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Choosing to bat first on a good batting strip, Minor Counties scored a competitive 242-9 in their 50 overs.Dawson fell early, but Dobson and Nagra proceeded steadily, adding 53 for the second wicket before Dobson flicked one to square leg. Lowe was dismissed without scoring and Nagra was stumped soon after. Stephens, promoted in the batting order, dug in to score a well earned 45 and added 72 with Naylor, who also batted responsibly, for the 5th wicket.The ninth wicket fell with the score on 217. Blanchett with 2 overs left to him, hit 24 not out, mainly with powerful straight drives, including one towering 6.Blanchett, bowling with good pace and direction, picked up two early wickets before a third wicket stand of 97 between Cassar and Brophy took the score to 127-3 off 30.1 overs.Cassar and White took the total to 181 in 40 overs before Cassar fell to a stunning mid-wicket diving catch by Blanchett off Naylor for 97 with the score on 214.Two further victims for Naylor and Northants were left requiring 12 runs off 8 balls.In a tense finish with 9 runs to win off the last over, Northants got the single they needed off the last ball of the match.Minor Counties, without their ECB players, had put on an excellent performance and but for a couple of dropped catches, which marred an otherwise excellent fielding performance, would in all probability have won this match.

Ian Blackwell has at last been given the recognition by the England selectors that Cider county followers have been expecting for sometime when he was named as the replacement for the injured Andrew Flintoff for the ICC Trophy this autumn.The former Derbyshire man who has become such a favourite with the fans at the County Ground arrived at Lord’s on the morning of the final to find the daily papers full of his picture and stories about his call up for international duty.Earlier in the season `Blackie’ had been one of twenty players who have been short listed for the Academy trip to Australia this season, and has been one of the success stories during a season when Somerset have struggled in all but the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy.At the turn of the year he resolved to improve his lifestyle. He changed his dietary habits, cut out alcohol and set off on a course of fitness training that has had the desired effects.He received a very warm welcome when he came to the wicket with the score on 159 for 3, and Somerset’s newest recruit to the England stable was quickly off the mark when he took an easy single off the first ball that he faced from Matthew Hoggard.Sadly after hitting a solitary boundary he was deprived of the chance to shine on the big stage at Lord’s when he was comprehensively bowled by Ryan Sidebottom for 12.No doubt the new England man will be disappointed by his performance out in the middle with the bat at Lord’s, but all Somerset fans will want to congratulate `Blackie’ on his selection and hope that he is as successful as the last left hander from the west country who was called up as a late replacement for international duty.Certainly his skipper Jamie Cox rates him very highly. He told me: "I am absolutely delighted for Blackie.He has the ability to hit the ball hard at any stage of the game, and he must be given the chance to show what he can do at international level."

THE Western Australian Cricket Association today announced its team to play the Southern Redbacks in a Pura Cup match in Adelaide from December 19-22.The team is:Justin LANGER (Capt), Mike HUSSEY (VC), Jo ANGEL, Ryan CAMPBELL, Beau CASSON, Michael CLARK, Murray GOODWIN, Brad HOGG, Chris ROGERS, Adam VOGES, Brad WILLIAMS and Paul WILSON.Fast bowler Matthew Nicholson and batsman Shaun Marsh, were not considered for selection because of injury.Nicholson ruptured a tendon in his right forearm during last week’s ING Cup match. Marsh is recovering from a hamstring injury he suffered in Brisbane last month."On medical advice given to the selectors, Matthew Nicholson and Shaun Marsh were not considered for selection," Chairman of Selectors Wayne Hill said."We look forward to our Australia `A’ team representatives returning to the team and we are extremely excited that some of our new young players have held their places in the team following encouraging starts to their first-class careers."Hill said wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi was unlucky to lose his place after making 90 and 33 in his debut match against Tasmania."Luke is extremely unfortunate following his outstanding debut, but we have an international representative in Ryan Campbell returning to the side," Hill said."Luke was chosen as replacement wicketkeeper in Ryan’s absence, but there is no doubt that Luke will continue to be a major figure in our future planning."

Hampshire toiled throughout the first day of their Frizzell County Championship match at Edgbaston, enduring muggy conditions and a slow, low wicket against Warwickshire.Alan Mullally made early inroads with the new ball but Nick Knight and Ian Bell slowly made their way to lunch. Bell, who took 34 balls to get off the mark looked uncomfortable, particularly off the seam of Tremlett and Mascarenhas and he was dismissed shortly after the interval for a painstaking 22.Troughton and Frost both fell to the lanky quick bowler. Brown hit three fours in his stay but only Knight had an answer to the tardiness of the pitch, patiently waiting for the bad ball.He found another partner in England discard Ashley Giles, who had been sent from Lord’s after it was decided he would not be required for the Test match. The pair put together 44, and when Giles was dismissed, wicket-keeper Keith Piper kept the opener company for a 39 stand.But nothing could stop Knight from continuing past a well deserved century and onto an undefeated 151 by the close (401 minutes, 308 balls, 21 fours and 1 six).At the end of the day, it was honours even with Hampshire having the edge when the hosts were 170-6.”It was a low, slow pitch,” said Hampshire coach Jimmy Cook, “at the end of the day, the lads stuck in well. It is a wicket that needs patience which Nick Knight showed, and I will be looking for similar when we bat.”From 104 overs, Hampshire bowled 39 maidens. It was the measure of the day.

