Somerset’s close two-wicket win over Yorkshire at Scarborough took them closer to Worcestershire at the top of the First Division of the National League. Some five thousand spectators saw Somerset, set to score just 142 for victory on a pitch which did not favour batting, collapse to 74-7 in the 27th over.From that point, however, Ian Blackwell struck back strongly by hitting 50 n.o. from 41 deliveries. His partner Michael Burns (26) was out at 107, but Blackwell pressed the attack by hitting slow left-armer Darren Lehmann for six. With Graham Rose he chiselled away at the margin and ended the match by striking Paul Hutchison which raised his fifty and won the match.Somerset’s poor early batting had been brought about by fast bowlers Matthew Hoggard and Chris Silverwood supported by the catches of Richard Blakey at the wicket. Winning the toss Yorkshire were bowled out for 141: Steffan Jones took 4-33 to raise his season’s National League aggregate to 21 wickets. Paul Jarvis (3-23), Marcus Trescothick and Blackwell gave him accurate support. Blakey (33) was the hosts’ top-scorer but he hit only two fours in 75 balls. Ian Fisher wasmore adventurous with 20 from 29 deliveries and then took 3-20.

There was no joy for Tripura on Thursday as they slipped to 116 allout against Assam in their East Zone Ranji Trophy encounter at home.On winning the toss at the Maharaja Bir Bikram College Stadium inAgartala, Assam skipper SZ Suffri put the home side in to bat. It wasa decision that paid rich dividends at the close of play on the firstday. Left arm spinner Sukhbinder Singh was quite unplayable. Returningthe amazing figures of 15-7-15-5, Sukhbinder ran through the Tripurabatting lineup. Picking up wickets that spanned from the openingbatsman to the last man, Sukhbinder made sure that the highestindividual score was restricted to S Dasgupta’s 42. AlthoughSukhbinder’s performance was the one that stood out, left arm seamerGautam Dutta with 3/30 gave a good account of himself.In response, the Assam side encountered no problems. Although PJ Daswas run out after he had made 28 (57 balls, 5 fours, 1 six) the firstwicket partnership was already worth 52. When stumps was called, Assamwere motoring on at a healthy 79 for 1. Skipper Zufri, coming in atone drop was unbeaten on 21. The other opener, SB Saikia had helpedhimself to a slow but steady 25 (96 balls) and he too was unconquered.Assam are in a good position, and some steady batting from them on thesecond and third days should see them take the initiative.

With a fighting innings of 51 not out, which has lasted nearly two and a half hours, Robin Weston was attempting to bring stability to the Middlesex innings after five wickets had gone down for 124.The last to fall was Paul Weekes’ wicket, caught at cover for 13 from a lofted shot, an hour before bad light and rain brought an end to proceedings at 5.44pm with seven overs remaining of the second day’s play. Middlesex had reached 169 for five.Having made a slow but solid start to their first innings, the home side had struggled to consolidate during the last two sessions of play.Their opening stand put 74 on the board when two wickets went in successive overs. Michael Roseberry, who was dropped at slip before he had scored, was caught on 30 off the outside edge as he pushed forward to off spinner Suaun Udal in the 34th over.In the next over, Dimitri Mascarenhas bowled Andy Strauss for 33 and then struck again three overs later, having Stephen Fleming caught at slip for five. That gave him two wickets for seven in six overs of accurate pace bowling.Shortly before tea, which was taken on 119 for four, Middlesex lost Ben Hutton for six when Neil Johnson took his second catch, at slip. It was off Udal who claimed his second wicket for 41 in twenty overs.Earlier this morning, a big-hitting spree by Hampshire’s tail-enders added 94 runs in only 74 minutes before they were dismissed for 404 an hour before lunch.After losing his partner Adrian Aymes, who managed to add only six to his overnight score of 63 before falling leg before wicket to Phil Tufnell, Udal went on to become the fifth Hampshire batsman to score a half-century in the innings. Remarkably, this is the second time this season that five Hampshire batsmen have hit half-centuries in a single innings.Hampshire’s eighth-wicket stand of 114 fell just five short of their record against Middlesex.Udal’s fifty was the quickest of the five, coming from 81 balls and included six boundaries. He hit two of those off Angus Fraser in the second over of the morning, one to square leg and the other between long leg and square.Alex Morris kept up the scoring rate after Udal had skied to be caught at mid-wicket off Paul Weekes. He had been dropped earlier at short mid-wicket off Tufnell, but continued with his hard hitting which brought him six boundaries and a six over the sight screen off Weekes who eventually bowled him when he was only seven short of yet another fifty by a Hampshire batsman.With his dismissal, Weekes completed his first five-wicket haul in five years. The last occasion was against Glamorgan when he had eight for 39, his best first-class figures.

