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ScorecardBrian Chari and Moeen Ali both fell short of hundreds but their contributions went a long way to helping Tuskers to victory in their opening match. Set 305 to win, Chari and Moeen took the chase to 219 for 2 after an opening stand of 72. First-change bowler Natsai M’shangwe trapped Chari two short of a century after 10 fours and a six, with Moeen playing a more enterprising knock, striking 12 fours and two sixes in 95 in just 87 balls before falling to Shingirai Masakadza.Mushangwe kept Mountaineers in the game with additional wickets of Craig Ervine and Charles Coventry, but their knocks of 22 and 20 respectively, at nearly a run-a-ball, kept the chase ticking along and it was left to captain Keegan Meth to score the winning boundary.It was an excellent competitive match with Tuskers taking a 53-run first innings lead after Glen Querl took 5 for 56 to bowl Mountaineers out for 264 having chosen to bat first. It was Querl’s sixth five-for in first-class cricket and took him past 50 career wickets. But he only picked up the solitary success in Mountaineers’ second innings as Hamilton Masakadza, playing his 100th first-class match, hauled his side back into the match with 178 in 279 balls. That allowed Mountaineers to declare and set up a testing, if ultimately reachable, chase.

ScorecardSouthern Rocks capitalised on the opportunity to force a result on the final afternoon in Harare, bowling Eagles out for 159 for an easy victory. The captains came together to set up a chase for Southern Rocks of 301 but they were blown away by Tinashe Panyangara, whose 4 for 43 sent his side to an opening match victory.After just 13.1 overs on day three, the game was destined for a draw but the match came alive as Eagles were fed 72 runs in 21 balls, allowing Chamu Chibhabha to make a century, and Southern Rocks forfeited their second innings. But Eagles were quickly reduced to 17 for 3 and the chance of victory was over inside 10 overs of the final innings. Panyangara did the early damage, having Sikandar Raza lbw for 4 and then five balls later removing captain Stuart Matsikenyeri for a duck. That after opener Chibhabha fell caught behind to Brian Vitori for 5.Regis Chakabva hung around for 112 balls, making 28 but he was eventually bowled by Panyangara as the last of Eagles’ resistance was removed. Vitori went on to pick up Mark Mbofana and Innocent Chinyoka to finish with 3 for 49 but neither he nor Panyangara could ruin Nathan Waller’s day. He launched seven fours in an entertaining 53 minutes which saw him make an unbeaten 42 and provide at least some cheer for pointless Eagles.Southern Rocks took seven points from their win which was set up from a big first innings total having won the toss. Richmond Mutumbami top-scored with 141 including two sixes and 21 fours. He and Derbyshire’s Peter Burgoyne put on 153 for the fifth wicket, Burgoyne making an unbeaten 102. Another Derbyshire player, Ben Slater, made 89 opening the batting.

West Zone made their way into the Vizzy Trophy Inter-Zonal Universitytournament final by virtue of the massive 271 run first innings leadover South Zone in their semi final match at the DY Patil SportsAcademy ground in Nerul on Tuesday.Opting to bat first West Zone amassed 442 runs with B Tomar scoring anunbeaten 201. He was ably supported by G Patel (85) and S Panikar(30). Ram kumar was the most successful bowler for South Zone withfigures of 5 for 120. South Zone were never really in the race to takethe first innings lead and collapsed for 171. Opener SA Pai (64) wasthe top scorer. R Prakash (3 for 25) and R Bamb (3 for 35) were thesuccessful bowlers for West Zone.West Zone in their second innings batted out the whole of the finalday to end with the score at 178 for 8. G Patel (71) was the topscorer with useful contributions from the middle order batsmen.

New-ball bowler Hamid Hassan, who had been out with a knee injury since January, has made a return to the Afghanistan squad for September’s World Twenty20.Hassan had picked up the injury while playing for the ICC Combined Associate and Affiliate XI in Dubai against England, in January. He had opened the bowling in the first innings of that game, claiming the wickets Andrew Strauss and Jonahtan Trott, before having to withdraw from the match.He has since undergone surgery on his knee, and while not fully recovered yet, should be fit in time for the World T20 – the tournament starts on September 18 – according to Afghanistan Cricket Board chief Hamid Shinwari. “We have selected Hasan with confidence, [believing] that he will attain full fitness before the tournament starts and can get match fitness on our tour to the West Indies early next month,” Shinwari told .

