Akhtar for Durham

Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar, the fastest bowler in the world, has agreed to play for Durham for the remainder of the summer.

Akhtar will join his new team-mates on Monday, after the completion of Pakistan's NatWest Challenge series against England.

Shoaib replaces the fast bowler, Dewald Pretorius, who was a surprise inclusion in South Africa's squad for their tour of England.

Trescothick was confident of winning

Marcus Trescothick said he always felt confident of victory despite more than the odd hiccup throughout England's run-chase at Lord's.

The England opener scored an unbeaten century as England beat Pakistan by four wickets to win the NatWest Challenge 2-1.

But in a see-sawing match, England looked set to throw away a winning position when they stumbled from 129-2 to 154-6.

"I knew if we could get just one partnership towards the end we'd go close and it would go to the wire," said Trescothick, who was named man of the series.

"We had to graft hard right to the end and I was just keeping check of the score and making sure we were ticking over.

"I was just trying to stay composed and trying to stay focused on what I had to do."

Pakistan played better cricket than England: Latif

Pakistan captain Rashid Latif said his side had played "better cricket than England" despite losing by four wickets in the third one-day international at Lord's on Sunday.

The result saw England complete a come-from-behind 2-1 series win in a match where Pakistan had no luck at all.

Fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami repeatedly beat the bat and marginal umpiring decisions went against Pakistan.

But had Pakistan not dropped England opener Marcus Trescothick on his way to a match-winning unbeaten 108, as well as missing two chances to run out the Somerset left-hander, it might have been a different story.

"Pakistan played extremely well. I'm not ashamed of the loss," said wicket-keeper Latif who dropped Trescothick on 93 after Mohammad Hafeez had missed him on 35.

"It went their way today although they also played well. But I personally feel Pakistan played better cricket than England.

Zimbabwe beat Essex

Zimbabwe 193-5 beat Essex 189-9 by five wickets

Grant Flower and Ray Price both had fine matches as Zimbabwe warmed up for the NatWest series with their third win in their last four one-day warm-up fixtures.

They added to a run incorporating wins over Ireland, Somerset and Hampshire with a five-wicket success over Essex.

The county side were captained by former Zimbabwean international Andy Flower.

But although Flower hit 52 off just 56 balls, most of the other Essex batsmen were rolled over cheaply by the tourists with Price (3-20 off 10 overs) the most successful.

Needing just 190 to win, Zimbabwe recovered from the early loss of Dion Ebrahim as Doug Marillier (30) and Travis Friend (44) added 64 for the second wicket.

When they both fell, Flower guided his team home, bettering his brother's efforts on the opposing team by eight runs.

Richard's son cracks 319

Mali Richards, the teenage son of former West Indies batsman Sir Vivian Richards, cracked a record-breaking 319 runs today.

The innings gave Richards, 19, the highest individual score in the 90-year-old Leeward Islands Cricket Tournament.

The left-hander made his 319 from 420 balls in 498 minutes, with 22 fours and six sixes, while playing for Antigua and Barbuda in a three-day match against combined US and British Virgin Islands at the Antigua Recreation Ground.

There must be some question mark over the strength of the opposition as they had been bowled out for 47 before lunch on the first day yesterday and Richards' side amassed 789.

Richards' effort surpassed the previous best of 318 by Alex Adams of Anguilla against the combined Virgin Islands in 1997.