The WACA Selectors have released the Retravision Warriors Second XI for the Cricket Australia Cup match against Tasmania at the WACA Ground.The four-day fixture begins on Monday.The Second XI team is:
Scott Meuleman (Captain), Kade Harvey, Sam Howman, Andrew James, Brett Jones, Shaun Marsh, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Luke Ronchi, Craig Simmons, John Taylor, Michael Thistle and Adam Voges.The team includes Vodafone Cup players Sam Howman from Subiaco-Floreat and Dimitri Mascarenhas from Melville.Swing bowler Howman was the Vodafone Cup’s most prolific wicket-taker last season with 56 victims.All-rounder Mascarenhas is a star in English County cricket. He has played over 100 games for Hampshire.

Victoria 215 for 3 in 47 overs (Elliott 89, Hodge 50*) beat Queensland 212 for 7 in 50 overs (Payne 52) by 7 wickets
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Matthew Elliott, the former Australian Test opener, top-scored with 89 to steer Victoria to a seven-wicket victory over Queensland in the ING Cup one-dayer at the MCG today. Victoria reached 215 for 3 in 47 overs chasing Queensland’s 212 for 7.Elliott blew a chance for his third century in four matches against the Bulls this season when he was stumped, going down the track to a wide from part-time spinner Stuart Law and being stranded well out of his ground.Victoria were guided home by Brad Hodge, unbeaten on 50, and David Hussey, who collected the winning boundary. Victoria moved to joint-second on the ING Cup table after three games, level with New South Wales on eight points and one point behind Western Australia.Victoria set up this win with a disciplined fielding effort, strangling the run-rate after the Queensland Bullls had started with a flourish. Queensland were scoring at five an over until the 12th over, but from there the batsmen lost their way. They did not score a boundary for 86 balls, between the 34th and 47th ovesr. Daniel Payne top-scored from the top of the order with 52, while Clint Perren made an unbeaten 35 (with no boundaries) and Martin Love 34.Law, the other opener, hit three successive fours in his 24 off 26 balls, and Damien MacKenzie made an unbeaten 23 from 19 balls, including two fours and a six. Mick Lewis took 2 for 33 from 10 overs, while Jon Moss (1 for 33) and Cameron White (0 for 32) also sent down miserly 10-over spells.Moss then made 47 from 70 balls in an opening stand of 102 with Elliott as Victoria looked set to earn the bonus point for reaching the target inside 40 overs. But the rate stalled by the time MacKenzie bowled Moss in the 24th over, although Victoria never looked like blowing the win. The offspinner Chris Simpson was the pick of the Queensland attack, with 0 for 31 from his 10 overs.

Just after Rahul Dravid had square-driven Brad Williams for his first four, Shane Warne took his eyes off the television set on which he has been following golf, and bellowed, as if to exhort Steve Waugh, “come on, bring on Stuart MacGill.” There were two messages there. One, Warne reckons Dravid is suspect against legspin. Two, he rates MacGill as a legspinner.Warne and MacGill, merchants of the same craft, peddling their ware in a market where there is room for only one, share a complex relationship, based on mutual respect and fierce competitiveness. Had he been playing for any other country, MacGill, with 137 wickets from 27 Tests at an average of 26, would have been a treasure. In Australia, he is a spare tyre for Warne, under whose towering shadow he is condemned to conduct his career.A couple of days ago, I asked MacGill about how he dealt with this denial, whether he managed to avoid bitterness about his condition? MacGill smiled wryly. “I would have been really bitter if it was a lesser bowler keeping me out. But Shane is a colossus. Arguably the greatest spinner ever. It is just unfortunate that my career happened to coincide with his.”A couple of months from now, MacGill will be competing with Warne for his Test berth again, and that Warne will win his place back is almost a forgone conclusion. MacGill admits it himself, but he says that the pressure hasn’t been any less in Warne’s absence. “When Shane started his 12-month holiday, I felt more pressure because I became the number one spin bowler [in Australia]. Now if Shane does come back for the first Test in Sri Lanka that would mean I have three Tests to go and I probably wouldn’t play again. Shane Warne is the best wristspinner to walk the planet.”A admirable philosophy certainly, but ask him if he has had to play second fiddle to Warne because he doesn’t possess Warne’s variety, and MacGill can’t help a hint of sarcasm about his rival’s supposed repertoire. “As much as spin bowlers like to talk about mystery balls and things, the fact is that there are only a certain amount of deliveries that you can produce. Your wrist has probably 270 degrees of angle that you can maneovre and that is the variety. I think I have a reasonable command over the angles of the wrist. If I choose not to bowl certain deliveries, it is because I don’t believe that they will contribute to my cause. For instance, people asked me why I didn’t bowl more googlies in the last Test. It is because I did not think it was a good idea at the time.”I am happy with the way I am bowling and I am struggling to find any other area I can improve on. I don’t really know what else I can do to improve my position. If Shane comes back and plays instead of me, that will be a real shame. But that is just the way it goes.”It is a matter of record that in the matches that they have bowled together MacGill has outshone Warne. But he wouldn’t read too much into it. “To be honest, whenever we have bowled together, Shane has either been coming back from an injury, or going out with one,” he says. But he believes that the idea of two spinners bowling together is not an outrageous one. “We have showed on a few occasions that it can work.”Honesty doesn’t desert him when you ask him to rate his chances against the touring Indians. “The only thing that might work in my favour is that the Indian batsmen like to dominate spin bowlers. If they feel the need to get on top of of me, I might have a bit of a sniff. Otherwise I will have to look for some wickets from the tailenders. As long as I raise an eyebrow amongst their batsmen from time to time, it will be great for me. That is all I am trying to do.”Great players of spin bowling are not deceived off the wicket. People talk about how much I turn the ball. But in this particular series, I believe that will be inconsequential. Maybe, only the tail will be deceived off the pitch. A great player of spin bowling will only be deceived if there is subtle variation. It will really test me out because generally speaking I am not all that subtle.” Sambit Bal, the editor of Wisden Asia Cricket magazine and Wisden Cricinfo in India, will be following the Indian team throughout this Test series.

