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Lasith Malinga, the Sri Lankan fast bowler, has joined South African domestic side Highveld Lions as their overseas player for the Pro20 competition. Malinga, 26, will leave for South Africa in time to participate in the Lions’ first match against the Cape Cobras on February 5 in Cape Town.”We are delighted to confirm that franchise coach Dave Nosworthy has successfully reached an agreement with Lasith Malinga to play in our Pro20 for the coming season,” said Alan Kourie, the chief executive of the Lions. “We are thrilled to have someone of Lasith’s calibre joining us for what will be a very important season.”Malinga was the leading wicket-taker among non-Indian players in the recent IPL, collecting 18 wickets at 17.33, and his fast, slinging style will presumably prove a handful for South African domestic batsmen. “I am really looking forward to playing for the Highveld Lions,” he said. “I’m very grateful for the opportunity given to me and I hope that I can repay that faith by helping the Lions win the tournament. Playing cricket in South Africa is always a challenge and I’m hopeful the experience will make me a better cricketer.”Nosworthy said the side had been looking for a world-class strike bowler and that Malinga ticked all the right boxes. “He is an outstanding bowler and his performances for the Mumbai Indians and Sri Lanka over the past year show just how valuable he is in the Twenty20 format.”

Auckland are keen to get Australian allrounder Andrew Symonds on board for the upcoming State Twenty20 competition. With an eye on qualification for the lucrative Champions Twenty20 League, next year, Auckland believe that signing on Symonds for even one game will help boost crowd numbers as well.Symonds will not be available for the entire competition because he is due to turn out for Queensland in the Twenty20 Big Bash in Australia. That competition, however, is only five rounds, furthering the possibility of him playing for Auckland towards the end of January.”We are looking at some options about whether we could get a cameo from Andrew Symonds,” Auckland chief executive Andrew Eade told the . “That’s still on the table. One of the options we are looking at is if even we brought someone out for the whole season we would explain to them that, for one game maybe, we would play someone like Symonds.”We want to make Twenty20 exciting and we want to get crowds along. It also opens up possibilities with businesses where previously we didn’t have that much to offer. Now we can attract decent crowds and sponsors might want to be involved in that. I have no doubt if we had Symonds playing for us in one game we would get 1000 more people coming along.”Each of the six provinces is allowed one overseas import for the month-long competition which kicks off in January. While Northern Districts have managed to rope in Sri Lankan batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan, Wellington have secured the services of England batsman Owais Shah. Otago, the defending champions, are also expected to lure Dimitri Mascarenhas back for another season.Auckland are also in talks with a current international to play the entire season but Eade did not divulge who their main target was. The pool of players is understood to be limited largely to Sri Lanka, West Indies, Bangladesh and some from England because of internationals being played at the same time.The New Zealand representation in the side is also expected to be strong with the New Zealand team not scheduled to play at that time. Auckland will be able to call on the likes of Martin Guptill, Kyle Mills, Scott Styris, Daryl Tuffey, Chris Martin, Gareth Hopkins and Reece Young and will also have Zimbabwean Colin de Grandhomme, who is seeking New Zealand residency in the hope of playing for the national side.This is not the first time that Symonds, 34, has been a star attraction. South African Twenty20 franchise, Highveld Lions, had declared their interest in signing Symonds had he opted to forego his international ambitions for a career as a freelance 20-over specialist.The two-time World Cup winner though, has a chequered past behind him. In June, he was sent home from the World Twenty20, his third expulsion in the space of a year. His central contract was then withdrawn but he said he would chase marquee contracts around the world.He also famously called the New Zealand wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum “a lump of s…” in January, when McCullum was brought in by the New South Wales Blues to play in the KFC Twenty20 final against Victoria, despite McCullum’s not having played at all for NSW previously.

State Twenty20 champions Otago Volts will be playing the Deccan Chargers, the IPL winners, and Somerset, the Twenty20 Cup runners-up from England as part of their preparations for the inaugural Champions League Twenty20, beginning in India next month.The match against Deccan will be a day-night affair at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, on October 6, four days prior to the Volts’ opening match of the main tournament, against Cape Cobras, the South African domestic Twenty20 champions, at the same venue.”To have such high quality opposition in our warm up matches will certainly give us a good indication of where we sit and areas for improvement leading into the tournament,” Otago coach Mike Hesson told the . “It will be a special occasion to not only test ourselves against the winners of the IPL but for our young players to rub shoulders with a number of the greats of the game.”Otago are also scheduled to play warm-up matches in Australia against the Queensland Academy and South Australia before leaving for India on October 2.

