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Hampshire second XI clinched the ECB National Championship in the second day’s play against Warwickshire, with a typically high quality batting performance, to pick up maximum batting points.Needing eight points from the game to reach an unobtainable total at the top of the National pile ahead of Yorkshire, Hampshire passed 300 with just five wickets down to ensure they took the four points, having taken the full four points on the first day in bowling the opposition out for 213.The second team put together another fine display, eventually declaring on 446-9, with four batsmen passing fifty.Nightwatchman Irfan Shah was the star of the morning session; having survived the previous evening, he showed what a talented player he is, smashing 88 runs from 120 balls, but falling just short of his first century at this level, when he was out prior to lunch.Andy Sexton had played second fiddle to Shah, but compiled a very tidy 55, his sixth half-century on the bounce for Hampshire. He was out caught at second slip, with the score at 182-4, and this was soon 182-5 as Damien Shirazi got a good ball from Tom Mees.Skipper John Stephenson and Shah responded very well, though, putting on a further 60 before Shah’s dismissal. James Hamblin (37) replaced Shah after lunch and he played aggressively with his captain, taking the total to 332. Stephenson looked well set before he was brilliantly caught and bowled for 71.Iain Brunnschweiler (51*) and James Schofield (38) pushed the score passed the 400 mark and prompted the declaration.Simon Francis picked up an early wicket as the home side bowled 16 overs before the end of play. Warwickshire 40-1.

Mickey Arthur, the former Australia coach, has been shortlisted for the vacant role as Essex’s head coach. Arthur is included on an interview list of five coaches that also includes the county’s bowling coach, Chris Silverwood, former Essex and Australia batsman Stuart Law, Andy Moles and Paul Nixon.Arthur, Law and Moles are three coaches with international experience and it is Arthur’s pedigree which is the more immediately obvious, involving not only Australia but also South Africa where he spent five years in charge and briefly took them to No. 1 in the Test rankings.One sticking point in discussions with Arthur could concern the extent of his power and, indeed, the salary that goes with it. Essex are of the few counties that have resisted the general move from coaches to directors of cricket, preferring to control costs and invest a certain amount of responsibility in the traditional cricket committee structure.Following a successful tenure as South Africa’s coach from 2005, when he formed a tight bond with his captain Graeme Smith, he was appointed to the Australia role following their home Ashes defeat in 2010-11.Although he won 10 of his 19 Tests in charge, he fell out with many of his senior players, particularly during the notorious homework saga in India in 2012-13, and was replaced by Darren Lehmann just three weeks before the first Test at Trent Bridge in July 2013.Since then, he has worked in both the Caribbean Premier League, where he coached Jamaica Tallawahs, and the Bangladesh Premier League, where he is currently in charge of Dhaka Dynamites. In 2014, he was linked with the Sri Lanka vacancy. Arthur also has experience of domestic cricket in South Africa, with Eastern Cape, and Australia, where he coached Western Australia.Moles has had coaching stints with Kenya, Scotland, New Zealand and Afghanistan but since his long playing career with Warwickshire ended in 1997 he has failed to win a major coaching role in England.Law’s reputation as a strong-willed, fiercely independent individual would suggest him as an intriguing gamble. He is currently working with Bangladesh’s U-19s, having previously coached the full side. His previous position was with Queensland between 2013 and 2015.Nixon, a former England wicketkeeper, has little coaching experience; Silverwood is respected by the Essex dressing room and undertook a caretaker role in late season after the removal of Paul Grayson in dependable fashion.Essex were consistently one of the most successful limited-overs sides in England under the guidance of Grayson, but they were repeatedly unable to translate that record into trophies.Quarter-final defeats in the NatWest Blast and the Royal London Cup – as well as a more predictable failed promotion challenge caused primarily by a lack of bowling depth – led Grayson to be removed in late season after Ronnie Irani, a former England and Essex allrounder, was installed as chairman of the cricket committee.

