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The number 13 is unlucky for some. For South Africa it will mark a new record winning streak in one-day internationals if they overcome New Zealand in Christchurch

Andrew McGlashan21-Feb-2017Will number 13 prove lucky for South Africa? That may depend if they keep on winning. The figure will mark their new record winning streak in one-day internationals if they overcome New Zealand in Christchurch.There have been some impressive displays among those 12 victories. Six times batting first they have posted over 300, and four times over 350; in another they chased down 372; and in eight of the matches they have bowled out the opposition.However, regardless of their current form, they still see improvements to be made. The victory in Hamilton became a nail-biter, as AB de Villiers and Andile Phehlukwayo guided them home with a ball to spare, and was one of their hardest earned of the unbeaten run.”We haven’t played the perfect game yet,” said batting coach Neil McKenzie.”Twelve in row has shown what we have been doing over last year has really worked. The big thing is we’ve got try get to play that perfect game and hopefully that comes in a semi or final. But the blueprint has got to be honed in every game you play.”A semi-final or a final. South Africa crave that global piece of silverware. The perfect game in a semi-final, never mind a final, is something they have been unable to do in 10 of the 11 multi-team tournament semis they have reached. The one success came against Sri Lanka in the 1998 Wills International Cup, the precursor to what is now the Champions Trophy.All the culture camps, all the team spirit, all the victories – no one will really know if it will make a difference until that chance comes up again.De Villiers rated the Hamilton victory was “10 out of 10” for the experience of winning a tight game, but “zero” when it came to conditions, given the pitches in the Champions Trophy are unlikely to turn anywhere near as much.With the Napier match having been shifted to Seddon Park because of the former’s poor drainage, there could yet be another spinning pitch in the offing so the remaining three matches – beginning with Christchurch on Wednesday – perhaps offer the best chance of something closer to English conditions.”All one-day sides gauge themselves on periods where you lead up to a Champions Trophy or pinnacle series,” McKenzie said. “It bodes well for us going to England where we’re going find the same sort of conditions generally.”Although South Africa will not entertain the notion, it would be a useful exercise for them if this series conjured up a deciding match in Auckland early next month. It would still only be for a bilateral victory, but it would at least give them the taste of a winner-takes-all match.

Faf du Plessis confirmed Morne Morkel will return to South Africa’s Test XI after more than a year, banking on his experience to get him through despite lack of match fitness

Firdose Moonda in Dunedin07-Mar-20172:54

Moonda: Playing Morkel a gamble

After more than a year out of Test cricket, it’s now or never for Morne Morkel, who will make his international comeback in Dunedin on Wednesday. South Africa have decided to gamble on their lanky quick, despite his lack of game time, and are banking on his experience to pull him through.”He looks good. If he is not going to be able play now, then we will never know if we don’t take the chance. He is a fantastic bowler,” Faf du Plessis, South Africa’s Test captain, said. “I have said to him over the last six months that every time he has bowled in the nets, it felt to me like he was bowling at his best. His consistency is really good. It’s just an opportunity we have to take as a team and see where Morne is with his back. All the reports say he is 100% fine. He’s bowled a lot of overs and he is pretty confident. He will just have to step out and see what he can do.”Morkel has only played two matches this year, both List A games for his South African franchise, Titans which takes his total to six matches since the CPL last July, where he sustained the back niggle that has sidelined him for seven months. Since then, he hasn’t quite gained full fitness. He traveled with the South African Test team to Australia and participated in all three practice matches but the injury scares recurred too frequently and he could not play any of the Tests. Then, he was ruled out of the home series against Sri Lanka and a planned recall in the ODIs was pushed back after Morkel could not play a provincial game because his symptoms flared up again.In the lead-up to this series, Morkel revealed the bulging disc in his spine was considered serious enough to end his career but he wanted to give playing at the highest level another go and underwent intensive rehabilitation. Even when it seemed other players had gone past him in the pecking order, Morkel kept training and his determination has now seen him edge out three other pacers – Duanne Olivier, Wayne Parnell and Chris Morris – in the starting XI.Of those, Olivier may feel the most hard done by. He made an impressive debut at the Wanderers and topped the first-class bowling charts. There’s not much more he could have done to make a case for inclusion in the Test team and du Plessis is certain his turn will come, maybe even on this tour. “Duanne is going to play a huge role for us going forward. It’s nice to have the opportunity to have him with us this whole series and I think even in conditions where the ball might swing and a bit of pace, Duanne can be a factor to still challenge for a spot in our strongest XI,” he said.Morne Morkel last played a Test in January 2016•Cricket Australia/Getty Images

