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Michael Vaughan has mixed memories of his two Tests at the SinhaleseSports Club. On his first visit in 2000-01, he fought his way backinto the side at the expense of Graeme Hick, and played a supportingrole in a famous series-sealing win. Three years later, however, onhis first tour as captain, Vaughan experienced cricket’s emotionalflip-side, as Sri Lanka routed his new charges by the record margin ofan innings and 215 runs.There’s no room for a repeat of such a scoreline on this visit.Regardless of the positives that England claim to have carried withthem from Kandy, they remain 1-0 down in the series and in seriousdanger of losing their exalted status as the second-best side in theworld. Since the tour of Pakistan in December 2005, England have lostnine Tests out of 12 on foreign soil, with just one win to show fortheir efforts – Andrew Flintoff’s Ring of Fire-inspired triumph at Mumbai in March 2006.Vaughan personally can take very little of the blame for that record,having been injured for all but three of those contests, but asEngland’s most successful captain of all time, he knows full well it’sa record that needs redressing, and fast. Unfortunately, the SSC isnot the most hospitable venue for visiting sides. Since England’svictory in 2000-01, Sri Lanka have won 10 out of 12 matches – six byan innings and one by 10 wickets. Only the Australians, in a classiccontest in 2003-04, have had the better of them, and even theycouldn’t prevent Muttiah Muralitharan picking up eight wickets alongthe way.”We need to start playing some good cricket,” said Vaughan, as Englandcompleted their final practice session before Saturday’s 10am start.”We have to learn from our experiences at Kandy, move on from that,and react in a positive way. First and foremost, one of the buildingblocks of a good side is: can they show that inner fight? But you needto have that expertise as well, and that’s the one area we have toimprove.”England fought hard at Kandy, without any question, but they were ateam gripped by naivety at critical stages of the first Test. Theywere paralysed by Murali’s menace in the first innings, and thencollapsed to the seamers second-time around just when it seemed they’dcome to terms with the conditions. And in between whiles, of course,they missed crucial opportunities in the field – not least where KumarSangakkara was concerned. “We got ourselves into some greatpositions,” said Vaughan. “We got enough out of that game to suggestSri Lanka are very beatable on their home shore.”The hasty turnaround between Tests is not too much of a hindrance,according to Vaughan. The cool hilly conditions at Kandy were notremotely as sapping as the sticky humidity that has greeted them inthe past at Galle. But the match did take its toll in one respect.Matthew Hoggard, the best of England’s seamers by a distance, has beenruled out because of his back injury, which leaves a very significantexperience void to be filled.The smart money suggests it will be Steve Harmison who fills it.He has not played a Test since the West Indies series in June, and onthis tour he has looked indifferent as well as insipid in his variousappearances at the nets and in the middle. But in England’s finalpractice he galloped to the crease with his enthusiasm reignited, andgave all the batsmen – especially Ian Bell – a serious hurry-up.Opportunities must surely be running out for a man who has contributednext to nothing to Peter Moores’ new regime, but now is not the timeto give up on a character who was once ranked as the best bowler inthe world.

