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The Australians began their first practice session in England today in readiness for the NatWest and Ashes series – and believe that they hold the psychological edge over England.Skipper Steve Waugh acknowledges that England are on a roll at the moment, having won four Test series in a row, but thinks that his side will be able to take advantage of their recent good record against England.Speaking at New Road, Worcester, this morning, Waugh said: “We are looking forward to playing England; they have done very well in recent times.”They are a good side, seem together and are pretty tough and won some goodmatches.”They are obviously a good team, but they are going to come up against apretty good Australian side.”We know what to expect. We got beaten pretty comprehensively in the FirstTest of the last series here but we have a pretty good record against Englandand their personnel have not changed that much.”If we can get on top early we believe we can bring those old scars up.”His comments were echoed by fast bowler Glenn McGrath. “If we really concentrate on our game, I can’t see us getting beaten,” the New South Wales player told the Sydney Morning Herald.”England have won four series in a row and are playing pretty well. Theirspirits will be up.”But he added: “At the end of the day, I don’t feel they really believe they can beat us. That’s where we’ll beat them.”Last week Waugh said that because of England’s recent form and Australia’s defeat in India, England went into the series as favourites. But he later claimed the comments were intended to be taken light-heartedly and repeated today that he felt the tourists were the likely favourites.”England have just beaten Pakistan in the first Test of the summer and welost our last two Test matches,” said Waugh. “So form-wise England have gotthe form on the board – but I would suggest we will still probably go in asfavourites.”In some ways it would be good to see whether we can come back from losing aseries. We will see how good we really are.”A number of the tourists have played county cricket and Waugh suggested thatan Ashes tour was like a home-from-home for his travelling party.”It’s a great place to come and play cricket and it’s the number one tour ifyou are an Australian player.”We feel comfortable and a lot of us have played a lot of cricket here and welove playing in England.”I think the crowds are probably the best to play in front of – cricket herehas just got a good feeling about it. It feels as if this is the place toplay.”Australia’s first game of the tour will be a three-day game at New Road against Worcestershire starting on June 1.

An unbroken stand of 251 in 49 overs between skipper Adam Gilchrist and Damien Martyn carried Australia to 405-5 declared against a toiling Essex attack.Gilchrist was the dominant partner after arriving at the crease with the tourists in a spot of bother at 154-5. Gilchrist is recognised as one of the game’s hardest hitters and further enhanced that reputation with a series of savage pulls and drives, treating both spin and pace alike.His reward was 21 fours and three sixes as he reached 150, having faced only 149 deliveries. Martyn was content to play the supporting role yet never looked in the slightest trouble as he hit 16 fours and a six in an unbeaten 114 spanning 182 deliveries.In contrast to Gilchrist’s powerful play, Martyn excelled in caressing the ball through the gaps as the Australians scored at about five an over to complete a superb recovery after an inauspicious start.Essex had enjoyed a successful opening hour when they claimed three wickets in the first 14 overs. Mark Ilott, the county’s left-arm seamer, struck twice with the total on 36.He had Michael Slater caught down the legside by James Foster and then the wicket-keeper took another straightforward catch two deliveries later as Justin Langer pushed forward at a wide delivery outside his off stump.Foster’s safe hands also accounted for Matthew Hayden, this time to give 19-year-old paceman Justin Bishop the first of his two successes. Bishop followed up when he had Mark Waugh caught at cover by Graham Napier for 25.Ricky Ponting, whose 63 arrived from as many deliveries, was the only batsman to show any real authority before lunch but he departed soon afterwards when he tried to cut a ball from off spinner Peter Such and was bowled.Left with nine overs before the close, Essex lost Paul Grayson without scoring but Nasser Hussain, opening the innings, survived a pace onslaught and got off the mark with a pull for six from Jason Gillespie as the home side closed on 16-1.

