Hampshire’s Billy Taylor hit the last ball of the day – his first – to the boundary as the hosts defeated Derbyshire yesterday by

Hampshire’s Billy Taylor hit the last ball of the day – his first – to the boundary as the hosts defeated Derbyshire yesterday by one wicket in a thrilling finish to their Pro40 First Division match at the Rose Bowl. Chasing the visitors’ 225 for 6, the opener John Crawley hit 100 off 110 balls but wickets began to tumble as the chase intensified. However, last man Taylor came to the crease needing two from the final delivery and hit it for four.
Earlier the Derbyshire captain, Steve Stubbings, had scored 72 off 79 balls with Gary Balance (73) and Hasan Adnan (33) the other significant contributors.Anthony McGrath smashed 148 off 120 balls as struggling Yorkshire beat Somerset by 16 runs at Taunton in the second division. The off-spinning all-rounder took 23 wickets at an average of 15 on the 1978-79 tour, and the potential of Monty Panesar has not been lost on Ponting, the Australian captain.”We’ll try to make some sort of impact on him early on, and we won’t let him get on top,” said Ponting.”The way our left-handers, especially Justin Langer and Matty Hayden, play spin is to be fairly aggressive.”However, Ponting did accept that his side may find this challenge far harder than they have against previous England spinners.”He didn’t look like he was scared to throw the ball up a little bit and try and get you out,” Ponting said.”A lot of Englishmen over the years have been guilty of firing the ball in a bit too fast, and you can see with him that he uses the air a lot more.”He’s got good, subtle changes of pace and a really good arm ball as well. Miller, coincidentally, was the last England spinner to take more than 20 wickets in a series in Australia. Both have done very well and they both have aspirations to lead in Australia.

We, as selectors, need to talk to the individuals concerned but from the process adopted in the summer, you can probably get a fair indication of how we are thinking.”So, from this, it can be seen that Flintoff has Graveney’s vote, and it will be the voting of Fletcher and Miller who decide on the final decision.Whoever is in charge will have the rare pleasure of taking an England team to Australia that contains a match-winning spinner. Walthamstow is largely a harmonious community, and I would like to see it remain so. When Michael Vaughan was officially ruled out, Graveney suggested that Flintoff would captain the side in Australia but the performance of Strauss against Pakistan has complicated matters.”Duncan, quite rightly, has been quoted in the press saying that we need to talk about it,” said Graveney “That’s the statement that’s been made and that’s the line. And the difference in exposure will only increase before England line up against Ricky Ponting’s side in 14 weeks’ time.And with this in mind, David Graveney, the chairman of selectors, has admitted that the captaincy for this winter’s Ashes will be discussed by Duncan Fletcher, Geoff Miller and himself.

