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Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsIreland wrapped up victory without too much alarm on the final day against of their Intercontinental Cup game against Namibia at Stormont.Entering the day with just 38 to get and six wickets in hand it would have taken something remarkable for the visitors to cause an upset. First-innings centurion Andrew White cracked a boundary in the first over and another in the second which meant that by the time Kevin O’Brien nicked to second slip there was no concern at all for Ireland.The match, which had been tightly fought over the first two days, ended slightly underwhelming with Pikky Ya France slipping four byes down the leg side.Ireland are next in action on September 13 when they host Canada at Rathmines. There is one change to the Ireland squad with batsman James Shannon replacing Stuart Thompson, who is unavailable due to university commitments.

ScorecardMiddlesex hit back strongly on the second day of their top-of-the-table clash in Division Two of the County Championship against Northamptonshire, despite Rob Newton’s century for the hosts. Newton made 113 off 199 balls including 12 fours as league leaders Northantswere bowled out for 276 with former West Indies paceman Corey Collymore taking 3 for 55.Scott Newman then crashed 95 off just 114 balls with 18 fours in reply for Middlesex, who ended the day on 149 for 2, 127 runs behind their opponents.Northants began the day on 145 for 3 after a rain-affected first day, with opener Newton resuming on 66 and David Sales on 26. Sales, however, was unable to add to his overnight total before he edged a superb ball by Collymore to Middlesex wicketkeeper John Simpson in the second over of the day.Northants captain Andrew Hall was to make 16 before he was comfortably caught by Dawid Malan at first slip off Toby Roland-Jones. Tim Murtagh then trapped James Middlebrook lbw for six but Newton hung around to complete the second ton of his career off 177 balls with a single off Ollie Rayner.The 21-year-old then went past his previous best score of 102, made against Leicestershire in the final game of last season, as Northants reached lunch on 226 for 6. But he threw his wicket away with the first ball he faced after the interval when he wildly slashed Steven Crook’s wide delivery to Simpson.It was now slow going for the hosts and they lost Chaminda Vaas for 10 when he dragged Collymore on to his stumps before Roland-Jones pinned David Lucas (8) lbw. Collymore then wrapped up the innings by taking out the off stump of Lee Daggett, who went for a golden duck, leaving wicketkeeper David Murphy unbeaten on 42 and giving Middlesex the full set of bowling bonus points.Newman, who scored a century in the second innings of this fixture last season, went past 50 off 68 balls with a four through third man off Lucas as the visitors began their reply in style.But he fell five runs short of a century when he was caught behind by Murphy off the bowling of Middlebrook to end an opening stand of 143.Sam Robson then fell cheaply for 37 in the following over when he smashed Vaas to Middlebrook at gully. Nightwatchman Roland-Jones and captain Chris Rogers survived the last five overs and will both resume tomorrow on three.

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Chris Mpofu picked up two wickets in an over as Zimbabwe XI fought back on the third day in Harare•Zimbabwe Cricket

Zimbabwe XI fought back gamely for most of the third day after Australia A’s openers had put on a 289-run stand, Ray Price leading the way with four wickets as the visitors were restricted to a lead of 198. The Zimbabwean batsmen were soon under real pressure, however, as Mitchell Starc’s early strikes left them precariously placed at 49 for 3.The second day had belonged almost entirely to Australia but Zimbabwe made a good start on the third morning, taking just three overs to break a massive opening stand between Aaron Finch and David Warner. Price provided the breakthrough, bowling Finch for 122, and in the very next over Chris Mpofu had Usman Khawaja caught behind for a golden duck as Australia slipped to 290 for 2.Callum Ferguson’s fluent 48 helped Warner to stem the tide, the latter bringing up a 330-ball double hundred – his first in first-class cricket – in the course of their 78-run stand for the third wicket. Once Ferguson was removed, caught behind off Elton Chigumbura, there was another flurry of wickets and Price had Tim Paine caught by Craig Ervine for his second scalp.Zimbabwe immediately took the new ball, with dramatic results. Mitchell Marsh had his stumps re-arranged by Mpofu, who trapped Warner in front of his stumps for 211 four balls later. Vitori got past both Luke Butterworth and Trent Copeland in the space of an over, and Australia had lost four wickets for one run in 10 balls.Australia A were 437 for 9 when Price bowled Peter Siddle for his third wicket, but then came a determined fightback by Jason Krejza and Starc, who clung on to add 61 for the tenth wicket to frustrate the Zimbabweans. Krejza brought up a 72-ball fifty and was prised out by Price soon after, Australia A reaching 498 in the 138th over.The momentum swung firmly back Australia’s way in Starc’s opening spell as he removed both Vusi Sibanda and Tino Mawoyo within the first six overs. Hamilton Masakadza and Brendan Taylor began to re-build the innings but Masakadza was removed by Copeland minutes before the close, and Zimbabwe’s fortunes may well now hinge on Taylor, unbeaten on 32, as they look to save the game on the final day.

