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As the dark, gloomy weather descended on Headingley late in the afternoon, the Australians drifted from the ground thankful to see the end of one of their grimmest days. Ricky Ponting has had some tough experiences as Test captain, but it’s hard to recall an Australian team under his leadership enduring a worse day than this.In terms of significance, decisive Ashes occasions like the second day at The Oval last year or the first at Edgbaston in 2005 are at the top of the list. But for a single, self-contained day of Test cricket, this was terrible. Australia were all out for 88, their lowest Test total in 26 years, and Pakistan passed the score with one wicket down.Yes, the Australians can say they have a chance. At the SCG in January they were in a remarkably similar position and somehow Pakistan handed the match back. To expect the same result again is to anticipate predictability from Pakistan, and that’s never a wise move.The Australians will be left to wonder if they made the wrong decision to bat first. Ever since Ponting infamously sent England in at Edgbaston five years ago with a McGrath-less attack, batting first has been almost a Pavlovian response when the coin falls his way.Even when logic dictates – as it did on a Sydney greentop in January or February 2009 on a Johannesburg pitch described by Michael Hussey as having branches growing off it – that bowling first is the logical move. Even when it means playing into the hands of the opposition.The Australians never like to cede control of a Test and they feel that by bowling first, they are doing just that. They often speak of focusing on their own plans and not concerning themselves with their opponents. It’s an approach that looks pigheaded when it fails.Against a Pakistan team whose strength clearly is swing bowling, batting first under overcast skies after overnight rain defied common sense, especially given the inexperience of the Pakistan batting line-up. As Ponting himself said two days before the Test, “in Pakistan you don’t generally see the ball seam around and swing around like it did last week”.So why not subject their batsmen to those hardships? Umar Gul said he was surprised at Ponting’s decision, and that the Pakistanis were ready to bowl first had they won the toss. Australia’s coach Tim Nielsen said the idea of sending Pakistan in was discussed, but they felt the pitch would deteriorate later in the week. The match might not get that far.Perhaps the coin-flip didn’t matter. Truth be told, Australia were outplayed in every department. When their bowlers were given a chance in the afternoon they did not display the guile and skill shown by their Pakistan counterparts. Whereas Mohammad Asif had deceived batsmen with a sequence of outswingers followed by an inswinger, the Australians possessed no such patience.They tried to take a wicket every ball, without building to a plan. Ben Hilfenhaus bowled too straight and often saw the ball whipped through leg, while Mitchell Johnson was erratic. The bowlers say the right things about working in England – they know they must pitch it up and allow the ball to swing – but too many deliveries were banged in short of a length.Nor did the batsmen handle the conditions with complete composure. They reached forward against the swinging ball, hoping to negate the movement but at times that exacerbated the issue, as they allowed themselves no time to adjust when the ball swerved late.The innings was over in less than three hours, and not since 1984-85 had Australia scored so few. That was against a vintage West Indian attack at the WACA, on a day when Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall were so fearsome that Courtney Walsh didn’t even have to bowl. You can bet on that occasion they weren’t pitching it up and searching for swing.Australia’s SCG memories will sustain them into the second day at Headingley. They know the sun will rise again – they just hope there’ll be plenty of clouds as well.

Split-innings games offering bowlers more incentives and the possibility of a batsman getting two lives are some of the options being considered by Cricket Australia as it plans a comprehensive makeover to revive the one-day format. The radical changes are part of an overhaul that will be trialed in next summer’s domestic competition if the ideas gain board approval next month.While viewer figures remain healthy for Australia’s ODIs, crowd figures have fallen and there is a fear the concept will become irrelevant following the explosion of Twenty20 and the traditional popularity of Tests. Cricket Australia hopes that if the revamp is successful the rest of the cricketing world could be convinced that the format is worthy of being adopted for the 2015 World Cup.The major adjustments involve a proposed reduction to 40 overs a side, which is split into two 20-over innings, and 10 wickets for each team. In the hope of maintaining interest in the contest for longer the other innovative additions include:

