North West held the edge after the first day of the four-day SupersportSeries match against Boland in Paarl, on a day when 12 wickets fell and one batsman was hospitalised.The visitors won the toss, elected to bat and scored 216 for nine. It was effectively all out as North West skipper Martin Venter went to hospital after being struck by a fearsome rising delivery from left-arm seamer Neil Carter.The ball rose off a good length shortly after lunch with the captain on 44. Venter has severe damage to his hand and may have to undergo surgery. Carter was aggressive throughout the day and bowled for almost the entire session between lunch and tea. He finished with three for 50. His opening partner Charl Langeveldt continued his good form this season taking four for 48.North West were unable to string any good partnerships together, although the final wicket stand between Alphonso Thomas (33) and Garth Roe (19 not out) yielded 50-runs. The same two batsmen put on 174-runs for the tenth wicket last week in the match against Griquas – a South African record.Glen Hewitt scored 34 and batted beautifully after a shaky start, only to be thwarted by a sharp rising Langeveldt delivery outside the off-stump. Craig Light scored 31 with no other significant contributions from anyone else.Boland, in response, were 40 for three at the close. West Indian Mark Lavine removed opener Jonathan Trott, leg before for five, and Louis Koen for a duck in the same over. Boland were struggling on seven for two, but a competent 33-run partnership between James Henderson and Pieter Barnard helped steady the innings.With the last ball of the day’s play, Lavine had Barnard trapped leg before for 19 to a delivery that appeared to have hit the bat. On Saturday Justin Ontong should make his way to the crease.

An unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 67 between Craig Light and Mark Lavine lifted North West out of a spot of trouble on the rain-curtailed first day of this match, after the home side, put into bat, had collapsed from 40 without loss to 76 for four.Lavine, with a typically belligerent 48 off 52 balls, including five fours and two sixes, and Light, with a far more sedate 19, took the home side to 143 for four after heavy rain had ensured that play would only start at 3pm and just 48 overs of a scheduled 104 would be possible.Riaan Niewoudt, who made 35 on his first class debut, and Gary Outram put together a solid first-wicket stand of 40, but that was where the wickets began to tumble, with the much-vaunted Northerns pace trio of Steve Elworthy, Greg Smith and David Townsend all chipping in. Smith was the most successful, ending the day with two for 19 from 12 overs.North West currently lie fourth in their section of the competition and will qualify for the Super Eight phase if they prevent Griquas, struggling against Boland on day one, from overtaking them. Lavine’s efforts mean they are within seven runs of a first batting bonus point, with 52 overs left to pile up points. Should he stay in for any length of time on Saturday, a good number should come their way.

Nicky Peng helped save Durham from potentialembarrassment on another hard-fought day at Derby.The 18-year-old right-hander played responsibly for 31overs to steady Durham who were wobbling at 139-5 inreply to Derbyshire’s 318.With Andy Pratt, he took his team past the 169 theyneeded to avoid the follow-on before wickets inconsecutive overs tilted the game back towardsDerbyshire.Peng pulled a Richard Illingworth long hop tomid-wicket and Pratt was caught behind off Tim Muntonto raise Derbyshire’s hopes of a sizeable firstinnings lead.This was one of Derbyshire’s best days of a so fardisappointing season and they start the third day witha lead of 117 and three wickets left to take.Their first score of over 300 at Derby since lastAugust was due to some spirited lower order battingand a wild over from Steve Harmison who gave away 10extras including one ball which went for four wides.A total of 48 extras was second highest score in theDerbyshire innings but Durham looked comfortable withMichael Gough and Martin Love at the wicket.But Gough played on to Nathan Dumelow and MartinSpeight played across Graeme Welch after strugglingfor 13 overs for 14.Love passed fifty for the fourth time this seasonbefore he was lbw pushing half forward at Illingworthand when Danny Law top-edged a pull, Durham were introuble.But Peng and Pratt played sensibly although Derbyshirewill still expect to strengthen their positiontomorrow as they push for their first victory sinceAugust when Durham were beaten at the County Ground.

