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Ryan Driver, the former Lancashire and Worcestershire batsman now playing for Jersey, is determined that his side hit the ground running in the World Cricket League Division 4 which gets underway in Dar Es Salaam on Saturday.Jersey face Tanzania in their tournament-opener as they begin their attempt at qualification to the 2011 World Cup.”We’re all looking forward to Tanzania. It’s going to be a hell of an experience,” said Driver. “As ever I think you’re going to find Jersey going quietly about our business. The guys are confident, we have no idea what to expect.”We need to get a good start against Tanzania on the Saturday. I think all the games are going to be tough, but playing the hosts on the opening day will be interesting.”Driver, who was recently named Player of the Season for Jersey, doesn’t agree with claims that Jersey and Italy could be at an advantage given they come into the tournament off the back of a domestic season and have recent experience of competitive cricket.”It’s been a long season – we started training back in February – and there are a few aching limbs,” he said. “We haven’t been outside much in the past month because of the weather.”

Ricky Ponting will have his first net session on Sunday since undergoing surgery on his injured right wrist last month. Ponting suffered the problem during the ODI series in the West Indies in June and immediately flew home for an operation on the tissues that hold a tendon in place.He has been ruled out of Australia’s one-day series against Bangladesh, which starts next weekend at Marrara Oval, although he could yet fly to Darwin with the team so he can continue batting in the nets. Ponting will first have to test himself with a bat at Australia’s training camp in Brisbane.”I’ll attempt to start hitting some balls for the first time and see if my wrist is strong enough and up to it yet,” Ponting told . “What I do from there will depend on what I do Sunday.”If it’s okay then I’ll probably stay around for a few extra days and get what batting I can. If it’s no good then I’ll probably go back home and join up with the guys before we head off to the Champions Trophy.”Michael Clarke captained Australia during their final two one-day internationals in the Caribbean and is again in charge against Bangladesh. The team could yet be without Matthew Hayden, who was named in the squad but is still recovering from an achilles tendon strain.

AB de Villiers shrugged off the disappointment of missing out on his seventh Test century, and instead took pleasure in England’s discomfort, after their apparently serene progression towards a consolation victory in the fourth Test at The Oval was interrupted by some doughty lower-order resistance. Having at one stage envisaged a target of little more than 100, England were left chasing an awkward 197, thanks to de Villiers’ 97 and a series-best 34 from Paul Harris.”Nineties like this, I don’t really count them,” said de Villiers. “Putting the team out of trouble is all I wanted to do, because I’m a team player and I always will be. My target was a lead of 250 for the boys, so I came up short by about 50 runs which was very disappointing, but my hundred wasn’t really an issue. To score 97 is as good as 150 today, and I’m very happy to have given the boys a chance to pull through.”De Villiers came to the crease early on the fourth day, following the dismissal of Jacques Kallis for 9, at which stage South Africa were precariously placed, with a slender lead of 16, and only six wickets remaining. Fearlessness, however, has been a hallmark of de Villiers’ cricket – as England well remember from his debut series against them in 2004-05.On that occasion, he was asked to open the batting, keep wicket, and bat as a specialist No. 6, all in the space of four furiously contested matches, but he maintained his composure throughout, and when he reverted to his original opener’s role for the final match of the rubber at Centurion, he signed off on his home ground with scores of 92 and 109, his maiden Test hundred.That experience, one suspects, has made de Villiers pretty phlegmatic about his cricket, and today he looked after his team by looking after No. 1 first and foremost. His approach to batting with the tail was lifted straight from the Steve Waugh manual, as the confidence he brought to his own innings rubbed off on his team-mate, Harris, with whom he added an invaluable 95 for the eighth wicket.”I knew after Harry got to 20-odd he was looking pretty comfortable at the wicket, so I gave him a bit of freedom to express himself, and back his ability,” said de Villiers. “He proved me right, because he batted well. He can definitely stick around, so I just waited for him to get to 10 or 15, and get comfortable. That’s when I started to focus on my own batting and get the runs where we could get them.”It was a tough test of Kevin Pietersen’s rookie captaincy, and on this occasion he didn’t quite nail his tactics, particularly when he called for the new ball yet posted only one slip when de Villiers was on strike. A wild swish whizzed through the vacant third slip for four, and the moment to break through was lost.

