Bengal fought hard and clawed their way back into the match on the second day oftheir Cooch Behar encounter against Maharashtra. The Maharashtra side was 292/7overnight and quickly succumbed to 303 all out.After getting the home side out for 303, Bengal started solidly, ending the dayon 226/1. Opening batsman Arindam Das was unbeaten on 110 when stumps wascalled. His innings included 16 fours and spanned over five hours. At the otherend, Amitav Chakravarti was unlucky to miss a half century. Dismissed by Adhavwhen he had 49 to his name, Chakravarti was the first Bengal wicket to fall.From there on, Subhomoy Das (batting 53) and Das saw Bengal through to stumpswithout any further damage.

This was not the sort of preparation Australia would have wished for in their penultimate match before the limited-overs NatWest series. They were beaten comfortably, by six wickets, by second division county Middlesex.Chasing a modest 233, the Middlesex batsmen seemed to be in no trouble at any stage against the six bowlers that the tourists used. Australia’s sole early success came in the sixth over when Andy Strauss (15) skied his drive to extra cover off Nathan Bracken. Thereafter, the match was almost entirely in Middlesex’s control.With the entertaining strokeplay in their century, second wicket, stand, Ben Hutton and Owais Shah, both in excellent form this season, took the game away from Australia. Hutton took 76 balls for his half-century and Shah needed six less, hitting four boundaries.When Shah decided to give the charge to Shane Warne and missed the ball to be stumped by a yard, Middlesex needed 87 from twenty overs. Hutton, on 73, was unlucky to have a straight drive from Robin Weston, deflected on to his stumps as he backed up for a run and Middlesex were 170 for three.The only other wicket to fall was that off Simon Cook for a quick 20. He had made his intentions clear when he swept his first ball for the only six of the innings.Finally, with Weston on 36 from 46 balls, Michael Roseberry hit the winning runs with a boundary to square leg to see Middlesex home with seventeen balls to spare.Australia’s batsmen, having been asked to bat earlier on a slowish wicket at Lord’s, failed to make much of an impression until the late stand between Ian Harvey and Jason Gillespie.Their first two wickets went down on 17 and 36, both taken by James Hewitt. Matthew Hayden was the first to go for three, mistiming his pull, followed by Mark Waugh for 14. With Steve Waugh out for four and Damien Martyn for 19, the Australians had slumped to 78 for four.Harvey and Gillespie’s ninth-wicket partnership of 75 boosted the Australian total to 232 with Harvey in brilliant hard-hitting form. He came to the crease after half the side had been dismissed for 106 in only twenty overs and then two runs later he saw the dismissal of another One-Day specialist, Andy Symonds, leg before to Cook who eventually finished with three wickets, as did off-spinner Paul Weekes.Although there wasn’t another substantial partnership in the innings, there was one brilliant display of aggressive strokes. Ricky Ponting, such a delight to watch when he is in full flow, needed only 47 balls to hit 57 and all but nine of those runs come from boundaries.Ponting’s 50 came with one of the best shots of his innings, a beautifully timed drive for four to long off. The stroke also brought the hundred up, in the eighteenth over.Harvey’s 84 runs, exactly half of which came from boundaries, included the only six of the innings when Hutton was hit to mid-wicket. He faced as few as 65 balls during his entertaining knock and showed how particularly strong he is on the leg side.Gillespie, having given excellent support to Harvey, remained not out with 19 as the Australians were dismissed for 232 in 44.2 overs.Afterwards Ben Hutton credited his winter playing grade cricket in Australia as the reason for his breakthrough this year, and acknowledged his family pedigree: “It’s really good to carry on the tradition of scoring runs against the Aussies.”Before I went I hadn’t backed myself enough and while I was out there Ideveloped a new Australian attitude and began to believe in myself. I started to value each innings as you only got the chance to bat once every two weeks.”Ian Harvey admitted the tourists were disappointed, but stressed that this was a warm-up game and that the team would improve.”The whole side will have learned from today,” he said. “We wanted someguys to have time out batting and bowling in the middle. But we are disappointed we have lost, we came here to win.”We are the world champions and if you are to be the best in the world youneed to win 99% of your games.”