• One batsman dismissed in the first innings may be used again in the second innings, similar to a designated hitter in baseball
• A minimum of four bowlers to be used without any other restrictions
• Two bouncers between shoulder and head height allowed an over, an increase of one
• More generosity on legside wides
• Two fielders outside the inner fielding circle in the first five overs of each innings, and a maximum of four during overs six to 20

“One-day cricket is not in massive decline, but it is in slight decline and we need to do something to prevent a massive decline,” Cricket Australia’s marketing manager Julian Dunne said. “This plan is not signed off but it has been developed from 1200 surveys and six focus groups in Sydney and Melbourne. People tell us they love one-day cricket, but that there is an opportunity to improve it.”The opening round of the FR Cup, Australia’s domestic limited-overs competition, is pencilled in for the new conditions before reverting to the standard 50-over fare until the one-day international representatives are required for duty. Split-innings fixtures will then conclude the season, including for the final.While it is keen to experiment, Cricket Australia does not want to disrupt the preparations of Ricky Ponting’s men in their push for a fourth World Cup victory in a row in the subcontinent early next year. Under the trial a specialist ODI-player like James Hopes would appear in one split-innings match and four regular fixtures for Queensland. Australia’s Test players will be briefed about the developments following the opening Test against Pakistan in London.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were outAB de Villiers brought up his tenth Test century and sped South Africa towards a massive score•AFP

The South Africans continued to cruise along a Country Road of a pitch at Warner Park for the second day in a row, increasing their century count to three before eventually declaring at a seemingly unassailable 543. Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers made contrasting centuries against a listless bowling attack, and though West Indies weren’t guilty of any glaring errors unlike the opening day, their body language suggested they were waiting for the inevitable declaration.After spending the better part of two days on the field, West Indies made a decent start with the bat after losing Travis Dowlin early. Chris Gayle and Narsingh Deonarine blunted the new-ball pair of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel and proceeded to 86 for 1 before bad light intervened.South Africa were well on course to a massive score after setting a solid platform on the opening day. They approached the second with a plan. Preservation of wickets, without too many risks, was the theme of the opening session but after lunch, the aim was acceleration. de Villiers, who has the ability to shift gears according to the situation, stepped on the gas as South Africa eyed a declaration.He started off the day watchfully, but found his groove against the easy offerings from Ravi Rampaul. A short delivery was crunched past midwicket and a fuller one was crashed past cover. When spin was introduced, de Villiers sashayed down the track to pull out some exquisite lofts.de Villiers began the afternoon session with a cut off Sulieman Benn to bring up his fifty, followed by a bludgeoning pull off the same bowler to clear deep square leg. The timing of his shots was exemplified by two gorgeous drives off the front foot off Kemar Roach, one past cover and the other wide of mid-on. Placement was not an issue for de Villiers as he used his feet to the spinners and bisected gaps perfectly towards the on-side boundary. He brought out the chipped shots, firm sweeps and front foot pulls with crisp timing. His first fifty came off 84 balls while his second came off just 46. Unlike Kallis, who plodded around for 15 balls on 99, de Villiers searched for the quickest route to the top. He went from 95 to 101 by chipping down the track to Benn and launching him over long-on.He celebrating his tenth Test ton by popping a pill and dashing to the loo for an unusually long break, much to amusement to his team-mates and the spectators. A declaration was around the corner as the tea break neared and de Villiers predictably maintained the pace. On either side of the tea break, he gave Shane Shillingford a hard time by dancing down the track to fetch massive sixes.Kallis’ knock wasn’t as exhilarating, but he ensured South Africa didn’t lose any wickets in the morning. He approached his fifty with a neat reverse-sweep for four and then brought up his milestone with a conventional one down to fine leg. He was tested against the new ball by Roach who kept banging it short, including one that smacked him on the helmet. But Roach got monotonous with his length and Kallis started pulling him regularly pulled past square leg.Kallis flicked Bravo stylishly past midwicket to become the sixth batsman to pass 11000 Test runs. Post lunch, after a long wait in the nineties, he reached his century with a cut past backward point. A top edged sweep to Rampaul at long leg – a fine catch falling backwards – ended his knock, but his 138-run association set up the declaration.There was no pitch deterioration or variable bounce when West Indies came out to bat. Dowlin, who did well in Australia in his new role as opener to see off the new ball, failed to replicate that here. He reached forward and poked at a Morkel delivery shaping away from him and the resultant outside edge was taken by an agile de Villiers at third slip.West Indies ensured they didn’t repeat the mistake of sending Brendan Nash at No.3 and instead sent in Deonarine, who’s more accustomed to the position. Morkel peppered him with short balls from over the wicket, with one pounding his elbow. Gayle was watchful against the seamers early on, preparing to leave deliveries shaping away from him.However, he was classy against the fuller deliveries coming in to him. After stabbing at one from Lonwabo Tsotsobe, which scorched down the ground, he cracked two delightful boundaries past mid-off off Morkel. Deonarine too capitalised on the pitched-up deliveries and when Paul Harris was introduced, he welcomed him with a huge six over long-on. The pair also did well to fend off the short deliveries in fading light. With the pitch still loaded with runs, the outcome of the game will depend on how long West Indies bat.

