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Karnataka have already won this year’s Ranji Trophy and Irani Cup, and are now in the semi-finals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Their captain Vinay Kumar has been instrumental to their success, taking 17 wickets in the Ranji knockout stage and a ten-wicket haul in the Irani Cup.Vinay has backed that up with 23 wickets at 10.30 to top the Vijay Hazare bowling charts. “I would say I’m at my best at the moment. I am happy with the way I’m performing,” Vinay said on the eve of Karnataka’s Vijay Hazare Trophy semi-final against Jharkhand.After a difficult one-day series against Australia last year, Vinay lost his place in the national team but was hopeful of making a comeback. “I’ve been performing well in whatever matches I played. Be it Ranji or Irani, I’ve been doing well. The rest is up to the selectors. Every match is important for me and I want to contribute in our team’s win.”The pitches in the Vijay Hazare Trophy knockout phase have been favourable to seamers, which Vinay felt would prepare batsmen for overseas conditions. “It’s challenging for batsmen where they can improve their batting. When we go abroad, these kind of wickets will definitely help them perform really well. If we play 10 games, we get these kind of wickets in only one or two games.”

West Indies fast bowler Kemar Roach has escaped serious injury following a car accident early on Saturday morning in his native Barbados.Roach, 25, crashed his BMW sedan after losing control due to slippery road conditions at traffic lights near Wanstead Drive, just outside Bridgetown. According to local reports, the car flipped several times before landing in the 3Ws Park, approximately half a mile from the 3Ws Oval.Two wheels of the vehicle were broken off and the airbags deployed reports stated. Roach sustained a head wound but appeared coherent as he was taken by ambulance from the scene.Roach took to Twitter a few hours later after the accident to reveal to follows that he was recovering and in good health. “Sorry To Scare My Friends, Family And Fans But I’m Straight! Thanks For The Love! #BlessUp.”Inspector David Welch confirmed that police responded to the incident but divulged that further details could not be given since the investigating officers were still gathering information.Roach has played 23 Tests and 61 One-Day Internationals but has not appeared up for West Indies in nearly a year because of injury.

USA Cricket Association chief executive Darren Beazley has resigned after just 14 months in the role. USACA announced in a press release on Tuesday that Beazley was stepping down in order to return to his native Australia where he will take up a position as the chief executive of Swimming Western Australia.Beazley’s initial contract was for three years, but his tenure was six months shorter than his predecessor Don Lockerbie, who lasted 20 months before being fired in November 2010 for reasons USACA has never stated.”I wish all involved with US cricket the very best for the future and look forward to watching the progress of the sport in the coming years at all levels,” Beazley said.Sources have indicated that the lack of support from the USACA board of directors to implement sweeping governance changes to USACA’s administrative structure played a role in his seeking to leave USACA and return to Australia. Beazley went on a nationwide tour in October 2013 along with ICC global development manager Tim Anderson to campaign for support to back recommendations from an independent governance review by TSE Consulting.Key recommendations from the review were to reduce the size of the current USACA board, cut their power in half and give that 50% to independent directors. There were also recommendations for establishing term limits for board members, redefine membership categories and introduce athlete representation on the board.However, a decision was taken at USACA’s AGM in November to postpone any move to implement the changes. Instead, a governance implementation committee was announced with any changes being delayed until at least the summer of 2014.Beazley’s resignation also comes in the wake of damning financial data made public last month that USACA was more than $3 million in debt at the end of the 2012 tax year. The returns showed a 47% decline in membership revenue from 2011 as member leagues revolted after the controversial 2012 USACA elections in which 32 out of 47 member leagues were disenfranchised.USACA is also under increasing pressure from the American Cricket Federationn (ACF), which was formed in the wake of the 2012 election. Many member leagues have defected for the ACF including the largest league in America, New York’s Commonwealth Cricket League.Beazley had strong ties with Anderson and ICC top brass in Dubai but his departure may be the last straw for USACA in a series of administrative missteps. USA now faces the very real threat of a third administrative suspension by the ICC in the last decade.

