Makhaya Ntini has revealed that he predicted his own success in the second Test against the West Indies in Trinidad. Ntini, who claimed a career-best 7 for 37 in the second innings, also finished with the best bowling figures (13 for 132) by a South African in a Test.”On the first day, before I left my hotel room, I said: ‘This is going to be my Test’,” Ntini was quoted as saying in . “Everybody who bowls in a Test for South Africa is going to want to do better than that now. It’s all about dedication, I knew things could turn around.”Ntini led the attack in the absence of the injured Shaun Pollock, and engineered South Africa’s comfortable eight-wicket win. The South African bowlers came back strongly after being hammered in the first Test, and dismissed West Indies for just 194 on the final day.Satisfied with his team’s performance, Graeme Smith said that his bowlers were aggressive with the ball. “We let ourselves down on the first three days in Guyana, and it’s great to be able to fight back and get something out of it. It’s been a hard-working Test, even behind the scenes, and it’s a great feeling to come out of it victorious.”However, West Indies had a lot to worry about, including the number of no-balls bowled – the count after the first two Tests stands at 67. “There were a cluster of things that made us not perform as well as we could have,” said Bennett King, their coach. “The no-balls certainly cost us in this match. We didn’t bowl one no-ball in training, but what we’ve seen in the match is the result of changes in rhythm and tempo.”There were also two or three shots the players probably wish they had not played,” King continued. “The West Indies side has plenty of skill, and we need to combine that with better fitness.”South Africa now prepare for a two-day tour match against the University of the West Indies Vice-Chancellor’s XI in Trinidad which starts on April 16 before resuming the Test series in Bridgetown on April 21.

It’s grim up north, as Southerners are wont to say, but few prospects can have been grimmer than the one facing the Bangladeshis, as they geared up for the second Test at Chester-le-Street on Friday. Under overcast skies – which looked leaden enough to make the new ball sing on a fresh Riverside wicket, but not quite sufficient to cause any much-needed rain delays to aid their cause – Bangladesh prepared for the unpalatable task of salvaging their pride after a desperate first Test.It will not be an easy task. The most disappointing aspect of the Lord’s debacle was not the size of the defeat – in alien conditions, that much had been anticipated long in advance. What was more depressing was the manner of the capitulation. England, by their own admission, bowled woefully in the first hour and yet were gifted a succession of wickets by batsmen who believed they had won the lottery overnight. From Allan Border to Andrew Strauss, many of the most successful cricketers in the game have made a virtue of batting within their limitations – not, as Habibul Bashar demonstrated, by swinging wildly at anything dropped a fraction short or wide.Bangladesh, like England, have resisted the urge to ring the changes – at least those in the Lord’s XI now know what is about to hit them. They will make a late decision on their 16-year-old Mushfiqur Rahim, who sprained his ankle on a flight of stairs, while the seamer, Tapash Baisya, has been added the reckoning after missing the first match with an Achilles injury.Bangladesh’s coach, Dav Whatmore, sounded a warning to his players and the public earlier in the week, when he expressed his concerns about the challenge that awaited at Chester-le-Street. Today, however, he was bullish once again, and scoffed at suggestions that Bangladesh should be stripped of their Test status. “We are a full Test match nation,” he said. “That’s where we belong and where we will stay,”The quest for respect is a double-edged sword, however, and the more that Bangladesh demand to be accepted on this tour, the harder they are likely to be slapped back into place. For Michael Vaughan and England, the temptation to experiment with their batting order must be great, seeing as key personnel such as Andrew Flintoff and Geraint Jones did not get any time in the middle at Lord’s.But instead they have named the same XI, including the redundant Gareth Batty ahead of the seamer Jon Lewis, who would have revelled in these conditions just as Richard Johnson did in 2003 (6 for 33 on debut against Zimbabwe). With the Australians due to arrive midway through the match, now is hardly the time for England to step on what Michael Vaughan metaphysically described as “a potential banana skin”.”You want players to get time in the middle,” Vaughan told reporters at Chester-le-Street, “but you’ve got to be respectful of the game as well. As soon as you start being clever it comes back and bites you.” Nevertheless, with Andrew Flintoff fit and firing on all cylinders again after his ankle surgery, the outlook is bleak for Bangladesh. Even his apparently half-pace workout at Lord’s last week resulted in five wickets from 14.5 overs.”It was a huge bonus having him bowl in the first Test,” said Vaughan, “and it’s an even bigger bonus knowing we can use him just that little bit more now. I wasn’t expecting him to be bowling again until maybe halfway through the one-day games, so it just shows how hard he’s worked on his rehab and how well the medical staff have done to get him back playing again.”Sadly, it will take more than medical staff to put Bangladesh back together again if this Test follows the same pattern as the first Test. “Given the weather we have had the pitch might be more difficult to negotiate than Lord’s,” Whatmore reiterated. All he, and the cricket-loving public as a whole, can hope for is that they can put up a fight, however futile.

