• It was 1558th Test in cricket history.
• It was India’s 343rd and Sri Lanka’s 113th Test match.
• It was the 22nd Test between these two sides. The record now reads :India 8, Sri Lanka 2 ,drawn 12.
• It was the 11th Test between these two sides. The record now reads :India 2, Sri Lanka 2,drawn 7.
• Tyronne Wijewardene was making his debut as a Test umpire. He became16th Sri Lankan to officiate in a Test match. The other umpire SteveBucknor was officiating in his 60th match.
• Chaminda Vaas was playing in his 50th Test. He became the seventh SriLankan and the 172nd player in all to do so. England’s Andrew Caddickbecame 173rd player to appear in 50 or more matches a day after Vaasdoing so.
• Hashan Tillakaratne became fourth Sri Lankan to complete 3000 runs ina Test career when he scored his 7th run in second innings. He wasplaying his 58th match and 94th innings. Others with 3000 plus runsfor Sri Lanka are Aravinda de Silva (5952 runs in 89 matches), ArjunaRanatunga (5105 in 93) and Sanath Jayasuriya (3730 in 61).
• Muralitharan (67) made his maiden fifty in his 67th Test. His inningswas the second highest by a number nine batsman for Sri Lanka afterGraeme Labrooy’s 70* against New Zealand at Auckland in 1990-91.Muralitharan’s previous highest was 39 against India at Colombo SSC in1997-98 which was also the previous highest score for Sri Lankaagainst India at number nine.
• The 64-run partnership between Muralitharan and Ruchira Perera insecond innings was Sri Lanka’s best for tenth wicket against India.The previous best was 44 between Asoka de Silva and Rumesh Ratnayakeat Nagpur in 1986-87. The pair however just failed to better SriLanka’s best tenth wicket partnership in all Tests which still remainsas 73 between Hashan Tillakaratne and Sajeewa de Silva againstPakistan at Dhaka in 1998-99.
• Venkatesh Prasad’s second innings figures of 5 for 72 are the bestbowling figures by an Indian in Sri Lanka bettering Anil Kumble’s 5for 87 in first innings of Colombo (SSC) Test in 1993-94.
• Saurav Ganguly’s 98* was his first fifty in 14 innings. After hisunbeaten 65 against Zimbabwe at Delhi in 2000-01 he scored30,8,1,23,48,22,4,5,9,0,15,4 and 18.
• Ganguly’s innings equalled the highest unbeaten score in the nineties by anIndian batsman. Dilip Vengsarkar had scored an unbeaten 98 also againstSri Lanka at Colombo SSC in 1985-86. Other Indian batsmen who remainedunbeaten in the nineties are Gundappa Viswanath (97* v West Indies atMadras in 1974-75) and Ajit Wadekar (91* v Australia at Delhi in1969-70).
• Ganguly also became the seventh Indian captain on the eighth occasionto record a score in the nineties. Sachin Tendulkar has suffered thisfate on two occasions. Interestingly Ganguly is the only among the sevento end on the winning side.
• India’s total of 264 for three was its second highest in the fourthinnings to win a Test . It was also only the third time Indiasuccessfully chased a target of 250 plus in the fourth innings of aTest. The first instance came on October 15,1964 against Australia atBrabourne Stadium in Bombay when India made 256-8 chasing a target of254. The second instance was against West Indies on April 12,1976 whenIndia made history by making 406-4 after being set a target of403. India’s total in that Test remains the highest ever winning totalachieved by any side in the fourth innings of a Test.
• The 264-run target set by Sri Lanka provided the 67th instance whenIndia was asked to score over 250 in the fourth innings to win a Testmatch. India has won only three, tied one (v Australia at Madras in1986-87), drawn 28 and lost 35. The accompanying table lists India’swins after being set a victory target of 125 or more by opponents inthe fourth innings :

• With the win over Sri Lanka in Kandy Test, Saurav Ganguly equalled therecord of winning most Tests on foreign soil as Indian captain. This was Ganguly’s third Test win away from home. The other being v Bangladesh at Dhaka in November 2000 and v Zimbabwe at Bulawayo in June this year. He thusequalled the tally of Bishan Singh Bedi and Nawab of Pataudi juniorfor India who have also won three Tests apiece. India has won only 16Tests on foreign soil out of a total of 161 . Following are the luckycaptains:

