Move into third spotSurrey finished off Hampshire within nine minutes of the last day’s playstarting at Southampton. Their 120 runs takes them to third place in the championship. Adrian Aymes, whose resitance yesterday had taken the game into another day, had just reached his 50 when he was l.b.w. to Saqlain Mushtaq who, like fellow-spinner Ian Salisbury, finished with 4-84.

Six of the best
and 32 fours as wellAlistair Brown continued to batter Leicestershire at Oakham School and wenton to a career best 295 n.o.. Surrey were already in a formidable position in scoring 505 which they enhanced by cutting down their hosts to 134-9 at the close with another 222 runs needed to save the follow-on.Brown hammered a six and 32 fours in his 517 minutes at the crease. Saqlain Mushtaq, whose 66 was his championship best, added 141 runs with Brown for the last wicket. However he was bowled by Vince Wells with his partner fiveruns adrift of a triple-century.Then Brown caught two batsmen at slip to help Alex Tudor and Martin Bicknell,with three wickets, rout the Leicestershire early-order batting. The home county went in to tea at 51-7 in under 16 overs. The batsmen were undone primarily by sharp slip catching and the needless running out of Ben Smith. Even they were refreshed somewhat by the interval with Phil DeFreitas (38) and Neil Burns adding 55 runs. Yet they were in disarray again before the close and could only hope that the weather could stop the seemingly unstoppable Surrey.

Boland assumed control of their four-day Supersport Series match againstNorth West in Paarl on Saturday, after taking an eight-run lead in the firstinnings.At stumps on day two, North West were on 92 for five and in trouble.But West Indian fast bowler Mark Lavine took a career best six for 53 forthe visitors to at least give his side a semblance of a chance in the match.If the North West top order could have responded in the same fashion Bolandmight be in for a contest, but as it is they are poised to take an importantvictory.James Henderson scored a patient 86 for the hosts, although he was droppedat fine leg when his score was on 22. It was a missed chance that could havecost North West the match.Boland resumed on 40 for three overnight and took the score to 76 before thefourth wicket fell. Justin Ontong edged a Garth Roe delivery down the legside where wicketkeeper Ezra Poole took an accomplished diving catch.The out of sorts Kenny Jackson made a miserable seven and virtually gave hiswicket away when he edged Lavine to Poole, with footwork that looked like hehad concrete boots on.Steve Palframan showed some nice touches on his way to 31. He and Hendersonwere involved in a 49-run partnership for the sixth wicket that came to anend with a low skidding delivery from Lavine to Palframan.He was so firmly in front of his stumps that the rare occurrence of abatsman walking before being given out, occurred.Brad Player then joined the patient Henderson and the two put on 66-runs forthe seventh wicket. Henderson unfortunately fell short of what would havebeen a deserved century just before tea.A ball from Alphonso Thomas clipped the edge of his blade and went throughto Poole, who snuffled the chance with little fuss. Henderson faced271 balls and hit ten boundaries in his innings.After tea Player fell to the Lavine-Poole combination for 31 and the restfollowed in short succession. They did however, manage to push the Bolandscore eight runs beyond the North West first innings total of 216.The North West top order were all back in the pavilion with the score on 21.Opener Andrew Lawson was run out for three, Glen Hewitt was caught at secondslip for a duck and Hendrik de Vos was caught at third slip for 12.Later Arno Jacobs edged one to Palframan off Player and with Martin Venterunable to bat because of a broken hand sustained on Friday, North West willdo well to post Boland in excess of 150 to win the match.