Hampshire and Sussex fought out a tame and meaningless last day in front ofa small crowd at the Rose Bowl, the grandeur of the new ground contrastingwith the lack of a contest on the pitch.Hampshire, 108 behind overnight at 392 for eight, continued for another hour before they were all out for 437, a first innings deficit of 63.James Kirtley climed the last two wickets, having Shaun Udal caught at backward point for 39 and then bowling Alex Morris for a career-best 65. Udal and Morris put on 95 for the fifth wicket.Faced with only a small lead, Sussex had little option but to bat throughwhat remained of the day and this they did until Chris Adams brought amerciful end by declaring at the first available opportunity at 5.20pm.Alan Mullally rested a groin strain and did not take the field and the onlyincident of note came early in the Sussex second innings when Murray Goodwinwas forced to retire after being struck on the hand by a rising deliveryfrom Dimitri Mascarenhas.The score was then 17 and by the time Sussex declared, Richard Montgomerie and Michael Yardy had taken the score to 179 without being parted.Hampshire used only occasional bowlers including Will Kendall for 14 overs and even wicket-keeper Adrian Aymes had his bowling chance. Montgomerie made 88 and Yardy a personal-best 75 but their inningss will have given them little satisfaction. Each hit seven fours.

Shockwaves reverberated through Zimbabwe cricket early on Saturday morning when, before the start of their opening match against West Indies in the one-day triangular tournament, Heath Streak announced his resignation as national captain.”It has been a long time coming,” Streak said in a television interview after the match. “I’ve had a lot of communication problems, in particular with the selection panel, and I feel that they don’t have any confidence in me. So I thought it would be best for them and the team that I stood down as captain. It’s unfortunate, but they knew about this as early as Wednesday. We had discussed it with the selectors before.”I have a lot of pride and passion in playing for my country, and I have the support of the team. They didn’t want this to happen, but I thought that was the best I should do for them.”However, a couple of hours later, after a meeting with Zimbabwe Cricket Union president Peter Chingoka and other ZCU officials, Streak was happy to rescind his resignation. He said that the problem areas had been resolved and that Mr Chingoka had given him his full support and asked him to continue as captain.The main problem area was that of selection. It is an open secret that there has been political interference in the selection processes in Zimbabwe cricket, with certain activists determined to push more “players of colour” into the national side when, strictly speaking, they would not qualify on merit. Many of the players, who are proud of their country and take a pride in their team’s performance, have been for some time unhappy and unsettled in their belief that the best available national team is not being selected.Sources close to the team say that the matter came to a head with the selection of the side for Saturday’s match against West Indies, when the captain and coach disagreed with the selectors over the inclusion of, it is believed, three of the players in the team. Incidentally two of them were white. As part of the agreement between Streak and the ZCU, Streak and coach Carl Rackemann have been appointed to the selection panel, which now numbers an unwieldy eight.Streak also said that various assurances that had been given to him in the past by the selectors and administrators had not been acted upon. At the meeting on Saturday night, he said, he had been promised that in future the promised action would be taken.Undoubtedly the captaincy crisis and the reasons behind it affected the national side, who have played poorly and lost their first two matches in the triangular tournament, probably putting themselves out of the running for the final. With last year’s threatened strike in England fresh in the memory, it is unfortunate that the administrators do not appear to respond to the players’ concerns until they take extreme measures. Whether they like it or not, the fact is that the players will not perform at their best on the field unless they are happy off it.It remains to be seen whether the reconciliation will last. Several sources close to the centre of Zimbabwe cricket believe that the underlying problems are still there and will resurface before long. The national side will never perform at its best until players and administrators are on the same side and pulling together. And in such situations, the ball is always in the administrators’ court.

