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Match facts

Royal Challengers Bangalore v Rising Pune Supergiant
Bengaluru, April 16, 2017
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)2:54

Hogg: Dhoni has to stand up and be a leader

Form guide

• Royal Challengers Bangalore (sixth): lost to Mumbai Indians by four wickets, lost to Kings XI Punjab by eight wickets, defeated Delhi Daredevils by 15 runs

• Rising Pune Supergiant (eighth): lost to Gujarat Lions by seven wickets, lost to Daredevils by 97 runs, lost to Kings XI by six wickets

Head to head

Overall: The two teams have faced off only twice, in IPL 2016, with RCB winning both times.The last time they played in Bengaluru, Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 108 helped the home side chase down the 192 target with three balls to spare.

In the news

Before the match against Mumbai Indians, Kohli had said Chris Gayle was “a top contender to start in every game” but with the Chinnaswamy surface being drier than usual, combined with the West Indian’s poor form, it remains to be seen whether RCB will tweak their batting. Shane Watson, who captained RCB in the first three matches, will probably remain sidelined for extended periods through the tournament.Steven Smith’s return to the Rising Pune XI helped their batting, even though they had to leave out Faf du Plessis. With Lockie Ferguson going at an economy rate of 11 against Gujarat Lions, Pune may choose Adam Zampa’s legspin over Ferguson’s pace on a Bengaluru pitch that had much for spinners to exploit. They will be forced to think about how many legspinners they would want to play though.

The likely XIs

Royal Challengers Bangalore 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Virat Kohli (capt), 3 AB de Villiers, 4 Kedar Jadhav (wk), 5 Pawan Negi, 6 Mandeep Singh, 7 Stuart Binny, 8 Tymal Mills, 9 S Aravind, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Samuel BadreeRising Pune Supergiant 1 Ajinkya Rahane, 2 Rahul Tripathi, 3 Steven Smith (capt) 4 Manoj Tiwary, 5 Ben Stokes, 6 MS Dhoni (wk), 7 Ankit Sharma, 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Lockie Ferguson/Adam Zampa, 10 Rahul Chahar, 11 Imran Tahir

Stats that matter

• Gayle has outstanding numbers against the frontline Rising Pune legspinners – he has scored 51 off 30 deliveries against Imran Tahir and 44 off 16 balls against Zampa, in the CPL and the Big Bash League.
• The only Rising Pune bowler to dismiss Kohli is Ashok Dinda, who was dropped in the last game. Against Tahir and Zampa, Kohli has scored 75 runs off 42 balls.
• Rajat Bhatia has been Rising Pune’s second-best bowler so far this season (economy rate of 7.85), but Bengaluru is easily his least favourite venue as far as the numbers go: in 14 overs in the IPL, he has figures of 0 for 145. His economy rate of 10.35 is his worst among all IPL venues where he has played more than one match.
• How Rising Pune use Tahir remains to be seen. In the death overs since 2014, his economy rate has been 8.56 and has taken 36 wickets at an average of 14.08. In the middle overs in the IPL this season, he has taken four wickets and only conceded 29 runs in 42 deliveries.
• Tymal Mills has never bowled to Ben Stokes in a T20 game. Stokes scores at a strike-rate of 166 in the last five overs while Mills has taken 31 wickets in the same period, averaging 13.25 with an economy rate of 7.36.

Reactions

Cricket Australia chairman David Peever: “This resolution is a clear indication that whilst the Board may not yet agree on the detail of our reform process, we are committed to the overarching philosophies of it. We all believe that Shashank should be the man to see it through and whilst respectful of a decision made for personal reasons, we are delighted that he has agreed to remain in post until the completion of the 2017 Annual Conference where we can elect a successor.”
BCB president Nazmul Hassan: “For the greater interest of cricket, we need Shashank as the chairman of ICC especially at this critical juncture. He can be assured of our full support.”
ECB president Giles Clarke: “I am very pleased that the team effort has convinced Shashank about how important it is he leads through these discussions to take us to the new constitution, new Full Members and respecting the rights of all Full Members. It has been a great collegiate effort.”

