Tom Moody, the coach of Sri Lanka, believes his side’s recent success in England was a stepping stone towards achieving greater goals in the future. After a difficult, inconsistent six months Sri Lanka, under the inspirational Mahela Jayawardene, exceeded expectations and played with the natural flair that was traditionally their strength and Moody was quick to single out the team’s journey.”The success of the team on the tour just didn’t happen, but because of a lot of hard work that was put in 12 months prior to it. Everyone’s got to take credit for that,” Moody told reporters. “There’s been a lot of work done by the individual players, support staff, management and senior players. As a team we gained enormous confidence and we look to improve even further in all aspects of our game.”If we don’t rest on our laurels on one good tour but continue to make that progress we had made in the past 12 months, we are in good shape. Everyone wants success but at times we all need to be patient for that success particularly when we are looking to groom the next generation of youngsters,” Moody said. “Players don’t instantly turn into super stars overnight; sometimes it takes 6 months, 12 or 24 months for a player to adapt to the speed of the game at international level in Test and one-day cricket. There’s no question the talent is here in Sri Lanka.”Moody added that the most significant aspect on the tour of England was the performance and consistency of the side. “It started to take place after a few weeks when the team adjusted to the conditions and accepted a number of things we had to face over there,” he said. “On Saturday evening of the first Test at Lord’s the reality of the situation really hit home. The group of players dug very deep and showed not only themselves but the England team and the Sri Lankan public that they had some genuine characters.””They fought back from a hideous position to save the Test match. From that point the penny may have dropped that we can compete in the series, that we can win over here,” he said. “The hard work that we are doing is working. Let’s persevere with that hard work and believe in ourselves. The results beyond that point speak for themselves.”Sri Lanka, who had a week off following their nine-week tour, will start fitness training from Thursday in preparation for the two-Test home series against South Africa starting on July 27.

Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lanka captain, heaped praise on his champion spinner Muttiah Muralitharan who came up with an exceptional bowling performance on a flat track to take six wickets for 131 runs (match bag of 10 for 172) to send South Africa crashing to defeat by an innings and 153 runs in the first Test in Colombo.”Credit should go to the bowlers”, said Jayawardene. “The conditions weren’t easy. We knew in the last two days the South Africans were going to be a very tough nut to crack and they proved to be. They fought really hard and it wasn’t easy to bat on that wicket – it was slower but they scored a lot of runs on that.”Murali bowled exceptionally well for another 60 odd overs again. He is not getting tired. It was difficult for me to get the ball off him. It was a bit of a freak when Murali got a wicket with the new ball. When I took it, I didn’t have that in my mind, but Murali came up to me and said that it might go low and skid through, to give him one or two overs and see how things go. He got a wicket in the first over. That’s the genius in him because he imagines things that other people cannot”.He also praised the rest of his bowlers and said it was a brilliant allround effort with the quicks Dilhara Fernando, Lasith Malinga and Farveez Maharoof sticking to their task well, especially in the first morning. He said getting South Africa out for a low score in the first innings was the key factor to this win.Jayawardene, who was named the Man of the Match for his monumental knock of 374, described the win as “icing on the cake”. “No matter the records we broke, if we didn’t get the result we wanted in the end, it would not have mattered that much. We put in the hard work in the first two to three days to get the advantage and we came out with a win.”He said South African captain Ashwell Prince’s wicket in the second over of the final morning was the turning point. “We planned that we needed an early wicket. To get that wicket in the second over of the day gave us a lot of breathing space and to get another batsman [Herschelle Gibbs] before lunch were two big wickets that definitely gave us the breakthrough.”

Prince admitted that poor batting by the South Africans in the first innings cost them the match. “There was a bit of moisture in the pitch the first morning but I can’t blame it for any of our wickets in the first innings”, Prince said. “They were poor, soft dismissals. The guys were aware of that and came up with an improved batting performance in the second innings. It was a typical South African-style fightback. We showed a lot of character in the second innings and we got a few positives to take out of this match.”Prince said that during the Jayawardene-Sangakkara world record partnership of 624, the longer the pair batted, the more South Africa realized that there wasn’t much of a chance for them to win. “The pitch was very good to bat on and the longer they batted the more relief it gave us to bat for a long time as well.”Making his debut as South Africa’s first coloured Test captain, Prince said that it was not the ideal situation but added: “We improved as the game went on. We can’t win the series anymore, but we can get that one win and hopefully draw it.”Mickey Arthur, the South African coach, described Muralitharan as undoubtedly the world’s best bowler. “Our guys have all played a lot of Muttiah now. We’ve developed game plans and strategies against him. He doesn’t come as a surprise element anymore. We started to play him better and better but in these conditions he is quite phenomenal.”Arthur said the return of fast bowler Shaun Pollock for the second Test starting on Friday in Colombo would be a great motivating factor although as true professional cricketers, the South Africans are very easy to motivate. “We’ve got to get 20 wickets going into the next Test match”, he continued. “We need all the bowling options available. We got to sit down and think as to what’s going to give us the best chance of winning the next Test. We lose [Graeme] Smith, [Jacques] Kallis and Pollock for one Test match means you lose 250 Test caps. That’s a huge amount of experience.”Arthur added that it has been tough for him as coach coming into his first Test series in Australia and now in Sri Lanka, but is satisfied with the way the team has performed, despite the absence of key players.

