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Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) will felicitate its chief curator, Anurudda Polonowita, at the end of next month’s second Test between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.Polonowita, who will be retiring as chief curator on March 31, has been involved with the game in Sri Lanka for 53 years in different capacities, including as vice-president of SLC and chief selector. He also played 20 first-class matches, including an unofficial Test against India in Ahmedabad in 1964.”We have plans to felicitate Polonowita in recognition of the contribution he has made to Sri Lanka cricket,” Ajith Jayasekera, Sri Lanka Cricket’s CEO, said.Polonowita was involved in the development and construction of the Khettarama Stadium (now the Premadasa Stadium) in Colombo, and was encouraged by former Sri Lankan president R Premadasa to pursue his interest in curating. “I did the pitches and ground, and it was during that time that he asked me what I wanted. I told him I would like to go to Australia and do a course in curatorship,” Polonowita said. “Within a couple of months, it was arranged and I was sent to Australia for three months.”Polonowita was instrumental in setting up a curators’ department in 2000, where seven graduates with agricultural degrees were recruited. Speaking of his protégés, he said: “They were trained under me and now they are recruited as curators at stadiums owned by SLC.”

ScorecardBarisal Burners came out on top in the battle to avoid the bottom spot in the league, thanks to Azhar Mahmood’s all-round performance. They crushed Khulna Royal Bengals by seven wickets to remain in contention for a top-four finish, while the Royal Bengals are more or less out of the race.The Burners captain Brad Hodge made it an easy passage for his team. His 63 off47 balls led the chase of 145. Hodge hit six fours and two sixes over long-on, using the pace of the bowlers whenever it was offered on a slow wicket, but mostly worked the angles to collect singles.He added 93 for the third wicket with Azhar Mahmood, who was unbeaten on a 33-ball 52 with seven boundaries and a six. The experienced pair sensibly played out the dangerous Shapoor Zadran before attacking the rest of the bowlers, who looked insipid at most times. Hodge and Mahmood batted at more than 10 an over, making sure the target was reached in 17.5 overs.Mahmood had success with the ball too, taking 3 for 23 to keep the Royal Bengals to a sub-150 score. After bowling tightly with the new ball, he picked up three wickets in his last two overs, including the top-scorer Shahriar Nafees. The three-wicket burst stifled the Royal Bengals in the final few overs.Nafees had made 66 off 50 balls with nine boundaries, but never got support after Nazimuddin fell in the ninth over. Before his dismissal, Nazimuddin had blasted two boundaries and two sixes in his 30-ball 33, but after the opening partnership was broken, their foreign batsmen in the middle-order failed. Once Travis Birt, Daniel Harris and Riki Wessels were removed, the lower order hardly made an impression.Apart from Mahmood, Alok Kapali and newcomer Farveez Maharoof took two wickets each.

