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"The great, green, greasy Limpopo river …" Celebrated in Rudyard Kipling’s Just So stories as the place where the elephant got its trunk*, and situated on the Zimbabwean border in the northernmost reaches of South Africa, it is not the most likely of places to spawn a Test cricketer – let alone two in a single match. But all that is set to change tomorrow morning, when AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn are expected to make their Test debuts.There has been no standing on ceremony where these two players are concerned: neither of them has yet completed a full season of first-class cricket, but already their selection belies Kevin Pietersen’s assertion that there is no future for young white talent in the South African set-up. Steyn has just seven matches under his belt, including a nine-wicket haul against the Warriors at Buffalo Park in East London, while de Villiers has but one century to his name which, happily enough, was scored in the very week he was selected for the national squad. As wild cards go, they seem precisely the type of hungry young carnivores who should thrive under Ray Jennings’s raw-meat-eating regime.Are they green? Most certainly. Greased? Well, in Steyn’s case, his brief dalliances with the speed-gun have recorded a none-too-sluggish delivery of 147.7kph, while de Villiers’s penchant for belting the leather off a cricket ball has resulted in some lightning-quick performances in the Standard Bank Cup. And as for "great", only time will tell, but at the ages of 21 and 20 respectively, they clearly have plenty of that on their side – de Villiers especially, who has a useful little sideline as a wicketkeeper.As befits an opening batsman, albeit a strokemaking one, de Villiers is the more cautious of the pair. He watches all questions carefully onto the bat, and meets the more testing ones with a confident assertion that he will "play his own game", whatever that game may be. But he can certainly play his strokes with dismissive disdain as well. Steve Harmison, surely a daunting prospect for any debutant, is driven straight back down the ground as "just another bowler", while Test cricket itself seems no big deal either – "bigger crowds, a bit more professional, that’s it really."

Steyn, by contrast, has a more up-and-at-`em attitude, and plays his cricket in a style not dissimilar to a young Allan Donald, with speed through the air and late movement his trademarks. Though he has been given licence to crank up his pace at Port Elizabeth, he seems mildly disappointed that the St George’s Park pitch is unlikely to favour an out-and-out attack. "You need to bowl a fuller length down there," he concedes, "so if they want me to ping a few guys on the head I might struggle. But I’ll be up for it I promise you."Steyn has an interesting admission that belies his surname, and is sure to make readers of Die Beeld wince – he speaks no Afrikaans. "I do try …" he insists, but explains that his parents were British Rhodesians and so there was never any cause to take up the language. Already, however, his ignorance has stood him in good stead at the crease. Faced with a gutful of vitriol from Nantie Hayward, his fiery forebear in the South African team, Steyn could do nothing but shrug: "I couldn’t understand what he was on about!"They may hail from the same province, and play for the same franchise, the Gauteng-based Titans, but there was little overlap between the pair as they worked their way towards national recognition. de Villiers’s home of Belabela is a good 500km from Steyn’s stomping ground in Phalaborwa, and by the age of six he had already moved to Pretoria, where his sports-mad family gave him little option but to pursue a career in cricket.de Villiers continued his sporting education in Ireland last summer, where he played club cricket for Carrick and laid waste to records left, right and centre. Steyn, by contrast, took a much less focussed route to recognition, and it was only once he’d left school that he realised he wanted a career in the game. "They play a bit up there [in Limpopo], but no-one takes the clubs too seriously. It’s up to you want you want to do. It’s your life."Though he was mentioned in dispatches for the tour to India, Steyn was wisely left at home for that trip, for the subcontinent is no place for a young fast bowler. But he won’t exactly be on familiar territory at Port Elizabeth either – he’s never yet played at the ground. Not that he’s fazed, of course. "I’m ready to play on any track," he says. "Just to be there at all is a bonus."(* courtesy of a tenacious crocodile)

