Srinivasan elected unopposed as TNCA president

BCCI's president-in-exile N Srinivasan was unanimously elected as the chief of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) for the 14th consecutive year.

As has been the case for over 10 years, all the sitting office bearers and executive committee members were elected unopposed during the 84th annual general body meeting of the TNCA.

This is for the 14th year that Srinivasan has been elected as the president of TNCA without any break.

Following are other office bearers elected unopposed:

Vice Presidents: U Prabhakar Rao, Kalpathi S Aghoram, S Raghavan, P S Raman, R Kanakarajan and V Ramesh.

Secretary: Kasi Viswanathan, Jt Secretary: R I Palani, Assistant Secretary: R S Ramaswamy, Treasurer: V P Narasimhan.

Executive Committee: K Sriram, K S Shankar, G C Dangi, P Anand, C G Anandaram, K Murali, Adam Sait, K Mohan and Keshav Sriraman.

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Moeen hints at his future worth

A plethora of "experts" who have spent the last few weeks repeating the myth that Moeen is a "part-time" spin bowler may now afford him a little more respect

'Tomorrow morning will be crucial' - Moeen Ali

The knives were out for Moeen Ali long before he bowled on Sunday afternoon. "He's useless," the pundit in the press box roared when Alastair Cook finally threw Moeen the ball. "He can't bat and he certainly can't bowl."

The pundit's opinion is, up to a point, understandable. Having heard the England coach, Peter Moores, describe the spin position as "a weakness" after the Lord's Test and having heard the captain, Cook, describe the spin position as "a cause for concern," it would seem natural to conclude that neither of them had much faith in Moeen's spin bowling.

It was a view that could only have been reinforced when Cook, despite the dry pitch and an off-colour display from his seamers, seemed reluctant to trust his spinner until the 56th over. It was beginning to be hard to understand why they had selected him.

And it was a view that could have only been reinforced by the plethora of "experts" who have spent the last few weeks repeating the myth that Moeen is a "part-time" spin bowler. Experts who have clearly not spent much time at New Road watching Moeen fulfil the main spinner's role for Worcestershire for much of the last few years.

Perhaps he will now be afforded a little more respect. While he is a long way from proving his long-term viability as a Test spinner, Moeen did at least show on the third day here that he is far from the bits and pieces player that he has been dismissed as by some.

His first wicket was that of Kumar Sangakkara. That is the Sangakkara who had just become one of only four men in history to score seven successive half-centuries in Test cricket and the Sangakkara with more than 11,000 Test runs to his name.

But, having turned a couple sharply enough to demand the batsman's respect, Moeen drifted one into the left-hander. This one did not turn, or turned very little, and though Sangakkara pushed forward, the dip and drift defeated him and he was struck on the pad and trapped lbw. It could have been Graeme Swann bowling. It was exactly the way Swann tortured so many left-handers.

Better was to come. Two balls later, Lahiru Thirimanne pushed forward at another bowled from round the wicket and, having been drawn into playing the ball on middle and leg by the drift, was beaten past the outside edge by one that turned sharply and hit the top of off stump. It was, by any standards, a lovely piece of bowling. "It's the best ball I've bowled on TV," Moeen said.

A few overs later, Moeen delivered the first "doosra" of his international career. It was not hard to pick from the hand - it is slower and more floaty than his normal off-break - but it drew a respectful "well bowled" from Mahela Jayawardene and it may well have given him the confidence to bowl it more often. Most of those who believe the delivery cannot be bowled without throwing did not even notice it happen.

"I was feeling pretty confident so I thought 'why not bowl one'?" Moeen said afterwards. "It's the first one I've bowled. I just wanted to do a job for the team first. I'm not as confident to bowl it with the red ball as I am with the white ball. He played it quite well, but he did sort of say it was alright."

Moeen has now taken 93 first-class wickets since the start of 2012 at an average of 32.18. They are not extraordinary figures, certainly, but they compare well with most other spinners who have been utilised by England in Test cricket in recent years. James Tredwell, by contrast, has taken 49 (at an average of 45.12), Monty Panesar has claimed 153 (at 30.77 apiece), Gareth Batty has taken 74 (at 30.60), Scott Borthwick has taken 71 (at 36.11) and Samit Patel has taken 63 at 47.09. Whether Moeen is a Test class spinner remains to be seen, but on those figures, he has a good argument to be considered among the best available to England at present. Calling Moeen a part-timer spinner is simply factually inaccurate.

