An unbeaten 93 by S Badrinath steer Tamil Nadu to an eight-wicket win over Bengal and take his team to the semi-finals of the Ranji Trophy on the fourth and final day of the match.

With a first innings lead of 39 and 173 runs to the good overall, Bengal appeared to be slightly better off. But Tamil players bounced back into the game strongly and bundled out Bengal for 187. Tamil Nadu batsman then ransacked the Bengal bowlers and notched up the victory target of 227 by just losing two wickets.

In-form batsman Cheteshwar Pujara scored an outstanding unbeaten century to guide Saurashtra into the Ranji Trophy semifinals with a five-wicket victory over Karnataka on the fourth and final day of the quarterfinal tie.

Melbourne, Dec. 30 : South African cricket team coach Micky Arthur on Tuesday said that his team was inspired by India''s "impossible" fight back when it was forced to follow-on at home to Australia in 2001 to effect a series win against Australia.

It may be recalled that a 376-run second-innings partnership between V. V. S. Laxman and Rahul Dravid triggered a historic victory for India.

Having defeated Australia both at Perth and in Melbourne, an outspoken Arthur, hailed his team''s mid-Test resurgence with the bat as confirmation of a "new era" in the world cricket hierarchy.

Melbourne, Dec. 30 : Australian cricket selectors have called up New South Wales pacer Doug Bollinger and Victorian all-rounder Andrew McDonald into the squad of 13 for the final match of the three-Test series with South Africa which starts at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Saturday.

Bollinger and McDonald have replaced the injured Brett Lee (foot) and all-rounder Shane Watson who was expected to come in for Andrew Symonds until it was revealed he has stress fractures of the back.

According to news. com. au, embattled Australian opener Matthew Hayden has kept his place for the final Test of the Australian summer.

A five wicket haul by out-of-form Ajit Agarkar, helped Mumbai to win its Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Himachal Pradesh by nine wickets at the Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera on Monday.

Resuming at the overnight score of 200 for the loss of 5 wickets, Himachal Pradesh team could add only 87 runs to its score tally before getting all out for 287, thus, giving Mumbai a target of 43 runs to win the match.

Former Pakistan skipper Javed Miandad jeered at Cricket Australia's plans to host a day-night Test against Pakistan in Adelaide in November next year.

Speaking on this, Miandad said, “No we will not go with this idea as we don't support attempts to spoil the traditional nature of Test matches, which are still the heart and soul of cricket.”

Earlier, it was reported by The Sunday Telegraph that CA would soon seek International Cricket Council's approval for holding the match that will have a 1400 hrs (local time) start.