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Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth have been ruled out of the Test series against West Indies, further weakening an Indian squad already missing several first-choice players. Zaheer has a right ankle problem, Sreesanth has a right elbow problem and both are undergoing rehabilitation. Medium-pacers Abhimanyu Mithun and Praveen Kumar have been named as their replacements in the Test squad.Shoulder injuries to Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir had forced the selectors to opt for a pair of inexperienced openers in M Vijay and the uncapped Abhinav Mukund. Sachin Tendulkar wanted to spend some time with his family and opted out of the tour as well.While the batting was hit hard by these withdrawals, the bowling initially had a stronger look with Zaheer – who skipped the limited-overs leg of the tour – expected to lead a full-strength attack in the Caribbean. His and Sreesanth’s absence will now add further fuel to the debate on the impact of a cramped IPL schedule on the Indian team.Zaheer’s long-standing struggle with various injuries have caused him to miss games regularly. A shoulder injury made him miss India’s tour of Sri Lanka last year, and he was forced to sit out of Tests against New Zealand and South Africa due to groin and hamstring strains.Sreesanth hasn’t been far behind on the injured list, returning home last year from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka after damaging his thigh and knee.It has taken the absence of the first-choice bowlers again for Mithun to make a return after impressing during his debut Test series in Sri Lanka last year. He was ignored for the South Africa tour that followed, with the selectors opting for Umesh Yadav and Jaidev Unadkat.Praveen, who is currently playing the ODI series in West Indies, is a regular for India in the limited-overs format. He has played 50 one-dayers but is yet to play a Test.The Test squad was expected to leave for the West Indies on Sunday, June 12, but the departure has now been delayed.

Left-arm seamer Sohail Tanvir will lead a 15-man Pakistan A squad in their three-match home one-day series against Afghanistan starting from May 25. Afghanistan will be the first international side to tour Pakistan since the Lahore attacks on Sri Lanka’s cricketers and support staff in March 2009, and will play three games at Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Abbottabad.Pakistan A squad: Babar Azam, Shan Masood, Sharjeel Khan, Umar Amin, Naveed Yasin, Usman Salahuddin, Rameez Raja, Mansoor Amjad, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Zulfiqar Babar, Yasir Shah, Sohail Tanvir (capt), Sohail Khan, Mohammad Talha, Sadaf Hussain

Vincent Barnes, South Africa’s assistant and bowling coach, believes the lack of black African players in the national team could be the result of a deeper problem that flows from managerial level to the playing field. Barnes, who has been coaching for 17 years and been the national set up since 2003, would like to see transformation taking place throughout the ranks in South African cricket.”It is a worry that we don’t have as many black African players coming through the system. But, we have to develop coaches and administrators of colour as well,” he told ESPNCricinfo. “It’s no coincidence that players of colour will perform where they are some people of colour involved as well.”Barnes is one of two coaches of colour involved in professional cricket, which includes the national team and the franchises; Warriors’ Russell Domingo is the other. While there are some assistant coaches of colour, such as Lawrence Mahatlane who is involved with the Lions, there is a dearth of black African, coloured and Indian coaches, which Barnes thinks may filter down to player development.South Africa have had one prominent black African player since readmission, Makhaya Ntini, who retired from international cricket in November last year. Currently, Lonwabo Tsotsobe is the only black African player in the national set-up although there have been short stints by Monde Zondeki, Thandi Tshabalala and Thami Tsolekile. International cricket is still not played in any major predominantly black areas, such as the Soweto township outside Johannesburg, where there is a fully functional stadium. Although cricket is played widely among black Africans, the rate of progress of them playing for franchises and, ultimately, international cricket is still slow.Despite that, representation in the national team by coloureds and Indians has grown and South Africa were able to field six players of colour in their group stage match against Bangladesh in the recent World Cup. Barnes said that the harmony in the group was proof that the racial debate in South African cricket has moved on, at least at the highest level. “We had so many players of different colours, from different cultures and everyone believed that everyone else deserved to be there,” he said, while acknowledging that change, lower down, must speed up.As one of the few people of colour involved in coaching, Barnes has made it part of his mission to help speed that up, as part of his commitment to developing cricket in the country. “I am determined to find and create opportunities for people of colour,” he said.It’s no easy task, especially for someone who was denied the opportunity to play international cricket because of his race, but it’s Barnes’ way of opening doors for others that were slammed shut on him. Barnes played for the Western Province Cricket Board during the apartheid era and also represented Western Province after unity. “I know what’s it like to play in intense, high pressure situations and it’s up to me to be able to prepare people for that challenge. But sometimes I am harder on players of colour, because I want them to achieve.”

