The ICC has confirmed the event technical committee of the ICC Champions Trophy 2009 has approved a change in the New Zealand squad for the tournament.

Aaron Redmond will replace Jesse Ryder for the Black Caps.

Ryder was forced out of the squad due to an injury to his left groin sustained during his side’s 38-run victory over Sri Lanka at the Wanderers on Sunday.

The confirmation of Ryder’s replacement was conveyed to New Zealand Cricket (NZC) on behalf of the committee later the same day.

Redmond, the 30-year-old right-hander has played seven Tests and three T20Is for New Zealand, but has never before represented his country in an ODI.

The event technical committee of the ICC Champions Trophy 2009 consists of David Richardson (ICC General Manager – Cricket and event technical committee chairman), Don McIntosh (tournament director), Campbell Jamieson (representative of IDI, the ICC’s commercial arm which runs major ICC events), Mike Gajjar (CSA representative), Sanjay Manjrekar (independent nomination) and Nick Knight (independent nomination).

New Zealand will play its next match against England at the Wanderers on Tuesday needing victory to be sure of progressing to the semi-final.

It is not about lack of performance or lack of trying. Everything has been done at the moment.

We have the potential. We have to back ourselves and get over the line at some point of time,” he said last night after side’s 22-run loss against England to bow out of ICC Champions Trophy at home.

“There are lots of opportunities (to win ICC tournaments) and hopefully we do it at some stage may be next year. There is no point in making excuses.

It is up to the players who are sitting in the dressing room to perform and make it count,” he added.

Smith is disappointed that his side were to bow out of the tournament at the group stage in a big tournament as they failed to chase down 324 against England.

“It is hugely disappointing to go out of the tournament at this stage. It was about giving your all and try as deep as possible and hope somebody would stay with you.

Unfortunately that did not happen,” said Smith, who scored a brilliant 141 but failed to find support from any of his team-mates. “We were very close and we lost wickets at crucial moments.

Had it been something just more than 300 we could have chased down but above 320 was tough,” he said.

Centurion: Pakistan beat India by 54 runs in their ICC Champions Trophy Group A match on Saturday.

Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Yousuf shared a record fourth-wicket stand as Pakistan compiled 302 for nine after winning the toss and batting before restricting their arch rivals to 248 all out.

The victory led Pakistan to the top of Group A with four points from two matches ahead of Australia on two. India and West Indies have no points.

Shoaib (128) and Yousuf (87) put on 206 in 193 balls, the biggest stand for any wicket in the Champions Trophy and a fourth-wicket record for Pakistan.

The previous record in the competition was 192 for the first wicket, shared by Indians Virender Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly against England in Colombo in 2002 and Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds for West Indies against Bangladesh in Southampton in 2004.

Pakistan’s previous best for the fourth wicket was an unbroken stand of 198 between Kamran Akmal and Misbah ul-Haq against Australia in Abu Dhabi earlier this year.

Shoaib cracked 128 in 126 deliveries, with 16 fours, to record his seventh ODI century.

The 27-year-old really hit form in the latter stages of his innings, needing just 27 deliveries for his second 50.

Yousuf’s 87 featured seven fours in a classy display of wristy strokemaking.

Left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra struck twice with the new ball for India and finished with four for 55.

However he had little support, with only Ishant Sharma pegging back the Pakistan batsmen with two for 39.

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Johannesburg: Australian vice-captain Michael Clarke has been ruled out of Australia first Champions Trophy clash on Saturday against West Indies following recurring back problems that continue to trouble the batsman.

Clarke has been struggling with the back pain for many years and has been managing the injury through the taxing international schedule that the Australians have.

“At the moment he is a day by day proposition for us. He is improving, but with the whole tournament in mind we are taking a conservative approach and he won’t be playing against the West Indies,” The Age quoted Tim Nielsen, Australian coach, as saying.

“Ideally, he will be right to go for the second match of the series,” he added.

Nielsen further said that Australians have been playing cricket regularly, so there won’t be any question of him being out of match practice for Australia’s remaining group games against India on Monday and Pakistan on Wednesday.

“He’s played a lot of cricket in the last three or four months, it’s not like he’s coming off a break, so a couple of bats will probably be enough for him to get back in the swing,” Nielsen said.

