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Andy Flower, a giant among pygmies, again played the role of Horatius on thebridge, frustrating the might of South Africa as they attempted to wrap upthe First Test match against Zimbabwe in four days. Flower set severalrecords during the day and he was still there with 138 at the close, havingso far batted for 12-and-a-half hours in the match. His team finished 10 runs frommaking South Africa bat again, with three wickets in hand.As play began, a few quiet singles from Flower, 43 overnight, took him tohis fifty; this was the fifth time in his career he has scored a century anda fifty in the same Test match, and the fourth time in two years. It washis 11th fifty in his last 14 Test innings, and he has now played 15successive innings without being dismissed by a bowler for less than 40.An on-drive from his overnight partner, Hamilton Masakadza, off ClaudeHenderson for four brought him his fifty and also Zimbabwe’s first centurypartnership in four Tests against South Africa. Flower’s next landmark was200 runs in the match, for the fourth time in his career, all during thelast two years.Masakadza enjoyed a life on 56 when he cut Makhaya Ntini hard into thegully, and Shaun Pollock was unable to hold a sharp chance. Overall theSouth African fielding in this match was a little short of their usualstandard of near perfection, with Zimbabwe also benefiting in both inningsfrom several misfields. Another difficult but possible chance came on 70,when the same batsman edged a cut from Lance Klusener low past first slipJacques Kallis, who was unable to get a hand to it.Masakadza enjoyed another life on 79, immediately after lunch, missed offanother hard chance in the gully. Then Henderson settled into a tightleg-stump line that tied him down, and finally got his man, caught at shortleg off pad and bat for 85. It was a good decision by umpire Tiffin despitea comparatively muted appeal, after both umpires during the morning hadcorrectly, according to replays, given several close decisions in favour ofthe batsmen. The pair had added 186 for the third wicket.A reverse sweep for four off Henderson in the last over before the secondnew ball brought Flower his second century of the match, the secondZimbabwean to do so after his brother Grant, and the first wicket-keeper todo so in Test cricket. Nobody else has performed the feat against thestrong South African attack since readmission; in fact, not since AustralianJack Moroney in 1949/50.When South Africa took the second new ball, Andy retreated intowatchfulness. Grant, still battling with mental and technical problems,scored 16 before driving Ntini straight to cover just before tea, when Andywas on 115 and Zimbabwe still needed 65 more to avoid the innings defeat.On either side of tea the cricket developed into a war of attrition as SouthAfrica, unable to dismiss Flower, bowled a defensive line outside off stumpto restrain him. Flower occasionally broke through the field but GuyWhittall (3) never looked happy before being adjudged lbw to Henderson.Heath Streak (19) was brilliantly caught by Kallis at second slip offPollock, while Flower hung on, though visibly tiring after almost two fulldays keeping wicket followed by an even longer period at the crease. TravisFriend, though, looked like repeating his impressive defiance of the firstinnings and was unbeaten with 10 at the close.

Amir back after a five-year hiatus
Mohammad Amir finished with a match haul of five wickets in his first domestic first-class match after serving out a five-year ban for spot-fixing. He played in Sui Southern Gas Corporation’s opening match against Lahore Blues at the Gaddafi Stadium. The match ended in a tame draw after SSGC were set a target of 267 on the final day.Amir last played a domestic first-class match in 2009. On his return to the format, he bowled 21 overs in the first innings, conceded 55 runs and took three wickets. He picked up 2 wickets in 13 overs in the second innings and also scored an important 66 runs off 187 balls to help SSGC overcome a collapse in the first innings.Zafar misses a Test chance, but takes four
Zafar Gohar the 20-year-old left-arm spinner, was also among the wickets for SSGC with a match haul of 4 for 124. The bowler could have been a part of the Tests against England had he not missed his flight to the UAE Dubai. Gohar, who played against England in their tour game before the Tests, was expected to replace an injured Yasir Shah and was expected to fly in overnight to join the Pakistan squad for the first Test in Abu Dhabi. Instead, Gohar – who had a visa and other logistical arrangements ready – missed his flight after sleeping through departure announcements, and Pakistan went into the Test with three seamers.FATA begin with draw
Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) who recently qualified for first-class cricket began their stint in the tournament with a draw against Habib Bank Limited at the Jinnah Stadium, Sialkot. They debuted with five new players. Rehan Afridi, who has played most of his cricket from Abbottabad, joined FATA to score his first hundred of the season. The highlight of the match was a double-hundred and a half-century by Mardan-born Fakhar Zaman. Zaman’s knocks helped HBL set FATA a target of 304, but the latter managed to hold on for a draw.WAPDA wait on Butt, Asif
Water and Power Development Authority have recruited Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif but both players were left out of their playing XI against Karachi Whites. The players have been given a non-executive 17th grade employee contract but the department has directions from the PCB to not play them until they complete their education and rehabilitation programme in February.

