Zimbabweans 187 for 4 (Taylor 90*) trail PCB Patron’s XI 529 for 9 dec (Misbah-ul-Haq 130, Aamer Bashir 100*, Riaz Afridi 66, Naumanullah 56) by 342 runs
Scorecard

An unbeaten 90 from Brendan Taylor, the highest score of his first-class career, ensured that the Zimbabweans enjoyed a better second day in their tour match against the Pakistan Cricket Board Patron’s XI at Lahore. When bad light forced a premature close, the tourists were 187 for 4 in reply to the Patron’s XI’s 529 for 9 declared, a deficit of 342.Taylor’s innings included a six and 15 fours, and helped prevent a collapse after the Zimbabweans were reduced to 106 for 3. Taylor added 81 for the fourth wicket before Yasir Arafat trapped Vusi Sibanda leg-before for 34 shortly before stumps.The Patron’s XI had resumed on 353 for 5, and although they lost two early wickets, Riaz Afridi, with a 53-ball 66, and Aamer Bashir put on a brisk 119 for the eighth wicket. Stuart Matsikenyeri removed Afridi, but Iftikhar Anjum kept Bashir company long enough for him to reach his hundred.

Australia plan to give Stuart MacGill a decent spell in the tour match against Essex this weekend to determine whether he is ready for the series-decider at The Oval. MacGill has played only two matches in the past seven weeks, but John Buchanan confirmed he would be picked at Chelmsford. However, Buchanan refused to talk about possible changes for the fifth Test starting on Thursday.Trevor Hohns, the chairman of selectors, said the make-up of the side would not be discussed until next week. However, Hohns has not ruled anyone out of the side, leaving the door open for MacGill and Shane Watson, the Hampshire and Queensland allrounder.MacGill has taken 39 wickets in six Tests against England and The Oval is expected to take spin. “Obviously if you talk to Stuart, whether he has bowled or hasn’t bowled, he is ready to play a Test match,” Buchanan told . “This game will be important for him, to have a bowl against Essex given that he hasn’t bowled a lot. Hopefully he’ll get plenty of overs.”After talking to Steve Rixon, the Surrey coach, Buchanan said the Test pitch would take bounce and turn, meaning a MacGill and Shane Warne tandem act is a possibility. “It aids both pace bowlers who hit the deck and spin bowlers,” Buchanan said. “Therefore I am sure Trevor Hohns would say Stuart MacGill is very much in the equation.”

Zimbabwe Cricket has announced a new set of selectors led by Bruce Makovah with former convener Macsood Ebrahim, Ethan Dube and Robin Brown, the Harare Sports Club curator, making up the four-man committee.Makovak played first-class cricket soon after Zimbabwe were granted Test status in 1992, and represented Mashonaland and Zimbabwe A as a medium-pace bowler. Ebrahim and Dube were retained, while former Rhodesian left-arm spinner Richard Kaschula lost his place amid revelations that he told Zimbabwe Cricket that he could not work with Andy Pycroft, who has been appointed joint coach of the Zimbabwe A side. Kaschula, who had been outspoken in his criticisms of Phil Simmons, until last month the Zimbabwe coach, resigned.Although Ebrahim retains his place on the selection committee, his replacement as head of selection will be seen by many as a concession to player power. It was widely believed that his eventual removal was one of the conditions the rebel players demanded before they returned to national colours earlier in the year.Unsurprisingly, Tatenda Taibu retained the captaincy and former captain Heath Streak remained vice-captain. Stephen Mangongo, the former head of selectors, bounced back as Zimbabwe A’s joint coach, while Walter Chawaguta will take charge of the Under-19s at the inaugural Under-19 Afro-Asia tournament in India in November and the Under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka next February.All the appointments were made at the Zimbabwe Cricket board meeting which followed the annual general meeting at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo.There was controversy before that meeting when the media were banned from attending. Peter Chingoka, the ZC chairman, said they undertook the decision after he claimed that journalists hijacked last year’s meeting. It had been widely rumoured that reporters planned to ask the board potentially embarrassing questions resulting from the damning statement by Zimbabwe players at the weekend.

