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Fast bowler Christopher Mpofu has been given a chance to redeem himself after being called up to the Zimbabwe A side for the series against Bangladesh A that gets underway at Mutare on Saturday.Mpofu, who has fallen out of favour with the national selectors and has not played for Zimbabwe since the second Test against New Zealand at Queens Sports Club in August 2005, was given a late call- up to the second-string side. He was not in the original 15-man squad announced at the beginning of this month and was in Harare training when he was told to make the trip to Mutare.Should Mpofu impress against Bangladesh A, he would almost guarantee himself a place in the senior squad to play against Bangladesh next month.A number of players who were originally in the A-team squad are said to have been dropped, and these include Kwawulani Ntuli, Bradley Staddon and Bothwell Chapungu. The trio has no first-class experience, although Ntuli and Chapungu impressed during the hastily-organised National League. Staddon, son of ZC interim executive committee member Stanley, was a surprise inclusion as he has been studying in South Africa for the past two years and has not played any competitive cricket in that time.Zimbabwe A take on Bangladesh A in the first four-day match at Mutare Sports Club on Saturday with the second match set for the same venue. The two teams move to Bulawayo for the third and final four-dayer at Queens Sports Club before they meet in three limited-overs games at the same venue. The last three limited-overs matches take place at Kwekwe Sports Club.

AB de Villiers has dropped another hint that he is willing to stay on as South Africa’s long-term Test captain, after his new-look team completed an impressive 280-run victory in the fourth and final Test at Centurion.De Villiers, who himself made a pair in the match and has averaged just 9.00 in his two Tests since taking over from Hashim Amla as captain in the aftermath of the second Test at Cape Town, praised the character shown by his players s they secured their first Test victory in ten matches since January 2015.”The guys were very fired up for this Test match,” de Villiers said during the post-match presentations. “It’s been a while since we won a Test match so we are obviously very excited about that and we will enjoy the celebrations afterwards now.”South Africa’s side featured five changes from the seven-wicket defeat in Johannesburg, in which they conceded an insurmountable 2-0 series deficit, and de Villiers singled out one of the new faces, debutant opener Stephen Cook, for particular praise, following his maiden century in the first innings. However, the star of the show was unequivocally Kagiso Rabada, whose match figures of 13 for 144 were the second-best in South Africa’s Test history.”We are very excited about some of the guys coming through and taking their opportunities with both hands,” de Villiers said. “Obviously Kagiso had a fantastic Test match, it doesn’t come around every day that you take 13 wickets in a Test so we are very proud of him, and obviously Temba [Bavuma] and Cooky have played their roles in this Test match, and Temba obviously in the whole series.”It’s a great team performance, coming back from 2-0 against a very solid England team, and we showed a lot of character and hopefully we can build on this now and in the future.”Asked about his own future in Test cricket, amid series-long speculation about his workload, de Villiers implied that he was ready to commit to the leadership, with South Africa’s next Test engagement coming at home against New Zealand in August.”Yeah, I’ve really enjoyed it,” he said. “I’m keen to move forward and the team is in a really good space, with a few guys coming through and enjoying their cricket. It’s a good place to be in, and it’s a bright future for us.”We’ve got a long way to go, it’s a bit of a rebuilding phase, we’ve lost quite a few players in the last few years, but the guys who’ve come through have shown a lot of character and shown us that they can take the team forward. I think there’s a bright future and we are looking forward to everything that’s going to come our way, and all the challenges.”Rabada followed up his first-innings figures of 7 for 112 with 6 for 32 second time around, including a destructive final-morning spell of 4 for 4 in 21 balls to bundle England out before the drinks break, and was deservedly named Man of the Match.”It was a bit up and down so the key was to hit the deck, bowl in a relatively good area and believe that you’d get your rewards,” he said. “It’s great to be in this environment, it’s what I’ve always wanted to do, and it’s great to play against a quality cricket team.””To take seven wickets this morning in the time that we did probably wasn’t part of my thinking in bed last night,” de Villiers admitted. “We were prepared to go to 5.30pm today and guts it out. They have a few match-winners in their team so we were wary of that, it wasn’t an impossible run-chase.”Alastair Cook, England’s captain, conceded his side had been second-best throughout the match.”It’s been a disappointing five days, we haven’t quite been on it, pretty much the whole five days,” he said. “We’ve hung in there without ever being able to get on top of South Africa. Credit to them, they played well, but we weren’t quite at the races.”Trevor [Bayliss, the coach] just described it as a limp batting performance, which probably sums it up perfectly.”

