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Arran Brindle may miss England’s World Cup match against India on Monday after suffering from an undisclosed illness. Brindle, 23, received medical attention and England will have to wait to see if she is ready for the top-of-the-table clash.She and captain Clare Connor lifted England to success against Ireland with a 128-run partnership after they had been in some trouble. England now lead the table after three rounds: they and India are both undefeated and they each have 15 points, but England have the superior run rate.Mithali Raj believes the key to India’s success would be taking early wickets.”Our bowlers will target the England openers," India’s captain Raj told BBC Sport, "as we’ve seen they give them a good start.”The main aim is to get early wickets and put pressure on their batting order. Our pace bowlers are getting us early breakthroughs, but the spinners are definitely our trump card.”

Garnett Kruger of the Lions and Zander de Bruyn from the Titans have been suspended for one Supersport match after being found guilty of breaching the United Cricket Board’s (UCBSA) code of conduct.Kruger was found guilty of conduct that brought the game into disrepute during the SuperSport match between the Lions and Cape Cobras at Johannesburg between November 10 and 13. de Bruyn was charged with two offences; dissent at an umpiring decision and of unruly behaviour, but was found guilty of just the second offence. de Bruyn’s were committed during the match between the Dolphins and the Titans at Durban.Meanhwile, Mpho Sekhoto and Gerhard de Bruin, both from Gauteng, were also found guilty of breaching the code of conduct in seperate incidents during the same SAA Provincial Challenge game and have each been suspended for one three-day challenge match. Sekhoto was found guilty of conduct which could bring them, the UBCSA or the game of cricket into disrepute and de Bruin of dissent towards an umpiring decision.

St Thomas College 340 (Peiris 125) beat Royal College 94 (Peiris 3-16) and 218 (Senaratne 92) by an innings and 28 runs
Scorecard

St Thomas College needed just eight overs on the third morning at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo to wrap up a thumping innings-and-28-run victory over their arch-rivals, Royal College, to secure their first victory in the “Battle of the Blues” since 1999.A St Thomas victory was always on the cards after rolling Royal College over for 94 in the first innings, but they had been held up on the second evening by a dogged 102-run stand between D Wijeratne and Sukitha Senaratne, who had compiled a fine unbeaten 92. Senaratne, however, could not add to his overnight score, and with his departure, the end was swift.Wijeratne added nine more runs to his overnight 39, but appropriately enough, it was St Thomas’s captain, Videsh Balasubramaniam, who applied the coup de grace, sweeping through the tail for figures of 4 for 54 from 15 overs.St Thomas’s victory takes them ahead of Royal in the overall record between the two sides. In their 126 encounters, St Thomas have now won 33 matches to Royal’s 32, with 61 draws.

Rina Hore, a former New South Wales player, has become the first woman to be appointed to the state’s cricket board. The six-member board endorsed Hore’s induction to the panel for “her skills and experience”, according to Bob Horsell, the chairman of the NSW board.Hore, who was also manager of the women’s under-19 team, was happy with her appointment and positive about the future. “In accepting the nomination, I thank people for their hard work that first led to a woman being nominated,” quoted Hore as saying. “Now that I’m on the board I look forward to working hard with a talented and committed group of people and continuing to promote women’s cricket.”While serving as vice-president of the Women’s Cricket Australia Board, Hore played an important part in bringing men’s and women’s cricket under one body.