But for the first match, South Africa want to go with what they consider to be their most lethal combination, and they have decided that Morkel is part of that. Not only does he have 71 Tests and 242 wickets to his name, but he gets good bounce and, as Dean Elgar reminded on Monday, he has a knack of troubling left-handers, of which New Zealand have three in the top five. “That’s one of the reasons he got the nod ahead of Duanne. You’ve got to make sure you pick your strongest team for the guys you are playing against,” du Plessis said.Morkel surprises left-handers with the angle that he delivers the ball, which “is almost pointing to first slip,” according to du Plessis. “It goes either into right-handers or away from left-handers and obviously bounce is a huge factor. He is terrible to face in the nets as a right-hander because you always feel like you can get hit in the ribs and obviously it’s the opposite to lefties, it goes away. The angle he can create from around the wicket to get the ball to come in and move away is extremely hard to face,” du Plessis said.If South Africa win the toss, New Zealand will get to experience that first-up. Du Plessis confirmed that he will follow the trend of bowling first, as has been the case in the last 22 Tests played in New Zealand. “That tells a pretty good story and you will have to be pretty brave to go against that,” he said. “I assume the conditions up above also plays a role in how it looks.”Cloud has dominated the build-up to the Test but temperatures have plummeted which, as Neil Wagner hinted, suggests swing may not be a factor. However, humidity is set to increase through the Test and it should get slightly warmer so du Plessis will still hope for some movement. But he laughed off a suggestion of perusing the nearest sweet shop – although there is an entire Cadbury’s factory about a kilometre away from the ground – for assistance in shining the ball the same way he did in Australia.”I don’t know these conditions so I have to see what the guys think is the best way to shine the ball is but I think saliva is the process that I am following for the next while at least,” he joked. “Swinging the ball would be a huge factor in these conditions, so you have to keep the ball as shiny as possible. I don’t think reverse swing will play too much of a role in these conditions with the ball getting too wet, so it’s just about making the ball swing.”

Going into the deciding third ODI in Providence, Pakistan will hope they can maintain their record of not having lost a bilateral ODI series to West Indies since 1991

The Preview by Danyal Rasool10-Apr-2017

Match facts

April 11, 2017
Start time 09:30 local (13:30 GMT)Evin Lewis has been frustratingly inconsistent either side of his 51-ball 91 in the third T20I•AFP

Big Picture

Pakistan ended a run of four consecutive ODI defeats with a thumping win in the second ODI against the West Indies. In doing so, they ensured that whatever the outcome of the deciding contest, they will remain in the eighth and final automatic qualification place for the 2019 World Cup at the end of the series. However, this alone is unlikely to satisfy their legion of fans, many of whom had been expecting the series against a significantly weakened West Indies side to be a cakewalk. Instead, it has become a bit of a dogfight, and anything less than a win for Pakistan to protect a proud 26-year unbeaten series record against their hosts would be seen as a failure.West Indies will bemoan a failure to keep wickets in hand to give themselves a chance of chasing down Pakistan in the second ODI. Much of that was down to a tactically odd – poor, frankly – decision to take the attack to Pakistan’s bowlers right from the start, and continue to do so in spite of losing wickets in clumps. As such, they were well out of the game before their innings reached the halfway mark, and meant that Ashley Nurse and Jason Holder’s rearguards weren’t going to do any more than restore respectability in defeat. The good news for them is they have one more chance to seal a series win, and because of that, the decider can safely be billed as the biggest limited-overs home game they will play this season.