Points table

Uganda and Cayman Islands booked their places in the semi-finals of the World Cricket League Division Three as ball dominated bat on the second day of the tournament in Darwin. Both teams made short work of their opponents, comfortably winning low-scoring games in the first session.The wins gave Uganda and Cayman Islands maximum points from two games in Group B and left Tanzania and Hong Kong winless with just one match remaining. Despite Italy’s second successive win, Group B remains wide open as PNG and Argentina have one win from two games. After Tuesday’s rest day, PNG will meet Italy at Nightcliff while Argentina meet Fiji at Kahlin Oval in the last group matches.

Argentina bounced back from a thrilling one-wicket defeat to Italy on the opening day by recording a five-wicket victory over pre-tournament favourites Papua New Guinea at Gardens. Skipper Estaban MacDermott inspired the Argentineans with a match-winning spell of 4 for 22 as PNG were bowled out for 91. Argentina achieved the target for the loss of five wickets with Donald Forrester remaining unbeaten on 44. MacDermott described the victory as the biggest in Argentina’s cricket history. “All the effort that was put in is now paying off,” he said. “By defeating PNG, we have shown that we can compete at this level.”Italy recorded their second victory in the competition by overpowering Fiji by 37 runs. Batting first, Italy scored 186 for 9 with Nicholas Northcote top scoring with 37. Fiji were bowled out for 149.

Uganda defeated Tanzania by four wickets at Power Park with Charles Waiswa taking 3 for 7 as the Tanzanians were dismissed for 64. Although Benson Mwita made Uganda work hard for their victory by taking 4 for 23, his efforts were not enough to stop Uganda stumbling to a four-wicket win.Cayman Islands’ experience of playing in the Stanford Twenty20 tournament and the Intercontinental Cup was on display for the second successive day when they recorded a straightforward eight-wicket victory over Hong Kong at Nightcliff. Franklin Hinds was the star for Cayman Islands when he took 4 for 22 as Hong Kong were skittled for 67.

Australia have called on Michael Hussey as a coaching consultant for the World Twenty20 next year and have also enlisted former India ODI player Sridharan Sriram to help them prepare for the conditions in India. The World T20 is the one major piece of silverware Australia are yet to win and given the spinning conditions in India, breaking through in the 2016 tournament would be a major challenge.Adding to their concerns ahead of the tournament the No.7-ranked T20 bowler in the world, Mitchell Starc, is almost certain to be unavailable due to his recovery from ankle surgery. Twenty20 has very much taken a back seat for Australia this year, with the World Cup having been their key 2015 focus. Remarkably, Australia have played only one T20 in 2015.That will change in the new year with Australia to host India for three T20s in late January, before they travel to South Africa for three more T20s in early March, ahead of the World T20. Hussey will join the squad in India for the first two weeks of the tournament; Australia’s first match is against New Zealand in Dharamsala on March 18.”Mike has been one of our most successful players at transitioning between the different formats and his advice and support in this area will be of great benefit to the players who have played a large amount of Test and ODI cricket in the last 12 months,” Pat Howard, the Cricket Australia executive general manager team performance, said.”He also has significant experience playing in India through the Indian Premier League and will assist in adapting to the unique conditions we will experience.”Hussey said he was excited about the opportunity to work with Australia, having retired as an international player in 2012-13. “As a proud Australian cricketer I am delighted to be involved in Australia’s campaign for the World T20 title,” Hussey said. “I’m really looking forward to working with the boys and assisting in any way possible with their preparation and match day plans.”Sriram, an allrounder who played eight ODIs for India from 2000 to 2004, will work with the Australians in South Africa to help them prepare for what they will face in the Indian conditions. Australia announced in September that Sriram would join them as a coaching consultant for their Test series in Bangladesh, but that tour was ultimately cancelled for security reasons.”We will play three T20 internationals against South Africa prior to arriving in India and Sriram’s focus will be on getting the players as prepared as possible for what they will face in India,” Howard said.”Sriram was a consultant coach with the Australia A side when they travelled to India earlier this year and was due to go to Bangladesh as a consultant prior to the tour being postponed. He has also been working with our National Performance Squad for the past few years.”

