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ScorecardLancashire survived a major scare to secure a thrilling last-ball Clydesdale Bank 40 win over the Unicorns at Colwyn Bay on Monday. Surviving a five-wicket haul from medium pacer Neil Hancock, the Lightning had to score 13 runs off the last over in their pursuit of 254. Kyle Hogg hit 12 of them, including a straight six off the bowling of Jonathan Miles, to finish 35 not out off 26 balls as Lancashire won by two wickets.The Red Rose county had looked to be cantering to their target after openers Karl Brown and Paul Horton shared 115 inside 21 overs. But 34 year-old Hancock, formerly of Somerset, returned career-best figures of 5 for 64 from eight overs to put a fifth Group A win in major doubt.Lancashire needed 93 off 10 overs and it took a 43-ball 51 from Steven Croft to get them back on track even though they kept losing wickets.Innings of 84 not out off 69 balls and 64 off 70 from Keith Parsons and wicketkeeper Josh Knappett respectively had earlier fired the hosts to a competitive 253 for 7. Luke Procter finished with 3 for 29 from his six overs of medium pace and Hogg returned an impressive 2 for 27 from eight. The Unicorns had recovered from 31 for 2 but they would surely have posted too many for Lancashire to chase had they not lost four wickets in the last nine overs of their innings.Veteran skipper Parsons and Knappett took a liking to Stephen Parry and Gary Montgomery during a fourth wicket stand of 120 in 16 overs. Knappett swept Parry for two sixes into the pavilion while Parsons smeared Montgomery for a six over midwicket and also pulled Parry over the square leg boundary.Procter bowled Michael O’Shea and Neil Saker and also had Hancock caught at deep midwicket. The young allrounder had also taken a superb diving catch on the run from deep square leg to give Daren Powell the early wicket of Jackson Thompson.Brown then hit 64 off 70 balls and Horton 63 off 71 to put the visitors on top, hitting three sixes between them. But Australian-born Hancock bowled Brown off an inside edge, had Mark Chilton chipping to deep midwicket, bamboozled Gareth Cross with a slower ball, bowled Croft and had Procter caught at long on.Croft hit three sixes – two in successive balls before he was bowled – and four fours in his effort to keep Lancashire in the hunt. Parry was bowled by Miles and then Powell run out before Hogg, who only hit one other boundary, and Keedy were there at the end to prevent a shock.

For a brief moment this morning it felt like Pakistan seemed to have gained a foothold in this exciting Test. After Umar Gul’s defiant burst with the bat, which relieved them of the burden of following on, Pakistan fought back admirably with their three fast men trampling the England batting order with authority. At 98 for 6, and the lead at 270, Pakistan held their heads high.But as the full house at Trent Bridge welcomed the sun finally breaking through the clouds for the first time in two days about an hour after lunch, the visitors’ body language steadily grew weary. With the pitch offering hardly any true bounce or movement and the ball losing its shine, Salman Butt duly rested his pace trio comprising the two Mohammads – Asif and Aamer – and Gul.Subsequently Danish Kaneria, who was introduced for the first time in the day one over before tea, continued to operate from one end while the part-timers Shoaib Malik and Umar Amin bowled innocuous overs for Matt Prior to build to his century and wilt the Pakistan spirits with every additional run.Just like Australia had escaped twice at Lord’s after Pakistan’s quicks had worked assiduously to demolish the specialist batsmen, Prior led England to recovery and then built further momentum in the company of the tail. What worked in the hosts’ favour was there was nothing much for the fast bowler on a dry and slow pitch. Also keeping in mind a long summer ahead, Pakistan did not want to exhaust and risk injury to their match-winning pace trio.”The [fast] bowlers were really tired,” Waqar Younis, Pakistan coach, said after the day’s play. “These [fast] bowlers have been bowling too many overs from the Australia series. We don’t want anyone injured and those three our key bowlers.”If there was somebody he wasn’t impressed with it was his main spinner Kaneria, who Waqar felt was a big letdown. The coach had a blunt appraisal of the legspinner in this match: “We struggled with Danish Kaneria. He was lacking confidence and he really struggled getting his rhythm going, which was tough for us.”Astonishingly, Kaneria failed to bowl any maidens and had only one wicket to his credit with his match figures reading: 33-0-171-1. Waqar pointed out that Kaneria’s best opportunity to bounce back after an abysmal first-innings performance with the ball came early in the second session today.With Stuart Broad hunting for runs this year and Jimmy Anderson on a king pair and Steven Finn playing only his third Test, Kaneria needed to dominate Prior, England’s last specialist batsman. “At a stage when they were six down we just needed somebody to get up and take a wicket but that didn’t happen,” Waqar said.For most of the afternoon Pakistan allowed things to happen and the early morning promise that Gul had injected into the team with his maiden half-century suddenly seemed distant. For the second time this summer Pakistan were chasing a 400-plus score for victory in the fourth innings – Australia had set them 440 at Lord’s – and both times they knew it could’ve been a much easier, and achievable target.Asked if he was disappointed at his top order failing to survive with about three quarters of an hour before the close of play, Waqar conceded that losing three wickets was too many. “In a way it is always disappointing when you lose wickets when you don’t want to especially at the end of the day,” Waqar said. “I wasn’t expecting three wickets – maybe one, but they were right on target.”But the Pakistan coach said he couldn’t blame the batsmen entirely, as they had endured a long and taxing day in the field. “It is always tough when you are in the field for 70 overs and then you have to go and bat and it is even tougher for the youngsters,” Waqar said.So, is it over for Pakistan in this Test? Waqar nearly admitted defeat. “It seems very, very hard form here on,” he said nodding his head. That does not mean he is giving up on the series, because he reckons Pakistan have the ability to fight back just like they caught Ricky Ponting’s men by surprise at Headingley.”We won against Australia [so] we are a very fine side and I’ve got no doubt that they can make a comeback. It is a four-match Test series. I haven’t given up on this Test yet, but it is not going to be very easy tomorrow.”

