights on September 4 in Chennai. Zee, was the highest bidder with approximately US$260million for the four-year cricket telecast rights, while ESPNStar was close to US$30million less than that. A final decision on the matter is expected on September 5.RC Venkatesh, managing director of ESPNStar Sports, told : “We have been invited by BCCI to present a clarification on our bid. We are open to any kind of negotiations that will enable us bag the deal.”ESPNStar had said that they were willing to increase the bid to around US$300million if the BCCI extended it to a five-year contract and not four. Thay had also alleged that Zee did not qualify for the bidding process they did not meet the board’s criterion of having two years’ experience in telecasting international cricket events.Zee, however, refuted the charge and said that they had telecast international cricket matches in other countries, like the UK, since 1995.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

The Sri Lankan batsmen made amends for their first-innings collapse and gained complete control of the game at the end of the third day at Faisalabad. Sanath Jayasuriya led the way with an uncharacteristically subdued hundred and strung together useful partnerships as Sri Lanka finished on 285 for 3, an overall lead of 264.Jayasuriya’s workmanlike hundred had some typically manic moments, and his wild slash at wide balls nearly got him out on a couple of occasions. He was out to a no-ball when he had made just 9, but Shoaib Akhtar had marginally overstepped the mark, while a number of flashes landed just wide of the fielders. But he was completely assured against the spinners – he swept Danish Kaneria forcefully and found the gap with precision – and capitalised on the defensive fields that were set. He brought up his hundred, his 13th, by smashing Kaneria for a massive six over long-on and tore the bowling apart immediately after. His last 29 came in just 23 balls and a few cover-drives bisected the fielders perfectly.Jayasuriya’s innings strengthened Sri Lanka’s grip on the game, but the momentum was seized with Kumar Sangakkara’s breezy 59. The start had been shaky, with Marvan Atapattu bagging his fourth pair in Tests when he was trapped in front by Shoaib. Sangakkara had to contend with a fired-up Shoaib, tearing in at full pelt and swinging it either way. But he counterattacked with a flurry of superbly struck fours, creaming five of them in a span of six balls as Sri Lanka raced to 60 in the first ten. Sangakkara brought up his sixth half-century in his last eight innings before falling to the first ball after lunch, as he wafted at one from Shoaib (98 for 2). By then, though, the innings was firmly back on track.

Mahela Jayawardene picked up the baton, adding another 118 with Jayasuriya, as he blunted the pace attack and tormented the spinners. He was nearly bowled early in his innings, when he shouldered arms to an incutter from Abdul Razzaq, but cruised to his fifty from that point. He knocked the spinners off their length as he danced down the pitch beautifully, and cut them fine when they dropped short. He fell to a perfectly pitched legbreak from Kaneria, as his defensive prod resulted in the ball taking the edge on its way to Moin Khan (216 for 3).Jayasuriya survived some tense moments in the eighties as he twice edged Shoaib wide of the slips. He was also involved in a mix-up which nearly resulted in Thilan Samaraweera being run out – fortunately for him, Yousuf Youhana missed the stumps from short midwicket. But Jayasuriya settled the nerves with some confident pushes against the spinners and shifted a gear once he passed his hundred. After being behind in the first four sessions of the Test, Sri Lanka were now in a position from where they could dictate terms.Their bowlers had begun the fightback on Thursday afternoon and they didn’t have any problems in mopping up the Pakistan tailenders this morning. Shoaib was given out lbw when he missed a straighter one from Rangana Herath, while Kaneria was run out two overs later. After an excellent start to their innings, Pakistan’s lead was just 21. Shoaib’s early dismissal of Atapattu pointed to a low-scoring thriller, but the rest of the Sri Lankan batsmen had other ideas.

Sachin Tendulkar, who is recovering from an elbow injury, says he does not know if he will be fit for next month’s Test series against Zimbabwe. “I can’t say for sure whether I will be able to play against Zimbabwe but am recovering well and hope to take the field soon.”India will start a month-long tour of Zimbabwe next week during which they will play a tri-series also featuring New Zealand, to be followed by two Tests against Zimbabwe from September 13. Tendulkar has not been picked for the ODIs because of the injury but has been named in a 15-member Test squad subject to fitness.”I have started practising a little and the next step is to increase the load,” said Tendulkar. “A long-term plan is more important so I will not be worried if it takes a couple of weeks more.” Tendulkar underwent surgery in London in May after being troubled by ‘tennis elbow’ over the past year, forcing him to miss several one-dayers and two home Tests against Australia.Tendulkar is the fourth-highest scorer in Test cricket with 10,134 runs in 123 matches and has the highest aggregate in one-dayers with 13,642 runs in 348 matches, including a record 38 centuries. He is also on the verge of overtaking Sunil Gavaskar’s record of Test centuries with both players having 34 tons against their names.

