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Centrals and Northerns both completed wins inside three-days in a low-scoring first round of this year’s much-postponed Logan Cup.In Mutari, Northerns beat defending champions Easterns by 65 runs thanks to a good all-round effort from Ray Price. He finished with match figures of 9 for 51 and also chipped in with useful runs. On a slow and low pitch, Brendan Taylor provided the anchor in Northerns’ first innings with a solid 62 while Shingi Masakadza, Hamilton’s young brother who is making a return to cricket from football, and fellow seamer Silent Mujaji, bagged three wickets each.Easterns were rather below par with little of note other than Hamilton Masakadza’s 60 and opening batsman Johnson Marumisa’s 52, conceding a first-innings lead of 62. Northerns also struggled when batting again, with offspinner Timycen Maruma taking a career-best 7 for 82. Set 219 to win, Easterns were sunk by the spin pairing of Price (5 for 39) and Graeme Cremer (3 for 42).In Kwekwe, the match also ended in three days with hosts Centrals beating Westerns by seven wickets, Tafadzwa Ngulube making the only hundred of the round with 111 in Westerns’ first innings of 187.After stinging criticism in a leading state-run newspaper last weekend, you might have thought that Zimbabwe Cricket’s bloated media department would have pulled out all the stops to get scorecards to the media – all the more so as last season it took testy intervention from the ICC to get cards for matches several months after the conclusion of the competition.Sadly, it was pretty much business as usual with the Logan Cup being conducted in the kind of secrecy that surrounds the outcome of the presidential election. Not even the official ZC website could manage reports or cards. A day after the conclusion of the two matches the site still led with a preview of the games.

A day after being banned by the PCB for five years, Shoaib Akhtar lashed out at the decision, claiming the board had targeted him for special treatment.”I have been victimised, I have been pinpoint targeted,” Shoaib said at a packed and heated press conference in Islamabad. “I should be told what I did and when I violated discipline. I am what I am because of Pakistan but my punishment is also because I am Pakistani. Banning a guy who played for his country with high fever is wrong.”As had been widely expected, moves to overturn the ban are already underway. The newly-elected prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gillani has told the board chief Nasim Ashraf to review the case again. Hanif Abbasi, a member of parliament from Shoaib’s constituency, has also promised to bring up the matter in the national assembly.And Shoaib himself was typically bullish, warning that he would go to great lengths to contest the ban. “I will not go down without a fight. Even my doping case was mishandled,” he said. “I will appeal, as is my right. If that fails I will go to court, if that fails then I will go to the Supreme Court.”It is unlikely that the case will go that far. The PCB is likely, in coming days, to come under increasing pressure from a variety of political sources to overturn the decision, most likely when Shoaib appeals to the board itself. Ashraf is a close associate of President Musharraf (patron of the PCB), whose various political opponents are now in power following general elections in February. Talk of an administrative change has already begun.Shoaib was hauled up for comments he made after not being offered a contract by the PCB, in which he lashed out at domestic tournaments, pitches and the administration in general. Complicating the matter was the fact that he was on a two-year probation after hitting team-mate Mohammad Asif with a bat before the World Twenty20 last year, an act which also saw him banned for 13 matches and fined over US$50,000. The board had insisted at the time that any further breach would result in an automatic life ban.Shoaib has, of course, escaped bans in the past, most notoriously when a two-year ban for doping was controversially overturned on appeal in December 2006.

