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Australia came out of a day in which 306 runs were scored and 12 wicketsfell maintaining the advantage they established in the first session of thefirst day – but only after seeing their first innings follow a disturbinglysimilar pattern to New Zealand’s.A top-order collapse, two mid-order partnerships and little from the lowerorder saw the Australian first innings close with just a 20-run advantage.In the process, Damien Martyn with an undefeated 89 and the New Zealandleft-armer, Shayne O’Connor (five for 51), returned their best testperformances.Australia opened the second day under a clear Hamilton sky at 4 for 1. Inthe fifth over of the morning, the left-armer Shayne O’Connor extracted legbefore decisions from Umpire Jayapakash against first an uncomfortableSlater for 2 and then Warne for 10 with identical deliveries, pitchingcentre and moving off the wicket.At the other end, Cairns was not about to be left out of the action. In thenext over, he got through Langer’s defence, the hint of an inside edgeassisting the ball into the stumps.Langer’s departure for 4 with the score at 25 brought the Waugh brotherstogether to deal with the lift and movement the New Zealand bowlers weregenerating. Steve Waugh failed to. With the score on 29 and his own total 3,he got an edge to Cairns, Stephen Fleming taking a good catch low down atfirst slip, his 84th in tests.Damien Martyn joined Mark Waugh and had an early life, getting just enoughon a ball from Cairns to shave the stumps and go away to the fine legboundary. Daryl Tuffey’s first ball in Test cricket took the edge of MarkWaugh’s bat and fell short of second slip.Waugh and Martyn continued the resurrection job bringing the 50 up in the19th over. O’Connor resumed in place of Cairns at the grandstand end in the18th over of the morning but at the other end Tuffey was learning therequirements of test cricket; too full and Martyn straight drove, too wideand he cut past gully. Thirteen came from the debutante’s fifth over and hisfive-over spell went for 36.O’Connor was given the same message. Too full and he was driven, too shortand he was pulled, too short and he was cut. The second over of his spellwent for 18 as the 100 came up in 115 minutes.Nathan Astle with his medium pace took over from Tuffey in the 21st over ofthe morning with Paul Wiseman’s off spin introduced from the grandstandcompleting a double change. The change of pace made an almost immediateimpression. Waugh, on 28, played across Wiseman, the ball popped up high andMathew Sinclair under the helmet at short leg took the catch. Thepartnership with Martyn had contributed 74 to a total of 104.Adam Gilchrist was not about to be tied down, lustily straight driving bothbowlers back over their heads. Australia went to lunch at 118 for 6, adding114 runs in the morning session for the loss of five wickets.After lunch, Cairns immediately getting Gilchrist swinging at a short one,catching the edge and going high over Adam Parore behind the stumps to theboundary. At the other end, O’Connor was giving nothing away, at timesfinding Umpire Jayaprakash less accommodating towards his leg-before appealsthan he had been in the morning session.Martyn brought up his 50 in 110 minutes, 40 them from boundaries. The 150came up in the 41st over of the innings, similarly the 50 partnership in 49minutes.Tuffey replaced Cairns in the 39th over of the day and was immediately putto the sword, Gilchrist bringing up his 50 in 61 minutes, like Martyn with10 fours, as 15 came from the over.Fleming turned for relief to spin at the city end, replacing O’Connor withWiseman. They could not halt the Australian charge, the 200 coming up in the45th