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New Zealand 256 for 5 (Astle 90*) beat Sri Lanka 255 for 7 (Tharanga 103, Atapattu 52) by five wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball commentary
How they were out

New Zealand – held back by an elegant century from Upul Tharanga and the Christchurch rain – scrambled to a five-wicket win over Sri Lanka at the Jade Stadium, and took a 3-0 lead in the five-ODI series (one match was played in late 2004 but following the Indian Ocean tsunami the series was temporarily abandoned). Sri Lanka, put in to bat, managed 255, and New Zealand, powered by Nathan Astle, overhauled the target after a being given a serious scare towards the end of their chase.At this venue, with its distinct lack of movement in the air or off the wicket, and short boundaries, a score of 255 should not have caused serious concern. Yet New Zealand managed to make heavy weather of the target. If it were not for a couple of expensive no-balls – Dilhara Fernando and Chaminda Vaas both had Astle dismissed off no-balls when New Zealand needed to score at more than a run-a-ball, things might well have been different.Defending 256 was a tough ask of the men handling the white ball – Chaminda Vaas began admirably, applying the pressure at one end. But Farveez Maharoof, without the benefit of the same experience and skill as his senior partner, struggled to keep Lou Vincent quiet. Vincent opened the face of the bat and drove confidently through the line, forcing the ball through the square field on the off side with power.The fifty of the opening partnership came up in just the eighth over, and even the fall of both openers soon after, with 71 on the board, was little cause for worry. Astle, brought into the game as SuperSub, stabilised the innings with Peter Fulton, who chipped in with a promising 32, and the rain that came down provided a twist.While the required run rate never really ran away from New Zealand, the fall of Hamish Marshall, lbw to Muttiah Muralitharan, and Scott Styris, brilliantly caught by Tillakaratne Dilshan diving football goalkeeper style, caused a flutter or two and raised the hopes of the Lankans. In the end, though, a well set Astle – once caught off a no-ball and once bowled off a no-ball – settled the issue, scoring 90 not out and New Zealand won with 12 balls to spare. Astle was given a timely boost by Chris Cairns, who cracked a huge six off the last ball of Murali’s spell, and gave the innings the momentum they needed to go over the finish line.When Daniel Vettori, standing in for Stephen Fleming, won the toss, he had little hesitation in choosing to put Sri Lanka in. That Sanath Jayasuriya had slipped in the shower reaching for his shampoo, dislocated his shoulder and ruled himself out of the game did not help Sri Lanka.Shane Bond bowled with genuine pace early on and hurried both Tharanga and Avishka Gunawardene through their strokes. While surviving the Bond barrage was on the top of Tharanga’s mind, Gunawardene still appeared keen to score. He closed the face of his bat a touch too early on one delivery and sent an edge towards point where Hamish Marshall kept his eyes on the ball and took a sharp catch. At 24 for 1 Sri Lanka were in danger of slipping, but Kumar Sangakkara ensured this did not happen.Sangakkara was hesitant at first, but understood the need to keep wickets in hand even if the runs were not flowing too freely. He let Tharanga take charge of the run-getting, and this worked well. When Cairns and Jacob Oram came on to bowl first change, Tharanga gave full freedom to his pleasing off-side strokeplay. The zone between backward point and wide mid off took a peppering as fielders scrambled to save the ball. Tharanga was comfortable off front and back foot, and easily found the gaps. On occasion he was even audacious enough to come down the pitch to Oram and drive inside out.Vettori pulled things back somewhat, even as Sri Lanka’s batsmen aimed to be positive against him. The Tharanga-Sangakkara partnership had burgeoned to 109 when Bond struck. Sangakkara dropped one to the leg side and set off for a quick single, but was sent back by his partner. Bond, well into his followthrough, fielded well and nailed the stumps at the keeper’s end with a strong throw before Sangakkara (36) could recover his ground.Then New Zealand pulled things back, picking up wickets at regular intervals. Marvan Atapattu was forced to seal one end up and he did so with some panache. Tharanga reached his second ODI century – a crucial one given how much of the team’s score he had singlehandedly accounted for – but was dismissed soon after. He pulled Oram straight down Fulton’s throat on the square-leg fence, and was dismissed for 103.Mahela Jayawardene, Dilshan and Maharoof all failed, with Dilshan’s wicket taking Cairns to 200 scalps. Had it not been for Atapattu’s controlled innings at the death – he made a better than run-a-ball half-century without ever seeming to break into a sweat – Sri Lanka would have struggled even to get to their eventual 255.How they were outNew ZealandJamie How c Mubarak b Vaas 12 (59 for 1)
Lou Vincent c Sangakkara b Maharoof 46 (71 for 2)
Peter Fulton c Jayawardene b Dilshan 32 (143 for 3)
Hamish Marshall lbw b Muralitharan 12 (170 for 4)
Scott Styris c Dilshan b Maharoof 28 (219 for 5)
Sri LankaAvishka Gunawardene c Marshall b Bond 3 (24 for 1)
Kumar Sangakkara run out (Bond) 36 (133 for 2)
Mahela Jayawardene C McCullum b Mills 6 (150 for 3)
Upul Tharanga c Fulton b Oram 103 (169 for 4)
Tillakaratne Dilshan c Oram b Cairns 11 (198 for 5)
Farveez Maharoof b Mills 7 (217 for 7)
Marvan Atapattu run out (Astle) 52 (254 for 7)

