Scorecard A big century by Qaiser Ali was not enough to save Canada – or even to take them to a fourth day – as Netherlands completed victory at Pretoria. Still, Canada will be encouraged by a decent batting display at last – after their first-innings collapse for 103, and their recent shocking form with the bat, this time they reached 485 to set Netherlands 180 for victory.Netherlands duly knocked off the runs for just three wickets, Tom de Grooth leading the way with 82. The inevitable man of the match, Ryan ten Doeschate, fittingly struck the winning runs, biffing one of his five fours on his way to an unbeaten 31 off 26 balls.It had seemed unlikely that Netherlands would even need to bat again when, on the second day, Canada were in some difficulty at 153 for 5, still trailing by 152. But Qaiser Ali continued in cracking form, building on his overnight 76 to make 176. He shared in a sixth-wicket stand of 184 with Don Maxwell (72) and Umar Bhatti (83*) also chipped in useful runs to make Netherlands enter a second innings. But they hunted down their target with ease.The openers de Grooth and Bas Zuiderent (42) got them off to a flyer, putting on 122. After that partnership the result was never in doubt and Netherlands lost just two more wickets to canter home.

In the final match of the ICC Tri-Series Bermuda regained some pride with a resounding six-wicket win over Netherlands – the series winners – at Benoni on Saturday.The Netherlands innings never got going with wickets falling regularly; at one stage they lost 4 for 2 in three overs, and three of their middle order registered ducks. It was a disappointing final performance from Netherlands whose shot selection left a lot to be desired. It began with Bas Zuiderent’s skied shot to Steffan Kelly and ended with Muhammad Kashif’s drive to Kevin Hurdle at mid on as Bermuda dismissed them for 91 in just 27 overs. Saleem Mukuddem was the pick of the bowlers with 4 for 40 from his ten overs, deservedly picking up the Man-of-the-Match award.However, all was not lost for Netherlands who removed both Bermuda openers cheaply and, when Tim de Leede dismissed Steven Outerbridge for 11, Bermuda were struggling on 24 for 3. But David Hemp (36*) and Irvine Romaine steadied the ship with Hemp clobbering six fours and a six in a whirlwind knock lasting just 18 balls as Bermuda raced home in the 17th over.After Mukuddem received the Man-of-the-Match award, Netherlands’s captain Luuk van Troost was presented with the series trophy. He thanked “all those who made this series possible” and added that “it helps a lot” in the development of Associates cricket and the build-up to next year’s World Cup.Canada and the Netherlands meet in the final match of their group in the ICC Intercontinental Cup which begins on December.

