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Scorecard
Adil Rashid recorded match figures of 11 for 114 in Yorkshire’s nine-wicket win•PA Photos

If Worcestershire had any doubts about how tough life would be in the top division of the County Championship, they were soon dispelled as Yorkshire completed a nine-wicket rout in just three days at New Road.A game that had previously been well contested suddenly swung sharply in Yorkshire’s direction as Worcestershire somehow contrived to lose all ten second innings wickets in a 32-over spell. Yorkshire, and Adil Rashid in particular, bowled pretty well but, on a blameless pitch and under a cloudless sky, this was a desperately disappointing performance from Worcestershire’s batsmen. Their last six wickets succumbed for just 17 runs in 10 overs.There were two stand-out performances for Yorkshire. Rashid, who claimed ten wickets in a match for the first time, bowled with an encouraging mix of skill and consistency, while Gerard Brophy’s chanceless innings of 177 not out turned the match at a time when it had appeared the hosts had the upper hand.From an England perspective, Rashid’s was the more noteworthy performance. After demonstrating his new-found control in unhelpful conditions in the first innings, he showed his ability in more favourable conditions in the second. He gained substantial turn and claimed five wickets for ten runs in 40 balls at one stage, with the last three coming in just eight deliveries without addition. His googly and his slider proved particularly potent in this game, but it was the absence of four-balls that was equally pleasing. For a legspinner to have claimed 11 wickets by April 10 really is quite outstanding.”It’s the best I’ve seen him bowl,” his captain, Andrew Gale, said afterwards. “He’s always knocking on the door [of the England team], but he’s not the finished article just yet. His patience is a lot better and, in the first innings, when there wasn’t much help in the pitch, he built pressure really well. Then, in the second innings, when the pitch was offering some turn, he was able to take full advantage.”But they played some poor shots. This game was all about patience and we won that battle. Durham will offer a tougher test.”It would probably be wrong to read too much into this win from a Yorkshire perspective. Few other sides will roll over in quite such an obliging manner and the way in which their top-order batting struggled in the first innings must be a concern.However, they have Anthony McGrath and, perhaps, Tim Bresnan and Ajmal Shahzad to come back into the side and appear to have the skill and strength in depth to compete with anyone. Sterner tests await, for sure, but they have cleared this first hurdle in convincing fashion.For Worcestershire, this was a deeply disappointing ending to a game that had promised so much more. They had played some admirable cricket on the first two days of this game but will have realised now, if they did not know before, that they can’t afford a single poor session in this division. They have now won just one of their last 38 games in this division.”We were, unfortunately, poor today,” Steve Rhodes, Worcestershire’s director of cricket, admitted. “We had too many guys not playing straight and we didn’t handle Rashid very well. It was disappointing. We should have done better. We’ve only had one guy in the whole match bat for two hours and that was [debutant] Matt Pardoe and you don’t win games unless you can bat for a long time. We want to do what Brophy did. We want to bat for six hours.”We’re well aware of the challenges ahead, but this was one which I fancied, if we played well enough, we could win. It’s disappointing.”The key passage came between lunch and tea. With the pitch offering little to the seamers, James Cameron missed one that may have swung a fraction before Daryl Mitchel played horribly across a straight one and Vikram Solanki was, perhaps, a little unlucky to be caught down the leg-side.There was a time, with Alexei Kervezee and Moeen Ali together, that batting looked a simple business. They took 27 from Rashid’s first three overs, with Moeen slog-sweeping a six over the short boundary to the cathedral side and Kervezee using his feet nicely to drive a straight six and a brace of fours.But, with the ball now spinning quite sharply, such tactics were always likely to prove high risk. And when Moeen, attempting an unnecessarily delicate sweep, spooned a simple catch to Adam Lyth, running around from slip to leg slip, and Kervezee attempted to play an outswinger through midwicket, the end came with alarming speed. Gareth Andrew hung his bat out at one angled across him, Pardoe, looking all at sea against Rashid, edged a googly to slip, Wright and Mason fell to successive deliveries, beaten by sharply-turning googlies, before Richardson was beaten in the flight. It left Rashid with his second five-wicket haul of the game and Yorkshire requiring just 56 to win.Earlier Brophy steered Yorkshire to a first innings lead of 82. Though Ryan Sidebottom fell in Mason’s first over of the morning, he’d already recorded a career-best score and helped Yorkshire add 149 for their eighth wicket. But Brophy wasn’t finished. He shepherded the tail so well that Moin Ashraf didn’t contribute a single run in a tenth-wicket stand of 43.Brophy’s method? He simply played very straight and waited for the poor ball. It may sound simple but, in a game where the next highest score was 63, his patience and his straight driving proved the difference between the sides. “It was his best knock for Yorkshire and the best I’ve seen him play,” Gale said.Though Yorkshire lost Joe Sayers early in the second innings, Lyth timed the ball sweetly and Joe Root, on championship debut, gave notice of his considerable talent with one pulled six and three crisply-struck fours that suggested a bright future.”There are areas we can improve, but I’m delighted with the way that we stuck to the task and delighted with the result,” Gale concluded. The game against Durham, starting at Leeds on Thursday, may offer a clearer indication of Yorkshire’s credentials as championship contenders.

