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Moeen Ali has withdrawn from the IPL auction after the ECB raised concerns over his workload.ESPNcricinfo understands that Andrew Strauss, the director of England cricket, contacted Moeen and his representatives today to discuss his involvement in the tournament after papers were lodged to confirm his inclusion in the auction on Thursday.While Strauss made it clear the final decision was up to Moeen, he did express his concerns over the volume of cricket such an IPL stint could commit Moeen to in addition to his international commitments. As a result, Moeen decided to withdraw.England are currently playing their second of 17 Tests scheduled for 2016, with Moeen likely to play a prominent role in all of them. He is also likely to be included in the World T20 squad. After a long summer – broken from the winter’s tours only by the few weeks in April and May when the IPL will be contested – England head to Bangladesh in September and then, having moved on to India, do not return until a few days before Christmas.Strauss has previously suggested he was keen for England players to gain experience from such high-profile T20 tournaments. But given Moeen’s current selection in all three formats of the game, it was decided that a balance had to be made.Moeen is understood to be happy with the decision to withdraw from the IPL and gratified that Strauss sees him as such an important part of England’s long-term plans.

From the evidence available so far in this series, it would seem God has taken up residence in India. The escape at Lord’s was nothing if not providential and, at Trent Bridge, the breaks have all gone in their way so far proving – not the for the first time – cricket is as much a game of luckas it is of skill and pluck. And, above all, it is a game of fractions.Throughout the first two sessions, India had the fractions running for them. Balls kept evading the edge by the thinnest of margins, catches fell short marginally and all the marginal lbw decisions went in favour of batsmen.India were 149 for 1 at tea, which, if you were not watching, wouldhave pointed to utter dominance by the batsmen or complete ineffectivenessof bowlers, or both. The truth is that it was none. The ball seamed andswung all day and James Anderson, Chris Tremlett and Ryan Sidebottom beat thebat repeatedly, sometimes off successive balls. They would have bowled muchworse for far more but today was the kind of day when nothing would stick.Nothing should be taken away from Wasim Jaffer and Dinesh Karthik. On paperthe weakest links in the Indian batting line-up, they have managed fourfifties between them in three innings so far on this tour. When journalists in the pressbox wondered about when an Indian opening pair had last put on ahundred outside the subcontinent, it was easy to point them in the direction of Cape Town , where these two ran up 153.And crediting luck doesn’t do justice to their fighting performance here. In conditions such as today’s, even Geoffrey Boycott would haveplayed and missed. Under the circumstances Jaffer and Karthik were gutsy,skilful, and nothing short of heroic. Not only did they survive, they madeuse of every scoring opportunity. You could say that they made their luck.

England nevertheless will rue their lack of fortune. Nothing would illustrateit better than two overs after the lunch break that fetched India 18 runs.Karthik hit two gorgeous fours off Paul Collingwood’s first over, the first aninventive cover drive that was played off a horizontal bat after taking acouple of paces down the wicket; a couple of balls later, he drove downthe wicket. In between, though, an uppish drive landed narrowly short of JamesAnderson at cover and the next ball looped off the leading edge but landed wellshort of mid-on.The next over, two fours were taken off Tremlett. Jaffer drove the first onethrough the covers but the next one was squeezed between gully and second slip.Tremlett induced another edge the following ball but Ian Bell, diving to his leftat gully, couldn’t hold on to it. On another day, England could have had twowickets in those two overs; today they leaked 18 runs.And on another day, Monty Panesar could have had two wickets in his firsttwo overs. With his first ball, he caught Karthik sweeping plumb in frontand, given how progressive umpires have been about lbws in the series so far,the decision seemed only a formality. But Ian Howell, the South Africanumpire who had handed out two leg-befores yesterday, though against pace bowlers,negated it. Jaffer escaped when equally plumb the next over.Not that a lot should be read into this because India have worked hard totake command of this Test. If, however, they don’t go on to win this Test afterhaving all the luck in the match so far, they will know just whom to blame.