CricInfo Championship leaders Yorkshire fired out second-placed Kent for 212 at Headingley yesterday to justify skipper David Byas’ decision to ask the visitors to bat first.Yorkshire then reached five without loss before rain wiped out the last 20 overs of the day.Top bowler for Yorkshire was paceman Matthew Hoggard who captured four for 48 and then learned as he walked off the field that he had been called up by England for their One-Day International with Pakistan at Edgbaston tomorrow (Thursday).Hoggard, who replaces the injured Andy Caddick in the NatWest triangular tournament, was able to go home to pick up fresh kit before joining up with the England squad in Birmingham.Yorkshire are now allowed to draft in another player who can bowl in the Kent second innings but Byas said a final decision on who it would be would not be taken until the morning. Ryan Sidebottom is out of the reckoning because of sore shins.Chris Silverwood chipped in with three wickets as Kent collapsed and there were two for Craig White in his first bowl for Yorkshire since May 11.White is hoping to recover from his back injury in time for the Ashes series but he said he was unable to bowl at anywhere near full pace in his nine overs and felt he may need further tests to pinpoint the exact nature of the problem.Yorkshire seemed to have made a mistake in inserting Kent when they stood at 96 for one at one stage but their batting went to pieces against persistent bowling.Top-scorer Ed Smith looked good for a century until he drove loosely at Hoggard and was caught at slip by Byas for 84 from 155 balls with 14 fours.Opener Rob Key also made a solid half-century but when he had reached 58 he also had a wild flash outside off stump at Hoggard and was caught by wicketkeeper Richard Blakey.

Nottingham:
Yorkshire 280-4 (SA Richardson 76, CR Taylor 134)
Nottinghamshire 125 (SP Kirby 4-45)Yorkshire won by 155 runsHove:
Essex 195-9 (JE Bishop 46; CD Hopkinson 4-34)
Sussex 129 (JR Carpenter 57; JE Bishop 5-26, MK Davies 4-26)
Essex won by 66 runs

ECB Division 1 (Time Matches)Andover 224 (10pts) (Staddon 65, Whitehouse 45, Hayward 40)
Hungerford 150-5 (9pts)
Match drawnBournemouth 201-8 (11pts) (Webley 63, Warrington 52, Swarbrick 35, King 3-49)
Bashley (Rydal) 130-6 (7pts) (Thurgood 64, Sexton 29, Warren 3-32)
Match drawnBurridge 178-8 (5pts) (Francis 61, Jackson 28, Godwin 25, Hibberd 4-64)
Calmore Sports 180-7 (19pts) (Bailey 51, Motchall 29, Ancell 4-67)
Calmore Sports won by 3 wicketsLiphook and Ripsley 186-9 (6pts) (Tyler 52, Gay 27, Wheatley 25, Lewis 4-30, Loat 4-37)
Havant 187-8 (19pts) (Sears 63, Carson 42, Jansen 3-74)
Havant won by 2 wicketsSouth Wilts 128 (1pt) (Caines 57, Lamb 22, Dibden 4-26, Taylor 3-22, Goldstraw 3-53)
BAT Sports 129-2 (21pts) (Shirazi 51, Kenway 50)
BAT Sports won by 8 wicketsDivision 2 (50 overs)Cove 229-5 (21pts) (Benham 68, Crompton 51, Tomsett 45, Smith 32, Sh Green 4-60)
Easton and Martyr Worthy 193-8 (6pts) (Stone 44, St Green 42, D Birch 33)
Cove won by 36 runs – 49 overs a side gameHambledon 22-0v LymingtonMatch abandoned after 10 oversSparsholt 264-8 (22pts) (Foyle 114, Savage 89, Richards 3-59)
Old Basing 128 (5pts) (Quantock 52, Heyes 3-27)
Sparsholt won by 136 runsTrojans 40 (2pts) (Maru 4-5, Naqeeb 3-7)
Portsmouth 41-5 (19pts) (Donaldson 3-13)
Portsmouth won by 5 wicketsUnited Services 192-9 (17pts) (Barsby 58, Carson 42, Marjoria 4-33)
Old Tauntonians and Romsey 187-6 (7pts) (I Tulk 57, M Trodd 49)
United Services won by 5 runsDivision 3 (50 overs)Alton 145-6 (Chalkley 39, Nash 34, Walsh 3-36)
v United Services
Match abandoned after 38.2 oversBashley (Rydal) II 153 (3pts) (King 51, Stringer 4-26)
(target reduced to 89 in 29 overs)
St Cross Symondians 90-2 (22pts) (Rees 41, Parker 23)
St Cross Symondians won by 8 wicketsHook and Newnham Basics 321-7 (21pts) (Kaminski 100, Lovelock 65, Shaw 50)
Waterlooville 228-9 (8pts) (Slater 41, Langrish 36, Shephard 32, Kaminski 4-42)
Hook & Newnham Basics won by 93 runs – 47 overs a side gameLeckford 180-7 (4pts) (Isherwood 54, Richmond 37, Cattle 28, Wilson 4-26)
(target reduced to 154 in 43 overs)
Hursley Park 155-3 (20pts) (Harris 70, Lowe 47)
Hursley Park won by 7 wicketsLymington II 200 (6pts) (Tapper 77, Jackson 52, Wright 4-50, Heath 3-24)
(target reduced to 137 in 34 overs)
Flamingos 137-4 (22pts) (Latouf 40, Fenigan 23, Manthorpe 21, Follett 3-43)
Flamingos won by 6 wicketsGosport Borough 192-8 (8pts) (Collins 89, Adams 29, L Beck 3-43)
New Milton 196-7 (21pts) (R Beck 62, Watts 42, L Beck 27, Edwards 3-33)
New Milton won by 3 wickets – 42 overs a side gamePaultons 235 (8pts) (Park 76, Waver 35, Richman 31, Mist 4-57)
(target reduced to 221 in 47 overs)
Havant II 221-7 (22pts) (Ward 67, Gover 31, Galliers 30, Mitchell 3-44)
Havant II won by 7 wicketsPurbrook 242-4 (22pts)
Portsmouth II 222 (5pts)
Purbrook won by 20 runsWinchester KS 145 (4pts) (Davies 34, Yates 4-25, Eichler 4-34)
(target reduced to 98 in 27 overs)
Rowledge 99-3 (22pts) (Lloyd 55, Eichler 25)
Rowledge won by 7 wickets – 40 overs a side game

