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Jamie How, who will captain New Zealand in the first two tour games in England next month, said leading the team would be a great honour, but he has talked down his chances of being next in line behind Daniel Vettori. Five players have been given permission to join the tour late to appear in the Indian Premier League and How will be in charge for the first week.”It’s obviously an honour, but I am the first to admit there’s a massive chunk of experience missing from the side with the guys away playing in the IPL,” How told . “Half the team is away. It’s a pretty unique circumstance but it’s great the selectors have the confidence in me to do the job in the first couple of games.”Vettori, Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor, Jacob Oram and Kyle Mills will be missing from the national team while undertaking their lucrative Twenty20 duties. How, a top-order batsman who has played in nine Tests, said there was no pressing need to consider future full-time leaders.”There’s a lot of water to go under the bridge before I would ever be considered a possible captain of this side,” he said. “Let’s not forget that both Dan and Brendon are young guys despite the fact they’ve played a lot of cricket.”Everyone dreams of playing for New Zealand and I guess one day captaining New Zealand would be the ultimate. That’s a long way down the track and I’m still primarily focused on securing my spot.”Richard Hadlee, the chairman of selectors, said the move was a “stop-gap measure” and How was the logical choice. “Jamie is starting to cement his place in the side now,” Hadlee said, “and hopefully he can handle the two roles for a short period of time.”

Ireland have announced that RSA, formerly known as Royal & SunAlliance Insurance, will be their new sponsor for the 2008 season.Currently the deal is only for the one season, but discussions will be held to extend the agreement for a longer term. The sponsorship covers the men’s and women’s senior squads, as well as the men’s A team and Under-19 side.Cricket Ireland have been searching for a new sponsor since Bank of Ireland ended a long-term association last year. Warren Deutrom, the chief executive, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with such a globally recognised blue-chip brand as RSA. Our current arrangement is just for the year, although we are hopeful of extending our relationship further into the future.””Together with our new name, our new governance structure and recent agreements with the England and Wales Cricket Board and our kit supplier Kukri, this new partnership with RSA will assist Cricket Ireland to put the pieces in place to provide support to all areas of the game on our shores, from the grassroots to the international arena.”Ireland begin their season on Sunday with a Friends Provident Trophy match against Ireland against Nottinghamshire in Dublin.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAl-Amin Hossain took 3 for 30 in four overs to rout Rangpur Riders•Raton Gomes/BCB

Al-Amin Hossain and Mohammad Sami took five wickets between them to set a course for Barisal Bulls’ six-wicket victory in a rain-affected game in Chittagong. Their opponents Rangpur Riders could not handle the early exchanges and once they fell to 64 for 6, the contest was extinguished. Some unexpected showers caused a lengthy delay and reduced the target to 75 in 13 overs, which was easily hunted down by Barisal’s batsmen with three balls to spare.However, all the highlights from the match will concentrate on the skill of Barisal’s fast bowlers. Al-Amin tempted Soumya Sarkar with his first ball of the match, and Rayad Emrit duly held catch at cover. Sweeter still was how the over ended – Shakib Al Hasan played an ugly hoick to be caught at mid-on and Rangpur were 10 for 2 in two overs.Mohammad Mithun tried to loft left-arm spinner Taijul Islam but was caught by Emrit again at long-off. Opener Jahurul took 32 balls to make his 24, but he had been adventurous at times. One such occasion led him to offer a catch to cover. For once Emrit was the bowler, and not the catcher. Then one Sri Lanka allrounder got rid of the other – Seekugge Prasanna had Thisara Perera caught at long-on to leave Ranpur at 54 for 5 in the 13th over.Misbah, who began with a reverse sweep for four, was dismissed by a Mohammad Sami bouncer that kissed the glove through to wicketkeeper Rony Talukdar, for 22. The tail couldn’t muster much after that despite playing out the 20 overs. Rangpur finished on 104 for 9.Barisal were 19 for 1 in the third over when the game was halted for the weather. When play resumed, they needed 56 runs in 57 balls. The change in conditions was enough for Rangpur to prise out three more wickets but Rony Talukdar and Mahmudullah chipped in with 23 each, the latter remaining unbeaten, to secure victory. That means Barisal are in pole position with 10 points, although Comilla Victorians have a chance to join them in the next few hours.

