Paceman Alan Mullally prolonged his sizzling vein of form with another fivewicket haul today for Hampshire on the opening day of the CountyChampionship clash with Leicestershire at Southampton.The left armer claimed the wickets of Darren Maddy (8) and Ben Smith (5) inhis first spell of the day to have the visitors at a shaky 28/2 beforereturning later in the afternoon to remove Vince Wells (22), DominicWilliamson (4) and Neil Burns (0) as Leicestershire battled to a stumpsscore of 265/9 after losing the toss.Following his fourteen wicket haul against Derbyshire last week, Mullally(5/84) was always likely to be the man to whom Hampshire looked forinspiration in the absence of Shane Warne. To that end, he did not let histeam down. He bowled with control in helpfully overcast conditions,seaming the ball both ways and maintaining an excellent line to keep theinjury-hit Leicestershire batting line-up under consistent pressure.Dimitri Mascarenhas (2/59) also performed well, snaring the vital wicketsof Aftab Habib (61) – dismissed with the very first ball after the playershad returned to the field after a rain delay in mid-afternoon – and DarrenStevens (12).Leicestershire, which had entered the match with Chris Lewis, James Ormond,Phil DeFreitas and Anil Kumble all missing from its line-up, meanwhilerelied largely on three players for its end of day position. Habib’scombination of resolute defence against straight deliveries and strongdriving of anything loose earned him the honour of being the top scorer forhis team for far from the first time this season.Jonathan Dakin (60) also showed his usual fluency before being dismissed in the second last over of the day, while opener Iain Sutcliffe (53) helped to hold things steady at the top after the two early wickets had fallen at the other end. In assembling his first half century of the summer, Sutcliffe formed a half of the best partnership of the innings – one of ninety-two with Habib for the third wicket.Dakin was also involved in a crucial partnership, finding unlikely support in the form of number ten Carl Crowe (26*) to raise a priceless seventy-one runs for the ninth wicket just when Mullally seemed ready to work his way right through the bottom half of a batting list again.

Donkey drop, and a wicket
It was possibly the worst ball you could bowl to Virender Sehwag, slow, short and wide outside off stump. But the Gods must have been smiling on P Vijaykumar because Sehwag’s angry slash went straight into the hands of RP Singh at third man. Buy the man a lottery ticket.Try it once, try it twice
By his second over, RP was working up serious pace. When he bounced Gautam Gambhir with one timed at just 140 kph, the ball was nearly in the batsman’s face before a whiplash of a hook sent the ball soaring over square leg for six. The next ball was just as fast, and short, and this time Gambhir slammed it in front of square for another six. When you’re wearing the orange cap, pace isn’t a problem.Smart as you like
It takes a lot to get Gambhir out in this format of the game, but the Pragyan Ojha-Adam Gilchrist combination executed their plan perfectly. Ojha pushed one well down the leg side, and Gambhir sallied forth. Once he realised he had no shot to play, he tried frantically to get back, but Gilchrist’s left hand was far too deft.Brothers in arms
When the Hyderabad innings started, you had two intriguing match-ups. Adam Gilchrist, the ultimate big-match opener of his generation, against Glenn McGrath, old mate and prototype for the miserly pace bowler. At the other end, Mohammad Asif ran in to bowl to his fellow Pakistani, Shahid Afridi. McGrath won the battle of the Aussies, but it was Afridi who had the Pakistani bragging rights, with a massive six over square leg.Terminator 3
With his elbow protected by a brace that ran from bicep to forearm, Asif looked like he’d walked off the set of some futuristic movie. In his final over, he ambled in off five paces, with Dinesh Karthik standing up to the stumps. His four overs cost 51, another sure sign he’s nowhere near being fully fit.The perfect squirt
Rohit Sharma has carved out quite a reputation for classical strokeplay, even in this format. But the best shot he played today was a masterpiece of improvisation. When Rajat Bhatia pitched one full outside off stump, Rohit gave himself room, reached for the ball and tapped it with the toe end. It sped away, neatly bisecting the men at gully and point. Perfect.

