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Completely contrasting finishes to the two teams’ innings have seen Sussexclaim a morale-boosting 26 run win (under the Duckworth/Lewis method) overLancashire in a tense National League match between the sides at Hove today.For large periods of this match, the hosts appeared to be in trouble. Uponwinning the toss, they almost immediately found themselves in difficulty;Ian Austin (1/32), Andy Flintoff (1/37) and Glen Chapple (2/62) allstriking quickly to reduce the score to 64/4. It was only, in fact, when aswashbuckling Will House (80*) and Dutchman Bastiaan Zuiderent (68), inonly his second appearance for Sussex’s first team this season, joined toadd a breathtaking 141 runs for the fifth wicket that there came arestoration.Even then, though, there was no guarantee that Sussex’s final tally of213/6 would prove large enough on what looked a good batting wicket. Thissuspicion received reinforcement when Andy Flintoff (41) and NeilFairbrother (41) took charge of the early stages of Lancashire’s reply,lifting the score to 92/2 in quick time. Two errant shots in quicksuccession temporarily changed the balance, however, and Sussex’s bowlerswere intermittently able to drop on to a more nagging line and length astheir opponents chased a revised target of 219 to win from 41 overs. Thematch again appeared headed in the visitors’ favour as Graham Lloyd (28)and Warren Hegg (20) lifted the score to 142/4 with a flurry of singlesbut, once Robin Martin-Jenkins (2/37) summoned the ability to find a waythrough Hegg’s gate, things began to unravel. Martin-Jenkins and BillyTaylor (2/30) quickly accounted for a further three victims before JamesKirtley (4/45) – having earlier claimed two at the start of the innings -returned to capture another two wickets and put the finishing touches on acollapse which had, by then, seen Lancashire surrender its final sixwickets for the addition of a miserable fifty runs.The loss, one it could ill afford, leaves Lancashire anchored to the footof the Division One table. Sussex, although still fighting its own battleto avoid relegation, has meanwhile gained for itself some much neededbreathing space ahead of both Kent and Lancashire in the same zone.

West Ham United manager David Moyes has dropped a worrying injury claim about Michail Antonio and Aaron Cresswell ahead of the Irons’ Europa League clash against Sevilla on Thursday.

The Lowdown: West Ham struck by injuries

The Hammers gained a valuable three points in their Premier League top-four pursuit as goals from Andriy Yarmolenko and Pablo Fornals ensured a 2-1 win over Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa on Sunday.

This result put West Ham within two points of Manchester United, who were fourth at the time. However, the picture was later changed by Arsenal, who eased to a 2-0 victory over Leicester, pushing themselves back into the Champions League places.

Unfortunately for the Irons, injuries to Antonio and Cresswell forced both players off before the hour mark, adding to Moyes’ injury concerns as his side prepare for their European clash against Sevilla.

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The Latest: Moyes’ injury update…

In his post-match press conference, Moyes was hesitant to answer any injury questions surrounding Antonio and Cresswell, wary of giving Sevilla any team information ahead of Thursday.

In reference to the duo, he claimed (as quoted by football.london): “I don’t really know yet but if I did I would not tell you because I am not going to let Sevilla know any idea whether they’re going to be fit or not.”

The Verdict: Huge blow if both are injured

Aside from Moyes’ cryptic response, if the injury news isn’t good and the two players are out for Thursday’s clash, it will come as a huge blow for the Hammers, who were already without Jarrod Bowen in the first leg.

Antonio is West Ham’s second-leading scorer this season with 10 goals, which speaks volumes for his attacking threat, while both players feature in the top four for the squad in terms of key passes per match, so their absences would deprive the Irons of considerable creativity on a night when they must win to remain in the Europa League.

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However, if the manager does know of the results and is just choosing to play dumb ahead of Sevilla, this may be a clever strategy from the 58-year-old as he seeks to keep his opponents guessing.

Therefore, let’s hope that it is the latter rather than the former, although it doesn’t look too positive as of yet, with Cresswell already reportedly a doubt for Thursday night.

In other news: Spanish source shares transfer update on this reported West Ham target

	Clive Radley, still playing in his sixties, has become an MBE © Martin Williamson

