Kris Britt and Melissa Bulow have been dropped from Australia’s 14-player squad as the side bid to retain the Rose Bowl in New Zealand next month. After a drawn one-day international series and a Test loss against England, selectors have made two changes, with Western Australia’s Renee Chappell and Queensland’s Delissa Kimmince set to earn their first international caps.Jodie Purves has also regained her place and has been selected in the 14-player squad as a specialist batter after a broken thumb forced her to miss the series against England. Leonie Coleman will continue the keeping role.Australia is the current holder of the Rose Bowl having won last year’s series 3-2. The series comprises five one-day matches, with a Twenty20 international to be played in the lead-up. All matches will be played at Bert Sutcliffe Oval in Christchurch.Chair of selectors Margaret Jennings said: “The Rose Bowl Series provides us with an opportunity to bring in new players and see what they can add to the squad in the lead-up to the World Cup next year. Both Delissa and Renee have been selected to fill positions we feel need improving.”The players excluded from the squad are not out of World Cup calculations by any means but they will need to go away and work hard to earn another opportunity.”The selectors are looking for a consistency of performance from the team and to maintain that standard. We’re looking to find players that are capable of producing those performances.”Squad Karen Rolton (capt), Lisa Sthalekar, Sarah Andrews, Alex Blackwell, Kate Blackwell, Renee Chappell, Leonie Coleman (wk), Sarah Edwards, Delissa Kimmince, Shelley Nitschke, Ellyse Perry, Jodie Purves, Emma Sampson, Kirsten Pike.

Sunil Gavaskar, who polarised opinion with outspoken comments during the recent Australia-India series, has hit out at England and Australia, describing their approach to the global game as being akin to “dinosaurs”.Gavaskar has a foot in two camps, working as a journalist and also as chairman of the ICC’s cricket committee. In his syndicated newspaper column at the weekend, he said that England and Australia needed to come to terms with the new world order.”Gone are the days when two countries, England and Australia, had the veto power in international cricket, even though the dinosaurs may not open their eyes and see the reality,” he wrote. “The cricketing world has found that India has no longer a diffident voice but a confident one that knows what is good for its cricket, and will strive to get it.”What may have worried these people was the manner in which India defended Harbhajan Singh on the ‘racist allegation made against him [in Australia in January]. When all the technology in the world was unable to prove that he had indeed said anything, these guys, especially those in Australia, were unable to stomach it.”Those worried of the prospect of India’s hegemony were conveniently forgetting that only a few years back, there were two Australians at the top of the ICC. It is a misplaced belief that they are the only ones with honesty, integrity and have the welfare of the game at heart, while the ‘subcontinentals’ do not.”In January, Gavaskar’s remarks about Mike Procter, the ICC match referee during the infamous Sydney Test, were commented on by David Morgan, the ICC’s president-elect. “Conflicts of interests pervade our sport,” Morgan said. “In terms of Gavaskar, within the ICC, there is a concern now that he’s chairman of the cricket committee and a journalist who has expressed some fairly outspoken comments.”

	Mohammad Ashraful: “We are playing well but we are a young side. We need time, we need a couple of years” © Getty Images

