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ScorecardLeft-arm spinners Sunil Joshi, with Test and ODI experience, and rookie KP Appanna, playing his second first-class game, spun Haryana out for 112 to hand Karnataka a 253-run victory at Mysore. Resuming the final day on 34 for 5, Haryana were always under the gun, and Joshi (4 for 22) and Appanna (3 for 33) never allowed them the room to breathe. Only Shafiq Khan (18), Joginder Sharma (20) and Amit Mishra (22) made it to double figures as both spinners kept plugging away. Karnataka took away four points from this outright win, and take on Uttar Pradesh from Saturday, December 9, at Kanpur.
ScorecardRajesh Pawar, Baroda’s left-arm spinner, backed his first-innings four wickets with three in the second as Saurashtra, forced to follow on, were bowled out for 132 to stumble to an innings-and-19-run loss against Baroda at Rajkot. Pawar received good support from Rakesh Patel (3 for 59), Irfan Safi Pathan (2 for 21) and Ajit Bhoite (2 for 3) as Baroda swept five points from their victory. Saurashtra failed to better their first-innings 255, where three batsmen crossed fifty, with a dismal showing on the final day.
ScorecardAn unbeaten 105 by Venugopal Rao saved Andhra Pradesh the blushes as they managed to hang on a force a draw against Tamil Nadu at Chennai. Trailing 319 in the first innings, Andhra were forced to follow on, but Venugopal’s century and a useful 55 by Chandramouli Prasad helped Andhra end the day on 327 for 8. Andhra were in dire trouble when they lost half their side with only 152 on the board, but Venugopal and Prasad then added 102 for the sixth wicket. Tamil Nadu continued to nail crucial blows at the other end, but they couldn’t remove Venugopal, who got excellent support from Doddapaneni Kalyankrishna, the No.10 batsman. Kalyankrishna made only 1, but he played out 39 deliveries and survived more than 14 overs, as Tamil Nadu had to finally settle for first-innings points.
ScorecardRanadeb Bose, the right-arm fast bowler, turned in an inspired bowling performance as Bengal took the first-innings points in a drawn game against Mumbai at Eden Gardens. Resuming at 206 for 2, Mumbai were bundled out for 372, with Bose returning superb figures of 5 for 69 from 34.1 overs. Bhavin Thakkar had led the way for Mumbai on the third day with an unbeaten 108, but he fell for 157 while Amol Muzumdar, the captain, made 39. Both were dismissed by Bose, who then went on to finish off the tail as none of the other Mumbai batsmen managed to go past 30. Mumbai finally fell 206 runs short of Bengal’s 578, and, following on, were 23 without loss when play was called off.
ScorecardA seven-wicket haul from Pragyan Ojha, the chinaman bowler, enabled Hyderabad togain a first-innings lead before Ambati Rayudu and Ravi Teja gained some battingpractice as the match at Jaipur petered out to a draw. Ojha picked up the last twoRajasthan wickets early this morning, ensuring two points for Hyderabad, and thebatsmen cashed in on a dead match. Teja missed out on a hundred for the second timein as many games but Rayudu stayed unbeaten on a fine 110, composed of 13 fours andone six. It capped a good start to the season for Hyderabad with four points fromtwo games.
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Bad light at Mohali meant only 11.3 overs of play was possible as Punjab werethwarted in their bid for an outright win. Instead Gujarat moved from 86 for 1 to125 for 2, with Nilesh Modi bringing up a half-century. Punjab, who racked up amammoth 503 for 9 in their first innings, had to settle for two points from theencounter. Having lost the first game to Bengal, Punjab have a lot of work to do intheir next few games.
ScorecardHeavy fog and bad light ensured that not a single ball was bowled on the last day of the match between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh at the Feroz Shah Kotla. Delhi thus took home two points after managing a slender 12-run first innings lead, with the match being an especially memorable one for Aakash Chopra, the former Test opener, whose match aggregate of 218 was nearly half the total runs scored by Delhi.