The slanging match between Michael Holding and the West Indies Cricket Board continued with the former fast bowler claiming that the reasons for his resignation from the cricket committee have been misinterpreted.Holding quit, claiming in his resignation letter, that the cricket committee had been “sidestepped” when the board had rejected billionaire Allen Stanford’s request for an early selection of the West Indies team to tour Pakistan in November. The potential clash of dates led to the cancellation of the Stanford 20/20 Super Stars match – originally scheduled for November 10 between a combined West Indies XI and South Africa.The board, then, in a press release, countered Holding’s allegation by citing Clive Lloyd, the chairman of the committee, who said, “With regards to the cricket committee being ‘sidestepped’ over the selection of players my view of this is that the cricket committee should not have been involved in this issue consequently the responsibility rests solely with the WICB selectors”.In his own statement released on September 9, Holding said, “this is a smokescreen trying to imply that I was saying that the cricket committee should be involved in the selection of the personnel going to Pakistan. That is not so. I was saying that the cricket committee should have been consulted if there had been any problems with the [emphasis in original] of the selection of the team, not the makeup of the team.”Holding also clarified what in his view had actually led to the cancellation of the US$5million winner take-it-all 20/20 match. “Their [board’s] response is that the Stanford group applied directly to the ICC for ratification of it’s 20/20 tournament and not to the WICB as should have been the case and that when the group contacted the WICB , the board was already negotiating the Pakistan tour. Now what a load of rubbish. The facts of the matter are that the Stanford group got in touch with the ICC asking what were the procedures to get the tournament ratified and the ICC’s reply was that it had to be endorsed by the WICB. It was the WICB who then wrote to the ICC and it was the WICB that the ICC responded to way back in January, sending a copy of that letter to the Stanford group.”The board had also disputed Holding’s claim that two of the three selectors – Clyde Butts and Andy Roberts – had not been informed about captain Brain Lara’s reported objection to the early team selection. Holding’s response to this was: “My resignation letter is dated August 26th, the same date Roberts and Butts confirmed that they did not have any discussions with Lara. Anything could have transpired between then and September 5th unless the WICB are making out these two gentlemen to be liars.”Holding said that while he had been consistent throughout in his response, Lloyd had not been so. Referring to the reasons why he and Lloyd resigned from the committee, he said: “I know what Clive Lloyd told me was his reason for declining but since he can’t recall, I won’t go there but as I said before and repeat now, I declined because the ‘cricket committee’ is what I had agreed to be a part of, not this ‘win world cup committee’. Again I won’t try to speak for Clive Lloyd but my overseas commitments haven’t changed since August 2005 so how come I was able to take up the offer of this new cricket committee?”Ken Gordon, the board president, earlier said he will not be drawn into verbal conflict on the matter. “We have spent too much time talking about contentious issues rather than focusing on the important things. Now is the time to go forward.”

Scorecard

England’s tail choked spectacularly as they lost their last five wickets for three runs to gift Australia victory at Cheltenham. Cathryn Fitzpatrick starred with both bat and ball to help Australia to the first honours of the NatWest series, as they defeated England by 12 runs. Arran Brindle struck 81 from 78 balls to take England close to their target of 223, but they choked in the face of some hostile Fitzpatrick fire.That the world’s best bowler took 4 for 19 may have come as no surprise, but her batting has been a revelation this year, as she followed up her maiden Test fifty at Hove with 38 not out at Cheltenham.Battling rearguards from Australian tails are becoming something of a feature this summer. They were given a cracking start by Lisa Keightley and Karen Rolton who took Australia to 101 for 2 and, although Clare Connor reversed the momentum with three quick wickets, Australia’s tail fought back strongly – led by Fitzpatrick.England were in early difficulty in their reply at 13 for 2 and couldn’t generate enough momentum from there. Brindle was again in form, following up her century in the first Test with 81. By the time she came to the crease England were way behind the run rate and with much to do but, with the momentum-changing ability of Kevin Pietersen, she clubbed England close to victory. By the time she was out, she must have felt the job was virtually done, with England needing just 16 with four wickets remaining.Not so. They utterly collapsed as Fitzpatrick and Emma Liddell pulled them apart. Liddell made the breakthrough with Brindle’s wicket, and she ended with 3 for 29, a haul which was richly deserved.Keightley led the initial charge with 56, with Rolton and Lisa Sthalekar both reaching their forties. They looked good for 250, but England dragged their way back into the match with Connor’s three-card trick. Shortly after Rolton was run out, Connor removed the Blackwell twins and then added the dangerous Sthalekar as Australia wobbled from 150 for 2 to 176 for 5. But then came Fitzpatrick’s boost which proved vital.Belinda Clark’s woes, meanwhile, continued. After bagging a pair in the first Test she at least got off the mark at Cheltenham but, after reaching 16 she fell to Isa Guha, who was returning after a thigh injury. Clare Taylor was also back in the side and took the vital wicket of Keightley, whose 56 included ten fours.It wasn’t a good match for Jo Watts on debut. After the much publicised inclusion of 15-year-old Holly Colvin at Hove, England blooded yet another teenage spin sensation. Watts, a comparative old-timer at 18, was handed her debut, having missed out to Colvin in the longer format. Colvin’s debut made the front page of The Times, Watts’ wasn’t much to write home about: she went wicketless in her ten overs, which went for 42.She will now head to Kidderminster on Friday in search of her first wicket, when England will look to level the five-match series.

