Match facts

November 13-17, 2015
Start time 1030 local (0230 GMT)3:27

Brettig: How much can New Zealand improve in a week?

Big Picture

One day was all it took for Australia to play New Zealand out of the first Test at the Gabba. At stumps on the first day of this three-Test series Australia were 2 for 389, New Zealand’s bowlers were broken of spirit and, in a couple of cases, of body as well. This Trans-Tasman Trophy series promised so much, with a rebuilding Australia apparently ripe to be threatened by a more experienced New Zealand outfit. The more optimistic of New Zealanders say their team often starts slowly in a series; they must be thankful, then, that this one will be played over three Tests. Their chance for redemption arrives this week at the WACA.New Zealand’s one enormous positive to come out of the Brisbane Test was the apparent ease with which Kane Williamson handled Australia’s bowlers. In scoring 140 and 59 he appeared mostly untroubled, and will again be key at the WACA. Williamson’s efforts prompted exceptionally high praise from former Australia captain Allan Border. “Of all the gun batsmen going around, he would be the one I’d choose to bat for my life,” Border told Fox Sports. “Technically, he’s probably as equipped as any of them because I think he can take that technique to all different types of pitches … He does everything correctly technically. He’s very still at the crease, plays all the shots. I think he’s equally as comfortable against the spin and pace bowling.”But he needs support, with both bat and ball. New Zealand’s bowlers took only eight wickets at the Gabba, and each one cost on average 102 runs. You don’t have to be a statistician to realise that is not the formula required for a successful Test performance. For Australia, most things went right as they continued their 27-year unbeaten run at the Gabba. Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja made maiden Test hundreds, David Warner picked up a century in each innings, and the bowlers created ample chances for 20 wickets despite a few dropped catches. On the pacy, bouncy WACA pitch, Mitchells Starc and Johnson will again be a threat, along with Josh Hazlewood.

Form guide

Australia: WWLLW (last five completed matches, most recent first)

New Zealand: LWLWW

In the spotlight

The stage could be set for something special from David Warner this week. At the Gabba he became the third batsman in Test history to have scored a century in each innings of a Test on three separate occasions, and the ease with which he handled New Zealand’s attack must concern them. Add to that the fact that he loves batting at the WACA, where in three Tests he has to his name 180 from 159 balls against India and 112 against England, and New Zealand could have a problem on their hands. No batsman in the world has more Test runs in the past two years than Warner’s 2527, and no batsman has more hundreds than Warner’s 11 in that same period.The other left-handed opener in the match is unlikely to score quite as quickly as Warner, but might still cause some frustration for his opponents. At the Gabba, Tom Latham showed signs of getting under the skin of the Australian bowlers, through nothing more than leaving the ball judiciously and scoring in his trusted areas. In both innings he did the job of taking the shine off the new ball but was unable to go on and reach a half-century. Williamson can’t do it alone for New Zealand at the top of the batting order and Latham might be the man with the temperament to provide him the strongest support.

Team news

Australia’s captain Steven Smith has named an unchanged team, which means more drinks and Sheffield Shield duty for Peter Siddle while ensuring stability in the team that enjoyed a strong win over Brendon McCullum’s men in Brisbane. “Same team,” Smith said on Thursday. “Conditions are going to be pretty similar to the Gabba, the groundsman thinks there’s going to be a fair bit of pace and bounce.”Australia: 1 Joe Burns, 2 David Warner, 3 Usman Khawaja, 4 Steven Smith (capt), 5 Adam Voges, 6 Mitchell Marsh, 7 Peter Nevill (wk), 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Josh Hazlewood, 11 Nathan LyonNew Zealand will be forced to make at least one change, with allrounder Jimmy Neesham having flown home due to a back injury. Tim Southee was unable to bowl in the second innings in Brisbane due to a back problem but remains a chance of playing at the WACA. Mark Craig is expected to move up to No.7, which would allow a four-man pace attack. The make-up of that bowling group remains to be seen, but as an original member of the squad Matt Henry might have the front-running to replace Neesham.New Zealand (possible): 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Tom Latham, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Brendon McCullum (capt), 6 BJ Watling (wk), 7 Mark Craig, 8 Doug Bracewell, 9 Tim Southee/Neil Wagner, 10 Matt Henry, 11 Trent Boult

Pitch and conditions

The WACA lost its famous pace and bounce for a few years but has in recent summers returned to the characteristics for which it was known in its heyday. Expect plenty for the fast bowlers in this surface. The forecast is hot and sunny, with a top temperature of 36C on the first two days.