He is improving, too. He has a close relationship with Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal, who has returned to Worcestershire for a stint as an overseas player, and has spent many hours working with him in the nets. Ajmal has shared the secrets of his doosra with Moeen and, he says, nobody else. In recent weeks, Ajmal has watched Moeen bowl 30 or 40 doosras in succession in practice. While there is a long way to go before Moeen's doosra is anything like Ajmal's, it is worth remembering that Ajmal only learned the delivery in his mid-to-late 20s. Moeen, who celebrated his 27th birthday on Wednesday, has time on his side.

If England are demanding instant success, he may not be the answer. If they are building for the future, he may well be worth some perseverance.

Besides, England's failings here have not been caused by the absence of a world-class spinner. Instead they have dropped catches - Chris Jordan was the latest to put down a straightforward chance, reprieving Dimuth Karunaratne in the slips on 12 - let a strong position slip when batting - they lost their last seven wickets for only 54 runs having surpassed the Sri Lankan total with eight wickets in hand - and then bowled with unusual lack of control or even sense. The manner that James Anderson and Stuart Broad - bowling far too short and often too wide as well - wasted the new ball at the start of the Sri Lankan second innings may yet cost England this match.

Complacency surely cannot have been an issue. A team that has now won any of its last seven Tests and was defeated in the World T20 by Netherlands has no reason for anything of the sort.

They should not be complacent about their over-rate, either. After being fined for a slow-rate in the Lord's Test, England have again failed to bowl the minimum number of overs demanded in a day here.

One day the ICC will look at the pitifully small crowds which have now become the norm in Test cricket and act to prevent such self-defeating practices. They will suspend a high-profile captain and focus the minds of the players on the demands of the spectators. But until they do, the punters will continue to be asked to pay ever more for less and continue to drift away from the game.

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Sangakkara finally leaves his hallmark on England

Having averaged only 30 in England before this tour, Kumar Sangakkara has finally restored his record

Sri Lanka's day of the series

When Kumar Sangakkara arrived at the crease on day three, Liam Plunkett hurled a rocket at his chest. The Headingley pitch had been misbehaving since the second afternoon, and this was one of its naughtiest moments. The game's fastest bowler was provoking it to mischief.

In the first innings, Lahiru Thirimanne had got a similar delivery first-up, and he fended a catch to short leg. Given the abysmal series Thirimanne has had, maybe surviving the same ball does not mean much. But the one Sangakkara got was a brute all the same. The kind that makes kids want to become fast bowlers.

Sangakkara deflected that one in front of short leg, but he knew the bowler had had the better of him. He looked down at the spot on the pitch that had caused him grief, then looked away, walking toward square leg, then back again. He shuffled his feet and took guard. The next legitimate ball was wide and full. He stretched out and cracked it through the covers as hard as he has hit any ball in the series.

A hush hung over Headingley for a moment, then lifted with a swell of appreciation. The Yorkshire crowd is partisan, urging England on, saving their loudest for the local lads, but they know cricketing excellence when they see it. When Sangakkara was dismissed - perhaps for the last time in England - the ground stood to their feet to clap him off the field. But few will have known Sangakkara's curious relationship with the cover drive when the clapped that first four. Many will also have been unaware of the batsman's troubles in England, before this tour.

The cover drive has been Sangakkara's signature stroke for much of his career, because it is almost a marvel of engineering. The step forward is swift and precise. The still head and fast hands, practiced and mechanical. The back knee bends just enough to stabilise him, and the entire movement is set off by a checked flourish forged of control. The ball only ever goes in a slim arc between cover and extra cover. Mahela Jayawardene played a cover drive too on the third day, but his rendition of the stroke is languid and musical; more dependent on his mood, than the ball and the fielders, and capable of going almost anywhere in front of square.

In many ways, the cover drive is a microcosm of Sangakkara's cricket - meticulously refined and supremely efficient - but on previous tours of England, it had sometimes been his undoing. In the 2011 tour, he was out to it in Southampton and at Lord's lunging at the ball when it had curved away from him. It has frustrated him in other parts of the world too, across all formats.

In the last match at Lord's, England tempted him wide of off stump for a good ten overs, when he arrived in the first innings. But in that innings, Sangakkara was hell-bent on his raid for a hundred. He could not be drawn into the shot until he was past 30, and even then, he applied it economically.

The stroke was a risk at Headingley too, particularly against Plunkett, whose extra bounce had done Jayawardene in, when he drove outside off stump in the first innings. But for Sangakkara, the third day was no day for restraint. He was in the middle to move his team's cause forward, but also to make a mark. In all likelihood, this is his last outing in England.

