Hussey at the double to power Nottinghamshire

ScorecardDavid Hussey once again made the most of facing Yorkshire as Nottinghamshire built a massive advantage•Getty Images

David Hussey clearly loves Yorkshire bowling attacks, particularly on Yorkshire soil. On his last three visits, twice at Headingley and at Scarborough last summer, he has marked the occasion with a hundred and he has added another here. Only this time he embellished the gesture of appreciation by going on to reach 222 not out, the highest individual score for his adoptive county against Yorkshire. Soon there will be border controls detailed to keep him out.His partnership of 184 with Samit Patel for the fourth wicket was also a record for this fixture and the consequence of it all is that Nottinghamshire have a lead of 319, from which they will push for an emphatic victory that only poor weather is likely to deny them, unless Yorkshire can improve considerably on a poor first-innings batting display against a strong attack. Top place in the table will change hands in any event (barring a Yorkshire win), given that Nottinghamshire have eight bonus points to Yorkshire’s two.Hussey’s record Yorkshire in six seasons as an overseas player in England stands at 803 runs at an average of 133.83.Early morning rain had left the outfield soggy and though it had tapered off to drizzle and largely stopped by the scheduled start time, it took the morning session for it to dry out enough for play, even with the benefit of Headingley’s much-improved drainage system.Nottinghamshire’s bowlers had performed a solid job on day one, reacting to the challenge posed by a wicket on which they would also have batted first by maintaining discipline and good lines almost throughout, with Ryan Sidebottom particularly impressive.Sidebottom’s future is in some doubt. His current contract expires this year and, while he says he would like to finish his career with Nottinghamshire, he has yet to commit himself to the offer they have made to him and there has been speculation about a move elsewhere. Sussex are said to be interested, but a return to Yorkshire is unlikely.On the evidence of the second day, however, he might be a useful acquisition. If anything was going to undermine their challenge for the title, it was the lack of experience in their attack and without anyone of Sidebottom’s know-how in the seam department to take the pressure off Adil Rashid they let the game run away from them in the two sessions possible.For all his potential, Ajmal Shahzad had played in only 27 first-class matches going into this one. Steve Patterson, meanwhile, is in only his 25th, Oliver Hannon-Dalby his 14th. Moreover, Shahzad is coming back from injury and as well as struggling for control he seemed to lack some of his zip. They missed Tim Bresnan, who is a canny and consistent performer at this level.It did not help that they made two key blunders in the field, one of them at considerable cost. The dropped catch by Shahzad at fine leg as Patel hooked Hannon-Dalby cost only 20 runs but, as the scorecard shows, missing a run-out chance to see off Hussey on 93 was an expensive error.He should have gone, too. Turning to run a second on a shot to midwicket, he was rightly sent back by Patel and would not have been in his ground as David Wainwright collected Anthony McGrath’s throw in but fumbled the ball as he went to break the stumps.Otherwise, the Australian was imperious. That Wainwright, the left-arm spinner, was so sparsely used on a pitch that had been prepared for spin owed something, certainly, to Hussey hitting him for 18 in one over, including a six and two fours.Anything remotely short was despatched with ruthless efficiency by the Australian, who is pigeon-holed as a one-day specialist according to his international record but has amassed more than 11,000 runs in first-class cricket at an average of more than 54.More than half those runs have been scored for Nottinghamshire, to whom he has been a splendid servant in six seasons as overseas player. Yorkshire are only too aware of how useful he has been to them, having suffered to the tune of more than 750 runs themselves.In this match, having resumed on 35 from 44 balls, he completed his half-century off only nine deliveries more, with his eighth four. His century – the first by him this summer – came off 106 balls with 14 fours and a six, his 150 off 149 deliveries with seven further boundaries. It was steady and unrelenting, just what his side needed as they sought to capitalise on what had been an unexpected chance to bat Yorkshire out of contention.Patel will have cursed his lack of concentration, lack of judgment, perhaps, in failing to complete hundreds in consecutive games. On 96, having played himself in patiently before giving rein to his attacking instincts, he went to carve Rashid through the covers but was betrayed by the bounce and Jacques Rudolph held a very sharp, one-handed catch off the edge at slip. His angry swishes of the bat as he walked off told their own story.Chris Read might feel he should have made a few more also, although Nottinghamshire were clearly set on scoring at a high rate so as to advance the contest ahead of poor weather forecast for Friday. On 42, he played a loose stroke to a wide ball from Shahzad and was caught comfortably by Rashid at backward point.Ali Brown missed out rather more obviously, bowled by Patterson for one, but Paul Franks took full advantage as Yorkshire’s bowling grew ever more weary and deflated, cracking a 62-ball half-century including nine fours and a towering six off Rashid.

