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There have been a number of enforced changes to the Scottish Saltires squad to play Worcestershire Royals at Grange CC on Wednesday.Craig Wright, Saltire’s captain, is injured and will be replaced by Stewart Bruce. Simon Smith will be taking over as wicket-keeper following the injury of his namesake Colin Smith, and Ian Stanger has had to pull out because of time constraints and work commitments. He will be replaced by Gregor Maiden.Meanwhile, Yasir Arafat will be missing from the squad for the games against Sussex Sharks on July 4 and Middlesex Crusaders on July 5, as he will be on Pakistan national squad duty. Should he be selected for the Pakistan squad to go to the Asia Cup, he could be away for a further four weeks and would miss at least one other Totesport League game.In his absence, Floyd Reifer, who played four Tests and two one-day internationals for the West Indies between 1997 and 1999, has been invited into the squad. Reifer, who is currently playing as Uddingston’s professional, is a powerful all-rounder who knows British cricketing conditions well. His cousin George, also an Uddingston player, has also played cricket for Scotland.Despite his brief international career, Reifer has 92 first-class matches under his belt, and with a batting average of 35 and a double-hundred to his name, his experience will be an added bonus to the Saltires squad.Saltires squad against Sussex Sharks and Middlesex Crusaders Craig Wright (capt), Stewart Bruce, Asim Butt, Cedric English, Paul Hoffmann, Douglas Lockhart, Gregor Maiden, Dewald Nel, Bruce Patterson, Floyd Reifer, Sridharan Sriram, Simon Smith (wk), Ryan Watson, Fraser Watts.