He was glad for his error-riddled 79 in the first innings, but when he came off the field, most people would not stop deriding the innings. Sangakkara has been a dream interview for several major English papers since he arrived in the country, but when a radio station spoke to him before the second day, and led with "Wasn't the best innings you've ever played, yesterday, was it?", Sangakkara was audibly agitated: "That's the way it sometimes goes in cricket, the important thing is getting the runs." The reply was uncommonly brief. Over the next few minutes, one of the game's most eloquent speakers would not offer more than a six-second answer to any of the interviewer's stream of questions.

On Sunday, the first ball from Plunkett elicited the only ugly moment from Sangakkara. From the very next ball, he was intent on reassuming dominance. He scored faster than any Sri Lanka batsman on the day, and sent four balls through the covers during his 55. The cover drive accounted for a higher percentage of his runs in this innings, than in any other this series.

He has now scored as many 50-plus scores on the trot as any batsman has ever managed, only, he has a triple ton and a couple of centuries among that string of scores. He has raised his average in England to 41.04, when it had languished at just over 30 before the tour, creating doubt over his greatness. His 342 runs is more than any Sri Lanka batsman has scored in a single series in England.

On day three at Headingley, he recovered from Plunkett's first ball, and his strange first innings. For many in the country, where his record has now recovered too, that cool, calculated cover drive will be the enduring hallmark of the memory of his career.

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Australia's summer schedule released

Cricket Australia has finalised an international season heavy on limited-overs cricket, with Adelaide losing its semi-traditional Australia Day match to Sydney. Australia's home internationals will begin on November 5 when they play South Africa in the first T20 and with the World Cup dominating the February-March slot in Australia and New Zealand, it will be a long international season.

India are the only team playing Tests in Australia this summer and the first of four will begin at the Gabba on December 4, the latest start to Australia's home Test summer in 11 years. It had previously been determined that with only four Tests scheduled, the WACA would be the venue to lose a Test this year; Adelaide will host the second Test from December 12 before the traditional Boxing Day and New Year's Tests in Melbourne and Sydney.

But Adelaide's tradition of hosting an international on Australia Day has been ignored, with Australia to play India at the SCG in a one-day match on January 26, which is also India's Republic Day. That match is part of a tri-series that also features England; in total, Australia will play at least nine ODIs at home in the lead-up to the World Cup, which starts on February 14.

Cricket Australia has also released the domestic one-day and four-day schedule and while the BBL fixture is yet to be finalised, it has been confirmed that it will be cut back to 43 days from last year's bloated 50-day tournament. The domestic one-day tournament will open the season as it did last summer, although this time it will be held in Sydney and Brisbane rather than Sydney alone, as was the case in 2013-14.

It will also have a new name after spending four years as the Ryobi Cup; the competition will now be called the Matador BBQs One-Day Cup. An extra round of matches has also been factored in for the Matador Cup to help players push their cases in a World Cup year, and the tournament will run from October 4 to 26 before the Sheffield Shield begins with its first round on October 31.

Four Shield rounds will be played before the first Test against India, although they will not all be preparing players for Tests with the red ball. After trialling pink balls and day-night Shield cricket late last summer, Cricket Australia will again test the concept this season. This time, though, the day-night matches will make up round two of the Shield, from November 8 to 11, with games in Hobart, Perth and Adelaide.

Adelaide remains the most likely venue for Australia to host its first day-night Test, which could be as early as next summer against New Zealand. However, Hobart is also considered a possibility and Cricket Australia was keen to test day-night Shield cricket there this season after last year's trials took place in Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane.

December 8 to February 7 will be a Shield-free zone as the BBL becomes the focus, with the Twenty20 tournament set to begin on December 18. Five Shield rounds will be played after the BBL, although the unavailability of major venues due to the World Cup has meant that secondary grounds such as Bankstown Oval, Allan Border Field and Glenelg's Gliderol Stadium will be used.

New South Wales will take two matches to regional parts of the state but Victoria faces a major scheduling issue as the MCG is its only ground currently approved for first-class cricket. There is a possibility Victoria will be forced to play three home games interstate if a Victorian venue cannot be found for the games against Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania in February-March.

Cricket Australia's chief executive James Sutherland said this summer had proved especially challenging to schedule due to the World Cup, which runs from February 14 to March 29 in Australia and New Zealand. The fixture was so complex that 72 drafts were required before the schedule was finalised.