• Kandy once again proved to be a jinxed venue for Sri Lanka who lost their third successive Test here after taking a 1-0 lead in the series. Englandand South Africa, the previous two countries to tour Sri Lankaearlier, had both conceded a 0-1 lead to the hosts at Galle in theirthree-Test series but equalised at Kandy. Out of a total of 12 Testsplayed at Kandy, Sri Lanka has lost seven, drawn three and won onlytwo.
• Saurav Ganguly was winning his third Man-of-the-Match award in Tests. His other awards were against England at Nottingham in 1996 and against SriLanka at Mumbai in 1997-98.

Gloucestershire wicket-keeper Stephen Pope has been selected to representthe England Under 19 side in the 2002 ICC World Cup in New Zealand. Thesquad will depart for acclimatisation in Australia on December 27 beforetravelling to New Zealand in the New Year. The competition begins onSaturday 19 January with the final played on Saturday 9 February.

It was a vintage performance from Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Gangulythat guided India to an easy win over Kenya in the land of vineyards,Paarl, on Wednesday. The match was so one-sided that I could not helpbut wonder how we had lost to the same Kenyans in Port Elizabethexactly a week before.The fate of the match was sealed the moment Sourav won the toss. Asall of you would no doubt have observed, India seem to do rather wellwhen they bat first. It is only while chasing a decent total that weturn into nervous wrecks. Our middle-order being inexperienced andbrittle doesn’t help matters; they seem to run out of ideas the momentSachin and Sourav fail.

On Wednesday though the twomaster batsmen were determined to put the Kenyan bowling to the sword.By the time Sourav was out after a worldrecord partnership for thefirst wicket, the match was over as a contest. The two men had earliergone past the Gordon Greenidge-Desmond Haynes century partnershiprecord.I feel the two great Bajans would be happy to know that their recordhas passed on to two batsmen as illustrious as Sourav and Sachin. TheIndian duo compare more than favourably with their West Indiancounterparts who dominated the one-day game in the eighties.What I particularly like about Sachin and Sourav is the fact that bothare attacking batsmen of the highest order. This means the bowlers getno respite. The men who bowled to Greenidge-Haynes were luckierbecause they could at least trust Haynes to keep to the straight andthe narrow. The latter was content to push for the singles and twoswhile Greenidge enjoyed himself. It is nowhere as predictable withSachin and Sourav at the crease – when one partner turns conservativethe other takes off while on other occasions both make merry. The factthat they are a leftright combination only adds to the misery of thehapless bowlers.In the match at Paarl, it was Sachin who was the slightly moredominant partner. He was looking good for many more when he hit a lowfull toss from Thomas Ododyo straight into the waiting hands of midoff. No wonder he was furious.Whenever I see the little champion I can’t help but be reminded of the16-year-old boy I met during India’s 1989 tour of Pakistan. Whatimpressed me most then was his enormous self-belief. I was his captainand remember jokingly remarking to him, “One day you will becomegreat. Don’t forget your captain then.” The little man has fulfilledall my expectations and is now one of the all-time greats of the game.Sourav too played a fine innings and went past a few landmarks on hisway to a hundred. The Indian skipper has adapted well to the task ofopening the innings and is now one of the finest one-day batsmen ever.It was also good to see Virender Sehwag lay into the bowling in theend. The Delhi lad has a great sense of timing. If he could play aswell against top teams like South Africa, India would be well-served.

I don’t want to set great store bythe performances of the bowlers against a very ordinary Kenyan battingside. All I hope is that they turn in their best performance againstthe South Africans in the final on Friday. Durban has the reputatioinof being one the fastest pitches in the world and I hope that ourquicks especially will do well on the day. I can’t, however, helpfeeling that it would be best if the turn of our bowlers arrives inthe latter half of the day. As I said earlier India are a much betterside when they bat first and so my ideal scenario would be for theIndians to win the toss and for Sachin and Sourav to hold centrestageyet again.It has been a a long and frustrating title-drought for us and we areup against a formidable South African side. My gut feeling though isthat Friday would be the day when India taste championship victory atlong last.