St Albans are looking forward to the new club cricket season in Christchurch with more than a little interest.The side is being captained and coached by Darron Reekers, fresh from a successful season in club cricket in the Netherlands. His achievement there of scoring more than 900 runs and taking over 20 wickets resulted in him being included as the overseas professional in the English Cheltenham and Gloucester knockout trophy.A qualified level II coach he will coach an enlarged first and second grade squad.The senior side, at its peak, could field seven players with first-class experience including internationals Chris Harris and Chris Martin.Harris is likely to have one of his longest stints with the club in recent years before the onset of the first-class programme in New Zealand.Six of the senior squad, Harris, Martin, Stephen Cunis, Jarrod Englefield, Reekers and James Ward, have been involved in Canterbury’s winter training squad while the seventh player with first-class experience is this year’s professional player Ian Blanchett who has played for Middlesex.Two others, Neil Fletcher and Murray Griffin, have played A cricket for Auckland and Otago respectively. Also in the squad are two of last summer’s Canterbury under-19 representatives, Nigel Tubb and Michael Davison.Rounding out the squad is former Taranaki Hawke Cup player, Keith Muller, a wicket-keeper/batsman who is a Canterbury Cricket-Lincoln University scholarship holder. He will have his first full season in Christchurch after the completion of his university exams in late-October.New Zealand’s cancellation of its tour to Pakistan could see Martin available for the first round of club play this weekend.The likely involvement of Cunis and Englefield as certainties in the Canterbury team, with possibly Reekers and Ward alongside them, could hit the club hard, however the ability available in the second side should be a boost. Three second grade players from last year will be back at the end of the university year in Otago while three overseas amateurs will also be playing for the club, one of them having played under-20 cricket for Worcestershire.The strength of the first grade side is reminiscent of the team from the club’s “glory days” in the late-1980s and early-1990s, when the side won the two-day trophy title in six out of eight seasons (between 1985/86 and 1993/94). Back then, the side had no less than 11 players who had played or played first-class cricket during that reign of supremacy – Geoff Smith, Paul Rutledge, Mark Priest, Andrew Nuttall, Roger Ford, Max Bremner, Henry Richards, Richard Brazendale, Ben Harris, Chris Harris, and the club’s West Indian professional of the time, Garfield Charles. Only Rhys Cain, Grant Lucas, Brett Harrison and captain Neil Francis had not or did not play first-class cricket.With such a strong side now, and having won the two-day trophy competition last season, St Albans is confident of retaining its title in 2001/02. The side is especially keen to secure the one-day title, as this has eluded it for seven years.

Essex won their third consecutive victory in the National League as theybeat Derbyshire by just six runs in a close conclusion at Chelmsford. NasserHussain, who was in the Essex side for the first time in a month, was top scorerwith 47 in a score of 203-8.He was more cautious than usual and took 87 balls in his innings, but he hit a six over mid-wicket off medium-paced Tom Lungley as well as four fours. Stephen Peters (38) and Paul Grayson (37 n.o. from 35 balls) contributed most to the total.
Tim Munton had given Essex some early trouble by taking the first three wickets to fall and yielded only 24 runs in his nine overs. Derbyshire, too, found the going difficult at first and reached fifty only after 17 overs. Ronnie Irani bowled four maidens in his nine overs for a cost of 20 runs. The middle/late-order batsmen took up the challenge with greater despatch: James Pyemont scored 34 from 43 deliveries and Dominic Cork 24 from 33.Nevertheless Derbyshire were still a long way behind with 52 needed from five overs. Munton hit 18 from the same number of balls and Kasir Shah scored 20 from nine, but both batsmen were caught by Tim Mason on the long-on boundary off Grayson’s left-arm spin. Eventually Lungley’s run out brought the innings to a close on 197 with just one ball to bowl. Derbyshire have now lost eight out of nine matches in the League.

