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Vaughn van Jaarsveld’s career-best 116 went in vain as the Cape Cobras won by 55 runs and gained a bonus point against Dolphins at Newlands. Van Jaarsveld scored 116 but the other batsmen around him failed as the Dolphins were bowled out for 174 in their chase of 230. The Cobras moved to second in the points table.The Cobras’ innings was shaped by half-centuries by Richard Levi and Dane Vilas. Cobras opted to bat first and they lost two early wickets to Craig Alexander, who limped off the field soon after due to a hamstring injury. Levi and Vilas added 52 for the second wicket before Levi holed out to long-on for 55. Levi edged a few over the slips and managed seven fours. Soon after Levi’s departure, Yaseen Vallie was run out by a sharp throw from Imraan Khan at the covers. Justin Onting and Justin Kemp then added stands of 52 and 40 respectively with Vilas. Vilas was in sight of a century but was caught at long-on for 84 off Prenelan Subrayan.Dolphins were reeling early in their chase at 14 for 4. Johann Louw found some swing and nipped out two early wickets. Charl Langeveldt yorked Imraan before Louw had Miller edging behind. Van Jaarsveld and Cody Chetty then staged a recovery stand of 103 for the fifth wicket. The Dolphins were helped by some sloppy ground fielding by the Cobras. Ontong, who brought himself on to stem the flow of runs, broke the partnership when he had Chetty chipping to Alistair Gray at mid-off. Van Jaarsveld reached his century off 118 balls and was running out of partners. He was the last man out at 174, caught at long-off with the Dolphins only ten shy of saving the bonus point.Quinton de Kock’s century turned out to be a match-winning one at the Wanderers as Lions beat Titans by seven wickets. The Titans opted to bat first but were jolted early by Chris Morris’ strikes, which reduced them to 50 for 4. The recovery came via Farhaan Behardien, who shared three half-century stands with the middle order.Behardien added 89 with Albie Morkel, who made 54. Behardien was then supported by David Wiese and Roelof van der Merwe as he neared his century. Behardien reached his century off 112 balls, going past his previous best of 99. Morris took 4 for 33, including Behardien’s wicket, to keep Titans to 255.Lions got off to a strong start in their chase, with the openers adding 76 in just over ten overs. Stephen Cook was out lbw to Paul Harris, but Gulam Bodi was strong at the other end, progressing to 54. The third-wicket stand of 145 between de Kock and Neil McKenzie took the game away from the Titans as the Lions chased in 37 overs.

Nottinghamshire are currently in talks to sign Australia batsman Ed Cowan as their overseas player for the start of the 2013 county season.Cowan, Australia’s Test opener, could be available for Notts’ first seven Championship games, between tours to India and the start of the Ashes.The signing might be viewed as a controversial one. Cowan, 30, is expected to be part of Australia’s Ashes squad and will have the time to familiarise himself with English conditions ahead of the series. The first Test of the series is played at Nottinghamshire’s home ground, Trent Bridge.Cowan is no stranger to conditions in the UK. He has also had spells with Gloucestershire, scoring a century on first-class debut for them against Essex last season, Scotland (2008) and Oxford MCCU (2003), for whom he made his first-class debut. Gloucestershire were also keen for Cowan to return and are believed to have wanted him to captain the side.Nottinghamshire struggled to find a reliable opening partnership in 2012, when they ended up finishing fifth despite setting the early pace in challenging eventual champions, Warwickshire. Their average first-wicket stand was just over 35 and Neil Edwards was released at the end of the season, after being replaced by Riki Wessels as Alex Hales’ opening partner.In the final Championship match of the season, England U-19 Sam Kelsall opened alongside Edwards, with Wessels batting at No. 3, as England call-ups and injuries stretched Notts’ squad.David Hussey, another Australia international, remains the likely candidate as Nottinghamshire’s overseas player for the second half of next season, while former England bowler Ajmal Shahzad has already joined from Yorkshire.

