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Andrew Strauss, dropped from England’s touring squad to Sri Lanka, has admitted he was shattered when Andrew Flintoff was handed the captaincy ahead of him for the Ashes last year.”Duncan Fletcher [the coach at the time] sat me down and said it was a tough call but that there were good reasons why they chose Fred [Flintoff],” Strauss told the . “Although I was still in the team, it felt like I was dropped. He couldn’t say anything to make it better. I just tried to be as supportive as I could.”However, Strauss didn’t find fault with Flintoff’s behaviour as captain. “He had a lot on his plate,” Strauss said. “With the responsibility of batting and bowling, perhaps the captaincy was too much. I’m not saying he wasn’t equal to the task. No matter who had captained that side – Michael Vaughan, Mike Brearley or anyone – we would not have won the series [Ashes] the way we played. I’m not sure my undefeated run would have carried on for long if I was captain. “Strauss is focused on making a comeback to England whites and is set to play for Northern Districts in New Zealand, though only for the one-day league.”This is the first time I have had a break in a very long time and I have enjoyed spending some time away from the game. But the only way I will get my England place back is to score runs. I have to do everything I can to be in form and in the best frame of mind if England need me. A month with Northern Districts is perfect.”

Delhi 196 for 4 (Chopra 85*, Bhatia 81*) trail Uttar Pradesh 342 (Shukla 96, Sangwan 4-80, Narwal 4-81) by 146 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
A triple-strike from Praveen Kumar took Uttar Pradesh to the brink of controlling this game before Delhi rallied through an unbroken 160-run partnership between Aakash Chopra and Rajat Bhatia to reduce the deficit to 146 runs, with six wickets intact, at stumps on a rollercoaster second day at the Wankhede Stadium. The game is still in the balance; an early wicket on Friday will allow UP to get stuck in to the out-of-form lower order while Delhi will back their chances if this pair can stay at the crease for a couple more hours.Kumar swung out the three in-form top-order batsmen, including Gautam Gambhir for a duck, to reduce Delhi to 21 for 3 after UP were dismissed for 342 in the first session. But Chopra and Bhatia stood firm to prevent UP from running away with the game. After toughing out through the rough phase – he took 19 balls to score his first run – when Kumar was causing havoc, Chopra took charge in the post-lunch session with a fluent innings. He showed impeccable judgement outside the off stump and hit several delightful drives through the off side. There was a caressed square drive off Sudeep Tyagi and a couple of inside-out drives off Piyush Chawla that caught the eye. In the last session, he drove the seamers repeatedly through the off-side cordon as Delhi muscled their way back into the game.Mohammad Kaif had set his field carefully for Chopra. There was a short square leg and a slightly deep short leg for Tyagi, who got the ball to cut in from a length. Chopra played with soft hands, making sure nothing reached the waiting palms. Kaif, then, placed a leg gully but again Chopra kept his tucks and glances to the ground.Giving him able support was the feisty Bhatia. Though not as assured as Chopra early in his knock, he saw off the seamers before unleashing his strokes against Chawla. A six over long-on and a swung boundary saw him gain in confidence and he even hit Kumar for a couple of boundaries. He pulled Chawla and Praveen Gupta for two more sixes and drove the seamers with authority but the highlight of the knock was an attractive pull off Bhubaneshwar Kumar.Kaif’s field settings were creative – there were two short covers at times, a leg slip and a man breathing down on the batsman close on the off side on another occasion – but failed to get the breakthrough. He then asked Kumar to bowl a series of bouncers in the last session but Chopra swayed away from a majority, kept the ones aimed at the body down in front to leave the bowler muttering under his breath about the futility of bouncers as a strategy.Kumar must have wondered where the magic had gone; he had just ripped apart the Delhi top order with his ability to swing the cherry. With a packed slip cordon, he kept it full and moved the ball both ways to trouble the batsmen. He started the collapse with his third delivery, which was full and swinging outside off. With just one fielder in the covers, Gambhir took the bait but ended up edging an expansive drive to third slip. Shikhar Dhawan, who started off with a fierce cut and a cover drive, was set up nicely. Kumar bowled a couple of deliveries away before swinging one back in to take the fatal inside edge. Mithun Manhas was done in by a ball that curved in to trap him in front.Chopra played only nine balls from Kumar in the first spell before lunch and was reduced to being a witness to the damage. However, in the second half of the day, he took control with an assured knock and kept Delhi in the hunt.

