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Scorecard

In a rather bland match at Trent Bridge, Lancashire beat Nottinghamshire comfortably by five wickets. Two fifties were scored, one on each side, and Francois du Plessis played a good all-round role for Lancashire.In windy conditions, Nottinghamshire won the toss and decided to bat. Their innings was built on a sound second-wicket partnership of 57 between Adam Voges (51) and Samit Patel (31 off 20 balls), that had them quite well placed at 69 for 2 when Patel fell in the tenth over. His best shot was a six over extra cover, into the strong wind, off Kyle Hogg.Chris Cairns began his innings with a thick edge for four but did not settle; he made 8 before he was caught at deep midwicket by fellow New Zealander Lou Vincent, who was in action again later in the over when a superb return from the deep ran out Chris Read for 2.Voges went to his 50 off 41 balls, but was out next ball, holing out to Andrew Flintoff on the midwicket boundary. Most of the runs after that came from Mark Ealham, who hammered 28 off 21 balls, including two sixes. With two overs to go, Notts had only 122 for 5 but Ealham took them past 150 before being caught at long-off from the final delivery. The fielder, again, was Vincent, but he juggled the ball three times before holding it – catching was not easy in such a wind and the fielders held some very good high ones.As so often in this competition, the most successful and economical bowlers were the spinners, Simon Marshall taking 3 for 27, including Ealham in his four overs, and du Plessis 1 for 13 in three. Again Flintoff did not bowl, and had not been expected to.Lancashire were all Mal Loye at the start. He swung Darren Pattinson over square leg for six in the second over and raced onwards, taking his team to 41 for 1 in five overs – the wicket being Vincent to a superb leg-side stumping for 4. But then Loye tried a reverse sweep and skied a catch to backward point, having made 32 off 23 balls.This slowed the scoring rate and after ten overs Lancashire were 70 for 2, one ahead of Notts at that stage. But Stuart Law and du Plessis produced the good partnership that the home team did not have, and they drew ahead again. When Law fell for 33, this brought in Flintoff.He showed understandable signs of nerves at first, being close to lbw and then run out off the first ball he faced. A thunderous straight drive for four will remain in the memory, but then he drove at Rob Ferley and was bowled for 13, off nine balls.All this time du Plessis had been chugging along at a good rate but somehow without great charisma – his 50 came off 33 balls, and his eventual unbeaten 57 contained seven fours and a six, yet somehow this valuable player does not quite capture the imagination. He did deservedly capture the Man-of-the-Match award, though. Lancashire were home with four balls to spare, but it was the expected result, without excitement. Andre Adams and Ealham took two wickets each, though Ferley was again the most economical with 1 for 23 off his four overs.

Somerset Under 12’s entertained Gloucestershire at Glastonbury Cricket Club and were victorious by 88 runs.The visitors won the toss and invited their hosts to bat first. Jos Butler was in excellent form for Somerset, scoring 116, as his team made 211 for 9 declared.In reply Gloucestershire were all out for 123, with Jamie Staib taking 3 wickets for 9 runs.

Graham Thorpe today issued the following statement:”I have informed the selectors that I wish to withdraw from the tour to Australia.During the 6 weeks away from the game my personal situation did improve and I felt that I was able to make myself available for the tour.Since returning to the game I have found it difficult to consistently concentrate on cricket and I must be totally focused for the tour. I therefore feel it is better to be honest with the England cricket team, the management, and myself now, rather than during the Ashes tour.It would be wrong for me to go to Australia purely for the financial gain that it would bring me whilst I am finding it difficult to fully focus on the job in hand 100% of the time.This has been the hardest decision of my cricket career. I ask that I may be given the respect and privacy required so that I may recover to play cricket at highest level next season.”Paul Sheldon, Surrey County Cricket Club Chief Executive stated:”It is best for everyone concerned that a final decision over this winters tour has been made now. We will continue to do everything we can to help Graham through this very difficult time. Surrey is his cricketing home and we will be in very close touch throughout the winter.”

