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Glenn Maxwell has compared the Indian batsmen’s approach unfavourably to the Australians’ when nearing a milestone, but Cricket Australia have been quick to do damage control.It began after the third ODI in Melbourne with a question quoting Matthew Hayden from 10 years ago. Maxwell, who had scored a match-winning 96 in that match, was noncommittal in response but before the Sydney ODI, he eliminated the doubts around what he said.”They were probably just making sure they got to a milestone,” Maxwell had said in Melbourne. “Some people are milestone-driven, some people aren’t. If it means that much to you, you go for it. But it’s not something that drives me too much. Each to their own.”In Sydney though, Maxwell went from generic to specific. He told : “I knew it [the comment] was going to blow up. It didn’t really bother me. I was sent a photo the other day, it said Virat was 84 off 63, and then 100 off 89 or something like that. He got his last 11 runs off 22 balls to get his hundred. I thought about that and I was like, ‘Jeez, he did it so easily all the way up until then, and then you just lose a bit of momentum.’ I have been thinking about that.”Then you look on the other hand, when you watch David Warner get into the 90s and he tries to hit Ishant Sharma for a slog sweep for six. It’s just, to me, that’s two complete different ends of the spectrum. And then you look at the scoreline and you see 4-0. And to me, I’d much rather be 4-0 basically.”Maxwell said his side didn’t care about milestones. “The way Boof [Darren Lehmann, the coach] has talked to us always has been: ‘Take the game on, take the game on, take the game on. I don’t care if you’re on 90, I don’t care if you’re on zero, take the game on.'”Cricket Australia and BCCI enjoy a fruitful relationship under the new Big Three arrangement. CA’s website was quick to do an interview with Maxwell to clarify his statements, but he didn’t quite take them back.Maxwell would, however, tweet that they were “taken out of context” and said he was in awe of how Kohli almost single-handedly chased down 349 in Canberra.”I was asked to give a bit of an assessment of who was dominating with the bat in this series, and I said, ‘I don’t think anyone in the world is hitting the ball better than Virat at the moment,'” Maxwell told .”The point that I was making, and it related more to when India were setting totals and had plenty of wickets in hand, is that the scoring rate seemed to slow as milestones got close, which can sometimes be the case, especially when teams are batting first.”Maintaining a constant scoring rate can be less straightforward batting first than when you’re chasing and you know what the required rate has to be, and there have been times when batters just seem to have slowed a bit to make sure they reach those milestones. Sometimes that wins you games, and sometimes it doesn’t but that was the only point I was trying to make. I’ve got a really good relationship with Virat off the field, and I’ve already had a chat with him.”The clarification doesn’t make it disappear that he compared the Indian batsmen’s efforts with that of Warner, who too, was setting a total and got out in the 90s trying to play a big shot.Steven Smith, Australia’s captain, said the slowing down near a milestone was natural. “I think that can be natural for anyone around the world,” Smith said. “When you see that sort of milestone coming, in the back of your mind you might slow down a little bit. I think Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are quality players and they’re batting beautifully, and I don’t see any problem with any selfishness there.”Aaron Finch distanced himself from Maxwell’s comments. “The talk of Indian players being selfish was obviously Glenn’s view; that’s not my personal view,” Finch said. “Virat Kohli got a 100 off 80-odd balls the other day. There was nothing selfish about that innings. That was an extraordinary, extraordinary innings. Shikhar Dhawan got it off about 95 balls, I think. He took the game on at the start for India along with Rohit, and got them off to an absolute flyer. Gee, there are some seriously good players in India. Virat… 25 ODI hundreds now. That’s an unbelievable achievement.”In the three ODIs that India batted first, they scored 67, 67 and 60 from overs 31 to 40. These have been the overs when their set batsmen have approached their hundreds. In Perth, Rohit took 24 balls from 83 at the start of the 31st over to reach his century. Similarly in Brisbane, between the 30th and the 40th overs, Rohit took 21 balls to move from 86 to 100. Virat Kohli took 15 balls to score the last 16 runs to his century between the 38th and 43rd overs in Melbourne.Team director Ravi Shastri, though, had defended his men before the Canberra ODI. “If they were focusing on milestones, Virat Kohli wouldn’t have been the fastest to 7000 runs; he would have taken another 100 games,” Shastri said. “If that was the case, Rohit Sharma would not be having two double hundreds, and a score of 264.”