Bengal

Manoj Tiwary is back as Bengal captain•PTI

Where they finished last season
Second from the bottom in Group A with no wins. Bengal barely managed to avoid relegation, thanks to Wriddhiman Saha’s resolute 92 in their final game of the season against Madhya Pradesh.Big Picture
The last time Bengal secured the Ranji title was when Sourav Ganguly made his first-class debut in the final in 1989-90. In the silver-jubilee year of the landmark, has taken charge of the Cricket Association of Bengal.The previous season, which came after a creditable semi-final finish in 2013-14, was a big low. Manoj Tiwary, who has been entrusted with captaincy again, will be keen to spark a turnaround. Bengal have been bolstered by the arrival of Pragyan Ojha, who had impressed in the A games against Australia after having remodeled his action.”Murali sir [Muttiah Muralitharan] told me to keep things simple and keep bowling. He is as an inspiration… he just told me to keep bowling to improve myself. It is a simple message, yet very powerful,” Ojha told ESPNcricinfo.He will head up a revamped spin department, which includes former U-19 offspinner Aamir Gani with usual suspects Ashok Dinda and Veer Pratap Singh manning the pace attack.Naved Ahmed, who has played club cricket in West Bengal for close to a decade, gets a break. He is among the four uncapped players in the squad at first-class level.After making two half-centuries in the first two Tests in Sri Lanka, Saha missed the third because of a hamstring injury. But he has recovered and with Naman Ojha breathing down his neck, Saha will look to sharpen both his fitness and form ahead of the home Test series against South Africa.Players to watch
Pragyan Ojha
One of the most high-profile transfers of the season. Ojha, who has moved from Hyderabad, lends experience and variety to an attack, which looks well-rounded now, at least on paper.Coaching staff
Former India legspinner Sairaj Bahutule has replaced Ashok Malhotra as head coach. There had been reports of friction in the side during the pre-season tour to Sri Lanka, after which Laxmi Shukla decided to step down from the captaincy. It will be interesting to see how Bahutule builds the team.Sairaj Bahutule (head coach), Kamalesh Jain (physio), Goutam Deb (trainer), Gautam Sarkar (video analyst), Ranadeb Bose (bowling coach), Joydeep Mukherjee (fielding coach), VVS Laxman (batting consultant), Muttiah Muralitharan (spin consultant)Preparation
The Bengal set-up toured Sri Lanka for a fortnight, where they played against the Sri Lanka development and academy squads.Team news
Saurasish Lahiri, who captained Bengal in the Buchi Babu tournament in August, is a notable absentee. An offspinner who can bat a bit lower down the order, Lahiri had sealed Bengal’s passage to the Ranji knockouts in 2013-14 with a seven-for against Tamil Nadu.Squad
Manoj Tiwary (capt), Parthasarathi Bhattacharjee, Abhishek Das, Aamir Gani, Naved Ahmed, Veer Pratap Singh, Sourav Sarkar, Laxmi Shukla, Mukesh Kumar, Sudip Chatterjee, Ashok Dinda, Pragyan Ojha, Shreevats Goswami, Wriddhiman Saha, Pankaj ShawIn their own words
“We want to have a positive mindset and take it one game at a time. Ojha has been bowling well, he is working really hard, and that helps our bowling attack.”

Gujarat

Gujarat’s Jasprit Bumrah last played a first-class match in July 2014•Getty Images

Where they finished last season
Fourth in Group BBig picture
Last season, mere decimal points separated Gujarat from a place in the knockouts. Vidarbha, who qualified in third place from Group B, finished with 24 points and a quotient of 1.468. Gujarat finished with 24 points and a quotient of 0.965.For Gujarat, it was a reflection of all the missed opportunities over the course of a season that was equally encouraging and frustrating – Rajasthan held on for a draw against them, with two wickets remaining; Punjab and Maharashtra escaped with draws despite being made to follow-on; Vidarbha beat them after conceding a first-innings lead.As a new season begins, Gujarat will have the same question to answer: do they have the quality, individually and as a collective, to make those crunch moments count and step up from mid-table to challenge for knockout spots?Perhaps it was this question that prompted them to sign-up RP Singh, who will lead a pace attack that looks potent on paper with Rush Kalaria and Jasprit Bumrah. Axar Patel will miss the beginning of the season while he is away with India’s limited-overs side, but the team will not lack in the spin department, with coach Hitesh Majumdar indicating that Hardik Patel is a capable like-for-like option as a left-arm spinner. The squad also contains the veteran offspinner Ramesh Powar.”We’ve got a very good bowling side,” Majumdar says. “Teams will think twice about preparing bowling-friendly wickets against us.”On the batting front, Gujarat might need someone to step up and have a genuinely outstanding season, unlike last season. Six of their batsmen scored one century each, and only one of them went on to make 150. Majumdar recognises the issue, and says he wants his batsmen to show a greater appetite for runs. “Those who are getting 400-500 runs in a season, we need them to stretch it to 700 or 800.”Players to watch
After two stellar Ranji Trophy seasons, Manpreet Juneja found a place in the India A side, and showed he belonged with scores of 193, 84 and 70 against New Zealand A and West Indies A in September 2013. Just when he should have been pushing on for bigger things, his domestic form plummeted – he made 100 runs in nine innings, at an average of 11.11, in the 2013-14 Ranji season, and played only four matches in 2014-15, scoring 137 runs at 27.40. Despite that, he averages over 50 in first-class cricket, and Gujarat will hope he has rediscovered his best form ahead of the new season.Having missed out on the whole of the 2014-15 Ranji season with a knee injury, Jasprit Bumrah will be raring to return to long-form cricket for the first time since July 2014, when he was part of the India A side touring Australia. Bumrah is tall and asks questions with his angle, bounce and awkward action. If he’s fit and firing alongside RP Singh and Kalaria, Gujarat might have a more-than-handy pace attack this season.Coaching staff
Hitesh Majumdar (coach), Soham Desai (trainer), Parthav Patel (physio), Vijay Patel (coach in charge of overseeing senior and age-group teams).Preparation
In the pre-season, Gujarat sent teams to the KSCA tournament in Karnataka, the Buchi Babu tournament in Chennai and the Bhausaheb Nimbalkar tournament in Pune. Coach Hitesh Majumdar says rotating their squad gave the selectors a chance to test out a number of players.Squad
Parthiv Patel (capt & wk), Mehul Patel, Rohit Dahiya, Priyank Panchal, Rujul Bhatt, Jasprit Bumrah, Samit Gohel, Manpreet Juneja, Rush Kalaria, Bhargav Merai, Hardik Patel, Niraj Patel, Smit Patel, Ramesh Powar, RP Singh, Venugopal Rao.In their own words
“We have been playing with the same group of players for the last three years, and they have gelled well. This time we are expecting results. We just need to cross that line.”

