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ScorecardAnjum Chopra anchored India Red Women’s innings with an unbeaten 34 to help her team complete a five-wicket victory against India Blue Women in the opening game of the Women’s Challenger Trophy in Ahmedabad. Chasing 118 for victory, India Red got home in the 20th over with four balls to spare.Chopra was supported by Thirush Kamini and Rumeli Dhar but India Red’s chase was jolted by three run outs. They lost wickets at regular intervals but Chopra ensured victory by remaining firm at one end. She struck two fours in her 39-ball innings.Earlier the India Blues’ innings had also suffered from a spate of run outs. Anagha Deshpande top-scored with 48 but she was one of three batsmen to be run out as her team was restricted to 117 for 4 in 20 overs. Mithali Raj chipped in with 41 and hers was the only wicket taken by a bowler.

MS Dhoni has hit back at the comments of Ian Chappell, who this week said that India do not have the resources to retain their No.1 spot in the ICC Test rankings for a long enough period to emulate Australia and the great West Indies teams of the past. Chappell, the former Australian captain and leading commentator, had said on Time Out, Cricinfo’s new fortnightly audio show, that India’s batting alone will not sustain them and to do so they will have to unearth a couple of champion bowlers.Dhoni, however, termed Chappell’s assessment an unfair and unnecessarily harsh one. “It is not a fair statement. I agree that our bowlers are struggling now. But we have become the Test number one also because of the bowlers and not only due to our batting,” he said after India’s loss to Sri Lanka in the final of the recent tri-series in Bangladesh.”Sometimes batsmen struggle and sometimes bowlers. It is not fair to say that we don’t have good bowlers. We will prove it [that we can sustain the No. 1 Test ranking].”Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara echoed Dhoni’s views on India’s pace attack. “India has top-class bowlers. Zaheer [Khan] is one of the best fast bowlers in the world and Harbhajan [Singh] is top class,” he said. “Even Sreesanth can bowl reverse swing. There are always critics and doubters but it is your job to prove them wrong.”India stay on in Bangladesh to contest a two-Test series against the hosts starting January 17 in Chittagong. India bagged the top ranking from Australia after beating Sri Lanka 2-0 in the three-Test series at home last month. India jumped from No. 3 to No.1 for first time since the rankings came into place in May 2001.

New Zealand Cricket are expected shortly to name a coach as successor to Andy Moles, who resigned last October, with the board scheduled to discuss the issue at a meeting on Friday. Those in contention include Darren Lehmann, who confirmed he’d been in talks with NZC, Mark Greatbatch and Jeff Crowe. However, Adam Gilchrist denied developments regarding Lehmann, the coach of IPL franchise Deccan Chargers, during his commentary stint in the fourth ODI between Pakistan and Australia.”It will be discussed at today’s board meeting and I am confident an appointment will be made before the start of the Bangladesh series on Wednesday,” NZC chief executive Justin Vaughan told .New Zealand have not appointed any interim coach since Moles stepped down, increasing captain Daniel Vettori’s responsibilities during the series against Pakistan late last year. Moles was in the job for less than a year, raising questions over whether NZC had erred during their recruitment process when appointing him as John Bracewell’s successor.Vaughan said NZC wanted to be sure the right candidate was picked this time, leading to a lengthy spell without a national coach. “Looking at some examples from international cricket in recent times, some coaching appointments have not gone well, and we had that experience as well with the departure of Andy Moles last year,” he said. “I think there’s been a real need to reflect on that and make sure we get this appointment right.”Lehmann, the former Australian batsman who guided the Deccan Chargers to the IPL title last season, has confirmed he is in talks with NZC for the role.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

The innovative Eoin Morgan will be one to watch in Bangalore’s middle order•Getty Images

In the second season, they muddled through the first half of the competition before a late surge under Anil Kumble’s captaincy lifted them to the finals.Going into this IPL season, Bangalore have two clear advantages over their start to the campaign in South Africa: first, in Kumble they have a fixed leader for the entire tournament, unlike the uncertainty surrounding who would take over once Kevin Pietersen left after a handful of matches in 2009.Second, and perhaps more significantly, their Indian contingent looks much more formidable this season – the Karnataka trio of Manish Pandey, Abhimanyu Mithun and R Vinay Kumar have all had excellent domestic seasons while Sreevats Goswami, the Bengal wicketkeeper-batsman, topped the run-charts in the recent Vijay Hazare tournament with 568 runs in seven innings. With Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Praveen Kumar, Virat Kolhi and Robin Uthappa likely to play most games, Bangalore won’t be forced to field any makeweight Indian players in the XI unlike in previous seasons.Coach Ray Jennings said the key to success in the tournament was to have a committed and motivated group of players. “To be the finalists in South Africa is an achievement but that’s forgotten, we need to set new goals,” he said. “It’s a type of game in which the best side doesn’t always win, so you have to make sure that you are aggressive, and be very passionate when you play.”

New faces

Bangalore may not have splashed money on big names, but they have made two shrewd overseas buys. One is Ireland-born batsman Eoin Morgan who, with his inventive, made-for-Twenty20 strokeplay, looks a steal at US$220,000 after an assured first year as England’s limited-overs finisher. The other is allrounder Steven Smith, who has made his name in Twenty20s with three solid seasons for New South Wales in the Big Bash and was key to their 2009 Champions League victory. Bangalore are a bit light on allrounders, which is where this legspinner and hard-hitting batsman comes in. His athletic fielding will also prove handy.