It took New Zealand 76 overs to separate the opening pair of Chris Gayle and Kieran Powell in the first innings of the first Test in Antigua. Here, they needed just nine. In Antigua, Gayle powered his way to 150, which included 17 boundaries and four sixes at a strike-rate of 72.81. Here, he scored a painstaking 8 off 55 deliveries, which included no boundaries.The big difference, from New Zealand’s perspective, was the inclusion of the 23-year-old Trent Boult in place of 69-Test veteran Chris Martin. Boult bowled with discipline to end with figures of 3 for 58. New Zealand also decided to go with a four-man pace attack: Tim Southee was brought into the side in place of the injured Daniel Vettori. New Zealand captain Ross Taylor had hinted at personnel changes ahead of the second Test, and, on the evidence so far, the changes to the bowling attack seemed to have reaped the desired results.”Four quicks seems to have worked well; the boys were fresh coming into each spell and they definitely did the role,” Boult said. “It’s a young bowling group and we did well, so looking to the future, it is a good sign.”Boult, who had figures of 3 for 58, said the bowlers focussed on creating pressure from both ends. “The bouncers were used well and good heavy lengths [were used]. I think that is what created the decisions [by the West Indies batsmen] and I would put it down to most of the boys getting stuck in and really competing.”New Zealand were fully aware of what Gayle and Powell were capable of, and did not take them lightly at any stage. “There’s no doubt that they [the West Indies openers] can take the game away from you. They did that in the last Test but it was very nice to get those two because they could have been a handful,” Boult said. “The boys worked together and we came from both ends, which was pretty important, and we were lucky to get them.”When it came to Gayle, specifically, New Zealand had worked out a plan and stuck to it. “Just the loss of wickets affected him (Gayle) a little bit. He didn’t take much of the strike,” Boult said. “The plan was to use the shorter ball and get him caught in the crease and then look to hit the wicket around the fourth stump area, and the plan worked today.”Boult received good support from Southee, whose 19 overs yielded 2 for 70, which also included a couples of near misses. “End of last season in New Zealand, he [Southee] was unfortunate to get dropped,” Boult said. “He has worked hard and was looking good today. He could have taken a five-wicket bag but it was shared around today and he definitely bowled well.”Marlon Samuels was the only batsman to get to three figures in two completed innings and Boult conceded there was some assistance for the bowlers from the conditions early on. “The new ball was definitely something we had to use and the first hour was crucial. The ball is not going to stay new for very long and I thought we used it very well and got as much out of it as we could,” Boult said. “The boys were in a good head space this morning. We are here to fight.”

ScorecardTony Palladino celebrated the first seven wicket haul of his career to lead a Derbyshire fightback against Kent that turned the Division Two match at Derby on its head.Palladino, the 29-year-old seamer who last week scored a hundred as nightwatchman against Australia A, ripped through Kent to claim 7 for 53 as the visitors were bowled out for 161 despite skipper Rob Key’s disciplined 81 from 156 balls which left Derbysire, the Division Two, leaders chasing 295 for victory.An opening stand of 83 between Wayne Madsen and Matt Lineker put them on course and then Usman Khawaja and Wes Durston blunted the Kent attack to leave the Division Two leaders only 127 runs short of victory on 168 for 2 when rain forced an early close.Kent had gone into the third day holding the best hand with a lead of 226 and seven wickets intact but Palladino’s inspired burst coupled with reckless batting saw them collapse to 161 all out before lunch.Only Key showed the necessary application as Palladino and Tim Groenewald swept away the remaining seven wickets for 52 in 19 overs. Groenewald started the slide by having Michael Powell caught at short midwicket to end a stand of 66 and the rest of the innings imploded as Palladino took 5 for 23 in 12.5 overs.Key must have been dismayed to see several of his team-mates fall to loose shots while he worked the ball into the gaps and he looked set to carry his bat when Palladino had him caught behind.An acrobatic catch by David Wainwright at midwicket gave the former Essex man his seventh victim and match figures of 9 for 118, the best of his career, and his inspired spell had put Derbyshire right back into a game that looked to have slipped away from them.Derbyshire had batted poorly in the first innings but this time they played with greater discipline and patience to chip away at their target. The opening pair were together for 26 overs before Madsen gloved a ball from Matt Coles and Lineker was lbw for 45 off 97 balls playing forward to James Tredwell’s offspin.At 95 for 2, the game was back in the balance but Khawaja and Durston played with composure and selectivity to share an unbeaten stand of 73 while Kent’s frustration threatened to boil over with Charlie Shreck showing petulance when an appeal for a catch behind was turned down.