Sri Lanka may be forced to field their fourth wicketkeeper of the tour in the second ODI in Adelaide on Sunday, after Dinesh Chandimal hurt his hamstring during the loss to Australia in Melbourne. The uncapped gloveman Kushal Perera is part of the one-day squad and could make his debut on Sunday, depending on how Chandimal recovers during the short break between games.Chandimal top-scored for Sri Lanka with 73 in their unsuccessful chase at the MCG, and although he was able to run between the wickets, he was clearly hampered by his hamstring during the innings. Perera, 22, is the second leading run-getter in Sri Lanka’s domestic one-day competition this season, with 376 runs at 62.66 for Colts, and Jayawardene said he would be ready for international cricket if called upon.”Chandi has hurt his hamstring and the physio will assess him,” Jayawardene said. “He did run, he wasn’t that bad. So we just need to monitor him and see how he is going to come up tomorrow morning and how bad it is. Luckily we have got another reserve wicketkeeper on tour. Hopefully it’s not too bad. We’ll see how it goes. The next match is going to come up pretty soon for us on Sunday, and then we have got a break. We will assess it.”Kushal is a pretty decent batsman. He’s been very consistent in one-day cricket for us in domestic cricket. He has been part of our A team for the last couple of years, and he is a pretty decent wicketkeeper as well. We knew that when Sanga went down we needed to have that backup for Chandi, so he is a good all-round package for us to have as an extra batsman or as a wicketkeeper-batsman.”Sri Lanka have had awful luck with their wicketkeepers during this trip. Prasanna Jayawardene, the first-choice Test gloveman, suffered a fractured thumb while batting in the second Test at the MCG, and Kumar Sangakkara took over the wicketkeeping duties during the game. However, Sangakkara also broke his hand while batting late in that same match, and Chandimal had to take the gloves for the third Test in Sydney.The injury to Chandimal was just another disappointment for Sri Lanka on a day that brought a 107-run defeat at the hands of George Bailey’s inexperienced Australia side. Bailey and the debutant Phillip Hughes put together a 140-run partnership that was the key for Australia, and Jayawardene said his men had “lost the plot” at times as they tried to break that stand.”We did try a lot of things, we did put a little bit of pressure on,” Jayawardene said. “But at times we lost the plot. We didn’t build pressure enough, there were a lot of four balls from a couple of our bowlers in those middle overs. We didn’t create enough pressure on those two guys and they batted really well. It’s just one of those days.”

Dolphins took 13 wickets on the third day, following up two days of dominant batting, to effect a crushing innings-and-247 run victory over Titans in Durban. Following on after being dismissed for 167 in reply to Dolphins’ 548 for 6, Titans were pegged back by Kyle Abbott and Calvin Savage, who shared eight wickets between them, and they ultimately collapsed to 134 all out within 52 overs of the day’s play.The win was first set up by centuries from Vaughn van Jaarsveld and Cody Chetty, and fifties by four other batsmen. After the first wicket, which fell in the fourth over, only one of the ensuing stands was worth less than 90 runs. When captain and wicketkeeper Daryn Smit fell in the second half of the following day for 58, the innings was declared to put an end to the 145.5-over trauma for Titans. But their agony continued.An all-round bowling effort, led by Craig Alexander and Savage, who destroyed the middle and lower order together, reduced Titans to 156 for 7 at the end of the day. There was no way back for them from that position, and on the third day, they were forced to follow on.Their batting also crumbled quickly in the second innings. At 60 for 6, they were in danger of getting bowled out well within 100. But rearguard resistance from Roelof van der Merwe, who scored 54 off 44 deliveries, delayed the big defeat for his side.Cape Cobras crushed Warriors by an innings and 50 runs in East London following a career-best performance by pace bowler Johann Louw. It hardly symbolised a top-of-the-table clash as Cobras completed their fourth win in the Sunfoil Series inside two days, stretching the lead over Warriors to 23.96 points.Put into bat after a delayed start on the first day, the Warriors batted less than three hours to be bowled out for 107 runs. Left-arm fast bowler Beuran Hendricks took five wickets in just 7.4 overs while Louw picked up three. Apart from a 45-run partnership between the Warriors openers Michael Price and captain Davy Jacobs, the rest collapsed cheaply.Cobras also slipped to 99 for 4, but a 58-run fifth wicket stand between Justin Ontong and Qaasim Adams helped them extend the lead early. Ontong batted till the very end, staying unbeaten on 90 off 111 balls with the help of 13 boundaries, as Cobras made 241.Pace bowler Basheer Walters took six wickets while Ayabulela Gqamane picked up three wickets.Trailing by 134 runs in the second innings, the Warriors would have wanted to play it safe but openers Price and Jacobs fell for ducks before Louw took charge almost completely. He picked up 7 for 42, his best bowling figures in a first-class innings, and it gave him his best performance in a first-class match as well.Lions and Knights drew their match in Potchefstroom, with Lions securing a first-innings lead courtesy fast bowler Garnett Kruger’s first-innings six-for. In their second innings, Lions’ Temba Bavuma hit 132, allowing them to declare and set Knights a target of 369. Knights got to 187 for 3, before the two captains agreed to call the game off at tea on the final day.Knights chose to field, and were kept in the field for 99 overs, as seven of Lions top eight got into double digits. Young opener Quinton de Kock, Neil McKenzie and Zander de Bruyn, all scored half-centuries, but no one could kick on to a hundred – de Kock’s 85 was the top score. New-ball bowler Johan van der Wath was the most effective for Knights, taking the 21st five-wicket haul of his first-call career.Knights’ innings followed a similar path, with three batsmen getting to half-centuries but not to a hundred – for them, Rilee Rossouw’s 97 was the best – but Kruger’s plentiful strikes meant they could not secure the lead, ending 55 short of Lions’ 348.In Lions’ second gig, Bavuma’s century was the cornerstone. His 132 came at a strike-rate of close to 70 – he hit 20 fours in the knock – and he was the seventh man out before Lions declared on 313 for 8.Knights looked in some trouble in the chase, being reduced to 65 for 3, but an unbroken 122-run stand between Michael Erlank and Obus Pienaar took them to the relative safety of a draw.

