4th dayShane Warne could miss the rest of the English season after fracturing a rib while bowling in Hampshire‘s draw with Lancashire at Old Trafford . He will be out for at least three weeks, a major blow for Hampshire, who are seeking their first Championship title since 1973. The game had draw all over it from the start, but Paul Horton pushed on to a career-best 152 and Luke Sutton hit his second century of the season to guide Lancashire to full batting points.Rob Key and Martin van Jaarsveld made centuries as Kent and Worcestershire shared the points in an inevitable draw at Canterbury. There was no change for the bottom three, though, as Surrey didn’t manage to fit in a ball against Sussex who watched Yorkshire slide past them to the top. They have a game in hand, though.3rd dayFor John Ward’s report on the third day at Scarborough, where Yorkshire played gloriously to crush Warwickshire inside three days click here.

3rd dayDerbyshire held their nerve to bowl out Glamorgan at Cardiff just when the home side were looking good for their second win of the season. Heading into the final session, Glamorgan needed 60 with six wickets in hand, but added just 18 of those before being blown away by Ant Botha’s five-for and three wickets for Tom Lungley.Nottinghamshire will hope that their last six pairings can triumph where Glamorgan failed, in easing the last 104 runs they require to beat Northamptonshire at Trent Bridge. A team effort took Northants to 229 in their second innings, leaving Nottinghamshire to chase 232. The visitors were boosted by removing Stephen Fleming for 50 shortly before stumps.Jerome Taylor blew through Essex‘s defences with five wickets, and he was well supported by David Masters (4 for 40) as the home side crumbled to Leicestershire at Colchester. Varun Chopra was caught at slip off the first ball of the day off Masters, who will be an Essex player next season, and resilient fifties for Ryan ten Doeschate and James Middlebrook were the only consolation for them. Leicestershire then reached 52 for 2 and a final-day run-chase may be negotiated between the two captains.A draw is likely at Lord’s where Middlesex reached 305 for 7 before declaring, although a late Gloucestershire collapse to 97 for 5 keeps the game interesting. Andrew Strauss made 75 and Ed Smith 69 before Middlesex lost 4 for 1 in the middle order. Chaminda Vaas and Murali Kartik added 64 to hasten the declaration, then Kartik impressive with the ball with two wickets leaving Gloucestershire 208 behind.

Ottis Gibson will fill in for Donald as England’s bowling coach in Sri Lanka. He leaves on Tuesday.England have asked Allan Donald to make his short-term role as bowling coach a permanent one but Warwickshire have also asked him to join as a coach, while he has committed himself to provide commentary in South Africa at the same time England are touring Sri Lanka.Gibson would be a forerunner for the permanent role should Donald opt for Warwickshire. Gibson, however, has said he would love to work with West Indies.While the England role is obviously higher profile, Donald would be away from his family more than if he returned to Edgbaston, where he enjoyed much success as a player.It is believed Donald is discussing both coaching roles while in South Africa during England’s failed Twenty20 campaign. The team will fly straight to Sri Lanka on September 22.

Vernon Philander, the South African allrounder, has been named as Morne Morkel’s replacement in the Test squad on the tour to Pakistan. Morkel fractured his left foot while bowling on the third day of the tour match against Patron’s XI.Philander, a right-hand batsman and a right-arm medium-fast bowler, made his international debut in an ODI against Ireland earlier this year. He has done well in the five ODIs he has played so far – averaging 40 with the bat and 21.50 with the ball – and was also a regular member of the team in the recently concluded World Twenty20 Cup, but is yet to make his Test debut. He is likely to stay on in Pakistan for the five-match one-day series, the squad for which will be announced later.Morkel, meanwhile, has gone back home to recover from the injury, which could keep him away from cricket for about six to eight weeks.

