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Scorecard

Chris Rogers continued his remarkable season with 152 to give Western Australia a lead of 298 after Tasmania’s disastrous first innings. A six-wicket haul from Brendan Drew – his best first-class bowling performance – gave the Tigers a sliver of hope before Michael Di Venuto (69 not out) reduced the deficit to 191 at stumps.Rogers resumed on 93 and took only five overs to raise his second century in 2006-07. The majority of his score came in boundaries – he hit 26 fours – as he pushed himself close to 800 runs in five matches this season and gave himself a buffer of nearly 250 from the second-highest run-scorer in the competiton, Brad Hodge.Rogers and the debutant Luke Pomersbach, who impressed ten days ago by scoring a century in the tour match against the England XI, proved Tasmania’s first-innings 94 was well below par. Pomersbach made 74 before giving Tim Paine his only catch in his first match as wicketkeeper for the home side.Drew, whose bowling action bears an uncanny resemblance to Glenn McGrath, produced a quality spell towards the end of the innings. He put a stop to Rogers’ fine effort and then picked up four late wickets to minimise the damage from the Western Australia lower order and finished with 6 for 94.

Peter Willey, the chairman of the umpires’ association, has admitted he is pleased to see Darrell Hair restored to the ICC’s elite panel. Hair was removed from the elite panel in the aftermath of The Oval Test in 2006 but the ICC have now welcomed him back into the fold.”I think everyone felt for Darrell as an umpire really,” he said. “He did what he thought was right. He wasn’t backed up and he paid the price. I am glad he has come back, I hope he does well and has a long future as a Test umpire. I’ve always found him an honest man and a good umpire. He is a strong umpire. Some people don’t like that.”Willey, a former England batsman who went on to umpire in 25 Tests, also defended umpires in general, adding that TV replays were putting them under increasing pressure.”When I finished, all this technology was just coming in and you’ve got the added pressure of, every time you go in the middle, of everything being dissected in super slow-motion. People forget you’ve got a split-second to give an honest decision.”If the technology that they use on the TV is 100% accurate, I would say use the TV. But I don’t think it is 100% accurate. There are loads of things they can’t pick up. I don’t agree with Hawkeye. I don’t think it gives a very honest description of where the ball pitches or is going. On certain pitches, you pitch the ball in the same spot and one delivery will go up and one will go down so, how they can predict where the ball will go, I just don’t know.”Then there is the case of bat-pad appeals. They tried it out a competition in South Africa a few years ago. Batsmen were asked to give an honest opinion on six bat-pad catches and every time the TV got it wrong. It is very difficult, even in slow motion, to decide whether the ball has hit the bat or not.”

