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ScorecardJaik Mickleburgh again showed his liking for the Durham attack with another polished effort that underpinned the Essex innings in the Country Championship clash at Chelmsford. The 20-year-old right-hander, who took 174 off Durham earlier this season, struck 72 as Essex closed on 248 for 9 on a day cut short by 10 overs because of rain.Despite Mickleburgh’s contribution, Essex nevertheless appear doomed to drop into the second division next season. They already seem to have accepted that fact as they went into this match without leading wicket-taker David Masters, preferring to rest the fast bowler ahead of Saturday’s Clydesdale Bank 40 semi-final with Somerset.Mickleburgh, whose 10 boundaries included a straight-driven six against spinner Ian Blackwell, survived a scare on 59 when wicketkeeper Phil Mustard, at full stretch, failed to hold on to a catch offered against Ben Harmison. But it did not prove too expensive as 13 runs later he drove straight into the hands of Dale Benkenstein at mid-off when Scott Borthwick gave one of his leg breaks a little more air.It was not such a rewarding day for England opener Alastair Cook. He progressed to 33 without too much trouble but then undid his good work by pulling a delivery from Liam Plunkett into the hands of Mitchell Claydon at square leg. Matt Walker was another to perish in the 30s, turning Blackwell into the hands of Mark Stoneman at leg slip after helping Mickleburgh add 74 for the third wicket.Following Mickleburgh’s dismissal, skipper James Foster reached 20 for the first time in eight Championship innings and also guided Essex to their first batting point in four games.But there was little else to cheer the Essex faithful, with Durham making inroads at regular intervals. Foster had moved to within eight runs of his half century, an effort containing seven boundaries, when he was trapped leg before by Plunkett with the second new ball.Plunkett’s two wickets came at a cost of 27 runs while spinners Blackwell and Borthwick also picked up two scalps apiece at a cost of 30 and 41 runs respectively.

Virat Kohli, the Indian batsman, has been fined 15% of his match fee for breaching the ICC Code of Conduct during his team’s ODI against New Zealand in Dambulla on Wednesday.Kohli pleaded guilty to a Level 1 offence and accepted the penalty imposed by match referee Alan Hurst after play concluded. He was found to have breached 2.1.3 of the code which relates to “showing dissent at an umpire’s decision”.After being given out in the sixth over, Kohli stood his ground and looked at the umpire for a considerable time before eventually leaving the middle. The New Zealand team had finished celebrating and their 12th man had brought the team drinks by the time Kohli had walked past the non-striker on his way to the pavilion.”Accepting umpires’ decisions is part and parcel of playing cricket,” Hurst said, “and on this occasion Virat clearly showed dissent when he had been given out.”Since Kohli pleaded guilty to dissent and accepted the proposed sanction there was no need for a formal hearing. The charge was brought by on-field umpires Asad Rauf and Asoka de Silva, third umpire Kumar Dharmasena and fourth official Gration Liyanage.

The BCCI’s disciplinary committee is willing to consider the issue of its composition after meeting with suspended IPL chairman Lalit Modi’s lawyers in Mumbai today, according to Modi’s attorney Mehmood Abdi. Modi’s legal team will have to file a plea for the same to the BCCI before July 18.”We had a cordial meeting and the issue of recusal was put forth,” Abdi said. “The members said it would be considered.”The committee’s next hearing will be held on July 27 in New Delhi as two members of the committee – Arun Jaitley and Jyotiraditya Scindia – are members of the government, and as parliament will be in session. Modi was represented by his lawyers as he is reportedly out of the country on holiday and could not attend the meeting.”Even though BCCI’s memorandum, rules and regulations do not contain any stipulation for representation through lawyers of a person against whom the enquiry is being held, it is a matter of the discretion of the disciplinary committee,” the committee said in a release. “In view of the complex nature of certain issues involved, interpretation of documents required, and additionally that one of us on the committee has a legal background, we feel that it would be just and fair that Mr Modi be allowed to be represented through a lawyer in the enquiry.”On Thursday, the Bombay High Court had dismissed Modi’s petition asking it to quash the BCCI’s proceedings against him and appoint an independent panel to hear his case. Modi wanted an independent panel because he claims the BCCI is biased against him. He has accused Amin of having a grudge against him and during the hearings for the case, Modi’s lawyer, Virag Tulzhapurkar, also argued against Jaitley, saying the latter had voted to ratify the charges against Modi at the board’s special general body meeting on July 3.While refusing to delve into the merits of Modi’s petition, the division bench consisting of Justices BH Marlapalle and Roshan Dalvi said it was open to Modi to challenge the final decision of the committee as well as the legality of its composition.Modi moved the High Court against the BCCI last week following the board’s vote to ratify the charges against him and refer them to its disciplinary committee. The committee had asked Modi to appear before it prior to the case being filed.Modi was suspended immediately following the conclusion of IPL 3 and charged with financial irregularities relating to the bidding process for IPL franchises, the mid-over ad sales and the sale of theatrical rights. He was also charged with colluding to set up a rebel league in England.

