Duncan Fletcher has told his misfiring team they must learn from their Australia tour if they are to salvage their World Cup campaign. England were beaten by seven wickets by Ricky Ponting’s men in Antigua on Sunday, but Fletcher insists they can make the semi-finals, although they will have to win all three of their remaining matches against Bangladesh, South Africa and West Indies.Fletcher said it was possible for England to pick themselves up just as they did in Australia when they shrugged off a losing run to beat the hosts in the CB Series. “We did it in Australia when we were beaten quite comprehensively and got through to the final and we’ve got to make sure we do the same thing here,” Fletcher said.”It’s mainly a mental thing rather than a technical thing. It’s how they think about it when they get out there in those crucial periods, but it’s important we don’t talk too much about it and cloud their thoughts.”England face Bangladesh on Wednesday at the refurbished Kensington Oval in Barbados with Fletcher telling his team that they have to be more patient when they bat. He said they could learn from Michael Clarke’s innings on Sunday.”They have got to know they have a little bit of time to have a bit of patience to rebuild and regroup,” Fletcher said. “Sometimes we’ve gone in and the new batter has tried to score at six an over, but on these wickets it’s not easy.”

45.1 overs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Sri Lanka have a template for winning one-day matches, and when it comes off, there’s little the opposition can do. Chaminda Vaas makes the early breakthroughs, Muttiah Muralitharan bamboozles in the middle-overs, part-time spinners race through tight overs, the target is manageable, and then becomes ridiculously so when Sanath Jayasuriya blazes away. New Zealand were the victims of just such a perfect plot, losing quite thoroughly by six wickets.Stephen Fleming called heads at the toss, correctly, that much must be granted him, but after that there was little that anyone in a black cricket shirt, other than the magnificently determined and versatile Scott Styris, could do that slowed Sri Lanka’s relentless pursuit of victory.Vaas has lost so much pace in recent times that he has to rely on all his experience, curling the ball back in to the right-handed batsman repeatedly before slyly slipping one through that holds its line. Not so when Fleming is about, it seems. Giving new meaning to the term walking wicket, Fleming shuffled obligingly across his stumps to Vaas and was trapped in front for a duck. For the fourth time in as many matches when it’s been New Zealand v Sri Lanka, the first line of New Zealand’s batting card has read SP Fleming lbw b Vaas 0.Ross Taylor missed three of the Super Eights matches with a hamstring injury, and he might just have wished he warmed the bench one day longer. He too bagged a duck, poking outside the off, only managing an edge that Kumar Sangakkara held niftily, diving to his weak right side and plucking the ball out of the air.If 4 for 2 was bad, and it was, given the batsmen who had been dismissed, Styris and Peter Fulton worked hard to ensure that it did not become disastrous. The problem for them was Vaas’ nagging accuracy, and with their freedom to attack curbed by the fall of early wickets, the pressure mounted and it was only a matter of time before a mistake was made. With the score on 59 for 2, Syris, who had 34 to his name at the time, tried to lap sweep Vaas round the corner. The ball ran off the face of the bat and lodged between Sangakkara’s thigh and pad, eliciting a confident shout for the catch behind. Billy Doctrove ruled against Sri Lanka, and if he hadn’t, the match as a contest might have ended then and there.Vaas had a third soon enough, when Fulton flicked one from the stumps straight to Chamara Silva at deep midwicket. If Vaas can pick up three, so can I, Muralitharan seemed to think as he bounded into the attack. Craig McMillan obliged, sweeping with hard hands, top-edging to short fine-leg.

Jacob Oram held Sri Lanka up for a time, accumulating 31 in a partnership of 64, but he gave Tillakaratne Dilshan his wicket, coming down the pitch and hitting high rather than far, leaving Farveez Maharoof to settle under a swirler in the deep. Muralitharan then applied the stranglehold, sending Brendon McCullum – lbw to one delivered from round the stumps – and Daniel Vettori – another sweep that went wrong – for single-digit scores as New Zealand slumped to 155 for 7.The record will show that Styris, who isn’t the most obviously gifted or watchable batsman in the New Zealand team, scored 111 from 157 balls with eight fours. It will show that he managed 80 more than the next best batsman in his team and that he accounted for 50.68% of his team’s runs. It won’t, however, show that he at least gave his team a fighting chance against a team that seems to be building good momentum as the World Cup unravels.And further sheen will be taken off the Styris innings by the fact that Sri Lanka batted so comfortably for the best part of their innings that it underscored that there was nothing wrong with the pitch. Shane Bond doesn’t depend so much on pitches for the simple reason that his pace through the air, coupled with a bit of late swing, make him lethal in all conditions.But even Bond, who did try to soften the Sri Lankans up with some hostile short-pitched stuff, could have little impact, as Jayasuriya, in typical fashion, rocked along to a comfortable 64, adding an even 100 for the second wicket with Sangakkara. He provided the one thing New Zealand lacked when they batted – a decent partnership at the top – before he fell, against the run of play. Oram was the beneficiary as an attempted cut went off the bottom edge and McCullum took a sharp catch.Mahela Jayawardene was characteristically pretty for his 15, but fell to a soft dismissal, pulling a short one from Vettori to midwicket, and Silva knocked it about for 23 before lofting to long-off. During all this, Sangakkara did what he needed to all tournament and spent time out in the middle. At an opportune moment he cashed in with an unbeaten 69 and took Sri Lanka to a six-wicket win.