A relaxed and refreshed Sri Lanka are looking forward to the new experience of playing in the United States this weekend, according to the batsman Mahela Jayawardene. It’s a week since they lost their World Twenty20 semi-final to the eventual champions England, and while the time off wasn’t exactly part of their plan it has given them time to focus on this weekend’s Twenty20s against New Zealand in Florida.”We wouldn’t have wanted to have that much downtime, obviously we would have wanted to go all the way in the tournament,” Jayawardene said. “After a long season it’s been good time off for some of the guys to recuperate and get their rehab and strengthening done before we start all over again.”Miami is a new place for all of us. Most of the guys haven’t been to the States. We’ve had a look around, went to a baseball game. I’m looking forward to it. It looks like a very decent venue. It’s something different, going out of your routine of playing against top nations in venues you’re quite familiar with. It will be good fun.”The matches on Saturday and Sunday will be the first internationals held in the United States. The venue, Central Broward Park in Lauderhill, is an impressive looking stadium and Ross Taylor, the New Zealand batsman, said the conditions at the ground were a mystery to the players.”The wicket is under cover at the moment,” Taylor said. “There’s a New Zealand groundsman here looking after it and preparing it. To be honest, we don’t really know what to expect but I’m sure it will be a decent Twenty20 wicket.”The stadium was opened in November 2007 and it has taken a strategic partnership between New Zealand Cricket and the USA Cricket Association for top-level teams to finally make the trip to Florida. Don Lockerbie, the chief executive of the USACA, hopes this series will be the first of many to be held in the US.”We’ve been waiting a long time for this,” Lockerbie said. “This is part of what we’ve been calling Destination USA. We took, with the board’s help, a view to try and bring in the best teams in the world and show that the United States is open for business as far as cricket is concerned.”We have the stadiums, the only full- fledged cricket stadium in North America. With other temporary improvements it could one day hold up to 20,000 people. We’re hoping we can get a good crowd this weekend and fill it up to 5000 to 8000 seats a game and show that down the road we want to see more teams come and play and get the whole US experience and the cricket experience can grow in the US.”