Times have changed. The first time India were crowned world champions, back in 1983, they had 77 days off between the World Cup final and their next international fixture. On Saturday, they begin a series against Australia just four days after their thrilling five-run win in the ICC World Twenty20 final. Those four days included a five-hour motorcade through the streets of Mumbai, a public reception at the Wankhede Stadium, a quick visit home (in some cases) and one practice session at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.India have a new captain who must motivate his team for the first of the dozen ODIs they will play over the next six weeks. Mahendra Singh Dhoni also has to figure out just how much India need to switch gears from their successful Twenty20 approach.Gautam Gambhir, prolific in the Twenty20 games but uncertain when slotted at No. 3 in the 50-over version, might be better off adopting the same tactics as he did in South Africa. Though he opened there, he will probably bat at No. 3 tomorrow. The return of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid means India have to decide whether to retain Dinesh Karthik or local boy Robin Uthappa if they opt for seven batsmen. In this scenario Irfan Pathan, man of the match in the Twenty20 final, may not fit in as the fourth seam bowler, especially given how well Sreesanth bowled against Australia recently. Zaheer Khan will return, and the recalled Harbhajan Singh will be handed the opportunity to prove that he belongs.Australia’s pride was dented in South Africa and this is a chance to prove that was a blip. A hamstring injury has ruled out Ricky Ponting for the first few games but stand-in captain Adam Gilchrist has been successful here before, leading Australia to a rare Test series win in the subcontinent in 2004, when Ponting broke a thumb before the tour.Australia, through a combination of retirement, injuries and impending fatherhood, are set to make six changes for their first ODI since the World Cup final. There are spots up for grabs for Adam Voges, James Hopes and Ben Hilfenhaus, the three rookies. Each has tasted international cricket but has yet to be given major opportunities. Voges, with runs for Australia A in Pakistan recently, is likely to take Michael Hussey’s place and Brad Haddin could find a spot down the order.Australia’s reliance has been on pace recently but the sole spinner included could be a handful on Indian surfaces. Brad Hogg may be on the wrong side of 36 but he’s an underrated spin bowler and has featured in two World Cup-winning sides. He didn’t get a game in South Africa and was itching to have a go here. “We’ve been training for four months and we’re professionals. I don’t have any excuses, first game or last game. I’ve tried to prepare in every best way I can and hopefully I can do well,” he told . “Definitely I’m looking to get into the Test side. Hopefully I can do well and dish up those chances, get into the contest and have a tussle against a quality side. I’m ready to rock and roll.”The surface looks to be a batting track but there’s good bounce here for the pace bowlers, as evident during the Afro-Asia cup here in June. The last time Australia played India here in November 2003 frenetic hundreds from Gilchrist and Ponting carried them to 347 and a 61-run victory.Off the field, there’s an incredible buzz surrounding the match. Tickets for one-day matches are hard to come by at the best of times; India’s success has merely increased the anticipation. There was a good crowd to watch Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly, Zaheer and Ramesh Powar practice at the ground. As Ganguly batted and Tendulkar took catches from a young club cricketer, the big screen at the ground played a repeat telecast of the Twenty20 final. There was a neat juxtaposition of Ganguly being bowled, in real time, and behind him, larger than life, Gambhir driving Mohammad Asif imperiously through the covers.Back, one more time, to 1983: The next time they faced West Indies after that balmy June evening, India were walloped. They’ve just knocked Australia out of the Twenty20 tournament, and you can bet Australia will look for revenge. And India? Well they’ll just be keen to prove the times really have changed.Teams:India (likely): 1 Sourav Ganguly, 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 Gautam Gambhir, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Rahul Dravid, 6 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt/wk), 7 Dinesh Karthik, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Sreesanth, 11 RP Singh.Australia (likely): 1 Adam Gilchrist (capt/wk), 2 Mathew Hayden, 3 Brad Hodge, 4 Michael Clarke, 5 Andrew Symonds, 6 Brad Haddin, 7 Adam Voges, 8 Brad Hogg, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Mitchell Johnson, 11 Stuark Clark.