over of the innings, the last 50 in six overs. The Australian pairproduced their 100 partnership in 73 minutes off 119 balls.The drinks break brought its usual lapse in concentration – this time onboth sides. With no addition to his score, Martyn stepped out of his groundto Wiseman and missed – and so did Parore. At the other end, Tuffey wasfinding his debut turning into a nightmare, Gilchrist driving him withrelish as a further 14 came off his first over after the break.However, Wiseman ensured that Gilchrist went no further, in the fourth overafter drinks inducing him to sweep for Matthew Horne to take a good catchcoming in from the boundary forward of square leg. Gilchrist’s rollicking 75had come off 80 balls in 92 minutes with 16 fours and contributed to a 119-run partnership with Martyn.Brett Lee was Martyn’s new partner and almost immediately had a life asParore failed to pick up an edge off Wiseman. His arrival also coincidedwith the replacement of the luckless Tuffey with Cairns, resulting in ashort stay for the Australian speedster. On 8 with the score having justpassed the New Zealand total, he cut Cairns directly to Craig McMillan inthe gully.Glenn McGrath, promoted from number 11, joined Martyn on 79 and fast runningout of partners. The pace bowler’s resistance was solid for 20 minutes asMartyn inched his way towards his century. However, in the 55th over of theday, Fleming replaced Wiseman with O’Connor at the city end andhad immediate success, cleaning out the tailender.Colin Miller joined Martyn, still 13 short of his first century, with thescore at 248. The new arrival got off to a shaky start, Martyn turning downthe opportunity of a single at the end of the over and Miller virtuallyrunning two on his own as the return went to the wrong end.However, the reprieve was short, Miller taking a couple of big swings,surviving one only to be caught from the next by Tuffey at mid-wicket offO’Connor, leaving Martyn stranded on 89, albeit with some consolation thathe had passed his previous highest Test score of 78.O’Connor finished with his best figures in Test cricket, five for 51, whileCairns ended with three for 80.The increasingly well-established firm of McGrath and Lee opened theAustralian attack after tea with New Zealand facing a 20-run deficit on thefirst innings. Craig Spearman and Matthew Horne, in ideal battingconditions, did the cause no good at all. They attempted a quick single inthe third over, Horne failing to beat the direct throw from Miller in thecovers and being given the red light without troubling the scorers.Mathew Sinclair joined Spearman with the deficit still 17. The livelybatting of the afternoon session was replaced by watchful application;bowlers trying to tempt outside off, batsmen not biting.However, Waugh kept ringing the bowling changes in the final session, andthey worked. After giving Lee four overs from the grandstand end, hereintroduced Miller, this time in off-spin mode. In his second over hebrought Sinclair’s stay to an end, leg before for 24 with the total at 49.Stephen Fleming joined Spearman and the pair brought up the 50 in the nextover, coming from 139 balls. But the New Zealand captain was not around tosee any more landmarks, given out by Umpire Jayaprakash caught behind downthe leg side as Miller picked up his second wicket of the innings.With Fleming gone for 2 and the score on 53, Nathan Astle became Spearman’snext partner, the immediate task being to survive the eight overs leftbefore stumps. This they duly did, New Zealand ending the day on 58 forthree, Spearman 29 and Astle 2.Miller took the two wickets that fell, leaving New Zealand with a 38-runadvantage and seven wickets in hand going into the last day.