ScorecardHampshire opener Liam Dawson stood between Somerset and their first win of the season after a defiant century at the Rose Bowl.Dawson, a 21-year-old England Lions player, was unbeaten at the end of the third day on 103 as Hampshire moved to within 16 of making the visitors bat again at 212 for 3, but his team faced the prospect of defeat after another day dominated by Marcus Trescothick.Trescothick, 193 not out overnight, went on to complete the fourth double century of a distinguished career as Somerset built a first-innings lead of 228 over Hampshire. Somerset resumed 120 ahead at 405 for 5 in their first innings and were eventually all out for 513.Trescothick went on to make 227 in a fraction over eight hours from 376 balls in an innings which included three sixes and 32 fours. Trescothick was sixth out at 493 when he drove tenacious left-arm spinner Danny Briggs to the covers where Dominic Cork completed the catch.Briggs made the most of his breakthrough by finishing off the Somerset tail, having Jos Buttler leg before, sweeping for an innings of 61 which included 12 fours. David Griffiths had Gemaal Hussain caught at the wicket at 503 and then Briggs finished it off either side of lunch by dismissing Steve Kirby and Charl Willoughby in quick succession.Briggs, the only Hampshire bowler to escape heavy punishment on an easy-paced wicket finished with figures of 5 for 79 from 38 overs. Hampshire faced a daunting task so far behind but Dawson and Jimmy Adams found batting just as easy as Somerset had done in a stand of 181 for the first wicket.Then Arul Suppiah made a double breakthrough to put Somerset back in command. Adams had made 73 when he nudged Suppiah to Alex Barrow at short leg and in the same over newcomer Johann Myburgh was leg before without scoring four balls later.Dawson reached the second century of his career off 183 balls but lost experienced Neil McKenzie to the penultimate ball of the day. McKenzie had scored 20 when he edged Barrow to Trescothick at slip off what proved to be the last ball of the day to leave Hampshire 212 for 3.McKenzie’s wicket was the first of Barrow’s first-class career and left Hampshire deep in trouble still 16 behind.

South Africa didn’t play a bunch of dummies who had to just turn up in Dhaka and watch Graeme Smith’s men crumble from a vantage point.One of the undesirable fallouts of South Africa’s exit from the World Cup, depressing as it was to their fans, is the focus on South Africa’s choke. The talk all around the cricketing world has been how South Africa lived up to their record of not having won a single knockout game in World Cups, of their mental brittleness in big events, of what future holds for them, and the other team that won the match has been all but forgotten.New Zealand played a game too, you know. Jesse Ryder showed a glimpse of how good a batsman he is before a charged-up New Zealand side, yelling, hollering, sledging, intimidating, pulled off the best fielding performance of the World Cup. They were a team possessed. They didn’t want to go home, they wanted to settle a score with a ground that consigned them to their lowest low. They were not a bunch of dummies.Quietly they have slipped into Sri Lanka, “warmer than Dhaka, not as hot as Mumbai”, facing a far tougher task than the one they accomplished in Dhaka, that of beating a team much more naturally talented, much more varied, playing in home conditions, used to conditions warmer than Dhaka but not as hot as Mumbai.And it’s staying under the radar that they are hanging on to. “Most of the time New Zealand play we are underdogs,” Ross Taylor, who has captained New Zealand in some of the games this World Cup, said two days before their sixth semi-final in 10 World Cups. “It’s something we almost enjoy, and we expect when we play. I know a lot of teams expect to beat us, and we enjoy the underdog tag, and we expect to beat them as well.Ross Taylor: “We genuinely believe we can go one step further and make the final”•Getty Images