Cricket Australia has said that it has no immediate plans to start playing Twenty20 matches, although it will continue to monitor the situation.James Sutherland, CA’s chief executive, said that the absence of any formal international competition meant it did not demand integration into an already-packed summer schedule.”We’re not wanting to jump into it,” Sutherland explained. “I guess one of our observations of it is that Pura Cup and ING Cup have talent development functions for the Australian cricket team. There’s no international cricket that’s played in the 20-over format so in some ways we’re reluctant to tinker with what is a tried and true format, that works really well for the success of our national team.”Twenty20 cricket has been a massive success in England where crowds have flocked to games. In July, more than 28,000 watched Middlesex play Surrey at Lord’s in a zonal match. It has also been successfully launched in South Africa, and other countries are adding it to domestic programmes.Australia are scheduled to play the first international 20-over game in New Zealand this season, and one against England during the Ashes tour in 2005.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball

Andrew Strauss filled his boots against the Bangladesh attack for the third time in the NatWest Series as England comfortably sealed their place in the final with a five-wicket win at Headingley. Strauss was out with just one run needed, for 98, following Andrew Flintoff’s 4 for 29 which restricted Bangladesh after they made a promising start.Strauss attempted to finish the match in the grand manner, by reaching his century, but was bowled by Manjural Islam, the ball after hitting a six to get within two runs of his milestone (208 for 5). It was another impressive innings from Strauss and it is important that he now starts to take this form into the remaining matches against Australia – starting at Edgbaston on Tuesday.A target of 209 was never going to be enough to trouble England, especially when Strauss and Marcus Trescothick continued to gorge themselves on the Bangladesh bowling. Trescothick was in great touch again and it was a surprise when he got a feathered edge against Manjural for 43 – a relative failure against after his previous scores of 100* and 85 against Bangladesh in the tournament.Habibul Bashar was forced to turn to his spinners – Manjural and Mohammad Rafique – within the 15 overs and Trescothick took advantage and slog-swept into the Western Terrace (or Stand as it now prefers to be known). However, Manjural got his revenge when Trescothick tried another dab to third-man and got the thinnest of edges to Khaled Mashud (99 for 1).Flintoff was promoted to No. 3 but he again failed to make the most of his opportunity when he fell lbw sweeping at Rafique (134 for 2). Kevin Pietersen gave the Headingley crowd a brief glimpse of his power, clearing the midwicket boundary once during his 23, before finding long-on as he attempted to win the match quickly (182 for 4).

Bangladesh stuttered to 208 for 7 as England’s bowling improved after a poor start with Flintoff leading the resurgence with another menacing spell. Javed Omar provided the backbone to the innings with 81 from 150 balls and Mashud brought some much needed late acceleration with 42 off 43.Omar’s innings was a model of concentration and he largely managed to eradicated the cross-batted shots that have been is downfall in this series. But at times it was questionable whether he was doing more harm than good to the innings. However, after their rapid collapse against Australia yesterday they can be forgiven for ensuring they batted out their 50 overs.Simon Jones gained a useful workout. He grabbed the first wicket to fall, when Shahriar Nafees edged a expansive cut to first slip, where Trescothick took a well-judged low catch (22 for 1).But Flintoff was easily the pick of England’s seam attack after they generally wasted the new ball in a lazy display of bowling and fielding. As Tushar Imran attempted to increase the scoring rate he chopped into his stumps after comfortably scoring at a run-a-ball (92 for 2). It was typical of so many Bangladesh dismissals on this tour, with a batsman doing all the hardwork then losing concentration at the vital time.Mohammad Ashraful had a perfect base to continue his scintillating form, but picked out Trescothick at midwicket from his first ball (92 for 3). Flintoff was then within a whisker of a hat-trick – although not as close as Tremlett last week – when Habibul Bashar just managed to get his pad outside off stump.But Bashar did not last much longer and became another victim of Paul Collingwood’s sharp fielding in the covers. Omar dropped the ball and set off for a single but Bashar’s dive was not quite enough to get him home as Collingwood’s underarm flick just clipped the stumps (112 for 4). When Aftab Ahmed was bowled by Ashley Giles, Bangladesh had lost all their momentum (138 for 5) but Mashud used his experience to ensure they at least passed 200 and gave England a decent chase.Although not the most convincing of England’s performances against Bangladesh, they still got the job done with plenty of time to spare. Now the attention turns firmly to Australia for the rest of the summer. Although Tuesday’s game has no bearing on the final, some important psychological points can be scored ahead of the Lord’s showdown.

