Sri Lanka are hopeful that Sanath Jayasuriya will recover in time for their opening second-round match in the Asia Cup on Wednesday after aggravating a side injury and pulling out of their clash against India on Sunday.Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka’s most experienced one-day player and their highestrun-scorer, first injured his left side during the first Test against Australiaat Darwin earlier in the month. The management had hoped his batting wouldbe unhindered.”Sanath [Jayasuriya] suffered the side strain in Darwin Test where he bowled30 overs,” Ajit Jayasekera, the team manager, told reporters on Sundayafternoon. “In Cairns [the second Test] it became sore.”He discovered the full extent of the injury while batting yesterday and wasfeeling uncomfortable when he played his square-cut. He nowneeds some rest but we feel he should be fit enough for Wednesday.”If Sri Lanka lose against India then they will face Bangladesh onWednesday at the Sinhalese Sports Club, a low-key game that Jayasuriya couldsit out to give the injury more time to heal.

Steve Harmison has ruled himself out of England’s controversial tour ofZimbabwe, which is to take place in November. The series consists of five one-dayers and no Tests.Harmison decided to boycott the trip for political and sporting reasons. A few months ago, Stuart MacGill publicly stated his intention to not visit Zimbabwe for the same reasons.”In all honesty,” said Harmison to the , “my decision was made in Cape Town over 18 months ago when England’s World Cup squad spent a horrendous four days before finally deciding not to go to Harare.”Nothing has changed for me. The situation there is worse now – that’s whatthe official reports say – and Zimbabwe’s top players have been sacked.”A spokesman for the England & Wales Cricket Board said that Harmison was the only player to have expressed a desire to stay at home, but added that no disciplinary action would be taken.”Stephen Harmison informed Duncan Fletcher and Michael Vaughan following the ICC Champions Trophy match against Sri Lanka that he did not want to be considered for selection for the forthcoming tour of Zimbabwe.”As the ECB has concluded that the tour must go ahead subject to it being safe and secure to do so, we have asked all the current England players and management to make themselves available. Stephen Harmison is the only player to have informed the board that he will be unavailable for the tour.”The ECB has previously stated that any player who makes himself unavailable to tour Zimbabwe for reasons of personal conscience will not be penalised and this remains our position.”

Michael Clarke
On his first hundred at home
That was special. I had a lot of family watching and I was getting sent text messages last night. And what an unbelievable day to see Glenn McGrath make his first Test fifty – that’s close to the best thing I’ve seen in cricket.On batting with Adam Gilchrist
There wasn’t much talk [about the hundred] till before the last ball. He asked me how I was feeling and I said, “I’ll tell you after this ball.” It turned out well.On the shot to bring up his hundred
Last ball before lunch all I was thinking about was getting through to lunch, but the ball just happened to be in the right spot. Luckily for me it came out of the middle of the bat.On comparing the innings to his debut hundred
They were very different, the conditions and circumstances. I can’t compare them, both are as special as each other. It’s always great to play in front of an Australian crowd.On coping with the pressure of high standards
Unfortunately in life some things don’t go to plan. At the moment for me in Test cricket they have gone to plan, but there are going to be down times and I know that and expect that. I want to continue to make the most of the good times.On his first Test in Australia
I was very nervous, but I’m nervous every time I play so I don’t find that difficult to accept. I try to listen to as much music as I can before I bat. I’ve got the ipod on so I listen to whatever’s on that.On his family being there to watch
My mum’s here with my aunt and my sister. Unfortunately dad had to work, but I’m pretty sure he watched it. I’m pretty sure I’ll talk to him tonight if he’s not too pissed – he’ll be doing some celebrating.On McGrath’s half-century
It’s so unbelievable, Glenn works so hard on his batting. He’s a fantastic bowler but he really deserves a Test fifty. Everybody but Justin Langer put their whites on when Glenn went out, we thought we’d be fielding in a few balls.On Australia batting tomorrow
I’m pretty sure they’ll definitely continue batting so Jason Gillespie can get his first Test fifty.

