Ere Sheshiah, the pathologist who conducted the autopsy of the Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer, claimed that cell-phone pictures showed that a third party was behind Woolmer’s death. On the first day of his testimony to an inquest in Jamaica, Sheshiah had maintained that Woolmer had died because of poisoning and strangulation.”After viewing the cellular phone pictures taken by Dr [Asher] Cooper [the first doctor to attend to Woolmer], I think definitely that there was a third party [involved],” Sheshiah said.He criticised the three pathologists – Nathaniel Cary of England, Michael Pollanen of Canada and Lorna Martin of South Africa – who had pointed out flaws in his post-mortem procedure and testified that Woolmer died due to natural causes. Sheshiah said that the review procedure was “unusual and unacceptable”, Cary’s opinion was not final, and that Martin gave her findings without seeing the histology and toxicology reports.Sheshiah also said that Woolmer was found with his head under the toilet bowl. “In my opinion, it is not possible for the disease to put him in such a position. This definitely speaks of a third party.”The fact that other pathologists had disagreed with his conclusion that the hyoid bone in Woolmer’s neck was broken, was also addressed by Sheshiah, who stood by his findings despite admitting that an x-ray showed it might not have been broken.Woolmer was found unconscious in his room at the Pegasus Hotel on March 18, a day after Pakistan’s shock defeat to Ireland in the World Cup. The police had initially backed Sheshaiah’s finding that Woolmer was murdered and released a statement in that effect, but after a review by Cary, Pollanen, and Martin, confirmed that Woolmer died of natural causes.The inquest, presided over by coroner Patrick Murphy and 11 jurors, is expected to end on November 9.

Karnataka have dropped opener Barrington Rowland from their Ranji Trophy team, while Robin Uthappa comes back into the side. Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble, who have joined the Indian team for the Test series against Pakistan, have been replaced by Gaurav Dhiman and Bharat Chipli.Rowland has scored 47 runs in the two matches this season. He had an average season last time round, scoring 380 runs at 27.14. This is the first time Rowland has been dropped from the side since he made his debut in 1999.Chipli, another opener, last played for Karnataka in last year’s semi-final. He scored 3 and 95 in the loss to Bengal. Dhiman is a middle-order batsman who impressed with his aggressive batting for Indian Under-19 in the 2006 World Cup in Sri Lanka. However, on his first-class debut, he scored a duck against Tamil Nadu and hasn’t played a game since.Yere Goud will lead the side in the absence of Kumble and Dravid. Karnataka travel to Chennai to play Tamil Nadu in their next Ranji match, which starts on Friday.Squad Robin Uthappa, KB Pawan, Bharat Chipli, Gaurav Dhiman, Yere Goud (capt), C Raghu, Thilak Naidu (wk), B Akhil, Sunil Joshi, R Vinay Kumar, NC Aiyappa, KP Appanna, Sudhindra Shinde, Devraj Patil, S Dhananjaya.

Uncapped left-arm medium bowler Sajidul Islam has been called up to replace the injured Syed Rasel, who has been ruled out of Bangladesh’s tour of New Zealand.Rasel dislocated his left collar bone while fielding in a tour game against Northern Districts. The Bangladeshis lost the match by seven wickets.Sajidul, who made his first-class debut in 2005, has taken 73 wickets at 25.61 a piece. In this season he has picked up 36 wickets at 19.63 from eight games.Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons told commercial radio that Rasel would be seen by several specialists in New Zealand before deciding whether he would have surgery locally or return home for treatment.Bangladesh play three one-dayers and two Tests against New Zealand between December 26 and January 16.

