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Yorkshire 241 for 4 beat Derbyshire 141 by 100 runs
ScorecardA sensational burst of fast bowling from Steven Patterson, who grabbed fivewickets for five runs in 11 balls on his way to career-best figures of 6 for 32, propelled Yorkshire to victory by 100 runs over Derbyshire at Headingley for their third consecutive win in the CB40 League.In their best start to a season in years, Yorkshire have a 100% record in the competition as well as being unbeaten and top of the First Division table in the County Championship.Chasing 242, Derbyshire were immediately in trouble against Patterson whodismissed Chesney Hughes to a catch at cover in his first over. But it was when Patterson returned for a second spell that he created mayhem bysingle-handedly destroying the second half of the Derbyshire batting, starting with three wickets in his first over.His first delivery had John Sadler brilliantly caught by wicketkeeper Gerard Brophy, diving far to his left; his third rattled the stumps of Lee Goddard, and his sixth found the inside edge of Jake Needham’s bat. And Patterson finished things off in his next over by having Tom Lungley caught on the long-on boundary by Adil Rashid and then trapping Mark Footitt lbw with his next ball.Earlier in the innings, it was another uncapped fast bowler, Ben Sanderson, who claimed two important wickets in the space of four balls to put Yorkshire very much on top. Dangerman Chris Rogers was caught on the square-leg boundary by Jacques Rudolph before Sanderson produced a superb delivery which nipped back at Greg Smith and trimmed his leg bail.After Yorkshire chose to bat first on winning the toss, some good spin bowling, particularly from Needham, kept their innings in check until Brophy was able to break loose with a career-best one-day score of 93 not out off only 70 balls with 12 boundaries.Coming in at 88 for 3 in the 21st over, Brophy put on 82 in 12 overs withAnthony McGrath and then an unbroken 71 in seven overs with Rashid.The last four overs were Powerplays and 48 runs gushed from them, includingthree boundaries in one over for Brophy off Tim Groenewald.At the start of the innings, Yorkshire quickly lost their captain, Andrew Gale, when he sliced Groenewald to Lungley at third man and just as Rudolph was looking set for another big score he tried to drive Needham’s second ball high over the top but only succeeded in holing out to Hughes at cover.Lyth whacked Needham over midwicket for six and also hit three otherboundaries before being bowled by Smith while McGrath had a moment of goodfortune when he drove Needham high to long off where Lungley caught the ball but had to release it just before his momentum caused him to step over the boundary rope.Both bowler and fielder gained their revenge to account for McGrath for apatient 40. He drove Needham high and straight and this time Lungley was able to hold on to a good low catch.

Sunil Gavaskar has come down hard on India’s shortcomings against the short ball during the World Twenty20 in the West Indies, suggesting they train at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore to rectify their difficulties. For the second time in succession, India bowed out of a World Twenty20 without registering a win in a single Super Eights game, making it six such losses in a row since England last year.India won both their group games but lost to Australia, West Indies and Sri Lanka in the second stage. Besides their difficulties in tackling bouncers – a weakness exploited by their opponents – India were ordinary in terms of their fielding and running between the wickets.”The guys who have been found to be uncomfortable against the short ball should be sent to the NCA, where they will be able to practice against the short ball, either through a bowling machine or maybe with some of the younger bowlers bowling to them from say 18 to 16 yards,” Gavaskar told the news channel . “They are under contract with the BCCI so nobody can actually claim that they need a break they don’t need a break if they haven’t performed, they need to go to the NCA and hone their skills against the short ball.”Several other former India players criticized the team’s performance, saying it was not adequately prepared to succeed in a tournament where the quality of cricket was considerably higher than the IPL. MS Dhoni, the captain, said the constant traveling associated with the IPL and it’s after parties took a toll on the body.There was just a five-day gap between the IPL final and the start of the World Twenty20, giving the players barely enough rest, but Gavaskar, a member of the IPL’s governing council, didn’t blame the IPL for India’s performance.”If that was the case then Sri Lanka would not have been in the semi-final, or England and Australia. A lot of Australian players were in the IPL so I don’t think that is an issue at all,” he said. “It’s just the fact that T20 is a format where you have got to be good on the day and if you are not good on your day, you lose. I don’t think much should be read into the fact that the players were playing IPL, if anything playing in the IPL meant that they had lot more practice than the other teams.”Former players like Madan Lal and Mohammad Azharuddin felt Dhoni was making excuses by referring to the IPL parties and Gavaskar concurred. “I don’t think that is an excuse at all. I think that is a very poor excuse used by people to say that IPL parties were the reason for the team not performing here. Tell me one thing, there were no parties here were they? So how can you say that the team performed badly in the Caribbean because of parties in India?”Continuing on the fall-out of India’s exit, Gavaskar chose not to comment on coach Gary Kirsten’s alleged statement that he was fitter than some of the team members, saying he would rather wait for Kirsten to communicate his thoughts officially to the BCCI. However, Gavaskar threw his weight behind Dhoni, with the Indian media speculating on his future as captain of India in the limited-overs formats.”MS Dhoni has done the best that he could. I still think he is the best bet as far as captaining the country is concerned. He has not quite had the luck he had when he had started with the India captaincy.”

