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ScorecardAlex Wakely and Rob Newton each scored half-centuries as Northamptonshire tightened their grip on Hampshire at the end of the third day at West End. Newton struck a rapid 59 and Wakely was 61 not out at the close as Northants reached 176 for 5 in their second innings, a lead of 256 runs.Only home captain Jimmy Adams batted with any resolution when Hampshire began the second day 125 for 2 in response to the Northants’ first-innings total of 356. Adams’ third-wicket partner Liam Dawson was out without adding to his overnight 19 and James Vince continued his wretched first-class season when he was out two overs later for 4.Pace bowler Luke Evans dismissed them both to leg-before decisions and then David Willey reduced Hampshire to 176 for 6 by bowling Sean Ervine and winning another lbw appeal against Adams, who faced 184 balls for his 73, an innings which included 13 fours, but resistance after his departure was only sporadic.Evans came back to get rid of Chris Wood and Northants captain Andrew Hall polished off the Hampshire tail. Hall had Michael Bates caught at second slip by David Sales for 28, Kabir Ali caught at the wicket for a breezy 31 and then last man David Balcombe at 276. That gave Northants a substantial first-innings lead of 80 on a wicket which continued to help the quicker bowlers.Hall finished with 3 for 35, but for former Durham bowler Evans the day was a personal triumph, finishing with career-best figures of 4 for 38.Northants did not make the best of starts as they hastened to build on their first-innings success with Stephen Peters out in Ali’s first over and Niall O’Brien following to a catch at the wicket in the eighth. When Sales fell to a catch by Vince in the slips off Balcombe, Northants were 62 for 3. But then came a decisive stand of 99 in only 16 overs between Newton and Wakely as the Hampshire attack appeared to run out of ideas.Newton hit Ali for six and then did the same to successive deliveries from James Tomlinson, smiting nine fours also from 41-ball innings which turned the match in Northants’ favour. Tomlinson had Newton caught in the slips before Hall departed, but Wakely and James Middlebrook saw their side through to stumps in an unbroken stand of 15.

ScorecardThe Wisden Trophy, secured by England after beating West Indies, was just a memory for Andrew Strauss as he got down to the business of making runs again•Getty Images