ScorecardWes Durston picked up three handy wickets to end Northamptonshire’s second innings•Getty Images

Derbyshire secured their first victory at Wantage Road since 2002 shortly after lunch on the third day, chasing just 72 for their third win of the season and beating Northamptonshire by seven wickets.The visitors controlled the LV= County Championship game from the first evening when they built up a first-innings total of 361. Northamptonshire found no response, bowled out for just 116 in reply – their lowest total of the season – and, despite a better fist of their second innings, gave Derbyshire only a small target to overcome.For a while on the third morning, Northants were building their lead relatively comfortably through Ben Duckett (154) and Josh Cobb, but Wes Durston made the breakthrough and the final four wickets fell for just 25 runs.Duckett and Cobb batted through the opening 75 minutes untroubled with Northants having begun the day with the scores level and four second-innings wicket remaining.Duckett went through to a first-class best score, beating his previous best of 144 not out, made at Taunton last season, and brought up 150 in 206 balls. But, trying to drive Durston, he edged a ball that bounced a little outside off and was caught at slip.Another Durston delivery that bounced a touch took a wild edge from Rory Kleinveldt trying to play a lofted drive and looped to backward point.Durston added a third wicket as Cobb heaved him to deep mid-wicket having struck his previous delivery for six over the same fielder.Cobb had been comfortable in sharing a stand of 54 with Duckett and brought up the 300 by pulling Durston for 4, but it was the offspinner who mopped up the tail and just three deliveries of Mark Footitt with the second new ball were needed to finish the innings.Coming out for three overs before lunch, Derbyshire lost Hamish Rutherford, sharply caught at gully second ball, and there was a nasty blow for Chesney Hughes, who was struck flush on the helmet by Kleinveldt – as a precaution, Hughes did not return to bat after lunch so it was left to Alex Hughes, whose first-innings century set the match up for Derbyshire, and Durston to complete victory.Derbyshire lost two more wickets in the chase. Their captain Wayne Madsen struck a beautiful off drive against Kleinveldt but, attempting to take a sharp singe into midwicket, was run out by Duckett, who threw down the non-striker’s end stumps. Billy Godleman also edged debutant Ben Sanderson to first slip with 11 needed to win.Northants slipped to a second consecutive heavy defeat, having lost at Cheltenham by nine wickets in their last Championship match. They at least now have an extra day’s rest before their penultimate T20 at Edgbaston on Wednesday night – victory in one of Northants final two matches will secure a quarter-final spot.

ScorecardGlen Chapple moved closer to 1000 first-class wickets on a rain-affected day•Getty Images

Lancashire will need to take 14 wickets in the final three sessions to win their Division Two game against Glamorgan after rain restricted the teams to only 52.2 overs on the third day at Old Trafford.In the cricket that was possible before showers of varying intensity coalesced into serious rain, Glamorgan lost five more first-innings wickets, two of them to Glen Chapple, in scoring 134 runs and were 182 for 6 when umpires Rob Bailey and Richard Illingworth finally called play off for the day.Resuming on 48 for 1 in reply to Lancashire’s 462, Glamorgan lost their skipper Jacques Rudolph for 22 in the sixth over of the morning when his unwise push at a Chapple delivery which was cleverly pushed across the left-hander only edged a catch to wicketkeeper Alex Davies.Forty minutes later Colin Ingram, having batted safely enough in making 17, opted not to play a shot at a ball from James Faulkner which plucked out his off stump. That left Glamorgan on 96 for 3 but nightwatchman Andrew Salter and Chris Cooke then added 26 before Salter was stumped by Davies off Kerrigan when he came down the wicket but was defeated by a little turn.Until his dismissal, Salter had batted very well for his 45 runs and had recorded his fifth successive score above 30. Indeed he had looked far more competent than his status as a nightwatchman might imply.There were only 19.2 overs in the afternoon session before an early tea was taken but Steven Croft’s bowlers claimed two further wickets in the play that was possible to strengthen their team’s hold on the match.David Lloyd was bowled by Chapple for 15 when he played most crookedly at a ball outside his off and succeeded only in edging it onto his middle stump, thus giving Chapple his 982nd first-class wicket. Twelve overs later, Cooke, having batted in a pleasantly accomplished fashion for 31 was leg before to Faulkner, who brought the ball back from the off to trap the Glamorgan batsman on the crease.Mark Wallace was unbeaten on 20 off 38 balls when, with the sky darkening and the rain setting in, the players came off for good.Should Lancashire win this game they will clinch promotion back to Division One of the Championship with three four-day games still to be played. However, the destination of the Division Two title may well depend on the result of the match against Surrey, which begins on September 14.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:09

