Nottinghamshire’s season has been transformed since Peter Moores joined the coaching staff and trust in homegrown pace bowlers has played a large part in that

Jon Culley at Trent Bridge23-Aug-2015
ScorecardJake Ball – proof that Nottinghamshire can produce their own•Getty Images

With a third of the third day lost to rain and a forecast for more interruptions on day four, Nottinghamshire may be thwarted in their attempt to secure a fourth win in five in the Championship. Nonetheless, the transformation in their fortunes since late June has been notable.Since they were thrashed by an innings by Yorkshire at Headingley in June, Nottinghamshire have recorded a remarkable 11 wins from 14 completed matches across the three formats. Talk of relegation was in the air in the aftermath of the Leeds defeat; now there is a reasonable prospect of finishing second in the Championship, while a home quarter-final in the Royal London Cup on Tuesday offers the chance to move within one step of a second Lord’s final in three years.Much will be made of the improvement coinciding with the addition of Peter Moores to the coaching staff as a consultant. The future of the former England head coach beyond next month has yet to be determined. There will be a clamour, no doubt, among the members for him to stay.There are other factors at play, though, one of which is the emergence of a youthfully enthusiastic bowling attack, who are rising to the challenge presented by the two gaping holes left behind by Andre Adams and, latterly, Peter Siddle, and threatening finally to quieten the constant snipe that Nottinghamshire cannot produce their own players.Jake Ball, Brett Hutton and Luke Wood, who have shared seven wickets in this match so far and 74 between them for the Championship season, are all local boys. Ball is from Mansfield, while Hutton and Wood, although born in Doncaster and Sheffield respectively, played their club cricket in Nottinghamshire and developed through the county’s academy system.Although Wood is a relative newcomer, Ball and Hutton have had to wait several years for the opportunity to be regulars in the four-day side. Now they have made the breakthrough, they are finding that taking the field with trust behind them makes all the difference.”It is massive to have that,” Ball said after finishing with 3 for 35 after going for under two runs per over. “It is hard as a bowler when you go out there under pressure, thinking you must take wickets, because then you can strive too hard, bowl a bit fuller and go for a lot of runs.”It is nice to have that confidence, so you can just settle into a spell knowing you have a period of time in the team and that if you persevere with bowling the ball in the right areas then wickets will come.”There have been situations in the year when they could have left people out but they have stuck with us and it has given us the confidence to go out there are express ourselves and be positive.”Ball puts his own strides forward down both to that sense of security and a winter spent in the gym, working on his strength and fitness.”I was established in the one-day and Twenty20 teams but I wanted this to be a breakthrough season in the Championship,” he said.”I was meant to go to Sydney last winter but I took a decision to spend the winter working in the gym with the aim of getting stronger and it has paid off in that I’ve probably added a yard of pace.”I’ve only missed a couple of four-day games and the experience of playing at this level regularly has helped me improve.”I think we are all learning as a unit. Over the last couple of years we have lost some really experienced bowlers in Andre Adams and Darren Pattinson and last year Peter Siddle. This year we have had people coming in and out and found ourselves in situations where the youngsters have needed to play.”But we have come in and done a good job. I feel the younger bowlers are in on merit and that’s good to see. We would like to think we can develop as the Notts bowling attack for the future.”Ball’s bowling of Laurie Evans off an inside edge was an important early breakthrough after Warwickshire resumed on 100 for four, after which two wickets for Hutton and a second of the innings for Harry Gurney reduced Warwickshire to 171 for 8, Keith Barker and Chris Wright shoring things up with a stand of 65 before Barker perished reverse sweeping Samit Patel for an entertaining 71.