Shashank Manohar has agreed to defer his resignation as ICC chairman until the body’s annual conference in June this year. That, cricket’s leading administrators hope, will give them enough time to implement the changes to the governance and financial models of the ICC, changes behind which Manohar has been a significant presence.The u-turn in Manohar’s stance, following his surprise resignation earlier this month, came after an ICC board resolution earlier this week that requested him to stay with “overwhelming support”.”I respect the sentiments expressed by the Directors and the confidence they have reposed in me. In the light of this, and although my decision to depart due to personal reasons has not changed, I am willing to continue as Chairman till the responsibility as per the resolution is complete,” Manohar said in an ICC release.”I have a duty to work with my colleagues to enable a smooth transition and continue our work on the governance of the ICC.”Efforts to try and convince Manohar to change his mind had begun almost as soon as his resignation was made official. A number of board directors have been in touch with him since. Those contacts were supplemented by a meeting in India a few days ago between Manohar and the CA chairman David Peever and ICC Development Committee head Imran Khwaja, which is believed to have been an important one in convincing him.On March 15, Manohar had caught much of the cricket world by surprise when he announced his decision to step down as ICC chairman, offering nothing more than “personal reasons” as an explanation. The development raised concerns over whether the new ICC constitution, for which Manohar was the driving force, would be passed at the April meetings, when specific points in the document will come up for vote.In principle the constitution had passed at the ICC board meeting in February. Seven Full Members had voted in favour but the BCCI and Sri Lanka Cricket had voted against the new constitution, while Zimbabwe Cricket abstained. Since then, the Bangladesh Cricket Board has expressed reservations against some aspects of the new constitution.The Indian board’s primary objection to the new constitution is the financial model, according to which the BCCI stood to make substantially less than it did under the existing model, which was devised by the Big Three.It was revealed that Manohar had met with the BCCI’s Committee of Administrators the evening before he announced his resignation to discuss the new ICC constitution, though he said he had already made up his mind to quit before the meeting.Significantly, the BCCI, with whom Manohar has had a complex relationship since he became an independent ICC chairman last year, endorsed the decision, along with other major directors. “It is important that the current issues are resolved to everyone’s satisfaction,” Vikram Limaye, a member of the BCCI’s CoA, said. “We had a productive meeting with Mr Manohar recently wherein we outlined the concerns of BCCI on the financial model and governance issues and our suggestions for resolution. We are committed to working with ICC for a satisfactory resolution of these issues.”On Wednesday, the CoA had also spoken of how they intend to proceed on issues related to the ICC in the run up to the April board meeting. The tone of those messages suggested a shift from the more abrasive stance the BCCI has employed towards the ICC in recent years, to a more conciliatory one.

Alastair Cook has stepped down from his role after 59 Tests as England captain. His appetite to continue had been questioned during England’s 4-0 defeat to India before Christmas and Cook has now confirmed he will pass on the captaincy, with Joe Root his likely successor.Appointed in August 2012, Cook led the team in more Test matches than any other England captain. His record includes Ashes victories at home in 2013 and 2015, as well as series wins in India and South Africa. With 24 Test wins, he is joint-second as England’s most successful captain but five losses in seven Tests over the winter meant he also eclipsed Michael Atherton’s record for defeats.Cook discussed his decision with Colin Graves, the chairman of the ECB, on Sunday evening and has confirmed his continuing commitment to playing Test cricket to Andrew Strauss, England’s team director, and the selectors. Strauss suggested Cook’s replacement would be named before the ODI tour to the West Indies later this month, with Root favourite to be be named as England’s new captain – the 80th in their Test history – in the coming days.Cook, 32, is England’s most-capped Test player, their most prolific batsman with 11,057 runs in 140 Tests to date, and has scored more Test centuries than any of his countrymen. He also led the one-day side on 69 occasions between 2010 and 2014, another England record.During his five seasons at the helm he was named Cricketer of the Year (2012) and ICC World Test Captain (2013) and his services to the game were recognised with a CBE – collected at Buckingham Palace on Friday – to follow the MBE he was awarded in 2011.”It’s been a huge honour to be England captain and to lead the Test team over the past five years,” Cook said. “Stepping down has been an incredibly hard decision but I know this is the correct decision for me and at the right time for the team. I’ve had time to reflect after the India series and this weekend I spoke to Colin Graves to explain and offer my resignation.”It’s a sad day personally in many ways but I want to thank everyone I’ve captained, all the coaches and support staff and, of course, the England supporters and the Barmy Army who follow us home and away and have given us unwavering support.”Playing for England really is a privilege and I hope to carry on as a Test player, making a full contribution and helping the next England captain and the team however I can.”Alastair Cook was awarded a CBE last week•Getty Images

