Bell creates his Ashes legacy

With his side in trouble again, Ian Bell produced another innings to transcend the situation and write his name in the Ashes history books

In years to come, when we reflect on the summer of 2013, it may well be that we remember it as "Bell's Ashes".

Ian Bell has been magnificent in this series. While his team-mates have batted with nervous fragility, Bell has combined the sweet timing with which his batting has always been characterised with the reliability and steel with which it has not. He has scored not just pretty runs, but match-shaping runs. He might well prove to have been the difference between the sides.

Bell will gain plaudits for having registered three centuries in the series. Certainly, it is a fine achievement: only two England players - Maurice Leyland and David Gower - have previously managed such a feat in Ashes series in England. It should also be noted that, following his century in Sydney at the end of the 2010-11 series, he has scored centuries in four of the last five Ashes Tests.

But such statistics tell only part of the story. The important thing about Bell's batting has not been the personal milestones, but the fact that he had come in with his side in trouble and produced under pressure.

This innings at Durham provided a perfect example. Coming to the crease with his side only 17 ahead and three wickets down, this game was in the balance. What is more, Ryan Harris was bowling with pace and skill and the pitch was starting to exhibit signs of uneven bounce.

But while every other batsman in the game has made batting appear a grim struggle for survival, Bell batted with an ease that has transcended the situation, the pitch and the bowling. His cover driving and late cutting, in particular, were things of beauty but, though less obvious, his shot selection and judgement at which balls to leave and which to play - for so long the Achilles heel in his game - was just as impressive. When Bell bats like this, he makes it seem absurdly easy.

It seems almost unthinkable now, but Bell entered this series with questions to answer about his long-term future. After a modest 18 months - he had averaged 32.07 in Test cricket between January 2012 and July 2013 - all the old questions, questions about Bell's mental strength and his resilience under pressure, were starting to re-emerge. All those innings in South Africa or against India in England, or even as recently as in Auckland were in danger of being forgotten.

Those questions have surely been answered permanently now. It is only surprising it has taken 20 Test centuries - only six England players have scored more and two of them are in the same side as him - more than 6000 Test runs and an average of 47 to convince the doubters. And, aged 31, the best should be ahead of him.

So soundly did Bell negate the low bounce, playing straight, late and low, that it appeared this pitch had eased. In truth, that probably owed more to the softening ball - the batch of balls used for this series appears to lose more hardness than normal, increasing the value of the new ball - but it did show what could be achieved if batsmen took their time, retained their composure and refused to be drawn into rash strokes.

The lead is currently 202 but until England have taken it over 300 they will not be comfortable. It will not comfort Australia to hear that England have not lost any of the 19 previous Tests in which Bell has scored a century.

"I'd rather have 200 on the board than be chasing them," Bell said. "But we've seen already with Australia that they will go all the way. That Trent Bridge pitch didn't deteriorate like we thought and this might be very similar. So if we start to get the lead over 300 I might be a little bit more confident. But this Australian team will keep coming and some of their batters are in form now. It will be a scrap over the next two days."

Bell's excellence has helped compensate for the failures of England's top order but concerns about the form of Joe Root and Alastair Cook, in particular, continue to grow. While worries over Cook's form are alleviated by the knowledge that he has a track record of success opening the batting at Test level, Root does not. Indeed, in 10 innings as an opener in red-ball cricket for England - eight in this series and two against Essex - he has passed 41 only once and then only having been missed behind the wicket.

England are not about to lose faith in Root. They knew when they promoted him to open the batting that he was not the finished article and this was always going to be a long-term project. But by promoting him, aged 22 and in an Ashes series, they risked damaging his confidence and, as a consequence, his long-term development. In retrospect, it may well have been wiser to allow him to continue his development in the middle order.

	The Huddle: Bell's playing on a different planet

That decision would have had consequences for Jonny Bairstow. They are not necessarily negative consequences in the long term, though. While Bairstow looked more comfortable in the second innings, he has come into this series - through no fault of his own - hopelessly underprepared for the rigours for which he has been confronted. He did not have a single first-class innings between the Test series against New Zealand and the start of the Ashes - almost seven weeks - and, as an unused played in England's limited-overs squad - hardly batted in white-ball cricket.