England’s hopes of having Darren Gough available for the second Test against Sri Lanka at Edgbaston starting on May 30th were dashed when it was announced that he has suffered a recurrence of an injury to his right knee and has been ruled out of the whole series.The pace bowler first incurred the injury in the one-day series in New Zealand during the winter and had surgery to rectify it. At one time it was thought that he might be back in time for the first Test at Lord’s this week, but then Edgbaston became a more realistic target.However, Gough was still uncomfortable when attempting a return to cricket last week and it has been decided that he will need further corrective keyhole surgery. This means that he will be out of action for a month and the earliest he is expected to be fit for a return to the England side is the start of the NatWest Series of one-day internationals at the end of June.Coach Duncan Fletcher acknowledged that Gough’s absence will be a serious blow to England’s chances. “This is a big loss to us as we were really looking forward to have Darren fit and raring to go for this series, but we’re hoping he will have fully recovered in time for the one-day series.”Dav Whatmore, coach to the Sri Lankans, believes the loss of Gough will be as significant to England as that of Muttiah Muralitharan from his own side at Lord’s. “I’m sure the England team will miss him just as much as we will miss Murali. They cancel each other out, that is how important he is to England. He just seems to spark them off.”Both Murali and Gough have fantastic figures, but you have to look beyond that because their value to the teams cannot be over-emphasised.”Gough will undergo what is a routine operation to clean out floating debris from inside the knee in Sheffield tomorrow. The he will have to begin a programme of rehabilitation just as he did two months ago when he had a similar operation to repair a cartilage in the same knee.

Somerset entertain championship table toppers Surrey at the County Ground tomorrow, and will be anxious to earn some vital points to enable themselves to climb away from the relegation zone.When the sides met at the Oval in May the rain affected game ended in a draw. Since then Surrey have continued their run of success and have four wins from their six matches.The Cidermen however have continued to be dogged by the bad weather, which has prevented them from getting a result after being in winning situations.They have also had more than their fair share of injuries, and tomorrow will be missing the services of Jamie Cox, who is still recovering from a broken thumb, and strike bowler Richard Johnson who pulled a hamstring at Edgbaston last week.The Somerset team is: Matt Wood, Piran Holloway, Mike Burns, Peter Bowler, Keith Parsons, Ian Blackwell, Rob Turner, Keith Dutch, Simon Francis, Matt Bulbeck and Steffan Jones.Earlier this morning Somerset coach Kevin Shine told me: "This is another big match for us, and it is important for us to get a result. When we met at the Oval earlier in the season we were in a good position before the rain came down. Our championship form this year is good, so the boys will be full of confidence tomorrow."Acting captain Mike Burns told me: "We are playing well at the moment without much luck. Hopefully this will change and things will start to turn our way starting tomorrow."

Sunday, 24th June sees the start of the CricInfo Test series between the women of England and Australia at Shenley. The players then move to Derby, Northampton and Lord’s for the CricInfo One-Day International series, before the Second Test gets under way at Headingley on 6th July.

During a similar period last summer, the English women would have been taking on the undisputed world champions. However, since an unexpected defeat at the hands of hosts, New Zealand, in the final of the CricInfo Women’s World Cup just before Christmas, the Australians can no longer regard themselves as being invincible.The summer still presents a tough challenge for England however; for in Christchurch it was the Kiwi girls who proved themselves to be up there on a par with the Australians, rather than the Aussies going backwards.Before the World Cup began, Australia and New Zealand were thought to be out on their own with two out of England, South Africa and India likely to occupy the other semi-final places. But England failed to beat either of their rivals and so were the team to miss out.Just as the men’s team looked overseas for a coach to resurrect the national fortunes by enlisting Duncan Fletcher from Zimbabwe, so too have the English women. John Harmer is the man asked to turn around the women’s game and restore it to its position of former glory. The delightful irony here is that John Harmer has been coach of the Australian women’s team and lifted it to a supreme status in the game.How does he feel about changing camps and finding himself pitted against his former charges immediately? “Not well” is the instant response. Then, more seriously, “I’m looking forward to it with a great deal of excitement because I think we can do a lot of work and we’ve got a lot of interested people here – young people who are keen to tackle the issues and get on with it. That will be excellent – working with the other staff.”Harmer believes that he saw enough potential in the England camp to lift them to challenge the likes of Australia and New Zealand. “I don’t think there’s any question that they can do it; just a question of how we go about it. There are some good players and the advances made in athleticism and skills in the last three years have been very significant, so we just need to build on what’s already there.”There is nobody better to judge what progress England will have hopefully made in the course of this summer, and Harmer’s appointment as full-time coach on along-term contract as part of a wider national strategy for cricket must bode well for the future. Not that miracles can be expected in such a short time, but if progress can be seen to be occurring, John Harmer will at least be on the way to achieving one of the ECB’s stated aims for women’s cricket – winning back the World Cup last held in 1993.Certainly England have the base from which to build a good side. Evergreen Clare Taylor was the second top wicket taker in the CricInfo Women’s World Cup, Claire Taylor is far too fine a player not to come back strongly, and skipper Clare Connor fronts a young side full of emerging talents – such as 17-year-old spinner Laura Harper.As for the Australians, they still represent a mighty test for any newly found inspiration among the English women. They might have got it wrong one day in Christchurch, but as a cricketing unit of the highest calibre, they will have been stung by that defeat and will be going flat out to restore lost pride. It should be some contest.