Rajshahi

Where they finished last seasonFifthBig PictureIt looks like an anomaly for Bangladesh’s most successful first-class team to start in the second tier of the competition, but Rajshahi played poorly in the 2014-15 season, and will have to make do this season with not being in contention for the title.For Farhad Hossain, Farhad Reza and Jahurul Islam, it will still be an opportunity to make it to next season’s first tier in style. There will also be expectations from the likes of Mizanur Rahman, Delwar Hossain and Muktar Ali to keep the team balanced.Mushfiqur Rahim will lead in the first game but, like all the other Bangladesh regulars, he cannot be expected to turn up for Rajshahi for more than a few matches.Key playerFarhad Hossain has been one of the leading run-makers in Bangladesh’s domestic cricket for nearly a decade but has never knocked the doors of the senior team hard enough. This season could be an opportunity for him to impress the selectors enough to get a place in the A team.Below the radarTouhid Tareq scored five fifties after being added late to the Rajshahi squad last season, and also did well for Surjo Tarun club in the Dhaka First Division Cricket League.What they say“We are understandably disappointed with last season but we hope to remain mentally strong and ensure Tier 1 next season.”

Sylhet

Where they finished last seasonSixthBig pictureSylhet won only one game last season but observers said they were a much-improved side, as reflected in the four drawn games they contested. More improvement is expected from a team that is steadily building on young talent.The older hands of Rajin Saleh, Alok Kapali and Enamul Haque jnr will still be expected to do most of the work, while the likes of Abu Jayed Chowdhury, Abul Hasan and Sayem Alam – Rajin’s younger brother – are going to be eyed by scouts of the BPL, DPL and selectors for the Bangladesh A side.Key playerEnamul Haque jnr is Bangladesh’s leading wicket-taker at the first-class level and almost every season, he is among the top wicket-takers. The left-arm spinner last played Test cricket in 2013, but he can be expected to take another batch of wickets this season.Below the radarAbu Jayed is a 22-year old pace bowler who relies on seam movement and some swing. He is three wickets short of 100 first-class wickets and is a real below-the-radar performer at the domestic level because he is hardly regarded by the cricket authorities.

Barisal

Where they finished last seasonSeventhBig pictureBarisal are one of two teams not to have won a match last season. They usually suffer from a lack of players in the pipeline, though players like Shahriar Nafees and Sohag Gazi have regularly performed for them.Barisal were happy with how they batted last year, with Nafees, Mosaddek Hossain and Fazle Mahmud having impressive seasons. Mahmud will captain the side in the absence of Kamrul Islam Rabbi, the young pace bowler who is likely to have Bangladesh A commitments. The return of left-arm spinner Monir Hossain, who is a Barisal stalwart, will help Gazi bowl with a bit more freedom, while Nasum Ahmed, the left-arm spinner, will be expected to do a holding role.Key playerNafees will bat with renewed vigor after doing well last season. He hasn’t been on the Bangladesh team’s radar for quite some time but like many of the senior players on the circuit, he will be expected to push for a place.Below the radarFazle Mahmud is a useful all-round cricketer who opens the batting and bowls left-arm spin. He has the potential but has never really made a big splash in domestic cricket.What they say“We batted very well last season so we will hope to do better this season.”

Chittagong

Where they finished last seasonEighthBig PictureChittagong finished at the bottom of the points table last season and have frustrated many with their domestic performances. They haven’t done very well in terms of contributing players to the national side – after Tamim Iqbal and Nazimuddin, not one Chittagong player has gone on to play for Bangladesh.There is hope, however, as many cricket academies are springing up in the port city. A good performance in the NCL can encourage local coaches and upcoming players.Tasamul Haque, Irfan Sukkur and Nazimuddin did well with the bat last year while Iftekhar Sajjad was the only bowler to take more than 10 wickets in the season for Chittagong.Key playerTasamul Haque has been in the High Performance camp and is known to be a smart batsman. Last season, he was the team’s top-scorer with more than 500 runs. He is, however, not a local player, as he hails from Dhaka.Below the radarIrfan Sukkur is a left-handed batsman and wicketkeeper. He performed well for the side last season, and is being seen as an important player in their bid to make it to the top.

