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Ben Smith and Aftab Habib produced a triple century stand for the thirdwicket as Leicestershire comfortably batted out for a draw at Taunton.After the visitors had begun the final day on 19-1 in their second innings,still two runs behind, Trevor Ward fell early to boost Somerset hopes.But Smith, who hit an unbeaten 180, and Habib (149) then added exactly 300on a superb batting pitch and Leicestershire put aside any notion of adeclaration to reach 404-4 at the close.It was a disappointing finish to a match that had looked perfectly poisedafter the first two days. But the third-day wash-out doused any hopes eitherside had of a positive result.Somerset skipper Jamie Cox used his opening bowlers Richard Johnson andSteffan Jones for the first hour in an effort to make something happen, butthen preferred to rest them for the C&G Trophy semi-final againstWarwickshire tomorrow.Smith was first to his hundred, off 135 balls, with 16 fours. In the processhe became the first Leicestershire player to pass 1,000 first-class runs forthe season.It was his sixth century of the season and a fine effort, even if thebowling was less than demanding at times.Habib soon followed to three figures. By the time he gave a slip catch toMike Burns off Keith Dutch after tea, he had faced 206 balls and struck 20fours in a stylish innings.It was too good a pitch on which to set a run chase. Darren Maddy missed outwhen he skied Dutch to Jones at mid off, having made only six, but Smithmoved relentlessly on.By the close he had hit 22 boundaries in his 274-ball innings without givinga hint of a chance. Both teams took nine points.

With defeat staring in the face, Sri Lanka resumed the innings at 45 for 1, trailing by 374 runs. There were few spectators around to watch the game. Facing the Pakistan bowling with full confidence, the batsmen tried to dig in. They were picking up runs where possible without taking any risks. Marvan Atapattu (30) and Russel Arnold (20) raised Sri Lanka to 76 for 1 after 10 overs of the day.Pakistan bowlers working hard to break the partnership succeeded when Russel Arnold was trapped LBW by Waqar Younis for 26. Sri Lanka lost the 2nd wicket for 91, and were 123 for 2 at lunch.The period after lunch brought crisis to Sri Lanka when Atapattu was smartly held by Moin Khan off Arshad Khan, after contributing an invaluable 59 to Sri Lanka’s total of 123 for 3. Aravinda De Silva was the next to leave, when Arshad Khan made him snick to Mohammad Wasim fielding at forward short leg for 4. Sri Lanka thus lost the 4th precious wicket with only 130 runs on the score board.Former skipper Arjuna Ranatunga took the crease with tremendous confidence. With his vast experience of the game, he was obviously expected to stem the rot. Yes, he stood there like a rock but could not possibly guarantee the other end that remained vulnerable. Jayawardene left after scoring only 9 runs, and was followed by Kaluwitharana who also contributed the same number.At tea Sri Lanka was 189 for 6 with Ranatunga holding the fort with a solid 39. The other end manned by the tail enders now and the game dominated by the Pakistan bowlers, it looked a matter of time only.Ranatunga who played the sheet anchor for Pakistan batted gallantly under the adverse conditions. Knowing that he could not prevent the inevitable, he tried to contribute the maximum. In partnership with Vaas, he raised the score to 230 when he was trapped LBW by Wasim Akram after a defiant innings of 65.With Sri Lanka having lost the cream of batsmen the rest was more of an academic exercise. The remaining 3 players, Chaminda Vaas, Pushpakumara and Muralitharan, left one after the other. Muralitharan, however, delighted the crowd by hitting all sort of funny strokes. He scored 22 runs in a hurricane spell of 8 balls.Sri Lanka was all out for 256 runs. Pakistan thus defeated Sri Lanka by an innings and 153 runs. To recount the salient features, Waqar Younis was the chief wrecker of Sri Lanka’s innings with a magnificent haul of 4 wickets. Arjuna Ranatunga played a gallant innings of 65 runs but could not save Sri Lanka alone. For a breathtaking 100 and 2 wickets, Wasim Akram was “Man of the Match.”

