In 39 Test matches since making his debut against England back in 1995/96, Jacques Kallis has always been viewed as a player of prodigious talent capable of matching the best in the world. In his 40th Test match, the first in the Castle Lager/MTN series against New Zealand in Bloemfontein on Friday, he demonstrated that he now is one of the best in the world.Kallis utterly dominated the first day’s play, making an unbeaten 153 as South Africa stormed to 270 for three before bad light halted played 34 minutes before the scheduled close.The South Africans have laid a platform for a massive first innings score, and perhaps the tone of the entire series, and Kallis was at the root of it all. He came to the crease for the third ball of the day, after Boeta Dippenaar had gone for a second ball duck on his home ground, caught at second slip off Shayne O’Connor, and played with imperious ease.The outfield at Goodyear Park was heavy for Friday’s first day, but you would not have know it from the way Kallis played, combining the great strength of his shoulders and upper body with exquisite timing to reach the boundary 25 times.He came as close to perfection as South Africa could have wished and he showed, in this innings, that he now has the mental toughness to break an attack’s heart. Since an uncertain start to his Test career, Kallis has based his technique around a solid defence and six centuries in his previous 39 games suggest that there was at least some merit in this approach.But there had always been the sense that he still had another gear to shift into, that at times when he was at the crease he tended to drift along with the game. On Friday Kallis took an inexperienced New Zealand attack to the cleaners and it may now be difficult for the tourists to come back in this match, and in the series.After Dippenaar’s early departure there was some support for Kallis from the veterans Gary Kirsten and Daryll Cullinan, who both got themselves in and then got themselves out for 31 and 29 respectively, before Neil McKenzie came in for the fourth wicket.McKenzie has played in Kallis’ shadow in their unbroken 106-run partnership, but he gave solid support and produced some class of his own when he picked the same gap at extra cover to drive Craig McMillan for three successive fours in the over before the evening drinks break.But it has been all Kallis and it is a terrible pity that he declined to talk to the media afterwards. Two generations of South African batsmen would have stood in queues to talk to the Press after making a Test 150.Kallis was also involved in an unusual incident just after lunch when Daryll Cullinan drove O’Connor back down the wicket and the ball deflected off the bowler’s arm onto the stumps. The naked eye suggested that Kallis was well short of his ground. Certainly, the New Zealand dressing room believed it.But e tv, televising their first Test, could not call up the replays to give third umpire Rudi Koertzen a defenitive view. Kallis, then on 76, was allowed to bat on. Some 90 minutes later e tv managed to untangle their tape machine and find pictures that proved Kallis had, in fact, regained his ground, thereby vindicating Koertzen’s decision.It later emerged that in the interests of economy e tv had employed only two fixed cameras to film line decisions instead of the four that have been accepted practice in South Africa for several years. Inevitably, the video machine with the tape that could have resolved the matter instantly was the one that jammed. It is e tv’s first go at a Test match, and they have learned the hard way that if something can go wrong, it will go wrong.As, perhaps, have New Zealand. Their seam attack on the first day sprayed the ball on both sides of the wicket, seldom, if ever, putting Kallis and his partners under any sustained pressure. Daryl Tufey was particularly wayward and after a promising start, O’Connor felt the sharp edge of Kallis’ bat.The pick of the New Zealanders, in fact, was the young legspinner Brooke Walker, playing his first Test only because of injuries to Danny Vettori and Paul Wiseman. Walker has modelled his action on Shane Warne and he gets a fair bit of spin although he was punished whenever he dropped it short. He, though, bowls leg breaks and is very young, so he has an excuse. The other members of the attack simply bowled badly.

