Slick Sussex claim Twenty20 Cup

Sussex secured the Twenty20 Cup for the first time as their spinners followed up a hard-hitting display from Dwayne Smith, who clubbed 59 off 26 balls, to complete a 63-run thrashing of Somerset. When Marcus Trescothick launched Somerset's pursuit of 173 the chase looked easy, but he fell for 33 and scoring became increasingly tough on a wearing surface.

The victory compensates handsomely for Sussex's Friends Provident Final defeat at the hands of Hampshire last month and they have also turned the tables on the curse of the first semi-finalists on Finals Day. Only on one previous occasion, in 2006, had the team winning the first semi gone on to claim the title. Sides have often found it difficult to lift themselves again after the downtime, but Sussex had no such problem.

Flintoff to play Ashes decider

The England & Wales Cricket Board are confident Andrew Flintoff will be available for the Ashes finale at The Oval following a positive diagnosis from his knee specialist, Andy Williams. With England facing a must-win encounter at The Oval next week following their humiliating defeat in Leeds, a return to match fitness for Flintoff - in what would be his final Test match appearance before retirement - looms as a massive boost to their prospects of regaining the Ashes.

Aamer and Naved earn Pakistan easy consolation win

A hostile Mohammad Aamer and an inconsistent-but-smart Naved-ul-Hasan meant Sri Lanka narrowly avoided their worst-ever ODI defeat at home. Naved earlier gave Pakistan's total a boost with hefty hitting in the final overs, after Pakistan had threatened to let half-centuries from Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq go to waste. Sri Lanka however, took the series having already won the first three matches.

This was also the 10th straight time that a side batting first won at the R Premadasa Stadium. It can't be ascertained if it was just the conditions, but the Pakistan pace bowlers were way better than their Sri Lankan counterparts. Aamer and Naved got more movement, and demonstrated better control and variation.

Pakistan aim to restore pride

Big Picture

The spark has rather disappeared from a tour that during the Test portion delivered a few non-fatal surprises for Sri Lanka, such as Fawad Alam's maiden century, Danish Kaneria's five, and Umar Gul's bursts of reverse. Sri Lanka were utterly dominant in the first three ODIs and their series win has been totally justified. There was no resistance from Pakistan until the fourth game, a dead rubber, in which Umar Akmal treated spectators to a most effortless maiden century and Iftikhar Anjum bounced back with five wickets in no time.

The wheels haven't quite come off for Pakistan, but the nuts have certainly been loosened and the main aim is to continue to regain some lost pride. Sunday's match represents another chance for Pakistan to turn around their short-term fortunes, yet the poor form of their senior players - Mohammad Yousuf and Misbah-ul-Haq in particular - may prompt the management to revert to youth. Intikhab Alam, Pakistan's coach, said the wonderful partnership between Umar and captain Younis Khan gave a lot of confidence to the team for the final ODI and the Twenty20.

Rampant Australia on course for huge win

Mitchell Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus claimed five England wickets for 20 runs in the space of 44 balls in a thrilling final hour of the second day at Headingley, as Australia built on the batting efforts of Marcus North to surge towards a stunningly comprehensive Ashes-squaring victory. North's 110 from 206 balls, coupled with 93 from Michael Clarke and some spirited thwacking from the tail, converted Australia's overnight lead of 94 into a formidable first-innings advantage of 343 which paved the way for the dramas that followed - and had North himself held onto a sharp chance at third slip from the final ball of the day, Ricky Ponting would have had a case to claim the extra half-hour and push for an incredible two-day win

Instead, Australia will have to settle for a three-day finish, in a match that is proving as abjectly one-sided as any of England's Ashes humiliations of the past 20 years. The only remote challenge to Australia's dominance came while Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss were repelling the new ball in a first-wicket stand of 58 that spanned 22.4 overs. Hilfenhaus, however, zipped one back off the seam to slam into Strauss's back pad to expose England's flimsy middle-order, and sure enough, Australia surged through the opening.

ayawardene powers Sri Lanka to series win

The morning may have belonged to the Akmal brothers and Pakistan, but it was all Sri Lanka in the afternoon, with an imperious century from Mahela Jayawardene central to a commanding six-wicket victory which clinched the series with two games to spare. The pursuit of 289 was made to look like child's play as Jayawardene and Upul Tharanga put on 202 for the first wicket, and not even a brief wobble thereafter could stop Sri Lanka's inexorable progress. Jayawardene's 123, his first hundred since 2007, took only 108 balls, and even cramps failed to curtail the boundary barrage as the bowlers were treated with disdain.

Jayawardene's driving down the ground, and over cover, was majestic, and any shortness in length was ruthlessly punished by the most elegant of pull shots. But for a huge leg-before shout from Shahid Afridi which he survived - the umpire suspecting a bottom edge - Jayawardene made few mistakes, finding the boundaries with elan as the bowling started to fall apart. There was even a cheeky reverse-sweep for four off Saeed Ajmal, as he cruised to his century from only 91 balls.

Clarke and North put Australia safe

After a rain-affected draw at Edgbaston, in which England's push for victory fell as flat as the fifth day pitch, the question now stands: who takes the momentum into Headingley? The temptation is to give the nod to England given their 1-0 series advantage and flashes of brilliance between the spells of drizzle in Birmingham. But, on closer inspection, the matter may not be so clear-cut.

Australia will take tremendous confidence from their second-innings batting performance, in which three batsmen passed 50 and one, Michael Clarke, a stoic century in his 50th Test to limit England to just five wickets from 112 overs. Shane Watson's returns of 62 and 53 in his first Test as opener will prove particularly encouraging as will the final-day efforts of Michael Hussey (64) and Marcus North (96), both of whom were in need of a confidence boost.

The Australians will also be buoyed at the possibility that Mitchell Johnson's nightmare might just have been confined to the month of July. Johnson is clearly not back to his wrecking-ball ways from South Africa, but he did manage to make the necessary adjustments to his wrist position to allow him to rediscover the at-the-body line and subtley swing that has made him so effective in past series.