ScorecardAshley Noffke produced a four-wicket haul as Queensland extended their lead at the top of the Ford Ranger Cup table with a comprehensive 32-run against Victoria at the Gabba. The platform was laid by a century opening stand between Jimmy Maher and Matthew Hayden before the Bulls’ attack, led by Noffke, restricted the Bushrangers despite Cameron White’s 77.At 2 for 108, Victoria were on track to make a decent fist of their chase. However, Noffke had Aiden Blizzard caught by Chris Simpson to end a third-wicket stand of 56 with White. When David Hussey was run out three overs later the momentum had swung in Queenland’s direction.The experience of Andy Bichel and Andy Symonds, who celebrated his Test recall with three wickets and a sharp catch, proved too much for the Bulls’ middle order. The result was sealed when Noffke claimed Adam Crosthwaite and White in the space of three balls in the 45th over.After a lean run in the opening two Ashes Tests, Hayden spent valuable time in the middle as he compiled a studious 84 off 110 balls alongside Maher’s 53. It was not just the Victoria bowlers that suffered from Hayden’s power. The square leg umpire Norm McNamara left the field with a broken hand after a Hayden pull shot cannoned into him in the 39th over, and was replaced by the third umpire Andrew Curran.The quick loss of James Hopes and Symonds to Shane Harwood stalled Queensland’s progress but Michael Buchanan and Chris Hartley added 48 off 38 balls for the seventh wicket, a stand that proved decisive.

Usually by the end of March Ashley Noffke knows what is happening with his off-season plans. Previous winters have involved stints in England or business duties, family time and fishing trips, but this one threatens to include the tour of the West Indies in May.Noffke’s outstanding first-class collection of 51 wickets at 19.03 and 741 runs at 46.31 – he became the third Australian behind George Giffen and Greg Matthews to capture the 50-wicket, 500-run season double – has him hoping to be part of his second Caribbean adventure with the national team. After such a strong campaign the expectation is he will be in the squad when it is named this week, possibly as early as Wednesday.While picking up a host of trophies at the Queensland awards dinner on Saturday, including the Player-of-the-Year prize, Noffke made it clear he was ready to add to the one-day and Twenty20 debuts that came in 2007-08. “Throughout the year I was thinking, ‘how am I going to get into the Test team?’ Halfway through I came to the conclusion Test cricket wasn’t going to happen this summer.”I love playing one-day cricket and I love playing Twenty20, but I want to play a Test and I want to show my wares over the long game. Whether or not I get an opportunity for that soon, or if I’ve got to wait another season, I don’t feel age is a barrier.” Noffke turns 31 in April but is not concerned when he looks at players such as Stuart Clark and Michael Hussey, who received later-in-life-opportunities.A remodelled bowling action and extra attention on his always-productive batting has turned Noffke into a major force. Even Simon Katich, who struck a record-breaking 1506 Pura Cup runs, could not feel more upset than Noffke if he is omitted from what will probably be a 15-man touring party.If Noffke is picked it will be his third trip with the squad after being a late call-up for the 2001 Ashes tour and completing the 2003 visit to the Caribbean. Injuries over the next few years intervened and led to the technical overhauls.Noffke returned to the international set-up for the Twenty20 against New Zealand in December, taking 3 for 18, and hit back from a poor opening in his ODI debut on his home ground in February. “The first two and a half overs were some of the most regrettable bowling I’ve bowled,” he said. “It’s funny how body and mind can let you down at times. I’d worked so hard over a long time to achieve that specific moment.”Brett Lee and Ricky Ponting offered support, but it was Adam Gilchrist’s advice that was memorable after Noffke let 19 runs escape in 12 balls. “Gilly ran up to me and said: ‘If you took a wicket in your first couple of overs we would have thought you were a big head.'”The good-natured teasing was successful. “It calmed me down a little bit,” Noffke said. “I was thinking, ‘if I don’t pull my socks up and start bowling like I know I can, I’m not going to get another opportunity’. After those couple of overs I settled down and bowled as well as I’d done throughout the year.” He finished with 1 for 46 off nine, but was squeezed from the side when Clark came back.The rest of the season was spent trying to revive Queensland without squad success, but his individual results remained strong. While some of his team-mates considered deals with the Indian Premier League, Noffke hid himself from the talk and did not register for the second auction. “At end of the day I didn’t want to let myself know too much about it,” he said. “I just want to play cricket for Australia at the moment.”Another season with the English county Middlesex is a possibility, but that depends on the events of the next week. “I’m waiting to see what’s happening with the tour,” he said. “I’m still contemplating going to Middlesex as long as they want me, but that’s if I’m not selected for the West Indies – I’d be pretty disappointed if I didn’t go.”

