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Brett Lee believes he is prepared to take Glenn McGrath’s place as the leader of Australia’s fast-bowling attack and he said Stuart Clark was the perfect man to help him fill the hole left by McGrath.”From my point of view it is time to take over with the leadership role,” Lee told the . “I am never going to be the same type of bowler Glenn is. It is very hard to replace Glenn, period.”Lee, who took 3 for 75 in England’s first innings at Sydney and was on a hat-trick at one stage, said his form had improved markedly since the start of the series. “I have felt good the last couple of games,” Lee said. “I felt my rhythm and run-up were not great in the first three Tests, but it feels better now.”He said he had been working on his run-up with the Australia bowling coach Troy Cooley and had developed a shorter approach to the crease. Lee said with McGrath and Shane Warne bowing out at the same time, Clark’s emergence as a consistent wicket-taker would help his own bowling.”I am enjoying working in a partnership with Stuey because I feel when we bowl together from different ends we have fed off each other,” Lee said. “We played junior cricket together so we have been playing together for more than a decade and I’m hoping we can fill the void.”

Monde Zondeki, the South African quick bowler, has talked about how difficult he found it to join the recent tour of India after the controversy that surrounded the squad selection.Zondeki’s domestic figures from 2007-08 – 54 wickets at 20.16 for the Cape Cobras – certainly show he was good enough to earn selection for India, but his place came about after Charl Langeveldt withdrew from the squad. Langeveldt had been selected ahead of Andre Nel, who is now playing for Essex, as Cricket South Africa needed to maintain their quota allocation. However, Langeveldt didn’t feel mentally able to go on the tour, something that Zondeki can sympathise with.”It’s wasn’t easy for me to accept my selection for that tour,” he told the . “Not easy at all. It was an awkward way to be selected. It wasn’t the way I’d hoped it would happen. It wasn’t an easy decision to go. It was hard for me to accept. In the end I just didn’t want there to be any more controversy.”The thing is, I did have a really good season. I talked to the coach [Mickey Arthur] and he said I should see it as reward for that. He helped me a lot.”Zondeki didn’t end up playing in any of the three Tests as the series was drawn 1-1, but has arrived for his county stint with Warwickshire in confident mood and will provide a much-needed cutting edge. Warwickshire only escaped with a draw in their first Championship match against Worcestershire because of rain on the final day. But how long Zondeki will remain available is still unclear with South Africa touring during the second half of the summer.”I’ve talked to Dale [Steyn, who played for Warwickshire in 2007] about playing here and I’m not expecting quick and bouncy wickets,” he said. “I know that I’m going to have to work hard and I know I’ll have to look after myself. He really enjoyed it.”I’m looking forward to it. The main reason I’ve come is to learn. I want to suck up as much information as possible. Pretty much every bowler who has come to play county cricket has improved and the chance to work with Allan Donald was too good to miss. It was him who contacted me and he is a major reason for coming.”Clearly, too, it won’t harm his international ambitions to get regular cricket ahead of South Africa’s four-Test series which starts in July. “There’s a good chance that I will be selected,” he said. “By the time they arrive, I should have got the hang of the conditions. If I do well here, I have a great opportunity.” Warwickshire should make the most of him while they can.