For a team that prides itself on long-term planning, which monitors players' progress through the age groups, through Lions sides and through assessing every aspect of their physical and mental characteristics, it seems an oddly ramshackle piece of organisation.

Bairstow's career, Root's career and certainly the career of Nick Compton - a man who has enjoyed none of the continuity of selection afforded his former team-mates - might all have been better served had England persisted with the plans that won them the Test series in India.

Bell's form has allowed England to avoid such uncomfortable suggestions for now, but England cannot rely on individuals masking team failures if they are to retain the Ashes in Australia.

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Harris grits his teeth

Ryan Harris has almost made it. Almost got through three consecutive Tests for the first time in his career. And he has done it - or, almost done it - with style. Harris has been Australia's most effective bowler during this Investec Ashes series, having claimed 16 wickets at 21.37, one fewer than Peter Siddle, who has played one more Test. On the third day at Chester-le-Street, Harris was again the most dangerous man in the attack, his speed, accuracy and movement all troubling England.

That the hosts got away slightly through Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen and extended their lead to 202 by stumps was not the fault of Harris, who delivered a searing new-ball spell that accounted for all of England's top three batsmen. The wickets were the main prize for Harris, but the feeling of making through a third consecutive Test - and after a short three-day break, no less - was a major bonus for a man whose body has kept him to 15 Tests in three and a half years.

"I'm a little bit tired after today but I feel good," Harris said. "I've come out of it nice and strong. I feel really confident in my body. I've had a really good build-up. Unlike in the past I've gone from not bowling many overs to bowling lots of overs, whereas this time I've spent plenty of time on the Australian A tour and bowled lots and lots of overs and finished off the first-class season back in Queensland and bowled lots and lots of overs

"Because I've copped a few injuries, I guess you get sore spots here and there and you doubt whether or not it's going to be bad. Even today I had a couple of sore spots when I bowled a few balls but you ... go back and go again and if it doesn't hurt you're all right. If it does you've got a problem. You've always got doubts, but I'm starting to have less and less doubts."

Harris earned his three early wickets in different ways, his superb outswinger clipping the top of Joe Root's off stump, his accurate bouncer tempting Jonathan Trott, who gloved behind, and his wider ball surprisingly drawing Alastair Cook into a flash outside off. His aggression also nearly had the centurion Bell, who fended a sizzling bouncer off his gloves and fell back onto the ground, almost onto his stumps.

"I went around the wicket to try and muck up his feet and the one he hit me, I got it a little bit wide and a little bit full," he said. "So it was always going to be a short one - one of the next two. I got it on the money but it would have been nice if it had of flown to Usman Khawaja at short leg, that would have been better. It was one of those things where you just have to try. Once he gets in, he is hard to get out."

Bell was mostly responsible for putting England back in the driving position, for batting last on this Chester-le-Street surface will not be easy and Australia cannot afford to let the lead stretch much further. But Harris said a pursuit of 250 to 300 would be achievable and the focus had to be on claiming England's remaining five wickets as quickly as possible.

"The wicket's holding together pretty well. It might spin a little bit but the ball's going through nicely. I think it's pretty evenly poised to be honest," he said. "It's hard to say a target. But it is not breaking up as much as we probably thought. It hasn't had as much sun as it could have had. If it had of been sunny of the past three days it might have been different and dried out a little bit more. There a couple that keep low and misbehave but that's going to happen."

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Who'd be a Test umpire?

From legalised player dissent to big-screen reviews, international umpires are now on a hiding to nothing but humiliation

The DRS is meant to help umpires, not humiliate them. But Tony Hill was humiliated on the third morning at Chester-le-Street. There can be no other word for it. When Stuart Broad rapped Ryan Harris on the pads dead in front, Hill declined the appeal. Presumably, he felt Harris may have nicked the ball. It was not a ridiculous supposition, for the ball had struck both pads, creating two noises. Whatever the case, Hill felt there was doubt and gave the benefit of it to the batsman, as Test umpires have done for 135 years.