ScorecardLendl Simmons was the top scorer for the West Indians•Associated Press

The West Indians warmed up perfectly for the five-ODI series with a 118-run win over BCB XI in Khulna, where most of their batsmen and bowlers had time in the middle. Opening batsman Lendl Simmons led the domination with a quick half-century after acting captain Kieron Pollard decided to bat on a placid track.Simmons hit 12 fours and a couple of clean sixes during his 82 off 81 balls but the next four batsmen were all dismissed in the thirties. Pollard was his usual brutal self during a 28-ball 44. However, it was wicketkeeper Devon Thomas who was happiest, making an unbeaten 61 that took the West Indians’ total past 350. Thomas struck three sixes and five fours during his 43-ball innings and 97 runs came off the last ten overs.Elias Sunny took three wickets while Marshall Ayub and Farhad Reza claimed two each. The most impressive part of BCB XI’s bowling was the three consecutive yorkers that Reza delivered to Andre Russell in the 38th over, with the West Indies allrounder getting bowled by the last of those deliveries.BCB XI began the chase of 361 with a 63-run opening stand. Opener Imrul Kayes, who is not in contention for a place in the Bangladesh ODI squad, batted fluently but fell for 43. Anamul Haque, who is set to make his ODI debut in Khulna, struggled and made just 22 off 42 balls.Mominul Haque scored 43 off 57 balls, but once he and Ayub fell, the innings was all but over. Sunny was unbeaten on 37 off 29 balls and BCB XI were bowled out for 243 runs in 49.1 overs.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Jeevan Mendis’ three wickets hurt New Zealand, and they couldn’t recover•Associated Press

Rain made an appearance for the fifth game in a row on this tour but that didn’t prevent Sri Lanka from taking an unassailable 3-0 lead in the ODI series. In another truncated fixture, Sri Lanka’s bowlers gave New Zealand a tough time in conditions helpful for bowling and their batsmen approached the task of chasing down 131 in 32 overs positively. In what turned out to be a comfortable victory, Jeevan Mendis stood out for his triple-strike in a space of five deliveries that hurt New Zealand’s prospects at a time when they were seeking to lend some stability to their innings.New Zealand suffered their tenth defeat in 11 completed ODIs since February this year.Heavy rain delayed the start of play by two and a half hours after Sri Lanka had chosen to bowl. It returned in the 30th over of the New Zealand innings, resulting in another long interruption but, in the interim, Sri Lanka had inflicted enough damage to ensure a relatively easy chase.Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara gave Rob Nicol a tough time once the game got underway. Malinga troubled him with the away-going delivery and Kulasekara moved it both ways. Nicol was tentative against deliveries that were slightly short of a length and was dismissed when he charged out to clear mid-on but failed, as he had done in previous attempts as well.BJ Watling built a promising stand with Brendon McCullum. The scoring wasn’t brisk but both cashed in on the odd occasion that the Sri Lankan bowlers erred in length, dispatching short deliveries through point and cover. McCullum even launched Rangana Herath over long-off for six but just as New Zealand were looking settled, they lost Watling to a run-out as he hesitated while responding to a second run.There was good bounce for the seamers and the movement off the pitch was encouraging throughout the day. Ross Taylor was visibly livid after he nicked a wide one from Thisara Perera to the keeper and it triggered a phase of stagnation in the innings which was to prove costly. After Taylor’s wicket, McCullum managed just two runs off Herath’s next 12 deliveries. The frustration was evident when he tried to swing Herath out of the ground off the 13th, but found long-on.Williamson played some attractive punches off the back foot and got a partnership going with James Franklin, but it lasted just 32 runs. Both had scored runs off Mendis, driving him down the ground