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India managed to draw the second Test against England, although the hosts had repeated glimpses of victory throughout an intriguing final day at Trent Bridge. After telling contributions from Dravid, Ganguly and Tendulkar, a flurry of wickets around the tea interval raised the possibility of a rapid run chase similar to the one England pulled off against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford; in the event, India’s young wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel and Zaheer Khan took the tourists to safety. England remain one-nil up with two Tests remaining.The draw was favourite throughout the day, albeit marginal at times, as India lost just two wickets in the first two sessions. Sachin Tendulkar made 92 (113 balls, 17 fours), but after looking comfortable for the first hour’s play, he was beaten and bowled by a perfect off-spinner from Michael Vaughan as he tried to drive the Yorkshireman through the covers. Vaughan had come on after England’s seam attack had searched fruitlessly for a breakthrough in the early overs.Dravid was fortunate to survive a confident appeal for caught behind off Hoggard when he was on 73 in the first over after the lunch interval. Umpire Koertzen shook his head, but replays suggested the thinnest of edges. That was the one blemish, as Dravid played with restraint and elegance to reach his first Test hundred against England. He had reached 115 (244 balls, 16 fours) when Nasser Hussain turned to Cork, bruised knee and all. He found enough reverse swing to rap Dravid on the pad with a ball that would have gone on to hit leg stump. Dravid had added a vital 134 runs with his captain, Sourav Ganguly, who was again in impeccable touch.Laxman was perilously close to the same fate off his first ball. He survived until tea, but was dismissed afterwards thanks to excellent captaincy. Hussain had moved Craig White back towards the backward square leg boundary, where Laxman obligingly hit Cork straight down his throat. When Ganguly was bowled off the inside edge by Harmison for 99 (159 balls, 13 fours) England were daring to hope again.Agarkar, after making 32, was lbw offering no stroke to the first ball of a new spell from Vaughan. Harbhajan Singh lost his off stump to a near full toss from Harmison. If India had folded quickly at that point, England would have fancied their chances of scoring around 130 to win in 20 overs. As it was, Patel and Zaheer held firm, and the series remains very much alive.Michael Vaughan was made Man of the Match for his 197, and there was a nice touch of sportsmanship from England, who let India’s 17-year-old wicket-keeper lead the teams in after his valuable contribution to India’s escape.