Surrey’s 17-year-old allrounder Sam Curran has been named in the England Under-19s squad for their tour of Sri Lanka. Hampshire offspinner Brad Taylor will captain the team.Wellington schoolboy Curran, who has made a big impact with his left-arm seam bowling since debuting for Surrey in July and scored his maiden first-class fifty in the ongoing Championship match at The Oval, is joined by another 17-year-old in Somerset batsman George Bartlett.The rest of the squad, which includes Lancashire opener Haseeb Hameed, Essex batsman Dan Lawrence and Hampshire legspinner Mason Crane – all of whom have made an impressions in first-class cricket this summer – featured in the Test and one-day series with Australia earlier this summer.The tour will feature a tri-series with Sri Lanka and India as England continue their preparations for next year’s Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh.As part of the England Development Programme, the ECB has also selected ten players to take part in a winter training camp at the National Performance Centre in Loughborough.EDP chairman of selectors, David Graveney, said: “The tour to Sri Lanka before Christmas represents the last chance for the players to impress ahead of the final selection of the squad for the ICC Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh in January and February next year.”We have selected a strong squad based on performances against Australia under-19s this summer, alongside giving opportunities to a couple of players who haven’t featured at this level before. It is now down to them to show that they deserve to be named in the World Cup squad when that is announced towards the end of December.”The tri-series involving Sri Lanka and India Under-19s will present a tough challenge, and it is a further learning opportunity for all the players in subcontinent conditions. It should be a great tour and a precursor to what they can expect in Bangladesh during the World Cup next year.”England U-19s squad for Sri Lanka: George Bartlett (Somerset), Hugh Bernard (Kent), Jack Burnham (Durham), Mason Crane (Hampshire), Sam Curran (Surrey), Ryan Davies (Kent), Ben Green (Somerset), Haseeb Hameed (Lancashire), Adam Hickey (Durham), Max Holden, (Middlesex), Dan Lawrence (Essex), Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire), Tom Moores (Nottinghamshire), Brad Taylor (capt, Hampshire), Callum Taylor (Essex), Jared Warner (Yorkshire)EDP winter training squad: Ed Barnes (Yorkshire), Aaron Beard (Essex), Josh Dell (Worcestershire), Tom Haines (Sussex), Tom Keast (Nottinghamshire), Felix Organ (Hampshire), George Panayi (Warwickshire), Ollie Pope (Surrey), Josh Tongue (Worcestershire), Ben Twohig (Worcestershire)

