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ScorecardJoe Root made sure Nottinghamshire’s bowlers had a tough day in the field•Getty Images

An accomplished maiden half-century from Joe Root put Yorkshire in a strong position on day one against injury-hit County Championship leaders Nottinghamshire.After Adam Lyth and Joe Sayers had both hit 50s in a century stand for the first wicket, former England Under-19 international Root built upon the solid foundations to compile 89 from 186 balls, hitting 13 fours. Root only offered one chance – dropped at gully off Steven Mullaney on 88 – as he put on 107 for the fourth wicket with Jonny Bairstow, who also made an unbeaten 50, as Yorkshire closed on 291 for 3.Nottinghamshore, missing four front-line seamers and with all-rounders Andre Adams and Paul Franks requiring injections to be fit for the match, face an uphill struggle to maintain their 100% start to the season.The hosts were forced to draft in former Somerset fast bowler Ben Phillips for Charlie Shreck after the seamer was ruled out overnight with a knee problem. Phillips had only recently recovered himself from an ankle injury, and the veteran was left to toil away as Yorkshire batted first on a glorious sunny day.Lyth and Sayers were both untroubled in the opening session and although the Notts attack bowled with discipline, they did not receive the usual assistance from the Trent Bridge wicket. The lunch interval prompted a change in fortune as both openers were dismissed in the space of three balls at the start of the afternoon, Sayers edging Luke Fletcher to first slip for 50 off 122 balls with six fours.Lyth then got in a tangle playing a rising delivery from Franks, spooning his attempted pull shot to mid-on for 57 in an 103-ball innings featuring 10 fours. And although Andrew Gale was brilliantly caught 20 overs later by Adam Voges, running around from slip in anticipation of a sweep off the spin of Samit Patel, the remainder of the day firmly belonged to Yorkshire.Root, playing only his sixth first-class match, batted with assurance from the off, hitting boundaries off front and back foot, while Bairstow was similarly confident in hitting seven fours and one straight six off Patel.Nottinghamshire had an opportunity to deny Root his maiden hundred late in the day when he pushed at a good length ball from Mullaney but the thick edge was dropped by Neil Edwards at gully, leaving Yorkshire perfectly placed to push on for a match-winning total.

Jimmy Kamande, the Kenya captain, has said his team has put the demoralising defeat to Canada behind it and is looking forward to the challenge of facing world champions Australia.”It’s been tough for us, losing against Canada was tough for the whole team since we thought that was our best chance of winning a game in the tournament,” Kamande said a day ahead of the Australia encounter, “but now Canada is history, we have got to move forward, Australia’s coming up and that’s what we are concentrating on.”Kamande said the team enjoyed pitting itself against the big sides, and said it held out ‘hope’ in the clash against Australia. “Everybody who hasn’t played against Australia thinks this is a very good opportunity because you never know in life you may never get to play against Australia,” he said. “So everybody is looking forward to it, the guys are up for it, and as long as the guys givn 110%, I’ll be happy. You never know, the team that plays better cricket on the day will carry the day.”The main stumbling block for Kenya has been their batting, which has flopped on each of the four matches they have played in the tournament so far, leading to heavy defeats. “The greatest concern has been the top-order batting, in each and every game, even the last one against Canada, most of the times we have been 100 or less for five wickets,” he said. “We have a lot of talent in our team, a few guys who have spent time in the middle, hopefully we can moving forward from one guy doing well to two-three guys doing well in a game.”Kenya already have no chance of reaching the quarter-finals after losing four matches, but felt the remaining games were also important for the experience they will provide. “This tournament is a stepping stone to Kenyan cricket again,” he said. “A lot of guys here have never been to the World Cup, we know what it takes to achieve here, whatever we gain, we take it back home with us and try to improve our performance.”

Darren Pattinson, the right-arm swing bowler who played one Test for England, has signed a new contract with Nottinghamshire that commits him to the club until the end of the 2012 season.Pattinson has established himself at Trent Bridge since arriving as a relative unknown in 2008 following a personal recommendation from Australia batsman and Victoria teammate David Hussey.”Darren has a good story to tell in that he didn’t play first class cricket until he was 27 and he still managed to forge a career in county cricket and make a Test appearance for England,” said Nottinghamshire Director of Cricket Mick Newell.”He has proved to be an excellent signing and he is a big part of our plans in all three competitions next season.”Pattinson took 31 wickets in Nottinghamshire’s triumphant County Championship campaign last season and was the club’s joint leading wicket-taker in the Friends Provident t20, with 17 victims.Born in Grimsby, he emigrated to Australia aged six but regularly returned to England to play club cricket. He injured his ankle while on trial with Nottinghamshire in 2007 but bounced back to secure a contract in 2008 and took eight wickets on his Championship debut against Kent.

