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Paultons boosted their chances of avoiding relegation from Division One of the New Forest Indoor Cricket League with a 9 run victory over bottom of the table Swan Green.Sorry Swan fell to their eighth consecutive defeat, although they pushed Paultons hard in this match and might well have won had John Murray received better support from his fellow batsman.Chasing Paultons’ 102 for 5, Murray was left unbeaten on 33 as Mark Weaver’s two wickets helped restrict Swan to just 93 for 5. The result means that Paultons now require just one point from their final match to finish outside the bottom two.The other Division One match saw Cadnam beat Esso by two wickets. John Doe was Esso’s most successful batsman, scoring 28 in a total of 111 for 4, but this wasn’t enough as Mike Caffyn (30no) and Neil Kerley (25no) guided Cadnam home with six balls to spare.In Division Two, champions Cadnam Seconds dented Esso Seconds’ promotion hopes with a 19 run victory. Alan Dunning (35no) and Neil Garvey (22) batted well for Cadnam and enabled their side to reach 141 for 4. Although Tony Shelley (28no) and Alan Kellett (32no) battled gamely, Esso fell well short as Cadnam completed their fixtures with an unblemished record.Brockenhurst threw themselves a lifeline at the bottom with an 11 run win against Ringwood. Simon Naylor (30no) and Mickey Williams (29no) were the heroes for Brock who scored 135 for 4. Graham Bowater (29), Terry Cooper (26) and Alan Gregory (23) gave Brockenhurst a few anxious moments before the Ringwood reply was finally held at 124 for 5.The win lifts Brock out of the bottom two and they now face fellow strugglers Lymington in their final match this Sunday.Bashley Seconds and Pylewell Park Seconds also face a showdown this Sunday to decide the destination of the Division Three title. Bash, currently just 5 points behind, enhanced their title hopes with a four wicket victory against Esso Fourths.Tight bowling has been a feature of Bashley’s game all season and once again the opposition were kept well under tabs as only young Callum Earl (29no) threatened in an Esso total of just 88 for 3.Chris Plummer then timed the Bash reply to perfection, scoring an unbeaten 25 as his team reached their target with five balls to spare.New Milton Seconds’ hopes of promotion were blown away by Burley Seconds. Milton’s 100 for 4 (Jamie Snellgrove 24) wasn’t enough as Les Browning (26no) and Robert Trotter (27no) took just eight overs to ensure a four wicket victory for the men from the Forest.

Punjab scored a comfortable seven wicket victoryover Services at the Model Sports Complex inDelhi. After Services captain Sanjay Verma won thetoss and elected to bat first, his team wasbundled out for 147 in 45 overs. Struggling at 76for 8, the Services team was lucky to get to theireventual score. SV Ghag coming in at number tenmade a fighting 41 including five fours and onesix. But for his innings, Services would havesuffered a much worse fate.As it were, the Punjab team had no trouble inoverhauling the mediumsized total. Former Indiaopener Vikram Rathour made an unbeatenmatchwinning 64 (144 minutes, 89 balls, 5 fours)while the rest of the batsmen chipped in. SandeepSharma, the mediumpacer has made a name forhimself with the bat in recent times. Promoted forhis clean hitting, Sandeep Sharma made 24 off just30 balls, with four boundaries in his position atone drop.Dinesh Mongia coming in at number five wasunbeaten on better than run a ball 17 when Punjabwon the match by seven wickets with over fourteenovers to spare.

Newcastle United are not Victor Osimhen’s ‘first choice’ in the Premier League, transfer insider Dean Jones has told Give Me Sport.

The lowdown

Napoli smashed their transfer record to sign Osimhen from Lille in 2020, forking out £67.5million (their previous record was the £45million they paid PSV for Hirving Lozano).

Osimhen has gone on to score 23 goals in 54 appearances for the club, including 13 in 24 this season.

Sky Italia journalist Mario Giunta claims that Newcastle explored a possible deal in January and could return this summer.

Giunta says that The Magpies are one of the few clubs who can afford to meet Napoli’s demands.

The latest

Jones didn’t rule out the move but says St James’ Park isn’t one of Osimhen’s preferred destinations.

He told GMS: “When you can show ambition and huge investment, then anything is possible, I guess, but from what I’ve heard, Newcastle wouldn’t be his first-choice club if he was to come to England.”

The verdict

Osimhen was the hero again for title-chasing Napoli last weekend, scoring both goals in a 2-1 victory over Hellas Verona. He even started ‘flexing his camera skills’ after finding the net, in the words of Bleacher Report.