Richard Pybus has been appointed coach of South Africa’s Cape Cobras franchise for the next three years. The English-born Pybus had earlier worked with the Pakistan senior team as a consultant and coach, and also had stints with Border and Titans in the South African domestic circuit.”We are thrilled to be able to have the services of a coach of Richard’s calibre,” said Andre Odendaal, the CEO of Western Cape Cricket. Odendaal said Pybus was chosen after an exhaustive selection process. “We had some excellent candidates but Richard has a remarkable CV and we believe he is the right man to help the Cobras achieve the goal of winning a higher percentage of trophies, while at the same time ensuring that the Western Cape continues to develop as a nursery of talent for South African cricket.”Justin Kemp, the Cobras captain, welcomed Pybus’ appointment. “It’s wonderful to have a coach on board with the track record of Richard. I know the structure and discipline he will bring to the Cobras will stand us in good stead. The success he achieved at the Titans was exceptional. With his assistance and guidance, we can hopefully continue the excellent standard of cricket we played this past season, and even improve upon it.”Pybus coached the Border senior side in 1998-99, during which they reached the finals of the SuperSport Series and Standard Bank Cup. Both achievements were firsts for the province. He was appointed as a consultant to the Pakistan team in 1999, when they reached the finals of the World Cup. He returned to Border but took charge of Pakistan as head coach until after the 2003 World Cup. He was head coach for the Titans between 2005-06 and 2008-09, during which time the franchise won six titles in four seasons. He was appointed coach of Middlesex in February 2007 but five months later quit citing personal reasons. He was later named the 2009 South African Coach of the Year.

Aravinda de Silva, Sri Lanka’s chairman of selectors, said poor form was the reason for Sanath Jayasuriya’s exclusion from the team for the Asia Cup, while Ajantha Mendis was left out for “tactical reasons”.”Sanath has not had a decent run lately we sidelined him after considering his performance over the past one year,” de Silva said. “The decision to leave Mendis out was for tactical reasons. There are certain decisions we took for tactical reasons. Those areas I wouldn’t want the opposition or any other team to know. It was discussed among the captain and the team management. I will talk to the players individually and explain to them so that they know why we have taken such a decision.”Jayasuriya’s miserable form with the bat continued at the World Twenty20 where he averaged 3.75 from six matches, leading to speculation about his future in the side. Mendis played a crucial role in Sri Lanka’s victory in the recently concluded tri-series in Zimbabwe, so his exclusion for the Asia Cup was met with surprise. The selectors also gave unexpected call-ups to allrounder Farveez Maharoof and left-arm spinner Rangana Herath.”When we talk of allrounders there are two types: a bowling allrounder and a batting allrounder. Angelo Mathews is a batting allrounder and we wanted a bowling allrounder so we picked Maharoof,” de Silva said.”We took Maharoof’s record in Dambulla and he had performed well in the conditions there. When he was injured he couldn’t play many matches and some of the matches he played were while he was recovering which we have also considered. Now that he is 100% fit we will look at his performance from now on,” he said.Herath, De Silva stated was added to the bowling to lend it some variety. “We wanted some variation in the bowling attack. Since we are playing seven games at Dambulla the pitch might take turn towards the end of the tournament so we should have some sort of variation within the squad in case we need to have a bowler who bowls left-arm spin. Also Pakistan has got a fair bit of right-handers. We needed a bowler who will be able to bowl during the Powerplays. That’s the reason why we have gone for him with his experience.”De Silva said that the Sri Lankan batting line-up looked solid with a line up consisting of Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Angelo Mathews, Chamara Kapugedera and Thilina Kandamby.When media personnel raised the question why two youngsters – Dinesh Chandimal and Jeevan Mendis – who performed well in Zimbabwe were not included, de Silva said, “Chandimal and Jeevan have got great potential. It was very heartening to see them perform the way they did. We are playing three games initially in the Asia Cup and when you look at the team for the first two games they might not get the opportunity to play.”If that happens we are depriving them of the opportunity to go and get some exposure in Australia. We thought the best idea would be to allow them to go to Australia with the Sri Lanka A team and play there. That’s one tour I will follow very closely which I think will be competitive. It will really separate the men from the boys, a tour of Australia,” de Silva said.