ScorecardDanni Wyatt took 2 for 12 to stifle Ireland’s chase•Getty Images

Charlotte Edwards played herself into form ahead of England Women’s ODI series with India Women by scoring an unbeaten 72 as her side comfortably beat Ireland Women at Loughborough.England captain Edwards dominated the Ireland attack, hitting eight boundaries in a 61-ball innings. She and Aran Brindle added 53 together as England posted 136 for 4.Danni Wyatt then set England on the path to victory by removing both Ireland openers caught by Jenny Gunn after a 47 stand for the first wicket. From 55 for 2, Ireland only managed 30 more runs falling a long way short of their target.”It was really nice to be back playing together,” Edwards said. “We were a little bit rusty in the field but that’s understandable given we haven’t had that much cricket due to the rain. We’ve got another days training then we’ll be looking forward to getting the India series underway on Tuesday.”England Women play the first match of the T20 Series against India at Canterbury on Tuesday June 26.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsMarlon Samuels was again the mainstay of West Indies’ innings•AFP

England had the audacity to rest their two leading strike bowlers, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, for a dead rubber at Edgbaston and West Indies, their determination unquenched despite defeats in the first two Tests, ensured that a reshaped attack would receive no easy pickings. They may have lost the series, but their pride remains intact.This was the first Test in England to lose its first two days to the weather since an Ashes Test against Australia at Lord’s in 1964 and the disruption contributed to one of the more humdrum days of Test cricket fought out on a chilly day and under glowering skies that tested the commitment of a patchy Edgbaston crowd.The third Test, when it finally began, followed a familiar theme: Marlon Samuels was in consummate form while the rest of West Indies’ batsman struggled until Denesh Ramdin stole an unbeaten half-century as England made little impact with the second new ball. Samuels failed to repeat his Trent Bridge hundred, getting out for 76 with the second new ball only five balls away when Tim Bresnan had him lbw, but it was his fourth successive score of 76 or higher and his status has grown apace.He has played England’s offspinner, Graeme Swann, in his sleep. A serene six over long on followed by an equally unruffled drive through extra cover, brought up his half-century just before tea. His raise of the bat was aimed pointedly at Graham Onions, the latest England fast bowler to learn – or fail to learn – that back chat to Samuels, however good natured, is counterproductive.England’s fast-bowling trio all had respectable days. A sound pitch with decent carry was a credit to the Warwickshire groundstaff considering the prolonged rain that had fallen and Onions, Bresnan and Steven Finn had to work hard for their success.They were not helped by three dropped slip catches, all of them eminently catchable, two by Ian Bell on his home ground (one of the few men in Birmingham wearing sunglasses) and one by Andrew Strauss. There had been lots of debate about how England might miss Anderson’s bowling, but it was his absence from the slip-catching cordon that was most damaging. Bell might well stand at slip for Warwickshire, but he does not play for Warwickshire very often, and he looked what he was: a locum having a bad day.Onions was the first to suffer – Barath dropped on 4 – and Bell’s woes continued in the second over after lunch when he dropped a sitter, Finn finding the shoulder of Barath’s bat. Finn’s misfortune grew when Strauss put down Darren Sammy in the final session, only for the same combination to succeed before Sammy had added to his score.History suggested that a positive result would take some getting. Only two teams have ever pulled off a Test victory after the first two days were washed out. England beat New Zealand at Headingley in 1958 when the spinners Jim Laker and Tony Lock shared 19 wickets in the match. New Zealand also beat Bangladesh in similar fashion 11 years ago when they made them follow-on and Chris Cairns took seven wickets in the second innings.England gave Bresnan the new ball. He had won the man-of-the-match award in the second Test at Trent Bridge, taking eight wickets in the match, but it was an example of their respect for continuity and seniority. Finn had his dangerous moments, but he flicked the bails off the stumps so often that the umpires deserved a bonus for replacing them. Onions was the most impressive in his first Test after a stress fracture that almost ended his career, maintaining an insistent line throughout.Bresnan’s new-ball spell lasted only four overs, but he provided England’s sole breakthrough before lunch with the wicket of Kieron Powell as cloudy chilly conditions, with floodlights blazing down, provided another burdensome experience for West Indies. He struck with the first over of his second spell, an uncertain catch by Swann at second slip. Two balls earlier, Powell had