“It’s just a matter of getting his back to a stage where he can function normally and we’re not concerned if he does have to dive for a ball that he could injure it and hurt it badly enough that he could miss the remainder of the series,” he added.

Clarke most recently struggled with back problems at the end of the Australian summer, but had recovered in time to play in the first Test against South Africa in February.

Johannesburg: Australian captain Ricky Ponting has said that he is worried about left-arm fast bowler Nathan Bracken’s international prospects, who has been ruled out of the ICC Champions Trophy following a knee injury that has hampered him for some time.

Bracken was sent home as his degenerative condition had flared, and a knee specialist at home would be diagnosing his case to determine his immediate future.

“None of us know the extent of it just yet, we won’t know until he has it looked at properly and maybe has surgery. He’s no spring chicken, he’s had it operated on before and I believe it’s a degenerative type of condition,” Ponting said.

Bracken, who is the highest ranked ODI bowler in the Australian team and has the ability to swing the ball both ways and change speed, has been an essential part of the squad over the last few seasons.

Bracken’s absence will be a major blow to Ponting who relied on his steady bowling at the top of the order as a counter-balance to the attack of Brett Lee. Ponting further said that despite Bracken and Lee in their twilight years, Australia would be looking forward to continue with them till the 2011 World Cup.

“Brett by that stage will be 34 and Bracken 33, and you can have one of those guys as long as you don’t have two or three,” Ponting said.

“With Brett, if he actually makes it through we’ve got to make sure we look after him well because we’ve seen in England he can be a leading wicket-taker for us, especially in the conditions that we’ll have in the next World Cup with his reverse swing bowling,” he added.

Karachi: Former Pakistan skipper Javed Miandad believes the India-Pakistan match of the ICC Champions Trophy will begin on an equal footing for the archrivals and the team that sustains the pressure will emerge as victories.

“Both the teams in my book are equally balanced. While India has a stronger batting line-up despite the absence of Yuvraj Singh, Pakistan has a much better and more penetrative bowling attack,” Miandad said.

“Both teams have their own strengths and weaknesses but definitely having players of the calibre of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid is a big plus for India. But I think we have the bowling to seriously challenge the Indian batsmen. So the match will start on an even kneel,” he said.

Miandad feels the hype generated for the match will create a lot of pressure on the players of both the team.

“Which means basically that the team that keeps its nerves and cool will win,” he added. Miandad said it will be an important match considering the current political tensions between the nations.

“Things have changed a bit now people don’t react that strongly to the result. But I think this match at Centurion is important in the backdrop of the relations between the two countries,” he said.

Miandad said if injury-hit Younus Khan returns to lead the side against India it will give Pakistan a morale boost. “It is a big match and the presence of the regular captain will be a boost for the team after he missed the first game against West Indies,” Miandad said.

Centurion: AB de Villiers scored an 70 to steer South Africa to a five-wicket win over New Zealand in ICC Champions Trophy Group B on Thursday.

The hosts, who lost their opening match to Sri Lanka, will now go into their final group game against England on Sunday knowing that victory would almost certainly book them a place in the semi-finals.

New Zealand were sent in to bat and compiled a mediocre 214 all out built around Ross Taylor’s 72 off 105 deliveries.

South Africa lost wickets regularly in reply, but De Villiers ensured that they were always ahead of the required run-rate as he breezed to 70 not out off 76 balls, including nine boundaries.

The home side gave a much-improved bowling display on a pitch that had more of a green tinge than in the loss to Sri Lanka, with Dale Steyn (two for 32) and Jacques Kallis particularly economical.

Left-arm spinner Roelof van der Merwe showed that he can both contain and take wickets as he completed figures of two for 35 in 10 excellent overs.

New Zealand opening batsman Brendon McCullum scored 44, before Taylor and South African-born Grant Elliott (39) combined for a fourth-wicket stand of 71.

But the Black Caps suffered a late collapse in which they lost their last five wickets for 11 runs.

Wayne Parnell, expensive in his first two spells, returned to claim three more wickets and finish with career-best figures of five for 57.

Hashim Amla (38) and Kallis (36) put on 52 for the second wicket to keep South Africa on target after the early loss of captain Graeme Smith.

