Ben Smith’s patience brought Leicestershire through an awkward day againstDurham’s competent pace attack led by John Wood (5-60) on a pitch unfavourable to batting in their championship at Leicester. The hosts’ innings ended at 222. Smith (111 n.o.), his fourteenth century, was tested by the unpredictable bounce and movement off the seam but attained his first championship half-century of the season.He contributed exactly half of his county’s total, a tribute to his courage and tenacity. And Leicestershire certainly needed somebody of his combativeness for, coming from a hammering by Surrey, Leicestershire lost two batsmen without a run on the board after the first two overs – Darren Maddy was caught at the wicket and Iain Sutcliffe played a short ball into his stumps. Skipper VinceWells, another early victim, would have doubted his own wisdom in battingfirst.Aftab Habib stayed for 14 overs without threatening seriously to reverse the trend. That was 37-4 but Smith, hit about the forearm by a delivery from Wood, started to organise the defence. Yet Darren Stevens (40) seemed to be the most confidence batsman until his 61 runs stand with Smith ended in a catch to point not long after lunch. Simon Katich held two catches at slip from deliveries which rose sharply.With the Durham bowlers exploiting every weakness Smith bided his time. His first half-century contained six fours but there wereonly another three when he moved into three figures from 239 deliveries.Leicestershire were 179-8 at tea, after which James Ormond settled down to support Smith over 25 overs in a 49-runs partnership. Durham had time to reach only 8 without loss by the close.Smith admitted it had been difficult at the crease: “It wasn’t easy, especially against the new ball. But we always thought it was one of those wickets where if we could get through the first hour it would get easier”.

The Surrey Lions eased their way to victory over the Warwickshire Bearsunder lights last night at Edgbaston. The victory, by seven wickets placesthe Lions at the top of the National League Division Two.Surrey were set 163 to win, and, at the innings break, everything looked set up for a close game. However, Alistair Brown and Alec Stewart took the game out of the Bears reach with some tremendous shots.After the early loss of Butcher, both Stewart and Brown launched at some weak bowling. Stewart was typically fierce on anything pitched up on off stump. Brown savaged anything short, and both men hit big sixes. Stewart launched Giles for a straight six, whilst Brown repeated the feat, against the pace of Ed Giddins. Brown was badly dropped by Smith at mid-wicket, but by the time he was out – for 45, to an awful leg before decision – the damage had been done.Graham Thorpe joined the fun with a couple of crisply timed cover drives to the ropes. He was run out from a terrible mix up, and it was left to Alec Stewart and Adam Hollioake to guide the Lions home. Hollioake found it impossible to get himself in, tied down in particular by Graeme Welch.Despite his advancing years, Alec Stewart looked a class above. He top scored with an unbeaten 72, as the Lions won with overs to spare.Earlier in the afternoon, the Bears had Nick Knight to thank for getting anysort of total whatsoever. Knight, who was clearly struggling for form, stuckaround for 82. He was given some support from Dominic Ostler, but it wasSaqlain Mushtaq that restricted the Bears. His nine overs cost 24, the Pakistani off-spinner picking up two wickets. He removed Ostler, stumped ashe mis-read Saqqy’s ‘magic ball.’ David Hemp went very next ball, padding upto a beauty.Early signs suggested that the pitch was going to play uneven. The ball moved around early on, and the Bears found scoring particularly difficult throughout. They lost quick wickets at the end, and found it impossible to hit boundaries, the last four of their innings coming in the 33rd over. Indeed, the Bears hit just nine boundaries in their 45 overs, six of those from the blade of Nick Knight.Saqlain made the difference with the ball, Stewart with the bat. It showsclearly how top cricketers are able to dominate the county scene. OfWarwickshire’s internationals, Ed Giddins bowled just three overs, for 20runs. He had a catch dropped. It wasn’t his day, just as it wasn’t the Bears’ day.