There has been much boasting in recent years of Australia’s seemingly endless supply of talented, young fast bowlers. Of a first-class roster bursting at the seams with seamers. Of tall timbers touted as the Next Big Thing.But, as the injury roll call and retirement parades have multiplied, the next few months may prove to be a true test of Australia’s depth across short and long formats in a way not seen for several years.Selector Rod Marsh, speaking after the Test series against New Zealand – a series that cost Australia two powerhouse Mitchells – put a magic number on the depth question. Twenty.Marsh believes the selectors need a roster of 20 fast bowlers, capable of playing for Australia in at least one of the three formats, from which to choose.The latest two off the rank are Scott Boland and Joel Paris, hoping to make an impression on a WACA pitch that is meant to be a paceman’s paradise but proved to be a batsman’s bonanza earlier this summer.Even Steven Smith, while expressing hope the pitch would have improved, admitted it felt “soft underfoot” a day out from the first ODI against India. The Australia captain, however, believes playing the first two matches in the five-game series at the WACA and the Gabba will help a relatively green line-up.”We’ve got a pretty young, inexperienced bowling attack but they’ve all been bowling pretty well and I think it’s a really exciting time for Australian cricket to see these young guys coming through and getting an opportunity,” said Smith. “And I’m sure they’re going to relish the opportunity to bowl on places like here and at the Gabba in a couple of days time.”Boland’s nine-wicket haul for Victoria against Western Australia at the WACA during a Sheffield Shield match in Victoria so impressed selector Trevor Hohns that he was thrust to the top of the contender pile for a possible Test call-up. While the call-up did not eventuate, Boland did not waste his time in camp, at one point cleaning up Smith’s stumps with a searing delivery in the SCG nets.While that was with the red ball, Smith is now counting on the skills Boland has with the white version in the Matador Cup and the Big Bash League.”His death-bowling has been very impressive,” said Smith. “I think he hits a yorker as well as anyone at the moment and he has a bit of pace to him so hopefully he can hurry up the Indian batters a little bit.”He’s been impressive in the nets in the last couple of weeks. He’s hit the bat very hard and bowled good areas and that’s what you need to do out here at the WACA so hopefully he can do that for us tomorrow.”While there was praise for Boland’s death-bowling, Smith maintained he will go with “gut feeling” when deciding who will bowl the final overs. He described having the choice of Boland, Josh Hazlewood, James Faulkner and the other debutant, Paris, as a “luxury”.Whenever Paris takes the ball, there is a sense that this, while a full international, is still very much an audition for the local boy on home soil.”He has been very impressive in the Matador Cup the last couple of years and this year in the Big Bash, and I look forward to seeing how he’s going,” said Smith. “It’s a good opportunity for him and some other young quicks around the country so yeah it’s an exciting time for Joel to make his debut here at the WACA.”Traditionally we like playing a left-armer here. They can use the breeze and swing the ball so hopefully he’ll be able to do that for us tomorrow.”

While farmers across the Free State welcomed the rain that fell on Wednesday night, South Africa’s cricketers would not have minded if it stayed dry for a few more hours. The hosts believed they were on track to take the opening honours, despite losing by 39 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern calculation.”It was advantage England but our run rate was right up there. I think we gave them a nice scare and showed them what we are all about as a top seven,” captain AB de Villiers said.South Africa were batting at 7.46 runs to the over, not too far behind the initial required run rate of eight an over to chase down 400. Their required run rate had climbed to 8.20 when the clouds burst but with five wickets in hand and Quinton de Kock unbeaten on a career-best 138, de Villiers was confident they would have got over the line. “We were exactly on target; spot on with our run rate. It would have been a nice finish,” de Villiers said.De Kock, the man in the middle at the time, backed himself to bat through even as cramp crept on him as his innings grew long. “I haven’t scored a hundred like that in a while so it was nice to stay in. Unfortunately because of the rain, I couldn’t carry the team, but I’m sure there will be many more opportunities to do that,” he said. “It was touch and go but pushing to England’s side. It was a bit of steep total but we would have done out best to get there, given the chance.”Eoin Morgan agreed that viewers were denied a thriller but was not drawn into whether England felt under pressure. “We would have liked to have played a full game against a strong South African side. It would have been a good ending,” Morgan said.South Africa might have believed their chance was buried when de Villiers was caught on the boundary by Ben Stokes in the 20th over, with rain already in the air. At that stage, South Africa had amassed 151 for the loss of two wickets but needed to be 169 for 2 t the end of the over to meet the DLS target. De Villiers was trying to get those other 18 runs when he was dismissed.He admitted if he had been luckier, the result could have been different, while also hinting there were some questions over whether Stokes was in the field of play when the catch was taken because the wind had blown the boundary rope further away than where it was originally placed.”If I batted another 30 minutes there, we would have been in a good position,” de Villiers said. “There are lots of rumours of theories going on in the change room. Lots of guys think I was unlucky there. But I am happy to walk off when the umpire gives me out. It was a silly shot. I am better than that.”De Kock also shrugged it off as part of the game. “Chasing a big target, a couple of those shots are needed,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that it was AB and Ben Stokes decided to pluck it out the air like that. It could have gone for six and we could have been on Duckworth-Lewis on the winning side.”Perhaps South Africa really lost in the first innings, when their bowlers leaked runs against an aggressive England line-up. De Villiers was gentle on his attack, even though they started waywardly and the fifth bowler, shared between JP Duminy and Farhaan Behardien, cost 93 runs. “I’m not to going to be hard on my bowlers,” he said.Morgan agreed that the Bloemfontein surface was a “bowler’s graveyard” but praised Jos Buttler for a match-winning century even though he was not awarded Man of the Match. “Jos was phenomenal. He is the kind of player who can change the game,” he saidThe England captain had similarly praiseworthy words for the rest of his line-up, who all contributed to the team’s second-highest ODI score ever. “It’s important to create an environment where everybody believes they have a chance,” he said. “It was a nice way to start.”

