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Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza has said his team will have to deal with the pressure of trying to stay among the top eight ODI teams in the ICC rankings to ensure automatic qualification for the 2017 Champions Trophy. He said that though it could be a distraction, qualification would take Bangladesh cricket to a different level.Bangladesh are No. 8 in the ICC ODI rankings on 88 points, same as West Indies who are seventh. Pakistan are ninth with 87 points, after losing 0-3 to Bangladesh in April. According to the ICC, the hosts England and the seven next highest-ranked sides as of September 30, 2015 will progress to the 2017 Champions Trophy.Bangladesh need to win two of their remaining six matches – against India and South Africa – before September 30 to finish ahead of West Indies.”It is quite natural to think about this type of equation,” Mashrafe said. “But at some point this can become cause for extra pressure. We don’t want the cricketers to think about it. We should take it match by match, which is more important for us.”We are improving so we must handle this sort of pressure. It is going to be bigger in the future. We are hoping to see Bangladesh cricket take the next step which will be a lifetime achievement for us. But it is important to control such emotions. We faced similar pressure at the World Cup where even those who believed in us could only hope that we would reach the second round. So just like we did it there, we will take it match by match.”Bangladesh have beaten India just three times in 29 ODIs and all three occasions have been viewed as watershed moments. The 2004 victory was the only one in a bilateral series.Mashrafe said Bangladesh had gained confidence after beating India in the 2007 World Cup but he wanted his team-mates to forget the loss in the 2015 World Cup quarterfinal in Melbourne, a game in which a controversial no-ball decision reprieved Rohit Sharma, who went on to make a century.”I believe India are favourites but when we get on the field we don’t think who is favourite or who is not. After the 2007 World Cup, we started to believe that we can beat any team. We never lost our mental strength despite losing matches. Of course if we are playing against a higher-ranked team they will be the favourites but we don’t think that we can’t beat them.”I don’t think anyone will think about what happened in a match three-four months ago. People will remember such things but as cricketers we shouldn’t be thinking about such things. It is hard to control people’s emotions but I would request them to keep cricket in its place.”During the quarterfinal, Rubel Hossain had also celebrated excessively after dismissing Virat Kohli, and the two had also had a go at each other during the opening game of the 2011 World Cup in Mirpur. Mashrafe said as long as the exchanges remained civil and helped his team, he wouldn’t mind.”If his madness is helpful, then I don’t mind it. I obviously wouldn’t want any personal attacks. But I don’t see anything between Rubel and Kohli. I think we create such problems by asking these questions. It is better to avoid such questions. We shake hands at the end of the match. Rubel and Virat don’t have a problem.”Mashrafe wanted his team to believe that they are on par with the top teams in the world. “Bangladesh is one of the teams doing well in ODIs right now apart from Australia, England, India and New Zealand. I have told the boys to look at the statistics that we are not far behind any of these teams. Everyone believes in themselves. We have to show it in the field, but this is no pressure,” Mashrafe said.

The reemergence of 36-year old Ashish Nehra, and the emergence of 22-year old Jasprit Bumrah has given India a lot of confidence at the start and end of a bowling innings. Both men have the skills to swing the ball in the Powerplay and then hamper the batsmen later on in the innings with yorkers, something their team-mate R Ashwin thinks is an asset India had been without in the past.

‘India v Pakistan is just another game’

R Ashwin has said he tries to keep away from the unique pressure that comes from an India-Pakistan game, believing the team needs to be insulated and that if they “buy into” the hype, it would put them on the back foot.
“Since I’ve been with the Indian team, it’s just been another game, to be very honest. The one game that I would put right up there would be the [World Cup] semi-final that we played in 2011 against Pakistan. That game has to be right at the top, but apart from that, all games are just another game for us.
“We can’t take too much of pressure. I know what kind of hype goes around it, what the media writes about it and how the people perceive it, but if we are going to buy into that and go into a game, it’s going to put us on the back foot.”