Warwickshire rocked the Championship leaders back on their heels with a sensational 26-run win at The AMP Oval. After following on 182 runs behind yesterday, the visitors were indebted to skipper Mike Powell (95) and Jamie Troughton (94) for taking them to 350 in their second innings, leaving Surrey needing 169 to win. Shaun Pollock (four for 44), Neil Carter (two for 37) and Dougie Brown (two for 26) then reduced Surrey, first to 32 for four, and then despite a battling half century from captain Adam Hollioake, to 137 all out. It was Surrey’s first Championship defeat of the season.Leicestershire and Hampshire failed to take the opportunity to dent Surrey’s lead, as they could only manage a draw at Grace Road. Robin Smith (104) and John Francis (82) left Leicestershire needing 295 for victory, a target that they never chased seriously, closing on 72 for four.Sussex and Kent also drew, after a half-century from Amjad Khan extended the visitors’ victory target to 247 at Hove. In the end it was the hosts who pushed harder for victory, reducing Kent to 82 for five at the close. Robin Martin-Jenkins and Jason Lewry took two wickets each.Somerset had the better of their match against Yorkshire at Headingley, but could not force a win after they forced Division One’s bottom club to follow on. Ian Blackwell took four for 49 as Yorkshire were bowled out for 323 in their first innings, while Matt Bulbeck took four for 94. But the hosts managed to avoid the ignominy of an innings defeat, reaching 213 for five when the match ended with Darren Lehmann making 75.Middlesex have leap-frogged Essex to top the Second Division table after Essex went down to their second defeat in a row. Kabir Ali and Graham Batty took three wickets each as the hosts were bowled out for 257 at Southend, leaving Worcestershire needing just 82 runs for victory.Middlesex reached the 241 they needed for victory at Southgate after Mark Alleyne kept the match alive with a second-innings declaration. Aaron Laraman (82*) and Owais Shah (63) shared a fourth-wicket stand of 149 to give Middlesex see Middlesex to 241 for five and victory with three overs to spare.

East Zone’s primary objective in their Duleep Trophy match against North Zone at the Feroze Shah Kotla, Delhi, is, at the end of the third day, abundantly clear. With the prospects of a win annihilated by a featherbed batting track, East will be looking to just surpass North’s first-innings total and pick up five points instead of three from the drawn match.It was, on the whole, a gritty batting display from East Zone on the third day. The openers, Parag Das and Debang Gandhi, added another 54 runs for the first wicket before Das fell to Sarandeep Singh for 63 off 74 balls, with 11 fours.Gandhi fell to the same bowler eight runs later for 44, and a collapse looked imminent. But 90 runs were then added for the third wicket by Sanjay Raul and Rashmi Ranjan Parida before Rahul Sanghvi picked up a wicket, dismissing Raul for 32 off 104 balls.Twenty runs later, Sanghvi took out Pravanjan Mullick for 11. Sarandeep then got back into the act by dismissing Parida for 62 (145 balls, six fours, one six) and, at 236 for five, East Zone were again teetering.But Subhomoy Das and wicket-keeper Zakaria Zuffri then posted a 40-run stand for the sixth wicket that stabilised the situation in part. Zuffri made only 11, but he was at the crease for 53 balls, proving valuable support for Das.At the close of play on Thursday, Das was unbeaten on 56 off 117 balls, with eight fours in his innings. He was accompanied by Laxmi Rattan Shukla, who had cracked a whirlwind 43 off 36 balls with three fours and three sixes.East Zone ended the day on 354 for six, just over 200 runs behind North Zone’s first-innings total. If Das and Shukla can bat calmly on the last day to compile centuries, East Zone may yet see a result that, when Vikram Rathour was going strong on the first two days, seemed completely out of reach.