Porterfield not surprised by Bangladesh's surge

Ireland captain William Porterfield has said he wasn’t surprised by Bangladesh’s recent win against England at Bristol and expects them to come hard at his team during the two back-to-back ODIs at Belfast on Thursday and Friday.His counterpart Mashrafe Mortaza also expects it to be a competitive series and has challenged his players to maintain focus. Bangladesh’s victory in the second ODI was their first win against England in any format, but Porterfield knew the side were capable of causing an upset.”It was certainly not a surprise, I know Bangladesh is capable of doing this any time,” Porterfield said. “They are a very balanced and experienced team and great competitors.”Bangladesh failed to secure a dream series win after they were thrashed in the deciding ODI by 144 runs, after conceding 347 and Porterfield believes there will be some unfinished business for his opponents before they finish the tour.”This is completely different series and I know Bangladesh will come out of that lost series and will come hard against us,” Porterfield said. “We definitely won’t let us down at home, we will play our best cricket and the better side will win the games.”Ireland beat Bangladesh the last time they met in an international game, at the World Twenty20 in 2009. Porterfield, however, feels that recent results will not have a bearing on this series.”We really did well against them in recent past but they are a formidable side, we don’t expect to win easily but we are certain to put up a good fight and hopefully it will be great series,” he said.Mortaza said that despite giving England a scare, his team wasn’t taking Ireland for granted. Ireland have a chance to overtake Zimbabwe in the rankings and Mortaza added that he was aware of them being an emerging competitor.”I’m sure Ireland will try their best to do in the world cricket,” he said. “We need to play our best to outplay them in these two games.”Mortaza regained the captaincy for the limited-overs leg of the tour and he said he was settling in well to his new role after a long injury battle. “It’s great to be fit and back into the team,” he said. “I’m also enjoying the captaincy, thanks to all of who trusted me with the responsibility to lead such a talented team.”

Rain curtails play on final day

ScorecardRain limited the final day’s play to just 4.4 overs and the South Africans drew their two-day encounter with Trinidad & Tobago in St Augustine. During the little play that was possible, Dale Steyn got Lendl Simmons to edge behind. Earlier the visitors declared their first innings closed at the overnight score of 347 for 7.South Africa’s batsmen had cashed in on the first day, before bad weather intervened, with four batsmen scoring half-centuries. Alviro Petersen pushed forth his credentials as opener with 65, before AB de Villiers continued his fine run of form with 53 before retiring out. JP Duminy and Mark Boucher were the other half-centurions, with the latter finding touch as he prepared to take wicketkeeping duties from de Villiers, who wore the big gloves in the limited-overs leg of the tour.