England asked for a review, as is their right under the DRS. The replays showed that Hill had erred; Harris was plumb lbw. The process played out on the big screen at the ground. Ripples of laughter went around as Hill's mistake was not only shown but magnified, replayed, every angle leaving him further exposed to ridicule. The final indignity came when the third umpire relayed the decision to Hill, who raised his finger to an empty pitch. The players had seen enough on the big screen and were halfway inside.

It was impossible not to sympathise with Hill, who trudged off with all the haste and enthusiasm of a newly-dismissed Shane Watson or Jonathan Trott. He looked sapped of all confidence. There is no avoiding the fact that Hill's call was wrong, and that the final outcome was correct. But the process left him embarrassed and must surely have compounded the existing doubts in his mind. How is that good for cricket, or for this match, or for Hill? How does that help anyone?

"Throughout my career I never had a batsman dispute my decision," Dickie Bird said in 2010. That may be a slight embellishment, or perhaps it's true, but one thing is certain: Bird was never made to look a fool. Bird was a renowned "not-outer". If in doubt, say not out. That's what Hill did here. But in Bird's day, what the umpire said was final. Had he given this same decision - and he would've done countless times over the years - the bowler might have felt aggrieved, the viewers curious, but all would have moved on.

Nobody remembers the right calls, even the controversial ones. Kevin Pietersen's caught-behind at Old Trafford will be recalled for Pietersen's rudely-requested review and reluctance to accept the outcome, not for Hill's correct decision to trust his ears in the first place. Or Australia's unsuccessful review when Harris rapped Trott on the pads. Hawk Eye predicted the ball would have clipped leg stump on an "umpire's call" margin. Rightly, Hill had given Trott the benefit of the doubt.

Of course, Hill has made mistakes. He is human. Every umpire in this series has erred. Every umpire in every series throughout history has probably erred. Dickie Bird erred. David Shepherd erred. Tony Crafter erred. But commentators did not forensically dissect every aspect of a decision. That's out, they said. Not, that's out unless he hit it, and let's see if he did, and unless it pitched outside leg, and let's see if it did, and unless it was sliding down leg, and let's see if it was.

	The disdain with which Kevin Pietersen called for a review in the third Test was downright contemptible. Where was his respect for the umpire or for the game? Daryl Harper on the demands of the modern umpire

But technology creates unrealistic expectations. Mistakes are unjustly magnified, wrongly made to appear proof of complete incompetence. How could an umpire get that wrong? That decision that we've just seen six times in slow-motion from four angles and with the help of technology? What a buffoon!

"The DRS has certainly increased the pressure on umpires to get virtually everything right," former Test umpire Daryl Harper told ESPNcricinfo on Sunday. "The high performance experts would tell you that an umpire must put a poor decision out of his mind and focus wholly on the next ball. Sure, it sounds easy enough. I haven't known a single umpire who can do it.

"In the eighties, the general television coverage of cricket was very basic. In the nineties, the quality of technology improved, but even then, decisions were not scrutinised to the degree that we see today. It was common practice to give the batsman the benefit of the doubt to any ball that was drifting towards the leg stump.

"After the turn of the century, umpires made their lbw decisions, only to see replays on the big screen at the ground that suggested that the decision was wrong, before the batsman had even left the field. It isn't a good feeling and definitely gnaws away at one's confidence. After seeing so many replays of balls clipping leg stump in particular, umpires began to widen the target and gamble more often on that count.

"And in modern times, our administrators have now legalised dissent. The disdain with which Kevin Pietersen called for a review in the third Test was downright contemptible. Where was his respect for the umpire or for the game? Having been told to go a second time after the review, how did he possibly escape a sanction for his parting words? I can lip read as well as anyone."

All of these factors can gradually erode the confidence of an umpire. An umpire like Hill, who by the ICC's judgement is one of the best 12 in the world, a man who has made enough good decisions to get himself here, is made to look foolish. Yes, umpires choose this well-paid career. Yes, they accept the pressure that goes with it. But the expectations of players and viewers must remain realistic.

