Kamran Akmal, the Pakistan wicketkeeper, is preparing for the tour to India by training in simulated situations and on surfaces he expects to encounter in the Tests and ODIs series. Akmal, who has been under fire for his wicketkeeping skills in recent months, said that he realised the importance of the Indian tour for his career.”I went there [India] in 2005 and I have a fair idea of the sort of surfaces that could be used in the Tests in particular. I have started training by concentrating on my keeping and takes off the spinners,” he said.He admitted it was tough to keep on the slow Indian pitches and is therefore preparing himself for the challenge both mentally and physically. When Pakistan toured in 2005, the Test series was drawn and they won the ODI contest 4-2, but Akmal expected India to give a tougher fight this time.”They have some good young players and they have more bowling options which has made them a more consistent side,” Akmal, whose hundred in the first Test in Mohali saved the match, said, adding that he did not take the pressure of criticism about his ‘keeping skills. “It has been hard for me to ignore calls to replace me. It adds to the pressure but I am learning to accept these things. Watching the way Mark Boucher and Adam Gilchrist perform consistenly over the years is in itself a big motivation for me.”I look at Boucher and Gilchrist and I know I can take the pressure and also play for a long time,” Akmal said. “I convince myself that if they can last for so long having battled through bad form or fitness issues, I know I can also do the same.”For Akmal, in these times of non-stop cricket, fitness was the focus. “Unless you are 100 per cent fit, I don’t think you can survive for long in international cricket. It has also helped me be mentally stronger and perform in pressure situations,” he said. “Cricket has changed. A wicketkeeper has to be able to bat like a proper batsman to keep his place in the team. The two [Boucher and Gilchrist] are prime examples. Our new trainer has helped me a lot. I am confident despite what people say that I can have a long career.”Pakistan play three Tests and five ODIs in India starting November 5.

A squad of 14 Kenya players are lending their support to Uganda to play two friendlies at the Lugogo Oval this weekend, to help them prepare for the World Cricket League Division Two in Namibia later this month.Steve Tikolo, the Kenya captain, along with Thomas Odoyo and other senior players are all participating, but Kenya have given Maurice Ouma the captaincy. They also called up a couple of younger faces, Ken Migai and Moses Otieno to gain experience.Uganda will fight it out with United Arab Emirates – who today beat Bermuda in the Intercontinental Cup – Argentina, Denmark, Oman and Namibia for the four slots reserved for the group in the 2009 World Cup qualifier.

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

Younis Khan lodged himself firmly between India and a series triumph on the final day of the second Test at Eden Gardens, leading his side to an unlikely, morale-boosting draw. Younis, standing in as captain for the injured Shoaib Malik, hit his 15th Test hundred and fifth against India, accepting help from a familiar face as he kept Pakistan alive to fight another day. A 136-run partnership with Mohammad Yousuf dragged them from peril to safety, both captains calling it a day at 214 for 4 with half an hour of play left.India were disappointingly lethargic, except for brief periods in the afternoon or when Anil Kumble was involved. Kumble had brought the game alive in the afternoon, with two wickets. But as the two Y’s came together with another century partnership – their ninth – even Kumble’s tenacity wasn’t to be enough.Younis especially was determined: as captain, his side had to be rescued and following low scores against his favourite opponent, here was the perfect opportunity to rectify that. He was also familiar with the situation, having faced similar ones against South Africa recently. So familiar in fact that he graced the occasion with a third hundred in four Tests, each of them in the fourth innings of a Test.It says much about his character and his batting that you can’t call the innings a dogged, dour rearguard. There was much studious defence, but he never dawdled. What runs were on offer, were gladly taken. Having arrived in the first over after lunch, he brought up his fifty in the last over before tea.After it, he seemed to speed up, pulling Zaheer Khan to bring up the fifty stand and continued in much the same manner through the session. Only Kumble posed a serious challenge, troubling him with googlies and trapping him plumb when in the 90s (Rudi Koertzen disagreed) but even he was driven and cut for pleasing boundaries. No shot better captured the innings than the reverse-sweep which brought up his hundred: defiant, unbowed and positive.Yousuf meanwhile helped himself back into some form. He was unusually quiet to begin with, recognition of the pressure of the Test and his own lack of runs. But a fluid punch through point off Munaf Patel eased him gently into the role of Younis’s second fiddle, one in which he didn’t falter. By tea, he was set and after it was rarely hassled, choosing occasionally to stroke a cover drive, but opting generally to pat balls back.