Malcolm Speed has insisted the ICC will not bow to India’s demands on the Harbhajan Singh issue and they will have to accept any ruling on his case. India have threatened to call off their Australia tour if the hearing does not clear Harbhajan, who has been banned for three Tests, of racial abuse.Harbhajan is allowed to play until his appeal is heard, although there is doubt whether it will be before the third Test in Perth next week, or even before the series finishes. The ICC has already brought in a new umpire, Billy Bowden, to replace the much-criticised Steve Bucknor, which has placated India for the time being.”I am very pleased the tour is going ahead, there is a process in place for appeals and Harbhajan Singh has appealed,” Speed, the ICC chief executive, told the Times. “India have signed off on the appeals process. They were there when all the discussions took place.”We can’t have one set of rules for the India team and another set for everyone else. We will follow the process and I hope whatever the outcome all parties will be able to say they have had a fair hearing.”Speed also rejected suggestions that the appeal may be postponed so the lucrative tour is not put in jeopardy. He said, instead, that the primary concern was the logistics of bringing together the necessary individuals at once.However, Lalit Modi, the Board of Control for Cricket vice-president, said that the decision to continue with the tour was “interim” pending the result of the appeal against Harbhajan’s ban.”It was an interim decision of the ICC to ban Harbhajan, and, because of that, it is an interim decision by the BCCI to continue the tour,” Modi told the . “The controversy continues until Harbhajan’s name is cleared. We are not applying pressure to the ICC. They have simply reacted the way they should have. This isn’t an issue about money or power, but what is right for the game. We will wait to see what the outcome of Harbhajan’s appeal is and we will make a decision from there.”It has been well publicised that Harbhajan is alleged to have called Andrew Symonds a “monkey”, but this was not, according to the Australian, for the first time. The newspaper reports the allegation that Harbhajan taunted Symonds with the same epithet during an ODI in Mumbai last October. It is understood that players at a team meeting wanted to report Harbhajan to the match referee, but Symonds insisted he sort it out on a personal basis with a one-on-one discussion.The tape of the Sydney Test appears to back up the claims. It shows Ricky Ponting telling Harbhajan it was the second time he had crossed the line.

Ricky Ponting is still working out how to tackle Ishant Sharma. You could say he is a bit puzzled. The Australian captain admitted as much as Ishant waited to talk about his spoils at the post-match media briefing.”He’s been a big improver for India through this tour”, Ponting said of Ishant, who has already got him thrice this summer. Memories of the WACA Test, where he twice edged Ishant to the slips, during the Test series, seem to still haunt Ponting and he had no answer to Ishant’s poser on Sunday.Not surprising, then, that Ishant knows the value of having the number of the one of the best batsmen of this decade. “Ponting is one my favourite batsmen and if you get the batsman complimenting you, it feels good,” Sharma explained modestly.Even if he was taking the new ball for the first time in the ODIs Ishant had fast-tracked his growth as a bowler on the first leg of the tour to a position where he was able to handle the pressures of sharing the new ball. He stuttered a touch initially; his first ball was a no-ball, the fifth was a wide and in between Hayden edged one just above the outstretched hands of Rohit Sharma at the third slip. He was clearly still settling in the next over and went for 18 runs, including three fours from Hayden’s bat.Ishant wasn’t beaten, though, and recovered sufficiently to pick up three top-order wickets in Hayden, Ponting and Andrew Symonds to effectively turn the match in India’s favour. Later, he explained his turnaround. “After that over [when he went for 18] Dhoni told me to stick to my plans. He felt I was trying to do something else and instead I should do what I had to. I calmed down from that point.”It wasn’t just calmness, of course; it also involved execution of a plan. “We had our plans for each batsman and I just worked on that. For Ponting, it was to bowl to him on the fourth stump.”Ponting reckons Ishant is one of the few right-arm fast bowlers who can bring the ball in and that makes him a difficult proposition. “He’s a little bit different in the fact that he probably brings the ball back into right-handers more than most right-arm bowlers we have faced. Normally as a right-handed batsman you usually only get the ball coming back in from left-armers. He’s tall, he hits the deck pretty hard and he gets a little bit of inconsistent bounce off the wicket.”Ponting said Ishant has the variety that can also trouble the left-handers and compared him to the Makhaya Ntini in that respect. “He’s looked dangerous. With the angles he creates he can be pretty dangerous against the left-handers as well and he swings the ball away from them, a bit like Ntini does.”When asked if the workload has been an issue, Ishant said he was fine even if he felt a “little tired” at the end of today’s encounter. “I was a bit tired and I had stomach aches but I have bowled long spells and my stamina is improving.”