Afghanistan squad for World T20

Nawroz Mangal (capt), Dawlat Zadran, Gulbodin Naib, Hamid Hassan, Izatullah Dawlatzai, Karim Sadiq, Javed Ahmadi, Mohammad Nasim Baras, Mohammad Nabi, Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Asghar Stanikzai, Najibullah Zadran, Samiullah Shenwari, Shafiqullah, Shapoor Zadran

Left-arm spinner Mohammad Nasim Baras, and batsmen Najibullah Zadran and Shafiqullah, who were not part of Afghanistan’s squad for the World T20 qualifiers, have also been brought in.The qualifiers were Afghanistan’s last international T20 assignment. Four players miss out from the squad that played that tournament: fast bowler Aftab Alam, batsman Shabir Noori (both of whom played in the ongoing Under-19 World Cup for Afghanistan), allrounder Mirwais Ashraf and left-arm spinner Zamir Khan.This will be the second consecutive World T20 that Afghanistan play in, having made it to the tournament in the Caribbean in 2010. They are one of the two non-Test playing nations in this edition, after having finished second at the qualifiers. They finished only behind Ireland, losing the final of the qualifying tournament to them in Dubai, in March.Afghanistan are placed in Group A, with India and England.

Former Services pace bowler AK Jha, who until recently served as chief administrative officer of the National Cricket Academy, has died of a heart attack while playing golf in Bangalore on Wednesday evening.Jha, 57, was a fast bowler for the Services and played 52 first-class matches, taking 159 wickets at an average of 30.18, in a career that extended between 1974 and 1987. In nine first-class matches between 1981 and 1985, Jha took 10 wickets at an average of 25.50.The retired wing commander of the Indian Air Force was removed from his post at the NCA following allegations of his involvement in a Rs 50 crore NCA land deal that went wrong. The NCA, it is understood, had sought to acquire close to 50 acres of land near Nandi Hills through the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) for the academy. The BCCI had also paid close to Rs 50 crore, in two installments, for the acquisition. However, following a number of PILs, a Karnataka High Court ruling in June this year declared the deal illegal.

Zimbabwe celebrated their 100th ODI at the Harare Sports Club with a seven-wicket victory against Pakistan, a win Brendan Taylor, the Zimbabwe captain, termed as “awesome” and said “he couldn’t be happier”. The success also ended Zimbabwe’s 15-year wait for a win against Pakistan.”To beat the quality team that they’ve got shows we’re doing the right things,” Taylor said. “It just shows that if our top-order batsmen come off, it lays that foundation. Our seam bowlers today were exceptional. There is room for improvement, we dropped some simple chances.”We were badly beaten by India a couple of weeks back, so to come out with that sort of performance shows a lot of character.”Zimbabwe’s bowlers kept up the pressure on the Pakistan batsmen and restricted them to 244, which was about 20 less than what Taylor had expected to chase. Taylor, however, stressed on the need for the team to remain focused as he expected Pakistan to hit back hard.”We have put in the hard work, but this is only one match out of the three. So there is no need for complacency,” he said.Zimbabwe coach Andy Waller also praised the team and said the hard work the group has put in the last two months is starting to show results.”It was a good win. We have put up a huge amount of work in the last two months,” Waller said. “I knew it would come good, I believed in my players. I think the big turning point was the way we played the T20s. Our batters showed they could handle quality bowling. They went into the game with a lot of self-belief and that made all the difference.”We are trying to keep wickets in hand, that’s our gameplan, because we have players like Sean Williams, Elton [Chigumbura] and Malcolm Waller who can get the runs required later.”The Zimbabwe openers put up a century opening stand that set the platform for the chase. Hamilton Masakadza was the top-scorer with 85, while Sibanda also registered a half-century.”I always knew the wicket gets better in the afternoon, so we just thought the longer we would be together, the better it would be for the team,” Masakadza said. “It flattened out after the first ten overs.”Zimbabwe have a chance to complete a series win when they meet Pakistan in Harare on Thursday.”We know how good Pakistan are and we know the quality of their players, we know they are going to come back harder on us,” Waller said. “But we are not going to rest on our laurels. We need to perform better. We are not at our best yet. We got to enjoy the moment, but we have to come back harder in the next game.”