India helped them with a surprisingly inert display after tea. The inactivity was captured best by the inside edge on to Yousuf’s pad, which looped up in the air, barely a foot from two close-in fielders. Bizarrely, neither made even an attempt. Harbhajan Singh, the bowler, complained rightly, but perhaps not too much for he was flat through much of the day, mirroring Danish Kaneria’s disappointing last-day performance at Delhi. He searched constantly, for the right angle, the right line, the right length, but fruitlessly.Only Kumble it was who pushed and it was because of him India had a sniff at all. They had declared almost an hour into the morning, setting Pakistan 345 runs or 81 overs to survive. Zaheer got rid of Yasir Hameed before Kumble took over.Second ball after lunch, Kamran Akmal was bowled by a rare, fair-spinning leg-break. The situation thereafter was made for Kumble: no real chance of the opposition chasing, a fifth-day surface and nervy batsmen naturally keen to push on, trying instead to defend. The appearance of threat was there in every ball, even if the actuality of it wasn’t. Fielders encircled batsmen as a lynch mob might an unfortunate, dust flew up off the pitch, and Kumble was the centre of all focus.Even though nothing happened for nearly an hour after that breakthrough – Harbhajan as much as a cussed Salman Butt to blame – Kumble was not to be denied. Coming round the wicket, he soon trapped Butt. He then replaced Harbhajan with Munaf Patel just after mid-day drinks, who produced in his first over what seemed then to be a pivotal moment. It was touched by genius as well, a slow off-break that nevertheless turned sharply enough to go through the defences of Misbah-ul-Haq, leaving Pakistan rocking at 78 for 4.Both Patel and Kumble sniffed away, but it wasn’t to last and as tea approached Younis and Yousuf dug themselves in. There they would stay after it, despite Kumble’s best efforts.

ScorecardA strong bowling performance put Gujarat on course for victory in the final of the Ranji Trophy Plate League at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. Gujarat ended the fourth day requiring just 120 more to win with all ten wickets intact. The stars of the day were their bowlers, who dismissed Railways for just 169 in their second innings. The openers then chopped off 30 runs from their target of 150 before close of play.Resuming their overnight score of 14 for 1, Railways’ slide started when Sanjay Bangar and Murali Kartik fell within the space of three deliveries, leaving them tottering at 23 for 3. The middle order barely resisted and succumbed to a three-wicket burst by Amit Singh, as Railways slumped to a precarious 79 for 6.Harshad Rawle and Raja Ali then battled it out for more than 30 overs in their stand of 56. Rawle scored 45 off 180 balls while Ali was the more fluent of the two, scoring 46 off 99. Their partnership was dislodged by legspinner Timil Patel, and the lower order could do little to push the score. Singh finished with figures of 3 for 22 while Mohnish Parmar, Ashraf Makda and Patel too two wickets apiece.Nilesh Modi and Rajesh Tabiar, the Gujarat openers, then played out 20 overs in the evening. They didn’t score too many, but importantly for the team, they were still together when the last ball of the day had been bowled.