In the latest round of Vijay Merchant (under-16) West Zone Leagueplayed at Shri Shivaji Stadium, Kolhapur, Maharashtra took on Gujarat.Gujarat wicket keeper – batsman P Patel was the hero of the match withcenturies in both innings.Patel showed admirable qualities that mighttake him to the highestlevel in a few years. Incredible as it is, he scored 302 runs of the493 Gujarat made in the whole match, not to forget the two catches hetook standing behind the stumps.Parag More of Maharashtra had abrilliant all round display too but was outshone by Patel.The matchcame to a draw on Thursday with Maharashtra taking five points andGujarat three.On Tuesday Maharashtra won the toss and elected to bat and 364/6. Afifth wicket partnership of 254 between Sandeep Gaikwad and Parag Morewas the highlight of the first day’s game. Gaikwad made a brilliant142 with 19 fours and More made 109 with 16 fours, but lost both thecenturions by the end of the first day.Maharashtra were all out for 431 on the second day. Opening bowlerKunjan Fadia with 5/102 was exceptional amongst Gujarat bowlers.Gujarat had an uphill task of scoring 432 to get the first inningslead P Patel made a classy 101 as Gujarat were bowled out for 196 in63.3 overs. Parag More who had a great time with the bat was the toastof Maharashtra bowling with an awesome bowling figures of 12-2-23-6.Asked to follow on Gujarat owed much of its second innings to P Patelwho opened the innings and went on to score an unbeaten double centuryof 201 in 288 balls which included 27 fours and a six. At the end ofthe match Gujarat were 297/5 in 81 overs. This was a match that youngPatel would remember for a long time.In the other match of the Vijay Merchant (under-16) West Zone Leaguematch played at Motibaug Ground, Baroda, between Saurashtra andBaroda, a draw was the only possible result. On Tuesday Saurashtra wonthe toss and elcted to bat. Saurashtra declared their innings at 354/8in the 111th over on Wednesday. Rahul Parmar powered his way to aninnings of 125 which included 18 boundaries.Opener Jayesh Yadav contributed a patient 74 to the Saurashtra cause.For Baroda A Bochare did the bulk of bowling and finished with thefigures of 43-17-72-3. Baroda got off to a good start and made 79 forthe first wicket. Opener Robin Patel made 61. Saurashtra captainNikhil Rathod (5/65) ripped through the Baroda middle order, but alate charge by Yusuf Pathan who made 50 in 61 balls with 4 boundariesand a six helped Baroda to finish at 193 in their first innings.Asked to follow on Baroda showed more character in the second inningsand thanks to a brilliant partnership of 139 for the third wicketbetween Rakesh Solonki 90 (11 fours) and Sanjay Soni 82 (17fours).Yusuf Pathan again came good with the bat scoring an unbeaten 56 in 66balls (6 fours and 2 sixes) as Baroda declared their second innings at300/6 in 87 overs.Saurashtra went on a leather hunt in their second innings and were99/3 in 13 overs. Opener B Chauhan completed his fifty in 36 balls andremained unbeaten on 55 in 42 balls (7 fours and 1 six) to liven upthe final proceedings on Thursday. Saurashtra took home five pointsand Baroda were to be satisfied with three.

Enfield
Huntingdonshire 288/6 (W Larkins 78, A Mutucumarana 54)
Middlesex Cricket Board 292/9 (S Price 65)
Middlesex Cricket Board won by 1 wicket

Derbyshire faced the prospect of defeat inside three days after being forced to follow-on 243 behind.Hampshire pace bowlers Alan Mullally and Neil Johnson each took four wickets as Derbyshire were shot out for 140 in reply to the Hampshire first innings total of 383.Derbyshire were left with four overs at the end of the day and finished with ten without loss in their second innings. Mullally finished with a figure of four for 30 while Johnson took all the last four wickets in a six-over spell at a personal cost of 20.Derbyshire’s top scorer was Matthew Dowman who made 35 while AustralianMichael Di Venuto was forced by an ankle injury to come in at only numbersix. He was soon out for eight giving Mullally a return catch.Earlier in the day a stand of 130 between Adrian Aymes and Shaun Udal transformed the Hampshire innings after a slow start. Aymes made 73 while Udal was on his way to a century until he was caught at mid off after making 81.Tim Munton, who received little bowling support was the most successful of theDerbyshire bowlers taking five for 85.

Waqar Younis will be asked to continue as Pakistan captain following a two-month stint in the job, said General Tauqir Zia, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board.The board appointed fast bowler Waqar in April for atournament in Sharjah and a two-month tour of England. Under hiscaptaincy Pakistan reached the final in Sharjah, drew a two-Testseries against England and lost to world champions Australia in thefinal of a three-nation one-day competition.Waqar, who also captained Pakistan in a one-day match and aTest in 1993, has a 2-1 record leading the side in Tests and 10-5in limited-over internationals. He’s one of ten players to havecaptained Pakistan in the past ten years.”We’ve had our problems with captains, but Waqar is a veryhard-working man and has handled the side well,” Zia said. “Iwill keep him as captain as long as I feel he is fit mentally andphysically.”Zia said he wants to appoint the 29-year-old Waqar for NewZealand’s tour of Pakistan in September and the Asian TestChampionship, which runs from September to February. Waqartravelled straight to Australia after the tour to be with his wifewho is expecting a baby, Zia said.Meantime, Richard Pybus, whose contract as national teamcoach ran just for the England tour, has also been asked tocontinue, Zia said. Pybus will make his decision in the next tendays after considering his future at his home in South Africa.