Scorecard

James Hopes made an aggressive century to lift Queensland from a moderate position to a strong one in the the Pura Cup match against Victoria at the Gabba. Hopes, who hit 14 fours and two sixes from 126 balls, turned the day the Bulls’ way after they were slipping at 5 for 186 before tea.Chris Hartley, the wicketkeeper, shared a 111-run partnership with Hopes before he was lbw to Cameron White for 50. Hopes, 26, departed with his second century and Queensland in good health after being caught by Peter Roach off Matthew Innes.Allan Wise grabbed four of the top five wickets as Victoria, who won the ING Cup match between the teams on Saturday, made regular indents, but he missed the wicket of Clinton Perren, who held the top-order together with 89.

Darren Gough has decided to stay with Yorkshire next season. The England fast bowler’s future at Headingley has been the subject of rumour and speculation for months, but Yorkshire have now issued a statement indicating he is to stay there for at least one more summer.Gough’s contract runs out at the end of the 2002 season, and he has still not signed any new deal.However tonight’s statement announced: “Darren Gough has today confirmed that he will continue his career with Yorkshire.”His existing contract has a year to run, and the club have indicated theirwillingness to extend the contract when the existing term expires.”Gough, 31, made only two appearances for Yorkshire in last summer’s CricInfoChampionship, as Yorkshire won the title for the first time in 33 years.But Yorkshire added in the statement that they do not doubt his commitment to the club, despite his inevitable focus on internationals as a centrally-contracted England player in recent years.The statement continued: “It has been a difficult time for him personally with a heavy international programme, his benefit activities and persistent press comment as to his future with the club.”The county has acknowledged Darren’s significant contribution to Yorkshirecricket over many years both on and off the field and which has included raisingthe profile and standards of cricket throughout Yorkshire and elsewhere.”

The tour match between New South Wales and South Africa appears headed for an exciting finish tomorrow after Michael Bevan and HerschelleGibbs again laid waste to the bowling for their respective teams on the third day of the contest here in Sydney.After Bevan (183*) had cut short a magnificent innings of his own to throw the game open, Gibbs dominated the day’s closing session to lead theProteas to a second innings score of 1/112 and an overall advantage of 225.Bevan had earlier been within 17 runs of scoring his second successive first-class double century on the SCG when he decided to effect a tea timedeclaration, ending the New South Wales first innings at a healthy 6/385.Though he was very slow to begin, even to the point that his score did not move for 50 minutes at one point, his innings was an outstanding one. Hiscapacity to transform a vigilant hand into an explosive one upon reaching three figures also appealed.”I hit them alright and was pretty happy,” said Bevan.Over the last two years, the experienced left hander has enjoyed a love affair with this ground, producing a remarkable average of 125.85 from hislast seven matches – and ten innings – here.His career record at the SCG is also quite remarkable; from 50 matches, he has scored 4850 runs at the mammoth average of 79.50.”It’s where I’ve played most of my career – at the SCG. You obviously get enough chance to see how it plays.”Early on I thought they bowled pretty well, pretty tight. And, at the end, we had to score a bit quicker in the hope of setting up a (good finish tothe) match,” Bevan acknowledged.”At tea I thought it was the right time [to declare]. It gave us a chance to get a few wickets in that session and gave them a chance to get a few runsso it was more to do with the match situation than anything else.”Young spinner Justin Ontong (0/47) endured especially spectacular punishment, battered for 18 runs in his fifth over before conceding another 17from his sixth as Bevan initiated an assault that delivered 97 runs from the last 71 balls of his innings.It was a tough day for all of the tourists’ bowlers, though. And the mindset of veteran paceman Allan Donald (0/64) – who bowled excellently attimes today – wasn’t helped by criticism that had appeared overnight from former rebel wicketkeeper Ray Jennings.Jennings argued that Donald shouldn’t have been included in the tour party in a statement that appeared in the Daily Telegraph newspaper here inSydney today.”Maybe we should ask Ray Jennings if it’s alright with him if I play,” said Donald after play.”It’s very uncalled for, the comments he made,” the quick said.Donald’s teammate, Gibbs (75), soothed the Proteas’ concerns as the day closed, with another sparkling innings that laid the platform for anotherlikely declaration at some stage early tomorrow.Though leg spinner Stuart MacGill (1/27) again found a way to remove Gibbs just as he was close to the height of his powers – receiving an lbwverdict in his favour after two such appeals had been turned down by umpire Bob Parry – the South African openers performed well. Left handerGary Kirsten (34*) played in sound fashion, and will be back to resume with Jacques Rudolph (2*) in the morning.