‘Tempo the stand-out feature of Malik’s innings’

Shortly after Pakistan had declared their formidable first innings of the first Test on 523 for 8, with Shoaib Malik having marked the end of his five-year Test exile with an innings of Burj Khalifa proportions, a falcon was spotted on the outfield at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, greedily disembowelling the luckless prey in its talons.Happily for any squeamish onlookers among the smattering of fans in the vicinity, Adil Rashid quickly allayed concerns about his whereabouts by taking his place on the England dressing-room balcony. He too had displayed guts on the second day of the first Test – of the blood and gore variety, alas – as Malik’s career-best 245, the majority compiled in a fifth-wicket stand of 248 with Asad Shafiq, condemned him to a cruel slice of Test history.Rashid’s debut innings figures of 34-0-163-0 were the worst by any bowler in the 138-year history of Test cricket. What is more, his efforts usurped those of another legspinner, Bryce McGain, who was tormented to the tune of 0 for 149 by South Africa’s batsmen in his one and only appearance for Australia at Cape Town in March 2009.For AB de Villiers, read Malik, whose 10-and-a-half hour masterclass marked an astonishing return for a man who might not have got a look in had Azhar Ali been fit. Shafiq alongside him chipped in with a century of his own, and though both men survived notable moments of good fortune on the first day of the contest, neither offered another sniff of an opportunity until an improbable clatter of wickets after tea, when fatigue and the impending declaration enabled England’s toiling seamers to massage their stats, in particular Ben Stokes who emerged with the oddly respectable figures of 4 for 57.Shoaib Malik celebrates his maiden Test double-century•Getty Images

The Malik-Shafiq partnership was a fifth-wicket record for Pakistan in Tests against England, beating the 197-run stand at Lord’s between Javed Burki and Nasim-ul-Ghani that had stood since 1962. It continued their run of staggering batting form in Tests in Abu Dhabi, where they have never yet lost a match and where they have now recorded 11 hundreds in their last two-and-a-half Tests, dating back to the visit of Australia last October.Pakistan are past masters of batting in the UAE, having developed an innings tempo that is perfectly suited to the brutal conditions. They were content to wear England’s bowlers down for hours on end before latching on to the opportunities to make their dominance count. Between them, Malik and Shafiq struck 34 fours and four sixes, 160 runs in boundaries, a testament to their patience and ability to cash in.Malik, in particular, batted with the insouciance of a man in utter command of the attack and the conditions, and Rashid bore the brunt of his aggression, not least when he opened his shoulders with his double-century in the bag, first to wallop him over extra cover for four before pumping his next delivery clean down the ground for the third of his four sixes.Rashid, in truth, did not bowl especially badly, having been re-introduced to the attack in the seventh over of the day. By that stage, the seamers – armed with a ball that was just three overs old at the start of play – had been effortlessly repelled, and there was never an opportunity to get a toe-hold in the game. Rashid will cling on to the belief that his debut can be less like McGain’s and more like that of a certain SK Warne, whose debut figures of 1 for 150 at Sydney in 1992 included the maiden wicket of Ravi Shastri, but not before he had made 206.Despite having six front-line bowlers to call upon, Alastair Cook was forced reluctantly to turn to a seventh after 124 overs of fruitless toil when Joe Root was tossed the ball for an exploratory spell of allsorts, and they effectively used an eighth when Stokes entered the attack with his hitherto unseen offbreaks in the final over before the break.That over included, England’s spin attack mustered the combined figures of 70-3-302-0 and, ominously, they scarcely managed to hit the pads at any stage of the innings, let alone pass the edge.The one man to do so, in the whole of the first two sessions, was Stuart Broad, whose optimistic leg-side appeal against Shafiq, on 66 at the time, was going so far down leg that it was almost impertinent to ask. Nevertheless, Mark Wood, with a jig of delight, seemed pleased enough that his team-mate had managed even to breach one line of Pakistan’s formidable defence.Asad Shafiq helped Pakistan put on a record score against England for the fifth wicket•Getty Images