One of the off-field entertainments in place during this tournament is the dancers placed around the boundary edge who jump onto stage with each boundary that’s hit or wicket which falls. It’s a miracle none of them collapsed of exhaustion the way Bangladesh flew out of the blocks at Newlands. Few, if any, innings, even in Twenty20, have begun in such astonishing style and after 4.2 overs the score line read 58 for 4. There’d barely been a ball where the dancers hadn’t been up on their podiums.Bangladesh batted with a freedom of a team who knew they were already in the next stage, but you sense that they wouldn’t have played much differently if the situation hadn’t been so comfortable. They have some of the most naturally aggressive batsmen in the game – one of the reasons their Test growth has been much more stunted than in limited-overs cricket – and once the big shots began it was hard to stop them.There has never been any doubting their ability to play shots, but even in Twenty20 there is a judgment call to be made. Mohammad Ashraful opened his innings with a majestic first-ball six over square leg then scooped his next delivery over short fine leg. Ten in two balls is plenty, but the adrenalin was coursing through Ashraful’s veins and he couldn’t stop, miscuing his third ball to Graeme Smith at mid-on.Aftab Ahmed also quickly found his over drive setting, mauling Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini in the early overs. It was an audacious period of striking and the packed crowd were lapping it up. England captain Paul Collingwood was spotted in the crowd, trying to collect a few tips for Sunday’s key Super Eights game, but he seemed as equally baffled by what was going on.If the likes of Ashraful and Ahmed are going to play with such abandonment, they also need to learn when to step back for a moment. The phrase, ’20 overs is more than you think’ has been used so much by domestic players that, in five years, it is already a cliché but it does hold true. Ahmed had given his side such an early kick-start, he could have taken a few overs to consolidate, but instead fell to an awful swing across the line.

Deriders of Twenty20 say it is not much more than glorified slogging. But the innings of Chris Gayle and Sanath Jayasuriya already in this tournament have been a compacted version of how they play in ODIs. Jehan Mubarak’s 13-ball 46 against Kenya was clean, straight hitting, not slogging. However, some of Bangladesh’s shot selection did lurch back towards the hit-and-hope variety. “We wanted to play our natural game,” said Ashraful. “We have good strikers in the top six but while the run-rate was good we lost too many wickets.”Their age can be put forward as a significant factor in their defence – no one in the side is older than 25 – and the passion they put into their cricket is a joy to watch. They want to succeed every time and Ashraful could barely tear himself away from the crease after his dismissal. Against West Indies Ashraful and Ahmed guided the team to victory, but even though the batting was no less aggressive there was a touch more selection. That, however, was in a chasing situation and, as expected, it is quickly becoming clear that hunting down runs is the way to go.In the end they weren’t a million miles away from a decent total, which is where some restraint would have paid dividends. It is still difficult to judge what a defendable score is when batting first and as Bangladesh’s approach suggested they did really know what they were aiming at. But it cost them nothing having a go and if ever there was a game to try something different this was it. As with everything in their development, it will have been a valuable learning experience.

Australia 3 for 255 (Ponting 107*, Gilchrist 51, Clarke 48) beat New Zealand 7 for 254 (McCullum 96, Taylor 50) by seven wickets
Scorecard

Ricky Ponting settled the first of several scores against New Zealand, his 24th one-day century leading Australia to a seven-wicket victory in the Chappell-Hadlee Series opener in Adelaide. He dodged the rain to drive them home with 45 deliveries remaining after a 25-ball fifty from Adam Gilchrist and Michael Clarke’s 48.Ponting’s run-a-ball hundred left New Zealand with no answers. He was as composed as ever, putting his bat where his mouth was, after promising to do his utmost to regain the title. He couldn’t have done much more, and received decent support from Clarke before he and Andrew Symonds finished the job.Australia may have taken the early honours, but New Zealand will be largely satisfied by the way they handled the pace as McCullum made good their pledge not to crumble against the fast men. McCullum earned his highest one-day score of 96, although their 7 for 254 was somewhat below par on a flat track.Daniel Vettori’s bold decision to face their speed demons first up appeared to be paying off when they were well-set at 1 for 115, yet two quick wickets for Shaun Tait, in his first international match at his home ground, and then McCullum’s dismissal to Brad Hogg, applied the brakes. Ross Taylor injected some late momentum with 50, as did Jacob Oram with an unbeaten 32, but Australia’s bowlers regrouped well and were backed up by decent fielding.Gilchrist and Hayden then raced to fifty inside five overs, almost as if Hayden was getting a taste for the Twenty20 he missed out on earlier this week. But when Hayden popped a soft catch back to Mills for 17 and Gilchrist perished soon after, not waiting to see if Taylor had taken the skier to deep cover off Chris Martin, Australia were temporarily stopped in their tracks.Ponting and Clarke then rebuilt, patiently at first – Ponting was even content to pat out a maiden to Martin – but they were beginning to move through the gears, including a fifty for Ponting, when the rain came. The 45-minute break, with no overs lost, merely upped the ante further, Ponting dashing to another ruthlessly efficient hundred from as many balls while Clarke blended seamlessly with him until falling to Kyle Mills. Symonds was then dropped by Oram early off Mark Gillespie but it hardly mattered as Australia were well up with the run-rate.New Zealand’s star was McCullum, who collected at nearly a run a ball and struck 12 fours and a six, and he was a ready example of how to attack fast bowling. He combined well with Jamie How in a stand of 99 and Taylor in a partnership of 52.The visitors admitted before the match that pace had been a weakness, but McCullum in particular stood up to everything that Australia – in the mighty form of Brett Lee, Nathan Bracken and Tait – could throw (er, bowl) at him. Though McCullum was cut in half more times than a busy magician’s assistant early on, it was soon his turn to do the slicing with some terrific drives and cuts until he carved out just short of a hundred.Tait, whose action was questioned before the game by New Zealand, also got the treatment with one over disappearing for three cover-driven fours, but he came back strongly in a crucial second spell which produced edges from How and Scott Styris. In his third, he cleaned up Vettori (18) with a yorker, by which time the damage was done. New Zealand now need a win in the second match at Sydney on Sunday to stay in the series, while Australia are one step closer to Ponting’s aim of adding yet another trophy to their cabinet.