Umesh Yadav, the Delhi Daredevils fast bowler whose IPL performance last season earned him an India call-up, has said the tournament is an ideal platform for players looking to come in to the reckoning for national selection. “A lot of pacers are competing for places in the Indian team. I was chosen for the 2010 World Twenty20 in the West Indies after Praveen [Kumar] got injured,” Umesh told . “I also went to Zimbabwe and South Africa. All that came after playing in the IPL, so it has been a very good outing for me.”Good performance here in the IPL could go a long way. There are lot of big tours coming up. So I want to do well and find a place.”Umesh debuted for Vidarbha in 2008 but came in to the limelight during last year’s IPL, when he impressed with his pace and bounce while playing for Delhi. The performance led to him being flown to the West Indies as a replacement for the injured Praveen during the World Twenty20. Later he was named in the Indian squad for the tour of South Africa.Delhi have a strong fast-bowling line-up led by Morne Morkel and Yadav said that he had learnt a lot from the South Africa fast bowler. “We have a good pace attack with Morkel, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Varun Aaron and myself, so there is a healthy competition. He [Morkel] is taller than me and has extra bounce. But he has also told me that more than pace and bounce, one has to bowl the right line and length. I have also spoken to him about theory of fast bowling and it has been a great experience.”Delhi take on Pune at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, on Sunday, where the wicket has offered good bounce for fast bowlers. Umesh said he was looking forward to bowling on the surface. “The wicket at D Y Patil is good. It is important for us to come back and we all will be giving more than 100% tomorrow.”Virender Sehwag has been an encouraging captain, Yadav said. “He always says, ” (Whatever you do, do it from the heart, rest is fine). He makes you think and bowl at your best even at the nets.”

William Porterfield reflected proudly on Ireland’s World Cup campaign after they complete their stay in the tournament with a six-wicket victory against Netherlands. Paul Stirling led an impressive run chase with 101 off 72 balls, adding 177 for the first wicket with Porterfield, which enabled Ireland to hunt down 307 with 14 deliveries to spare.It was the second time they had chased down more than 300 to win following the famous pursuit against England, in Bangalore, when they reached 329. Two victories was a fair return for Ireland, whose reputation has been further enhanced, but it could have been even better after they wasted a golden chance against Bangladesh and also competed against West Indies.”We have turned up for every game. We were consistent with the ball and on the field stands but haven’t backed it up with the bat consistently what we did today,” Porterfield said.”But when you put yourselves into winning positions you will win more than you lose. It was great to chase 300 for the second time in the tournament.”Anytime we got behind the run rate we just picked up. We played good cricket in the second half of the game. So I am very pleased.”Porterfield was happy to play second fiddle to Stirling as he dispatched the Netherlands bowlers around Eden Gardens, but was less pleased with Ireland’s display in the field. “It took a lot of pressure of me,” he said. “I was happy to play the second fiddle and watch someone smash it around and get a century off 70 balls.Ireland have an impressive account of themselves during the World Cup•AFP

“But we should not have been chasing that [many]. We let ourselves down in the first half. But we have bowled and fielded well throughout the tournament and it was nice to see the batters coming to the party today.”Ireland’s competitive showing at the tournament came at an opportune moment with Associates still waiting to find out whether they’ll have a chance to appear in the 2015 World Cup when it is trimmed to ten teams.Although Netherlands finished winless they didn’t disgrace themselves and pushed England close during their opening game with Ryan ten Doeschate hitting a fine hundred. He followed that with 106 against Ireland, but Netherlands’ bowling has been their weakness and couldn’t contain the Ireland top order.”We batted pretty well to get more than 300 and I think our total was quite defendable,” Peter Borren, the captain, said. “We did not show discipline in bowling and dropped some catches, so we are pretty disappointed. We probably should have won the game. Fielding has been an area of concern for us in the last couple of years. Ireland saved 20-25 runs with their fielding and we did just the opposite, giving away runs that we could have saved.”