driven Bresnan confidently down the ground, but frustratingly for West Indies a decent start again failed to come to fruition.England lost a review when Strauss gave in to Onions’ entreaties to send an lbw appeal against Barath, then 5, to the third umpire, but any sub-conscious desire on Strauss’ behalf to encourage the replacement failed to pay off. Onions finally dismissed Barath in the following over, although not before West Indies had this time unsuccessfully reviewed Tony Hill’s lbw verdict against Barath. Both decisions were upheld on umpire’s call and as DRS is designed to correct howlers, and give the umpire (and Hawk Eye) a small margin of error, that is how it should be.Assad Fudadin, one of four changes from the West Indies side beaten at Trent Bridge, got his opportunity for a Test debut when his fellow Guyanese, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the bedrock of West Indies’ batting, pulled out with a side strain suffered in the gymnasium earlier in the week. Fudadin shared Chanderpaul’s taste for obduracy as he laboured for 110 balls over a Test debut innings of 28, until he was unhinged by a bouncer from Bresnan.Darren Bravo’s poor tour continued when Finn broke off from discussions at third man with England’s bowling coach, David Saker, to take a return catch as Bravo checked a stroke around leg stump. A fourth wicket in the afternoon session ensured there would not be too much carping, Narsingh Deonarine edging to Strauss at first slip to give Onions his second wicket.But the final session told a story of West Indies’ pluck. When Samuels departed at 208 for 6 with the second new ball imminent, England must have fancied a quick kill, but they managed only one more wicket in the last 16 overs of the day. As play ended, Ottis Gibson, the West Indies coach, was probably the most satisfied than Andy Flower, his England opposite number, but then his expectations are considerably lower.

James Pattinson’s likely return to fitness in time for Australia’s ODI visit to England and Ireland may not be enough to get him on the trip, as the national selectors ponder whether to afford him a more comprehensive pre-Ashes scouting visit on an Australia A tour of the UK later.Australia’s coach Mickey Arthur revealed that secondary assessments of Pattinson’s back injury, sustained in the field during the second Test against West Indies, indicated a probable recovery time of a little more than a month, meaning he is a strong chance to be available for the ODI tour, which begins with a warm-up against Leicester at Grace Road on June 21. Peter Siddle will have a similar recovery time from his back complaint, though the selectors have indicated a reluctance to use him in ODIs after an outstanding Test summer.”Initial results did [make me question Pattinson’s availability], the secondary results were that once our medical staff had looked at it in Melbourne and came back they were a lot more positive,” Arthur said. “It is virtually the same at this stage as what Sidds has got, which means it’s four or five weeks instead of three months in terms of a stress fracture. So that, I must put a little asterisk next to it, is the information we have at present. I think we’ll know a lot more once Sidds and Patto get back to Melbourne and go through examinations there.”Cricket Australia’s longer-term planning for the next Ashes series may yet see Pattinson given more time off before he and other possible 2013 Ashes tourists take part in an Australia A tour of England later in the northern summer. Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Ben Cutting and Josh Hazlewood are others likely to be considered for the tour, which will afford them valuable experience of first-class bowling in England a year out from the Ashes.The Australia A expedition runs parallel to Arthur’s desire for a wide range of young bowlers to be utilised in limited-overs cricket between now and the 2015 World Cup, as he gathers a squad of cricketers with plenty of relevant ODI experience ahead of the game’s showpiece tournament. Reflecting on his time as coach of South Africa, Arthur said Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel were commonly rotated in and out of the limited-overs side until tournaments or series reached their most critical junctures.”I think you’ve seen that more and more through the summer, it’s impossible for guys to play with that intensity all the time,” Arthur said. “Often Morne and Dale didn’t play together in teams so we’d use one here, one here and then when it came to the big game we’d use them all.”We tried to replicate that through our summer. We wanted to get off to a good start and then through the middle phases we tried some players and had a look at different options and rested some players. Then we felt come the final time we had our best possible team available, fit, rested, both mentally and physically and ready to go for the end of the summer. We put a lot of time and effort into trying to manage it and we’ll continue to do that.”Australia’s fitness and medical staff has remained unchanged since the 2010-11 Ashes