Identifying the 50/50 situations capable of turning Test matches, quicker than opposing sides, made Australia an awesome force but Stephen Fleming is undeterred as he takes his New Zealand team across the Tasman at the weekend fully geared to have a crack at the world champions.Fleming, who watched Australia’s Ashes tour while on duty with Middlesex in the English summer, said it was that ability to regularly sum up situations that saw Australia shine brighter than the home side.It is a sign Fleming knows from his own experience when Australia toured here two summers ago and provided the same chances which the New Zealanders were unable to pick up.Recognising those chances, and capitalising on them, will be central to New Zealand’s hopes of making an impression on the great fortress that is Australia’s Test side.With that in mind the non-tour of Pakistan should at least ensure New Zealand goes to Australia with a full-strength team.”I must admit that sending us to Pakistan before Australia to me was a bit like South Africa last year when we suffered so many injuries.”But the guys appear in good shape and I am excited by having them [Chris Cairns, Dion Nash, Shayne O’Connor and Daniel Vettori] available.”There is naturally some apprehension they will get through but firstly getting them there is the great thing.”I am also excited by what’s left behind with the stand-by players all being quality players which means there is great competition for places and that is a strength for us,” Fleming told CricInfo today.He wasn’t prepared to say the return of such a core of bowling experience was the icing on the selection cake.”What we’ve got are the ingredients for the icing, we’ll just have to stir the mixture as much as we can to see how it comes out in the baking,” he said.Now New Zealand’s most capped Test captain, Fleming believes Australia is beatable.”But it will take a mammoth effort and it involves us implementing our own plans. The more we are under pressure from them the less chance we have of beating them,” he said.From his own point of view, Fleming, after his Middlesex season, wants to keep the consistency that has developed in his batting and to add the big scores his Test cricket CV needs.”I want to lead from the front,” he said.That requires a change in fortunes for Fleming who in six Tests and 12 innings against Australia has managed only 242 runs at 20.17.The measure of the work he has done in England would be seen in the Test matches.”I achieved many of the things I wanted to, and it is a cast of confirming things in the middle,” he said.Fleming said he regularly works with former Test captain and batsman Martin Crowe on his batting and since returning from England had two sessions to work on batting matters.Improving his record against the Australians is not a need he shares alone. For New Zealand to be competitive, all the batsmen need to up the ante.Fleming acknowledged that the pressure was on the top order to perform against the Australian attack because they were so good at creating pressure after early breakthroughs.The New Zealand team, without Cairns, leaves for Australia on Friday. Cairns will join the team in Queensland on October 20.

Dravid provides latest worry for busy Leipus

When Rahul Dravid suddenly left for Cape Town on Sunday to have an MRIscan done on his troublesome right shoulder, prophets of doom in theguise of journalists could be seen everywhere at Kingsmead, Durban.Worst-case scenarios were imagined and attempts made to ascertain if theIndian vice-captain had been carrying this injury for long.Indian team manager Dr MK Bhargava was dismissive of these alarms,saying that the team management was only being prudent and money-smart.”Why not use the better opinion in this part of the world, rather thango back and let Dravid come here again to have a check-up?” He had nodoubt that it was just a precautionary check to ensure that nothingserious was developing in Dravid’s shoulder.Dr Bhargava said that they wanted to have a check-up done when the teamwas in Cape Town for five days before the finals. “But then, we couldn’tget a date before the 22nd and, on the 24th, we were playing animportant game,” said Dr Bhargava. “We also needed Dravid for the finalson the 26th.” Not only as a batsman, but also as a wicket-keeper, hemight well have added.Dravid’s injury scare provides an additional worry for team physioAndrew Leipus. He has had his hands full with injuries and, at a timewhen his stint with the Indian team is up for review, such a spate ofinjuries is perhaps cannon-fodder to those looking to ease him out ofthe team set-up.