for singles but his variation pegged New Zealand further back. Williamson was beaten in flight and bowled off a googly as he tried to drive, and Nathan McCullum fell next ball in the 28th over, dismissed in an almost identical manner. Mendis’ third victim, Andrew Ellis, was trapped in front against a straight ball as he tried to sweep.It had been drizzling since the time Mendis first struck and the umpires called for the covers when the rain grew a little heavier. It left Franklin arguing with Ian Gould, just ahead of what was to be a delay of a further hour and a half. When New Zealand came out to bat again, with the game reduced to 32 overs, they had too little time to push for a desirable score.With the ball moving around, Upul Tharanga and Dinesh Chandimal had their insecure moments against Trent Boult and Tim Southee. It took 23 deliveries for the first boundary to arrive, but once Tharanga smacked Southee over midwicket, the chase acquired a momentum that was only briefly interrupted by his dismissal. He departed after displaying some excellent timing, cutting and punching through point, before Chandimal and Kumar Sangakkara took over.Opening the batting for the first time in an ODI, Chandimal initially struggled to middle the ball but there was an adequate dose of off-target deliveries that helped him get going. He picked off a boundary through fine leg, scored a four off a misfield at deep point and drilled Nathan McCullum twice down the ground. Sangakkara was more fluent at the other end, scoring at greater ease, even unfurling his favourite extra-cover drive on one knee and pulling a six over deep square leg, to guide his team to victory in this rain-marred series.

ScorecardLeicestershire secured their second win of the season, beating promotion hopefuls Hampshire by 126 runs despite a swashbuckling last-wicket stand of 168 between Chris Wood and David Balcombe.Wood smashed a maiden first-class century off 80 balls and finished unbeaten on 105 as Balcombe was finally bowled by Nathan Buck for 73 off 70 balls. Leicestershire opener and part-time legspinner Will Jones took three wickets, with Matthew Hoggard and Wayne White claiming two apiece. The win lifted Leicestershire off the bottom of the table.Hampshire resumed at 77 for 4, still 363 runs behind, and negotiated the first ten overs of the morning with very few alarms, moving the score on to 109. Then, in the space of four balls, the game dramatically changed as three wickets fell for one run.Leicestershire captain Hoggard called up Jones for a spell at the Pavilion End and the 22-year-old responded by taking two wickets with the final two balls of his second over. Nightwatchman James Tomlinson popped up a catch to Matt Boyce at short leg and Sean Ervine was bowled as he tried to cut a delivery that kept low.Michael Bates then bagged his second duck of the match when he was bowled by White in the next over as Hampshire collapsed to 110 for 7. Their woes continued, with Jones claiming his third wicket – and career-best figures – when Liam Dawson charged down the pitch at him and was stumped one run short of his half-century.A direct hit on the stumps by Hoggard from mid-wicket ran out Kabir Ali but Leicestershire’s victory charge was spectacularly halted by the last-wicket pair of Wood and Balcombe, who suddenly unleashed a barrage of boundaries in an astonishing partnership.Wood raced to 50 off 37 balls and Balcombe, dropped at slip by Michael Thornely on 6, reached his half-century off 47 balls. The blitz continued, with the shell-shocked hosts appearing to have little idea of how to end the carnage, and the next landmark was Wood’s century off 80 balls with two sixes and 15 fours.Another six by Balcombe off Hoggard sent the sides into a delayed lunch with Hampshire on 305 for 9 and the stand worth 159 in just 20 overs. But Leicestershire finally clinched the win in the third over after lunch, Buck bowling Balcombe for 73 as Hampshire were dismissed for 314.The 23 points the Foxes collected takes them off the bottom of the table above Glamorgan and Gloucestershire, who both have a game in hand.