When discussing his maverick team-mate, Vaughan had the look of a manwho was fed up of waiting for the inspiration to return to his game,but he hid it well in his words. “I’ve had a lot of great days withSteve Harmison,” said Vaughan. “If you ask any opposition player inthe world who they don’t want to face in the England set-up, it’susually Steve Harmison’s name that crops up. He knows he’s close to aTest match and very close to getting into an eleven, so I fully expecthim to bowl the way he did today. He’s running in full of gas, andSteve at his best has to bowl at a rate of knots. I look forward, ifhe’s selected, to standing at mid-off and watching him bowl.”For all that England were undone in the first Test, Vaughan’sassertion that Sri Lanka are vulnerable is not without foundation. InSangakkara and Muralitharan, they possess the top-ranked batsman andbowler in all of Test cricket – an incredible achievement for acountry so small – but beyond those two, Sri Lanka’s quality and formis not so thick on the ground. “Take those two out of their attack,and [Chaminda] Vaas, and they are a very inexperienced team,” saidVaughan. “That’s what we’ve got to try to get into. If we get thosesenior players out quickly, and play Murali and Vaas well, we can tryto exploit their inexperience.”That is especially true at the top of the order, where there will beno Sanath Jayasuriya to torment the English bowlers. The last timeHarmison encountered the Sri Lankans, at Headingley in the fifth ODIin 2006, Jayasuriya lacerated him for 97 runs in ten overs, flinginghis forearms at his short wide offerings en route to 152 from 99deliveries. Sanath’s sidekick that day was one Upul Tharanga, who willnow partner Michael Vandort in his first Test since the visit ofBangladesh in July, but the memories of his own century at Headingleywill not compensate for the undoubted nerves he will be feeling.Further down the batting card, Jehan Mubarak is in need of runs, aftermaking 0 and 9 in the first Test, and Chamara Silva failed to convincewith his form either. But England’s struggles are every bit as acute.Ian Bell produced two stylish but ultimately insubstantial innings atKandy, but he was a lone success among the top six. Vaughan, KevinPietersen and Paul Collingwood each made starts without a singlehalf-century between them, while Alastair Cook was suckered twice inseven balls by Vaas’s subtle swingers.Vaughan, however, was adamant that the best remedy for the Kandyexperience was to get straight back and do it all again. “It wasmentally draining, especially losing, but physically we’re fine,” hesaid. That includes James Anderson, who has been labouring with anankle problem since the warm-ups and has at times looked every bit ashangdog as Harmison. There’s no room for moping in the next five days,however. The fate of the series depends on England’sbouncebackability.Sri Lanka (probable) 1 Upul Tharanga, 2 Michael Vandort, 3Kumar Sangakkara, 4 Mahela Jayawardene (capt), 5 Chamara Silva, 6Jehan Mubarak, 7 Prasanna Jayawardene (wk), 8 Chaminda Vaas, 9 DilharaFernando, 10 Lasith Malinga, 11 Muttiah Muralitharan.England (probable) 1 Alastair Cook, 2 Michael Vaughan (capt), 3Ian Bell, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Ravi Bopara, 7 MattPrior (wk), 8 Ryan Sidebottom, 9 Steve Harmison, 10 James Anderson, 11Monty Panesar.

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Jimmy Maher emphatically bounced back from his form slump and Ryan Broad made his first substantial Pura Cup contribution as Queensland closed in on first-innings points at Brisbane. The Bulls, who reached 4 for 325, could have already taken the lead had they not let South Australia’s last pair, Shane Deitz and Shaun Tait, build a frustrating 89-run partnership in the morning session.In reply to the visitors’ 377, Maher and Broad put Queensland in command with a 263-run opening stand before the Redbacks claimed 3 for 13 to halt the home team’s momentum. Maher’s 169 was easily his best score this season – his previous highest was 52 – and he cracked 25 boundaries before Jason Gillespie finally broke the partnership and trapped him lbw.Broad, playing only his fifth first-class match, passed fifty for the first time but fell agonisingly short of a maiden century when Gillespie had him caught behind for 95. Greg Moller, the Queensland debutant, fell victim to Tait’s pace for 0 and at the close Clinton Perren (26 not out) and Chris Hartley (6 not out) were in charge of overhauling the Redbacks’ total.The Bulls wanted to wrap up South Australia’s innings early but Tait and Deitz added 54 to their overnight score. Their stand was the Redbacks’ finest tenth-wicket partnership – the previous was a measly 32 by Tim May and Chris Owen in 1991-92 – and ended when Ashley Noffke removed Deitz for 98. Noffke was the star in a mixed Queensland bowling effort, finishing with 6 for 87.

ScorecardLeon Johnson led West Indies to a victory in a last-over thriller over Pakistan in the second one-dayer at Karachi. Johnson anchored West Indies’ innings with an excellent hundred, before taking two crucial catches to deny the hosts by seven runs.Johnson came to the crease with his side struggling on 37 for 1, and quickly assumed the anchor role; only Kieron Pollard hung around with him for any length of time and the pair put on a vital partnership of 110 for the fifth wicket. Pollard’s departure, for 52, spelled the end of the innings: West Indies crumbled from 242 for 5 to 260 all out.With Mohammad Ibrahim making a steady fifty, and useful contributions from Ali Khan (39) and the captain Sarfraz Ahmed (34), Pakistan chipped away at the target and were still in the hunt for 261 until the final over. Jamshed Ahmed (20) and Imad Wasim (19*) put on 38 for the final wicket, before Ahmed was run out to give the visitors a seven-run win, squaring the series 1-1.