“They were pretty negative to me which was expected,” said de Villiers. “But it’s a tough one because the new ball goes pretty quickly off the bat and you can score 50 in no time if the fielders are in the wrong spaces. Then again, I saw just one or two slips, so I had a go outside off and it worked in my favour. As soon as they put a slip in there, it would have obviously have changed my gameplan.”De Villiers’ fine performance eventually came to an end when he lost his composure – and his leg stump – with Monty Panesar bowling into the leg-side rough. “It was disappointing to get out at that stage, but I wanted just to try and keep scoring,” he said. “We had Andre Nel at the other end who’s a real tailender, so I’d have liked to take most of the strike and keep the scoreboard ticking over.”Nevertheless, the target that South Africa have set is a sufficient challenge to leave England’s batsmen with one or two doubts in their minds overnight. “I’m happy with a 197 lead,” said de Villiers. “It’s given us a good chance tomorrow. Our bowlers haven’t really been where we know they can be in this series, and tomorrow would be a good time to hit their straps and bowl like we know they can. If we can get a couple of early ones, I don’t see why we can’t push through.”Nevertheless, England’s leading wicket-taker in the innings, Stuart Broad, remained optimistic about his side’s chances of wrapping up their consolation win. “The wicket was pretty good to bat on,” said Broad. “There was a bit in it for the seamers and Monty [Panesar] but doesn’t deteriorate massively. It’s also a quick-scoring ground, so if we get our heads down we should knock it off.”Though Broad’s figures of 3 for 44 were unremarkable, they were nonetheless his best to date in Test cricket, and another small progression in a year in which his international career has really begun to take off. Though he missed the last Test at Edgbaston because he was jaded, his return as part of a five-man attack has enabled him to bed into the junior allrounder role, and has removed that extra pressure to take wickets that had hampered him during the early part of the summer.”You get more of a role in a four-man attack, but right now I’m being used as the fourth seamer in a five-man attack and that’s about creating pressure to get my wickets,” he said. “I’m thoroughly enjoying it, and though I’d love to become a strike bowler and a new-ball bowler for England, you’ve got to earn that right. There’s always a starting place, so hopefully I’ll start to nip out a few wickets and move up the pecking order a bit.”Some sympathetic handling from his new captain, Pietersen, has also aided his development. Broad was called back into the attack towards the end of South Africa’s first innings – when the obvious option would have been James Anderson or Steve Harmison – and he responded with two quick scalps. Today, he performed the same trick, with two in 11 balls, to once again bring an end to South Africa’s resistance.”I’m pleased to have picked up five wickets in the game, and I hope that’ll get me on a bit of a role,” he said. “I’m due a haul at some stage, so hopefully that’ll come next year. What has stood me in good stead, though, is that after 10 ODIs I had about five wickets, and I was thinking how am I going to get international wickets? But after 30 I’ve got 40-odd now. I’m used to not taking wickets at the start of my international career, so I’m not panicking. Today is a start.”