With his third ball after tea, and Pakistan already sated on 499 for 4, Wood finally breached their defences for real, as Shafiq aimed an expansive pull across the line and was trapped in front of middle and leg for 107. That breakthrough set in motion a harum-scarum 15 minutes in which three more wickets tumbled to loose prods and mows – all three to Stokes, including two lollipop catches for none other than Ian Bell, whose lapses in the slips had set Mohammad Hafeez and Shafiq on their way on day one.And so the declaration left England needing to bat out 23 overs in the day, a task that put a particular spotlight on Moeen Ali, whose 30 wicketless overs weren’t exactly the ideal way to focus his mind for the task ahead.But to his and Cook’s credit, they made it to the close with the minimum of fuss. Pakistan’s seamers found as little in the conditions as England had extracted, and arguably were even less effective given their slightly erratic lines of attack.The only real alarm came from the second ball of the innings when Cook jabbed down in the crease at Rahat Ali and all but emulated his mentor Graham Gooch in punching the ball away from his stumps as it bounced up alarmingly. Gooch, at Old Trafford in 1993, couldn’t help himself; Cook managed to resist his urges and lived to fight another day.Zulfiqar Babar, meanwhile, twirled away for seven broadly ineffective overs. There is plenty time for him to come into the game on days three, four and five, but in the absence of the prolific legspinner Yasir Shah, there was a cutting edge lacking from Pakistan’s initial forays. But their weight of runs remains overwhelming.

Dehradun will host eight of the top campus-cricket teams from around the world in the Red Bull Campus Cricket World Finals 2015. The matches will be played at the Abhimanyu Cricket Academy, Dehradun, from October 19 to 24.Teams from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, England, South Africa, Australia and UAE will compete in the annual Twenty20 competition. Each participating team has qualified for the finals after winning their respective national tournaments. The 2015 edition will be the first time UAE will participate in the tournament, having replaced West Indies in the team line-up.Assupol TUKS from South Africa were crowned champions in the last edition, which was held in London. Assupol TUKS have maintained their winning ways and will begin as pre-competition favourites this year as well. They recently beat Steinhoff Maties in the finals of their local competition to qualify.The defending champions will face tough competition from University of Technology, Sydney (Australia), Loughborough MCC University (England), Government Jinnah College (Pakistan), European University of Bangladesh (Bangladesh), International College of Business and Technology (Sri Lanka) and Heriot Watt University (UAE).Shradhanand College (Delhi) will represent hosts India, after they beat DAV College Jalandhar to secure their spot in the world finals. Rizvi College (Mumbai) – who made the finals last year – failed to make the cut, due to a poor showing in the national tournament.

