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ScorecardThis match continued to go India A’s way. After bundling out Kenya for 116, powerful batting performances got them to 429 for 4 at the end of the second day. The only success for Kenya was the dismissal of Sridharan Sriram, who scored a century before Peter Ongondo did him in. It was a day that showcased India A’s batting might. Venugopal Rao ran up an unbeaten 157 to pile on the runs further, and he was helped in this cause by Ambati Rayudu, who remained not out on 61.Sriram’s dismissal ended a 199-run partnership on a hot day where Kenya toiled for few gains. His 220-ball innings ended two overs before tea. Rayudu and Venugopal then put up 147 runs.Admittedly, India A were up against a weakened Kenyan side, but clearly, no favours were granted. They raced along at nearly three-and-a-half an over, and with the lead they’ve built, a result in the next two days looks quite possible.

Fidel Edwards, a 21-year-old fast bowler from Barbados, was a surprise inclusion in the 14-member West Indies squad named for the second Test against Sri Lanka at Kingston, Jamaica.Edwards has played just one first-class match and taken a solitary wicket,but he has the unflinching support of Brian Lara. “I think young Fidel of course is going to be a surprise for the people of the Caribbean, but I think our cricket aficionados would understand that he’s been around,” said Lara after the drawn Test in St Lucia.Edwards replaced the reserve wicketkeeper Carlton Baugh in the squad from the first Test. He is the fifth fast bowler in the squad, joining Merv Dillon, Corey Collymore, Vasbert Drakes and Jerome Taylor.”Right now, we are looking to find the right set of guys to take West Indies up in the future,” said Lara. “Fidel just falls into that fold. He’s someone who weare going to be looking at [not only] over the next Test match but also over the next few weeks.”Edwards found it hard to fight his way into a Barbados side packed with fast bowling riches during the 2003 Carib Beer Series. Pedro Collins – Edwards’shalf-brother – Tino Best, Drakes, Collymore and Ian Bradshaw all play for Barbados. Lara, however, was apparently impressed with Edwards when he bowled inthe nets before the third Test against Australia last month.Squad
Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Daren Ganga, Devon Smith, Brian Lara (capt),Ramnaresh Sarwan, Marlon Samuels, Ridley Jacobs (wk), Omari Banks,Corey Collymore, Merv Dillon, Vasbert Drakes, Fidel Edwards, Jerome Taylor.

South Africa swept to an overwhelming 208-run victory over Kenya at Newlands on Monday night, underlining the difference in quality between the two teams, but all is not lost for the Kenyans who meet India in what has effectively become the Standard Bank One-Day series semifinal in Paarl on Wednesday.On Monday, however, Kenya were comprehensively outplayed as South Africa thundered to 354 for three and then bowled the East Africans out for 146. Gary Kirsten (124) and Neil McKenzie (131 not out) helped themselves to sumptuous centuries and Mark Boucher hammered out 51 not out off just 20 deliveries as the Kenyan attack was ripped to pieces.It was one-way traffic throughout even though the South Africans rested four players to give everyone in their overstocked 15-man squad a game. The changes brought Kirsten back into the side after a thigh-muscle strain – although you would never have thought it from the way he scampered back and forth – and allowed McKenzie to come in at three.Kirsten was missed by Martin Suji on 12, a sharp return chance, but thereafter he and McKenzie took the Kenyan bowlers to the cleaners in a record, run-a-ball second-wicket stand which yielded 207. McKenzie, perhaps, played the more handsome strokes, but Kirsten could scarcely be matched for the way he found the gaps, barely wasting a loose ball and scoring a great many of his runs off the good ones.As with McKenzie, Boucher also took his chance to have a hit, hit being the operative word, as he thrashed his way through the closing overs to set Kenya a task that was, inevitably, going to be beyond them.The heroics of last Wednesday, when Kenya upset India, were quickly a thing of the past as Kenya struggled through their first 15 overs and, apart from Thomas Odoyo who made a brave 44, there was little real resistance. Charl Langeveldt finished the match with the figures of 9.3-0-21-4 and Boucher snapped up four victims behind the stumps.For the South Africans, though, there was immense encouragement in the shape of Nantie Hayward, playing in his first match of the tournament. Hayward, whose relationship with the one-day game has not always been entirely happy, bowled with genuine pace, working up to 145km/h in his first over and going through six overs in the first spell with far fewer loose balls than might have been expected.His form comes at a time when South Africa have a problem, if not quite a crisis, with their fast bowlers. Mfuneko Ngam and Allan Donald both went down with injuries at the weekend, but Hayward demonstrated that he could be the man to provide a cutting edge both in Friday’s one-day final in Durban and for the three-Test series against India next month.The Kenyans have had a tricky time of it in South Africa. Captain Maurice Odumbe was serving the second game of a two-match ban on Monday, although he will be available again on Wednesday; their manager was taken ill and underwent heart surgery last week; and Joseph Angara, who bowled so well against India, has had to return home because of a bereavement. Anagra’s unavailability opened up a space in the squad for Hitesh Modi who was already in South Africa on holiday.Still, they have beaten India once and they have everything to play for on Wednesday. You wouldn’t bet on India losing to the Kenyans for a second time in this tournament, but then again, you wouldn’t have bet on them losing to Kenya at all.