We have informally dubbed ourselves the Rain Kings so far on this tour of Australia.I have never been on a tour where I have experienced as much rain as we have, and that includes England in May!Normally this tour is played under great conditions but the rain has been both frustrating and a blessing for us.Frustrating because with rain it is always hard to get into the rythym of a match as interruptions causing you to be on and off the field, the ball getting wet and making it harder to bowl with and then with batting rain can freshen the wicket up for the bowlers.The blessing comes in the form of allowing us to escape from Hobart with a draw and still be in contention to win the series with the Test match in Perth left to go.Now I don’t think I would be fooling anybody if I said that in the last Test Australia outplayed us especially in their first innings at bat.In the last two Tests it has been brought home to us how attacking this Aussie outfit is.While this approach is hard to contain at times, there will be situations where it will also cause their demise.They just figure it won’t be that often if they play positive attacking cricket all the time.Our statistics reveal that both teams’ bowling lines and lengths have been similar, but there are some distinct differences which account for the rate of run scoring for both teams.Firstly, the average pace that the Aussies bowl at is higher so our batsmen have to be very exact in their decision-making as being caught in two minds at this pace will bring about your demise.Secondly, when we bowl the Aussie batters are very adept at square-of-the-wicket shots which gives you a very small margin of error because over-pitching full, then adjusting slightly shorter, gives them the opportunity to pull the ball also.As a series evolves opposition players become more familiar and you get used to what style people are playing.We will have to be very exact in our method, tenacious in our performance at the crease, and field like how we know we can in this next Test.While this is a very good cricket side we are up against, this has now come down to a one-off Test and an opportunity for some CLEAR Black Caps to raise their hands and perform on a stage that if they are successful will be one that they will carry with them forever.The rain delays in Hobart gave us plenty of time to discuss the goings on in the aftermath of the Mike Denness debacle.It was sad to see political ramifications being touted against another country’s trading partner because of over-appealing by a little known Indian cricketer.The phrase “it’s only a game” has now truly been scrapped because of the determination of a few to rise higher than the game and go against the governing body.If there was justification for these people to hang on to their beliefs that they were hard done by I would be the first to support them.But there is not.They should, in this scenario, back down for everyone’s sake so that common sense can prevail and cricket after a tumultuous two years can keep on the journey to get its credibility back.

The Indian under-19 team lost two practice games against youth teams fielded by New South Wales in Sydney and are to play one more practice match against the Bradman Museum XI on Friday before leaving for Auckland to participate in the under-19 World Cup.The first match saw the Indians take on the New South Wales under-19 side in a match that the visitors lost by seven wickets. Chandan Madan, Stuart Binny, Deepak Chougule and Paul Valthaty were dismissed for cameo knocks in the twenties and thirties.The Indian batting failures saw New South Wales chase a moderate target of 194 in under 45 overs, losing just three wickets in the process.In the second game, the Indians bowled first and restricted the New South Wales Colts to 233/7 in their 50 overs. Siddharth Trivedi took three wickets, while Irfan Pathan took two.In the chase, the Indians faltered, with only skipper Parthiv Patel’s 42 and vice-captain Y Gnaneswara Rao’s 62 lending substance to the total. The pair put on 78 runs for the third wicket. The Indians were bowled out for 167 after being 150/5 in the 32nd over, losing the match by 66 runs.

