Australia would never follow Pakistan’s lead and refuse to play out a Test match, according to the coach John Buchanan. “We have never done it in the past and I can’t see any reason why we would want to do it in the future,” he told .”We play the game pretty aggressively, but I think we always play it within the rules and the spirit of the game. So I don’t think that would be part of what we’d be wanting to do.”Inzamam-ul-Haq will appear at an ICC hearing to answer charges of bringing the game into disrepute and changing the condition of the ball during the fourth Test against England at The Oval on Sunday. Buchanan hoped the situation was sorted out swiftly as a drawn-out investigation would further damage the game. “I don’t think it would do cricket any good and it obviously needs to be resolved and a way forward be found, that’s certainly in their hands,” he said.Ricky Ponting said Inzamam might not be the man to blame. He believes the coach Bob Woolmer and the Pakistani team manager may have sparked the protest once the players returned to the pavilion after being docked the five-run penalty. “Who knows how I’d handle it and how the Australian cricket team would handle it in that situation,” he said, “but you’d like to think that we’d be able to do the right thing by the game and by everybody concerned.”Justin Langer said Sunday was a particularly sad day in Test cricket’s history. “As Donald Bradman said, we’re all custodians of the game and we want to leave it in better shape,” he said. “Games like that getting forfeited, we’re probably not leaving it in better shape than we first got into it.”

Division One

Iain Sucliffe’s second century of the season handed Lancashire a solid base in their crucial clash against Warwickshire at Blackpool. Sutcliffe added 108 for the third wicket with Stuart Law after Warwickshire struck twice before lunch. Law stroked 12 boundaries in his 97-ball 61 and Sutcliffe reached his ton off 101 balls. However, Lancashire progress was halted when rain washed out the final session and there was a poor forecast for tomorrow. Moments before tea, a water bomb and held up proceedings for a few moments after landing on a length.Paul Weekes, who has on the verge of leaving Middlesex midway through the summer, hit his first century of the season as they recovered from a difficult position against Yorkshire at Scarborough. Weekes arrived with Middlesex 115 for 4 after Deon Kruis had taken the first four wickets and turned the innings around. He lost Scott Styris for 64 – the first success for Matthew Hoggard – but formed important stands with David Nash and Chad Keegan. Kruis picked up five, but Hoggard was restricted to two scalps on his return to county action.

Division Two

Northamptonshire are in a fine position after the opening day against Derbyshire at Derby. Matthew Nicholson led an impressive bowling performance with 4 for 12 and his first spell off six overs consisted entirely of maidens. At 79 for 2, Derbyshire had nearly weathered the early storm, but Nicholson removed Chris Taylor and the rest crumbled as Greg Smith and Ant Botha followed on the same score. Monty Panesar chipped in with two, including Travis Birt who top-scored with 63, and Ben Phillips wrapped up the innings. Chris Rogers led a positive start to the Northants innings and the deficit is already down to just 45.The Essex bowlers were put to the sword at New Road as three Worcestershire batsmen slammed centuries. Lou Vincent set the ball rolling with a 101-ball effort at the top of the order, adding 121 for the second wicket with Vikram Solanki. After Vincent fell to Alex Tudor, Solanki went to three figures from 163 balls, his fourth of the season, as he passed 1000 Championship runs for the summer. Graeme Hick then joined the part to grind Essex into the dirt as they conceded nearly five-an-over.Mark Butcher and Azhar Mahmood led a Surrey fightback at The Oval with a stand of 192 against Glamorgan. James Franklin took four wickets, including Mark Ramprakash for 77, and Surrey slipped to 198 for 5. However, Butcher and Mahmood counter-attacked with their fourth and first tons of the season respectively. Butcher took 153 balls and carried on past 150 as Surrey approached maximum batting points. Mahmood struck 15 boundaries before falling to David Harrison late in the day.