Umpires are not machines. They are men, and men who do their job in increasingly trying circumstances. Once, they were inconspicuous, but never infallible. They never will be, yet cricket has reached a point where decisions and umpires and reviews and technology are the story. It is an unhealthy situation for any sport, and it breeds self-doubt in men whose very job relies on backing their judgement.

"With this respect for officials being stripped back to the bone, I have great sympathy for my former colleagues who are on a hiding to nothing," Harper said. "Our administrators have snatched at the television dollars and sold the officials up the river without a paddle. As often as American sports are unfairly maligned, Major League Baseball allows its officials to make decisions, good and not so good. Replays of missed calls are shown but life goes on."

Life will go on for Tony Hill, and Aleem Dar, and Kumar Dharmasena, and Marais Erasmus. They have all made mistakes in this series. Some have been howlers. But none deserve ridicule. No official should have to raise the finger to an empty pitch. Respect must return. And unless it does, who'd be a Test umpire anymore?

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Elliott puts Australia in control

Australia 243 for 3 (Elliott 95*, Cameron 50) v England
Scorecard

Sarah Elliott will sleep five runs short of an Ashes hundred after putting Australia in control on the opening day at Wormsley. Her unbeaten 95, alongside useful contributions from Meg Lanning and Jess Cameron, led Australia to 243 for 3 in friendly batting conditions at the beginning of the new multi-format Ashes campaign.

With the destination of the urn, currently held by Australia, decided on a combination of points across all three formats the result of this Test will not decide the outcome but victory, worth six points, would be a major leap towards success.

Although Australia lost Rachael Haynes in the tenth over, to give Anya Shrubsole her first Test wicket, they made good use of having won the toss. Elliott and Lanning added 70 for the second wicket, a stand broken when Lanning was run out coming back for a third shortly after lunch, then Elliott put on a further 80 Cameron, who produced the most fluent batting of the day with 10 boundaries in her 50.

When Cameron was lbw to Laura Marsh, Australia were 167 for 3 and another quick wicket or two would have brought England back but the visitors negotiated the rest of the day as Elliott and Alex Bracewell added an unbroken 76.

Elliott, who is playing her first match back in international cricket after having her first child, was at the crease for 90 overs, facing 245 deliveries, and her innings followed the Ashes-winning 81 she made in Sydney in 2011 which was he previous appearance for Australia.

"I'm really really pleased to be back in the team, it's a great group to be around and it's really nice to know that I can contribute in this format of the game," he said. "The bowlers, I thought, did a great job bowling really tight lines. The pitch definitely had a bit in it early, which is really exciting for our bowlers. But then it's a really great pitch once you're in, I think it's a great opportunity to cash in."

It was a day of toil for England's bowlers; Jenny Gunn was economical, sending down 21 overs for 34, and Katherine Brunt also conceded fewer than two runs an over but only Shrubsole and Marsh found success.

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Ramesh Powar switches to Rajasthan

Ramesh Powar, the former India offspinner, has shifted from his home team of Mumbai to Rajasthan, signing a two-year contract. Powar played five of the 11 matches in Mumbai's run to the Ranji title last season, but had little success himself, only managing six wickets at 82.16.

Powar said that current Rajasthan captain Hrishikesh Kanitkar had convinced him to make the switch to a team that has won the Ranji Trophy twice in the last three seasons.

"The presence of Hrishi would add to [my] confidence," Powar told PTI. "He understands the game well and is composed and focused. He has become a better cricketer after his stint with Rajasthan. I hope I too will benefit from my decision of playing for Rajasthan."

The stocky Powar said he had worked hard on his fitness so that he could deliver for Rajasthan. "It was a challenge for me to lose weight. I have worked hard because I feel playing for Rajasthan ushers in a new innings for me. I want to contribute in all departments and that is why I wanted to be in best shape."