Blackwell leads Durham recovery

ScorecardIan Blackwell rode his luck to make 86 in rescuing Durham from 112 for 5 toreach 288 after being put in by Warwickshire on the return to four-day cricketat Chester-le-Street. The visitors then reached 7 for 0 before bad light ended play with nine overs remaining.Blackwell frequently played and missed, while Warwickshire thought he hadgloved an attempted pull to recalled wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose with his score onfive. There was a minimum of foot movement from the burly left-hander but he hitpowerfully in collecting 10 fours off 147 balls.While Warwickshire had lost Jonathan Trott and Chris Woakes to England Lionsduty, Durham were without Liam Plunkett, allowing Callum Thorp to return afterback trouble. That gave Durham four specialist seamers and a lengthy tail, but Thorp andChris Rushworth played some handsome strokes in making 29 and 26, while MitchClaydon contributed 18.Durham’s selection hinted that the pitch would favour the seamers, which washardly surprising after Warwickshire’s Imran Tahir became the first spinner totake eight wickets in an innings against them at Edgbaston a month ago.He had to settle for two today, his googly having Phil Mustard caught at slipfor 35 after a sixth-wicket stand of 91, while Thorp became over confident andwas stumped.The ball swung in the morning, but there was also enough in the pitch toencourage the bowlers to bang a few in and Gordon Muchall, Ben Stokes andRushworth all fell when pulling, while Neil Carter found extra bounce to haveMark Stoneman taken at second slip.Michael Di Venuto pulled the first ball of the match in front of mid-wicket forfour off Carter, who then swung one away to have the left-hander caught behindin the third over, although the Australian did not look happy with thedecision.Dale Benkenstein joined Muchall at 21 for 2 and while the senior man dug inhis partner made 27 before his top-edged pull off Rikki Clarke was athleticallyheld by Boyd Rankin. The Ireland international ran in from deep mid-wicket andlooked amazed when, after diving forward, he clung on.Benkenstein made 10 before he pushed forward to the perfect away swinger fromDarren Maddy and edged to Ambrose.

Ganapathy joins India A squad in England

C Ganapathy, the Tamil Nadu allrounder, has been named as Abhimanyu Mithun’s replacement for India A’s tour of England starting this month. Mithun, the Karnataka fast bowler, was called-up to the senior Indian squad currently on tour in Zimbabwe to replace his state team-mate Vinay Kumar who was injured.An opening bowler and useful lower order batsman, Ganapathy made his mark in the 2008-09 season as a bowler, helping Tamil Nadu make the Ranji semi-finals. The following season, he started contributing more as a batsman, converting his 40s and 50s to centuries and bailing the team out of trouble in crucial situations. He ended the season with 543 runs at 77.57 and 18 wickets at 24.22. He followed it up with a five-wicket haul for South Zone in the Duleep Trophy final and was awarded an IPL contract, though he played just one game for Chennai Super Kings.India A play their first match on tour against Yorkshire at Leeds, a three-day game starting on Saturday.

Woakes hundred tilts the balance

ScorecardChris Woakes underlined his all-round potential with a sparkling 136 not out•Getty Images

