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Imran Khan believes Australia should go ahead with their scheduled tour of Pakistan this year despite the unrest in the country after the assassination of the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Imran, an opposition politician in Pakistan, said Cricket Australia and its players should not be influenced by images of street violence after Bhutto’s death and he did not expect the unrest to last too long.”I don’t think the cricketers are under any threat at all,” Imran told the Melbourne radio station . “Obviously it looks much worse from there than it is living in Pakistan. This is not going to last two months to when the Australians appear. In the context of cricket, there will be nothing to worry about if the tour is in March. I don’t think the Australians should have any worries.”Imran’s comments came as Shoaib Malik, the Pakistan captain, offered to take calls from any Australian players who had concerns over their security if the tour went ahead. Andrew Symonds said on the weekend that he would be willing to pull out of the trip if he was not satisfied his safety could be guaranteed.”I would like to speak to them personally and tell them that we will have good security for them in Pakistan,” Malik told the . “India have come here and there was a lot of talk then, but in the end there was no problem. It will be the same for Australia.”I do not want to comment about the politics. I am a sportsman and not very good about talking about politics. But I would like to say that with what is happening in my country, it is getting under control, and it will get better. There is still more than two months. It would be bad for the game and for the people in Pakistan if they did not come.”Cricket Australia is still planning to send a security delegation to Pakistan in February to assess the situation and determine whether the team can visit as planned. But the date of the Pakistan election – and whether it proceeds as scheduled on January 8 – is looming as a critical issue in whether Australia will deem conditions safe for the security delegation to make its trip.Nasim Ashraf, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, has again said there would be no repeat of 2002-03, when Pakistan’s home Tests against Australia were relocated to Sri Lanka and Sharjah. “Playing at a neutral venue is not an option with us,” Ashraf told , “because it’s not only cricket, it’s a matter of the development of the game and the fans’ interest so we are confident that Australia will not deprive our fans.”

Retired Australian stars such as Michael Kasprowicz, Damien Martyn and Jason Gillespie were named in the squads announced by the unofficial Indian Cricket League for its Grand Championships. The event which starts on March 9 features eight teams – including one consisting entirely of Pakistan players – up from the six in the inaugural Twenty20 tournament held last December in Panchkula.Kasprowicz called time on his first-class career last month, finishing with a record 501 wickets for Queensland. “The decision to join ICL was actually a no-brainer. I have played 19 years of first-class cricket for Queensland, have had my time at the top with Australia and have also played county cricket,” he told Cricinfo. “It would be a great opportunity for me to live in India and play here. I love coming to India, I love the passion, hospitality and the people here. My best days of international career were here.”Asked whether he would able to give his 100% commitment while playing a Twenty20 league, he said, “It’s about personal pride. You can’t relax while playing and I have always played my cricket hard.”He also questioned the rationale behind banning players who have joined the ICL. “It can only be good for Indian cricket,” he said. “So many domestic players get a chance to play with the players from around the world and the quality can only go up. It’s sad that the players are being banned.”The other big-name signings for the ICL include New Zealand pair Shane Bond and Lou Vincent, Justin Kemp, Heath Streak, Russel Arnold and Wavell Hinds.Squads for Grand championships
Ahmedabad Rockets Damien Martyn (capt), Murray Goodwin, Heath Streak, Wavell Hinds, Jason Gillespie, Abhishek Tamrakar, Anshu Jain, Baburao Yadav, P Bhima Rao, Parviz Aziz, Rakesh Patel, Pallav Vora, Reetinder Sodhi, Sachin Dholpure, KM Sanjeev, Sridharan Sriram, Sumit Kalia
Chandigarh Lions Chris Cairns (capt), Mathew Elliot, Lou Vincent, Andrew Hall, Daryl Tuffey, Amit Uniyal, Bipul Sharma, Chetan Sharma, Dinesh Mongia, Gaurav Gupta, Harpreet Singh, Ishan Malhotra, Karanveer Singh, Love Ablish, Manish Sharma, Rajesh Sharma, Sarabjeet Singh, Tejinder Pal Singh
Chennai Superstars Stuart Law (capt), Ian Harvey, Russel Arnold, Shabbir Ahmed, Adam Parore, Michael Bevan, G Vignesh, Hemang Badani, Hemanth Kumar, J Hariesh, P Vivek, R Jesuraj, R Sathish, Syed Mohammed, Dakshinamoorthy Kumaran, Thirunavukarasu Kumaran, V Devendran, Vasanth Saravanan
Delhi Giants Marvan Atapattu (capt), Avishka Gunawardene, Nic Pothas, Dale Benkenstein, Shane Bond, Abbas Ali, Abhinav Bali, Abhishek Sharma, Abid Nabi, Ali Murtaza, Dhruv Mahajan, Dishant Yagnik, JP Yadav, Mohnish Mishra, Raghav Sachdev, Shalabh Srivastava, Taduri Prakash Sudhindra, Ali Hamid Zaidi
Hyderabad Heroes Chris Harris (capt), Nicky Boje, Justin Kemp, Abdul Razzaq, Jimmy Maher, Alfred Absolem, Ambati Rayudu, Anirudh Singh, Ibrahim Khaleel, Inder Shekar Reddy, Kaushik Reddy, Pagadala Niranjan, Shashank Nag, Stuart Binny, Syed Sahabuddin, Vinay Kumar, Zakaria Zuffri
Kolkata Tigers Craig McMillan (capt), Lance Klusener, Upul Chandana, Nantie Hayward, Andre Adams, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Abu Nechim, Deep Dasgupta, Mihir Diwakar, Pritam Das, Rajiv Kumar, Rohan Gavaskar, Sayed Akhlakh Ahmed, Shiv Sagar Singh, Subhomoy Das, Sujay Tarafdar
Lahore Badshahs Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), Azhar Mahmood, Taufeeq Umar, Imran Farhat, Mushtaq Ahmed, Saqlain Mushtaq, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Shahid Nazir, Hasan Raza, Naveed Latif, Humayun Farhat, Imran Nazir, Mohammad Sami, Arshad Khan, Riaz Afridi
Mumbai Champs Brian Lara (capt), Nathan Astle, Johan Van der Wath, Tino Best, Michael Kasprowicz, Anupam Sanklecha, Avinash Yadav, Dheeraj Jadhav, Kiran Powar, Nikhil Mandale, Pushkaraj Joshi, Ranjit Khirid, Robin Morris, Shreyas Khanolkar, Shridhar Iyer, Subhojit Paul, Suyash Burkul, Raviraj Patil