Drop of the day
Jamie How tried to pull James Anderson on 4, the ball looping andskying to where a short fine leg would have positioned himself.England’s diminutive little wicketkeeper, Tim Ambrose, joggedbackwards quickly and made excellent ground, steadying himself all thewhile. The ball plopped into his gloves, panged off the middle fingerof his right hand, and plopped out again. England’s body languagehuffed disappointment and anger, as Ambrose plodded and moped,doubtless realising there were 46 more overs left in New Zealand’sinnings. Fortunately for him, How only lasted another four overs.Bat-snapping of the day
Several years ago Michael Atherton, the former England captain,wondered why someone couldn’t do the honourable, justifiable thing andbreak Glenn McGrath’s arm. It was a perfectly reasonable request,never more so when considering McGrath had dismissed him a record 19times. A similar tactic was employed today by Anderson, thoughchoosing to snap Brendon McCullum’s bat, not his arm. McCullum hadonly nudged the ball to midwicket yet the blade almost split in two,hanging on by the bat’s thin outer covering. Perhaps the replacementdidn’t feel right for McCullum, as he fell in Anderson’s next over,edging to first slip. “That’s the sign of a bat that has been kept fortoo long in a dry place,” Atherton noted. Perhaps he should havelocked McGrath in a greenhouse.Rookie mistake of the day
Welcome to captaincy, Kevin. Jacob Oram had calmly, almost anonymouslymoved onto 36 from 34 balls, and together with Scott Styris helped NewZealand recover from 124 for 4. Pietersen’s decision to stick withOwais Shah’s only occasional offbreaks, rather than the greaterability of Ravi Bopara’s nagging seamers, raised a few eyebrows, notto mention the spirits of the outnumbered New Zealand fans. Oramheaved him into the Mound Stand over midwicket before opening hisshoulders and depositing another six into the Edrich Stand to bring upa brutal fifty from 37 balls. Pietersen’s said yesterday that he would”be smoking a cigar at mid-off” if they achieved all their goals, butthere wasn’t hope of him even enjoying a spivvy little roll-up withOram (and later Stryis) threatening as they were.Completely in, emphatically out
It is nothing short of perplexing watching Ian Bell attempt to asserthimself. He began England’s chase in silky, oozy fashion, flickingKyle Mills for two beautifully timed fours through midwicket.Immediately, he showed his intent, class and authority at the crease,and he continued in the same vain against Mills later in his inningswhen he stood tall to drive him crisply off the back foot. The moresettled he looks, the more complacent he becomes, the greater theinfuriation for his fans. Rather predictably, on 27 he walked acrosshis stumps to Mark Gillespie and that was that; a soupcon of aninnings, once again leaving England impatiently hungry for more.

The form book was well and truly thrown out of the window in the fourth round of the ICC World Cricket League Division Five as Singapore blew Group B wide open with a 69-run win over Afghanistan. With Jersey, USA and Nepal booking their semi-final places, it left Afghanistan and Singapore battling for the remaining spot.Afghanistan had been expected to maintain their unbeaten record against Singapore and, in a 30-over match, they appeared to be on course when they bowled Singapore out for 145. But in reply Afghanistan were skittled for 76, Chris Janik producing outstanding figures of 5 for 9 off just 3.2 overs.”It feels great, although it is all about the team. Afghanistan don’t lose every single game so it is a great win for us, especially since the game yesterday was rained off” Janik said adding “for a small country like Singapore with four million people it would be absolutely fantastic for us [to reach WCL Division Four]”.Taj Malik, coach of the Afghanistan team was extremely disappointed with the performance and believed the damp Jersey conditions were unfavourable to his side. “The weather has caused a lot of problems for us. We are never sure when we will start and whether the matches are reduced in overs,” said Malik. “The weather is the enemy of the Afghanistan cricket team.”But he still believes that his side is capable of qualifying for the semi-finals, although they will face a massive test against Jersey tomorrow knowing that even a win will not guarantee them a place in the top four. “I have told the guys they are still in the tournament and if we want to get a place in the semi-final then tomorrow is do or die.”The equation is further complicated by the washout of Singapore’s game against Japan on Sunday which might be replayed on Thursday, the official rest day.In other matches today, USA skipper Steve Massiah helped his side into the semi-finals of the competition with a solid all-round performance. Massiah was in excellent form with both bat and ball in a comprehensive six-wicket win over Germany to ensure that his side remains unbeaten at this event. Bowling first USA dismissed Germany for 104, with Massiah taking 2 for 11, before they reached their target with 4.5 overs to spare in a 33-over per side game.Nepal joined the USA in ensuring a top two place in Group A with a comfortable 137-run win over Vanuatu, although once again it may have been slightly disappointed with its batting performance. Mahesh Chhetri made 65 and Mahaboob Alam scored 34 as Nepal struggled to reach 220 for 9 in 46 overs in another game which had been reduced due to a delayed start. But once