Kenyan cricket was boosted with the news that the Mombasa Sports Club ground has been granted official ODI status following an inspection by Mike Procter, the ICC match referee. Until now, all international cricket has had to be played in Nairobi.”The ground in Mombasa is lovely,” Procter said. “Since the last inspection in 2000 the playing area has been extended and now meets the minimum requirements as laid down by ICC.”Mombasa has been at the heart of Kenyan cricket since its earliest days, and while the ground fulfilled almost all the criteria, it was just too narrow. It has hosted many major matches, but only following major renovations which have seen about 10 yards added to the width of the outfield has it been able to meet all the ICC’s requirements.There were concerns that a large mango tree just inside the long-on boundary would be problematical, but ICC officials confirmed that it was covered and allowable under the Laws of the game. Procter added that it “added to the character of the field”.”I am particularly pleased with the approval of Mombasa Sports Club as an ODI venue and I thank the management and staff of the club for their hard work and support in ensuring that the ground and the facilities were in pristine condition when inspected,” beamed Samir Inamdar, the Cricket Kenya chairman whose home ground it is. ” This is a tremendous boost for cricket in Mombasa and a source of great pride to Cricket Kenya. I look forward to the MSC hosting its first ODI in the near future.”

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.

Ricky Ponting wants to forget Australia’s 10-run loss to West Indies and escape any further “slip-ups” when his team faces a must-win scenario against England on Saturday. Australia’s batting failed to overcome the tight West Indian attack at Mumbai on Wednesday night and the bowling lacked regular pentetration.The pitch has also been criticised but Ponting refused to blame the conditions. “There was a game there to be won and we weren’t good enough,” Ponting said in The Australian. “Chasing 230-odd, we knew it was going to be hard work, but thought that total was pretty gettable if we applied ourselves. But there were only a couple of guys with our batting that actually did that, and we still got pretty close. So it was a disappointing day for us.”Ponting did not think Australia’s situation – they need to win to stay in contention for the finals – would be difficult to turn around. “You have to look at every game in this series as a knockout game anyway,” Ponting told the paper. “As we’ve found out in the last couple of Champions Trophy tournaments, one little slip-up and you’re gone. We’ve got to forget about it [Wednesday night] as quickly as we can, talk about the areas we didn’t play well in and improve them come Saturday.”England lost their opening match against India and both sides will use the game at Jaipur to score early points ahead of the Ashes. Australia’s loss in the semi-finals of the previous Champions Trophy gave England an early edge for their 2005 success and Ponting has already spoken of his plans to go hard at his opponents. “England’s one-day form hasn’t been great, but they will probably lift a bit against us,” he said. “I’d like to think we can improve.”Ponting is also struggling with the bat and has posted only one half-century in his past seven innings. He made a single on Wednesday and was dismissed playing on to Jerome Taylor. “I haven’t made a lot of runs in the last few one-day games that I’ve played,” Ponting said in The Courier-Mail. “I’ll be okay, I’ll bounce back on Saturday.”