Matador BBQs One-Day Cup
October 4: New South Wales v South Australia, Allan Border Field, Brisbane
October 4: Queensland v Victoria, Gabba
October 6: Queensland v New South Wales, Allan Border Field
October 6: Victoria v South Australia, Gabba
October 8: South Australia v Western Australia, Gabba
October 8: Tasmania v Victoria, Allan Border Field
October 10: New South Wales v Queensland, Gabba
October 11: Western Australia v Tasmania, Gabba
October 12: South Australia v Queensland, Allan Border Field
October 12: Victoria v New South Wales, North Sydney Oval
October 13: Tasmania v Western Australia, North Sydney Oval
October 14: Queensland v Victoria, North Sydney Oval
October 15: New South Wales v Western Australia, Drummoyne Oval
October 15: South Australia v Tasmania, Bankstown Oval
October 17: Victoria v New South Wales, Drummoyne Oval
October 17: Western Australia v South Australia, Bankstown Oval
October 18: Queensland v Tasmania, North Sydney Oval
October 19: Victoria v Western Australia, Drummoyne Oval
October 20: New South Wales v Tasmania, Drummoyne Oval
October 22: Tasmania v South Australia, North Sydney Oval
October 22: Western Australia v Queensland, Bankstown Oval
October 24: 2nd v 3rd, preliminary final, Drummoyne Oval
October 26: Final, SCG

Sheffield Shield
October 31-November 2: Western Australia v Tasmania, WACA
October 31-November 2: Victoria v New South Wales, MCG
October 31-November 2: South Australia v Queensland, Adelaide Oval

November 8-11: Western Australia v Queensland, WACA (day-night)
November 8-11: Tasmania v Victoria, Bellerive Oval (day-night)
November 8-11: South Australia v New South Wales, Adelaide Oval (day-night)

November 16-19: Tasmania v Western Australia, Bellerive Oval
November 16-19: South Australia v Victoria, Adelaide Oval
November 16-19: Queensland v New South Wales, Gabba

November 25-28: Victoria v Western Australia, MCG
November 25-28: Queensland v Tasmania, Allan Border Field
November 25-28: New South Wales v South Australia, SCG

December 5-8: Western Australia v Victoria, WACA
December 5-8: Tasmania v South Australia, Bellerive Oval
December 5-8: New South Wales v Queensland, SCG

February 7-10: Western Australia v South Australia, WACA
February 7-10: Tasmania v New South Wales, Bellerive Oval
February 7-10: Queensland v Victoria, Gabba

February 16-19: Tasmania v Queensland, Bellerive Oval
February 16-19: South Australia v Western Australia, Gliderol Stadium, Glenelg
February 16-19: New South Wales v Victoria, Regional NSW (venue TBC)

February 24-27: Victoria v Queensland, TBC
February 24-27: South Australia v Tasmania, Gliderol Stadium
February 24-27: New South Wales v Western Australia, Regional NSW (venue TBC)

March 5-8: Victoria v South Australia, TBC
March 5-8: Queensland v Western Australia, Allan Border Field
March 5-8: New South Wales v Tasmania, Bankstown Oval

March 13-16: Western Australia v New South Wales, WACA
March 13-16: Victoria v Tasmania, TBC
March 13-16: Queensland v South Australia, Gabba

March 21-25: Sheffield Shield final

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Williamson reported for suspect action

Kane Williamson, the part-time New Zealand offspinner, has been reported for a suspect bowling action following the second Test against West Indies in Trinidad. As per ICC regulations, Williamson will have to undergo testing of his action within 21 days, but can continue bowling until the results of the test are known.

Williamson was reported by umpires Ian Gould, Richard Illingworth and Rod Tucker, and match referee Chris Broad, after the Test ended on Friday. Williamson had bowled 15.2 overs in the Test, for figures of 1 for 43. An ICC release said: "The umpires' report cited concerns over a number of deliveries that they considered to be suspect and believed that his action needed to be tested."

The report has been handed over to the New Zealand team manager.

New Zealand's Test series against West Indies is currently tied at 1-1, with the third Test set to begin in Barbados on June 26.

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Old-school Robson plays it perfectly

As the home side stumbled in the final session the value of Sam Robson's maiden Test hundred, a model in concentration and self-denial, became clear

'I didn't know how to celebrate' - Robson

Whatever the gladiators, smurfs, superheroes and the fellow dressed as a moose expected when they got ready for a day at the cricket, it probably was not this. Certainly, there was something incongruous about the sight of hundreds of people in fancy dress watching Sam Robson leave the ball watchfully for hours on end and occasionally nudging one off his hips. It was like dressing for a party and then spending the night doing your accounts. Sometimes it really did feel like the longest day.

