After that came inexplicable disappointment in Singapore and then minor injury in his preparation for this race.Even more intriguing will be the display of Johannesburg, whose star is in danger of falling into the sea after the great glories of a two-year-old career which culminated in success in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Belmont Park.The legend has already dimmed this season with defeats in the Gladness Stakes and Kentucky Derby. Johannesburg simply must take this ribbon-topped Group One offering if the bricks of his career are to be assembled again.Yet the messages from the camp were anything but dauntless yesterday. “We haven’t been able to get any fast work into him,” O’Brien said. “He will improve a lot for the run.” In that case, Danehurst (next best 3.45), who posted good form last season, can profit.The annual re-enactment of Balaclava, known as the Wokingham Handicap, has its usual myriad possibilities, but one to catch the eye is Grey Eminence (4.20), a course-and-distance winner from Richard Hannon’s in-form stable.Even more likely to return a yield though is STORMING HOME (nap 3.05), who not only possesses the best overall form for the Hardwicke Stakes but is also a proven runner here as the winner of the King Edward VII Stakes a year ago.. But their bowling was as ragged in the first and final sessions as it was controlled in the second. They held a definite advantage when Adam Sanford plucked out left-handed opener Mark Richardson’s off-stump, removing him for 41, and Chris Harris, Nathan Astle and Craig McMillan fell in quick succession.But Fleming was still there to take charge. He survived an uncanny piece of luck at 11 when a ball from Sanford deflected from his pad into his off-stump without removing the bail but batted with increasing certainty and fluency.

He will fly home to receive treatment following the partial dislocation and tendon damage to his left shoulder.. The last Benson & Hedges Cup final between Essex and Warwickshire at Lord’s today signifies the end of an era for domestic cricket in England. Sponsors of this tournament since 1972, the tobacco company’s 30-year association with the game comes to an end.
It will be replaced by a 20-over competition next summer and the eventual sponsors of these evenings of bish-bash cricket have a hard act to follow. The B&H Cup has been a competition enjoyed immensely by both players and spectators.How fitting it is then that Graham Gooch, the tournament’s most successful player, is involved today in his new role as Essex coach. Gooch holds four records; scorer of the most runs (5,176), hundreds (15), Gold Awards (22) and the highest score (198 not out) and it is no surprise that the resurgence of Essex as a force in domestic cricket has coincided with his appointment.Despite his round-shouldered, hang-dog appearance, Gooch is an inspirational figure who commands respect the moment he walks into a dressing-room.

It is his partnership with Ronnie Irani, the Essex captain, and the team spirit they have instilled which has turned today’s favourites from a fractured, unhappy outfit, torn apart by internal squabbling, into a slick, disciplined team that visibly enjoy their cricket.Perhaps the most important ingredient in transforming Essex from a side that won just six of their 22 one-day games against county opposition in 2001 into a team who have triumphed in 10 out of 11 so far this season is hard work. Gary Player, the South African golfer, worked by the oft-quoted principle of “the more I practice, the luckier I seem to get” and under Gooch you can rest assured this will be their philosophy.It is match-winning performances, though, that ultimately take teams through to finals and for Essex there has been no shortage of these. Between them Irani, Nasser Hussain and Andy Flower have won each of the six Gold Awards on offer this season. Irani has picked up three, which has resulted in his selection for England’s one-day side, Flower, Essex’s Zimbabwean overseas player, has won two and Hussain, playing with more freedom and enterprise than ever before, has bagged the other.It is with the bat where Essex’s strength lies. Their tactic this season has been to put the opposition in, take early wickets with the new ball, then sit back and contain through disciplined, if unspectacular, bowling. This will be backed up by good fielding, with the view that, whatever the opposition score batting first, they will knock them off.The progress of Michael Powell’s Warwickshire team to the final has been far less emphatic but no less dramatic. The Bears scraped through the zonal group stage on the basis of being one of the two best third-placed sides, but owe most for reaching today’s showpiece to Neil Carter, their left-arm fast bowler.In an epic semi-final at Old Trafford against Lancashire, Carter needed to hit three runs off the final ball to win the game and coolly swept Glenn Chapple for four.

This unbelievably tense victory led to unforgettable celebrations from him and his team-mates, showing just how much it meant for a big, but lately underachieving, club like Warwickshire to get to the final.Under their coach Bob Woolmer, Warwickshire are also a very imaginative and disciplined team but their chances today rely a great deal on their overseas player, Shaun Pollock. The South African all-rounder has been in magnificent form with the ball in this competition taking 14 wickets at 12.5 a piece and has received good support from that most popular of cricketers, Dougie Brown.The player looking to impress more than any other at Lord’s will be Warwickshire’s highly rated young batsman Ian Bell. Despite being the outstanding prospect to come out of last winter’s National Academy in Adelaide, Bell has not been in the best of form this season. This competition, however, has been good to him, he has scored 261 runs at 43.5, and the stage is set today for him to show everyone what he is capable of.While Essex will be hard to beat, it would be nice if a good servant to English cricket, on its final day, has the weather and the exciting finish that its involvement deserves.. Sven’s Samurai fought like heroes.