Leipus understands the implications and suggests that a physio can onlydo so much and that, generally, it is lack of a physical culture amongIndians that causes disruptions. “You might do eight laps of the ground,but you could still be unfit,” muses Leipus. He reflects that anAustralian or a South African goes to a gym regularly. “Why, even womengo to a gym three times a week!” The team is attentive to him, but oneguesses that genes and background can’t be changed easily.Talking of team fitness, everyone harboured a feeling that MohammadAzharuddin was the fittest of all Indian cricketers, but he regularlyfailed the ‘beep’ test and was the slowest in the long runs. Shane Warneand Steve Waugh are not the fittest of cricketers in internationalcricket today. “But then, they produce the goods, and that’s whatremains fresh in people’s might,” reflects Leipus. “That’s the thingabout sports. A baseballer or a marathon runner has different fitnessneeds from a cricketer.”It seems now that everyone in this team has been seriously injured inthe past year or so. The list of injured seniors – Sachin Tendulkar, VVSLaxman, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, and Ajit Agarkar- is in no way any longer than the list of injured juniors; AshishNehra, Zaheer Khan, Hemang Badani and Sadagopan Ramesh all have beenlaid up in recent times.Both Leipus and coach John Wright’s extensions are up for review onDecember 23. Wright ends his present contract on November 15, on the eveof the Second Test at Port Elizabeth; by the looks of it, though, thereshould be no problem in his case. Everyone from team members to formercricketers to team manager is singing his praises. His perseverance andattention to details are chilling; on the day the fixtures for the 2003World Cup were being announced, Wright was busy going through theschedule and checking what would be required for India to do well in themillennium’s first World Cup.As for Leipus, his case is still not clear. It would really be theIndian team’s loss, though, if he were to exit the set-up at this stage.He knows the boys and their medical history inside-out, and such adisruption, with just over a year to go before the 2003 World Cup, couldbe disastrous. But then, when has an Indian board really been worriedabout Indian cricket?

As a veteran leg spinner enjoyed one of the finest days of his career, so New Zealand’s cricketers experienced arguably the most disappointing of their current tour of Australia. Undone by a captivating display of bowling from Peter McIntyre, the Black Caps tumbled to a 17-run defeat at the handsof South Australia at the Adelaide Oval today.Inspired by another superb exhibition of left arm spin bowling from Daniel Vettori (6/80), the tourists had looked on course to claim their firstvictory on Australian soil this summer for long periods of the final day of this match. But a tentative batting effort on a difficult pitch led to theirdemise as they pursued a target of just 196 to win.Against the background of news that injured left arm paceman Shayne O’Connor will be returning home tomorrow, it was a sad way for the Kiwisto end four days of spirited, competitive cricket.It was in McIntyre (6/75), meanwhile, that a jubilant South Australian team found its destroyer-in-chief.The 35-year old is not a regular in the Redbacks’ team these days toward the end of a career that yielded an early switch of states and brought twoTest appearances for Australia in the mid-1990s. Yet that small matter didn’t stop him from confounding his rivals’ top and middle order with rippingleg breaks, top spinners and flippers on a wearing surface that added to the challenges confronting the batsmen.It might be argued that the only one among the first seven New Zealand wickets that didn’t fall to him – the freakish run out of Matthew Bell (29) -actually represented the chief turning point on the final day. But any attempt to detract from McIntyre’s influence over events would be seriouslymisguided.Mark Richardson (8) sparred at a delivery down the leg side to be brilliantly caught by wicketkeeper Graham Manou, though he looked unlucky because his shot must have attracted no more than the thinnest of edges. Mathew Sinclair (14) played outside the line of a modestly-turning ball to lose his off bail. LouVincent (0) was trapped in front of his stumps; Craig McMillan (32) succumbed to a sharp catch at a fine gully; Adam Parore (24) edged a widedelivery off the toe end of the bat to slip; and, Vettori (0) seemed to lose his bearings as he padded away a ball turning back in toward him.It was quite a catalogue of success.Bell, for his part, might have been another McIntyre victim too after he came well forward of his crease to push a delivery off bat and pad to DavidFitzgerald at silly mid off. But an extraordinary piece of nous from a juggling Fitzgerald saw him opt to expertly palm the ball into the stumps instead- with a perplexed batsman unable to successfully scramble back to regain his ground.McMillan, Parore and Glen Sulzberger (41) had kept New Zealand’s hopes alive by constructing brave innings in the circumstances, defying theattack with intelligent sweeping, cutting and paddling of the few loose deliveries that came along.Instructively, it was Sulzberger’s dismissal, at the head of a series of three late wickets that culminated in a brilliant direct-hit run out from square legfrom Mike Smith (2/31), that proved the straw that finally broke his side’s back.Earlier, the hosts had themselves been unravelled by a classy exhibition of left arm spin bowling from Vettori, tumbling from their overnight score of4/130 to a final mark of 212 in the shadows of lunch.Vettori took the game to the trenches with accuracy and appreciable turn on the helpful surface, leaving a defensively-minded Redbacks line-up withlittle option but to follow him there. Attacking him proved an even harder task than keeping him out: Smith (15) falling as he top-edged apremeditated slog-sweep; Manou (17) lobbing a forceful but mistimed drive to mid off; and Mark Harrity (10) depositing a stroke into the hands ofChris Martin at a wide long on position. Paul Rofe (0), padding up, was the only one to lose out through caution.The wickets of Ben Higgins (11) – out to a top-edged hook at Daryl Tuffey (1/21) – and Brad Young (15), who succumbed to a brilliant catchdown the leg side from Parore, were the only ones among the six that fell in the opening session in which Vettori did not have a hand.Though O’Connor’s continuing run of bad luck means that Tuffey and Shane Bond will be the likely new faces in the tourists’ eleven for the SecondTest in Hobart starting on Thursday, the Black Caps may well be hoping that the pitch there also yields to spin. If nothing else, they will be as wellprepared for a viciously turning surface as any other kind that may be in store.

