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The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday found Navjot Singh Sidhu, the former India cricketer-turned-commentator, guilty of culpable homicide, not amounting to murder, in a case dating back to an incident in Patiala in 1988. The sentencing will take place on Wednesday; the maximum sentence under the law is 10 years’ imprisonment.In the case, Sidhu and an associate had been charged with assaulting Gurnam Singh in a dispute over the parking of vehicles outside the State Bank of Patiala. The victim later died of his injuries. In 1999, Sidhu was acquitted by the Patiala district court but the Punjab government and the victim’s son filed an appeal in the high court.At the time of the incident Sidhu was one of India’s frontline batsmen, on his way to establishing a reputation as a big-hitting opener. He played 51 Tests and 136 one-day internationals before retiring in 1999. His career post cricket has been as eventful; he first established a reputation as a TV commentator with his homespun “Sidhuisms”. In the last national general elections he contested the Amritsar seat in his home state of Punjab, winning easily as a candidate of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party.Sidhu reacted to the news by offering to resign his parliamentary seat, which will come as a blow to the BJP. Punjab is due for local elections next year and Sidhu was its star campaigner.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

A fiery six-over spell from Makhaya Ntini, when he rocked Australia’s middle order with darting pace and whizzing bounce, turned the first Test around, putting South Africa on top on the first day at Perth. In a span of 13 deliveries, he prised out Michael Hussey, Brad Hodge and Adam Gilchrist and wrenched away Australia’s advantage, set up by a glorious counterattacking half-century from Ricky Ponting.An absorbing opening day of the series, with South Africa playing a Test at the WACA for the first time, witnessed a see-saw battle as a four-pronged seam attack kept Australia to 258, despite three partnerships that threatened to take the game away. The South African openers then raced to 38 off the last seven overs of the day, with AB de Villiers hooking the very first ball for four, and gave them a great chance to drive home the advantage.At 3 for 175 at tea, with Hodge and Hussey having found their groove, Australia were well set up for reaching a cosy position but Ntini dashed all those plans in a trice. Running in with customary verve, varying his length cannily and hustling the batsmen with zip, he floored the two set men in a quick burst – Hussey became the third batsman to get on the front foot and top edge a pull with Charl Langeveldt pulling off a sensational one-handed catch running in from mid-on; and Hodge snicked an attempted front-foot drive after being beaten by the seam movement. Ntini then got Gilchrist to edge a full swinging delivery, endured seeing Justin Kemp grass a low chance at first slip, ran in faster, pitched it shorter and, four balls later, got him to edge again. This time, Herschelle Gibbs, at second slip, held on to the chance and the game had well and truly changed course.It was Ntini who had given a Jacques Kallis-less South Africa a near-perfect start, under overcast conditions, as his second ball of the game accounted for Matthew Hayden, undone by the bounce as his attempted pull ballooned to gully. And just when the game appeared to be slipping away, with Ponting engineering a serious drilling, he forced Langer into a similar indiscretion, as the top edge soared straight to mid-off. He could have had Hodge when he was on 3, with Mark Boucher managing to only get his gloves to a steepling edge, as Ntini, snapping up his 10th five-wicket haul, refused to let Australia run away with the game. It was on this ground, nearly eight years back, where he took his first strides in international cricket and it proved to be a happy return for the lad from Mdingi.

For all his zest, Ntini might have not had as good a return if not for the workman-like spells from Shaun Pollock and Andre Nel, choking runs and inching South Africa back into contention. Bustling in with his characteristic vigour, Nel maintained a full length while bowling against an attacking Ponting. He was driven on a couple of occasions, gloriously in fact, but didn’t dig it in short, unlike the erratic Charl Langeveldt, and stopped the leak of runs from one end. Pollock’s rigorous methods added to the batsmen’s frustration and Ponting was trapped in front while trying to turn one to the on side. Nel was rewarded for his consistency with two wickets at the end of the innings and if not for Langeveldt’s extravagance, conceding exactly 100 runs in his 17 overs, Australia might have been in deeper strife.What saved them, though, was some feisty brilliance from Ponting, who cut through the morning tension like a hot knife through butter. Ponting’s first ball had a sense of déjà vu as Ntini’s superb bouncer rattled him on the side of his helmet, reminding one of Steve Harmison’s snorter that caused a bleeding cut on the opening morning at Lord’s. But a change of guard was enough to get back his terrific judgement. In Ntini’s next over he rattled 13 – a cracking pull to midwicket, another pull backward of square, and a drilled boundary in front of square when Ntini pitched it up. Four more controlled fours flowed from his bat and he got stuck into Langeveldt with two classic pulls.Langer’s gritty knock was just beginning to flower and the duo motored along after the lunch break. Despite both falling in quick succession, Australia carried on the momentum through Hodge and Hussey, who belied their international inexperience by constructing a composed 63-run stand. Shane Warne and Brett Lee also chipped in with plucky contributions, and pushed the score past the 250-mark, but South Africa fought fire with fire and took most of the day’s honours. The aggression with which Graeme Smith and de Villiers went after the bowling in the end of the day, showed that they weren’t willing to hold back and Australia, for the first time this summer, had an opponent looking them in the eye and engaging them in a scrap.How they were outMatthew Hayden c Rudolph b Ntini 0 (1 for 0)
Justin Langer c Smith b Ntini 37 (2 for 111)
Ricky Ponting lbw b Pollock 71 (3 for 117)
Michael Hussey c Langeveldt b Ntini 23 (4 for 180)
Brad Hodge c Boucher b Ntini 41 (5 for 185)
Adam Gilchrist c Gibbs b Ntini 6 (6 for 199)
Shane Warne lbw b Langeveldt 24 (8 for 243)
Nathan Bracken c Boucher b Nel 10 (9 for 258)
Glenn McGrath c Boucher b Nel 0 (258 all out)