England fast bowler James Anderson has revealed his anger at being left out of his country’s ICC World Twenty20 winning squad, and thinks being rested for the tour of Bangladesh that preceded the tournament was part of the problem. Anderson was part of the 15-member squad for the Caribbean but was benched for all games.”I suppose you have to take your hat off to the selectors, don’t you?” he told the . “But it did take the wind out of my sails and I felt angry about being rested, because I felt that might have had something to do with it. I thought if I had gone there and gone to Abu Dhabi [for the warm-up mini-tour] it might have been different.”Not being picked during the World T20 has forced Anderson to re-evaluate where he stands in England’s thinking. “I now have to work my way back into the team and unless they play only one spinner I can’t see me starting,” he said. “I admit it has changed my thoughts on where I am in the side.”During the South Africa tour I felt I was becoming a key part of the team and now I don’t feel like that. That said, I believe that if I had played in the World Twenty20 we would have still won. My self-belief remains intact.”He also feels the upcoming one-day series against Australia isn’t necessary and believes the England players would be better served by playing country cricket. “I don’t think there is a need for the ODIs but that is what the ECB wanted to do. For me it would be a perfect time to send the England players back to play for their counties, but it’s out of our hands.”That said, every series against the Aussies is huge and we are very hopeful it will be closer than the series we played after the Ashes last year.”England were demolished 6-1 in that series and Anderson admitted Australia’s uncanny ability to keep producing new players makes it difficult to beat them. “They are a great side who keep bringing out these new players who just slot into the international scene. They keep churning out results, so we know it’s going to be very hard for us.”But any time you play Australia it’s a big deal and we will be treating it like that. We also know if we get a good series win here it will give us extra confidence.”

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Suzie Bates was Player of the Series as leading scorer from either side with 94 runs in three games•Getty Images

New Zealand wrapped up the Twenty20 series 2-1 with a nine-run win in a low-scoring match at Hove. After the despair of their narrow defeat in the World Twenty20, New Zealand have fought hard in this series to bounce back after losing the first game and looked a jubilant outfit when an accurate final over from the impressive Sophie Devine sealed the result, and the series, for them.New Zealand knew they would have to scrap to defend a sub-par 124 for 8 after opting to bat first, but England’s tactics allowed them to re-group in the field and once Sarah Taylor had been castled by Nicola Browne wickets fell at regular intervals. England had been favourites before the second innings got underway, but without pressure to score quickly from the outset they dug themselves into a defensive hole with some overly-cautious batting.After the snail-paced start, Charlotte Edwards began to find some fluency but then chipped Devine to Browne at cover for a-run-a-ball 19 in the ninth over. Claire Taylor then fell to an ugly smear that looped gently to the same fielder to leave England struggling at 46 for 3 in the 11th over. Her dismissal triggered a middle-order collapse as two balls later Laura Marsh flashed Devine straight to Kate Broadmore, who then rattled Jenny Gunn’s stumps as three wickets fell in the space of seven balls.England had recovered from a similarly dire position in the second game at the Rose Bowl, but their chase never recovered today. Danielle Wyatt showed some hustle in her 17-ball 16, but with the run-rate climbing too many risks had to be taken and when she and Lydia Greenway fell in the 17th over to offspinner Lucy Doolan England were as good as buried.Though Doolan and Devine had been in the wickets with the ball, it was a team-effort in the field that sealed the win and it had been a similar story when New Zealand batted. Aimee Watkins and Suzie Bates – who top-scored again today and was named Player of the Series – laid the platform with a patient 50-run opening stand that gradually gained momentum.Though Danielle Hazell ran through New Zealand’s top three in an inspirational display of slow bowling, Browne and Devine picked up the mantle with an aggressive 28-run partnership that took up only 16 balls and seized back the momentum for the visitors. The experienced pair of Nicky Shaw and Katherine Brunt – who topped 75mph with the ball – pegged back New Zealand’s charge, but despite the narrowness of the eventual winning margin the visitors were in control for most of the game.