In body, if not in spirit, New Zealand’s cricketers last night arrived in England for the start of their three-Test series. Ordinarily, such a tour would represent one of the biggest challenges that any of these players could hope to face – last month, their former captain, Stephen Fleming, recalled his team’s 2-1 victory in 1999 as the proudest moment of an illustrious career. But times they are a-changing, and when the coach, John Bracewell, and the stand-in captain, Jamie How, faced the media at Lord’s on Thursday afternoon, neither man could quite pretend that they are entirely focused on the job.Even allowing for the jet-lag, their distraction was hardly surprising. New Zealand’s five finest players are scattered to the four corners of the subcontinent, earning life-changing sums of money in the Indian Premier League, and with that in mind, Bracewell seemed more intent on flirting with his former county, Gloucestershire, than discussing his squad’s strategy for the summer. How, meanwhile, looked as quizzical as his surname would suggest, as he tried to fathom whether it was an honour or an insult to be lumped with the leadership of such a threadbare unit.”It’s not ideal, but this is the reality of the landscape we live in,” said Bracewell. His players take on an MCC side captained by Chris Cairns at Arundel, on Sunday, and then decamp to Canterbury for a three-day match against Kent. Only then will their superstars deign to make an appearance – one of whom, Brendon McCullum, has now officially entered the big-time following last week’s incredible 158 not out from 73 balls in Bangalore.Since time immemorial, the success of a touring side has had a direct correlation with the cohesiveness of the players in the squad, but on the face of it, this situation is as divisive as they come. Bracewell, however, insisted his players were mature enough to adapt to cricket’s changing world. “All things have the potential to cause friction, but our group understands it,” he said. “For us, it’s a glass-half-full situation. This brings us into line with New Zealand’s rugby players in terms of salaries, and the bottom line is it’s our best players who get invited, so it’s an incentive-based scheme.”There was a distinct them-and-us vibe in the air, however. “I think everyone wishes they were in India at some point,” said How, a touch more candidly than you might expect of a brand-new international captain. His words harboured no pretence as to the importance of his current role, however. Of New Zealand’s first-choice eleven from last month’s series, two batsmen (Matthew Bell and Mathew Sinclair) have been dropped, another (Fleming) has retired, while five have gone to a higher calling. In fact, of the 13 players in the country, only How, Tim Southee and Chris Martin can realistically expect a place at Lord’s on May 15.No wonder Bracewell wasn’t about to get too bombastic with his series predictions. “We’re the underdogs,” he said. “It’ll be hard work for us given our experience, or lack of. We’re rebuilding and setting some lines to get over as a team, but in Test cricket England are way ahead of us, and we’ll have to work extremely hard to beat them.”When asked if he thought New Zealand play enough Test cricket, Bracewell was unequivocal in his answer. “No,” he declared, and he has a point. New Zealand have played just seven Tests in the last 18 months, and two of those came against Bangladesh. “It’s an administration thing, in terms of the Future Tours Programme,” he said. “We recognise we don’t play enough, but we are trying to get more.”But with the advent of the IPL, and the general shake-up that the game is currently undergoing, it’s a vain hope. Bracewell cited McCullum’s international career as an example of how under-exposed his players are. McCullum has been ever-present in New Zealand’s Test side since making his debut in March 2004, yet he has played only 32 matches, which is 14 fewer than Andrew Strauss’s tally – in spite of the fact that Strauss’s debut came two months later, and that he has, on occasions, missed matches for England.New Zealand’s situation is hardly aided by the amount of learning-on-the-hoof that their players are forced to undergo. “Domestic cricket in New Zealand is not that strong, so our players have got to develop at international level,” said Bracewell. “We think the ones we’ve picked are form players domestically, and they have earned their opportunity. But now we need to see whether they can become not just Black Caps, but great Black Caps. To do that, they need to make some tough sacrifices.”In particular, Bracewell was talking about the Otago batsman, Aaron Redmond, who comes into the reckoning as a replacement for Bell. There are few environments more hostile to a debutant opener that England in May, although Bracewell felt that New Zealanders come better prepared than most. “There’s not a heck of a difference,” he said. “We’re used to playing on wickets that do a bit, and we produce similar sorts of bowlers. We just need to get our skills up, because we can’t keep throwing our bowlers out there after only 60-70 overs’ rest. They have got to have enough fuel in the tank to get through, and in the last series, they ran out.”On one level at least, Bracewell was clearly looking forward to the tour, but it was perhaps not for the reasons that his team might have hoped. “I really enjoyed the time I had here,” he said, recalling his days as Gloucestershire’s coach in the early 2000s. “There’s a great lifestyle and environment for cricket here, and yes, I’d like to return to county cricket at some stage. There are a lot of options out there for coaches, as well as players, with the opening-up of world cricket.” Everyone’s eyes seem averted from the immediate task at the moment, but in Bracewell’s case, he’s not simply gazing towards the IPL.

