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The forthcoming series between Pakistan and Australia will not be played at a neutral venue or in Australia as a last resort, the Pakistan board has reiterated., quoting an unnamed official, recently reported that the PCB would consider shifting the series – to be held in March-April 2008 – to Australia in a “worst-case scenario” in which conditions in Pakistan were not conducive to hosting the series. But Nasim Ashraf, chairman PCB, denied the report, stressing that the series will be played, as scheduled, in Pakistan.”The PCB has only one position on this series,” Ashraf told reporters in Hyderabad. “Australia will play in Pakistan as per their commitment in March-April 2008. There is no question of it being played at a neutral venue or swapping venues and playing in Australia at this time.”We have a visit to Australia at the end of 2009 and we will fulfill that as well. But the current series against Zimbabwe has shown that cricket is not affected by such things.”Pakistan has been rocked by a particularly turbulent year of political unrest and violence, which culminated with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister, at the end of December last year. General elections were due to be held in the country on January 8, but have now been postponed to February 18.Several Australian players have voiced their concerns about touring Pakistan, but Cricket Australia’s stance on the issue has always been firm: any final decision on the tour will be made after a security delegation has assessed the on-ground situation in Pakistan. The visit is expected to take place soon after elections.”They are coming and the tour is on as far as we know,” said Ashraf. “We have given every assurance to the Australian High Commission. I am surprised but those statements [in the Australian press] were not made by any PCB official.”

John Bracewell says Sri Lanka have “greater flexibility across the board for these conditions” © Getty Images

John Bracewell, the New Zealand coach, believes the conditions in the West Indies have pushed Sri Lanka towards World Cup favouritism. Bracewell made the assessment after watching his side lose to Bangladesh on a turning surface in Barbados on Tuesday and he will have another opportunity to gauge Tom Moody’s squad in New Zealand’s final warm-up on Friday.”Sri Lanka, given those conditions we played on [against Bangladesh], have probably shifted as one of the tournament favourites,” Bracewell told NZPA. “They have greater flexibility across the board for these conditions in terms of their spin, their part-time bowlers and their up-front swingers. They have the tools available and we need to adapt to that very quickly.”Bracewell said the two-wicket defeat to Bangladesh – it was the first time New Zealand had been beaten by them – could be the “best thing or the worst thing to happen to us”. “It’s a wake-up call, getting used to the conditions and respecting opposition we’re going to come across in pool play,” he said. “These are teams you’re expected to beat, but if you’re complacent and not quite ready then on these sorts of wickets they can kick you in the butt.”

Brendon McCullum’s pyrotechnics sealed Canterbury’s victory in the Twenty20 final © Getty Images

Brendon McCullum smashed 62 from 22 deliveries to propel Canterbury to a six-wicket win over Auckland in the inaugural Twenty20 final at Eden Park’s Outer Oval.Chasing 180, McCullum went hammer-and-tongs at the Auckland bowling attack, smashing six sixes and four fours in an opening stand of 80 with Nathan Astle. Swinging the bat at almost every delivery faced in a 25-minute stay at the crease, McCullum effectively signalled the outcome of the match – Canterbury’s fifty came up in 13 minutes and 17 deliveries – by the time he holed out to Mayu Pasupati off Paul Hitchcock.Astle, reserved in comparison to McCullum, hit 74 from 52 deliveries with 11 fours and two sixes before being run out by New Zealand team-mate Lou Vincent with victory just 2 runs away.After being inserted by Chris Harris, the Canterbury captain, Auckland’s total of 179 for 7 was centred around Scott Styris’s 62 from 32 balls, complete with five sixes and four fours. Vincent and Hitchcock also contributed with 37 and 36 respectively. Chris Cairns, who recently announced his retirement from international cricket, picked up 2 for 31 from four overs..

When he reached 160, Virender Sehwag became the 16th Indian to get to 3000 Test runs. He achieved the landmark in his 34th Test, and while Sunil Gavaskar took the same number of Tests, he played 11 more innings than Sehwag. In fact, Sehwag is easily the fastest, in terms of innings, to reach the milestone. Mohammad Azharuddin, who’s in second place, took 64 innings.

Quickest to 3000	Tests/Inngs	Ave	100s/ 50s
Sehwag	34/ 55	56.31	10/ 9
Azharuddin	43/ 64	50.00	10/ 10
Gavaskar	34/ 66	50.00	12/ 14
Dravid	39/ 67	49.18	7/ 16
Tendulkar	45/ 67	50.85	10/ 15

This innings also took Sehwag’s first-innings average to a monumental 75.12. Among batsmen with at least 1500 Test runs, Sehwag’s average is second only to Don Bradman’s.

First-innings performers	Runs	Ave	1st inng 100s/ total 100s
Bradman	4697	97.85	19/28
Sehwag	2554	75.12	10/10
Weekes	3429	71.44	14/15
Barrington	5069	65.83	17/20
Hutton	4905	65.40	17/19

Sehwag’s 201 was his 10th Test hundred, in his 34th match – that’s a rate of a century every 3.4 games. Among batsmen with at least ten hundreds, Sehwag is in seventh place. Don Bradman is well ahead of the pack, while George Headley and Clyde Walcott are the only others with a ratio of less than three games per century.