It has been cat and mouse between East and Central Zone over the vitalfirst innings lead at Green Park, Kanpur in their Duleep Trophy match.Fluctuating fortunes all through the day saw the third day’s play end onSaturday with East on 230/4 trailing Central by 191 runs. Rohan Gavaskarwith an unbeaten 51 is leading the East charge with Rajiv Kumar on 20.The morning did not start too well for Central who started on 417/8 andwere bowled out for 421 in the third over of the day. Right arm mediumpacer Javed Zaman finished with 5/99 to take the bowling honours.East Zone got off to a flying start thanks to India opening batsman ShivSunder Das and Nikhil Haldipur. The pair added 68 runs in 12.4 overs. Daswas first to depart, trapped in front of the wicket by JP Yadav. Hisquickfire innings of 40 in 50 balls included 8 boundaries. Left handerHaldipur also fell to Yadav at 96 after making 34 runs.SS Raul was bowled by Kulamani Parida for just 11 and East were reduced to120/3 in the 28th over. Rashmi Parida and Rohan Gavaskar steadied theinnings for a while with a partnership of 61 for the fourth wicket. Paridawas trapped LBW by Murali Kartik as soon as he got to his half century. Hemade 53 runs off 110 balls hitting a six and six boundaries.East were precariously placed at 181/4, but Gavaskar and Rajiv Kumar playedsensibly for 19.3 overs adding 49 runs for the unbeaten fifth wicket whenplay was called off for the day. Gavaskar carried on with his impressiveform, knocking the ball for two sixes and four boundaries so far in hisunbeaten innings.

Canterbury’s seven wicket winning margin was just what the doctor prescribed in their Shell Cup match against Central Districts at Timaru today.Canterbury “took their medicine” in coach Garry MacDonald’s words when they recovered to draw their Trophy match against the same opposition yesterday.The revival continued at the sunny Aorangi Oval ground as Canterbury got a new lease of life in the Cup. They had won just once this season, but took the Australians performance in the last World Cup as an inspiration to live on in the fight for a semi-final place.Captain Gary Stead was “very happy today. It started off with our bowling effort, when we bowled straight and put a lot of pressure on them. It has been our most complete fielding performance this year.”Brad Doody (96) and Stead (32) saw the home team home. They put on 109 for the third wicket in just 81 minutes and 129 balls.Doody hit 13 fours plus a six over deep midwicket off Gareth West, CD’s only successful bowler. He took 2-60 from 10 overs. Doody, a beefy left hander, now has 264 one-day runs at an average of 66, to be Canterbury’s leading run scorer in the Cup this season. Stead’s score was his highest in one-dayers this season.His partner in the match winning stand said, “it was great to see Brad Doody batting well on what was a very slow wicket.”Central’s day was marred by a bad injury to paceman Michael Mason, who dislocated his ankle attempting a caught and bowled off just the fourteenth ball of Canterbury’s innings. The remaining Stags bowlers had little to bowl at, as their batsmen had struggled on the difficult green wicket Gary Stead had put them in on.Jacob Oram top scored with just 33, and then highest partnership was only 50, raised for the fifth wicket with Glen Sulzberger (30).Ryan Burson, fresh back from a long term knee injury, began with three wickets in 17 balls.Chris Harris, also recovering from injury, had two victims in his first eight deliveries. His calf strain was causing him to limp slightly after the match, but he hopes to play on Sunday’s key encounter.The same Canterbury twelve will be at Whangarei on Sunday, for another must-win game, this time against competition leaders Northern Districts. Central travel to Napier to meet Auckland.”We’ve just got to keep winning through the one dayers here. Hopefully now we’ve got a win again, we’ll start to be able to get on another roll, said Stead.””Obviously we’ve got to win everything. We’ll go up to ND, they’ll be very, very hard to beat up there, but we’re looking forward to the game and we believe we can win it.”