Zimbabwe will be searching for their first ODI series win at home for more than two years, but they will have to get past an Irish side who have built a reputation for never-say-die cricket

The Preview by Liam Brickhill in Harare10-Oct-2015

Match facts

Sunday, October 11
Start time 0930 local (0730 GMT)With conditions likely to suit spinners, young Wellington Masakadza will play a key role for Zimbabwe•ICC/Getty

Big picture

Zimbabwe and Ireland were neck and neck for 98.5 overs before the hosts’ No. 10, Tinashe Panyangara sealed the result of the first ODI with a gutsy hit down the ground. The second match will likely produce much the same sort of cricket as these teams match each other strength for strength. Zimbabwe will be searching for their first ODI series win at home for more than two years, but they will have to get past an Irish side who have built a reputation for never-say-die cricket. This could really go either way.The pivotal battle will be between the batsmen and spinners on either side. Despite the home side’s desire for faster tracks, the sheer amount of cricket played at Harare Sports Club over the last few months has sapped the freshness out of the square. Extraordinarily high temperatures in the lead-up to the second match will bake the pitches even further, and spin will be the method of control for both sides. Indeed, there were only 40 overs of seam bowled in the first match, and this number is likely to get even smaller.The batsmen who found success in the first ODI – Ed Joyce and Gary Wilson from Ireland, Craig Ervine and Sikandar Raza from Zimbabwe – all played in a generally similar manner, keeping the ball along the ground, aiming for the gaps and biding their time before going on the attack. Raza, who is usually more attacking in nature, was the only man playing out of character. This sort of attritional cricket, and the ability to manoeuvre the ball 360 degrees will be vital to the setting of a defendable total.Conditions are only likely to get more challenging for the batsmen as a heatwave hits the country over the weekend. With a larger crowd hopeful for a series win expected for this game Ireland will feel a long way from home when the temperatures soar on Sunday. Yet one wouldn’t put it past them to secure a series-leveling win.

Form guide

(last five completed matches, most recent first)
Zimbabwe WLWLL
Ireland LLLLW

In the spotlight

Zimbabwe has a strong history of cricketing families. The Flowers, the Strangs, the Rennies, the Whittalls, the Ervines, and the Masakadzas have graced Zimbabwean XIs. Wellington Masakadza, Hamilton and Shingi’s younger brother, debuted on Friday and impressed in all areas, pocketing two sharp catches at point and two wickets with his left-arm spin. He also shared in a vital 38-run partnership with Raza that steered Zimbabwe towards victory.Ireland have a pretty impressive left-arm spinner of their own. George Dockrell is only a year older than Masakadza at 23, but he’s vastly more experienced – Friday marked his 50th ODI for Ireland. He played a leading role in choking Zimbabwe’s middle order with a miserly 2 for 29, and might have had three if he had been able to hold on to a sharp return catch from Masakadza.

Team news

Zimbabwe are usually loathe to change a winning XI, and they will probably go with the same team. Perhaps the only question mark is over the place of Malcolm Waller, who didn’t have a great day in the field or with the bat on Friday and looked out of sorts. Yet dropping Waller after a bad day out would do nothing for his confidence, and would also necessitate tinkering unnecessarily with the batting order.Zimbabwe (possible): 1 Chamu Chibhabha, 2 Richmond Mutumbami (wk), 3 Craig Ervine, 4 Sean Williams, 5 Elton Chigumbura (capt), 6 Sikandar Raza, 7 Malcolm Waller, 8 Luke Jongwe, 9 Wellington Masakadza, 10 Tinashe Panyangara, 11 John NyumbuIreland probably won’t want to fiddle with the side that came so close to victory in the first match, but they need a win to keep the series alive and that will take some street-fighting spirit. With that in mind, they may draft Niall O’Brien in for Stuart Thompson, given the former’s grit and experience.Ireland (possible): 1 William Porterfield (capt), 2 Paul Stirling, 3 Ed Joyce, 4 Andrew Balbirnie, 5 Niall O’Brien, 6 Gary Wilson (wk), 7 Kevin O’Brien, 8 John Mooney, 9 Andrew McBrine, 10 George Dockrell, 11 Tim Murtagh

Pitch and conditions

The Met Department has issued a statement saying that daytime temperatures all over the country are expected to range between 35˚C and 43˚C, peaking as high as 45˚C in low-lying areas. Harare will likely be at the lower end of that spectrum, but the fiercely hot weather will undoubtedly be a factor. Expect a similar sort of pitch, suited to spin and hardworking batsmen.