ScorecardChris Dent’s half-century saw Gloucestershire cruise home•Getty Images

Gloucestershire finally came good at the conclusion of the Cheltenham Festival to thrash Glamorgan by 10 wickets and keep alive their slender hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages of the Friends Life T20.Beaten by group rivals Warwickshire and Northamptonshire at the College Ground, bottom-of-the-table Gloucestershire produced a much-improved performance to make amends in a low-scoring contest played in front of a 5,000 sell-out crowd.Glamorgan elected to bat but never recovered from the loss of early wickets and were restricted to a wholly inadequate 98 for 9, only three batsmen reaching double figures in an innings that yielded just four boundaries.Returning to action following a seven-week injury lay-off, slow left-armer Ed Young posted figures of 3 for 21 from four overs and was ably backed up by David Payne, who deployed clever variation with the new ball and at the death to claim 3 for 17.Gloucestershire openers Michael Klinger and Chris Dent made quick work of chasing down 99, reaching their target with 7.1 overs to spare.Their quarter-final ambitions already undermined by successive defeats to Somerset and Northants, Glamorgan badly needed to redress the balance against their neighbours. But a third loss was all but confirmed inside six overs as Glamorgan lurched to 31 for 5 on a College Ground pitch that offered assistance to spin.Slow left-armer Tom Smith struck in the very first over to set the tone, Jim Allenby driving high to Dan Christian at cover, while fellow opener Mark Wallace departed six balls later, taking one liberty too many against Payne’s left-arm seam and holing out to mid-on.Making his first appearance since the end of May after recovering from a broken wrist, Young announced himself with the wicket of Chris Cooke, who chipped straight to extra cover as the visitors slumped to 16 for 3 in the fourth over.Veteran campaigner Murray Goodwin also departed to a poor shot, leaning back and cutting a length-ball from Christian to backward point and New Zealand allrounder Nathan McCullum sent a leading edge back to Payne in the act of playing to leg.Charged with the task of rebuilding the innings, the sixth-wicket pair of Marcus North and Nick James applied themselves diligently to add 37 runs in eight overs. But their partnership ended when they tried to force the issue, North attempting to reverse-sweep Young and succeeding only in offering a simple chance to Alex Gidman at short third man.And Young struck again in his next over from the College Lawn end, luring Graeme Wagg into front foot indiscretion as Glamorgan were further reduced to 74 for seven in the 16th over.James hoisted Smith over square leg for the only six of the innings before being bowled by Payne for 27 in the final over, while Michael Hogan was run out as the visitors failed to raise three figures.Promoted to open the batting for the first time, Bristolian Dent continued his rich vein of form at the Festival, dominating an unbroken stand of 99 with Klinger in 12.5 overs to put the outcome beyond reasonable doubt. Demonstrating a better understanding of the conditions than their opponents,these two accrued 11 fours and three sixes between them to put Glamorgan’s innings in perspective.Glamorgan’s bowlers must be sick of the sight of Dent, who scored a superb match-winning 150 in a Yorkshire Bank 40-over fixture in Cardiff in May. On this occasion, he raised 50 from 37 balls in a chanceless knock that included eight fours and two sixes to equal his previous highest Twenty20 score of 63. Klinger finished unbeaten on 35 from 34 balls with three fours and a six.

ScorecardChris Dent made his third first-class century and second at Cheltenham•Getty Images

Century-makers Chris Dent and Alex Gidman put on 267 for the third wicket asGloucestershire reached 348 for 3 on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival against bottom-of-the-table Kent.Gidman joined Dent in the middle after young Kent seamer Calum Haggett hadaccounted for Michael Klinger and Dan Housego to leave Gloucestershire on 74 for2 in the 19th over.Dent reached his first hundred of the season from 205 deliveries and advancedto a career-best 153, with 17 fours and two sixes in his 270-ball innings,before Haggett had him caught behind.Gidman, who survived difficult catching chances on 38 and 58, brought up histhird County Championship century of the year from 185 balls and moved on to 145not out at stumps, having struck 19 fours and a six.After winning the toss, home skipper Klinger helped Dent get the innings off toa brisk start with a flurry of boundaries from the bowling of South African starVernon Philander and Charlie Shreck.Haggett made the breakthrough for Kent in his second over from the College LawnEnd. Klinger chased a wide delivery and only succeeded in edging it to DarrenStevens at second slip to depart for 20 with the score on 46. Haggett, who was released by Somerset without making a first-class appearance,struck again in his fifth over when Housego, on 13, got an inside edge onto hisstumps.Tight spells from Philander and Stevens slowed the scoring rate and anevenly-balanced morning session ended with Gloucestershire on 98 for 2 from 31overs.But It was a different story thereafter as Dent and Gidman took advantageof the short boundaries square of the wicket and a quick outfield to leadGloucestershire into a strong position.Gidman enjoyed a slice of luck on 38 when Brendan Nash failed to grasp ahead-high chance at extra cover off Stevens. His second reprieve came on 58 whenStevens, at backward point, failed to hold a diving catch off Philander.Dent also offered a chance on his way to three figures. Heflicked the third ball after tea from Charlie Shreck down the legside, butwicketkeeper Geraint Jones was unable to hold a one-handed diving catch. Soon after, Dent swept James Tredwell’s offspin for a single to bring up histhird first-class hundred and his second at Cheltenham, having scored a tonagainst Surrey at the ground two years ago.Gidman, 32, reached his century eight overs later with a single to square leg offTredwell. Having given up the captaincy at the end of last season, Gidman is enjoying an excellent season.Dent and Gidman accelerated the scoring rate in the closing hour’s play and nobowler suffered more than Tredwell, who is still searching for his firstChampionship wicket of the summer. Dent struck him for two straight sixes andGidman also hit him for six over midwicket as he ended the day with 0 for83 from 19 overs.Kent finally had a third wicket to celebrate when Haggett struck with fourovers of the day remaining. Dent flashed at a ball outside off stump and snickeda catch to Jones.