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.

What can be said after a week during which Zimbabwe suffered the greatest humiliation in their international history? 38 all out against Sri Lanka! In certain countries the players would be liable to stonings on their return or public effigy-hanging – or enquiries into match-fixing. Zimbabwean cricket-followers merely content themselves with sarcasm and verbal contempt.Lowest ever ODI team total; fastest ever ODI defeat; best-ever ODI bowling figures. Since we do not have a reporter on the spot and no easy method of communication with the team, we know no more about the situation than any other reader who has read the match reports. But there seems to be no excuse adequate to cover this situation. The pitch does not seem to be a minefield; however well Chaminda Vaas bowled, it is totally unacceptable for the national side to be dismissed for just 38 runs.At least the team redeemed themselves, in the eyes of many cricket-followers, by defeating West Indies in the following match. It is perhaps a comfort to know there is another international team capable of playing as appallingly as Zimbabwe. Match reports, however, spoke more of how badly West Indies played in that match rather than how well Zimbabwe played, so that 38 was evidently not quite the kick up the backside the team needed, as some thought. They played better than West Indies, but apparently still not particularly well.Another predictable defeat to Sri Lanka followed, though this one was at least somewhat less humiliating. Nobody who knows the talents of the team can believe that this is the best they can do, even in the absence of several top players who are either injured or out of form. Why, then, do they so often under-perform, and so badly?There are several possible factors. Ongoing hostilities between players, selectors and administrators; too much cricket in too many different countries without a break; a degree of inferiority complex against senior Test teams; lack of mental toughness (with the honourable exception of Andy Flower); low morale among Zimbabweans, especially the whites, in the current political situation in Zimbabwe, which includes fear for the future. These may all contribute, but if Andy Flower can overcome these distractions, why cannot the others?ZIMBABWE A IN KENYACongratulations to Kenya for gaining their initial first-class victory, over Zimbabwe A, and then going on to win all three matches of the one-day series. Again, though, one suspects that this is not just to the credit of the opposition, but also to the detriment of the Zimbabwean team.Zimbabwe A regularly play several Test and ODI players, yet they fail to overwhelm the B teams of South African provinces as they should in the UCBSA Bowl competition. They do win more often than not, but a team with that sort of talent and experience should be able to hammer South African provincial B teams out of sight – in fact, the opposing provincial teams are often without the 15 to 20 best players of their province, with 11 in their A team and in some cases several more on international duty. We should be seeing innings victories from our Board XI in that competition.So perhaps it was not unexpected that they should struggle in Kenya, who are used to their home conditions. It would be a mistake to assume that Kenya are rapidly approaching Test quality on the basis of their victories, although that will be nice if it is the case. Undoubtedly they are progressing, and their wins over Zimbabwe A will give them extra confidence. But they will need to keep on winning against teams with more power than a disappointing Zimbabwe A.Also in the past week, CricInfo has carried reports of Zimbabwe Under-19’s convincing defeat at the hands of Natal Under-19 in a three-day match in Bulawayo. South African provincial teams at age-group level are generally able to pick up more experience of top-class cricket than their Zimbabwean counterparts, but it just adds to the depressed air that lies over Zimbabwe cricket at the moment.THE MANCHESTER OF ZIMBABWEI read an article on CricInfo by the controversial English writer Michael Henderson, who wrote about his visits to cities whose industrial prowess laid claim to titles of `the Manchester of India’ and `the Manchester of Pakistan’.I immediately wondered what centre could be labelled `the Manchester of Zimbabwe’. Mutare! Not because of industrial prowess, but because whenever a cricket match is staged for that beautiful little Eastern highlands city, it seems to rain. Remarkable to learn, then, that last Sunday only one national league club match was possible in the entire country – and that was in Mutare! One for the record books!

