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Sixteen wickets tumbled on the second day with Mumbai holding a slight edge in the Ranji Trophy semi-final at the Wankhede Stadium. Having bundled out Punjab for a paltry 126, Mumbai found themselves at a precarious 69 for 5, before Nishit Shetty eked out valuable runs late in the day and extended the lead to 237.Resuming on 42 for 2, Punjab were jolted at regular intervals by a the varied Mumbai attack. Sairaj Bahutule led the spin attack with a superb 4 for 20 and was backed up well by Nilesh Kulkarni (3 for 18) and Ramesh Powar (1 for 15). Dinesh Mongia, the Punjab captain, and Pankaj Dharmani shared a 40-run stand for the fifth wicket, but the lower order came apart in the face of spin.Gagandeep Singh was the most effective bowler for Punjab in the second innings as well and he pegged the top order back with three quick wickets. Rajesh Sharma, the offspinner, then weaved his web and pocketed three of the middle-order batsmen. But Shetty, the hero of Mumbai’s triumph in the 2003 final, raced to 33 off 41 balls and took the lead past 200.Punjab have two factors going in their favour. This season several teams have prospered when confronted with tricky fourth-innings targets even after collapsing in the first innings. Also, Yuvraj Singh, after making a duck yesterday, may decide to impose himself on the game and take Punjab to the final. To beat Mumbai in a knock-out game may require just that kind of magic.

Justin Langer seizes the day © AFP

Just when Michael Slater’s supporters were rousing themselves from slumber to barrack for his recall into the Australian XI, Justin Langer chose the perfect moment to ride his luck – and play some magnificent shots – all the way to a 16th Test hundred.”Steve Waugh always wants you to back yourself, don’t hesitate and play your shots,” said Langer, addressing the media after yet another fairly routine day at the office for Australia. He was unbeaten on 115 at stumps – rattling along from 50 to 100 in 47 balls – and admitted afterwards that Australia had made plans to dominate the opening day.”We always aim to win the first session,” he said. “After that, we target winning the first day. Today, they had very good conditions to bowl in, so it was a huge day for us.” While he said the team hadn’t set any session targets, he said, “It takes courage to be aggressive. We’ve won a lot of Test matches playing that way over the past five years.”He rated his innings among the best he’d ever played – “One of the best, if not the best” – because the conditions, especially early on, had been so challenging. “The ball was seaming around a lot all day. The wicket got harder and faster as the game went on.”India’s decision to bowl first surprised him, though he said neither he nor Matthew Hayden was fazed by the thought of going out to bat on a green wicket. “Matty and I raised eyebrows when we were told by Steve … but we know that at the Gabba, if you get past the first 20 or 25 overs, you can set up the game.”Of India’s inexperienced bowling attack, he said, “They certainly don’t lack talent. Zaheer Khan’s first spell was outstanding. The other guy [Nehra] bowled well too. If they were to be critical of themselves, they’d say that they didn’t string good spells together…it was scarier watching from the non-striker’s end. Their bowlers must have thought it was heaven bowling on such a pitch.”The sweep shot brought him some joy against Harbhajan Singh, but he confessed that it was only once he stopped pre-meditating the stroke that it came smoothly. “Early on, I was thinking about playing the shot. It’s a trap we fall into while touring India or Sri Lanka, going for the pre-meditated sweep. After tea, I decided I was just going to watch the ball. With him [Harbhajan] bowling that line, I was able to get a few away.”For India, and Rahul Dravid, it was a sobering day, a “tough day” to use his words. “It was overcast and there was a bit in the wicket. And it was one of those on-off days with the rain. We just didn’t bowl as well as we should have.”Dravid refused to comment on the two lbw decisions, or the Langer catch off a no-ball when asked about their impact on the proceedings. “Maybe we didn’t get the breaks,” he said, “but credit to them. There’s no guarantee that you’ll make a hundred if you get a life on 20. He [Langer] played really well.”Despite Steve Waugh’s assessment yesterday that the first day would decide the series, Dravid refused to throw away last vestiges of hope. “They’ve won the first day,” he said. “But losing the first day doesn’t lose you the series.”On his sickbed in Sri Lanka, Nasser Hussain – who inserted Australia at the Gabba last year only to see them romp to 364 for 2 – might view it slightly differently.