ScorecardFile photo: Piyush Chawla scored 58 and was part of an 89-run stand with Akshdeep Nath•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Half-centuries from Akshdeep Nath and Piyush Chawla saved Uttar Pradesh on the last day, as the team held on for a thrilling draw against Punjab in Kanpur. UP were staring at defeat at the score of 10 for 3, and then 96 for 5, in their chase of 342, but managed to stay firm to rescue a point. Punjab dominated most parts of the day by giving UP 84 overs to bat, and dismissed Suresh Raina for another low score, but could not build on it to snare the six points that would have strengthened their case for booking a knockout berth.

Punjab batsman Mayank Sidhana on

Whether Punjab declared too late
“We had to be safe before declaring because if we had declared earlier, they have Suresh Raina, and if he had clicked they would have won. So we wanted to be sure before declaring and give them a target of 300 to 350.”
Punjab’s bowling and fielding
“Our bowlers bowled really well, they put in a lot of effort. Umang Sharma and Akshdeep played very well and patiently. We bowled well but credit goes to them too. There was nothing lacking in our bowling, but there were some lapses in our fielding, which always happens. Catches get dropped and some brilliant ones are taken so our bowling didn’t lack anything.”
Pitches Punjab have played on this season
“I’m playing my first match of the season. Wherever we have played we’ve got extreme wickets, except Bombay, which had a good track. Here we got a green track and Patiala was a turner. For the next match also I think we’ll get a track to get six points, either it will be totally green or a turner because both teams will need six points. This track was good for bowling and batting both, so we enjoyed it.”
Pitches prepared at the end of the league stage
“We all needed six points at this stage and there were four teams on 17 points. If they had given a flat wicket then nobody would have taken six points. Every team needs six points and pitches are made according to the strength of the home team. So that’s why all teams try for six points.”

