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Canterbury moved to the top spot on the points table from joint-third position after registering a 28-run win over hosts Auckland at Colin Maiden Park.In a match that featured several cameo performances with bat and ball, Canterbury made 334 after being asked to bat. Shanan Stewart anchored the innings with patient 90 as most of his team-mates got starts before being dismissed. Seamer Colin de Grandhomme and left-arm spinner Bruce Martin caused most of the damage, picking up seven wickets between them. Auckland’s reply followed a similar course, with several batsmen getting their eyes in but not making significant contributions – the top score was 71 by Tim McIntosh – as opening bowler Matthew Henry and legspinner Todd Astle picked up three wickets apiece. The innings folded on 277, allowing Canterbury a 57-run lead.At 3 for 35, Canterbury were in trouble in their second innings, as the two Martins, Chris and Bruce produced incisive spells. But three solid half-centuries from the middle order, including Stewart’s 65, steered them to 231 for 8. Set 289 for victory, Auckland’s batsmen came a cropper for the second time, barring Bradley Cachopa who scored 71, as they fell short of the target. Astle carved up the middle order with four scalps, taking his match haul to seven.The Northern Districts v Otago match at Seddon Park in Hamilton ended in a high-scoring draw. Asked to bat, Otago piled up 389 on the back of steady tons from Aaron Redmond and Derek de Boorder. Northern Districts were emphatic in their reply, making 559 for 9 declared at an impressive rate of 4.83 runs per over. Daniel Flynn powered the innings with a knock of 241 off 253 balls that included nine sixes. Otago then batted out the rest of the match, scoring 343 for 6, with Redmond producing another ton.In another batsmen-dominated encounter, Central Districts played out a draw against Wellington at the Basin Reserve. Choosing to bat, Central Districts built their innings around opener Peter Ingram who scored a steady 135, and declared their innings at 337 for 9. Hundreds from Stephen Murdoch and Neal Parlane helped Wellington take the first innings lead by a sizable margin, despite legspinner Tarun Nethula picking up a six-for. The run-fest continued as Ingram powered to his second ton of the match, an explosive 143 off 136 balls laced with 26 boundaries, Central Districts ending day four on 368 for 6.

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Derbyshire bounced back from last week’s Clydesdale Bank 40 defeat to Hollandas they beat Sussex by six wickets with 14 balls to spare at windswept Derby.Sussex lost seven for 56 on a slow pitch after winning the toss and only anunbroken ninth-wicket stand of 62 in 9.3 overs between Rana Naved-ul-Hasan andWill Beer lifted them to 193 for 8.Wes Durston (70 from 90 balls) and Wayne Madsen (48 not out from 57) thensteered Derbyshire to their 194 target against a Sussex attack that was minusEngland all-rounder Luke Wright, who could not bowl because of an injury.Wright had earlier scored 23 as the Sharks started well until a series of rashstrokes sparked a collapse that saw them crash from 75 for 1 to 131 for 8in 18 overs.Ed Joyce hit five fours in his 37 which came off 40 balls before he came downthe pitch at medium pacer Greg Smith and was smartly stumped by Luke Sutton.Wright failed to clear mid-off in Smith’s next over and the innings went intosharp decline against the spinners, who conceded only 66 runs in 20 overs.Joe Gatting was stumped giving Chesney Hughes the charge, Andy Hodd edged a bigdrive and Murray Goodwin skied Azeem Rafiq to deep midwicket.Durston found some turn to beat Naved Arif’s defensive push and and when WillAdkin drilled Hughes to long off, the Sharks were in danger of falling wellshort of a competitive score.But Rana and Beer played sensibly in the closing stages of the innings and thetotal was boosted by a Steffan Jones over which cost 17, including five wides.The Falcons got off to a flier with Usman Khawaja and Hughes taking 50 from theopening nine overs before the Australian was caught behind cutting at Adkin.A direct hit from cover by Goodwin ran out Hughes for 30 but Durston and Smithput the home side back on track, with Durston driving Monty Panesar over long onfor the game’s only six.But Smith needlessly swept Panesar to deep square leg in the 17th over andSussex would have been back in the hunt had Hodd not fumbled a stumping chancewhen Durston was on 39.Durston and Madsen shared a stand of 89 in 19 overs and, although Durston wasrun out in the 36th over with eight runs needed, it was too late for Sussexwho were well beaten in their first Group A game.