Another sweltering day, not just for the players, but also for the disgruntled BBC broadcasters, who had been barred from entering the ground this morning and forced to cover the game from the crumbling ramparts of the old Dutch Fort. They, at least, were allowed to return to the relative cool of the Press Box at lunch, as England were forced to endure another five and-a-half hours fielding in temperatures that soared to 116 degrees Fahrenheit.Although the Sri Lankan band created a relentless cacophony of noise and the pink-faced English supporters occasionally roused themselves for a brief rendition of “Engerlund, Engerlund,” it was not a scintillating day of Test cricket. Sri Lanka’s batsmen were forced to graft for every run and once again displayed admirable patience as they piled up 470 for five.They then declared for an eight over burst against England’s foot-weary openers and Sanath Jayasuriya wasted to no time before he unveiled the key to the future course of this match: Muttiah Muralitharan. He opened the bowling, but failed to break through, as the England openers punished some overly eager bowling and ended the day on 27 without loss.Sri Lanka were guided to their final score of 470 by a marathon double century from Marvan Atapattu, the fourth in his 42 Test career and the third slowest in the history of Test cricket, after Brendon Kuruppu (777mins) and Gary Kirsten (741mins). He reached his double century after 677 minutes of painstaking concentration and 530 balls.Dav Whatmore praised the efforts of Atapattu afterwards: “Marvan displayed tremendous determination, patience and concentration. The fact he refused to play the pull shot despite so many short balls just reflects his fantastic mental attitude.”Atapattu is a strong Buddhist and thus should know a thing or two about patience, but even he must have been mentally tested by England’s tactics. Darren Gough, the fast spearhead of England’s brave new world, jettisoned his normal quest for speed in favour of 70mph off-cutters to six men on the leg side. Craig White, too, bowled his slow off-cutter with gay abandon and Andrew Caddick preferred to bowl short to inhibit stoke-play. With the aim to frustrate the batsmen and slow the scoring rate, it was thus no surprise that two out of the three wickets to fall were from run outs.Hussain’s tactics may not have provided for pretty cricket, but it did make life difficult for the Sri Lankans, whom Darren Gough admitted afterwards could have scored more: “They never got away from us and could easily have scored another hundred or so.”The conditions have to be up there with the worst that I have bowled in. We knew from the first game in Sri Lanka that the wickets were not going to be responsive. At least in Pakistan though the ball skidded on, here it just sat up and came through slowly. That being the case we had to try and mix it up,” he explained afterwards.Atapattu was given tremendous support in the morning by Aravinda de Silva and the pair added 230 for the third wicket. The veteran batsman has been in and out of the side in the last year and had failed to score a half-century in his previous 12 innings. He, however, repaid the faith shown in him by Sanath Jayasuriya and the Sri Lankan selectors, with a surprisingly watchful 106 off 243 balls, his 19th Test century.Although he had been dropped twice in his innings, once last night when he had made 20 and again today by Alec Stewart down the leg side, when he had made 97, a run out always appeared his most likely form of dismissal. And so it was, when on the stroke of the afternoon drinks break, he was caught ball watching and failed to respond to Atapattu’s call for a simple single.Mahela Jayawardene, who had waited for five hours with his pads on, raised the tempo after the dismissal of de Silva. He made the most of being dropped by a tumbling Gough at mid-off right at the start of his innings and attacked the English spinners, hitting Giles for a straight six and sweeping Croft for one two overs later. When the spinners bowled outside his legs he responded by reverse sweeping.He too was eventually run out thanks to some impressive football skills fromGraham Thorpe, who, betraying his youthful promise representing English Schoolboys that earned the offer of a trial at Brentford FC, charged in from cover and shot directly on to the stumps from five yards. Jayawardene made 61 from 94 balls.Sri Lanka then tried to grab some quick runs before the declaration by promoting Chaminda Vaas, as Marvan Atapattu crawled towards his double century, which he eventually reached in the 168th over of the innings. He was somewhat fortunate to have scored it after Stewart missed a stumping chance and Caddick spilled a caught and bowled chance when he had made 177.Speaking afterwards, Atapattu was characteristically modest about his performance: “I just tried to stay and accumulate runs as I am not a big hitter of the ball like the others. The English made it really difficult for us to score freely because of the line they bowled.”He warned about Sri Lanka being complacent: “We did not bowl that well tonight. I think we were a little over eager and need to tighten up tomorrow. We can’t take England lightly, they have shown in Pakistan that they are a tough side to bowl out.”

One of the constant features of international cricket is the huddle of photographers clustered at either end of the ground – wicket to wicket, as cricket lovers say. Why do photographers sit there? It seems an odd place to be, because their view is often obstructed by the bowler following through, or a slip fielder who only shows his backside to the camera, or indeed the non-striker.The answer is that most photographers at the match are from newspapers or press agencies, and the photo editor will be screaming out for “action shots”. What this normally means is images with plenty of bits of wood, e.g. the stumps, flying about. The more flying timber the better, and it should preferably be captured early in the day’s play, so that the photographer can get off to the next job.

However, supplying images to the press that a lumberjack would be proud of is only one part of cricket photography, and the specialist cricket photographer will often be seen at square leg, fine leg or third man. It is from such angles that more individual images of the players can often be captured. Or, as in our image of Thorpe catching Saeed Anwar, the wider the angle the better the chance. The photographer stationed at the wicket end would not be likely to capture such a shot because the angle of view would not be wide enough.So, while sitting at the wicket end increases the chances of capturing a clean bowled or a good appeal from the bowler, “going wide” can also have its compensations. Photographers will also be working at the ground to get stock images of players, and will not necessarily be there to capture the match action. In such circumstances, changing the angle of view is often advantageous.