Despite doubts over India playing Pakistan in Pakistan, the Asian Cricket Council has expressed its ‘fullest confidence’ that India will take part in the Asian Test Championship match against its neighbour scheduled to be played in Karachi in September this year.”We have no doubt the Indian tour to Pakistan this September will takeplace as scheduled and we are going ahead with the preparations for the grand event,” ACC general secretary Zakir Hussain Sayeed told PTI from Islamabad.Sayeed said both Pakistan Cricket Board and ACC were sure the Indian team would come as per the commitment made by BCCI President AC Muthiah at the ACC General Council meeting at Lahore late last month.”We are fairly certain about the visit as the Indian Government’s letter to the BCCI, which was shown to us at the ACC meeting clearly said India could play against Pakistan in all multilateral tournaments,” Sayeed said.The Indian team’s visit to Pakistan, the first in 12 years, came under a cloud after Sports Minister Uma Bharti questioned the BCCI committing itself for the Test without prior Government consent.According to the schedule announced by the ACC, India is to play the Asian Test Championship match against Pakistan from September 13 to 17 in Karachi.Both Sayeed and PCB Chairman Lt Gen Tauqir Zia, who is also the ACC Chairman, will step down from the their posts in the continental body and hand over the reigns to Bangladesh at the forthcoming ACC AGM scheduled to take place in London on June 20.Prior to the AGM, the Asian Cricket Foundation will meet on June 16 inLondon to finalise its development programme, Sayeed said.The ACC office-bearers are elected on a rotation basis. Sri Lanka held the post first following its formation, followed by Pakistan.Sayeed said the ACC has made considerable progress in developing a special identity for the region by securing $6.5 million aid from the ICC to develop cricket in 11 countries in Asia.Besides initiating development programmes, the ACC conducted the Asian Cricket Championship and the Asia Cup limited overs matches.The highlight of the forthcoming ACC meeting would be the finalisationof the new constitution which has been prepared to synchronise with the constitution of ICC, Sayeed said.

