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ScorecardJaydev Unadkat’s nine-wicket haul helped Saurashtra wrap up a one-sided contest inside three days in Valsad•Getty Images

Saurashtra thrashed Vidarbha by an innings and 85 runs to book their place in the Ranji Trophy semifinal for the first time in three seasons. Jaydev Unadkat, the left-arm seamer, picked up four wickets in the second innings to take his match tally to 9 for 116 as Vidarbha were bowled out for 139 shortly after tea on Day 3. Deepak Punia, the medium pacer, took three wickets in the second innings.Vidarbha, who resumed on 17 without loss after Saurashtra took a 224-run lead, lost wickets in clumps, with the highest partnership of the innings being the 44-run fifth-wicket stand between Ravi Jangid and Wasim Jaffer, who top scored with 48. Umesh Yadav, who picked up five wickets in the first innings, was absent hurt after injuring his ankle on the field on Thursday.
ScorecardAssam collapsed to 101 in their second innings but seamer Arup Das’ 6 for 82 took them closer to a semi-final spot, wrecking Punjab’s chase of 288 on the third day in Valsad. Punjab had reached 224 for 8 by close of play, and need another 64 runs with two wickets in hand.Arup cut through Punjab’s top order, sending back the openers and No. 3 batsman Uday Kaul by the 10th over to leave the side at 26 for 3. Gurkeerat Singh and Mandeep Singh resisted briefly with a 70-run partnership for the fourth wicket but both batsmen fell to pacer Dheeraj Goswami. Gurkeerat fell after compiling a brisk 64 off 55 deliveries with 12 fours and two sixes. Arup then returned to prise out the lower order, getting rid of Mayank Sidhana, Harbhajan Singh and Siddarth Kaul.Punjab might have fancied their chances of a semi-final spot after they had bowled Assam out for 101. The batting side, who had a first-innings lead of 186, had resumed the third day at a shaky 23 for 4 and were soon tottering at 53 for 8. Arup had a handy contribution with the bat, too, scoring a rapid 31 off 18 deliveries with three fours and two sixes. His innings nudged Assam past the 100-run mark, eventually setting Punjab a target of 288. Assam lost all their wickets to pacers – Barinder Sran took 5 for 43, Siddarth Kaul had returns of 4 for 25, his second four-for in the game, and left-arm pacer Deepak Bansal chipped in with one wicket.
ScorecardJharkhand were faced with an uphill climb, with Mumbai holding the aces in their quarterfinal fixture in Mysore. After deciding against enforcing a follow-on, Mumbai, who took a 244-run lead, pressed forward courtesy Shreyas Iyer. The 20-year old struck nine fours and two sixes in his 106-ball 81. In doing so, he became the third youngest Mumbai batsman after Rusi Modi and Ajinkya Rahane to score 1000 runs in a Ranji Trophy season. Abhishek Nayar, the stand-in captain, built on the ground work laid by Iyer with a sprightly 43 even as Samar Qadri, the legspinner, took 5 for 62 to bring an end to Mumbai’s innings on 245.Set 490 to win, Jharkhand, who were bowled out for 173 in the first innings, lost Anand Singh early as Iqbal Abdulla, the left-arm spinner, had him caught by Iyer. Shiv Gautam and Virat Singh saw off a nervous 20-minute passage through to stumps as Jharkhand ended the day on 28 for 1.