Melbourne – Another day, another city, another collapse, anotherhumbling defeat.In what captain Jimmy Adams acknowledged is now a habit, the WestIndies succumbed to a below-strength Victoria team by an innings and63 runs with more than a day remaining at the Melbourne Cricket Ground(MCG) yesterday.Their all-out second innings 114 was their lowest total againstVictoria (known in domestic competition as the Bushrangers) on their12 tours of this vast country and their first loss to the state sincethe inaugural trip in 70 years ago, in 1930-31.It followed defeat in the opening first-class match against WesternAustralia and came three days before the first Test at Brisbane thatlooms with under-standable foreboding.A minimum of 157 overs and maximum ten-and-a-quarter hours remained inthe match when Victoria declared with a lead of 177 just before lunch.The sun shone from a cloudless sky, the pitch had shed most of itsdemons of the first day, the outfield became faster by the over andthe opportunity existed for the West Indies batsmen to spend meaningful preparation time in the middle.None did.It was all over in three hours and 46.3 overs, leaving another 18.3 onthe day and 90 on the morrow unused.The embarrassing reality is that it would have been even shorter butfor off-spinner Colin Miller’s missed return catch off Ridley Jacobsbefore he had got off the mark on his way to the topscore of 25.The ball did deviate occasionally off the seam and the probingVictorian bowlers were supported by flawless catching and by umpiringthat brought an end to proceedings by giving Merv Dillon and Jacobscaught at gully and slip off the boot.DebaclesBut it was another in the continuing succession of West Indies battingdebacles. Only Jacobs stayed longer than an hour as wickets tumbled tothe varied bowling through a combination of un-warranted strokes andno strokes at all.The senior batsmen – Sherwin Campbell, Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Adams – all batted for more than three-quarters of an hourbut none for more than an hour.More distressingly, Daren Ganga and Ram-naresh Sarwan were des-patchedwithout scoring, Sarwan’s second duck of the match.Their deportment revealed that both prom-ising young batsmen had beenshorn of their self-belief in the two weeks since they joined the teamfrom a stint with the Australian Academy in Adelaide.Ganga got through two anxious overs before lunch, following thedeclaration, but had not scored from 18 balls when, bat well away frombody, he sliced a square-drive off the left-arm fast bowler MatthewInness high to gully.Sarwan arrived at 58 for three after Campbell had edged DamienFleming’s outswinger to wicket-keeper Darren Berry and Lara had pulledan innocuous short ball from medium-pacer Ben Oliver straight to widemid-on.The young Guyanese was a first-ball victim in the first innings andapproached the five balls he faced as if they were terrorist bombsguaran-teed to explode on impact.As he withdrew his bat out of the line of one on off-stump fromOliver, the ball deflected off the back of the bat and flew into thesafe hands of second slip.When Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s loose drive off Miller found cover’swaiting clutches, the West Indies were 72 for five and depending oncaptain Adams, Jacobs and the fast bowlers to at least mount a fight.They never came close.