ScorecardCharl Willoughby claimed 4 for 80 as Somerset inflicted Durham’s second Championship defeat of the season with a nine-wicket success at Taunton. Resuming their second innings on 209 for 1, the visitors were bowled out for 378, Will Smith making 114 and Alfonso Thomas taking 3 for 73 in support of left-armer Willoughby, who capitalised on the overcast conditions with his ability to swing the ball..That left Somerset needing 119 to win off a minimum of 43 overs and they reached their target in the 22nd, Arul Suppiah leading the way with 66 not out. Somerset took 24 points to Durham’s four. With Lancashire and Warwickshire having won, the result threw the race for theChampionship title wide open, Durham’s lead being reduced to just five points over Lancashire and 13 over Warwickshire, who both have a game in hand.Smith and nightwatchman Mitch Claydon added 38 to Durham’s overnight score before Smith drove at a turning ball from Murali Kartik (2 for 60) and edged a catch to Marcus Trescothick at slip. He had faced 241 balls and hit 16 fours and a six. There was no sign of the collapse ahead as Durham wiped out the 260 deficit on first innings with only two wickets down. But the second new ball brought their downfall.Willoughby pinned Gordon Muchall lbw for 11 with a trademark inswinger and Claydon’s stubborn resistance ended with another leg-before verdict after he had faced 82 balls for his 38.Dale Benkenstein had his middle stump uprooted before he had scored by a jaffa from Alfonso Thomas and suddenly the visitors were only 25 ahead with five wickets down.It was 291 for 5 at lunch and with the fifth ball after the interval Willoughby grabbed the key wicket of Paul Collingwood, lbw for 14 to a delivery he appeared to think pitched outside leg stump.Ian Blackwell edged Thomas to Trescothick at second slip, Phil Mustard carelessly cut Willoughby straight to Nick Compton at point and Callum Thorp fell to another slip catch by James Hildreth off Thomas as Durham slumped to 330 for 9.But Steve Harmison (27) and Graham Onions (28 not out) made Somerset fight every inch of the way with a last-wicket stand of 48 that occupied ten overs and at least gave the home batsmen something to think about. Trescothick breezed to 25 before playing on to a delivery from Onions.But Suppiah played confidently to see his team to a win that puts them fourth in thetable and keeps their own hopes of a late challenge for the title alive. The opener reached his fifty with a delightful late cut for four off Blackwell, having faced 55 balls, and celebrated with a six over wide long-on next ball.

