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Roshen Silva produces the standout performance with 231 not out, but there were several other notable knocks as both matches tapered into draws

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Apr-2018The first round of Sri Lanka’s Super Four Provincial Tournament – the first of its kind since 2013 – produced two draws, with Roshen Silva, Lahiru Thirimanne, Ashan Priyanjan, Niroshan Dickwella, Mahela Udawatte and Sachithra Senanayake making hundreds in batting-friendly conditions.Among the major criticisms of Sri Lanka’s club-based first-class tournaments is that bowlers are not often made to toil long in the field, so dusty are the pitches. That has not been the case here. Only Lahiru Gamage – a right-arm seam bowler – claimed a five-wicket haul, from no fewer than 26 overs. Where in club cricket, spinners are so dominant that seam bowlers often become completely superfluous, this round of the Super Fours saw quicks reap healthy dividends for their toil, Kasun Rajitha and Lahiru Kumara also claiming six wickets apiece for the Kandy team. That the Dukes cricket ball is in use in this tournament – a ploy that is intended to prepare the Sri Lanka Test players for their forthcoming tour of the West Indies – perhaps aided the quicks as well.But it was Roshen Silva who produced the standout performance, hitting 231 not out off 392 deliveries for the Galle team, against Colombo, at Sooriyawewa. The innings had been something of a rescue. Galle had found themselves 22 for 4 on the first morning, before Silva’s 202-run stand with Dasun Shanaka, who made 95 off 157 deliveries, carried the side towards respectability.A further 97-run stand with Chaturanga de Silva wrested the advantage from Colombo, and then Silva struck up a series of useful partnerships with the tail to propel Galle to a formidable 476 all out. The opposition attack featured offspinner Dilruwan Perera, and quicks Vishwa Fernando and Dushmantha Chameera. Chameera only bowled 11 overs, however, before back stiffness forced him out of the match. He was taken for precautionary CT scans.In response, Lahiru Thirimanne’s 125 was the centrepiece of Colombo’s 333, with Dhananjaya de Silva also hitting 66 off 59 balls from the No. 3 position – his new Test-match batting spot. When Galle batted again, the pitch had become no more treacherous, Lahiru Milantha and Sadeera Samarawickrama hitting 74 and 77 respectively, as the game wound to a draw.In the Kandy v Dambulla match, played at Katunayake, incumbent Test keeper Niroshan Dickwella produced an aggressive 112 after Priyanjan had made the game’s biggest score, hitting 156 off 239 balls. Mahela Udawatte also had an excellent game, his first-innings 97 and second-innings 103 not out vital to Kandy securing a draw, after Dambulla had made 480 in the first innings. Sachithra Senanayake was modest with the ball, but produced a 105 and a 60 with the bat. The quicks from both sides – Gamage, Kumara and Rajitha – substantially outperformed the spinners in this match.

A round up of the Central Zone matches from the Inter State T20 Tournament held on February 3, 2017

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Feb-2017A miserly spell of 3 for 6 in four overs from legspinner Shubham Agarwal helped Chhattisgarh eke out a six-run victory over Railways in Jaipur. Chhattisgarh have now won two matches out of four and sit in third place in the Central Zone group table. Railways were 93 for 3 in the 14th over after being set 127 to win, but could manage only 27 for 5 from the last 6.1 overs after Shubham removed set batsman Hemant Singh (24 off 31).Part-time offspinners Ashutosh Singh, who removed Mahesh Rawat for 27 off 21, and Sahil Gupta, who dismissed Karn Sharma, also played their parts. The duo conceded only three runs and took a wicket each from their respective solitary overs. Earlier, Shubham had top-scored for Chhattisgarh, scoring 36 off 32 balls after Amandeep Khare (31 off 19) – the only other batsman to go past 30 in the match – had been dismissed in the sixth over. Medium-pacer Amit Mishra took 3 for 16 as Railways restricted their opponents to 126.File photo – Piyush Chawla took 3 for 37 but couldn’t rescue his team with the bat as they folded for 135 in their chase•BCCI

