West Indies struggling in final Test warm-up

cocktail of poor weather and poor form hit the West Indies' preparations for next week's first Test against England as the tourists finished the rain-hit opening day of their four-day match against England Lions on 76-4.

Chris Woakes did the damage, the Warwickshire seamer bolstering his burgeoning reputation with a return of 4-26 as the West Indies struggled to cope in conditions that gave the bowler every encouragement.

Just 3.1 overs had been possible in the morning session but that was enough time for Woakes to have Lendl Simmons caught behind trying to drive off the front foot.

Fellow opener Devon Smith went in similar fashion and Woakes went on to capture the wickets of stand-in captain Denesh Ramdin and the experienced Ramnaresh Sarwan.

The tourists had made four changes to their line-up following their rain-affected match against Essex earlier in the week.

Seamer Andrew Richardson, Narsingh Deonarine, Lionel Baker and Dale Richards dropped out.

They were replaced by Sarwan, Ramdin and left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn, while seamer Jerome Taylor was brought in for his first match of the tour after arriving from the Caribbean on Monday.

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Tendulkar is the best: Warne

Never short of praise for Sachin Tendulkar, legendary Australian spinner Shane Warne says the Indian maestro is the best batsman he has played against for the way he handles expectations of a billion people and bad umpiring decisions.

Warne, who had named Tendulkar as the numero uno batsman of his era in his book 'Shane Warne's Century', said it was hard to pick between the Mumbai maestro and West Indian Brian Lara, and it was the overall conduct of the Indian which was the deciding factor.

"Over the years there have been a lot of wonderful batsmen, so it is pretty hard to pick between Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar," Warne said.

"But I think given the way Sachin handles everything and the expectations that he carries every single time that he walks out to bat, and the way he handles bad decisions and the way he just carries himself."

"I would have to say Sachin Tendulkar was the best batsman that I have played with in my 20 years of playing international cricket," he said at a function here.

Flanked by Graeme Smith and some other Rajasthan Royals players, Warne also spoke about his South African 'bunny'. "My biggest bunny, I suppose, would have to be Darryl Cullinan (South African). I was once asked who I would like to bowl to for a living. I said I would be a very rich man if I was to bowl to Cullinan," he said.

© PTI

Nadal breezes into third round of Rome Masters

ROME: World number one Rafael Nadal coasted into the third round of the Rome clay court Masters on Wednesday after breezing past home favourite Andreas Seppi 6-2, 6-3.

The Spanish top seed spent just 1hr 19min on court as he continued his unbeaten run on clay this season.

The victory over his world number 37 ranked opponent went some way to erasing memories from last year when Nadal fell at this stage as he lost 7-5, 6-1 to countryman and former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero, although he was carrying a foot injury at the time.

That was his only defeat on clay last season, his only defeat in this tournament - which he won from 2005-07 - and one of only two defeats on clay in the last four seasons. The other was to Roger Federer in the Hamburg final in 2007.

He has lost only four times on clay over the last five seasons compiling an incredible 143-4 record with 23 titles on the surface during that period.

He was barely troubled in the first set and while Seppi hung in doggedly in the second, Nadal needed only a single break to seal it.

He got that courtesy of a delicate drop shot on break point in the eighth game and he followed that up at the start of the final game with a sublime backhand cross-court pass on the run and stretch after a Seppi drop shot that had looked good enough to win the point.

Thereafter Nadal easily served out the match.

He now has a 34-3 record for the season including 12-0 on clay and a 26 match unbeaten run on the dirt since that Ferrero encounter here last year.

He is looking for his fifth title of the year and third in Masters Series events. He currently sits joint second in the list of Masters tournament winners with Federer on 14, three behind Andre Agassi.

Source:TOI