Stats and trivia

• Sunday’s game will be Ireland’s 100th ODI. It will also be the 125th ODI to be held at Harare Sports Club – it is one of five grounds to have hosted more than 100 ODIs
• The average first-innings score in ODIs for sides batting first at Harare Sports Club this year is 253
• George Dockrell needs two more to become the leading wicket-taker in ODIs between Ireland and Zimbabwe

Quotes

“We need to be aware that there are players here who can take a game away from you if you drop the ball – literally.”
“This will work in mysterious ways, especially in the change room. We will perform better when we find ourselves in difficult situations.”

James Taylor will resume his Test career in Sharjah but Jos Buttler has experienced the contrasting feeling of being dropped

Andrew McGlashan in Sharjah31-Oct-2015The contrast in emotions was stark. In one corner you have James Taylor, finally about to resume his Test career after a gap of three years, and in the other Jos Buttler, a wonderkid of English cricket, who has endured the first major setback of his international career.It is a slightly curious situation that the demotion of a player in a very specific role – the wicketkeeper – has opened the door for the return of a specialist batsman, but Taylor can be thankful for the presence of Jonny Bairstow in the middle order.He has bided his time for three years but occasionally hasn’t hid his frustration at being continually overlooked since those two Tests against South Africa in 2012. Alastair Cook admitted he probably had some ill-feeling over the length of his wait for a second chance and said that he could not have done more to earn a recall.”He came in in 2012, had a couple of games and didn’t make the next tour. I’m sure he feels he was harshly treated, sometimes that’s the way of selection – it can work for you and against you,” Cook said. “He’s gone away over the last three years and he’s a much different player than what I remember him as. We saw that in the summer, the way he played the quick bowling in the one-day series against Australia in particular, that hundred, he looked a fantastic player. He’s come on tour and continued that.”So far in the series England have just the one hundred – Cook’s monumental 263 in Abu Dhabi – compared to four from Pakistan. In Dubai they paid the price for batsmen failing to convert fifties, especially in the first innings when Cook and Joe Root fell for 65 and 88 respectively while Bairstow made 46, and Taylor’s domestic conversion rate of hundreds into ‘daddy hundreds’ is something that has stood out.James Taylor will return to the Test side after a gap of more than three years•Getty Images

Six of Taylor’s 20 first-class hundreds have been doubles (although one against Loughborough MCCU does not carry the same weight as the others), his most recent being a career-best 291 against Sussex last season, while he has also made an unbeaten 242 for England Lions in Sri Lanka. As a comparison, three of Cook’s 50 first-class hundreds have been doubles (albeit all in Test cricket), four of Ian Bell’s 50 centuries have been doubles and three of Joe Root’s 15.”He’s itching to play and you don’t average 47-48 in first-class cricket without being a fine player,” Cook said. “One of his very strong points is that when he gets in he goes on to get big scores. We know how important first-innings runs are to set the game up.”Yet while Cook has been able to hand out good news to Taylor, the flip side is he has had to tell Buttler that, for the time being, his Test career is halted. Buttler’s form since the start of the Ashes – an average of 13.00 – had become too much for the middle order to carry and retaining him in the side could have done more harm than good to his keeping as well.It may be that he does not return until he has been able to put together a run of first-class matches for Lancashire at the start of next season, although he is still likely to feature for England in one-day and T20 cricket over the next six months, which includes the World T20 in India. Cook said Buttler needed to work out the way he wanted to play in Test cricket, but picked out Joe Root as an example of how a player can quickly turn their fortunes around.Root was left out of the final Ashes Test in 2013-14 at Sydney but returned five months later with a double-hundred against Sri Lanka, at Lord’s, since when he has averaged 76.11 with 2055 runs in 19 matches and risen to No. 1 in the rankings. In a recent interview with his mentor, Michael Vaughan, in the , Root cited being dropped in Australia as the turning point for him and Cook hopes similar will happen for Buttler.”He’ll have to go away and be really clear on how he wants to play in Test cricket,” Cook said. “He knows his game really well in T20 and one-day cricket, but he probably knows it less well Test cricket. It’s about finding his ideal method and sticking by that.”We all know the amount of talent he has got, you see him play an innings that everyone around the world says is amazing, but he’s not the first person who has come in, done pretty well then had a tough patch, been left out and come back stronger.”He only has to look at Joe Root, getting left out of that Sydney game and using it as motivation to be clear on how he wanted to play in every situation. He’s come back as a far better player because of it.”The other confirmed changed for England is the enforced one of a replacement for Mark Wood. Cook said it would be a late call on whether his spot would be taken by Liam Plunkett or a third spinner in Samit Patel on a surface that is expected to start very dry. However, Cook confirmed he had never expected Wood to play the entire series.”It’s a shame for him, but it’s part of his management process of his ankle,” Cook said. “I was told by medics that he wasn’t fit to play. It’s part and parcel of how much he can play on his ankle. He bowled really well in Dubai but we didn’t expect him to play all three games.”