ScorecardAndrew Strauss fell on day three as Middlesex lost again•PA Photos

Gloucestershire needed only 34 balls and 25 minutes to claim the last three Middlesex wickets and complete an 103-run victory in their County Championship Division Two encounter at a near deserted Lord’s.Middlesex have now lost their first four championship games, their worst start to the season since the competition proper was instituted in 1870. It is also their worst sequence in the four-day format since they finished the 1998 campaign with five straight defeats.They were only saved from probable defeat inside three days by bad light during the final session on Thursday, but their position was all but hopeless when play began yesterday. Needing another 123 runs, Middlesex’s ultra-slim hope of victory lay with their eighth-wicket pair of captain Shaun Udal and Tim Murtagh launching an all-out assault.They successfully negotiated the opening over from Gemaal Hussain and the first attacking shot of note came when Udal pulled Steve Kirby’ s first ball of the day through midwicket for four.Hussain struck with the fifth ball of his next over, although he did not have to work very hard for his fifth wicket of the innings. Left-hander Murtagh chipped tamely to substitute fielder Anthony Ireland at mid-off.In the next over New Zealander Iain O’Brien perished. He guided Kirby tentatively through the covers for two, but was sharply caught, low down at second slip by Stephen Snell, off the following ball.Ireland claimed another assist two overs later when Kirby dug a delivery in to Middlesex’s last man, Danny Evans, and the ball looped gently to short leg. Evans was far from convinced he was out, but Middlesex’s situation was so futile it barely mattered.Kirby finished with 3 for 36 and Hussain 5 for 46, making him, if only briefly, the leading wicket-taker in the country. Gloucestershire were relieved to get off the mark after two home defeats, while Middlesex face the daunting prospect of going to Hove for their next championship match – Sussex have won their first four matches.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were outDinesh Karthik was key to Delhi’s recovery and their thumping win•Indian Premier League

Dinesh Karthik hit a delightful half-century on a slow pitch to charge Delhi Daredevils to a facile win against Rajasthan Royals at the Feroz Shah Kotla. Delhi were wobbling on 67 for 4 but Karthik added 79 with Gautam Gambhir to stabilise the innings before he exploded in style to provide the perfect finish. The target proved too stiff for Rajasthan, who never got going in the chase, and Delhi moved to second position in the points table.On a pitch that was never going to get easier to bat on, it needed a special effort from Rajasthan, and Yusuf Pathan in particular, to overhaul this target. The entire chase revolved around Pathan. Rajasthan kept him back for the middle overs, for the battle against spin, but he was forced to come in early after Farveez Maharoof toppled the top order with his slow legcutters.Yusuf hit a couple of sixes but when he lofted a slow, loopy legbreak from Amit Mishra to long-on, the chase derailed entirely. The packed house had more moments to cherish as David Warner took four catches and affected a run out to play a hand in five dismissals.Rajasthan’s troubles in the chase highlighted the value of Karthik’s innings. He looked in touch right from the start and never allowed a run-scoring opportunity to go waste. What stood out was how well he paced his innings, and the thought he put into it. He played Shane Warne with caution, realising he could always take chances against the other bowlers. He blasted Tait to the straight boundary and unfurled a pick-up shot over square leg against Trivedi, but it was in the 17th over that he really shifted gears. He swung Sumit Narwal for a straight six on bent knee and followed up with a six over long-on next ball.Karthik reserved his best for Tait, hitting a hat-trick of fours in the 18th over – a drilled straight boundary, a whipped on-drive and a deliciously-timed cover drive. And he wasn’t done yet. In the final over, he pulled Tait for a six before holing out to long-on off the last delivery. By then, Karthik had done his job.Delhi seemed to have entered the game with a plan. Since the dry pitch was getting slower, they wanted to cash in against the new ball. They went hard at it – with Virender Sehwag, David Warner and even Paul Collingwood, going for their shots. Sehwag struck the first few blows, swinging Yusuf Pathan for a six over wide long on and carving Adam Voges repeatedly over the off-side field.Warne tried to take the pace off by using two spinners in the Powerplay but it was his medium-pacer Narwal who struck with the new ball, removing the explosive duo of Sehwag and Warner. Narwal saw Warner being reprieved by Trivedi at mid-on but struck almost immediately with a yorker. He then bowled a short delivery outside off to Sehwag, who edged the pull shot to the deep square-leg fielder.Collingwood started with a flamboyant short-arm pulled six against Tait before he cut the bowler to the point boundary. However, he was run out by Voges, who dived full stretch to his left at point to intercept a square drive from Gambhir, and threw quickly to catch Collingwood short of the crease. Delhi went from 50 for 3 to 67 for 4 when Warne lured Kedar Jadhav into holing out to long-on in the ninth over.It could have gone either way at this point but Gambhir found support from Karthik and they slowly, but assuredly, pushed Delhi towards a competitive total. The challenges were plenty: the ball started to stop a bit, Warne bowled a testing spell, Trivedi slipped in his cutters and Tait tried to beat them with pace in the air.It was a little risk-free leg glance that settled Gambhir, who had started shakily, and got him going. Thereafter he used his feet to tackle the threat of Warne and rotated the strike with Karthik, who provided the much-needed momentum with an innings of character.