A month after his last knock, and following a four-week break for the FLt20 jamboree, Andrew Strauss showed some of the traditional virtues that his team-mates had forgotten to score more than half of Middlesex’s runs in a sorry first-innings effort at Uxbridge.Championship cricket has returned, brought back down from the shelf and dusted off again. Strauss has not played in a while either, since the third Test against West Indies, and it had until recently been suggested that his term as England captain was also soon to be destined for storage.But it took another T20 refusenik in Andre Adams – currently well out ahead in the Championship wicket-taker’s list – to winkle out Strauss, for 50 out of 98, with what he described as one of the “top three” deliveries of his career.Adams, too, didn’t play a single fixture during the FLt20 group stage but he had no trouble settling back into his loping stride, claiming two wickets in two balls in his first over of the day on the way to a six-wicket haul that already has Nottinghamshire, the Division One leaders, scenting a fifth win of the season.”It was a good one, I was pretty happy with that,” Adams said of the delivery that removed Strauss, pitching in line from round the wicket before seaming away to clip the top of off stump. “I thought he played very nicely, he played very straight. He nicked the odd ball but looked pretty much in control for the most part, but got a good one with his name on it. I’ve played against him a couple of times and he’s looking the best I’ve seen him for some time.”Adams had been rested from T20 duty by Nottinghamshire’s director of cricket, Mike Newell, in order to give opportunities to younger players, but he showed no signs of rust. While Middlesex’s total – their lowest score of the season – would have been sub-par in a T20 game, the recent, concentrated burst of thrill-seeking, short-form cricket had clearly addled a few minds. That said, losing the toss for the eighth time in nine this season was probably influential in Middlesex’s capitulation.”It was a pretty friendly wicket to bowl on to start with, the ball was holding nicely on the wicket and it was just a case of getting it in the right areas,” Adams said. “Most teams have just come off Twenty20 and you know you won’t have to wait too long before you get a chance.”Strauss made them wait for more than two hours, his half-century a small crumb of comfort for Middlesex fans but of wider significance, perhaps, with England’s Test encounter with South Africa beginning a week on Thursday.Hundreds in consecutive Tests in the first part of the summer silenced questions about his position ahead of a series that will decide the No. 1 ranking and an exacting workout in bowler-friendly conditions will have been a useful prelude to duelling with Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and co. at The Oval.His batting was calm and compact, studded with the odd drive and pull, and although he fenced at a couple early on from Harry Gurney and edged Andy Carter short of the slips, he proved that his game largely remains in working order, despite the lay-off. Perhaps sitting out the T20 is the way for ‘proper’ batsmen to go.By the close, Nottinghamshire had lost four wickets in assembling a 16-run lead on a pitch slowly recovering its reputation as batsman friendly. Middlesex made regular breakthroughs but the visitors were more diligent in their approach, the only sign of T20 excitability coming when Samit Patel hit Toby Roland-Jones for four boundaries in an over.Although Middlesex have an attack that has helped them out of a couple of scrapes already this season, Nottinghamshire will start the second day with six wickets in hand and, in Michael Lumb, the sort of batsman at the crease capable of taking them to a match-winning position.Rain truncated the day at both ends, sweeping in at around 6pm after a wet outfield delayed the start by 45 minutes. This is the time of year when batsmen are supposed to be in clover, the perils of poking and prodding on malevolent greentops consigned to memory as the sun shines and the pitches flatten. However, once the outfield had dried sufficiently, Middlesex discovered that batting was going to be anything but a festival at their suburban outground.Having won three out of five Championship matches at Lord’s, banishment to the vicinity of the M25 in order to accommodate Olympic archery at the home of cricket was always likely to smart.Middlesex have not won a Championship match here since 1995, albeit with a 10-year absence in the middle. Sandwiched in between a leisure centre, a housing estate and a main road, Uxbridge is a more prosaic setting than St John’s Wood, the pitch a little less pristine. Even with all the rain, you don’t often see drives trundling and bobbling to a halt across the outfield at Lord’s.Inserted in bowler-friendly conditions, only Strauss and Gareth Berg, who made 82 runs between them, were able to hang around. Sam Robson, playing across the line to a swinging delivery, and Joe Denly, driving expansively on a day for unobtrusive accumulation, contributed to their own downfalls, either side of Chris Rogers receiving a lifter from Gurney.Strauss and Berg added 63 for the sixth wicket, only for to Adams stroll in off his innocuous 12-pace run-up and claim four for none off 10 balls, as Middlesex hurtled from 97 for 5 to 98 all out. This season has been beset by weather for ducks and Middlesex had come up with five in an innings.

