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A day after being named in Australia’s Test squad to face Pakistan, Brad Haddin has been ruled out and replaced by Tim Paine for the two-match series in England next month. Haddin was initially given another week to prove his fitness from an elbow tendon problem, but the decision to keep him home was made by Dr Trefor James after reviewing the injury.While the complaint doesn’t hamper Haddin when he is behind the stumps, it has troubled the 32-year-old’s batting since the end of last year. He faced an over in the nets on Tuesday but could still feel the pain.”It is extremely disappointing to miss any match for your country and especially frustrating in this situation where I can do everything but pick up a cricket bat,” he said. “I have been extremely aggressive in the treatment process of this tendon injury, doing everything I possibly could to play against Pakistan. After seeing the specialist in Sydney today he has advised me that the best course of action is to take a slow and steady approach to getting it right.”Haddin, the first-choice gloveman since Adam Gilchrist retired, has played 27 Tests and is aiming to return to the national side for the tour of India in October. “Now that I have time on my hands, the specialist and I are very confident I can let the injury repair itself in normal time and be ready to go,” he said.The decision gives Paine, the Tasmanian, two matches at Lord’s and Leeds to challenge Haddin for the position in the long term. Haddin’s superior batting – he averages 38.62 with two hundreds – means he will come back as soon as he is fit, but Paine has a rare opportunity.Not since Ian Healy’s debut in 1988-89 has an understudy gained more than one Test cap, with Phil Emery and Graham Manou limited to a single appearance each. Emery filled in for Healy in Pakistan in 1994 while Manou replaced Haddin when he broke a finger on last year’s Ashes trip.Paine is currently on the limited-overs tour of the British Isles and scored 26 as an opener in the loss to England on Tuesday. He has appeared in 19 ODIs and 37 first-class games, collecting 102 four-day dismissals and averaging 30.96 while playing the majority of his games on a tricky Bellerive Oval pitch.Andrew Hilditch’s selection panel has been impressed by Paine’s work with Tasmania and in Australia’s one-day team. “We feel he has the skills and temperament to do extremely well in Test cricket for Australia,” Hilditch said. “It is a well deserved opportunity which we are sure Tim will make the most of during the series against Pakistan.”

West Indies have been hit by a bunch of injuries ahead of the third one-dayer against South Africa in Dominica. The struggling home side, yet to win a match in the series, will be without experienced batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan (left hamstring strain), left-arm-spinner Nikita Miller (right side strain) and fast bowler Kemar Roach (left ankle soreness) at least for the next two ODIs.The West Indies selectors have also dropped the out-of-form Andre Fletcher from the 13-man list for the third and fourth one-dayers. Two players who weren’t picked for the first two matches, Jamaican allrounder David Bernard and 21-year-old batsman Darren Bravo, have returned to the squad.Bravo forced his way back into contention with a Man-of-the-Series performance in the recent A team tri-nation series in Bangladesh, where he scored a hundred and three half-centuries in five innings to make a tournament-high 309 runs. Bernard, who has been in and out of the West Indian one-day side since being selected last June after a six-year absence from international cricket, gets another chance to cement his place.West Indies are 2-0 down in the five-ODI series against South Africa, and lost both Twenty20s which preceded the one-dayers as well.West Indies: Chris Gayle (capt), Dwayne Bravo (vice-capt), Sulieman Benn, David Bernard, Darren Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Narsingh Deonarine, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Ravi Rampaul, Dale Richards, Darren Sammy, Jerome Taylor