Stats and trivia

• Mitchell Johnson needs just one wicket to move ahead of Brett Lee and into outright fourth on Australia’s all-time Test wicket tally
• David Warner needs 72 runs to reach 4000 in Tests; if he gets there at some point in his next three innings he will become the fourth-fastest Australian to the milestone, after Don Bradman, Matthew Hayden and Neil Harvey
• Kane Williamson has the highest Test average of any New Zealander with at least 1000 Test runs: 47.19

Quotes

An intriguing final day lies in prospect at Cheltenham, with Gloucestershireset 323 to win on a pitch that remains slow, but batsman-friendly.Bowlers have needed to work hard for their wickets throughout a tightly-contested match and Gloucestershire coach John Bracewell is far from daunted by his team’s task. “We need to lay a solid foundation and try to keep wickets in hand,” he said. “If we can do that up to tea anything will be possible in the final session.”
Warwickshire will consider themselves favourites after a solid, ifunspectacular second innings batting effort that saw them bowled out for 316with the final ball of day three.Nightwatchman Keith Piper, unbeaten on eight overnight, top-scored with 69off 161 balls, with 10 fours, while Dominic Ostler, Trevor Penney and DavidHemp made valuable contributions.Battle of attritionIt was a battle of attrition in the College Ground sunshine asGloucestershire’s bowlers stuck to their task well and managed to breakthrough every time Warwickshire got into a position to accelerate towards adeclaration.The morning session saw the visitors progress steadily from 38-1 to 121-2,losing only Michael Powell for 28, caught at short extra cover prodding atpace bowler Ben Gannon.By tea it was 208-4 after Piper and Ostler had taken their third-wicketstand to 90. Both fell in the same Jon Lewis spell after Warwickshire hadbeen 177-2 and looking to raise the tempo.Piper gave a regulation nick to fellow wicketkeeper Jack Russell, whileOstler’s 153-ball innings of 54, including 6 fours, was ended by an lbwdecision as he pushed half forward.Penney and Hemp then put Warwickshire in a strong position again with astand of 62 before Gannon dismissed both, finding a good rhythm from thelonger run-up he is experimenting with in this game.Penney’s 42, off 70 balls, included some of the brightest stroke-making ofthe day, while Dougie Brown’s 25 kept the scoreboard ticking towards a handylead.Harvey’s disciplined line and strengthBut from 252-4 the final total was a disappointment. Ian Harvey added fourlate order wickets to the five he collected in the first innings.Sharp catches off his own bowling accounted for Ashley Giles and Neil Smith.And when last man Ed Giddins was bowled for a duck the last three wicketshad fallen in the space of four Harvey deliveries.The Australian all-rounder returned 4-71 for match figures of 9-100, whileLewis and Gannon deservedly claimed three victims each for maintaining adisciplined line and length.There was an old fashioned feel about the cricket in the beautiful CollegeGround setting, with no trace of the cavalier approach which so ofteninfiltrates Championship matches from the one-day game.Spectators brought up on more adventurous play had to be patient. But thecontest was never less than absorbing and there is every prospect of afinale worthy of the bumper Cheltenham attendances, which are expected tototal 30,000 by the end of the Festival on Sunday.

The Haryana-Orissa tie at Cuttack ended in a draw at the end of the lastday. The low scoring game finished just before the scheduled close.Having secured a first innings lead, Haryana were in a strong position. Atthe end of the third day, Haryana were 279/8. They added just 9 runs totheir overnight score and took the field on the morning of the last day.Orissa were set a stiff target of 340 off 82 overs. They did not attemptto go after the score at any point. Losing wickets at regular intervals,Orissa somehow managed to stave off the Haryana bowlers. The fact that thetop score was 49 from RR Parida shows clearly that none of the batsmencould get going.Sonu Sharma who picked up seven wickets in the first innings could notrepeat his performance. Sharma, Jain and Dalal picked up two wickets eachas Orissa slumped to 210 for 6.Both Orissa and Haryana had no chance of qualifying for the next phase ofthe tournament. At the end of the match, Haryana had 8 points and Orissafinished on 14, well short of the leaders in the their group.

