Instead it garnered just three European Championship qualifying points, and a measure of revenge. Germany crushed San Marino with a record-breaking 13-0 win last night, the striker Lukas Podolski scoring four in their Euro 2008 Group D qualifier. The latter needed to salvage something from the tail-end of the season to restore confidence, and looked have done enough by restricting Sussex to just two batting bonus points. Sadly, Kent then found themselves struggling second time around. Even the deficit of 48 runs on the first innings looked like a mountainous task as Kent subsided to 29 for 3. Once again the man who did the damage was Mushtaq Ahmed, the Pakistani leg-spinner running through the home team for his second six-wicket haul in the match.Matt Prior, who had earlier been guilty of a crass shot, made up for that with another excellent wicketkeeping display in which he claimed three stumpings including Matthew Walker, who had produced another gritty innings to drag some semblance of resistance into the home team's response.By the close there seemed to be too few wickets (two) and too few runs (138) between the sides to prevent a Sussex victory sooner rather than later today.Apart from Walker and Darren Stevens, who smacked a fearless fifty, the rest of the Kent side failed abysmally, although captain Robert Key clearly felt that he had not made contact with the ball after being given out caught behind off James Kirtley.That Sussex had even accumulated two batting points owed much to captain Chris Adams, who made a solid 75 before rashly chasing a wide ball from Robbie Joseph, who picked up a five-wicket haul.* Surrey have been confirmed as Second Division champions after claiming the two bowling points they required against Gloucestershire at Bristol..

It was difficult to work out who had messed up most here yesterday, Sussex or Kent. The former really needed to extract maximum bonus points to ensure they maintained the pressure on their title rivals. An inspection of the ball will find dirt, grass, concrete, paint from advertising boards, skin, sweat, spit, sugar from sweets, sun cream, skin moisturiser, wood from bats, hair gel, fibres from trousers and possibly, just possibly, a flake of finger nail.It sounds as though the ICC are trying to discover the identity of Jack The Ripper.. Lawyers for Pakistan and the ICC are studying what evidence can be put forth. A forensic test is being suggested."The hearing - to be adjudicated by Sri Lanka's Ranjan Madugalle - is due to be held later this month.Forensically testing a cricket ball sounds good but it is actually a ridiculous suggestion. Inzamam was charged with ball tampering and bringing the game into disrepute after his side failed to take the field against England on the fourth afternoon of the forfeited match, and the contentious nature of the allegations have led the ICC, cricket's governing body, to contemplate this unprecedented move. "We want a fair hearing," said Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive "We don't want to sit on the side of the umpires We don't want to sit on the side of the team.

We want to sit between them and accept whatever decision is made by the adjudicator. The main reason [I left the tour] was I picked up a bug and it really hit me hard."Marcus Trescothick. The International Cricket Council is considering using forensic tests on the match ball used in the controversial Oval Test to ensure that Inzamam-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain, receives a fair hearing. That could explain why he has been able to play at home this summer but not in the Champions' Trophy overseas.