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Scorecard

Sussex batted out a draw on the final at Lord’s after being set an unattainable 368 in 49 overs by MCC. But they had to overcome an uneasy start to their second innings as Matthew Hoggard struck twice after Owais Shah moved to an unbeaten 120. There was a late injury scare when Hoggard left the field following a dropped catch, but fears were eased of a major problem.Hoggard, who struggled for his rhythm in the first innings, spent part of yesterday afternoon working on the Nursery Ground with Peter Moores, acting as MCC’s coach for this match. The extra practice paid off as he appeared more comfortable in the second innings, removing Carl Hopkinson with an edge to first slip then trapping first-innings centurion Murray Goodwin lbw.Sandwiched between Hoggard’s strikes, Alex Gidman had Chris Nash caught behind and at 30 for 3 – with Michael Yardy unable to bat after breaking his finger on Sunday, ruling him out for up to six weeks – the champions were under pressure. But this isn’t a fixture where players want to push themselves too hard and Hoggard was rested after six overs, while Steve Harmison delivered just a four-over burst.After tea, the attack was largely in the hands of Alex Loudon and Adil Rashid, leaving Matt Prior and Andrew Hodd with a comfortable task of batting out time. Hoggard dropped Prior at long on, then immediately left the field with a suspected hand injury, but it was later confirmed there was no break. Prior fell three short of a half-century when he was caught behind off Rashid a few overs before the draw was agreed.The morning session had been cut to 45 minutes after a faulty sprinkler allowed water to leak under the covers at the Nursery End, leaving a damp patch on the bowler’s follow through. The groundstaff used torches to dry the area as the umpires, Trevor Jesty and George Sharp, made two inspections.On resumption, Shah moved to his century off 208 balls and Gidman eased to a fifty. Gidman was deceived in the flight by Ollie Rayner shortly after lunch, but Alastair Cook batted on as Shah and Steven Davies added another 40.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

There was no brave rearguard partnership, no stubborn resistance which delayed the inevitable on the third day in Wellington as New Zealand crushed Bangladesh by an innings and 137 runs in less than seven sessions to seal the 2-0 clean sweep of the series. New Zealand took four out of the required five wickets in 25 overs this morning, and with Tamim Iqbal nursing a broken thumb in the dressing room, the Bangladesh innings ended on 113 for 9.Bangladesh had saved their most feeble batting performance for their final innings of the tour. In Dunedin they had batted 46.1 and 83.1 overs in the first and second innings respectively. They were abject in the first innings at the Basin Reserve, surviving only 45.3 overs and it did not get much better in the second, in which they collapsed in 47 overs. The overcast, windy conditions and a pitch that offered plenty of bounce and lateral movement, which New Zealand’s seam attack exploited, simply proved to be beyond the Bangladesh batsmen’s abilities. Only Shakib Al Hasan, who had replaced Enamul Haque Jnr to strengthen the batting, resisted, remaining unbeaten on 41 but he too offered two chances to slip.The capitulation began in the first over of the day. Chris Martin got one to nip back into Habibul Bashar, who played outside of the line of the ball without moving his feet, and the leg before decision was easy for Peter Parker to make. New Zealand’s bowlers endured a barren patch of 13 overs before their next wicket and it was during this period that Shakib was dropped twice, on 19 and 29, off Iain O’Brien. He received his first let off when Matthew Bell dropped a sharp chance at second slip and it was Bell, again, who made no attempt to catch one that flew between him and first slip.Shahadat Hossain stuck around for 37 balls before fending away from his body and edging O’Brien to McCullum and an awful mix-up immediately after the drinks break left Sajidul Islam stranded half-way down the pitch to give New Zealand the eighth wicket.Mashrafe Mortaza, who was demoted to No. 11 yet again, and Shakib added 30 runs for the final wicket before Mortaza was splendidly caught by Mills, diving to his right at point, to end the game ten minutes before lunch. The last wicket had produced Bangladesh’s highest partnership, an indictment of how poor the batting performance had been.