ScorecardWill Gidman finished with nine wickets in the match•Getty Images

Rain and a defiant last-wicket stand combined to thwart Gloucestershire’s victory bid on the final day of their Championship Division Two clash against Glamorgan in Cardiff.The visitors appeared as though they might snatch an last-gasp win, despite the weather, as Glamorgan slipped to 126 for 9 with Will Gidman (6 for 50) cutting a swathe through the order. At that point Glamorgan led by just 40 with just enough time left in the game for Gloucestershire to push on for the win.But a defiant 20-run last-wicket stand between Michael Hogan and Dean Cosker held the away charge back for long enough to see out the day and ensure Glamorgan escaped with a draw.The weather allowed just 30 overs of play on the final day, with an hour possible before lunch following a noon start. That was enough time for Glamorgan, who started the day precariously placed at 80 for 3, to lose three more wickets and fall into deeper trouble.The impressive Gidman struck an early blow, bowling Murray Goodwin for 32, and the score was still on 90 when Jim Allenby followed for a duck. Allenby edged Gidman to his brother Alex at first slip before slow left-armer Tom Smith captured the key wicket of Will Bragg.Bragg had moved to 43 as the lynchpin of Glamorgan’s innings, but when he was caught down the leg side by wicketkeeper Cameron Herring, it left skipper Mark Wallace and Graham Wagg to avoid further damage.After lunch the rain reprieved them until 4.45pm – with the score on 118 for 6 – before umpires Martin Bodenham and Nigel Llong eventually decided that play could resume.On the resumption, Glamorgan were soon sweating as Will Gidman struck twice in the same over. Wagg made just 1 before he was caught by Michael Klinger, then the right-armer struck again with his next delivery as Ruaidhri Smith edged to Herring.Although he was denied a hat-trick, Will Gidman then saw Wallace caught by Herring for 15, leaving Glamorgan reeling on 126 for 9. But Hogan and Cosker successfully shut up shop during almost eight overs of frustration for Gloucestershire’s bowlers.Gloucestershire, who were beaten by Hampshire in their opening championship match, took nine points from the game, with Glamorgan collecting eight.

Lou Vincent will be charged with fixing offences under the anti-corruption code of the Champions League Twenty20 tournament, jointly administered by the governing bodies of India, Australia and South Africa.ESPNcricinfo understands the charges will relate to Vincent’s appearances for the Auckland Aces at both the 2011 edition of the tournament, held in India, and the 2012 event in South Africa.Auckland lost both of their qualifying matches in 2011 but reached the main draw the following year, with Vincent taking part in every match.The charges, reportedly being prepared by Cricket Australia’s general manager of legal and business affairs and Champions League technical director Dean Kino, are expected to be formally laid next month after the conclusion of the IPL.They will follow the revelation that the ECB has charged Vincent and a fellow former Sussex team-mate, Naved Arif, with fixing offences for a county limited-overs match in August 2011.Vincent’s charges are the first fruit of a long-running investigation conducted jointly by the ICC’s anti-corruption and security unit, in conjunction with integrity officials in England, Australia and India.Under its present code, the ACSU is not permitted to fully pursue investigations or initiate charges against players for offences related to domestic matches in any format, leaving the onus upon boards responsible for the tournaments in which alleged offences have taken place to do so.CLT20 charges against Vincent will not be formally announced, as the tournament’s anti-corruption code forbids the publication of charges or the naming of “participants” until the case has been heard by a disciplinary committee and a finding reached.This clause is in line with the anti-corruption codes of Cricket Australia, the BCCI and the ICC, which all stipulate that players are not to be officially named until the case has been concluded. The ECB’s anti-corruption code states that a name can be released when the charge has been laid.After news of the charges laid by the ECB, Vincent issued a statement through his lawyer acknowledging that further charges were likely and saying it proved he had not made any plea-bargains with the ICC.”The fact of the charges, and more are likely, dispel any notions of a plea bargain having been done as unfortunately appears to be wrongly suggested by others.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsKane Williamson brought up his seventh Test hundred and highest Test score•WICB