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Elegant isn’t normally a word you associate with Ian Westwood. He is a batsman with many qualities: determination, certainly; bravery, absolutely; grim determination, frequently. But elegant is not a description that springs to mind.Here, however, on the second day of Warwickshire’s Championship match against Somerset, Westwood produced an innings that could only be described as elegant. His confidence boosted by a couple of three-figure scores in second XI cricket, Westwood timed the ball unusually crisply and produced a series of resounding cuts and pulls that would have delighted any batsman.It was an important innings, too. Westwood has already played a key role in earning Warwickshire a substantial first-innings lead in the match and given his side an excellent opportunity to revive a season that director of cricket, Ashley Giles, admitted was “at a crossroads”.In partnership with Varun Chopra, Westwood posted 202 for Warwickshire’s first wicket. It represents the club’s highest opening stand in first-class cricket and the first time Warwickshire have recorded a double-century first-wicket partnership since 2000. Warwickshire’s lead is already worth 136 and they have established an excellent platform from which to push for victory over the final half of the game.Westwood also needed this performance from a personal perspective. He had not scored a Championship century since September 2009 and, since relinquishing the captaincy at the end of last year, has struggled to justify his place in the side in any form of the game. This was his first score of more than 50 this season.It cannot have been an easy time for him. At the end of last season, when he had dropped himself from the limited-overs team, Westwood was relegated to the role of spectator as Ian Bell captained Warwickshire to victory in the CB40 Trophy at Lord’s.Here, however, he was untroubled against the seamers and dealt with the left-arm spin of Murali Kartik with calm and composure. The only semblance of a chance he offered came when he was on 99 and Chopra sent him back as the pair considered a quick single. Had Lewis Gregory’s throw from cover hit the stumps, Westwood would have been denied his ninth first-class century and his sixth in the championship.He’s probably never played better. Steve Kirby, as deserving a fast bowler as you could find in England, was reduced to howls of anguish as Westwood cut him to ribbons and pulled him to distraction. Only 17 of Westwood’s 129 runs came in the V from mid-off to mid-on. Chopra, meanwhile, leant into a series of languid cover drives that bore the hallmark of real class.Though Chopra finally fell, playing across a straight one, and a weary Westwood was stumped as he advanced down the pitch and missed, William Porterfield consolidated the host’s position with his third Championship half-century of the season.Perhaps Somerset squandered their slim chance to fight their way back into the game. Porterfield was missed three times before he had reached 30, with Kartik dropping a straightforward chance off Arul Suppian when the batsman had 23.Craig Kieswetter also put down a tricky chance. Before Porterfield had scored, he edged one from Kartik which the recently recalled England keeper could not clasp. It wasn’t the easiest chance, but it does resurrect the question of whether Kieswetter – for all his raw talent – is quite ready for international cricket.Warwickshire lost Jim Troughton – enduring a bit of a grim run of form – while Somerset also claimed the wickets of Rikki Clarke, who missed a sweep, and Darren Maddy, who edged one that left him, right before the close. But, while such strikes will have lifted Somerset spirits, they will know that the damage was long since inflicted. They face an uphill fight to clamber their way back into this game.Somerset’s seamers stuck to their task pretty well. Kirby was, as ever, whole-hearted, while Charl Willoughby claimed the 800th first-class wicket of his career when Tim Ambrose edged a loose drive.Maybe Kartik was not quite at his best. He found some turn, but his line wasn’t as tight as we have come to expect and it took him some time to find his rhythm. Perhaps that is not surprising: he hasn’t played a first-class game since mid-January.Meanwhile it was announced that Kieswetter and Warwickshire’s Chris Woakes will be pulled out of this game after the third day to report for England duty.

England Test captain Andrew Strauss has said while there is “more to” corruption in cricket “than we know about”, he had not seen “any resolve” in dealing with the problem and that people in charge of tackling the issue are “woefully under-resourced”. England’s last Test series at home, against Pakistan, was marred by the spot-fixing controversy and Strauss believed not enough was being done to eliminate corruption in the game.”Clearly most of the betting seems to go on in the sub-continent but I wouldn’t say it was just sub-continental players that are involved,” Strauss told the . “My gut feeling is there is more to it than we know about.”It is a very difficult thing to deal with but I don’t think that’s an excuse not to try to deal with it. I haven’t seen any resolve to deal with the issue. It is hard for me to comment because I don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors.”The only input I’ve had is with the anti-corruption people who came round during the World Cup. It seems to me that they are woefully under-resourced. I just don’t think they’ve got the resources to do it properly.”Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif were banned by the ICC after an independent tribunal found them guilty of orchestrating three pre-planned, deliberate no-balls during the Lord’s Test against England last August. Soon after the allegations against the trio surfaced, Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman, claimed England’s players had taken “enormous amounts of money” to lose the third ODI at The Oval. Butt apologised for his comments later, but Strauss admitted England nearly pulled out of the next game.Even though England accepted Butt’s apology and withdrew the threat of legal action, Strauss said he had been “quite emotional” about the accusation. “My original view was our integrity had been brought into question. We got quite close to not playing the one-dayer at Lord’s. But over the course of the evening it became a lot clearer to me that actually the right thing to do was to play. We didn’t feel overjoyed to be playing the game or that series but we got through it.”Strauss said he hoped the spot-fixing controversy would trigger efforts to eliminate corruption in the game, but added, “they certainly don’t seem to be getting anywhere nearer to the bottom of the whole spot fixing/match-fixing saga.”