Dive for the prize
Behind-the-wicket catching has been a severe problem for Australia over the past month, but there was no issue in the micro-seconds it took Matthew Hayden to leap high to his left and stun Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The batsman had driven hard at Brett Lee and Hayden, standing at second slip, latched on to it like he had a bucket on his hand. It was the Australians’ catch of the series.Another not out
“Now for the hat-trick, Billy,” a spectator in the Bradman Stand shouted after Sourav Ganguly was finally ruled caught from his scoop to Michael Hussey at cover. Mitchell Johnson’s previous delivery to Ganguly looked plumb to viewers behind the wicket, but Billy Bowden, who has spent much of the Test shaking his head to appeals, was not swayed. The hypothetical hat-trick ball was easily covered by VVS Laxman.Foot fault
Sachin Tendulkar arrived in a hurry, driving his first ball hard into the foot and shin of Phil Jaques at bat-pad before it ricocheted to Andrew Symonds at cover. The Australians were confident they had achieved a miracle dismissal, but the replays raised doubt over whether it bounced short of Jaques’ foot and Tendulkar was rightfully reprieved.Jekyll and Hyde
Tendulkar’s 13 continued his trend of under-performing in the second innings against Australia. He managed only 52 runs for the entire series at the second attempts, but he more than made up for it with 440 at 146.67 in the first ones during an unforgettable collection of a couple of hundreds and another two half-centuries. Australians will remember his time here fondly.Gilly’s last dismissal
Adam Gilchrist bid farewell to Tests by making sure Mark Boucher would have just that little bit extra to do when he inevitably regains the world record for dismissals. Gilchrist took a leg-side catch off Brett Lee to dismiss Laxman and in his final session held on to Virender Sehwag’s edge and celebrated wildly. In between the two catches, his last effort in Tests was nearly decided for him when, standing up, Stuart Clark boomed in a bouncer. Agile to the last, he managed to put his gloves in front of his face just in time.Bruised and broken
Brett Lee’s bouncers have been hostile this series and he made Rahul Dravid retire hurt after one got big on the batsman and hit his right middle finger. That was on Dravid’s 15th dot ball of the day, and although he played out one more over he couldn’t grip the bat properly and left the field for an x-ray. It showed a break.The Billy and Asad show
The Test may have been petering out to a draw, but the umpires decided they could still have some fun. As they waited for the teams to arrive back on the pitch for the final session, Bowden and Asad Rauf took the match ball and started practising their slip catching in the middle. They may well have inspired Hayden.

Virat Kohli, the captain of India’s Under-19 squad for the World Cup, may still be in his teens but he’s already aware of the kind of spotlight an Indian cricketer faces when playing on the international stage. As the team prepared to depart for Malaysia, Kohli said India were “expected to be favourites” and hoped to fulfill those expectations – backed by a strong batting line-up and a bolstered attack – during the 15-day tournament.The squad spent the last week at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore, fine-tuning their preparations under the guidance of Dav Whatmore, who will be their coach for the tournament. Kohli said the team had worked hard on their fielding skills, which he felt needed to be improved, during the camp and the time spent together had helped build team-spirit.India have had a successful run in the lead-up to Malaysia. They won a Youth Test series in South Africa 1-0 as well as a triangular limited-overs tournament involving South Africa, who are grouped with India in the World Cup, and Bangladesh. The batsmen performed impressively in the tri-series, with Kohli, Saurav Tiwary, Tanmay Srivatsava and Manish Pandey all averaging above 50.”We have a deep batting line-up and most often our No.7 and No.8 batsmen have not had a chance to bat on the last two or three tours. So batting is a big strength,” Kohli said. “The fast bowling was lacking on the last tour so we’ve got more fast bowlers to strengthen that area.”India’s group also includes West Indies and Papua New Guinea and their practice-matches before the main tournament kicks off will be against two teams Kohli considered among the toughest in the competition – New Zealand and England.”We know most of the England team and the New Zealand team, which are the difficult teams. We don’t know much about Pakistan because I think the team has changed. But we’ve seen South Africa, England and New Zealand which are the strongest teams, so we know about them.”For most of the team, the World Cup will be their first experience of playing in front of a television audience. Kohli, however, said that thinking about factors such as television would only add to the pressure. “You don’t have to think about it much,” Kohli said. “We just have to play like we have been playing on the last four or five tours. We’ve been winning all the tours so we would like to keep up the winning streak.”While Kohli and his team-mates are thinking of the immediate future, and how it could be the launching pad for future international careers, their coach is able to look at the larger picture. The challenge, Whatmore said, was to “create the right pathways and competitions for the youngsters to come through.”

The outpouring of emotion at the WACA on Friday made Adam Gilchrist realise the end of his record-breaking career was near. Gilchrist, who will retire at the conclusion of CB Series, waved goodbye to his home crowd in Perth with a fine 118 in the 63-run win over Sri Lanka and listened to chants of “Gilly, Gilly” throughout the match.”Today was where it really hit me, that it is all finishing,” he told AFP on Friday night. “Today was always going to be a big day, so I was more nervous than any day, leading into here. I am glad it is done … there was a lot of emotion in there.”Gilchrist did not have much time to enjoy the moment as the Australians flew from Perth to Adelaide on Saturday for Sunday’s match against India. Brett Lee will miss the contest to rest after a busy campaign.”It’s a difficult schedule this one, not playing for four days and then playing back-to-back,” Gilchrist said. “There is a lot of downtime between the Sunday and Friday games and maybe all of us have struggled on the back of an intense Test series.”The victory eased the pressure on Australia, who top the tri-series table, but Gilchrist said there was no room for complacency. “If we drop one,” he said, “we’ll be back in the same position.”