“I don’t think too many other people gave us a chance, which probably made other teams take us a bit lighter than they normally would, which played into our hands, but you know it’s going to be a tough game on Tuesday, one that we are looking forward to.”New Zealand have played Sri Lanka before in this tournament, and the result was not too encouraging, a defeat by 112 runs at a ground these teams will be fighting for the right to play at. Taylor sees having played Sri Lanka as an advantage, as an opportunity to have made the mistakes in a game not so big. “It’s a new game,” he said. “We are taking a lot of confidence from our last game against South Africa. We have got an advantage that we have played against Sri Lanka in the pool matches, and we did a few things wrong. Hopefully we can rectify that in the match on Tuesday.”New Zealand, in a way a team not too dissimilar to England who were demolished by Sri Lanka in the quarter-final, seek to learn from the way England played. “Watching parts of the game and analysing the way England played and where they went wrong and where Sri Lanka went wrong, but we have got a lot of momentum in our camp. We were happy with the way we fielded, and hopefully we can continue with that and put Sri Lanka under pressure.”Taylor said the side was desperate to translate the record of having made six semi-finals into something more significant. “We are proud of our history of making semi-finals, but looking at this team we want to make history and go one step further and make the final,” he said. “We genuinely believe we can do that, and we want to show that on Tuesday.”

Jason Krejza has spent more than two years in the cricket wilderness, so it’s no surprise that he is loving every minute of his return to the top level. And if he was excited just to get the World Cup call-up, imagine how he has felt over the past few days as he prepared to return to Nagpur, the venue of debut Test, when he picked up 12 wickets, for Friday’s clash against New Zealand.”He’s been pretty excited about coming back,” Ricky Ponting said on Thursday afternoon, before the Australians hit the nets. “He wanted to come down and train early this morning, to tell you the truth, and we had to hold him back.”It was in November 2008 that offspinner Krejza made one of the most memorable debuts in recent history, when he collected 8 for 215 in the first innings against India, and another four wickets in the second. But the axe came after he failed to stem the runs against South Africa in his second Test, in Perth, the following month, and since then he has been in and out of the Tasmania side.But now Krejza has reinvented himself as an ODI bowler; still a wicket-taker, but one who can play a defensive role when necessary. His chance came because of injuries to Nathan Hauritz, Xavier Doherty and Steve O’Keefe, and after a nervy debut against England in Perth, he has started to find his rhythm.Against Zimbabwe, in Australia’s opening game of the World Cup, he built on the good work of the fast men and collected 2 for 28 from his eight overs, and he will play an important role throughout the rest of the campaign. Ponting hopes that a confident return to Nagpur on Friday could kickstart a strong tournament for Krejza, who will share the spin duties with Steve Smith and the part-timers.”To have that feeling, to know the venue and know the wicket conditions really well will definitely help him,” Ponting said. “I think in all honesty, every game he’s played on the tour, he’s improved and got better. The first two practice games and then the hit-out against Zimbabwe, I think he bowled particularly well.”He’s a wicket-taker, we know that. He puts a lot of revs on the ball, he spins the ball and at different times, with conditions looking like they have so far, there are not many wickets that haven’t spun during this tournament, and he could be a really important player for us as this tournament progresses.”Adding to the importance of spin in the match against New Zealand is the early start, with a 9.30 am (local) opening so that fans in Australia and New Zealand can watch it at a reasonable hour. That means that dew shouldn’t be an issue.”There’s been a lot of talk about dew being a major factor but with it being a day game, it shouldn’t be much of a factor so it should make the contest a bit more even and fairer,” Ponting said. “Big scores have been made here and that indicates it’s a very good batting wicket; even the game here played the other night, there were a lot of runs and the wicket seemed to hold together very well and didn’t change much during the course of the game.”As well as hoping for a strong performance from their own slow bowlers, the Australians must ensure they handle New Zealand’s spinners with aplomb, after struggling against Ray Price and his colleagues on Monday. Nathan McCullum is likely to open the bowling, while Daniel Vettori also practised with the new ball in the nets on Thursday, and Ponting said his men were ready for the challenge.”We’ve had a good talk about that this morning. I think they might do that; we think it might be McCullum that might do it,” he said. “We’re also prepared for Vettori, and Price opened the bowling the other day for Zimbabwe and did a good job against the right-handers, so there’s also that option there for New Zealand if that’s the way they want to go. We’ll be well prepared.”The Australians arrived in Nagpur on Wednesday night, after staying on for an extra couple of days in Ahmedabad after their opening game. The Chappell-Hadlee Trophy will also be up for grabs on Friday, while the players will wear black armbands and observe a minute’s silence before the game in tribute to the victims of the Christchurch earthquake.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsSean Abbott pulled off an outstanding catch in addition to taking three wickets as the Blues’ teenagers shone in the field•Getty Images

