Cricket: South Africa cruise to victory

South Africa A picked up their second one-day win of their England tour when they beat Gloucestershire by 28 runs at Cheltenham yesterday.

Put in on a good batting wicket, they lost Sven Koenig in the first over but with three half-centuries recovered to make 297 for 8. They bowled out Gloucestershire for 269 with two overs to spare after the Gloucestershire opener Rob Cunliffe had been taken to hospital with a knuckle injury to his left hand. He returned to bat again at No 11 but added only one to his score of 17.

He has been ruled out of the Championship match against Warwickshire at Cheltenham today and his fellow opener Tony Wright is out with a groin strain.

The long-serving wicketkeeper David Ripley pulled Northamptonshire out of trouble with 71 not out in two and three-quarter hours in their Championship match against Wor- cestershire at Kidderminster.

Ripley, 29, recalled because of Russell Warren's broken thumb, put on 88 for the ninth wicket with Andy Roberts (39), and gathered a further 61 in an unbroken stand with Paul Taylor (30no). That enabled Northants to raise 294 for 9 after having slumped to 145 for 8. The slow left-armer Richard Illingworth took 4 for 64 for Worcestershire.

Northants had twice seemed to be in a position to make more of an easy- paced pitch. The openers Alan Fordham (29) and Richard Montgomerie (34) were relatively untroubled in a stand of 53 and Kevin Curran (40) and David Capel (32) put the conditions into perspective with a partnership of 54.