Having made his first-class debut back in the 1999-2000 season, Powar has plenty of experience. "I want to give back to the game. I would be happy if I am able to nurture a few youngsters in Rajasthan during my two-year stint. I always love to impart tips to upcoming spinners." Among the spinners Powar will get to work with in Rajasthan are offspinner Madhur Khatri and left-arm spinner Gajendra Singh.

It has been nearly six years since Powar last represented India, but even at 35, he dreams of returning to the national team. "I still hope to play for the country. A couple of good performances can turn the things your way. You never know. More over there is dearth of quality spinners in country."

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Can't take hundred away from me - Rogers

Last year, Chris Rogers was almost cut from Victoria's contract list as the state looked to prepare future Test cricketers. At 34, Rogers did not appear to fit the bill. Now, Rogers is not only a Test cricketer again, five years after his one-off match against India, but he is a Test centurion. An Ashes centurion, no less. It is little wonder that Rogers was emotional when he reached triple figures at Chester-le-Street, nor when he was interviewed after play.

At 35, he was the second-oldest man ever to score a maiden Test century for Australia. He did so with more than 20,000 first-class runs to his name. Rogers said the uncertainty of when, if ever, he would get another chance at Test cricket after he replaced the injured Matthew Hayden at the WACA in 2008 made his hundred all the more special.

"After all this time you just don't think that this opportunity is going to come up," Rogers said. "I wanted to believe I was good enough but never knew. To get a hundred, that's something that no one can take away from me, and I can tell my grandchildren about it now ... if I have any."

That Rogers is even part of this Ashes side is a quirk of fate, for had the Australians still boasted the experience of Michael Hussey and Ricky Ponting as they hoped they would a year ago, he would not have been deemed such a necessity. It appeared that Rogers had missed the cut when the selectors used men like Phil Jaques, Phillip Hughes and Simon Katich over the past few years, but he refused to give up at first-class level.

"There's times when sides have been picked and I haven't been in them and thought that that was my chance but it didn't happen," Rogers said. "Finally this opportunity has come along and I've really wanted to make the most of it and you can say that, but you've still got to go out and perform. It was my day today. There were so many things that went my way. You've just got to make the most of it and fortunately I did.

"I'd always hoped so but it just felt like there was always one bloke in the way. It was those two [Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer] then it was Jaquesy, then it was Katich, then Phil, then Watto went and opened. It just felt like there was always one bloke in the way but I get to play cricket for a living and I set high standards. I've been happy to go along and perform as well as I can and hope for this one opportunity. Fortunately it has come along."

	Chris Rogers' press conference

Not that triple figures was a certainty, as Rogers well knew having made 84 at Old Trafford last week. As he made his way through the nineties, he began to get edgy and he was stuck on 96 for 19 consecutive deliveries from Graeme Swann, scooping a couple of near catches into the leg side before sweeping a boundary to become Australia's second centurion of the series.

"I didn't have a care in the world," Rogers joked of his time on 96. "No, it was a nervous time. I got the score in the last game and thought that was maybe my opportunity and just got to the 90s and the England boys were saying 'If you don't get it now, you may never'. It was just a fantastic moment to finally get it.

"It was emotional out there, that's for sure. And it has been. Initially to get picked for Australia was amazing, but the nerves and the things that go with it ... the Lord's Test match, that was as low as I've been for a while, hearing the criticism coming in and feeling like you've let down your country. That hurts. To play well in the last Test and to back it up in this one means a lot to me."

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Second oldest maiden centurion ends long wait

England's magnificent seven (120)

They may not possess Botham-standard superstars, but more than half their team consists of formidable players

Send Jadeja in higher (80)

India will be best served in Test cricket if their two allrounders bat either side of Dhoni

Watson must open for long-term gains (61)

That's where he wants to play and he knows he will be judged on his results at the top of the order

Selectors must manage Chandimal's captaincy workload (52)

Sri Lanka's selectors must decide whether the burden of captaincy and high expectations are hampering Dinesh Chandimal's growth as a batsman

Faf better than AB, but no third option (42)

While Faf du Plessis' captaincy was more confident than AB de Villiers' in Sri Lanka, South Africa have not invested in grooming a leader during a decade of Graeme Smith and are left with little choice beyond the two