Listen to Rahul Dravid’s press conferenceSoon after the presentation ceremony, Rahul Dravid walked towards theboundary rope and gestured towards the crowd. His wife made her way throughthe throng and handed over little Samit, who was then carried across tothe dressing room. Perhaps the celebrations were a little too much for atoddler to take and, by the time his father arrived for the press conferences,shirt soaked in spirits, Samit had gone back to a more child-friendlyenvironment.Sporting the biggest smile that he has in a long while, Dravid spokein animated tones about the celebrations following a historic 123-run victory.”Everyone’s going berserk and really enjoying it,” he said”. “It’s aspecial moment for this group and we are celebrating appropriately.”In the build-up to the game, Dravid had emphasised that it would bedangerous to write India off, though he admitted that the no-hopers taghadn’t been entirely undeserved. “I don’t blame the people for criticisingus,” he said. “South Africa were always going to be favourites headinginto this Test, but I knew there was a lot of quality in this team. Weshowed that in the last few days. We had players who stood up and werecounted.”Having been an integral part of epochal successes at Adelaide, Headingleyand Multan, Dravid was cautious when asked where this triumph rated in thegrand scheme of things. “This victory is great because this is the firsttime we have done it in South Africa in four visits over the past 14 years. Asa cricketer, your special moments are the ones that you share with theteam; the celebrations, the joy you get from winning and just being a partof the group that has stood by you for three-and-a-half days and put ineverything they’ve got to come out victorious.”The morale appeared to be too low for zero after the capitulation in theone-day series but, by the time the players returned to Johannesburg forthe Test, the spring was back in several steps. “It’s not that we haven’tdone this before,” said Dravid, when asked what had changed. “We lost theone-day series in West Indies but came back to win the Test series. Ithink it was nice to get away in Potchefstroom and hang in together.”The team was pretty hurt with the one-day defeat and we just got togetherand said whatever happens, we’ll try and put in a better performance. Wecame here with a bit of confidence having won the warm up-game. I’mglad the boys displayed a lot of fighting spirit and character.”Sreesanth’s brilliance with the ball broke the game open for India, butDravid preferred to focus on the team effort when asked to pick out thepivotal moments in the game. “The way Sourav Ganguly batted with the lowerorder to get us to 250,” he said. “His partnership with VRV Singh wascrucial too. Sreesanth and Zaheer coming out and bowling out theopposition for 84. Laxman did a great job with the tail in the secondinnings and his stand with Zaheer. Sreesanth picking up three wickets in thesecond innings, including the important wicket of Kallis. These were thecrucial moments that eventually helped us win.”The return of Ganguly added experience to the middle order, and both heand Laxman played hugely important knocks in the context of a low-scoringmatch. “It’s nice to have boys who have performed well in situations likethis before,” said Dravid. “To be honest, this Test team has been the samefor some time now, except for one or two players here and there. We hadthe same group in Pakistan, [against] England and West Indies.”When asked whether he’d discerned any change in Ganguly’s attitude andapproach to the game, Dravid said: “He’s really playing well. There’s nodoubt about that. His performances in Potchefstroom and in this Test havebeen really good. It’s great to see him batting well. He’s a proven andexperienced performer and when he bats well, it’s going to make a bigdifference to the side. I hope he keeps continuing because we’ll need goodperformances from people like him, Sachin, Laxman and myself to have theright results.”There was praise too for the coaching staff, who have copped considerablecriticism in recent months after indifferent results in the one-day game.”Unfortunately, we tend to focus a lot on individuals in success anddefeat,” said Dravid. “But at the end of the day, victories and defeatsare not about the captain or the coaches or one or two individuals. It’salways about the team. I’ve always believed that it’s the performancesthat you put in as a team that helps you win matches.”

With India needing just five more wickets at the start of day four, theintensity was a little less than what it had been on the first three days.Dravid said, however, that there had been no hint of complacency. “Thesenior guys in the side were pretty keen to remind me and everyone else,saying: ‘Let’s get this done. They are a very good side, we need to beprofessional and get the job done’. It’s a good group of senior boys inthe team and the support they’ve given me is fantastic. A lot of things Idon’t even need to say, it just comes from the group and they handle a lotof things themselves.”In the past, great highs such as this have been followed by crashing lows,and Dravid said that his team needed to be wary of a South Africanbacklash. “South Africa will come back hard at us,” he said. “We have tosoak up a lot of pressure and respond adequately.”The pressure was certainly on when he walked out for the toss at theWanderers, and he asserted that the decision to bat had been his alone.”Whether we bat or bowl first, or who plays in the XI, is going to be mycall,” he said. “I do discuss things in our team meetings and with some ofmy senior players but at the end of the day, it always starts and endswith me. I felt that batting first was the way to go on this pitch.”Getting 249 on the board was quite an achievement, but what followed wasjust sensational, with the bowlers dismantling a powerful batting line-upin just 25.1 overs. “He bowled brilliantly for us,” said Dravid, whenasked specifically about Sreesanth’s man-of-the-match display. “Obviously,he’s a character, but he needs to be a bit careful. We wouldn’t want himto miss a game.”He chuckled when asked about Sreesanth’s impromptu celebrations afterwhacking Andre Nel for a straight six. “I’d rather have him do what he didwith the bat than what he did later. But I enjoyed his six. I enjoyeverything when Sreesanth bowls well. He’s a great character. A playerlike him, a character like him, needs to be celebrated and enjoyed.”And, as the storm clouds gathered over the stadium, he admitted that thehigh jinks weren’t about to end just yet. “It’s a good moment to betogether as a group and celebrate,” he said, with a big grin. “We played alittle bit of ‘Holi’. The boys need to learn to drink too, and not justspray it!”After what they have just accomplished, most Indians would forgive them that.