Don Bradman’s baggy green cap, as worn during the 1946-47 Ashes series, has been sold for £35,250 at an auction in London. The buyer, a private Australian collector who lives in London, said he plans to add the cap to his private cricket collection but also hopes to display it in Australia.”As we were getting ready to auction the cap off, there was a hum of excitement in the room,” said Rik Pike, a spokesman for the London auctioneers, Christie’s. “And the bidding took a couple of minutes. After we sold it, there was a clap in the room, which you don’t always have.”Bradman’s teammate, Keith Miller, claimed the pair swapped caps before the first Test against England in November 1946, but Christie’s is sure of its authenticity. A bat, used by Bradman to score 232 in the fifth Test at The Oval in 1930, was sold for £29,375 to another collector.

Hampshire sunk to a two day defeat against bottom club Derbyshire in the Frizzell County Championship at The Rose Bowl. Dominic Cork’s side outplayed Hampshire at both batting and bowling in what was a disapointing display by the home side.Derbyshire’s last four wickets added a further 155 runs to their first innings overnight tally, as Nathan Dumelow led the charge with a run a ball career best 75. Dumelow hit 13 fours and a six and was aided by some loose bowling and poor fielding including two apparently straightforward catches being dropped.Dimitri Mascarenhas was the pick of the Hampshire bowlers as he toiled in the heat in an attempt to stem the tide. Chaminda Vaas in his first Championship match took 4 wickets. James Bruce proved expensive, but he was the unlucky bowler to see chances go astray as butterfingers seem to rule.With a lead of 198, Derbyshire soon got amongst the Hampshire batting, four wickets fell for 24 runs, with Cork again being the main protaganist. John Crawley came in with a runner and held up the visitors progress for a while, but only Simon Katich held his end in resolute fashion.Chris Tremlett hit three fours and a six in a bright 30 to take Hampshire past 150, but the inevitable happened shortly after tea.

The encomiums flowed for Sachin Tendulkar after his 141 nearly allowed India to chase a target of 330 at Rawalpindi. Writing for Press Trust of India, Rashid Latif called Tendulkar cricket’s "Kohinoor[diamond]", and the best batsman he had ever seen. "Time and again I thought, has there been a better batsman I have seen in my life? I couldn’t think of anyone, not even Viv Richards," wrote Latif."Tendulkar’s genius was apparent in the way he made adjustments in his batting, and that’s why he is Tendulkar and not Virender Sehwag. While Sehwag doesn’t make any attempt to understand the bowlers’ strategy, Tendulkar sizes up the situation instantly … A pure genius. We are very fortunate to have been born in the same era as Tendulkar and watched him in action."* * *Pakistan dailies have alleged that the Indian camp is resorting to mind games to get the better of Pakistan. In a piece titled "Fired-up Pakistan avenge Karachi defeat" The News said that the Indians had deliberately mislead the opposition into thinking that Ashish Nehra would not play at Rawalpindi. "One wonders what kind of medicine the Indian team has invented that saw Nehra getting fit in hours rather than days… [It] was just a stunt that aims at playing with the minds of opponents." On the same subject, The Nation said: "Indian trick turns into reality as Nehra is out for a week". (Nehra split a webbing on his hand during the Rawalpindi and has been ruled out for a week.)Ganguly’s comment about Shoaib Akhtar’s action didn’t go down well with the Pakistani media either. In a piece titled `Pakistan prepare to tackle Ganguly’s mind games, The News quotes a Pakistan team official as saying: “We know that the Indians have been behind a whisper campaign about Shoaib’s action being under scrutiny in this series by the umpires and match referee through their media corps. We realise it is all a ploy to start a controversy in the press about Shoaib’s bowling action and try to put him under pressure and disturb him in this series as he is a potential match-winner. But he is ready for such a situation.”The article even alleged that Ganguly had deliberately asked an Indian journalist to question him on the over-rate issue after the Karachi match, so that he could hit out at the ICC’s system of only fining the errant team, and not docking overs.* * *Meanwhile, the post-mortem into the Rawalpindi match continued, and The Times of India came up with a novel reason for India’s defeat: the boring diet of their players. The daily reports that the Indians had daal [lentil] soup, and then chose between Italian pasta with sauce or plain rice with daal, with "boring boiled vegetables", mashed potatoes and vegetarian sandwiches. The Pakistanis, on the other hand, tucked away into plenty of chicken and mutton, with some ras malai [milk-based dessert] thrown in as well. The newspaper also spoke to Zahid Rasool Hasmi, the catering head of the Marriott Hotel, where the two teams were putting up. "We had nothing to do with it [the menu], the Indian team management wanted it."* * *The News, a Pakistan daily, says that the reason Mohammad Sami and Shoaib Akhtar were more effective at Rawalpindi was because they followed Imran Khan’s advice. Imran, says the newspaper, gave the two fast bowlers a simple suggestion: “Just go out and attack the batsmen. Don’t worry about the runs or the extras."The daily quotes a source from the Pakistan team as saying: “He [Imran] felt that Shoaib and Sami were struggling because they were in two minds [about] whether to attack the batsmen or contain the runs.” Sami had conceded 74 runs at Karachi, but came up with superb figures of 3 for 41 at Rawalpindi, while Shoaib took 3 for 49 in that game.