Here is a fact. Victoria is at the bottom of the Pura Cup four-day competition.With the way they played on the first day against the West Indies, on a pitchwhich was somewhat slow, but did help the faster bowlers earlier on, one willhave to wonder where the West Indies is in the swing of things at this level.They certainly did not look like the Test team they will be come next week, evenwith the fact that the XI they put out for this four-day game is almost the Testteam itself.Maybe the final score itself was a misleading fact. That the West Indies made167 at all was due almost entirely to the contributions of three batsmen,Sherwin Campbell, who made 29 before he slashed wildly and was caught at thewicket; Ridley Jacobs, who made 28 before he ran himself out, a not uncommon occurrence; and Mahendra Nagamootoo, who after making a pummeling 48, tried abit too hard for his 50 and was well caught by Test selectee Colin Miller,running back at mid-wicket. Simple mathematics suggests that between them,Campbell, Jacobs and Nagamootoo managed 105 runs. That means that the otherbatsmen, including Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Jimmy Adams, andRamnaresh Sarwan, could only manage 62 runs. It was simply a continuing storyof poor batsmanship, even giving some credit to the Bush Rangers’ bowlers.What is damning about this is that the same recklessness that ensued when theWest Indies had been bowled out for 132 at Perth last week was again veryevident at the MCG. Already it has been suggested that the discipline necessaryto play well here in Australia is missing. Unfortunately for the West Indies,there is not much time left to correct such faults. Next week this time, the 1st Test at Brisbane would have already been under way. The more things change,the more they remain the same.”We really wanted to bat out the first day”, suggested Sherwin Campbell, theteam’s vice captain. “Being the opening batsman for any Test team brings muchpressure. It is very important, in my case both as an opener and the vicecaptain, that I stay there (at the crease) as long as possible and then allowthe team to gather themselves around me. Maybe both my form and my luck havebeen good for the two centuries I have had so far, but really, it comes down tospending as much time at the crease as is possible.”While it took Campbell all of 160 minutes to get to his 29 from 126 deliveries,so intent he was on survival, the entire West Indies innings only lasted justover twice Campbell’s stay at the crease, 336 minutes. This is only anotherindicator that no-one else, not even the ultra-aggressive Nagamootoo, seemedintent on playing out time, as such.Matthew Inness, the lively left handed opening bowler for Victoria, looked muchbetter than his more illustrious team-mates, Damien Fleming and Colin Miller,the former just coming back from a broken finger, the latter already selectedfor Test No. 1, next week. Inness worked hard, bowled straight at the batsmenand the stumps, and was aided and abetted by some terrible batting. He clearlyjustified his captain, Darren Berry’s decision to field first. Berry himselftook five catches to help his bowlers, none more spectacular than the one heheld, diving to his left, low down, to dismiss the dangerous, focussed andpromising Brian Lara, from Miller’s bowling.Already it is being suggested everywhere that all of the Test matches thisAustralian summer would finish with at least a day to spare, with the WestIndies losing all of them. If the batting, especially that of Brian Lara, ShivChanderpaul, Jimmy Adams and Campbell himself, do not come through, the WestIndies will surely struggle much. Sarwan, incidentally, seemed to have lost his”bounce.” He had better find it quickly.Miller and Fleming bowled creditably, with Miller swinging the ball well when heoperated as a fast bowler, but Inniss deserved his best figures ever, beatinghis 6-70, against New South Wales, achieved earlier this year.The only bright spot for the West Indies was Nagamootoo. His aggressionsuggests that he could well be selected in the Test for his batting, even thoughhe is supposedly, primarily, a leg-spinner. This West Indies cricket team needsevery run it could get, from anyone willing to provide it. With Wavell Hindsand Sarwan fighting for that final middle order position, Nagamootoo could findhimself batting ahead of Ridley Jacobs even.Sherwin Campbell also suggested that he was disappointed. “Since the Test matchis the next game, we certainly are looking to get some good scores here at theMCG. Hopefully, the batters would get a second hit in the 2nd innings, andmaybe we will do better. We definitely need some more runs and much moreconfidence going into the Test. Test match cricket means that we will have toup our game somewhat. We know that we have not batted well here. Our shotselection was poor. We must focus on batting longer. While our batters mightbe overall confident, we are not capitalizing on the starts we have beengetting. We can always say that one should learn from mistakes, but the focusand concentration must be there daily.”If the showing on Day 1 of this last game before the historic 1st Test match isto go by, the West Indies has a lot of work to do in a few days before Test No.1. It could be very messy come next week.