The ‘Baby’ Blues have struck again, this time cruising past the Queensland Bulls by 17 runs at the Gabba – the final scoreline flattering the hosts who were never really in the contest during the second innings.On a pitch on which 160 looked like it would be a par score, the New South Wales Blues won the toss and had no hesitation in batting first. The visitors, however, battled to find the boundary and found themselves reeling at 5 for 72 in the 13th over, having broken the record for the lowest number of runs scored in the Powerplay during the season – 1 for 30.Moises Henriques (34 off 27 balls) and Man-of-the-Match Ben Rohrer (47 off 25) then joined forces for a handy 44-run partnership to give the Blues some hope of a respectable total.It was Rohrer – the only batsman to look comfortable on an, at times, two-paced pitch – who did the most damage, helping his side take 38 off the final three overs to reach 7 for 140.The Bulls’ big hope in the run chase – the dynamic Chris Simpson – started terribly, connecting with the ball just once (a top-edged six over third man) in the first ten deliveries he faced, including seven missed pull shots.Captain Stuart Clark (1 for 13) and teenager Patrick Cummins (3 for 24) were superb, bowling the visitors into a commanding position before another teenager, Sean Abbott (3 for 15), finished the hosts off with some good stump to stump bowling to tear through the middle order.Cummins, 17, looks to be a future Australia paceman and was unlucky not to have more economical figures; most of the runs off his bowling coming from edges through the slips.In a sign of just how poorly the Bulls did with the bat, it was No. 10 Nathan Rimmington who top scored for them, blasting his way to 24 off just 11 balls in the final overs.Queensland will play their second game in two days when they host Western Australia in what has now become a knockout match, before they travel south to face New South Wales again on Saturday.

The ODI series is yet to begin, but Praveen Kumar has become India’s third first-choice ODI player to board a flight back home. Praveen has an elbow injury that can’t be risked, keeping in mind the proximity of the World Cup, and Ishant Sharma, who must have barely reached India, is coming back as his replacement.Praveen joins openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir on the injured list. Sehwag’s return to India was announced during the Test series, but he stayed back to take part in the deciding Test, in Cape Town. It was a precautionary move to not risk his shoulder before the big event. Gambhir, who missed the second Test with a hand injury, was hit in the elbow during the third Test. He fought the pain to help India save the Test, but had to miss the ODIs.Praveen, who last played an international match in December 2010 before coming here, is an important part of the Indian team for the World Cup, and hence the team management didn’t want to take chances. “With the World Cup also in place, we don’t want to risk him,” MS Dhoni said. “He has been a very good bowler, irrespective of the conditions, whether we are playing in India or abroad, he has done well for us.”India have grappled continuously with fitness problems over the last two years, wherein they haven’t played their first-choice ODI XI since their tour of New Zealand in 2008-09. “It would have been good to feature the main XI,” Dhoni said. “Since last February, we haven’t played the full XI that will maybe feature in the first game of the World Cup. But we are risking injury. We have to save quite a few players. We have a fair amount of niggles. We don’t want to miss any of he key players just before the start of the World Cup. Some of them have missed the whole season. I don’t mind them missing one more series as long as they are available right through the World Cup.”