A badly inconvenienced Darren Lehmann produced an astonishing counter-attacking innings but Queensland continues to hold most of the aces over South Australiaafter day two of the Pura Cup clash between the sides at the ‘Gabba in Brisbane today.There was the spectacular clatter of wickets today that a green-tinged pitch had failed to produce after the Queenslanders were invited to bat first yesterday. But notbefore the Bulls had established a position of command on the back of a 145 run partnership for the fourth wicket between Stuart Law (87) and Andrew Symonds(85). Both players were at their authoritative best this morning as they took their team from the overnight mark of 3/229 to 3/322 shortly before lunch.It was probably a measure of Queensland’s dominance of the South Australian pace attack again this morning that it took the unlikely figure of Shane Deitz (2/17) to finallyinspire a Redback recovery in this match. Deitz is an emerging batsman, and part-time wicketkeeper. But he is not highly regarded, it is fair to say, as a leg spinbowler. So when the twenty-five year old snared the wickets of both Law and Symonds inside the space of eight deliveries to disrupt their association and thentrigger a collapse, it had an ironic touch about it.The last five wickets tumbled for twenty-nine runs as Brett Swain (4/96), Paul Wilson (1/46) and Mick Miller (1/62) finally crashed through a tame Queenslandlower order. Swain was, in fact, on a hat-trick at one stage after claiming Lee Carseldine (5) and Brendan Creevey (0) with successive deliveries.But, having reached a score of 378, the Bulls were already in a sound position. And it didn’t take long for them to thoroughly consolidate their advantage.By stumps, the visitors had collapsed to the grisly predicament of 8/110 – still 268 runs behind and holding little hope of avoiding the ignominy of following-ontomorrow. In spite of a debilitating hamstring injury that left him severely incapacitated, Lehmann (56*) smashed the attack late in the day to provide some glimmerof a recovery. But not before Adam Dale (3/33), Joe Dawes (2/34) and Creevey (3/42) had ripped through the Redbacks’ line-up in an astonishing display.The pace bowling trio reduced the visitors to a mark at 8/57 at one point in late afternoon, inviting thoughts that the South Australians might not even exceed themark of 66 that represented their previous all-time worst in first-class meetings with Queensland.Dale and Dawes snared the first half of the line-up in a shade more than twenty overs before Creevey produced a spell in which he fired out Miller (9),Graham Manou (1) and Swain (2) for the cost of only three runs. Other than for Lehmann and for number ten Wilson (6*), who played the most junior of partners ina swashbuckling fifty-three run stand at the end of the day, the Redback batting was a shambles.Openers David Fitzgerald (0) and Deitz (3) disappeared within eight balls of each other in the second session; Greg Blewett (18) and Ben Johnson (10) failedto build on remotely promising starts; and the in-form Jeff Vaughan (2) never got going.By the necessity of the injury he sustained yesterday, Lehmann demoted himself to as low as number six in the batting order, and spent a long period simply trying tosurvive. He barely even bothered to run singles such was the crippling extent of the problem. But, once the eighth wicket fell, he changed the focus of his inningscompletely. No bowler was spared his considerable wrath. Creevey endured particular punishment when he was belted for four pummelling boundaries in successionat one point. The sad part for South Australia is that not even their captain’s courageous effort seems likely to help them out of the messy overall situation in thematch into which they plunged so rapidly today.

* CBI to send team to London to probe telecast rights caseWelcoming the support from the International Cricket Council (ICC),the CBI on Sunday said it would soon send a team to London to gatherinformation from the world body on the cricket telecast rights caseand other matters arising out of the match-fixing scandal.”We would be soon sending a team to London and the support from ICC isimportant for us as some of their officials have also been named intwo of the cases,” CBI spokesman SM Khan told reporters in New Delhion Sunday. He said the agency was always in touch with the anticorruption branch of ICC and looked forward to any support from themwhich was very crucial to the investigation into the telecast rightscase.The CBI on November 8 registered five cases against some Doordarshanofficials for allegedly cheating the Prasar Bharti of crores of rupeesin the award of telecast rights for cricket matches. The five casesrelate to alleged bunglings in telecast rights for 1997 IndependenceCup, ICC KnockOut tournament in 1998 played in Dhaka and the World Cupin 1999. The CBI alleged that some officials of Doordarshan hadentered into a criminal conspiracy with the Bangalore-based WorldTeland Delhi-based Stracon India and dishonestly enhanced the bid for thetelecast of the tournament. Referring to the alleged nexus betweenbetting syndicates and underworld, the spokesman said “we are stilllooking into whether there is any link between match-fixing syndicateand organised crime syndicate in the country and abroad.”* Gayatri Arts files appeal against BCCI’s decisionA Mumbai-based company has filed an appeal against a High Court orderrefusing to stay the decision of the Board to award a three-yearcontract for clothing sponsorship of Indian team in internationalmatches to International Management Group and Transworld Internationalcombine (IMG-TWI).The appeal was filed by proprietor of Gayatri Arts Sham Dhumatkar onSaturday in the Mumbai High Court and is likely to be heard within aweek. Gayatri Arts had challenged BCCI’s decision to award a contractto IMG-TWI by way of a petition in the High Court. The company claimedthat it had made the highest bid of Rs 90 crore through a legal tenderadvertised by BCCI in a newspaper. Yet, the contract was awarded tothe IMG-TWI combine.Justice DK Deshmukh, hearing the petition, had, in an ad-interimorder, refused to stay BCCI’s decision. Gayatri Arts filed an appealcontending that the Judge had failed to take cognizance of the bidmade by it which was higher than the one put up by IMG-TWI. Hence theaward of contract to IMG-TWI was bad in law, improper and unjustified.* Nehra disappointed at ban for encroaching on wicketIndia’s left-arm paceman Ashish Nehra, in the centre of a controversyafter being disqualified for running onto the pitch on the third dayof the first Test against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo on Saturday, wasdisappointed at the turn of events but vowed to come back strongerfrom the experience. “I bowled the way I had in the first innings. Iam disappointed,” said the paceman from Delhi.Nehra was first given two official warnings by Zimbabwean umpireRussell Tiffin and several unofficial warnings by Australian umpireDaryl Harper. When he changed ends, he was first warned and thenstopped from bowling by umpire Harper who gave him his cap and sweaterafter he had bowled just four balls and told him he could no longerbowl in the innings.Zimbabwe were then 273 for seven and Nehra was in his 27th over. Teammanager Chetan Chauhan said he was very disappointed at the turn ofevents. “He was our main bowler and bowled very well in this game. Butwe respect the umpire’s decision and though he was not able to bowlagain in this match, we will try to rectify the mistake in the nextthree-four days.” Nehra bowled 11 overs in the first innings andpicked up three wickets for 23 runs and took two more conceding 77runs in the second before he was stopped while bowling his 27th over.Dave Houghton, former Zimbabwean captain said if the idea was tocreate a rough for Harbhajan Singh, the bowling action of Nehra wasunsuited for it. “I can understand a team playing two left-arm pacemento create rough for the spinners. But Nehra was coming too close tothe wicket. His footmarks on the wicket were not going to help anoffspinner.”