Chandrakant Sakure picked up the wickets of Piyush Chawla (24 off 18) and Praveen Kumar (20 off 14) on debut as Madhya Pradesh defended 161 against Uttar Pradesh to remain unbeaten after three matches in the Inter-State T20 tournament. UP, who were bowled out for 58 against Railways on Thursday, slumped to 60 for 6 in 11.1 overs. Chawla and Kumar added 44 off 30 deliveries to keep UP alive before Sakure’s strike off successive deliveries proved to be decisive.Eklavya Dwivedi (33) was the only other batsman to come up with a contribution of note. Earlier in the game, MP overcame a batting wobble of their own to post 161 for 9.They were 69 for 4 when Naman Ojha was dismissed for 37. Sohraab Dhaliwal struck four fours and four sixes in his 25-ball 51 to give the innings momentum. Ankit Rajpoot was the pick of UP’s bowlers, with figures of 4 for 29. The loss was UP’s third in four matches.

South Africa came back from India with the T20 and ODI trophies in their luggage but their nine-year unbeaten run on the road in Test series was broken

Firdose Moonda11-Dec-2015If, when Russell Domingo started coaching, he had been told he would inherit a Test team at the top of the rankings and limited-overs sides that had suffered because of it, he would have taken it. When such riches rain on you, you do not consider the subsequent drain even if you know that in any functioning sporting system, there has to be one.Player pools change every few years so no matter whether you jump in at the shallow or the deep end, you are joining a cycle. From the shallow side, things will improve as the younger swimmers are schooled, a community is formed and they find their preferred stoke. From the deep end, the seas get rough, not everybody slips into the same stream and the waters begin to empty.What has made Domingo’s tenure so topsy-turvy is that these two processes have happened at the same time. “When I took over, there was a little bit of instability in the T20 and ODI teams and the Test side was very stable. Now, roles have reversed,” he said during his assessment of South Africa’s tour of India on their return home.South Africa came back with a perfect illustration of that. They T20 and ODI trophies were part of their luggage, which will boost their confidence ahead of next year’s World T20, but their nine-year unbeaten run on the road in Test series was broken. The gains of the former may not outweigh the disappointment of the latter, which is why so much focus has fallen on the longer format.”There is a lot of work to do with the Test side,” Domingo admitted. “Let’s not be naive about that. There are a lot of spots that people have questions about.”Some of those questions were answered a day later, when the selectors named their 13 to face England in the first two Tests. They stuck with opener Stiaan van Zyl despite the difficulties he faced in India, but deposed gloveman Dane Vilas. Their reasoning was that van Zyl needs to be tested in home conditions, having only opened in the subcontinent – he was promoted to the job in July for the Bangladesh series – but Vilas, who has also only played on the subcontinent, was superfluous to requirements that actually called for an extra batsman.That Vilas and his nearest rival Quinton de Kock are also batsmen was not part of the thinking because Temba Bavuma, the middle-order man who impressed when thrust into a role at the top, is more of a batsman and batsmen are in the spotlight. Domingo wants them to know their sails have not been ripped off, they have merely been blown a little off course.”As far as I’m concerned, India was a very tough tour for any batter to go on. We’ve got quality in our batting line-up that wasn’t able to showcase their skills under those conditions against those bowlers but that doesn’t make them bad players,” he said. “Those conditions were really extreme as it shows with the stats of the Indian batters as well.”India struggled only a little less than South Africa until Ajinkya Rahane’s twin tons in the Delhi Test. But the reality remains that no South African scored a hundred and only AB de Villiers managed to pass 50. Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis stonewalled impressively later in the series but balls faced and time batted do not count as much as runs. Bavuma showed some promise, Dean Elgar was caught and released a few times but eventually caught and the rest all took the bait the India spinners put out.In general, South Africa approached spin like a fish out of water but Domingo does not think they could have prepared any differently. Their batting consultant Mike Hussey was with them for a week before the first Test but could not stay. There is no word on if he will back before the England series. “We would have loved to have him longer but he had some other commitments so he wasn’t able to stay through the series but he did add a lot of value prior to the series,” Domingo said.Even when he had left, the team used any extra time as productively as they could. “We kept complimenting the players about the extra work they were putting in and the meticulous way they were trying to work on how to play against the Indian spinners,” Domingo said.Their floundering took place in the mind where the constant threat posed by both pitch and opposition players took its toll. “We were always under pressure and that can wear you down, whether it’s physically or mentally,” Domingo said. “I’m sure players’ confidence would have been knocked because we pride ourselves on being good players of spin but the fight that was shown on the last day [in Delhi], shows there’s still some fight left there. It shows that they can do it and these next 10 days will be important to make sure they freshen up and get themselves in the right frame of mind of England.”The quick turnaround has been cited by Domingo and captain Amla as the best way to recover. “We’ve got the ideal break,” Amla said. “Everybody will take a couple of days to rest up and get back into the nets and face the new ball on wickets with a bit of nip.”Home conditions are going to cast a different net over batsmen who will have to prepare for the ball flying past their noses instead of reaching down to smell it but Amla is not worried about how his team will tackle that. “I don’t think it’s a huge adjustment because these are the conditions we are accustomed to,” he said. So, in their own waters, Domingo and Amla are hopeful South Africa’s Test team will become big fish again.