Karbonn Mobiles has become the third telecom company to sponsor the Champions League Twenty20 in four years, having signed a deal today with ESPNSTAR Sports (ESS), the event’s commercial and broadcast partner. Karbonn replaces Nokia, who withdrew their sponsorship after just one year.Nokia had replaced Bharti Airtel, the tournaments inaugural sponsors, in 2011. Airtel had signed a five-year deal worth $40 million reportedly to sponsor the event in 2009, but withdrew its sponsorship two years into the deal. ESS paid nearly $1 billion in 2008 for the 10-year-broadcasting rights for the tournament.The deal gives Karbonn the “rights to on ground title sponsorship with all its entitlements,” and the tournament has been rechristened the Karbonn Champions League Twenty20, according to a statement from ESS. Pradeep Jain, the managing director of Karbonn, said the tournament should help the company break through the clutter of advertisers and products and create the “right visibility amongst our target audience”.The revolving door of title sponsors highlights the troubled start the CLT20 has had, in contrast to the IPL. The event’s scheduled first season in 2008 was cancelled because of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November that year. When the tournament did make its belated debut as a 12-team event in 2009, it was hurt by a more nagging problem – fans in India, cricket’s largest market, showed little interest in non-IPL teams. That year the CLT20 drew an average television ratings point (TRP) of 1.06 (one TRP represents 1% of viewers in the surveyed area in a given minute), compared to an average TRP of 4.1 for the 2009 IPL, according to TAM Sports, a division of TAM Media Research, a television ratings agency.In an effort to boost viewership, the number of IPL teams in the tournament has been increased from two to four over the years. In the first year, only the two IPL finalists qualified for the world’s richest club cricket tournament. This year, all four teams that made the IPL playoffs were given direct entry to the main draw. The CLT20 also added a qualifying tournament last season. While viewership has increased with the changes, the average TRPs are still below 2. In comparison, the IPL has delivered ratings of at least 3.45 in each of its five seasons.The fourth edition of the CLT20 will be played across four venues in South Africa: Centurion, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. Eight teams have already qualified for the main tournament, while a further six teams will complete in the qualifying stage from October 9 to October 11. The top two teams from the qualifiers – one from each group of three – will then join the other eight in the main tournament, which begins on October 13.

