Sporting Digest: Cricket

Nick Knight, the Warwickshire opener, is to travel to South Africa next week at the request of the England selectors. The left-handed batsman will take part in his county's pre-season tour to confirm his recovery from a knee injury, ahead of England's one-day international tournament in Sharjah at the end of the month.

Western Australia finished a handful of runs short of a guaranteed place in the Sheffield Shield final yesterday. Victoria dismissed them for 258 - a first innings deficit of five - to keep their own trophy hopes alive at the midway point of the four-day game in Melbourne. The hosts must win to prevent Western Australia from reaching their fourth successive final. Queensland await the victors.

SHEFFIELD SHIELD (Second day of four): (Hobart): Tasmania 278 (J Cox 128). New South Wales 222-6 (M G Bevan 96no, S Lee 50). (Adelaide): Queensland 239 (M L Hayden 77; P Wilson 5-68) and 74-1. South Australia 345 (D S Lehmann 175, J M Vaughan 87). (Melbourne): Victoria 263 (M P Mott 106, I J Harvey 77; J Angel 5-64) and 7-0. Western Australia 258 (R J Campbell 70, S M Katich 60).

Arshad Khan, the Pakistan off-spinner, took 5 for 38 in only his third Test as Sri Lanka were dismissed for 231 on the opening day of the Asian Test Championship final in Dhaka yeterday. Arshad ran through the lower order by taking five of the last six wickets as injury-hit Sri Lanka struggled on the slow pitch at the Bangabandhu National Stadium. Pakistan then reached 33 without loss in 10 overs before the close.

First day; Sri Lanka won toss

Sri Lanka - first innings

R P Arnold b Akhtar 10

A Gunawardena c Wasti b Akram 4

D P M Jayawardene lbw Akram 0

M S Atapattu lbw b Saqlain 36

*P A De Silva lbw b Khan 72

H P Tillekeratne c Wasti b Khan 15

R S Kaluwitharana c Yohana b Khan 9

U D U Chandana c Moin Khan

b Akhtar 15

W P U J C Vaas not out 20

G P Wickremasinghe c Wasti b Khan 2

K S C De Silva c Moin b Khan 11

Extras (b-12 lb-9 nb-16) 37

Total (all out, 78 overs) 231

Fall: 1-16 2-16 3-19 4-84 5-119 6-135 7-177 8-201 9-208

Bowling: Wasim Akram 14-2-45-2 (nb-4); Shoaib Akhtar 13-3-36-2 (nb-9); Saqlain Mushtaq 29-7-76-1 (nb-2); Shahid Afridi 2-0-15-0 (nb-1); Arshad Khan 20-5-38-5.

Pakistan - first innings

Saaed Anwar 16

Wajahatullah Wasti 7

Extras (b-8 lb-1 nb-1) 10

Total (for 0) 33

Bowling (to date): Vaas 5-0-14-0, Wickremasinghe 3-0-9-0 (nb-1), Sajeewa 2-1-1-0.

To bat: Ijaz Ahmed, Inzamamul Haq, Yousuf Yohana, Shahid Afridi, Moin Khan, *Wasim Akram (captain), Saqlain Mushtaq, Shoaib Akhtar, Arshad Khan.

Umpires: D B Cowie (NZ), D R Shepherd (GB).