If the sky is a reflection of mood, then the spirit in the South African camp should have lifted significantly lifted this weekend

Firdose Moonda in Nagpur22-Nov-2015If the sky is a reflection of mood, then the spirit in the South African camp should have lifted significantly this weekend. The drab damp they experienced in Bangalore was replaced by brilliant and bright blue in Nagpur. They could train without dodging drizzle, think sans the sound of soft splatter and see clearly. Even if they only thing they were looking at was themselves.”The guys have admitted to the fact that we made a few errors, especially in that first Test. We’d like to rectify it going forward,” JP Duminy said.South Africa’s mistakes have stemmed from their method. In Mohali, they allowed the pre-match talk to overwhelm them and played conservatively in conditions they had imagined to be much worse than they were. To compensate for that in Bangalore, they did the opposite. They attacked to try and establish some authority. Both times, they failed.Given that South Africa know the change in overhead conditions is unlikely to change things on the surface – as Duminy put it, “the expectancy is that it will turn,” – and given that their premeditation has proved faulty, the only thing left for South Africa to do is play as normally as possible. They have approached Nagpur with that cliché of it being “just another game,” knowing it is not just another game but a must-win if they are to pull off the ultimate coup and beat India on home soil.To do that, South Africa have to practice what they have been preaching for the last few years: that, as a batting group, they have improved against spin. There is already evidence that the likes of AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis and JP Duminy can negotiate R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, but only de Villiers has done so in this series.Last year, Dean Elgar’s century in Galle showed that he could deal with sluggish, spinner-friendly surfaces and he has managed the same here, but calmness abandons him at crucial moments while Stiaan van Zyl and Dane Vilas remain raw and this is a new challenge for them. If South Africa are to prevail, collectively the batting will have to come together.”We understand that their strength lies in their spin and there’s no point in trying to deny that. It’s about having a game plan against it,” Duminy said. Part of that game plan has to involve allowing themselves to improvise on the day and play in the moment. “Not to play the person but to play the ball,” is how Duminy described it, talking specifically about Ashwin although that should apply to Jadeja too. India’s spin twins have had equal amounts of success with 12 wickets a piece.There’s no question they are South Africa’s biggest challenge and Duminy has promised South Africa are ready to meet it head on. “We always knew there would come a time when we would be challenged quite a bit. It’s how you come back from those challenges that is going to make us as a team. We pride ourselves on that – that we’re a resilient team, that we never back down from a challenge. We know it’s a tough challenge for us but we also know we have the capability of facing those challenges. We’ve done it before. We’ve come here and played well in all formats.”South Africa have never come from 1-0 down to win a series away from home before, but they have fought back to draw level, most recently in the UAE where they won in Dubai after being defeated in Abu Dhabi. They have also won several series in the subcontinent, including a Test and ODI series in Sri Lanka, to support Duminy’s theory. On this visit to India, they have already claimed two trophies. On their last visit, they won in Nagpur. So if memory is a reflection of mood, South Africa are more upbeat than the scoreline suggests they should be.