Form guide

West Indies LWLLL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Pakistan WLLLL

In the spotlight

Evin Lewis has been riding the wave of his 51-ball 91 in the third T20I, but he has endured a frustrating lack of consistency around that knock. He scored 29 runs in three ODIs against England earlier this season, and, aside from that 91, has only managed one international score above 15 this year – 47 in the first ODI against Pakistan. The 25-year old’s talent is obvious to anyone who remembers his demolition of the Indian bowling attack in Florida last year, where a 49-ball century set his side up for a one-run win. He could be due another explosive innings, and with the series on the line, the third ODI wouldn’t be a bad time to get going.Sarfraz Ahmed got a fair bit of attention during the second ODI, despite a fairly quiet game both with bat and behind the gloves. What caught people’s eyes (or more accurately, ears) were his bellowed instructions to fielders almost every single ball, and his hands-on approach with the bowlers, particularly Shadab Khan. Despite Pakistan looking set for a comfortable win, the skipper looked unhappy for most of the West Indies’ innings, and much of the body language appeared, at least to an outsider, to be damagingly negative. The third match is a pressure game, and there will be plenty of focus on the newly appointed ODI captain to get the best out of his side, and whether he changes his approach in order to do that. It hasn’t helped that the 29-year old has had a quiet period with the bat that has carried on from the PSL, and though it has slipped under the radar so far, it is unlikely to remain that way for too much longer.Junaid Khan bowled better than his figures suggested in the second ODI, and should keep his place for the decider•Getty Images

Team news

Left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul has been added to the squad as cover for fast bowler Shannon Gabriel, who was seen clutching his hamstring during the second ODI and left the field after finishing his ten overs. Gabriel is scheduled to undergo treatment and will have a fitness test on the morning of the match. The hosts, however, do have a like-for-like replacement in Miguel Cummins, who may make his first appearance this series.West Indies (possible): 1 Evin Lewis, 2 Chadwick Walton, 3 Kieran Powell, 4 Shai Hope (wk), 5 Jason Mohammad, 6 Jonathan Carter, 7 Jason Holder (capt), 8 Ashley Nurse, 9 Devendra Bishoo, 10 Alzarri Joseph, 11 Miguel Cummins/Shannon GabrielPakistan may decide to stick with the side that levelled the series, especially since there were no glaringly poor performances. Junaid Khan, who came in for Wahab, bowled better than his figures suggested, and is expected to keep his place.Pakistan (possible): 1 Ahmed Shehzad, 2 Kamran Akmal, 3 Babar Azam, 4 Mohammad Hafeez, 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Sarfraz Ahmed (capt & wk), 7 Imad Wasim, 8 Shadab Khan, 9 Mohammad Amir, 10 Hasan Ali, 11 Junaid Khan

Pitch and conditions

All bets are off with the Providence Stadium’s new pitch, which yielded two starkly different contests in just three days. However, there are showers expected for parts of the afternoon, and a curtailed contest is possible.

Stats and trivia

• Pakistan’s record in bilateral series deciders since 2003 has been quite poor. In 14 series-deciding final matches, they have lost 12 and won just 2 – both against Zimbabwe.
• Babar Azam has the most runs (1306) after 25 ODIs by any batsman. The previous highest was by Jonathan Trott, who scored 1280 runs in the same period.

Sarah Taylor took a significant step towards a return to international cricket on Thursday, when she took the field for an England XI against Ireland in the UAE

ESPNcricinfo staff01-May-2017Sarah Taylor took a significant step towards a return to international cricket on Thursday, when she took the field for an England XI against Ireland in the UAE and scored 26 not out to contribute to the second of three victories during a pre-World Cup training camp.Taylor, 27, who was belatedly added to the camp after missing out on original selection, said afterwards that she felt “more pride” in resuming her career following a year of anxiety issues than she had felt in making her England debut as a teenager back in 2006.Despite playing nearly 200 matches for England in all formats, Taylor has not featured for her country since the World T20 in India last March, having taken an indefinite break from the game to undergo Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to address a debilitating condition that had, at times, led to her leaving the field of play to be sick.”I can’t thank the staff enough for helping me achieve more than I hoped for this tour,” Taylor wrote on Twitter. “I didn’t come here looking to play any games and my expectations were low.”There has been some bumps along the way, but on Thursday I put on an England shirt for the first time in over a year. I honestly didn’t know if this would ever happen again but I had more pride this time than when I debuted back in 2006.”It is still a complete honour to wear the England badge and share a dressing room with this squad.”Taylor is widely regarded as one of the world’s best female batsmen and wicketkeepers, and in 2015, she became the first woman to play first-grade men’s cricket in Australia.Her ECB central contract was renewed in December, in spite of her year on the sidelines, and she remains in the thoughts of England coach Mark Robinson, as he oversees his squad’s final preparations for the World Cup that gets underway on home soil on June 24.