The picture of Darren Bicknell is a case in point. This image was taken from the top deck of the Parr Stand at Nottinghamshire’s Trent Bridge home. This is a famous old stand, and for a photographer can be an ideal place to shoot a match. Whilst the climb with the kit is not always easy, the rewards are there at the top. The Bicknell image has the advantage of being “clean”. This means that there is no clutter from any background distraction. This could be another player, seats in the stand or the advertising hoardings that all major grounds now have.It is not always possible to get up to a height to take pictures, as grounds such as Lord’s only have limited space but “clean” images of players are something of a cricket photographer’s stock in trade.However there will be occasions when the photographer is at the ground to “shoot the boards”. This means no more and no less than taking pictures of the game whilst at the same time ensuring that a particular sponsors advertising hoarding is as prominent as possible. So getting the depth of field right is important, as well as the angle of view. This particular photographer hopes that npower, the new sponsors of Test cricket in England, like our picture of the photographers at Lord’s, as their ads are very prominent. Any adverse comment will of course lead to the removal of the ads in Photoshop!

Overview

The exploits of the Ireland team at global ICC tournaments have become a colourful side narrative in recent years, from the thrilling humiliations of Pakistan and England at successive World Cups to their ousting of Bangladesh in the World Twenty20 group stage in 2009.Ireland have put in place a roadmap to playing Test cricket and despite the talent drain across the Irish Sea – Boyd Rankin will retire after the tournament in the bid to pursue a career with England – they have built solid foundations in the limited-overs formats. Briefly ranked above Australia in T20Is earlier this month, the group meeting between the two will be eagerly anticipated by schadenfreude fans the world over, as well as by Ireland’s miserly attack leader Trent Johnston, born in Wollongong, New South Wales, 38 years ago.A hard-working team, Ireland have several players capable of making the difference in tight games. Allrounder Kevin O’Brien is instantly recognisable – even without the mangy purple dye job – after his record-breaking innings in Bangalore, while Paul Stirling and William Porterfield provide a potentially explosive opening partnership and Niall O’Brien brings experience of playing in the Bangladesh Premier League. If the ball swings, Middlesex seamer Tim Murtagh could be a canny addition to their set-up.

Key players

George Dockrell tends to play in red boots but that is not the only eye-catching thing about him. A tall left-arm spinner, the 20-year-old impressed for Somerset during the English domestic season and was the county’s leading T20 wicket-taker, despite missing finals day while on duty at the Under-19 World Cup. You don’t have to be Peter Falk to work out that his form in Colombo could be crucial.

Surprise package

Wicketkeeper Gary Wilson is a pugnacious batsman who has increasingly demonstrated his worth after deputising for the absent Niall O’Brien at the World Twenty20 Qualifier in March. He finished the county season as Surrey’s first choice keeper and has made all three of his T20 half-centuries this year.

Weakness

It seems odd to say it for one of the tournament minnows but Ireland will have to deal with the expectation that comes with being serial jack-in-the-boxes. Neither Australia nor West Indies will be taking them lightly and their chances of springing out of Group B rest on their ability to play with the same freedom that has characterised previous campaigns.

World T20 history

Ireland failed to qualify in 2007 but reached the super eights two years later, beating Bangladesh out of their group. They left the Caribbean in a right funk in 2010, after rain denied them the chance to chase England’s meagre total of 120 and they were eliminated on net run-rate.

Recent form

A planned four-match series with South Africa A in August was abandoned due to poor weather and, prior to that, Ireland lost 3-0 at home to Bangladesh – though some measure of revenge was achieved in their final warm-up match. Ireland won 10 out 11 games at the World Twenty20 Qualifier, beating Afghanistan in the final, and have played much more T20 cricket this year than most of the Full Members.

England A required cool heads today after a series of umpiring decisions went against them in their third round match against Guyana preventing them from forcing the follow-on.By stumps, John Crawley’s side had established a commanding 145 run lead over the home side and in bowling Guyana out for 288, earned themselves crucial first innings points.