If no evidence turns up, then I fear we will have created yet more angry young Muslims and more potential radicals.AMJED HUSSAINLONDON E17Sir: If the police have succeeded in the apprehension of 21 terrorist suspects under present legislation, why would Mr Reid need to ask Parliament for stronger powers to deal with the terrorist threat in the future?NIGEL BALDWINPORTSMOUTH, HAMPSHIREHow poverty hits unborn children Sir: You are right to draw attention to the riddle of early births and low birthweight (“Boom in premature births threatens a public health crisis”, 2 August), but some answers are available.Nutrition and health education were removed from the school curriculum and the Colleges of Domestic Science closed more than 30 years ago, which means new generations of parents have grown up, conceived and given birth without vital education that would help ensure healthy babies.In 1972, the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition predicted that poor maternal nutrition, as a cause of permanent developmental brain disorder, would fuel an increase in mental illness unless nutritional education became part of public health policy. If the American government aims to tackle religious extremism, it would be helpful if it was more consistent in its approach.HARIS AZIZCOVENTRYSir: As a resident of Walthamstow of 24 years, and a Muslim (non-practising), I hope the police find evidence from the homes they have raided. What is not being pointed out is the uncritical support of every Israeli policy and quest for big wars by huge sections of the US Christian fundamentalists, who are eagerly waiting for the “fulfilment” of Biblical prophecies of Armageddon, the coming of Christ and Rapture. What happened to New Labour’s claim to be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime? Mr Blair’s administration seems to have lost interest in causes now that it is one of them.ADRIAN MOURBYOXFORDSir: Many analysts are trying to paint the whole war on terrorism as an ideological war between the “enlightened” West and “fundamentalist” Muslims. Trotter can propose a practical way to “know what British Muslims are thinking and doing” – or does he wish our nation of 60 million to descend to the level of the four young Muslims who blew up an innocent, diverse group of their fellow citizens?What exactly do “we” have “every right” to do in order to know this? And does “we” include the Muslims who approve of the fatwa against the 7 July bombers? Or shall we tag them all like animals and follow them like Big Brother contestants?ALICE SHEPPARDHAVERFORDWEST, PEMBROKESHIRESir: How on earth can the Government dismiss the letter from our Muslim great and good with the words that it is not interested in anything that “justifies or excuses” the terrorist threat to Britain? This sensible letter does neither; it seeks to explain.The British public needs to understand why we are being singled out in this way. To blame British foreign policy for last week’s terror alert simply means that they have become part of the terrorists’ agenda.STEWART WILLSALTRINCHAM, CHESHIRESir: The now-standard Muslim response to Islamist terror plots runs something like this: “We condemn this sort of thing unreservedly – but leaving Saddam Hussein and the Taliban in power, refusing to help the hyperpower catch al-Qa’ida terrorists, abandoning post-liberation Iraq to civil war and condemning Israel for attacking Hizbollah might have prevented it!”With variations of this spiel currently being repeated across all news media, it is important to recognise it as an insidious call for an Islamist veto on British foreign policy.KEITH GILMOURGLASGOWSir: This is still (I hope) a civilised country, thank you, Stewart Trotter (letter, 9 August) I wonder if Mr.

The Geneva Convention states that combatants that shelter within human communities are endangering civilians and are thereby responsible for any subsequent casualties. The mass leafleting of southern Lebanon from the air should also be noted – the 900,000 or so displaced civilians in Lebanon prove that it was successful, that civilian populations were warned.Hizbollah’s indiscriminate rocket salvos, the daily Shia-Sunni carnage in Iraq, the train bombs in Mumbai and Madrid, the Bali disco bombing and so on all bear evidence to the direct targeting of civilians without any kind of warning by a complex variety of extreme Islamic organisations.The attention of the British Muslim community should be clearly focused on establishing within the minds of their youth what are and what are not acceptable political methods. With no shortage of causes and adversaries to justify those causes, the debate on terrorism is crucially about methods used to achieve objectives – after all, this has been the essence of the critique of Israel in recent weeks, that it used excessive, disproportionate methods in pursuit of its objectives in Lebanon.That may be, but a comparison of Hizbollah’s tactics with those of the Israeli army clearly demonstrates the significance of the Geneva Conventions in determining which methods of terror are within the rules of war and which not. As for a spare pair of pants, I shall wear these on my head.CHRISTINE OSBORNELONDON SW8Sir: If the “No hand baggage” rule for air passengers becomes permanent I wonder if the prices for refreshments airside in airports will mysteriously increase .LAURENCE WILLIAMSHOCKWOLD, NORFOLKTerrorism is about methods, not causes Sir: Any potential Islamic terrorist, seeing the reaction to last week’s terror alert by Muslim organisations calling for an urgent change in British foreign policy, can only draw one conclusion – that terrorist actions work, in this case achieving the alienation of mainstream British Muslims from the British society in which they live.The debate on terrorism is not about causes – presumably, within their own abominable minds, even the perpetrators of the Beslan school siege felt they could fully justify the capture and slaughter of mothers and children.