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Simon Katich’s vow to enjoy an unexpected Test recall paid off as he produced a gritty third Test century to guide Australia to 259 for 3 on the opening day against West Indies. Benefitting from Matthew Hayden’s tour withdrawal, Katich opened for the second match in a row and was rewarded for a more considered approach with an unbeaten 113.Katich has done a lot of thinking and working on his technique – he hits the ball straighter now – in the two-and-a-half years he spent out of the side and believes he is more relaxed. “I sort of thought to myself, whatever’s left, I just wanted to enjoy it,” he said. “Once you get to 30 a lot of people ask you what are you going to do when you finish playing and it was starting to dawn on me that it wasn’t that far away. That’s changed my mindset. If I’ve only got a few years left I’m going to enjoy it.”Katich said he was “too revved up” in the opening Test in Jamaica, where he scored 12 and 1. “Definitely in the first innings, I felt like I blew a good opportunity,” he said. “Sometimes the problem as a batsman is that you can play with a bit too much intent and pay the price. Today I felt a bit more relaxed and content just to occupy the crease.”While he was with New South Wales he never gave up hope of returning to the national team he left in 2005. “But at times you’re always thinking at the back of your mind whether that opportunity may come again,” he said. “Particularly as the years were starting to tick over. It’s just nice to be back and playing.”His first Test century came against India in 2003-04 and he picked up another in New Zealand the following year before his struggles against England and West Indies led to his sacking. In Antigua he started the second Test by batting throughout the day, facing 241 balls and striking nine fours.”It felt special because it’s obviously been a long time,” he said. “As a Test batsman that’s what it’s all about, trying to score hundreds. That’s what perhaps happened first time around, I probably got too many starts and didn’t go on with it and convert.”Ricky Ponting, who posted a handy 65, wants Australia to build quickly on their total when Katich and Michael Clarke, who is 38 not out, resume on the second morning. “It’s a good day, a very pleasing day,” Ponting said at stumps. “Whenever we win the toss and bat the whole objective for us is to try and bat once in the game, or get enough runs for me to have a decision whether to enforce the follow-on or not. We’ll be trying to make a really big score from here.”Australia were able to move more freely in the final session after West Indies had tied up the visitors earlier in the day. “Katich has played a great innings and Michael has looked a million dollars since he’s been out there,” Ponting said.Katich benefitted from a dropped catch by Runako Morton on 90 and Xavier Marshall, who came into the side, felt the toll of playing back-to-back Tests may have had an effect on his team-mates. Chris Gayle had hoped to return for the game, but he was ruled unfit and Marshall stepped up to take the place of Brenton Parchment, who struggled in the 95-run loss in Jamaica.”I’m a bit surprised [to be picked] but I’ve been working hard over the past few months and I guess when you work hard it pays off,” Marshall said. “I am a bit more mature. People used to think I was a bit rough, now you can see I am more relaxed, enjoying my team-mates, friends and so on. I think I am getting there.”

Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey have both confirmed that Australia’s tour match in India in early October will take precedence over their potential involvement in the Champions League. Their comments are in contrast to the claim of IS Bindra, a member of the Indian Premier League (IPL) governing council, who said the pair would play for their IPL team, Chennai Super Kings, even though the Champions League clashes with Australia’s tour of India.Only one warm-up match is scheduled, to take place from October 2 to 5, before the first Test in Bangalore, which begins on October 9. Australia will have just been to the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, provided they do not pull out, and their players will be desperate for a lengthy hit-out ahead of such a major Test series.Hayden said his IPL contract left no doubt that Australia’s match would be his sole concern. “The rule is simple on this one,” Hayden told the . “If we are playing for Australia in any form our decision will be to honour that commitment first. There are no grey areas here.”For Hussey, playing for Chennai appears to be his third priority. He has already confirmed that he would prefer to represent his home state Western Australia, who have qualified for the Champions League as one of the two top Twenty20 teams in Australia’s domestic tournament.Although he would have reluctantly accepted that his contract gave Chennai precedence over Western Australia, the issue will probably be irrelevant in any case. The has reported that Hussey told team officials on Sunday that he expected to be playing in the tour match and not in the Champions League.