It’s good to have options. It can also be bad for your scalp. A whole lot of head scratching will take place between the end of this Test and the start of third and final one, beginning next week at Trent Bridge, with Liam Plunkett and Sajid Mahmood the cause. Both put in clinical performances on a good day for England; both had to. If, as expected, Steve Harmison recovers sufficiently from injury for the third Test, this match acts as a shoot-out for the two bowlers.Plunkett, 21, and Mahmood, 24, both impressed on a day when England played sensibly and dominated completely, but still seemed to lack the killer intensity we’d grown accustomed to. Plunkett finished with the better figures – 3 for 43 off 12 compared to Mahmood’s 2 for 25 – and he deserved his success.Plunkett will now be wiser to the fluctuating fortunes of Test cricket after Lord’s and this innings. Plunkett spent most of the first Test in a state of near-despair – his line was good, his length was fine but he left his luck in Durham. Today, he took two wickets in his first over – opener Michael Vandort (think Peter Crouch’s height and Simon Jones’ bulk) and danger-man Mahela Jayawardene.”Taking two wickets in my first over was a pleasure having waited for so long at Lord’s to get going,” said Plunkett. “I felt confident going in today and it all came out right. It was nipping around and swinging, so it was good to lose the toss and get the chance to bowl and pick up a few wickets. Throughout my short career, the plan has been just to kiss the pitch and try to get them to nick it through to the keeper. I think everyone bowled pretty well and we’re more than pleased with the day.”A full length was key to Plunkett’s success, and Mahmood took note. At times it was as if Sri Lanka’s batsmen were trying their best to play England’s fielders back into form, with shots that just weren’t there that would have made coach Tom Moody wince, and possibly kick stuff. Mahmood capitalised. Getting the most out of a slow pitch, he again showed the priceless ability to get batsmen scurrying to the shelter of the non-striker’s end.There is, however, only one slot for the next Test. Do the selectors go for Plunkett’s 80mph-an-hour accuracy, or Mahmood’s occasionally erratic pace and bounce? Both have secret weapons – Mahmood’s ability to reverse swing it and Plunkett’s potential as a genuine No. 8 batsman. It’s this batting ability that may see Plunkett retain his place, at least in the short-term. With coach Duncan Fletcher desperate to have a decent batsman to come in after Geraint Jones, Mahmood may struggle while Ashley Giles is still injured.

“Hopefully I can have a few more days like this,” says Plunkett. “I felt I did well today but I need to keep on taking wickets to keep in contention for the next Test. If I do that, then the selectors will have a tough job.”The future may belong to Mahmood, however. His height and bounce, his reverse-swing and his apparent fearlessness makes him perfect for England’s top mission – Retaining The Ashes. He also induces excitement from the crowd – something that seems to have been missing from this England side over the last two Tests.Nothing can live up to the Ashes Test at this venue last summer, so it’s unfair to compare. But, despite a commanding performance, there seemed to be a real lack of intensity. Two reasons for this are Harmison’s absence and Flintoff not quite recapturing his stirring form of last summer (his pace has dropped slightly as well).The biggest reason, however, seems to be Monty ‘Python’ Panesar. He is the Jim Carey of the England set-up, the fall-guy who offers comedic respite from the serious drama. His drop off Plunkett was bad enough, but his failure to pick up a ball that was going so slow across the grass that worms could have given it a real run for its money was head-smackingly bad.Watching the ball travelling towards Monty is like watching a loved-one making a drunken fool of themself in front of all of your friends. What the Aussie crowd will do to him is enough to make you shudder. What he’ll do when an Ashes-deciding catch is skied towards him is enough to make you lock yourself in your room until the Australians learn how to be good winners.

Dav Whatmore, Bangladesh’s coach, hopes his players won’t be overawed at the presence of India’s cricketers when both sides meet in their opening match of the World Cup.”Most of them are superstars but I would be very upset if our cricketers were to get overawed by it. Once you enter the field, you are equals,” he was quoted as saying to . “We would like to keep our focus despite who the person is – after all he has got two arms and legs.”Whatmore, 55, expressed his disappointment at the ‘minnow’ label tagged to Bangladesh, a side that has beaten Australia, India and Sri Lanka. “I would like to know what’s the meaning of minnows is in [the] Oxford Dictionary. We have secured important triumphs. But yes we are ninth in order so in that sense the other big teams are ahead of us. India is one of them and they are the first one we have to contend with.”I don’t remember when it was last when we played India; I think it was back in 2004. Given the geographical proximity, I would have thought we played more often.”Habibul Bashar, the Bangladeshi captain, echoed Whatmore’s concerns. “We have done well in recent past but then we never played a big team in year 2006. As we play against India, we realize they have a number of superstars. We have none. But we want to play as a unit with significant contributions coming from each and everyone rather than a couple of individuals.”Both coach and captain felt Bangladesh’s warm-up win over New Zealand was down to an all-round effort and expected more of the same from their players. Whatmore felt Tamim Iqbal, the rookie opener, would come good – “It will be a bit of a baptism by fire for him but I think he will acquit himself well” – while Bashar was wary of the left-arm variety in his spin department. “All our spinners, be it frontline Mohammad Rafique and Abdur Razzak or Saqibul Hasan, are left-arm spinners. We don’t have variety and I would have loved to have an offspinner. But they are the best spinners we have.”