In an extraordinary exhibition of hitting, Jason Aekins of the New Zealand club side Taita smashed an unbeaten 258 – a one-day club batting record – in a 40-over match at Wellington on Monday.Aekin, 35, was playing against Upper Hutt in the domestic 1B grade level, and hit 16 sixes and 30 fours as Taita amassed 489 for 4 at Tremtham Memorial Park No. 4. “It’s all a bit of a blur but it wasn’t very good bowling,” Aekins said to stuff.co.nz. “Once I got to 100 every ball was going to the boundary – I was on fire. It just kept coming out of the middle.” Batting with an old bat, Aekins shared a second-wicket partnership of 263 with Josh Smits (159). “My opening partner got out in the first over and Josh came in and by drinks (20 overs) he had 150 and I was on 96. When he went out I let loose,” Aekins said.Aekins, a carpenter by profession, is a regular in the Taita 1B team, playing alongside some of his former Eastbourne rugby mates. His domestic record is impressive; this was the ninth instance in three seasons of Aekins recording a hundred, and he comfortably surpassed his previous best of 171 set last summer. “I was hoping for 200 this year, I’ve been trying for 12 seasons,” a beaming Aekins added. “We had a couple of beers back at the club on Saturday night but most of the other teams were playing away so there weren’t many people there. There is talk of something this weekend.”Aekins’ feat has earned him a gesture of recognition from local statisticians – a special cap – after he became the only batsman at the Wellington senior level to cross 250. Interestingly, the identity of Upper Hutt’s bowling attack is somewhat anonymous. An example of this is a bowler recorded simply as Mike, with figures of 1 for 79 off four overs. In the end, Upper Hutt were dismissed for 158, losing by 331 runs.

Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman’s XI 398 for 2 (Ashar Zaidi 202*, Faisal Iqbal 86*, Asif Zakir 61) drew with Zimbabweans 215
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Zimbabwe’s tour of Pakistan started with a draw, but aside from Elton Chigumbura’s innings yesterday, there was precious little for them to celebrate. On the second day of their match against a Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman’s XI at Sheikupura their bowlers were ripped apart as the home side closed on 398 for 2.The man of the day was Ashar Zaidi, who completed his unbeaten double hundred shortly before the umpires called time. He put on 158 for the first wicket with Asif Zakir (61) and 174 for the third with Faisal Iqbal (86).Graeme Cramer, an 18-year-old legspinner, took both wickets to fall, finishing with 2 for 69 on an otherwise grim day for the bowlers.

Australia 364 for 2, Brisbane 2002-03
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The day started well enough when Nasser Hussain had a change of luck and won the toss, but things then got immediately worse when he bizarrely opted to bowl on a typically good Brisbane batting track. In among a host of dropped catches and wayward bowling, Matthew Hayden raced to 186 not out and Ricky Ponting smashed 123. Add to that a horrendous knee injury to Simon Jones, and it couldn’t hardly have been any worse. England lost the match by 384 runs, and predictably the series, 4-1.England 122, South Africa 64 for 1, Johannesburg 1999-00
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England took a new-look squad to South Africa and included three debutants in the series opener at The Wanderers. But their youthful optimism soon turned into a horrible realism when Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock blew the top order away to leave England in tatters at 2 for 4. One of the new faces, Michael Vaughan (33), along with Andrew Flintoff (38), managed to creep the score to 122, but South Africa reached to 64 for 1 at the close and they didn’t look back. England went down by an innings and 21 runs.England 175, Pakistan 13 for 0, Lahore 1987-88
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They were out for revenge after Pakistan had edged the five-Test series earlier that year, but Mike Gatting’s team were torn apart by Adbul Qadir, who took a breathtaking 9 for 56 as England crashed to 94 for 8. Neil Foster and Bruce French saved some face with 57 for the ninth-wicket, but 175 all out from 83 overs was not the best of starts. They could not recover and lost the game by an innings and 87 runs, and lost an ill-tempered series 1-0. England 159, West Indies 85 for 0, Sabina Park 1985-86
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Riding high after series wins against Australia and India, England were brought back down to earth with a bump by an awesome West Indies pace attack. Patrick Patterson took 4 for 30 on an opening day in which England collapsed from 120 for 5 to 159 all out in just over 45 overs. And to make things worse, Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes ended the day on 85 for no wicket to set up a 10-wicket win in a 5-0 clean sweep. England 131, West Indies 14 for 0, Trinidad 1973-74
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England travelled to the Caribbean looking to make amends after a 2-0 series defeat to West Indies that summer, but it didn’t quite go to plan. In the series opener at Port-of-Spain, Keith Boyce (4 for 42) started the rot as England were skittled out for 131, despite a fighting 37 from Tony Greig. Roy Fredericks and Lawrence Rowe ended the day on 14 for 0 and West Indies went on to win the Test by seven wickets. However, England later fought back to win the fifth and final Test, drawing the series 1-1.England 134, Australia 8 for 0, Brisbane 1958-59
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England travelled to Australia in 1958-59 as clear favourites having not lost a series for seven years. Many considered the England side one of the best of all time. But Peter May’s team received a rude awakening in the Brisbane opener when they were rattled out for a miserable 134. Alan Davidson, Ian Meckiff and Richie Benaud took three wickets each, and Australia went on to a win a low-scoring Test, and made a mockery of their underdog tags in a 4-0 series win.Australia 292 for 2, Brisbane 1946-47
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The scoreline wasn’t too bad for England, but the fact that Don Bradman was not given out when England thought they had him caught by Jack Ikin at second slip when he had made a scratchy 28 was. It was a big moment in the series and later proved to be a turning point. Bradman ended the day on 162 not out, and went on to make 187, while Lindsay Hassett also cashed in with a hundred. Australia were eventually bowled out for 645 and England capitulated to an embarrassing loss of an innings and 332 runs, and lost the series 3-0.