Strauss, the man from whom Cook inherited the Test captaincy in 2012, paid tribute to his former opening partner and explained the next steps in appointing a successor.”I want to thank Alastair, on behalf of the ECB and from a personal perspective, for the fantastic contribution that he’s made to the England Test team since taking over as captain in 2012,” Strauss said.”His country owes him a great debt of gratitude; he’s led the team with determination, conviction and a huge amount of pride over the last five years and his record stands for itself. With more matches leading the team than anyone, including two Ashes wins, he deserves to be seen as one of our country’s great captains.”Off the field as well as on, he has shown his strengths, developing the team and its culture, managing a fundamental transition and helping us to build for the future. As with all leaders, there have been times where circumstances have tested him but his resilience and temperament have helped him to prevail and to prosper.”He has always served with the best interests of the team in the front of his mind and stays true to that as he steps down from the role. Alastair will be missed in his capacity as captain but I hope that he has a number of years left to add to his record-breaking feats as an opening batsman and look forward to his continued success.”We now move on with the process of appointing the right successor. There are a number of established players who are playing formal or informal leadership roles and whilst we’ve rightly not spoken to anyone in relation to the Test captaincy so far, we can now talk fully and openly within the team. We expect to be able to make an announcement before the team head to the West Indies on February 22.”Cook first captained England in Bangladesh in 2010, deputising for the rested Strauss. After taking over permanently in 2012, Cook led from the front with three centuries as England came from behind to win their first Test series in India in 28 years. England retained the Ashes with a 3-0 win the following summer but cracks were beginning to show and Australia took swift revenge a few months later.The 5-0 whitewash left England needing to rebuild, and the decision to do so without the involvement of Kevin Pietersen was one of the most controversial of Cook’s reign. Beaten at home by Sri Lanka at the start of the 2014 summer, England then lost the second Test to India at Lord’s, prompting Cook to consider resigning. He chose to continue but his hopes of leading England at the 2015 World Cup were dashed when the ECB sacked him less than two months before the tournament.He subsequently oversaw the regeneration of the Test side, as players such as Root, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali and Jonny Bairstow helped England to regain the Ashes in 2015 and then secure a memorable win in South Africa the following winter.Although England’s progress was recently checked by two difficult tours of the subcontinent – drawing 1-1 with Bangladesh before being outclassed by India – Cook had retained the support of his players and the coaching staff. His decision to step down comes during a seven-month gap between Test commitments and gives his successor time to prepare for home series against South Africa and West Indies, before the challenge of another Ashes tour to Australia.

Australia are gearing up for Tests against a team that has not lost at home in over four years – India; England are undergoing generational change as Joe Root takes over from Alastair Cook; South Africa’s preparations for the Champions Trophy have seen them reach No.1 on the ODI rankings and they are now fine-tuning against the No. 3 side – New Zealand; Pakistan are in the midst of their T20 showpiece, and Zimbabwe? Zimbabwe are about to play Afghanistan for the fourth time in three years. Welcome to the future of cricket.This is what things could look like post the current FTP, when, if the 9-3 Test split is agreed upon, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan will become even more familiar with each other than they already are. Ireland will join their club, and although all three of them should be able to look forward to regular fixtures against their other nine Full Members, they will have to get used to forming a second tier of sorts. Afghanistan and Ireland won’t mind too much – it is their chance to play with the big boys – but Zimbabwe are understood to be more than just a little put out by the prospect.They already feel like outsiders looking in, and their fixture list will keep them that way. Zimbabwe are not due to play anyone until July, when they should visit Sri Lanka. They host West Indies before heading into the World Cup qualifiers next March, and unless their fixture list fills up fast, they will be woefully short of match time. That is why they are reaching out to Afghanistan – and are also reportedly in talks with Scotland – and why they are trying to play against as many A teams as possible.Zimbabwe need matches, and they need them desperately if only to figure out who their best are. To say they have very little idea of that is putting it mildly. To that end, Zimbabwe have named a squad that includes six changes from the one that played in a triangular series against Sri Lanka and West Indies in November. That’s almost half the squad that is different, and it suggests they are still very much in a look-and-see phase.The most notable exclusions are Hamilton Masakadza, Tinashe Panyangara and Sean Williams, who all failed fitness tests. Williams has a back injury and should be recalled upon recovery, provided he passes a second test while Panyangara, who has not played any cricket since the tri-series, will retake his test on Friday. Chamu Chibhabha and Brian Chari have struggled for form, although Chari scored an unbeaten 84 in the most recent round of List A matches.In their places, Zimbabwe have picked from some of their most in-form players from the series against Afghanistan A. Although they lost 1-4, Ryan Burl was the highest run-scorer with 266 runs at 53.20 and could not be ignored. Burl notched up over 100 runs more than his nearest challenger, Innocent Kaia, also from Zimbabwe, who was not selected. Instead, Zimbabwe looked to add bowlers who performed against Afghanistan A despite an obvious lack of penetration. Tendai Chatara and Nathan Waller were their joint highest wicket-takers with six each, and fourth overall. They were picked alongside Wellington Masakadza, 19-year old left-arm seamer Richard Ngarava, and Solomon Mire, whose return is the most interesting.Afghanistan have proven that they can challenge established international outfits, and this series will give them the chance to make another case for more matches•Peter Della Penna