ScorecardA century from Kyle Coetzer helped Durham to a second Clydesdale Bank 40 win in as many days as they beat Scotland by 80 runs to move up to second in Group B.The win at The Citylets Grange was Durham’s fourth win in five matches in the competition as they recovered from the early loss of Phil Mustard to post a competitive total of 278 for 4 after being put in, with Coetzer hitting an unbeaten 110. Opener Fraser Watts impressed in the Scotland reply with 62 but he did not enjoy much in the way of support as they fell way short of their target.Durham’s innings got off to a difficult start as former England wicketkeeper Mustard fell in the fourth over, caught by Calum MacLeod off the bowling of Gordon Drummond for 5. Coetzer was joined at the crease by Ben Stokes and the two scored quickly as the former brought up a run-a-ball half century before Stokes lost his wicket to Josh Davey, caught by Neil McCallum for 35.Gordon Muchall then came to the crease and he and Coetzer improved the run-rate further, adding 112 for the third wicket before Muchall (65) was caught behind off Gordon Goudie. Will Smith quickly followed Muchall back to the pavilion when he was trapped lbw by Drummond seven balls later.But that was the final wicket to fall as Gareth Breese thrashed 47 off 18 balls to add to Coetzer’s impressive innings and set Scotland a difficult target.The hosts set off at a frenetic pace in their reply but lost wickets at regular intervals as they came up short in their chase. MacLeod was bowled by Chris Rushworth in the fourth over before Davey, Richie Berrington and McCallum all fell for a combined total of 16 runs, leaving the score on 61 for 4.Preston Mommsen (38) then offered some resistance before becoming Stokes’ first victim of the innings, and when impressive opener Watts (62) fell to Scott Borthwick three overs later the writing was on the wall for Scotland.The final four wickets fell for 53 runs as Durham’s Man-of-the-Match Coetzer ran out Drummond to bring Scotland’s innings to a premature end.

ScorecardScott Styris was star of the show as Essex crushed Gloucestershire by 122 runs in their Friends Life t20 clash at Chelmsford.He struck an unbeaten 39 from just 17 deliveries to lead his side to a formidable total of 204 for 4. Then he underlined his all-round qualities by picking up 3 for 12 as the visitors were bowled out for a miserable 82 in 13.3 overs.Styris and Ryan ten Doeschate put together an unbroken partnership of 71 in five overs at the end of the Essex innings. Styris struck four successive sixes off left-arm seamer David Payne, while ten Doeschate joined in the fun with 32 from 16 balls as he helped himself to four fours and a six.Their efforts followed a partnership of 85 for the fifth wicket in nine overs between Ravi Bopara and Owais Shah. Bopara fell one short of a half-century, his runs arriving from 36 deliveries, while Shah’s 40 came from 30 balls before both were dismissed in the same over by left-arm spinner Ed Young.It all proved too much for Gloucestershire. They seemed to be still shellshocked by the late onslaught from Styris and ten Doeschate when they embarked upon their reply. Their first three batsmen failed to trouble the scores, New Zealander Tim Southee removing Alex Gidman and Chris Taylor with successive balls in his first over.Then Graham Napier bowled Hamish Marshall to leave the visitors 4 for 3, all of those runs coming in extras. From that moment onwards, the best the visitors could hope for was some semblance of respectability.But even that was to prove beyond them as the Essex bowlers, backed up by some fine fielding, turned the screw. Two more wickets fell before the 50 was raised, in the ninth over.Kane Williamson hauled out on the midwicket boundary to Bopara to provide Chris Wright with success before left-arm spinner Tim Phillips bowled Kevin O’Brien. Phillips then breached the defence of Will Gidman immediately afterwards, and the innings went from bad to worse as Essex went on their destructive course.Styris was to pick up two wickets in an over, and fittingly, it was he who brought the match to an end when he had Richard Coughtrie caught by Matt Walker. It left Gloucestershire suffering their second heavy defeat in as many days, following on from their eight-wicket thrashing at the hands of Surrey.For Essex, it was their first victory of the campaign, after their defeat 24 hours earlier against Sussex.