The problems surrounding the sale of World Cup tickets in India have descended into chaos, with police in Bangalore conducting a baton-charge on fans queuing up for tickets for Sunday’s match between India and England. The 7000 tickets were sold out within three hours, officials said, leaving hundreds of fans – many of whom had queued up overnight – angry and disappointed.People started to queue from about midnight but soon after that were asked by the police to disperse. The fans regrouped again at around 5 am and were allowed to queue up but within the hour the crowd swelled and the queue stretched from the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, the venue of the match, onto MG road – ironically, to the crossing named after Anil Kumble, president of the Karnataka State Cricket Association – the host organisation.By 8.30, when the tickets began to be issued, the chaos started to descend and soon the police swung into action. AFP reported that several people were injured and taken away on stretchers as police attempted to control the crowd, estimated at 5000. Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan, ESPNcricinfo’s stats analyst, was among those who’d queued up from midnight. “The officials initially said only one ticket would be sold per person but suddenly they started to give two per head. Very soon, they said the tickets were sold out. We spotted one policeman holding ten tickets.” He said the confusion added to the general sense of anger and restlessness.The scenes were an eerie echo of the alarm sounded by the ICC in a letter to Sharad Pawar, where it said the high demand for these tickets created the “potential for chaos and physical injury when the box office sales open”.Javagal Srinath, the former India fast bowler who is now secretary of the KSCA, said 7000 tickets had been sold out, adding that some of the best tickets had been taken by the ICC for their sponsors. However, he said he was hopeful that more tickets would be made available over the next couple of days and would be sold online through Kyazoonga.com, the ICC’s official online tickets sales partner.”There is a limit to how much we can fulfil people’s expectations,” Srinath said. “It is a big challenge but even our hands are tied. For a match of this stature, even if you double or triple the amount of tickets for the public, it won’t be enough. That’s the tradition in India and we expected this mad rush.”Srinath explained how they arrived at the number of the tickets sold to general public. “There are about 4500 [KSCA] members, and we have to give one extra ticket to them. So that’s around 7000 tickets gone there. We also have corporate commitments, and we had to give tickets to the ICC. For the first time, too, all the state Associations have taken their full quota (25 tickets each) of tickets. But we are also thankful that they are sending back some unsold tickets.””Some more tickets are expected to be available online. We are getting back some tickets from the ICC and CAB and those will be sold online. They are also willing to sell those tickets on the day of the match. So all is not lost for the fans of Bangalore.”There was some dark humour too. Asked whether selling tickets was more challenging than bowling for India, Srinath said, “I think bowling at the dirt track was the easiest.”Sunday’s game was switched in late January to Bangalore because of problems at the Eden Gardens stadium in Kolkata where the match, deemed to be the marquee game of the World Cup group stage, was due to be played.Thursday’s incidents in Bangalore follow widespread criticism of the shortage of match tickets for the general public – only 4000 tickets will be available for the final – and shoddy distribution of tickets bought online. The ICC letter to Pawar, who also heads the tournament’s organising committee, warned of the problems and the potential fallout – including lawsuits by angry fans and corporate sponsors who have not received tickets.