Andrew Gale’s last hundred was scored against Durham in June 2011, when the Olympics were in the distance and Syria was still governable. Yorkshire expects more from its captains. On Scarborough’s wide acres, he finally delivered.

Paul Edwards at North Marine Road07-Jun-2013
ScorecardIt was a very important innings for Andrew Gale•Getty Images

Andrew Gale’s last hundred was scored against Durham in June 2011, when the Olympics were in the distance and Syria was still governable. Yorkshire expects more from its captains. On Scarborough’s wide acres, he finally delivered.Since that last hundred, Gale has played 33 innings and made only five fifties. In 2012 he scored 487 first-class runs. “If Root and Bairstow were available….” the cricket talk has begun in the Leeds pubs. “If he wasn’t captain…” The implication has rarely been left hanging in the air.So when Gale got inside the line of a delivery from Samit Patel, Nottinghamshire’s England allrounder, and hoisted it high over the wide long on boundary to reach his hundred, he was entitled to punch the air wildly and kiss the White Rose badge on his helmet.Physical clichés are forgivable when a cricketer has proved that his powers of resistance are still intact. Every player knows that there will come a time when the fires will burn low and never be rekindled.By close of play, the mixture of delight and relief had become untrammelled joy as Gale reached a career-best 159 not out and had been joined in his contentment by Gary Ballance, whose unbeaten 103 was his second century of the season.Only one wicket had fallen in the day and all thoughts of Yorkshire having to follow-on had long been forgotten. The game is surely as dead as the BetaMax cassette.Gale had, of course, been beaten by some of the 282 deliveries he faced in the day, but none of those reverses had amounted to the complete defeat which leads to the lonely trudge back to the pavilion which had so often characterised his last two years in Championship cricket.His century was all the more laudable given the context in which it was scored. Yorkshire’s skipper began the day with no runs at all to his name and his side on 29-3, still 265 short of the follow-on.He put on 94 in 29 overs with Phil Jaques before the Australian was caught at short leg by James Taylor off Patel for 51; Yorkshire’s No3 was attempting a hit to leg but the ball made contact with only bat edge and pad.