At his best Glenn McGrath looks like he’s jogging to the crease. He trotted in the second innings and captured the second-best figures by an Australian. Only after he’d reached seven victims, and thoughts turned to a perfect ten, did he start to charge. Michael Kasprowicz’s two wickets helped him decide eight was enough.There have been some great fast bowling performances at the WACA and this, statistically, was the finest. It was stunning and special, but in McGrath’s list of 472 Test wickets these were some of the easiest. Curtly Ambrose blitzed Australia with 7 for 25, including a spell of 7 for 1, to win a series in 1992-93, and Merv Hughes and Craig McDermott crashed eight through West Indies and England sides boasting star line-ups. McGrath swept through a disappointing rabble.Sensing weaknesses has always been one of his specialties. All he had to do today was look towards the opposition’s dressing-room. The batting was simply awful; McGrath simply too good. Starting the morning with 1 for 6, he had added six wickets by his ninth over and found edges as easily as a rock climber. The eighth took longer – by then Kasprowicz had knocked over Mohammad Sami – and came with a Shoaib Akhtar bunt to Darren Lehmann, McGrath’s only dismissal in front of the wicket.Nothing about his bowling had changed significantly, although there was a touch of outswing. The pace was still in the low 130kmph bracket, the line was annoyingly around off stump and the bounce was uncomfortable. Pakistan were trapped, and responded with open blades. The worst thing about their performance was the lack of improvement.Some tours are over in less than the three weeks they have stayed in Perth. Visiting teams will always struggle with the WACA’s bounce, but they usually develop some method of resistance. This was Pakistan’s seventh bat in Western Australia: they had learned nothing.

They were still trying to play forward (Salman Butt and Younis Khan); they were hanging their bats out waiting for the edge (Abdul Razzaq, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Kamran Akmal); and they religiously prodded without purpose. Had Justin Langer been Australia’s only batsman, they would have won by 37 runs. It was a horrible display from a side ranked fourth in the world. There wasn’t even time for a dreadful run out.Playing the first Test at Perth had been a risk for Australia. While their bowlers would always dominate, Shoaib and Sami could – and did – spark a demolition. Once their danger had passed Australia were heading to the MCG with a 1-0 lead. Ricky Ponting made sure the match went into a fourth day, and Glenn McGrath made it memorable.Strangely, McGrath had never taken a Test five-wicket haul at Perth. Now the figures of 8 for 24, 14 runs fewer than his previous best at Lord’s in 1997, stand only behind Arthur Mailey’s 9 for 121 against England in 1920-21. It is a fitting milestone for a bowler destined to remain in Australia’s top three alongside Dennis Lillee and Shane Warne unless another country kid spectacularly caravans his way towards 500 dismissals.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

It was another day at Dhaka when history, rather than competition, was the talk of the town. Sachin Tendulkar’s glittering hundred, his 34th in Tests, put him alongside Sunil Gavaskar in the century stakes and put India in absolute control of the opening Test. Bangladesh created openings for themselves, especially in the first session, but they closed the door with some shambolic catching that let India off. And India went on to make them pay, as they piled on 348 for 7 by the end of the second day, with a lead of 164.On his way to the summit Tendulkar stumbled twice, only for Bangladesh’s fielders to prop him right back up. Habibul Bashar fluffed a regulation catch at first slip while Rajin Saleh juggled and then grassed one at silly mid-off. Sourav Ganguly and Dinesh Karthik were also given second lives as the butter-fingered brigade came out in force. Bangladesh had had the better of the first session, with Mashrafe Mortaza unsettling the Indian top order, but ragged fielding gradually eroded their morale.Tendulkar’s century wasn’t flawless, and edgy moments interspersed gorgeous drives. When he was let off after being foxed by the bowlers, he made the fielders pay. While he was content to play the percentages in the early stages, with controlled square-drives to wide deliveries, he unfurled his range as the day progressed. After reaching the 30s, there were assured front-foot punches. A jaw-dropping back-foot straight-drive followed – done with minimum fuss and maximum efficiency – and he then raced past the 90s with a flurry of fours.On reaching his hundred he joined an elite club of Gary Kirsten and Steve Waugh as the only men to have scored Test centuries against all countries. As stumps approached he improvised with sweeps and glances, including one where he walked across the stumps, met the ball at the very last moment with an angled bat that sent it to the fine-leg fence. By this point it was a walk in the park.Tendulkar’s innings was the main ingredient but the Indian innings also contained some delectable touches of spice. Sourav Ganguly skipped to 71 and manhandled slow bowlers along the way, while Gautam Gambhir displayed fine touch before his innings was cut short by a communication breakdown. VVS Laxman performed a most melodious rendition before his voice cracked and Dinesh Karthik had a joyful hitting session towards the end of the day. It was Ganguly’s effort, though, that helped put India back on track after the Bangladesh new-ball bowlers had pegged his team back.

