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The first day of the Sheffield Shield final between Queensland and Tasmania was abandoned without a ball being bowled despite mostly clear conditions in Brisbane. Overnight rain and a wet outfield were the major obstacles during an extremely frustrating opening for players and the small crowd at Allan Border Field.The ground staff worked in often sunny weather throughout the day and while there was no problem with the pitch, the umpires felt there were safety concerns over patches of the outfield. Their call to abandon came at 3pm local time. The match will start an hour earlier for the remaining four days.Allan Border Field is a boutique ground with drainage more like a well-manicured backyard than the sieve-like surface across town at the Gabba. With the Test stadium being prepared for the Australian Football League season, Queensland are hosting the match at their inner-city training base.The forecast for the rest of the game is occasional showers, continuing the wet end to Brisbane’s rainy season. A combination of the bowler-friendly conditions and the Dukes ball, which has swung considerably since being employed over the second half of the season, should make things uncomfortable for the batsmen and ensure a result remains possible even with further interruptions.Queensland are chasing their eighth Shield win and as hosts need only to draw the match to gain the trophy.

ScorecardWhile the series opener between India and England went down to the wire – the hosts toiled to victory in the final over by just one wicket – the second ODI was less evenly contested. India were bundled out for a mere 113, allowing England’s top four to canter to an eight-wicket victory to level the series.The toss might have gone Mithali Raj’s way, but not much else did thereafter. India threw away an opportunity to post a big total after electing to bat first. What cost them more was that they failed to bat out all 50 overs. Spin twins Danielle Hazell and Sophie Ecclestone did the bulk of the damage, sharing eight wickets between them. Hazell dismissed top-order big guns Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur cheaply, while Ecclestone picked up Veda Krishnamurty and more importantly Smriti Mandhana, India’s highest run-scorer in the game.Mandhana’s innings showed glimpses of fluency before an Ecclestone delivery knocked into her off stump, leaving India reeling at 80 for 5. Within two overs, that position had worsened to 81 for 7. As the spinners wreaked havoc, the only batsman who hung in there amidst the storm was Deepti Sharma. Her 25-run partnership with Jhulan Goswami meant India somehow crossed the three-figure mark.Five – that’s how many maidens Ecclestone bowled in her quota of 10 overs. She displayed remarkable accuracy and ensured India’s lower-middle order did not tee off at any point. Finishing with career-best figures of 4 for 14 made Ecclestone a runaway choice for the Player of the Match award.England’s no-nonsense approach in the chase was led by Danielle Wyatt. Her 43-ball 47 saw the visitors coast to 73 at the end of the 15th over. Ekta Bisht, however, denied Wyatt a fine half-century as the batsman yorked herself. In her next over, Bisht once again got a breakthrough for her team, her second victim being Amy Jones who departed without scoring. But that was all as far as India’s reasons to smile were concerned.Skipper Heather Knight then joined Tammy Beaumont and the duo steered England to victory with 21 overs to spare. The captain smashed Poonam Yadav to the boundary to bring up the winning runs and make it 1-1 in the series.On a track that spun and kept low, the spinners unsurprisingly headlined the game, taking all 11 wickets to fall to bowlers (there was also one run-out). Victory also kept England win with a chance of winning the three-match series – something they have never previously done in India. “I only found out this morning that we haven’t won a series here,” Knight said. “That will keep us motivated for the third game.”

Aaron Finch says that the inexperience in Australia’s one-day squad could prove to be a blessing in disguise as they finalise their preparations for next week’s first ODI against England at The Oval, and beyond that, next year’s World Cup.Finch made a solid 78 on Thursday night to set up Australia’s hard-earned 57-run win against Sussex at Hove, which was also their first outing in national colours since the end of their seismic Test tour of South Africa in April.The Australia squad was forced to lie low for a few months after returning home from South Africa, as the ball-tampering scandal erupted around them, but Finch said that he could feel an eagerness to get stuck in in the new-look squad, adding that “there’s only so many laps of ovals you can run before you start to go crazy”.