Two stalwarts of the English game have been honoured in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list. Clive Radley and Rachael Heyhoe-Flint have been rewarded for their services to cricket both on and off the pitch. Radley earns the MBE while Heyhoe-Flint gets an upgrade to OBE after being awarded the MBE 25 years ago.Radley, 63, played for Middlesex, Auckland and England during a first-class career spanning three decades from the mid-1960s. He finally made his Test debut in New Zealand in 1977-78 aged almost 34, and played eight Tests. But it is off the pitch where he has excelled as coach and he is now head coach with the MCC.Heyhoe-Flint’s contributions to the game are manifold. As an England captain with a shrewd business brain she raised the profile of the sport massively, quick to spot a media opportunity, and later a commentator.She even thought of the first World Cup – the women played theirs two years before the men – when, along with Sir Jack Hayward, they cooked up the idea for the women, who played their first tournament two years before the men. She took England to that title in 1973, the crowning glory of her captaincy which, from 1966, saw her unbeaten in six series.She became an MBE in 1972, and was a shoo-in as one of the first ten female members of the MCC in 1999 and in 2004 she became the first woman elected to the full committee, aged 64. She also represented England at hockey, playing in goal, and was for many years a director of Wolverhampton Wanderers.”I am naturally thrilled to bits,” Heyhoe-Flint told Cricinfo, “particularly that it has been awarded for services to cricket.”My MBE was for services to women’s cricket – so it is really pleasing that I have received the recognition for my deep involvement with the MCC and the Lady Taverners charity -one of the fund raising arms of the Lord’s Taverners – the official charity for recreational cricket.”Nowadays the Lady Taverners are sponsors of junior women’s cricket indoor and outdoor, club and county events for Under-13s and Under-15s, and also cricket events for youngsters with disabilities.

ScorecardNeil McCallum’s excellent 109, his maiden first-class hundred, helped Scotland take a useful 25-run first-innings lead on the third day of their Intercontinental Cup match against UAE at Sharjah. The home side batted aggressively in response, however, and go into the fourth day leading by 132 runs.McCallum and Gavin Hamilton’s steady fourth-wicket partnership of 83 ended when Hamilton edged Ali Asad behind. And though Dougie Brown (30) and Craig Wright (31) helped form useful stands, the impetus was with McCallum. He didn’t disappoint, scampering well-placed singles and crashing three fours and a six in his 76-ball 109. He fell to Ahmed Nadeem, who ended with impressive figures of 5 for 84, but Scotland took a narrow lead.UAE soon put the scores level, though, with Mohammad Iqbal smashing a quickfire 43 from 36 balls, putting on 63 with his captain, Arshad Ali, who ended the day unbeaten on 61. Gayan Silva, the wicketkeeper, again batted with care in his second half-century of the match and Scotland will need early wickets tomorrow morning if they are to force a victory.

Steve Waugh, from whom Ricky Ponting took the baton of captain, has stated that Ricky Ponting will become an all-time great © Getty Images

Steve Waugh, the former Australian captain, has declared that Ricky Ponting is the batsman most likely to go past Brian Lara’s record of most Test runs.Ponting, with 1544 runs, ended the calendar year at the top of the International Cricket Council’s Test player rankings, and led his team to consecutive Test wins over a World XI and West Indies, before hitting a first-day hundred in Australia’s Boxing Day triumph over South Africa.However, when it comes to discussing Australia’s most prolific run-scorers, Ponting has rarely been mentioned alongside Allan Border and Waugh. Waugh has changed this, though, stating his thoughts on Ponting ahead of his 100th Test at the SCG tomorrow. “You can never know for sure how long you’re going to play for. Age and fitness come into it as well as form. There are a lot of variables but it’s hard to see him slowing down for a while yet,” Waugh said in . “There’s still a long way to go for him, but the way he’s going at the moment, if you were going to pick someone to take that record, I’d say it would have to be Ricky.”Ponting, with 7,990 Test runs, is still a long way behind Lara’s record of 11, 204. However, Lara is expected to retire after the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean, and Ponting has time on his side.Ponting’s most damning moment as captain and cricketer came when Australia lost the Ashes after 18 years to England last summer, but Waugh, who never lost an Ashes series as captain, maintained that such losses were a chapter of a cricketer’s journey. “That’s part of the job,” he said. “It just comes with the territory. When it’s all going well, there’s credit coming your way but when things are going badly, you start getting a lot of scrutiny,”Waugh faced much criticism after his first series as captain resulted in a disappointing 2-2 draw with West Indies, followed by a nightmare start to the 1999 World Cup. Ponting, on the other hand, was hailed as a masterful captain when he guided Australia to victory at the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, and his first three Tests as captain resulted in a 3-0 clean sweep in Sri Lanka.The loss of the Ashes changed all that, with Ponting facing heightened animosity from the Australian press for a failure to marshall his men in the face of adversity. “You can’t get away from that. You just have to take the good with the bad,” Waugh said. “They’ve come back after the Ashes and done well. As a captain you just have to have confidence in your ability, which I think Ricky has.”Tomorrow’s third and final Test against South Africa will be Ponting’s 11th at the SCG, a venue at which he has made 918 runs at 70.61, including his maiden hundred as Test captain – a fine 207 against Pakistan last summer. “He’s easily in the top two or three Test batsmen in the world, but what he’s doing is dominating in both forms of the game,” Waugh said. “No one else is really doing that, so you’d have to say he’s the most valuable batsman going around at the moment.”