ScorecardDriven by an unbeaten half-century by Kycia Knight, West Indies Women chased down 99 by a relatively comfortable margin against Pakistan Women, to take the one-off Twenty20 in Loughborough. West Indies won with only one ball to spare, but had eight wickets in hand.Pakistan chose to bat, but none of their batsmen bar Bismah Maroof and Javeria Khan could make any contribution of note. Mahroof and Javeria were the only two to get into double digits, making 36 and 37 out of Pakistan’s 98. Medium-pacer Shemaine Campbelle produced the best figures for West Indies, her 3 for 20 including the wickets of Mahroof and Javeria and preventing Pakistan from getting a final surge.The West Indies top order batted around Knight in the chase. She made 50 off 67 with five boundaries, while Deandra Dottin knocked off a four and a six in a 12-ball cameo at the end to help push West Indies across the line in the nick of time.

Match facts

November 10, 2012
Start time 1430 local (0900 GMT)Sri Lanka will have to make do without the injured Tillakaratne Dilshan•AFP

Big Picture

Rain may have defined the cricket so far, yet, with two games to go, the series is placed as expected. New Zealand’s batsmen have battled to good scores in both competed matches, but the visitors find themselves on the brink of a series defeat once more. That they have fielded second twice – once by their own election – has hampered their bowlers, who have had to contend with a wet ball.New Zealand have also spoken of a “top heavy” Sri Lanka batting order, but they are yet to dismiss all three of Sri Lanka’s old hands in an innings, and as Angelo Mathews proved with a sparkling 47-ball 54 not out, the middle order is by no means a cakewalk either. The visitors would do well not to jettison the conservative batting strategy that has seen them post competitive totals, but the bowlers must exploit the movement afforded them by the damp conditions to incite the top order collapse they have been aiming for.Sri Lanka meanwhile, have little to change about their game. Lasith Malinga’s return to form has ensured New Zealand’s totals remain manageable despite the new rules that have disadvantaged the spinners, while the batting is yet to be put under serious pressure. They will however be missing their match-winner from the second ODI, as Tillakaratne Dilshan has been ruled out by a back complaint. Sri Lanka will believe they have enough depth nonetheless, but Dilshan’s exit does leave the top order with considerably less firepower.

Form guide

Sri Lanka: WWLLL(Completed matches, most recent first)
New Zealand: LLLLW

Players to watch

The injury to Dilshan means Mahela Jayawardene is likely to open, and when he does, he is often Sri Lanka’s best limited-overs batsman. In 22 ODI innings at the top of the order, Jayawardene averages 49.67 with a strike rate of 92. He has felt that the team is stronger when he bats at four, but if he succeeds at the top of the order again, he can only ignore statistics for so long.Kane Williamson made two ODI fifties on the recent West Indies tour, but he cannot yet nail down a specific role in the limited-overs teams, and is often pushed down the order when New Zealand are in search of quick runs. He is yet to make an impact on this tour, and will be anxious to get a good innings under his belt soon, lest his ODI place comes under threat from the likes of BJ Watling when Martin Guptill returns to the team.