The Konica Queensland Fire will welcome back Australian squad allrounderTricia Brown for their crucial round of Women’s National Cricket Leaguematches against the Southern Scorpions in Adelaide this weekend.Brown has been out of action with a sidestrain since November but shapesas a key player for the Fire, which is yet to win a game in the WNCLdespite some solid performances.Queensland must win their remaining four matches against the Scorpionsand the Western Fury this month if they are to finish ahead of SouthAustralia in third position, with NSW and Victoria already shaping asthe likely finalists.In Queensland’s favour is the fact that they have played just four gameswith the remaining teams having played six games.The Scorpions will be stiff opposition with Australian left-hander KarenRolton one of the leading batters in Australia and a shining light forthe home side.Allrounder Belinda Matheson, pace bowler Kirsten Pike and top order batJodie Purves will be fresh from representing Queensland at theAustralian Under-19 championships in Melbourne that finishes later thisweek. The trio will fly from Melbourne to link with the rest of the teamin Adelaide.The Queensland Under-19 team can confirm their spot in the semi-finalsif they win their match against South Australia today.Konica Queensland Fire v Southern Scorpions, Sat/Sun, Adelaide: JuliaPrice (c), Bronwyn Buckley (v-c), Melissa Bulow, Belinda Matheson, SallyCooper, Tricia Brown, Megan White, Jodie Purves, Leonie Shields, CindyKross, Renee Lee, Kirsten Pike.

Catches win matches.From their earliest years that aphorism is drilled into the minds of young cricketers – iterated and reiterated as one of the indispensible truths of the game.On Saturday, as old saws often are, it was proved literally true as Mayu Pasupati took a spectacular, acrobatic catch which turned the State Shield one-day final in favour of a battling Wellington team.Pasupati, lithe and athletic, sprinted around the boundary behind square leg and launched himself full length at a ball hit sweetly from the bat of Aaron Redmond, from the bowling of Mark Jefferson. He was at one point parallel to the ground and five feet above it, fully airborne with one long arm outstretched.The ball crashed into his open palm and stuck. Pasupati had made a magnificent catch, Redmond was out, Canterbury were 104/6 chasing 201 to win and the morale of the Wellington team had been hugely inflated.Pasupati’s team-mates ran from everywhere on the wide expanse of the Basin Reserve to celebrate the moment. Some came from almost 100 metres away at a full sprint and leapt onto the back of the delighted young player.Catches win matches and incidents such as this one can also turn the tide in a close contest. It was one of two incidents during Canterbury’s innings – the first the run out of Canterbury captain Gary Stead by David Sales – which altered the course of a match which was full of dramatic changes of fortune.From the moment the catch was taken, Wellington were a team – visibly uplifted – who believed they were going to win. Canterbury were a team deflated. They went on to lose by 53 runs.Pasupati is a young man of Sri Lankan descent, a very talented all-rounder. He bowls tricky medium pace and has an ability to gain good bounce, even on flat wickets, and to bowl a well-disguised slower ball.He is also a hard-hitting batsman in the middle or lower middle order, valuable when quick runs are needed in any one-day game.But he is, above all that, a fieldsman of quite remarkable swiftness and athleticism.”Basically if I see the ball in the air I just go for it,” Pasupati said.”I just saw the replay of my catch and to be honest, I didn’t realise I was actually off the ground.”I saw the ball off the bat. I thought ‘I’ve got to stop that’. I didn’t think it was going to carry to me but it just kept coming.”I just stuck my hand out. I felt the ball hit the middle of my palm and I looked down and there it was.”Little things like that can mean a lot in the context of a close match. I think we were already starting to get on top when it happened but it just emphasised it.”However modest Pasupati might try to be, this match and Wellington’s victory within may long be remembered for his magnificent catch. Those who were here – about 3500 – and those who saw it on TV will long remember this match in those terms.Pasupati also played a vital role with the ball yesterday. Canterbury had begun to recover after the loss of Redmond and the further dismissal soon after of Cleighten Cornelius. They had been 115/7.But Darron Reekers had formed a late partnership with Carl Anderson and things were ever so slowly turning in Canterbury’s favour. They needed more than six runs per over with three wickets remaining but the burly Reekers, who had taken 24 runs from 34 balls, seemed capable of leading a dangerous rearguard action.Wellington captain Matthew Bell had planned to bowl Matthew Walker and Paul Hitchcock in the crucial final overs but he needed one more over from one more bowler. He called on Pasupati who had conceded 16 runs from three overs bowling early in the innings.Even Wellington coach Vaughn Johnson couldn’t bear to look. Pasupati is a talented bowler and one capable of breaking dangerous partnerships but he tends to concede runs in doing so and the match was delicately poised. If he gave away too many runs, even in a single over, the game might have tipped further in Canterbury’s favour.But Pasupati had Reekers caught by Bell with the very first ball of his second spell – the first of the 44th over – and he bowled Anderson with a superb slower ball five balls later. Canterbury’s resistance was at an end.