Best Test/ 100 ratio	Tests	100s	Ratio
Bradman	52	29	1.79
Headley	22	10	2.2
Walcott	44	15	2.93
Weekes	48	15	3.20
Hayden	66	20	3.30
Sutcliffe	54	16	3.38
Sehwag	34	10	3.4
Sobers	93	26	3.58
Tendulkar	122	34	3.59
Greg Chappell	87	24	3.63

India 211 for 1 (Sharma 96*, Jain 58) beat New Zealand 207 for 7 by 9 wickets
ScorecardJaya Sharma played a stellar role, for the second time in as many matches, as the Indian Women romped home to a facile nine wicket victory against New Zealand in the second one-dayer at Aurangabad. After the bowlers had done an excellent job of restricting the visitors to only 207, the Indians lost only one wicket as they finished the job with more than two overs to spare.The story was similar to the first one-dayer in Mumbai, that India won, as New Zealand were kept on a tight leash from the beginning. The Indian spinners came to the fore and teased the batsmen all day with Nooshin Al Khadeer finishing up as the most successful bowler with two wickets. Amita Sharma, Deepa Kulkarni and Neetu David also bowled a nagging line and dried up the runs to a great extent.Maia Lewis (47), the captain, Haidee Tiffen (44) and Kate Pulford (37) chipped in with useful contributions but the runs came at a crawl and New Zealand lost their way in the middle-overs. In the end, Lewis’s knock took them past two hundred and gave them some chance.The Indian openers kept abreast with the run-rate and never found themselves in any trouble. Sharma cracked 11 fours in her fine innings and Anju Jain proved an ideal foil. Jain, unhurried throughout he stay, fell shortly after making her fifty, but that was when the fun began. Mihali Raj unveiled some classical shots as a flurry of boundaries were executed. She raced to 38 of just 34 balls and finished the match with a flourish as India took a 2-0 lead in the five match series.

One of the most satisfying aspects of South Africa’s reaching the final of the ICC Under-19 World Cup in Christchurch, New Zealand to coach Hylton Ackerman was the contribution of the eight players of colour in his side.Compared to when South Africa returned to international cricket in 1992 the differences were immense.”To have eight players of colour is a huge difference to what it was,” he said.Those players also made an immense contribution to the side and Ackerman referred to team captain Hashim Amla as his “Graeme Pollock”.He could also reflect on an outstanding innings today by wicket-keeper Zwelibanzi Homani whose half century got the side over 200 runs in the final.But it was the run outs of his two best players of spin bowling Amla and David Jacobs that crippled South Africa in the final.”Three weeks ago I said to the players imagine if they ran out Graeme Pollock in front of 30,000 people at a ground in South Africa, which side of the ground would they leave from, and my Pollock ran himself out today,” he said.”But the Australians deserved to win, for the way they played the entire tournament. And I think it was great that they played four spinners in a one-day team.”Their captain Cameron White was also outstanding. With all respects to my own captain, he was yards ahead of anyone else here. And their left-arm spinner Xavier Doherty really impressed me.”We may have lost the final but the learning process for our team here has been unbelievable.”

It was largely a struggle for the Uttar Pradesh batsmen on the opening day of their Central Zone Ranji Trophy match against Rajasthan at the KL Saini stadium in Jaipur on Monday. Winning the toss and electing to bat, UP took 94 overs to score 196 for six at stumps.Medium pacer Shamsher Singh wrecked the top order by prising out Manoj Mudgal (6), Rohit Prakash (for a first ball duck) and Rizwan Shamshad (10) with only 25 runs on the board. A fourth wicket partnership of 61 runs off 31 overs between Jyoti Yadav (34) and skipper Gyanendra Pandey (40) helped UP to stage a recovery of sorts. Both batsmen however fell in quick succession but a sixth wicket stand of 68 runs off 26.4 overs between Mohd Saif (52 not out) and Parvinder Singh Singh (28) boosted the UP total somewhat. At close Saif and AW Zaidi (17) were at the crease. Saif has so far batted three hours, faced 162 balls and hit three fours. Shamsher Singh, who caused all the early damage, finished the day with the splendid figures of 12-9-9-3.

Tyler Roberts won’t play again for Leeds United this season because of a serious hamstring injury, as per The Athletic’s Phil Hay.

The Lowdown: Roberts injured at Leicester

The Welshman picked up the knock in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat away to Leicester City in the Premier League, having only come on as the third and final substitute, meaning he continued playing while clearly badly hampered.

It was a result that left Leeds further in the relegation mire, as Jesse Marsch lost his first match in charge after replacing Marcelo Bielsa as manager.

The hope was of course that Roberts would only be out for a number of weeks but a fresh update is far worse than that.

[freshpress-quiz id=“383507″]

The Latest: Hay confirms bad news

Taking to Twitter on Monday night, Hay confirmed that the attacking midfielder isn’t expected to play again this season:

“Looks like Tyler Roberts’ season is over. Has undergone surgery on the hamstring injury he suffered at Leicester. Three-month recovery period.”

