The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

Team West were all out for 246 in 71 overs in first innings in the opening four-day match of the Challengers Cup against Team East at the Dhanmondi Cricket Stadium on Friday.

In reply, Team East trail by 191 runs in their first innings finishing the first day with 55 for 1 in 17 overs. Opener Monirul Islam and number three Nizamuddin Ripon were batting on 18 and 14 runs respectively.

Opener Shakil Haider was the lone Team East batsman to go scoring 22 runs off 26 balls with four boundaries.

National discard right-arm pacer Hasibul Hossain Shanto took the lone wicket for 14 runs in 6 overs.

Earlier, sent into bat first, an unbeaten half century by wicket keeper Kuntal Chandra Barman along with some handy contributions from Zahidul Islam and tail-ender Arif Hossain enabled Team West to post a moderate total.

Kuntal scored not out 65 facing 151 balls with five fours while Zahidul made 43 off 52 balls with eight fours.

Number ten Arif played a little cameo in the later part of the innings hammering 34 runs off 24 balls with six fours while opener Sanjay Chakraborty scored 29 runs and Ariful Islam made 23.

Medium pacer Rumman Islam claimed four wickets for 30 runs in 13 overs while off-spinner Rajon grabbed three wickets for 55 runs.

Brief score:

Team West - 1st innings 246 for all in 71 overs, Rashedul 2, Sanjay 29, Zahidul 43, Saikat 0, Kuntal not out 65, Kalim 6, Ariful 23, Monirul 7, Hasibul 4, Arif 34 and Tipu 11, extras 22, Rumman 4/30, Rajon 3/55, Kabir 2/31.

Team East - 1st innings 55 for 1 in 17 overs, Monirul batting 18, Shakil 22, Ripon batting 14, extras 1, Hasibul 1/14.

Reuter, Mohali

India and Pakistan have been fined for slow over rates in Thursday's second one-day international won by the touring side by four wickets.

The players were fined five percent of their match fee and the two captains double the amount after both teams were ruled to have fallen one over short in the allotted time, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said in a statement.

ICC match referee Roshan Mahanama summoned both captains after the match before deciding on the penalty.

Pakistan scored 322 to win off the penultimate ball. Their bowlers conceded 31 wides in a tally of 41 extras and their Indian counterparts sent down 16 wides.

According to the ICC code of conduct regulations governing over-rate penalties, players are fined five percent of their match fee for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time, with the captain fined double that amount.

Sports Reporter

The fourth round matches of the Ispahani Mirzapur Tea 9th National Cricket League (NCL) begin today at the different venues of the country.

Dhaka Division will take on Chittagong Division in a four-dayer match at the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium while hosts Khulna Division will meet Rajshahi Division in a four-dayer match at the Bir Sreshtha Motiur Rahman Stadium in Khulna and Barisal Division will face Sylhet Division in a four-dayer match at the Narayanganj Osmani Stadium.

The same sides will face each other in one-dayer matches scheduled to be held on November 14.

Rajshahi Division are now at the top of the points table with 38 points from three matches while Khulna Division are at the second spot with 33 points from as many matches.

Barisal Division are at the third position with 29 points from three outings while Dhaka Division are in the fourth spot with 26 points from as many outings.

Chittagong Division and Sylhet Division are now at the bottom of the points table with 17 and 14 points respectively from their three matches.

BBC Online

Maria Sharapova came from a set down to beat Svetlana Kuznetsova 5-7 6-2 6-2 in the Sony Ericsson Championships.

The win secured Sharapova's place in the semi-finals and also ensured Ana Ivanovic went through alongside her.

The pair will face off on Friday to see who goes through in first place and avoids world number one Justine Henin.

Meanwhile, Russian 20-year-old Anna Chakvetadze surprised world number three Jelena Jankovic 6-4 0-6 6-3 to take her place in the last four.

Henin, who was already through to the last four, gained some revenge for her shock defeat at Wimbledon by thrashing Marion Bartoli 6-0 6-0.

Thursday's win was only Sharapova's third match since the US Open following a recurring shoulder injury.

"I thought I did a good job in the first set, but the fact that I've got less match experience than her right now hurt me," said Sharapova, who won the prestigious end-of-season event in 2004

Defending champion Henin took just 57 minutes to overwhelm Bartoli, who had beaten the world number one in the semi-finals of Wimbledon this year.

"It was a great one, almost everything was perfect," said Henin. "I showed lots of determination and wanted to get my revenge."

AFP, Mohali

Seasoned spinner Anil Kumble was named India's Test captain on Thursday as the selectors opted to give Mahendra Singh Dhoni more experience of the five-day game.

Kumble, 37, was chosen to lead for three Test matches against Pakistan starting later this month at the conclusion of the current one-day series, Indian cricket board official Mohinder Pandove said.

"Kumble has been named only for the Pakistan series," Pandove told reporters in a brief statement.

Dhoni, 26, who took over as one-day and Twenty20 captain in September, was considered the frontrunner for the Test role after senior pro Sachin Tendulkar turned down an offer from the selectors.

