This was not Harmison’s last success as he then ruined the debut of the 17-year-old Parthiv Patel by dismissing him for a duck

This was not Harmison’s last success, as he then ruined the debut of the 17-year-old Parthiv Patel by dismissing him for a duck.This was a more typical dismissal for the 6ft 4in fast bowler as he managed to get a ball to bounce steeply at the diminutive wicketkeeper. All Patel could do was watch the ball fly of the edge of his bat to the hands off Andrew Flintoff at second slip. Rain stopped play 4.38pm.Ganguly’s 50: 161 min, 99 balls, 8 fours.ENGLAND: M P Vaughan, R W T Key, M A Butcher, *N Hussain, J P Crawley, ? J Stewart, A Flintoff, C White, D G Cork, S J Harmison, M J Hoggard.Umpires: R E Koertzen (SA) and R B Tiffin (Zim).Television replay umpire: J W Lloyds.Match referee: C H Lloyd.. The Republic of Ireland coach, Mick McCarthy, has named a 25-man squad for the international friendly against Finland in Helsinki on 21 August, but, as expected, there is no room for his former captain Roy Keane.

McCarthy and Keane had their infamous row just before the World Cup, and the player was sent home. Bobic could arrive in time for the Premiership opener with Fulham and leave them well within their budget.Allardyce may take the chance as he is facing a striking crisis. The England international Michael Ricketts may be out for a month if a nagging knee problem continues. The Dane Henrik Pedersen is his only senior option, with the youngster Jonathan Walters the main alternative.Leeds United have agreed a three-year deal with the Australia international midfielder Paul Okon.Okon agreed to make the switch to Elland Road yesterday after undergoing tests and will officially be unveiled as a Leeds player on Monday, providing he passes his medical.The 30-year-old will become Terry Venables’ second signing as Leeds manager, following Nick Barmby. Okon, formerly of Lazio, played under Venables when the latter was in charge of Australia’s national team and at Middlesbrough.Two more Brazil World Cup winners could follow Gilberto Silva and Juninho by moving to England. The midfielders Kleberson, who plays for Athletico Paranaense in Brazil, and Ricardinho, of Corinthians, have both been linked with Leeds in the South American press.West Ham’s preparations for the new season have been boosted by Ian Pearce, Steve Lomas, and Trevor Sinclair all agreeing new deals.Birmingham City are to appeal after they had their application for a work permit for the United States international striker Jovan Kirovski, a proposed signing from Crystal Palace, rejected by the Home Office yesterday..

Brazil’s World Cup–winning coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has stepped down from his post. I need to be with my family, and I have other commitments.”Scolari’s agreement ended after the World Cup, but the Brazilian Football Confederation offered him the chance to remain in charge for another four years.”In the next 60, 90, 120 days, until the end of the year, I will stay with my family. After that, I will look to work in Europe, which is one of my professional targets,” he said.”If I go to a European team which is not a winning team, it will become one. And if it is already a winner, it will be even more of a winner,” he added.Scolari will coach the team one last time, in the friendly match against Paraguay, to be played on August 21 in celebration of their World Cup victory.. Riding the taunts of Sir Alex Ferguson with a glint in his eye, luxuriating in a balance sheet that in these straitened football days might have been written by Mary Poppins on speed, Ars? Wenger thrust a blade at the heart of his Old Trafford rival the other day when he sniffily rated Rio Ferdinand good but “overpriced” at £30m. However, the young centre-half was by some distance England’s most impressive performer in the World Cup and, with the return to fitness of Gary Neville and the full waxing of Ferguson’s competitive rage, even Wenger’s self-belief is not so great as to wipe away all fear of massive retaliation from Old Trafford.Where it leaves Wenger going into tomorrow’s Community Shield game with Liverpool, who have scarcely thrown in the towel with their signing of the potential sensational Senegalese El Hadji Diouf and his World Cup team-mate Salif Diao, is unquestionably the new season’s most intriguing question.Plainly, he carries two imperatives into the new campaign. While Ferguson shuffled his imposing hand of cards with ever-increasing frustration, as G?rd Houllier rose from his sickbed in the hope that his Liverpool could make that one last stride to the mountain top, Arsenal inhabited their own zone of excellence.They were buoyed by a rush of both talent and adrenalin.

The talent is always there but the adrenalin is not, and though it would be a little optimistic to expect to see too much of it gushing around the Millennium Stadium tomorrow, the demeanour and the snap of Arsenal will be measured keenly enough by their master. Though persistent failure in Europe is a fact he cannot escape, Wenger can point to an almost seamless regeneration of high performance at home. After winning their first Double, Arsenal did not drown in hubris. Indeed, they ran United to a breathless finish in the year of the treble, a historic feat which would have been denied their rivals if Dennis Bergkamp, of all people, had not missed an FA Cup semi-final penalty.But there are new elements of trial this coming season. How, for instance, is the head, and the competitive heart, of arguably Arsenal’s most important player, Vieira? Neither was much visible in the implosion of France in the World Cup. After France had been out-run, and out-thought, by the land of his birth, Senegal, in the opening game in Seoul, Vieira trudged from the field with his head down.