Warne to rescue with speedy first century

Shane Warne yesterday proved he can turn a game with bat as well as ball when he hit his maiden first-class hundred. The Australian leg-spinner bailed Hampshire out with 107 not out to take Hampshire from 130 for 7 to 328 all out against Kent at Canterbury.

Warne's 72-ball hundred in 100 minutes puts him in pole position to win the 2005 Walter Lawrence Trophy for the season's fastest first-class hundred. His innings included 16 fours and 3 sixes.

Warne said: "Now I've got the first one out of the way, I am hoping there will be a few more around the corner. It was an ambition, I've got 5,000 first-class runs but wondered if this would happen.

"I was getting very nervous out there. I don't normally jump up and down like that in the innings, it was just something I do on the spur of the moment."

Warwickshire's Keith Piper faces a disciplinary hearing at Lord's today, with the England and Wales Cricket Board, after failing a drugs test earlier this season. The 35-year-old is alleged to have tested positive for cannabis and will today learn his fate.