Durham v Lancashire at Chester-le-Street
ScorecardJames Anderson continued his astonishing season with three wickets in five overs, as Durham were bundled to a humiliating defeat at Chester-le-Street. Chasing Lancashire’s modest 229 for 9, Durham were washed up inside the first 15 overs of their reply, as Anderson and Peter Martin extracted the top six for a paltry 26 runs. To make matters worse, Durham’s Australian Test player, Martin Love, was unable to bat after fracturing his thumb while attempting a slip catch, and has been ruled out for three weeks. Nicky Peng led a spirited rearguard, adding 53 for the seventh wicket with Neil Killeen and contributing more than half of Durham’s total, but Azhar Mahmood wrapped up the match with two wickets in three overs. Lancashire’s total had been built on the efforts of Carl Hooper and Stuart Law, who each contributed a well-paced half-century. The impetus was provided by Andrew Flintoff, a surprise recall after his shoulder injury, who blasted 31 from 29 balls.Kent v Gloucestershire at Canterbury
ScorecardGloucestershire’s one-day knowhow carried them to a tense five-wicket victory in a low-scoring encounter at Canterbury. A total of 194 never looked like being enough for Kent, despite an impressive 53-ball 50 from Greg Blewett. But on a grassless pitch, no-one could cope with the left-arm seam of Mike Smith, who took the Man of the Match award with 4 for 35. Gloucestershire’s reply was equally unsteady, with Phil Weston and Tim Hancock falling in single figures. But Craig Spearman’s excellent 71 broke the back of the run-chase, before Jonty Rhodes – complete with a runner after damaging a hamstring – nudged Gloucestershire into the quarter-finals with a sedate 45 not out.Middlesex v Sussex at Lord’s
ScorecardJames Kirtley showed what might have been, had he been let loose at Lord’s last week for his Test debut, but even his allround heroics couldn’t salvage a disappointing match for Sussex. After Andrew Strauss and Paul Weekes had added 139 for the first wicket, Kirtley took 5 for 41 to destroy Middlesex’s middle order, as six wickets fell for 36 runs. Sussex’s reply was frenetic – six batsmen scored between 30 and 39, but no-one could put together the big score that was so needed. At 183 for 8, the game was as good as up, but Kirtley and Mark Davis kept the optimists interested with an unbeaten ninth-wicket partnership of 58. Kirtley’s share was 30 from 21 balls, but it was too little, too late.Glamorgan v Derbyshire at Cardiff
ScorecardChris Bassano played the innings of his life, just three days after being discharged from hospital after a diabetes-related illness, as Derbyshire powered past Glamorgan and into the quarter-finals. In the previous round, Bassano had scored his maiden one-day hundred – against the mighty Kent Cricket Board – but this time he cracked 10 fours and four sixes in a magnificent 100-ball 121, reaching his hundred from 89 balls as Glamorgan’s challenging total of 248 for 9 was overhauled with a whopping eight-and-a-half overs to spare. Derbyshire had been in some early trouble at 54 for 2, after Mike Kasprowicz had removed both openers, but Bassano added 191 for the third wicket with Andrew Gait (87 not out), and when he fell with four still needed, it was Gait who had the honour of hitting the winning runs. Glamorgan’s total had been built by a selection of cameos all down the order. Only one man, Jonathan Hughes, passed fifty, but nobody was dismissed in single figures.Leicestershire v Nottinghamshire at Leicester
ScorecardPhil DeFreitas turned back the clock at Grace Road to lead Leicestershire into the quarter-finals at the expense of Nottinghamshire. DeFreitas, who cracked a quickfire 22 at the end of Leicestershire’s innings, bowled his ten overs straight through, to finish with the immaculate figures of 3 for 20. His victims included the dangerous pairing of Usman Afzaal and Kevin Pietersen, and though Chris Cairns did his best to emulate DeFreitas’s captain’s performance, his 67 came too late to salvage anything from the match. No other middleor lower-order batsman reached double figures, as Nottinghamshire folded for 159. Earlier, Leicestershire’s batting hero had been Virender Sehwag, whose boundary-laden 56 launched the innings at a cracking tempo.Somerset v Surrey at Taunton
ScorecardGraham Thorpe produced a timely reminder of his incomparable one-day abilities, as Surrey kept their cool to sneak to a tense six-run victory over Somerset. Thorpe, who recently reversed his decision to retire from one-day internationals, cracked a superb unbeaten 102, to lift Surrey from a wobbly 169 for 6 to a commanding total of 281. He added 112 for the seventh wicket with Jonathan Batty, who justified his selection ahead of Alec Stewart with a blistering 55 not out. Somerset lost early wickets in reply, including Marcus Trescothick, but Keith Parsons and Michael Burns steadied the ship before Ian Blackwell launched Somerset back into contention with a barrage of boundaries, one of which dented the bonnet of Ian Ward’s car. Saqlain Mushtaq ended the fun, however, and quickly followed up with the key wicket of Parsons, for an excellent 83. The run-rate was too much to ask of the lower-order, and Adam Hollioake stifled the pursuit with three rapid wickets.Warwickshire v Essex at Birmingham
ScorecardWarwickshire were hauled back from the brink by the first one-day hundred of Dougie Brown’s career, as Essex contrived to lose a gripping tie at Edgbaston. Essex started and finished the match disastrously, but dominated the rest of the day – Mark Pettini pushed his claims for a regular place with an excellent 92 not out, before Jon Dakin took three quick wickets, including the England hopefuls Ian Bell and Jim Troughton, as Warwickshire slumped to 83 for 6. But Brown found the ideal ally in Ashley Giles, fresh from his maiden Test fifty last week. The pair added 170 for the seventh wicket, and Giles sealed the match with five balls remaining. Earlier, Nasser Hussain picked up his second golden duck in consecutive matches for Essex – run out off the first ball of Waqar Younis’s Warwickshire career. Waqar then added Will Jefferson’s scalp in the same over, but suffered some punishment later on.Worcestershire v Yorkshire at Worcester
ScorecardYorkshire lost their grip on the C&G Trophy, as David Leatherdale and Nantie Hayward produced command performances in Worcestershire’s 67-run victory at New Road. Leatherdale – a Yorkshireman by birth – made 80 from 87 balls (his highest score in one-day matches) and Vikram Solanki charmed 12 fours in a 56-ball 60, after Worcestershire had slumped to a perilous 130 for 6. Although Yorkshire had been lifted by the return of Darren Gough, who finished with a respectable 2 for 43 from his ten overs, they suffered a huge setback when Matthew Hoggard limped out of the attack with a knee injury after three balls, one of which had removed the dangerous Graeme Hick. Yorkshire’s innings stuttered immediately, when Michael Lumb fell first-ball to Hayward, and though Michael Vaughan threatened to give chase, Hayward put the result beyond doubt with figures of 5 for 49 from his 10 overs.C & G Trophy – Quarter Final DrawLancashire v Middlesex
Warwickshire v Gloucestershire
Leicestershire v Worcestershire
Derbyshire v Surrey

Leicestershire v Worcestershire will take place on Tuesday, June 10, the remainder on Wednesday, June 11.