Test cricket went back in time on the third day of the final Test betweenPakistan and the West Indies at the National Stadium. Rain overnight andcloud cover for most of the afternoon meant play stopped 15 overs short,though to many that might have been a relief given that only 199 runs hadbeen scored in the 75 available.Mohammad Hafeez, a raucous Twenty20 opener for Faisalabad when not openingfor Pakistan, put together a studious fifty, his fourth in Tests. It was,from just over three-and-a-half hours, his slowest, and the improvisedstrokes so readily seen in his limited-overs performances were all butabsent here, replaced by stodgy defense and plenty of streaky edgesthrough third man.”You have to really graft on this pitch,” Hafeez told reporters at the endof the day. “It is difficult but to be a good player you have to be ableto do it on all types of wickets. On the first day there was a lot ofvariation in the bounce but that is not there now. It still isn’t easyespecially for playing shots on.”Along with Imran Farhat, the start was particularly tortuous. Farhat tookhis first run off his 18th ball, there were only two boundaries in thefirst 15 overs and after 24 overs, they had eked out only 45. In part,the West Indian bowling attack can be blamed for this, as Hafeezacknowledged. “They bowled superbly to us at the beginning, especially(Corey) Collymore who was very difficult to play. The idea was to see off the newball. We would take our time but set ourselves.”The caution may also have arisen from circumstance, especially in Hafeez’scase. A fifty in the very first innings of this series should have led tobigger, brighter things but pretty starts were frittered. Bowledbetween bat and pad twice has also raised concerns about his technique andfootwork; another failure here would have put severe pressure on hisposition in the side.”The wickets in this series have had low bounce. There are very fewpitches like this at domestic level where the balls come on higher, fasterand seam more. Adjusting to low bounce wickets has been the difficultthing to do.”When I made my comeback in England, the captain and coach really gave melots of confidence. In this series I know I haven’t made big scores butthey are still backing me and that support has helped,” he added.He wasn’t the only batsman to make an important fifty today. Earlier inthe morning, Denesh Ramdin had to take over the West Indian cause afterthe dismissal of Daren Ganga in the day’s fifth over. Like Hafeez it washis fourth in Tests, though an altogether punchier affair. And for gettinghis side within 44 runs of Pakistan’s first innings total, it was a timelyinnings.”After Ganga fell I had to take things up on my own and try to buildpartnerships with the tail. We wanted to get as close as possible to thePakistan score,” Ramdin said.He had struggled initially against the spin of Danish Kaneria, edging thelegspinner through Kamran Akmal’s legs for four early. But once the newball was taken, he unveiled a surprisingly wide array of strokes. “Thepitch is playing better now and there is something in it for bowlers andbatsmen. There was a bit more bounce today. But I take this as one of mybest fifties. I needed to show character and had to bat with the lowerorder as well, which we have done.”Pakistan ended the day 174 runs ahead with eight wickets in hand. Thepitch hasn’t deteriorated as many thought it might, to the extent thatHafeez suggested only a target of 350-plus would be a safe one. MohammadYousuf is at the crease, record in sight, stunning form behind him andwith Hafeez keen to continue to a second Test hundred, setting such atarget is not as far-fetched as it might have appeared on the first two days.

Weakened by internal politics and the departure of their top players, Zimbabwe are to host an India A team expected to provide strong opposition. Indian board officials confirmed that the tour in August would consist of three four-day matches which would take place after the tri-series against Kenya and Pakistan A in Nairobi.In June, Zimbabwe had agreed to stop playing Test cricket until 2005, so it has enough time to sort out the quality of its team. The move was provoked by threats to ban Zimbabwe from international cricket after a terrible showing against Sri Lanka at home – the two Test defeats were among the heaviest of all time. The matches against India A are thus crucial to Zimbabwe’s future.And if the ICC accepts Bob Woolmer’s proposed restructuring of the international cricket hierarchy, only eight nations will play Tests. This means Zimbabwe, along with Bangladesh, will be relegated to a lower rank, competing with the likes of Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates.India A itineraryJuly 22-25 v Zimbabwe XI at Harare Sports Club, July 29-August 1 v Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club, August 5-8 v Zimbabwe at CFX Cricket Academy

Tasmania 215 for 8 (Dighton 48) v Western Australia 6 for 0 – no result
ScorecardTasmania’s ING Cup meeting with Western Australia was washed out in second over of WA’s run-chase, as thunder and lightning brought the match to an abrupt end. It was just as well for Tasmania, who had been made to struggle after winning the toss and batting first, although their effort was interrupted in mid-innings by the first bout of bad weather.All of Tasmania’s top seven reached double figures, but none were able to dig in for the big score – the best effort of the innings was Michael Dighton’s 48. They were kept in check by some persevering bowling efforts , in particular Paul Wilson, whose eight overs failed to take a wicket but went for just 20 runs.After the match had been reduced to 48 overs a side, WA were set 216 for victory. But there were already menacing banks of clouds looming as the innings got underway, and the heavens opened after 12 deliveries had been bowled.