Mire was talked up as the next big thing – a Lance Klusener of sorts – ahead of the 2015 World Cup. He played five matches and did not make anything like the impact he was expected to before choosing to stay in Australia and play grade cricket. He has only recently returned to Zimbabwe and made himself available for international cricket.The indication is that Zimbabwe need someone (else) in the Elton Chigumbura mould so that if Chigumbura, who has most recently played as a batsman only, needs to be dropped, they don’t lack a seam-bowling allrounder. Mire’s worth is chief among all the things Zimbabwe want this series to reveal.So is appeasing the country’s sports minister, who has voiced his disapproval with the state of Zimbabwean cricket to the point where he has asked for “something drastic” to take place to improve things. “We are extremely worried by the performance of our cricket teams, especially when they are playing Associate nations,” Makhosini Hlongwane, the sports minister, was quoted as saying in . “Zimbabwe should work hard to improve its rankings among Test-playing nations and should move away from being the whipping boys of cricket.”That’s not an exaggeration, and Afghanistan are the best evidence of it. Zimbabwe have played Afghanistan in three ODI series since July 2014 and not won any of them. They drew the first, 2-2 at home, lost the second 3-2, also at home, and were then defeated 3-2 in Sharjah in the third. Zimbabwe may take heart from the level of competitiveness they showed in all those rubbers – they came back from 2-nil down to draw level in the UAE – but the fact that even their A side has struggled against Afghanistan’s next-best does not bode well for World Cup qualification, especially as Afghanistan will be one of the teams they will be up against.Afghanistan have already shown they have enough in the tank to challenge some of the more established international outfits and recently narrowly lost a series to Bangladesh 1-2. They don’t even need the A sides and their international outfit to overlap as much as Zimbabwe do and could leave out the top three wicket-takers from the A team’s recent win in Zimbabwe – Nawaz Khan, Abdullah Adil and Fazal Niazai – for the series proper. They have called on Aftab Alam and Samiullah Shenwari to join the ranks.With recent history on their side, Afghanistan can only look to this series as another opportunity to make a case to be considered for more matches. They already have recent developments at the ICC on their side. If the ODI league and new Test structure materialise, Afghanistan and Ireland will be the greatest beneficiaries, and unless Zimbabwe step up soon, they may find that even those two countries don’t want to have too much to do with them.

Rajesh Sawant, the 45-year-old India Under-19 trainer, has been found dead in his hotel room in Mumbai on Sunday. He is survived by his wife and daughter.A BCCI press release said Sawant “passed away in his sleep.” He was in Mumbai helping the team prepare for the series against England Under-19, which begins tomorrow.”What I have gathered so far,” acting BCCI joint secretary Amitabh Choudhary was quoted as saying by , “is he did not report for team activities in the morning, so people started looking for him and eventually he was found to have passed away in his room.”Sawant had been part of the Afghanistan coaching staff in the past and worked with the India A teams that played the England XI in the two List A matches earlier this month. Sawant had also trained the Rest of India side ahead of the 2016-17 Irani Cup match against Gujarat.

Australia’s cricketers should be prepared to say goodbye to the Gabba as their traditional starting point to summer outside of Ashes series – if the words of the Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland are anything to go by.While admitting the team sees the Gabba as a “real stronghold”, Sutherland has hinted strongly that the search for a more commercially successful Brisbane Test is likely to lead to this year’s mid-December time slot being persisted with, more than likely in the day/night configuration to be tried against Pakistan this week. Such a decision would mean the loss of a major competitive advantage for the hosts.In unveiling the schedule for next summer’s Ashes, CA have outlined how that now seems to be the only Test series in which the national team’s preparation is to be kept as ideal as possible, with as many as four Sheffield Shield matches scheduled before the first match at the Gabba. Other summers against less marketable opponents will likely throw up similar issues to those seen this season – at least until proposed league structures for international cricket are approved at ICC level and take effect some time after 2019.

CA executive to be spoken to over Brayshaw link

Allegations that Ben Amarfio, Cricket Australia’s executive general manager for communications, digital and marketing, has been seeking job opportunities for his friend James Brayshaw with CA media rights partners will be dealt with “behind closed doors”, the chief executive James Sutherland has said.
Fairfax and News Ltd both reported on Monday that Amarfio had been helping Brayshaw try to renew his contract with the international cricket rights holders Channel Nine – a clear conflict of interest – though Sutherland denied the former Southern Cross-Austereo executive had been acting formally as Brayshaw’s agent; he and the network have now cut ties.
“Look I don’t think it’s right that one of our staff was acting as an agent, but let’s just say they’re things we’ll deal with behind closed doors at Cricket Australia,” Sutherland said. “I don’t think this is the place to be talking about that any further.”