ScorecardGlamorgan made it four wins in a row by completing a crushing 10-wicket victory over Leicestershire with more than a day to spare at Grace Road. After dismissing Leicestershire for the season’s lowest score of 71 in their second innings, Glamorgan then added to the home side’s embarrassment by reaching their victory target of 197 in under 34 overs without losing a wicket.Mark Cosgrove smashed a century off 104 balls and Gareth Rees hit an unbeaten 73 as the visitors clinched victory an hour before the tea interval. Their unbeaten partnership, coming after Glamorgan had trailed by 125 runs on first innings made this the largest ever deficit that has been turned into a ten wicket win. The previous record of 109 occurred in the famous match at Southport in 1981, when Warwickshire set the first-class record (broken only very recently) of the highest partnership (470) in a losing cause. It was an astonishing turnaround after 17 wickets fell on the second day, prompting the pitch panel to make a visit during lunch today.By then the visit was looking completely unnecessary with Glamorgan already on 79 without loss off 18 overs, having earlier taken Leicestershire’s last five wickets for 26 runs, and indeed after interviewing the umpires, the captains and coaches of both teams and the Leicestershire Head Groundsman, the pitch panel determined that the pitch should be rated “above average”.The home side started the third day on 45 for 5, but in a hapless performance only one batsman managed to reach double figures. That was James Taylor, who was left stranded on 34 not out as wickets tumbled around him. The next highest scorer in the innings was Paul Nixon, who made nine.Glamorgan’s seamers, James Harris and David Harrison, did the damage. Harris claimed 4 for 34 while Harrison took 4 for 17 off 12 overs to give him career-best match figures of 8 for 88. Leicestershire’s total of 71 was their lowest in a championship game since they were bowled out for 69 by Worcestershire at New Road in 1997.It left Glamorgan chasing 197 for victory and there were no signs of any pitch problems as Cosgrove and Rees flayed Leicestershire’s bowlers to all parts, hitting 31 boundaries between them.Cosgrove struck eight fours in his first 50, reached his century of 104 balls having hit another nine boundaries, and then smashed the winning four through midwicket to finish on 113 off 111 balls. Rees made 73 off 93 balls with 12 fours as Glamorgan completed a sensational recovery after being bowled out for 166 in their first innings to concede a lead of 125 runs.For shell-shocked Leicestershire it was one of their most humiliating defeats of the season and their fourth in a row in the championship having won the first two games. It was Glamorgan’s first win at Grace Road since 1986.

Phillip Hughes is likely to miss Australia’s Test series against Pakistan in July after dislocating his left shoulder while boxing on Tuesday. He will have surgery in Melbourne next week and is expected to target the home summer before he returns.Hughes was the reserve batsman on Australia’s trip to New Zealand in March and scored an unbeaten 86 in the second innings of the first Test after replacing the injured Shane Watson. A spot in the squad to face Pakistan in England would have been his even though he is stuck behind Watson and Simon Katich in the pecking order.His expected absence gives hope to the likes of Steven Smith, George Bailey and Usman Khawaja, who have done well on the domestic scene. The shoulder dislocated when Hughes was struck by a friend while doing boxercise training and it popped back in quickly.He will be operated on by Dr Greg Hoy, who has worked on Ricky Ponting, Brett Lee and Shane Warne, and is likely to be out for three months. Hughes was also hoping to play in the Australia A series against Sri Lanka A in June.

Batsman and wicketkeeper Merissa Aguilleira has been retained as captain of West Indies women for the ICC World Twenty20 to be held in the Caribbean. The hosts have made three changes to the squad that toured England for the inaugural version of the tournament last year. They’ve included batsman Britney Cooper, fast bowler Shemaine Campbelle and allrounder Tremayne Smartt in the squad of 14.Abbiegaye Hendricks, Danielle Small and Charlene Taitt will be part of the pre-tournament camp in St Kitts and will be eligible for selection in One-Day Internationals and T20 Internationals against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, played before the World Twenty20 begins on May 5.West Indies beat World Champions England 2-1 in a Twenty20 series in November last year.”Our girls have been playing some very good cricket in the last six months. They beat England, the No. 1 team in the world, and I know they will be ready when the first match bowls off,” Clyde Butt, the West Indies Cricket Board’s chairman of selectors, said. “They will have a camp in St Kitts and matches against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, which will be good preparation. I expect our girls to do very well in this tournament. We have very good all-round team and they are very disciplined. They handle the pressure very well and play together as a unit under Merissa Aguilleira, who has matured as a good leader.”With Stafanie Taylor and Deandra Dottin at the top of the order, we have two match-winners. They are also capable allrounders and they are growing with every match. I would expect these players to lead with Cordel Jack and Pamela Lavine making good contributions as well. We have a good bowling unit as well led by Anisa Mohammed with Taylor, Shanel Daley and Shakera Selman also able to get crucial wickets.”West Indies women’s squad: Merissa Aguilleira (capt), Kirbyina Alexander, Shemaine Campbelle, Britney Cooper, Shanel Daley, Deandra Dottin, Cordel Jack, Stacy-Ann King, Pamela Lavine, Anisa Mohammed, Juliana Nero, Shakera Salman, Tremayne Smartt, Stafanie Taylor

