Essex hold Indians at Chelmsford The Indians had a satisfactory workout against Essex with Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag and Sanjay Bangar sharing the limelight on the final two days. On the third day of the four-day match, Harbhajan added five more wickets to his overnight tally of two wickets to end up with an impressive return of 7-83 in the Essex first innings. The home team, consequently, were bundled out for 279 after being 187-3 at one stage. A 237-run lead gave Sourav Ganguly the option of enforcing the follow-on and gunning for an innings win, but the Indian captain preferred to settle for some batting practice. Bangar and Sehwag were not complaining; they racked up an impressive 209-run second wicket partnership before Sehwag's beefy 142 off 156 balls, including 18 fours and five sixes came to an end. Bangar, for his part, went on to make 74 before being dismissed. With VVS Laxman also contributing an useful 42, the Indians declared their second innings at 327-6, leaving Essex 565 to get in 62 overs. Knowing that victory was beyond their reach, the home team's top order gritted their teeth and ground out a face-saving draw.

Caddick replaces White in England squad for Headingley Test England have recalled Andrew Caddick for the third npower Test against India due to start at Headingley this Thursday. Caddick has recovered from the side strain he suffered in the third Test against Sri Lanka and replaces the injured Craig White in an otherwise unchanged England squad. Paceman Alex Tudor, who was released from the squad for the second Test, has also been retained along with new boy Steve Harmison and veteran Dominic Cork in a squad of 13. The final selection will be influenced by the fitness of Andrew Flintoff, who is included in the squad but will undergo a fitness test before the game. The England all-rounder needs a hernia operation to get over the groin injury from which he has been suffering since the NatWest series earlier in the summer. England's chairman of selectors, David Graveney, said: "Andrew Flintoff is a key player for us and we will have to see how he is after practice next week. We very much hope that he will be able to play but we do have other options available and we are not intending to add to this squad at the present stage. "It's not a risk to play him according to what we've been told by our medical experts and Freddie's keen to stay involved. The player obviously has to be comfortable about playing and I'm sure Nasser (Hussain) will look after his workload and be sensible about it. The selection of the side will be based around that," he added. England squad: N Hussain (captain), MP Vaughan, RWT Key, MA Butcher, JP Crawley, AJ Stewart, A Flintoff, DG Cork, AR Caddick, MJ Hoggard, SJ Harmison, AF Giles, AJ Tudor.

A record to savour for Mithali Raj There indeed is something about Taunton which seems to inspire Indian cricketers. In the only one-day international - a World Cup league game in 1999 - that their team has played at the ground, Sourav Ganguly (183) and Rahul Dravid (145) lay a Sri Lankan attack to waste while rattling a world record 316-run partnership in the most heroic and memorable fashion possible. Now, another Indian, 19-year-old Mithali Raj, has made her first visit to the ground memorable by recording the highest score in women's Test cricket. Raj's 214 in the drawn second Test against England, played at the venue from August 14-17, saw her obliterate the previous record that stood in the name of Australia.s Karen Rolton, who made an unbeaten 209 not out against her English opponents in 2001. Mithali, incidentally, is the second Indian woman after Sandhya Agarwal to hold the record for the highest Test score.

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