Australia ready to ‘cop some banter’

Australia’s match against Sussex on Thursday was their first encounter with English crowds since the ball-tampering scandal broke, and Finch admitted that their jibes were something that the team would have to take in its stride as the tour progressed.
“I think anytime you are touring you’re going to cop some great banter,” he said. “The chants and the songs and the stick that they give us in all in good fun, but you’re going to keep copping it if you don’t interact with them, if you don’t get on board with them and have some fun. It’s a part of playing over here, you expect that, and it’s all in good jest most of the time.”

“There’s a lot of excitement around, any time you bring young guys into the squad for their first or second tour, it brings a lot of energy around the group,” Finch said. “A lot of the guys have had time off over the last couple of months, the guys who weren’t in the IPL, so it’s a great chance to get stuck into cricket.”Australia will begin next week’s contest as rank outsiders against England’s No.1-ranked ODI team, but Finch sees the absence of so many first-choice candidates for next year’s World Cup squad as an opportunity for some new faces to stake a claim. In so doing, they may also lift Australia’s standards in a format in which they have lost each of their last three bilateral series, against New Zealand, India and England, as well as suffering an early elimination in the Champions Trophy.”There’s a few guys here that it’s the first time I’ve toured with,” he added, “and I’ve been around a little while now. But our one-day cricket hadn’t been that great over the last 18 months to two years, so who knows, if we give these young guys a few opportunities, they can do some wonderful things. There are some guys in this squad who are going to be great players.”Finch is Australia’s vice-captain on this tour, and will also captain the T20 team in the absence of David Warner, but he didn’t envisage a sea-change to the role that he has played for Ausralia since cementing his spot in the limited-overs team five years ago.Aaron Finch plays into the leg side•Getty Images

“Being vice-captain you lead by example on and off the field, but I think that, being an opening batter, you have the opportunity to set the tone for the team, so that’s not much of a change,” he said. “But with a young group, there’s not a lot of experience, so it’s about helping them as much as I can, along with Tim [Paine], Glenn Maxwell and other guys who’ve been around for a time.”The tour is also Justin Langer’s first as Australia coach, and Finch admitted that, while Langer’s first press conference had been full of smiles and jokes as he set about reframing the debate over sledging, Finch admitted that the new boss had a steely side that few players would want to encounter.”When we got to Brisbane for our training camp. it was the first time that JL had had a chance to address us all together,” said Finch. “He just laid down what he expected of the Australian cricket team, and how he sees the team going forward. There wasn’t anything that you wouldn’t expect a new coach to do.”But you don’t want to be in his glare!” Finch added. “I’ve been there before, not on this tour, but in the past. There were some easy comments you could make to him when he was coach of Western Australia. It was easy to wind him up.”Finch played most of his Australia career to date under the gaze of Darren Lehmann, who resigned from his post on the eve of the Johannesburg Test in March. “They are both great coaches in their own right. We’ve had a lot of success with [Darren] as an Australian coach, and JL I’ve no doubt will have a lot of success. With Perth, he’s done some wonderful things. And at the end of the day, whoever is coach of the side has the opportunity to mould the culture the way they want it.”