Close Durham 7 for 2 (Smith 4*, Blackwell 3*, Kirby 2-3) and 459 for 9 declared (Coetzer 172, Di Venuto 131, Malan 4-20) lead MCC 162 (Malan 41, Borthwick 4-27) by 304 runs with eight wickets remaining
Live scorecardScott Borthwick took four wickets to finish off the MCC tail•PA Photos

Durham put both the MCC batsmen and the much-hyped pink ball through their paces today, skittling their opponents for 162 to take control after two days of the county curtain-raiser.After MCC laboured in stifling heat for just three wickets with the lurid ball on day one, 18 fell on day two. Durham were seven for two at the close – 304 ahead – having declined to enforce the follow-on. They declared their first innings on 459 and went on to make light work of an opposition sorely missing Mark Ramprakash, who flew home yesterday morning.England outcast Steve Harmison took two wickets in a fiery spell with the new ball, while 19-year-old legspinner Scott Borthwick returned four for 27. Durham started on 329 for three but lost Ian Blackwell to Steve Kirby in the first over of the day. Ben Stokes, on his first-class debut, was in at six and mixed a little luckwith some muscular hitting to survive a testing early spell. Kyle Coetzer, 123 not out after batting through day one, added just one run in the first 35 minutes before steering Murtagh through gully for four.Stokes, meanwhile, clubbed Dean Cosker back over his head for six as he shouldered the brunt of the scoring while Coetzer dropped anchor. Durham ticked past 400 in the 119th over and moments later James Middlebrook put down a return catch off the advancing Stokes.He was on 46 at the time and ensured he made a maiden fifty before being caught trying to launch Middlebrook over the top. Coetzer remained in position until the end of the session but his eight-and-a-half hour vigil eventually ended in the softest way imaginable, lbw after missing a full-toss off Dawid Malan’s part-time legspin.His 172 consumed a mammoth 371 deliveries, 281 of which were dots. His dismissal was the first of four wickets in two-and-a-half overs as the Durham innings subsided in short order. Malan, remarkably, took all four wickets, with Borthwick, Mitchell Claydon and Callum Thorp all departing for ducks. Unfortunately for MCC, the flow of wickets was not stemmed by the change of innings and they were three down before the end of the fifth over.Thorp set the ball rolling, trapping Scott Newman leg before as he left a straight one, before Harmison took over. He quickly found some good pace and a testing line and was soon rewarded with the wicket of David Sales, pinned lbw for four. Next to go was James Taylor, the 2009 Young Cricketer of the Year, who fended a fiery delivery to Phil Mustard behind the stumps to depart for a three-ball duck. Captain Alex Gidman led a brief fightback, but fell for 29 as Mustard took a good catch to hand Stokes a maiden first-class wicket. James Foster and Malan steered the total into three figures before the former departed for 26, the victim of a superb return catch by Thorp.Thorp took a third wicket when Malan found Borthwick at point to leave his side 103 for six. Borthwick was then handed the ball and proceeded to rout the MCC’s tail, accounting for numbers eight to 11 with a 29-ball spell worth four for 27.The final score of 162 all out represented a lead of 297, but Will Smith opted to bat again. With both openers making first-innings centuries Smith went in with Borthwick at the top of the order, who promptly made a second duck of the day. Kirby was the bowler and he removed Dale Benkenstein lbw with the very nextdelivery to leave Durham nought for two – a score that improved by just seven before stumps.

