Victoria have not lost a game in the two seasons of Australia’s domestic Twenty20 competition but have a tough challenge in the final at the MCG on Saturday, facing Tasmania without their destructive captain Cameron White. The Tigers could also be down one key player depending on the availability of Ben Hilfenhaus, who was a late addition to the Australia one-day squad.In a season when only one team has won batting second, it could be argued that the biggest contest of the night will be the coin-toss. But Victoria, who have made the extra-short format their own, proved against Western Australia on Wednesday it is possible to chase down huge scores, reaching their target of 202 with 11 balls to spare.Even without White, who is in the Australia squad for the CB Series, the Bushrangers’ batting line-up looks imposing. David Hussey, Brad Hodge and Aiden Blizzard have each smashed big scores this season, while Andrew McDonald and Adam Crosthwaite have kept the runs flowing in the late overs. Tasmania should also be capable of setting a target or chasing, if the in-form Michael Dighton – whose 111 from 56 balls against New South Wales on Wednesday was the highest score in the competition – and Michael Di Venuto can again start well.Shane Harwood, whose opening spell could prove vital for Victoria, said White’s absence would not affect the team. “We’re confident we can win batting first or second – and no matter who we have out there,” Harwood said. “We have won with Cameron in and won without him. He deserves his place in the Australian team.”The two sides were to meet in the preliminary rounds last week but the match at Hobart was rained out without a ball being bowled. The shared points put the only blemish on Victoria’s otherwise perfect record and gave Tasmania an edge compared with Queensland and Western Australia, both of whom were considered more likely finalists before their losses on Wednesday.Tim Coyle, the Tasmania coach, said his side deserved to be playing off for the KFC Twenty20 title regardless. “I wouldn’t say we were surprised to make the final, we needed a little luck to go our way and for once it did,” Coyle told Hobart’s newspaper. “It is a good Twenty20 team, we have got good strength in our batting, we field well – all the things that are pretty important – and the bowlers are standing up most of the time.”The loss of Hilfenhaus, however, could give Victoria’s batsmen an advantage. The Tasmania fast bowler was a late replacement in the Australia line-up for Brett Lee, who has a chest infection. Should Hilfenhaus remain with the squad over the weekend, Luke Butterworth looks set to take his place in the Tigers’ team. Cricket Victoria hopes to draw a crowd of more than 25,000 to the MCG for the final, which will begin at 7pm.

For the third time in the Quadrangular tournament India lost a match because of poor fielding and missed run-out chances. This time the clumsiness on the field cost them a place in the final of the Quadrangular tournament in Chennai.With 47 runs to get off 43 balls and only four wickets in hand, Australia got to victory off the last ball as Cathryn Fitzpatrick and Jodie Purves exploited the nervousness of the Indian fielders and took singles and twos with ease.India had looked sharp in the field in the first half of the Australian innings as the players made an effort to dive and save runs. Mithali Raj, the Indian captain, admitted that the fielding had let them down once again. “We came back well in our fielding from the other day against New Zealand where it was absolutely pathetic,” Raj told Cricinfo. “But towards the end when they needed a-run-a-ball we missed some run out chances. The bowling was bad too and we had a lot of misfields.”Fitzpatrick acknowledged the fact that Australia were greatly helped by the Indian fielders’ shoddy work. “With the run-out chances missed we knew that at a-run-a-ball we could do it,” she said.But Raj added that there had been many positives for India from the tournament. “In the matches that we won, the victory came through a team effort,” she said. “The openers gave us a very good start and are looking in fine form.”She was happy with the way the tournament had panned out though it was disappointing not to play in the final. “Every team is scoring more than 200. This is a change for us in women’s cricket where a total of 200 used to be a defendable score,” she said. “But now a team has to score between 200 and 250 to have a chance to win. A Quadrangular tournament like this improves every team’s performance. All four teams are of top quality and people get to see some really good cricket.”Melissa Bulow, the Australian opener, who set up the win against India with her career-best 85 said that Jhulan Goswami and Rumeli Dhar, India’s opening bowling pair, had worried the Australians. “We had studied them before and had a plan of attack against them today. They tend to bowl a lot of dot balls.” Bulow said. “Our plan was to just play straight and hit through the areas we had practiced hitting through.”Australia will play New Zealand in the final while India will take on England for a third place play-off on March 5.