No matter what the pitch looks like, South Africa will play three frontline quicks in Sri Lanka. This is at least what coach Ottis Gibson said, four days out from the first Test in Galle. He probably knows already that Sri Lankan surfaces have recently been so dusty that the home team straps three specialist spinners to the plow, often fielding only one seamer of their own. But no matter. “Our fast bowling has been the bedrock of our success for a long time, and I’m pretty sure we’ll continue with three fast bowlers,” Gibson said. When you look through the names on his roster – Dale Steyn, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Vernon Philander – you can see why he takes this view.And yet, it is not exactly going to be a fast-bowling party, is it? Sri Lanka have just drawn a seam-dominated Test series in the West Indies, but that was against a less accomplished side. Even if the likes of Shannon Gabriel unlocked a fearsome new gear against Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka’s own fast bowlers got to bowl at a West Indies top order that does not compare favourably with South Africa’s. They are probably not going to risk a pace v pace battle against South Africa, and instead will rely on the strategy that has brought them more success at home: a spin-heavy attack bowling on a low, crumbling surface.The visitors expect this, and in the two-day practice match at the P Sara Oval have got a taster of the kind of track they will encounter in this series. On day one of this match, their quicks bowled 44 overs and managed only one wicket between them. What a drastic change it must be from the surfaces at home, in which they had most recently outgunned Australia’s seam attack. The quicks will have to dig deep here, Gibson said.”Vernon and Dale have played here before, but it’s new for Lungi and for Rabada. It’s good for them to see what it’s going to be like when the Test match starts. It’s not going to be a place like Jo’burg where they see the ball flying through to the keeper. Sometimes it might bounce twice before it gets to the keeper. But then that’s when your strong character comes in, and you have to suck it up, run in, keep trying to hit the deck and be effective.”Of the four quicks, only Steyn is proven in Sri Lanka, averaging an exceptional 24.71, with 21 wickets from four Tests on the island. Vernon Philander, on the other hand, averages more than 70 here, from two Tests in 2014. It is the two young quicks, though, that South Africa hope will challenge Sri Lanka most in this series, but neither has played Tests on the island. Each of Ngidi’s three Tests have come at home. The closest conditions to Sri Lanka Rabada has come across in his Test career, were in India, where he averages 55.50 over three Tests.”The conditions might still shock the young quicks, but we make sure that when we’re talking cricket around the dressing room, and experiences from the guys who have been here before – we let them know early that this is what to expect,” Gibson said. “Don’t expect to see the ball flying through, but understand that you still have to keep running in and bowling at the top of your pace.”The captain might use you in short spells so you can run in and go as hard as you can in those four overs, then go off to have a break and come back. The captain, I imagine, will do what he can to keep everybody fresh. I thought Lungi maintained his pace quite nicely in his three spells in the practice game. His pace was around the same mark all the time, and that was a really good sign for us.”Rabada and Ngidi will undoubtedly look to Steyn for leadership in the series. After all, he had been South Africa’s match-winner in the last Galle Test South Africa played, in which he claimed a ten-wicket match haul. Having been beset by injury over the past two years, however, there have been some doubts over Steyn’s Test-match fitness in the approach to this tour. He was not quite at his best in his 12 overs in the practice match, conceding more than four runs an over, but he still appears assured of a place in the XI in Galle.”I’m happy with where Dale is at, because he was just playing in England,” Gibson said. “He came into the practice match and he looked a little bit rusty, I’m not going to lie. But we’re talking about one of the best fast bowlers of the modern generation. He knows what he needs to do to get himself up for a Test match. We’ve had a little chat already today about what he needs to do for the remainder of the days building up to the Test match. He’ll be good to go by the time the Galle Test comes around.”