Paras Mhambrey has been roped in to assist Rahul Dravid as the bowling coach of the India A team. The former India medium-pacer, who is also the Vidarbha coach, will join the India A squad in Chennai ahead of the first four-day game against Australia A from July 18.According to a BCCI insider, Dravid recommended Mhambrey for the role. The BCCI then formally approached Mhambrey, who accepted their offer after assuring the Vidarbha Cricket Association that he wouldn’t leave them in the lurch.”I am happy to work with Rahul. It feels really nice when someone of his pedigree takes so much interest in the appointment of support staff,” Mhambrey told ESPNcricinfo. “Working with the India A lot is an exciting prospect. There is a lot of potential in this India A group and I am looking forward to helping them maximise it.”The VCA was happy to release him despite his contract running till the end of the season. Mhambrey will thus skip the KSCA Shafi Darashah tournament since the pre-season tournament clashes with the India A series.”We are delighted to see Paras getting such an opportunity,” the VCA president Prakash Dixit said. “He assured us that he will join us as soon as the series is over and knowing him, we are sure he will keep in touch with our players regularly.”Mhambrey has gained plenty of coaching experience since leading Mumbai to a Ranji Trophy triumph as a player. Over the last last twelve years, he has coached Maharashtra, Bengal, Baroda and Vidarbha. He was also a part of the Mumbai Indians coaching staff for four years.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile Photo – Shoaib Malik cracked an unbeaten 34 off 23 balls•AFP

Comilla Victorians paced their chase of 137 expertly to take their fifth win of the tournament, beating Chittagong Vikings by five wickets. Chittagong’s bowlers, led by Mohammad Amir, bowled with discipline early in the chase but Ahmed Shehzad and Shoaib Malik launched a late surge to take their side home.With Chittagong and Comilla being traditional rivals, the game had an electric atmosphere and there was much drama when Tillakaratne Dilshan bumped into Imrul Kayes, in the second over of the chase, in a bid to run the opener out. Dilshan failed to throw the stumps down at the striker’s end as Kayes and Shehzad went for a single. While trying to collect the throw from the deep, Dilshan, however, tripped Kayes who fell in a heap. The stumps were broken at the non-striker’s end but Kayes protested for obstruction. Chittagong captain Tamim Iqbal then stepped in and calmed the batsman down before the on-field umpires Mahfuzur Rahman and Morshed Ali Khan referred it to the third umpire Anisur Rahman who awarded five penalty runs to Comilla according to Law 42 (5), after watching several replays.The incident came after Liton Das was dismissed by Taskin Ahmed for three. Kayes and Shehzad then worked their way past the drama, adding 52 for the second wicket. Coincidentally, Imrul Kayes was dismissed by Tillakaratne Dilshan, in the tenth over. Four overs later, Shehzad found a higher gear when he smashed Taskin for three successive fours. However, he fell in the next over for 37 when he miscued one off Bilawal Bhatti to long-off.Amir, who was brought back to bowl the seventeenth over with 31 needed, took the wickets of Ashar Zaidi and Shuvagata Hom in a space of four balls. Bilawal Bhatti did a decent job, giving away eight off the next over, leaving Comilla needing 16 off the last two overs. Malik, though, tilted the contest in his side’s favor when he forced Amir past point in the penultimate over. Tasked with the job of bowling the final over, Bhatti wilted under pressure: his first ball ending up as a beamer. Malik picked up two off the next ball before sealing the game with a six over midwicket with two balls to spare. He finished unbeaten on 34 off 32 balls, including two fours and a six.Earlier in the day, Chittagong began brightly with Dilshan and Tamim Iqbal producing their fourth fifty-plus stand in the tournament. Tamim got into his groove in the fourth over, striking Abu Haider for a six and a four after having jumped off his feet to adjust to the length. He followed it with a couple of leg-side fours before holing out to long-off for 27 off Shuvagata.Anamul Haque (0) was soon run out by Mashrafe Mortaza, who captained Comilla, but did not bowl because of an injured hamstring. Zaidi then nailed Dilshan with an excellent angled delivery as Chittagong slipped to 78 for 3.Umar Akmal, who had made only one in the previous game, however, took charge and went after the bowlers. He hit four fours and two sixes during his 34-ball 49, the highlight being a slow-swept six over midwicket. But Nuwan Kulasekara bowled an accurate last over, giving away only four runs, as Chittagong were kept to 136.