A big Newcastle United injury update has emerged on Joe Willock and Jonjo Shelvey after they missed out on the clash with Chelsea.

What’s the latest?

Chronicle reporter Lee Ryder has revealed that the pair were both absent due to illness and did not miss out because of any injury concerns.

Kai Havertz scored the only goal of the game as he brilliantly brought the ball down in the box and prodded past Martin Dubravka, ending the club’s long unbeaten run in the Premier League before they could reach 10 matches.

That came after the Magpies had a strong appeal for a penalty turned down earlier in the second half. Jacob Murphy was sent tumbling down by Trevor Chalobah and the referee waved away all appeals.

Ryder Tweeted: “Shelvey and Willock have an illness #nufc.”

Relief

Howe will be relieved that both players are ill instead of being injured as it hopefully means they can swiftly recover from their ailment before being available to face Everton on Thursday night. Whereas, there may have been more concern had they both sustained knocks.

Losing either player for an extended period of time would have been a huge blow and that is why the head coach will be delighted that they are not injured.

Shelvey’s SofaScore rating of 6.91 makes him the fifth-best performing player at the club this season – second if you exclude January signings – and Willock has hit form of late with two goals in his last four Premier League outings.

Having both players out was a setback for Howe against Chelsea because he was unable to call upon their quality and it left him with almost no option but to select Sean Longstaff. The Newcastle academy product struggled at Stamford Bridge as he completed just 68% of his passes and only made one tackle, whilst failing to make any key passes, clearances, interceptions or blocks – as per SofaScore.

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This shows why it would have been incredibly concerning for the Magpies had Willock and Shelvey sustained injuries prior to the game as Longstaff proved that he is not up to the task of replacing them. Instead, they are both ill and will, hopefully, recover in time for the huge clash with Everton on Thursday night – with the Toffees currently sitting 17th in the table as it stands – and Howe will be relieved.

They are nine points behind the Toon but a win for them would make that six and they have two games in hand on Howe’s side, which could make bring Newcastle back into trouble if they win those matches.

AND in other news,  Forget Burn: NUFC dud who lost possession every 3.2 touches wasted a golden ticket…

‘People today have jobs and they don’t want a Test match to last five days’ © Getty Images

Geoff Boycott has urged the game’s administrators to consider revamping Test cricket to make it more appealing to a modern audience.He said that crowds at recent Tests in Australia, India and South Africa had shown that in most countries the public no longer bought into the traditional five-day format.”I think the national boards of all the countries should take responsibility,” Boycott told Cricinfo. “The pace of life has changed. [Years ago] an India-Pakistan Test would be sold out twice over and you wouldn’t be able to get a seat. But people today have jobs and they don’t want a Test match to last five days.”I would recommend four-day Tests. I would try to increase the over-rate, because people want to pack more into life, and I would play day-night Tests. Kerry Packer tried it in 1977-78 and ’78-79. He had a few Tests that were played at night and they got good crowds. I think it is time the administrators did something about this.”India is one of the places to try it because their board is forward-looking. It can do whatever it wants: it is wealthy and powerful and it can get crowds in at night.”In the second season of World Series Cricket the Supertests were played over four days starting at 2.30pm and continuing until 10.30pm with shortened intervals. The total playing time was 30 hours – the same as in a normal Test – and the matches were played under lights. They were popular and attracted much higher audiences than the traditional daytime games.

Bermuda lost their opening game against Kenya, but will they learn? © ICC

Bermuda might have been crushed by Kenya in the opening match of the tournament, but – on the surface at least – their spirit is seemingly unwavering.”It was a terrible performance by us,” Lionel Cann, the Bermuda allrounder, told Cricinfo after a net session at Nairobi Gymkhana on Tuesday. “But we’re still positive and understand the situation we’re going into. We’ve got to move on.”Indeed they have. Even before the tournament started, they were considered the rank outsiders and yesterday’s match did nothing to alter that opinion. “We let ourselves down,” Cann said. “There were a lot of rash shots, we didn’t take responsibility and no one ‘went on’. It was just one of those days.” That as maybe, but they can’t afford another one for the rest of the tournament.Curiously, their position as the least-likely-lads to lift the trophy next week is in stark contrast to the fame they are afforded. Of all the Associates, Bermuda’s cricketers are perhaps the most celebrated among their home supporters. Football reigns supreme in Kenya and the Netherlands; Ireland and Scotland are also dominated by football but also rugby, and Canada are still reliant on expats to nurture interest in the sport.”We’re still coping,” Cann said, wiping the sweat of infamy from his forehead, “but it’s a big, big thing for us. Just making it into the World Cup is huge for us. There are only 60,000 people [in Bermuda] and just to get this far is a remarkable feat.”Remarkable, perhaps, but Bermuda simply cannot afford to rest on their laurels, in spite of the $11m grant handed to them by their government. A brief net session during today’s game between Ireland and Scotland was preceded by an early morning swim which, as one member of the team told Cricinfo, helped sooth the physical aches and pains, if not the mental indignation of losing so convincingly. Fitness, or the lack thereof, remains a huge problem.One member unofficially entrusted with improving the team’s fitness is David Hemp. “At the end of the day, Bermuda are amateurs,” he said. “They’re not professionals and they all have jobs. They realise that this is new but they’re slowly starting to realise it’s not just about the technical things.”But how? “From playing. Playing against Associate countries. Seeing how much fitter and stronger they are. Other countries just don’t get tired, whereas our players do. [Fitness] is just not part of their job, their culture – and we’re trying to change it quickly, but it’s very hard and it takes time. But it’s not just that; it’s the dietary side of things as well.”Hemp’s role is less about his ability as a batsman, more his experience with Warwickshire and now Glamorgan. The years of discipline and training are ingrained in him, but foreign (painful) territory for his team-mates. “The guys do talk to me a lot and ask me a lot of questions,” he said. “The system we use in the UK; practice; training and, from that point of view, they do talk a lot. And I do my best to communicate [my knowledge] as best I can.”There will always be negatives but it’s about building on the positives. We need to look at how the other sides play and learn from them. Keep learning and don’t make the same mistakes. Unfortunately, though, we’ve got to learn quickly. We’re in the World Cup now – all eyes are on us.”