Warwickshire 495 for 9 (Wagh 167) v Lancashire at Stratford-upon-Avon
ScorecardA century from Mark Wagh put Warwickshire in a dominant position on the first day against Lancashire at Stratford-upon-Avon. After Nick Knight won the toss and opted to bat, Wagh cashed in on an excellent batting track, sharing in partnerships of 141 with Knight (53), and 154 with Ian Bell (49), as Warwickshire closed on 495 for 9.Lancashire came into the match with a number of players missing due to injury. Glen Chapple is still recovering from a blow to the head he received against Sussex last week, Carl Hooper is nursing a fractured thumb, and Ian Sutcliffe is still absent with a hamstring problem. To add to that, Andrew Flintoff, James Anderson and Sajid Mahmood are all away on England duty.Wagh began aggressively, hitting five fours before picking up his first single with a push into the covers. After the positive start, John Wood came back well, and beat Knight’s bat no less than four times with balls angled across him. Two maidens on the trot slowed the run-rate, until Knight broke the shackles with a savage cut past point off Wood. On 44, Wagh edged a regulation catch to Stuart Law at second slip, but he failed to hold onto the ball, and Lancashire’s first real chance to break the partnership went begging.Steve Crook replaced Wood in the 18th over, and in his first over produced a quicker ball that nipped in off the seam and beat Wagh’s bat, inducing a half-hearted appeal, perhaps only to celebrate the quality of the delivery. Crook then proved his first ball wasn’t a fluke, completely squaring Wagh up next ball and inducing another play-and-miss. However, the luck stayed with Warwickshire, and in just the 19th over Lancashire already had a sweeper on the cover boundary, testament to the quality of the pitch and the batting. There was some life in the pitch for the slower bowlers though, and in his four overs before lunch Gary Keedy found appreciable turn. He trapped Knight lbw for 53, signalling the lunch interval, with the score at 141 for 1.Wagh proved particularly strong on the leg side, clipping Keedy through midwicket for four to take his score to 99, and bringing up his 18th first-class hundred in the next over, bowled by Martin, with a pull to the square-leg boundary. Martin claimed some retribution though, when Wagh played a ball onto his left knee, leaving him in great pain. He declined the services of a runner, and though the injury seemed to affect his concentration for a while, his shot-making remained fluent.At the other end Ian Bell’s innings went almost unnoticed, but he brought up the hundred partnership with a crunching drive through the covers off Wood. The Lancashire bowlers were beginning to tire, with Wood bowling several no-balls, as well as slipping in an unintentional beamer. With the score on 248, Bell gave Lancashire a half-chance, slicing a ball from Dinesh Mongia just short of Keedy at gully.Wagh brought up his 150 with yet another trademark whip off his legs for four, and Bell had moved untroubled to 49 before he sliced a slower ball from Crook to Law at gully, who this time held onto the catch (295 for 2). Crook struck again in his next over, getting the vital breakthrough for Lancashire by dismissing Wagh, again caught by Law at gully off a slower ball, for 167 (304 for 3).Troughton got off the mark with a well-timed push off the back foot for four, and followed that with a flick through square leg as the runs continued to flow for Warwickshire. Lancashire struck back though, with Law taking another catch, this time at silly mid-off, to remove Troughton for 8 on the stroke of tea (313 for 4).After the interval, Mongia, brought into this match as an emergency replacement for Hooper, trapped Dougie Brown lbw for 16 (356 for 5), but Jonathan Trott and Brad Hogg continued the onslaught, adding 63 in quick time before Martin, who had bowled economically without ever looking dangerous, bowled Trott for 54, before trapping Jonathan Frost lbw for a third-ball duck (419 for 7). Following on from his unbeaten 94 off 61 balls against Northants on Wednesday, Brad Hogg this time raced to 56 from 44, before Martin struck for the third time in the session.Neil Carter and Naqqash Tahir followed Hogg’s lead with some long-handled thumping late to compound a difficult day for Lancashire. They will have to work hard tomorrow if they are to remain competitive in this match and keep alive any hopes of reversing their losing streak.