Sourav Ganguly’s arrival is barely noticed amid the commotion. A scrum of 20 journalists are crowded around a certain Sachin Tendulkar – hanging on his every word as they have hung for the best part of two decades, willing him to wax lyrical about the Lord’s Test century that he has never yet compiled. Meanwhile the Prince of Calcutta, Tendulkar’s former captain and fellow Galactico, slips serenely past the throng and takes his place at a nearby table. He is away from the limelight, back among the ranks. And the impression he would like to give is that he has never been happier.It has been a crazy year for Ganguly encompassing exile and acrimony, recalls and redemption. Eight months ago, when his feud with his ex-coach Greg Chappell was at its height, the notion of a third Test tour to England was so absurd it was not even a consideration. But now he is back at Lord’s, where his whole journey began, 11 years ago. In the corresponding Test of 1996, Ganguly announced his arrival with a sublime debut century and then followed up one innings and two weeks later with a second hundred – 136 at Nottingham. He has scarcely escaped from the headlines since.”The past is the past. There are phases in life that you just have to fight through,” says Ganguly. Nine days into his 36th year, and with more than 5500 runs from his 93 Test matches – including an Indian record of 21 wins in 49 as captain – he’s fought and won more battles than most men would seek in ten lifetimes. But he insists the fires within have not yet been dimmed, they’ve merely been brought under control. It is a quieter, more contemplative character who is embarking on the autumn of his illustrious career.”For those eight months [out of the side], I had all sorts of thoughts, but I never thought of giving up. It made me a tougher player to be honest. When I came back in South Africa [in December 2006], I felt I was tougher even than when I was playing my best cricket. I never thought so far as this tour. Even if I hadn’t been recalled, I would have carried on playing until the World Cup, expecting an opportunity and ready to cash in on it.”Ganguly has cashed in alright. The first innings of his rebirth was an indomitable 51 not out on a Johannesburg greentop, out of a total of 249, that ultimately set up an improbable 123-run victory. Another 110 runs in defeat at Cape Town meant he finished a tough tour as the series top-scorer, and a 13 th Test century followed four months later in Chittagong, as Bangladesh were made to pay for their insolence at the World Cup. Even during that tumultuous Group B defeat in Trinidad, Ganguly was the one Indian who would not be bowed – defiantly anchoring a disastrous batting performance with 66 from 129 balls.Those efforts were sufficient to re-establish his credentials. Now, at last, Ganguly is able to take pleasure in his cricket once again – something, you suspect, he has missed for many a long year. Certainly, he does not seem to miss the pressures of captaincy one little bit. “Oh yeah, completely,” he says when asked if he’s over his axing. “I’ve got so much more free time. Captaincy is never easy but in India it is harder because the demands are more. Now that I’m away from the job, I’ve been able to concentrate on myself and my [own] game again. I’ve got a lot of time to relax.”England suits his demeanour as well, despite the fact that the British press is scarcely any more forgiving than their Indian counterparts. In 2000 he endured an unsuccessful stint for Lancashire, scoring 671 runs in 14 matches with no centuries, and attracting the opprobrium of none other than the people’s Prince himself, Andrew Flintoff. He was even less successful in a brief foray for Northamptonshire last summer, averaging 4.80 in six innings, although in mitigation, a four-week midsummer stint was never going to suit him. “When you come from the subcontinent,” he says, “you need some time to get used to the conditions.”I had no problems at Lancashire, to be honest. The only thing is, I never used to drink, and if you’re a non-drinker in England it’s tough. I used to have my coke, pack my bags and go home to see my wife. My performance was not what they wanted of an overseas professional, and that may have been a reason for some disappointment, but we still managed second in the championship.”Whenever Ganguly has turned up here in India’s colours, however, the story has been significantly different. “Whether it’s the World Cup, Tests or one-day cricket, by God’s grace, I’ve done exceedingly well [here],” he says without exaggeration. His 379 runs in the 1999 World Cup included a career-best 183 against Sri Lanka at Taunton, while his six Tests to date in England have earned him the beastly tally of 666 runs, with three hundreds and three fifties. Only once has he failed, making 0 and 5 in the last Lord’s Test in 2002 – the only occasion on which he has been beaten.”I like coming to this part of the world, and I’m sure most of the players enjoy coming here too,” he says. “The facilities, the travel, the comfort. You’re not getting on flights every five days, you’re not packing suitcases every day. You’re just on the coach for a maximum of a couple of hours. It takes a lot of the tiredness out of you. The weather’s good, and it’s a country where everything’s accessible.”