But if Robson's batting is unfashionable, it is also valuable. And if there were times during the stand between Robson and Gary Ballance, in particular, when progress seemed a little sedate, the fact is that England ended the second day in a strong position.

If they go on to win with a day to spare, it would surely be a bit perverse to complain about the pace of their cricket. It might also have become a bit perverse to complain about the standard of county cricket: Robson, Ballance and Chris Jordan seem to have made the step-up rather comfortably.

For all the repetition in recent times that Test cricket has changed and that batsmen have to be positive, there are many times when there is nothing more valuable than a sound defensive technique. After a winter when the pace of scoring became the least of England's worries - the Sydney Test was over in three days - there is plenty of room for a batsman with the patience of Robson and the no-frills effectiveness of Ballance. Ballance may well go on to score 8,000 Test runs without playing a single stroke that elicits the 'cooing' reserved for a cover drove from Ian Bell. But he might also win quite a few games for England.

There was no eureka moment in Robson's decision to pick England over Australia. He simply pursued the path that offered the best chance of playing the most professional cricket and, armed with a UK passport courtesy of a mother born in Nottingham, he concluded reasonably enough that county cricket offered better prospects than State cricket in Australia. At that stage, as a teenager, the prospect of Test cricket seemed impossibly distant.

Besides, he is not the sort of player Australia tend to favour. While he represented their U-19 side, it was not until the last few months that they showed much interest in his development and it remains hard to see how he would fit in with the aggressive approach currently favoured by Darren Lehmann and Robson resisted a late offer to entice him back to Australia last winter as he was, by then, involved with England Lions and on the pathway leading to Test cricket.

There may well, in time, be a reasonable debate to be held on England's reliance upon players who were brought up, in part, abroad, but equally there might be some cause for celebration that this side represents the multi-cultural society that the UK has become.

It is not hard to understand why Robson does not merit selection in Middlesex's limited-overs side. He does not have a wide range of stroke. He is neat off his legs, drives nicely and cuts efficiently. He was slow to relax and declined to put away deliveries that, for Middlesex, he would have attempted to cut or pull. Indeed, he did not play one authentic pull shot in his innings. There were times, when the ball was just back of a length on off stump, when he appeared strokeless.

Yet Test cricket remains as much about discipline and denial as it does about flair and aggression. It remains as much about the strokes a batsman does not play as those that they do. Yes, there may be times when Robson's rate of scoring is a minor frustration. But there should be many more times when his resilience is a reassuring asset and when the foundations he builds for England's promising but somewhat fragile middle-order will prove valuable. In Australia, the middle-order were often exposed to the new ball. Robson, at least, should force seamers into second, third and fourth spells and allow the likes of Joe Root to come in against a softer ball.

There is an irony here, though. Nick Compton was dropped, in part, because he was thought to score too slowly to hurt the opposition. To drop Compton, who has a greater range of stroke, and pick Robson only reinforces the suspicion that the former was omitted more because some in the team management simply did not like him than any flaw in his play.

Robson, too, was judged harshly after his first Test at Lord's. With nerves bothering him in the first innings, he was drawn into pushing at one that, at county level, he would usually have left. Critics who had never seen him bat, jumped to conclusions about his technique and temperament.

Even here, as he reached his century, some of the same pundits were dismissing it as of little worth. The bowling was undemanding, they claimed, and the pitch without menace. But when England lost three wickets for two runs in the evening session, the value of Robson's innings became a little more apparent.

Besides, if the bowling was so modest and the conditions so placid, what does the failure of Alastair Cook say about his future? His dismissal here, poking with minimal foot movement at a regulation delivery angled across him, spoke of a man low on confidence and struggling with his technique. The pitch was flat, the bowling - by the standards of Test cricket - relatively undemanding.

Cook's long-term record demands he is afforded greater patience than might be the case for other players. The England management have also backed him so resolutely that, to drop him now would constitute a major change of direction with their plans. It is not an imminent possibility.

But since the start of the Ashes series in July 2013, Cook has now played 23 innings without registering a century and averages just 25.43. His somewhat testy attitude at the pre-match media conferences suggested a man who was beginning to feel the pressure and to tire of some of the baggage that comes with captaincy. Few people would be surprised if, by this time next year, Bell was England captain. How Cook would have loved his opening partner's runs.