Bob Woolmer’s autopsy performed on Tuesday morning, almost 48 hours after his passing away, had inconclusive results, and the pathologist has asked for further testsbefore the cause of death can be pinpointed.The autopsy, performed by Dr Ere Sheshiah, started at 9:35am, and was concluded by noon. Gill Woolmer, Bob’s wife, was officially informed of the findings at 12:35pm, and the Jamaicanpolice then met team officials to inform them of the autopsy findings.With the pathologist unable to ascertain the cause of death, samples takenwere sent for toxicology and histology tests. The results are awaited.The Pakistan team is scheduled to leave Jamaica on Saturday and the Jamaican police are hoping that Woolmer’s body can be flown out with them. Karl Angell, director of communication for the Jamaican Constabulary, asserted that the tests were being fast-tracked so that the matter could be cleared up at the earliest.A press conference was organised by the Pakistan team management and theJamaican police at 3:30 on Tuesday afternoon. Reading from a preparedstatement, Pervez Mir, the team’s media manager, spoke of how MurrayStevenson, the trainer, had gone to officially identify the body at theKingston Public Hospital mortuary.When asked what sort of timeframe we were looking at, Mark Shields, thedeputy commissioner of police, said: “It depends on the results. As ofnow, we don’t know the cause of death.”Shields was then asked if the inconclusive findings suggested thatanything was amiss. “Not necessarily,” he said. “Any sudden death istreated as suspicious till we can say otherwise. At this moment, we’re notruling out anything.”According to Colin Pinnock, the deputy superintendent who is the chiefinvestigating officer, such occurrences were not uncommon. “It happens,”he said. “The pathologist just wants to be absolutely sure. Samples havebeen sent to the forensic lab and the national lab.”The team’s departure could conceivably be affected if the tests take time,and Mir and Talat Ali, the manager, will stay back if that’s the case.”The team is disturbed,” said Mir. “But we must move on.”Shields assured everyone that the investigation would be concluded as soonas possible, but quickly added: “We won’t cut any corners either.” For themoment, Woolmer’s room at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel remains sealed, withthe police not having handed it back to the hotel management.

The Indian board (BCCI) will announce the Indian side for the tour of Bangladesh on April 20 in Mumbai. Bangladesh host India for two Tests and three one-day internationals between May 10 and 29.The team will have a coaching camp in Kolkata from May 2 to 6, for which the players will meet on May 1, according to Niranjan Shah, the BCCI secretary. “We will be selecting around 20 players in all,” Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of selectors, told PTI. The Test and ODI teams will be picked from this pool of players. The team will leave for Bangladesh on May 7.The BCCI recently appointed Rahul Dravid team captain for the next three tours, to Bangladesh, Ireland and England and asked the selectors to pick a “young side” for the first of those tours. Ravi Shastri, the former international turned television commentator, was appointed manager for the Bangladesh tour. Both Dravid and Shastri will attend the selection meeting, Shah said.On being asked if Sachin Tendulkar would be dropped for the Bangladesh tour in keeping with the idea of selecting a young team, Shah repeated that it was up to the selectors to decide.Tour itinerary:
1st ODI – May 10, Mirpur
2nd ODI – May 12, Mirpur
3rd ODI – May 15, Chittagong
1st Test – May 18-22, Chittagong
2nd Test – May 25-29, Mirpur

Niall O’Brien, the Ireland wicketkeeper-batsman, has been cleared byNorthants to play for Ireland during the Friends Provident Trophy.”He wants to play for Ireland in the FP Trophy and his request hasbeen accepted,” an ECB spokesman told the BBC. “At the end of thisyear he qualifies for England, so he won’t be able to do the samething next year.”O’ Brien can still play for Northants in the competition even thoughhe has already played for Ireland. However, it only works that wayround, bizarrely enough: once a player has played for their county inthe competition, they can’t play for their country.Irish and Scottish players were given special dispensations last year- they can play for their countries until they have played for theircounty in the competition. Eoin Morgan, for example, played a fewgames for Ireland last year, and then also played for Middlesex.

Lou Vincent has not ruled playing for South Australia at some stage in his career but said he was committed to New Zealand and Auckland in the immediate future. reported this week that Vincent was considering a move to Adelaide, where he spent most of his teenage years, to play with the Redbacks next season.Vincent said he had had talks with the state but he was not looking to relocate at the moment. “I have been discussing playing options with South Australia,” Vincent said. “I grew up there and have strong links to a number of people in SA and they have always been interested in my cricket career.”At some point I would be interested in playing for SA but my current priority is the Blackcaps. I love representing my country and still have a lot to achieve in international cricket.”Vincent, 28, played for representative age-group teams during his time at Adelaide before returning to Auckland and starting his first-class career there. He has played 22 Tests and 97 ODIs and was among New Zealand’s best performers in the recent CB Series. Signing Vincent would have been a boost for South Australia, who had a dismal 2006-07 during which they won only one Pura Cup match.