The Indian Premier League may be cricket’s centrifugal force, pulling in eyes, money and attention, but Pakistan and Bangladesh will wait just a bit longer than others before they too are inevitably sucked in. A five-match ODI series awaits, hastily arranged and lacking glamour, but valuable for both nevertheless.Bangladesh were last in Pakistan, what their management called “a brotherly country”, five years ago. They were whitewashed in both the Tests and ODIs, though having pushed Pakistan in the Tests many thought a corner had been turned. That as many people still argue that the corner has yet to be reached indicates perhaps that due progress has not been made. The focus, still, is on what will be rather than what is.”We are playing well but we are a young side,” Mohammad Ashraful, one of the older members of the side, told reporters in Karachi. “We need time, we need a couple of years. If we play [with] the same team for the next 1-2 years we will have a good team.” There is merit in those words, especially if you take into account the scare they gave South Africa in a Test match a month ago and the occasional ODI wins they have chalked up in the last two years.The problem, as coach Jamie Siddons acknowledges, is that wins and performances are only occasional. South Africa recovered to fully wallop them in the remaining Test and ODI series. “Working with Australia, we had 11 world class players there. At Bangladesh have two to three right now and the rest all have the potential to be world class players, so we have a good mix. But I’m looking forward to the next few years. We will be a good side by then. We’re looking right now for consistency. Everyone says we are inconsistent but we would like to prove that wrong in this series.”Against Pakistan, they have been consistent, but consistently poor, as only one win in 18 ODIs emphatically asserts. That statistic, however, makes no difference to Siddons, though not in the way many might think. “We get beaten by most sides above us regularly. We have no illusions about ourselves. Pakistan are one of the better teams and every day we play against them we will learn.”Pakistan on the other hand will be pleased to do anything other than washing dirty linen in public, as they have been doing. A series against Uganda, you suspect, would be a welcome distraction from the current circus, as well as relief in an incredibly barren calendar.

	We have no illusions about ourselves. Pakistan are one of the better teams and every day we play against them we will learn – Jamie Siddons

The routine pre-series question asked of any visitor these days is what impact the absence of Shoaib Akhtar will have on the opponents. Graeme Smith answered it most perceptively last year, asking whether his absence would suit South Africa or Pakistan. Siddons and Ashraful chose the path of indifference, one that’s least likely to make another headline.”Pakistan are ranked 5th right now and we are 9th so the discrepancy is massive,” said Siddons. “We’ve got to stick to our gameplans. If Pakistan slip up, we’ll jump on them. So whoever plays for them, we’ll play our own game – it doesn’t really matter to us.” Ashraful was equally unperturbed. “He has not been in the side a lot for the last few years and they still have quality bowlers in the side. If we play good cricket we can beat any team.”Indeed they can, only they haven’t done it often enough. Pakistan is currently a nervy, jittery side, unsure of itself and its natural game. If there is a time for Bangladesh to disprove many a notion, this is as good as any, though the tourists’ mood is cautious. “Pakistan were looking for some competitive games,” Siddons ended, “and we are here. But results don’t matter that much to us, because we’ll get a lot out of the series anyway.”

The Kolkata Knight Riders, currently topping the points table in the Indian Premier League, will play their next home match at the Eden Gardens on a new pitch after the original playing surface was criticised by players as unfit for play.Kolkata’s next match on April 29 against the Mumbai Indians will go ahead as scheduled, confirmed a team spokesperson, who angrily dismissed reports that the team’s second home game may be postponed due to the pitch.”The match will be held on an adjacent pitch, which has been developed for the match,” Snehasish Ganguly, the joint secretary of the Cricket Association of Bengal, which is the host association for the Kolkata franchise, told Cricinfo. “The Eden has 10 pitches and this one is on the right of the surface that was used for the first game. There is no doubt that the game is going ahead as scheduled.”The historic Eden Gardens, which can seat around 90,000 spectators, has hosted only one IPL match, which was a low-scoring affair after the pitch began to crumble from the third over. Kolkata scored 112 for 5 in 19 overs to edge past Deccan Chargers, the visiting team, in that match on April 20. The pitch was later termed by VVS Laxman, the Hyderabad captain, as “shocking”, by Adam Gilchrist, Laxman’s deputy, as a “disgrace”, and by Sourav Ganguly, the home team’s skipper, as “bad”.The BCCI, which runs the IPL, has sent Daljit Singh, its pitches and grounds committee chairman, to Kolkata to help prepare the new surface in time for the match.

