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The analyst Simon Hughes says he had his doubts about the ball used by Pakistan in the Oval Test. Hughes, who was a witness in Inzamam Ul-Haq’s disciplinary hearing last week, was asked to examine the ball and give his opinions.”One or two of the scratches were concentrated on one area and that slightly aroused my suspicions,” he told BBC Five Live. “But it was impossible to say for sure whether they got there naturally or with human intervention.”I don’t think it’s any different to what England players and others do, countries do,” he added, before saying that ball-tampering is common in world cricket. “If we’re honest about this most bowlers in the world – of all countries – do kind of tamper with the ball in some way or other.”We get in a great big lather about this but it’s just minor things on the ball that might or might not help it to swing a little bit and make the game a bit more interesting.”However, the England fast bowler Simon Jones was keen to stress that reverse swing can be achieved without working on the ball. “People who say reverse swing is not possible without ball-tampering obviously know nothing about cricket,” he told . “I know what I did was legal. I would never do anything outside the laws of the game.”

Jacques Kallis is in danger of missing the home one-day series against Australia next month following the return of a serious elbow injury. Kallis had scans on the problem today and the team’s medical staff are expected to make the decision on Wednesday to send him home.The injury, which forced him out of the first Test at Perth before Christmas, flared in the nets in Brisbane on Monday and was worse this morning so he was ruled out of the 94-run loss to Sri Lanka. “It doesn’t look good,” Graeme Smith, the captain, said. “It looks like he’ll be going home, but I’ll wait for the medical staff to make that announcement.”Kallis is in doubt for the six-match one-day tournament starting in February and he is likely to be protected for the three Tests against Australia after the limited-overs series. “Jacques looks a bit more serious and he could be out for a decent period, but we are not too sure,” Smith said.The team’s injury crisis got worse over the past week with Charl Langeveldt suffering a groin problem that has put him in danger of joining Andre Nel and Makhaya Ntini back in South Africa. Ntini was being considered to rejoin the touring party after passing a fitness test for his knee-hamstring complaint, but Dale Steyn was preferred to give Ntini more time to prepare for the Australia series.However, Smith hoped Langeveldt would be fit for Friday’s match against Australia in Melbourne. “The biggest disruption we have got is getting people fit,” he said. “It’s a big irritation and every day there is more injury and disruption.”The withdrawal of Kallis forced South Africa to enter today’s match with only five bowlers, forcing Smith to back his batsmen to chase after he won the toss andfielded. However, his plan was upset by a poor start as Kumar Sangakkara and Jehan Mubarak posted quick half-centuries against an inexperienced attack and Sri Lanka reached 6 for 282.”Our basics didn’t work for us today,” Smith said. “We weren’t right with the bat, the ball or in the field.” Two poor run-outs of Herchelle Gibbs and Jacques Rudolph effectively finished South Africa’s push and gave Sri Lanka their third win in the past 13 matches.”The last game in Melbourne [Sri Lanka lost by 116 runs to Australia] was not close to our best,” Marvan Atapattu, the captain, said. “Today was about the best we can play.”