Glenn Maxwell has spoken about his anger at being linked to allegations of spot-fixing in an investigative documentary, while also revealing he has previously reported suspicious on-field events in IPL matches to anti-corruption officials.An Al Jazeera exploration of corruption in cricket alleged that Australian players were involved in spot-fixing during the 2017 Ranchi Test against India, in which Maxwell made his first Test century after being recalled. While the documentary did not name Maxwell, match footage included left little doubt that he was one of two Australian players being accused.Maxwell said he had been informed by Cricket Australia that the documentary was going to air, but was not questioned by anti-corruption officials about allegations of spot-fixing to meet a pre-planned number of runs in a “bracket” of overs on the first day of the match.It is believed that an ICC investigation into the documentary’s various allegations is still ongoing, amid haggling between the governing body and the filmmakers over hours of raw footage collected by Al Jazeera. The possibility remains that Maxwell may still be interviewed about Ranchi.”I was shocked. I was a bit hurt by it as well,” Maxwell told . “To have these allegations about your involvement in a game where you’ve only got happy memories about it, great memories…I still remember the feeling after hugging Steve Smith after getting my maiden Test hundred.”To have that tarnished by these allegations was pretty devastating and obviously there’s absolutely no truth to it whatsoever. It was 100% unfair, to tarnish one of the best moments of my career was pretty brutal.”The only thing they could have done worse was tarnish that [2015] World Cup win. They’re two of the best moments of my career. To say I’d done anything untoward in that game, when I’d just finally got back in the Test side – I’d worked my absolute backside off – to say I’d do anything to ruin that would be absolutely ridiculous.”The relevant portion of the documentary was sent to Maxwell to view in the days before it went to air. Asked whether he was interviewed by “cricket authorities” about the match, Maxwell said he was “told on the phone they were going to air it” but replied “they actually didn’t” when queried over whether or not anti-corruption officers from CA or the ICC had formally approached him for questions about the veracity of the allegations.”If [Al Jazeera] mentioned any names, they would be taken down pretty heavily,” Maxwell said. “They didn’t mention any specific names but did basically say the time of the game, which was my involvement. You could see it was the gear that I was using, and there wasn’t anyone else using that gear in that game. That was certainly very hard to take.”Speaking about his involvement in other tournaments, Maxwell indicated it was not uncommon for him to report “anything untoward” to anti-corruption officers. Asked whether he had seen things in overseas Twenty20 leagues that were enough to have his “antennae up”, Maxwell replied “100%”.”I’ve been very honest with them [anti-corruption officers] the whole way through with the IPL,” Maxwell said. “If I’ve ever seen anything untoward I always sat down with them, had a long coffee and just talked about everything to make sure nothing ever, ever comes back to me.”If there’s anything slightly amiss, I always give them a call and make sure they have every bit of evidence they can possibly have. There’s some things you see in the game of cricket where you’re always just a little bit unsure. All the things you do hear in the game, and when it comes out later on you go, ‘Oh, I swear I could have noticed that while I was watching it’.”It was probably easier when I was captain and I was able to see the way the game was going, and the instructions that I was giving players, and the way the game was moving, I could actually work it out a little better. There wasn’t really anything untoward in the season I was captain, but you could certainly tell from opposition stuff and that’s why I reported certain things.”

Nottinghamshire 210 and 37 for 1 trail Surrey 592 (Burns 153, Clarke 111, S Curran 70) by 325 runs
ScorecardFor an hour or so during the morning session, Nottinghamshire seemed to have it in them to put behind them their dismal showing on the opening day and battle their way back into this match. With Stuart Broad and Luke Fletcher at last able to apply sustained pressure, Surrey lost four wickets for 62 and their dominance looked at risk for the first time.In the end, though, it was an effort Nottinghamshire could not sustain as Surrey, with a relentlessness to match the heat of the afternoon, simply reimposed their superiority.Rory Burns consolidated his position as the Championship’s leading run-scorer with a superb 153, the rejuvenated Rikki Clarke made his first Championship hundred for six years, and with Morne Morkel and Jade Dernbach responding to Sam Curran’s 10 fours and a six by inflicting further pain on a wilting Nottinghamshire attack, Surrey comfortably exceeded the largest total of the season.Three Nottinghamshire bowlers went for 100 or more runs, the left-armer Harry Gurney conceding 119 off just 16 overs. He did claim the wicket of Ollie Pope, thus restricting the second-most prolific batsman in the Championship to only 30 runs, but his excitement as Pope carelessly flailed at a wide one to give him his 300th first-class wicket passed quickly. Collectively, the home attack did not help themselves by handing Surrey 30 runs in no-balls.Fletcher was the worst offender in that respect, overstepping six times, although by all other measures he was Nottinghamshire’s best bowler, going for only a little more than three an over when the collective went at almost six. He tested Burns time and again during that opening session to the extent that the Surrey captain not only had to draw deeply on his skill and patience but also needed a bit of luck as the ball several times almost found the edge of his bat. When Fletcher did get his reward, as Scott Borthwick nicked one, it was the most deserved wicket of the day.Burns, 97 overnight, needed 26 deliveries to complete his hundred, at last pushing one firmly towards the vacant long-off boundary off Broad and running three. It had been the most challenging passage of his innings by far.Broad, playing in this match to measure his fitness and sharpness ahead of the first Test against India, bowled with pace and hostility and picked up wickets in consecutive overs. Aaron Finch helpfully chipped straight to mid-on but Broad then produced a ball that was too good for Ben Foakes, taken at first slip at the second attempt by Riki Wessels.After Pope’s moment of instantly regretted rashness, Surrey were 297 for 5, their lead healthy at 77 runs but not yet grounds for thinking the match was in the bag.Rory Burns acknowledges his third hundred of the season•Getty Images