Weather is now starting to play its part again as we approach the last few weeks of the season.We’ve had a pretty strange schedule this season with the early months being very intense, at times playing nine days in a row, having a two-day turnaround before doing it again.Because we played so much cricket early on we now have long periods with no games. The Sunday League 45-over games break it up a little but, all in all, it’s been a fairly slow month.The weather last weekend was dreadful and the game was abandoned without a ball being bowled.This has left us without cricket for 10 days which at a vital time of the season is not ideal. The division two table has really closed up and there are now five teams scraping for three promotion spots.We are still lying second but have a huge game this week with fourth-placed Warwickshire. It’s going to be my last game at Lord’s for Middlesex and I desperately want to do well. It also looks like we will be without ‘the Cat’, Phil Tufnell, who has finally got the call up to the England squad to play the last Ashes Test at the Oval.While it’s great for Tuffers to get another call up, it makes the job of beating Warwickshire just that little bit harder.With the extra days off it gave me a chance to experience Britain’s favourite pastime – a football match.Angus Fraser is a staunch Liverpool supporter so we loaded up the car and made the three-and-a-half-hour trip to Anfield, the home of Liverpool FC. This is a ground with a lot of history and certainly we will never forget the disaster during the semi-final of the FA Cup when over 70 people were crushed as the massive crowd surged forward.Since then all premiership grounds around the UK have converted their terraces into seated areas to eliminate a repeat of those horrendous scenes.I continually chipped at Gus about how fanatical this country was about their soccer, he only took so much before comparing New Zealanders’ infatuation with rugby. He has a fair point and I guess this week things have been pretty intense after the All Blacks’ loss in Dunedin.The afternoon was great with Liverpool winning 2-1 over West Ham United. The winning goal was scored with only 10 minutes to go, much to the relief of the 45,000 fans. My lasting memory of the day would have to be the singing of the crowd and being involved with the Liverpool club song ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.I always enjoy watching top athletes perform no matter what sport, on Saturday it was football. Come the next three days I hope it’s my Middlesex team mates!(Editor’s note: Stephen Fleming scored his fourth century of the summer for Middlesex today on the first day of the game with Warwickshire)

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo – Joyraz Sheik put on 135 runs for the opening wicket with Pinak Ghosh•WICB

While the seniors lost to South Africa by 52 runs in Dhaka, away in Durban Bangladesh Under-19s beat South Africa Under-19s by eight wickets in the first Youth ODI, to win their fifth match in a row.Asked to bat first, the home side made 184 for 9 in 50 overs with Wiaan Mulder top-scoring with 62 off 102 balls with four fours and a six. Opener Rivaldo Moonsamy chipped in with 27. The team’s highest partnership of 48 runs came for the seventh wicket between Mulder and Aaqil Ebrahim (19). Medium-pacer Abdul Halim claimed three wickets while captain Mehedi Hasan Miraz picked up two wickets.Bangladesh’s chase began on the right note with openers Joyraz Sheik and Pinak Ghosh adding 135 runs, Sheik scoring 50 and Ghosh making 60 off 113 balls with five fours and a six. Dayyan Galiem and Dean Foxcroft took one wicket each.”I think our disciplines let us down, we got into trouble early on with the bat, but I think we did well to get 180-odd,” South Africa coach Lawrence Mahatlane said. “I thought we were in the game with that score but we let ourselves down with the ball, to concede almost 40 runs in extras is criminal.”We’ll be working hard to rectify what happened today and I believe we can redeem ourselves, it’s still a long tour. If we can get our disciplines right, then the results will look after themselves.”The second Youth ODI will be held at the same venue on July 7.

