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After a ninth-month lay-off from cricket, Indian spin ace Anil Kumblebowled for the first time at the full-fledged competitive level onThursday and said he did not feel any discomfort, indicating that hewoul be totally fit in about two months.Kumble, who is leading the Karnataka State Cricket Association team,sent down ten overs at a stretch against Andhra in a three-day matchof the KSCA Diamond Jubilee All India tournament in Bangalore. “I didnot feel discomfort at all. I got my line and length alright.Hopefully, I will get a wicket tomorrow, ” Kumble, who had figures of10-1-26-0, said.Kumble had already said he was hoping to return to the Indian side forthe tour to South Africa in October. Having already taken 276 wicketsin 61 Tests, the leg-spinner is also looking forward to cross the 300mark.Kumble has returned to competitive cricket after withdrawing midwaythrough a one-day series in Sharjah in October last year and thenundergoing shoulder surgery in Johannesburg in January.

The tour by the Uttar Pradesh’s women cricketers to Sri Lanka isturning out to be a successful one. They have now won three matchesout of three, with one abandoned due to heavy rain. At the NCC Groundsin Colombo on Monday, they defeated a Colts CC XI by 71 runs.Unlike the other two games, which were really tense affairs, UP ranaway with the match after batting first and scoring 130 in 40overs. In the context of a low scoring tour, this was a large total,certainly too much for this Colts side who were bundled out for just59 in 35 overs.Priyanka Shally continued her fine form this tour with a useful 21, aninnings that rescued the visitors who had slumped to 2-2 after havingbeen put in to bat by the home side. Her efforts were ably supportedby Shikha Jaingran, who went on to top score with 26. The pair put on59 runs for the fourth wicket and effectively won the match for theirteam. The pick of the bowlers was Hiroshini who finished with 3-16 offher eight overs. Unfortunately for the Colts, her teammates were alittle too generous with the extras, donating the visitors a veryuseful 30 runs.In reply, the home side never looked like reaching the target. Indikawas the only batsmen to settle with a useful 20 runs but even shefound it difficult to cope with the bowling of Varsha Paphael whopicked up 5-9 off eight overs.

Pakistan have won the toss and chosen to bat in the first match of theNatWest Series at Edgbaston amid cacophonous support for both sides.Alec Stewart admitted that England started this series as “third favourites”after the two finalists of the last World Cup; Australia and Pakistan. Thenews that Graham Thorpe has had to pull out of this match injured with acalf problem will do nothing to shorten their odds.For England Hoggard comes in for the injured Caddick and there is a debutfor Paul Collingwood on the ground where he hit his career best score just afew weeks ago. The omens are good for the Durham all-rounder: on hisfirst-class debut he took a wicket with his first ball and then struck 91.England would be grateful for a similar start today.In the absence of White and Flintoff, Ben Hollioake has a fresh chance tofulfil the promise of his international debut four years ago. Ealham andMullally also return for the hosts, while Cork is retained in preference tothe spinner, Croft.Pakistan have planning of their own to do for the 2003 World Cup in SouthAfrica. Sami and Shoaib show immense promise, but are still some way fromamply replacing the ageing Waqar and Wasim. The only change in their teamtoday from the Old Trafford Test is the return of Shahid Afridi at the topof the order for Faisal Iqbal.Hail and heavy rainfall in the morning have done nothing to dampen thespirits of a capacity crowd. A strong wind may keep the rain away, but withdew expected later it was probably a good toss for Waqar to win. The pitchis dry though and thought likely to take spin.