A round-up of the Women’s World Cup warm-up matches played on June 21, 2017

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Jun-2017England women 132 for 3 (Beaumont 51*) beat New Zealand women 130 (Martin 36, Marsh 3-7) by seven wickets
ScorecardTammy Beaumont struck an unbeaten 51 off 76 balls•Getty Images

England Women finalised their preparation for the ICC Women’s World Cup with a seven-wicket victory over New Zealand at Derby, the venue for Saturday’s opener against India.A disciplined and collective bowling performance saw New Zealand dismissed for 130 and laid the foundations for an encouraging victory, secured with Tammy Beaumont not out on 51.With Heather Knight, Sarah Taylor and Katherine Brunt rested, England picked a team of 12 (11 of whom could bat and 11 who could bowl) with offspinner Danielle Hazell once again stepping in to take the reins.She oversaw a fielding performance in which the wickets were shared around, the stand-out figures belonging to Laura Marsh who finished with 4-1-7-3.Mithali Raj scored 85 off 89 balls•Getty Images

ScorecardHalf-centuries from Punam Raut and Mithali Raj, followed by a four-wicket haul from Rajeshwari Gayakwad, led India women to a 109-run win against Sri Lanka in Chesterfield. Raut added 92 for the first wicket with Smriti Mandhana and 49 with the second with Raj as the top three set up a daunting total of 275 for 8.Four of Sri Lanka’s top five got past 20, but none of them managed a half-century, with Dilani Manodara’s 49 the top score of the lot. At 135 for 3, the chase still held some hope, only for Sri Lanka to collapse to Gayakwad’s left-arm spin, the last seven wickets falling for 31 runs.

Surrey survived an explosive innings by Corey Anderson and a 12-run penalty to scrape home before 15,000 at Kia Oval

ECB Reporters Network09-Jul-2017
ScorecardStand-in skipper Jade Dernbach suffered a 12-run penalty•Getty Images

An explosive 81 from 45 balls by Corey Anderson, with seven sixes and three fours, and a dramatic 12-run penalty, could not prevent Surrey from squeaking home by four runs in a remarkable Nat West T20 Blast match at the Kia Oval.Led by stand-in captain Jade Dernbach, Surrey go top of the embryonic South Group table with two wins from two games, with the run out of Anderson in the final over the key moment in a game which had seemed all over before the award of penalty runs with three overs remaining because of an illegally slow overrate.Dernbach spoke afterwards about the 12-run penalty, actioned by umpires David Millns and Paul Baldwin, who judged Surrey two overs short of their allocation within the time limit.He said: “To be honest I was pretty much in the dark out there about the possibility of a run penalty. It was the first I heard of it when it was given. But these things happen and you have to take it on the chin.”I’m just a little puzzled because on Friday night, when we played Essex at Chelmsford and the game was on TV, there seemed to be a little bit more leeway.”But it was crucial to get Corey Anderson out in that final over, because he had played unbelievably well, and then Tom Curran held his nerve again at the death, as he did in that Essex match. I’m so proud of him and happy to see him performing like this in big pressure situations.”Dernbach shot out Jim Allenby and James Hildreth for first ball ducks in a superb opening over, which ended with Somerset 1 for 2 in reply to Surrey’s 181 for 7, in which Australian batsman Aaron Finch hit 61 from 42 balls with three sixes and seven fours.Somerset eventually made it to 177 for 9 thanks to some magnificent hitting from New Zealand all-rounder Anderson, who struck Tom Curran for successive sixes at the start of an 18th over which, before the penalty runs were added, had begun with 51 needed.Suddenly, the equation was down to 23 from two overs, and Anderson ramped up the excitement by flicking Dernbach over mid wicket for six in the 19th over. But then, after a four to mid wicket and attempting a two to long on, Anderson failed to bet Finch’s throw to the keeper. Curran then held his nerve to allow just two runs from the final three balls at Somerset’s last pair.Corey Anderson staged single-handed resistance•Getty Images