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsMahela Jayawardene’s second fifty as an opener converted a potential tricky chase of 176 into a cruise for the Adelaide•Cricket Australia/Getty Images

Beware the wounded cricketer. At the end of the fourth over of Adelaide Strikers’ chase, Mahela Jayawardene – looking in simply sumptuous form – pushed Josh Lalor to short fine leg, and sprinted through for a single, as fast as his little legs would carry him. In doing so, perhaps with all 38 of his years showing, he overstretched, and felt one of quadriceps sting.This would be a situation relished by Brisbane Heat, on their last legs in BBL 2015-16. But, after five minutes of work treatment by the physio, Jayawardene picked himself up, pulled up his trousers (literally) and drilled James Hopes on the up through the covers for four to move to 31 off 13. By the over’s end, the Sri Lankan had driven Hopes down the ground for a stunning six. Jayawardene was not going to die wondering, and it was the foundation he set up courtesy a 30-ball 53 that helped the Adelaide Strikers move up to the top of the points table as they chased down 176 with eight balls to spare and eight wickets in hand.By the time Jayawardene’s innings had died, in the tenth over, wrongly adjudged leg before attempting to reverse sweep off a Samuel Badree googly, the Heat were on their knees, and the damage had been done. Before his injury, Jayawardene had consecutively top-edged Andrew Fekete for six, cover driven for four, then middled a pull for six; afterwards (despite some near-suicidal running from Tim Ludeman) he was ramping Ben Cutting over the keeper’s head, and skipping towards Badree and firing the ball back past him for four to bring up a second consecutive half-century since moving to the top of the order against Scorchers on Tuesday.A loss here meant Brisbane Heat’s last two games – both away from home – are irrelevant. Heat have been much improved, but they ran into a more efficient unit on Friday. Earlier, for once, Chris Lynn did not top score; Jimmy Peirson notched a fine half-century, standing and delivering, carting the ball down the ground, and targeting the leg-breaks of John Holland, before falling to Travis Head’s part-timers when ready to push on.Lendl Simmons was given leg before to Michael Neser’s second ball, but Chris Lynn appeared to shine briefly to help overcome the early damage. Billy Stanlake’s rangy seamers were dispatched for three fours in an over. Ben Laughlin was consecutively driven for four, past the umpire, then through the covers, but the introduction of Adil Rashid – now the competition’s highest wicket-taker, with 12 scalps – did for Lynn, as he tried to slog sweep against the spin and was caught at deep midwicket.Rashid’s four overs went for just a single boundary, and 17 runs, and his last delivery snared the Heat’s last dangerous hitter, Ben Cutting, bowled by a beautifully disguised googly. When Rashid was done, lusty hitting from Nathan Reardon, and a wonderful finish from Hopes, who took Neser’s final over for 17 with some impressive swiping across the line, carried Heat to 175 for 6.In response, Jayawardene’s early assault had done the damage, but Ludeman and Head picked up where he left off, accepting regular gifts from the Heat. If it was careless to allow a limping Jayawardene to amble between the wickets for ones and twos, it was downright irresponsible to drop Head on 4 (Sam Heazlett at backward point) and 7 (Josh Lalor, running in from backward square); plenty more sloppy fielding followed.As Ludeman anchored, playing conventional strokes, including a glorious cover driven four to move to 49, Head played himself in then freed the arms. They would become the first top three in BBL history to all reach 50 in a single innings, a stat in stark contrast to Peirson’s being