Northamptonshire edged closer to promotion from the second division after completing a 162 run win over Sussex at Eastbourne today.Sussex’s hopes of reaching a victory target of 228 had effectively ended on the second day when they slumped to 45-7.Today they were bowled out for 65 – their lowest Championship score for nearly two years – as left-armer Paul Taylor cut a swathe through their tail.Taylor had Nick Wilton (19) and Jason Lewry (0) caught at slip off successive deliveries before last man Mark Robinson fell leg before for a duck – thefirst time Robinson had been dismissed in nine innings this season.Taylor finished with 6-27, his best return of the season, which gave him match figures of 10-69. Sussex skipper Chris Adams finished unbeaten on 24, but was the first to acknowledge afterwards that his side had been outplayed for the second week running.”I think it is important to emphasise that we have been beaten by the better side.”They are more balanced, have a very strong leader in Matthew Hayden and a lot of batsmen who are pulling for their team at important times.”While Northants look odds-on for promotion after winning five of their last six games, Adams admitted his team needed to win two of their last three gamesto have any chance of being promoted.

Any hangover left over from defeat in the first Test match was blown away in the sea breeze at East London’s Buffalo Park on Saturday as Stephen Fleming’s New Zealand tourists rattled up 311 for four declared before grabbing three Border wickets in the early evening.Most pleasing for the Kiwis would have been the unbroken 141-run stand for the fifth wicket between Nathan Astle and Craig McMillan who helped themselves to 69 and 76 respectively and looked good for a century apiece before the declaration came.But New Zealand would also have found encouragement from the difficulties encountered by the home team when they went in to bat. Andrew Penn took two good fast bowler’s wicket and Brooke Walker produced the perfect leg break to take the outside edge as Steven Pope pushed forward for Craig Spearman to take the catch at slip.The good work achieved by New Zealand has to be balanced by the fact that Border were without their first-choice seam attack and although youngsters Monde Zondeki, Liam Graham and Matts Matomela bowled with enthusiasm they all have some way to go before they can compete at first-class level.Still, New Zealand’s job was to deal with the opposition at hand, and this they did with some aplomb. Mark Richardson and Spearman batted calmly throughout the morning and into the afternoon for an opening stand worth 98 before Richardson was unluckily run out at the bowler’s end when Graham deflected Spearman’s straight drive onto the stumps.He made 45, Spearman went on to make 56 before he was caught at slip and Mathew Fleming and Stephen Fleming both got themselves in and then got themselves out for 28 and 29 respectively.Then Astle and McMillan came together to tear the Border bowling apart in the hour after tea. Astle played straight, driving through the covers superbly and McMillan improvised, reverse sweeping the offspinner Geoff Love for four and uppercutting Matemola over third man for six.The declaration left Border with 12 overs before the close. Penn, in his first first-class game in South Africa, caught the shoulder of opener Craig Sugden’s bat and nightwatchman Love’s glove for two catches to Sinclair in the gully. Ian Mitchell played a couple of thumping drives, but then Walker took Pope’s wicket to finish off a very good for New Zealand.

James Marshall’s hard-hit maiden Shell Cup century proved to be amatch-winner for Northern Districts, as Canterbury’s run chase came up 21runs short in an entertaining third-round clash.Marshall’s outstanding innings included six fours and four sixes. His second50 came off only 28 balls as Northern plundered 40 runs from its final fiveovers to set Canterbury an imposing target of 250.When Geoff Allott bowled Robbie Hart with only four deliveries left in theND innings it looked as if Marshall’s chance of reaching three figures hadgone. The young right-hander found himself stranded at the non-striker’s endon 95. But Alex Tait pushed his first ball into the off-side for a single,leaving Marshall three balls from which to score five runs to achieve themilestone.He smashed the next delivery from Allott wide of mid-on and the ballcomfortably beat Darren Reekers to the fence.Marshall then calmly played the next ball into the covers and raised botharms in jubilation as he completed the comfortable single.Like many short players, the diminutive Marshall showed a liking for theleg-side, striking most of his boundaries in an arc between mid-on andmid-wicket.Opening the innings for ND Simon Doull played a wide selection of some ofthe ugliest shots witnessed in Canterbury this year, riding his luck andboosting ND’s run-rate on the way to a grotesque 34.Eventually his luck ran out when he skied a crossed-bat slog at a WarrenWisneski delivery. Chris Harris had time to drive from Ashburton, park hiscar, get a coffee and then run in take the catch.Canterbury began its run chase disastrously with Hastings run-out withoutfacing a ball in the first over.Brad Doody drove a Doull delivery back down the pitch and the ball crashedinto the stumps, via the bowler’s fingers, leaving the rapidly retreatingHastings short of his ground.The unfortunate Hastings could have been forgiven for uttering the immortalwords of both Yoda and former England soccer manager Graham Taylor, as hesloped off the field – “Do I not like that”.Reekers didn’t last long before being yorked by Tuffey. Gary Stead then fellvictim to a brilliant piece of fielding. He smashed a wide ball from Doullfor what looked to be a certain four over backward point. But Neil Parlanearched backwards and threw himself in the air to take the ball in anoutstretched right hand.At 44/3 Canterbury already looked beaten.Chris Harris and Doody put on a century stand, but their inability to findthe boundary left Canterbury with too much to do in the last 15 overs. Atone point both Harris and Doody had compiled 14 singles in succession.Alex Tait removed Doody for 82 when he hit at soft catch to Hamish Marshallat cover. He was quickly followed by Hopkins, LBW for 2, and a strangelysubdued Chris Harris, whose 55 had taken 89 balls.With nine overs remaining the comparative scores were tied and twospecialist batsmen, Aaron Redmond and Michael Papps, remained at the creasefor Canterbury.But despite the pair adding a threatening 44 from 29 balls they were unablemirror Marshall’s end of innings heroics.Redmond’s fine 39 from 27 balls took Canterbury close, but Tait and Tuffeybowled full and straight at the death to close-out the contest.