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Rohan Gavaskar was the only East Zone batsmen who withstood Jai Prakash Yadav’s outstanding spell of 5 for 94 that helped dismiss East for 245 on the opening day of the Duleep Trophy match at Indore. In reply, Central Zone were 40 for 3 at stumps.East started badly after Sourav Ganguly won the toss and batted. They were reduced to 16 for 3 and kept losing wickets at regular intervals with Ganguly himself making just 16. Gavaskar’s 106 formed the backbone of the innings and only Debasish Mohanty provided him with any sort of support during his 46.East’s seamers inflicted damage on Central Zone by dismissing their openers for just 35 and Ashok Dinda, playing only his fourth first-class match, took Naman Ojha’s wicket at the stroke of stumps.
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Half-centuries from Robin Uthappa and Venugopal Rao along with several other nuggety contributions from South Zone’s batsmen helped them reach 281 for 9 on the first day against West Zone at Gwalior.VVS Laxman didn’t cash in on winning the toss – he was out for 15 – but Uthappa and Rao bolstered the innings. S Badrinath also chipped in with 42 as South Zone strung together a succession of useful partnerships. Zaheer Khan was West’s stand-out bowler with three wickets while Ramesh Powar and Sairaj Bahutule took two each.

Merv Hughes, the Australia selector, believes England’s loss of Marcus Trescothick is as big as Glenn McGrath missing two Tests in last year’s series. McGrath was injured and withdrew from both defeats in England while Trescothick will not take part in the entire series after flying home due to his stress-related illness on Tuesday.”Now England are in the position of having to cope with the absence of someone who was essential to their plans,” Hughes was reported in the . “And they’re going to find out just how much that hurts.”I reckon the Poms could miss Tresco almost as much as we missed McGrath last year. Glenn bowled us to victory in the first Test but had to sit it out while England built up a 2-1 series lead.”Hughes said Trescothick, who has played 15 Tests against Australia, was an experienced batsman who could not be replaced easily. “He is an unorthodox player, someone with a fantastic eye rather than a classic technique,” he said. “And he just loves to take the fight back to the bowlers. OK, the guy who takes his place, Alastair Cook or whoever, could prosper against the new ball. But an Ashes series is not where you want to test that theory out.”

With his hulking frame and that rare ability to belt the cover off a ball, Andrew Symonds doesn’t look like the sort of character to suffer from insecurity. After all, he’s played 154 one-day internationals over the course of an eight-year career, and was an integral member of the 2003 World Cup-winning side. But when it comes to Tests, he just can’t get it right. In ten attempts, he averages 19.06 with the bat and 45.44 with the ball, and admitted today that his selection for the third Test squad at Perth took him completely by surprise.”I was really shocked. In the last few weeks, I’ve been trying too hard, but then I got the call-up,” said Symonds, who was dropped at the end of the South Africa tour in April after managing just two fifties and a three-wicket haul in eight consecutive Tests against West Indies and South Africa. “I had the baggy green out a few days ago and I looked at it and smelt it and wondered if I’ll ever wear this again. And I suppose now I’m a couple of days away from finding out. I’m pretty excited.”Symonds famously flirted with England selection in the 1990s – a fact he was none too pleased to be reminded of today – but as he said at the time, he’s a fair-dinkum Aussie and his love for his baggy green is all the proof he could ever need. “I love the smell of it,” he said. “It smells of sweat and beer.” He loves it so much, in fact, that he wore it throughout Australia’s training session at the WACA this morning. “The boys were ribbing me a bit,” he said, “but I said I might not get a chance to wear it again. I’ll be wearing it whether I’m playing or not for the next couple of days.”The inability to translate one-day form into the Test arena is not a unique problem, but Symonds is one of the game’s most high-profile and talented sufferers. “You are just so keen to do well,” he said. “It’s sometimes hard to say ‘bugger it, I’ll go out and play’. You’re not playing backyard cricket, you’re playing for Australia and so it’s not necessarily that simple. You have to learn your game, and learn your psyche on how you play your game.”Just this morning I was in the bathroom putting sun-cream on, and the coach said: ‘I want you to play freely’. That’s what I need – a free spirit sort of attitude. Don’t worry about results. Results look after themselves if you just go out there to enjoy yourself.”

It’s ironic really, because Symonds has rarely been accused of being anything other than a free spirit. He was famously dropped ahead of Australia’s defeat against Bangladesh at Cardiff last year after an all-night bender which ended at 8am and culminated in him falling off a wheelie-bin during the squad’s pre-match warm-up. Now, however, it is exactly that sort of attitude that he now needs to fall back on, if and when he gets his opportunity at Perth from Thursday.”My mindset is that I need to be a little more carefree with my intensity,” Symonds said. “I guess the hype and the build-up [to a Test] is a bit more intense, and I probably tried a little too hard last year and ended up clamping up for whatever reason. I have to be careful with how I approach it. I play my best cricket when I’m not thinking too hard. I just watch the ball and hit it. Whether I play the one-day way or the Test way is irrelevant. I’ve got to find the way that suits me best.”Andrew Flintoff would doubtless agree with such an attitude. He and Symonds briefly played together at Lancashire and are kindred spirits in more ways than one. “The conversations me and Freddie tend to have aren’t about cricket,” Symonds joked. “But watching him, you can see from his successes that he’s probably a similar type of player. He’s instinctive. It’s about training hard and then going out there to react.”