Burns moved to 153 by sweeping Samit Patel for his 23rd four soon after lunch but the sense that Nottinghamshire were not quite out of it returned with the next ball, when the left-arm spinner hurried one through and the Surrey captain, taken by surprise, edged it to slip. The feeling did not last. The fall of Burns merely introduced Clarke, a man of 16 first-class hundreds, one on this ground, coming in at No. 8. He was into his stride quickly, collecting five boundaries from his first 20 balls.He and Curran added 125 in 26 overs before the latter, whose 70 from 101 balls was a solidly accomplished effort, was leg before on the back foot to Patel. Clarke’s century, his first since his unbeaten 110 against Sussex for Warwickshire in July 2012, was one of joy and adventure, completed when he pulled Jake Ball behind square for his 19th four.For the second day running, there was a unexpected postscript as Billy Root, whose offspin has been employed in only six first-class matches so far, took three wickets for the second time, his first when Clarke’s attempt at a reverse-sweep went horribly wrong.Nottinghamshire faced 16 overs to the close. They lost Jake Libby, trapped in the crease when Morkel came up with a toe-crusher second ball, but young Will Fraine showed some bottle for the second time in the match to help skipper Steven Mullaney limit the damage. A lot more grit will be needed if this match is to need a fourth day.

India want to fix on their middle order as soon as possible. That’s the sense one got from Rohit Sharma’s pre-match media interaction in Dubai on Monday, ahead of India’s opening game against Hong Kong. It’s not yet a race against time – they will also have the five ODIs at home against West Indies next month to try a few combinations – but Rohit wasn’t thinking so far ahead.”It is not settled, we all know about it, because there’s been a lot of guys who have played at that position,” he said. “Going forward we want everything to be settled, but it gives an opportunity to the guys to come and play the cricket they like to play and seal the spot. Nos. 3 [for this tournament], 4, 6 are all up for grabs. All these guys are eyeing that. Obviously, we want to give as many chances as possible to the guys to make sure the No.4 and 6 spot is sealed. As a team we’re very much looking forward to that. I am sure all those guys who are eyeing that spot are hungry and want to grab that position.”Given the stifling competition, Rohit also wanted his players to feel a sense of security, which he hoped to provide by allowing in-form players continuity, instead of chopping and changing in the name of experimentation.”I wouldn’t say it is a concern, but if you look at the future, as a captain or player, you want your team to be settled and even the guys who are eyeing that spot want to be settled,” he said. “Nobody likes to be dropped and brought back into the squad. We want everyone to be feeling safe and settled, so that they can play freely. Right now looking at all the guys who are eyeing that spot, mentally they look fresh and are raring to go. I guess they’re just a performance away from making their claim for that particular spot.”Virat Kohli’s unavailability means the team management will have an opportunity to audition more than three players. With Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit likely to open, KL Rahul is set to slot in at No. 3. The No. 4 slot, however, has been subject to musical chairs in recent times. Suresh Raina’s failures in England have opened the door for Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey and Dinesh Karthik to nail it down for themselves.On Monday, the team management was clearly mindful of preserving players and not exposing them to potentially three straight days in the heat and humidity prevalent in the UAE right now, but the focus on those auditioning for key slots was visible. Rahul and Karthik batted among the first set of batsmen, before Rayudu had a hit. All of them enjoyed a decent time in the nets against a battery of four back-up bowlers – Mayank Markande, Siddarth Kaul, Prasidh Krishna and Shahbaz Nadeem.Karthik featured in just one ODI in England and lost his form in the Tests, eventually losing his place to Rishabh Pant. Rayudu, meanwhile, was in the squad for the England ODIs but had to miss out because of a failed yo-yo test. After becoming eligible for selection last month, he hit form for India A in the quadrangular series at home.There’s every chance two among these three will be looked at for the No. 4 spot. Among those auditioning for the role, Pandey was the only one not considered for the England ODIs, but he has forced his way back in after tallying 306 runs in his last four innings without being dismissed while leading India B to a quadrangular series title last month. Outside of these three, the selectors have the option of also looking at Shreyas Iyer and Ajinkya Rahane, who is set to turn out as the