Three half-centuries propelled Baroda to a thumping victory over Hyderabad in the Late Capt Vijay Hazare All India Knockout Tournament being played at the Polytechnic ground, Agartala, on Monday.

The Pinal Shah-led outfit has now entered the semifinals of the tournament, where it will meet the winner of the Delhi-Bengal match.

Chasing a modest target of 168, Baroda got off to a poor start as KH Devdhar (5) was given marching orders by pacer MP Arjun. However, SR Solanki (59) and Azhar Bilakhia (50) steadied the ship with a 76-run stand for the second wicket. Solanki hit 10 boundaries in his hour-long stay at the wicket, during which he faced 49 balls.

Dubai, Mar. 2 : India will be ranked second in the Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship table if it wins its upcoming five-match series in New Zealand 5-0.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team currently lies in third position, some four ratings points behind second-placed Australia and five behind top team South Africa.

A clean sweep for India will put it ahead of Ricky Ponting's men by a fraction of a point but it would remain just behind the Proteas in what would be an extraordinarily tightly packed leader board with one ratings point separating the top three ODI teams in world cricket.

Wellington, Mar. 2 : Six Indian Test specialists will get match practice over the next fortnight to prepare themselves for playing conditions in New Zealand.

Four first-class sides in New Zealand will have an Indian player for the next round of the State Championship on Friday, and two not.

The two other Indians will play the following week, for yet-to-be-determined teams.

To most people, that constitutes an uneven playing field, not to mention an undermining of the competition, but there were no complaints last night.

The Bengal selectors have named Laxmi Ratan Shukla as the skipper of the Bengal team for the Vijay Hazare Trophy knock-out phase.

However, on the other hand, the East Zone selectors had selected Manoj Tiwary as the skipper for the East Zone team for the next month's Deodhar Trophy.

With this, it becomes clear that there is a divide among the Bengal and zonal selectors over the selection of skipper.

Melbourne, Mar. 2: Wicketkeepers in Australia are locked in a keen battle for being incumbent Brad Haddin''s understudy during the Ashes in England.

A Fox Sports report says that the leading contenders are scoring heavily in a late-season rush to impress the selectors.

The keepers are jostling to fill Luke Ronchi''s shoes after the West Australian was dropped by his state last month.

Ronchi''s future looks grim with national selector Jamie Cox declaring the understudy job vacant. Cox urged the prospective applicants to go forth and score runs.

Johannesburg, Mar. 2 : Australia cricket team coach Tim Neilsen has said that if the visitors pull off a victory today against South Africa in the Johannesburg Test, the mental strength of the side that has many youngsters will be sky high.

"I can''t see anything but us winning this game," Neilsen said after South Africa, set an improbable 454 to win, reached 2-178 at the close on the fourth day at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg.

"If we do win, the mental state of this young side will be over the top. I''m really excited about this young team reaching a position where we can win this Test match," Fox Sports quoted him as saying further.