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Left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar continued the Uttar Pradesh fightback with 4 for 54, with an economy rate under 2, as Assam finished the second day on 279 for 6, still trailing by 70 runs. He had already struck a century from No. 8 to lift his side to a more than respectable 349, but clearly it wasn’t enough to satisfy him. Coming on as the second-change bowler, he knocked over four of the top five in Assam’s line-up to make sure the visitors retained the upper hand in Guwahati. Only Sibsankar Roy (72) and Rishav Das (52) were able to progress past fifty. Assam’s hopes of a first-innings rest rather heavily on Swarupam Purkayastha (34 not out) and Pallavkumar Das (10 not out).Wicketkeeper-batsman Rohit Motwani built on his overnight half-century to make a career-best 189 to help Maharashtra put on 481 against Railways in Pune. Railways responded with an unbroken stand of 88 for the opening wicket that took them to stumps 393 runs behind on the second day.Maharashtra had begun the day on 249 for 5. They lost Chirag Khurana and Nikit Dhumal in quick succession and were reduced to 287 for 7, before Motwani dominated partnerships with the tail enders, putting on a combined 194 runs for the last three wickets. It began with 94-run stand for the eighth with debutant Mukesh Choudhary, during which Motwani brought up his fourth first-class hundred. He was the last man out, eleven short of a double-hundred, having struck 24 fours and three sixes.

Luke Wright celebrates a wicket against India, but faces a period of rehab after collecting a foot injury © Getty Images

Luke Wright, the Sussex allrounder, has been forced to fly home from the England performance camp in Mohali with a foot injury. He will receive treatment back at Hove in conjunction with the ECB academy with a view to him rejoining the squad in the New Year.Steven Finn, the 18-year-old Middlesex fast bowler, will bolster the squad in India after impressing during the second half of last season. His performances during the Under-19 series against Pakistan caught the eye and he operates with a high action and generates decent pace.Wright is one of the bright prospects in English cricket after making a half-century on his ODI debut against India at The Oval in September. However, since then runs have been harder to come by and his five innings at the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa brought 43 runs including two ducks. He was part of the one-day squad in Sri Lanka but didn’t play in any of the five matches.The performance squad will spend the first part of the camp in Mohali before moving to Chennai. Ashley Giles and Martyn Moxon are providing specialist coaching alongside Kevin Shine while David Parsons, the interim academy director, will replace Giles in December.

Central Districts v Otago
A staggering 466 runs were scored on the first day at Napier, thanks largely to a career-best 217 from Ross Taylor. Many pundits were picking Taylor to be part of the New Zealand squad playing Sri Lanka and he showed why, scoring his runs off just 212 balls with 26 boundaries and two sixes. Magnifying his innings was the fact of the other Central batsmen only Bevan Griggs passed 30, scoring 75 in a third-wicket partnership of 158. James McMillan continued his impressive start to the season with 4 for 82. Central might even feel a little disappointed with their total of 394, given that Otago had cruised serenely to 72 for 1 at stumps, Sean Haig and Aaron Redmond the not-out batsmen.Wellington v Northern Districts
A far more sedate day’s play was taking place in Hamilton, where last season’s runner-up Wellington cruised through to stumps at 351 for 4. A toothless Northern attack could do nothing to upset the visitors, particularly Matthew Bell, who scored his 17th first-class century before being dismissed for 101. Joining in the run feast were the Parlanes, with Michael scoring 61 and Neal unbeaten on 66. Chris Nevin chipped in with an even 50. Graeme Aldridge was the best of a disappointing attack with 2 for 69.Canterbury v Auckland
Canterbury put the yawns on everybody by limping through to a sleep-inducing 251 against home side Auckland at the Eden Park Outer Oval. Only discarded New Zealand batsman Peter Fulton quickened the pulse with a well-made 68 off 99 balls. Michael Papps scored 21 on his comeback from injury. Andre Adams was Auckland’s best bowler with 3 for 57 off 25 overs. Tim McIntosh, the Auckland opener, scored four runs off the only available over before stumps.

ScorecardJamaica finished the first day on top after Andrew Richardson (5 for 32) ripped through Leeward Islands, destroying the middle order by taking five wickets for four runs, as they collapsed for 196 after a solid start. Jamaica, in their reply, were 35 for 1 at stumps.Leeward Islands had done well to get to 185 for 4 but Richardson, in his first over after tea, took three wickets and later scalped Sylvester Joseph (47) and Alderman Lesmond (2) to send them crashing to 196. Nikita Miller also returned fine figures of 3 for 37.After losing Austin Richards (20), Shane Jeffers and Runako Morton put on 57 runs for the second wicket. Gareth Breese, who had accounted for Richards, broke through again by dismissing Jeffers for 55 (103 for 2). Morton and Sylvester Joseph had another 50-run stand but soon after Nikita Miller removed Morton (62) and Tonito in quick succession. There was a brief resistance as the score inched past 180 but soon after Richardson returned to blow the rest of the batsmen away.

Shane Watson and Andrew Symonds will return to the Queensland team for their one-day match against Victoria on Friday at the Gabba. Both Watson and Symonds were in the Australian squad for the Chappell-Hadlee series against New Zealand, which ended last week. Aaron Nye and Daniel Payne have been omitted from the 12.Meanwhile, the selectors decided to leave out Martin Love from the line-up. Love had been forced to miss the earlier games after breaking his finger in the first ING Cup match of the season, but had been cleared to play last week.Queensland haven’t lost a one-day game this season and lead the points table six points clear of second-placed Tasmania, while Victoria are in third place.Squad
Jimmy Maher (capt), James Hopes, Clinton Perren, Shane Watson, Andrew Symonds, Craig Philipson, Chris Hartley, Andy Bichel, Ashley Noffke, Nathan Hauritz, Shane Jurgensen, Brendan Nash.

