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Justin Kemp, the South Africa allrounder, has signed a two-year Kolpak deal with Kent after retiring from international cricket.Kemp, 30, played four Tests and 85 ODIs but was dropped following the World Twenty20 last September. He had a previous two-year stint with Kent in 2005 and 2006.”I am really looking forward to playing for Kent again,” he said. “Rob Key and Graham Ford have built a really strong squad. The plans for the ground at Canterbury are very farsighted. These are exciting times and I am keen to make a real contribution to the success of the club over the next two years.”Kent have also received confirmation that Azhar Mahmood, the former Pakistan allrounder who has a two-year deal, has been granted British citizenship so will count as an English-qualified player.

ScorecardChristian Leopard raced to an unbeaten half-century to lead New Zealand Under-19s to a four-wicket victory over Australia Under-19s in a tri-nation one-day tournament in Dubai. In a low-scoring game, he came in at No. 8 and struck 50 off 42 balls with six fours and three sixes to complete a rather tense chase.Australia’s bowlers, led by offspinner Arjun Nair’s three wickets, were doing their best to complicate a chase of 170 and had dragged New Zealand from 82 for 2 to 82 for 3, 82 for 4, 82 for 5 and finally 102 for 6 when Leopard walked in. He strung a steadying 71-run seventh-wicket stand with Finn Allen and took his team past the finish line. The winning runs – secured with the help of a four to long-off – also took Leopard, who was one of 10 debutants in the New Zealand side, to his fifty.The accolades until then had belong to the New Zealand bowlers after they had opted to field. Nathan Smith struck in the first over and Australia had slipped and slid to 115 for 5 in the 22nd over with their top-scorer Patrick Page (44 off 55 balls) back in the pavilion. Wicketkeeper Brooke Guest attempted to rally the tail around him but Australia got to 142 for 6 and were all out 27 runs later. All but one of the six bowlers New Zealand used picked up wickets, with left-arm seamer Ross ter Braak picking up 3 for 23 and left-arm spinner Rachin Ravindra chipping in with 2 for 19.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:45