Punjab, now remain third in Group B with 20 points, while UP are right behind them with 18, the same as Tamil Nadu. Punjab and UP are still in the fray to make it to the last stage, but UP will need a lot of results going in their favour, besides just registering a win of their own in the last round.UP’s star and match saviour on the last day was Nath, who scored his maiden fifty playing his fifth first-class match, by showing maturity and composure one would normally not associate with a 22-year-old. Nath came out only in the third over and had to step up under pressure to chase a formidable target for a team in desperate need of six points. The hosts had to abandon their chase and Nath made sure he stood in Punjab’s way too, of marching to victory.UP, who had expressed openly their intent to chase down 300-350, were thrown off track by Punjab’s openers Brainder Sran and Deepak Bansal, both left-handed pacers. Bansal struck on his first ball with a beautiful outswinger to draw Himanshu Asnora’s outside edge, and Brainder rattled the hosts further with twin strikes within four balls. He first extracted good bounce with a short-of-length delivery to take Almas Shaukat’s edge, and despite being dispatched for four by Raina two balls later, Brainder had him caught with some movement outside off as Yuvraj Singh grabbed an excellent low catch with both hands with a dive to his right. Three down, UP still had 81 overs to survive in the day.Nath’s first crucial stand came with Umang Sharma, and the duo saved UP from being dismissed for a paltry score for the second time in the match. They played the waiting game by leaving plenty outside off without worrying about runs. Umang was also helped by being dropped on 0 at gully off Bansal, and he took off by taking two fours off Siddarth Kaul’s first over. Umang took 18 balls to get off the mark and Nath took 15, before Harbhajan brought himself on.Harbhajan struck either sides of lunch. He first trapped Umang lbw from round the wicket and then deceived Eklavya Dwivedi with a straighter one as the batsman played for the turn, but missed. Dwivedi had been slightly aggressive to put the pressure back on Punjab, but his innings of 27 did not last more than 45 balls after the stand of 47 with Nath.Nath’s determination did not waver, though, and an in-form Chawla gave him ample support for more than two hours to steer UP to safety. Nath’s stubbornness and Chawla’s ability to pick runs started tilting the match towards a draw as the ball barely moved around and conditions became better for batting. Chawla lofted Harbhajan for a six over long-on and when Yuvraj bowled just before tea, Chawla crunched him for two fours through the covers.Chawla and Nath scored more freely in the last session before surviving several chances. Siddarth’s reverse swing tested them, while Harbhajan bowled with several close-in fielders as edges flew by. Punjab dropped their biggest chance when Chawla was on 39 and Siddarth produced his outside edge but Manan Vohra put down a simple chance at second slip. The crowd’s heart was in their mouth again when Chawla got another outside edge, in the next over off Sran, but the ball fell short of first slip.That did not flicker Chawla’s approach at all, as he continued to hook the pacers and loft Harbhajan. He was mostly favoured by luck as the ball fell in no man’s land or went just wide of the slips. Both batsmen reached their fifties in quick succession and Punjab got a sniff of victory when Chawla’s edge was finally taken by the wicketkeeper. However, amidst more edges and lbw appeals, Saurabh Kumar survived the last half hour of the day to ensure Nath’s innings of more than five hours did not go in vain.Earlier, Punjab had completely bossed around the start of the day by smashing 51 runs in the first seven overs, before declaring on 295 for 7. Once Harbhajan was bowled for 0, Uday Kaul brought up his 16th first-class hundred with a flick to the leg side, and Brainder hammered Praveen Kumar for 18 runs in an over, involving three fours and a six. Uday was unbeaten on 109 and Brainder on 26 off 20.

Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Asif, who is missing out on the tour of India due to his elbow injury, has been advised by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to keep on hold his contract with English county Surrey until his fitness position becomes clear.Asif remains uncertain for the Indian tour although the Board has said he has pulled out of the one-day series and is undergoing a rehabilitation programme for his elbow problem which requires rest and exercises and cannot be treated by medication.Asif, who also missed four of the five one-day internationals against South Africa last month at home due to the same injury, has been offered a two-year contract by Surrey for 2008 and 2009.The PCB’s chief operating officer Shafqat Naghmi said that given the increasing number of fitness problems, with the fast bowlers in particular, they would review in detail the policy of allowing players to sign contracts with English counties for the summer.”It is true that Pakistan has no commitments between late May and mid-September for next year but we will still have a rethink on our policy of giving permission to our players to go and play for counties,” he said. Naghmi also said their policy would be based on the fact that bowlers risk a burnout because of excessive cricket. “Otherwise we should have no objections,” he added.