ScorecardWorcestershire were winners on the field but losers at the turnstiles after choosing to go head-to-head with the football World Cup in their Friends Provident t20 clash with Derbyshire at New Road.Only 1,000 spectators – not even half the regular turnout in this competition – were persuaded to shun the England v Germany game on TV but they enjoyed their afternoon in the heatwave as the Royals swept to an eight-wicket victory with 4.5 overs to spare.Wes Durston, with 77 from 57 balls, saw Derbyshire to 147 for 7 and thiswas nowhere near enough to test the home side in their second successful run-chase in the space of three days.Although still bottom of the North Division, they are suddenly more at home in this format with Phil Jaques firing at the top of the order. Undaunted by the loss of opening partner Sanath Jayasuriya (16), the Australian left-hander romped to 50 in only 26 balls.The equally resourceful Moeen Ali (45) weighed in with five fours and two sixes in a stand of 87 in 7.5 overs and Jaques finished the job with 11 fours in reaching an undefeated 70.Derbyshire failed to cash in on the latest chapter in a remarkable revival in Durston’s career since the allrounder was released by Somerset. Starting the season with the newly created Unicorns team, he scored a Clydesdale Bank 40 century against Sussex before landing a short-term deal for the duration of the Friends Provident t20 competition.Moved up to open on his fourth appearance, he made 111 against Nottinghamshire and followed this with an unbeaten 71 against Durham to secure a full-time contract until 2012.Now up to 322 runs in 10 innings for the Falcons, he was the only batsman to play with freedom as Worcestershire succeeded in holding their opponents to below 150 for the second match in a row.Building on the win against Northamptonshire on Friday, James Cameron and Moeen each claimed a wicket in their first over but Durston remained a stumbling block with eight fours and two sixes.His dismissal, sweeping the medium pacer Cameron (3 for 22) to short fineleg, sparked off a clatter of four wickets in 15 balls. Left-arm seamer Jack Shantry took three in the penultimate over before Jaques led the home side to a win.

ScorecardLeicestershire’s County Championship game against Middlesex was abandoned as a draw without a ball being bowled on the last day at Grace Road.After steady rain throughout the morning, umpires Mark Benson and Nick Cook decided no play would be possible after an inspection at 2.15pm.The draw left Leicestershire with nine points and Middlesex took eight from a match badly affected by the weather, with only 9.2 overs bowled on the first day.

The Twenty20 series between New Zealand and Sri Lanka in Florida – the first international series between two full ICC members to take place in the USA – has been reshaped after the ICC declared that the floodlights at the Broward County Regional Park, the venue, were unfit for hosting international cricket. The schedule will now involve New Zealand taking on Sri Lanka twice over the weekend in addition to two Twenty20 games between USA and Jamaica, who also play a 50-over one-day game on May 21.”Ideally the inaugural game in the Pearls Cup series would have been a night game on Thursday,” New Zealand Cricket CEO Justin Vaughan said. “The lights at the stadium are fine for most levels of cricket, but they need to be of a higher standard for the playing and broadcast of international cricket.”And added to this, there is a high probability of rain and thunderstorms in the region on Thursday which added weight to our decision. Because of these factors, we have decided, along with our partner USA Cricket, to focus all of the attention on the weekend with the two double headers as well a full one-day international between USA and Jamaica on Friday the 21st.”The original plan was for a three-match Twenty20 series between New Zealand and Sri Lanka, which had been reduced to two back-to-back fixtures on May 21 and 22.According to Don Lockerbie, the chief executive of USACA, the decision to cancel the opening fixture, scheduled for May 19, was taken in the interests of promoting USA cricket in the best possible light, with a thunderstorm threatening to wash out the opening fixture and damage the image of the sport as it seeks to find its niche in a new and untapped market.”The original match was scheduled under lights, and we wanted to move it to the afternoon, but that’s tough to pull off on an American working week,” Lockerbie told Cricinfo. “We feel it’s better to start with a big bang on the weekend, because it’s about the USA and our strategic partner, New Zealand, trying to figure out what’s best to grow cricket in our country.”However, Lockerbie played down suggestions that the decision had been made as a cost-cutting measure, following reports of poor ticket sales and low levels of sponsor interest. “This is really an important weekend for us,” said Lockerbie. “We want to show the world we are open for business, and show that these teams have made a wise choice to come and play cricket in the US. But it’s got to be done prudently. How many events all over the world get set up and then cancelled at the last minute due to inclement weather while the fans are in the stadium and the broadcasters have to talk through the rain? To us, at this stage of our development, that would be worse than making a smart business decision now.”