“I think it’s a very good if you can punch as a group and especially Ashish, we all know that he is a very experienced candidate,” Ashwin said. “He has come in on the back of a very good IPL last year, so we know exactly what his strengths are. He can swing the ball up front and has good abilities to bowl at the death. Bumrah has got a unique action and he has done very well in the IPL for the last couple of years. He can bowl those lethal yorkers again, which we might have been missing in the past few years so that’s definitely given us an extra sting.”Nehra, who has played the two World Cups, still bowls at a brisk pace and had recent form in his favour – he took 22 wickets at 20.40 in the last IPL – to return to the Indian team in January 2016. The IPL has been accorded as a reason for Bumrah’s rapid progression as well, except in the 20 matches he has played in the tournament, he has averaged 45.64 and his economy rate sits at 8.83. His T20 figures for India – eight matches, average of 16.36 and economy rate of 6.31 – have been more reflective of his work with Gujarat – 27 matches, average of 16.76 and economy of 6.27.When asked how their good work impacts his own bowling, Ashwin said, “Our death bowling could definitely be much better than what it was in the past so that gives a lot of confidence and we can go about our middle overs with a lot more attacking instinct, to try and pick up wickets to seal things off. That’s definitely a positive, but at the end of the day, only I can help myself”The conditions in the Asia Cup have mostly been seamer-friendly, which has helped the likes of Nehra and Bumrah prosper. MS Dhoni had hoped the tournament would aid in preparing for the World T20 in India, where it is likely the pitches will be batsmen-friendly, if a little slow. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka played on such a surface yesterday and Ashwin, for his part, believes tackling a range of different conditions would help the team get better faster.”We had a home series in Sri Lanka which was very different. Australia was again different wickets and big grounds and other different conditions, so if we are testing ourselves in different conditions in varied environments, it’s good for the team.”You can’t try and beat the conditions. It’s very important to go back and understand that it’ll not spin a lot, so it’s even more imperative that you put the ball in good lengths and try and get away with overs rather than looking to go for wickets because in T20s, more often than not, wickets are given by the pressure rather than the exact skill of the ball and that’s what I look to do on such wickets and when there is a window to attack, I’ll definitely attack.”India have minor fitness concerns heading into their match against Sri Lanka on Tuesday. Rohit Sharma, who was hit on the left toe by a Mohammad Amir Yorker, had gone for a scan, though the word from the team management is that there is nothing to worry. Shikhar Dhawan, who had sat out of that game against Pakistan with a niggle, has also recovered.

Match facts

Thursday, March 31, 2016
Start time 1900 local (1330 GMT)2:43

Match Day: Who should replace Yuvraj in India’s XI?

Big picture

Chris Gayle. Virat Kohli. Dwayne Bravo. MS Dhoni. The Wankhede stadium will be screening an ensemble-driven action movie as much it hosts a cricket match on Thursday night. Those individuals and their styles of play contribute to a lot of the interest surrounding this game, and also typify there are various ways to establish T20 batting dominance.India’s has been to simply extend their Test and one-day game into the Twenty20s arena, and when all goes well, they get the bulk of their runs through orthodox cricket. West Indies, ideally, wouldn’t want their long-format form anywhere near them right now. Helpfully, this format has a tight cap on the number of overs so the big-hitters can keep hitting big without worrying about consequences.Case in point are the methods that their marquee players use. Gayle likes to “beat” the ball. No wonder it rockets as far away from him as it can, hoping to be lost somewhere in the rings of Saturn. Kohli is kinder in assisting with the ball’s travels, and even throws in a few surprises – patrons waiting in the off stump line could end up at midwicket almost as often as they do in the covers.Both teams clearly have lots of cream at the top, but the middle looks a bit squishy. It’s been over two years since Denesh Ramdin or Suresh Raina have hit a T20 fifty. Dwayne Bravo, at No. 5, has looked unsure whether he needs to be the aggressor or the anchor. Yuvraj Singh has been similarly jittery, but an ankle injury ruled him out of the World T20. That leads West Indies to the prospect of bowling at a player – one of Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey or Pawan Negi – who hasn’t faced a ball in this tournament. But Mumbai is just about the perfect venue for the out-of-form and brand new batsmen to get into the swing of things – the lowest total in the tournament here has been Afghanistan’s 172 against South Africa.Quite apart from tactics and strategy, there are players from both sides who may be playing their last World Cup, so the incentive to make it to Eden Gardens – for the final – for one more match will be very strong.