John Buchanan, the former coach of Australia, has been confirmed as New Zealand’s director of cricket. Buchanan will take on the role with New Zealand Cricket (NZC) in May, and will be in charge of the high-performance programme, while also overseeing the selection panel and implementing a talent identification system.The wide-ranging brief is Buchanan’s first major job in international cricket since he resigned as Australia’s coach following the 2007 World Cup triumph. Since then, he has consulted with the ECB and had an ill-fated stint as the coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, a role from which he was sacked in 2009.However, it is for his eight years as Australia’s mentor that Buchanan earned his reputation. He was in charge during the golden era that brought Australia three World Cup titles and a record 16 consecutive Test victories, and before he took control of the national side he had coached Queensland to their long-awaited first Sheffield Shield title.”John’s appointment is an exciting one for New Zealand Cricket,” NZC’s chief executive Justin Vaughan said. “He has a great cricketing pedigree and will provide outstanding leadership as NZC look to move forward.”Buchanan is the first person to take on the director of cricket role with NZC after the position was created with the aim of introducing consistent coaching strategies and overseeing the entire high-performance programme. He said he was looking forward to the challenge.”It’s an honour to be appointed to this challenging role. It is a wonderful opportunity to build on the work that has been done,” Buchanan said. “New Zealand Cricket has a proud history and is a true honour to be given the responsibility. I want to be part of the next successful era and am committed to building sustainable high performance for New Zealand Cricket.”Buchanan’s first tasks are likely to include providing input in the choice of New Zealand’s new captain and the composition of the selection panel. The existing selectors, Mark Greatbatch, Lance Cairns and Glenn Turner, come out of contract at the end of April.

Pakistan will continue to sweat over the finger injury to Umar Akmal after the batsman, again, missed practice. His chances of playing in Pakistan’s game against Zimbabwe on Monday are uncertain.Umar travelled with the team to Pallekele stadium near Kandy for an optional training session on Saturday but didn’t bat, his right index finger still strapped. He did some running and nothing else. The nature of the injury isn’t clear and scans and X-rays have revealed no fracture.”There is some swelling still there so he didn’t bat today,” Intikhab Alam, the team manager said. “We will see as far as the game on Monday is concerned but it will take a couple of days still.”Umar picked up the injury during fielding practice on Thursday and sat out Friday’s session as well though the management was eager to play down the injury then. It came soon after the loss to New Zealand, a game in which his elder brother Kamran played a central role, dropping three chances, prompting calls for his axing.The Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi subsequently spoke of the possibility of Umar replacing Kamran as wicketkeeper. The injury means that will not happen now and Kamran is almost certain to retain his place, but the timing has led to talk of a repeat of what happened in the aftermath of the Sydney Test last year. , a leading Urdu daily, reported that the pair had been spoken to by the management and told in no uncertain terms that a repeat of Sydney would not be tolerated.Umar is the side’s second leading scorer in the tournament, with 167 runs in four games at nearly 42. He has only a solitary fifty though has got starts in a couple of other games. If he does sit out – and against a relatively weaker side Pakistan may be tempted to rest him – Asad Shafiq will come in. Shafiq had a long batting session in practice and will slot into the middle order.Umar’s absence may also mean another chance for Ahmed Shehzad, who, had all players been fit, would probably have been dropped after a run of poor scores. But Pakistan are keen to stick with eight batsmen so he may be retained. There is talk of resting Shoaib Akhtar and bringing in Wahab Riaz, something Pakistan tried against Canada, or even playing with three spinners.Afridi, Misbah-ul-Haq, Mohammad Hafeez, Umar Gul, Abdul Razzaq and Shoaib opted not to train today.