Day 2
ScorecardAkalanka Ganegama and Upul Chandana shared seven wickets between them as Sri Lanka A dismissed West Zone for 149 on the second day of their Duleep Trophy clash in Cuttack. By stumps, Sri Lanka A had moved on to 83 for 1 with a handy 259-run lead.Ganegama dismissed Wasim Jaffer, the West Zone captain, for 0 in the first over en route to his figures of 4 for 47, while Chandana’s legspin ran a ring around the lower order. Dammika Prasad, a right-arm medium pacer, struck two telling blows up the order when he removed Dheeraj Jadhav and Rohit Sharma. For West Zone, only the veteran Amol Muzumdar managed 51.Siddharth Trivedi, the medium pacer, removed Mahela Udawatte for 10 but Michael Vandort (38*) and Malinda Warnapura (34*) took Sri Lanka A to a commanding position at the close.Day 2
ScorecardHundreds to Mahesh Rawat and Joginder Sharma, coupled with wickets before stumps on day two, cemented North Zone’s firm grasp over Central Zone in Jamshedpur. Bad light forced an early end to the day, but not before Rawat and Joginder, overnight on 59 and 65 respectively, progressed to their hundreds during a 171-run sixth-wicket stand as North Zone racked up 443.Rawat collected 16 boundaries in his second first-class hundred, while Joginder hit 14 fours and a six on the way to his third. Spinners Piyush Chawla and Murali Kartik each picked up three wickets for Central Zone.Taking the new ball, Joginder then forced Amit Pagnis to edge to Rawat behind the stumps. Rawat picked up his second catch when Shivakant Shukla nicked one from VRV Singh.

Zorol Barthley, chief cricket operations officer of the WICB, has announced he will quit his role at the end of February next year.Barthley’s resignation is one of many to have hit the board in the past year and Dr Roland Toppin, who was named its new chief executive in November, will now have a clean slate with which to begin his tenure. So far this year, the resignations have included Roger Brathwaite, the chief executive; Darren Millien, the chief marketing executive; Dr. Michael Seepersaud, the chief cricket development officer and Bryce Cavanagh, the Australia-born strength and conditioning coach.Toppin takes up his new role in time for the World Cup which is being held in the Caribbean in March and April next year.

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.

Listen to Graeme Smith and Shaun Pollock at the press conference

Weighed down by his own batting woes and shocked by the manner of the123-run defeat, Graeme Smith had cut quite a disconsolate figure after thefirst Test at the Wanderers. Less than three weeks later though, the moodwas very different, after a five-wicket win that he called one of thehighlights of his career. Victory in Durban in the Boxing Day Test gaveSouth Africa a route back into the series, and at Newlands, on a surfacemore suited to the Indians, Smith’s side came back magnificently to scripta famous final-day triumph.”I think it’s a massive win in all of our careers, to come back from 1-0down in a three-Test series,” he said after the game. “I remember afterthe Wanderers [defeat] being asked how difficult it would be.Realistically we knew how difficult it would be. I think we just playedsuperb cricket. We’ve never given up, and shown character at key moments.To win in Durban like we did was obviously fantastic. But this win here atNewlands, considering the conditions and considering that they were 254for 3 at the end of day one, was incredible.”They had to do it the hard way, with unseasonal rain keeping the playersoff the pitch for more than three hours after Smith and Shaun Pollock hadgiven the team a rollicking start in the morning. “Obviously a little bitof panic starts to set in,” said Smith, when asked about the mood in thedressing room as the rain poured down. “You don’t know when it’s going tostop. The Black southeaster is always rare, and you don’t know if it’sgoing to stop or not. Polly and I had huge momentum going into that raindelay. We were definitely on top of the Indian team at that stage. Theywere panicking. Virender Sehwag was coming on. It was disappointing tocome off. But having got back on and finished off the game, we’re prettyrelaxed now [laughs].”The decision to move Pollock up to No.4 proved an inspired one, thoughSmith accepted that it had been laced with risk on a pitch where AnilKumble was expected to wreak havoc. “I phoned Polly last night and toldhim that I was thinking about moving him up to bat with me in themorning,” said Smith. “Between the new ball, which was difficult, and thereverse-swinging stage, there was a time where you could score prettyfreely. I think both teams did. This morning, it was important for us totake the initiative up front. Shaun’s the guy with all the experience andthe ability, and he’s a good thinker on the game. It was the right choiceand luckily it paid off. It was one of those decisions you live or dieby.”After Smith and Pollock departed, it was left to Jacques Kallis andAshwell Prince to seal the win, though Kallis exited just two runs beforethe stands erupted in joy. “There were one or two discussions that tookplace after I got out,” said Smith, when asked if he had been tempted topromote an attacking player like Mark Boucher or Herschelle Gibbs. “Ithink Ashwell’s becoming a serious pressure player. He’s a man stepping upon a lot of big occasions for us.”He proved it last year against Australia, and he’s proving it again now.His game’s really compact, and at that stage another partnership wouldhave got us home. You’ve got to rely on your guys to do the job. We’dtaken the one risk, and the guys did a superb job of taking us home.”The win was all the more satisfying considering that it came on a pitchthat Wasim Jaffer described as an “Indian” one after his opening-daycentury. “Those that say we can’t produce spinners’ wickets to developslow bowlers should have seen this one,” said Smith with a grin. “It wasdisappointing, but it was fantastic to win on it. It means we’ve learntfrom our trips to the subcontinent. Our ability to play spin, whicheveryone questions all the time, has definitely improved.”There were two factors in this game. One was the reverse swing, with thedry surface and some very skilful bowlers. And obviously, the spinnersplayed a huge part. Our ability to put India under pressure in theirsecond innings was the key. They didn’t score runs and we picked up fourwickets after lunch. That gave us the initiative. Still, chasing 211 on apitch like that is a huge achievement.”Smith wasn’t overly critical of India’s tactics on the final day, thoughhe did admit that one particular decision perplexed him. “We were sayingat the end of the game: what if Tendulkar had bowled 20 overs [he bowled3.1]? He was getting a huge amount of turn and has a great googly thatguys struggle to pick.”Kumble never posed the threat that he was expected to, and Smith said thathis batsmen deserved a lot of credit for that. “I think the key for me wasto get off strike as much as I could, and to keep mixing up whether I wentforward or back,” he said, talking of his approach on the final morning.”Any bowler that feels a bit of pressure doesn’t settle into a line andlength. And I also had to get rid of silly point [laughs].”