Perennial makeweights Quetta were headed for their seventh defeat of the season after folding for 154 in their first innings against Pakistan Television in Rawalpindi. The day had started promisingly for Quetta as their bowlers polished off PTV’s final six wickets for 22 to limit them to 363 after they had begun on 331 for 4. The wickets continued to tumble when Quetta batted, as they struggled to string together partnerships. After Saad Altaf did the early damage, left-arm spinner Yasim Murtaza and seamer Zahoor Khan bagged three wickets each to bundle out Quetta. In the second innings, Quetta had reached 50 for 1 by stumps.Abbottabad fought hard on the second day but couldn’t prevent Hyderabad from taking the lead at the Abbottabad Cricket Stadium. Hyderabad moved to a strong 96 for 1 in reply to Abbottabad’s 222 before double-strikes from Abdul Manan and Wajid Ali reduced them to 142 for 5. Shahid Qambrani’s 60 then provided the steel Hyderabad needed to sneak a 12-run first-innings lead. Abbottabad had crumbled to 24 for 4 on the first day but their top-order showed more strength second time round, taking the side to 56 for 1 by stumps.State Bank of Pakistan were fancying their chances of moving top of the table after posting 553 for 6 against Lahore Shalimar in Sargodha. Naved Yasin extended his overnight score of 83 to 151 and eighties from Afsar Nawaz and Gulraiz Sadaf left the Lahore bowlers gasping. SBP scored at a healthy 4.63 runs an over and were also helped by the 61 extras given away by Lahore’s bowling. Lahore’s batsmen started strongly, though, ending the day on 150 for 2.Another team pushing to be table-toppers, Khan Research Laboratories, demolished Lahore Ravi in the first innings at Lahore City Cricket Association Ground. On a dramatic day on which 14 wickets went down, Lahore were shot out for 75 to be left staring at their fifth defeat of the season. It could have been even worse for Lahore, who were 15 for 6 after KRL’s new-ball bowlers Yasir Arafat and Mohammad Irfan took three apiece. A 37-run seventh-wicket stand between Zeeshan Ali and Asif Raza accounted for nearly half of Lahore’s total. They fared better in the second innings, with opener Abid Ali’s 68 guiding them to 108 for 2.In a truncated day’s play in Peshawar, Karachi Whites and Peshawar were locked in a battle for the first-innings lead. Peshawar lost their final wicket for the addition of six runs to end up on 372, after which a century from Wajihuddin took Karachi to 253 for 4. He was involved in two sizable partnerships to revive Karachi after they slipped to 12 for 2: first worth 81 for the third wicket with Asif Zakir, and then added 140 for the fourth with Rameez Aziz (64*).

Water and Power Development Authority moved to within three points of the top of the table after a convincing win against Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited at the Lahore City Cricket Association Ground. SNGPL collapsed on the fourth day, losing eight wickets for 63 runs to hand WAPDA a 157-run win. It was a meek surrender from SNGPL, after opener Naeemuddin had given them an outside chance of winning by guiding them to 123 for 2 by the end of the third day in their chase of 344. Naeemuddin could add only six more to his overnight score of 74 before he was dismissed by seamer Kashif Raza. WAPDA Seamer Sarfraz Ahmed helped himself to four wickets as only two of SNGPL’s last seven batsmen made it to double figures.A tantalisingly close match between Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited and Pakistan International Airlines at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad ended in a draw on a curtailed fourth day, but both sides had their chances to win. Chasing 256, ZTBL were 195 for 7 when stumps were called. ZTBL would have fancied their chances of getting to the target when they reached 120 for 2, courtesy of a half-century by opener Zohaib Khan. They then began to lose wickets steadily with Shoaib Malik picking up two scalps with his offspin. ZTBL captain Imran Nazir tried to hold the middle order together with his 34, but when he fell to seamer Najaf Shah, it was PIA that had the better chance to win. Unfortunately, only 67.4 overs were bowled on the fourth day, which meant there wasn’t enough time for a result. The day began with ZTBL taking PIA’s last two wickets quickly to set up the chase. Seamer Rehan Riaz picked up one of them to finish with figures of 7 for 59 in the innings.