The ECB National Academy drew with Australian Capital Territory in Canberratoday. Chasing a target of 267 on the fourth and final day, the ECB NCA ended on 264-5 at the close of play.ACT 1st innings: 426 all out (Hazell 199, Maxwell 97, Hatton 51*; Harmison3-82, Wagh 3-78, Kirby 2-109)ECB NA 1st innings: 459 all out (Wood 107, Wagh 164, Wallace 67; Dennett4-98, Kellar 4-75, Hill 2-95)ACT 2nd innings: 299-9 (Dawson 105, Smith 62; Tremlett 3-31, Wagh 3-106)ECB NA 2nd innings (target 267): 264-5 (Wagh 73, Key 72, Bell 60)

After being bowled out for less than one hundred twice in its 1-3 series loss to England earlier this year, it was always argued that it was West Indies’ batting that was likely to shape as its biggest problem on this Australian tour.Come next week and the first Test meeting between them and Australia, though, batting may well constitute only so much as half of the tourists’ dilemmas.At least, that is what their performance suggested today in the first-class match against Victoria at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.After keeping the tourists to an inadequate 167 in the first innings yesterday – a total that could have been significantly smaller had number eight batsman Mahendra Nagamootoo not shown the resistance that allowed him to score a defiant forty-eight – the Victorian batsmen today did it easily, ending the day 137 runs ahead with seven wickets in hand. At stumps on day two, Victoria is very comfortably placed at 3/304.Led by Brad Hodge (134*) and Jason Arnberger (99), the Bushrangers performed in a manner that belied their bottom placing on the domestic first-class competition ladder. Here was a team that had lost each of its first two Pura Cup matches of the season by huge margins. Yet today, it managed to make its international opposition look completely underdone. With due credit to the Victorians, this arguably says more about the standard of West Indian cricket than about Australia’s own national competition.Following their forgettable batting performance yesterday, vice-captain Sherwin Campbell had hoped a solid showing with the ball would be the confidence builder from which the West Indians could draw inspiration in the second innings. Unfortunately, his bowlers, for the most part, were disappointing.Nixon McLean, tipped to be Courtney Walsh’s opening bowling partner in next week’s Test in Brisbane, was punished heavily. In the last session of the day, by way of example, the tall right armer went for twenty-three runs off four overs.Nevertheless, it has to be said that he was a little unlucky. After capturing the early wicket of Shawn Craig (1), he should have had the scalp of Matthew Mott (18) alongside his name as well, but a cut shot from the nuggety right hander was dropped by Daren Ganga at gully with his score on a mere three.This was not the only chance missed by the West Indian fielders. Michael Klinger (38*) would have been out at sixteen but for a miss at slip by Campbell. Instead, Klinger and Hodge made light work of their opponents, hitting them to all parts of the ground with ease in a fluent display.Before Klinger, it was Arnberger who had aided Hodge in the task of overtaking the Windies’ first innings total. The pair added 121 runs for the third wicket in 132 minutes, sailing past the tourists’ score when Hodge lofted leg-spinner Nagamootoo (0/61 off fourteen overs) over the long-off fence. Clearly, it had been that sort of a day for them.Walsh was the best of the West Indian attack, with 1/44 off 23 overs. Today’s wicket-takers, McLean and Merv Dillon, returned 1/78 off twenty-one overs and 1/75 off twenty-three respectively.At the end of the day, Windies’ coach Roger Harper said it had been a difficult one for his team. “Tough is an understatement. Three hundred runs in a day is a lot more than we would’ve liked, a lot more than we wanted, a lot more than the goal we set ourselves in allowing them to score. And wecould have done a lot, lot better. We weren’t consistent, we weren’t accurate enough, we bowled both sides of the wicket and they just took advantage of it,” he said.”In the context of the way the game is played these days, you expect teams to score somewhere in the region of two and a half runs an over. But to score over three runs an over, especially against our attack, which is a Test attack, is much too many. It’s simple, the consistency wasn’t there and thepatience wasn’t there and that was about it. We never really got the ball in the right place,” he said.Compounding the West Indians’ problems is an injury to captain Jimmy Adams, who was hit on the nose by a Marlon Black delivery this morning in the nets. Adams, who was on and off the field today, will hopefully be fit to fully resume tomorrow.If he is, he will be captaining a team which, in Harper’s words, has “no choice but to come out and play good cricket.”Harper admitted the team is under-prepared for the Test series. “We may have wanted another match to prepare ourselves but this is the itinerary we’ve been set and we have to make the most of it and be as well prepared as we can. And I don’t think we gave the performance in this match so far thatwould say to anyone that we are a team fully prepared to go into a Test match,” he said.