Mumbai captain in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, the domestic 50-over competition.Kedar Jadhav, meanwhile, is looked at as a finisher at No. 6. His handy offspin delivered with a low, slingy arm is an added advantage. Given the nature of surfaces so far in Dubai – slow turn and plenty of grip – there’s every chance India will look at a third spin option in the XI.On the bowling front, India could field a debutant. Jasprit Bumrah hardly bowled at the nets, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar was just bowling off a few paces. Khaleel Ahmed and Shardul Thakur however, bowled at full intensity.Khaleel, in particular, has been talked about for a while for the pace and hard lengths he hits with his left-arm variety. Apart from calling him into the nets, the team management has fielded him on India A tours all season to give him a taste of top-flight cricket.”I am quite excited about Khaleel,” he said. “Of course he’s a great variation to squad. Also, he generates quite a bit of pace. He’s young, quite talented, and can swing the ball as well at the same time. I am looking forward to him playing and doing well for the country. From whatever I’ve seen of him, he can get batsmen into trouble. I can surely say that. He’s got a great skillset, it’s just a matter of going out there and doing it. Of course, he has not played a game so he’ll be quite nervous but again he’s got all the tools that are required to play at the highest level.”

For the best part of the aughties, from 2002 to 2010, Pakistani batting against Australia was a long, unending tale of misery. There were moments, such as Mohammad Yousuf’s MCG hundred, Faisal Iqbal’s 83 in Colombo, Hasan Raza’s twin fifties in Sharjah and Salman Butt’s Australian hundreds. Otherwise, the slimmest of pickings and the failures of men such as Inzamam-ul-Haq and Yousuf (apart from that hundred) has been the starkest emblem of an era of Australian dominance.So the record Azhar Ali has built up against Australia is primarily disorienting, because he’s the first Pakistani batsman in a generation or more to truly dominate. It doesn’t feel that way because of the relatively sedate style of his game. He is not a Sehwag or KP tearing into them.Yet, of all the Pakistani batsmen who have played at least eight Tests against Australia, nobody averages more than Azhar’s 61.35. A good Test in Abu Dhabi, and Azhar could be 1000 runs to the good, in only his ninth Test against them.Except that a good Test isn’t guaranteed at this moment. It’s not as if Azhar is in poor form. It’s just that he’s in the stellar form he was through 2016 and 2017. In 12 innings since last year, when he became the side’s senior-most batsman, he has three fifties. It isn’t great, but he’s never looked so out of form as to be considered in crisis.In Dubai though, he did struggle, especially in that first innings, where an 80-ball 18 was reminiscent of Azhar circa 2010 rather than the more fluent 2016 version.”On these wickets, you have to take time,” Azhar said in Abu Dhabi, ahead of the second Test that begins on Tuesday. “With the hard ball, you still manage to score, but as soon as the ball gets soft, it becomes difficult. Especially when there is wicket-to-wicket bowling, then you have to show all the more patience.”The key to batting will be to be patient and look for opportunities to score and try and absorb the pressure. It is the key even when you are facing the new ball or batting in anytime of the day.”Not helping will be the uncertainty over his position, something that has lingered across every series he has played since 2016, when he first became a Test opener on a semi-permanent basis. This last year, he has batted at No. 3 for a series, opened for a series, and was scheduled to bat at three again this series. But Imam-ul-Haq’s fractured finger has meant he is back in the running to open alongside Mohammad Hafeez.Pakistan could opt to give Fakhar Zaman a Test debut, but in either scenario, Azhar will be ready. And he probably wouldn’t mind much where he plays against these opponents. He had twin hundreds in Abu Dhabi against these opponents four years ago, from one-down. And in Australia in 2016-17 he scored big runs as an opener, including an MCG double. “While playing for Pakistan, one has to be ready for everything. I have always believed in that, and whatever the team management decides or the captain decides, I will be ready to do that.”The important thing is to stay focused and try and believe that once you get a good knock behind you, things will start rolling again.”Any international team will try to read you, but it is your job to counter the plans they set for you. I don’t think they have planned any stuff that is special. They have bowled according to conditions and that’s how you play on these wickets.”I have worked hard and I feel it is a matter of just one innings. If I can score big, then everything will fall into place.”

