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Another solid batting performance by Pierre de Bruyn and a five-wicket haul from Andre Nel enabled Easterns to claim a comfortable 59-run victory over North West in their Standard Bank Cup match in Potchefstroom on Friday evening.Easterns won the toss and elected to bat first, putting on an impressivetotal of 210 for nine wickets in their 45 overs.North West were bowled out for 151 in 43.3 overs of yet anotherrain-delayed match.Easterns got off to an inauspicious start with the loss of openers DerekBrand and Mike Rindel for no runs.Rindel was the first wicket to fall with the score on a paltry 1-1 andwith his wicket coming off only the fourth ball of the match.Derek Brand’s wicket fell five balls later, and with Easterns’ total notmuch healthier at 2-1.When Derek Crookes left the crease with the score at 7-3, it seemed asthough Potchefstroom’s faithful were destined for an early evening.But Deon Jordaan provided the first bit of stability to the Easternsinnings with his 49 runs, lifting the visitors to 103 for four.However, it was young Pierre de Bruyn who again stood out for his team. Sensing the urgency, De Bruyn fired 68 runs off 92 balls, including six fours and one six, to provide the backbone of Easterns’ innings. De Bruyn also weighed in with a useful bowling performance that saw him claim two wickets for 30 runs.Lower down the Easterns batting order, De Bruyn’s teammates seemed tofeed of his form.Kenny Benjamin was looking good on 21 runs off only 23 balls before hewas dismissed, and Graeme Pollock also added a quickfire 34 off 28 ballsbefore being sent back to the changeroom.The start to the North West innings was equally dismal. The home teamwere reeling at 30 for five as Andre Nel sunk his teeth into some poorbatting by the hosts.The Easterns paceman, who bowled a superb line and length, finished thematch with figures of 5-27 in his 8.3 overs.

According to Football Insider, Tottenham Hotspur have ‘turned their attention’ to a new target as they eye a move for Oxford United defender Luke McNally.

The Lowdown: Spurs eye lower league talent…

The Lilywhites’ on-going search for new defensive additions isn’t exclusive to just the top tiers of European football.

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Some of the lower league’s brightest have been linked to Spurs in recent months, including the likes of Djed Spence, who Fabio Paratici lodged multiple January bids for.

Peterborough United defender Benjamin Mensah has also been the subject of interest, as previously revealed by the club’s own director Barry Fry.

Now, however, it seems Tottenham now have their eyes on yet another talent from below the Premier League.

The Latest: Lilywhites turn attention…

According to FI, Spurs have turned their attention to McNally with a recruitment source explaining that one bid of £2 million has already been put on the table.

Tottenham club officials are also apparently being sent to run the rule over Oxford’s towering defender until the end of this season with regular scouting trips planned.

The Verdict: Get it done?

The 22-year-old has been impressing for Oxford in England’s third tier with teammate Sam Long branding McNally an ‘absolute machine’.

Oxford’s centre-back possesses a physicality which could be perfect for the intensity of Premier League football with the player standing at a colossal 6 foot 3.

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The fact he is attracting ‘extensive interest’ from rival clubs is also an indicator of his real potential, leaving little wonder he’s caught Tottenham’s eye also.

As McNally joins the list of talent on Tottenham’s agenda, it’s clear there is reason to believe he could be a promising addition.

In other news: Paratici sets sights on ‘phenomenal’ £100m man who Spurs have been offered before, find out more here.