Chandika Hathurusingha, the former Sri Lanka Test opener and one-time shadow coach of the Sri Lanka team, who was suspended by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) on disciplinary grounds in June, has decided to emigrate to Australia with his family, after he was found guilty by an inquiry and expelled.The decision to suspend Hathurusingha was taken after he had disobeyed orders from SLC chairman DS de Silva, in a telephone conversation, to not abandon the team and return home ahead of the one-day tri-series final in Harare, where Sri Lanka was scheduled to take on Zimbabwe.However, at the inquiry held in connection with the incident, Hathurusingha stated that both team manager Anura Tennekoon and head coach Trevor Bayliss had permitted him to return early to take up a coaching study course in Australia.”What I fail to understand is there was no official complaint by the manager and there was no official request for me to stay back with the team from SLC, until I left,” Hathurusingha said. “I only had a verbal discussion with the chairman that’s all. The decision taken by SLC to sack me came as a surprise. I never expected it because I still don’t think I have done anything wrong,” Hathurusingha, who is a Level 3 qualified coach in England and Australia, said.”I had come back to Colombo to follow a study course in Australia which was approved and funded by SLC. I returned to Sri Lanka with the consent of the authority I was under at that time – the manager and the head coach, who both gave me permission. They had duly informed SLC and there was no official request from anyone for me to not return early.”From the results you can see that my leaving early didn’t affect the team because we won the final. The two coaches were there to handle the final and the one practice session. My work with the team was done prior to that. The coaching course was going to benefit not only me but SLC as well. The bond I had signed with SLC said that I had to work for three years which I was willing to do.”Sri Lanka beat Zimbabwe comprehensively by nine wickets to win the one-day tri-series, which also included India.Hathurusingha was being groomed for the assistant coach’s position in the national team when he was appointed shadow coach in 2009 as understudy to head coach Trevor Bayliss and assistant coach Stuart Law. Hathurusingha was appointed shadow coach at the same time Kumar Sangakkara was elevated to captain his country. He served in the capacity for one and half years (his contract was till the 2011 World Cup) before his sudden exit. During that period Hathurusingha played an integral part in the players’ development. Although he was asked by Bayliss to look after the batting, plan for the opposition and formulate game plans, he also played a big role in the players’ mental make-up which has made them become successful cricketers at international level.Kumar Sangakkara, the Sri Lanka captain, also personally wrote to SLC requesting a lenient punishment for Hathurusingha considering his value to the team especially ahead of the World Cup.Hathurusingha represented Sri Lanka first as an opening batsman and later, in the middle-order from 1991 to 1999, in 26 Tests and 35 ODIs. He was head coach of UAE for a year and also coached the Sri Lanka ‘A’ team before his appointment as shadow coach in the national side.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsUmar Gul was outstanding with the second new ball as he grabbed three wickets•AFP