Babar Hayat stuck 186 runs across both innings, including a century in the first, to lead Hong Kong to a vast win against UAE

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Nov-2015
ScorecardBabar Hayat hit 186 across both innings in Hong Kong’s victory•HKCA/Bridget Rive

Slow left-arm spinner Nadeem Ahmed and pacer Haseeb Amjad shared eight wickets between them to shoot UAE out for 105, securing Hong Kong’s vast win, their first in the Intercontinental Cup.Resuming from an overnight, 5 for 0, UAE were rocked by regular wickets, with nine of their batsmen bagging single-digit scores. Debutant Laxman Sreekumar (61) and Qais Farooq (26) added 65 together to offer the lone source of resistance before Amjad killed off UAE by dismissing Sreekumar with a bouncer.The win, though, was set up by Babar Hayat, who struck 186 across both innings, including 113 in the first dig. After choosing to bat, Hong Kong had a solid base with opener Kinchit Shah and Hayat putting on a 106-run stand but that was soon squandered as the middle order crumbled. However, Hayat combined well with captain Tanwir Afzal, who made a century of his own, to lift their side to 378.”It’s a great day for Hong Kong, beating the UAE in a first class game – it is a special day for Hong Kong and for the whole team. It’s a really special day for us,” Hayat said. “I am really happy with my batting performance. I used to bat No. 5 or 6, but I talked to Simon Cook and he said you are going to move up. I’m really happy batting at this position and am really looking forward to the next few games here on the same pitch, and hopefully get some more runs.”Afzal carried the momentum into his bowling and quickly reduced UAE to 23 for 3. Sandeep Patil and Usman Mushtaq then got together and assembled a 77-run partnership to mount a recovery but a lower-order collapse meant that UAE folded for 181.They did not fare any better in their second innings, chasing 382, after Hayat’s 73 guided Hong Kong to 184, despite slow left-arm spinner Ahmed Raza’s five-wicket haul.”The game has pretty much gone to script as far as we are concerned,” Simon Cook, the Hong Kong coach, said. “This was the icing on the cake, to do it so convincingly in the first session. We had discussed about how important the first hour was today, and that would really set up the day, and it proved so, with the UAE losing five wickets for one run in the space of about 15 balls. That really set us up.”

West Indies batsman Chris Gayle has said that he was not fit enough to play the ongoing Test series against Australia but hoped to make a return to the longer format next year

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Dec-2015West Indies batsman Chris Gayle has said that he was not fit enough to play the ongoing Test series against Australia, but hopes to make a return to Test cricket next year. He also urged fans to give more time to the struggling West Indies Test team and allow youngsters to develop their game.Gayle, who played the last of his 103 Tests in July 2014, said he was trying to get back into the groove after undergoing surgery on his back in July. He recently made a return to competitive cricket in the Bangladesh Premier League and will now play for Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League.”If I wasn’t (recovering from a back injury) I would definitely. I haven’t retired from the game,” Gayle told reporters in Melbourne on Tuesday. “I’m just trying to get back into the groove. Next year, hopefully Test cricket is on the agenda. I haven’t batted for such a long time. I scored 92 in a game and the next day felt like I’d been hit by a bus. The body will actually take time to build up gradually.”Gayle has scored 7214 Test runs at an average of 42.18, but has played only four of West Indies’ 16 Tests since January 1, 2014. His last Test appearance was in the first match of the home series against Bangladesh in July. He subsequently missed Test series in South Africa and Sri Lanka, and home series against England and Australia due to fitness issues.Gayle also stressed that a young West Indies team needed time to develop in the longer format. West Indies have lost seven of their last ten Tests. On the current tour of Australia, they suffered a ten-wicket loss in a tour game against a Cricket Australia XI side that featured six players making their first-class debuts. This was followed by a listless performance in the Hobart Test, which they lost to Australia by an innings and 212 runs inside three days.”If you want to bash the cricket, you bash me basically,” he said. “We are loved around the world. We might not be playing good cricket but … it’s a young team so we have to definitely give it time rather than being so harsh on West Indies’ cricket all the time. Some young players are coming through the ranks. We have to give them time.”