ScorecardHalf-centuries by Shiv Sunder Das and Halhadar Das lifted East Zone to 265 for 7 on the first day at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai against South Zone. SS Das, the former Indian opener, scored a patient 82 at the top before Halhadar Das stepped in and led a lower-order revival after East lost half their side for 134.After they chose to bat first, East lost opener Arindam Das early, leg before to the seamer Vinay Kumar, and the top order failed to construct sizeable partnerships. NSC Aiyappa, the Karnataka seamer, struck twice in quick succession to reduce East to 54 for 3 before SS Das and Manish Vardhan added 48. SS Das was involved in stands of 32 and 36 with Palash Das and Halhadar respectively before edging offspinner R Ashwin to M Vijay at the slips for 82. He faced 160 balls and hit 12 fours in his knock.Halhadar and Tushar Saha settled down to construct the biggest stand of the day – 71 – before Saha fell to a brisk 29 off 39 balls to the seamer P Vijay Kumar. Halhadar remained unbeaten on 78 with Debasis Mohanty for company.
ScorecardMohammad Kaif top scored with 64 to propel Central Zone to a healthy position at 179 for 3 before England Lions picked up quick wickets in the last session to restrict the hosts to 238 for 7 by the end of the opening day’s play at Vadodara.Walking in at 70 for 2, Kaif struck 13 fours in his 121-ball knock to charge Central before he fell to the legspinner Adil Rashid, triggering a mini-collapse. Monty Panesar prised out Sanjay Bangar, the former India International, and Harshad Rawle and Mahesh Rawat fell in quick succession.Earlier, Central were off to a steady start, reaching 54 runs without any loss, before Steve Kirby removed Faiz Fazal (37) in the 19th over. Five overs later, Onions made further inroads, but the opener Vineet Saxena settled the nerves, adding 54 runs with Kaif.Saxena fell after scoring a 116-ball 34, but Bangar nad Kaif pushed the total to 179 before Rashid got Kaif to bring the Lions roaring back into the game. But Sanjib Sanyal, who has a first-class average of 43.35, guided Central to the close without any further damage.

Matthew Hayden has stirred already troubled waters by calling Harbhajan Singh an “obnoxious weed”, a comment that will only serve to deepen the animosity between the two sides that has surfaced during India’s tour.Speaking on a Brisbane radio station, Hayden said: “It’s been a bit of a long battle with Harbhajan, the first time I ever met him he was the same little obnoxious weed that he is now. His record speaks for itself in cricket.”There is a certain line that you can kind of go to and then you know where you push it and he just pushes it all the time. That’s why he has been charged more than anyone that’s ever played in the history of cricket.”The pair clashed during Sunday’s CB Series game at the SCG when the Indians complained that Hayden had called Harbhajan a “mad boy”.Hayden played down the incident, accusing the Indians of making an issue of it because “they are losing every game they are playing”. He said: “I called him a bad boy.””He took offence to that. I thought that was quite funny. I said mate, you should be flattered, it’s a clothing range.”

Scorecard
Points table

Victoria experienced a few nervous moments before capping a fine preparation for Saturday’s Pura Cup final with a six-wicket victory over Queensland, who will finish with the wooden spoon. Ryan Broad’s century made sure the Bushrangers had to bat again and the target of 75 was looking uncomfortable when Scott Brant and Grant Sullivan dropped them to 4 for 34.Cameron White found a willing partner in Andrew McDonald and there were no further stumbles. White added 28 while McDonald got 13 to seal the three-day success.Broad’s 107, which included a six to bring up his century and another next ball before he was bowled by Bryce McGain, went with his 75 in the first innings, but he did not receive much assistance from his team-mates. Queensland started the day 119 behind and the task to stay competitive became even tougher when they lost five wickets before lunch. Clint McKay started the problems when he removed Nick Kruger (11) and Aaron Nye in consecutive deliveries – the hat-trick effort to Shane Watson was a no-ball.Watson skipped to 32 before falling to a diving take from Adam Crosthwaite and McDonald added to the damage when he captured the lbws of Nathan Reardon (1) and the captain Chris Simpson (0). The Bulls were 5 for 71 and struggling to force a second Bushrangers’ innings.Broad achieved that with help from Chris Hartley’s 17 and Daniel Doran’s 23, but when the tail exited quickly Queensland did not have much to defend. McKay grabbed 3 for 69 while McDonald and McGain earned two wickets each in a strong warm-up for the final against New South Wales in Sydney.