It wasn’t until midway through this week’s third Test at Old Trafford that a lugubrious series finally sparked into life. England’s effortless dominance of the first two Tests was threatened, albeit briefly, by Darren Sammy’s inspirational spell on the third afternoon, and by Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s dogged insubmission thereafter, and it took the very best efforts of Monty Panesar and Steve Harmison to put the result beyond doubt.And so, for all that there is nothing tangible to play for as the teams decamp to Chester-le-Street, there is plenty pride at stake for both parties. England’s captain Michael Vaughan may have made it two wins out of two since his return to the helm (and 21 out of 35 all told), but he was rightly demanding more ruthlessness after his team’s hit-and-miss performances.Vaughan’s West Indian counterpart, Daren Ganga, on the other hand, would simply settle for more consistency. His side showed their best and worst traits at Old Trafford – the game was won and lost during a pitiful first-innings surrender in which their last six wickets fell for 13 runs, and yet such was the tenacity with which they batted second-time around, with the big-hitting Runako Morton epitomising a new over-my-dead-body attitude, that they fell just 60 runs short of squaring the series.”We showed a lot of character and strength,” said Ganga. “There are a lot of positives from this game that we are going to take to Durham.” Among these was the performance of their debutant allrounder, Darren Sammy, who showed strength, stamina and an eye for the big occasion in taking 7 for 66 in England’s second-innings collapse. However, Sammy was forced to go for a scan after injuring his groin while batting in the run-chase, and his fitness is not yet guaranteed.”It would be disappointing after he had such a good role in his first Test match,” said David Moore, West Indies’ coach. “It will leave a bit of a gap after what he has done for us – but I am very hopeful he will play. Sammy is just a complete example of hard work. If you wanted to hold up someone to say ‘this is what hard work can do’ [then] he’s your man.”Sammy himself told Cricinfo that his ambition is to be “the workhorse of the team”, and in that regard he could have no better role-model that his opposite number in the England set-up, a man who is himself returning to action after a groin injury. Matthew Hoggard played in 40 consecutive Tests for England until he missed the Sydney Test in January. Since then he has bowled just 10.5 overs in three Tests, but he proved his fitness on Wednesday, taking 1 for 55 in ten overs during Yorkshire’s one-run victory over Northamptonshire at Headingley.

“It was great to go out there and play in a game,” Hoggard told The Guardian afterwards. “You can’t replicate that in the nets. It was a good workout and I’m happy with the way it’s coming out. The only issue is going into the game without a lot of match practice, but It’s not as if I’ve come back feeling like a bag of spanners.”That’s more than can be said for the man headed in the opposite direction. Had he taken his opportunities over the past three matches, Liam Plunkett might have been anticipating a first Test in front of his Durham faithful. Instead he has been dispatched to the Rose Bowl to rediscover his form in the County Championship against Hampshire. England will, however, have two local representatives in Paul Collingwood and Harmison – and for Harmison in particular, it promises to be an eventful homecoming.England haven’t quite despaired of getting him back to his best, but it’s been a near-run thing this summer. At Lord’s he was dreadful; at Headingley he was distinctly average, save for a three-wicket burst to seal the match on a dank fourth morning. At Old Trafford, he started with a memorably desperate first over (that Ganga was unable to survive), but improved steadily as the game went by. By the time the match had been won after lunch, he was pounding in with an enthusiasm that few had witnessed for months.”He showed more character than any of us,” said Vaughan. “I’ve never been a bowler so I can only imagine how hard it must be when you know you are not at your best. He looked at himself, answered a few questions and came back in the second innings. He really worked hard. I don’t like to say he’s back to his best but he was certainly back to some real consistency in the second innings.”England 1 Andrew Strauss, 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Michael Vaughan (capt), 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Ian Bell, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Matthew Hoggard, 9 Ryan Sidebottom, 10 Steve Harmison, 11 Monty Panesar.West Indies (probable) 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Daren Ganga (capt), 3 Devon Smith, 4 Runako Morton, 5 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 6 Dwayne Bravo, 7 Denesh Ramdin (wk), 8 Darren Sammy, 9 Jerome Taylor, 10 Fidel Edwards, 11 Corey Collymore.

Bob Woolmer’s widow Gill has requested India and Pakistan to play a Twenty20 game to raise funds for a cricket academy the former Pakistan coach had planned to set up in South Africa. Woolmer’s family intend to bring his plans to fruition through a trust fund set up in his memory.”She has written to the board president requesting to play a Twenty20 match for the academy,” Niranjan Shah, Indian board secretary, told Reuters. “A decision has not been taken yet. We need to find the time because we’ve already finalised our schedule.”Woolmer died in Jamaica on March 18, a day after Pakistan suffered a shock defeat against Ireland and were knocked out in the first round of the World Cup. His death was investigated as murder until after the tournament when Jamaican authorities announced it was due to natural causes.