Regardless of how hard Symonds tries to loosen up this week, there is one aspect of the Perth Test that is sure to create a new knot in his stomach. Australia are just one win away from regaining the Ashes. “You can’t help but think about it can you?” he said. “The coach addressed us [about that] this morning. It’s a big part of all our lives, but if you look at it like that, does it become a distraction?”It’s okay to think about it, but we’ve just got to keep our minds on the job. The feeling in the dressing room is very positive. I’d much rather be in our rooms than theirs. Coming from behind is very hard, and there’s not that intensity of ‘must win, must win’.”Life, by all accounts, has been pretty relaxed in the Australian camp since the Adelaide Test. The squad enjoyed a barbecue at Justin Langer’s place last night, which was an opportunity to get to know the team’s newest squad member, Adam Voges. “We had a couple of beers, and he’s an easy-going sort of a bloke.”But, Symonds said, the abrupt retirement of Damien Martyn had left “a bit of a void” in the team. “He’s one of these blokes whose character slips in and out of the day. He’d come out with a little one-liner that’s quite funny. He’ll be missed. But we just hope he’s happy because we haven’t had much contact with him. It was a shock, but that’s Marto as well. We just hope he’s taking it easy.”Australia’s fans will hope that Symonds takes it easy this week as well. That way, his true Test character might finally be able to shine through.

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Following the impressive display by their batting team-mates, Maharashtra’s bowlers came to the party and routed a woeful Rajasthan for 86 and 191 en route to an innings and 250-run win at Ratnagiri. Rajasthan, reduced to 42 for 4 at the close of the second day, crumbled against Anupam Sanclecha and Aditya Dole, the opening bowlers, and Sairaj Bahutule, the former India legspinner. Sanclecha removed Mohammad Aslam with his third ball of the day and added two more victims to finish with 5 for 54, while Dole and Bahutule shared the other five. Still 439 in arrears, Maharashtra could only muster 191 in their second innings, as Bahutule, opening the bowling, and Dheeraj Jadhav, known for his stylish batting more than his part-time offbreaks, seized seven wickets to complete a crushing victory, and help their side gain five points.
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After being dismissed for 145 in their second innings, Andhra’s bowlers took five Saurashtra wickets to keep their chances of a win alive going into the final day at Rajkot. Set 274 to win, Saurashtra slipped to 127 for 5 as Venugopal Rao, the host captain, lead the way with two key scalps and changed his bowlers around to good effect. Only Shitanshu Kotak, unbeaten on 57, offered resistance and held the key for Saurashtra. Sandeep Jobanputra, the left-arm fast bowler, and Rakesh Dhurv, the left-arm spinner, took 3 for 78 and 3 for 7 in Saurashtra’s impressive bowling effort.
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Chasing 122 to beat Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka slipped to 54 for 5 before stumps were drawn on day three at Kanpur. Karnataka’s bowlers combined to bowl UP out for 194 in their second innings, with Sunil Joshi (3 for 41), Chandrashekar Raghu (2 for 35), R Vinay Kumar (2 for 26) and KP Appanna (2 for 22) sharing the spoils. Shivakant Shukla top-scored with 47 in an inconsistent UP innings. Shalabh Srivastava and Praveen Kumar, UP’s opening bowlers, picked up two wickets each to keep their side in the hunt.
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Mayank Tehlan turned his overnight century into a maiden double, and Rajat Bhatia added three figures of his own as Delhi posted 493 against Baroda at the Feroz Shah Kotla. Overnight on 108, Tehlan began the day with a series of boundaries and though he lost Virat Kohli early, was offered solid support from Bhatia in a 149-run stand for the fifth wicket. Four deliveries after he stole three off Yusuf Pathan to get to 200, Tehlan fell to the same bowler, but Bhatia (106) ensured the effort was not lost and shouldered a feeble lower order before he was last man out. Pathan (4 for 103) and Rajesh Pawar (4 for 149) were the only bowlers to have any effect on Delhi.
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Gaurav Vashisht, Haryana’s young offspinner, took a career-best 6 for 24 to spin out Tamil Nadu for just 149 at Chennai. In a 25-over spell, which included 15 maidens, Vashisht ran riot over TN’s middle and lower order, after Joginder Sharma set the tone with three wickets at the top. In reply, Sumit Sharma and Ankit Rawat, Haryana’s openers, added an unbeaten 31 to extend the lead to 149 by stumps.
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Powered by Niraj Patel’s career-best 173, Gujarat took a 205-run lead over Hyderabad and removed two of the home side’s batsmen to finish the third day in Uppal firmly in the driving seat. Overnight on 109, Patel forged the lead with Bhavik Thaker (56) and despite a middle-order wobble, Gujarat posted a commanding 406. Pragyan Ojha and Inder Shekar Reddy, Hyderabad’s left-arm spin duo, accounted for eight wickets between themselves. In response to Gujarat’s total, Tirumal Suman and Anirudh Singh, Hyderabad’s captain, were dismissed.
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A 133-run sixth-wicket stand between Amol Muzumdar, Mumbai’s veteran batsman, and Wilkin Mota, the rookie allrounder, took Mumbai to within 81 runs of Punjab’s first-innings total on the third day at Mohali. Punjab began the day well, removing Vinayak Mane, Bhavin Thakkar and Sahil Kukreja (43) in the first session, and adding two more in the second, but Muzumdar joined forces with Mota, all of four matches old, to steady the ship. Muzumdar finished unbeaten on 86, while Mota fell to Ishan Malhatra on the last ball of the day. Amanpreet Singh, the right-arm medium-fast bowler, was the most successful home bowler with 3 for 54.