Form guide

India WWWLW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
West Indies LWWWW

In the spotlight

The last time India were in Mumbai, they missed the hell out of R Ashwin. It was an ODI, three of the opposition batsmen scored centuries and they were left chasing a 400-plus total. He did not have his best game against Australia, but his presence in the XI still goes a long way to adding confidence to the team.Samuel Badree seems to take the mickey out of the Powerplay overs every time he bowls. He doesn’t rely on turn, doesn’t often believe in flight, but faithfully follows a wicket-to-wicket line. The batsmen are tied down, and when they try to escape, they tend to fall. Hard.

Team news

India haven’t made any changes to their XI since the start of the tournament. But now, with Yuvraj ruled out, they will be forced to do so ahead of the semi-final of the tournament.India 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Suresh Raina, 5 Manish Pandey/Ajinkya Rahane/Pawan Negi, 6 MS Dhoni (capt and wk), 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Ravindra Jadeja, 9 R Ashwin, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Ashish NehraWest Indies will be without Andre Fletcher, who was ruled out with a hamstring injury. His replacement Lendl Simmons has a chance at getting a game straight away.West Indies 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Johnson Charles, 3 Lendl Simmons, 4 Marlon Samuels, 5 Denesh Ramdin (wk), 6 Dwayne Bravo, 7 Andre Russell, 8 Darren Sammy (capt), 9 Carlos Brathwaite, 10 Suliemann Benn, 11 Samuel Badree

Pitch and conditions

Mumbai has been an oasis this World T20. Tough pitches have left batsmen parched for runs, but at the Wankhede they can come and go wheee. In terms of the weather, a clear night is expected.

Stats and trivia

• Virat Kohli, the No. 1-ranked T20I batsman, averages 91.80 batting second but 35.22 batting first.
• Chris Gayle is two sixes short of being the first player ever to hit 100 sixes in T20I cricket

Quotes

“We’ve played to 70% of our abilities in this tournament. So there’s still 30% in areas we need to improve, so lets hope it happens tomorrow”
“No not really, have you ever heard of Chris Gayle?”

As the dust settles on what was a surprisingly closely fought Test series between England and Bangladesh, attention quickly turns to the three-match one-day series which starts in five days time. There’s no time for reflection and relaxation in modern international cricket.Although Bangladesh have made marked steps forwards in the way they play Tests – even though they sometimes revert to type, as was the case with their batting on the final day of the series – in the shorter form of the game there remains a massive gulf between them and the rest (with the possible exception of the declining Zimbabweans).The stats tell a sorry tale. Bangladesh have played 79 full ODIs and won three – with only one success against another Tests-playing country. And their one victory – against Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup – is one of the games most scrutinised by those looking at match-fixing. It’s best to leave the stats to tell their own story. Pakistan bowled 28 wides – they gave away 40 extras in all – and also three of their players were run out in what was regarded at the time as a very poor performance. Even if this result is taken at face value, Bangladesh are way out of their league in the cutthroat world of one-day cricket.Their performances should be compared with those of Kenya, the country nipping at their heels as the next candidate for full Test status. The pair have met seven times and Bangladesh have managed only one win. They have not only lost the other six, but lost them almost every time by comprehensive margins, the most recent in the 2003 World Cup; Kenya reached the semi-finals, Bangladesh slinked home winless having even lost to Canada.Bangladesh’s recent Tests in Australia and Pakistan have shown that they are learning to adapt, but both have been followed by one-sided one-day series. At least against England they have home advantage, but the outcome is unlikely to be any different.

