Durban, Mar. 12 : Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has praised opener for maintaining his equanimity in the second Test against South Africa here, and added that during the match he was looking for signs of an inflated ego, which fortunately never surfaced.

Are, Sweden - Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway defied an illness as he clinched the super-g World Cup title and took another step towards the overall crown on Thursday by finishing second behind Italian Werner Heel.

Austrian veteran Hermann Maier, by contrast, missed a 15th career trophy with an erratic ride at the World Cup finals.

Heel won the final super-g in 1 minute 13.41 on a sunny day on the Olympia piste, his second win of the season and third overall.

Brisbane, Mar. 12: Queensland fast bowler Ben Laughlin, who has taken 20 wickets at an average of 15.85 to guide his team to the Ford Ranger Cup final, has been called into the Australian squad for the Twenty20 and one-day clashes with South Africa.

Laughlin, 26, snared 3-25 in the final as Queensland stunned hot favourite Victoria.

"Ben has had an extremely good summer for Queensland and was instrumental in their one-day final victory," chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said.

"Ben will add to the versatility of the Australian bowling line up as we continue to look at options progressing forward to the 2011 World Cup."

Lahore, Mar. 12: Terming match referee Chris Broad’s statement on the Lahore terror attack as ‘appalling’, Pakistan cricket coach Intikhab Alam has sought an apology from Broad.

“I must say that I was hurt by Chris Broad’s appalling allegations against Pakistan as well as our cricket team after the incident. He must apologise for those comments,” The News quoted Alam, as saying.

Wellington, Mar. 12: The Black Caps bowlers don''t see anything remotely funny about facing Virender Sehwag, but the media do, reports the Waikato Times.

The Delhi destroyer provided nearly as much entertainment after last night''s match as he did in his scintillating innings.

The soft spoken Sehwag opened his press conference in contrasting style to his batting.

Wellington, Mar. 12: Black Caps captain Daniel Vettori remains atop the world one-day cricket bowling rankings.

Vettori reclaimed the top spot in January when he leapfrogged Australian fast bowler Nathan Bracken on the strength of his performance during the five-match series against the West Indies.

The latest rankings include the fifth one-day international against Australia in Brisbane on February 13.

New Zealand fast bowler Kyle Mills has edged further up the one-day rankings to third, while the injury-hit Jacob Oram slips to 19th.