Ben Edmondson, Phil Jaques and Brad Hodge are among the in-form Australians who will taste finals action in the county Twenty20 deciders next week. Edmondson, who is not in Australia’s 30-man preliminary World Championship squad, has been one of the best bowlers in a severely rain-affected tournament, with 11 wickets at 10.72 and an economy rate of 6.05.He is equal fourth on the wicket tally as his pace and ability to swing the ball have proved useful for Gloucestershire. Another strong performance from Edmondson on Friday, when he took 2 for 21 from four overs, helped his side into the finals with a comfortable win over Glamorgan at Bristol.Gloucestershire will meet Worcestershire in a quarter-final next Tuesday, with Edmondson set to face his countrymen Jaques and Doug Bollinger. Jaques has only played three Twenty20 games this season, for a solid return of 114 runs at 38. On Friday he top-scored with 38 from 28 balls in a 13-run victory over Warwickshire at Edgbaston, three days after he posted a matchwinning 59 against Somerset at Taunton.Brad Hodge also has the chance to continue building his tally with Lancashire scheduled to take on Warwickshire next Wednesday. Hodge’s Twenty20 opportunities have been limited – Lancashire’s last three games were washed out without a ball being bowled – but his four outings brought 114 runs at 28.5. Hodge’s only half-century came against Yorkshire at Old Trafford, when he scored 57 from 49 deliveries to set up a 30-run win.Jason Gillespie claimed 2 for 19 from his four overs against Derbyshire at Leeds on Friday as Yorkshire secured their place in the finals. Gillespie had a consistent tournament, taking eight wickets at 21.12 and conceding 7.34 an over from seven matches. Yorkshire will meet Sussex next Wednesday.The other final will feature only one Australian, David Hussey, as Nottinghamshire face Kent next Tuesday. Hussey’s Twenty20 form has not mirrored his success in the other county competitions this season but he has still made 107 useful runs at 26.75 for Nottinghamshire.Unlike last year, when Justin Langer, Cameron White and Hussey were three of the top four Twenty20 run-scorers, Australians were less prodigious in 2007. Of all the Australian imports White had the most runs with 190 at 27.14 at a strike-rate of 136. However, that left him ninth on the overall county tally.White did not repeat the pyrotechnics he displayed in 2006, when he struck a then-record 55-ball century for Somerset, but he did produce two impressive innings this season. Against Glamorgan at Taunton White belted 68 from 35 balls, including six sixes, in one of only three victories for Somerset. On Friday at Northampton, White finished the tournament on a high with an unbeaten 50 from 42 deliveries as Somerset enjoyed an eight-wicket win. His captain, Langer, had an uneventful series and totalled 119 runs at 14.87 from his eight innings.Simon Katich reminded the national selectors he is more than just a top-order grinder, ending the tournament with 128 runs at 42.66 and an excellent strike-rate of 147.12. Katich’s Derbyshire did not win a game but he at least was consistent, scoring 31, 26, 39 not out and 26. His team-mate Travis Birt made 104 at 20.8, with a highest score of 40 from 27 balls against Nottinghamshire at Derby.Adam Voges did his chances of a World Championship call-up no harm with 66 not out for Hampshire against Sussex at Southampton. His 47-ball effort featured four sixes but it was his only standout performance and he finished with 106 runs at 17.66 from seven outings.Matthew Nicholson played his part in Surrey’s unsuccessful campaign, conceding only 6.35 an over and claiming 11 wickets at 13.09. His best figures were 3 for 23 against Essex at Chelmsford, but that was in a loss that another Australian had a hand in. Andy Bichel made 35 that day, one of two useful innings he played in Essex wins. He also scored 33 against Sussex and took eight wickets at 24.75 with an economy rate of 7.07. Bichel helped his side finish with a victory against Middlesex at Lord’s, where he collected 3 for 34.

Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, the two Pakistan bowlers who returned positive dope tests last year, have cleared the latest tests held at the fitness and training camp in Karachi earlier this week.”Akhtar and Asif are among 26 players who have cleared these tests for which weasked urgent reports from the World Anti-Doping Agency [WADA] accredited laboratoryin Malaysia,” Ahsan Malik, the Pakistan board’s director of communications, told .The PCB had ordered dope tests for all camp attendees and had decided to hold back naming the squad for the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship until results were received. Both Shoaib and Asif were the focus of attention as they tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone and were handed bans last year which were overturned later.Malik said the PCB had expected all tests to be negative in accordance with its zerotolerance policy on doping. He also said that three players – Younis Khan, Danish Kaneria and Yasir Arafat currently involved in county cricket – were tested in England and the samples were sent to the same WADA-accredited laboratory as the rest of the squad.The third and final fitness and training camp with special emphasis on the forthcoming Twenty20 World Championship concludes on Monday with the squad announcement expected next week as well.