the first 50 for the Heat this season not coming from Lynn’s bat.Lalor found a fine 14th over to briefly put Strikers’ brakes on, before Head began batting like it was the last night of 2015 all over again. Andrew Fekete played the role of Sean Abbott, driven over long-off, then twice pulled over square-leg, all for six. When he was caught swinging across the line (a ball after hitting Cutting down the ground for another six to bring up his half-century), Brad Hodge came out to drive down the ground and see them home. As their march toward a home semi-final continues, Strikers will hope the quad injury of their other elder statesman (and new lynchpin) Jayawardene is not too serious.

Australia’s coach Darren Lehmann remains marooned in Sydney awaiting medical clearance to fly after his deep vein thrombosis scare, and is no certainty to travel to New Zealand for the Test series that could give his side the world No. 1 ranking.While Lehmann, his players and Cricket Australia are all equally eager for him to return to the team, longer-term considerations will play a part in their thinking. Following New Zealand are the longer trips to South Africa and then India for the World T20. One factor in favour of Lehmann going to New Zealand for the Tests are a pair of longer stays in Wellington and Christchurch, with the option of driving between the two venues.Having faced his second bout of DVT following an earlier instance in 2007, Lehmann said he would be taking greater precautions when travelling in future, whether that meant wearing skins on flights, moving around the cabin more often or no longer making a habit of falling asleep whenever the plane left the tarmac.”Still recovering from the DVT but for me it’s just about hopefully get medical clearance later on in the week and see where we go from there and join the New Zealand crew,” Lehmann said. “But until medical clearance comes through that I can fly, I’ll have to wait and see. But feeling a lot better.”I’ve had it before, so I knew straightaway what was going to happen, it was straight to hospital and then in overnight and straight onto the thinning tablets now. It’s a case of getting the blood right. Having been through it before you know what’s happening.”Now the specialists are pretty comfortable they’ll get it under control. End of the day I sleep on the plane, I probably shouldn’t be sleeping too much and moving around [more], but it’s one of those things, in our job you fly a lot. You’ve just got to be careful.”Watching Australia’s T20 travails from a distance has been difficult for Lehmann, who said his television was still working “just” after successive defeats in the first two matches of the India series. He agreed that Australia’s short-form team needed more continuity to perform at a higher level, but was unsure of how that might be achieved.”They don’t play that often together, scheduling’s a tough one for us, we’re getting prepared for New Zealand which is an important one for us as well,” he said. “The World T20 is just around the corner, so you’ve got to find the best solution somewhere so we’re got some guys in New Zealand, some guys here, we’re rewarding good performances in the BBL and having a look at some young guys. It’s a tough one, but we’re really confident going into the World T20.”Where do you fit it in? One-dayers are just as important, we just had a World Cup last year. Test matches are equally important. So it’s trying to find the right balance and that’s always a hard thing for scheduling. You’d love to have a big lead-in, we haven’t, can’t do much about that. With the three games in South Africa with our squad and then the World Cup, it is what it is.”As for news that the former Michael Clarke is making his return to cricket after a five-month sabbatical, Lehmann said he was happy whenever one of the “greats of the game” showed a desire to get back involved. “I spoke to him this morning,” Lehmann said. “He’ll play this grade game in February and see where it takes him from there.”It’s great to have one of the greats back. He’s obviously missed the game, loves the game, pleased for him to be starting back in club cricket and see where it goes from there. That’s what we want from the older guys, staying in the game. Let him get back and play some cricket and see where it takes him.”