Keith Dabengwa collected five wickets as Westerns completed a 77-run win over Centrals at Queens Sports Club, the foundation of which was laid by Sean Williams’ fine match double of 76 and 129. The 129 was Williams’ maiden first-class century and acted as the centrepiece of Westerns’ second innings 254, leaving Centrals needing 259 for victory. They stumbled to 50 for 4 on the fourth evening and continued to struggle on the final morning. Dabengwa was well supported by offspinner John Nyumbu, who picked up 3 for 53 as Centrals fell for 181 after lunch. Dabengwa’s five-wicket haul was completed when he had Taurai Muzarabani caught at first slip by Williams – a fitting way to wrap up the match as the two key figures combined.In Mutare, Easterns clung on for a draw against Northerns as they ended nine down at the end of the match. The four days were dominated by Graeme Cremer and Tinotenda Mawoyo, whose first-innings 124 built a 119-run lead for Easterns after they’d dismissed Northerns for 178 on the opening day. However, Cremer led the fightback with an unbeaten 171, aided by Elton Chigumbura’s 67. From being 28 for 2 Northerns recovered to set a target of 265. Initially, Easterns made promising progress with opener Johnson Marumisa reaching 49 before he was trapped lbw. Cremer then came to the fore again, this time with his legspin, as he removed the dangerous Stuart Matsikenyeri. Wickets continued to fall, including Prosper Utseya for 26, but they couldn’t quite force the final scalp before time ran out.

Emily Drumm has pulled out of the Invitational XI Twenty20s in England with a recurrence of her hamstring injury. Drumm, New Zealand’s prolific batsman, nearly quit the game in 2005 after damaging her leg during the World Cup but fought her way back to recovery.She had been injury-free for two years until two weeks ago when she damaged her leg playing touch rugby. “The game is really good for fitness and I thought I was Jonah Lomu at one stage, flying down the wing!”More seriously, she is fearful that, on past experience, the suggested period of a few weeks’ recovery will in fact take much longer. And now she is toying with the idea of quitting. “Maybe someone’s trying to tell me I should retire,” she said, although she was smiling when she did so.What is for certain is that she will miss the curtain-raisers against the England XI at the end of June, which will be played before two men’s county matches. “I have just withdrawn from these games,” she told Cricinfo, “so it’s very disappointing as they are my favourite form of the game. It’s good for women to try to play a more aggressive game.”And regardless of whether she recovers in time for New Zealand’s tour in August, she will not be playing. The management have stipulated that players must play in New Zealand state cricket to be eligible for the tour, but as Drumm has been over in England for the past years, she is ruled out – despite playing county cricket for Kent.”It’s extremely disappointing,” she says, although that will not stop her from watching the series. “I will help them out when they come over here if I can.”

Australia may not host a tri-series in 2008-09 for the first time in 29 years, but the event would return to the calendar the following summer and stay until at least 2012. South Africa and New Zealand are currently due to play five one-day contests each in two series rather than appearing in the format used for the CB Series.Cluttered scheduling, which has also led to Australia delaying the start of their annual limited-overs tournament until next February, is behind the programming proposal. India’s first Test will be in Melbourne on Boxing Day, which in recent history has been the second-last five-day contest of the season.Michael Brown, Cricket Australia’s operations manager, told The Australian ratings and attendances showed the tri-series was still popular but “hiccups” existed in the scheduling. “There’s a hurdle again in 2008-09,” he told the paper. “We need to work with both New Zealand and South Africa to determine what the programme looks like. At this stage we have them committed for five one-day games each.”Official tri-series have been played in Australia since 1979-80, but the length of the tournament – it lasted a month and contained 14 matches in 2006-07 – has made it more difficult to attract two teams at the same time. Sri Lanka, who play two Tests against Australia in November, will return in January to join India as the visitors for the next CB Series.