Manish Pandey and MS Dhoni, rising star and fading force, combined to deliver India victory over Australia at the last possible opportunity in another run-fest at the SCG

The Report by Daniel Brettig at the SCG23-Jan-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details2:58

Chappell: Hundred will give Pandey more belief

Manish Pandey and MS Dhoni, rising star and fading force, combined to deliver India victory over Australia at the last possible opportunity in another run-fest at the SCG. Having crumpled in a humiliating heap in Canberra, the tourists were able to hold their nerve this time, helped by a pair of critical Australian dropped catches.
David Warner and Mitchell Marsh had made centuries for Australia, but the allrounder conceded 13 from the final over of the night to allow the visitors avoid the ignominy of a 5-0 series sweep. It also provided partial vindication of Dhoni’s longtime belief in seeing out an innings, even if his steady 34 was a diminished version of supreme closing displays he used to be able to put together for his team. Australia were denied an unbeaten home summer.Fluent hands from Shikhar Dhawan and the Man-of-the-Series Rohit Sharma had put India in sight of victory though both men fell short of centuries. Dhawan was brilliantly caught by Shaun Marsh at deep point, before Rohit reached 99 only to edge John Hastings behind and be given out by the umpire Paul Wilson after a dramatic pause for the crowd of 33,710.Pandey, playing his fourth ODI, weathered that moment and pushed on to his highest and best innings for India. His crisp stroke play found plenty of gaps around the SCG and kept the run chase within sight. Dhoni arrived at the fall of Rohit’s wicket and after a halting start India’s captain gradually found his range in time-honoured fashion.The pair allowed the equation to leak out to 35 to win from the final three overs, before taking 13 from the 48th over and nine from the 49th. Needing 13 from the final over, Mitchell Marsh gave away a wide first ball, before Dhoni hammered a six over long off. He then perished trying to repeat the shot, but Pandey squirted a boundary past the gloves of Matthew Wade to reach a deserved hundred and put the result beyond doubt.Heavy rain around Sydney in the lead-up to the match affected the ground staff’s preparation, ironically resulting in arguably the fairest surface of the international summer – excepting the grassy, experimental pitch prepared for the inaugural day-night Test in Adelaide. Dhoni duly sent the Australians in, and was rewarded with early wickets.But after the loss of Aaron Finch, Steven Smith, the captain, George Bailey and Shaun Marsh inside the first 22 overs of the afternoon, David Warner and Mitchell Marsh combined for a partnership all the more impressive for the fact that they had to deal with a moving ball for virtually the first time since Adelaide back in November.Warner’s hundred was his second from as many SCG fixtures this summer, and he also made a century against India on this ground in their Test match last January. His momentum built throughout the innings even as he appeared to try to make certain of a hundred after being dismissed for 93 in Canberra. The resultant celebration is now near enough to choreographed, but Warner added a baby-rocking motion in recognition of the recent birth of his second daughter.Less scripted was the manner of Mitchell Marsh’s celebration, having rattled to a maiden international hundred on the same ground where he made his first Sheffield Shield century for Western Australia in 2011. Twice before this summer, Mitchell Marsh had been promoted by Smith in order to grant the allrounder extra time in the middle, and he had looked awkward each time.This was more the role he has been groomed for, staging a middle-order recovery after early wickets with good judgment and power hitting. There was some drama to Mitchell Marsh’s hundredth run – he spent three nervy deliveries on 99, before flicking Ishant through midwicket to reach the milestone from a mere 81 balls. Mitchell Marsh’s 82nd struck him amidships, and precious momentum was lost in the final 12 balls.Those two overs meant India were chasing a target somewhat skinnier than they had faced in Canberra; Dhawan and Rohit began with venomous intent, and for a time there seemed nothing that would stem their momentum. The stand was worth 123 at comfortably better than a run-a-ball when Dhawan lofted John Hastings and was caught by a leaping Shaun Marsh.Rohit’s prolific scoring in this series was completed by another confident hand, which ended only when a baying crowd and tight field placed by Smith had the opener edging behind. Shaun Marsh had dropped a far simpler chance from him the over before. That wicket may have given Australia the momentum to go on to win, but Dhoni’s early struggles were reprieved when Nathan Lyon spilled another chance at deep midwicket.The spin of Lyon and Smith cost 78 from 10 overs, leaving much responsibility on the shoulders of Hastings and Scott Boland. Mitchell Marsh bowled well enough until India’s final onslaught, and the all-round skills of Glenn Maxwell, missing due to a knee knock in Canberra, were notable for their absence.Ishant Sharma had found seam movement in the very first over of the afternoon, fooling Aaron Finch into shouldering arms to a nip-backer that struck him in the vicinity of the off stump. The umpire Richard Kettleborough raised his finger without hesitation, though ball tracking was to show the ball may not quite have been moving back enough.Smith looked at ease despite his early arrival to the crease, until the introduction of the debutant Jasprit Bumrah who appeared to catch Smith a little off guard. Bumrah generated decent pace from an abbreviated run up and unusual action, and after tying down Smith was able to gain his wicket when a pull shot found Rohit Sharma at midwicket. Bumrah later added the wicket of James Faulkner: his control put other more experienced teammates to shame.Neither George Bailey nor Shaun Marsh were able to prosper, the former fooled by Dhawan’s leg cutter and the latter a run out when Umesh Yadav’s return from the outfield rebounded from the knee of Gurkeerat Singh to disturb the bails. At 4 for 117, Australia were teetering, but Warner and Marsh were to recover the innings in some style. They seemed to have done enough, until a mere seven runs from the final two overs of the innings gave India a glimpse.