A high-class century from Chris Woakes led a spirited Warwickshire fightback on the second day of the championship match with Hampshire at Edgbaston. From the depths of 98 for 7, Woakes helped Warwickshire add 284 for the last three wickets, recording century stands for the ninth and tenth wickets.It was a highly impressive innings from a 21-year-old with a bright future. Woakes may have made his name as a fine swing bowler, but his batting also promises much. This, his second first-class century, was studded with pulls and drives that bore the hallmark of real class and underlined the impression that Warwickshire have developed an all-rounder of great potential.Already he has largely filled the gaping hole left at Edgbaston by the retirement of Dougie Brown and his efforts earned Warwickshire the upper hand in a game that had appeared beyond them.Can Woakes prosper at international level? Perhaps. While he lacks the pace of most Test bowlers, he is no slower than Chaminda Vaas and, with the ability to swing the ball both ways at will, will trouble most batsmen in the right conditions. On this evidence, he is also every bit good enough to bat at seven.He showed some character here, too. Coming to the crease with his side in disarray, he timed the ball delightfully from the start and, by taking a positive approach, appeared to unsettle Hampshire’s gameplan.Woakes (200 balls, 17 fours and two sixes) was lent good support, first by Tim Ambrose, then by Neil Carter and finally by Imran Tahir. Though Ambrose undid much of the good impression he had made by upper cutting obligingly to the man placed for the shot at third-man, Carter (80 balls, eight fours and a six) counter-attacked in typically ferocious style and Imran (45 balls, seven fours and one six) chanced his arm against his former county with good effect.The ninth-wicket partnership was a new county record against this opposition, overhauling the stand of 88 set by the splendidly named Rusty Scorer and Gerard Rotherham here in 1921.Hampshire, however, will reflect that they played a significant hand in their own downfall. Not only did they squander a series of chances in the field, but they became ragged and rattled as a game that was at their mercy slipped away.Where the bowlers had been content to aim for the top of off-stump and allow a pitch that remains helpful to do the rest, they suddenly attempted to bounce out Warwickshire. At one stage Imran, a fellow without too many batting pretensions, thrashed 14 in three balls off James Tomlinson, with an upper cut six the highlight.Hampshire must bitterly dislike playing against Woakes, too. His other first-class century was also against them and, in three first-class games, he has scored 275 runs without being dismissed.Woakes was on 77 when the ninth-wicket fell. Sensing he would need to accelerate if he were to reach his century, he drove two sixes over cover off Griffiths and also unleashed a thunderous drive, on the up, off Kabir Ali.Hampshire wilted under the assault. Though their bowlers had little luck – with a series of edges flying agonisingly wide of fielders – their catching was simply poor. If the most costly miss came when Woakes, on nine, edged Kabir between second and third slip, the most embarrassing came when Carberry missed a ‘dolly’ off Imran Tahir. Warwickshire added another 50 damaging runs before Imran finally ran out of luck and edged another attempted slash over the slips.Woakes’ performance was in marked contrast to his top-order colleagues. Warwickshire’s specialist batsmen were, not for the first time this season, swept aside with alarming ease through a mixture of good bowling and feckless batting. At one stage they lost three wickets in six balls without adding a run.Though there was little that Darren Maddy could do about the beauty that bounced and left him, the rest had less excuse. Jonathan Trott tried to play an outswinger through mid-wicket and sent a leading edge to slip, Ian Bell was punished for chasing a wide one, Rikki Clarke edged a lavish drive and Ant Botha fished at one he could have left. With Jim Troughton leg before to a fast, straight ball, Warwickshire had lost five wickets for 22 runs.At that stage, Kabir had figures of four for 16. Very well he had bowled, too. Swinging the ball at a decidedly brisk pace, he richly deserved the third successive five-wicket haul that would have been his if only his slip cordon had not proved so porous. If there’s a better bowler in county cricket, this writer has not seen them.”I’ve worked very hard on my batting,” Woakes said afterwards. “I’d like to bat at seven ideally and be considered a genuine all-rounder. I think I’ve added some pace to my bowling over the winter, but it’s not been. I don’t want to add 5 mph and find that I’ve lost my swing. It’s nice when I hear people saying I could play for England, but it’s not something I dwell on. If I keep taking wickets for Warwickshire, that will take care of itself.”Meanwhile Hampshire are giving a trial to Ashfaq Afridi, brother of Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi. Ashfaq, who has a British wife, is not classed as an overseas player.

Chennai topple leaders Mumbai

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Sachin Tendulkar retired hurt because of dehydration•Indian Premier League