Manchester United could also be without midfield powerhouse Scott McTominay today as manager Ralf Rangnick shares some injury news before their clash with Tottenham Hotspur.

The Lowdown: Rangnick without key names…

The German head coach is already without a few key players for United’s crunch clash with the Lilywhites at Old Trafford.

Both sides are well in contention for a top four finish in the Premier League but Rangnick is set to miss the likes of Luke Shaw, who still hasn’t recovered from COVID-19 (confirmed), with reports emerging this morning that David de Gea is ill as well.

Man United’s boss, speaking to the media yesterday, has revealed that McTominay is also a major doubt for their match against Antonio Conte’s men.

The Latest: McTominay a major doubt…

As confirmed by the United manager and shared by journalist Samuel Luckhurst of The Manchester Evening News, the Scotland international is more likely than not to miss this afternoon.

“Luke Shaw will still miss out,” Rangnick said to the press.

“Until yesterday, he was still testing positive for Covid. Scotty is a question mark, he had some problems with his calf, so we have to wait and see until after training.

“Right now it’s more likely he will not be available because if we risk him tomorrow he will more likely be out for the game on Tuesday (against Atletico Madrid). With some muscular issues, more if it’s the calf, I tend to be careful.”

The Verdict: Big blow…

McTominay is a name the away side will certainly be familiar with going by their last top flight encounter in north London.

United’s midfield engine ran the show for United against ex-Spurs boss Nuno Espirito Santo’s side with former Red Devils manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer describing him as ‘man of the match’ and ‘by a mile’.

The Norwegian lauded McTominay’s ‘absolute top’ performance against Tottenham in October last year with club legend Sammy McIlroy also in absolute awe of his display.

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Speaking to Love Sport Radio (via allfootballapp), McIlroy called the 25-year-old ‘absolutely unbelievable’ for some of his displays this season and cited his ‘magnificent’ outing at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as one of them.

Likely being without the colossal presence will certainly come as a blow for Rangnick and co.

In other news: Old Trafford twist: Man United set sights on ‘mad’ new manager target after dramatic development, find out more here.

	Robin Brown sees a bright future for his players and a Test return in the near future © AFP

Zimbabwe’s route back to Test cricket may not have been finalised just yet, but their coach Robin Brown feels the day his side play a Test match again may not be as far away as people imagine.Despite putting up some late resistance, Zimbabwe were ultimately beaten comfortably, by an innings, in a four-day match against the Patron’s XI in Karachi. However Brown, who took over from Kevin Curran as coach in September last year, believes there are enough positives to draw on not just from this match, but other results in recent months.”Obviously, we’re very disappointed at not scoring enough runs and the result,” he said after the match. “Every match is a learning curve for us and is an opportunity to learn about different situations and experiences in matches, how to handle them, how to adapt. I’m happy with the way the guys performed.”Zimbabwe voluntarily suspended themselves from Test cricket in 2006 following concerns that their side wasn’t competitive enough at the top level, but according to the Future Tours Programme (FTP) they are due to host India for two Tests and three ODIs in May. Though the ICC has to take a decision on their status before they can play Tests again, Brown felt progress had been made.”We’ve had some good results in South Africa before this and we take positives from here as well. Test cricket is much harder of course, but we are getting useful experience and I don’t think we are too far away from competing on the Test stage,” he said.Brown was also confident that once Zimbabwe become a Test nation again, there is enough talent domestically for them to once again become a competitive side. “There is the depth of talent there. Schools cricket is very strong, the academies are up again and the U-19 sides are doing well. Guys in the team today have progressed from U-19 cricket.”Now when guys in the team go back to play first-class cricket in Zimbabwe, standards will definitely improve. Cricket will not die in Zimbabwe but it will improve.”