Though India come into the third installment of the ICC World Twenty20 as heavyweights, their leader MS Dhoni knows full well that their first encounter, against Afghanistan, has the potential to be a little uncomfortable. Afghanistan, ahead of their first major tournament featuring the game’s top sides, are coming off two consecutive warm-up wins and that was enough indication for Dhoni to rule out complacency on India’s part.”If you ask me, I would not consider our opening match against Afghanistan as a practice game,” Dhoni told reporters in St Lucia. “I don’t take my opponents lightly. At the end of the day you have to win whichever team you play. I don’t know much about them. It is good in a way because if we know too much about a side then you are thinking too much about them. However, our preparation will remain the same as if you are playing the best opponent in world cricket.”We can’t really relax against whichever team you are playing. At the end of the day you are representing India and you have to be at your best when you turn up on the field.”India will be without Virender Sehwag and a few players are short on match practice but Dhoni was his normal, collected self when addressing the matter. “It is part and parcel of cricket that people get injured. But at the end of the day we have replaced them with the best possible players available,” he said. “We are just hoping that we won’t miss them on the field. We are hopeful that people who have come as replacements would step up to the occasion and perform.”Yuvraj Singh had a disastrous IPL but Dhoni defended his explosive batsman, whose status as a Twenty20 bully was cemented in the first World Twenty20 during which he hit Stuart Broad for six successive sixes in an over. “He bats at number four and the individual he is, he can easily play the big shots. There aren’t enough grounds in the world that are big enough for him not to clear,” said Dhoni. “These big hitters have a big impact on the game. Somebody like Kieron Pollard or [Andrew] Symonds are the kind of players who can take the game away from the opponents in three or four overs. It is a big stage for him [Yuvraj] and, as we have seen of him, he loves challenges.”Dhoni’s focus was not on the past – India were knocked out of the last World Twenty in the second round – and he said the team was eager to get off to a winning note. “Rather than thinking too much of the past and into the future, it is very important to be in the present. We have a couple of days before we play the first game. It is important to get the most out of it. We have to adapt to the conditions here and be prepared for the matches ahead,” Dhoni said.”Right now we are keen to play the games here [St Lucia]. We are not looking too far. It is the not first time that we are touring West Indies. So we know what the conditions would be like and are mentally prepared for it.”After Afghanistan on Saturday, India will play South Africa the next day.

Mitchell Johnson put his hand up over the past week, now he can put his feet up. His second ten-wicket match haul delivered Australia victory in Hamilton, their seventh win from eight Tests this summer, and he’s ready for a break. Johnson has been Australia’s leading weapon this season with 41 victims at 25.90, and Ricky Ponting believes his strike bowler has never been performing better.He finished the Seddon Park Test with 10 for 132, having collected six in the second innings, but the most impressive thing was the way he kept digging the ball in short on a pitch offering little and regularly broke 150kph. Johnson has come a long way since his disappointing Ashes tour and Ponting said his fast man had learnt a lot, including from the Scott Styris headbutt at the start of the one-day series.”To be able to bowl the way he did in the second innings of this game, and probably bowled as quick in the second innings of this game as he has right through that period of time, says a lot about him,” Ponting said. “This tour in particular has probably been the best and most consistent I’ve seen him bowl. To get ten wickets in this last game here is a great way for him to end a couple of years of cricket.”Mitch is a pretty fiery competitor and the leader of our attack I guess as well, he wants to stand up and be that aggressive sort of bowler. He generally is at his best when he is like that. He might have even got a few fans back with the way he bowled here. Once again, those little things like [the Styris incident] are really good for these guys, they learn a lot about themselves when they are confronted with those issues and having the 15,000-20,000 crowd on their back. He is getting better game by game.”Johnson now gets three weeks away before the World Twenty20 and plans to relax at the beach and in the wineries of Margaret River. The challenge for Australia has always been to manage Johnson’s workload as he is the sort of bowler for whom too much time away from the game can be a negative.”Whenever we’ve given him an extended break he’s come back and it’s taken him a little while to get back in to it again,” Ponting said. “What we have to do is make sure we don’t run him into the ground. I know he’s got a nice little break with no IPL, so the guys will make sure he gets appropriate work done to be fresh and fit and ready to go for England [to play Pakistan].”Johnson said this week that he was happy to kick back and relax instead of heading to the IPL, despite what he conceded was tempting money, in order to keep himself fresh for Australia. His main goal is to make sure he is peaking for next summer’s Ashes series in Australia, so that he can make up for his meltdown in England and bowl his team to victory to regain the urn.”I need my breaks now and then but not big breaks, two or three weeks is probably my maximum break,” Johnson said. “I think the more bowling I do the better I feel. I know when I come back from a little break I do feel a bit stiff and sore, I know definitely the more bowling I do the better I feel about my bowling.”I think I have definitely improved, during that Ashes series I had a bad one at Lord’s and probably wasn’t as consistent throughout that whole series. But you are going to have those ups and downs throughout your career and I think I have learnt from that. I think I have proved it since then and I think I have definitely stepped up a little bit.”

