Needlessly coming off for bad light, their failure to finish off South Africa when they were down, their woeful bowling and careless batting ... the list of England's disasters in the Headingley Test goes on and on

Gary Kirsten edged South Africa's nose in front in an intriguing two-horse race as they closed on 164 for 5 - a valuable lead of 199 - after England crumbled to 307 soon after lunch on the third day of the fourth npower Test at Headingley

Close England 197 for 3 (Hussain 14*, Smith 0*) trail South Africa 342 (Kirsten 130, Zondeki 59) by 145 runs

After scraping the depths of despair at Lord's, a stirring display on a helpful Trent Bridge track has breathed life back into England's cricketers, who now go to Headingley for the fourth npower Test against South Africa with the series delicately

In another captivating day's cricket, in which the balance of power shifted from one side to the other, England emerged with a slight edge in the third npower Test match at Trent Bridge

Marcus Trescothick's wicket to the final ball of the evening rounded off a fruitful day of fight, with a touch of finesse, for South Africa in the third npower Test at Trent Bridge

Two wickets late in the day from Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison put England on top for the second day running in the third npower Test against South Africa at Trent Bridge

David Graveney, the England chairman of selectors, said the meeting prior to the third npower Test match was one of the most important in quite some time

One-nil down with three to go

In a Test match full of records, two more were broken in a memorable fourth and final day of the second npower Test at Lord's, which South Africa inevitably won, by a huge innings and 92 runs

Close England 129 for 2 (Butcher 33*, Hussain 36*) and 173 trail South Africa 682 for 6 dec

On a day of South African domination and English depression, Graeme Smith added yet more records to his already bulging scrap book on day two of the second npower Test match at Lord's

English batting collapses are supposed to be a thing of the past

Sussex 362 for 4 v Surrey at Hove Scorecard Sussex justified their position of second in the table with a commanding display against leaders Surrey

In light of England's dire start to the series, Freddie Auld looks back at seven other dismal series first days

Essex 271 for 6 v Leicestershire 600 for 7 dec at Southend Scorecard Only 16 overs at Southend, but it was enough for Leicestershire to tighten their grip on the game

Essex v Leicestershire 471 for 5 at Southend Scorecard It's not often a side racks up over 400 in a day, but bottom-placed Leicestershire took advantage of an inexperienced Essex attack and a flat pitch to race to a whopping 471 for 5 - the most

Alec Stewart will retire from Test cricket at the end of the summer

On Saturday a new generation of cricket fans will assemble en masse at Trent Bridge, the venue for the first-ever Twenty20 Cup final

In the end it wasn't the thrilling finale that the competition deserved, but it nevertheless produced worthy champions as Surrey became the first ever Twenty20 Cup winners at Trent Bridge