As floods continue to wreak havoc in the Midlands, another county has rallied to help Worcestershire restage one of their matches.Warwickshire have said that Edgbaston can be used for the Pro40 match with Sussex on Sunday – and their members will be allowed to watch the game for free. The match will start at 1.45pm.The move follows Derbyshire’s offer of using the County Ground the other week – although the match was washed out.The ECB have also announced a change to the rules which govern a switch of venue in the event of poor weather. They have relaxed the requirement that the match must still be played in the home team’s county, although still say it should be in the same region if possible.During the first batch of floods three weeks ago, Worcestershire wanted to play a Twenty20 match at Edgbaston but the ECB turned down the request before later moving their Pro40 match against Hampshire to Derby.The new rule 40 states: “The venue should preferably be within the county or a recognised venue used by the County in question. If no such venue is available then a neutral venue preferably within the region of the originally scheduled match may be considered. In no circumstances will it be permissible for the match to be re-scheduled at a venue normally or occasionally used as a home venue by the scheduled away county.”Worcestershire’s chief executive, Mark Newton, said: “We would like to thank Edgbaston for agreeing to stage this game and the ECB for allowing us to switch to a venue outside the county.”Whilst we realise that most counties are suffering badly from the extreme weather conditions, we are suffering more than most and all we want to do is play some cricket. I think everybody is desperate just to watch a normal game of cricket!”The club has announced that all Worcestershire and Warwickshire members will gain admission to the game upon production of their membership cards. In addition any person still in possession of unused tickets from previously abandoned games at New Road will be able to use them at this game.Public admission on the day will be £15 for adults and £5 for 16 and under.

Chris Adams, who left Sussex for Yorkshire in the close season only to stage a remarkable u-turn days later, is again being linked with a move away from Hove.Adams, who led Sussex to two Championships in 2003 and 2006, admitted that he has held talks with Derbyshire but denied that he had applied for the vacancy as their director of cricket following the resignation of David Houghton last month. At the weekend Derbyshire chairman Don Arnott said that Adams was among 30 applicants for the post.”I want to clear this mystery up once and for all,” Adams told the Argus newspaper. “I have not applied for the Derbyshire job and I will not be applying. Obviously the situation up there is always of interest to me. I had 11 years there and still have some close friends in Derbyshire.”I was flattered by their interest but I am 100% focused on trying to bring more success to Sussex. I have a two-year contract and I am 100% sure that I will end my playing days with Sussex.”

Incoming South African selection convenor Joubert Strydom said that Jacques Kallis’s omission from the hosts’ Twenty20 World Championship squad was done in the light of the country’s “nightmare” schedule in the next 18 months.South Africa go to Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, England and Australia in the next 18 months and Strydom said: “Jacques is a crucial part of our Test and one-day plans and we don’t want to sacrifice him in the Twenty20 format”.Kallis, who has scored at better than a run-a-ball in his half-dozen Twenty20 appearances at domestic and international level, is a relatively slow starter at the crease and found himself in the middle of a storm over his perceived slow scoring during the World Cup.In 20-over cricket, Kallis would probably be best suited to moving up to the top of the order, but Strydom said South Africa had several other options for those positions and, although the allrounder’s bowling skills would be missed, it was not worth risking him in the competition.”Once we decided to rest Jacques, there was no debate about how heavily we rely on him as a bowler or whether he could bat up front ahead of quite a few guys competing for places there.”Strydom also explained the absence of any recognised death bowlers in the South African squad.”In 20-over cricket, if you’re bowling in the same area all the time, even the blockhole, it becomes very easy for the batsman. He knows which length to expect and he can line you up”We will be experimenting a bit. We will be using guys who take the pace off the ball, like Graeme Smith or JP Duminy, while also trying a guy like Morne Morkel for the death-type bowling. Because he is so tall, he bowls a different length to most bowlers and he is able to push the batsman back.”In limited-overs cricket now, you see guys like Shaun Tait and Lasith Malinga being effective when they bowl a bit shorter. A lack of bounce or excessive bounce is effective.”If you’re going to be aiming for the blockhole, then it has to be with pace and reverse-swing.”