The sixth round Auckland-Northern Districts State Championship match ended in a tame draw after the visitors had by tea on the last day batted themselves into a position that made it difficult for Auckland to win.Rain had the last say, a heavy shower over the Eden Park Outer Oval as the players left the field for the interval halting proceedings. However, the teams returned after an 80-minute delay to give Hamish Marshall, 85 at the break, the chance to get his first first-class century. It was unsuccessful, Marshall adding just seven more before giving a catch to Reece Young behind the stumps from the off-spinner Rob Nicol.With the fall of the wicket, Northern declared at 212/7, 176 runs ahead. With just 19 overs left available in the day’s play, the match was declared a draw.The ending was an anticlimax. After the two teams had cancelled themselves out with first innings totals that had substance (ND 383, Auckland 419) but had taken longer than either side would have wished, Auckland had Northern teetering at the close on the third day at 57/4 just 21 runs ahead.However, after the successes of the previous evening, the Auckland bowlers on the final day could make no impression on the Northern batsmen, the only success of the fourth morning coming through a direct hit by Chris Drum to catch Grant Bradburn short of his ground when on 29 and looking happy to bat all day.In an immaculate defensive display, the Northerners added 57 in the morning session and then upped the pace with no trauma until just before the afternoon drinks break when Drum brought an attacking shot from Robbie Hart that saw the ball catch an inside edge and crash into the stumps. Hart had contributed 23 to a 76-run partnership as he and Marshall went a long way towards taking Northern out of trouble.By tea, Marshall and Joseph Yovich had taken the score to 205/6, 169 ahead with a minimum of 25 overs to be bowled in the day. For Marshall the highlight was passing his previous best of 83. He could take satisfaction from not only that achievement but also that his patient effort (first 50 coming from 199 balls) was a major contribution towards rescuing Northern from a precarious position.His 92 went with the Mark Richardson (133) and Matt Horne (77) 191-run first wicket partnership for Auckland and Scott Styris’ 73 in the Northern first innings as the highlights that reflected a match in which the bat dominated the ball. However, Yovich will remember it for the match in which he collected his 100th first-class wicket.On a day in which batting revolved around a forward defensive shot and as much leaving as possible, Drum’s afternoon wicket left him with two for 38 from 23 overs to go with his four for 85 in the first innings. Economy was the order of the day, Brooke Walker ending with one for 49 from 26, Nicol one for 25 from 14.3 and Richard Morgan, who improved his line in the second innings, one for 42 from 22.With the two points from the first innings lead, Auckland share top position with Wellington.