Only 2.1 overs were possible at the Colin Maiden Park, as rain played spoilsport in the encounter between hosts Auckland and Otago. The teams took two points each, enabling Auckland to continue their place at the top of the league with 18 points. Otago stay at the bottom.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Jacques Kallis’ counterattack turned the tables after South Africa had been reduced to 33 for 3•AFP

Contrasting hundreds from Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers pulled SouthAfrica out of strife and into a position of considerable comfort at theSheikh Zayed stadium in Abu Dhabi. Debutant seamer Tanvir Ahmed had reducedSouth Africa to 33 for 3 but Kallis and de Villiers punched back witha 179-run stand that left South Africa handily placed on 311 for 5. ForPakistan, only Tanvir could look back on the day with similar pride.The Kallis-de Villiers stand was the tenth century partnership in 32innings between the pair and it was done with such aggression it suggested were in trouble when they came together. Kallis’s fightbegan the moment Graeme Smith became the third victim of a hectic morningand though his mien remained as expressionless as usual, his game wasunusually expressive.He had hooked an uncontrolled six by the time a swish of fortune sashayedin. Mohammad Sami’s first over captured an entire career: one unplayabledelivery, honest endeavour but batsman ultimately supreme. Having beenbeaten by a beauty, Kallis coolly cover drove the next two balls for fourand the day’s mood changed.Sami was plundered repeatedly, everywhere and anywhere and even Umar Gulwasn’t spared a fine pull and efficient drives. Either side of lunch twotowering sixes off Abdur Rehman brought one message: ‘I am Kallis, youare nothing’. Not a particularly attacking spinner on his best days,Rehman immediately retreated, the supremacy in the relationshipestablished. By then a swift fifty had been notched up as casually asa snap of the fingers.de Villiers was twitchier, a more impish presence and not just because hedoesn’t have Kallis’ broad-chested appearance. Whereas Kallis imposedhimself on matters, de Villiers took advantage of Pakistan’s growingflakiness. When they pitched short, he gladly cut; when they got too fullhe happily drove; when they drifted to his pads, he politely clipped away.Five overs after lunch a century partnership was registered and by thistime, the surface had lost its early morning friskiness. Boundaries weremostly controlled, though with Sami around control remained a relativeconcept. In any case, runs were so readily available no risk needed to betaken. One flick brought up a fifty for de Villiers. As an afterthoughtKallis brought up a fifth hundred in four Tests against Pakistan, in whichhis lowest score is 59; in his first 11 against them, he had only one. Itwas his fastest century as well.When Kallis fell, de Villiers carried on, though with the sadness andrestraint of someone who has lost a partner. He was comatose during thenineties, only waking up once four freebie overthrows from Gul took him to99. It would’ve been impolite to not take a single next ball. Essentiallythe day ended there for him.Pakistan were fitful, not stringing together any sustained pressure. Tanvirwas responsible for the highs, further proof that whatever hole they findthemselves in, there’s always a fast bowler to get excited about.A month shy of his 32nd birthday, he was an unlikely hero and not justbecause he is probably the best bowler ever born in Kuwait. The pitch atTest cricket’s 103rd venue had enough moisture in it early on to temptMisbah-ul-Haq to bowl. It was a second gesture of positivity; the firsthad been to revert back to Pakistan’s traditional strengths by selecting athree-man pace attack.Tanvir has long been a steady hand at the domestic level; sharp enough, always tightand if conditions are right, eminently capable of exploiting them. So inhe ran as Pakistan’s oldest debutant new-ball bowler, a heavy action and agrunt at release and did precisely that. Immediately he became the sixthPakistani to take a wicket in the first over and a typical scalp too,full, searching for swing, finding an edge. It was his 400th first-classwicket. Five balls later he had another and Test cricket was looking aneasy game, though admittedly Asoka de Silva had a greater hand in HashimAmla returning to the pavilion.Later, through a long afternoon Tanvir maintained a pleasant discipline andthe wicket of Kallis after tea helped Pakistan slow down the scoring. Butafter the first hour the bluff had gone from the rest and the attacklooked precisely what it was: quite weak. Gul looked good in patches, Samia man condemned and Rehman the wrong choice.The umpires, who got four decisions clearly wrong, had a worse day.