AUSTRALIA - Manager: Mustafa Khan

THE AUSSIE TEAM KICKS SOME ENGLISH $$$!!!

Australia whooped England's $$$ by thrashing them by an immense margin of an innings and 147 runs. The match was played at Lord's where there was something in it for batsmen and bowlers. Once again Australia won the toss and Shane Warne surprised when he put England in. Warne said "The wicket looks as if it will get better for batting and we want to exploit the early help that we might get."

The two spinners Bevan and Warne opened the bowling with the new ball!! Warne provided early breakthroughs and yet returned with undeserving figures of 3-72 off his 23 overs. Alec Stewart and Nasser Hussain provided some hope as they made 40 and 39 respectively. Later on Robert Croft shocked all by 60 and smashing 8 boundaries. This helped England reach an Okay total of 215. Gillespie and McGrath were the bowlers for Australia as they picked up great figures of 4-31 and 3-28 simultaneously. England missed the services of All-rounder Dominic Cork.

The Australian innings was dominated by two batsmen mostly, Steve Waugh and Mark Taylor. Taylor scored a magnificent 139, hitting 19 boundaries and Steve Waugh who has been THE MAN for Australia in their batting department scored 140 off just 212 balls and 24 boundaries were involved. Australia put up a massive 490 on the board. Fraser got 5-120 and Gough 3-128, both very poor figures.

England started their 2nd innings with a deficit of 275 runs and they collapsed to the hands of some terrific spin bowling as Bevan and Warne once again did very well with a lot of assistance from the pitch on the 3rd day. Bevan who came back wicket-less in the 1st innings returned with 5-50 and Warne with 3-32. McGrath and Gillespie got a wicket a piece. England was all out for a mere 128.

With just four more matches in the competition Steve Waugh leads the run scoring for Australia with 1549 runs off 23 innings!! Six 100s and Five 50s. Only Ricky Ponting has crossed the 1000 mark with Steve.

McGrath leads the wickets with 72 scalps off his 16 tests but skipper Warne is catching up as he has 62 wickets off 13 tests.

Now this performance should continue in the rest of the season and maybe Australia could finish in the top 3 teams in the league.

ENGLAND - Manager: Dan Thomas

Censored due to extreme violence and excessive bad language.

INDIA - Manager: Mat Kenneally

India demonstrated their biggest weakness this week as they failed to compete with Zimbabwie. Dravid and Tendulkar failed and consequently so did India. India has become a 2 man batting lineup.Srinath and Kumble tried hard but lacked support. Mathew Kenneally said 'I guess we just aren't good enough' a surprising admission from a normally positive manager. India's Harvinder Singh was very dissapointing as was Prassad.

India are hoping to finish the season off well.

NEW ZEALAND - Manager: Ben Buchanan

PAKISTAN - Manager: Nathan Porter

Pakistan are now pressing for a place in the top two with a storming run home. Aamir Sohail was the star of the show this week, notching up a magnificent 253* and carrying his bat. Sri Lanka were easily over powered in the end by a Pakistan team keen to maintain it's grip on the Warwick Todd trophy for the rest of the season.

SOUTH AFRICA - Manager: Steve Hill

SRI LANKA - Manager: Keith McLeod

WEST INDIES - Manager: Joshua Johnson

This week the bottom of the ladder battle was fought, but it ended in a draw. Once again the West Indian bowling attack failed to get cheap wickets and the South Africans managed to bat well to make an impressive first innings of 423. Kallis was the major scorer with 142 and Ambrose was once again the highest wicket taker for the West Indies, taking 6/105. In response the West Indian attack played some good cricket to be trailing by only 7 runs going into the second innings. Both Lara(96) and Campbell(89) played well and ensured that a good competition would ensue. Again in the second innings a good partnership ensured a large total for the South African batsmen. Kirsten made a fighting 171 and Hudson 72 as the South Africans managed 359 runs at the loss of only 4 wickets. The declaration came leaving the West Indians the difficult task of 367 runs in one day and one over for victory.

Campbell was lost early for 11 but a massive 200+ run partnership between Adams and Samuels got the team back on the track. As it turns out they ran out of time, falling 75 runs short of the target at the loss of 4 wickets. Injuries are now causing great difficulties for the team selectors. Both Walsh and Rose are out of the side, further weakening an already poor bowling attack. Opener Williams and Hooper are both injured as well. Cuffy returns to the side and Holder makes his debut in this competition for the extremely difficult task against Pakistan next week.

ZIMBABWE - Manager: Dave Hickey

WARWICK TODD'S XI - Manager: Warwick Todd