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The Intercontinental Cup match between Kenya and Namibia has been rescheduled for June 3-5 in Windhoek. It was originally postponed by the ICC due to the controversies which engulfed the cricket administration in Kenya.The match was meant to take place from February 26-27 but was delayed because of the dispute between Cricket Kenya, KCA and other stakeholders. This was resolved on April 3 by a delegation from the Africa Cricket Association (ACA), led by Peter Chingoka the Zimbabwe Cricket Union boss.Kenya won their first match of the Intercontinental Cup, beating Uganda by 161 runs in Kampala after an impressive performance from Steve Tikolo, their captain, who scored 203 runs in the match. But he is one of three players who have now left to play club cricket in England. Tikolo has signed for Haverigg Cricket Club in Cumbria, Thomas Odoyo has joined Reads in Lancashire and Hitesh Modi is also in England.However, they will rejoin Kenya for the Namibia match. Sammy Obingo, a Kenya cricket official told : “There is no problem in the players going abroad. Once selected in the team to face Namibia, we will call them back.”

Three of England’s Ashes stars are to be honoured with a set of special Royal Mail stamps. Andrew Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen, Michael Vaughan will be the first living people, apart from the Royal Family, to be recognisable on stamps.The collection will be available from October 6 and consists of two first class stamps and two 68p stamps – which, coincidently, is the cost of sending a letter to Australia. Julietta Edgar, the head of special stamps, said they wanted to do something to recognise the achievements of the team.”Royal Mail is committed to celebrating social themes and important occasions central to our way of life: England’s victory in this summer’s Ashes series certainly counts as a momentous occasion. I’m sure the public will love using these stamps every day to continue the legacy of this sporting achievement.”This is the latest recognition to the team, which has included Vaughan and Flintoff being given the freedom of Sheffield and Preston respectively. The Royal Mail issued a set of stamps to celebrate England’s Rugby World Cup win, against Australia, in 2003 and the awarding of the 2012 Olympics to London. However, no sports stars were clearly identifiable on the stamps.

Close New Zealand 7 for 250 (Sinclair 69, Oram 63*) v Australia
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Mathew Sinclair and Jacob Oram contributed a pair of contrasting half-centuries on the opening day of the first Test at Brisbane, to ensure that New Zealand did not entirely squander the opportunity of batting first on a typically hard and true Gabba wicket. Even so, it was Australia who emerged with the day’s honours, thanks to another sterling contribution from their renaissance man, Michael Kasprowicz, who grabbed each of the first three wickets to fall in front of his home crowd, to ensure that New Zealand were playing catch-up all day long.New Zealand had their moments throughout the day, but they were all too brief as wickets fell in clusters in each of the three sessions. Kasprowicz dealt their hopes an early blow with two wickets in the space of four balls in the first hour, and Australia then stole the honours in the afternoon session as well, with two quick wickets almost on the stroke of tea. By the time the new ball was taken, with ten overs of the day remaining, New Zealand’s innings had been reduced to the bare bones, thanks to a pair of sucker-punches from Shane Warne, who defied the pain of a broken thumb to extend his world record to 543 wickets.Oram and Daniel Vettori rallied the total in the final half-hour, but by then the damage had already been done, thanks to a hugely disciplined performance from Australia’s three-pronged seam attack. They were presented with a typically hard and true Gabba pitch, far removed from the dustbowl that was served up for Australia’s most recent Test, at Mumbai earlier this month, and they quickly reacquainted themselves with their home comforts.All three extracted kicking bounce and taxing seam movement, but it was Kasprowicz, whose subtle seamers were once again preferred to the express pace of Brett Lee, who proved to be the biggest handful. He struck in his third over to remove Mark Richardson, who began in typically attritional fashion but had no answer whatsoever to a perfectly-pitched legcutter. Three balls later, Stephen Fleming fell victim to a similar, fractionally straighter, variety (2 for 26).Kasprowicz added a third soon after lunch, when Scott Styris – his feet caught in no-man’s land – edged a simple catch through to Adam Gilchrist for 27. At 3 for 77, New Zealand were there for the taking, but instead Australia went off the boil, in a period of play marked by a pair of badly fluffed catches in the outfield.