Scorecard
Chris Gayle smashes a boundary during his record breaking innings•Getty Images

A Twenty20 masterclass from Western Australian openers Shaun Marsh and Chris Gayle blasted the Warriors to a 19-run victory over the Blues in a rain-interrupted match in Sydney. A quick start saw the visitors reach 0 for 62 off the first six overs but it was the seventh over that proved to be match-defining. The laconic Gayle took to medium-pacer Scott Coyte, smashing 32 runs off the over (6, 6, 6, 4, 4, 6) – a KFC Big Bash record.The Blues’ skipper Stuart Clark combined with David Warner to get the vital wicket of Gayle for 61, but when the dust settled, Man of the Match Marsh also emerged swinging. He pummelled the midwicket and mid-on boundary on his way to the highest individual score for this season’s Big Bash, 85 off 45 balls, as the Warriors chalked up a massive total of 5 for 205.The hosts’ run-chase got off to a disastrous start as they lost Daniel Smith for a duck in the first over before Brad Haddin was dismissed softly in the third over, lofting a weak drive to Marcus North at cover. Warner started firing in the fifth over before a rain delay halted any momentum the Blues had begun to gather. The revised total of 189 off 18 overs looked unlikely but with Warner and Phil Hughes at the crease, anything was still possible.It was a run-out that ultimately proved costly, Hughes involved again just days after his mix-up with Shane Watson in the fifth Test, although this time it was more a case of Warner and the Blues’ desperation, rather than poor calling. Saj Mahmood struck shortly after the runout, dismissing Hughes for 24 before rain ended the match – the Warriors deserved victors.It was confirmed after the match that New South Wales batsman Nic Maddinson, who had been part of the Prime Minister’s XI side to take on England in Canberra on Monday, would no longer play any part in that match after injuring his thumb in the field against the Warriors.Maddinson will have scans on Monday to determine the extent of his injury, and has been replaced in the Prime Minister’s XI by local Australian Capital Territory top order batsman, Sam Miller. Miller, 22, moved from country Victoria in 2009 to play with ACT in the Futures League, this year scoring a breakthrough 102 against Tasmania.The points table is now interestingly poised, with all six teams sitting on one win after two rounds, the Warriors still in last place due to their poor net run rate. Western Australia will host South Australia on Thursday while New South Wales travel to play Queensland next Saturday.

The Titans welcome the Knights to the SuperSport Park like a spider inviting an insect into its web. The only difference is that the hosts aren’t being cryptic about their intention – there’s no mystery in their luring, they simply want to destroy.The hosts, on an eight-match unbeaten streak, welcome back two national players and the competition’s most economical bowler to their ranks. The Knights have lost more matches than they won in the group stages, had to do without their captain Boeta Dippenaar, who was ruled out with injury before the campaign even started and have only just found something resembling consistent form in the competition. It’s clear who the favourites will be in the MTN40 final in Centurion on Friday.The Titans have the armoury to do just that. AB de Villiers and Morne Morkel will be in the starting line-up and Ethy Mbhalati returns from a thigh injury. They have an embarrassment of talent and it will be interesting to see who gets left out. Andre Nel and Mario Olivier may have to make way for Morkel and Mbhalati, while Gulam Bodi is the likely candidate to be dropped for de Villiers.”It means a lot to everyone in this squad to play in the final,” Jacques Rudolph, captain of the Titans told ESPNcricinfo. “It’s going to be tough to leave anyone out because everybody is in really good form and that’s been our strength this season. In the eight matches we’ve won, we’ve had eight Man-of-the-Match performances from different players.”That has been the theme of Titans’ season. One of their men is always on hand to deliver. In the semi-final against the Lions, Roelof van der Merwe was that man, with both bat and ball. Faf du Plessis, who has recovered from a cracked rib, tops the run charts with 456 runs from nine matches, including back-to-back centuries. Henry Davids has performed well in the opener’s role, Rudolph lies fourth on the batting rankings and Farhaan Behardien, Heino Kuhn, David Wiese and Albie Morkel are on hand to provide power hitting if needed.The Titans work like a well-oiled machine and are already the most successful franchise in the country. The only thing weighing on their minds must be the high expectation that engulfs them. “There’s always pressure to win a trophy but we are confident in our ability.” Rudolph said.By contrast, the Knights have no such anxiety since they have already ticked the box that represented their goal for the tournament. “The aim was to get to the semi-final and now that we have gone one further we just want to try our best and see what happens from there,” Ryan McLaren said. “There’s no pressure to win a trophy, we’ve gone about our cricket in a relaxed fashion and allowed the guys to really express themselves.”That attitude hasn’t filled the Knights with delusions about the calibre of the side they are facing, one that beat them twice in the group stages. “The Titans are a really well balanced side and with a few of the national guys back they have a very formidable line-up but we’ve found form at the right time.”The Knights, along with their captain, Morne van Wyk, had an average group campaign. They lost four matches and if it wasn’t for the abysmal form of the Cobras may not have reached the knockout stage. Then, they almost stumbled while chasing of a modest 226 against the Dolphins in the first leg semi-final, before Johan van der Wath stepped up to win that match. van Wyk and his team were better in the second leg. The captain scored a century and the bowlers defended 215.Their most promising player has been left-arm bowler Jandre Coetzee. “He is our prodigy and has been part of the system for a while. He comes from Springbok (a small Northern Cape Town), so it’s quite a drive for him to get to us, but he really wants to play. He’s done well in the twenty-over form of the game and now he is proving himself in the forty-over format as well,” McLaren said.The Knights did not display much of their batting prowess in the semis but that doesn’t mean they don’t have any. Rilee Rossouw has been their most consistent performer, with two centuries in the competition so far and McLaren believes he is the man who can turn the game in their favour.It’s a classic case of the mighty against the underdogs, with the Titans displaying supreme confidence and the Knights dogged spirit ahead of the encounter. The only thing that may prevent it from becoming an epic battle is the weather. The Highveld has been hit by thunderstorms for the past two afternoons and is forecast to experience the same on Friday.