Darrell Hair, the Australian umpire who came to prominence when he called Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing, commences the biggest battle of his 15-year international umpiring career in the Central Office of London Tribunals on Monday. He is suing his employers, the ICC, for racial discrimination.A galaxy of leading figures in the game, including Malcolm Speed, Dave Richardson, David Morgan and Billy Doctrove, will be appearing in the witness box during the hearing, which could last for two weeks and should make for riveting theatre. Hair, who is 55 today, is taking legal action over having not been allocated any Tests or one day internationals since he accused Pakistan of ball-tampering in the fourth Test at The Oval in August last year.After a history of 1,814 Tests, this became the first to be forfeited. Inzamam-ul-Haq, the then captain of Pakistan who has been served a witness summons to attend the hearing, was eventually cleared of ball-tampering, but Hair, who remains on the ICC’s elite panel and hence paid a retainer, was effectively sacked as an international umpire. He has since officiated in ICC Associate matches and was on the ECB’s reserve list last year, and has moved from Lincoln to live in his native Australia with his wife, Amanda.Hair’s claim for racial discrimination is based on the fact that Doctrove, a black West Indian, who stood with him at The Oval and who will support him from the witness box, has continued to be allocated top-level matches. He will be represented by Robert Griffiths QC, a member of MCC’s committee and a relative of Tony Lewis, the former England captain. Their case will be based on the maxim that the umpire’s decision is final. Opposing them on behalf of the ICC is Michael Beloff QC, who has represented the Rugby Football Union and who was formerly president of Trinity College, Oxford.The ICC will be flying in executives from all around the world in addition to Speed, its chief executive, who publicised damaging private correspondence with officials which isolated Hair, and Richardson, its general manager. Morgan, whose ICC presidency start on Monday, will also be cross-examined. Since filing his law suit in March, Hair, who flew in to London last Thursday after attending an ICC umpires seminar in South Africa, has been immersed in preparation for the hearing with his legal team. The representative lawyers have been unable to reach a settlement.It is still not known whether Inzamam, who flew back to Pakistan when his contract with Yorkshire was concluded on the last day of the season, will be returning to London. His agent, Darren Long, would not comment on his intentions, but he has made himself unavailable for Pakistan’s opening Test against South Africa which starts on Monday. The tribunal has no power to compel the attendance of an individual from the sub-continent, but it can decide whether to issue sanctions that could lead to prosecution.Hair, who in spite of his experience has attracted hostility from Asian countries for more than a decade over what they have considered to be his strict application of the Laws of Cricket, is spending the weekend visiting friends in the Midlands before celebrating his birthday tonight with a quiet dinner at his central London hotel with his wife, who once sat on Nottinghamshire’s committee.

Paul Nixon, the 37-year-old former England wicketkeeper, has signed for the Indian Cricket League.”This is an exciting opportunity to end what has been a remarkably eventful year for me,” Nixon said. “I would never have imagined 12 months ago that I would get the opportunity to go on two England tours, and I always saw that as a bonus and a tremendous honour to play for my country.”Nixon was selected by England for the one-day series in Australia following the Ashes, and also for the World Cup. But, at 37, he realizes his chances of further international recognition are probably over.”I now have two big goals to look forward to in my career, playing in this Twenty20 league and the captaincy of Leicestershire,” he said. “This is perfect timing because India is the Mecca of cricket and interest in the Twenty20 game is extremely high due to the success of the national team in becoming world champions.”The league, which begins on November 30, features the likes of Brian Lara and Inzamam-ul-Haq.

Kent have signed Azhar Mahmood, the former Pakistan allrounder, on a two-year deal. Mahmood has applied for British citizenship and is expected to hear confirmation in the near future meaning he will be an English-qualified player.Mahmood has previously had successful stints with Surrey, but is excited by the opportunity presented to him at Kent. “This is a big move for me in more ways than one,” he said. “I look back on my days with Surrey with great fondness, but the opportunity to utilise my British passport and join a county such as Kent is one that will provide a fresh challenge for me and it’s something I’m really looking forward to.”Kent has always been a county that I have respected and will now become my cricketing home. I will be giving it my all, on and off the field. Robert Key and Graham Ford have plans for the club and I want to work with them and the rest of the squad in building on 2007’s success.”Key, the captain, said that Mahmood will add to the depth in Kent’s squad as they aim to build on their Twenty20 success from last season. “We are thrilled to have secured Azhar’s services. He is a proven cricketer of the highest level and will bring a vast amount of experience to our squad. He has been successful in all forms of cricket and, in our recent discussions with him, has shown a real desire to bring further success to Kent.”