Ramnaresh Sarwan has made a convincing return to the West Indies side ten months after a shoulder injury forced him out of action. His second-innings century in Trinidad helped West Indies hold off a first-ever series defeat to Sri Lanka at home and won him the Player-of-the-Series award. Satisfied with his performance, Sarwan said the months spent outside the team had given him time to think of what he needed to do.”I’ve been out for 10 months, players tend to mature around 26-27 and then it carries on till they are 33-34 and I hope that is going to be the case for me,” Sarwan said. “I’ve certainly gained a lot of experience and I think I can use that.”West Indies were set to chase 253 by Sri Lanka and they lost only four wickets in knocking off the runs on day four. Sarwan added 157 with Shivnarine Chanderpaul and fell when West Indies needed only 23 more to win. “After we lost Marlon [Samuels] I knew I had to form a good partnership with Shiv [Chanderpaul]. The good thing was that Shiv was flowing and I didn’t have to do all the scoring, he was positive and that paid off for us.”I’ve been getting off to good starts in this series, I wanted to do the same, pick the bad balls and fortunately I was able to do that and go on and get the hundred.” Sarwan scored 311 at 77.75 in the two Tests.Chris Gayle, the West Indies captain, was pleased to have Sarwan back in the side. “Missing Sarwan really hurt us and it is good to have him back out there,” Gayle said. “He showed how important he is at No. 3. It is good to have him back, he looked the part and I have to give him credit. I hope he can build on this and capitalise on his good starts and get those hundreds – big hundreds.”

Let’s go back to the Test series in Sri Lanka. Scoring two centuries in three matches must have been heartening after a lean patch?
It wasn’t a lean patch, I just hadn’t made a hundred and that kept harping on me. So it was good to perform and see the team win the series. It was good playing the best bowler of spin [Muttiah Muralitharan], and it was a great team effort. Basically we used our feet well against him and the others and that paid off. That series has boosted our confidence and we know we are in for some tough conditions [in India].It has been more than a decade since your international debut. Can you talk about the various important phases in your career?
You change, your batting changes and your mindset changes. You feel much more comfortable at 32 than when you were 21 playing at this level; you are more experienced, you know how to prepare, how to go about your career. Your batting just evolves – it becomes tighter, you play the conditions better, you are just a smarter batsman. When you are young I don’t think you understand that at all.You are a stylish batsman, but not extravagant. How did you hone this fine art as you were growing up?
It’s just natural. All of us just bat in a different way and as a kid you bat in a certain way and bowl in a certain way, and you are stuck with that for the rest of your life. You hone the basic technique of getting the foot to the ball, playing with a straight bat and then your natural stuff comes in and from there you develop your own game.At heart are you an aggressive batsman?
All of us in Australian cricket want to be aggressive and score in a certain way, but it depends on conditions. I mean, like in India, it’s very hard to sometimes bat that way. It just depends on how the game goes, and you adjust accordingly.Which have been your best knocks?
My hundreds in Sri Lanka were one of the best because batting in those tough conditions and playing Murali is always hard.How do you handle the pressure when you go out to bat?
It is very hard to exactly talk about the mental process, but the most important one is stay out there as long as possible and put as much pressure on the opposition as possible.Who have been important people who have stayed by you all along?
Too many people, but my family is the biggest thing. They have always supported me from a young age, and whether I am making hundreds or not they always present.