Chennai Super Kings completed a sweep of their three-match home leg after the Mumbai Indians’ batting fell apart in a rash of poor strokes following Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement due to dehydration. On a track where 467 runs were plundered three days ago, boundaries were hard to come by and, despite being hampered by dew, Chennai easily defended their moderate total.Tendulkar was on his haunches and breathing heavily as early as the fourth over of the chase. However, he and Shikhar Dhawan provided their customary solid start, hitting a four an over in the Powerplay to take Mumbai to 46 for 0. Dhawan chopped on Thilan Thushara’s first delivery, but Mumbai progressed smoothly, if slowly, to 62 after nine overs when Tendulkar decided to retire.After looking in control of the match till then, Mumbai imploded, losing a wicket in each of the next six overs. Ambati Rayudu was the first to go, stumped after tearing out of the crease and missing when looking to loft a short ball from Suresh Raina. When Chennai celebrated, Rayudu practised the stroke that would have served him better, a cut.The potentially explosive Trinidad pair of Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard have done little of note with the bat all tournament, and the trend continued at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Both looked to launch the ball into the crowds beyond the sightscreen but got more height than distance on their strokes, and a pair of well-held catches sent them on their way.In between, the promising youngster Saurabh Tiwary who had looked the most assured of the Mumbai batsmen barring Tendulkar, also perished, slogging straight to deep midwicket off the impressive Shadab Jakati, whose solid tournament continued.R Sathish and Ryan McLaren were involved in some nervy running before Sathish was caught out by a direct hit from S Badrinath at short cover. The only wicket the bowler can take credit for in the entire collapse was McLaren’s – offspinner R Ashwin trapping him lbw in front of offstump, so plumb that Chennai’s appeal was more a celebration than a question. Mumbai had lurched to 92 for 7 and even the return of Tendulkar couldn’t extend their winning run.Their bowlers had done a better job earlier in the evening, shackling a powerful Chennai batting line-up. Opener M Vijay couldn’t complete a hat-trick of brutal innings in front of his home crowd, bottom-edging Harbhajan Singh onto the stumps early.Matthew Hayden is supposed to be the bruiser at the top of the Chennai line-up, but yet again he couldn’t find the boundaries, dealing mainly in singles. After the lethargy in the Powerplays, Suresh Raina was just starting to catalyse the innings before failing in his attempt to clear midwicket off a short ballChennai were kept on their toes when Dhoni made a typical bustling start, and Hayden flicked and drove Bravo for ten runs in the next over. When Dhoni edged one past the keeper for four in the 12th over, 63 runs had come off the previous six. It was two overs later that the match swung. Pollard’s slow bouncer tricked Dhoni, and Hayden’s Mongoose bat wasn’t enough to clear long-on off the next delivery.The home side slid to 119 for 4, after which boundaries again proved scarce, none coming in the next four overs. Michael Hussey and S Badrinath picked off the singles but struggled to hit top gear, before some innovative strokeplay from Badrinath lifted Chennai to 165, which ultimately proved enough for their third straight win.

Sthalekar spins Australia to Rose Bowl trophy

Australia 174 for 4 (Elliott 56*) beat New Zealand 173 (McGlashan 46, Sthalekar 5-35) by six wickets
ScorecardLisa Sthalekar’s 5 for 35 secured Australia’s success•Getty Images

Lisa Sthalekar’s five-wicket haul put Australia on track for a convincing victory that earned them their second Rose Bowl triumph in a month. Sthalekar’s 5 for 35 was responsible for dismissing New Zealand for 173 and Australia lost four wickets in the chase, which finished in 37.2 overs.The victory gave Australia a 3-2 success in the away series to follow their 5-3 triumph at home. In a strange sequence, Australia won all eight ODIs while losing all five Twenty20s.New Zealand, who chose to bat, were already struggling when Sthalekar grabbed the ball and took the final five wickets in her eight overs. After two matches of big scoring, the hosts were in horrible trouble at 49 for 5 in the 18th over and did well to recover.Sara McGlashan’s 46 off 49 was the major contribution but she was unable to escape from Sthalekar, who began her collection with Sophie Devine (30). She finished the innings in the 44th over by having Kate Pulford caught behind.Australia suffered a couple of hiccups to be 39 for 2 but Alex Blackwell’s 44, Sarah Elliott’s 56 and 19 for Sthalekar sealed the success. The next major engagement for the teams is the World Twenty20 in May in the Caribbean, where New Zealand will be one of the favourites.