India coasted to a 39-run victory at the RMCCG ground in Rajkot toclose out the one-day series against Zimbabwe by four games to one.They owed the win largely to the frail looking Ajit Agarkar who looksready and capable to ensconce himself into the role of the all rounderIndia does not have. After a splendid 102 run stand in just 99 ballsbetween Hemang Badani and Reetinder Sodhi strengthened the edifice ofthe Indian innings, Agarkar produced a spectacular late blitz of 67 in25 balls that lifted India to a once unthinkable 301. Despite earningthe springboard of a rollicking start, the visitors sputtered in themiddle overs and the loss of Trevor Madondo and Grant Flower insuccessive overs signalled the end of the road for them.The younger members of the Indian team also stepped up a notch andindicated they were quite capable of standing the heat at this level.After the early exits of the two senior batsmen in the team, Badaniwas the stabilising influence in the middle order that affordedAgarkar the luxury of going for broke in the end. Skipper Rahul Dravidsaid it was a fantastic feeling to post a win in his first match ascaptain. The depth in the Indian bowling also provided for a plethoraof options as Dravid said. “We were just discussing that we had tenguys in the side who could bowl, other than the keeper, and I thoughtSriram and Shewag did a very good job in the middle overs”.Alistair Campbell had begun with a flurry of attacking shots which wasnothing new but as usual, to the frustration of his team-mates, hefailed to convert that start into anything like a substantial score.Campbell presented Reetinder Sodhi, given custody of the new ball inZaheer Khan’s absence, with his first ODI scalp. His partner TrevorMadondo was in ominous touch and it certainly baffles the imaginationwhy Zimbabwe tarried till the end of the tour to give him a stage toannounce his undoubted ability. Madondo generated plenty of power offhis strokes which came all around the wicket as the Zimbabwe fiftycame up in just 6.2 overs. He shrugged off the loss of a secondpartner in Gavin Rennie and greeted the first appearance of spin inthe form of Aashish Kapoor by smacking a four over cover, wasting notime in getting acquainted with the bowler’s craft.An Andy Flower reverse sweep that beat a very square short finelegstationed to cut off the very stroke brought up the hundred in the14th over, a good 11 overs earlier than India took to reach thecorresponding milestone. Agarkar was working up a good burst of paceto keep the batsmen on their toes after the gentle medium pace of theopening pair of Prasad and Sodhi. At 103, Zimbabwe suffered whatseemed to be an irreconcilable blow as Andy Flower flicked Agarkarinto the waiting hands of Sodhi at square leg. Madondo refused to letthat be a dampener on his belligerence, and before long had sweptKapoor for a boundary, that fetched him a half century in 40 balls.Grant Flower joined him in a battling partnership that formed the mainrepository of Zimbabwe’s hopes as they proceeded to 146 at the halfwaystage with the asking rate still at manageable proportions.The specialist spinner Aashish Kapoor had gone wicket less in sevenovers but the back-up, comprising of Sridharan Sriram and VirenderShewag, did a fine job under the circumstances. Having made 71 (70balls), Madondo was deceived in flight by Sriram as he stepped out todrive and played inside the line to have his stumps rattled. WhenShewag trapped Grant Flower leg before on the back foot in thefollowing over – his first – Zimbabwe had lost the plot at 156/5 inthe 28th over. They did have two specialist batsmen left in GuyWhittall and Dougie Marillier but on past record on this tour neitherinspired a particular sense of confidence.Whittall disappointed again, holing out to deep midwicket off Shewagand the asking rate soon spiralled out of reach. Marillier struck afew audacious blows in the course of a swift 38 (42 balls) and thetail never gave up hope but the target remained tantalisingly out ofreach. Even after the 47th over, Zimbabwe were ahead of India at thecorresponding stage, which put the value of the late surge spearheadedby Agarkar in perspective. Having added three wickets to his kitty, hewas the undisputed Man of the Match.In the morning, a brilliant opening spell by Heath Streak, taking thenew ball for the first time in the series, put India firmly on thedefensive from the start. Bowling a relentless off stump line and athree quarter length or thereabouts, he challenged the batsmen toforce him away at their own peril. Given the rare opportunity to batout the full 50 overs, Sridharan Sriram squandered it with impunity.Drawn irresistibly into a ball angled well wide of him, the resultingnick was gobbled by Andy Flower. In six ODI’s, the lefthander is stillto reach double figures, a result not so much deriving from anydeficiency in technique but rather an inability to curb his naturalinstincts.The tight bowling from Streak frustrated skipper Dravid to play a shotout of character and trying to go over the infield, he failed to gethold of the ball and holed out to midoff. Sachin Tendulkar had foundthe pickets at easy intervals and was quick to pounce on any errors inline and length, almost entirely from Strang. One sensed however thathe was exercising all his powers of self-control to guard against afalse shot and open up a middle order that had hitherto promised morethan it had delivered. When Streak took himself off after a tightfirst spell, it just might have been lulled Tendulkar intoindiscretion as he dragged a widish delivery from Mluleki Nkala ontohis stumps.That left India in disarray at 42/3 and although Yuvraj Singh andVirender Shewag both played some delightful shots in their briefappearances in the middle, they did not help the cause by gettingdismissed at inopportune moments. Yuvraj started in blistering fashionwith boundaries off his first two balls off Nkala whom he continued tosingle out for attention, a pull to the midwicket fence beingsingularly contemptuous. The innings was just blossoming when it wassnuffed out by umpire Saheba, making his ODI debut, who gave him legbefore when he seemed to be playing enough forward to induce areasonable doubt in onlooker’s minds.Virender Shewag is another who is built very much in the cavaliermould and there was murder in his eye as he danced down the wicket andcleared Murphy over the straight boundary. Something had to give inthis confrontation and as it turned out, it was the batsman whoblinked first, being caught behind by Andy Flower at 114 in the 27thover. Badani was the guiding light of the innings, allowing for thestrokemakers to blaze away, and then perish, at the other end, whilehe himself carved the ball into the gaps, accumulating the runs withstealth. His half century contained just one boundary – a six in factoff Murphy that thudded into the sight screen at the pavilion end -and there wasn’t an element of extravagance in his stroke play, justlevel-headedness taken to an extreme.Sodhi also blossomed into his own after an unsteady start, aneffortless six over long on off Bryan Strang, being the acme of hisrepertoire after which his confidence started flowing back. He washowever overshadowed by Agarkar who tucked into some loose bowlingwith gusto. Agarkar’s bread and butter strokes were the inside outshot over cover and the lofted heave to deep midwicket as he hurriedto a fifty off just 21 balls. The last five overs produced 73 with allthe bowlers including Streak being severely punished. Dropped early inhis knock by Brian Murphy at point, Agarkar finished off the inningswith two sixes in two balls off Alistair Campbell who was invited tobowl the 50th over by a rattled Heath Streak. The unbroken seventhwicket stand was worth 85 in 39 balls, Agarkar’s share being 67 off25. Sodhi who was already on 39 when his partner joined him, finishedon a comparatively sedate 53 in 67 balls. “The situation was quitesimple. I just had to go out and hit. Today I connected everything”,said Agarkar. A precociously talented batsman as a schoolboy, who oncehit a triple century in Mumbai’s Giles Shield, Agarkar seems to haverediscovered the flair he lost along the way. Combined with his skillwith the old ball, he was simply the revelation of the series.