Josh Hazlewood is out of the fifth Investec Test and for the seventh time on this and the previous West Indies tour Peter Siddle’s claims appear likely to be ignored by the selectors, opening the way for Pat Cummins to resume his Test career.The coach Darren Lehmann has been moved to explain why Hazlewood will not be playing, but a cloud remains over how the most experienced seam bowler in the tour party has not been used even once on this trip, even as England have prepared a succession of green, seaming surfaces ideally suited to Siddle’s skills.Siddle was understood to be utterly bereft about his omission for the Trent Bridge Test, and confided to his former captain Ricky Ponting that he felt his last chance to play for Australia had gone. The pitch for the Oval Test looks likely to provide similar levels of assistance to the bowlers, but with the Ashes gone it is likely that Cummins will be chosen alongside Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc.The captain Michael Clarke said that Siddle remained in contention to play, and that at the age of 30 he should not be discarded as an Australian pace bowler. “Sidds is still working extremely hard and continues to get better,” Clarke said. “He’s played a few of the practice games and probably hasn’t got as many wickets as he would’ve liked.”But he’s certainly in contention for this Test match. He might’ve had a niggle after the tour game so the medical staff have tried to look after that. He bowled fine yesterday, I faced him in the nets and he bowled really well. Sidds is only 30 so I think he’s got plenty of time left in him, and he’s been a big part of the Australian Test team over a period of time.”Siddle has not played a Test since the first match of last summer in Adelaide when he bowled poorly while battling illness. Hazlewood has been preferred in each match since then, and Siddle was not awarded a Cricket Australia contract despite being chosen for this tour. The pitches in England seemed to create the ideal scenario for his inclusion as a consistent seam and swing bowler of much experience.Hazlewood, meanwhile, has struggled to maintain consistency, and Lehmann and the selection chairman Rod Marsh were seen in lengthy conversation with him in Northamptonshire. Lehmann said it had been decided that the least experienced member of the bowling attack needed rest before niggles became larger issues.”Josh has played six Tests since the West Indies tour and the last nine Tests for Australia, as well as playing an important part in the World Cup,” Lehmann said. “He has managed to get through this period without any major injury which is pleasing, though currently he does have some niggling problems that we would like to manage. As such, he was not considered for selection for the 5th Test.”On his return to Australia his niggles will be investigated further and he will work with our coaches, and our medical and fitness staff to have him prepared for the next series he is selected to play in.”Lehmann’s clarification leaves Cummins very much in line to play, resuming his Test career nearly four years after he made a memorable debut against South Africa in Johannesburg, taking the Man-of-the-Match award in a narrow victory on a helpful pitch for bowlers. According to Clarke, The Oval looks to be another such surface.”It still looks pretty green from the boundary so I imagine it will look even greener up close,” Clarke said. “It’s going to be another really tough Test match for the batters, but we just have to find a way to fight our backsides off, whether it goes two days or three days I’d just like us to be on the right side of that two or three days.”Mitchell Marsh has also firmed to return to the side ahead of his brother Shaun, after the latter was seen in deep conversation with Rod Marsh during Australia’s final training session.