The MCC World Cricket Committee has said that disputed low catches shouldn’t be sent to the third umpire for adjudication because TV cameras rarely make the situation any clearer. Under current regulations, the on-field officials can ask the third umpire to check if a ball has carried, but the two-dimensional pictures can often make it appear as though a ball has bounced when it’s probably a clean catch.Ricky Ponting, the Australia captain, has always been an advocate of such catches staying on the field and decisions being taken by the two standing umpires, while saying batsmen should also take the fielder’s word. There was an example in the current Ashes series during the Brisbane Test when Alastair Cook, during his unbeaten 235, flicked the ball to short midwicket where Ponting claimed the catch but it was ruled not out on TV evidence.The committee, which met in Perth ahead of the third Ashes Test, said when the UDRS was in use either side would be within their rights to use a review for such catches, but that the third umpire should only overrule the on-field decision with “overwhelming” evidence.”The MCC World Cricket Committee believes that current technology used by third umpires does not provide definitive proof of low catches, and recommends that the on-field umpires must be asked to make an initial decision based on the naked eye,” a statement said. “In games utilising the UDRS, if the batsman or fielding captain wishes to review the decision, he may do so at this point provided that he still has a review in hand.”In assessing whether or not the ball carried, the third umpire should uphold the original decision unless there is overwhelming proof that the decision was incorrect. With so many examples proving inconclusive on television, the committee feels that the benefit of the doubt too often goes to the batsmen, who often now stand their ground for most low catches.”Andrew Strauss, the England captain, agreed that technology wasn’t suitable for ruling on low catches but insisted that there could be no half measures when it comes to where a decision is made. “My view is that the umpires need to be consistent, whatever they do,” he said. “If they want to make the decision themselves, I think that’s a healthy situation – I agree the technology is flawed, in that respect. Where it becomes very messy is where they make the decision once, and then the next time they refer it. I’d be very supportive of them if they just made the decision consistently.”However, MCC didn’t back Ponting’s idea that the fielder’s word should be taken and instead thought the onus should be on the two umpires in the middle. “The committee saw merit in Ricky Ponting’s recent assertion that captains should all agree to take the fielder’s word on low catches,” the statement added. “However, it felt that such an agreement would be difficult to implement and consequently urges the ICC to direct the on-field umpires to make the decision.”

Khan Research Laboratories surprised table-toppers State Bank of Pakistan, bowling them out for 148 at the Khan Research Laboratory Ground in Rawalpindi. KRL seamer Yasir Arafat, who has played three Tests for Pakistan, took 5 for 53 – his 40th five-wicket haul in first-class cricket. Only five of SBP’s batsmen got to double figures. KRL, who are sixth in the table, 18 points behind SBP, finished the day at 78 for 2.Thirty points separate Abbottabad and Quetta in the table, and the gulf in class showed at the Abbottabad Cricket Stadium where the visitors were all out for 215 on the first day. Abbottabad’s bowlers shared the wickets with left-arm seamer Armaghan Elahi taking three, and seamer Nabeeullah and left-arm spinner Khalid Usman taking two each. Quetta had lost both their openers with the score still on four. Captain Arun Lal’s 52 and Mohammad Aslam’s 49 offered some resistance, but the last four wickets fell for 12 to give Abbottabad a clear advantage.Karachi Whites hold the advantage in their match against Lahore Ravi after bowling them out for 206 on the first day at the Gaddafi Stadium. Karachi seamer Sohail Khan took his second consecutive six-wicket haul to break the spine of Lahore Ravi’s middle-order. Only four Lahore Ravi players reached double figures, with wicketkeeper Zeeshan Ali the only half centurion.Three wickets late in the day got Lahore Shalimar back into their match against Pakistan Television after a 112-run stand between Ammar Mahmood and Awais Zia had threatened to take the game away from them. After electing to bat at the Lahore City Cricket Association Ground, Pakistan Television captain Raheel Majeed, who is the leading run-getter in Division Two this season, got them off to a solid start with his 30. Mahmood and Zia then piled on the runs with Zia reaching 75. But Lahore Shalimar seamer Aamer Hayat , who is third in the wicket-taker’s charts this season, helped his team restore some parity with three late strikes.An unbeaten century by Aqeel Anjum took Hyderabad to 310 for 7 on the first day against Peshawar at the Arbab Niaz Stadium. The two sides are stuck at second-last and third-last in the table and it was Hyderabad who took the honours on the first day. Opener Sharjeel Khan gave them a solid start with his 61. Anjum then struggled to find a partner willing to stay with him before left-arm spinner Kashif Bhatti stuck with him through a 92-run eighth-wicket stand. Offspinner Sajjad Ahmed took four wickets, but gave away 109 runs in his 28 overs.