Division One

Michael Di Venuto scored a career-best 254 not out to lead Durham to 473 for 4 before they declared against Sussex at Chester-le-Street. The hosts, who were on 264 for 2 overnight, lost Gordon Muchall soon after the start, which was delayed by rain to 12.20 pm, but Di Venuto and Dale Benkenstein added 173 for the fourth wicket to put Durham in command. Di Venuto scored Durham’s second-best first-class score and the only chance he had during his innings was on 180 when Ollie Rayner dropped a tough catch at first slip .An interruption for bad light forced Durham to declare in order to have as much time as possible attacking the Sussex batsmen. Michael Yardy led Sussex’s steady reply, remaining unbeaten on 54, but the visitors lost Chris Nash, lbw to Callum Thorp, for 19. Ed Joyce played fluently but had to retire hurt on 32 after getting hit on the elbow by Steve Harmison. Sussex ended the day on 119 for 1.Somerset’s bowlers struck timely blows on a rain-shortened day at Taunton to reduce Nottinghamshire to 77 for 3 at stumps. Andy Caddick had Matthew Wood caught by Arul Suppiah and had Paul Franks caught behind to reduce the visitors to 37 for 2. Suppiah took another catch off the bowling of Charl Willoughby to nip a budding partnership by dismissing Adam Voges for 10. Earlier in the day, Somerset had declared on 401 for 8 after resuming on the second morning at 316 for 5. Ryan Sidebottom competed his five-wicket haul while Peter Trego was unbeaten on 66.There was no play on the second day between Worcestershire and Warwickshire at New Road because of rain.Click here for John Ward’s report from the second day between Lancashire and Yorkshire at Old Trafford

Division Two

Graham Wagg and Tim Groenewald took all seven Kent wickets to fall on the second day Canterbury, reducing them to 249 for 8, to give Derbyshire a chance of securing a first-innings lead. Wagg, who picked up 5 for 83, took his first three wickets with medium pace before turning to left-arm spin for his last two scalps. Groenewald took the other two, finishing with 3 for 67. Kent were struggling at 135 for 6, after Justin Kemp walked across his stumps and was bowled around his legs by Wagg, when James Tredwell and Ryan McLaren added 58 for the seventh wicket. It was then that Wagg decided to resort to spin and trapped McLaren leg before for 29. Wayne Parnell was caught at mid-off soon after but Tredwell dug in and remained unbeaten on 67, with Kent still trailing Derbyshire by 54.A strong performance from the Middlesex top order has given their team the advantage against Northamptonshire at Lord’s. After taking the final Northamptonshire wicket – David Lucas lbw to Tim Murtagh – for no addition to the overnight score of 288, Middlesex’s openers, Sam Robson and Nick Compton, added 167 for the first wicket. It was Middlesex’s highest opening partnership of the season. Robson made 75 and Compton a more aggressive 82 off 94 (he had reached his fifty off only 46) balls to put his team in control. However, their dismissals came in a short span of time and though Eoin Morgan held one end up with 71, the Northamptonshire bowlers chipped away at the other, reducing the hosts to 310 for 6 before rain stopped play. Middlesex will hope that their lower-batsmen stick around long enough to help build a sizeable lead.James Taylor became the first teenager to score a double-century for Leicestershire and led his team into a commanding position against Surrey by the end of the second day at The Oval. Taylor, who resumed this morning on 52, scored an unbeaten 207 while Tom New made 53 and Jacques du Toit, who was playing his first Championship game of the season, cracked 100 off only 123 balls. Leicestershire added 303 runs for the loss of only one wicket, with Taylor and du Toit adding 230 in only 42 overs, before declaring on 593 for 5, giving their bowlers a little more than two days to dismiss Surrey twice. Rain , however, ensured that Surrey did not have to bat today.The second day’s play between Gloucestershire and Glamorgan in Bristol was severely truncated by rain. Gloucestershire were comfortably placed at 337 for 5 at the end of the first day but Glamorgan’s bowlers fought back on the second, limiting the hosts to 400 for 9 before they declared. Glamorgan’s openers, Gareth Rees and Warren Bragg, added 35 runs before play ended.