There could not have been a greater contrast between the two Shell Shield games played at Pukekura Park, New Plymouth over the last three days.On Wednesday, Auckland won a game in which 520 runs were scored. Today – on the same pitch – Northern Districts not only successfully defended a total of 134, but won a bonus point by bowling out Central Districts for only 105.What had changed? ND coach Bruce Blair provided a partial explanation when he spoke to CricInfo at the end of the game. “The pitch dried out and lost a lot of its pace. If bowlers bowled straight, with subtle changes of pace, it was going to be difficult to score.”There was also turn, with spinners claiming eight of the wickets, but the state of the pitch was by no means completely to blame. The bowlers of both teams have out-performed the batsmen in one-day cricket this season and continued to do so today.ND won the toss and chose to bat after an 80-minute delay caused by yet more rain in this sodden New Zealand summer.At first, things progressed normally, with Simon Doull setting about the opening attack with gusto, achieving an improvement in a strike rate that was already the best in the competition. He hit 35 from 20 deliveries, including four fours and two sixes, cover driven and pulled onto Pukekura Park’s temple-like terraces.As Doull was not one of the six bowlers later called upon by ND, his transformation from opening bowler to opening batsman appears complete, in the one-day game, at least.At 64/2 after 18 overs things were progressing as expected, if a little slowly. James Marshall’s innings of 15 from 62 balls gave the first indication that scoring would be tricky. So it proved. Doull apart, only four boundaries were hit in the ND innings.The last seven wickets fell for only 33 runs, an unspectacular but defiant 42 from Matthew Hart the only thing that held ND together. Apart from Lance Hamilton, who copped it from Doull early on, all the CD bowlers performed at their best, with Michael Mason (7.3-3-21-3) and Campbell Furlong (10-2-23-3) having the most impressive figures. Bevan Griggs took five catches behind the stumps.Between innings CD could have been forgiven if their thoughts were of a bonus point to propel them off the bottom of the table. But ND, and in particular Blair, had not given up hope.”I gave us a fighting chance if we could pressure on with good bowling and if we had some luck.” Such a view appeared fanciful at the start of the innings, but became realistic within the first few overs of the CD innings.Things got off to the worst possible start for CD in general and Jamie How in particular. Responding to David Kelly’s call, How was beaten by a direct hit from Marshall at cover from the first ball, out without facing. It was a risk that need not have been taken chasing such a small total.The two key batsmen, Mathew Sinclair and Ben Smith were dismissed with the score barely in double figures and that, effectively, was that. Kelly, Griggs and Richard King all resisted to some extent and Schwass swatted optimistically, hitting Grant Bradburn onto the third terrace, but lack of confidence and suspicion of the pitch spread through the CD batting fatally.In any conversation with a coach these days the word ‘pressure’ will be used soon and often. The ND attack gave a textbook demonstration of it. The pace triumvirate of Daryl Tuffey, Joseph Yovich and Graeme Aldridge all maintained a disciplined line and length, offering few easy runs.Bradburn offered his usual control, disproving those who say that he is a spinner who does not turn the ball. But the star of the ND attack was slow left-armer Hart, who finished with domestic career-best one-day figures of 7-2-7-4.Hart’s career appeared to be drifting away a year or so ago, but now he is back as a key performer with bat and ball. Blair paid tribute.”Matthew is a terrific cricketer. He bats in the top three or four and is capable of bowling 10 tight overs. In recent years his bowling has not been used as often as it might have been, but we always saw a role for him as a bowler this season.”The five points gathered here consolidates ND’s second place in the State Shield table. Can they challenge Wellington for the right to stage the final? Blair thinks so.”We have to keep playing positive cricket and to deliver our batting game plans, which we didn’t do today.”The defeat effectively ends CD’s hopes of defending their one-day title. They host Wellington at Waikanae on Sunday, while ND are at home to Otago in Hamilton.

Saeed bin Nasir and Hasan Raza stole the limelight as Karachi Whites batsmen put Sargodha bowlers to the sword on the second day of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy Grade-I clash at KCCA Stadium here Tuesday.Saeed, one of the brightest kids on the block, churned out a brilliant century, his third of the season, while Hasan Raza fell 10 short of his 15th career hundred during the third-wicket partnership of 180 in 166 minutes that helped their side reach 363 for six in reply to Sargodha’s 169.Saeed and Hasan came together after stand-in skipper Ghulam Ali fell to a fine rebound catch by Misbah-ul-Haq at slip at his overnight score of 20 off the final ball of the day’s first over.Saeed, who resumed at 35 in Whites’ 69 for one, completed his fourth century in a first-class career that began in 1997-98 shortly after lunch in 204 minutes off 158 deliveries with eight fours. On the way he reached 1,000 runs for the season with his 65th run. However, he was beaten to the magical figure by Hasan, who needed only 20 at the start of his innings. Of the two, Hasan, who became the youngest Test player on his debut at 14 years and 27 days four seasons ago, was the more aggressive.After striking four fours and a brace of sixes in his 138-ball knock, Hasan was bowled through the gate by a ball that kept low.Saeed was finally out for a career-best 133 when he flicked lazily medium-pacer Umair Hussain down square-leg’s throat. The 22-year-old slim right-hander in faced 213 balls while staying at the crease for four hours and 27 minutes.Faisal Iqbal, the Test right-hander, was understandably circumspect in his first game at this level for a while. He made a watchful 33 in exactly two hours before falling to a catch in the covers.