But the five-man selection committee, headed by former captain Dilip Vengsarkar, felt Dhoni's 20 Tests in two years left the dashing wicketkeeper- batsman too raw to assume the mantle.

Kumble, a veteran of 118 Tests, succeeds his Karnataka team mate Rahul Dravid, who unexpectedly resigned as captain after the England tour in September for unspecified reasons.

The leg-spinner is India's most successful bowler and his 566 Test wickets are bettered only by Australia's Shane Warne (708) and Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan (702).

The new Test captain was announced soon after Dhoni's home team crashed to a four-wicket defeat against Pakistan in the second one-day international here, which levelled the five-match series 1-1.

Kumble has captained India in a lone one-day international against England at Chennai in 2002, which his team won by four wickets.

The popular cricketer, who retired from one-day cricket after the World Cup in March, said on Wednesday he would accept the captaincy if it was offered to him.

"I would certainly do the job if asked to," Kumble told the Cricinfo website. "I don't know what the big deal is, why so much is being made of this. I have said this before also.

"I don't know whether I'm in the race, but if it's offered it would be a great honour. I have relished it whenever I had the opportunity. But that's not something for me to decide."

Former India coach Greg Chappell and ex-captain Ravi Shastri were this week quoted as saying that Dhoni was still too inexperienced to captain in Test matches.

Tendulkar, when turning down the captaincy on Tuesday, told the Indian board president Sharad Pawar that a younger man should be appointed.

"Tendulkar was of the view that presently the Indian team was doing extremely well and the board must think of appointing a younger person as the captain looking at the future of the team," a statement from the cricket board said.

The first Test against Pakistan opens on November 22 at the Ferozeshah Kotla in New Delhi, the same venue where Kumble took all 10 wickets in an innings against the same opposition in 1999.

The second Test will be played in Kolkata from November 30- December 4, while the third will be held in Chennai from December 8-12.

India are due to tour Australia in mid-December, playing four Tests, before hosting South Africa for three more Tests in March.

Reuters, Mohali

Vice-captain Younis Khan dedicated his match-winning 117 in the second one-dayer against India on Thursday to Pakistan's late coach Bob Woolmer.

Younis anchored the innings as Pakistan recorded their highest successful one-day run chase to win with a ball to spare and level the five-match series 1- 1.

His third one-day hundred lifted the visitors to 322 for six after India totalled 321 for nine.

"The situation required such a knock," Younis told reporters. "Today I tried hard and it worked and I can say it is special.

"I would like to dedicate this innings to Bob Woolmer, especially the way he used to work with me."

Younis, named man of the match, put on 102 for the fifth wicket with Misbah-ul Haq (49).

When the centurion was out in the 46th over, Shahid Afridi took Pakistan over the finishing line with 29 not out off 14 balls.

Woolmer died a day after Pakistan's shock first-round elimination at the World Cup in the Caribbean in March.

The former England batsman was found unconscious in his Kingston hotel room.

Police started a murder investigation days later after it was revealed the autopsy, which investigators said was inconclusive at first, found he died of manual strangulation.

That investigation ended on June 12 when Jamaica's police commissioner said the constabulary would accept the opinion of three independent pathologists that Woolmer had died of natural causes, possibly a heart attack.

Reuters, Mohali

Indian cricket selectors retained their 15-player squad on Thursday for the third and fourth one-dayers against Pakistan.

The decision meant there would be no immediate return for former skipper Rahul Dravid after he was dropped for the first two matches.

Pakistan won the second game in the five-match series by four wickets on Thursday to level the series 1-1. The third game will be played in Kanpur on Sunday.

Squad:

Mahendra Dhoni (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Rohit Sharma, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik, Zaheer Khan, RP Singh, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Praveen Kumar.

Sports Reporter

Sonali Bank SRC eased past Bangladesh Navy 5-0 in the day's lone match of the Office Hockey League at the Moulana Bhasani National Hockey Stadium on Friday.

The winners led the first half 1-0.

Chandan of Sonali Bank put his team ahead using a penalty corner in the 33rd minute of the first half.

After the interval Shuvo made it 2-0 in the 36th minute of the play.

Jimi increased the tally to 3-0 utilising a penalty corner in the 54th minute of the game.

Nannu made it 4-0 by a field goal in the 65th minute of the clash.

Prince sealed the fate of the match by a field goal just three minutes before the long whistle.

Aussies dominate in Brisbane Test

BBC Online

Australia hit 551-4 before declaring and reducing Sri Lanka to 31-2 at stumps on day two of the first Test.

Michael Hussey, dropped on 13 on day one, made 133 and Michael Clarke an unbeaten 145, the pair sharing a brilliant stand of 245 in Brisbane.

Muttiah Muralitharan, so dangerous for much of the time on Thursday, could not add to his Test wicket tally of 702.

Brett Lee then took two wickets with the new ball before Marvan Atapattu, in his first Test for two years, dug in.

Australia started day two on 242-3, with Hussey 28 and Clarke five.

Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene had not been unduly concerned with his team's position on Thursday night.

But as an extended morning session wore on the tourists' plight deepened.