The stadia used for the FIFA World Cup are too small for major international cricket matches, Cricket South Africa chief executive Gerald Majola has said. Majola told parliament that the grounds were too small for cricket, a problem that could have been avoided had the board been consulted when the stadiums were being designed.”Historically, our game was not played in areas where some of the stadiums were built,” Majola said. “We saw an opportunity, but unfortunately we were not part of the design of the stadiums. If we had met before the time and considered the issues we would have known stadiums would have been accommodating others sports as well.”The World Cup venues at Polokwane, Rustenburg and Nelspruit, Majola had hoped, could have been used to stage a Twenty20 tournament similar to the IPL. But their inappropriate size quashed the plan.”We were hoping the stadiums were going to help us get into areas we had never been,” Majola said. “We were really trying to get a tournament to be played similar to the IPL, but unfortunately due to the congestion of the future tour programme, which governs how cricket is played internationally, we could not find a gap for our own competition.”The three venues could have helped CSA “find a window”, helping to squeeze in more games in the month of August where the tournament could have presumably lured several foreign players. “It would have meant we would have had an event annually in those three stadiums, which we could have hosted every year in August, maybe early September,” Majola said. “Unfortunately we are compelled by the size of fields. When these fields were built, we were not part of that.”The Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, however, will be hosting a Twenty20 game during India’s upcoming tour of South Africa. The ground was given clearance to stage the game – marking the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Indians in South Africa – despite being 22 metres “short on the square”.”For this particular game, because of its importance to South Africa, I had to motivate the ICC and ask for special dispensation,” he said. “The biggest capacity for cricket in South Africa is at Wanderers with 35,000. At the Mabhida we will have 70 000 spectators coming… We know that the day we sell the tickets, the tickets will be sold out.”The stadium’s management, he reportedly said, had indicated it was considering removing the first six rows of seats ground to accommodate an athletics track. “If that happens we will apply (to the ICC) for full status to utilise the Mabhida stadium,” Majola said.

ScorecardAn unbeaten century from Uttar Pradesh batsman Ravikant Shukla, a stunning lower-order assault from Amit Dani, and an all-round bowling effort helped Indian Oil Corporation overcome Income Tax to enter the final against India Cements. Ameya Shrikhande scored a run-a-ball 114 to keep Income Tax in the hunt, but his team-mates could not provide adequate support as they were bowled out 67 runs short.IOC’s decision to bat was vindicated by their openers who added 61 in 11.3 overs and set the stage for a big score. Wasim Jaffer was in an aggressive mood, striking seven fours and a six in his 38 off 35 balls, while Paresh Patel was watchful at the other end. Though both were guilty of not making their starts count, Shukla who came in at one-drop was determined to cash in. The young middle-order duo of Cheteshwar Pujara and Harpreet Singh did the needful, turning the strike over as Shukla settled into a big innings.Harpreet departed at 211 for 4 in the 42nd over, but by then Shukla had worked himself into top gear. Dani who came in at No. 6 hit the ground running and Income Tax came in for some punishment. Shukla, who came into this game with a solitary first-class 100 and none at the List A level, smashed eight fours and three sixes as he finished with 123. Dani clouted four sixes and three fours, and finished one short of a fifty as the stand realized 93 in eight overs.Income Tax’s reply got off to a horror start when opener Hiken Shah fell for a duck in the first over. They tried to counter-attack, going after IOC’s opening bowlers, but the pressure of chasing a 300-plus score began to show on the running between the wickets. Amor Ubarhande and Jay Desai succumbed to run outs before Bhavik Thaker settled down with Shrikhande to rebuild the innings. During this phase, seamers Dani and Murtuza Hussain combined with left-arm spinner Rajesh Pawar to keep Income Tax quiet.Thaker could not reach the boundary during his 45 off 62 balls and when he fell in the 37th over, Income Tax needed 120 off 13.3 overs. Shrikhande kept fighting, but the lower order did not have the nous to stay with him. His innings was ended by Pawar who castled him from over-the-wickets for a run-a-ball 114. Thereafter it was only a matter of time, and Income Tax eventually folded for 241 in the 46th over.