Wayamba 174 for 9 (Kulatunga 78) beat Ruhuna 143 by 31 runs
Scorecard

	© Manoj Ridimahaliyadda

Jeevantha Kulatunga played the stellar role, scoring a stroke-filled 78 off 45 balls and capturing 2 for 33, to steer Wayamba to a 31-run victory in the inaugural inter-provincial Twenty20 final against Ruhuna at the Welagedera Stadium in Kurunegala.Invited to bat first, Wayamba were 18 for 2 when Kulatunga arrived in the middle. He weathered the storm of Kosala Kulasekera, who had threatened to run through the batting, before starting to display his repertoire of strokes. He lifted his team to a fighting total of 174 for 9, hitting five sixes and as many fours in his fastidious knock.After losing their first two wickets for six runs, Ruhuna were pegged on the back foot by bowlers who maintained a tight line and reduced them to 96 for 7 by the end of the 14th over. A late rally by wicketkeeper Gihan de Silva, who slammed a quick 36 off 18 balls (two sixes, two fours), only delayed the inevitable as Ruhuna eventually folded up for 143 at the start of the final over.Wayamba skipper Jehan Mubarak attributed his team’s victory to Kulatunga’s all-round contribution. “He made the difference between the two sides,” Mubarak said.Kulatunga picked up the Player-of-the-Match award with Chintaka Jayasinghe of Kandurata taking the Player-of-the-Series prize.Sri Lanka Cricket were forced to cancel the Super Four round of matches due to bad weather and make it a straight knockout contest with the semi-finals and the final.Wayamba edged past Kandurata by seven runs and Ruhuna defeated Basnahira North by five wickets in the semi-finals.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsMashrafe Mortaza proved a matchwinner with the side of his game•Raton Gomes/BCB

Comilla Victorians needed their captain Mashrafe Mortaza to do the extraordinary – with the bat – to record their first win in the BPL. They beat Chittagong Vikings by seven wickets with Mohammad Amir unable to produce any heroics as Mashrafe and Marlon Samuels added 123 runs for the unbroken fourth wicket stand.When he struck the winning runs in the penultimate over with a boundary squeezed past third-man, Mashrafe ran in unbridled joy, the sort you would see from a bowler who has just done a match-winning job with the bat. After giving him the bear-hug, his team-mates helped him out of his helmet, pad and gloves too.Mashrafe ended with an unbeaten 56 off 32 balls with four fours and two sixes while Samuels remained with him to the end with 69 off 52 deliveries and helped return Mashrafe’s bat to him which had been thrown away in excitement. Samuels’ innings was always going to be crucial but the partnership was more important, especially because of how Comilla started with the bat.They started their chase by losing Imrul Kayes to the fourth ball and Liton Das in the third over, both falling to Amir. Suddenly it was Shuvagata Hom who took charge of the situation, going after Taskin Ahmed and Shafiul Islam for four boundaries and a couple of sixes over square leg and mid-off. His 16-ball 30 helped Comilla keep their initial thrust intact, but he fell in the eighth over, when Tillakaratne Dilshan ran back from point to take a superb catch.Then out came Mashrafe, promoting himself to No. 5 in a bid to keep up with the required run-rate which was nearing the 10-an-over mark at that time. His first attempt at a big shot was over midwicket in the tenth over. He found sixes over long-off and even over the cover boundary off Saeed Ajmal and one over midwicket. Ajmal conceded 20 in the 14th over as he also gifting away five wides.Having been dropped twice by Asif Ahmed and Chamara Kapugedera in the 12th and 15th over at long-off, Mashrafe reached his highest score in T20s in the 16th over with a straight driven four off Taskin, beating his previous best of 36 he made against Zimbabwe in Bangladesh’s first-ever T20 in 2006. The next ball, he tipped the ball past the keeper for his third four.Earlier, the exclamation point of the Chittagong innings was the 19th over in which Ziaur Rahman dispatched Abu Hider for three sixes and a four. He launched the first six over the bowler’s head, the next two over midwicket and square-leg. He struck just one boundary in the last over as he ended up on 39 off 16 balls. The final charge revived Chittagong after they slowed down following a fast start.Tamim Iqbal didn’t get a third consecutive fifty but he added 63 for the first wicket with Dilshan, who fell in the eighth over for 36 off 21 balls with a six and six fours, three of which came in the first over of the match. Tamim struck a couple of sixes in his 31-ball 33 before he holed out to long-off off Ashar Zaidi. Kapugedera fell in the 11th over for a duck before Yasir Ali was gone in the 16th, making it 123 for 4. Anamul was there at the other end, remaining unbeaten on 39 off 30 balls.