Matthew Hayden has said the Harbhajan Singh-Sreesanth row left him upset but is confident it was a stray incident. Hayden, the Australian opener currently playing for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League, also said he wouldn’t use this to sledge either of them when Australia tour India later this year.”I was very upset, I just think we play this great game, in a great competition and both these guys are young men with enormous responsibilities as two fine players and prospects for the country that adores cricket and its cricketers,” Hayden told Cricinfo. “So I am sure they will feel remorseful as any player would. Because I think any player who has risen to the top of the game obviously has enormous respect and enormous discipline to get there. Honestly, I think it will be tomorrow’s headlines and life will move on. The game has always moved on.”Asked whether he thought this was just a momentary lapse of reason Hayden said, “I think so, yes. I didn’t think this was ever going to happen and I don’t think it will happen again either. Hopefully not.”Hayden had a famous run-in with Harbhajan during India’s tour of Australia, where he called the offspinner a “little obnoxious weed”. Would he use the latest incident between Sreesanth and Harbhajan as a sledging tool when Australia visit India in October? “No, I won’t be,” he says with emphasis. Is he drawing a moral line to sledging? “Yes, I think so. That is an incident between two individuals and I don’t want to comment on their relationship and where they are at and how they are going. There is no point. All that does is just create another headline and I don’t want to do that. I love the game of cricket and I have been really successful at the game of cricket, so I don’t think I need to push that barrier.”It’s the beauty of our game really; there is a gentlemanly aspect to the game and we get challenged on this. Australia has been nominated as the best sledgers and we get asked the question a lot of time but in reality its actually a mis-truth or certainly an exaggerated truth.”What the world has done following the success of Australian cricket is to try and vilify us. And that’s fair enough as the best in the world need to be taken down. So we always had to be on our guard and understand within that we need to address the issue before anyone else does.

Hayden also said the Australian team has discussed the image of being the bad boys of international cricket and the ways of sledging. “You tell me what are these incidents of bad boys. I don’t think we are. But yes, we senior players do sit together and work out where we want to go and how we want to play our cricket. Also, making comments can be distracting to some characters. If someone is forced to do that without it being a motivating factor then its trouble.”He believes every team has a few characters that get involved in sledging. “I think in any given side, there are always two or three people that look to sledge. For e.g. In the Indian side, it would be Sreesanth, Harbhajan and [Robin] Uthappa. You wouldn’t hear a boo out of Rahul [Dravid], MS [Dhoni] and [Anil] Kumble though they are all fiercely determined.”Hayden also spoke about the art of sledging and how he would pick certain individuals for the treatment. “You choose your targets, really. I would never say anything to Sachin [Tendulkar], Rahul or Anil or anyone like that. I believe they have marked the test of time. We have been in battles together so many times and there is an enormous respect. Not that making comment is disrespect; making comment is trying to unsettle a player because you don’t know whether that guy has the skills to deal with it. And that was exactly the same when I was young coming into the game. You expect to get that.”

England coach Duncan Fletcher is not a happy man.He has been disappointed, and surprised, by the lack of fitness of those players in the England touring side who joined the team for the Test leg of the tour.With only the Canterbury game, starting tomorrow, in which to work on their fitness there is no recovery time for those players, and England risk being below par when they start the first Test in Christchurch on Wednesday next week.Fletcher said all the players had been given fitness programmes but not all the players adhered to them.It was ironic that he should air his frustration while the team trained at New Zealand Cricket’s High Performance Centre complex at Lincoln University because the practice wickets at Jade Stadium were wet.The complex is regarded as the finest in the world and some of the innovations coming out of it, and the personnel stationed there, have been trend-setting.But there is nothing especially out of the rocket science manual in a fitness advisor being part of the administration at the Centre. He monitors the fitness of all the leading players in New Zealand and regularly checks that fitness regimes are being maintained.The players work on an Internet-based system that they plug into from their own computers and the fitness advisors can log into. Special attention is placed on contracted players.If there are any concerns, NZC fitness advisor Warren Frost gets on the cellphone immediately.And if they are not getting on with the job?”I get on their case straight away,” Frost said.Surprising as it may seem, there was no monitoring element involved in the England preparations for those players joining the tour out of the English winter.Fletcher said it was something that would have to be sorted out at the end of the tour.England’s players were professionals and supposed to present themselves fit and ready for play.”I know which guys weren’t fit,” Fletcher said.England would look to put the best team on the field to win the Test matches.For the match against Canterbury starting tomorrow, the side will not be named until the last possible moment.However, Marcus Trescothick will not play as he has been given the break he was looking for. Andrew Flintoff has a knee worry which isn’t serious and either he or batsman Graham Thorpe could be given a break as well.The game was very important, especially to the players who have joined the tour as the Test match specialists. Even some of the players who have been involved in the one-day series but who are also contenders for the Tests, need to get out of the one-day mode.Some of them were guilty of sparring at balls in the nets in one-day style rather than in usual Test-match mode.After the failure to bowl out Otago in either innings, it is likely to be a much tougher job to contain a more experienced Canterbury side.