Kallis looked particularly impressive, being quick to get on the front foot as he stroked six fours off 39 deliveries, before edging a leg-cutter from Shane Bond to wicket-keeper McCullum.

The glovework of McCullum was the highlight in the field for New Zealand as he also took fine catches standing up to pace bowlers Daryl Tuffey and Kyle Mills to remove JP Duminy for 11 and Mark Boucher for 28.

South Africa captain Graeme Smith praised young left-arm seamer Wayne Parnell for his five-wicket haul in the five-wicket ICC Champions Trophy win over New Zealand on Thursday.

Parnell took three wickets in his last two overs as New Zealand crashed from 203 for five to 214 all out, the 20-year-old finishing with career-best figures of five for 57 in eight overs.

“Wayne has proven his skills and it was great to see him bounce back today,” Smith told reporters.

“He has put the work in at training and, although he will have his ups and downs because he is young and will have to learn quickly, as a captain it’s important to show faith.”

Left-arm spinner Roelof van der Merwe, who took two for 35, also received praise as South Africa recovered from their heavy opening loss to Sri Lanka.

“Roelof is one of the most competitive players in our squad, he even gets worked up in schools games. He plays at 100 per cent and it’s great to see his skills are at the same level as his competitiveness,” Smith said.

AB de Villiers produced a top-class innings of 70 not out off 76 balls to steer South Africa home on a difficult pitch.

“I thought to get us home in the 42nd over was a good effort,” Smith said. “We knew the pitch would be a touch slow and we’d have to work harder with the bat today. The nature of the pitch was such that to really attack the spinner was tough.”

(Editing by Ed Osmond; to query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

Australian captain Ricky Ponting says his team will not be taking Saturday’s ICC Champions Trophy encounter against the West Indies lightly despite the Caribbean side fielding a weakened line-up.

Australia begin their defence of the title with a rematch of the 2006 final but due to a contractual dispute between the West Indies board and its leading players, an unfamiliar team will be lining up against Ponting’s men.

“We all know the contractual issues the West Indies have been having but although their strongest team is not here, they will be as dangerous as they always are,” Ponting told reporters on Wednesday.

“They are naturally very attacking and flamboyant and, with One-day cricket being the way it is, we will give them the respect they deserve.”

Australia have had a packed year of cricket, including Test series against South Africa and England as well as a host of One-dayers and the World Twenty20, but Ponting insists the team remains focused on performing well at the ICC Champions Trophy.

“This is not just another tournament, it’s the second-biggest One-day event we play in, and post-Ashes it was all about making sure that we could produce our best cricket in these two weeks,” he said.

“We’ve managed to keep in really good shape, both mentally and technically, and we just need to acclimatise to being at (altitude) here. But having played a lot of cricket recently is a positive and we’re in as good shape as anyone.

England edged Australia 2-1 in the Ashes series but Ponting was buoyed by his team’s subsequent 6-1 thrashing of the hosts in the One-dayers.

“The mood in the squad the last few weeks has been particularly good. Even though we lost the Ashes, we gave it our best shot and it was a special series to be part of,” he added.

“And there’s no doubt we enjoyed the last couple of weeks because we’ve been winning well.”

The ICC has confirmed the event technical committee of the ICC Champions Trophy 2009 has approved Virat Kohli as a replacement player for Yuvraj Singh in India’s squad for the tournament.

The confirmation was conveyed to the Board of Control for Cricket in India on behalf of the event technical committee today (Wednesday).

Yuvraj fractured a finger in his right hand during India’s training session at Witwatersrand University on Wednesday morning and has been advised six weeks rest.

Kohli, a 20-year-old right-handed batsman, has played in six ODIs with his last being in the final of the tri-series against Sri Lanka earlier this month. So far, he has scored 161 runs at an average of 32.32 runs.

The event technical committee of the ICC Champions Trophy consists of David Richardson (ICC, chairman), Don McIntosh (tournament director), Campbell Jamieson (representative of IDI, the ICC’s commercial arm which runs major ICC events), Mike Gajjar (CSA representative), Sanjay Manjrekar (independent nomination) and Nick Knight (independent nomination).

India plays its first game of the tournament proper on Saturday 26 September against Pakistan at Centurion.