Australia’s Southern Stars secured victory in the Rosebowl series with an 18-run win at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval at Lincoln today.A total of 218/5, which featured a typically punchy 90 from Karen Rolton was too much even for an on-song Haidee Tiffen, who returned to form with a fine 69.Tiffen came in at 55/3 in the 19th over and stayed until the 48th before being bowled for 69 swiping at Therese McGregor when 36 were required off 16 deliveries.”Even when we needed 58 off 40 balls I said (to Rachel Pullar) ‘come on Rach, we can do this’. But it was gradually put out of our grasp,” Tiffen said.”We talked about not getting complacent and got off to a great start, but just the one bad ball an over cost us,” summed up Tiffen.After 10 overs, the Australians were 11/1, but had accelerated, thanks to Rolton and Belinda Clark (44) to 67/1 after 20 overs and consolidated to 115/1 after 30.Michelle Goszko then hit 48 off 51 deliveries, being stumped by Rebecca Rolls off Tiffen (two for 49) off the last ball of the innings. The New Zealand spinners struggled with the strong nor’wester blowing across Canterbury and failed to flight the ball as well as yesterday, when New Zealand won its first game of the series. This left Australia with a very defendable total despite Lincoln’s perfect batting wicket.”They kept pushing and it was going through the field and the misfields created momentum for their team and sent our heads down,” said Tiffen.New Zealand was keen to bat first due to the absence with a calf strain of leading Australian bowler Cathryn Fitzpatrick, who is 34 tomorrow.The White Fern reply kept home hopes alive when Emily Drumm (22) was batting, but her favoured scoring area, behind the wicket, proved her undoing when the New Zealand captain glided a delivery from Julie Hayes to wicket-keeper Julia Price.Tiffen and Kathryn Ramel (20) added 51 for the fifth wicket to put their side within 90 of a second successive win.However, Clea Smith, drafted into the Australia squad for the trip to Christchurch, struck twice in eight deliveries, forcing Ramel and yesterday’s big hitter Aimee Mason to hole out.Earlier, Fitzpatrick’s replacement, Emma Twining, bowled her opening six overs for ten runs.”There was a bit of pressure on her,” said Australia’s match-winner Rolton. “But we couldn’t have asked for anything more from her.”We’ve won quite a few games against New Zealand, but as soon as we don’t play well that’s when they beat us,” Rolton continued.Yesterday and in the CricInfo Women’s World Cup final, were days when New Zealand came out on top.”There’s nothing we can do about the World Cup now,” said Rolton. “We’ve had quite a few changes since the World Cup with a few girls getting more experience. The more they play the better,” Rolton told CricInfo.The teams meet again on Wednesday in a match that Tiffen for one would love to win.”The series has gone but this is a different team from the World Cup. It’s all or nothing, we’ve nothing to lose and we hope to have a good game to finish up.”

Talented Hawke’s Bay teenage batsman Jesse Ryder will be part of the Central Districts team for the State Shield match against Canterbury at Nelson on Saturday.A hard-hitting opener for the New Zealand Under-19 team last summer, he attended the New Zealand Cricket Academy this year and has been part of the CD Under-19 team at the national tournament in Christchurch.He will be joined by another New Zealand Under-19 player last year Ian Sandbrook, who also attended the Academy this year. He is a wicket-keeper/batsman.The Central Districts’ Stags team to play Canterbury Wizards at Trafalgar Park, Nelson on Saturday, December 28 is:Craig Spearman (captain), Jesse Ryder, Peter Ingram, Glen Sulzberger, Ian Sandbrook, Greg Loveridge, Campbell Furlong, Bevan Griggs, Andrew Schwass, Michael Mason, Lance Hamilton, Brent Hefford. Coach: Mark Greatbatch. Manager: Darryl Cochrane.Martyn Sigley has been named captain of the Central Districts A team to play in the Provincial A team competition at Lincoln from January 2-14. The team is:Martyn Sigley (captain), Tim Anderson, Marc Calkin, Hamish Cunliffe, Duncan Cederman, Brendan Diamanti, David Good, Jamie How, Andrew Murley, David Rankin, Taraia Robin, Greg Todd. Coach: Scott Briasco. Manager David Black.