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The Verdict: Another blow for Marsch

While Roberts isn’t as vital as fellow absent teammates such as Liam Cooper, Kalvin Phillips and Patrick Bamford, this is still undoubtedly another big injury blow due to the impact on the depth at Marsch’s disposal.

Fitness issues have played a big part in Leeds’ struggles this season, with important figures unavailable too often and it clearly taking its toll on results, with fatigue and inconsistency often prevalent amongst overworked players.

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Roberts has come off the bench 16 times in the top flight this term, so Marsch will now be without one of Bielsa’s first options when a change is needed for the remainder of the season.

For Roberts, it could even be that he has played his game for Leeds, with reports linking him with an exit in the past and Marsch likely to bring in his own attacking signings this summer, such as Brenden Aaronson.

In other news, Leeds have been backed to sign one British player this summer. Find out who it is here.

Siphatisiwe Moyo, the Zimbabwe allrounder, has pulled out of next week’s Women’s World Cup qualifier in South Africa with appendicitis.Moyo, 22, learnt of her condition in December and is to undergo surgery in South Africa.The qualifying series was originally due to be held in Pakistan in November last year but was moved to South Africa, following the political upheaval which ensued after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

50 overs
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Shaun Pollock was outstanding with the new ball © AFP

Shaun Pollock, supported by an assembly line of bristling seamers, set Pakistan up for the kill, before South Africa’s openers finished it with a lack of mercy that Jack the Ripper would’ve shivered at. Pakistan were trounced, ultimately, by ten wickets with 36 overs to spare at Cape Town, South Africa taking a 2-1 series lead with one match left to play.As with the series opening result at Centurion, numbers couldn’t fully convey the carnage. In the end, as Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers rained down a glut of boundaries, it seemed as if the Twenty20 game that started this series with the same result and manner was being replayed.But it was indisputably Pollock though who set up the romp, and in particular his first eight overs, which gave up but eight runs and took two wickets. Smith won a welcome first toss of the series and put Pakistan in under a gloomy sky, on a spicy pitch; a Pollock special he hoped for and a Pollock special he got.Bowling machines have been known to stray more than Pollock did, so precise were his lines and lengths. A little extra movement meant no batsman was ever in any control. He conceded his first run in only his fourth over, that too off a wide. By then, Imran Nazir had already gone in an exemplary first over, memories of the Durban spanking quickly receding. Kamran Akmal and Younis Khan were beaten for fun and at one stage, just getting bat on ball was surprise enough. When Younis did bunt one to short cover, the novelty was such that Akmal took off for a single that wasn’t. He slipped, Herschelle Gibbs didn’t.Eight for two after 10 overs captured Pakistan’s struggle like no words could. Mohammad Yousuf loosened the shackles a touch driving Pollock for the first boundary in the morning’s 11th over, but it was the briefest riposte. Pollock lured Younis into a misguided drive and if Pakistan were relieved that this was the penultimate over of a spell which included four maidens, they were in for a rude shock: to their dismay, the back-up was in no form to be considered that.Andrew Hall and Charl Langeveldt teased batsmen with skiddy pace and a hustling, bustling discipline. Having bowled five overs between them for merely 11 runs, Hall soon struck gold. Yousuf had just clipped him through midwicket politely, before he opened the bat-face and edged behind.That left South Africa fully on top, Pakistan seeking solace in isolated moments of batting parity with a series of scrambled singles and doubles. Inzamam-ul-Haq hung in, though visually his stand resembled that of the sole protestor’s standing in front of the tank at Tianamen Square. Symbolically, it was much less. Shoaib Malik helped offer cursory resistance in a 46-run mid-innings stand, but as he fell to Justin Kemp, even that hope frittered away.

AB de Villiers was stunning in the field and powered South Africa towards their target © AFP

Run-scoring had hardly been hurried before, but it became a tortuously slow drip. Kemp, Jacques Kallis and Makhaya Ntini tightened their grip, Inzamam drew further into himself, wickets fell to loose shots and South Africa, led by de Villiers, relentlessly hounded Pakistan from the field.Famously multi-skilled, de Villiers’s fielding aptitude must be a first among equals. If ever one has so frustrated a batting side, it was de Villiers today, preventing any number of runs at cover and midwicket through the day. Behind the stumps, Mark Boucher threw in his take on Pollock’s consistency, becoming only the fourth keeper in ODI history to take six catches.de Villiers then put on his batting hat, and by the end of the first over, with a cracking cover drive, had helped South Africa to more runs (11) than Pakistan made in ten. With a series of hoisted pulls to balls that weren’t always short, he raced away. As he was pulling Abdur Rehman in the 11th over, South Africa had hit the same number of boundaries as Pakistan managed in their entire innings. With a straight, lofted six next ball, they had overtaken the boundary count.Smith finished it with the dexterity of a butcher and in timely fashion both men completed their fifties within a ball of each other in the last over. It completed a neat full circle for Pakistan, who in a week went from utterly hopeless in Centurion to the sublime in Durban, to the competitive in Port Elizabeth and finally back to the utterly hopeless here.