About 12 overs into the chase in St. Lucia, it seemed like a West Indies win was very unlikely. South Africa needed 57 runs in 48 balls, two of their most experienced batsmen were still on the field, and they had seven wickets in hand. That’s when the captain Stafanie Taylor, overcoming a neck injury, decided to take matters into her own hands. She bowled the next over and engineered a dramatic collapse starting with the wicket of Sune Luus, and finished with career-best figures of 4 for 12 which eventually gave the defending champions a famous win.”On the good side,” Taylor said, “When we were getting hit, I told [Deandra] Dottin that I’m going to bowl and that drove me I told myself I’m going to take over this bowling and that got me the breakthrough.”Their batting didn’t quite match their bowling though. West Indies endured a collapse of their own as South Africa’s veteran fast bowler Shabnim Ismail ran through their line-up with 3 for 12, restricting them to 107 for 7 in 20 overs, which was only one run more than what they scored in their opening game against Bangladesh.”Our batting is not best at the moment,” she said. “We struggled to reach 107. In the middle with Natasha [McLean] and Kycia [Knight] batted well and we need that partnership and bowling performance topped it off.”We’ve said that in team meeting, we’ve been working hard in the nets and our game. I believe it’s all about application, we need to give ourselves some time to assess the wicket. I don’t think we have given ourselves that time. We are goods batters, we can clear boundaries any time. We are not worried about boundaries, it’s just our application that needs to get better.”Stafanie Taylor finds a reason to smile at a press conference•ICC/Getty Images

South Africa captain Dane van Niekerk had a similar opinion about her batsmen, adding that she had no concerns about the bowling unit. South Africa had showed signs of struggle during their successful 100-run chase against Sri Lanka earlier this week as well, and in the game against West Indies, they lost nine wickets for 28 runs.”Sometimes we find a way to make it difficult for ourselves,” van Niekerk said. “With wickets in hand we saw the bulk of the runs being scored in the back-end on a wicket like this. Our plan was to bat steadily and look for a win in the 19th over types. But it was like panic stations there.””We got ourselves into trouble quite early due to slow starts. A number of soft dismissals cost us. Don’t think a lot of our batters can come out and say they got out to a great balls. We did a great job restricting them. But again, we panicked.”If you want to win a World Cup, you need to convincingly chase down 107 and we didn’t do that. We need to introspect as batsmen. Since our warm-ups our batting has struggled to get 100.”West Indies were also backed by some electrifying fielding on the day. Deandra Dottin was particularly spectacular, and it was her direct-hit to run out van Niekerk that opened the door to West Indies again.”Deandra at backward point is fixed,” Taylor said. “She’s fantastic. Batters fear her. When she’s going towards the ball nobody wants to take a run. When Dane got run out she was caught off guard and that turned out to in our favour.”A display like that usually revs up the home fans. “I think the crowd today was fantastic,” Taylor said. I was really surprised to see that crowd when I look back at CPL, there wasn’t that amount of people. And to see that amount of people that came out to watch our game, it’s just fantastic. And the girls were loving it.”