Scorecard

A maiden Test century from Geraint Jones, along with five wickets later on, put England firmly in control of the second Test at Headingley. At the close of an action-packed fourth day, Jones and Andrew Flintoff helped their side to a dominating 526 before New Zealand spiralled to 102 for 5 to give England a chance of victory tomorrow.England had the momentum all the way from Flintoff and Graham Thorpe’s stand in the morning, Jones’s century in the afternoon, and then those five wickets in the evening. For New Zealand, on the other hand, it was the worst day of their tour so far. They were dispirited in the field, blown away with the bat, and when you add to that a hamstring injury to Daniel Vettori, it was one to forget.The stand between Flintoff and Jones set the tone for the day. They came together just before lunch, and blasted England into a first-innings lead. They stepped on the accelerator with a battery of boundaries to rock the New Zealand attack. This was the third partnership of over 50, and the second over 100, between Flintoff and Jones, who are beginning to form an effective double act down the order.Jones cracked nine fours and a six on the way to his half-century. In that time, he twice lifted Chris Martin down to third man, and pulled Scott Styris for his fifth four. The boundaries just kept on coming as Jones took advantage of the continual short and wide bowling. He did have a life when, at 30, he attempted to cut another loose ball from Chris Cairns, but Brendon McCullum failed to hold on to the edge diving high to his right.Jones then cut Cairns to the fence to give England the lead, and, in the next over, he rocked back to smash Vettori through the covers. Two balls later Jones signalled his fifty by lifting Vettori over long-on and into the stands for six. Even though Flintoff was out shortly before tea, Jones continued unfazed as he carried on crunching the bad balls to the fence. He caressed Martin on the up for his 12th four, which also brought up the team’s 500, and an elegant cover-drive against Styris took him into the nineties.After a nervy tea break on 91, Jones pulled Daryl Tuffey to go to 99, and then pushed him into the off side for the magical moment. Dancing down the track, he punched the air twice as the England balcony rose to acknowledge what an important innings it was. However, the crowd were soon on their feet again when Jones’s sparkling innings came to an end. He cut another short one from Cairns, but this time he hit it straight to Stephen Fleming at point to be out for a round 100 (526 for 8).Flintoff, meanwhile, was his usual positive self from the off. He raced to his half-century, thumping Martin and Styris for five quick fours. Fleming took the new ball midway through the morning session, but that didn’t bother Flintoff. He pulled Martin into the Western Terrace for six, and signalled his eighth Test half-century by clubbing him over mid-on too.Vettori limped off the field with his hamstring injury midway through the afternoon, and everything was going wrong for New Zealand. Flintoff moved effortlessly along and he guided Styris past mid-on to take himself to 94, but then again the brain went at the crucial moment. He wanted to bring up the hundred with another big shot, but next delivery he miscued an off-drive and chipped the ball to Martin at mid-off six short of what would have been a deserved ton (457 for 6).Thorpe was the man who initially got England going. He was happy to play the supporting role as Flintoff took centre stage. He hit five fours, including a pearling drive through the covers off Cairns, but Martin temporarily lifted New Zealand’s low spirits with his wicket shortly before lunch. Martin fired in a swinging yorker which Thorpe was late to get down on, and he was clean bowled for 34 (339 for 5).

