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Midlands Division

The game of the day was Nottinghamshire versus Ireland at Trent Bridge by a big margin, given the narrowness of the win – Nottinghamshire triumphing by one run to go top of the table. Ireland may have been the wooden spoons but they were certainly prepared to stir Nottinghamshire, albeit in agonising pursuit of 241. Kevin O’Brien shone with an unbeaten 93, building on Reinhardt Strydom’s 49. Nottinghamshire had their middle order to thank for rescuing them from 22 for 3, with Adam Voges, Samit Patel and Chris Read each making fifties.Warwickshire emerged winners of a game against Leicestershire made lopsided by intermittent – and interfering – rain showers at Oakham. Batting first Warwickshire made 187 for 8 from 49 overs, having lost one over after the players departed the field, then returned, in the 46th over. Leicestershire set off in pursuit but at 19.3 overs, when on 53 for 2, the rain came again, leaving them eight runs short when Duckworth-Lewis was calculated. Having restricted Warwickshire, to lose in such a manner was a big blow for Leicestershire who are still not through: they need a point in their final game on Wednesday.

North Division

Durham made it two wins in two this weekend, their big 117-run win at Chester-le-Streetpushing Derbyshire down to third after Yorkshire also won. Durham posted a mighty 297 for 7 after choosing to bat, Michael di Venuto weighing in with a century and Will Smith a fifty, which proved far too daunting for the visitors. Gareth Breese shot them down with 5 for 41, while Steve Harmison’s economy helped; his five overs went for 18.For John Ward’s account of how Yorkshire overcame Scotland at Headingley, click here.

South East Division

Tabletoppers Kent are in the quarter-finals, even after torrential overnight rain left the outfield under water, washing out their game against Middlesex at Tunbridge Wells. Middlesex can no longer qualify. Essex also made the last eight after picking up a point from a would-be fixture with Sussex – who were already out of the competition – that was abandoned after the third inspection at 2pm. It was to have been Hastings’ first match in eight years.

South West Division

Hampshire were denied a final stab at glory when rained washed out their tussle with Glamorgan at the Rose Bowl 45 minutes before the scheduled noon start. Hampshire needed a win to keep their quarter-final hopes kindled while Glamorgan were already out, with only one win. Gloucestershire are guaranteed a home quarter-final after rain washed out proceedings in Bath half an hour before the start and Somerset are still in the hunt for a place in the last eight.

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–>Mohammad Asif’s lawyer, Shahid Karim, is unhappy that his client’s name was disclosed by the IPL as the player whose sample tested positive for a banned substance, even before the results of the test of his B sample were known.”There are certain rules that were not followed in this case,” Karim told AP. “The authorities should have waited for the B sample test before revealing the identity of the player.”He remained optimistic that Asif, who has since been suspended by the Pakistan board, will escape punishment. “As a lawyer, I am quite hopeful that Asif will come out clean from this doping case and will again represent Pakistan in international cricket.” If Asif’s B sample tests negative, he will be deemed to be clear of the charge.Karim said the date for Asif’s B sample test had been tentatively fixed for July 28; the testing will be carried out at a WADA-accredited laboratory in Switzerland.

Matthew Nicholson, the former New South Wales fast bowler, will stay involved with the state after being named a selector for the 2008-09 season. Nicholson, 33, retired from New South Wales shortly before the state’s Pura Cup triumph last summer, when several international bowlers returned to the side for the final.He is currently playing county cricket with Surrey and will retire from the first-class arena completely when the 2008 season comes to a close. However, Nicholson is planning to continue playing club cricket in Sydney.Nicholson replaces the former selector Mark Patterson, who has resigned due to business commitments. He joins Steve Smith, Marshall Rosen, Greg Hartshorne and the chairman of selectors Brian Taber on the state panel.Nicholson represented Australia in one Test in 1998-99, when he was playing with Western Australia. He returned to his home state of New South Wales in 2003-04 and enjoyed a couple of highly productive seasons while also finding success in England with Surrey and Northamptonshire.