With seven players unable to play last weekend, Manicaland withdrew from their Logan Cup fixture against Matabeleland. As no suitable replacements were available, the ZCU agreed to their request to have the fixture postponed. Players could have been drawn from the Mutare social leagues but it was considered an unsatisfactory solution for first-class cricket. The match will instead be played this weekend, starting on Friday 12 April.Whittall and Sims will be away in Namibia with Zimbabwe A – participating in an African ODI tournament – but into the side come Gary Brent, Alistair Campbell and Paul Strang. Unable to get a game for either Mashonaland team, Strang was given special dispensation to play. This will be Manicaland’s final game of the season with most players flying to Britain to take up club contracts shortly thereafter.It was announced yesterday that Manicaland’s Kevan Barbour has been selected to the ICC’s `emerging panel’ of ODI international umpires. He and Harare’s Ahmed Esat will be Zimbabwe’s representatives. Between them they will do all Zimbabwe’s home games and travel to other countries to officiate as neutrals. In a huge career move the 53-year-old Barbour will find himself exploded from the backwaters of Mutare to the eye of an often-unforgiving storm.Last week Hillcrest College – a private school near Penhalonga 16 kilometres north of Mutare – was the venue for a ZCU-sanctioned national Under-14s tournament. Accommodated and fed at the boys’ hostel, two teams from Mashonaland, one from Matabeleland and one from `Country Districts’ participated.Played in fine autumnal weather in front of a small band of vociferous parents, the games proved competitive without throwing up any obvious superstars of the future. What would have pleased the authorities was the quantity and quality of black players coming through. Ranging from `Prince’ – a scary left-arm quick who can bat too – to a young leg-spinner with good flight, the signs are good for Zimbabwe cricket circa 2008. And these black kids don’t play to lose.Mutare was stretched to find four experienced umpires for a mid-week tournament like this. Fortunately only one bad decision marred proceedings. A Matabeleland batsman was given out `hit the ball twice’ whilst using his bat a second time to protect his stumps. Such injustices are difficult to bear in festival cricket, but assume galactic proportions when delivered in front of national selectors.After losing an advice-shouting session with the confused umpires, the boy’s father, Grant Paterson (ex national batsman of the 80s), repaired to a distant shady tree to cool off. That the umpire happened to be a recent graduate from the CFX Academy came as no surprise – few players know the laws of the game. Academy supremo Dave Houghton should introduce a basic umpiring exam for participants – with a pass being essential for final graduation.Watching the recent annihilation of South Africa by Australia in the Test and one-day series, it was interesting to hear the views of modern Zimbabwean cricketers. Up to the late eighties most had a soft spot for their southern neighbours. The former Rhodesia used to participate in the Currie Cup and at one stage during the sixties had four players representing the Springboks.The Cronje era has changed things forever. South Africans are viewed as arrogant, unfriendly and deserving of every reversal. The fact that they avoided the whitewash was greeted with much sorrow.

After a late start due to rain KwaZulu-Natal posted 250 for six on the firstday of their three-day Supersport Series Shield match against the HighveldStrikers in Durban on Friday.Lead by a fluid 73 not out from former Test star Jonty Rhodes and a balanced64 from promising young batsman Ashraf Mall, the Dolphins ensured that thismatch might still produce a result because of positive batting.Mall was unlucky to be run out just as he was hitting his straps with fourconsecutive fours off of right-arm fast medium bowler Johnson Mafa.In a mix-up with Rhodes, Mall was stranded halfway down the pitch and aquick throw from Adam Bacher to wicketkeeper Nic Pothas ended his knock.Rhodes, with years of experience, was unfazed and continued to bat withassurity that would still see him in the Test side if he so wished.The gritty right-hander ended the day well set to progress to a centurywhich would set his team up for a useful total in the match that willrequire quick runs if a result is to be achieved.Earlier openers Mark Bruyns and Doug Watson failed to take full advantage ofeasy batting conditions. Watson scored just three before being trapped legbefore by Mafa.Bruyns scored 31 in a 60-run stand with Mall, but became the first run outvictim of Bacher who was like a mongoose in the field.Captain Dale Benkenstein scored 20 before being caught at wide mid-on byBrendan Horan off Mafa which brought Rhodes to the crease.After the dismissal of Mall, Errol Stewart and Goolam Bodi were unable toestablish themselves and were dismissed for 10 and 12 respectively.That brought the in-form Wade Wingfield to the crease and he saw play through tostumps with Rhodes and ended on 25 not out.