The chances of this year’s Ashes series in England being seen live on Australian terrestrial television have receded with the news that the ABC is not considering a bid for the rights.The Brisbane Courier-Mail quoted Ian Knight, ABC’s head of television, as saying: “The ABC has to consider the needs of the whole ABC audience. We have to consider regular viewers would be deprived of some shows they have been watching for long periods. Also, we are not a rich organisation and it has been some time since we made a bid for commercial rights on a major sporting event.”Channel 9, who devote a lot of air-time to Australia’s home series, say that the timing of this year’s series is awkward for them: “We have Wimbledon, the AFL and the rugby league to fit in as well, so it is very hard to do justice to it all.”That leaves Channel 7, who broadcast the 2001 Ashes series from England, as the only realistic free-to-air contender – and with pay-TV channel Fox Sports having already purchased the rights and planning to broadcast every ball of the Tests and one-day internationals, it seems unlikely that 7 will make a bid.

One of Zimbabwe cricket’s most respected and dedicated administrators, Peter Keen, died on November 25 at the age of 60 after a long battle with cancer.Keen was a former Zimbabwe Cricket Union board member and chairman of the Mashonaland Country Districts Winter Cricket Association, serving on the committee for about 30 years. Former national wicketkeeper Don Arnott, also a stalwart of Districts cricket, said, "The thing that stands out the most about him was his dedication and his total love of the game."Mr Keen had a degree at the local university and was for years a lecturer at Gwebi Agricultural College not far from Harare, and also Henderson Research Station near Glendale, north of Harare, and these were his contacts with Districts cricket. Gwebi at that time fielded a team in the Lilthurbridge Cup, the Districts competition, although he was a modest player. He later worked for National Foods in Harare.In 1981 he was the liaison officer for the first Young West Indies team to tour Zimbabwe, which was captained by Faoud Bacchus, and he befriended the manager Cammie Smith.The Zimbabwe team wore black armbands in his memory as they took part in the third ODI against West Indies at Harare Sports Club, and both sides observed a minute’s silence before the match.He is survived by his wife, Cathy, and two sons, Gavin and Andrew.

Less than a week ago South Africa were languishing at the foot of the VB Series table. On Friday night, however, Shaun Pollock’s team became the first side to qualify for next week’s finals with a crushing 67-run victory over New Zealand at the WACA in Perth.In winning South Africa picked up their second bonus point of the series, the significance of which is that it makes an already awkward task for Australia back at the WACA on Sunday even more difficult. Despite being hammered on Friday, New Zealand could also reach the finals if Australia fail to take maximum points of South Africa on Sunday.Set 271 to win, New Zealand never really got going after Makhaya Ntini had struck two early blows for South Africa. There was a belligerent 46 from Craig McMillan in the middle of the innings, but New Zealand lost wickets regularly all along the way and South Africa’s 270 for five was at no stage under serious threat.In fact, New Zealand found themselves in the unusual position of having to decide whether it would make sense to pursue the 217 that would have denied South Africa their bonus point. The complication in this equation, of course, is that by allowing the South Africans the extra point, New Zealand have almost certainly given themselves a slightly better chance of reaching the finals at Australia’s expense.Of course, New Zealand would obviously have loved to have been masters of their own fate by beating South Africa and after sending Shaun Pollock’s side in to bat and reducing them to 35 for four, this ambition appeared well within their reach.But, as was the case in Adelaide last Sunday, Jonty Rhodes and Mark Boucher dragged their team back into the match. In Adelaide the pair added 86 for the fifth wicket; this time around then partnership went on to reach 138.It must have been heartbreaking for New Zealand, coming after Dion Nash seemed to have made light of the absence of Shane Bond and Chris Cairns in a devastating seven-over opening burst that brought him three for 20.But Rhodes and Boucher batted with enormous common sense and application to put the innings back together again and the longer the stayed there, the more New Zealand missed Bond and Cairns. Boucher finally went tamely for 58, chipping Chris Harris to midwicket, but then Rhodes moved to only his second one-day century before Shaun Pollock went on the rampage.Boucher was out in the 41st over, allowing the South African captain time to play himself in and survive a chance when Harris dropped a simply catch. It is difficult to recall when a team was last made to pay so dearly and so immediately for a mistake.Pollock was dropped in the 48th over on 27. In the 49th over, bowled by James Franklin, he doubled his score, hitting the left-arm seamer for four successive sixes. The 27 was a record for one-day cricket in Australia and only three off Sanath Jayasuriya’s world record of 30 in an over.And Pollock wasn’t quite finished. He scored 15 more off the final over of the innings to end with 69 off 34 deliveries with six sixes and a four. Rhodes, meanwhile, allowed his captain to get on with it, finishing the innings on 107 not out.It is fair to say that without Rhodes, Pollock might never have been in the position to tee off and it was fitting that the little Natalian earned the man of the match award at the end of the game.South Africa took 72 off the last five overs of their innings and, to all intents and purposes, the match had been snatched away from New Zealand with a suddenness that might have startled even the South Africans. Certainly, the Australians, back in their hotel, would have blinked in astonishment.The stage is set, then, for a titanic clash back at the WACA on Sunday. It is certainly possible that Australia could win – their record against South Africa in important matches will encourage them – but can they earn the all-important bonus point. New Zealand will hope not.