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Fitting, fortunate and deserved

Chris Rogers scored a century that was scratchy, ugly and lucky. It was also the equal of any made by an Australian in the past 18 months

Michael Hussey and Simon Katich were masters of scoring hundreds with barely a memorable stroke. A nudge here, a push there, a crisp drive, an efficient pull. Nothing too extravagant, nothing too risky. GPS-like knowledge of off stump's position. The willingness to leave balls outside it. Repeatedly. The patience to make bowlers come to them. Repeatedly. The hunger to do so day in, day out, year in, year out. Repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly.

Through future planning, Australia no longer have Katich. Through a breakdown of it, they no longer have Hussey. But they do have Chris Rogers, who works in the same understated way. Rusted on to first-class cricket since last century, Rogers has piled up hundreds for Victoria, Western Australia, Derbyshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Middlesex. Sixty, in fact. All the while, he has made them by making bowlers come to him.

It was fitting that Rogers' maiden Test hundred was a trial of technique in seriously testing conditions, against high-class seam and swing bowling. Such situations have been Australia's downfall in recent years, from 88 against Pakistan in Leeds in 2010 to 47 to 98 against England on Boxing Day later that year, to 47 in Cape Town in 2011. This was why Rogers was recalled at 35. To add some guts to Australia's batting order. To provide some resolve.

When Rogers was asked if his 60 first-class centuries helped him as he approached his maiden Test hundred, he was unequivocal. "They don't count for a thing," he said. Perhaps that was true once Rogers reached the nineties. As Graeme Swann attacked the stumps, Rogers became possessed by paranoia. Every ball could make or break a dream he had nurtured through boyhood, maintained through manhood and abandoned in veteranhood.

An empty, echoing MCG, a tranquil county ground in Derby, nothing could prepare Rogers for the pressure of nearing an Ashes ton. But it was precisely such experiences that allowed him to reach the point at which paranoia could kick in. There are those who will say Rogers was lucky to get to his century. Of course he was. What batsman has ever made a hundred in trying conditions and not enjoyed a measure of good fortune? But Rogers allowed himself to still be there to be lucky.

His opening partner David Warner was bowled, late on a ball he appeared set to leave, unaware of his off stump's position. Usman Khawaja was also the victim of his own uncertainty, bottom-edging a ball he shaped to play and then tried to leave. Michael Clarke drove recklessly outside off and edged behind, Steven Smith also poked and tickled to Matt Prior. On a seaming pitch, they were balls Rogers would have left.

His approach seemed to rub off on Shane Watson, who started tentatively but worked his way into Test-match touch. When Watson leaves outside off, he does it with the reluctance of a new dieter leaving half a plate of food untouched. Rogers leaves it out of habit; he knows there will always be a better choice, a healthier option. Here, he waited for the balls on his pads, working runs behind square or through midwicket.

And there were enough bad balls that he was able to not get bogged down. He reached his half-century from 87 deliveries, a fine effort in such difficult conditions. This is a man who knows his scoring areas. At the crease, Rogers is still, efficient in his movements. Here, he played the ball late, not reaching, just deflecting, nudging, driving when the fast bowlers overpitched.

Often his leaves looked like plays and misses, for really he was just getting to off stump and dragging the bat inside the line of the ball. Of course, there were plenty of times, particularly in a searching spell from Stuart Broad, he was genuinely beaten outside off. But rarely was he beaten while chasing wide balls he could have left, and when he was he chastised himself greatly, as when he flung the bat at a wide tempter from James Anderson.

Unlike Warner, he covered his off stump scrupulously against the fast bowlers. It was that practice that saved him from one of his closest calls, when he was given out caught behind and asked for a review. The replays showed Rogers had not hit the ball but Broad's delivery might have hit the stumps had it not clipped the batsman's leg on the way through. It was, however, an "umpire's call" on the lbw, which saved Rogers as he had been given out not lbw but caught behind. Protecting his off stump had saved him.