Somerset captain Jim Allenby revealed that Anderson had suffered a stiff back after bowling the first over of the game, which is why he later left the field for treatment and could then only come into bat at No 7.Allenby said: “He’s been flying a lot around the world recently, so we just wanted him to take it easy and not make it worse – especially right at the start of the tournament. When he comes in at No 5, which he should in future games, he will give us even more firepower and especially if we bat better as a team.”Today, those of us at the top of the order let us down because we made a terrible start. But Corey’s was a special innings and it deserved to win the game. If we had batted better up front, it would have been a match-winning innings.”Besides Finch’s fine effort, Surrey’s total also owed much to their two 19-year-olds, Sam Curran and Ollie Pope, who played some spectacular strokes of their own in quickfire innings of 39 and 25 not out respectively.It was then the turn of Sam and Tom Curran, with the ball, and well-supported by fellow seamer Ravi Rampaul, to further undermine the Somerset innings and leave it in tatters at 49 for 6.A crowd of more than 15,000 lapped it up as Tom Curran had Steven Davies leg-before for 15 with his third ball, in the fifth over, before bowling Peter Trego for 10 in his next over. By then Rampaul had dismissed Adam Hose for 5, caught at short fine leg, and soon afterwards Sam Curran returned for a second spell to pin Roelof van der Merwe leg-before for 10.Rampaul had Lewis Gregory caught on the cover ropes for 6 in his second spell and Craig Overton (11) offered a blow or two in support of Anderson before swiping a Sam Curran full toss to deep mid wicket.Surrey’s innings was given a flying start by Finch and Jason Roy, who took 45 from the first four overs. Roy, who had clubbed Craig Overton to long on for six, swished his bat in annoyance after pulling Josh Davey straight to deep mid wicket for 15 in the fifth over but Finch continued to attack and the initial powerplay ended with Surrey on 59 for 1.Finch had warmed to his task by plundering two fours and a pulled six from the first three balls of the third over, bowled by Davey, and then took two offside fours from Roelof van der Merwe’s second over before swatting Max Waller’s first ball to wide long on for another six.Mark Stoneman chipped van der Merwe to extra cover to go for 8 but, at halfway, Surrey were 92 for 2 and on course for a 200-plus total. That ambition looked less likely when Finch, after a third six driven wide of long on off van der Merwe, hit the same bowler to Lewis Gregory on the long on boundary three balls later.Rory Burns went cheaply but Sam Curran, with a competition-best 39 from 21 balls, with two sixes and four fours, did his best to keep up the tempo. He was particularly dismissive of Waller’s leg spin, driving him straight and then pulling him for sixes in the space of three balls in a 14th over costing 19.Dom Sibley could not quite clear Adam Hose at deep square leg when, on 7, he scooped a full toss from van der Merwe high into the South London sky, but the younger Curran’s invention saw him flip Overton for a cheeky four past the keeper from way outside his off stump, besides crunching fours through extra cover and mid wicket with more conventional strokes.Curran squeezed a full, wide ball from Davey to cover – which would have surely been called a wide if he had left it – before Pope hit a jaunty unbeaten 25 in the closing overs, including two wonderfully-manufactured deflections to the fine third man boundary and a cracking square driven four off Overton. Tom Curran made 8 before being caught at mid wicket from the final ball of Surrey’s innings.