Scorecard

Somerset fought back well on the second day against Nottinghamshire, with their lower order batting well to boost the total very usefully, and then seizing two of the home side’s wickets before the close. Peter Trego with the bat and Charl Willoughby with the ball were the main contributors, and they will only hope that the weather will not condemn their efforts to futility.Somerset could well feel pleased with their morning’s work. Resuming at 143 for 7, they soon lost Alfonso Thomas, beaten by a ball moving in and trapping him lbw, for 15. But, with Andy Caddick at the wicket, Peter Trego now began to open up. He calmed down a little when he found Caddick capable of giving him excellent support, but kept the score moving to the extent that he reached his 50, with a hook off Charlie Shreck for four, in 71 balls.He looked a very capable batsman as he approached three figures, a rare achievement by a batsman at Trent Bridge these days, but he was finally very well caught by deep midwicket running round, as he miscued a slog-sweep off Graeme Swann. The pair had added 90 for the ninth wicket, almost double the next-best stand of the innings. Swann was now officially installed in this match after being released from the international at Cardiff yesterday morning.Last man Charl Willoughy is a rare creature, a left-handed batsman who is also a walking wicket. Caddick did his best to pile on the runs, and was unbeaten with 35 when Willoughby hit across the line and was bowled by Swann without scoring. The innings ended at 252, much better than had appeared likely overnight.The Nottinghamshire openers, Will Jefferson and Bilal Shafayat, could not have been thrilled at having to face two overs before lunch, but they survived. Unfortunately, during the lunch interval, a light drizzle started, and persisted for about two hours. It never became heavy, but once it stopped it took another two hours before play restarted, a fact that does not speak well of the drainage on this ground. Play finally begun again at 5 pm with 18 overs required to complete the day, mostly in sunshine.Nottinghamshire began slowly before Jefferson had a temporary burst of scoring strokes that took him into double figures. Somerset claimed a catch from Shafayat, when on 3, off Caddick at short extra cover, but umpire Mike Harris disagreed. The two have rarely looked convincing as an opening pair, though, and Shafayat gave a hard chance to gully when he had 16.Jefferson was the man to go, however, poking outside the off stump and being caught at the wicket off Willoughby for 21 out of a stand of 40. This was the first delivery to be bowled after a very lengthy hold-up for the usual ball-change. In the same over, without addition, the nightwatchman Andre Adams fell to a low gully catch/They finished the day at 46 for 2, with the match appearing to be evenly balanced. Unfortunately, if the dire weather forecast for tomorrow proves correct, the chances of a result in this crucial match are slim and, given the reluctance of the ground to dry out after light drizzle today, the chances of any further play at all may be doubtful.

Victoria allrounder Cameron White has been named as the replacement for the injured Bryce McGain in the Australian Test squad in India. He will join the squad on October 6 in Bangalore.”We feel that Cameron’s right-arm legspin and experience in Indian conditions, where he has just returned after captaining the Australia A one-day team to a tournament victory, is the correct option and will provide a good balance to our slow bowling attack,” Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, said. “Cameron’s bowling has continued to improve over the past year at inter-state level and his powerful batting adds extra depth and versatility to the squad.”Cameron has performed well in Australian colours since his return to the one-day international squad earlier this year and he has now been rewarded with inclusion in the Test squad.”Incidentally, White was part of the Australian squad for the tour of India in 2004. He also played for the Bangalore Royal Challengers during the IPL in April this year.White hasn’t played a Test for Australia yet although he has played 21 one-day internationals, the last of which was against Bangladesh in Darwin in September. His opportunities were limited in that series: he scored 31 runs in two innings and bowled only 8.4 overs in three matches. Later in the month he captained Australia A to a tri-series win against India A and New Zealand A. He scored 144 runs at an average of 48 and took eight wickets in five games.White’s inclusion meant that chinaman bowler Beau Casson, who made his debut against West Indies in Barbados in June, was overlooked once again. Casson was part of Australia A’s Test tour of India in September but injured his hamstring after bowling only one over in Bangalore. McGain and offspinner Jason Krejza were chosen ahead of Casson in the original Test squad to India.