Hardik Rathod, who took late wickets on the second day of the Ranji Trophy final to keep Saurashtra’s hopes alive, said his team hopes to clean up Mumbai’s lower order early and bat well on the third day

Shashank Kishore in Pune25-Feb-2016Think of Saurashtra’s bowling and Ravindra Jadeja comes to mind immediately. Scratch the surface, and then there’s Jaydev Unadkat. Eye-catching moments with the ball have been far and few if you look beyond these two. But on Thursday, there was a ray of hope in the form of Hardik Rathod.The 27-year-old isn’t a tearaway quick, but his ability to swing the ball can be mighty effective when he lands them in the right spot. While he was anything but consistent when Shreyas Iyer was at the crease, he found his rhythm towards the end of the day; his three late wickets of Abhishek Nayar, Dhawal Kulkarni and Shardul Thakur gave Saurashtra hope after they were sent on a leather hunt in the afternoon.Rathod’s career, although in its nascent stages, hasn’t panned out the way he would have liked. His last first-class appearance before the quarter-final was in December 2013 against Uttar Pradesh in Lucknow. Modest returns – 21 wickets in 11 matches – didn’t inspire confidence within the team management. But an injury to Shaurya Sanandia, that drew curtains on his season, proved to be a blessing in disguise for Rathod. He justified the call-up by picking up six wickets in the semi-final and complementing Jaydev Unadkat who finished with a 11-wicket haul, as Assam were handed a ten-wicket thrashing.A repeat of that show didn’t seem coming when Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav combined to flatten Saurashtra’s bowlers in the second session. “In the first spell, when Iyer was batting, he was going for his strokes and we were trying for wickets,” he explained. “The aim was that we should get him out as quickly as possible. In trying to try too hard, we either bowled too short or too full, and gave away a lot of runs. But in the evening, after tea, the plan was to limit the runs and create pressure. As runs dry up the pressure will tell.”When Suryakumar and Iyer were playing, we couldn’t execute our plans. Suryakumar was taking singles and Iyer was playing his strokes. So we had to keep changing the fields and our bowling strategies often, as a result of which our consistency went for a toss.”The tea break came to Saurashtra’s rescue. They had just taken the wicket of Iyer, and were two wickets away from breaking into the lower order. Cheteshwar Pujara, who briefly led the side in Jaydev Shah’s absence, brought the team together and gave them a pep talk. The bowlers, particularly, were all ears. The plan, according to Rathod, was as simple as it could get.”Both the captain (Jaydev Shah) and Cheteshwar Pujara told us not to try too many things, to bowl one line and length. ‘Force the batsmen to make mistakes and don’t vary too much from your disciplines. Let them play their shots, you just remain consistent’, that was the message they gave us,” Rathod said. “It worked for us towards the end.”On another day, it may have come a little too late, but in slicing through the lower order, Saurashtra have given themselves an opening. “On the first day there was moisture but today, second day, it played well, both for batting and, if you put in some effort, for the bowlers as well,” Rathod said. “You have to try harder on day three with the ball than on day one. The match is wide open. Tomorrow, we will look to get them out as quickly as possible. The less the lead, the better because there is every chance of this being an outright game. Get the two wickets early and bat well, that is the plan for tomorrow.”One man the team can take a cue from is Prerak Mankad, the debutant, who was fast-tracked into the team after consistent returns for Saurashtra Under-23s. He battled hard to make a composed 66, after walking in to bat at 108 for 7. It helped Saurashtra get past the 200-mark on a surface where batsmen needed to graft.”Ever since we got here, I had feelers from the coach that I would play, because this is a seaming wicket,” Mankad said. “The plan was to bat normally, but I hadn’t faced an attack of this quality before. Maybe in an Under-25 game against Rajasthan, we played on a similar surface, but not this kind of attack. The plan was to play close to the body and leave balls that are outside off stump, that was the plan.”From the morning, when I was included in the XI, the team motivated me. The environment was good, everyone was pushing me and my self-belief was good. When I walked out, Arpit Vasavada was already batting. That was very important for me because he is my captain in inter-district cricket, I have been playing with him for a long time. He kept giving me advice and I followed that.”