Viv Richards isn’t convinced by Twenty20 cricket yet© Getty Images

Sir Vivian Richards, the former West Indian batting great, has warned the cricket world against dumping 50-over matches for Twenty20 games. His comments come in the wake of several players and officials licking their lips at the prospect of a Twenty20 World Cup.”I hope it doesn’t take the place of 50-overs-a-side cricket,” Richards is quoted as saying by newspaper. “Twenty20 is just in its baby stages. It shouldn’t take away from one-day cricket. That should always remain.” Richards, who is a former West Indian coach and selector, was one of the most destructive batsmen of all time, and enjoyed considerable success in limited-overs cricket in addition to Tests.Recently Twenty20 cricket was introduced, albeit belatedly, to Australian audiences, and met with much success. An unofficial match between Western Australia and Victoria was played to a packed house, and the game between Australia A and Pakistan attracted much interest.”The thing that amazes me is how rapid it is,” Richards said. “If we’re all cricket lovers, it means that we are winning in some capacity because it’s an addition to the game that people appear to be embracing.”

Kepler Wessels: guilty? © Getty

The United Cricket Board of South Africa has recommended that Kepler Wessels, the former Test captain who’s now Eastern Province’s coach, be suspended for allegedly making racist remarks earlier this year. Wessels skippered South Africa on their return from international exile, and has been a strident critic of certain UCBSA policies in recent times.In a statement, the UCBSA said, “The board has instructed Eastern Province to suspend the coach of the EP Jumbos Kepler Wessels on full pay pending the outcome of a disciplinary hearing which will be held shortly regarding allegations of racist remarks allegedly made by Wessels.”Wessels, who also represented Australia during his playing days, denied any wrongdoing. Speaking to Reuters, he said: “I demand the investigation take place as soon as possible. The matter is in the hands of my legal advisers and we will fight it all the way. I am looking forward to the outcome.”Gerald de Kock, the UCBSA spokesman, said the case would come up for hearing in the next few days. No details were available about the alleged incident.

With its best efforts at emulating Lazarus receiving another emphatic expression in the process, Tasmania has today swept to an innings and 76 run crushing of Western Australia here at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart.Two weeks ago, the Tigers looked down and out.But, after surging to their second successive innings win in a bare 29 minutes on the third day of this match, they had done the near-unthinkable and vaulted to second spot on the Pura Cup table. Their form – post the axing of three of the most experienced players in the state’s history – has suddenly become as warm as the weather in Hobart in recent days.”I think we’ve played better than our opposition in both games; we’ve fought harder with the bat in both games; and we’ve bowled better in both games,” said a delighted Tasmanian captain Jamie Cox of his side’s effort in backing a thumping win over competition pacesetter Queensland with an equally commanding success over the previously second-placed Western Australians.The Tasmanians had started the day needing three wickets to complete their win. On recent precedent – they had taken 17 wickets in a day to define the shape of this match yesterday, and 20 in the space of six hours last weekend – it didn’t look an exacting assignment.So it proved.Matthew Nicholson (13), who has saved games against Tasmania previously in his career, cut powerfully at a David Saker (3/21) delivery in just the second over of the day but hammered a sharp catch to Scott Kremerskothen at point.Jo Angel (27), who had resisted with a degree of defiance that put his teammates to shame, had his stumps powerfully disturbed as he tried to work a Shane Watson (4/35) delivery to leg shortly after.And Watson, characteristically breathing fire at the bowling crease, then ended the match symbolically as a swift ball of full length ripped out the off stump of Brad Oldroyd (7).With Western Australia thus dismissed for 134 – four runs short even of surpassing its paltry first innings total – Watson’s teammates proceeded to jubilantly wrap themselves around him like a human ball of velcro.Western Australian captain Justin Langer later apportioned some of the blame for his state’s first-ever outright defeat at Bellerive to a testing pitch. Though he also conceded that the Warriors had been thoroughly outwitted and outplayed.”It was a disappointing performance but I think a lot of it had to do with the surface we were playing on. The wicket was very up and down and it was two-paced,” said Langer after the game.”To their credit, though, they performed very well. They played very very good cricket.”They took a courageous move in leaving out some of their senior players and you can feel an energy back in Tasmanian cricket. They’re young, they’re enthusiastic. There’s real energy there and they’re all going in the same direction.”The Warriors’ mood wasn’t helped by Simon Katich’s appearance before Code of Conduct Commissioner Bruce Neill following an incident late yesterday. Upon his dismissal in the Western Australian second innings, Katich had appeared to attempt to elbow Saker – as the Tasmanian paceman rushed past him to join a behind-the-wicket celebration.The charge was ultimately dismissed but his team’s woes still continued to mount.Bellerive, traditionally a tranquil setting, has suddenly become a nightmare venue for visiting sides – with their inability to read a changing micro-climate at the ground being further tested by Tasmania’s new-found spirit and determination.The oval, which currently blends a construction site at the northern end with an impressive new grandstand at the other, is no longer breached by the southerly breezes that sweep off the nearby Derwent River. Under the more humid conditions that now prevail, the wicket square seems to have become blessed by a more consistent level of moisture.Though, that said, it’s the development of a high-class pace bowling quartet that seems the most important factor in Tasmania’s resurgence.Man of the match Damien Wright, who supplemented an invaluable innings of 63 with four wickets at negligible cost, has translated impeccable limited-overs form to first-class level. Shane Jurgensen, though still underrated, is as hard-working and consistent as any player in the side. Saker is producing his best and most consistent bowling for his adopted state. And the aggressive Watson, a key in the revival, has ensured that the prospect of playing Tasmania has become one that no state will relish.Scott Mason and Shannon Tubb have also added a sense of zest and zeal in the field that had previously been missing.The Tasmanians’ season was painfully slow to begin – and they were on the bottom rung of both domestic competition ladders as few as ten days ago. But they are anew, full of excitement and full of enthusiastic innocence. Almost like a side setting out on a great adventure.Only recently, they were struggling to detect a way of approaching games with any confidence at all. Now in with every chance of playing in just the third first-class final in the state’s history, they can’t wait for the next one.Their revival is fast becoming the story of all stories this season.