Once again India fell at the final hurdle, losing both VB Series finals to Australia by wide margins, and once again questions have been asked about their failure to win tournaments after playing well on the way to the final.There was no shame in being beaten by Australia – they are the world champions, after all – away from home. What stuck in the throat was the manner and size of the defeats. And Sunil Gavaskar, writing in his syndicated weekly column, spoke for many when he said that “the way the Indian team just capitulated is what is so depressing.”It was an impossible task alright, but so ordinary and unedifying was the sight of the batsmen getting dismissed regularly that the tag of ‘chokers in the crunch matches’ now probably belongs to them and not the South Africans, who had monopolised it for a long time now. More than the defeat, it was India’s meek surrender that would have disappointed their supporters and followers.”The batsmen gave the impression that since the target was so big they would just throw their bats at everything and see if it worked,” Gavaskar continued. “What it conveyed was a “couldn’t care a damn” feeling than an honest effort.”Nobody likes to criticise for the heck of it and there’s genuine joy when they do well so if there’s sadness and no little anger at the manner of the loss, then that should also be understood.”And former Australian captain Ian Chappell said that Australia’s “mental toughness” was the key to their success. “In the end it was the Australians who remained mentally strong through the summer and the Indians wilted. The Aussies will be hoping this final hammering has a lasting affect on India considering the next contest is on their turf.”

ScorecardIf at any time Rob Key felt drained or simply fed up of carting Northamptonshire’s attack all over Wantage Road, the motivation to carry on was provided by the tannoy announcer.Her helpful updates of the score from the Test match, and in particular Andrew Strauss’s progress, were appreciated by a sparse crowd watching Key compile a championship best of 173. Whether they were appreciated by the Northants side is another matter as Key’s treatment of their bowling became increasingly brutal as news of Strauss’s triumphant debut was relayed to all and sundry.By the time Key was out, after more than six hours at the crease, Kent were able to declare 409 ahead. With Northants 39 for 2 at the close they will be hoping Saturday’s news from Lord’s is not similarly destructive.After softening up the New Zealand attack last week with two centuries, Key has re-emerged as a genuine England prospect. Since he played the last of his eight Test matches, at Sydney last year, he has seen the likes of Ed Smith and Paul Collingwood selected ahead of him. Now Strauss is the latest to break into England’s top order, and it would be easy for Key to quietly slide away.But Steve Waugh has been his mentor and having played in that Test at Sydney, Key will have learned a thing or two about making statements. Watching in the crowd, actually they almost were the crowd at times, were England selector Geoff Miller and Tim Boon, one of Duncan Fletcher’s talent spotters.They will have noted the way he dominated the crease, drove straight as a crack shot and timed the ball – apart from the odd wobble against the spinners – with ease. Along with captain David Fulton, the maker of 109, he added 222 for the first wicket and the shoulders of the Northants fielders sagged as the weight of runs grew.Kent, and Key in particular, were not going to repeat their mistake in the first innings of throwing away the chance to build a winning score. Unlike Kent, Northants cannot call on a bowler with the explosive pace akin to Mohammad Sami. While Johann Louw plugged away manfully the biggest danger to Key’s existence was a breakdown in communication from Lord’s.Jason Brown was picked off by Key and Carl Greenidge shipped runs alarmingly. Key offered only one chance when he skied to deep midwicket, but Ben Phillips mistimed his run.Andrew Symonds is set to join Australia’s one-day squad tour to Zimbabwe after this match and he was clearly a man in a hurry as he and Key accelerated the scoring after tea. Key was eventually dismissed when he hit Greenidge to longoff, falling one short of his career best. That 174 was made in Hobart and Key was playing for England against Australia A. If Miller and Boon were suitably impressed here, Key may be an England team-mate rather than rival to Strauss. Nick Hoult is assistant editor of The Wisden Cricketer