Injured Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq is unlikely to play at his home ground in Multan in the fourth ODI against the West Indies on Wednesday. “My injury has improved but I will make a final decision in the morning,” Inzamam said.Inzamam injured the little finger of his left hand when he dived at cover to stop a full-blooded aerial drive from Marlon Samuels during the third match at Lahore and received three stitches. Apart from Inzamam, Pakistan will be without Mohammad Yousuf, who will stay in Lahore to be with his pregnant wife, and Younis Khan, whose brother recently passed away. Abdul Razzaq, the allrounder, will lead the team if Inzamam pulls out.The spate of absences has resulted in a recall for Shahid Afridi and Faisal Iqbal, the middle-order batsman. “We have called up Shahid Afridi and Faisal Iqbal and hope that the youngsters take this opportunity and help Pakistan wrap up the series, but for that they will have to work hard,” said Inzamam, whose team lead the five-match series 2-0.Afridi was dropped after the Champions Trophy, the first time in two years for anything other than an injury or suspension. But he has struck a rich vein of form in domestic cricket for Habib Bank and lies third in the bowling averages after five games with 22 wickets at an average of under ten. And despite starting poorly with the bat, he has just hit a 91-ball hundred in the ongoing game against WAPDA, whose attack includes Mushtaq Ahmed and Shabbir Ahmed. He scored a fifty in a low-scoring first-innings total and also picked up three wickets.Iqbal, 24, has played 17 Tests and ODIs for Pakistan, with a hundred in each form of the game. Though he last played a Test against England this summer – he hit an unbeaten 58 in Pakistan’s only innings of the controversial Oval Test – he has not featured in ODI colours since October 2003.Pakistan won the second match at Faisalabad by a narrow margin of two wickets before recording an emphatic seven-wicket win in the third match in Lahore. The first match was washed out in Rawalpindi.Bennett King, the West Indies coach, said his team remained motivated despite the fact that they can at best only level the series. “The boys look forward to the fourth match and are determined to make sure they finish this leg of the tour with two wins,” King said.He added that Pakistan’s loss of key players was not a factor. “I look at what we have in the team and we need to control Pakistan to win the match and once we go out we will do that rather than thinking of their combination.” King also hoped that key batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who has yet to play in the one-day series, would return after recovering from a knee injury. Squads
Pakistan (probable): Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), Imran Farhat, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Abdul Razzaq, Shahid Afridi, Faisal Iqbal, Kamran Akmal, Rao Iftikhar, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Umar Gul, Abdul Rehman, Danish Kaneria, Mohammad Sami, Yasir HameedWest Indies (probable): Brian Lara (capt), Chris Gayle, Lendl Simmons, Daren Ganga, Marlon Samuels, Runako Morton, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dwayne Smith, Denesh Ramdin, Ian Bradshaw, Corey Collymore, Jerome Taylor, Daren Powell, Dave Mohammed

Nightmare on Elm Street terrorised cinema-goers across the world in the eighties. But in real life Freddie Kruger, or rather the actor who played him Robert Englund, is surprisingly nice, always smiling for photographs and obliging with autographs.Cricket has its own villain, albeit a pantomime one. Yet his on-camera persona – snarling, sledging, slavering – is also a world away from his true identity: natural charm personified.Yet that’s because when you see him steaming in for South Africa and following through with some choice words, you’re not seeing Andre Nel. You’re seeing Gunther.”It’s my second personality,” smiles Nel, who’s highly relaxed following a nap in the Essex changing room during their match with Northamptonshire. “Gunther is a guy who lives in the mountains and doesn’t get enough oxygen to the brain and that makes him crazy.”It’s a nice German name,” he adds, and one bestowed by one of the technical team three years ago. After Shaun Pollock wrote it on his run-up against Bangladesh, he went on to take 6 for 43, it stuck. “It’s white-line syndrome. When I walk on the cricket field I get all worked up and quite aggressive.”In fact, it’s best not to wind him up. “The more people abuse me the more I get fired up. In one way I enjoy it when people abuse me. If you give it out you’re going to take it so I expect I’m getting abuse.”He means good-natured abuse, of course, not racism. The latest incident of which was at Surrey earlier this week when a spectator called out offensive things. “It’s uncalled for. I can take it because it can happen everywhere but there’s no reason to get abuse from someone who doesn’t even know what the word properly means.”But when the audience’s perception is filtered through a lens why not try to act a little less? “I think they see on TV I’m a big bully and a real idiot and they really don’t know me as a person. People are going to make their own mind up about you. I can’t really worry what people think about me.”Away from the pitch he is calm and polite. “I’m a plain and simple Afrikaans boy who grew up in a small town. I was brought up well. My dad brought me up to be competitive and do your best in any situation. That’s the way I do most of things. Live life to the fullest and no regrets.”He had a strict upbringing in Boksburg, a town in eastern Gauteng, but admits: “I was a naughty little boy at school. I was very naughty. [The worst thing was] when I was 13 or 14 throwing stones into a guy’s pool. My dad was not pleased. I got the biggest hiding ever. There’s probably a lot more I’ve done that I can’t remember.”He was discovered by Ray Jennings, his former provincial and national coach. “He’s like my second father.” That figures; both have had their crazy moments – Jennings knocked Graeme Smith out while practising slip catches, and made his players run a lap for every no-ball. “He fired me up and pressed the right buttons to be the best bowler. I’m really grateful to him.”