Heavy overnight rain put pay to any thoughts of play in Glamorgan`s final match of their pre-season tour to Cape Town yesterday, and the 50 over match against the Hermanus club was called off without a ball being bowled.Despite the loss of this final one day game, as well as over three hours of play in the three day game against Boland Academy, the tour has given the Glamorgan squad valuable outdoor practice and some competitive warm-up games as they prepare for the start of the new season next week.

Kanwaljeet Singh (5 for 100) and Mohammad Ghouse (5 for 97) took all theten wickets between themselves but failed to revive the hopes of Hyderabad,last year’s runners-up, in their Ranji Trophy pre quarter-final matchagainst Madhya Pradesh at the Daly College Ground in Indore on Wednesday.Madhya Pradesh entered the quarterfinals by virtue of their 107-run firstinnings lead. Madhya Pradesh will now meet Orissa in the quarterfinals.Resuming at 116 for 1, MP went on to make 291 runs, setting an improbablevictory target of 399 with only a few overs left for Hyderabad. The toporder – HS Sodhi (36), NV Ojha (40), Amay Khurasiya (35) and DevendraBundela (11) – all fell to Ghouse. Then Kanwaljeet took over and sent themiddle order packing. But Jai P Yadav (48) and Chandrakant Pandit (69 notout) forged a 76-run seventh wicket partnership. The lower order caved inwithout resistance to the guiles of the veteran off spinner. But by thetime the innings folded up, the result was well and truly decided.Hyderabad in the remaining eight overs scored 50 runs while losing bothopeners Daniel Manohar (25) and Vanka Pratap (4). Anirudh Singh (16) and DVinay Kumar (1) were unbeaten at the end.

Hostile fast bowling by Chris Silverwood forced Northamptonshire to follow on 179 runs behind Yorkshire in the Cricinfo Championship match at Headingley on Saturday.Northants were bowled out for 195 with Silverwood claiming five for 58, his second fifth wicket haul of the season.Bowling flat out from the Kirkstall Lane end, Silverwood looked far sharper than either Matthew Hoggard or Ryan Sidebottom, and the only batsman to play him with any confidence was Russell Warren who finished unbeaten on 65.Warren came in at 40 for two and held firm for four hours and 22 minutes while wickets fell around him, facing 190 balls and striking six fours.He had one piece of luck on 19 when he was put down at slip by Craig White off Gary Fellows.Northants got into trouble despite a career-best bowling performance earlier in the day from seamer Darren Cousins who captured eight for 102, easily beating his previous best first class effort of six for 35 for Essex against Cambridge University seven years’ ago.Cousins grabbed all five Yorkshire wickets to fall today at a personal cost of 28 runs in 9.5 overs. Among his victims was Michael Lumb who hit a career-best 50 off 119 deliveries with seven fours and a six.Yorkshire were all out for 374, Richard Blakey remaining unbeaten with a coolly struck 42.Mike Hussey and Mal Loye had six overs to survive when they went in for a second time and they put on nine together without being parted, leaving Northants to make a further 170 to make Yorkshire bat again.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Ajantha Mendis played a gem of an innings to revive the hosts along with Thilan Samaraweera•AFP