Ian Bell will resume his international career after being confirmed as Kevin Pietersen’s replacement for the third Test against Australia. He was named in a 13-man squad for Edgbaston that also included Steve Harmison and Monty Panesar to provide bowling options, but England are hopeful that Andrew Flintoff will be fit.After losing Pietersen for the rest of the series it is crucial to England’s cause that they retain Flintoff for the remaining three Tests. The allrounder sent down a 10-over spell on the final day at Lord’s as England wrapped up victory by 115 runs and despite feeling discomfort in his knee is desperate to finish his swansong series.”Andrew’s performance at Lord’s was truly memorable and we are hopeful he can take his place in the side for the third Test as he continues to manage his knee injury,” national selector Geoff Miller said. “Andrew and the medical staff are quite bullish about his prospects of playing but we’ll continue to monitor his progress in the days leading up to Thursday.”Bell, who averages 25 in ten Tests against Australia, has been the spare batsman in the previous Tests and Andy Flower confirmed after the Lord’s victory that he was next in line for a berth. Now that Pietersen has been ruled out for the series he will return to the side for the first time since being dropped following England’s defeat against West Indies, at Sabina Park, in February.He paid the price for an unconvincing run at No. 3 and a particularly limp shot in the second innings collapse in Jamaica. At the start of the summer he was told to show “more hunger” for a recall and has subsequently made 647 runs in the Championship at 64.70, although his haul was dented by a double failure in the recent match against Hampshire where he made 7 and 0.The selectors may have been tempted to include another batting option in the party, but Bell is unchallenged on his return. “We have obviously had to make a change to the side following Kevin Pietersen’s unavailability and we wish Kevin the best with his rehabilitation and look forward to his return to the England team in due course,” Miller said. “Kevin’s injury has presented an opportunity for Ian Bell who we know is a top-class batsmen with an excellent international record for England”Although we haven’t named any extra batting cover in the squad we have several options should the need arise to call in another batsmen.”There is still the question of where Bell will bat, but the least disruption would come with a straight swap for Pietersen at No.4. The other options are to return at first drop and push the struggling Ravi Bopara down the order or promote Paul Collingwood and put Bell at No. 5.”Ian will be looking to make the most of his return to the side during an Ashes series and while we have a strong idea of where he will bat we won’t be disclosing the final line-up of the side until the toss on Thursday,” Miller added.However, Bell’s position is partly eased due to the lack of outstanding candidates elsewhere. If further injuries were to deplete the batting order, Robert Key, Joe Denly, Stephen Moore and Owais Shah would be the likely names for a call-up. Key has recently returned to form with a career-best 270, Denly and Moore impressed for England Lions against the Australians and Shah made a hundred for Middlesex last week.Although the attack performed impressively at Lord’s changes could still be made. Graham Onions is probably the most vulnerable, but Stuart Broad’s lack of wickets is a growing issue.Steve Rouse, the Edgbaston groundsman, described the pitch has being like “jelly” earlier in the week, and said it would be a challenge to bring it up to standard for the Test after recent poor weather. A slow, low surface would decrease the chances of a recall for Harmison and it is unlikely England will return to a two-spinner attack.Squad Andrew Strauss (capt), Alastair Cook, Ravi Bopara, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Matt Prior (wk), Andrew Flintoff, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Graham Onions, Steve Harmison, Monty Panesar

Worcestershire are awaiting the results of scans on Simon Jones to find out if he is likely to be able to play again in the near future.Jones, who has been dogged by injury since he was forced to miss the final Test of the 2005 Ashes series, underwent surgery on his knee in April and at the time it was expected he would be able to play the second half of the summer. A comeback in the second team had tentatively been set for June 30, but his knee is still causing concern and so the county have sent him for another scan.”We’ll know more in the week,” Steve Rhodes, the county’s director of cricket, told the Press Association. “We’re waiting for some stuff from the surgeon. We’ve got the results of scans and tests and all sorts of stuff to come and we’ll get the surgeon to tell us what’s going on. Then we’ll know exactly what the plan of attack will be.”