Suzie Bates will become only the eighth New Zealand woman to play 100 ODIs when she takes the field against South Africa in their second World Cup game on Wednesday

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Jun-2017Suzie Bates will become only the eighth New Zealand woman to play 100 ODIs when she takes the field against South Africa in their second World Cup game on Wednesday. She will join the likes of Debbie Hockley, Sara McGlashan and Haidee Tiffin, the former captain and current head coach. The milestone, Bates said, was the result of doing “something right” over the last decade.”As an 18-year old, I remember being pretty excited just to play the likes of Rebecca Rolls and Emily Drumm. I never thought I’d play this long. I was at university and cricket was bit of a hobby,” she said. “I really didn’t see it going professional. So to still be playing at 29, and be able to play in my 100th game on Wednesday is exciting. I can’t remember how the last 10-11 years have gone.”You look at the other names on the list; there are some greats – Debbie Hockley, Sara McGlashan, Amy Watkins. Then there’s Haidee Tiffin, who was captain when I was playing. I looked up to Rebecca when I was growing up, a hard-hitting opening batsman who also played a lot of football. That was pretty inspiring to be playing with these players, and now to be in the same list is amazing.”Bates was still a rookie when New Zealand last came close to winning the World Cup, in 2009, when they were pipped by England in the final. It’s a memory which hasn’t escaped Bates, who is now into captaining New Zealand for the sixth-year running. Bates was the highest run-scorer at the 2013 edition in India and the Player of the Series, but could only watch her team finish fourth. A different outlook, one that stems with experience, has helped her approach cricket differently, she says.”When I first started and got really serious about trying to be as serious as I can be. When I started leading the team, I probably didn’t have a lot of things outside of cricket,” she said. “When it didn’t go well, it was terrible. When it did, you were on top of the world.”Probably, I’ve become a lot more balanced on my outlook on cricket and trying to just take each game as it comes and not get too up and down along the way. Hopefully, captaining the side at this World Cup, we can maintain that sort of approach and not get too high or too low, because it’s a long-old slog if you ride the highs and lows.”Having been around since 2006, Bates, a double international who also represented New Zealand in basketball at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, has had a ringside view of how the women’s game has evolved over the last decade or so. For starters, she admits to being surprised at the exponential growth.”It’s unrecognisable from when I started,” she said. “You got 30 dollars daily allowance if you were staying at home, and I used to with mum and dad. That was still a bit of pocket money. It was hobby for everyone. Many were studying, some were at school. People got away from their day jobs for tours and live a dream. When you got together for tours, it was the best thing ever, since you got to live the dream.”Now, half a dozen of us do it 10 months of the year, full-time, and also get paid for it. When I first started, not just as a cricketer but just as a girl who loved sport, I never really thought it was going to be a career. I had study on the side and I just wanted to play sport because I loved it. I always thought I had to get a real job at some stage and I still haven’t had to.”

Peter Trego and Johann Myburgh crashed stylish half-centuries to earn Somerset a quarter-final place as they thrashed Hampshire by 98 runs

ECB Reporters Network18-Aug-2017Peter Trego was in blistering form for Somerset•Getty Images

Peter Trego and Johann Myburgh crashed stylish half-centuries to earn Somerset a quarter-final place as they thrashed Hampshire by 98 runs.The visitors, who were part of a cluster of sides on 12 points in the South Group ahead of the game, needed to win and wait to see how the net run-rates settled.And after Somerset bowled Hampshire out for 91 with eight balls to spare they were forced to wait until Glamorgan’s clash with Middlesex finished to have their place confirmed.Hampshire were already through to the knockout stage and also avoided their previous worst T20 total of 85, but the defeat was their heaviest defeat in the format while batting second.Somerset won the toss and batted on a quicker and flatter than usual pitch at the Ageas Bowl.Liam Dawson took a wicket in his first over for the third game in a row when he had Steven Davies caught behind to the fourth ball of the innings.Jim Allenby then skied to Gareth Berg on the midwicket boundary to hand Hampshire their second power-play wicket as the visitors reached 54 for 2 in the first six overs. But from that point Somerset clattered runs with increasing ease.Myburgh smacked Dawson for a pair of maximums over mid-wicket before carting Kyle Abbott over long-off.He reached a 22-ball half-century, his third of the campaign, but prodded debutant Jake Lintott to point – the left-arm unorthodox bowler striking with his second ball in professional cricket.Peter Trego and James Hildreth then batted Hampshire out the game with a well-paced 105-run partnership, missing out their all-time T20 best stand for the fourth wicket by a run.Neither batsman appeared in discomfort at any point nor did they demean themselves to slogging, instead they ran hard on a large boundary.Trego, who reached his fifty in a more sedate 38-balls, did pick the gaps well as his 84 bore nine fours and two sixes, while Hildreth only scored a pair of fours in his 39. But the partnership raised Somerset to 189, before Hampshire’s reply never got going.Calvin Dickinson failed to repeat his lusty blows against Kent last week, where he crashed a quick fire fifty, as he was bowled while backing away by Max Waller in the first over.Skipper James Vince and George Bailey then departed in the next over – the former caught at cover, the latter at mid-off – as the hosts were left on 10 for 3.Dawson was bowled before Tom Alsop, who had been ticking along nicely for 36, was well caught by Roelof van der Merwe on the long off rope.Sean Ervine quickly followed back to the dug-out when he also holed out to long-on, Gareth Berg was stumped and Abbott was lbw.Shahid Afridi offered a simple caught and bowled back to van der Merwe and Lintott edged behind ended Hampshire’s sorry chase.

