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Shane Warne celebrated his last competitive match at Lord's with a hint of the brilliance that so beguiled opponents for years as he lead the Rajasthan Royals to a 46-run victory in the inaugural British Asian Cup. The former Australian leg-spinner drew a large cheer from the 20,000 crowd each time he entered the attack, but the largest roar was reserved for a classic Warne dismissal – a stumping after the Middlesex favourite Dawid Malan failed to pick Warne's googly.

In typical larrikin Warne style, he declined to rule out a future return to Lord's. "That will my last game at Lord's unless the Royals play here again in the next 12 months or in the future," he said. "It will be my last competitive game in England, that's for sure. I'll play the odd benefit game.

"I love being out there and thought I did quite well considering I'd just jumped off a plane and haven't bowled for a couple of weeks."

All the attention may have been focused on Warne but Dimitri Mascarenhas emerged as the star as the Royals posted 162 for five in their rain-affected innings, smashing 32 off 16 balls. The England all-rounder then took two wickets for 24 runs as last year's Indian Premier League winners easily dealt with the reigning English Twenty20 Cup champions in the first meeting between sides from the competitions.

Middlesex could only manage 116 for seven in reply, Malan's 34 from as many balls before his stumping to be Warne's only victim for the night, and Neil Dexter's 26 from 24 among the county's few highlights in a one-sided contest.

The Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty attempted to brighten up a blustery and rain-swept start to proceedings with a lap of the ground, but just three overs had elapsed when the weather forced a halt to play.

Faiz Fazal hit a towering six off Tyron Henderson as the IPL side moved to 16 without loss and, once play resumed after an hour-long interruption, the 23-year-old gave Steven Finn the same treatment.

The Royals opener rode his luck but his innings of 27 off 22 balls was abruptly halted when he was caught by Billy Godleman on the boundary attempting to hoist a third six.

After 10 overs the Royals had moved to 74 for one with Swapnil Asnodkar anchoring the innings. The spin of Murali Kartik and Shaun Udal was restricting the Royals during the middle overs but a bowling change brought on Malan who made the breakthrough. After Asnodkar plundered six from a full toss, a mis-hit off the next ball was caught by Owais Shah in the deep, concluding an innings of 41 from 40 balls.

With 15 overs gone the Royals started forcing the pace and paid the price as Naman Ojha, caught by Finn off the bowling of Udal, and Justin Langer, bowled by Malan, departed.

However, the arrival of Mascarenhas provided the Royals with some late momentum with Mohammad Kaif also making a telling contribution.

Middlesex were never in the hunt as Sohail Tanvir bowled Godleman and Mascarenhas had Shah adjudged lbw in consecutive overs. Mascarenhas added the wicket of Dexter, also lbw, in his next over to leave Middlesex wobbling at 33 for three after seven overs

Warne brought himself into the attack for the 10th over, bowling a tight line that saw Middlesex's required run-rate past the 13 per over mark. Tanvir added the wickets of Eoin Morgan and then Henderson fell, both caught out by slower deliveries. After Warne accounted for Malan with a classic googly, the South African-born Gareth Burg took 13 runs off his final over but never threatened to overhaul their target.

Kevin Pietersen set out his stall with characteristic bravado yesterday ahead of the Ashes series by telling Australia's tourists: "We're not scared." As England and Australia prepare for tomorrow's first Test at the Swalec Stadium, Pietersen said he and his team-mates were braced for a testing opening session, despite the absence of the injured Brett Lee.

But he added: "The guy who came hard at us in the last two series was Glenn McGrath. He's not there any more, so they'll have to rely on someone else. It'll be a big, big series. We expect it to be tough, but we're also going to come out hard and come out fighting, because we're not scared."

England are well aware that the Ashes entrée can easily define the main course. In 2005, Steve Harmison hit each of Australia's top three on a raucous opening morning at Lord's; in 2006-07, his first ball looped deflatingly to Andrew Flintoff at second slip. Pietersen believes the new-look nature of the Australian team will not detract from the fight.

"Any team that loses Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist, Hayden, Langer and Martyn is not going to be as strong because those guys are legends," he said. "Yes, their team is weakened, but the Australian way is to come out and be fierce, competitive and dominant, and throw a lot of punches early in the series."

There were moments as Pietersen addressed the media when he seemed determined to play down the significance of the series and at one point described the first Test as "a game of cricket between two teams who want to win". But the straight-talker in him kept re-emerging, and he even had the confidence to declare England could win the series if he underperformed.

"There's no great expectation on me in the England dressing room," he said. "If you look at the last 12 months, [Andrew] Strauss has got hundreds, [Alastair] Cook has turned his fifties into hundreds, Colly's [Paul Collingwood] got hundreds, [Ravi] Bopara's got three in a row, [Matt] Prior's got runs. We've all got runs, so I don't think it's as big an issue as everyone thinks. I have confidence that the guys will perform. If they get me out cheaply or if I have a bad series, England can still win, but I don't ever intend to have a bad series."

Pietersen began running last week following achilles trouble and claimed he felt "pretty good" compared with a fortnight ago. But he cautioned: "The cortisone injection's still in my system, so we'll only know when it comes out."

The Sheffield United goalkeeper Paddy Kenny could be facing a ban of up to two years after failing a drugs test, according to reports. Kenny, 31, has been suspended by his club over the matter, which occurred during the Championship play-off semi-final with Preston.

The Republic of Ireland international failed tests on both A and B samples, and must now wait to hear of his punishment from the authorities. It is believed that the banned substance may have come from a medicine that Kenny bought from an over-the-counter chemists.

The USTA announced that Mardy Fish will replace Andy Roddick on the U.S. Davis Cup team that will face Croatia this weekend in the 2009 Davis Cup quarterfinal tie on an indoor clay court in Porec, Croatia.

"Mardy is a Davis Cup veteran and we appreciate his willingness to join the team on short notice. He has been playing well and we are glad to have him back in the singles lineup," said McEnroe. "Andy had a great run at Wimbledon. He battled for more than four hours yesterday and fought hard to reach the final. Understandably, his body is not up for the rigors of Davis Cup in such a short turnaround.

Roddick suffered an injured right hip flexor during his five-set loss in the Wimbledon singles final yesterday.