Nathan Astle was the beneficiary on both occasions. Earlier this week, Astle was targeted by Glenn McGrath as New Zealand’s main man, and McGrath should have had his scalp on 16, when Darren Lehmann made a horlicks of a swirling catch at backward square leg. Two runs later, Astle swished at Warne, and this time the culprit was Australia’s man of the morning, Kasprowicz, who was unable to steady himself in time, as he back-pedalled from mid-on.The sloppy spell lasted for all of two more deliveries, however. In the very next over, Astle fended Jason Gillespie towards gully, where the ball was parried into the path of Michael Clarke, swooping in from point. Quick as a flash, Clarke picked up and hurled at the non-striker’s end, and a nonplussed Astle was run out by a good six inches (4 for 138).Suitably geed up, Gillespie then prised the limpet-like Sinclair from the crease, with a pearling off-stump delivery that was angled low into the hands of Ricky Ponting at second slip. Sinclair was gone for 69, a vital contribution to New Zealand’s cause, but an innings that had mixed the stately with the streaky – in all he had faced 163 balls, with nine fours of varying degrees of rashness, including an inside-edge past the keeper to reach his fifty.Oram and Craig McMillan did their utmost to patch up the innings, but for McMillan in particular it was a fretful innings. The unexpected nature of his recall was clearly playing on his mind as he weighed up the pros and cons of an all-out assault on the semi-fit Warne, whose looping legbreaks were lacking their usual venom. After allowing one rank long-hop to go unpunished, McMillan reacted by depositing Warne deep into the stands at long-on, but it was to be his last act of aggression. Moments later, Warne dragged him out of his crease with a pinpoint flipper, and McMillan would have been stumped by a country mile had he not feathered a thin edge through to Gilchrist in the process.Warne then struck for a second time, as Gilchrist snatched a leaping legbreak and whipped off the bails with Brendon McCullum’s back foot millimetres out of its crease, and at 7 for 206, New Zealand were staring at a first-day wipeout. But Vettori’s uncomplicated grit was precisely the partner that Oram needed, and they had added 44 vital runs by the close. It was not enough to mask the deficiencies at the top of the order, but it was evidence that there is still plenty to play for in this match.Andrew Miller is assistant editor of Wisden Cricinfo.

North Zone 249 and 2 for 0 need another 115 to beat Central Zone 154 and 211 (Saxena 51)
Scorecard
The North Zone bowlers gave their team a great chance of posting an outright victory over Central Zone in Gurgaon. Having conceded a vital 95-run lead, Central Zone managed only 211 when they batted again a set North a simple target of 117. Barring Vineet Saxena, who compiled a dogged 51, none of the batsmen managed a sizeable score. Wickets fell at regular intervals and 211 was all that they managed. Amit Bhandari, Gagandeep Singh and Joginder Sharma – the three medium-pacers – picked up three wickets each and put North on course to winning their opening game. The North Zone openers, Aakash Chopra and Gautam Gambhir, had to face only one over before stumps were drawn.

ScorecardMatthew Nicholson made a quick recovery from his horror last over against South Australia on Sunday by picking up three wickets to blunt the Redbacks’ progress on the first day of the Pura Cup match at the SCG. On a day cut by 23.1 overs due to bad light, the visitors moved to 6 for 263 at stumps, with Daniel Harris and Callum Ferguson both registering half-centuries.Nicholson leaked 20 runs in four balls when New South Wales lost the one-day match at the weekend, but he was back on line during an overcast day and was rewarded with the dismissals of Harris, Darren Lehmann and Cameron Borgas in a return of 3 for 55. Borgas, the South Australia hero on Sunday with three sixes in the final over, fell to a lifting ball that provided Brad Haddin with one of four catches while Nicholson also prevented Harris (53) and Lehmann from converting useful starts.After opening with a 79-run stand between Harris and Nathan Adcock, South Australia slipped to 4 for 130 when a slashing Mark Cosgrove became Moises Henriques’ maiden wicket on his first-class debut. However, Lehmann breezed to 41 from 48 balls and Ferguson collected five fours and two sixes in his 63 to steady the side. Shane Deitz finished unbeaten on 38 while Doug Bollinger and Stuart MacGill each picked up a wicket.