Even so, Ganguly is too long in the tooth to allow complacency to seep into his assessment of the challenge. “I’ve done well here, but that doesn’t guarantee success – it’s a one-ball game for batsmen. It’s been raining a lot here, so there’ll be some movement, but if we put runs up on the board, that’s the key.” With the old firm of Ganguly, Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid reunited for a third and final assault, that side of the bargain is likely to be fulfilled, especially against an attack lacking the twin services of Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff. But what of India’s own bowling?”This is the best bowling team we’ve had in England,” says Ganguly. “In terms of the number of games they’ve played, they are inexperienced, but in terms of performances they have delivered. We won in West Indies and we won the first Test in South Africa in difficult conditions. Zaheer Khan had a great summer for Worcester [in 2006], but Sreesanth is my dark horse for the series – he runs in all the time, and bowls with pace and swing in the right areas.”One man who is missing, however, is Ganguly’s staunchest sidekick, Harbhajan Singh, and it is not hard to imagine what the senior man makes of his omission. “He’s not just a great ally, he’s a world-class bowler,” says Ganguly. “He and Anil Kumble are India’s biggest match winners, and he’s got nearly 250 Test wickets. Series after series he’s been on his own. He was our only bowler in 2001 when we beat Australia, because everyone else was injured. Anil was having a shoulder operation, while Srinath was injured after the first match. We kept on losing bowlers, but he just stood up at one end and picked off wickets.”Ganguly’s tussles with Australia remain the zenith of his career. When asked where India’s famous innings victory at Headingley in 2002 ranks in his all-time moments, it trails in a distant third, way behind the Adelaide triumph in 2003-04, and just about on a par with the away win in Pakistan that same season. But in terms of personal batting highlights, few occasions match Ganguly’s opening gambit, right here in North-West London.”The frame of mind I had in that Test [in 1996] I could never have it again,” says Ganguly. “It’s probably the best frame of mind I’ve had in my career. It’s an age factor. I was more carefree back then, because when you’re young you don’t worry about a lot of things. In last 11 years I’ve scored runs all around the world, but back then I had no nervousness, no fear of failure.”I wish I could get back to that mindset for this Test match,” he admits, a touch wistfully. Given all the battles he has fought and won in the intervening years, perhaps it is not entirely out of the question. He has proved his point and clawed his way back from the brink. Now all he has to do is enjoy the few moments that remain.

Mumbai face a quarter-final situation when they take on group leaders Saurashtra in their last Group stage match on Tuesday. While a loss will most likely eliminate them, an outright win will ensure a place in the semi-finals. If they draw, they will have to hope Delhi do worse than them. The two teams are currently tied in second place with 18 points each.Mumbai are cornered, but they have scripted successful escape acts in the past. Last season, they were without any points going into the fourth game, but won five in a row to lift the Ranji Trophy. “Been there, done that” is the fuel behind their confidence and Amol Muzumdar, the captain, is banking on it. “We have been in this situation before and everybody knows the importance of the game. We can do it.”But even Muzumdar admits the situation this year is precarious. The bowling has been severely depleted with injuries to Ajit Agarkar, Aavishkar Salvi and Rajesh Verma. Meanwhile, Ramesh Powar’s recent form has been a cause of worry. He has picked up just nine wickets from the last four games, after grabbing 15 in the first two. The inexperienced Murtuza Hussain leads the seam attack and Mumbai will hope that Powar, along with Nilesh Kulkarni, the replacement for Iqbal Abdulla, can raise their game when it matters the most.Muzumdar knows where the problem lies. “It has been an up and down season. Obviously the injuries have not helped. The replacements are very young; Murtuza is playing his third game, [Mondeep] Mangela has just played one. [Usman] Malvi has been around but he has been in and out. We have been struggling to get 20 wickets and that’s why we have not been able to finish games.”That has been the story of their season. In their opening game, Mumbai had Karnataka reeling with a 142-run lead, but Rahul Dravid imposed himself in the second innings with a double century. In the third game, against Delhi, they came back from an 85-run deficit to set a target of 387, but could only pick up three wickets as Gautam Gambhir and Akash Chopra put up an 188-run opening stand.And in the next match, they fell 15 runs short of Maharashtra’s 451 to give away the lead and three points. From a wobbly 197 for 6, they were steadied by a 185-run partnership between Powar (107) and Agarkar (95), but both fell in quick succession to leave Mumbai just short of the line.Mumbai picked up five points next time out, but it was only because Rajasthan chose to go for a win and lost three wickets in the last over. Again the bowlers had not done a great deal as Rajasthan lost five wickets in the second innings to run-outs. In their last outing, Hossain picked up a six-wicket haul to force Himachal Pradesh to follow on, but injury to Agarkar – who limped off after just 5.2 overs – and Powar’s indifferent form meant they couldn’t kill the contest and Himachal batted their way to a draw.The batting too has been a bit up and down. Abhishek Nayar and Sahil Kukreja, the opener, tapered off after a good start, Muzumdar has gone the other way – coming into form after an indifferent beginning, Ajinkya Rahane has been steady, but not spectacular while Rohit Sharma has been struggling for runs with just 150 from four games.Pravin Amre, who helped in Muzumdar’s revival by rectifying problems with his footwork and head position, has been working a lot on Sharma. “The change of format [from Twenty20 to ODIs to first-class] has been a reason for his loss of form. A few errors have crept in. We are working hard on his pick up and his down swing and he is improving rapidly. I am hoping he scores a big one in this game to set up things for us.”Hope is the operative word in the Mumbai camp – they hope Powar and Kulkarni will perform, they hope the batsmen will raise their games and they must be hoping Tamil Nadu can help their cause by upsetting Delhi – but they are also waiting to see how Saurashtra handle pressure. And that could be the real factor in this game.As Muzumdar put it, “The pressure is on them. They are leading the table. We just want to treat this game as a quarterfinal and we need to play good aggressive cricket. We know how to play that kind of cricket and we are focussed.”And a national selector said, “Mumbai have this knack of getting out of trouble, they will somehow make it.” Time will tell.