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Marshall provides calming hundred

Gloucestershire 308 for 5 (Marshall 109, Tavare 77, Cockbain 51, Hogan 3-39) v Glamorgan
Scorecard

Stand-in skipper Hamish Marshall led from the front with his second century of the season as injury-hit Gloucestershire ran up 308 for 5 in glorious sunshine on the opening day of the Division Two match with Glamorgan at Bristol.

Having won an important toss, Marshall, leading his side in the absence of Michael Klinger, made 109, hitting a six over long-on off Andrew Salter and seven fours.

Despite the best efforts of Michael Hogan, who bowled with great heart on an unhelpful pitch to claim 3 for 39 from 19 overs, Glamorgan were unable to prevent their hosts taking a grip on the game. Will Tavare hit a solid 77, Ian Cockbain 51 and Alex Gidman 26 in a determined Gloucestershire batting effort.

The hosts had to rule out Klinger before the start with a foot injury, sustained in the previous evening's NatWest T20 Blast game against Hampshire, and then lost wicketkeeper Cameron Herring to a damaged finger sustained in the warm-up.

Seventeen-year-old Academy keeper Patrick Grieshaber, a Jack Russell discovery, from Marshfield, near Bath, had to be summoned from local club cricket and registered with the ECB to play for the first XI in order to make his debut.

It was as well Marshall won the toss and elected to bat, giving Grieshaber, a product of Gloucestershire's schoolboy set-up, time to reach the ground before he was required.

Gloucestershire director of cricket John Bracewell said: "Cameron Herring has mashed up a finger pretty badly and we think it is broken.

"Patrick Grieshaber was due to play club cricket for Downend today, but was called to the ground so that we could register him to play. It was generous of Glamorgan to allow us to make the late change and we thank them for that."

The home side needed a calming influence after the injury setbacks and the early loss of opener Chris Dent, who departed for 2 to a catch at square-leg off Hogan.

They found it in the unflappable Tavare, who is making a big impression in his debut season. The nephew of former England batsman Chris Tavare already has two hundreds to his name and added a half-century off 87 balls, with 10 fours.

Alex Gidman survived a big appeal for a bat-pad catch at short-leg off Dean Cosker before having his stumps scattered playing across a ball from Ruaidhri Smith and falling with the total on 83.

Lunch was taken at 98 for 2 and the early afternoon session produced the most compelling cricket as Hogan summoned up lively pace from the Ashley Down Road End. He gave Tavare and Marshall a torrid time before bowling Tavare between bat and pad.

The in-form seamer sent down eight hostile overs for 19 runs. But Marshall survived and went to his half-century off 94 balls, with four fours. He and Cockbain continued to prosper in the final session after tea had been taken at 194 for 3.

Marshall opened his shoulders to dispatch Salter for six and four off successive deliveries, moving to a 164-ball ton, while his partner emerged from a scratchy start to reach a half-century off 131 balls before being pinned lbw by a ball that kept low from Jim Allenby.

They had added 145 to put Gloucestershire in control. Hogan then steamed in with the second new ball and bowled Marshall of an inside edge to claim his 100th first class wicket for Glamorgan in just 20 matches.

That drew glowing praise from coach Toby Radford, who said: "Michael seems to do it every game for us. It was a slow, flat pitch on a hot day and he has kept going and come back hard with the second new ball.

"He is a top-class bowler with good pace, who is always testing the batsmen because he can move the ball both ways."

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Eranga leads Sri Lanka's survivors

For much of the second day Sri Lanka toiled without reward and the Test match was slipping away from them, but they refused to yield and their hard-working seamers have ensured they retain hope

'We need to bowl them out for 400' - Karunaratne

The Sri Lankan community in Leeds is small and scattered. Only a smattering turned out at a sold-out Headingley on Saturday. It is partly because the Sri Lanka fans abroad are yet to develop a taste for days out at a Test, much like the hordes at home. Maybe there are more pragmatic reasons as well. This Sri Lanka team, with this bowling attack, will inevitably spend long, tortuous days in the field. Many times, there are modest rewards for the team, and their supporters.

On social media, Sri Lanka fans likened most of the day's play to watching plants grow, but that is exactly what the team is doing too. This is a green pace attack, on their first trip to England. There is a little bit about each bowler that suggests they could be a force in Test cricket in the future. But for now, Sri Lanka is tending shoots, hoping the opposition do not trample on them too heavily. The pitches at home are about as lively for seamers as Colombo morgue. In recent years, good fast bowlers have lined up at the hospital as well, with long-term, career-threatening injuries.