Ashley Giles gave Jones good support after Flintoff went. He cracked four quick boundaries in his 21 before edging Martin to Fleming at first slip (491 for 7). However, New Zealand’s celebrations – or lack of them – told their own story. Once Jones was out, however, the last two wickets failed to collect any runs. Martin Saggers clipped a Cairns slower ball to Shane Bond, the substitute fielder, at mid-off (526 for 9), and then Matthew Hoggard edged Tuffey behind to McCullum for 4.New Zealand trailed by 117 runs, and Mark Richardson and Fleming made watchful progress in their second innings on a pitch which showed increasing signs of misbehaving. Both batsmen made solid starts, but their resistance came to an end when Fleming, opening in place of the injured Michael Papps, inside-edged Flintoff off his pad to Andrew Strauss at short leg (39 for 1).Hoggard then produced a snorter to dismiss Richardson for a combative 40. The ball pitched short of a length and lifted sharply to take the edge through to Jones, who leapt as high as he could to take the catch (75 for 2). That was the vital injection England needed.McCullum, who had earlier launched a few meaty blows, was snapped up by a wonder catch from Marcus Trescothick. McCullum edged Stephen Harmison low to first slip, where Trescothick miraculously plucked the ball out of the air with his right hand (77 for 3). Then Hoggard struck again, trapping Nathan Astle lbw for 8 with an offcutter which kept a fraction low (84 for 4). Tuffey, in as nightwatchman, was powerless as Harmison launched another ripper which he could only glove in the air towards Jones, who took his second catch (91 for 5).Styris and Jacob Oram were left holding the wreckage together for New Zealand, but considering that both Vettori and Papps are unlikely to bat, the series could be all over early tomorrow.