Andrew Gale

“I felt scratchy at the start of the season and I’ve been working hard at a few technical things in the nets. I was disappointed not to get to three figures against Somerset last week. That hurt me a lot.
“I know the press have been saying that I hadn’t scored a century for two years so I wanted to make sure that if I got to 60-70 today that I’d not only get over the line but go on to make a big one.
“Scarborough’s a good ground for me, I’ve always scored runs here. It’s quite fast and bouncy, I score a lot of runs square of the wicket and it suits my style of play.
“I’m a bit more upright in my stance. At the start of the season I was falling over a little bit at the crease and it felt like if the ball nipped back that I would get out lbw so I’ve worked at getting a little bit more upright and balanced.”

That dismissal took place five overs before lunch and it was the last of the day. The remaining two sessions were taken up with Gale and Ballance adding an unbroken 237 for the fifth wicket. In doing so they established a raft of records to delight the statisticians, although the anoraks had not donned their uniforms this very warm Friday.The partnership was a new fifth-wicket record for Yorkshire against Nottinghamshire beating the 152 put on by John Hampshire and Neil Hartley at Trent Bridge in 1981. It is also the highest fifth-wicket stand by Yorkshire batsmen at Scarborough and the highest fifth-wicket partnership in county cricket on the ground.Of the twoWhite Rose centurions, Ballance is in better form and probably looked the more fluent. The majority of his shots were played with the assurance of a man near the top of his game. His cutting of Paul Franks, his clipping of Luke Fletcher to midwicket and his footwork against most bowlers made it fairly clear why the England selectors have been looking closely at him.Gale’s eventual confidence was harder won and, perhaps for that very reason, it was more pleasurable to watch. But by the end of the day both batsmen were playing with complete freedom. The follow-on had been saved, the second new ball had been seen off and Nottinghamshire’s attack, so threaterning just 24 hours earlier, had been made to look anodyne, the former Yorkshireman, Ajmal Shahzad, among them.Shahzad was deliberately cut high over the slips by Ballance, who later reverse swept Patel for two fours. Gale came down the wicket and punched the ball to the square leg boundary. The 200 stand was brought up with four byes off Shahzad which ballooned high over Chris Read’s head; the Notts wicketkeeper/captain sat on the grass and looked back resentfully at umpire Nigel Cowley. The contrast with his counterpart’s emotions could barely have been more marked.The last hour of this day’s play must have been a delight for Gale. At last he was master of his demesne again. Three of the Cleckheaton batsman’s 13 hundreds have been scored at Scarborough and none of his innings anywhere can have been much more important to his career.Cricket must suddenly seem an easy game on such evenings and even the knowledge that the game was surely heading for stalemate late tomorrow afternoon could not mar his joy.

The PCB has taken charge of the Quaid-e-Azam stadium in Mirpur in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and has identified it as a potential venue for international cricket

Umar Farooq03-May-2012The PCB has taken charge of the Quaid-e-Azam stadium in Mirpur and has identified it as a potential venue for international cricket. Mirpur is the largest town in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), a self-governing state under Pakistani control to the north-east of Punjab, and is known as ‘Little Britain’ because of the large immigrant population in England from this area.The region’s cricket coordinator Fazal-ur-Rehman told ESPNcricinfo that the AJK sports development authority had handed over the stadium’s rights to the PCB on Monday. “The stadium has all the basic requirements for cricket but the PCB was keen to develop it and raise it to international standards,” Rehman said. “This part of the region is fine from the security point of view.”Pakistan currently has 25 first-class venues and four major Test venues. The Mirpur stadium has a capacity of 16,000 and has hosted eight first-class matches from 2005 to 2009; it has also hosted several Under-19 international matches against Australia in 2007.”It is a potential venue with a good law and order situation,” Intikhab Alam, the PCB’s director of international cricket, said. “We have scrutinised various venues around the country and this venue has all the features to be an internationally recognised stadium. There are things that obviously have to be improved and the PCB will ensure all the required facilities for international fixtures. The city has quality logistic facilities, including hotels.”