Teams news

Sri Lanka’s team management have expressed a desire to give the fringe players in the squad a game, but the selectors will only risk their inexperience if the series has already been secured. Dinesh Chandimal will likely take Jayawardene’s spot in the middle order, but the other ten players should remain unchanged.Sri Lanka: 1. Upul Tharanga, 2. Mahela Jayawardene (capt), 3. Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4. Dinesh Chandimal, 5. Angelo Mathews, 6. Lahiru Thirimanne, 7. Jeevan Mendis, 8. Thisara Perera, 9. Nuwan Kulasekara, 10. Rangana Herath, 11. Lasith Malinga.No word yet from the New Zealand camp if Andrew Ellis has recovered from his stomach bug, but if he has, he will take his spot in the starting XI back from Jacob Oram. Watling will likely retain the gloves, as New Zealand won’t want to risk Brendon McCullum’s back with the Test series looming.New Zealand: 1. BJ Watling (wk), 2. Rob Nicol, 3. Brendon McCullum, 4. Ross Taylor (capt), 5. Kane Williamson, 6. James Franklin, 7. Andrew Ellis, 8. Nathan McCullum, 9. Kyle Mills, 10. Tim Southee, 11. Trent Boult

Pitch and conditions

Hambantota was the most seamer-friendly venue of the three during the World Twenty20, and given the amount of rain that has been around, the bowlers are likely to have the better of the surface again. As has been the case for the last two games, rain is forecast for later in the evening, and the toss will again be of some importance.

Quotes

“BJ has showed a little bit of a new side to him with his power in the last game. We’ll be looking forward to him contributing again, and hopefully a few others can back him up.”
“Let’s finish this series and I’ll see if I can suggest something in writing about the new rules to the ICC. It’s not fair for me just to criticise, I have to come up with a proposal as well. We’ll sit with Sanga, who is in the MCC Cricket Committee and has already made some comments, and see if we can back up what he has said as well.”

Rain clouds over Castries threatened to sink England A’s hopes of landing ofa place in the Busta Cup semi-finals but Ryan Sidebottom made good use ofthe conditions to keep his team alive in the first day of the match againstWindward Islands.

By the close, another top-class bowling spell from the Yorkshireman had putEngland A into a strong position against the bottom-of-the-table side andthe fears that no play would be possible, because of the unseasonal rains,proved unfounded.No play today would have posed England A with a serious problem. With 39 Cuppoints, England A are in a close battle with Guyana, Jamaica and LeewardIslands and needed a result from this match in St Lucia to take the pressureoff during the final clash against top of the table Leeward Islands nextweek.But the prolonged and heavy rains, that disrupted their preparations for thegame, returned last night to create further saturation to an alreadywaterlogged outfield and play was held up for two hours while thegroundstaff crawledacross the grass patting and stroking it with sponges.They did a fine job because after lunch play soon got underway, with theclouds still low which suited Mark Alleyne, who won the toss and invited theWindwards to bat against an attack he knew would create problems in theconditions.The skipper was right and during the first session to tea, they had moppedup four wickets, two of them in Sidebottom’s increasingly healthy-lookingaccount which resulted in an enthusiastic gang of schoolchildren collectingbehind the wire fence to observe him at closer quarters, intrigued by hisunusual head of hair – crimped and tinted with the hues of autumn – and insearch of his autograph, which if he continues to perform as he did today,may well be worth a few dollars.None of the Windwards top order distinguished themselves though opener DevonSmith hung around dourly to see off the new ball scoring 28 in the firstsession, mostly off Graeme Swann and Mark Alleyne. His fifth wicket standwith Gregory Wilson put on 29 but Sidebottom broke it up shortly after witha ball that rapped Smith on the pads and the appeal against him was upheld.Sidebottom picked up his fourth wicket by bowling captain Rawl Lewis aroundhis legs, the second batsman to find himself deceived by the quicker balland Swann, who had been guilty of bowling too short for much of the day,took care of Wilson with another lbw delivery.Shortly after five o’ clock, the clouds opened once more and with the scoreon 116 for seven, the players ran for cover returning for just two moreovers before bad light intervened with Windwards having added another eightruns to their total.By then however, England A had lost another valuable batsman to injury.Diving for a ball that had been pummelled through the covers by DeightonButler, Vikram Solanki injured his finger and immediately left the field.He was taken to hospital in Castries for X-rays but if scans show it to bebroken, there will be more problems for England A selectors who have seentwo key batsmen, David Sales and Aftab Habib return to the UK with injuries.The change of heart to replace Habib with Under 19 captain Ian Bell ofWarwickshire, after initially deciding to make do with the existing pack,may prove timely if Solanki is unable to continue but there will still be ahuge void in the slips after the Worcestershire all-rounder has notched up20 catches so far in the Busrta Cup, making him the leading fielder in thecompetition, ahead of any wicketkeeper.