series, a rare facet of CA operations not to have felt the full force of the Argus review, which instituted a raft of personnel and procedural changes around Australian cricket. The team’s physios and doctors are now accountable to the performance manager Pat Howard, and Arthur said they and the developmental staff employed at the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane were working assiduously to reduce the number of injuries sustained by the nation’s fast bowlers.”Look, whether we like it or not we’re going to keep picking up injuries to our quick bowlers – bowling is a bit of an unnatural thing. So that’s going to happen, we’ve just got to learn to manage it,” Arthur said. “What’s going on at the CoE I think our sports scientists are all over it, they’re giving us a lot of information. One thing I’d like to reiterate is yes they’re giving us information but ultimately the call lies with the captain, coach and selectors as to how far we take and use that information.”Our CoE have been very proactive, they’re looking at all sorts of ways to prevent it and all sorts of workload issues. I’m comfortable that we’re exploring every avenue in that and I just think it is the nature of the art of bowling. Peter Siddle came into the tour, his workloads were exactly where our medical staff wanted them. He’d played a lot of four-day cricket coming into the series [for Victoria]. James Pattinson we worked on through the whole one-day series, he was right on course in terms of his workload.”Patto’s young, we’re still going to see him breaking down a little bit, that’s going to be the nature of it. Sidds is probably bearing the effects of a pretty rigorous summer where he bowled a huge amount in Test cricket. Their preparation, we couldn’t have done anything more or anything less around that. They had the numbers, the workloads, they had everything, and it’s just disappointing that we’ve lost both of them now.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsIrfan Pathan clinched it for Delhi Daredevils•AFP

Irfan Pathan bowled only one over in the game but proved decisive with the bat, smashing an unbeaten 42 from 20 deliveries to ensure Delhi Daredevils did not make a mess of their chase of 98 after having been 49 for 0. It would have been embarrassing for Daredevils to lose after that opening partnership, and especially after they had reduced Kolkata Knight Riders to 55 for 6 at one stage.Aaron Finch and Virender Sehwag had gone serenely after the target in the rain-affected game shortened to 12 overs per side. But the asking-rate suddenly rose above ten runs an over after their dismissals in successive overs, and it was left to Irfan to bail Daredevils out.And he did so in style, with some nerveless stroke-making under pressure. With 35 needed from 20 deliveries, Irfan lofted Jacques Kallis for six over long-on. South Africa fast bowler Marchant de Lange, on IPL debut, was pulled over deep midwicket and swung over long-on for two more sixes. Game over.That the game was actually played was only because the rain relented after causing a two-and-a-half hour delay. A packed Eden Gardens had waited and waited for the rain to stop.When the match finally got underway, the home team Knight Riders crumbled instantly. By the end of the fourth over, they had lost four wickets, and six by the end of the seventh. Morne Morkel was responsible for three of those strikes, including the wickets of Kallis and Tiwary off consecutive deliveries.The crowd eventually found their voice when Bengal boys Debabrata Das and Laxmi Shukla hit the Daredevils spinners for a few sixes. The blows also ensured Knight Riders ended up with a decent score after having been reduced to 55 for 6.Things had looked worse for Knight Riders at 31 for 4. Brendon McCullum missed a pull off Roelof van der Merwe to be caught plumb in front in the second over. Morkel came on in the third and uprooted Kallis’ middle stump with a stinging yorker. Manoj Tiwary has travelled around the world with the Indian team recently without getting a game. And when he finally got one today, he lasted one ball, going back in his crease and conspiring to convert a very low full toss into a yorker. Bowled again.Yusuf Pathan lasted three more deliveries than Tiwary had. Off his fourth, he tried to duck under a not-so-short ball from Umesh Yadav but only managed to glove it awkwardly to the wicketkeeper. Knight Riders’ troubles only increased when Gautam Gambhir chopped an attempted guide to third man off a short Morkel delivery onto his stumps.Knight Riders were in danger of getting bowled out in an innings of 12 overs, but Shukla and Das went after the spinners. Shukla, who played three ODIs for India in 1999, had cracked an unbeaten century last month to help Bengal beat heavyweights Mumbai for the Vijay Hazare Trophy.He lofted van der Merwe over long-off and deposited Shahbaz Nadeem over deep midwicket. Das had started the fightback earlier with a straight six off Morkel and the home fans now had reason to stay on for the chase. Knight Riders almost made their long stay worth it, but ran into Irfan.