Tim Nielsen wants Australia to emerge from their first-final loss with an aggressive mind-set during the key moments of their must-win encounter at the Gabba on Tuesday. Nielsen was disappointed his team stumbled a couple of times when it had control at the SCG, where India won by six wickets, and asked the players to sharpen their outlook after two sloppy defeats in three days.”It’s probably the mental side of the game that’s let us down in the last couple of games,” Nielsen said. “We had a couple of situations [at the SCG] when we felt we were on top and then gave our wickets away, which then put us back under pressure. For us to have some success in this series we have to make sure we take the game by the throat when we have the opportunity and don’t give up that momentum.”The 100-run partnership between Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds threatened to revive Australia after they were 3 for 24 in Sydney, but both batsmen departed to outfield catches in quick succession and they were in more severe discomfort at 5 for 135. The home side also sensed a chance shortly before the halfway stage of the India innings and was unable to maintain the bowling or fielding intensity required to prevent India from cruising to victory.Team meetings were held in the dressing room after Sunday’s game and in Brisbane on Monday as they contemplated how to fight back. “The biggest challenge for all of us is not to get too carried away with one loss,” Nielsen said. “We certainly had a chat last night and Ricky put it pretty clearly what he expected from the group, not just about playing cricket but the way we present ourselves and the way we go about our things. We want to make sure we’re competing for 100 overs of the game.”Australia’s players feel comfortable at the Gabba and are excited to be playing on a pitch with bounce and carry, especially when compared with the lower and slower surfaces around the country. The team will accept any advantage knowing that it has to win the second match to extend the series to a third final in Adelaide on Friday.”It is a tough challenge, it’s not the ideal situation to be in, to be 1-0 down,” Nielsen said. “India played better than us and we didn’t play to our potential, so our challenge now is to have a quick turnaround and get ready to go and put our best foot forward.”