Kane Williamson was at his meticulous best. His seventh Test century took his series tally past 400 and guided New Zealand into a commanding position. The visitors stretched their lead to 307 and, with the fourth-day Kensington Oval pitch showing signs of variable bounce, West Indies’ hopes would have started to dwindle. A sharp downpour either side of tea forced play to end early and was the only menace to New Zealand’s hopes of a series win.Memories of Dunedin might tempt New Zealand to declare overnight considering weather is likely to intervene on the final day as well, with scattered showers predicted.The West Indies bowlers struggled to pose much threat with the old ball. Turn was on offer but it was slow. Their desperation was best depicted when the new ball was taken and Jerome Taylor was seen talking to it, as if cajoling it would fetch him his first wicket of the match. His plea did work, but the benefactor was Kemar Roach who claimed his 100th Test wicket by dismissing BJ Watling. However, it was the batsman at the other end who sapped them of their energy.Williamson had to defuse a tricky situation last evening and those skills were needed once again. He was the common denominator in all four of New Zealand’s half-century partnerships. Soft hands were a feature of his play as he buckled down; decisive footwork got him into positions that allowed him to tackle extra turn or low bounce. He did not go chasing for runs. They came when the bowlers fed his strengths – behind square on the off side and through midwicket – to contribute to 95 of his 161.He had begun with two fours off his first seven balls before settling into his designated role of sheet anchor. As familiar as that has become for New Zealand, it doesn’t happen often during the second innings. In his last ten second-inning knocks, Williamson had four fifties but the remainder had all been single figures. However, his ability to focus on the next ball helped both him and his side to gain a solid foothold into securing the series. He also joined Martin Crowe at the top of the list of centuries made by New Zealand batsmen by the age of 24.West Indies had bet on the pitch misbehaving as well and utilised spin for much of the morning session. However, Jimmy Neesham did not let them settle. His second half-century of the match was characterised by confident footwork and clean hits, especially down the ground. Neesham’s fluency melded with Williamson’s composure and their 91-run stand completely offset the loss of an early wicket.Brendon McCullum had not looked authoritative and was trapped leg before by an in-dipper from Roach. But aside from that West Indies lacked intensity for much of the morning session. Shane Shillingford, stripped of his doosra, traveled at 4.5 per over. Sulieman Benn managed only one maiden out of 26 overs. Their woes were compounded when Darren Bravo sustained a nasty blow to his hand at forward short leg, when Williamson went for a pull, and was not seen since.

India squad for England limited-overs series’

MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Stuart Binny, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Mohit Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, Umesh Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Sanju Samson (wk), Karn Sharma

Uncapped Kerala wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson and Railways leg-spin-bowling allrounder Karn Sharma have been named in India’s 17-man squad for the five ODIs and one-off Twenty20 against England.Mumbai seamer Dhawal Kulkarni, who was picked in the ODI squad for the home series against West Indies last year but was then ruled out with injury, has been included.Suresh Raina, who was dropped from the ODI squad for the Asia Cup but led a second-string team to Bangladesh in June, also makes the 17. Fast bowlers Mohit Sharma and Umesh Yadav have also been retained from the squad which played in Bangladesh, while legspinner Amit Mishra misses out due to injury.”Only Amit Mishra had been ruled out of selection since he is undergoing treatment and rehab following a back injury,” BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel said, after the squad was announced. “Considering the World Cup, the management as well as the selectors have put more emphasis on selecting some of the youngsters like Sanju Samson, Mohit Sharma, Stuart Binny and Karn Sharma.”Samson, 19, was part of the India Under-19 team at the World Cup earlier this year, and had also impressed with his clean hitting and solid temperament for Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2014. He finished as India A’s highest run-scorer in the recently-concluded quadrangular one-day series in Australia, with 244 runs from seven innings at an average of 81.33.He kicked off the quadrangular with 81 against Australia A, after coming in with his team at 70 for 4 – and then 84 for 6 – in a chase of 253. He brought down the equation to 29 needed off 23 before he was the last man out. While he couldn’t get the team home in that game, later on in the tournament he took them all the way in successive chases with unbeaten scores of 55 and 49.Kulkarni was the leading wicket-taker in the quadrangular, with 14 scalps in six matches at 18.78, including a five-wicket haul and an impressive economy rate of 4.61. Karn was also part of the India A squad for the series. While he got only three games there, he managed to give a glimpse of his batting skills against South Africa A, hitting 39 off 16 to take India A across the line in a nail-biting chase. He was quite effective with the ball for Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2014, with 15 wickets at 25.06.With Mishra – India’s first-choice legspinner of late – being ruled out, Karn will provide MS Dhoni with the leg-spin option. The selectors have included him as the third spinner in the squad anticipating that an additional spinner may be required during the series as it will be played towards the end of English summer when the pitches start assisting the slow bowlers.Stuart Binny, who took a record-breaking 6 for 4 – the best bowling figures by an Indian in ODIs – in the Bangladesh series, stays on as the pace-bowling-allrounder, but Test-specialist Cheteshwar Pujara, who also featured in that series, misses out.The first of the five ODIs will be played in Bristol on August 25, with matches in Cardiff, Nottingham, Birmingham and Leeds following. The T20 will be played in Birmingham on September 7, rounding off India’s 10-week tour of England.