Veterans Devon Malcolm and Phil DeFreitas turned back the clock as they took seven wickets between them to wreck the Northants innings on the first day of the CricInfo Championship clash at Grace Road.But Leicestershire’s batsmen then found life just as difficult against the swinging ball and were bowled out for 185 for a lead of just 26 runs.It meant that 20 wickets had fallen on the day for 344 runs but any visit from a pitch inspector would really be a wasted journey. There was very little wrong with the pitch. It was a case of the batsmen on both sides being unable to cope with the conditions which helped the seamers.Yet Northants had no hesitation in batting after winning the toss. They clearly fancied their chances of a good score on a straw-coloured pitch of easy pace.But once the ball began to swing, wickets fell at regular intervals. DeFreitas, in his first Championship game of the season after a shoulder injury, claimed three for 43 while 38-year-old Malcolm took four for 64 against his former county.He wrapped things up with an impressive spell after lunch, picking up the last three wickets at a cost of 22 runs and Northants were all out for 159 in 48.4 overs.Leicestershire made a poor start, losing opener Iain Sutcliffe with the total at three before a stand of 89 between Trevor Ward and Ben Smith looked to have them in the driving seat.Ward reached his 50 off 81 balls with seven fours and a six and was then brilliantly caught by Russell Warren off Lesroy Weekes, making his Championship debut for the visitors.That triggered a collapse which saw nine wickets fall for 93 runs in 26 overs with Weekes, Darren Cousins and Kevin Innes taking three apiece. So it was just about honours even at the end of the day between the two bottom sides in the First Division.

Those who stayed at The County Ground after the heavy morning showershad prevented any play until 1.45pm, were bathed in sunshine and treated to some entertaining cricket.After slipping to 33 for 3 the Cidermen were rescued by a fourth-wicket stand of 77 between Pakistan Test batsman Aamir Sohail and Matthew Wood. The 20-year-old played a cameo innings of 39 before he was unlucky enough to fall to a reflex catch at short leg.Aamir Sohail spoke very highly of the youngster and told me: “Matthew Wood showed a lot of character out there. He played positive cricket, and hit the bad balls.”Of his own innings of 50 Sohail said: “It was OK, I haven’t played cricket at this level for 14 months; I was quite happy with it.”Chief Executive Peter Anderson was also pleased with the crowd, given the weather. “It rained at the wrong time for us,” he said, but went on: “We’re expecting another good gate on Sunday, and there should be some more exciting cricket to watch.”Somerset Cricket Museum has also had a lot of visitors during the last couple of days. “On Friday 275 people came through the doors, and today there have been over 200,” Museum Secretary Tony Stedall told me.

So Steve Waugh may play on into his 40th year?Followers of Australian cricket have become well acquainted with Waugh’s unrivalled resilience over the years. But now it seems they may have to prepare to acknowledge new yardsticks for endurance too.If the current national captain honours his surge of interest in another tour of the subcontinent in 2004, it means he will be well past his 39th birthday at the very least before he cedes to the prospect of retirement.In signalling his desire to reverse Australia’s unhappy set of results in India in recent decades, Waugh is thus theoretically poised to alter the record books in at least one other form too.Though it was not uncommon for Australian Test players of the 1920s and 1930s to play on into the fifth decade of their lives, longevity of that kind has generally not extended to include their modern counterparts. Any such move by one of the country’s current practitioners would therefore represent a distinct break with recent practice.Among the last 265 men to have played Test cricket for Australia, only Bob Simpson had reached his 40th birthday by the time that he played his final match. And even that development was fashioned by a unique combination of circumstances. Simpson had last seen Test action ten years earlier when he made a shock return to lead Australia in the wake of the crisis caused by the advent of World Series Cricket in 1977-78.In recent times, the mid-30s have instead qualified as the general entry point for passage to cricket’s version of a retirement home. Among the recent greats to have pulled the pin on their Test careers while they still remained fixtures in the national team, Allan Border was the oldest – at 38. Mark Taylor, David Boon, Ian Healy and Craig McDermott were all well short even of that mark, and eminent predecessors like Greg Chappell, Rod Marsh and Dennis Lillee were similarly not much closer to their 40th birthdays than their 30th when they played for the last time.At 50 years and 327 days, Bert Ironmonger was the oldest player ever to take the field for Australia in a Test match. Off spinner Don Blackie was just shy of his 47th birthday when he graced a Test field for the last time; celebrated leg spinner Clarrie Grimmett was in his 45th year; and wicketkeeper Sammy Carter and batsman Warren Bardsley were each about to celebrate their 44th birthdays.But none of these men played Test cricket beyond the 1936-37 season.In all, only 14 players in Australian Test cricket history have played on after reaching the age of 40.It’s almost possible to visualise that famous glint in Waugh’s eye as one contemplates the thought that he is poised to defy conventional wisdom yet again.Whatever the case, any extension of his career beyond the previously speculated end point of the 2003 World Cup certainly represents one way of offsetting the suggestion that there are very few young players ready to replace him in the national team over the next few seasons.