Canada will open its 2003-04 Red Stripe campaign with a match against the Windwards on October 2, 2003 in Jamaica. Canada will be hoping to match last year’s success in the competition. Their fixtures are:-

• 2-Oct-2003 Canada vs Windwards
• 4-Oct-2003 Trinidad vs Canada
• 8-Oct-2003 Jamaica vs Canada
• 11-Oct-2003 Canada vs Leewards XI

The top two teams in the group advance to the semi-finals on the 16 and 17 October, with the final on 19 October.

A match that saw two high first-innings total, the Ranji Trophy league tie between Punjab and Delhi at Amritsar ended in the expected draw on the fourth day.Punjab, still continuing their first innings on the fourth day, were finally bowled out for 441, with Amit Bhandari picking up 7-92 for Delhi. The visitors, on batting again, could not repeat their first-innings heroics; barring a resolute 75 from Pradeep Chawla, no batsman could really get going, and the innings was declared at 198 for nine.Set a target of 257 off 16 overs, Punjab inevitably played for the safe draw and reached stumps at 58 for one. Delhi, by virtue of their first-innings total, collect five points from this match, while Punjab collect three.

Crystal Palace wide-man Michael Olise has settled in at Selhurst Park brilliantly, earning many admirers with his direct, skilful dribbling and pinpoint crosses.

After scoring twice and creating five more so far this season in the Premier League, as well as grabbing two more goals in the FA Cup, Olise has become the attention of an ‘international tug of war’ between England, France, Nigeria and Algeria.

However, there is also reportedly a battle for his services at club level too, with Arsenal, Chelsea and Bayern Munich all keen on acquiring his signature, despite having arrived from Championship club Reading just last summer for £8.37m.

The 20-year-old, who was described as a “Rolls-Royce” by former Arsenal player and Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson, has averaged an impressive 8.0 match rating over his last five home games – becoming a fan favourite.

Among wingers and attacking midfielder in Europe’s top five leagues and continental competitions, the youngster ranks in the top 1% for assists per 90 with 0.50 – which obliterates Wilfried Zaha in comparison who has a worse record than 99% of other players in his position, with just 0.03 assists per 90.

Olise also ranks in the top 1% for shots on target percentage per 90 (56.3%), top 3% for crosses per 90 (3.97) and top 3% for carries into the final third (3.27).

Interestingly, the forward has a fantastic record of not being caught offside this season – demonstrating his superb footballing intelligence despite his young age.

While with the Royals, Olise has been deployed all over midfield, but particularly in the last two seasons, he has transitioned really into a left-footed right-winger who can cut in onto his stronger foot.

Rated now at £16.2m by Transfermarkt, Olise is continuing to go from strength to strength under Patrick Vieira’s management, and the exposure to first team football he has received could be enough to convince him to stay for another season.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

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He won’t turn 21 until next December, and so has plenty of time to eventually make the next step in his career, but should the club invest in the Summer and bring in more young talent like they are linked with, he could even help the Eagles push for a European spot next season.

In other news: Zaha 2.0: Vieira must unleash 19 y/o “fantastic talent”, could save Palace millions

Scorecard Naman Ojha struck his second half-century in the match•PTI

Rajat Patidar’s third century in only his fifth match was the centerpiece of Madhya Pradesh’s batathon that has all but shunted Bengal out of the Ranji Trophy quarter-final. He shared stands of 141 and 114 with Naman Ojha and captain Devendra Bundela as MP stretched their lead to 565 losing only five wickets in the day. The 22-year-old Patidar lasted for over six hours before top-edging a sweep to midwicket off Manoj Tiwary’s part-time offspin.Seamers Ashok Dinda and Sayan Mondal had openers Jalaj Saxena and Aditya Shrivastava caught behind inside 20 overs. Then they would endure a caning from Naman and Patidar for more than 40 overs. Veer Pratap Singh produced a fine inducker to bowl Naman, but Bundela’s arrival resulted in further agony for Bengal. And a few half-chances not going their way didn’t help.Patidar and Bundela’s uppish strokes repeatedly eluded fielders and a flustered Tiwary kept the teapot on for what seemed like forever. Patidar, however, was doing a fine job switching between attack and defence, but never preempted a delivery. To the spin of Pragyan Ojha or Tiwary, he swept with conviction and power forcing Bengal to bring back their overworked seamers. He got to his century in 173 balls.Patidar charged out of his crease repeatedly towards the end of the day, but he didn’t get sucked into being overambitious, even when part-timer Abhimanyu Easwaran was brought on to make him drop his guard. His dismissal then, with a little more than half an hour to go for stumps, appeared an aberration.Dinda flogged himself to the crease for 23 overs and Veer Pratap 18, but they came away with very little reward, tangible or intangible. One of Bengal’s few takeaways was Pragyan reaching the milestone of 400 first-class wickets, when he dismissed Bundela. That neither Pragyan nor his team-mates registered the achievement – let alone celebrate it – told Bengal’s story.

Drawn – ScorecardMCC rested many of their leading players for a non first-class match and the XI was completed by Plum Warner, the manager, and Jack Hobbs, reporting on the tour for a newspaper. Chipperfield hit one five and eight fours in an excellent innings of 157. Hobbs, opening the innings, made 44 while the Nawab of Pataudi top scored with an unbeaten 94. On the last day R. Little and A. Baker, aged 16, put on 102 for the fourth Northern Districts wicket, Little making 117.