David Townsend and Greg Smith took seven wickets between them as Northerns’overcame the loss of experienced Steve Elworthy to beat Boland by 53 runs.The visitors had been in search of 423 to win after Northerns declared theirsecond innings closed on 343 for four. Boland were dismissed for 132 intheir first innings, to which Northerns replied with 211.The win puts Northerns on top in Group A on 56 points, followed on 51 points by Free State and Boland, on 38.Elworthy was ruled out with flu, but Townsend and Smith stepped into thebreach to take four for 116 and three for 99 respectively.Twenty-year-old Boland opener Henry Davids batted with impressive confidenceand raced to his century off 114 deliveries, an astonishing feat consideringhe was on his Supersport Series debut.Davids lost his opening partner, James Henderson, early on. But a resoluteLouis Koen joined him and the second wicket-pair wrested the initiative fromthe Northerns bowlers in steering their team to 190 for one at lunch.After the break the left-arm spinner, Nigel Brouwers, tied Boland down andeventually had Davids stumped by Kruger van Wyk for 124. He was at thecrease for four hours, faced 190 balls and hit 20 fours.As was the case on Saturday, Boland lost two more wickets in quicksuccession and suddenly looked in trouble on 207 for four.Left-arm paceman Smith, who until that stage had nothing go his way, removedPiet Barnard for nought and Justin Ontong for one.Nineten-year-old Jonathan Trott joined Koen at the wicket and his patiencehelped him steady the ship. But in the absence of Elworthy someone else hadto something special and that player turned out to be swing bowler Townsend.His first victim was Trott, who was caught behind. Next to go was thecourageous Koen.He fell three runs short of a well-deserved century after steering a Townsend away-swinger to Martin van Jaarsveld at second slip. His departure left Boland perilously placed on 292 for six with precious little batting to come.Brad Player didn’t last long before he also got a faint touch to a Townsenddelivery and was caught behind. Charl Langeveldt only managed four runsbefore Townsend brought his effort to an abrupt end.Steven Palframan hung on valiantly and scored 46 valuable runs until Smithcastled him.With Boland on 347 for nine, tailender Andrew Pringle eked out 27 runs. Yethis departure was inevitable and it was perhaps fitting that the homecaptain, Gerald Dros, claimed the final scalp.

