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Kumar Sangakkara continued to make batting look easy on the second afternoon of the second Test, as he completed his 24th Test century to take Sri Lanka to 294 for five, when rain forced a premature end to proceedings at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. The Sri Lanka captain ensured that that the hosts continued to stride towards a good first innings total, despite the loss of Thilan Samaraweera and Angelo Mathews to some excellent sustained pressure from the West Indies fast men.

Sangakkara raced to his hundred after lunch having ended the previous session on 84, dancing down the pitch to caress Shane Shillingford over long-on for six, before repeating the dose for the following delivery, this time for a one-bounce four. His century came in the next over and he maintained his fluency throughout the session as he continued to put away the bad balls, even amidst testing periods of good bowling from the visitors.

Dwayne Bravo outfoxed Thilan Samaraweera, laying a leg-trap for the right-hander, who had looked good for another century in what has been a prolific year for him. With a leg gully, short leg and two men out for the hook, Bravo repeatedly dug them in short, inviting Samaraweera to take on the field and clear the boundary ropes. He duly obliged in Bravo's second over of the afternoon, pulling one straight to Shane Shillingford at long-leg, to end his 170-run association with Sangakkara that had rescued his side from 34 for three.

West Indies persisted with the short stuff for Angelo Mathews, with Bravo in particular, exploiting the bounce in the Premadasa pitch to good effect, once the second new ball had been taken. Mathews looked assured against the spin of Shillingford, slamming him for a straight six early on in his innings, but rode his luck against the quick bowlers, twice mishitting the ball in the air, only for it to land agonisingly close of the diving fieldsmen. It was a good length delivery that ultimately did for him though, as an angled ball from Kemar Roach took the outside edge on its way to the keeper.

Prasanna Jayawardene then added 21 with Sangakkara before the rains came down, and the umpires decided to call an early tea, with the hosts at 294 for five. Play was called off for the day a short while later.

The overnight pair rebuilt the innings in style during the morning session, unfurling an array of classy strokes. Sangakkara and Samaraweera put on the biggest partnership for Sri Lanka against West Indies, and went in to the lunch break unbeaten, having added 115 runs to the 84 for three from the previous evening.

West Indies were flat in the field for much of the morning, adding lazy misfields to the costly missed chances from earlier in the innings. The batsmen negotiated the spinners with ease, advancing down the wicket to drive down the ground, then sitting back to hit through the off-side once the adjustment in length was made for the next delivery. Sangakkara drove through the covers to scintillating effect and together with Samaraweera, made full use of a pitch that retained little of its bite and liveliness from the opening exchanges of the match.

Misbah-ul-Haq played a captain's knock for the second successive game to help Pakistan draw the second Test and the two-match series against South Africa. His second half-century of the match, and third of the series, frustrated South Africa after a mini-collapse in the post-lunch session had given them a hint of a win.

Misbah was aided by Azhar Ali, and together they spent more than three gritty hours at the crease putting on 87 for the fourth wicket to take the sting out of the South African attack. The match was called off shortly after entering the final hour of play.

South Africa will be concerned about their inability to take 20 wickets in each of the two Tests, although they were playing in unfamiliar conditions. The Dubai and Abu Dhabi pitches were hosting Tests for the first time and five days of cricket was untested territory for both surfaces.

At the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, the pitch was placid and batsman-friendly but showed signs of assisting the spinners. Although Paul Harris and Johan Botha plucked three wickets in a two-over burst after lunch, they lacked penetration and South Africa may have to cast their net for an attacking spinner wider after this series.

Pakistan were in a comfortable position at 127 for 3 at the start of the final session and it would have required a supreme effort from South Africa to take seven wickets. Harris and Botha bowled in tandem for seven overs before part-time offspinner Alviro Petersen was thrown the ball. He was used for the two specialist spinners to change ends, but the signs were already there that South Africa thought time was running out.

As the desperation grew, and Misbah and Azhar looked well settled at the crease, Steyn was tossed the ball to induce a final hurrah. Steyn certainly looked as though he was returning to his best and bent his back trying to produce some reverse swing. But he couldn't expose what Mark Boucher called the "underbelly" of the Pakistan line-up, effectively an inexperienced, middle order that would have allowed South Africa to go for the kill.

Misbah and Azhar didn't play a shot in anger, dealing with Steyn's aggression and Botha and Harris in similar fashions. They showed rare patience and did not give way to the recklessness that has gone hand in hand with Pakistan recently. Azhar, in particular, showed maturity and temperament beyond his years. The wobbles in the Pakistan line-up, who teetered on the brink of a collapse after lunch, seemed a distant memory with the captain and his aide at the crease.

Pakistan wobbled in the second session when Botha got the breakthrough in his second over of the day. He trapped Taufeeq Umar in front with a straighter one and broke a steady first-wicket stand of 66 with Mohammad Hafeez, who only lasted four balls after that. He, too, was deceived by a straighter ball, this time from Harris. Younis Khan was the next to go, two balls later, to a delivery that kept straight and low. Harris had given South Africa a tiny window of opportunity, but Misbah slammed that shut.