Nel had further growing up to do, though. There was a time when Gunther was off the pitch, too. He was caught smoking dope with some colleagues in 2001, drink-driving in 2003. It’s only in the last three or four years that he’s calmed down.A sobering serious back injury ironically helped and now the indiscretions seem a thing of the past. “Now I can control what I’m doing, using the aggression in better ways. The nice thing is the captain, Graeme, backs me to be that way because he wants me to use the aggression and bring energy to the side. It lifts the side up.”Rugby didn’t fire him up in the same way, even though he was playing both sports professionally when his real dad told him to make a decision. He chose cricket – although he only took up the game at 14 and only became a fast bowler when he bulked out at 17 – because it offered him the chance of playing for South Africa. “Playing for your country is any child’s dream.” Plus, he had grown too big to be fly half.He knows it’s a huge privilege to represent his nation, but he rarely watches the highlights, with the gurning, the gesticulations. “I didn’t even know I pulled those faces!” He gets embarrassed when he’s recognised, though he happily signs autographs. “They’re the people who support you. It doesn’t cost you anything to be nice and humble.”That’s probably why few know he’s a qualified accountant, although he couldn’t now see himself in an office. (Could you? “Hello, Gunther here.”) But that’s more because his boredom threshold is low.He’s a bundle of nervous energy – and this manifests in frequent dressing room pranks. “I enjoy playing cricket but find it unbelievably boring to watch. Most guys playing find it boring. My mind’s very active. I get up to no good most of the time. [He laughs really naughtily] You’ve got to be active and mess around. A bit of wrestling … and mess around a bit more.”You can’t deny he just loves the game – he stayed to chat about cricket long after the interview was over – even if he thinks there’s too much being played. “Money is always going to overpower the players anyway. You have to get on with it.”He also has a fear that his hero Allan Donald’s knowledge won’t be used by the South Africa board. “It would be stupid and sad not to,” he says, worrying that Donald will make his bowling coach role with England more permanent. “It would be a big loss to South Africa. I grew up looking and watching him and Polly [Pollock]. I don’t have the best action compared to them, but the same kind of thought pattern.”And of course he wants to keep playing as much as he can for South Africa , even at 33 in the next World Cup. And so do the opposition, as “I’m the first one in the other dressing room with a beer.”Ultimately, he knows where to draw the line. “When it’s finished, I’m probably the easiest person to get along with, the softest person off the field ever.”

Roger Knight, the former secretary and chief executive of the MCC, has been awarded honorary life membership of the club.It is the second major honour inside two weeks for Knight, who retired from his post in August 2006 after 13 years, following the award of an OBE at the start of the year for services to sport.Commenting on Knight’s inclusion in the New Year Honours List, MCC’s Chairman, Charles Fry, said: “Roger thoroughly deserves this award, for his decades of service to cricket – as a player, a captain and, for thirteen years, an outstanding Secretary & Chief Executive of MCC.”During Knight’s 13 years at the helm he transformed the facilities at Lord’s, launched the MCC’s Spirit of Cricket initiative, and oversaw the admission of women members.Since his retirement he has continued to serve as Chairman of the European Cricket Council – which, like MCC, is based at Lord’s.

The Zimbabwe national side has been invited to take part in this season’s South African domestic competitions according to The Star newspaper. But they will not, as reported elsewhere, take part in the main domestic competitions.The South Africa board are set to offer Zimbabwe the role occupied by Namibia last year and participate in the lower tier of provincial matches, the SAA Provincial Challenge. It is also first-class, but the three-day matches involve the 12 South Africa provinces’ amateur teams. Brian Basson, Cricket South Africa’sSA’s director of playing affairs, confirmed to Cricinfo that the invitation was not for the top-tier tournament.”I am hoping to expose the young players to this level of competition because this is good for the development of the game on our side,” Robin Brown, the Zimbabwe coach, told the Harare-based Herald. “I am not yet sure of the sides that we are going to play but our first game will be next weekend in Bulawayo and we are going to play six matches with the top two progressing to the semi-finals.”The tournament games are played on a home and away basis and we are going to play the first three games before the Christmas holidays then the other three next year.”