The pace and spin combination of Umar Gul and Danish Kaneria guided Pakistan ‘A’ to a nine-wicket victory over Sri Lanka ‘A’ in first of the two four-day ‘Tests’ at the Iqbal Stadium Friday.Budding pacer Umar claimed four wickets for 36 runs and Test wrist spinner Danish scooped up three wickets for 101 as the visitors were bowled out for 223 after having resumed this morning at 72 for two.Pakistan ‘A’, who had secured a healthy 208-run first inning lead, were left to score 16 run for victory which they achieved in 23 balls losing Asim Kamal. It was a match Asim would like to forget as he followed up his first innings duck with a nine-ball two in the second.But Danish would certainly like to remember this match as he had match figures of eight for 143 runs. This performance virtually guarantees him a place in the Pakistan team for the three-Test series against Australia starting Oct 3 at Colombo.But the star of the day was Umar Gul who exhibited talent and potential in turning into a good aggressive bowler. The youngster bowled his heart out with controlled accuracy to prove to his skipper that he deserved more overs than he got in the end.Umar, who had grabbed both the Sri Lankan wickets when curtains fell Thursday, created the inroad immediately in the fourth monring when he pinned Naveed Nawaz in front of the wickets with the visitors having added only 24 runs to their overnight score.Danish fully cashed in on the opening when he kept the tourists guessing with his crafty bowling. And though the spinner went for over 100 runs, most of the shots were unconvincing and appeared to have been played to take the pressure off rather merit being the criterion.Only Jahan Mubarak, who started at 19, offered any significant resistance by hitting a polished and unconquered 93. He faced 180 deliveries and slammed 12 hits to the fence.Moin Khan also completed an impressive comeback when he accounted for six batsmen behind the wickets. The gutsy wicketkeeper looked athletic and agile but the most impressive part was his fitness.

Alas! Pakistan’s test cricket has suffered so heavily recently that it appears to have reversed back to the primitive days. The Pakistan team has shown performances the likes of which were only exhibited by South Africa when entering test cricket but that was over 114 years ago. To the utter disbelief of their supporters the Pakistan team was bundled out for paltry scores of 59 and 53 in the two innings of the recent second test match at Sharjah against Australia. The aggregate is the lowest match aggregate for Pakistan in test cricket to date.The more gloomy aspect of these lowest aggregates was that it had come on the eve of country’s 50th Anniversary of playing the inaugural test match. (October 1952).Pakistan’s record lowest match aggregate is the fourth lowest aggregate ever in test cricket after South Africa’s 36 + 45 against Australia at Melbourn in 1931-32, 47 + 43 against England at Cape Town in 1888-89 and New Zealand’s 42 + 54 versus Australia at Wellington in 1945-46. Lamentfully Pakistan’s pathetic performance in the second test match at Sharjah also created only the second instance since 1945-46 for a test match to be wrappedup in two days. (the other instance being West Indes versus England at Leads in 2000).Presented below is a list of Pakistan’s lowest match aggregates (completed innings) to date:

Match 1st 2nd Venue V/S Year ResultAggregate Inn Inn112 59 53 Sharjah Aus 2002-03 Lost by an inningsand 198 runs208 77 131 Lahore WI 1986-87 Lost by an inningsand 10 runs222 104 118 Hamilton NZ 2001 Lost by an inningsand 185 runs240 106 134 Port of SA 1997-98 Lost by 259 runsElizabeth244 105 139 Lords Eng 1978 Lost by an inningsand 120 runs254 140 114 Trent Eng 1967 Lost by 10 wicketsBridge289 145 144 Dacca WI 1958-59 Won by 41 runs297 133 164 Oval Eng 1954 Won by 24 runs302 150 152 New Delhi Ind 1952-53 Lost by an inningsand 70 runs304 132 172 Colombo SL 1986 Lost by 8 wickets305 140 165 Port of WI 1993 Lost by 204 runsSpain

NOTE: Surprisingly, despite Pakistan’s batting debacles on two of the above occasions, Fazal Mahmood, the architect of Pakistan’s six of their first eight victories, bowled his team to exciting victories (v England at the Oval in 1954 and v West Indies at Dacca 1958-59). Fazal Mahmood, on both occasions claimed twelve wickets in the match.

