A more realistic statistic, however, is that in games since January, England are 6-2 up.If the pitch is true and England’s middle order get over their jitters, that gap should have increased by this evening.ENGLAND (from): N Hussain (Essex, capt), A J Stewart (Surrey, wkt), M E Trescothick (Somerset), A Flintoff (Lancashire), G A Hick (Worcestershire), G P Thorpe (Surrey), C White (Yorkshire), M A Ealham (Kent), A R Caddick (Somerset), D Gough (Yorkshire), A D Mullally (Hampshire), N V Knight (Warwickshire), P J Franks (Nottinghamshire).ZIMBABWE (from): N C Johnson, G J Whittall, A D R Campbell, S V Carlisle, M W Goodwin, G W Flower, A Flower (capt, wkt), D P Viljoen, H H Streak, P A Strang, M Mbangwa, B C Strang, J A Rennie.Umpires: D R Shepherd and P Willey.. Leicestershire 318 & 87 Surrey 288 & 119-0Surrey win by 10 wickets

Leicestershire 318 & 87 Surrey 288 & 119-0Surrey win by 10 wickets
Martin Bicknell singlehandedly destroyed Leicestershire here yesterday, at the same time producing the best first-class match figures by an English bowler since another Surrey man, Jim Laker, took 19 Australian wickets for England in 1956.”That is 44 years, I am thrilled by that,” Bicknell said “But it hasn’t really sunk in yet. And I would swap all of this for a couple more wins for Surrey and the Championship.”His staggering performance condemned Leicestershire to their second hiding against Surrey in a fortnight. It was Surrey’s fifth Championship win on the trot and was achieved with a day and a half to spare, consolidating their place at the head of the County Championship’s First Division.It had not been billed as Martin Bicknell versus an XI of Leicestershire, but it was on his home turf at Woodbridge Road and at times it certainly did not look as if the opposition were all there.There was input from Bicknell’s team-mates, notably the opening bat Ian Ward, Nadeem Shahid and a raft of sharp fielding But it was Bicknell’s match. Not since 1952, when Derbyshire’s Cliff Gladwin claimed 16 for 84 against Worcestershire at Stourbridge, has a paceman performed so well in the Championship.Bicknell’s phenomenal return of 16 for 119, also made him the first bowler to 50 wickets this season, all of them in the Championship. His dismissal of Leicestershire’s captain, Vince Wells, at 11.34am brought up his half-century, leaving the high profile Australian Test bowlers, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne, and a fistful of other eminent purveyors trailing in his slipstream.Wells and Phillip DeFreitas had attempted to salvage something from an impossible looking overnight position of 33 for 6. For half an hour or so they laid about them – more in desperation than expectation – before DeFreitas drove loosely and was picked up by Mark Butcher in the slips.Wells became the second victim in Bicknell’s wicked burst of four wickets for four runs in just 16 balls, when he too fell to a slip catch.

Bicknell allowed Leicestershire an over of respite before claiming the wickets of Anil Kumble and the last man James Ormond.He left the field to a prolonged ovation, the crowd rising to cheer their local hero every step of the way to the pavilion. He had rewritten the Surrey record books and had the added pleasure of producing a personal Championship best of 9 for 47 in the second innings on his home club ground.”I have reached 50 wickets in a season before on this ground,” he explained, “because the Guildford Festival is usually around the half-way mark in the season.”There are those who lament the fact that at 31 Bicknell is too old to be considered for a chance to add to his two England appearances, but his name was being bandied around for the second Test against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge earlier in the season; and he is younger than Andrew Caddick by a couple of months and not that much older than Darren Gough, who will be 30 in September.”I have bowled consistently for the last few years and I think I am probably now at my peak,” he added “But I am sick of the England thing. It has been talked about too many times for me to worry about it any more.”As for the perception that he is susceptible to injury Bicknell retorted: “I have missed four Championship games in the last five years, that is a record of which I am proud and it makes a mockery of those who claim I am injury prone.”He certainly inflicted injury on Leicestershire though. It took Bicknell less than an hour to skittle them for their lowest score of the season.Butcher and Ward, the Surrey openers, then made gentle progress to victory – Butcher finishing with 47 not out and Ward on 61 not out to add to his first-innings century – with plenty of time to spare in which to celebrate Bicknell’s grand achievement.. Somerset 182 & 212Yorkshire 400Yorks win by inns and 6 runs

Somerset 182 & 212Yorkshire 400Yorks win by inns and 6 runs
Matthew Hoggard’s 5 for 50 was timed a week before the selectors could confirm the victors of Lord’s for the third Test at Old Trafford, as if he felt a reminder might be needed. The early victory cuts Surrey’s lead by only three points but they are back in second place and still have to host the champions and third-placed Lancashire.Somerset were pitched straight into further trouble when the fourth ball of the day bowled Piran Holloway. He had complained the ball before, about movement in the press box behind Hoggard’s arm, thus exciting a lively discussion in the box.It has been in this position, 25 yards to the right of the pavilion, for more than a century.

My own experience of it goes back to 1956 and never before to my knowledge has any batsman before Peter Bowler, in the Somerset first innings, ever complained about itinerant hacks. Indeed, in those lush days when Asda so prodigally sponsored the Festival, they were mostly fast asleep by mid-afternoon. “We were,” as the then Yorkshire Post correspondent put it, “as sponsored as newts”.Holloway was complaining about a Scarborough official, who happened to be visiting the box He certainly appeared unsighted when he lost his off-bail. That was 12 for 3 and even the Yorkshire fanatics were hoping that play might last until lunchtime on another glorious seaside morning.Bowler and Keith Parsons averted the immediate crisis with Parsons pleased to punish the regular wayward delivery and it was not until David Byas recalled Hoggard to bowl from the Trafalgar Square end that the breakthrough was made: Bowler, who should have been caught off Chris Silverwood, when one, by either keeper or first slip, was beautifully taken by a swooping catch at cover, now becoming a Gary Fellows’ speciality.The third ball of the over was edged by Neil Burns to third slip.

When Parsons was pinned in front by Paul Hutchison’s ball that straightens, to make the score 74 for 6 the end seemed near. But, as has been written, Somerset are nothing if not resilient.Rob Turner and Ian Blackwell all but doubled the score in 20 overs before a frustrated and angry Silverwood induced a slip catch to remove Blackwell. The returning Hoggard provoked Anthony McGrath into a second slip catch, this low and fast to his right to end Turner’s resistance. Peter Trego was another to misread Hutchison.The No 11 Steffan Jones, with nothing to lose and all the time in the world, managed a career best, taking his 50 off 45 balls, he and Graham Rose coming close to making Yorkshire bat again.Three Somerset players collected parking tickets, caught by Scarborough’s draconian new regulations. A 10,000-plus crowd is expected for the National League match tomorrow – Somerset have sent for Marcus Trescothick and Paul Jarvis – and the wardens are licking their pencils. Some said they didn’t have a chance.

But on Saturday, Guatemala and Barbados will square off in the second round of qualifiers for the 2002 World Cup to be played in South Korea and Japan. The winner will likely be left alone atop the four-team division

Some said they didn’t have a chance. But on Saturday, Guatemala and Barbados will square off in the second round of qualifiers for the 2002 World Cup to be played in South Korea and Japan. The winner will likely be left alone atop the four-team division.
Soccer’s powers-that-be thought Barbados wouldn’t win any of its six games this round. Guatemala was expected to fair only marginally better.The Caribbean island’s national team, which has many amateur players, shocked perennial favorite Costa Rica 2-1 in Bridgetown July 16.