Record debts may force Cricket Scotland to shelve plans for having a full-time coach for the national team, according to . The debts, said to be in the region of £50,000, will be announced at the forthcoming AGM.Although the Scottish board will receive a grant from the Sportsscotland, the coaching position may still have to be scrapped. The news comes just weeks after Scotland thrashed Canada in the final of the ICC Intercontinental Cup.Over 20 applications have been received to take over from Tony Judd, who worked on a part-time basis and retires from the post at the end of the year. Omar Henry, South Africa’s convenor of selectors even expressed an interest. Whoever the coach turns out to be in 2005, their main task will be helping Scotland finish in the top five of the ICC Trophy, to be held next July in Ireland, in order to qualify for the 2007 World Cup.

West Indians 606 for 4 (W Hinds 147, Sarwan 140 ret, R Hinds 74 ret, Hooper 67, Gayle 62, Jacobs 50*) drew with Indian Board President’s XI 275 for 8 decRamnaresh Sarwan completed a rare century as West Indies’ tour match against an Indian Board President’s XI at Bangalore petered out in a draw.Sarwan, who has yet to score a hundred in his 24 Tests, scored 140 as the West Indies opted for batting practice rather than trying to force a win. At the close they had reached 606 for 4. Sarwan smashed one six and 18 fours in reaching his seventh first-class century, before retiring in order to give his team-mates a chance to gain batting practice.Carl Hooper (67), Ryan Hinds (74) and wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs (50*) also made the most of the Board XI’s lacklustre attack in the only practice match before the first Test. Hooper smashed three sixes and seven fours in his brisk 73-ball knock, while Ryan Hinds struck one six and nine fours before retiring.Shivnarine Chanderpaul was the only specialist batsman to miss out on a big score when he fell in the day’s second over after West Indies had resumed at 341 for 2. He added just five runs to his overnight 20 before edging seamer Lakshmipathy Balaji to wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel.Hooper was in aggressive mood and set about legspinner Amit Mishra. It was a calculated assault on Mishra who on Saturday was named in the Indian squad for the first two Tests. Hooper hit him for two boundaries in an over and then two successive sixes in the next as Mishra conceded 34 in his first three overs. Hooper reached his half-century in style, hoisting seamer Sanjay Bangar for a six. Murali Kartik ended Hooper’s entertaining knock in his first over when he had him caught by Patel.Mishra ended the match wicketless, his 26 overs costing 114 runs.