Dale Steyn could still make an appearance in South Africa’s ongoing Test series against England, which he is currently sitting out of with a shoulder injury. Steyn posted a picture on Twitter of himself in a hyperbaric chamber, which he is using to speed up his recovery.”Boring, but healing,” Steyn posted, along with a collage of photographs including Scar Tissue, the autobiography of vocalist Anthony Kiedis, which he is reading during sessions.Steyn initially posted that he would spend a fortnight in the chamber, which would rule him out of the fourth Test, but then corrected himself and confirmed he would only need a week of treatment. That period ends on the eve of the Centurion game, which begins on January 22. Steyn will not have much time to get overs in the legs before the game, but he should be bowling fit by the time the ODIs start, on February 3.Should Steyn not recover in time for the SuperSport Park Test, he would have missed six of South Africa’s eight Tests this season. In the two he played, Steyn broke down both times, first with a groin injury in Mohali, which kept him out of the remaining three Tests in India, and then with a shoulder injury in Durban which forced him out of the New Year’s Test and the ongoing Wanderers Test.South Africa have had to search their reserves in Steyn’s absence and have given two debuts to two bowlers in their last two games. Chris Morris was capped at Newlands and Hardus Viljoen at the Wanderers.

Canada and Bermuda lived up to their pre-tournament favourites’ tag by scoring convincing victories in their Americas Under-19 qualifiers in Toronto on Tuesday. Canada beat Argentina by nine wickets while Bermuda won their second match in a row by beating Cayman Islands by seven wickets.Canada bowled out Argentina for 64 in 28 overs and then raced to victory in 9.5 overs for the loss of one wicket, ending Argentina’s chances of qualifying for the U-19 World Cup. Asif Manjra, Usman Iqubal and Pratik Patel took three wickets each and opener Ruvindu Gunasekera ensured a healthy run-rate by scoring 35 off 33 balls.Bermuda, who had crushed Bahamas by 195 runs on Monday, restricted Cayman Islands to 165 in 48.2 overs after asking them to bat. Cayman Islands captain Ramon Sealy once again top scored with 67 off 126 balls that included five fours. He had scored an unbeaten 76 against Bahamas. Malachi Jones picked up 4 for 38 for Bermuda while Stefan Kelly took 2 for 13.Bermuda reached the target in only 30.4 overs for the loss of three wickets. Jones backed up his excellent bowling performance with an unbeaten 41 from 27 balls with six fours and one six. Jones added 79 for the fourth wicket with captain Rodney Trott (37 not out) after Bermuda were reduced to 87 for 3.The tournament winners qualify for the Under-19 World Cup in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, next February.