Somerset consolidated second place in the CricInfo Championship FirstDivision with a crushing 10-wicket victory over Lancashire at Old Trafford.Richard Johnson took four wickets, Ian Blackwell three and Steffan Jones two as a Lancashire team missing their captain John Crawley were skittled out for 126 in their second innings.That left Somerset needing only 66 to win and Jamie Cox and Piran Holloway knocked them off inside 18 overs.They are now only 14 points behind First Division leaders Yorkshire having played a game more, while Lancashire are left looking over their shoulders at the relegation zone after two consecutive defeats.Somerset were unable to add to their overnight 385 for nine, with GaryKeedy trapping Matthew Bulbeck lbw to complete figures of five for 73, the fifth five-wicket haul of his career.But that still gave them a lead of 61 and Lancashire lost three wickets before they wiped it off, with Johnson trapping Jamie Haynes lbw then Jones firing out Mark Chilton and Neil Fairbrother in his first two overs.Jones’s first ball lifted and left Chilton, who could only glove it to Rob Turner, while Fairbrother was all at sea and edged the first ball of Jones’s second over to the wicket keeper.Lancashire’s plight was even bleaker in the absence of Crawley, with their 12th man Graham Lloyd prevented from batting by the Championship regulations even though Somerset were happy for him to do so.Andy Flintoff threatened a fightback as he pulled Jones over mid wicket for six with his second scoring shot, then thumped the first three balls he faced from Blackwell for four.But Blackwell had Warren Hegg caught at slip by Peter Bowler before lunch, and afterwards claimed the crucial wicket of Flintoff who was bowled around his legs trying to pad the ball away.Johnson then made short work of Lancashire’s first innings hero GlenChapple and also Peter Martin, then wrapped up the innings by bowling Chris Schofield for a plucky 23.The former Middlesex seamer ended with four for 40, with Blackwell defying back trouble to claim three for 47 and Jones returning two for 22.”You cannot rule the championship out,” Somerset coach Kevin Shine said afterwards.”There are a lot of people up there still chasing very close together, butthe atmosphere in our dressing room is fabulous after that win.”That is a fabulous win for us here. To turn over Lancashire in three days isa job very well done,” he said.”We had to fight hard for that first-innings lead. Then the bowlers have donea very professional job. That lead was very important, though. We would not have wanted to be chasing 150 on that wicket, with the ball turning.”It looks like we have done it quite easily, but chasing 66 to win waspretty much what we wanted on there.

Portugal are the 2001 ECC Trophy champions.The European Cricket Council’s tournament for ICC Affiliate Member nations fromthe continent was decided on Saturday at the Seebarn No.1 Ground, Vienna, whenPortugal easily defeated the host nation Austria by nine wickets in the 35-overs-a-side final.Austria, winning the toss after batting first, made 158 for 9 from their 35overs. Austrian captain Andrew Simpson-Parker was top score with 43 whileIntesab Mehdi (4/21) and Humayun Shahzad (3/36) were the best bowlers forPortugal.A 126-run first-wicket stand between Portuguese captain Akbar Saiyad and hisopening partner Nadeem Butt set the visitors on their way to an easy victory.Saiyad was dismissed for 44, Butt remaining unbeaten on 91 from 92 balls.The ten-team tournament began on August 10 with teams playing in two groups,situated at Seebarn and the southern Austrian town of Velden. Belgium, Croatia,Finland, Greece, Malta, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland were the otherparticipants.Both Portugal and Austria, by reaching yesterday’s final, qualify for theEuropean Cricket Championships to be staged in Ireland in July 2002. They willcompete alongside ICC Associate Member countries in Europe (Denmark, France,Germany, Gibraltar, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Scotland) and anamateur XI from England.Greece won the last ECC Trophy tournament staged in Corfu two years ago,defeating Portugal, the winners of the inaugural competition in 1997, by ninewickets.Cricket in Portugal among expatriate Englishmen can be traced back as far asthe days of the Duke of Wellington, but it was in 1994 that the FederacaoPortuguesa de Cricket was formed, with Affiliate Membership of the ICC beinggranted in 1996.