Zimbabwe cricket was heading towards another crisis after the provincial associations passed a vote of no confidence on the Peter Chingoka-led Zimbabwe Cricket board at an emergency meeting in Harare on Friday night.The meeting at the Old Hararians club was attended by chairmen of Masvingo, Manicaland, Matabeleland, Midlands, Matabelaland Country Districts, Mashonaland Country Districts and Mashonaland, as well as players’ representatives.However, Mashonaland, the most influential single province, who are themselves embroiled in an internal power struggle, were represented by Cyprian Mandenge, who leads the pro-ZC board faction, and Elvis Sembezeya who heads the anti-ZC board faction. As a result, the two did not have a say in the proceedings.The other six provincial associations passed a vote of no-confidence in the national board, and that motion will be communicated to Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, on Monday. They also demanded the appointment of a forensic auditor to investigate the board’s finances amid growing reports of irregularities.The result of the vote is that Zimbabwe Cricket will almost certainly have to call a special general meeting within 21 days to hear the views of all stakeholders. However, in a bid to avert the potential embarrassment of a no-confidence motion being passed then, ZC have announced the creation of five new provinces – Mashonaland West, Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland East, Matabaleleand South and Matabeleland North – despite the fact that critics claim there is precious little cricket played in these regions.The new provinces are likely to vote in favour of the existing regime. One, Mashonaland West, already have an executive – Themba Mliswa. He is a well-known figure and was described as a pro-Mugabe activist who has been involved in activities close to the ruling Zanu-PF party.According to a source at the club on Friday, Mliswa interrupted proceedings and claimed that he had been sent by the state security department to call it off as it was an illegally convened meeting of the opposition MDC party. It seems that word of his likely disruption was leaked in advance and local police were on site to remove him.Earlier in the day an emergency ZC board meeting did not take place after thedirectors once again failed to constitute a quorum as signs of cracks grew deeper.Most board members failed to turn up for the meeting on Friday in a move insiders said was a protest against the way some executives have been unilaterally making unpopular decisions. The sources say there has been internal divergence in ZC against the selection process used to choose three new directors appointed on the ZC board this week. Wilson Manase, a lawyer, Charlie Robertson, chairman of Mashonaland Country Districts, and Tavengwa Mukuhlani, the controversial former chairman of the Mashonaland Cricket Association, were appointed to the board this week, replacing ZC managing director Ozias Bvute, and former directors Hemant Patel and Rick Pettipher.This latest showdown follows weeks of player unrest over contracts and the dismissal of Phil Simmons as national coach. Three cricketers – Heath Streak, Stuart Carlisle and Craig Wishart – have announced their retirement in the last month while others have made clear their deep unease with the way the national game is being administered.On the field, a sequence of dismal results were capped this week when an almost full-strength Zimbabwe A side were whitewashed 3-0 in Harare by Kenya.

Scorecard

Clinton Perren and Jimmy Maher led Queensland’s revival at Brisbane, as they finished the second day of their Pura Cup match against Victoria on 5 for 225. After Andy Bichel had taken 7 for 56 to bowl Victoria out for 194, Perren (86 not out) and Maher (66) ensured that Queensland had an overall lead of 200 with five wickets in hand.Starting their second innings 25 runs in the arrears, Queensland got off to a poor start in the second innings, losing Ryan Broad with only 14 on the board. Maher, their captain, struck ten fours in his 66, and put together a useful 55-run stand with Martin Love. Maher and Perren then added 61 for the third wicket, and when Maher was dismissed, Perren took over, hitting 14 fours in his knock. Though Queensland lost a couple of wickets, Perren was still around when stumps were drawn for the day.If Perren was the star with the bat, then Andy Bichel was undoubtedly the bowling hero, taking 7 for 56 to restrict Victoria to just 194 in their first innings. Resuming at 6 for 126, Victoria were propped up by a useful 51 by Jonathan Moss, and his 71-run partnership for the seventh wicket with Adam Crosthwaite. However, once Bichel got the breakthrough, he nailed two more wickets before Ashley Noffke finally got rid of Moss to end the innings.