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

Some parsimonious bowling by their spinners and a Shahriar Nafees hundred helped Bangladesh defeat Zimbabwe by eight wickets in the fifth ODI at Harare. Though the hosts have won the series 3-2 this win helped Bangladesh salvage some pride.Bangladesh’s decision to play three spinners, led by the miserly Abdur Razzak, and buttressed by the presence of the part-time offspinner in Rajin Saleh, proved correct as the slow men applied a chokehold to reverse a solid start by Zimbabwe and to eventually restrict them to 197. Saleh, who ended with four wickets, reaped the fruits of the regular spinners’s labour.Zimbabwe, with the cushion of a series win behind them, had raced away to a comfortable position when Khaled Mashud, Bangladesh’s stand-in-captain for the injured Habibul Basher, went for his main weapon: spin. Eleven overs of medium pace had bled 59 runs before Razzak came on. The pitch held no great demons: there was no huge turn or magic balls. Varying his pace smartly he attacked the middle and off stump line. And with the ball not coming on and the spinners hitting the right line and the length, the batsmen struggled to force the pace. The run rate dropped, the pressure grew and the batsmen succumbed one after the other. Hamilton Masakadza put up a battle but, with his colleagues deserting him at regular intervals, he perished as well, hastening the end of the innings.Masakadza had nearly succeeded in breaking free when he hit Mohammed Rafique out of the attack with two stunning hits in the 21st over that erased the smiles from the Bangladeshi faces. He waltzed down the track and sent the ball screaming over long-off and immediately went for the cow corner in deep midwicket. But just when he had earned the license to go for the kill, he found himself bereft of support.Brendan Taylor, the third-match hero, crawled to a painful 24 off 71 balls, unable to strike out against the spinners. He struggled, especially, against the accuracy of Rafique, eking out only 8 runs from 30 balls. And it was not just Rafique; there was to be no relief from the other end as well. The third left-arm spinner, the young Saqibul Hasan, who replaced Shahadat Hossain for this match, was also miserly, and helped tighten the screws. Taylor struggled to rotate the strike back to Masakadza and eventually fell, trying to cut Razzak. The noose had begun to tighten.Elton Chigumbra, sent up the order to increase the tempo, combusted immediately on arrival. An under-pressure Mazakadza soon followed, playing across the line to Saleh and a run out saw another batsmen going down. Four wickets in the space of 13 runs and the spinners had Bangladesh on top. Saleh struck to the basics: kept the ball up, struck to an off stump line and watched as the tail fell, the last five wickets eked out only 25 runs.With Nafees leading the charge and Saleh chipping in with a crisp 37, Bangladesh moved along assuredly in their chase. Prosper Utseya gave Nafees a reprieve in the fourth over when he couldn’t quite hold on to a running catch off a mistimed pull. Nafees was off and running after that. He drove pleasantly and cut with panache to steer Bangladesh home.Earlier, Zimbabwe’s openers, especially Terry Duffin, had gone for the jugular, hitting on-the-up over cover, pulling and driving merrily down the ground. Lady luck humoured Zimbabwe as well: an inside-edged four, by Vusi Sibanda, started off the run-count, a couple of leading edges flew over the fielders and, keeping with the theme of the series, there was the usual drop by a butter-fingered Bangladeshi. In the second over, Sibanda threw his bat at a Farhad Reza delivery which was palmed off at first slip by Mushfiqur Rahim. Two cover drives off Raza – one was so fiercely whacked that nobody moved on the field – followed before Sibanda was done in by a clever bit of bowling from Syed Rasel. Rasel had kept bending the ball back into Sibanda before he suddenly slipped one across the body. A surprised Sibanda did not quite get behind the line, lunged forward and tried to leave the delivery at the last minute but failed.Duffin, who was getting increasingly edgy as the run-rate dropped, tried to hit out of trouble. First, he attempted an ugly hoick, failed, and then off the next ball fell trying to sweep as Razzak slipped one full and straight.Mazakadza’s was a serene effort. True, two savage hits off Rafique would lead the highlights package in news channels, but it was not the norm. He didn’t bludgeon his way around but chose to caress: dabbed a few to the off side, drove a few down the ground, swept to alter the length of the spinners, cut when there was the opportunity and, suddenly, his fifty was up. But with his team-mates struggling against nagging spin, the young Zimbabwe team could not conjure up another dreamy day of cricket.However, the series triumph has provided them considerable redemption in a turbulent period. With the ICC working out a timetable to put Zimbabwe back in Test cricket, this win could not have come at a better time.

Vusi Sibanda c Khaled Mashud b Syed Rasel 17 (45 for 1)
Terry Duffin lbw b Abdur Razzak 40 (79 for 2)
Brendan Taylor c Mashud b Razzak 24 (165 for 3)
Elton Chigumbura b Saqibul Hasan 0 (166 for 4)
Hamilton Masakadza b Rajin Saleh 75 (172 for 5)
Mufambisi run out 1 (178 for 6)
Prosper Utseya c sub (Alok Kapali) b Rajin Saleh 7 (189 for 7)
Matsikenyeri b Rajin Saleh 10 (189 for 8)
Anthony Ireland run out Syed Rasel/Khaled Mashud 3 ( 196 for 9)
Bangladesh
Rajin Saleh c & b Prosper Utseya 37 (99 for 1)
Aftab Ahmad st Taylor b Utseya 6 (128 for 2)