There was barely a moment on the second day in which Glamorgan relinquished their strengthening grip on this match, and by the close of play their lead had stretched to an imposing 367

Liam Brickhill at Lord's20-May-2011
ScorecardThere was barely a moment on the second day in which Glamorgan relinquished their strengthening grip on this match, and by the close of play their lead had stretched to an imposing 367. The feebleness of Middlesex’s batting effort yesterday – taking nothing away from James Harris’s well-earned five-for – was thrown into stark relief by the ease with which Glamorgan’s batsman went about their business on the second day to reach 517 for 8 – their highest total at Lord’s, beating the 505 all out two seasons ago.Gareth Rees and William Bragg swelled their patient stand for the second wicket, begun yesterday afternoon, to 140 before they were parted, after which Ben Wright’s dashing hundred and some resolute batting from the lower order demoralised Middlesex even further.Middlesex appeared to give themselves something to fight for with two quick wickets on either side of lunch, but Glamorgan counter-attacked in fine style through Wright and wicketkeeper Mark Wallace’s rapid 119-run stand for the fifth wicket. Wright, in particular, looked keen and able to take charge, bursting out of the blocks to raise his half-century from just 46 deliveries.After losing his partner for a breezy 46, Wright slowed down in the company of Harris, who nudged and chipped his way to 41 – out of a stand of 60 – before he was bowled swiping at a Jamie Dalrymple offspinner. Wright shrugged off the setback to reach his hundred from the 127th ball he faced, but then top-edged a pull at his 128th to be easily caught by Scott Newman at mid-on.Glamorgan’s lead had already passed 250 by that stage, and there was to be no respite as Robert Croft and Graham Wagg eased their way through a 101-run partnership at better than four an over. Wagg became the fourth batsmen of the innings to pass 50, racing to the mark from 66 deliveries, and had swung his way merrily to an innings worth 63 that included nine fours and a six before he played one shot too many to Dexter, driving straight to mid-off. The dismissal came moments before stumps and Alviro Petersen will now have the pleasure of considering whether or not to declare overnight, his team in total control.Middlesex’s best chance of gaining a foot-hold in this match had come in the morning when, under mostly grey skies, the ball had nipped around once more and both Rees and Bragg were beaten outside off stump in the opening spells of Gareth Berg and Corey Collymore. The edge never came, however, and after 40 minutes, Dexter turned to Toby Roland-Jones and Tim Murtagh in the hope of forcing a breakthrough.Bragg, who had been so strong through cover point on Thursday afternoon, showed that he also has a good pull shot, going for the stroke even with two men out at deep square and long leg, and using it to good effect as he put Murtagh away with authority to move into the 80s. He fell against the run of play shortly afterwards to the same bowler, the seamer getting one to move back into his pads down the slope to dismiss him lbw for 87.Murtagh was at least more consistent in line and length than he had been yesterday evening, and bowled much straighter – particularly after the wicket. The wicket breathed new life into an attack about which there is an undeniable sameness and who thus require such moments of inspiration. Murtagh found an extra yard and at the end of an hour-long spell then prised Rees from the crease in similar fashion to the previous dismissal, the Umpire upholding an appeal after the left-hander had been caught on the crease and pinged on the pad in front of middle twenty minutes before lunch.Mike Powell departed to the second ball after the interval, getting a feather on one that left him off the pitch, and, having reduced Glamorgan to 230 for 5, there was still hope for Middlesex to limit the damage. Any such ambitions dissipated steadily over the course of the afternoon, and Middlesex now face a Herculean task if they are to salvage a draw from this game.