England managed to put their CricInfo Women’s World Cup campaign back on track today with a solid all-round performance to defeat Ireland by eight wickets at Lincoln University’s BIL Oval.The Irish luck still continued with the toss but it then deserted the team for the rest of the day. The top order failed against the pace of Lucy Pearson and Clare Taylor and the game was vitually all over by the end of the 14th over when Ireland found themselves 23 for five.It is not in the Irish nature to lie down and we saw it again today as Catherine O’Neill and later Isobel Joyce, Saibh Young and Nikki Squire fought to the end but it was a rear-guard action after the early collapse. While 103 was a good effort in the circumstances, it was never going to be enough to defend against an England team ruthless in their search for respectability.Pearson picked up two wickets, Clare Connor two for one off her 4.2 overs and Taylor turned in the CricInfo Player of the Match performance with four for 25 off her 10 overs. The England fielding showed signs of frustration at times as a partnership between O’Neill and Squire developed in the middle of the innings. The pair took the score from 23 for five in the 14th over to 61 for six in the 30th when O’Neill, on 25, fell to an endemic Irish disease at this tournament, the run-out.Joyce’s 26 batting at number nine offered a lesson to the top order on how to accumulate but England had the fielding answers, accurate work by Arran Thompson in covers effecting two run outs and Kathryn Leng picking up a sharp catch at short cover.It was Thompson again in the thick of things when England started their chase for the modest target. She was dropped in the first over at first slip off Barbara McDonald and celebrated by carrying her bat through the innings, showing a preference for scoring through the covers on her way to an unbeaten 44. Barbara Daniels was the other main contributor to England’s total as they cruised to victory in the 30th over.With tight bowling and committed fielding, Ireland had the satisfaction of restricting batsmen who were looking for runs to just 24 off the last 10 overs but the total was never big enough to defend on another quality Lincoln pitch.The England coach, Paul Farbrace, took satisfaction from a performance in which his side had fielded and bowled “reasonably well” and “had got the job done” in the batting department.What he was not happy with was the mix-up early in the match that saw his team facing a potential problem over the failure to record a late change on the official team list. Laura Harper, named in the original line-up, aggravated an injury during warm-ups and the designated 12th man, Nicky Shaw, took her place on the field. It was not until the sixth over that the switch was noted.After much discussion, officials ruled that Shaw could remain as a substitute fielder and that, if required, Harper could bat but only at seven or lower.Farbrace said it was a mistake that no one involved would ever make again. He took responsibility as the coach: “I should have checked.” But from the sheepish looks around there would have been nightmares for other members of the camp if Shaw had bowled or batted before the switch was noted and the match had been forfeited.Noting that the technical staff had dealt with the matter very sensibly, Farbrace summed up the incident to the point: “Extremely embarrassing.”Looking ahead, he said this was the first of four matches the team had to win. “People might think that is pie-in-the-sky stuff but that is the only way we can approach it.” Australia is next!John Wills, the Irish coach, somewhat glumly reflected on two or three players performing in each match but never the same two or three. “We just can’t gel.”He was pleased with the fielding – “but, oh that catch” in the first over. He also had praise for the youngest member of the team, Isobel Joyce: “She looked completely at home.” And he acknowledged the work of Anne Linehan, the stand-by keeper, who recover from one blemish to bring off a superb stumping.Of the mix up at the beginning, he said that Ireland had been told of the substitution by the officials and had said that the rules should be abided by. “It was all dealt with very amicably.”Result: Ireland 103; England 105 for two; a win to England by eight wickets.

One-day cricket may be a different ball game but today’s Australia v England contest was bound to give the two teams a fair idea of what to expect in the Ashes Series.

In the most exciting match of the NatWest Series in Bristol, Australia bettered England in a nail-biting finish. Chasing 269 runs, Australia just got there for the loss of five wickets but with only three balls spare. It was the type of contest that makes modern cricket nerve wracking, for not many nails were left unbitten. While England’s Nick Knight (84) and Marcus Trescothick (69) had raised their team to a commanding position, for Australia, Ricky Ponting with his fabulous century, lead the way to a glorious victory.Earlier, England started steadily, losing Ally Brown (12) and scoring only 25 runs in the first 10 overs. The highly projected pace attack of Glenn McGrath and Bret Lee was accurate but not deadly.After grafting themselves in, Marcus Trescothick and Nick Knight opened up to hit a flurry of fours and sixes, hoisting the 50 in the 14th over and continuing briskly.