In his latest exclusive diary entry for CricInfo, Alec looks ahead to the Second Test, emphasising the need for a wholesale improvement in England’s performance. He also reflects on Surrey’s Benson and Hedges Cup Final win, and on the contribution made by the county to the current England side.It was great to be part of the Surrey team that beat Gloucestershire on Saturday – they’ve set the benchmark for one-day cricket over the last three years, and they were the side that all other 17 counties have been trying to knock off. Fortunately, we put in one of our best, if not the best, bowling and fielding performances in one-day cricket for the last two or three years. It was a brave decision by Adam Hollioake to bat first at Lord’s in overcast conditions, when the pitch had been under cover for the previous 24 hours or so. It certainly paid off, so full credit to Adam for his boldness, and to the Surrey batsmen for posting a competitive total, and no praise can be too high for our bowlers and fielders for the way we performed in the second half of the game.We may even have five Surrey batsmen in the England side back at Lord’s in the Second Test, and that reflects great credit on the club. To provide nearly half the Test side is remarkable – it certainly weakens the county side, and makes our chances of retaining the CricInfo Championship for the third year in a row rather slim, but we should all look at the wider picture, and that’s to try and provide the best possible side for England.Hopefully Graham Thorpe will be playing for England again come Thursday – he’s been our number one batsman over the last year, and it’s been a huge blow that he’s been unavailable. And it’s good that Mark Ramprakash is fit again; he’s always been a top player. I rate him and Graeme Hick as England’s two best county cricketers. Ramps is a Test class batsman. I know he’d like his figures to improve, but when he was left out of the South African trip 18 months ago he was averaging around 42 in his previous 15 Test matches. He’s playing as well as I’ve seen him play, and comes back in a more relaxed frame of mind. Hopefully he’ll be able to reproduce his Surrey form at Lord’s for England.Whenever you play at Lord’s it should lift you – it’s the home of cricket, has its own special atmosphere and is certainly my favourite ground. But I also think the fact that touring sides only get to play at Lord’s once every four or five years – some players will only play there once in their career – makes everyone lift their game.England have had a poor record there for a while, but we’ve won our last three Tests there. It would be nice if we could continue that, but Australia are a fantastic side. People have now seen at first hand how good they are. What I’ve said and will continue to say, is that at the end of this series we’ll know how much progress we’ve made in the last 18 months or so, because we’re testing ourselves against the very best. That assessment should be based less on the actual result than on how we played against them, and at Edgbaston we didn’t do ourselves too many favours. We need to improve on our performance in every department of the game, and we know we can.

VVS Laxman who guided India for their first victory of the Coca-ColaCup against Sri Lanka and opening bowler Zaheer Khan are to stay backfor the remainder of the tri-series despite their injuries.Laxman was to go back home to attend to his knee surgery before Indiagame against Sri Lanka on Saturday, but he stayed back because of thesuspension of skipper Saurav Ganguly who was suspended for that match.But after the batsman guided India to victory through an unbeaten 87which not only won him the man of the match award but also keptIndia’s chances alive in the competition, the team management haddecided to play him in the remaining matches. Laxman played Saturday’sgame with a bandage, fielded throughout during the Sri Lankan inningsand was in the middle from the third ball of the Indian innings.However the batsman will definitely miss the Test series against SriLanka as his surgery will take four weeks to heal.Meanwhile, Zaheer Khan who is suffering from a stress fracture on theright shin, is expected to fly to Chennai for a bone scan after theOne Day Series and his availability for the Test matches will bedecided on the results of the report.The other left arm paceman Asish Nehra who is suffering from a groininjury is also set to miss the Test series.The Indian selectors will pick the squad for the Test series in Mumbaion Thursday.