But there was disappointment and frustration in the England A camp when the possibility of winning the match was removed by a century from West Indies Test batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan which pushed Guyana beyond the 264 target set to enforce the follow on.Sarwan was the subject of a controversial umpiring decision when on 28, an appeal for a catch behind was turned down. A second incident involving another unsuccessful appeal against Lennox Cush forced Crawley to suspend play while he gathered his players together to calm their frustrations.”I called them together because a few things had gone against us and we had to regain our composure,” he said afterwards.”It’s not something I have ever done before but I felt they could have become distracted by the frustration. I told them to put the disappointment of that decision out of their minds. Its not for me to comment whether it was out or not out.”We felt it should have been out but that is only our opinion. We had a couple beforehand that should have gone our way but we still had a job to do. We had good players at the crease so we had to keep our focus.”I did speak to the umpires about it, which is a private thing, but I will do a captain’s report tomorrow morning when I have a calmer head. We cannot comment on the quality of the umpires but it was a frustrating day.”Despite that, England A’s inexperienced bowling line-up showed discipline in the face of the world class talent of Carl Hooper and Sarwan.Jonathan Lewis, making his debut for England A, made the early breakthrough in the fifth over of the day. He bowled an excellent line and was rewarded with the wicket of Keith Semple, giving wicketkeeper James Foster his first catch of the tour.It brought Sarwan to the crease amid claims that the 20 year-old Test batsman was suffering a crisis of confidence after his disappointing tour of Australia. His faltering progress in the early overs suggested the claims were well-founded, but when his skipper joined him at the crease and opened his account with a six over long on off Chris Schofield, Sarwan appeared tosettle. By lunch Sarwan had gathered 40 runs, the one chance given being rejected by the umpires.His half century came in 109 balls and the loss of Hooper shortly after, to a superb diving catch by Foster off Ryan Sidebottom, prompted a more positive approach and his partnership with the attacking Vishal Nagamootoo, the younger brother of Test spinner Mahendra, presented England A with their most challenging period of the day.It also gave spectators their main highlight as both players moved niftily into the ball driving at anything short of a length. Sarwan progressed swiftly to his century – his first in the Busta Cup – and Nagamootoo kept him company, trouncing the new ball advantage with the help of some loose bowling from the weary England A pacemen.Sarwan was eventually caught behind cutting at Paul Franks for 122 having been at the crease for four and a half hours. But by then Guyana had reached the follow on target with three batsmen still waiting in the wings.An inspirational over from Schofield, accounting for Nagamootoo with his first delivery then Eion Katchay and last man Kevin Darlington with the third and sixth, wrapped up the innings and gave Schofield the England A bowling honours with figures of 3-54.The remaining five overs allowed England A to increase their lead as Ian Ward and Michael Powell added 20 without loss but discussions then ensued over the plan for the final day.”Any side containing Hooper and Sarwan means we will be taking a slight gamble but whatever we do, even if we bat all day, we will do it positively to try and get a few guys some runs,” said Crawley who is captaining the side after Mark Alleyne dropped himself.”We feel the way Guyana have played the game shouldn’t give them any chance to win. They chose two seamers and bowled with a ball that resembled an orange so they don’t deserve a chance to try and get us out.”

England’s bowling coach, David Saker, has suggested that the management have made up their minds over the troublesome third seamer slot for the first Ashes Test. In the absence of Tim Bresnan, who is continuing to recover from a back stress fracture, it is set to come down to a straight choice between Chris Tremlett, Steven Finn and Boyd Rankin to support James Anderson and Stuart Broad in Brisbane.Finn has not been selected in Tests since a disappointing display against Australia at Trent Bridge in the summer and Tremlett last played for England in the UAE at the start of 2012. Tremlett was part of the squad for the final match of the previous Ashes but England chose to alter the balance of the side and play Chris Woakes and Simon Kerrigan instead. Rankin, meanwhile, could be in line for a Test debut a year after retiring from Ireland duty to pursue an England career.Each of the bowlers has played two matches so far on tour, Finn leading the way in terms of wickets (11) but with the highest economy. Rankin has taken seven wickets, Tremlett just one but the latter was seen working with Anderson in the SCG nets, rather than playing the final warm-up game, leading some to tip him for a recall. Saker was not revealing in which direction his cap is set, however.”I think we’re pretty clear in our minds where we’re going to go,” he said. “There’s a few more days to go. I’m not going to announce who’s going to play. But we’re confident where we are … we’re pretty clear who we’re going to pick, and we’ll go from there. There probably is a chance that it would be up for grabs, but we’re pretty clear. If someone wants to jump the queue, they’ve got a couple of days to do that.”I know that the guys that we’ve got in this group are good enough – and we’re prepared, and we’re ready for this challenge. I’m confident on Thursday, whoever we go with will be ready.”While Saker conceded that the three contenders had “probably not” bowled as well as he would have liked in the warm-up games, he rejected the idea that whoever comes in could be singled out by Australia’s batsmen as the weak link of the attack. “Teams might target certain players on our team, but we pride ourselves as a group to do the job really well,” he said. “I know as a bowling group we’ll put pressure on them.”If they do want to come after our bowlers, good luck to them – if they’re good enough to do that. But if they’re doing that, there’s a good chance we’ll get some chances.”Bresnan is expected to come back into contention as the tour goes on. He flew out with the squad and England hope to play him in the two-day match against a Cricket Australia Chairman’s XI in Alice Springs after the Gabba Test; he could also be involved in a game for the England Performance Programme, who have joined the senior players in Brisbane. Saker said that the Yorkshire quick could be available to play in Adelaide.David Saker is confident that England’s third seamer will be up to the job in Australia•Getty Images