Surendra Bhave, the former Maharashtra captain and national selector, is set to coach Haryana after a successful stint as coach with his home team.Though he hasn’t signed the dotted line yet, Bhave and Haryana Cricket Association have mutually agreed on his appointment. Despite guiding Maharashtra to their first Ranji Trophy final since 1992-93 last season, Bhave was recently released from his duties by the Maharashtra Cricket Association. Since the HCA, headed by BCCI treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry, had been on the lookout for a replacement for Ajay Jadeja, it approached Bhave once the HCA officials were made aware of Bhave’s availability.After finishing his four-year stint as a national selector in 2011, Bhave was heading the Maharashtra selection panel. He was asked to take charge of the senior side after Dermot Reeve was sacked as coach midway through the 2012-13 season. Though he could do little to improve the performance of the young team in the limited-overs’ tournaments, he justified his appointment by helping the team make their first Ranji final in 21 years.Haryana finished a disappointing eighth in Group A of the Ranji Trophy last season with Jadeja having been appointed as captain cum coach.On Saturday, Bhave was seen on the sidelines of Haryana’s KSCA All-India invitational tournament’s semi-final against KSCA Colts at the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore. Bhave is likely to stay with the team for the final as well.

ScorecardKatherine Brunt made the first breakthrough•Getty Images

England took the first honours in the Twenty20 series with a comfortable nine-wicket victory at Chelmsford having restricted South Africa to 89 for 4. The chase was dominated, as has so often been the case, by Charlotte Edwards who struck a 47-ball fifty which gave a sold out 5000-strong crowd plenty to cheer after an insipid effort by the visitors.For Edwards, it was a continuation of the form she showed in the one-day series against India where she made 57 and an unbeaten 108 to lead England to a 2-0 success after the dispiriting loss of the Test match at Wormsley. Her tenth boundary, clipped through the leg side, secured victory with a handsome 39 deliveries to spare.South Africa’s innings never found any significant tempo; their Powerplay score was 23 for 1 and throughout the 20 overs they managed just seven fours. Dane van Niekerk top-scored with 36 but it took her 54 deliveries although, especially early in the innings, it was less about the quality of stroke for South Africa but more about placement as they regularly picked out the tight off-side field.The boundary was out closer to the 65-metre limit – they can be in as far as 55 metres – which was perhaps a tactic from England who were out-powered at the World Twenty20 in Bangladesh this year when they did not hit a single six. Coupled with accurate bowling, South Africa’s batting was stymied.Katherine Brunt made the first breakthrough when she found the edge of Trisha Chetty and though the next wicket did not come for 12 overs England never lost control of the scoring. Arguably the biggest scare came when Sarah Taylor, attempting one of her premeditated grabs off a reverse sweep, almost took a ball in the face to suggest it would be wise for her to wear a helmet when standing up to the stumps even though she has previously found it uncomfortable.With the innings creeping along, van Niekerk was bowled attempting a reverse sweep, Lizelle Lee was run out and captain Mignon du Preez was well caught by Lydia Greenway.The only wicket to fall in England’s chase was Lauren Winfield who was run out in a dismissal that did not leave either her or Edwards overly impressed. Edwards had dabbed the ball into the off side and as Winfield reacted to the call, the bowler Moseline Daniels ran across from her follow-through towards the off side, cutting in front of Winfield. The momentary interruption meant Winfield could not make her ground to beat a direct hit. Daniels, however, was well within her rights to try and field the ball and Winfield had to accept her frustration.The rest of the match was a canter for Edwards and Taylor. South Africa tried eight bowlers with little impact as Edwards put on a skilful display of strokeplay – regularly picking the gaps through the leg side, both through and over the field – but even she may hope that her team are tested a little more in the remaining two outings.

Kings XI Punjab batsman Glenn Maxwell has received a reprimand for breaching the Champions League Twenty20 Code of Behaviour during the team’s seven-wicket victory against Cape Cobras in Mohali. After being bowled for 23 by Sybrand Engelbrecht, a visibly frustrated Maxwell was seen hitting a trash can with his bat near the boundary while walking back towards the Kings XI dugout.Maxwell admitted to the Level 1 offence (Article 1.2), which concerns abuse of cricket equipment or clothing, ground equipment or fixtures and fittings. According to the CLT20 Code of Behaviour, for Level 1 breaches, the match referee’s decision is final and binding.Maxwell, one of the stars of IPL 2014 with 552 runs, is yet to really make a mark in the CLT20, though, that has not affected Kings XI, who had already qualified for the semi-finals before the game.After the match, Maxwell took to Twitter to apologise for the incident.