“We’ll definitely keep our options open there. Every summer’s different. I know there are aspects of the 2018-19 summer that are very different to others, that’s just the nature of international cricket,” Sutherland said when asked about keeping the Gabba Test in mid-December. “It’s certainly a possibility we play the Brisbane Test match at a different time in the season.”I want to make that very clear. It was absolutely calculated for us to play the Test match here at this time. We wanted to ensure we gave ourselves the best opportunity to understand the Brisbane market and how we can increase attendances here. There’s a lot of promotion around it, we’ve got fantastic partners in the Queensland government and Brisbane city council, let’s see how this week pans out.”We’re on target to have the highest attendance ever for a non-Ashes Test match at the Gabba this week. We’re looking at around 80,000 and we’re very hopeful we’re on track for that.”Success in home Ashes series is seen as the most pivotal team performance metric for the entirety of CA, especially after the disastrous 2010-11 summer placed considerable heat upon Sutherland and the governing body’s board directors, resulting in the Argus review. To that end, Australia’s players can expect a similar lead-in to the 2013-14 season, albeit with the distraction of an ODI series in India beforehand. That result eased a level of pressure on the top end of CA that has not been matched by this summer’s home series loss to South Africa.”We’re really comfortable with the traditional order, and let’s be honest, this venue is a real stronghold for the Australian team, they love playing here,” Sutherland said. “This is the same order as the 13-14 Ashes summer, which was very successful for the team and in terms of spectator attendance and public interests.”We’ve really wanted to not change anything in that regard, and we’ll have a similar lead-in to the 13-14 summer with something like three or four Shield matches leading into the first Test, which we’re able to do when the Ashes series starts in late November.”The preparation leading into a series of Test cricket will depend from year to year, it’s actually quite difficult when you start a Test series in early November because usually the Australian team will be touring somewhere. But we need to work around that to get the best possible preparation in the circumstances, and for an Ashes series it’s clear with a Test series starting in late November that we’ll be able to get three matches in before the series starts.”Casting his eye over the MOU discussions currently going on between CA and the Australian Cricketers Association, Sutherland said that he was not worried by the prospect of industrial action from the players. “No, I’m not concerned,” he said. “These sorts of negotiations come around every four years or whatever the cycle is and they’re things that need to be worked through behind closed doors in an appropriate fashion.”I don’t think it’s our role to be giving a ball-by-ball commentary on it. We will, with the ACA, work through it and work with the ACA and our players to ensure the game of cricket is stronger and better for whatever the new agreement might be.”There is a lot to talk about and there are some very important issues and in some ways those issues are complex. Every time an agreement like this comes along it is an opportunity to put together a better agreement for all parties and I know that’s what we’re interested in and I know that’s what the ACA is interested in.”Late on Tuesday the ACA chief executive Alistair Nicholson spoke about the past two days of negotiations, indicating there is a long way to go.”Today we were able to clarify that the ACA and CA have a lot of detail to work through with differences in a number of areas,” he said. “With the position that CA have taken in responding to our submission, we will now re-engage with the players and the ACA Executive to gain their feedback on CA’s response.”The players are emphatic that they are partners in the game and will continue to push for one agreement for all cricketers, men and women, national and state.”

Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details3:23

Ganguly: Morning session may have cost England the match and the series

India gave a lesson in how to take a grip on a Test match that was in the balance. Firstly their lower order built a commanding lead of 134, anchored around Ravindra Jadeja’s career-best 90 and Jayant Yadav’s maiden Test fifty, then R Ashwin’s three wickets left England floundering on 78 for 4, still 56 behind.The runs from the bottom half of India’s order has been a feature of their recent Test success and here they enjoyed one of their more stellar days. In total, the last four wickets added 213 to turn a precarious 204 for 6 into a three-figure advantage and it was the first time India’s Nos 7, 8 and 9 had scored half-centuries in the same innings.From a position at the start of the day where England would have hoped for something near parity – a manageable deficit of around 50 at worst – by the close it felt as though India had made the definitive moves of the series. Joe Root, who had been promoted to open in place of the injured Haseeb Hameed, remained unbeaten on 36 but Ashwin’s dismissal of Ben Stokes in the final over capped a perfect day for India.Alastair Cook’s stay was tortuous. In the space of four deliveries he survived two close DRS calls. The first was an India review for an appeal given not out against Jadeja which was, eventually after some problems forming the Hawk-Eye graphics, shown to be missing leg. The second was after he had been given lbw to Ashwin only for the review to show the ball pitched outside leg. However, the reprieve was brief as Ashwin worked him over by sliding a straighter delivery between bat and pad.Moeen Ali batted at No. 3, the only spot in the top nine he had yet to occupy in Tests, and added to the list of England’s inglorious dismissals in the match when he chipped Ashwin to mid-on. It was a lovely piece of deception from the bowler, who defeated Moeen in the flight, but regardless it was a limp shot.Just as Root and Jonny Bairstow were eyeing the close, the latter fell to a catch that, as a fellow wicketkeeper, he would acknowledge for its skill as Parthiv Patel stayed low to take a ball that skidding through low to graze the outside edge. Virat Kohli then pulled one of his Midas touches when he recalled Ashwin in the dying moments of the session and, with his first delivery, he spun one past Stokes’ edge to take the back pad. It was initially given not out by Chris Gaffaney but, with the seconds ticking down, Kohli reviewed and was justified.India were 12 behind when play resumed but England made an insipid start to the day. Chris Woakes’ opening delivery was a leg-stump half volley which Ashwin clipped to the boundary and Moeen was oddly given two exploratory overs ahead of either James Anderson or Stokes.Until Jadeja picked out long-on when he tried to up the tempo after tea it had been an innings largely out of character to how he is perceived as a batsman. In terms of balls faced it was the seventh-longest innings of his first-class career and one of his most significant in Tests. Even when he departed the end did not come swiftly for England as Jayant, who played with barely an alarm, ticked over to a 134-ball fifty.Jadeja only had two previous fifties in Test cricket: his swashbuckling effort at Lord’s in 2014, which helped build a match-winning lead, and a brisk innings against New Zealand earlier this season, which hastened a declaration. This was certainly not a tail-end jolly. On the second evening, after India had suffered a wobble of 4 for 56, Jadeja allowed Ashwin to take the lead and moved to 8 off 34 balls. He then sensed a moment to attack shortly before the new ball, but, on the third day, except for a skip down the pitch against Moeen, he did not attempt anything expansive until taking four boundaries off a Woakes over shortly before his dismissal.Jadeja’s half-century came off 104 balls and was accompanied by the familiar swordsman celebration but it was the only bat throwing on display. The disappointment of him missing a century meant we did not see what the follow-up would be. Stokes tried to prey on his patience by sending the ball wide outside off, as he had done to Kohli, but Jadeja ignored those balls. He benefited from a bonus four runs when he took a sharp single to mid-on and Jake Ball’s throw was not backed up.Ashwin had continued to time the ball elegantly until he was lured into a wider delivery by Stokes, in his first over of the day, and spooned a catch to Jos Buttler at backward point to end a stand of 97 with Jadeja. However, Jayant, in so many ways a younger model of Ashwin, from his role in the team to punching deliveries through the off side, collected two sweetly-timed boundaries off Anderson to set him on his way, but there was no hurry from India.England’s frustrations – and specifically Stokes’ – almost reached boiling point as they worked to break the ninth-wicket stand. Umesh Yadav was dropped on 9 by Cook, to his right at a lone slip, then in the same over Jayant nicked past Bairstow’s right glove, leading to an angered roar from Stokes. But before the over was done, Jayant heaved low to midwicket.Stokes and Adil Rashid shared the nine wickets taken by the bowlers with Stokes winning the race to a five-wicket haul, his third in Tests, when he removed Umesh. The catch for Bairstow meant he set a new record for wicketkeeping dismissals in a year. It was as good as the day got for England.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:04

By the Numbers: Pakistan’s highest ODI total against WI

Pakistan followed up their 3-0 T20I series win by sealing the ODI series with yet another clinical display against West Indies in Sharjah. Pakistan’s 59-run win was set up by their most and least experienced batsmen – Shoaib Malik and Babar Azam – who combined to display the art of batting through the middle overs on a slow surface to lead them to 337 for 5, the third-highest total in Sharjah.Azam struck a chanceless century, his second successive one, and Malik blitzed 90 as the pair strung together 169, Pakistan’s highest stand for the third wicket against West Indies. In reply, West Indies found the chase too steep and could only manage 278 for 7.Openers Azhar Ali and Sharjeel Khan put West Indies under pressure from the outset after Pakistan opted to bat. Sharjeel used his bottom hand to clear the infield regularly, collecting three fours and a six in his 12-ball 24 before West Indies hit back, removing both batsmen in the space of three balls.Thereafter, Azam and Malik stalled West Indies with sound technique and calculated risks. Azam pierced the field while Malik went over it, both equally effective in collecting frequent boundaries and keeping the score moving. Sulieman Benn’s introduction was delayed, but Malik capitalised on the bowler’s modus operandi of flight and loop from around the wicket.Malik struck five sixes off Benn – three in succession in the 27th over – by shimmying down, getting underneath the ball and going over the arc between long-on and midwicket. The period between overs 21 and 35 yielded 107 in conditions not suited to effortless run-scoring.In between, Azam unfurled classy drives through cover and found gaps in the outfield to accumulate runs. After Malik carved one to point, Azam utilised Pakistan’s strong platform. His 126-ball 123 included nine fours and a six, which indicated his ability to maintain a high strike rate through ones and twos. Neither Malik nor Azam offered even a “half-chance” until their dismissals.Towards the latter stages of the innings, West Indies seemed to stall Pakistan’s ease at finding the boundary through clever variations in pace until Sarfraz Ahmed plundered four fours in five balls in the 47th over. Sarfraz struck an unbeaten 60, but it went largely unnoticed behind Azam and Malik’s pyrotechnics.West Indies needed to pull off the highest successful chase in Sharjah to stay alive in the series, but their innings got the same start as the four previous games on this tour: an early wicket. Johnson Charles, looking to clear the off-side infield, toe-ended a catch to cover off Mohammad Amir to start the slide.Kraigg Brathwaite and Darren Bravo were left with the task of stabilising the innings in the face of some accurate bowling. Their 89-run second-wicket stand was built on the back of some sweetly-timed boundaries and plenty of singles, but it also took up 118 balls – not quick enough for a steep chase in tough run-scoring conditions.However, West Indies remained in the fight as Bravo took the onus of accelerating by attacking left-arm spinners Imad Wasim and Mohammad Nawaz. He struck three sixes over long-on off overpitched deliveries, two of which cleared the ground.Hasan Ali, though, removed Bravo with an athletic piece of fielding off his own bowling. Bravo nudged a yorker towards short leg and Hasan sprang towards the ball in his follow-through, picked up while sliding, turned around and fired an accurate throw at the non-striker’s end, all in one swift motion.Marlon Samuels was up against a mounting asking rate and a wily bowling side. He stuck around for 52 balls and struck 57, but the enormity of the task in front of West Indies meant that his effort didn’t suffice.Eventually, the asking rate was too steep an ask even for West Indies’ powerful middle order. That they couldn’t capitalise on six dropped chances by Pakistan told the story.