Mark Robinson and Robin Martin-Jenkins each took four wickets as Sussex bowled out Middlesex for 161 to replace them at the top of the CricInfo Championship second division.Sussex’s 192 run success condemned the previous leaders to their first defeat of the season.Set 354 to win in 82 overs, openers Andy Strauss and Mike Roseberry gave them a good start by putting on 54 for the first wicket.But Martin-Jenkins bowled Roseberry and Robinson had Owais Shah caught at slip before lunch and after the interval Martin-Jenkins and James Kirtley each took a wicket to reduce Middlesex to 80-4.Strauss and skipper Paul Weekes defied the attack for 13 overs in a fifth wicket stand of 37, but an outstanding reflex catch at silly point by Mike Yardy got rid of Strauss shortly after he’d scored his half-century.The last five wickets fell for 13 runs after tea with Middlesex’s last hope disappearing when Weekes was pinned on the back foot by Robinson.And there were 15.3 overs remaining when Robinson bowled Phil Tufnell to complete a seventh win of the season for Sussex.Earlier Yardy (72) and Chris Adams (54) had gone quickly as Sussex chased runs before their morning declaration.They scored 70 in 12.1 overs before pulling out on 210-7, Weekes finishing with 4-25.

Australian captain Steve Waugh, injured while running a single during the tourists’ victory in the Third Ashes Test at Trent Bridge, has said that he may leave England before the end of the series if he believes he has become a “nuisance” to his team-mates.Waugh, who has a double calf muscle tear, confirmed that he is out of contention for the Fourth Test at Headingley next week, although he is still hoping to be back for the fifth and final Test at the Oval. However, the odds are against him playing again on this tour, as the Australian physio, Errol Alcott, has prescribed seven to ten days’ treatment for an injury that usually takes at least a month to heal.In his absence, vice-captain Adam Gilchrist, scourge of England with bat and gloves, is likely to be promoted to lead the side, and Waugh is keen not to be in the way: “If I am being a nuisance or do not get any value in hanging around then I will decide to go home. Ten days of treatment is the best remedy, and if I feel like I am getting in the road of the new captain or vice-captain then I will go. If I was staying here it would have to have a purpose. You have to be fair to the new captain and give him some space.”One reason for Waugh staying in this country would be to receive the Waterford Crystal replica of the Ashes, presented to the winning team after the final Test and which recently has taken up long-term residence in Australia.Waugh will also have to wait until he is well enough to fly home if he should choose to leave the tour early: “If I go home it is going to be difficult. First of all I have got to fly and then I have to see the physio every day.”And even for a captain whose side have retained the Ashes and are the best Test and one-day side in the world, life still has its challenges: “I have to get to the physio – then I am going to be running around trying to chase the kids."

Glamorgan are now officially promoted in the Norwich Union League and all but champions of the Second Division with two points from an abandoned game at New Road.With two games to play, they are eight points clear of Worcestershire with a huge run-rate advantage to guard against an unexpected shift in recent form.Worcestershire have failed to win in four games – two lost and two rained off, whereas the Welshmen have amassed 28 points from eight matches.They were again in their best batting form when scoring 254 for 6 in a reduced innings of 43 overs. Robert Croft completed his fifth half-century of the season in the competition and Matthew Maynard took his aggregate to 241 from three innings in a week.Together they put on 111 – Glamorgan’s best in the League for the fourth wicket against Worcestershire – as the Second Division title favourites accelerated from a modest 77 for 3.Keith Newell, Ian Thomas and Jimmy Maher all reached double figures before Croft reached 50 from 59 balls. The England off-spinner was bowled for 61 by David Leatherdale and Maynard hoisted Stuart Lampitt to mid-on after making 71 from 85 deliveries.The first break for rain came during a late dash of 47 in five overs by Michael Powell and Darren Thomas, who was lbw to Andy Bichel’s final delivery after hitting 25 from 17 balls. Powell was unbeaten with 20 from 15.Worcestershire were given an imposing target of 264 under the Duckworth-Lewis method but were unable to start their reply before heavier rain ended the proceedings at 4.30pm.