June the 5th is going to be a memorable day for CricInfo Bangladesh. After its official launching in Bangladesh CricInfo has arranged such a flamboyant program in Hotel Purbani for the first time. It was the prize giving ceremony for the winners of the buster quiz contest that this prominent website ran all through the month of April on occasion of Bangladesh’s first away tour to Zimbabwe. The President of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Mr. Saber Hossain Chowdhury, MP and Deputy Minister of Ministry of LGRD presided over the congregation where BCB officials, National team players, sponsors, journalists, winners, and CricInfo officials were present.The GrameenPhone quiz contest comprised of two parts lastly sort out twenty individuals in a raffle draw earlier, thus were invited at the formal procedure at Hotel Purbani from 6 p.m. Along with the the President of BCB, Mr. Intekhab Mahmood, the sponsor from GrameenPhone and Mr. Sohel M Awrangzeb, the CEO of CricInfo Bangladesh delivered their respective speeches.The President, in his speech, expressed his concern over the welfare of Bangladesh Cricket and the vast role now CricInfo playing to uphold the cricketing plight of the country to the world on-line viewers. Addressing everyone present there, Mr. Chowdhury emphasized on the importance of on-line journalism and invited all to visit the site frequently.Earlier Mr. Sohel M Awrangzeb briefed on the role of CricInfo and its purpose in Bangladesh. Mr. Intekhab Mahmood’s one followed his speech where he put across his views over the role of CricInfo to the audiences.Mr. Sazal, an employee in a private IT firm was the luckiest chap to get the first prize of the contest "Player’s Heaven" – a Grameen cell phone. He received the lucrative token from CricInfo from the President of the BCB along with Trevor Chappell , the coach of Bangladesh national team. The only female winner contestant Ms. Fahmida Walliullah received the Match Bat signed by National Team Cricketers from Naimur Rahman, the skipper of Bangladesh team. The crowd seemed to be very cheerful when she got it. Mr Faisal from Chittagong was the third fortunate winner to get the Practice Bat, also signed by BD players. Some of the contestants were absent in the ceremony.The winners of other events were bestowed with CricInfo token prizes. The meeting ended with a happy note when everyone present there was seen to be engaged in chatting with each other. Some of the winners were seen to hunt autographs from their favorite players.

Robin Weston and Stephen Fleming put Middlesex in charge of their top-of-the-table Second Division clash with a decisive second-wicket stand at Edgbaston.They added 181 in 57 overs which denied Warwickshire the important early breakthrough they needed and allowed Angus Fraser the luxury of declaring and leaving Warwickshire needing 382 for victory.Weston completed his second century in three innings, a stylish 230-ball effort which included ten fours and a swept six off Ashley Giles, which left Middlesex with a selection headache now that Owais Shah has returned from England duty.Fleming, the New Zealand captain, again enjoyed himself on a good pitch as he reached his second fifty of the match and he appeared to be coasting towards his third century of the summer. But he fell eight short when he attempted to pull Giles for his second six and fell to a stunning catch on the square leg boundary by Mark Wagh.Weston fell the ball after he reached his century, when he pushed a return catch to Dougie Brown, but there was no respite for Warwickshire’s flagging attack.Paul Weekes picked up the tempo and set up the declaration with a brisk half-century, which included six fours and a pulled six off Vasbert Drakes, and when he drove Brown to Giles at extra cover, Angus Fraser called in his troops.Warwickshire were left with an awkward 40 minutes batting and their captain Michael Powell bravely decided to open the innings even though he had kept wicket all day in the absence of Keith Piper, who had a viral infection.Powell survived to the close but Warwickshire’s victory hopes suffered a further setback when Ian Bell was pinned LBW by Fraser’s final ball of the day, a late inswinger.