Pakistan sounded a warning to their Asian neighbours when they defeated SriLanka by five wickets in Galle today to win the unofficial Test seriesone-nil. They came to Sri Lanka with an extremely young squad and have shownthat they have plenty of talent waiting in the wings when the seniors startto fade.Having saved the First Test Match in Dambulla by the skin of their teeth,Pakistan held the initiative throughout the last two games and, if the truthbe told, fully deserve to win the series: their batsmen showed greaterapplication, their fast bowlers were occasionally exceptional and, if thiswasn’t enough, they could count on the services of a fine wrist spinner.They were always likely to win this match after Sri Lanka had collapsed toDanish Kaneria last evening. Sri Lanka’s only hope was the overnightpartnership between Thilan Samaraweera and Prasanna Jayawardene. They keptsuch hopes alive for 40 minutes this morning, extending the partnership to46 runs, before a wonderful rocket like throw from the deep square boundaryby Irfan Fazil ran out Jayawardene and opened the door for Pakistan.They needed no second invitation to wrap up the innings. By the time thatJayawardene had removed his batting pads, Malinga Bandara, the next man in,was walking back to the dressingroom having edged his first delivery straight to Hasan Raza at short gully.Thilan Samaraweera, obviously worried that he was going to get stranded,following the example of Raza yesterday and tried to pick up some quick runsbefore the innings closed. Unfortunately, he made the fatal mistake ofmissing a straight ball from Yasir Arafat and was trapped leg-before wicket.Dinusha Fernando rounded off the disappointment when he was run out by IrfanFazil, as he tried to pinch the strike. Sri Lanka had lost their last fourwickets for seven runs and Pakistan were required to score just 137 forvictory.Pakistan made heavy going of the target. Humayun Farhat, the wicket keeper,was promoted to open the innings, but he was trapped leg-before wicket inthe first over. Taufeeq Umar was also trapped leg-before, this time offSamaraweera, moments after the luncheon interval.Hasan Raza, the mainstay of the Pakistan batting throughout the tour, thenadded 24 runs with Salman Butt, before the young left-hander pulled lamelyto mid-wicket. When Raza was caught behind off Dinusha Fernando, Pakistanwere 67 for four and Sri Lanka may have sensed an outside chance of victory.Misbah-ul-Haq (23), who had saved the day in Dambulla, came to the rescueagain, this time with Faisal Naved (42*). The pair added 55 runs for thefifth wicket, to finally drain the spirit from the Sri Lankan’s. When Misbahwas bowled with 15 runs still required, they had already given up and it wasno surprise that the target was eventually reached courtesy of four sloppyoverthrows.Both coaches have maintained throughout this three-week tour that the endresult was of secondary importance to the identification of new talent. Bythat measure too, Pakistan have gained the most from the tour. Three playersin particular look like they can make the jump into the national team soon.Hasan Raza, still only 19 years old if you believe the statistics, standsout as the one class batsman, having scored 321 runs at 64.2. DanishKaneria is a leg spinner of great potential and claimed 21 wickets in theseries; whilst Irfan Fazil’s fast bowling was particularly impressive onthis lifeless surface in Galle.Sri Lanka meanwhile have discovered little, although they will take heartfrom the fact that the bowling academy appears to be bearing fruit, with anumber of promising young fast bowlers now emerging.Thilan Samaraweera distinguished himself with 21 wickets, AvishkaGunawardene stated a powerful case for a recall into the national squad, andthe performance of Michael Vandort was encouraging, if not compelling, withthe bat. Alas, the rest of the batting was hugely disappointing and,Samaraweera apart, no spinner grabbed the eye.Food for though then for the Sri Lankan selectors, who picked an unwieldy 22players for this three-match series. Apparently, the rationale was to giveas many players as possible an opportunity. The chances of them taking thatopportunity, however, were dramatically reduced by the ensuing sense ofinsecurity within the squad. Unfortunately, it’s back to the drawing boardfor Sri Lanka.

Hampshire Young Cricketers begin their challenge for the ECB Under-17 Youth Trophy against Devon in a two-day fixture starting at the Rose Bowl Nursery ground on Wednesday, 11am.The Hampshire side includes thee players from Locks Heath, who reached last season’s ECB Sun Bank Youth semi-finals.Hampshire team : Ed Brogan (Burridge)(Captain), Paul Cass (Calmore Sports), Ed Davis (Locks Heath), Matt Hooper (Andover), Chris Lyon (Gioldford), Mark Mitchell (Ventnor), Naqeeb Ali Mohammed (Portsmouth), Gavin Hart (Locks Heath), Jon Richardson (Locks Heath), John Walters (Winchester College), David Wheeler (New Milton), Chris Wright (Liphook & Ripsley).Hampshire Under-15s take a 12-man squad to the West Country for the opening ESCA County Championship 50-over games against Somerset at King’s Taunton on Wednesday and Devon at Bovey Tracey on Thursday.Hampshire : Chris Martin (Canford)(Captain), Tom Cledwyn (Flamingos), Steve Williams (Whitchurch), Halim Mohammed (Trojans), Tom Carter (Lymington), Andy Evans (Sarisbury Athletic), Mitchell Stokes (Basingstoke), Matt Metcalfe (Calmore Sports), Rob Snell (Shanklin), Paul Knight (Lord Wandsworth), Ricky Rawlins (BAT Sports), Cille Van der Merwe (Hursley Park).