ScorecardA five-wicket haul by Henry Osinde and a strong second-innings start anchored by Zubin Sukari helped Canada dominate most of the second day in Toronto, but Ireland struck towards the end to reclaim control. Andre Botha and Kevin O’Brien did most of the damage, picking three wickets each as Canada slumped from 151 for 2 to 190 for 8, giving them a lead of 49 over Ireland’s first-innings effort.Ireland began the day 70 runs ahead and it was due to Osinde that the six wickets remaining barely doubled the advantage. George Dockrell and John Mooney did not last long, and when Trent Johnston left the field retired hurt soon after, Canada would have hoped to run through the tail. Andrew White, however, ensured that Ireland retained the upper hand with a fighting 84 before he was the eighth man out, the last three wickets falling for the addition of only one run.Canada’s top-order began their reply with far more purpose than in the first innings, openers Ruvindu Gunasekara and Nitish Kumar adding 30 for the first wicket. Gunasekara played cautiously in the company of Surkari, and their second-wicket stand of 106 put Canada in sight of the lead.Things quickly went pear-shaped for the hosts starting with Gunasekara’s dismissal, bowled by Botha. Surkari was dismissed similarly and with Canada just 10 runs ahead it was left to Ashish Bagai to build the lead. Unfortunately there was no support at the other end as five wickets tumbled for the addition of 19 runs, O’Brien accounting for three of them. Bagai remained unbeaten on 31 at stumps.

Considering the odds the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) had to overcome to get the 12th version of the National Cricket League going, the first week of the tournament was a classic anticlimax. First, there was the issue of the availability of venues and with renovation and development for World Cup 2011 going on at the main grounds, the home-and-away format was sacrificed for neutral grounds and the duration of the event shortened. Then the New Zealand series put paid to the chances of the international stars participating in the league. As if that wasn’t enough, a late monsoon pushed the NCL’s start back by a week. When it finally kicked off, the three matches had a total of five completed innings as rain, courtesy a depression in the Bay of Bengal, forced an indefinite postponement of the tournament. Dhaka Division, however, weren’t complaining after making good use of the three days of reasonable weather up north in Rajshahi against Khulna Division but the rains held sway in the other venues.Despite having players of quality, Dhaka have not had the desired results in recent past. All that could change this year with a batting line-up boasting the class of Mohammad Ashraful, Mehrab Hossain Jr, Shamsur Rahman and the exciting talent of Rony Talukder, Shuvagoto Hom and Anamul Haque. Khulna on the other hand remain a shadow of their 2007-08 ‘dream team’ without Mashrafe Mortaza, Shakib Al Hasan, Abdur Razzak, Imrul Kayes and now retired Habibul Bashar, and they were under pressure from the start after putting Dhaka in on a true surface.Having lost his place in the Bangladesh side, captain Ashraful hit a fluent 113 to revive his World Cup hopes. With the ball coming on to the bat nicely, Ashraful was unstoppable and after his exit, Hom, a stand-by for the New Zealand series, and the Bangladesh Under 19 wicketkeeper Anamul went after the Khulna attack to reach their maiden first-class tons as Dhaka surged to 496. At 191 for 6, Khulna were staring at the prospect of following on after Tushar Imran’s promising 54 was neutralised by an Ashraful delivery. Khulna captain Saghir Hossain (65) tried to lift the spirits on day three, a tough ask with Dolar Mahmud and Syed Rasel already headed for Dhaka on emergency call-up to the national team. Left-arm spinner Elias Sunny polished off the tail to finish with 5 for 77 as Khulna folded for 277 giving Dhaka the batting bonus. Ashraful did not enforce the follow-on and when Dhaka batted again Shamsur punished the severely-weakened Khulna bowling on way to a rapid 102. Closing at 170 for 5 with a lead of 489, Dhaka must have fancied full points with a clinical last-day effort. The elements however, had other plans.On a dodgy outfield battered by continuous showers in Jessore, champions Rajshahi Division were frustrated when just 15 overs could be bowled on a dry first day against Sylhet Division. On day two they found Enamul Haque Jnr (4 for 43) using all his experience and guile under a murky sky and on a sluggish pitch. Khaled Mashud’s side were