Manjrekar: South Africa should play Ashwin off back foot

On a pitch that turned batting into a lottery, South Africa failed to buy their ticket. This might read odd, but their bowlers bowled poorly to India score 173 after they let the hosts get away to 215 in the first innings. In between, South Africa’s batsmen were brought face to face with the true horror of batting on this pitch, and were bowled out for 79 in the face of relentless accuracy from R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, the lowest Test total against India. The visitors were left needing 278 runs with eight wickets in hand to preserve their nine-year-old unbeaten streak in away series.Bowlers from both sides bowled many unplayable deliveries on a pitch that you needed a lot of luck to survive on, but South Africa bowled far too many of those outside the operational areas, taking the pitch out of the equation. Ashwin and Jadeja kept pegging away in those zones, and the pitch did the rest. South Africa’s first innings lasted 33.1 overs, the longest wait for a wicket was 5.2 overs, and the highest score was JP Duniny’s 35, and that included dollops of luck and application.Modern batsmen draw a lot of flak for their lack of survival skills, but this might just have been a case of a crooked floor. Literally. Or even an out-of-shape ball. This pitch did not have mere turn: it had variable turn, variable bounce and variable pace. It is easy to say the batsmen did not get to the pitch of the ball often enough, but the batsmen were not reacting to balls coming across 22 yards, but to ones whose behaviour was impossible to predict until after they had pitched four or five yards from them. Just that knowledge was enough to mire feet in cement and minds in panic.AB de Villiers’ dismissal summed the pitch up. Jadeja absolutely fired one into the middle of the track around leg-stump line, but this hard cricket ball almost turned into a balloon upon pitching, took some of the surface with it, and turned and stayed slow to take the leading edge for an easy return catch. This was after one had skidded through after pitching in a similar area. The de Villiers’ duck left South Africa 12 for 5, their lowest score at the fall of their fifth wicket. They had begun the day at 11 for 2.It is quite possible that such a pitch and such a situation left India’s fielders complacent too: had Virat Kohli, at gully, not dropped a sitter off JP Duminy in the 18th over, South Africa would have been reduced to 35 for 7, and would have been a fair shot to beat the lowest totals in India – 75 and 76 by India against West Indies and South Africa. Duminy went on to miraculously score 35, but he needed all the luck to go with his excellent batting. He danced down and hit Jadeja for two sixes, he swept, he defended like his life depended on it, but there were almost an equal number of edges falling safe. The one that reached a fielder was dropped.India players react bemusedly when asked of the pitches, wondering what the fuss is all about, but really they should know why the pitch and not the cricket was the talking point. Ashwin, who is bowling beautifully, drifting the ball late, bowling a seam-up topspinner that swings back in to the left-hand batsmen, will have to contend with his 14th Test five-for being reduced to a footnote. He got Dean Elgar in the first over of the day with that seam-up delivery, drawing an inside edge from the cut. His other wickets were Hashim Amla (back of the bat on the sweep as the ball bounced, turned and came on slowly), Simon Harmer (not padding up properly to a carrom ball pitched well outside leg), and Morne Morkel (a return catch off a leading edge).Jadeja was near unplayable given his pace, accuracy and flatter trajectory. Apart from de Villiers, he got Faf du Plessis (bowled when playing for turn) and Dane Vilas (bowled by a ball that turned past the outside edge) on the second morning. He was certain to get a five-for until Kohli took him off after 12 straight overs for 33 runs and four wickets. Amit Mishra, brought on to replace Jadeja, took Duminy out.On a pitch where no batsman had passed 40, on a pitch that all a spinner needed to do was bowl fast and relatively accurately, the South Africa spinners bowled a lot of bad balls. Keeping with their strategy of using Imran Tahir for the tail, South Africa bowled Harmer and Duminy before the legspinner. They sent down long hops and overpitched deliveries, which Shikhar Dhawan and Cheteshwar Pujara took full toll of. Then, after a 44-run partnership between them, the pitch played up again. Pujara read an offbreak from Duminy, played for the turn, but the pitch took it straight on. This was just the one good ball in an expensive spell.Tahir was brought on just before tea, and he responded with three wickets in three overs. Two of those were half-volleys that still had time to misbehave. Rohit Sharma scored an important 23, added 21 with Amit Mishra, and before they inevitably got out, took the target beyond the realm of one freak innings. South Africa were left needing at least two freak innings to win this.The freak innings was not coming from Stiaan van Zyl, who fell to Ashwin for the fifth time in five innings. This one would have been the most disappointing of the lot: he and Elgar had put together South Africa’s longest partnership of this match and their best opening stand of the series (17), but van Zyl drove an offbreak straight down the lap of short cover. The pitch had nothing to do with this dismissal. Just before stumps, nightwatchman Imran Tahir fell to a Mishra legbreak that didn’t turn, becoming the 20th man to be dismissed on the day, equal highest in a day’s play in India.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the West Indies batsman, believes the Indian Premier League (IPL), has a far superior foundation to Allen Stanford’s 2020 in the Caribbean. Chanderpaul, representing Bangalore but sitting out “after a decade”, also felt that more West Indian players needed to be brought over to foster interest back home.”The IPL is much better organised than Stanford 2020. Stanford 2020 is not paying anything. IPL is actually recognising the players and paying them,” he told the . “Without players, the sport cannot go on. This is a lot bigger with more international variety at the highest level.”Chanderpaul strongly advised more West Indian representation in the IPL. “You need people from everywhere. And to get the West Indian public more interested, you need these players out here and want them to be playing,” he said. “Right now, the West Indian public is not paying much attention to IPL. Even though they have a few players here, not all are playing.”Chanderpaul, who has played just two games for Bangalore, felt it was “strange” to be sitting on the bench. “I have been actually out to play cricket and am sitting out. This is happening after a decade,” he said. “You still have guys who have not played. One has to understand that everyone will have to get an opportunity.”Thought Bangalore have struggled to gain momentum, Chanderpaul said he was enjoying his time. “It has been an experience by itself. I never expected the tournament to be this big. We [Bangalore] have been struggling a bit but we have also been playing good cricket in the last few games and managed to pull one off on Saturday night. Winning is a habit as much as losing is. Hopefully, we can get into that habit of winning.”

Former England batsman Vikram Solanki, who was in effect forced to withdraw from the Indian Cricket League or risk being barred from playing in England, has warned that such sanctions constitute a restraint of trade.Joining in the escalating debate on English cricketers’ role in the two leagues, Solanki also called on the Professional Cricketers’ Association to demand clarification from the England board as to why players are being prevented from playing in India when it does not conflict with existing contracts.”Sport in general is a short career for most people and you must take opportunities to maximise your earning potential,” Solanki told PA Sport. “I haven’t spoken to anyone in the England camp recently but I can see no reason why they wouldn’t be tempted by the sums of money that are being offered.”It’s unreasonable to place sanctions, restrictions, rules without giving good reason. I’m baffled by the reasoning offered sometimes for some of the sanctions and us as a group of players and the PCA should demand some clarity on the matter definitely. I’m no expert on legal matters but it seems like restraint of trade.”It remains to be seen what happens but in the next year or so, the face of cricket could change totally. People will find it hard to resist the money and that might be the big point that makes the changes to the traditional formats and seasons that we’ve grown accustomed to.”As for his own career, Solanki told PA Sport that he hoped his ICL involvement would not mean the end of his England chances. “I’d like to think if I had a reasonable year I’d have as good a chance as anyone of playing for England. This is what I mean about there being some reasoning behind if myself playing in the ICL should hinder my opportunities to play for England. If that is the case, then I haven’t quite figured that out yet.”