Stuart Clark is set to make his comeback after a near three-month lay-off due to a back injury that kept him out of contention for most of Australia’s international matches this summer. Clark has been named to captain New South Wales in their second-last Sheffield Shield game of the season, against Tasmania in Hobart starting on Wednesday.Although Clark has conceded his international career is all but over he is keen to take on more captaincy duties with the Blues and has signed a county deal with Kent. He will take the reins for New South Wales, who have rested their regular leader Simon Katich due to his heavy workload.The Blues are also without Josh Hazlewood, who has a side strain, and Grant Lambert and Moises Henriques, who have been dropped. But their batting has been given a boost with the return of Usman Khawaja, who has averaged 60.62 this season but hasn’t played since early January due to a thumb injury.Steven Smith has also been named in the 12-man group, having finished his duties with the Australia Twenty20 team in New Zealand, while Tasmania chose an unchanged squad. New South Wales would need to win their remaining two games outright and have a host of other results fall their way to even have a chance of making the Sheffield Shield final, as they sit second-last on the table.New South Wales squad Phil Jaques, Phillip Hughes, Usman Khawaja, Peter Forrest, Ben Rohrer, Dominic Thornely, Steven Smith, Steve O’Keefe, Peter Nevill (wk), Stuart Clark (capt), Mitchell Starc, Trent Copeland.Tasmania squad Ed Cowan, Rhett Lockyear, Alex Doolan, George Bailey (capt), Daniel Marsh, Tim Paine (wk), James Faulkner, Xavier Doherty, Brendan Drew, Adam Griffith, Tim Macdonald, Adam Maher.

Jamie Siddons, the Bangladesh coach, was critical of his team’s performance after the top order collapsed once again, on the fourth evening in Hamilton to leave the hosts in sight of victory. “The game got away from us in the 25 or so overs of terrible batting. Our aim was to get through today and regroup for tomorrow. I’m not sure what went wrong, whether the boys felt the pressure of the big occasion or if they thought they could go out and actually get the runs but it was certainly not in the plan, the way Tamim played,” Siddons said.He was however quick to defend the Bangladesh opener’s aggressive approach. “That’s just the way he plays. He bats in the same way as a Sehwag. We all loved it when he got 68 in the first innings and 150 odd against India. But the other boys have to realise that just like it’s not all about [Mohammad] Ashraful, it’s not all about Tamim. They have to stand up and perform.”Siddons hinted that the Bangladesh cricket establishment’s patience for Ashraful may have reached its end. “[He] had a terrible tour and he kept making the same bad decisions. We might have to reassess Ashraful when we get back,” Siddons said.Siddons also tried to remain upbeat about the looming final day of the match. “We have three guys there who are all capable of making Test centuries and we need at least two of those guys to make big scores for us to have a chance.”We have to keep picking ourselves up after games like this. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this is a young team and that’s part of the reason we keep failing under pressure. I think our opponents know that and believe that they have what it takes to get the better of us,” Siddons said.Tim McIntosh, who top-scored with 89 for the hosts, felt that the disappointment of missing a hundred was compensated by the fact that his knock had put his side on course for a win. “It was a bit disappointing not to get to three figures but I am happy to have contributed,” McIntosh said.McIntosh had a strange day, being involved in three run outs, the last of which claimed his own wicket. “You think it might come back to you when you have been involved in all three. But I think it’s just part of the game and it’s unfortunate that it seemed to happen today. I don’t know if you can directly blame anyone for it. They were all pretty good calls and they were all good, direct hit throws as well.” McIntosh said.

Stumps
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were outBrendon McCullum and Martin Guptill came within 13 runs of setting a new world record sixth-wicket stand•Getty Images