The IPL franchise owners have recovered, from central television and sponsorship revenues, close to 80% of the money they paid to the BCCI in the first year of the Twenty20 league, according to figures tabled at the BCCI’s annual general meeting.In total, the franchise owners handed over Rs 289 crore (approximately US$62 million) to the board as the first annual instalment of the amounts they bid to buy the rights to own an IPL team. But as part of the revenue-sharing formula they have earned back Rs 224 crore from the central earnings of the first edition, which was held from April 18 to June 1.”It shows that the franchises made much more money that many thought they would,” Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman, told Cricinfo. “It shows that the IPL has become very profitable, and the franchises can now count themselves lucky. According to my calculation, new franchises will now be valued at anywhere between US$250-300m.”The eight franchises shelled out sums ranging from $67m to $111.9m to own teams for a ten-year period, and the league plans to have three more teams from 2011. The team owners are entitled to 80% of the television rights revenue, which amounted to Rs 236 crore in the first year minus production costs, and 60% of the sponsorship revenues, which netted Rs 117 crore in the first year.The payment to the BCCI, however, was only part of the spending by the franchises, who forked considerable amounts of money to buy players and spend on their organisation and promotions. But Modi said there were other significant streams of revenue.”The franchisees, apart from getting revenue from central sponsors, also earn revenue from team sponsorship directly, which is from $7-10m annually,” Modi said. “Furthermore, ticketing and hospitality brings in around $3-6m. These numbers are likely to go up. Further, they will all get a share of revenue for them being part of the Champions Twenty20 League. All of this could add quite substantially to all their bottomlines.”The IPL has also provided a cash bonanza for the state associations of the BCCI, which are scheduled to receive an additional Rs 203 crore this year – 70% of the fees paid by the franchises to the BCCI. This payment is above their share from BCCI’s television rights revenue, which totalled Rs 371.89 crore in the financial year 2007-08.The IPL declared a gross income of Rs 645 crore in its inaugural year and a profit of Rs 51 crore after handing over the dues to the franchises and the state associations.

Jacob Oram’s series-winning performance with both bat and ball against Bangladesh has propelled him to the top of the ICC ODI allrounder rankings, ahead of England’s Andrew Flintoff and Pakistan’s Shoaib Malik.Adjudged Player of the Series, Oram scored 135 runs in the three ODIs at 67.50 and took four wickets at 12.50, helping New Zealand to a 2-1 win.He also returned to the top 10 in the ODI bowler rankings, and moved eight places up to No. 33 in the ODI batsman rankings just behind Jamie How, who gained six places. Following his match-winning century in the third ODI at Chittagong, Ross Taylor also gained three places to No. 29 among the bastmen.Kyle Mills broke in to the top five in the bowler rankings after taking six wickets at 10.83 in the series. However, a disappointing series saw Daniel Vettori handing the top spot to Australia’s Nathan Bracken who became the No. 1 ODI bowler for the first time in his career. Vettori had a disappointing series with just one wicket in three matches at an average of 112.0.Bangladesh’s victory in the first match in Dhaka pushed up Shakib Al Hasan 14 places to No. 25 in the bowling rankings ahead of Mashrafe Mortaza (No. 31) and Syed Rasel (No. 35). In the batting rankings, Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful rose 12 places to No. 47 while Tamim Iqbal dropped five places to No. 40.Mahendra Singh Dhoni continues to be at the top of the batting rankings with Australia’s Michael Hussey in second and South Africa’s Graeme Smith in third.

ODI Allrounders

The swing bowler Tim Southee still lives at home on a farm with his family in Northland, but if he keeps performing like this it might soon be the only place he can hide. In three Tests, Southee has grown used to making big impressions and after being a surprise pick against Australia he quickly made himself indispensable with a mature performance that highlighted a fine day for New Zealand.Southee reduced Australia to 3 for 23, knocking over Matthew Hayden, Simon Katich and Ricky Ponting during a sensational opening spell, and returned after tea to remove Brett Lee with help from a fine diving take from Brendon McCullum. He finished with 4 for 63 off 18 overs as Australia were dismissed for 214.”It was up there with my first match against England, but I’ve only played three Tests,” he said. “Hopefully there are more days like that.”Southee arrived like thunder against England in March, taking 5 for 55 and then blasting 77 from 40 balls, but didn’t take a wicket in the next match at Lord’s and was dropped for Iain O’Brien. His inclusion at the Gabba was not expected and he only found out in the warm-ups that he would replace Kyle Mills. It proved the first of many good decisions by Daniel Vettori on the opening day.”We had to make the most of the conditions early because it was abowler-friendly wicket and we did so,” he said. “We bowled fairly well as a unit and the catching was outstanding, which was an improvement from the New South Wales game, when we put a few catches down. We’ve worked on that and it was outstanding.”With an immaculate seam position that should attract the attention of his opponents, who struggle with their wrists and release, Southee was able to get the ball to curl away and spring awkwardly off a seaming surface. His action looks like those of the veteran county pros in England, with a bustle into the crease and a jerky delivery, but he is already potent at international level.Southee, who lives near Whangarei on the North Island, was a useful rugby player who almost made the New Zealand schoolboys side as a blind-side flanker, but he always wanted to play cricket. He is completing a busy year that included being the Player of the Tournament in the Under-19 World Cup in Malaysia, where New Zealand reached the semi-finals, and has kept him away from the family’s sheep and beef farm.He still helps out but has not spent much time there lately. “I haven’t been back a lot in the last year or so but I don’t mind doing a bit of real work,” he said. The way he is going there will be even fewer visits in the future.