South Africa coach Corrie van Zyl has outlined consistency as the primary aim for his team with an eye on the 2011 World Cup. “For me, one of the biggest goals for the team will be consistency,” van Zyl told . “We spoke about it in Ahmedabad and it’s the one thing we must improve if the team is going to get to number one. Our consistency obviously needs to pick up and it is a concern.”He said the ability to handle pressure was one the most important factors in ensuring consistency. “The players have to make sure that when they are under pressure, they win the big moments,” van Zyl said. “They must be calm and able to think clearly so they can execute the game plan under that sort of pressure. Only then will the consistency change, and that is one of the big goals for me.”South Africa’s recent tour of India got off to a rousing start, as they outplayed India by an innings in the first Test in Nagpur. The momentum was with the visitors as they managed 228 for 2 by tea on the first day of the second Test in Kolkata before collapsing to 296, and eventually conceding an innings defeat. More than the manner or the margin of defeat, van Zyl was disappointed with the way his side handed over the initiative in one bad session.”Obviously, after the very good start we had, it was a huge disappointment to lose the second Test, although I thought we played really well on the last two days to try and save the game,” van Zyl said. “But it was especially disappointing on the first day, one session basically cost us and we gave the advantage away.”van Zyl’s appointment as coach for the India tour was an interim one, after Mickey Arthur resigned days before the team’s departure. van Zyl was confirmed as coach soon after, until the next World Cup, a decision that he welcomed.”It was a relief not just for me but also for the team, they also felt the uncertainty and the effect of that cannot be underestimated,” van Zyl said. “Fortunately, it’s no longer something we need to worry about. Going into the [India] tour, it was quite difficult because I didn’t have time for any preparation. The positive now is that I have a much clearer picture of what we need to do to be a force in India for 2011.”van Zyl believes that the tour to India will stand his side in good stead for the 2011 World Cup, to be co-hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. “I’ve been in India now with a lot of guys who will most probably represent South Africa there next year. I’ve picked up a lot about the conditions and the way individuals perform under pressure. We’ve started the first building block.”South Africa conceded the three-match ODI series through a narrow one-run defeat in the first match and a big loss in the second game. They then recovered well to register a thumping win in the dead rubber in Ahmedabad, an effort that pleased the coach. “Before the last match, we spoke some harsh words and the guys responded unbelievably. It was a nice comprehensive win,” van Zyl said.

ScorecardWade Townsend followed his 100 against the touring West Indians with 121 against Tasmania•Getty Images

Wade Townsend’s first Sheffield Shield century helped Queensland recover from a precarious 4 for 39 to post a respectable 7 for 244 on the opening day at Bellerive Oval. Townsend and Chris Hartley led the fightback with a 172-run partnership that saved the blushes of the captain Chris Simpson after he chose to bat.Queensland’s problems began when the openers were removed by Adam Maher, in his first Sheffield Shield match, and Adam Griffith, who was playing his first game for Tasmania since 2007. The other two Tigers fast men then chipped in with Lee Carseldine caught at short leg off Tim Macdonald and Glen Batticciotto bowled by Brendan Drew.But there were no more wickets until after tea as Townsend and Hartley staged the revival. Townsend showed his talent earlier in the season when he posted an even 100 against the touring West Indians and this time he reached 121 before he was caught behind off the bowling of Griffith.Griffith, who missed all of last summer following a knee reconstruction, also removed Hartley for 68. By the close of play, Queensland were relying on Simpson, who was unbeaten on 1, and Ben Cutting, who had scored 4.