Haryana were in a position of considerable strength at stumps on thesecond day of their North Zone Cooch Behar Trophy match against Jammu& Kashmir at the MA stadium in Jammu on Monday. After being in arrearsby 218 runs on the first innings, J&K were 31 for two in their secondinnings at close.Resuming at 61 for no loss, Haryana declared at 346 for seven.Manvinder Bisla (45) left early but the other opener Bhuvnesh Sharmaand captain Ishan Ganda added 114 runs for the second wicket off 31overs. Sharma was then out for 78. He faced 137 balls and hit 12fours. Sumeet Sharma (13) did not last very long but Ganda and DeepakJoon compounded J&K’s agony by some fine strokeplay. Ganda reached hiscentury but retired hurt when his score was 101. He faced 186 ballsand hit 12 of them to the ropes. Joon’s 40 was compiled off 70 ballsand Amit Mishra contributed a valuable 28 inclusive of two fours and asix.In J&K’s second innings, opening bowler Nitin Aggarwal dismissedMudassar Ashraf and Vimarash Kaw in the space of three deliveries forducks, leaving the home team an uphill task to stave off defeat on thefinal day.

Worcestershire have given the go-ahead for New Road to host their next Championship game, against Lancashire starting on Friday, in spite of the recent flooding that caused the complete abandonment of their last home fixture against Kent.Following a meeting at New Road involving representatives from both Worcestershire and Lancashire, as well as the ECB’s Alan Fordham and Chris Wood, it was decided that the ground would be fit for an 11am start on Friday morning.The decision is something of a surprise given the controversy that was caused by last week’s washout against Kent. Although the ECB acted with leniency in what they described as “exceptional circumstances”, the decision to allow Worcestershire to replay the abandoned fixture was vehemently opposed by Yorkshire, who feared that a dangerous precedent had been set.Lancashire and Hampshire also backed Yorkshire’s stance on the decision. “It was a flawed decision and creates a precedent,” said a Lancashire statement, “opening the floodgates for future situations deemed ‘extreme circumstances’. We therefore urge the ECB to reconsider this decision.”However, Lancashire’s chief executive, Jim Cumbes, was more conciliatory after Monday’s inspection. “On arriving at New Road this morning I was surprised at how well everything looked,” he said. “It’s obvious that the staff at Worcestershire County Cricket Club have worked very hard over the last few days to get this ground and its facilities up to the standard they are.”There were one or two minor issues I had with the outfield,” added Cumbes, “but nothing a couple of days of drying weather won’t fix.”Worcestershire did have alternative venues on standby – at Kidderminster, Himley and Worcester Royal Grammar School, where a game against Sri Lanka A was played on Saturday. The forecast for Friday is more heavy rain.

Durham have signed the former New Zealand offspinner Paul Wiseman for the 2007 season.Wiseman’s last match for New Zealand was their steamrollering of Sri Lanka in April 2005, who they beat by an innings and 38 runs, but he was wicketless and faced the axe. Now 36, he has represented Durham A this summer and is keen to make the most of this new opportunity to pass on his experience to a younger generation.”Paul is a player who we believe can offer a great deal to our set up, giving us good performances on the field and offering support to our younger players during their development,” Martyn Moxon, Durham’s head coach said. “Our aim has always been to compete at the highest possible level and by bringing in the likes of Dale Benkenstein last year and Paul this year we continue to provide our young cricketers support within the team as well as the opportunity to benefit from the experience of these guys.”Wiseman commented that he was “excited to be joining a club that is going places” and added: “The Academy and development set up at Durham has a proven track record of producing quality players and I am delighted to have the chance to lend my experience to the next generation.”

Danish Kaneria: a matchwinner for Pakistan © Getty Images

Essex have denied claims from the Pakistan Cricket Board that they are overusing Danish Kaneria, the legspinner, in the English county championship. Saleem Altaf, the PCB’s director of cricket operations, said that he would write to Essex asking that he be bowled more sparingly.”We want them to nurse him through the season as we have a lot of cricket coming up from November,” Altaf told Reuters. Kaneria, who is in his second season with Essex, bowled 64 overs taking 8 for 157 against Northamptonshire, then set a championship record with 70 wicketless overs in an innings against Lancashire a week ago.However, Ronnie Irani, the Essex captain, refuted allegations that Kaneria was being made the team’s workhorse. “They’ve no need to tell us to look after him,” Irani told The Telegraph. “We’ve done everything we possibly can for him and his family from day one and we’ll continue to look after him, on and off the field. He’s fit and he’s keen. I wasn’t going to bowl him in the last session at Old Trafford, but he wanted to. It should be down to him and how he feels – ultimately the player’s interest is No 1.”Pakistan host England for three Tests and five one-day internationals in November, and take on India in three Tests and five one-day internationals early next year before proceeding to Sri Lanka and England.