Western Australian fast-bowling legend Jo Angel will retire after the Pura Cup match against NSW at the WACA Ground starting this Friday.Angel said that by leaving the side he was hoping to create opportunities for some of the young bowlers coming through the WA ranks."Hopefully some guys can get an opportunity over the last couple of games to go on and be ten-year players, which I’ve been very fortunate to be," he said.Angel debuted for WA in 1991-92 against New South Wales at the WACA Ground. The NSW team included Mark and Steve Waugh."It’s ironic I suppose that the last game will be against them (NSW),"he said."It would be nice to get them plus a few others hopefully in this game and hopefully we can get a few points and finish off on the right note."I have thoroughly enjoyed my time it’s gone very, very quickly, my first game only seems like only yesterday."Angel said the game has changed in his 13 years at the top."Everything’s more professional these days, all the I’s are dotted and all the T’s are crossed," Angel said." I think back in the old days it was a bit more hap-hazard. It’s amazing how much the game has changed and developed."The game will move on, I hoped I’ve left a bit of a legacy there to aim for and I hope someone can beat my record."Angel said that he wanted to give something back to the game through coaching.Angel is WA’s leading wicket-taker in first-class cricket. In 120 first-class matches for WA Angel has taken 480 wickets at an average of 25.14. In 104 Sheffield Shield/Pura Cup games he has taken 414 wickets at an average of 24.90.He has taken five wickets in an innings on 16 occasions and has once taken 10 wickets in a match.Angel is the second highest wicket-taker in Sheffield Shield/Pura Cup history. Only legendary leg-spinner Clarrie Grimmet has taken more with 513 wickets, a record unlikely to ever be beaten.Angel and Grimmet are the only bowlers to take more than 400 wickets in the Sheffield Shield/Pura Cup.The WACA Ground has been a happy hunting ground for Angel. In 53 Sheffield Shield/Pura Cup matches here Angel has taken 248 wickets at an average of 22.94 with 10 five-wicket hauls.He recorded career-best figures of 6-35 against Queensland at the WACA Ground last season.The WACA has dedicated the final home Pura Cup match of the season to Angel and will hold a lunch in his honour on Friday at the WACA ground. Many past WA greats are expected to attend.In other news Warriors fast-bowler Michael Clark will not be available for the Pura Cup match against NSW after he strained a quadriceps muscle while batting against NSW in WA’s ING Cup win last night.Darren Wates comes into the WA 12 for the game. John Taylor is on stand-by for Beau Casson who is nursing a stitch in the webbing of his left hand. Casson suffered the injury while fielding for WA last night.A decision on whether the left-arm wrist spinner will play will be made before play tomorrow morning.The WA Squad
Justin Langer (c), Jo Angel, Ryan Campbell, Beau Casson, Ben Edmondson, Murray Goodwin, Kade Harvey, Michael Hussey, Scott Meuleman, Marcus North, Chris Rogers, John Taylor and Darren Wates.With the call up of Brad Haddin to the Australian VB Series side Nathan Pilon has joined the NSW team and will take over wicket-keeping duties.The NSW Team
Steve Waugh (c), Dominic Thornely, Phil Jaques, Mark Waugh, Grant Lambert, Stuart Clark, Nathan Bracken, Greg Mail, Matthew Nicholson, Stuart MacGill, Nathan Pilon, and Aaron O’Brien.The match starts at 11.00am with gates opening at 10.00am

It’s not a good time to be an Aussie in Australia after the humbling experience of losing cricket’s Ashes to England. Long-tormented British expats here revelled in Michael Vaughan’s 2-1 series triumph at The Oval to reclaim the little urn nearly two decades after losing them to the “Colonials.”The news, which came as a hammer blow in the early hours of Tuesday here, left a sports-mad nation in a pall of despair, but begrudgingly accepting that England were the better team over the course of the five Tests. Sydney’s chapter of the Barmy Army announced plans to rub in England’s Ashes victory from a red double-decker bus.Organiser Craig Gill, who has lived here for 18 years, has booked a 73-seat bus to ram home England’s triumph into despondent Australian cricket fans this weekend. Gill said more than 250 people had emailed him upon news of England’s series win, hoping to score a seat on the bus, which will take its passengers from pub to pub across Sydney. “It’s been 18 years in the making. I’ve had to live with nothing but the stigma we get from losing the games,” Gill told the Sydney Morning Herald. “Kings of rugby. Kings of cricket. Queen rules your country. That’s it. You can’t get better than that,” he said. Ouch!One ex-pat, who ritually handed over Aus$100 (US$77) in a standing Ashes bet every two years with an Australian friend, told Tuesday of his joy of finally winning something back. “For 14 long years – ever since I arrived in this country from my native Yorkshire – he has collected on our wager,” journalist Nick Galvin recounted in the paper. “He tells me, and the long-suffering bloke who does his books, that it’s the only income on which he can unquestionably depend. It’s as close as he comes to budgeting. “Now I find myself in the astonishing and not a little unsettling position of us having regained the Ashes. It’s been so long in the wilderness I’m not sure how to react.”

Australians have expected to hold on to the Ashes as a rite of passage against their traditional cricket rivals. But that all ended on Monday as Kevin Pietersen clouted Australia’s bowlers in a belligerent knock of 158 to ensure England drew the fifth Test and won the series. Long-suffering England supporters couldn’t wait to email their counterparts and crow about their team’s conquering of the once-mighty Aussies.One blogger proclaimed: “I’m not gloating. No, I’m not. Not me … but what a great game of cricket. The Ashes are where they should be and all is right with the world. “Sorry Aus, who am I kidding … gloat, gloat, gloat.”Australian captain Ricky Ponting meanwhile arrives home this week to face the music. Ponting was lashed in the Australian media, accused of indecisive leadership as well as puzzling tactics and field placements. But he will be mainly remembered for what has been called a monumental blunder in sending England to bat after winning the toss in the second Edgbaston Test, just 30 minutes after losing star fast bowler Glenn McGrath to an ankle injury in the warm-up.It was all downhill from there, with the struggling Aussies continually on the back foot and chasing the series against the rejuvenated Englishmen. Ponting did get a show of support from Australian fans with a newspaper poll asking whether he should remain captain. It found that 60% thought Ponting should be given another go, while 39% said he should be sacked.