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

If an Indian team with ambitions to world dominance found the openingday at the Sardar Patel Stadium humiliating, day two was soul-destroying, with aclassy AB de Villiers double-century and a dogged Jacques Kallis hundredunderpinning a relentless South African charge to victory. By the time therain came down to wash away Indian tears, they had rampaged to 494 for 7,with de Villiers still going strong on 217, the highest score by a SouthAfrican against India.In the 77.2 overs bowled in the day, India managed just three wickets, twoof them when the batsmen were in the quest for quick runs after tea. Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh picked up one apiece, with Mark Boucher and Morne Morkel trapped leg before, but by then the only question being posed was just how imposingthe lead would be.de Villiers needed just 146 balls for his second hundred, and played somestupendous strokes in the final session. A huge six off Harbhajan landedon the roof at what is a massive venue, and when he was later gifted afull toss that he creamed through cover, the celebrations could begin.That stroke also brought up the 400-run lead, and de Villiers put the sealon an impressive day’s work with a mighty heave off Kumble that soaredinto the empty stand at deep midwicket. As a weary Indian side trudgedoff, a defeat of mammoth proportions beckoned unless they could bat with agreat deal more application at the second time of asking.Kumble and his men could reflect on opportunities that came their wayearly in the proceedings. Harbhajan, the pick of the bowlers, wasdesperately unlucky against both batsmen. Kallis had made just 61 when hefended one awkwardly off the glove, only to see it roll back and strikethe stumps. The bails stayed on, Harbhajan held his head, and the chancehad gone. In his very next over, an offbreak went right through deVilliers, missing the stumps by a whisker.Irfan Pathan was insipid with the old ball, and Kumble soon replaced himat the other end, but the runs slowly started to mount as the pitch showedfew signs of menace. de Villiers cut Harbhajan for four, and Kumble wasthen far from thrilled as a Kallis cover-drive was fumbled over the ropeby Sourav Ganguly.Despite slightly overcast conditions, Kumble didn’t call on Sreesanth. Bythe time the new ball was taken after 81.2 overs, whatever little moisturethat might have been in the pitch was long gone. Sreesanth soon made animpact too, striking Kallis on the shoulder with a bouncer and then havingan excellent leg-before shout turned down.Once the initial threat posed by the new ball passed, the runs camefreely. de Villiers flicked RP Singh for four and then glanced Sreesanthfine, before Kallis highlighted his power with two contemptuous pulls forfour. On the stroke of lunch, Ganguly came on, and a paddle down to fineleg saw de Villiers reach his fifth Test century.Kallis was on 97 at the time, and the 30th century that took him past SirDonald Bradman arrived soon after the interval, with a magnificentcover-drive for four off Ganguly. It had been a stolid and at timesfortuitous effort, spanning 228 balls, but vital in the context of thematch after Harbhajan’s three quick wickets on the first afternoon.The 200-run partnership came from 401 balls, and the runs were milked withease after that. Pathan was pedestrian at best and Kumble merelyrestrictive. Both men played the sweep with increasing confidence and itwas quite bizarre that Sreesanth, the most effective Indian pace bowler onview, was called on only an hour and ten minutes after lunch.Kallis swatted the first ball for four, and when an edge then streakedpast slip, Sreesanth’s frustration boiled over. But instead ofself-destructing, he used the anger to produce a gem of a delivery thatlifted from outside off stump and caught Kallis in two minds. By the timehe tried to arc the bat away, it was too late and the inside edge cannonedinto the stumps. He had batted six hours, and the partnership of 256 wasSouth Africa’s highest against India, surpassing the 236 that GaryKirsten, currently India’s coach, and Andrew Hudson added at the EdenGardens in 1996-97.A sparse crowd watched it all with a mixture of frustration and reluctantadmiration, and there was something forlorn about the few Indian flagsbeing waved in the stands on a day when dreams of global conquestevaporated in egg-frying heat.