50 overs New Zealand 340 for 7 (How 139) tied with England 340 for 6 (Mustard 83, Cook 69)
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Jamie How produced the innings of his life to guide New Zealand to within a single blow of victory in the fourth ODI at Napier, but in the end his 139 from 116 balls was trumped by six balls of nerveless discipline from England’s rawest recruit, Luke Wright. His solitary over of the innings – his third in four international matches to date – resulted in six thrifty runs and the game’s pivotal dismissal, as England snatched an incredible tie from the jaws of defeat to carry the five-match series into a decider at Christchurch on Saturday.In any ordinary match, How’s masterclass would have won the contest with a yawning chasm to spare. He batted throughout with a Test-class composure, and yet moved to his hundred from a mere 86 balls, cashing in on Napier’s short square boundaries with a series of shredding drives and emphatic pulls. England’s own efforts with the bat had been impressive – Phil Mustard made a career-best 83 from 74 balls as he added 158 for the first wicket with Alastair Cook, and Paul Collingwood latched onto six leg-side sixes in an England-record 24-ball fifty – but all the while that How was easing New Zealand towards their target, their efforts paled to insignificance.With seven overs remaining, New Zealand needed a fraction more than a run a ball with seven wickets still standing. It was looking like a done deal – not least because the same team, 12 months previously, had twice chased 340-plus scores to beat the mighty Australians. From Jesse Ryder’s pugnacious opening salvo of 39 from 32 balls, via Brendon McCullum’s gutsy 58 from 65 and a run-a-ball 48 from Ross Taylor, New Zealand had demonstrated the firepower and the willpower to win. James Anderson bowled a succession of long-hops to concede 61 runs from his first six overs, and England’s lack of a specialist fifth bowler was causing an over-reliance on the ineffectual offspin of Owais Shah.But then, suddenly, something clicked within the England mindset. Scott Styris, on 20 from 17 balls, lashed their best bowler, Ryan Sidebottom, down Anderson’s throat at long-on, and one over later, the disastrously out-of-form Peter Fulton ran himself out for a four-ball duck as he chipped and charged to a pumped-up Kevin Pietersen at mid-on. The dangerous Jacob Oram punctured the off-side ring with a fierce drive in the next over, from Stuart Broad, but then picked out Pietersen at short cover with his next shot. Three prime wickets had fallen in consecutive overs, and with 25 needed from 24 balls, a sense of vertigo began to set in for the New Zealanders.Back came Anderson for his final two-over burst. Suddenly his length was full and menacing, and backed up with a hint of reverse-swing, he conceded a meagre two runs in his ninth over to lift the requirement to a daunting 23 from 18. Though Daniel Vettori connected with a scythe over mid-on, the equation was still fractionally in England’s favour when Wright was thrown the ball on a whim by his captain. There was no planning involved in the hunch – England in their desperation had been forced to bowl out their big guns early, but Wright was confident after producing an effective innings of 24 from 13 balls, and it showed.

He did nothing more than bowl six consecutive wicket-to-wicket deliveries, but with no room to swing their arms, New Zealand’s batsmen were forced to take on the ground fielders. Pietersen missed by inches from midwicket with How stranded, but one ball later Anderson – who was superb in the field – did not. How had to turn back after Vettori’s drive went straight to the man, and he carried on walking as his stumps were pinged down from ten yards.And so it all came down to the very last ball. Vettori was on strike, although he arguably should not have been there at all, after the third umpire failed to notice that his bat had been in the air during an earlier run-out referral. Wright kept it full and straight once again, and a cramped shot squirted out to point. A direct hit would have given the match to England, but the shy slipped past the stumps and so the spoils were shared. As he left the field, Collingwood admitted he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but there’s little doubt that, after the devastation at Hamilton, England would happily have accepted a win and a tie in their next two games.England did, however, have their eyes on a bigger prize at the start of today’s game, and by the interval, Vettori was doubtless pondering the wisdom of bowling first. England’s sizeable total might have been very different had McCullum behind the stumps held onto the simplest of edges off Chris Martin, when Cook had made just 2 from 14 balls. The opportunity, however, went begging, and Cook joined Mustard in England’s biggest stand of the series.The main source of England’s mayhem was Mustard, who allied power with patience and even some delicate touch play in his most convincing innings to date. It was the brutality of his cutting and square driving that really caught the eye, and set the tone for the day. Vettori was running out of options as the stand entered the 27th over of the innings, so he tossed the ball to the innocuous seamer, Ryder. But, in a remarkable maiden ODI over, he removed both men in quick succession – Mustard to a flat smack to wide long-on, and Cook to a perfect wicket-to-wicket seamer that nipped through bat and pad to rattle middle stump. Perhaps it was the memory of that intercession that prompted Collingwood’s last-ditch gamble. Either way, part-time medium-pacers are the toast of Napier tonight.

