Bairstow additional to England squad

England has called Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler into their NatWest Series squad after Ben Stokes suffers a reappearance of a finger injury.

Twenty-year-old Durham batsman Stokes has played in each of England's four matches so far next to India.

England are previously 2-0 up, after a no-result at Chester-le-Street and then a tie at Lord's on Sunday, but have been disrupt by two other injuries previously, which summary them to 12 fit men to choose from - before Stokes was hit during batting drills on Thursday.

Eoin Morgan and Stuart Broad both succumb to shoulder problems, and Stokes took a blow to the right index finger he broke earlier this year and which has prohibited him bowling since.

Uncapped Yorkshireman Bairstow is thought to be the most likely to replace Stokes, if needed - while Buttler, who was playing in the final day of Somerset's county championship match next to Lancashire at Taunton on Thursday, is called in as more general cover.

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Lancashire win County Championship

Lancashire pipped Warwickshire to the LV= County Championship title with victory over Somerset at Taunton on a dramatic final day.

Openers Stephen Moore and Paul Horton made 71 and 55 respectively as the Red Rose County, needing 211 to win, reached 213 for two to victory by eight wickets.

Warwickshire continuing the day as favorites, needing just to match Lancashire's result to take the crown, but they were frustrated by Hampshire at the Rose Bowl as the match ended in a draw.

Meanwhile, Middlesex were promote from Division Two as champions after they won at Leicestershire.

Steven Croft, who hit an unbeaten 40, and Karl Brown, who made 33 not out, guided Lancashire home.

The visitors had a minor wobble when they lost both openers, who had put on a stand of 131, in successive overs, but by then the hard work had been done.

Lancashire, who last won the County Championship outright in 1934, had earlier dismissed Somerset for 310, Simon Kerrigan finally removing Peter Trego for 120.

Warwickshire started the day needing seven wickets to finish off the Hampshire innings, but following on the hosts reached 327 for seven when the match was declared a draw.

Michael Carberry and Neil McKenzie were the Bears' tormentors in chief as Carberry made 111 before falling lbw to Chris Woakes, while McKenzie hit a magnificent unbeaten 115.

Chris Metters removed Sean Ervine and Michael Bates in successive balls to reduce Hampshire from 316 for five to 316 for seven, but it was too little too late.

Elsewhere in the top flight, Sussex needed little more than an hour to wrap up victory over Nottinghamshire by an innings and five runs as the home side collapsed for the second time in the match.

Resuming on 103 for four and needing 74 runs at the start of the day to force Sussex to bat again, Nottinghamshire lost their last six wickets for 54 runs in 11.3 overs.

Seamer Naved Arif picked up a Championship-best four for 41 and, despite some lusty blows from tail-ender Luke Fletcher, who hit three sixes and three fours before he was last out for 39, the game was finished by 11.40.

Durham sealed a 151-run victory over Worcestershire after dismissing the visitors for 213 in their second innings as they chased an unlikely 365 for victory.

James Cameron was Worcestershire's top scorer with 47, while Scott Borthwick and Ian Blackwell took three wickets apiece for Durham.

Middlesex clinched the Second Division title with a five-wicket win over rock-bottom Leicestershire at Grace Road.

Chasing just 124 for victory, Middlesex made heavy weather of the pursuit before reaching 127 for five, England captain Andrew Strauss with 30 at the top of the order.


Glamorgan finished their campaign in Division Two on a high with an eight-wicket victory over Kent at Canterbury.

Kent had looked set for a heavy defeat at the start of play, when they resumed their second innings on 148 for five, still needing another 38 runs to make Glamorgan bat again.

They staged a recovery of sorts to reach 312 all out, but Alviro Petersen cracked an unbeaten 70 from just 54 balls as Glamorgan raced to their 127-run victory target, reaching 129 for two.

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Rahul Dravid needs to sign off with a win

Rahul Dravid is hoping to mark his 344th and final ODI form with a long past due first victory over England this summer for India.

Dravid, one of cricket's modern greats and by common permission a paragon of very good behaviour on and off the pitch, may well be playing his last match in Britain of any report at Cardiff's SWALEC Stadium on Friday.

The 38-year-old admit this summer has been a "bitter-sweet" practice, as he has continued to churn out runs in vain while India first of all lost their number one Test status to England in an unpredicted 4-0 series romp for the hosts, then were second best in a one-off Twenty20 and are 2-0 down with only one to play in the NatWest Series.

He will be absent following departure for next month's five-game replay in India, but may yet be back to play in England - along with his fellow respected veteran Sachin Tendulkar - should his country stay in the top four of the International Cricket Council rankings to qualify for the inaugural Test championship in 2013.

A 13th ODI hundred would be a fitting farewell, of course, but Dravid is more troubled with India's fortunes.

"I would like to sign off with a win. It would be lovely for India," he said. "We have had a hard tour, and it would be lovely to finish with a win - irrespective of what I get."