Jeff Wilson has been included in New Zealand’s team for the first game of the three-match series against the FICA World XI to be played at the Jade Stadium in Christchurch tomorrow. Wilson will make his first appearance for the national team in 12 years while Craig McMillan, who joined the squad after Jacob Oram was withdrawn from the first match because of a back strain, was named as the 12th man.The rest of the team was on expected lines with two specialist medium pacers in Daryl Tuffey and Kyle Mills and a powerful batting line-up backing them up.The three matches will be played on January 22, 24 and 26, and proceeds from the games will go towards providing relief to the victims of the tsunami disaster which hit south Asia on December 26.New Zealand
1 Stephen Fleming (capt), 2 Nathan Astle, 3 Mathew Sinclair, 4 Hamish Marshall, 5 Scott Styris, 6 Chris Cairns, 7 Brendon McCullum, 8 Daniel Vettori, 9 Jeff Wilson, 10 Kyle Mills, 11 Daryl Tuffey.

If Rahul Dravid’s partnership with VVS Laxman bailed India out of a tricky situation, then his 182-run stand with Sourav Ganguly shut New Zealand out of the contest, and ensured that the best result they could hope for was a draw. Ganguly’s innings was played out in three different parts: in the first session, he scarcely played a convincing stroke, scoring 19 from 73 balls. For much of that period, he made generous use of his pads.

The fluency started to come into his batting towards the later part of the afternoon session, when he scored 56 from 101 balls. As the table indicates, his footwork became more assured too. The 55 minutes after tea was when Ganguly was at his best, hitting 25 off 37 balls. Overall, Ganguly’s not-in-control percentage was 20 – that is, once every five balls he played-and-missed, edged, or was struck on the pads. For Dravid, that figure was only 12%, a figure which suggests the mastery which he displayed for more than a day and a half.

The Victorian Bushrangers today included Damien Fleming in a squad of 13 for Sunday’s ING Cup clash with the Western Warriors at the MCG. The match will be Fleming’s first since straining a hamstring during Tasmania’s first innings of the Pura Cup match at Bellerive Oval two weeks ago.BUSHRANGERSMatthew Elliott (c), Brad Hodge (vc), Rob Bartlett, Darren Berry, Simon Dart, Damien Fleming, Ian Harvey, Shane Harwood, Ian Hewett, Michael Klinger, Michael Lewis, Jon Moss, Cameron White

Somerset stun KentSomerset slammed 295-7, the highest score in the National League this summerto date, at Maidstone as they took out their frustration on Kent for having pulled away from defeat after following in the corresponding championship match which ended yesterday. Their win by 54 runs took them to six points behind Division One leaders Worcestershire.

Marcus Trescothick, who must in line for an England place sooner rather thanlater and was let off early in his innings, led the assault with 71 runs from 50 deliveries (11 four and one six): his first-wicket partnership with Jamie Cox (51) brought 114 runs in 16 overs, but Kent launched a spirited reply only to lose two wickets in the same over.Kent’s young bowlers suffered a pasting before spinner Min Patel put a breakon the scoring with two wickets. With Keith Parsons (49 n.o.) and Ian Blackweel (30) going strong Somerset seemed likely at one stage to score many more.The home county started badly with the early loss of openers David Fulton andRahul Dravid. Experienced Mark Ealham and Alan Wells (59) weathered the storm and began to make headway taking the score to 148-4 when the latter was out. Captain Matthew Fleming and Matthew Walker seized the initiative to such extent that Kent had the advantage according to the Ducksorth-Lewis as a persistent drizzle started to fall.Both were out in the same over to Blackwell (3-30) however leaving suchcalculations academic. Trescothick took 3-45 in an encouraging performance with both bat and ball.