Simon Katich, Damien Martyn and Jamie Cox have all continued to hit the headlines at the Bellerive Oval but their teams have departed the venue without outright points after a thrilling finish to the Tasmania-Western Australia Pura Cup match in Hobart today. Set a victory target of 387 from a minimum seventy-one overs, the Warriors finished at 9/373 – a score which respectively left the teams an agonising fourteen runs and one wicket adrift away from claiming maximum points.After Cox had established the parameters for the exciting pursuit by declaring the Tigers’ second innings closed at 9/238 thirty minutes before lunch, Katich (152) and Martyn (90) joined to set the Western Australians firmly on course for success. Undeterred by the early departures of openers Mike Hussey (5) and Ryan Campbell (19), the two Test aspirants added 193 runs in a rollicking exhibition of strokeplay that spanned less than two hours.Promoted up the order to maintain the momentum, Brendon Julian (39) capitalised effectively on the Katich-Martyn alliance by launching himself into the production of several towering hits. But his dismissal to a fast, straight delivery from David Saker (5/98) and the earlier departure of Martyn – to a loose shot outside off stump that gave thirty-two year old debutant Mark Colegrave (1/76) his maiden first-class wicket – prompted a near-reversal of the situation. Upon Julian’s dismissal, the Warriors suffered a collapse that saw six wickets tumble for the addition of just seventy runs.After receiving a hammering, like most of his teammates, at the hands of Katich and Martyn, Saker was the man who led the Tasmanian fightback. All-rounder Scott Kremerskothen (3/64) also played his part well, a part made more difficult by both the placid nature of the pitch and the loss of key bowlers Gerard Denton and Shaun Young to injury.In a major setback for the Tigers, Denton did not even take the field during the afternoon as a legacy of experiencing pain in his back – an ailment, worryingly, that has also troubled him in seasons past. Young did manage to deliver three overs, but was belted for thirty-three runs and strained his groin in the process.Their presence might well have made the difference in the concluding stages. But Saker and Kremerskothen did not appear to need all that much assistance, removing Murray Goodwin (12) quickly, engineering the vital dismissal of Katich, and then opening the way for Andrew Dykes to make a brilliant contribution of his own by taking a superb running catch at deep cover to send Mark Walsh (13) back to the pavilion as well. Matthew Nicholson (9) and Brad Oldroyd (3) did not last long and, by the time that number eleven Gavin Swan (0*) came in, he and captain Tom Moody (22*) were faced with the task of scoring eighteen runs from fourteen balls if the Warriors were to win. Swan somehow survived three raucous lbw appeals and played and missed once and, suitably discouraged from handing his partner back the strike, Moody opted that the only prudent course available to him was the act of denying the Tasmanians victory instead.Earlier, Cox (87) fell on the so-called devil’s number for the second time in the match on the Tigers’ route to their closure. Young (48) then held the lower order together as it underwent the ordeal of surviving some accurate medium pace and spin bowling from the pairing of Moody (3/23) and Oldroyd (3/87).In the end, though, all that was left to show for the teams’ imagination and enterprise was a first innings result that fell in favour of the Tasmanians.

Changes are already being made to the West Indies cricket team prior to their tour of England in May, according to West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president Ken Gordon.”You better believe that they have started already”, Gordon said when asked whether changes would be made to the team prior to the upcoming tour to England in the face of their dismal performance in the current World Cup tournament. He however declined to go into details.And, asked to respond to a call being made in the Express editorial for the resignation of the WICB, Gordon said: “Well, that is par for the course. I can only say that if newspapers feel that is the best judgment they can make, who am I to tell them not to make it. But it just goes to exemplify the kind of very poor judgment of which I am speaking.” He added, however, he would have “absolutely no hesitation in resigning, if I thought for one moment that it would assist the situation. He said that such a call “absolutely doesn’t demoralise me, and it doesn’t demoralise the board”.Gordon was fully in defence of the West Indies team and its captain Brian Lara, even while conceding that all was not well with the team and its performances in the current Cricket World Cup. In an interview at his hotel Suite in Grand Anse, it was a combative Gordon who hit back at critics of the team and its captain, including journalists and commentators in the regional media have been calling for Lara’s resignation.Nothing is wrong, Gordon said, with proper and full analysis of the team’s performances “but when you make that almost like an agenda item, this attack, attack attack, it is not in anybody’s best interest. Not at this time”. Saying there was going to be ample time for such full scale, hard hitting analysis at the end of the series, Gordon said the force of the sustained criticisms at this time had the effect of demoralising the players.He had not spoken with or seen the players in the previous two days, certainly not after their fourth straight defeat to South Africa at the National Stadium on Tuesday. But, he said it was “almost unnatural that it would not have some kind of effect,” referring to what he described as the potentially demoralising commentary being carried on in parts of the regional media.”It is palpably unfair to be criticising the team and its captain in the middle of a series like this, he said. There was going to be the time when “no holds should be barred in the analysis that is necessary. But for the moment, he said what was required was an exercise of “some care, judgment and timing.”Calls for Lara’s resignation, he said, were premature and unjustified. “Let’s face it. He was put there by the management, and I would be prepared to take whatever responsibility for it,when the time comes,” he said, disputing the basis on which those calls were being made at the moment. Nothing fundamental about what Lara brings to the game had changed since he was reappointed captain, he added.Granting that Lara had been committing “errors of judgment” during the series up this point, Gordon said, however he was going to make no criticism of those decisions at this time. “Do you want to see them get out for 50 runs in a game?” he asked rhetorically, in answer to a question that on the basis of the loss to South Africa the West Indies was not effectively out of the series. “They have to continue to play the best game they can,” he said, adding that for too long now West Indies cricket had been propelled on the basis of raw talent and not much else. There was widespread hope across the region for the West Indies to be doing better than it is in this series and that was understandable, Gordon said.