again Nepal’s bowling helped them recover and they never looked in any trouble as they bowled out Vanuatu for 83, with Paras Khadka the pick of the bowlers with 3 for 26. Nepal play the USA tomorrow to decide who finishes top of Group A.In Group B, Ryan Driver and Peter Gough were the heroes for Jersey as they coasted to a seven-wicket win over Botswana. “Four out of four … I couldn’t ask for anything more. We’ve got Afghanistan next so I hope we keep our winning run going and make it five from five,” said skipper Matt Hague. Another disciplined bowling performance, which saw Ryan Driver (3 for 10), Tony Carlyon (2 for 12) and Andy Dewhurst (2 for 19) share the wickets, dismissed Botswana for 66. And although Jersey didn’t look entirely comfortable, Peter Gough’s outstanding run with the bat continued as he made an unbeaten 39 not out.Hague admitted that he was looking forward to the challenge of taking on Afghanistan but believed his side had nothing to be afraid of. “We haven’t looked at them that much but looking at their scores they seem to quite go quite hard, but we fear nobody at the moment,” he said.There was a thrilling tie between Japan and Bahamas in another game which was reduced overs due to bad weather, with Japan narrowly failing to reach their target of 116 with a run out off the final ball of the match as they desperately tried to gain the second run that would have sealed the win.Mozambique registered an outstanding win over Norway by three wickets to gain their first victory of the tournament.

The final of the Kitply Cup is almost certainly going to be India v someone else, unless India crash to defeat by an inconceivable margin of more than 218 runs against Bangladesh on Thursday. It provides the team management with the ideal opportunity to give tired squad members a break, provide opportunities to new faces, and tinker with team combination.The usual argument in favour of rest and rotation is that of player burnout, the packed international schedule made even more demanding by the Indian Premier League. It is a valid point for India’s one-day outfit was involved in a long tri-series in Australia before the IPL. Some of them even played the home Tests against South Africa in energy-sapping heat. Weather conditions in Dhaka are humid and future fixtures – the Asia Cup in Pakistan and the tour of Sri Lanka – will be equally taxing. A counter-argument is that the squad is young and most of the players can meet the demands. That may be true but all these matches add up and eventually a player may have to take a forced break. Prevention is better than the proverbial cure.The other argument for rotation is to gradually increase experience levels of the bench strength by giving them international exposure. Only then will they be able to slot in seamlessly if one of the regular 11 picks up an injury.”I think that’s the reason the selectors have chosen a pretty young side for this tournament,” Gary Kirsten, the India coach, said. “It’s going to be important as we move on in the years to have a group of 15-20 players, who are equally good enough to play for India. With the demands on the players and the heat that they play in, we are going to have to rest players. We’re going to have to think carefully about how we do that.”Two players who have strong cases for rest are Ishant Sharma and Mahendra singh Dhoni. Ishant has been a precious addition to India’s fast bowling arsenal, a rare fast bowler who can unsettle the batsman with pace, and his value to the Test team is far greater than what he offers to the one-day side. Ishant missed the first two Tests against South Africa because of injury but recovered for the third, after which he played 13 out of 14 Twenty20 games for the Kolkata Knight Riders. During India’s Kitply Cup opener against Pakistan, Ishant showed discomfort when his knee hit the ground after completing a catch. Perhaps deploying his skills in Tests and key one-day fixtures is the way forward. Resting him once in a while will give newcomers like Manpreet Gony the chance to make it on the international circuit.The other player who, in public opinion at least, seems in need of a break is Dhoni. Before the home series against South Africa began, he had played 47 one-dayers, 11 Tests and eight Twenty20s – 105 days of international cricket – in a span of 15 months. Since then he played all three Tests against South Africa and the entire IPL though he did not keep wicket for the majority of the tournament because of a finger injury.However, after the win against Pakistan on Tuesday, Dhoni said the hectic playing schedule had to be accepted. “It is part and parcel of our profession,” he said. “Till you are fit, you will love to play this game. You get addicted to it. For a cricketer no other addiction is bigger than playing cricket.”Kirsten, however, said there is a longer plan. “We are going to look at every player individually and see if there’s an opportunity for him to be rested. It’s a long year so we’ll look at opportunities [for resting players] through the year. At this stage there is no plan from MS’s [Dhoni] side to rest. He’s very keen to captain this one-day team and take it to more success. So there’s nothing planned as yet.”That Dhoni wasn’t keen on resting was evident from the squads chosen for the Kitply and Asia Cups. With Dinesh Karthik being dropped, Dhoni is the only wicketkeeper in the squad, which means he is likely to play each and every game. That is, unless, he picks up an injury.