Andrew Strauss has admitted that the injuries to Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen are not ideal, but he isn’t fretting about their availability for the Ashes.Pietersen was ruled out of the one-day series against West Indies with a minor Achilles injury, while Flintoff is unlikely to be fit for the ICC World Twenty20 which starts next month as he recovers from knee surgery.Pietersen’s injury flared up during the second Test against West Indies, at Chester-le-Street, but with both him and Flintoff having played in the IPL it raises further questions about how wise it was to let them both participate with such a packed summer of cricket. Flintoff was forced home mid-way through his stint with the Chennai Super Kings, while Pietersen first felt his Achilles problem at the end of the West Indies tour.”It’s not an ideal situation, but any time you get injuries is not an ideal situation,” Strauss said. “It’s so hard to second guess whether Fred [Flintoff] would have been injured anyway, you just don’t know.”Thankfully there is still plenty of time before the Ashes and I think we fully expect KP to be ready in 10 days or so – there’s no need to panic just yet injury-wise, it’s something we can manage.””I don’t think the fact they are not playing right now is a cause for concern. The guys who came in and played in the two-match series played well and that’s encouraging rather than something to be concerned about.”The absence of the two key players opens the door for the selectors to assess some of the fringe players with Eoin Morgan likely to make his England debut at Bristol after playing 23 ODIs for Ireland. Morgan is also part of the ICC World Twenty20 squad, but he will be led by a different captain with Andrew Strauss replaced by Paul Collingwood. Strauss, though, is hoping to build on England’s 3-2 series win in West Indies.”We gained some momentum in one-day cricket in the West Indies,” Strauss said. “We were a little bit Jekyll and Hyde, up and down, but we came through and won the series and we need two more matches to develop something for the one-day squad.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were outIreland’s batsmen had a tough time against India•Getty Images

India’s bowlers were clinical in their demolition of the Ireland batting, the batsmen were equally solid in chasing down the moderate total, thus consigning Ireland to their first defeat in Twenty20 internationals. Zaheer Khan ran through the top order full of left-hand batsmen, Pragyan Ojha took a first-ball wicket in his second Twenty20 international too, and the new opening combination of Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma got India off to another solid start.Zaheer, who made his comeback from his shoulder game only in the last game, was fast and accurate today, getting the ball to shape away from the left-hand batsmen. He didn’t swing it as much as his opening partner Irfan Pathan did, but his pace and accuracy did the trick. Jeremy Bray was the first one to go, on the last ball of the second over, playing all around a yorker. Soon Zaheer was on a hat-trick when William Porterfield chased the first ball of the fourth. Andre Botha survived the hat-trick, but guided one to slip in the same over.Something strange happens when the batsmen sight Ojha. On Ojha’s debut, Shakib Al Hasan tried to pull a delivery too full for the shot and paid the price. Today Kevin O’Brien, Ireland’s saviour against Bangladesh, walked across and went to pull, and dragged it from way outside off onto his leg stump. There must be something.Just into the seventh over, Ireland were four down for 28, with the small matter of Harbhajan Singh’s topspinners and Ishant Sharma’s sharp seam movement to negotiate. Gary Wilson got a doosra in Harbhajan’s second over, which took the off stump, and from 48 for 5 it seemed they could only go up.John Mooney and Andrew White went about rebuilding sensibly, but it was extremely difficult for them to accelerate even though they managed to kept their wickets. The 24-run partnership ended when Mooney tried to reverse-sweep Ojha in the 15th over. In a way the stroke gave credit to the tight bowling that didn’t allow runs with orthodox cricket.A 15-run 16th over from Irfan Pathan took Ireland close to 100, but Zaheer came back to remove White for a 25-ball 29. Alex Cusack and Kyle McCallan got two more boundaries as Ireland got 39 in the last three overs to reach 112.In the chase India didn’t set Trent Bridge alight. Although Gambhir cut the first ball of the innings for four, they didn’t look in any undue hurry. Only one six and six fours were hit in the 77-run first-wicket partnership. In the five overs of Powerplay – five because the rain had cut the match short to 18 overs a side – India got to 38 without taking any unwise risks.Rohit looked solid, Gambhir still not at his best. But Ireland never looked like getting a wicket. The highlight of Gambhir’s innings was an inside-out drive off offspinner Regan West in the ninth over. In West’s next, though, Gambhir sliced to short third man and missed out on consecutive half-centuries. Quite inconspicuously Rohit had moved to 35 by then.MS Dhoni walked out at No. 3 again, but Rohit picked up the pace. A trademark slog, which incredibly doesn’t look unwieldy, off Boyd Rankin took him into the 40s. Ireland, to their credit, stuck to their task in the field. Case in point being sliding saves to delay India’s win, and a good diving catch by Bray at deep square leg to send Dhoni back.Rohit got to his fifty with another trademark shot, which is at the other end of the spectrum when in terms of aesthetics. He took a step outside the line of a McCallan offbreak, and nonchalantly drove it over extra cover. With a late-cut single, he took India to the win. It was a fitting final shot, because India had hardly taken any chances on the night.