Castle Park is, by far and away, the most attractive of thegrounds used by Essex County Cricket Club. Lying to the north ofthe High Street, and below the level of the town and castleitself, the park is bordered by the remains of the Romanperimeter wall and the old Colchester by-pass. During ColchesterCricket Week, the park is transformed by the sudden arrival oftiered seating, the ubiquitous blue and white marquees and, ofcourse, the mobile scoreboard. The pavilion is quite an elegantbuilding, backed by trees through which the tower of theVictorian town hall peeps, spire-like, in the distance. Throughthe park runs the willow-lined River Colne, beautiful enough, butresponsible for most of the ground’s considerable drainageproblems.Colchester Cricket Week is held in August. In the past, thefestival has been bedevilled by bad weather, so much so that in1966, it was transferred, in the middle of a match, toColchester’s secondary venue, the Garrison Cricket Ground. Thisarrangement lasted until 1975, at which point the club,presumably worried more by falling attendance than a certain G.Boycott’s knack of scoring double centuries on the Garrisonwicket or the unattractive nature of the Garrison ground itself,decided that a return to Castle Park was overdue. Despite thesnow which disrupted a match against Kent in early June, the moveproved to be a wise one. Essex have an impressive record atCastle Park, having won, or at least drawn, most of the matchesthat have been played there.Castle Park has seen more than its fair share of centurions ofboth varieties. It has been the scene of several notablecricketing achievements. When Essex entertained Kent atColchester in 1938, A.E. Fagg became the only batsman ever, tohit a double century in each innings, scoring 244 in his firstand 202 in his second. Even Graham Gooch, with his famous triplecentury against India at Lord’s in 1990, cannot boast acomparable achievement.Ken McEwan, always a prolific scorer, hit five hundreds in fourconsecutive visits to Castle Park between 1981 and 1984. Hesurpassed himself in 1983, scoring 181 against Gloucestershireand then, in the same week, 189 against Worcestershire, on bothoccasions securing a comfortable victory for his adoptive county.Javed Miandad also has good cause the remember Castle Park. In1981, after Glamorgan had secured a first innings lead, a centuryeach from Gooch and Hardie allowed Essex to declare their secondinnings at 411 for 9. Undeterred at being set 325 runs in almostexactly the same number of minutes, Javed Miandad raced away to200 not out and it was only when he ran out of partners, some 14runs short of the required total, that Essex and a nervous crowdof supporters could breathe freely again.