In with a shout: Stuart Broad has a late chance to make a World Cup claim © Getty Images

The Leicestershire seamer Stuart Broad has been called up to the England squad for the CB Series finals. Jon Lewis and Chris Tremlett are returning to the UK with injuries and Broad will be available for the first final, at Melbourne, on Friday.He has been at the MRF pace academy in Chennai, where the England A pace bowlers are preparing for their tour of Bangladesh. Broad made his ODI debut against Pakistan in August and played all five matches in the drawn series.Despite limited success, collecting five wickets, he impressed many judges but was overlooked for the Champions Trophy squad and Ashes tour. Instead he joined the Academy squad during their stint in Perth as they provided back-up for the main party.England’s injury concerns surround Lewis’s Achilles, which forced him to miss the last four qualifying matches, and Tremlett who has developed a back problem. They join Kevin Pietersen (broken rib) and James Anderson (back) who have previously flown home from the CB Series.”Chris Tremlett has a back injury and he would be in some pain if he took part in any of the finals,” Duncan Fletcher explained. “Jon Lewis is one of those injuries that we are not prepared to risk so he is going to go back to the UK.”It is difficult to say exactly what his injury is. It is around the Achilles area, but they will have a good look at it.”Other replacements England have called on have been Ravi Bopara, the Essex allrounder, and Mal Loye the Lancashire opening batsman. The final World Cup squad has to be named by February 13.

Scorecard

Mervyn Dillon’s 5 for 36 helped T&T clinch an emphatic win © T&T Express

Carnival came three weeks early for the Trinidad and Tobago team as they captured their first major title in 21 years to lift the 2005-06 Carib Beer Cup. They completed an emphatic 264-run victory over Barbados on the fourth day of the match at the Carlton Sports Club on Sunday.Resuming the day on 112 for 6 in pursuit of 412 to win, Barbados, the pre-series leaders, were bowled out for 147. Mervyn Dillon, the West Indies opening bowler, took three of the last four wickets to finish the innings with 5 for 36 off 21 overs – and a match haul of 8 for 65 which won him the Man-of-the-Match award.”I think we were starved of an opportunity to play for a regional first-class title for so long, and now being in position to win a title that was our motivation here,” Daren Ganga, the T&T captain, told reporters. “When we won the regional limited-overs competition, ironically in Barbados in 2004, I vowed that T&T should take that type of momentum and win a four-day competition. We did not win the title the next year, but two years down the line we have achieved it, and I think it was a matter of self belief.”T&T entered the match last Thursday knowing only victory could give them the title because Barbados needed only one point to seal the deal. “I think we knew that we were the underdogs, and I think that was a great position in which to be coming into a final game, and the guys were up for the challenge from the word ‘Go!’,” Ganga said. “Even from the day before the match, we knew that if we played good cricket, we would come out with the Cup at the end of the day.”Although Barbados’ decision to put T&T into bat surprised Ganga, he was thrilled, since he believed a competitive total would have been challenging for the home team to chase. “We should have gotten more runs in the first innings, considering the start to the innings we had,” he said. “In retrospect, in our planning, we knew most regional teams struggle to chase totals to win games. This was our plan, no matter what total we got on the board. We wanted to put pressure on them on the last day, or the second-last day. We knew we had a chance and the guys played well. We are still surprised how meekly Barbados played, but they were never put under pressure for the entire competition, so I thought that if we were to do this, we would have a chance. Most regional teams when they are put under pressure, they crack, and we did this, and came out on top.”Ganga concluded that the title triumph is an achievement similar to T&T’s qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Finals and the men’s indoor hockey World Championship.

