Brian Lara was asked on the eve of the fourth Test if he felt his magnificent talent was in terminal decline. On balance, it is probable that the question will not be posed again this month.
Shortly before noon, Eastern Caribbean Time, yesterday, Lara took two strides down the pitch against the England off-spinner, Gareth [...]
Brian Lara was asked on the eve of the fourth Test if he felt his magnificent talent was in terminal decline. On balance, it is probable that the question will not be posed again this month.
Shortly before noon, Eastern Caribbean Time, yesterday, Lara took two strides down the pitch against the England off-spinner, Gareth Batty, and nervelessly struck a six into the pavilion. With the possibility of counties being limited to one overseas player from 2005 Sussex understandably opted for the potent Pakistani leg-spinner, Mushtaq Ahmed, for that role.Goodwin did finally agree a one-year deal, just as well, because without the 32nd hundred of his first-class career they would have been in a right old pickle.. And Martin Saggers, Graham Napier and James Tredwell, the off-spinner, all did their causes no harm.After their first innings failures there was plenty for Sussex to take out of their second innings, not least the character they showed in fighting back, for that they were indebted to Murray Goodwin, whose maiden first-class hundred at Lord’s was the mainstay of the innings.It was his fourth ton in five games for Sussex in a run going back to the end of last season, yet the Zimbabwean could have missed this match, having asked for and been refused, a two-year deal at Hove. He is a gritty prospect with the bat, as he revealed with an invaluable half-century yesterday.There were fine performances for MCC as well, especially from the Glamorgan youngster Adrian Harrison on his first-class debut.
He deserved to reach three figures as well, but fell eight short of the mark.Then there was Tim Ambrose, yet another wicketkeeper-batsman and Prior’s rival for the Sussex stumper’s role. He is naturally gifted with the gloves on, and while not yet England-qualified the Aussie soon will be. Bad light ended the Champions’ Challenge match prematurely here yesterday, but at least the gloomy conclusion could not hide the bright moments and bright hopes that the fixture contained.
For a start, all three wicketkeepers acquitted themselves well. James Foster emerged at the head of the queue after following up his first-innings century (a career best 110) for MCC with four victims as Sussex dug in and chipped away at the arrears of 339 runs.And Sussex’s England A gloveman, Matt Prior, did himself no harm with as competent and confident an innings as one could hope for. English clubs had to take second place to the Dutch in the European Cup-Winners’ Cup finals in the Netherlands yesterday.
In Laren, Canterbury equalised after being 2-0 down, with goals from Francis Houslop and Jenny Wilson, before losing 3-2 to the host club, the winner coming in the 69th minute.
In the men’s competition, Cannock were denied the gold medal when they were beaten in a penalty shoot-out 4-2 by Oranje Zwart in Eindhoven after a 2-2 draw at the end of normal time.Cannock, after going a goal behind on the stroke of half-time to a Xavier Reckinger penalty corner conversion, fought back with great courage.Two corner goals from Simon Ramsden inside five minutes midway through the second half put them within a minute of taking the title when Teun Rohof equalised to force the shoot-out.. Brian gave him an absolute peach of a ride.”Granit d’Estruval was given a 12-1 quote by William Hill to follow up in the Scottish version at Ayr on Saturday But Murphy warned: “It’s very unlikely he’ll go to Ayr. If he travels home all right and is bucking around during the week maybe we could think about it, but I’ve got Luzcadou in there and I think he’ll probably run.”We’ve had a quiet time, but we’ve put them away and minded them and we’ve had a winner today at Sedgefield as well, so they’re running well now, and we’ve a few nice horses to run for the rest of the season.”FAIRYHOUSE: IRISH GRAND NATIONAL (Going: Yielding, Yielding to Soft in places): 1 GRANIT D’ESTRUVAL (B Harding) 33-1; 2 Marcus Du Berlais 20-1; 3 Golden Storm 25-1; 4 Native Jack 12-1 28 ran Timbera 11-1 (5th) 9-1 jt-favs Direct Bearing and Hume Castle 1/2, 21/2 (F Murphy) Tote: £46.70; £9.90, £7.40, £6.60, £3.10 Exacta: £3,124.30 CSF: £590.10 Tricast: £15,477.80 Trifecta: Not won Non-runners: Bennie’s Pride, Where Now.. So this has been the plan for some time, and it’s worked out nicely He’s about two stone better going right-handed. An incident-packed Irish Grand National was won by a 33-1 outsider at Fairyhouse yesterday.
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