Vijaya Malalasekera, Chairman of the Interim Committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka, explains why the BCCSL changed international broadcasters, answering questions that have been asked recently by the media.Question: Who first moved to terminate the contract for international television rights between the BCCSL and WSG Nimbus?Answer: The then Executive Committee of the BCCSL, which was running affairs before the Minister of Sports dissolved it. That Committee went before the Commercial High Court of the Western Province in January of 2001 and said that the contract had ceased to exist due to WSG Nimbus failing to give required bank guarantees.Q: Who signed the contract with WSG Nimbus in the first place?A: It was that same Executive Committee of the BCCSL, on 3rd December 2000. They went to court within two months of signing the contract with WSG Nimbus.Q: What happened to that court action?A: WSG Nimbus agreed to a payment schedule and the case was settled. It was agreed that if a single payment was delayed, the contract would cease to exist.Q: What happened after the present Interim Committee was appointed?A: The Interim Committee tried its best to make the relationship work. But WSG Nimbus continued to delay payments. For six and a half months, we negotiated with them to no avail. We wrote more than 60 letters to them, requesting them to pay on time. Payments are scheduled to be made for each tour played in Sri Lanka. They delayed in making payments for tours by New Zealand, India and the West Indies, one after another.Q: Did the Interim Committee consult anyone else in this regard?A: We repeatedly briefed and consulted the Minister of Sports and subsequently the Attorney General. Attorney General S. Kamalasabayson gave a written opinion that due to the delay in payments, the contract with WSG Nimbus had ceased to exist, as per the court settlement between the previous Executive Committee and WSG Nimbus. Even prior to that, Sports Minister Lakshman Kiriella had urged us to end the contract due to the delay in payments. At the Minister’s request, we had discussions with Taj Television and TWI (Trans World International).Q: Was the delay in payments such a serious issue?A: Definitely. The BCCSL is completely dependent on television revenue in developing cricket in Sri Lanka. Delays in payments directly affect the BCCSL’s ability to fund everything related to cricket in this country, including coaching programmes, developing clubs and schools, organizing tournaments, and constructing and improving grounds. The only revenue to the BCCSL was from WSG Nimbus. All our eggs were in one basket.Q: Did the Interim Committee find anything unusual about the WSG Nimbus contract?A: It’s interesting that the same English newspaper that is criticizing us for ending the WSG Nimbus contract, earlier ran a series of articles saying that the WSG Nimbus deal was corrupt and disadvantageous to the BCCSL. The Interim Committee was appointed to run the BCCSL and has a policy that we will not dig into the past. But we did find that no company by the name of WSG Nimbus applied at the time of pre-qualification of bidders when the previous Executive Committee called for bids. In fact, WSG Nimbus has a share capital of only two dollars. It is also not a subsidiary of the World Sports Group (WSG), as is popularly assumed. This was the case when we did a search in Singapore on 31st October 2001. Also, the original calling for bids was for four areas, namely TV rights, radio rights, title rights and 40 advertising boards. But