The England Women lost the Second CricInfo Ashes Test by nine wickets at Headingley this afternoon.In a weekend when Australians crushed the Lions and the England men’s cricket team, Clare Connor’s players fought for most of the day to save the match against the efficient and talented tourists.It was enough to make Australia bat again, a minor triumph for an exuberant, but inexperienced England side.However, once Connor herself went, bowled second ball without offering a shot, England were doomed.But then, a thrilling fight back, led by centurion Claire Taylor, onEngland’s best day of the series, gave the home country great hope for the future.Australia equalled the record for Test wins at 5.21pm on the Third Day of this match, joining England with 16 victories. Two other women’s Test records were broken in this game. The highest individual score in Tests, a record that had lasted just a week since Australia’s Michelle Goszko equalled Kirsty Flavell’s 1996 innings of 204, was beaten by left-hander Karen Rolton, who made 209 not out. She helped set a new fourth wicket Test best stand of 253 with Louise Broadfoot.Appropriately, it was Rolton, who was the CricInfo Player of the Match, who hit the winning boundary.Australian captain Belinda Clark, Rolton’s partner at the finish, toldCricInfo, “We’re just thrilled with our performance. We came here to win both Tests and we’ve done that inside three days.”Taylor, a 25-year-old Oxford Mathematics graduate, with a previous Test best of 18, and an average of five, made a marvellous 137 to frustrate the Australian attack for 256 minutes today. Her century came up in 190 balls with a fifteenth four, this one driven sweetly through mid-on off Charmaine Mason.When she was last out, bowled by Mason, who took 4/66, Australia knocked off the seven required in 19 balls, for the loss of Lisa Keightley, bowled by Clare Taylor for a duck.Laura Harper, the youngest member of the England team, supported Taylor before she was caught at cover for 30, off 127 balls, after promising innings of 19, 20 and 31 in her first three Test knocks. From shortly after lunch until the third over after tea the pair were immovable, adding 81 for the sixth wicket.However, when Harper holed out to Julie Hayes at cover, Cathryn Fitzpatrick put an extra bit in for the next delivery and had Nicky Shaw caught behind by wicketkeeper Julia Price.With the score at 161/7, and a minimum of 22 overs remaining, the end was near for a valiant England team. But Dawn Holden (five) helped the now rampant Taylor put on 51 for the eighth wicket before lobbing to cover-point Hayes off Mason.While the Australian bowling star was again Fitzpatrick, who took 4/81 to end the series with 17 wickets, England wicketkeeper ‘Tails’ Taylor resisted for 232 balls to add a Test ton to her match-winning 137 not out, achieved at the 2000 CricInfo Women’s World Cup against Sri Lanka.The systems analyst and former England age-group hockey player had Test scores of 11, nought, 18, six and 0 before going in today at 37/2.The Oxford cricket and hockey blue told CricInfo, “We valued our wickets much more today. It just goes to show what we can do in the future.”But it will be Australia who will be celebrating tonight, before completing their highly successful tour with a visit to Ireland later this week.

Following the withdrawal of Yorkshire’s Sue Metcalfe from the England training squad due to work commitments, the Sussex wicket keeper Mandie Godliman has been selected to take her place.Mandie has represented England A since 1994 v South Africa, India, New Zealand and Australia. She recorded her highest score of 183* for her club Redoubtables WCC this season in the ECB Cup.Mandie started playing cricket aged 12, encouraged by her PE Teacher who played for Middlesex Ladies and went on to Captain Thames Valley before joining Sussex. She was first selected for England training in 1993, but suffered a serious back injury which kept her out of the game for three years.Mandie is a Sports Development Officer for Mid Sussex District Council and is an ECB advanced coach, including coaching England U-21s. Born 5th April 1973.

Controversy appears to have been averted with the match referee Farooq Zaman saying that he is not taking any action against Andy Caddick for his altercation with umpire Sajjad Asghar, after his appeal for a catch behind had been turned down.Caddick was convinced he had Akhtar Sarfraz caught by Stewart. After umpire Sajjad Asghar had turned down the appeal Caddick gestured to his ear suggesting the nick was clearly audible. In a hostile spell Caddick made his feelings clear to the batsmen too.The referee told CricInfo: “Nasser Hussain asked me if an official complaint had been made and I confirmed that the umpire has not done so. I cannot take any action unless a complaint is made to me. I shall be speaking to Nasser Hussain again in the morning.”Asghar confirmed: “Caddick apologised to me at the end of the over and I accepted it so I am not going to report it officially.”England, having taken a stranglehold on this match at the start of the second session, had loosened their grip a little by the end of it.A century partnership for the fourth wicket took the Governor’s XI to 115 for four at stumps on the third day in Peshawar, with injured opener Wajahatullah Wasti unable to bat. They have an overall lead of 24.The two batsmen who did the repair work, Naumanullah and Akhtar Sarfraz battled for two and a half hours, taking every opportunity to score.Sarfraz, who had been dropped on 16 by Graham Thorpe at second slip, went on to play his strokes freely, hitting six boundaries before surviving, on 47, the confident appeal for a catch behind.By close of play Sarfraz was 53 not out from 125 balls. Meanwhile his partner, Naumanullah, was more aggressive, hitting a six over long-on off Ashley Giles and reaching his half-century from 99 balls. He fell on that score, caught at short mid-wicket, giving Darren Gough his third wicket. Two balls later bad light brought an end to the day’s play.Earlier in the innings a brilliant opening burst by England’s fast bowlers had reduced the Governor’s X1 to 13 for three.With a first innings deficit of 91, the Governor’s X1 lost Taufeeq Umer for one when Gough induced him to play-on to his stumps in his second over. Six balls later, Imran Farhat edged behind off Caddick with still just the one run on the scoreboard.Yasir Hameed, a high contributor in the first innings with 57, then fell leg before wicket to Gough for five. Within half an hour after lunch England had removed the first three batsmen. But by tea they had progressed to 65 without further loss.England were earlier all out for 315. The Governor’s X1 claimed two quick wickets when they dismissed Thorpe with the total on 282, after 41 had been added to the overnight score, and seven runs later Craig White fell to a catch on the long leg boundary for 21.Thorpe, who had hit 88 in the previous match in Rawalpindi, was again in fine form but batted more steadily, for two hours, before falling just two short of a half-century. He had hit three boundaries and in going for a fourth, from an attempted pull, he top edged to gully.Pace bowler, Kashif Raza struck twice shortly before lunch. He first had Ian Salisbury leg before wicket on 297, and eight runs later Caddick, slashing, was caught at point. Finally, Giles, on 24, was caught when he skied his shot behind the bowler.

Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

And so the drought continues. More than seven years after they weregranted Test status, and in their 44th match against non-Zimbabweanopposition, Bangladesh slipped up yet again, squandering the advantagesgained on the second day to subside to a five-wicket defeat on the fourthmorning. It took South Africa 10.5 overs to knock off the 27 needed, butthe result was never in doubt after Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla and AshwellPrince had built on a superb spell from Jacques Kallis.Prince, who played a couple of pleasing drives off Shahadat Hossain, wasunlucky not to be there at the end, given out leg before though thedelivery from Shahadat pitched outside the line of leg stump. Aleem Dargave it, but there was to be no final twist in this tale.AB de Villiers, who endured several uncomfortable moments against theleft-arm spin of Mohammad Rafique, clipped two fours of Shahadat to bringthe scores level, and Mark Boucher then cut one past point to start thecelebrations in the South African camp. Prohibitive favourites before theseries started, they had been made to work exceptionally hard by aBangladeshi team inspired by Shahadat’s nine wickets.Bangladesh will look back ruefully at their inability to post 200 ineither innings. The opening day offered plenty of insight into theirbatting woes, with six batsmen spending reasonable time in the middlebefore throwing it away. The main culprit was Mohammad Ashraful, thecaptain, who sauntered to 34 from 26 balls before an over-exuberant chargeat Johan Botha changed the complexion of the match.Jamie Siddons, the new coach, will take the positives from this match,especially the bowling of Shahadat and the restrained 74 from JunaidSiddique. But he also needs to look at a relatively listless display fromMashrafe Mortaza, and cavalier strokes from too many of the batsmen. SouthAfrica are unlikely to be as sloppy in the second Test.

A Mumbai court has issued a non-bailable warrant against former IPL chairman Lalit Modi in an IPL-related money-laundering case being investigated by India’s Enforcement Directorate, a government agency responsible for prosecuting economic offences. The warrant could pave the way for the ED to request a red-corner notice by Interpol against him, with the aim of securing his extradition from the UK, where he currently lives, to India.The sessions court judge PR Bhavake said it was a fit case to issue a warrant as Modi had not co-operated with the agency despite being summoned three times for the investigation. The ED said it had sent multiple summons since July 3 to Modi for its investigation without any response. The deadline for Modi’s personal appearance as stated by the summons expired on July 19.The case against Modi, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002, was filed by the BCCI against him in 2010. It relates to the handling of IPL broadcast rights in 2009 and his role in the deal between the two broadcasters – Multi Screen Media and World Sports Group (Mauritius) – is under investigation.In 2008, the BCCI sold the IPL’s global television rights to World Sport Group India for a period of ten years, while the broadcast rights in India were awarded to MSM for a period of five years.In March 2009, the BCCI terminated its agreement with MSM on account of various breaches and within a few hours of the termination, granted global and Indian broadcast rights for 2009 to 2017 to World Sport Group Mauritius which had the same directors as WSG India.A fresh agreement with WSG Mauritius was entered into, under which WSG Mauritius had 72 hours to find a broadcast partner, failing which the rights would revert to the BCCI. It was also expected to pay the BCCI Rs 112.5 crores as a signing fee – a sum the BCCI contended it never received. When WSG Mauritius failed to get a partner, it agreed the rights would come back to the BCCI but WSG India would retain the global rights (excluding Indian subcontinent) till 2017.The BCCI then contended that MSM had paid WSG Mauritius a facilitation fee of $80 million [Rs 425 crore] to cut a deal that would ensure the India rights came back to MSM. According to the BCCI, this was done with the knowledge and active participation of Modi. In June 2010, the BCCI terminated all IPL media license agreements with WSG Mauritius over the issue of the facilitation fee.In its petition, the ED – which called Modi a “potential accused” – said that he “was not authorized to terminate the media rights contract with …MSM” and didn’t follow a tender process or obtain approval from the IPL governing council for signing the deal with WSG Mauritius.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details4:46