ScorecardBrad Wheal took a career-best 6 for 51•Camerasport/Getty Images

The excitement gathering around Nottinghamshire’s trip to Twenty20 finals day on Saturday is being tempered somewhat by the growing likelihood that they will playing their four-day cricket in Division Two next season after the fleeting vision of a highly unlikely victory proved to be a mirage.It may be a destination that Hampshire will also have to contemplate but this victory, only their second of the season, in which Brad Wheal, the 19-year-old pace bowler, claimed his maiden five-wicket haul gives them at least a chance to stay up. Surrey’s victory over Warwickshire does not help them in that respect but Warwickshire themselves as well as Durham suddenly look more vulnerable than before.Nottinghamshire, whose batting has been brittle for much of the season, reached 243 for 3 after Steven Mullaney and Brendan Taylor put on 162 for the fourth wicket, which made a record fourth-innings target at least theoretically possible.But the loss of Mullaney and Samit Patel to consecutive balls from Wheal sparked a collapse that saw five wickets fall for 17 runs in the space of 49 balls, after which effectively only Imran Tahir and Harry Gurney stood between Hampshire and victory, neither of whom was ever likely to present a lasting impediment.Will Smith, the Hampshire captain and former Nottinghamshire batsman, hailed what he hopes will be a turning point in the club’s fortunes.”While Mullaney and Taylor were going well there was even a slight chance they could push for a win but on day four things can happen very quickly and credit to Mason Crane and Brad Wheal that they did, with quality spin and fast bowling,” he said. “But everyone in the attack bowled exceptionally well to set things up.”We knew too with the old ball as we had it, soft and pretty scuffed up, reversing a little bit and skidding through, that it would be hard for anyone coming in. There was always a sense that if we got one wicket we could get a few.

Russell available for Blast Finals Day

West Indies allrounder Andre Russell is available for Nottinghamshsire on NatWest T20 Blast Finals Day, leaving the county with a choice of which two players to field between Russell, Dan Christian and Imran Tahir.
Russell had a four-match stint with Notts in the group stages and coach Mick Newell said: “It’s too good an opportunity to miss.”
Notts had to wait to see if Russell was available because West Indies have two T20 internationals against India in Florida the following week.

“It has been a hard season with the tragic passing away of Hamza Ali and what’s happened to Michael Carberry, plus all the injuries to the bowlers, but there is a sense that we are getting some momentum at the right time and we have to take positives from last year, getting three wins in the last four games or whatever it was, and believe that we can still do it.”Chasing 468 to win, which required them to exceed the county record for a successful fourth-innings run chase, Nottinghamshire they began the final day at 42 for 2 thinking only about survival, yet after Hampshire managed to prise out only one wicket in the morning session, Mullaney and Taylor began to enjoy a sense of gathering impetus in their fourth wicket partnership.Although Taylor, who has been out of form much of the season, was hardly fluent, with Mullaney very much the opposite, readily picking out the balls he could hit and usually despatching them efficiently, there was a moment with around 60 overs remaining that the required rate was only a touch more than five an over.Yet in the steaming heat the possibility vanished almost in the blink of an eye.Wheal, who had accounted for Michael Lumb in the morning session as the former England batsman drove loosely outside off stump, surprised Mullaney with a delivery that climbed off a length, the ball looping into the air off the leading edge, to which Gareth Berg responded by running in from mid-off to take a good diving catch.Then Smith’s one-wicket-brings-another theory paid off as Samit Patel fell first ball, caught behind down the leg side. Crane, the legspinner and another 19-year-old, had Taylor caught low down at slip and as tea was taken Nottinghamshire’s comfortable position had gone, 245 for 3 rapidly transformed to 259 for 6.Two balls after tea, Crane claimed his third of the innings as Luke Wood flicked a ball off his hips straight to Ryan McLaren at leg slip and when Wheal thudded one skiddily into Jake Balls pads there was no way back. In the event, Tahir survived as Chris Read shouldered arms to another delivery that kept low and Gurney lasted three balls before his off stump was flattened.Mick Newell, Nottinghamshire’s director of cricket, was typically blunt in his assessment, with his side now 30 points adrift of seventh-placed Durham, who have a game in hand.”If we keep playing as poorly as that we will get what we deserve,” he said.”To say we might have been distracted by Saturday would be an easy cop-out. The truth is that this is just the continuation of some pretty ordinary four-day form, we haven’t suddenly produced a poor performance out of nowhere. And one fifty and one hundred from the top six on a pretty flat wicket is pretty ordinary.”It was a game neither side could afford to lose and by doing so we have put ourselves under a lot of pressure in the last four matches.”Stuart Broad is expected to be available for at least a couple of Nottinghamshire’s remaining matches, but Yorkshire, Durham and Somerset away, with Championship leaders Middlesex the only side still to come to Trent Bridge, look daunting fixtures.Hampshire, with Somerset and Surrey away, Yorkshire and Durham at home, hardly face an easy run-in and there is still a gap to close. Yet, given the chance, Nottinghamshire would certainly swap.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsJason Mohammed celebrates after finishing unbeaten on 57•CPL/Sportsfile

