Bracken has recovered from the shoulder injury that cost him a Calcutta Cup cap on Sunday while Sella has completed a mandatory

Bracken has recovered from the shoulder injury that cost him a Calcutta Cup cap on Sunday, while Sella has completed a mandatory three-week concussion lay-off. Nevertheless, the head-to-head at Kingston Park remains the most important Allied Dunbar match of the campaign so far.Kyran Bracken, the England scrum-half, and Philippe Sella, the veteran French centre now in the final few weeks of a marvellously satisfying career, will both turn out for Saracens tonight. This evening’s combatants appeared to have the winning of the title between them until simultaneous recent slip-ups at Richmond and Gloucester gave Bath an unexpected foot in the door. “It’s been difficult, incredibly frustrating, and I’ve hated every minute of the last couple of months.

But the rest and constant physiotherapy seems to have done the trick; I’ve played two second-team games recently, really physical tests against the Navy and the London Irish second-string, and I’m feeling right on top of things again.”Wasps will not name their side until tomorrow but with Paul Sampson, their rookie full-back, struggling with ankle trouble, they will probably play Gareth Rees at full-back – on the narrow Loftus Road pitch, the foursquare Canadian constitutes a one-man blanket defence – and reinstate King as a crafty playmaker. Sale should also be at full strength; their worry surrounds their hooker, Steve Diamond, who has shingles, although Davis Rees, Tom Beim and Jos Baxendell are nursing niggles.London’s other band of knock-out hopefuls, Saracens, must first negotiate tonight’s huge Premiership rumble at Newcastle before worrying about in-form Northampton at Franklins Gardens in the pick of Saturday’s semis. On suffering subsequent problems during the Premiership game in January, he gave up the Five Nations as a bad job and sidestepped all rugby for two months to try to get himself sorted for the Wasps run-in.”Basically, I got sick to the back teeth of hobbling around, so I decided to bite the bullet and take some time out,” he said yesterday. “I’ll be very disappointed if I’m not picked,” he admitted.
Selected on merit for England’s first pre-Christmas international against Australia, King withdrew 48 hours before the match when he realised that his dodgy right knee was not up to scratch following keyhole surgery. King is an odds-on favourite to put months of intermittent injury frustration behind him and reclaim his place in the Wasps line-up for this weekend’s Tetley’s Bitter Cup semi-final with Sale at Loftus Road. ALEX KING celebrated the latest of his many returns to fitness yesterday by gambling a few hard-earned shillings on the fruit machine situated in a corner of the Wasps clubhouse.

It was a risky venture; England’s forgotten outside-half has suffered such mind-blowing misfortune this season that he fully expected to hit the jackpot and then get paid in old 50p pieces. Still, things are about to look up for the stand-off who has turned rank bad luck into an art form. Flower fell for 49, but Goodwin went on to his fifth Test half-century, his second in the match, before edging Waqar Younis to first slip.Fourth day; Zimbabwe won tossZIMBABWE – First Innings 277 (G J Whittall 62, M W Goodwin 53, B C Strang 53)PAKISTAN – First Innings 354 (Mohammad Wasim 192, Mushtaq Ahmed 57)ZIMBABWE – Second Innings(Overnight: 82 for 3)M W Goodwin c Inzamam b Waqar 81A Flower c Inzamam b Mushtaq 49G J Whittall c Rashid b Mahmood 15T N Madondo c Rashid b Mahmood 2H H Streak not out 37B C Strang c Yousuf b Mushtaq 21A G Huckle b Wasim Akram 0M Mbangwa lbw b Wasim Akram 3Extras (13b 15lb 12nb) 40Total (111 overs) 268Fall (cont): 4-133 5-166 6-175 7-205 8-255 9-255.Bowling: Wasim Akram 33-8-70-3; Waqar Younis 25-3-60-2; Azhar Mahmood 16-7-26-3; Mushtaq Ahmed 37-6-84-2.PAKISTAN – Second InningsSaeed Anwar not out 38Azhar Mahmood c Campbell b Streak 9Mohammad Wasim not out 8Extras (1b 1lb 1nb) 3Total (for 1, 14 overs) 58Fall: 1-14.To bat: Inzamam-ul-Haq, Ali Naqvi, Yousuf Youhana, Moin Khan, *Rashid Latif, Wasim Akram, Yousuf Youhana, Mushtaq Ahmed, Waqar Younis.Bowling (to date): Streak 6-2-11-1; Whittall 3-0-15-0; Mbangwa 2-0-11- 0; Huckle 2-0-15-0; Strang 1-0-4-0.Umpires: R B Tiffin (Zim) and S G Randell (Aus).Ed Giddins, the former England A pace bowler, will complete his rehabilitation from a 19-month ban from county cricket for taking cocaine when he flies out on Warwickshire’s pre-season tour to South Africa today His suspension expires next Wednesday.. They joined forces after the loss of Murray Goodwin before tea for 81 and frustratedthe Pakistani bowlers with a dogged stand.However, when Strang top-edged a sweep off the leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed, the rest of the batting folded easily, leaving Streak unbeaten on 37. Wasim Akram took the last two wickets to fall to finish with three for 70, although the pick of the bowlers was Mahmood with 3 for 26.Earlier, the overnight pair of Goodwin and Andy Flower put on 95 for the fourth wicket, after resuming on 82 for 3.

They came together in the third over of the innings following the dismissal of the makeshift opener Azhar Mahmoodfor nine. The Pakistan all-rounder, forced into his new role because Ali Naqvi has a sprained ankle, edged Heath Streak to Alistair Campbell at second slip.Pakistan had earlier dismissed Zimbabwe for 268 in their second innings – a total largely due to an eighth-wicket partnership of 50 between Streak and Bryan Strang. Zimbabwe 277 & 268 Pakistan 354 & 58-1

PAKISTAN lost an early wicket yesterday in their quest to win the second and final Test against Zimbabwe in Harare. Set 192 to win, Pakistan closed the fourth day on 58 for 1.
The opener Saeed Anwar was 38 not out and Mohammad Wasim eight at stumps, having shared an unbroken 44-run stand for the second wicket. Players without a travelling coach will be able to nominate someone else, a doubles partner, say, subject to the approval of the supervisor.Would players be allowed to use mobile phones to contact their coach if he is unable to attend the event but maybe watching on television? “Nothing in the rules prevents a player phoning up his coach,” said Weller Evans, vice-president of ATP Tour player services But is it good to talk?. “I don’t have that confidence to finish the match off, which has been happening the past year, since I took my practice hours down I’m just not serving enough The timing is not there I gave away too many easy shots on key points I left the ball, and let the ball bounce. I had no feeling of whether it was going in or out.”The men’s singles continued to produce upsets, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the sixth seed, joining Pete Sampras, the world No 1, on the sidelines.