A sterling effort by the groundsmen, administrators and a willing Netherlands team saw Australia run out winners in a rain-affected match at the North West Stadium in Potchefstroom.Continuous rain in the area and water that had seeped under the covers of thepitch had at one stage thrown any thoughts of play out of the window. Using anymeans at their disposal the ground staff used sacking under the rollers, power blowers and even the police helicopter to help dry the wet patches on one side of the pitch.The Netherlands team held meetings and would have been quite happy with the two points for a no-result had it not been for the fact that they had come to the World Cup to play cricket and learn from the opposition. As captain Roland Lefebvre commented: “We cannot learn anything from sitting in the changing rooms.”The match started an hour late, with the Netherlands winning the toss and askingAustralia to bat first in a reduced 47-over innings.Two further breaks, in which three and then eight overs were lost, made itdifficult for both the fielding and batting sides, with the ball having to bedried and batsmen having to re-focus.Some excellent bowling, especially from Lefebvre, 0/19 in eight overs, and Jacob-Jan Esmeijer, 0/16 in five overs, saw the Dutch restrict Australia to 170/2 in the 36 overs.The four Australian batsmen spent good time in the middle but were never in a position of dominance. Apart from the first over they were pinned back to below five runs per over for the whole innings.Matthew Hayden played a subdued knock before being caught at deep mid-wicket for 33, after Jimmy Maher was caught behind for 26. Their 50-run partnership had come up in 68 balls.Hayden was also involved in a 50-run partnership with Damien Martyn, who went on to make an undefeated 67 after giving a caught and bowled chance early in his innings.”I had a bit of luck out there but in the end it was good to spend some time in the middle after it appeared as if we would not play at all today,” Martyn said after receiving the Man-of-the-Match award.Martyn was involved in the third 50-run partnership, the quickest of the innings (57 balls), with Darren Lehmann who ended not out on 29.In the final eight overs the Australians seemed to misinterpret the Duckworth-Lewis system by trying not to lose any wickets, not knowing that wickets lost at that stage of the game would not have a major impact on the final target.The recalculation meant that Netherlands would require 198 to win in the 36-over allocation.Losing wickets at regular intervals, the Netherlands never made any serious attack on the target, and with the introduction of Andy Bichel and Ian Harvey into the attack, any thoughts of a win were wiped away.Both mixed up their pace well to be rewarded with three wickets each as they mopped up the tail. Bichel finished with 3/13 and Harvey with 3/25 as the Dutch were bowled out for 122 in 30.2 overs.Luuk van Troost tried to go after the bowling, scoring 23 before splicing Lehmann to Bichel at deep mid-off, and Tim de Leede scored 24 fluent runs,including the first six of the game off Lehmann.The total of 122 may have been the lowest at the ground, and it may also have been Netherlands’ lowest in their World Cup history, but they were not disgraced by the number one team in the world.”We played well and it was most enjoyable. We had all looked forward to playing against and learning from the best, and are proud that we managed to restrict Australia to 170,” Lefebvre said after the match.Ricky Ponting was very happy with four points, which he never thought they would take after arriving in the rain.