Agarkar: SA struggling against India’s spin

Virat Kohli scored his first ODI century against South Africa and first in 14 innings since the World Cup to anchor an authoritative Indian batting performance. Although they did not reach 300, this was their highest score of the series so far, and their spinners made sure it was enough.On a slow surface which took turn, the slow men burrowed their way into South Africa’s middle order, taking 32 for 3 between the 10th and 20th over, to blunt the challenge even with AB de Villiers still at the crease. The captain did his bit with a heroic hundred and a share in the highest stand of South African innings, 56 for the fifth-wicket alongside Farhaan Behardien, but by then it was too late.What South Africa lacked was big partnerships, which India had a double dose of. Kohli put on 104 with Ajinkya Rahane and 127 with Suresh Raina, who scored a much-needed half-century after back-to-back ducks, to set India up for a substantial score despite a squeeze at the end of their innings.South Africa’s seamers bookended the Kohli assault with incision, restricting India to 35 for 2 in the first eight overs and claiming 4 for 29 in the final five but it was what happened inbetween that separated the sides. Kohli was in sublime touch, timed the ball well and paced his innings sensibly.He took advantage of a six-man attack that was found strategically wanting, overusing the short ball and obviously missed Morne Morkel, who was out with an quad injury and could have generated awkward bounce. Morkel’s replacement, Chris Morris, ended up being the most expensive of the South African seamers but did not concede as much as Imran Tahir, who led an ineffective slower-bowling section that could not find the same control India’s did.It did not always look as though South Africa would toil that hard. They asked questions of both Rohit Sharma (caught at midwicket) and Shikhar Dhawan’s (caught behind off an attempted pull) shot selection and seemed to be extracting some early lift but that quickly disappeared. Aaron Phangiso and Tahir struggled to maintain the tone Kagiso Rabada set, especially against an enterprising Kohli.Together with Rahane, Kohli showed energy at the crease and urgency running between the wicket, found gaps and the boundary, and had raced to a 51-ball fifty. In searching for a wicket, de Villiers brought his seamers back but Kohli was in control and it was only when Steyn returned for a third spell, in the 27th over, that South Africa broke through. Rahane flashed at a wide one without moving his feet. The ball kept low and took the bottom edge on its way through to de Kock, who took it low down with both hands.MS Dhoni did not promote himself above the under-fire Raina, who had the situation and the space to play himself back into form. He took his time sussing out conditions and the scoring rate slowed. There was only one boundary in the next seven overs but for South Africa’s attack the respite was only temporary.With the last ten overs approaching, Kohli’s slow-burn was ready to burst into flames. He brought up his century with a six off Phangiso, smacking the ball over Steyn’s head at long-on and putting a total in excess of 300 in India’s sights. Raina saw that as his cue to accelerate as well. After taking 12 runs off 16 balls, he scored his next 38 runs off 34 balls and reached his half-century off 48. He was particularly severe on the full ball, while Kohli punished the spin.India were headed for a score in excess of 300 but South Africa dragged them back in the final five overs. Kohli was struggling with cramp, and battled to get Rabada away at the end and was caught behind. Both Rabada and Steyn took two in two but the damage was already done.Quinton de Kock threatened to undo that damage, providing a speedy start. He survived the early loss of Hashim Amla (who has scored the same number of runs in this series as Dhawan) and owned the area outside off stump, but then spin struck. Harbhajan ended de Kock’s dictatorship when he tossed one up – de Kock drove and the edge carried to second slip.De Kock’s wicket came three overs into the spin squeeze as India began to run rings around the South Africans. Faf du Plessis was caught behind off a sharply turning delivery from Axar Patel and showed his displeasure at the dismissal, and David Miller was trapped lbw by a Harbhajan delivery that pitched on off and hit him in front of middle. At 88 or 4, with only one recognised batting pair left, South Africa were finished, but de Villiers showed remarkable fight.He seemed to be batting on a different surface and did not struggle against the spinners. He was harsh on Amit Mishra, who he charged to turn a delivery into a low full toss, swept and reverse-swept, and attacked Harbhajan. Momentarily, it looked like he may win the match single-handedly. But the bubble burst when Bhuvneshwar had him caught behind off a short ball. The series now hangs in the balance ahead of Sunday’s decider.

The England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) today announced that Gerard Elias, QC, the Chairman of the ECB’s Discipline Standing Committee, has decided that no disciplinary action will be taken against Darren Gough over his recently reported public criticism of ECB Chairman, Lord MacLaurin. He has, however, today written a private letter to Darren Gough regarding his comments.The ECB also confirmed that Mr Elias was not asked to consider any aspect ofDarren Gough’s and Andrew Flintoff’s alleged behaviour at the Lilleshall National Sports Centre prior to the Ashes tour. The ECB has not received any formal complaints in this regard, despite newspaper speculation to the contrary.