The confident 6 foot 1 Nigerian goalscorer, hailed as ‘phenomenal’ by Cagliari coach Walter Mazzarri, has even been compared to Mohamed Salah by Serie A legend José Altafini, in terms of the players’ importance to their sides.

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And while he may be out of the Magpies’ reach, it’s clear at this point that Eddie Howe wants to bring in a young striker this summer – they’ve also been linked with Benfica’s Darwin Nunez (22) and could reportedly reignite their pursuit of Reims teenager Hugo Ekitike.

It will be interesting to see which one they truly firm up their interest for.

In other news, Mark Douglas maps out what the summer window could look like for NUFC.

	The IPL is set to be well-covered by the media after several restrictions in the media guidelines were toned down © Hampshire County Cricket Club

The standoff between the Indian Premier League and the media over controversial guidelines for covering the inaugural tournament looks set to ease after a meeting between officials of both sides on Monday. The IPL has toned down some of its earlier restrictions, especially benefiting the print media, though it has not relaxed its ban on websites covering matches from the ground, nor its ban on news agencies supplying websites with images.It was also disclosed that the date for submitting accreditation forms would be extended beyond the original April 8 deadline.”We have successfully concluded with them [media representatives] the way forward and there are no issues on the table,” Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, said after the meeting in Mumbai. “New media guidelines are being issued this evening, and will be published [on the IPL website].””It was two-way traffic at our discussions and it was a happy ending,” Pradeep Vijayakar, vice-president of the Sports Journalists Federation of India (SJFI), said.Barry Parker, South-East Asia bureau chief of Agence France Presse (AFP), told Cricinfo that he and the international media coalition that also includes AP and Getty Images are waiting for the written version of the new guidelines before they decide on their next step. Parker had earlier said the terms and conditions as existed “don’t allow us to cover the event.”The day’s bad news was reserved for websites, whose representatives will be granted accreditation for the tournament but not match tickets, enabling them to report on pre- and post-match activity but barring them from the press box during play. This, IPL officials said, is because the league wishes to protect the portal rights it has sold to an American firm.The other contentious clause that remains is preventing news agencies from selling their pictures to websites, who will have to source images from the IPL database. Modi said the IPL’s planned photo database would integrate resources that can take about 10,000 photographs on a single day at various venues.”That makes things difficult,” Parker commented. “There’s more than one issue as far as the AFP is concerned.”However, there was resolution on other major contentious issues, largely surrounding use of images. Contrary to the earlier guidelines, the IPL will not have the rights, free and without restrictions, to all photographs taken at the matches; and news organisations will not have to upload on the IPL site, within 24 hours, all images taken at the ground. The IPL has also allowed newspapers with their own web publication to upload six different pictures on their online photo galleries in addition to the pictures published in print.

	The other contentious clause that remains is preventing news agencies from selling their pictures to websites, who will have to source images from the IPL database

The IPL also relaxed its limit of accreditations for each organisation – there will now be two accreditations each for reporters and photographers from any media house.”There has been a misunderstanding to a certain extent as far as the guidelines and there was no clarity on the guidelines,” Modi said.The original guidelines, published last week, had provoked widespread outrage in the media. The influential Editors’ Guild of India criticised the “prohibitive conditions” that it said were “unprecedented and unacceptable to the Indian media.”The SJFI had also issued a statement expressing “alarm and concern” over the IPL’s conditions and asked that the “unfair and unethical restrictions being placed on the media be withdrawn unconditionally”.