Tapash Baisya and Mortaza had bowled wonderfully in tandem and reduced India to 68 for 3. Mortaza zeroed in on a narrow channel outside the off stump and the subtle cut that he produced hurried the batsmen into indiscretion. He troubled Virender Sehwag with his zip and gave Rahul Dravid a torrid examination after Baisya trapped Sehwag lbw. Dravid’s defence was clumsy, with the moving ball creating doubts. He fell to one such misjudgement, shouldering arms to one from Mortaza that nipped back in and uprooted off stump (24 for 2).Both Tendulkar and Gambhir seized the moment when Mortaza was taken off the attack. Mushfiqur Rahman, the first-change bowler, bled 15 in his first two overs as the batsmen stepped up a gear. Then, suddenly, a fierce punch by Tendulkar was intercepted by Rajin Saleh at point but he stayed his ground leaving Gambhir, who had charged half-way down the pitch, stranded(68 for 3).That fielding effort was a shimmer in the dark, though, as Ganguly and Tendulkar wrested back the initiative. Ganguly began cautiously and survived a few hiccups along the way but he mauled the left-arm spinners. Both Rafique and Manjural were put off their length as Ganguly skipped down the track and lofted them to the straight boundary. Ganguly showed all the qualities that had made him a tormentor of the best spin attacks in the past and he rendered the square fielders redundant as well. The stream of boundaries slowly turned into a torrent as Ganguly eased a few fours of the medium-pacers. But he fell right at the stroke of tea, undone by one that straightened, sneaked through the gate and crashed into his stumps (232 for 4).The rest of the day was about Tendulkar and his gamboling friends as first Laxman and then Karthik thrilled in bursts. Unlike the rest, Tendulkar didn’t throw it away and will return with his record-shredder tomorrow. It was fitting that he was joined by Anil Kumble right at the end of the day, as the two men who ruled the first two days of the series walked off amid the fading light.

The first tentative steps to try to bring back the remaining rebel players came on Tuesday when some of them met with Zimbabwe Cricket officials in Harare.The two sides were reported to have had a cordial meeting, but one independent source said that the three unnamed committee members, who were backed by two lawyers, "were open-minded but very poorly informed by ZC on the basics of the dispute." They said they had not come to negotiate but merely to hear the players’ proposals and take them back to the board.Although ZC has made the right noises about its willingness to make peace with the rebels, it is widely believed that the presence of Ozias Bvute (ZC’s general manager) and Max Ebrahim (the chief selector) on the board remains the main, and substantial, stumbling block. Both are seen as being at the heart of the dispute.Another meeting has been planned for next week.

Combined Easterns/Northerns XI 132 for 2 (Kuhn 47, Seymore 77*) trail Zimbabweans 206 (Chigumbura 40, Morkel 3-57, Abrahams 3-36, Harris 3-51) by 74 runs
Scorecard

An unbeaten 77 from the captain Andre Seymore gave the Easterns/Northerns XI the upper hand on the first day of the tour match at Willowmoore Park in Benoni. After putting the Zimbabweans in and bowling them out for 206, the combined XI had reached 132 for 2 by the close.Seymore shared an opening stand of 125 with Heino Kuhn, before the uncapped slow left-armer Sean Williams took two quick wickets to brighten Zimbabwe’s day a little.When they batted, several of the Zimbabweans had made decent starts: seven of them reached double figures, but the highest score was only 40, by Elton Chigumbura, who eventually became one of three wickets for the Titans fast bowler Siraag Abrahams. Paul Harris and Morne Morkel also finished with three victims as Zimbabwe succumbed for 206.