Michael Yardy, the Sussex allrounder, has been handed the England A captaincy for the tour of Bangladesh after he was overlooked for the main one-day squad in Australia. He will lead a party which includes Yorkshire’s exciting leg-spinner Adil Rashid and young paceman Stuart Broad.Yardy was expected to be named in England’s one-day squad after featuring against Pakistan at the tail end of the summer and playing during the Champions Trophy in India. But Monty Panesar’s inclusion in the limited overs set-up for the first time has pushed Yardy out of the picture so this tour is an ideal opportunity for him to restablish his credentials.Two notable omissions are Owais Shah and Robert Key, who were touted as candidates to replace Marcus Trescothick in the Ashes squad before Ed Joyce’s call-up. However, David Graveney says this is more to do with handing experience to a young group of batsmen rather than ending the international hopes of Shah and Key.”Owais Shah and Robert Key remain very much in the selectors’ thoughts,” he said, “and their non-selection reflects the fact that they have already had extensive experience of touring with England A and the National Academy squad and provides valuable opportunities for other players.”Michael Carberry, Will Jefferson and Nick Compton, who enjoyed a prolific 2006 with Middlesex, are the top-order batsmen to benefit from the selectors’ desire to explore their options.The most eye-catching selection, though, is that of Rashid, the 18-year-old legspinning allrounder who made a dramatic entrance into first-class cricket with Yorkshire last season. He has recently recovered from a stress fracture of the back which meant he missed the Under-19 tour of Malaysia.Broad, who made his ODI debut against Pakistan in August, has the chance to develop his game further and is joined in the pace attack by Tom Smith, Graham Onions and Amjad Khan, the 26-year-old Danish paceman who has fulfilled his qualifying period with Kent.”We are also giving an opportunity to Michael Carberry and Will Jefferson,” Peter Moores, the National Academy Director, said, “two players who have been around for some time but have shown the attitude and ability to move on to higher honours. The squad will also offer another chance to Alex Loudon and Tim Bresnan, who have both been in the England set up during the last 18 months.”The squad arrives in Dhaka on February 14 for a tour that includes two four-day games in Mirpur and Bogra and three one-dayers against Bangladesh A.England A squad Michael Yardy (capt), Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Michael Carberry, Nick Compton, Steve Davies, Will Jefferson, Amjad Khan, Alex Loudon, Graham Onions, Matthew Prior, Adil Rashid, Tom Smith