AFP

There was a hat-trick from Faheem Ashraf, and a Sri Lankan collapse that saw them lose eight wickets for 14 runs. That might suggest another rout of the hapless visitors, but nothing could be further from reality. In the game of the entire tour, Pakistan edged home with one ball to spare, with only two wickets in hand when the winning runs were struck. They were struck by none other than golden boy Shadab Khan, who smashed a six off the game’s penultimate ball to wrench victory from Sri Lanka’s desperate, clawing hands.This was a complete T20 game, beginning with intelligent batting by Sri Lanka, put in after Pakistan won the toss. That was followed by a remarkable collapse from 106 for 1 to 120 for 9. Pakistan looked like they were cruising early on, before an excellent spell by captain Thisara Perera dragged Sri Lanka back. From there, they held the ascendancy right until the last three balls. Pakistan needed eight off them. Shadab hit a straight six and a couple off the next delivery denied Sri Lanka’s valiant young side victory in an astonishing contest.It was Sri Lanka’s best game of the limited-overs tour. The batsmen early on deprived Pakistan of wickets while keeping the score ticking. A 63-run second-wicket partnership between Gunathilaka and Sadeera Samarawickrama set Thisara’s men up for a score above par, with fast bowlers Hasan Ali and Usman Khan expensive in the early overs.Shadab was the only bowler in the middle overs able to rein in Sri Lanka. At one point, they might have been eyeing 150, but a superb spell from the teenager prevented them from cutting loose. He has added another variation, a quicker one that can reach 120kph, and it removed Sri Lanka’s top scorer Gunathilaka amidst their late collapse. Shadab might not have taken heaps of wickets, but his figures of 4-0-14-1 were to prove crucial.In the madness of Sri Lanka’s final overs, Faheem Ashraf emerged as the hero with a sensational hat-trick, removing Dasun Shanaka, Isuru Udana and Mahela Udawatte off the last three balls of the 19th over. It was Pakistan’s first T20I hat-trick and, in truth, couldn’t have come from an unlikelier source.Poor running and brilliant fielding hurt Sri Lanka’s innings: there were three run outs, The wickets that crumpled in a heap towards the end crushed their hopes of a late charge, and while it was still an improvement on yesterday, they still finished with a below-par 124.Pakistan were tentative in their approach to the chase, almost as if they had forgotten what to do when a match become mildly competitive. Fakhar Zaman was run out after miscommunication with Ahmed Shehzad, before Babar Azam fell victim to an incorrect lbw decision. But skipper Perera rose to the occasion, giving his side a real chance of victory, accounting for both Shehzad and Shoaib Malik in his first two overs.For a while, Mohammad Hafeez and Sarfraz Ahmed looked in control, never letting the asking rate get out of sight. But once Hafeez holed out to long on with Pakistan still requiring 31, panic set in. Perera returned for his final over and got rid of Imad Wasim, and terrific fielding in the deep saw Pakistan’s captain run out three balls later. Twenty-one were still required off 14, and with three wickets remaining, Sri Lanka were firm favourites.Udana conceded only four in a brilliant penultimate over, but the drama all lay in the last over. Faheem was caught at long-on off the first ball of Vikum Sanjaya’s over, and with 11 needed off four, Pakistan were up against it. It looked even graver for them when Hasan sliced one straight to long-off, but was reprieved by a crucial dropped catch, allowing Pakistan to scramble three. That brought on strike Shadab, a young man whose honeymoon with cricket simply refuses to end. Two balls and eight runs later, the contest was suddenly over, and Shadab’s joy, as well as Abu Dhabi’s, was unconfined.