The way Trescothick (45) and Knight (40) brought up the 100 in 20 overs through a volley of fours and sixes, made Australia’s bowling look ordinary. After completing their individual half-centuries both the batsmen continued with their aggressive style to add quick runs.England lost their second wicket on 137 through a mix up between the two players resulting in Trescothick getting run out after scoring a flawless 69. After 30 overs England was 147 for 2.Australia got the third break at 189, when Shane Warne at mid-wicket smartly caught Nick Knight off Brett Lee after a marvellous innings of84. With this great innings Knight also completed his 2000 runs in one-day cricket. His partner Alec Stewart (25) followed him quickly bringing England down to 198 for 4.Assuming better control of the game, Australia managed to restrict scoring to such an extent that England’s 200 came in the 43rd over; puzzling given that they still had the major chunk of their batting intact.

Some fire works, however, thrilled the crowd, in the final stage of the innings. A 70-run partnership between Ben Hollioake (37*) and newcomerOwais Shah (28*) in 45 balls took England’s total to a fighting 268 forfour. Brett Lee captured two wickets while McGrath could pinch only one.Scoring only 16 runs in the first seven overs, and losing Adam Gilchrist’s wicket on 12, Australia did not take a brilliant start. The arrival of Ricky Ponting brought some thrill to the game when the next four overs yielded 28 runs. Both Ponting and Mark Waugh delighted the crowd by hitting a six each off Alan Mullally and hoisting 50 of the innings in the 13th over.Australia registered their 100 in the 23rd over, but lost the important wicket of Mark Waugh who was bowled by Dominic Cork for a useful 46. In the meantime Ricky Ponting had completed his 50.Ponting and Damien Martyn were in complete command of the game. Though the required run rate was above six, they were constantly maintaining it, getting closer and closer to the target. They raised the total to 171 in 35 overs.The game changed all of a sudden when Martyn, having made a useful 46 was bowled by Mullally at 198. The man who had built up Australia’s innings, Ricky Ponting, was then run out after scoring a glorious 102.England was now almost back in the game.Australia lost the fifth wicket on 230 when Gough bowled Andrew Symondsfor a quickfire 23. Needing 29 runs to win in 29 balls, the match was evenly poised. The crowd was excited and chewing their nails away. The onus of victory rested with skipper Steve Waugh and Ian Harvey, fighting the battle against a fired up England side.In conditions packed with tension and excitement the batsmen were stealing the runs required per over. Australia hit the crucial blow when Harvey hit Hollioake for a towering six on the last ball of the 49th over. By scoring 272 for 5 with 3 balls to spare, Australia defeated England in a photo finish. Darren Gough clinched two wickets while Cork and Mullally shared one each.

This time last year, Glamorgan fans were drowning their sorrows in London afterGlamorgan`s defeat in the 2000 Benson and Hedges Cup final at Lord`s.A year later, June 9th and 10th, 2001 saw the champagne corks popping at Chelmsford after two of the most stunning victories in the club`s history, as the Welsh county`s batsmen rewrote many of the club`s batting records with two breathtaking runchases against Essex.On Saturday, Glamorgan successfully chased a target of 364 in 84 overs,reaching the target with nineteen balls to spare, thanks to 156 fromcaptain Steve James and 90 from Matthew Maynard.Their efforts resulted in Glamorgan equalling their record for their highest ever successful run chase in Championship history. In June 1990, they were set the same target by Hampshire, and thanks to a brutal century by Viv Richards, Glamorgan reached the target in the final over.But in this match at Southampton, the Welsh side had 102 overs in which tochase the target, 18 more than on Saturday at Chelmsford, and the run chase against Hampshire only came about after most of the second day had been washed out by rain, and the two captains had got their heads together on the final morning in an attempt to breath life in to the game.A month later, in July 1990 at Abergavenny, Glamorgan were involved in another huge run chase on the final day of their game against Worcestershire. Their target was 495 in 88 overs, and after centuries by Alan Butcher and Hugh Morris, plus half-centuries by Robert Croft and Nigel Cowley, Glamorgan fell just two runs short of their target in a nerve-jangling contest that ended in a draw.Looking now at yesterday`s remarkable National League game at Chelmsford, Glamorgan defeated Essex after being set a target of 254 in 34 overs under the Duckworth-Lewis method. An aggressive 97 by Keith Newell, plus an unbeaten 87 from Matthew Maynard saw the Welshmen home, with thirteen balls to spare.This was not Glamorgan`s highest ever score batting second in the competition, as in 1992 they scored 263-3 to defeat Northamptonshire at Luton. But in this game, the Welsh county had 38 overs at their disposal, making yesterday`s victory at Chelmsford a superior one in terms of runs per over, as they chased a target of 7.47 runs per over, compared with 6.92 at Luton.Their previous best one-day victory in terms of run rate came at Northampton in May 1998, once again after rain and a re-calculation using the Duckworth-Lewis method. Glamorgan`s target was 174 in 24 overs, at an asking rate of 7.25, and a cavalier 77 by Tony Cottey off just 42 balls saw Glamorgan home by five wickets with three balls to spare.