ScorecardChris Woakes continued his comeback after injury•Getty Images

Warwickshire enjoyed the best of the opening day in the Ageas Bowl sunshine asthey reduced to Hampshire to 255 for 8 at the close of play.Hampshire were indebted to their sixth-wicket pair of Adam Wheater (57) and JoeGatting (43), who added 92 after the innings had sagged at 102 for 5. GarethBerg added an unbeaten 42 during a spirited rally with tail-ender Mason Cranebefore stumps.Boyd Rankin, recalled to the Warwickshire bowling line-up, took 3 for45 on his return, while fellow England-capped paceman Chris Woakes continued hisrehabilitation after knee surgery with tidy figures of 2 for 19 from 13 overs.This is only his third LV= County Championship match of the summer.Hampshire’s top order has struggled for runs all season and Jimmy Adams, whohas not passed 30 in an innings since May, went for a duck – the first of twoearly victims for Woakes, who had James Vince caught at first slip in his nextover to leave the hosts 4 for 2.Michael Carberry and Will Smith eased Hampshire through to lunch withoutfurther mishap – only 61 runs came in an arduous morning session – but the pairwere soon parted after the interval.Carberry was caught behind for 36 by Tim Ambrose when attempting to flick aball off his legs, to give the recalled Rankin his first wicket.Nine runs later and with Hampshire generally struggling against a predominantlyseam attack, Warwickshire bagged a fourth victim, with Smith (43) superblycaught on the run at wide third man by Jeetan Patel as the former Durham batsmanattempted to upper-cut Rankin.It left Hampshire 85 for 4 – and a fifth wicket soon fell when Liam Dawsonwas trapped lbw by Rikki Clarke.Warwickshire’s progress was held up by Wheater and Gatting, who took Hampshireto 196 before the latter hit a soft catch to short extra cover off Patel.To Hampshire’s disappointment, Wheater, industrious at the crease and addingsome needed zip to the run rate, fell to a gully catch by Laurie Evans to giveRankin his third wicket off a ball that rose sharply.Australian Jackson Bird departed soon after Warwickshire took the new ball, butas Hampshire wobbled again at 214 for 8, so Berg and Crane rallied in thefinal hour.Berg was going well by stumps and had added a handy 41 with teenager Crane, on12 not out, for the ninth wicket.

Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine and Darren Sammy will be eligible for selection for upcoming tournaments, including the World Twenty20, despite not being given annual retainer contracts by the West Indies Cricket Board. The only condition the WICB has placed is that the players will need to meet criteria set in place by the selection panel, led by former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd. The six players are not part of the group of 15 who were given retainer contracts for the period between October 1, 2015, and September 30, 2016.According to Michael Muirhead, the WICB’s chief executive, the selectors had shortlisted 15 players for the contracts based on certain criteria that were drawn keeping in mind the future of West Indies cricket. Muirhead pointed out that the aforementioned six players – including Sammy who captains the West Indies T20 side – did not fit into the selection panel’s vision and hence were not given a contract.”The selectors did the retainers based on where they saw West Indies cricket going and the philosophy which they wanted to encourage and adopt, principally being loyal to commitment and really build for the longer form of the game,” Muirhead told ESPNcricinfo on Tuesday. “Lloyd had previously said how and where he was projecting our cricket to go, and how he wanted to build it.”According to Muirhead, the 15 players were shortlisted by the panel and endorsed by the WICB based on the “combination of their performances in the regional tournaments as well as their attitude”.Still, Muirhead insisted the six players should not misread the situation as they would be eligible for forthcoming series, if the selectors deemed fit.Some of the six players have failed to feature in the list of contracted players in the past, for reasons ranging from disputes with the WICB to voluntarily declining the retainer. In January 2015, Gayle and Narine had refused the retainer contracts as they wanted to focus on playing domestic Twenty20 leagues around the world, where they are marquee players.”When Chris Gayle and Narine refused our retainer contracts some years ago it was so that they had the freedom to do what they wanted,” Muirhead said. “But they are eligible to play all our games if they meet our criteria. This not a penalty.”Muirhead said most of the players had made the decision to make themselves unavailable because they wanted to be free to play in T20 leagues to earn more. “And they took that business decision to do so,” Muirhead said.Muirhead also stressed that most of the six players had already made public their intentions of not playing Test cricket. “Many of those players have withdrawn from the long form of the game officially and are not interested in playing for the West Indies in all formats,” he said.In the last two years, Bravo and Sammy announced their retirement from Test cricket. Pollard has never played Test cricket and is seen by selectors as a limited-overs specialist. Although Lloyd has always been keen for Russell to play Test cricket, the allrounder told the chairman of selectors he would like to play only limited-overs cricket due to a bad knee. Narine, who has played six Tests, is busy remodelling his bowling action after he was suspended by the ICC in November last year. Only Gayle, a 103-Test veteran, has openly stated he is still keen to return to Test cricket in 2016.

