Standard Bank Triangular series in South Africa

Upbeat after thumping wins in the last two matches India are likely to give outings to their reserves when they meet Kenya for the second time at Port Elizabeth tomorrow.
Skipper Sourav Ganguly said that he would like the youngsters in the team, all rounder Reetinder Sodhi and medium pace bowler Harvinder Singh, to have a game. While stressing that he and Tendulkar would definitely play he said he wanted all the members of his team to have match practice and be psychologically prepared if and when they got a chance.

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Yuvraj Singh is reportedly not feeling up to the mark since he played in Bloemfontein. A suspected chest infection was ruled out after a series of tests were done on the Punjab youngster.
Specialists who examined him in Bloemfontein have said it could be a virus or bacterial attack. Yuvraj had a short training session with the Indians who arrived at Port Elizabeth today and seemed okay after it.

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Kenyan captain Maurice Odumbe has pointed his fingers at South Africa's senior most umpire Dave Orchard for comments that the Kenyan skipper felt smacked of racism.
Odumbe accused the umpire of being rude to his team's bowlers when they asked him to re-position himself when the bowler wanted to change his line and also refused to help point out where the bowlers had over stepped.

Miscellaneous

Left arm fast bowler Zaheer Khan has informed the BCCI that he is fit and has recovered from his injuries. The BCCI said that it would now set a date to assess the fast bowler's fitness by the BCCI appointed doctor Mumbai based Anant Joshi.
If certified fit Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra will be included in the team that will be selected to play the Test matches in South Africa.

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The England and Wales Cricket Board are still undecided on whether to make the tour of India beginning November next month. The ECB chief Lord MacLaurin said the situation was being monitored on a day to day basis.
The ECB is particularly not happy about the venues of the first two Tests of the tour (Mohali & Ahmedabad) that are scheduled to take place close to Pakistan's border with India.

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The Indian chief Jagmohan Dalmiya in the meanwhile swapped the dates of the first two one day international matches against England.
The first ODI on 22 January was to be held in Chennai and the second on 25 January in Kolkata. Dalmiya said it would not be possible to Kolkata to host the second ODI on 25 for security reasons prior to the Republic day celebrations.
The tour has been divided into two parts to enable the Englishmen to be home for a fortnight during the Christmas. The new revised itinerary as issued by the BCCI is as follows:
Nov 14 Arrival in Mumbai
Nov 18-19 v Mumbai President's XI, Mumbai
Nov 22-24 v Board President's XI, Hyderabad
Nov 27-29 v India A, Jaipur
Dec 3-7 First Test, Mohali
Dec 11-15 Second Test, Ahmedabad
Dec 19-23 Third Test, Bangalore
Dec 24 Depart to U K
Jan 12 Arrival in Mumbai
Jan 17 First practice one-day match, Mumbai
Jan 19 Second practice day/night match, Mumbai
Jan 22 First One-day International, Kolkata
Jan 25 Second One-day International, Chennai
Jan 28 Third One-day International, Kanpur
Jan 31 Fourth One-day International, Delhi
Feb 3 Fifth One-day International, Mumbai
Feb 4 Depart to New Zealand

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The CBFS have appointed Sunil Gavaskar and Ian Botham to oversee all international matches that will be played in Sharjah. Their duties will include providing advise on preparing wickets, and co-ordinate with players and umpires.
The appointments of Gavaskar and Botham are part of the CBFS efforts to ensure no wrong-doing occurs at the desert venue that boasts of holding the most number of one day internationals.

Irani Trophy

The Irani Trophy is all set for and exciting finish at the end of the third day. Resuming at the overnight score of 179-4 Rest Of India were bowled out for 331 giving them a slender lead of 13 runs.
Punjab batsman Dinesh Mongia (125) top scored with plucky Haryana wicket keeper Ajay Ratra contributing a useful 61. The two put on 172 for the fifth wicket that was instrumental in ROI grabbing the slender lead.
Baroda in reply were 124-2 at close of play on the third day 111 runs ahead. A result seems very much on the cards and will depend on the target the Baroda batsmen set the Rest.

SCORES AT A GLANCE

Irani Trophy (3rd day)
Baroda vs Rest Of India at Nagpur
Toss: Rest Of India
Baroda:
318 (CC Williams 133, N Mongia 31, Himanshu Jadhav 43, Rakesh Patel 44; Sarandeep Singh 5-78).
156-2 (C Williams 83, N Mongia 52 not out)
Rest of India: 331 (V Mane 48, Dinesh Mongia 125, Ajay Ratra 61; V Buch 5-94, IK Pathan 3-95)

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