On the performance today
We are very happy with the performance. To be 3 for 160 at the end of the day is very satisfying for us. There was a good bit of time for all the players who batted.On the rain delay
Yes, but we can’t do anything about that. We got a chance to get used to the conditions.On the Mumbai attack
The attack was very good in terms of work divided. I think Ajit Agarkar is very much in consideration with the Indian selectors. I thought the use of [Ramesh] Powar, the offspinner, early on was a good move by the Mumbai team. It was good for us, too, as it gave Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer a chance to experience a slower bowler from the outset. I think it was very useful for us as a batting team.On Ricky Ponting missing the second Test
I think we basically thought that it was unlikely he would play in the second Test. I think he, like all of us, knew that that would be the outcome. So it’s good that his thumb is recovering well, and we expect him during the second Test and hopefully he will return for the third Test.Selection for this game
The players that we left out will be relatively comfortable about their own preparation. So that gave the opportunity to other players who we needed to see in match circumstances.On Simon Katich batting at No. 3
That is not completely certain for the Tests, but it is one of the options we have. We are getting closer to understanding what our final combination will be, so there is every chance that Katich batting at No. 3 will be one of the options when the selectors sit down to pick the team.

Imagine three or four Shane Bonds competing for the right to take the new ball for New Zealand into a Test match.Unlikely, improbable, impossible, could never happen?As they say in Porgy and Bess, “It Ain’t Necessarily So.”Hamilton-based Rene Ferdinands is doing a PhD study into bowling actions.It is a study that is breaking new ground.He has already done 10 years study into a qualitative biomechanical analysis of batting technique based on thousands of hours of video footage, and the specified methods of Sir Garfield Sobers. This study has resulted in a practical set of optimal batting techniques which will be the subject of further biomechanical testing soon.One of the findings already made is the answer to a long-standing question for cricket players: What is the difference between a good batsmen and an elite batsmen?Ferdinands’ study showed that it may be due to a difference in contact point of about six inches.The optimal batting stance is used by the world’s greatest players and Ferdinands has found that even average batsmen can significantly improve their batting ability by using this stance, which often involves just a slight change in posture and a small redistribution of body weight.The prospective benefits for New Zealand cricket from having research work of this type done here are inestimable but will be dependent on his being able to secure employment here once his studies are completed.But it is bowling techniques that have captured his attention at the moment.The 33-year-old Sri Lankan-born academic, who made a first-class appearance for Northern Districts after living in Australia for 20 years, said the primary objective of his study was to get a biomechanics position in New Zealand to work with bowlers and batsmen in this country and to help develop New Zealand cricketers to be the best in the world.His research is ground-breaking as no-one else in the world has done dynamic analysis of bowling actions. There have been other types of studies in other aspects but not in the area Ferdinands is working in.He earned a Bachelor of Engineering in Australia and then did a Masters in biomechanics and his PhD involved developing a model through mathematics and dynamics to allow him to study bowling actions.At the core of his study has been dynamics, which is the analysis of a moving system using forces and torques. Forces accelerate a body in a straight line, whereas torques cause a body to rotate faster.One of the first accepted norms that he has had to dispose of is the notion of bowlers having to “bend their back” to get extra speed.The torque on the lower back acts to resist the rate of flexion. This means that the lower back is flexed passively, resulting from the motion of other body segments.”If you want to bowl a ball fast, you don’t have to make a conscious effort to bend the lower back,” he said.Pace is actively generated from other parts of the action, hip rotation or arm action being two aspects.Ferdinands said one of the major problems facing cricket in New Zealand is over-coaching of bowlers.”A lot of established beliefs about how a bowler generates power don’t seem to stand up under dynamic analysis.”There are too many theories which have not been substantiated and which in fact compromise the bowling actions.”Slowly, by his progressive research, Ferdinands is getting to the position of being able to address these issues.He doesn’t believe there is a perfect action but there are definitely some that are more optimal than others.Any bowler who bowled faster than 140km/h had a good action and in New Zealand he placed Richard Hadlee, Bond and Ian Butler in this category.The reason was that bowlers of this pace either tended to have developed naturally without a lot of changes being made to their actions or developed efficient techniques that suited their natural characteristics. Though their actions may look quite different, all other things being equal, the fastest bowlers generally use more efficient actions.”Malcolm Marshall and Curtly Ambrose had different actions but they were efficient.”A lot of fast bowling has got to do with natural ability and the issue for coaches is to know when to let a bowler deliver the ball naturally, and when to intervene and make a judicious technical adjustment,” he said.Other aspects were important in developing speed, such as how to brace the front leg.”Coaches will tell you to brace the front leg, but not how.””How to use the front arm is another thing.”Ferdinands said it was his experience that New Zealand was more guilty of over-coaching its bowlers than most other countries. England and New Zealand were similar in this, he said.”If you look at Pakistan, they let their bowlers just come in and bowl, and the West Indies in the 1980s had no coaches to change their bowlers’ actions for the worse,” he said.While Ferdinands has been working on a special programme with New Zealand Cricket and its bowlers, through an arrangement with the University of Auckland, he was finding that there was more interest from overseas in what he was doing than there was in New Zealand.He hopes that doesn’t always remain the case as the whole objective of his work is to use his expertise to help develop New Zealand’s batsmen and bowlers of the future.”There is an opportunity to make a significant improvement in the bowlers in the future. We could have three or four Bonds rather than one,” he said.There would be short-term benefits from his work, but the real benefits would be 10 years into the future.New Zealand Cricket’s sports science co-ordinator Warren Frost said Ferdinands’ work was essential to further develop New Zealand’s player pool.The valuable point in his work was the modelling he was doing.It allowed an assessment to be made of the effects of possible changes to a player’s action before they were implemented.”There is a lot of exciting potential in his work but the question is whether we will be capable of keeping him in New Zealand.”Hopefully we can. What he is doing is at the sharp end of being at the edge which is where we always want to be,” Frost said.Because of his interest in cricket, Ferdinands was bringing mathematics to bear to go alongside the work of bio-mechanists and that was where he was unique.”It is not often you get a mathematician who is interested in sport,” Frost said.