Zimbabwe Select 155 and 95 for 2 trail South Africa A 542 for 7 (Dippenaar 189, Amla 142, Ontong 70 ) by 292 runs
ScorecardPaul Harris’s five-wicket haul further compounded Zimbabwe Select’s misery on the third day at Bulawayo as they crumbled for 155 in reply to South Africa A’s 542 for 7. Following on, Zimbabwe reached 95 for 2, helped by Tatenda Taibu and the opener Hamilton Masakadza.Play resumed with Zimbabwe on 36 for 3 while Taibu and Timycen Maruma at the crease. Taibu could only add two runs to his overnight score of six before Andre Nel bowled him in the third over of the morning. Nel struck again when he trapped Maruma leg-before for eight.Stuart Matsikenyeri and Elton Chigumbura strived to restore the home side’s innings but they could only put up 26 for the sixth wicket before Chigumbura fell to left-arm seamer Yusuf Abdullah, caught behind by Thami Tsolekile for 18.Harris got his first wicket of the day when he had Matsikenyeri caught at first slip by Andrew Hall for 26. Harris, the left-arm spinner, dismissed Keith Dabengwa for nine.Prosper Utseya and Gary Brent frustrated the South Africans with some resolute batting in an ninth-wicket stand of 59 as they fended off a hostile spell from Nel. Utseya fell for 32 when he skied a Harris delivery and Nel ran in from mid-on to take the catch.Second time around, the openers Masakadza and Brendan Taylor put up 24 before Taylor fell lbw for 13. Vusi Sibanda’s struggle with the bat continued when Hall bowled him for seven.Taibu and Masakadza defended well but at the same time punished the South African bowlers. Taibu dispatched the offspinner Imraan Khan for two sixes in a row as he changed to offensive mode.Zimbabwe Select could still escape with a draw – but their slim hopes rest on some firm resistance from Taibu and Masakadza.

Things aren’t going too well for Johan Botha, the Warriors and South Africa offspinner, as the ICC has termed his bowling action illegal for a second time in his career.Botha had been working on his action since he was called for chucking in his debut Test against Australia at Sydney this January.The ICC had examined his revised action in August and it was hoped that he would soon return to international cricket. But further tests done towards the end of August confirmed that he continued to bend his arm more than 15 degrees.”We’re very disappointed and will do everything possible to get Johan back in action as soon as possible,” Brian Basson, Cricket South Africa’s general manager, told Supercricket website. “It’s not good for cricket or the psychological welfare of the player to draw out the episode.”Botha had started out as a medium pacer for the Warriors, but switched to spin on the advice of Mickey Arthur, South Africa’s national coach. He last played international cricket in the VB series against Sri Lanka at Hobart this February. He played for the Warriors as a batsman the whole of last season.