ScorecardMichael Klinger continued to dominate Essex attacks (file photo)•Getty Images

Michael Klinger again proved to be Essex’s nemesis as he guided Gloucestershire serenely to an eight-wicket win in the NatWest T20 Blast at Chelmsford.The Australian rattled up two unbeaten T20 centuries against Essex last season, and added a third in the LV= County Championship for good measure.Essex finally got their man here, but not before he had hammered 78 of the 132 runs scored while he was at the wicket.With Hamish Marshall he put on 126 for the first wicket in 13.3 before the two men from Down Under, with a combined age of 72, departed in the space of four balls.Marshall, who had earlier been dropped by James Foster when on one, was the first to go when he played on to Quinn for 42 off 34 balls.And Klinger followed at the start of Wahab Riaz’s first over from the River End when he edged a lifter through to wicketkeeper Foster. His imperious innings lasted 49 balls and included seven fours and four sixes. It condemned Essex to a fourth defeat in five T20 games this season.Klinger had started Essex’s agony when he won the toss on a slow track and scotched any hopes the home team might have had of another run chase by opting to bowl at them first.That it wasn’t going to be Essex’s night was evident when Jesse Ryder went first ball, fishing outside off-stump to Matt Taylor to be caught behind by Gareth Roderick.Tom Westley took up the attacking mantle, cracking Taylor through the covers, another through midwicket and turned Norwell backward of square for a third boundary.Norwell’s second over went for 13, but he might have had the wicket of Westley only for Andrew Tye to dive over a lofted drive at mid-on as it raced on for another four.Tye was into the attack in the fifth over for his first spell since he was removed from the attack last Friday for bowling two beamers in the game against Glamorgan. His first over cost just three runs.Krishen Velani, playing his first T20 in a year, and opening the innings, lifted an effortless six straight into the black sightscreen at the Hayes Close End off Norwell. But he was always the junior partner in a second-wicket stand of 46 before he chopped on to the same bowler for 16.Ravi Bopara was off the mark with a six, a push into the covers for two tripled by four overthrows. Westley hit a more conventional maximum, pulling Tom Smith over midwicket.But having laid the foundations, Westley was deceived by a slower ball from Benny Howell and was bowled for his fourth forty in five T20 knocks this season. His 36-ball 46 included five fours and that six.Ryan ten Doeschate followed soon after, run out for two by a direct throw from Chris Dent at mid-off after a review by the third umpire.Dan Lawrence survived a caught-and-bowled attempt by Smith, and next ball Bopara top-edged the bowler over midwicket for six. But when Kieran Noema-Barnett replaced Smith at the River End, Bopara tapped his third ball tamely back into the bowler’s hands to depart for 28.The Essex mid-innings slump continued when Lawrence aimed to leg but lobbed up a dolly to Michael Klinger at silly mid-off to give Howell figures of two for 15. Essex were then 108 for six in the 16th over.Ashar Zaidi livened up proceedings when he went after Noema-Barnett, hitting successive sixes over midwicket and cow corner. But having reached 17 off 10 balls, he fell to a slower ball from Tye.Wahab Riaz took Essex to 150 in the last over when he hit Tye back over his head, but lost partner James Foster off the last ball, run out attempting a second run.There was a rare occurrence at the start of the Gloucestershire reply when the usually infallible Foster failed to hang on to a chance high to his right when Hamish Marshall snicked Matt Quinn. The ball sped off the wicketkeeper’s gloves and to the boundary for four.Klinger continued his liking for the Essex bowling. The Australian straight-drove David Masters for six and also hooked Quinn for two sixes, the first when the ball was dug in very short.Marshall, who was one when he received his reprieve, was scoring for much of the innings at the same rate as his partner, but only receiving half the number of balls. He, too, cleared the boundary ropes off Masters.Klinger raced to his half-century off 32 balls with an ambled single of Zaidi, the fifty reached with four fours and three sixes.The Gloucestershire captain added a fourth six, putting Lawrence over long-off before adding a boundary all along the ground to the same part of the ground.Once the two openers had gone, Ian Cockbain and Dent eased Gloucestershire over the line with 19 balls to spare.