ScorecardWestern Australia fought back after Shane Deitz and Daniel Harris put on 165 on the first day of the Pura Cup game at the WACA. WA claimed four wickets for just 20 runs to set South Australia wobbling at 5 for 234. But Callum Ferguson (35 not out) and Graham Manou (23) rescued SA, lifting them to 6 for 295 by the close.Deitz made a successful return to SA’s top side but narrowly missed a century as they dominated the opening two sessions against WA. Facing a four-man pace attack after Justin Langer sent the Redbacks in, Deitz and Harris (82) responded with a carefully crafted stand against some wayward bowling. Deitz had replaced Tom Plant for the match and was dismissed ten short of three figures when he bottom-edged a pull from Steve Magoffin.

Michael Vaughan and Duncan Fletcher with the series trophy © Getty Images

Michael Vaughan – England captain
I said at the start of the tour that we expected to win, but you can’t win any game without putting in hard work and getting accustomed to the conditions. You have to give the opposition as much respect as you possibly can. The first two weeks before the first Test, we didn’t have too many nets or training facilities because of the bad weather. But I put the 2-0 victory down to all the hard work we did in that period.This pitch definitely suited our style of play. The wicket in Dhaka was a passive slow pitch, which suited the Bangladeshis better. There was a bit more bounce here and all our four seamers exploited the conditions superbly. There were a couple of injuries which created opportunities for Richard Johnson and Martin Saggers, and Johnson especially has given the selectors a real headache. As for Nasser [Hussain], he showed the kind of character he is. He got no runs in Dhaka and so he put in a lot of hard work between the Tests. He worked on a few technical things in the nets, and it didn’t surprise me at all when he bounced back.Of the ten Test matches we’ve played this year, we’ve won seven. So that’s a pretty good indication of where we’re going. The wins are just starting to come and we have a really tough series against Sri Lanka ahead of us, which will be the perfect test of how far we’ve progressed. We are coming together as a team and learning to play with each other, although with all the chopping and changing through injury, it has been very difficult to keep the performances up.Duncan Fletcher – England coach
I’d give this performance about seven-and-a-half out of ten. I just think that through certain periods we didn’t quite perform to our potential. In one or two sessions, if we’d really looked at it, we could have played better.Dav Whatmore – Bangladesh coach
It was certainly a more convincing win for England. They played exceptionally well, although we handed them the advantage a little bit. Obviously we would have preferred to make a bigger fight of it, but when you get a couple of run-outs like that, things get a bit difficult.It very much becomes a mental game when you are so far behind the opposition by day four. It takes a superhuman effort just to dig in, dig in and dig in. Things like that don’t happen very often. It’s a very disappointing match for us, but we need support. This is not the time when we need people to say you’re terrible. We played nine days of Test match cricket against England. Two of those seven days England dominated, but you couldn’t say they dominated on any of the other seven days. I’d rather look at the bigger picture, than take the negative approach.In my experience in sport, if you are looking to improve from a position of weakness, it is never, ever, going to be a straight line upwards. It is how the team handle this sort of situation in the future that will determine how they shape up. I don’t think we should jump to conclusions – I still think the team has done pretty well.The short-pitched bowling was a good test for our batsmen. I don’t think they would have encountered a barrage like this before, on a wicket with a bit of variable bounce. We did pretty well in Pakistan and Australia, and they have some pretty nasty bowlers. But I think it was the variable bounce that was the enemy of the batsmen, rather than the length of the bowling.Sri Lanka will certainly be a stiffer test for England. I’m sure one or two of their batsmen will be in better nick, but England will give them a good fight.Khaled Mahmud – Bangladesh captain
People are looking too much at the outcome, but we’re really not focusing on that right now. Yes, we lost 2-0 to England, but I think we learnt a lot from it and under the circumstances we didn’t do a particularly bad job, at least in the first Test. As for the captaincy, that is up to the selectors. But I would very much like to continue.