On a day when England needed to be firing on all cylinders to preventAustralia taking control of the fifth and final Test, Andrew Flintoff’scontribution with the ball was a cause of concern. Despite taking the newball, he bowled just six overs in the day in two three-over spells – one ofwhich was interrupted by lunch – to raise further fears about histroublesome left ankle.England nevertheless insisted that all was well. “His ankle is fine,” saidEngland’s leading bowler of the day, Steve Harmison, whose sentiments weresimultaneously expressed by the England press officer sat beside him. “Itwas just that myself and Jimmy were bowling well and the rain break came ata good time for us.”Even so, Flintoff’s absence from the front line of the attack was apuzzlement – especially on a day when England were lacking the services oftheir most consistent performer of the tour, Matthew Hoggard, who failed afitness test before the start of the match.”When you lose your best bowler of the series it’s up to the other bowlersto step up a little bit and hopefully that’s what we’ve tried to do,” addedHarmison. “Jimmy bowled well. Monty bowled well and I felt I got better asthe day wore on. It’s nicely poised, and it’s a good time to have a breakand recharge the batteries and come back tomorrow.”Glenn McGrath is another man who knows about bowling through the pain of asore ankle, having undergone similar surgery to remove a bone spur inOctober 2003 . “I’m not sure how Freddie’s going at the moment,” he said. “Iknow I felt great until I snapped one of the other spurs off.”But bowling’s a funny thing, and it’s amazing how much pain you can bowlwith. It’s only in between the overs that you really feel it. I’m sureFreddie will keep going, and keep hitting the deck.”It was a day of disappointments for Flintoff, after earlier falling short ofhis second century against Australia. “He was batting well and we’re alldisappointed for him,” said Harmison. “Australia bowled in good areas anddidn’t give us much to hit, and they tried to starve him of the strike asmuch as they possibly could. Perhaps we [the tail] could have got a few moreand helped Andrew get us up to 300 or nearer 350.As to Flintoff’s general morale, as a gruelling series draws to a close,Harmison said: “I don’t think he’s taken it any more personally than therest of us do. We’re all disappointed, despondent and devastated. At the endof the last Test that dressing-room was horrendous, it was not a very niceplace to be. But you have to put a brave face on and you have to show a bitof fight. I think Fred took it on the chin a bit more than anyone else ascaptain. But he’s trying his best and we’re all trying to win this Testmatch for England.”Subject to fitness, Michael Vaughan is waiting in the wings to take over forthe one-day series, but Harmison was adamant that his friend was not keen tohand over the reigns. “I think Fred will be very disappointed if he’s notcaptain for the one-dayers, if that’s what happens.”He just loves captaining England. There is no better job in AndrewFlintoff’s eyes than being captain of England, but if that happens ithappens. I’m sure he’ll fall into line – as he would if Andrew Strauss hadbeen named captain for this series.”

Ricky Ponting, the Australian captain, who was docked his entire match fee for arguing a wide-ball call with the umpire in the match against West Indies, has sought clarification over the on-field communication between umpires and captains.Ponting once again apologised for his behaviour but suggested that there was nothing wrong with a captain approaching the umpires if he felt the situation warrantedit. His view hadn’t found favour with Chris Broad, the ICC match referee, who fined him after the game finished on Tuesday night.Speaking to the media before the team left for an afternoon practicesession, Ponting said: “I know that’s happening even at the board level andICC level at the moment with the umpires having some input into a lot ofthat stuff. Chris did say to me the other night that he doesn’t see it asappropriate at all for a captain to be even approaching an umpire duringthe course of the game so there does need to be some clarification there.”Asad Rauf, the Pakistani umpire, was the target of Ponting’s ire duringthe opening game, and Ponting admitted that he had overstepped the line.”It was just one of those heat-of-the-moment sort of things that I tend toget a bit wrapped up in from time to time,” he said, before adding that hehad no qualms about owning up to his mistakes.”It’s always easy I think to do that, I’ve always been one when I made amistake to put my hand up and say that I’ve done it. It was important forme as a leader of my team. I wanted to get that point across to my teamthat it’s not acceptable. Everyone knows when they’ve made a mistake. Somepeople unfortunately don’t like owning up to them.”That said, Ponting still believed that there needed to be a dialoguebetween the captain and on-field officials to smooth over certainsituations. “I think it’s more the timing of it than not being allowed todo it,” he said. “The captain has got to be able to do that at differenttimes over the course of the game, so as long as the timing’s okay I thinkthat will continue.”