Scorecard
Sri Lanka’s varied spin attack, led by the left-armer NavinKavikara, performed a slow strangle act that would have made their seniorteam proud as they set up a five-wicket win against Australia at the PenangSports Club. They dismissed Australia for 172 and Dilshan Munaweerahelped them gun down the target with more than 12 overs to spare. The victory put Sri Lanka on top of Group C and set up a quarter-final clash with New Zealand, while Australia will play Pakistan, the winners of Group A.Sri Lanka used five spinners in all – Kavikara, Sachith Pathirana, UmeshKarunarathne, Roshen Silva and Munaweera – and between them theypicked up seven wickets for 109 in 37.3 overs. The introductionof the slow bowlers curbed the runs after the top-order batsmen accelerated to 79 for 2 after 13 overs.When the offspinner Karunarathne came on in the 13th over, he bowled the Australian captain Michael Hill but his joy quickly turned to disappointment as the umpire signalled a no-ball. Hill, a left-hander, took on Karunarathne, pulling the free-hit to the wide long-on boundary and lofting the next ball for six over midwicket. There were a sizeable number ofAustralian supporters and cries of “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi” rang around the ground.Not content with 11 runs off two balls, Hill attacked again, trying to hitagainst the spin but top edged to cover. In his next over, Karunarathneinduced an edge from Phillip Hughes and as he had done with Hill, gave the batsman a pumped-up send off. Having lost two quick wickets to be reduced to 80 for 3, Australia switched fromattack to consolidation mode and looked to nudge the ball around androtate strike.The two left-arm spinners – Kavikara and Pathirana – bowledin tandem and zipped through their overs with a wicket-to-wicket line.Kavikara delivered a mix of conventional spin and straighter ones and trappedMichael Cramner lbw with one that kept low and straight. He then hadSteven Smith and Dom O’Brien stumped as Australia slipped further.Both batsmen left their crease, realised they were beaten by the length and tried to defend, but the ball spun past the outside edge and the wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal, who was involved in seven dismissals, did the rest. Kavikara finished with 3 for 20off ten overs. Pathirana, who was limping during his first spell, bowled flat and fast to hit James Faulkner on the pads as he tried to play across the line.The watertight performance from the spinners was in contrast to the displays of thenew-ball bowlers, Tissara Perera and Denuwan Fernando. Although Tissara and Fernando beat the Australian openers whenever the length was right,they strayed often on either side of the wicket, which allowed Hughes tocut and flick powerfully. The start was steady: Australia were 22 for noloss after five overs and they accelerated after Hill’s arrival to get therun-rate to six.The Sri Lankan innings also got off to a brisk start, although Lahiru Thirimanne lost his off stump to the left-arm new-ball bowler Faulkner early on. The other opener, Dilshan Munaweera, was a treat to watch. He didn’t play the other group games because of a finger injury but his innings – 43 off 42 balls – ambushed Australia and gave Sri Lanka an ideal platform while chasing a small target.Munaweera is a short, stocky right-hand batsman who has a cavalier approach. He looked to attack from the outset, playing ambitious drives, cuts and pulls. Though he was beaten a few times and inside-edged a couple, he did not change his mindset. He was hit in the midriff by James Pattinson but responded by square driving and lofting to the point and long-off boundaries.Three more fours came off Munaweera’s bat in the fifth over – a fierce pull, a slash over point and an elegant and orthodox cover drive. He also took on Faulkner, who wasbowling at considerable pace, and smashed him twice to the long-off boundary. By the time he holed out to long-off from Clive Rose’s left-arm spin, the Sri Lankan run-chase was on course.The former Sri Lankan batsman Aravinda de Silva, who is a consultant with the under-19 team said Munaweera’s approach was part of a plan. “In this particular innings, I wanted him to be more positive and aggressive,” he said. “Particularly against Australia, we needed it.” There was a minor hiccup as they lost another wicket – Chandimal – to Rose a few balls later, but a 76-run stand between Angelo Perera and Ashan Priyanjan helped seal the win.