Robert Key is aiming to enjoy his first one-day series in England blues in the hope of upping the scoring tempo for the remaining two Test matches of the Ashes series.Key believes the less strict format of the triangular series with Australia and Sri Lanka may help to develop a fresh approach for the Tests at Melbourne and Sydney over Christmas and New Year.”I’m going to go out there to enjoy it, try a few things out that you don’t get the chance to do in Test cricket and hopefully if we take them into the Tests it might work,” said Key, who has joined the one-day squad in Sydney while Michael Vaughan rests his sore right knee.”They’re a really good side, but all they do is the basics really well. They don’t run up and bowl magic balls at you, they bowl outside off stump and they don’t let you score a run.”They are good but it’s their discipline that counts. None of their bowlers run up and bowl big outswingers, they know exactly how to bowl and set the fields according to how each of them bowls and their discipline and their basics are what it is all about.”They bowl in a decent place and give themselves a chance of getting you out – they very rarely bowl you a bad ball. There are ways to combat someone bowling outside off stump, leaving it and things like that, because it’s not as if you’re out there wondering how you’re going to survive, you’re just wondering how you’re going to score.”England captain Nasser Hussain tried unsuccessfully to charge Glenn McGrath in the Perth test, while Key was trapped leg before walking across his stumps.Nasser tried it a bit when I was batting with him in the last Test whenMcGrath just wasn’t bowling a bad ball,” explained Key. “He started running at him and I tried walking across a couple of times but I was out lbw – you have to work on a couple of things just to try and break up his rhythm.”I enjoy one-day cricket because it gives you a chance to play your shots a bit more, particularly against these boys when you’re fighting for every run, leaving a lot and deciding whether or not to have a go.”Sometimes you can’t wait for a bad ball out here and you have to try and make something out of nothing. This is a good chance to try a few things and possibly take things into the Test series.”England’s build-up for the first section of the one-day series – matches against Australia in Sydney and Melbourne, and against Sri Lanka in Brisbane and Perth – with day-nighters against strong New South Wales and Australia A sides at the SCG over the next few days.”After being beaten pretty comprehensively in three games it gives us a chance to get out there and get a few wins and get something positive to look at rather than almost drowning your sorrows,” admitted Key.”This will hopefully give us the chance to get a bit of confidence. It’s my first tour, but I just find it a bit bizarre to play a one-day series in the middle of a Test series. I suppose it’s come at quite a good time where we can come away with something positive – if we play well in this series it can only do us good going into the last two Tests.”Admirer of the Australian side though he may be, Key admits to being less impressed by the standards of the sledging dished out to him during the last two Tests.”Steve Waugh called it mental disintegration, but I wouldn’t call it that – they’re just talking rubbish most of the time,” Key said. “I quite enjoy all the banter.”When they start getting at you I try and stare them down or try and come back with something if I’ve got something decent stored up. They’re no different from anyone really. They might be the best team in the world but their sledging’s pretty ordinary.”England will practice under lights tomorrow before Friday’s match against a New South Wales line-up which includes seven players with Test experience for Australia, including McGrath, both Waugh brothers, Brett Lee and Stuart MacGill.