dismissed for 160 and the Sylhet openers were at the crease for around five minutes and two balls before the skies opened up. Not another ball was bowled as the game was washed out.In Bogra, the towering Barisal Division left-arm seamer Shafaq Al Zabir impressed with an inspired new-ball burst that had Chittagong Division gasping at 3 for 16. Zabir was once considered the next great hope after Mortaza but could never live up to that billing. Here, however, he was in his element and had openers Gazi Salahuddin and Nafees Iqbal lbw by bringing the ball back in menacingly. Nazimuddin (91) steadied the innings but Barisal continued to take wickets at the other end. Chittagong were all out for 202 and Barisal closed the first day on 55 for 2. They limped to 119 for 6 in the 37 overs of play on the second day, but rain scuppered what was turning into an interesting tussle.Player of the week – Mohammad AshrafulKnowing that every innings matters if he wants to return to the Bangladesh side, Ashraful batted like a man possessed against Khulna. His timing, which had deserted him even in the Bangladesh nets, was back and there was a calmness and assurance about him that has not been on view recently. Dhaka had three centurions in the first innings but only one of them actually showed the way. Ashraful’s captaincy was also imaginative and he was not shy in taking the ball in his hand when others couldn’t make inroads.

Left-arm spinner Mohammad Aslam gave Habib Bank Limited the edge against Karachi Blues at the Southend Club Cricket Stadium in Karachi. His 5 for 30 helped bowl out Karachi for 190 after they had threatened to get much more given a 67-run opening stand between Naved Khan and Rameez Raja, who smashed 47 in just 33 balls. But Aslam struck timely blows, backed up by Pakistan allrounder Azhar Mahmood, who took two wickets. The last seven Karachi wickets fell for just 58. In reply, HBL were in a bit of trouble themselves, finishing the day at 52 for 3, still 138 adrift.An unbeaten 128-run stand between Atif Ashraf (73 not out) and Junaid Zia (56 not out) helped Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited recover to 270 for 5 on the first day against Faisalabad at the Sports Stadium in Sargodha. A partnership of 61 between Inam-ul-Haq (53) and Shahid Yousuf had promised to steer ZTBL to a competitive score but the team lost three wickets for 34, and was in trouble at 142 for 5. But Ashraf took the lead in the rescue, striking seven fours in his 14th first-class half-century, and was backed up by Zia, who has played ODIs for Pakistan, to give ZTBL a slight edge at the end of the opening day.It was an action-packed first day at the Diamond Club Ground as 15 wickets fell for 275 runs in the contest between hosts Islamabad and Water and Power Development Authority. It was the latter who held the advantage at stumps on the first day, finishing on 135 for 5 after skittling out their opponents for 140. The stars for WAPDA were two experienced campaigners – fast bowler Sarfraz Ahmed, who’s playing his 115th first-class game and has more than 400 wickets to his name and Pakistan international Naved-ul-Hasan. The two grabbed seven wickets between them and the only significant resistance they met was from No.3 batsman Ameer Khan, who top-scored for his side with 53. However, WAPDA would think their response has been less than satisfactory. They lost their openers early while the pair that followed, Sohaib Maqsood and Bilal Khilji, was dismissed after getting good starts. Seamer Nasrullah Khan took three wickets but with just five runs behind, and Hasan Adnan unbeaten on 29, WAPDA will look to build a competitive lead.National Bank of Pakistan and Multan played out a closely-fought first day at the Multan Cricket Stadium. The hosts, after being put in, were bowled out for 303 but fought back to nip out two NBP wickets before the close. The Multan innings was given impetus by a 84-run fourth-wicket stand between Taimur Ali and Kashif Naved, each of whom scored half-centuries. They were well-paced innings as well with Naved’s 63 coming off 66 balls, laced with seven fours. But things went downhill from then on as the last six wickets fell for 63. Fast bowler Wasim Khan, who had taken 314 wickets at the first-class level before this game, led the way with a four-for while every other bowler in the attack delivered at least one breakthrough. But NBP were jolted in their reply by seamer Abdur Rauf, whose double-strike left them at 35 for 2 at stumps.Rawalpindi were in control of their contest against Pakistan International Airlines at the Rawalpindi