New South Wales Breakers will aim for back-to-back National Women’s Cricket League titles after they sealed second place with a double success against South Australia at the weekend. The Breakers earned two bonus-point victories in Adelaide to set up an appointment with Victoria Spirit in the best-of-three finals series at Glen Waverley from January 26.Queensland Fire entered the last weekend of preliminary matches in second spot, but their 57-run loss to Victoria in Melbourne on Saturday dropped them to third and despite an 80-run thrashing of Spirit on Sunday, they could not hold off the charge of New South Wales. Cathryn Fitzpatrick’s return of 3 for 23 was crucial in the first match and she picked up another two victims on Sunday to equal the haul of fellow Australia bowler Kirsten Pike, who performed strongly for Queensland.Half-centuries to Alex and Kate Blackwell set up the Breakers’ opening win and their 101-run partnership pushed the total towards 9 for 234. South Australia fell for 184 and they managed only 181 the next day as Charlotte Anneveld picked up 3 for 25. Lisa Sthalekar made sure of her side’s progress into the final with her unbeaten 92 securing the eight-wicket success.Victoria, who finished three points ahead, and New South Wales will contest the finals series for the seventh time in the 11-year history of the league and the Breakers hold a 4-2 advantage. They defeated Queensland over three matches last year to avenge the loss to Victoria in 2004-05.Queensland’s Melissa Bulow finished the series as the leading run-scorer with 336 at 42.00, ahead of South Australia’s Kris Britt, who collected 279 at 55.80. Clea Smith, from Victoria, was the most successful bowler with 15 wickets at 14.53 while Pike finished with 14 victims at the impressive average of 11.85.

The results of the proposed USA Cricket Association constitution ratification vote has been announced today with 70.03% (201 votes) of the responding member clubs agreeing to the proposal.However, in total, only 287 votes were registered which amounts to just 43% of the 667 registered clubs the USACA has on their books, some way short of the mandatory 50% under which the existing constitution was formed.Furthermore, only 12 days’ notice was given for the clubs to vote on the new constitution, partly explaining the low turnout. It seems likely that another issue affecting USA cricket will be settled in the courts, just 8 days from the ICC’s deadline: by March 1 they must have held new elections under a fresh constitution if they are to maintain its status as an Associate member.

The final day of the State Championship match between Northern Districts and Otago ended in a tense draw after Otago lost nine wickets while chasing a target of 266 at Seddon Park in Hamilton.ND declared their second innings at 150 and then set to bowl out Otago in the allotted 78 overs. Otago lost wickets at regular intervals as right-arm fast-medium bowler Graeme Aldridge got three wickets while medium pacers Timothy Southee and Brent Arnel got two each. Aldridge ended with eight wickets for the match, having taken 5 for 75 in the first innings. Tail-enders Bradley Scott and James McMillan played out the last two overs of the day after Otago had collapsed to 197 for 9.Timothy Weston’s maiden century was an effort in vain as Central Districts were bowled out by Auckland chasing 375 on the final day’s play at Eden Park’s Outer Oval.A century by Richard Jones, his second in the game, and a half-century by Rob Nicol allowed to Auckland declare their second innings at 284 for 5. Then their opening bowlers Chris Martin (3 for 80) and Andre Adams (3 for 47) sent back the first four CD batsmen with 10 runs on the scoreboard. Weston (152) and Bevan Griggs (69) made up for the top-order collapse with a 168-run partnership for the fifth wicket. But it was never going to be enough, especially since no other CD batsman scored more than 25. Weston, himself, was dismissed for the ninth wicket caught by Adams off Martin while Griggs was dismissed by Gareth Haynes who got with 3 for 80 with his offbreak bowling. Martin ended with eight for the match while Adams got seven.Wellington won two first-innings points after chasing down Canterbury’s mammoth 613 on the back of Stu Mills’s maiden first-class century at Christchurch.Mills (171) added 184 with Grant Elliot (101) for the sixth wicket and then 176 with Chris Nevin (98). Dewayne Bowden and Iain O’Brien chased down the 46 needed to gain the lead with eight overs to spare. Hamish Bennett, a right-arm medium fast bowler, took four wickets including Mills.