The Indian Cricket League (ICL), unrecognised by the top bodies in the sport, is likely to be taken to court by the Pakistan Cricket Board for fielding a Pakistan XI in the ongoing World Series being held at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium in Hyderabad.The Pakistan board’s contention is that there is only one team representing Pakistan, which is the team selected by the PCB, as it has been legally authorised to do so by the government.Shafqat Naghmi, the PCB’s chief operating officer, confirmed the board had asked its lawyers to prepare a brief on the issue. “We are looking at the legal side of this issue,” he told . “We believe what is being done is not right.”The current tournament of the ICL features three teams, India XI, Pakistan XI and World XI. This is the first time the ICL has divided its players into national sides, with its earlier three tournaments having featured city-based teams consisting of a mix of players. However, in its previous tournament, it had launched a new outfit in the form of Lahore Badshahs, a team which had only players from Pakistan, captained by Inzamam-ul-Haq and coached by Moin Khan. The side had garnered a big following in Pakistan, with a 100% success record in the tournament till their 2-0 loss in the best-of-three finals.The Pakistan board, along with several other countries, have already banned players participating in the ICL from national selection. The BCCI had indicated that it wanted ICL players to be barred by other boards at all levels, but a few have received clearance from the England board to play in the 2008 county season.

ScorecardLizelle Lee hit 13 fours in her 57-ball 70•Milton Ahmed

Half-centuries from Lizelle Lee and Andrie Steyn laid the platform for South Africa women’s 17-run win against Bangladesh women in Cox’s Bazar. Lee hammered 70 off 57 balls, and added 115 for the first wicket with Steyn (66 off 98) after South Africa chose to bat. Lee’s dismissal, however, began a slide that saw them South Africa to 223 all out, with Khadija Tul Kubra’s offspin accounting for four wickets.Bangladesh’s innings mirrored South Africa’s, with one major difference. They lost two early wickets before Sharmin Akhter (74 off 127) and Rumana Ahmed (68 off 95) resurrected the chase with a 127-run third-wicket stand. At 170 for 2, Bangladesh seemed well placed, needing 54 to win off 47 balls, when Marizane Kapp bowled Rumana. That took the steam out of Bangladesh, who lost five more wickets and finished on 206 for 8. Kapp and the legspinner Suné Luus took two wickets each.

Matabeleland Tuskers and Mountaineers surged to easy wins as the Stanbic Bank 20 Series got rolling in Harare.Natsai Mushangwe was the hero for Mountaineers after they chose to field against Mid West Rhinos at the Harare Sports Club. Rhinos were in a dominant position at 55 for 1 in the eighth over, with Brendan Taylor and Riki Wessels on menacing 30-plus scores. Mushangwe, however, accounted for Taylor, who had struck two sixes, to spark a slide in which nine wickets fell for 60 runs. Shingi Masakadza and Prosper Utseya chipped in with two wickets apiece, while Mushangwe scalped 3 for 19.The target of 116 posed Mountaineers with few problems, after Hamilton Masakadza laid the foundation with a steady 34. Former New Zealand allrounder Chris Harris then controlled the chase with an unbeaten 39 to take his side home with seven balls to spare. Fast bowlers Shaun Tait and Dirk Nannes – the Australian imports in the two sides – finished wicketless in their economical spells.Njabulo Ncube was Mashonaland Eagles‘ bugbear as they struggled to 120 for 8 in their 20 overs, a target that Matabeleland Tuskers hunted down with four overs to spare also at the Harare Sports Club. Keegan Meth started the damage, picking up 2 for 15 as the power-packed Eagles top order faltered. Rory Hamilton-Brown, Peter Trego and Ryan ten Doeschate were the notable casualties as they stumbled to 51 for 5 in the 10th over. A series of 20s from Forster Mutizwa, Elton Chigumbura and Andrew Hall steadied the situation, setting the Tuskers a run-a-ball chase.Tom Smith’s early dismissal gave Eagles some hope, but Chris Gayle was only warming up to the task. He did not clear the field, but struck three fours in a crisp 27, and along with Paul Horton (30) took the game away from Eagles. Charles Coventry then sealed victory in a blaze of big hits, smashing four sixes and two fours in 44 off 19 balls.