Pakistan’s innings, in the presence of a full house at Lord’s, could be regarded as an anti-climax for the NatWest Series final. The combined pace and spin attack of Australia dismissed them in just 42.3 overs for a modest 152.Pakistan failed to match the flying start they got off to in their previous match when they had 61 on the board without loss. This morning they lost four wickets before reaching that score with Australia striking important early blows. The opening batsmen were both dismissed in the first hour’s play within fifteen overs.Despite choosing to bat first in fine condtions – it was sunny and warm – on a pitch which had a tinge of green on it and offered some pace and bounce, Pakistan batsmen were unable to settle in.Salim Elahi was the first to fall, with the total on 28, getting an outside edge to a ball from Glenn McGrath which appeared to be lifting a little. After the addition of 19 runs, Saeed Anwar played a poor shot, lofting the ball to mid-off and Pakistan were two wickets down for 47.There was further disasters for them when, with the total on 60, two wickets went down. Yousuf Youhana was sent back by Inzamam-ul-Haq, who has never been renowned for his running between the wickets, and Youhana had little chance of getting back as the direct hit came from Ricky Ponting.Four balls later, Brett Lee had Younis Khan caught low at first slip without scoring. Halfway through their knock – 25 overs – Pakistan were 78 for four and battling hard to steady the innings.Abdur Razzaq’s aggressive strokes brought him four quick boundaries but with Pakistan on 92, he mistimed his pull to be caught at short mid-wicket.With Inzamam and Azhar Mahmood going within eight runs of each other, both falling to the leg spin of Shane Warne, Pakistan were 110 for seven and any hopes that they may have held of a recovery were rapidly diminishing.Yet the highest partnership of the innings followed, with a 41-run stand. It ended with Rashid Latif being bowled by Warne for 23 with the total on 151. A run later the last two wickets fell with 7.3 overs still remaining.

Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar have been invited by the formerPrime Minister of England, John Major to take part in a match at theOval on September 18. Major is the President of the Surrey CountyCricket Club. The club has recently decided to build a cricket museum.To raise funds for the museum, the club is organizing a match betweenan Asian XI and the Rest of the World. Invitations have also been sentto cricketers in Pakistan and Sri Lanka.The former Prime Minister has already faxed a letter to the Board ofControl for Cricket in India. In the letter, Major has stated thatthey would like four Indian cricketers to participate in the match.Along with Tendulkar and Ganguly, they have also expressed theirdesire to have Javagal Srinath and Anil Kumble. But Major has made itclear that the first priority of the authorities are Tendulkar andGanguly.However, it is doubtful whether the Indian cricketers can participatein the match. If India participates in the Asian Test Championship,then it will take on Pakistan from September 12 to 16. The matchagainst Bangladesh will come off from September 24 to 28. Thesecretary of the BCCI, JY Lele said on Thursday "If Tendulkar andGanguly want to participate, we will not object. However, the scheduleleaves little scope for their partcipation. At this moment, ourinternational engagements are our prime concern."