On another day of fluctuating fortunes, Sri Lanka gained a decisive advantage to leave India facing a stiff task in their attempt to level the series. After losing six wickets in a dramatic first session, Sri Lanka rebuilt in the second, thanks to Thilan Samaraweera and Ajantha Mendis, and set a challenging target on a crumbling pitch. Suraj Randiv carried on the job in the final session with three breakthroughs, including Virender Sehwag, to complete the turnaround.The pressure on India grew with the fluent progress of the Sri Lankan innings even after they had been reduced to 87 for 7. Rarely did Samaraweera or Mendis offer a chance, adapting well to the turn and bounce with solid defence and a steady flow of singles. Just as he had during his century in the first innings, Samaraweera played the ball late, and with skilful use of the wrists, worked the ball around. There were the timely improvisations as well, as he swept, slog-swept, charged out of the crease to find the boundary and soon enough, as the field spread out, showed plenty of confidence in Mendis by rotating the strike.Samaraweera’s solidity and patience almost ruled out the possibility of a wicket at one end. It must rank as one of his finest knocks, in conditions far tougher than what he faced in several of his grinding centuries. His vigil ended when he tried to pull a short ball fine, gloving a catch to MS Dhoni, but only after the scales had tilted.The Indian bowlers were effective as long as the ball remained newish with Pragyan Ojha getting the ball to bite and turn. The spinners had to push the ball through quicker as it grew old and Amit Mishra, especially, was negotiated with ease as he rarely varied his pace, didn’t derive much spin and wasted the extra bounce.The odd occasion where Mendis was in trouble was when the ball popped up in the vacant short-leg area off an inside edge but, for the bulk, he was at ease driving the pitched-up deliveries through the off side, offering the full face when defending and opening up intermittently. Though roughed up by a couple of Ishant Sharma bouncers that struck his fingers, he dispatched his wide deliveries through point and over gully and swept Ojha into the stands.

Smart stats

• The 118-run stand between Thilan Samaraweera and Ajantha Mendis is Sri Lanka’s highest for the ninth wicket, and their third century partnership for that wicket. It’s the sixth hundred stand for the ninth wicket against India.

• Sri Lanka were 125 when the ninth wicket pair came together, which is the fourth-lowest score at which the ninth wicket has added 100 or more runs. The lowest was when Asif Iqbal and Intikhab Alam added 190 after Pakistan were reduced to 65 for 8 against England at The Oval in 1973.

• Mendis’ 78 is the highest by a No.10 Sri Lankan batsman in Tests, and the eighth-highest for all teams.

• Virender Sehwag averages 28.73 in the fourth innings, which is only slightly more than half his career average of 54.14. Of the 11 times he has been dismissed without scoring in Tests, five have come in the fourth innings.

• Rahul Dravid’s average of 33.10 in Sri Lanka is his lowest in any Test-playing nation. In 21 innings here he has scored only one hundred. South Africa is the only other country where he averages less than 35 (33.60).

Mendis took the lead once Samaraweera fell, adding more valuable runs to the lead as the seamers struggled with their lengths amid defensive fields. Ishant didn’t bowl a single yorker in his spell and consistently bowled short with two slips and three men behind square in the deep on the off side. Mendis slashed a couple of boundaries and when Ishant pitched on a length, lofted him straight and over extra cover. Mishra finally dislodged Mendis when he drove him straight to an alert Suresh Raina to end the innings.Sri Lanka had seen enough during their batting to realise the importance of a newish ball and immediately opted for the offspinner Randiv to bowl with Lasith Malinga. He found the fizz he needed off his first ball to Sehwag who was beaten when attempting the cut. He played for turn the next ball, it went straight on as he opened the face, and found Mahela Jayawardene, whose celebration reflected the enormity of that wicket in the context of the result. India’s woes compounded when Randiv got one to spit at Rahul Dravid, who dropped one close to his feet only for it to spin back towards the stumps before he could kick it away to end a disappointing series. And shortly before the close, he had M Vijay closing the face to a shortish delivery and guiding it to a perfectly placed Jayawardene at leg slip, who took a low catch.The spinners were expected to play a prominent role on the fourth day but Sri Lanka adopted an attacking approach against them in order to progress to a safe score. Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara cut, swept and stepped out to Ojha but he accounted for them both: surrounded by catchers, Jayawardene was beaten by the turn to be caught at slip and Sangakkara, sensing a boundary when facing a long-hop, pulled one straight to square leg where Raina managed to hold on to a tumbling catch. India surged ahead with the introduction of Mishra into the attack, as he sent back Angelo Mathews and Prasanna Jayawardene off successive deliveries.Then began the fightback. Malinga chanced his arm in a 38-run stand with Samaraweera, Mendis fought through a wicket-less second session and an hour into the next, and Sri Lanka’s last three wickets had accumulated a potentially decisive 180. In the end, a battling Sachin Tendulkar was left carrying India’s hopes.