Titans fast bowler Marchant de Lange has been called up to South Africa’s squad for the last two Tests in India as cover for Dale Steyn, who is doubtful for the Nagpur fixture beginning on November 25 because of a groin injury.De Lange has played two Tests for South Africa, the last of which was in Wellington in 2012. He was part of the T20 squad that won the series in India earlier in the tour.”At the moment we only have three fit seamers in Morne Morkel, Kagiso Rabada and Kyle Abbott, so with Dale still struggling with a groin injury we decided to bring Marchant in as cover so we are prepared in case one of the three breaks down,” South Africa coach Russell Domingo said. “Marchant’s biggest strength is pace, if the ball does start to reverse swing his pace through the air brings him into the contest.Marchant de Lange last played a Test for South Africa in 2012•Getty Images

“Even though his performances back home have been a bit inconsistent, we do know that as an impact player he is a guy that can turn the game with a good spell. Guys that can bowl at 150 km per hour will always be good value.”South Africa trail 1-0 in the series, after losing heavily in Mohali and then watching rain washout the Bangalore Test. Domingo, however, was confident his team could turn it around.”We’ve done it before,” he said. “We know that we are still in the contest with two matches to play, the wickets are definitely going to produce results. We are 1-0 down so we have every chance of turning it around in Nagpur. We have a lot of inexperienced players who haven’t played in India before so hopefully they will have learnt a lot of lessons from these first two matches.”