Vettori criticises batting display

Daniel Vettori, the New Zealand captain, has criticised his batsmen for squandering a bright start to be bowled out for a below-par score and concede the Chappell-Hadlee trophy to Australia. New Zealand lost their third consecutive game to surrender the series after winning the opening fixture.”Unfortunately, [we made] the same mistakes as the previous two games,” Vettori said. “We did not put enough runs on the board, lost wickets at crucial times and put ourselves under far too much pressure. When you do that against Australia, you get yourself in trouble and that’s what happened today.”New Zealand, after being put in, blazed away to an attacking start, courtesy Brendon McCullum and Martin Guptill, but lost steam in the middle overs to be eventually bowled out for 238 in the 45th over. “If you look at most of the dismissals, they were relatively soft dismissals,” Vettori said. “They just made poor mistakes and whether it is the mental shift from aggressiveness to accumulation, I’m not too sure. But they’re mistakes that shouldn’t have been made constantly and they have been made in the last three games.”The hosts lost six wickets for 57 runs in close to 19 overs after their positive start, and were rescued by Daryl Tuffey’s quickfire 34, which included four sixes, and support from the lower order. But Vettori rued the fact that his team – not for the first time in the series – failed to bat out its entire quota of covers. “That just hurts you,” Vettori said. “We took a gamble again with the Powerplay, with so many wickets down and have a crack. I thought the way Daryl played, we might get 500 but at the end we were pretty poor.”We knew we were under a par score, and we had to be aggressive and take a chance because if we kept going the way we were, we wouldn’t even have had a total to defend. So we took a chance, it looks when it works and bad when it doesn’t.”The rain interruption did provide New Zealand with a lifeline, for Australia were left to chase a revised target of 200 in 34 overs. Vettori had been critical of the Duckworth-Lewis system at the end of the second ODI, where a revised target made New Zealand’s chase more difficult. But, today, he admitted the system had handed his team an opportunity.”It’s a funny system,” Vettori said. “I said at the end of the second game that I didn’t quite understand it, but it gave us an opportunity. I suppose we put some pressure on with the ball, but we couldn’t maintain it from both ends and that hurts against Australia.”New Zealand head to Wellington for the fifth and final ODI and Vettori said Nathan McCullum, the offspinner, was likely to be given a go. “We’ll definitely look at Nathan McCullum coming into it,” he said. “Westpac is a bigger ground and it allows Nathan to come into the mix a little more, but we want to end the series on a high. 3-2 is not a result we wanted but it would be a start on the road to improvement, hopefully.”

Hughes finds form as NSW fight

New South Wales 225 & 4 for 253 (Hughes 149, S Smith 69*) lead Victoria 418 (McDonald 120, Rogers 80*, Wade 53) by 60 runs
ScorecardPhillip Hughes was in charge until the last over of the day•Getty Images

Phillip Hughes found a crucial time to score his second Sheffield Shield century of the season as he gave New South Wales a chance to stay in the game. After Victoria took a 193-run lead on first innings, Hughes starred in the reply with 149 as the Blues reached 4 for 253 at the end of the third day.Hughes’ form has been patchy throughout the season and he has split with his manager, so it was a welcome contribution as he struck 23 fours and a six during his 170-ball occupation. New South Wales were heading for an outright defeat at 3 for 35, but Hughes found a partner in Steven Smith (69) and the young pairing moved the Blues ahead. They put on 194 at five an over for the fourth wicket, with Hughes falling in the last over, and had a buffer of 60 at stumps.Andrew McDonald sealed first-innings points for Victoria on the way to his 120 and got strong help from Matthew Wade (53) before Chris Rogers extended the advantage. Rogers was sick with a virus over the first two days but showed his strength during an unbeaten 80 that took the Bushrangers to 418. Josh Hazlewood and Trent Copeland gained three wickets each and will probably need some more on the final day to hold up the hosts.

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