But, he said, that was largely unrealistic, since “two years ago, there was not even that hope. The team was at the very bottom of the heap.” Some “sparks” were ignited in the interim to create that hope, But it ought to have been accepted that the team has not been enjoying its best days. “We all know that on its best day this team can beat anybody, but the reality is that the team is not enjoying its best days. We have come from very far. We had hoped to get back closer to the top but it has not happened,” he said.Reflecting on the time when the West Indies prevailed principally on the basis of that talent, he said the game had changed significantly. It changed, he said, “when the Australians went to the drawing board and decided to find away to beat these talented guys.” They came up with a formula, he said, and it was copied, “by the Indians, by England, by everybody except the West Indies.”We continue to send extraordinarily talented youngsters out there almost as sacrificial lambs,” he said, adding that “there is absolutely no substitute for the kinds of development that comes with the academies” and the other elements which ought to go into the production of a truly professional unit.

Brett Lee is not surprised that Twenty20 looks set to expand beyond the existing tournaments and he has repeated calls for the ICC to do what it can to accommodate the format in its existing calendar. Lee is in Mohali preparing for his first match in the Indian Premier League (IPL), for the Kings XI Punjab against Chennai on Saturday.However, this year’s IPL could be just the beginning of the Twenty20 explosion with suggestions of two IPL tournaments to be held next year, while Allen Stanford is planning a US$20 million match. England are also considering developing their own domestic version of the IPL.”Twenty20 is now a proven form of the game and, as we have seen all over the world in the last few years, it is something the fans love,” Lee told the Sydney Morning Herald. “It’s not too hard to see other people wanting to get on board and competitions popping up around the place, especially if the IPL is successful.”But the last thing you want to see is players leaving their countries to sign up with Twenty20 competitions. My heart is always with the baggy green cap and that is where my loyalty will always lie, but I can’t see why there can’t be room for both types of cricket. I think the people who run the game need to allow a window of opportunity for players to play in the IPL to avoid problems in the future.”Lee believes the first IPL will be a success and he is confident that after the recent fractious Test series, tensions between Australia and India players have eased. His team-mates at Mohali include Irfan Pathan, Yuvraj Singh and Sreesanth, and Lee hopes playing together will help men from the two nations better understand each other.”Everyone knows there was an incident or two in Australia last summer, but that is water under the bridge,” he said. “It’s a competitive game and players can occasionally cross the line, and that can get blown out of proportion sometimes with the way the media portrays it.”From my experiences in India, I genuinely think people love the Australian team, despite everything that’s been said. I also think that with players from different countries now sharing the same dressing room, it is a great opportunity for all of us to learn more about each other, about our cricket and cultures, and improve the whole mood of the game.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