Makhaya Ntini, the South Africa fast bowler, has announced his retirement from international cricket but will continue representing domestic sides. Ntini will be given a farewell during the Twenty20 international between South Africa and India at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on January 9, when he will make his final appearance for South Africa.An emotional Ntini, fighting back tears, announced his decision at a press conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday. He reflected on his journey from being the first black African cricketer to play for South Africa in 1998 to becoming one of the nation’s premier bowlers.”It has been a wonderful journey for me to represent my country,” Ntini said at his retirement press conference in Johannesburg. “I have so many great memories, which I will carry with me for the rest of my life. My career is by no means over; it just means that internationally my time has come to hang up my boots. Domestic cricket is thriving at the moment, and I want to be a part of the set up, as a player, for as long as possible.”Ntini said he made his decision “two months ago” but only announced it on Tuesday because he has been in meetings with Cricket South Africa over his future. “I was in Port Elizabeth and thought it’s time to call it a day. I can’t keep waiting to end something when I don’t know when it’s going to end. I didn’t want to be pushed out of the game.”His international career spanned 13 years and he was the first black African player to represent the country, four years after democracy. It was the completion of a journey that began when, as a 14-year-old boy who could barely speak English, Ntini was given a scholarship to Dale College. The prestigious Eastern Cape school had deep cricketing roots and was where Ntini honedhis skills and made a name for himself. Seven years later, he was picked for South Africa, achieving what many thought was impossible.”Nobody ever thought that we as black people would be able to compete, but I’ve done that. I’ve conquered and I’ve been through all the cricketing countries. I left footprints, I did everything that I needed to do to show that we as black people can manage, we can do everything.”He has never shied away from being the black face of South African cricket and acting as a role model to black youth. Ntini said in his time with the national team “all the coaches and the three captains, the late Hansie Cronje, Shaun Pollock, Graeme Smith showed me that it’s not about your colour, it’s about what you can do.”Ntini always maintained the combination of coming from a rural, poor background and his race meant that he had to work harder than anyone else. “I knew that challenges that would come in the years to come and I was prepared for it. I tied my laces, I ran every day because I wanted to achieve what no one else could,” said Ntini.The hours spent practicing could all have amounted to nought when Ntini was convicted of rape two years after making his debut. He reflected on that time as the worst in his life. “I thought I would never play again. The worst badge you could put on anyone is that of a rapist.” The then United Cricket Board assisted Ntini in his appeal and he was subsequently acquitted but he still had a tainted reputation that took time to mend. “Some of the people of this country believed that if you are mentioned in that way (as a rapist), you’d done it, and to win all of them back was hard.”Despite the difficulty, he managed to do just that. In 2005 and 2007, Ntini was voted South Africa’s most popular sportsman of the year in the BMI Adult SportTrack Report . By then, he had also become the first South African to take 10 wickets at Lords and had claimed the best return by a South African bowler in a Test match, with 13 wickets for 132 runs against the West Indies in Trinidad.”Taking Test wickets was the most important thing that happened to me in my life,” said Ntini, who quickly added that he has no regrets about retiring before reaching the magical 400-wicket mark. “It’s just one of those things that happens.” Ntini retired with 390 wickets from 101 tests at an average of 28.82.His love of cricket has not dimmed and he is committed to playing for the Warriors for “as long as they will have me.” He also plans to spend his part of retirement working at his academy in Mdantsane, near East London. The academy will focus on players between the ages of seven and 24 and will seek to assist players of colour. “I am sick and tired identifying a child and putting him in an academy and six months later, we don’t see him again. We need to make sure we protect the new generations of cricketers,” said