In a battle between two teams occupying the cellar in the South Zoneleague, Goa had made steady progress in reply to Kerala’s firstinnings score of 370. At stumps on the second day at Cochin, thevisitors were 86/2 with opener YC Barde and Satyajit Medappa manningthe fort.Resuming at 266/6, the overnight pair of S Nair and KNAnanthapadmanabhan were in no mood to relinquish their occupation ofthe crease in the morning. They extended their seventh wicketassociation to 120 before the latter was bowled by SA Khalid for 63(131 balls, 6 fours). The bowler struck again in his next overremoving wicket keeper Kamaruddin.Nair soldiered on to 88 (249 balls, 9 fours) – his highest score infirst class cricket – before becoming the persistent Khalid’s thirdsuccessive victim and Tinu Yohanan fell just after lunch as Keralasettled at 370. Khalid who had taken two wickets on Wednesday,finished with 5/63.The Goa reply began on the wrong foot as skipper Kolambkar fell to thedebutant medumpacer Prasanth Chandran in the fourth over. Barde andDinesh Rao added exactly 50 for the second wicket before off spinnerRamprakash sent back the latter. Medappa and Barde then played out thefinal twenty overs watchfully as Goa closed at 86/2 in 51 overs.

Albion and Green Island will meet in the Otago/Southland club knockout final in Dunedin this weekend.The match could well double as another trial for State Otago Volts coach Glenn Turner with no fewer than seven of the province’s representative squads involved.Albion looks the slightly stronger combination with the McCullum brothers, Nathan and Brendon, in action alongside Evan Marshall and New Zealand Under-19 squad member Jordan Sheed. veteran, Kevin Galliven, who first played senior cricket in 1978, will lead the side.However, Green Island can also boast high profile players in the form of Chris Gaffaney, Craig Cumming and Bradley Scott. The vastly experienced former Otago wicket-keeper/batsman Shane Robinson is also named.A number of the Green Island players were involved when the club took back-to-back national titles in 1998/99 and 1999/00.The winner of Sunday’s match, which will be played at the University Oval, will contest the national club championship in Auckland next Easter.The teams are:Albion: Kevin Galliven (captain), Jordan Sheed, Brendon McCullum, Nathan McCullum, Paul Kennedy, Damian Petre, Brendon Hunt, Nathan King, Jonathan Homer, Paul Adams, Evan Marshall.Green Island: Hayden Finch (captain), Shane Robinson, Mike Hawken, Chris Gaffaney, Craig Cumming, Bradley Scott, Jeremy Scott, Ian Mandry, Jeff Simmonds, Andy Harris, Mark Joyce, Dion Lobb, Regan Finch.

Sri Lanka have picked five uncapped players – fast bowler Binura Fernando, legspinner Jeffrey Vandersay and batsmen Shehan Jayasuriya, Dasun Shanaka, and Dhananjaya de Silva – in their Twenty20 squad for the forthcoming two-match series against Pakistan.Dinesh Chandimal and Lahiru Thirimanne have not been included while fast bowler Nuwan Kulasekara, who was left out for the ongoing ODI series, has been picked. Chamara Kapugedera, who last played a T20 international in June 2012, has also been included in the squad.”We need to get the younger brigade in the stream, so we have a gradual transition leading up to the next World T20 and the 50-over World Cup beyond that,” chief selector Kapila Wijegunawardene said. “We need to put them on the ground and see how they perform.”Fernando, 20, has been a leading cricketer for DS Senanayake College. Though he has played only seven first-class matches, he has been touted as a promising fast bowler, thanks largely to the pace he generates from his six-and-a-half foot frame. Vandersay also has limited domestic experience, but most recently took 8 wickets for 167 in a three-day warm-up match against the Pakistanis, in June.De Silva and Jayasuriya, both 23, are aggressive opening batsmen who also deliver off spin. Jayasuriya played the the three-match unofficial ODI series against Pakistan A in May, with mixed results. He has, however, been a top performer for Colts Cricket Club. De Silva played in the four-day leg of that tour, and took three wickets and hit 154 runs across five innings. He plays for Ports Authority Cricket Club. Shanaka is not so well-known in the domestic circuit, but Wijegunawardene said the 23-year-old had been picked for his “ability to clear the ropes at will, which is a skill displayed at recent practice matches.”Kapugedara was also recalled thanks to his boundary-hitting capability, but also to lend a touch of experience to the side, Wijegunawardene said. “With all these youngsters coming into the team we also need to balance the team with experience. Kapugedara has not been in the team for a while, but we know he can do that, and we’ve picked him on that basis.” Kapugedara, 28, has played in 21 T20 internationals and 92 ODIs for Sri Lanka.Wijegunawardene also said the omissions of Chandimal and Thirimanne does not put them out of the running to play in next year’s World T20. “Chandimal and Thirimanne needed to prepare for the upcoming India Test series which is a very important one. Offspinner Tharindu Kaushal we are also saving for the Tests. We’re trying to manage all their workloads because we have a very busy calendar till July next year.” Fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera remains unavailable through injury.Both T20 matches will be played at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, on July 30 and August 1. Sri Lanka remain the top-ranked T20 side in the world – a ranking they have more-or-less held consistently since September 2012.Sri Lanka squad: Lasith Malinga (Capt), TM Dilshan, Kusal Perera, Kithruwan Vithanage, Dhananjaya de Silva, Angelo Mathews, Dasun Shanaka, Chamara Kapugedera, Shehan Jayasuriya, Thisara Perera, Jeffrey Vandersay, Nuwan Kulasekara, Binura Fernando, Chaturanga de Silva, Milinda Siriwardene