“He’s going along really well, so we really hope he’s ready for the second Test,” Saker said. “We think he will be. That’s in the medical department’s hands – but he’s making some really good progress.”He’s bowling at 100 percent in the nets now. We’ve just got to get some overs into him so we’re confident that he can get through five days. He’ll most likely play in that Alice Springs game.”Bresnan took ten wickets at 29.60 in three appearances during the Ashes in England, in particular troubling Shane Watson, while he claimed 11 in two Tests during the last tour Down Under. He was tagged as England’s lucky mascot after being involved in victories in each of his first 13 Tests and, although that record has dipped a little, his control and all-round utility remain attractive qualities to Saker and Andy Flower.”He’s a reliable cricketer, a fantastic cricketer for us,” Saker said. “Whether it weakens our team [to be without him], it’s debatable – but he’s a very dependable player with the bat and the ball.”He does a great job for us, and he’s very understated. So it’s always a shame that he’s not available for selection. But looking down the line, he’s going to be available and again add pressure to positions.”Such is the mystery surrounding the third man of England’s pace attack that it wouldn’t be a surprise to spot Harry Lime lurking in a darkened corner of the Gabba shortly before the start of the first Test. While David Saker would not name names after being put up to speak to the press in Brisbane, reports suggest that it was all he could do to stop himself doodling pictures of Chris Tremlett’s 6ft 7in frame on the nearest notepad.That may come as a surprise, given that Tremlett has taken one wicket at a cost of 146 runs in his two warm-up games. But Tremlett is a famous Saker hunch, taken on the previous tour to Australia after a respectable, but not spectacular, season in Division Two for Surrey and having not played a Test in three years. Stuart Broad’s injury created an opening and he took 17 wickets in three games, suggesting he would finally fulfil his hulking potential at international level.Familiar injury problems have struck since then and his last England appearance was in Dubai at the start of 2012. At 32, he is still one wicket shy of 50 in Tests; Steven Finn, the youngest England bowler to the mark, did so aged 22. But Finn’s wickets, quick as they come, are not so cheap and Saker said “he still needs more work” after taking 8 for 191 in the final tour match in Sydney. Boyd Rankin, meanwhile, seems a little way off the Test side, despite impressing in a variety of commissions since switching his allegiance from Ireland.So, it may come down to Saker’s gut again. “In the last week I’ve seen a big change in Chris Tremlett, so that was a really pleasing thing for us,” he said of their net sessions in Sydney. A confidence player, once described as “soft” by Shane Warne, Tremlett will probably know by now if he is the chosen man. England are making the right noises but a significant test awaits. The lamb became a lion three years ago but Australia will have slaughter on their minds at the Gabbatoir come Thursday. Alan Gardner

50 overs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Champion of the chase: Virat Kohli now has 11 hundreds in 64 chases•BCCI