As selectors and medical staff fret over his workload, Josh Hazlewood thinks he is getting better with each successive spell this summer. Even so, he realises that a quick demolition job on West Indies in Hobart is likely to be his best chance of turning out in both the showpiece Melbourne and Sydney Test over the Christmas/New Year holidays.Much extra responsibility fell upon Hazlewood’s broad shoulders when Mitchell Johnson retired after the Perth Test and then Mitchell Starc suffered a foot fracture early in the Adelaide day/night match that followed it. His response was a commanding nine-wicket performance that suggested he thrived on being thrown the ball more expectantly by his captain Steven Smith.However the selection chairman Rod Marsh has stated that it is unlikely Hazlewood will be risked in all six Tests this summer, meaning it will be largely up to the bowler himself to earn the right to play by taking wickets in a swift enough manner to give him the required rest between matches – as was the case two summers ago when Johnson, Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle were retained throughout the 5-0 Ashes sweep due to matches ending quickly.”I definitely wouldn’t want to be rested for either of those last two games and especially not this one, the first against the West Indies,” Hazlewood said. “I hope I can play all of them, depending on how much workload we have. If we can take these 20 wickets as quickly as possible I don’t see why I can’t play all three Tests.”The quicker you get the 20 wickets obviously the easier it is on the body. We had a tough initiation in Brisbane and in Perth on those wickets but we will be patient, it’s something I think we need to work on against the West Indies, build pressure that way and then the wickets will come hopefully.”Marsh has previously been part of a selection panel that angered fast bowlers by withdrawing them from the Test team for preventative reasons. In 2012 both Harris and Starc were left nonplussed to be asked to cool their heels after strong performances in the previous match, the former missing a Trinidad Test after excelling in Barbados and Starc scratched from Boxing Day despite bowling Australia to victory over Sri Lanka in Hobart.”I guess with my history of injuries people are entitled to their opinion but I feel as good as I have through my career,” Hazlewood said. “I think I showed last summer I bowled quite a few overs in the Tests I played and got through the majority of the winter tours as well. I’m feeling better the further I get in my career.”You have got to be honest with the selectors and coach and Smithy. They value the fast bowlers’ opinions on how you feel, as long as you are honest it’s good communication to and fro. They take a lot from how the bowler feels and how the physio sees things.”There is another decent break after this game and then the hardest ones are probably the last two back to back. But I am feeling pretty good at the moment, and hopefully it stays that way.”Australia are in very much a transitional phase due to the aforementioned retirement of Johnson and Harris, plus those of Michael Clarke, Shane Watson and Chris Rogers. But in Hazlewood they appear to have a bowler who can thrive on the extra responsibility on home turf, while also knowing from the experiences of the Caribbean earlier this year how to bowl to a brittle West Indian line-up, who had their own preparation affected by rain on their afternoon training session at Bellerive Oval.”We are obviously going to miss both Mitches, they both bring different things to the bowling attack but I guess it is good that I am the one who Smithy turns to,” Hazlewood said. “Especially in that second innings in Adelaide, that added pressure I enjoy, hopefully it brings the best out of me, if I continue to bowl like that that would be good.”I thought we bowled quite well in the West Indies as a group, Nathan Lyon included. If we can do something like that in these three Tests and build pressure on them, keeping building those dots up, the wickets will come.”

Bermuda’s national coach Gus Logie has a threadbare squad of just 12 players at his disposal as Bermuda prepares to begin the post World Cup era against Denmark.Practically everyone that travelled to Europe this week is guaranteed a game over the next few weeks with Bermuda’s thin resources stretched to the limit. Just four of the World Cup squad – skipper Irving Romaine, new vice-captain Stephen Outerbridge, big hitter Lionel Cann and spinner Dwayne Leverock – boarded the plane on Monday night with a host of new faces being asked to fill the enormous void left by the likes of Janeiro Tucker, Clay Smith, OJ Pitcher and Kevin Hurdle.The middle order – Bermuda’s strength over the past few years – has been completely decimated. As well as Tucker, Smith and Pitcher there will be no David Hemp, no Dean Minors and no Kwame Tucker. A squad of up and coming youngsters and international novices will take their place.Ironically most of the youngsters – the likes of Edness, Robinson and Arthur Pitcher – have played for Bermuda before. It is club veterans like Roderick Masters, Dwight Basden and James Celestine who will be making their international debuts on this tour.Coach Logie admitted the team was in a rebuilding stage and said the tour would be a test of how quickly the new boys could adapt to the enormous jump in class from domestic cricket.”Any time you go out to play you play to win, but we also have to be realistic and realize that this is a rebuilding stage. We are looking at development of our younger players and exposure for certain players to a higher level of cricket. It’s about understanding what it takes to play at that level.”The opening games against Denmark are not full one-day-internationals because the Danes did not qualify for the World Cup and ODI status. But Logie expects them, along with Holland and Ireland who Bermuda face later in the tour, to be among their biggest rivals for re-qualification at the ICC Trophy 2009 in Malaysia.”We played them a few years ago and narrowly beat them, but they have grown in stature and the game has taken off a bit in Denmark. Many of their players have exposure to the English county cricket set up. They, Holland and Ireland are going to be three of our arch rivals in 2009 and we need to learn as much from this tour as we possibly can.”There will be new roles for some of the players on this tour with Lionel Cann, traditionally used as a late-order finisher, likely to be asked to become the mainstay of the batting line-up along with Romaine. “We don’t have the same depth in the middle order anymore and the chances are Lionel will be asked to bat higher up and play a more integral role. Players like Lionel and the captain Irving Romaine will need to play a central role.”The return of seamer George O’Brien gives the bowling attack an injection of pace and aggression while Jacobi Robinson, Arthur Pitcher and Ryan Steede will play a supporting role. Dwayne Leverock will again be the centre-piece of Bermuda’s bowling attack with his economical left-arm spin.Logie said the new boys had shown commitment in practice. Now it was time to see what they could do on the big stage. “This is an opportunity to assess certain players and see how they gel as a team. We can practice as much as we want but you have to think that those things we did in training can be done in game situations.”Preparation for the tour has been far from ideal with Azeem Pticher, Kevin Hurdle and Maurice Lowe all pulling out for work and personal reasons and Greg Maybury being called-up to the Under-19 qualifiers. The search for available replacements saw Robinson and Basden called up. But further back-up was not available.”We have a lot of players playing the game but for whatever reason not everybody is in line for selection for the national team.”He added that the passion for the game shown at Cup Match was not so evident when it came to the national team. “Players can want to train, want to play with passion at the local level. If that can be transferred to the national team they can reap just as good rewards.”One fillip for Logie will be the arrival of three stars from Bermuda’s Under-19 team ahead of the game against Ireland. Seamers Stefan Kelly and Malachi Jones and spinner Rodney Trott will jet in from Canada after representing the U-19s in the World Cup qualifiers. “These are the guys we are looking at to carry the flag in the near future. We want to wish them all the best in Canada where we trust they will qualify for the World Cup.”Reproduced with permission of the Bermuda Sun