South African national cricketers Makhaya Ntini, Mornantau Hayward andMfuneko Ngam will attend Saturday’s 25th Anniversary commemorations of theJune 1976 uprising in Soweto.The three players will be present at the Morris Isaacson High School for theend of the fun run at 9am on Saturday, from where they will walk to theHector Pietersen Memorial in Orlando West. Makhaya Ntini will say a fewwords at the memorial and will lay a wreath from the United Cricket Boardand the South African national cricket team in memory of those who losttheir lives in 1976.

A whirlwind 94 by Australian Jimmy Maher and an impressive all-roundperformance from Robert Croft helped Glamorgan to a 111-run victory overWorcestershire in their Norwich Union National League Division Two clashat Cardiff.The Queenslander fell six short of his first league century but notbefore he had shared in a match-winning 151-run partnership for thesecond wicket off just 20 overs with Croft after Glamorgan hadwon the toss.It was the backbone of Glamorgan’s 305-6 – a record league score for thecounty beating the 294-4 against Surrey at Pontypridd in 1999.Both Maher and Croft scored their half-centuries from just 41 deliveriesas the Worcestershire seam attack was put to the sword. The visitorsweren’t helped by their fielding which saw Croft dropped three times andMaher once on 65.The off spin of Graeme Hick slowed Glamorgan up and also accounted forthe wickets of Croft and Maher in the space of two overs. Maher’s 94came up off 76 with 18 fours.The rest of the Glamorgan innings couldn’t quite match the scoring rateof Maher and Croft but at the end Adrian Dale cruised to a 36-ball 50.Worcestershire started their reply in encouraging manner reaching 100 inthe 15th over but at the cost of three wickets – Anurag Singh, JamiePipe and Phil Weston.Worcestershire’s hopes rested on the shoulder of Hick and Vikram Solankibut both fell victim to Croft who produced a superb spell of three for31. Once those two perished the visitors innings slowly subsided andthey were bowled out with 10.3 overs remaining.

