India's tour of England

First Test, Lord's, day four:
England 487 & 301-6 dec; India 221 & 232-6.

Duncan Fletcher praised his young bowlers after they put England in complete control of the first Test against India on day three at Lord's. Three wickets from Matthew Hoggard on a sweltering Sunday afternoon in London pushed England to the brink of victory with a full day to play.

In Hoggard's key over, he produced an inswinger to bowl Sachin Tendulkar off his pads for 12 to claim his 50th Test wicket, before having Sourav Ganguly lbw for a golden duck next ball.

Ganguly was unlucky since the ball clearly pitched outside leg stump, but India were outplayed fair and square yet again.

Michael Vaughan and John Crawley had earlier scored centuries as England declared their second innings on 301-6 to set the tourists a massive 568 to win.

India's openers responded positively and Virender Sehwag hammered a flurry of boundaries after being dropped on three by Nasser Hussain at third slip off the bowling of Andrew Flintoff.

Match report | Images | Scorecard

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India's management reacted angrily after a spectator ran onto the pitch to accompany Sachin Tendulkar back to the pavilion after the batsman had been dismissed at Lord's.

Spokesman Ranga Reddy called for security to be tightened to prevent the possibility of a player being assaulted.

"We feel that this sort of thing cannot take place - it is unacceptable," said Reddy. "Somebody should have intercepted this man and taken him away, something a lot more serious could have happened.

"Maybe he was drunk and wanted to pay homage to the greatest batsman in the world. "But what if it had been someone else and he had been assaulted with a knife. Naturally Sachin feels bitter about the incident.

"Our biggest worry about this incident is that Sachin is the man with the highest profile in India and is on the hit list of the terrorists and we've already asked the ECB for better protection.

"After today we will be asking them again about that because it was very worrying."

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England pace bowler Matthew Hoggard expressed relief at his return to form in the first Test against India at Lord's after a poor start to the summer.

Hoggard was criticised after an uninspired performance against Sri Lanka at Lord's two months ago, but England resisted calls to drop the Yorkshire seamer.

He repaid their faith by taking seven wickets in the second Test against Sri Lanka at Edgbaston.

And he battled his way back to his best to take the crucial wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly in successive balls and take a third wicket on day four of the first Test against India at Lord's.

"It's always nice to get Tendulkar, every time he comes out to bat he's a threat and he can take the game away from you," Hoggard said.

"I am not a big man for statistics - I never think 'this man's got thousands of runs or this man hasn't' because every dog has its day and hopefully it's going to be our day again tomorrow.

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England's injury worries took a turn for the worse with the news that Mark Butcher's knee operation appears to have been unsuccessful.

The batsman underwent keyhole surgery following the final Test against Sri Lanka last month in the hope of curing his long-term problem in time for the India series.

But Butcher told: "The knee is only average, it's still sore. The problem I've had for some time is still there and it's a concern.

"The operation I had didn't really find anything and I don't know what the next step is.

"I can play at the moment, but I can't run flat out. I am waiting to hear what the management think should be the next step."

Bangladesh in Sri Lanka

Second Test, Colombo, day four:
Sri Lanka 301-8 v Bangladesh

Two wickets late on gave Bangladesh a massive boost in this interesting Test at the Sinhalese Sports Ground, featuring three debutants on each side.

Captain Sanath Jayasuriya hit an entertaining 85 off 84 balls, batting down the order at number five.

But when he fell in the 72nd over of the day when the score was 260-4, Sri Lanka lost four wickets for 38.

Bangladesh skipper Khaled Mashud won the toss and elected to field first but had to wait until the 16th over for a wicket.

Miscellaneous

Pakistan's star off-spinner, Saqlain Mushtaq may not feature in Pakistan's bowling attack when the team takes part in the triangular one-day tournament in Kenya starting August 29.

Saqlain, who is presently appearing for Surrey in the English county championship, is reported to have conveyed to the Pakistan team management that due to his wife's pregnancy he wanted to skip the series in Nairobi in which Australia and Kenya would be involved.

Quoting sources reports that Saqlain has conveyed that while he would be available for the triangular tournament in Tangier, Morocco, scheduled from August 12, he wanted to skip the Nairobi event.

'The Pakistan management will discuss the matter with the national selectors and the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Lieutenant General Tauqir Zia this week to take a final decision,' quoted sources as saying.

In passing

Laxman was given the Wisden Award for the Best Batting Performance of the Century, for his knock of 281 against Australia in Kolkata in 2001.

Isn't the year 2001 part of this century and not the last? Did Wisden add an extra year to its century? Can somebody explain this?

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