The President of the United Cricket Board, Percy Sonn, and Chief Executive Gerald Majola were both aware of the marijuana smoking incident involving six South African cricketers in Antigua last month shortly after it took place, even though news of the matter was concealed for a month, the Johannesburg newspaper “Business Day” charged on Wednesday.According to the paper, Majola admitted to being made aware of the affair the night after it happened, but Sonn refused to answer questions on the matter. “What’s this about, organised crime?” Business Day quotes him as saying: “Are you cross examining me? I am not answering any questions on this. I have answered enough questions.”Other South African officials in the Caribbean at the time, including World Cup 2003 Director Ali Bacher, UCB Vice-President Richard Harrison and Treasurer John Blair, have all said that they only became aware of the incident late last week.If Sonn and Majola knew about the incident and withheld knowledge of it from the UCB, they could be alleged to have subverted the UCB’s own disciplinary procedures. It may be argued that a matter as serious as drug-taking should not have been dealt with by the on-tour misconduct committee.To make matters worse for the UCB, Herschelle Gibbs, one of the six players to admit smoking marijuana, already had a suspended sentence amounting to a three-match ban and a R10,000 fine hanging over his head when the drug-smoking offence took place. To date, more than a month later, no disciplinary hearing has been convened by the UCB to consider whether the suspended sentence should be invoked.It is understood that there is serious disagreement within the UCB over the handling of the affair, which has rapidly snowballed from a disciplinary offence to what now appears to be a cover-up. The UCB executive committee is scheduled to meet this weekend, and the matter is certain to provoke lively debate.The affair, possibly the biggest drug scandal to have hit cricket, comes at a time when South African cricket can ill-afford adverse publicity following last year’s match-fixing scandal, which led to former captain Hansie Cronje being banned from the game for life and Gibbs, together with Henry Williams, being suspended from international competition for six months.

As many of his international teammates settle into Sri Lanka ahead of the World Twenty20, Australia’s Test captain Michael Clarke is making doubly sure the Champions League that follows it will impinge as little as possible on preparations for a series with top-ranked South Africa.Not required for either the World T20 or the Champions League, Clarke will instead lead New South Wales for the early start of the domestic season, which has itself been pushed forward by the presence of the T20 club competition in October.The timing of the event, and its demands on players, has long been a sore point among Test match representatives. This was never more evident than after Michael Hussey and Doug Bollinger had their preparations for a series in India hopelessly compromised by needing to remain in South Africa for the Champions League until only three days before the Tests began.Then Ricky Ponting’s vice-captain, Clarke said lessons had been learned. He is now working with the national team’s coaching staff and the team performance manager Pat Howard to ensure the likes of Brad Haddin, Mitchell Starc, James Pattinson, Ben Hilfenhaus, David Warner and Hussey can come back from the event ready and able to push South Africa for five days rather than 40 overs.”I think we can certainly learn from that, that’s for sure, and I think we are,” Clarke said of 2010. “Pat Howard’s been exceptional in regards to our planning, he’s made no bones about prioritising Test cricket, he wants us to have success in Test cricket, he wants us to be the No. 1 Test team in the world. We’ve got to prepare well and the preparation starts as soon as the boys get back from the T20 World Cup.”The advantage is that all countries are affected the same way, it’s not just the Australian players, we play against South Africa in November and there’s a lot of their players involved as well. It’s fair for everybody. It’s important that everybody who’s there for Champions League plays well there, has some success, but in the back of their mind thinking about the Test series against South Africa.”The young bowlers over there will be monitored, we’ll have Ali de Winter over there working on their bowling workloads, and bowling through that period with a red ball. I wish the boys all the best over there, hopefully they come back full of confidence and ready to go for that first Test.”De Winter’s presence as Australia’s bowling coach will be a significant help to the preparations of the fast bowlers, and a major improvement on the problems of 2010. Back then, Bollinger was given a program to work on while still playing for Chennai, but the presence of de Winter in the country will go a long way towards ensuring such plans are rigorously followed this time.The former coach Tim Nielsen has previously recalled the episode as an instance when Cricket Australia’s board and management did not support the performance objectives of the team, a scenario that hastened Howard’s appointment following the Argus review to ensure such objectives were not compromised.”I understand CA’s decision, but Doug Bollinger was playing four-over cricket right as the tour started, then broke down in the first Test,” Nielsen said last year. “I’ve no doubt if [he was] fit and right and bowling full-time we’d have won that Test match in Mohali.”I can’t imagine an AFL team would let their bloke go and do something like that [before a big game]. They look after their players as best they can for what’s important; they don’t compromise. That was one thing in my career as a coach I was a little bit upset about – that we didn’t get 100% support from CA, and our team was compromised by that.”Clarke is also grateful for the chance to spend time playing for NSW, in addition to leading them for the first time. His retirement from T20Is has afforded the odd window for rest and first-class cricket, granting Clarke a better chance of prospering when the South Africa Tests come around.”It’s an advantage for me to get back into some red ball cricket, that was a reason for me retiring from international T20 cricket a couple of years ago,” Clarke said, “to allow me to work hard on my one-day game and my Test game, and there’s no better preparation than to get back and play for NSW.”I think it’s great for first-class teams to have their international players back playing. I think the game needs it, I think the international players need to get back to play with their state or play for their grade club, I think it’s really important for the game.”I remember fondly having the chance to play with Steve Waugh when he captained Australia and what the feeling was like when he was around training. It gives you that little extra boost, I wanted to spend time in the middle with him, I wanted to score some runs with him, I wanted to show him I could play.”