ScorecardJake Lehmann made the only 50-plus score of the game•Cricket Australia

Critical contributions by Daniel Worrall and Jake Lehmann allowed South Australia to squeeze past Victoria in another low-scoring Matador Cup encounter at Bankstown Oval.Chasing 198 to win, the Bushrangers were rounded up for 181, having never established their innings due to Worrall’s early dismissals of Aaron Finch and Cameron White.No Redbacks bowler claimed more than three wickets, but a very even contribution in the field was enough to shut out a vastly more experienced Victorian XI, of which only Scott Boland had never been chosen in an Australian squad. Kane Richardson and Joe Mennie were exceptionally stingy, while Callum Ferguson chimed in with the important wicket of Peter Handscomb.A late stand of 59 between John Hastings and James Pattinson had threatened to take the Bushrangers to victory, but the left-arm spinner Tom Andrews tempted Hastings to loft a catch to Richardson in the deep, with the Bushrangers tail unable to muster the remaining runs.The Redbacks had been in trouble early after James Pattinson’s swift yorker had Travis Head lbw in the very first over, but the left-handed Lehmann added vital lower-order runs with Adam Zampa and Mennie. Those partnerships ensured that the Redbacks would have something near 200 to defend, and on a sluggish pitch they defended it grandly.Redbacks’ third win in five games mean they are one win short of qualifying for the competition finals, and face the fledgling Cricket Australia XI in their last qualifying fixture.

Pakistan have an impressive World Cup record with one title, one runners-up finish and four semi-final appearances over the last ten editions of the tournament. However, the 1992 champions arrive at this year’s tournament after a string of below-par performances in the ODI format in recent times. In this episode of CONTENDERS, former India captain Rahul Dravid and former South Africa captain Graeme Smith analyse Pakistan’s chances to upset the apple-cart and replicate the glory of 1992. Can the young batsmen find consistency? Can the bowling attack cope with the loss of Saeed Ajmal? And can veterans such as Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan and Shahid Afridi rise to the occasion?

What they said about…

The lack of aura around the side, compared to previous years
Dravid: They lack those big-ticket players or game changers which you would associate the Pakistani team of the past.
Smith: They’re looking for stability, looking for someone who can create some consistency. The younger generation of batters hasn’t quite stepped up to the plate in terms of consistent performances.Saeed Ajmal’s absence
Smith: Every batsman in every team is breathing a sigh of relief that Ajmal is not around. Believe me, I wish I could go play a Pakistan team without Ajmal in it.Drawing inspiration from the 1992 win
Dravid: In 1992 also, they started off very badly and they struggled for a while with a similar kind of team in which they had a lot of young players but who later on went to become absolute legends for Pakistan. So Pakistan can only hope that history repeats itself.
Smith: When you go back to 1992, a charismatic captain. Who can forget Wasim Akram in the final of the tournament? And they had some x-factor. That’s what they need to find now, early in the tournament, find their best eleven.Misbah, the captain
Dravid: You can just sense that he has a lot of respect from the players in the team. They respect that he brings that stability to the team. He’s been able to work really well with the board and with the coaching staff. And makes the best of the situation he finds himself in. So you can’t fault him on his effort and he’s trying to do the best that he can.
Smith: He comes across as very serious, very methodical, and I think my favourite quote by him is, “My name is Misbah, my nickname is Misbah.” You know that sums up the personalityFawad Alam’s exclusion
Dravid: He seems to have a fantastic record, but for some reason they don’t seem to pick him. I read somewhere, that they think that his game wasn’t going to be good enough in Australian conditions. That’s a presumption and they’re playing a lot of games in New Zealand.Afridi and the big stage
Dravid: It’s almost like when he goes out to bat, there’s this red mist that comes over him, he just swings at everything. But I’ve seen him play a different kind of game. I’ve seen him play sensibly at times and construct innings. But it just hasn’t happened of late for some reason or the other.
Smith: He’s going to be a key performer, he has huge experience, with 350+ ODIs. That’s immense. They are going to need more from him in this tournament.Umar Akmal’s role
Dravid: If he can turn that obvious ability and become a run-hungry consistent batsman for Pakistan, sure enough he’ll find a spot. He could bat at No. 4 consistently, or at 3 or 5, or bat anywhere really if he wants to.
Smith: He’s one of those cricketers, who comes in and plays some good shots, gets to 25 or 30 and you think this guy is going to do something special. But he’ll just get out to a soft shot or won’t really follow through on the innings and continue his good work.