The residents of Matale could get a glimpse of former and present Sri Lankan cricketers when the Sri Lanka Cricketers’ Association played a friendly match at Bernard Aluvihare Stadium yesterday. The stadium – situated in the Matale town, about 20 kilometers away from Kandy – was filled by 4,000 people, who flocked to see their heroes, who have conquered the world of cricket.The cricketers obliged willingly to the autograph hunters. For those who had come to witness them, the result of the match was secondary. The real winner of the day was the Matale District Cricket Association who had organised the event with the intention of promoting the game in the area and encouraging their budding youngsters.Fifteen past and present Sri Lankan cricketers gathered to play the friendly game. Don Anurasiri, Kumar Dharmasena, Ruchira Perera, Kumar Sangakkara and Kaushalya Weerarathne had to sit out of this game, but were seen going around the ground obliging the autograph hunters and posing for photographs.The match played between SL Cricketers’ Association and the Matale District Cricket Association, the only serious cricket team from the district, started around 10 o’clock in the morning.

Roshan Mahanama, captained the Cricketers’ Association while P.K. Aluvihare, captained the Matale Side. Aluvihare has been a consistent performer with the ball for the Matale side in the domestic tournament getting more than 75 wickets. Mahanama, winning the toss, elected to bat first and the residents of the area were presented with an entertaining display of batsmanship.The man who rose to the occasion was Michael Vandort, the promising tall youngster. Vandort, opening the innings, smashed 60 off just 46 deliveries with 11 boundaries and a six. He put up 90 runs for the first wicket with Lanka de Silva before he retired.After Vandort retired, there was a mini collapse for the visitors as Lanka de Silva, Indika de Saram and Roshan Mahanama got out within the space of few runs. But Ruwan Kalpage, batting at number six, made a fine 40 with the help of four boundaries and a six. If Kalpage’s 40 helped the visitors to go past 200 run mark, Eric Upashantha’s 38 with six fours and a six helped them to score an imposing 246 in 40 overs.In the bowling department, I. Abeyrathne picked up three wickets for 39 runs while M.B. Tillakaratne picked up three for 63 runs. J.C. Welagedara too bowled impressively getting two wickets for 36 runs.The home side started the run chase impressively with D.L. Wijewardene leading the way in top of the order. Wijewardene made 51 in 41 balls with 11 boundaries. But after his dismissal, the innings fell apart and none of the middle order batsmen managed to impress. However, the tail-enders provided some entertainment later in the innings. But they ended 54 runs short, as they were bowled out for 192 in the 39th over.Champaka Ramanayake, though retired from competitive cricket, was the most impressive. He picked up three wickets for 18 runs. Dinuk Hettiarchi and Ruwan Kalpage picked up two wickets a piece.The scores:

SL Cricketers’ Association XI. 246/9 (40)
M. Vandort 60, L. de Silva 22, C. Silva 25, R. Kalpage 40, E. Upashantha 38.I.Abeyratne 3/39, M.B Tillakaratne 3/63, J.C Welagedara 2/36.

Matale District Cricketers’ Association XI. 192 all out (39.2)

D.L Wijerwardene 51, M.B. Tillakaratne 21, N. Bokalawela 35.C. Ramanayake 3/18, D. Hettiarchi 2/17, 2/15.

Glamorgan have joined the race to try to sign left-arm pace bowler Paul Hutchison, who is being released by Yorkshire at the end of the season.But although skipper Steve James is believed to have spoken to the 24-year-old Leeds-born bowler other counties have confirmed an interest including Warwickshire, Lancashire and Northamptonshire.The only problem for Glamorgan is that Hutchinson is injury prone and has spent a lot of this season out of action.Hutchison represented England at Under-17, 18 and 19 and seemed destined to go all the way, but has got bogged down because of injury.On top of that, Yorkshire have a plethora of seam bowlers, including Darren Gough, Chris Silverwood, Ryan Sidebottom, Steve Kirby and Gavin Hamilton on their books, so they cannot keep everybody happy.Recruiting a left-armer would no doubt interest Robert Croft when it comes to bowling into the rough to right-handed batsmen.If Glamorgan do grab his signature he would be the county’s first left-arm seamer since Simon Dennis left the club a decade ago, and he would be the county’s first non-overseas signing since Alex Wharf was recruited from Nottinghamshire two seasons ago.