ScorecardJim Troughton, the Warwickshire captain, has said that the pain of being pipped to the Championship last year is providing the drive behind his side’s impressive start to the 2012 campaign, which continued with a five-wicket victory over Surrey that took only 32 minutes of the final morning to wrap up.Tim Ambrose finished unbeaten on 89 with his partner Rikki Clarke 40 not out as Warwickshire completed their recovery from 37 for 4 to win comfortably after Surrey failed to find the early wickets they needed.”After getting so close but not winning last year I think the pain has been in everyone’s mind through the winter and we have used that memory to make sure that when we have got into good positions in games we have nailed it,” Troughton said.”We have not necessarily had things all our own way in the games so far and we have fought back from difficult periods as well as being ruthless when we have been on top. I think that is the key in four-day cricket. To win tight games creates that belief that you can win from anywhere. Gareth Batty bowled very well and, after we were 30-odd for 4, Surrey and their supporters probably thought it would be done and dusted in three days.Troughton applauded his seam bowlers for filling the gaps created by early-season injuries to Chris Woakes and Boyd Rankin and said his batsman are dismantling the notion that without Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott, or overseas assistance from the likes of Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Mohammad Yousuf, both of whom contributed to their success last year, they are lightweights.”Chanderpaul and Yousuf were a big factor last year but we have a batting line-up that is maturing with the likes of Porterfield and Varun Chopra and there is experience in the mix and someone has always put their hand up at crucial times,” he said. “The only one not to do that has been me.”Referring to his own current lean streak, which has seen him score only 50 runs in nine Championship innings so far with a second-innings duck in this match, Troughton said he did not doubt his form would return.”Guys like Bell and Trott have told me that as long as you don’t start chasing your tail, as long as you keep doing the things that have brought you runs in the past, you will turn it round. I’m lucky that the boys have picked up the slack but as long as I remain positive and keep working in the nets I’m sure that a big performance when the guys need me will come out.”As much as Ambrose and Porterfield were the match-winners with the bat, Jeetan Patel’s 6 for 95 was a significant influence on the outcome as Surrey, who had been under par in the first innings, improved in the second but still were restricted to 245 on a good batting surface.Patel was outshone as an individual by his fellow offspinner, Gareth Batty, who finished with 10 wickets in a match for only the second time in his career but admitted he would have swapped his figures for a win.”The stats say I had a good match but while I want to do my job for the team I would have taken none for 300 if we had taken 20-odd points from the match,” he said.”The game was made difficult on day one for us when we played poorly in all facets. When you come back well to get back in the game but lose it on the final day it is easy to identify where we fell down.””If we had opened with four maidens and maybe taken a wicket we would have had one end open and it could have been very exciting but once they got one or two away the challenge was always going to be easier for them.”Three fours from Clarke, a former Surrey allrounder, of course, in the same Stuart Meaker over tipped the balance decisively Warwickshire’s way, probably denying Ambrose the opportunity for a century into the bargain.

Australia coach Mickey Arthur has said Ricky Ponting is “not going anywhere” and remains firmly in Australia’s plans for the next Ashes tour of England in just over a year’s time. Arthur has returned to Australia after Michael Clarke’s men completed a 2-0 Test series win over West Indies, a series in which Ponting made starts and finished with a half-century but was the least prolific scorer of Australia’s top seven.However, Ponting was coming off an outstanding home series against India, in which his 544 runs at 108.80 was second only to Clarke. As a Test-only player, Ponting now has no cricket on his schedule until the domestic summer begins in October, and he must then find his form ahead of home campaigns against South Africa and Sri Lanka ahead of the 2013 Ashes.”I know there was a lot of media pressure and talk around Ricky [in the West Indies], but Ricky’s not going anywhere,” Arthur told reporters in Perth on Tuesday. “We hope Ricky’s scoring enough runs to go to the Ashes, most certainly, in England. Ricky’s still got a lot of Test runs still in him, there’s no doubt about that.”I thought Ricky was very unlucky [in the Caribbean]. He was always bubbling away. His form was always good, so no worries about Ricky Ponting at all. Ricky is definitely no way considering retiring, I wouldn’t have thought from my conversations with him and he’ll be fit and ready to go against South Africa … I think if we win the Ashes, then maybe he’ll go out on the top of his game.”While Ponting has a decade and a half’s worth of Test cricket experience to call on, a less experienced pair will also be aiming to regain their best touch at the start of the home summer. The openers David Warner and Ed Cowan were Australia’s fifth and sixth best scorers in the West Indies and each managed only one half-century, but Arthur believes they are on the improve.”I think Warner and Cowan will get better and better,” Arthur said. “Ed Cowan came on through the summer … he got better and better at playing spin bowling. We want Dave to get more consistent but it’s not his style. We certainly don’t want Dave to lose his character, because that’s what made him special.”Some of the Australians have headed to India to take part in the remainder of the IPL and the limited-overs players have series against England and Pakistan during the off season, followed by the ICC World Twenty20. For others like Ponting and Cowan, a long winter at home has just begun.