Scorecard

Half-centuries from Mohammad Kaif, Piyush Chawla and Praveen Kumar put Uttar Pradesh in a position to press for an outright win after they had shot Bengal out for 149 on the first day. They ended the second day with a lead of 288 with three wickets in hand.Resuming at 128 for 2, UP lost Suresh Raina, who started the day on 55, for the addition of only eight more runs. Kaif got good support from Ravikant Shukla and Chawla, as he added 92 and 86 with them for the fifth and sixth wickets. Kaif fell nine short of a century, while Chawla scored 53. Praveen took the lead close to 300 with an unbeaten 50 off 71 deliveries.
ScorecardHimachal Pradesh suffered two mini collapses, struggling against Mumbai in Dharamsala. They were reduced from 56 without loss to 78 for 4 and then from 156 for 4 to 164 for 7 before bad light intervened and stopped play early. Debutant Hemant Dogra, Paras’s elder brother, had given Himachal a good start in partnership with Manish Gupta, but Himachal went on to lose wickets in bunches, as has been the case with them earlier this season too. Maninder Bisla and Paras resurrected the innings with a 78-run fifth-wicket stand, but they lost three wickets in a hurry again. Murtaza Hussain took four wickets for Mumbai.Earlier Vinayak Samant, in partnership with Hussain, had taken Mumbai from their overnight score of 324 for 9 to 370. Samant stayed unbeaten on 60.
Scorecard
Shitanshu Kotak scored a painstaking century – his 11th in first-class cricket – to secure Saurashtra a 117-run first-innings lead against Maharashtra in Nagothane. Maharashtra lost one wicket in 15 overs before stumps to end the second day 83 runs in deficit with nine wickets in hand.Kotak’s 108 off 277 deliveries was a crucial knock as the second-highest score for Saurashtra was Cheteshwar Pujara’s 35. Resuming at 73 for 2, Saurashtra were in trouble at 100 for 5 when Kotak and Ravindra Jadeja took them past Maharashtra’s 136 with a 59-run partnership. Kotak shared a 55-run ninth-wicket stand with Sandeep Jobanputra, who followed his four wickets with 24 runs.
ScorecardAndhra continued with their slow but solid progress in Visakhapatnam against Baroda as half-centuries from MSK Prasad and B Sumanth took them to 434 for 8. After Andhra had lost overnight half-centurion Gnaneshwara Rao without any addition to their score, Prasad and Sumanth added 115 for the sixth wicket to further frustrate Baroda. Wickets didn’t come quickly even after Sumanth’s dismissal for 72, as Prasad found able partners in Marripuri Suresh, G Shankara Rao and D Kalyankrishna. The seventh and eighth wickets cost Baroda 35 and 30, while Prasad and Kalyankrishna had added 40 for the ninth wicket when stumps were called. Prasad ended the day five short of his century.
Scorecard
Basanth Mohanty took four wickets to put Orissa in sight of a sizeable first-innings lead as they dismissed eight Punjab batsmen for 207 on the second day in Mohali. This is Basanth’s second match and he had taken eight wickets in his first game.In reply to Orissa’s 323, Punjab made a solid start to reach 46 without loss, but lost five wickets in a hurry to be reduced to 91 for 5. The Mohantys – Basanth and Debasis – took two wickets each in that burst. The resistance put by Ankur Kakkar was cut short by Basanth, as he dismissed him for 53. Things could have been much better for Orissa but for the 22 no-balls they bowled. Earlier Orissa’s last two wickets added 50 more to their overnight 273 for 8.Karnataka 0 for 0 trail Delhi 538 (Kohli 169, Manhas 124, Vinay Kumar 5-121) by 538 runs
Scorecard The run fest continued for Delhi in Bangalore as Mithun Manhas became the third batsman to score a century to lift his team to 538 in their first innings. Virat Kohli, 154 overnight, fell early but Manhas made sure the batting didn’t come apart. All three centurions scored their second hundreds of the season. Manhas hit 20 fours and a six in his innings of 124. R Vinay Kumar had to toil for 40.5 overs for his five wickets, while Sunil Joshi bowled 42 overs for three. Bad light brought an early end to the day, as Karnataka faced only one ball.
ScorecardNo play was possible on the second day in Chennai because of persistent rains. On the first day, S Badrinath and M Vijay had scored centuries to put Tamil Nadu in a commanding position against Rajasthan.