Division One

Hampshire’s Chris Tremlett served up a timely reminder of his abilities, grabbing a six-wicket haul including two in the first over of the match – Ian Westwood and Jonathan Trott, both clean bowled. That left Warwickshire reeling at the Rose Bowl. But Mark Wagh came to their rescue with a superb 128, his second and highest century of the season. He added 173 for the third wicket with Nick Knight, who made 78, as Hampshire struggled for further inspiration in the absence of their captain, Shane Warne. Tremlett, however, was not to be denied, and returned with more wickets in his second spell, as Knight fell lbw and Alex Loudon was caught behind for 10.Sussex are on course for a big total on the first day against Durham at Hove after four of their batsmen made confident half-centuries. None has yet gone on to make a hundred, although Chris Adams remains unbeaten on 92. Richard Montgomerie and Carl Hopkinson stroked the ball around during their 140-run opening partnership before Mick Lewis removed Montgomerie and Michael Yardy in quick succession. Matt Prior batted with his customary forcefulness and pugnacity, crunching several fours as he and Adams went on the attack.A superb 172 from Darren Lehmann took Yorkshire to the heights of 302 on the opening day of their encounter against Kent at Headingley. The next highest score was from Anthony McGrath (41) as Simon Cook (5 for 38) ran through the lower-order to dismiss Yorkshire for 310. Lehmann was last man out when he fell to Min Patel; in 189 balls he hit 19 fours, clearing the boundary four times. And Yorkshire ended the day on top when Deon Kruis removed David Fulton shortly before the close.

Division Two

Andrew Caddick top scored for Somerset with a typically boisterous 68 to frustrate Glamorgan on the opening day at Taunton. After Huw Waters continued his impressive form, picking up five Somerset batsmen to leave them reeling on 227 for 8, Caddick set about the recovery to take his side to 330. He cracked nine fours and two sixes in a 10th wicket partnership spanning 44 minutes with Charl Willoughby worth 67. In reply, Glamorgan set off in a hurry with Gareth Rees and, in particular Mark Cosgrove, belting the Somerset bowling with an opening stand of 101. Willoughby and Caddick hit back, though, to remove both openers before stumps.Surrey’s batting struggled in the absence of Mark Ramprakash, who was forced to sit out of their trip to Chelmsford for personal reasons and so missed the chance to go for an incredible sixth score of 150-plus in consecutive matches. With Andy Bichel leading the charge, Essex’s bowlers tore through the top order, leaving Surrey reeling at 147 for 6, before Ian Salisbury steadied the innings from No. 7 with 74, his best score of the Championship season. He was ably supported by Neil Saker, whose 58 more than doubled his fledgling career tally. Azhar Mahmood ripped out Varun Chopra and Mervyn Westfield shortly before stumps as Essex limped to 32 for 2.Fresh from their triumph in the Twenty20 Cup, Leicestershire found their return to four-day cricket to be an arduous one, as Worcestershire’s Stephen Moore and Steven Davies made them work hard for their wickets at Grace Road. Moore made 97, and was unlucky to miss out on his first century of the season when he was bowled by Claude Henderson. Following the dismissal of Graeme Hick, Worcestershire were 121 for 4, with Stuart Broad having accounted for a possible future England team-mate, Vikram Solanki, for a seventh-ball duck. But Moore and Davies, and later Davies and Gareth Batty turned the innings around with singular resolve.