Abhijit Kale: at the center of a storm© Cricinfo

Abhijit Kale, the batsman from Mahatrashtra, who was accused of bribing two India selectors to get himself selected to the national team, reportedly broke down and cried as witnesses testified against him in a marathon meeting of the Indian board’s disciplinary committee. The meeting, which lasted almost nine hours, was held to probe allegations that Kale had tried to bribe Kiran More and Pranob Roy, for a place on India’s tour to Australia last winter.Jagmohan Dalmiya, the board president, said that the committee would announce its final decision in a week’s time, since Kamal Morarka, a member of the committee, was absent from the proceedings due to personal reasons. But to assuage the fears of those who might claim that these investigations have already taken long enough, Dalmiya said, “The hearing has been concluded, and there will be no further hearing.”Both More and Roy produced witnesses to back up their allegations. Rajiv Gupta, a friend of Roy from Mumbai, testified that he was present at Mumbai’s domestic airport when Kale tried to bribe Roy. More’s witness, meanwhile, was his wife, Raavi, who related that Kale’s parents had visited her residence in Vadodara. “They told me to tell Kiran to select Abhijit,” she said, “[or] else he will commit suicide.”Kale, who had been given a chance to cross-examine the witnesses, later said: “I am satisfied with what happened today. I am still confident that I will come out clean.”

The new season inched a little closer today at the County Ground in Taunton where Somerset took on Glamorgan in a three day friendly.On a cold but bright morning play got underway on time with the Somerset opening attack of Richard Johnson and Simon Francis looking threatening early on.However once the Glamorgan openers Steve James and Ian Thomas came to terms with the conditions they started to build a partnership, and had taken the score onto 88 before the visiting skipper was out for 44.Thomas then helped to take the score onto 128 before he was out caught by wicket-keeper Rob Turner off the bowling of Gareth Andrew for 49.Two more wickets fell quickly, and Glamorgan had slipped to 136 for 4, before Matthew Maynard and Jonathan Hughes came together and took control of the situation.Both players took full advantage of the short boundary and by late afternoon had taken the score onto 424 for 4, having shared an unbeaten fifth wicket partnership of 288, which came off 280 balls, with Maynard on 132, and Hughes on 122, before Glamorgan declared.In reply Somerset lost Matt Wood for 4 with the score on 11 and Piran Holloway following in the same over that was bowled by Alex Wharf.By close of play evergreen Peter Bowler and new boy James Bryant had steadied the situation and taken the Cidermen onto 107 without further loss, Bowler ending on 66 and Bryant on 33.

* Gupte was the finest, says Sobers‘Blonde Bombshell’ Shane Warne might have his backers. For Sir DonaldBradman it might be Bill O’Reilly who was the finest of his tribe. Butas far as Sir Garry Sobers is concerned all arguments end with SubhashGupte.”(Gupte) had everything including two googles (googlies) that turned(one with a high arm action and one delivered more round-arm). Hisflight, length direction were magnificent,” go4cricket.com quotedSobers who was speaking at a function Cape Town in South Africa onFriday.The legendary all-rounder felt it was the amount of turn that Warneextracted that impressed people. “He never used to bowl the googly atfirst because he used to telegraph it and you could see it a mile off.His flipper was easy to pick up; there was always a little bit of achange (in his action).”Gupte played 36 Tests between 1952 and 1961 claiming 149 Test wickets.A wrist spinner who could turn it on any surface and one who possessedbaffling variety, he bowled an immaculate line and length. At hispeak, he bowled to batsmen of the calibre of the three W’s and AllanRae with a short leg, a silly mid-on and a silly mid-off! His bestTest figures were 9-102 against a West Indies side that also includedSobers in Kanpur in 1958.Sobers opinion about “Fergie” Gupte only echoes what many Indianobservers have been saying for a long time. The late Pankaj Roy, forinstance, while speaking to Cricinfo.com in September 2000 had said,”People, who are making such a statement (that Shane Warne was thebest leggie ever), have not seen Subhash Gupte. He had two googlies inhis armory. The first was quite apparent to the batsman, the secondwas the killer. Subhash Gupte would possibly accounted for morevictims if he had played the same number of Tests that Warne hasdone.”The 71-year-old Gupte is currently living in Trinidad where he settledafter marrying a West Indian. On Saturday, the Indian Board nominatedhim the 2000 CK Nayadu award.* ‘Deep’ in happinessThe new Indian wicket-keeper, the 23-year-old Deep Dasgupta was elatedto hear that he had been selected for India’s tour of South Africa.”My dad called me up from Kolkata and gave me the news. I cannotexpress what I felt,” Dasgupta told Press Trust of India.”It is indeed a great opportunity for a youngster like me to play forthe country. It is a dream come true. I have to make the best of it,”said Dasgupta, currently playing for Bengal in the Moin-ud-Dowla GoldCup.”I had been in contention for some time. But now that I have beenselected, it is a totally different feeling. In some way, I wasexpecting it.”Sameer Dighe, for all his commitment, was pathetic behind the stumps.The selectors were right when they decided that he couldn’t be trustedwith the important job of keeping wickets on the hard and bouncytracks in South Africa. Hopefully, Dasgupta who is said to be verygood ‘keeper, will hopefully measure up to the task and prove to be along-term option.* Das ready to settle for a slot in the middle-orderAnother East Zone man was also celebrating on Friday. Shiv Sunder Daswho has impressed as a Test opener, has also earned his first call-upto the one-day squad. The little man from Orissa feeels he might beable to gain a place in middle-order in the shorter version of thegame.”I will not change my game too much, I will play the same way. Thesethree weeks of practice will be very good and I will use a plasticball. Going early to South Africa will be good it will give us theconfidence,” Das told New Delhi Television.Something his long-time coach, Kishore Mania, fully endorsed. “Thesame technique – taking singles and not going for big shots and tryingand rotating the strike should work,” said Mania.Das, who is basically a backfoot player with a compact defence, is oneof the Indians expected to do well in South Africa. He is sure to gethis opportunity of facing up to the South African quicks in Tests. Buta one-day cap might be longer in coming.