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

A 73-ball hundred from Virender Sehwag and a tempered 97 from Dinesh Karthik opened up a few batting options as the Indians warmed up against ACT XI in Canberra. In a match consigned to a draw a sixth successive failure for Yuvraj Singh, chipping a full toss to the covers, all but sealed his fate for the rest of the series.Sehwag and Karthik added 158 for the opening stand, allowing the Indians to declare at 4 for 281 in the tea break. The hosts, chasing an improbable 315, batted for 17 overs in the final session before deciding to settle for a draw at the start of the mandatory overs.Sehwag hammered 18 fours and two sixes during the course of his 113, one where a wayward attack paid the price in the face of a murderous batsman. Unlike in the first dig, he wasn’t in a mood to wait. He smashed three fours off left-arm seamer Ash Perera’s first over, rocking on to the back foot and smattering the off side hoardings. He was lucky on 16, when Richard Sherlock was slow to take off for a regulation catch at square leg, but made the most of his chance with a string of crisply-struck boundaries.The left-armer’s angle was meat and drink for Sehwag, moving back and slashing wildly, but the right-arm medium pacers proved sitting ducks as well. Adam Ritchard was spanked for 10 runs in his first over, coming after the drinks break, and Ryan Bulger, the legspinner, struggled in the face of the assault. Sehwag, who brought up his fifty in 38 balls, lofted Bulger for a six over extra cover but was lucky again on 92 when he was let off by the fielder at mid-on.He brought up his century with a flick through square, shuffling across and tucking Ritchard for four, and went ballistic soon after – slashing one through point and mowing a massive six over wide long-on. He fell trying to glide Mark Higgs’ left-arm spin, angling the ball into the wicketkeeper’s gloves.Karthik was forced to play second fiddle amid the carnage but managed a few fine strokes of his own. He was let off on 19, when wicketkeeper James Crosthwaite missed a thick edge off Bulger, but was more confident after lunch. He wasn’t afraid to pull, a shot that got him out in the first innings, and reeled off a few straight-drives that suggested he was rediscovering his groove. He fell three short of a century, trying to turn a full one from Bulger to the leg side but being trapped in front instead.Bulger soon had Wasim Jaffer, sent in at No. 3, poking at a legbreak outside off but it was the wicket of Yuvraj that would have worried the Indians the most. Offered a full toss outside off, he chipped to the covers and saw Jonathan Dean pull off a sensational catch diving to his right. Barring injuries, it could probably be his last chance before the one-day series.The game petered into a draw in the final stages. Pankaj Singh picked up his first wicket of the tour, adding one more before stumps, while Irfan Pathan did his chances no harm with the wicket of Chris Rogers, a batsman he could encounter in the third Test in Perth that starts in three days’ time.

Brenton Parchment, the West Indies opener, has been fined 50 percent of his match fee after running into Dale Steyn, the South Africa fast bowler, during the second day’s play of the final Test in Durban.The charge was laid by Simon Taufel and Aleem Dar, the two on-field umpires as well as the reserve umpire at the close of the second day’s play. Parchment had pleaded not guilty to the offence.A hearing, which was also attended by Clive Lloyd, the West Indies manager, and Dwayne Bravo, West Indies’ captain, was held today after South Africa had completed their innings-and-100-run victory.

John Grogan, the Labour MP for Selby, has called for cricket – in particular the broadcasting of the Ashes – to return to terrestrial television.Grogan, who helped front the 2005 campaign , insisted in a commons debate that cricket should return to the list of “crown jewels” – sports which cannot be shown exclusively on pay-TV. The ECB sold the rights to BSkyB on a four-year deal in 2006 and, ever since, have defended their decision while insisting it was made with the best interests of “cricket as a whole”.Sky’s viewing figures have been disappointing, however, hovering around 250,000 people – significantly less than the estimated 8 million who tuned in to watch England regain the Ashes in September 2005.”The whole nation, it seems, stopped on that Monday,” Grogan said in parliament. “London was quiet, people were putting up televisions in schools so the kids could watch it, people were trying to catch a sight of a television in their workplace.”Clearly a youngster watching the swashbuckling antics of a Freddie Flintoff or a Kevin Pietersen will be inspired — and of course that’s on-field antics, not off-field antics.”In response, Gerry Sutcliffe – the sports minister who replaced Richard Caborn last June – said it was “something that should be considered, clearly” and added: “My natural instincts would be to agree with you but let me move forward and deal with the process in the proper way.”Sky’s exclusive deal – worth £220m – expires in 2009, and a review of the protected list of events is likely to take place this year or next.