New Zealand allrounder Suzie Bates will miss the upcoming home series against Zimbabwe in February-March 2026 with a quadricep injury. Bates, 38, will also miss the remainder of the domestic home summer for Otago and will remain on the sidelines for three months.Bates suffered the injury last month while fielding for Otago during the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield, New Zealand women’s domestic one-day competition. Subsequent scans revealed that due to the severity of the tear, she will require three months of rehabilitation. This is the second injury blow for New Zealand in recent weeks after Eden Carson faces a longer period out because of an elbow injury.Related

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Bates is hoping to return to action in the white-ball series against South Africa in March.”I’m gutted to be missing out this summer, I was really looking forward to another season with the [Otago] Sparks, especially the Super Smash,” Bates said in an NZC statement. “I’m determined to get back on the field with the White Ferns in March, so that’ll be my focus for now.”Before the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield, Bates had a difficult ODI World Cup in India, managing only 40 runs in five innings at an average of eight and a strike rate of 61.53.

The Pakistan Cricket Board is unhappy with the appointment of Mike Procter for the five-match one-day series against Bangladesh, starting on April 8.Nasim Ashraf, the PCB chairman, said the board will talk to the International Cricket Council regarding this issue. “I will have our director (cricket operations) speak to his counterpart in the ICC on this issue,” Ashraf said.PCB’s reluctance to have Procter be the match referee in Pakistan matches has its origins in the infamous 2006 Oval Test where Australian umpire Darrell Hair’s five-run penalty culminated in a forfeiture.Ashraf did not see Pakistan as a weak member of the ICC even though the world governing body reinstated Hair into its Elite Panel. “This is a wrong impression that Pakistan has no voice in the ICC,” he said. “That is not true. Let me tell you in clear words that Hair will not officiate in our matches even though the ICC has reinstated him.”The ICC allowed Hair back because he had completed a six-month rehabilitation process and all the concerned people gave him good reports for his improvement in man management. Hair has been a top umpire as far as his decisions are concerned, but he was sidelined because of his poor management skills.”

The last round of Pura Cup matches looms as a bowl-off between Australia’s spinners after Stuart MacGill was named in the New South Wales squad for his first match back since an operation on his right wrist in December. The Blues and Victoria are both vying for the right to host the Pura Cup final – the teams have already qualified and are equal on points – but the performances of several slow bowlers will add an intriguing sub-plot.Australia are searching for a Test spinner for their tours of Pakistan and West Indies following the retirement of Brad Hogg, and a fit MacGill would be the leading candidate. His ability to bowl long spells was uncertain due to his lengthy lay-off, however MacGill grabbed 4 for 66 on the weekend for his club side Sydney University.”I was very, very nervous before I bowled a ball because I wasn’t sure if I was ready to go yet,” MacGill told . “But very shortly into my first spell, I knew I was ready to play state cricket.”He has two games to show the selectors where he is at and the second of those matches, the Pura Cup final, will provide an interesting head-to-head battle with one of his main rivals, Victoria’s Bryce McGain. Before that, he must focus on the four-day game against South Australia at the SCG starting on Friday, which may also feature the Redbacks’ Cricket Australia-contracted legspinner Cullen Bailey.Having been overlooked since the opening game of South Australia’s campaign, when he returned match figures of 1 for 103 against Victoria, Bailey has been recalled to a 12-man squad for what could be his second match of the summer. He replaces the newly-retired Jason Gillespie in an otherwise unchanged Redbacks group and if he makes the starting line-up he will not only be trying to out-perform MacGill but also his South Australia team-mate Dan Cullen.Bailey was the state’s preferred slow bowler last season, when Cullen was on the fringes, but in 2007-08 the roles have been reversed. Cullen has played seven Pura Cup games this summer, and although his return of 14 wickets at 59.42 has been disappointing, he has also been mentioned as a potential tourist with the national team.MacGill’s main aim will be to get through a full first-class match as his comeback from surgery for carpal-tunnel syndrome has so far been limited to a couple of club outings. He pulled out of a New South Wales Second XI game last week as the focus remained on his Pura Cup return.He is joined in the Blues squad by Brad Haddin, whose ODI commitments have finished, and Grant Lambert, who is back from injury. Daniel Smith, Steven Smith and Burt Cockley have made way for the returning trio. Victory against South Australia would mean New South Wales will host the Pura Cup decider but a loss or draw will leave the venue to be determined by Victoria’s result against Queensland.New South Wales squad Phil Jaques, Phillip Hughes, Peter Forrest, Simon Katich (capt), Usman Khawaja, Dominic Thornely, Brad Haddin (wk), Grant Lambert, Beau Casson, Matthew Nicholson, Mark Cameron, Stuart MacGill.South Australia squad Daniel Harris, Jake Brown, Andy Delmont, Callum Ferguson, Daniel Christian, Shane Deitz, Graham Manou (capt, wk), Mark Cleary, Ryan Harris, Cullen Bailey, Dan Cullen, Paul Rofe.