ScorecardMichael Lumb bounced back from a poor run of form with a crucial 84•Getty Images

If Warwickshire go on to miss out on the championship by a handful of points, they will surely rue the final day of this match. They dropped five chances on the day, none of them especially difficult, to allow the visitors to escape from a position of some peril. On such a slow pitch, such profligacy was fatal.”It’s disappointing,” Warwickshire’s director of cricket, Ashley Giles, admitted. “We got ourselves in a great position to win the game and we can only blame ourselves for not doing so. We just didn’t quite seize the moment.”But I’m very happy with the way we batted and the way our young seamers bowled. Everything I read before the season suggested we are complete underdogs, so to have outplayed Hampshire for most of this game is pleasing. All our cricket was good except our catching.”The result was not purely the product of Warwickshire’s wastefulness, however. Hampshire were also grateful for the input of a trio of half-century makers, not least the substitute Michael Lumb.Lumb had hardly been in the best of form. After a pair in the first championship game of the season, against Worcestershire, he suffered another duck in the second eleven match from which he was withdrawn to replace Marcus North. Here, however, he batted very well. Driving sweetly, he looked quite untroubled until an attempted pull ballooned off the back of the bat and onto the stumps.It was the impact of another substitute that proved crucial, however. Navdeep Poonia, a fielder more in the Monty than Jonty mould, was only on the pitch a few minutes, but managed to drop Nic Pothas at short mid-off before he had scored. The furious reaction of the bowler, Ant Botha, spoke volumes.Botha deserved better. He delivered 39 overs on the final day, probing at the batsmen with some gentle turn and subtle variations and fully deserving his four wickets. Three of the dropped chances came off his bowling.Pothas was reprieved again on 25. This time Jonathan Trott, at first slip, was the guilty man, as he failed to hold onto a low chance in Darren Maddy’s first over. Pothas went on to record another half-century and make the game safe.Hampshire’s approach to much of the day was puzzling. Some of their batting was more suited to an IPL run chase than an attempt to save the game.Jimmy Adams fell to a catch on the mid-wicket boundary while Sean Ervine, who was dropped first ball and then, horribly, on just four by Tony Frost at mid-on, edged an airy drive. John Crawley paid the penalty for only coming half forward to one that turned and took his outside edge, while Michael Carberry’s worthy game ended when he edged an arm ball to slip.When Lumb and Dawson, who missed a full toss, fell in quick succession, Warwickshire scented victory once more. Pothas finally found a good ally in Dominic Cork, however, and the pair played out the final hour without further alarm.Warwickshire took some consolation from extending the longest unbeaten run in the land. They have not lost since Giles took charge at the start of 2007 – a period of 18 championship games – though they have only won twice at Edgbaston since the start of 2006. The addition of Jeetan Patel, who arrives within the next few days, will be most welcome.As an England selector Giles also had encouraging words for Hampshire seamer Chris Tremlett, who produced a blistering spell of fast bowling on the second day.”I wouldn’t have wanted to be facing him,” Giles said. “He has massive potential and it was nasty for a couple of overs. If he was more consistent with those sort of spells, then that’s Test bowling. There aren’t too many fast bowlers out there. But there’s no point just doing it for three or four overs; he needs to string performances together.”

Former England captain Michael Vaughan has backed Andrew Strauss to lead England during the Ashes this year despite the team’s lack of success since he took over from Kevin Pietersen. England lost the five-Test series against West Indies 1-0, were beaten in the Twenty20 international, and are currently level at 1-1 in the five ODI series.”I believe Strauss is the right man and a very, very good leader,” Vaughan told . “I hope he is going to be captain for the Ashes and well beyond that, because he creates stability about the team. We just have to get that winning momentum back to the team. It will just happen, as long as they keep doing the right things.” Vaughan stepped down as England captain during the home series against South Africa in 2008 and has since been out of the Test team.Strauss also found a supporter in Andrew Flintoff, who said the captain was probably England’s “best player”. “Straussy has just scored a hundred in his last one-day international and probably was our best player,” Flintoff said. “Straussy is our captain – he is the one that tosses the coin and leads the team out on the field and long may that continue.”Flintoff also backed Andy Flower, who stepped in as England coach on a temporary basis after Peter Moores was removed following the row with Pietersen. Flintoff said Flower should not be blamed for England’s poor results in the West Indies.”He’s doing a good job. It has been tough, I am sure, for him,” Flintoff said. “When you have had the winter that we have as a side I think everyone has felt it,” Flintoff said. “When you are not winning games there is a certain amount of pressure which is put on us as a team and probably on the coaching staff as well, but Andy is a solid bloke and he wants the best for the team. I think every day he gives his best he can try and improve the side each time.”