The entry of Andy Moles as New Zealand coach will impact the team’s current set-up. Moles, who replaces John Bracewell, is in favour of reducing the number of support staff around the squad on match days.As with most international teams, Bracewell had a large backroom staff with him during games including Dayle Hadlee, the bowling coach, batting specialist Mark O’Neill and fielding coach Travis Wilson.Moles’ set-up, though, will be more streamlined, starting with the first Test against West Indies, with him helped by a team manager, physiotherapist, fitness trainer and video analyst. However, he will still make use of a pool of coaches from the high performance unit, including John Wright, the elite coaching manager, during the lead-up days to an international.”My priority in shaping the support team is to provide the best possible environment for the players to focus on their own performance,” Moles told . “We will use networks of specialist coaches to help prepare the team during the lead up to matches.””For example, in the three days prior to the Dunedin Test [against West Indies], NZ Cricket elite coaching manager John Wright will be among those working with the team. On match days, however, the support team will consist of just myself along with the team manager, physiotherapist, fitness trainer and video analyst.”Justin Vaughan, the New Zealand Cricket chief executive, offered his full backing to Moles’ new approach. “We are fully supportive of the changes Andy is proposing,” he said. “We’ve been well served by our support staff in the past, but Andy has signalled he wants to bring a different style to this aspect of team management.”

West Indies coach John Dyson has tagged Brendan Nash as an example for emerging batsmen to follow. Dyson described the reliance on four or five players in the two recent drawn Tests against New Zealand as “unfortunate” but said Nash had made a “significant contribution” in his first series.”We’re obviously challenging the other players, the younger players, to step forward and show their true ability,” he said. “With the experienced players, they’re the stars because they’re the long-term performers. Every team looks to its experienced players to perform but we need the lesser lights to go with them and make significant contributions.”He noted that some members of the team “have been around for a little while” and are due to make an impact in the remaining limited-overs matches on the tour.In his first Test series since leaving his native Australia two years ago to fulfill his goal of qualifying for Jamaica, the country of his parents, and the West Indies, the diminutive Nash was one of five key players against New Zealand along with captain Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Jerome Taylor and Fidel Edwards.His 162 runs in three innings included scores of 74 and 65 in the second Test and two vital partnerships at difficult stages: with centurion Shivnarine Chanderpaul in the first innings and captain Chris Gayle in the second.The West Indies were reduced to 74 for 4 before lunch on the first day of the second match in Dunedin after opting to bat, when Nash stayed for three-and-a-half hours in helping Chanderpaul revive the innings. After he drove a catch to short extra-cover, the next five batsmen contributed 29 between them, as Chanderpaul advanced to his unbeaten 126.Behind by 64 on the first innings, the West Indies were 106 for 4 the second time round as Xavier Marshall and Chanderpaul, the rock, were dismissed by successive balls from off-spinner Jeetan Patel. When Nash was bounced out by James Franklin later, Gayle had passed his hundred and the total had moved to 230 for five.When Denesh Ramdin and Jerome Taylor followed cheaply, Fidel Edwards was promoted from No. 11 to No. 9 to partner Gayle. It was a strong message to Daren Powell and Sulieman Benn who were relegated after their first innings dismissals to careless strokes.Edwards recognised it for what it was. He remained almost two and a half hours all told, a lesson in lower order responsibility, and actually outlasted Gayle in a stand of 70.West Indies altered the balance of their attack from one Test to the next, preferring Benn’s left-arm spin to debutant Lionel Baker’s pace.Neither caused problems on ideal batting pitches, Baker going without a wicket from 25 overs in the first Test, Benn claiming one (on an lbw referral) from 41 overs in the second.Dyson repeated the point he has made since taking up the post just over a year ago – that the ideal situation would be able to travel with a pool of players, enabling the selection of a balanced team “for all surfaces”.”Unfortunately, numbers dictate you can’t do that,” he said.He noted that, during his time, the West Indies have played on “some dead-set flatties,” using Australian cricket-speak to describe lifeless pitches.”It’s important that we choose a squad that does enable us to pick a spinner if conditions so dictate,” he said. “Whether it’s Sulieman Benn, Nikita Miller, Amit Jaggernauth or Dave Mohammed would depend who we’re playing against, on what sort of wicket you end up with, on the ground you’re playing on. So there are a number of factors”.