Results summaryKnights opened the Ram Slam T20 Challenge with a straightforward win, chasing 154 against Warriors in Port Elizabeth. Warriors were left to rue their mid-innings collapse in which they lost five wickets for 30 runs between the 5th and 11th over, caused largely by pace off the ball from Shadley van Schalkwyk. Christiaan Jonker’s 61 off 38 balls kept them in the hunt but the quality of international batsmen in the Knights side meant the total, though slightly above par for the venue, was never enough. Theunis de Bruyn’s 78 off 48 balls and David Miller’s 62 off 47 balls took Knights home with two overs to spare.Rain affected double-header Sunday but Dolphins made a strong statement against Cape Cobras, putting on 231 for 2. Sarel Erwee became the first centurion of the competition with 103 off 58 balls while Khaya Zondo contributed 67 off 34 balls. Vernon Philander conceded 49 runs, while Dane Paterson went for 44 runs in their respective four-over quota. In response, Cobras’ superstars could not withstand the pressure. Richard Levi nicked off against Robbie Frylinck, Temba Bavuma scooped a catch to point off Keshav Maharaj and JP Duminy was run-out. Hashim Amla was on 52 not out when lightning stopped the chase after 8.3 overs. Cobras finished on 108 for 3 in 10 overs, 15 short on the DLS method.The lightning eventually turned into a storm and reduced the match between Lions and Titans to 15 overs-a-side. Albie Morkel took 3 for 12 to keep Lions to 127 for 6, with Reeza Hendricks’ 67 off 42 the only score over 20. Then, Morkel scored 41 off 16 balls and shared an 85-run third-wicket partnership with AB de Villiers, who blitzed a 19-ball 50, to give Titans victory with 22 balls left in their innings.International incidentsDe Villiers takes the honours for the most impressive performance by a national player, not least for the back-to-back sixes he hit off Kagiso Rabada to end Titans’ innings. He did not, however, score as many runs as either de Bruyn or Miller. De Bruyn’s contribution may be particularly noteworthy, considering his struggle to find a spot in the Test team. This innings showed he could start making a case for consideration in shorter formats.Among the bowlers, Maharaj, who opened the bowling for Dolphins and took 1 for 23 in three overs, would have caught the national selectors’ eyes. Maharaj started ahead of Imran Tahir, and showed the same control he has become known for in Tests.There will be concern over Duminy’s start as Cobras captain. He bowled three overs and cost his side 40 runs, and was then run-out for 1, at a time when Cobras desperately needed a partnership.Domestic dreamersLook no further than Erwee for a domestic player who has made an impact in the opening week. Erwee, a 28-year-old opening batsmen from Pietermaritzburg, has had a stunning summer so far. He was the leading run-scorer in the Africa T20 Cup for champions Kwa-Zulu Natal Inland.He also scored two hundreds for the Dolphins in the first-class competition, but was forced to miss two of the remaining three matches. Erwee could not play mid-way through the first half because he went to France for the wedding of England’s Jason Roy, a friend from his club cricket days in the UK, and then could not play the final round before the break because he was part of South Africa’s victorious Hong Kong Sixes squad.Beyond the boundaryBoth venues, St George’s Park and SuperSport Park, saw fairly good crowds attend the opening week, with the Port Elizabeth band in full voice and a Sunday afternoon crowd braving the Highveld storms to braai on Centurion’s grass embankments.Three members of the crowd took one-handed catches, in a competition for a share of R2 million (US$139,290) but only two of them are eligible to win. The third is an employee of the Gauteng Cricket Board, one-half of the Lions franchise, and so had to be disqualified.