Jamie Haynes marked his debut as a Lancashire opener with an unbeaten half-century in the seven-wicket win over Warwickshire Cricket Board at Blackpool today.Haynes, Lancashire’s second team ‘keeper, is aiming to carve out a new career as a specialist batsman and will take Mike Atherton’s place in the CricInfo Championship game against Surrey at The AMP Oval on Friday.But he was brought in for today’s C & G Trophy tie because of an injury to Mark Chilton and he responded with 59* to deflate the would-be giant killers.Lancashire needed 164 and they got there in the 35th over with a hard-hitting knock from Andy Flintoff, who made 40 off 26 balls.But Flintoff got out to a disappointing shot and John Crawley’s hopes of a second successive one-day half-century disappeared when he was caught and bowled after hammering a six and five fours.Haynes, however, played steadily, linking up with Neil Fairbrother to steer Lancashire home with few problems.But the Board side left with their heads held high after a defiant fight-back earlier in the day.After deciding to bat they slumped to 22-5 and later 76-8. But Gavin Shephard rescued them with a magnificent 73, which earned them the man-of-the-match award.Shephard piled on 86 in 16 overs with left-hander Spencer Platt – only one short of the tournament record for the ninth-wicket.Lancashire’s Peter Martin claimed a competition best 5-16.

The Australian women’s team defeated their Irish counterparts on Thursday at Leinster Cricket Club, Rathmines, Dublin, in the first game of a three-match one-day international series.The Australians won a rain-affected match with a superior scoring rate, having scored 119 for 5 from 36 overs, to pass their revised target of 117.Ireland batted first after their new captain Nikki Squire won the toss. Caitriona Beggs (45 from 93 balls, five fours) and Clare O’Leary (42 from 89 balls, five fours) held the Irish batting together before the home side was all out for 132 in the fiftieth over. This was Ireland’s highest total in a 50-over-a-side ODI against Australia (although they did reach 145 for 4 in sixty overs in the 1993 World Cup).For Australia, Therese McGregor took 3/21 with Julie Hayes, Charmaine Mason and Lisa Sthalekar claiming two wickets each.Michelle Goszko top scored when it was Australia’s turn to bat, making an unbeaten 36, with Lisa Keightley contributing 28. Wicket-takers for Ireland were Saibh Young, Miriam Grealey and Barbara McDonald.The two remaining one-day internationals in this series, which concludes Australia’s tour of the British Isles, will be played at College Park, Dublin on Saturday and Sunday.

The ECB have refuted the idea that England “have been hanging on to excuses” as suggested in Australian coach John Buchanan’s leaked memo.In an attempt to counter the accusation that England were hiding behind “injuries, toss, bad luck, dropped catches” as outlined in the memo, ECB spokesman Andrew Walpole insisted: “The players have been very open and frank about their performances in the last two Test matches, I don’t believe players have sought to make excuses talking to the media.”During the Lord’s Test a number of players spoke to the press and were very honest that the catching, for example, wasn’t as good as it had been in the winter, when we were a very sharp fielding side.”When we’ve been asked questions about issues such as the toss – clearly it’s a factor when we’ve lost nine tosses in a row – it’s going to get mentioned. There’s no concerted attempt on behalf of the players to make excuses,” he continued.”If you go back through the press conferences Duncan Fletcher, David Graveney, Mike Atherton when he’s been captain, they have all said we are not going to use injuries as an excuse.”Far from being embarrassed by the contents of the memo, Buchanan freely admitted the whole incident. Indeed it is possible the episode was premeditated.”I put material under the door of the players and it seems I put material under the door of the media at the same stage,” he conceded. “I don’t see that it’s a mistake, it’s just unfortunate that somehow it escaped our normal channels.”Buchanan accepted that his memos had gone astray before, but defended his comments.”In the end I guess that sort of thing has happened to me to before, so I’m quite aware of the possibility. In this case some information has found its way elsewhere. That’s really up to the England camp to work out what it means, if it means anything.”Most of the time I deliver them myself, in some cases I don’t. On tour we’ve got to rely on people photocopying information for us and circulating it. It’s always in the back of my mind that it might sneak out, not as though I want it to happen.”All it’s intended to do is focus our attention not only on this game but the end of the series, and beyond this series,” he explained.”If you read the passage, it does refer to the comment that England players and the management have made about injuries and toss, and back luck and so on.”In the end we are in a better position, or a more comfortable position and therefore it is difficult when you are not winning games and you are trying to assess why that’s not the case. It really depends on what credence that a team wants to place on the information they have in front of them.”