Scorecard

James Kirtley, who was not a fixture in the Sussex team at the start of the season after remodelling his action, took 5 for 27 as Sussex pulled off a thrilling 15-run win in a low-scoring C&G final at Lord’s. All five of his wickets were leg-before, as he knocked the top off the Lancashire run chase and returned to mop up the tail as Dominic Cork was threatening to carry his team over the line.The highest score of the match was the 37 made by Michael Yardy and Yasir Arafat as Sussex struggled during their turn to bat. Lancashire bowled and fielded outstandingly, with Sajid Mahmood claiming an impressive three-wicket haul, but Sussex weren’t going to roll over and let Lancashire claim the trophy. When Kirtley snared the final wicket, trapping Murali Kartik in front, he fell to his knees and was swamped by his team-mates while the balcony erupted. This may not have been classic one-day cricket in favour of the batsman, but it was still a classic one-day match.Mal Loye went first in the chase, plumb lbw to a ball that nipped back, and four runs later Nathan Astle went in very similar style as he planted his front foot and the ball angled back and would have hit middle and leg. While Lancashire could have little complaint about the first two dismissals, the third will have left them stewing. Stuart Law went to defend his first ball, getting a thick inside-edge onto his pads but Jeremy Lloyds’s finger went up for a third time.With each wicket Kirtley’s celebrations became more flamboyant as he sprinted towards his team-mates, but Law was mortified, waving his bat at the umpire as he turned and trudged off. Luke Sutton survived the hat-trick ball, but Kirtley continued to extract surprising pace and carry.

In a week where most stories about cricket have not been the most pleasing for the game, Kirtley’s tale is one of a player battling back from adversity. He was forced to remodel his action over the winter after he was reported and was carefully handled by Sussex at the start of the season. There was some talk that he may even struggle to resume a full career – but he couldn’t have picked a better stage to banish those memories.With Kirtley’s burst leaving Lancashire 27 for 3, Mark Chilton and Sutton were forced to consolidate and boundaries were few and far between despite the fielding restrictions. When Kirtley was rested following a fine seven-over burst, Lancashire passed 50 but Luke Wright removed Sutton to swing the match again.This left Chilton as the last recognised batsman – but not for long. He charged early at Mushtaq Ahmed, who fired the ball down the leg side, and Matt Prior pulled off a fine stumping. Mushtaq was at his probing best, giving the batsmen virtually nothing to hit, and he removed Glen Chapple, who had the ability to blast Lancashire close to their target, via a wonderfully taken catch at silly point by Richard Montgomerie. Mushtaq’s spell meant that as well as losing wickets, Sussex were also stifling the batsmen and the required rate was rising.However, Cork and Kyle Hogg played sensibly to form a stand of 58 and when Hogg was dropped by Montgomerie at mid-on, on 24, it appeared Sussex’s earlier under-par showing with the bat would eventually cost them. But Montgomerie made amends an over later and Lancashire needed 43 off eight with three wickets left.

Chris Adams captained his team with courage, retaining men round the bat for Mushtaq and hold Kirtley’s remaining three overs back for the very end – knowing his skiddy trajectory would cause the lower order problems. The plan worked like a dream as Tom Smith was trapped lbw, then Yasir Arafat bowled Mahmood, who wasted a chance to show calmness under pressure with an ugly heave. No one, though, was going to deny Kirtley his moment and he became only the third bowler (after Mark Ealham against Zimbabwe and Ian Harvey against Somerset) to claim five lbws in a limited-overs match.Lancashire stood forlornly at the presentation with the realisation that the match was there for the taking as Sussex crashed to 78 for 6. The openers had gone early and Mahmood claimed the vital wicket of Adams, who had been so wound up for the match he was unable to play his natural game. Some of Sussex’s running was suicidal and Carl Hopkinson was the second run out, after trying a quick single to Cork at mid-off.However, Sussex are fighters and Yardy showed the qualities that have attracted him to the England selectors with a battling 37. His crab-like style is not pretty to watch, and this innings was certainly on the stodgy side, but it did a job for his side as Yasir Arafat used the aggressive approach in a stand of 56 for the seventh wicket. That partnership gave Sussex an outside chance. They took it.