John Wright will be the coach of the Rest of the World in the forthcoming Super Series in Australia, it has been realiably learnt. The series, to be held in October, will include one six-day Test and three one-day internationals between Australia and the Rest of the World. A formal announcement on the appointment is expected on Monday.Wright was coach of the Indian team from 2000-01 to 2004-05, and helped them achieve some famous victories, including series wins against Australia and Pakistan, and a drawn Test series in Australia. Wright’s tenure ended in disappointing fashion, though, with a drawn Test series and defeat in the one-dayers at home against Pakistan, after which Greg Chappell took over as coach of the side.Meanwhile, reported that the players participating in the series would each get US$100,000, a figure which includes appearance money.

Australia expect to field an energetic, hometown legspinner for the first match of the Super Series in Melbourne on Wednesday, but fans sensing the one-day return of Shane Warne will be slightly disappointed. Ricky Ponting confirmed that Cameron White, the Victoria captain, would make his international debut after being rustled up when Brad Hogg was ruled out with a knee injury on Monday.Shaun Pollock, the World XI captain, immediately welcomed White, who took two wickets in a warm-up match against them on Sunday, by saying that his batsmen would target him. The threat did not concern Ponting, who is pleased to be getting a look at a young bowler he has heard much about.”It seems as though he handled things pretty well in the Victoria game against them,” Ponting said. “This is a different stage and I’m sure he’ll be a bit nervous, but he had a very good tour in Pakistan [for Australia A].”White is the only new face in the Australian XII after Stuart Clark, who was called up for Shaun Tait, and James Hopes, a one-game international after making his debut in New Zealand, were omitted from the squad. Ponting will name the side’s Supersub before the toss but predicted that White would bowl. “I’m just looking forward to getting to see him play,” he said. “He’s been in and around the Australian set-up and spoken about for a while. Now he gets his opportunity.”Simon Katich would partner Adam Gilchrist at the top of the order and Ponting said that the series was important for the fringe players to start showing their worth as the 2007 World Cup approached. “There’s an opportunity there for guys like Katich, Clark, Hopes and White to play some cricket,” he said, “and for us to get a look at just how good they are.”While Gilchrist has questioned the status of the Super Series as official Test and one-day internationals, Ponting was satisfied with the decision because of the on-field quality. “I believe they should have official status,” he said. “You’ve got the best players from all over the world to play this game so they should have official status.”Following the Ashes loss, Ponting has sensed a shift in supporters’ attitudes and felt that they expected Australia to slip up again. However, Ponting was quick to speak about the team’s success over England in the three-game NatWest Challenge and said that the one-day side’s confidence was not dented.”There’s probably some more expectation on the World because they’re probably expected to win,” he said. “Everyone is probably expecting us to lose this series as well. It’s not the way I’m looking at it and it’s not the way our guys are looking at it. We know we’ll be ultra-competitive in this series if we play the way we can play.”