Merv Hughes once remarked ruefully of the day Ian Botham tore him apart in Brisbane that “the faster I tried to bowl, the further he hit it”.Ever since Boyd Rankin was lured to England as part of cricket’s uneven class system, Ireland have lacked that extra gear of speed Hughes so vainly strove for, and their captain William Porterfield reasons that this may actually work in his side’s favour as they contemplate the freakish skill of AB de Villiers.Pace on its own has not troubled him so far, and it will take canny tactics, subtle variation and discipline to do so – qualities all conspicuously absent when de Villiers destroyed West Indies at the SCG. In John Mooney, Alex Cusack, Max Sorensen and the left-arm spinner George Dockrell, Porterfield has a collective that have long made up in cohesion and planning what they are missing in terms of pure speed. On that front, they are presently making a far better fist of mild resources than England, who have left Rankin to languish, seemingly unwanted.”Look, it’s not something you can just find or just have if you don’t have that,” Porterfield said of the pace lost with Rankin. “You’ve just got to be really smart with what you do have. Obviously you’ve got to find your length pretty early. It’s the same for any bowlers; if you bowl 90 miles an hour or 75, you’re going to go through similar processes in terms of how you’re going to bowl on different pitches, and we’re no different.”We’ve just got to be smart with how we set fields and how we go about things from there, really. I think before the tournament we said we’ve got to be really smart about how we go about our cricket, and I think we can utilise the fact that some of our bowlers don’t have the pace that some batters generally like to face, so that can be an advantage as much as a hindrance.”The bowlers have been drilling over a number of years, so they’ve got to use what they have. It’s the same with the bat. You’re not going to obviously come in and try to beat Chris Gayle from the off if you can’t hit the ball 95 metres which you’re going to have to clearly hit most of these boundaries. No, you’ve got to be smart and use what you have, and the tools that you have wisely throughout the tournament.”In the lower key matches of a World Cup, South Africa have a tendency to obliterate opponents ranked below them, and as Farhaan Behardien admitted, they are far more comfortable in the quieter environs of Canberra relative to the crazy hype that enveloped them around a heavy defeat to India at a packed MCG. Manuka Oval more closely resembles a South African venue, all clear air, hills in the background and a crowd of no more than 15,000.Something Ireland have shown repeatedly in eight fruitful years since their World Cup bow in 2007 is that they have composure, persistence and belief in rich quantities, something shared in common with most every Irish national team. Porterfield’s men needed only look back towards Twickenham and the rugby team on the weekend for an example of Irish pluck on the international stage, and the cricketers have provided plenty of their own.”I think if you get any Irish‑born team, they’ve got that belief and they’ve got it on the pitch and they’re going to scrap right to the last minute,” Porterfield said. “I don’t think we’re any different, and I think the skill factor has improved a lot in the last eight years, as well. But I think the mindset has always been that if we’re going out there 11 on 11 and we’re going out there to win, otherwise I don’t think you should be going out there to take part really.”I think our skill factor has improved a lot, and obviously we’ve played a lot more cricket over the last few years than we have done before 2011. We’ll draw on those things, but in terms of our mindset, each game we go out there, we go out there to prepare and we go out there to win, and tomorrow is no different.”It will be different in some ways. Ireland currently sit above South Africa in the Group B standings, and are widely expected to push on to the quarter-finals if not beyond. They have plenty of reason to believe in themselves, but it remains to be seen whether this confidence is allied to skills sturdy enough to withstand de Villiers and others. It should be noted that de Villiers was absent when Ireland made South Africa’s top order sweat at Eden Gardens in 2011 before JP Duminy and the bowlers put space between the teams.”It obviously will be a challenge,” Porterfield said of de Villiers. “You can sit all day and talk about him and different theories and plans and whatever, but as I said, you’ve got to stick it on with your best ball and how you go about things. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel or change how you play really against one player. He obviously has a special talent, but you’ve been doing something yourself. Each bowler has got their own skills. They’ve done it over a number of years.”They’ve got to back themselves and back the field that’s been set and how well they want to get hit, and if he hits that over their heads or down their throats, then so be it. You’ve got to be in control of what you are in control of and that is letting the ball go. Look, if he plays the way he plays, then so be it. But we’ll have everyone individual plans for each of them, and hopefully we’ll see the back of them early.”If Ireland don’t, they may well end up feeling a little like Jason Holder last week, or Hughes all those years ago.