A round-up of the second set of warm-up matches for the ICC women’s World Twenty20

Cricinfo staff03-May-2010England women continued to brush aside all opposition, thumping Sri Lanka by 79 runs in the warm-up game in St Kitts. Claire Taylor helped herself to a 53-ball 70, studded with eight fours and a six. Her second-wicket stand with Jenny Gunn raised 88 runs in 62 balls to set England for a tall score. Gunn missed her fifty by eight runs, but Laura Marsh stayed put to get four fours away in a nine-ball 24, to lift the score to 160 for 5. Sri Lanka did not turn up for the chase, losing wickets at regular intervals to fold for 81 in 16.3 overs. Danielle Hazell grabbed 3 for 9, while Holly Colvin picked two sticks.India recovered from their defeat to England yesterday, and fought hard to beat South Africa by 23 runs in St Kitts. India were pegged back early by the cheap dismissals of their openers, but Mithali Raj came to their rescue yet again, with a 40-ball 45. The middle order seemed to be losing its way, as Harmanpreet Kaur and Reema Malhotra succumbed to run outs, before Jhulan Goswami stemmed the rot with a crucial innings. She added 57 with Raj, of which Goswami made was 39 off only 25 balls, with four fours and a six, as the score touched 140. Angelique Taai was the best bowler for South Africa, picking 3 for 24. Shandre Fritz and Trisha Chetty gave South Africa’s chase a solid start, adding 68 at a run a ball. Thereafter India’s spin trio – Gouher Sultana, Diana David and Priyanka Roy – got into the act, as South Africa lost their way, losing 5 for 47 in 44 balls. Chetty batted through the collapse, finishing unbeaten on a 54-ball 65, but it was not enough to see her side through.West Indies clinched a thrilling win against New Zealand in St Kitts, finishing the game off the final ball. Theirs was a combined effort with the bat – the top score was 31 – but Pamela Lavine and captain Merissa Aguilleira added an unbeaten 19 for the eighth wicket to chase down 154. Aimee Watkins, the New Zealand captain, bagged three wickets but West Indies held their nerve to come up trumps. Watkins had starred with the bat as well, scoring 56, laced with eight fours and a six, before retiring out. Nicola Brown scored a quick 30 to boost her team to a competitive score which they just about failed to defend.Australia thrashed Pakistan by 82 runs in St Kitts, skittling them out for 84 in a chase of 167. Only two Pakistan batsmen reached double-figures, as four Australian bowlers bagged a pair of wickets each to ensure there was minimal resistance in the chase. For Australia, Elyse Villani and Leah Poulton added 64 for the second wicket to lay the foundation for a competitive score. Poulton was more aggressive, striking five fours and two sixes in her 44. Captain Alex Blackwell remained unbeaten on 35 to take her team to a score that proved well beyond Pakistan’s reach.

Pakistan international team-mate Hasan Ali has also been sidelined with elbow issue

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Jul-2024Aamer Jamal’s injury-blighted stint with Warwickshire has come to an early end after his fitness struggles limited him to three appearances across formats during a six-week spell in county cricket.Jamal joined Warwickshire in April after his omission from Pakistan’s T20 World Cup squad opened up his availability, and he went straight into their side to face Nottinghamshire barely 24 hours after arriving in the UK.But he took a solitary wicket in his first two appearances in the County Championship, with head coach Mark Robinson admitting he was “struggling for rhythm” and “not reaching the sort of pace we’d like him to”. Jamal was then sidelined with a back issue and has not played in the Championship since.His contract also covered the Blast but he has been limited to one appearance due to injury, in which he bowled a single wicketless over which cost 25 runs and was dismissed for a first-ball duck.Related

• Warwickshire's Michael Burgess announces sudden retirement from professional cricket

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Gavin Larsen, Warwickshire’s director of cricket, said: “Aamir has worked incredibly hard with our medical and strength and conditioning team, but unfortunately, we’ve run out of time to get him back on the field and bowling at full pace… I know he’s very disappointed not to have demonstrated his capabilities to the Bears fans.”On Wednesday, Jamal claimed on X (formerly Twitter) that he is “fully fit” despite Warwickshire’s statement suggesting otherwise. “Unfortunately, my time at Warwickshire County Cricket Club did not go as planned due to an injury I sustained during the second championship game,” he wrote. “Following medical advice, I underwent MRI scans and was diagnosed with a back spasm.”I then started the process of rehabilitation and recovery with the medical staff. My rehab has just finished, and I am fully fit to return to the field and resume playing cricket, . However, it is too late for me to continue with the county as an overseas player, as they have already replaced me. I wish WCCC the best of luck and thank them for the opportunity.”New Zealand’s Zak Foulkes has featured in Warwickshire’s last two T20 Blast games after signing a short-term contract as injury cover.Jamal’s compatriot Hasan Ali has also struggled with an injury while at Warwickshire and has not played for them in the Blast since June 14 due to an elbow problem. He is due to stay at the club until the end of July.Ethan Bamber will join Warwickshire at the end of the season•Getty Images