Zimbabwe entered their final match in the first round of theirinaugural triangular tournament knowing they had to beat West Indieshandsomely, and then have India beat West Indies in Wednesday’s match,to reach the final. But, in a fluctuating match where they almostovercame the severe disadvantage of losing the toss, they went down byfive wickets in the final over.It was another clear winter’s morning in Bulawayo as Zimbabwe lost thetoss once again and were put in to bat. They did have some much-neededgood news as Heath Streak was fit to play again.Zimbabwe again lost a quick wicket as Dion Ebrahim (1) fished outsidethe off stump to Cameron Cuffy, again bowling superbly, and was caughtat the wicket. Stuart Carlisle announced his arrival at the creasewith a sweetly timed four to square leg but was then caught at slip byChris Gayle off Collymore without addition. At 9 for two, Zimbabweonce again had their backs to the wall and the suitability of wintercricket in Zimbabwe was being called into question. On the evidence sofar, the pitches tend to be too sluggish and give an inordinateadvantage to the side bowling first, more through unexpected swing inthe cold morning air, perhaps moistened by dew, that laterdisappeared.Alistair Campbell (17) looked good for a while, but then Cuffy struckagain, having him caught at second slip, Gayle again. Craig Wishart,so often underestimated and neglected by the selectors, stood in thebreach as he had on Wednesday, batting with fine discrimination andthe occasional powerful drive or pull.Wishart went to his fifty off 67 balls with a drive to the coverboundary and, with Cuffy having bowled out his ten overs for 30 runsand two wickets and the conditions yielding no further help to thebowling side, the West Indian attack suddenly began to look quiteinnocuous. Flower ran to his fifty with a reverse sweep to theboundary, and the pair added 126 before Wishart (71) uppercut Dillonto be caught at third man. Zimbabwe were 153 for four.Guy Whittall came in and played his usual improvised strokes, the pairlofting the ball skillfully into the gaps and running like haresbetween the wickets. Whittall offered a couple of difficult chancesthat went down, while Flower played some superb shots, including twosixes into the crowd, but was caught on the long-on boundary offDillon for 94, scored off 107 balls.Zimbabwe finished with 255 for five (Whittall 39*, Andy Blignaut 12*),a remarkable recovery after such a dismal start. Their middle orderhad given them a good chance of victory after all; now it was up totheir bowlers to complete the job, and by a good margin.Unfortunately, Zimbabwe’s performance in the field was patchy. Streakerred in direction and there were some minor but unnecessary lapses inthe field. To add to their problems, they were playing only fivefront-line bowlers, including Grant Flower, and lost Brian Murphyearly on when he injured himself in the field. Alistair Campbell’soccasional off-spin was soon required. Against this, Daren Ganga andespecially Gayle played a sensible game of accumulation, developinginto aggressive strokeplay with the Zimbabweans powerless to put abrake on them.Gayle’s fifty came up off 61 balls, but soon afterwards he lost Ganga(34), sent back and coming off second-best to fine fielding byBlignaut. Gayle eventually fell for 76, skying a catch to midwicketoff Flower, but at 137 for two West Indies were more than halfwaythere.Wavell Hinds and Shivnarine Chanderpaul shared a solid partnership,but West Indies were imperceptibly falling behind the required scoringrate; about eight an over were now needed. Chanderpaul (24) sufferedan unlucky dismissal when he swept at Campbell and lost his grip onhis bat, which hurtled straight into his stumps, giving a hit-wicketdismissal.Carl Hooper immediately came close to running himself out in hiseagerness to get off the mark, and the batsmen reached the boundary attimes, but Hinds fell for 54, slashing at Streak and edging to thekeeper. West Indies were now under pressure as Hooper and RidleyJacobs gradually improved the situation against some superb fieldinguntil 19 were needed off the final three overs.At this point Streak made an unexpected but inspired bowling change,bringing back Flower who struck immediately, as Hooper (24) holed outat long-off. But it was not quite enough and, in a frenetic final overbowled by Streak, West Indies scraped home with one ball to spare,Jacobs hitting the winning boundary to finish with 20.

The draw for the semi-finals of the C&G Trophy has paired Somerset with Warwickshire at Taunton, while Leicestershire will play Lancashire at Leicester.The matches will be played on the weekend of August 11 and 12. The ECB will announce tomorrow which game will be played on which date.Somerset captain Jamie Cox told Sky Sports after the draw: “We went to Lord’s in ’99 on the back of a great home semi-final and hope we can repeat that with some great home support.”We blew up last year in this competition so it’s important for us to getback to Lord’s this year.”We didn’t do ourselves any favours there in 1999 and we want to go back andmake a better fist of it.”