Andre Adams, the New Zealand allrounder, has been suspended for one domestic match after assaulting a player in a match this week.Adams was charged with physical assault after grabbing the helmet of Bevan Griggs, the Central Districts batsman, and shaking the grill which in turn cut Griggs’s lip.He was suspended by a code of conduct commissioner in Auckland and will miss their last round match of the State Championship next week.He has until tomorrow afternoon to appeal against the decision.

Gloucestershire are hopeful Umar Gul, the Pakistan fast bowler, will be available for some part of the coming season despite the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB’s) refusal to release him. Gul and Mohammad Asif have been instructed by the PCB to refrain from accepting any contracts owing to their fitness problems.Speaking to BBC Sport, Tom Richardson, Gloucestershire’s chief executive, said the club was very keen on Gul. “This is disappointing news. We’ve been trying over the last few days to secure Umar Gul’s release. We’re still hopeful we’ll be able to get him over here for a period of time this summer. That said we are, of course, looking at alternatives.”Gloucestershire, in the expectation that Pakistan would be in the Super Eights stage of the World Cup, signed Ashley Noffke, the Queensland fast bowler and recent recipient of the Ian Healy Trophy, as cover for the early part of the summer.Gul isn’t the only bowler likely to miss out as the PCB crack down on the multitude of fitness problems their fast bowlers have faced in the last year: Mohammad Asif, who was due to begin a second season at Leicestershire this season has also been asked to not play.Zakir Khan, director of cricket operations of the board, told : “The bowlers have faced fitness problems and it hit the performance of the team. For the moment, we have told them not to accept any contracts.”The board is in the process of finalising a comprehensive international and domestic programme after the World Cup. We want all our pacers fit and available,” Zakir said.Younis Khan and Danish Kaneria are also due to represent Yorkshire and Essex respectively but no decision has been made as to whether they will be allowed to honour their contracts or not.A number of Pakistan players, after returning from the West Indies, have been involved in the ongoing Pentangular Cup and Pakistan’s next international assignment is a proposed three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka has been planned for May. If that does not materialise then they have a clear international schedule until September.

Martin Snedden has ended his role as New Zealand Cricket’s chief executive after six years in the job. Snedden will be replaced by Justin Vaughan, the former Test player, and is leaving to join the company organising the 2011 rugby World Cup.”I have enjoyed my time at New Zealand Cricket and admit to feeling some sadness that I am leaving after a long association as a player, board member and chief executive,” he said. Snedden began his international career as a medium-pace bowler in 1981 and played 25 Tests and 93 ODIs.”I would like to thank the management and staff of New Zealand Cricket, the major and district associations, our commercial partners and contracted players for their efforts and the support they have given me during my time as chief executive.” Vaughan, who is a qualified medical doctor, will take over in June.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has officially launched the recruitment process for a new head coach for the national team, placing an advertisment on their website. Tom Moody’s term as coach ends after the ongoing one-day series against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi.While negotiations continued with former fast bowler Rumesh Ratnayake about the possibility of him assisting during the Bangladesh tour in July, SLC were seeking applications from interested coaches to be submitted by July 1 so they could secure an international coach to prepare the team for the 2011 World Cup.”The suitable candidate should be a Level III qualified coach and should be energetic, organised and highly motivated with excellent communication skills,” the SLC media release said on their website (www.srilankacricket.lk).”The selected individual will be required to train national squads for the participation of tournaments and tours. He will also be required to work at specialised clinics and harness the selected players to be competitive in the international arena and will be responsible for building a winning team.”SLC also sought the help of Moody, who is set to join Western Australia, to headhunt some select coaches.”Tom has come up with a few names and we are also conducting our own research to have an appropriate candidate who can continue the good work Moody has done with the national team so far,” said Jayantha Dharmadasa, the SLC chairman.The early frontrunner for the position, John Wright, apparently ruled himself out. Other interested candidates include Jamie Siddons, Dave Houghton, Greg Shipperd, Terry Oliver, Trevor Bayliss and Graham Ford.Siddons is assistant coach of the Australian team and a senior coach at the Center for Excellence in Brisbane. Houghton, the former Zimbabwe captain, is presently coaching Derbyshire. Shipperd is the coach of Victoria while Oliver had success coaching Queensland. Baylisss made his mark as head coach of New South Wales and Ford who coaches Kent was a former coach of South Africa.