An imposing century by Jacques Kallis gave South Africa the honours on the first day of the first Test after Graeme Smith had won the tossand elected to bat on a hot Karachi morning. They ended the day on 294 for 3, with Kallis unbeaten on 118.Starting cautiously and taking 14 deliveries to get off the mark, Kallis hit his stride soon with elegant drives square of the wicket.The slow pitch and hot weather made bowling difficult and anythingshort in length was ruthlessly cut and ended up penetrating a strongoff-side field. Dropped on 36 and 61, Kallis ensured an otherwise fluent innings playing majority of his strokes along the ground.He dominated the 170-run third wicket partnership with Hashim Amla,in terms of both strike and runs, and relieved the pressure when Amla got bogged down against the spinners. Kallis was not afraid to use his feet against the slower bowlers and scored at a quicker rate than normal, reaching 50 off91 balls and his hundred off 147 balls.The foundation for the innings, however, was laid by a confident opening stand of 87 between Smith and Herschelle Gibbs that punished some wayward bowling by Mohammad Asif and Umar Gul. Not getting any early movement off the pitch or in the air, the bowlerserred in line and length and allowed South Africa reach50 in the 12th over. Striving for the yorkers he delivered so successfully during theWorld Twenty20, Gul was frequently driven through extra cover and wasduly replaced by Danish Kaneria in the tenth over.The slowness of the pitch was apparent as Asif, trying to bowl short,was pulled by Gibbs to square leg on several occasions. Pakistan lacked energy and creativity in the field and Shoaib Malik,the captain, tried six bowlers before lunch, including debutantAbdur Rehman. It was, however, Mohammad Hafeez who got the firstbreakthrough as Smith went back to a straight ball and got hit on theback leg in front of off stump.Gibbs slashed at a wide Gul delivery after lunch and was caught at gully byHafeez but it was all Kallis and Amla from then on. Though the bowlers were able to swing and spin the older ball, aplay-and-miss was the best they could achieve on a deteriorating pitch. It was the new ball, taken in the 82nd over, that brought the wicket of Amla, who fell for a sedate 71. Beingovershadowed, and perhaps awed, by Kallis’ performance, and finding it difficult to get the spinners away, Amla dealtmostly in singles but dispatched Rehman into the sighstcreen after hehad managed to dry up the scoring.With Kallis unbeaten on 118 overnight, and not having scored adouble-century yet in his 107-Test career, a long day in the field lookson the cards for the home team while they rue the dropped catches and missed run-out opportunities.

South Division

Surrey slipped to their first defeat as Middlesex avenged their defeat at The Oval 11 days ago with an eight-wicket victory at Lord’s in another match shorted by the rain. That they played at all was nothing short of miraculous as torrential downpours lashed most of the capital. But a 20,000 plus crowd saw Surrey stumble to 85 for 5 in 13.3 overs before rain interrupted, and when play resumed Middlesex were set 73 from 10 overs. Opener Eoin Morgan made 25 not out off 18 balls and James Dalrymple smacked 26 off 15 as Middlesex cruised home with 14 deliveries in hand. Middlsex, who have had half their matches washed out, now go within one point of Surrey.Sussex moved into second place on Net Run Rate with a 17-run win over Essex under lights at Hove. Forties from Luke Wright and Chris Adams pushed Sussex to 163 for 6 and Grant Flower and Ravi Bopara seemed to have put the visitors well on course. But Sussex’s seamers came up trumps – which was just as well as their much-vaunted spinners struggled – and Essex, who needed 38 off four overs, lost their way and in the end fell well short.

North Division

Andrew Gale’s 56 led a well-paced Yorkshire chase as they beat Durham by six wickets with two balls in hand at Chester-le-Street. Durham’s 133 for 5 always looked below par.

Midlands-West-Wales Division

Worcestershire kept their hopes of a quarter-final place alive with a three-wicket win over Somerset at at Taunton with two balls to spare. Justin Langer’s 45 off 36 balls and James Hildreth’s 40 off 27 steered Somerset to 148 for 7, but another Australian opener – Phil Jaques – got Worcestershire off to a flier with 59 off 50 balls and then Roger Sillence hammered 19 not out off 11 balls at the death.