Andy Caddick demonstrated how much class he has developed as an international front-line bowler on his old stamping ground at Hagley Oval for England in their tour match with Canterbury today.Taking five wickets for 69, his 54th five wicket bag in his first-class career, he bowled England into a dominating position, although for the third innings by local teams in a row, the England attack could not clean up.Canterbury declared at 212/8 after a day of hard graft on a grassy pitch. England were 28 without loss in the nine overs bowled before stumps.But Caddick’s delight must be tempered by growing concern about the lack of incisiveness of this England attack for the forthcoming Test series.Even after Caddick had knocked the top off the Canterbury batting with three wickets for 27, the after-guard could not complete the job and it was only when Caddick returned that more wickets followed. On a seamer-friendly track that has to be of concern.However, it was Caddick’s day out. He finished the innings with 796 first-class wickets, a long way from the 17 through to 19-year-old who used to dream of greater things with the Riccarton Club whose wicket adjoins the main match block at Hagley Oval.”There were good games, good drinking and good nights,” he said.As for today, he was pleased with the way he bowled.”It was coming out all right, but it was difficult because the wind was so blustery.”It was a flat wicket, as the ball got a little older.”I got better as the day went along. I hit my rhythm a little earlier than in Queenstown,” he said.While acknowledging that he, as the experienced bowler in the side, has a lot of responsibility, it was a duty he did not shirk, especially in the absence of Darren Gough.”The onus is on everybody to perform,” he said.”I like being the leader. I do have some weight on my shoulders but there is also weight on the others,” he said.Some of the bowlers were still adjusting out of the One-Day International mode they had been in but he was confident that by the time the first Test started next Wednesday, everybody would be keen to step up for the cause.But for Caddick at least there was evidence of growing readiness for the series, especially after the four and three-wicket bags he took in Queenstown against Otago.He also acknowledged that the Canterbury side which met England today were a good unit, if not quite at full strength.But they did appreciate why a player like Chris Harris has fashioned such an outstanding record at first-class level in New Zealand.Harris was easily the best performed of the Canterbury batsmen, sharing a 106-run fifth wicket stand with Robbie Frew that resurrected the Canterbury innings from 39/4.Frew opened the innings and battled outstandingly in a support role while Harris started slowly and built well before launching into the bowling in the latter stages of his innings.He brought up his 50 off 92 balls which included eight boundaries and when dismissed for 82 he had faced 154 balls and hit 12 fours. He went to an edge from Andrew Flintoff’s bowling which flew to Ashley Giles at second slip.Earlier, Frew’s innings was ended when he too, was caught in the slips, by Flintoff from Caddick for 44.There was a chance for lower order batsmen Paul Wiseman and Warren Wisneski to flail away with Wiseman hitting a lovely six on the hook from Flintoff before a run out mix-up saw Wisneski depart just as the declaration was made.Michael Vaughan and Mark Butcher safely negotiated their way to stumps with no real problems.

ScorecardA half-century from Niall O’Brien and three wickets each from spinner George Dockrell and medium-pacer Alex Cusack helped Ireland beat Zimbabwe by 54 runs in a warm-up match in Colombo.Ireland were sent in to bat and made a quick start before losing their openers in successive overs. Niall O’Brien and Ed Joyce steadied the innings with a 83-run stand, and Niall O’Brien carried on to score 62 off 49 balls. Kevin O’Brien provided the finishing touches by smacking 30 off 14 balls to lead Ireland to 181.Boyd Rankin gave the defence the perfect start by trapping Vusi Sibanda lbw first ball, before Hamilton Masakadza’s aggressive 44 off 27 balls powered Zimbabwe to 74 for 2 in the ninth over. Dockrell made the breakthrough by dismissing Masakadza and then got rid of Stuart Matsikenyeri the next ball. Cusack’s double strike in the 10th over reduced Zimbabwe to 75 for 6 and they did not recover. Zimbabwe slipped to 83 for 8 before the ninth-wicket partnership led them to 127.