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

It took nine days for the series to finally witness an absorbing battle between bat and ball. While Chennai produced a featherbed and Ahmedabad saw a track with generous sprinklings of green, Kanpur laid out a crackling surface that assisted turn. South Africa made the most of winning the toss, grinding out 265 at the end of a tense first day, but India’s spinners, with some good support from Ishant Sharma, ensured they remained in the hunt.A bone-dry pitch with conspicuous cracks gradually deteriorated through the day. Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla thrived when conditions were best for batting, steering South Africa to 152 for 1, before India clawed their way back through turn and bounce. Seven of the ten wickets fell to spinners, both specialist and part-time, but plucky contributions from the lower order stretched the score past 250. With the ball stopping on the batsmen, and a few starting to stay low, it could well turn into a match-winning total.South Africa ensured they didn’t miss out on scoring opportunities. Smith led the early charge and the plucky duo of AB de Villiers and Mark Boucher made valuable contributions down the order. None of the batsmen were completely assured at the crease – they survived vociferous appeals every once in a while and the ball regularly beat the outside edge – but made sure they scored at a healthy clip.India’s shoddy fielding hurt them, as did their inability to sustain pressure. Barring Harbhajan Singh, who was miserly throughout the day, the rest regularly doled out loose deliveries that allowed the batsmen to break free. Both Piyush Chawla, in his second Test, and Ishant struggled with their accuracy and a number of misfields only hurt them further. How Anil Kumble would have wished to be out in the middle rather than nursing a groin injury back in the dressing room.Kumble’s absence, for the first time since December 2003, meant that Mahendra Singh Dhoni became the first wicketkeeper to captain India. He didn’t have a great start, though, losing the toss and then watching his faster bowlers squander the new ball. Sreesanth had a perilously close lbw appeal turned down in the fourth ball of the match – against Neil McKenzie, who shouldered arms to one that came in – but didn’t go on to make the batsmen play enough. Ishant’s first six overs cost 35 and allowed South Africa’s openers to lay a solid base.

Sreesanth didn’t cause too many flutters through the day but Ishant came back with renewed enthusiasm. Managing reverse-swing at a pace close to 140kph, he broke through Amla’s defences during his mid-afternoon spell. He returned late in the day to nip out Boucher, with one that jagged back and kept low, and polished off Paul Harris with one that uprooted leg stump.The spinners, though, had most of the say. Chawla created the first breakthrough, beating McKenzie in flight and luring him out of the crease, while Yuvraj foxed Smith with one that fizzed off the surface. It was a crucial wicket, especially because of the confidence with which Smith was handling the spinners. He appeared to have sussed up the situation perfectly – clattering the loose balls and showing the temperament to overcome the nervy moments. Along with Amla, who milked the spinners with wristy manoeuvres, he was threatening to take the game away.Yuvraj, though, should have had Smith with his very first ball, when the batsman was on 50. Turning one across Smith, he caught him on the shuffle with a ball that would have gone on to rattle leg stump. Undeterred with the decision, Yuvraj struck a few overs later and triggered a mini-collapse – Amla, who had added 91 with Smith, was undone by Ishant’s reverse-swing, deflecting a pacy ball onto his stumps, and Kallis lasted only seven balls, playing on to the stumps to Harbhajan.The rest of the day was a cat-and-mouse battle – South Africa’s middle order snaffling runs at the slightest chance, the spinners beating the bat, appeals flying and puffs of dust appearing on the pitch. Ashwell Prince was bogged down by 21 dot balls in a row while de Villiers refused to be tied down, doing his best to use his feet against the spinners. Boucher held the lower order together – with Morne Morkel and Harris chipping in – but just when he appeared to shut India out, the bowlers mopped up the tail. Harbhajan ended with 3 for 52 in a marathon 32-over effort but on another day, with more luck, he could have easily doubled the wickets tally.

Brendon McCullum has agreed to be a backup opener in the Test series in England as long as he can hand over his wicketkeeping duties to newcomer Gareth Hopkins. Though the squad includes other part-time openers, Peter Fulton and James Marshall, New Zealand coach John Bracewell said youngster Aaron Redmond will be given a chance and if he gets injured, McCullum will take over.”Brendon would play as a batter only and Hoppy [Hopkins] would come into the side as a keeper-batsman,” Bracewell told the New Zealand daily . “It would be unfair to ask Brendon to do both roles. I’ve spoken to him about that and said only injury will force a change. Brendon’s response was: if that’s the case he would prefer to do the one job.”Bracewell said the team management wanted Redmond to simply play off the back foot and defend, like former opener Mark Richardson did. “Aaron’s accomplished off the back foot and can rotate the strike and that was all Richardson could do. He [Aaron] is a guy who has taken on the opening position to become a Black Cap.”With no third specialist opener in the squad, Redmond is certain to make his Test debut this May. “The bottom line is, if you are looking for security, you can’t offer more to a new player than a year’s full wage [New Zealand contract],” Bracewell said. In preparation for the tour, Bracewell is getting the squad members to play with Duke balls used in England. “We ordered some in and the guys have been bowling with the Duke balls for the last month to make sure we are used to them and we’ve found out a couple of things about them.”