One of the best teams in cricket history playing against an injury-hit England squad which has fumbled through its warm-up matches wouldn’t normally point to an enthralling summer.But it’s the Ashes – and that is why fans will pack grounds around the country.While those close to the Australian team are wary of writing off England, among those preparing to take their places in the stands to watch their heroes, it’s a different story.Australian cricket fans are gearing up to have another go at the Poms, while British expats and the Barmy Army hordes puff their chests out and begin sentences like: “Well you never know, we just might…”.Then they stop and, as if realising the absurdity of what they are about to say, mutter with familiar self-deprecating humour something about fully expecting to get soundly thrashed.With world champion Australia on home soil chasing an eighth consecutive Ashes series, fans may have little doubt about the outcome but they still want to be there.Former Test great Alan Davidson, NSW Cricket’s long-serving president, says the Sydney Cricket Ground has already recorded unprecedented figures for people wanting reserve seats at the fifth and final Test.So what is it about the Ashes that it can still pull such big and passionate crowds.”I think basically England-Australia in Test matches have always had that special significance,” says Davidson, who played his first Test at Trent Bridge on Australia’s Ashes tour of England in 1953.”It’s this little colony that had the hide to take on England at a game which was started in England and the pupils, I suppose you could call us, have taken on the masters and we’ve beaten the masters.”Now the Australians are the masters and England has not won an Ashes series since 1986-87.People love to watch winners and this Australian side has proven time and again that it’s the best in the world.But it hasn’t always been this way. Australia is some way from dominating Ashes cricket overall.Of 61 series played, Australia has won 29 and England 26 with six draws.Australia has won 121 of the 301 Tests between the nations with England winning 94 and 86 drawn matches.And there have been significant periods when England has been on top.In 1953, England wrested back the urn to break an Australian stronghold on the trophy dating back to the 1930s.Australia had to wait until its summer of 1958-59 to reclaim the honours and went overseas in 1961 determined to beat England on its home soil, which it did.There is something else that gives The Ashes its mystique and inspires the young to dream.”My grandfather on my mother’s side one day showed me a photograph of the ship taking our team to England in 1938,” Davidson says.”I was nine at the time and I said, ‘well one day I will, Grandad.'”A sport and rivalry steeped so firmly in tradition inspires the desire to emulate past heroes like no other competition.”What made Australia during The Depression, when things were at their toughest? There was a horse called Phar Lap and a bloke called Bradman,” Davidson says.There is no greater Australian hero than Don Bradman – the man whose astounding talent prompted England to resort to leg-theory in a bid to stop him, resulting in the infamous Bodyline series of 1932-33.Davidson remembers watching the fifth Ashes Test of 1946-47 in Sydney as a teenager.”I actually wagged school and went with my uncle down to watch the Test match,” he says.”I saw Bradman score 12 runs and, whilst it was a very modest score for him, it was amazing … I don’t recall a shot that he played but I do remember how he used his feet.”While Australian-English relations had long since recovered by the time of that Test match, Bodyline will never be forgotten.The game has changed, the names have changed.But, with another breed of heroes to worship, Australian punters are set to relish a fresh tilt at the old enemy.