Stuart Law overshadowed another dismal batting display by Nasser Hussain as Essex took control of their County Championship Division One match at Kidderminster against Worcestershire.The Australian right-hander struck a superb 189 after the England captain, struggling for form this season, made just 10.Essex finished the day on 461 for 9 from 114 overs in reply to Worcestershire’s 302.Hussain, nine not out overnight, added just a single to fine leg before he pushed forward to a Kabir Ali delivery which he edged to wicketkeeper Steve Rhodes.With Hussain’s departure came the arrival of the rampant Law. He and Paul Prichard, who was 10 not out overnight, added a solid partnership of 166 in 37 overs.The partnership was ended when 19 year-old paceman Kabir tempted Prichard into playing a loose drive, the batsman being caught at backward point by David Leatherdale.Prichard, who dislocated his left thumb while fielding a shot from Worcestershire centurion Paul Pollard, made 74 from 171 balls (nine fours, two sixes).Despite the departure of Prichard and Ronnie Irani, who was removed by paceman Stuart Lampitt for 14, Law continued in to his fourth championship hundred of the season, the 100 coming from 136 deliveries with 17 fours.It was his 25th first-class hundred for Essex and the 47th of his career. It was also his second ton of the season against Worcestershire, having smashed 133 not out against them at Chelmsford last month.Law did inject a few scares into the Essex camp before reaching his ton. A couple of shots wentclose to Graeme Hick in the slips.Nevertheless, once into three figures he continued to hog centre stage.In tandem with Stephen Peters (67), Law added 185 in 41 overs – an Essex fifth-wicket record against Worcestershire. Peters eventually played on to left-armer seamer Alamgir Sheriyar after having made his best score of the season.Sheriyar made it two in the over by bringing Law’s magnificent innings to an end, with the assistance of an excellent one-handed catch by Vikram Solanki low down at cover. Law’s 189 included 30 fours off 243 deliveries in 338 minutes.After that Essex steadily began to subside, but 76 extras helped their account nicely.Kabir Ali, with 4/114, was Worcestershire’s best bowler.

Dinesh Karthik has been a specialist wicketkeeper. He has been a specialist batsman. A wicketkeeper who can bat and a batsman who can keep. But despite his domestic success, his time the Indian team has been quite sporadic.But MS Dhoni’s retirement from Tests at the end of 2014 has given Karthik a glimmer of hope and he knows he has no option but to score big and knock on the selectors’ doors. “I am at a stage where I want to score so much runs that they cannot ignore me,” he said after scoring 167 for Tamil Nadu against Mumbai.”That’s what I am looking at. I want to set the bar really high for me and keep trying my best to achieve that. I mean as a player that’s a big challenge for me and I am going to try and do so well that they find it hard to ignore me at the national level and that’s what I am aiming to do.”Wriddhiman Saha, the incumbent wicketkeeper in Tests, has stiff competition from the likes of Naman Ojha, Karthik and Parthiv Patel. And Karthik feels he has an edge over the rest: “For me, unlike other keepers it’s totally a different ball game. I have played as a batsman so I always back myself to play as a batsman and fielding comes to me pretty naturally so it’s never been a problem.”I have always batted in all slots right from opening to No 7. I have been versatile in that way. I have always looked at myself differently. I feel I am more a batsman who can keep wicket as well. So I can do each thing individually [well] so in that I am very confident. I don’t look at myself as a wicketkeeper-batsman who is only into that sort of mould because I have played as a batsman, so I think a little bit different that way.”The fact that he is backing himself to be considered purely as a batsman hasn’t pulled his focus from wicketkeeping. According to him, he has been working harder with the gloves. “I have really worked on my keeping and it’s coming out really well,” he said. “I had a couple of good games. I am really confident of my keeping .The key is to keep carrying on from here, so as I said I am going to set the bar so high that they are going to say that there is no way to stop him.”