Match facts

Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Start time 1300 local (1700GMT)

Big Picture

Australia performed to expectations in their opening match with a crushing six-wicket win over West Indies; South Africa most certainly did not, as they were bundled out for 188 in their four-wicket loss to the hosts. The deflating nature of the loss to West Indies can only compound the pressure South Africa are feeling as they try to right the wrongs of their poorest domestic summer in recent memory, and in Steven Smith’s team they are not likely to be gifted many opportunities to regain their equilibrium. AB de Villiers’ men are going to have to lift their game substantially.It is doubtlessly true that the Australians learned a lot from being able to watch the opening match rather than participate in it. They bowled first as West Indies did in the first match, and found in the afternoon air a little early assistance for the pacers before the spin bowlers ripped through the hosts. Nathan Lyon and Adam Zampa proved a potent slow-bowling duo with a little help from Glenn Maxwell, and a few of the shots played by West Indies’ batsmen were redolent of nothing so much as those offered by South Africa when Sunil Narine spun a similar web.While this is undoubtedly a South African side in decline, they still possess enough players of class to challenge Australia. One of these men may be Morne Morkel, curiously omitted from game one, but now fresh for the task of cutting through the Australian top order – a strength that can be undermined by exposing the less consistent operators batting beneath them. Similarly, de Villiers and Hashim Amla are players of a standard capable of taking the fight to Lyon and Zampa, even if the pitch will be in the bowlers’ favour.

Form guide

(last five completed games, most recent first)
Australia WLWLL
South Africa LWWWL

In the spotlight

Australia’s top four is very strong, but on recent evidence Glenn Maxwell is battling to justify his position at No. 5, particularly when he is followed by a similarly jumpy Mitchell Marsh and the bowlers. A duck against West Indies will not help Maxwell’s confidence, and he needs to demonstrate for the captain Smith, the interim coach Justin Langer and the selector on duty Trevor Hohns that he is capable of multi-dimensional innings, rather than simply indulging in explosive but brief stays at the crease. On turning pitches he can expect to be needed at a critical moment sooner or later.Having struck 92 in South Africa’s warm-up match, Hashim Amla was purring along nicely enough against West Indies before misreading Narine and providing the start of a batting trough that cost South Africa the match. Amla’s touch and concentration seem ideally suited to the slow and challenging Guyana surface; de Villiers and coach Russell Domingo will be hopeful of something more substantial against Australia.

Team news

A strong display by the bowlers should mean an unchanged XI for Australia, though George Bailey is waiting in the wings should the selectors choose to bolster their batting in testing conditions.Australia (probable): 1 David Warner, 2 Aaron Finch, 3 Usman Khawaja, 4 Steven Smith (capt), 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 Mitchell Marsh, 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Adam Zampa, 10 Josh Hazlewood, 11 Nathan LyonMorkel and Wayne Parnell are pressing for recalls after South Africa’s opening defeat, while Rilee Rossouw is the man set to make way whenever Faf du Plessis recovers from a finger injury.South Africa (probable): 1 Hashim Amla, 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Rilee Rossouw, 4 AB de Villiers (capt), 5 JP Duminy, 6 Farhaan Behardien, 7 Chris Morris, 8 Kagiso Rabada, 9 Morne Morkel/Kyle Abbott, 10 Aaron Phangiso, 11 Imran Tahir

Pitch and conditions

The same Providence Stadium pitch as used for Sunday’s match between Australia and West Indies should only be slower and lower this time around. Forecast weather is clear and humid.

Stats and trivia

• Australia and South Africa have met twice in ODIs in the Caribbean before, both matches won by Ricky Ponting’s side on their way to victory at the 2007 World Cup.
• South Africa, however, were victorious the last time the two sides met in a tri-series, winning the final of a tournament that also featured Zimbabwe, in Harare in 2014.

Quotes

“As a bowling unit I think we pride ourselves on limiting extras. I think we let ourselves down [giving up 14], there was a bit of rust floating around.”
“Our assessment [of the pitch] was good. Unfortunately the execution wasn’t spot on in the last 10 overs with the bat in hand. We knew that it would be a turning track, very slow. That’s why we played the extra spinner.”