ScorecardTom Maynard cracked an unbeaten 63 from 38 balls as Glamorgan Dragons got back to winning ways in the Friends Provident t20 with a seven-wicket win over Middlesex Panthers in Cardiff. Glamorgan had won their opening three South Group matches but had suffered four successive defeats – and were then stripped off fast bowler Shaun Tait, who had been drafted into the Australia one-day squad.This time they held their nerve chasing down 167 to win with seven balls to spare after Middlesex, who won the toss, had been helped to 166 for 2 with contributions from Scott Newman, Neil Dexter, in his first game as captain replacing Adam Gilchrist, and Dawid Malan.The Dragons were given a fine launching pad in their reply with openers Mark Cosgrove and Jim Allenby – 45 from 35 balls – putting on 56 for the opening wicket. Allenby and Maynard combined to add another 54 from 32 balls with Maynard hitting sixes over cover and midwicket off Dexter and Pedro Collins respectively.Though he lost Allenby and Gareth Rees, 21-year-old Maynard did not panic as Glamorgan were left needing 16 for victory from the final two overs. Maynard, who had been dropped off Collins on 21, released the pressure by hitting Tom Smith for a six over long on and then a four from consecutive balls as he wrapped up the game in the penultimate over.Earlier, Newman had helped Middlesex build a useful base with 48 from 40 balls before Dexter and Malan, with 40 not out apiece, shared a partnership of 76 from the final 44 balls. Newman had an escape on 30 when he survived a leg-side stumping off Robert Croft, but made the most of his life hitting slow left-armer Dean Cosker over long on and midwicket for two sixes from three balls.But just two short of his half-century he perished to a brilliant return catch by Croft, who dived low to his right. From 90 for 2 in the 14th over Dexter and Malan gave the Panthers’ innings some real impetus sharing five sixes between them, but it proved not enough in the final analysis.

England didn’t lose a match in the Super Eight stage but the captain Paul Collingwood has called for more improvement during their semi-final. Collingwood’s side beat New Zealand by three wickets in St Lucia to earn a spot in Thursday’s knockout against the second-placed side from Group F.”It was crucial you keep going and stay in winning ways,” Collingwood said. “There are areas we can improve on but it was another solid performance.”England were 66 for 4 in their chase of 150 as they missed Kevin Pietersen, who was back home enjoying his first day as a father. However, Eoin Morgan collected 40 and Tim Bresnan chipped in with 23 not out to register the victory.Pietersen’s son was born on Monday and he will stay in England for a few days before returning to the Caribbean to prepare for the semi-final. “This really is the most amazing experience of my life,” Pietersen said. He went home after the win over South Africa on Saturday to be with his wife Jessica Taylor, a former singer from Liberty X.The return of Pietersen will strengthen the batting order and Collingwood said it was an area that needed some improvement. “We lost a few wickets in the middle so we could do a little bit better there and the fielding wasn’t up to our usual standard, but I’m delighted with how we’ve gone and momentum is one of the crucial things you can have in the finals,” he said. “We’ve got a bunch of guys who talk a lot about things off the pitch, do a lot of planning and they executed the plans well.”It was a disappointing result for New Zealand, who exited the tournament despite some strong performances. The captain Daniel Vettori said scoring runs was their biggest problem.”We could have bowled better, we needed to take wickets in clumps and we probably took them a little too late,” he said. “But in all forms of the game batting has probably been our problem – not putting enough runs on the board.”One hundred and fifty was a competitive total but maybe 20 below par and we couldn’t put pressure on them. We have some talented batsmen but there were not enough runs today.”New Zealand were in the rare position of having all 15 men fit during the event, which adds to their pain at going out before the business end. “We’re going to look back on this tournament with a lot of disappointment,” Vettori said. “We played well in the warm-ups, won our pool, fought hard against Pakistan, but to get knocked out today is something that will leave a bit of a bad taste in our mouth.”Vettori warned the opponents of England, who have never won a major limited-overs tournament, that they would be a threat. “Any team with momentum has a very good chance,” he said. “They’ve won three very good games now so they’ll be a very tough team to play in the semis.”