Manoj Tiwary’s shot at an Indian cap will have to wait © AFP

Manoj Tiwary could not wait to get that India cap but now the man who had refused to recognise pressure or fear will have to learn a new, perhaps tougher trait – patience. While he sits and ponders, he can reflect on what Ravi Shastri said in Kolkata when Rahul Dravid got injured in the nets. “Getting injured is a part of the enjoyment process. This is not a game of marbles; it is a sport and you are bound to get injured.” But so soon?At the preparatory camp in Kolkata, Tiwary had impressed both Dravid and Shastri with his eagerness and enthusiasm. Ironically, it is that same enthusiasm which cost him his debut. Watching the incident, at Tuesday’s outfielding practice drill, at close quarters, one could immediately sense that Tiwary had had a bad fall. Yuvraj Singh had twice taken it easy and hadn’t risked his braced knee by diving to save a similar boundary. Tiwary, though, too young and fast to contemplate the consequences of a false move, dived to save that ball as if four runs were required off the last ball of a match.He saved the four all right but as he fell things slowed down. Unsuspecting team-mates shouted, “Manoj, char ja raha hai!. (It’s going for four!)” Tiwary didn’t get up, and waited for John Gloster to come and attend to him. Initial applause for the effort was slowly replaced by concern. That boundary didn’t really matter. His tour, now, for all practical purposes, has ended, as Cricinfo reported yesterday and Dravid confirmed today. “He probably won’t be available for the series. It’s really disappointing and we feel for the youngster. It’s sad for a kid to be selected and to have an unfortunate injury like this. We feel for him.”Tiwary’s attitude during the domestic championships had been a breeze of fresh air; he had talked big, saying he did not fear anything; he enjoyed bowlers sledging him; he seemed to love the big challenge. His international debut, therefore, was much anticipated; this was his chance to walk his talk. But all he can do now is wait, as Dravid said, “He is in good hands [Gloster’s[. The board will be behind him and hopefully he can get through this and come back for more… He has a lot of cricket ahead of him.”

Hashim Amla: another chance to stake his claim © AFP

At a time when players are reportedly unhappy with the non-stop schedules imposed on them by their boards, it might seem out of place to moan about the gap between matches, but South Africa and New Zealand start the second Test at Cape Town on Thursday after eight days of doing nothing.New Zealand might have expected to play a tour match in that time, but the itinerary has left them with nothing more strenuous than the occasional net and plenty of time off. That hasn’t stopped them losing Shane Bond, who failed a gentle fitness test on his knee on Tuesday and will return home, hobbling out of the tour and of his summer commitments with Gloucestershire.Hamish Marshall has also been ruled out with a rib injury, although at least their third doubt, Nathan Astle, has been passed fit to play despite bone chips in his left knee. New Zealand have given Michael Papps a chance to restate his claim at the top of the order, although he has failed to impress against short-pitched bowling in the past and is sure to be tested here. “The openers are an area of concern,” admitted Stephen Fleming, New Zealand’s captain. ” We’ve got to wait until someone comes along that has good statistics behind them and is a good opening bat. At the moment our best batsmen are on tour and it’s a case of finding a position for them.”.South Africa have no such worries, with just one self-imposed change. Hashim Amla is likely to take the No.3 slot in the batting line-up after Herschelle Gibbs was left out. Amla has much to prove after a very disappointing time against England in 2004-05, making 36 runs in four innings, with serious questions being raised about his technique. Boeta Dippenaar is likely to replace Gibbs as opener.The pitch is something of a mystery as Newlands has never staged a major match this late in the year. The hard-pressed groundsman admitted that he had struggled with heavy rain taking longer to dry than it would in a conventional season, and that will mean any moisture in the pitch will linger well into the day. The general consensus is that it will give variable bounce to the seamers, as well as help to the spinners earlier than might otherwise be expected.Early-morning dew could make the first hour of the day even more tricky for the batsmen. Both teams have postponed their practice sessions from 9.30am to 10.30am to avoid the wetness. The Test itself starts at 10am.If the pitch does turn, it has to help New Zealand, for Daniel Vettori is the one class spinner in the match. If it really looks likely to break up then New Zealand might even contemplate drafting in a second spinner – Jeetan Patel – but that would leave their attack dangerously imbalanced if they were to lose the toss and bowl first.South Africa (probable) 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Boeta Dippenaar, 3, Hashim Amla, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 Ashwell Prince, 6 AB de Villers 7 Mark Boucher (wk), 8 Sean Pollock, 9 Nicky Boje, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Makhaya Ntini.New Zealand (probable) 1 Peter Fulton, 2 Michael Papps, 3 Stephen Fleming (capt), 4 Scott Styris, 5 Nathan Astle, 6 Jacob Oram, 7 Brendon McCullum (wk), 8 Daniel Vettori, 9 James Franklin, 10 Kyle Mills, 11 Chris Martin.