With thin sunlight struggling to break through the London cloud the weather forecasters were proven correct, although unhelpful, as the pitch remained sufficiently wet from overnight rain to prevent play before lunch.One cannot, on days like this, help suspecting that Surrey’s recent investment in sprinklers, which helped to guarantee a beautiful, fast, green outfield last season, might have been more usefully directed towards more drainage. It might even be not be out of place to suggest that with ample slow and slow medium bowlers on both teams an unconventional choice of opening attack could have facilitated an earlier start. Still, at Lords the great wealth of the MCC was unable to make any play possible all day.Furthermore as when play did start both sides set off determined to make up for lost time the crowd had limited cause for complaint. Heavy cloud cover at the Oval is often an indication of plentiful swing and the cue for the winner of the toss to insert their opposition, and as in this case it was Surrey they were able to do so without fear of facing their own spinners on days three and four.The decision proved almost immediately to be a wise one when after a couple of looseners Martin Bicknell troubled and then removed Fulton in the first over. This brought Kent’s leading batsmen together and both Smith and Key took advantage of some rare poor overs from Ormond who struggled to control the swinging ball at first except for three deliveries in his second over any of which could easily have brought a wicket. It was Bicknell again though, who with the total on twenty-seven took his his second wicket, removing danger batsman Robert Key for fifteen quick runs, the catch by Batty behind the stumps was a splendid effort.Shortly afterwards Symonds flailed at a swinging ball from Ormond and the thick edge flew straight and hard to Salisbury at gully, he was quickly followed back into the pavilion by Walker, well taken at slip by Ricky Clarke. The penultimate over of Bicknell’s spell saw him secure the wicket of Ed Smith, who failed to control his cover drive and sent a high chance to the hands of Ward at cover point. This left the visitors reeling at 48-5.By now the openers were tiring and both Nixon and Ealham used a judicious mixture of nudges and shots to edge the total upwards. Ormond was unlucky not to break through again before Giddins took over from the pavilion end and Ricky Clarke bowled a tidy four over spell that will hopefully steady his bowling nerves after going for runs in his previous appearances. Giddins repeatedly passed the outside edge but was unable to split the two gritty campaigners before they had nursed the score on to 100 and Ealham was trapped in front. Fleming then joined Nixon at the crease and they pushed on to 129 before Ormond struck again, before Bicknell wrapped things up with his fine control of the swinging ball either side of tea.Nixon’s 54 was, in the conditions an excellent performance as the ball swung and the Surrey bowlers, for the most part bowled with control and accuracy. Martin Bicknell also deserves a special mention for his fine bowling and the fact that his figures of 6-42 complete his full house – he has now taken five wickets in an innings against each of the other seventeen counties, a feat rare for a bowler so frequently overlooked by the national selectors. In this fixture last season Fulton and Key made an opening stand of 198 during a rain and sleet interrupted draw in one of the coldest Aprils I can recall.Taking to the field with only 153 behind them Kent knew that they needed to strike quickly and, with a brace of wickets Denmark’s Amjad Khan did just that having Ward caught at the wicket and Mark Ramprakash LBW to leave Surrey on five for two and their own total looking far less modest that it had fifteen minutes earlier. Unfortunately for the visitors Khan’s control and luck then deserted him and he was knocked out of the attack quickly afterwards by Nadeem’s forthright strokeplay. Surrey were quickly back in trouble though as Nadeem unluckily tickled an edge down the leg side, the umpire took an age to decide, but eventually sent him on his way to leave the weakened Surrey batting line up at 39-3.Saggers had more difficulty getting the swinging ball in the right place than the more experienced seamers in and was replaced by Ealham, but it was from the pavilion end that all of Surrey’s wickets fell, with Fleming having Batty caught at slip and frustrating Ricky Clarke out held by Khan.While Fleming bowled his medium pacers with excellent effect though, Brown, after a watchful start, set about Mark Ealham with his trademark brutality reaching 49 from 43 deliveries, when Saggers returned he too was mauled by this years Surrey beneficiary.