Worcestershire Royals went top of Norwich Union League Division Two after a comprehensive 70 run win over Sussex Sharks at Horsham.Chasing 211 to win, Sussex were in with a shout when Richard Montgomerie and Chris Adams put on 63 in 18 overs for the second wicket.But Montgomerie’s departure – lbw to Stuart Lampitt for 42 – sparked an ignominious middle order collapse with saw five runs fall for six runs in 35 balls including Adams who drove left-arm spinner Matt Rawnsley to cover after making 33.Will House (34) held up Worcestershire until skipper Graeme Hick came on to take three wickets in three overs at the end as Sussex subsided to 140 all out.Earlier Vikram Solanki and Hick had accelerated in the second half of Worcestershire’s innings to enable them set a competitive total on a slow pitch.Solanki was out in the last over after making 63 off 69 balls although, crucially as it turned out, he was dropped by wicketkeeper Matt Prior off Mark Davis when he’d made six.Hick scored his second half-century of the season in the competition against Sussex while for the home side Mark Robinson was the most accurate bowler, taking 1-19 off nine overs at the start of the innings.James Kirtley took 2-41 and there were first wickets in the competition for two years for Jason Lewry and Chris Adams. But Sussex allowed Worcestershire to accelerate far too easily in the second half of their innings and it cost them a third defeat in four matches this season.

An exhilarating century by England Under-19 batsman Nicky Peng carried Durham to a seven-wicket victory against Hampshire in the C and G Trophy third round at Chester-le-Street.They surged past Hampshire’s 50-over total of 262 for five with 9.4 overs to spare to register their first win against first-class opposition since 1992 in the premier knockout event.Hampshire thrashed 48 off the last three overs of their innings, with opener Neil Johnson making 113 not out.But Peng made 119 off 128 balls to win the Man of the Match award and with Martin Love and Paul Collingwood both passing 50 at better than a run-a-ball, Durham made light of their task.Peng played a series of glorious cover drives but also worked the ball through the leg side with effortless timing. He went to his hundred off 110 balls with a swept six off Mascarenhas and also hit 15 fours before he was bowled by Alan Mullally with 23 needed.After initial help from Love, whose 50 came off only 45 balls, Peng was able to relax towards the end of his innings as Collingwood unleashed all the frustration of his spell with the England one-day squad.He drove successive balls from Mullally for four and six to long-on in reaching 50 off 39 balls and finished on 59 not out.Hampshire left their charge too late, never developing a worthwhile stand as two batsmen suffered self-inflicted run-outs in slipping to 172 for five.At that point Dimitri Mascarenhas joined Johnson with 9.5 overs left and they added 90 runs, with Mascarenhas’s unbeaten 35 coming off 27 balls.