Sachin Tendulkar has said that the T20 format is most suited for cricket to expand into new markets.”To globalise the game, I feel T20 is the right format,” Tendulkar told ESPNcricinfo in New York City, where he is gearing up for the start of the Cricket All-Stars Series starting on Saturday at Citi Field.”The format is fast, it’s gripping, it’s got lot of energy and invariably the finishes are real close. Very rarely you get to see a one-sided game, which is what people like to see. Towards the end of most T20 games, every ball matters.”Tendulkar and Shane Warne are set to lead a team of retired stars in a series of three T20 matches across three cities over the next week. Following the launch at Citi Field, the series will shift to Houston for the second match on November 11 before the final T20 is played in Los Angeles on November 14.Tendulkar said he hoped the games – to be held in baseball stadiums in each city – would draw large crowds, not only from the expatriate community but also from among those who have never watched a cricket match.”This is an introduction to cricket,” he said. “If there are guys who want to understand more about the different formats then they are going to follow Test cricket and ODIs. Even if you get ten percent of the guys to follow Test cricket and like Test cricket, it’s a win-win situation.”Tendulkar wishes that his band of retired superstars can kindle the curiosity of many American kids and inspire them to try and get a taste of playing the game.”Somewhere down the line maybe a kid in the US will hold a baseball bat in one hand and cricket bat in another,” he said.”You need role models, you need heroes. Youngsters need heroes to get inspired – to believe that yes, I want to become like Wasim Akram, I want to become like Brian Lara, I want to become like Jacques Kallis. That is how that journey starts.”

The highly famed battery of Pakistan’s speedsters and spinners having failed to dislodge the Sri Lanka opening pair of Sanath Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu commenced their efforts again.Sri Lanka resumed the innings at the overnight score of 140 for no loss. In 60 overs they were 156 for no loss with Jayasuriya (95) anxiously waiting for his first century after the assumption of captaincy and Atapattu (51) well dug at the crease. There came the moment of rejoicing for Jayasuriya when he hoisted his splendid ton by smashing Waqar Younis through gully for a four. This was his 6th test century of the career.Continuing to play freely and piling up runs, the two players brought 200 of the innings in 73 overs. While the Pakistani fielders dropped catches, the batsmen were gaining strength after every over. After playing a flurry of impressive strokes Atapattu also hoisted his 100 in 235 balls. At lunch Sri Lanka was 267 for no loss. Jayasuriya (148) and Atapattu (107) were almost in command of the game.Jayasuriya’s 150 came immediately after lunch while the glorious triple century (300) of the Sri Lanka innings came in 107 overs. Jayasuriya (172) and Atapattu (116) were giving a befitting reply to Pakistan’s big innings of 600 at Galle. The partnership between the two players became 7th in the ladder of over 300 runs partnership in the history of cricket.Pakistan took the new ball and entrusted its use to Abdur Razzaq and Waqar Younis. A quick result was achieved when Pakistan got the break-through that they were aspiring for. Unlucky for Sri Lanka, skipper Jayasuriya who was hero of Sri Lanka’s innings was out before completing his well-cherished double ton. He was out after scoring a marvelous innings of 188 when he edged a moving ball form Razzaq into the hands of Younis Khan fielding in the slips. Sri Lanka thus lost its 1st but the most precious wicket at 335.Russel Arnold who came in to bat held the ground and scored runs as confidently as his senior partner. He was out after contributing 24 runs. The next man Aravinda de Silva followed in his footsteps quickly rendering Sri Lanka to 402 for 3. A little later Jayawardene returned to the pavilion having been clean bowled by Arshad Khan. Sri Lanka was now 412 for 4.Though Sri Lanka had played marvelously piling up a score of over 400, the wickets had started falling. Pakistan picked up 3 wicket within a span of 4 overs.Since the pitch started giving little extra spin, the bowlers were now extracting some life out of it. Ranatunga was the next to go. In an attempt to sweep Arshad Khan, he was caught by Mushtaq Ahmed. Sri Lanka lost the 5th wicket at 434.The day’s play ended with Sri Lanka at 449 for 5. Atapattu playing the hero’s role remained not out with 199.Though Sri Lanka deserves the credit for piling up a huge total and still remaining in the game, one cannot pardon Pakistan for dropping atleast half a dozen vital catches.