Group A

Gujarat chased down a target of 150 set by Madhya Pradesh to beat them by five wickets in Bhubaneshwar.Having been put in, MP lost both openers inside two overs and were 1 for 2 before Zafar Ali and Udit Birla steadied their innings with a 76-run stand for the third wicket. Zafar then played a part in two 30-plus partnerships, with Harpreet Singh and Parth Sahani, as he made an unbeaten 56-ball 70 that helped MP to 149 in their 20 overs.Gujarat’s chase began briskly and the early wicket of Smit Patel didn’t deter Priyank Kirit Panchal, who struck seven fours and two sixes in a 33-ball 60 before falling to Jatin Saxena in the 11th over. Jalaj Saxena and his older brother Jatin then removed Rujul Bhatt and Chirag Gandhi in quick succession, leaving Gujarat 103 for 4.While Manpreej Juneja anchored the chase with a run-a-ball 40, Himalaya Barad struck three sixes in an eight-ball 22 to hand Gujarat victory with seven balls to spare.Ishank Jaggi’s unbeaten 108 off 67 balls, including 14 fours and three sixes, went in vain as Andhra got the better of Jharkhand by six wickets with 20 balls to spare, and climbed to third place on the points table.Needing 160 to win, Prasanth Kumar, who made 51 off 26 balls with six fours and three sixes, and Murumulla Sriram put on 78 runs in 7.2 overs for the first wicket. Despite losing both of them in the space of an over, Andhra continued to attack through KV Sasikanth (46* off 31 balls) and AG Pradeep (23 off 13 balls), and polished off the target with relative ease.It was Sasikanth who ensured Jharkhand, after being sent in, didn’t get off to a good start, snaffling a caught-and-bowled to remove Ishan Kishan. Save for Jaggi there were no other significant contributions. CV Stephen was frugal, picking up a wicket and conceding only 17 in his four overs.

Group B

An inspired bowling performance from Mumbai saw them beat Rajasthan by 33 runs in Cuttack. Javed Khan and Rohan Raje picked up three wickets each, while the 15-year old Sidak Singh finished with figures of 2 for 7.Having been set a target of 154, Rajasthan’s chase was jolted early by Javed, who struck twice in his first over. Rajasthan lost three more wickets soon after and were 36 for 5 inside eight overs.Rajasthan managed two quick 30-plus partnerships for the sixth and seventh wickets but Sidak removed Ashok Menaria and Manjeet Singh off successive deliveries in the 15th over, after which there was little resistance from the tail.Mumbai, who were put in, rode on Jay Bista’s unbeaten 59-ball 81 and Siddarth Chitnis’ 38 to finish on 154 for 4.Hyderabad left it to the last ball to grab a five-wicket win over Odisha in Cuttack.Given a target of 154, Hyderabad lost Tirumalasetti Suman in the third over of their innings and Akshath Reddy in the seventh, leaving them 34 for 2. Tanmay Agarwal and Dereck Prince shared a 48-run stand for the third wicket to steady the chase, before Hyderabad lost Prince (31) and captain Hanuma Vihari (0) in the space of five balls.Deepak Behera dismissed Agarwal one short of his fifty after which Benjamin Thomas and Akash Bhandari saw Hyderabad home with an unbroken 47-run stand. Bhandari smashed three sixes and two fours for his 17-ball 37 to finish off the chase.Odisha, who chose to bat, began briskly and scored 35 in 3.5 overs before Anurag Sarangi was run out. Biplab Samantaray top-scored with 33 as a couple of 20-run partnerships took Odisha to 121 for 6. The Hyderabad bowlers kept chipping away at the wickets eventually bowling Odisha out for 153 in 19.1 overs. Vihari and M Ravi Kiran picked three wickets each, while Chama Milind took 2 for 21.