Sourav Ganguly and Lou Vincent were much talked about on the final day of the Ahmedabad Test. Ganguly, for letting things drift and being unable to force a win; Vincent, for his mastery of the conditions and the Indian spinners. Here’s what they had to say:Sourav Ganguly
On India’s bowling performance: I thought we bowled pretty well. The pitch got slower and slower as the game progressed, and there was notmuch help for the bowlers. I thought they tried very hard.On the surface: It’s the responsibility of the BCCI pitches committeeto prepare wickets accordingly, which they have not done here.On the pressure on India at Mohali: I thought we dominated them here, so there won’t be too much pressure. It will be a different surface inMohali, and if we can put up the runs on the board, we should win. But to win the series, we have to win there, so that’s the bottomline.On his groin infection: The infection has not healed very much, but it isbetter than on the first day. We’ll have to wait for a couple of days to see.On why he started off proceedings on the fourth daywith Kumble and Balaji: There wasn’t much for the spinners, and I thoughtBalaji bowled well in this Test. He had gotten RobbieHart the night before and had troubled Paul Wiseman afew times. He brought the ball into the batsman too. Ithought he bowled well and was unlucky not to getwickets.On the playing XI for Mohali: Playing five specialist bowlers is definitely a thought. With Ajit Agarkar coming in for the injuredAavishkar Salvi, we can afford that. But we’ll have towait and see the pitch before decidingLou Vincent
On his innings: In the morning it was a pretty tough situation. Indiahad 18 overs at us last night and went all out to get a few wickets. After Zaheer Khan performed well in the first innings and took three early wickets, it wasimportant for somebody to hang in there and see the shine off the ball. I was surprised to see Mark Richardson go, because he had been in good form forNew Zealand.If we’d had a good couple of sessions, wecould have set up a good chase in the final hour orso, but things didn’t turn out that way. As you couldprobably have seen, I was gutted to get out. I wasdisappointed to miss out on a century.On the wicket:It was pretty flat, although the footmarks weregetting rather nasty by the time the game ended. It’smy first Test in India, and I don’t know much aboutpitches here. It had both spin and bounce, though, andin my limited experience, I thought it was a good Test wicket.On perceived friction between Anil Kumble and StephenFleming on the field: I didn’t see any, from where I was, but it’s alwayslike a war out there. If, from a spectator’s point ofview, I saw the teams applauding each other’s runs andwickets, I’d think: “What are the wallies doing?”On New Zealand’s strategy for the Mohali Test: Well, we’ll have to see. Right now, we’re just happy to get through this little battle. We lost only fivewickets in the final day to two world-class spinners, so we’re pretty happy about that.On the heat: Ah, I don’t know how you Indians live here! It’s souncomfortable! But as professional athletes who playso much in Asia, it’s important to adjust and be ableto perform regardless of the conditions.

Paul Strang: ‘It seems you have to be a ‘yes man’ and be a puppet on a string to play for the ZCU’© Getty Images

Less than 48 hours after it was revealed that Bryan Strang had been banned from playing domestic cricket by the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU), it has emerged that Paul, his older brother, has also been overlooked by his provincial side in rather strange circumstances.Paul Strang played 24 Tests and 95 one-dayers for Zimbabwe between 1994 and 2001. Although Manicaland gave no reason for his being dropped last season, he has little doubt what was behind their decision.”I wasn’t given a reason, but when I was head of the players’ association I had been very vocal about various aspects of the game I believed to be wrong, including the quotas system," he told BBC Sport. “It seems you have to be a ‘yes man’ and be a puppet on a string to play for the ZCU. They don’t seem to apply the normal parameters for selection, but use other things than a player’s statistics."Former Zimbabwe fast bowler Henry Olonga, who now lives in the UK after fleeing his homeland following his black-armband protest during last year’s World Cup, agreed with Strang’s view. “According to the ZCU, they are an apolitical organisation, but the way they deal with any players who have shown any form of dissent is not consistent with that,” he explained to BBC Sport. "I made my comments and I got censured. All sorts of things happened to me after I took my stance. Many players who have had the freedom to speak their minds about what’s happened in Zimbabwe very often find themselves ostracised.”The Zimbabwe Cricket Union has declined to comment on the situation regarding the Strangs.