Kent’s captain, Robert Key, has had his prospects of an England recall enhanced after being named by the England & Wales Cricket Board in a 26-man Performance Squad for the 2008 international summer.Key played the last of his 15 Tests against South Africa at Centurion in January 2005, but has been pressing his claims for a recall ever since being named as Kent’s captain in 2006. He began this season with a hard-fought 79 against Nottinghamshire at Canterbury, and would make a sound replacement should England’s middle-order continue to underperform in the coming Test series against New Zealand and South Africa.The bulk of the Performance Squad is made up of familiar names, although three uncapped players have made the cut. Hampshire’s opening batsman, Michael Carberry; Yorkshire’s legspinning allrounder Adil Rashid and the Kent offspinner James Tredwell are also included.England’s national selector, Geoff Miller, said that there was scope for four more players to be added to the squad in the course of the summer. “The England Performance Squad is designed to allow Peter Moores to closely monitor the development of international players,” he said, “and better prepare them for the demands of the international game.”The selectors can name up to 30 players in the EPS, but we have decided to keep four places vacant at present in order to give ourselves greater flexibility and we will reserve the right to add further players to the squad if their performances in domestic cricket merit it.Twelve of the 26 players in the squad are currently on 12-month ECB contracts, including Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard, who were dropped from the Test side during last month’s tour of New Zealand, but the selectors decided against awarding any six-month contracts – not even to Stuart Broad and Tim Ambrose, the two young players who impressed the most in the Test series.”We were delighted with the progress made by several of our younger players during the winter. both with the full England side and the England Lions,” said Miller. “The awarding of contracts is based on our assessment of a player’s performance in international cricket over a period of time and we can, of course, opt to award contracts on a pro-rata basis during the middle of the domestic international season if appropriate.”England Performance Squad 2008 Tim Ambrose (Warwickshire), James Anderson (Lancashire) *, Ian Bell (Warwickshire) *, Ravi Bopara (Essex), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Michael Carberry (Hampshire), Paul Collingwood (Durham)*, Alastair Cook (Essex)*, Andrew Flintoff (Lancashire) *, Stephen Harmison (Durham)*, Matthew Hoggard (Yorkshire)*, Robert Key (Kent), Dimitri Mascarenhas (Hampshire), Philip Mustard (Durham), Monty Panesar (Northamptonshire)*, Kevin Pietersen (Hampshire)*, Matthew Prior (Sussex), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire),Owais Shah (Middlesex), Andrew Strauss (Middlesex)*, Ryan Sidebottom (Nottinghamshire)*, Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire), James Tredwell (Kent), Chris Tremlett (Hampshire), Michael Vaughan (Yorkshire)*, Luke Wright (Sussex)* denotes centrally contracted player

A scintillating unbeaten century by Test discard Younis Khan (146) enabled Peshawar amass 352 for four wickets against Lahore Whites on the first day of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy match at the LCCA Ground on Monday.At close of play, Younis and Taimur Khan (50) were at the creae having piled up 168 runs in their 149-minute unbroken fifth wicket stand.Younis Khan came at the crease 10 minutes before the lunch interval when Wajahatullah Wasti (34) and Rifattulah (31) were back in the pavilion after Peshawar were put into bat by Lahore Whites’ captain Aamir Sohail.Younis batted with authority and belted 22 boundaries and one six during a stay of 234 minutes. He consumed 190 balls. Taimur’s 50 contained six boundaries.

ScorecardYorkshire’s hopes of winning the Pro Arch Trophy were dented by Sussex who beat them by nine runs in the tournament’s penultimate match.Yorkshire need to beat UAE in the final match to finish level on points with Lancashire and Somerset, and they need a comprehensive win to overtake their Roses rivals.Sussex got off to a good start, reaching 110 for 1 before losing three wickets without addition. The middle order rallied to boost them to 209 for 8, seemingly a below-par score in the conditions.Yorkshire also started well before losing their way, 19-year-old Will Beer taking two quick wickets and thereafter the innings fell away.