Rajat Bhatia, the former Delhi allrounder, has found a new home. Starting with the Group A Ranji Trophy match against Maharashtra in Jaipur on Thursday, Bhatia will represent Rajasthan, which is being run by a court-appointed ad-hoc committee.For a player to get a no-objection certificate (NOC) in the middle of the season is not a routine event, but it has prevented Bhatia’s whole season going to waste, and has given a young Rajasthan team an experienced hand, which they have often drawn from professionals.With four points from three games, Rajasthan are placed eighth in the nine-team pool, and face the risk of relegation. They played the first game at home, and shot Delhi out for a low score on the first day, but couldn’t convert that into an outright win. After that they travelled to east India to lose to Assam and concede a first-innings lead to Bengal.How Bhatia would have loved to make this transition before the first round, and play a team that has hurt him, Delhi. He is still not happy with the treatment he got. “I was sure my season was gone,” he said. “I thought maybe after the first game. Maybe after the next… but it was clear they were not going to pick me. This match, looking at the Delhi side, I can’t agree with the statement that I don’t fit in the XI.”I asked the selectors as to what was the reason for not picking me. I have not been dropped based on performance, or based on fitness. There was no explanation. They just said sorry. I don’t like to believe it but I have heard that the selectors wanted to pick me, but Gautam [Gambhir] didn’t want to.”Gambhir, the captain, of course told the selectors that Bhatia does not fit in his XI, so the selectors said they didn’t want to bench such a senior player. Given all that, Bhatia is thankful he wasn’t picked at all. “It’s a blessing in disguise that they didn’t pick me under some sort of pressure,” he said. “What if they had given me one game and then benched me? Then I wouldn’t have had this opportunity too.”I am thankful to the BCCI and to Rajasthan that I have been given this opportunity even after the deadline. That they saw that this experienced player sitting at home, so if he is available for Rajasthan, why not?”Bhatia has a prior association with Rajasthan. He was picked by Rajasthan Royals at the 2014 IPL auction after Kolkata Knight Riders didn’t retain him. Bhatia is the most capped Indian non-international in the IPL. Even though he turns 36 the day he makes his first-class debut for Rajasthan, he is a valued workhorse on the domestic scene. If he plays all the five remaining matches he would have played 100 first-class games. He has scored 5394 runs at 48.16 and has taken 119 wickets. Rajasthan hope his inclusion will bring some stability to their middle order, while his handy seam-ups provide a foil for Deepak Chahar’s swing and Nathu Singh’s pace.Rajasthan are hopeful of playing on a lively track that assists their quicks. But they are also mindful of being up against a settled Maharashtra batting line-up boasting of Kedar Jadhav, Rohit Motwani and Harshad Khadiwale. Maharashtra’s penchant to play attacking cricket will add some life to the contest.Rajasthan, though, can’t afford to take lightly the Maharashtra attack of Domnic Muthuswamy and Samad Fallah, who can be dangerous in these conditions. Having taken the first-innings honours against Haryana and Odisha, Maharashtra are placed fifth, a point behind defending champions Karnataka.

South Africa Under-19 pulled one back in the seven match youth ODI series, beating Bangladesh Under-19 by two runs at the Sheikh Kamal International Stadium in Cox’s Bazar.Choosing to bat , South Africa’s openers Kyle Verreynne and Rivaldo Moonsamy put on 63 runs before Moonsamy was stumped off Saleh Ahmed’s bowling in the 13th over.Dayyaan Galiem was part of two 30-plus partnerships, while making 51 off 81 balls. Saleh picked 3 for 41 as South Africa lost eight wickets while making 229 runs.Bangladesh lost their first wicket in the eight over of the run-chase when Ziyyad Abrahams had Pinak Ghosh caught behind for 9. Saif Hassan stitched two fifty-plus partnerships with Nazmul Hossain Shanto and Zakir Hasan, putting the hosts back on course. Bangladesh, however, lost the wickets of Shanto and Zakir Hasan within seven balls to leave them on 144 for 4. Mossabek Hossain and Mohammad Saifuddin put on 71 for the fifth wicket, but fell within a space of seven balls, leaving the home team with four runs to get from two balls.Abrahams bowled a tight final over as Bangladesh could manage only two runs from the last four balls, losing Nihaduzzaman off the last ball of the innings, meaning South Africa hung on for the win.