Dav Whatmore, the Bangladesh coach, has expressed his frustration at the lack of Test cricket for his side over the next year. His views, published in his column on TigerCricket.com, back up those of his captain, Habibul Bashar, who also said recently that the lack of cricket – and Test cricket in particular – is a real concern for Bangladesh.Whatmore wrote, “We have just finished the series against Australia and it is common knowledge that Bangladesh hasn’t got any more Test matches for at least 12 months which is a bit of a pity really because we are making strides in the longer game. But that’s the way it is.”According to the recently-finalised Future Tours Program (FTP), Bangladesh are not scheduled to play any Tests now till India’s visit in May 2007. And during the six-year cycle they are scheduled to play only 41 Tests, the least among members apart from Zimbabwe (39), whose Test status is in limbo in any case. And though India is scheduled to tour Bangladesh three times in that period, they are the only team to not invite Bangladesh for a home series. In fact, they have not done so ever despite championing their cause to gain Test status in 2000.Bashar told the earlier in the week, “A lot of star players are complaining against too much cricket right at the moment but we are not in a position to join the party. Rather the long break in Test cricket is a real concern for us. I think it is always good for an improving side like Bangladesh to play as much Test cricket as possible.”It is really a frustrating situation for us because we have just gone around to showing our gradual improvement in this level. We were just grasping over the finer points of Test cricket which will definitely be hampered when we resume the campaign after a year.”Despite the lack of Tests, Whatmore rubbished claims that Bangladesh didn’t deserve Test status. “It annoys me when I read from journalists and other sections of local and international media and public that Bangladesh doesn’t deserve to be in Test cricket. That’s absolute rubbish because the potential that lies in this country is enormous and given a sufficient amount of time we’ll be able to be very consistent against any team. With a little slice of luck in a given era, Bangladesh could be the leading team in the Asian region. That’s how deep I think the potential lies in Bangladesh.”This belief, he wrote, was based on the fact that in the three years since he has been in charge (since 2003) the team has “performed gradually better and better,” and that Bangladesh’s U-19 team contained some exciting talent within its ranks. “We are blessed at the moment with a fairly good group of U-19s who have just completed the World Cup. I feel there will be one or two there that will impress the selectors sufficiently over the next few months during Academy matches and A team matches to earn their promotion into the top flight. And those players that do earn the promotion will certainly be able to strengthen the team because they will be multi-skilled players. So in many ways this is an exciting period for Bangladesh cricket and particularly in the one-day form with which we will be only involved with in the next 12 months leading up to the World Cup.”

Warwickshire’s decision not to enforce the follow-on against Sussex at Hove despite a first-innings lead of 265 came back to haunt them as Richard Montgomerie made 195 to steer the home side to safety. For a time an improbable home win appeared possible as Sussex, who resumed on 160 for 1 chasing 504, reached 244 but Alex Loudon took 3 for 12 in 30 balls to put Warwickshire in the driving seat. Montgomerie and Andy Hodd added 113 for the fifth wicket, and although Montgomerie became Loudon’s fourth victim late on when he slog-swept to deep midwicket, one short of his career best, by then the game was safe. Warwickshire coach Mark Greatbatch was left to rue Montgomerie being missed at short leg in the morning … as he was the substitute fielder who spilt the catch off Loudon.Yorkshire’s title hopes were severely dented as they slid to their heaviest Roses match defeat against Lancashire at Headingley. Click here for John Ward’s report.

Somerset increased their lead at the top with a six-wicket win over second-placed Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge. Resuming on 116 for 4 needing another 62 for victory, Cameron White (47*) and Ian Blackwell (28*) took 44 minutes to make the runs and give Somerset their fifth win in six.Northamptonshire turned down a target of 276 in 38 overs set by Glamorgan at Colwyn Bay, easing to 131 for 2 off 32 overs when the captains agreed to call time. Glamorgan had lost two early wickets as they slid to 71 for 6, a lead of only 149, but the tail wagged despite Jason Brown’s 5 for 47. Their hopes of bowling out Northants were unlikely given that Simon Jones was absent and Andrew Davies was laid up after being hit on the elbow during the warm-ups.Derbyshire are within 102 runs of pulling off an impressive win over Leicestershire at Grace Road where they closed on 323 for 3 chasing 425. The chase is being led by Simon Katich (127*) and Greg Smith (74*) who have added an unbeaten 191 for the fourth wicket. Had it not been for some late-order heroics led by Stuart Broad then Derbyshire might well have already won. Broad and Garnett Kruger put on 91 for the Leicestershire’s last wicket this morning before Kruger was stumped leaving Broad nine runs short of a maiden first-class hundred. That wicket also gave Ant Botha his five-for.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball commentary
How they were out

Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne stayed in the shadows as Brett Lee and Nathan Bracken produced an exhilarating display of sheer pace and controlled swing that routed West Indies on the fourth day at the Gabba. Set 509 to win after Ricky Ponting had declared on the overnight total of 2 for 283, West Indies were bundled out for 129, losing their last seven wickets in the space of nine overs for just 30 runs. Lee finished with 5 for 30, his first five-wicket haul in four years, and Bracken had career-best figures of 4 for 48 as the Australians wrapped things up before the clouds burst.Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Brian Lara all got starts, while Shivnarine Chanderpaul was unfortunate to be given out padding up, but not one individual played with the conviction that suggested a two-day salvage operation was even within the realms of possibility. Lara squirted a catch to gully, Sarwan surprised by a fearsome bouncer from Lee, and the rest were blown aside about as easily as straws in the wind. Even by West Indians standards – this was a 30th defeat in their last 37 overseas Tests – this was a terrible performance.Lee was clocked as fast as 153.7 kmph, and his ferocity was perfectly complemented by Bracken’s swing bowling in cloudy conditions. The only dark spot in a near-perfect picture for the Australians was the shoulder injury Shane Watson sustained while diving to stop an on-drive. That aside, all the wounds were sustained by a West Indian side outmanoeuvered and outthought from the moment Ricky Ponting dug Australia out of a first-innings hole.Despite losing Devon Smith, top-scorer in the first innings with 88, early on, West Indies’ pursuit of a 509-run chimera had been given impetus by Chris Gayle’s cameo. Glenn McGrath was off-driven with immense power for two sixes in an over that also included a fluffed caught-and-bowled chance and some pleasantries that Gayle laughed off.The breakthrough came from an unlikely source, Watson, who had only one other Test wicket to his name. Brought on as first change, he was ecstatic when he induced an outside edge that Warne at first slip took in a fashion resembling an overhead Australian rules mark.Lara couldn’t make anything of a reprieve granted when he had made just 5 – Katich dropped a chance high to his right at midwicket off Bracken – and his departure to the sort of catch that Australia dropped routinely in a woeful Ashes campaign said much about the restoration of Matthew Hayden’s confidence after three consecutive Test centuries.Marlon Samuels, who viewed the carnage from his vantage point at the non-striker’s end, struck two gorgeous boundaries off Bracken in a late late show of defiance, but it had all the lasting impact of a gob of spit in the rain. And unless West Indies perk up dramatically before Hobart, they will surely be swept away by this unrelenting Australian deluge.

West Indies 2nd inningsDevon Smith c Warne b Lee 3 (1 for 11)
Edged to first slipChris Gayle c Warne b Watson 33 (2 for 51)
Outside edge pouched high in Aussie-rules fashionBrian Lara c Hayden b Bracken 14 (3 for 85)
Flayed one low to the right of gullyShivnarine Chanderpaul lbw Bracken 7 (4 for 99)
Offered no shot to one that shaped back and struck him just above the pad. Would have gone over the stumpsRamnaresh Sarwan c Gilchrist b Lee 31 (5 for 99)
Tangled up by a brutish bouncer, gloved behindDenesh Ramdin c Gilchrist b Lee 6 (6 for 105)
Beaten by subtle away movement, edged behind Daren Powell lbw Bracken 0 (7 for 106)
Struck on the right toe by a swinging yorker, plumb in frontFidel Edwards b Bracken 0 (8 for 106)
Clueless about an inswinging yorker that rattled leg stumpCorey Collymore lbw Lee 4 (9 for 114)
Beaten for pace and rapped in front of middle stumpJermaine Lawson b Lee 1 (129 all out)
Fast and straight delivery clips off stump