Buoyed by his side’s first win of the triangular one-day series, New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming believes his team is poised to build momentum as the World Cup approaches.Their 90-run win over England on Tuesday ended a run of four straight one-day international losses for the Kiwis, who have been criticised for their rotational policy in one-day games. While Fleming conceded his team’s results had been disappointing, he said the focus was on laying the foundation for a successful World Cup campaign.”We’ve been doing a lot of good things off the field, but it has been worth nothing because our performances have let all that down,” he said in Adelaide on Tuesday. “It has been pretty frustrating for all the people at home because we have played a pretty poor brand of cricket.”But if we can get a bit of confidence into it – you’ve got the likes of [Scott] Styris, Jacob coming back in and performing the way he did, Kyle Mills coming back and the guys that have been competing over here – then we are not in bad shape.”Fleming, whose captaincy was also criticised by former teammate Adam Parore, said he believed the win over England, with powerful allrounder Jacob Oram returning from injury with a man-of-the-match performance, showed his side were on the right track.”We are hoping to get a couple more [wins] and then get a little bit of momentum towards the end of this tournament,” he said. “It would be great to make the finals of this tournament and then we have another tough series with Australia at home. Then when you hit the World Cup you are pretty sure you have covered all your bases and that has really been our plan over the last six months.”Fleming said New Zealand’s top-order frailty was still a concern and he admitted he was one of the main culprits, his 20 against England continuing his dry run in Australia. With Oram and Mills joining the squad in Australia, and Styris also expected to do so, New Zealand have sent the 31-year-old allrounder Andre Adams home without playing a game in the tri-series.New Zealand general manager Lindsay Crocker said Adams was sent home to get some match practice. “Because Andre offers similar skills as Jacob, Kyle and James Franklin he was going to struggle to get game time,” Crocker said. “This way he can get home and play some cricket and remain in contention for the World Cup in the West Indies in March and April.”

The two teams could not have had more contrasting routes to the final. Bengal were steady throughout, with a couple of outright wins and no defeats. They had well laid-out plans and went about executing them quite professionally, spearheaded by the bowling of Ranadeb Bose and the batting of tyros Abhishek Jhunjhunwala and Manoj Tiwary. Mumbai’s progress was far more dramatic: at one stage they were staring at relegation, before they scripted a quite amazing turnaround, winning their last three group matches.BengalRound 1, v Punjab at MohaliFirst morning in chilly Chandigarh, put in, and 18 for 5. Deep Dasgupta and Laxmi Ratan Shukla resurrected the innings, Dasgupta at his gritty best. Sourav Ganguly provided the crucial breakthroughs with the ball for Bose to mop up the tail. Ganguly played a quick cameo with the bat too to set up a competitive target. But it was Ashok Dinda, filling in for the injured Shib Shankar Paul, who provided the decisive blows in the second innings to provide a win that would contribute hugley, both arithmetically and psychologically, to their advance into knockouts.Round 2, v Mumbai at KolkataA first in mutual history. Bengal enforcing a follow-on on Mumbai, Manoj Tiwary converting promise into numbers. Bose raised his game a notch, persisted on a dead Eden Gardens track, and ended up with figures of 34.1-14-69-5.Round 4, v Gujarat at Kolkata
If Punjab was a narrow escape, this time they conceded the first-innings lead by three runs. The game was always going to be a first-innings battle, and Bengal looked good with Shukla and Bose carrying them from 291 for 7 to 324, and then they collapsed to lose the next three wickets for only two runs. This loss of two points could have proved crucial in the end.Round 5, v Maharashtra at KolkataLosing the toss at Eden is not good news if you are a medium-pacer. Yet Bose and Sourav Sarkar, a 22-year-old debutant, somehow got Maharashtra out cheaply. The batsmen did nothing spectacular but all eight of them (Lahiri at No. 8) got starts and that was enough to get the first-innings lead.Round 6, v Hyderabad at HyderabadBengal’s most sensational result. Having fallen behind by more than 100 in the first innings in an away match, they came back with the resolve of champions. Bose this time changed identity: from a workhorse on flat tracks he became a destroyer, taking seven wickets in 20 second-innings overs for only 25 runs. The win restored them to the top of the table; they still needed to seal their place in the semis, though.Round 7, v Rajasthan at KolkataBose just couldn’t do anything wrong. He and Sarkar, answered the captain’s call of bowling first on an Eden Gardens track with typical bravery, and blew away Rajasthan. Tiwary, Ganguly, and Jhunjhunwala joined in the festivities to book that semis berth.Semi-final, v Karnataka at KolkataBose and Sarkar were lethal again on first day. Before Karnataka knew what hit them, they were bowling on Day One. Contrary to style, though, Bengal failed to close the game out in the first innings, giving Karnataka a glimmer which they used in the second innings to set an imposing target. But Tiwary again came to the party with his third score of 150-plus, as Bengal cruised to 307 for 4.

