Anderson leads dominant England to big win

Raina fined 25% of match fee

Suresh Raina has been fined 25% of his match fee for his reaction after being given out caught by umpire Asad Rauf on the first day of the second Test between West Indies and India. The incident took place during the 56th over when a Devendra Bishoo delivery struck Raina on the thigh pad before lobbing to forward short leg.
Replays were inconclusive about whether the ball had brushed Raina's glove on its way to the fielder. Raina shook his head to indicate that he did not hit the ball which, the ICC said, seemed to be an attempt to influence the umpire's decision. "On being given out, he looked to the sky in disgust and after picking his bat up from the ground swung it at the dirt as well as shaking his head again," the ICC said.
Raina's actions were found to constitute a Level 1 breach of Article 2.1.3 of the ICC code of conduct which relates to "showing dissent at an umpire's decision by action or verbal abuse". He pleaded guilty and accepted the sanction proposed by match referee Chris Broad.
"What Suresh did was a clear breach of the code, something the player himself has accepted," Broad said. "There is a fine line between showing disappointment at a dismissal and demonstrating dissent but on this occasion Suresh was well over that line and his behaviour was unacceptable."
Level 1 breaches carry a minimum penalty of an official reprimand and a maximum penalty of 50% of a player's match fee.

Ishant takes two in shortened session

Early-morning showers reduced the first session by 45 minutes, but Ishant Sharma still had enough time to extend his domination of Ramnaresh Sarwan, and also remove nightwatchman Devendra Bishoo. Ishant has now dismissed Sarwan thrice in the 24 balls he has bowled to the batsman. There was moisture in the pitch, the ball was only 12 overs old, and Ishant and Praveen Kumar made full use, Ishant with the extra bounce and Praveen with beautiful swing either way.
The cordon behind the wicket wasn't quite alert to start off with: an edge from Sarwan flew about a foot above Suresh Raina's head at third slip, another from Bishoo went not far to the left of M Vijay at third slip, but neither man went for the catch. MS Dhoni provided for the second contingency by crowding the cordon so much there was no gap left between himself and the gully.
The bounce that Ishant extracted was too much for Bishoo, and soon enough he steered one straight to gully, ending the 23-run fourth-wicket partnership. Sarwan, not at all at ease with the bounce and the movement, found himself at the crease to a full inswinger two balls later, bringing in the last recognised pair.
Praveen's swing caused Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Marlon Samuels all sorts of trouble in the lead-up to lunch, but they both played late - if they had to - and even when Samuels edged Praveen once he did so with soft hands, just teasing the cordon.

Harper withdraws from Dominica Test

Umpire Daryl Harper has withdrawn from the third Test between the West Indies and India in Dominica that begins from July 6. Harper will be replaced in what was to be his final outing as a member of the elite panel by Richard Kettleborough .

He decided to step down "in the wake of some unfair criticism," according to ICC general manager Dave Richardson. Harper had been removed from the elite panel in May along with Asoka de Silva after both had troubles with the Decision Review System. His decisions in the recent Kingston Test had also attracted some criticism with MS Dhoni saying that "if the correct decisions were made, the game would have finished much earlier and I would have been in the hotel by now."

Richardson, though, defended Harper's decision-making record. "The reality of the situation is that Daryl's statistics show his correct decision percentage in Tests involving India is 96 per cent, which is considerably higher than the international average for top-level umpires.

"We have every faith in Daryl to finish the series and while we regret his decision we do respect it. The real shame is it deprives him of the opportunity to sign off as a Test match umpire in a manner befitting someone who has served the game so well since making his international debut back in 1994."

Harper stood in 95 Tests, 174 ODIs and 10 T20Is, making his international ODI debut in 1994 at Perth and his Test debut in November 1998.