The Karnataka – Hyderabad encounter petered out to a tame draw on the fourthand final day at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium at Bangalore. When ‘play’ wascalled, openers Daniel Manohar and Nandakishore were at the crease with 9and 0 respectively. Having been forced the ignominy of a follow on,Hyderabad showed that their batting had more stuff than was on display intheir first essay. Manohar, who grafted well, was caught at forward shortleg off the bowling of Sunil Joshi just one run short of his fifty. Thisbrought Ranji Trophy star VVS Laxman to the crease.The day belonged to the him, and he celebrated his recall to the Indian team by scoring an unbeaten century. In the previous season, Laxman made over a thousand runs in the Ranji Trophy. His innings of 100 not out (159 balls, 11 fours, 1 six) helped Hyderabad reach 233 at stumps. In the meantime, Nandakishore was snared by Anand Yalvigi for 43. Vanka Pratap (26 not out) and Laxman (100 not out) saved Hyderabad the blushes.

Andrew Strauss says he is still coming to terms with being omitted from England’s Test squad for the tour of Sri Lanka and has yet to decide on his next option. After a poor 12 months he was overlooked in favour of Owais Shah and Ravi Bopara, the first time he has been dropped from the Test side since his debut in 2004.”To say that it hurts is a massive understatement. In truth it is the culmination of a long, tiring and immensely frustrating 12 months in which little has gone my way,” Strauss wrote in . “I have been a victim of some poor umpiring decisions, some unfortunate dismissals and a few incredibly good balls delivered at just the wrong moment. But I still have to take responsibility for my less than satisfactory contributions.”When the squad was announced David Graveney, the chairman of selectors, said Strauss, who has a central contract, will still come into consideration for the New Zealand tour next February. Strauss is set to have a meeting with Graveney next week to discuss his options, which include being part of the development squad in India or following the same path as Steve Harmison and playing for an overseas team.”I am determined to take a little time to let the news and disappointment settle in before deciding how best to plan the fight to get my spot back,” he said. “Some further time away from the game, regaining hunger and desire, may be beneficial. But over the longer term the only way I can rediscover the habit of scoring runs is by playing, so I will have to look into the opportunities available.”