Less than five months after the International Cricket Council said that there were no plans to introduce international Twenty20-style cricket, the England & Wales Cricket Board have said that is just what it is planning to do.The ECB has announced that there will be an experimental match between the England and New Zealand women’s sides at Hove on August 5, 2004, and if all goes well then the men could be playing as soon as 2005. It is not the first time women have been quicker to seize on initiatives than their male counterparts. In 1973 they hosted a World Cup, two years before the inaugural men’s competition.”It’s certainly possible that we will see the men playing 20-overs-a-side internationals,” said the ECB’s John Read. “The introduction of the Twenty20 competition last summer was a pretty phenomenal success … now we want to build on that success. Obviously the men playing this short form of the game internationally depends on the ICC, but at the ECB we would like to see it take root.”The ICC could be the stumbling block. In July it said that there was “no suggestion that there will be an international version of Twenty20 … as far as the game’s governing body is concerned, Twenty20 is the latest ‘third-generation’ game to be introduced to domestic cricket worldwide.”The International Women’s Cricket Council, on the other hand, has welcomed the plans with open arms. The ICC itself is far more hamstrung by the need to consult and get agreement from its wide membership base.Wisden Comment by Martin Williamson
To the surprise of many, the Twenty20 Cup was a massive success in its first season – more than a quarter of a million spectators watched the matches – but it won’t be until next year’s second season that we will discover if the interest was down to novelty value and good marketing, and the good weather that the inaugural competition enjoyed, or whether the 20-overs game really is a long-term answer to dwindling domestic crowds.

Tasmania 215 for 8 (Dighton 48) v Western Australia 6 for 0 – no result
ScorecardTasmania’s ING Cup meeting with Western Australia was washed out in second over of WA’s run-chase, as thunder and lightning brought the match to an abrupt end. It was just as well for Tasmania, who had been made to struggle after winning the toss and batting first, although their effort was interrupted in mid-innings by the first bout of bad weather.All of Tasmania’s top seven reached double figures, but none were able to dig in for the big score – the best effort of the innings was Michael Dighton’s 48. They were kept in check by some persevering bowling efforts , in particular Paul Wilson, whose eight overs failed to take a wicket but went for just 20 runs.After the match had been reduced to 48 overs a side, WA were set 216 for victory. But there were already menacing banks of clouds looming as the innings got underway, and the heavens opened after 12 deliveries had been bowled.