Warwickshire have been short of seam-bowling options throughout this season, with Craig Miles, Liam Norwell and Chris Rushworth all spending long spells on the sidelines through injury. Their spin-heavy side has thrived regardless in the Blast, topping the North Group after 10 games, but they sit eighth in Division One of the Championship and are yet to register a win.They have bolstered their resources from next summer with the signing of former England Under-19 seamer Ethan Bamber from Middlesex, which was announced on Monday. “Ethan was highly courted around the game, and we’re thrilled he’s chosen to call Edgbaston home for the future,” Larsen said in a press release.Alan Coleman, Larsen’s counterpart at Middlesex, said he was “naturally disappointed” that Bamber had chosen to leave after he was offered a long-term contract extension. “Ethan is an ambitious young man who wants to challenge himself in a new environment and has a passion to play for England,” Coleman said.

Matt Renshaw earlier converted into a century while all the Australia A middle order chipped in

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Apr-2023Wes Agar and Spencer Johnson made early inroads for Australia A on the second day in Lincoln before the New Zealand A middle order fought back.The visitors had declared at tea on 370 for 6 which included a hundred from Matt Renshaw alongside half-centuries for Tim Ward and captain Nathan McSweeney.Related

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It did not take long for Agar, who played two ODIs in 2021, to strike with the new ball when he found the outside edge of both openers, Sean Solia and Henry Cooper, during his opening spell.Johnson, the left-arm quick who has had a rapid rise this season after breakout performances for Brisbane Heat and South Australia, was more wayward – he sent down a bouncer that went for five wides in his first over and twice left wicketkeeper Jimmy Peirson unable to prevent four byes – but when he returned for a second spell he had Dean Foxcroft caught on the leg side.That left New Zealand A in trouble on 47 for 3, but captain Tom Bruce and Cole McConchie stitched together an unbroken stand of 62 until bad light brought an early close.Mitchell Swepson’s seven-over spell was his first bowl in first-class cricket since early December since when he played the BBL and was then an unused member of the Test squad in India.Australia A had resumed on 155 for 1 and Renshaw converted his 92 into a second consecutive hundred for the A side after the one he made against West Indies in Canberra, playing under the Prime Minister’s XI name.He eventually fell for 112, trapped lbw from round the wicket by Scott Kuggeleijn, and when Ward might have had visions of joining him with a hundred he lost his off stump shouldering arms to Solia.All of the middle order chipped in as Australia A scored at a decent rate during the afternoon – the 60-run stand between Peirson and Campbell Kellaway coming in under 12 overs.

The spin duo took seven wickets between them to dismiss West Indies for 176, and Rohit Sharma’s fifty helped ace the chase in 28 overs

Sidharth Monga06-Feb-20221:19

Chopra: Chahal cast a web around the West Indies batters

Led by the spinners’ seven wickets between them, India cruised to a six-wicket in the series opener that lasted just 71.5 overs on a pitch offering turn and variable pace. This was the first time since January 2019 that India’s spinners took more than five wickets in an ODI, but India will be equally impressed that their fast bowlers too created an impact to help restrict West Indies to 176.The returning Washington Sundar started the damage, Yuzvendra Chahal broke the back of the batting with four wickets, but either side were hostile spells from Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna. The 46 dot balls that India bowled in the powerplay were the highest by them since the 2019 World Cup, thanks largely to Siraj’s opening spell of 5-2-13-1. Krishna took a wicket apiece in his later spells.Related