Scorecard

Andrew Hall held his nerve to bowl Worcestershire through to the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy final in a nail-biting and topsy-turvey semi-final against Lancashire at New Road. Mal Loye ended unbeaten on 116, but his brave effort was not enough as the Lancashire tail-enders lost their way.After being up against it for the majority if the match, Lancashire had the game in the bag needing only seven runs from the last over. But Hall (4 for 36) stayed calm and fired in the yorkers to great effect. He picked up two wickets and gave away only one run to take Worcestershire through to the final against Gloucestershire.Lancashire made a slow start to their chase of 255 and Nantie Hayward soon trapped Mark Chilton lbw with an inswinging yorker (15 for 1). Matthew Mayson then kept the pressure on with a superb spell of seam bowling (1 for 23 from 10 overs) and got his reward with the big wicket of Stuart Law, caught by Hall at second slip (70 for 2). Hall then got in the act with the two wickets of Carl Hooper and Andrew Flintoff, both lbw, and Lancashire had spluttered to 108 for 4.Meanwhile, Mal Loye stayed firm and gave Lancashire hope with his mixture of aggressive leg-side thwacks and sensible accumulation. He and Chris Schofield hauled Lancashire back in the game with a rollicking 63 stand in which Schofield savaged all before him in a cameo 32 from 31 balls. Gareth Batty may soon be an international, but Schofield – who is an international, in case you’ve forgotten – showed him no respect and crashed him for four boundaries in the 37th over to tilt the game in the balance.But Schofield soon found out that all good things come to an end when he slapped David Leatherdale to Hayward at mid-on (171 for 5). Glen Chapple, another new England call-up, kept Loye support and his enterprising 44 from 43 balls all but secured the tie for Lancashire. But when he was bowled by Kabir Ali going for another big hit, the game was thrown wide open. Warren Hegg and Peter Martin were bowled in the final over and John Wood run out as Lancashire self-destructed to a six-run loss.Hegg, the Lancashire captain, said before the game that Graeme Hick was Worcestershire’s dangerman, and his prediction was spot on, unlike his decision to bowl first. Hick belted 97 from 112 balls in a rollicking start. He got in to the groove straight away and he and the impressive Anurag Singh added 155 for the second wicket. The pair made the most of the good batting track and baking hot conditions as they cashed in on anything wide and short.Singh hit 63 from 104 when Lancashire made a much-needed breakthrough as Singh was caught by Schofield at point off Flintoff (159 for 2). Hick, who was dropped by Hegg in the thirties, continued to give it some humpty and clobbered 16 fours and was on course for another limited-overs century when Chapple struck to dislodge Hick when a leading edge flew to Carl Hooper at cover (191 for 3).Ben Smith (36) and Hall (26) kept up the momentum, and even though Hick’s wicket slightly took the wind out of their sails, their 254 for 5 was enough – just.

Western Australia 427 for 9 and 148 for 2 (Langer 88*, Goodwin 5*) v Queensland 434 (Hauritz 94)
Scorecard

Nathan Hauritz fell six runs short of his maiden first-class century, as Queensland clambered to a first-innings lead against Western Australia at Perth. Hauritz, whose previous highest score was 41, batted for nearly four hours and added 134 for the eighth wicket with Ashley Noffke. But by the close, WA had marched onto 148 for 2, with Justin Langer reaching the close on 88 not out.Queensland had resumed the day in some strife at 280 for 7, and it took Hauritz 38 minutes and 35 balls to get off the mark. He enjoyed some luck as well, as Michael Hussey dropped a hot chance in slips when he was on 12. But the pair grew in confidence, and were closing in on the first-innings points when Beau Casson struck twice in quick succession to complete his five-wicket haul.But Hauritz kept his cool with Joe Dawes for company, and was looking set for a hundred when he was cruelly adjudged lbw to a delivery that appeared to be heading down the leg side. Hauritz’s previous best of 41 had come on his Pura Cup debut against Victoria in 2001-02. He had not scored more than 20 in any of his subsequent outings.Buoyed by their unexpected batting success, Queensland removed the dangerous Mike Hussey in the 15th over. Hauritz then got in on the act with the ball as well, as Chris Rogers was caught behind for 34, slashing wildly at a wide delivery. But Langer was unmoved, and by the close, he was grinding ever closer to his fourth first-class century of the season.

Despite losing 28 overs to rain on the first day of their Frizzell County Championship match against Gloucestershire at The Rose Bowl, Hampshire made up for lost time by dismissing their visitors for 185.In overcast conditions Gloucestershire’s makeshift captain Craig Spearman chose to bat first in winning the toss and despite losing Spearman early on to an inswinger from Wasim Akram, they prospered before lunch.Rain held up progress shortly after lunch, and it started Gloucestershire’s downfall. Hampshire’s four seam bowlers, Wasim Akram, Ed Giddins, Dimitri Mascarenhas and Alan Mullally shared the spoils as they took advantage of the conditions as wickets fell at steady intervals.Despite an old fashioned tail end flurry, Hampshire would have been well satisfied with their bowlers.The sun came out as the day drew to a close, as Derek Kenway and John Crawley negotiated the final 12 overs without scare.