A year on from an epochal Test series across the border, India and Pakistan will commence the latest episode of the most storied rivalry in all of sport. With all apologies to supporters of Celtic-Rangers, Barcelona-Real and Yankees-Red Sox, this is as good as it gets in the competitiveness-and-needle stakes. And while Sourav Ganguly admitted that it was “more than a series and part of a bridge-building process”, such altruistic motives will be far from players’ minds when they step out onto the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium turf at 10am tomorrow morning.The pitch, lovingly tended by Daljit Singh, has a deceptively verdanttinge, prompting thoughts of a fast-bowling Eden. But the curator insists that this is a surface that will have something for everyone, saying: “It will be an absolute belter on the second and third days.”The last Test at Mohali, against New Zealand 17 months ago, was as dreary as any played out in the snore-draw 1950s, but since then, there has been a lessening of the clay content and a switch to Bermuda grass, intended to restore Mohali to its mid-1990s heyday when the pitch was the most sporting in the country. This surface has been watered regularly, and could yet spring a nasty surprise on those expecting a bat-a-thon.Apart from the weather conditions, cool and sunny with spring in the air, a major factor will be the new SG ball, with the leather stretched tighter and the seam even more prominent than before. With Irfan Pathan and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan capable of extravagant swing, both sides will fancy their chancy under overcast skies. Inzamam-ul-Haq, who walked into the press conference with a typically somnolent air, reckoned that it would be a good pitch that would last the whole duration, and help the fast bowlers.

However, he was also hopeful that Danish Kaneria, his trump card inShoaib Akhtar’s absence, would have a prominent part to play. “It should take some turn from the second day,” said Inzamam. “And Danish will be dangerous.” History though suggests that Kaneria has an onerous task – Pakistan’s greatest legspinner, Abdul Qadir, managed just six wickets in as many Tests on Indian soil.Pakistan’s full complement of bowlers has fewer wickets than Anil Kumble, and that lack of experience remains a concern. But Inzamam refused to accept that he was leading a weak team into a contest against a foe that inflicted innings defeats at Multan and Rawalpindi last year. “India have more experience, but we are not a weak side,” he said. “We may not be favourites, but my boys are capable of winning this series.”There was also praise for Bob Woolmer, whose tenure has been marked by constant sniping from the Pakistani media. “He has done new things, he’s more friendly with the boys,” said Inzamam. “He works hard with them in the nets. It’s only been five or six months, but if we give him time, he can go a good job.”

Ganguly brushed off the favourites tag, saying that all teams wouldharbour the same nerves before the first Test of such an eagerly anticipated series, but accepted that he was in charge of the more worldly-wise team. “It’s a balanced side that’s been together for quite some time,” he said. “Many of the guys are at the peak of their game. But you must remember that no match is ever played on paper.”Yuvraj Singh, in blistering form on the domestic circuit, has been left out of the 12, as has Ashish Nehra, leaving Laxmipathy Balaji, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh to tussle for two spots alongside the likely new-ball pairing of Irfan Pathan and Zaheer Khan. Pakistan have yet to decide on whether to risk the mercurial talents of Shahid Afridi, or stick to the more prosaic qualities that Asif Kamal brings to the middle order. With Naved still a spring chicken at Test level despite his relatively advanced years, Abdul Razzaq’s allround quality will certainly merit inclusion, especially given his penchant for skidding the ball at pace off the pitch.Ganguly, who walked in with the confident strut of a man secure in his job despite recent indifferent results, reckoned that the rivalry had long since surpassed the Ashes in the popularity stakes. And he admitted that one-day cricket had played a major role in altering the mindsets in both India and Pakistan, after decades of matches where the prime aim was to avoid defeat. “Cricket has changed, with far more decisions over the past few years. It’s played at a much faster pace, and one-day cricket has been responsible for that,” he said. However, he refused to give any weightage to the four ODI defeats that Pakistan have subjected India to since Woolmer took charge of the side. “Tests are a different game,” he said pithily.The Indian team management watched Pakistan’s performances in Australia, with an accent on the Tests where they did so poorly, and will also draw on memories of last year’s series when Pathan andBalaji comprehensively outbowled their Pakistani counterparts. This time round, Harbhajan will provide an additional edge, and despiteInzamam saying that his callow side could cope with the pressure of expectation – “conditions at the ground and the atmosphere are pretty much the same in India and Pakistan” – this could well be a bridge too far and too soon for a team that will undoubtedly miss the shock value, searing pace and maverick presence of a certain Shoaib Akhtar.India (likely) 1 Gautam Gambhir, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 6 VVS Laxman, 7 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 8 Irfan Pathan, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Anil Kumble, 11 Zaheer Khan.Pakistan (likely) 1 Salman Butt, 2 Yasir Hameed, 3 Younis Khan, 4 Yousuf Youhana, 5 Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), 6 Asim Kamal, 7 Abdul Razzaq, 8 Kamran Akmal, 9 Mohammad Sami, 10 Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, 11 Danish Kaneria.

Scorecard