* VCA looks back on an eventful seasonThe Vidarbha Cricket Association held its annual general meeting atNagpur on August 4 and it was time for the members to look upon aneventful season. The VCA hosted the Test match between India andZimbabwe from November 25 to 29 and a three day match between India Aand Australia from February 17 to 19. Because of the earthquake inGujarat, the BCCI changed the venue for the three day game from Barodato Nagpur. The Association’s ability to organize the match within ashort time made the BCCI to consider Nagpur as a venue ahead of othercentres. The cricket lovers of Nagpur had a chance to see worldchampions Australia and Zimbabwe play.The proposed Duleep Trophy match between Central Zone and West Zone atMeerut was shifted to Nagpur due to the law and order situation inthat city. The VCA successfully conducted the tournament within ashort notice.Vidarbha players received due national recognition. Alind Naidu wasselected for the training camp held by the National Cricket Acadamy atBangalore. During the year he represented India in the under-19 `Test’and in one day matches played against England while Amit Deshpanderepresented India in the one day under-19 game against England.Chandrashekar Atram was selected for the MRF Pace Academy at Chennai.Among administrators from the state, former Vidarbha and Central Zonecricketer Ashok Bhagwat was appointed as Junior National selectorwhile Shashank Manohar was appointed as member of the code of conductcommittee set up by the BCCI.* Ten teams for KSCA inter-zonal tournamentTen teams will take part in the KSCA Coca-Cola inter-zonal under-19tournament to be played at Mysore and Bangalore from August 11 to 31.The group A matches will be held in Mysore. Teams in this pool areMysore Zone, Bangalore Zone, Mangalore Zone, Tumkur Zone and CombinedCity. Group B matches will be played at Bangalore. Teams in this poolare Bangalore City, President’s XI, Shimoga Zone, Racihur Zone andDharwad Zone.The group matches will be played on a league basis, each game beingplayed over two days. The top two teams in each zone will qualify forthe semifinals, to be played on a knock out basis over three days. Theleague matches will be played from August 11 to 23, the semifinalswill be held on August 25, 26 and 27 and the three day final on August29, 30 and 31.

Bangladesh showed some fighting qualities as they grind their way to adraw in the three-day game against the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) XIat the UBL Sports Complex here Sunday.Resuming at 30 for one and trailing the home team by 73 runs, thetourists were 239 for nine when the match was called off with sevenmandatory overs still to be bowled.The result was nothing but a highly respectable one for the touristswho arrived here for the Asian Test Championship opener againstPakistan short of match practice because of monsoons back home. Inaddition to this, the visitors put up a match improved performanceafter a dismal 161 in the first innings.In the second innings, the frontline batsmen dug their way and battedwith patience. Lady Luck also favoured them when the PCB XI spilled atleast half a dozen chances. But there is no denying the fact that theway the stroke-makers played, they meant business.Opener Mehrab Hossain and former captain Akram Khan struck halfcenturies of contrasting styles to lead the tourists fight back.Mehrab stroked a confident 72 off 173 balls with six boundaries whileAkram canned five blistering boundaries and a huge six off ShoaibMalik while scoring a 135-ball 53. Mehrab, who batted for 223 minutes,reached his half century from 110 balls with five hits to the fence.Habibul Bashar and Khaled Mashud chipped in with 33 and 27respectively.Shoaib Malik, the off-spinner, was the most successful bowler withthree for 77 while Azam Husain picked up two for 41 with his slowleft-armers.Yasir Arafat, however, made the ball to reverse swing in the finalsession of the match and almost brought the heart of the tourists intheir mouths. Although he ended up with just two for 36, the figurescould have been more respectable had the ball not swung more than itshould have.Yasir’s double post-tea strike had raised hopes of an interesting endto the match as Bangladesh, when the 15 mandatory overs started, werethen a little over 120 runs ahead. But No 10 batsman Mohammad Shariffrustrated the home team for 21 to end all prospects of a one-dayclimax. And last but not the least. Where there is Sadiq Mohammad,there is some humour and fun and Sunday was no exception. He adjudgedthree Bangladesh batsmen leg before, two decisions looked very tightand could have gone in the batsmen’s favour.But the comical thing happened when Sadiq adjudged Sharif leg beforeoff Najaf Shah and immediately reversed his decision. He acted as ifhe was walking but everyone present in the ground as well as theplayers, were stunned by Sadiq’s sudden change in decision. If Sadiqhas been watching television lately, he would have realized thatinternational umpires take time to make decisions.Although a quick decision proves that the umpire is confident but atthe same time, sometimes leaves him look like a fool as happenedSunday evening.Bangladesh leave for Multan on Monday where they play Pakistan in thefirst ever Test between the two nations from Wednesday.