Denesh Ramdin, the West Indies wicketkeeper, has said he will have no choice but to accept the selectors’ supposed decision to keep him out of the Test squad for the upcoming series against India, and use the regional four-day competition to work his way back to the top. The squad for the four-Test series is yet to be named, but Ramdin had lashed out at new selection committee chairman Courtney Browne on Twitter earlier in the week, saying Browne had told him he is being dropped.”I haven’t felt any pressure for the last three or four years,” Ramdin told Jamaican radio station Power FM. “I felt a bit surprised, but I have no choice but to live by the decision of the higher authority. I don’t own cricket, and, well, I have to go back to my game in the regional four day-set up and come again.””It seems like I’m not a senior player who has done well over the years. But I’ve been down that road before and come back and done very well, so I think the process is easy.”Ramdin, who has scored 2898 runs in 74 Tests, made 59 and 62 in his most recent Test innings in Australia, a series that West Indies lost 2-0. West Indies have not played any Tests since that tour. In their last international assignment, the ODI tri-series last month, Ramdin scored 197 runs at 28.14, with a highest of 91 against Australia in Bridgetown.Expanding on what Browne supposedly told him, Ramdin said: “The chairman called me and he explained to me I would no longer be in the four Test series coming up against India.”He said over the past five-six years my averages haven’t been where they should be as a Test player so they need someone else to fill that position and do well for the West Indies.”I’m pretty disappointed with it; any player would be disappointed. That was said to me that I have to get back in the four-day regional set up and score runs again.”

Thus the opening exchanges of a conversation between two strangers in a Scarborough convenience store very early on the third day of this game. The decision by Gary Ballance not to enforce the follow-on was still creating interest. Scarborough is cricket town.And it is cricket town even when the sea swaps Wednesday’s blue ruffle for this morning’s turbid grey and the clifftop castle is cloaked in gothic mist. Even as the drizzle stopped in North Queen Street, the chat over kippers and coffee concerned follow-ons and refreshed bowlers, the substance of the discussion quite as informed as might be found in a members’ enclosure or press box. Maybe more so.And it is cricket town when folk are found queueing at nine o’clock on a clammy morning with little chance of a prompt start. It seems almost an article of faith in Scarborough that you turn up for the cricket even when there is limited chance of any taking place. After all, you can always talk about the game even if you can’t watch any.

There will be changes – Graves

ECB chairman Colin Graves has described the Scarborough Festival as the “the greatest in the whole of the world” and declared that the ECB want to make sure that both the Scarborough and Cheltenham festivals are retained,
Graves, who is also president of Scarborough CC, made the comments in a very brief speech to corporate lunchers on the third day of the game against Nottinghamshire, although, quite understandably as the ECB keeps its options under wraps, he did not say in what specific form the festivals at the College Ground or North Marine Road would be kept.
“There will be changes, both domestically and internationally,” he asserted, although it was not clear whether this referred to changes already announced or others yet to be agreed