The Asian Cricket Council’s (ACC) decision to name a home umpire and not staging the final starting tomorrow on a netural territory has caused controversy here.The ACC named Athar Zaidi along with Australian Daryl Harper for the title match between Sri Lanka with Justice Ebraheem as the match referee. Interestingly, both the league matches in the competition were supervised by third country umpires. Peter Manual and Darrell Hair stood at Multan while Riazuddin and Rudi Kuertzen were incharge at Colombo.Similarly, the inaugural championship was also played under third country umpires. The sudden change in the rules has surprised the Sri Lankan management. But they have not lodged any protest claiming they were on a goodwill tour. The PCB were quick to place the responsibility on the ACC saying it was not the organizing board.”The ICC named one third country umpire and a match referee on the request of the ACC. I think the ACC is the competent authority to clarify the matter.” a PCB spokesman said.The visitors also played down why the match was not staged on a netural venue. “I am not sure exactly what the rules are, to be honest. But in this case, the team is very happy to be in Pakistan,” Lankan coach Dave Whatmore said. “A request was made and we accepted.”

Dennis Lillee, the former Australian fast bowler, has signed with the Delhi Daredevils as a consultant.”It feels great to be a part of GMR Sports [the company that owns the franchise] and Delhi Daredevils. I’ve known many of the young players in the Delhi Daredevils squad and am naturally delighted to be part of this team,” Lillee told PTI. “While players like Glenn McGrath are legends by their own right, I am looking forward to work with upcoming talents such as Pradeep Sangwan and Yo Mahesh.”However, Cricinfo has learned that Lillee will continue to be involved with the MRF pace academy, where he is the main consultant and works on a tri-annual basis. With the Daredevils, his expertise will mainly be used after the end of the tournament’s first edition, to sustain and improve upon the their preparations.TA Sekar, Lillee’s colleague at the MRF academy, and a member of the Daredevils’ team-management, said Lillee’s experience in tutoring bowlers would come in handy. “I’ve known Dennis for more than two decades now. His advice has helped groom hundreds of young fast bowlers in India and abroad. We are indeed fortunate to have him among us,” he said.Virender Sehwag, the Daredevils’ captain, speaking about Lillee’s appointment, said: “His presence in the Delhi Daredevils dressing room will no doubt bolster our resolve to win,”Lillee will work in collaboration with fellow Australian Greg Shipperd, who took over as coach, having previously worked with Victoria in the 2007-08 domestic season in Australia.

ScorecardJake Ball took four wickets before Nottinghamshire chased down their target•Getty Images

Chris Read enjoyed a day to remember as Nottinghamshire Outlaws maintained their unbeaten start in the Royal London Cup with a four-wicket win over Sussex Sharks at Hove.Having earlier become the first Nottinghamshire wicketkeeper to take six catches in a one-day innings, the 36-year-old calmed his side’s nerves when they lost their sixth wicket with 53 runs still needed, contributing an unbeaten 22 to a stand of 56 with Steven Mullaney, who won the game with a six as he finished on 42 not out, Nottinghamshire securing their second Group B victory with 22 balls to spare.Sussex had earlier squandered the advantage of winning the toss on a flat pitch. Openers Luke Wright and Chris Nash put on 96 in 12 overs but after they fell in successive overs to Jake Ball they struggled for momentum and their total of 282 for 9 never looked like being enough, even though Thomas trapped Rikki Wessels leg before with the first ball of the reply and Alex Hales (23) spliced a pull at Tymal Mills in the sixth over.James Taylor, who made a career-best 291 in Nottinghamshire’s Championship win over Sussex last week, appeared in the mood to hand out further punishment to his favourite bowling attack, flaying eight fours and a six in a 41-ball half-century.Taylor paid the penalty for over-confidence when he lost two stumps trying to work Chris Liddle through leg but his namesake Brendan and Samit Patel put on 71 with few alarms to get the target to under 100 halfway through their reply.Brendan Taylor gave Liddle a return catch after making 62 from 60 balls (8 fours, 2 sixes), Patel (38) was yorked by Mills’ slower ball and Dan Christian holed out to long off to give Sussex a glimmer of hope but Read and Mullaney ensured there were no further alarms.Earlier, the Outlaws pulled things back well after Nash and Wright plundered 14 boundaries between them in the power play on an easy-paced pitch before Ball pegged Sussex back with a spell of 3 for 8 in his first three overs.Wright (40) and Nash (49) both gloved mis-timed pulls while Matt Machan was caught on the crease to give Read his third success.From 108 for 3 in the 16th over Sussex were forced to rebuild and although all of their middle order batsmen got starts no one played with any sort of authority until Will Beer, coming in at No.8, hit 42 from 55 balls.Craig Cachopa briefly hinted that he could when he twice deposited Patel over long on for six but Australian Christian, whose first over went for 14, conceded 16 from his next five and picked up both Cachopa (18) and skipper Ed Joyce (21).Ball finished with 4 for 49, his figures slightly spoiled when Thomas, who has joined Sussex on loan for the competition from Somerset, hit ten runs off his last two balls in an unbeaten 32.