Since Australia arrived in England three weeks ago, the psychological point-scoring has been unabating and unabashed. There have been ghosts and boasts, embarrassments and barrages but now, finally, comes the chance to land the first truly telling blow at Lord’s this weekend. And the two sides will head into the NatWest Series final on a pretty evenweighting.Australia may have shaded the points in the latest completed bout, but England beat them in the first round and, having finished top of the table, they have proven they are no pushover. Both sides named a full-strength side for the last match, a dress rehearsal which ebbed and flowed but was finally washed out. And it is likely that they will stick to those sides for the final.It was a stormy end to a stormy encounter at Edgbaston, in which Simon Jones and Matthew Hayden nearly came to blows. But Australia’s captain Ricky Ponting was quick to dismiss the incident. Speaking at a press conference ahead of the final he said: “It is water under the bridge.” His opposing captain, Michael Vaughan, agreed. “As soon as the game was finished the other day most of it was forgotten,” he said. Nevertheless, the matterwill add some spark to what will already be a crackling occasion, given that it is a Lord’s final.History suggests that chasing in Lord’s finals is the preferred option, but last year New Zealand bucked that trend, becoming the first side in five NatWest Series finals to win batting first. England’s strength in one-day cricket is still chasing, as their batsmen are more comfortable knowing their target, especially on a quick Lord’s outfield where therewill be plenty of runs up for grabs.Whenever they bat, Kevin Pietersen could be promoted to No 4 to exploit his big hitting potential. “He looks like a player who if he gets in could get a real big score and go beyond a hundred,” said Vaughan, “he’s got that many shots.” Pietersen will use the match to continue his aim of forcing his way into the Ashes side although, of course, he will concentrate on the matter in hand in the meantime.But England’s one-day form remains as inconsistent as Pietersen’s hairstyle. Last season they failed to qualify for the Natwest Series final, then made the final of the Champion’s Trophy before, this year, losing 4-1 in the one-day series in South Africa, where they were without their star allrounder Andrew Flintoff who had an ankle injury. “Having someone likeFreddie Flintoff back bowling has been a big key for us,” said Vaughan. “His bowling, which we missed immensely in South Africa, has been very important in this series.”But if he and Pietersen can star togther with the bat then their fireworks may be enough to grab London’s attention on what will be a busy day for the capital. Elsewhere, Live8, the Gay Pride March and Wimbledon are all taking place. Flintoff and Pietersen will hope that, should they bat together, their second partnership will return better results than theirmuch-awaited first stand together, which posted a squib-like 9 runs at Durham.The bookies have made Australia marginal favourites, at 4/7, with England priced 5/4. England’s batting hasn’t been the most convincing against the Australian big guns this tournament; their opening pair of Andrew Strauss and Marcus Trescothick in particular. Strauss has made scores of 16, 3 and 25, while Marcus Trescothick has struck 27 in threeinnings, at an average of just 13.5. Now is the time for them to start firing.For Australia, once again Andrew Symonds will be their key player. Symonds has made himself indispensable with both bat and ball ever since he returned from his two-match ban for staying out late drinking. He’s in-form and in-yer-face. As Ponting admitted, “He is vital to us” – and Australia found out just how vital when they lost both matches which he missed, including defeat against Bangladesh. Symonds is now pushing for a Test place, and he’s not the only one.Brett Lee has been Australia’s most dangerous bowler on the tour so far, as batsmen have struggled against his pace. He knows that a devastating performance at Lord’s will present an unanswerable case for his inclusion in the first Test of the Ashes series which begins inthree weeks’ time. Brad Hogg and Glenn McGrath are also likely to return, having missed the last dead rubber against Bangladesh.It’s the final that everyone expected – although Australia’s passage to Lord’s didn’t go entirely to plan. But Bangladesh have now gone, leaving the big boys to grapple. The Ashes, they are coming, but the summer begins here.England (probable) 1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Andrew Strauss, 3Michael Vaughan (capt), 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Andrew Flintoff, 6 PaulCollingwood, 7 Geraint Jones (wkt), 8 Ashley Giles, 9 Darren Gough, 10Simon Jones, 11 Steve Harmison.Australia (probable) 1 Adam Gilchrist (wkt), 2 Matthew Hayden, 3Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Damien Martyn, 5 Andrew Symonds, 6 Michael Clarke,7 Mike Hussey, 8 Brad Hogg, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Jason Gillespie, 11Glenn McGrath.

Dean Park:
Dorset 298 & 240 (N Thurwood 79, C Crowe 5-84) v Berkshire 213 & 329-3 (RHowitt 124*, P Pritchard 86*, J Wood 61)
Berkshire won by seven wickets
Berks 21 pts, Dorset 7Grantham:
Lincolnshire 409-6 & 112-1 v Northumberland 197 & 323
Lincolnshire won by nine wickets
Lincs 24 pts, Northumberland 3 ptsLuton:
Norfolk 264 & 249(C Amos 58, A Roberts 5-61) v Bedfordshire 365-8 and 150-5(J Knott 50)
Bedfordshire won by five wickets
Beds 24 pts Norfolk 5 ptsMarch:
Cambridgeshire 277 & 73 Cumberland 272 & 79-2
Cumberland won by 8 wkts
Cumberland 22pts Cambridgeshire 7Torquay:
Devon 371 & 334-7d (C Mole 136*, D Court 70*) v Herefordshire309dec & 276-4 (RD Hughes 103, I Dawood 64)
Match drawn
Devon 12 pts Herefordshire 11 ptsBridge North:
Wales 301-8d & 212 (I Capon 53 not out, AP O’Connor 4-67) v Shropshire276-8d & 238-3 (MJ Marvell 90, TJ Mason 85*)
Shropshire won by seven wickets
Shropshire 22 pts Wales 6Stone:
Staffordshire 450-5 v Buckinghamshire 89 & 213 (G Bulpitt 4-79)
Staffordshire won by an innings and 148 runs
Staffordshire 24pts Bucks 2South Wilts
Oxfordshire 314-9 & 146 (RK Illingworth 5-44, RJ Bates 4-38) v Wiltshire325-7d & 138-4 (B Rizvi 53)
Wiltshire won by six wickets
Wilts 24 pts Oxfordshire 5Day 2 ScoreSt Austell:
Cheshire 253 & 109-7 v Cornwall 368