When Eric Simons, South Africa’s coach, peeled back the covers to take asneak preview of the Galle pitch on Monday, he saw exactly what he expected:a sun-baked, biscuit-dry surface that promises extravagant turn for thespinners, and hours and hours of back-breaking toil for the seamers. Ask thegroundsman, the former Test offspinner Jayananda Warnaweera, whether it will spin and he just smiles in that “Do I really need to answer that?” kind of way. He is predicting a threeor four-day finish and a walloping innings win for Sri Lanka.South Africa may beg to differ with Warnaweera’s result forecast, but areunder no illusions as to the enormity of the challenge they face. Fresh fromthe South African winter, they have had only one three-day game to acclimatise to Sri Lanka’s famously harsh conditions. Stomach upsets and niggling injuries have not helped. The loss of Herschelle Gibbs with an ankle injury has been a major blow, and the absence of a top-class spinner a serious worry.Yet Graeme Smith, South Africa’s captain, is clearly looking forward to thechallenge. “Our backs are up against the wall,” he admitted before SouthAfrica’s final practice. “It looks dry and there are a few cracks there, butit is pretty much what we expected. We don’t expect the Test match to gomore than four days. We know there is going to be a result and we want to beon the right side of that. It is going to be a hard dog-fight for us. We aregoing to have to dig deep and show a lot of commitment. Hopefully we can getone of two things right in the game and things come off for us.”The pitch may be tailormade for slow bowlers, but South Africa appear set ona three-pronged pace attack with Nicky Boje the solitary spinner. With AndreNel hampered by a slight back niggle, Nantie Hayward is expected to make hisinternational return after choosing county over country in frustration at thestart of 2003. Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini will lead the attack. LanceKlusener is also set to make a comeback, batting at No. 6 and bowlingplenty of his medium-pace offcutters.Indeed, Klusener’s role will be pivotal. Sri Lanka have had just onetwo-hour practice session since the tension and drama of their Asia Cupfinal. They are likely to be in one-day mode and Smith’s bowlers will surelytoy with their patience, hoping that they can spark self-destructive strokesand then gradually ramp up the pressure. We can expect defensive fields anda tedious off-stump line.South Africa’s main dilemma is the replacement for Gibbs. Andrew Puttick, the only other specialist opener in the squad, missed out in the warm-up game against the Board President’s XI, and that leaves the management considering a makeshift opener, the risks of which are reduced by the fact that Sri Lanka are unlikely to waste much time with the new ball. Boeta Dippenaar, Martin van Jaarsveld and Jacques Rudolph will all have been considered, and Simons said they were “close to making a decision”. An announcement will not be made until tomorrow morning.The Sri Lankan squad, meanwhile, was in high spirits during a short and sharpmorning practice. They may have lost four out of their last five Tests, allagainst Australia, but the shot of confidence provided by their showing inthe Asia Cup makes that statistic largely irrelevant. Sri Lanka are anemotional team and their mood is crucial to performance. Atapattu, though,will warn his players to look forward not backwards.”What we have achieved over the past couple of days has gone now,” he toldreporters. “We have to concentrate on doing well in this form of the gameand we know the areas in which we must improve. The preparation has not beenideal but an international cricketer nowadays must be able to adjust thatmuch faster. This is one of those things that you cannot control and we havegot to live with it. We have to do well in both forms of the game and we nowhave an opportunity to do that.”Interestingly, considering that Sri Lanka have won only one Test against South Africa in 13 years (by an innings and 15 runs at Galle in 2000), Atapattu insisted: “They have not been at their best since the World Cup but that happens to every team. We are not under-rating them. They have always been a good side, performing in and outside of South Africa. South Africa are right up on the ladder of being tough on the field and if there is a challenge we will have to accept it.”Sri Lanka’s selection issues revolve around the bowling. The batting picksitself, and the selectors have made it clear that they want Kumar Sangakkarato concentrate on his batting, a decision understood but perhaps notunanimously agreed with. “I believe that Sanga is our best batsman at themoment and we need to get the maximum from him so the gloves will be givento Kalu,” said Atapattu. That leaves Sri Lanka with four bowling slots.Ideally, Sri Lanka would like to play both Upul Chandana and Rangana Herathto partner Murali – who stands level with Shane Warne on 527 Test wickets – and they are seriously considering an attack with just one seamer. But with clouds hanging around Galle on Tuesday, they may be encouraged instead to go with a more balanced attack and play one of Nuwan Zoysa, Lasith Malinga and Farveez Maharoof, each of whom has a good case for selection: Zoysa for his recent zip, Malinga for his surprise value, and Maharoof for his accuracy and allround skills.Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Marvan Atapattu (capt), 2 Sanath Jayasuriya, 3 Kumar Sangakkara, 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 6 Thilan Samaraweera, 7 Romesh Kaluwitharana (wk), 8 Upul Chandana, 9 Chaminda Vaas, 10 Nuwan Zoysa, 11 Muttiah Muralitharan.South Africa (probable): 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Jacques Rudolph, 3 Boeta Dippenaar, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 Martin van Jaarsveld, 6 Lance Klusener, 7 Shaun Pollock, 8 Mark Boucher (wk), 9 Nicky Boje, 10 Makhaya Ntini, 11 NantieHayward.