ScorecardA first-baller for Kevin Pietersen in a rare Surrey outing failed to lift the gloom•Getty Images

If anything could sum up the struggles of this season’s Friends Life t20 to achieve lift-off, it was surely Kevin Pietersen’s first-ball duck against Hampshire.Following his abrupt retirement from limited-overs internationals – and a three-week break from cricket in all its forms – England’s most marketable player and one of the world’s most destructive batsmen in the format strode out to open the batting in his third Twenty20 appearance in two years with Surrey, only to depart immediately, caught at cover off the left-arm spin of Liam Dawson.To compound the sense of anti-climax, Surrey were beaten on Duckworth-Lewis, without taking a wicket, in a match when less than 16 overs were possible. On a wet Monday night more suited to umbrellas than cheerleaders, the IPL, cricket’s premier short-form bonanza, cannot have seemed further away.This has been a summer of discontents for the domestic game, from the failure of the Morgan Review to the job lot of poor weather that has submerged much of the season so far. Finances, as ever, are tight yet ennui threatens the money-spinning FLt20, with Eoin Morgan the latest to advocate changes to the competition.The possibility of securing a window for England players to appear in domestic T20 has support in some quarters as a method of piquing public interest. Could Pietersen, unexpectedly available, confirm that he provides box office from Delhi to Derby by rallying the county game with an injection of flair and celebrity, reinvigorating the hardened fan and casual consumer alike?The short answer was ‘no’. Although it would have been an irony not lost on many had Pietersen fulfilled his brief as the saviour of a domestic game he has rarely professed an affinity for, an immediate spike in attendances was not expected by Surrey.Despite the newspaper adverts warning “BOWLER’S BEWARE … KP’S BACK”, Surrey’s chief executive, Richard Gould, believes that a focus on “scheduling and local heroes” would be more successful than attempting to balance on the shoulders of the game’s giants.”Ticket sales for Twenty20 are largely determined by the day on which games are played,” Gould says. “A game on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday doesn’t sell very well anyway, irrespective of who’s playing.”While Surrey had expected up to 6,000 for the visit of Hampshire – a fixture that had been postponed in the wake of Tom Maynard’s death – the numbers will swell to around 15,000 later in the week, for games against Kent and Middlesex. Surrey also host Sussex on Tuesday and Gould described the original decision to hand them three home games in four days as “pretty disastrous”. Spectators are unlikely to want to pay to see cricket on three or four nights of the same week, even if Pietersen is around to switch-hit them senseless.”There is a huge demand to watch Twenty20 and that is proven by the two games we’ve got on Thursday and Friday,” Gould says. “Across those two days, within a 26-hour period, we will have 30,000 people coming to watch. What we want is for cricket to become habit forming. We want them to come on the Thursday or Friday of one week and then have the ability to come back a week or two weeks later.”A big crowd at The Oval for a T20 match can bring in around a third of the income an ODI generates, without the need to pay the ECB a hosting fee. A successful T20 tournament could therefore make a real difference to county finances as well as promote the game to a wider audience. Gould suggests that spreading the tournament out would allow games to be scheduled in more regular and attractive blocks and would help convert occasional watchers into regulars.David Leatherdale, Worcestershire’s chief executive, is also open to the idea of a more spaced-out fixture list, though others responsible for the game fear that such a move would dilute the tournament’s impact. Leatherdale and Lancashire chief executive Jim Cumbes, meanwhile, are among those who think that star names can help promote the game.”I think if England players were available it would help to attract new audiences,” Leatherdale says. “It’s something quite a few county chief executives have said for a while, finding a window that would allow them to take part. If you had a month’s programme, similar to what we’ve got at the moment, and you could guarantee for the first two weeks of it that all your England players would be available, I think that would help no end.”It is not only England internationals who have been absent from the FLt20, with several counties losing out on overseas signings due to problems with the new visa system. Changes made by the UK Border Agency earlier this year meant that counties had to obtain a new licence – Tier Five rather than Tier Two, as was previously the case – in order to apply for international visas, leading to delays in the process that denied Worcestershire the services of Sohail Tanvir and Hampshire Shahid Afridi.While that problem should not recur next season, Leatherdale says the crowded international calendar means bringing in marquee signings has become harder, despite the concentrated nature of the group stage, reduced to 10 games per county from 16 last year. Next year will bring the added problem of England hosting the Champions Trophy, scheduled for two weeks in June.Cumbes, who saw gates increase on the occasional days that Andrew Flintoff was available for Lancashire, concedes that the drop in attendances this year has been disappointing and that the weather has only been part of the problem. “Maybe we’re a little bit stuck with a competition we started with eight or nine years ago and people have got used to it,” he says.Franchise cricket has been touted as another method of spicing up a tournament that introduced the 20-over format to the world in 2003. But it is worth noting that for Worcestershire and Lancashire, the biggest attendances are for the visits of local rivals, Warwickshire and Yorkshire.Among the varying and diverse theories, Gould, Leatherdale and Cumbes were united by the idea that English domestic cricket should listen to what it is that supporters want. Judging by the boos from the crowd as the rain closed in at the end of a desultory evening at The Oval, this is not it.