After seeing his side go down by eight runs to one-day kings Gloucestershire Gladiators in the Norwich Union National League, Somerset Coach Kevin Shine told me: "I’m very disappointed that we lost. We bowled and fielded well to restrict them to 219, but then batted disappointingly. This was a game that we would have hoped to have won."The coach went on: "in any game there are often a couple of turning points, and I think for us one was the catch that dismissed Peter Bowler when he was going well, and the other was when Keith Parsons was run out, just as he was getting into his stride."Looking ahead to next weeks’ match he said, "we’re now in the wrong half of the table, and need to be aware of this. We just have to pick ourselves up and get ready for Nottinghamshire Outlaws."

Former Sri Lankan Test cricketer, Roshan Mahanama, blasted the Australianmedia for blowing the “Glen McGrath incident” out of proportion at thelaunch of his autobiography “Retired Hurt” yesterday at the BandaranaiakeMemorial International Conference Hall in Colombo.In his autobiography “Retired Hurt”, Mahanama criticizes the Australiancricketers for the amount of sledging they do during play and refers to aparticular incident where Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath calls SanathJayasuriya a “Black Monkey”.However, Mahanama feels this was yet another incident of that tour and hefeels that the Aussie media blew the incident out of proportion after hementioned it on his autobiography.”I went to Melbourne to launch the book peacefully. But the Australian mediawere there with lot of cameras and focused on the Glenn McGrath incident. It’s sad. This is just one line in the book, which has 235 pages. They havetaken this out of proportion and there were threats by McGrath to take legalaction,” said a disappointed Mahanama.McGrath denies calling Jayasuriya a “black monkey” while Mahanama sticks tohis allegation. On the person of Glenn McGrath he further says, “Glenn is agreat bowler. But that doesn’t allow him to say whatever he wants to theother players”He’s also critical of the then Australian skipper Mark Taylor and thepresent captain Steve Waugh, who suggested that Mahanama’s comments were apublicity stunt.”If I wanted publicity I would have gone with the story to a publisher muchearlier. This is just a remark in the book,” he said.On this particular incident, the former CEO of the Australian Cricket Board,Malcolm Speed had questioned Mahanama as to how he knew about the incidentsince he didn’t play in that particular game,”Even if I had played the match, I wouldn’t have been in the middle when theincident occurred,” points out Mahanama. ” After getting out Sanath came tothe dressing room and told us on Glenn’s remark. That’s how I came to knowabout it”To prove his point, at the book launch Mahanama played some video clips ofthe 1996 World Series where it’s seen McGrath standing in Jayasuriya’s waywhile the batsman was looking for a run. The video footage also showsMcGrath using foul language at the Sri Lankan opener. It also goes onto showthe umpire, Steve Randol pointing the incident to the Aussie captain MarkTaylor.The book, which was initially launched at Melbourne, Australia, was launchedin Sri Lanka yesterday with the Sinhalese and the English versions. Theminister of sports Lakshman Kiriella was the chief Guest at the occasion.Cricketers of Sri Lankan, Indian and New Zealand teams, Internationalcricket commentators, members of parliament, cricket administrators, pastcricketers, foreign ambassadors and lots of Mahanama’s fans and familymembers participated.The book starts from Sri Lanka’s World Cup victory and goes onto speaks ofhis reasons to quit the game. He also deals at length on Australian tour of1995-1996, calling it the “the most controversial tour in my career.”

Leicestershire were on the verge of an impressive CricInfoChampionship victory at Cardiff as Glamorgan’s batsmen pressed theself-destruct button.The Welsh county were bowled out for a paltry 211 on a good SophiaGardens wicket and then, following on 377 behind, found themselves 15-2before heavy rain brought an early abandonment of the third day’s play.Only Robert Croft shone with the bat as the rest of the Glamorganbatting crumbled in their first innings with Phil DeFreitas recordingfigures of 6-65.Croft was dismissed for 89, an innings that came off 112 balls with 16boundaries.Glamorgan began day three on 52-1 but by lunch had been reduced to147-5, still needing 292 to avoid the follow-on.Replying to Leicestershire’s first innings of 588 was always going to bedifficult but Glamorgan’s batting this morning was little short ofirresponsible.Skipper Steve James flashed at a wide one from DeFreitas to be caughtbehind, Matthew Maynard was needlessly run out attempting a fourth runand Mike Powell clipped a Devon Malcolm leg stump half volley straightat mid-wicket.After lunch Croft and Adrian Dale gave Glamorgan some hope, putting on 71but the last four wickets then fell for just 30.Following on, James was out for the second time in the day. This timeonly surviving until the fourth ball of Devon Malcolm’s opening overbefore edging to first slip.And 0-1 became 6-2 three overs later when John Dakin forced Ian Thomasto glove behind.