ScorecardNew Road could once again find itself under water due to the recent heavy rainfall•PA Photos

Worcestershire are bracing themselves for flooding at New Road after heavy rain forced the abandonment of their Championship match against Nottinghamshire.Umpires Michael Gough and Nick Cook decided soon after 9am that torrential overnight rain on top of an already wet outfield would make play impossible but the loss of the last day of a match heading for a draw may be the least of the club’s worries.The Environment Agency has flood alerts in place for the nearby Severn and Teme rivers and a spokesman said: “The Environment Agency is closely monitoring the forecast and rainfall, particularly in Worcestershire, as the river levels are already higher than normal in the rivers Severn, Teme and Avon.”Worcestershire chief executive David Leatherdale admitted he had his fingers crossed with rain forecast to continue through much of Sunday. “The river levels have risen considerably overnight and we are concerned about the effects that today’s rain will have,” he said. “There is nothing we can do apart from wait, unfortunately.”Contingency plans are in place to move fixtures to Kidderminster should the worst happen. The next scheduled first-team cricket at New Road is the Clydesdale Bank 40 match against Netherlands on May 7, followed two days later by a four-day match against Surrey, in which England’s Kevin Pietersen is due to make his only Championship appearance of the season.Worcestershire had to switch the final two matches of the 2008 season to Kidderminster after floods in September, although that was a minor inconvenience compared with the previous summer, when no cricket was possible on the ground from mid-June onwards, costing the club around £1 million in clean-up costs and lost revenue, largely from the loss of lucrative Twenty20 fixtures.New Road has a history of winter floods but the 2007 flood was the first to cause fixtures to be moved since 1969. The following year’s repetition had a direct bearing on the decision to demolish the ground’s historic Victorian pavilion and replace it with the glass-fronted Graeme Hick pavilion, built on stilts one metre higher than the 100-year highest water level.”It means that the pavilion can continue to be used for commercial activity but there is nothing we can do to prevent the field flooding if the worst happens,” Leatherdale said. “We would try to get the ground ready again as quickly as possible but how long that takes would depend on how badly it floods. A few inches in the car parks would be one thing, the ground under several feet of water quite another matter.”The 2007 flood left a quarter of an inch of silt covering the entire playing surface, which had to be reseeded in its entirety. No cricket was played until the following April.