Stuart Broad became the fifth England cricketer – and seventh overall – to appear on both Test honours boards at Lord’s for his country, as his late surge on the opening day against West Indies gave his team control. Broad has the one remaining wicket of the innings to secure a career-best seven-wicket haul as his Test tally leapt past the 150-mark.Broad already had his name on the batting honours board after his 169 against Pakistan in 2010, a Test that will forever be remembered for the spot-fixing controversy. Now he slots in alongside Ian Botham, Andrew Flintoff, Ray Illingworth and Gubby Allen as the England cricketers to claim a spot with bat and ball. It is elite company. The two overseas names are Vinoo Mankad and Keith Miller, although Garry Sobers achieved the feat for the Rest of the World.It feels a lifetime ago that Broad was fighting for his England Test place, but it was only the last time they played at Lord’s. That match against India turned Broad’s fortunes around and he has not looked back, with injuries providing the only cloud. He missed the previous Test against Sri Lanka, in Colombo, with a calf strain and admitted he did not feel at his best leading into this match during his two Championship appearances for Nottinghamshire, where he took four wickets against Lancashire and Middlesex.Neither, he said in an honest assessment of his bowling, did he start ideally after Andrew Strauss had put West Indies in – something that immediately puts the pressure on the new-ball bowlers. He did not overly threaten during the morning but hit his stride during the final session, firstly with the older ball and then with the new one.”I struggled a bit at Old Trafford and Trent Bridge with the stride patterns. I’m not sure if that’s to do with the wet ground but it didn’t feel quite right,” he said. “But in training here and today it felt really good. I didn’t start too well today – eight overs for 30 was a bit expensive – but I was able to drag my length back which made it harder to drive and that’s something, maybe, a few years ago I didn’t have the experience to do.”The upward curve in Broad’s day could be traced to an action-packed few deliveries shortly after lunch when a no-ball was spotted by the DRS which ultimately gave Broad a seventh delivery that removed Adrian Barath courtesy of a juggling catch in the gully.”I crept close to the line for no reason,” he said. “Thank god it was not-out anyway and we didn’t lose a review otherwise I’d have got some stick. It’s unforgivable bowling no-balls so I need to stop. The bonus of the wicket was good but not running 20 more yards.”Broad’s late success gave him the stand-out figures on the scorecard but James Anderson was the most consistent of the pace-bowling trio with another display of his exemplary skills. He completely foxed Kieran Powell and his dismissal of Kirk Edwards was not a surprise either. He and Broad form a formidable partnership; on another day the wickets column will read the opposite way around.”Jimmy was fantastic this morning,” Broad said. “That session he had batsmen in all sorts of trouble; lots of away swingers, then the first inswinger he tries it’s hitting. That’s the experience of the guy now.”With such low expectations of West Indies’ batting heading into the series it may be viewed as a missed opportunity not to dismiss them in the day, but nine wickets was more than England themselves had budgeted for on a surface that started slow but gained pace.”In the first 45 overs it felt there was a bit difference in carry from the Pavilion End were it kissed through but bowling up the hill it died a little bit,” Broad explained. “Bressy did a lot of overs holding up that end while Jimmy could let it fly. Winning the toss and bowling is always, ‘Can you bowl them out for 100’? But we talked at the start that Lord’s is never like that and it’s a bit of a patience game.”We aimed for seven wickets in the day if we could keep them tight like we had done during the winter. We probably didn’t start as well as we could have done by the standards we set – certainly myself, I probably got driven too much – but that came from the wicket being a lot slower than we imagined so we searched for a nick. As the wicket got a bit quicker you could settle into a better length and to pick up nine we are delighted, but Shiv [Chanderpaul] has played very well and we don’t want him to get a hundred.”