ScorecardIrfan Karim struck a 26-ball 46•ICC/Donald MacLeod

Matthew Cross (45*) and Richie Berrington (34*) led Scotland to a comfortable seven-wicket win over Kenya in their World T20 Qualifier Group B game at Edinburgh after their bowlers had limited the opposition to 141 for 5.Kenya, who opted to bat first had a brisk start, reaching 30 in just under three overs, before they lost their first wicket. Alasdair Evans dismissed Narendra Kalyan, after the batsman had contributed 1 run to a stand of 30. Irfan Karim, who had scored most of the runs at the start struck up a useful 30-run partnership for the second wicket with Nehemiah Odhiembo.The pair scored at a brisk rate of over 13 runs but Kenya were robbed of their momentum in three overs – between the sixth and eighth of their innings. Odhiambo fell to Rob Taylor in the sixth over but it was Michael Leask’s twin strikes in the eighth over that inflicted heavy damage. Leask got rid of Karim and Collins Obuya in the space of three deliveries, and the 52-run, fourth-wicket partnership between captain Rakep Patel and Morris Ouma couldn’t make up for the lost momentum. Kenya eventually reached 141 for 5 off 20 overs, with Karim’s 26-ball 46 the highest score.Chasing 142, Scotland didn’t start well, losing Kyle Coetzer in the first over. However, Cross steadied the innings and was involved in a string of partnerships that kept Scotland on track. He added 36 for the second wicket with Calum MacLeod and 55 for the third wicket with George Munsey before an unbroken fourth-wicket partnership of 51 with Berrington guided Scotland home with 31 balls to spare.

Loose bowling on day one, and cautious batting on days two and three paved Sri Lanka’s path to defeat, said Angelo Mathews, after the Test in Dunedin. Sri Lanka had let New Zealand advance at 4.48 runs and over in the first innings, before batting at 2.50 themselves. Overall, Sri Lanka batted for 50.4 overs more than New Zealand, yet lost by 122 runs.All three frontline seamers had gone at more than four runs an over in the first innings, where only Rangana Herath maintained an economy rate of less than three. “I was really disappointed the way we bowled and batted in the first innings,” Mathews said. “On that wicket, if there was anything it, it in was in the first couple of sessions. After winning the toss on a green wicket, I expected a lot more from the bowlers.

Was trying to avoid leg-side trap – Mathews

Angelo Mathews’ dismissal was one of the more bizarre ones during Sri Lanka’s innings, as he had his middle stump uprooted attempting to pad away a full Neil Wagner delivery. The ball passed through his legs en route to the stumps. He explained that he was trying to avoid New Zealand’s leg-side trap.
“It was a trap set on the leg side, and I didn’t want to play anything on the leg side to be honest,” Mathews said. “In the first innings as well, I nicked it to the wicketkeeper on the leg side. They had a leg gully and a short leg as well. I wanted to just pad it away because I knew that even if it hits my pad it’s not going to be out because it’s pitching outside leg stump. Unfortunately it hit the inside part of my pad and rolled to the stumps.”