Stadium after restricting them to 171 for 9 at the end of the first day. Left-arm medium-pacer Nasir Malik, playing just his fourth first-class game, grabbed 6 for 55 to dent the PIA batting. PIA will be left to rue missed opportunities as seven of their batsmen reached double-figures but the highest individual score was just 26. The openers had promised much with their start; Agha Sabir and Shehzar Mohammad added 51 but the innings fell away soon after. The batsmen who followed, despite settling in, failed to measure up to Malik. In fact, it was the extras that led the scores tally for PIA with 28.Faisal Khan led the charge for Sialkot against Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited at the Jinnah Stadium in Sialkot, scoring a century to guide his team to 261 for 3 at stumps on the opening day. This was Faisal’s third first-class ton and it helped his team fight back after the loss of both openers with the score on 26. Faisal revived the innings in a 186-run third-wicket stand with Majid Jahangir, who made 92, missing out on what could have been his fifth first-class century. Sialkot, with two losses in this tournament thus far, are the bottom-placed team in the Division and the performance on the first day of a new round will come as a major boost.

Shane Watson says all of the Australian bowlers should be blamed for the side’s lack of penetration on the fourth day as England stormed back into the opening Test. The locals started with a 202-run lead but by stumps were 88 behind after the visiting top three took advantage of an inconsistent attack to post 1 for 309.Mitchell Johnson struggled with his line and Ben Hilfenhaus was unthreatening for long periods, while Peter Siddle could not build on his impressive six-wicket return in the first innings. “I don’t think you can single out Mitchell today,” Watson said. “All of us, the bowlers, didn’t perform particularly well, me included.”Andrew Strauss (110) and Alastair Cook (132 not out) were regularly given balls to cut, pull and drive, and the wayward approach also allowed them constant singles. Jonathan Trott joined the fun after Strauss was out stumped to Marcus North, the only wicket to fall on an extremely difficult day for the hosts.”It came down to sustaining pressure and unfortunately we weren’t able to do that,” Watson said. “We did it for little periods but weren’t able to execute for long enough. The English guys batted well, particularly Strauss and Cook, but all of us as a bowling group weren’t able to consistently execute to build the pressure that was needed.”The problem has been a feature of Australia’s attack since the last Ashes series and is highlighted on flat pitches when the bowlers can’t make things happen. “That’s something we are continuing to work on as a group,” Watson said. “We know how important it is on flat wickets and there’s no doubt that there’s going to be a lot of flat wickets throughout this whole summer. We have to continue to improve, to make sure we get better at it.”This surface was supportive to the fast men for the first two days but has flattened out. There are a few cracks to aim for but England’s position is so strong that they may be in a position to push for victory over the second half of the final day. That depends on lifting their scoring rate in the morning, something Watson hopes they try to achieve.”It would be nice if they did,” he said. “It might give us a few more opportunities to be able to take some wickets.”Although England were reluctant to think too far ahead in the game, Australia’s former captain Ian Chappell said that a positive approach in the final stages of the game could have a major bearing on the momentum of the series, much as was the case when England snatched a draw from the jaws of defeat at Cardiff in 2009.”A draw has got to be the favourite, but England should at some point just start to push a little bit, and try to frighten Australia,” Chappell told ESPNcricinfo. “I don’t for a moment think they will bowl them out – if they do you’ll be talking about this one in the same terms as Headingley 1981, or India’s victory over Australia in Calcutta. But even if England can push Australia into a bit of a corner and get five of them out and put the frighteners on them, then they would go to Adelaide with a huge psychological boost.”Despite the swift momentum shift, Watson said Australia were still in the game. “But we do have to turn it around very quickly,” he said. “We still need to get nine wickets and that seems a long way away at the moment. But there’s definitely still quite a bit of hope for us.”