Shoaib Akhtar believes local conditions in Pakistan and home advantage will play a significant part in the upcoming series between England and Pakistan.On his way to Australia for the Super Series, Shoaib told reporters in Dubai, “The way I look at it England has a very strong side and has just beaten Australia. But still the conditions in Pakistan will be very different than what they are in England. We have the home advantage. Our spinners may trouble England on our wickets. The team which will adapt to the conditions will win.”Shoaib hasn’t played for Pakistan since January this year, when he returned home from the VB Series in Australia with a hamstring injury. That forced him out of the India tour in March and he wasn’t picked for the tour to the West Indies in May on the grounds that he was unfit.In a bid to regain fitness, Shoaib played for Worcestershire this summer, although even his appearances there were sporadic; on a pay-as-you-play contract, Shoaib played in only four championship games, picking up 14 wickets. He also picked up seven wickets in five National League one-day matches, although six of the victims came in one game. He played in the recent Afro-Asia Cup where, apart from appearing considerably fitter than in recent times, he also bowled a few searing spells.Speaking about his fitness troubles, Shoaib said, “I have simply learnt to accept my injuries. Fast bowlers are bound to get injured and so one cannot help it. I missed out on two tours (India and West Indies). I cannot get them back. So I have decided to try my best to be fit.”He also said he was looking forward to testing himself against and among the very best in the game and that playing for the World XI was a great honour for him. “I am not surprised to be picked for the Rest of the World side. I consider it a great honour. It will help me know the top players more closely. We often play only against each other but never together. It is good for cricket.”Shoaib is the only Pakistani player to be included in both the World XI Test and one-day sides by the International Cricket Council selection committee. Others, such as Inzamam-ul-Haq will only play in the Super Series Test in Sydney while Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzaq will be in the one-day squad.

Bermuda, Ireland, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have announced their squads for the ICC Intercontinental Cup semi-finals and finals beginning on October 23 in Namibia.Bermuda will play Kenya and the UAE will square off against Ireland in the semi-finals from October 23 to 25. The finals will be held at the Wanderer’s Club in Windhoek from October 27 to 29.The purpose of the ICC Intercontinental Cup, a first-class tournament for non Test-playing nations, is to give these countries greater exposure to the longer form of the game and hopefully improve their playing standards.Teams
Bermuda
Clay Smith (capt), Janeiro Tucker, Saleem Mukuddem, Dwayne Leverock, Dean Minors, Ryan Steede, Irving Romaine, Kwame Tucker, Kevin Hurdle, Curtis Jackson, Lionel Cann, Hasan Durham, Kevin TuckerIreland
Trent Johnston (capt), Conor Armstrong, Andre Botha, Jeremy Bray, Peter Gillespie, Dominick Joyce, Kyle McCallan, Adrian McCoubrey, Paul Mooney, Eoin Morgan, Niall O’Brien, Greg Thompson, Andrew WhiteKenya
Steve Tikolo (capt), Thomas Odoyo, Kennedy Otieno, Maurice Ouma, Kalpesh Patel, Ragheb Aga, Lameck Onyango, Collins Obuya, Mohammed Sheikh, Peter Ongondo, Martin Suji, Hitesh Modi, Tony SujiUAE
Arshad Ali (capt), Muhammad Taskeen, Imran Ali, Rameez Shahzad, Kashif Ahmed, Vairamoorthy Sockalingam, Sameer Zia, Ali Asad Abbas, Rizwan Ahmed, Fahad Alhashmi, Usman Saleem, Marlon Fernando, Fahad Usman