Sri Lankan left-arm seamer Chaminda Vaas is having talks today with Hampshire Cricket officials about becoming their overseas player as replacement for the departed Wasim Akram.First-team manager Paul Terry was keen to pick up another top quality new ball bowler and Vaas would fit the bill perfectly should he sign.A veteran of 68 Tests and a mammoth 227 one-day internationals, he is often the key to Sri Lanka’s success, alongside Muttiah Muralitharan. He has taken 216 Test wickets and 282 in the shortened version of the game.If he does join Hampshire, he will not be available for this weeks floodlit National League and Frizzell County Championship matches against Northamptonshire, starting on Wednesday.Vaas was thought to have been on Terry’s preferred list of players and said, “There are still some things to sort out but we hope to make an announcement later this week.”

John Carr (Director of Cricket Operations ECB and Tim O’Gorman (TeamEngland Representative) have now completed their round of meetings inKolkata and Delhi. They would like to thank the President and Hon. Secretaryof BCCI, Mr Dalmiya and Mr Shah and the Government officials with whom theymet, for their warm welcome and co-operation.As well as discussing a number of other administrative issues relating toEngland’s forthcoming cricket tour, a major purpose of the visit to Indiawas to confirm details of the security arrangements with the Indianauthorities.John Carr said:”From the ECB perspective the forthcoming Tour to India has always been onand we are very pleased that the Tour party has now been finalised with theaddition of Richard Johnson and Martyn Ball. It is essential that our Teamand Management can have peace of mind with regard to security arrangementsto enable them to focus 100% on the cricketing job in hand. We are now veryhappy that arrangements can be put in place to achieve this end. We lookforward to a most exciting Test Series.”Tim O’Gorman said:”I spoke to the players before I arrived in India and I believe that alltheir individual concerns can be substantially addressed by the proposedsecurity arrangements. It is obviously now my duty to report back to theplayers on my return to England.”

The Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) is on the alert against any disruption of the third ODI between India and South Africa in Rajkot on October 18, as threatened by followers of Hardik Patel, the young leader of a new movement demanding quotas for the Patidari community. The state of Gujarat has witnessed severe disruptions and incidents of violence in the past few weeks, with curfew imposed in some areas, including the biggest city of Ahmedabad.Niranjan Shah: ‘We will have top security arrangements – 2500 policemen – to maintain order.’•AFP