Ntini.Although the academy is an independent project, Ntini is in talks with Cricket South Africa (CSA) to assimilate with their development programmes. He will also be acting as a CSA ambassador. Gerald Majola, chief executive officer of CSA said that helping Ntini cope post-retirement is part of an initiative by the body so that “Makhaya can have a career after cricket.” Majola said CSA aims to assist former players in accordance with their “calibre and level of skills.”Ntini ‘s effervescent personality makes him an ideal representative for CSA and will also ensure that he can keep to his promise of “making sure cricket in this country does not die.” Most of all, he wants to remembered as a uniter. “Makhaya is not just a name, or a person, its energy, dedication, pride, all of us together. It’s Ubuntu.” The word originates from African traditions and focuses on communities. Its meaning, ‘I am because we are,’ captures how Ntini flew the flag for the black majority in South African cricket.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Davy Jacobs made 61, off 41 balls, to become the leading run-scorer in the Champions League•Associated Press

Warriors owned this Centurion night. The batting defined purpose at the start: Davy Jacobs and Colin Ingram unleashed hell in the Powerplay and allowed the middle-order to soak up the inevitable pressure exerted by the slow men in the middle overs. Then the tail finished strongly. Warriors were 77 for 1 from seven overs, reached 128 for 4 in 16, when the tail wagged in style to push them to a strong total. The perfect script reached its climax when their spinners Johan Botha and Nicky Boje choked the chase after Lonwabo Tsotsobe left South Australia gasping for breath by removing their in-form openers in the fourth over.The script had its moments of drama. South Australia had given the second over to a spinner Aaron O’Brien. It made sense. The pitch appeared as it was raked before the start; it looked dry and withering. It was obvious that spin was the way to go. It took one aggressive move by Ingram to upset the plan, though. Ingram rushed down the track to the third delivery of the over and smacked it to the straight boundary. Immediately O’Brien pushed it through shorter. Mistake. Ingram pulled one for a six and cut the other for a four and Warriors had moved to 20 for 1 from two overs. It was the beginning of a ferocious assault.The game lurched forward even more dramatically in the next over. It was Jacobs v Tait and we had a clear winner. Jacobs’s batsmanship is simple: a cocked wrist that snaps late to unleash violence, and tonight it was Tait who copped it. Jacobs unfurled a peach of a straight drive and followed it up his trademark shuffle-and-explode move: He moved across the stumps, waited back inside the crease and whipped a 151 kmph full delivery over square-leg for an outrageous six. He moved across again and dragged the next ball past mid-on for another boundary, and Warriors were truly up and away. When Daniel Christian bowled an over of tripe with three overpitched deliveries on the legs – all of which were put away for boundaries by Jacobs – the score read 77 for 1 from 7 overs.South Australia’s slow men – O’Brien, Cullen Bailey, the legspinner, and Daniel Harris, the mediumpacer so ideal for this track – kept them in the game by picking three wickets for only 51 runs in the next nine overs. You wondered then, if this trio can cause this much damage, what would Botha and Boje do later?Boje’s first blow of the day came with the bat, though. He mowed Christian in the final over for two sixes and unfurled a smart sweep to pick up another boundary. And when Justin Kreusch smote the final delivery beyond the long-on boundary, the crowd grew delirious. They could sense that it could be a special night. It was.South Australia must have fretted about playing spin on this track but it was the seamer Tsotsobe who stunned them with a double strike in the fourth over of the chase. Both the Redbacks’ openers, especially Michael Klinger, are extremely strong on the off side and so, Tsotsobe tied them by bringing the ball back into the middle stump.Both perished to weak on-side shots. Harris top-edged an intended pull and Klinger flicked lamely to midwicket. And when Botha and Boje came on with their strangulation acts, the chase petered out. Ferguson played a few big hits in the end but the fight had long evaporated into the Centurion night. The home crowd lapped it up with great delight. Right through the game, they kept chanting, “Let’s go Warriors, let’s go”. It felt as if one was back at the Warriors’ den at St George’s park in Port Elizabeth.