The pair seemed aware that on this excellent one-day pitch and lightning fast outfield England would need a score of more than 250 to be competitive against a Sri Lankan comfortable chasing high scores.It was all going smoothly until Knight was out for 20, playing all around a straight delivery from Nuwan Zoysa. Trescothick, however, was once again guilty of getting himself out through being overaggressive.With their innings in the balance for the first time at 47 for 2, Hussain and Thorpe steadied the ship with a 56-run partnership. In it they got the balance between caution and aggression absolutely right and effortlessly moved England past 100.Just when Hussain’s team appeared to be in charge and with the score on 103, England once again found themselves in a precarious position, when the burly Dilhara Fernando took two wickets in the 19th over. 250: 183 min, 284 balls.Stewart: 50: 68 min, 67 balls, 5 fours. Flintoff: 50: 35 min, 28 balls, 5 fours, 2 sixes.SRI LANKA*S T Jayasuriya c Hussain b Hoggard 12? S Kaluwitharana c Thorpe b Collingwood 52M S Atapattu c Irani b Flintoff 47D P M Jayawardene b Collingwood 29R P Arnold run out 29K C Sangakkara c Kirtley b Flintoff 22U D U Chandana c Thorpe b Flintoff 1M N Nawaz not out 15W P U Vaas b Kirtley 10D N T Zoysa b Kirtley 0C R D Fernando not out 5Extras (b1 lb10 w10 nb6) 27Total (for 9, 50 overs) 249Fall: 1-19 2-91 3-149 4-152 5-214 6-215 7-215 8-238 9-238.Bowling: Hoggard 10-0-49-1; Kirtley 10-0-40-2; Irani 10-0-39-0; Flintoff 10-0-49-3; Giles 5-0-30-0; Collingwood 5-0-31-2.Umpires: D L Orchard (SA) and D R Shepherd (Eng). TV replay umpire: N A Mallender Match referee: M J Procter.Man of the Match: A Flintoff.

If the escapee from Ford Open Prison had any sense he would have made his way just a couple of miles up the road to the more aristocratic setting of Arundel Castle where he could have lost himself in another, very different, captive audience.That is certainly what the police believed to judge by the time their helicopter hovered overhead but, rather like Yorkshire, by the close they were left empty-handed. Davis carried on the good work with 70 and Sussex ended with a 137-run advantage.. Kent could see themselves as authentic challengers if they can summon up the 200-plus runs required for victory today. After Peter Martin had seemingly put Lancashire in charge, Kent found new vigour on a cold, but sunny evening to take seven wickets for 61 runs.This was a turnaround after Peter Martin, in his 13th season, had seemingly all but won the match. He demolished Kent with three wickets in five balls to finish with 5 for 54 and turn a probable lead into a deficit of 12.
Martin, 33, in his benefit year, is proud to remain both a professional cricketer and a painter but admits: “The competition here is hotting up, but I’m not giving up my place without a fight.”Rain on Wednesday night left the pitch more amenable to seam, but the ball refused to swing.

Kent, 124 behind with six wickets standing, were hoping for a substantial lead. After a cautious restart Matthew Walker was caught behind one-handed, Mark Ealham stepped up the rate but was then caught at square leg off the next ball.At 200 for 7 Martin returned at the River End and in his third over had Min Patel caught at slip and Amjad Khan caught behind next ball; Mark Saggers prodded the fifth ball into a jubilant short-leg’s hands.Lancashire, through Mark Chilton and Alec Swann, coasted to 98 runs in the 28 overs to tea. Chilton plundered fours off two short-pitched balls from John Goulding before this stand of 118 was broken by Saggers and any sense of superiority shattered when Ealham had Neil Fairbrother caught behind and forced Graham Lloyd to play on next ball.What might be the decisive blow was struck when Khan had Stuart Law leg before.* Graeme Hick made the highest score by a Worcestershire player at New Road with an unbeaten 315 off 386 deliveries against Durham The home side declared on 643 for 7.. One of the phrases relished by coaches who like to exhort their team with slogans is: “There’s no I in team”. For much of this World Cup it has appeared a winning philosophy. While South Korea, United States and Sweden prospered, Zinedine Zidane, Gabriel Batistuta and Luis Figo went home. The Irish, making light of Roy Keane’s absence, flourished, but the Italians, undecided whether to play Francesco Totti, Alessandro Del Piero, or both, did not.
Germany’s arrival in Sunday’s final would seem to confirm the success of the all-for-one, one-for-all creed.

Even their single player with star quality, Michael Ballack, sacrificed his place in the final for the sake of the team.Then there is Brazil. There is a visible kinship within the squad and the likes of Ronaldo, Gilberto Silva and Cafu are clearly ‘team players’, but their progress to the final has been based on the talent of individuals, most notably Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and Marcos.All four are on the short-list for the ‘All-Star Team’ to be revealed today by Pele and the experts from Fifa’s Technical Study Group There is an inherent contradiction in such a selection. With the possible exception of Maradona’s Argentina in 1986, no ’star’ has won a World Cup single-handed. Even Brazil’s R-men could not so it without the “water carriers”, as Eric Cantona once described Didier Deschamps. That is why Luiz Felipe Scolari, recognising Gilberto Silva could not do the ball-winning and pressing in midfield alone, replaced Juninho with Kleberson.Yet these select XI’s tend not to recognise such players. Thus David Beckham made the shortlist, but not Nicky Butt; Junichi Inamoto and Hidetoshi Nakata were in, but not Kazuyuki Toda; Brazil’s strikers and flying wing-backs were recognised, but not their sitting midfielders.There was a further example of the marketing men’s obsession with individuals in a team game yesterday when adidas announced a short-list of ten for the Golden Ball, an award for the best individual player of tournament. Also selected by Fifa’s experts, it featured five strikers.Embarrassingly for the sponsor, none of the chosen players featured in their accompanying press pack.