Pakistan fought back valiantly on the second day in Dubai as Umar Gul sparked a South Africa collapse to 380 before Taufeeq Umar and Mohammad Hafeez responded with an opening stand of 105. Gul, the one remaining frontline quick after Wahab Riaz suffered a side strain, struck three early blows before the spinners completed the resurgence. South Africa regained ground during the final session with the scalps of both openers but Younis Khan and Azhar Ali remained firm.The worst news for Pakistan came shortly before play started as, for the second day running, they lost a key player. On Friday it was Mohammad Yousuf and now Riaz was ruled out of the series with the injury he picked up late on the first evening. Yet, just as things looked like falling apart they picked up with Gul inspiring the turnaround during a fine spell of 3 for 15 in eight overs and South Africa lost their last eight wickets for 73 runs.But despite their end result being considerably lower than expectations, Pakistan’s recent top-order woes suggested Graeme Smith’s side would soon be in the wickets. That wasn’t the case, though, with Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel inconsistent during their first spells as Taufeeq and Hafeez brought up a rollicking fifty stand in the ninth over. Neither batsman was afraid to play his shots; Taufeeq drove handsomely down the ground while Hafeez pulled strongly against Steyn. It was rare period of free-scoring on a day that brought 213 runs in 88 overs.Taufeeq, recalled to the Test side for the first time since 2006, built on a fine record against South Africa against whom he averages over 70 while Hafeez, who last played a Test in 2007 against this opposition, didn’t take a backward step. It was a sharp contrast to the feeble efforts offered in England earlier this year, and within 10 overs Smith was forced into containment mode.This is where South Africa started to claw back as after tea they managed to string together maidens and increase pressure on the batsmen with the run-rate steadily falling from five-an-over to under three. The opening pair brought up Pakistan’s first century opening stand since Imran Farhat and Salman Butt added 109 at Sydney, in January, but it wasn’t a surprise when Hafeez advanced at Paul Harris and lamely chipped a catch to mid-on.By now, Taufeeq was becoming seriously stalled. At tea he had 36 off 74 deliveries but managed just six runs from his next 45 balls as Harris and Johan Botha probed away. A return to pace brought his downfall when Morkel went round the wicket and gained an lbw decision although the point of impact raised some doubt. Morkel was much improved, striking Younis on the helmet in a tight six-over spell, and South Africa gave away only 58 runs in 35 overs during the final session. Still, it was as comfortably Pakistan’s day.South Africa began in rich health at 311 for 3, but the picture changed considerably in the morning session as the scoring rate was strangled and wickets fell regularly. Gul’s spell was the stand-out display, but the role played by Younis was equally vital as he filled the hole left by Riaz with some rarely seen medium-pace, and his seven overs cost just 11.Harris, the nightwatchman, was the first to depart when he pushed outside off stump and Younis snapped up a sharp chance at second slip. Harris’s 42-minute duck set a new record for South Africa and, as is often the case, nabbing the nightwatchman early gave the fielding side a lift. Kallis had clipped an early boundary off his legs but the scoreboard came to a standstill with just three boundaries struck in the opening session despite Pakistan’s depleted resources.South Africa could have shown more intent, especially against Younis, but it was excellent bowling that changed the complexion of the game. AB de Villiers received a cracking off-cutter from Gul which nipped back between bat and pad to take off stump. Gul struck again in his next over, when he trapped Ashwell Prince back in his crease, and although the batsman didn’t appear impressed with the decision, replays showed it pitched on leg stump.Mark Boucher briefly broke the stranglehold when he drove Younis through mid-off but it continued to be painful going for South Africa. Younis and Gul were rested after their hard work, yet the pressure didn’t let up as Rehman struck with his second ball to have Boucher lbw with one that went straight on.From aiming at a total around 550, and the prospect of batting once in this Test, South Africa were suddenly seeing 400 as the limit of their ambitions. Even that proved unreachable when Kallis’s obdurate display ended with an outside edge off Ajmal. Moments before lunch Rehman claimed his third when he straightened one past Johan Botha’s prod and Ajmal then trapped Morkel with a doosra. One good day doesn’t make a series, but yet again Pakistan managed to pull out a performance when it was least expected.

Kenya will be boosted by the return of opener Seren Waters and allrounder Ragheb Aga to the squad for the coming home matches against Afghanistan and UAE. Both players spent the summer in England, where Waters played for Durham University and Surrey’s second XI, while Aga had a stint with Sussex.The pair will join the squad next week, in time for the ICC Intercontinental Cup match against Afghanistan which begins on October 2 in Nairobi, the three ODIs that follow, and the four-match ODI series against UAE.”It is essential that we have competition for places in our national side and the addition of Seren and Ragheb to the squad will help provide that,” Cricket Kenya’s chief executive, Tom Sears, said. “Both players have been playing a high standard of cricket in England and have been involved with two of the best county set ups in the English game.”Looking ahead, there are only 15 places in the World Cup squad and with the addition of players such as Seren, Ragheb and Tanmay Mishra to the national squad, and the emergence of some highly talented players in our Under-19 team, players know they have to start producing consistent performances if they are to make that squad.”Kenya are already out of the running for the ICC Intercontinental Cup title but their opponents, Afghanistan, who are playing the competition for the first time, are attempting to reach the final. They are presently leading the points table with four wins out of five games. The teams that finish first and second in the seven-team league will play the final in Dubai in November.