Perhaps faith is always repaid in this place. The 2,634 souls who arrived at North Marine Road eventually saw 35.2 overs of play and most of it will have pleased most of them. Yorkshire got things under way, albeit 40 minutes late, by scoring 63 runs off 12.2 overs. Some 35 of those runs were whacked by Tim Bresnan, whose batting style conjures images of an all-you-can-eat carvery with plates the size of centre circles.The Yorkshire all-rounder’s six over long-on off Samit Patel was probably the shot of the morning and Chris Read’s bowlers would have been content to see the home side bat for longer since such indulgence would have delayed their own innings. But Ballance eventually declared soon after he had reached his second century in successive matches at Scarborough, leaving Nottinghamshire with five overs to bat before lunch.The visitors’ notional target was 452, a score Sir Donald Bradman once managed by himself; their real aim is to leave North Marine Road with five points for a draw, a task that has been made easier, first by Yorkshire opting to bat again and then by the home side extending their lead beyond the outer limits of sense.”Were you surprised by Yorkshire’s tactics today” Mick Newell was asked, soon after play had been abandoned in mid-afternoon. “We were quite surprised they didn’t enforce the follow-on,” replied Newell, a man who rarely ties fancy bows on his words, “so anything that happened this morning wasn’t particularly surprising for us.”Perhaps Newell’s words were truer than he might acknowledge. Given Nottinghamshire’s batting frailties at the moment and the skill of Yorkshire’s seamers on this North Marine Road pitch, he was maybe not too shocked to see Steven Mullaney edge the ninth ball of the innings to third slip where Jack Leaning took a comfortable catch and joined the bowler, Jack Brooks, in restrained celebrations.But there was some satisfaction for Newell to take from the afternoon session and it came from the confident batting of Tom Moores, who was 41 not out when serious rain forced the players from the field. Lancashire and Durham supporters who watched the 19-year-old Moores bat and keep wicket when on loan at Southport last month knows that the lad has something more about him than mere talent. He is comfortable playing county cricket; it is a natural environment for him.Now the Yorkshire bowlers know it, too, and they will be after him on the final morning. Patterson discovered it when Moores drilled an off-drive past him and Tim Bresnan was made aware of it when the son of Nottinghamshire’s coaching consultant played his trademark cover drive.In other respects, the afternoon was miserable for Notts and more cheerful for Bresnan, who took two wickets in his first over. Jake Libby was the first of these when he edged a catch to Jake Lehmann at fourth slip and Michael Lumb collected what may have been an unfortunate pair when he was adjudged by Neil Mallender to have nicked his fifth ball to Hodd.All of this will have comforted Ballance, whose decision to bat again was backed by the Yorkshire dressing room. Nevertheless, as rain sliced 56 overs off Nottinghamshire’s second innings, an anxious White Rose squad may be hoping that what some see as an error will be justified by Friday’s cricket. “Our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not,” says the First French Lord in Act IV Scene iii of , and that title, too, may be quoted by Messrs Moxon and Gillespie if their side wins. .And there was at least a lighter aftermath to Yorkshire’s decision not to enforce the follow-on when an angry home supporter decided to make his opposition to the tactic known to the players. Sadly our outraged complainant’s sense of injustice was keener than his sense of direction. He stuck his head through the wrong dressing-room window and Nottinghamshire’s Mick Newell said he could not help him. Not even in cricket town.

Virat Kohli, India’s captain, has said he was involved in a discussion with Cheteshwar Pujara over his strike rate in Test cricket during the recent tour of the West Indies. Sandeep Patil, who recently ended his term as the chairman of selectors, told on Sunday that Kohli and coach Anil Kumble had spoken to Pujara expressing concern over his scoring rate, when he was dropped in the West Indies. Pujara, who scored 16 off 67 balls and 46 off 159 in the first two Tests, was left out for Rohit Sharma in St Lucia. This resulted in Kohli’s promotion to No. 3, from where he scored 3 and 4. Both Pujara and Rohit have featured in the two Tests that India have played since.After the West Indies tour, Pujara played in the Duleep Trophy, scoring 166 off 280 balls, 31 off 35, and 256 off 363. Back in the Test side, Pujara scored at a strike rate of more than 50 in both innings of the Kanpur Test against New Zealand, scoring 62 and 78. His career strike rate before the Test began was 48.2.”Pujara is someone who absorbs the pressure really well but after a certain stage in the innings there comes a time when the team needs runs,” Kohli said at the end of the Kanpur Test. “That’s where we felt that he has the ability to capitalise. It was just about conveying that to him. He has worked hard on his game. He scored at a good strike rate in the Duleep Trophy. Even on this wicket he was scoring at 65, almost 70 strike rate.”Which for me was a revelation, to see Pujara bat that way. Because he used to bat that way initially. Especially at home. If you see his double-hundreds against England and Australia, he will dominate spinners. That’s exactly what we wanted him to do. We didn’t want him to go into a shell. We want Pujara to bat to his potential. Once he starts scoring runs to go with the composure he already has, it becomes very difficult for the opposition to have control of the game. That’s all we wanted to convey to him.”He’s someone who understands what the team wants. He has worked hard on his game. He has come back, and he is playing more positively. Which we appreciate as a team and me personally as a captain. That he has actually gone and worked hard on his game. He has not told us this is my comfort zone and I am not going to get out of it. That is the kind of characters we need to win games and series.”In another context, speaking about handling different characters, Kohli spoke of cricket that didn’t care too much about individual records. “If you have honesty in the change room, if you have an environment that is relaxed, they will be able to express themselves better on the field,” Kohli said. “They will understand, they will listen to you. They will have the trust. They trust you are not saying anything that will harm them. It’s only for the benefit of the whole team. Once you have that environment in the change room, it becomes very easy as a captain to ask anything of any player. And everyone is ready all the time.”One thing we have spoken about is we want to play a certain brand of cricket. Along those lines, personal performances will happen or won’t happen. If they happen, yes you feel good about them, but the eventual target is to win games and win series. We want to be a high-quality team for a long time. It’s just to get them rid of those pressures of individual performances. Once you take pressures of your own performance things can flip very quickly. You will not be able to play the way the team wants you to play. And you will not be able to perform on a personal level as well.”