ScorecardEd Joyce was named the Player of the match for his 78•Getty Images

A fine unbeaten 78 by Ed Joyce guided Ireland towards the knockout phase of the ICC World Twenty20 qualifier with a comfortable win over Scotland. With one defeat each before the game, the Celtic nations were vying for second spot in Group B behind Namibia, and although Ireland came good, they now have some serious injury concerns.John Mooney is out of the rest of the tournament after suffering a torn hamstring while fellow allrounder Alex Cusack is a doubt for the next game. Mooney chased thirty yards and dived to try to catch Preston Mommsen, but fell awkwardly on the rope and instantly signalled for assistance. He remained prone for ten minutes before the Irish coach, Phill Simmons, and physio shouldered him slowly to the dressing room. An announcement on a replacement will be made on Monday.Porterfield had to juggle his options further when Cusack limped off with a niggle in his groin after bowling two overs. Ireland are well stocked with allrounders though, and Kevin O’Brien was able to step up for his first bowl of the tournament and responded with 3 for 35 off four overs.Ireland had a dismal start, with Paul Stirling edging tentatively to slip off the first ball he faced from Matthew Parker. The brisk Safayeen Sharif bowled a loosening widish first ball to William Porterfield, only for the Ireland captain to drag it back on to his stumps. It was a dismissal identical to how he fell to James Anderson during the last World Cup.From 8 for 2 Ireland regrouped around Joyce, with Cusack cutting loose in an over from Parker with four consecutive boundaries. “Alex played a really good innings – it wasn’t that big but hitting 18 off one over at that stage took the pressure off,” Joyce said. Cusack was stumped off Majid Haq, but Ireland’s middle order came good once again. Kevin O’Brien and Gary Wilson upped the run-rate with some clean hitting, Wilson crashing Berrington onto the third deck of the VIP area.Scotland got their field right in the closing overs and boundaries dried up. There had been just one four in more than six overs when Joyce took guard for the last two balls of the innings. He hit Safayaan Sharif’s slower ball over square leg for six, and followed up straight and into the wind for another.”I don’t often hit sixes so i think those last two balls were crucial”, Joyce said. “Instead of facing seven and a half an over they needed eight, so those hits were useful.”Strangely, for a player who has been one of the most prolific in 50-over cricket in recent English seasons, this was his first fifty in Twenty20, in his 66th game.”I always found Twenty20 a hard game to play, as you never know whether to stick or twist”, he said.Scotland’s job was all the harder after three balls when Trent Johnston found his way through Richie Berrington’s defence. Berrington has batted consistently in the tournament, and had scored a match-winning century when the teams last met over fifty overs. Two balls after Mooney’s injury Mommsen tried to pull Johnston and was trapped in front.The sideshow of the tournament’s leading bowler, Boyd Rankin, and leading batsman, Calum McLeod — teammates at Warwickshire — promised much. Rankin was the decisive winner here, troubling McLeod twice before the batsman made a mess of his footwork trying to pull and was given out.Kyle Coetzer – captaining in place of the injured Gordon Drummond – came together with Fraser Watts but after eight overs the asking rate was above 10. Coetzer put Max Sorensen’s first two balls over the rope on the straight and made his day even worse when Sorenson dropped him badly at long off.The pair had put on 78 off 11 overs when Trent Johnston caught Watts off O’Brien, and next ball Jan Stander was sent back, fatally, by Coetzer. The captain completed a 46-ball fifty with a six off Stirling but the run-rate continued to mount and when O’Brien held a sharp return catch in the 19th over it was over as a contest.Porterfield was resolute in his assessment: “If we win every game from today we’ll qualify. That’s what we’re planning to do.”

Pune Warriors are set to add Australia allrounder Steven Smith to their squad for the 2012 IPL. Smith will be the fourth* international to be signed by the franchise since they sorted out their differences with the BCCI after boycotting the February 4 auction. He joins fellow Australia allrounder James Hopes, England allrounder Luke Wright and West Indies allrounder Marlon Samuels. The deal is said to be almost through, pending a formal signing.Smith was bought by the now terminated Kochi Tuskers Kerala franchise last year, but missed the season after he injured his ankle and needed surgery. He was one of the Kochi players included in the player auction, but went unsold.”Delighted to be joining the Pune Warriors for the IPL this year,” Smith said on Twitter. “Very excited!!”In the recently concluded Big Bash League, Smith made 166 runs at an average of 23.71 and a strike-rate of 130.70 for the Sydney Sixers. He also took six wickets at 21.50 with an economy-rate of 8.06.Warriors have now filled all their overseas spots. The team is also still looking for a replacement for Yuvraj Singh, who is undergoing treatment for cancer and will miss the IPL. It is understood that Warriors might like to observe some players during the ongoing MiWAY T20 Challenge in South Africa, which ends on March 30.*March 8, 2012 14:30GMT: This story has been updated to reflect that Pune Warriors have also signed England’s Luke Wright