You have to respect a cricketer who tried to start up a new age of sledging on Twitter by dispatching the following message to Sulieman Benn: “hey @sulibenn – hope you tweet better than you bowl”. The sender was Ed Cowan, the one-time investment analyst and now Tasmania opening batsman, and one of Australian cricket’s most entertaining tweeters.He didn’t get a response, perhaps because he’d left a letter out of the West Indian’s account name. The mistake probably wasn’t deliberate, but if it was you couldn’t blame him – even a 20-hour aeroplane trip away, Benn would be a scary adversary. Either way, it was a fun idea.Cowan’s followers had better hope he never makes the Australian side, or his tweets and guest spots on the Cricket with Balls blog might come under Cricket Australia’s censorial eye. But a national call-up is not out of the question, after Cowan finished behind only David Hussey on last year’s Sheffield Shield run tally.It was his first season with Tasmania after switching from New South Wales, where he was competing with a line-up of openers including Phillip Hughes and Phil Jaques. Cowan, 28, followed up with a century for Australia A, but he knows that his Test ambitions will only be fulfilled if he produces more than one outstanding season.”If you’re not in the Aussie team, you’re out of the Aussie team,” Cowan told ESPNcricinfo. “There’s no ‘close to’ the Aussie team. Particularly in Test cricket, you’ve got to show that you can do it season after season, like the last five or six seasons, Jaques and [Chris] Rogers and [Simon] Katich when he was out of the team, just piling on the runs.”Knowing my role continually and being able to prepare accordingly was really massive [last year]. I always felt as though I was under pressure at New South Wales, if I failed in one game I was going to be dropped. Knowing the [Tasmanian] coaching staff and the captain had the confidence to back me, I felt that in my own batting and felt I could play how I wanted to play.”His freedom resulted in a season of 957 Sheffield Shield runs at 53.16, including a career-best 225 against South Australia. It was a fine outcome for a man who had managed only 21 first-class appearances for New South Wales in five seasons. Cowan has kept in touch for this summer by playing club cricket in the Netherlands, where he was introduced to a peculiarity of Dutch cricket.”It’s a quirky little cricket community in the Netherlands,” he said. “It’s very old school. All the grounds are surrounded by canals. [When the ball goes in], they have swimming pool scoops that you fetch the ball, throw it back and dry it off and away you go, you keep playing with it.”That might help him during his early-season matches in drizzly Tasmania, where he will be joined in the top order by the South Australian discard Mark Cosgrove. The Redbacks’ decision to axe Cosgrove, who has played ODI cricket for Australia, was one of the surprises of the off-season and Cowan hopes his new team-mate can also thrive on a change of scenery.”He still has his best seasons ahead and for whatever reason the SACA didn’t want to contract him but their loss is certainly our gain,” Cowan said. “We’re excited because he fits in so well to our group. We see him as such an attacking one-day option, to fit in with our other strokemakers. And in four-day cricket that hole left by Dan Marsh is pretty important for us [to fill].”Judging by Cosgrove’s form in the opening Ryobi Cup match, he will be another valuable import for Tasmania. But Cowan had better hope the Tigers don’t also go chasing Sulieman Benn for the Twenty20 competition, or he could be on the wrong end of a big bash.

England’s players might end up being stopped from using online social networks but Australia’s cricketers are being encouraged to tweet, blog and use Facebook.”You won’t see us banning our players from doing that sort of stuff,” Ricky Ponting said at the team’s camp in Queensland. “It is your job as international players to promote the game and be the best you can for the game. If we can use social networks, if that brings people closer to the game, brings people through the gates to play, then that’s what it is all about.”Cricket Australia hosted a conference this month in which it was told it needed to reach out to the younger generation. One of those changes is the split-innings format for domestic one-day games, but another is not being afraid of social media.Almost 11,000 people ‘like’ Ricky Ponting’s Facebook page, which he updates regularly, and Michael Clarke has almost 41,000 followers on Twitter. “The biggest thing we face as international players is … everyone knows us with the helmet on but very few in Australia, or around the world, actually understand what we are like with the helmet off,” Ponting said. “If there are ways to express yourself then feel free to do that. I am totally all for that, as long as it is done the right way and within reason.”Michael Brown, Cricket Australia’s operations manager, said there would be no social networking bans placed on the players. “At this stage it’s really important that we are about growing the game and embracing the future, and young people are a critical part of it,” he said. “We want young people to be associated with the game.” The coach Tim Nielsen has signed up to Twitter and even the team manager Steve Bernard is using it.Phillip Hughes, whose tweet about his dropping scooped the official announcement by hours in Birmingham last year, hasn’t used his site since he had lunch with Sachin Tendulkar last September.