Watch out for

Vijay Mallya paid big money two years ago for Cameron White, when the batsman was still a relative unknown. White has had an indifferent couple of seasons with Bangalore, but is entering this tournament on the back of one of his most fruitful periods with Australia. In the absence of Kevin Pietersen and Ross Taylor in the initial stages, White could be the man to keep the boundary-count soaring for Bangalore.

Missing in action

Jesse Ryder is out of the entire tournament with an injury. Bangalore will miss not only his hard-hitting batting but also his disciplined medium-pace bowling and athletic fielding. Pietersen will join the squad only in late March and Taylor will be occupied with the series against Australia till the end of the month.

Strength

The batting. Even in their forgettable Champions League campaign, Bangalore’s batsmen delivered in three of the four matches.

Weakness

The bowling. Dale Steyn isn’t as feared in Twenty20 as he is in Tests, Anil Kumble hasn’t played regular cricket for a long time, and the other bowling options aren’t names that batsmen will lose sleep over. On benign Indian tracks, the opposition should fancy running up big scores.

X-Factor

A virtually unknown Manish Pandey became famous after slamming a century against Deccan Chargers last year. He has followed that up with a superb Ranji Trophy season, topping the run-charts with 882 runs.

IPL 2009 – The key figures

Final position: Runners-up
Top scorer: Jacques Kallis with 361 runs at 27.76
Top wicket-taker: Kumble with 21 wickets at 16.52 and economy-rate of 5.86
Best result: Seven-wicket win over in-form Delhi Daredevils to stay in race for semi-finals
Worst result: 92-run loss to Chennai Super Kings in their second match
Highest team score: 176 for 4 v Kolkata
Lowest team score: 87 v Chennai

Prediction for 2010

Expect them to make the semi-finals.

Lancashire have confirmed they will not be able to retain Faf Du Plessis, their Kolpak player, for the 2010 season after losing an appeal following changes in immigration criteria.”This is a very disappointing outcome for not only Faf but the county,” Mike Watkinson, Lancashire’s cricket director, said. “We accept the change in the immigration criteria and support the long term objectives associated with this decision. However, it’s a shame that certain players of quality who have demonstrated genuine commitment to English cricket and add something to our game will be lost to county cricket. His contributions both as a player and clubman will by be missed by all associated with Lancashire and we wish him well with his cricketing career.”Lancashire coach Peter Moores also said the development was a “real disappointment”. “Not only is Faf a very talented cricketer, but during his two years at Lancashire was lauded by everyone in English cricket for his fielding brilliance. His positive energy and enthusiastic approach to the job at hand will be sorely missed and I speak on behalf of everyone in the dressing room when I thank Faf for his unwavering commitment and his contribution to the club and its supporters.”Moores said the club had prepared themselves for this scenario and had made arrangements to make up for du Plessis’ absence.

Mountaineers’ Logan Cup ended in disappointment as they fell to an eight-wicket defeat to Mid West Rhinos in three days at Mutare Sports Club. Mid West Rhinos will now take on Mashonaland Eagles in the final, at Harare Sports Club on March 30.Mountaineers had struggled to 212 in their first innings after being put in to bat by Rhinos, with Timycen Maruma’s 59 the highest score of the innings. Malcolm Waller’s 117, along with half centuries from Vusi Sibanda and Graeme Cremer overshadowed Tendai Chatara’s maiden five-wicket haul as Rhinos reached 338 in their first innings.Mountaineers managed another scratchy effort in the second dig, and started day three at 62 for 3, still 64 behind Rhinos’ first innings total. Stuart Matsikenyeri, who suffered a drastic dip in form on Zimbabwe’s tour of the West Indies, was soon dismissed by Ed Rainsford. With his team struggling, Hamilton Masakadza dug in, taking over an hour to get off the mark before he finally forced a ball through the covers for four.Timycen Maruma played on to Rainsford for 4 as Mountaineers slipped to 75 for 5, and they could have been six down soon after, but Prosper Utseya was dropped off a sharp chance at second slip before he had scored. He went on to add 62 with Masakadza, erasing the deficit just before lunch as Mountaineers went to the break with their hopes of saving the game lifted.The afternoon session all but extinguished their hopes, as Utseya was quickly caught in the gully off Rainsford for 32, and Masakadza, who had batted with the utmost restraint for 37 off 135 balls, pushed at a ball moving away outside off stump to edge a straightforward catch off the same bowler.With Mountaineers tottering at 144 for 7, Shingi Masakadza and Natsai Mushangwe laid into the bowling with abandon, sharing the highest partnership of the innings as they added 73. Although Mushangwe managed his maiden first-class fifty, both were dismissed in quick succession and Mountaineers’ innings closed on 230, setting Rhinos 105 to win.Mid West have shown some fragile batting this season, and Mountaineers went on the attack from the start. With the pitch taking spin, Utseya opened the bowling, and with close fielders positioned, the Rhinos openers were rendered strokeless. Bothwell Chapungu was clean bowled by Utseya for 2, and Friday Kasteni was pinned lbw by the younger Masakadza, but Brendan Taylor seized back the momentum by swinging successive balls from Utseya over the pavilion for six.Taylor raced to his fifty from just 34 balls, but it was an off-driven four by Sibanda, followed by four byes from a wild delivery down the leg side, that finally took Mid West to a well-earned victory and a place in next week’s Logan Cup final against Mashonaland Eagles.