Andy Flintoff and Neil Fairbrother linked up to steer Lancashire to a comfortable C&G quarter-final victory over Durham in Blackpool.The visitors could only muster 198 for eight in their 50 overs after being put in, despite a half-century from Paul Collingwood.And Lancashire cruised home with seven wickets and 11.2 overs to spare, with Flintoff and Fairbrother putting on 136 in 25 overs for the third wicket.They came together with Lancashire in a spot of bother at 46 for two after Mike Atherton had gone lbw to young Durham seamer Mark Davies, and Glen Chapple was brilliantly stumped down the leg side by Andrew Pratt standing up to Danny Law.But both provided rich entertainment for a sun-baked Stanley Park crowd.Fairbrother was first to his 50 from 51 balls and moved to 73 from 75 with six fours and two sixes off Graham Bridge, who finally had him caught at mid off.Flintoff saw the job through with an unbeaten 72 from 87 balls including nine fours and two sixes, an encouraging and timely return to form for the England all-rounder, who has been struggling for runs in the CricInfo Championship but has now scored 177 runs in three innings in the C&G Trophy and only been out once. He also took two for 46 in eight overs, and was named man of the match.Gary Yates had been Lancashire’s bowling hero on his first appearance of the season. The off-spinner, who was an unsung mainstay of Lancashire’s domination of one-day cricket during the last decade, bowled his 10 overs straight through to take two for 23.He claimed the crucial wicket of Martin Love in his second over, lbw for 38 in 48 balls as he tried to sweep.Yates also bowled Martin Speight for a duck, and with Chris Schofield taking a return catch to dismiss Jon Lewis, Durham lost their momentum against the Lancashire spinners.Collingwood did his best with 60 from 92 balls, reaching his half-century with a six off Schofield and also hitting three fours.But Flintoff returned to have him caught at cover by Mike Atherton off bat and pad, and despite an unbeaten 26 in 20 balls from the impressive Pratt, Durham’s total never looked likely to be enough.

Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting both scored centuries as Australia warmed up for next week’s Fourth Test with a comfortable eight-wicket win over Sussex in the final match of their tour against county opposition.Captain Gilchrist made 114 and Ponting scored an unbeaten 147 as Australia made a nonsense of their target of 337, winning with 4.1 overs to spare.Sussex made a breakthrough when Jason Lewry had the out-of-form Justin Langer caught at second slip, but Ponting joined his skipper in a third-wicket stand of 151 in 23 overs which effectively settled the contest.Gilchrist was dropped by Adams on 12 and then Lewry spilled a head-high chance when he was trying to reach his hundred with a boundary. Instead he took two to go to this third century of the tour.He was eventually stumped off off-spinner Mark Davis for 114, made off 102 balls with 19 fours and two sixes.Ponting and Simon Katich did much as they pleased after tea as Australia cruised to victory, the third-wicket pair putting on 131 in 22 overs.Ponting batted himself back into form ahead of the Test with his second century of the tour and he hit the winning runs with his 17th boundary. The Tasmanian also swatted three sixes while Katich, favourite to replace Steve Waugh at Headingley, was 40 not out.Earlier, Damian Fleming (3-20) and Brett Lee (2-27) had produced excellent new ball spells as Sussex slumped to 31-5 in their second innings before Murray Goodwin revived them with a run-a-ball 28 which included six boundaries and enabled his side to declare on 68-5 after 85 minutes batting in the morning.Gilchrist was happy with his side’s workout.”There was time in the middle for Ricky Ponting and others including myself,” he said.”Brett Lee and Damian Fleming bowled with a great deal of rhythm and that has given them a lot of confidence.”Chris Adams deserves credit for opening the game up by declaring and offering some entertaining cricket for the patrons. We have had a solid workout which is what we look for between the Tests.”