Nathan Astle and Craig McMillan were the two biggest casualties as New Zealand’s selectors made widespread changes for the opening two matches of the one-day series against Sri Lanka starting on December 31. Five players were dropped from the squad that lost the Chappell-Hadlee Series to Australia, and Astle and McMillan were told to re-find their form in the domestic scene.Three weeks ago Astle was being touted as part of a World Cup opening partnership with Lou Vincent, but he was dumped following scores of 14, 22 and 14 against Australia while McMillan was axed after failing to pass 11 in his past four matches. James Marshall, James Franklin and Chris Martin were also dropped following the 2-1 series loss while Hamish Marshall won a reprieve.”The selectors were unanimous in the decision to select Hamish,” John Bracewell, the coach, said. “We acknowledge his recent lack of form but believe he will turn it around. We were also conscious of the need to retain continuity within the squad and not to make wholesale changes.”Stability may have returned with Stephen Fleming moving back into the captaincy role after Daniel Vettori stood in against Australia, but Shane Bond and Andre Adams were recalled alongside the uncapped Jamie How and Peter Fulton, who played an ODI against Bangladesh in 2004. “How and Fulton have been selected after showing consistent form in domestic cricket and New Zealand A,” Bracewell said.”Looking towards the World Cup, if we are going to create competition for World Cup places now is the appropriate time.” The four-match series begins at Queenstown on December 31 and finishes at Napier on January 8.

Tributes to Kerry Packer, founder of World Series Cricket and the one-day version as we now know it, have come in from many cricketers past and present.Packer was remembered affectionately by commentators at the MCG during the second day of the Boxing Day Test between Australia and South Africa. Richie Benaud, the former Australia captain, remembered his first meeting with Packer fondly. “We first met during the formation of World Series Cricket. There was never anything mundane or orthodox about him,” Benaud said. “At the meeting I had with him, the thing that struck me most was that he was concerned only with the players. It was his job to put (the poor state of cricket) right, and put it right he did. He was absolutely brilliant.”Benaud, recruited to commentate on the first World Series match with Bill Lawry, recalled a defining moment from the late 1970s when Packer’s imaginative concept found a place in Australia’s sporting legacy. “He was the man who opened the gates at the Sydney Cricket Ground when Australia played the West Indies in that terrific day-night match, the first one ever at the SCG,” Benaud said. “The gates were shut, but he declared them open because there were streams of people coming into the ground. That is the abiding memory I have of Kerry to do with cricket.” Lawry also spoke of Packer’s influence on the game and sent his condolences to the grieving family. “It’s been a wonderful journey for me and this is a very sad day because Kerry Packer changed cricket forever and changed it for the better.”Tony Greig, the former England cricketer, summed up the day as a loss to the game of cricket. “Cricket has lost one of its greatest friends and supporters. Australia has lost a truly great Australian,” Greig said on Channel 9 before the second day’s play at the MCG. “People will not know how different things could have been without Kerry Packer. He was a very generous man, a bloke with an incredible sense of fun and that charisma that was around him.”Ricky Ponting, whose side donned black armbands as a mark of respect at the beginning of the second day’s play, described Packer as one of the “all-time great figures of Australian cricket”. “It’s an extremely sad day for Australian crcket and the whole team passes on its condolences to the Packer family today,” Ponting said. “A few of our guys in the side knew him a lot better than I did, Shane Warne being one of those. Shane was a pretty close friend of Kerry’s, so it’s an extremely sad day and it’s a huge loss for the cricket community.”Warne himself issued a statement through Cricket Australia. “I would like to pass on my condolences to the whole Packer family on news of the passing of a great man in Kerry Packer,” he said. “He has been a wonderful and very close friend of mine for over 13 years. We shared a lot of time together talking about life, business, sharing funny stories and, in particular, cricket which was his love. These memories will last with me forever. I will always remember you KP as a wonderful character, a close friend, and everyone involved in world cricket owes you so much.”Creagh O’Connor, Cricket Australia chairman, named Packer in the same breath as the late Don Bradman when speaking of Australia’s sporting icons.”That cricket is today taken for granted as a natural part of the Australian way of life is in no small measure due to his influence,” O’Connor said in a statement released at the MCG. “The so-called ‘Packer Revolution’ in the 1970s has left a lasting legacy in the way the game is played, administered and presented to the public via the influential Channel 9 telecast. On behalf of Australian cricket, including all at Cricket Australia and its member state associations, and on behalf of the players he so admired, I offer Mrs Kerry Packer and his children, James and Gretel, our sincere condolences.”Packer passed away at his Sydney home late last night, and is survived by his wife Ros, son James and daughter Gretel.