Former Australia Test captain Mark Taylor has said he intends to use his new position as a Cricket Australia board member to help build the national team’s leadership group after their problems in India and England. Taylor has returned as a Cricket Australia director after losing his position on the board last year when it was restructured.He has been elected as the Cricket New South Wales representative on the CA board despite the fact that he is independent of Cricket New South Wales, a move that required the state organisation to amend its own constitution. Taylor has taken the position that had been filled temporarily by David Dilley, who in turn had replaced Harry Harinath, the former Cricket New South Wales chairman.Harinath claimed the state’s one guaranteed place on the CA board last year – controversially, for Taylor was considered a strong candidate – but Harinath stepped down earlier this year. Taylor had served on the CA board from 2004 to 2012, and his return to an official position within Cricket Australia raises the prospect of him playing more of a role in helping Michael Clarke’s side.A lack of leadership within the current team has been an issue since the retirements of Michael Hussey and Ricky Ponting, notably at the time of the homework sackings in India and this week in England. Taylor said it was important that other senior players in the squad stood up to support Clarke now that Ponting and Hussey were gone.”What you really get when you lose two players of that stature is that all the other guys – the Watsons, the Siddles, the Haddins – it’s up to those guys to step up and form that leadership core,” Taylor told the . “That’s what I think Australia have got to get themselves to, and hopefully during this Ashes campaign. It’s not ideal preparation but I don’t want to blow it out of proportion either.”I’ll be doing whatever I can as a board director back here to try and instill that team feeling and build that leadership group. I know Michael [Clarke] very well and Michael and I have had a number of chats over the last three or four years. I hope that continues and I’m sure it will. Sometimes you need people who are outside that bubble to say to you ‘well, this is what we see’. Sometimes it’s good to have that input.”

Dwayne Smith, the West Indies allrounder, has been re-signed by Sussex as an overseas player for the Friends Life t20. Smith previously played in all formats for the county on a Kolpak agreement in 2008 and 2009, then as an overseas T20 signing the following year.Smith hit 59 from 26 balls to help Sussex to victory in the 2009 Twenty20 Cup final, part of a limited-overs double with the Pro40 league, which they also won in 2008. Smith, 30, who is currently playing in the IPL for Mumbai Indians, will join former New Zealand international Scott Styris as Sussex’s overseas players, after a deal for John Hastings fell through.”I’m very happy to be joining Sussex again,” Smith said. “I can’t wait to get back to my second home and the lovely crowd at Hove.”Having played 87 ODIs, to go with 10 Tests and 17 T20 internationals, Smith last week missed out on selection for West Indies’ Champions Trophy squad. Sussex, who were beaten semi-finalists in last season’s FLt20, will begin their campaign at home to Surrey on June 28.Sussex’s professional cricket manager, Mark Robinson, said: “Dwayne has the ability to win games by himself with the bat, he is a more-than-useful bowler and he is one of the best fielders ever to have been seen at Hove. He is immensely popular with the players, the members and the sponsors and everybody is excited about his return.”

John Mooney, the Ireland allrounder, has been suspended for three matches by Cricket Ireland after posting an insensitive tweet about the death of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.Mooney, 31 and from Dublin, tweeted following Baroness Thatcher’s death on April 8 that he hoped her demise was “slow and painful” before quickly deleting the tweet and issuing an apology for causing offence.Cricket Ireland’s chief executive, Warren Deutrom, described the comments as “crass, insensitive and offensive” and Mooney was found to be in breach of his central contract, which prohibits public statements that “denigrate, are derogatory, or prejudicial to the interests of cricket; or are of a nature which brings the game of cricket or Cricket Ireland into disrepute”.Mooney, who has scored 709 runs at 24.44 and taken 34 wickets at 28.55 in 45 ODIs, will now miss Leinster’s inter-provincial matches against Northern on May 6 and North-West on May 14-16 as well as Ireland’s first ODI against Pakistan on May 23. He will be available again for the second ODI on May 26.”John accepted that the tweet was offensive and inappropriate,” Deutrom said. “We took into consideration the fact that he issued a fulsome and swift apology and that he is genuinely remorseful for his action. However, given the breach of his contract and nature of the tweet, we felt it appropriate that a three match sanction be imposed. We have also severely reprimanded John and reminded him of his duties and responsibilities as a high profile international cricketer.”Mooney played for Ireland at the 2007 and 2011 World Cups and hit the winning runs in the famous chase against England. He was also named Ireland player of the year in 2010.