Push the boundaries, shift the goalposts, change vocabularies. Three hundred and fifty no longer inspires awe. Not when Indian batsmen are batting on flat Indian pitches surrounded by quick outfields with only four fielders outside the circle and two new balls to kill any chance of reverse swing. With Shikhar Dhawan’s assured century at the top, and Virat Kohli’s 61-ball one at No. 3 – the third-fastest by an Indian, challenging his own record of 52 balls – India became the first team to have chased down 350 or more twice, both of them in this series, and both without much frenzy.The belief and the absolute absence of any slogging was remarkable once again, but India did face some nerves this time around. The match was doing a pretty fine job of retelling the Jaipur ODI story – Dhawan was dropped early, there was a big opening partnership, and Kohli was bursting through the target – when Dhawan played a rare low-percentage shot and exposed Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh. Mitchell Johnson duly removed them, and 62 off 48 required became 35 off 18 at one point.Kohli, though, pulled out some of the most incredible shots of his innings, driving chest-high balls for fours wide of long-off, to take India through with three balls to spare. With this result the series remained alive, and George Bailey, who might have had reason to believe he had booked his Ashes spot with a 114-ball 156, will have to put in the drawer possible plans of going home early for Ashes preparation.Alongside Bailey, adding 168 for the third wicket, was another Ashes candidate, Shane Watson, who scored a century. The two did seem to be struggling against spin, with Australia 89 for 2 after 22 overs, but Watson did enjoy some luck as Ravindra Jadeja overstepped when he edged a slog-sweep to point. Once Bailey started taking on the spinners, the wheels came off, India began to bowl poorly, and a colossal 261 runs came in the last 28 overs.As the hitherto respectable figures of all the bowlers took a beating, Bailey reached a host of landmarks. He beat the records for most runs in a bilateral series by an Australian or a captain, becoming the second-fastest man to 1,500 runs, and overtaking Misbah-ul-Haq as the leading run-getter this year. In the end, he was left with a rueful smile, half marvelling at the quality of the batting, half resigned to the playing conditions and the pitch and the outfield.MS Dhoni, although he won, shared the views about the lopsided nature of the contest, but at one level you can’t take away from the composure Kohli, Dhawan and Rohit showed for a majority of the massive chase. It was as if they didn’t acknowledge the enormity of the task of maintaining a run rate of seven an over for 50 overs. There was no anxiety, no need to hit out, even if Rohit – for example – struggled to find the gaps early in the innings.Glenn Maxwell, who later took a diving catch at point off a free hit, will rue dropping an easy offering from Dhawan when the batsman was 19 off 22. Crisp shots and lovely placement remained the feature of the rest of the 178-run partnership as Rohit made up for a slow start with two sixes off Glenn Maxwell in the 29th over. He picked out deep midwicket off a long hop, but that only hastened the chase with Kohli’s entry.From the moment Kohli drove the fifth ball he faced for four through extra cover, he knew he was good for an encore of Jaipur. A few blinks later, the partnership for the second wicket was worth 50 runs, out of which Dhawan had scored just nine runs. Kohli was 40 off 26 then. Dhawan, who was cramping by the time he reached his hundred, walked across next ball, and was bowled, giving Australia an opening.Before Australia could enter that opening, though, Kohli brought up his fifth consecutive score of fifty or more. He would soon make it a third consecutive year with 1000 runs or more. There would be a hiccup before the win, though. Johnson, who had been kept back for the middler order, was brought back on, and he accounted for Raina and Yuvraj in the same over.Out came Dhoni, and India suddenly slowed down. James Faulkner and Johnson both began to get the ball to move away from the right-hand batsmen, and slowly the asking rate began to climb. Dhoni told Kohli to wait for Johnson to finish off, and that the big over can come in the last four. Johnson finished off with three overs to go and 35 to get.Kohli had seen enough. His proximity to the hundred – his 11th in 64 chases, behind only Sachin Tendulkar’s 17 in 242 attempts – didn’t matter. He would charge down the wicket, the bowler would drop short, and he would still manage to drive him to wide long-off. When Australia plugged that gap, he began going wide long-on with similar success. Eventually the asking rate came down to a run a ball in the last over, and India were through with three balls to spare.

Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club cantered to an eight-wicket win against Prime Bank Cricket Club in the Dhaka Premier League. They won with 20.1 overs to spare after being set 201 to win in 48 overs.Dilshan Munaweera and Junaid Siddique got their chase off to one of the most scintillating starts this season.The opening pair added 130 runs in just 17 overs. Munaweera blazed 95 off 57 balls with 15 fours and three sixes, completely dominating the opening partnership. Junaid took over after Munaweera’s departure. He hammered an unbeaten 74 off 79 balls with five fours and two sixes.Prime Bank’s bowling was taken to task, particularly Tapash Baisya and Ziaur Rahman, who gave away 18 and 19 off their only overs respectively.Earlier, their new English recruit, Ravi Bopara, made 74 off 78 balls with 12 fours. Gulbadin Naib took four for 31 in seven overs. The match had started an hour late due to a wet outfield in Bogra.Mohammedan Sporting Club reversed their recent poor form with a 42-run win over neighbours Victoria Sporting Club. They had previously lost their last three matches in the league, slipping to eighth position.Batting first, Mohammedan were bowled out for 240 runs in 50 overs with Upul Tharanga making 73, with Ezaz Ahmed and Shamsur Rahman hitting 44 each. Victoria’s makeshift captain, Monir Hossain, took four wickets.In reply, the defending champions couldn’t recover from a poor start, although Milinda Seeriwardana and Soumya Sarkar added 95 for the fifth wicket. Soumya top scored with 57 off 54 balls. But once the pair was removed, left-arm spinner Murad Khan took three wickets to hasten Mohammedan’s fourth victory.Gazi Tank Cricketers handed Abahani a sixth defeat, when they won by 13 runs in Fatullah.Abahani faltered in their chase of 190 runs in 49 overs after rain delayed the start of the match by an hour. They slipped to 52 for four in the 23rd over, after which Thilina Kandamby and Al-Amin added 76 runs for the fifth wicket.The pair, however, batted slowly, which left Alauddin Babu too much to do in the latter overs. He struck a couple of sixes in his 11-ball 24 but it wasn’t enough as they were restricted to 176 for 8.Earlier, Al-Amin’s three-wicket haul helped restrict Gazi Tank to 189 runs. Rakibul Hasan’s 42 was their highest score while Imrul Kayes made 39, with Al-Amin being the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3 for 27.

Centuries from Mominul Haque and Roshen Silva paved the way for the first upset of this season’s Dhaka Premier Division, as Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club overwhelmed Abahani Limited, the league’s most successful side, by 58 runs. The pair added 276 runs, setting a new fourth-wicket List A record by beating Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja’s 275 runs against Zimbabwe in 1998.Doleshwar will feel the partnership came at the right time too, as they were struggling at 41 for 3 after medium-pacer Al-Amin Hossain had rattled their top order. Al-Amin had taken six wickets in Abahani’s previous game against Cricket Coaching School, and he followed it up with a spell of 5 for 65 on Tuesday.But Mominul and Silva soon settled in, and stemmed the flow of wickets. They took the score to 100 in the 26th over, before adding another hundred in the next 13.1 overs. Silva was more aggressive, and reached his fifty and hundred before Mominul, as both batsmen continued to dominate the Abahani bowling attack, which looked flat after Al-Amin’s opening burst.Mominul made 129 off 122 balls with 13 fours and a couple of sixes while Silva’s 140 came off 127 balls with 14 fours and three sixes. Both batsmen fell in the final over of the innings, with Doleshwar already past the 300-run mark.Abahani, the 17-time champions, looked to be well in the game when Tharanga Paranavitana and 17-year-old Mosaddek Hossain added 165 runs for the fourth wicket, after they were reeling at 37 for 3 in the 10th over. But once Doleshwar captain Farhad Reza trapped the left-handed Paranavitana for lbw for 81 in the 38th over, Abahani lost their way again.Mosaddek reached his century later on, but got out soon after when he was caught by Taijul Islam off the bowling of Sohag Gazi for a 126-ball 100 that included 12 fours. Farhad finished with a five-wicket haul, conceding 51 runs from his 9.4 overs while offspinner Gazi picked up two wickets.Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club narrowly avoided an upset, after prevailing in a tense one-wicket win over Cricket Coaching School. The match was interrupted by rain in the 30th over of Dhanmondi’s chase. They were set a revised target of 239 runs from 47 overs, which they surpassed off the penultimate ball of the match, with No. 11 Shafiul Islam sneaking in a single to snatch a victory.Dhanmondi’s chase was led by the Afghan recruit Mohammad Shahzad, who made a 78-ball 83 with four sixes and as many fours. His dismissal in the 45th over sparked a mini-collapse which brought CCS back into the game, but Shafiul and Abdur Razzaq held their nerves to complete a closely-fought win.CCS however were a much improved side from their disastrous first game against Abahani, when they were bowled out for just 35. They responded well this time after being asked to bat, as Uttam Sarkar and Gihan Rupasinghe scored half-centuries.But they lost four quick wickets for just 38 runs, before Nazmul Hossain Milon and Nurul Hasan slammed three sixes each as their 33 and 35 respectively, took CCS to a respectable 247 runs in 50 overs. Shafiul took three wickets while Razzak and Dilshan Munaweera took two each.Mohammedan Sporting Club picked up their second win of the tournament, cruising past Kalabagan Cricket Academy by five wickets. After rain had interrupted play for over an hour, Mohammedan had to chase 119 runs in 34 overs after the target was revised.Tillakaratne Dilshan top-scored with 44 off 52 balls and struck four fours as Mohammedan eased past the target with 44 balls to spare.KCA, electing to bat, were earlier bowled out for just 140 runs in 43.2 overs on Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium’s low and slow surface. Left-arm spinner Murad Khan picked up three wickets, while Mukhtar Ali and Dilshan took two each.Sharifullah struck 50 off 63 balls with three fours and two sixes to take KCA past 100, but with none of the other batsmen able to produce big scores, the team was unable to put up a competitive total.