the contract signed with WSG Nimbus was for unlimited commercial rights. There is also a lot of controversy over the fact that WSG Nimbus was chosen over TWI, which had made what appears to be a better offer, according to the minutes of meetings that we have discovered at the BCCSL as kept by the auditors SJ Associates.Q: What did you do next?A: We informed WSG Nimbus that the contract was no longer valid. On the recommendation of the Ministry of Sports, we then called for fresh bids for TV rights, from all companies from which the previous Executive Committee had received bids, except WSG Nimbus of course. There were nine companies plus Taj Television, which hadn’t been involved earlier. At the same time we got an injunction from the Commercial High Court of the Western Province, restraining WSG Nimbus from interfering with the new bids. Even the previous Executive Committee took WSG Nimbus to court and not to arbitration, as critics say we should have.Q: Has WSG Nimbus sued the BCCSL?A: Yes. They have filed action in the Singapore High Court as well as filed the arbitration before the Singapore Arbitration Centre.Q: What were the rights offered to WSG Nimbus?A: WSG Nimbus had been given all rights to title sponsorships of tournaments and series, international radio and TV broadcasting rights, and all commercial rights of the BCCSL. They will even receive the money from the sponsor of the Sri Lanka team, and all 70 advertising boards at grounds. The list of things they were given was endless. The BCCSL had virtually nothing left to market, except a few areas that were nowhere near as lucrative as what was given to WSG Nimbus. The BCCSL even had to pay WSG Nimbus 4,000 dollars a day to allow matches played in Sri Lanka to be televised to viewers in Sri Lanka. This is a staggering fee of approximately Rs. 40 million for the whole period. WSG Nimbus could also claim from the BCCSL all costs that they incurred in production of the TV and radio broadcasts, up to 10 million dollars. WSG Nimbus would also receive the sponsorship monies that would be paid to the BCCSL by the clothing sponsor, product sponsors, merchandizing rights, and promotional rights. The BCCSL even had to bear the cost of producing, transporting and repairing the advertising boards. In summary, what was put in the offer calling the tenders was not only what was given to WSG Nimbus, but in fact all commercial rights of the BCCSL were given in complete violation of all accepted tender procedures.What the Interim Committee offered the new bidders was only title sponsorships, international radio and TV broadcasting rights, and 40 of the 75 advertising boards which was what was put out on tender. Nothing else. We didn’t have to pay for local TV stations to broadcast matches, and we don’t have to pay any part of the production costs.Offers were called for by BCCSL which were to be forwarded to PriceWaterhouse Coopers. The offers were opened in the presence of representatives from the bidding companies, Ministry of Sports, PriceWaterhouse Coopers, and our legal advisors Julius & Creasy. Offers were evaluated by PriceWaterhouse Coopers, which is one of the world’s largest accounting and auditing firms. The offer from Taj Television was found to be the best.Q: Is it true that the BCCSL suffered a loss of 6.1 million dollars by scrapping the WSG Nimbus deal and signing up with Taj Television?A: Definitely not. The BCCSL will gain at least 1.9 million dollars from November 2001 to 2003 than we would have from WSG Nimbus. I have given a chart explaining how this is so.