Inzamam-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain, has finally agreed to play in the ICC Super Series one-off Test against Australia in October. The Pakistan Cricket Board released a statement saying Shaharyar Khan, chairman of the PCB, had spoken to Inzamam and explained the background of the genuine misunderstanding regarding his selection for the Super Series squads.According to the statement, Shaharyar told Inzamam that in the interests of Pakistan cricket he should participate in the Super Series. In turn, Inzamam responded positively to the chairman’s advice and agreed to play in the Test match at Sydney.An official at the PCB told Cricinfo that the whole situation was nothing more than a “minor misunderstanding” between Inzamam and the board.Inzamam said he agreed to feature in the Super Test to improve Pakistan’s image. He told reporters, “I did say that I would not go but after being convinced by the chairman that my participation is necessary for the better image of the country, I have decided to tour Australia.”The u-turn follows Inzamam’s decision to snub the Super Series yesterday, after he heard that he was selected only for the Test squad. The PCB had announced on Wednesday that Inzamam would be in both teams, but two days later the ICC said that he would feature in the six-day Super Test squad only, and that too as a replacement for Sachin Tendulkar. He was omitted from the one-dayers, with the ICC instead naming Chris Gayle and Rahul Dravid as replacements for Tendulkar and Herschelle Gibbs.Expressing disappointment over the earlier confusion, the ICC said there had been preliminary discussions between the ICC and PCB to find out whether Inzamam would be available for the Super Series selected.An ICC spokesman clarified to AFP, “Once it was understood that he was available… the selectors discussed replacements for Tendulkar and Herschelle Gibbs of South Africa and selected Inzamam for the Test squad only.”Inzamam said newspaper reports on Tuesday suggesting he was angry at the decision were incorrect. “Newspaper reports suggested that I was angry which is wrong. It was a principled stance that I should be treated with respect and that’s why I was disappointed.”

Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lankan vice-captain, is confident of levelling the series in the second Test in the Bundaberg Rum Stadium in Cairns, beginning tomorrow, and hoped that the match would be played on a fair pitch.Looking ahead to the Test, Jayawardene said, “We have made good scores in the past. It is just that we need to go out there, put all our efforts in the middle, and perform. We have the capability to do that. There’s no doubt about it. We are not demoralised in any way by the result at Darwin. We know that we worked hard and put in 100% effort. We will put in 150% effort on Friday and see what we can come up with.”When asked about the disappointing show by the batsmen at Darwin, Jayawardene pointed out that most members of this line-up were experienced and would make amends for the failure in the first Test. “Most of our batsmen have played enough cricket and they average very high. Hopefully we can put that into practice.”Jayawardene insisted that the batsmen had done their homework before coming on this tour and spent a lot of time ironing out their weaknesses. “No-one can say we didn’t work hard. Even back home we had extra sessions on the bowling machine and some even had private batting sessions. We had long practice sessions doing throw downs, working on bouncy tracks and we put in a lot of effort. You can’t blame the guys for that.”Adam Gilchrist, who stood in for Ricky Ponting as captain in the first Test, had labelled the pitch at Darwin as below Test standard. Jayawardene chose to be less harsh and termed it as one with “an element of surprise for all of us”. He added, “No one expected it to play the way it did. When we played the practice game [against the Northern Territory Chief Minister’s XI], there was a little bit of moisture on it, as on any pitch, in the morning. But in the Test, the moisture remained even on the second day. Every time they put the roller on, the water kept coming up. That made a huge difference. The Australians also said the same thing when we had a chat with them.”On his own batting in the Test, in which he made 14 and 44, Jayawardene said that he was never completely sure of the pitch. “I felt that I wasn’t going to be in on that wicket,” he said, “although I was batting OK. I knew that at any given time a good ball would take my wicket. No-one got any big scores unless they were very lucky to get away with a few shots and survive. The ball that I got out to was one of those deliveries which would have taken anyone’s wicket.”Ultimately, however, Jayawardene pointed to the huge difference in the first-innings score as being the decisive factor. “All in all we fought really hard but the difference was the first-innings score. We didn’t put enough runs on the board. If we had got somewhere closer to Australia’s total on the first innings there would have been a contest. Basically that was our downfall.”It is difficult to score 500 runs as we do in Sri Lanka or against any other country. A total of 250 to 300 will be a very competitive score over here. Our bowlers are doing well. We can exert some pressure on them if we can get a decent score, especially in the first innings.”Jayawardene also put in a word on the metronomic efficiency of the Australian bowlers. Though the Sri Lankans had studied videos and felt confident of playing the bowling, the consistency of the Australians undid them. “They are not like any other bowlers. They are very consistent with their line and length. They hardly give you anything loose to hit unless you create something. We have to be more patient with them. On any given track they don’t do anything different. They have a basic plan. Our bowlers are doing the same thing as well but it is just that Australians do it on a consistent basis. Those three bowlers [Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz] are a class act altogether and they are followed by Warne.”

There is live online ball-by-ball commentary of the Wales-England one-day international taking place today at Sophia Gardens (June 14th). The commentary is available via the BBC Radio Wales website. To listen in, click here