The Europa League isn’t the useless parody of the Champions League it once was. With Tottenham unlikely to replicate a similar near-title challenge as they did last season, the club may be well-suited to launch a genuine assault on this European trophy.

At the moment, there’s simply too much weighing against Tottenham and another pre-February run in the league like they had last season. Their form was facilitated by some very good football from their themselves, but also due to the horrendous and unpredictable form of their nearest rivals. Now, however, those clubs have strengthened significantly and Spurs could find themselves in another tough battle for a top-four finish.

It would be extremely disappointing if Tottenham dismissed the Europa League in favour of a good finish in the league; they have a very good opportunity to land a trophy whose reputation is growing, and really, does anyone expect them to challenge for the title this season?

The sacrifice may come in the league, where Tottenham would likely lose out on a top-four spot if they performed well in European competition. But despite the financial benefits Champions League football brings, is it worth it throw away the prospect of a very realistic trophy come May?

Without Champions League football going into next season, Spurs have done a good job of landing a young and ambitious manager, one who was once highly thought of in England. The club have bought in two very good players in Jan Vertonghen and Gylfi Sigurdsson, and any possible proceeds from a Luka Modric sale would surely be reinvested. The club now have a manager who has shown his worth in this competition with Porto, and the team are not far off from being a genuine threat to other major clubs in the tournament.

Tottenham are hardly a major contender in the Premier League, despite what Harry Redknapp says—their budget simply doesn’t allow them to be a consistent close rival to the Manchester clubs or Chelsea. Instead, Tottenham have done extremely well in cup competitions in recent years, reaching two Carling Cup finals and last year’s FA cup semifinal. What was most promising is that on the whole (and discounting Juande Ramos’ time at the club) Spurs have found a good balance between cup commitments and the necessity to finish as high as possible in the league.

The battle they had with Manchester City a few seasons ago for fourth place is unlikely to be repeated, as City are now firmly above fighting for just a top-four place. It was also hugely disappointing for the club last season to finish in a spot that didn’t guarantee Champions League football, but again, are we likely to see them as close to the genuine title contenders over the next season?

Instead, Spurs need to continue to increase their global brand beyond being just a good English side and Champions League hopefuls. By landing the Europa League this season the club can continue to make a name for themselves on the continent, helping to attract a wider market of players and sponsorships.

It can sometimes be infuriating that the current generation of football fans consider Champions League qualification to be the highest achievement if a league title is out of reach. Again, the income from Europe’s top competition makes it seem worthwhile, but a trophy is still a great marker for a club and an important stepping stone.

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Harry Redknapp may not have seen much worth in the Europa League last season, and perhaps rightly so. But the competition drew a large audience due to it’s knockout round matches and Tottenham should look to take advantage.

The club’s budget for now will keep them firmly on the borders of Champions League and Europa League football. But Spurs are good enough to spread their ambition to more than just a good league finish. The club have the resources to win the Europa League, and it would be an excellent step forward for both the club and English football if they were to do so.

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