Greg Chappell has been given credit for transforming the Indian team and improving the quality of cricket in the country by Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president.”I have talked to the players and others as well and all of them have confided that Chappell is doing a fine job. It is he who has helped in improving the general quality of Indian cricket,” Pawar has been reported as saying by PTI.Asked if the BCCI would announce special incentives for the Indian team to win in Pakistan, Pawar said: “I do not believe in such incentives in sports. It is their duty to win. Such culture should be discouraged in sports.”Attempting to bury the controversy over the selection of Sourav Ganguly for the Pakistan tour, Pawar said that it was a justified inclusion. “There was no pressure on selectors to pick him in the team,” he clarified. “Earlier we used to send a 15-member team, but now since it is a 16-member team, the selectors felt that Ganguly merited selection.”He also added that – contrary to public belief – there had been no pressure from Parliament to included Ganguly. “Tell me, who was going to answer the debate in Parliament? The sports minister? He does not know what the selection matters are. I feel such issues should be kept away from Parliament,” Pawar said. “Ganguly is a great player and he has contributed immensely to Indian cricket. He is going through a lean phase. Even Sachin Tendulkar was going through a similar lean phase until he hit that record 35th Test hundred. Ups and downs are part of the game. The team management will decide how to use Ganguly in the forthcoming series.”

The combination of Alan Dawson and Thami Tsolekile destroyed theWarriors’ hopes of their first win in the Standard Bank Pro20 Series asthe Cape Cobras won easily by 21 runs.The Warriors had done all the hard work to restrict the Cobras to 144but Dawson, who took a career best 4 for 18, the fourth-best return for abowler in the Pro20, and Tsolekile, who snaffled five catches behind thestumps, equalling Morne van Wyk’s five dismissals in 2003-04, destroyedthe Warriors’ top order to leave them floundering at 15 for 4 after threeovers. Michael Smith, who made 49, and Mark Bruyns (35) were the onlyWarriors batsmen to get into double figures as they finished on 123 for8.Rory Kleinveldt had earlier lifted a troubled Cape Cobras innings to 144for 8 as he hit 46 off 22 balls with the Warriors pressing hard fortheir first win in the series. JP Duminy had given the innings someimpetus with 23 off 18 balls but it was Kleinveldt’s innings thatlifted the Cobras. Justin Kreusch (3 for 31)and Tyron Henderson (2 for 21) were the wicket-takers and they were wellsupported by some disciplined bowling to restrict the Cobras.In Durban, the lights and the rain could not stop the Eagles frombeating the Dolphins by seven wickets in a match which was decided by the Duckworth-Lewis method.The start was slightly delayed with some controversy about theuse of one bank of lights. It was decided to switch them on andtake a chance that they do not fuse. The Dolphins made a blisteringstart as Kyle Smit struck 76 from 41 balls to bring up the 100 in thetenth over. However, the rest of the batsmen failed to take advantage of the platform, as Nicky Boje and Roger Telemachus bowled well, taking three wickets each to restrict the damage. The Dolphins’ total of 190 for 7 was still the highest score of the season, though.The Eagles’ innings got off to a frenetic start as well, with Morne van Wyk hitting 56 not out off 33 balls and Davey Jacobs wading in with 46 off 35. The innings was interrupted twice due to rain, the second delay causing a loss of five overs and a revised target of 145. All the hard work done before the rain paid off as the Eagles cruised home with five balls to spare.

