This Round Up comes straight from the pen of Mr George Bouras (Filling in for Rob Barnett)
England built a commanding lead in the Second test against India at Trent Bridge on Sunday.
After a shaky first innings from the home side Ian Bell led the England recovery in the second innings, scoring 159, but the batsmen – who had been bumped up the order to No. 3 in the wake of a shoulder injury to Jonathan Trott – had been given out 12 overs previously in unusual circumstances.
Fielding the final ball before tea, Praveen Kumar rescued Bell’s shot just short of the boundary but Bell (in no small part down to Kumar’s lack of urgency to return the ball to the middle) believed the ball to have gone for four and left the security of his crease, making his way to the pavilion.
When Kumar eventually threw the ball in, India’s wicketkeeper and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni knocked off the bails and, after a replay had proved the ball had indeed not gone for four, umpire Asad Rauf was forced to dismiss Bell.
In a great act of sportsmanship Dhoni incredibly withdrew his appeal during the interval, though, and Bell was allowed to continue at the crease with Eoin Morgan, adding a further 12 runs to his total before being caught and bowled by Yuvraj Singh.
England no go into the penultimate day of the test 374 runs ahead with four wickets still remaining in their second innings.
In Formula 1, Jenson Button won his second grand prix of the season in a rain-affected race in Hungary.
The decision to fit harder, more durable tyres than his opponents paid off when the rain began to fall in the final quarter of the race. After tussling with Lewis Hamilton for the lead Button was able to pass his McLaren teammate and finish ahead of championship leader Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso with Hamilton, who later served a 10 second drive-through penalty, in fourth.
With the start of the Premier League season only two weeks away, the pre-season form of some of England’s biggest clubs was under close scrutiny this weekend.
Chelsea took on Aston Villa in the final of the Barclays Asia Cup and Fernando Torres scored with his first touch as his side cruised to a comfortable 2-0 victory. Nine weeks after their humbling at Wembley in the Champions League final, Manchester United took on FC Barcelona – and this time emerged victorious – in a friendly in Washington. Nani and Michael Owen got United’s goals either side of a Thiago Alcatara equaliser. Arsenal invited Paris Saint-Germain, Boca Juniors and New York Red Bulls to the fifth annual Emirates Cup but the hosts were unable to muster a win in either of their two matches, drawing 2-2 with Boca and 1-1 with the Red Bulls, and it was the American side who took home the trophy having defeated PSG in their first match.
Wigan Warriors maintained their place at the top of Super League with a fairly straightforward 30-16 win away at Hull F.C. Warrington Wolves kept the pressure on Wigan at the top of the table, though, crushing Bradford Bulls 64-6 with Ryan Atkins going over for four tries to restrict Wigan’s lead to just point.
In golf, Yorkshireman Simon Dyson won the Irish Open in a nailbiting finale on the 18th hole. The amateur finished tied for 9th place in the Open Championship a fortnight ago.
Yani Tseng won the Women’s British Open by one shot over Caroline Masson; the fifth major title already under the belt of the 22-year-old.