Another day of toil seemed to be firming up at Headingley, until finally, their luck turned. On the whole, Sri Lanka's attack might reflect they did not bowl to their potential, but for Shaminda Eranga, it had been a different kind of day altogether.

In the morning he had swung the ball the most, and had the batsmen missing so emphatically that their photographs should have been printed on milk cartons. Post-delivery stride, Eranga's hands would clutch at his head, almost by reflex.

Later in the day, the ball grew soft, but Eranga's effort remained undiminished. He had bowled 48 overs at Lord's - more than any other quick in the attack. In the first innings here, he has sent down more overs, than any bowler, from either team. He also has the best economy rate, at 2.33. Of the six boundaries he has conceded in the innings, four have come off edges. The other two were drives off the front foot. Swinging it away from the right handers, closing the lefties up, off the seam, Eranga begged for a wicket with his body language. His pitch map screamed out for it.

England had gunned Sri Lanka down with their wicked, varied arsenal on the opening day, but Eranga's method was working class to the core. It is not difficult to see why he endures through long, luckless spells better than most. He has done it that way all his life.

Growing up in a small fishing town on Sri Lanka's west coast, Eranga's father died when he was 10, thinning the family's already slim resources, to say nothing of the trauma. There were no high-flying cricket leagues for his school, no accredited coaches in the area. He had not even placed in the top five in the pace-bowling contest that earned him his big break.

When he won through to under-23 cricket, Eranga would board a bus in Chilaw before dawn, play a full day's cricket in Colombo, then return home at close to 11pm. When he played three-dayers, he sometimes repeated this gruelling routine thrice in a row. No easy way to chase a far-off dream. But then, Eranga barely had a choice.

Earlier this year, in the UAE, Eranga delivered 130.3 overs inside 21 days, went at 2.64, and averaged less than 30. Then, as at Headingley, his wickets did not so much bring him joy, as they gave him relief. Only when Ian Bell glanced a rare bad ball through to the keeper did Eranga allow himself a smile on Saturday. Taken in isolation, that wicket was a lucky dismissal. Maybe Eranga's smile was at how comical cricket can be sometimes.

At times in the day, other bowlers were wayward from the opposite end. There were no shelled catches off Eranga, but Sri Lanka missed three clear-cut chances and a difficult fourth. At least behind the stumps, Eranga had a kindred soul.

Dinesh Chandimal kept faultlessly through the day, with unflagging energy. At the end of almost every over, he would race through to give the bowler a pat on the back, and a few kind words. His attention spread to the fielders as well, as he clapped on at his post, chirping into the evening. In between, he pouched four good catches, including both of Eranga's scalps.

From modest beginnings himself, Chandimal has lost everything in a tsunami, then gone on to cricket acclaim at one of the nation's top schools, in his own, homespun style. As the Sri Lanka team gradually moves beyond its Colombo-centrism, perhaps more deserving men, who have done it tough, will play for their country. They know a day on their feet at Headingley is no great difficulty, in the grand scheme. It is the staying up, and staying hungry that matters.

The few Sri Lankans in the stands will have been lifted toward the close. But the Yorkshire crowd went home happy as well. They watched a local lad hit fifty. Another youngster scored a ton. For Sri Lanka, it was a day of grit. A day of honest work and belated reward. It was a day for their survivors.

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Phillips sees Essex through

Essex 157 for 8 (Pettini 42, ten Doeschate 34, Phillips 33*) beat Middlesex 153 for 5 (Morgan 69) by two wickets
Scorecard

In his programme notes, Ryan ten Doeschate, the Essex captain, wrote about the need for his side to rediscover the type of form that has encouraged their Chelmsford ground to be regarded as a fortress. Tim Phillips must have been at least one avoid reader.

Just as when it seemed lowly Middlesex had done enough to derail the Eagles' charge and come away from the ground with the points, it was Phillips who staged a late assault to extend his side's winning run to four games and keep them sitting pretty in South Group.

After striding to the crease, with the home side 113 for 6 and on the brink of defeat, Phillips spanked four sixes to change the dynamic of an innings that Middlesex had controlled from the outset. With 13 to win off the final over, bowled by Gurjit Sandhu, Phillips launched one six into the boisterous Chelmsford crowd over midwicket before finishing the job with a top-edge that sailed over the rope and sent the crowd into delirium.

Middlesex, who had fought so admirably and seemed as if they were going to make it two wins in three days, trudged off the field dejected. Not many sides come away from this ground on a Friday evening with the spoils and their efforts must be applauded. Yet their slim hopes of advancing to the knockout stages are now gone.

