All fingers point to Warne

Former Australian Test players have added their voices to growing public opinion that Shane Warne should be dropped from the national one-day squad.

With Australia's cricket lovers looking for answers for their team's failure to qualify for the VB triangular series – which also includes South Africa and New Zealand – critics have pointed to the spinner's record of six wickets in eight matches at an average of 54.00 as the reason for the hosts' demise.

Indeed, Daniel Vettori and Nicky Boje, the two finger spinners from New Zealand and South Africa, have looked far more impressive.

Warne has always relied on three basic deliveries – the leg-break, the googly and the top-spinner – but Kerry O'Keeffe, a former Test leg-spinner and now a radio commentator, says that Warne is sending down too many "zooters", the top-spinner that hurries on to the batsman.

"All he does is to try and contain the batsmen," O' Keefe said. And the former Test paceman Jeff Thomson agreed. "He'll have to go back to what he does best – that is trying to get people out," he said. "He is obviously trying to contain, he probably needs to be more aggressive."

In Christchurh, New Zealand, Zimbabwe will have to wait for at least another day to discover who they will play in the final of Under-19s World Cup Plate Championship. The second semi-final between Bangladesh and Nepal was washed out after 45 overs. The match is set to resume today.

At the close, Nepal, having won the toss and opted to bat, had reached 136 for 6. The decision to bat first looked a questionable one after they lost the opener Yashwant Subedi leg before to Ashiqur Rahman without scoring.

The rain was probably a boon for the Nepal batsmen who struggled against an accurate Bangladesh attack. Their highest score came from Bardan Chalise who made a patient 27 from 89 balls while Prem Chaudhary weighed in with 25.

Zimbabwe beat Namibia by 35 runs to win the first Plate semi-final on Monday.