England v South Africa, third Test, Trent Bridge, Day 1

It has been a familiar sight on the first day of all three Tests in this series: a left-hander pinging the ball to all parts. The good news for England was that this time it wasn’t Graeme Smith bashing the boundary-boards, it was Mark Butcher.It was Butcher’s eighth Test century and, with the possible exception of his matchwinning effort against Australia at Headingley in 2001, his best. His hundred included 21 fours, a very high percentage, almost all of them solid and sure. He reached three figures by easing one off his legs to the midwicket boundary, in a carbon copy of so many of Smith’s runs so far in this series.Since that seminal knock against Australia, which came at a time when he was unsure of his place, Butcher has made five Test centuries – more than anyone for England except Michael Vaughan – and inked his name in for as long as that clunking off-drive remains well-oiled. It remains an oddity, both statistical and cricketing, that Butcher has not played a single one-day international to put alongside his 55 Tests.His partner in a saving stand today, Nasser Hussain, rode his luck to collect his 13th Test century. Hussain started scratchily, narrowly avoiding Marcus Trescothick’s fate of getting out to the innocuous-looking induckers of Andrew Hall: one wobbled past dangerously close to the bat on its way through to Mark Boucher.But later Hall felt the rough edge of the bat as Hussain also dealt in bountiful boundaries, smacking 17 in all. Any doubts about his hunger for Test runs were quashed when he celebrated his hundred in typical Nasser style: left-fist pumping up and down accompanied by some barking expletives to no-one in particular, but to anyone who would listen.Ed Smith had a nervy wait, and a longer one than usual for an England No. 5 these days. He followed his first-ball block off Shaun Pollock with a bashful anxious smile reminiscent of a young Prince William facing the media, but then grew impressively into his role as the form-horse in the England pack.There was a defining moment shortly before tea. Just after dropping onto one knee to cream Hall through point for four, Hussain top-edged obligingly between the back-rushing Boucher and the incoming Ntini. It just showed that, after all the heartache of Edgbaston and Lord’s, this really was England’s day.Steven Lynch is editor of Wisden CricInfo.Click here for today’s bulletin

Marvan Atapattu has admitted that the critical comments made by Ashantha de Mel, Sri Lanka¹s selection chief, spurred his team on during their Paktel Cup final victory against Pakistan.”That can be one reason for our performance. It was a big motivation factor for us to show everyone what we are capable of,” Atapattu said after his team¹s emphatic 119-run victory. “But the guys were very keen to do well, and we play to win anything around the world. We don’t go on the park to lose.” But Atapattu refused to be drawn into a public slanging match with de Mel, although he was obviously angered by the comments.de Mel had earlier launched a surprise attack in the media last week, as he accused Sri Lanka¹s team management of holding back the development of young players and he labelled the senior players as selfish, suggesting they were more concerned about their own averages than the team’s long-term health.”It has come to a stage that the selection committee felt that we have to reduce some of the options in order to get the team management to play them,” said de Mel, referring to the lack of chances for the young players. “We send the youngsters saying that we are going to groom them, but they are never given a chance to play on the tour. They come back and by the next tour they are left out.”We sent [Thilina] Kandamby on the Pakistan tour to get some sort of exposure internationally, but unfortunately he has not been given a chance to play even against a weak opposition like Zimbabwe.”If Kandamby, for instance, was promoted up in the order and was given to bat at No. 3 like they did with [Tillakaratne] Dilshan against Zimbabwe, we may have got a chance to see what his potential is. He has shown potential at A-team level and in the domestic tournaments but we need to find out for ourselves whether he actually has it in him to make it to the top, whether he is worth investing for the future. The same applies to the other young players as well.”de Mel insisted that the inexperienced players needed to be given opportunities against lesser teams to allow them to gain exposure. Otherwise, he warned, Sri Lankan cricket would go the way of the West Indian team, with the senior players retiring, and the next lot not being good enough to fill in.