Graeme Swann admitted that England were left shell-shocked by the manner and magnitude of their incredible three-wicket defeat at the hands of Kevin O’Brien on Wednesday night, but insisted that the team’s best response would be to put the result right out of their minds as they turn their attention to Sunday’s crucial showdown against the Group B pacesetters, South Africa, in Chennai.As Ireland’s celebrations continued long and loud in the wake of the biggest result of their lives, England flew out of Bangalore knowing that their World Cup campaign is in danger of sliding out of control, after three consecutive fixtures – including a thrilling tie with India – in which their frailties have been exposed with both bat and ball. However, with contests against South Africa, Bangladesh and West Indies still to come, qualification for the quarter-finals remains in their own hands, so long as they revert to winning ways at the earliest opportunity.”If we are going to win this World Cup – which we truly believe we can – we’ve got to go out and prove it, and we do that first and foremost in the field,” said Swann. “Four or five days ago, the whole world was saying ‘Oh my God, England can win’ this – because we didn’t get destroyed by that invincible Indian team. We know the fickle nature of the world, and we’re going to ignore that and just carry on and play the best cricket we can.”At 111 for 5, chasing a massive 328 for victory, Ireland’s chances of victory were seemingly non-existent, until Kevin O’Brien climbed onto the offensive with the innings of his – or anyone else’s – life. His incredible 50-ball century slammed England’s bowlers onto the defensive, and in partnership with first Alex Cusack and then John Mooney, Ireland clawed their way back into the contest.”It’s disappointing to lose any game of cricket,” said Swann. “But it was one where we got ourselves into a position of such dominance, to then have it taken away from us is quite shell-shocking. Every now and again someone wakes up and has the best day of their life – and yesterday Kevin O’Brien did that. We should have bowled better; we certainly could have bowled better, but that’s tarnishing the knock he had – personally I think he won the game rather than we lost it.”Despite that assertion, the cracks in England’s performance were visible long before O’Brien got going, with Matt Prior dropping a steepling chance behind the stumps to reprieve Ed Joyce, and Swann himself was visibly peeved with his fielders before claiming three quick wickets to put his team firmly in charge of the contest. “A lot of guys were peed off, and rightly so,” he said. “We got ourselves into a position where the opposition were 110 for five, with 20 overs to go. That’s a game an international team of the calibre that we feel we are should win 10 out of 10.””It’s annoying in the extreme, but I’m not taking anything away from Kevin O’Brien and the performance of his life,” Swann added. “It’s the best knock I’ve seen in a long time. If a guy gets 100 off 60 balls [sic], a guy gets 100 off 60 balls. There’s not a lot you can do, except say we should have bowled differently – and in the next game we will do. If we start panicking and thinking we’re the disgrace that half the people on Twitter thought we were last night, there’s no point in us playing.”You can always bowl better,” he added. “When a guy hits that many sixes you are obviously putting the ball in the wrong place. We could have bowled more yorkers and more slower balls wide of the wicket – that’s easy in retrospect to say. When you’re in the middle and the pressure is on with a guy going great guns, it can be difficult to think clearly. But we back ourselves to be professional and think clearly, so in future that’s certainly something we have to look at.”

Zimbabwe batsman Tino Mawoyo insists he is ready for the challenge of the World Cup after receiving a surprise call-up to replace Sean Ervine, who pulled out of the squad for the tournament due to personal reasons.”I was both excited and a bit surprised when I got the news,” said Mawoyo. “I was disappointed to have been left out at first just like all the players that have not been included, but despite having been left out I have been working hard all along so I think I will be as ready as the other guys when the World Cup starts.”Mawoyo, an opening batsman who played two one-day internationals against Bangladesh in 2006, has been one of the more consistent batsmen on the domestic limited-overs scene over the past two seasons. He furthered his claims for national selection with some impressive innings in the unofficial Test series against New Zealand in October last year, and his entry to the World Cup squad will also give the team more options at the top of the innings.”There is a slight change in the dynamics of the side as we lost a batsman we could have got some seam from,” explained national coach Alan Butcher. “On the other hand now we have a batsman who is used to opening the batting. I was comfortable with the options we had in that regard but now we have somebody who is used to taking the new ball at the top order and whose natural inclination is to play shots.””Tino has done well to improve on his fitness, as asked to, and he has had some rewards for his hard work,” added Butcher. “He has shed some weight and we can push that along for the next few weeks. Let’s hope that he takes to our regime for people to become fit and strong and at the same time compete in that way against other teams. We’ll get a good idea about how his attitude and mind work by the end of the tournament.”Mawoyo was in ebullient mood after being asked to join the squad and suggested that if Zimbabwe play to their strengths they could upset some of the bigger teams at the tournament. “We have always shown we are a good team,” he said. “We can get positive results against some of the big guns in our group if we apply ourselves fully. Everybody is excited and raring to go so I have a feeling it will be a successful outing for us.”Mawoyo’s words will have pleased Butcher, who expressed his hope that the Zimbabweans would approach the World Cup with a spirit of fun and adventure. “Pressure and opportunity are different sides of the same coin and I hope our people will look at it as an opportunity and an adventure rather than being under pressure,” he said.”There are other teams in the world cup that will be under more pressure than Zimbabwe and that is purely because their expectations will be greater. We have our own expectations but the more we can look at it as an opportunity to showcase individual and collective talent, rather than something that should stop us from performing, the better.”National team assistant coach Steven Mangongo added that he expected Mawoyo, who he suggested had been unlucky to miss out on selection in the past, to make the most of this opportunity. “It’s a big opportunity for him to finally get his international career going,” said Mangongo. “I always thought he was one player that had been left out who deserved to be in the squad. He is one of the few specialist openers that we have and we hope he takes this opportunity with both hands and does the job.”