Scorecard
A captain’s knock from Mithali Raj lifted India to their third successive win of the Asia Cup against Sri Lanka at Jaipur. Set 172 for victory, India rode on Raj’s 108-ball knock, which included four fours, along with handy 30s from Sunetra Paranjpe and Anjum Chopra.Sri Lanka’s total of 171, largely thanks to half-centuries from Dedunu Silva and Eshani Kaushalya, proved to be inadequate. Choosing to bat first, Sri Lanka were done in by tight Indian bowling, with Jhulan Goswami and Thirush Kamini managing two wickets apiece.Only one other batsman managed double figures and Sri Lanka didn’t get the kick in the final overs. Paranjpe began India’s reply confidently, with a stroke-filled 37, before a 70-run stand between Chopra and Raj sealed the deal.

Shoaib Malik, the Pakistan captain, has dismissed the suggestion that the team batting second is likely to win the World Twenty20 matches in South Africa. “If you have a strong bowling line-up up you can bat first and put pressure on the other team,” Malik told agencies.Pakistan play New Zealand in the semi-final in Cape Town today and Malik said, apart from making any major mistakes, his side had to avoid fielding lapses, like giving away extra runs, to reach the final.Malik gave credit to coach Geoff Lawson for Pakistan’s improvement in fielding. “His [Lawson’s] presence is a big support to us because he minutely watches the performance of every player, listing their mistakes and then works on them,” Malik said.Lawson, in turn, praised the team for proving the critics wrong and reaching the semi-final stage of the tournament.”We faced different types of rivals – from the preliminary round to the Super Eights phase – and so there were different levels of competitions; obviously there were varied challenges midway but the team overcame all of them successfully,” said Lawson, who is on his first assignment with Pakistan.”We lost one game to India and I would say it was a decent defeat as we almost had won and then suddenly could not perform in the bowl-out format which was new to the players,” he said. “After beating Scotland the way we played against Sri Lanka and then Australia is a credit to establish the team’s reputation as a winning side.”Lawson also said Pakistan’s pace attack in Mohammad Asif and Umar Gul could trouble any batting line-up in the world. “We [also] have some competent batsmen besides a couple of good allrounders. So I think it is a right combination needed by a team.” But the team may have to rethink their strategies in the event Asif, who is doubtful to play after he sustained an elbow injury, is unavailable to lead the attack.

Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach, says the inclusion of four fast bowlers and five spinners in Pakistan’s 16-man squad is designed to give Pakistan’s bowling as many options as possible as the series against England draws closer.In pointing out the squad was varied enough to be suitable for all types of pitches, Woolmer told , “We’ve picked a very strong squad and we’ve been preparing well for the series. But it remains to be seen how we perform under pressure and how the players respond to that pressure. They have been focusing hard for this series.”But he played down continuing suggestions that a decision to make spinning wickets – given the presence of Danish Kaneria, Arshad Khan and Mushtaq Ahmed – had already been taken. Woolmer said, “The truth is that we can talk to the groundsmen and tell them what sort of pitches we would like but we can’t tell them what to prepare. It is their decision.”Woolmer also spoke of the decision to pick only one specialist opener – Salman Butt – in the squad. Despite having trialed nine different partnerships in ten Tests since taking over, Woolmer said, “We aim to give a pair a long run in the series. We’ll go with two openers and then allow them proper chances to seize the opportunity. We don’t want to confuse this issue in this series. We will not experiment in this series. We want to go with two openers and give them a proper run.”We want to give a decent run to the openers. We want to give them confidence. Because it is toughest facing the new ball. If we can find a stable partnership in this series than we are on the road to overcoming this problem,” he added. “Definitely we need a stable pair in this series because they have a good new ball attack.”Woolmer added that the issue of substitutes, which attracted increasing attention and condemnation from Australia as the Ashes progressed, was unlikely to be as contentious as issue here. England’s `tactics’ of letting their fast bowlers go off the field immediately after long spells, as well as irking Ricky Ponting, prompted Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, to call for clearer definitions of what is acceptable in the usage of substitutes.Woolmer, however, disagreed with Ponting, saying he felt, “England were within their rights to depute fielders when necessary. I think it is natural that during a match, because of the heat and sweat, players want to come out for a change of shirts or for a call of nature. It is not a big issue with us.”Meanwhile, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Pakistan captain, has said his side won’t be under any extra pressure given the strength of this English side. “Why should we be under pressure? I don’t see any reason for that; we are a good team and we’ll be proving it against England,” Inzamam told APP.Inzamam added, “If someone thinks that we are the weaker side and are under pressure, then it isn’t wise or fair. I’ve pinned a lot of expectations on my side and I’m fully confident they can respond to that.”