A terrific 339-run sixth-wicket stand between Martin Guptilland Brendon McCullum put the hosts firmly in the driver’s seat on the second day of the one-off Test at Seddon Park. Both batsmen came agonisingly close to maiden double-centuries, before falling to an inspired Rubel Hossain spell soon after drinks in the second session, and New Zealand later declared with a massive total. Bangladesh started their innings in smashing form, with Tamim Iqbal looking comfortable against the New Zealand bowlers, but the visitors still face a mountain to climb.Guptill and McCullum had batted faultlessly until that point, scoring heavily on both sides of the pitch in the first session by making full use of a surface that had significantly improved for batting from day one. The Bangladesh attack was unimaginative in the morning, continually bowling short with men back on the square boundary, even as the New Zealand batsmen picked the gaps between them with deft precision. Guptill exploited the short pitched bowling well, repeatedly flaying errant deliveries to the backward point fence, and brought up his maiden Test century from 188 balls early in the day. McCullum too, was especially brutal on the pull, heaving Shafiul Islam over the square leg boundary to bring up his fourth Test ton and his second against Bangladesh.The batsmen continued to make merry in the morning, preying on lacklustre bowling and wearing down the opposition fielders with some slippery running between the wickets. McCullum was the first to reach 150, with Guptill following suit just before the break, after a spate of boundaries off the Bangladesh pacemen towards the end of the session.Shakib Al Hasan’s ploy to relax his aggressive field placings after lunch made for a more sedate start to the second session, in which a revitalised Bangladesh did well to dry up the boundaries for ninety-five consecutive deliveries. Guptill and McCullum had little trouble negotiating the second day pitch however, picking up the singles on offer and converting the ones into expertly judged, lightning speed twos.A renewed Rubel, in his first spell of the afternoon, was to be their eventual demise, dismissing McCullum first with a fuller delivery before inducing a top edge from Guptill a few overs later to pick up his maiden five-wicket haul in Tests. By the time the mammoth partnership ended, the duo had broken the record for highest sixth-wicket partnership for New Zealand, missing out on the world record by 12 runs, while McCullum’s 185 was the highest by a New Zealand wicketkeeper. Daryl Tuffey and Jeetan Patel then came out playing shots and boosted the hosts total to an utterly dominant 553 for 7 until the declaration came on the stroke of tea.Tamim and Imrul Kayes began at a breakneck pace for Bangladesh in the evening session before Daniel Vettori brought himself into the attack to cut the opening stand short, at 79. Tamim in particular took the New Zealand pacemen to task, bringing up his fourth Test half-century in just 39 deliveries. He ended the day unbeaten on 56 when bad light stopped play, in an innings that featured 10 boundaries, leaving Bangladesh on 87 for 1. The tourists require their top order to cash in on a surface getting better for batting on the third day, in order to avoid a massive first innings deficit.

Scorecard
Fog and bad light continued to eat away at match hours in Amritsar, where Mohammad Kaif scored his maiden first-class double-century to boost Central Zone to a massive total on the third day.The entire morning session was lost to bad light, after which Kaif and Naman Ojha guided Central past 400. Their partnership had grown to 64 when Ojha fell to medium-pacer Dhiraj Goswami. Piyush Chawla chipped in with a quickfire 27 but it was Kaif who was the star of the day, going on to become only the fourth Central Zone batsman to cross 200. Central declared soon after the milestone was reached, in the hope of giving their bowlers enough time to dismiss East Zone and progress on the first-innings lead.East made an assured start to their reply, with openers Dheeraj Jadhav and Arindham Das putting on 62. Jadhav was dismissed by Sanjay Bangar for 28, and East had progressed to 64 for 1 before bad light caused play to be called off.

USA have announced their squad for the Under-19 World Cup scheduled for January 15-31, 2010 in New Zealand. The squad prepare for the tournament with an intensive four-day weekend training camp in Florida, under the watchful eyes of USA coaches and former New Zealand player Dipak Patel.The squad is made up from the same group of players who participated in the World Cup Qualifier in Toronto, earlier in September. However Steven Taylor has been added as wicketkeeper-batsman. The team will assemble in San Francisco on January 1, 2010 for departure to New Zealand.On arrival in New Zealand, they will train as guests of New Zealand Cricket at the national training facility until January 9th when they will transfer to the tournament hotel. The squad will play two warm-up matches against India on January 11, and Papua New Guinea on January 12. A recent collaborative agreement between the USA Cricket Association and New Zealand Cricket, was instrumental in the latter facilitating such a welcoming host arrangement for the USA players. New Zealand Cricket coaches will continue to play an integral role in the preparation of the USA squad while in New Zealand.The squad was very focused during the recent training camp and all of the players are eager for the action to begin. According to assistant coach Reginald Benjamin, “For the many years that I have been involved in cricket in America both as a player and a coach this weekend has been the most productive and successful ever.”Squad 1 Shiva Vashishat (Captain), 2 Salman Ahmad, 3 Regis Burton, 4 Ryan Corns, 5 Muhammad Ghous, 6 Naseer Jamali, 7 Abhijit Joshi, 8 Azurdeen Mohammed, 9 Saqib Saleem, 10 Gregory Sewdial, 11 Yash Shah, 12 Hammad Shahid, 13 Sammi Siddiqui, 14 Steven Taylor, 15 Henry Wardley