Give away a bonus point, offer a team a berth in a finals series, and evidently media criticism, a small crowd, and an eight wicket hiding is all that New Zealand receives by way of thanks. Or at least that’s the way it seems after South Africa’s batsmen, bowlers and fielders all savaged the Black Caps to open up a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three VB Series deciders in Melbourne tonight.It had lost three of its four previous matches against South Africa in the series and won only one of its last 16 games against the Proteas overall.And, today, New Zealand never really looked in the game either.Lopsided as the contest may have been, though, there was plenty to appreciate in the performances of a number of the South Africans. The bowlingof Makhaya Ntini (5/31) was outstanding; Shaun Pollock (1/30) and Lance Klusener (2/27) were also consistently threatening; and then BoetaDippenaar (79*) and Jacques Kallis (59*) led not so much a chase of a victory target of 191 as a saunter.The New Zealanders (the targets of criticism on both sides of the Tasman over recent days for their decision to give away a bonus point to SouthAfrica in their previous match) had the opportunity to tilt the scales their way when captain Stephen Fleming enjoyed a victory at the toss.But, while that outcome killed any prospect that they would be forced to chase another big South African total, it only hastened the emergence offurther problems at the top of the New Zealand batting order.Even before falling to early catches behind the wicket in the midst of Ntini’s sizzling opening spell, openers Nathan Astle (9) and Lou Vincent (7)played with uncertainty. Only 15 runs were added in a first wicket partnership that extended a dismal run for the New Zealanders at the top of theorder across the series as a whole.Craig McMillan (73) and Fleming (50) rebuilt the innings with a partnership of 109 runs for the third wicket. But their stand was blessed more bypatience than by power and there was never a real flow about New Zealand’s exhibition.As the strain of needing to accelerate the run scoring rate eventually impacted upon them, the Black Caps lost their way. Fleming, Andre Adams(13), Dion Nash (9) and Chris Cairns (0) all hit catches into the leg side while ambitiously attacking; McMillan and Shane Bond (1) badly misjudgedsingles to be run out; and Chris Harris (9) and Adam Parore (2) feathered from outside edges to the ‘keeper.Ntini rattled batsmen into error at both ends of the innings; Klusener collected two wickets in an over; and Pollock’s trademark awareness ofnear-perfect line and length meant he was always at the batsmen.Nevertheless, there was no great venom in the pitch and a number of the New Zealanders’ wounds were self-inflicted.They would have learnt a lesson about measured batting if they had closely watched Gary Kirsten (25) and Herschelle Gibbs (24) assemble theirthird half-century stand of the series in reply. Or Dippenaar and Kallis in their unbroken, risk-averse union of 139 runs.Once the two openers had weathered the new ball threat posed by Bond (0/21) and seen Nash (0/6) succumb to an abdominal muscle strain after only oneover, the result was never in doubt.Kirsten fell to a run out verdict that was unlucky on two counts – given that it was caused by a deflection back on to the stumps from bowlerMcMillan and that several replays were needed before it could be assumed that the veteran left hander’s bat had merely reached rather thantraversed the line of his crease as a bail was lifted.But Dippenaar then looked contrastingly lucky to survive a caught behind decision as he drove inside the line of a Cairns (1/27) leg cutter with hisscore at just 6. With the New Zealanders needing even so much as half-chances to translate themselves into wickets, it was a decision thateliminated even the last signs of activity from a flickering pulse.Dippenaar, who has been due good fortune all tour, was later dropped in the gully when he aimed a powerful cut toward Fleming with his total at40. He capitalised on the two reprieves with magnificent driving to both sides of the wicket and disdainful punishment of short deliveries with someglorious horizontal-bat strokes.Kallis, ever-composed, assisted in the cause in no small measure at the other end.A crowd of only 20671 arrived all the while, producing the spectacle of vast banks of empty seats on a fine and sunny day and at least challengingthe contention that sports-loving Melburnians will turn up in their droves to watch any international game.With no bonus points on offer to help spark a contest, what the patrons saw was a remorseless performance.

In a repeat of the semifinal clash last season, Karnataka took onHyderabad in the South Zone Ranji Trophy league match at the MChinnaswamy Stadium at Bangalore. The one big change was MohammedAzharuddin missing in the visiting side. As it turned out though, itwas the home side batting out in the middle. Youngsters Mithun Beeralaand Barrington Rowland batted well and helped Karnataka post 279/4 atstumps.At the end of 15 overs, Arun Kumar (28) became the first Karnatakabatsman to fall, caught at gully by left arm spinner Venkatapathy Rajuoff the bowling of Parth Satwalkar. Beerala and Barrington then forgedthe most successful partnership of the day, posting 106 runs for thesecond wicket. Beerala and Barrington matched each other shot forshot. While Beerala made 73 (158 balls, 8 fours, 1 six), Barringtonhit 70 (150 balls, 8 fours).If two youngsters ruled the roost for Karnataka, it took two Hyderabadveterans to stop them. Off spinner Kanwaljit Singh had Barringtoncaught at short leg while Raju snapped up Beerala caught and bowled.One Day hopeful Vijay Bharadwaj (43 not out) held one end up tillstumps even as One-Day discard Sujit Somasunder (43) became KanwaljitSingh’s second victim. Stumper Tilak Naidu (13 not out) kept Bharadwajcompany as Karnataka ended on a healthy 279/4.