Harbhajan Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who missed the mandatory fitness tests prior to their inclusion for the first two Tests against South Africa, will undergo the procedure at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore on March 21.Both Harbhajan and Dhoni were included by the selectors in the 14-member squad, and were asked to report to the NCA for fitness tests on March 21. Harbhajan was a doubtful starter for the series since he had been suffering from a hamstring injury, while Dhoni had sprained his finger during the second final against Australia in the CB Series.If Dhoni doesn’t clear the test, Dinesh Karthik will take up the wicketkeeping duties, while Harbhajan’s absence may pave the way for Piyush Chawla to take over the second spinner’s role behind captain Anil Kumble. Fast bowler Ishant Sharma has already been ruled out of the first Test, and his selection for the second is subject to fitness.Sachin Tendulkar is another member of the 14-man squad who has not taken the test. According to new BCCI norms, players who have been out of action for a month need to prove their fitness at the NCA ahead of any series. Although Tendulkar had taken part in the CB Series earlier this month, he had been advised two weeks’ rest by John Gloster, the outgoing team physio. However, Tendulkar later said he was fit to take part in the series.

VVS Laxman has termed the Eden Gardens pitch on which his Deccan Chargers lost their IPL opener against the Kolkata Knight Riders “shocking” and said the power failure towards the end of the match contributed to the defeat as it affected the players’ concentration.”It was not a good pitch for any form of the game. It was a shocking wicket,” said Laxman after Hyderabad were shot out for 110 on a track that provided a lot of assistance to both seamers and spinners. “In the Twenty20 format you expect high scores. Though the match became exciting in the end, it was tough for the batsmen to go for shots.”Ricky Ponting later revealed that the curator had apologised to both the teams at the end of the match. “It was a shocker for all of us,” he said in a television interview, “but the curator apologised to both the teams later. Hopefully it will be a better surface when we’re out here next.”After the first two days of the IPL was dominated by the bat, Eden Gardens provided a bowler-friendly surface. It has everything from extremely variable bounce – the first ball Laxman faced kept low while the third jumped viciously from a length to crash into his gloves – and big turn as Andrew Symonds found out when a Mohammad Hafeez delivery landed well outside off and spun past him down the leg side. Even local boy Sourav Ganguly struggled to come to terms with the pitch, getting hit on the chest from a length ball that took off.Laxman felt that the nature of the Eden Gardens track was changing. “I played here in the Ranji Trophy and also a Test sometime back. The wicket was slow on both occasions. I think you are not getting the wicket we expect at Eden.”Laxman also complained about the floodlight failure as the match was heading towards a tight finish. Kolkata needed 22 from 20 with five wickets in hand when one of the light towers went off, holding play up for about half an hour. When play resumed, David Hussey guided Kolkata to victory with one over to spare. “The interruption definitely affected us. The momentum was towards us. And the bowlers were in great rhythm,” Laxman said. “But having said that, I must say that the bowlers were in great rhythm when play resumed.”Hussey, whose unbeaten 38 fetched him the Man-of-the-Match award, played down the difficult nature of the track and admitted his side were helped by the interruption in play. “It was a good break for us,” he said. “We got to collect our thoughts, have a drink and re-adjust our game plans and that probably worked in our favour.”

Steve Harmison has said he is likely to quit cricket if he fails to win back his England place.Writing in his column in the Mail on Sunday, Harmison said that without the lure of international cricket, he could see no point in continuing.”The prospect of playing for England is what drives me and if I felt my chance of doing that was gone the probability is I’d retire from first-class cricket altogether. This is not an ultimatum or me trying to impose conditions on anyone. But I am 29 now and if I felt my England career was over I would be tempted to say I want to do something different with my life.”I am absolutely determined to show I have something to offer England,” he continued. “I certainly do not believe I am finished. After a terrible year for me on the field with injuries, operations and so little cricket it is ridiculous, my aim is to bowl fast, take wickets and give the selectors something to think about.”I have spoken informally to the skipper, Michael Vaughan, and the coach, Peter Moores, and stressed that I still want to play Test cricket and they were pretty positive that both Matthew [Hoggard] and I remain in their plans.”