Ratnakar Shetty, the chief administrative officer of the BCCI, has said the board does not have the original documents relating to several important IPL contracts that are now being sought by income-tax officers. These include the three losing bids in the 2008 auction where the eight franchises were bought, and the agreement with Multi Screen Media (MSM), which holds the rights to broadcast the tournament.Shetty, who has been entrusted by the BCCI president, Shashank Manohar, to look into the missing documents, says he has been told the papers are with Lalit Modi, the league’s suspended chairman.”The tax authorities and Enforcement Directorate officials are seeking a lot of papers connected with the IPL and in some cases we don’t have the original documents. We have only xerox copies, which they feel is not proper,” Shetty told , an English news channel. “According to [IPL CEO] Sundar Raman the original documents are with Lalit Modi. My job is to put up a list of documents that were supposed to be with IPL and original documents obtained in each case.”In January 2008 there were 11 bidders (to own the franchises) and only the original documents relating to the eight winning bidders are with BCCI. We don’t have the original documents of the three losing bidders, we have only xerox copies. Those documents should be with Modi.”Shetty echoed the words of Shashank Manohar, the BCCI president, that the MSM-WSG issue was not discussed in IPL Governing Council. “It was reported at the BCCI Working Committee meeting that there has been a fresh agreement entered into between BCCI and Sony Max, the amount for which was negotiated. Nothing beyond that,” he said.He also backed Manohar’s view that the board did not interfere in the IPL’s functioning. “The IPL started as a separate wing of BCCI,” Shetty said. “A separate office was set up and several people employed. Lalit’s being BCCI vice-president [showed] his authority and that he was running the show. And the administrative wing of BCCI therefore did not interfere in the IPL’s working.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were outPiyush Chawla was Man of the Match for his terrific spell•Indian Premier League

If the batsmen were looking for trouble, boy, they came to the right place. The Feroz Shah Kotla track was back to its Champions League shenanigans, and Kings XI Punjab, having seen Delhi Daredevils fail to read its nature soon enough, kept their heads in what seemed a meagre chase on paper, also keeping alive their remotest of outside chance to make it to the semis. Only 21 boundaries were hit in 38.2 overs on a pitch that offered variable bounce and appreciable turn right from the first ball, and whose slowness made it hard to time shots.The Punjab bowlers were smart and accurate, two of Delhi’s big three were consumed by silly running, the others collapsed, and hence the below-par total. While Punjab were sensible in the chase, they couldn’t create a comfortable gap between their run rate and the required rate until Yuvraj Singh hit a four and a six in the 14th over.The nature of the pitch was not so apparent in the first four overs of the afternoon. Delhi had got off to another flier when madness struck: Gautam Gambhir and David Warner were run out within three balls of each other, and only 69 runs came in 15.5 overs after that. The spinners bowled 12 overs between them for 55 runs – four of them inside the Powerplay, and Juan Theron, the specialist pace bowler, was used only for two overs, that too at the death.Even after Virender Sehwag’s dismissal to the first ball he faced, Punjab would have been disappointed with the first 3.4 overs: without hitting even one shot in the air, Delhi raced away to 39, including two sets of five wides. The next delivery, though, Gambhir cut straight to short third man, was called for a single by Warner, and then sent back with no chance to get in. Either way there would have been a run-out: there was no single available. Two balls later, Warner played a similar shot, and Paul Collingwood responded in similar manner.From there on, Punjab spinners employed a vicious vice grip on the batsmen: only two boundaries came in the rest of the innings. Following Powar’s opening act, Piyush Chawla feasted. Collingwood’s lbw wasn’t as bad as it looked; it was worse. He sat back and intended to read Chawla off the pitch, and was caught dead plumb to a straight topspinner. Daniel Vettori was defeated by a perfect Chawla googly. Thirty-nine for 1 in 3.3 had become 58 for 4 in 10 overs, and it was down to Dinesh Karthik to take Delhi to a fighting total.Karthik tried various tricks to get quick runs, sweeps, reverse-sweeps, moving in the crease, but could never get away. When he tried to force the pace off the coming-back Irfan Pathan, he holed out to long-on, for 17 off 35. Mithun Manhas, Delhi’s middle-order mainstay for years in Ranji Trophy, played sensibly after that, and managed to go at about run a ball for his 26, an effort that took Delhi beyond 100.Mahela Jayawardene walked out to open with Irfan, sent presumably to get some quick runs, but it was the classier batsman who made sure Punjab didn’t crumble in the chase. While Irfan holed out to deep midwicket, Jayawardene kept playing the orthodox shots and scored at a run a ball, which was better than the rate required.In the fourth over of the chase, he scored a lovely inside-out boundary and followed it up with the first six of the match, a clean strike over long-on. Still even Jayawardene found it difficult to time the ball, a few of his attempted big shots ended up inside the infield, and on this pitch a collapse couldn’t have been too many corners away.When Jayawardene fell at the end of the 11th over, for a 35-ball 38, he had left Punjab 47 to get off 54, which soon became 41 off 42. In the 14th over, though, Yuvraj managed two clean hits in quick succession, a cluster by the standards of this match. He guided Rajat Bhatia past short fine, followed by a heaved six over midwicket. After that the equation was manageable, and the late hiccup through Kumar Sangakkara’s wicket only teased Delhi for having over-aimed during their innings.