ScorecardFile photo: Robin Bist led a chase of 264 to perfection with his 109 not out•Sivaraman Kitta

Robin Bist’s unbeaten century to beat Punjab in Alur was a good primer of how to overcome top-order trouble as it led Himachal Pradesh to the Vijay Hazare Trophy semi-final. Two wickets lost inside the first six overs against a spirited pace attack, with the ball buzzing around both ways, was reason enough to create a few flutters for Himachal. Eventually, they got to the target of 264 with four balls to spare.A chase that was meandering at 77 for 3 in the 22nd over was turned around admirably when Bist found an ally in Rishi Dhawan, who played risk-free cricket through tactful strike rotation. It would be the hallmark of their 102-run fourth-wicket stand that came at a run-a-ball to bring a chase headed nowhere into the realms of possibility.Having the target within striking distance, however, brought a minor mishap. Dhawan mistimed a pull off Siddharth Kaul on 41 and Harbhajan Singh, running backwards from mid-on, held on to a pressure catch. Himachal needed 85 to win off 66 balls, and that was when Bist took over. Having been in accumulator mode early in his innings, he seamlessly brought out the big hitter in him to bring up a maiden List A century and puncture Punjab.The effervescence of Nikhil Gangta, who made a 28-ball 39, further fuelled Himachal’s dream run as victory was achieved with five wickets in hand in the final over. That not only meant a semi-final berth but also consigned Mandeep Singh’s carefully crafted 119 to second best on the day.Things had looked quite different when play started. Punjab lost Pargat Singh in the first over after being sent in on a slightly damp surface. But that was negated by Mandeep; his first boundary came off the seventh ball he faced – an on-the-up extra cover drive – and set the tone for a knock that featured the entire array of his strokes from point to square leg.The unusually harsh mid-morning sun had people ducking for shade and Mandeep too was not spared. He couldn’t hit over the top in front of the wicket, so he brought out the paddles and the delicate dabs to prove he was a multi-dimensional batsman. When he walked back for a 145-ball 119 in the final over, he had put Punjab in a commanding position. Such was his composure that even the loss of Yuvraj Singh (5) to a mistimed pull and Gurkeerat Singh (35) after a steady stand seemed to have no effect on him. He was helped later in the innings by Gitansh Khera (23) and Harbhajan Singh (25).Himachal began like a team that wasn’t sure how to approach the chase in a knockout game. Barinder Sran, the left-arm seamer, who is due to tour Australia in January, bowled a tight first spell of 4-1-11-0. While pace wasn’t his forte, minute deviation off the surface and precision was. The rewards, however, were reaped by Kaul, the other new-ball bowler, who removed Ankush Bains and Prashant Chopra inside six overs. When Paras Dogra skipped down the track, only to bowled after being deceived by Harbhajan’s slider, Himachal were in dire need of momentum at 77 for 3 in the 22nd over.An asking rate that was hovering over seven moved to eight and beyond. Dhawan and Bist milked the bowling but took great care against the slow bowlers, who seemed the bigger threat. The strategy was a sound one and worked quite well until Dhawan’s mistake in the 39th over. Though he couldn’t convert his start into a half-century and beyond, his contribution in a vital stand to go along with his three wickets threw light on the kind of role he could possibly play in Australia.Bist brought up his century in the 47th over, having overcome two close run-out calls. He took it to the last six balls and sealed the deal with some authority, lofting the ball over cover. So it was that Himachal Pradesh took down Punjab, a giant in the Indian domestic circuit, and go into their semi-final clash against Delhi with fresh energy and strong hopes.