Atapattu’s men may visit India twice in two months © Getty Images

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has suggested that Sri Lanka’s forthcoming tour of India be split into two parts to accommodate both the Super Series, as well as South Africa’s scheduled five-match one-day series in the country. Tryphon Mirando, a Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) official told AFP that the proposal was “being considered.”The Sri Lankan team was originally slated to visit India for three Tests and seven ODIs in October and November, for their first full tour of the country since 1997. However, with the Super Series having been scheduled for October, and the South Africans making plans to play their matches between November 17 and November 29, the BCCI was forced to propose a split tour.According to the BCCI proposal, Sri Lanka will play seven ODIs in November after the Super Series, and return again in December to play three Test matches. This would result in India playing a total of 12 ODIs at home, against Sri Lanka and South Africa.India are due to tour Sri Lanka for a triangular series from July 30 to August 9, and will tour Zimbabwe from the end of August.

The worrying increase in the amount of violence in club cricket was highlighted by a brawl during a game at the weekend which left one man in intensive care after he was assaulted with a stump.The attack happened on Sunday at Bilsborough, near Preston in Lancashire. Witnesses say the trouble began when drinkers left a bar and started jeering players in a match on the nearby pitch. The incident quickly escalated and a mass fight broke out which involved more than a dozen people."It would appear that what started out as banter between players and spectators ended up as something more serious," a police spokesman explained. "Up to 18 people were involved on the cricket field at any one time. There was a large fight and one man ended up with serious injuries.”The injured man was taken to a local hospital where his condition was described as "serious but stable".Police are appealing to anyone who saw the assault to come forward.

Daryll Cullinan served notice that he is ready for a Test match recall with a measured 86 on the opening day of the South African `A’ team’s four-day match against Australia at St George’s Park on Friday.Cullinan shared a 155-run fourth-wicket partnership with Hashim Amla, the South African under 19 captain, as the SA `A’ team reached 288 for seven. There was something of a collapse in the evening, but the pair did enough to suggest that there is still a bit left in South African after one of the gloomiest weeks since readmission.Always a complex character, Cullinan said afterwards that he felt he still had something to offer, particularly against Australia. "Playing against Australia is one of the challenges you look forward to," he said afterwards. "I wouldn’t be playing the game if I didn’t want those challenges and the successes and failures that go with them."As importantly, perhaps, Cullinan, who is captaining this SA `A’, said his team had gone into this match wanting to be at least competitive. "We want to at least leave Port Elizabeth with some respect for the way we played," he said, adding that he was happy with the attitude shown by his team.All of this, of course, took place against the backdrop of last weekend’s humiliating first Test match, won by Australia by an innings and 360 runs. Inevitably there will be changes to the South African Test team, and the most obvious inclusion after just one day in this match is the recall of Cullinan.He averages less than 13 against Australia, but he has been South Africa’s leading batsman for the past 10 years and although he has suffered probably more than many at the hands of Australia, and Shane Warne in particular, it is no secret that he wishes to set the record straight against the world’s best Test team before the end of his career.With him, for just short of three hours, was Amla, still only 18 and playing in only his third first-class game. His contribution to the effort was a wonderfully composed 81 and he played well enough to earn plaudits from his captain.Cullinan warned, though, that Amla should not be rushed into Test cricket. "I’d never seen him play before," admitted Cullinan. "He will play Test cricket, but I hope the selectors don’t rush him. Let him take his own time, but he will play Test cricket."Coming after both Graeme Smith and Jacques Rudolph had played themselves in only to get out, the batting of Cullinan and Amla against an attack admittedly short of Warne and Glenn McGrath saved the day for the South Africans.Smith and Rudolph are clearly high on the selectors’ next-best list, but both will have done their cause little good by failing to build on stars. Smith got himself out, providing Shane Watson with his first wicket for Australia when he pulled an innocuous short one to mid-on for 28.And after batting through the first session, Rudolph twice hit Stuart MacGill for four in the lunch over before jabbing at one to be caught at the wicket for 36. It was hardly the best possible time to get out.Martin van Jaarsveld made only 11 before falling soon after lunch to set the Cullinan-Amla stand on its way and three wickets fell for only three either side of the second new ball before bad light stopped play six overs early.Cullinan said he was a little disappointed by Watson, who picked up two for 40 on debut, saying that he had expected something more. He did want to reserve judgement, though, until he had seen Watson bat.Amla, meanwhile, had had his first sight of Brett Lee. And he was, admitted Amla, every bit as quick as he’d been led to believe.