ScorecardChris Swan made a major batting contribution to Queensland’s win•Getty Images

Queensland’s last pair, Chris Swan and Luke Feldman, thwarted Victoria’s hopes of securing a home final with a 58-run stand that delivered a one-wicket win for Queensland. The Bulls reached their target of 251 with Swan on 36 and Feldman on 27, and it closed Victoria’s lead over the Bulls at the top of the table to four points.The Bushrangers had been expected to wrap up victory on the fourth morning when Queensland began still 77 short with two wickets in hand. When the last of their major batting hopes, Chris Hartley, was caught behind off Darren Pattinson for 45, the Bulls still needed 57 and Victoria appeared to be on the brink.But Swan and Feldman gradually reduced the deficit and were not put off by a short rain delay with 20 runs still to get. The winning runs came when Swan pulled Damien Wright for a boundary soon after play resumed.Having taken first-innings points, Victoria are guaranteed of a place in the Sheffield Shield final but they missed a golden opportunity to seal the hosting rights with two rounds to play. Queensland are the only other team who can host the final but technically they can still lose their place in the decider to Tasmania, South Australia or New South Wales.

Mark Greatbatch’s first duties as coach of New Zealand will come against Bangladesh next week after his appointment ended the side’s four-month search. Greatbatch will have a strong focus on the squad’s batting and will work with the assistants Mark O’Donnell and Shane Jurgensen, while the captain Daniel Vettori remains involved in team selection and strategy.The reshuffle comes after Andy Moles resigned in October and since then Vettori has been in charge of guiding the team. Originally New Zealand had hoped for a big-name signing, but they have been forced to appoint from within. Greatbatch, who played 41 Tests, has been on the selection panel and was with the team during their series against Pakistan in Dubai.”There is a real desire for success within this current unit and there are some very talented individuals,” Greatbatch said. “I believe that I can make a very positive contribution to the team and to the batting unit in particular.”Vettori said Greatbatch had a lot of respect from within the side and had made a strong impression during his work with the squad. “The team will respond very well to Mark’s influence and collectively we can become a better and even more successful cricket team,” he said. “Ultimately though, we will be judged on our results on the field, and it is up to us players to step up to the mark and perform.”Justin Vaughan, New Zealand’s chief executive, believes the new combination will work well together. “Mark will maintain his selectorial responsibilities, as well as providing specialist batting coaching and acting as a sounding board to the captain over game tactics,” he said. “It is really a continuation of the role he played successfully during the team’s tour to the UAE.” The first game of Bangladesh’s tour is a Twenty20 international in Hamilton on Wednesday.

Brad Hodge will be returning to Leicestershire for this summer’s domestic Twenty20 cup. Hodge was part of the Foxes squad that won the competition in 2004, cracking an unbeaten 77 in the final against Surrey, and is one of the most experienced Twenty20 players in the world, with 2418 runs and 31 wickets in the format.”I am delighted that Brad is returning to Leicestershire CCC,” said David Smith, the Leicestershire chief executive. “His Twenty20 record is outstanding. At 35 years of age, Brad will bring a wealth of experience to next summer’s Twenty20 campaign for Leicestershire. We are delighted to have him on board.”Hodge is Leicestershire’s fifth new signing for the 2010 season. He will be joining Andrew McDonald, his Victoria team-mate who will be filling the overseas role for the county this summer, as well as Will Jefferson, James Benning and Matthew Hoggard, who has signed a three-year deal to become Leicestershire’s new captain.”We are still totally committed to producing players through our development system but it is important we have the right balance between senior and younger players,” added Smith. “It was always our intention to bring new players into the club. However, we had to wait for players to finish contracts and move on before being able to add to the squad”.