ScorecardFile photo – CM Gautam’s fighting fifty was not enough as Karnataka’s 34-match unbeaten streak came to an end•PTI

Pacer Nikit Dhumal picked up five wickets in the second innings, to add to three in the first, to halt Karnataka’s 37-match unbeaten streak in first-class cricket and knock them out of the Ranji Trophy. Anupam Sanklecha, who took four wickets, including the last two, ably complemented Dhumal, as Karnataka were dismissed for 239, chasing 293 in Pune.Robin Uthappa began positively on the last day, hitting his 46th first-class fifty. However, he could not convert it into a big score and was pinned lbw by Sanklecha. The majority of the middle order fumbled, leaving much to do for CM Gautam and the lower order. He rallied with Vinay Kumar and S Aravind but eventually ran out of partners. Gautam remained unbeaten on 65 off 104 balls, including seven fours, as Karnataka came up short by 53 runs. Mahasrashtra, who were already out of contention for the quarter-finals, finished the season with a consolation win.
ScorecardAfter having struck 110 with the bat, Ravi Jangid bowled Vidarbha to the knockouts with career-best figures of 7-59, which took his wickets tally in the match to 11. Jangid had toiled away for 41 overs and was assisted by spinner Akshay Wakhare who bowled 31.1 overs for two wickets. Yuzvendra Chahal, coming in at No.10 delayed the final rites with 0 off 77 balls.Haryana, though, had begun well before falling away. Having been asked to follow on, Haryana had a solid platform thanks to Nitin Saini (42) and Mohit Hooda (38). Rohit Sharma scored his maiden first-class century even as he lacked substantial support from the middle and lower order. He was the ninth batsman, dismissed by Jangid, for 107 off 241 balls, as Haryana were bowled out for 232, nine less than their first-innings effort.
ScorecardAssam just about held on for a draw against Bengal in Guwahati, a result which ensured that both teams booked their berth for the Ranji knockouts. Assam, following on, needed at least 301 to make Bengal bat again, but as was the case in their first innings, the majority of their top and middle order failed to make good on their starts. Pallavkumar Das top-scored with 55, but offspinner Aamir Gani’s five-wicket haul meant Assam lost wickets at regular intervals. Luckily for the hosts, though, a wet outfield before the start, and bad light towards the end of the day meant only 48 overs of play were possible, with Assam hanging on at 143 for 8.

Sri Lanka arrived in Adelaide less than a week ago promising aggression and focus as they bid for their first Test win on Australian soil. On the day they landed, their captain MahelaJayawardene made it clear that to compete against Australia in any form they must be on the ball for at least four days of the five.In the first warm-up match against the Chairman’s XI in Adelaide, they could not even concentrate for four sessions as their fielding fell apart over the last two of the three days. Five catches were dropped, with Jayawardene culpable in two instances – missing sitters at second and leg slip. He admitted that it was a “bad habit” the players must shake off, but was keen to downplay the fielding and happy to put it behind them.”It was just a lack of concentration,” Jayawardene said after the game ended in a draw. “We’ve had a long chat about it yesterday and today as well. The guys concentrate a lot on the batting and the bowling but it’s just on the field it seems to not have the same kind of concentration which is a bad habit obviously. We just need to make sure we don’t get into these kind of things, especially when playing Australia.”He was candid, too, about his batting performance which involved a first-innings duck and a fair fifty, with both innings ending in the softest of dismissals, popping up on the off side. “The first innings was a shambles the way I got out. I just wanted to spend some time out there in the middle. The way I was hitting the ball, that was pretty good, but towards the end I was just trying to do a few too many things.”And he took away some positives – “The way Sanath [Jayasuriya] played and the way we handled the conditions. A bit of a tough start, losing a bowler [Chanaka Welegedera] early wasn’t the best thing because we didn’t want to tax a lot of guys as well, we just wanted to get them into a rhythm.”The biggest plus was Muttiah Muralitharan who took four wickets. Jayawardene confirmed Murali was “100 per cent” and would be rested for the warm-up. Malinga Bandara will come in to replace him for the tour match in Queensland. “He bowled pretty well, I was very happy withthat – all in all it was a good outing for us.”That may be, but Kumar Sangakkara was injured in the process – tearing his left hamstring while batting. Chanaka Welegedera also tore his right quadricep muscle and will have a replacement – Sujeewa de Silva – flown in for him, hopefully in time for the next tour match whichbegins on Friday.