He absorbed the pressure like a sponge, played the ball away from his body, especially against Harris and then broke the shackles with a crisp backfoot drive off Botha. That shot seemed to allow Pakistan to settle slightly and may have prompted the move to bring Steyn back. Misbah's mind was made up and he was not threatened. Twice, he played the ball to the third man boundary for four. Then he laid into Harris, with back to back boundaries, a drive down the ground followed by a sweep.

When he tried the pull, in Harris' next over, Misbah inflicted damage of a different sort. Hashim Amla, who was fielding at forward short leg, was hit on the left wrist as he tried to take evasive action and had to leave the field. South Africa are already without captain Graeme Smith, who fractured his hand, and losing Amla as well will be a major blow for them before the home series against India.

South Africa may come under criticism for giving themselves too few overs to bowl Pakistan out, after they opted to bat for just under half an hour this morning. They had a lead of 323 overnight but were not content with their advantage. The batsman spent six more overs at the crease on the fifth and added 30 runs. That left them with just 82 overs to take 10 wickets, which, for Pakistan, signalled the start of Survivor Abu Dhabi

The investors behind the IPL's Kochi franchise have decided to pull out of the venture and have informed the BCCI of this, ESPNcricinfo has learnt. Their decision comes three days before the expiry of the board's deadline to the franchise to sort out its differences and - barring another twist in a long-running saga - could mean a final and irrevocable expulsion from the league.

A letter of withdrawal was sent on Wednesday to Shashank Manohar, the BCCI president, it is understood.

It leaves the IPL free to decide on how to fill the hole in the tournament - most likely by issuing a new tender inviting bids for the replacement team. This will be done on November 28, at the next governing council meeting in Mumbai.

The investors in the consortium - Anchor Earth, Parinee Developers, Rosy Blue and Film Wave -hold 74 per cent of the equity. The remaining 26% has been given to the Gaikwad family - Shailendra, his brother Ravi and their parents plus a few others, all part of Rendezvous Sports World - as free equity for services rendered in successfully bidding for the franchise.

The two groups have been split down the middle over ownership issues almost since the franchise's inception, a situation that severely undermined its credibility in the IPL's eyes. The league's governing council, at its emergency meeting on October 27, felt Kochi was far from resolving those issues and issued a notice asking both factions to explain why the franchise should not be scrapped.

Satyajit Gaikwad, the CEO of Rendezvous, said at the time that the notice period was enough to build bridges with the investors, led by the Anchor group's Mehul Shah. That no longer seems to be the case.

An indication that the end was in sight came from the Twitter feed of Shashi Tharoor, the MP and former minister who had been closely identified with the consortium when it won the bid for the Kochi franchise. "That dream is over for now," he tweeted on Wednesday. "Those who didn't want a Kerala IPL team have finally succeeded. Some of us have paid a high price for trying.

England added another entry to their list of horror starts to Ashes series when they lost Andrew Strauss third ball at Brisbane, but they recovered their composure during an enthralling session to reach lunch on 2 for 86. Alastair Cook showed impressive composure alongside Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott was the other casualty when he gave away a promising innings against Shane Watson, but it's hard to split the teams after the early skirmishes.

The session could have been Australia's if Xavier Doherty hadn't spilled Cook's cut shot at point 10 minutes before the interval and the pace bowlers will consider that they didn't make the most of the new ball with inconsistent lines. Throw in the first use of UDRS for the series against Trott and an early taste of Pietersen's trial by left-arm spin against Doherty and the opening two hours of this much-hyped series couldn't have offered much more.

Strauss did his first job of the day right by winning the toss and, despite a green tinge to the pitch, taking the expected decision to bat first. After events on this ground four years ago all eyes were on the first ball of the day and the opening delivery from Ben Hilfenhaus sailed harmlessly past off stump. However, it didn't take long for the Ashes series to burst into life as two balls later Strauss tried to cut one that was a little too close to his body and picked out Mike Hussey at gully.

The England captain stood there, head in hand for a moment, before turning for the dressing room as the Gabba erupted to the cheers of the home support. Strauss had made two hundreds during England's near-perfect warm-up period and Australia knew how vital the scalp was. It took the visitors until the third over to open their account and that was an edge to third man by Trott, who then had to survive a heart-stopping referral when Peter Siddle's lbw shout was sent to the third umpire but pictures confirmed it was just clipping leg stump.

However, steadily he and Cook evened the scales. Trott provided the impetus with a neat flick through the leg side and two swivel-pulls to fine leg, but was also rather skittish at stages as he edged short of second slip and got a leading edge towards point trying to work through midwicket.

He had appeared to survive the examination when the ball was thrown to Watson who started loosely, but Trott gave his innings away with a loose drive against an inswinger which took off stump. England believe they can target Watson as a weak link in the Australian attack so providing him an early wicket will have been a major disappointment.

Cook, though, remained impressively solid as the quicks strayed a little wide as they tried to trouble him outside off and when they straighten up Cook worked through the leg side. His only boundary was a convincing effort as he latched onto a pull through midwicket off Mitchell Johnson, but he was given a huge left off on 26 when Xavier Doherty dropped a fairly simple chance at point off Watson.

Pietersen, meanwhile, settled himself in relatively calm fashion considering the often hyperactive way he starts an innings. He wasted no time in imposing himself against Doherty by advancing down the pitch but the early turn on offer won't have gone unnoticed by either camp.