Q: What assistance has Taj Television given to Sri Lanka’s domestic cricket?A: They have already committed 750,000 dollars over a 3-year period to the benefit of former Sri Lankan cricketers. They will also explore the possibility of arranging `A’ team one-day tournaments in Sharjah and Morocco, to which the Sri Lanka `A’ side will be invited. They also wish to jointly stage a triangular in Sri Lanka, which Taj Television and the Cricketers Benefit Fund Series will underwrite.Q: What was the BCCSL’s experience with WSG Nimbus?A: WSG Nimbus repeatedly delayed payments, and delayed in submitting bank guarantees. They were unable to find suitable sponsors in many areas such as team sponsorship, clothing sponsorship, and hospitality packages. They have consistently acted in bad faith. They also didn’t furnish to us the sub-licensing agreements that they had negotiated.Q: Couldn’t the BCCSL have claimed interest on the delayed payments from WSG Nimbus?A: There is no provision for this in the contract signed by the previous Executive Committee. Any delay in payments means the end of the contract! Besides, how could we expect to be paid interest when the guaranteed fee was not coming on time?Q: Has Taj Television made its payments on time?A: To date, payments have been on time. The contract with Taj Television has a very favourable schedule of payments, compared to the contract with WSG Nimbus.Payment Schedules

* All payments from the West Indian and Zimbabwean tours have been received.Q: Do you honestly believe that Taj Television is a better deal than WSG Nimbus?A: We firmly believe that the cessation of the agreement with WSG Nimbus and entering into an agreement with Taj Television, is commercially advantageous and favourable financially and administratively.Q: Are you ready to face any inquiry into the matter?A: The members of the Interim Committee are men of honour and integrity who are performing a duty without any payment whatsoever, simply for the love of the game and Sri Lanka cricket. We would never intentionally do anything to harm the sport, especially Sri Lanka cricket. We have been completely transparent at all times, and have sent out a number of media releases during the last few months on this matter. We even held a 2-hour press conference last month where there were nearly 50 journalists and we answered every question. At that press conference we said that any journalist could have access to any document regarding WSG Nimbus and Taj Television. Yes, we are definitely ready to explain anything and everything that we have done, because we did it in the best interest of cricket in Sri Lanka.

A battling, unbeaten innings of 85 from Craig White could not prevent England from being asked to follow on in the fourth Ashes Test at Melbourne. White’s innings salvaged a measure of pride for England after the tourists had been reduced to 118 for six in reply to Australia’s 551. England were eventually bowled out for 270, and an unbeaten 55 from Michael Vaughan took them to 111 for two in their second innings, still 170 behind.England, 97 for three overnight, were soon in dire straits. Nightwatchman Richard Dawson departed in the fourth over of the day, edging a turning delivery from Stuart MacGill to Martin Love at slip. Robert Key fell six balls later, lbw to an inswinging Brett Lee yorker.Nasser Hussain was MacGill’s second victim, brilliantly caught by a diving Matthew Hayden at short leg. The England captain got an inside edge on to his pad as he tried to sweep, and the ball ballooned up off his forearm.White then joined John Crawley to forge a 54-run partnership that initiated England’s fightback. It ended when Jason Gillespie was brought back, inducing a skyer from Crawley as he tried to pull. Justin Langer ran in from mid-on to take the catch.James Foster joined White, and another 55 runs were added in 23 overs before the next wicket fell. Steve Waugh eventually brought himself on, and ended Foster’s valiant effort by trapping the Essex wicket-keeper lbw for 19. Andrew Caddick and Steve Harmison were both dismissed by Gillespie with the new ball.Gillespie ended with four for 25, and White was left unbeaten after hitting MacGill for three sixes and scoring nine other boundaries in a stay of more than three hours.Sent in again by Waugh, Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick continued to attack before an umpiring howler by Russell Tiffin triggered Trescothick, adjudged lbw to a ball which hit him outside the line. Mark Butcher also fell before the close, playing firm-footed at Gillespie and edging to Love at slip.Vaughan and Hussain saw out the nine overs remaining, as Vaughan took his tally of Test runs scored this year to 1,397, overtaking Dennis Amiss’s England record.

Almost as big a prize as winning the last game of the National Bank Series with New Zealand in Hamilton tomorrow will be the two weeks break awaiting India when they return home.A win would mean India had brought the series up to a 4-3 loss, but with the last three wins in succession.Captain Sourav Ganguly said India needed to win the game because of the value to be had from going into the World Cup with three wins under the belt.But just as attractive was the thought of two weeks off after 15 months of action and the break would be welcomed by the side.Ganguly wouldn’t look at success as a moral victory because he said he had never believed in moral victories, winning was the thing.He did say the entire series had been closer than the actual results showed.There had been some lessons for the Indian side after the dramatic collapse which almost saw them lose the game in Auckland, before getting home by one wicket.Ganguly said he had avoided talking too much about what had happened because it was not something the side had struck in 16 months.”There was a bit of panic but I didn’t want to raise the issue. We just took it too easy,” he said.Ganguly said the series had been a hard, mentally more than physcially.Players hadn’t spent enough time in the middle to be physically spent. As far as his own form was concerned he said he was hitting the ball well during the best opening stand of the series in Auckland when he and Virender Sehwag added 70 for the first wicket.”I should have carried on because I had got in,” he said.However, he was confident it would not be too long before he would be back in form.