Daniel Marsh, the man who captained Tasmania to their first Pura Cup title, has announced his retirement from first-class cricket. Marsh, 36, will step down after this week’s Sheffield Shield match against Victoria at the MCG, which will be his 150th first-class appearance in a career spanning 17 seasons.The son of the great wicketkeeper Rod Marsh, he began his career with South Australia in 1993-94 before moving to Tasmania after three summers with the Redbacks. A reliable middle-order batsman and left-arm spinner, Marsh effectively took over the state’s captaincy in 2003-04; the rarely available Ricky Ponting was officially the skipper.He spent four seasons as de facto leader and two summers as the official captain, guiding Tasmania to two domestic one-day titles in 2004-05 and 2007-08. Marsh handed the captaincy to George Bailey for this season but he was part of the FR Cup-winning team again, but it is for delivering the 2006-07 Pura Cup triumph that he will be best remembered.The 421-run win in the final against New South Wales gave Tasmania their first domestic four-day title after missing out in three previous deciders. Marsh said he had no doubt that this was the right time for him to depart from the first-class arena.”It has been an amazing time in Tasmanian cricket and I feel very fortunate to have been involved,” Marsh said. “I am very confident that now is the right time to retire and look forward to spending more time with my family. I wish the Tasmanian team all the best for the future and will look forward to watching them play whenever possible.”With one match remaining in his career, Marsh has 8139 first-class runs at 37.68 and 174 wickets at 46.73. In 129 one-day games he has made 3119 runs at 33.53 and collected 61 victims at 49.96. Marsh will depart as Tasmania’s fourth leading all-time first-class run scorer and the most capped player in the state’s one-day history.

New South Wales 9 for 550 dec beat South Australia 267 (Borgas 62, Harris 54, Copeland 4-55) and 244 (Cosgrove 105, J Smith 79, S Smith 7-64) by an innings and 39 runs
ScorecardSteven Smith finished the match with a career best 7 for 64•Getty Images

Steven Smith backed up his fine batting with a maiden five-wicket haul as New South Wales handed South Australia the wooden spoon at the SCG. Smith, the 20-year-old legspinner, was picked in the Test squad to go to New Zealand and since the announcement has scored 100 and collected a stunning 7 for 64 off 16 overs.Smith’s previous best in a first-class game was 3 for 99, but he was a huge threat on a third-day wicket as the Redbacks were bowled out for 244 in their second innings. The visitors had been forced to follow-on after lunch, having been dismissed for 267, and suffered an innings and 39-run defeat.Smith started his collection by removing James Smith and Cameron Borgas to short balls, but grew in confidence as he had Mark Cosgrove lbw playing back to a low delivery. Tim Ludeman went in similar fashion, Aaron O’Brien inside-edged to short leg and Daniel Christian pushed forward to gain a nick behind. The game finished when Smith had Peter George taken by Peter Nevill, with the final eight wickets dropping for 60 runs.Cosgrove had kept South Australia afloat for much of the day with a brisk 105, which included 76 runs in boundaries. James Smith, who registered 79, put on 167 with Cosgrove as they tried to reach the 283 needed to make New South Wales bat again. While the Redbacks have qualified for the Champions League Twenty20, they finished last in the Shield, while New South Wales ended up in third.