The West Indies Cricket Board has denied reports in the local media that Ken Gordon, its president, has resigned, but it has confirmed that he did offer to do so in a letter sent on April 17.Rumours started circulating on Sunday that Gordon had quit, prompting the denial from the board. But in a terse statement, it was acknowledged that he had been asked to reconsider stepping down and that the situation would be discussed at a meeting of the full board on April 29.”The situation which now exists might have been avoided if WICB had been more aggressive in addressing these problems over the years,” Gordon wrote.”This includes our current administration for our choices have not delivered.”We should be seen to be taking responsibility from the top if this is to be the culture of the future. I, therefore, propose to tender my resignation as president to send an indisputable signal of how the board will in future address the issue of accountability.”The WICB will have a genuine fresh and healthy start. A new president, a new captain, a new coach, a cleaned up financial situation; strong financial injections into the cricket boards; a new and experienced CEO with a good management team and credibility in the eyes of the public. There is much to recommend this and if we can minimise dislocation it is the right thing to do.”The captain and coach have already gone, and if Gordon also steps down then it will signal an almost fresh start for West Indies cricket.

South African pathologist Lorna Martin has told the inquest that former Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer had died of natural causes by pointing to flaws in the original autopsy conducted by Jamaican government pathologist Ere Sheshiah. Martin is the third pathologist after Nathaniel Cary and Michael Pollanen to conclude that Woolmer did not die of manual strangulation.Martin, who signed the cremation certificate after Woolmer’s body arrived in South Africa, said she had reached the conclusion after viewing a video of Sheshiah’s autopsy.”It doesn’t appear that the international practice was followed in the examination of the neck,” Martin testified on Tuesday. “I am of the opinion that he died of natural causes.”Pollanen, the Canadian pathologist, had told the inquest on Monday he was aware that a toxin had been detected in Woolmer’s body, though he wasn’t certain about the details. When asked to justify her findings, Martin said there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that Woolmer was weakened with the toxin before being allegedly strangled.”My disagreement with the cause of death (of strangulation) doesn’t come from whether the person was weakened or not, but comes from the injury or lack of injuries,” she said.The inquest is expected to end on November 9.

Peter Fulton is likely to open and Hamish Marshall will slot in at No. 3 in New Zealand’s first Super Eights match against West Indies on Thursday. Marshall should slip straight into the side when he arrives in the Caribbean as New Zealand’s top-order injury worries continue.Marshall replaced Lou Vincent in the squad after Vincent suffered a broken wrist during a practice session, while a hamstring strain should keep Ross Taylor out of Thursday’s game. Stephen Fleming said the enforced changes were not ideal but Fulton and Marshall had the ability to help New Zealand progress.”Pete is a different type of player [to Vincent] and if anything his form is outstanding,” Fleming told . “To leave him out of the first couple of games was incredibly difficult.”The positive is he gets a chance, and a consistent chance, to bat in one spot for a while. Pete’s played up and down the order knowing he was going to be a utility batter.”Fulton has only opened once in an ODI, on debut in 2004. He was in strong form in the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy series in February but has only had one opportunity at the World Cup, making 47 against Canada.Fleming said coming to the West Indies and being asked to play immediately would be tough for Marshall, who made 80 in New Zealand’s domestic State Championship on Monday. “It’s going to be a big challenge for Hamish and certainly the team realises that,” he said.”We’ll do everything possible to make sure he’s ready to go. It’s a pretty important 36 hours but I guess knowing he’s going to play, coming off some runs at home and being back in the team will give him some energy and adrenalin.”Fleming said New Zealand hoped to put their eventful few days behind them and move on to the important business of trying to win Super Eights matches. “It’s been a dramatic week with Lou going and Rosco [Taylor] working hard on getting back, it has changed the balance of the side,” Fleming said.”But the core is still there and the bonus has been we’ve had six days to adjust – it hasn’t been thrown on us the day before a game so we’ve been able to prepare mentally for it. The best thing is the [first-choice] bowlers are still intact, they’ve been the usual suspects.”New Zealand’s match against West Indies is at Antigua and the hosts will have to play three days in a row after their game against Australia on Tuesday was interrupted by rain. West Indies would have to bat on Wednesday, the reserve day, before facing up to New Zealand barely 24 hours later.