“We bowled a lot of loose stuff. To a batting line up like New Zealand, you can’t really bowl loose stuff because they are going to capitalise. We lost our way in the first couple of sessions and we let them off the hook. We had to bowl really well to get them on the back foot. We had to take a few wickets early, which we didn’t.”While each of New Zealand’s batsmen who crossed 25 batted at a strike rate of at least 66, Sri Lanka’s half-centurions struck at less than 45. New Zealand hit 64 boundaries in the 96.1 overs they faced. Sri Lanka struck half that amount from 117.1 overs.”We were also way to cautious in our first-innings batting,” Mathews said. “We couldn’t really do much batting in the second innings, but in the first innings we respected them a lot more than expected, which was very disappointing from the batters. As I always say – and not to take away from the New Zealand – but the bowlers they are also human, and we have to capitalise.”Sri Lanka batted through until the second new ball in both innings, but scored fewer than 300 on either occasion. Three half centuries were hit from them in all – two of those coming from Dinesh Chandimal.”We definitely could have done better as a batting unit,” Mathews said. “We need to score runs to give our bowlers a chance. Scoring 290-300 is not enough on these tracks. Once the seam movement goes off in the first couple of sessions it gets really good for batting. The batters have to score big to keep us in the game.”Mathews and Chandimal had been together overnight, with Sri Lanka resuming at three wickets down on the final morning. Both batsmen were dismissed offering no shot, after a 56-run stand.”Last evening, I thought me and Dinesh had to dig in deep to save or win the game,” Mathews said. “Either way we had to stay on the wicket till lunch. Unfortunately we lost both our wickets within two or three overs of each other. That really had a big impact on the game.”Mathews said the tailenders’ defiance was among the positives Sri Lanka will take out of the match, and also lauded the bowling of Dushmantha Chameera. Playing his first overseas Test, Chameera was comfortably the quickest bowler across both teams in Dunedin, but having had an economy rate of 5.6 in the first innings and 4.35 in the second, he was also the most expensive.”He’s very raw but he runs in on any deck and he bowls fast,” Mathews said. “That’s all he knows, and what we expect from him. That’s what I told him to do as well. Not think about line and length too much – just try and bowl fast. He’s a tremendous weapon in the bowling line-up because he can upset the rhythm of a batsman. We are trying to use him in a wise way. He’s very young still, he’ll definitely learn more as time goes by.”

If there was one question in recent years that has been asked more than any other in New Zealand One-Day International cricket it would have to be, “How does Craig Spearman keep his place in the Black Caps?”The answer has been confined to the New Zealand cricket selection panel.Glenn Turner first picked Spearman to international duty in 1995/96 as one of his choices to implement the blazing top order assaults Turner wanted.Going into yesterday’s ODI with Zimbabwe in Harare, Spearman with an average of 17.41 after 44 matches had seen off Turner and Ross Dykes as selection conveners and had won over the new man Sir Richard Hadlee.This despite the fact that his best score was 78 scored against the United Arab Emirates in the 1996 World Cup. He twice scored 68, in the 1996 World Cup against the Netherlands and against India at Rajkot last summer.He was overdue, well overdue.However, New Zealand cricket is still overdue for some fire at the top of the order.It is amazing that since the days when Turner and Bruce Edgar were paired in the mid-1980s and John Wright and Edgar shared the duties before that, New Zealand has not enjoyed a consistently successful opening pair.There were some heady days at the 1992 World Cup when Mark Greatbatch and Rod Latham were paired but they were fleeting.What makes the opening question all the more frustrating is that another of Turner’s selections, Nathan Astle has blossomed as a one-day opener. He’s scored eight ODI centuries and has had five scores in the 90s.He is New Zealand’s most successful one-day batsman even if he has yet to claim the overall run scoring aggregate from Martin Crowe.Ironically, Spearman produced his highest score yesterday with 86 against Zimbabwe when he was originally named as a lower middle-order player. He only moved to No 3 when skipper Stephen Fleming was laid low with a stomach complaint.It is one of the indictments of New Zealand’s one-day play that only 14 centuries have been scored by openers, eight of them by Astle and three by Turner. Wright, Edgar and Crowe have scored the others.While Spearman lifted the monkey from his back, the problem at the top of the order still exists for New Zealand. Wicketkeeper Chris Nevin has a great opportunity to make his mark as a partner for Astle.With such a concentration of limited overs cricket at the start of the season, it would be helpful to New Zealand’s future, and its build-up to the next World Cup, if Nevin could solidify the opening berth and if Spearman could reap a harvest of consistency in the middle-order.Few batsmen hit the ball harder with so little effort than Spearman. He is capable of taking good attacks apart.If New Zealand could rely on a top order assault from Astle, Nevin and Spearman, what fireworks there could be.Zimbabwe was just a start for Spearman. He has had generous selectorial support. It is dividend time for New Zealand.A final thought on the Zimbabwe match.Zimbabwe was always going to struggle after the loss of Neil Johnson and Murray Goodwin.But New Zealand went into the game without Chris Cairns, Dion Nash and Geoff Allott who were all injured and Fleming couldn’t bat due to illness.Daryl Tuffey and Glen Sulzberger made their ODI debuts. They have both been part of New Zealand’s coherent development policy. It is but one step but some depth is finally starting to emerge.