Dravid, famously nicknamed 'The Wall' for his strength of mind and waterproof technique in Test cricket, modified his game efficiently to the 50-over format.

The results have been creditable, and he will leave the ODI stage correctly at ease that he has been such a high achiever.

"It does not feel like I am finishing, or leaving, or the end, because I will be playing Test cricket.

"But it is a nice time to reproduce on what I think was a pretty pleasing and satisfying one-day career.

"I don't think there is going to be anything dissimilar in my life from tomorrow onwards.

"My wife did talk about there were some very nice things written about me during the Test series, back in India.

"It was a bit bitter-sweet in the sense there was a lot of pleasure in my opinion against a tough assault and scoring runs, but it has been a unsatisfactory tour for us.

"I am still truly humbled by some of the nice things said about me in the last few weeks."

With characteristic modesty, Dravid cites an event in which he himself played no part as perhaps the proudest moment of his cricketing life.

He was not chosen in the squad which this year won India's second World Cup, on home ground, yet he took more pleasure in that communal success than in any of his own personal glories.

He added: "I'm not dreading quitting. "You just recognize that the time has got to come at some stage when you have got to move on.

"I am happy and I am at ease with that. "I have had some highs and low in both forms of the game.

"That is life, that is cricket - and it has taught me a lot about for myself as a person and how to deal with a lot of things. "I have totally no regrets."

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Bairstow extra to England squad

England have call Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler into their NatWest Series squad after Ben Stokes suffered a reappearance of a finger injury.

Twenty-year-old Durham batsman Stokes, who has played in each of England's four matches so far against India, hurt himself on the eve of Friday's final fixture at the SWALEC Stadium.

England are previously 2-0 up, after a no-result at Chester-le-Street and then a tie at Lord's on Sunday, but have been disrupt by two other injuries already, which reduced them to 12 fit men to choose from - before Stokes was hit during batting drills today.

Eoin Morgan and Stuart Broad both succumb to shoulder problems, and Stokes took a blow to the right index finger he broke earlier this year and which has banned him bowling since.

Uncapped Yorkshireman Bairstow is thought to be the most likely to replace Stokes, if necessary - while Buttler, who was today playing in the final day of Somerset's county championship match next to Lancashire at Taunton, is call in as more general cover.

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Buoyant Australia eye Tournament success

Australia captain Michael Clarke has back Peter Siddle to justify his enclosure and help the tourists secure a series win in Sri Lanka.

Siddle was given the nod from the selectors ahead of James Pattinson to replace the wounded Ryan Harris for the clash in Colombo.

Victorian Siddle is mostly regarded as a 'short of a length' bowler but Clarke knows a different move toward will be needed on a slower pitch at the Sinhalese Sports Club.

"All of our bowlers have been working on their length since they've been here," Clarke said.

"That's something that (Australia's bowling coach) Craig McDermott has definitely made very clear - with the new ball we needed to be bowling fuller, we wanted to be giving ourselves a chance, and Sidds has done that.

"I've watched him bowl at every net session he's had and he's absolutely better his length.

"He's had two weeks to train with (fitness coach) Stuart Karppinen, who has made it very clear he wanted him fitter and stronger, and to bowl a lot more in the nets to work on his length.

"Harris has got the ball to come back in and he's bowled blokes through the gate, got lbws. Sidds can swing the new ball away, but one of his greatest strengths and what he does naturally is bring the ball back in off the pitch to the right-handers or take it away from the left-handers."

The other change to the side from the earlier Test sees former captain Ricky Ponting come in for Usman Khawaja.

Ponting was always likely to return after flying home for the birth of his child and Khawaja was the man to miss out rather than Shaun Marsh, who hit 141 on his Test debut in Kandy while deputising at number three.

"It's good to have Ricky back, he's an amazing player," said Clarke.

"I haven't even consideration about the batting line-up but Shaun can slide back down to six."

Kumar Sangakkara will make his 100th Test appearance for the home side and Clarke admits he and his side are full of approbation for the 33-year-old.

"I hope he gets a pair in this game," joked Clarke, before adding: "His record is incredible but he is a nice guy as well.

"We are going to have to take 20 wickets to win the game and we need to get Kumar and (Mahela) Jayawardene early as if they get in they are rough to stop."

Australia is currently 1-0 up in the three-match series and Clarke believes that places more pressure on the home side.

He said: "There is more pressure on Sri Lanka as they have to win this game to level this series so they will have to bat a bit more positively than they have so far to get a result.

"We have no goal to go home 1-0 winners. We want to go home 2-0 winners."

Home skipper Tillakaratne Dilshan has called for a positive manner as they seek to level the series.

"We told the players to believe in themselves and in their own game. If we were in a negative frame of mind, with three failed innings, we're not going to do any better. We just have to give them the confidence," he said.

"It's really unsatisfactory that we cannot win the Test series but we still have a chance to draw it. As players, we must grab that possibility in both hands and if we can do that, it's really good."

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