Aaron gives Odisha heartbreakOdisha had to endure a massive heartbreak in Ranchi, going down by two runs to Jharkhand for their second loss of the season. This was their narrowest loss in terms of runs in the competition. Subhranshu Senapati, the 21 year old, who is fast becoming their new batting lynchpin was the last man standing, unbeaten on 157 when Varun Aaron castled No. 11 Dhiraj Singh.Odisha were down and out at 193 for 9 in their chase of 260. The last-wicket pair added 64 to take them within touching distance. This loss dents Odisha’s chances of a knockouts berth, as they’re now placed sixth in Group C with 13 points in five matches. The top two sides in the group – Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh – are on 28 and 24 points respectively.That Jharkhand gave themselves a shot at victory was thanks largely to a solid second-innings unbeaten 132 by former captain Saurabh Tiwary. The win puts Jharkhand within touching distance of the top two, with four matches still remaining.Uttarakhand all but through to knockoutsUttarakhand are well on their way to the quarter-finals in their debut season. Their fifth win on the trot took them 14 points clear of second-placed Meghalaya in the Plate Group. Mumbai have the biggest winning streak of eight matches in the tournament’s history, a feat they achieved between 1961-62 and 1962-63 seasons. Fast bowler Deepak Dhapola, who finished with a match haul of 11 for 111, is now the leading wicket-taker of the season. His 37 wickets in four matches have come at a mind-boggling average of 9.89 and a strike rate of 23.6.Karnataka protest“I’m happy we made 91 in the second innings.”The irony wasn’t lost on anyone as Vinay Kumar gave his appraisal of the Rajkot surface where Karnataka were trounced by Saurashtra for their first loss this season. For the record, both sides were shot out for under 100 in the second innings, with the match finishing close to tea on the third day.A day after the match, the KSCA confirmed they had lodged an official complaint with the BCCI over the nature of the Rajkot surface, where the spinners picked up 38 of the 40 wickets. Both ends were abrasive, with plenty of cracks and indentations that had the ball shooting up, leaving both sides preferring to sometimes bring on their part-time spinners. Vinay and Abhimanyu Mithun, Karnataka’s pace duo, had minimal roles with the ball, while Saurashtra fielded an all-spin attack.This, Sudhakar Rao, the KSCA secretary, argued was the biggest hint that they’d laid out an underprepared surface.”The pitch was under-prepared. We had filed one complaint on the first day itself,” he said. Saurashtra didn’t have a medium pacer in their playing XI and they opened the bowling with spinners. It appears that the nature of the pitch was pre-planned. We don’t think a neutral curator was consulted. As a punishment, we want the touring team to be awarded full points.”Click here for all the Ranji Trophy scorecards from this roundTamil Nadu win, finallyIt’s increasingly becoming a trend they do not want to carry any further. After doing all the early running, Kerala slipped to their second straight loss this season, this time to Tamil Nadu at Chepauk. It was no coincidence that for a second straight outing, Jalaj Saxena, their talismanic allrounder, had a forgettable outing. This loss does not entirely rule them out of knockouts contention, but comes as a blow nonetheless. For Tamil Nadu, it was vital, for it keeps them in the hunt after wet weather denied them in the first two matches of the season.The hero was T Natarajan, the left-arm seamer, who picked up his first five-wicket haul of the season to give his side a 151-run victory. This was the first five-for by a Tamil Nadu fast bowler at home since J Kaushik’s feat during the 2011-12 season.Here’s the winning moment:Gambhir signs offHaving spent a majority of his time during the second innings off the field, Gautam Gambhir was denied a final innings for Delhi on the final day of their fixture against Andhra. Delhi batted out a draw after pocketing a first innings lead. Later after the match, he took centre stage at a felicitation ceremony with both teams in attendance at the Feroz Shah Kotla.