Newspapers in Rajkot have reported, quoting sources close to Hardik, that his supporters were planning to buy around 10,000 tickets for the ODI and use the high-profile match to send out a political message.The threat follows the events at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack, where the Twenty20 match was held up for a while because of water bottles thrown on the ground by spectators.The SCA is confident the match will go ahead without disruption, but is going to follow procedures strictly to ensure the ODI isn’t hijacked by political protest. A total of 11000 tickets are going to go up for sale for the general public, 9000 at ticket windows and 2000 online. No person will be allowed to buy more than two tickets, and every buyer will be asked to produce his national identity proof, a copy of which will be kept in the SCA records and matched with seat numbers, Niranjan Shah, the president of the association, told ESPNcricinfo. Shah said the association will coordinate with Rajkot rural police to make sure strict security arrangements are in place.However, there is no stopping buyers from handing over their tickets to others: there is no stipulation that tickets are not transferable. “If by some way they still manage to form clusters of protestors, we will have top security arrangements – 2500 policemen – to maintain order,” Shah said.”We are not going to stop them shouting slogans or revealing clothes with political messages, but we can ask the BCCI production to not give them any play during the broadcast.”Online tickets have already been sold out, and the ticket windows open on October 12.Rajkot is no stranger to crowd disruption. In 2002-03 an ODI between India and West Indies had to be stopped only 27.1 overs into India’s chase of West Indies’ 300. Water bottles hit Vasbert Drakes and narrowly missed substitute Ryan Hinds, while Pedro Collins, who was not even playing, was struck by a small sandbag. India were 200 for 1 thanks to a Virender Sehwag special at the top, and a curious decision was made to award India the match based on Duckworth-Lewis calculations. Wisden reported: “Local rumour was that bookmakers had sabotaged the match to stop India winning, and had been floored by the outcome.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo – Nuwan Kulasekara dismantled Rangpur Riders•BCB

Having skittled Barisal Bulls for 89 in their previous game, Comilla Victorians topped that effort by bowling out Rangpur Riders for 82, now the lowest score batting first in the BPL. Nuwan Kulasekara did the bulk of the damage, taking figures of 4-1-12-4. Marlon Samuels then struck an unbeaten 42 off 24 balls, ensuring that Comilla finished the chase in 11.5 overs. The win lifted Comilla to the top of the table with three wins in four matches.Samuels, who is scheduled to leave Dhaka tonight for the Australia tour, led the quickest chase in BPL history with eight fours and one six. Despite how well Samuels and Imrul Kayes batted, one was tempted to question the standard of the pitch – an unused one where batting should have been easier. Rangpur looked hypnotised by the trend of low-scoring performances as they lurched from one poor shot to the other.The win was set up by Kulasekara, who struck in his first over, having Soumya Sarkar caught at third man while attempting a slog. Lendl Simmons was out next ball, edging behind to slip. Sunil Narine, who hadn’t hit rhythm in the competition, then had Jahurul Islam caught at midwicket for 4.Misbah-ul-Haq, who led Rangpur in the absence of the suspended Shakib Al Hasan, however, was unfortunate to be given out lbw when the Abu Hider ball had pitched outside the leg stump. Al-Amin also fell lbw as Rangpur slipped to 32 for 5 inside 11 overs.Hider then got the big wicket for Thisara Perera when he holed out to long-on for 9 in the 14th over. He could have had Mohammad Mithun caught and bowled in his next over but lost balance and had the ball rolling onto the pitch. Kulasekara, though, removed Mithun, Hider coincidentally taking the catch. Rangpur’s innings ended with two run outs and Kulasekara claimed career-best T20 figures.Comilla lost Mahmudul Isam early in the chase but Kayes and Samuels took charge and steered their side home. Samuels was the more aggressive of the two, smashing four fours and a six off Abu Jayed.

England will play their first one-day international against Scotland on August 18, 2008 after an agreement between the two boards. Another match is penciled in for 2012 depending on Scotland’s continued ODI status.Cricket Scotland looked at the possibilities for hosting the game in both Edinburgh and Glasgow. The decision to play the match in Edinburgh was based on the capacity of the ground – 6000 – the strength of the capital’s corporate hospitality market and the overall requirements of the board’s spectator base and corporate partners.Also part of the deal is the continued participation of Scotland and Scotland A in the English domestic game and the boards and also agreed to ensure the compatibility of television contracts for the two countries. Earlier this year the ECB had a run-in with the Irish Cricket Union after they arranged the matches against India and South Africa because the ECB felt it impinged on their TV rights.Cricket Scotland will in due course announce venues for Scotland’s other international matches next year, including the ODI against New Zealand, which will be one of a tri-series of three ODIs also involving Ireland.”We are very lucky now in having two international venues capable of hosting big spectator matches, one in Edinburgh and another in Glasgow,” said Scotland’s chief executive Roddy Doyle. “The decision to play the match in Edinburgh was taken after consultation with our partners, sponsors and supporters. It will be a fantastic event, with an anticipated sell-out crowd of 6,000. I am sure the Scottish cricketing public’s appetite for the game will be huge.”The detailed planning for the event is already under way, with tickets on sale early in the new year. But already we have received a significant number of bookings from the corporate sector, and we expect a lot more.”