MumbaiRound 2, v Bengal at KolkataMumbai’s young attack got ground into dust as the seniors Ramesh Powar and Nilesh Kulkarni failed to inspire. Nine bowlers were used, only seven wickets taken over more than two days. The inexperience in batting showed too, with only Bhavin Thakkar making any impression.Round 3, v Punjab at MohaliThis was a cracker, even if only for the first-innings lead. From 139 for 5, Amol Muzumdar stitched partnership after partnership with the tail, and fell in freakish circumstances. Mudeep Mungela, No. 11, straight-drove Amanpreet Singh who got a touch on to the ball which hit the stumps at the non-striker’s end, where Muzumdar was backing up too far. On his way back, Muzumdar wept.Round 4, v Hyderabad at HyderabadIf Muzumdar had thought he had seen the worst, he was wrong. The batsmen hit a new low and the bowlers never reached threatening proportions, except for a lone battle put up by Ramesh Powar. Three matches, all three with the toughest sides of the group, one loss but no points. They needed inspiration which was not coming their way.Round 5, v Gujarat at MumbaiTheir first home game and Mumbai found inspiration in a young batsman, a young allrounder, and two old spinners. Rohit Sharma finally got a first-class hundred – a double, at that – and, with the help of Abhishek Nair, put up enough for the spinners to come into play. With the Wankhede pitch assisting them, Nilesh Kulkarni and Powar became an imposing proposition, and Mumbai was alive again.Round 6, v Rajasthan at MumbaiThe pace bowlers got their act together this time and all of a sudden Mumbai started to look like contenders. After dismissing Rajasthan cheaply, they made enough – Muzumdar got a century – for bowlers to chip in towards a collective second-innings effort. Two wins with bonus points from both meant they were still alive and within a win of a semi-final berth.Round 7, v Maharashtra at NashikLosing to Maharashtra last year had hurt them the most, which is probably why they had reserved their most emphatic display for their junior neighbours. Youngsters Kukreja and Shah took them across 500. Ajit Agarkar, on a break from international cricket, forced Maharashtra to follow on, and Kulkarni showed his lethal side again, as Mumbai literally stormed into the semis.Semi-final, v Baroda at VadodaraThe value of Muzumdar’s 97 in the first innings was felt in the other three scores: 142, 145, and 173. But the semi-final win did not come without its twists. After securing a first-innings lead on a green top, Mumbai got off to the worst possible start in the second. Five ducks at the top of the order, and no run on the board; that was embarrassing. But their lower order had little time to think about embarrassments; they were busy collecting enough runs which would matter in the end and not the scoreline that once read: 5 for 0.

Shanan Stewart’s 146 took Canterbury closer to claiming vital first-innings points against Central Districts at the Basin Reserve. . Chasing 461 to take bonus points, Canterbury closed the third day on 376 for 6, with Stewart’s second-highest first-class score leading the way. Overnight on 56, Stewart moved onto his second career hundred. Ben Rae, in his fourth first-class game, contributed 41 to 102-run stand for the fifth wicket with Stewart. Rain curtailed the day’s play to 64 overs, but Canterbury can still clinch a place in the final with a win or bonus point draw, depending on how the other two games pan out.James McMillan, Otago’s right-arm fast-medium bowler, followed his four-wicket haul in the first innings with two quick blows to keep Auckland down to 15 for 2 on a rain-hit third day at Dunedin’s University Oval. Mayu Pasupati continued to enjoy his State Championship debut with a four-wicket haul earlier in the day as Otago collapsed to 199. Overnight on 130 for 4, they fell 27 short of their target, giving Auckland first-innings points. Pasupati was backed by Chris Martin’s 3 for 65. Auckland need a maximum-point victory to reach the final.There was no play on the third day of the Wellington-Northern Districts match at the Basin Reserve owing to heavy rain. ND were still on 8 for 1 in five overs in reply to Wellington’s 314. Wellington hold second place by virtue of their superior net runs-per-wicket (9.024) compared to Canterbury (2.841). Both sides have three wins in the State Championship. ND still remain on the top of the table with a four-point lead.