India are set to be without Virender Sehwag for the first two Tests against England and there is still no definite timetable for his return following the shoulder surgery that ruled him out of the West Indies tour.It had already been announced that Sehwag will be joining the tour two weeks late after being given extra time to recover at home but uncertainty remains over the seriousness of his problem. “We’ve heard that he’ll be over here for maybe the third and fourth Test, so we’re crossing our fingers for that,” Duncan Fletcher, the India coach, said.On the recent tour of West Indies, India had an entirely new opening combination with Gautam Gambhir also missing out with an injury. Abhinav Mukund partnered Murali Vijay for the three matches and did enough to secure a berth to England having made 147 runs at in six innings.Mukund now faces the prospect of joining forces with Gambhir to face England’s new-ball attack at Lord’s and Trent Bridge. MS Dhoni wants his side to be given a solid platform but knows Sehwag’s boots are tough to fill. “We are a side that relies on our openers quite a bit,” he said. “If we get off to a good start then we can really capitalise with the middle order we have.”As far as Virender Sehwag is concerned, there aren’t many cricketers in the world who can have the impact he can. Of course we’ll miss him, but the good thing for Indian cricket is it gives a chance to a youngster like Mukund who can have a look at international cricket and see what areas he needs to improve. Viru will be back at some point, but it’s good to have Gautam back as well.”Sehwag, though, is just one part of a formidable batting line-up that will include the returning Sachin Tendulkar along with Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. Fletcher also believes that the tough batting conditions India faced in West Indies will stand them in good stead for the series ahead.”In West Indies, without some top players, they played on some spicy wickets – two like I’d never been involved with before – it was really quick, it bounced and seamed,” he said. “They handled it well. So we feel they are in a good space at the moment and can carry on.”Dhoni, meanwhile, isn’t overly concerned that India only have their three-day match against Somerset as preparation because the team are coming off their hard-fought series in the Caribbean, although he may have been lulled slightly by the warm day on Thursday. The forecast isn’t so promising.”The West Indian climate is quite different but there’s nice weather here for cricket. I don’t think there’s too much pressure on us to acclimatise,” he said. “The last two days we’ve had fantastic net sessions. In West Indies, wickets were slightly different. It was a challenge for the batsmen because shot-playing wasn’t very easy. Over here it might be a bit different because the outfield should be miles faster than what we had in West Indies.”

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Yorkshire remain well placed to earn an County Championship double overfellow strugglers Worcestershire although the hosts made heavy weather of theirtask on the third day at Scarborough.Chasing 134 for victory after stubborn resistance from the visitors tookWorcestershire to a second-innings 332, Yorkshire closed on 80 for 3, 53runs behind.Worcestershire were in big trouble on 82 for 4 at the start of the day,still trailing by 117 after the hosts posted 367 to establish a 199-runfirst-innings advantage. But the visitors refused to throw in the towel, with skipper Daryl Mitchell and James Cameron taking few risks against the pace of Ryan Sidebottom and TimBresnan.The fifth-wicket pair had just batted through the first hour when Cameron droveat a full-length ball from Ajmal Shahzad and Adil Rashid held on at third slip. Mitchell got stuck on 46 for an hour before cover-driving Richard Pyrah to reach his half-century with his ninth boundary.Gareth Andrew was then put down when on 15 by Rashid, who split his right indexfinger in dropping the fairly straightforward chance and spent spells off thefield either side of lunch.Worcestershire lost another wicket before lunch when Pyrah bowled Mitchellthrough the gate for 55 from 141 balls with 10 fours. After the break, Scott was clean bowled by a splendid yorker from Shahzad to end his resistance on nine.Saeed Ajmal shrugged off a blow to the side of his face from Bresnan to hitShahzad for a legside boundary to finally wipe out the arrears, but Andrew thenspoiled a neatly compiled half-century by slashing wildly at a loose ball fromPyrah to be caught behind for 57.Yorkshire were not making things easy for themselves, however, and Saeed Ajmalshould have departed for 19 only for Gary Ballance to grass the chance at secondslip, his third drop of the match.That escape allowed Ajmal and Jack Shantry to take their stand to 54 in 11overs before Ajmal fell to a great delivery from Pyrah for 47, the ball seamingoff the edge of the bat to Jonny Bairstow.Worcestershire, at 270 for 9, still had plenty of fight left in them and thelast-wicket pair of Shantry and Richardson went on the rampage, aided by furtherbad fielding lapses.The hapless Ballance fluffed another chance in the slips when he droppedShantry on 21 off Bresnan, and the batsman celebrated the return of Shahzad bysmashing his first ball back over the bowler’s head for four and also takingboundaries off the next two deliveries.Shantry sailed past his previous best knock of 13 not out and runs flowed asYorkshire and their fans became increasingly frustrated. The score had rattled on to 332, with the last-wicket stand worth 62, when Sidebottom bowled Richardson for 31 just before tea. Shantry’s unbeaten 47 came off 73 balls with eight fours.Yorkshire began their run chase after the interval and soon suffered a setbackas Adam Lyth was run out by a direct hit at the bowler’s end from AlanRichardson after Joe Root had called for a second run.Root then edged Ajmal to slip where he was dropped by Mitchell with the scoreon 19, and Yorkshire were put under further pressure on 29 when Anthony McGrathfell lbw to Richardson, whose 11-over opening spell conceded only 15 runs.A well-flighted ball by Ajmal lured Andrew Gale forward for him to be stumpedby Scott but Root stayed calm under pressure and will begin the final day on 31,with Bairstow unbeaten on 12.