	The Huddle: Rogers just ground it out

There were moments of genuine good fortune, as when he was dropped at slip on 49, but even then his style of stroke kept the ball low. He was lucky, but he contributed to his own good fortune. By the close of play, Rogers had survived the nervous 96s and was a Test centurion.

The biggest Test hundreds are not always the finest, and his effort was the equal of any by an Australian since late 2011, when Clarke scored a magic 151 on the Cape Town surface on which Australia were later bowled out for 47, and David Warner's bat-carrying effort on a seamer in Hobart the following month.

They were the kind of innings that featured more regularly when Katich and Hussey were around. Australia may no longer have either of those men but they now have Rogers. And having waited so long, he is hungry. They can have him as long as they like.

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Rafiq five leads Yorkshire to thrilling win

Yorkshire 198 (Plunkett 47*, Sunny 3-25) beat Bangladesh A 191 (Anamul 69, Rafiq 5-30) by 7 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Offspinner Azeem Rafiq's five-wicket haul snared a seven-run win for Yorkshire over Bangladesh A at Leeds. It was the visitors' second close defeat in as many one-day games on this tour to England, after losing to Hampshire by eight runs on Tuesday.

Rafiq was brought on as fourth-change bowler, and he picked up Mominul Haque in his third over, breaking a promising 74-run third wicket stand with opener Anamul Haque. After a tight fourth over, he removed Anamul, who had top-scored with 69, striking six fours and a six in his 92-ball knock, and as soon as he and Mominul went, the the batting line-up caved in.

Rafiq's incisive spell also accounted for allrounders Farhad Reza, Sohag Gazi and Elias Sunny. Raqibul Hasan and Robiul Islam put up some resistance but they were finally bowled out for 191 in the 45th over. Iain Wardlaw took two wickets while Liam Plunkett and Ryan Gibson claimed one each.

Earlier, Yorkshire were bowled out for 198 runs in the 48th over with the Bangladeshi spinners outdoing the seamers by one wicket. Sunny was the pick of the lot, taking 3 for 25 while Mominul and Robiul took two wickets each.

The home side recovered from the early loss of their openers through an 88-run partnership between Adam Lyth and Alex Lees but suffered a middle-order collapse - six wickets for 49 runs - and slipped to 148 for 8 in the 39th over. Plunkett, coming in at No 9, made 47 off 57 balls to ensure a moderate score.

Bangladesh A's next match on tour is against Lancashire on August 11.

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Aslam century leads Pakistan to victory

Pakistan Under-19s 196-2 (Aslam 120*) beat Bangladesh Under-19s 192 (Jashimuddin 50, Zia-ul-Haq 3-27) by 8 wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Captain Sami Aslam almost single-handedly set up Pakistan Under-19s' eight-wicket win over Bangladesh Under-19s in the triangular series at Market Harborough. His unbeaten century led his side to their second win in the tournament and put them at the top of the points table.

Chasing 193 to win, Pakistan got off to a solid start, with Aslam and Imran Butt adding 107 for the first wicket. The game was all but decided by the time Bangladesh ran out Butt in the 29th over. Imam-ul-Haq was the other batsman dismissed, caught and bowled by offspinner Mehedy Hasan, but Aslam remained steady at the other end, his 120 off 142 balls, with 17 fours and a six, spanning the entire Pakistan chase. He added an undefeated 58-run stand with Hussain Talat to secure the match and as in the two previous partnerships, Aslam dominated this one too.

After Bangladesh were invited to bat, left-arm seamer Zia-ul-Haq gave Pakistan the first breakthrough with the wicket of Shahriar Sumon in the fifth over. He added two more to his final tally to end up with three for 27, while Mohammad Aftab and left-arm spinner Kamran Ghulam chipped in with two wickets each. Wicketkeeper Jashimuddin top-scored for Bangladesh, his 50 off 67 balls, featuring five fours. He put on Bangladesh's only fifty-plus partnership with Sadman Islam, who toiled for two hours to make 46 and was run out.

The two sides play the next game of the Under-19 tri-series on Sunday at Kibworth.

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