Aussies must wear out Flintoff, play positive: Warne

Australia need to play aggressive and positive cricket and and wear out Andrew Flintoff in the first session of the final Test if they have to beat England at the Oval and retain the Ashes urn, reckons Shane Warne.

"With the Ashes up for grabs over the next five days, Australia need to play positive cricket from ball .. if we are to retain the famous little urn," Warne wrote in his column in Daily Telegraph.

"Australia must remain aggressive and try to win the Test match. If Ricky Ponting and the boys take in a conservative approach and just try to bat for long periods at The Oval, it could hurt them and they could pay the ultimate price," he wrote.

The legendary leg-spinner also advised the Australians to strategise Flintoff's early fall to improve their chances of winning the series deciding Test match.

9 Delhi cricketers skip camp on Day 2

Even as the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) is set to elect its new committee on Thursday, the players' revolt against the body continued, as seven of them, including Gautam Gambhir, Ishant Sharma and Ashish Nehra, skipped the fitness camp on the second day.

The camp, being held at Feroze Shah Kotla ground in Delhi, saw just 14 players turning up for conditioning on the second day. Nehra, who had attended the camp on Wednesday, also missed the session along with Gambhir and Ishant.

The DDCA had on Wednesday claimed that the players would join the camp from Thursday. However, the number of absentees went up to nine from the previous eight.

Gambhir, Ishant and Nehra have backed Virender Sehwag over his allegations against the DDCA concerning corruption in selection related issues.

The other players who missed yesterday's camp were Mithun Manhas, Chaitanya Nanda, Aditya Jain and Sunny Sehrawat. The DDCA claimed that these four players missed the camp due to their prior commitments.

Rajat Bhatia, who has been playing county cricket in England, was also absent.

The 23 players list also included Virender Sehwag who could not attend the camp as he has been undergoing rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore after recently being operated upon.

Dhoni, Yuvraj lead ICC ODI batsmen ranking

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni continued to top the one-day batsmen chart with his deputy Yuvraj Singh occupying the second position in the the latest ICC ODI Player Rankings released today.

Apart from Dhoni and Yuvraj, Delhi dasher Virender Sehwag, at the seventh spot, is the other Indian to feature in the top 10 batsmen list.

Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir are at the 14th and 17th spot respectively in the chart.

However, no Indian features among top 10 ODI bowlers with left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan languishing at the 17th spot in the list which is being headed by Sri Lankan Nuwan Kulasekara, followed by Kyle Mills and Daniel Vettori of New Zealand.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan continued to top the ODI all-rounders table, followed by England's Andrew Flintoff in the second spot and Kiwi Jacob Oram at the third position.

India also managed to hold on to their second best ODI team status with 126 rating points.

South Africa tops the table with a point lead over India, while World Champions Australia is lying third with 119 points.