ARL spinners Alamgir Khan and Sohail Tanveer restricted Saga to just 200 in their first innings on the first day of their Kardar Trophy match at ARL Ground here Thursday.Alamgir, bowling to a fine line and length, picked up five for 66 while Sohail proved equally good with the ball, conceding 67 runs for his four wickets.Shahzad Malik was the main scorer for Saga with 65, followed by Ashraf Ali who hit 45.In reply, ARL were 138 for four at the close of play, strike bowler Tahir Mughal inflicting the early damage with three for 43.Asim Butt and Manzoor Ali were together at the crease having collected 24 and 29 runs respectively.Centuries by opener Hasnain Alam (108) and Zia-ul-Haq (101) helped Army reach 385 in their first innings against PTV at Pindi Club Ground.Shiraz Khalid also batted well to contribute 61 while Ahmed Shah scored 47.Slow left-armer Nadeem Sikander captured six for 121 in 30.5 overs.PTV, in reply, were eight for no wicket in as many overs at stumps.Our Sports Reporter adds from Karachi: A superb opening partnership of 129 between Ali Hussain (87) and Mohammad Hafeez (84) led Sui Gas to a reasonable 293 for nine in their first innings against Karachi Port Trust (KPT) at UBL Sports Complex.KPT were 12 for no wicket at draw of stumps.Left-arm spinner Mohammad Sarfraz claimed five for 60 as Navy restricted Pakistan Education Board (PEB) to 210 for eight in the game at PCB Regional Academy Ground.Navy reached 42 for one at close of play.Pakistan Air Force (PAF) did well to curtail a strong KESC side to only 243 in their first innings at National Stadium.KESC, in fact, struggled for most of the day and only managed to recover thanks to a robust knock of 54 by tailender Tabish Khan.Tabish, who recently represented Karachi Whites in the National Under-19 Cricket Championship, slammed six fours and one six in his 44-ball innings.Wicket-keeper Amin-ur-Rehman was the other major scorer. He made 42 off 43 balls with the aid of four fours and a six.Mohammad Riaz, the slow left-armer, was the pick of PAF’s bowlers by returning splendid analysis of five for 89 in 34.1 overs.The airmen lost opener Shahid Khan cheaply to end the day on 22 for one.

Oran Bristol yesterday advanced to the final of the Barbados Fire & Commercial Shield competition amidst some heated discussion and debate after their victory over Malvern.Bristol will have to wait to see who their opponents will be as the other semi between Wotton and Piton Dover will have to be replayed because play could not resume after rain fell.Malvern 188 in 39.4 overs lost to Bristol 155-2 in 30 overs by virtue of faster scoring rate.At Old Coleridge: Bristol outplayed the visitors, but at the end the Malvern camp left promising to protest the result after they were surprised when light was offered to the batsmen at 5:30 p.m.Bristol were making light work of their target with Man-Of-The-Match Norton Thompson paving the way with a polished 68 not out. He added an unbroken third-wicket stand of 40 with Michael Shepherd (24 not out).The umpires offered light and the Bristol batsmen accepted, thereby securing the victory and giving their supporters much to shout about.Bristol were scoring at 5.16 runs per over when the match concluded ahead of Malvern’s rate of 4.7 per over. Midway in the Bristol innings there was a break for rain but the officials did not revise the target and this seems to be the "major beef" for Malvern.Rule 21 governing the competition states: If the team batting second has not had the opportunity to complete the agreed number of overs and has neither been bowled out nor passed the opponents score, the following shall apply, provided that at least 15 overs have been bowled:1. The result shall be decided on the run rate throughout each innings and the team with the higher run rate shall be the winners.2. If, due to a suspension of play, the number of overs in the innings of the team batting second has to be revised, their target shall be calculated by multiplying the revised number of overs (this includes overs before interruption) by the run rate of the team batting first.There was no stopping Thompson, who added 59 for the first wicket with Owen Skeete (24), and 56 for the second wicket with skipper David Carrington (26).Earlier, play started 30 minutes late due to rain and Malvern were kept in check by John Greaves, who bagged three for 33.Jefferson Goodridge topscored with 34, and former Division 1 batsman Kirk Clarke chipped in with 27. Ivor Holligan made 22 not out at the bottom of the innings.Wotton 171-6 in 38 overs vs Piton DoverAt Wotton: A spot at the southern end of the pitch forced the umpires to call off the match at 3:30 p.m. before defending champions Dover could start their reply.The umpires decided to abandon the contest after seepage under the covers from rain during the lunch break.The match was dubbed the "Christ Church Derby" but both sides left the ground contented with the officials’ verdict and will be looking forward to the rematch.A hard-hitting 64 not out by Leon Layne kept the Wotton innings together. The former YMPC batsman hit four fours and four sixes off just 68 balls before a large crowd as Wotton left Dover requiring 4.5 runs per over.