Once again India fell at the final hurdle, losing both VB Series finals to Australia by wide margins, and once again questions have been asked about their failure to win tournaments after playing well on the way to the final.There was no shame in being beaten by Australia – they are the world champions, after all – away from home. What stuck in the throat was the manner and size of the defeats. And Sunil Gavaskar, writing in his syndicated weekly column, spoke for many when he said that “the way the Indian team just capitulated is what is so depressing.”It was an impossible task alright, but so ordinary and unedifying was the sight of the batsmen getting dismissed regularly that the tag of ‘chokers in the crunch matches’ now probably belongs to them and not the South Africans, who had monopolised it for a long time now. More than the defeat, it was India’s meek surrender that would have disappointed their supporters and followers.”The batsmen gave the impression that since the target was so big they would just throw their bats at everything and see if it worked,” Gavaskar continued. “What it conveyed was a “couldn’t care a damn” feeling than an honest effort.”Nobody likes to criticise for the heck of it and there’s genuine joy when they do well so if there’s sadness and no little anger at the manner of the loss, then that should also be understood.”And former Australian captain Ian Chappell said that Australia’s “mental toughness” was the key to their success. “In the end it was the Australians who remained mentally strong through the summer and the Indians wilted. The Aussies will be hoping this final hammering has a lasting affect on India considering the next contest is on their turf.”

ScorecardThe second day of the second Test at Bulawayo went the same way as the first – a complete washout.Despite the best efforts of the Queens Sports Club groundstaff, Wednesday night’s downpour was still not cleared by the close yesterday. And more heavy rain overnight just compounded the problem – to the naked eye the outfield looked worse that it did 12 hours earlier – and made the chances of any play today almost nil from the off. The Bangladesh squad didn’t even travel to the ground until well into the afternoon, opting to remain at their hotel. When the did arrive they had barely begun to tiptoe across the sodden outfield when the heavens opened again.Whatever it has done to this match, the rain has come as a blessing to much of Zimbabwe after months of drought. There have been grumblings that the scheduling of this match in what is usually a rainy period is to blame. That has some validity, although the precipitation in the last few days has been uncharacteristically heavy.The forecast for the next few days is much of the same, and the ground is already so wet that tomorrow’s play is in doubt whatever happens overnight. There is the distinct possibility that this match might become the eighth in Test history to be abandoned without a ball being bowled because of the weather.Click here for the weather forecast for BulawayoZimbabwe (probable) 1 Dion Ebrahim, 2 Trevor Gripper, 3 Grant Flower, 4 Stuart Matsikenyeri, 5 Tatenda Taibu (wk), 6 Sean Ervine, 7 Gavin Ewing, 8 Heath Streak (capt), 9 Raymond Price, 10 Douglas Hondo, 11 Blessing Mahwire.Bangladesh 1 Hannan Sarker, 2 Shahriar Hossain, 3 Habibul Bashar (capt), 4 Rajin Saleh, 5 Mohammad Ashraful, 6 Mushfiqur Rahman, 7 Manjarul Islam Rana, 8 Khaled Mashud (wk), 9 Mohammad Rafique, 10 Tapash Baisya, 11 Alamgir Kabir.

Carib Beer XI 129 and 51 for 1 (Ganga 17*, Joseph 25*) trail England 347 (Thorpe 88, Jones 66) by 167 runs
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Graham Thorpe picked up where he left off in the Trinidad Test and Geraint Jones recorded his maiden representative half-century, as England took control on the second day of their tour match against a Carib Beer XI at the 3Ws Oval in Barbados.Thorpe, whose first-innings 90 put England on course for victory in the second Test, once again missed out on a century as he was dismissed for 88 shortly before tea. But it was nonetheless a satisfactory warm-up for this week’s third Test, as England secured a first-innings lead of 218, after being bowled out for 347. Thorpe added 117 for the fifth wicket with Jones, England’s reserve wicketkeeper, who made the most of a rare outing with a finely crafted 66.Jones’s success with the bat was in stark contrast to his rival for the wicketkeeper’s role, Chris Read, who was playing as a specialist batsman after a run of low scores. His was the only wicket to fall in a sleepy morning session in which England added 85 runs to their overnight 121 for 3. After one emphatic pull for four, he snicked a thin edge to the keeper off Dave Mohammad for 9 (144 for 4).Five overs later, Thorpe should have been sent on his way as well when he was bowled by Ravi Rampaul, but it was a no-ball. Instead he knuckled down and ground his way towards a big score, tight as ever in defence but quick to latch onto anything loose.England’s progress was held up after lunch, as a heavy downpour swept across the ground. But when play finally resumed after an hour’s delay, Thorpe and Jones cracked 53 runs in just 11 overs to pile the pressure on the Carib Beer XI.