March 15, 2010
News – Westfield and Kaneria questioned about match against Durham by Essex police
June 7, 2010
News – Kaneria cleared to play for Essex by ECB.August 20, 2010
News – Westfield released by EssexSeptember 8, 2010
News – Kaneria released without charge by Essex policeSeptember 16, 2010
News – Westfield charged with conspiracy to defraud over claims he deliberately bowled widesJanuary 12, 2012
News – Westfield pleads guilty to spot-fixing and is convicted
Feature – How Westfield threw it all awayFebruary 10, 2012
News – Westfield sentencing adjourned for a weekFebruary 17, 2012
News – Westfield jailed for four months. Kaneria implicated as orchestrator. ECB bans Westfield from all cricket pending further investigation.
Reaction – Judge tells Westfield he betrayed the trust of Essex, players, fans and followers throughout the world in you to play cricket honestly

In 16 years of international cricket, Jacques Kallis has scored centuries against all nine other Test playing nations, has been part of series wins in Australia and England and has seen numerous ODI series victories. One thing he does not have, though, is a World Cup medal and it is that missing piece that is driving him to try to continue playing international cricket until at least 2015.”The one thing I want to try and achieve is to be part of a team that can win a World Cup. That’s a goal of mine,” Kallis said after South Africa’s victory in the third Test against Sri Lanka, in Cape Town. Kallis has played 317 ODIs, including five World Cups. He will turn 37 this year and will be 39 by the time the next World Cup takes place, in Australia and New Zealand, in 2015.At the start of the summer local media expressed concern about what they called Kallis’ dwindling reflexes, after he was worked over by Australia’s 18-year-old fast bowler Pat Cummins, who trouble Kallis with his bouncer. Kallis said he did not read the reports and was only told about it by friends. His response on the field, though, was fierce.He scored 224, his highest Test score, against Sri Lanka at Newlands, an aggressive pull shot the hallmark of his innings. He also extinguished doubts about his reflexes by taking six catches, five of which were at second slip. To cap it off, he took three wickets in Sri Lanka’s second innings. It was an emphatic way to celebrate his 150th Test match and a screaming declaration of what he still has to offer South African cricket. “I couldn’t have asked for it to have worked out better,” Kallis said. “You dream of performances like that.”While he appeared closer to a teenager than someone entering his late 30s in Cape Town, Kallis has acknowledged that his workload needs to be managed. He did not bowl in the first innings at Newlands, after his marathon effort with the bat, because his captain Graeme Smith felt he “would not get much out of him.”Managing Kallis’ bowling load could be key to prolonging his career. That could prove tricky due to the make-up of South Africa’s bowling attack. With three aggressive fast bowlers and a legspinner in the side, Kallis is required to play a containing role with the ball, and if needed, to, in his words, “carry,” the attack. In the shorter form of the game, he is unlikely to be used in the same capacity and less work with the ball could be vital as he targets 2015.”I will take it year by year, month by month and game by game,” he said. “No-one has the right to play in this side [without earning his place]. You’ve got to put in the performances for that. As long as I am enjoying it and putting in the performances, and the body holds, there’s no reason for me to stop yet.”Kallis has been named in South Africa’s squad for the first two ODIs against Sri Lanka, after which the selectors will decide on the group for the remaining three matches. Kallis said he hopes to play in all five fixtures although he recognises that he may be forced to pick which matches to play in the future.”It looks like I will play all five matches. I said to Gary [Kirsten, the South Africa coach], we will have a look at it after the first two and we’ll make a call from there. That will be the standard going forward. I have to be clever if I want to make it to the next World Cup.”

Graham Ford, the former South Africa coach, has announced he is quitting as head coach of the Dolphins, the Durban-based franchise. Ford, who requested to be released with immediate effect, said he had ambitions of coaching an international side.”While I feel a passion for Dolphins cricket, I respectfully ask for an immediate release from my Dolphins coaching position in order to follow my dreams of involvement at an international level,” Ford said.Ford took over as coach of South Africa from Bob Woolmer in 1999 and held the position till 2001. He moved to Kent as director of cricket in 2004, and in 2006 he returned home to take charge of the Dolphins. In June 2007, he was offered the challenge of coaching India but, to the embarrassment of the BCCI, declined. In 2009, he withdrew his name from the shortlist of candidates for the England coaching job.