After being bowled out for 321, the Northerns Titans restricted the Griqua Diamonds to a close of play score of 109 for three on the second day of their Supersport Series match at Supersport Park on Saturday.Resuming on 160 for three, Northern’s Neil McKenzie picked up where team-mate Martin van Jaarsveld left off, adding 70 runs of his own, including 11 fours and one six in his 219 minutes at the crease.McKenzie guided his side to 228 before he was dismissed, caught behind by Wendell Bossenger off the bowling of Deon Kruis.The dismissal ended a 70-run fourth-wicket partnership with Gerald Dros, and sparked a mini collapse of the Northerns batting order.Dros (40) left the crease a mere 5.1 overs later, and the home side could manage only 85 runs for the remainder of their wickets.Griquas paceman, Zahir Abrahim, was the most productive with his four wickets for 73 runs. But Northerns had nevertheless managed to fashion an impressive total out of a pitch that favoured the Griquas bowlers, even if they failed to take full advantage of it.Griquas found themselves in immediate trouble in their innings. In stark contrast to the provincial record first-wicket partnership of 243 achieved by Mickey Arthur and Martyn Gidley against the Highveld Strikers two weeks ago, the visitors were reeling at four for one five overs, into their first innings.A teasing delivery from Steve Elworthy found the hands of Gerald Dros inthe slips, with Arthur yet to get off the mark then Dros sowed further panic in the Griquas ranks 11 overs later when he seemed to have caught Grant Elliott.But the umpires decided it was not a clean catch. It proved a vital let-off for Griquas, with Elliott on five runs at that stage. Elliott went on to add a valuable 75 runs for the second wicket with Martyn Gidley.But the spin of Nigel Brouwers made the breakthrough for Northerns, withElliott clean bowled for 34 and Griquas at 79 for two.Willie Dry offered little resistance with his one run, leaving Gidley (45 not out) and Pieter Koortzen (18 not out) as the men tasked with reviving the Griquas innings on Sunday morning.

ScorecardHampshire returned to winning ways in Group B of the Royal London Cup with a 23-run Duckworth-Lewis victory over Warwickshire in a rain-damaged contest at Edgbaston.Comfortably beaten by Essex the previous day, Hampshire responded by compiling a meaty 280 for 7 built around a century stand by Liam Dawson and Will Smith.They then reduced the home side to 4 for 2 and those early wickets proved crucial by cranking the Duckworth-Lewis equation right up when rain came.Facing a thrice-amended target of 208 from 31 overs, Warwickshire, resuming on 101 for 2 from 26.1 had to go for broke and Dawson took advantage, completing his excellent day with 3 for 34.The win gave Hampshire a big step towards the quarter-finals but defeat for the Bears halted their momentum from successive wins and leaves them needing to win both remaining games, at home to Sussex and Kent, to qualify.Put in, Hampshire raced to 50 in 50 balls thanks to Michael Carberry who sped to 33 from 22 balls before nicking Oliver Hannon-Dalby to wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose.After Adam Wheater was run out by William Porterfield’s direct hit, Hannon-Dalby, fresh from taking 5 for 27 against Glamorgan on Monday, collected his seventh wicket in three days with a superb leg-cutter edged by James Vince.Jimmy Adams’s anchor role ended when he lifted a drive at Jeetan Patel and fell to a fine catch by Porterfield.That was 94 for 4 but Dawson, with his third half-century in four RLC innings, and Smith added 123 in 22 overs before both were caught in the deep. Gareth Berg and Chris Wood added useful late runs to leave Warwickshire a tough target.The total looked even more difficult after Wood removed Porterfield, caught at point, and Jonathan Trott, lbw offering no stroke, with the second and third balls of his first over. Varun Chopra and Ambrose added 77 in 14 overs before the latter, having moved to 41, ran himself out.A succession of showers then saw the target tweaked and retweaked after which Warwickshire simply had to take too many risks. Dawson had Chopra stumped and Ateeq Javid caught at short third man before Laurie Evans charged at him and missed, was bowled and with him went Warwikshire’s victory hopes.