Mohammad Ashraful, the Bangladesh captain, has highlighted the paucity of quality bowlers emerging in the country. While the focus of late has generally been on the batting, Ashraful said that didn’t mean the bowlers were equipped to deal with international cricket.”During practice we mainly concentrate on our batting and there was no exception this time because it’s our main problem in the international cricket but that doesn’t mean we are in a comfortable position with our bowling,” Ashraful told the . The Bangladesh team have been preparing at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur for their upcoming international assignments – the four-nation Twenty20 tournament in Toronto and the three-ODI series in Australia.”I think we have lack of quality bowlers in the pipeline,” he said. “There are few names who many believe can be good in the international cricket but the performance of Dolar Mahmud simply gave us the impression how different the international cricket is.” Dolar, who made his debut during the Kitply Cup in June, has struggled in his four ODI outings so far, conceding 165 runs in 17.1 overs for his three wickets.Rafiqul Alam, Bangladesh’s chief selector, admitted there was a problem. “I think this is the area where we need more attention,” Alam said. “And that’s why our specialist bowling coach is specially working with our two frontline pace bowlers [Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and Shahadat Hossain]. Without any doubt we have lack of quality bowlers in the pipeline but we have to work with them who are now available. The absence of Shakib [Al Hasan] and Syed Rasel was felt in the last one-day tournaments.”Injuries have meant Rasel has been in and out of the Bangladesh team this year, and he was recently ruled out for at least another two months. The return of Shakib is definitely encouraging for us as his ten overs in the middle is very vital for us but the latest injury of Rasel was a setback.”Bangladesh’s preliminary 21-man squad for their forthcoming assignments includes Nazmul Hossain, the 20-year-old fast bowler. “I think Nazmul is bowling well and he can be a good option for us,” Alam said. Nazmul was part of the Bangladesh A team that toured England, and took 5 for 90 against Warwickshire.Alam said the team will be named before August 4, but said the selectors were yet to decide whether to name one team for both the Twenty20 tournament and the Australia tour. The Twenty20 tournament, also featuring hosts Canada, Pakistan and West Indies, is from August 14 to 17, followed by the ODI series in Darwin between August 31 and September 6.

SYDNEY, Dec 13 AAP – It was Friday the 13th but Marcus Trescothick and Nick Knight rode their luck as England set Australia 252 runs for victory in the limited overs tri-series match at a sold-out SCG tonight.In the process England did allrounder Shane Watson’s World Cup chances a whole lot of damage, ensuring calls are renewed for Australian Test skipper Steve Waugh to come under consideration for the 15-man squad that travels to Africa in February.England reached 8-251 from 50 overs as Australia dropped four catches, with Knight hitting 111 not out and opening partner Trescothick 60 from 57 balls. Brett Lee was on a hat-trick in the final over when he rattled the stumps of Craig White (15) and Gareth Batty (nought).Watson was pulled from the attack after a costly opening spell of three overs for 25 runs as Trescothick and Knight skipped away in a run-a-ball opening stand of 101.Part-timers Darren Lehmann and Damien Martyn (0-26) were preferred by captain Ricky Ponting ahead of Watson for the remainder of England’s innings.Lehmann took 3-1 off six balls to finish his ten-over stint with 3-32, giving further reason to believe Australia could do without Watson – or any specialist allrounder – at the World Cup.Lehmann, Martyn, Michael Bevan, Ponting and even Matthew Hayden could cobble together the final ten overs in support of Australia’s main four bowlers, allowing the luxury of an extra batsman.Wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist denied Lehmann a fourth wicket when he missed a stumping chance off Knight on 91.The tourists needed a dramatic change of fortune to be competitive against a highly confident Australian side and they received it first ball when an edge from Trescothick off the bowling of Glenn McGrath flew between Ponting and Martyn at second and third slips.It went for four.Trescothick and Knight adopted a plan to attack the Australian fast bowlers, giving themselves room outside off stump, regularly advancing down the crease and slashing wildly at any balls with a bit of width.The fourth ball of McGrath’s first over flew from the top edge of Trescothick’s blade over Martyn’s head, while any number of other edges evaded diving Australians.McGrath’s new ball partner Jason Gillespie didn’t get a hand to a hot caught-and-bowled chance when Trescothick was nine. Lehmann spilled a similar chance off Hussain on 26, then Ponting let Hussain off the hook again on 36.Trescothick finally fell to Brett Lee, caught at first slip by Shane Warne for 60 off 57 balls. He hit eight fours and a six.England lost 2-2 in five balls when Ronnie Irani was trapped lbw for a duck by Warne’s second ball but Knight and captain Nasser Hussain (52 off 81 balls) regained the momentum.Another late hiccup of 4-18 in five overs prevented England from amassing an even bigger total.Knight grinned broadly after an ambitions reverse-sweep off Warne made it all the way to the third-man fence. Warne was far less impressed, scowling. Knight played a similar stroke for three runs a few overs later as he and Hussain guided England to 205.Warne (1-42 off ten) and Lehmann succeeded in bogging down Hussain, whose reverse smacked of desperation. The Poms hit 31 straight singles from the 25th over to the 36th over but shortly afterwards Hussain broke the shackles with a six off Martyn over mid-wicket.Shortly after that he was gone, caught in the deep.Lee finished with 4-47 from eight overs.