A stand of 164 for the fourth wicket between Durham’s Gary Pratt and Ian Bell of Warwickshire enabled England to establish a healthy first innings lead over Sri Lanka on the second day of the first NatWest Under 19 Test Match at Trent Bridge.England had begun the day on 5-1, after losing Nicky Peng on the first evening. During a 37 over morning session Pratt and Bell added 138 with both men passing their half-centuries. Bell hit 6 x 4’s in reaching 24 and added 4 more as he brought up a splendid 50 off 84 deliveries. Pratt hit 8 boundaries in bringing up the landmark off just 80 balls.Sri Lanka, who had used 6 different bowlers during the first 24 overs of the innings, eventually had success when they turned to a seventh, Thilina Kandambi. Having been dismissed for a duck Kandambi was obviously keen to make an impression with the ball but not even he could surely have forecast a four-wicket haul during the afternoon.Pratt was the first to go, steering the leg spinner straight to Ian Daniels at first slip. Pratt had made 75 and Ian Bell had made 72 before he fell shortly afterwards, caught behind by Nimesh Perera. When Ian Pattison was caught at silly point for 3, England had subsided from 169-1 to 174-4.Kadeer Ali and Jamie Dalrymple restored the damage with a stand of 56 to give England the lead before Kandambi picked up his 4th scalp – Dalrymple driving the ball straight back to the bowler with the final ball before tea.During the final passage of play Ali was joined by Somerset’s Peter Trego and, with Sri Lanka strangely electing not to take the second new ball for 21 overs, the pair added 95 for the 6th wicket to take England to 325-5Trego finished the day on 56 not out, with his half century coming off 60 balls with 8×4’s and a huge legside 6, whilst Ali, more circumspect, remained undefeated on 55- having faced 177 balls with 3×4’s.With 2 days remaining England have a lead of 114 with 5 first innings wickets still remaining.

Perth – A disciplined, dogged 119 by Barbadian Sherwin Campbell thatspanned seven hours inspired a determined batting performance by theWest Indies on the third day of their four-day match against WesternAustralia yesterday. Vice-captain Campbell, on his second tour ofAustralia, shared solid partnerships with two experienced lefthanders. He put on 86 with Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who made 43, and 84with captain Jimmy Adams, who was 41 not out.They helped carry the West Indies’ second innings to 266 for six atclose, ahead by 40 with three effective wickets standing. Fast bowlerKerry Jeremy was ruled out of the match when he had his jaw fracturedby a bouncer from Matthew Nicholson in the first innings.An otherwise satisfying day was spoiled for the West Indies by theloss of Campbell and nightwatchman Merv Dillon to medium-pacer TomMoody, the Western Australian captain, in the last 20 minutes.Campbell was LBW defending, and Dillon caught at short-leg fending offa lifting delivery.Adams will be joined by the last of the specialist batsmen, 20-yearold Ramnaresh Sarwan, when play resumes today, a stand that willdetermine how far the West Indies can carry the match.Compiling his second century in as many matches on tour, following hisunbeaten 111 in the traditional opener against the ACB Chairman’s XIon Tuesday, Campbell set the example for the rest of the batting.There was little of the rash strokeplay that led to their firstinnings collapse for 132 on the first day. Only Wavell Hinds, one ofthe three left-handers in the middle order, could be accused of poorjudgement.He stroked 27 off 40 balls in an hour when he top-edged a pull offfast bowler Nicholson that wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist trotted aroundto the leg-side to catch.Hinds came in when nightwatchman Marlon Black touched a catch toGilchrist off left-arm fast bowler Brendon Julian, and dominated thepartnership with the careful Campbell.Campbell added only a single in the first hour and went scoreless for56 balls on 24. But he never lost focus, offering no chance from the286 balls he faced. Most of his 15 boundaries were well struck offside strokes.Chanderpaul, in his first match since the summer’s England tour,looked a little rusty in just over two hours in the middle. He wasgaining in form and confidence when he clipped young fast bowler GavinSwann to square-leg where Simon Katitch held a good, low catch. TheGuyanese left-hander hit six fours from his 105 balls.Adams played with typically defensive resolve in his stand with hisvice-captain. He was unbeaten on 41 after almost two-and-a-half hoursand 124 balls.