A one-day tournament so soon after the ICC Champions Trophy probably won’t excite many, but all three teams will have a point to prove when the Paktel Cup starts in Multan tomorrow, when Pakistan take on Zimbabwe. The peculiar tournament schedule means that the third team in the fray, Sri Lanka, don’t play a game until next Wednesday (October 6), but then will probably end up playing five matches in a row over 11 days.Going into the competition, Pakistan are probably the favourites. Since Bob Woolmer took over, there has been a noticeable change in attitude, and it has shown in the results as well – they reached the finals of the tri-nation tournament in Holland, eventually losing narrowly to Australia, and then beat India in the Champions Trophy. They’re still a work-in-progress side – the spineless collapse against West Indies in the Champions Trophy semi-final was a throwback to their old, erratic ways – but there have been enough positives of late to suggest that this might be a side which could realise its potential.There’s much at stake for Pakistan here. As the home team, there will be immense pressure on Inzamam-ul-Haq and the rest of the team, and any result other than a win in the final will be taken as a failure. Especially after the fiasco at the toss at the Rose Bowl against West Indies, a decision which still hasn’t been explained satisfactorily by the captain or the coach.Pakistan’s only realistic threat in the tournament comes from Sri Lanka, who have won 16 of their last 18 one-day internationals. That is a slightly misleading stat, though – five of those wins came against a second-string Zimbabwe – but their annihilation of South Africa in the five-match series was impressive, all the more so because Muttiah Muralitharan didn’t figure in any of those games.Murali will no doubt be missed – by both the Sri Lankan team and the spectators – but if the series against South Africa was anything to go by, the team is gradually learning to win without him. This series should be a good opportunity to give an extended run to Dilhara Fernando, who has finally regained full fitness after a string of back injuries. And in conditions that should be excellent for batting, expect the likes of Jayasuriya, Atapattu, Sangakkara and Jayawardene to come into their own.What of the Zimbabweans? No-one expects them to pull off a win, or even come close. Tatenda Taibu and his band have been game tryers, but it’s hard to see them being anything other than target practice for the big boys. Zimbabwe do get four games, though, in which to show the world that they can compete at the highest level. The tournament hasn’t yet begun, but come October 16 it’s easy to imagine Inzamam and Atapattu walking out for the toss in the final. Anything else will require a major miracle … or two.Squads
PakistanYasir Hameed, Salman Butt, Shoaib Malik, Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), Yousuf Youhana, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Bazid Khan, Abdul Razzaq, Moin Khan (wk), Shahid Afridi, Naved-ul-Hasan, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Sami, Iftikhar Anjum.Sri Lanka Marvan Atapattu (capt), Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Saman Jayantha, Avishka Gunawardene, Farveez Maharoof, Chaminda Vaas, Upul Chandana, Nuwan Zoysa, Dilhara Fernando, Thilina Kandamby, Rangana Herath, Kaushal Lokuarachchi.Zimbabwe Brendan Taylor, Vusi Sibanda, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Mark Vermeulen, Dion Ebrahim, Tatenda Taibu (capt & wk), Elton Chigumbura, Douglas Hondo, Alester Maregwede, Tawanda Mupariwa, Mluleki Nkala, Tinashe Panyangara, Edward Rainsford, Prosper Utseya, Graeme Cremer.

Inzamam-ul-Haq’s susceptibility against Anil Kumble has been brought up time and again during this series, but on the first day at Bangalore, there was no doubt about who won the contest. Of the 62 balls Kumble bowled to him, Inzamam scored 52 – that’s a scoring rate of almosr 84 runs per 100 balls; against the rest of the bowlers, the figure was only 66. Inzamam’s in-control factor against Kumble was 80% too – clearly, Inzamam had had enough of being called Kumble’s bunny.The most impressive aspect of Inzamam’s innings was his decisive footwork. His easy elegance makes it seem he has plenty of time for his strokes, and on a slow pitch at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, that effect was further accentuated. John Wright and the Indian think-tank would also do well to study the number of times the bowlers allowed Inzamam to go on the back foot – off the 93 deliveries when he did that, he scored at more than a run a ball. When he played forward, his scoring rate was halved.Inzamam got off the mark with a drive through the covers, and he continued to pepper that region throughout his innings, scoring more than 25% of his runs there. The slowness of the pitch can also be gauged from the fact that only six runs came through point – most of the cuts which would have, on a faster track, gone towards point went much straighter as the ball came on to the bat slowly.

A fine unbeaten 142 by Amit Pagnis and his unfinished third wicket partnership of 147 runs off 57.4 overs with skipper Abhay Sharma (61) helped Railways score 267 for 2 wickets in 90 overs at the end of the first day’s play in the Central Zone Ranji Trophy match against Madhya Pradesh at Karnail Singh Stadium in New Delhi today.Abhay Sharma won the toss and decided to bat. Pagnis, who joined Railwaysfrom Mumbai this year, opened the innings with Sanjay Bangar. The two put on 91 runs before Bangar was caught by debudent wicket keeper Gurucharan Singh off the bowling of JP Yadav. Bangar scored 41 off 64 balls with the help of 4 fours and a six. Murli Kartik was out for 8 off JP Yadav.Pagnis completed his century in 4-1/2 hours off 218 balls with the help of 15 fours and 2 sixes. By close he had batted six hours, faced 308 balls and hit 20 fours and two sixes. Sharma had faced 162 balls, hitting six of them to the ropes. Not even the new ball taken at 260 for two after 84.5 overs, made any impression on the two batsmen.For MP, medium pacer JP Yadav took both the wickets conceding 65 runs off25 overs.

Brian Lara has regained the No. 1 spot in the ICC world Test rankings after his magnificent century at Kensington Oval against Pakistan. Lara’s knock of 130 and 48 guided him from the second position and he displaced Jacques Kallis from the top of the heap.Lara’s captain, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, leaped five positions to No 8 after his knocks of 92 and 153 not out in the first Test against Pakistan, which helped his side to a much-needed win. The top five in the table were otherwise unchanged with Rahul Dravid at No.3, followed by Ricky Ponting and Virender Sehwag.In the bowling rankings, Glenn McGrath has maintained his top position, with Muttiah Muralitharan at No.2, followed by South African duo – Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini.

For complete rankings click here