Rahul Dravid, the Indian captain, has drawn positives from India’s three-wicket loss to Sri Lanka in the first match of the Indian Oil Cup. Dravid has said that he was impressed by the way the bowlers very nearly won the match for India.He said the fact that they had scored 30 runs too little and that they could not contain Sanath Jayasuriya, who made 43, proved decisive. “If we had enough runs on the board we could have won, but the batsmen did not particularly do well. We could have got Sanath and got 30 more runs,” said Dravid quoted by PTI. He said that the bowlers, who made Sri Lanka toil for their 209 runs, and the youngsters, had done well after a three-month break from cricket. “I am proud of the way the bowlers bowled. I could not have asked for more from them. We have to come back strong from here on”.Dravid admitted that the back spasm that VVS Laxman suffered on the morning of the match had caused some selection problems. He defended the decision to drop Anil Kumble and JP Yadav, even though India were a bowler short, saying that they needed the extra batsman because the batting line-up lacked experience. “Frankly I don’t think the combination was an issue. It was our top order who didn’t come good, I do think it was a 250-run wicket,” said Dravid. “We picked three seamers because the wicket did assist swing bowling and there are lights here. The bowlers did well and fought hard.”Marvan Attapattu, the Sri Lankan captain, admitted that there was scope for improvement and admitted that India had fought well. “They fought back well. But we were fortunate to have Sanath,” he said. “There is room for improvement in all the areas. We will try to improve in our next match which is on August 3.”Sanath Jayasuriya suffered a dislocated shoulder during the Indian innings but came back to play a crucial role in steering Sri Lanka to victory. “That’s [opener] my place. I am happy to bat at number five and win the match for the country,” said Jayasuriya. “I told them [batsmen] to stay at the crease and runs will come.” He said that he was in pain at the start of his innings. “Initially I was in pain since I had just taken the injection and it takes 20 minutes for it to work. I couldn’t cut or pull,” said Jayasuriya who rated his knock as one of his most memorable. “We needed to win and my approach was to occupy the crease and bat till the end.”Dravid was all praise for Sanath Jayasuriya and said that his innings was a lesson for all cricketers. “He was terrfic. To do what he did with his dislocated shoulder was outstanding. He is a champion cricketer,” said Dravid. Atapattu said that Jayasuriya would not have batted had Sri Lanka been in a comfortable position instead of 112 for 5. “But we wanted to be in a position where if something goes wrong we could send him in with an injection.” He said it sometimes became tricky to chase a low total. “A low target could be a tricky one. The approach becomes different and you don’t know whether to score fast or get the run rate going.”

As England’s one-day form continues to depress, an article in today’s London Daily Mail claims that Graham Thorpe was approached and asked whether he was prepared to rescind his retirement from one-day internationals to help bail England out.The article says that Thorpe was called by David Graveney, the chairman of selectors, and asked about his availability. “Grav asked me to confirm that I had retired from one-day cricket, and I confirmed that I had,” Thorpe told the newspaper. “I’ve had my time and I don’t miss it. One-day cricket is dead and buried for me now, and it would be a huge backward step for England to pick me again anyway.”Graveney admitted that he had spoken to Thorpe. “Nothing is a closed book … but you have to respect an individual’s wishes,” he said. “However, it was worth asking because Thorpe is a quality player who still has a lot to offer.”

Hampshire Under-19 captain Steve Snell could miss the opening month of the new cricket season after fracturing his jaw practising with the MCC Young Cricketers in the Nursery ground nets at Lord’s.Snell, who helped guide the Hampshire YC’s into last season’s ECB Under-19 County Championship final, has broken his jaw in three places.”I’m in a bit of a mess,” he confessed.”I was batting in the nets when a ball reared up and hit me beneath the grill on my helmet.”Snell underwent surgery in a Hampstead hospital and has had a metal plate inserted to hold his jaw together.”I’ve also got all my teeth wired up,” he added.Snell, who will miss Havant’s opening defence of the ECB Southern Electric Premier League championship, had just started his second year on the Lord’s groundstaff.”We’d just come back from pre-season training in Lanzarotte and I was raring to go.”Then this happens,” he groaned.