A couple of days ago, the Panthers had lost eight consecutive Twenty20 games and were a side so muddled, the ignominy of a winless campaign was not implausible. They can now firmly concentrate on re-establishing their Championship form. For Essex, their interest is firmly on the Natwest T20.

Should Essex manage to advance to the latter stages of this competition, they will look back on this result as one that could well shape their campaign. So parlous was their position that pockets of the 5,000 strong crowd had started heckling their own players. But all was forgotten when Phillips began depositing Middlesex's threadbare attack to all parts.

The all-rounder's innings was made even more remarkable by what had gone before. Only Eoin Morgan had managed to bat with any sort of fluency on his way to a pugnacious half-century and even then, runs had to be earned.

Morgan played with all the swagger expected from an England limited-overs specialist as he clubbed nine boundaries, including two lusty sixes, to thrust Middlesex to 153 for 5. It had seemed, for so long, that it was going to be enough but Essex had other ideas.

There were given scare though. On debut, 19-year-old Harry Podmore had Jesse Ryder caught in the deep and as others scratched around him, Pettini's innings lost the impetus he had built up during the powerplay. Their much revered batting line-up came and went without a whimper as the decibel levels decreased with every passing wicket.

Phillips, however, combined with ten Doeschate to keep the contest alive and as the equation became more achievable, Middlesex's demons resurfaced. The departure of ten Doeschate in the penultimate over, caught by a diving Morgan at cover, seemed to swing the balance back in Middlesex's favour. But that only gave Phillips the license to free his arms.

Middlesex remain over reliant on Morgan. Not only did he bind their innings together with a pugnacious half-century but his effervescence and leadership in the field sets the standards.

His departure, in the fifteenth over, run-out in avoidable circumstances coming back for an improbable second, saw Middlesex's innings direction. Neil Dexter and John Simpson were assiduous in approach rather than extravagant in the knowledge that there was little ammunition to follow with just one boundary registered in the final five overs.

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Hampshire hold off Howell onslaught

Hampshire 180 for 6 (Adams 69*) beat Gloucestershire 178 for 8 (Howell 50, Smith 3-26) by two runs
Scorecard

Jimmy Adams may have slipped a notch or two down the list of likely T20 match-winners, such is the strength, and depth, of Hampshire's batting department these days. And not too many would nominate Will Smith's darting off-breaks as a key weapon. Between them, though, these two kept one of this competition's top-rated teams on track for quarter-final qualification.

But, boy, was it tight in the end. Or, rather, old boy, wasn't it close. Benny Howell, who left Hampshire in 2011 in search of better opportunities, went agonisingly close to upsetting his former employers.

Gloucestershire, having been given a wonderful start by Alex Gidman and Michael Klinger, slipped away horribly in mid-innings once Smith had removed both openers in the space of three deliveries. And they seemed to have no chance at all - until Howell started swinging with stunning effect.

From nowhere, almost, the visitors wanted 28 runs off 12 balls - and they might have made it, too, but for a disciplined penultimate over from Chris Wood followed by Howell's last gasp run-out when seven were needed from two deliveries.

Gloucestershire's would-be hero trudged off with 50, from just 22 balls, to his name, and the game was finally up for the underdogs. But the roar that greeted Hampshire's victory had more than a tinge of relief about it.

It was all a bit of a lesson for the hosts, really. With so much batting firepower at their disposal they really should have made 200 after reaching 121 for 3 from 12 overs. But both James Vince and Glenn Maxwell, having looked a million dollars apiece while moving into the 30s, had gone by then - and it was left to Adams to make sure a defendable if not impregnable total was reached on a good pitch.

Although Adams continues to captain the side in longer forms of the game, he gave up the T20 leadership a couple of years ago. He remains a guiding light, however, and without ever appearing to be rushed he scored his unbeaten 69 at a good lick (off 46 balls) while lifting a couple of sixes on top of five fours.

Hampshire probably realised they had failed to slam the door in Gloucestershire's face. But if they were in any doubt then the way Gidman and Klinger raced to 61 would have shattered any illusions.

Usually, when the faster bowlers have been found waning it is left-arm spinner Danny Briggs who does the business. This time, though, the new father - his first son, Stanley, was born last weekend - was reasonably tight without being particularly penetrative. Enter Smith.

The former Durham player has been a handy bowler for his new county so far this campaign. Tonight he really came up trumps, removing both batsmen in quick succession and later returning to send back Chris Dent. That gave Smith competition best figures of 3 for 26 - and a place on Hampshire's centre stage alongside Adams.

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