Even if you don’t go looking for it, you get comments on pitches in India. Before this Test began, in response to a photo of the pitch tweeted by the BCCI, Harbhajan Singh, India’s most successful offspinner, tweeted it looked like a two-day-old pitch already, and predicted a finish in three-and-a-half days. With India batting for almost two days, people on Twitter began to ridicule Harbhajan. His response was to wait and watch for the turn, and that he got such turners only twice – Kanpur 2008 and Mumbai 2004 – in his whole career in India. He reckoned his and Anil Kumble’s wicket tally would have been “something else” if they got the pitches India have been playing on in the last “four” years.If this was unsolicited, R Ashwin’s first answer at a press conference after completing his 20th five-wicket haul, which bowled New Zealand out for 299, was to mention how difficult a pitch it was. He was asked how important the other bowlers were – Ashwin got six, he ran two batsmen out, and Ravindra Jadeja got two wickets – and he looked bemused. He seemed to stop himself from answering sarcastically lest it be misconstrued, and said, “It was very important. It was a very, very difficult wicket to bowl on. The way Shami and Umesh bowled in the morning, they never let go of the steam. Especially Umesh bowled very quick through the day. Hopefully they can get some good returns in the second innings.”Tom Latham, the only man besides Rohit Sharma to have scored a half-century in each of the Tests, was presented a similar sentiment by a journalist. He was asked if he agreed the pitch didn’t offer much turn or didn’t crack up. Latham’s response was sharp too. “Not sure what game you’re watching,” Latham retorted. “Certainly starting to turn. Lot of footmarks there. Might not be cracking up so much but there are dust and a lot of footmarks for bowlers to work with. They’ll be targeting those in the second innings so got to find a way of rectifying that.”The truth about the pitch might be somewhere in between. It is not the classic Indian pitches that Harbhajan bowled a lot on during his day, but it hasn’t turned out to be like Nagpur last year or even Kanpur this year. At the outset this looked a lot like the Kanpur pitch with a lot of cracks and expected to turn sharply from day two. It certainly hasn’t because India have now been officially warned for two players – not in the act of bowling – running on the danger zone despite cautionary warnings from the umpires. Latham said it was not something they could worry.”Out of our hands as players,” Latham said. “We’ve got nothing to do with it, it’s up to the umpires. They make the call.”1:15

‘A very hard wicket to start on’ – Latham

However, it was wicketkeeper BJ Watling, who alerted the umpires just before M Vijay was officially warned for running on the danger area when batting on the third evening. On the second evening, Jadeja’s transgression after three warnings – two informal and one official – had resulted in a five-run penalty for India and three demerit points for Jadeja. India didn’t contest the charge, and Jadeja stands one demerit point short of being suspended for a Test or two limited-overs internationals.Latham chose to not get involved when asked if he felt it was deliberate. “It’s cricket,” he said. “Guys are going to walk on the wicket. We’ve got a big job to do in the second innings. Going to focus on that.”India clearly feel the pitch needs to deteriorate more, which is one of the reasons why they didn’t enforce the follow-on. Let there be more overs on it, let it bake more in the sun, and then give New Zealand somewhere around five sessions to bat to save this Test. Ashwin said they were going to take a call on when to make the declaration in the middle session on day four. He felt the pitch could do with some more wear and tear.”We’re just giving it every chance to wear over the time that we bat on over the next session or two,” Ashwin said. “And see how it turns out. But from one side, from the Pavilion End, there is a lot of rough. From the other end it’s not spinning a lot. Hopefully it will deteriorate.”