49.5 overs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Seven years ago, in the semi-final of the 1999 World Cup, South Africa and Australia contested what has widely come to be regarded as the definitive one-day international. A total of 426 runs in two innings, twenty wickets in the day and world-class performances across the board – a match that built to a pulsating finale in which South Africa threw away their place in the World Cup final with what also came to be regarded as the definitive one-day choke.Today, however, South Africa can be called chokers no longer, after burying the ghosts of 1999 with victory in a match even more extraordinary and nail-shredding than its illustrious forebear. Never mind 426 runs in a day, Australia had just posted a world-record 434 for 4 in a single innings – the first 400-plus total in the history of the game – with Ricky Ponting leading the line with an innings of cultured slogging that realised 164 runs of the highest class from just 105 balls. And yet they still lost – by one wicket, with one ball to spare, and with the Wanderers stadium reverting to the sort of Bullring atmosphere on which it forged its intimidating reputation.At the halfway mark of the day, South Africa had been reduced to a near laughing stock. Ponting had been the kingpin as he reprised his World Cup-winning innings on this very ground in 2003, but every one of Australia’s batsmen had taken their pound of flesh as well. Adam Gilchrist lit the blue touchpaper with an open-shouldered onslaught that realised 55 runs from 44 balls; Simon Katich provided a sheet-anchor with a difference as he creamed nine fours and a six in a 90-ball 79, and Mike Hussey – in theory Ponting’s second fiddle in their 158-run stand for the third wicket – hurtled to a 51-ball 81. Australia’s dominance seemed so complete that Andrew Symonds, the most notorious one-day wrecker in their ranks, was not even called upon until the scoreboard read a somewhat surreal 374 for 3.Unsurprisingly, South Africa’s bowlers took a universal pounding. Jacques Kallis disappeared for 70 runs in six overs and as the innings reached its crescendo, a flustered Roger Telemachus conceded 19 runs from four consecutive no-balls. The team had squandered a 2-0 series lead and were staring at a 3-2 defeat, and not for the first time this year, Graeme Smith’s penchant for speaking his mind was looking like backfiring. With the Test series getting underway in four days’ time, the need for a performance of pride had never been more urgent.And so Smith took it upon himself to deliver, responding to his team’s indignity with a brutal innings laced with fury. He made light of the early loss of Boeta Dippenaar, whose anchorman approach would not have been suited to the chase at any rate, and instead found the perfect ally in his former opening partner, Herschelle Gibbs. On a pitch that might have been sent from the Gods, the pair launched South Africa’s response with a scathing stand of 187 from 121 balls, to send the first frissons of anxiety through the Australian dressing-room.