At the end of first day of the first Test of the new year, India were 284 for three. It’s a position of some comfort, but India were anything but comfortable on their journey to the total. There was a catch off a no-ball, edges that didn’t carry, run-out chances, and dropped catches; all in all, a day of nerve-wracking cricket.Making the batsmen playBefore the match began, Steve Waugh empathised with the Indians, saying that he wouldn’t have liked facing Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie. The two bowlers lived up to Waugh’s words, picking up the only three wickets that fell today, and always looked close to making another breakthrough. Although Lee was profligate with runs, he showed more control, and made the batsmen play more, than Gillespie. In the morning session, nearly half of all deliveries Lee bowled were let through to the keeper. That changed dramatically after lunch, when he made the batsmen play four out of every five deliveries.

Bowling a line wide of the stumps negated the good length Gillespie pitched on, and the batsmen left nearly 30% of everything he threw at them. But Gillespie ended with the wickets of Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag, which came only when the batsmen were made to play at deliveries for sustained periods of time.Tendulkar’s on-side playIndia had lost two quick wickets when Sachin Tendulkar came out to bat. His own form wasn’t too reassuring, either. So far, Australia had worked to a plan; as long as they kept things tight, packing the off side with fielders, he would find ways to get himself out. But the Tendulkar who batted today was more resilient. Though he was troubled by Stuart MacGill, he played himself in, and didn’t try too hard to score runs on the off side. Instead, he took advantage of the 7-2 field, and scored a large number of his runs on the leg side, even though two-thirds off all the deliveries he faced were outside off stump.

</tableMakhaya Ntini and Chris Gayle have been left out of the 12-member World XI team for the first one-day international of the ICC Super Series against Australia at the Telstra Dome in Melbourne on October 5.Australia have included Cameron White, the Victoria captain, in their team while Stuart Clark and James Hopes were left out. White will make his one-day debut in the first game of the Super Series. He had taken 2 for 49 for Victoria in the warm-up game against the World XI. Both teams decided to name their Supersubs before the toss.Sunil Gavaskar, the World XI chairman of selectors, confirmed that Virender Sehwag and Kumar Sangakkara will open the batting for the World XI. Meanwhile, Ricky Ponting said that Simon Katich will replace Matthew Hayden as Adam Gilchrist's opening partner.Teams
World XI
1 Shahid Afridi, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Rahul Dravid, 5 Jacques Kallis, 6 Brian Lara, 7 Kevin Pietersen, 8 Andrew Flintoff, 9 Shaun Pollock (capt), 10 Daniel Vettori, 11 Muttiah Muralitharan, 12 Shoaib AkhtarAustralia
1 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 2 Simon Katich, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Damien Martyn, 5 Michael Hussey, 6 Michael Clarke, 7 Shane Watson, 8 Andrew Symonds, 9 Cameron White, 10 Brett Lee, 11 Glenn McGrath, 12 Nathan Bracken

Inzamam-ul-Haq has lost the confidence of senior officials in the Pakistan Cricket Board as a result of the Oval ball-tampering row, according to former team manager Zaheer Abbas, who was removed from his post shortly after the Pakistan side returned home.Speaking to the BBC, Abbas claimed that the decision not to resume play after tea on the fourth day of the final Test was Inzamam’s alone and that “”Pakistan’s management is not happy with Inzamam at the moment.”He continued: “I requested him to go into the field at The Oval, chairman Shaharyar Khan requested also, and a few members of the cricket team, but he refused. After having protested we should have gone into the field and started playing. But Inzamam said to me ‘I don’t want to go in the field; if the boys want to go in the field then they can’. We know the captain didn’t listen to us at that point in time. Loads of people were there waiting for us to go and show our ability to them and see us playing.”He went on to say that Younis Khan, who resigned as stand-in captain on Thursday only to be reinstated following the dismissal of Shaharyar Khan as board chairman on Friday, was at odds with Shaharyar. “Once when Khan was in his room, Younis wanted to meet him,” Zaheer explained. “He had to wait 15 minutes to go and talk to him. A few other things cropped up and all of a sudden he said: ‘I don’t want to become a puppet captain of the Pakistan team’ – and that’s why he resigned.