Gordon Drummond will lead Scotland on their tour of Namibia in all formats next month. The tour will include an ICC Intercontinental Cup fixture, a competition which Scotland reached the final of in 2010, two fifty-over games as a part of the ICC one-day league, and five Twenty20s as Scotland build up to next year’s World Twenty20 qualifiers in Dubai.Simon Smith will be with the squad only for the Intercontinental Cup fixture, while Fraser Watts, Oliver Hairs and Marc Petrie will join the squad for the limited-overs leg of the tour. The uncapped duo of Tyler Buchan and Jan Stander are included only for the Twenty20s, while Ryan Flannigan and Ewan Chalmers will miss that segment of the tour.The tour kicks off on September 23 with the Intercontinental Cup match, and ends on October 5.Squads:Intercontinental Cup: Gordon Drummond (capt), Preston Mommsen, Ryan Flannigan, Ewan Chalmers, Richie Berrington, Craig Wallace, Gordon Goudie, Calum MacLeod, Kyle Coetzer, Safyaan Sharif, Josh Davey, Majid Haq, Simon SmithOne-day squad: Gordon Drummond (capt), Preston Mommsen, Ryan Flannigan, Ewan Chalmers, Richie Berrington, Craig Wallace, Gordon Goudie, Calum MacLeod, Kyle Coetzer, Safyaan Sharif, Josh Davey, Majid Haq, Fraser Watts, Marc Petrie, Oliver HairsTwenty20 squad: Gordon Drummond (capt), Preston Mommsen, Richie Berrington, Craig Wallace, Gordon Goudie, Calum MacLeod, Kyle Coetzer, Safyaan Sharif, Josh Davey, Majid Haq, Fraser Watts, Marc Petrie, Oliver Hairs, Jan Stander, Tyler Buchan

Brad Haddin, Australia’s wicketkeeper, has said the use of technology to review decisions should be made uniform across international cricket or thrown out altogether following another day of close decisions and inconclusive replays in Sri Lanka.Often at the centre of Australia’s appeals for the use of the DRS, Haddin was twice convinced he had caught Tharanga Paranvitana on the fourth afternoon of the Test. On the first occasion he was denied due to the lack of conclusive evidence and may have been fortunate to be given the second one, off the bowling of Michael Hussey, after it too seemed to have only circumstantial backing on the replays offered by the host broadcaster.”There was a good noise [on the first one],” Haddin said of a legside catch off the bowling of Mitchell Johnson. “I was pretty confident that we’d nicked the glove. Young Uzzy [Usman Khawaja] at bat-pad thought he’d seen it come straight off the glove but it wasn’t to be.”It’s pretty hard with those ones in general for umpires where it comes off the glove or the hip or the bat. It’s pretty hard with no Hotspot as well; it’s hard to make a decision. I was pretty confident then that we got some glove.”I was 100% sure there was an edge [on the second appeal] and I said so to Michael [Clarke]. We were a bit nervous when it went up stairs because there was no Hotspot. We threw the dice a bit but I was 100% sure there was an edge.”Haddin argued that technology had to be consistently applied if it was to be used, as players and umpires were constantly forced to re-adjust their sights under the current system, a product of political expediency and cost constraints.”My opinion on it is that I think it needs to be consistent all around the world,” Haddin said. “I think it needs to be the same. I don’t think you can chop and change from series to series. I think if you’ve got the technology there you might as well use it and if not don’t use it at all and leave it up to the umpires.”I think it’s important with Test cricket that everything’s consistent. If you’re going to have Hotspot for other series, you need to have it for this. That’s only my view, I think it all needs to be consistent and one message, wherever you’re playing in the world.”Australia’s chances of victory in the second Test appear to hinge on the second new ball, a fact acknowledged by Haddin.”That’s why we were trying to get through some over pretty quick today from about 70-odd so we could maybe have three or four overs with it tonight but it wasn’t to be the case,” Haddin said. “The game basically sits on the first session tomorrow. We’ve got to do damage with the new ball. If we don’t it’s going to be tough work from there.”It’s a good wicket but it’s up to us to make sure we make things happen. With that we’ve got to make sure with the new ball that we’re getting them driving and making sure we’re trying to create chances either behind the wicket or possibly even some short catches. It’s important that we bowl well with the new ball and get the new ball up there, make them play as much as we possibly can to have a real red-hot crack in this first session. It’s a pretty important part of the game.”Sri Lanka’s success on day four was based on an opening stand of 81 between Tillakaratne Dilshan and Paranavitana. However Haddin pointed out they were fortune not to edge any number of balls from Ryan Harris and Trent Copeland early on.”They played and missed a bit with that new ball and probably had a bit of luck go their way rather than find the edge and have it go to hands. That was the big difference there [from other innings],” Haddin said. “You need to create chances with the new ball on these sort of wickets. I actually thought we bowled quite well but the chances they weren’t there for us today.”[It was a] typical day of Test cricket. It’s a good batting wicket, we had two pretty good players at the end and we’ve got to do damage with the new ball tomorrow to get a result out of this game.”