LOOTS Bosman and Jon Bastow provided the highlights on an otherwiseforgettable opening day of this low-key match between two of the SupersportSeries also-rans.Stumps were drawn with Natal having reached 88 without loss in reply toGriqualand West’s 279. Mark Bruyns was 33 not out with Doug Watson on 46.Griquas batsman Bosman swashed and buckled a sparkling 71 off 79 balls withnine fours and three sixes, while Bastow bowled with line, length and fireto take four for 46.Natal captain Dale Benkenstein put the opposition in on a greentop afterwinning the toss. However, his bowlers, bar Bastow, wasted both the pitchand the new ball.Bastow had the idea – just short of a length on off-stump – and was rewardedwith both the wickets that fell before lunch, which came with Griquas havingput a healthy 133 runs on the board.The visitors were reduced to 35 for two in the 11th over, but that didn’ttrouble Bosman, who went after the bowling as if his team were 400 for two.Opener Martyn Gidley proved more staid, but the partnership grew quicklyuntil Bosman was caught behind off Bastow in the seventh over of the secondsession to end a stand of 112.Gidley hung about for another eight overs before suffering a similar fate toBosman, this time at the hands of Eldine Baptiste, after scoring 60.And that, but for Pieter Koortzen’s brisk 32 – which featured six fours -and Wendell Bossenger’s rearguard 45, was where Griquas’ better battingended. The rest of it crumbled quietly away.Wayne Kidwell bowled aggressively in his opening spell, and he seemed tohave earned success when the visitors celebrated what they believed wasWatson being caught behind for 16.Watson believed it too, and tucked his bat under his arm and walked thefirst few metres of the journey back to the dressing room before casuallyglancing over his shoulder at umpire Johan Cloete – who had not raised hisfinger. So Watson veered back towards the crease and prepared to continue hisinnings, amid the gobsmacked Griquas players. Whether the batsman hadmisheard Cloete verbally pronouncing him not out was unclear, but it wasthat sort of day.

The ECB is clamping down on the burgeoning number of Kolpak players who it believes are turning out for counties without having the correct work permits.Ina report in today’s Daily Telegraph, Simon Briggs says that some Kolpak players have been signed by counties without necessarily meeting the requirement that they have played international cricket or are of first-class standard.A European Union ruling in 2003 made it illegal for a member of one EU state to prevent a person from another, or where that country has a trading relationship with the EU, from working in that country. This loophole has been exploited by players from the West Indies, Zimbabwe but predominantly South Africa.Most counties have taken advantage of the ruling to bolster their squads. Some, like Northamptonshire, have exploited it to the full while only Glamorgan have not done so. Supporters of the scheme claim that it allows players to join counties and go on to qualify for England. Critics say it allows counties to fill sides with what amount to mercenaries who take the cash and run.”With the number of recruitments we are seeing, things are in danger of swaying in the wrong direction,” Ian Smith, vice-president of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, told The Daily Telegraph. “The problem people are those who bypass the system, make a pile of cash, then go home.”Earlier this week Haroon Lorgat, the convener of selectors in South Africa, actually welcomed players signing Kolpak contracts with counties. It “could be to the advantage of SA cricket,” he said. “English conditions provide a good training ground to any player. When someone decides to go the Kolpak route, it does not necessarily mean he is lost to South Africa. Take Paul Harris as an example. He went to England as a Kolpak player but when we selected him for our Test team last season he dropped his county like a hot potato to play for South Africa.”The ECB has tried to give cash incentives for counties not to sign so many Kolpak players, but in the view of Richard Bevan, the PCA’s chief executive, the amounts are not enough to be a big enough incentive to do so.But the paper reports that David Collier, the ECB chief executive, has written to all counties reminding them that all Kolpak players must meet the necessary criteria or they would be in breach of work permit regulations.