Rikki Clarke bowled with masterful precision and subtlety from the Vauxhall End to claim career-best figures of 7 for 55

Tim Wigmore at Kia Oval19-Sep-2017As The Oval clock ticked over to 5 o’clock, Rikki Clarke raised the ball aloft and led Surrey off, saluting the home crowd as they lauded his career-best figures. It was a moment that both the player and spectators had long thought would never come.Many members at this hallowed ground have memories of Clarke emerging from Surrey’s academy, spotty but brimming with an effervescent talent. His third County Championship match, 15 years ago, brought a sublime 153 not out against Somerset at Taunton. Add in the nonchalant catches in the slips and the pace and bounce he generated from his 6ft 4in frame, and Clarke was immediately marked out as a player of supreme promise. It took only 10 first-class matches for England to be persuaded to select him in an international squad.Over the following years, the alluring prospect of Clarke providing England with runs, wickets and catches – as he did in two accomplished Tests in Bangladesh in 2003 – gave way to frustration at why such a talent was stagnating. And so Clarke left his home county in 2007, taking up the Derbyshire captaincy in an attempt to reinvigorate his career. The move failed, spectacularly. By the summer’s end Clarke had given up the job and then quit the county for good. But then came a move to Warwickshire, where Clarke became a cricketer of the calibre and consistency that those who had watched the promise of those early performances for Surrey expected, even if an England recall never quite came.After a decade of trophies and fulfilment at Edgbaston, notwithstanding this summer’s struggles, Clarke returned home. First, he signed a two-year contract beginning next year. Then, after Dominic Sibley moved to Warwickshire, the two were involved in a mid-season loan swap, and Clarke was thrust back into Surrey’s team.He returned to find a completely new role. It was not merely that Clarke had aged. Where once he was a wayward cricketer, now he was recruited to bring solidity. And while he had spent his first Surrey career in the top six, Clarke has returned to a spot of No.8, and even nine, which rather seems to belittle his 16 first-class centuries.But while Clarke was away, he developed into a highly skilled bowler, adept at cutting the ball from an awkward height. Where he had once sprayed the ball in pursuit of wickets, he returned with the patience to locate a probing line and length remorselessly.Over 16 fulfilling seasons in professional cricket, never have those qualities been as persuasive as today. On a pitch on which Somerset had lost only one wicket in the morning session, and even that on the brink of lunch, Clarke jagged the ball spitefully both ways at an awkward length.The Oval is not the sort of ground on which many bowlers produce a spell of 5 for 32 in ten overs, never mind doing so immediately after lunch on the first day. But Clarke bowled with masterful precision and subtlety from the Vauxhall End, eliciting edges from George Bartlett and Edward Byrom with away movement in between locating in-swing to trap James Hildreth lbw, uprooting Tom Abell’s off stump and then, most emphatically of all, finding a full length to Peter Trego. A rash drive ensued; it missed the ball, which instead dismantled the off and middle stumps. Remarkably, it was Clarke’s first Surrey five-fer.Nor was he done yet. If a ten-over spell had revealed admirable durability in a man who turns 36 by the end of the month, the impression was confirmed when, after tea, he plucked out Dom Bess’s drive in his followthrough and then produced a menacing spell of bouncers to Steven Davies as early evening shadows extended onto the outfield, which eventually culminated in Davies picking out fine leg. In decimating Somerset’s top order, Clarke had topped 400 first-class wickets, and 100 for Surrey, and encapsulated why he has been among the most valuable players in the shires in the last decade. On this evidence, he could yet remain so for several years to come.Not that Clarke was the only player to enjoy being back at The Oval. Davies played sumptuously on his first-class return, after his winter move to Taunton, marrying the finesse and fluency of his dreamy late cuts and drives with fortitude to withstand Clarke, and stabilise Somerset from the debris of 138 for 6. If their eventual 269 remains far below the recent norm at The Oval, the pitch offered Somerset’s seamers abundant movement during their 14 overs at Surrey. Somerset may yet have a working total.The morning had brought no indication of what Clarke would unleash. Instead, Marcus Trescothick unfurled all his trademarks – the crunching drives, the cuts scythed between point and deep extra cover, and the nonchalant pulls – reserving particular wrath for Sam Curran. The unusually warm applause that greeted an opponents’ half-century reflected the stead in which Trescothick is held in the shires and gratitude that, 14 years after pillaging 219 against South Africa on this ground, he has signed up to another year in county cricket.