James Faulkner has learnt the Australian art of sledging the English. Even after only four days of his Test career. Even when he hasn’t taken a Test wicket. Even at 3-0 down in an Ashes series. Not surprisingly, Faulkner is a favourite of Shane Warne, the man who captained him at the Melbourne Stars, promoted him as a Test cricketer and presented him with his baggy green on the first morning at The Oval.”The way they batted yesterday, they chose to bat that way. If you’re 3-0 up there’s no reason why you shouldn’t push and try to be 4-0 up,” Faulkner said after the washed-out fourth day at The Oval, and following a third day on which England had scored 215 in 98 overs. “That’s their choice … I know the fans get a refund for their ticket today but maybe they should’ve for yesterday.”There is no question that Faulkner was selected in part to see what he could bring to Test cricket and to assess him ahead of the home Ashes, and because it was believed that he would add some toughness to a side that had perhaps been lacking it. In the Sheffield Shield, Faulkner is a wicket-taker – he has picked up 111 in his past three seasons – but he found it tough going on day three against England, who took only 29 runs from his 12 overs but offered no real chances.”It didn’t surprise me. Any time they feel threatened they sort of go in their shell and play pretty defensive cricket. That didn’t really surprise me at all,” Faulkner said of England’s approach. “I think when they come to Australia it’s going to be played on our terms and I think they’ll be in for a hell of a challenge back home.”Whether Faulkner is part of that home series remains to be seen. Graham Gooch, as England’s batting coach, will have a major role in preparing his batsmen for the different challenges of an Ashes series in Australia, where the pitches are expected to have more bounce and carry. He said it was understandable Australia would be frustrated at the match situation but that England were comfortable with their position.”The Australian fast bowlers have bowled exceptionally in the last two or three Tests and they’ve really put our top order under pressure,” Gooch said. “Credit to them. Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle in particular have been exceptional. We’d have liked to be in a slightly different position, a more advanced position, but it didn’t happen. It’s not the end of the world. We’re not frustrated, because we’re the ones with three Test wins, they’re the ones with nil Test wins.”I don’t think any team goes out there to bat slowly. Sometimes you find the conditions a little bit easier to score than others. We certainly would’ve liked to have scored quicker. But we want to compete every ball and play tight, and we didn’t move the score along as we’d have liked. Sometimes that happens in Test cricket. Sometimes you score 300 in a day, sometimes it’s a bit harder work.”