* Bengal select 28 Ranji probablesThe selection committee of the Cricket Association of Bengal havesprung a few surprises by omitting notable players like SrikantKalyani, Alokendu Lahiri, Wrichik Majumder and Sujay Parui from thelist of Ranji probables for the 2001-02 season.The 28 probables will start their conditioning under the guidance ofVace Paes from the first week of August. Bengal’s new coach, formerTest all rounder Karsan Ghavri will reach Kolkata on July 27. Thisyear the Bengal team will play in the Buchi Babu Trophy tournament inChennai and the Moin-ud-Dowlah Trophy tourney in Hyderabad. The seniorselection committee and the junior selection committee sat along withThe CAB President Jagmohan Dalmiya and the joint secretaries and theassistant secretaries while selecting the players.The probables: Arindam Das, Amitava Chakrabarty, Aurijeet Basu, NikhilHaldipur, Rohan Gavaskar, Devang Gandhi, Subhamoy Das, SaikatMukherjee, Soumen Singh, Safi Ahmed, Souvik Mukherjee, SubhradipGanguly, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Ranadeb Bose, Sabir Ali, Shib ShankarPaul, Samad Akhtar, Sanjib Sanyal, Dharmendra Singh, Samrat Guha,Utpal Chatterjee, Pradipta Majumder, Gaurav Sharma, Murtaza Lodghar,Sourashish Lahiri, Saujan Biswas, Deep Dasgupta and Ritesh Jaiswal.* 54 teams for Chennai inter-school tourneyThe Tamil Nadu Cricket Association, with the help of sponsors,regularly conducts age wise tournaments in the age group of 12, 14 and16 to help unearth young talent. And the Parle-G TNCA C RamaswamyTrophy (under-16) tournament is a step in this direction.According to Ashok Kumbhat, secretary, TNCA, Parle Products Ltd aresponsoring this tournament for the second year in succession. Thetournament will be played at various grounds in Chennai from July 25.As many as 54 school teams are in the fray. Matches will be played on30-over basis initially and on a knock-out format till the prequarter-finals. The last 16 teams will be divided into four groups andthe matches will be played on 50 overs on a league basis. The top teamin each group will qualify for the semifinals to be played on 50overs. The final will be a two day match.To make it attractive to the young participants, the sponsors havecome up with a number of incentives. There are prizes for the teamswho qualify for the semifinals while the prize money to the finalistsis Rs 9,000 (runners-up) and Rs 16,000 (winners) besides trophies.There will be a man of the match award for all games. Uniforms will begiven to the players with the logo of the sponsors and the TNCA.

Hampshire moved back into second place in Division Two of the CricInfo Championship when they reached a target of 214 in 53 overs with seven wickets and one over to spare against Durham at Chester-le-Street.There were half-centuries for Jason Laney, Giles White and Will Kendall, and only five were needed off five overs when Kendall was out for 54.Robin Smith and Neil Johnson took only one run off each of the next three overs and Smith was dropped at mid-wicket off Graeme Bridge before cutting the winning boundary off Stephen Harmison.There was a career-best five for 39 for Alex Morris as Durham, who resumed on 87 for four, and were dismissed for 202.But with afternoon sunshine and a placid pitch, Hampshire had the best of the conditions and against some ordinary bowling Laney and White put on 110 for the first wicket.Laney, in the team only because of Derek Kenway’s foot injury, relished the chance to slip into one-day mode and hit seven fours in his 66-ball half-century.He was out for 60 in the 27th over then White and Will Kendall took the total to 185 before the opener fell for 74, bowled when going for a big hit off Bridge.Following his decisive burst of three for one on the rain-interrupted third day, Morris did not concede a run in his first four overs today and also took the vital wicket of Martin Love, who moved on from his overnight 43 to 52 then shouldered arms and was lbw.It was Love’s 12th CricInfo Championship half-century of the season, but he has only once gone on to three figures.