Another senior official closely linked to the Barbados cricket teamhas quit his job.William Bourne has resigned his post as coach of the Barbados CricketAssociation (BCA), a little over a week after it was confirmed thatDesmond Haynes had given up the post of chairman of selectors.Yesterday, BCA secretary Philip Nicholls would only say: "Mr Bourne isno longer with the BCA. His employment has come to an end."As to whether Bourne left of his own free will or was "pushed",Nicholls had "no comment".Bourne was not prepared to shed much light on the issue either, butsaid he had severed ties with the BCA as far back as March 5.The situation puts the BCA in a quandary as Barbados prepares for theRed Stripe Bowl One-Day competition starting on October 3.Springer is expected to be with the team for the Red Stripe Bowl, butan inside source said a "full-time coach is vital to the smoothrunning and development of the game".The source told the SUNSPORT yesterday that the matter could beheading for the law courts.In January, Bourne was replaced as Barbados’ team coach by HendySpringer for the Busta Cup, and then asked to formulate a programmefor the future development of cricket on the island.This programme came at the request of Prime Minister Owen Arthur, whosaid he would commit funds to the BCA if a framework was put in placeto develop young players aimed at putting together a professionalnetwork.So far there has been no word about the programme.Bourne was national coach throughout the 1990s, travelling with thesenior and junior sides. He also coached the West Indies Under-19 teamto England in 1993.He is a former Barbados fast bowler and played professionally forWarwickshire in the English County Championship.

Young cricketers from around the region will have the chance to parade theirtalents at Darren Gough’s benefit match – and meet some of their heroes atthe same time.Six junior cricket teams will play in an eight-a-side tournament on theoutfield at the Don Valley Stadium on August 30 and meet such cricketinglegends as Viv Richards, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh.The tournament, for U13 teams, has been organised by former England fastbowler Gladstone Small.Small, who played 17 tests for England, has worked for the ProfessionalCricketers’ Association for two years overseeing community-based projects.The teams playing are: Bradfield, Sheffield United ‘A’, Shiregreen andWhitley Hall who are all from Sheffield as well as Rotherham’s Treeton andAnstonThe youngsters will play in a knockout phase between 12.30pm and 3pm withthe two finalists competing in front of the arriving spectators when doorsopen at 3.30pm.Small said: “Darren is a great player, with the right attitude for the game.He has the ability to lift a team when they are down and that has earned hima lot of respect over the years.”His popularity is shown in the amount of big names who are turning up justfor him and it will be great for the youngsters to meet so many stars.”Tickets for the day/night match starting at 5pm are selling quickly! To getyours call the box office on: 0114 2565657. Grandstand £14 Adult, £7 U16.Other Areas £10 Adult, £5 U16.At the gate – Grandstand £17 Adult, £8.50 U16, Other Areas £12 Adult, £6U16.

Keith Parsons hit a Championship-best 139 as Somerset posted a massive 650 against relegation candidates Northants at Taunton.That gave the home side a first innings lead of 187 and effectively ended Northants’ hopes of forcing the victory needed to put pressure on Lancashire in the battle for First Division survival.It was Somerset’s highest ever score at the County Ground and their biggest against Northants, who have only once conceded more in a Championship game.By the close the visitors had reached 89-1 in their second innings and were still 98 behind.Matthew Wood (122) and Mark Lathwell (92) fell in a morning session that saw Somerset score 212 runs and clinch runners-up spot in the Championship in the process.After the interval Parsons and Ian Blackwell continued the assault, with Blackwell hammering 77 off 83 balls, including 11 fours and two sixes, before being caught behind trying to hook Mike Strong.Parsons had faced 196 balls and hit 20 fours and two sixes when he was bowled by Paul Taylor, aiming to work the ball through mid-wicket. It was his fifth first-class century, but only his second in the Championship.Even then there was no let-up for the Northants bowlers, four of whom saw their figures reach the century mark. Taylor (4-100), Tony Penberthy (2-104), Monty Panesar (2-120) and John Blain (0-121) all suffered.There was even a stand of 47 for the last wicket before Mike Strong had Steffan Jones caught behind for 29.Then Alec Swann suffered the indignity of a pair as he was caught at second slip with Northants still to record a second innings run. Mike Hussey and Jeff Cook saw them through to the close, with Cook reaching a half-century off 63 balls, including eight fours.