Bangladesh batsman Tamim Iqbal stroked his third fifty of the PSL, his 58-ball 80 guiding Peshawar Zalmi to a seven-wicket win against Islamabad United in Sharjah

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Feb-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo: Tamim Iqbal smoked six fours and three sixes during his 80-run blast•AFP

Bangladesh batsman Tamim Iqbal stroked his third fifty of the PSL, his 58-ball 80 guiding Peshawar Zalmi to a seven-wicket win against Islamabad United in Sharjah. Victory also meant that Peshawar took top spot in the table after five games; defeat for Islamabad left them rooted near the bottom at fourth.Set 153 for victory, Peshawar lost Mohammad Hafeez early after a brisk start, but Tamim almost single-handedly kept the runs flowing, blasting six fours and three sixes during his knock. Two more quick wickets, of Jim Allenby and Kamran Akmal, gave Islamabad a glimmer, but Shahid Yousuf quickly dashed those hopes by slamming a 19-ball 27 and combining with Tamim for a fourth-wicket association which yielded 60 runs, as Peshawar got home with nine balls to spare.Earlier, Islamabad’s 152 for 6 had been built on the back of a bright half-century from Khalid Latif, who smoked four sixes during a 41-ball 59. Latif received ample support from Misbah-ul-Haq during a 57-run stand, but the dismissal of Misbah halted Islamabad’s charge, as the team struggled to accelerate at the death. Shaun Tait (1 for 18), Mohammad Asghar (2 for 25) and Wahab Riaz (2 for 24) all produced economical spells to ensure that Peshawar’s target was a reachable one.

Tasmania maintained their late season surge by reducing New South Wales to 4 for 26 in reply to 242 after day one of the Sheffield Shield match at Bellerive Oval

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Mar-2016
ScorecardFile photo – Jackson Bird cut through New South Wales’ top order after Tasmania were bowled out for 242•Marty Melville/AFP/Getty Images

Tasmania maintained their late season surge by reducing New South Wales to 4 for 26 in reply to 242 after day one of the Sheffield Shield match at Bellerive Oval.Having beaten Victoria by an innings last round, Tasmania were again able to prosper with the ball after Beau Webster and Ben McDermott had allowed the hosts to scramble to a reasonable total on a lively surface, after New South Wales had elected to bowl first.Ben Dunk’s recent run of strong form did not continue as he was bowled by Doug Bollinger for a duck in the first over of the match, but Webster and McDermott were able to cobble together valuable runs with useful lower order help from Evan Gulbis.Left with 14 overs to bowl to the visitors before the close, Tasmania were led in their efforts by Jackson Bird, fresh from his effective displays for Australia in the New Zealand Test series. He pinned Daniel Hughes LBW with the fifth ball of the innings, before Hamish Kingston found a way past Ed Cowan.The exit of Cowan brought the nightwatchman Nathan Lyon to the crease, and after he edged Bird behind, Nic Maddinson also fell LBW to leave New South Wales teetering at stumps. Ben Rohrer and Kurtis Patterson will hope for better on day two.