The World Order in women’s cricket is significantly different to that of themen’s game. It is with that in mind that we report that Pakistan are on thebrink of a crushing defeat by Ireland in their one-off women’s Test atCollege Park, Dublin.Ireland, making their first appearance on the Test arena in the women’s game,look set to wrap up their four-day match against Pakistan, who are playingtheir second-ever women’s Test, in about a day and a half.Pakistan, batting first after winning the toss, were all out for 53yesterday. Ireland, in reply, made 193 for 3 before declaring. Pakistan endedthe first day on 8 for 1, still needing another 132 runs to make Ireland batagain.Pakistan struggled against the Irish bowling, taking 47.4 overs to extracttheir 53 first innings runs. The wickets were shared for Ireland by CatherineO’Neill (4/26), Barbara McDonald (3/9) and Ciara Metcalfe (3/15).Ireland’s innings, which was in fact four balls shorter than Pakistan’s, wasdominated by Caitriona Beggs (68*) and Karen Young (58).For Ireland, the visit by the Pakistan team is their major workout before the2000 CricInfo Women’s World Cup in New Zealand at the end of this year.Ireland have appeared regularly at World Cups since 1988. Pakistan, with ashorter history of women’s cricket at international level, appeared in the1997 World Cup – a rare instance of a Pakistani sporting team playing onIndian soil – but failed to qualify for this year’s event when the number ofparticipating teams was cut back from eleven to eight.Pakistan’s development in the women’s game has been hampered byfactionalisation at the administrative level, and currently there are twoorganisations claiming to be the official governing body in Pakistan. It isthe Pakistan Women’s Cricket Control Association, who are affiliated with theIWCC, who are conducting the tour to Ireland.Pakistan have played just one women’s Test to date, away to Sri Lanka in1998. That match also being Sri Lanka’s first (and only thus far) women’sTest, the home side defeating Pakistan by 309 runs.The current match in Dublin, which resumes today at 11am local time, is thefirst women’s Test played anywhere in the world since England met India inJuly 1999.

Namibia is finding the going very hard in the Standard Bank Cup domestic one-day competition. Having been beaten by Western Province on Wednesday evening, they followed it up on Sunday, with another loss against Free State in Bloemfontein.Winning the toss Namibia asked Free State to bat first and did well to restrict and bowl out a strong team for 216 after Free State squandered the chance of setting a big target.After a solid start and reaching 145/2 in 29 overs, thanks to 48 from Morne van Wyk, 50 from Johnathan Beukes and 30 from Boeta Dippenaar the hosts collapsed to 216 all out in the 45th over.Bjorn Kotze in taking 3/41 in his nine overs was instrumental in causing the collapse, getting rid of Van Wyk, Beukus and Jimmy Adams. Nineteen wides however put a damper on the Nambian bowling, and not having the best batting team it is runs given away that they can ill afford.After scoring 44 in Cape Town, Daniel Keulder, with an undefeated 51, was again the mainstay of the Namibian batting scoring the majority of the 116 run total.Free State will be happy with the form of Nicky Boje, returning from a finger injury, who ripped the heart out of the Namibian batting taking 4/29 in his nine overs. Gaining the bonus point Free State now move to the top of the Pool B log.In Potchefstroom North West continued on their winning ways, this time beating neighbours Northerns by 25 runs and going to the top of Pool A.Winning the toss and batting North West never got on top of the bowling. Arno and Davey Jacobs did put on a 56 run third wicket partnership, but it was left to a quick 24* from Alfonso Thomas to get the boys from Potchefstroom to 215/5 at the end of the 45 overs.Northerns could only reply with 190/5 with Jacques Rudolph undefeated on 98. The second loss in two games leaves them at the bottom of the table, sharing the spot with KwaZulu-Natal.