England Women 184 for 3 (Taylor 94, Connor 53*) beat South Africa Women 182 for 7 (Birch 3-29) by seven wickets
ScorecardEngland’s women cemented their standing as one of the favourites to win this month’s World Cup, which gets underway on March 22, by easing to a seven-wicket victory in the first of two warm-up matches against the hosts, South Africa, at Manzil Park in Klerksdorp. Chasing a sub-par target of 183, England were carried to the brink of victory by Claire Taylor, who made 94, and their captain, Clare Connor, who sealed the match with an unbeaten 53.After winning the toss, Connor put her faith in her bowlers and chose to bowl first. They didn’t make immediate inroads into a dogged South African batting line-up, however, and it wasn’t until the 12th over that Daleen Terblanche was prised from the crease by England’s new fast-bowling find, Katherine Brunt. Brunt has one Test to her name, but has yet to play in a full one-day international.Terblanche made 4 from 32 balls, and that set the tone for a stodgy South African innings. Even their 15-year-old wondergirl, Johmari Logtenberg, was unable to up the tempo – her 25 came from 47 balls, and was ended when England’s spinner, Rosalie Birch, held onto the second of her two return catches.Birch was the pick of the English bowlers, taking 3 for 29 from her 10 overs, although Lucy Pearson, with 2 for 24, was every bit as much of a threat. At 127 for 7, England envisaged an even easier run-chase, but South Africa’s eighth-wicket pairing of Angelique Taai (22 not out) and Charlize van der Westhuizen (25 not out) batted sensibly in an unbeaten 55-run partnership.England’s reply started shakily, as Alicia Smith struck twice in her first four overs to remove Charlotte Edwards for 0 and Laura Newton for 8, but Connor and Taylor added 152 for the third wicket to break the back of the run-chase.

Teddy Griffith, a retired banker from Barbados, has been elected president of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). At a meeting at the Jolly Beach Resort in Antigua, Griffith outgunned Clarvis Joseph by nine votes to four.Griffith replaced Wesley Hall, the West Indian fast-bowling legend, who stepped down from the post due to ill health. Griffith, who played cricket for Barbados and Jamaica, is a former vice-president of the board. He famously resigned from that post two years ago, along with then president Pat Rousseau, after their decision to sack Ricky Skerritt as the national team’s manager was overturned by the board’s directors.Griffith has also served as chairman of the WICB marketing committee, and will now have to plunge into the task of organising the 2007 World Cup, which will be held in the West Indies. Countries have until January 31, 2004, to submit their applications to host matches.Interestingly, when it was announced that Hall would step down it was widely expected that Chetram Singh, a bookmaker from Guyana, would take over the job. But Singh was told that he would not be allowed to attend ICC meetings and, thus, had to step aside.

It’s a case of full moon stops play in Sri Lanka where a recent government decree has banned the playing of sports on Poya Day holidays (full moon days).The decree has forced the return of the once coveted "rest day" during Test matches which were abandoned with the international cricket calendar becoming ever more congested.The Sri Lanka cricket board has been forced to reschedule Zimbabwe’s Test programme after the current LG Abans triangular series to avoid play on the 30 December, the Poya Day.New schedule:21-23 December – Three-day practice match Zimbabwe vs. Sri Lanka `A’ at P. Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo27 December – 1 January – First Test Match Sri Lanka vs. Zimbabwe at Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo (Rest day on 30 December)4th-8th January – Second Test Match Sri Lanka vs. Zimbabwe at Asgiriya International Cricket Stadium in Kandy12th-16th January – Third Test Match Sri Lanka vs. Zimbabwe at Galle International Cricket Stadium17th January – Zimbabwe Departure