Contests between England and South Africa are building up a tasty rivalry and their first meeting in Twenty20 is a vital match for both teams. Everyone is back at square one now, with no points going forward from the first round, so whoever starts with a win will have ahead start on chasing a semi-finals slot. The home side have hit formearly on in the tournament, especially with the bat, and will alsobring with them passionate support. England, though, won’t be withouttheir fans at Newlands and need to quickly move on from their drubbingagainst Australia. South Africa’s recently memories are good too,after thrashing England during the World Cup.Bat play: Do England stick or twist, especially with the toporder? Darren Maddy has only had a couple of games, but Vikram Solankiis waiting in the wings and Luke Wright’s last three scores have been0, 0, 3. Against teams without a specialist spinner, Owais Shah seemswasted at No. 7.South Africa have a selection issue after JP Duminy’s useful displayagainst Bangladesh. Herschelle Gibbs is expected to come back into theteam, so it may be a quick return to the bench for Duminy. They showeda degree of flexibility by promoting Albie Morkel to No. 3, withsuccess, so a few more of their allrounders could also performfloating roles.Wrecking ball: South Africa’s bowling attack continues to be atouch one-dimensional, but they at least showed more variety againstBangladesh. Makhaya Ntini is proving hittable with the new ball, hisnatural length allowing the batsmen to get underneath the ball. MorneMorkel has shown he has pace and Vernon Philander continues the strongearly impression he has made in South African colours.England have already tinkered with their fast-bowling line-up, butJames Kirtley’s return to international cricket amounted to one overfor 17 against Australia and he was very nervous. Stuart Broadcontinues to bowl too short, while Andrew Flintoff isn’t doing much toease fears over his injury problems. Chris Schofield has held his own,but the attack certainly doesn’t appear as threatening as it didagainst India only a few weeks ago.Keep your eye on: He’s a common theme, but Kevin Pietersenagainst his former countrymen is never a contest to miss. The lasttime he played in South Africa he went away with three centuries andturned the crowd in his favour. But there is plenty of feeling betweenhim and Graeme Smith.Shop talk: Coach Peter Moores will emphasise to his team the need toplay with controlled aggression. “You have to be brave but you alsohave to be selective as well – that’s the fine balance of Twenty20cricket,” he said. “When things become shortened your decision-makingbecomes a key issue all the time on who you attack and when you attackand you look for opportunities to go.””We’ve had some success in the one-day game against them [England] inrecent times,” said a confident Smith. “Hopefully we can carry thatinto the match. They have some world class players and how we controlthat will be important. Our ability to put their bowlers underpressure will be a key part of the game.” Smith also confirmed thatGibbs’s rehabilitation is coming along well and he should play.Pitching it right: “It didn’t quite play as we expected,” saidSmith after victory over Bangladesh, which hints there was a touchmore bounce in the surface. South Africa found that banging the ballbrought more rewards, so hit-the-deck bowlers could be the key.Teams:South Africa (probable) Graeme Smith (capt), Herschelle Gibbs,AB de Villiers, Justin Kemp, Mark Boucher (wk), Vernon Philander,Shaun Pollock, Johan van der Wath, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, MakhayaNtiniEngland (probable) Darren Maddy, Matt Prior (wk), KevinPietersen, Paul Collingwood (capt), Owais Shah, Andrew Flintoff, LukeWright, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Chris Schofield, Stuart Broad, JamesAnderson

The former Glamorgan captain, Hugh Morris, has been unveiled as the new managing director of the England cricket team, while Mike Gatting and the former England women’s captain, Clare Connor, have been handed major new roles at the England & Wales Cricket Board, as part of the wide-ranging managerial restructure as recommended in the recent Schofield Report.In the wake of England’s 5-0 Ashes humiliation in January and their subsequent early exit from the World Cup in the Caribbean, Ken Schofield, the former chief of the European PGA Tour, was commissioned to chair an inquest into the state of English cricket.He drew up a list of 19 recommendations, chief among which was: “The establishment of a new management structure within the ECB with full accountability and responsibility for the selection and performance of the England cricket team.”Morris, who played in two Tests for England in 1991, has been the ECB’s deputy chief executive since December 2005. He was also a member of the seven-man Schofield committee, having retired from playing in 1995 to take up a role of technical coaching director with the ECB. His new role gives him responsibility for all aspects of England team affairs – including the thorny issue of discipline, which was addressed last week by the incoming ECB chairman, Giles Clarke.The selection of players with injury problems would also come into Morris’s remit – a problem that has become especially acute in recent months given Andrew Flintoff’s ongoing struggle with his ankle. By acting as a liaison between the players and the head coach, the intention is that players would be better placed to admit to injuries without jeopardising future selection.Gatting, who played in 79 Tests and captained England on their last victorious Ashes tour in 1986-87, has been handed the role of Managing Director Cricket Partnerships, which will cover first-class as well as recreational cricket, with a view to enhancing communications between the various levels of the game.Connor, who retired in 2006, succeeds Gill McConway as the Head of Women’s Cricket and will represent ECB on the ICC Women’s Committee. It promises to be a tough act to follow. McConway is responsible for such innovations as the Super Fours – which were credited with assisting in boosting England to No. 2 in the world – as well as finding the team a permanent home at Taunton and bringing about the deal for the team buses to be England-branded – an innovation which was taken on board by England men and the England boys Under-19s.ECB chief executive, David Collier, said: ‘I am delighted that Hugh, Mike and Clare have accepted these positions. Their experience as captain of their counties and England together with their knowledge of the Cricket Foundation, Chance to Shine, Club cricket and the Lord’s and Lady Taverners will greatly strengthen the Cricket Department within ECB. These appointments were recommended within the England Review and approved by the Board this summer.”