Barbados Tridents will not be going back to the CPL finals for a third consecutive year after a six-wicket loss to Guyana Amazon Warriors in Florida. Tridents were eliminated from playoff contention as they lost their final league match of the 2016 season. Warriors, meanwhile, leaped past Jamaica Tallawahs into first place and guaranteed themselves at least two chances of making the CPL final for the third time, having moved four points clear of the third place St Lucia Zouks.Chris Lynn and Jason Mohammed were the batting saviours for Warriors in a tricky chase of 159. Tridents got off to a great start when Dwayne Smith was bowled through the gate on the first ball of the chase by Raymon Reifer. Lynn took the wind out of Tridents’ sails almost immediately, hitting his third and fourth balls for four and six respectively over the off side. Lynn again found the off-side boundary on three consecutive balls to end the second over from Ravi Rampaul, putting a charge into a crowd that was heavily behind Warriors.Captain Kieron Pollard went to spin starting with the third over and left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein and legspinner Imran Khan bowled brilliantly throughout the rest of the Powerplay to rein in Lynn and Nic Maddinson. Imran claimed Maddison to a mistimed slog well caught by a tumbling Ahmed Shehzad coming in from deep midwicket. After bolting to 27 for 1 in two overs, Warriors stood at 62 for 2 by the halfway stage, having failed to hit a boundary since the fifth over.Lynn rectified that by targetting David Wiese in the 11th over, hitting a six over midwicket on the first ball and then once more over the sight screen later in the over. Mohammed, who was subdued at the opposite end on 9 off 16 balls till the 12th over, finally found his range against Marchant de Lange in the 13th, clubbing him for the first two of his five sixes.Tridents began to roar back in the 15th over when Pollard took a good catch near the long-off boundary to claim Lynn for 57 off Reifer. In the following over, Pollard struck Anthony Bramble’s toe with a slower-ball yorker as the umpire sided with Pollard’s appeal to silence the crowd and the required rate inflated to 10 for the final four overs.The pendulum swung back, however, as Mohammed slammed a ball on his legs deep over midwicket for six in the 18th over. Later in the over, Christopher Barnwell flicked a delivery just past short fine leg for a four and Warriors needed 16 from two overs. Mohammed’s fourth sixth came in the 19th over off Rampaul, over extra cover to bring up his half-century in 37 balls and he ended the match in style by smashing his fifth and final one over the leg side before charging down the pitch for a victory leap.Despite fighting until the final over, the Tridents total always looked under par after Zouks had posted 206 for 3 earlier in the day. American Steven Taylor, who grew up in Miramar just 20 minutes away from the Central Broward Regional Park, looked at home playing inside his local stomping ground. Coming off a crisp 35 a day earlier playing for a CPL Invitational XI against a USA XI, Taylor was back in the Tridents line-up for the first time since July 16 and stroked 37 off 21 balls with seven fours.Adam Zampa ended Taylor’s knock, inducing the left-hander to scoop a drive to long-off. Despite a good platform laid with a score of 50 for 1 in the eighth over, no other Tridents batsman could match Taylor’s scoring rate until Wiese appeared with three overs to go to make 13 off six balls. Pollard top-scored with 47 off 36 balls but he and Shoaib Malik fell on consecutive balls just when a late surge was required. In addition to Pollard, Sohail Tanvir claimed Nicholas Pooran in a clever spell at the end, ensuring the Warriors’ target would not be insurmountable.