India’s limited-overs captain MS Dhoni is pleased with the positives that have come out of the tour of Australia where the visitors lost the first four ODIs before coming back to win the final ODI and all three Twenty20 internationals. In a season where India will now play only T20 cricket till the home World T20 and the IPL, Dhoni feels he might have found a settled bowling unit, a feeling he rarely experiences, and a lot of it is down to the newcomer Jasprit Bumrah, who incidentally would not have made it to the side but for two injuries.While Dhoni expectedly downplayed the T20 whitewash, he went out of his way to praise Bumrah. “The find [of the tour] for me was Bumrah,” Dhoni said. “The way he has bowled in the last three games was really good. What looks good is Bumrah as a potential player. He’s looking really good, and even today he bowled the yorkers well. And I’ve always said that to be successful in the shorter format you have to execute the yorkers. Whether you choose to bowl it or not is up to you, but if you don’t have that option, then definitely at some point of time, you will be under pressure.”For once Dhoni made a bold declaration – some might say he is tempting fate – that he need not worry about about the bowling too much. “I am always worried about the bowling, especially when we go out of India, but now that we are playing only T20s for a consistent period of time, the bowling is looking settled,” Dhoni said. “I don’t have to worry about the bowling line-up. There might be one or two changes here or there: we might pick another spinner or maybe get a medium-fast bowler of a quick, but overall it has been a good set-up.”Dhoni said it was a conscious decision to look at new bowlers after having yielded similar results by persisting with the old ones. “We wanted to try different people because we have been trying the same few individuals and getting the same result,” Dhoni said. “So it was high time we gave chances to individuals who were doing well in the domestic circuit, and to see what really they have to offer.”And at the same time, once they play over here and go back, they at least know what are the departments they need to work on. Because there’s a lot of difference between our first-class cricket and international cricket. The gap is quite wide between them. So now at least with a few games here, a bit of practice with the Indian team and the bowling coaches, at least once they go back, they know what needs to be done. I think a lot of them will have to field really hard, they’ll have to push themselves to improve their fielding. And as far as just the talent is concerned, there were quite a few people who looked good.”A settled bowling attack to go with a top order in prodigious form and the benefit of home conditions and crowds will make India a formidable team in the World T20. Dhoni paid tribute to the consistency of his main batsmen. “I feel that it is difficult to follow up a big performance, like a score of 100 or 80, with another big performance,” Dhoni said. “What has been good in this series is how the top order has consistently performed. It is very difficult.”When you are scoring lots of runs you get a lot of confidence, but at the same time, there comes a time when you put that extra pressure on yourself too. You may think that the law of averages will strike at some point. But they have carried it through the whole series, they always gave us a very good start. And it was always the top order.”If you talk about five, six, seven and the lower-down batsmen, apart from that one game [Canberra ODI], we were just doing the sweeping job of playing 10-12 deliveries, or 15 deliveries maximum. The top order did really well in this tournament for us.”

Ricky Ponting is the most marketable sporting figure in Australia and five of the top ten sponsorship favourites come from cricket, according to a research report. Ponting has become used to life at the top during his career and beat a field including the swimmers Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett and the footballer Harry Kewell.The Sweeney Sports report, which measured how suitable 70 sportspeople were to endorse brands and organisations, had Ponting first, Adam Gilchrist seoncd and Brett Lee fifth – he was tied with Hackett. The retired duo of Glenn McGrath and Steve Waugh were equal seventh while Shane Warne was 16th. Andrew Symonds improved to 23rd alongside the boxer Kostya Tszyu and footballer Tim Cahill.”The biggest increase in popularity during the past year has been recorded by Andrew Symonds, who sprung from equal 58th position last year,” the Sweeney Sports general manager Todd Deacon said. “Warne’s ranking during his career has see-sawed depending on off-field scandals.”A largely scandal-free year has meant a high ranking, but negative events have tended to send his ranking plummeting.” His final position was up almost a year after retiring.

Jacques Kallis backed his years of experience to guide South Africa through a tough run chase on the third day at Cape Town. He and Ashwell Prince added 117 to carry their side to a five-wicket win, which secured the series 2-1.”Sometimes you get more pleasure out of knocks like this than getting a hundred,” he said, “because it played a big role in winning the game for South Africa which to me is more important than getting a hundred.”They put us under a lot of pressure and we just had to absorb it. But there is no way you can carry on doing it all day and there had to come a period where they would crack and perhaps start trying a few things. It happened after lunch and once we got the momentum things became a lot easier.”There was some vociferous appealing, particularly early in the day, and at one stage umpires Peter Parker and Steve Bucknor spoke to Pakistan’s acting captain Younis Khan, warning the players to “keep down the banter”.”It was nothing out of the ordinary,” said Kallis. “It was a hard series. It was hard cricket and there were tense moments but that’s what Test cricket is about. It’s what our guys like and it brings the best out of quite a few of our players.”Graeme Smith was grateful to Kallis after he was one of Mohammad Asif’s two early wickets, which left South Africa 39 for 4 chasing 161. “On a wicket like this it is where your big pressure players come to the party and make the impact that’s needed.”He was also quick to credit Pakistan for their part a highly competitive series: “They [Pakistan] performed very well. On all their trips to South Africa these wickets probably were the closest to what they’ve got back home. They made life difficult for us.”