Sri Lanka’s Test hopefuls may have flopped, but future prospectMichael Vandort impressed with a fine century, as a Sri Lanka Board XImiddle order recovered from the loss of early wickets to score 326against India at the P Saravanamuttu Stadium today.India, fielding seven of the Test specialists who have just arrived inColombo, made an excellent start, as veteran fast bowlers JavagalSrinath and Venkatesh Prasad reduced the Board XI to 45 for three inthe first hour.Avishka Gunawardene (0), expected to be in the Test squad and tipped to make the final eleven, was caught behind in Srinath’s first over; Kumar Sangakkara (4), not guaranteed of a place despite good series against South Africa and England, was also mopped up by Srinath and Chamara Silva (11) followed in the tenth over.Vandort, however, fought back with a 152-ball century, the fifth inhis third year of first class cricket, adding 58 with HashanTillakaratne (26) in the morning, 31 with Tillakaratne Dilshan (6)after lunch and 61 with Board XI captain Thilan Samaraweera (76) forthe sixth wicket.The tall 21-year-old left-hander may have only played once for StJoseph College First XI in five years, but he is now on fringes of thenational selection after a productive first class season for ColomboCricket Club and a consistent series against Sri Lanka A.With Tillakaratne Dilshan having gone off the boil in recent times andAravinda de Silva not endearing himself to the selectors, Vandort’sinnings today could even have secured himself a place in the Testsquad to be selected on Thursday.He played positively today and was particularly strong off the frontfoot, especially with the cover drive. Against the left arm spin ofRahul Sanghvi he used his long reach to good effect, repeatedly andcleanly driving straight down the ground.He hit 19 boundaries and 116 runs, before a sharp catch by SadagoppanRamesh in the gully ended his innings and left the Sri Lankan’s on 195for five.The middle order continued to impress, however, as Suresh Perera (27)and Samaraweera added 59 entertaining runs after tea. Dinusha Fernando(24) also chipped in at the end before Rahul Sanghvi picked up thelast two wickets of the innings.Though the Board XI finished with a reasonable score the Indian campwill be happy with the form of opening bowlers Javagal Srinath andVenkatesh Prasad. Srinath extracted steep bounce from the wicket andbeat the bat regularly in the morning. He bowled three spells in alland picked the wickets of three out of the four Sri Lanka batsmen withTest experience, two of whom should be playing next week.Prasad was less spiteful, but still probing and economical. Indeed, onthe evidence of today, he could provide useful support to strikebowlers Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan if India play three fastbowlers in Galle.India’s concerns will be left arm spinner Rahul Sanghvi, who provedexpensive and only looked like taking a wicket when the tail-enderstried to flog him to the boundary. Another worry will be the fielding:four chances were missed, two catches by Ramesh, one by Badani in theslips and a stumping chance by Dighe when Vandort had made just 43.

Before leaving Dhaka the members of the national squad left a note of dissatisfaction that they were deprived of playing any practice match in home ground. The rain hardly showed any signs of letting up, therefore, the net sessions and practice matches were washed away with it.Moreover, after the tour in Zimbabwe the side was virtually out of competitive cricket. For almost three months they worked on fielding and fitness; giving scarce notice on batting or bowling. The inaugural Test against Pakistan is starting from 29th August and before that Bangladesh team got a single opportunity to hone their knack in another overseas pitch – and the result was not absolutely dismaying.The match against PCB-11 ended in a draw though Bangladesh had to struggle a lot for it. The opening day was utterly nightmarish for the tourists as they were stumbled to 161 in 65 overs. Aminul Islam, the only Test centurion for Bangladesh managed the highest 36 playing 118 balls in his 141-minute stay in the wicket. The other notable scorers were Javed Omar (27), Akram Khan (29) and the skipper Naimur Rahman (23). The tall and lanky fast bowler Shabbir Ahmed removed 3 Bangladeshi batsmen for 30 and Yaseer Arafat captured 3 for 17.Taufiq Umar propelled the PCB-11 innings by his spectacular 113. The top-order played some good and assisting knocks that helped the team to reach 268 in 95 overs to take a 109-run lead against the minnows of Test cricket. The veteran left-handed off-spinner Enamul Haque secured 4 wickets giving away 44 runs in his 16 overs. Skipper Naimur made a mark with the ball as well when he took 2 for 34.Bangladesh lost Javed Omar’s wicket at the dying stages of the second day. The hero in the Zimbabwe tour made 13 before Shoeib Malik outplayed him. The tourists were 30 for 1 at the stumps.To save the match Bangladesh needed to hang on to the wicket, which they did quite smartly. The third and final day was reserved for Mehrab Hossain and Akram Khan; both played very sensibly as long as they stayed in the crease. Mehrab’s 225-minute stay brought him vital 72 runs and he hammered six times to clear the rope on his way. Akram Khan, the burly right-hander notched up 54, Habibul Bashar got 33 and wicket keeper Khaled Masud put up a patient 27. Bangladesh finished the day with 239 for 9 in 102 overs and shunned the humiliation.The practice match singled out an important factor that Bangladesh team have to bat well in their first innings in Multan when they will take on a very strong Pakistani side. The pace attack of the hosts is really formidable and the batsmen of the tourists are not consistent. The one, who gets some good runs in the first innings, flopped in the second. The spinners were productive where the pacers were opposite.