But with a hundred in his sights, Thorpe mis-timed a lofted drive off Tonito Willett, and was caught brilliantly in the deep by the substitute fielder. Jones then slapped Jermaine Lawson to cover to end a fine innings that had included five fours and three sixes, and had doubtless given the England selectors a timely nudge.Rikki Clarke enjoyed himself for a time, as he and Ashley Giles added 40 useful runs for the seventh wicket. But Lawson put the new ball to good use, removing Clarke for 35, courtesy of Sylvester Joseph’s catch, and Gareth Batty, trapped lbw for a duck (325 for 8). Giles himself then fell for 22, before Dave Mohammad wrapped things up with his third wicket of the innings.James Anderson made an early breakthrough in the Carib Beer XI’s second innings when Xavier Marshall was caught behind for 4, but Daren Ganga and Marshall reached the close on 51 for 1, a deficit of 167.

Hampshire had Will Kendall and Dimitri Mascarenhas to thank for the recovery that led them to a three wicket victory over Durham, in the opening Frizzell County Championship match of the season.Hampshire resumed on their 13 for 2 after losing all of the third day to heavy rain, and play did not start on the fourth till 12pm. It was tough going throughout the 55 minutes before lunch at which time Hampshire had receded to 25 for 5. Chris Tremlett the 2nd nightwatchman struck two boundaries before departing to the persevering Davies.With the other night-watchman Billy Taylor holding up one end, John Crawley batting with a runner and Michael Clark were both dismissed without scoring. Crawley was lbw and Clarke received a shooter to be bowled. The morning session with dark thundery showers looming over the Rose Bowl had given the visitors a chance.Taylor departed shortly after the lunch break, he had batted doggedly for 76 minutes (58 balls). Nic Pothas bullied two fours as he too was trapped in front by Davies, and at 52 for 7, Hampshire were in real danger of losing a match they had dominated from day one., or should I say cometh the men. With the innings in tatters, Will Kendall was joined by Dimitri Mascarenhas, a steady start to the partnership brought them to 66 for 7, then it was as if skipper Warne had pressed a button in the dressing room, as first Mascarenhas struck 4 fours in just 5 balls, then Will Kendall joined in, and before you knew it the 50 partnership was up, then with a swing Dimmy struck Reon King for his 5th boundary, and to the relief of the patient crowd, Hampshire had recorded their first opening match victory for 11 years.

ScorecardIf at any time Rob Key felt drained or simply fed up of carting Northamptonshire’s attack all over Wantage Road, the motivation to carry on was provided by the tannoy announcer.Her helpful updates of the score from the Test match, and in particular Andrew Strauss’s progress, were appreciated by a sparse crowd watching Key compile a championship best of 173. Whether they were appreciated by the Northants side is another matter as Key’s treatment of their bowling became increasingly brutal as news of Strauss’s triumphant debut was relayed to all and sundry.By the time Key was out, after more than six hours at the crease, Kent were able to declare 409 ahead. With Northants 39 for 2 at the close they will be hoping Saturday’s news from Lord’s is not similarly destructive.After softening up the New Zealand attack last week with two centuries, Key has re-emerged as a genuine England prospect. Since he played the last of his eight Test matches, at Sydney last year, he has seen the likes of Ed Smith and Paul Collingwood selected ahead of him. Now Strauss is the latest to break into England’s top order, and it would be easy for Key to quietly slide away.But Steve Waugh has been his mentor and having played in that Test at Sydney, Key will have learned a thing or two about making statements. Watching in the crowd, actually they almost were the crowd at times, were England selector Geoff Miller and Tim Boon, one of Duncan Fletcher’s talent spotters.They will have noted the way he dominated the crease, drove straight as a crack shot and timed the ball – apart from the odd wobble against the spinners – with ease. Along with captain David Fulton, the maker of 109, he added 222 for the first wicket and the shoulders of the Northants fielders sagged as the weight of runs grew.Kent, and Key in particular, were not going to repeat their mistake in the first innings of throwing away the chance to build a winning score. Unlike Kent, Northants cannot call on a bowler with the explosive pace akin to Mohammad Sami. While Johann Louw plugged away manfully the biggest danger to Key’s existence was a breakdown in communication from Lord’s.Jason Brown was picked off by Key and Carl Greenidge shipped runs alarmingly. Key offered only one chance when he skied to deep midwicket, but Ben Phillips mistimed his run.Andrew Symonds is set to join Australia’s one-day squad tour to Zimbabwe after this match and he was clearly a man in a hurry as he and Key accelerated the scoring after tea. Key was eventually dismissed when he hit Greenidge to longoff, falling one short of his career best. That 174 was made in Hobart and Key was playing for England against Australia A. If Miller and Boon were suitably impressed here, Key may be an England team-mate rather than rival to Strauss. Nick Hoult is assistant editor of The Wisden Cricketer