The Yorkshire weather scuppered Australia’s hopes of having a day offtomorrow as rain restricted play on the fourth day to just 25 overs buttheir declaration gave England a target for victory.After making 176 for four in their second innings, Australian captain AdamGilchrist declared when it was announced that weather permitting, another 20overs would be played at 5.50pm following a dreary afternoon watching theclouds and covers come and go.The decision gave England a win target of 315 to aim for, with the remainderof the fourth day and a full fifth day left but Mike Atherton and MarcusTrescothick batted for just 2.3 overs before umpires offered the batsmen thelight.By then they had reduced the deficit by four after Atherton had bravelyhooked Glenn McGrath in the gloom to get off the mark.Despite heavy overnight rain and misty conditions, there had earlier been aprompt start but 40 minutes later, the clouds gathered and hundreds ofumbrellas popped up around the ground to signal the first interruption ofthe day.But in that time, a substantial crowd were treated to a batting spectacularfrom Ricky Ponting who was belting the ball as if it were white.He faced 31 balls and put on a remarkable 38 runs, including a hefty sixinto the West Stand off Hampshire left-armer Alan Mullally. His 50 came upin 52 balls and all Matthew Hayden could do, having resumed on 12 toPonting’s 30, was watch in awe from the other end.With such heavy cloud cover and on a pitch that players said was beginningto misbehave, the advantage should have been with the bowlers but Australiawere after quick runs and more than ready to take risks.In ten overs, the score shot from 69 for one to 124 for one but Ponting’scavalier exhibition was disrupted by a 40-minute rain break then destroyedby Darren Gough who had him trapped leg before for 72, scoring at a run aball.His partnership with Hayden added 104 but Hayden’s luck also ran out threeovers later when he edged a ball from Mullally to the wicket-keeper after hehad made 35.The afternoon session saw more rain and less play with three hours and 20minutes lost to the weather but Andrew Caddick used the time available togreat effect, having dangerman Damien Martyn back in the pavilion for six before the heavens opened.It was Caddick’s first ball of the spell but the Australian batsman, notused to looseners, was deceived and trapped. In the distance, there wereflashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder and very soon, the storm haddescended on Leeds, putting a stop to proceedings.Bad light turned quickly into heavy rain and play was eventually called off6.35pm.

Two of Hampshire’s young prospects are included in the National Academy Squad for this coming winter. Derek Kenway (22) and Chris Tremlett (18) join up with the cream of England’s Young Cricketers.An ECB spokesman said: “In picking the National Academy Squad, the selectors, together with Hugh Morris, chose a group of players that we believe will be very quickly pushing for places in the international set-up. This is an exciting opportunity for all concerned and there will be many benefits from attending the Academy and working with people of the calibre of Rod Marsh.”Derek Kenway was pleasantly surprized at his inclusion. “A lot of hard work with my fitness and technique last winter, and my run of form during the season has certainly helped my inclusion. Many good things have been spoken and written about me this year – it is hard to take it all in. I am naturally delighted, and working with one of cricket’s great men, Rod Marsh, will be an exciting experience.”Chris Tremlett said it was a nice surprise. “Having been part of last summer’s Under-19 England team, I felt I had a good chance of being part of the Academy. When Hugh Morris telephoned me this morning to confirm I was to be involved in a part of the first English Academy of its kind, I was thrilled.”Tim Tremlett, Hampshire’s Director of Cricket, told the Hampshire Web Master: “Taking away my fatherly hat, and speaking for Hampshire, we are very pleased and proud that two of our young cricketers, both Hampshire-born, who have come through the Hampshire Young Cricketer ranks, should be a part of this inaugural Academy. It should benefit them no end, and will benefit England and Hampshire Cricket in the future.”

In a season when victories were hard to come by, there were a number of encouraging performances, and this current group of 14 to 16 year olds has the highest number of very talented players that I can remember.For the first time two 14 year olds played together in an Under 16 team and there were as many as 5 players under 15 in the team. Eight Under 16s played in a single Under 17 team and four played at Under 19. Six of these Under 15s played for the West of England and two for England.All this is a tribute to the progressive attitude of the development team and especially Rajesh Maru. There are now no barriers between the Club 1st eleven and the 5th eleven (the Under 16s), with the same information and standards being maintained all the way through. The basis of this has been Jimmy Cook and Mark Garaway’s School of Excellence programme Culture of Success.One the playing front, Graham Noble was the only centurion, his 100 not out was on a very flat pitch at The Hampshire Rose Bowl. Fifteen year old James Manning took most wickets and our 15 year-old skipper Alex Richardson had the respect of management and players alike, leading from the front.Our only victory came in our last game against Sussex, when 54 from the promising Kevin Latouf and a seasons best 38 from Nick Priddle helped us to 239 all out, a total our opponents never got near. This game us a win on first innings and deprived Sussex the Championship.A progressive year in which the Under 16s played a significant part in the success of the Under 17 squad who reached the semi-final of the National Competition.