South Africa’s tight schedule leaves the touring cricketers little time to re-group after the disaster of the first Test loss to Australia.The Proteas today flew into Sydney and tomorrow will start a four-day game against a strong New South Wales lineup.After that match ends on December 23, which is forecast to be interrupted by rain, the team will travel to Melbourne for Christmas before squaring off with Australia in front of a hostile crowd at the MCG on Boxing Day.With the travelling and play, there’s little time for a team on the run to formulate any strategy, work on weaknesses or simply just get over the 246-run loss in Adelaide.The Australians, in the meantime, will go home to their families for a quiet few days of relaxation. Or in Adam Gilchrist’s case, for the scheduled arrival of a new baby.Even Australia skipper Steve Waugh feels sorry for the South Africans.”It’s a very compact schedule,” Waugh said.”And it’s difficult on tour if you’re not playing well or not winning.”I’m not saying they’re not playing well but it’s a tough schedule and you have to work out who needs to play and who needs rest and sometimes guys are playing when they need to rest and they’re probably looking for more practice as well.”For the NSW match, South Africa will rotate in the four players who sat out the Test.The most crucial workout will be Allan Donald’s.The 35-year-old fast bowler will surely be included in the second Test team, possibly at the expense of spinner Claude Henderson, allowing South Africa to play an all-out pace attack on a pitch which will be more suitable to their style.Skipper Shaun Pollock was non-committal on Donald’s role in Melbourne.The veteran pace man missed selection in Adelaide because it was deemed he hadn’t done enough bowling after a six-month hiatus due to illness and injury.Donald didn’t help his cause when he damaged his feet by wearing new boots in the tour opener against Western Australia, losing a lot of bowling time.”He’s been continually monitored,” Pollock said.”We’ll have to take the results and performances he puts in (against NSW) as a gauge for the second Test.”The other person pushing for selection in Melbourne is top order batsman Jacques Rudolph, who will get another to press for a Test spot after Boeta Dippenaar made a hash of his reprieve in Adelaide.Justin Ontong, a young spinner and batsman of some skill, will most likely get a run here as he may be yet be a surprise selection for the third Test at the SCG.Steve Elworthy will also play against NSW, replacing one of the pace bowlers.Pollock, who dubbed the NSW game a “practice match”, said his side wouldn’t take too much baggage from the loss in Adelaide.”In international cricket you have to learn to put these sort of things behind you,” he said.”We’ve been outplayed by the better side on the day but we still believe that we didn’t play to our full potential.”If we can improve on that aspect we believe we’ve got a side good enough to beat Australia on our day.”Tapping that potential over the next week will be the hardest task for the young captain.Teams:South Africa (possible 12): Shaun Pollock (capt), Gary Kirsten, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Rudolph, Jacques Kallis, Neil McKenzie, Lance Klusener, Mark Boucher, Justin Ontong, Makhaya Ntini, Allan Donald, Steve Elworthy.NSW: Michael Bevan (capt), Michael Slater, Greg Mail, Michael Clarke, Brett Van Deinsen, Mark Higgs, Brad Haddin, Stuart MacGill, Anthony Clark, Shawn Bradstreet, Nathan Bracken, Don Nash.

ScorecardBen Dunk finished the day as the leading run scorer in the Sheffield Shield season•Getty Images

Ben Dunk’s second century in consecutive matches gave Tasmania a hefty lead on the third day against New South Wales at Bankstown Oval. At stumps, the Tigers were 6 for 272 in their second innings, with a lead of 352 runs, and Dunk was still at the crease on 127 alongside Hamish Kingston, who was on 23.It continued Dunk’s outstanding start to the summer after he scored his maiden first-class century, an innings of 142, in the previous game against Queensland, and then 68 in the first innings of this game. As at the end of day three in this round of Shield matches, Dunk was on top of the competition run tally, narrowly ahead of Victoria’s Travis Dean.Dunk and 18-year-old batsman Jake Doran combined for a 103-run partnership that steadied Tasmania after Doug Bollinger claimed two early wickets to have the visitors wobbling at 2 for 39. George Bailey chipped in with 28 but the key man was Dunk, who by stumps had struck 15 boundaries in his 229-ball innings.New South Wales had started the morning on 6 for 150 and they added 65 for the loss of their last four wickets, with Kurtis Patterson the top scorer on 86. Kingston, Sam Rainbird and Jackson Bird each finished with three wickets.