In the final analysis though, the win was set up by some superb bowling onthe fourth day, with India’s batsmen retreating into a defensive shellfrom which they never emerged. “We knew that we really had to squeezeIndia after lunch,” said Smith. “I heard comments that we were a bitnegative with [Paul] Harris bowling into the rough. At that stage, we justwanted to make sure that India went nowhere. We knew that if we could getthe ball to reverse, we had the guys to make the ball work for us. Pauldid a superb job in partnership with Jacques [Kallis] initially and thenShaun [Pollock].”Shaun bowled best with the reverse-swinging ball in the first innings andhe did it again. You don’t get to 400 Test wickets if you don’t know whatyou’re doing. He’s the guy that’s stepped up the game for us beautifullythroughout the series. I don’t know how many more compliments we can givethe guy but he’s certainly a superb asset for us [smiles].Pollock was the man of the series, for his 187 runs and 13 wickets at aScrooge-like average of 16. After a couple of seasons of relativeunderachievement, he had an outstanding series against India, and was fullof praise for the manner in which the team had bounced back. “All the guyshave shown a lot of character, from the guys who walked in for theirdebuts, Morne Morkel and Harris, to the guys who were perceived to be outof form [Smith] that bounced back and got big runs,” he said. “We’ve shownwhat a fighting team we can be.”We’re not proud of where we’re rated in the world rankings at the moment.We’re working on trying to get up, and that was a motivating factor forus.”The last word has to go to Smith, who led his team magnificently when thechips were dwindling and there were calls from a few quarters for his headon a plate. “Senior players are always the ones who are watched,” he saidwith no trace of rancour in his voice. “Even when we lost Jacques [Kallis,to a back injury] in Durban, a number of guys stepped up at the time. Andin this game, our senior guys all contributed superbly.”And it’s not only what you see on the field. It’s what happens in thedressing room, what they say to the young guys, the experience they bring.That’s invaluable. At one point, Makhaya [Ntini] was asking me if he couldgo and bat next [laughs]. He backed himself as a senior player to go andfinish the game. As a captain, to have guys in your team who want to takeresponsibility is a huge asset.”How Rahul Dravid must long for the same.

Scorecard

Ben Edmondson and Steve Magoffin upended their former state as Queensland fell to an innings loss inside seven sessions at the Gabba. The fast bowlers moved to Western Australia in search of opportunities and they reminded the Bulls of what they had missed, picking up four wickets each and knocking the home side over for 133.The Bulls began the day at 3 for 88 but were soon in trouble after losing Craig Philipson for 15 when he was bowled by Brett Dorey. Giving the hosts no chance of a recovery, Edmondson broke through James Hopes, Chris Hartley and Andy Bichel in four overs to stop Queensland’s thoughts of making Western Australia bat again.Steve Magoffin removed Ashley Noffke and Daniel Doran in three balls and ended the game before lunch when he dismissed Nathan Rimmington in his next over. Magoffin claimed 4 for 21 off 12.2 overs while Edmondson picked up 4 for 46.Shane Watson, the No. 3, was trying to impress as he aimed for a World Cup spot, but he ran out of partners and was stranded on 46 not out. The outright loss was Queensland’s third in a row at the Gabba.