In reply to a number of enquiries that the website has received from concerned fans, Somerset Sabres friendly dragon mascot Stumpy has talked to us about his re-appearance tomorrow after a period of enforced absence.From his secret hideaway deep in the heart of the Somerset countryside Stumpy told me: “It seems like a lifetime since I was last at the County Ground, but after being away for seven weeks it will be good to be back amongst all my friends,and I am really looking forward to it.”Stumpy will be at the County Ground for the crucial day-night relegation NUL National League match between Somerset Sabres and Nottingham Outlaws, that gets underway 4.10pm tomorrow.The last time that Stumpy was at the ground the Sabres suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Worcester Royals, so tomorrow he will be hoping to bring the team better luck.One thing Stumpy can be assured of is a large crowd to welcome his return to the ground which has become his spiritual home since he first appeared earlier this season.Membership secretary Jo Betsworth told me earlier: “There has already been a large interest in the match and we are expecting one of our biggest crowds of the season to watch the Sabres take on Nottingham Outlaws. As well as the cricket there will be a number of other activities including the ever popular face painting, and of course the return of Stumpy who will be walking round the ground to meet his friends and sign autographs.”With a large crowd expected, the advice to those who are going along to the ground is to arrive well in advance of the action on the field. With the game being televised there will certainly be no shortage of entertainment so everybody is guaranteed a good time.Lets just hope that the Sabres get the result that they so desperately need from the match to help them climb away from the relegation zone.

Tall, burly all-rounder Craig Evans has had a chequered career for Zimbabwe. He played in two unsuccessful Test matches and 49 one-day internationals for Zimbabwe, the last 2½ years ago, with just one fifty and 19 wickets to his credit, and many wrote him off as a talented but undisciplined player who had wasted his ability. But now, at the age of 32, when most Zimbabwean players have hung up their boots, he believes he is in the best form of his career. He hit centuries in each of his four Logan Cup matches for Mashonaland this season, including 210 against Manicaland that enabled this team to win the match after being forced to follow-on. He talks to CricInfo about his achievements.I think this has probably been my best season ever. I think I’ve matured as a player in the longer game, and I hope I can build on that for whatever cricket I may play from now on.I think I’m a lot more circumspect nowadays in choosing what balls I should be playing and what I shouldn’t be playing. Over the last four or five years I’ve been playing too often at balls I shouldn’t have played, and got out. It’s simple, basic cricket that I’m playing now – time at the crease, occupation of the crease – and I think that’s why I’ve scored the runs I have this season. I think my concentration has been more circumspect recently, and that has helped me a lot this season.I think my best innings was the double-hundred I got against Manicaland after being 300 behind and we had to knuckle down. Then at Harare Sports Club on a green pitch I got 163 against Midlands, which was quite a good one as well.At Mutare we put Manicaland in to bat on a flat pitch but we didn’t bowl particularly well, so they ended up getting 513. Guy Whittall batted very well for 247, but we didn’t bat at all well; we gave our wickets away and ended up being bowled out for 226. They then made us follow on, and we ended up getting 506 batting properly in the second innings, and winning the game from there.My personal game plan during my 210 was to leave as many balls as I could and score off the bad balls; I knew I was going to get a bad ball once every over or two. [210 off 274 balls suggests a little more frequently than that!] It’s the normal cricket situation: once you’re in and you settle down, you are going to get a lot more bad balls than when you first come in. I’ve faced stronger bowling, but for me a double-hundred in any form of cricket is still a double-hundred, and this was first-class. I think my highest score before that was 170, and it was quite nice to get a career best near the end of my career.The pitch at the end started to break up a bit and do a little off the seam, and I took six for 37 and we won the game, so that made it a good all-round game for me. The ball scuffed up quite quickly on the deteriorating pitch and it was reversing a bit, so I just concentrated on putting it in the right area and it would do its own thing.My club season for Old Georgians has been very good and I think I’m averaging close to 50. We’ve won the national league in the final, which was quite a good effort. We have a lot of young players at Old Georgians and if we win our next two games in the Vigne Cup I think we’ll end up second, which is quite a good achievement from a club that was nearly going bust.As far as my personal ambitions are concerned, I think I’m now having a last crack at the whip. I’m getting fitter now, I’m starting to lose weight again and play better cricket. I’m going to try to make the World Cup squad and hopefully the World Cup next year. I’ll have to keep on scoring the runs I have been scoring to influence the selectors, though. The more runs I score, the less options they have to leave me out.