Dasun Shanaka took two wickets as India were reduced to 74 for 5 in bowling-friendly conditions before a period of persistent rain forced officials to call off play more than two hours before the scheduled close

The Report by Nikhil Kalro17-Nov-2017Stumps
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details3:31

Irfan Pathan: Pujara knows his game and sticks to it

Persistent rain dominated another day in Kolkata, allowing just 21 overs on the second morning. In all, just 32.5 overs have been bowled over two days. Sri Lanka’s seamers had earlier capitalised on a dry, bowling-friendly morning at Eden Gardens, as Dasun Shanaka picked up two wickets with his gentle medium pace under gloomy skies offering sufficient lateral movement. Cheteshwar Pujara displayed impeccable defensive technique again, picking only the errant deliveries to score during his unbeaten 47, carrying India to 74 for 5 before a drizzle that became gradually heavier at 11.00 am forced an early lunch.The rain had relented for a short period around noon, but returned heavier and forced the officials to call off the second day at 2.30pm local, more than two hours before the scheduled close of play.The little play on the second day wasn’t short of action. Dinesh Chandimal, anticipating a long haul for his seamers, operated with a specialist fast bowler from one end and Shanaka from the other for the majority of the morning. Seam, like spin, is more effective at a quicker pace, disallowing batsmen time to be decisive with their feet and shot selection. Therefore, India’s batsmen would have preferred Shanaka to two specialist fast bowlers.However, these are atypical conditions for a Test match in India. With so much rain over the last few days, it seemed like a pitch on which the grass grew itself under the covers. That gave Shanaka, despite his 125 kmph range, a fair chance under overcast skies.Pujara, attuned to such conditions through his recent stint with Nottinghamshire, came forward to drive away from his body only when Shanaka erred too full, hitting him for four boundaries through mid-off. However, Ajinkya Rahane, and then R Ashwin, misread Shanaka’s perfect full deliveries for run-scoring opportunities, driving loosely with their hands too far away.A scrambled-seam delivery, which neither swung nor seamed, found Rahane’s outside edge, as he played for the inward angle. Ashwin had played 28 balls for four runs, his only scoring shot a sweetly-timed cover drive off a full toss from Shanaka, when he sliced a drive to backward point.In between, Suranga Lakmal and Lahiru Gamage generated appreciable swing and bounce – arguably too much on this surface – to beat the bat regularly. Ashwin was even rapped on the right hand by an inducking dart that kept climbing steeply to beat an awkward jab.Pujara was rewarded for his diligence as Chandimal was forced to turn to Dimuth Karunaratne’s even-gentler medium pace, hitting him for 12 runs off six wayward deliveries.