Gloucestershire batsman Matt Windows continued his remarkable run of success against Essex on the second day of the County Championship Division Two match at Bristol.Windows top scored with 107 as Gloucestershire were bowled out for 268, a first innings lead of five over their visitors.And that was his third hundred in his last three championship innings against Essex. He scored 151 in the 1998 game at Colchester and followed it up with 118 in last year’s match at Gloucester.It was also further confirmation that Windows, an England A tourist to Zimbabwe and South Africa two years ago, is growing into his new role at No 3 in the order this season, having batted at five for most of last summer.After a poor start to his championship campaign, Windows scored 54 in the victory over Middlesex at Lord’s last week and this latest effort was the ninth first-class hundred of his career.Gloucestershire coach John Bracewell said: “It was a very good innings from Matt, but we know he can push on and go a stage further.”He played very well at Lord’s, but was out just after passing 50 and now he was out after just passing his hundred. He is capable of playing really big innings.”Gloucestershire made a poor start to the day when they lost openers Tim Hancock and Rob Cunliffe, for four and two respectively, inside the opening seven deliveries.Hancock fell lbw on the back foot to Ronnie Irani and Cunliffe edged a Mark Ilott delivery to England captain Nasser Hussain at slip.Gloucestershire captain Mark Alleyne departed soon afterwards for eight, when he gave a return catch to Ilott.But Windows and Chris Taylor then revived the innings with a fourth wicket stand of 78. Windows cut, pulled and cover drove boundaries to all parts of the ground, while Taylor, who made history last week when he became the first player to score a century at Lord’s on his first-class debut, dug in at the other end.Taylor had moved to 18 when he fell to a slip catch by Stuart Law off Ashley Cowan in the second over after lunch.Windows’ fluent innings was finally ended in the 50th over when he drove a low catch to Darren Robinson in the covers from Tim Mason’s bowling.When Mark Hardinges was lbw to Danny Law for a duck soon afterwards, Gloucestershire had slipped to 173-6.But the lower order performed creditably to ensure a narrow first innings advantage.Jeremy Snape made an attractive 54 before he cut a Cown delivery to Robinson at point.Mike Cawdron was caught at the wicket by Barry Hyam off Danny Law for 28. Then Jon Lewis and James Averis went cheaply to Law and Ilott respectively.Reggie Williams, deputising behind the stumps for the rested Jack Russell, finished unbeaten on 28.Essex were then reduced to 22-2 by the close in their second innings. Paul Prichard and nightwatchman Hyam both departed in the same fashion as they edged Lewis deliveries to Alleyne at second slip.

Leeds United goalkeeper coach Marcos Abad, whose importance at Thorp Arch has been labelled as ‘huge’, is expected to stay at the club and work under Jesse Marsch, according to Training Ground Guru.

The Lowdown: Bielsa departs

The Whites decided to sack Marcelo Bielsa on the weekend after three-and-a-half years in charge at Elland Road following a 4-0 defeat to Tottenham.

Marsch has since been named as the Argentine’s successor, penning a deal through to 2025 in Yorkshire.

It looks as if Cameron Toshack will serve as the American’s assistant, and Marsch will also be able to call upon Abad to continue his work alongside Illan Meslier.

The Latest: Abad set to stay

Training Ground Guru shared a story on Monday regarding Bielsa’s staff.

They claimed that assistants Diego Reyes, Pablo Quiroga and Luis Ouvina and fitness coach Benoit Delaval will leave, whereas head of analysis Guillermo Alonso and Abad look set to stay.

The Verdict: Orta influence

Pundit Kevin Campbell believes Abad should be given ‘huge credit’ for the work he has done with Meslier, and Victor Orta has surely had a say in the goalkeeping coach and Alonso staying put at Elland Road.

Indeed, the pair both worked under Orta at Middlesbrough, so the director of football has now collaborated with the duo at two English clubs and is clearly a big fan of their work if they are not joining the Bielsa exodus.

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It seems to be a decision that makes sense, especially when you look at Meslier’s progression at Elland Road, with his Transfermarkt valuation at a career-high £18m figure.

In other news: ‘According to insider sources’ – Report claims Leeds chief set to ‘resign’ in Bielsa aftermath.