A career-best, unbeaten 80 from 24-year-old allrounder Ben Wheeler helped Central Districts seal a tight chase of 295 against Canterbury, and confirm their place in the final of the Ford Trophy 2015-16. Wheeler’s knock came from No. 8, and egging him on from the other end was the brutal force of Jesse Ryder – he made 136 off 114 from No. 3, smoking seven sixes and 13 fours. The pair added 163 in 21 overs, at close to eight an over, rescuing Central Districts from the pits of 105 for 6 to help them home with two wickets and three balls to spare.It was right-arm pacer Kyle Jamieson who had done a large chunk of the damage to Central Districts’ top order, and he threatened to derail them once again with the massive wicket of Ryder in 44th over, with the team still 27 runs short of their target. Wheeler kept his head though, and finished the job.Canterbury’s 294 was built around a brisk century from opener Tom Latham – he scored 126 off 135. The rest of the top order made 20- and 30-somethings around him to ensure the team got within range of 300. Medium-pacer Seth Rance was the most incisive of the Central Districts bowlers, with three middle-order wickets, and Doug Bracewell made sure Canterbury did not get past 300 by polishing off the tail.Canterbury will have a second shot at the final when they take on Otago in the third preliminary final on Wednesday – they get a second chance since they finished the league stage in the top two on the points table, along with Central Districts. Central Districts, meanwhile, will have a week to prepare for the title game, which is scheduled for next Saturday.Otago had finished the league stage third on the points table and therefore have twice the work to do: they took the first step successfully, beating Auckland in the second preliminary final (effectively a quarter-final, with the loser going out and the winner needing to win one more game to get into the final).Otago batted first and piled up 312, led by 109 from Neil Broom. Batting at No. 3, Broom put on 158 with Michael Bracewell (69), after the other opener Anaru Kitchen was out off second legal ball of the game. Jimmy Neesham also chipped in with 59 off 54, before Derek de Boorder’s late cameo of 24 lifted them past 300.By the eighth over of the chase, 21-year-old pacer Jacob Duffy had Otago firmly on top. He took three early wickets, reducing Auckland to 40 for 3. Neil Wagner and Neesham struck soon after, and the game was as good as done. Unlike Central Districts’ case, there was no Auckland revival. Rain did end things early and Duckworth/Lewis came into play, but by then Auckland were already spluttering at 159 for 8 in 34, deemed to be 126 short of a winning score.

Central Zone were 417/8 at the close of the second day of the Duleep Trophy match against East Zone at the Green Park Oval, Kanpur on Friday. The start of day two was again delayed due to heavy fog and in the 63 overs bowled in the day, Central added 186 more runs to the overnight score of 231/3 losing five wickets in the day.The loss of Gagan Khoda, leg before to Zaman for 6, soon after the start was a heavy let down for Central. Raja Ali Joined Kaif and tried to build the faltering innings. But Ali was caught and bowled by Sukhbinder Singh for 16. Central were 280/5 at that stage. Kaif played rock steady and steadied the boat a little with a 71-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Abhay Sharma who was dismissed by Singh for 31 (4 fours). Kaif meanwhile reached his fifty off 107 balls striking ten fours in the process.Soon Central were 375/7 losing the man in form, Kaif for 83 caught by Dasgupta off Zaman. Kaif decorated his crafty innings with 14 boundaries. Southpaw Murali Kartik then played a little cameo. Kartik was severe on the bowling hitting six boundaries to make 45 runs off just 50 balls. Kartik fell leg before to Singh in the 114th over and Central were 409/8. At close of play Kulamani Parida and Winston Zaidi were unbeaten on 9 and 3 respectively. Zaman with 4/95 and Sukhbinder Singh with 3/89 have been the mainstay of the bowling.

Manchester United striker Michael Owen has backed Wayne Rooney to bounce back from his poor showings at the World Cup.

The 24-year-old former Everton star failed to score in his four appearances in South Africa as Fabio Capello's team exited the tournament at the last-16 stage.

Rooney's displays were in sharp contrast to his form for United last term when he earned several player of the season awards.

However, Owen told the Daily Telegraph:"People talk about Wayne after the World Cup because he is Wayne, but there were other players who didn't perform at the World Cup too.

"People will inevitably focus on Wayne, though. He wasn't at the top of his game, for whatever reason – whether it was tiredness or because the rest of the team around him wasn't playing well.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

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"He wasn't at his best but we all know he's a world-class player. After a few weeks off he will be back and scoring again."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email