Jeff Thomson and Wally Grout will become the newest inductees into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame at the Allan Border Medal night in Melbourne on Wednesday.Thomson was one of cricket’s most fearsome pacemen and took 200 wickets at 28.00 from 51 Tests, and was also regarded by many who faced him as the fastest bowler the game has seen. He formed a terrifying partnership with Dennis Lillee during the 1970s and in particular demolished England during the 1974-75 Ashes, which was just Thomson’s second Test series.”Only a handful of Australian cricketers had taken 200 Test wickets and Jeff did it at a strike rate of almost four wickets a Test, which is exceptional,” David Crow, the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame chairman, said. “But of course he was most famous for his pace and outright aggression, and it is was these qualities that people came to see when he played. He was a major drawcard for Australian cricket.”Thomson, now 65, rates the 1974-75 Ashes as a career highlight, along with playing in the 1975 World Cup final, and beating West Indies during 1975-76. He had made his Test debut in 1972-73 against Pakistan but went wicketless in his one Test appearance that season, which he played with a broken foot, and he was finally given another chance two years later.”I had to work really hard to get back (into the Test side), and I never doubted I was good enough,” Thomson said. “I always knew I was going to brain them, I just needed the opportunity.”Of the Hall of Fame honour, Thomson said: “It’s for my wife and kids, my parents, my brothers, my mates, all those people who took me to cricket when I was young and helped me along the way. I got a ring from a mate of my brother’s who I hadn’t spoken to for 30 years. He was rapt and said how weird it was for a bunch of kids who used to play cricket for hours against a telephone pole that one of us was now in the Hall of Fame.”Like Thomson, Grout also played 51 Tests, and he finished his career with 187 wicketkeeping dismissals, which at the time made him the Australian record holder and the second most prolific keeper in Test history behind England’s Godfrey Evans. His Test career lasted from 1957 to 1966, and he died of a heart attack at the age of 41, less than three years after his last Test.”Wally Grout was one of Australia’s finest wicketkeepers,” Crow said. “Luminaries such as Bob Simpson and Wes Hall claimed he was the finest gloveman they had ever seen. Wally Grout was the first player in Test history to claim six dismissals in an innings and that remains an Australian record which has since been matched by Rod Marsh, Ian Healy and Adam Gilchrist.”Wally also set the record for the most catches taken in a Sheffield Shield innings, eight, which is now held jointly with Darren Berry. But Wally’s contribution went beyond immaculate wicketkeeping. He was highly regarded for his honesty, integrity and sense of humour. As captain, Richie Benaud relied on Wally for the team’s strategy because of his great understanding of the game.”Grout and Thomson take the number of Hall of Fame inductees to 43 since its inception in 1996.Hall of Fame inductees Warwick Armstrong, Richie Benaud, John Blackham, Allan Border, Sir Donald Bradman, Greg Chappell, Ian Chappell, Belinda Clark, Alan Davidson, George Giffen, Adam Gilchrist, Clarrie Grimmett, Wally Grout, Neil Harvey, Lindsay Hassett, Ian Healy, Clem Hill, Bill Lawry, Dennis Lillee, Ray Lindwall, Charles Macartney, Rod Marsh, Stan McCabe, Glenn McGrath, Graham McKenzie, Keith Miller, Arthur Morris, Monty Noble, Bill O’Reilly, Bill Ponsford, Jack Ryder, Bob Simpson, Fred Spofforth, Mark Taylor, Jeff Thomson, Hugh Trumble, Victor Trumper, Charlie Turner, Doug Walters, Shane Warne, Mark Waugh, Steve Waugh, Bill Woodfull.