Smith made 90 from just 55 balls, and seemed set to trump Ponting’s 71-ball century when he swatted the spinner, Michael Clarke, to Mike Hussey on the midwicket boundary. But Hussey’s celebrations were manic and betrayed the creeping sense of foreboding that had taken hold of Australia’s players. Just as South Africa had suffered for the absence of Shaun Pollock, so too was Glenn McGrath’s constricting influence being missed. His understudies were simply not up to the task, with Mick Lewis earning an unwanted place in history as his ten overs were spanked for 113 runs – the most expensive analysis in any form of one-day international cricket.Now it was Gibbs who took centre stage. The man who, memorably, dropped the World Cup at Headingley in that 1999 campaign has redeemed himself a hundred times over in the intervening years. But this was to be his crowning glory. With AB de Villiers providing a sparky sidekick, Gibbs carved great chunks out of the asking-rate, bringing up his century from 79 balls and rattling along so briskly that, by the 25-over mark, South Africa had 229 for 2 on the board, and needed a mere 206 to win..Only one contest could compare – the extraordinary C&G Trophy contest between Surrey and Glamorgan in 2002, when Alistair Brown scored 268 out of a total of 438 for 5, only for Glamorgan to track his side all the way with a reply of 429. In both instances, the sheer impossibility of the task galvanised the batting and turned the fielders’ legs to jelly, and with Gibbs on 130, Nathan Bracken at mid-off dropped a sitter off a Lewis full-toss, and could only contemplate his navel as the Bullring roared its approval.It was undeniably the decisive moment of the match. Bracken finished with a creditable 5 for 67, but this faux pas was written all across his features at the post-match presentations. Cashing in superbly, Gibbs hurtled to his 150 from exactly 100 balls, bringing up the landmark with his fifth six of the innings and the 21st of a bedlamic contest. He had reached a glorious 175 from 111 when Lee held onto a scuffed drive at mid-off. The stadium stood in acclaim, but with 136 runs still required and their main source of momentum gone, South Africa had plenty still to do.Kallis and Mark Boucher regrouped with a steady partnership of 28 in six overs, but when the big-hitting Justin Kemp went cheaply, it took a blistering intervention from Johan van der Wath to reignite the chase. He drilled Lewis over long-off for two sixes in an over then added a six and a four in Bracken’s eighth, as the requirement dropped from a tricky 77 from 42 balls to a gettable 36 from 22. He perished as he had lived, holing out to extra cover, and Telemachus followed soon afterwards, but not before he had clubbed an invaluable 12 from six balls.And so it all came down to the final over, just as it had done at Edgbaston all those years ago. Brett Lee had seven runs to defend, and South Africa had two wickets in hand. A blazed four from Andrew Hall seemed to have settled the issue, but in a moment reminiscent of Lance Klusener’s famous aberration, he smeared the very next delivery into the hands of Clarke at mid-on. Two runs needed then, and the No. 11, Makhaya Ntini, on strike. Lee’s best effort was deflected to third man to tie the scores, and it was left to Boucher – with visions of Edgbaston swirling through his head – to seal the deal with a lofted four over mid-on. The most breathtaking game in one-day history had come to a grandstand finish, and all that remained was for the participants to pinch themselves.

AustraliaAdam Gilchrist c Hall b Telemachus 55 (97 for 1)
Simon Katich c Telemachus b Ntini 79 (216 for 2)
Uppercut to third manMike Hussey c Ntini b Hall 81 (374 for 3)
Full toss swatted to long-onRicky Ponting c Dippenaar b Telemachus 164 (407 for 4)
Blazing cover-drive plucked above head on boundarySouth AfricaBoeta Dippenaar b Bracken 1 (3 for 1)
Dragged onto off stumpGraeme Smith c Hussey b Clarke 90 (190 for 2)
Swatted to deep midwicketAB de Villiers c Clarke b Bracken 14 (284 for 3)
Heaved to cow cornerHerschelle Gibbs c Lee b Symonds 175 (299 for 4)
Chipped drive to long-offJacques Kallis c&b Symonds 20 (327 for 5)
Diving return catch off firm driveJustin Kemp c Martyn b Bracken 13 (355 for 6)
Toe-ended wide delivery to backward pointJohan van der Wath c Ponting b Bracken 35 (399 for 7)
Holed out to extra coverRoger Telemachus c Hussey b Bracken 12 (423 for 8)
Spooned drive, brilliant sprawling catchAndrew Hall c Clarke b Lee 7 (433 for 9)
Slap to mid-on