Inzamam-ul-Haq, who has been out of favour with the selectors since the World Cup, is back in the reckoning for Pakistan’s home season. He has been included in the list of 20 probables for the forthcoming series against Bangladesh. Aamer Sohail, the former Test opener who is now the chairman of Pakistan’s selectors, said: “We never dropped Inzamam but gave him rest, and hope that this rest will do a world of good to him in the coming home season.”Inzamam was one of eight players dumped after Pakistan’s disappointing first-round exit from the World Cup in March. But there is no place for Pakistan’s then-captain Waqar Younis, who recently said he still wants to play for the country. Sohail explained: “We are focusing on players who we have used in the last four months in our transition phase.”Inzamam said he was delighted to be back in the reckoning: “I was a bit disappointed on being out of the team, but now I am ready for the home season.” Inzamam has scored 6214 runs in 85 Tests, plus 8957 in 290 one-dayers. His last Test innings on home soil produced Pakistan’s second-highest score – 329, made against New Zealand at Lahore in May 2002. But Inzamam managed only 19 runs in six World Cup games – a phase he described as the worst of his career. But he explained: “Never in this phase I thought of leaving cricket, I have a lot of it left in me.”Pakistan take on Bangladesh, who have lost 20 of their 21 Tests so far, in a three-match series which starts at Karachi on August 20. The Test series will be followed by five one-day internationals, before Pakistan host South Africa in three Tests and three ODIs in September and October. New Zealand also visit for five one-dayers in November.Pakistan had faced a shortage of players for the Bangladesh series after their fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, allrounder Azhar Mahmood and batsman Younis Khan were allowed to skip the series. Then Mohammad Sami, another fast bowler, was ruled out with an ankle injury he picked up playing county cricket for Kent, which forced the selectors to reverse their earlier decision about Shoaib. Sohail explained: “We had to call Shoaib from England where he was playing county cricket [for Durham] to cover Sami’s injury – but we are not taking Bangladesh lightly.”Farhan Adil, an uncapped batsman from Karachi, is tipped to make his debut in the first Test – the squad for which will be named on August 12 – while two other uncapped players called up are Mohammad Khalil, a left-arm fast bowler, and the left-arm spinner Abdul Sattar.Pakistan preliminary squad Mohammad Hafeez, Taufeeq Umar, Farhan Adil, Yasir Hameed, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Yousuf Youhana, Misbah-ul-Haq, Hasan Raza, Rashid Latif (capt and wk), Shoaib Malik, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal (wk), Umar Gul, Shoaib Akhtar, Shabbir Ahmed, Mohammad Khalil, Najaf Shah, Danish Kaneria, Abdul Sattar, Jaffer Nazir.

Injury-plagued paceman Jason Gillespie has declared himself fit for Australia’s tour of the West Indies after bowling for the first time since returning injured from the World Cup.Gillespie bowled just 18 deliveries at the Adelaide Oval nets, but it was enough to convince the fast bowler he had overcome a torn tendon in his right foot which ended his World Cup campaign.”Everything seemed to go well, it felt good and really positive,” Gillespie said.”Clinically my leg is fine now, the strength is getting back and just to have a bowl felt really good and I was more than happy with the result.”Gillespie said today’s brief net session, his first bowl for almost four weeks, assured he would join the Australian squad on Monday for departure to the West Indies and the four-Test series starting April 10 in Guyana.The South Australian has missed as much international cricket as he has played because of injury.”Injuries are part and parcel of being a fast bowler,” he said.”You try to avoid them anyway you can by your preparation and getting yourself ready as best you can for games.”If you do all that and you get injured there’s not really much that you can do.”I have changed a bit of my training methods to just try and adapt and put a bit less strain on the body and just try and get that strength there to get me through series and games.”A few years back when I broke my leg (in Sri Lanka in 1999) I certainly changed my whole training regime and it seemed to have worked.”I have had the odd injury here and there but nothing overly significant, sprains and strains.”They are disappointing but you have just got to get back and get yourself ready again.”Gillespie said his goals for the West Indies tour were simple: return to the Australian side and make an impact.”It’s a great tour and a great place to play cricket,” he said.”The sun is on your back all the time and in your downtime you can head down to the beach and just relax.”The conditions are quite tough for both batting and bowling and it’s a real test of your cricket nous.”The West Indies at home are a very tough side and you know you have to play very good cricket to win.”