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• Pollard wants WI to bat entire 50 overs during the India series

• Rohit on Kuldeep and Chahal: 'Want to get them back together'

India went into their 1000th ODI with a new-look attack. Take out the Sri Lanka tour with a second-string side, and this was the first time India went into an ODI with neither Bhuvneshwar Kumar nor Deepak Chahar in the XI since December 2020. Instead India picked bowlers who hit the deck hard, something England have done to create a point of difference in limited-overs cricket. Outside the spinners cashing on a helpful surface, Siraj and Krishna delivered just what India would have hoped.This wasn’t the only change in approach. Albeit chasing a small target, new captain Rohit Sharma scored 46 runs in the first 10 overs, the highest he has done in ODIs. One of India’s issues in ODIs of late has been that their top order is too conservative, which makes it imperative they bat a majority of the innings otherwise it leaves too much to do for the middle order. With a host of their opening batters missing, it was going to be interesting to see how Ishan Kishan goes in this small window, but it was Rohit who took the initiative early on, giving India such a head start that a hiccup in the middle wasn’t enough to bother them.The day began with Siraj bowling hard lengths at good pace. After a tight start, Shai Hope drove him for successive boundaries in the third over, the only times he had pitched up. The third ball was similar length but delivered with the wobble seam, nipping in upon pitching and taking the inside edge onto the stumps.After three overs of Krishna, Rohit went to Washington, who is quite used to bowling with the field up in T20 cricket. The first ball he bowled to Darren Bravo, the initial line suggested angle into the pads, Bravo accordingly closed the face for a single, but was beaten by turn so big that there was no lbw appeal as the ball would have missed the off stump.Once there was turn in the pitch, Washington’s accuracy was going to be difficult to negotiate for West Indies. Bravo faced the first 13 balls from him, somehow surviving, but the right-hand opener, Brandon King, fell to the first he faced. Closing the face early, he got a leading edge to short midwicket. In the same over, Bravo fell lbw to one that didn’t turn, often the delivery that does the damage on turning pitches.India didn’t turn greedy. They never bowled the spinners in tandem. After Washington’s spell of 6-1-21-2, Chahal came on with even more devastating results. The first ball Nicholas Pooran faced from Chahal he looked to sweep, the ball fell short of his reach and he was trapped in front. Chahal then teased Pollard with a loopy slow delivery first up, drawing a big drive and going through the gate with the wrong’un. He got the inside edge from Holder on the hat-trick ball, but it fell short of short leg.Soon, Chahal bowled the perfect legbreak to take a scratch off the defensive bat of Shamarh Brooks. At the other end, Krishna kept the pressure on with the variable bounce he drew from the middle of the pitch. In the 23rd over, one short ball stayed low to nearly trap Akeal Hosein lbw, but the next one stood up with tennis-ball bounce, taking the edge through to Rishabh Pant.Jason Holder and Fabian Allen, though, rescued the innings somewhat with a 78-run partnership, but Washington came back to draw a return catch from Allen in the 38th over. A final bit of satisfaction for India would be that Krishna came back to take Holder out with that hard length he has been kept in the side to bowl.West Indies didn’t have much to work with, but it was also clear they didn’t bowl with the discipline of Siraj and Krishna. Roach strayed into the pads, Holder overpitched, and Rohit got into his work. Soon he began to manhandle Roach, skipping down, chipping, pulling.It was Alzarri Joseph who stemmed the flow with a nipbacker to trap Rohit lbw for 60 off 51. In the same over, an unusually chancy Virat Kohli top-edged to long leg after hitting two boundaries. Kishan found a deep fielder looking to hit a six, and Rishabh Pant was run out by a Suryakumar Yadav straight drive. Yet, despite losing four wickets for 32 runs, India were in control thanks to that quick start from Rohit.With no asking-rate pressure, Suryakumar and Deepak Hooda saw India through with 22 overs to spare.