ScorecardA captain’s performance from Shoaib Malik, with bat and ball, helped Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) beat Habib Bank Limited (HBL) to take the Faysal Bank Division One title at the Gaddafi Stadium. This is PIA’s second triumph of the season, after claiming the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Division One.HBL, despite fielding a side with a host of players with international experience, failed to chase down 238. An opening partnership of 59 between Taufeeq Umar and Imran Farhat was the only resistance, before HBL lost three wickets for eight runs to slide to 79 for 4. The 17-year-old left-arm seamer Zia-ul-Haq kept the batsmen at bay with his pace, taking 3 for 23.The captain Hasan Raza anchored a couple of steady partnerships with Humayun Farhat (worth 37) and Kamran Hussain (worth 39) but it was not enough as Kamran Sajid ripped through the tail to bowl out HBL for 201.Earlier, PIA rode on Malik’s unbeaten 80. Faraz Ali and Sajid got off to a solid start but a top-order collapse followed as three wickets fell for five runs. Malik and Faisal Iqbal shared a 106-run stand for the fifth wicket to steady the innings.PIA was set for a bigger target but Danish Kaneria sent the middle order and tail skittling with 7 for 39, as Malik watched from the other end. Malik had his moments with the ball too, taking 2 for 33 to record a sound all-round performance.

Test wicket-keeper Prasanna Jayawardene and middle-order batsman Thilina Kandamby will lead their respective sides in each of the two warm-up games against England ahead of the first Test against Sri Lanka that starts on March 26 in Galle.Jayawardene, who is expected to keep wickets in the two Tests against England, is being given a game against international opposition after recovering from a hernia surgery sustained during the Test series against Pakistan last October. Jayawardene has been playing for his club Bloomfield in the ongoing domestic first-class season and has scored 412 runs at an average 45.77 with a century and two fifties. He will lead the Sri Lanka Board XI in the first three-day game starting at the R Premadasa Stadium on Thursday.Kandamby, whose last appearance for his country was against England in a T20 international at Bristol last June, will captain the Sri Lanka Cricket Development XI in the second warm-up match starting at the SSC grounds on March 20.Both teams comprise a crop of young and talented players whom the national selectors have identified for the future. They have also retained some players who have been in and out of the the national squads. “We want to give as much exposure to the youngsters who hardly get to play much international matches,” chairman of selectors Ashantha de Mel said. Playing against a strong England side will give them that kind of exposure which they lack.”The standard of our domestic cricket gives limited opportunities to our players who find it hard to bridge the gap between first-class cricket and Test cricket.”De Mel said that in order to give younger players exposure they had not picked Test players like Thilan Samaraweera, Tharanga Paranavitana, Rangana Herath and Suraj Randiv, all of whom are likely to be included in the Test squad.Sri Lanka Board XI: Prasanna Jayawardene (captain/wk), Dimuth Karunaratne, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Roshen Silva, Sachithra Serasinghe, Malinga Bandara, Dilruwan Perera, Tyronne Gamage, Nilanka Premaratne, Kanishka Alvitigala, Ashen SilvaSri Lanka Cricket Development XI: Thilina Kandamby (captain), Chamara Silva, Malintha Warnapura, Dilshan Munaweera, Angelo Perera, Kushal Janith Perera (wk), Sajeewa Weerakoon, Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Tharanga Lakshitha, Vishwa Fernando, Isuru Udana