Darryll Cullinan led Kent to a 31-run Norwich Union League win over Somersetin a low-scoring game at Taunton.Given a sunny afternoon and the true nature of the County Ground pitches,the visitors’ total of 180-7 after losing the toss did not appear enough,despite Cullinan’s well-made 70.But the South African’s first innings for Kent in the competition proved thedifference as Somerset quickly subsided to 15-4 against the bowling of BenTrott and Martin Saggers before eventually being dismissed for 149.Trott, playing against the county who discarded him in 1999, took 2-22 fromhis nine overs, while Saggers returned 3-19 from 7.4 overs.They were well backed up by Min Patel (2-38) and skipper Matthew Fleming(1-25), while Somerset contributed to their own downfall with the run-outsof Peter Bowler and their top scorer Ian Blackwell (32).Earlier, Kent had been in trouble themselves at 14-3 against Jason Kerr andSteffan Jones, who were both awarded their county caps by Somerset beforethe start.Cullinan came to the rescue, reaching his half-century off 91 balls, with four boundaries, and marking the achievement by immediately launching Keith Dutch out of the ground over long-on with a big six.He was out trying to repeat the shot against Blackwell and only Paul Nixon,with 26, among the later batsmen managed to cope with some tight Somersetbowling.Jones, Kerr, Jamie Grove and Peter Trego all performed well for the homeside, whose batting has now let them down in two successive Norwich Uniondefeats to start the season.Kent, on the other hand, now have six points from two matches, and can feelhopeful of a successful 45-over campaign.

ScorecardUsman Khawaja’s 88 was watched by his former NSW teammate Phillip Hughes•Getty Images

Usman Khawaja wasted little time showing his potential worth to Queensland, compiling a sturdy 88 in the Sheffield Shield match against South Australia as the Bulls reached 5 for 202 on a bowlers’ day at the Gabba.Naming Khawaja’s former New South Wales teammate Phillip Hughes in their XI alongside the debutant Sam Miller, the Redbacks were happy to be in the field under cloudy skies on a green-tinged pitch, but were unable to engineer a rush of wickets.Instead, they spent much of the day watching Khawaja show how to bat in testing conditions, taking his time, cutting and pulling short deliveries from the pacemen, then advancing to attack the spin of the Test spinner – and acting Redbacks captain – Nathan Lyon later on.Khawaja gave one chance, a difficult catch to Gary Putland at fine leg on 11, but was otherwise assured. He has a particularly strong record against SA, and this innings took his tally to 918 runs at 76.50 in 13 innings.He looked likely to add to his five centuries against the Redbacks but was ultimately out 12 short, pinned LBW by the swinging mediums of Chadd Sayers, who had also dismissed Wade Townsend LBW in the second over of the match.The left-armer Gary Putland was another to claim two wickets, including that of the Australia A tourist Joe Burns for 35. James Hopes and the wicketkeeper Chris Hartley will resume on day two with the expectation of further runs.

Border recovered well from a potentially precarious 136 for five midway through day one of this Supersport Series Super Eight match to eventually post a total of 308 all out which will at least allow their bowlers to attack the Free State top order when they resume on Friday. Free State faced just the one over, to close on two without loss.After a good start which saw the visitors reach lunch on 83 for the lossof just Craig Sugden, a double strike shortly after the break from promisingDewald Pretorius, who removed Stephen Pope (14) and Wayne Wilblin (11), putthe Eagles very much in control. With Johan van der Wath and Victor Mpitsangalso claiming a wicket each, the Bears were being mugged.However, captain Pieter Strydom (42) has been in magnificent form withthe bat this season and he and wicket-keeper Ian Mitchell set about puttingthe Border house back in order with a sixth-wicket partnership worth 60 at arun-a-minute. Mitchell was beyond criticism in his shot selection, 50 of 58runs coming in boundaries, which included 11 fours and a six.With the demise of Strydom and Mitchell, the end appeared nigh forBorder, but Vasbert Drakes (30), Geoff Love (22 not out) and Tyron Henderson(20) at nine, ten and jack added 72 runs between them as the Free Stateattack lost the plot amid a flurry of unorthodox strokeplay.Pretorius, who finished with figures of 4 for 66, was instrumental ineventually wrapping up the tail, with stand-in wicket-keeper Morne van Wykpicking up five catches in the innings. Van Wyk only donned the gloves forthis match after Gerald Brophy’s knee failed to respond to treatment.