ScorecardGloucestershire built a useful lead over Bangladesh A by the close of the second day despite Tushar Imran’s 119 giving Bangladesh a slender advantage on first innings. Phil Weston provided the backbone to Gloucestershire’s second innings with a workmanlike 63.Starting the day on 98 for 3, Tushar and Alok Kapali, the overnight batsmen, extended their partnership to 122. Kapali struck 12 boundaries in his 105-ball 59 before he was trapped lbw by Malinga Bandara, the Sri Lankan legspinner, who is filling one of Gloucestershire’s overseas slots while Upul Chandana is on international duty.Bangladesh then encountered the unknown quantity of William Rudge, a 22-year-old medium pacer bowler making his first-class debut. He snapped up three quick wickets – including Mushfiqur Rahim, the young wicketkeeper-batsmen who made such a positive impression on his test debut at Lord’s – to leave Bangladesh floundering on 195 for 7.Tushar found some valuable support from Shahadat Hossain and the pair added 43 before Tushar was caught off Jon Lewis. Bangladesh ended with a lead of 19 but Gloucestershire lost Kadeer Ali – who followed his first innings duck with just a single – before the deficit was erased.However, any thoughts Bangladesh had of running through Gloucestershire were halted by Weston and Ian Fisher as they added 97. Although Mushfiqur Rahman removed both before the close Bangladesh are going to face a testing target on the final day.

Andrew Flintoff, who played such an immense role in helping England reclaim the Ashes, says he did not relish Nasser Hussain’s leadership style and is now flourishing under Michael Vaughan’s more relaxed approach.In extracts published in from his latest book, , Flintoff says it is not just coincidence that his best years as a cricketer have come under Vaughan, and not Hussain.”I don’t think it is any accident that I have played some of my best cricket under Michael simply because he encourages you to enjoy your cricket without fear of failure. I don’t want to turn around and see my captain throwing his cap on the floor or kicking sods out of the ground or rollicking people right, left and centre. That doesn’t make anyone feel better. I want his support.”Flintoff, who made his Test debut against South Africa under the captaincy of Alec Stewart in 1998, asserts that the difference in the atmosphere of the dressing room then and now is crucial to the team’s resurgence.”It is a totally different dressing room now. When I made my Test debut, members of the squad were so wrapped up in their own games that the mood was significantly different. I don’t know if selfish is the right word for it, but there wasn’t much emphasis on helping each other out.””I have played in sides when there has been a disgraceful attitude, when even some of your team-mates were half-hoping you failed, but that’s definitely not the case with the present day England team. Now we all enjoy each other’s success,”he said.Vaughan’s captaincy, which began when he took over from Hussain against South Africa in July 2003, comes in for special praise.”When Vaughan is in charge, he is very relaxed and chilled out and encourages people to express themselves, but Nasser was totally different to that. He was a lot more animated, ruled with more discipline and was more like a schoolteacher with us. He was a very passionate captain and also very astute, but he did it with a style I didn’t particularly like. He was confrontational and put a bit of undue pressure on the lads at times. He used to eff and jeff at mid-on and throw his cap around,” Flintoff said.