Graham Rose and Steffan Jones of Somerset humbled Hampshire’s batting intheir championship match at Taunton. With both bowlers taking four wickets thevisitors tumbled from 62-1 to 142 all out. Somerset were already batting when the sun shone at last in mid-afternoon and went on to score 208-4 by the close (66 runs ahead).Opener Giles White (44), himself formerly with the county, alone defiedSomerset with some support from Will Kendall (29). Swing bowling, effecting five successful l.b.w decisions, was more to blame for the poor batting than the state of the pitch. Shane Warne (29) hit out to raise the total from 104-7 at lunch, but it was not enough.Conditions improved almost immediately afterwards – but by then it was too late for Hampshire. Mark Lathwell, who had been out for the whole of last summer through injury, and Jamie Cox both were out to John Stephenson at 58. It was the 90 runs fourth-wicket stand between Keith Parsons (46) and Piran Holloway (53 n.o.) which put Somerset on top.

Antonio Conte’s Tottenham Hotspur side return to Premier League action this evening, with Spurs welcoming Frank Lampard’s Everton to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the 20:00 kick-off.

And, with the Italian’s outfit having crashed out of the FA Cup via a 1-0 AET defeat to Middlesbrough last Tuesday, as well as having lost three of their last five outings in the top flight, the 52-year-old will undoubtedly be hoping for a much-improved performance this time out against the Toffees.

However, with Oliver Skipp remaining sidelined due to injury, Conte will once again have to make do without the highly-rated 21-year-old in the middle of the park – something that will have come as a huge blow to the former Inter Milan manager.

Having said that, the impact of the young midfielder’s continued absence will certainly be eased by the impending return of Rodrigo Bentancur, who had sat out Tottenham’s last two fixtures as a result of an ankle injury.

Conte must unleash Bentancur

Over his four Premier League appearances since making his £21.5m move to North London in the January transfer window, the 24-year-old central midfielder has been in impressive form for Spurs, averaging 53.8 touches of the ball, completing 34.5 passes, making 0.8 interceptions, two tackles, 0.5 key passes and winning 4.8 duels per game.

These returns have seen the player who James Horncastle labelled “blue-collar” average a very respectable SofaScore match rating of 6.88, ranking him as Tottenham’s joint 12th-best performer in the top flight of English football.

However, it was undoubtedly in the 2-0 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers in which – despite the result – the £41m-rated Uruguay international proved just how important a part of the Spurs side he could go on to become under Conte, with the 24-year-old enjoying 90 touches of the ball, completing 59 passes – two of which were key – winning nine duels, making one interception, winning three tackles and completing two dribbles over his 90 minutes on the pitch.

These returns saw the “aggressive” – in the words of Smarter Scout – midfielder earn a highly impressive SofaScore match rating of 7.5, ranking him Tottenham’s third-best player on the day.

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As such, a repeat of this performance against Everton tonight would undoubtedly go a long way to helping Conte’s side secure a much-needed three points, while the presence of the tough-tackling Uruguayan would also petrify the Toffees’ own midfield options – one of whom could well be Tottenham’s former attacking sensation, Dele Alli.

In other news: AC can axe Paratici’s “terrible” £62k-p/w THFC dud with 19 y/o dubbed “one of the best”