The figures speak for themselves. Curtly Ambrose: 27 overs 7 maidens 70 runs 4 wickets. Courtney Walsh: 27 overs 14 maidens 50 runs 4 wickets. Again, the “Old Boys” were magnificent. Again, the West Indies owe a tremendous debt to these absolutely unsinkable battleships, perhaps aging, but definitely still as dangerous, especially when given just a whiff of an advantage. With Ambrose’s dismissal of English batting hero Alex Stewart with the 2nd ball of the 3rd day, for his overnight 105, that whiff was immediately present. When Walsh bowled Marcus Trescothick off of his pads, things smelled even better for the West Indies. Even without any real help from the back-up bowlers, Ambrose and Walsh saw their team through a good 3rd day.This was enhanced even more when the West Indies openers, Sherwin Campbell and Adrian Griffith, with some panache, attitude and aptitude too, managed to defy the English fast bowling, and off spinner Robert Croft, for 96 runs, the best opening partnership so far this tour. Had Campbell not received the proverbial “unplayable” delivery, from the surprisingly quick Craig White, which Campbell actually did play, somewhat unintentionally with his bat handle, to backward point for Dominic Cork to take a brilliant running cum diving catch, the West Indies might have even closed without losing a wicket. To close at 131-1, and Adrian Griffith batting all of 3 hours 20 minutes for 41 not out, showed that the West Indies can muscle up some resolve. Only in deficit to the England lead of 146 by 15, the West Indies could look back on Day 3 as the turning point of Test 3.While England did make 303, thanks to Stewart’s 105, Marcus Trescothick’s 66 and a wonderful rear-guard effort by the late order English batsmen, after the team had slumped to 210-6 from the overnight 196-3, England should have been disappointed at the final score. 400 seemed more possible.Duncan Fletcher, England’s Coach, explained Day 3:”We played very well in the first two days, while on Day 3, we probably faltered a little bit. The first ten overs on Day 3 were crucial, and if we had gotten away with losing only one wicket in that time, we probably would have been very happy with that. The West Indies have two great fast bowlers in their team who could bowl on any surface, really, and you always have to worry that if these two guys strike, then it makes life very difficult for the batters. While it was not (Courtney) Walsh this time, as it was on the 2nd day, it was (Curtly) Ambrose who got the immediate vital wickets. We lost three wickets in that early session which set us back and then the West Indians batted well. I do not blame it on luck. They simply batted well. The openers put their heads down and grafted well. Griffith showed that he went in there very determined, did not play any loose shots and Campbell played a good innings.On Day 4, we would like to bowl the rest of the batsmen out for about an additional 10 runs, then go on to win the game. Simply, now, we have to go back in there and put on the pressure and not allow them to get too many runs. We have to restrict them to not getting too many runs and then to go and get the score. Past games have struggled to get past three days, but this has been a good wicket and the batters could get down and run some decent scores. I might have expected a bit more from the England bowlers, but it does happen a lot that when a team gets a big lead, a time to defend and a time to attack sometimes causes some confusion as the bowling team would want to get in there and get as many wickets before the close as possible. As a result of that, the team would likely leave many gaps in the field placing and the batsmen took advantage of that. Yes, I have been impressed at the way the West Indies batters have come out and showed great determination, despite the lead that England had. It was nice to see, however, that we could get to 303 and especially that the West Indies struggled to knock over the tailenders. 250 would be about the maximum we would like to chase on this wicket.”After Jimmy Adams, at the end of Day 2, had suggested that the West Indies would like to restrict the English batsmen to another 70 on the 3rd day, he nearly got his wish. England only added another 107, and that was due mainly to the lower order batting well. The West Indies had responded in the way they should have, with determination and a direct plan. To the end of Day 3, things had changed for the West Indies somewhat, much more promising.Sherwin Campbell, the West Indies vice-captain, put things into proper perspective:”Having been set a deficit, our target was just to go out there and bat for a long period, with determination, but to enjoy ourselves too, being as positive as we could be. My own dismissal (in the 2nd innings from an “exploding” delivery) does not really concern me. One or two deliveries are taking off from a length. That is good for us, in a way, as we are not batting last. I was a part of the decision making team which suggested that we bat first after winning the toss. It might still turn out to be a good decision, but having said that, there are still two days to go. Things did not go our way yesterday (Day 2), but we chose to think about the next day and we came out very positively on Day 3, kept things as tight as possible and then to get some wickets too. This is a very important Test match and we do not want to go down in this game. It was very important that we had a great rest after Day 2 and come out fresh on Day 3. That is exactly what happened. We simply came out on Day 3 very positive, ready to go and things worked out in our favor. 250 would be fairly reasonable score to defend on this pitch for the team fielding last. This game still has a very long way to go before the end. This is Test cricket, and anything can happen for the rest of the game. Adrian (Griffith) played really well, hanging in there to the end. He will still come back on Day 4 and he could get a big total. Curtly (Ambrose) bowled as well on Day 3 as he has been bowling, but he had a bit more luck this time. Things just went his way. From now on, they, hopefully, will continue to go his way. Alex Stewart’s 105 was a well put together innings. He got a good explosive start and continued on. I think it was a really good innings. We had to remove him early on the 3rd day, as we knew that as long as he remained at the crease, he would score quickly and put the pressure on us. We were glad to get that wicket, especially Stewart’s, so early.”Day 3 was probably the fulcrum of this Test match. If the West Indies could continue their batting well on Day 4 and gain an ascendancy, then England could be facing 200-250 to win the game. England would be trying desperately to get early wickets on Day 4 to restrict the lead to under 200. This Test match is turning out to be a tight rope act. A slip could be very detrimental. Day 4 promises great intrigue.